Shawn stood atop a higher tier of the castles parapets, surveying the surrounding land through his helmets magnification function. Davis, who was napping in the corner next to Sonny who was field stripping and cleaning his Mark 82 'Spitfire' LMG, mumbled something and slowly awoke. His eyes still bleary with sleep, he propped himself up and turned to face the Major.

"Hey Sir. I miss anything?" he asked Shawn, rubbing his eye with a gloved hand.

"Nah, not much. Just still trying to formulate some kind of defense if we get hit while we are here." Shawn answered, his focus locking onto something that glinted in the distance.

"Wait one. Davis, to me now. Bring your rifle."

The sniper instantly shot awake at the mention of needing his rifle, that usually wasn't a good sign. He hefted the Kraber Anti Material rifle and crept over to where Shawn was now taking cover behind the battlements.

"Bearing, two - one - seven, I picked up something that glinted in the sunlight, see if you can't see anything over there."

Davis brought the high powered scope to his eye and scanned the horizon, but failed to find anything. He dialed up the magnification a bit more and took another look, this time seeing something flash across his scope as he swept. Zeroing in on whatever it was he could barely make out a distinct pony shape flitting about over the treetops.

"Lone contact, one Pegasus pony. Too distant to make out any distinct features, seems to be communicating with someone ground side. Scratch that, two Pegasi contacts. They don't appear to be armored, possible civili... woah damn! That one is fast! Lost first contact. Took off in the direction of that town you mentioned earlier."
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Applejack climbed out of the strange carriage. Rarity was busy avoiding stepping in any filth, which just happened to be ninety eight percent of the forest according to her. Pinkie was still nowhere to be seen, and Fluttershy now joined rainbow above the treetops.

"Rainbow!" AJ called out. The multi-hued pony looked at the farm pony below as she jumped down from the belly of the metal beast. "Fly back to Ponyville and get spike to send a letter to Twi. Tell her that we found whatever it was that fell from the sky, and she should be here to see it herself. She probably knows more about this stuff than any of us."

Rainbow saluted and took off in a prismatic streak towards town to get the purple dragon to send Twilight a message.

"Well I guess there's nothing to do but set up camp and wait for Twilight." AJ finished as she pulled the tent out from her saddle bags and began setting it up, the other ponies following suit.
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Kale and Leo sat guard outside the cells of the two temporary detainees. The ponies sat quietly, eyeing the humans warily.

"So," Kale tried to strike up conversation. "do you ponies eat plants? cause, its been like two days and we know you haven't eaten."

At the mention of food Willows' stomach growled loudly, which earned a chuckle from the two humans and a scowl from Starlight. Although the Thestral couldn't help but sigh inwardly at his own hunger. Awkward silence filled the jail as several minutes passed.

"Suit yourself, but I'm getting some grub." Kale said as he stood and turned to leave. "Medic, you want anything?"

"Fruit." Starlight barked his answer. "Or raw grains, oats, hay."

The pilot stopped mid step and stared at the bat pony, a smile creeping across his face. At first glance the smile would have been mistaken as humor, but it quickly turned into a grimace.

"Is that a demand? A request? A suggestion?" he pressed his face to the bars, comically squishing his face. "Becaush in that tone I couldn't fucking tchell. I could jusht pissh off and get you whatever the hell I wanted and you would either eat it or shtarve, so be a little grateful i ashked."

"Fruit or grains please, we are primarily herbivores," Willow answered before Starlight had a chance to fly off the handle, although he was already visibly fuming. "Thank you."
Kale's once grim mood flipped like a switch and he happily replied "You're very welcome!" as he practically skipped from the room.

"HEY BRING AN MRE FOR ME TOO CRAZY FUCK!" Leo shouted after him.

After a few minutes passed the pilot returned with a few small bags and tossed one to the medic, and placed the other two just inside the bars. along with a couple bottles of water.

"What is this?" Starlight asked holding the small gray package.

"It's an MRE - meal ready to eat. It's not exactly grains, but close enough, its pasta with tomato sauce, cheese and a cookie biscuit thing." he said popping the heat pack on his own meal.

After watching the two ponies struggle with the packages, Leo finally asked if they wanted some help.

"Please. For the life of me I can't manage to tear the part that says tear here."

With one swift swipe, Leo removed the tops of both meals and passed them back.

"EEEEYUCK!" Willow gagged. "How do you eat this?!"

"You get used to it." both humans said in unison.
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Spike was just finishing up dusting the last shelf of the library when a blue blur crashed through the window and knocked several books off the shelves. He looked at the heap of pony lying on the floor with an extremely blank stare.

"Heh heh, Oops." Rainbow said, shaking the bits of glass and splinters out of her mane. Spike face palmed at the comment, and groaned. "Spike you need to send a letter to Twi right away. It's super important. She needs to come back right away. We found the thing that crashed in the woods and need her eggheadedness to help out."
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Twilight yawned as she settled into bed for the night. It was getting late and she had been up for several days examining the house. Exhaustion was finally creeping in, when suddenly a scroll popped from a flash of green fire and landed on her face. Against every atom in her body screaming to sleep, she opened the scroll and read:

Dear Twilight,

Spike here, your number one faithful assistant. Just checking in to let you know all the books have been re-alphabetized and shelves dusted. Also I reorganized your quill and parchment drawers so the older quills are used first so we can get rid of them. Owlicious has been a big help while you were gone by keeping up after any loaned books and the groceries.

Oh, by the way, Rainbow broke the window again, and said something about you needing to come home to see something they found in the woods. Then she shouted about Daring Do and the Extra Equestrian Invasion and took off again.

Sincerely,

Spike

She was instantly awake again. They found whatever the fireball was, and rainbow mentioned aliens. Certainly this had to tie into the house she was investigating. With a bright flash and loud pop twilight was in the main room of the library. Spike gave out a scream and more glass bits rained everywhere as he threw the dustpan in surprise.

"OH COME ON!" spike groaned.

Twilight made one final teleport from the library, leaving one confused spike as to why the teleport there was necessary in the first place, and appeared in the clearing she had sensed the other elements of harmony in.

"Twilight!" everyone shouted, happy to see their friend.

"Hi girls." Twilight said, exhausted from two back to back long range teleports. "So this is the object?"

"Yeperoonies." Pinkie Pie confirmed, popping her head out from the bay door on the ship.

"Pinkie?" everyone looked at her confused. "Where have you been sugarcube?" AJ concluded.

"Planning a party of galactic proportions."

Everypony just kind of shrugged it off as a 'that's Pinkie for you' moment. Twilight sat around the fire with the girls as they filled her in on what they discovered so far, as the moon climbed higher into the night sky.
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Dillan sat quietly around the fire they constructed in the main hall of the castle. His eyes flitted from face to face, from friends to soldiers. He didn't like the situation they were in, but what choice did he have in the matter right now? None. His stomach turned a bit, still settling from that disgusting MRE he had eaten. What he wouldn't give for a decent home cooked meal from his mom.

At the thought of his mother he looked up to see his parents sitting, propped against each other and a wall, covered by a blanket, sleeping peacefully. He should probably do the same, it would most likely be a long day tomorrow.

Another look around the room showed the same tired look on everyone's face. Most of them were running on fumes at this point. Everybody needed sleep, and it was evident. More so on the faces of the civilians, but the soldiers weren't faring much better. Having just fought a battle back on his home world, now to be pulling extra shifts of guard duty. They had to be at wits end.

He stood and shuffled over to his sleeping bag, and zipped himself inside, ready for sleep to overtake him.
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Militia engineers ran about on the ship, preparing as many drop ships and Titans they could muster from their reserves and scrap. They had seen the IMC ship pursue them out of system on their long range radar, so they wanted to be prepared for any fight they would throw at them when they dropped out of FTL warp. Also to mount a rescue effort for their missing Major.

About Two and a half weeks or so until they dropped out of warp and scouted for any distress beacons. The IMC would pay for their transgressions against their own people.
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The pale moonlight illuminated the land and glimmered off the surface of the lake, as several unicorn troops scoured the grounds with their magic. The princesses had summoned the Unicorps, an elite group of spell casters to investigate into the case of the missing Captain and Lt. Commander of the Night Guards tier one recon unit. Currently they were using their last known location to get a lead as to where they may have gone, but so far were coming up short.

Three unicorn officers trotted through the group, checking on progress when one of the newer recruits called for them as he galloped over.
"Commander Flame! Lieutenant Sunbeam! We found something!"

The officers followed him at a trot to see two long furrows dug into the ground with scorch marks between them. A few hundred meters away, massive staggered craters lead into the woods.

"Lieutenant. Take a detachment and follow those prints, wherever they lead."

"SIR!" the Lt. shouted, marking off a quick salute. "Echo squad, you are with me, let's move."

Four unicorns formed up on the Lieutenant and they trotted briskly into the woods, the clinking of their armor muffled beneath their Unicorps robes. They followed the wake of destruction all the way to a small ravine. Seeing nowhere else the prints could have lead to they slowly began the descent into the crevice. This proved to be fruitful as the Lt. mentally face hoofed at the stupidity of the damn flyers of the Wonderbolts.

"No wonder they missed it, you focus too much on speed you overlook the little details. Idiots." the Lt. silently cursed the Pegasi. "Lets move, these scratches along the walls are pretty fresh, maybe a day old. We should catch up to them by mid day tomorrow."

Silently the five unicorns crept down the hall of stone, following the scratches and scuffs, moving ever closer to the giant they were pursuing.
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The sun crested the mountain tops to the north. Twilight, being one for schedules and even though she had only slept maybe five hours in the past three days, was wide awake. Applejack was the only pony that had her beat, and was currently making breakfast over the campfire for everyone. Not one to waste any time, Twilight immediately went to examining the vessel.

One by one, the other ponies awoke and joined the herd watching twilight look at this, and tweak that with her magic. The whole process was quite fascinating actually, she had a certain air of ADHD when it came to examining new things.

After everyone had eaten a hearty breakfast of oatmeal that AJ had graciously prepared, everyone resumed helping twilight learn what she could about the metal contraption. Judging by the measurements of the seats in the carriage, she estimated that the creatures who would take their place in them were about six feet tall, and bipedal, similar to the Minotaur who inhabited the plains to the east of Detrot.

Hesitant to press any buttons, after examining the weapons found around the house, twilight tried to decipher what their labels meant. She could read the words, but they were terms never before known to her.

"Landing Gear." She read aloud.

Cautiously she flipped the switch, and something strained in the ship as gears and pistons worked hard. Everyone jumped a bit at the sudden noise, then gave a gasp as the ship rose off the ground several inches.

"HA! Just as I suspected." Twilight exclaimed, jumping from the door to peer under the ship and see it raised on four skids.

"OOOO my turn!" Pinkie shouted as she reached for one of the buttons on the front of the flight sticks.

"PINKIE NO!" Twilight shouted, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks as she watched pinkie depress a button that looked a lot like the handles on the weapons she found at the space house.

An earsplitting roar thundered through the air as the ships dual chain guns spun up and ripped the ground to shreds at the buried nose of the ship. The ponies dove for cover and clamped their ears to their skulls in hopes to stop the ringing. Pinkie on the other hand giggled like a maniac chanting 'Again! Again!'

Amidst the chaos no one heard Pinkie go still and say "It's time."

If they thought that was loud, it was soon dwarfed by a massive thunderclap in the distance. Followed by more, rapid thuds and cracks.

"That's coming from the Everfree Castle!" Twilight noted.

"What do ya' reckons going on over there?" AJ asked rubbing a hoof on her ear. "Sounds like a dragon gone on a rampage."

"Hey, where's Pinkie?" Dash asked.
______________________________________________________________________________

Minutes before.

Shawn's arm piece let off a quick staccato of beeps, prompting his immediate attention. Sadie quickly piped in a feed from the Titans' sensor arrays. They had picked up five faint heat signatures about one kilometer out, and at the rate they were moving, would be on top of them in a matter of minutes.

"Everyone! Ready up! Five unknown contacts spotted due southeast. ETA five minutes tops!" he shouted.

Instantly everyone sprung into action, gathering their supplies ready to move. The Major donned his helmet and boosted up to a balcony and sprinted down a corridor he knew that lead to the outside parapets. On his HUD overlay he watched the marker of his titan moving to intercept his path. He burst through the door, kicking off the battlements and rocketing straight into the awaiting hand of his titan.

Once he was stuffed into the cockpit and his fingertips were at the controls he saw several flashes just outside the castles outer perimeter.

"Damn, they are closer than I thought." he keyed his coms from his titan and announced over the command channel the change in arrival time and kicked his mind into overdrive. "feint back, and left, use the castle as cover, move to the hill to our west and get into defilade, use it to cover our escape to the north. I will try to keep them out of the castle so you have time to gather our gear, if we have time, take the prisoners too. If not, leave them but don't harm them."
Suddenly two unicorns flashed into existence in front of his titan, taking him by surprise.

"Well this is a new type of horse I haven't seen yet."

"Pony." Sadie corrected him.

"Now's really not the time for that." he engaged his thrusters and rocketed back and to the right, placing a fountain between them.

"Attention. Electrical discharges sensed over ninety percent of our hull. I believe we are being scanned by something."

"Well they want to scan with electricity, lets give them a little jolt. Sadie, countermeasures, EMP."
______________________________________________________________________________

Thunder Aurora and Blazing Oath short range teleported from behind the wall, as Lt. Sunbeam and the other two ran to the left, flanking around the outer wall. The giant was at the castle. What it was doing here was not of his concern, he had located the target and before engaging sent an emergency message to Commander Obsidian Flame of their location. All they had to do was hold it off until the remainder of his platoon arrived.

They had just arrived behind the giant in time to see Aurora and Oath fall unconscious as a blue shockwave emanated from the giant. They had been casting an oculus spell, searching the creature for vitals, and health issues to use to their advantage. Apparently this beast was magical in origin but was masking its magical signature. Power that only Unicorps Captains and other powerful spell casters have attained.

Quickly they ducked behind the wall, just as the monster turned around.
______________________________________________________________________________

The Major laughed as he watched the three ponies hunker down through the wall on his thermal scans. He didn't want to hurt them so he would humor them and play dumb and used this to his advantage. Guiding the titan, he lumbered over to the spot where the five had originally hidden and began lumbering off into the woods to the east. Hopefully they would follow.

Sure enough, two of the signatures broke off into the woods and began tailing him. The third however...
______________________________________________________________________________

The giant, tailed by Ivory Dust and Summer Charm, pounded his way into the woods. Now was his chance.
The Lieutenant teleported to the door of the castle and crept inside, making sure to check all the corners of every room he entered. The emptiness of the castle was starting to press in on him. A call could be heard from down a hallway.

"HEY! Are you just going to leave us here? You chicken feathered good for nothing tottering fly bitten flap dragon!" "SIR! I can't believe you said that!"

Cautiously, the Lt. scanned the corridor as he progressed deeper into what looked like jail cells. He relaxed a bit when he came across two Thestrals in one of the cells, and snapped a salute, recognizing instantly Commander Starlight and Lt. Commander Willow, of the Night Guard's Recon unit.

"Sirs!" Sunbeam snapped out. "We are here to extract you."

A quick pulse from his horn and the lock exploded into small fragments, allowing the gate to swing wide.

"As the ranking officer, Commander, you can take charge of my detachment if you wish. Two of my men are following the giant, although the other two are out cold at the moment. The rest of my Unicorps platoon should be arriving shortly."

Suddenly an explosion shuddered the very foundation of the castle.
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Twenty or so unicorns descended on the fleeing titan, and when it seemed like he had nowhere to go and the ponies had won, he decided to employ his last ditch effort.

"Sadie Spool up the Dash Core." Shawn shouted as he slammed the trigger on the missile. It rocketed into the side of the cliff he was running down, causing debris to shower around the area and a thick dust smokescreen to kick up.

"Multi-Core system, Dash Core online."

The titan slammed forward and jettisoned between and sometimes through trees boulders and even across a narrow stream, its feet hardly touching the ground. After clearing about two kilometers a heat klaxon sounded and the core shut down before it melted down. Even with their teleportation, they were not fast nor skilled enough to keep up with the seasoned titan pilot. Running on his primary core again he powered forward and continued as planned, making a wide sweeping arc to the south and coming around in from the west side of the evacuating group. Hopefully they made it without running into any snags.
______________________________________________________________________________

Dillan ran panting after the soldiers and his friends. A mid afternoon sprint through a humid jungle wasn't exactly his idea of a great vacation. After the explosion was heard, everyone abandoned stealth and opted to flat out run towards the rendezvous location. what appeared to be the largest hill between the nearest settlement and the castle. An easy enough to spot landmark.

Once everyone felt they were a good distance from the castle, the group ground from a dead sprint to a dead shamble through the overgrowth. Tod threw up from the exertion. Becky was being carried by Tanner, piggy back style, while John was doing the same for his wife.

Sonny, Farahad, and Leo were sweeping ahead of the group, making sure that there wasn't any threat in front of them. Dillan couldn't help but marvel at the machine gunner. He had just run basically a quarter mile, toting a twenty pound machine gun, and didn't seem the slightest bit winded. In fact, none of the Militia seemed tired.
After staggering another two hours through the woods, they came upon the base of the hill and began the ascent. Something caught the ears of the point team though, causing the group to halt rather quickly.

"Is that... Music?" Leo asked, puzzled.

Sure enough, grainy music could be heard playing at the top of the hill. Everyone continued forward, at a much more reserved pace, sticking to cover. As they crested the hill, the strangest thing could be seen...

Not a soul to be seen. Yet a white canopy was set up and underneath it, an old phonograph record player cranked out a happy tune at a moderate volume. Tables lined with streamers and balloons and colorful tablecloths were scattered in groups in the shade of the canvas. What appeared to be cupcakes lined the main table at the center of the setup.

Everyone exchanged confused glances, but a look of worry set in on Dillans face...

Unbeknownst to them, a Ghillie suit clad pink pony was peering through binoculars at them.

"Eat. The. Cupcakes."
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Author's Note

Sorry for being away for so long everyone. But here you go. Enjoy my steaming pile of fresh story. =P

So, I'm going to do something that might seem a little strange, I'm going to let you decide the fate of my OC. Does he live? Does he get crushed underfoot of a several ton Atlas? Does he go on vacation in the beautiful expanses of Prance? You decide. I will take a tally of twenty votes (only one vote per pony). Live? Die? (sorry Prance isn't really an option) If it ends in a tie, the twenty first vote will decide the outcome.