Knights in Kevlar Armor

It's my gun, but I'm willing to share the bullets.

As Alex and Stephan finished up their preparations for departure, two golden donned ponies came through the storage room's double swing doors and snuck around the rooms edge until they could get close enough to hear, as they hid behind an untouched shelf and Grind whispered, "What are we doing here? Shouldn't we be apprehending them?"

"As much as I would love that, words aren't enough, we cant prove what they said. And this is most likely their own craft, technically speaking, we're intruders." Sting counterintuitively answered.

"But they crashed within the Castle's boundaries! They're intruding on Equestria!" Grind countered.

"They're aliens," he deadpanned, "I doubt they know the very utmost fundamental and basic laws of Equestria. For all we know it could be against their laws to not crash in the boundaries of a nations capital." Sting finished somewhat weakly noticing his idiocy.

"And why are you defending them now? Just a few seconds ago you were contemplating an ambush!" Grind whispered, furious and confused.

"I cannot stress the fact enough that I do what I do for the sake of being contrary." Sting replied with sarcasm nearly forming a presence between them.

"Really?" Grind asked not feeling the pulsing incarnate of derision lunge for him.

"No! I do what I do because I do it! Now watch and be quiet!"

They had just finished stuffing their bags when Stephan's helm picked up on the most minute of noises from a corner that had been relatively unscathed from everything that had happened, "Alex, I'm going to go see if there's any variety over here." He said as he shut the vent to prevent his voice from leaving the confines of his suit.

"Yeah yeah sure. I'm gonna go out and play lookout." Alex said, he was sure they'd get tired of their current supply soon enough, "Get some graham crackers if you find any, the honeyed ones." Then he left out the double swing doors, failing to notice that they were still insignificantly waving. When he went through all he saw was the same galvanized intersection hallway ahead and the same upturned tables, broken chairs, and contorted debris, in the room. A few panes from the ceiling had fallen and either were hanging from the rafters or laying on the cracked linoleum floors along with a healthy number of unlatched lighting fixtures, Good thing no one was in here. That could have been a messy accident. But that brought back the memory of their grandest failure and reignited his wavering flame of hate that had dwindled during their time on the run. Before he could get anywhere with his thoughts he was shaken as he saw a tail flicker down the left hall. He was about to run to see what it was but he was called back as he heard metal strike metal.

"Shh! They'll hear us!" Sting scathed as Grind made to rebuke his point, which was rather a dull point. He chanced a glance underneath the shelves in time to see and hear one of the beast's walk through the door they had just barely managed to slip through, his gears and gyros whirring, faint but distinct. But while the one left another cautiously approached and he apparently was on the same line of thought because first he lowered his metal companion to the floor, making sure to have the narrower end pointed towards them, and began to kneel down. First his other hand came down and gently rested on the floor, then one knee quickly followed by the other came down, all eerily silent, no noise unlike the other, then his head came down to peer underneath as well, lense tinted and reflective, betraying nothing of the hosts features but perfectly mirroring...a blank tile wall.

I would've sworn I heard something. He thought as he began to stand slowly again, Well that's the last time I take of the Assistors. Those being the handy inhibitors that helped whoever was using the suit to move without any resistance or extra exertion. When Stephan drew to his full height he rolled his shoulders and slung his rifle over his chest. As he did so a sharp pain came from his right he instinctually pulled away and drew his sidearm and fired, but his training being for humans his shot flew far too high and his hand was struck again by a sword, thankfully it only hit sideways as he turned his arm, bullet proof does not equal resistance from a five pound piece of sharpened metal. The hit however did successfully knock the pistol out of his hand with an otherwise compromising clatter. Alright I've had enough of these Goddamn horses on this motherfucking plane! I don't care if they're not all bad, the golden ones are a pain in the- but he was interrupted as he was slashed yet again in the side by a different horse, this time a unicorn rather than being a regular, bigger one like the other.

Sting was recovering from the noise after he came behind the thing while Grind looked like he'd just stared down the Express, "Come on Grind let's GO! Hold him down!" He swung his sword around with his magic to pin itself against the creatures neck, he saw the blood of the creature fairly cascading from his duo of slashes, Sting's blade was coated in the crimson life on one side and he angled it so the giant could see it for all its glory, "Stop rig- "

" -ht there!" Alex ordered as he came through the doors and pulled out both of his firearms to equally cover both of the assailants, "You," he shouted with a suggested shake of his pistol to Sting, "drop the sword! And you! Stay put or I'll put both your insides on the outside!" The depravity of what he had said coupled with his relatively casualness considering made both of the guards visibly blanch and comply. Sting dropped his sword and moved slowly over to Grind who had assumed an 'at-attention' stance with his weapons set in a neat pile next to him, "We don't want any trouble now ok? We just want to head our happy ways outta here. But in order to do that, we're going to need some proper chips," he said as he approached the two, "and I'm terrible at poker." Alex whispered as he pressed the barrels against the back of their necks, with a sharp kick to Sting signaling them to get moving.

Dustin was* again poked by the guard directing his progression to wherever they took terrorists. Because that's what they could be summed up to right about then. Not only did they inadvertently start a fight with foreign powers, severely injuring a few surely, but now that the weren't on Earth (they felt it was safe to assume at least that much) their hostile counterparts would set the margins of what to expect from humans, Ugh, shit. This is a *MESS*! He thought as he began to slow down again, only to be pushed by the sharp tip of his host's lance, this time however the irony was settling rather smoothly as a sedative to the otherwise unrelenting giant. That and a blade to the back is a hell of a motivator. If you had asked him if he was scared for his life he'd probably say, "Well I wasn't scared so much as concerned for it. Sure I like living but- "

'Come on, hurry up! Stop stalling your friends are too far behind to save you now." Brazen said with another thrust, "We need to take any and all hostile foreigners to the court of the Princesses. And as you're the only one we've been able to apprehend so far, you get the honor of being subjected to the courts all on your lonesome." He finished with open opinions. Dustin had not spoken nor given the pony a look inside his helmet, he felt as if it were an unspoken rule to not let your captor see your face until the inevitable unveil, but until then the most he'd get would the silent hiss of his suit's hydraulics as they marched through the halls. It was much faster than Dustin had thought but the crews who had first ventured forth had apparently taped arrows and other directions onto various walls, floors, and appliances.

Soon enough though they came to the melted and warped...hole in the side of the craft, Huh, could've sworn there was a door there before. An uneven splotch of light came through the door and as they stepped out into it Dustin realized that it was not sunlight, but the light of 100 odd unicorns forming a massive shield around the...even larger crater they were in. Dustin felt his stomach drop, "How much, how many." He spoke for the first time, catching his guard, off guard, with his deep voice.

"What do you mean?"

"How much land did we total, and how many were hurt."

Brazen thought he knew what he was thinking and quietly answered, "A little over an acre, nopony was hurt thank Celestia." He had never seen such destruction to anything in his life, least of all to a lush and vibrant meadow filled with flowing rivers.

The human still didn't know who 'Celestia' was, Maybe their version of God perhaps? But he thought their 'nopony, everypony, etc.' meant that they were in a land were they were the majority, Fantastic, now we're lost *and** alone.* He decided to let their conversation lay and instead get a better grasp on their surroundings. As he noted earlier, they were in a large crater, the walls were burnt and there were small fires still being put out around them, it was a sheer cliff around them whereas a single side had a very angled slope, the direction they came in from, there was the hull's armor scattered around their little divot reflecting the techni-colored shields light dully off their bent and twisted edges, sharp to the touch it would seem as Dustin noticed a small pool of blood underneath a crimson tinted corner, he stored that away as potential defense for later on, then he saw the various other ponies swarming around, some wearing suits like the first they saw be taken away, most in golden armor, and one very dignified and royal looking...pink one. She, Dustin just had to assume it was a she, was gratefully looking the other way and had gone around a corner of the ship, her horn, significantly larger along with her body when compared to the others, occasionally lit up only to pathetically sputter out whenever she pressed it against the outer shell of the HART, causing her wings to give off an irritated ruffle as she pushed her purple, yellow, and magenta mane out of her face. Speaking of the HART, when he looked at the space between the front right and back right rotors he saw nothing, the name had burned and peeled away during their fall. The nose was successfully flattened and a surge of electricity jumped around every once in a while, at least one rotor was destroyed, and small, harmless blazes were igniting all over it, Overall a lot better than I had thought. A few, quite a few, ponies had stopped to gawk at Brazen's prisoner and Dustin was only returning the favor when he turned to let them see the black hole in his helm, the blood stained glass, and the further blood soaked front he had from purging it before it could drown him. They stopped staring.

Brazen and Dustin worked their way up the sloped side and came to an impromptu security checkmark, the guard inside it was scanning the scene with a mix of wonder, excitement, and something else, but as they rounded the hill and came within vision, well Dustin came far in the lead with his size towering over Brazen, the posted watch...pony nearly fell out of his unseen seat after he raised a hoof to wave at somepony else he had been expecting. He was near panicking when Brazen came up and out too, his face looking all smug as hell, "I got one Zaštitar! Look at him, he's huge! And it only took two of us!"

Before the guard could look anymore impressed Dustin just had to intervene, "Yes, only two. And where's the other? Oh, right, being carted off with a broken hind leg, severe blood loss, two contusions, and a concussion. Nicely done collecting his pay by the way." He said without any hint of emotion, riffing the guards even further, "Now please, let's keep moving." Brazen came up to Zaštitar and filled out the appropriate forms and a small hole was made in the shield, allowing the accumulated ash to blow in and fall on them. They stepped out and as far as they could see it was either uprooted trees or an occasional plate of metal sticking up like a pike, "This is...expected." Dustin decided to turn what he was going to say around, he didn't feel comfortable with letting Brazen in on his thoughts too much.

Brazen was caught off guard, the way he said it, it sounded like they had planned for that to happen, "So wait are you saying you meant for this to happen?" He asked incredulously.

"I plead the Fifth." And that's the last thing Dustin said before they began their trek to the castle, to the court of the Royal Sisters.

The last three Pacifiers** were left in the room and all hell had broken loose, after Dustin had taken a hoof to the face the other ponies had invested themselves to the fullest and Bryan panicked when the charging ones finally got on his level, one to each side, and he had decided to fire back when a crossbow bolt had wedged itself between one of his back-plates, barely piercing but still causing severe blood loss and pain, "AH goddamn it! John, they hit me with something! Dustin you ok?" He yelled as he shot the most relevant offender in the side as he turned to draw his sword, except this one was an Earth Pony so while it winded him and left a dent in his armor, he just pushed through and went to charge again. But while Bryan was distracted by the charging jouster, the other behind him decided to let him play into it and when the charger came near Bryan he bucked him into him. But when he did he kicked too high and Charger (that's his name now, thank you) was coming in low, aiming to swing at Bryan's legs and he completely missed.

John was getting tired, it was still easy to dodge their weak attempts but he'd kept it up for a while, he had to run to three different desks after the others collapsed from repeated impact. Once while he was running he had been hit struck the back by one of their spells. It had felt like he was being injected with adrenaline as he felt his energy momentarily reestablish itself as he sprinted to his next make-shift bunker, but that was long over now and he didn't really want to see what would happen if he was hit by another.

After Bryan had been successfully flung over the rampaging normal horsy he had landed with a soft, softish, thud on the body of one of the other down and out Insurgents, while at the same time the bucking one turned around to nearly meet his end from Charger who had kept plowing through until he felt his target's foot barely scrape his back as he flew overhead, "What was that for Roundhouse? I almost had him after he, he shot me!"

Roundhouse was just as surprised he had messed up, "I didn't know you were coming in so low! I thought you were just going to slash at him!"

"When do I ever slash?" Charger asked, but before he could answer Bryan got up and took his chance to run up to John, strength in numbers.

When he ascended to the top level he could clearly tell John was still alive, on account of the burning furniture, rifle casings, that one unconscious pegasus, and his boot prints leading the way. Since he was at the highest ring it was the biggest and looked down on the rest of the amphitheater like room, he could see the two ponies that had jumped him, a pony being led out on a gurney as the suited ones around it put on a generous amount of gauze around its bleeding hind leg, and Dustin...no, Dustin was gone. Bryan looked frantically for John and saw him nearly exactly opposite him, "John! John they took Dustin! We have to go find him now!"

"What? No, no he'll be fine. But we do need to go now! We need to leave now!" He yelled as another pegasus and unicorn double teamed him, one from above and one from afar. They had been closely watching him for patterns and finally found that every other time he dove from the pegasi, he jumped to the right every time, so when he did this time the unicorn was prepared and shot at him, dead center in the chest. This time wasn't like the last, last time he was hit with a stun spell, this time it was a telekinetic grab one, but instead of grabbing him it caused the electronics in his suit to short and it locked up in mid-step, "What?! Ok Bryan we can go now, come get me!" But Bryan was busy with his own malfunctions as his helmet began emitting a loud screeching noise and he was fumbling to take it off before he became deaf. When he finally got it unlatched everyone and pony looked directly at him. It was stuck though on the safety cord and prevented him from fully taking it off and before he could unhook it the noise stopped and John was free to move again, this however sent a strange and confusing message to the ponies, they talked like that?

"What the hell was that Johnny? Did you really have to do, whatever you did?" He shouted after his suit conducted a quick synopsis of its condition, "We still need to move it you know!" Then he made for the other side where the frozen pegasus and unicorn was, just feet away from the prone being they managed to take down.

"What? Get hit by a bolt of magic? Are you really saying that was my plan? No, it shut me down man but I'm good now!" And with a quick hop up He managed to surprise the two guards and he Bruce Lee Kicked™ the pegasus into the unicorn and ran down the staircase between them.

He left down the hallway after Bryan who had noticed his change in direction and stopped to think of which way to think, down the left way was the exit, they knew that, but directly in front led to much needed munitions and even the vehicle storage room, down the right led to the mess hall, food was also vital to life, but then a voice crackled in, "- the fifth." And they knew what it meant, Dustin needed help. They went down the left way noticing the fast approaching group of guards approaching their position and checked their weapons to take stock of their available equipment, one mag each, two smokes, a fragmentation grenade, their laser sights, and their tricked out helms. As they sprinted through they could here what sounded like a mix of hoofsteps and boots clashing onto the floor, yelling, and a single gunshot. But none of that mattered when they reached what was left of the doorway, "Are you sure we have enough?" Bryan asked.

"What the hell?" A member of squad Vivisection*** asked as he sat up, reaching for a weapon that was nowhere to be seen, "What happened here, agh!" He shouted as he fell from the angle, "What happened here? Zack come on man where are we!" But he got no answer. He looked around and saw the scattered and spent shells and casings of their inside fire-fight and hissed, "Damn it Zack, if you're dead, mercy be with the next person I meet." He then started to sift through the debris for anything useful as he rubbed his side, it felt like someone had fallen on him. Eventually he found something useful, a sword! He laughed, "And who was the smart ass who smuggled a sword of all things on board?" He thought on that as he pried it from between two desks Charger was engraved on the base of the short-sword, "Poor bastard, this is really a nice sword," he noted as he gave it a few experimental swings, "Perfectly balanced too, even looks like it was used in something important." He finished as he saw the hilt, a single amber gem in the middle of a copper hilt, with a finish of intricately inlayed patterns all along the handle and edges of the blade, "I actually feel bad for him, this has got to be worth a fortune." He finished somewhat sadly, but then that thought was blasted away as he saw the other man in row with him still lying on the floor, his dark green armor telling him the only thing that really mattered then, He's not a Pacifier. He walked over to him but then he began getting up on his own, he was already awake, "Zack?"

"Yeah, Devin?"

"Yes, you alright?" Devin asked as he tried to pick up on anything hinting at his condition, but the suits were flawless.

"Have a headache, but the painkillers should kick in soon," He looked around him and popped the question, "Where are we?" He asked emotionlessly.

"Don't really know myself, but look at that angle! Looks like we crashed!"

Zack let out a sigh, "Damn it I knew we should have never trusted the Stormhunters."

"And what? Keep working with the Pacifiers? No, we both wanted to break from them and they had the numbers we needed. But I do agree with you, we draw the line here. From now on we work only for Vivisection, no one else."

"Agreed, have you seen anyone else?"

"Didn't have the time, you were closest but I do think I saw some one the bottom level."

"Alright then to the- where'd you get the sword from?" He asked as they began to turn down to the stairs.

"I uh, I found it, over there," He answered with a point to the general wave with the weapon in question, "Between some desks."

"Bullshit you found a sword! Where'd you really get it?"

"If you don't believe me that's too bad, but that's what happened."

"Fine whatever, here," Zack began as he picked a can of black spray paint from one of the shelves in the wall, "for identification, so we don't kill each other if we get split up." He finished spraying their teams insignia on his suit's upper right arm.

"Alright fine, what about you?"

"Way ahead of you," Zack answered as he pulled a near invisible cloth off of his entire chest that covered the same symbol, but on a much larger scale, "had this done before we took off."

Devin had nothing to say to that but, "Come on let's go search for any survivors." And then they took advantage of their moments of relative peace as they searched through the unconscious soldiers, checking them for any dead giveaways before ultimately waking them up. The ones they found loyal to their cause were marked and aided, the ones who weren't and were not complacent, well they were dealt with the Roman way, but not forced to give up their beliefs. However the ones who originally Stormhunters but then converted to the V were treated with honors, like the Nazis. Once they were through their sort they were eight men stronger and the better for it. They paraded through the hallways and after they had all switched their channels to Vivisection, split into three separate groups, one to the armory, one to the vehicle containment center, and one to search for answers and supplies.

Unless the other squads can find ample support, well they're fucked.