The next morning Var woke up with everyone missing, Aloh and Sven were nowhere to be found and Twilight wasn't around the library either. Just with a note saying 'Gone out, find Spike if need me' With the word 'Spike' in bold and underlined a lot. Had Var annoyed the lavender pony. No, lavender unicorn somehow? If the two Auns really did have that kind of power to move stars and moons. Then surely the Luna Princess with her star moving ability would be stronger, its science. Well, magical science. Var just shrugged and opened up a pack of rations and found something to drink before heading outside. The sun was already up at this point and a lot of ponies of different shapes and sizes could be seen wondering the streets. A lot giving galnces at Twilight's abode. And no, it wasn't just because of Var stepping into the sun. It was the eleven fire warriors all standing at attention wearing helmets and holding their weapons. Valar was no where to be seen. Aloh saluted and the other warriors followed.

"What is this?" Var asked. Being fair, the commander knew what they were doing. Every morning the lower ranking Tau would make sure to get up before their commander in full arms and present themselves outside of the commanders room. But the squad hadn't done it in a while because of Car's reaction, which was usually to groan and go back to bed, leaving them outside his room for another couple hours. The commander didn't necessarily sleep, nor did he stay in his quarters. Being commander meant there was more than one door he could exit from.

"I know we haven't done this in a while, for good reason. But we scouted the place, Twilight's only has one exit and we do need to get things done today. Shas'O." It was Tyrion who answered, being the only one to call Var by rank and not his name or just commander.

"Aloh what are you doing?" Var asked, looking to the sergeant.

"Well since we are now away from the Greater Good and the rest of our fleet. I suggested we make amends for this strange anomaly." Aloh replied, as blank as an expression on his face as possible. Probably trying to act like Var.

"You think this is your fault we are on this pony world?" Var asked, no one answered by Tito shrugged. Meaning someone had mentioned that. "Step forward whoever thought it was your fault we are here." Var said, folding his arms. After a brief pause one fire warrior did step forward, breaking rank. He saluted and nodded.

"Please can someone explain how the mute one thought it was his or your fault." Var asked. Calling the ire warrior 'the mute one' probably wasn't the best idea. But he had never told Var his name.

"Señor Var. He can write si? In the dirt." Tito said. Var looked at the mute fire warrior, who nodded and knelt down. Writing something. After a few seconds it was eaily seen.

'I feel like it was something either we / another squad did. Tamper maybe? We did have that Imperial teleporter on board.'

"And how do you think a teleporter, a stolen, dead, Imperial teleporter get us. Here?" Var asked. The mute Tau shrugged. Then rubbed out his sentence best he could and wrote again.

"'Unknown. Variables 2 many.'

"I see. Why did you not think to write something down in the past? Rather than shrugging or staring at someone when asked a question?" Var asked. The mute Tau just tilted his helmet toward Var and the commander could only guess the fire warrior was staring at him. Then, a message in the dirt arrived.

'Never thought of it. Can I have a pen or something?'

"Do any of us look like we have anything for you to use to write. If I Caz cool Twilight down enough, I'm sure she will give you something." Var replied. The Tau nodded and rewrote his message.

'Why'd you piss Twilight off?' It asked.

"I may have shot down any theories she had on her Sun Aun we met. I explained how the one controlling the stars and moon, would be more powerful than just the sun." Now Sven joined in.

"Their Sun's can control the apsun and moon in this galaxy?" He asked.

"Apparently." Var replied shrugging. Sven just nodded and bit his lip a little.

"So. Now that is out of the way. We have a burial, and the repairing of the drones." Aloh said after a brief pause, Var nodded and nobody moved.

"First off, fuck you. Secondly, once we get back all of you are getting an hour extra in the pit." Var said. Pointing a gloved hand at the group, a few grunted but none were overly verbal about the punishment. "And don't relieve yourselves in it this time. Where is Valar?"

"He went of into the forest sometime last night, coming back tpfrom the party amigo." Tito replied. Var turned to the Tau.

"And you didn't think to go after him?" Var asked. Tito shrugged.

"The ponies think that forest is dangerous, that Applejack horse said it was full of monsters and danger. If he wants to go in and kill himself, I don't think anyone here will complain." Sven said quickly. And few murmurs of agreement.

"Still, as nice as it is that Valar is gone. I don't really want him alone. Ethereals know what would happen if he found a place of power." Var said eventually. He swore he saw Aloh flinch at that. "Come on, let's do this then we can put everyone in the Air and Earth Caste to shame. Fire Caste warriors can repair drones no matter what planet they are on." Var added, the group began moving toward the forest where the body had been dumped. Covered in leaves to avoid attention.
Once the Tau reached the hiding spot, Var noticed a distinct lack of hole to bury the fire warrior in.

"You four, find some rocks. You two, go into town and find shovels no one is using." Var ordrered quickly, pointing at random fire warriors. Tito stepped forward, a weapon in hand. Var stepped back. "Don't." Was all he said. Tito looked to some fire warriors and they went to move the body backwards.

"But señor, it will create a hole for us si?" Tito said, Var looked at Tito and back to Aloh, who also had a grenade out. "My guess is dos grenades and the hole will be big enough to bury the body. If it is deep enough some leaves and rocks will cover him. As well as any dirt or shrapnel left over from the blast." Tito added, looking at the commander, most of the Tau had already backed up and Tito now held his own and one of Aloh's grenades. Var nodded and stepped back. The other fire warrior primed a grenade and placed it on the floor, before doing some combat roll and diving away just as the twin blast struck. There were a lot of shouts from the pony town after the smoke cleared and the newly built crater looked big enough to place the body.

"Well Tito. I'll give it to you that it actually worked. Huh." One fire warrior muttered. A few suddenly walked off to gather rocks and another warrior placed the body in the hole. Var, Aloh and Tito watched whilst everyone else began to gather. After a couple minutes of this, a very pissed off looking Twilight and five other ponies, a few Var knew from what Aloh had told him before Car's talk with Twilight. There was a yellow Pegasus named Fluttershy, a pink pony named Terrace, Twilight obviously, Rainbow Dash, a white unicorn called Marshmallow and Applejack. Twilight seemed to be wearing some sort of crown and the others were wearing gem infused necklaces. Var waved down the two fire warriors currently aiming their weapons at the oncoming group and the commander began walking forwards.

"Twilight, I'm afraid the burial isn't over yet, so unless it is something important, could you please leave?" Var asked, Twilight growled at the commander.

"What in the bucking Tartarus was that!" Twilight shouted, Var stepped back. The other ponies looked confused.

"We needed to dig a hole, so we used our weapons." Var calmly replied.

"Why were they so. Loud? You scared every pony in Ponyville. The princess was summoned, we were asked to put the Elements of Harmony on. All because you couldn't find a shoevl!" Twilight asked.

"If their Aun was already alerted and a military presence is in their town, that is remarkable response time." Someone muttered before Var could answer, both Twilight and Var face palmed.

"You can blame the idea on one of my fire warriors, Tito. He thought that it would be quicker and easier to use grenades for a hole." Var replied eventually, Twilight glared at some random fire warrior. It wasn't Tito.

"What's ah grenade?" Applejack asked. Twilight turned and stared at her.

"Its the thing they used for that explosion." Twilight said, completely calm when facing her friends. Then the stare of death returned when she looked back at Var.

"Ah know that, I jus' wanna see what it looked like is all." Applejack muttered. Var reached down to his belt and unclipped one. Holding it up so Applejack could see.

"Something so small could cause such a blast?" She asked. Var nodded. "Ya'll weren't joking when ya said you were dangerous." She added. Fluttershy whimpered.

"Not to ponies, you have been no threat to us nor have you attacked us. You have ideals, primitive as they are, which follow the Greater Good, so you are more potential allies than enemies. That said, I doubt you could handle yourselves in a fight against another race." Var said when he released that the Tau being powerful on this world, could upset someone.

"Are you saying we aren't powerful? Celestia moves our sun! She could handle anything." Twilight shouted, stepping closer to the commander. A few Tau raised weapons.

"I didn't say that, I'm sure she could. But this world seems very primitive compared to ones we have seen. Where a normal colony would have guns the size of your moon for defensive purposes. This world hasn't shown any potential for combat on the ground, aside from magic, let alone any weapons that might destroy a titan class ship." Var said quickly.

"Then teach us how to defend ourselves." Twilight said quietly.

"What?" Var asked, taken aback by the request. Or order.

"You seem so worried about the fact we can't defend ourselves. Build one of these moon weapons! Help us defend ourselves from other aliens." Twilight replied, raising her voice a little.

"We couldn't. Not like this. This group before you are all warriors, combat troops. Valar is a diplomat, to an extent. We have no engineers, let alone supplies to even begin to build constructions here. Anyway. The T'ros Tau are more aggressive. Not defensive. The few engineer Earth or Air caste members we had, were for ship maintaince. Nothing more. Maybe we could pick some volunteers up, but as you can see-" Var waved his arms around the general area. "-we are without a ship to get back." He said, Twilight was silent for a while before nodding.

"It was worth a shot, sorry for interrupting. Just, warn me, or anypony here, when you are about to use your. 'Grenades' again." She said, before turning and leaving. Var just caught:

"He wasn't overly polite, but I can see why Celestia let such. Unfashionable, aliens stay here." Marshmallow said. Followed by: "I think they look funny, Maud would love the color. Maybe we could have another party, they got Cutie Marks that time. Maybe we can paint the rest of their skin!" From the pony Aloh called Terrace. Var flinched and turned back for the burial, a decent amount of rocks had been gathered and the Tau were looking to their commander for orders. Var nodded and the burial began.

It was a fairly simple task, put the body in the ground, cover it with rocks and put the helmet on some metal post or stick nearby. It was similar to some ancient Terran custom long forgotten, but it worked. After that was done the group split up, some to find Applejack to help with the farm, some to attempt to repair the drones. Obviously those who had no idea where to begin, were sent off to Applejack. Which left Aloh, Var (he didn't want to help out on the farm), Tito and two other fire warriors. The five had gone down into Twilight's basement carrying between them the two gun drones. Tito was the only real engineer, his father being part of the Earth caste, he was taught a lot before his military training, the others present were either avoiding manual labour or had just picked bits up from others.
So for now, Tito was in charge, he quickly set up a workstation on one of the tables and placed the two drones down. Twilight seemed to have a lot of basic machinery down in her basement, electrical coils, steamp powered pistons and a lot of scrap metal. Some of it could be used on the drone/s.

"How do you want me to focus señor? Get uno drone running properly? Or attempt the both of them. Si cuz I don't think we can get two online with what we have. The second can always be scrapped for repairs on th first?" Tito asked, Var looked at the two missile drones and folded his arms. Staring at the green painted metal.

"Get one as repaired as you can with the materials down here, if it isn't repaired then scrap the second." Var declared after a moment, Tito nodded and gently pulled the lid off the first drone, showing all the compartments and wires beneath. Tito, who had swapped out his helmet for some glass eye binoculars of some kind, zommed in into the drones components looking at the damage, nothing seemed amiss to Var, but he was no engineer.

"Problem señor." Tito said after a couple minutes of examining.

"Yes?" Var asked, leaning in.

"This drone has a crap battery señor. No power. But that's the only thing wrong, probably the same with the other and the Hammerhead. We couldn't repair these if we tried. I'm sorry señor." Tito replied, pointing at the power cell, instead of the blue streams near wires and metal components, the streams were black and dead. Var looked at the drones insides, not overly understanding much of it, but still seeing the fact the drone was dead. Eventually, he nodded slowly. Then patted Tito's shoulder and stepped away from the table.

"At least you tried Tito. It was a long run to get then working anyway." Var said after a pause. "Right. I'll go tell Twilight we're done here, go pick up the others and get ready to go." Var added.

"Or wait, yes the others will be pissed at having to work, but Valar.." Aloh muttered.

"He's still missing señor. I checked in on the vox chat before we started here. The others are pretty happy he's gone. " Tito replied. Aloh nodded. Followed by: "Alright. We good?" The group turned to see a purple unicorn standing at the top of the stairs, looking down with bewilderment. She jumped back when the Tau looked at her. Blushing, she began to speak.

"You're just going to give up?" She asked.

"I told you, we aren't engineers, we aren't trained or equipped for this." Var replied.

"Señorita, there is nothing we can do without a way to power it si? Nothing is broken on either, just no power." Tito added, the unicorn nodded. Then sheepishly said:

"Can I try?" She asked. Tito looked to Var who shrugged. Aloh nodded slowly.

"Go on then." Var replied, Twilight gave a huge smile and rushed forward, before correcting her posture and slowly walking down the stairs toward the first drone. Her horn began to glow after a moment and the Tau leant in to watch. The black streams began to glow a purple light, slowly filling up. Var watched emotionlessly, but Tito's jaw dropped. The streams slowly filled in purple and the drones generator began to him. Twilights horn was lighting up a lot more and she seemed to be strupurple. Aloh put a hand on the ponies ear and scratched her a little, that seemed to calm her down a little. Until she made some sexual moan. Aloh quickly jerked his hand back, Twilight then blushed but continued to pour magic into the drone.
After a minute of this, the drone began to go over. Scanning the room, Tito moved forward when it found Twilight and readied it's missile weapons. It was note to protect the room, than saving Twilight. She could handle herself, but if the drone shot a !missile in such a small room, the whole treehouse would go up in flames and death. The drone fell into Tito's arms when he clicked the safety on it and began messing with the small console under the drone. After he did that he opened his pack and pulled out a small device, a miniature drone controller, after setting the frequency he reloaded the drone.
Floating again it looked at Twilight and did some floating nod. Tito let out a breath and looked to Var.

"It should be safe around ponies, but I suggest I stay close to it when we leave. I'll have to do it to the other one if Twilight can power it." Tito said, looking to the unicorn, who looked rather out of breath and was audibly panting. "Maybe tomorrow yes?" Tito asked, Twilight nodded before sitting down.

"Alright. Let's go get the others. Warriors, on me." Var said, raising a fist. The Tau began to walk out of Twilights with missile drone in check.

Author's Note

More references, more Tau'ing about. Action next chapter, I promise.

The mute Tau's lines were meant to be grammatically incorrect. Would you have perfect grammer if you had about thirty seconds to tell a whole story in dirt?

Not very edited this time, computer has been fucking up recently so I'm having to get it repaired, so sorry for any errors.