Author's Note

So I thought I did a good job because the cheap-o spell check I used only found three words incorrect, then I put it in here and noticed all the red squiggles and died a little inside. (LOL) Anyways, Hope you enjoy the new chapter, sorry it took a while, had a lot going on the past week.

New Base of Operations

"Surprise!" Pinkie shouted, leaping from her hiding spot.

The two legged thingy-majiggers jumped and screamed in response to her well thought out surprise party. Confetti rained down around the room, showering everyone in colorful pieces of paper and glitter.

"What the fuck!?" the taller, slightly more muscular one shouted as he looked like he was dancing around with his fore-hooves raised in front of his face.

"Welcome to Ponyville! Well-I-guess-this-isn't-really-Ponyville-but-we-are-kinda-sorta-close-so-it-sorta-counts-but-I-digress." Pinkie rambled in one speedy breath. "I guess in that case, welcome to Equestria!"

Oddly enough, the banner that hung behind her read 'Welcome to Ponyville but I guess this isn't really Ponyville but we are kinda sorta close so it sorta counts/Equestria' on it.

"What the hell are you?" The dancing one asked again.

"I'm a pony. What are you Dennis?" she answered, as he gawked at her when she said his name.

"How'd you know my name?"

"I heard you and you're friends talking, duh. It's not like I know the script or anything." Pinkie said, pulling a tray of cupcakes from within her mane. "I have cupcakes."

"Sorry but my dad taught me never to accept anything from strange... horse creatures." Tod said, as he pulled everyone back towards the door they entered in.

"Well that's oddly specific, but OK. We'll just have to become not-strangers. I'm Pinkie Pie." She said extending her hoof.

"And I'm leaving." Tod answered pushing everyone out the door and slamming it shut behind them.

"But I thought your name was Tod?" they heard her muffled response through the door, as they all felt a chill run down their spines.

'What the fuck was this thing, a psychic?' Tod thought as they all hurried down the spiral stairs. Something was definitely not normal with that one.

Pinkie Pie's eyes narrowed as she mumbled "Oh, you will have a cupcake..."
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Shawn and Sadie pushed the branches aside as they moved to the castle, the Titan lumbering through the trees with ease. The castle had surely seen its better days, but it would do for a shelter for the time being. Along the parapets of the castle a lone silhouette stood out. The sniper waved at the titan who in turn waved a greeting back as it climbed through a hole in the outer wall into the overgrown courtyard near the rear of the stone masterpiece that once appeared to house royalty.

"Sadie, set the Titan to patrol the inner perimeter of the castle. We will bunker down here for the foreseeable future." Shawn said as he released his piloting clamps and climbed from the gaping cavity that was the chest of his Atlas.

Once his boots hit soil, the Titan sealed itself and began a slow walk, quietly thumping around the inside of the outer wall, it's camera and sensor arrays flitting this way and that as it searched for threats.
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"What?!" Luna shouted in her royal voice before toning it down a bit after seeing everypony flinch. "Got away? How!?"

The Night Princess, along with the Captain of both the Lunar and Solar Guard were present, awaiting the arrival of Celestia.

Spitfire tensed as she readied her explanation. "We don't know. It was there one minute, gone the next. We don't even know what it was. Maybe whoever took the Commander was fleeing from that thing as well when we arrived."

The Captain of the guard cleared his throat. "Describe this creature once more please Sergeant."

"It stood taller than a house, a barn even. It looked to have hardened skin, to rival even a dragons scales. It's eyes, if all those glowing spots could be called that, glowed a fierce blue."

"And you said it spoke?" Luna asked, leaning in to eye Spitfire.

"Well, yes and no." Spitfire mumbled.

"Please, explain." Celestia said, as she entered the room from behind Spitfire, causing her to jump a little.

"Well, it didn't exactly say anything so much as make a noise. All it said was 'Boo'." she said, mimicking its gesture with raised fore-hooves. "Which in and of itself could mean a number of things. Yet coupled with the movement of its forelimbs, was clearly an intent to scare."

"It does seem odd that it would use the same phrase we use to childishly scare our young, or our friends." Celestia mused, rubbing under her chin with a gold clad hoof. "Shining Armor, Darkest Night?"

"Princess?" Shining and Darkest snapped to attention at the mention of their names.

"Do we still have a location on Starlight and Willow?" She asked.

"Well, we did, but they seem to have vanished. No spells we have tried have succeeded in regaining their location." Shining reported, slight defeat in his voice as Darkest lowered his head as well.

Either whoever captured them were using counter-spells to jam their tracking spells, or their magical signature was no longer to be found. At this thought, Celestia's face grew grim. "Maybe it's time to enlist the help of the Uni-Corps."
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Rainbow Dash flew ahead of the group, guiding them to where she saw the thing land. It had happened a day ago but Fluttershy insisted that it was too late to go that far into the Everfree.

"How much farther dear? My hooves are killing me." Rarity said, shaking the soreness out of her hooves.

"Not far, I can see something just over this hill" Rainbow called out before streaking through the sky.

Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy followed. For some reason Dash couldn't find Pinkie, and according to the Cakes, she had been missing since the thing had flown over the town. Oddly enough, she had taken several dozen cupcakes, her party cannon, and some other party supplies when she left. Celestia knows what Pinkie was doing right now.

The ponies crested the hill and gasped when they saw the furrow dug into the forest. at the end of the trench sat a gleaming angular metal box. One side of it was split open, where several oddly shaped hoof-prints that were wearing smooth tracked all around but then mysteriously vanished as if they either disappeared or flew away.

They approached the open side and peeked into its interior.

"It looks like a carriage, with all those seats, but those seats look too high to be comfortable for a pony." AJ said as she trotted into the awaiting door.

"It looks absolutely horrid, who ever would want to ride in a carriage that looks like this..." Rarity trailed off, shuddering at the lack of any use of color as her eyes danced over the surface of gunmetal grey and worn, matte black.

"If this is a carriage, where do the ponies hook into it to pull it?" Dash asked as she hovered near the nose of the ship.

"Maybe that part broke off dear, after all it did fall out of the sky." Rarity said as she took a drink from her canteen and fanned herself with a dainty paper fan she had packed.

"If so then what happened to the pegasi escort? They should have sought out help." Dash said matter-of-factly. "They just let it fall and smash into the ground?"

AJ climbed through the door into the cockpit while Fluttershy hovered around near the back of the ship. Applejack pressed against one of the round things in front of the seats and a squeak was heard as Fluttershy zoomed to Rainbow and hid behind her.

"Something on it just moved, AJ, do that again!" Rainbow shouted, this time keeping an eye on the back of the ship.

AJ pressed her hooves into the round thing again and two flaps on the stubs sticking off the back tilted and pitched.

"It looks like... wings..." Rainbow said as she gently hovered closer to the back. "But they're made of metal and thats the only piece that moves. How does this thing fly?"
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Twilight stood on the balcony, overseeing the operation when suddenly she heard that beeping noise behind her once more. She trotted back into the messy room and stood still as a statue waiting to hear the noise again. Several minutes went by but to no avail. Just as she was about to move she heard a vibrating noise followed by a series of beeps.

Quickly following the trail of sounds she discovered a small black box that blinked a red light at her three times before it went completely dark. Whatever it was, it could vibrate, beep, and had a shiny glass-like surface on one side, and a rough plastic or rubber on the other.

Unsure of what it was, she called one of the unicorns and had him take it and place it with the slowly growing pile of interesting things she pulled from the house. Among that pile was almost every small sleek device that had buttons on it but had no discernible use and many of the appliances from around the house.

The research of the house was coming along nicely. She had discovered pictures hung here and there around the rooms. Most of them depicted the same three creatures, all of them bipedal, that appeared to be hairless clothed minotaurs of some sort. A passing unicorn caught her attention however as he was carrying a large stack of books.

Confused, she stopped the unicorn. "Excuse me, but we really shouldn't have anything in here that wasn't already here. It could contaminate the house."

"Sorry ma'am, but these books aren't ours, they were found in a bookcase on the second floor." He answered as he turned to leave.

Gasping she wrenched the books from his magical grasp. She could read the text on the pages plain as day. She couldn't believe it, extra equines that had the same written text? Possibly the same spoken language? What are the odds. Astronomical, no pun intended, judging by how many stars have been created over the centuries, nay millennia, by the Alicorns.

Then it finally sunk in. Books, from another planet, that she could read. A high pitched squeal echoed through the dome that threatened to shatter the windows in the house, followed by an earsplitting crack as Twilight teleported out of the house to her library in Ponyville. She pulled a few books off her own personal shelves and placed them into the now 'Alien' section for future study before teleporting back.

Standing on the observation deck she decided to take a few minutes to get an overview on the progress. Much of the surrounding soil had been broken away to be analyzed for mineral composition and nutrients. On the other side, a select few of the strange gadgets from inside were being dismantled by a team of unicorns, while another team scribbled furiously notes about how they were being taken apart.

Twilight's gaze fell upon the piles of the strange weapons still gathered on the remaining land around the house. She wondered silently to herself the purpose of having so many weapons, and why they were at a place of residence. Only time will tell.
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Shawn entered the throne room of the castle. He had to admit, if this castle belonged to the ponies, they had done a hell of a job building it. Silently musing on how they lifted all the heavy stones that it was made up of, he patiently waited for the rest of the group to gather for the meeting he had called.

Slowly, the groups started to emerge from all side of the room. Everyone tensed when shouting was heard from one of the corridors directly behind the thrones. Shawn drew his sidearm and readied for a skirmish as the teens burst from its inky depths.

"What?!" Leo shouted, grabbing his sub machine gun from the table. "What happened?!"

After a tense moment where everyone recovered, panting, Dennis coughed "Pony. Another pony - upstairs - tower."

Shawn, Leo, and Sonny were off like a starter pistol fired, sprinting through the corridor to the base of the tower. The rest of the Militia secured the throne room until the remaining groups arrived. Marie, John and Tanner, escorted by Farahad came into the room.

Seeing everyone on edge Farahad asked "Who pissed in your guys Cheerios?"

Kale looked at him and shook his head. "Unknown contact, more of those pony things, in the castle."

Farahad simply sighed and pulled up a chair which was comicly too short, being pony made, for how tall the six foot nine inch man was. Everyone relaxed seeing as how calmly he reacted as opposed to the knee jerk reaction the other three had. After all, they couldn't do much but wait until the others returned to find out what happened.
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Inching up the last few stairs, weapons scanning their sectors, Shawn, Sonny and Leo stacked up on the door. Holding up three fingers, Leo counted down then swiftly kicked the door open and swept into the room with his SMG at the ready. Shawn and Sonny followed shortly after, scanning every nook and cranny the room had to offer.

Moments later they rejoined the main group in the throne room, and were promptly swarmed by the teens with questions.

"Did you get it?" Becky asked.

"Did she know your name?" Both Dennis and Tod said in unison.

"You didn't hurt it did you?" Dillan worried.

"Enough!" Shawn shouted. "No. None of that. Nothing was up there. Just a dusty empty room with an overturned bookcase."

"No confetti? No cupcakes?" Tod asked.

"Why the hell would there have been confetti or cupcakes?" Leo asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"We didn't... no there's no way we all four hallucinated the same thing, but how did it get away so fast?" Dennis wondered.

"Oh come on Dennis," Tod breathed. "You saw how that thing literally jumped out of a chest the size of a shoe box, not to mention the cannon that was pulled out of its hair. Laws of conservation of matter clearly don't apply here. It wouldn't surprise me if it just poofed it all away."

"Look we'll continue this discussion later, everyone just keep an eye or ear out for anything out of place until this meeting is over." Shawn said as he approached the center of the room. "Alright listen up."

Sadie used his arm mounted control unit to project a three dimensional rendered map of the surrounding land that she had gathered with the titans sensors on their way here.

"We are here currently." A bright blue dot appeared on the miniature 3D castle. "Fire-team Juliet passed over a small town, about a hundred kilometers from their crash site, here and here.

Two more dots popped up, one on the area that depicted a crashed ship, the other just a foggy area of land that hadn't been mapped yet.

"That puts us about thirty Kilometers from the town now, since we've moved closer. Our old camp was here." Yet another dot appeared, this one next to the lake, far to the east. "Sadie and I have also noted a structure, resembling a large city, suspended high on the side of this mountain. Estimated range, Several thousand Kilometers, if not tens of thousands."

A mountain was constructed via the 3D projection off in the distance, with a city jutting off its side.

"So far these are the only two points of civilization we know of. The flying bat ponies and bird ponies, er pegasi, attacked us from this direction, indicating they came from this city on the mountain." Two red arrows branched from the castle in the north and spread to the lake and crashed ship.

"Any questions so far?" Shawn asked, looking around the group.

"Just one, Bird ponies?" Leo chortled as Shawn flipped him a middle finger.

"I've got one." Dillan said, raising his hand.

"This isn't school, spit it out."

"Why did they attack us? I mean, first contact, wouldn't you try to communicate first?"

"Well, about that. We may have thrown the first punch during our recovery mission of fire-team Juliet. The bat ponies had been waiting in ambush, so we got the drop on them."

"But what if it wasn't an ambush, what if it was just recon?" Dillan shot back, clearly irritated that a ranking officer in the Militia would be so careless.

"Look, when we are talking about the lives of my men, I don't take chances." Shawn growled back. "You want to call the shots for your friends, fine by me, but I don't take that risk."

Dillan's pride was wounded, but he was right. Had it been his friends surrounded by aliens, if he had the ability, he would have fought them all off too.

"If we are through with this Q and A, this is the plan." Shawn said, returning to the projection.
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Pinkie, perched atop one of the many banners that protruded from the supporting columns, listened intently as the big man in the scary blue helmet went over the plan. As he continued, a smile spread across her face as she rubbed her hooves together.

"You will eat the cupcakes." she whispered in a slightly evil tone.