MiE: Divided Path

"Why do you guys have so much endurance?" The changeling me panted, struggling to keep up.

"He's SEALs, while I'm EOD. We're basically PT gods of the military, since we gotta be sexy as hell." I answered, poking my head around a corner. At the end of the hallway, a guard's face imploded as a 5.56mm bullet smashed into it. Thankfully, we were able to find silencers to put on the guns, so it was a lot easier to sneak around.

Had it not been for the fact that we were a group consisting of ponies, weak changelings, a naga, and humans.

"Tango down." I muttered, sprinting down the hallway about halfway and bringing my rifle back to my shoulder to cover the others.

"Tango down." Ryan muttered into his radio on his end before sprinting towards us. "How long do we have until the C-4 detonates, Mark?" He asked once he was crouching next to me again, rifle also at the ready.

"Roughly thirty seconds. The way I set it up, this whole damn section is going down." I answered, shooting a window out, and sending a silent prayer to whoever would listen that there would be a lake or something at the bottom. "We're going to have to jump, and I mean that."

"Fuck..." Ryan muttered, before nodding. "Let's get going then. I'm first." Before I could object, he dashed down the hall and swan dived through the window.

"Looks like you boys need a lift." Another SEALs' voice said through the radio that Ryan had. A Black Hawk rotated into position, allowing us easy access to get on board, except for one problem...

"Naga, you realize you can't come with us, right? You're too big to fit on the chopper." I said to him, who nodded.

"I can teleport us to the rendevous, if you wish." A moderately healthy changeling offered.

"That could be suicide and you know it." I replied.

"It's my duty to the Queen to help her allies in anyway possible." He replied. "If I die saving the naga so he can fight another day, so be it."

"You got a lot of guts, I'll give you that." I smiled a little. "Best of luck to you both, now get on outta here. That bomb's gonna blow any second." With that piece of advice, I quickly got my sexy ass onto the Black Hawk as the two winked out of existance, and we buggered out of there as part of the castle imploded.

"...How the fuck did you manage to do that with three HE grenades, a smoke grenade, and a brick of C-4?" Ryan asked after the section stopped caving in.

"Honestly, it just came naturally to me." I answered, leaning back. "As a pony, my cutie mark is of the Corps logo and some C-4 bricks."

"Wait, you turned into a pony?" A changeling weakly asked. Sadly, his wounds were physical, so I couldn't give him nourishment via emotional drain.

"I stumbled upon a patch of flowers known as Poison Joke." I answered. "After getting the cure, Dawn deemed it fit to allow me to keep being Sand Dune, in a sense." Thinking for a brief moment, I closed my eyes as I blinded everyone for a split second. When they were able to regain their senses, they were looking at Sand Dune.

"I'm getting too old for this..." The SEAL from earlier, Lt. McGarrett, muttered.

"You're only, like, 30 or something." I replied with a smirk.

"And how old are you?" Steve shot back.

"37, in my real body. This body's... about 13 or so." I answered. He seemed to shrug and sit back, while I did my best to tend to a dying changeling. I'm not familiar with their body and definitely not a medic, but I did enough to stabilize his ass.

"Thank you... King..." He panted, almost causing me to fall out of the chopper in surprise.

'The fuck is she telling her drones?!' I screamed in my mind. When I got back to base, I'm having a serious talk with Chrysalis regarding her troops. But the first stop was the detention center for the traitorous Day Guards.

[At HQ]

"How many made it out after we nuked the place?" I asked, looking over the newly installed map. It came complete with moving squiggles, representing our troops. There were also names under some of them to represent officers.

At my insistence, we have a Wanted board with only two faces so far; Celestia and John Jamesson. I wanted that fucker dead before he knew what happened, but a guy can dream.

"From the reports at the nearest outpost that came in, two changelings, a pegasus, a Diamond Dog and a naga of all things. All claim that they busted out with you, and the only one I don't really believe is the Dog." Dawn said, looking down at a report.

"Dog's not lying." I told him. "What'd they say?"

"All of them are with the NLR. We have them in the hospital, though the naga was the only one mostly unharmed." He answered. I nodded, and rubbed my chin.

'Wonder which changeling didn't make it...' I thought. 'It's a shame that they died, but I did warn all of them about what could happen.'

"Take me to them." I requested. Dawn nodded and teleported away; and we ended up in Ponyville General.

"It's good to see you in one piece, human." The naga rumbled, log of a sword held loosely in grip.

"And the same to you, naga. Would you mind letting us through?" I asked, smiling a little.

"Certainly." He said, slithering out of the way. He muttered something to Dawn, who merely rolled his eyes.

Once we got into the room, a ball that Dash normally used when she ended up here bounced off of my chest and to the ground.

"Well, I guess I gotta stop." A changeling muttered, before grinning a little. "I'd get up to salute you, but I'm kinda worn out. Hope you understand."

"How'd you survive? From what I've seen, teleportation spells are very hard for normal changelings." I asked, honestly curious.

"I was about to die, but the naga allowed me to take enough of his emotions to continue on." He explained, then tapped an IV. "Just glad that Sir Gallan found out about salt water being exactly like love to changelings. I'd rather take this than drain a pony, honestly."

"Think you want to be on my personal guard?" I asked, grinning a little. This seemed to brighten him up considerably.

"It would be an honor, King Mark!" He exclaimed, then winced a little. "Though, I need to rest for the rest of the day, first."

"You do that." I said, walking out. Time to plan a machine for changelings...