Equestrian Dawn: Tiberium is Magic

by Elite Minor

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Tragedy, Adventure, Crossover
Length: 38017

This world is peaceful. But it only takes a mad-pony, and a secret organization to mix things up.

Command & Conquer crossover

Friendship, compassion, and harmony always win the day. But when an ambitious mad-pony tries to collect a power greater than anything before, it sparks a global conflict in which Twilight and friends are sucked into the middle of chaos.

How do the Elements of Harmony play into this?

Why is technology advancing?

What does Rainbow Dash's past have to do with this?

The outcome?

Find out!

Art done by Azkhare

http://azkhare.deviantart.com/art/Arrival-of-Ichor-298591284

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-22 07:45:19 UTC

Prelude

My Little Equestrian Dawn: Tiberium is Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, Command and Conquer, or many of the characters in the story

Aww shit, here we go.

Princess Luna:  “We are going to have to ACT if we want to live in a different world.”

Prelude

A gray stallion stood at the top of a short hill, admiring the beauty of the stars as their magnificent light twinkled in the eternal blackness of the night sky. Luna’s moon provided additional glow in the backdrop of the ocean of darkness.

It was beautiful.

The entire scenery was filled with such serene beauty that one could be easily lost in it. A wave of calming bliss kissed not only the sky, but also the grass-covered hill on which the stallion was standing, and the clearing and the nearby forest that surrounded the hill.

This entire planet was filled with such serene beauty, peace, love and of course, the all-important, harmony.

It was inescapable, from the breathtaking views of natural landscapes and the sight of free-roaming wildlife to the kindness and generosity of ponies worldwide. It seemed that no matter what town, village or city that they were from, all of them seemed to have one common belief that compassion and friendship could solve any obstacle presented to them.

The perfect world.

A world that will be his….

Soon.

This particular stallion seemed different and odd compared to the usual pony. His solid black cloak that covered his entire body hid his maneless head and back. The cloak gave him a mysterious and sinister appearance as if he was seen from afar, no pony would be able to recognize anything about this stallion. Even his cutie mark vanished under the sea of black that his cloak emanated.

Now his cutie mark was definitely strange. Nopony would be able to decipher his special talent or even take a guess when they saw it. It was not like any other cutie mark that pony kind has ever seen. Probably because it or anything similar to it never existed.

At first sight the average pony would see a curled, black scorpion tail surrounded by a blood red background. The sinister-looking cutie mark was incased in a triangle-like shell, forming the borderline of the cutie mark. The average pony would not have a clue what that symbol stood for, and it would be better for them not to know.

He continued to stare up into the night sky, wearing a slight stoic smile on his face. Now was the time for action. He knew what he needed, and the substance that would power what he needed would be arriving soon. He would not halt at any length to obtain the item that would bring the dawn of a new day.

The future belonged to him, and only him. No pony, god, or alicorn could stop him. For it was not possible.

"I AM the future,” the stallion whispered to himself, letting the soft words exit his mouth and travel through the wind and into oblivion. He mentally laughed as the word from earlier return to his mind.

Friendship.

It was in that single word that everypony seemed to solve their problems. To be their savior. The word that had saved them twice already. The mystery stallion continued to mentally laugh at the word.

Such is Ponykind’s crutch. The fools are much too dependent on a mere idea to save them. True, friendship is powerful in its own respects…but it is not indestructible. There is a power that can outclass such a fundamental, yet competent ideal. A power that I must have. And once I have that power, the ponies will sway to the hoof of Nod. My hoof.

His mental concentration was broken as he heard the rumbling of an engine behind him. He reeled his head around slowly, staring at the newcomer indifferently.

From his view, a mechanized vehicle, far more advanced than any vehicle a common pony has ever seen, was halted on a dirt road. Its engine continued to hum at a monotone rhythm as its engine was still running, even though the machine was parked.

It was strange creation. It was a gas and oil powered, which was almost unheard of in the current world. Four circular, rubber tires provided the ability of movement. The buggy’s frame was made of a spiderweb of metal bars, making the contraption appear to be poorly armored. Its lightweight build and small size gave it superb agility, perfect for scouting and light skirmishes.

Also, its weapon would be considered strange for an average pony. It appeared a black, metal stick that ejects copper/lead projectiles at an incredible speed. How this works would confuse many simple ponies. The technology in this machine, though the vehicle is a simple one, is highly advanced for the current era.

Its headlights flashed 2 bright yellow lights that seared into a part of the nearby forest, scaring away some wildlife. Mounted on the roof of the buggy was a chain gun, manned by a young stallion wearing a gray camouflage uniform with black and white splotches on it.

The clothing covered the gunner’s entire body, with the exception of the head, neck, tail, and forehooves. The Kevlar helmet the stallion was wearing was a mirror image of the gray cameo uniform and had a rectangular eyepiece that was attached to the helmet, lying over the wearer’s right eye.

The gunner’s polished black combat boots, invisible from this angle, were tightly fitted to his backhooves.  He was standing in an almost bi-pedal fashion, while leaning on the back of the turret hatch opening. That did not look comfortable for a pony at all.

The young stallion appeared to be exhausted, judging by his body language. The gray stallion took note of this and also of the advanced technology that his followers had access to. Technology that would skyrocket this world forward into the future.

“The technology of peace,” the gray stallion thought to himself.

A white middle-aged stallion hopped out of the passenger side of the buggy and started to approach the cloaked stallion at a trot. Simultaneously, the white stallion slipped a black beret that bore a scorpion tail symbol on his head over his mane….the symbol an exact replica of the gray stallion’s cutie mark.

This earthpony was wearing polished black combat boots, just like the trooper in the buggy turret, and also solid black pants with a solid black shirt to match. On the shirt, in the left pectoral area, the scorpion tail symbol was visible once again.

The white stallion approached his master and when only a few feet away, halted his pace and gave a short bow.

“Milord,” the white stallion uttered respectfully. He recovered from his bow and reared his head back up to eye his master. He rose slowly, his eyes glazed over, giving the white stallion an appearance of being exhausted. The gray stallion looked stoically at the stallion that was his right hoof.

All of his followers were exhausted, physically and mentally. They were preparing.

It would all be worth the cost soon. The substance would be arriving soon, and the technology of peace will expand and grow this world into what it should be. He just had to locate the item he needed to exploit the substance’s power.

“What is it my son?” the gray stallion inquired.

The white stallion opened his mouth to speak. The gray stallion noticed that his subordinate was unshaven, a beard growing on the white stallion’s face. Normally, this would get a pony within the brotherhood reprimand for being out of regulation, however, his right hoof was high up enough on the food chain to almost do whatever he pleased.

Almost.

“Milord, all of our forces are in place and ready for your orders,” the white stallion said out of respect.

His gray master didn’t know whether the extreme amount of respect he was receiving was out of incredible fear, a true belief in the cause or a mix of the two. He had knack for being quite intimidating.

“Very well, my son. Your performance has been admirable. Perhaps choosing you as my shadow was a correct decision. Have our troops ready by dawn. I want our surgical strikes around the globe to hit simultaneously and it is your responsibility to keep our assaults coordinated. I am entrusting you with this task. Do not fail me. It will be a glorious morning,” the gray stallion answered.

His tone was just as forebearing as his appearance.

“Yes milord, I will not fail,” the white stallion answered confidently, although the gray stallion could’ve sworn he heard a quiver of fear in his servant’s voice. He smiled with contempt. His underling was not stupid.

“He’d better pray that he does not fail,” he thought to himself. The white stallion stared at his master with confusion regarding the smile.

“Go my son. Unleash the hurricane of our might, leave no stone unturned, show no enemy of Nod mercy. Our forces will spread like a great plague across the land. The blood of our oppressors will flow and over a thousand years of tyranny will end. Give the brotherhood life….give our oppressed brothers purpose. Do this and our salvation will come,” the gray stallion spoke prophetically and forcefully.

His stare of stoicism and a hint of sadism seemed to burn into the white stallion’s eyes as his master gave him a wide grin, showing his ridiculously white teeth. He immediately became nervous as he realized the gravity of what he was about to do. However,  the white pony managed to collect himself fairly quickly and recollect his composure well enough for it not to be noticed by a normal pony. However, his master wasn’t a normal pony.

“Yes milord,” the white stallion replied simply as he bowed once again and took his leave, trotting back to the armored buggy. The white stallion hopped back into the buggy and appeared to lean over to tell the driver something.

The technologically advanced vehicle then sped off down the dirt road; probably heading back to one of Nod’s hidden bases that was nearby. Despite the technology, Nod was still heavily outnumbered on a global standard, probably because of the secrecy it has practiced for the past sixteen years. But that would change soon. The Messiah would ensure that.

He was an artist with his words. He could convince entire armies to betray their commanders with just a well-spoken ideal. It was a gift he had all his life. It served him well during his betrayal.

He had slaughtered two of his comrades, and was frustrated when the third escaped. They were not worthy of the new world. They did not see his vision of the future. Though comrades for years and everything they went through together…

They didn’t trust him. They called him insane. They threatened to have him arrested. So he did what he thought needed to be done.

“They were fools,” he thought as he mentally spat at the thought of them.

Twilight Sparkle was enjoying a quiet night to herself gazing through her telescope, eyeing constellations and far-off stars. Spike had already crashed for the night and Owlicious was perched on the window sill. Even though the owl was on the window Twilight’s telescope was peering out of, Owlicious was smart enough to avoid getting in the way.

The purple unicorn smiled, tonight was a good night. She had discovered a new star. It was a fairly distant one though extremely bright for its distance. This was an impressive one.

She HAD to document it! She had to write the Princess! Maybe she can have it named after her!

“This is an excellent night!” she suppressed her yell as the bookworm remembered that her number one assistant was asleep. She couldn’t blame the baby dragon, it had been a long night and she still had to write her letter to Celestia. She took one more look through the telescope and saw…an anomaly.

Scratch that, multiple anomalies.

White comet-looking objects were streaking across the sky. A normal pony might have just disregarded it as a meteor shower. However, Twilight’s analytical mind noticed that something about the trajectory of the white orbs that just wasn’t right.

“What the…”

He turned once again to the stars overhead. He saw a bright meteor shower that casted small white dots streaking across the sky, leaving behind trails of fire that also appeared white.

“It is time,” the gray pony said as he eyed the meteor shower with admiration, taking in a deep breath as though this was euphoric for him. His eyes dilated as he opened them wide, while stretching his forehooves out to the sky.

“Behold the future! Tiberium has come!”

Kane smiled.

Hell March

Afterthought

So what do you think? Not bad for my first ponyfic right? I don’t know when a new chapter will be up but I can’t make any promises. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this and I will have more…just don’t know when. : P

Also, if you haven’t played any of the Command and Conquer games, I’d suggest you do. Lots of fun!

Lastly, if you have any critiques for me, praise, or both, drop me a review! And for you flamers/trolls…get out of here, you know nobody likes you!

Comments are appreciated! :D

Wake Up Call

Wake Up Call

General Shepherd: “Gentlecolts this- Gentlecolts this- Gentlecolts this- is about combat!”

Sweetie Belle: “Just do it up! Just- jus-jus-ju-just-just- Just do it up!”

Twilight’s eyes fluttered open slowly as the sun’s morning rays passed through the translucent window in her bedroom, and stung into her eyes. The purple unicorn sighed and let out a yawn. She sat up in her bed, stretching her forelegs to the ceiling, yawning again.

It seemed like a normal, sunny morning in Equestria. The trademark beauty of the tranquil and serene nation was only highlighted by the warming rays of Celestia’s sun. Had her window been open, Twilight would have heard a multitude of bird species chirping to the morning sun.

This world didn’t deserve to be shattered.

It deserved to stay like this.

Never to change.

However, cruel and unforgiving fate partnered with malicious destiny had its own agenda…

Starting today.

She plopped down from her bed and proceeded to her bathroom to freshen up and get ready for the day. Her usual intelligent and analytical mind was blank at this point, still exhausted from staying up late studying and stargazing.

Some of the joints in her legs started to pop from the movement as she advanced to her restroom. Her pink-highlighted purple mane was a scraggly mess, and eyes had dark bags under them. She groaned in annoyance as her body was making her physically pay for depriving it of sleep.

She tried her best to shrug off the feelings of grogginess and a cloudy brain by stretching and pacing around, but bodily threats of cramps were the only responses she got.

She then gave up the futile attempt and continued on, trotting into the bathroom with a hoof on top of her head as she used her magic to turn on the shower.  Her hoof was placed right where a migraine was making itself known.

The violet unicorn stepped into the shower and levitated a loofah and a bar of soap with her magic..She then rubbed the bar on the sponge and began to scrub herself with the loofah.

As she cleaned herself, she tried to jog her memory of what had happened last night. She remembered being tired yet ecstatic, when she finished her letter to Princess Celestia last night. However, she then realized that Spike was asleep. She wouldn’t want to wake the poor little guy, so after must protest, she decided that sending the letter could wait until the next morning.

After all, it was just a star right? Though her excitement made her impatient, she reasoned with herself to not let things get out of hand. And as for the meteors, of course she mentioned them, as they were worth it. Twilight didn’t really see them as a threat, but the peculiar nature of the falling space rocks was enough to entice a question or just plain curiosity.

“Obviously, they couldn’t have been THAT bad if today was a normal, beautiful day in Ponyville! …Right?” Twilight thought, reasoning with herself. She hoped she was right. She decided that now was not the time to think of such things so she distracted herself from the subject.

Spike was probably still asleep she thought.

“I’ll wake him up when I’m finished. He SHOULD be well-rested by then,” The magically talented unicorn thought as she continued to scrub her hide.

The applause from thousands of ponies that were packed into the bleachers, cheered with an ear-splitting, simultaneous cry as Rainbow Dash completed one of her signature moves.

The Buccaneer Blaze was executed flawlessly, causing an impressive explosion of light to shine throughout the stands. Some ponies had to shield their eyes at the sheer amplitude of awesomeness that emanated from the cyan pony.

The rainbow-maned speedster contained her jubilance in front of her fans. She was so pumped! The Wonderbolts HAD to accept her now, but just to be safe, she had a finishing move prepared. One that NOPONY could resist!

A reverse Sonic Rainboom. Since she was already known for her original Sonic Rainboom, she decided that just doing it again would be bland and totally uncool. So she put a little twist on it.

She would start from the ground up, this time working against gravity and producing her sound barrier-breaking masterpiece thousands of feet in the air. This made the move twice as difficult but also gave it a 20% raise on the ‘Awesome’ scale.

She gave a short, smiling blush at her crazed and adoring fans as she descended towards the earth as a moderate speed to give her room for her closing act. She was going to end this with a bang…or boom as it were.

Once she hit sea-level, which was only a few feet from the grass-covered ground, she shot upwards back into the sky like she had been fired out of a cannon, and was swiftly gaining altitude as a rainbow streak left a trail behind her.

It wasn’t long before she soared past the bleachers that seated her fans. Rainbow Dash could hear their cheering as she zoomed by them, gathering speed as friction started to affect her.  The heat of the friction began to lightly lick her hide as she felt the burning sensation that came with using this move. They were cheering for her.

They were HER fans.

Adrenaline kicked into her senses as she accelerated to sub-supersonic speeds as the sound barrier started to show signs of strain. She almost had it. Just a little more…

“Faster, Rainbow, faster!” She mentally urged herself as she continued to approach supersonic.

“C’mmmooon.! C’mmmmoooon! Almost got it… just a little more throttle and-”

“Hi, Dashie!” A loud and high-pitched voice squealed with joy as Rainbow Dash’s body jolted in shock. She halted her steep climb in the atmosphere to see a jubilant pink pony with multi-colored balloons strapped to her midsection rising to meet Rainbow with a wide, toothy grin.

“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow yelled in surprise and annoyance with wide eyes as she looked down to judge her altitude.

“How did you- But I was going so fa-…forget it!” The rainbow pegasus cut herself off, giving up on trying to understand Pinkie’s defiance of physics.

“WEEEELLLL DDDAAASSHHHIIIIEEE,” the pink pony started, her voice picking up, unnecessarily holding her pitch in her usual sing-song tone.

“Well what? I haven’t got all day. I’m kind of in the middle of something here!” Rainbow Dash replied with impatience, gesturing with her hoof, pointing to the crowd below.

“Guess what?! Guess what?! Guess what I can do?!!” Pinkie exclaimed happily and jittery. Dash facehoofed.

She had to leave NOW.

“Pinkie, I don’t have time for this! I’ve gotta go!” Rainbow yelled as she started to take off.

“Well that was a setback! Oh well, I still think that I can make up for it if I kick it into high gear!” Rainbow smiled as she soared off, trying to rebuild the momentum she lost from stopping. She was nearing the canopy of the atmosphere now. It wouldn’t be long.

“High speed, low drag,” She thought with a confident smile as she neared the edge of the atmosphere. Before she could go any farther up, she noticed a pink blob floating up to her.

“You’ve GOT to be kidding me,” she sighed in disapproval as Pinkie Pie rose up to meet her again. The pink party pony managed to keep that wide grin on her face as she meet Dash before she could reach the brink of space.

“Please Pinkie, save it for later! This is important!” Rainbow Dash whined as she continued her climb. Rainbow picked up speed, friction making her hide grow hot as she began to depart the atmosphere.

She then caught something out of the corner of her eye. The pink blob…again. She turned and saw that the pink earthpony had kept pace with her the entire way up.

“What the?! How fast am I going?!” The cyan pony thought in shock. Pinkie Pie then caught up with her somehow and continued her smile at Rainbow Dash.

“Silly filly! You didn’t even see my new talent!” Pinkie stated, her bubbly attitude maintained.

“Besides defying the laws of physi-”

“VVVRRRROOOOOMMMMMM!”

The loud, buzzing sound emanated out of Pinkie’s puckered lips. It didn’t sound natural. Pinkie Pie wasn’t natural as it was, but even for her this sound was weird.

Rainbow cringed at the unexpected roaring noise that exited Pinkie’s mouth. This was NOT cool. First her finishing move gets ruined, and now this? She threw her hooves over her ears and grunted in pain, trying her best to zone out Pinkie’s strange wail. The decibels of the sound were raking and grinding against Dash’s eardrums.

“GAHH! PINKIE STOP! IT HURTS!” She screamed at her balloon-equipped friend in desperation. The pain was almost unbearable now.

“VVVVRRRRROOOOOMMMMM!” It was louder this time. Rainbow Dash had never heard a sound like it.

It stung her ears even more now. The odd sound was almost…mechanical.

VVVVRRRROOOOOMMMM!

This time it woke her up. The cyan speed demon opened her eyes as her sight refocused into the sunlight above her. She got up and shook herself off, stretching as her got up from her “extended” nap.

VVVVRRRROOOOMMMM!

There it was again. Definitely strange. She also heard voices at well. She leaned over the cloud she was sleeping on as she looked below. She was going to give the unfortunate pony who woke her up a piece her of hoof.

“Keep formation! 4th Squad, hold the rear behind the buggies!” She heard a gruffy, male voice yell as she zeroed her sight in on a dirt road below the cloud she was leaning over.

The dirt road cut through a clearing, only a couple miles outside Ponyville. The clearing provided Rainbow Dash a perfect view of the scene unfolding before her. What she saw was one of the most bizarre sights she had ever seen.

What she thought she could see was a perfect two column formation of eighteen ponies split into three groups of six leading a formation down the dirt road towards Ponyville. These ponies were wearing similar uniforms to the ones that Rainbow and her friends wore when they watched the Dragon Migration sometime in the past.

The only difference was that these ponies were wearing gray camo with black and white splotches, not the classic green woodlands her and her friends wore.  Their Kevlar helmets with strange eyepieces matched the rest of their uniforms in terms of cloth design. They were carrying strange wood/metal objects in their forehooves, the backs of the devices snug in their shoulders.

The way they carried these sticks was peculiar. One hoof was gripped around the barrel at the midpoint of the stick. The other was placed over the grip and hovered lightly over a red button inside the grip.

They seemed to keep the barrel portion of these devices pointed in front of them at all times, some resting the top of the device in their cheeks, as if they were inspecting them closely. They appeared to be scanning the surrounding area with them. But it looked like…they were aiming.

“What-those can’t be-guns?” She quivered in fear.

Impossible.

“Guns aren’t even supposed to exist-they’re a myth! This is insane! Sci-fi weapons-are real?!” Dash yelped out in shock as she placed a hoof over her gaping mouth. Her rose-colored eyes dilated, yet she kept her focus on the troop column below her. She chuckled in disbelief and denial.

Guns?

Impossible!

“Wait?! So I suppose they have tanks now too!?”She chuckled to herself, referring to a sci-fi armored vehicle that she had named her pet turtle after. She had mocked the possibility, and then ignorantly dismissed it.

It was a shame that she didn’t know how right she was. After a short fit of forced laughter, she refocused her attention on the column below her, passing the cloud as they covered more ground.

The gray-clad pony platoon appeared to be in a marching formation, though not marching, with a pony wearing black combat boots on his backhooves like the rest of his comrades, leading them in the front.

He continued to talk to the ponies behind him in a voice that Rainbow could identify as really deep, if not scratchy. The stallion in front the parade with the lit cigar in his mouth appeared to be their leader.

This pony was wearing a red beret over his mane and was wearing a black utility belt that turned into overalls, two black straps over his shoulders connecting back to the belt. Under it he wore a plain dark-tan t-shirt with two circular ball-shaped items clipped to each overall strap on the pony’s chest.

Unlike the other ponies, the stick…or gun… he was carrying was smaller, more compact and pure black one that had a strange nozzle attached to the end of the barrel.

It had a green-mirrored circular device on top of the barrel that looked like half a binocular and a smaller, banana-shaped stick protruding from the bottom the barrel.

The Wonderbolt fangirl then noticed that all of the gray covered ponies had weird banana-shaped sticks protruding out of the bottom of their wooden/metal possessions as well.

The cyan pegasus however, didn’t focus too much on the leader as the three moving carriage-like things were consuming her attention. After all, they did wake her up. She realized that they were the cause of her interrupted nap and studied them with a mix of curiosity and annoyance.

These machines were a conglomerate of gray metal bars, and moved on four black wheels. They would have been going fast if not following the slow-moving marching column in front of them. The mobile machines were following each other back to back.

Rainbow also noticed that the machines had three ponies riding inside each of them. She literally had NO idea how those things were moving without other ponies pulling them.

Magical?

That was the only way Rainbow Dash could describe it or understand it.

How else would they move?

They were two ponies in the passenger and driver’s seats and one pony sticking out of the roof of each buggy, moving a big and strange black, metal stick around. The buggy gunner ponies were swinging their black metal sticks-or guns back and forth, as if scanning for something.

There was a horizontal black bar that the ponies bit down on with their teeth, moving the black sticks around in that manner as the horizontal sticks were attached to the weapons, probably to maintain stability and control.

From Rainbow Dash’s view behind the column as they had now passed her cloud at this point, she noticed that the machine riders on the roof were keeping their forehooves close to 2 big, cyan, hoof-sized buttons on the backs of the black sticks that were ontop the weird magical machines.

“Now I wonder what those do?” RD thought as she rubbed her chin with a hoof in curiosity.

Behind the buggies was a smaller, four pony column, marching behind the buggies in rows of two. These ponies were wearing the same exact clothing as the others in front of them.

But Rainbow Dash saw yet another strange item that they were carrying. Each of the four rear ponies were carrying a large silver tube with holes at both ends of it.

They were slung over their shoulders, a single hoof snaked around the pole’s perimeter while the other hoof supported the pole from below. All of the tubes were uniform as one side of their tubes pointing in front of them and the other side behind them.

Rainbow Dash then made a decision that she did not think through. Such was normal for the adventure-seeking pegasus but unfortunately, she didn’t know what she was dealing with here. But she didn’t have the state of mind to think of such things at this point in time.

She was curious. She was annoyed. And she wanted answers.

“Who were those guys? What were they doing, bringing all that futuristic stuff they had to Ponyville? What the HAY is going on here?” The flying, rainbow-maned pegasus thought as she sped after the mysterious pony column.

“Spike, has Princess Celestia replied to my letter yet?” Twilight asked anxiously as she aided Rarity in finding a book on how fashion trends evolve year by year.

When Twilight asked the white unicorn why she needed such a book, the overly-dramatic fashionista promptly explained that she wanted to try her hoof at predicting next year’s trends before they happen. She wanted to be 'ahead of the game' as she put it.

Rarity found what she was looking for and used her magic to snatch the sought after book. She squealed with joy as her vigorous 2-hour search had finally come to an end. She used her magic to place it into one of her saddlebags attached to the white unicorn’s midsection.

Twilight looked around her library in disdain. It was a complete mess. Books of all types were tossed all over the floor in giant piles. Even though it was already kind of like this from last night, she still was a little irked by ever-increasing size of her mountains of literature.

“Oh THANK YOU darling, I have been looking for this book for hours!” Rarity wailed dramatically, placing her hoof on her forehead, simulating exhaustion.

“But you found it,” Twilight replied, sighing with a hint of annoyance as her eyes narrowed at Rarity.

“Oh but Twilight you uh…assisted? I guess?” Rarity responded, not sure how else to respond to the awkward conversation. Twilight shook her head in disapproval as the turned her attention back to Spike.

“Anyways…Spike! How about that letter?” Twilight asked with a grin, hoping to get a response. The studious purple unicorn wanted to know whether discovering that star was a completely excellent and important discovery or just a forgettable dud…she REALLY prayed that it was the first one.

The green-scaled baby dragon scratched the scales on his head, and shrugged.

“Got nothing Twi, sorry,” Spike said dejectedly as he gripped his stomach trying to feel the usual tremor in his stomach that triggered a signal of an incoming letter from the pony goddess. He detected nothing and frowned.

“I also don’t appreciate you dumping a bucket of water on my head while I was sleeping…” Spike grumbled in grogginess, rubbing the scales ontop of his head.

“Are you sure there’s nothing?” Twilight groaned in disappointment as she frowned as well, ignoring her assistant’s complaint. She really had been hoping that the Princess would’ve replied by now. She’ll reply eventually…she always replies…right?

“Maybe my letter just wasn’t important enough…but even at that Princess Celestia ALWAYS replies to my letters, no matter what! …Weird…just….weird,” Twilight’s mental ranting continued on as she growled in frustration on the outside.

After trotting and pacing around for a couple seconds, she caught hold of herself and calmed herself down.

“Twilight, get a hold of yourself. You’re overreacting and its unnessesary. Just crank it down a notch, she’ll send a letter back…it never fails after all,” she reasoned with herself, thinking about how ridiculous her mindset was.

Why was her brain freaking out about this? Why did she have a gut feeling that her letter needed to reach the Princess. Like it was urgent. Why did Twilight Sparkle, the leader of the 6 heroes that saved Equestria twice from a evilly-possessed royal pony sister and a draconequus obsessed with chaos, feel something bad was about to happen?

“Uhh, Twilight? Are you alright?” Rarity asked worriedly, poking the side of Twilight’s mane.

“Judging by your disheveled mane and you’re abnormal antics, you could REALLY use a spa day dear,” Rarity frowned as she examined Twilight’s mane, which was a despicable crime of fashion at this point.

Rarity was about to invite the purple unicorn pony to a full-fledged spa day with the works when she was interrupted by a heavy clopping on the door. All the occupants of the library tree turned towards the door as Twilight opened it with her magic.

Almost instantaneously, a pink party pony with a curly mane rushed into the tree structure with wide concerned blue eyes. A gray pegasus with a blond mane and a muffin in hoof entered behind her.

“Twilight! There is a pop pop popin’ going on!” Pinkie Pie squealed in fear as she shuttered.

“Muf muf Muffin! …And another muffin!” Derpy replied, as her disproportionate eyes focused on the blueberry muffin she was nibbling on.

Twilight shook her head and sighed.

“What now?” The unicorn thought to herself.

“Twilight! I was on my way to Fluttershy’s cottage and Derpy was there too delivering mail and eating a muffin and Fluttershy might have been there but then she might also be out in town and of course her animals would be there but not all at the same time of cours-!”

“PINKIE!” Twilight cried out in frustration.

“Just- tell us what happened,” Twilight proceeded, ending the comment with a sigh. She facehoofed, secretly hoping Pinkie Pie wouldn’t start rambling again.

“Oh yeah! Well, I had just arrived there to drop off her order of vanilla cupcakes, which are DELICIOUS by the way and they have these awesome star sprinkles on them and the frosting is so totally lickable and-”

“PPIIINNNKKIIIEE,” Twilight growled, attempting to keep her voice volume down.

“Oh sorry Twilight! I can be such a blabbery blabber blabbermouth sometimes! Hehe,” Pinkie giggled and put a hoof to her mouth.

“….Right,” Was all that Twilight had to say, her eyes glazing over in impatience at the jubilant pony in front of her.

“Sorry again! Anyways, when I got there I heard a lot of very loud and scary popping noises and explosions coming from that dirt road that leads out into the countryside! Me and Derpy got sooooo scared and we decided to run here and tell you about it,” Pinkie finished, taking in a large breath to replace the oxygen she forced out with her energetic speaking and started panting with her tongue hanging out in a silly fashion.

“Oh my stars! Fluttershy’s might still be over there! What if this is bad? Fluttershy is too soft and innocent for explosions and loud popping noises!”Rarity exclaimed in a distressful tone as huffed out a breath in a theatrical manner.

“Come on girls! You’re probably overreacting to this whole thing. Who said that this was dangerous or bad? You two don’t even know what you heard, didn’t you?” Twilight inquired, trying to keep everypony from freaking out.

“No…but it was REALLY loud and REALLY scary!” Pinkie pleaded, throwing her hooves in the air in protest.

“Very well, we’ll go check it out! But seriously girls, you really need to ponder things with logic rather than just jumping to conclusions. Kind of reminds me of the whole ‘Zecora’ mishap and we don’t want to repeat that again, do we?” Twilight explained with a toothy smile at her friends, trying to keep the mood positive.

“Yes, of course! Ladies, we are worrying about something petty, but it’s alright. We’ll take a little peek at the ‘frightful phenomenons’ you two have experienced. Shall we go Twilight?” Rarity added, mentally pushing her suspicions aside out of nervousness as a bead of sweat ran down her forehead.

“Disgusting. I’m going to need a warm bath after this,” Rarity pondered, looking at the bead of sweat in disapproval.

“Absolutely right Rarity! Come on girls! To Fluttershy’s cottage!” Twilight rallied her pony friends as she threw a hoof in the air.

“Muffin trails are the best ones! You can lick the ground!” Derpy cried happily, muffin crumbs all over her mouth and snout.

“But wait Twilight! What if Princess Celestia’s letter arrives?” Spike asked in a whiney tone.

“Then just hold onto it for me Spike! And stay here in case it does come ok? I don’t want poppings and explosions destroying it,” Twilight replied as she trotted towards the door with the rest of her friends.

“But Twilight-!”

“But nothing, Spike. I’m sorry but you’re staying here, got it? Besides, this might be a little much for a baby dragon,” Twilight explained, cutting off her assistant’s protest after giving him a little glare and a quick shake of her head.

All of ponies in the room headed towards the door as Spike stayed behind and grunted in frustration.

“I never get to do or see anything cool…” he mumbled in compliant to himself.

VRRRRROOOMMMM!

VRRRROOOMMMM!

CHA CHA CHING!

CHA CHA CHING!

POP POP POP POP POP!

POP POP POP POP POP!

Loud screams of fear and agony could be heard from outside the library as a mix of loud, revving engines and the popping of small arms fire erupted in the town square. The rumbling of both the engines and numerous panicking ponies’ hooves could be heard as the citizens of Ponyville outside Twilight’s library tree were running for cover and screaming.

Death screams could be heard as some Ponyvillians were shot and killed. For Twilight, this did not sound good at all. And the noises were SO LOUD too. Now she understood why Pinkie and Derpy were scared.

Because now she was scared.

Pinkie, Rarity, and Derpy were all huddled in the middle of the library, hugging each other tightly. Pinkie’s teeth were chattering and her eyes were as wide as the moon. Derpy looked around worriedly and fearfully. Rarity cringed at each death scream she heard.

Twilight frowned and eyes went as wide as Pinkie’s in pure fear. She laid herself on the floor in front of the entrance, fearfully looking up at it, hoping nothing would bust it open. Spike dropped the book he was rearranging and his mouth went agape.

“What the-” He thought aloud in confusion, completely frozen to the spot he was standing on.

“Is this what you meant Pinkie?” Twilight squealed in terror.

“Uh huh…” Was all that Pinkie Pie could get out as the noises made her wince in pain as they assaulted her eardrums.

Normally, they would have checked to see what was going on. But this was something new to them. This was a new type of problem. Usually they would be brave enough to waltz right out there and stare at the scene in front of them, trying to come up with an answer.

POP POP POP POP POP!

CHA CHA CHING!

POP POP POP POP POP!

CHA CHA CHING! CHA CHA CHING!

Stallion: “AHHH!”

Stallion: “AHHHAHHH!”

Stallion: “GAH!”

Mare: “UUUAAHH!”

Young Filly: “MOMMY!!”

However, this time was different. They were much too afraid to even set hoof out the door. They’ve never heard anything like it before. The revving of the engines was frightening for these ponies and the shooting outside sounded dreadful. The screaming, even though the friends in the library didn’t know they were death screams, was still horrifying to them.

Twilight collected the courage to get up and trot to the nearest window. What she saw was a torrent of violence, carnage, and confusion. What Twilight viewed from that window struck her with disbelief and shock.

It couldn’t be real…IT JUST COULDN’T!

She watched in horror and terror as dozens of Ponyvillians were dashing away from the town square to escape a small group of ponies that were wearing gray camouflage with gray helmets and shooting science fiction weapons at the town’s citizens, structures, businesses and homes.

Strange, four-wheeled vehicles seemed to be driving around and shooting up multiple buildings and ponies with the weapon turrets on the roof of the vehicles. Dead and wounded civilian ponies littered the town square, with small splotches of red leaking from under them. Some were silent and immobile. Others were screaming and crying out in agony and pain.

The sight in front of Twilight was surreal. It was unbearable for her. Her body started to shake uncontrollably as a lone tear fell from one of eyes, and onto her cheek. What was going on? What was happening? Why? She couldn’t wrap her mind around it, mostly because she was still in shock.

“Ttttwwwiiilight…what’s going on out there?” Pinkie Pie asked, her voice trembling and quivering.

She turned back to Pinkie, looking like she had just witnessed a tragedy. Her facial expression and body language did not help to sooth her friends.

Her eyes turned a pinkish hue as tears where starting to form at the bottom of them, her mouth agape and unresponsive. She was still shaking and the bottom of her lip began to quiver. A second tear had developed over her right eye this time and fell down her cheek quicker than the last one.

Before Twilight could respond to Pinkie’s question, she heard another death scream. Shortly thereafter, she heard a metal weapon clank to the ground as it’s user got blasted in the chest.

“AHHH!” The gray-clad soldier cried as he dropped dead.

Next Twilight heard:

“Dammit! That blue pegasus is back! Blast her out of the sky!”

“She has our commando’s Raptor! Look out!” A gray-clad unicorn warned.

“She’s too fast! I can’t hit jack with this thing!” A buggy gunner growled.

Twilight was intrigued by this and through much protest, she refocused her vision on the window. This time she saw the mysterious and dangerous gray ponies were concentrating their fire on the sky above them. The purple unicorn then searched the sky trying to locate the uniformed ponies’ target.

It was then when she spotted a rainbow streak across the sky above Ponyville at mach 2.

“Rainbow Dash?! What is that insane pony doing? Is she crazy!?” Twilight whispered to herself in disbelief.

All of a sudden she heard a PHEW! coming from the sky.

“HHHAAA!” She heard the soldier cry and watched him as a cloud of red erupted from his throat and he face planted into the concrete ground below. She saw a tiny puddle of red spilling out from under him.

“Shoot her! Shoot her!” Another soldier cried out in desperation.

PHEW!

“UAAHH!” A mare soldier grunted as she was hit too, a red cloud spraying out of her gut.

“I can’t see her! I can’t see her!” A young stallion soldier panicked.

“Spray and pray! Spray and pray!” An older stallion soldier yelled.

As he said this, all of the remaining gray-uniformed soldiers started shooting sporadically and randomly, not really aiming at all, hoping that a stray bullet will hit their adversary. Unfortunately they still hit buildings and unlucky Ponyvillians.

This action caused Twilight to jump back from the window as stray rounds slammed into her tree. She regrouped with her friends as they all dropped to the floor, covering their heads with their hooves.

One of the windows other than the one Twilight was using was smashed open by a random bullet, and now her and her friends could hear the whizzing of projectiles streaking past the tree through the air. None of these rounds were actually hitting the tree, just whizzing by.

Twilight’s mind was completely in a daze and completely frazzled.

This CANNOT be happening.

This CANNOT be possible.

But her heart’s heavy pounding against her chest, the little scene she watched from the window, and her friends’ terrified reactions said otherwise.

It was real.

Chaos.

Death.

Violence.

...WAR.

Afterthought

So! Everypony confused about what the hell’s going on? Yes? Good! You’re supposed to be! XD

Well sorry for the filler but I had to set this part up guys. Also, the next chapter will contain elements that make this one make more sense.

Also, there will be more action in Chap 3 and a little explanation as well.

I wanted to add the action scene at the end but I felt that it would make the chapter drag on, so I just cut it off right here. Sorry about that, please don’t murder me in the face with a banana…Trust me, I’ve been down that road! XD

Sole Survivor

Sole Survivor

“Hey, do you guys mind if you could-you know-not hog the road please?” the blue stallion asked the beret-wearing leader of the formation with obvious annoyance in his tone.

He smiled nervously at the Nod commando’s piercing eyes as beads of sweat started to drop from his mane. The commando eyed him with equal irritation showing on his facial expression. The couple was not but a few feet from the advancing Nod platoon.

“Are you serious?” the commando replied in his gruff voice, bringing his metal weapon to his face, looking into the green-lit scope that was placed on top of it.

The stock was seated snug in his shoulder. The commando then cocked his head downward in order to look through the scope that was fitted on top of his weapon.

The blue stallion was being nuzzled on the cheek by his companion, a green mare, who was rubbing her cheek against his. Her body language suggested that she was in a moment of bliss. With her eyes closed in elation, she spoke:

“Oh honey, don’t be so hard on them. I mean, they look soo cute in their little costumes!” she chuckled, wearing a wide smile on her face.

The commando was flabbergasted at her comment. His mouth went agape as his lit cigar dropped out of his mouth and hit the ground below him. What fazed him was the fact that he and his comrades were a heavily armed and dangerous pony platoon bent on destruction…and they get called cute by a dim-witted civilian.

The troops behind the commando in the halted formation peered at each other with bewildered glances.

“Cute?” a pegasus soldier asked in confusion, raising an eyebrow.

“Do I look cute to you?” he asked one of his comrades.

“Dude, that’s something you just DON’T ask another stallion,” his creeped-out teammate answered, while slowly shifting away from him with a suspicious glare.

“The HAY? Do you even know who you’re dealing with here?!” the commando started, growing exceedingly irritated at the green mare’s comment.

He readjusted himself back to his weapon.

“Now I’m glad I got this mission!” the elite growled as he took aim.

“Mission? What are you do-”

PHEW!

The muffled report of the weapon sounded, cutting off the blue stallion’s reply as an invisible projectile punctured his forehead and penetrated his brain. Red liquid from his head splashed on his lover’s mane as his lifeless body dropped to the ground.

The mare shrieked and backed away from her partner’s body in shock as she watched the blood poured out from the hole in his forehead. Her eyes grew wide and tears started cascading from her eyes. Her body shook with convulsions as the stupefied mare gazed at her now-deceased lover.

Her breaths shortened and increased in frequency, making her sound like she was hyperventilating. She then turned to face the commando once again and noticed the unsympathetic face that the elite soldier wore.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?! YOU MONSTER!” she cried in both terror and sorrow. She then sat down on her hindquarters and began to sob, mourning her departed companion, wet hooves covering her eyes.

“The same thing I’m about to do to you,” he replied coldly, adjusting his target from the fallen stallion to her. She peered up in fear, tears still free-flowing from her eyes. Her eyes grew wider when she realized that she was looking down the barrel of the assailant’s weapon.

“Wait! Don’t! Pl-”

PHEW!

The suppressed sniper weapon recoiled in the commando’s arm as he cut off her plea with a well-placed bullet. The round pierced her throat and blood gushed out of her jugular as she dropped to the ground, gurgling and choking on her own life-force.

“NOOOOOOOO!”

The Nod troops heard a high-pitched, tomboyish voice scream in a mix of despair and rage. The commando turned to face this newcomer, but was then tackled from his right side by a blur of cyan. He grunted as they both simultaneously slammed into the ground. The surprised elite saw a rainbow streak past him almost immediately after.

“URRGG! A pegasus?! This one’s mine!” the commando thought, furious at the unexpected attacker. He tried to steady himself up on one hoof as the other scanned for his assault weapon.

It was only after he had recovered and gotten back up when he realized that his Raptor was knocked clean out of his grasp, and had skidded into grass in the direction the rainbow streak went. He cursed quietly as he watched a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane swiftly snatched up his Raptor in her mouth as she flew by it.

Rainbow Dash then picked up speed and started to ascend into the clouds above her. She had done it. She got the weapon away from that pony. But now what? The others had weapons too. What could she do about them?

“How about a taste of their own medicine?” she thought harshly, biting down on the gun in her teeth. All reason within her was diminishing fast. Emotions had taken over. Her heart was hardened into temporary cruelty because of what she just saw.

Rainbow had been following the NOD platoon for a few miles now. She saw from behind a tree, the columns of ponies approach the couple in the dirt road. Dash thought it was a good idea just to sit back and study what these mysterious ponies would do.

…Then she saw the blue stallion drop.

She watched that distressed mare wail in sorrow for her departed lover...

And also the commando’s heartlessness as he repeated his act of evil on her shortly thereafter...

Rainbow Dash’s heart was now a torrent of conflicting emotions. The sadness from the tragedy of those poor innocent ponies getting gunned down filled her heart with a wrenching, tear-jerking ink that filled her heart, causing her to choke on her tears as she viewed the atrocity.

The shock and confusion that came with all this was befuddling her ability to understand, and her judgment. It left her profound to no end why a pony would purposefully carry out an act that involved the harm of another with no remorse whatsoever. This caused that ink to bubble as if it was being boiled.

What was going on?

Why is all of this happening?

How is all of this going so fast?

Will it stop?

“Please make it stop!” Rainbow thought with desperation as she gagging out more tears, her chest tightening up. Her chest felt like it had been turned into a towel, and somepony was wringing it out by twisting it over and over again, then lighting it on fire. The burning sensation in her chest merely added to the emotional tornado there.

She still felt all this and more as she continued to fly high into the clouds, preparing to dive right back into the earth to wreak her vengeance…

This was her last emotion. The one that let the ink in her heart spill over and escape. This was her release. How she would burst the dam in her heart that was holding all of these horrible feelings there.

Dash would vent by making these ponies pay. Hate, anger and rage blinded her still tearful eyes. One would not be able to tell the difference of whether her eyes were red because of her crying or loathing. Maybe both. She used these emotions to bury the depressive state that the older ones put her into. She also used those old ones to fuel her retaliation.

Her decision made with cloudy judgment, Dash gained altitude until the Nod platoon was a mere dot on the ground. Rainbow then took off at an unimaginable speed, soaring right back towards the column at an angle. She dived and straightened herself out when she had reached ground level, zooming towards the Nod force on their left flank.

She adjusted the Raptor to one of her front hooves. The black metal felt cold to her. She had no idea on how to operate the device so she started to mimic the actions that she had seen the commando perform earlier. She rested the stock of the weapon in her shoulder and peered into the green-colored scope, having no idea what its purpose was.

She took a deep breath as the column was now getting a little closer, but still far-off as she flew closer to their left flank. She felt the red button lightly touching her hoof inside the grip. Rainbow figured that it was the button that activated the weapon. She continued to peer down the scope as she allowed her hoof to apply slight pressure to the button, but not enough to set it off.

Closer…closer…closer…

The commando finally spotted her coming up on their left after he and his underlings searched in the sky for the pegasus that robbed him of his assault weapon.

He stared at the incoming flying pony and then back at his troops. They were just standing there, stupidly watching the rainbow pegasus approach them.

“WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS WAITING FOR?! AN INVITATION!? OPEN FIRE NOW!” he barked at his platoon as they seemed to get shocked awake by the order.

They then began to take aim and fire their assault rifles at the rainbow streak that was seemingly getting closer. The chain guns on top of the buggies erupted in long bursts of machine-gun fire and the rocket squad behind them aimed their metal tubes as they began to release a volley of unguided rockets towards the flying cyan pony.

The rockets whizzed by the rainbow pony as she drew closer to them. Dash decided that her proximity was good enough and squeezed the red button inside the grip as hard as she could. The rockets could be heard detonating behind her as she dodged them, making balls of orange fire and smoke in the sky.

PHEW!

A cloud of dirt shot up a few feet short of the column’s left flank. The commando scoffed at this.

“She’s almost as terrible a shot as my boys!” he thought, mentally chuckling.

CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHING!

CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHING!

CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHING!

The buggies’ chain guns were audibly heard as the gunners rammed both of their front hooves down on the two big cyan buttons on the chain gun, their teeth biting down on the stabilization bar. They were firing in long bursts, tracing rounds past the incoming attacker.

The infantry ponies were also opening fire, the popping of their Alicorn Killers adding to the audio around them. The rocket troopers appeared to be reloading rockets by shoving a fresh charge down their tubes at this moment.

Still, Rainbow Dash kept coming. She was a lot closer now. Maybe a couple hundred feet out. She readjusted the weapon in her grasp. After the first shot, the recoil surprised her, causing her body to jolt a little bit and she swore that the weapon in her hoof was shaking now. Her shoulder stung a little bit but it was nothing that ‘The Dash’ couldn’t handle.

Continuing to be blinded by hate, she looked through the scope once again. She decided just to point into the platoon’s center of mass, of which she was bound to hit something. She took a deep breath and on her exhale, she squeezed the button once again, and immediately felt another vibration in her hoof, running all way up her shoulder.

PHEW!

“AHHHHH!” a young soldier in the middle of the formation yelped in surprise as his chest exploded in a cloud of red mist. He dropped immediately, letting his AK clatter to the ground. He stirred for a split second then went silent and still. His comrades stared at his carcass with wide, frightened eyes.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes copied theirs as she saw what she had just done. She had just taken the life of another pony for the first time. All of a sudden, she couldn’t help but fear herself for a split second.

This was how easy it was to kill a pony.

To press a button.

Dash’s stomach started to churn as the concept penetrated her brain. But as quickly as the concept entered her mind, she pushed it back out immediately, before it could consume her.

“Not now!” The cyan daredevil thought as she forced herself to focus on the task at hoof.

Rainbow didn’t know who these guys were exactly but she knew that they were bad and that it was up to her to keep them from doing whatever it was they came to Ponyville for. And that’s all she needed to know.

She banked right to avoid a head-on collision with the column, buggy and Alicorn Killer rounds tracing her path behind her. As she veered away and took to the skies once more, the commando’s watch started to beep. He looked at the green light emanating from it and pulled a headset out of his utility belt. He placed it on his head and moved the attached microphone over his mouth and the speakers over his ears.

He appeared to be listening intently to the headset, watching his troops prove that they were terrible shots as they continued to fire upon and miss that annoying rainbow pegasus that flew full-circle and was coming at their left flank again. He heard what was over the headset and nodded promptly.

“No problem!” he replied, yelling into the mic with enthusiasm. He removed his headset with both hooves and turned to his underlings.

“Hey! Word just came in from command! They want all minigunner squads and buggies 1 and 2 to advance toward the village! Me, buggy 3, and 4th. Squad will stay behind and handle the pegasus! Ya got that?! Move!” he barked his orders with purpose as the rest of the platoon obeyed.

The minigunner squads moved around the commando and continued on down the dirt road to Ponyville with 2 of the 3 buggies in tow. The commando sighed and facehoofed when he heard what two of his minigunners said as they bypassed him.

“Hey, why do they call us minigunners?” a mare Noddie asked her squad member. The other looked back at her with wonder.

“Oh, uh…I don’t know,” he answered stupidly.

“Well it’s just weird that they call us that, because we don’t even use miniguns!” she said, putting emphasis on ‘minigun’. She showed her partner the Alicorn Killer-47 she was wielding.

“I mean, ya see? Clearly an AK! Not a minigun!” she stammered on, getting worked up. The latter just gave her a bewildered look.

“Just…don’t question it. Let’s go,” the male teammate urged, finishing the untimely debate.

The commando shook his head at them as they passed by.

“How in the name Kane did I get stuck with a bunch of dipshits?”

His thought process was interrupted as another Phew from his Raptor was audible, followed by the death scream of one of his rocket troopers. He turned back into the direction of the combat, he was expecting to see the attacking pegasus to turn tail and fly away again. However this time, he couldn’t believe his eyes!

That insane nuisance charged the formation head-on after she shot the rocket trooper! He stare in disbelief as Rainbow, swooped in right between buggy 3 and the rocket troopers behind it. Next came a disaster on the Nod commando’s part.

When Rainbow Dash zoomed in between the buggy and the rocket troopers, she was drawing fire from both of them. The buggy’s chain gunner missed his intended target and accidentally committed friendly fire and completely wiped out the three remaining members of the rocket squad. Of course, right before the rocket troopers went down, one of the rockets went off.

Apparently, this poor rocket trooper was already in the process of firing off his tube right before he got shot by his comrade. Naturally, Rainbow Dash was too fast for this rocket and she was already past their position by the time the rocket was live. So the rocket had nothing better to do than to slam into the weak-armored scout vehicle it was on a collision course with.

The scout buggy exploded into a deadly fireball when the rocket made contact with the metal bars that made up the vehicle’s frame, killing all of the occupants.

The commando looked at the devastation that was produced in under about three seconds. The buggy, or what was left of it, was charred and burning in the middle of the road, its parts skewered all over the place. All four members of his rocket squad were down, including the minigunner that Rainbow shot in her first attack run.

Rainbow Dash looked behind her and saw what occurred. Her mouth went agape in mid-flight as she soared into a nearby group of clouds.

“Did I do that?” she pondered, scaring herself a bit.

What was she capable of?

Dash once again tossed those distracting thoughts out of her head as pulled a U-y, and angled herself for her final strafing run.

Dash was hugging the Raptor to her chest with both hooves as she dived back towards the commando. Thankfully, the weapon was incredibly light, though powerful. It would be obvious that it was a sniper weapon, however, it had an eerie resemblance to an Mamby Pamby-5 submachinegun. That’s what it was. The Raptor was basically an MP5 on crack.

“C’mon! It’s just you and me baby! Get some!” the Nod commando challenged as he yanked off one of the spheres that were attached to his utility belt/ overalls. He pulled out the pin ontop of the sphere with his teeth, and let the hoof-thrown explosive cook in his hoof.

Rainbow Dash was bolting at the Noddie at full speed. She just needed to get close enough for a clear shot. The weapon she was carrying could be efficient from a half-mile away with the proper user. However, in this case, Rainbow was an untrained, never-held-a-gun-before civilian pony who didn’t know exactly what she was doing, so she had no choice but to get close.

The commando eyed his target like a griffin. He watched the light blue pony, waiting for her to get in throwing range. After letting the fragmentation explosive cook for a couple seconds in his hoof, he recognized how close his assailant was getting, so he decided it was now or never.

The beret-wearing pony heaved the portable bomb into the sky, directly in Dash’s flight path. The cyan pegasus saw this, and barrel-rolled to her right, hugging the Raptor close to her chest as she did so.

“NNNAAAHHH!” was the war cry she let out as she rolled.

The commando quietly gasped at the sight of Rainbow evading the incoming grenade with such precision, and the grace of an ace fighter pilot. Her speed helped too. After all, speed was her domain and what had been keeping her alive thus far.

When she leveled herself out after the barrel-roll, she was in perfect position. Only twenty feet stood between the commando and instant death. Dash coolly took aim, which was basically just pointing in the general direction for her. She rested her cheekbone on top of the Raptor and looked through the scope.

She assumed that where the four lines touched in the middle was where the bullets were supposed to go, so she lined that mark up with the commando’s center of mass, which was about the chest area. Even though Rainbow Dash was taking her sweet time to execute this procedure, the commando was too busy readying another grenade to notice.

Seeing her opportunity, she tapped the red grip button three times in quick succession.

PHEW!

PHEW!

PHEW!

Two direct hits.

The first round slammed into the commando gut, making him grunt momentarily. The follow-up round went cleanly through his temple and into his brain shutting him down instantaneously.

Due to the kick of the weapon in an inexperienced pegasus’s grasp, the rounds after the first flew high above their aimed targets. Thus was the reason why the third bullet missed high, spewing up a fountain of grass a  few yards behind the late commando, after zinging over his head.

The commando was dead before he hit the ground. After his lifeless corpse slumped to the dirt road below him, Rainbow immediately heard small arms fire and the screaming of Ponyvillians in the distance. Rainbow turned to the direction of Ponyville and bared her teeth, complimenting a face of pure rage painted on her face.

“There is NO WAY that I’m gonna let these jerks get away with this! It’s Rainbow Dash to the rescue!” she shouted in confidence, blinded and consumed with adrenaline. She took off towards Ponyville, leaving a bright, colorful, rainbow-streak in her wake.

The pony goddess sighed as she refreshed herself with a deep breath. She had a meeting with Lord Cozmar today. She was standing at the end of the Royal Hall with a Royal Guard flanking her on either side. Today’s meeting was going to be important.

Her sun was shining; the setting was peaceful yet elegant, and today just seemed to be a perfect day. The mood around the castle was jubilant and positive. This was how things were supposed to be. How every day should be. She smiled brightly as she took in the sentimental feelings of the moment.

Celestia had watched the white meteors fall from the sky last night, and had received reports of them crashing throughout the countryside. This was strange. Usually when an anomaly like this happened, she was able to identify it thanks to years of experience on this world.

However this time was different. She had no explanation whatsoever. No magical entity that she knew of could’ve done this. Even with her knowledge of science, she couldn’t explain why multiple meteors where hitting the planet simultaneously.

In her entire immortal life, she had never seen anything like this. It baffled her. Maybe it was something before her time? After all, Celestia and Luna didn’t create this world. Maybe an older magic or an older god might be able to explain this.

But then again, other than Discord, who was still trapped in his stone prison, she didn’t know of any other gods. She continued to ponder the possibilities of last night’s event with no avail. She then mentally chuckled at herself.

“He he, this was why I called this meeting,” the princess thought with a playful smile, snapping herself back into focus.

The giant double doors that were the entrance to the Royal Hall opened with a resounding rumble. The two Royal Guards, one flanking each door, snapped to attention and remained immobile.

Then a dark-colored unicorn pony lord entered the Hall through the door. Multiple other guards that were also standing to the side of the Hall, one across from the other, also snapped to attention.

He was donning a fancy white suit, complimenting his charcoal-grey coat. Celestia had always known he was handsome. His sable mane and his striking green eyes always found a way under the alicorn’s coat, making Celestia refuse the urge to shudder when exposed to his charm.

He was probably the most charming unicorn royal in Equestria, or rather in Luna’s opinion, as Celestia remembered her sister whispering that to her at the last royal gathering a few months ago.

Honestly, she didn’t blame her sister; it was very easy to like a handsome charmer like Cozmar. He was also very resourceful. The mare-stunner known as Lord Cozmar, was the head of the Equestrian Department of Science. If anypony knew what was going on regarding the meteors, it would be Cozmar.

He approached her and bowed deeply and elegantly, as custom dictated when seeing a Royal pony sister. She smiled at her subject and lifted her head to indicate that he may rise.

“Your Highness, you requested to speak with me I presume?” The handsome stallion inquired, a cocky smile on his face as he rose. Celestia was taken aback by this. Typical Cozmar.

“Yes, Lord Cozmar, I have. The reason of which is that I need to know everything you do about the meteor shower last night. Can you please do that for me?” Celestia asked with a smile. Cozmar beamed back at her as he cleared his throat to answer.

“Meteor shower, your Highness? Whatever do you mean?” He replied, putting a hoof to his chin. The princess looked at him with impatience.

“Lord Cozmar, excuse me for my rudeness but I’m going to need you to stop playing around and tell me what is going on,” the Princess managed to say without revealing her irritation and maintain her politeness.

“But of course. You might need to know of the coming of our salvation,” Cozmar answered deviously, his green eyes starting the pierce into the Princess’.

“Wait? What? Salvation…?”

Celestia reared back in utter confusion.

“Salvation? What are you going on about?” the pony goddess gasped slightly as she pressed him on the subject, bewildered and curious of Cozmar’s statement.

“Oh…you were not aware of the arrival of Tiberium? But of course you don’t hold the power and divinity that our Messiah holds, so how could you possibly have known?” Cozmar insulted, his demeanor shifting from the usual cocky and playful Cozmar, into a sinister and evil one.

“Tiberium? Messiah? What in Equestria are you ranting about, Cozmar? Why are you mocking me? I want to know RIGHT NOW, what is going on! Elaborate, Cozmar!” A befuddled and angered princess responded, stomping a front hoof.

She was in total confusion. Celestia hated not being in the know. None of what Cozmar was saying made sense. The subject of which he spoke of was a foreign language to her. Hopefully, she would get this cleared up soon and finally get some answers.

“I’m sorry princess but I’m afraid it won’t matter whether I tell you or not,” he replied, with a devilish grin.

“And why not?!”

“Cause you won’t live long enough,” Cozmar stated simply as he grabbed his suit with both forehooves and ripped it out from the center.

Celestia looked at what was under his suit and it revealed a multitude of wires and straps. Also present were six blocks with brown bag covers marked with a single letter and number, three blocks on top of each ribcage. The contraption that sprung the guard ponies into action was strapped to his chest.

The marker that was a single letter and number that was stamped on each brown-bag covered block in a large, black font was…

C4

“I’ve waited sixteen years to do my part! The time for transformation and revolution is now!” Cozmar snarled with passion.

He sneered at Celestia with the evil grin of a passionate and manipulated scientist, convinced that turning into a suicide bomber was his destiny. He laughed manically and a look of insanity was plastered on his face.

The next five seconds were the longest in Princess Celestia’s entire life. She watched in shock as her Royal Guards yelped in surprise at the mechanism strapped to the guest, who was a mere fifteen feet from her.

The guards attempted to rush the terrorist with spears poised, in hopes of preventing the deranged lord from detonating the device. The Princess was frozen in place and unable to move, her eyes filled with fear and uncertainty.

She watched as Lord Cozmar pulled out a detonator with one hoof and used his other to flip off the button’s cap. Next, he said something that she would not understand until much later.

“Kane is the Messiah!!” he screamed in euphoria with a sadistic smile as his eyes widened at Celestia and he slammed his free hoof into the button, triggering the explosion.

All of the guards in the room failed in their charge. As a result, their close proximity to Cozmar caused them to be obliterated immediately. The Princess was knocked backwards into the wall behind her due to the force of the blast. The beautiful windows that gave a luminous light to the Royal Hall were shattered and blasted out of their seams.

Shrapnel was sprayed everywhere, some bits penetrating Celestia’s coat. The blood and body parts of her decimated guards, and fragments from the suicide bomber’s device littered and sprayed all over the black and charred carpet.

Cozmar’s form was nowhere to be found, incinerated by the blast. A pillar near the detonation detached from the ceiling and smashed into the floor of the palace a mere few yards away from the epicenter, its marble essence crumbling.

Pain coursed through the sun princess’ body, portions of her coat were burned black and other portions were stained with her own blood. The shards of shrapnel that penetrated her coat stung her as she tried to move.

How she was alive, she did not know. Nor was she in a position to wonder that as she was delusional at this point. Her ears were ringing and throbbing profusely and she was dizzy and disoriented.

She opened her eyes with difficulty. Destruction was what she saw. Banners that hung in the ceiling of the palace near the explosion were ripped and blackened. Her stomach churned in disgust as she viewed the charred severed limbs of her guards littering the floor, along with other debris.

Then Celestia realized that the power of the explosion had slammed her into the wall behind her, twenty feet from where she was standing before. Her back ached in pain from its contact with the wall to confirm that. She was lying down, barely conscious. Her horn was stained black and her eyes were starting to droop shut.

She struggled to keep them open, blinking and fluttering her eyelids in a struggle to maintain consciousness.

She was bleeding from the lip, as well as other spots on her body were she took shrapnel. She groaned in pain…she hadn’t felt pain in a very long time. Such was the way of a god or goddess. They don’t hurt very often.

Wait?

Was that how she survived?

The concussion from the blast alone should have killed her. She was bleeding profusely from her shrapnel wounds so she should also have bleed out by now. Is that why she had survived when the others didn’t?

Because she was a god?

Her eyes searched the hall for any pony that may have been lingering but there was none. Just her. Alone…

The sole survivor.

Cozmar and twelve of Celestia’s personal guards were reduced to ashes and charred bits in the matter of a couple seconds. Some of her guards were not burned to a crisp and were just disemboweled by the explosion, a mess of blood and severed limbs.

That’s when she became cognizant of the fact that the blood that was splattered all over her was not only hers, but also the blood of her decimated guards. The feeling of the sticky hot red stuff all over her caused her to gag convulsively. Her abdomen threatened to make her hurl her lunch.

When she attempted to move, she heard a resonating CRACK emanate from her side, making her yelp and cry out in agony. She realized then that she might have a couple of cracked or fractured ribs.

When tried to stand up starting with her right foreleg, a sickened and gut-wrenching SNAP was audible when she put weight on it. She wailed as the pain was unfathomable and she dropped almost immediately back to the floor. Her right foreleg was broken.

Then, from a small door on the left of her, about halfway down the lengthy, two hundred-yard hall, she heard something. She watched in curiosity and even though she was losing consciousness and her eyes were threatening to close again, she could still see what looked like a pair of black combat boots buck open the small wooden door.

Then a six-pony squad of troopers wearing tan camouflage, Kevlar helmets, and brandishing M-16’s, rushed through the door, and filed into the hall. They moved towards the princess in a tactical prose, and when only a few yards away, they stopped.

They formed a protective circle around her, scanning for threats. They were spaced a few feet apart from each other and now facing away from Celestia.

“CLEAR!”

“CLEAR!”

“CLEAR!”

“Alright! Area secured!” The white unicorn with a blue mane, who appeared to be the squad leader shouted, his horn sticking out through a hole in his helmet in the forehead area.

It was none other than Shining Armor.

Celestia was delusional, but still able to somewhat keep some of her bearings on what was going on. She noticed the high-tech equipment that the members of her Royal Guard had in their possession. She smiled weakly at her Captain of the Guard.

“Hmmm…so Shining Armor found our secret cache of the high-tech equipment. The very equipment we used sixteen years ago in that covert war against the Soviets.  I commend him, only Luna and I knew about the cache after I told her about it, and all those who served then are long since retired. Wait…Luna must have shown him where we kept all of it. I hope they find the advanced military training manuals in there as well. Without it, they won’t know how to use any of the technology. Also the blueprints. Blueprints of tanks, Humvees, fighter jets, steel naval vessels, missiles, grenades, rockets, bombs…and…and…a-” the princess was forced to stop and grimace in withering pain as a shockwave of pain from her broken foreleg distracted her. It shot all the way up to her shoulder and caused her foreleg to twitch and spasm momentarily.

The squad leader lowered his assault rifle as he faced the princess. His green-lit, circular eyepiece that was attached to his helmet and covering his right eye was what her used to scan Celestia. It looked like the lens of a sniper’s scope, two intersecting lines meeting where the trooper’s eye was. It formed a simple cross.

The Captain tapped the top border of it with a hoof and a green light scanned over her body. It disappeared as quickly as it came as it completed its cycle.

Along with the eyepiece, he also had a mic over his mouth, connected to the headphones he was wearing. The headset was invisible as it was under his helmet. He stuck a hoof to his right earhole on the helmet and relayed his message.

“The scan shows her Majesty is still alive, and I can also see that myself! She’s stirring and won’t stop staring at me! GET THAT MEDICAL TEAM IN HERE NOW!” He screamed into his mic.

He was answered by the wooded door bursting open once more, revealed multiple nurses and combat medics rushing towards the princess. The nurses were dressed in their usual attire. A white dress and a white hat with a red cross symbol on it.

The combat medics were the same except they were wearing tan camo, and a white Kevlar helmet with a red cross. Both types of medical ponies were each carrying large white, briefcases marked with the red cross and first aid kits in their mouths as they galloped towards Celestia’s position.

The medics caught up her and her slid to a stop and began to work on her immediately. They opened the briefcases and fist-aid kits and pulled out a multitude of bandages, tourniquets, gauzes, defibrillators, and various other medical supplies and began their work. As they started to treat her for shock, a dark-blue alicorn shoved her way through the medical personnel, making her way to Celestia.

“SISTER! SISTER! SISTER!” Princess Luna cried with heavy concern and tears in her eyes, making her way to Celestia.

When she did, she exerted a sound from her mouth that sounded like a cross between a gasp and a yelp when she viewed her sister’s condition. She saw her sister bloodied and battered. The horror unforeseen in her eyes. She then began to cry and wail in fear and anguish.

When Shining saw this, he frowned deeply and solemnly. A wave of emotion struck the room. He motioned with a hoof to the rest of the guard squad to move out.

They moved towards the double front-doors at the end of the Royal Hall and Shining used his magic to open it. His troops didn’t need to see that. It was best to get them away from there and also he needed to make sure the rest of the castle was secure.

He exited the building with one goal…to make up for failing the Princess. Guarding her was his duty, and he failed miserably. First, the changeling queen…now this. Security measures were going to change around here forever. He promised himself that as he slipped past the door, the rest of his Royal Guard squad in tow.

He will do his job…and not even a terrorist can stop that.

He needed a plan. A contingency.

“Okay, you’re shaking buddy…calm down. You’re THE Captain of the Royal Guard remember? Royal Guards don’t get flustered. Show some discipline! The Equestrian Royal Guards are the best in the world and I’m their leader, so get it together!” he was urging to calm himself, quelling the fear and confusion within him.

He replaced it with determination. He wouldn’t quit. He couldn’t. Everypony depended on him for protection. He would get his act together and get his command to be proactive rather than reactive.

He would do it for Celestia. He would do it for everypony. For Cadance. For Equestria!

“Okay, all I have to do is round up the other guards and reequip them with some more advanced firepower that is in that really huge cave below the castle. I’ll train them later. Also, I gonna need my guards to sweep the entire castle for possible threats. No! All of Canterlot. I’ll reinstate that force field I made for my wedding and put it over Canterlot. But this time, I’ll be sure to check for infiltration. Lastly, I gotta find out whether this was a random act of violence or an act of war. Okay, I gotta do this!” he was cheerleading himself as he formed his contingency plan.

It sounded promising.

Hopefully he wasn’t too late.

All the while Luna was in shambles. Something like this had never happened.

Sure, Celestia was defeated by the changeling queen during Shining Armor’s nearly-botched wedding a while ago, but this was much different. This was a premeditated assassination attempt.

“SISTER! PLE-ASE B-BE OKAY! PL-EASE B-BE OK-AY!” Luna lamented as she sobbed for her stricken sister.

The tears freely flowing from her face, her miserable sobbing, and her disrupted vocals as she choked on her tears…all of it was too much for the medical teams. They couldn’t help but to look up and at Luna with sympathetic and forlorn expressions on their faces.

They returned to their task at hoof as Luna moved closer to her sister. She sat down on her rump and stared at her sister trying her best to hold back even more tears. She then leaned over and hugged her beloved sister tightly, blood now sticking to Luna’s body as well.

But she didn’t care. Luna’s mental restraint was broken when she started to sob heavily, her face dug into the sun princess’s shoulder. Celestia was weak and losing consciousness fast, but still had enough strength to return her sister’s hug with her good foreleg.

“Don’t cry…it’ll be okay…I’ll be okay…don’t cry little sister…” Celestia comforted her sister, her voice and her following smile very weak. She began to stroke Luna mane to console her.

“I’m sorry to break this up your Highness, but we need to work on her immediately. I apologize greatly, but she needs medical attention,” a civilian nurse urged politely as she took her first-aid kit and plopped it next to Celestia.

Princess Luna released her hug and turned to nod at the nurse in affirmation and backed up from the still-prone Celestia. She stared into the sun princess’ eyes with tears rolling down her face and smiled weakly.

“I love you big sister…” Luna said softly and quietly, giving Celestia a sad but loving smile.

Celestia looked back contempt, feeling the warmth of her sister’s love enveloping her. However, sometime else was also enveloping her…unconsciousness.

Celestia’s eyes drooped shut as the sun princess slipped out of coherency. Before she did she said:

“I love you too Lu-” and then the blackness took her and she knew no more.

Afterthought

Sorry guys….again I wanted to put more into this but I didn’t want it to drag. I PINKIE PROMISE that in Chap 4 there will be a conclusion to the assault on Ponyville and maybe we’ll see some Tiberium finally eh? :D

Anyways, the Season 2 finale ruined the OC I was gonna make. Yep, I was gonna make Twilight’s twin brother…Collin Sparkle. Never mind though. I’d have to say that I’m creeped out by Shining Armor since he was so much like my Collin.

I mean, white unicorn with a blue mane and an officer in the Equestrian military? (Well actually Collin was still going to be graduating from a military academy at this time…

Equest Point= West Point hehe) :)

But still…the similarities between the two creeped me out to no end. (shudders) 0_0`

So this chapter pretty much plugged the gaping hole in chapter 2 somewhat with the whole Ponyville thing and also an explanation of why Twi never got her letter. That was the goal here…damn I wanted to put

SSSOOO much more into this chapter but it’ll have to wait.

Sorry, and also I still need some DevArt from my wonderfully art-skilled readers….No? ….Damn…

XD

Well thank you all and I hope you enjoyed this!

Comments are welcome!

See ya!

Mechanical Mare

Mechanical Mare

        “Dammit! That blue pegasus is back! Blast her out of the sky!”

“She has our commando’s Raptor! Look out!” A gray-clad unicorn warned.

“She’s too fast! I can’t hit jack with this thing!” A buggy gunner growled.

Rainbow was streaking across the sky at mach 2, dodging the retaliatory automatic fire from the Noddies below.  She stopped abruptly in midair and fired two shots.

PHEW!

“HHHAAA!” She heard the soldier cry and watched him as a cloud of red erupted from his throat and he face planted into the concrete ground below. She saw a tiny puddle of red spilling out from under him.

“Shoot her! Shoot her!” Another soldier cried out in desperation.

PHEW!

“UAAHH!” A mare soldier grunted as she was hit too, a red cloud spraying out of her gut.

“I can’t see her! I can’t see her!” A young stallion soldier panicked.

“Spray and pray! Spray and pray!” An older stallion soldier yelled.

         The cyan speed demon’s eyes widened as she heard this.

“UH OH!” she panicked as she started to dodge sporadic automatic fire once more. She soared off in random directions, hoping that the platoon would lose track of her.

        Bullets wildly struck the sides of buildings, causing the dangerous projectiles to ricochet. They smashed windows, shredded sales carts and vendor stands in the town square into mangled pieces of wood, and punched into the flesh of unlucky Ponyville citizens.

        The cries of dying ponies and sounds of bullets thudding into anything in their path caused the rainbow-maned pegasus to frown deeply. She forced her wings to bank left in the direction of the town square. Dash could feel the wind and the g-forces begin to push against her because she was turning at such a high velocity.

She completed her turn and leveled herself out, now facing in the direction of Ponyville. Some of her multi-colored bangs shielded her eyes, so she blew at them lightly to remove the strands that were obscuring her vision.

Now that she can see, Rainbow observed the situation from the sky. The Nod platoon below was firing their weapons blindly into the town and not really stopping to aim unless a doomed, Ponyville pony was singled out and shot.

Other ponies were starting to get the message and retreated into buildings where at least they’d receive some form of protection from the Nod onslaught. Some just dropped to the ground and threw their hooves over their heads, trying to wait out this living nightmare.

The feelings that fueled Rainbow Dash’s rage only received a solidification and justification from this site of indiscriminate killing.

This was wrong.

It had to be stopped.

But the only one with the power to do it right now was…her.

The intercoms in Ponyville’s town square came alive as a radio announcer’s voice filled it. The obnoxious and calm voice echoed throughout the entire town, even heard in conjunction with gunfire clearly enough for Dash to pick it up as she charged towards town square.

“Hello Equestria, this is Rave from station 94.2, and here is the new song by DJ artist Vinyl Scratch: Mechanical Mare…enjoy Equestria,” the radio host said coolly as a techno/industrial type song started playing over the loudspeakers.

        The rapid strumming of the bass began to play as Rainbow swooped directly over the Nod contingent from above. Right at the point where she was directly above the group in her strafing run, she squeezed the red fire button of her Raptor.

PHEW!

PHEW!

PHEW!

The sound was muffled by the sound suppressor that was attached to the end of the barrel when the Wonderbolt fangirl squeezed the trigger button three times in rapid succession. The rounds followed Rainbow’s flight path, traveling in a straight line with the other. This line of rounds pierced into a Nod infantry squad that was blasting away at Sugarcube Corner with a buggy joining in with them.

Thuds were heard as the sniper rounds punched through the armor of two Nod soldiers, spurting blood and dropping them immediately. The survivors, after catching a glimpse of Rainbow after her strafing run, began to aim at the rainbow streak in the sky once more.

“HA HA! This whole shooting thing is easy! Just point and push!” the cyan pony called out, prideful of herself for figuring out how to work a gun.

Though they were once again directing their fire on the ‘pegasus pony of death’ they still couldn’t seem to get a bead on her…or shoot straight for that matter. A mix of Rainbow Dash’s swift flying and dodging maneuvers and the terrible accuracy of the Nod platoon prevented them from taking out the cyan pony.

All the while, the music continued to play over the intercoms. It was weird beat and mixture of instruments and not formatted like Vinyl’s usual dubstep-like songs.

The speedster flew a full-circle around Ponyville, angling herself for another strafing run with chain gun rounds tracing behind her. As she aligned herself for another attack run on the Nod position, she heard a robotic, stallion-like voice emanate from the intercoms:

Imma Mechanical Mare…

“Mare? That’s weird. That sounds like a stallion’s voice,”the cyan pegasus wondered subconsciously as she lined herself up for a strike run on the Nod buggy that was still shooting up Sugarcube Corner, instead of attempting to knock her out of the sky like its comrades.

Imma Mechanical-

Imma Mechanical-

Imma Mechanical Mare

This music was weird…but good. That unicorn DJ failed to disappoint, as was expected of her. Dash started to let the rhythm of the music flow through her as she swooped in and let loose a barrage of bullets onto the buggy as soon as she was in range.

PHEW

PHEW

PHEW

PHEW

PHEW

The first two Raptor rounds penetrated the buggy gunner’s torso and throat simultaneously, making his body slip under the turret and into the backseat as he expired. The third round was a miss and ricocheted off of one of the metal bars on the buggy’s frame. The fourth and fifth bullets both hit the driver in the spine after piercing through the driver’s seat.

 “Real tough guy!” Dash yelled mockingly as she soared over the buggy.

The only response was the remaining buggy crew member hop from the passenger seat, and into the backseat. He then pushed his dead comrade’s body out of the away and shimmied himself into the turret. He then gritted his teeth as he bit down on the stabilization bar. He slammed his hooves onto the dual, cyan trigger buttons and reopened fire from the chain gun.

“Real tough guy? ... What did I say THAT for?” Rainbow thought subconsciously as she repeated her full-circle flight pattern to make another strafing run.

She weaved through the rest of the Nod formation, using her speed to fly in between individual Nod soldiers. She came within a few feet of a couple of them as she was zooming past them at an unimaginable speed, her flight path slicing through their ranks.

Imma Mechanical Mare…

Imma Mechanical-

Imma Mechanical-

Imma Mechanical Mare

After she passed the Nod position in the town square, she ascended into blue sky, gaining altitude rapidly. When she started blazing past clouds, she leaned back and unfurled her wings. Rainbow was now stalling in midair, her face to the sun and her back to the ground.

The cyan pegasus began to descend into a freefall high above the clouds. She closed her eyes, her emotions flooded with temporary serenity, and tranquility. She could feel the air blow past her rainbow colored hair, her bangs covering her eyes and following the sway of the wind.

Rainbow plummeted to the earth at a breakneck pace. When it looked like she was simply committing suicide, she flipped topside suddenly, straightening herself out. She swayed from side to side to avoid small arms fire as she locked in on two pegasi soldiers tossing Ponatov Cocktails through the windows of Sugarcube Corner.

She had to stop them first.

The cyan pegasus eyed her surroundings as she dove in for next strafing run. She noticed that some Nod troopers had stopped shooting and were now smashing Ponatov Cocktails through the windows of homes and other structures in proximity to the town square.

However, before she could complete her attack run, gunfire from the Nod buggy forced her to avert her course and she flew off into the sky again. Dash then found the roof of a two-story house and took cover there for the time being.

The soldiers had dropped a giant brown bag in the middle of their formation and it was from this bag where the cocktails originated from. They continued to snatch up bottles filled with flammable liquid with their teeth and one of their comrades would light the wick for them with a match before they tossed it into buildings. The wick was a rag soaked in alcohol and allowed the cocktail to ignite.

Now Sugarcube Corner, town hall, and other buildings were set ablaze. Small fires began to erupt within the buildings as smoke started to billow through the windows.

This was very bad.

The ponies that were taking shelter inside those very buildings were forcefully flushed out. The residents of these buildings were forced to escape with Nod automatic weapons waiting for them when they got outside.

The Nod platoon poured rounds into crowds of escaping ponies, sickening thuds heard as bullets pierced their coats. Blood splattered all over the streets and walls of buildings. This atrocity would continue if nopony did anything about it.

CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHING!

         “Die pegasus! DIE!” the lone buggy occupant cursed after he let go of the stabilization bar for a split second.

It was right before an explosion from behind him forced the trooper to face plant onto a metal bar near the turret. His now-dead body was smoking from behind as shrapnel was spread all over his back and the buggy’s frame.

Wait… is that a lollipop sticking out of his back?

“IT’S… PARTY TIME!” Pinkie Pie growled with an enraged expression on her face.

She was breathing heavily as brought her party cannon to bear, the barrel now facing down the second Nod buggy. The pink pony’s teeth were gritted and her eyes looked like a ballistic mother who just lost her child.

“You MEANIES want to shoot?! Well guess what?! I can do that too! I will avenge everypony and the cupcakes!” the deranged party pony explained, referencing and pointing with a hoof at Sugarcube Corner when she said ‘cupcakes’.

“YOU DON’T SHOOT AT MY CUPCAKES! YOU EAT THEM! THAT’S WHY I MAKE CUPCAKES!

 …WELL OKAY, I ALSO USE THEM AS MASTURBATION TOOLS BUT MRS. CAKE TOLD ME NOT TO TELL OTHER PONIES THAT OR THEY’LL THINK I’M A WEIRDO!

…OK, ENOUGH OF THIS! BYE NOW!” Pinkie concluded as she discharged the party cannon.

It spewed candy and pastries in a spreading shotgun fashion towards the last remaining Nod buggy. As the improvised projectile weapons approached the buggy, a poor minigunner exclaimed:

“WHAT THE F-” but was interrupted when an incoming onslaught of sugary sweets slapped into his body and the allied buggy next to him.

His bloodied form slumped to the ground as the buggy behind him exploded.

“Did-did he just get shot with peppermints?” a Nod mare soldier asked in confusion, arching her eyebrow at her dead comrade.

“I whipped out the HARD candy for this one!” the emotional distorted pink pony snarled as she pointed her party cannon at the poor Nod mare.

“No please- I surrender!” the Noddie cried for mercy with eyes as wide as saucers as she realized that the deadly pink cannon was pointed at her face.

“Please! Spare me! I-”

“JAWBREAKERS FOR YOU!!!!” Pinkie battlecried as the cannon fired pure jawbreakers.

The hard candy riddled the solider with holes as her blood splashed onto the wall behind her. Shooting somepony with jawbreakers was a cruel sentence by anypony’s standards.

Pinkie, with her forehooves gripping the back of the party cannon tightly, smiled sadistically as her eyes went disproportionate like Derpy’s. The sadness she kept suppressed inside of her caused the poofyness and bright pink curls in her hair to deflate. Her smile faded from her face as tears starting falling from her eyes.

That’s when she broke down and started sobbing uncontrollably, her face buried in the party cannon’s rear. This was too much for her, and even in her most aggressive mindset, she still couldn’t take it.

There was nothing but horror here.

The smell of smoke, burning buildings and burning ponies that couldn’t escape their homes in time, filled her nostrils. And that’s without the smell of blood and reeking of dead bodies.

Her hearing was enveloped in the sounds of: shattering windows, the screams of burning Ponyvillians, automatic gunfire, the cackle of flames as they melted and burned buildings.

Through her tear-filled eyes, she watched as three Nod soldiers tossed frag grenades into Sugarcube Corner. She watched other soldiers gun down fleeing ponies and attempting to destroy buildings with grenades and Ponatov Cocktails.

The horror and rapid pace of which the horror arrived was too much for the poor pink earth pony. The shock was now enveloping her as her emotional damaged heart was edging towards a panic attack. She continued to wail and cry, her face buried deep in the party cannon’s surface.

Unfortunately, her crying attracted the attention of three soldiers.

“Hey! Shoot her with the cannon! She’s dangerous!” a mare unicorn soldier called out.

The Noddie and two of her comrades, one flanking her on either side, approached Pinkie’s position with rifles poised. As the female took aim at the party pony’s form, three suppressed gunshots were heard as Pinkie looked up in time to see all three Nod soldiers’ bodies drop to the ground simultaneously.

“That one was left-hoofed!” Rainbow Dash taunted as she floated down towards her usually chipper and energetic friend.

The cyan pony landed next to her friend and saw that Pinkie had been crying. Rainbow frowned and was tempted to console her, but that had to wait. She touched Pinkie’s shoulder with a hoof in sympathy but then forced herself to eye her surroundings.

First, she had a town to save.

“And only my awesomeness can do it!”  Dash thought with a cocky smile as she scanned around for targets.

She spotted the three Nod soldiers that threw hand grenades into Sugarcube Corner about to repeat their ritual. They were all in a perfect line about to throw in the grenades with their teeth in flawless synchronization.

“Not on my watch!” Rainbow growled as she gritted her teeth when she took aim and hoof squeezed the trigger button.

PHEW

PHEW!

PHEW!

PHEW!

        The entire grenade team’s bodies dropped to the ground with a synchronized thud. Rainbow was lucky that the Raptor had a 40 round magazine or she’d be in trouble by now.

        As the speed-freak pegasus searched for a new target, she noticed that only four Nod soldiers remained. She had to admit, without Pinkie taking out those buggies for her, she would be in a bind still.

        Two Noddies were still chucking Ponatov Cocktails into the town hall building. Hopefully, the mayor was alright. The other two were firing their assault rifles at any fleeing ponies they saw. These two were standing on their backhooves, resting their AKs on their hips, letting off short bursts every time a Ponyville citizen crossed into their view.

        Rainbow rudely grabbed Pinkie and dragged her down inside a sitting position behind the cannon. She looked over her back and over the pink cannon that they were now using for cover, and spied the last Nod squad once again.

        The chromatic pegasus stared into Pinkie’s face intently, putting a hoof over her own snout, simulating a SHHH motion to her pink friend. The party pony recognized what Rainbow Dash wanted and just nodded obediently.

        After that, the gun-wielding pegasus picked herself up on all fours and drew the Raptor. The sniper weapon was now leaning over the party cannon. Rainbow tilted her head to adjust to the Raptor’s green-lit scope. She zeroed in on one of the cocktail throwing soldiers.

        These guys needed to go first.

PHEW!

He was shot in the chest immediately, dropping his lit Ponatov Cocktail in the process. The bottle shattered and exploded upon impact with the ground, incinerating the soldier’s nearby partner, who was too distracting throwing his own cocktails to notice until he burst into flames. The second victim sprinted frantically around the town square, letting out a horrendous death scream as his body was engulfed in flames.

        Rainbow Dash noticed that this incident distracted the other two soldiers. They were too distracted to notice the cyan pony take aim at one of them.

        “Keep ‘em coming!” she yelled as she fired the Raptor.

PHEW!

        As she fell, Dash locked in on the last soldier and fired before he had a chance to react.

PHEW!

        After the last one was shot, the soldier in flames fell face first onto the concrete ground, allowing himself to burn out.

        It was over.

        Rainbow peeked her head over the party cannon and relaxed her grip on the Raptor, letting it dangle from her forehoof. Ponies everywhere were screaming and crying for help. Many Ponyville residents were lying prone on the ground, hooves over their ears and crying desperately, not realizing that vile assault was over.

        Buildings burned, ponies wounded by gunfire, shrapnel or sustained burns were screaming in pain. The uninjured were screaming in horror, whether it was for the acts that the soldiers carried out, the loss of friends or loved ones, or both. Medical ponies were already on the scene, rushing to those that were wounded.

        Pegasi were flying in with buckets of water, attempting to put out the fires caused by the cocktails. Ponies started to realize the violence was over and began to rush out into the square to look for their friends and family.

        Some mourned over the bodies of their murdered family members and friends. It was truly a horrible sight. The devastation caused by thirty-two armed ponies was unimaginable. Actually, less than thirty-two, that number includes the ones Rainbow Dash killed on the dirt road on the outskirts of the town.

        Rainbow Dash…

        Without her, this whole fiasco could have gone much worse. Also, if it hadn’t been for Pinkie Pie jumping in and destroyed those two Nod buggies, Rainbow would have been either dead or at least unable to have ended this attack quickly.

        The pegasus was deep in thought as she stared at the concrete ground in front of her, her brain still trying to comprehend what just happened. Still lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice Twilight approach her. Rainbow saw her shadow on the ground and looked up at her friend.

        Twilight looked distraught.

        Her mane was destroyed; locks of her hair frizzled and splayed out in random directions. Her crimson eyeballs were still soaked with tears, as were her cheeks.

But she looked more angry than sad. Twilight was glaring at her armed friend, and gave an even dirtier look when she saw the weapon in Dash’s possession. Rainbow approached her and was prepared to hug Twilight to comfort her but instead, she received another response.

Instead of raising her hoof to hug Rainbow Dash or give her a hoofshake, she slapped her.

Hard.

This surprised the cyan pony as the strike almost knocked her over. When her head recovered from the blow, she placed her hoof over the red mark on her cheek and stared at Twilight in utter confusion.

“How could you?” Twilight almost whispered.

“Wha?” was Rainbow’s only response.

“How COULD you?” the purple unicorn said a little louder this time.

“What are you talking about? I just saved the village,” Rainbow replied, still baffled.

“HOW COULD YOU KILL PONIES?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Twilight cried out, almost in tears again.

“Hey! They did it first! Besides, how else were we going to stop them?!” Dash shot back with a vengeance.

“They were ponies too! And you KILLED them!”

“They were SOLDIERS! They would have killed us and Celestia knows how many ponies if I hadn’t done anything!”

“You’re a MURDERER!”

        This one shattered Rainbow Dash’s heart on the spot. She whined like a foal as she struggled to choke back tears. Her fury and rage were gone now, leaving a pegasus pony that had just taken others’ lives for the first time. Tears dripped down her cheeks and she allowed the Raptor clatter to the ground as she plopped down on her haunches.

Right there, she began to sob. It was quiet, but it was there. All those lives she took were weighting on her conscience.

And she wasn’t the only one.

Pinkie Pie huffing as she cried her puffy, reddened eyes out. The pink pony reached out without thinking and pulled Rainbow into a hug. They cried together on the ground. About the lives they took today and seeming to forget all the lives they saved.

Twilight instantly regretted what she said  as her face fell and she reached down to hug both of them.

“I’m sorry, I just- I-,” Twilight couldn’t finished as she started to wail loudly, a river of tears flowing down her cheeks.

A shocked Rarity with a hoof over her snout to stifle a gasp entered the scene behind Twilight. She was followed by a whimpering Derpy, a shaking and hyperventilating  Fluttershy, and a bemused and tear-fighting Applejack.

Ponyville will require time and hard-work to repair the physical damage. As for the emotional scars…

Who knows?

This village had just experienced the very FIRST skirmish in what is to become a long and bloody war for Equestria and the world.

 “Dammit!” cried the Nod commander as he ripped off his headset and threw it at the computer screen in frustration.

“I can’t believe a damn pegasus wiped out my ENTIRE assault team!” the commander mused, rocking back and forth in his chair.

        A white hoof gently perched itself on the shoulder. The Nod commander spun around with his wheeled chair and came face to face with Nod’s second-in-command.

Seth.

        The white earthpony in black garb and beret that were emblazoned with the scorpion tail insignia of Nod, was smiling at him. Even in this dark, windowless, command room, the commander could still make out the beard on Seth’s face. It confirmed that it was Seth.

        Only two Brotherhood ponies had beards.

        Seth and Kane.

        With the figure in front of him wearing Seth’s signature beret on his head, the commander seriously doubted this was Kane.

        “Is it done?” the silhouette of Seth asked.

        “Sir, we lost the entire assault team to some local militia and I was unable to completely destroy the village,” the Nod commander answered sheepishly, imagining the consequences for failure.

         “Was there not a Commando present in your assault force?” Seth inquired, making the commander feel really uncomfortable.

“…Yes sir…” the commander sighed in disappointment, and in embarrassment of having a commando to attack an undefended village and still be defeated.

“However, I think I still did enough damage to the village for a propaganda clip,” the commander added, looking to redeem himself.

        “Very well. After all, that was the whole point of this little operation,” Nod’s second-in-command replied with an airy tone of satisfaction.

        “Commander, dispatch a news team to the area immediately. Make sure they get there and record before those fires go out. The sight of burning houses will give their report a little more flair,” Seth ordered with a smile as the commander gave him a skeptical look.

        “Sir, won’t the Equestrians recognize that Brotherhood troops committed this act when they investigate it? That will give us a lot of bad publicity,” the commander questioned, earning him an irritated glare from Seth.

        “You doubt Kane’s strategy? Awfully foolish of you. May I ask why?” Seth replied in a casual tone.

        Despite the calmness in Seth’s voice, the commander was stricken by fear at the thought of him doubting the Messiah directly to Seth’s face. The possible consequences of his statement were now running through his mind. He also frowned as he viewed his computer monitor that read in big white letters:

        MISSION FAILED

        “Hmmm…?” Seth hummed, pushing for an answer.

        “Sir with all due respect, the Equestrians will find out that this was our doing. Especially when they notice the Nod uniforms and weapons at the scene. Please explain this to me sir, because this operation made no sense from the beginning,” the commander pleaded, preparing for possible reprimand.

        “The Equestrian populace knows little about our weaponry and even war in general. They will be easily manipulated,” Seth began, pacing around the room.

        “Our intelligence reports that after our agent attacked the Princess, Canterlot when in full military alert. They even broke out their Soviet-era weaponry, and instituted a magical force field around the capital. Now, here is where things start to make sense for you,” Seth stated, placing his hoof on the still-sitting commander’s shoulder once more.

        “The Equestrian population does not know the difference between Nod and Equestrian weaponry. With the Royal Guard and the Royal Army publicly mobilizing with weapons similar to the ones we used in our assault, tell me…

        How can they differentiate between the notion of Brotherhood forces attacking the village…

        Or Royal Guards attacking the village?” Seth questioned, blankly staring at the ‘MISSION FAILED’ screen.

        “Tell me, how is your average Equestrian, who is accustomed to peace and harmony, going to know the difference between an Alicorn Killer-47 and a Mare-16?” Seth smiled as he continued.

        “I bet most of them have never even HEARD of such weapons!”

        “All we have to do is get our news team to film the carnage, blame it on the Guards, and the ponies of Equestria will flock to our cause,” Seth laughed heartily.

        “But sir, eventually, they’ll find out it was us. What then?” the Nod commander asked with a worried tone.

        “It’ll be too late by then, Equestria would already be seized by Nod forces. In addition, the former Soviet state of Belka has already pledged themselves to our cause. The small zebra nation of Ustio was simple. All we had to do there was buy them out. Then with Equestria under our influence as well, the other nations will topple like dominoes,” Kane’s right hoof explained.

        “Even the Republic of Karalia and the former Soviet state of the Yuktobanian Republics will be too overwhelmed to help Equestria,” Seth lectured, spitting vilely at the name ‘Karalia’.

        They would be a problem.

        Especially since it’s the only pony nation that still actively uses Soviet war era weapons publicly and maintains close ties to Equestria’s throne. Even since the secret world war 16 years ago, the Equestrians have continued their strong alliance with Karalia and Yuktobania.

“No matter. The Ustians have always resented the Karalians for annexing Ustio’s Northlands, and Lake Dama 10 years ago. Those zebras will be used to harass Karalia’s southern border. Convincing the Ustians to expand their territory and prevent their homeland from dwindling any further will be a trot in the park,” Seth strategized.

        “Send the news crew immediately. We have a population to enlighten,” Kane’s right hoof finished with an arrogant smirk.

Glowing green crystals were sticking out of the ground.

        They were surrounding a meteorite’s impact crater 5 miles outside of Trottingham. Nearby trees where already being surrounded and enveloped by the strange green gems. Those trees’ natural structure appeared to be slightly distorted and mutations had already begun.

        A yellow unicorn was trotting down the back road at a leisurely pace. He was taking in the scenery and enjoying the crisp breeze that grazed his coat.

This was the prison escapee’s first chance to relax since he snuck out of Coltorado Springs State Penitentiary two months ago. He had crossed the distance of over 180 miles of Equestrian countryside, rested in Trottingham, and was now headed back to his home in Manehattan.

“Dumb police thought I ran to Canterlot! Those idiots! HA HA!” the unicorn exclaimed in jubilation.

The unicorn delinquent sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, and then exhaled. Nothing was ruining this day for him. He was going to relax if it killed him.

As he gazed at the border of a small forest on the side of the path he was walking, he looked over at a little bunch of trees on the side of the road.

Then he saw them.

Those gems.

Those glowing green gems.

So beautiful.

And so valuable too.

“SHINY,” the robber droned, his voice doing his best impersonation of Derpy’s voice.

The crook was in awe of the sight in front of him. How lucky of him to escape prison and find a fortune in the same week. He rubbed his eyes with his hooves to make certain that the Celestia sent gift in front of him wasn’t a mirage.

“I’m rich! Oh Celestia, how much is all this worth?!” he cried in excitement.

“I don’t even have to steal anymore!” the yellow unicorn squealed with joy.

He then approached the crystals until a he a mere few feet away from them. He found the nearest gem and zapped it with his magic.

“Just a levitation spell away from a massive fortune!” he thought excitingly as his magic began to shimmy the crystal out of the ground.

Suddenly, the crystal sent something back at the unicorn through the magic. The green beam mixed with his white one and his magical charge that he was sending at the crystal began to waver.

Somehow, the crystal was distorting his magic. Not only the magic he set at the green rock but also the magic inside of him.

His body started to burn.

The yellow criminal felt like he was a cup and somepony just filled him with hot oil. The burning sensation seared throughout his entire body. The grin on his face faltered and was demoted to a grimace. The strain was making him sweat profusely but he would not give in.

“No! Quit this close to riches? Never! I HAVE to have it! I need it!” the robber thought, steeled with determination.

He pushed harder with his magic again and again.

But each time he did, the burning sensation within him grew to astronomical levels.

His magic was wild now.

He was losing control of it.

The burning lit his coat on fire.

…Lit his coat on fire?

The unicorn magic had lost all sense of direction as it blasted off in random directions. The user’s horn was sparking all over the place, discharging spells unpredictably. The green beam now enveloped the yellow pony as the burning accelerated rapidly.

He burst into flames.

He flailed around in circles and screamed in extreme pain as his entire body from head to hoof was engulfed in flames. The magic ceased, and so did the green return beam.

As the yellow inmate fell to the ground and began toasting to a crisp, the day returned to normal.

The sun shined with elation as the birds chirped on like nothing happened. A squirrel jumped on top of the smoldering body of the unicorn when the fire died out. Butterflies lightly danced in the air above him, and the wind blew a calming gentle breeze through the trees near the path.

And there sat those glowing green crystals in its infancy. Ready to spread across the planet and throw the entire world into disarray. Here in its one of dozens of cradles dispatched around the world, Kane’s source of power had arrived.

Tiberium.

Here is a rough, two-part world map for you guys!

        This is the map of the world in this fic. If you have any quirks about it, let me know!

I don’t have Internet for my new dorm room and I am still in-processing here so sorry about the delay.

I hope you enjoyed this and I will continue on! :)

First Command

First Command

Check out my new one-shot! :D

Canterlot was in chaos. The indigenous aristocratic unicorn ponies were in a frenzy. Panic ensued throughout the entire Equestrian capital city.

The rumors had already started floating.

Rumors that the Changelings were attacking again.

That Princess Celestia was dead.

That a giant monster was stomping through the countryside, longing to crush the city. This along with countless other ridiculous notions were being thought up by mislead conspiracy theorists within the city.

Royal troops from the regular army and Royal Guards were being deployed into the streets while Shining Armor began to raise the magical barrier around the entire stretch of the mountainside capital.

The Captain of the Guard strained his eyes shut and gritted his teeth as he focused his magic on powering the purple forcefield. He grunted in fatigue as a white beam of magic expended from the tip of his horn, shooting straight up into the sky.

The beam stopped after a certain altitude and began draping a purple forcefield around Canterlot from top to bottom. It wasn’t long before the forcefield covered the entire perimeter of the city and dropped from the sky and finally reached the ground.

Once the task was complete, Shining Armor stopped abruptly, dropping his sweaty head as gasped in exhaustion, facing the ground. His breath was heavy as he fought to regain oxygen. He could hear soldiers nearby picking up assault rifles out of wooden supply boxes that were being dispersed around the city.

The troops sounded confused and very nervous. Shining couldn’t blame them. They had a right to be. No pony saw a national security threat on the horizon.

A young officer who was carrying his Mare-16 like a spear, pointing the end of the barrel to the sky, approached the Guard commander. The officer galloped up to Shining on three legs with one foreleg carrying the rifle, and halted in front of him promptly. The young, yellow earthpony slammed the butt of the rifle on the ground like one would do with a spear, and saluted the Captain with his free foreleg.

Shining Armor looked up at him from the ground and after a deep breath, and returned a lazy salute. The white unicorn Guard let out a deep breath as he cut his salute; slowly followed by the lower officer’s cutting his.

“What is it Lieutenant?” Shining asked, eyeing the buttery gold bars on each side of the officer’s collar.

“Sir, please excuse my bluntness but what are these? And how do you use them?” the low-ranking officer questioned, raising an eyebrow at the assault rifle.

“From what I read for a brief minute before the Princess was attacked was that the weapon you have is called an assault rifle. Its technical name is like…M-17 or M-16 or M-something teen. Frankly, I don’t know,” Captain Armor admitted, still taking huffs of breaths as he was still wiped from building the barrier.

The Lieutenant eyed him skeptically, cocking his head to the side and raising his eyebrow again.

“But how do you use ‘em?” he asked again.

“Oh, that’s easy! The manual said that all you have to do is point the barrel-part of the weapon at your selected target and squeeze down on that big blue button inside the grip. See?” Shining explained as he pointed at the Lieutenant’s rifle grip with his hoof.

“Then what happens next sir?” the quizzical regular army officer pressed, scratching the top of his mane with a hoof. He appeared to be still in confusion.

“Well Lieutenant, apparently it’s suppose to fire a projectile of some kind and harm your target. So it’s probably not a good idea to point the barrel at ponies you don’t intend to shoot. Just like spears, these aren’t toys,” Armor remarked in a warning tone.

“But sir, where did we even get these? And when did we start producing them?” The Lieutenant shot back.

Shining Armor scratched his head quizzically.

“This kid has WAY too many questions,” The white unicorn thought, trying to think of a decent answer.

“Even Princess Luna can’t answer that question Butter Bar,” Shining replied honestly.

The younger earth pony’s eyes grew wide.

“How did you know my name?”

“Wha…I just called you that because you’re a 2nd. Lieute—you know what? Forget it, I’m just an awesome commander, that’s why,” the guard captain with a small chuckle.

“Yes… sir?” the yellow earthpony acknowledged in confusion, nervously adjusting the rifle stock in his shoulder.

The army lieutenant saluted Shining Armor once more before leaving and returning to his unit. Shining Armor gave a playful smirk as he cut his return salute. Even in chaotic times like this, he still enjoyed messing with the lower ranking ponies.

He had his Royal Guards deployed around the city, searching for possible security threats. All of his units and the other army units under General Shepherd were patrolling the streets of Canterlot with their new M-16 rifles that none of them knew how to use.

The Captain of the Royal Guard shook his head. Why would Luna make him disperse these weapons to his troops that weren’t trained with or much less even heard of? It made no sense to him. Then one of the Lieutenant’s questions from earlier returned to his mind…

“Where DID we get theses rifles? When did we even start producing these?” he pondered as he started to head back to the castle at a brisk trot.

Did the Princesses know something he didn’t? After all, Princess Luna was showing him the weapons cache and it just happened to be at the same time as the assassination attempt. The moon princess claimed that it was just pure coincidence when he asked back in the caves, but it did provide one with an interesting speculation.

Back there, he threw the question out and just forgot everything else, and focused on using the new equipment to save the sun alicorn. What he didn’t know was that Celestia had actually ordered Luna to give her Guard Captain the tour the night before, just as a precaution when she saw those unexplained meteors the night before.

And why the hell were dangerous projectile weapons and blueprints for advanced war machines kept in a secret cave stockpile under the Canterlot castle, ready made?

All these questions racked his brain as he got past gate security and entered the Castle’s courtyard. The once beautiful and peaceful courtyard was now bustling with a mix of regular Army troops and Royal Guards scrambling to get to their posts. On occasion, he had to dodge a few squads that almost bumped into him. The pony teams were seemingly running in random directions.

Some were still wearing their original gold-plated Equestrian armor while others had changed into the tan camo uniforms and Kevlar helmets found alongside the rifles in the secret cave.

It was a disorganized madhouse.

As Shining advanced deeper into the courtyard, he noticed Princess Luna advising ponies that he could recognize as being political figures, along with military officers. He also observed that even though the ‘Princess of the Night’ wore an emotionless and regal mask on her face, she was still visibly shaken by what had occurred today.

But Shining understood that now the entire nation was looking to her for guidance and she had to remain visibly strong and professional, even if she was falling apart and heartbroken underneath. Now was not the time to let those feelings show. Being ‘The Captain of the Guard’, the blue-maned unicorn understood how important morale was to a cause or nation just as well as the princesses.

He approached Luna and her entourage, maintaining his commander-like prose, straightening his back and keeping the rest of his body rigid, the military discipline from his Guard training showing.  He saluted the princess but Luna held up a hoof to halt him.

“Enough with the formalities, has General Shepherd responded?” the night goddess asked robotically.

“He sent a distress letter actually. It appears that Fort Cadance in the Northern Highlands is under siege by an unknown militia of some kind. I’m not sure what’s going on up there, but it sounds like the general needs help,” Shining reported, referring to the letter he received from Shepherd a few minutes ago.

“Celly…why now? I-I can’t do this alone. I need you,” the dark alicorn whispered to herself, barely loud enough for the white unicorn to hear.

“Hmm…looks like the stress is getting to her. And also seeing Celestia banged up pretty badly probably isn’t helping either. Can’t say I blame her,” the guard captain thought grimly.

“How is she?”

“Wha? I…um…well the medical staff said that Celly would live…although, now she has multiple broken and fractured bones in her right foreleg and ribcage,” Luna responded, frowning at the ground in between the two, and it was looking as if the blue alicorn had the ‘thousand yard stare’.

“That is too bad. I’m sorry. I promise as Captain of the Royal Guard, an attack on the crown will never happen again. I failed you once already. Can you forgive me?” Shining replied, the guilt still fresh in his mind.

Luna lifted her face to look at him with empty, yet saddened eyes.

“No,”

“I understand, if you would like to discharge me then-”

The younger princess cut him off.

“You didn’t let me finish. I’m not going to forgive you because it wasn’t your fault,” she emphasized.

“No pony could have ever seen an attack like that coming,” Luna waved a hoof dismissively, signaling that this was the advisors’ cue to leave.

“It surprised us all…so please don’t burden yourself with thoughts of guilt,” she pleaded as the advisors and commanders scattered out of the courtyard and to their respective units.

“Are you sure you’re okay? I’m worried about you,” Shining Armor butted in, trying to change the subject.

The princess promptly ignored him.

“We need you here, to fight whatever this group is. I not sure if the entities attacking Fort Cadance are connected to the…bombing here, but we need to stay on high alert,” the alicorn almost choked at ‘bombing’.

Shining Armor pondered the situation for a second. This did not sound good. First, Celestia hardly managed to evade an assassination attempt, now the fortress that he named after his wife was now probably getting pummeled by unknown aggressors, and to top it all off, General Shepherd was cut off from him and trapped in the besieged fort.

General Shepherd was the commander of the Equestrian Army, and the only military officer in all of Equestria that outranked Shining Armor.

Perhaps, if he could spare some stallions…

“Captain…are you alright? Now you’re starting to worry me,” the dark princess chuckled weakly.

“No, I’m fine. It’s just that…I’d like to…,” Shining Armor tried to spit out, scratching his mane nervously.

He acted like a scared foal that was asking his parents for permission for the first time.

“What is it Captain? What do you suggest we do?” Luna raised an eyebrow.

“You tell me, you’re the one in charge now princess,” he stated bluntly, the nervousness hijacking his tongue for a split second.

That hit the princess like a ton of bricks.

It reminded her of why that is, and all she could see in her head was the image her big sister covered in blood, scrapes and burns with shattered bones ontop of all that. As much as she hated it, she couldn’t deny the truth now. Who knew how long Celestia would be inoperable.

Luna was now the interim leader of Equestria…by herself.

“At least until Celly’s back on her hooves,” she reasoned.

“Ok then, what were you proposing Captain?” the moon goddess asked, trying to retrack her mind to the conversation.

“Princess, with your permission of course, I would like to take a force of five-hundred Royal Guards and move to reinforce Fort Cadance,” the captain stated in a professional tone.

“But that’s half of the Royal Guard presence in Canterlot. Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Luna inquired, military strategy not being one of her strong suits, especially after being defeated by the Elements of Harmony twice.

“General Shepherd is an asset that we cannot afford to lose princess. Also, it will give us a chance to study these attackers more closely and maybe find out who they are. And don’t worry about Canterlot, we’ll still have over 12,000 Army troops here and the other half of the 1st. Royal Guards,” he reported.

“Well I suppose there aren’t any better ideas right now,” the princess replied with an unconvincing smile.

“Wait! What about the forcefield? Who will keep it operational in your absence?” she revoked in a worried tone.

“Hmm…I didn’t even think about that. The one I have up now is good for three days but I imagine that my journey to northern Equestria will take at least a week, and that’s if everything goes smoothly. Maybe I shouldn’t leave Canterlot, I mean-”

VVVRRROOOMMM!!

VVVRRROOOMMM!!

“WHAT THE-!”

Shining Armor nearly had a heart attack as he dropped to the ground with his hooves over his ears. Two tan colored vehicles screeched to a halt dangerously close to Shining Armor as the Royal Guard in the lead vehicle’s chain gun turret whooped and pumped his hoof into the air.

“WHHOOHHOOO! That was SOOO radical man! Let’s do it again!” the green unicorn urged as he spun around in circles in the turret.

The driver stuck his head out of the window and looked up at his spinning friend.

“Dude, this thing has a radio! I’m totally gonna play some Neighvana!” the red pegasus yelled with a wide, open mouth smile.

“Awesome!” the unicorn inputted, slamming his hooves on the roof to stop spinning.

The green pony started to look a little dizzy as he recognized Shining Armor, his pupils rotating in his eyeballs.

“Yo! What’s up Cap?” the gunner lackadaisically acknowledged, leaning back in the turret coolly.

“Have you two no discipline at all?” their commander snapped bitterly as he got up to recover and dust off his new tan uniform with his hooves.

“Hey Chief! Sup dude? Diggin’ our ride?” the red pony driver spoke with a west coast Equestrian accent like the gunner also did.

“Um, Captain? Who are those two, and what machines are they operating?” Luna asked quizzically, as she eyed the two guards with worry.

“Those two disgraces to the guard are Psycho Twitch and Skinny Dipper. Those vehicles I believe, are the humvees you showed me this morning,” Twilight’s brother answered, glaring at the red pegasus.

“What is meaning of this Private Twitch?” he snarled at his subordinate.

The red pegasus didn’t seem to be fazed in the slightest. He just took off his tan helmet and looked down the Captain and smiled with the most chilled expression in Equestria.

“Nothin’ sir. Just thought you’d might wanna ride,”

“Really? You almost ran me over with that thing you maniac!” the white unicorn rebutted.

“Naw, its cool man! Chill out and jam to some Neighvana!” Skinny Dipper, the green unicorn, proposed.

“This Smells Like Colt Spirit to me!” Psycho joked as the sounds of guitar riffs and drum beats emanated from inside the vehicle.

The two young colts were hardly old enough to be in the Royal Guard. How they got their hooves on the humvee they were using, Shining and Luna didn’t want to know. These two ponies wearing the tan camo uniforms in the humvee were probably the most laidback Royal Guards or even ponies for that matter, in all of Equestria.

“Is there something wrong with those two?” the princess asked, raising her eyebrow at them.

“No, they’re just harmless dimwits is all,” the guard captain replied plainly.

“How did they even get into the Royal Guard?” Luna asked with concern, suspiciously eyeing the two as she ranted quietly, something about them having ‘mental health issues’.

“Princess, I ask myself that very same question when I go to bed every night,” Shining chuckled, his demeanor lightening up when he saw Luna’s reaction to the young colts.

The princess realized that her formal mask was broken and blushed in embarrassment. Then, she returned her attention to the strange vehicles, which were classified as ‘humvees’.

“They look strange,”

“Well, they are strange ponies, so I guess that fits them,”

“No, I meant the vehicles. They look like tan boxes on wheels,” the alicorn described.

“Well, that’s probably what they are. I read that they are very fast. In fact, why don’t I take these to Fort Cadance?” Shining pondered as an imaginary light bulb appeared over his head.

“Are you sure you want a pony with the name ‘Psycho Twitch’ driving your humvee though?” the alicorn questioned with comical concern.

“Of course not, there are other humvees. I think counted around 50 or so in the cave that were already assembled. I don’t know if that’s going to be enough though,” the guard commander analyzed.

“Seventy-six. There are approximately seventy-six completed humvees in the cache,” Luna corrected in a matter-of-factly tone, similar to Twilight’s.

“Good, I’ll just use those to transport my guards. After they learn how to drive them, that is,” Shining stated, unsure if they had time to train before moving out.

“It can’t be that hard. I mean if even Private Twitch can drive these then it’ll be a caketrot for the others,” the Captain of the Royal Guard thought with confidence.

After much reluctance, Shining Armor consented to riding with the two laidback royal guards in their humvee. He saluted the princess, the alicorn mare waved him off, saying that she wanted to check on her sister’s condition. As the princess galloped away towards the royal medical ward, Psycho Twitch punched the gas pedal with his rear hoof, with his forehooves on the steering wheel.

“Alright Twitch, try not to kill anypony,” the white stallion nervously remarked, gazing at the red pegasus with suspicion.

The humvee sped off at an alarming speed, some Canterlot unicorn natives having to gallop out of the way. Psycho’s driving was erratic and he tended to swerve a lot, causing the tires to screech along the road. As he watched scared ponies dive out of the way of the homicidal vehicle, Shining Armor cursed the fact that the trailing humvee behind them was full.

“Naw, sir! …Damn the Neighvana song ended,” Skinny Dipper sighed as the guitar’s melody faded out and was replaced by a newscast.

The reporter on the radio was an anchormare giving a report on a possible attack on a small village in Equestria. Her voice seemed shaken mixed with a sense of urgency.

“Word is that the assault has taken place in a small village called ‘Ponyville’ details of the attack are scarce and the identities of the attackers are unknown. However, speculation states that-” Twilight’s BBBFF stopped listening at the ‘P’ word.

“No…” he mouthed.

This can’t be.

Not Twily.

He wouldn’t stand for this. He had to make sure his little sister was alright, and if she wasn’t, there’d be hell to pay.

“Private Twitch, change course to Ponyville immediately,” Shining Armor ordered, a sense of urgency in his voice.

“But sir, what about the others?” Psycho Twitch replied, maybe the only semi-formal question he had ever asked in his life.

“Don’t worry about them, they’ll catch up! Now go!” Shining demanded, raising his voice from the passenger seat as he pointing in the direction of Ponyville with a hoof.

“You got it Cap,”

A new Nod commander was preparing his strike force as he stared intently at his computer monitor. Through his computer screen, he could see about fifty-five infantry units of various types, lining up in formation. They were awaiting his orders to cross the border into Usea. Two Nod buggies and a light tank complemented his force as they rolled in behind the infantry.

“REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED,” a computerized, female voice stated emotionlessly.

Belkan fighters and bombers were already wreaking havoc in the skies above and further in country. Now was the time that he was to seize the city of Tora, and that more reinforcements were supposed to arrive from the west with a new toy for him to play with.

It was called a ‘Mobile Construction Vehicle’ or ‘MCV’ and he was the first commander to field test it. Apparently, it was a vehicle able to fold itself out and deploy into a construction yard. And from that point, you can use it to build a base of operations. Of course, you would need credits to build the base, but this fledgling commander had already planned ahead.

He glanced over at his credit count of 6,000 and he smiled. He had plenty, considering that 1 credit was worth 100 bits.

“Let’s see what 600,000 bits can do. Not like I need them, I can crush anypony without spending a single bit…but…I’d like to play with this new technology and see what it’s good for,” thought the confident, brainwashed Nod commander.

This red pegasus’s name was Andrew Slavik.

The Belkan stared into his screen as a large Nod symbol filled the monitor. It was replaced by the white earthpony known as Seth. Slavik’s first mission briefing was about to begin.

“So…you’re the new addition to the Brotherhood. Well…I’m Seth. Just Seth. From God, to Kane, to Seth,” the beret wearing white pony introduced with a superior smirk, putting a hoof to his chest.

“I am his right hoof, and I have a task for you,” Nod’s second-in-command began as the young and eager Belkan pony leaned towards the computer, showing great interest and rapt attention.

“For too many years, Usean forces have maintained a stranglehold on Tora. It’s fallen upon us to liberate these citizens, crying out for a better way of life. Kane wants to establish a base here to eliminate the smothering presence of Usea. It’s too risky to move our heavy forces in, so we want you to sneak in with a few expendable troops and set up a forward attack post,”

Slavik’s adrenaline began pumping. This was his time, his moment, where he would go down in history. The red pony would finally get to serve Kane, but not just that. He also would receive the glory that he so desperately wanted his entire life.

“Uh… by the way, there’s more than enough Tiberium for you to harvest. That should easily pay your expenses,”

Slavik raised an eyebrow at this.

“Tiberium? I wasn’t briefed on this,” he thought, wondering what the word had to do with the mission.

“If you are detected, you fail. If you fail, you die,” Seth finished coldly as the screen winked out and returned the monitor back to the visual of Slavik’s strike force.

Andrew grabbed the mouse and clicked on hoof-sized left button. Then dragged the cursor over his entire force and let his hoof off the button.

“Yes sir?” a soldier reported.

He selected a point that was near a Usean village across the border and left-clicked again.

“Affirmative!” another soldier replied as all the units under Slavik’s command started moving towards the village.

Now the young lieutenant’s adrenaline was pumping through his veins.

He’s in command…now it’s time to conquer.

As the black shroud that indicated unexplored territory melted away for the areas that his troops moved through, he noticed that about seven Usean soldiers and a humvee were mingling with some civilians in the village.

“Those ponies are probably sent to patrol the border after our air attack began,” Slavik thought, his tactical mind telling him to eliminate them as soon as possible.

He clicked on one of the enemy scouts, signaling his troops to attack.

“Not a problem,” a Nod flamethrower mare answered.

The Nod troops flooded into the village as the civilian ponies reacted by running away and screaming in terror. Commander Slavik saw the enemy soldiers in white camouflage and helmets, started to converge on his position. In response, he doubled-clicked on the closest Usean solider, telling his own gray-camouflaged ponies to attack him first.

“Roger,” one of his minions responded.

As the two factions met in the middle of the village, heavy gunfire broke out between both sides. The popping of automatic fire erupted as Slavik watch three Usean troops drop immediately, let out pierce death screams as they hit the ground. Having superior numbers and firepower, the Lieutenant’s strike team should obviously make quick work of this enemy patrol.

The humvee tried desperately to help out its comrades that were getting ripped to pieces by the Nod infantry. It sped towards the Nod troops and started firing its chain gun as fast it could.

One Nod pony was killed by the chain gun before a torrent of small arms fire and rockets pelted the humvee, causing it to explode immediately. The driver tried to escape the humvee but was immediately barbequed by a flamethrower.

After this, the other four Usean soldiers were gunned down so fast; it was like they weren’t even there. A few of the civilians made the foalish error of trying to confront the Nod ponies but were shot immediately. Slavik smiled as he ordered his troops to move through the village and farther into the desert landscape of north Usea.

He moved very quickly through the tan landscape that was dotted by random trees. After he overran the village and left it behind, he decided just to push forward and see what he could find. After all, he needed to get to Tora before he lost the element of surprise.

Shortly after passing the fortress, the assault force ran into what looked like a barren plateau. The cliff was much too steep to climb, so he ordered the Nod ponies to try to go around the plateau.

The gray-covered Nod troops flanked the plateau, moving to their right and eventually found its end after a few minutes. Now they were free to continue advancing southward.

About a mile south later, the Noddies had run across another village. This one was much better defended. The rookie commander counted around thirteen enemy infantry, two humvees, and one medium tank. Andrew frowned at the white-painted vehicle. This might be a problem.

Seeing the vehicles in the rear, much like his own vehicles were, he decided to have a little fun with the Useans.

“Unit reporting!”

He ordered his minigunners and flamethrower troops to attack the enemy infantry head-on. As his infantry started reducing the enemy patrol to bullet-shredded body parts, Andrew noticed the enemy humvees and the tank moving up to support the distressed infantry.

Exactly what he wanted.

When the enemy vehicles reached his force, Commander Slavik ordered his infantry to retreat and had his rocket troopers and his own light tank take their places. A sadistic smile appeared on the Nod commander’s face as he watched the two lead enemy vehicles get raked with rocket fire.

Both humvees exploded and Slavik ordered all of his units to focus their fire on the tank. The Usean tank managed to destroy one Nod buggy, but was abruptly destroyed shortly after.

“Too easy,” Slavik gloated in his head.

He continued to advance his troops through the village and keep pushing southward. Some of his minigunners stopped to shoot a couple civilian ponies for a split second before moving again.

It wasn’t long before he had passed the canyon and now his troops were headed straight for Tora. As his forces moved through the desert and continued to remove the black shroud, he noticed the landscape getter slightly greener. The Noddies decided to press towards that area, and when the shroud was removed, Tora was revealed.

It wasn’t a gigantic city, but still a sizable one with a few skyscrapers. Slavik noticed a Usean outpost protecting Tora, directly in his path.

“What have we got?

…Two guard towers, a barracks, two power plants, a communications center, and a shitload of Usean infantry and vehicles protecting it…

Poor bastards,”

As his troops advanced towards the outpost, an interception group of twenty-five Usean infantry supported by five humvees and two medium tanks, rolled out of the outpost to meet his troops.

“That’s a big interception force…I think I can punch through though,” Slavik calculated.

After all, he did have superior numbers.

He ordered all of his units forward for a frontal assault, having his minigunners, flamethrowers and his surviving buggy focus their fire on the enemy infantry while his rocket troopers and light tank will handle the enemy vehicles.

As the two sides met in battle, infantry started dropping very rapidly for both sides. Slavik winced as his last buggy took a tank shell and exploded. His own light tank was putting up a valiant fight against the other Usean tank but didn’t have the armor or firepower to take it by itself.

The Nod commander tried to send a squad of rocket troopers to support it but was dismayed when the light tank went out right as help arrived. The enemy humvees started dropping his rocket troopers like crazy. The missile-carrying ponies were desperately trying to destroy them, and although they succeeded, the commander realized that the casualties he was taking were far too heavy.

His minigunners and flame troopers had eliminated the infantry and what was left of his rocket troopers destroyed both Usean tanks.

Slavik’s victory was short-lived however, when he saw that at least twenty more infantry spill out of the outpost, along with the last of the Usean vehicles.

“It’s that damn barracks! It keeps deploying enemy troops! If this situation continues for much longer, they’re going to bleed me out!” he cried in frustration.

He growled as he selected his entire force and ordered them to charge head-on into the new enemy formation. He picked out the leading enemy humvee and left-clicked on it.

“Right away sir!” a Nod pony acknowledged.

As his troops collided with this second formation, he noticed that he was still victorious, yet his force kept on shrinking with each attack. He couldn’t last forever like this, even though he still had a slight numerical advantage.

“REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED,” the EVA unit spoke again, sparking interest within Slavik.

He dragged his mouse to the far left of the map near the outskirts of Tora, and there they were. The western reinforcements he was hoping for. The reinforcement force was huge. Hundreds of mixed Nod infantry units stormed the weakly defended city, the support of over twenty Nod buggies and tanks behind them.

He watched as local police units were erased from existence in seconds and whatever Usean guards that were deployed in the city itself were wiped out shortly thereafter. The Nod troops rushed through the city, sometimes stopping a shoot a civilian pony that got in the way.

Delight filled him as he saw an MCV enter in behind the reinforcement force and stop in a flat desert area on the western part of the city. The commander also noticed some of the reinforcements moving to attack the enemy outpost from behind.

Seth’s image then appeared on the top-right corner of Slavik’s screen.

“Good work. You managed to capture Tora, now build our forward base and finish off that pesky enemy compound,”

Seth image disappeared as Slavik placed the cursor over the Mobile Construction Vehicle and left-clicked.

“Ready and waiting,” the MCV replied.

He left-clicked again and he watched in amazement as the vehicle folded-out and rapidly transformed into a large building with a giant crane sticking out of it.

“NEW CONSTRUCTION OPTIONS,”

The Noddie saw a queue appear on the right side of the screen and selected ‘Power Plant’.

“BUILDING,”

He observed in awe as he watch his credit count fall three-hundred ticks as the building was finished.

“CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE,”

He placed the power plant next to the construction yard and selected the ‘Hoof of Nod’ which looked like a hoof coming out of the ground with a globe in its grasp. After he was finished with that and placed it on the other side of the construction yard, he built another power plant and saw ‘Refinery.’

Not knowing what it was for, he selected it and waited for it to build. After he deployed it, a vehicle that looked like it had ant-pinchers drove off from it and towards the south of the city. As more shroud was removed, he saw that the big and slow vehicle was heading towards a field that was covered in strange, glowing green crystals. The field was on the southern outskirt of the city so it took a while for the Harvester to get there.

Slavik gazed at the decently-sized field with wonder.

“Is that the ‘Tiberium’ that Seth was talking about?”

When the Harvester returned to the refinery, he noticed that when it deposited the Tiberium into the building, the commander’s credit balance started to climb. Now the commander understood the purpose.

Focused on building his base, he completely disregarded attacking the outpost that was still out there. His troops were idly standing by, waiting on him.

When realized this, he moved across the map and selected both his original force and some of the reinforcements to attack the outpost together from two directions, north and south.

“Awaiting orders,”

“Reporting,”

“Acknowledged!”

“You got it!”

“Moving out!”

His now-massive force swarmed the enemy outpost like ants and watched as the remaining Usean troops drowned under the carpet of Nod-gray blanketing them and enveloping their compound.

Andrew was pleased to see that no more hostile troops were still standing in the area and returned his attention to building his base.

Seth popped in once more on his computer monitor.

“Excellent work Lieutenant. Now all that’s left is to build a Weapons Factory and your mission will be complete. This ‘Weapons Factory will allow you to call in vehicle reinforcements by cargo plane, when you build some Air Strips of course. An important building, so don’t forget it!”

Seth faded out once more as the commander did as he was told.

Once the building was complete and he finished placing the new structure the screen froze and displayed in big, white letters:

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

“Well that was easy enough. I wonder how the other regions are doing,” he pondered out loud as he flipped the switch to his radio so he can pick up chatter.

The air battle for Usea was already taking part all over the north part of the country, and Slavik’s radio suddenly came alive with the radio chatter of pilots on both sides. From what he heard, things sounded like they were going well for the Brotherhood.

“F-15s? That’s all the Useans got? This’ll be cake!”

“Meteor Squadron, open fire!”

“Fox two!”

“Fox two!”

“Damn it, I’ve got another scorpion tail fighter on me! I can’t shake him!”

“Where did these guys come from?! And why are there so many of them!?”

“They’ve already started seizing Tora and bombing our border villages! But there’s too many enemy fighters for us to deal with! It’s no use trying to intercept the bombers!”

“The enemy’s got F-22s?! Usea is toast man!”

“I’m hit! The ejection seat isn’t working! Dammit! I can’t… (static),”

“Fox two…NAILED HIS ASS! These Usean pilots are a joke!”

“Yeah, watch ‘em drop like flies!”

“C’mon! Where are the other Usean Squadrons!? We need help out here! Damn…there aren’t very many of us left, are there?”

Slavik are elated when he listened to the chatter. Everything was going according to plan. Kane will be pleased with his success. A promotion maybe? Surely the Messiah would view his skills as superior.

Not A Sunny Disposition

Not A Sunny Disposition

I noticed that I am really slow with updates. From now on, I’m gonna try to pick up the pace a bit. No action but some plot development here.

The humvee column that was packed with Royal Guards, was zipping through the countryside on a dirt road, desperately trying to reach Ponyville. Smoke could already be seen in the direction of the small town. A very anxious and worried Captain of the Guard was riding in the passenger seat of the lead humvee, courtesy of Psycho Twitch’s erratic driving.

Shining Armor had every right to be worried sick for his sister. Once he heard about the attack on Ponyville, images of Celestia’s singed, torn and blood-splattered body entered his thoughts, but this time Celestia’s image was replaced with Twilight’s.

No.

He would not let that happen again.

It was one thing seeing the sun princess like that…but seeing the little sister that he loved dearly in that condition? His heart would obliterate itself.

He stared out the passenger door’s window and spotted a hill that had a perfect, bird’s eye view of Ponyville below. That’s when he noticed a news team situated at the top of the hill. The reporter had his back to Ponyville, and the camera was trained on him. A magically levitated microphone was hovering near his mouth as he spoke.

“Wow! The Equestrian news media is really fast!” Shining Armor thought as he watched the news crew for a split second before Psycho yanked the steer wheel hard to make a sharp left turn.

After this action, the hill disappeared from Shining Armor’s view as he retracted his neck to face front once again and was greeted by much different scenery.

Right in front of him was Ponyville.

“No…,” the guard captain couldn’t help but whisper.

“Damn man…the hay happened here?” Skinny Dipper commented, a profound expression on his face as he surveyed the destruction of Ponyville.

Homes, businesses, and even town hall.

All of it burning.

Shining Armor had to rub his eyes with a hoof to make sure he wasn’t imagining this. He observed in shock as weather pegasi began to soak out fires with rainclouds and water buckets. Unicorn ponies were picking up wounded victims with their magic and gliding them to Ponyville’s only hospital.

“Shit man! That’s gruesome!” Psycho Twitch pointed out, squinting over the steering wheel and watching local earthponies drag away the dead bodies of Ponyvillians and Nod soldiers alike.

Trails of blood painted the concrete and stone roads, marking where bodies had already been hauled off. The smoke from the fires filled the air above the small town and burning vehicles remained idle in the street.

It was at this point that Shining Armor decided to step out.

“Stop the humvee,” he ordered Twitch in an emotionless, robotic tone.

The red pegasus was too far into shock to construct a thought to disobey. As he hit the brakes, Captain Sparkle exited the humvee, slamming the door behind with a hoof. He slowly swiveled his head back and forth to soak in the carnage.

Cries for help, screams of panic, and shouts of urgent orders, mixed with the crackling of the flames emanating from various buildings. As Shining Armor slowly took his first step, a metal clinging could be heard from underneath him.

He looked down and felt the bottom of his front hooves becoming hot. He removed them and took a peek at what he stepped on.

Shell casings.

The white stallion gazed around the ground near him and noticed hundreds, if not thousands of brass shell casings of various sizes littered on the streets and mixing with the blood and bodies of ponies.

The initial shock overcame his being so thoroughly that his mind just went blank as he slowly stepped forward, towards the town square. His eyes had the working of a ‘thousand yard stare.’ As he walked past the rescue teams, some ponies recognized who he was and momentarily paused their tasks as they stared at him in awe. Soon thereafter, they snapped out of their gazes and focused at their tasks at hoof.

When Shining Armor reached the end of the square, he recognized a certain purple unicorn embracing two other ponies with tears streaking down her eyes. She was caressing a pink earthpony and a light blue pegasus and repeating the phrase I’m sorry I’m sorry as she did so.

“Twily…”

Apparently, his sister had heard his whisper and jerked her head around in his direction. Her eyes grew wide as she quickly got up and galloped towards her kin, tears still pouring down her face.

A tearfilled and angry-looking orange earthpony began attempting to pick up the pink earthpony by offering a hoof. The rainbow-maned pegasus got herself on all fours as all five of the mares in the group watched their friend approach her tan-covered big brother.

“Brother!” she called out, her voice hoarse from sobbing. There were still tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Twily!” he answered as the purple pony collided with him, nearly tackling him in a passionate hug.

“When I heard about the attack, I thought something may have happened to you. Are you alright?” he asked with urgent concern.

“Yes, I’m okay. Well, thanks to Rainbow and Pinkie anyways. Without them we would have been doomed,” Twilight said as she turned back to flash a heartfelt smile at her friends.

Rainbow and Pinkie looked at each other with confusion regarding their friend’s sudden change of heart. They both just shrugged and assumed that the praise was a subtle way for Twilight to apologize for her behavior earlier. They were distracted however, by the guilt that still swallowed their consciences.

“And…what are you wearing? And what are those contraptions? Are they steam or magic-powered?” her voice squeaked slightly as she looked at the machines quizzically, eyebrow cocked.

The guard captain smiled.

No matter what the situation called for, his little sister always wanted an answer for everything. It was just part of her studious and analytical personality…

And her sarcasm…gotta love her sarcasm.

“It’s long story and even I don’t know everything yet, but I promise to tell you later. I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I head north,” the white unicorn explained.

“You’re going north? Why?”

“Because one of our forts is under attack and General Shepherd is cut off at the moment. I’m going in with a battalion of Royal Guards to relieve him,”

Twilight immediately began to worry about her BBBFF. She had just witnessed the terror of combat, and the thought of her brother entering it caused her gut to tighten.

“Hopefully there, we can find out who is committed these attacks. I still can’t believe they hit the castle as well,”

“WHAT!? Is Princess Celestia ok?” her eyes shot open again, this day was just getting crazier and crazier by the second.

She didn’t know if her heart or her brain can take this kind of punishment.

It wasn’t even noon yet.

“Lord Cozmar thought it would be a good idea to go suicide bomber on us by strapping a bomb to his chest, and blowing himself up in the name of some god his sadistic imagination created,” he replied, raising his voice at sadistic.

“The princess received moderate burns and shrapnel wounds. She broke a foreleg and several ribs as well. That’s as far as I know. But I swear, I’m gonna get to the bottom of this and make whoever’s responsible pay for their deeds,”

Shortly afterward, he regretted telling his sister that. All it did was freak her out even more. After several minutes of attempted to calm her down, he eventually succeeded. After she calmed herself, Twilight admitted that she was a big fan of Lord Cozmar's scientific accomplishments and was disappointed that he of all ponies would commit such an act of evil.

Shining Armor nodded.

"Wow, how weird that must be to hear about your idol trying to kill your mentor. I'm glad Twily wasn't there when it went down. It could have affected her a lot worse,"

As he prepared to leave, he hugged his little sister one last time, and gave her a smirk as he opened the door to the humvee.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon,” he said as he entered the vehicle.

“You better be. Cause if you don’t, then I’m going to lecture you for hours on the subject of punctuality!” Twilight answered with a smirk of her own.

She could’ve sworn that she saw her brother shiver a little at the threat after she spoke.

As Twilight watched with fascination of the advanced vehicles speeding down the road, moving north, she turned around to face her friends. The violet eyes that were no longer filled with tears, were analyzing her friends.

They were obviously far from okay. All of them were petrified by today’s events, and may have trouble coping with them.

Especially Pinkie and Dash. And of course Fluttershy may need a little more comforting than the others as well. They took the brunt of the trauma. But maybe something could still be done about this.

Maybe…the power of friendship was still worth something.

Standing out on a hill overlooking Ponyville was a pro-Nod propaganda news team reporting the attack on Ponyville. A yellow unicorn pony was facing the camera, with his back to the still-burning village. He was wearing a tan boonie hat and was levitating a microphone with his magic. Royal guard-filled humvees rolled into Ponyville behind the reporter, the cameramare making sure to film it.

“War torn Ponyville. Once a happy farming town for peace-loving peasants, today…a slaughterhouse. Yet one more casualty in the insane Royal assault against ponykind. Yet in other in a series of villages wiped off the earth by the Royal Equestrian Army and its misguided leader: General Spark Shepherd,”

The scene of flames erupting from the town with Equestrian humvees rolling into the town at the same time, seemed to give the illusion that the reporter’s words were true.

“And what crime did Ponyville commit to warrant such carnage? Sources indicate that Royal terrorists were convinced that this simple hamlet was involved in the manufacturing and shipping of Tiberium. When will this madness end? Only when General Shepherd and his vision of one world order is stopped.

This is Grey Brunette, Ponyville,”

“…K…Ka…KA!”

“Sister! Are you out of your mind?! Lie back down! You must rest!”

Princess Celestia’s form dropped back onto the hospital out of exhaustion and pain, rather than obedience. Her blue sister galloped to her bedside and placed a hoof on Celestia’s snout. The night princess managed to chuckle at Celestia’s stubbornness.

“Even when incapacitated, she shows her selflessness,” Luna thought, keeping a loving smile on her face and not really knowing what she meant by that.

“Lulu…,”

“Yes. We’re here,” the younger alicorn replied, resisting the urge to twitch at the sound of Celestia’s old nickname for her when they were younger.

Princess Luna began to pet Celestia’s snout, stroking it gently.

“Y-you need to contact our-allies for me,” Celestia said bluntly as Luna tilted her head to gaze at the ceiling, focusing in on nothing in particular.

“We have allies?” the blue alicorn asked, dropping her neck back down to meet Celestia’s gaze and spread her wings in interest.

“…Yes. The Republic of Ka-Kar-Karalia. A-and Yu-Yuktobania,” Celestia huffed out with great difficulty, a burning sensation flaring up in her ribcage.

Luna’s mouth dropped open as she recognized one of the names.

“Karalia?! Those rebel swine?!”

“P-please little sister. That civil war was o-over a thousand years a-ago. Times have changed,”

“We can’t believe our sister let them secede!” Luna yelled stamping a hoof in a pouty protest.

“Please Luna! After what we put them ttt-hhhrough, I felt that they’ve ee-earned their indep-pendence!”  Celestia yelled through her pain.

Luna saw her sister in pain and sighed. This was not the time for bickering. They needed to work together the best they could to get through this. United they stand, divided they fall. The princess of the night realized this and calmed her anger as she bowed in shame.

“Are you sure we can trust them?” Luna inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“Because if I remember correctly, those Karalians were shifty and corrupt,”

“Yes of co-course we can rely on them. Chancellor Split Talker is a personal friend of mine,” Celestia exhaled forcefully as she strained to finish that sentence without having to pause.

“Very well sister. We will talk to them. But only for you,” Luna gave a defeated smile.

“I-I know that you ha-hated the K-Karalians for what they d-did, but that is in the distant past my little pony. Also, we could u-use some more of their advanced techn-ology as well,”

Celestia smiled as happily as she could at the slightly greedy remark.

She could feel the painkiller spell the unicorn nurse placed on her starting to wear off.

“You should really get to sleep,” Luna said with concern.

“I know,” Celestia replied in a voice that was calm with a hint of lackadaisical.

Luna made her way to the door and opened it with her magic.

“I know you can do thissss by yourself. I trust in you. Don’t let the sssstress get to you Lulu,”

The blue alicorn smiled with confidence as she closed the door behind her, leaving her sun goddess sister to her nap.

Afterthought

From now on I’m going to cut my chapters a little shorter so they don’t take so long. Chapter Seven is almost complete. Expect it soon.

Siege Stunners

Siege Stunners

As Shining Armor’s column of humvees rolled out of the mountains and into the valley, the captain noticed that Fort Cadance, which was placed in the middle of the valley, was under heavy fire from all sides. He could see explosions erupt throughout the fort and ripping into the concrete walls as well.

Tracer rounds from Nod buggies and rocket troopers, were giving the area an eerie orange, and yellow glow that cut through the dark, black smoke that billowed out of the garrison.

He scanned the area and saw Nod mobile artillery units pouring shell after shell onto the fort from ontop the small hills that surrounded the complex. He could see several Nod light tanks advancing towards the walls, firing as they moved. Behind the tanks, he could make out what looked like a few hundred small dots, which he guess were the infantry.

It was early morning and two days since the Captain of the Royal Guard left Canterlot. From his binoculars, he could see that on his way down the mountain, his Royal Guard column would run into the Nod artillery pieces first.

This was perfect.

The Royal Guards could attack them from the rear.

“Ok Twitch, I want you to gun it down the mountain and into those hills. I think I see one of those long-range shooting machines directly in our upcoming path. Private Dipper, get ready with that turret weapon!” Shining ordered, spooking the green unicorn into ripping off his headphones.

“Wha? Oh yeah!” Skinny replied frantically as he dropped his headphones into the backseat of the humvee and racked the chain gun with his teeth.

“So…I just slam on these two cute little baby-blue buttons on the back here and…point the big metal stick at the bad guys right?” Skinny Dipper asked with uncertainty and nervousness in his muffled voice, teeth grinding on the stabilization bar.

“That’s what the manuals said,” was all Shining Armor replied with.

“Ok. Here I go,” the green pony replied as he trained the barrel on the Nod artillery vehicle they had just snuck up on from behind.

PING PING PING PING PING!

PING PING PING PING PING!

Skinny Dipper’s hooves shook with convulsions as they slammed down on the two cyan fire buttons with full force. He looked up to make sure the barrel was pointing at the Nod unit and sighed in relief when he watched the rounds ripping into gray armor.

He craned his neck back and forth to see one humvee pull up on each side of Shining Armor’s and their gunners added their firepower to the fray.

PING PING PING PING PING!

PING PING PING PING PING!

Psycho Twitch was mesmerized at the scene in front of him. He watched the firepower of three humvee chain guns rip through the weak armor of the Nod artillery piece. He could swear he was seeing sparks and chunks of metal alike being thrown from the Nod unit’s surface as well as bullets ricocheting off the plates.

He watched an entire slab of metal plating just slide off the Nod unit as if it was melted off. The artillery piece exploded and the crew let out piercing screams as they were wiped from existence.

“Great shot Skinny Dipper!” the guard captain praised.

“Ok, now we’ve got to circle around all these hills and wipe out all of those long-range strike vehicles. As your captain, I will be personally leading this assault in the lead humvee. Follow me!” Shining Armor screamed into his helmet’s headset.

After some tampering from a team of Canterlot engineers and scientists, his mic was able to be connected to his convoy’s radio frequency. How that was done, he couldn’t tell. Magic? Psycho Twitch punched the gas with enthusiasm as he began shouting some random phrases that Shining Armor didn’t care enough about to listen.

The column of humvees starting to circle the entire chain of hills to systematically wipe out all Nod artillery pieces, and then the plan was to attack the enemy assault force from behind and push on towards the fort from there.

It wasn’t long before the convoy had run across another artillery vehicle. This time an entire row of at least a dozen humvees lined up and skewered the poor Nod unit, ripping its armor to pieces with an unnecessary amount of firepower. Like its comrade, it also exploded in a fireball, and with that, the Royal humvee convoy pushed on.

In the next few minutes, they had found and destroyed three more mobile artillery units. They kept rolling through hill after hill and using the sheer numbers of their humvees to overpower and destroy the Nod positions.

After they blew up their seventh Nod unit, Shining Armor looked through his binoculars at the five remaining artillery pieces positioned on hills across the valley from his view. He noticed that the Nod artillery units were adjusting their sights.

Shining’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he realized that the artillery was now attempting to aim at his convoy.

“They’re finally directing their fire at us. This is good; it’ll take some pressure off of General Shepherd,”

“Yeah! Good for the fort! Not us man! We’re gonna get blasted!” the red pegasus humvee driver complained.

“Oh shut up, and quit your whining. These humvees are too fast to hit and even so we’ll be flanking them anyways. Keep driving, we need to hurry up and I don’t know how long Fort Cadance can hold out after taking that level of pummeling for the past few days,”

The humvees sped towards the artillery position, traversing hill after hill in an attempt to get close enough to pelt the remaining long-range weapons with bullets. The humvees agileness allowed them to swerve and dodge incoming shells as they sped around trees and the black clouds of dust and shrapnel that the shells created as they impacted the ground.

As the humvees weaved through trees, artillery shells and other obstacles, an unlucky humvee was hit and exploded, killing all six of the Royal Guards inside. Shining Armor frowned at the burning wreckage that remained.

“Guess I better to get used to watching my Guards die…” he thought solemnly, as he threw up a little in his mouth at the thought.

“Not now. These colts need a leader they can look up to. Not feel sorry for,”

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the Equestrian humvees closed the gap between them and the Nod artillery units. The humvees rolled up to them in a wide staggered formation, allowing for maximum Equestrian firepower.

That’s when the immense formation of forty-five humvees figuratively dumped lead on the fort attackers, all five Nod positions silenced in quick succession. When the shooting finally stopped, all the Equestrians could see were five pits of burning metal surrounded by sandbags.

Behind them, the other half of the humvee strike force flooded into the formation and seeped in by osmosis.

When another humvee on the far right flank exploded, Shining Armor turned to watch as apparently, a group of eight Nod light tanks had broken off from the fortress assault to deal with this new humvee threat. He watched them menacingly advance towards his position.

“Alright Private Dipper, prepare to fire!” he yelled in a commanding tone.

The humvee group began to rain bullets on the tank unit. One tank took a little too many rounds as it stopped abruptly and caught fire from the inside out, cooking the crew alive. Still, there were seven light tanks continuing to get closer and closer. By the looks of it, the humvees’ firepower may not be enough.

Shining Armor needed a new tactic.

“DUDE! Check out this metal tube thing I found in the backseat!” a distracted Skinny Dipper droned, enticed by the big silver tube he now had in his hooves.

“Private Dipper! Stop fooling around and stay on that turret! Now’s not the time for this!” the Captain of the Guard reprimanded, annoyed at his underling’s stupidity.

He cursed under his breath as he got up from his and seat and proceeded to join his young recruit up in the gun turret. As he and his subordinate’s heads where sticking out of the turret, the white unicorn glared at Skinny, looking angry enough to want to  literally rip his green horn off his forehead.

“I swear! The attention span of a squirrel!” Shining Armor mused as he facehoofed.

“Hey look a button! Is this a weapon too?” Skinny looked at the button in pure wonder.

He heaved the tube over his shoulder with his back to the enemy tanks.

…He was pointing one side of the barrel directly at Shining Armor.

“Hey! What are you doing?! Don’t point that at me! The enemy is behind you!” Shining Armor panicked, staring down the tube opening that was staring right back.

Skinny Dipper let out a giddy giggle as he pressed the button underneath the tube and the result was a loud CLICK…

SWOOSH!

“Wait, you idiot!” the Captain of the Royal Guard cried.

A rocket fired out of the back end of the tube and rocketed towards the enemy tank behind the green unicorn and blew it up immediately. Shining Armor eyed the occurrence with complete surprise, mouth agape. The gray vapor trail went from the end of the tube behind Skinny and revealed the rocket’s flight path, leading to the tank.

Skinny Dipper had the tube pointing the wrong way.

It was backwards…

No other explanation for why Shining Armor wasn’t the one ending up with a rocket to the face.

Skinny Dipper heard the explosion and looked over his shoulder. He saw his handiwork as the fireball from the explosion was still visible.  He had just destroyed a Nod light tank without even looking. He gazed at the explosion with awe.

“Awesome…” he whispered.

Shining Armor blinked a few times to snap himself back into reality. He grabbed a radio mic with his magic and spoke into the aura-covered device.

“Everypony! Have one of your team members grab a silver tube out of the backseat and fire it at the enemy. Please don’t ask me how this works, because honestly it sounds ridiculous to me too, but just do it!”

It wasn’t long before a salvo of shoulder-fired rockets was launched at the Nod tank formation. Some rockets whizzed by the tanks and missed but thanks to a little homing spell that some of the Royal Guard unicorns cast, the majority of the missiles managed hit their mark. Judging by the seven fireballs that erupted in the grassy valley below them, they had destroyed the entire formation.

“Ok! Now’s the time! Enemy formation silenced! Charge!” he screamed into the radio once more.

“GO! GO! GO!” a humvee driver from a different humvee yelled over the radio.

Vehicle engines let off a synchronized hum as the entire Royal Guard unit sped towards the valley below. They were careening down the hill at a frightening pace, zooming towards the Nod force’s rear flank.

Twilight’s brother eyed the valley below as it grew in size as drew closer. The green grassy valley that was usually beautiful was stained with impact craters, rubble, flames and smoke. Also, the sight of Royal Guard and Nod pony bodies littering the field along with weapons and equipment, didn’t help the scenery much either.

It looked like a real hell.

“Hell…in Equestria. Can you imagine it? It would have sounded unbelievable half a week ago…but now it just sounds like the punch line to a cruel joke,” he sighed momentarily at his pessimistic thinking.

Once they got within range of the Nod troops surrounding the besieged fort Cadance, they opened fire. The surprised Nod ponies attacking the weakened fortress were already getting shot in the back before they even had a chance to turn around. The Royal convoy immediately gunned down an entire group of forty infantry and two Nod buggies before the enemy could react.

At this point, the humvee convoy was viciously assaulting Nod’s right flank, the part of the Nod force attacking the fortress’s weakest wall. The wall was on the verge of crumbling, battered by artillery and tank fire. Shining Armor was just in time. This part of the Nod force was about to break through. By attacking the right flank of the Nod attack formation, Shining Armor was now forcing the enemy to commit troops to stop him.

Half of Nod’s right flank of the formation had no choice but to turn around and engage the Captain and his faithful Royal Guards. Nod rocket ponies began to fire anti-tank launchers at them and Shining Armor watched as a magic-guided rocket slammed into the humvee next to him and turned it into scrap metal. As he looked back towards the frontlines, what he saw sent a gloomy sense of dread throughout his entire body.

A magic-guided rocket was heading right towards his humvee.

He leaned toward the direction of the missile, his horn pointing straight at it. He tried to conjure up a spell to make the rocket freeze in midair but for some reason he couldn’t do it. His stamina failed him as he had to stop to catch his breath. The rocket was now free to continue blaring towards his vehicle menacingly.

“But I don’t understa-wait…

The shield I erected over Canterlot! It had to sap all of my power to keep it running for three days! I still need to recover before I can cast again!”

Shining Armor gazed at the incoming missile with sorrow, watching it curve in its flight path, still heading right to him.

“So this is how it ends…” he said, stoic in his appearance.

In a split second, the rocket abruptly stopped in mid-air when it was six inches from the humvee’s surface. A green magical aura had enveloped the rocket and stopped it cold. Shining Armor sighed in relief when he noticed that he wasn’t going to die just yet. When he looked behind him, he saw Skinny Dipper’s horn wrapped in the same green aura as the rocket. The carefree unicorn had a superior smirk on his face.

“This day is freakin’ sweet! First, I blow up a tank without even looking and then I save Cap’s life with my kickass magic. I am on a roll baby!” the green pony cried triumphantly.

‘Cap’ just smiled and shook his head. As much as he wanted to badger Skinny for his incompetence, he really didn’t have the grounds to do that anymore due to what the young Guard accomplished today. He watched as the rocket was reversed in direction by Private Dipper and fired right back at the sender, causing the surprised Nod unicorn to drop his rocket launcher and gallop away in fear.

The new arrival of the Royal Guard humvee column had evened out odds. Instead of General Shepherd and what was left of his garrison trying to fend off an attack with only spears, magic, and swords against guns, magic, and explosives, the battle now had an even playing field with Shining Armor’s arrival.

Humvees and Nod infantry were exchanging gunfire and flashes of magic. Royal Guards passengers were starting to exit their humvees, leaving only the driver and the gunner in each. Shining Armor did the same and hopped out of the passenger side door, shouldering his black assault rifle.

Pointing at an enemy earth pony in gray camouflage, he squeezed the trigger button, letting out a short burst of lead. Then he saw three small red geysers pop out of the Nod pony’s armor. The enemy pony shrieked in surprise and died before she hit the floor.

Shining Armor was shocked.

“These weapons…I…I don’t even know what to think about them right now. Who could have designed an instrument so cruel and vile? These are worse than spears!” he thought with dread.

Being the soldier that he was, he collected himself and forced himself to focus on the battle at hoof. Some Royal Guards advanced on the Noddies on hoof while others wreaked havoc on the enemy ranks with the humvees’ chain guns. Screams and explosions drowned out the sounds of gunfire and deadly magical spells being cast.

Shining Armor advanced with his guards, using his assault rifle to mow down individual enemies while he moved. Humvees sped past Shining Armor’s charging infantry. The vehicles were shredding apart the Nod battle lines with their chain guns.

A non-magical, unguided rocket slammed into the ground a dozen yards from the guard captain’s position, causing him to dive to the ground and crawl towards a destroyed Nod buggy a few feet in front of him. Once he found cover, he began to scan the battlefield to examine the situation with randomly colored spells whizzing by his helmet.

He gazed towards the fort and recognized about one or two hundred ponies in gold plated armor, charge out of the fort’s front door with spears poised. These were the surviving Equestrian soldiers within Fort Cadance. Shining Armor watched as they bravely rammed into Nod lines, goring unsuspecting Nod ponies with their spears. A few of the unicorns in the group began to cast assault spells onto the enemy.

The Nod army had been so distracted with Shining Armor’s attack, that they had forgotten that the fort’s garrison troops could still counterattack them. The fortress survivors were heavily outnumbered on their own but with Shining Armor’s battalion supporting them on the other side; the odds were a little more even now.

“C’mon! We’ve got to reach them!” Shining Armor yelled, rallying his troops to advance through the Nod lines.

His ultimate goal now was to get his battalion to link up with the Equestrian defenders. That way, the Equestrians could fight as one large force.

Shining Armor popped up, leaning over the hood of the buggy. He propped up his rifle in his shoulder and gently rested his right hoof over the red trigger button. When he looked through the iron sights, he was mystified.

“How are we even supposed to aim this thing?” he thought, jerking his head back in bewilderment.

“Don’t worry about that right now, just point and shoot,” he told himself as he concentrated on doing just that.

So instead of trying to precisely aim the weapon, he settled for just pointing the barrel in the general direction of the enemy and firing. As a Nod pony charged towards him, Shining Armor panicked and squeezed the trigger button with all his might.

A three-round burst erupted from his weapon and launched three metal bullets through the air. All three rounds connected and the enemy shrieked in surprise briefly before dropping dead only a few feet from where Shining was standing.

Confidence built within Shining Armor as he grew more and more comfortable with his weapon as he started to advance and shoot down any enemy soldier that had gotten too close. All of his guards moved with him, shooting and galloping at the same time, mowing down any Nod soldiers that got in their path.

“We’ve got to reach that cut off garrison unit and General Shepherd!” the Captain of the Royal Guard thought urgently.

Despite still being outnumbered by almost two hundred ponies, the Royal Guards were beginning to turn the tables by cutting the Nod regiment down to size.

Skinny Dipper stood inside the humvee turret with a rocket launcher over his shoulder, his hooves cradling the silver tube. He fired, letting out a trail of white smoke that blew out of both sides of the tube, and the explosive zoomed towards an advancing Nod light tank. The rocket slammed into the side of the tank, causing a massive explosion, making the Nod army another light tank short.

Psycho Twitch was driving the humvee, erratically turning and dodging incoming rockets and small arms fire. He discovered the sadistic joy of running enemy soldiers over with his humvee. He realized that every time he hit one, blood would spatter all over the windshield and he would hear a sickening but satisfying Squish!

“Dude! THIS IS COMBAT?! I could get use to this,” the red pegasus told his green unicorn friend in the turret.

Right after he said that he noticed a squad of five Nod soldiers attempting to shoot at another humvee. He laughed manically as he blindsided them by driving in behind them and smashed the front of the vehicle into them at full speed, turning the squad into roadkill.

A Nod earth pony wearing a gray cameo helmet with a Nod symbol on the front, attempted to charge at Shining Armor. The pony was swinging his rifle wildly, but Shining’s reflexes and guard training guided his body to dodge them flawlessly.

He brought his own rifle to bear and while holding the barrel in his mouth, he jerked his head back to gain momentum and then smacked the Nod pony in the face with the stock of the rifle. The melee attack cracked the enemy’s skull and killed him instantly.

Shining Armor stood there, staring at the body as it dropped with a thud.

Dumbstruck.

Apparently, he wasn’t aware of his own physical strength.  He numbly and mindlessly watched as his victim’s nose and forehead started dripping blood.

Shooting something a mile or even yards away was one thing…

But…

Killing another pony in close hoof-to-hoof combat was completely different.

An explosion in front of him snapped his out of his stupor. He turned towards the fortress and watched as his humvees charged towards the Nod forces, gunning down entire squads with chain guns and running over as many Nod infantry as they could.

Seeing this, Shining Armor was glad that his battalion had wiped out most of the enemy vehicles by now and Nod had mostly infantry left, or this battle might not be going his way. He advanced on hoof with the other Royal Guards that left their humvees and galloped to catch up to them.

He looked to his right and saw a Nod pony with a stolen Royal Guard spear about to deliver a final blow to a Royal Guard lying on the ground in front of him. The pony in gray camouflage wielded the spear with both hooves over his head, ready to plunge the sharp weapon into the guard’s chest. The white unicorn guard looked helpless without his helmet, which was rolled off to the side, and he also appeared to be losing consciousness.

Shining Armor pointed his rifle at the Noddie coolly and rested his hoof on the red button in the grip. He walked up behind him and tapped the pony on the shoulder.

“Hi there,” he said causally.

As the Nod pony turned around, he noticed a black barrel pointing at his face at point-blank range. Right then, Shining Armor squeezed the grip and blasted the Noddie in the face with a single shot.

Shining Armor watched the Nod pony drop and then averted his attention to the stricken Royal Guard in front of him. He noticed that the unicorn’s eyes were closed and a thin line of blood trickling out of his mouth.

“Hmm…this isn’t one of my Royal Guards; this is a garrison soldier. We must be getting closer to rescuing them! We’ve gotta keep pushing forward!” Shining Armor thought, determination burning into his mind.

“I’ll come back for you later! I promise!” he said to the unconscious garrison soldier as he continued to move closer and closer to the fortress.

As he moved, he noticed the bodies of Nod soldiers that were either ripped up from chain gun fire and just run over, littering his path. He looked up and spotted a Nod light tank destroy a humvee, the force of the tank shell making the humvee catch air as it exploded. Right as this happened, a Royal Guard on hoof in front of Shining Armor, had a rocket launcher tube over his shoulder and was aiming at the tank.

Per-klunk!

The rocket ejected from the tube and blew up the tank, leaving a white vapor trail in its path. Shining Armor continued to advance, running into a group of three Nod ponies that were charging right back at him. Firing from the hip, he sprayed the Noddies with continuous three-round bursts. He could see the dirt kick up around them were some of the bullets were missing, but he managed to get enough to hit all three of them.

All three dropped to the ground in unison, falling on their backs like they got tripped. The three wounded ponies began to cry out and groan in pain as they started rolling back and forth on the ground. One of them lost his helmet.

Shining Armor moved up on him and stared into the helmetless pony’s face.

What he saw…was a colt…

A young one.

Too young.

This colt didn’t look any older than the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Shock enveloped Shining Armor’s face. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“What has the world come to? Children in combat!? What twisted pony would authorize this!?”

The colt looked up at the Captain of the Guard and had started crying softly. He was gripping his stomach with both hooves, tearing rolling down his face. Shining Armor kneeled down and got a closer look. He noticed that the spot on the colt’s stomach were his hooves were, was very bloody.

Shining Armor moved the colt’s hooves with a stroke of his snout and noticed that the underside of the hooves were bloody as hell. Then the stomach, which had a huge gaping hole in it thanks to Shining Armor’s assault rifle, was leaking blood like a volcano, or an overfilled glass of water.

“Please don’t hurt me,” the little colt begged softly, huffing from his tears.

“They promised that they wouldn’t hurt mommy if I came with them,”

Shining Armor was at a loss for words. He didn’t know what to do expect stare at him with his mouth agape and a couple tears slowly going down his face as well. He grabbed the colt's helmet and slapped it back onto his head for no particular reason.What else was he supposed to do! He was no medic!

Then the colt said something Shining Armor wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life.

“I want my momma…” the little colt whined while shivering and coughing up blood.

Then the youth’s head fell back onto the ground as his gray helmet rolled off his head once more. His eyes were still open, filled with a gaze that could be interpreted as a look of fear and peace mixed together.

The colt lay still.

Right as death’s embrace gripped the young pony, Shining Armor realized something.

“I killed him…” he whispered to himself.

“I-I killed a foal,” his eyes were red with tears as stared down at the child’s body.

When he understood this, he noticed that the gunfire and explosions stopped. This caused him to stand up and observe the razed, smoking, and crater-gutted battlefield. He looked towards the fortress and saw his Royal Guard battalion meeting up with the defending fortress soldiers and surrounding what looked like one hundred to one-hundred and fifty Nod infantry and two Nod buggies.

When he noticed the shooting stopped, he squinted and galloped in that direction for a closer inspection. Every last Nod soldier was lying on the ground with their front-hooves thrown up in surrender. The Royal Guard battalion and the Equestrian regular garrison troops all had their weapons, whether it’d be M16s or spears, trained on the new prisoners of war.

The battle was over.

Equestria claimed victory today.

The sea of Equestrian military personnel parted to make way for a dark blue pony with brown eyes. He was a pegasus wearing the golden plate-armor of the Equestrian Army. It was pinned with countless medals and ribbons on each of his chest-plates.

He proudly stepped forward, and through his scorched and scraped face, he smiled brightly at the captured Nod soldiers.

“Get them out of here!” he ordered in a confident tone.

The blue pegasus turned towards the Captain of the Guard.

Shining Armor weakly smiled as he peered into the eyes of General Spark Shepherd.

Afterthought

Now that all of the preliminary chapters are done, now we can REALLY get into the story and it's plot! Yay?

Silver Alliance

Silver Alliance

“So…why is it that I have to be here and General Shepherd doesn’t?” Shining Armor asked his princess.

Both Princess Luna and The Captain of the Royal Guard were standing along the southern border with five hundred Royal Guards in tow. These were Shining Armor’s “Siege Stunners” the veterans from the battle of Fort Cadance a few days ago. He coined the name for the battalion and decided to make them his own personal guard detachment. He immediately recognized a few new faces that had replaced his casualties recently.

“General Shepherd is busy mobilizing our defense troops. You heard that these enemies have been spreading around Equestria, have you not?” Luna inquired, raising her eyebrow at her defense servant.

“Yeah, I’ve heard. Why do you think they call themselves The Brotherhood? The captured soldiers from Fort Cadance that we’ve interrogated kept ranting on about Divination and A New World Order. Its unnerving to listen to,” he frowned as he stared out into Karalian territory.

The lush and vibrant grassy fields across from them were only complimented by the purple mountain range in the backdrop. Celestia’s sun gave the landscape that shine of beauty. Shining Armor had heard that while northern Karalia was lively and beautiful, southern Karalia was a pony-made wasteland, thanks to the razing and destruction of the landscape by both the Ustian and Karalian armies.

“Some of them seem to be completely insane. Tiberium, Kane, Nod, your highness, what do all these words mean? I’ve heard many of them repeat these words multiple times during interrogation,”the white unicorn stallion eyed his princess with worry after he finished.

“We wish we can say, but we’re just as lost in the dark as you are,” Luna remarked glumly, as she dropped her head and sighed.

“Also, the public is getting all riled up about some green gems that seem to be spouting out of the ground all over Equestria. That seems kinda strange doesn’t it?” Shining Armor asked, desperately wanting at least one answer to his many questions.

“Well, thousand-year banishment of not, We’ve always known Equestria as a strange country with peculiar events being the norm,” Luna answered.

“So you’re saying its normal?” the Captain said with uncertainty.

“Perhaps. We shall learn more as we progress. Besides, this is much more important,” Luna emphasised, keeping a calm expression.

“What are we doing here?”

“You’ll see,”

After Luna spoke, a purple hot-air balloon touched down behind them and in front of the Royal Guards. Six brightly-colored mares hopped out.

“Ooooh! Why are all these Royal Guards here? Are we gonna have a parade!?” the pink pony with a high-pitched squealy voice yelped with glee.

The pink pony smiled a wide, toothy smile at the Royal Guards behind them. Some of the guards’ eyes grew wide and a few gunners slowly sunk their bodies down their turret hatches and out of view.

Squeak!

Even Pinkie Pie’s cutest squeak made some of the guards visibly uncomfortable.

“No Pinkie. Princess Luna called us out here to announce something important. Why she called us all the way out to the southern border beats me though,” Twilight Sparkle remarked, lifting her eyebrows at the peculiar scene.

She and her friends had landed their balloon in between a battalion of Royal Guards and her brother, who was talking to Luna while staring out across the border with their backs to her.

“Why are they facing in that direction for?” she pondered as she trotted in their direction, the ryhtmic clopping of her hooves clearly audible.

“Ahem,” Twilight cleared her throat.

Both ponies stopped their conversation and turned to the bookish unicorn.

“Your Highness,” Twilight stated politely, bowing before the lunar goddess.

“Ah! Twilght Sparkle and friends! Glad you all could make it!” Princess Luna announced upon seeing the six mares appoach and bow before her.

“Please rise,” she added.

The six friends rose and waited for Luna to speak. Shining Armor was more than surprised to see his little sister and her posse here. He decided to put down the binoculars he was holding and turned his body completely around to listen.

“My little ponies…we are at war,” Luna simply stated.

“An unknown enemy has infiltrated our borders and is wreaking havoc all across Equestria. Not much is known about them at this point. They call themselves The Brotherhood and appartently they use technologically advanced weapons to aid in their cause.

…Also, there is something else as well,” Luna added, her voice starting to quiver.

“Princess, ya just tell us what ya need and we’ll carry it out the best we can!” Applejack commented, ready to take on whatever challenge that may present itself.

“We are at your service, Princess,” Twilight added.

Luna took a deep breath and appeared to be nervous. She looked into Twilight’s eyes with a disheartening expression.

“The Elements of Harmony have disappeared,” the alicorn simply stated.

“WHAT!?” All six friends shouted in unison.

“Not again!” Rainbow Dash complained.

“This is just like what happened with that Discord feller!” Applejack groaned in exasperation.

“WE HAVE ALSO LEARNED SOMETHING ABOUT THE ELEMENTS THEMSELVES AFTER DOING A LITTLE RESEARCH!” the Princess shouted in the Royal Canterlot voice to yell over the complaining, groaning, and whining of the six Element bearers.

She cleared her throat to start her briefing but saw Shining Armor holding his ears and wincing in pain. All Luna could do was give him a guilty smile.

“Sorry,” she said in a contrastingly soft voice.

“Rest in peace eardrums,” he grunted quietly, his hooves still over his ears.

“It is said that when history witnesses a great change, the Elements disappear. They are hidden across the land, hidden together during the first two major changes in history and scattered apart the third time, to test the ponies that seek them. And only the true Element bearers can find them without the aid of the Tacitus,” Luna recited the passage she had read earlier in an aged book of legends that she had stumbled upon. It was in the Royal Library while she was looking for a passage on mysterious green gems.

“This tactic is employed by the Elements themselves as a countermeasure to falling into the wrong hooves during a time of crisis. Inconveinent for you of course. Seeing that Celestia had to gather the Elements to imprision us in the moon, the first and second changes of history have already been expended by you six,”

“Are you implying that we have to-” Twilight was cut off before she finished.

“The first being Nightmare Moon’s return and the second being Discord’s recent return. So yes, this time the Elements won’t be hidden together,” Luna finished.

“So…let me get this straight. You mean that the Elements are spread across Equestria and only we can find them? But what about this Tacitus?” Twilight asked, her inquisitive nature kicking in.

“I’ve never heard of that anywhere,” she shook her head, looking puzzled.

Luna scrunched her face momentarily. She was afraid Twilight might pick up on that.

“We might as well tell them the full legend. We were hoping this day wouldn’t come,” the princess thought.

Sure it was a long-shot, but for some unexplained reason, she felt that this topic was relevant to their predicament.

But why?

Why did she feel this way?

Why was it nessesary for her to tell them about this? Of course she knew about the Tacitus, but only from what Discord had told Celestia and her…

During their battle with him, two thousand years ago.

Discord had been trying to search for this mysterious anomaly once he realized that he was losing the battle against the Royal Pony Sisters. Luna remembered that Discord believed that it would give him an edge. Discord retreated frantically from the two alicorns, looking for his ace in the hole. He believed it could absorb the power of the Elements and thus, steal them from his adversaries.

But the Spirit of Chaos never found it.

He was turned to stone before he had a chance.

Twilight looked at her expectantly.

“Fine. The Tacitus is an anicent artifact that is said to be connected to the Elements of Harmony. In fact, the Elements are actually pieces of the Tacitus. The Tacitus itself is considered to be the object that created the universe,” Luna paused to take a breath, taking notice of the eavesdropping guards that were listening intently behind the six friends.

“It itself was created by a god that Discord had destroyed long before Celestia and I were born. His name was Tiberius Hoofius Seasoar, if memory serves us right,” Luna took a breath, almost completing her history lesson.

The Lunar Princess had two more important points to cover. As much she wanted to shut up and speak no more of the subject, a small voice inside of her urged her to let it out and convinced her that it was unhealthy to keep secrets bottled up for so long.

“The Tacitus must be united with the Elements of Harmony to function. And even then it still needs one more piece to the equation…” Luna paused, making the anticipation kill the six ponies sitting on their haunches, listening to the secrets of the past.

“The device itself is powered by a substance, supposedly one that bears that dead god’s name. This substance is said to have brought unspeakable horrors to the world in ancient times before Discord’s power vanquished it. And the Tacitus itself is said to be even worse. There is an ancient rumor that it has the ability to do anything the wielder wishes,” Luna began to visibly shake as just telling this tale was making her uncomfortable.

The contents and imagery of the next line used to give her nightmares when she was younger.

“Appartently, it has the power to vaporize entire worlds,” Luna finished.

“That would make sense really. After all, it did create the universe,” Rarity analyzed.

“Frightening. Does it really exist Princess?” the fashionista added shuddering at the concept that such destruction was possible.

“Not that we know of. Though if you asked Discord, he would claim it true,” the alicorn answered.

A retreating draconequus banked hard right to dodge a bolt fired from the Element of Laughter. Another bolt, this one from the Element of Loyalty, grazed his horn while letting out the cry of a riocheting bullet, and caused his tusk to singe.

He was losing.

Luna and Celestia were on his tail, Elements of Harmony in tow. Discord soared through the air, desperately trying to reach the volcano. This volcano was the spot where he had defeated Emperor Seasoar, and the spot where the Emperor made his grave.

“I can’t believe I let them get their hooves on the Elements! No matter, once I have the Tacitus, I can use it to absorb them. I was such a foal for not grabbing it when I had the chance! It has to be here! Can’t teleport just yet- a little closer an-”

Two bolts from the Elements of Kindness and Magic struck him in the back simultaneously. He cried out as he started to lose altitude, smoke billowing out from where he was hit. His body began to swivel out of control as gravity took a hold of him.

A bolt from the Element of Honesty drilled him in the shoulder during his descent and followed by a Element of Laughter bolt causing the Spirit of Chaos to grunt as it slammed into his gut.

His body rammed into the earth with a crash, kicking up dust from the newly-formed crater under him. To say he was disoriented was an understatement.

It was then when two majestic alicorn princesses approached him slowly. Their hooves clopped against the barren, hard ground beneath them, the Elements floating over their heads forming a perfect cirle with the Element of Magic in the middle.

The white light that emanated out of both alicorns’ eyes was as blinding as the identical light coming from the Elements themselves.

“DISCORD!” Celestia yelled in an powerful and otherworldly version of the Royal Canterlot voice.

“YOU HAVE TERRORIZED THIS WORLD FOR FAR TOO LONG! THE TIME HAS COME FOR JUSTICE TO BE SERVED!” the sun goddess declared.

“THIS FINAL BLOW WILL TURN YOU INTO STONE FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY AND ALL YOUR DELUSIONS OF YOUR PRECIOUS “TACITUS” SHALL BE WIPED FROM YOUR MEMORY! THE NEW WORLD MY SISTER AND I WANT TO BUILD WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH HORRIBLE WEAPONS…OR YOU!” Princess Luna’s voice boomed.

At the last line, both princesses channeled their energy into the Elements of Harmony and fired a beam reminiscent of that of a rainbow. It blasted through Discord’s magically hardened flesh and fur and burrowed deep into his body. It even reached his core and his soul. The stone chewed its way through his body until all was taken over. His pained scream was the last thing heard as everything went silent.

Rainbow hopped ontop of Pinkie’s back and gave Luna a confused look.

“So you’re telling us about an artifact that can end life as we know it why?” Rainbow demanded, tilting her head in curiousity.

Luna ignored the disrespect and answered sheepishly while pointing a hoof at Twilight.

“She asked,”

Pinkie Pie took this chance to turn her head three hundred and sixty degrees and looked up at the pegasus standing on her.

Rainbow gave her a confused glance.

“What?” she bluntly asked her friend.

Pinkie proceeded to give Rainbow Dash one long lick from the bottom her chin, over her mouth and nose, all the way to the top of her forehead. When the pink pony completed her task, she went wall-eyed with her tongue still sticking out, her face a mere few inches from Dash’s.

Rainbow just blinked and stared at her hyper pink friend for a few seconds.

“Uhh…”

“So you do taste like ice cream!” Pinkie cheered happily while clapping her forehooves together in delight.

Rainbow wiped some of Pinkie’s drool from her mouth and shifted her eyes back and forth uncomfortably.

“RRIIIGGHHT,” was the only response the cyan flier could formulate as one of her wings twitched briefly.

“Did I…enjoy that?” the pegasus pushed the thought away in horror as a shiver went down her spine.

The creaking of deisel engines could be heard as two tiny black specs became visible over the hoizon from across the border. As the two specs got closer, the noise of the roaring engines only grew louder.

The tracked vehicles that stopped in front of them reminded Shining Armor of the ‘Battle of The Valley’ as the engagement that took place at Fort Cadence was being called. They looked exactly like the light tanks that his Seige Stunners fought.

The only difference was that these were painted pure black, in contrast to the light gray of the Nod tank. The two ponies in each of the turret seats had hopped out and landing in front of their respective tanks.

There was a short yellow unicorn colt on the left. He looked very young and was donned in all black. His bell-shaped helmet had a single silver bar painted on the front of it and on the collar of his solid black combat uniform also showed the bar again, one on each side.

His mane was sticking out of the bottom of his helmet, revealing him to be blond with sky blue eyes. His uniform hid his cutie mark and held the submachinegun laying over his back in place. A pair of night vision googles with light green lenses sat over his helmet with what appeared to be a microphone attached to it.

He looked completely lost and astonished, but then he scanned and picked out a certain yellow pegasus in the group across from him, and stared intently. Fluttershy grew nervous and slowly backed up to hide behind Rarity, poking her head out slightly at the two newcomers.

“He’s creepy,” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Shh…it’s okay darling,” Rarity whispered back to her.

The other was dressed in the same fashion as the yellow unicorn but instead of a single silver bar, his helmet and collars displayed dual gold bars linked together by thinner gold bars on the top and bottom of the insignia.

This one was a brown earth pony with olive green eyes. His mane also showed brown and stood about the height of Twilight Sparkle. He also looked younger than her as well. Over his back laid a chrome black, Mare-4 assault rifle and a katana with a hoof grip, clipped to his uniform on his flank. He also had an exact replica of the yellow unicorn’s googles over his helmet as well.

His face was stern yet exhausted.

He did not look like he had smiled in a month.

He eyed the group of ponies in front of him with curiosity. He rose an eyebrow, sighed, and turned to face Luna. He then struck out with the wierdest salute Twilight and her friends have seen.

He had his saluting foreleg tucked in close to his chest, rather than sticking out at an angle like a normal salute would have looked, and the bottom of his hoof was facing back towards him, the tip touching the brim of his helmet. The yellow unicorn followed suit and snapped his own identical salute.

“Who are these weirdos?” Rainbow Dash thought, giving both of the foreigners an glance that betrayed her feeling of awkwardness.

“Ma’am, Ensign Silverstein reports as ordered,” the brown earth pony half-yelled in a young voice with a professional tone.

The alicorn goddess shifted her eyes awkwardly at the situation, not having any clue how to respond to that. Shining Armor glared at the display of improper acknowledgement.

“That courtesy might be proper for a senior officer but to a *Princess*!? Who does this prick think he is?” the Guard Captain audibly growled at the thought, almost loud enough to draw attention.

Twilight caught on to tension and awkwardness and decided to act immediately. She cleared her throat and glared to both of them to get the two ponies across from her to look in her direction.

“Pssst…you’re supposed to bow,” she whispered to them with a nervous smile, failing terribly at being inconspicuous.

The brown colt dropped his salute and turned to the violet unicorn.

“Uhh…you’re serious?” he replied aprehensively.

Her violet eyes strained even harder at him.

He shot his subordinate a bemused glance and the yellow unicorn just responded by cutting his salute and kneeling to the ground in a pitiful bow. The brown pony merely sighed and dropped as well.

As he began to speak again, a feeling awkwardness overtook him.

He had never bowed before.

Maybe to dodge a stray bullet or to do push-ups but never as a formality.

“Your highness…my apologizes.  Ensign Blaze Silverstein, field commander of the Delta Strike Commandos, Republic of Karalia Special Forces Division,”

He pointed a hoof towards the yellow unicorn.

“This is my second-in-command, First Lieutenant Thundercoy Davis. By the orders of the Chancellor of Karalia himself, I am hereby obligated to confirm that our nation is willing to extend a military alliance with the Kingdom of Equestria,”

The Ensign was trying his best to be as professional as possible and to hide his nervousness. He cleared his throat and prepared to speak again.

“Also by the order of the Chancellor, I and my division are to be placed under the command of the Royal Pony Sisters and I myself am to be treated with the equal rank and respect as your ‘Captian of the Royal Guard’. We have also been notified that all Delta members are to train your Royal Guards in the art of modern weaponry,”

The dark blue alicorn was visibly stunned.

All of that came so fast that there was no way she could’ve absorbed everything the brown young stallion in front of her just said. Needless to say, she still didn’t completely trust ANY Karalian thus far.

“Uhh…so we already have created a plan to seek out the relocated Elements of Harmony and integrate our own troops with our Karalian allies,” Luna announced, though her voice seemed strained at the mention of the country.

As she went ahead to speak of her and Shining Armor’s plan, they came to the conclusion that Twilight and her friends must split up and search across Equestria in teams. Each team will consist of mixed Royal Guard and Delta Commando forces, allowing the Karalians to train the Royal Guards in the field.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Lieutenant Davis were to make up the first group with some attached Royal Guards and Deltas for protection. Their mission was to search for the Elements in western Equestria, from Ponyville to Manhattan.

The second group would be responsible for Eastern Equestria, spanning from Canterlot all the way to Appleloosa. This team would consist of Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Ensign Silverstein, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and the other half of the coalition troops.

“It’s settled then, everypony up to speed?” Shining Armor asked.

“Well Captain, my Mirage Battalion will be here soon to mingle with your Guards. Most of them, including myself and Davis, are veterans of the Ustian war. But don’t worry, I’ll tell my colts to play nice,” Blaze told Shining while giving him a wink.

Shining Armor frowned as the brown earth pony passed him and advanced towards his sister and her friends.

“I have an ominous feeling that me and this Karalian kid are gonna have issues,” Shining Armor thought, his gut feeling like he had swallowed a rock.

He already disliked the Ensign.

As he watched Blaze make acquaintances with the six mares, he heard the buzzing of more engines from across the border.

“So uhh…Ensign is it?” Twilight asked apprehensively.

The brown pony looked at all six of the attractive mares in front of him and choked on his words as he tried to speak.

Rainbow and Twilight raised their eyebrows at each other as Blaze was trying his best to resist a faint blush on his cheeks.

“Aww, his cheeks are turning a delightful shade of red. Isn’t that cute?” Rarity mused as the others began to chuckle.

He frowned slightly and took a deep breath and tried to speak again. This time the mares’ laughter cut him off and he sighed in frustration. No matter what he did, he couldn’t shake the speechlessness.

This only made his face redder.

“Ok girls, I think he’s had enough,” Twilight said as she let out the last of her giggles.

“Right...anyways Ensign, tell us more about yourself,” Twilight asked with a grin.

“What IS Karalia like anywho?” Applejack inquired.

“Have you ever killed anypony?” Rainbow brashly asked, earning a jab in the ribs from Twilight.

“Rainbow!”

“What!?”

“HUUUU! HI! I’M PINKIE PIE! WHAT’S YOUR NAME!? DO YOU LIKE TO PARTY!? BECAUSE I LIKE TO PARTY! DO YOU WANNA BE MY FRIEND? PLEASE SAY YES! PLEASE SAY YES! I ALWAYS WANT NEW FRIENDS! I EVEN WROTE A SONG ABOUT IT AND STARTED A FLASH MOB IN PONYVILLE! WHY DO THEY CALL IT A FLASH MOB ANYWAY? THERE’S NO FLASHING AND THERE’S NO MOBBING EITHER BUT I DID FIND A TACO! DOES THAT METAL THING ON YOUR BACK SHOOT LOLIPOPS?! I WANT ONE! I LOVE ALL LOLIPOPS EXCEPT FOR GRAPE FLAVORED! WHY ARE YOU SO YOUNG? HAVE YOU EVER LICKED YOUR FRIEND’S FACE THINKING IT WAS ICE CREA-”

“Ok Pinkie, let’s try to not to fry his brain today. Alright?” Rainbow chuckled sheepishly as she pushed Pinkie Pie away from him with a hoof over the pink pony’s still active mouth.

“Sorry about that. She can be a little…”

“Overbearing?” Blaze finished.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Twilight confirmed.

An awkward silence began to ensue as the Karalian looked over his shoulder to watch a convoy of black humvees and light tanks cross the border into Equestria.

“My battalion’s here,” he stated blandly, no emotion to betray whatever feelings he had, if he had any.

“Well, if I may introduce myself finally, my name is Twilight Sparkle,” the unicorn said with a heartwarming smile.

The Karalian saw her offer her hoof and he shook it.

“Nice to meet you too. Judging by your lack of uniforms…or clothes for that matter, I’ll assume that you guys are civilians. In that case, Blaze or Silver will do fine,” he said as he released Twilight’s hoof.

“Why, hello Blaze. My name is Rarity if you may,” the other unicorn addressed with her best ettique as she gracefully bowed in front of him.

Blaze, without a clue of how to react, but stood there naively.

“Howdy there pardner! You got any trouble, you come ta Applejack, ya hear?”  an orange earth pony said as she shook his hoof with a vengance, making him dizzy.

Applejack realized what she was doing and let go, causing the young military officer to stumble and fall flat on his face.

“Whoops…” the farm-pony uttered.

As his face left the dirt-covered ground, a wide-eyed Pinkie Pie stood mere inches from his face. She gazed down at him and glared with the poutest face the hyper pink pony could make.

“…PINK-IE PIE!” she growled slowly and deliberately as she backed away cautiously, still glaring at him with every step.

“FEAR ME!” she yelled randomly into the air as she suddenly turned around and ran away, giggling like a schoolfilly.

After that, a cyan pegasus flew in front of him and hovered a few feet in the air.

“Oh yeah!” she grunted with a cocky flair as she licked her hoof and slicked her mane back with it.

She stretched her legs and wings, as if she was getting ready for a race.

“Name’s Rainbow Dash. Buuuuttt, I’m pretty sure you’ve already heard stories of my bravery and awesomeness,” she milked as her voice cracked mid-sentence.

“Uhhh…and who are you?”

The brown earth pony was pointing his hoof at a butter-colored mare trying to hide behind Rarity once more. She poked her head out and with great reluctance, she spoke.

“I’m Fluttershy,” she whispered as she lost confidence in mid-sentence.

“…She’s Fluttershy,” Twilight reverberated.

“Delicate as a water lily,”Rarity added.

“Quiet, shy, and yellow-coated? She reminds me of Davis already,” Blaze commented.

“So Blaze, you’re about our age. Er…maybe a little younger. How did you become a commanding officer so fast?” Twilight asked with geniune curiousity.

“It’s kinda easy when the Deltas recruit foals at five years old. I’ve been either in training or fighting the Ustians for about ten years now,” Blaze replied.

“Ok, so I’ve been the Ensign for four years, which apparently is quite a feat, considering that most Ensigns usually get clipped by their second or third year. So if I get clipped, Davis is the new Ensign. One time, our country chewed through twenty-six Ensigns in the span of one year. That would also explain how a buffon like me finally got his turn,” the Karalian answered, chuckling at the dark humor.

“Hmm…how many Ensigns does your military field at a time?” Shining Armor asked, sneaking up behind him.

“Well…uh, one. One at a time to command the Deltas. I die, Davis takes my place. Davis dies, somepony else will take his. Neat system, right?” Blaze quipped.

“Not that much different from us…I still don’t like him though. Hehe,” the guard captain thought.

Then he noticed something strange that caught his eye. A black pegasus with a few yellow stripes in his mane approached Blaze, donning a metal gold dot on the front of his Delta helmet. The odd-looking pegasus snapped Blaze one of those funky-looking Karalian salutes.

Blaze quickly returned it and they both cut simultaneously.

“Sergeant Matrix, good to see your still alive,” Blaze smiled.

“You know I can’t be killed sir,” Matrix replied with a cocky yet playful undertone.

“Yeah, that’s what the sergeant that you replaced told me. I’m putting you in charge of Alphex team. Think you can handle it?” the Ensign asked with a smile.

“I save your life and you only give me Alphex team? What’s up with that?” the pegasus replied with an evil smile.

“It was one time man! Haha, you take care of yourself Matty,” Blaze chuckled as Matrix saluted him and Blaze returned it.

As the black pony left the scene, Shining Armor was appalled.

“He…that coat color…what the…” he mumbled incohernetly.

“Actually, black-colored ponies are pretty common in Karalia,” Blaze stated matter-of-factly.

“You Karalians are wierdos. So…different from us…yet…so similar,” Princess Luna wondered outloud, trotting in between Blaze and Shining.

“We just spoke with a lot of your stallions…and mares, commander. Mares in the military! Can you believe that?! Why doesn’t our big sister have that already? We’re going to legalize it in Equestria too!” Luna droned on happily, excited that her prejudice against the Karalians had been proven wrong for the moment.

Blaze smiled at that.

Today was an excellent day for him.

He usually never smiles this much.

“We were having doubts about you foreigners, but your troops are so well-mannered! They even bowed properly for us!” Luna cried with elation, as she could swore she felt her heart flutter with joy.

Silverstein laughed nervously at that, his own botched greeting attempt with the lunar goddess still fresh in his mind. He was also wondering why his troops decided to act like angels now, when usually his troops heartless killers on the battlefield.

Maybe the Equestrians gave them the boost in morale and spirit that the Deltas so desperately needed. After only knowing a nation ripped apart by constant war, the sight of these rather peaceful Equestrian ponies must have opened up their hearts in a way, even if it was only for a brief moment.

“We will take our leave to check up on our big sister and her recovery. Farewell, brave souls,”

And with that, Luna flew off into the sky, the sun sitting high among the clouds, indicating that it was around noon.

“Hey, I think its time we split up into our teams and get this thing started. What do you say?” Shining Armor asked.

“After you…” Blaze replied.

Huge filler chapter! Plot advancement and no action! Sorry guys but don’t worry, things will start to pick up again starting next chapter!