I blame magic and the Forces of the Universe!

I stood pacing in front of the commanders office. "Calm down." Gilda said. "Nothing bad happened. I think."

I glared at her. "That's so reassuring."

The commander said, "Come in." But something was off. Glancing at Gilda, I shrugged before walking into the office.

The first thing I noticed was the commander. He looked like shit. He had dark bags under his eyes, it didn't look like he shaved, and his armor was dented and scratched from the fight yesterday. "You look like shit." I said.

"He does." Gilda said.

"That's enough." The commander said. "Now, what were we talking about yesterday?"

I frowned. "... About how we were going to infiltrate Canterlot and assassinate Queen Chrysalis."

"Oh yeah. OK, you'll pene-" he stopped, my pistol pointed at his head.

"Get out of the seat, and change back. I know you're not the commander." I growled. "Your eyes gave it away. They glowed green for just a second. But that was enough."

The thing slowly got up, before being engulfed in green flames, and returning to its normal form. "It's too late! I already know your plan, and so does the rest of the hive!"

"Die." I shot the thing in the head, before turning to Gilda. "We need to leave. Leave all the gear here. We're going to the Griffin capital."

Several hours later, and help from a unicorn, and we were there. We had nothing, except our fists, and my brass knuckles. "Lets get inside."

Marching up to the front gate, we stopped at the admission booth. The griffin, obviously a changeling, took our passports, stamped them, and waved us in. Nodding, Gilda and I passed through the gate, and into the city.

Then it hit me. I could feel the depression and sadness in the griffins. "Damn." I whispered. All but a few had there eyes on the ground, not bothering to look up.

"Come on! I see a changeling supply depot. They wouldn't mind if we... Liberated... A few things." Gilda grinned.

I smiled, the only thing on my face visible. "Lets go. We need weapons and radios. And codenames. I'll be Shadow due to... Eh, you get it. You?"

"Hawk." She said as we walked towards the depot.

"Looks like no ones guarding! Come on, we need to be quick!" We ran across the stretch of pavement that was the road, before taking cover behind some supply crates. "This has radios! Take one!" I said after taking a peek inside of it.

"Got it!" Gilda reached her hand in and pulled one out. I did the same, and slipped it under my hood and onto my ear.

"Weapons over there!" There was a big crate with the word WEAPONS written in big red letters.

"It might be a trap!" Gilda said.

"Well said, my apprentice. Now... Lets see... Aha!" I had moved to a different crate, that was small and unmarked. "In here!"

I took out a rifle and three magazines and a pistol with two. "Got it!" I moved around to look at the trap crate, to see two griffins sneaking towards it.

"Don't!" I yelled at them. "It's a trap!" They weren't listening. Instead, they were slowly moving towards the crate. Activating the radio, I said, "Hawk, get up on the roofs. We're probably gonna get ambushed. Provide cover fire."

"You got it, Shadow."

Turning back to the two griffins, I frowned. They had stopped, and were circling the box, as if a monster were in it, before I heard, "Get off my foot! You must way over a hundred pounds!"

"Perfect." I whispered. "Welp, looks like we're about to have some fun!" I started walking to the two griffins. "Open up the crate. Lets give them a surprise." The griffins looked at me, then my rifle, then smiled, before going to open the box.

I aimed down the iron sights of the rifle at the box, ready to press the trigger, as the griffins opened it up. "Now!" Someone shouted from inside the box. Four changelings jumped out, guns ready. "Hawk! Give me that support!" I yelled, as I ran behind a crate, the two griffins right behind.

"I got 'em. Don't worry." Gilda said. I heard three bursts of gunfire, and three thuds, before I peeked around the crate. The last changeling was looking around wildly, searching for whoever or whatever killed his friends. I aimed my rifle, and fired a burst, dropping the changeling.

"They never look up." I said. Before anything else happened, the place was swarmed by griffins and ponies. "What's going on again." I asked.

"Get that weapon box to base! The radios are not our first priority, bit try and get them! Try and get everything, damn it!" I saw a griffin telling a mix of griffins and ponies, who I assumed was the rebellion.

"Hawk, het down here." I said.

"We may have a bit of a problem." Gilda said, a bit of fear in her voice, as she landed next to me. Looking up, I realized what was happening.

"Get down!" I screamed, jumping prone behind a crate, Gilda right behind me. Most of the people listened, but those who didn't were killed by the magic mortar barrage, slightly slower than a regular one, but more powerful.

"Changelings coming!" Someone yelled.

"Hawk! Get in a position to fuck the approaching enemies up! You two!" I pointed at two unicorns. "Get a shield up ASAP! Gather as much unicorns as possible! Just get it done! You!" I pointed at two griffins and a pegasus. "Provide support after the shield is up!" I went back to being silent. "Guess playing RTS games do come in handy." I muttered.

A minute later, a magic shield was up, stopping the mortars from around twenty feet up, and deflecting them. "Smart. Takes less energy!" The griffin who had been giving orders before said, as I got up. "Everyone! Gather up as much supplies as you can, then get the hell out of here! This is no time to be laying down!" The griffin yelled.

I nodded, before sprinting to the edge of the shield, where I could see over fifty changelings coming. "Hawk, covering fire. You three! Fly up and suppress, make it hard to fly!" I shouted, joining Gilda in shooting at them. Our fire was more to distract them, but I did see a few of the changelings drop as the two griffins and pegasus did their job.

"Everyone get to the trucks! The supplies are loaded!" Someone yelled. Making a backwards retreat, I kept firing, before reloading, down to my last mag. Going for a full out sprint, I threw myself into the back of one of the last trucks, the shield dropping as we drove away.

"That was intense." I said to the two griffins and pegasus.

"I wonder if they had muffins?" The pegasus asked. We all got a chuckle out of that.

"Be glad we're safe, Ditzy. Be glad about that. Besides, we're almost to base." One. The griffins said as we pulled up besides an old warehouse at the edge of the city.

"Welp, time to make some new friends. Come on Hawk!" I jumped out of the back of the truck, walking towards the warehouse.