There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.
-Thomas A Edison

The coffee table in our living room has been used in countless ways for just as many purposes during its time in our quarters. When Yield and I were young, we’d use it to play board games or deal cards, or drape a blanket over it’s top and claim it as Fort 70, safe haven from school, homework or our chore-inducing parents. As we grew into adolescence, we used it as a place to set down our cups for drinking, our weapons for cleaning and our thoughts for discussing while we sat on the sofa behind it and shared our innermost feelings with one another, freely and shamelessly, during some of our most trying years. As we became soldiers, sometimes the table became a convenient place to rest our head for the night--standing just as far as our weary legs could take us when the bedroom felt like another ten-mile endurance gallop away. Tonight, though, it was my area of operation--my command center. Strewn across it’s face, scales, maps, markers and transparent laminations that covered every inch of the table’s glass surface. These maps of old world Equestria were nothing new to me, the colonel had given me several copies after our admittance into SuRec, but never had I judged the distances between locations so closely, guessed at which cities would still be intact and which areas would have new structures or obstacles to block our routes, or considered which sectors were most likely to be occupied by the enemy quite like I was tonight. Those concerns and a million more were buzzing through my head like a swarm of angry bees, my hoof scribbling lines and notes on the laminations in a vain effort to keep up with the stream of thoughts pouring from my mind. But with every route I drew, any one of a hundred factors would inevitably float to the surface of my attention and violently immaterialize my plans. What if we got ambushed here? What if there’s an enemy supply route that we have to cross? What if the radiation was intense somewhere along this route? What if I lost my Luna-damned mind tonight planning this all out?

“Uuugh...fuck me…” I sighed out, burying my face in my hooves against the table. There’s no fool-proof plan hiding in these maps, is there? Just a maelstrom of unknowns and maybes overlapping a sheet of crumpled paper that probably hadn't accurately depicted the outside in centuries. Why should I have expected any different?

I picked my head up and looked back at the mess of maps and rulers and compasses strewn across the table. Useless, all of it; why did I even bother wasting precious time on this-time I could have spent sleeping? Fuck this, fuck it all!

The table’s contents landed in a heap beside it’s legs with a clamor as I shoved it all off in one fell swoop, leaning back against the sofa and dragging my hooves down along my face. What the hell was I--

“Iron? Iron, is that you?” Yield’s hushed voice whispered through her cracked door across the room. Great, now I’m costing my squadmates valuable resting time. Fucking fantastic, ‘Sergeant’.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, I just…” I trailed as my hooves slid completely off of my face and fell carelessly against the sofa. Through my blurry vision I could make out a greenish blob pushing it’s way out from the door.

“...Just lost my temper ‘cuz I’m pulling another all-nighter instead of sleeping like everypony else in the Stable?” Yield finished, her form slowly approaching the side of the couch.

“Not everypony else, apparently...”

“And whose fault is that, smartass?” Yield snapped back in a suppressed shout, gently tiptoeing her way past the cluster of debris that I once called my office supplies before landing in the cushion beside me, as graceful as a manticore like always.

“Oh please, I could drive a tank through your room and you’d still be sleeping like a filly.” I saw Yield’s face scrunch up slightly as her eyes raced from corner to corner, no doubt preparing some snide comeback, but I interrupted before she had a chance to unleash it, “What’s on your mind, sis?” Yield’s glare softened and she let out a sigh, the tension in her face flowing out with her breath. She leaned herself back against the sofa.

“It’s really happening tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“Sure is.” I reply, feeling a wave of uneasiness flicker through me as I cast a passing glance over the wreckage of my former mission plans.

“Even now after all of these years, it seems like just yesterday we were back in Primary, telling ourselves we’d become big, badassed superponies to go conquer the surface and bring back your folks,” she paused for a moment, slowly sifting her hooves against one another in a soft rhythm. “I guess the dream’s always different from the reality, isn’t it?”

“What’re you talking about, soldier?” I offer, trying my best to dredge up some of that leader-y motivation I’m supposed to have, “You’re the toughest motherbucker in the whole Stable, always have been, always will be. No amount of military training ever changed that one way or the other.” Yield snickered and chuckled ever so slightly, the half-smile that crept across her face by far the most comforting thing I’d laid eyes on all night.

“Yeah, I guess I am pretty awesome,” Yield replied smugly, rolling her head over to look at me, “You’re not so bad yourself, I suppose.”

That’s more like it. The sound of our chuckles hung in the air like the last note of a symphony, returning our gazes to the empty space between the table and the kitchen counter.

“It is gonna be different though, between the surface and the pods. No promise of a warm meal to push us through a mission. No good night’s sleep after a hard day’s work. Just Stable-brand MRE mush and a nylon sleeping bag,” I paused as memories of lacking similar luxuries came back to me. Basic Training, the sims and especially during the Military entrance exam; I could hardly stand a week of that damnable cocoon of a bed and now I’ve got months to get intimately familiar with it. I groaned and tried my best to shove the notion back into the hole it crawled out from, “No medical team on standby either, in case something goes horribly wrong.”

“We’ve still got Splint for that,” Yield replied coolly, her eyes drifting lower. “That pony can run circles around our clinic for sure.”

“He’s just one pony, sis, and he’s only as good as his supplies are available. And that’s just if we get hurt...I don’t even want to imagine what’ll happen if he takes a hit out there.”

Already I could see Yield begin to sink a bit into her cushion, her perky attitude dissolving before me as I become fully aware of my sensational confidence building skills.

“But hey, no more being forced to run sims for the seven thousandth time, or early curfews,” I continued, half forcing a smile as I turn my head to Yield, “...no more sneaking out after curfew to go ‘visit’ that mare from the evening security rotation,” Yield’s entire body froze the moment the words left my lips. “What was her name again? Summer Rain?” Her whole face lit up like red Hearth’s Warming lights and I could practically feel the heat emanating from her cheeks.

“I-I...bu-but how did y…I n-never?!” Yield squeaked, squirming and shifting in her seat.

“Just because your folks are heavy sleepers doesn’t mean I am,” I taunted, relishing every last ounce of her embarrassment and letting it feed my own smug grin, “especially when you two decide to take it into your room. I can hear everything so clearly that you guys might as well have been going at it in mine.” I reached out a hoof and gently pat her back, chuckling and leaning in closer to her ear, “You’re a mare of many talents, sis, but subtlety is not one of them.”

“S-Shut up!” Yield snapped, swatting away my hoof, “At least I’m actually getting some! All you’ve got are magazines and your right hoof!” If I hadn’t started laughing as hard as I did, I might’ve actually taken offense to that.

“Oh really now? And I don’t suppose you’d care to explain how you got such detailed knowledge of my personal life?”

“Y-yeah! I just...I…” she trailed, her blush growing brighter and her discomfort becoming palpable, “You know wha--?!”

“It’s alright, sis. I haven’t told our folks,” I interrupted calmly. Her swelling emotions froze just as suddenly as they had inflated and a tentative silence hung in the air.

“...you haven’t?” She finally replied, half in disbelief and half in relief as she seemed to let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding.

“Of course not.” I offered my hoof to her once again and pressed it back against the cushions. “They may still value the old traditions, but I don’t care who you’re getting friendly with, mare or stallion. You’re still my sister and nothing’s ever gonna change that.”

Somehow, my attempted comfort didn’t quite hit home and she now seemed even more uncomfortable than before. Nonetheless, she scooted her way over to my side without a word and curled up on the cushion. She rested her head on my leg as I gently wrapped my hoof around her and pulled her tight against me, stroking through her tangled mane.

“Yup...still your sister…” she mumbled weakly.

“That’s right. Squadmate too, if you wanna count the formalities.” I looked down at her and smiled, petting her as I would a sleepy cat and enjoying her warmth as she rested on me. I watched the rise and fall of her chest slow gradually with every passing breath and, after a few moments of silence marred only by the sound of our own staggered breathing, noticed that her eyes had shut completely. I couldn’t help but sit for a few moments longer and admire the simple beauty of a soundly sleeping soldier, something I knew I would probably not be seeing again for a very long time, if ever. It was like seeing a hurricane from its center; so calm and serene inside it’s eye, but capable of unparalleled destruction just beyond the circumference of swirling clouds. When the moment had passed and the lateness of the hour crept to the forefront of my attention, I reached down and tenderly scooped the sleeping mare off of the cushions and slung her around my back as I dismounted the sofa. I quietly made my way over to her room, creaked open the already ajar door and, with a soft kiss to the cheek, slid her gently off my back and tucked her into the sheets of her bed.

“Sleep well, sis.”

* * * *

“Can we have a word with you, Iron?” Yield’s father asked from the open doorway of the master bedroom. Both of her parents had elected to join us in the cafeteria this morning as we grabbed our early breakfasts. They’d wanted to say their goodbyes and wish us well on our mission, or at least I think that’s what they had originally intended. What started out as a civil outing quickly devolved into a flurry of emotion and tears. Neither of them wanted to see us walk out through that giant steel door, never to return again as had happened with so many other ponies before us, not the least of which were my true parents. She wouldn’t say it directly, but it was pretty clear that Yield’s mother wanted us to call the whole thing off, and I can imagine her father felt the same way to a lesser degree. Needless to say, the entire ordeal was beginning to draw a lot of unwanted attention to ourselves, so Yield and I decided to leave before we made any more of a scene than we already had. There was really nothing more we could say to them that would ease their consciousness, and the last thing either of us needed was an emotionally clouded mind at the dawn of our expedition.d

“Of course.” I answered as I stepped away from Yield and in through the doorway. Her mother was sitting on the bed slouched over a box of tissues that she cradled in her lap, doing her best to compose herself through the still persistent sobbing, but to little avail. Yield’s father closed the door softly behind me and invited me to sit with him.

“I’m sorry about breakfast. We didn’t mean for it to turn out like it did.” I nodded and tried to focus myself entirely on him over the sniffles coming from the bedside. I couldn’t shake the truth that I was the cause for their agony, and the more I sat here, the worse that gnawing guilt chomped away at my conscience. “This has been a long time coming and we knew that this day would eventually come, but...I guess it really doesn’t make it any easier. You’ve worked for this, Celestia knows you’ve worked for this and we want to give you our full support. This is something we know you need to do.”

The sobbing from the bedside only intensified as Yield’s father spoke to me and I sunk my head lower, desperately trying to tune out both the sound and the guilt, and by Celestia I think I would’ve been about to start crying myself if he hadn’t put his hoof around my shoulder and pulled me closer.

“Thank you, sir.” I replied quietly, fighting back the emotion trying to worm it’s way into my tone.

“Don’t ‘sir’ me, if there’s any respect that’s going to be shown today it’s gonna be to you, Yield and Splint.” He nudged me playfully and forced a smile, but it faded as quickly as a puff of smoke. I looked up towards the door as I heard the slightest tap resonate against the frame. Yield was listening right at the door, her shadow partially blocking the incoming light from the other side. Neither of her parents had noticed and I hoped to the Princesses that I was wrong and that it was just the ceiling fan blocking the light, Yield did not need to see or hear her parents lose it anymore than she already had today. I needed everyone’s head in the game, my own included.

“But there is something we need to ask of you Iron.” I turned my head and looked up into his eyes--not the strong eyes of the father I knew him to be but the eyes of a pony trying vainly to gain some control over a force for which he has none. “Please come back to us, all of you. Equestria can’t afford to lose any more good ponies over this war, and certainly not our only children.” I nodded slowly once again, unable to form any speech for fear of losing myself to the tears I held back. “And please...keep our daughter safe. Soldiers or not, you’re her brother and she’s your responsibility--” He stopped himself, shaking his head and starting again. “But you don’t need to hear any more about that from us. Be safe and be strong, son, I know you’ll do us proud.”

“I’ll do my best...dad.” Before I could get up, he had already pulled me into a tight hug. I returned the gesture lightly as I still struggled with keeping my emotions in check, but despite my best efforts I could feel a few warm streaks down my cheeks. After a few short moments he released me in the eye, wearing a genuine smile for the first time today.

“That’s my boy. Now, give your mother a hug too before you go.” I turned to her and tentatively approached the bedside, only to be taken into the tightest hug I had ever endured faster than I could blink. She was crying on my shoulder now and all I could do to help the pain was to be there for as long as she wanted. Dammit, I’m gonna miss them too, this home, this Stable; but I’ll come back. We’re gonna do what we have to do and then we’ll be right back here for them in no time.

After my godmother had finally let me go, I made my way over to the door, making sure to give enough time for Yield to back herself away from the door before opening it and stepping into the living room. Yield was sitting innocently on the couch kicking her legs back and forth, whistling to herself as if nothing had happened. I had to laugh at how pitiful the attempt was. Very subtle, Yield, very subtle.

* * * *

“Alright guys, listen up! We’ve got a lot to cover and I’m only gonna go through this once!” The engineer barked as we sat before him. The three of us had taken the elevator down to the armory and damn, was it busy. Ponies were clamoring about the area like bees in a hive, moving around large pieces of machined metal, weapons of various models and at least one unicorn with a clipboard trailing behind every team, scribbling down notes as if their pencils were on fire. Despite the noise, I don’t think any of us were in danger of missing anything this techie was going to tell us; his voice could have put a drill instructor to shame.

“I’m assuming you all know why you’re here, so let’s get down to brass tacks,” the pony snidely began, “our guys down in R&D have been busting their rumps off for two years to make you some fine-assed armor, and we’re all very eager to see if they work at all once we toss them onto the ponies they were custom made for. So, here’s what you need to know.” The stallion levitated over a notepad and a pair of reading glass from the back pockets of his lab coat and began reciting his notes. “The Ares Mk IV Power Armor is a significant step up from the power armors you have been trained with previously. In addition to the features commonly found on such armors, your new suits will feature an intuitive heads-up display stemming directly from your Pipbuck’s spell matrix, radio communicators and shared biometrics readings for squad monitoring, reactive armor plating capable of absorbing up to eighty-six percent of all ballistic inertia, an integrated saddle bag and battle saddle mounting ports capable of accepting any weapon designed for battle saddle usage, improved mechanical aids capable of boosting your running speed up to twice your normal pace under minimal weight load, and a new, kickass exterior design so you can shoot zebras in the face and look damned good doing it.” He paused and glanced up from notes. “And yes, that is in the official documentation. If you don’t believe me, you can look for yourself when we’re done here.”

At this point, I wasn’t sure whether I was more annoyed at this guy’s blatant 'charm', or impressed about the amount technology they’d managed to stuff into our armor. I think I could already see Splint starting to drool a bit, no doubt this tech crap was rubbing him in all the right ways.

“The armor runs on a matrix of batteries and magically infused gems which act as a buffer for the former, as such any action you perform-from getting hit by a bullet to simply taking a step or having the HUD activated-consumes a certain amount of energy. The suit charges itself through motion using kinetic generators, solar power, and direct power input from an outlet or external battery. Between those three methods, your armor should easily be able to stay charged for the duration of the mission. Oh, and don’t let the battery get critically low; your suit will suffer a cascading failure starting with the helmet electronics all the way to your life support systems. Needless to say, that would be very bad. Don’t do it.

“Last up is security, but I’m not going to bore any of us with the fine details. Long story short, your Pipbucks and power armor are marvels of modern engineering and possess extremely valuable data. As such, the Pipbucks that you gave over to the security team when you got here are being calibrated for the mission and will have code locks installed that will synchronize with your respective suits. You can’t put on your suit without the Pipbuck, you can’t take it off without the password, and if you try to anyway, the entire thing will self-destruct. It will also self-destruct if the suit is mutilated or dissected significantly in certain sensitive sections of the armor, such as the helmet or battle saddle, and can also be destroyed remotely through a Pipbuck command if you really need to. That being said, please don’t wreck these things. They’re incredibly expensive and take a shitload of ponypower to manufacture.

“A couple footnotes…” The stallion began flipping through his notes erratically, scanning each of them briefly before reciting them aloud, “Your suit can break down raw materials and transmute them into a composite that the systems can use to self-repair, there’s an air filtration system that’s rated to handle all manor of aerosolized bullshit, watertight too...yadda, yadda, yadda...subroutines and extraneous features, boring, boring, boring...alright, I think that about wraps it up. Let me get some of my boys to show you to your suits and I’ll be on my way.”

“Sir,” Splint chimed in, shaking himself from his trance, “may I review the documentation personally?”

“Nope. Classified documents, for my eyes only,” the stallion replied smugly, floating the notes back into his coat pocket.

“Sir, you said we could look at it for ourselves just a second ag--”

“Did I? Tough luck, bud, I’ve told you everything you need to know to get the job done, and now my job is done. It’s been a pleasure.”

Without another word, the stallion turned and trotted casually away from us, muttering into his Pipbuck. Splint simply stood and stared blankly at the spot the stallion had just occupied, blinking slowly in both confusion and dejection. Though I can’t say that my reaction was much different.

“Wow, I wanna punch that guy in the face.” Yield remarked bluntly, squinting her eyes.

“Get in line.” I murmured back. I sure hoped Splint still remembered all of that technical mumbo jumbo, there’s no way in hell Yield or I were ever going to remember even half of that. We’re soldiers, not walking encyclopedias like the rest of this rabble.

A few moments later, a trio of ponies dressed in similar lab attire split off from the crowd and approached us, Pipbucks in tow.

“If you’ll follow us, we’ll take you to your equipment.” One of them said, an earth pony mare wearing a small pair of glasses with a nametag that read ‘Link Node’.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied as we fell in behind them.

The armory was practically a library of guns: several long aisles spanned from wall-to-wall lines with more weapons than I’d ever seen in my entire life. Each section was meticulously organized by model: assault rifles and carbines in one section, shotguns in another-subcategorized by pump-action, semi-automatic and automatic-magically powered energy weapons, you name it. After what seemed like minutes of sifting our way through the growing crowds near the experimental weapons section, we finally reached a door labelled ‘Power Armor’. After the security screening, we were admitted into a large, whitewashed antechamber with several code locked doors leading presumedly to where the actual armors were being held. Before us on the floor lay what looked like three heaps of black and gray-ish metal, and three corresponding helmets laying atop each one.

“Is that it?” Yield asked, unimpressed and squinting at the masses carefully.

“Indeed it is, these are your new Ares Mk IV power suits, just finished today!” The mare chimed with an ounce of pride. “Please step over to them and we’ll help you with the fitting and first-time initializations.”

Hesitantly, the three of us took our positions next to the suits and awaited further instruction. The other two assistants split off to help with my squadmates, leaving me with Link Node. She carefully unlocked my Pipbuck and levitated it around one of the corners of the metallic mass, fitting it snugly along a similarly sized indentation and the entire thing instantly buzzed to life. It whirred a soft electric hum as warm yellow lights began to slowly activate around its perimeter, four circles of light appearing in hoof-sized holes around the corner of the armor.

“Alright, your Pipbuck is mounted and the computer are importing its biometrics as we speak. Wait until the lights turn blue and then step into the circles.” The mare instructed, a wide smile on her face as she eagerly eyed the machinery.

“Are you sure this thing is actually armor?” I asked, feeling slightly confused at her apparent elation over a slab of glowing metal.

“Oh, you have no idea!” She cooed, giggling slightly and looking back up at me “I know it doesn’t look like much now, but just you wai--” The hunk of metal dinged and the yellow lighting disappeared, replaced with a cool neon blue that bathed the suit in radiant light. “It’s finished! Go on, get in!”

I stowed away my concerns and cautiously placed all four hooves into the glowing circles. No sooner had I placed my last hoof in than the machine sprang into action, the entire base of the slab rising up along my legs and slowly crawling up my body, layering on a thin film of black, cloth-like weaving with small metal platings. Any initial shock I had felt was replaced with sheer awe as I watched this technology work; the slab had reached my torso and folded itself around me until all but my head was covered in my newly formed armor. The blue lights shone brightly around me for a moment before fading back to their normal intensity, my transformation complete and my mind sufficiently blown.

“Holy shit…” I breathed out, glancing around my body like a foal after getting his cutie mark. Except that his cutie mark was more like a full-body tattoo. If all power armor were this awesome to put on, I’d never wear regular combat armor again.

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” The mare remarked coolly, snatching up the helmet and fitting it around my head carefully. The eyepieces were dark for a moment before whirring to life, the outside fully lit and visible as a massive barrage of text drifted down the side of my vision. I couldn’t understand a single word of it, but as the lines all started turning green, different things seemed to turn on. First the audio amplification came on, then several boxes along my peripheries appeared, with pictures of guns, bullets and armor inside of them, and lastly a green menu that appeared over my assistant’s face when I looked at her, listing her as an earth pony female and a non-threat. As soon as I could clearly see her nametag, however, an image of a box blinked over it and the name “Link Node” appeared above her description.

“What is all this?” I asked, glancing over to my squadmates as they suited up for themselves, similar menus appearing over them and their assistants as well.

“What you’re seeing now is your new heads-up display. It constantly monitors information about your surroundings and displays relevant information on your visor as it appears. Think of it as your slightly more advanced Pipbuck interface, except without having to look down at your ankle to use it.” She was right, my Eyes-Forward Sparkle and SATS information was displayed along the bottom of the visor in addition to everything else.

It was then that I suddenly realized that I couldn’t move my legs. Power armor usually requires that you simply guide your steps as the machine walks for you, but nothing I did was working. Try as I might, my legs were practically frozen in place.

“Here, let me help with that,” Link offered, barely able to contain her persistent giggling over my failure to walk. She trotted up beside me with some sort of metallic stick in her mouth and, after a few pokes and prods on the armor’s belly, a green line of text crawled along my visor that read ‘Manual Motor Input: Enabled’. As soon as the text vanished, I nearly dropped straight into the ground as the suit’s joints unlocked themselves and pressed the full weight of the suit down upon me, which was surprisingly very little. This thing was lighter than any other armor I’d ever worn before, and a hell of a lot more comfortable too. If this thing had an A/C built into it, there was no way in hell I would ever take this thing off!

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Link chimed, watching smugly as I took baby steps around the room. I wanted to tell her that this was literally the best thing since sliced bread: no more overheating, no more sore limbs from that hard exoskeleton, no more feeling like a walking metal brick, no more not being able to turn my head back all the way...I wanted to, but my squad was listening. I couldn’t let them see their fearless leader geeking out like a foal in primary school.

“It’s, uh...ehem, it’s...very...functional.” I squeaked out.

“Iron, are you fucking kidding me?! This thing is awesome!” Yield shouted, bouncing on her feet and trotting around the room like a hyped up caffeine junky, whooping and hollering about.

“H-Hey! Take it it easy!” Her assistant yelled as he tried vainly to round up the unleashed Yield.

“Oh wow, they’ve really done a lot with the UI!” Splint announced, standing perfectly still but somehow making his assistant even more nervous than Yield’s.

“Uh, sir, I don’t think you should be changing any settings until we’ve briefed you on the functionality,” his assistant pleaded.

“Suit controls, servo motor power allocation, magic stone integrity and load...ooh, what does this one do?” Splint’s suit shuddered as compartments swung open on either side of his armor and suddenly blasted out several projectiles which detonated in the air faster than I could blink. The objects blew up in a brilliant series of white flashes and audible snaps powerful enough that my suit’s hearing protection activated just in time to reduce the noise to a small pop. The light was diffused by my visors as well, but my instincts had already kicked in and I instantly dropped to the floor. My heart was racing; I hoped to Celestia that when I picked my head off the ground, there wouldn’t be any shrapnel embedded in the walls, or worse. I cautiously peeked back up to find all three of the assistants curled up in the fetal position, hooves pressed to their ears, eyes shut tight and moaning painfully. No shrapnel though, thank the Princesses. Yield and I had both fallen as well, and were now staring intently at Splint, the only one of us to remain on his hooves.

“...Good news, guys...I found the distraction countermeasures…” Splint whimpered, his embarrassment radiating straight through his helmet.

“Spliiiint,” I called through gritted teeth, doing all I can to keep a level tone.

“Y-yes, Sergeant?”

“Stop. Fucking. With. The suit.”

“Yes, Sergeant…”

* * * *

Turns out that weaving through crowds wearing a slimline power suit is still harder than without one. The sea of ponies flooding the armory made little attempt at clearing a path for our crew and we were bumping into just about anything that could be bumped into. Guns, clipboards, ponies, and I think Yield even managed to accidentally headbutt a pony dead-on. He didn’t stand a chance, that guy dropped like a sack of potatoes and had to be carried out on a coworker’s back. Walking was gradually becoming easier the more I practiced, but after seeing how Splint and Yield were handling themselves, it was pretty obvious that I was the runt of the litter.

But then I saw him. That stallion with the attitude from earlier, casually strolling down the aisle with his clipboard and a folder in tow of his levitation spell. There was no other chance; I was never going to see this pony again after today, and I just got handed the perfect excuse to make my play. I silently counted the seconds until he would pass by me, worming my way closer and closer to his trajectory through the crowd until he was right beside me. Then, I struck.

The shock on his face was matched only by my immense satisfaction as I leaned myself over and toppled the weight of a full-grown stallion and his armor down onto him. He shrieked and hit the metal floor with a resounding thud that drew the attention of every pony in a three meter radius. His clipboard landed on the floor with a clamor a few moments later, followed by his folder and all of the scattered papers that had fallen loose from it.

“Y-...you...fu-...buffooon..!” He gasped out, sucking in breath by the mouthfuls. I’d knocked the wind right out of this sucker. Perfect.

“Sorry, ‘sir’, I guess this suit isn’t as good at walking as the last models.” I taunted, grinning widely from behind my helmet. My squadmates were completely beside themselves, Yield losing control and falling onto the floor herself in laughter while Splint casually turned away, failing to contain his giggles and chuckles. Hell, even the assistants seemed to be getting a kick out of it. Link was hiding her face behind her clipboard and the other two were smiling widely. I guess this guy isn’t too popular around the office either.

“Th-that’s...n-no...the suit’s...fault!!” He breathed as loudly as he could, which amounted to nothing more than a faint whisper.

“I know it’s the suit’s fault,” I replied casually, making no effort to remove myself, “you guys should really iron that out. How’s your supervisor going to react when he hears that the last SuRec team failed because they tripped over their own feet before they even made it out of the Stable?”

“G-get the fuck off of me, you ape!!” He cried, regaining his wind and flailing his limbs around desperately.

“As you wish, little chimpanzee.” I very slowly lifted my weight off of him and rose to my hooves, brushed myself on, and strode ahead of the pack to lead the way. The rest of our group soon left him behind, chuckling all the way while his papers were trampled by the crowd which had long since ceased to care about the unfortunate stallion who got exactly what he deserved.

* * * *

Several hours later, after plenty of time at the range and packing our enormous amount of gear, the time had come. Three soldiers strode gallantly through the halls of Stable 70 one last time, their kin and countrymen saluting them as they make their way towards the main elevator. Eyes forward, we marched and paraded down the long and twisting corridors of our home. When we had finally reached the large steel doors to the elevator, all stood at attention and sung in unison the Equestrian national anthem. Their voices carried us all the way to the top, even after the doors had closed and their voices had faded to a dull melody.

As the elevator swung open once again, the Overmare herself and my beloved godparents stood saluting our arrival. We stepped out onto the great plateau before the massive gear-shaped door that separated us from the outside, and stood at the ready. This was it, the moment we had all been anticipating since the day we enrolled in the military. Now all that was left to do was to take the first steps and we would be out on our own.

“We stand here today in mighty company,” the Overmare began, “as we send off our nation’s finest into the unknown. The path ahead is dark and slippery, and may come at the cost of blood and sweat. But you are no ordinary soldiers. You have been in the darkest, dirtiest fights in our nation’s history and come out unscathed. You have proven your resolves against the slow blade of time. You have stared death in the face and met it with unmatched bravery and fortitude. You have proven yourselves to be the apex of what a guardian of Equestria can be, and today you will prove that to the enemy you meet outside the walls. And when your blade falls upon the enemy, they will know the resolve, the strength, the relentlessness of Equestria.” The Overmare retracted her salute and motioned to a pony standing by the door controls. With the throw of a lever, an alarm sounded and a circling orange light shone all around us as the great arm of the vault lowered itself into position and secured itself against the outside door. Blast shields rose up between the steel door and the the unarmored ponies in the room, the Overmare and my godparents included as turrets swung down from the ceiling and trained themselves on the door. As the door screeched back away from it’s opening, I looked over to my godparents one final time. They looked back through the visor at us, eyes filled with tears as they silently waved us our final goodbyes. I gave them one final reassuring nod and smiled at them from behind the helmet before turning back to the door which had already begun to roll aside.

The outside of the Stable was pitch black, save for where the light from the entrance hall shone through and illuminated the rocky cave before us. After a moment of silence, our squad passed through the open portal to the outside and halted just outside, standing with weapons at the ready. After one more flick of the lever, the alarms and lights blared once again as the door slowly rolled into place and screeched shut behind us.

This was it. Our mission was begun.

Once the door had fully shut, our suit’s flashlights automatically turned on and illuminated the path before us. The cave was dank and decrepit, with nothing but utter darkness to greet us beyond the range of our lights. The floor had been so undisturbed that the hoofsteps from the previous squads looked as if they had been created minutes ago. On the bright side, the zebra’s clearly hadn’t made it this far in.

“Comms check.” I spoke into the helmet’s microphone.

“Loud and clear, Iron.” I heard Yield reply through the earpiece.

“Roger that, loud and clear, Sarge,” reported Splint.

“Weapons and biometrics check.” I uttered again into the radio. Two heartbeat images lay overlapped with my squadmates’ callsign and blood pressure readings hovered in the top corner of my vision, along with the visual controls for reloading. As I glanced at the box with the bullets in it, my armor chugged and fed two belts of ammo into my saddle-mounted weapons: a suppressed marksman rifle on one side and an assault carbine on the other. Yield had chosen grenade launchers as her armament and Splint, two automatic shotguns. All of our weapons had been modified to accept caseless ammunition to reduce any evidence left behind by our presence.

“Weapons and squad-monitoring green.” Splint replied.

“All systems green, locked and loaded.” Yield announced with a slight air of cockiness, her weapons making a final, decisive ‘cha-chunk’ as they chambered in the first rounds.

“Echo Squad, advance. Three meter spread.” I called out, and with that we were on our way.

Our hoofsteps echoed rhythmically in the vast, straight length of the cave before us. Condensation from stalactites dripped down onto our suits regularly and made soft tinny sounds to add to the echoes surrounding us. We walked and we walked, weapons raised and on edge, hoping for continued silence but expecting the the worst. As the minutes stretched on, our flashlights revealed nothing but rocks and empty space.

“How long is this cavern?” Splint asked softly into the comms, maintaining the fragile silence.

“Long enough. Just keep advancing.” I replied, asking myself the very same question internally. We’d been walking for quite some time and nothing seems to be changing. If I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn I’d seen the same cluster of pebbles on the ground three or four times now...but just as I was about to concede to that superstition, I spotted the tiniest of lights in the far distance. It was a soft blue glow not terribly unlike the one’s our suit’s produced, but faded, almost impossible to pick out without a sharp pair of eyes. We continued advancing in silence towards this sliver of a beacon, our pace quickening with our anticipation as we drew near.

But then we stopped.

Just before we reached the source of the light, something on the ground caught all of our attention. But it wasn’t the sight that first alerted us, it was the smell. The black heap in front of us wreaked of rot and decay, completely amorphous and motionless. My visor gave me nothing: no hovering menu, no computer analysis. Nothing. It was completely foreign.

“...Splint,” I uttered softly, “Analysis.”

Splint said nothing and slowly crept up on the shape as if it were a snake, coiled and ready to strike. Step by careful step, he inched his way towards it until he was just within reach. He carefully levitated a scoop out of his saddle bag and took one small, oozing sample of the abominable substance before quickly backing away and inserting the sample into a receptacle in his suit.

“Standby…” Splint whispered as his suit worked, leaving the three of us standing perfectly still in the dead silence. I watched on my visor as all of our heart rates steadily rose, and we began glancing around ourselves more and more frequently; our flashlights revealing the same nothingness the third, fourth and fifth times we shone it over the same areas.

Suddenly, Splint’s bio-signs flashed. His blood pressure and heart rate shot up to critical levels instantly, his text red and blaring.

“Dear Celestia…” Splint breathed, choking for breath, “Dear Celestia, no….no, no, no, no, no.” Splint suddenly sprinted towards the mass and ravenously dug through it’s rotting mass, his heavy breathing coming in loud and clear over comms as the two of us stood in horror and watched.

“Splint! Splint, what is it!” I yelled, trying to shake him from his trance. He kept burying his hooves into it and digging, tearing away clumps of mass again and again and again; but all at once, he stopped. He rose and staggered back, and in his place where he had been digging lay the unmistakable white outline of a pony skull.

“S-Sir,” he began, his voice trembling, “We’ve just located a missing squad.” Now it was my turn for my heart to jump.

“What?! But...Splint, elaborate!” I yelled, suddenly feeling as if we were being watched.

“It’s their suit, that black shit is their goddamned suit!” Splint yelled back in sheer panic, “Don’t you get it?! Their suits self-destructed! But they didn’t explode, it dissolved on them, it fucking dissolved on them!”

That’s it, playtime’s over.

“Echo Squad, form up! Aggressive formation on me, weapons hot!” No one’s weapon safety was still on, my visor showed our entire squad disengaging them the moment we encountered the rotting mass. The two of them quickly scrambled in very close behind me in single file, pressing forward at a hurried walk as our flashlights scanned over every inch of terrain. The blue light we had seen was a powersuit cut in half horizontally along the torso, it’s center oozing dark, gelatinous liquids that I neither cared to see nor think about ever again.

Suddenly the ground began to shake. The three of us instantly huddled together with our weapons pointed in every direction, all of us bracing for contact mere seconds before it all went up in smoke.

I had just managed to turn my head to Splint before the ground beneath us exploded. The three of us were sent flying in a huge puff of smoke, but even through the powder and the dirt I still saw it. That thing, that monster that erupted from the very rocks. It’s dark, pale skin, it’s piercing crimson eyes, and it’s massive, sword-like fingers stabbing straight through Splint’s armor and into his torso.

I spun wildly and slammed face-first into the ground. Dust blew like a sandstorm against my visor and the only sound I could hear were Splint’s bloodcurdling screams of agony. Yield had begun yelling into the radio, begging for assistance and a location on any one of us before her cries turned to horrifying screams. Adrenaline hit me like a runaway train, scrambling me to my feet and sending my heart racing a mile a minute. My squad was in trouble, I needed to help them, I needed to go back! But just before I could charge forward into the plume of dust, I felt the ground directly beneath me begin to tremble. I dove to the side mere moments before another one of those things exploded up from the ground, it’s claw raised to skewer me and it’s red eyes staring straight into mine.

After that, there was nothing. No screams, no hoofsteps, no distant gunfire. Just me, sprinting, and the roar of a thousand monsters stampeding behind me. I ran faster than I ever could have imagined. The cave became a tunnel-visioned blur, growing hazier and clearer simultaneously as the roars and echoes of countless hoofsteps grew louder and closer every second.

Holy Celestia, where is the exit?! I’m not fast enough, I can’t stay ahead of them, holy shit those things are going to kill me! Run, run, run!

After flying for several of the longest seconds in recorded history, a gigantic pair of steel doors materialized in front of my flickering flashlight just moments before I could stop myself. I skidded and slammed my torso hard against the metal wall, sending a crashing pain through my ribcage and stifling my breath. The noise of the thud echoed loudly back into the cave, and the monster’s roars answered in deafening unison. I scrambled through labored breath and stamina over to the side in hopes of a switch, but found nothing. The bloodthirsty roaring grew louder and louder, and I sprinted over to the other side of the wall, finally locating a control panel and slamming my hoof vigorously on the button labelled “Open”. After several smacks and a blur of lines appearing over my visor, the doors shook violently and an alarmed blared over the madness. The doors had started to open, but the monsters were already here.

Through the darkness I saw them charging at me by the dozens, by the hundreds. Their mouths wide open in snarling bloodlust and rushing at me like a nest of spiders to a trapped bug. I stood with my back to the wall and with a desperate roar of my own, I targeted the hoard and fired everything I had into it.

The flash of my guns sprinkled the cave with light and destruction. The monsters fell by the two’s, the five’s, the ten’s in the hail of my bullet storm, but they were undying. Those that were wounded clamored and scrambled towards me in any way they could, and those who were not trampled over their fallen with vicious determination, their cries overwhelming even over the gunfire.

I couldn’t stop them. They won’t die. They were getting too close. There were too many of them. Celestia please, for the love of your sister, open the motherfucking door!

In that instant, the steel doors parted behind me and revealed a magnificent beam of light, blinding the monsters in their tracks and sending them scrambling back for the darkness, covering their eyes and screaming in pain. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

I turned and ran through the doors just as quickly as I had arrived at them and instantly searched out the control panel to close the door, slamming furiously on the close button before the doors finally decided to comply. I fell onto my side in relief, panting and reeling in exhaustion as the doors slowly slid shut.

That was when I heard one last roar, louder than ever, cry out from the cave of horrors. I jumped to my feet just in time to see one last monster hurl himself through the closing doors. It had almost made it, but it’s foot was stuck in the doors and it howled out in agony before the door’s torque crushed it’s bone and sprayed fresh blood over the door’s frame. I wasted no time taking my aim and firing several rapid fire shots through SATS before the dry clicking of my triggers and the large ‘OVERHEATED’ text on my visor alerted me to the fact that my guns had stopped working and that atrocity was still alive.

It ripped free from it’s crippled flesh with a sickening crunch and crawled at me with it’s claws, the unyielding determination in it’s eyes sending me spiralling once again into panic and I fished desperately for my sidearm. No sooner had I wrapped my teeth around the pistol’s handle than that monster closed the gap between us and swatted me with it’s giant sword fingers. The hit sent me soaring into a rock wall, slamming head-first against it and the ground below it. I watched in double vision as the monster lifted me up by the leg and smashed me down against the ground over and over, my vision swimming with red and my stamina splashing out from my body with every blow. Everything was a smear of color and heat. My armor strained massively under the punishment as I felt the life being smacked out of me by that abomination. With it’s final act of violence, the monster pinned me against the wall and blasted me with a roar so loud and so close that it’s jaws were completely around my head. Staring into the throat of the monster sent my body reeling into adrenaline frenzy.

I reached out and held back it’s massive jaws from closing around my head, it’s teeth mere inches from my throat and saliva drenching over my visor like rain. I poured every ounce of strength my body could summon into pushing the beast back. Once it’s jaws were out of range, I released the monster and let it’s jaws snap in front of me. I reached into my saddle bag and quickly drew my combat knife. It’s jaws opened around me again just before I jammed the knife straight into it’s neck and cleaved out the biggest, meatiest chunk of throat my blade could reach. The monster’s eyes opened wide in surprise as crimson gushed openly from it’s neck, releasing me and vainly clutching at it’s throat. The instant I was free, I pounced atop it and slammed my knife into it anywhere I could

Die, just die. Another stab.

Quit moving, die already! Stab. Stab. Another twitch.

Die! Die, damn you, die! Another stab, another whimper.

“Die!” Stab. “Die, Die, DIE, DIE, DIE!”

I swung and jammed and smashed my knife down into it’s flesh over and over until its entire body was a gushing river of sticky crimson, but I just kept swinging. Minute after minute, I mutilated the monster with all of my anger, all of my willpower, and all of my very being until my strength had faded. I collapsed on the ground, heartbeat raging in my ears and heat radiating from me like the sun, unable to move.

“It’s dead!” I shouted, daring a smile and laughing madly through the tears, “It’s dead! I killed it--I fucking killed it!” I rolled over to face the bloodied form of what used to be my attacker, “That’s right buddy, you hear me?! You’re dead! You aint shit! I killed you first! I WON!”

The tears streamed down my face in streams until my cheeks were soaked in saline. Sensation crept slowly back into my body and the red receded from my vision. I could feel my arms, I could feel my legs, I could feel my head...and I could remember. My visor was cracked and flickering, but I could clearly see the flat line hovering solemnly below each of their names. They were gone. They were gone because of me.

I ripped off my helmet and cried into the fresh, open air. The crashing realization of my abandonment grounded me under it’s weight and I wept for them for as long as there was a tear left to shed.

Author's Note

And thus the story begins. I hope you all enjoyed my little introduction to this epic which I hope to tell over the next several months! Relax, enjoy and as always, keep on reading.