The Creatures that Came to Ponyville

Chapters

The Prologue
The Arrival
The Sulacolt
The Flight
The Moon
The Palace

The Prologue

She couldn’t move. Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes. She looked down. She was stuck to the wall, encased in an amber-like substance. She was cocooned. Just like before. “W-w-what’s going on? Where am I?”

A familiar voice with a southern accent grumbled, “Yer grave.”

She looked in front of herself. Apple Jack was cocooned on the opposing wall. “Applejack, w-what do you mean?” Fluttershy started to hyperventilate. “What’s going on?” She looked to her right and saw Rarity, cocooned as well, glaring at her.

Rarity hissed with venom, “This is your fault.”

She heard chewing. She looked to her left. Rainbow Dash was cocooned next to her. Her chest was open, her guts were spilled on the floor, and a chest-burster was feasting on her corpse. She began to whimper. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“’Sorry’ doesn’t help us, Fluttershy!”

She looked up to see Twilight Sparkle cocooned on the ceiling. “You’ve doomed us all, Fluttershy! You’re the reason we’re all going to DIE!”

“You’re… a horrible… pony.”

She looked down to see Pinkie Pie cut up and bound by saliva in an egg-like sphere. “You… don’t… deserve… to live…”

She felt something bite her inside her chest. She could feel it moving inside her, withering and worming its way out of her. More pain. More biting. She couldn’t scream. The pain was excruciating. Blood exploded out of her chest. She looked down. A shrill cry came from her chest, and a chest-burster emerged, soaked in her blood and covered in bits of her flesh.

She shot up from her bed, crying. Her cold sweat made her feel sticky. Just like its saliva. Hyperventilating, she threw off her covers and quickly made her way to the bathroom. Cold water running, she splashed herself repeatedly. She looked in the mirror. Her chest was whole. She turned off the water. She left the bathroom and trotted downstairs to the living room.

It was mostly dark out, but she knew that the sun would be coming up soon. She’d woken up the same way at roughly the same time for the past four months. It had become her new morning routine. Wake up from the same nightmare, wash it off, have some coffee, eat some breakfast, and wait for Rainbow Dash to check up on her. Rainbow Dash would drop in at eight and give her some supplies, while asking how she was doing. Fluttershy would lie to her and say that she was fine. Rainbow Dash would leave, and Fluttershy would go to her new job, working at the Ponyville train yard, specifically operating the newly introduced machines called Power Loaders. Maybe do some overtime, get a little extra pay to help make ends meet.

After the incident, Fluttershy had undergone therapy. Lots of therapy. It wasn’t cheap, and it didn’t work. Not only were most of her savings gone, but when ponies stopped bringing their pets, she had to find another means of making money. She had received many ‘nice’ letters from her clients saying that they didn’t want to burden her with their pets, but she knew the truth. They didn’t trust her. Why would they? Why should they entrust their beloved pets with a pony who accidentally takes in parasitic, killer monsters that want to use you for their horrific breeding cycle? They shouldn’t. She understood their skepticism, but it still made her sad.

She entered the kitchen and turned on the light. She prepared her pot of black coffee and set it on the stove to heat up. She looked at the clock. 4:27 AM. “I guess I slept in”, Fluttershy whispered. “I still have plenty of time, before Rainbow Dash comes.” She opened the fridge. Half of a gallon of milk, a bag of lettuce, two carrots, a dozen apples, courtesy of Applejack, and three-fourths of a cake courtesy of Pinkie Pie lay before her. “I need the lettuce and carrots for Angel,” she thought aloud. “I need the milk for the cats.” She removed two apples. “I guess that’ll do. I’m sure the soup kitchen will be serving some nice lunch today.”

She took her apples and coffee to the kitchen table. Crunching on one of the Golden Delicious, she picked up yesterday’s paper and began reading it. She could always count on somepony to discard their copy of Equestria Daily, once they had deemed it useless. The front heading read, “PRINCESS CADANCE PUTTING ON WEIGHT!!! BAD DIETING??? OR FOAL ON THE WAY???” Fluttershy gave a little giggle. “Poor Shining Armor,” she thought to herself, “I can’t imagine how he feels about this publicity.”

A smaller article caught her attention. “Neighland-Yutani makes possible breakthrough with Ponyville’s alien visitor!” Her eyes widened in horror as the memories flooded back to her. Finding Scuttles, finding out what Scuttles was, finding out where it came from, finding out WHAT it did, what it would do if it was allowed to live, the lives it would claim, with that pitch-black color, and its eye-less cowl, and its two sets of razor sharp teeth, and that spiked tail that could snap a pony’s neck in half, and its ability to stalk, to hunt, to kill- “Stop it, Fluttershy!” she shook herself as she came back to reality. “Scuttles is dead!” She said to herself while she gulped her coffee, “It can’t hurt anypony anymore. It’s dead.”

She picked up the paper again. She began to read the article. “Neighland-Yutani, the company that has put its four hooves forward in the dirty businesses of colonization and scientific exploration, has announced that they have made a scientific breakthrough, thanks largely in part to their study of the creature that came to Ponyville. When asked if he could specify, the president of Neighland-Yutani said, ‘I won’t bore you with the technicalities, but in our time with the Xenomorph specimen, we’ve been able to analyze and identify some of its biology and apply it to our everyday usage. I don’t want to get pony’s hopes up for the improbable, but if success continues, we may see things like improved medical aid, maybe better armor for our soldiers, perhaps even an upgrade to technology in general!’ When asked about the creature itself, the president had this to say: ‘It is truly a beautiful work of nature. I would give almost anything to be able to observe it in its natural habitat, to watch it grow, learn, and conquer its fellow animal kingdoms. I also wouldn't mind if it grew its head back, but it is all unlikely, so we’ll take what we can get.’

She put the paper down. She remembered reading the story shortly after Scuttles had been dealt with. They had only written about Fluttershy finding the creature in the river, and then completely ignored what soon followed. They had said the creature attacked Apple Jack, when Fluttershy had failed to control it, and that Apple Jack had put it down in self defense. They said nothing about the ponies it harvested and killed, or the other monsters. Celestia herself had explained to them that she didn’t want her subjects to panic, not when an energy crisis was at hoof. Sighing, she picked up the paper again and turned to the job section.

After her meager breakfast, she placed the pot of coffee in the fridge for dinner and filled the cup with water and set it in the sink. She trotted back out into the living room. The sun had started to come up. Going upstairs, she glanced at her couch, the same couch that Scuttles had used. She shivered at the thought. “No, Fluttershy,” she told herself, “Just get your uniform on and do your chores.” She went back into her bedroom and donned a grey jumpsuit that she was assigned for the loading docks. She recalled Rarity exclaiming how ‘those ruffians’, as she liked to address Fluttershy’s new coworkers, were so insensitive to fashion. She recalled Twilight being worried sick about her taking a manual labor job, saying that she shouldn’t hang around ‘those kinds of ponies’.

Twilight. She missed Twilight. They all did. Two weeks after the incident, Princess Celestia had called her and Spike back to Canterlot on some secret assignment. None of them had heard from her since. “I’m sure they’re fine, Fluttershy,” she spoke quietly to herself as she lay down to take a quick nap. “They’re probably having fun.”

Fluttershy jumped at the sound of a loud knocking coming from downstairs. She glanced at her bedroom clock. 7:42 AM. “It’s too early for that to be Rainbow Dash.” She said quietly to herself. The knocking got louder.

Fluttershy rushed downstairs, quietly shouting, “I’m coming! Please hold on!” She got to the door and opened it, revealing two white Pegasi in their iconic golden armor, and a carriage resting at the foot of her bridge.

The guard on her right asked, “Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy answered timidly, “Um, yes. Can I help you?”

The guard on her left answered, “You must come with us.”

Fluttershy sputtered, “B-but why? Did I do something wrong? I’m so sorry, I don’t have much money now, but I promise I’ll pay for-”

The guard on her right interrupted, “No, Fluttershy, you misunderstand. Princess Celestia has ordered your presence in Canterlot immediately.”

Fluttershy asked, “W-what? B-but I-I have a job to go to, a-and my friend is going to come by, a-and-”

The guard on her left said, “Rainbow Dash has also been called, along with Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. Princess Celestia has labeled the matter as ‘urgent’.”

Fluttershy said, “Well… okay. I do hope it’s nothing bad. How long will it take? My boss won’t like it if I’m late.”

The guard on her right said, “As we speak, your boss is being informed of the delay. Your job will be there for you, when you return. Come, let us make haste.” He said, turning around and trotting to the carriage. “It would not be wise to keep Princess Celestia waiting.” The guard on her left stepped aside, allowing her to follow.

Fluttershy left the entrance of her cottage, but quickly reared back. “Wait! My animals! Who will take care of my animals?”

The left guard said, “I have been assigned by Princess Celestia to care for your animals, while you are gone. Fear not, they are in good hooves.”

Fluttershy continued to the carriage. “Well, please be careful with Angel.” She got on the carriage. “He’s still a somewhat picky eater.” As the carriage took off, her voice went out of earshot.

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The Arrival

“You can see Canterlot coming up on the horizon!” the guard called back to Fluttershy.

She stretched her neck to look over the guard. Sure enough, the golden towers and scenic waterfalls had come into view. “Oh, uh, thank you!” said Fluttershy.

“We’ll be landing shortly!”

Fluttershy returned to her sitting position. She casually glanced to her left. Another carriage was coming in as well. “Um, mister guard, sir? There’s another carriage coming!”

The guard called back, “Yeah! That’s probably Applejack!”

She looked back at the carriage. Sure enough, an orange mare, wearing a brown hat, was sitting in the carriage. Apple Jack saw her and gave a friendly smile and waved. Smiling, herself, Fluttershy waved back. Apple Jack’s carriage lagged behind Fluttershy as they flew around to the opposite side of the mountain that Canterlot was resting on. The opposing mountain side revealed itself to be partially hollowed out with a grey colored platform stretching from side to side.

Fluttershy’s carriage speed forward and descended upon the abnormally large, steel docking bay. She didn’t remember seeing it last time she was here, or even being informed of its existence. “Um, excuse me, mister guard?”

The guard unhooked himself from the carriage harness. “Yes?”

“Was this docking bay always here?”

“No, miss Fluttershy. It was constructed about six months ago.”

“What purpose does it serve?” She got off the carriage and look around. “Surely it has greater purpose than acting as a landing pad for carriages.”

“I don’t know, miss Fluttershy. I was just told to use it for your deliverance.”

“Ah, okay, thank you.” She turned around to see Applejack’s carriage coming in to land.

“Howdy thar, Fluttershy!” Applejack called out as her respective carriage came to a halt on the pavement. She jumped out of the carriage and trotted up to Fluttershy. “And how’re yah doin’?”

“Oh, um,” she lowered her head and averted her gaze from Applejack, “I’m fine.”

Applejack’s expression saddened, seeing through the transparent lie. “Fluttershy, please be honest with me. What’s wrong?” She leveled her head with Fluttershy’s. “Is it the nightmares? Are yah still havin’ ‘em?”

Fluttershy gave a slight nod.

Applejack sighed. “Ah’m sorry to hear that, sugar cube. Maybe we could-”

Fluttershy’s guard coughed. Both mares looked at him. “I apologize, mares, but you both must enter the castle and meet with Princess Celestia and your other friends.”

Applejack said, “Right, sorry ‘bout that.” She turned back to Fluttershy and joking finished, “C’mon, Fluttershy. Let’s go see why her majesty had to pull me ‘way from mah farm.”

Fluttershy smiled. “Right.”

Pinkie Pie, and Rarity were sitting around a circular table of a brown tinted wood. Rainbow Dash was pacing around said table. The double doors opened, revealing Fluttershy and Apple Jack.

“Hi, Fluttershy! Hi, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie bounced over to them, as they entered a conference room.

“Hello, Pinkie Pie,” responded Fluttershy.

“Howdy, Pinkie.”

Rainbow Dash said, “Hey, Applejack! Didn’t think you’d see me again so soon, did you?”

Applejack smirked. “Well ah’m sure our princess is REALLY low on staff, if she’s got YER lazy flank here.”

Rarity spoke up. “Now now, girls, let’s not get TOO sidetracked.” She looked to Fluttershy and asked with sincerity, “How are you doing, dear?”

“Um, well, just some nightmares. That’s all.”

“If you need ANY kind of help, Fluttershy-” Rarity began.

“-We’re here for you,” Finished Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah! I can even throw you a party right now, if you want!” Chimed Pinkie Pie.

Applejack remarked, “Now might not be the best time, Pinkie.”

Fluttershy said, “Thank you, girls, I really appreciate your support.” She looked around the room. “But, um, weren’t we suppose to be meeting with Princess Celestia? Where is she?”

The alicorn’s voice whispered, “Right behind you.”

Fluttershy spun around. Princess Celestia and a blue, female earth pony with a short, black mane and a yellow and black ‘N’ cutie mark stood before her. “P-p-princess Celestia!” She quickly bowed. “Please forgive me, princess, I didn’t know that-”

Princess Celestia chuckled. “You needn’t apologize, Fluttershy. Please, have a seat.” She looked at the other four ponies. Her tone became serious. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I can assure you, it’s very important.”

Applejack took a seat, as did Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. “So do we get to find out just what in tha’ hay’s goin’ on, princess?”

Princess Celestia walked around to the head of the table, mysterious blue pony staying by her side. “Yes, you do, Applejack. But what is about to be discussed cannot leave this room.”

Rarity muttered, “Oh dear.”

Pinkie Pie said, “You can trust us, princess! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

Rainbow Dash nodded.

“Thank you for the confirmation,” Celestia continued, “Now then, I shall start at the very beginning. As you all know, Equestria has been getting most of its coal from the zebras. Unbeknownst to the majority of Equestria, our relationship with the zebras has grown," she shifted in her seat, searching for an appropriate term for the present company, "Rocky, over the past year."

The mane five nodded in response.

"A month in, I feared that an energy crisis might have been at hoof, and so we went looking for alternative sources of energy. We thought that we had found the solution to the problem, but then the Creature that came to Ponyville interrupted us.”

Ears drooped, Fluttershy lowered her head in shame.

Gritting her teeth, Applejack muttered, “Yer majesty, please.”

Princess Celestia acknowledged the earth pony’s plea. “Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean- Never mind. The point is: About a month before the incident, my younger sister revealed a possible solution.”

The mane five perked up at that statement.

“It’s true,” Princess Celestia continued, “This is going to get complicated, and I had hoped that Luna would be able to explained it herself, but she really does need her-”

A flash of lightning and star-lit smoke materialized in the room, startling everypony except the blue earth pony. Dark blue wings expanded, a night-time aura glowed around a dark blue horn, the smoke was encased in the aura and vanished as quickly as it had formed, revealing the Goddess of the Night, herself.

“Oh oh oh! It’s Princess Luna!” announced Pinkie Pie, “Hi, Princess Luna!”

Princess Luna nodded to Pinkie Pie. “Good day, Pinkie Pie.” She looked to everypony else. “And good morning to you all as well.”

“G-good morning, your majesty,” Fluttershy meekly greeted.

“Howdy-do, yer highness,” Applejack said.

“Your mane is looking as beautiful as ever,” commented Rarity.

Rainbow Dash gawked, “So… awesome!”

“What gives, sister?” Celestia asked out of sincerity. “Shouldn’t you be resting? You did have a long night, preparing the Su-”

“YOU NEEDN’T CONCERN YOURSELF, SISTER. WE-” she gave a slight blush, followed by an awkward cough, “I mean, I just thought I’d be here to explain certain parts that I am most familiar in.”

“It’s not too sensitive a subject to discuss?”

Princess Luna shook her head. “It is fine, sister. I am comfortable discussing it.”

Princess Celestia nodded. “Very well, I was just telling them that you had found a solution to Equestria’s possible energy crisis.”

Princess Luna said, “Ah yes. Well,” she turned to the mane five, “I would have suggested it sooner, but my lack of knowledge in modern-day energy delayed my assistance. Basically, when I found out what exactly coal was, how it functioned, etcetera, I recalled that a similar substance was more than abundant on the moon.”

The mane five gasped. Fluttershy meekly questioned, “On the moon?”

Princess Luna answered, “Yes, the moon.” She gave a small sigh. “It was during our imprisonment.”

Applejack said, “I thought the moon was nothin’ but a cold, dark, desolate rock.”

For a brief second, Luna’s expression grimaced but returned to normal as she continued, “Oh I can assure you, it’s far from what you were brought up to believe.”

Pinkie Pie gasped in anticipation. “Ooooooh, the plot thickens!”

“So, to clarify,” Rarity asked, “What we were taught as fillies is not the truth?”

Princess Luna answered, “Not the whole truth. If you’ll lend me your ears, and the time to spare, I shall tell you the whole story.”

Upon receiving an approving nod from the mane five, Princess Luna began, “In the very beginning, when Equestria was still steadying herself as a nation, Celestia and I had a disagreement.”

“You didn’t like ponies sleeping through your nights, but they played in her days.” Rainbow Dash concluded.

“No.” Princess Luna said with a hint of coldness. “That’s just a cover up, something simple for the little fillies to learn with ease. It was FAR more complicated than a mere case of jealousy.”

"A political disagreement," Princess Celestia specified.

Rainbow Dash sank a little further into her chair.

Princess Luna continued, “Celestia believed that, since we were- are superior entities, compared to the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, we should ‘guide’ them through their mortal existence.”

“But Luna believed that we had no right to interfere with such creatures,” said Princess Celestia. “She believed that the ponies should govern themselves and that we should give up our authority in Equestria completely.”

“Correct,” said Princess Luna, “Over the years, our disagreement escalated into a cold hatred, and eventually a war. I rallied the ponies that agreed with my ideology…”

Princess Celestia finished, “And I assembled the ponies that opposed the idea of such a dramatic change and sided with me.”

“Um, pardon mah askin’, yer majesties, but exactly how long did tha’ whole thing last?”

“Thousands of years, Apple Jack,” Princess Celestia answered. “We’re immortal; time was not something we were in short supply of.”

Applejack nodded.

Princess Luna lowered her head. “There was the final battle. It started at noon, and ended at midnight. Throughout the course of our war, millions had dwindled to mere thousands. We almost wiped ourselves out.”

Princess Celestia lowered her head as well. “We both should have sought peace. About eight hours into the fighting, I pulled my forces back to where Canterlot is now, and ordered my remaining troops to bunker down and defend the artillery at all costs. We almost lost. Luna’s attack was relentless.”

Tears began to form in Princess Luna’s eyes. “I sent wave after wave of ponies to their deaths, trying to break her defense line. We had suffered great losses, but I was so sure that one more push was all that was needed to win the battle.” Her gaze drifted off into space as the tears began to fall. “They were as determined as I was; they were so proud of themselves, of me. They said that it was an honor serving with me.” She clenched her eyes shut. “In the final hour, I assembled the majority of the remains of my forces that still breathed, and lead an ‘all or nothing’ charge. Celestia’s unicorn-powered artillery was still going strong, anti-pegasi guns included. So I ordered all of my ponies to charge on hoof, myself included. We made it about half way up, when... when…” Luna broke down.

Princess Celestia’s own tears began to fall. “When I ordered every heavy weapon be fired directly at them.”

Princess Luna choked in between sobs, “I saw the cannons coming down on us. I- I knew I had made a tactical error that had just cost us our lives. My ponies… Damn it! They knew it, too! But they kept charging anyway. I was going to order them all to break off and evade, but then… but then a pegasus took flight and flew ahead, shouting, ‘For Luna!’ She was picked off by a sniper, immediately, but they… they all cheered. Hell, I cheered. I should have put up a barrier. Damn it, I should have done something! But we charged. And… and…”

Princess Celestia quietly finished, between sobs of her own, “And we slaughtered you.”

Princess Luna sobbed. “The cannons sent us flying. The next thing I know, I’m in agony, I can’t move, and I can see Celestia’s troops marching towards us. One earth pony was crawling towards a rifle. His battle saddle was missing, along with his hind leg, but he didn’t even notice. He… he grabbed it in his teeth and rolled onto his back, aiming it at them. The damn thing broke, when he pulled the trigger, but he just spat it out and switched to his pistol like it was just a damned inconvenience! Then… then he got shot. He fell back, pistol still in his mouth. He looked at me and… and he tossed it towards me. He whispered, ‘Seven shots. Make ‘em count, okay?’ And then he… he just fell back, dead.”

Princess Celestia whispered, “But you turned the gun on yourself.”

“Almost did,” a small smile appearing amidst Princess Luna’s tears, “You wouldn’t let me take the easy way out.”

Princess Celestia dried her tears and smiled. “Of course not, you’re my sister. Sisters are supposed to look out for each other, not kill each other OR our fellow creatures.”

Princess Luna lowered her head. “I was ungrateful; even after all of that, I still hated you. I even swore that we would return to avenge the fallen, when you informed us that you would banish me and my remaining ponies to the moon.” She emitted small laugh. “And that one pony said that they’d put us down again if we tried.”

Princess Celestia muttered, “That was uncalled for. I made sure he was punished accordingly.”

“But that’s exactly what happened. We survived on the moon. Hell, we thrived. We built a palace and everything!”

It was Princess Celestia’s turn to laugh. “And in a thousand years, you completed the first vessel capable of traveling though space.”

Princess Luna’s expression saddened. “But you and your guards attacked and boarded it as soon as we entered the stratosphere.”

“You got to wreak havoc on Ponyville while your ponies kept us busy, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t. Twilight Sparkle and her friends stopped me. As soon as I saw that you had returned, I knew that the last of my followers had fallen.”

“They fought valiantly.”

Princess Luna gave a small chuckle. “Those stubborn foals.”

Princess Celestia chuckled in response. “They got it from their leader.”

Princess Celestia rose from the table. The two embraced one another and finished crying. Fluttershy cried; Rarity cried; Pinkie Pie flat out bawled; Applejack sniffled; Rainbow Dash attempted to hold back the tears, but promptly said, “Ah buck it!” and broke down herself. The blue earth pony remained still, observing the scene that had unfolded before her, displaying absolutely zero emotion.

“I’m terribly sorry that you all had to see that,” hiccupped Princess Celestia as she returned to her seat.

“It’s such a terrible tale.” Fluttershy said softly, wiping away her tears with her left hoof. “But… why didn’t you just go your separate ways?”

“Celestia settle for less than everything? Not likely.” Princess Luna gave a small chuckle. “She’s more stubborn than a mule.” She turned to the Mule. “No offense.”

The Mule said, “None taken,” and exited the room.

Luna turned back to the mane five. “And I was even worse. I thought I could change an entire government!”

“You did convince me to modify it.” Princess Celestia said. “I relented most of my control, allowing them to govern themselves, while still remaining as their ruler.”

“We could have just done that from the beginning,” Princess Luna remarked, “And we wouldn’t have lost so many lives.”

Princess Celestia smiled. “I think we’ve recovered. And we’re ruling in harmony now.”

“Oh, look at us,” Princess Luna sighed, “We’ve gone completely off topic.”

“Beg pardon, yer highnesses,” Applejack asked, “But what was that about a ship flyin’ through space?”

Princess Luna cleared her throat. “The Sulacolt, Applejack. It is the name of my ship. My own build, my own design. You see, by myself, I could have escaped my imprisonment in a few weeks, but my mortal followers lacked teleporting powers such as mine. We required a means of transporting our numbers from the moon to Equestria. And thus, after nine-hundred and fifty-seven years, the Sulacolt was built.”

“What did you use for building materials?” asked Rarity.

“My own matter," answered Princess Luna.

The mane five became confused.

Princess Luna explained, “I broke the law of conservation of mass for over nine-hundred years, creating steel beams, plating, grating, electrical wiring, glass, etcetera, in order to create the Sulacolt. That is one of the reasons why it took so long. I was literally building a ship by myself. It was physically taxing beyond belief, but in the beginning of our colonization, we found a glowing, blue mineral that was in enough supply to fuel a vessel of such magnitude. We later found out that it had similar properties to that of what Equestria has adapted as coal and oil in our absence.”

Apple Jack asked, “You and yer followers found energy?”

“Caverns of it, Apple Jack,” Princess Luna responded, “A highly flammable, thick, glowing, blue mineral that we tested to be over four times as efficient as coal and oil. We named it ‘Energon’.”

Applejack gave a whistle.

“So to clarify,” Rarity said in disbelief, “You found limitless supplies of a magical source of energy that could revolutionize Equestria’s economy.”

Princess Luna gave a slight nod. “I had forgotten, what I believed to be, such a minute detail to our banishment and focused my attention to seeing that my followers were given the proper post-mortem respects. I spent most of my time afterwards catching up on the one-thousand years of development that Equestria made in my absence.”

“So why are we sitting around talking?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Shouldn’t you guys be, ya’ know, getting this magic ener-something back to base and stuff?”

“Now hold on a minute, Rainbow,” Applejack turned to the princesses, looking them dead in the eyes, “Yer highnesses, is this why you called Twilight back to Canterlot?”

Princess Celestia slowly answered, “Partially.”

Princess Luna finished, “When I informed Celestia about the properties of energon, she and I eventually organized a group of one-hundred and fifty-eight ponies to send to the moon.”

The eyes of the mane five bulged in shock.

Apple Jack rose to protest, but Princess Luna cut her off. “We did not send them there for banishment, Applejack!”

When Applejack reluctantly returned to her chair, Princess Luna continued, “We sent them there to establish a mining colony so that they could begin extracting the energon.”

“Wooow,” Pinkie Pie asked, “So Twilight and Spike got to go to the moon?”

Princess Celestia’s expression darkened. “I- we’re not sure anymore.”

Apple Jack’s concern came back ten-fold. “What do you mean ‘you’re not sure’?”

Princess Luna sighed. “Three weeks ago, we lost contact with the colony, and my sister and I cannot teleport to the moon without arousing suspicion of the other nations.”

Princess Celestia added, “It may just be that the transmission tower is experiencing mechanical malfunction, but we don’t know.”

Rarity asked with concern, “What do you mean?”

“When Scuttles made his appearance,” Princess Celestia began, “My sister and I sensed a shift in the balance of our realm. After dealing with the incident, I was sure that the feeling would dissipate, but it didn’t. It was still there, and two weeks before we lost contact with the colony, that same feeling began to grow stronger.”

Applejack growled, “Shit.”

Rarity put a hoof to her mouth out of realization.

Rainbow Dash slumped back in her chair. “Damn it.”

Pinkie Pie’s expression grew serious, her hair slowly deflating.

Fluttershy sank into her chair. “So… you mean, um, there might be more of those things?”

Princess Celestia said, “I hope not, Fluttershy, but that might be the reason.”

“If ya don’t mind mah askin’, yer highness,” Applejack asked, “If it’s this serious, why are yah talkin’ to us? Shouldn’t you be assemblin’ an army or somethin’?”

Princess Celestia answered, “Because you ponies are five of the six bearers of the elements of harmony.” Closing her eyes, she continued, “I fear for my student's life.”

Princess Luna continued, “We have already assembled a team of the best soldiers to embark on this mission. We believed that your prior knowledge of dealing with these xenomorphs would be invaluable in this operation.”

Rarity asked, “You want to draft us?”

“The choice is entirely up to you,” Princess Luna answered. “If you wanted, you wouldn’t even have to done a battle saddle, but I would like soldiers with experience in dealing with these things.” She sighed. “These soldiers are the best of the best, but they’ve never fought an alien before, much less an alien as hostile and dangerous as the creatures that came to Ponyville.”

“But how would we be trained?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Doesn’t it take, like, six weeks to train a pony into a soldier?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie added, “And Twilight needs our help now!”

“You would be put into a week-long hyper sleep, while being trained subconsciously,” answered Princess Celestia.

Applejack sat dumbfounded. “What?”

“We call them ‘memory orbs,'" answered Princess Luna. “It allows ponies to experience the memories that we’ve extracted from a subject. Of course, this is all being said in confidence. It’s been tested, but it’s still top-secret information.”

As the mane five nodded their heads in understanding, she continued, “In your case, you all would be put through a six-week training regime, along with memories of the most hazardous missions that our subject has provided. In reality, you would be sleeping for a week.”

“Now hold on,” Rainbow Dash asked, “Why’s it gonna take a week to get there?”

“The Sulacolt can travel at a maximum speed of .74 light years,” Princess Luna answered, “Equestria’s moon is thirty-six million miles away. If one does the math, they shall find that the time it takes to travel from here to the moon is about one week.”

There was a brief silence.

“I aint never worn a battle saddle before, “Applejack began, “But if those things are back, and mah friend’s at the mercy of ‘em-” her expression grew into horror as she recalled the fate that Dollars for Donuts had experienced. Her expression changed to determination. “Count me in.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Me too.”

Pinkie Pie added, “Me three.”

Rarity said, “I’m going, too.”

Fluttershy began to quiver. “I- I don’t know. I- I really don’t want-”

“Fluttershy,” Applejack interrupted, “We all understand yer scared. And you don’t have to go if you don’t think you can handle it. But I want you to know that we understand, and we will bear no ill-will against you, if yah say ‘no’.” She turned to Princess Celestia. “When do we have to leave?”

Princess Celestia turned to Princess Luna. “Sister, do you know how much longer it will take for them to prepare the Sulacolt?”

Princess Luna answered, “They told me two more days, yesterday.”

Fluttershy whispered, “One day…”

“They’d better have it ready to go, then,” Princess Celestia grimaced, “The sooner the better.”

A thought crossed Applejack’s mind.“Pardon my askin’, yer majesties,” the two alicorns looked to her, “But why aren’t you goin’? As I recall, those creatures were powerless against you and yer magic.”

Princess Celestia’s expression darkened again. She reluctantly answered, “I must continue attending… ‘negotiations’ with the zebras, concerning our business and political relationships with them. If they were to find out that we had been secretly setting up a base on the moon, they might interpret it as an act of aggression.”

Princess Luna added, “A military base on the moon would cause a lot of tension, if not start a war, between the lands. Not so much as the base itself, but the fact that Equestria possesses the technology advanced enough for space travel. Orbital strikes, constant surveillance, and such. We already possess a warship. The results of the other nations finding out would be... problematic.”

Reluctantly, Apple Jack asked, “Alright, I think I understand that, but what about you, Princess Luna? Why can't you go?”

Princess Luna said, “I have be meeting with the griffon king to defuse a situation between them and the zebras.” Upon receiving a questioning stare from Apple Jack, she reluctantly added, “And, maybe, convince them to cut a deal with us concerning resources.”

Applejack turned to Princess Celestia. “Yer highness, what about the rest of the day?”

Princess Celestia responded, “I’ll coax the crew into hastening their preparations. If you can get to the Sulacolt through the cover of Luna’s night, nopony should see you.”

Pinkie Pie asked, “So then the Sulacolt’s already in space?”

Princess Luna nodded. “That is correct, Pinkie Pie.”

Rarity asked, “Might we know who is leading this rescue operation?”

Princess Celestia answered, “Shining Armor has been assigned the task of leading and ensuring the success of the operation.”

Rainbow Dash asked, “And how’s the rest of this operation suppose to play out?”

Princess Luna said, “Under the cover of my night, one of the Sluacolt's dropships will land on the docking bay that you all landed on before. You and the platoon shall board the dropship, fly into orbit and board the Sulacolt. Once on board, you will all enter your stasis pods, and the five of you will be subconsciously trained into formidable marines. The ship will auto pilot itself to the moon and wake you all up. Once prepared, you will be combat dropped onto the surface. You will then secure the colony and find Twilight, along with any of the others.”

Fluttershy looked to Princess Celestia. “Just tell me one thing, Princess Celestia,” she asked quietly, “You’re going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study, not to bring back, but to wipe them out?”

Princess Celestia nodded. “That’s the plan. You have my word on it.”

Fluttershy looked down and whispered, “Alright, I’m in.”

If you liked this, let me know via a thumbs up or comment! Both are welcomed. And if you didn't like it, hey, dislike away. But please have the courtesy to tell me why. As for the whole spin on Luna's "real" reasons for "becoming" Nightmare Moon", I guess I kinda got caught up in the moment. I feel like it would lessen the story, if I were to remove it, so I would prefer to keep it. However, should Friendly Uncle tell me that he does NOT like it, I shall remove it.

UPDATE!!! As of 6/4/12!!!

There appear to be some people who are concerned that this bible cannon sequel is going to be a scene-for-scene translation of Aliens. I can assure you that that is NOT going to be the case. Allow me to give you a list of the references that have been made so far AND are going to be made in the NEXT chapter, The Sulaco, of the story. I'm not going to give you any references to the future chapters to avoid spoilers, because I have two handfuls of plot twists in mind.

The Prologue- The nightmare sequence, similar to Ripley's trauma from the death of her crew on the Nostromo
The Prologue & The Arrival- Weyland-Yutani, the pony pun version being Neighland-Yutani.
The Arrival- "Just tell me one thing, Burke. You're going out there to destroy them... right? Not to study, not to bring back... but to wipe them out."
The Sulacolt- "I only need to know one thing: Where they are!"
The Sulacolt- "Hey Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you! (background, "Yeaaaah!") Check it out, tactical particle beam phalynx! FWAP! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got phased plasma pulse rifles (in 40 watt range). RPGs, sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes! We got knives, sharp sticks!"
The Sulacolt- "Well whoop-de-fuckin'-do, I'm impressed."

UPDATE AS OF 6/27/12!!!! I feel like an idiot for not coming up with it sooner, but the Sulaco has now been pony-punned, Sulacolt

The Sulacolt

Princess Celestia had allocated a few hours for the mane five to get acquainted with the weapons and battle saddles that they would be using for the mission.Trotting across a steel grating floor, the mane five entered the palace’s indoor shooting range. Before them lay many tables with items ranging from weaponry, to battle saddles, to a suspicious group of colts wearing black clothing that concealed their cutie marks, standing around a table that had watermelons with knives stuck in them.

The suspicious bunch looked up to see the mane five approaching. One turned to the group and said in a thick, Neightherland accent, “Break time’s over, colts, let’s go.” On cue, they began filing out of the room.

Another grumbled, “Your fruit killing skills are remarkable.”

A third complained, “You’ve got ta take tha Coriolis Effect into account!”

Looking at the peeled coats of white paint around her, Applejack commented, “These walls could use a good coat of paint.”

Rarity observed, “This whole room could use a makeover." She looked up with her fashion horror. "Sweet Celestia, these overhead lights give off the ickiest yellow.”

“What it really needs is streamers! Oh oh! And balloons!”

A white unicorn, sporting a red uniform, was levitating a variety of weapons around him, closely examining each one with the utmost care. At the sound of the girls approaching, he turned around to greet them. “Welcome back, girls.”

Applejack responded, “It’s good to see you again, Shining Armor.”

“Hey, Shining Armor!” said Rainbow Dash.

Breaking into a bounce, Pinkie Pie said, “What’s up, Shining Armor!”

Rarity nodded politely, “How do you do, Shining Armor?”

Fluttershy said quietly, “Hello, Shining Armor.”

Shining Armor grinned and shook his head. “Right, first things first, it’ll be easier for all of you if you just call me, ‘Armor’.

Applejack said, “If you insist, Armor.”

Shining Armor placed the levitating weapons back on the metal table and regretfully murmured, “I wish it were under better circumstances.”

Rarity stated, “We’re just as concerned for Twilight as you are, Armor.”

He turned back to them. “Thanks.”

Eyeing the weapons on the table behind Shining Armor, Apple Jack commented, “We were told that you had some weapons fer us to use.”

“That’s right,” Shining Armor s nodded. “Each pony will be assigned a specific weapon, so that we can function more effectively as a team.”

“Do you know who exactly is in the team?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Besides you five and my own, personal fire team,” Shining Armor tapped a hoof to his chin. “There’s Nurse Redheart, Cardinal, Fleetfoot, Soarin’, and Spitfire.”

Rarity turned to see Rainbow Dash’s jaw, literally, on the floor. Letting out a small giggle, she asked, “And what, pray tell, are three of the Wonderbolts doing with us?”

Rainbow Dash muttered, “Please be flying, please be flying, please be flying.”

Shining Armor shook his head, grinning. “Spitfire and Soarin’ will be flying the dropship, so they stay behind, sorry Rainbow Dash.” Stifling a cackle at the sight of Rainbow Dash’s pout, he continued, “But hey, Fleetfoot will be going with us.”

Still eyeing the guns, Applejack asked, “So who gets what weapon?”

“Well first of all,” Shining Armor began as his horn lit up and a rifle became encased in the purple aura, “I think it would be best if everypony knew which weapon was which.” He floated said rifle in front of the mane five. “This is the M41A1 Pulse Rifle; it fires a ten millimeter, explosive-tipped, caseless round. Standard, light armor-piercing rounds, ninety-five rounds per clip. It also has an under slung, thirty millimeter grenade launcher. Very powerful, don’t use it indoors.”

He placed the rifle back on the table, and levitated forward a giant gun, stretching from head to tail and attached to a battle saddle with an eye piece attached to it as well. “THIS,” he said with emphasis, “Is the M56 Smart Gun. Despite its cumbersome look, it does exactly what its name implies.”

Slowly scanning the contraption, Applejack asked, “How, exactly, is it ‘smart’?”

Pointing a hoof at the eye piece, “With the aid of this eye piece,” Shining Armor answered, “It can automatically lock-on to any hostile and fire. Recoil is minimum, since it's hooked up directly to the wearer's battle saddle.”

Pinkie casually said, “Dibs.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, frantically turning to Pinkie Pie, “I want it!”

Pinkie innocently responded, “I already called ‘dibs’, Dashie.”

“Now hold on,” Shining Armor interrupted, “This isn’t a toy. This is a weapon that weighs over seventy pounds, and is designed for earth ponies and griffons to carry; I was going to assign it to Apple Jack.”

“Funny,” Pinkie Pie said, “It doesn’t feel that heavy.”

Everypony turned to see Pinkie Pie standing on her hind legs, battle saddle strapped to her torso, eye piece covering her right eye, and Smart Gun in her hooves.

Horn glowing, Shining Armor enveloped Pinkie Pie, frantically pulling the equipment off of her. “That’s not a toy. That’s not a toy!” Successfully removing the battle saddle and accessories, he sighed in relief. “Everypony will get a turn at every weapon, alright?”

“Okie dokie lokie!”

Shining Armor trotted over to a locker room. “Right, now let’s get your battle saddles.”

Despite constantly correcting Pinkie Pie on how to use the Smart Gun, Shining Armor gave up and allowed her hold it like a Griffon would. Rainbow Dash proved to be just as formidable with the Smart Gun as Pinkie Pie. To Shining Armor’s surprise, Applejack refused the Smart Gun, saying that she preferred the mobility of the Pulse Rifle. Rarity, being a unicorn, found all weapons manageable. Fluttershy became absolutely terrified when she fired the Pulse Rifle.

Upon introducing the M14 Incinerator to the mane five, Shining Armor made the mistake of letting Pinkie Pie use it, for she attempted to “send his check list to Celestia”. After extinguishing the fire, and explaining to Pinkie Pie that it not only propelled a flame but a burst of gasoline for said flame to set ablaze, she proved herself to be more than capable of handling the flamethrower, should the situation arise.

Shining Armor made a mental note to avoid those situations at all costs.

He was equally annoyed with the pink pony’s fascination with the motion tracker, constantly jumping up and down to hear it ‘ping’. He ended up giving it to Rarity, saying that her telekinesis would make her the more preferable option, since the tracker would have to be equiped to a battle saddle if worn by any other pony, save himself.

Assembling the mane five, Shining Armor said, “Alright, let’s go over it one more time: Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash get the smart guns, Applejack gets a Pulse Rifle, Rarity gets a Pulse Rifle and motion tracker, and,” he turned to Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, I’m guessing you’ll take a Pulse Rifle?”

Becoming mortified at the idea, Fluttershy quietly asked, “Um, well, if you don’t mind, Armor, can’t I just look on as an advisor and never ever fire a gun ever?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Very well, I’ll make sure your memory orb is less soldier and more mechanic.” He turned to the other four mares. “Anypony have any questions?”

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. Shining Armor asked, “Yes, Dash?”

“I just need to know one thing, Armor,” She pretended to point a gun with her hooves, “Where they are.”

Pinkie Pie gave Rainbow Dash a friendly slap on the back. “Right on, Dashie!”

Rainbow Dash grinned and brohoofed Pinkie Pie. “Anytime, anywhere.”

Rarity rolled her eyes at the roughhousing.

Fluttershy gave a small smile.

Applejack asked, “So what about armor?”

Shining Armor turned to her. “What do you mean?”

“Those creatures have some sorta acid for blood.” She shook her leg, recalling her hoof-to-hoof combat with Scuttles. “Does a number on yer bones.”

"Sorry, Applejack,” Shining Armor shook his head, “I didn’t know about that.” He levitated the Smart Gun contraption in front of Applejack. “This battle saddle is an armored variant of the skeleton design. It’s pretty much the standard issue armor, here” he detached the Smart Gun, “This is the armor itself.” Upon seeing her scan it and grimace, he asked, “Um, just how strong is this acid blood?”

Applejack opened her mouth to answer, but a monotone, female voice interrupted her. “Strong enough to melt through that armor.”

Everypony turned to see the blue earth pony with the short, black mane and the black and yellow “N” cutie mark enter the room. “Upon in depth study of the xenomorph’s biology, Neighland-Yutani has gauged its blood to be roughly .04 on the pH scale.”

Shining Armor telekinetically placed the pieces back on the table. He snorted, “Well, Cardinal, it would have been nice to know that beforehoof. Now there isn’t any time to make some armor mods; we leave in, what, three hours?”

Applejack interjected, “Now just wait a minute! Yer’ acquainted with that pony?”

Shining Armor answered, “Cardinal’s been with us for a while. Why, is something wrong?”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Applejack.” Cardinal gave a small bow, while maintaining her smooth monotone. "I trust you are not too overwhelmed with Princess Celestia's revealing of the truth?"

Casting a distrustful look upon Cardinal, Applejack probed, “I'm fine, but we've never seen you before. Princess Celestia just let you waltz in there and make yourself at home. Just how the hay do you know about this creature’s blood?”

Cardinal calmly replied, “I have detailed files.”

Closing the distance between them, Applejack continued, “Just how detailed?”

Standing her ground, Cardinal answered, “Most of it, I am not allowed to disclose to the public.”

Raising her voice, Applejack asked, “Yer keepin’ secrets from us, aren’t you!”

Shining Armor warned, “Applejack, Cardinal is a friend. OUR friend.”

Cardinal shook her head. “You misunderstand, Applejack. My position in Neighland-Yutani has granted me access to the xenomorph’s carcass, aiding me in my own personal education of its biology. I am merely stating that the majority of said information is confidential to the public and even most of Neighland-Yutani itself.”

Fluttershy gasped in shock. “Y-you work for that company?”

Cardinal nodded. “I do.” Noticing the pained look on Fluttershy’s face, she asked, “Is something wrong?”

Rarity gave an awkward cough. Upon getting Cardinal’s attention, she explained, “Fluttershy, um, well, she had a traumatizing experience with Scuttles, and your company is being associated with that trauma.”

Cardinal cocked her head in confusion. “I do not understand. Who is Scuttles?”

“The creature that came to Ponyville. Look,” She put a hoof to her temples and sighed, “It’s a sensitive subject for Fluttershy. If we could discuss this later…”

Cardinal bowed her head. “Of course, I understand.” She turned to Fluttershy. Continuing in her smooth monotone, she said, “If you want, I can secure an adequate quantity of pharmaceutical medication to aid with your trauma.”

Fluttershy looked down and quietly answered, “Um, no, it’s fine.”

“Very well.” Cardinal turned to Shining Armor. “Captain Armor, I was sent here to tell you that your departure must be made soon. I am to escort you and the five specialists to the docking bay.”

Shining Armor responded, “Thought so. Lead the way.”

Cardinal gave a bow. Turning to the mane five, she said, “If you’ll follow me, ladies.”

Applejack put a hoof on Rarity, silently telling her to stay behind. As the other ponies exited the firing range, Applejack murmured to Rarity, “Ah don’t trust her.”

Rarity scoffed, "So I gathered. It's not like you to immediately distrust somepony." She asked, “Why is that, darling?”

Motioning for Rarity to follow her, Apple Jack quietly continued, “Ah can’t tell if she’s lying.”

Lowering her own tone as they deliberately lagged behind from the others, Rarity asked, “What do you mean?”

“Exactly that. I’m the bearer of the element of honesty, remember? I can usually tell if somepony’s tellin’ the truth or not. I can’t, with this Cardinal mare. It's like she's not even there to begin with.”

Rarity cocked her head. “Well, what do you suppose that means?”

“Ah don’t know, Rarity. But ah don’t think we should trust her.”

“But Armor trusts her, right?” She hastened towards the exit and motioned for Apple Jack to follow. “Are you sure you’re not just paranoid about her association with Neighland-Yutani?”

Applejack sighed, “Ah don’t know, Rarity.”

The two mares caught up to the group, as Cardinal finished saying, “-However, it oxidizes after a few minutes after being exposed to our atmosphere. Should the same chemical rules apply to the moon’s atmosphere, which we believe they will, the blood will oxidize, rendering it non acidic.”

Shining Armor said, “But we still don’t have anything to BLOCK the acid.”

Cardinal replied, “I apologize on behalf of Neighland-Yutani. Despite our around-the-clock study for the past four months of the xenomorph, the majority of its biology still remains a mystery to us.”

The ponies exited the palace corridor that they had been walking though and into a crate filled hanger with a few power loaders that lead out to the docking bay that Fluttershy and Applejack had landed on.

Cardinal thought aloud, “A live specimen will yield more results.”

Fluttershy shrank back from Cardinal. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. Pinkie Pie gasped. Rarity put a hoof to her mouth in shock. Applejack walked right up to Cardinal and shoved her against the nearest power loader.

Applejack hissed, “You’ll do no such thing as long as ah’m breathin’. You got that straight?”

Cardinal maintained eye contact and asked, “Once the colony has been secured and survivors evacuated, would it not be wise to attempt capturing a xenomorph?”

Applejack snarled, “No.”

“But surely the scientific benefits-”

“NO! Those creatures are monsters! We’re goin’ out thar to kill ‘em! If you bring one back, you endanger all of Equestria!”

Shining Armor stepped in. “Applejack! Cardinal! Stand down, both of you!”

Applejack turned her glare to Shining Armor but softened her gaze. Reluctantly, she backed off of Cardinal.

Cardinal cocked her head and asked, “Why do you wish the extinction of such a beautiful species?”

Shining Armor raised his voice. “We are NOT having this discussion here!” He turned to Cardinal. “You and I are going to have a talk when we get on the Sulacolt. Right now, let’s just worry about the colony itself, alright?”

Cardinal bowed in submission. “Of course, Captain Armor.”

Shining Armor sighed in relief. “Good,” he turned to Applejack, “Please don’t do that again.”

Applejack looked away and muttered, “Sure.”

Rarity had wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy, muttering to her, “It’s okay, Fluttershy. Everything’s fine.”

Pinkie Pie bounced over to assist them. “Yeah, Fluttershy! We’ll protect you! We won’t let anything happen to you!”

Shining Armor walked over to Fluttershy and helped her up. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. Right now, lets just get to get to the Sulacolt.”

Getting to her hooves, Fluttershy whispered, “They already have Scuttles. Isn’t that enough?”

Cardinal looked to Shining Armor, who glared at her in response.The group walked out on the docking bay and into the night sky. A pegasus guard approached them.

Quickly saluting, he said, “Captain Armor, Spitfire is on her way. ETA: sixty seconds.”

“At ease, soldier,” Shining Armor gave a solute in return, “Is the Sulacolt finally ready?”

“I think so, sir,” the guard looked up to the night sky, “We don’t have enough unicorns on board to generate a magic barrier, but all nitpicks aside, it’s technically good to go.”

“Well, we’re not going to be engaging in ship-to-ship combat, so I think it’ll be fine.”

The guard turned back to Shining Armor and nodded. “Of course, sir.”

Everypony looked up at the sound of an engine roaring. The drop ship descended, opening up its landing gears. It flew past the group, kicking up an unpleasant amount of wind. Clutching her purple curls, Rarity shrieked, “My mane!”

Everypony, excluding the guard, sighed as the drop ship did a 180 and landed firmly on the docking bay, seven meters from where they stood.

Applejack began trotting towards the drop ship. “Yer mane’ll be fine, Rarity.”

The drop ship’s ramp lowered, and a pegasus with a fire-like mane, sporting a Wonderbolts outfit revealed herself. She trotted down the ramp, calling out, “Who want to go to spaaace?!”

Rainbow Dash shot forward, squealing, “Memememememememeee!”

“Well what are you waiting for?” Spitfire laughed, “Get your flank on board!”

As the cyan mare dashed up the ramp, squealing like a fanmare, Spitfire trotted towards Shining Armor. “You certainly picked some ‘interesting’ soldiers, Armor. Maybe you should think about choosing more carefully.” She offered her right hoof.

Brohoofing her, Shining Armor grinned. “I also know how to pick interesting pilots. Maybe I should have chosen more carefully.”

Raising an eyebrow, Spitfire said, “Find yourself a better pilot than me, and I’ll find you a better wife than your alicorn goddess. By the way, I read the paper,” leaning in and nudging him, she asked, “Did you really knock her up so soon?”

Chuckling, he said, “I think I’m gonna pull rank on you, now, Spitfire.”

Sighing, she turned back to the drop ship. “Buzz kill. Alright, everypony! Let’s go! Hopefully, Soarin’ hasn’t screwed up somehow.”

A masculine voice called out from within the drop ship, “I heard that!”

As everypony boarded, Spitfire hit a red button, causing the ramp to revert to its closed position. Rainbow Dash had already strapped herself in, clutching the safety bars with her hooves and bearing a crazy grin. Upon seeing them, she began speaking as fast as Pinkie Pie would.

“Hey, guys! Did you know that Soarin’s a copilot? Do you see these things above me? They’re independently targeting particle beam phalanx! I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds SO AWESOME! You could fry half a city with ‘em! They got phased-plasma pulse rifles in forty watt range! RPGs, sonic electronic ball breakers, nukes, knives, sharp sticks-”

Applejack slammed a hoof into Rainbow Dash’s mouth. “Now just stop an take a breath, Rainbow. World’s not gonna end if you stop talkin’.”

Pinkie Pie reeled back in her Pinkie Pie manner, gasping, “It WON’T?!”

Facehoofing, Shining Armor sighed, “Could we please just go already?”

Fluttershy and Rarity looked at each other and decided to take their seats, while Pinkie Pie began playing “eni mini miny mo” with the remaining seats. Apple Jack sighed, grabbed Pinkie Pie, spun her around, sat her down on the seat next to Rainbow Dash, and strapped her down.

As Applejack took the seat next to Rarity, she turned to the cockpit and shouted towards the cockpit, “We’re ready, Spitifre!”

Spitfire called back, “Alrighty then, everypony hold on!”

The drop ship took off. Its landing gears concealing themselves within its body, the ship rocketed into the night sky.

Soarin’ exclaimed, “Hey wait a minute! You said I could-”

“Oooh nooo you don’t!” Spitfire asserted, “I fly this bird, Soarin’!” and gunned the ship farther into the sky to prove it, causing everypony to grab their safety bars.

“Aaaw, come on, Spitfire! You said we’d take turns!”

“That was BEFORE I found out you thought you could eat pie AND fly at the same time!”

“It was just that one ti-” He was cut off by Spitfire increasing their speed again, breaking past the stratosphere and into space itself.

“You’re not flying, Soarin', period!” Spitfire grinned. “Perhaps you should go flirt with that orange mare-”

Applejack called up to her, “Mah name’s Applejack, yah know!”

Spitfire continued, “Right, Applejack. Maybe she’ll give you another pie if you pucker up and ask real nicely.”

Before Applejack could respond, Shining Armor shouted, “Spitfire! I am ordering you to take us to the Sulacolt NOW!”

Spitfire shouted back, “Way ahead of you, sir! If you’ll look out your nonexistent window to your left, you’ll see that we’re coming up on her now! You can thank my accelerations for that! Burned up a lot of fuel, though! We’re gonna have to dip into the ship’s main supply, when we get on board!”

A crackled, male voice came through an intercom. “Drop ship 1, this is Sulacolt. You’re coming in too fast. Slow down so you can board.”

Soarin’ punched a few buttons. He nodded to Spitfire.

The captain of the Wonderbolts grinned and spoke into the intercom, “Sulacolt, this is Drop Ship 1. We’re slowing down. We’ll need a refill, when we get onboard. You copy?”

“But topped you off before you left!” The voice grumbled, “Roger that, Spitfire. Maintenance teams will be standing by. Opening the airlock now.”

Spitfire giggled. “Thanks, Sulacolt! But don’t spill energon on the landing gears again, alright?”

The voice sighed, “Airlock’s open, Spitfire. Just get your ass on board.”

Spitfire feigned offense. “Why, I never! I’ll have you know I’m carrying our main team of lean, mean, pony marines on this bird! I demand she be treated with the greatest of care!”

The voice laughed. “What, an arrogant, mane-dying pegasus, an undereducated farmer, a snotty dress maker, a party pony with ADHD, and a crazy veterinarian? Whoopde-buckin’-do, I’m sooo impressed.”

The two Wonderbolt pilots stiffened, fearing to look back at their passengers. Soarin’ put a hoof to his earpiece, “Um, Klein, you DO know they can hear you, right?”

There was a pause. The voice slowly answered, “I’ll just be down in engineering.”

The drop ship ascended into the Sulacolt. Docking claws extended, grabbing and holding the drop ship in place. The airlock door closed, and the chamber began to depressurize. The docking bay door above the ship opened, and an even bigger claw came down to relieve the smaller claws from duty. The ship was pulled up into a cargo bay, and the docking bay door closed below the drop ship.

The two pilots removed their ear pieces, and unbuckled themselves from their seats. Spitfire made her way back to the cockpit. The mane five and Shining Armor had already unbuckled themselves and were making their way to the loading ramp.

Hitting the button that opened the ramp, Rarity scoffed, “I’m glad to see that we’ll be held in SUCH high regard.”

Applejack muttered, “Pony needs a good kick in the side.”

The ramp finished lowering, and the group walked out into a large, four walled cargo chamber. A sliding door on each of the grey walls rose up, revealing four group of three ponies in each group.

Two group had cleaning equipment, and the other two were carrying fueling equipment; As a mechanical female voice said, “Airlock now secure”, the four groups sprinted towards the drop ship.

The mane five and Shining Armor turned to Spitfire as she said, “You’ve got to understand that we’ve all been on edge for the past week. I mean, finding out that we were all taught lies, our oh-so beloved princess not being oh-so beloved in the past, and there might be a billion more monster things that want to eat our brai-”

Shining Armor interrupted, “I understand, Spitfire, but that’s not an excuse for disrespecting your superiors.” He turned to the mane five who had turned their attention to the design of their new environment. “I’ll deal with Klein. Right now, we get you mares into your pods, and you won’t have to worry about anything. You’ll wake up and be ready to go.”

As Shining Armor led them through the sliding door in front of the drop ship and turned right down a corridor, Rarity asked, “Armor, just how many ponies are on this ship?”

Shining Armor turned to Cardinal. “How many, Cardinal?”

The blue earth pony mare answered in monotone, “Excluding your fire team, Fleetfoot, and Nurse Redheart, there are two-hundred and six crew aboard this vessel, assuming that there were no casualties.”

Fluttershy perked up at Cardinal’s last word. “Um, casualties?”

Cardinal clarified, “This vessel is powered by energon, as you already know. However, her majesty failed to mention in your debriefing that it is a dangerous element. Very combustible and equally flammable. Unprotected exposure to the processed and refined energon has proved to be extremely hazardous and even lethal if said exposure is prolonged for more than ten minutes.”

They entered a room with seven cylinder-like pods. These brown, cybernetic devices were connected to a jumble of cords, hooked up to computers.

Upon some light investigation, Rainbow Dash noticed that a white earth mare and a grey-haired pegasus were occupying two of the seven pods. The pod that the white earth mare slept in bore the nametag, “Redheart”. The pod that held the grey-haired pegasus had the nametag, “Fleetfoot”.

Unaware of the change in scenery, Applejack asked with caution, “An’ how exactly do you know that?”

Cardinal answered with her continued monotone, “Our contained experiments with animals of various phyla have yielded insightful data pertaining to the lethality of energon.”

Applejack reared up in rage. “You KILLED animals?!” Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spitfire, Soarin’, and Rarity backed up to give the two earth ponies enough room for the inevitable fight.

Shining Armor stepped in. “Applejack, STOP IT! Now is not the time! For Celestia’s sake, we’re all on the same side here!”

Applejack stood her ground. “Ah don’t care! What thar doin’ is wrong!”

Shining Armor shouted, “YOUR FRIEND MIGHT BE DEAD!!”

Applejack stopped and stared at him, her expression softening.

Shining Armor continued his verbal assault. “My sister might be at the complete mercy of an alien race that HAS no mercy! The sooner you get in your pod, the sooner you’ll get trained into a soldier capable of SAVING her! So why don’t you put aside your moral dilemmas and just GET IN YOUR GODDESSDAMNED POD!!”

Applejack lowered her head in shame and quietly mumbled, “Okay.”

With the mane five shook up by Shining Armor’s sudden outburst, they diligently got into the pods with their name tags on them.

Trying to get use to the feeling of the strange pod, Fluttershy asked timidly, “Um, Shining Armor?”

Shining Armor asked tensely, “Yes?”

“Um, I was just wondering what these pods are. Like, what they’re made of, where did they come from?”

Cardinal calmly interjected, “Thanks to Neighland-Yutani’s leading scientists and engineers, we were able to reengineer the Changeling stasis pods to function to our specific needs. Until Princess Celestia came to us with her request that we engineer them to work in coordination with our memory orbs, we were using them for the medical purpose of placing patients with non curable, lethal illnesses into stasis until a cure or adequate treatment could be discovered or created in our labs.”

Rainbow Dash lay in her pod, dumbfounded.

Rarity asked, “So we’re sleeping in Changeling cocoons?”

Cardinal nodded. “Yes, but without the hazardous repercussions. Each pod has been reengineered. It is completely safe.” She pointed a hoof at the two ponies already asleep. “As you can see, Nurse Redheart and Fleefoot are already in stasis, being taught the military skills that you five shall also learn once you enter stasis.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Well that’s just great.”

Applejack opened her mouth to object, but quickly decided against it.

Rarity mumbled a low “eeew”.

Pinkie Pie looked around her pod. “Meh, I’ve been in worse places to sleep.”

Fluttershy stared into space, attempting to compute the fact that she was going to sleep a week inside a Changeling cocoon.

Shining Armor went from pod to pod, placing an orb into a socket on the inside of each pod. He then moved over to a terminal that was connected to the giant mess of wires. Tapping a few buttons with his hooves, he ended the conversation. “Goodnight, ladies.” On cue, the pods closed up, and the mane five slowly went into stasis.

Shining Armor plopped down. Running his hooves down his face, he gave a loud groan. “Cardinal, if Applejack asks you a question, DON’T answer it.”

Cardinal bowed in submission. “Of course, Captain Armor. Shall I update the other specialists?”

“No, that won’t be necessary, Cardinal, I’ll do it myself.” He got up and walked over to Applejack’s pod. The mare seemed so at peace, considering what had transpired a few minutes ago.

Cardinal commented, “Her distrust may decrease operational efficiency.”

Shining Armor sighed. “No, really?”

“It would be wise to avert future conflicts by replacing her.”

Shining Armor said in frustration, “We can’t do that, Cardinal. She’s one of six ponies that actually encountered those aliens. Princess Celestia has written her off as absolutely vital to this operation.”

“The correct term to describe the species in question is ‘xenomorphs’.”

“Whatever!” He turned and began walking out of the room. “I’m not getting rid of her! And if you keep answering her questions, I’ll get rid of you instead!” With Cardinal still following him, he walked to a small door in the side of the corridor.

Cardinal replied in monotone, “That would violate the terms of agreement to our deal.”

Shining Armor smashed a red button, causing the door in the side of the corridor to slide back, revealing a small elevator big enough for two ponies. Shining Armor walked in. “Well I suggest you don’t piss her off anymore,” he smashed another button, “If you still want that live specimen!”

The door slid shut, leaving Cardinal to herself in the corridor.

Author's notes:

Okay, what took so long? Well, the chapter itself didn't take that long to write. What the main holdup was... WAS the fact that none of my beta readers were/are responding to me. In fact, it was only on 6/12/12 that Friendly Uncle sent me a message which told me two things:

1, he approves of the chapter, so I went over it about five more times looking for grammatical errors and such before uploading. (I swear, if I can't find some dependable beta readers, heads will role.)

And 2, to clarify the need to use the changeling pods if Neighland-Yutani can build all of this technology including the Fallout: Equestria famous memory orbs. I stated that it was more of a shortcut than a necessity. Why start from scratch if you can just modify an already existing piece of technology?

For example: In Fallout: Equestria, the zebras reverse engineered Fluttershy's healing megaspell into a DEATH megaspell. On a side note, that's a really really REALLY good example of reverse engineering.

But yeah, there's one more chapter after this and then things are going to start picking up.

And if you want to beta read for me, just send me an email at

knives4cash@yahoo.com

All lowercase. Just title it, "Beta reading" or something along those lines.

UPDATE AS OF 6/27/12!!!! I feel like an idiot for not coming up with it sooner, but the Sulaco has now been pony-punned, Sulacolt

The Flight

Leaning against the wall to his right, Shining Armor sighed. He hadn’t pursued a military career to get caught up in politics and backroom business deals that could or could not possibly result in his own death. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off Princess Celestia, or Princess Luna, OR the multi-billion bit company that she had practically started by allowing some know-it-all scientist ponies access to the Sulacolt and all of her crazy, hyper-advanced technology.

A gruff, crackled male voice came through the elevator intercom, interrupting his thoughts. “Bridge to Captain Armor!”

Smashing a button on the wall to his left, Shining Armor said, “I’m here, Hoofer. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to let you know that we broke orbit as soon as your dropship came aboard. Our week-long voyage has officially started!”

Shining Armor winced at the last sentence. “It’s gonna be a long week, Hoofer. I was told we didn't get enough unicorns for a magic barrier of any grade. Can we improvise?”

“Uuum, that’s a negative, sir. The only thing between us and space is the hull.”

He sighed. “So if an asteroid hits us, we’re pretty much bucked?”

“Well, it’d take a pretty big rock to even dent this filly’s hull, but we’ve still got some guns on this mare. Any rock big enough to do some damage we can just blast to bits.”

“Good to know.”

“Hey, I bet we could just blast the entire colony from orbit and not have to risk a combat drop! What about that?”

“Nope.”

“Aw, come on! Why not?”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. “Are you seriously questioning me, Hoofer?”

The voice stuttered and quickly replied, “Wha- ab-ad-aba- NO, sir! No, absolutely not, sir!”

The elevator stopped, opening up to a large recreational room with a variety of equipment, ranging from training weights to intricate workout equipment. All were employed by four loud, obnoxious, and arrogant white pegasus colts. Said four colts stopped their little party and turned to see who dared to disturb them.

“Damn right. Armor out.” He hit the intercom button again and walked out into the recreational room.

As the four colts scrambled to attention, one of them shouted, “Officer on deck!”

Shining Armor ordered, “At ease!”

A second colt trotted forward. He asked suggestively, “So did our five ‘specialists’ get on board nice and safe and sound?”

Shining Armor walked past him. “Yes, and you’re now forbidden from going on deck five.”

A third colt burst out laughing. “I told you not to ask, Nag!”

Nag spun around, grinning. “Hey, buck you, Steed! You’re the one who said you’d screw ‘em so much they’d get a week of sleep NATURALLY!”

Shining Armor groaned. “Okay, ALL of you, deck five is off limits! Do I make myself clear?”

Nag tapped a hoof to his chin. “Gee, I don’t know, sir, all these decks and levels suuure do look the same.”

A fourth colt, noticeably larger in size, stepped in. “Nag, maybe it would be wise to NOT antagonize the captain?”

Nag gave a small laugh. “Aw, don’t worry, Applesnack, our ol’ man here’s just playin’ us,” he turned to Shining Armor, “Aint that right, ‘old man’?”

Shining Armor maintained his poker face. “No, I’m not.” He walked past the four colts and towards an exit that lead into another corridor. “Applesnack.”

The colt looked at his three friends, shrugged, and sprinted to catch up to Shining Armor. “Yes, sir?”

“You shall accompany me to engineering.”

“Of course, sir.”

Seeing that the captain and his new assistant had their backs to them, Nag looked at Steed. He made an invisible “five” in the air with his hoof, and started air-humping. Steed snickered and nodded.

Shining Armor made his way to a stairwell and descended. “Did we get those canisters of CN-20?”

“Yes we did, sir. Seven of them. Along with those automated synthetics for remote distribution.”

Shining Armor sighed in relief. “Okay, did anything happen while Cardinal and I were gone?”

Apple Snack stuttered, caught off guard by the question. “Um, well-”

Shining Armor interrupted and demanded, “What happened, Snack?”

“Well… there was an accident with one of the power loaders… and a few deaths… were involved.”

Shining Armor stopped on the stairs. “What do you mean ‘a few deaths were involved’?”

Apple Snack gulped but maintained eye contact. “One of our earth ponies thought she could substitute energon for its power supply.” Upon seeing Shining Armor’s expression grow to anger, he hastily added, “It worked really well for, like, eight minutes, but it kinda overcharged and blew up. Dipping into the Sulacolt's enegron stash was prohibited to begin with.”

Turning around and continuing down one more flight of stairs, Shining Armor groaned. “Sweet Celestia, we’re running on a skeleton crew to begin with! What was the damage?”

“A totaled power loader, a dead earth pony, four fire extinguishers- did they tell you that an energon fire is REALLY hard to put out?”

“No, they didn’t. Anything else?”

“Yeah, two unicorns got some really nasty burns trying to put it out, and we lost half a synthetic in the explosion itself.”

Shining Armor walked off the stairs and into a corridor. Trotting past the side rooms, and towards the noise of several ponies shouting, he asked, “You lost ‘half’ a synthetic?”

“Yes, sir.”

After a brief pause, he asked, “Which half?”

“Well… he ain’t sayin’ much.”

“And the half that does?”

“Violently blown to bits and then melted by the heat.”

They walked out into a giant, circular room. At the center was a massive, transparent sphere that made a constant humming noise. White bolts that looked like lightening coursed through the sphere and the two tubes that held it in place, one from the ceiling and one directly below it. Terminals, machinery and a mass of shouting ponies manning said devices littered the chamber.

“Output levels are in the green!”

“Donner, you reading a 5% increase in the energon siphons’ efficiency?!”

“Who took my sandwich?!”

“Who the buck brought a sandwich in here?!”

Shining Armor drew in as much air as he could, reared up, and unleashed the Royal Canterlot Voice. “EARTH PONY TECHNICIAN KLEIN, REPORT TO ME NOW!!!”

All of the shouting stopped. Everypony turned to see Shining Armor standing before them, wearing a glare that could freeze hell itself. Slowly, a light blue, male earth pony revealed himself as he slowly trotted towards the captain of the guard.

Sweat rolling down his face, the technician slowly said, “Earth pony Technician Klein… reporting, sir.”

Shining Armor maintained his hell-freezing glare. “You know why I’m here?”

Gulping, Klein began to tremble. “Y-yes, sir.”

"You broke my only rule."

"Yes, sir."

“What do you think I’m going to do to you?”

“I-I d-don’t know, s-sir.”

“I’m going to flay you alive,” he leaned closer towards Klein’s face, horn beginning to shine, “With my MIND!”

On cue, a purple aura shot out of his horn and enveloped Klein’s face. His eyes went wide with horror as his pupils dilated. He opened his mouth, attempting to scream, but was met with silence. He just stood there, shaking violently.

After a few more seconds, Shining Armor ceased his punishing, halting his magic. The aura surrounding Klein’s face dissipated, and the earth pony collapsed, continuing to shake as he began to drool.

"Let that be a lesson to ALL of you! You were hoof-picked by Celestia and Luna themselves for this assignment! You buck up, I buck YOU up!" Shining Armor turned around and began to trot back. He stopped briefly and looked back at the group of now terrified ponies. “Somepony take him to medical.”

“Medbay, this is Earth Pony Technician Chambers. I’m bringing in ‘Klein’. He’s gonna need your help… no, I don’t know what’s wrong with-”

Memories. Memories of boot camp, memories of being a private, memories of mechanical training and practice, memories of promotion, memories of horror and death. Icing on the cake, she was learning all of this knowledge in her sleep. Fluttershy had learned her new education through the eyes of many soldiers, the best of the best. As her current memory of quickly repairing an APC in the heat of combat against a changeling nest ended, things began to fade into her next memory.

She had experienced pain; she had experienced fear; and she was slowly learning that the victorious are the ponies willing to do absolutely anything.

And Cardinal was monitoring all of it.

She looked up from her seven screen terminal at the sound of the door sliding open. “Hello Specialist Nag, Specialist Steed.”

Nag trotted over to the stasis pods, while Steed pranced over to Cardinal.

Nag calmly said, “Always so formal, Cardinal.”

Steed leaned against Cardinal’s terminal. “Yeah, Cardinal, you should loosen up a bit.”

Cardinal ignored the poor attempt at flirting. “Do you two require anything?”

Nag started looking over the mane five. “Nah, I’m good. Just wanted to meet the new recruits.”

Steed slyly remarked, “Weeell, I am feeling a might stressed out.” He leaned closer to Cardinal. “Maybe you could help me relieve that stress.” Denied by his own attention span, he became intrigued by the videos that were playing on Cardinal’s terminal. “What’re these? Some kind of first pony shooter?”

Nag halted his goggling at the five mares and turned his head towards Cardinal. “You play Coltari?”

Cardinal shook her head. “Negative, I am monitoring the memories being played.”

Steed cocked his head while trying to identify the video before him. “Who’s memories?”

She answered, “A variety of the best soldiers that Equestria has seen, mostly Captain Shining Armor’s.”

Nag popped up to Cardinal’s left, trying to see the screen. “Holy shit, are you serious?! Our old man’s past is being used to bucking educate these green eggs?!”

Cardinal didn’t bother to look up. “Yes, that is correct. Why does this interest you more than your fantasies of mating?”

Steed laughed, “Nag might be shallow, but he’s not THAT shallow!”

Nag pouted. “Because the old man never talks about his past, that’s why.”

“Ah. Your curiosity has overcome your primordial urge.”

Rolling his eyes, he said, “Sure, whatever. Where’s our old man’s memory what-not?”

Cardinal tapped her hoof on a screen. “This was a strike ops mission that took place four years ago."

"We hooked up with Armor almost seven years ago." Nag asked, "Was this when we were presumed KIA?"

Cardinal nodded. "You are correct. This was two months after the attack on Fort Delta, and thus, two months after central intelligence labeled all soldiers stationed there KIA."

Pushing the extremely unpleasant memories out of his mind, Nag asked, "So, was this the first mission you two shared?"

"That is correct."

Steed scoffed, "How romantic.”

Maintaining her monotone, she corrected him. “On the contrary, Specialist Steed, our meeting was under hazardously strenuous conditions.” She pressed a few buttons. “You may view the memory for yourselves.”

He was running down a street. Bullets whizzed by him and struck the pavement. Suddenly, an abnormally large explosion hit somewhere close to his left side. He was propelled into the air. Nag and Steed winced at the first pony perspective of his skull smashing into the concrete. Shining Armor couldn’t move. The only audio was a high pitched ‘ringing’ sound. He began coughing.

“On your hooves, soldier! We’ve got to move! NOW!”

He began moving. The ringing still fogged his hearing, and his vision was clouded, Shining Armor looked around. Rubble, part of a building set ablaze, and two earth ponies wearing helmets and some sort of padded clothing lay sprawled out on the ground in a pool of blood. He heard somepony shout, “Covering fire!” as said pony began shooting.

He looked to the left; a white pegasus colt was helping him up.

“Holy shit, is that THE Commander Sprinkles?!”

“Shut up, shut up! I wanna see this!”

Shining Armor yelled in between coughs, “What the hell happened, sir?!”

Commander Sprinkles grabbed him with his forearms as he staggered around the corner of the building. “Bucking zebra shit stains used goddess damned CN-12 on us!” He set him down next to a dumpster behind the building that was ablaze. “Half our team’s either dead or coughing up their own bucking lungs by now!”

He heard a gunshot, a very loud gunshot, followed by a female shout, “Sniper!”

He looked to the right, where the two bodies were. A unicorn in the same uniform came scrambling around the corner, almost tripping over the dead, and slammed her back against the wall. “There’s a sniper on the roof of the theatre!” She began coughing violently. “I think he got me!” She held up her right forearm; the top half was completely gone, replaced with a bloodied pulp. “Son of a bitch.”

Commander Sprinkles muttered, “Little shit stains were herding us like bucking cattle!” Some sort of pack landed in front of the unicorn. Shining Armor looked to the left to see the commander pulling out a syringe from his backpack. “If that horn of yours still works, wrap up your arm! I’ve got to slow my own infection with this!”

Shining Armor looked back at the unicorn, who started coughing up blood. She clenched her eyes shut, concentrating. That only resulted in her coughing more violently and losing even more blood. Gasping, she rasped, “Buck. Can’t. CN-12’s already got me.” She looked at Shining Armor. “What’s your name, soldier?”

“Lieutenant Shining Armor of the Second Strike Ops Team, ma’am.”

She spat out greenish tinted blood. “Well, Lieutenant Armor, can you still do magic?”

A male voice being broadcasted over some sort of speaker interrupted them. “YOU ARE BEING SURROUNDED! SURRENDER THE DSM AND WE WILL ALLOW YOU TO LIVE! YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO COMPLY!”

“Yes, ma’am," He answered. "I was only exposed to a small amount of the gas.”

She picked up the pack with her mouth and tossed it to him. “I’m gone anyway. You might as well use it.”

Shining Armor looked down at the pack and then back up at the female unicorn. “But ma’am, what about you?”

She shook her head. “I’ve got three minutes tops.” She began coughing again. Grabbing her stomach, she vomited a blood shot, pulpy, greenish liquid on herself. Gasping, she managed, “I’m only good for a meat shield now.”

“YOU HAVE FIFTY SECONDS TO COMPLY!”

Shining Armor levitated the pack into his own backpack. He heard Commander Sprinkles say, “Right, I just bought myself another five minutes. Antibiotics only slow this shit down. We've got to move fast.”

Sining Armor asked, “What do we do, sir?”

Commander Sprinkles let the now empty syringe fall to the ground. “My wings feel like they’re on fire. I’ve got about ten minutes before I start puking up my lungs and keel over.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a small, green box with a folded antenna on its side.

“YOU HAVE FORTY SECONDS TO COMPLY!”

Commander Sprinkles tossed the box to Shining Armor, who caught it with his telekinesis. “You need to get the hell out of here, lieutenant. We’ll-” He and Shining Armor looked at the now dead female unicorn lying in her own vomit. “-I’ll hold them off while you make a break for the Rook LZ.”

Shining Armor turned back to the dead earth ponies. He levitated a shotgun out of one of their mouths. A semi automatic, 12 gauge pistol grip designed for earth ponies and built by Neighland-Yutani.

A very familiar female voice crackled over her host’s ear piece. “Strike Ops 1 and 2, this is Cardinal. I am at Bishop LZ. What’s your location? I can provide air support.”

“YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO COMPLY!”

Commander Sprinkles answered, “Cardinal, this is Commander Sprinkles! The zebras funneled us into the downtown district! They’re still using those jamming beacons; I can’t give you exact coordinates! Closest LZ would be Rook. Can you reposition?”

“Copy that, Sprinkles. I shall reposition. Is the DSM secure?”

“Gave it to your new favorite lieutenant. I’ve got seven minutes before the CN-12 kills me.”

Shining Armor put a hoof up to his ear piece. “This is Lieutenant Shining Armor. I’ve got the DSM and will be making my way to you, Cardinal.”

“YOU HAVE TWENTY SECONDS TO COMPLY!”

“Copy that, lieutenant. Commander Sprinkles, I shall see to it that you receive proper commemoration. Celestia be with you.”

Commander Sprinkles started coughing up blood. “If she were, we wouldn’t be in this shithole.” He slapped Shining Armor on the shoulder. “Don’t lose that box, got it? If you do, all of this will have been for nothing.”

“YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY!”

Shining Armor nodded. “Understood sir, thank you.” He looked at the dead female unicorn. She became encased in a purple aura and was levitated off of the ground. “Here we go.”

He took off. Hell broke loose. Bullets started whizzing by him and made contact with his meat shield. He heard Commander Sprinkles returning fire and shouting, “I’m your target, you sons of bitches! Come get some!”

That drew their fire for a few seconds, enough for him to duck into an alleyway to his right. As he tossed aside his meat shield, he brought out the shotgun that he had picked up and began jumping over fences and cutting through apartment buildings.

A dark blue unicorn with a short, dark mane, accompanied by two brown coated earth ponies with black and yellow 'N' cutie marks, approached the double doors to the royal court room, guarded by two Royal Guards. Upon seeing the trio, they stepped aside. One said, “Her majesty is expecting you.”

She looked to her two escorts. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

The two earth ponies saluted her and said in unison, “Yes, ma’am.”

The unicorn entered the chamber. She looked up at the sight of Princess Celestia sitting on her throne.

The goddess of the sun frowned. She turned to her guards and said, “You may leave us.”

The white pegasi looked at each other and then at their princess. “But your majesty, wh-”

“Are you questioning my order, soldier?”

They quickly said, “No, your majesty! We’ll leave at once!” The two pegasi quickly scrambled out of the room.

As they left, the unicorn looked up at the princess. She asked in a smooth but serious tone, “You know why I'm here?”

Princess Celestia curtly nodded. “Yes.”

“Then you know what I want.”

“I told your underling that you’d get them.”

“And she told YOU that it wouldn’t work your way.”

“I made it quite clear that it’s your only way of getting them.”

“We’d get a few hours of examination and testing at most, and then they’d die of starvation. With all due respect, your majesty, cutting a pony open and sowing them back up isn’t an easy or cheap process. We'll be wasting time and money.”

“I’m afraid there’s no other way.”

“You know what we’re capable of.”

She rose from her throne. “Is that a threat?”

The unicorn stood her ground. “You gave us the Changeling cocoons; we gave you stasis pods capable of training ponies into soldiers in their sleep, thus doubling the numbers of your current army."

Celestia slowly sat down.

The president continued, "You gave us the Sulacolt; we gave you combat dropships, along with a dictionary full of technological advancements like APCs and Power Loaders. You gave my ancestors gunpowder; they gave you firearms, cannons with the accuracy and precision to shoot a single pegasus out of the sky!"

The goddess continued to stare at the unicorn.

"You gave us those firearms; we gave you the deadliest weapons that the entire WORLD has ever seen! Glass tipped bullets, explosive tipped bullets, weapons capable of automatically targeting anything that moves, sonic landmines charged with enough electricity to decimate the entire bottom half of anypony! I could go on for hours, just giving you a list.”

“I don’t need a history lesson on subjects that I recall as if they were yesterday.”

“Then you know that we are a reliable asset. This is our home too; we have a right to ensure our own safety.”

Princess Celestia sighed, her frustration growing. “You were already told that you’d get them.”

The unicorn exclaimed in exasperation, “And you’re still not comprehending the fact that if you remove their natural instincts, they die!”

The princess gritted her teeth. “That was just a coincidence, an isolated incide-”

The unicorn interrupted her. “That’s bullshit, and you know it!”

Princess Celestia gave the unicorn a glare that would rival Fluttershy’s Stare. “You are the first pony to both interrupt and yell at me in a long time.”

The unicorn continued, ignoring the goddess’s remark. “The Xenomorph needs living hosts to procreate. They need a hive and strength in numbers. We both know this, princess. We ALSO know that the creature doesn’t know how to do ANY of that, if you REMOVE its instincts!”

Attempting to remain calm, Princess Celestia took a long, deep breath. “We don’t know that. Fluttershy’s pet may have just been an exception.”

The unicorn exclaimed, “It didn’t know how to eat!”

She lost her temper. “It was an isolated incident!”

The unicorn challenged her. “And what if it isn’t?! We’ll have wasted millions of bits on building containment zones suitable to withstand their violent biology, risked our state of the art surgical equipment on the embryo removal surgeries, and for what?! Malnourished specimens that can’t even function like they’re supposed to!"

She paused for breath. "And yet you want us to build bioweapons out of them?! You’re asking for an omelet the size of Equestria, and you’re not even giving us fire to cook with! And what if your captain only manages to bring back a single egg?! Or a single creature?! Then you disarm it of its instincts and poof! There goes our ENTIRE project!”

Princess Celestia stated and explained, “I won’t risk the wellbeing of my kingdom for another weapon; if a second outbreak were to occur, it might not be contained as easily as Ponyville. I’ve given you the privilege of playing goddess. You have your orders, now leave.”

The unicorn pleaded, “If you just let us have the specimens as they were naturally-”

“ENOUGH! GUARDS!” An entire company of guards burst into the court from all sides. One half surrounded the princess, while the other half surrounded the mortal. “Escort this unicorn out of the castle! She is not to be allowed on the premises, unless I or my sister says otherwise! Is that clear?!”

“Yes, your majesty!” The guards began to grab the unicorn to remove her.

Her horn lit up and unleashed a shockwave that sent them flying across the room and smashing into the walls. The half that had surrounded Princess Celestia readied themselves for the enemy’s attack.

To their surprise, she turned her back on them. “I’ll take my own leave, thank you very much.”

He burst into a kitchen to see three zebras staring at him. He saw a mother, a father, and a filly about seven years old. The father shot up. “What in the hell-”

Shining Armor focused on the filly. She became encased in his purple aura. “Don’t follow me if you want your kid to live!”

The child was futilely squirming and began crying. “Let me go! Let me GOOO!!!”

The mother jumped up from her chairs and pleaded, “No! Take what you want! Just please, spare my baby!”

“Don’t kill my daughter! Take whatever you want!” The male began to approach Shining Armor. “Take me instead!”

The shotgun was brought up in front of the zebra. “Stay back! Stay back, or I’ll shoot!” He looked back at the door. The shotgun was levitated towards the door handle. He fired one shell, blasting the lock into splinters and pieces.

He looked back at the now crying mother and trembling father. “Now you’re gonna go out there and play dumb. You’re gonna do everything you can to lead them away from my trail.” He levitated the shotgun directly at the filly’s skull. “I swear to Celestia, I WILL end her life if you don’t! You got that?!”

The father shouted, “Yes, yes! We understand! Please, just don’t kill my daughter!” He grabbed his wife by her forearm. “We’re going out there now, see?” They began backing out of the kitchen. “Xenith, do whatever the unicorn tells you to do, okay? Daddy and mommy love you!”

Xenith thrashed and shrieked, “NO! HELP ME, MOMMY!!! DADDY!!! I DON’T WANNA DIE!!! HEEEELP!!!”

Shining Armor turned around and started running through the back yard. He vaulted over the fence and into an increasingly wooded area. “Shut up, kid! If you wanna see your parents again, shut up!”

“LET ME GO!!! LET ME GO!!! LET ME G-” He bashed the pistol grip of the shotgun against her skull.

Shining Armor increased his speed. “Shut up! Just shut up!”

Her shrieks were reduced to whimpers.

“Cardinal, this is Lieutenant Armor! Can you get a lock on my coordinates?!”

“I shall attempt to do so, lieutenant. You require air support?”

“I’ve got the entire goddess-damned zebra militia on my ass! No, I think I’ll be JUST BUCKING FINE!”

“Copy that, lieutenant. I’ve got a lock on your coordinates. Making my way to you now.”

He charged through a wall of brush and came out into a corn field. “You do that!” He looked back at the wooded area. A red stick came into view, surrounded by his purple aura. “Just look for the wild fire!” On cue, he popped the flare and tossed it into the shrubbery, immediately igniting the surrounding area. He turned back and kept running.

He looked down at the now unconscious, bleeding filly which he was still holding via telekinesis. He sighed. “Cardinal, I’ll be bringing a zebra kid on board.”

“Copy that, lieutenant. I see the fire, approaching you from the west.”

He looked to the west. A more primitive variant of the Cheyenne UD-4L was now in view, arms open and making its way towards him. Relief turned to alarm as he saw a rocket fly overhead and detonate against the dropship. He looked back at the partially ablaze forest. Zebra soldiers were swarming out of it and taking shots at him. He returned fire with the shotgun.

He looked back to see the ship spinning around in circles, descending. Cardinal said in her smooth monotone, “I’m taking anti-vehicular fire. Standing by to return fire, lieutenant.”

Still holding the shotgun and zebra, Shining Armor made a mad dash towards the west. The dropship regained its altitude and turned to face the enemy as another rocket flew by the ship, barely missing it.

Shining Armor shouted, “Cardinal! Cleared hot!”

“Roger that, cleared hot.” A barrage of missiles were unleashed; he threw himself onto the ground and covered his ears. The entire earth shook as missile after missile impacted the tree line. A few seconds after the barrage ended, Cardinal stated, “Lieutenant Armor, all hostiles have been eliminated. Please board the dropship.”

He looked up to see the drop ship landing and back to see the entire landscape torn apart, along with its native protectors, who were now strewn about in bits and pieces. Something landed in front of him. He reared back, aiming the shotgun at what turned out to be a zebra soldier, covered in his own blood.

The soldier gasped for air and began coughing violently. Shining Armor looked at the knife strapped to the soldier’s vest. He pulled it out of its sheath with his magic and slit the soldier’s throat. “Copy that, Cardinal.” He paused for a moment, looking at the now blood soaked knife. He stuck the blade back in the soldier’s throat. “Stick around.” He rose to his hooves and looked up to see that the drop ship’s ramp had opened as soldiers ran out.

“Cover him! Move! Move!”

“Spread out!”

“Go! Go! Go!”

Equipped with twin saddlebags and a holstered sidearm, Cardinal emerged from the drop ship and trotted towards Shining Armor. She shouted over the roar of the engines, “Do you have the DSM?!”

The green box was levitated towards the blue earth pony. “I’ve got it, ma’am!”

Cardinal grabbed the box in her teeth and placed it in her saddlebag. “Good,” she drew her pistol, “at’s wo less loose en.” She aimed it at Shining Armor and shot past him. He spun around to see that she had shot a zebra soldier attempting to crawl back to the tree line. She holstered the pistol. “I missed one.”

He looked back to see she had already turned her back on him. “Sweet Celestia, you scared the shit out of me there!” Child and shotgun still in his telekinetic grasp, he walked up the ramp. “What are you gonna do with this kid?”

He heard the ramp close behind him.

Cardinal replied, “We’ll see to it that she’s cared for. Perhaps we can use her in the future." She placed a hoof to her earpiece. "All cleanup teams, this is Cardinal. I’ll be back in twenty. No witnesses, understood? Cardinal out.”

He moved up to the passenger seats and strapped the foal in; he looked back at Cardinal. “So are they going to declare war on us?”

Cardinal moved past him and up to the cockpit. “The entire point of this operation was to prevent a war with the zebras, lieutenant.”

He sat down in the seat next to the filly. “But won’t they be pissed that we flew into their land, massacred their guys, and stole their chemical weapon plans?” He buckled in. “Aren’t we suppose to be negotiating with them?”

She fired up the drop ship’s engines. As they began to ascend, she called back, “Once we give this proof that the zebras are researching chemical warfare to Princess Celestia, the zebras will be politically embarrassed in front of every other power in the world if she decides to go public with this intel.”

They accelerated into the sky. Cardinal continued, “With the fact that developing chemical weaponry is outlawed, they will be more than willing to negotiate a new trading deal with us.”

“Blackmailing them into a bargain won’t be good for a long-term trading agreement.”

The ship rocketed forward, causing Shining Armor to tense. “I agree, lieutenant. But Equestria needs coal now.”

Getting use to the new high speed, he leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes and taking deep breathes. Everything began to fade out into a white screen.

Wide-eyed and grinning like idiots, Nag and Steed looked at each other, back at the screen, and then back at each other.

Steed muttered in awe, “Absolutely badass!”

Still grinning, Nag responded, “And we’ve still got six more days of this shit.”

Author's notes: And we're done!...with chapter three! My apologies for the long wait, but for those who have not partaken in the act of story telling, you'll find that writing does indeed take time. (Also, it doesn't help that it takes a week and a half to get a reply from my beta readers)

At 9:31 PM, Central time, Friendly Uncle sent me a PM that gave the green light for launch, the seal of approval, etc.

Now, how about Friendly Uncle's exact words?

"Well this is getting kind of violent. Did Shining Armor just torture a guy with magic? What the heck. XD

It's well done, I was a little confused by the action during the first flashback sequence with Sprinkles. You seemed to use male and female pronouns interchangeably a few times and I wasn't sure who was who. Aside from that it's pretty clear and getting pretty interesting. It's just... very, very dark. Twilight's Brother beating a little zebra over the head with a shotgun was kind of startling. I like that Celestia isn't going into complete tyrant mode here, there's some ambiguity to what she's doing and why she's insisting on lobotomizing the xenos. I like the way you worked in the exposition about Scuttles Jr.

Real curious to see what the girls think about their training when they wake up."

You think THAT was dark? The Moon will be a much darker chapter, one of many, for this is when the plot escalates.

Any and all feedback is welcome, of course. Every like, dislike, favorite, and watch help out. And no, I am NOT saying that just to encourage you to do any of that, thus gaining more attention to the story, THUS stroking my ego... I'm being sincere.

Anyways, The Moon's going to take about another month and a half, so I advise you bunker down. Thanks for participating!

The Moon

She felt exhausted. Her eyes ached and the rest of her body felt numb. Her head felt as heavy as Pinkie Pie’s party equipment as she tried to turn it. Speaking of Pinkie Pie, she heard her voice.

“…on, girls!...Rise!...bird… worm!...fair for…early just to get eaten by the bird!”

A great pain in her lungs caught her off guard. As she began to have a coughing fit, a set of strong hooves grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up to a sitting position. “Just get it all out of your system, Fluttershy.”

Squinting, she looked up to see Shining Armor patting her down. “Your body is simply trying to return to its normal levels of activity after a week of stasis.”

In between coughs, she looked around to see her friends in rather similar states, excluding Pinkie Pie.

Applejack grumbled while rubbing her eyes, “They aint payin’ us enough for this shit.” She suddenly stopped, realizing her vulgar choice of words.

Rainbow Dash gave a light laugh. “Wow, AJ, did somepony piss in your cereal?” Stopping as well, she began to make perplexing faces.

Rarity looked at the two and then at Shining Armor. “Armor, I’m sure you are aware that my friends aren’t usually this vulgar. Is it possible that your Changeling cocoon sleep pod ‘thingies’ have something to do with that?”

Shining Armor looked at Rarity as gave Fluttershy one more pat on the back. “It’s not serious. They’re just incorporating the memories that they were exposed to.”

Fluttershy stopped. It all came flooding back to her. The killing, the dying screams of sheer agony and pain, the deafening explosions, the wiz of bullets, the burning lungs. It was too much. She began to cry.

Cardinal approached a door located in the middle of a corridor. Lightly tapping a button to her left, the door opened to reveal Shining Armor’s quarters. He was facing away from her, repeatedly banging his head against the awards-infested wall. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stu-” Glaring, he spun around to see the dark blue earth pony standing at the doorway.

She asked, “Am I interrupting?”

Shining Armor moved from the trophy wall his bed. He flopped down on the mattress, words dripping with venom, “Oh nooo, no no no. Absolutely not, Cardinal! I’m just so, so happy that our state of the art technology has reduced our five specialists to emotional wrecks!”

Cardinal calmly replied, “Nurse Readheart said that the effects should only be temporary, captain. A simple emotional overload.”

He levitated a clock over his head. Grimacing, he asked, “And will that 'overload' subside within the estimated time of arrival of two hours, Cardinal?”

Cardinal answered, “Most likely, yes.”

He slammed the clock back down on the nightstand. “They’d bucking better!” He shot up from his bed.

Cardinal stepped aside as he stormed out of his room, mimicking Fluttershy’s voice. “Oooh, why would you dooo that, Shining Armor? Aren’t you a good guy, ooooh! Bucking load of shit!”

Cardinal followed him down the corridor. “Specialists Nag, Steed, Plug, and Apple Snack are all on standby in the hangar. Shall I have them commence preparations?”

Shining Armor quickened his pace and stopped at an elevator. “No. No, I’ll do it myself. I want you to prep the five mares.” The door opened up, and he stepped inside, slamming on the controls. He added, “And get Applejack to like you, okay?”

She barely enough time to say, “Yes, captain,” as the door closed.

He took a deep breath, mumbling to himself, “One last time.”

The elevator came to a halt and opened. Shining Armor stepped out into the corridor, and took a right, leading up to the hangar. He spotted Nag, Steed, Plug, and Apple Snack hanging around a power loader. He made a beeline towards them.

Plug scrambled to attention, shouting, “Officer on deck!”

Shining Armor silently approached him, as the other three stumbled into line. Coming to a halt, he tapped his ear piece. “Hoofer, give me a broadcast.”

“Understood, sir,” a few seconds of silence, “Okay, just speak into your piece.”

Rolling his eyes, he muttered, “No shit, Hoofer.”

The entire ship echoed with, “No shit, Hoofer.”

Ignoring the laughter that could be heard through the other levels, he attempted to keep his composure. “All right, now listen up.” He waited for the laughter to subside. “This is going to go smoothly and by the numbers. I want DCS and tactical database assimilation by 0830.”

Everypony groaned. “Ordinance loading, weapon strip, and dropship details have ONE hour!” He tapped his earpiece again to switch it off.

Apple Snack raised his hoof.

Reluctantly, Shining Armor said, “Yes, Apple Snack?”

Lowering his hoof, he asked, “Since we haven’t heard from the colony, are we to assume that there IS an infestation?"

Shining Armor nodded. “That is correct.”

Plug asked, “Rules of engagement, sir?”

He answered, “Survivors are to be taken alive unless they present an immediate threat to you. I authorize any and all necessary force if and ONLY if,” he gave Nag the killer eye, “It’s required. Do you understand, soldier?”

Nag stood his ground. “I understand, sir.”

“Good.” He continued, addressing the company, “If you see any two meter tall, black as night, banana headed, drooling ‘things’, you are to shoot on sight and alert literally EVERYPONY. You will then fall back to my team while on full alert. Understood?”

“Got it.”

“Right.”

“No problem.”

“Yes sir.”

He looked around the hangar. “Dismissed!” As he made his way to the exit, the work began.

“I don’t care if you ARE short, get those Power Loaders going!”

“I’m gonna need ten CCs of-”

“NO! Give him aids!”

“Seriously, who took my sandwich?!”

The male specialists, Nurse Readheart, Fleetfoot, and the “mane five” had assembled in the armory.

Out in the hanger, the dropship’s headlights came on as Spitfire and Soarin started up the bird’s engines and lowered the ramp.

Cardinal brought the APC around and parked it in front of the lowered ramp. She opened the door in anticipation of the rescue team.

Nurse Readheart adjusted her battle saddle towards Fleetfoot to allow easier attachment of her flamethrower. Fleetfoot, in turn, held up his own battle saddle to allow Nurse Redheart easier access to attach a Pulse Rifle.

Fluttershy took several deep breaths as she helped her friends suit up.

Rarity, using her telekinesis, unloaded and double checked the Pulse Rifles, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie tested the durability of their Smart Gun frames.

Pinkie Pie sauntered around on her hind legs, while Rainbow Dash remained on all fours.

Using his own magic, Shining Armor held up his shotgun and loaded seven shells into the barrel, loading one into the chamber and then inserted an eighth round. He then placed the shotgun in a sheath strapped to the outside of his armored battle saddle. “Rarity.”

The unicorn mare looked at him, nodded, and levitated a Pulse Rifle towards him.

He caught the rifle with his own telekinesis and hooked it up to his battle saddle.

Nag hooked a Smart Gun up to Apple Snack. “This’ll hide that extra weight.”

“Oh-ho-ho, funny and original, please stand up.”

Applejack gave Fluttershy a light tap on the shoulder. The pegasus looked to see that the orange mare held a battle saddle in her mouth. Placing it on the ground, Applejack said, “Ah’d like you to put this on, just tah be safe.”

She looked at the armor with skepticism. “Um, uh, I don’t know.”

Applejack placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Fluttershy, look at me.”

She looked up to see the earth pony’s saddened face. “Ah don’t like this anymore than you do, but we’re not here for Celestia or Luna or Neighland-Yutani or anypony else. We’re here for Twilight.”

Seeing the passion in her friend’s eyes, Fluttershy nodded. “Okay.” She stood up and lowered her head, allowing Applejack to equip the battle saddle.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash approached Shining Armor, Smart Guns hooked up and drum barrels loaded, “We’re ready, Armor.”

Shining Armor looked at them, then at the other three mares, and then his own squad. Seeing that they were all ready, he approached Fluttershy. “Hey, are you going to be okay?”

Attempting to get comfortable in the armor, she hesitated for a moment. “I… I think so, yes.”

He smiled. “Then let’s go save my sister.” He turned around and said, “Alright, ponies, we’re all a team, and there’s nothing to worry about.” Seeing that he had everypony’s attention, he continued, “We’re going to hit that moon like a tidal wave and squash those bugs like any other bug hunt. Is that understood?”

Everypony responded, “Yes, sir!”

Shining Armor continued, “Damn right, ponies! Get on the ready line!”

At attention, the group began hustling out into the hanger.

Keeping pace, Shining Armor shouted, “Are you lean?!”

Grinning, Shining Armor’s squad shouted, “YEAH!”

“Are you mean?!”

“YEAH!”

“What are you?!”

“LEAN, MEAN PONIES!”

He continued to shout. “Then move it out! Move it out, movie it out, move it out!”

They all lined up in front of the APC, albeit Fluttershy was about to collapse from trembling.

“One! Two! Three! Four! One! Two! Three!” He looked them over and exclaimed, “Absolutely badasses! Get in that APC! Let’s go!”

As ordered, they all filed in to the Armored Pony Carrier. Strapping in and stowed their weapons.

Shining Armor closed the door behind him and locked his own Pulse Rifle. He seated himself in the monitor chair and buckling in. He shouted up to the cockpit, “We’re ready, Cardinal!”

Cardinal shifted gears. “Roger.”

The APC backed up into the drop ship, and the ramp began to close. Spitfire put on her Deal With It glasses as the inner airlock doors opened, and the drop ship lowered into the pit. The inner doors closed around the arm that attached to the claw that held the drop ship by its waist.

Spitfire spoke into her ear piece, “I am opening the doors, now.”

On cue, the outer doors opened to reveal a grayish white surface.

Soarin’ reported, “Stand by, ten seconds to mark. Ten.”

Fleetfoot feigned sniffling. “They’ve grown up so well.”

“Seven.”

The mane five braced themselves for the drop.

Nag exclaimed, “Don’t worry, girls! It’s just another bug hunt!”

“Two. One. Mark.”

Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut as she felt her stomach getting sucked into her throat with the drop ship accelerating in its descent.

Rarity screeched in absolute terror; Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and the others screamed with excitement.

Out of space and into the stratosphere, the drop ship dived down towards the surface.

After thirty seconds of diving, Spitfire spoke into her headset, “We’ve entered the troposphere.” She turned to Soarin’. “Switch to the DCS ranging.”

Soarin pressed a few buttons and replied, “Done and done.”

She smiled. “We’re in the pipe, five-by-five.”

Cardinal called back to Shining Armor, “I recommend you begin reconnaissance, Captain.”

Shining Armor unstrapped himself from his seat. He unlocked his seat and moved along the rail, activating the screens as he went. “Alright, let’s see what we can see.”

Applejack’s helmet camera showed some static. “Applejack, adjust your camera. It’s malfunctioning.”

The mare banged her helmet against Rainbow Dash’s head, eliciting an, “OW!” from her target.

Shining Armor nodded. “That’s better.” He moved the chair further down the line. “Reconnaissance cameras… opening… now.”

The screens switched from the mane five’s helmet cameras to a grayish white landscape freckled with craters and hills.

Rarity asked timidly, “Is that… the moon?”

Shining Armor answered, “Must be.” He tapped his ear piece. “Spitfire, when we get to the palace, I want you to keep your altitude at one hundred meters and slowly circle the whole installation.”

“No problem.” She turned to Soarin’. “Can you get a lock on that damn beacon?”

He hesitated. “Uuum, I’m trying to. The signal keeps blipping in and out.”

Spitfire took off her Deal With It shades. “We gotta start somewhere. Give me the coordinates and, we’ll check it out.”

“Right. Bearing eighty-six degrees to the…” Soarin paused, contemplating the lack of North, South, East, and West. He waved a hoof towards the right. “Just go that way.”

Spitfire gunned the drop ship eighty six degrees to the right.

Beep.

Spitfire asked casually, “Radar got something?”

Soarin began analyzing. “A single dot, fifty meters from the starboard side… and making its way towards us.”

Beep.

“Forty.”

Spitfire shook her head. “What the hell.” She tapped her ear piece. “Captain, something’s closing in on us from the starboard side, can you verify?”

Shining Armor moved back up to a prior console and began tapping buttons. “Let me see.”

Eyes glued to his console, Soarin’ muttered, “Thirty meters. Damn it’s fast.”

Everypony looked to Shining Armor as he switched to the starboard camera. “On scr- what the buck?!”

Through the eye of the camera, they all saw it.

A pitch black creature with its forehooves stretched out in front of it and horrid wings that looked like they had gone through a meat grinder was on an intercept course. Spear-tipped tail flailing in the back, it turned its cowl-shaped head at them and parted its jaws, revealing a second, smaller mouth in lieu of a tongue. Streaks of saliva were left behind as the creature drooled.

Rainbow Dash groaned, “Not again.”

The four males exclaimed in unison, “SWEET CELESTIA!”

Shining Armor tapped his earpiece. “Spitfire, commence evasive maneuvers immediately!”

“Shiiiit, hold on, everypony!” On cue, she veered to the left and gunned the engines.

Soarin exclaimed, “Ten meters, Spitfire! It’s gaining.”

“I know!”

“Go faster!”

“I know!”

The creature flew in and landed on top of the drop ship with an audible clank.

Everypony looked up at the ceiling.

Applejack muttered, “Oh shi-”

An ear piercing screech interrupted her as everypony winced.

Rapidly hitting buttons, Shining Armor exclaimed, “SHIT!” He frantically looked at all of the screens. “Where is it?!”

The aft camera revealed the creature holding onto the hull with its tail speared through the metal plating. It began to look around.

Shining Armor yelled, “SPITFIRE, GO FASTER!!!”

Spitfire gunned the engines once more.

Unaffected by the increase in turbulence, the creature began crawling towards the back of the drop ship, using its tail like an ice axe.

Shining Armor screamed, “GO FASTER!!!”

Spitfire shrieked back, “THIS IS THE VEHICLE’S TOP SPEED!!!”

The creature crawled eight meters towards the back and suddenly stopped, like it was frozen in time. It looked down and, using its tail for an anchor, began tearing away at the metal with its hooves.

Horrified, Shining Armor exclaimed, “It’s going after the engines!”

The creature continued tearing away the metal until a shrill explosion of blue flames flared up from the engine, engulfing the Xenomorph and latter half of the drop ship.

Streaking a blue fire, the drop ship began spinning in circles.

Warning sounds went off in the cockpit. Spitfire yelled, “We’re losing altitude! Everypony brace for impact! I’ll try and land this bird!”

Shining Armor strapped himself back into his seat. “Bucking hell! Cardinal, I’m remote activating the ramp! Stand by to roll out!”

Cardinal called back, “Standing by, captain.”

The drop ship’s ramp and landing gears opened up as the ship continued to spiral down; Spitfire tried to bring it about. “I got this! I got this! There’s no way I don’t got this!”

Soarin’ shouted, “Somepony opened the ramp!”

Spitfire gritted her teeth. “What the hell is he doing?!”

They came crashing down on the surface and flipped. The tail end was crushed; pieces of it flew in every direction as the drop ship’s nose end stuck itself in the ground. The APC followed suit as it came sliding out and dug into the ground. The Cheyenne UD-4L stayed in motion as it came crashing down on its back, payload suddenly lightened, and finally came to a standstill.

Upside down, Spitfire looked around. The cockpit was mostly intact, excluding the window shield, which was completely shattered.

Soarin’ unbuckled himself. He shouted, “Woah!” as he fell to the ground and landed with several small crunch sounds. “Ow.”

Spitfire unbuckled herself and landed more gracefully on the ground. Hearing several similar crunch sounds, she looked down to see shards of glass littering the area of the crash. She examined one of her hooves. “The glass isn’t cutting us, Soarin’.”

Soarin’ groaned. “I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

She helped him up. “Come on, we gotta check on the others.” She stopped dead in her tracks.

Off in the distance, Spitfire could see the top half of Luna’s palace. “Huh, how about that,” she muttered.

Soarin’ got up to his hooves and approached her. “What are you-,” he spotted the palace, “Oh come on!”

Off in the distance lay Luna's palace. It was evident that Canterlot Castle had been "influenced" by Luna's design. Or was it the other way around?

Shining Armor unbuckled himself and immediately tumbled back to the front of the APC and smashed into the back of Cardinal’s seat. “Oh, right,” he groaned, “The front’s the floor; the floor’s the wall; and the back’s the ceiling.” He looked at Cardinal. “Are you hurt?”

The blue earth pony shook her head. “I am not, captain.”

“Good.” He rose to his hooves and looked up at the eleven other passengers. “Anypony dead?”

Applejack said, “We’re all fine, Armor.”

Rainbow Dash asked, “Can we unbuckle, or do you want to just leave us here like this?”

Unbuckling herself, Cardinal interrupted, “Captain, I advise that you all assess the damage. I can take care of the weapons and equipment.” She then proceeded to climb out of her chair, steadying herself.

Shining Armor awkwardly climbed up to the seats, still not acclimated to the 90 degree dip. He began unbuckling the mane five. “You won’t break any of your bones, but if you don’t have wings, you’ll slam into the-”

Pinkie Pie fell past him and slammed into Cardinal. “Sorry! Sorry!”

Buried beneath the fellow earth pony, Cardinal asked calmly, “Are you damaged, Pinkie Pie?”

Pinkie Pie bounced off of the mare and helped her up. “What? Of course not, silly!”

With the APC’s forward end in the ground, Shining Armor had to push the armored door up and hold it as the mane five scrambled out. Nurse Redheart and Fleetfoot were next, followed by Plug, Steed, Nag, and then Apple Snack, who courteously held the door up for Shining Armor.

As the other males held the door up for Apple Snack, Nurse Redheart began medically examining Fleet Foot and the mane five.

Rarity attempted to brush her mane. “Worst experience ever. Of all time.”

Steed muttered, “We gotta get out of this chicken-shit outfit, someday.”

Nag responded, “This would actually be cool, if these things weren’t trying to kill us.”

Spitfire and Soarin’ came around and confronted Fleetfoot and Shining Armor.

Soarin’ pointed a hoof towards the palace. “We found the palace, captain.”

Shining Armor squinted his eyes; he could just barely make out the top of the dome and the surrounding towers.

Fleetfoot spat, “Where the hell did you learn to fly, Spitfire?”

Spitfire retorted, “Flying school! The same place that taught me not to fly while under the influence of ALIENS!”

Shining Armor looked at the wreckage. The drop ship was dotted with dents, torn up everywhere, smashed in the front, and ablaze in the back. “Well, Spitfire?”

The Wonderbolt answered, “Captain, I’m a Wonderbolt, not an engineer. And last time I checked, Soarin’ wasn’t a firefighter.”

Soarin’ chimed in, “Even if we could put out that fire and fix the engines, sir, we wouldn’t be able to break troposphere without a transparent aluminum windshield.

Applejack patted Fluttershy on her armored shoulder. “You okay, sugarcube?”

Fluttershy was still processing what had just transpired. “I-I-I-I d-don’t k-kn-know.”

Nurse Redheart walked over to Armor. “Everypony’s physically okay. No broken bones or bleeding.”

Shining Armor nodded.

Cautiously looking around, Rainbow Dash asked, “Is that thing still alive?”

Shining Armor looked back at the blue fire still going strong. “I think the flames took care of it.”

Everypony turned towards the creaking that Cardinal made when she pulled the door up with one hoof, while she used one of the Smart Guns to keep it open. She then began to move the weapons out of the APC.

Shining Armor took a deep breath and levitated two Pulse Rifles out of Cardinal’s pile. “Nag and Steed, get those weapons distributed. Plug and Apple Snack, help Cardinal. The Wonderbolts and I will see what we can salvage from the drop ship.” He approached the mane five. “I’d like you all to get your weapons hooked up when Cardinal’s done, alright?”

Applejack nodded. “Sure thing, Armor.”

Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest. “You can count on us, Armor!”

He smiled. “Thanks.” He turned around and started towards the drop ship.

Spitfire was using her wings to blow away the glass shards.

Soarin’ commented, “We’d need some heavy equipment to flip this bird.”

Fleetfoot asked, “Does the machinery itself still work?”

Shining Armor looked up at the upside down cockpit. “Spitfire?”

The golden mare said, “On it,” and climbed into her seat. She used her legs to hold herself in place, while Shining Armor used his magic to strap her back in. “Let’s see,” she mumbled while starting up the system. “Primary flight controls, offline. Secondary flight controls, offline. Main power, offline. Auxiliary power, offline.” She hit the console with a hoof, causing sparks to fly out and land on the ground. “Everything but the muffin button.”

She unstrapped herself and landed back on the ground with a thud. “No good, captain. Our best shot would be to contact the Sulacolt with the APC’s transmitter to request another drop ship, given that said transmitter wasn’t destroyed too.”

Shining Armor asked, “And the APC?”

She answered, “As I said, heavy equipment.”

He grimaced and turned around. “Let’s go, then.”

Everypony had been reequipped as Cardinal finished moving the remaining equipment out of the APC. She called, “Nag, Steed, Plug, and Apple Snack, I require your assistance.”

The four stallions approached her. Apple Snack inquired, “What do want us to do?”

Cardinal walked around to the front of the APC. “We must right the APC. It's useless to us in this state.” She positioned herself in a bucking position. “On my mark, we will all strike in unison, understood?”

The four looked at each other with uncertainty.

Nag muttered, “Um, okay.”

The four stallions formed up alongside Cardinal and readied themselves in similar positions.

“Three, two, one, mark.”

With a loud clang, the five ponies’ united strength sent the APC crashing down back on its wheels.

Rarity stared in awe. “Well, I suppose that’s one way to handle things.”

Temporarily blinking in disbelief, Shining Armor briefly shook his head and asked, “Cardinal, does the transmitter still work?”

“Yes,” the mare answered. “I used it to inform the Sulacolt of our situation and bring down the second drop ship via remote control; it will land twenty meters to the left of our current drop ship. An armed escort, cleanup crew, and salvage team will be transported down via Cargo Extractor to pick up the pieces of our first attempt once we secure the palace and Neighland-Yutani's facilities.”

Shining Armor nodded, “Understood.”

Applejack asked, “What now, Armor?”

Cardinal approached him with a Pulse Rifle held in her mouth. He turned sideways, so that she could attach it to his battle saddle. “Right, I think it’s safe to say that we have a Xenomorph infestation on our hooves.”

Cardinal stepped back, as he stretched. He grimaced. “We shouldn’t expect too many survivors. I want Twilight alive just as much as you all do, but we need to be ready.”

The mane five solemnly nodded.

He turned to Plug and Nag. “I want you two trotting perimeter. Keep an eye out for anymore bugs.”

They replied in unison, “Sir, yes sir!”

As Cardinal returned to the other ponies, he continued, “And while we’re waiting for the second drop ship, I think that now would be the ideal time for the rest of us to listen to the ponies who have experience in dealing with these creatures.” He looked at the one quivering mare. “If you would, Fluttershy?”

“Huh? Oh, um, right.” She trotted forward, towards the middle of the group. “Well, it’s not just me. My friends also have, um, ‘experience’.”

Shining Armor coaxed, “Let’s start with you, first. Anything that you might have left out in the original report.”

Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy began. “Well, I raised an… earth pony ‘version’ by accident. It almost killed Angel Bunny, but I used The Stare on it, and I guess it, um, thought I was its master, or owner, or something. From that point on, it obeyed me.”

“Fluttershy,” Shining Armor interrupted, “Can you tell us the tactically useful stuff? Weaknesses, strengths, distractions, anything like that? What about this ‘Stare’ of yours.”

“Well,” she continued, “I don’t really know if I’m doing it, but when I use it on misbehaving or aggressive animals, they obey me and behave themselves. For Scuttles, however, he reacted rather… violently. He fell down and started kicking his legs and shrieking.”

Applejack stated, “Scuttles was really strong, an’ damn near indestructible. He took a lot of abuse, before we got him down.”

Rainbow Dash added, “And the pegasus ones are a real pain; the one I fought with had a really sharp tail. It just barely grazed me but cut right through my cutie mark.”

Apple Snack said, “I think we all saw that one’s abilities.”

Rarity said, “The unicorn ones are extremely dangerous. Just one, alone, was able to overpower Twilight Sparkle’s magic. I don’t mean to brag, but I did have to help her to repel it.”

Shining Armor muttered, “Well, that’s just great.”

Everypony looked up to the roaring of their second Cheyenne UD-L4 flying overhead and circled back, gracefully landing on the surface.

Plug and Nag regrouped with the rest of the ponies.

Shining Armor cleared his throat. “We’ve only got two of these birds! If we lose this one, we’ll be stuck with Cargo Extractors!”

“Captain,” Cardinal interjected, “I recommend Spitfire and Soarin’ fly the drop ship to the palace’s landing site while we approach the palace via APC.”

Soarin’ added, “And we can give you air support if needed.”

“Hold off on the firepower, boy,” Fleetfoot said, “This is Nightmare Moon’s palace we’re talking about, here. If we so much as scratch it, she’ll use our skulls as candle holders.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened, and her pupils dilated.

Nudging her, Applejack said, “That was a joke.”

“While I disagree with Fleetfoot’s reasoning,” Cardinal calmly stated, “I, too, believe that it would be wise to refrain from damaging the palace. It is a rather unique piece of architecture, and it would be a shame to harm it.”

Shining Armor thought for a moment. “Change of plans, then. Spitfire, you’ll make an aerial sweep of the palace and then land on the,” he paused, forgetting the word.

Spitfire suggested, “Landing pad?”

“Yes, that! And no firing on the palace. We’ll drive from here.”

“You got it, captain,” Spitfire sad as and Soarin’ trotted towards the drop ship.

Cardinal started up the APC as everypony else piled in.

Engines roaring, the drop ship’s ram and landing gears closed, as it hovered off the ground and took off.

The drop ship soon overtook the Armored Pony Carrier. “Captain, Soarin’s watching the radar like a hawk, and I can see the palace in all its glory.”

Shining Armor tapped the monitors, in his seat. “Reconnaissance cameras aren’t working-”

“-Because the drop ship that they were linked to was destroyed,” Spitfire interrupted.

“-So you’re our eyes and ears, Spitfire,” Shining Armor finished.

Spitfire grinned. “But of course. Now, the palace appears to be intact,” she craned her neck to get a better angle, “Still has power. I can see interior lights.”

“Any activity?”

“None, captain. Same goes for the colony site.”

“Okay, what’s the status of the colony site?”

“Overturned Power Loaders, a few stacks of Energon drum barrels, and some transportation vehicles. Earth pony carts. It looks like they got the hell out of there, sir. The barracks look like they’ve been torn apart. ”

Shining Armor grimaced. “Go on.”

“The refining stations are still standing, but I can’t tell you what’s going on underground.”

Nurse Redheart looked at Fluttershy. “Do you know if these things are warm blooded or cold blooded?”

Fluttershy meekly replied, “I don’t, sorry.” She tilted her head. “Why? What are you thinking?”

Nurse Redheart answered, “If they’re cold blooded, they might have set up their hive underground in one of the refining stations.”

Applejack bluntly asked, “What?”

Cardinal called back, “The Energon refining stations are Neighland-Yutani’s solution to Equestria’s energy demand. The sole purpose of the stations are to convert the raw fuel source of Energon into the super fuel used to pilot the Cheyenne dropships, Cargo Extractors, and the Sulacolt herself.”

Rainbow Dash spoke up. “We still don’t know what these stations of yours do.”

Shining Armor took over, “The refining stations will generate a lot of heat, both from the conversion process and the need to keep the converted Energyon from self-extinguishing its half life. If the exposing temperature falls below eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit, the refined Energon goes bad.”

Rarity asked, “Goes bad?”

“The liquid becomes inert.”

“Ah.”

“And its explosive power is tripled.”

“Say wha-”

Soarin’ interrupted, “We have a visual on the landing pad, sir. But we have not established visual contact with the landing beacon.”

Shining Armor sighed. “Go ahead and land. Once you secure the area begin making whatever repairs are needed, but be ready to move on a moment’s notice.”

“Yes, sir.”

Shining Armor looked at Fluttershy. “I want you to drive, when Cardinal takes this place, understood?”

Fluttershy nodded.

Shining Armor unbuckled. “Alright everypony, I want a nice, clean dispersal.”

Everypony unbuckled and readied themselves.

Applejack looked at Fluttershy and gave her a small smile. “We’ll see you on the other side, sugarcube.”

Fluttershy gulped but nodded. “Be safe, Applejack.” She looked at all of her friends. “Please be careful.”

Rarity nodded. “We will, darling.”

Rainbow Dash added, “Yeah, and we’ll find Twilight for you!”

Plug questioned, “She’s the director of this project, right?”

Shining Armor corrected, “Assistant director. The director would be the president of Neighland-Yutani.”

Nag asked, “I don’t suppose the president told you anything, sir?”

Shining Armor shook his head. “I haven’t even met the guy, Nag. Hell, nopony meets him unless he thinks it’s worth his time.” He sighed. “I just want my sister.”

“Captain,” Cardinal interrupted, “We are approaching the palace gates.”

Shining Armor turned back to his consoles as everypony else gathered around the door. “Get ready! Rainbow, Snack, take point! Plug, Steed, and Nag, support!”

The APC screeched to a stop.

Shining Armor opened the door. “Go! Go! Go!”

Nag Jumped out first and ran up to the left side of the gate. Steed stayed with Nag, joining him on the same side. Plug followed suit, coming up to the right side.

Rainbow Dash was next. Smart Gun ready, she dashed out of the APC and stopped before the gate.

Apple Snack came up next to her. “Ready!”

Nag and Plug grabbed their sides of the gate and pulled the doors open, revealing the interior of the palace’s courtyard.

As Rainbow Dash and Apple Snack moved in with their Smart Guns, they saw that debris littered the area. Craters, three meters in diameter, dotted the yard. A few stray electrical components were left, abandoned; some still had power, as their dull, yellow light still glimmered.

Shining Armor shouted, “Applejack, Fleetfoot, Pinkie Pie, on me!” He jumped out and made a mad dash for the entrance of the courtyard. “Let’s move!”

As the four joined up with the others, Nurse Redheart and Rarity sat tight. Cardinal took over his station, and Fluttershy moved up to the driver’s seat of the APC.

Passing Nag and Plug, Shining Armor formed up with Rainbow Dash, Steed, and Apple Snack.

Applejack, Fleetfoot, and Pinkie Pie took cover behind various cover, ready to shoot.

Rainbow Dash muttered, “Where are they?”

Shining Armor answered, “Biding their time.” He scanned the walls of the courtyard. “They’ve lost the element of surprise; we’re ready, and they know that.” He tapped his earpiece. “Redheart, form up with us. Fluttershy, hold position. We’re going in.”

Atop one of the palace’s towers, a single winged creature hid behind the moonstone surface. Cocking its head, it observed the invaders’ activity. It crawled up to the very top of the tower and positioned itself to pounce.

It stopped, abruptly, and quivered. It thrashed its head and shrieked.

Hissing, it released its hold on the column and fell back. Freefalling, it spun into a dive and expanded its wings. With a single beat, it brought itself about and flew away from the palace and towards the colony site.

Special thanks to Ian Betancourt for beta reading this.

Right! That took a long, long time. And it would have taken longer, if I had continued to wait for Friendly Uncle to open the file containing this document. I had already waited a week, and I decided that you guys had been suffering long enough. Yes, yes, I know you hate me for dilly-dallying, but school and family really burn me out. Also, I've been helping out with Kriegor's Machines and Might fic. It's good stuff; I recommend it.

Writing is not how I deal with the stress.

I'll make an update in this section with Friendly Uncle's exact words, whenever he decides to open up the good, old fanfiction account.

I have no idea when the next chapter will be done. I honestly don't. My apologies.

Comments are always welcome, even if they're the "swear your head off at me" kind.

The Palace

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

Two male ponies, one a unicorn and the other an earth pony, wearing hardhats and orange vests were slowly trotting on the grated floor through a dimly lit corridor lined with pipes.

The earth pony temporarily stopped to check a valve on one of the many pipes. “Because it was our turn to do sewer maintenance? Sulacolt won’t keep herself running, y’know. Somepony’s gotta make sure her energon’s pumping.”

The unicorn was using his horn to telekinetically carry a toolbox while at the same time lighting the way for them with said horn. Dimly lit, one-thousand year old yellow tunnel lights weren’t the most reliable sources for illumination.

“No, I mean why are we here, on a vessel that’s supposedly a thousand years old, constructed by ONE pony for the sole purpose of transporting an armada of cult followers back to Equestria for a supposed invasion? Ignoring all of the holes in that story, why would such a big secret be revealed to us common ponies?”

“Because Neighland-Yutani asked us if we wanted to partake in a ground-breaking operation of science that could change life as we know it?”

“Have you noticed that that’s not what we’re actually doing?”

The earth pony stopped and looked at his fellow co worker. “Okay, why don’t you just TELL me what you’re thinking and get it over with? In case you’ve forgotten, we have a problem to find and fix.”

The unicorn motioned for the earth pony to continue forward before continuing. “What we’re doing right now is waiting for orders from our captain. Then we’re supposed to resupply with energon as well as stock up on the blue stuff for Neighland-Yutani to do its thing back on Equestria.”

Splotch

The earth pony pulled his hoof up from the ground, revealing that he had just stepped in a pool of annoyingly adhesive, suspiciously thick drool. “Ugh! Gross!” He quickly looked up and around, trying to figure out where the bile had come from. Not finding any leaks in the pipes or tunnel ceiling, he growled in exasperation and stepped around the puddle. “Just get to the bucking point already!”

“This is WAY too much effort for just a simple errand! We’re on the world’s only starship!” The unicorn carefully stepped over the pool and caught up with his co worker. “With big bucking guns! If we wanted a source of fuel so badly, we could just take it from the zebras!”

“That would mean war, you dumbass. Besides, this is a rescue operation. We’re supposed to rescue survivors and all that heroic shit.”

“No, no, don’t you see? It’s supply and demand! Every soldier, worker, or whoever else could’ve been left on the moon is replaceable; energy is replaceable; you don’t send a starship all the way to a moon unless the moon has something that you can’t get anywhere else!”

The earth pony rolled his eyes. “You think that there’s something here that Celestia can’t get anywhere else?”

“Yeah! And-” The two came to a halt upon discovering that a two meter, smoldering hole resided where the floor had once been and another hole above it where she ceiling should have been. “What in the bu-.”

The earth pony jammed his hoof against the unicorn’s mouth. “Quiet! Do you hear that?”

The two stood in silence, allowing the aggravated, humid, hoarse, heavy snarling of several creatures to overtake them.

Within the confines of Equestria, sitting before a tombstone centered in a relatively small graveyard, sat the dark blue unicorn with her simple, black mane. The sun had reached its apex; the wind was set to a gentle breeze; and the birds were making conversation, but it all went unnoticed. Lost in thought, she continued to gaze ahead at the rather fancy stone block marking the resting place of a dearly departed pony.

She did not notice the earth pony-powered carriage that bore the Neighland-Yutani logo approaching her location, nor did she notice the falcon perched on the shoulder of the zebra being carried within said carriage. As the vessel came to a halt outside of the cemetery, said zebra departed from the carriage and approached the unicorn. The falcon took flight with a mighty cry and flew ahead of her, landing on the tombstone.

“You are looking well,” The pony in morning commented as she glanced up at the proud and noble bird.

With a sigh, the zebra approached the unicorn mare. “Mother, these continued excursions cannot be doing your health any favors.”

Not bothering to turn her head away from the stone, she responded, “Xenith, you’re on the clock. You shall address me as ‘madam president’, like any other employee.”

The almost adolescent zebra sat down next to her mother. “My apologies, madam president.” She held up a forearm, to which her falcon immediately flew to and perched himself on. “But I come bearing information that you shall find worthwhile.”

“It had better be,” the unicorn deadpanned, “If you’re interrupting my lunch break.”

She moved her forearm to her shoulder, allowing the falcon to hop back up on it. “It is what you might consider a ‘game changer’.” The zebra informed her, “One of the mining details that we had dispatched has reported back.”

Unsatisfied, the president asked, “That’s why you came out here? To tell me that one of our teams has done its job?”

“They found our deus ex machina.”

This time, the unicorn turned to Xenith and asked in disbelief, “Energon? On THIS planet?”

Xenith nodded. “A single, subterranean deposit. We don’t know how much it contains, nor how many others are on this world, but it’s here.”

Now giving Xenith her undivided attention, the president asked, “How much have we obtained?”

With a shake of her head, the zebra answered, “I don’t know. I came out here as soon as we got the transmission.”

The president grunted. “When the Sulacolt made her first trip to Equestia’s moon to set up the mining colony and stock up on energon, geological scans of the terrain were taken, were they not?”

“That is correct, and as we expected,” Xenith finished, “The geology is completely alien to our own world. The two spheres share practically no traits.”

“Thus confirming our hypothesis that the energon couldn’t have formed naturally.” The president deduced, “Somepony or something had to deliberately deposit the amount on the planet.”

Xenith stated, “And we already know who that somepony is. The question is why they’d travel so far to place it here, in this solar system, when our technology is vastly inferior.”

“It matters not. They are dead; we are alive. And we’ve already assimilated their technology.” The president started laughing. “Today is a good day! Cardinal will ensure that our little crisscross with Shining Armor does not turn into a double cross, and now we can begin utilizing our resources to collect and process our very own private source of newfound energon, all the while preparing to weaponize a fresh batch of xenomorphs!”

“I meant to ask you about that,” Xenith proclaimed. “How are we going to prevent Celestia from removing the instincts from any specimen? She will surely make herself present when the Sulacolt returns. No doubt to ensure that we, ourselves, do not execute a double cross.”

The president responded, “I am confident that Cardinal will be able to do something about that. And Shining Armor will either accelerate our primary plan or force us to initiate our contingency plan, depending on his actions. Either way, we shall have the advantage.”

Xenith nodded. “I assume you do not wish to inform Celestia of this discovery?”

The president nodded in return. “You assume correctly. Have Sigma-9 create another ‘diversion’ to ensure that her majesty’s attention will be deployed elsewhere.”

Xenith inquired, “Anything specific?”

The president spared a few seconds to ponder the question. “Something close to the border. And have them leave evidence of zebra presence. But nothing too obvious.”

“There are multiple mineral processing plants along the border. I’ll have Sigma-9 begin coordinating the attack when we get back.” Xenith quickly glanced at her watch. “Speaking of getting back-”

With a small sigh, she asked, “Our lunch break is over?”

“Three minutes ‘til.”

She stood up to leave. “Very well.” But she stopped and took one last look at the tombstone. With a sigh of fondness and longing, she gave a small smile. “She would have loved you.”

As they made their way back to the carriage that had been dutifully guarded by the two nameless stallions, Xenith asked doubtfully, “Would she have loved what you’re doing these days?”

Ignoring the tone, the unicorn answered, “Preparing for the inevitable? Yes.” They entered the carriage and started the return trip. “Firing the first shot? Probably not.”

On the desolate and rugged landscape of Equestria’s moon, amidst the countless creators, ravines, cave systems, and cliffs, lay a complex of Equestrian structures architecturally separated by a thousand years in time. The majority of the site consisted of Luna’s palace, standing tall and proud with its many towers and walls. Outside of the fortress’s gates lay Neighland-Yutani’s industrial establishment, almost a fourth in size and displaying visual signs of having fallen to savages. And off in the distance, about half a kilometer from the entirety of it all lay a rather small outpost with the treasured and sought after landing pad that had finally been discovered by everypony’s favorite and last dropship.

“Are these ponies crazy or just insane?!”

“Do you think we can fix it?”

Soarin’ spun around and glared at Spitfire. “The. Tower. Has. Fallen. Over!”

In front of both of them lay the severely damaged remains of what was once the transmission tower, the only means that the colony had had of communicating with Celestia. All two-hundred meters of the tower lay partially buried in the terrain.

“Just thought I’d ask,” Spitfire said nonchalantly as she passed her copilot, stepped over the bit of tower that lay in her way, and began trotting towards the outpost, a rather simple structure. “Maybe we can establish an orbital transmission post with the equipment inside for contacting the Sulacolt, in case our APC transmitter fails.”

“Celestia will be worried,” Soarin’ stated as he joined her, “When we tell her that the tower bucking fell over.” He drew a small firearm with his mouth.

“Just because we were supposed to fix the transmission tower,” Spitfire reassured as she tried to open the door of the outpost, “Doesn’t mean,” the door would not budge, “That we would be,” she turned around and bucked the door in, “Able to! Hah!”

Already armed, Soarin quickly took point, entering the outpost’s interior to find that it had not been visited in some time. Its walls were tattered and torn, showcasing signs of explosive damage; the consoles and various electrical components that had been housed were utterly destroyed, leaving only frayed wires and charred hulls to mark their locations. And at the very center lay the former tower’s core and controls, also damaged beyond repair.

Seeing as there was only one room with nopony other than the two Wonderbolts, Soarin’ holstered his pistol. “Somepony had one hell of a party in here.”

Spitfire approached the core and made a quick analysis of the damage. “And a deliberate one at that.”

Soarin’ looked at her in disbelief. “What?”

Temporarily ignoring her copilot, Spitfire immediately put a hoof to her earpiece. “Shining Armor, somepony sabotaged the transmission outpost. I repeat: Somepony has deliberately compromised the security of this complex.”

Outside the palace’s doors, they took their positions.

Shining Armor placed a hoof to his earpiece, “Cardinal, are you getting a clear picture from our helmet cams?”

Inside the APC, Cardinal sat at the overwatching station, simultaneously monitoring all of the screens. “I am, Captain Armor.” She looked at Fluttershy, who was watching intently. “Are you well?”

Fluttershy nodded meekly. “For now.”

Refocusing on the task that lay ahead of them, Shining Armor got to work. “Applejack, Plug, get the doors. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, take point and be ready.” Shining Armor threw himself against the wall of the doors, telekinetically readying his Pulse Rifle. Satisfied with the dark read “95” that was displayed, he ordered,“Everypony else hug the wall and get ready to move in!”

Everypony followed their orders. Rarity, Fleetfoot, Redheart, Nag, Steed, and Apple Snack moved up against the wall. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie positioned themselves in front of the doors and readied their Smart Guns. Applejack and Plug then pulled the massive doors apart, revealing the interior.

A long hallway built primarily out of moonstone was revealed before them. However, the potential beauty that the architecture might have inspired was dampened by the jumbles of cords and wires connecting to overturned and damaged flood lights as well as portable generators that had been placed throughout the hallway. A few, stray potholes were littered about on the floor, indicating signs that acid blood had been spilled.

Dim, flickering light from the partially intact flood lights adequately illuminated the dried splashes of pony blood that stained the floor and walls.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “No...”

“Twilight,” Pinkie Pie murmured.

Shining Armor swiftly took point. “Stay. Focused. We won’t know until we find a body.”

As the captain advanced, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie managed to follow, bringing up his rear. Applejack and Plug entered the palace interior, followed by the remaining ponies.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack questioned in disbelief.

“Keep moving,” Shining Armor ordered as he stepped around an acid blood pothole.

Checking the ceiling, Steed sighed, “So much for modernizing.”

The group continued down the hallway and came upon what appeared to be a reception room of circular design. To their left and right were spiraling staircases that connected to a balcony overlooking the room.

A similar scene was displayed before them, as Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie quickly entered the reception room. Two floodlights had been placed in the middle of the room but now lay on the ground, glass shattered. Extension cords ran throughout the room, leading up to the second story. A single, isolated dried blood stain was painted partially on the balcony overlooking the first story as well as on the tiles that lay directly beneath said balcony, indicating that somepony had taken a fall.

Cardinal ordered, “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, hold your positions.”

Without speaking a word, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie held their ground, covering Shining Armor as he took the left stairwell and as Applesnack took the right stairwell.

Simultaneously, Rarity and Nag moved forward on the first floor, checking the entrance of the hallway that began on the opposite side of the room, underneath the bloodied balcony.

Seeing that three hallways connected to the second story balcony, he scowled. “What the buck was I thinking,” Shining Armor rhetorically asked himself, still holding his Pulse Rifle in his magic. “It’s a bucking palace. It could take hours, maybe even days, to clear by ourselves!”

“Maybe we don’t have to,” Applesnack said as he peaked around the corner of the hallway on the far right. “If we can get our hooves on some schematics. Building blueprints-”

“This place is a thousand years old, Applesnack. I don’t think that Luna would leave any blueprints lying around.” Shining Armor quickly ordered, “Everypony maintain positions!”

The two soldiers held their positions. Applesnack asked, “Wouldn’t these ponies need to draw up some sort of electrical mapping? I’m guessing that their makeshift lighting system runs throughout the whole structure.”

Shining Armor pondered the idea. “They would require a layout to do so.” He subconsciously weighed his options. “But we can’t just charge in blind to clear a palace-”

“-And we can’t clear the palace without charging in blind,” Applesnack finished.

“Captain Armor,” Cardinal interrupted over the com channel, “You may not have to.”

Temporarily ignoring her, Shining Armor ordered, “Applesnack, throw down some ball breakers,” as he started back down the stairs.

Pulling a small, electronic disk from his battle saddle, Applesnack threw the disk against the wall of his corridor. The disk immediately opened up in a rotating fashion and began emitting a dim red light. He quickly moved to do the same with Shining Armor’s corridor and the third remaining one. “Sonic electronic mines are in position, captain. If anything tries to get past it, we’ll hear the boom.”

As the others began forming up on Shining Armor in the center of the room, he said, “Talk to me, Cardinal.”

“While it will take time to secure the entire palace, it may be possible to secure files regarding the layout of the structure, revealing key defensive positions and any other tactical data.”

“Excellent idea, Cardinal.” Shining Armor asked, “Where can we find these ‘files’?”

“Any datacore could contain the desired information. However, the Hub would be the most likely place.”

Everypony looked at each other, save for Applesnack, Rarity, and Nag who were keeping a lookout on the unexplored corridors.

Rainbow Dash asked, “What Hub?”

“The base of operations which is located at the center of the mining establishment that was constructed outside of the palace.”

Shining Armor asked, “Do you know exactly where it is?”

“I was onboard the Sulacolt when the colony was established as well as when we resupplied the ship with energon. I am aware of the site’s layout.”

Shining Armor ordered, “Alright. Applesnack, Nag, Steed, and Plug, you’re on esc-”

“-Shining Armor, somepony sabotaged the transmission outpost.”

Everypony displayed a small amount of shock in reaction to Spitfire’s sudden interruption and her equally sudden report.

“I repeat: Somepony has deliberately compromised the security of this complex.”

A series of “buck”s and “shit”s were given by the four white pegasi as Shining Armor quickly asked, “Are you absolutely certain, Spitfire?”

“I’m staring right at the remnants of of tower’s control consoles. Magic blasts have destroyed everything. If a unicorn didn’t do this, I’ve got nothing else to work with here.”

He inquired, “Is it recent?”

Spitfire and Soarin’ continued to examine the damage. “No. Far from recent.” She observed, “They’re not only cool to the touch, but they’ve been oxidizing for quite some time.”

Rarity protested, “But the unicorn aliens can shoot just like we can! Besides, why would somepony deliberately cut off communications?”

“Rare’s got a point,” Applejack agreed. “A pony’s gotta have a motive to do something like that.”

Cardinal chimed in, “Rarity’s hypothesis seems more logical, Captain Armor.”

“Fine, fine!” Shining Armor quickly reevaluated the situation. “Unless we find a survivor who can tell us what happened, we stick to the plan. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fleetfoot, stay with me. Redheart, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, you three will form a squad and stay in the courtyard. I’ll trust you to watch our asses as we try to cover some more ground.”

“Shining Armor,” Cardinal advised while diligently cycling through the camera feeds of the strike force, “Dividing our already limited resources would be extremely unwise.”

Shining Armor countered, “There’s just too many of us, Cardinal. If we bunch up in these hallways we’ll be begging for friendly fire. If they stay in the courtyard, they can have a clear line of sight at any incoming hostiles. These things like the element of surprise. Right, Fluttershy?”

Slightly caught off guard by the sudden inquiry, Fluttershy fumbled with her earpiece. “Y-yes, they do, unless there’s no other choice.”

“Great, then the bugs won’t be able to sneak up on them. They watch our backs while we get a hold on the palace and hopefully bring the fight to them.”

Cardinal warned, “Please keep in mind, captain, that your private fireteam and I will not be able to render any assistance while pursuing the Hub; and the members assigned to patrolling the courtyard will need time to find you. You’ll be on your own.”

Shining Armor stated, “Noted,” and took his hoof off his earpiece. “Nag, Steed, Applesnack, and Plug, you four are on escort duty. Head back outside and hook up with Cardinal. Use the APC to get to the Hub and find us that layout along with any other information; Applesnack will assume command in my absence.”

Plug asked, “What about you, sir?”

“We’ll start with the first floor and continue in formation. Rules of engagement still apply.”

Having stayed in tune to the whole conversation, Spitfire asked, “What about us, Armor? We could provide air support, keep an eye out for any bugs.”

“Negative, Spitfire,” Shining Armor denied. “We’re down to our last dropship. If you encounter another flying bug, much less a whole swarm of them, it’s game over.”

Cardinal added, “If the Cheyenne were to be destroyed, the only remaining alternative mode of transportation would be the Sulacolt’s cargo transporters which are incapable of providing emergency evac, Spitfire. It would be wise for you and Soarin’ to remain where you are unless said emergency evac is required.”

Shining Armor agreed, “Cardinal has the right idea. Get back to the dropship, have it on standby, and await my command.”

Spitfire scoffed. “You two call the shots. We’ll hold up in the Cheyenne and keep a lookout. Spitfire out.” The pilot removed her hoof from the earpiece, muting it. She turned to leave. “You heard the boss ponies. Let’s go.”

Soarin’ stepped aside, allowing her to go first. “Isn’t this exciting,” he asked rhetorically.

Her response was immediately interrupted as she stepped outside of the outpost with a suspiciously audible Splotch.

“Agh! What the buck?!” Spitfire quickly jumped over the puddle of annoyingly adhesive saliva that had collected in front of the door. “Watch your step, Soarin; I just stepped in some sorta goop!”

Taking her advice to heart, Soarin’ carefully stepped over the puddle. He jokingly asked, “Is it that time of the month for you?”

The response that she gave him was a slap across the face with the hoof that had been coated in the “goop”, followed by stomping off towards the landing pad.

Soarin’ caught up with her while trying to wipe away his newly acquired saliva. “You should rent a sense of humor sometime, just sayin’.” Not wanting to be locked outside, he dashed up the ramp ahead of her.

The action went unnoticed as she stomped up the ramp. “You’re an ass,” she stated as she hit the iconic red button, making the ramp close. She made her way to the cockpit and took her seat. She then started up the engines.

Soarin strapped himself in his own seat. While pressing his own array of buttons, he sighed, “And now we wai-” CHSIIK

Spitfire jerked her head towards her copilot to see a bloodied spear-tipped tail, profoundly sticking out of Soarin’s throat, pull itself through the stallion’s neck and through the entire back of the seat that it had just pierced.

To Spitfire’s horror, a pitch black, cowl-headed pony dropped down from the roof of the cockpit and landed on its hooves, tail still dripping from the kill. A flap of its unsightly wings and a sharp-second mouth revealing-victory shriek made an adequate incentive for Spitfire to make a desperate draw of her sidearm.

Cardinal gently called back to the cockpit of the APC, “You’re doing a very nice job, Fluttershy.”

The four pegasi specialists, regardless of the smooth ride, were standing ready for any attack.

“Thank you, Cardinal!” Fluttershy called back as she maintained her speed. Her eye twitched. She knew this. This had happened before. She remembered this happening. Her eyes grew in horror, and she slammed on the break.

The passengers jolted forward as Nag yelled, “Fluttershy, what the hell are you doing?!”

Fluttershy frantically threw the APC into reverse. “We need to go back!” She shrieked, “I won’t let them die in that hellhole!”

Applesnack quickly unbuckled himself to get to the cockpit. He felt the wind get knocked out of him as Cardinal slammed him back down in his seat to clear her own path to Fluttershy.

“They’re still in there! They’re still in there! I have to get them out!” Fluttershy’s yelling was interrupted as Cardinal pulled her struggling arms off of the controls. “Let me go! I have to get them out!”

“Fluttershy-” she started.

“They’re in there! I have to get them o-”

“Fluttershy,” Cardinal said sternly as she grabbed Fluttershy’s head, forcing eye contact. “Fort Pike is not under attack.”

She faltered, blinking rapidly. “W-what? What do you mean it’s no-”

Applesnack squeezed himself into the cockpit and demanded, “What the hell is going on?!”

Temporarily ignoring him, Cardinal repeated, “Fluttershy, Fort Pike is not under attack. We are on Equestria’s moon.” She let go of Fluttershy’s head. “Applesnack, Nag, Plug, and Steed are with us. They are not dead.”

“What?” She sputtered, “But they’re KIA! Celestia herself told me tha-”

“-Those are Captain Armor’s memories!” Applesnack realized, “Her memories are melding with his!” He glared at Cardinal. “She’s reliving HIS memories! That’s not supposed to happen!”

Fluttershy looked back and forth between the two. “What? What’s going on? I remember. I know what I saw-”

“I don’t bucking believe this. Of all the times for her to fall apart-” Applesnack began to place his hoof to his earpiece. An iron grip from Cardinal’s foreleg procured his undivided attention, however.

“She is fine,” she deadpanned. “Alerting the captain will delay our mission and induce unnecessary complications.”

Silence filled the APC. He turned his head to Fluttershy. “Are you okay?”

Looking down at herself and then back at him, she asked, “How did you survive? Nopony got out of Fort-”

“Don’t!”

Fluttershy jerked back, startled by the outburst.

Applesnack’s concern dissipated. “Don’t you DARE finish that sentence!” He put a hoof to his forehead and sighed in exasperation. “If you feel like it’s going to happen again, just let us know, alright?”

She nodded. “Right.” As he backed out of the cockpit, she added meekly, “I’m sorry.”

“Cardinal, you reading this?” Shining Armor’s voice echoed through the APC. “Looks like calculus, physics, and trigonometry.”

Deeper inside the palace, Shining Armor, had detached his motion tracker from his battle saddle and was keeping the device level with his telekinesis. The constant pat pat pat pat now accompanied the white noise that the unicorn’s horn was making.

Fleetfoot had taken point with his Incinerator and was the first to frown at the upcoming T junction. The corridor ahead was not a viable means of continuing, due to the fact that its ceiling, along with however many floors above it now rested firmly on ground level in a manner that could only be described as a “cave in”.

“Took a thousand years,” Fleetfoot muttered, “But this place is finally falling apart.”

“Given the circumstances,” Shining Armor theorized, “I’d bet that it wasn’t natural.” He surveyed the damage. “Attempting to move the pieces could cause the whole hallway to collapse on us.”

“I don’t like how things are getting worse, sir.” Fleetfoot advised, “I’ve lived long enough to know when an unfair race is being set up. I think we should just bug out and call it even.”

“Keep those opinions to yourself, Fleetfoot,” Shining Armor ordered as he turned around and began heading the other way through the T junction. “We’re getting this job done, one way or the other.”

“I feel extremely vulnerable right now,” Rarity complained as she continued to scan the eternally starry sky for any airborne xenomorphs.

“Wanna trade?” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings with utmost irritation as she held her ground. “I haven’t been able to fly in the last ten hours! My wings are killing me!”

“You two are taking this whole alien invasion rather calmly,” Readheart observed as she continued to check her six in a paranoid fashion. “Just one of these things could kill us all; we’re currently coexisting with at least two-hundred of them.”

“I’m wearing a gun that can shoot anything that moves,” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Rare’s got herself a gun that shoots explosive ammo, and you’ve got a gun that shoots fire.” She growled as her wings continued to flap. “We’ll be fine. We’d be BETTER if I could take this battle saddle off and fly, but for now we’re good.”

“You’re a rather optimistic one,” the nurse observed sarcastically.

Rainbow Dash scoffed, “We’re doing a hell of alot better than we were at Fort Pike.”

“Twilight might be dead.”

The two turned their attention to Rarity.

“Look at us,” She spat bitterly. “Our friend might be dead or worse! And here we are, standing around like a trio of idiots, when we should be killing those horrible monsters and saving Twilight!” She sniffed, “Or recovering her body.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Rainbow Dash said as she holstered her Smart Gun and wiped Rarity’s cheeks with a hoof. “Twilight’s brother is in charge, remember? If anypony can handle this and make it better, it’s him.”

“It should be Celestia and Luna,” she said. “They supposedly care about Twilight, but they’re staying back in Equestria and playing around with politics and bureaucracy!”

“I know.” Rainbow Dash sighed, “It sucks that we’re on our own and stuck with a bunch of perverted guard jocks, but Shining Armor knows what he’s doing.”

Redheart asked, “You mean you don’t know?”

The two looked at her with looks of confusion.

“Those four ‘perverted guard jocks’ have been serving with Shining Armor for years. They’re his personal fireteam.”

“We heard that part,” Rainbow Dash retorted. “Doesn’t mean we have to like ‘em.”

“That’s not all.” Redheart explained, “I think they’re part of some sorta black ops team or something.”

Raising an eyebrow, Rarity asked, “And you know this how?”

“Mostly hearsay.” She added, “But I’ve picked up bits and pieces from various enlisted ponies, from my tours across Equestria.”

Rainbow Dash stared at her in disbelief. “Say what?”

“Nurse Redheart, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, please maintain your patrol and vigilance.”

“Sorry, Cardinal.” Redheart quickly went back to watching the starlit sky and courtyard walls. “Medical studies. Train under different doctors, give lectures at various schools, etcetera. I stay in Ponyville for a while, get a letter of request, and hit the road for a month or two.”

BANG

The three ponies immediately turned their attention to the sound of the gunshot and the sight of a bright red flare rocketing straight up into the sky.

Rarity exclaimed, “Somepony’s still alive!”

Redheart asked, “How far away?”

“Half a klick,” Rainbow Dash answered. “Give or take some.” She began to struggle with her battle saddle. “Help me get this thing off, and I’ll go after ‘em!”

“Are you crazy?!” Rarity moved to restrain her friend. “You are NOT going out there alone and unarmed!”

“Girls-”

“I’ve tangoed with one of those flying buckers before, and I can do it again!”

“Girls-”

“And you almost got killed doing it! We need to-”

“GIRLS!”

The two mares turned to Redheart. “WHAT?!”

“I don’t think we need to move out.” She pointed in the direction of the dissipating flare.

The two, comically tangled in each other’s limbs, looked onward to see a lone object flying towards them.

Rarity let go of Rainbow Dash and telekinetically picked up her Pulse Rifle that she had dropped in the tussle. Aiming down the sights, she questioned, “An airborne?”

“Not fast enough,” Rainbow Dash responded as she set her Smart Gun on the incoming target.

Redheart put a hoof to her earpiece as she primed her Incinerator. “Cardinal, are you seeing this?”

“Wait a minute,” Rainbow Dash muttered as she squinted.

“Cardinal, answer me! Cardinal!”

“I know that color scheme...”

Pinkie Pie, still holding her Smart Gun like a Griffon would, had taken point as they entered a vast chamber that appeared to have been a dining hall. Several portable tables had been set up in the center of the room in three rows; several had been smashed, and the various papers and equipment that were set up on them were not spared. Smashed and shattered floodlights were strewn about the perimeter, but it was the wall that caught their attention.

Equations written in a mysterious blue ink were plastered across it. Diagrams of spheres and lines were also drawn in the same blue ink and depicting several “arrows” being drawn from the tiny sphere to a larger sphere.

Entering the chamber after Pinkie Pie and Fleetfoot, Applejack muttered, “What in tarnation?”

“That looks like something Twilight would do,” Pinkie Pie observed,while slowly scanning the wall.

Scrutinizing the wall, Fleetfoot scoffed, “What kinda pony has time to do math homework in the middle of a bug invasion?”

“Indeed,” Shining Armor agreed. “Pinkie Pie, watch our six. Applejack, investigate the tables. Fleetfoot, check the other end of this room.” He put a hoof to his earpiece. “Cardinal, you reading this? Looks like calculus, physics, and trigonometry.” There was an uncanny pause. “Cardinal, do you read?”

The four ponies looked at each other with growing concern.

“Cardinal,” he ordered, “Respond.”

“I read you, captain. Mechanical malfunction prohibited me from responding immediately.”

Ignoring the explanation, Shining Armor gave a precise view of the wall for Cardinal through his helmet cam. “Somepony was keeping themselves busy. They had something specific in mind. I can read the equations, but the diagrams aren’t making any sense.”

“Get a complete scan of the wall, captain, and I can analyze it at a later and safer date.”

He performed a slow panorama of the wall and placed a hoof to his earpiece. “Got it?”

“Got it.”

Applejack had finished her examination of the tables’ contents and slowly approached the wall. “Building materials, mostly. Screws, tools, some sciency toob thingamabobs, and some other junk.” She lightly tapped the arcane substance, revealing that it was not completely dry. “This stuff sure is sticky,” she muttered while giving it a sniff. “I aint never smelled somthin’ so,” she paused while wrinkling her nose, “Dead.”

Fleetfoot flew back from the opposite end of the room to Shining Armor. “Heavy equipment's magically welded into a barrier, sir. Entry to the next room is blocked.”

“Aaaaw,” Pinkie Pie pouted. “Guess we go back.”

“Negative, soldier.” Shining Armor attached his Pulse Rifle to his battle saddle and telekinetically withdrew his welder. “We cut through.”

“Mother,” Xenith fretted as the two trotted down the metal grated corridor, “I really think we should conduct more field tests before initiating the final phase of Project Pride. We’ve only just finished preliminary testing.”

The president, trotting at a brisk pace, deadpanned, “I wanted this project completed ASAP, Xenith. You know how important she is for our master plans to succeed.”

“We only procured two-hundred liters of energon, madam president. The math practically screams that it was refined at a highly inefficient rate, and we don’t have a lot of raw energon left to indulge the study.” She urged, “Until we can crack down on the refining technique without Luna’s assistance, I strongly advise that we hold off on the project until we can guarantee that she’ll have an adequate supply of fuel for her new body.”

Teeth gritted, she countered, “And I strongly advise that we get her online and on our side ASAP before Celestia gets wise to our plans!” The mare telekinetically levitated a keycard that hung from her neck as they approached a vault door at the end of the corridor. "Sigma-9's diversion has only aroused more suspicion in OUR direction! A miscalculation on my part, yes, but the fact of the matter remains that we MUST accelerate our efforts!"

Quickly swiping said keycard in a slot on the wall, the door acknowledged the card’s level and granted access. While the door slid open, the president made a beeline for the opposite end of the laboratory. “Let’s get this show on the road, ponies!”

Xenith quickly added, “Please reserve all questions and concerns!”

Three ponies in lab coats assembled in front of a curtained chamber protected by bulletproof glass adjacent from the lab’s equipment and computers.

“We’re ready to initiate the project, madam president.”

“I’ll send for a security tea-”

“That won’t be necessary,” the president interrupted. “She won’t be able to do anything, and if she could, she wouldn’t.” Before any could object, she lit up her horn. “Trust me,” she said with an aire of monotone confidence.

Obliging her, two of the scientists manned their posts while the third entered the glass chamber and pulled the curtain aside to reveal a half organic, half metallic, currently deceased entity that was being held in restraints and connected with tubes.

Her mane was gone, completely shaven, her horn replaced with an ornamental metal device; the left half of her face was infused with gun metal gray plating. Her torso was not so fortunate; all of the flesh and skin had been replaced with metal plating and rather hideous tubing.

Three of her legs were now completely cybernetic, gun metal gray like the rest of her, and lacking the iconic cheese holes; but the right foreleg was still completely organic, untouched by the company’s science. Her tail had been removed and replaced with a triple jointed metallic one to ensure that balance could still be maintained. And finally, her organic wings had been replaced with triple jointed metal extensions that drew heavily from pegasus biology, in terms of design.

“I simply adore bioengineering,” the president murmured with a grin. She looked to the scientists. “Ready?”

They nodded in response.

She turned back to her personal masterpiece. “Then I'd say it's time to welcome back our Queen Chrysalis.”

Author's Note

No, I did not abandon this project. I'm about to enter my senior year of the school of high (For the non-'Muricans, that's the thing before university.) Hence why I've been absent for so long. Also, the writing assignment for said school of high that actually had a deadline required my attention. Now that THAT'S out of the way, I can get back to something that I actually want to finish. I can only assume that some of you will have questions, so fire away in the comments. Please, it's the least I can do for being such a horrible author.

Side note: I'm tired of making my fingers go numb from properly indenting each paragraph and line of new dialogue.