Chapter 3- The Sky is Falling

Planet: Equus,
Locale: Canterlot
Date: Quintilis 1, 1001 AB
Local Time: 12:46 PM

"Well, well, well... I appear to be more powerful than Celestia herself!" A certain changeling queen cackled at her defeat of the goddess of the sun. "It appears lover boy's misplaced love has made ME the strongest being on the planet! And as soon as lover boy's shield fails, which it will soon, my changeling army will invade Canterlot shall and soon all of Equestria will be mine!"

Chrysalis, queen of the changelings, had overpowered Celestia, chased the Elements of Harmony from the palace, stuck the newly freed Cadance to front seats of the destruction of a nation, and had her army just outside the city ready to pounce as soon as the shield that runt Shining Armor had put up. A shield that was faltering quickly as his energy drained, even though it should have faltered by now. Nevertheless, her plan of conquest was right on track.

Unbeknownst to however, she had Death knocking on her doorstep. An entity that was about to become very familiar with this planet.

Planet: unknown
Date: 01JUL2260
Time: 1251 Zulu

Suddenly coming out of jump, the Lady Antebellum appeared over an unknown planet. It would only be a matter of time before the Coventry cruisers that ambushed her and Mad Dawg would arrive in system. The Commander had the crew of the ship alter course for the planet. The small human warship had no chance at combat against a Coventry cruiser once it had been engaged. The jet black corvette had an incredibly powerful main gun, but weak shielding and thin armor, relying solely on surprise to take down enemy warships. But this ship's commander had one purpose: unload her precious contents and fire a distress beacon towards a traveled jump point.

And shortly after the ship had begun it's course for the planet a Coventry cruiser erupted from slip space hot on the Lady Antebellum’s tail. "Just a bit closer" Lt. Commander Harrison said to his crew."

"Shifting energy shields aft, sir!"

"Scramble the fighter contingent to screen for us, they'll have their interceptors all over us in no time." Harrison said coolly, knowing this was probably his last battle. And the fighter contingent of three AF-199 Raptors launched from their bays, knowing it was their last hurrah as well, determined to kill as many Coventry possible.

"Sir, T-minus 90 seconds until we are close enough to discharge the IODCs and the Pegasi." A crewmember said, which the Commander acknowledged with, "Roger."

Taking a deep breath, he keyed a button on the Command Console and solemnly spoke, "Crew, soldiers, pilots, Marines. Lend me your ears in this dire time. We are in an unknown system over an unknown planet that appears habitable. In less than a minute you will all be sent towards the surface in life boats, Pegasi, and drop pods. I and any volunteers will stay aboard and go down with the ship. I wish you all good luck, and God speed. Lt. Commander Harrison, out."

Looking up from his console as he placed both hands on the side and shifted his weight forward; he locked eyes with each and every sailor on the bridge. Seeing the desperation, the fear, the anger, the sadness, and the hope in each of their eyes.

All feelings he was succumbing to himself.

Quickly pushing those thoughts aside he said one thing, "The Sky is falling as the Devil plays his fiddle."

And with that, the Lady Antebellum pulled up her nose up in a somersault, stalled, and launched multiple volleys of IODCs followed by the life boats and Pegasi VTOLs as the crew of the ship, the Rangers, and Marines made their way towards the planet.

The ship finished out her somersault as her cargo was released and the moment she leveled out her bow gun, a Gauss Rifle capable of firing a 100k Ferro Tungsten slug at 15000m/s, she fired one straight at the pursuing cruiser, slamming into the energy shield.

And she fired another. And another. And another.

After the first two impacted the shield, the third and fourth found their marks. Punching twin jagged holes into the nose of the alien ship, causing the ship to change course.

However, the Cruiser retaliated by firing plasma at the small nimble corvette. Eating away shielding, armor, and structure. The human fighters, while managing to earn their Aces, were slowly picked off by the numbers of Coventry fighters, which were now swarming the human corvette.

The commander had his ship begin rolling after firing a few more Gauss slugs at the Coventry cruiser's underbelly causing it to list to the sides to escape any further structural damage from the compact warship that was more of gun with an engine attached to it.

The Coventry captain decided to allow his fighters and interceptors to swarm the point defense of the human vessel.

The Vulcan cannons roared to life as the AI controlled guns began to track and shred any fighter that came too close, and to add in to the withering fire of the Vulcans it released volley after volley of anti-ship Aegis missiles as it barrel rolled through space.

Even through the rolling, Vulcans, and missile swarms the small Coventry craft managed to get shots in on the ship, and the thin skinned warship was slowly dying.

And then bad went to worse.

In burn towards the planet

"Why didn't we just go to the hangar like we were supposed to?" I thought to myself as I looked about in the IODC, or Coffin. I noted that I had my M88A1 rifle, about 2000 rounds of ammo in the two cans beneath my seat, eight grenades in cans on the left, two disposable rocket launchers on my right, and my pack above me in the pod with all my shit. Oh, and six days’ worth of MREs in here too. Somewhere. I don't know how they figured this thing out, the engineers.

I looked on the small screen in front of me as I toggled through the different cameras to see different views. I briefly looked at the planet below, the one that was probably going to be home for a while. I then toggled to another view and all I saw was the blackness of space, and shuddered as I saw no stars. Quickly changing views, I noticed the Lady Antebellum giving it her all.

Suddenly alarms started to scream inside my drop pod.

Clicking the "Caution" button on the touch pad, the display flickered to another external camera as another Coventry cruiser came into view.

"Shit..." I muttered, as its point defense started to attempt to shoot down lifeboats and drop pods.

"Sir! Another Cruiser just exited slip space!"

"It's attempting to get between the evacuants and the planet, Sir!"

The commander spoke up, "Engage the new ship, set course straight for it. Override the cool down of the Gauss rifle. I want as much damage done to that ship as humanly possible. Do it NOW!"

"Aye, aye!"

"Maestro!" The commander bellowed, with a wicked grin on his face, "Entertain us in our final hour!" No sooner had the commander finished his sentence, the shipboard AI began to broadcast classical music on all channels. It decided Undefeated by Two Steps From Hell would suffice.

The wounded ship spun port side and began to focus all its fire on the new threat.

Firing round after round into the top of the cruiser, the first round impacted shield and caused it to flicker, the second breaking it and creating a deep dent in the top of the hull.

The third round hit in the crater and punched clean through the ship. Followed by the fourth. And the fifth.

And since the cool down was overridden, the Gauss rifle belched death continually as warning klaxons came to life.

But the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth round stitched themselves along the spine causing the cruiser to shudder as internal explosions took her and tongues of flame erupted from the jagged wounds caused by the honey badger of a human warship.

All is not as it seems though, as the capacitors were taxed and catastrophically failed. Violently wrenching the spine of the now frail ship.

"Sir, the Gauss rifle is offline. W-"

"Abandon ship." The commander interrupted, "it was an honor."

And with that, the remaining crew all abandoned their stations. All except the Captain of this Mighty Vessel of War. "Maestro, close on this bastard. I want to rake the sides of him with the remaining Aegis missiles and Vulcans. Today they shall know the tenacity of humanity even better."

"As you wish, Sir." The electronic voice of the ship's AI responded. And in turn the Lady Antebellum closed in for a suicide run.

As missiles peppered the hull of the alien warship, and its shiny blue hull charred and dented from impacts, it began to list into the atmosphere of the planet as it was no longer able to fight against the gravitational pull of the planet.

However the Lady Antebellum was succumbing to the pull of the planet as well.

I witnessed the final charge of the warship Lady Antebellum. Captained by Lt.Commander Allen R. Harrison.

I bore witness to an act of bravery that was all but a drop of bravery that was being exhibited by humanity in its darkest hour.

I watched as the Coventry warship was burning though the atmosphere headed into the huge ocean on the planet. I also watched as our own hero and savior began to burn into the atmosphere to bury her into the huge continent opposite the one we were vectored for.

Then that warning klaxon started to chime in, as I noticed a chunk of debris collide with my drop pod altering my course for the opposite continent. I muttered curses to myself under my breath.

I noticed I wasn't the only one however, and used the short wave radio to get in touch with the three other unlucky pods.

"This is Sergeant Steiner, radio check, over." A few seconds later, "This is Corporal Malarkey, roger on the radio check, over."

"PFC Hughes, roger, over."

"Land Corporal Matherson, roger, over."

I was happy; I managed to get in touch with someone! And especially Malarkey! I was happy, no ecstatic. I spoke over the comms one last time before he approached the atmosphere, "I'll see you all dirt side, I'll launch a flare on my position that should register on your BLUFORCE so you can find me for link up. How copy, over."

"Rog."

"Roger."

"Rog, boss."

"It seems your pet Captain of the Guard is stronger than I thought, I surely thought his shield would have collapsed by now, but no fear. It's only a matter of time, and with your ‘prize’ student having run off, and with Cadance and you... is a sticky situation..." Chrysalis trailed off as she turned away from the window overlooking Canterlot and turned towards Celestia.

"You ponies are full of love, it tastes soooo sweet. It's almost perfect. The only thing souring this moment is the hatred on the air." She said as she circled Celestia before continuing, "Don't tell me you couldn't sense it. Your slaves hate you. They revile you. They want nothing more than to be rid of you."

"They are not slaves and they do not hate!" Cadance chimed in.

"Silence! You know nothing of hatred!" Chrysalis screamed at the top of her lungs before continuing more calmly, "You may be the Element of Love, but you don't rely on it from day to day as sustenance. Changelings rely on emotions for life, and as such are for more in tune with emotions than you'll ever be."

Celestia could hear her, but was unable to respond. She couldn't believe the Changeling Queen. Surely, this was just torture; some ploy to undermine her more than she had already. She was snapped from her train of thought by Chrysalis.

"First thing I think I'll do is to free the humans, send them on their way."

"Do you even have any idea where they came from? Of course you don't. You didn't care about the state of Equus 12,000 years ago. You only cared about your 'precious little ponies.' And after humanity spread itself enough to come into contact with your fledgling country, your 'innocent' and 'precious' ponies went on a genocidal spree killing them." She spat.

Breathing deep, she continued, "They were harmless, they were intelligent too. Not as civilized, but you wouldn't know that. Your kind killed their budding civilization. They had language, music, art, and love... so much love. They freely shared that love with us too."

"We didn't have to take it. Your kind erased their civilization. And made humanity and the Changelings what they are today."

"You're lying!" Cadance again interrupted, "Just wait until Twilight and Elements return!"

"Silence you impudent foal! I was there; I witnessed the atrocities that ponies inflicted on humanity!"

She's lying; Celestia saved humanity from the harshness of the Everfree. Her ponies only fought back when the humans resisted their help. The humans turned violent because they saw ponies as another predator, like the Changelings. But what if Chrysalis was right? What if Celestia's ponies snuffed out another culture entirely?

And she endorsed it under the noble's intentions of 'domestication.' But that would mean...

"On the outside you call them pets, labor, helping hands. On the inside, they're pets, slaves, cattle." She started to prattle on, breaking Celestia's train of thought.

But something drew Chrysalis' attention away to the windows.

Celestia could hear Chrysalis and one of her captains discuss some things. She couldn't make out much. Just the words and phrases: 'falling from the sky,' 'Canterlot,' and 'what are they.' Apparently this had the Changeling on edge as she started to bark orders.

"Finally! That shield is gone! Welcome to the new Changeling Empire, Princesses!" Chrysalis cackled as Shining Armor could no longer keep the shield up under his circumstances. It was only a matter of time before the Royal Guard were overwhelmed by the raw numbers of changelings spilling into Canterlot.

Cadance began to whisper sweet nothings to Shining Armor as he was unconscious; with a sliver of hope he would awaken and help rally Canterlot's forces.

The Royal Guard and Canterlot Militia were going to need a miracle. In the streets of Canterlot they were being slaughtered, while each individual pony was taking dozens of Changelings with them, there were just too many. The ponies were unable to consolidate forces to mount an effective defensive.

They did notice that the changelings were leaving the non-combatant ponies alone besides just herding them indoors off the streets. And many Royal Guard and Militiapony were laying down their arms in defeat, and as such were allowed to live and simply tell to go indoors.

"Twilight! What do we do? The changelings are filling the streets?! How are we going to get back to the Royal Palace? We all need to get there, and five of you can't fly."

"We ain't gonna stand a chance against this many of the buggers, Twilight."

"I'm scared... I don't want to leave here. It's safe."

"We gotta do something about those meanies! Why don't we just make a run for it?"

"Alright! Alright! Alright! Stop and let me think!" Twilight said, "We're just going to have to take to the streets in the mass confusion and hope we all make it. We need to do this for the Princesses and Canterlot or the rest of Equestria will fall!"

And with that, the Elements of Harmony burst out into the streets on their way back to the Royal Palace.

"Alright, Lance Corporal Matherson, these things can be steered once we've finished burning through the atmosphere, correct? Over."

"Roger that SGT, the pods all have both an autopilot and manual steering mode. Here though, you'll need to steer manually. Are you tracking so far? Over."

"Yes. How do I take manual control?"

"Simple, grab that stick on your right and you will notice the display in front of you will change. Go ahead and do it now, we still got about 2 minutes til impact. Over"

"Alright, now what?" I again responded, eschewing proper radio etiquette for speed of transmission. I needed a crash course in how to operate these things so I wouldn't crash. I noticed the display lit up and I saw a HUD.

"Well, you'll see it has a marker indicating the touchdown zone of your current trajectory. Moving the stick will steer your pod and the impact zone will move accordingly." He responded.

"Aight, I got this. See that city below? I'm marking it as our LZed. It's energy shield just dissipated and it looks like there is some plasma and pulse fire going on in the city back and forth. How copy?" I said, noticing about 45 seconds until impact.

"Rog, boss."

"Roger, SGT."

"Roger, SGT."

30 Seconds to impact flashed across my HUD. I hope this doesn't hurt.

Twilight and her friends were making good progress towards the palace, meeting little resistance from the changeling army. What little resistance they met was easily bucked away or blasted away with a bit of magic. It looks like they will make it after all.

"Twilight? What's that?" Rainbow Dash said, pointing at the sky; causing the whole group coming to a stop to look up.

"I-I don't know. But it looks like they're going to land in the palace." Twilight stammered out. "We need to hurry up and get to the palace! That might be another trick of Chrysalis'!" She managed to get out more coherently before the Elements continued on their path towards the palace as three unknown objects hurled overhead, slamming into unknown places within the palace.

They made it all the way to the main entrance but it was locked and barred. The group turned around to find another way in.

"Uh oh..." Twilight muttered under her breath as her eyes went wide at the spectacle before her.

A very large group of Changelings had surrounded them.

Before the Changelings could make any move a loud roar was heard overhead and every changeling and pony looked skyward to see a fourth unknown object belched fire just before it impacted the ground, separating the Elements and the changelings.

The other three managed to hit their targets, the two Marines landed in a clearing behind the palace, and Malarkey managed to land not too far off from that, even though he did smash through a window. Me? I was way off, I managed to stall my pod out and was going to land way short. In fact, I looked like I at least might land on that palace doorstep and in a crowd of weird black, winged creatures.

Just before impacting the ground, I felt the final thruster kick to life as it roared alive to slow my descent and keep me from digging my own grave, coffin and all.

Slamming into the ground still jarred me silly, "Shit... fuck me sideways..." I muttered under my breath.

Flipping through the displays, I noticed all the cameras were out. This thing needed windows. I had no idea what was just outside my metal trooper delivery device. So I did what all good soldiers do when presented the unknown. I removed my rifle from its locking clamp and chambered a round.

Reaching up with my non-firing hand I smacked the two door releases and watched the door blow itself off the pod and immediately raised my rifle and stood up out of my pod.

What I saw left little gears turning in my head.

Brain.exe has failed to respond. Attempting to restart.

Twilight and the girls managed to get back on their hooves, and coughed as the dust settled. She spotted a large grey metallic device with scorch marks on it. Suddenly a small explosion came from it and a portion of it on the other side flew off into the changelings, knocking a few out.

The girls formed a small V formation preparing for the changelings. But the changelings just stayed there, fixated on the device. Something the girls couldn't see had the changelings’ undivided attention.

And that's when Tartarus seemingly broke loose, a single changeling fired it's horn at whatever the girls couldn't see and loud banging noises erupted as multiple changelings erupted in sprays of ichor and chitin, scattering the ones that weren't ripped apart by the otherworldly sound.

The girls used this as an opportunity to run off and find another way in, they had no desire to be near anything that could deal out that level of the death that quickly.

The sight of the lives of the changelings being violently ripped apart sickened them, and would be a sight that would haunt them for a time to come.

These ponies had never seen the levels of violence that just arrived to their planet.

As soon as I stood up and raised my rifle, my brain.exe failed.

Then one of the things shot me with what looked like plasma. That force restarted my brain and I went into the drone zone, flicking my safety from semi to auto and began to hose the crowd of insect-like creatures, scattering them. Using that moment of chaos I slipped around to the other side of the pod to reload and inspect my chest.

This was a nice black scorch march. But that was it. My armor was just dirtied.

I pulled a frag from my fighting load, pulled the pin, and lobbed it around the corner and waited for the dull thud.

Once I heard the thud, I rose to one knee and sliced the corner to shoot anything still left after the frag detonated.

Nothing left but a bunch greenish-blue blood and body parts. The rest of the creatures had completely left.

"Where the fuck are all the humans at. This is a nice ass city." I thought aloud. I needed to get in contact with the other three.

"This is Banshee-Tree-Tree, radio check over!" I yelled into comms, waiting for a reply which came pretty quickly.

"This is Banshee-Tree-Tree-Alpha, roger on the radio check. Over." Good, that meant Malarkey was still alive. "SitRep?"

"Me and the two Marines are pinned down in a hallway on both sides by these ugly bug critters. The hell you at? Over." Came his response. At least the three were together. I couldn't pick them up on the BLUFORCE.

"Listen up; I need you three to change your BLUFORCE system from passive to active so I can pick up your distance and direction. I'm just outside what appear to be the main gate. Once I receive the Nav beacon to your locations I'll make my way from there. Over."

"WILCO, BLUFORCE set to active. Over."

"Good copy, I see your positions. Making my way there now. Out" I closed out the transmission. "I need to get past this big ass door." I said to myself. I walked over to the pad, making sure to continually scan the area for anymore hostiles. I grabbed one of the 105mm disposable rocket launchers, and primed it. Taking aim at the door I checked over my shoulder for a clear back blast, "Back blast area clear!" and fired into the massive door.

While not blown completely asunder, I knocked a massive hole into right where the locking mechanism was.

Discarding the empty launcher, I reached for my rifle and cautiously headed towards the door. Peering into the hole I noticed a few dead critters kicked by the blast. "Damn, shaped charges really fuck up shit on the other side..." I whispered to myself, as I noticed one of the creatures still smoking, completely shattered.

I carefully pushed in with my rifle high and ready, and proceeded up the stairs dropping two more unsuspecting hostiles with a controlled pair each. "I guess they were checking out what caused the explosion." I said as I bent over to get a closer look. These things looked like insect-like horses, which was creepy. Because I noticed a dead horse wearing bronze armor in the corner with scorch marks.

It was a small white horse at that and it was wearing armor.

"The fuck?" was all I could say.

This place was weird as fuck. I mean, who the fuck armors their pet ponies? And why do people like ponies, the little Shetland fuckers are mean. I loved my quarter horses growing up, but shit son, I didn't strap armor to them and prance about like a knight.

Anyways, time to link up with the rest of Bravo-3-3. So I continued down the hallway unimpeded until I got to a stairwell, where they set up and ambush. Thankfully they can't hurt my armor because I got nailed in the chest by about five bolts this time. I managed to drop two in return but I was not getting up that stairwell. They couldn't harm me when they hit my armor, but seeing that I'm not covered head to toe and seeing their blasts effects on bronze and flesh, it's a risk I'm not taking.

So I threw a flash bang up into the platform they were on, waited for it to go off and peeked out. Noticing they were dazed, I started to move up the stairs at a deliberate pace and once they came into sight still stumbling about I put a controlled pair into the final three. Now that I'm on the same floor as my boys I can hear intermittent gunfire, some scratchy shouting, and what sounds like the bugs firing the energy blasts from their horns.

"That way." I said to myself as I slunk down the hallway in the drone zone. About 20 meters down the hall I had a visual on about 10 hostiles firing randomly down another hallway that had the three BLUFORCE markers in it.

I pulled another frag from my FLC, pulled the pin, rolled it down the hallway and yelled, "FRAG OUT!"

Waiting for the resounding thud, I whipped around the pillar I was using for cover and closed in on the downed hostiles, double tapping any still left alive after getting blasted from the fragmentation grenade.

When I yelled frag out, I heard the other three pouring fire down the opposite direction.

Once their firing died down, I called out, "Peanut butter!"

"Jelly time!" was Malarkey's response, knowing I was occupying the junction that was giving them a bit of trouble beforehand.

"All clear down here." I called out. "I'm moving to your position."

"Got you covered, but I think it's clear up ahead, I heard them say 'regroup at the throne room.'" Malarkey said as I was making my way to their position.

"Gimme a LACE and SitRep."

"We're red on ammo. I think we maybe got about 200 rounds 'tween the three of us. We used all our frags just gettin' inside. Once we touched down we got surrounded and had to fight our way inside. It was a bloody mess. We got pinned down here because we were low on ammo and outta frags. That's when you called in."

"Aight, here, take these." I said as I passed each one another mag and handed off my second to last frag to Malarkey. "We're gonna track them to the throne room, maybe get some answers. Let's get a move on, y'all."

The Elements stopped when the heard a distant 'fwoosh' followed by a bellowing boom.

"Maybe we should go back, it sounds like whatever murdered those changelings just forced it's way into the palace." Rarity said to her friends. "Besides, it'll be easier than finding another way in, because I am not entering that sewer. That is if we stay hidden from that unknown creature."

"Did anyone get a look at it?" Rainbow asked, "Because I think it's an alien, like, you know, from space."

"Nonsense, Dash. I've told you those comics are rotting your brain." Twilight retorted.

"I think she's right, Twilight. As we were runnin' off I turned about to get a look back and caught a glimpse of some weird alien lookin' thang with single red eye covered in a weird suit jump around the corner of its space craft." Applejack said, with a look of worry over her face.

"What if it's as scared as we are?" The most timid of the group, Fluttershy, said. "I mean, what if it only defended itself. The changelings did attack it first you know." The distant prattle of weapons fire could be hear emanating from the palace, even though the mares had no idea what it's cause and effect is.

"Ok," Twilight relented, "We'll back track in behind this 'alien' and get to the Princesses and then figure out what this creature wants." Something in her gut, however, told her not to go. And they all had this instinct within them, nagging them to stay outside.

But they backtracked anyways.

I took point on the right and scanned the left, and Malarkey took the left and scanned the right as the two marines mirrored us but had the six. We met no resistance as we approached another large set of doors with red carpeting leading in.

"Any of y'all got breaching charges?" I asked. They shook their heads no.

"Dammit. I got a rocket launcher, but I don't know what's on the other side, they may have hostages."

"Maybe we can peak under the door." One of the Marines said as he went to his hands and knees.

"That's a natural position for you Matherson." The other Marine chimed in.

"Shut the fuck up." as he peered under the door. "I see no hostages, but a about a dozen and a half tangos in a really long room. There are some horses in the back with a really big bug creature." He stood back up, "I think we should rocket the door."

I backed up to the edge of the stairs about 20 meters away and blasted the door; doing the same thing to it that I did to the main gate outside. I discarded the empty launcher and we stacked up. I motioned for Malarkey to hand me his frag, held them both out, "Pull the pins. And take my last flash bang and toss it in on three."

He pulled the two pins as I double fisted the shit out of these frags, "Ready?"

"Yeah" was his response. I could see us all tense as shit.

"One. Two. Three." And he threw the flash bang in and the moment he stepped back I threw the frags at the same time into the melon sized opening.

The moment the frags detonated, Malarkey kicked in the door, and I went straight in breaking left; firing on the first hostile to come into sight, cutting it and another down in a burst. Then shifting right I cut down another three in a long burst.

"Right side clear."

"Left side clear" I returned.

Noticing my rifle was empty; I dropped it and let the sling take it to my side as I drew my sidearm. Almost with perfect choreography the four of us stepped forth from the shadows into the main area of this room. All that was left was the big one and a small one that looked like the rest, only with armor.

He stepped in front of the big and hissed, "Who are you to approach Queen Chrysalis?!" as we closed in, weapons at the low ready.

About 10 meters away, he hissed again, "Die you monsters!" before lunging at us.

I jumped as I watched him explode in a spray of ichor, startled at the burst of fire that came from PFC Hughes.

"Okay, so he was a foal." The big on sounded off with, "I am Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the Changeling Empire. And I demand to know who you are!"

"We don't give in to demands, and since we seem to be the ones with the upper hand. You answer our questions. Einverstanden?" I asked.

"So before me, stand humans that have relearned language and arts, specifically the art of warfare?" She cooed. "How tasteful, did the big white bitch train you to do her bidding as little lap dogs?" That she spat with some venom, both the metaphor and what I'm guess some actual venom as some green liquid was spat onto the floor.

"Wut?" was my only response. "I don't even...how do you even know what we are?"

"Oh?" she responded, raising an eyebrow. "So I'm going to guess you aren't from around here?"

I know she couldn't see my face underneath my red monocle, but I had the 'really?' face plastered to it, "No shit Sherlock... what the fuck gave it away?"

"Everything about you, you have the full spectrum of emotions in your hearts, same as the humans here. But I can taste the difference in them. The love is far more... bitter, jaded almost. While the rage inside you... it's not sour. It's... I can't tell, it feels mixed with anguish. Almost despondent..." her voice trailed off to a low husk as she eyed me, seeing right into the glowing red Cyclops in from of her.

I shifted uneasily, "Ok, what was that? What you just said?"

"I'm a changeling; we find life force feeding off positive emotions."

"So you're taking over this country to force feed like a vampire, is that it?"

"Sadly, it has come to that. Over the years what was once freely given us, was taken away." She said at a low volume as she turned away. "It was given to us by our friend, by your kind."

As these weird creatures and Chrysalis had their discussion, Cadance and Shining Armor began to charge a love spell as they embraced. The love spell should dispel all the changelings from Canterlot. If these weird creatures just keep Chrysalis' attention for just a bit longer.

Almost. There.

And that's when her's and Shining's spell peaked, bursting forth with energy.

The girls were following the trail of dead changelings to the throne room. All had the same cause of dead: either a pair or trio of holes on the body or head or completely ripped apart. It made their stomachs turn. They knew how loathsome changelings could be, but whatever did this... atrocity. Those were real monsters.

They finally arrived just outside the throne room.

"Pinkie, are you okay?" Rarity called over to her visibly distressed friend. Who was clearly in a state of shock as her normally poofy mane was lying flat.

"It's just sad to see this, is all."

"We'll get back to Ponyville soon enough, after we take care of this changelin' business." Applejack said to her friend as she hugged her and nuzzled her.

Rainbow poked the still smoking rocket launcher, "What's this thing? M107A1 HESH, disposable rocket launcher." She read the words slowly as the other girls began to gather near.

The massive spell discharge washed over them and left them warm and fuzzy.

Okay, so one moment I'm having an out of world conversation with an intelligent bug-pony-alien-hybrid-thingy. The next I'm being hurtled backwards quite forcefully with my left side slamming into one of the pillars in the room causing me to pirouette and land on my chest. And then I see blackness.

I come to hearing some voices, but still seeing darkness. "Fucking helmet must be fried..." I mutter to myself drunkenly as I attempt to get up with a severe case of vertigo. I snap open the visor and pull the respirator off only to see... reddened vision. I try to blink it away as I hear bells ringing and muffled voices, but it persists and I feel a warm liquid running from my eyes, nose, and mouth as taste copper. I reach up and wipe my face to examine my hand, and through the red haze I see my gloved hand covered in blood. "Fuck."

At that moment, I distinctly hear, "Princess! That one is conscious!"

Immediately in my daze I rise to a knee and attempt to level my rifle with my right hand at what appears to be a large white horse walking towards me followed by a small... purple horse?

"Stop! Stop right there!" I shouted, blood frothing from my mouth as I try to blink away the blood from my eyes.

I start teetering to my right, losing my balance.

"We mean you no harm."

"I don't fuckin'... I don'... jus... stop... I'll shoot..."I manage to get out as I fell back over, keeping my weapon trained on them.

They continue their walk towards me, “Please, just listen." I feel something tug at my weapon. I can barely see at this point and can't stand as I'm yanked forward onto the ground with a splat as my face hits the marble, smearing blood on it. I attempt to push myself back up, but my hand slips and I bust my fast on my rifle.

The further concussion sends my head spiraling into the blackness of unconsciousness as I hear the voices and footsteps closing in on me.

After the spell discharge, the girls made their way into the throne room, seeing that carnage that lay about as well as four human looking bodies on the floor dressed up in some form of advanced armor; two of them appearing to be cycloptic while the other two had solid face plates.

All were very clearly knocked out. And completely unnoticed by the mares, whose only concern was running to their deity and their mentor.

"Princess Celestia! Princess Cadance! Shiney! Are you all okay?!" Twilight called out, frantically running up to them.

"Yes, Twilight, we are fine." Celestia responded. "I see you brought the Elements, but it appears we have no need of them after all." she chuckled.

"It appears that love conquers all." Cadance chimed in, nuzzling a wearied Shining Armor.

Hugs went around, ponies were cheerfully checking on each other for injuries, mentally, emotionally, and physically. " I hope you girls are okay." Celestia posed, expecting Twilight to answer. But she pleasantly surprised with who answered, "Oh yes your Highness. We are doing quite well. But, I think there may be an alien loose in the castle that may be hurt, afraid, and alone."

"Oh, dear Fluttershy." Celestia responded. "They are in this very room. And may very well be thanked for helping save Canterlot."

At that moment, "Fucking helmet must be fried..." was slurred from the four corner pillars in the room, as one of the unnoticed bodies began to stir.

Immediately all the girls stepped back as this strange alien removed it's facial covering, revealing a very bloody... human.

The girls were aghast. A human that spoke?

"Princess! That one is conscious!" Twilight announced, oddly giddy.

Rarity fainted.

Fluttershy pulled a first aid kit from nothingness, but was stopped by Applejack, "Fluttershy, these here creatures are dangerous. Why you saw the hurtin' they dealt in the halls."

Rainbow Dash fluttered up into the air, craning her neck to get a better look. But she kept her distance, very wary of seeing her 'aliens' were actually just very dangerous humans; humans that could speak, leaving her speechless.

Pinkie was in a catatonic shock, almost like a statue.

But Twilight was intrigued, talking humans? Imagine all the answers they contained! Answers she didn't even have questions for yet! Her thoughts were interrupted by Celestia approaching it and cooing ever so gently, "It's okay, you are safe here."

It rose to a knee and started attempting to crawl away, pointing something at them while shouting at them to stay away.

"We mean you know harm." Celestia again said gingerly, trying to calm the man down.

"I don't fuckin'... I don'... jus... stop... I'll shoot..."

A snap came from the object the human was holding, it was loud enough to make Celestia flinch. She'd seen what that object was capable off. So did Princess Cadance, and by how Twilight also jumped. She had figured that was the object causing such calamity in the hallways the girls were talking about initially.

At that moment, Celestia surrounded the weapon with her magic and pleaded with the panicked human. She didn't count on the weapon being strapped to it's owner, because once she pulled forward, she pulled him off balance causing him to fall on his face and smear the floor with his blood, blood that was everywhere. A sight which made the goddess frown.

Frown because it was sad to see such a sight, and because she was partly the reason for him falling forward.

She smiled slightly at his resilience and willpower to get back up. But that was quickly extinguished as he slipped on his ample blood and cracked his face on the weapon causing him to slip back into unconsciousness.

"Oh my, Twilight, help me get them to the Hospital." Celestia frowned.

"Shouldn't we take them to the vet?" the student posed.

"No, the hospital has far better equipment and staff. I can have a vet come in to overlook the entire procedure. And these humans are just any human, there is something about them..." Celestia worriedly trailed off, overlooking the four unconscious humans.

Author's Note

This chapter is radically different from the previous write of the chapter. Let me know how it is so far. Many surprises in it!

Here's the WIP on the Ranger and his kit. Eventually I'll get around to drawing the marines.