Loud, resonating explosions shook our Skyhawk. Despite the cabin being entirely sealed, flashes of various colored lights still leaked out from under the door to the cockpit into the cargo bay where the twelve of us sat.
I turned and stared at the sealed door next to me. The thick metal was the only thing keeping us from being hit from the continuous bombardment. I inhaled deeply and took in the scent of smoke and sweat. It was all too familiar to me.
One year ago, a portal opened up in the Middle East, unluckily for us, the royal ambassador that stepped through made first contact with a group of insurgents rebelling against the Alassiad Regime.
The insurgents saw the alien, which looks frighteningly like a human horse, but lavender and with a horn. If the reports are correct, they tried to kill it for supplies, but it tried vocally communicating with them. That really changed the alien’s situation as they no longer wanted to eat it.
Instead, they crucified the alien and declared it to be an abomination against their god. Our intelligence agency caught wind of the events and we immediately captured the area surrounding the portal. We airlifted supplies and built defenses around it. It was still visible, but not active. We tried to send a man through, but nothing came of it.
Our men in the Public Intelligence department tried to cover up the incident, but a video of the crucifixion was leaked on the internet. The global community went mad. Some groups condemned the insurgents whilst others praised them. Regardless, anything even remotely about the incident was the only thing reported in the news.
Exactly seventy-two hours from the incident, we made second contact.
The alien was much like the first, looked like a unicorn but this one was much taller, had wings, and was colored white. That and its- I guess you would call it its mane looked like a flowing pastel rainbow. Regardless, it spoke, just not in any language we knew.
It had then approached one of our soldiers. He freaked out and fell onto his back, pointing his ABR7 at it. His commanding officer told him to put it down and he followed the order. The alien bent down, bringing its horn to the soldier’s head.
Then it spoke in English. Shit me not, it spoke in English. Still today, no one knows how it did it.
It asked us where her assistant Twilight Sparkle was. After a series of back-and-forth questions, we found out that the purple unicorn that was murdered was Twilight. However, upon knowing her fate, Celestia, as she called herself, grew wrathful.
She slaughtered an entire platoon before she escaped through the portal. Our bullets could not reach her, as they would stop in their tracks in mid-air before they hit her. Men were ripped apart by nothing. Others were hit by what we could had only assumed was some sort of explosive.
And so the defenses that had been meant to keep people away turned inside out to keep the xenos at bay. The next few weeks had been spent supplying the base with materials and soldiers.
Luckily, there had been no public footage of the gruesome display of power, but we had bigger problems at hand.
Two weeks passed until they came back. This time with a few different types of these, what command coined them, “ponies”. There was the unicorn variant, pegasi, and regular. The former with a horn, next with wings, the last with neither.
Without Celestia accompanying them, they charged. The pegasi and regulars were gunned down easily, as they had no armor or weapons. However, the unicorns were able to stop bullets, some even send them back at the soldiers firing, but they could only stop so many before the next one would meet its target.
In that battle, we captured a number of each variant. We had scientists working around the clock to research any possible ways to get past the unicorn’s defenses.
Nickel was the answer. Whatever the unicorns used, it couldn’t control nickel. We developed nickel-coated ammunition and incorporated it into our uniforms. That development came just in time for the Battle of Sarenga.
We had been pushed back further from the portal over the previous weeks. The pegasi had then equipped a sort of blade on their wings, with an end much like a scythe. All three variants wore golden armor. Gold. Real actual gold!
Anyways, in the Battle of Sarenga, a pony similar to Celestia, but midnight blue, led an assault against our fortifications. In the ensuing fight, we surprised -and killed- it when our bullets passed through its invisible defense and lodged themself into its flesh.. After it fell, the remainder of the ponies retreated.
Fast forward to a week from today. The portal had expanded since it had first appeared and it did not close after the ponies last traveled through it. Using the forces accumulated by GXDM, we took the initiative and attacked.
First we took down several small towns, then a city that looked much like Manhattan. Each population center fell quickly and with little casualties as our technology was far superior than the medieval-esque armor and weapons they donned.
Now, all but one major population center has been extinguished. Intelligence tells us it’s named Canterlot.
The tip of my right index finger fidgeted on my ABR6’s safety. I clenched my left hand over the fore grip of my gun as our aircraft rocked from the explosions outside. I may have the older version of the ABR, but the familiar weight makes me feel secure. The new models may shoot faster and be lighter, but it just isn’t the same.
Lieutenant Segrid stood up from the other side of the bay and yelled, “Get up! You all know the drill. Fifteen seconds till we are above the palace. Eliminate all hostile forces and if possible, capture Celestia alive. If she poses any resistance, feel free to shoot that son’va bitch!”
A chorus of replies rang out, “Yes Sir!”
He gave us all a cursory glance. “I can’t guarantee you will all live, but you will be remembered even if you don’t leave this bloodied ground. Godspeed.”
I let go of the fore grip of my gun and unbuckled the seat belt holding me down. I grabbed the handle above my seat and pulled myself up.
“Five seconds!”
I pulled down my face mask as the bay door opened up and revealed the night sky which flashed with prismatic colors as the ponies launched explosives at us. Eight other Skyhawks like ours flew in a V-shaped formation, ours being the spearhead of the operation.
“Three!”
I glanced at the parachute pack on my back and grabbed the fore grip of my ABR6 once more.
“Two! One! Go go go!”
Being the closest to the door on my side of the Skyhawk’s bay, I lept out the back alongside one of my long-time squad mates into the illuminated night sky.
With our squad split into two groups, I had taken the lead of the first group. Behind me was Lieutenant Segrid and four others. The group following mine was led by Sergeant Williams.
I sprinted to the corner of the door farthest from our position and placed my back against the wall. Lieutenant took a position behind, followed by the rest of our group whilst the other group mirrored us, except for our demolitions expert.
I pressed myself tighter against the wall and watched as Corporal Lang planted the explosives against the castle doors. Our squad had parachuted right outside the castle and pushed the ponies back through the gates without a casualty on our side, some of the other squads were not so lucky. Regardless, we all split up and now our squad was about to breach the west entrance to the palace.
A small beep came from the explosives as Lang armed it. He jogged over to the opposite side of the doorway behind the rest of his group and picked up the rifle laying on his chest. I clutched the trigger guard of my own ABR6 in anticipation.
Three seconds passed and the castle doors imploded. My mirror and I swung around our respective side’s corners as we lifted our rifles whilst we searched for targets through the haze.
Our footsteps thudded against the ground as the twelve of us charged through the entrance. Through my silicone mask and the dispersing dust I spotted three figures huddled in the far left corner.
“Three, ten o’clock,” I spoke into the mic embedded in my mask.
Someone yelled into the channel, “Incoming hostiles, three o’clock!”
I kept the three sharpening shapes in my iron sights as a series of gun shots pierced the air from behind me. The hazed dispersed enough for me to identify the targets. In front of me stood a pegasus guard, beside him crouched two unicorns. Both female, one a child, the other adult.
I spoke once more, “Papa uniform uniform.”
I heard the rustles of the combat uniforms from my squadmates as we surrounded the three ponies. The stallion was armored, but not equipped with any weapons. His face was a look of pure determination. The two unicorns behind him had neither weapons or armor, the child was cowering into the other’s chest, hiding itself from us. The elder one was whispering to her.
The lieutenant’s voice crackled into my headset, “You know the drill, take them out.”
One of the newer members of our squad, Private Johnson, stepped in front of the ponies and turned to us.
“Sir! We can’t just harm unarmed civilians!”
Lieutenant Segrid grabbed onto the front of the private’s vest with his left hand and pulled him close, “Last time I let one of these fucking unicorns live, they killed my best corporal,” -Segrid threw him to the side- “Fuck your god damn civilians.”
The end of the Lieutenant’s rifle’s muzzle flashed as he shot the three ponies. Gore splattered across the wall behind them as each bullet impacted their bodies, the pegasus’s armor being torn like paper.
I stared impassively as they collapsed onto the ground. In the corner of eyes, I saw Lieutenant back Johnson against the wall.
“If you disobey my commands again, I’ll shoot your ass myself. Understood?”
A voice filled with shock replied through my headset, “Y-y-yes sir!”
I turned to my right to see Lieutenant walking to the next interior door. I jogged forward and took my place in front of him as he approached it. I turned my head over my shoulder to confirm my group was prepared when the door let out a loud creak.
I snapped my head to face the sound and lifted my rifle.
Out from the open door stepped out a soldier. His combat uniform was bloody and in tatters and his facemask was so condensed, it was futile to try and see his face. He also lacked his standard rifle or any other weapon. It looked like he came from hell and back.
I relaxed my arm and pointed my rifle to the ground. Our team medic, Corporal Simons, sprinted out from somewhere behind me, grabbed the man, and started walking him away.
“Lewis, help me out,” I watched as our medic started to loosen the soldier’s mask.
I turned back around and peered through the open doorway, confirming that there were hostiles in the adjacent room.
“So- Uh… Lieutenant, you may wan-”
I looked away from the door and back to our medic to see what he-
What the fuck? Oh fuck.
A glossy obsidian spike protruded from Simon’s back; Simon himself was staring down at his chest. On the other side of Simon was the soldier, however, his eyes were not normal; The entirety of his eyes were luminescent and blue. His face held no expression.
I was at a shock for words as Simon collapsed onto the ground, the spike sliding out from his body. He fell backwards onto his back, giving us a view of the soldier that had stood in front of him.
The spike was the soldier’s lower right arm. I snapped my rifle up to the soldier’s head as his skin morphed into some sort of sheeny, black carapace.
