Operation Harvest

Banna looked over the squad of five.  They had packed light, so they no longer had the heavy packs on, and they carried minimal ammo; two clips per person excluding the one already loaded and one grenade between all of them.  The one extra thing that they had all been issued were tazer guns just in case the locals got hostile, allowing them to preserve the idea of friendly relations.  ‘We all know what we’re doing, but I’m going to remind you one more time.  We are only here to scout, let me say that again, ONLY, to scout.  I don’t plan on having any encounters with the indigenous population, so keep it quiet and stay low.’  The black armour of the soldiers now had woodland camo painted on it to better blend in with the surrounding area.  Banna turned to the exit.  ‘Now, lets move out!’

Rainbow Dash glanced at the creature.  He wasn’t very talkative, but why would he be?  At first she wasn’t sure why he was making her come with him, but she soon guessed that he probably didn’t want her at the base and was ‘escorting’ her out of the forest.  She could have just flown off, but it’s not every day you get to see weird monsters, or aliens as she was slowly starting to believe and actually spend time with it.  It was currently looking around the forest, she assumed it was looking out for wild animals.  Well this was the everfree forest after all, can't be too careful around here, she thought.  So how was she supposed to communicate with him?  She wasn’t sure, but she knew someone who probably would.  Fluttershy could speak with animals, so why should speaking to an alien be any different?   These creatures were a little bit like monkeys, so they probably spoke some variation of monkey or something.  They walked into a clearing.

‘Hey, you wanna see a trick?’  she asked, a grin on her face.  He looked at her and shrugged.  Although he had meant that he didn’t know what she was saying, she took it as a yes.  Darting up into the air, she started doing all manner of maneuvers, spinning, revolutions, the whole package.  When she finished her final trick, she turned and flew straight towards him, and just as he thought she was going to fly into him, she stopped.  He was clapping and looked impressed with her.  She was naturally happy to accept any praise, especially if it was from an alien she had just met.

‘Thank you, thank you, I’m here all week.’ she started, showboating.

‘ROAR!’

Out of the shadows of the forest came a manticore, its fangs bearing, eyes bloodshot and claws unsheathed.

Rainbow Dash gasped and turned to fly off, but then remembered the alien.  He was still standing there, just eyeing the manticore.  The manticore threw itself at the alien, trailing saliva from its mouth as it charged.

‘For the love of Celestia, RUN!’ she shouted, still watching him.  He started fumbling at his belt and pulled something out of one of the pouches.  It was shaped like an ‘L’.  He raised the object towards the manticore, holding it firmly with both his... were they called claws?  Paws?

BANG

The gunshot echoed in the clearing.  A puff of blood was thrown out of the eye of the manticore, and it fell to a skidding halt on the ground.  Rainbow Dash just hovered above the alien, trying to piece together what happened.  He put the L shaped weapon, as it was apparent now, back in his pouch and turned to her.  Seeing that she was in shock, he pulled out a small flask, opened the top and handed it to her.  She didn’t do anything (and he had serious doubts about hooves being able to hold objects), so he raised the flask to her lips to allow her to drink it.  She took a sip, swallowed, then started coughing.  Whatever it was, it was strong, and tasted really, really bad, however it did help a bit, and she came back to her normal state of mind.

He was relieved to see the pony gather herself and put the flask back in its place on his utility belt: to the right of his grenades and left of his water flask.  He should probably introduce himself now.  Kneeling down, he pointed at himself and said , ‘Thate.’  This seemed to make the cyan pony forget about the whole ordeal as she turned to face him.

‘Thate,’ he said again, using one of his fingers to point at himself.  So he was called Thate!

‘I’m Rainbow Dash, best flier in all of Equestria!’ she flew up and did another trick for emphasis.  He looked confused, so she repeated her name, but this time without the fancy trick.  He repeated the name with surprising fluency and stood up.  Gesturing onwards, he started walking.

Maybe I can get more out of him, she thought.  The two of them continued towards Ponyville, Thate having memorised the maps that had been provided.  When they found a path, they (as in Thate) decided to follow it in the hopes of reaching a nearby settlement he recalled seeing on the maps he had ‘borrowed’ from the lieutenant.

Banna wiped the binoculars clean.  They had been watching the town for twenty minutes, from  one of the surrounding hills but still no sign of life.  He had thought he had heard music off in the distance, but checking it out was too risky.  Putting the binoculars back to his eyes, he inspected the windows but they were all drawn, and where the hell was that map he had been given?  The houses were all quite small, and he had no doubts that if tanks had to roll through here they would have no trouble driving right through them.  Suddenly, he noticed movement to the right, near a small cottage on the edge of the forest.   Swerving right, he stared into the distance, then went blank.   It was a blue pony.  With wings.  He lowered the binoculars.

‘Hey Barrus.’

‘Yes, sir?’

‘I want you to take these binoculars and tell me what you see over there.’

‘Uh, yes sir.’  The private took them from his hands and put them up to his face.  A moment later he had the same blank expression as the Lieutenant.  ‘It’s a, um, it’s a blue pony sir.  With wings sir.’  So he definitely wasn’t going crazy, that was good.  Taking them back, he took another look.  Thate was standing next to it, and it appeared that the horse was speaking to him.

‘I know you’ll just love Fluttershy!  She’s the kindest pony I know, which she should be cos she’s an element of harmony and...’  she chattered on, Thate walking along side her not really sure what she was saying and where they were going.  He had originally planned to leave her before the reached the tree line, but she had wanted him to come with her, pulling him (he still didn’t know how she could with hooves) and pleading with her eyes.  Eventually he gave in, deciding to humour her and perhaps gain some valuable information for the army.

‘...and this one time she helped this bear- oh we’re here!’  she abruptly stopped.  Thate looked at the cottage.  Rather quaint.  Rainbow Dash ran to the front door and started knocking wildly, Thate following close behind.  The door slowly opened and a yellow pony head stuck its head out to see who was there.

‘Oh, um, hey Rainbow Dash, what’s going on...’  Thate was blocked from her sight by Rainbow Dash who was currently bouncing up and down at her front door.

‘You’ll never guess what I found!’

‘I’m sure whatever it is, it must be really interes-,’ as that moment Rainbow Dash stepped aside, revealing Thate, who was currently smelling a flower he had picked up.  Fluttershy stood completely frozen.  Thate, who was rather busy paying attention to the flower finally noticed Fluttershy, smiled and gave a small wave.  Almost instantaneously she pulled a very suprised Rainbow Dash into the house and slammed the door behind her.

‘Quickly hide!’  whispered Fluttershy, looking out the window to see if Thate was still there, which he was, looking a bit confused as to what was going on.  ‘Find somewhere to hide Dash, the thing’s still there.’  A wave of realisation washed over Rainbow Dash’s face.

‘Uh, Fluttershy, you know the thing I wanted to show you...’

‘Sorry Rainbow Dash, but, um, I’m not sure if now is the best time, if that’s okay with you.’

‘Fluttershy that was the thing I wanted to show you.  I met it- him in the Everfree forest.  It doesn’t speak Equestrian, so I thought maybe you could speak to it.’  Fluttershy looked back at her.

‘What makes you think I could speak to it?’  she said gingerly.

‘Well, you seem to understand animals pretty well,’ responded Rainbow Dash.  Fluttershy closed the curtains.

‘I don’t know, I mean how do we know we can trust him?’ Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

‘He’s not that bad.  He did save me from a manticore after all.’  Fluttershy straightened herself.

‘Well he can’t be that bad then I suppose...  Was the manticore alright?’

‘He killed it.’

‘Wait, wha-’ she was interrupted as Rainbow Dash pushed her outside.  Thate stood looking at Fluttershy with the most disarming smile he had.  It wasn’t working very well.  Fluttershy stood timidly looking down at the ground, jumping at every little noise.

‘Well say hello then Fluttershy.’  Fluttershy looked up.

‘hello...’  Thate nodded and outstretched his hand to shake her hoof.  She wasn’t quite sure what to do, so she sort-of-nuzzled his hand, which he seemed to find ticklish.  Rainbow Dash nudged Fluttershy, hinting at her to get on with things.

‘Oh yes, um, do you, uh, understand me?’  Thate would have answered, but something had caught his eye.

Banna and his squad emerged from the undergrowth, 100 meters from where Thate and the horses were.  Obviously Thate had seen them, because he was currently standing completely still, saluting the second-lieutenant as he hustled towards him.  The ponies had realised what he was staring at, and turned to see the six-man squad coming towards them.  The yellow one stood frozen, again, staring at them, while the blue one just stood their, the expression on its face telling him that it was excited to see more of them.  Thate being here only reinforced the idea that he appeared when least expected.

‘Thate, do you think you could tell me what you’re doing here?’  He stood staring at him, silent as ever.

‘Thate, pelitu our areyn tah tasham?’  Fluttershy tried to understand, but she only knew how to understand animals, not interstellar travellers.  The creatures weren’t paying attention to them, and were currently communicating,or failing to communicate since Thate wasn’t responding, amongst themselves.

‘Um, excuse me,’ said Fluttershy. They glanced at her, but then continued speaking to Thate.  Fluttershy turned to Rainbow Dash.

‘I don’t think they understand me.’  Rainbow Dash looked up in thought.  Who else might be able to speak understand them...  Twilight!

‘Wait right here, I’m gonna go get Twilight!’  Rainbow Dash whizzed off, much to the suprise of everyone.  Fluttershy was scared again, since she had just been left with six aliens with no means of self defense.  She slowly turned to face them.

All eyes were on the cyan pony.  She had gone to tell something else they were there. SHIT.  Banna found it much simpler when you didn’t have to speak to the locals, and up until now that had started to look like more of a possibility.  He hadn’t brought the bag of valuables because he hadn’t expected to have to reveal themselves to meet up with Thate.  Goddammit Thate, why?  Well, he’d just have to grin and bear it.

‘Okay lads, take a five minute breather.’  Banna sat down and pulled a ration pack from his hard-case on his back and started eating.

‘But sir, it’ll probably be back with more.’ protested one of the soldiers.

‘Yeah well we’re gonna have to speak to them sooner or later, and I doubt letting the Major or the ship captain is going to help with the situation.’  The soldier resigned himself to admiring the scenery.  The area was very relaxing, and calmed Banna down a bit.  This would be great to call home, he thought.  Thate, however was not as calm, or as moved as them.  He had already learnt long ago that it was better not to get attached to a place.  Seeing one too many worlds burn has many psychological effects on a person, especially if it’s their home...  The yellow pony sat down next to the lieutenant when it- well she realised they weren’t going to harm her.  She was currently studying him and the food he was eating.

‘It’s lamb,’ he said to her.  She gave another smile (much like Thate, but, well, cuter) and looked down at the ground.

Twilight was heading towards Pinkie Pie’s annual summer picnic celebration when Rainbow Dash slammed into her and Spike sending them right into a tree trunk.  Twilight lifted her head, looking annoyed.  ‘Why must you always do that Rainbow Dash?’  Rainbow Dash stood up,

‘Heh, heh, yeah sorry Twilight.’  Her expression changed to a more serious one.  ‘Twilight there are a couple of aliens from the Everfree forest I need you to meet.’  Twilight stopped.

‘Uh... What?’  Rainbow Dash started becoming restless.

‘I met some aliens in the Everfree forest, and I need you to see if you can speak to them.’

‘What makes you think they’re aliens Dash?’  She was starting to look very irked.

‘Because they aren’t like anything on Equestria, now come on.’

‘Okay, but if you’re pranking me, I swear...’

‘You’ll what?  Bore me to death with one of your your egghead lectures?  Now move!’

The blue pony had only brought back a reptillian creature and one other pony which just so happened to have a horn on its head.  Strange...  Banna turned to the yellow pony, whose name Thate had said was ‘Fluttershy’ much to every one's surprise (and her apparent delight).  She was currently munching on a chocolate bar that he had given her to try and ease things a little, and who knows, maybe she was like, the mayors daughter or something.  It was always good to have friends in high places.  The reptile’s and purple pony’s mouthes was agape, staring at the group, but him in particular since he was the only one standing.  Right, what to do?

‘Any suggestions Thate?  you seem to be the expert here,’ he said looking at him.  Thate simply smiled (yet again).

‘Good idea.’  He turned to the purple pony and smiled.  She, as it looked like a she, approached him with extreme caution, while the blue one just laughed and pranced over to them.  She said something to the purple pony who nodded and started to concentrate, though on what he wasn’t sure.  Then her horn started to glow.  Glowing horns, great what was going to happen next, toothless crocodiles?  Wait, why did that thought even come into his head?  What kind of sane mind thinks of toothless reptiles as an example?  Suddenly, he felt a sensation in his brain.  It had felt like a wave of understanding had washed over him, causing the blue pony’s chatter to start making sense.  Every word she said felt like it was bypassing his ears and burrowing into his brain.

‘...well did it work Twilight?’  Twilight stared at him.

‘I hope so.  The affect won’t last for too long though, a week at most.’  The look on his face and his men’s faces gave away the fact that it had indeed, worked.  The men weren’t about to question why.  They were soldiers, all they were supposed to do were follow orders, not question them.  He however was an ex-engineer, now high ranking officer.

‘How is it that I can now understand you...’ he said in a dazed fashion.

‘Well, I opened your minds so that you can sort of, well feel the understanding of what we’re saying.’

‘...but how?’

‘Oh, with magic of course.’  That was it.  Years of warfare had obviously taken its toll on his mind.  There was no other logical explanation for this.

‘Right...’  He composed himself.  This was no time to break down, their relations with the dominant species were at stake.  ‘I am Second-Lieutenant Banna of the Gleyan army.  We, uh, come in peace?’  The word army hadn’t come through properly to her.  She had felt what he had understood about it, but rather hazily.  That meant that it wasn’t something that was present in Equestria.  The closest thing that she had felt to that was Celestia’s royal guards.

‘My name is Twilight Sparkles, and I am a student of Princess Celestia, the ruling power of this land...’

A princess eh?  That should be interesting.

‘...and if you don’t mind me asking, what is an army?’

Maybe they used a different word for it, like ‘militia’?

‘Well an army is the name of the, organisation, I suppose you could call it, who fights wars for a country.’

‘A war? You still have wars?’  All the humans present went silent.  What the hell kind of Utopian society was this?

‘Well... yeah, we still have wars.  Don’t you?’  The pony’s face looked deep in thought, as if trying to remember something.

‘Of course not!  We stopped fighting years ago, ponies were dying!’ replied Rainbow Dash in a shocked tone.

‘Of course people die.  They are wars after all.’  The ponies looked just a bit horrified, but twilight shook it off and continued.

‘So where in Equestria do you come from?’  So that was what this planet was called.  At least he assumed.

‘I don’t.’

‘Don’t what?’

‘Come from Equestria.’

‘Oh... so you must come from the wastelands then.’

‘Nor there either.  I come from Gleya.  Up their.’  He pointed upwards.  Twilight’s eyes widened, even more than they had before.

‘No way...’  She had so many questions for him!  How did they get here, why did they come here and so on.  First she had to write a letter to Celestia.  ‘Spike, take a scroll.’

‘On it!’ Spike pulled out some parchment from the bag he was carrying and started writing.  The whole time Rainbow Dash had been staring in amazement, the same went for Fluttershy.

‘Excuse me...’ said Fluttershy walking up to him.  He couldn’t help but smile.

‘Yes ma’am?’

‘I just wanted to thank you for the chocolate you gave me...’

‘It’s was no problem.  Where I come from, it’s customary to bring some type of gift when visiting somewhere.’

‘Oh, that’s nice.’  It was Rainbow Dash’s turn now.  She barraged him with an array of questions, mainly about where he was from and why they had come.

‘Well, Rainbow Dash, you see, I volunteered for the GCDF, or the ‘Gleyan Colonisation Defense Force’.  I am assigned to a colony which I have to, obviously, defend from threats, and I get to live there as an added bonus.  Only esteemed combat veterans get to actually volunteer.  Otherwise you need to be selected.’  He stood straight, looking proud.

‘So... you volunteered to fight?’ asked Fluttershy, still unsure of what he meant.

‘Oh hell no, no one volunteers to fight anymore.  I was conscripted.’  Usually, the highest rank a  conscripted soldiers could reach was sergeant since they were all NCO’s, but the army was in short supply of officers, and many conscripts were finding themselves getting promoted halfway through battles.

‘What’s a conscript?’ Fluttershy asked again.

‘A conscript is a person who is forced to become a soldier.’  he could see from her face that she didn’t like that prospect much.  ‘It’s not very nice, but it’s the only way sadly.’  Meanwhile, Barrus had taken out a beef stick which he had ‘borrowed’ from the ships stores.  He was about to take a bite when something poked him on his back.  Turning round he saw that it had been Rainbow Dash.

‘Uh, yes?’   he asked, rather hesitantly at first, as he still wasn’t too sure about being able to talk to ponies.

‘What is that?’ she said, pointing at the beef.  He raised an eyebrow.  How couldn’t they know what beef was?

‘Only the best snack ever invented, the beef stick.’ he held it up to emphasize his point.  Her face went from to curiosity to disgust.

‘Ugh, meat?  How could you eat that?  They were living creatures once!  How would you feel if someone killed you and ate you?’  Oh great, a die-hard vegetarian.

‘I doubt I’d care, since I would be dead, besides, it’s not like they protest or anything.’

‘Why not?’  What kind of stupid question was that?

‘Because cows don’t talk of course.’  She was now looking at him with a mixture of confusion and doubt.

‘What?  Of course they do!  What are you talking about?’  Barrus had just been about to take a bite when she said this.  Wait, so not only is this the magical fucking land of talking ponies, but this is the magical fucking land of talking cows as well? Banna approached them with Fluttershy close behind.

‘Hey Barrus, are you feeling okay?  You don’t look too-’

‘Apparently cows also talk here sir.’

‘-good.’  The only thing that was going through his mind at this point were the hordes of livestock they had brought with them.  They wouldn’t be seen as murderers, would they?  Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy who seemed to be indifferent to the conversation.

‘Fluttershy, they eat cows!’ she stated, as though she should be horrified by it.  Fluttershy didn’t seem to mind though, something which surprised her.

‘Well that’s okay.  Bears and lions have to eat meat and we don’t mind that, so why should we mind them eating meat?’ Rainbow Dash was stunned.

‘I...’ Barrus and Banna were relieved to see the issue be resolved so quickly.  Banna turned his attention to Twilight who was still writing the letter to the princess.

‘Wotcha doing there Twilight?’ she paced back and forth, with Spike ready to write next to her.

‘Oh just informing Celestia that you are here.’

‘Ah.’  She continued dictating to Spike.  ‘Say, do you think I could put perhaps put a message in or something?  Maybe, ‘I look forward to make your acquaintance’ or something?’  Twilight’s eyes brightened.

‘That’s a great idea!  You just dictate to Spike what you want to say, then you can sign it.’  Spike shifted focus from Twilight to him.

‘Oh okay, uh, well, *ahem, This is Second-Lieutenant Banna of the 357th division, officer of the Gleyan army writing to inform you that I look forward to meeting with you and discussing a possible alliance.’  Spike wrote with a fervor that only an experienced scribe or secretary could possess, then he handed it over to Banna and gave him the pen.

‘Just sign here.’  Banna did what every officer of the Gleyan army did when signing; he wrote three vertical lines down one after the other with a single horizontal line above it (kind of like three capital T’s but with less space in between), then signed his name right after.

‘Okay Spike, we’re all set.  Send it off.’ Spike threw the scroll into the air then burped on it, making it disintegrate then turn into a green puff of smoke before finally disappearing.  Banna was about to ask what the hell just happened but he had a feeling it was to do with magic, so he left it alone.  A minute later a letter appeared in response.

To my Dearest Student,

I am glad you have notified me about our guests, hopefully we can establish a growing friendship with them, as for you, I want you to become more acquainted with them, so that they can learn about us, and we can learn about them. And who knows, you might learn a thing or two from them.

Your Teacher

Princess Celestia

P.S.  To Second-Lieutenant Banna,

I would love to meet you personally at some point, but we are currently in diplomatic meetings with Coltarado and leaving now would be to shirk my duties.  They should, however, be over by tomorrow, so if you would like I could send a royal carriage to pick you up.  Until then, please feel free to explore Equestria and its inhabitants.

She had even gotten the title right.  Despite him telling them otherwise, most people just called him lieutenant, and while being called a rank higher than you actually are is flattering, Banna was a stickler for formalities.  Being called lieutenant made him feel like an impostor.  But enough of that, he had to leave and report what he had seen to the Major.  He turned to his squad who were currently busy petting a rabbit that seemed to belong to Fluttershy and was apparently called Angel.  He clapped his hands.

‘Well, it was enjoyable meeting you, but we have to get back to base.  My superiors are waiting for a report.’  The men got up and moved with slow, sluggish movements, like a child reluctant to leave the house.

‘Wait a minute, I’m coming with you.’  Twilight walked up to him.

‘And why is that?’ asked Banna.

‘You read the letter, besides, I am the princess's personal student, I’m practically the ambassador for our, uh, planet I suppose.’  An ambassador eh?  Command would love that.  Makes all the paper work that much easier.

‘Okay fine, but I must warn you, my superiors are no-nonsense, close minded men.  They don’t tend to believe anything till they get some proof.  And no small talk, it pisses them off.’

‘Okay, but did you have to phrase it using that word?’

‘What, 'it'?’

‘No the word,’ she hesitated before saying it, ‘piss.’  The men all gave her bewildered looks.

‘Yeah sure, uh, sorry about that.’  Mental note, he thought, no ‘bad’ words in front of the natives.

'We wanna come too!'  Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy joined Twilight where she was standing.  Well, the more proof they had of talking horses, the more serious command would take them.

'The more the merrier.  Oh and Thate.'  The lance-corporal looked up at him.  'Please inform me before you go prancing off like that next time.'

Thate nodded.