PonySide

Chapters

Chapter One: Misfire
Chapter Two: Not on Auraxis Anymore
Chapter Three: Just Dropped In
Chapter Four: Pick a Side, Any Side
Chapter Five: Recon Mode
Chapter Six: Going Around in Circles
Chapter Seven: “Check Your Corners!”
Chapter Eight: Fragmentation
Chapter Nine: Surprise and Alarm
Chapter Ten: Regroup
Chapter Eleven: Loyalty Until Death
Chapter Twelve: Friendly Fire…Isn’t
Chapter Thirteen: 50% Off Grudges, Today only!
Chapter Fourteen: Battle Lines
Chapter Fifteen: Crossfire
Chapter Sixteen: Fight for Your Future
Chapter Seventeen: Rules of Engagement
Chapter Eighteen: We are Tomorrow
Chapter Nineteen: When Forever Ends
Chapter Twenty: Lessons Still To Be Learned

Chapter One: Misfire

If the sound of the Vanu air strike weren’t drowning it out at the moment, Major Finnegan Gadrik would hear the Corporal suggest he not grind his teeth so much. Two of those zealots in their crazy looking fighters had been buzzing the buildings of their Indar base for three minutes now. Every so often, they’d put another Photon Missile in one of the doorways. As of ten seconds ago, the bombardment had picked up so much that his pistol was rattling in its holster. What a day it was turning out to be for the Republic.

“Do they ever run out of ammo?!” he screamed into his comrade’s ear.

The head turned slightly to peer down at him. The voice was faintly synthetic as it was translated through the MAX suit’s helmet. “I don’t think they’re alone, sir. These sound like Dalton rounds. I’d be willing to bet they’ve got a Liberator up there now.”

Finnegan swore violently but the exact words were lost in the thunder of 150mm shells. They watched a safe distance from the doorway as debris rained outside. The MAX shifted from foot to foot anxiously while Finnegan scratched his short beard and adjusted his Engineer’s pack to a more comfortable position on his back. The small building was only one room and had two doors, both of which were little more than an arched opening in the wall. The room itself was empty of anything useful against a gunship.

“We’ll never stop them without backup,” the Major stated. “Even if we could get to a terminal to pull an AA capable weapon, a Lib isn’t going to be brought down by just two of us…But we can’t just sit here either.”

The Corporal was silent, presumably considering their situation and hopefully figuring out a solution. A particularly hard hitting shell caused the lights to flicker. Finnegan thanked the building’s designer that the roof over his head could take so much punishment.

“There’s a teleporter in the building across from us,” he said at last. “If we can get there, we’ll at least be in a better position than hiding in this little hole we’re in.”

“I could go first to draw their fire while you make a break for it,” the MAX suggested.

“No, I’ll go first and cover you from the door when you cross. Once you make it, I’ll be able to patch up any damage you’ve taken. Plus, I’ve got a better chance of making it if they aren’t expecting me after you cross.”

“Understood.” The Corporal shifted the M2 Mutilators that were equipped to both of his arms to show his readiness.

Suddenly, they became aware that they no longer had to shout to hear one another. No shells burst around their shelter and the hiss and whine of Scythe engines was absent from above.

“Maybe they did run out of ammo.” The MAX looked up at the ceiling as if expecting it to provide him with the answer.

“I don’t like it. But we aren’t going to get a better chance. Let’s go.”

They both approached the door and looked out at the streets of the base. Nothing moved on the ground or in the air. Taking a steadying breath, the Major charged across the sand straight for the open door of the adjacent building. With every step, he expected the ground to be blasted out from under his feet. He jumped up the short stairway and flung himself at the opposite wall. Facing back into the street, he couldn’t understand why not a single shot had been fired.

The heavy footfalls of the MAX suit thudded in after him and still all was quiet. The teleporter hummed on the far side of the building and they made their way from room to room, watchful but unhurried. It was very possible the attackers had given up, but it should never be assumed.

Especially with those Vanu nut jobs, the Major thought darkly.

The teleporter would lead them to a command building on the other side of the base where they would be better equipped to assess the situation and call for backup if needed. The MAX suit was just stepping onto the platform when Finnegan heard the unmistakable sound of a Vanu Infiltrator de-cloaking behind them.

Of course! The gunship stopped firing because they had ground troops in the area!

He didn’t have time to turn around before a small object sailed over his head and stuck to the back of the Corporal’s helmet. It was a sticky EMP grenade. If it went off like that, not only would it knock out his own shields, but the systems of the MAX would be scrambled momentarily. Without thinking, Finnegan grabbed the grenade in an attempt to pull it off. As his hand closed over it, a shot from the infiltrator’s laser rifle hit the grenade, causing it to discharge prematurely. At the same moment, the teleporter activated with both the Corporal and the Major in it.

~*~*~

The waiting was always the worst part. There was nothing to do but sit in the harness and stare at the light that would indicate drop-ready status. If it weren’t for the com systems, Mathew Hadley thought he’d probably go insane.

“Trev, you still awake?”

“Yeah, Mat. I’m awake,” Trevor Orin responded. “You really think I’d doze off when there’s ass to kick?”

That was Trevor for you, Mathew thought. Always hyped up about the next drop.

He brought up the situation display to check the rally points. Their New Conglomerate platoon was moving south into the mountains on the north-eastern end of Amerish, but his squad was still committed to the Amp Station. Readouts said the fighting was intense but he wasn’t going to see any of it cooped up in this pod.

“Looks like they’re saving some fight for us down there,” Trevor observed. He seemed to have been looking at the map readouts as well.

“Yeah, well, I just wish they’d get the beacon set so we can get down there and get it on.”

“Cut ‘em some slack. Getting a beacon in there is bound to be tough. Hang tight and don’t sweat it. It’s not like we’re going to miss the fight. They can’t win it without us and those TR creeps aren’t going to beat themselves.” He paused for a moment and then laughed. “Well, maybe not completely by themselves, but that’s where we come in, right?”

“Yeah, sure.” Mathew rolled his eyes.

“Come on Mat. You’re always like this. Just relax.”

The com sputtered once and a voice interrupted them.

“Attention Charlie Squad; beacon is inbound. Expect drop within the minute. Be advised; heavy AA and air presence.”

“That’s us,” Trevor called out in squad general. “Pack a lunch ladies. This is going to be a real ride.”

Several other squad mates responded with their own banter and the launch bay locked down for the drop. Trevor’s voice came back on the private channel.

“Hey, Mat. I hooked up the feed to the beacon squad. Listen up.”

The feed crackled a few times before tuning. Above the hectic sound of weapons’ fire, several voices were heard shouting back and forth.

“Watch that platform! They’ve got heavy rocket presence covering the gate.”

“We need to get some suppressing fire down across that courtyard, Gunner! My men aren’t going anywhere until that MANA Turret is dust!"

“On it, Sir!”

Weapons’ fire nearly obscured the rest of the words as orders were shouted and carried out. From the sounds of it, the Light Assault team in charge of the beacon was waiting for a clear run to the checkpoint. As the fire in the background intensified, the squad leader came on again.

“Go, go, go! Keep fire on them until the runners clear the roof.”

A tense moment filled only by the sounds of machineguns and rockets followed.

“We have the roof! Beacon is a go!”

“Yes!” Mathew said, practically shouting.

The squad chatter died as Trevor cut the feed. “Now it’s our turn.”

Mathew looked at the ready light. It stayed dark only a moment longer. Flashing red first, it switched over to bright green. The next instant, the pod was launch from the bay with a jolt. His display told him that he was forty thousand feet out and dropping at nearly six hundred feet per second. His heart had time to beat once before a com announcement nearly stopped it.

“Beacon is down, repeat, we’ve lost the beacon’s signal.”

“Those weren’t TR!” An explosion cut the signal.

Mathew turned on his live display and directed it below him at the battle he was rapidly approaching. Four other pods were ahead of him, racing toward a conflagration of bullet streams and explosions. Every turret on the walls seemed to be firing up at them. Planes and gunships circled the fighting, adding to the maelstrom. An NC Liberator collided with a burning TR Mosquito and both went down in a pile of wreckage. An NC Reaver spiraled into the side of the main turret towers and disappeared in a ball of fire.

But what drew Mathew’s eyes were the VS Scythes combing the entire area with purple lasers. Ground forces for both factions were scrambling for cover under the repeated strafes. With perfect precision, a Scythe formation swooped in and blasted a pair of tanks as they emerged from the main hanger. A whole turret tower was cleared of defenders by a squadron’s pass.

One of the pods below him was shredded by a line of AA fire. He engaged the manual maneuvering thrusters to steer away from the streams of death that tried to take him out of the sky. A group of Scythes swept between the falling pods, reducing one to ribbons with laser fire. An explosion near his own pod caused Mathew to jerk the controls reflexively. The Scythe responsible banked hard but they ended up clipping each other. The Scythe spun toward the ground, one wing hanging in tatters.

One whole side of the pod was ripped off and it began to spin wildly. Exposed to the open air at such a high velocity, Mathew was struggling to breathe. His harness had been damaged by the impact and tangled his arms, preventing him from moving. Through the gap in the plating, he saw another pod trailing fire and careening toward him. Just before they hit each other, he saw a symbol on the near side denoting it as the squad leader.

“Trevor,” was his last thought.

The force of the collision tore his harness from its fitting and threw him from the pod. He saw the plating of the pod in front of him, the battle growing ever closer below, flames above, a flash, stars, and then darkness.

~*~*~

Powdery Esamir snow flew out behind the three of them as they ran. The rock formation ahead of them was the only defendable location for half a mile. Bullets arced over them from the bottom of the hill on both sides. The Justicar had spotted the missiles homing in on their Harasser in time for all three of them to get out, but now they were caught between a pair of NC and TR attack groups with no cover.

Disciple Katie Lani stayed right on the heels of Adept Nathan Manis. A volley of bullets sprayed through the air from the left and the Justicar was hit by a few, causing him to stumble. His shields held though and he stayed on his feet. A sniper round sailed over Katie’s head and her heart skipped a beat.

They were steps from the rocks when an M40 Fury round hit Nathan in the back. It pounded right through his shields and blew a hole in his suit. The splash from the blast knocked Katie to the ground. She scrambled up and dragged the Adept the last few yards, trying to ignore the additional Fury rounds that attempted to finish the job. The Justicar pulled out his Parallax and moved deeper into the rocks to find a vantage point. He activated his cloaking device, but her HUD indicator told Katie exactly where he was.

“Nathan?” she called over the com channel.

There was no response. The snow beneath him was turning crimson. She dropped her Beamer, turned him over, and pulled out her medical applicator. Aiming it at the wound, she shot a thin, green stream of nanites. No matter how many times she’d done it before, she couldn’t help but marvel as the bleeding stopped and the flesh knit back together. Nathan groaned and groped around for his weapon. He looked up at her and murmured his thanks as she held his Phantom VA23 out to him.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she whispered.

“You need to stop acting like that,” he admonished. He pointed at the applicator. “That’s a powerful tool. Trust it.”

She looked at the handheld device that resembled a weapon but performed miracles of the opposite nature. “I know. I just worry that I won’t be fast enough.”

He turned her chin up with his fingers so that she was looking directly at him. Even though it was the mask of an Infiltrator, she could still tell he was smiling sympathetically at her. She was about to reply when an E540 Halberd rocket bursting against the rocks nearby interrupted them. Fragments of stone rained down on them and Nathan nodded to her before moving to find a good position.

Katie picked up her Beamer and followed close behind him. Nathan inched up to a gap in the rocks that looked down at the NC group. His cloak came up as he picked a target. She watched his outline on her HUD turn slowly to track a group of infantry trying to set up AV MANA turrets flanking the TR position. His cloak dropped and his weapon discharged simultaneously. He was immediately answered with an ML-7 rocket that exploded just over his head.

His shields broke and his shoulder was sliced by shrapnel. Katie’s own shields buckled and at the first hint of pain, she reflexively activated her nanite field. The green mist of healing spread out around her and began working on them both. He was about to thank her when a SR-7 round punched straight through his chest and hit Katie’s Beamer. The bullet struck the energy cell directly and it exploded.

As the flash of purple light engulfed her, Katie felt a burning sensation across most of her body followed by weightless for just a moment. Then she hit something hard that felt like a wooden floor.

Just before her last thoughts left her mind, she heard what sounded like a female voice.

“Well, that was unexpected.”

Chapter Two: Not on Auraxis Anymore

Katie felt dizzy and she hadn’t even opened her eyes. Her face was on fire and her head pounded. When she tried to move, her entire body erupted into pain. She’d never felt like this before. Being shot at day in and day out; watching parts of her body being blown off and reconstructed by nanites; the sickening feeling of her consciousness being turned on and off like a switch? None of it compared to what she was feeling now. Her stomach turned over with fear. She rolled over and was violently sick on the floor.

She coughed and opened her eyes…and shut them again immediately. The light hurt more than the rest of her body. She lay back and tried to get a grip on the situation. She was inside a building; she knew that instinctively. She was lying on a soft and uneven surface. Some sort of cushion? Her helmet had been removed and she couldn’t find any of her weapons when she groped around for them. That was when she realized that her right hand was heavily bandaged.

She felt over the rest of her body carefully. She found a few lightly bandaged shrapnel cuts from that last rocket and a large amount of twisted material on her right side. Most of the right sleeve of her suit was missing completely. She let her hands fall back to her sides and tried to open her eyes again. Even the tiniest amount of light stung and she just couldn’t force herself to look around long enough to see anything.

In desperation and fear, she called out. “Nathan?”

There was no response.

“Nathan? Can you hear me?” she tried again, making an effort to keep her rising panic out of her voice.

“You’re awake!” she heard at last. Except it wasn’t Nathan’s voice. It was a warm female voice. Footsteps approached and a damp cloth padded her face with a soothing balm. “You had me worried for a while. You’re in rough shape but don’t worry, I’m going to help you.”

“Who are you?” Katie asked.

“I’m a friend. It’s going to be alright. I’m just trying to treat the worst of your injuries.” The voice was calm and gentle but her words were evasive. The cloth worked its way across her face and down her neck. The pain subsided in its wake.

“What happened? How…how bad is it?” Katie’s voice shook with fear and she tried to open her eyes again. This time, the cloth blocked her vision and they didn’t burn as badly, but they felt as dry as sand and she closed them quickly.

“I can’t be sure what happened,” the voice responded. “But as soon as I make sure you’re well, I’ll do whatever I can to help you find out.”

Katie waited for a second for her caretaker to continue. When she didn’t, Katie asked in a firmer voice. “How bad is it?”

She heard a soft sigh and the sound of the cloth being set in a bowl of liquid. “You’ve been burned over most of your body, although the clothes you are wearing took the worst of it. Your face was burned badly though. It will take a while to heal. Your hand…it’s bad. I have no idea what could have done this.”

The sound of her voice changed slightly, as if she had turned away. “Your friend, Nathan was it? He’s worse. We’ve done everything we can. It’s just too much damage. I don’t think he’s going to last much longer. I’m very sorry.”

Nathan!

Without thinking, Katie tried to roll out of the cushion she was lying on. Her body screamed in protest but she managed to get on her hands and knees. She forced her eyes to take a quick look around but only saw the wooden floor before they closed themselves against the light.

“Where is he?” she whispered on the verge of tears from the pain.

“Please, stay still. It isn’t good for you to be moving right now.”

Katie felt a restraining touch on her shoulder, trying to turn her back to the cushion. She batted it away with one hand.

“No! Where is he?”

The desperation in her voice must have swayed her caretaker because she felt herself being gently led across the floor. The floor was worn smooth but felt almost natural. When they stopped, she felt around and found the edge of a bed. She pulled herself up and groped until she found a hand.

She clutched it in her left hand and held it to her.

“Nathan? Can you hear me?”

“He’s asleep,” her caretaker informed her.

Knowing Nathan was nearby set her mind working again. Questions sprang up in waves. Why were her injuries being treated with such primitive methods? Bandages and balms? Was this a joke? And since when was an injury too bad to treat?

“Where is my applicator?”

“Your things are over on the table here.” The voice moved behind her, presumably to the mentioned table. “I didn’t want them to be in the way while we were treating you.”

“But why didn’t you just use the applicator? It’s not damaged is it?”

“I don’t think so…but I don’t know what it is you’re talking about exactly either.” An uncertainty that had been hiding just under the calm voice crept forward.

Katie was silent for a long time. “Who are you?” she asked at last.

“That’s something I’d hoped to explain after I’d had more time to think of an answer. As it is, I suppose it would be best to just get it out of the way.” The voice paused as the speaker steeled herself. “You are a human…but I am not. Things only get more complicated from there on in I’m afraid.”

Vanu! was Katie’s first thought but she quickly discarded the idea, seeing as Vanu wouldn’t use these methods of healing. Then she realized that there had been something odd about the other’s footsteps. There had been too many of them.

She turned to face the other and squinted at her. As much as it hurt, she was determined to see this mysterious creature. What she saw made her temporarily forget her pain. While she’d grown up hearing stories of alien contact and worked her whole life to join the research teams that would seek them out, this one came across as peculiar. It was a pony. But she wasn’t just a pony; this pony had a slender, cone-shaped horn in the middle of her forehead and a pair of wings. Not to mention that she was varying shades of purple.

Katie stared for a moment longer before her eyes started burning again and she was forced to close them.

~*~*~

“Mat!” a voice called in the distance.

Mathew groaned in annoyance and tried not to listen. He was asleep. Not that bullshit hibernation between deployments; real sleep. And he wanted to stay that way.

“Mat, wake up!”

He groaned again, but this time because of the pounding in his head. Where did that come from? He didn’t remember having any drinks last night. In fact, the last thing he did remember was being shot out of the sky…

“Wake up, damn it!” the voice yelled in his ear.

He was shaken roughly and his eyes flew open. At first, all he could see was white. But as his eyes adjusted to the bright light around him, he saw that he was surrounded by clouds.

“What the…?”

He looked up and saw Trevor. With one hand, he was holding onto the lip of a freestanding pillar that looked like it was made of some sort of marble. With the other, he was holding Mat’s arm. Mat looked down. Below him was several hundred feet of open air. He gasped and grabbed Trevor with his other hand.

“Glad you’re back with me.” Trevor flashed a cocky smile. “Another minute and I’d have had to drop you.”

Mat got himself up to the lip of the pillar and hung off the side to free Trevor’s other hand. He craned his head to get a look at their surroundings. All around them were clouds that stayed perfectly still and curled into fluffy clumps. Buildings rested on them, made of the same material as the pillar. Straight down were more clouds and beyond them, the ground. A column of smoke wafted up from what looked like the wreckage of their pods. The Amp Station was nowhere to be seen. The countryside was just hills and grass in all directions.

“How did we end up here?”

“Hell if I know. But we can’t stay here.” Trevor looked down apprehensively.

Mat looked at the buildings on the clouds near them. “I think I could get over to one of those and get inside.”

“And what about me? Gonna go buy me a plane ticket in there?” Trevor looked at him critically.

“I can’t carry you. It’s too far.”

“I’m not going to last forever here…and what would you do from there anyway?”

“I don’t know. It would give me time to think instead of hanging off this thing though.”

“Look, we need to get out of this and our best chance is together.” Trevor’s gaze was hard and he glanced at the ground pointedly.

Mat gulped once and nodded. “I’ll do what I can but you’ll have to hit first. Your suit is better equipped to handle a shock like that.”

Trevor nodded. He climbed over so that he was holding Mat from the front and signaled that he was ready. Mat counted to three before letting go and they fell into the emptiness below them. As they dropped, Mat gripped Trevor under the arms so that he wouldn’t slip off. Then he triggered the jump-jets built into his suit.

The initial shock knocked their grips loose but they kept hold of each other. Using the jump-jets in short bursts to slow their momentum, Mat let them descend.

Two hundred feet.

“Hey, Mat! We need to slow up more than this.”

Mat looked down but didn’t change the length of his jet burns. The wind whistled in their ears as the space between them and the ground disappeared.

One hundred fifty.

“Mat! We’re coming in too fast! My shields won’t take this!”

Trevor was yelling louder than was necessary to be heard. Behind his visor, he looked genuinely scared. It was a bit uncharacteristic, but Mat didn’t have time to think about it.

One hundred.

“Mat, slow us up! We’re coming in too hot!”

Mat watched the ground intently as it rushed toward them and made a few extra burns to kill their momentum, but still they plummeted.

“Activate your over-shields on my mark!” Mat yelled.

Fifty feet.

“Now!”

A blue glowing field enveloped Trevor as nanites rushed to create a net of solid force around his existing shields. Trevor stuck his legs out with his knees slightly bent to take the landing while Mat curled his back. Mat let his jets burn the rest of the way down and he watched as his HUD indicator blinked in warning about overheating. Then his HUD flashed red as they smashed into the ground.

His shields chirped at him that they were nearly spent and from his position directly on top of him, Mat could hear a similar warning sounding in Trevor’s helmet. Trevor groaned and looked around to confirm that he was still alive. He looked up at where Mat lay on top of him.

“Get off of me man.”

Mat eased himself off and grinned at him. “I guess you don’t like it like your sister.”

Trevor pushed him over backwards as he rolled into a sitting position. “Shut up. Nice flying by the way. Do you mind trying not to turn us into pancakes next time?”

“Sorry that I don’t know how to turn off gravity. I’ll fix that right away, Sir.”

He saluted sarcastically and got to his feet. He offered Trevor a hand and hauled him up. They looked around and saw nothing but unfamiliar land for miles. The wreckage of their pods was a short distance away though, so they decided to check for anything salvageable. Of course, there wasn’t. Fire had scoured the pods clean and anything flameproof had been crushed.

“Well, this isn’t my first vacation pick,” Mat said, slumping against the side of the pod wearily.

“It’s not my last one.” Trevor replied, still trying to spot familiar landmarks that might tell them where they were. “Damn, I can’t see anything.” He put his hand to the side of his helmet to access the com channels. After a moment, he let his hand fall away. “Coms seem to be dead too.”

“We can’t wait here forever,” Mat observed. “I vote we head for those mountains to get a better look around.” He pointed off to the northwest.

“I’m not really in the mood to be climbing any mountains right now. If we head toward those trees, we’ll have a good chance of finding shelter. Then, when we’ve got our heads on a little straighter, we can see about getting back to somewhere recognizable.”

“You’re the boss.” Mat picked himself up again and they marched off.

~*~*~

When Major Gadrik woke up, he didn’t realize he was awake right away. He could hear the wind playing gently and the grass rustle in response. They were odd sounds to him but somewhere in the back of his mind he found them peaceful. After a while, his mind realized he was hearing real sounds and wasn’t doing anything about them.

With a grunt, he rolled over and pushed himself up on his hands and knees. He was immediately overcome with dizziness. He growled at it and looked around. If he’d still been a raw recruit, he’d have laughed at the contradiction he saw.

The short, broad hill he was on was raised above the surrounding land with a stunning panoramic effect. The tall grasses of the fields around him curled in a gentle wind and a flight of song birds winged away above him. The sun shone down from a depthless sky over the trees of a distant forest that swayed in slow motion to the backdrop of painted mountains. In the foreground of all of this, laying face up in the grass ten feet away, a squirrel perched curiously on its chest, was the MAX suit. The war machine looked so serene where it nestled in the meadow.

“Corporal? Are you still with me?” Gadrik said over the coms.

Nothing.

He got to his feet and checked his weapons. TRAC-5 carbine, NS-44 Commissioner Pistol, his Nanite Repair tool, a pair of grenades, a pair of Claymore mines, his ammunition case, his squad deployment beacon, a MANA Turret deployment module, his chainblade: he went through the mental checklist as he patted himself down. Everything seemed to be there.

He walked over to the MAX, a hand on his head to stave off the last of his dizziness. The squirrel darted away toward the nearest stand of trees. He nudged the suit with his boot and called to him again, without the coms this time.

“Corporal! Get up if you’re in there!”

The head turned slowly to look at him and then down at itself. With a hiss of hydraulics and the whir of servos, he lumbered to his feet.

“Where are we at sir?” the synthetic voice asked.

“I have no idea,” Gadrik replied bluntly. “But procedure states that our first objective is to reestablish contact with Command.”

He flipped through the com channels, trying to get a response. He tried all of the standard channels and even the restricted channels his rank gave him access to.

“Nothing. Either the coms are still down from the EMP or we’re not where we’re supposed to be.”

The silence coming from the MAX told him eyebrows were being raised behind the mask.

“I mean farther than I thought possible. If we’re outside of coms distance, we might not be on the same continent. There are several that haven’t been linked up after all.”

“How could that be?” the Corporal asked. “If the continent isn’t linked, how could we have ended up on it?”

“I don’t know,” the Major admitted.

“And even then, there’s no pad here to teleport to. How does that even work?” The MAX spread its arms in exasperation.

“I don’t know!” Gadrik shouted. “We need to find out and that’s what we’re going to do. Now, first things first. Tell me if everything is working…besides the coms.”

The MAX performed a sort of range of motion shuffle that might have been a dance if it had been able to get through the steps faster.

“Everything seems to check out, sir. My HUD is a bit glitchy but it’s mostly the map overlay. I still have proximity detection, the friend/foe tags seem to be lighting up correctly, and all stat meters are responding.”

The Major nodded, confirming that he had noted the same on his own systems. He was about to speak again when the MAX started and spun around towards the tree line.

“Wait! I’m getting something.”

He and Gadrik froze as two figures emerged from the trees. They were indistinct at this distance but both were brightly colored; one blue with a prism of color behind it and the other yellow with pink. Voices carried up to them.

“Come on ‘Shy.”

The response was too soft to be heard clearly.

“At least come out from behind the bushes.”

They both started up the hill. The blue one walked confidently and the yellow one followed hesitantly. Now that they were closer, Gadrik could tell that they were not human. They were slightly larger than a big dog but looked like some kind of horse. Even more, they both had wings tucked at their sides.

“Lock and cover!” Gadrik barked. He swung his TRAC-5 up and leveled it at the approaching figures.

“But sir, I don’t think they’re going to…”

“Lock Corporal!” he ordered with a sting of impatience.

The MAX widened its stance and the legs deployed anchoring spikes. It held its arms out menacingly and hissed with its settling weight. The blue horse froze and the yellow one dove behind the other.

“Hey…uh, h-how are you two today?” the blue one asked with a faltering attempt at a casual tone. It glanced between Gadrik and the MAX apprehensively.

“State your allegiance and intentions!” Gadrik commanded.

The blue horse eyed him suspiciously.

“We’re Equestrian?” it said, as if not sure it had understood the question. “And we were only saying ‘hi’. I mean we were wondering what you were too, but that can wait, I guess.”

The MAX lowered its arms and deactivated the anchoring spikes. Gadrik rounded on him.

“Did I give you permission to stand down, Corporal?!”

“No, sir. But they’re obviously not hostile. I don’t even think they could hurt us.” It shrugged its shoulders.

“That is entirely beside the point.” Gadrik raised a finger and shook it at the MAX. “You will not, under any circumstances, make that kind of assumption until given permission by the ranking officer. They could be decoys of some kind or tricking us into thinking they’re not hostile to catch us unprepared. How would you know?”

“Hey,” the blue horse said, stepping forward to get their attention. “Can we stop all of the shouting and just talk instead?”

They both looked at it.

“You know, ‘cause you’re bothering Fluttershy here,” it went on, gesturing at the huddled yellow and pink mass curled up behind it, whimpering occasionally.

Gadrik regarded them both thoughtfully. Finally, he sighed in concession. “I guess we can stand down. Besides, getting on good terms with the locals might even be advantageous.” He then addressed the horse. “Do you have somewhere we can go so we’re not in the open when we talk?”

“Sure. As long as you’re not going act so mean.” It gave them both an appraising look.

“Yes, yes. We’ll keep a truce for now,” Gadrik nodded.

“Good. Come with us back to Fluttershy’s. It’s closest.”

The blue horse nudged the other one up and got it moving back towards the trees. Gadrik and the MAX followed after cautiously.

Chapter Three: Just Dropped In

The two NC soldiers had been walking for hours without the slightest idea where they were going. They hadn’t thought too much about it at first. Not until Mat made a comment about not using Flashes to get around. Trevor had joked about Light Assault class infantry having an easy time over the Heavies who had three times the weight strapped to their backs. Mat responded with a quip about soldiers in Earth’s past, when they carried camp equipment and such as well as their weapons. That was when they realized they didn’t have any food.

Mat froze up but Trevor kept his head and got them moving again. They weren’t going to get out of this situation standing still, he’d argued, so they might as well keep moving. The sun was getting low in the sky when they saw the road. Once they had a firm piece of civilization under their boots, their spirits lifted. They followed the road until they found the edge of an orchard.

The expansive property was bordered by a low white fence. The orchard was well-tended and orderly. A farmstead rested on the far end of the orchard with the tops of the out buildings and barn just visible. The hills were thick with trees and the trees were thick with gleaming apples. They took one look at each other before hopping the fence and pulling down armfuls of apples.

“Those were some damn good apples,” Mat said, leaning back against a tree some time later. He let the core of his last one fall from his limp hand.

“Best fruit out there, I say,” Trevor replied, picking up his helmet and scrapping some dirt off the visor. “Not going to lie though. I’d kill for a steak right now.”

“You and me both,” Mat laughed.

“What say we go check up at that farm for a working com link?”

“Naw, I like this place now. It’s a pretty little vacation spot and we’ve got it all to ourselves.” Mat pushed his visor lower over his eyes.

“You know we can’t just lounge around here. We’ve got to get back to the platoon.”

“Eh, screw the war.” Mat swatted a hand at the air. “They want to keep blowing the living shit out of each other forever, then I say let ‘em.”

“So you’re just going to laze around and turn your back on our boys back there?”

Mat looked up from under his helmet. “Shit man, there’s no need to guilt trip me. We’ll get back as soon as we can, but does it have to be as soon as we can?”

“Yeah, it does,” Trevor said with no humor in his voice. “I’m not giving those sons of bitches a moment’s rest when I get back. TR or VS.”

“Okay, okay. We’ll get going then.” Mat sighed. “But I’m taking some of these apples with me.”

They gathered up their gear and Mat gathered an armful of apples. It was dark when they made it to the farmstead. The outbuildings were simple wooden structures and the house had a weatherworn look to it. The barn seemed to be the newest structure on the property.

Trevor glanced around and shook his head.

“Hold up,” he called to Mat, who had headed for the house. “No use asking. There isn’t a single relay tower in the place. From the looks of it, they wouldn’t even have anything powerful enough to get to the other side of the continent.”

“We can ask for directions at least,” Mat suggested.

“We could,” Trevor conceded. “But I don’t think doing that in the middle of the night is advisable. I mean, what’s the first thing you’d do if a couple of badasses decked out in weapons came knocking on your door out in the country?”

“Grab a gun and shoot the shit out of ‘em?” he replied, scratching the back of his neck guiltily.

“Right. We’ll lay low until morning and ask around then. Maybe they’ll know where we can find transport or communications.”

“The barn then?”

“It might be unoriginal, but the classics are classics because they work.”

They pushed the doors open and stepped inside. There weren’t any animals inside and they were thankful for that. Not only would they not have to worry about disturbing them, it also smelled of fresh straw instead of manure. They pulled themselves up to the loft and threw off their packs and armor. They settled into the loosely piled hay that filled most of the loft.

“Hey, Trev?” Mat asked after a long silence.

“Hmm?” Trevor muttered back sleepily.

“You ever wonder what would happen if the war ended?”

“I don’t worry about it,” he said, rolling over. “We’ll deal with it when it happens.”

“But what if it just ends one day?” Mat pressed. “What will we all do?”

“Find something else to do? Maybe even something else to fight about. I don’t know, Mat. All I want to find right now is a few hours of sleep.”

“You know what? That sounds like a pretty damn good plan,” Mat yawned.

Trevor didn’t respond and soon they were both sound asleep.

~*~*~

It only took Katie a few minutes to stabilize Nathan after she got a hold of her applicator. It was completely undamaged and she quickly got to work healing her own injuries. First, she fixed her eyes. Once she was able to see, she looked at her hostess again. The purple pony stood watching with a look of supreme marvel on her face. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were getting wider as seconds passed and the nanites worked their technological magic. After Katie’s pain had subsided enough that she didn’t have to grit her teeth to keep from screaming, she sat back against the bed and looked the other over critically. While a talking pony was the last thing she’d expected, Katie figured it was better than tentacles. And besides, there were more pressing matters to deal with.

“You said that I’m human, but you aren’t?” she asked, breaking the silence.

The pony shook her head to clear away her surprise.

“Yes, I did. And I suppose since you can see again, it’s pretty obvious what I meant.”

“Yes, it is,” Katie nodded slowly. “But what are you exactly? And perhaps more importantly, how do you know what humans are when I’ve never heard of anything like you?”

“I’m equine of course. But I’ve noticed that we’re a different kind of equine than humans are used to. Humans aren’t from this world at all.”

Katie blinked. The pony kept staring at her brightly, as if the words she’d just spoken were as commonplace as breathing. Katie forced herself to take a deep breath to assure herself that she was indeed continuing to do just that.

“This world,” she repeated. “You mean to say that I’m not on the same world as I was? A different planet?”

“Not quite,” the pony said, sitting down beside her to get more comfortable. “I’ve visited a world other than this one and was turned into a human when I arrived there.” She stopped to rub her chin with her hoof thoughtfully. “Though I’m slightly confused as to why you two didn’t change into ponies here.”

Katie made a face at the thought of having no hands.

“In any case,” the pony continued. “My point is that they called their world Earth and so do we. So it would seem that the two worlds are parallel in the multiverse.”

The pony looked over at Katie but she wasn’t looking back. Instead, her gaze was far away as she whispered to herself.

“Earth? Could it be?”

“You’re from Earth too?” the pony asked.

Katie’s head slumped forward sadly. “No. I was born on the carrier ship Redshift. I’ve lived my whole life either there or on the planet Auraxis. I’ve heard stories of Earth but I’ve never been there. Only a few of those who have are still alive. Our people left a long time ago.”

“Oh.” The pony obviously didn’t know what to do with this information.

Katie heaved a sigh and stood up.

“Enough mopping in the past,” she declared. “We need to deal with the present.”

She walked over to the table that held the equipment they’d been found with. The pony followed and watched her closely as she handled each item. Her beamer was a husk, the slot for the energy cell reduced to a melted hole. She set it to one side and out of the way. Her Pulsar VS1 assault rifle was intact as well as Nathan’s Phantom VA23. She went through the rest of the items: Several grenades, two bricks of C-4, Nathan’s Beamer and motion spotter and two proximity mines, plus their two Force-Blades. None of them were damaged beyond some searing on the surface from the blast. It was lucky that nothing had been lost besides her Beamer, even if she preferred it to the much heavier assault rifle. She was checking how many spare battery packs there were when Nathan began to stir. She rushed to his side as he sat up.

“What happened?” he asked groggily.

“I’m still working on that.” Katie said, keeping her voice low so as not to alarm him. “But it sounds as if we’re not on Auraxis. We’re on Earth.”

Nathan came fully awake and looked around, startled.

“At least, technically,” Katie went on, pushing him back into the bed when he tried to jump up. “It seems to be a different version of Earth than our expedition left behind. There’s a lot about this that’s strange.”

Nathan reached up and discovered that he was no longer wearing his mask. As he did so, he caught sight of the unusual pony watching them from across the room. He raised an eyebrow at Katie. This led him to another realization. His eyes traveled over her burns as sympathy softened his features.

“Oh, Katie,” he whispered, cupping her check with his hand.

She brushed his hand away gently. “It’ll be fine. I just haven’t had a chance to fix everything up yet.”

“But your hair…,” he said.

She felt around gingerly and frowned faintly at what she found. Her once thick, brown hair, neatly tucked away in a tight bun, had been reduced to short, frayed locks that hung loosely around the left side of her face. The right side was completely burned away.

“It’s…nothing,” she said dismissively.

“It isn’t nothing to me.” He held her gaze for a moment. “You should take care of yourself now,” he said gesturing to the applicator. “And then we’ll see about figuring this situation out.”

He turned to the pony, who stepped forward and announced herself brightly.

“Hello! My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

Nathan blinked at her blankly for a few seconds before leaning over and whispering to Katie, “Did that horse just talk?”

~*~*~

It took the two Terrans more than an hour to hike around the forest following their equine guides to reach the small cottage they now occupied. They’d traveled at a leisurely pace that had grated on the Major’s nerves. He kept silent only because of his agreement to be ‘nice’. When they’d arrived, it had been getting dark. Animals had crowded up to them to greet their returning friends and the MAX had to tread carefully so as not to step on any them.

Getting through the door proved to be a challenge unto itself. After much stooping and shuffling, he managed to slip in and stand up in the more spacious interior. It was packed with animal lodgings of every kind, with assorted bags of feed set in the corners and on shelves around the walls. A door led deeper into the hillside cottage and a short staircase ascended to an upper floor. Once they were all inside, the animals retreated to their various boxes and holes, watching the meeting warily.

“So,” the Major said, starting them off. “What are you exactly? Some kind of horse, right?”

The MAX leaned in closer to him. “Actually sir, they’d be ponies. They’re like horses, but smaller.”

“I don’t care, Corporal,” he replied, waving him off impatiently.

“Ponies, yes,” the blue one agreed. “But to be more precise, the two of us are Pegasi.” It flapped its wings demonstratively.

“Those aren’t real,” the Major said flatly.

The two Pegasi glanced at each other.

“Um, no. We’re definitely real,” the other went on. “In fact, I could just as easily say that nothing like you is real. What are you supposed to be?”

“Humans of the Terran Republic,” the Major said proudly. “My name is Major Finnegan Gadrik and this is…,” he paused to glance over at the Corporal and flick through his HUD displays. “This is Unit C3P4S3-N493 of my battalion.”

“My name is Corporal Anthony Janisson,” the MAX’s voice buzzed in an undertone.

The Major gave him a look but let the comment pass.

“I’m Rainbow Dash,” the blue Pegasus stated, flaring its wings dramatically. It pointed its hoof at its yellow companion. “And this is Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy made an effort to respond but the words were too soft to hear. Thus, her wave was accompanied only by a slight squeaking sound.

“I see,” the Major acknowledged with a nod. “And where are we?”

“You’re in Equestria. On the southeast side of Ponyville to be exact.” Rainbow Dash peered at them closely. “You didn’t know where you were? I mean, how did you even get here?”

“We’re not…” the Major hesitated. “Actually, that’s classified. All you need to know is that we’re looking for a way to get back to the continent of Indar.”

“Indar?” Rainbow repeated, tapping her chin with a hoof. “No, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any place called Indar.”

“Esamir? Amerish?” he tried, starting to sound distressed. “Hossin?!”

“Nope, nope, aaaaand nope.” Rainbow shook her head at each one. “I don’t know anything about those. Are you sure you’re talking about whole continents, because I’m pretty sure I’d know those names if they were whole continents?”

The Major smacked a palm to his forehead. “How can you speak the same language and not know the names of the continents?”

“How can you be standing in the middle of our country and not know what we are?” the Pegasus countered.

The Major looked at Rainbow sharply. “Don’t sass me, pony.”

“Hey, you started it,” Rainbow retorted coolly.

“Can we just stick to sorting out facts?” the Corporal suggested.

“Yes, let’s just find out what our situation is for now.” The Major took a deep breath. “First, I take it neither of you have ever seen anything like us before?”

“No,” Rainbow said slowly.

“Good. That means there will be no NC or VS presence here. Not prominently anyway.” He straightened his vest with finality. “Now, our equipment is in order and seems operable, minus the coms.” He glanced around and found himself looking at the darkened sky outside the window. “Erm, what do we have for supplies? Food and such?”

The MAX stared back at him impassively.

“Right. No food.” He looked at the ponies, trying hard not to seem pleading. “You don’t suppose we could ask for some assistance with supplies and lodging until we’re able to get back in contact with Command, do you?”

Chapter Four: Pick a Side, Any Side

Gadrik stood by the window, looking out toward the town a mile or so to the north. He could just make out the vague outline of the buildings against the backdrop of the night sky thanks to the faint glow of the few lights still burning at this late hour. In his mind, he was ignoring the view and concentrating on planning their next move.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were busy preparing a meal for the four of them in the kitchen behind him. He could hear their hushed chatter under the clanking of plates and cutlery. The Corporal was standing stock still in the middle of the room. He hadn’t moved or said anything for many minutes and some of the animals had become bold enough to try climbing up the plating of his suit.

“It will just be another minute,” Fluttershy called, her head popping into view momentarily. She had warmed up to them considerably since the weapons had all been lowered and was now speaking to them in a normal tone instead of the whispers she’d used when they’d first met. “And I think I’ve decided that you can stay here. Dash and I are just discussing certain, uh, minor concerns.”

“What kind of concerns?” Gadrik asked, only half listening.

“Just that I don’t have any beds large enough for your, um, friend there. Don’t worry, though. I’m sure we’ll work something out.” She ducked back into the kitchen.

“Mhm,” he grunted and then muttered under his breath. “That’s certainly hospitable of it.”

The MAX shifted slightly, causing all of the animals to scatter again. “It’s her, sir. Not it.”

The Major turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

“Can’t you tell by their voices, sir?” the Corporal asked. “They’re both female.”

Fluttershy entered the room carrying a small table. As she set it up and Rainbow Dash brought out a tray of food, the Major leaned closer to the Corporal and lowered his voice to a whisper.

“They’re alien animals. They could have strange voices. How would you even know for sure if they’re female?”

The Corporal made an exaggeratedly obvious gesture at Fluttershy, who was facing away from them at the moment. The yellow plot was unobstructed and Gadrik got all of the answers he cared to find in one glance.

Maybe the Corporal isn’t as green as I thought he was, the Major mused as Rainbow drew up some chairs.

“Sure,” he said, trying to put that image out of his head. “But they’re just animals. Why treat them so…human?”

“Well, they talk, for one. And they build structures and have society and…”

“I don’t care,” Gadrik said, waving a dismissive hand. “Just don’t get too comfortable around them. We still know next to nothing about them.”

“It’s ready,” Fluttershy announced.

Gadrik took the seat that was offered to him and sat down. He propped his TRAC-5 against the backrest and hung his helmet over the barrel. Rainbow sat down opposite him. Fluttershy scooped a helping of salad onto Gadrik’s plate and then passed the bowl to Rainbow. The Major glanced back at the Corporal. The MAX took a step toward the table but stopped. He made an apologetic gesture to Fluttershy.

"Uh, give me a second.” He then addressed the Major. “Sir, permission to disarm?”

“Sure, sure. Not like you can eat in that thing.”

The Corporal nodded and widened his stance. There was a series of whirs and hisses and the popping of several seals as the chest piece and forward plating moved aside. The facemask swung upward from the neck guard, which split away, freeing the Corporal’s head. Next the legs and arms unlocked and the plating on their front opened up, allowing the MAX suit’s pilot to step out. He slipped his hands free of the gauntlets and flexed his fingers.

“Gets a bit stuffy in there, you know?” he commented, his voice remarkably gentle after the harshness of the MAX’s synthetic translation.

The two ponies were visibly surprised by this transformation. The shell of armor the Corporal had left behind stood menacingly behind this lean, unimposing young man whose smile slid into place as casually as a well worn glove. His black and red jumpsuit was tight-fitted and had no plating or weapons. When he seated himself across from Fluttershy, they were still gapping at him.

“So he’s not a giant robot?” Rainbow asked.

“What?” the Major replied, missing the source of their confusion.

The Corporal looked back at the suit and then burst out laughing.

“No, no, no. It’s just armor.”

“Why do you need armor that looks so scary?” Fluttershy asked meekly. She looked fearfully up at the facemask that now glowered down at them all from near the ceiling.

“We have scary enemies,” the Corporal said, dropping his tone seriously.

“Like those VNS or whatever you called them earlier?” Rainbow asked.

“The NC and the VS,” the Major growled. “Two separate groups. One wants to blow a hole in the order and unity of the Republic. The other wants to wipe out anyone who isn’t one of their cultist fanatics.”

“That’s awful,” Fluttershy said.

“It is,” Gadrik agreed. “And we fight against them to protect our country, the Terran Republic, from those who’ve forgotten where their loyalties are supposed to lie.”

“Forgotten their loyalties?” Rainbow asked, skeptically.

“Yes,” Gadrik said, settling back in his chair for a long story. “Hundreds of years back, the Republic unified humanity during a desperate part of our history. The world was being destroyed by constant warfare. The Republic rose up and put an end to the fighting. The peace lasted for centuries. Down the road a ways, an expedition was launched to explore deeper into space than ever before. But something went wrong and we were stranded with no way back to our home world.”

“Tensions were high but the officers of the Republic kept order…for a time. A group of rebels began to grow restless and openly challenged the rules of the Republic, even to armed conflict. Added to that, the scientists of the expedition, more cultists of technology than anything else, got it into their heads that only those who followed their twisted take on the future were worthy of life. So they attacked both the rebels and the Republic.”

“The rebels officially separated themselves from the Republic and took the name the New Conglomerate, a name which clearly reflects their founding ideals of personal interest over the good of the group. Not wanting to be left out, the tech cult named themselves the Vanu Sovereignty after their so-called alien deity. And so the table was set for a war and it wasn’t long before it broke out in full force across the face of our new planetary home, Auraxis. It’s been countless years now since it began. No one pays attention to the beginning anymore but one thing is for certain. Both of them, the NC and the VS, have forgotten that it was because of the unity of the Republic that any of us are alive today.”

“Wow,” Rainbow said when the narrative was finished. “After all that time and they just turn on you? Doesn’t sound like any kind of loyalty I’ve ever heard of. Who needs friends like those?”

“Exactly,” Gadrik nodded. “We’ll do whatever has to be done to put down this rebellion so that the Republic can return to the peace it was created to provide. And we’ll never quit until we do. No true Terran will ever forget the lesson here that these rebels have taught us. We are strong together and loyal to each other, come hell or high water.”

“Loyalty until death.” the Corporal intoned solemnly. “Strength in unity.”

Gadrik nodded to him and the other continued eating.

“What was that?” Fluttershy asked, indicating the Corporal.

“A national motto. It’s been around since the founding of the Republic.”

“Loyalty until death, huh?” Rainbow said, trying out the sound of the phrase. “You know, that’s the kind of commitment I can get behind. Though it is a bit dark to say it like that, it says exactly what it means. No cutting corners, no grey area. Just sticking together to the end. I like it.”

“Do you?” Gadrik sounded amused. “That’s good to hear.” He glanced at the Corporal and pointed at Rainbow. “If the rest of these ponies have got their priorities in line as well as this one, I might just grow to like this place.”

As they continued their meal, Rainbow mulled over the story she’d just heard. When they’d cleared away the dishes, she decided she’d share a story with them. And she knew the perfect one.

“You know, our country wasn’t always united,” she began. “This might not be the right season for this story, but I think you’ll still appreciate it.”

Her audience was captive in the small cottage but they turned to her with genuine interest.

“You see, we used to be divided into separate tribes…”

She went on telling the story of the first Hearth’s Warming. The humans settled back and got comfortable as she spoke, both thoroughly enthralled by the tale. The telling went on into the night and when they finally drifted off to sleep, they all felt a certain shared understanding with their new companions.

~*~*~

Despite the limited information at her disposal, it took Katie a long time to catch Nathan up on their situation. At first, he was hung up on their hostess’s unusual appearance. After he’d finally gotten his head around the concept, he’d begun to slowly ask questions and build a model of this world in his mind that he could wrap logic around. His unending clarifying questions and reiterations would have begun to irritate her if she had not been a dedicated scholar herself. Eventually, Twilight became his prime conversation partner and Katie was able to sit back.

“So you say we are on Earth,” he said, with highly animated gestures. “But that it is some sort of alternate version of the one we know?”

Twilight nodded.

“And this world has magic, you say?” he pressed on, his enthusiasm building. “A power that draws on a source completely separate from electromagnetic, gravitational or nuclear forces?”

“Yes, although defining that source has been a question debated by the greatest mages since well before Equestria was founded.” Twilight telekinetically picked up a pair of books from the stacks that she’d gathered on the subjects they’d covered while they’d talked. “In fact, while these volumes have been the most influential in understanding magical principles and advancing magical theory, they are also the most fiercely criticized.

Nathan looked over at Katie, the eagerness of his expression making him look like an exited child. She giggled at him. It had been fun watching him grow accustomed to talking to the Alicorn Princess. He was now sitting cross-legged on the floor next to her as she flipped through the pages of the various books around them. Katie rested against the bed, holding her applicator loosely in her hand. She’d finished repairing the damage to her body, though her hair would have to grow back on its own. Now she just smiled at the two of them, their heads close together, discussing the inner workings of a whole universe.

“This is amazing, Katie!” Nathan exclaimed, waving her over.

She sighed with amusement and pushed herself to her feet. She looked at the passage he was indicating and saw an intricately drawn Unicorn in robes and an absurd beard that trailed past his hooves.

“It says here that this Starswirl the Bearded was one of the greatest Unicorns in history. It lists his notable contributions to magical society and some of the major events he influenced throughout Equestria. Think about it, a whole history of magic to explore and unlock secrets from!”

“That’s fascinating,” she conceded. “But I don’t think we have the time to be studying old mages.”

“Time? We’ll make the time. For crying out loud, we’re in a different world, Katie!” He turned back to the book, reading feverishly. “We have all the time we could ever need.”

“Still,” she said, easing the book away from him. “I think we should concentrate on finding the way home. We have no idea how long it will take. Might as well get started now, don’t you think?”

“Katie, there is no rush at all,” he said calmly. “Don’t you understand what we have here? We’re in a position to unlock secrets of power we’ve never thought to tap into before. This could be as revolutionary as contact with Vanu! And it’s ours to seize!” He waited for her to realize the magnitude of his words but she only shook her head sadly.

“I know this is tempting, but what good will it all be if we can’t share it with anyone else? We need to get back to the others. They’re still fighting, remember? We can’t just leave them.”

“Bah!” He swatted his hand dismissively. “Forget the war. It’ll carry on with or without us.”

“War?” Twilight cut in. “What war?”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Katie said hastily.

“Is that how you two ended up in that state?” Twilight pressed. “You were in a war?”

“There’s no reason for you to concern yourself with…” Katie tried to say but Nathan put a hand on her arm, silencing her.

“Yes, Twilight,” Nathan confirmed. “We were in a war before we ended up here. We are soldiers.”

“What kind of war? Who are you fighting? And…why?”

“A war of principles,” Nathan said, folding his hands in front of him and choosing his words carefully. “Our people are at a crossroads in their evolution. New discoveries have fueled advances in technology the likes of which haven’t been seen in nearly a thousand years. But not everyone sees this era of enlightenment the same way. Some reject the truths our new knowledge has revealed. They cling to old ideas that are as dead as the thinkers that hatched them.”

“It began with patient teachings. We thought to instruct others so that they could find their way to the right path. But they became enmeshed in petty squabbles and refused to listen to us. So we had no choice but to show them with force what they had failed to heed in peace. Thus our war began. Three factions have fought for control for decades now. The original governing body, the Terran Republic, who refuse to relinquish power even in light of the undeniable truth of our words. The New Conglomerate, a rabble of fools from the beginning, without any vision for the future beyond an outdated and vague ideal of freedom that they don’t begin to fully understand.”

Nathan paused to gather his words. Twilight glanced at Katie, who nodded solemnly to confirm her views on the narration. When he spoke again, there was passion in Nathan’s voice.

“But the third faction, the one to which we belong and the one that holds forth the truth as a beacon that will guide humanity to its rightful future, is the Vanu Sovereignty. We have vowed to carry our race out of the grip of incompetent leaders who cannot see the path that must be taken. And while it is unfortunate that it should require force for them to know the truth, quite simply, it has come down to who is willing to adapt to survive. It’s the way life has existed for eons and nothing has changed about that system. Either, they will accept the will of Vanu or they will perish. It is a foregone conclusion that we are meant to outlast them.”

Nathan finished speaking and waited patiently for Twilight to absorb his words. She frowned in deep thought, glancing between them from time to time.

“I’m not so sure I want to get involved in such a heated conflict, especially one over ideology,” Twilight said at last. “I suppose I can accept that you are soldiers, but I must still insist that, as a Princess of Equestria, I will not tolerate any acts of violence while you are here.”

Nathan held up a hand to show that she needn’t say any more.

“I quite understand. I assure you that we have no intention of causing trouble. In fact, with the war in another world, I am happy to leave it there. The only concern I wish to pursue now is this magic.”

“Nathan!” Katie objected.

“Katie, we have to find out what we can while we have the chance. Our understanding of Vanu was limited in the beginning because we couldn’t get our hands on more information. We have books filled with knowledge at our fingertips this time. You can’t just let this opportunity slip away.”

“It isn’t about missing an opportunity. It’s about being able to do something with it. No one will benefit from our discoveries if we don’t go back. What good will it be if we learn everything there is to learn and never share it with our colleagues?”

Nathan did not meet her eyes as he responded. Instead, he picked up one of the books again and began reading.

“If the price of knowledge is that I can never go home, I will gladly pay it.”

Katie would have responded but a yawn drowned out her words.

“Look you two,” Twilight said. “I’ll teach you what you want to know. Sharing knowledge is one of the greatest joys in the world after all. And what to do about going home is your choice to make. But none of that can happen if we’re not well rested. It’s late and we’ve all had a long day. Why don’t you get some sleep and we’ll make a better plan tomorrow morning?”

Nathan reluctantly put the book aside and nodded. Katie felt her eyes responding to the suggestion of sleep, becoming harder to open each time she blinked. Twilight brought out a pair of cushions like the one Katie had woken up on and wished them sweet dreams. Katie and Nathan said their good nights to each other as well, though they were slightly more curt than normal. Katie would have dwelt on it longer if she hadn’t fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

~*~*~

If Mathew thought his sleep had been refreshing when he and Trevor had been knocked out of the sky, he woke that morning thinking he’d landed in the middle of heaven. For the first time since he could remember, his mind wasn’t turned on like a light switch. It stirred sluggishly into action, watching the slants of early dawn light filter in through gaps in the wooden walls, and listening to the birds outside the barn, the wind in the rafters, the creak of a door hinge…

Mat came more awake then, realizing that the wind wouldn’t be making footfalls below him. He opened his eyes but didn’t move for fear of making noise. He saw that Trevor was still asleep.

“That’s strange,” said a voice from below. “I thought I closed that hatch up yesterday.”

Mat looked over and had to suppress a groan when he saw the hatch leading up to the loft they were in was hanging open. They had been so tired last night that they’d forgotten to close it. Footsteps on the ladder followed. Mat reached over to his pack and silently pulled out his NC4 Mag-Shot pistol. He pushed himself up on an elbow and leveled it at the hatch and waited. As he listened to the tapping on the ladder’s rungs, he noticed that there were a lot of them, as if two people were climbing up. He pulled the hammer back and held his breath.

A head popped through the opening and swiveled curiously until it found Mat. There was a gasp that sounded closer to a squeak and the head disappeared. Mat lay where he was. He shook his head, sure that he wasn’t fully awake yet. He had to have been mistaken about what he thought he saw. He could hear whoever it was running out of the barn, shouting about monsters.

“Damn!” He shook his head, in disappointment this time. He reached out and kicked Trevor. “Wake up. We’ve been found.”

Trevor rolled over and scrabbled to his feet, reaching for his Brawler. By the time he’d managed to get a hold of it, Mat had already pulled on his armor and was strapping on his pack. Mat helped Trevor get his gear in order and they cautiously dropped down from the loft and crept toward the barn door. They peered out into the yard just in time to see the front door slam at the house.

The early morning sun was barely above the horizon, throwing golden light over the ground and the sides of the buildings. Besides the soft call of birds and subtle muttering of the leaves in the orchard, the entire farmstead was silent.

“What do we do?” Mat asked in an unnecessary whisper. “Just wait here until they come back?”

“Maybe that would be best,” Trevor mused. “They know we’re here. If we let them know we don’t want any trouble, they might be willing to trust us.”

“And if they want trouble?” he asked.

Trevor locked a shell into the Brawler’s under barrel attachment. “Then we deal with them.”

They moved into the doorway, in plain view of the house and waited. Only seconds later, the door opened and two figures walked out.

“Now what’s all this nonsense about monsters in the barn?” said the larger one to the smaller one.

The larger one wore a wide brimmed hat. The smaller one, which Mat recognized as the one that had found them, wore a large pink bow. Mat could tell it was the same creature but he was less sure about his head being on straight.

“What the hell?” Trevor said slowly.

He glanced at Mat uncertainly. Though they could clearly understand the speech of the others, they also knew they were looking at small, colorful horses. The larger one was orange coated with a blonde mane and the smaller one had a yellow cream coat and red mane. They approached the barn, having not yet noticed the two humans. When they were almost on top of them, Mat shifted slightly and the movement was enough to bring the two horses to a halt.

“Woah Nelly!” the one with the hat said, almost rearing up in surprise. The mare looked at the filly and then back to the humans. “I-I guess there is somethin’ in the barn. Get behind me, Apple Bloom.”

Trevor was motionless. He seemed to be having trouble processing the situation. Mat decided to take charge.

“Hello there,” he said crouching down to their level and making sure to keep his AF-19 Mercenary lowered.

“Um, hi?” the mare replied.

Mat took a second to get past his own mixed feelings about starting a conversation with an animal.

“We didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, gesturing at the filly, which was hiding behind the mare’s leg and peering out at him fearfully.

“And what did ya mean by hidin’ up in our loft?” the mare asked indignantly. “What in the hay are ya’ll anyway?”

“We’re humans.”

“Humans,” she repeated thoughtfully. “Seems like I heard that word once before. Can’t recall where though. So what were ya doin’ here?”

Mat looked over at Trevor, who managed to get past his confusion at last.

“We’re just trying to find our way home. We didn’t want to disturb you in the middle of the night.”

“Shucks, that’s actually thoughtful of ya.” She pushed her hat up and extended a forehoof. “I’m Applejack and this here’s ma sister Apple Bloom. Who might ya’ll be?”

Mat took Applejack’s hoof and shook it awkwardly. “I’m Mathew Hadley, Trooper for the NC. This is my buddy, Trevor.”

Trevor put his Brawler aside to shake the hoof as well. “Trevor Orin, NC Guardsman.”

“Guardsman? Trooper?” Applejack repeated. “Ya’ll sound like soldiers.” Her eyes wandered to their weapons.

“We are,” Trevor said. “But since you didn’t even know we were human on sight, I think we can assume our war isn’t anywhere near here.”

“What war would that be?”

“No need for you to be worried about any of that,” Trevor said. “Just as long as there aren’t any TR or VS around.”

“Ah’m not following most of this,” Applejack said, shaking her head. “What are all these letters yer talkin’ about. Yer NC and don’t like VS or TS?”

“TR,” Mat corrected.

“Right, them. Who are they?”

“If you’re that curious, I suppose we could tell you. But we’re gonna give you the whole story to be sure you don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Apple Bloom, why don’t ya go about the rest of yer chores,” Applejack said suddenly.

“Aww, Applejack!” the filly complained. “It’s just gettin’ interestin’!”

“Get along little filly,” Applejack said, shooing her away. “Ya dragged me out here ta deal with this but that don’t excuse ya from the rest of yer mornin’ work.”

Apple Bloom trudged away, grumbling.

“Now, ya’ll were sayin’?”

“It’s been a while since this all started but I’ll see if I can get everything.” Trevor cleared his throat. “It started out with this big expedition. We were looking into some signal or other from way out in space. The Terran Republic wanted to find out what it was and put this huge fleet together. Now, that might be good and all, but there were some who knew there was more to it than that and major profits to be made on the side. So our employers signed on a couple big groups to go as well. As it turned out, no one knew what they were getting into. As soon as we were underway, we ran into trouble. Dozens of ships were lost before we even left the system, and as soon as we got through, the rift closed.”

“At that point, everyone was in a panic. Most of the higher ups kept their heads well enough to get everything settled, but it didn’t last long. There was some in-fighting and the TR started throwing orders around. They acted like everyone was on their payroll, and even backed it up with force. And that didn’t sit well with the rest of us. We may have been one big group on paper when the expedition set out. But really, we were just going the same direction in the same boat. It didn’t take long for them to overstep their bounds one regulation too far and really rile us up. I guess it was inevitable, when you look back at it.” Trevor paused to shake his head sadly.

“The Republic types always thought of themselves at the big boss, in charge of everyone. No matter what it was, no matter how personal, it was their business to control it. And they’d lie right to our faces and say it was ‘for our safety’. I’ll take dangerous freedom over safe slavery any day. We got tired of it and now we’ve got real leaders, ones that give us the facts straight and let us handle ourselves.”

“Of course, it didn’t stay that simple. The TR couldn’t leave well enough alone and they out right attacked us. We started to defend ourselves but then this whole group of scientists, who’d been riding piggy back with the TR this whole time, decided they wanted to be on their own side. So they named themselves the Vanu Sovereignty and attacked us both. Now it’s been New Conglomerate verse Terran Republic verse Vanu Sovereignty for years in one long three way stalemate.”

“Sorry to say, that’s as pretty as our story gets,” Trevor said in conclusion.

“Land sakes,” Applejack exclaimed softly. “That’s a rough ride, no mistake.”

“It sure has been. And it never gets better!” Trevor said, throwing his hands wide in exasperation. “They just won’t except that we want to live our own lives away from their overbearing control freaks they call leaders. I say is it too much to ask for the freedom to make an honest, simple living?”

“I’m mighty sorry ya had ta put up with so much.” Applejack inclined her head sympathetically. “Tell ya what. Ya’ll can forget about the trouble this mornin’ seein’ as it was just a misunderstandin’.”

“Thank you kindly,” Mat said, touching the rim of his helmet.

“I’ve got some chores ta take care of before the mornin’ is though, but if ya need any help with anythin’, don’t hesitate ta ask.” Applejack turned to head back toward the house. “And yer welcome ta stay here ‘til ya get set ta head home too. Just let us know before dinner so we can set a place for the two of ya.”

Mat and Trevor waved at her and then found a place to sit down inside the barn.

“Can you believe that?” Mat asked. “I mean, just out of the blue, we’ve got these little horse things on our side.”

“Man, I don’t even know what it is I’m trying to believe yet.” Trevor said, grinning over at Mat. “The only question I want answered right now is what was in those apples we ate last night?”

They both burst out laughing.

Chapter Five: Recon Mode

Anthony stepped out into the yard and took a deep breath. He couldn’t remember when he’d felt this awake and alive. He smiled at the irony. A hint of music being hummed from nearby drew his attention. He looked around briefly and spotted Fluttershy on the other side of the yard, lying next to a pair of robins at the base of a tree. She hummed to them and they chirped brightly back. The little song carried on as Anthony listened. Fluttershy saw him and beckoned him over.

“I didn’t want to interrupt,” Anthony said as he sat down next to her and leaned back against the tree.

“Oh, not at all,” Fluttershy said with a smile. “We’re all just enjoying the morning.”

The robins chirped, and if Anthony had to guess, it sounded as if they were agreeing with her. He looked around at the trees that surrounded the yard, marveling at the soft light that filtered through them from the rising sun. Fluttershy and the robins shared another verse before the birds took flight and winged away into the sky. Fluttershy waved to them as they left. When they were out of sight, she let out a contented sigh.

Anthony glanced over at her. “You do this every morning?”

“No, not every morning. But any time I get the chance, I like to take things slow and enjoy the moment.”

They sat in silence again. Anthony played with a handful of grass with a wistful expression. Fluttershy stole furtive glances at him from time to time. He let her think he didn’t notice, not seeing any harm in it. A squirrel cautiously approached him and he put his hand out so that it could climb up. The squirrel sniffed his hand and hesitated in consideration. With one final twitch of its tail, it scurried up his arm and perched on his shoulder. He reached up and it let him stroke its fur. Anthony caught Fluttershy staring openly and looked over.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said, looking away hastily.

He continued to watch her, waiting for her to go on. After a while, she did.

“It’s just, you don’t seem to act like a soldier. The ones I know are big and serious and a little bit scary.”

“I can be serious and scary when I want to be,” he admitted. “But that’s not who I am. I’m a person just like anyone else, either soldier or civilian.”

“You’re more patient than most ponies I know. I guess I’m surprised that a soldier could be this…” She hesitated, as if afraid of insulting him.

“Soft?” he guessed with a grin.

Fluttershy pushed her mane back out of her eyes and smiled brightly. “Sort of peaceful and open, yeah.”

She glanced at him a few times before inching closer. He lifted his arm and let her scoot up and rest against his side. He put his arm around her loosely. They rested against the rough bark and let the sun’s warmth wash over them serenely. After a while, Anthony looked around curiously.

“Where is Rainbow Dash by the way?”

“Rainbow? She left early. She had some work to do in northern Ponyville for the weather team.” She waved her hoof vaguely in the direction of town.

Anthony mumbled an acknowledgement. He let his hand wander up to Fluttershy’s ears and scratched them affectionately. He didn’t notice right away but she tensed up under his touch. After a minute had passed, she made herself heard.

“Um, could you…could you stop?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry.” He let his hand fall away and shook himself out of the half doze he was slipping into. “I wasn’t even thinking. We had a dog before I joined the military. You’re about the same size and I used to sit with her the same way we are now and…I’ll shut up.”

He looked away. Fluttershy considered his words and was about to say something when the door to the yard opened again. Gadrik stepped out into the yard and slung his carbine over his shoulder. He started down the path, gesturing to Anthony.

“Suit up.”

Anthony sighed and disengaged from Fluttershy. He got up reluctantly and made to go inside but Fluttershy stopped him with a hoof on his arm. She then addressed the Major.

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

“Why would that be?” the Major asked sternly.

“It’s just that, before Rainbow left this morning,” Fluttershy said, her voice fading to a whisper as her confidence was drained by Gadrik’s gaze. “She mentioned it would be best if you didn’t take that robot suit into town. It might scare ponies.”

Gadrik was silent for a long time, the light making its way slowly across the yard and chasing away the last of the early morning darkness. Anthony stayed where he was, waiting for the Major’s decision.

“Alright, we won’t take the MAX. But I’m not leaving anything else behind. We still don’t know enough about this place.” He drew his Commissioner and tossed it to Anthony. “Here, take this at least.”

Anthony caught the pistol and followed the Major out of the yard and down the path toward town. He didn’t look back at Fluttershy until he was nearly over the hill. When he did, he saw her gazing off into the distance and absently touching her ear where he’d been petting her. Not sure what to make of it, he shrugged it into the back of his mind.

~*~*~

Mat and Trevor spent an hour in the barn that morning, discussing the very real possibility they were no longer on Auraxis. They came to the conclusion that they were going to have to explore the area before knowing for sure, but they agreed to operate under that assumption. And even though they’d joked about their situation being trippy, they decided not to eat any more of the apples they’d picked.

“We need to lay out our options,” Trevor said. “And then put a plan of action into play.”

“Securing some sort of transportation should be top of the list,” Mat suggested. “Whatever we’re going to do, I don’t want to have to walk the whole way.”

“Not likely we’ll be getting anything like a Flash,” Trevor pointed out, but then nodded in concession. “Still, I wouldn’t mind having a set of wheels all our own.”

“Hey, here’s a crazy idea I just had,” Mat said suddenly. “Instead of trying to find a way to ride back to somewhere recognizable, we just redeploy.”

Trevor’s eyes widened at the realization. He brought his hand slowly up to his forehead. “I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. But hold on,” he said, grabbing Mat’s arm before he could try anything. “You remember when they were hooking up Hossin and they ran into some logistical errors launching that galaxy?”

Mat thought back and then went white. “Oh, man. If we are off planet, we’d be outside of the links entirely, wouldn’t we?”

“And not be able to respawn at all, yes,” Trevor nodded gravely.

Mat let out a low whistle. “So how are we going to know for sure?”

Trevor pulled out his squad spawn beacon and juggled it anxiously. “We’ll give this thing a shot and see if we get a signal to spawn back to.”

They went outside and found a clear patch of ground. Trevor crouched down and set the beacon into the dirt. He snapped the anchoring mechanism into place and fired it up. The brilliant blue beam of light hissed to life and rose to the sky. Mat couldn’t help himself and he hooted and jumped with excitement. It was something of a victory just to see their colors flying. Even in this tiny beacon’s light, he felt as if they were lifting their freedom up for all to see. He even caught Trevor smiling.

That smile didn’t last long though as Trevor put his hand to the side of his helmet and flipped through channels and HUD displays.

“No,” he said as Mat calmed down enough to realize something was wrong. “I’m reading the beacon. It’s functioning fine. Its signal just isn’t being picked up by anything.”

“Shit,” Mat said. “So we can’t go back that way? And we’re stuck here on our own without our get out of death free cards? Man, are we screwed.”

“More than that,” Trevor said, his voice suddenly shaking with what Mat realized was fear. “We just jumped from a couple hundred feet on just one jet a day back.” He turned to look at Mat pointedly.

Mat gulped. “But hey, we handled that one, right? We’ll handle this too.” He tried to sound confident but he didn’t believe himself.

Trevor didn’t appear to be listening anyway. He was staring at the ground in horror as he contemplated how closely they’d danced with death.

“Trev,” Mat said, putting a hand on the other’s shoulder and shaking him gently. “We’ve got to keep it together, now more than ever. You with me?”

“Y-yeah man, I’m with you.” His voice was still a bit unsteady but he visibly steeled himself. “So what’s first now, you think?”

Mat quickly shouldered the role of leader for the sake of his shaken friend and steered Trevor over to the side of the barn.

“First up, we’re on our own, so we’ll be relying on ourselves and what we have with us. Let’s get that in order before we do anything else.”

They sat down together and sorted out their equipment: Trevor was packing his Brawler and Mag-Shot along with his NC15 Phoenix rocket launcher. Mat had the AF-19 Mercenary and his own Mag-Shot. Between them, they had three bricks of C-4 and three grenades, Trevor carrying two of each. Trevor also had a brace of medical kits, which they both agreed would be a valuable commodity if there was no respawning. Finally, they had their Mag-Cutter knives.

“We’ve got plenty of fire power but we’re going to need some kind of relay to boost our coms so we can get a signal back to our boys,” Mat said as they looked over they line up of weapons.

“I don’t know anything about relays and boosting signals,” Trevor admitted, “I’ve never had to pay attention to that stuff.”

“Well, lucky for us, I do. We just need some materials and I should be able to rig it all up.”

“And where are we going to get materials?” Trevor asked.

“This is a farm. They’ve got to be near a town of some sort. We can take them up on their offer to feed us while we search around for what we need. We’ll hold up here until we’ve got the relay working and then we just have to wait for somebody to come and pick us up.”

“You and I both know it won’t be as easy as all that,” Trevor said. “But it sounds like the kind of plan I can get behind. Let’s get started.”

They packed up their equipment and started toward the road. Applejack was pulling a cart laden with freshly picked apples up to the barn.

“Say, Applejack,” Mat said as they passed her. “Could you point us toward town?”

“Sure as sugar can,” she replied and pointed with a hoof. “That road there will lead ya right into Ponyville.”

“Much obliged,” he said. “One more thing. We’ve got some things to take care of and then we’ll be coming back here. You wouldn’t mind us joining you for dinner tonight?”

“Not at all. We’ll have a place set for the two of ya when ya’ll get back. Good luck with yer errands.”

She waved to them as they walked off toward town.

~*~*~

Katie opened her eyes slowly. She was a little disoriented for a moment but she remembered where she was quickly. She pushed herself up on one arm and wiped the sleep from her eyes. Light streamed in from the window behind the well-made bed on the other side of the room. She made a mental note that Twilight was already up and about. She sat up to stretch and caught sight of Nathan sitting cross-legged on his cushion and watching her.

She suddenly became acutely aware of how much her body was exposed by the damage to her suit. The shrapnel cuts left thin gaps across most of her back and left side. Her entire right side from her waist up to her shoulder was stripped bare. The limited armor on her chest had been burned to thin and frayed scraps that made her feel indecent. She crossed her arms and turned away from him slightly. When she heard his sharp intake of breath, she knew he’d taken it more harshly than she’d intended. She checked the room hastily and, seeing that it was just the two of them in the room, she relaxed.

“You’re staring,” she said.

He dropped his gaze away from her. “I should be apologizing.”

She crawled across the floor to him and leaned against his shoulder. “You don’t need to apologize for that. I just wasn’t ready.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t mean for that, though I suppose I’m sorry for that too. What I should be apologizing for is last night. I was too stubborn. I should have been thinking the situation through more caref--“

She cut off his words with her lips. “I forgive you,” she said when she withdrew.

He smiled back at her and nodded his thanks. He ran a hand up her shoulder, stroking her exposed skin tenderly. She grabbed his hand to stop him.

“Not now. Not here.” She found that she couldn’t meet his eyes at that moment. “We have work to do first.”

He nodded slowly. “Of course. In fact, the Princess should be back soon anyway.” He got up and helped her up with him. “She and I spoke this morning. She inquired about our suits and thinks one of her friends can fix them up. I hope you don’t mind, but I gave her a sample and she’s checking with her friend.”

“No, that’s fine,” she said quickly, eager to agree to something.

They went down to the main level of the building together to wait. They didn’t have to wait long. Nathan glanced out the window just as he was pulling a book open and saw Twilight heading toward them. They stood up as the door opened and Twilight stepped through.

“Oh, good! You’re awake,” Twilight said when she saw Katie. “Rarity says she thinks she’ll be able to copy the material and fix your suits.”

Katie glanced at Nathan’s suit, noting the shrapnel cuts and the hole from the SR-7 round that sent them here.

“I suppose we do need a bit of patching up, don’t we?” She smiled wryly as she touched the fraying edges of her own torn uniform. “Shall we get going then?”

“Just follow me,” Twilight said.

She spread her wings wide and strode into the street. They followed her out, heading east. Nathan turned to look back at the library and chuckled.

“It really is a tree, isn’t it?” he said to himself.

As they continued through town, Katie noticed that Twilight was walking with a rather imperious air. Katie knew Twilight was a Princess of this land, but her sudden change in posture intrigued her.

“Why are you walking like that?” she asked.

Twilight barely looked back at her when she responded. “I’m trying to look as important as I can. I’m leading two completely alien creatures through the middle of town after all. If I look like we’re on official business, everypony will assume everything is fine and not ask questions. Hopefully.”

Katie nodded her understanding, realizing that the ponies were indeed giving them very odd glances but shrugging them off and going about their business. Most ponies gave them a wide berth, although not in a negative manner. They seemed to be moving to avoid getting in Twilight’s way. No one bothered them all the way to Rarity’s; aside from being followed by the frequent curious looks that is.

“Here we are,” Twilight announced as they approached a multi-leveled circular building situated at the edge of what they assumed was the market district of town. “Carousel Boutique.”

Katie hugged Nathan’s arm playfully. “Hear that Nathan? We’re going clothes shopping.”

He gave her a wistful smile. “Thrilling.”

They teased each other all the way to the door and walked into the boutique arm in arm.

Chapter Six: Going Around in Circles

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique. Come in, please. Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll be just another minute.”

The white Unicorn was there greeting them and then gone again in a flash of her royal purple mane. Katie and Nathan found seats near the full length mirrors on one side of the main floor’s show room. Thick curtains hung everywhere, dividing the room effectively into small subsections designed to handle the needs of multiple customers at once.

“This is a very nice place,” Katie observed, reaching out to feel one of the curtains. “High quality material, tasteful color schemes and functional arrangements all blending together.”

“Rarity is one of the best designers I know,” Twilight said. “Her fashion lines can be found in the highest society of Canterlot and as far away as Manehattan.”

“Sounds impressive,” Katie nodded, not entirely sure what those names signified.

“She’s almost always busy,” Twilight went on. “But she said she had the time to tackle this project. I think I’ll leave you in her capable hooves for now. I’d best get back to the library and continue to look into your other problem.”

She waved at them and trotted back the way they’d come. In only a moment, Rarity returned, bringing with her an assortment of tools and materials. She looked the two humans over critically, nodding to herself.

“Yes, you do have something of an emergency on your hooves.” She invited Katie to stand in front of the wall of mirrors with a wave of her hoof. “When I saw that material sample, I was intrigued to say the least. In fact, I had to restrain myself from planning an entire line based on it so as to work on this.”

She gestured toward some of the materials she’d brought with her and she telekinetically lifted a patch of the burned suit and a square of material that closely resembled it. She let Katie take them to compare.

“This is very close,” Katie said, holding the two samples up. “It’s not as firm nor as water resistant from the look of it. But with a bit of tweaking, I think it might do.”

“It’s the best I could do on such short notice,” Rarity said modestly.

“Oh! You did this just a few hours ago, didn’t you?” Katie exclaimed, remembering that the Unicorn would only have had the morning to prepare. “Now I am impressed.”

She handed the samples off to Nathan to examine while Rarity pulled out a tape measure and note pad.

“I will of course continue working to mimic the material more closely,” Rarity said, businesslike. “But once I’ve gotten it acceptably close, I’ll need measurements to build models. I only have forms for ponies after all.”

She indicated the stands of outfits on display depicting a pony’s shape filling out the garments.

“Yes, I suppose it would be helpful to have the correct forms to work on,” Katie said with a smile.

Rarity set to work taking detailed measurements of both of the humans. She also took measurements of the damaged portions of their suits. Once she had the measurements for both of them recorded, they sat down and discussed the suit’s design.

“Our suits are more than just uniforms,” Nathan said. “They are built with their own internal systems. Mine for example is capable of deploying a cloaking field, rendering me more or less invisible.”

“Oh, how marvelous!” Rarity exclaimed. “I would so very much like to see it.”

Nathan smiled for a moment before vanishing with a zip.

“Or not see it, as the case may be,” Rarity amended, looking from other angles at the slight disturbance in the air where Nathan was.

After a short pause, the cloak came down and Nathan reappeared.

“It doesn’t last forever but its usefulness is nearly unlimited.”

“I should think so,” Rarity said. She then turned to Katie. “And your suit has a separate function?”

“Yes. Mine is able to release a cloud of nanites that can mend the injuries of myself and those around me.”

Rarity waited on baited breath for a demonstration but after a few seconds, she realized nothing had happened.

“Did you intend to give a demonstration?” she asked.

“That’s not right,” Katie said, also seeing that something hadn’t worked.

She checked a readout on her HUD and then checked her suit’s pack. It was mostly untouched by shrapnel, but she noticed that the burns from the blast were most extensive near the ports that released the regenerative cloud of nanites. That was when she remembered the circumstances of the blast. Her nanite field had been active, covering both herself and Nathan. The explosion of her Beamer must have charged the nanites and overloaded them all the way back to their source.

“It seems that the system was damaged. It isn’t functioning at the moment.”

“Will we be able to fix it?” Nathan asked with a concerned frown.

“Not likely, but I’ll try,” Katie replied, taking the pack off and looking at it more closely. “We don’t have any tools or replacement parts.”

“Hmm,” Rarity said, considering them critically. “This is starting to sound like it will be beyond my skills. I’m afraid I simply won’t be able to recreate that kind of material.”

“Don’t worry,” Katie reassured her. “It’s an added system, using nanites over the material. The material itself is entirely separate.”

“Alright then,” she said, cautiously putting her concern aside for now. “But if you could advise me as I get started, it would surely accelerate the process.”

“We’d be happy to.”

They all moved up to Rarity’s work room on the second floor and got to work developing the combination of materials required to mimic their suits.

~*~*~

Anthony jogged along behind Major Gadrik through the back alleys of Ponyville. They’d managed to enter the town undetected and the Major was determined to keep it that way. Anthony didn’t think it was worth all this ducking from corner to corner but he stayed silent. It wasn’t his place to argue with the mission plan. Plus, that was a rule he’d been ignoring a lot since they’d met these ponies and he didn’t want to push his luck with the Major’s patience.

The Major, for his part, had been surprisingly lax on discipline during their time thus far in Equestria. Anthony attributed it to being caught so completely off guard by their situation. Now that they were moving, the Major would expect rigid adherence to protocol. It was just as well. Anthony welcomed something that made as much sense as his orders usually did.

“Hold!” Gadrik whispered harshly, peering down an adjoining street.

He held his carbine tightly, ready to swing it up to meet any threat. Not that he expected any of course. But being outside of the command structure was getting to him more than he cared to admit. The fact that this world was completely unfamiliar wasn’t helping. There was an absence of clear objectives, of an opposition that he understood, of the kind of conflict he knew how to deal with. He compensated for it by acting as if some form of enemy could be waiting for them down every path.

They made it deep into town and could see what appeared to be a large open plaza marking the town center when a voice stopped them in their tracks.

“Who are you two?”

The Major spun around and trained his iron sights on the speaker. Even the Corporal flinched in surprise and aimed at the pony, despite having no intentions of firing.

“You’re both human right?” she asked.

The Major looked at the purple pony closely, noting that she not only had wings like their earlier companions but also a horn like some of those he’d seen passing through town.

“We’re human,” he managed. “And you’re a…um, a Pegasus?”

The pony inclined her head at his statement. “No. I am an Alicorn. I have both Pegasus and Unicorn traits.”

“Alicorn? I’ve never heard of…never mind,” the Major said, shaking his head as he decided he’d just add it to the list of things that didn’t make sense to him. “What is it you want?”

“First,” the Alicorn said. “I want you to lower your weapons. There’s no need for them here. Next, I want to know who you are and how you got here.”

The words were spoken with authority but in a tone of reassurance and an underlying curiosity. Reluctantly, the major allowed himself to follow the suggestion.

“I am Major Finnegan Gadrik and this is…” He hesitated as he glanced at his subordinate. “This is Corporal Anthony Janisson.”

The Corporal nodded to the pony. She considered them impassively for a long time. Gadrik shifted his carbine anxiously and glanced up and down the alleys to either side. Behind him, the Corporal was studying the Alicorn carefully, sizing her up even as she seemed to be sizing them up. At last, she broke the silence.

“Why don’t you two come with me and we’ll find some place to discuss this situation.”

The tone of the invitation didn’t leave much room for refusal. Gadrik’s first impulse was to refuse anyway on principle. But there was something in the other’s bearing that told him that she would have none of it. And in the end, he was forced to admit that he didn’t have the faintest clue what he’d been looking for in town to begin with if not someone who could help them figure out what was going on. He nodded and they began walking.

They took back streets most of the way until they approached a clearer part of town. In the center was a large tree, which appeared to be their destination. She led them boldly from the cover of the surrounding buildings and up to a door in the side of the tree. As they got closer, they could see windows in the tree as well as balconies from upper levels. The simple wooden door seemed to open of its own accord when she reached it. She stood aside and gestured for them to enter.

“We’ll get right down to business,” she said, closing the door behind them. She gestured for them to occupy one side of the room while she stood facing them. Gadrik felt as if he were being brought before a board of inquiry. In a way, he supposed he was. Anthony stood just behind him, fidgeting to relieve tension.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria,” she said in formal introduction. “As such, it is my responsibility to ensure that any foreign intrusion is benign. You are obviously not Equestrian, so I am going to have to ask you a few questions.”

Gadrik acknowledged her with a nod. Twilight paused to pick her words carefully.

“Since we have already established that you are human, my first question is, do you belong to any country or group?”

“Yes,” Gadrik responded. “We owe our allegiance to the Terran Republic.”

Twilight nodded and continued. “Second, why did you come here?”

“It wasn’t so much that we came here as it was that we ended up here. In fact, we were looking to find out how to get back.”

“I take it you don’t even know how or why you ended up here?” Twilight asked.

“That would be correct,” Gadrik admitted.

Twilight paused to think over his responses. The horn on her head suddenly began to glow and Gadrik tightened his grip on his weapon. But nothing happened except a pair of books and a notepad floated over and hovered in front of her. She read something from in one book, took a few notes, looked at Gadrik and Anthony critically and then took some more notes.

“My final question for now,” she said, punctuating the end of her notes sharply and looking up at them. “What do you plan to do while you are here?”

Gadrik had to think about that one. Twilight’s gaze bored into him as seconds of silence ticked by.

“A Pegasus by the name of Fluttershy was kind enough to offer us a place to stay until we can find a way home.” Gadrik noticed a flash of recognition in Twilight’s eyes at the name. “I suppose we will be there for the most part as we continue to search for some way home. As for the search itself, I’m not even sure where to start.”

Twilight seemed unprepared to respond for the first time. She glanced at the stairway leading up to the second level of the tree apprehensively. She even shifted slowly from hoof to hoof and bit her lip as she thought through her next move. Gadrik followed her gaze but didn’t see anything that might cause her discomfort.

“I see,” she said after an extended pause. “I will look into the situation and conduct research into ways to help you find your way home. In the mean time however, I must ask you to remain at Fluttershy’s. It would be best if strange creatures were not wandering around our town. I will of course send word to you when I find something useful.”

Gadrik considered his options briefly. His conclusion was that this was a monarch in her own country and she had offered freely to help them. He least he could do was follow her wishes, seeing as they concerned her town and subjects. So despite his reluctance to be sent to the sidelines, he agreed.

~*~*~

The walk toward town was pleasant to say the least. Mat had never seen weather this perfect before. The only cloud in the sky was a tuft of cotton that drifted along sleepily. The sun was warming but not overpowering and even in their armor, neither soldier was breaking more than a light sweat. The soft breezes that accompanied them on their journey also contributed to this. The path was long though and they paced themselves.

“So what are we even looking for?” Trevor asked at one point.

“Mostly wires, tools, and a larger power supply for sure.”

“Wires and tools, check. But that power supply part? I’m not so sure about it. You really think we’ll find what we need in this town?”

“The way I see it, we don’t know jack about this town. I mean, we just talked to horses, man. There could be anything there. No point speculating until we see for ourselves.”

“Guess you’re right. But how do we get this stuff? We don’t have any money on us.”

Mat paused suddenly, not having considered that.

“We’ll think of something once we know what we’re dealing with.”

He tried to sound confident but he was starting to have doubts again. When they arrived, they calmly strolled into town. Many more of these talking ponies could be seen up and down the streets. Some were sporting wings or single horns but nothing overwhelmingly outlandish. It was reassuring to the two soldiers because that meant they weren’t dealing with a multitude of even stranger creatures. As ponies spotted them, they froze and stared as the humans passed. Mat and Trevor didn’t let it bother them since none of the ponies seemed inclined to stop them.

“Where should we start?” Mat asked.

“There’s always the town market,” Trevor replied.

“Okay, and where’s that?”

“I’ll show you,” Trevor said with a grin.

He walked over to one pony who had been watering a garden of flowers before she’d seen them. The watering can hung in the air next to her, suspended by an unknown force, dripping and empty. She was completely oblivious however, and she gaped openly at them as the human approached.

“Excuse me ma’am,” he said, touching the edge of his helmet and nodding politely. “I don’t mean to bother you, but we were hoping you’d be so kind as to direct us to the market?”

The pony gulped down her surprise and after a few seconds, she was able to respond.

“It-it’s just down the street there. Cross that bridge,” she said pointing. “And then keep going until you get to the tents on the east side of town. That’s the market square.”

“Thank you,” Trevor said, bowing slightly.

The pony waved hesitantly as he walked away.

“That way,” Trevor said, pointing down the street as he returned to Mat.

Mat smiled his amusement as they walked off.

“See?” Mat said. “Nothing to it. We’ll get what we need and be headed home in no time.”

The ponies continued to watch them with mixed levels of astonishment, but after they’d passed, everypony went about their business. After all, these weren’t the first such creatures they’d seen today.

Chapter Seven: “Check Your Corners!”

Even though he didn’t have any real basis for it, Gadrik puzzled over Twilight’s unexpected unease near the end of their conversation. The conversation had been short; much shorter than he would have expected for a first meeting to establish foreign relations. But her concise questions indicated that she knew what information she wanted and she seemed to have gotten what she expected. Until the end that is. Something he’d said had thrown her off. If only he could put his finger on it.

Anthony walked beside him as they made their way south through town, returning to Fluttershy’s cottage. Their weapons hung loosely at their sides and they didn’t bother trying to hide. The ponies around them didn’t seem too perturbed by their presence and sneaking back out of town wasn’t something the Major was up for just now.

“You think it will take her long to figure out how to get us home?” Anthony asked.

“Hmm,” the Major replied, barely paying attention. “Can’t be sure. Can’t be sure about a lot of things.”

“But she sounded like she knew what she was talking about,” Anthony pressed. “She sounded like she had a plan.”

“Maybe,” Gadrik conceded. “But I’m not the one who could make that kind of an estimate. It’s not my world after all. I’ve never seen anything like her, let alone heard about anything she’s likely to be using to send us back.”

Something about his own words caught his attention. It was the same peculiar feeling he’d gotten about the Princess’ hesitance. He fell silent, mulling it over with an intense frown. Anthony didn’t seem to notice. He talked on and the Major let him. The Corporal even waved to the ponies they met on their way. The ponies let them pass without question, and even returned the greetings on occasion. Gadrik wondered if there was any reason they would need to stay in seclusion as the Princess had suggested. Their presence wasn’t causing nearly as much trouble as she had seemed to imply.

He figured seeing them escorted into that tree library by the Princess could have set them at ease, but then she should have figured as much. In fact, these ponies were acting as if they were already over whatever shock seeing strange creatures would cause. Could they just be that accepting around here? The reactions of both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy indicated that was a possibility. But Gadrik could feel that he was close to the cause of his suspicions. He looked around him carefully, watching the ponies’ reactions. He was missing something, he knew it. It was so obvious and yet he couldn’t for the life of him figure it out.

“Seems a shame to just stay cooped up at Fluttershy’s until we leave,” Anthony was saying. “She has a nice place, don’t get me wrong. But these ponies all seem so welcoming and friendly. I kind of wish I could stay around and talk to them.”

“The Princess doesn’t want us causing trouble. I’m sure she’d rather not take the chance we upset things with our presence.”

“Upset them how?” Anthony asked with a chuckle. “They’ve warmed up to us quick enough and we’re not about to do anything. I mean, we’ve been here for maybe an hour and they’re already totally okay with having us around.”

Gadrik stopped walking. He was staring straight ahead, wide-eyed. Anthony looked around but couldn’t tell what had stopped him.

“They’re already used to having us around,” Gadrik said softly.

“Yeah,” Anthony said slowly, eyeing the Major with concern. “They seem pretty accepting.”

“No, Corporal.” He looked at him, his eyes still wide. “Rainbow asked us what we were when she met us in that field. The Princess asked if we were human.”

Realization slowly crept across the Corporal’s face.

“She knows about humans. There are others here!”

“Exactly!” the Major said. “We need to go back there right now. To hell with her instructions! I want to know who else she’s seen.”

“Whoa, wait,” Anthony said, holding up his hands. “Just because she knows about humans doesn’t mean we should go kick down the door. She did offer to help us after all.”

“Maybe, but she’s withholding information from us. Essential information.” Gadrik unslung his carbine and turned around, headed back toward the library. “And I intend to get it from her.”

~*~*~

Mathew was in the middle of cracking wise about the looks a few mares had given Trevor when a crack of a different kind interrupted him. The sudden, sharp impact to his head nearly knocked him off his feet. The chirp of his shield indicator caused instinct to kick in before he even knew what had happened. He threw himself to the ground and rolled behind the nearest building.

“Taking fire! Contact right!”

The words left his mouth automatically and he had to think for a second before he understood them.

“Hostile Engineer spotted!” Trevor yelled, taking cover at the corner across from him.

Ponies were scattering and doors slammed shut up and down the street. The smiling faces were replaced with wide eyes and cowering forms in the alleys. His mind was still struggling to accept what had just happened and Mat wondered at his slowness.

Was I really that unprepared for this? Mat thought.

His shields chirped for another second before their power was restored. Mat chanced a quick look down the street but couldn’t see anyone. He checked his HUD for motion indicators but it had been too long since Trevor’s callout for him to get a reading.

“I think those were TR,” Trevor called. “Red plates on the Engi. There might have been a second guy with him but I didn’t get a good enough look.”

No sooner did Trevor finish speaking than a barrage of fire ripped up the wall behind him. Trevor’s over-shields engaged and were knocked out just as quickly, forcing him to duck around the corner. Mat saw the MANA turret at the far end of the street turn toward him and he dashed to follow Trevor. They ran blindly for a block before throwing themselves into the alcove of a doorway.

“What the fuck?!” Trevor gasped. “How’d they get around on us?”

“We sat still, that’s how,” Mat said, checking back the way they’d come. “First rule they teach you when you put on this jetpack: Mobility is life.”

“So I’m fucked?” Trevor asked.

“Not unless you think they’re going to keep coming at us from the last place you saw them.”

The look on Trevor’s face told him that was exactly what he’d thought.

“Listen,” Mat said, pulling Trevor close. “We need to get somewhere high up and get a feel for the area. Then we’ll map out some moves and get around on them next time. But the planning has to come before the fighting.”

“Right.” Trevor nodded, gaining confidence again. “Need to get my head in this fight. Kind of threw me off getting shot at after all of this.”

He gestured around them, indicating the world they were in.

“You and me both,” Mat agreed. “Now let’s head toward that building there in the town square. It’ll give us a good view of the town. We’ll see if we can spot those TR and find a way to flank them.”

“I’ll take point,” Trevor volunteered. “You watch my back and I’ll handle the corners.”

“Right.”

They headed out, nearly back to back and right on top of each other. They kept their weapons up and their bodies pressed against the walls of the buildings they passed. The ponies who hid in the shadows watched them with a mixture of fear and fascination. The soldiers made their way through town to the city hall and met no further signs of the TR.

When they arrived, they entered and started up the stairs to the second floor. They were met by a mare wearing an official looking suit collar and glasses.

“You can’t go up here,” she said, blocking their way boldly. “These offices are open to prescheduled appointments and authorized officials only.”

Trevor stuck his Brawler under her chin and leaned in close.

“I don’t need to tell you what this does for you to understand that you need to move.”

To her credit, the mare didn’t flinch. She did however step aside after a moment of agonized hesitation.

“It’s an emergency,” Mat said as a sort of consolation as he passed.

She just sighed and watched them as they reached the landing, continued up to the top floor and exited onto the balcony.

“This is a good spot alright,” Trevor said, kneeling down and scanning the streets.

Mat used the 2X scope on his Mercenary to take a better look.

“No sign of them,” he reported. “But these streets are going to be hell to move around in. In fact, we would probably do better just holding out up here. We’ve got a perfect view of the whole approach.”

“And with this baby,” Trevor said, setting up his Phoenix and testing the sights. “We’ll have them dead to rights before they even hear about it.”

~*~*~

It was a long but enjoyable process by which Katie and Nathan helped Rarity develop the material to replicate their suits. They spent the first half hour or so trying different combinations of materials to find the properties that they needed. Rarity’s magic captivated them as she fused prospective materials into new ones. In the end, they finally had a material that satisfied them. Once Rarity had the first samples produced, she and Katie turned to aesthetics.

The prospect of customizing her outfit was making Katie feel childishly giddy and she could tell by the looks Nathan kept giving her that she was acting just like he had when hearing about magic. She didn’t care though. This was her moment and she was going to enjoy every second. She sketched out patterns and showed them to Rarity and they exchanged variations until they had one they both liked. A small pile of accepted sketches developed beside them and a heap of crumpled paper accumulated behind it. Rarity demonstrated her capacity to speak French, much to Katie’s surprise, and they began carrying their conversation in that beautiful language most fitting for the discussion of fashion.

It was at this point that Nathan tuned them out. He didn’t speak French for starters. He was also losing interest in the designs they discussed. He wondered if it would be rude of him to excuse himself and return to the library. As Katie had said, they didn’t have time to pursue magic fully. He didn’t feel keen to let this time slip away on such triviality as the designs on their replacement uniforms.

He was watching out the window now, seeing if he could learn anything about these ponies just from observations. They were easily as complex a society as humans, though their lifestyles seemed much simpler. Their technology level for example was ages behind humanity. Yet with magic, he mused, they would have little need to progress rapidly. He wondered if he might be able to do something about that.

He’d begun to entertain the notion of developing a few modern innovations for them when he could have sworn he heard a gunshot. He sat up, fully alert. Nothing followed immediately and he quickly dismissed it as a figment of his imagination. He’d been deep in his thoughts of machines and electronics at the time and Katie didn’t seem to have noticed anything.

He’d nearly put it out of his mind when more gunfire echoed through the streets. This time, he knew he was not mistaken. It was sustained and rapid and he saw many ponies in the streets looking west apprehensively. He got up quickly.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to step outside.”

Katie hardly looked up as she nodded her confirmation. Nathan walked from the room and as soon as he was out of sight, he leapt down the stairs and out the door. The streets were silent when he got outside. Ponies were starting to go back about their business but one or two cautious glances were cast in the direction of town hall. He scanned the area for a long time but nothing further presented itself.

He was about to go back inside when Katie came out.

“Get enough fresh air?” she asked beaming.

“No, uh, I mean yes.” He gave the surroundings one last look. “I was just coming in again.”

“No need. We’ve finished up. Rarity said she’ll have enough of the material to begin work tomorrow and she expects to finish before the end of the week.”

“I guess we head back to the library now?” he asked, trying not to sound anxious.

“So you can bury your nose in another book, yes.” Katie bopped him gently on the nose with her finger teasingly.

Nathan let her have her fun as they walked back, choosing not to tell her about what he’d heard. He couldn’t stand to ruin her mood with something like that. Not just yet anyway.

Chapter Eight: Fragmentation

Anthony and Major Gadrik didn’t stop running until they were in sight of Fluttershy’s cottage. Despite the Major’s suspicions, they had been totally surprised by the appearance of the two NC soldiers. They’d opened fire without any sort of plan. The moment Anthony had hit the Light Assault, he’d remembered that he had no shields or armor and had hidden immediately. Gadrik had moved to flank them with his turret. But once they lost sight of them, Gadrik had realized that they weren’t in a position to engage in a firefight.

Thus, he’d gathered Anthony and turned them back to the only place they could call a base of operations. As they came into the yard, Fluttershy noticed them and met them at the door.

“What’s going on? Is something wrong?” she asked, trying to calm the critters as they scattered before the humans.

“Hostiles in town. Two NC for sure,” The Major said, hardly looking at her.

Fluttershy processed that information for a few seconds before clapping her hooves over her mouth.

“They’re here?” she squeaked.

“Not for long. Not if I have anything to say about it.” He gestured to Anthony. “Suit up.”

Anthony handed the Commissioner back to the Major and went inside. After a minute, he’d managed to get the MAX suit back outside. He towered over Fluttershy and she visibly recoiled from him.

“Is there going to be fighting?” she asked.

“Yes,” Gadrik said, wiping dirt off of his MANA turret module. “There will be fighting. But we’ll do what we can to prevent collateral damages.”

“Be careful,” she said, looking mostly at Anthony.

“Don’t worry about us,” the synthetic voice droned confidently. “It’s not like we haven’t died before. Right sir?”

The Major didn’t look up from cleaning the rest of his equipment as he responded.

“Actually Corporal, we’re almost certainly outside the Links.” He flipped his carbine over to check the magazine. “That means we don’t have a spawn tube to deploy back to. You remember that Hossin incident right?”

The MAX fell instantly into subdued silence.

“Exactly,” Gadrik said. “So let’s fight smart out there.”

Fluttershy looked between them in worried confusion. Gadrik caught the look and elaborated.

“Where we come from, there is a certain technology that allows soldiers to be killed, respawned and killed again in an endless cycle. To be honest, it’s why this war has lasted so long. It requires very specific and complex equipment and facilities, none of which are here. Therefore, we will be fighting without the security of the second chance we’ve come to rely on.”

“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Anthony admitted.

“Do you really have to go out there and fight?” Fluttershy asked meekly.

“We do,” the Major said. “These NC will be nothing but trouble if we let them roam around unchecked.”

“If they’re already in town…” Fluttershy said, considering something suddenly. “Is anypony hurt? Did they attack Ponyville?”

“No, I suppose they didn’t,” the Major said, stopping what he was doing to look at her.

“But if they haven’t done anything, why would you need to attack them? Couldn’t you at least give them a chance?”

“All it would take is that one chance for them to end lives. I’m not going to give them that chance.”

“But you can’t just kill them because they might do something,” she complained. “That wouldn’t be right!”

“Listen closely because I don’t have time to say this again,” the Major said sharply. “I’m not willing to risk lives on the off chance that these known terrorists don’t decide to light this place up. Are you willing to risk the lives of your fellow townsfolk on that gamble?”

Fluttershy clamped her mouth shut and shook her head.

“Then you see that we don’t have a choice here. It’s not a matter of if we fight, it’s when.”

Gadrik clipped the last of his equipment into place on his belt and Anthony locked his M2s into readiness. As they reached the gate to her yard, they heard Fluttershy speak again.

“You might think it’s the only choice. It might be the safest decision. But it will still be you that starts the fighting.”

The Major grunted and marched off. Anthony lingered for a while, watching Fluttershy walk slowly back into her cottage. When the door closed behind her, he turned and ran to catch up with Gadrik.

~*~*~

“Look alive!” Trevor whispered harshly in Mathew’s ear.

Mathew swung his Mercenary toward where Trevor indicated. He caught a glimpse of red plates between two buildings. He tracked them to the next gap and inhaled sharply.

“They pulled a MAX.”

“Shit, what?” Trevor exclaimed, trying to see for himself. “Where the hell did they pull a MAX from?”

“Don’t know and don’t have time to ask. One step at a time, remember?”

Trevor shouldered his Phoenix and sighted the MAX as the two TR made their way cautiously up the main street. They were headed directly toward the town hall from the west now, though they kept to the side of the street instead of exposing themselves by walking down the middle. The NC soldiers had moved back into the shadow of the building for better cover. They lined up their shots carefully, taking their time since they were confident they wouldn’t be spotted until they fired.

“Don’t fire until my missile is about to hit,” Trevor said, barely above a whisper. “It’ll give me a better chance to hit if they don’t know I’m coming.”

“Roger that,” Mat acknowledged, slowing his breath to steady his aim.

Trevor pulled the trigger and the silent town erupted into chaos. His missile burst forth with a hiss and a whistle, trailing smoke and closing on the two TR soldiers menacingly. The MAX noticed the projectile almost instantly and pushed the Engineer behind cover of the nearest building. Mat fired in vain, trying to catch the Engineer before he could escape. His bullets hit shields but didn’t penetrate. The missile stayed on target and the MAX was too slow to escape.

The explosion could be heard clear across town and everypony stopped in their tracks to look around in shock and fear. The sound of continued gunfire sent them back to cover for the second time in the same day. The MAX staggered after the Engineer and both were lost from sight.

“Damnit!” Mat muttered. “They got away.”

“Naw, they just stuck themselves in a hole,” Trevor said as he loaded another missile. “Now we can make ‘em dance. I’ll keep them moving. You see if you can get them from the sides.”

“On it,” Mat said, slipping over the edge and jetting down to the ground.

He bounded across the plaza and up onto one of the houses north of the TR. He lay belly down and inched up to the crest, looking down toward the alley they’d hidden in. Another Phoenix missile left the top of the city hall. Mat tracked its arc as it soared into the alley. He raised his Mercenary. The blast enveloped the alley in smoke and shrapnel. No one emerged. Mat was beginning to wonder if they’d both been taken out when the city hall was riddled with bullets.

Mat saw Trevor ducking back inside as the MAX advanced from the other side of the alley. He swore under his breath as he slid off the roof and jumped up to the roof of the next house to get behind the MAX. He ran along the thatching, crouched low. When he was just above and behind the MAX, he took out his stick of C4 and started looking for the best way to drop it. As he scanned for escape routes, he saw the Engineer. The Engineer saw him at the same time. Mat scrambled to the other side of the roof, spraying bullets at the Engineer with the Mercenary in one hand throwing the C4 in the MAX’s direction blindly with the other.

The Engineer returned fire until Mat was out of sight, hitting him twice. The MAX had a better angle on him and continued firing even as Mat ran along the back side of the roof. Mat ran on, watching the power on his shields drop at an alarming rate. It sounded as if a cloud of hornets were flying with him as he jumped into the air again. Two bullets ripped through his failing shields. Pain lanced up his leg and through his side. He dropped below the rooftops and used his jets to land without hurting himself.

He mashed the trigger on his C4 while he was still in the air and the other side of the building exploded. Bits of the wall were thrown into the air and part of the roof collapsed. All sounds from the TR disappeared with the blast. Mat never saw where the C4 had landed but it was an encouraging sign.

Mat hit the ground and tried to run but he found that his leg would hardly support him. He resorted to short bursts with his jets as a sort of crutch for that leg, hopping away on the other leg. There was no sound of pursuit. He found an alcove in a back alley several streets away and fell back against the wall, gritting his teeth in pain. He was bleeding but the shields around his suit were slowing it to the point that it wouldn’t be life threatening. The sound of boots running alerted him to Trevor even before he heard his voice.

“Mat? Mat, where are you?”

“I’m here,” he called back.

Trevor came around the corner of the alley and jogged up to him. He looked unhurt but there were some bullet scars in his armor.

“That didn’t go as planned,” Trevor said breathlessly. “Didn’t see where they ended up or if you got them with that C4, but I didn’t have trouble getting out of there to find you.”

Then he noticed that Mat was hurt. He broke out the med kits and used one to get Mat fixed up. They sat back then to recover from the ordeal. When they felt they’d waited as long as they could, they put their heads together to make a new plan.

~*~*~

Twilight packed her saddlebag while she watched the two humans read various magical reference books in the main library room. They searched the pages diligently for any information that might help them understand the energies involved in sending them here. She had been impressed by their thoroughness and understanding even though they were dealing with concepts they had no experience with. She smiled at the thought of their eager but professional approach to the search. She remembered something else she would need while on her research trip to the Crystal Empire and trotted upstairs to grab it.

Katie put her book down and picked up another. She glossed over the title, seeing another whimsically horse-themed name attached to a very scientific looking sprawl of words that no doubt dealt with magic. She opened it up and started skimming for terms she could make sense of.

“Which one is that?” Nathan asked, glancing over.

“Pony’s Guide to Sparkly Lights? I don’t know.” She laughed at him and showed him the cover so he could read it himself.

“Meadowbrook’s Compendium of Arcane Artifacts,” he read. “Sounds like specific objects. It won’t be something we’ll need, I’d think.”

“How can we be sure of what we’ll need?” she asked.

“It says it’s a compendium of artifacts. What we need is information on anomalies.”

“What if one of these artifacts is able to help us though? How would we know if we don’t look?”

“You realize I should be using those arguments on you right?” Nathan said, giving her an amused look. “It is very tempting to look into everything I run across but I’m only resisting because you reminded me that we are on a tight schedule.”

She laughed. “Oh, fine then. We’ll follow my advice. But only if you insist.”

They both laughed. Their mirth was cut short though. A boom resounded from somewhere in town. They both fell silent and the faint popping sound of automatic weapons reached them briefly. Katie looked at Nathan in disbelief. Nathan just frowned in displeasure.

“Nathan? That can’t be what I think it is. Right?”

Nathan opened his mouth to respond but another blast sounded and more intense shooting could be heard. This time, they could tell that it was originating from the south.

“I had hoped I’d been mistaken earlier.”

“You heard fighting earlier and didn’t tell me?” Katie exclaimed.

“I didn’t want to worry you. You were in such a good mood at Rarity’s boutique. I didn’t want to upset you with that kind of thing.”

“Well this is kind of more important than my mood! Who is even here?”

“I don’t know. All I heard was gunfire.”

“We need to get out of here,” Katie said, beginning to bustle around collecting books. “We need to take what we need and get somewhere where we can finish our research.”

“Or,” Nathan said slowly. “We could eliminate the problem.”

Katie stopped, bent over a stake of books. She looked at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“Why let them force us out of here when we can easily remove them?”

“Nathan, I don’t want to get in a fight just now. Besides, we don’t know who they are or even where.”

“You know we could find them quick enough. It wouldn’t even be hard.” He patted his motion spotter device.

“And if we find them in some pony’s home? What then, burst in and shoot the place up?”

“If need be. We will eliminate the threat, wherever it exists and finish our work in peace. Nothing else matters.”

Twilight came running down the stairs and was about to exclaim something but saw that she’d walked in on an argument and stayed anxiously silent.

“How can you say that?” Katie said, standing up and gesturing vaguely out towards town. “The lives and property of others matter.”

“Not in the face of the greater good,” Nathan replied, his face impassive. “And we need to return to our homes. Our mission is more important than petty possessions and the relative safety of bystanders. We are in danger and we must act accordingly.”

“Nathan, listen,” Katie said, folding her hands in front of her in emphasis. “We are not about to stalk through the streets and kick down doors in search of possible threats.”

“Are you suggesting we wait for them to find us?” Nathan countered.

“I’m suggesting we remove ourselves from the problem without getting involved! I’m a scientist, not an inquisitor!” Katie shouted.

The door burst open, framing a pair of red-garbed humans.

“Nobody will expect what we just ran into out there,” the leader announced.

Silence reigned for exactly three seconds while the Vanu and Terran troops each came to the realization of who they were seeing.

Chapter Nine: Surprise and Alarm

All at once, everyone moved. The ragged Medic dove for cover and the Infiltrator engaged his cloaking device.

“Open fire!” the Major yelled, spinning behind the door frame and out of the way of the Corporal.

The MAX stepped into the room without hesitation and the twin M2s sent a hail of bullets forth. Twilight screamed and threw herself low on the floor with her hooves over her head. There was a cry of pain and a ripple in the air as the cloaking field was disrupted near the bottom of the stairs. The MAX homed in on it with both guns. The walls were shredded but no additional contacts were made. At the same time, the Medic sprang to her feet and shot out a window with a burst from her Pulsar, jumping through it and out of sight just as the Corporal rounded on her with his deadly streams of lead.

The MAX stopped firing and scanned the room for movement. Paper fluttered to the ground from the tattered bookshelves and smoke from the sustained fire cast a haze over everything. Long seconds of silence passed.

“Looks like they bailed sir,” the Corporal reported, as the Major cautiously made his way into the room.

“What in Tartarus do you think you’re doing?!” Twilight screamed at them, jumping back to her hooves and advancing on the Major.

“I could ask you the same question.” He leveled his carbine at her. “Those were VS troops, right here in your very home. Should I take it that you are allied with them?”

Twilight did not back down. Instead, she raised a force field around herself and continued walking toward him until her horn was mere inches from the end of his gun. She looked up at him with dagger-sharp eyes.

“What does it matter who they were? You just shot at guests in my home without even looking twice at them. Forget the damage you’ve caused! Forget that you could have killed me in that madness! They didn’t do anything to you! Nothing that could warrant you attacking them on sight!”

“On the contrary,” he retorted in an even tone. “They are soldiers of the Vanu Sovereignty. That is enough for them to be marked enemies of the Republic. Hell, they’d have shot us with less hesitation had we not possessed the superior firepower.”

“They were only here to research a way home! Just like you asked for help with! In fact, if I’m not mistaken, we just heard you firing your weapons out in town.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “If I find that anypony was hurt…”

“We were returning fire. And that’s what brought us back here. There are other humans here and you obviously knew that. Are you working with the NC behind our backs as well?”

“NC? You mean the third faction is here as well?” Twilight glanced out the window worriedly. “This is getting out of hoof.”

“You’re useless,” the Major growled. “Come on Corporal. We’re hunting down those two cultists and then going after the traitors.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Twilight said angrily. “If you start a fight in these streets, I will personally remove you from Equestria. Permanently.”

The Major considered her calmly, measuring her threat.

“You would attack us openly?”

“No,” she replied coldly. “I would defend my friends and subjects openly. Now get out of our town. You are no longer welcome. And I will know if you return.”

“So be it,” the Major said and stomped out, gesturing for the Corporal to follow.

Anthony hesitated as he crossed the threshold, turning to say something to the Princess. But the look on her face told him not to try.

“I am not your enemy,” she said just before she closed the door. “But you are not my friends.”

~*~*~

“So the new plan is,” Mat said as they made their way through the back streets of town. “We’ll get to this market, grab what we can, high tail it back to the farm and throw this signal beacon together. Hopefully, we can avoid any more TR until we can get some evac, or at least more support.”

“That MAX is still bothering me,” Trevor said. “Where the hell did it come from? Do you think the TR have a base set up somewhere around here that they’re calling in supplies from?”

“I’d rather not be the one to find out if they do.” Mat shook his head as he ran. “Getting shot like that really shook me up, man.”

“We just need to hold together for a bit longer and then we’ll be out of this mess.”

They kept moving through town. Ponies had just begun to venture back out into the streets. Any who saw the two soldiers quickly scurried back inside or ran away. Mat tried not to let it bother him but in the back of his mind he knew he was the reason their lives were being upended by violence.

They reached the city hall again and didn’t see any signs of the TR. What they did see was a small crowd of ponies surveying the damage. A large chunk of one roof was lying in the road and bits of debris covered everything. The building it belonged to was little more than a husk, leaning in on itself like an old man bent with age. A pair of ponies, who looked to be medics, were stooped over another pony, treating the other’s injuries. Mat could hear the mare whimpering in pain even without getting closer.

Neighbors and perhaps family were huddled close by, drawing some comfort from each other’s closeness as they tried to get over the shock of what had happened. Across the way, the same official looking mare that had tried to stop them from getting to the top of the hall was discussing the damage with another pair of official looking stallions. She gestured to the ruined house once or twice but always returned to the hall. Most of the windows on that side of the building had been shot out by the MAX and bullet holes scarred the structure.

Trevor and Mat slowed down to a walk as they took in the scene. Some ponies began to notice them and eyed them suspiciously. A few mares shooed their foals indoors as the humans passed. The officials took notice of them after a silence fell across the square. There was no malice in their gaze, only blame. Mat tried to shake the feeling it caused him but wasn’t able to manage it. From the look in Trevor’s eyes, he wasn’t having any better luck.

The ears of every pony in the square perked up and all heads turned north as more weapons’ fire echoed through the town. Most of the onlookers returned to their homes more out of worry than fear, clearly losing the will to continue reacting with urgency. Sustained fire was coming from the north and the NC knew from experience that they were hearing the M2s of the TR MAX. They took one look at each other and quickened their pace.

“That MAX survived,” Mat observed when they’d left the city hall behind and the gunfire had subsided once more into tense silence.

“I figured it had,” Trevor said with a nod. “There’s just one thing that worries me though. What was it just firing at?”

Mat was taken aback. “I hadn’t even been thinking about that. Shit, who could it have been?”

“Well, the way I see it,” Trevor said as they came to the end of the row of houses before the open fields fronting the market. “It could be anyone: More of our boys, some ponies they’ve managed to piss off, or even-“

A bolt of blue-purple light zipped by Trevor’s head and hit Mat in the shoulder, causing his shields to buckle.

“Fucking lasers!” Mat yelled, ducking back behind the last house to the familiar tune of his chirping shield indicator.

Trevor returned fire blindly before throwing himself backwards as well. Another bolt of light cut through the air where he had just been. Mat caught his breath while he waited for his shields to come back. He peeked around the corner and ducked back quickly but no shots were fired. He glanced over at Trevor behind him and saw a ripple in the air. Before he could even try to warn him, an Infiltrator appeared with a zip and stabbed at Trevor. Trevor heard the sound and turned away from the Force Blade reflexively. It bit into his shields and stopped at the armored plates of his suit.

Trevor grabbed the Infiltrator by the wrist, twisted him around and struggled to throw him back. Mat raised his Mercenary and waited for a clear shot. Trevor threw himself sideways and out of the way. The Infiltrator staggered with his sudden freedom. Before he could right himself, Mat opened fire. The Infiltrator was hit full in the chest by the burst. No shields were in evidence and the Vanu soldier went down. Trevor snatched up his Brawler and fired two rounds at the body for good measure.

“Fuck you, bitch. Teach you to knife me!” Trevor spit on the body.

His display of disrespect earned him a volley of laser fire from farther down the street. His shields hadn’t yet recovered from the knife and the bolts of plasma ripped into his armor. Mat’s shields were in better shape and he threw himself in front of his comrade. Trevor hobbled around the corner and took off as fast as he could to the south. Mat ducked and wove as the enemy soldier continued firing. He followed Trevor as quickly as he could, his shields buckling and a bolt cutting into his back as he ran. He didn’t look back.

~*~*~

Katie waited less than a second after she saw the last NC soldier disappear around the corner before jumping up and dashing to reach Nathan. She threw herself to the ground at his side and fired her applicator at him.

“Please! Oh please, Vanu, work!” she whispered desperately. “How stupid I must be to have forgotten to count!”

The nanites spread out over the wounds and slowly but surely sealed them shut. Nathan began breathing again. Katie fell back and sat there, numbly watching him come to. Never before had she been so afraid of being too slow. He raised his head to look around before rolling over and coming back to his feet. He looked down at her questioningly, offering his hand to help her up.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I’m…fine,” she said, accepting his hand and getting up dazedly.

“Good,” he said, looking off in the direction the NC had been heading. “Because we need to get after those two quickly before they have a chance to regroup and set up for us…”

“No,” Katie said, pulling her hand away from Nathan’s. “We are not doing that again.”

“What do you mean?” Nathan asked, not sure why she was suddenly so hostile.

“Because it was stupid and dangerous and completely foolish!” she yelled.

“Fine. We’ll go at it differently. I won’t try the close quarters method this time.”

“You’re damn right you won’t be doing that again! If they hadn’t run when they did, I might not have gotten to you in time! And then….then I…” She chocked on the words and turned away from him.

“Katie, I’m sorry.” He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “But it worked out. I trusted you and you came through. I promise we’ll be more careful this time. But we have to get after them before they get too far ahead of us.”

She pushed his hand away. “We didn’t even get one of them when they weren’t expecting us! How do you think we’ll take them both now that they will be expecting us?”

Nathan was silent for a time. “How do you propose we continue then?” he asked evenly.

“We need to get out of the streets, first off.” She looked around. “We need somewhere we can make a real plan.”

“Rarity’s,” Nathan said.

“I suppose,” Katie conceded.

They headed off to the east to the boutique, keeping an eye out for both the NC and TR. When they arrived, they were greeted warmly by a somewhat surprised, but high-spirited Rarity.

“Darlings! Back so soon?” she asked as she swept them inside and bustled around getting them a tray of tea. “I’ve been so busy since you left! I seem to have underestimated my own enthusiasm for this project!” She giggled madly as she set the tray in front of them.

Katie smiled wanly as she accepted her cup. Nathan just watched the Unicorn curiously as her energy continued to bubble over.

“I’ve made excellent progress so far. I made up the material much faster than I’d thought. And before I knew it, I’d nearly finished your suit,” Rarity went on, indicating Katie. She turned her attention to Nathan. “I haven’t forgotten about you, darling. I should be able to finish yours up in…oh dear.”

She looked at the state of his suit, noticing for the first time that the front was torn open completely and stained with blood.

“Did…did I miss something?” she asked, glancing between them apprehensively.

“Wait,” Nathan said. “You mean you don’t know what’s been going on? You haven’t heard?”

“Well, I suppose not. I’ve been so in the zone, as it were, that I must not have been paying any attention to, well, anything else.”

“You didn’t hear any of the fighting out there?” Katie asked.

“Fighting?! Heaven’s no! I haven’t heard…well, there were a few sounds a while back that I couldn’t place, but I didn’t fret over them. What fighting has there been?”

They briefly filled her in on the presence of TR and NC forces in Ponyville while Rarity brought Katie’s suit down.

“That’s just dreadful,” Rarity said with wide eyes. “If there’s anything I can do, all you have to do is ask.”

“You’d be prepared to get involved?” Katie asked. “Do you know how dangerous it would be?

“Oh, I’m well aware that danger exists,” Rarity said, putting her hoof over her heart to reinforce her resolve. “But the fact remains that my friends need help and I am not about to sit idly by while I am able to offer that help.”

Katie finished getting the new suit on and admired herself briefly in the mirror.

“I wish I had the time to fully appreciate this. But you’ll have to settle for quick thanks, Rarity.” She picked up her Pulsar and checked the battery. “Because we have work to do.”

Chapter Ten: Regroup

Both TR soldiers were silent all the way back to Fluttershy’s cottage. Gadrik didn’t seem to have anything to say about what had just happened and seemed equally unwilling to share with the Corporal whatever plan they were following now. Anthony, for his part, was content to leave the silence where it was. It gave him time to think over his place in recent events. Twilight’s words were still ringing in his ears.

You just shot at guests in my home, she’d yelled. They didn’t do anything to you!

There was no way around it. They’d fired first. No, he’d fired first. Anthony winced as he corrected himself. Twilight had yelled at the Major but Anthony was the only one who actually pulled the trigger. He felt hot guilt churning in his stomach. The Princess was probably the only one who even had an idea of how to help them and she’d just kicked them out of town. He’d put as many holes in their chances of getting back to Auraxis as he had in the walls of her home.

You might think it’s the only choice. But it will still be you that starts the fighting.

Fluttershy’s words came back to him hauntingly. It was almost prophetic. What would have happened if they’d followed her advice? Would the Vanu soldiers have put aside the war and worked with them to get home? The NC had been determined to fight them. But, then again, hadn’t he and the Major ambushed them too? No matter how he looked at it, all of this trouble seemed to his fault. Fluttershy’s cottage came into view and Anthony made his decision.

“Sir?”

The Major looked up, seemingly startled that the Corporal had broken the silence.

“Yeah?” Gadrik grumbled, going back to staring at the path in front of his boots. “What do you want?”

“Permission to disarm? Once we’re at Fluttershy’s?”

“I don’t care.”

The Major’s sullen tone would have worried him if he weren’t dealing with his own internal conflicts. Anthony moved ahead, outpacing the Major by a half step. The loud thud of his footfalls summoned Fluttershy from inside her cottage and she watched with a mixture of worry and curiosity as he approached. He walked into the yard and stopped facing the cottage. His armor hissed and swung away. Fluttershy saw the look on his face as he stepped out of the suit and chose to let him speak first, waiting expectantly. Anthony tried several times to form the words but every time he took a breath to begin, he let it out again as a sigh and started over. He didn’t get the chance to finish because the Major caught up to him.

“We screwed up,” Gadrik said with no preamble, addressing Fluttershy bluntly. “Do you mind if I grab a chair inside? I need a minute to think.”

She opened the door for him and he stepped inside with a gruff nod of appreciation. She turned back to Anthony.

“Do you want to sit down while we talk?” she asked, gesturing to a shady corner of the yard.

He nodded and joined her at the base of a tree.

“The Major said it,” Anthony said when he finally found his voice. “We made a huge mistake. A bunch of them.”

Fluttershy put a hoof on his shoulder.

“But you’re both alright. You both made it back.” She paused as she approached a subject she did not feel enthusiasm for. “Did you win?” she asked tentatively.

“No. We fought, but nobody won.” Anthony let his head fall back against the trunk and stared up through the leaves with a sigh. “But we all managed to do serious damage in town.”

Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hooves. “Was anypony hurt?”

“Probably. The Major and I didn’t wait around to see. And it didn’t even pay off since I don’t think we took out any of the enemy.” Anthony shook his head. “You were right. Going on the offence was a bad idea. I mean, we even promised the Princess that we wouldn’t start anything and we ended up shooting up her home!”

“Is Twilight okay?!” Fluttershy gasped.

“She is, but she’s angry with us. Angry enough that she kicked us out of town.” Anthony groaned and put his head in his hands. “I just wish I could fix this.”

“Oh dear. If there’s anything you need, just ask.”

“That’s why I’m asking if you can forgive me,” he said, looking up at her.

“Of course I forgive you. I know you would never try to do something like that.”

Anthony held his tongue, knowing that he hadn’t been thinking enough to stop himself from doing anything.

Just following orders, he thought bitterly. As long as it’s coming from higher up the command chain, it’s the right thing to do.

“Twilight was our only hope of getting home,” he said instead. “If I could just talk with her and apologize for all of this, do you think she could forgive us too?”

“I do. Twilight is a good friend of mine and very understanding. If I explain that you only want to apologize, I’m sure she won’t be angry at you for coming back into town after she kicked you out.”

“Really?” he asked skeptically.

“Really,” Fluttershy replied with a reassuring smile.

“I’m glad to have you as a friend, Fluttershy. I feel like I’ve been missing someone like you my whole life.”

She smiled sympathetically and offered him a hug. He accepted it gratefully. They held each other that way for long minutes.

“Anthony?” Fluttershy asked. “You don’t mind scratching my ears like you did before, do you? It…it felt kinda nice.”

Anthony looked down at her in mild surprise and smiled. She leaned against him while he worked his hand through her mane and around behind her ears as they both relaxed in the peaceful moment.

~*~*~

“Looks like the TR and NC went a few rounds out here,” Nathan observed as they passed the city hall.

The rubble was being cleared from the streets but the damage to the houses and the hall itself remained silent testament to the battle. Katie saw a dark stain in the dirt to one side of the ruined house and hoped that it wasn’t the blood she feared it was. Eyes watched from windows as they passed, fearful and suspicious. Nathan strode through the street, alert but untroubled. He shifted his Phantom in his hands as he checked down each side street and alley they passed.

Rarity took in the destruction with open-mouthed shock. She ran ahead to speak with an official looking mare near the city hall. When she returned to the two soldiers, she wore a look of resolve.

“It was those others you spoke of that did this, that much is sure,” she said, marching into the lead and forcing them to hurry to keep pace. “Those NC and TR, shooting their way through town!” she said with an aggressive huff. “It makes me so angry that they could have this kind of disregard for the safety of others. If they’re going to fight, they should at least have the common courtesy to take it somewhere else.”

“You won’t have to worry about them being in town much longer,” Nathan said. “We’ll see to that.”

“Oh, will we?” Katie asked sarcastically. “And just how do you intend to go about that? Send them the bill for the damage?”

“That might scare off the NC,” Nathan mused.

Katie didn’t laugh.

“Do you want to just let them have their way with this town?” Nathan countered.

“No,” Katie admitted. “But we’re not equipped to deal with the kind of firepower they have.”

“We have everything we need,” Nathan replied. “We simply need to implement a plan that complements our means.”

“There’s nothing simple about that! For Vanu’s sake, we’re dealing with a MAX!”

“And we’ve been able to handle similar situations in the past,” Nathan argued. “We will do so here.”

“What makes you so sure, so confident, that you’re willing to go charging off into nearly certain death like this?” Katie asked with a huff of exasperation.

“We will be victorious here because we must,” Nathan said, his voice ringing with conviction. “It is as simple as having faith in Vanu. We have been provided with all of the knowledge and skill to win this battle. I trust in that with my entire being. You should have faith in us as well.”

“I have faith in us,” Katie said, subdued. “But do we really need to go out looking for a fight? Why can’t we let them fight amongst themselves and busy ourselves with getting home?”

“Because their presence is a threat to everything this place represents. They will inevitably despoil the magic of this land and if left unchecked, could destroy our opportunity to learn what secrets these ponies can offer. And this town will suffer the longer we wait. You can see what they did in just one afternoon.” he said, gesturing behind them.

Katie looked back involuntarily. That was when she noticed that Rarity had fallen behind them, picking at a bit of rubble that had been blown clear down the block from the city hall.

“You know, Nathan,” she said, feeling the need to break up the argument. “It might be a good idea for you to go on ahead and make sure it’s clear all the way back to Twilight’s. I’ll catch up.”

Nathan nodded and engaged his cloak. She watched the HUD indicator slip ahead and disappear down the street. A wave of relief swept over her when Nathan was out of sight. She nearly teared up with guilt for feeling that way.

“I didn’t mean to hold you up,” Rarity said, trotting up beside Katie. “I thought that, as long as I was passing through I could lend a hoof and tidy up a bit.”

“That’s sweet of you,” Katie said. “But now might not be the best time for charitable sidetracking.”

“Truthfully,” Rarity said after a hesitant pause, giving Katie a guilty glance. “I was trying to give the two of you some space. I wouldn’t want to intrude on…” She stopped before she said something that might be hurtful.

Katie let out a silent ‘oh’ and started walking again. Rarity followed a step behind, studying the other with a small sympathetic frown. Katie stared sullenly at the ground in front of her as she walked, not noticing the Unicorn’s gaze.

“Is everything alright?” Rarity asked at last.

“What is alright?!’Katie snapped, throwing her hands up and beginning to gesture animatedly to emphasize her words. “I’m walking through the blasted streets of a peaceful town that we’ve brought our war down on. Enemy soldiers are kicking down doors to try to kill us! We’re hopelessly outgunned. I’m scared, tired, and angry at just about everything! And to top it all off, I’m stranded in a place I didn’t believe was possible with no reason to think I’ll live long enough to find a way home, all the while discovering that the man that I love might not be who I thought he was at all!”

Katie took in gulps of air as her outburst came to an end and the reality of her words sank in. Her legs gave out and she fell to her knees as she was overcome with sobs. Rarity gently put a hoof around her and let Katie slump against her shoulder. Katie buried her face in the Unicorn’s royal purple mane and wept. Rarity fought back the urge to move her mane to avoid it being ruined. Katie needed this moment and her mane would just have to be sacrificed for her sake.

It took a long time, but when Katie finally calmed down enough to release her near-stranglehold on the Unicorn, Rarity helped her back to her feet and guided her back on course to the library once more.

~*~*~

“I am so tired of being jumped by these bastards!” Trevor growled as he and Mat applied healing kits to the injuries they’d received from the Vanu soldiers.

They had retreated to the very edge of town and hidden themselves in an unoccupied house. Once they were sure they weren’t being pursued, they had set about treating their wounds. Mat’s hadn’t been serious but Trevor was only alive because his armor had stopped the plasma bolts from tearing straight through his chest.

“At least we got one of them,” Mat said.

“Yeah,” Trevor said, suddenly enthusiastic. “You know what, you’re right! We got one. I think we should push that advantage. I mean, they jumped us and we smoked ‘em.”

“One down isn’t even half the battle,” Mat pointed out.

“I know that. But that’s not the point.” Trevor got to his feet and made sure his Brawler was fully loaded. “Now we know we can take them.

There don’t seem to be many of them around, TR or VS. If we can get rid of them, we’ll have all the time in the world to put that relay beacon together.”

“There’s still the matter of actually taking them. I’m not so sure we can do it.”

“Oh, we can do it alright,” Trevor said, grinning like a demon. “That Vanu soldier is on their own. You could get the drop on them and wipe the floor with them before they know to look up.”

“Maybe, maybe. But what about the TR’s MAX?” Mat countered after considering Trevor’s words. “We tried rockets and C4, man. What more are we going to be able to do to it?

“Leave that to me,” Trevor said confidently.

“Wait,” Mat said, getting to his feet as well and holding up his hands to slow his comrade down. “You sound like you’re suggesting we split up and take on both groups at once, but by ourselves.”

“I’m saying exactly that.”

“I don’t know,” Mat said slowly, remaining skeptical. “Splitting up could get us both killed. We work best together.”

“We can do this Mat. It’ll be fun.” That old sparkle was in his eyes, like he was talking about the next drop again.

“I don’t know about that.” Mat grinned. “But that doesn’t mean I dislike the idea of not needing to keep looking over my shoulder while we’re here. Alright, I’ll go with it. We’ll find these buggers and squash ‘em.”

“That’s the spirit!” Trevor clapped him on the back. “You should keep an eye out in town for the VS. Try to find a spot to ambush them from and wait them out. I know the TR have a base outside town somewhere. They have to if they keep running off and vanishing for hours at a time. I’ll track that MAX back to it and jump them while they think they’re safe.”

“This plan suddenly sounds much more doable,” Mat observed. He picked up his weapon and strapped his pack on again. “Let’s get to it.”

“We’ll meet back at the farm when we’re done with it,” Trevor said. “If I’m not back right away, just start working on that beacon. It might take me some time to actually find their base.”

They shook hands, wished each other luck one more time and started off toward their goals. Mat kept to the back alleys this time. He backtracked to where the VS had ambushed them. He found the spot but noticed that the body was gone. He frowned at the possibilities.

He’d just started walking again when he noticed he wasn’t alone. A pony he hadn’t seen or heard approach was walking along beside him, not five feet away. He flinched horribly but managed to resist the impulse to swing his gun up.

“Hiya there!” the pink pony said brightly. “Sorry to startle you like that, but you look like you’re looking for something. And someone that looks like you, looking so busy looking for things is just too interesting to ignore.”

“Um, hi?” Mat said, barely able to form a response in the face of the avalanche of words that had just assaulted him.

“You’re a human aren’t you?” the pony went on. “You look like a human. Or at least you look like what I thought a human would look like based on what I was told humans looked like.”

“Yeah, I am a human.” Mat replied, finally able to get traction in the conversation. He paused and considered her suspiciously. “How did you know that?”

“My friend Twilight told me about an adventure she had in a magic mirror. She met humans there and she described them looking just like you do.”

“Okay,” Mat said slowly.

“So, you’re looking for something?” the pony asked, bouncing in place as her excitement bubbled over. “Is it like a scavenger hunt? I love those! Please let me play too! I’m really good at finding things!”

“I’m not playing games. I’m actually trying to fi-“ Mat stopped himself, getting a sudden idea. “You know what? I’d love some help with this scavenger hunt. If I tell you what I need to find, can you bring it all someplace for me?”

“Sure! Just tell me what and where and I’ll have it in a few thousand jiffies!”

“A few thousand?” Mat raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Most ponies don’t know that a jiffy actually represents a measure of time equaling a teeny tiny itty bitty fraction of a second,” she said earnestly. “So really, when I say a few thousand jiffies, I mean I’ll have it in a really short time but longer than a single jiffy.”

Mat shook his head at her wide and completely sincere smile. He told her what he needed and then told her to bring it to the farm in the southwest. She said she knew the place and that she was confident that she could find the items in question.

“Pinkie Pie is on the job!” the pony said with an exaggeratedly serious expression and a sharp salute.

She took off so fast that Mat would have sworn she’d simply vanished if he hadn’t seen her poofy pink tail zipping around the corner down the street.

“Help sure is easy to come by around here,” he mused to himself.

He started off again. He couldn’t find any sign of the VS so he decided to check out the source of the fighting he and Trevor had assumed were the TR encountering them earlier. He found it after a little more than a half hour. He wouldn’t have known it was the right spot if he hadn’t seen the shattered glass of one of the windows. The dwelling was built inside a massive oak tree. Mat stared at it briefly, finding it mildly amusing. He decided to have a look inside on the off chance any ponies he found could point him in the direction of the VS. After all, asking politely was working wonders for him thus far.

Chapter Eleven: Loyalty Until Death

Trevor found a trail of the MAX’s footprints quickly after parting ways with Mat. He tracked them south and east toward the edge of town, just as he suspected they would lead him. The heavy prints were easy to see even in the hard packed earth. Once he was on the trail, he picked up the pace, eager to catch up to them. Any pony that he passed on his way through town quickly ran away. He ignored it and pushed on.

The footprints followed a path that led toward the forest. He slowed up and started scanning carefully for signs of what waited up ahead. He spotted a cottage tucked away around the bend in the road and saw that the path led right up to it. He moved into the tree cover and skirted around behind the cottage to determine if this was the base he was searching for. He crept up as close as he could without leaving cover. What he saw surprised him and sent a thrill of excitement down his spine.

Easy pickings, he thought with a grin.

The MAX suit was standing open and unguarded next to the cottage. There didn’t seem to be anyone nearby but Trevor figured the pilot wouldn’t have gone far. He couldn’t see anything through the windows and nothing was moving in the yard. He started toward the cottage at a snail’s pace, making sure not to make any noise. He made it to the fence and stopped. He’d seen some movement in a corner of the yard beneath a tree. He watched for a minute and then saw it again. It was the slight movement of a hand and the rise and fall of a small yellow animal’s restful breathing.

The pilot is just lazing around under a tree? Trevor thought incredulously.

He thought briefly of hopping the fence to get closer but discarded the idea. He’d make too much noise trying to get over it with all of his equipment. He decided to move along the fence for a better angle. As he moved farther, he could see the pilot better. He was leaning back against the tree trunk with his eyes closed. The pony next to him was curled up under his arm.

Not much of a clear shot as far as collateral goes, Trevor thought with a frown. Ah well, sometimes they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time and you have to deal with it.

Once he’d gotten all the way around in front of the resting pilot, he slowly raised his Brawler and took aim. As his iron sights lined up, the yellow Pegasus opened her eyes. Trevor froze, hoping she wouldn’t notice him.

Then again, he mused regretfully as her eyes went wide. I’m wearing bright blue armor. Not much hope there.

The Pegasus shouted in alarm and shook the pilot, who sprang to his feet with surprising dexterity. Trevor pulled the trigger and a spray of shot flew out at the startled pair. The Pegasus dropped to the ground with her hooves over her head as splintered bark rained down. The pilot yelled in pain as a pellet torn into his arm. The second shot missed the pilot completely but the Pegasus yelped as her leg was hit.

By now, Trevor was standing upright and raining bursts of pellets after the pilot, who had thrown himself behind a chicken coup. Trevor fired through the thin wooden structure, causing the chickens inside to panic and fly out in a shrieking white cloud.

“Anthony!” the Pegasus yelled helplessly in warning as she watched Trevor fire away at him.

Trevor’s magazine clicked empty and the pilot broke cover, headed for the MAX suit. Trevor hopped the fence and drew his Mag-Shot. The Pegasus suddenly launched herself on him in a desperate attempt to stop him from continuing to fire. He got off one shot that hit the pilot’s leg and brought him to the ground before the flurry of hooves and feathers disrupted him. He grabbed at the Pegasus and got a handful of her mane. She landed a pair of punches that succeeded only in pissing him off. He tossed her to the ground and kicked her in the chest when she attempted to rise. She went down with a gasp and struggled to rise again fruitlessly.

He aimed his Mag-Shot at her for a tense moment but noticed the pilot staggering behind the MAX suit and decided there were more important things to deal with. With some sort of last ditch effort, the Pegasus managed to get her hooves under her again and gave chase as Trevor closed on the MAX. The pilot slipped into the suit and engaged the armor. The chest piece was beginning to swing shut when Trevor skidded to a halt in front of it. He saw the mask look down at him and he could imagine the shock and fear that was on the face inside.

“Surprise, bitch!” he said with a wicked grin.

He swung up his Brawler and fired the under-barrel shot just before the plates came together and locked into place. The MAX suit powered up, stood tall briefly and then slumped forward again, standing limply and unmoving.

“Anthony!” the Pegasus screamed. She threw herself at Trevor and swung at him through her blinding tears.

Trevor pushed her away almost effortlessly but she came at him again. He gave a huff of contempt and backhanded her hard. She was sent head over hooves into the ground and this time she stayed down, dazed by the blow. Trevor shook his head at such a pathetic display and began wondering where the other TR were.

He had his answer before he was ready for it.

~*~*~

Gadrik was lost. He’d never been unsure of anything before in his entire life. But now, he was faced with a situation that he had no answers for. Home was out of his reach, his list of allies was thinning rapidly and his enemies were proving more problematic than he’d anticipated. The worst part in all of this was his lack of control. With only one soldier to command, he was lacking the feel of the command structure that had defined his life up to this point. It all left him with a headache and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He leaned back in the small chair in Fluttershy’s living room. His absent gaze found a pair of birds up near the ceiling. They returned the gaze, chirping to each other as if commenting on their thoughts of him. He imagined that they were sharing their dissatisfaction at his performance over the last day or so. He turned away with a soft growl. He played his options through again, trying to find something to do that could give him a sense of purpose again.

He could defy the Princess and return to town, perhaps demanding she help them leave this world. He couldn’t see that turning out any better than his last incursion. He could leave with the Corporal and some supplies and hope he could find some other entity out in the world that could and would offer help. It was such a long shot that he wasn’t keen to even consider the odds. He might try to stay around town until the Princess could be convinced to help them again. But counting on Fluttershy’s continued hospitality would likely be a long walk over a field of eggshells.

He sighed. Nothing seemed to be coming up favorably. In the past, he’d have turned to someone higher up the command chain, followed orders and let things fall where they would. If all else failed, he’d die a few times and call it a day. Now it was more complex. The stakes were higher and his choices were growing more limited by the hour.

Shots rang out in the yard. He sprang to his feet with wild eyes. Somehow he hadn’t thought it was possible to be attacked here. Something about this part of town had seemed inviolable and it had left him off his guard. But as the sound of gunfire continued, his mind started working again. Combat. It was a concept he had no trouble understanding. He snatched up his TRAC-5 and made his way to the door. He rejected the idea of simply running out the back door into whatever was happening and left by the front door instead.

He ran as stealthily as he could around to the back yard, all the while hearing the sporadic fire of weapons that even TR greenhorns would know belonged to the NC. As he got around the side of the hilly dwelling, the sounds of fighting stopped. He stepped around the corner with his carbine up. He saw the MAX, the Pegasus and the NC Heavy and knew instantly what had happened. Long years of experience coupled together with what he knew about the sound of NC weapons to tell him that his vengeance would be easily dealt.

He walked calmly into view of the Heavy, who looked surprised to see him so blatantly approaching. The Heavy swung up his Brawler and aimed it at Gadrik. Any new recruit would have pissed themselves and run for cover but Gadrik just gave the soldier a sneer and waited. This unnerved the soldier visibly but when he pulled the trigger, he began to panic in earnest. He had forgotten that the magazine was still empty. He pulled the trigger on the under-barrel with the same result.

The Heavy threw the Brawler aside and reached for his Mag-Shot but Gadrik had had his fun. He emptied the magazine of his TRAC-5 into the Heavy, tearing his over-shields apart and pounding through his shields. His armor held off the bullets admirably but couldn’t withstand the entire volley. The Heavy toppled over and laid still, a look of disbelief and shock on his face.

Silence reigned.

Gadrik stood over the Heavy’s body and stared at it numbly. He wasn’t feeling the same kind of satisfaction he normally got from dispensing the Republic’s justice on these rebels. In fact, he didn’t think whatever this feeling was had anything to do with satisfaction. The vengeance was bitter and nothing else. He’d done nothing to change what had happened and the death of an enemy only made it marginally more bearable.

He was dimly aware of Fluttershy struggling back to her hooves. She stumbled slightly as she approached the MAX. A nasty bruise was forming on the right side of her face and her left foreleg was bloodied. She was breathing raggedly as she limped along. She made a visible effort to not look at the NC body as she passed it.

“Anthony?” she asked, her voice breaking from pain and worry.

She put her hoof against the plates and waited for a response. There was none. The MAX remained unmoving. Fluttershy stood on her hind legs and tried to pry the plating near the chest open.

“Anthony?” she called again, more urgently. “Hold on. I’ll help you.”

She pulled on the plating with all her strength but the locking mechanism held.

“I’ve just, urgh, got to get, hmmph, this armor open, rrahh!”

She continued to grunt and strain at the plates even though they showed no signs of giving way. Gadrik finally realized what she was doing and gently pulled her away. She batted his hands away and went back to prying at the plates.

“Let go of me! I have to help him.”

“You can’t do anything for him now,” the Major explained. “Besides, those plates aren’t going to open up for you.”

“You might just give up on him, but that’s because he doesn’t mean anything to you!” she shouted at him angrily. “You just give him orders and make him do things. You don’t care about him!”

“That’s not true,” he responded indignantly.

“Yes it is!” She stopped pulling at the armor and rounded on him. “You never really listened to him when he was telling you something. You might not think I was paying attention but I noticed how many times you told him ‘I don’t care’. Those were the words you said,” she said, practically screaming at him now. “‘I don’t care!’”

She coughed violently and held her chest, the pain making her wings twitch. Gadrik opened his mouth to deny her accusation but realized he couldn’t. He remained silent and she went back to pulling at the MAX’s armor after she’d recovered from her coughing fit. He frowned at her futile attempts to reach the Corporal.

“I might not have listened as well as I should,” he said at last. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re not going to be able to pull open those plates.”

“Then help me instead of just standing there,” she said without looking back at him. “He’s in there and he needs help.”

“It’s too late, Fluttershy.”

“It isn’t too late!” she snapped at him immediately. “He’s hurt but if we can get him out of there and…”

“No Fluttershy,” Gadrik said, cutting her off as gently as he could. “I can tell what happened from what I could hear. And judging from the damage to the suit, I know I’m not mistaken. He’d have moved by now if he were still in there.”

“No,” she said defiantly. Tears built up in her eyes and she wiped them away. “He’s not de-” She choked on the word. “He’s still alive.”

“I’m sorry Fluttershy,” Gadrik said sincerely.

“He has to be alive! H-he still n-needs to tell T-twilight…”

The rest of the words were lost as her grief overwhelmed her. She turned back to the MAX and started looking for some sort of release switch. Gadrik tried to pull her away gently again.

“It was the under-barrel at close range,” he observed. “Don’t open the suit. You don’t want to see that.”

Fluttershy didn’t resist this time. Instead, she turned to Gadrik and wrapped her hooves around him tightly. The Major was caught off guard by the hug but knelt down and let her take what comfort she could from his returned embrace. Admittedly, he was taking a measure of comfort from hers.

~*~*~

Katie and Rarity arrived at Twilight’s library to find Nathan waiting outside. He was hiding amongst the bushes, nearly invisible even without his cloak. He revealed himself as they drew near.

“It looks like Twilight has been busy with repairs,” he observed, gesturing to the window Katie had been forced to shoot out to escape earlier.

The broken glass outside had been cleared away and the broken window had been replaced. Rarity knocked on the door and waited anxiously for Twilight’s answer.

“I just hope nothing important was damaged. A window or two shouldn’t be too much trouble but if any of her books were caught up in all of this…” Rarity trailed off meaningfully.

Twilight opened the door to admit them.

“It should be on the desk up there,” she called over her shoulder toward the stairs. “Just be sure to put everything back how it was before you come down again.”

When she turned back to her guests, she opened her mouth to greet Rarity but noticed Katie and Nathan. Her relieved expression fell away, leaving her stunned and gaping.

“Not expecting us?” Nathan probed.

“No,” she replied. “Well, not right away in any case. I figured you wouldn’t be back here for a day or so after…after what happened.”

“We’re not about to be scared off so easily,” Nathan said. “Our work is too important.”

“Right,” Twilight said distractedly, looking toward the stairs again.

“May we come in?” Katie asked when Twilight didn’t say anything more.

“What?” Twilight jumped slightly as she came back to reality. “No! I mean, uh, yes. Come in.”

She stood aside, smiling widely to cover for her awkward response. Nathan dismissed it with a shrug and walked in. Katie followed, looking around at the partially repaired interior. The bullet holes in the walls still gaped back at them but the books that had escaped damage were back on the shelves while those whose fate had been less favorable were stacked in one corner of the room as if in some sort of memorial.

Twilight caught Rarity’s attention and pulled her aside. She whispered to her urgently. Rarity suddenly gasped at what she heard.

“But we must tell them. If there’s one so-umph!“ Rarity began, but Twilight cut her off by magically clamping her mouth shut.

Twilight cast a worried glance at the VS troops. Nathan was giving them a suspicious look over the top of the notes he had been reviewing. Katie was looking over the damaged books, but noticed that the attention of the room had shifted and glanced around to find the source of the disturbance.

“No, we can’t,” Twilight hissed, attempting to keep her voice low enough to not be overheard. “Not yet. It’s…not what you think.”

Rarity didn’t look convinced but let the matter drop. Nathan looked less inclined to ignore the strange exchange. He glanced at Katie as if to assure himself that she was still there to support him before rising and approaching Twilight.

“What’s all this? Some sort of trouble?” he said, spreading his hands in a gesture that offered his assistance.

“No. Nothing you need to worry about,” Twilight said quickly. “But I was going to ask you, is it possible for us to move to another location to finish our research?”

“I’d rather not have to move everything and set it up again when this place is as safe as any.” Nathan reasoned. “The TR aren’t likely to attack the same place twice. Not when we obviously left after their first attack.”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably.

“Do you have reason to think they will?” Nathan asked.

“No,” Twilight said, and then changed her mind. “Actually, it might not be a bad idea to move anyway. I mean, why risk it, right?”

She searched for some sign of agreement but none was forthcoming. Nathan’s face was an unreadable mask that made his Infiltrator’s mask look like a veritable fount of expression. Twilight’s appeasing smile faltered under the stony gaze.

“Why don’t you end this little game and just tell me what you’re hiding,” Nathan said dryly.

Twilight’s expression changed from hesitant to hostile like a switch had been thrown.

“Fine. I’ll tell you what I’ve been hiding.” Her tone was sharp and filled with ire. “I’ll start with how I’ve hidden my feelings for this entire situation. I thought it was going to be a great learning experience for us both. But all of this fighting is unacceptable. I refuse to put more effort into study than I have to until all of the violence is over. And then there’s the prevalence of demands. Especially demands made of me! I don’t appreciate it when others take that tone with me and I’m sure your mood would turn sour if someone else did with you.”

She took a breath that was meant to be calming before she continued. It had very little effect.

“You all seem to think you’re so important that everypony should drop what they’re doing to bend to your needs. That isn’t the case. We see that you need help and we’re willing to offer it, but you need to realize that it’s charity on our part, not any sort of obligation to you. So I think a little appreciation is in order.”

Nathan waited for her to stop speaking before inquiring further.

“That’s all important information to share with us,” he nodded. “But you’ve left out the part that you’ve been dodging around since we got back here. Judging from Rarity’s reaction, it would seem to concern us.”

Twilight growled her aggravation.

“This is exactly what I mean. I don’t have to tell you squat if I don’t want to!” She made another effort to calm herself and met with more success. “I need you to move your research to another location while I take care of something very important here. You need to trust me that it’s better you don’t hear about it until I’ve finished.”

“I’m not sure I do need to trust you,” Nathan said, folding his arms defiantly.

“Nathan, please,” Katie said, putting her hand on his shoulder in restraint.

“I don’t see why we shouldn’t be allowed to know what this is,” he replied. “Does she think we can’t handle it? Does she think that keeping knowledge and information from us is in any way helpful to the situation?”

“Nathan, I don’t think she means to…” Katie began but stopped suddenly.

Silence fell over them all as the sound of footsteps on the stairs reached them. They all turned to see who was approaching. An NC Light Assault appeared, frowning intensely at something in his hands.

“Um, Twilight? You wouldn’t mind explaining this would you?” he said, holding up the husk of Katie’s Beamer, and in doing so noticed the other occupants of the room. “Uh…Oh, shit!”

Chapter Twelve: Friendly Fire…Isn’t

Nathan swung his Phantom up from his side so fast that it seemed to have materialized out of the air already pointed at the Light Assault. But as fast as he was, Twilight was faster. A bubble of purple energy sprang into being around the NC trooper in time to deflect the plasma bolt that Nathan sent streaking at him. The ricocheting bolt hit the ceiling and left a small scorch mark behind. The Light Assault flinched, throwing his arms up in a futile attempt to ward off the attack.

Nathan turned slowly to look at Twilight. The look of disbelief on his face suggested he thought she had committed a grievous blasphemy.

“What. Are. You. Doing?!” he said, forced to say the words slowly to keep his anger from exploding outward.

“Stopping you from killing a guest in my home!” she replied, also barely keeping her voice below a shout. “Just like the Terran Republic tried to do to you!”

Nathan shook his head. “Don’t try to twist this like that, Princess. This is different.”

“How?” she replied. “How is this even slightly different? They walked in and shot at you. Now he walks in and you shoot at him.”

“The difference is that we’re shooting first,” Nathan said evenly. “We waited for them to make the right decision and they ended up attacking us. Now we are taking matters into our own hands instead of leaving it in the hands of these incompetents.”

“Why is your answer to all the violence more violence?! How will that stop anything?” Twilight asked indignantly.

“Survival of the fittest,” he said bluntly. “We are the fittest, and so we will survive.”

“But we don’t have to kill them,” Katie interjected. “Right? We can force them to surrender, to give up, to see that we are right and that they must accept it. Isn’t that the goal in the end?”

“Not this time, Katie. On Auraxis, that is the only path to victory. But here?” he smiled with a grim satisfaction. “Here, we have a chance to eliminate our opponents permanently.”

Katie glanced at the NC trooper, who was watching the argument over his fate with a mix of terror and intense concentration. He caught Katie looking and his gaze turned pleading. She found she couldn’t look away. She was seeing him for the first time. Not as a soldier emblazoned with the blue and yellow eagle, but as a person who was afraid and alone, just hoping to see the end of this conflict.

“Listen to me carefully Nathan,” Twilight was saying, raising her voice enough to draw Katie back to the conversation at hand. “This is my home, my town, my country, and my world! You have no authority here, least of all to decide who deserves to live or die. This human came to me in peace and he has been kind and helpful. I see no reason to let you execute him for a war that does not belong in this place.”

“If we eliminate him and the rest of our enemies, there will be no war here.” Nathan pointed out. “Why can’t you simply let us finish our mission?”

“Because you can’t win without destroying this town in the process! They will fight back and my friends and subjects will be the ones hurt. I refuse to let that happen. I had forbidden fighting in this town to the TR and now I forbid it to both of your factions as well.”

“Forbid us? They won’t listen.”

“Oh really? Well that’s too bad,” Twilight said with a slight taunting sneer. “Because you only have control of your own actions. And as such, if you fail to comply with my order, it is only your failing. Now, I’m letting you stay to research a way to leave this place. But I’m letting him go elsewhere until it is safe for him to return.”

“He’s not going anywhere,” Nathan said, pointing his Phantom at the Light Assault again.

“Lower your weapon,” Twilight ordered.

Nathan responded with silence. Twilight’s lips pressed together into a thin line of intense displeasure. She turned to the NC soldier.

“Mathew? When I drop the shield, run.”

Nathan’s frown deepened as Mat nodded. The NC trooper dropped into a ready stance as he prepared to bolt, but as he did so, Katie noticed him reach for something at his belt. He saw Katie watching him and after a moment’s hesitation, he let go of the grenade. Katie was still processing his move when the purple wall of protection vanished. Mat leapt forward into the room and his path to the door brought him within inches of Katie. Their eyes locked and she hesitated. It was all the time Mat needed to slip past her and make his way to the door.

All the while, Nathan struggled to aim his Phantom at the fleeing Light Assault. The glow of Twilight’s magic surrounded the rifle, yanking it this way and that to prevent Nathan from lining up the shot. He struggled mightily but the Princess was too agile and her magic too strong for him to overcome. Then the door slammed shut and Mat was gone.

“You’ve made a mistake,” Nathan said coldly, regaining control of his weapon.

“Have I?” Twilight retorted. “I thought I’d saved a man’s life.”

He flashed a contemptuous glance at Rarity. “You didn’t even try to help us.”

“I’m sorry, but I have to agree with Twilight,” Rarity replied calmly. “He is a guest in her home. Rude would have been to not offer him a chair. But to try to kill him? Darling, there isn’t any part of social etiquette where that belongs.”

Nathan huffed at her and turned to Katie. “And you. What were you doing? Just letting him run by you? Would you mind getting the door for him as well?!”

“I didn’t mean to. It was just that he was…” Katie tried to articulate her confusion but Nathan jumped on her hesitation.

“He got away. Nothing else matters now does it?”

“I’m sorry,” Katie whispered.

He ignored her. “There is one important detail left. The real reason he escaped us.” He rounded on Twilight and raised his Phantom. “If you so much as twitch that horn of yours, I’ll blow it right off your head!”

Twilight blinked, obviously not ready for this. Rarity let out a startled yelp.

“Now, Nathan. Let’s not be…” the Unicorn began.

She was cut off by a sharp, steely glare from Nathan.

“Nathan! What are you doing?” Katie asked, startled by his sudden turn. “She’s our friend!”

“Is she? Keeping secrets from us? Vital information? Aiding our enemies?! Doesn’t sound like a friend to me.”

“She’s helping us get home,” Katie pointed out.

“A lot of good that does us if she’s allowing the NC and TR to escape as well,” he threw back at her.

“Please, Nathan. Think it through,” Katie begged. “We can still find a way through this without fighting. Just put the rifle down and we can talk this out.”

“If she’s throwing her lot in with them, then she’s made her choice and she’ll pay the price.”

He said the words with the same even tone as he ever did but there was a glint in his eyes that Katie had never seen before. It almost looked like eagerness.

Because it was behind his mask, she thought, the realization forcing her to fight off a gasp. Is this who he’s been all this time? Did I ever see who he really was?

She took a step away from him. He didn’t even glance at her. All of his attention was on the pony in his sights. Twilight was slowly backing away from him, unable to see anything but the long, dark barrel of the laser weapon mere inches from her muzzle, giving her no room to think of defense.

“Besides,” Nathan went on. “We’ve got all the information on magic to unlock its secrets right here in hard cover. Ten times as much to work with than what Vanu left us.” The glint in his eyes flashed dangerously. “We don’t need her.”

A burst of laser fire caused everyone to flinch, but the Phantom remained silent. Nathan’s legs gave out and he fell. From where he lay on his back, he craned his neck to look at his assailant. The glowing barrel of Katie’s Pulsar darkened again. He gasped as he tried to turn his questioning expression into words but to no avail. Katie watched silently as he struggled. With one last sigh, he was still. She dropped to her knees beside him and pulled his body close, her eyes clenched tightly shut.

Twilight approached cautiously.

“Katie? What did…? Did you just…?” she asked, unable to complete the thought aloud through her shock.

Katie didn’t seem to hear her.

“Katie?” Twilight asked again, this time gesturing to her medical applicator.

Katie took it out and looked at it, her expression filled with pain. She mouthed words, and after a moment, it seemed as if she were counting silently to herself. She kept looking at the applicator until she reached zero. Then she dropped it and clutched Nathan close, sobbing. Rarity stepped up next to Twilight.

“What in the world just happened?” she asked in a hushed tone.

Twilight thought for a moment before gasping in realization. “She waited until it had been too long for the applicator to work. There is a small window of time that it can bring someone back to life and she…she let it pass.”

“But why?” Rarity asked, covering her mouth with both hooves.

“Because I couldn’t let him do this,” Katie answered suddenly, wiping her eyes. “I had to stop him. And if I‘d brought him back, he’d have just ended up doing this again. I never truly saw it in him before, but he’s always been a fanatic. Nothing mattered to him except knowledge and the furthering of Vanu’s teachings. He’d kill anyone that got in his way. Now I see that he might have even enjoyed it. And over these past few days, I’ve come to the realization that the man I fell in love with…might never have existed at all.”

She bit her lip as tears again threatened in her eyes. Twilight stepped closer and put her hoof around Katie’s shoulder. Katie leaned against her and let the tears flow freely.

~*~*~

When Fluttershy finally disengaged from Gadrik, her expression was steeled with bitter resolve. She forced herself to look at the dead NC soldier. The coldness in her gaze was worrisome to the Major, who had been under the impression that this pony was a timid one. She turned to the motionless MAX suit and put her hoof against it. As she did so, her expression softened again and her grief managed to show through.

“We have to put an end to this,” she said, looking at Gadrik and speaking with ringing conviction. “No matter what it takes, this has to stop.”

“Even if that means we have to fight to end it?” he asked.

She hesitated but nodded. “I’m no good at fighting but if it comes down to it, I will.”

“No, you won’t,” Gadrik said sternly. “If there’s fighting to do, I’ll be the one doing it. I’m a soldier after all. It’s what I live and breathe every day. You’d be better suited to finding a peaceful solution, don’t you think?”

Fluttershy smiled in appreciation. “I’m sorry I yelled at you about Anthony. I was just angry a-and…”

Gadrik held up a hand to stop her as she started to break down again.

“There’s no need to apologize to me,” he said gently. “In fact, I may have needed to hear those things.”

Fluttershy wiped her eyes and nodded.

“First off, we need to talk to Twilight again,” she said. Fluttershy saw the dubious look Gadrik was giving her and added, “I know she’s angry with you, but things have changed. I’ll talk to her and we’ll work it out. You’ll see.”

He agreed reluctantly and they started toward town. It was a somber walk. The absence of the MAX’s heavy footfalls was already bothering the Major. The Corporal hadn’t been in his outfit for very long but Gadrik could no longer imagine a drop without him. He had a steady, grounding presence in the field that helped Gadrik keep a grip on tough situations. He’d been the epitome of a loyal soldier, never hesitating to charge the lines when the call came. Gadrik recalled the many times he’d thrown himself between the Major and enemy fire. It was a trait that he’d always admired in the young soldier. He would miss him.

They entered the streets of Ponyville and made for Twilight’s library. Hardly any ponies were in the streets now. The brave few who had risked venturing forth quickly scurried away at the sight of the human. Curious eyes followed them from windows as they passed, wondering what Fluttershy could be doing alongside the dangerous visitor. None dared to approach.

Gadrik took to watching for danger as they neared the center of town. There was still the very real possibility of running into whatever other NC and VS who might be about. They were bound to still be in town, and without the MAX, he was beginning to feel vulnerable. He tightened his grip on his TRAC-5. He knew it wouldn’t do him any good against the other challenge he was marching toward.

He glanced over at Fluttershy. The Pegasus was walking along just ahead of him in apparent composure, but the tiny frown and occasional nervous flick of her ear told him otherwise. He began to wonder how she would handle the Princess. Did she have a plan? Did she know something about this Princess that made her think she would listen? Was she even in an emotional state that could handle the confrontation?

What will I do if it all goes south? he suddenly thought. No use going in without a backup plan.

He’d gotten half way through the rough escape route he’d use when he decided to scrap it. He was sick of try to plan things out. Besides, his plans had been what got him into this mess. There had been too much reliance on procedures and regulations. Here, there was no need for him to outline an objective. He didn’t need an angle of attack. There was no backup to be had. This time, it came down to whether this Pegasus would be able to talk the Princess down or not. He was banking everything on this one gamble and he decided he would simply accept the results.

It was liberating to be able to forget about the process and just let the situation play out. His friend would be his lifeline and he would either sink or swim on her ability to handle what came next.

Isn’t that what a squad is supposed to be like? he mused. I might have lost sight of that somewhere along the line. Somewhere on my way up the command chain.

In the relative silence of the shell-shocked town, he could hear every door that slammed and every hooffall of the ponies retreating into their homes. He supposed he should expect it with all the fighting going on. But what he didn’t expect to hear were the curses being shouted by someone who seemed to be headed in his direction. He stopped walking as he tried to pinpoint the source.

All at once, an NC Light Assault came careening around a corner up the street and quickly disappeared down a side street farther on. A string of indistinct profanity and shouting was left in his wake. The Major stood indecisively for several seconds. Fluttershy had stopped when he did and now stood beside him, also staring after the fleeing soldier in confusion.

Gadrik felt his anger building at the sight of the NC colors. He knew he should stay with Fluttershy and stick to their plan of meeting with Twilight, but once again, he came to the conclusion that he was done with plans. It was time to act. And he was going to act with vengeance. He took off after the Light Assault, ignoring Fluttershy’s pleas for him to come back.

~*~*~

“A medic! They’ve got a frickin’ medic! That’s like, cheating or something! Why couldn’t we get a medic!?”

Mat yelled these words as he ran, lacing more colorful expressions of his anger and fear creatively throughout. Streets appeared ahead of him and he left them behind just as quickly. He had no idea if the VS were pursuing him or not and he didn’t want to wait to find out. He kept running until he was sure he’d collapse if he took another step. He fell against the nearest wall, taking heaving breaths.

He’d gone into that library looking for the VS. He hadn’t expected to have them walk in the front door.

Didn’t exactly expect to be doing house work either, he mused dryly.

Twilight hadn’t been pleased to see him. He found out why quickly enough. She managed to guilt trip him into helping her repair the window, sort through damaged items and clean up the mess left by the other fighting factions. All the while, Mat had tried to find the right time to ask if she’d direct him to where the VS had gone. He’d lost the will to do it somewhere along the line as he listened to Twilight’s passive-aggressive comments. He realized the kind of chaos he was helping to sow in this town and started to rethink his action plan. But like any good plan, it was thwarted by the Vanu.

Now he just wanted to make it back to the farm and meet up with Trevor again. He hoped against hope that the pink pony he’d met earlier had found some of the equipment he needed. They could skip town, set up their beacon away from the fighting, go home at last and never have to deal with this mess again. He could hardly believe it of himself, but he couldn’t wait to get back to the war on Auraxis. The spawn tubes were a comfort he was sorely missing with so many close encounters in this town. All the relaxing scenery in this world, and any other world for that matter, wasn’t worth the risk of being shot dead at any second.

The sound of footsteps brought him back to reality with a start. He looked out from his meager shelter, expecting to see the two VS soldiers closing in on him. Instead, he saw the TR Engineer barreling down the street at him, carbine up and murder in his eyes.

“Shit!” Mat breathed as he took off again.

Bullets hissed past him as he jumped up to a nearby rooftop and ran across to an adjacent street. He doubled back the way he came and hopped from building to building trying to put some distance between himself and his pursuer. Unfortunately, his pursuer was quick and persistent. As Mat cleared each rooftop, he felt more impacts on his shields. He knew his shields wouldn’t be able to keep recharging fast enough forever and his mind raced to find an escape.

He led the Engineer into an alley and held his course until the TR soldier was half way between the streets before hopping the roof and switching directions. He could hear the curses of the Engineer follow him as the soldier sprinted to find a way to reach him again. Mat was rapidly exhausting himself but he couldn’t slow down for fear of being caught. There weren’t any magic princesses there to save him this time. But as he topped a particularly tall building, he spotted the pink pony from earlier making her way down a street ahead of him. He homed in on her with wild, desperate inspiration.

“Pinkie?” he called, hoping he’d remembered her name correctly.

It appeared he had because she looked around to find him and waved as he came bounding toward her over the buildings. A saddle bag was slung over her back and it appeared to be bulging with mismatched items. Mat thought he recognized a coil of copper under one of the flaps. He dropped down next to her.

“I…need…a…” he said, panting.

“I’ve got it all right here!” she said, interrupting him brightly and dumping the bag out at his feet. “All sorts of metal wires, rods, and plates, some tools and even a bunch of batteries, just like you said! I was on my way to A.J.’s with them to finish the scavenger hunt.”

“New game!” Mat nearly shouted, managing to catch his breath and break into the conversation before she could get up any more steam. “Hide and seek! Know any good places?”

“Pshhh, yeah,” she said with a dismissive flip of her hoof. “But those are the places everypony looks right away. The really good places are where nopony would expect somepony to hide at all. Follow me!”

She took off and Mat struggled to keep up, using short hops with the assistance of his jetpack to close the distance.

“So where is this hiding place?” he asked as he fell into step beside her.

“You’re going to have tea and cakes in Sugarcube Corner while the seeker looks under rocks and behind trees and in flowerbeds. Isn’t that the greatest? They’ll never expect you to be sitting at a table in a shop.”

She snorted with laughter as she bounded ahead. Mat hopped and ran along behind her, wondering if this pony was an idiot or a genius.

Chapter Thirteen: 50% Off Grudges, Today only!

Mat and Pinkie raced through the streets of Ponyville. The human followed blindly, at some points suspecting they’d run in a circle. Pinkie bounded along easily, making sure not to outrun her follower. Mat was winded already and continued to tire as they pressed on. A shout caught up with them from far behind them. Mat looked back to see the TR Engineer, who had just picked up his trail and was hot in pursuit again. The distance separating them started to close and Mat picked up the pace.

“Are we ever going to get to this hiding place?” he asked the pony desperately.

“Sure. It’s right there,” she said pointing to a building seemingly constructed of pastries and candy. “Why?”

“Because I might have already been found,” Mat huffed along behind her.

Pinkie looked back and noticed the Engineer. “Is that the seeker? Did he peek or something?”

“Yeah, he peeked!”

“That’s no fair.” Pinkie mused something over before another idea sparked. “Well, as long as we’re ignoring rules, I’ve got another idea! Just get inside and leave the rest to me!”

Mat didn’t need telling twice. He flew through the open doorway and landed in the middle of a small eatery. The glass counter display was filled with pastries and cakes of all sizes and colors. Other displays around the large room expanded the selection. Tables and chairs were scattered about the main floor space. There were no ponies in sight. Mat took it in and ignored his stomach’s rumble while he cast about for a way to survive the inevitable confrontation. Pinkie entered behind him and dashed around the building, shutting doors and windows tightly and putting out the lights.

Mat risked a glance out the window and saw the TR soldier slowing to a cautious walk as he approached the building. He held his carbine at the ready as he scanned for movement. Mat ducked back from the window. He started toward the back room to find another door and make a break for it when Pinkie came back to him and practically threw him into one of the corners.

“Stay down over there. I’ll handle everything.”

Mat decided, from where he was now lying on his face with his feet hanging comically over his head, that he was tired of running anyway. He righted himself and instead started tipping tables over to form a crude barricade. He hunkered down behind the admittedly thin layers of wood and watched Pinkie approach the door.

“Don’t let him in!” he hissed at her.

She stopped and glanced back at him.

“Of course not, silly.”

Instead, she moved a huge stack of muffins into reach of the door. She stepped back to critique the angle and nodded in satisfaction.

“Perfect!” she exclaimed and trotted back into a back room without another word.

Mat didn’t know what to make of it all so he sat back grudgingly and trained his Mercenary on the doorframe. Silent minutes ticked by as he waited for the Engineer to make his move. He heard a tapping sound at a window on the second floor and then a minute later, a scratching at the back door he hadn’t had a chance to find. Mat held his breath in between these faint hints at his enemy’s movement. Then, there was a knock at the door. Not a hard knock, but a firm one. Pinkie strolled back into the common room leisurely.

“Just a moment!” she called.

She took her time, straightening various displays as she made her way to the door. Then, upon reaching the door itself, she paused with her hoof on the handle.

“Who’s there?” she asked.

“This is Major Finnegan Gadrik of the Terran Republic,” the voice announced. Muffled as it was, coming from the other side of the closed door, it still carried the weight of self-assured authority.

“The tearing what now?” Pinkie replied with genuine confusion.

“I don’t have time to explain everything,” the voice said with dismissive impatience. “There is a dangerous fugitive inside this building and I need to take him into custody. Now open this door immediately or I will be forced to open it myself.”

Oh no, Mat groaned inwardly. He was dealing with a veteran soldier. Probably a hard-ass officer with no brain and a permit to execute subordinates.

Then his mind caught up with another detail. Major Finnegan Gadrik. If this guy was a Major, he could have an entire platoon of idiots running around town. Mat saw his chances walking away, flipping him off and burning the return ticket. But he kept thinking it through and realized something else. This was the same Engineer he’d been running into the entire time. If he’d had anyone with him, he’d have seen those grunts instead of the officer himself. Heaven forbid the Major have to get blood on his boots when a dozen subordinates will do it for him. And come to think of it, that MAX wasn’t with him now either.

I’ll bet the bitch is squirming without anyone to order around.

But something tugged at the back of his mind about that detail. As he listened to Pinkie talk to the Major, he realized that Trevor had said he had a plan to handle the MAX and that he’d meet him back at the farm when he’d taken out all of the TR. Could he have been driven off after getting the MAX? Or…worse?

Mat realized what had likely happened and he kicked himself for agreeing to split up. It was his fault if Trevor had been jumped. He felt his anger building as the sound of the TR officer’s voice droned on.

~*~*~

As Twilight held Katie and attempted to give some measure of comfort to the stricken Medic, a series of sporadic shots were heard from somewhere outside. Katie flinched at the sound. Twilight tried to hold Katie tighter but Katie brushed her away suddenly and rose to her feet. Her gaze was hard as iron as she turned toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked.

“To end this, one way or another,” she replied in a tone like ice. She picked up her Pulsar and changed out the battery. “I’m sick of all of this. More sick of it than I’ve ever been before. I’m going to go out there and, Vanu willing, put a stop to this. You’re going to stay here and fabricate some way to get us out of your town and back into our world of war, where we can go back to feeling normal about all this killing and dying.”

Twilight watched Katie with an expression that bordered on horror as the Medic spoke those words with a dispassion that rang with unsettling dissonance against her usually cheery and inquisitive nature. Katie stripped Nathan’s body of his equipment and weapons, clipping them securely onto her belt. She moved him around and turned him over with all of the emotional expression of someone emptying an old, ragged backpack. When she had everything she cared to take, she checked all of her equipment a final time and started toward the door.

“Katie. Please, don’t go out there.” Twilight made the desperate plea with a voice barely above a whisper, taking a half step forward as if thinking to stop the soldier but reconsidering.

Katie stopped, brought up short by the raw need in Twilight’s words. She turned around and looked into the other’s eyes, measuring what she found there.

“Why?”

The word hung in the air like an axe blade, the single deciding factor that spelled the difference between doom and salvation. Though whose doom it meant was known only to fate. Twilight felt strangled as the weight of this terrible moment pressed down on her. In the end, she lowered her head in sorrow.

“I thought you could overcome this cyclical violence,” she murmured. “I thought you were different.”

“I am different, Twilight.” Katie spoke without expression. “And it is that difference that has become my greatest weakness here. I allowed myself to put emotions before my mission. I’ve been hurt…in ways I never want to be hurt again. And I know how to protect myself now. By putting my emotions aside and giving myself over to Vanu; heart, mind and body.”

Twilight drew back. “No! That isn’t the way! Withdrawing from everyone, never making connections with anyone, that isn’t going to help you overcome this pain. We all need someone to lean on, to talk to, and to trust…”

“Enough!” Katie said sharply but without shouting. “I’ve done far too much trusting in that which did not deserve it. I will now put my faith in the one place it cannot be betrayed. And I will follow that path to its end, whatever that may be. Goodbye Twilight. I wish we could part on better terms.”

Katie didn’t wait for Twilight’s response as she shouldered her weapons and walked out the door. She listened for the direction of the gunfire but it had fallen silent. She picked a direction and started off at a hurried pace.

~*~*~

“Well, you’re going to have to take the time to explain if you want to get anywhere here,” the pony inside the shop said. “See, we’re closed for the day and I don’t open up shop for just anything.”

Gadrik grit his teeth. It was taking all of his self control to keep from shouting back a retort. He briefly considered kicking the door down anyway. But if he ever hoped to convince Twilight to help him, he would have to show that he wasn’t a rampaging menace. Already, he’d been careful during this chase. He’d taken his shots sparingly, only firing when he was sure he would hit. But in doing so, he hadn’t been able to put out enough damage to the Light Assault to bring him down. And with this pony willfully helping the NC to escape and hide, he was losing patience.

“Could you at least open the door so that we can discuss this without shouting through an inch of wood?”

There was a pause in which he heard the pony whisper something about not wanting to be rude. Then the door opened a crack.

“The answer is still no, we’re not open.”

“Listen,” Gadrik said, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “ I don’t want trouble but I have to capture this soldier. It’s imperative that I not let him get away again.”

“No can do,” the pony replied. “Besides, I don’t think there are any soldiers in here to find. What there is to find here is a complimentary muffin and a welcome to come back when we reopen to purchase the full gift basket set at fifty percent off.”

She pulled a muffin out from behind her and shoved it into the Major’s hands, making him fumble with his carbine momentarily. He stared at it in bewilderment and then tossed it aside.

“I’m not interested in baked goods. I need to catch my opponent. I saw him going in here. Now let me in.”

“How do you know it was the same human you’re looking for?” she replied. “It could have been any human you saw run in here.”

“How many humans have you seen in town?” Gadrik asked, trying not to sound as impatient as he was. “Not many, I’d wager. That narrows it down, I think.”

“Maybe,” the pony said. “But we’re still closed. You’ll have to come back when we open up again.”

“And when would that be?” Gadrik asked, only barely able to continue to humor this pony on the slim possibility that playing her game would eventually lead to his entry into the building.

“Uh,” the pony said, reaching inside to pull a sign down from the window.

Gadrik thought he saw business hours listed on the sign as it slipped out of view but couldn’t make them out.

“Maybe in a few hours?” the pony said hopefully.

“No. I will not wait that long,” Gadrik said, taking a defiant stance. “You wouldn’t even understand what I’ve been through to get this close to catching him and I’ll not be turned away by these games of yours. Open the door and step aside. Now!”

The pony opened her mouth to reply but turned to look at something inside that suddenly grabbed her attention. Her ears flattened back and she glanced at Gadrik once before diving out of the doorway. A voice reached out to him from the dark entry.

“If you insist, then by all means, come on in!”

Gadrik, surprised by this sudden development, barely had time to realize what he was seeing before he was forced to dodge a hail of bullets.

“Come back! You wanted to get in so bad a second ago!” the NC trooper taunted from behind the overturned furniture.

Gadrik swung up his carbine and steeled himself for the fight. He wasn’t given much time. Bullets cut through the walls of the building, throwing splintered wood into the air and making Gadrik jump away as his shields were impacted. He ran several paced before spinning and sending a spray of bullets back into the building both through the door and the walls. The NC trooper stopped shooting briefly but returned fire when Gadrik paused to listen. The Major threw himself flat on the ground as bullets streaked over him. Judging by the sporadic spread of the other’s shots, he couldn’t see the Major.

Seizing on the other’s apparent willingness to stand and fight, Gadrik fired a short burst that succeeded in sending the other back behind his cover. He then sprang to his feet and dropped his MANA turret module into the dirt in front of him. The nanties spread rapidly upward into the mounted and shielded machinegun. Gadrik jumped on and gripped the trigger. He set his sights on the holes in the wall and started to shred what was left of them. The hiss and crack of the bullets drowned out all other sound around him as bits of the wall were stripped away. He saw a silhouette diving out of the way and he tracked after it, ripping apart furniture inside the building. A warning blinked on his HUD and he eased off the trigger. The turret creaked as heat dissipated from the overworked barrel. Gadrik scanned the dark interior for movement. He saw nothing. But he did hear something. It took him a while to make out the faint sound. When he did, he realized it was whimpering.

“Stop! Please, please stop!”

The voice of the pink pony repeated those words over and over from somewhere out of sight. It was a pathetic sound, made even more unbearable to the Major by the knowledge that he was to blame. As guilty pangs worked their way through him, he considered retreating. But a shadow crossed over him and he looked up. He found the barrel of the NC Light Assault and a cruel sneer pointed down at him. He fully expected to die then. But as the bullets rained down at him, something slammed into him hard from behind. He was carried out of the path of the enemy’s attack and behind a nearby building. He was deposited on the ground roughly once he was out of the line of fire. Gadrik groaned as he rolled over. He found a blue Pegasus standing beside him with a cocky grin.

“Don’t you worry Major,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ve got your back.”

Chapter Fourteen: Battle Lines

Mat ran back into the bakery the moment the TR Engineer was out of sight. He swore under his breath as he searched for Pinkie. There was a tense moment where he feared the worst. He could hardly hold onto hope that she had escaped unharmed as he stepped through the shattered glass and shards of wood behind the broken serving counter and made his way toward the kitchen. Almost every surface was pockmarked by the MANA Turret’s barrage. He himself had only evaded it by laying flat against the ground and praying the Engineer didn’t aim lower. He found Pinkie in the back corner of the kitchen, curled up in a tight ball and rocking slowly back and forth. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she whimpered.

“Pinkie,” he called in an urgent hiss. “Pinkie, are you alright? Were you hit?”

She uncurled slowly and took a steadying breath. “I wasn’t hit. But that doesn’t mean I’m alright.” She sniffled once and looked up at him. “Why? Why would that human do this?”

He could feel her questioning gaze boring into him in search of answers. He shifted his Mercenary awkwardly.

“We…I was…” He glanced behind him anxiously. “You see, he’s one of those…He was trying to…”

Mat let his arms fall to his sides and his head drooped in shame. Pinkie looked away, seeing that he was struggling to admit that he’d lied to her.

“You aren’t playing a game are you?” she asked dully.

Mat sighed. “No. I’m not. He and I are enemies. He’s trying to kill me and…I guess I’m trying to kill him too.”

“Could you stop?” she asked.

“He won’t,” Mat replied.

“Can’t you at least ask?” she pressed hopefully.

“And get my head shot off for my trouble? No, thanks.”

Pinkie pushed herself back to her hooves and faced him meekly.

“So you’ll have to...” She hesitated at the word. “You’ll have to kill him, won’t you?”

Mat nodded. Pinkie looked around at the damaged shop and sniffled again.

“Okay then. But we should try to keep any place else from being damaged like this. I hope the Cakes aren’t too angry at me for getting into so much trouble.”

“What’s this ‘we’ stuff?” Mat balked. “You’re planning to go out there and fight too?”

“I don’t intend to fight, per se,” she said, gesturing vaguely. “But I’ll help you win. I mean, if this human is going to trash the town, I have to do something to stop him. Just look what he did to Sugarcube Corner! What else is he going to shoot holes in? Because I bet it isn’t going to be the swiss cheese!”

“Er, right.” Mat rubbed the back of his head uncertainly.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked, not quite eagerly but still with the shadow of her former energy.

“We need to change up our strategy,” Mat said after a moment’s thought. “A shootout in the street isn’t going to give us much of an edge. And holing up in here doesn’t sit well with me. I’d rather take the fight to him but I need a way to get the jump on him.”

“Distractions and diversions! Got it!”

She left the building in a blur before Mat could stop her. He considered trying to catch up and form a real plan but he figured he would have to work with what he had. And what he had now was a very real possibility that he’d get another shot at the TR Engineer during whatever Pinkie had in mind. He checked his weapon and headed out the back door to find a position to wait for his opportunity.

~*~*~

“I don’t see him,” Rainbow said, peeking out into the street again. “He might have jumped up on the roof again. I can check.”

Before she could leap into the air once more, Gadrik put his hand on her back.

“Wait. First, Rainbow Dash, I’d like to thank you for the save. But second, where did you come from?”

“I was cruising back from some work I’d been doing between Cloudsdale and Ponyville with the weather team and I saw what was going down here. Good thing I did too, because you were in a tight spot.”

“I was,” Gadrik said ruefully. “Now the question is, what are we going to do about that Light Assault?”

“I was thinking we could tag team him, attacking from two angles at once,” Rainbow suggested. “You draw fire while I get around on him. Once I have him wrapped up, you can move in and finish him off.”

“That is…a surprisingly sound strategy,” the Major said, cocking his head to one side thoughtfully.

“Surprising? Why is it surprising?”

Gadrik shrugged. “I guess I didn’t expect you to acclimate to a combat mindset so quickly.”

“No sweat! It’s all about outmaneuvering the enemy and that’s my specialty.”

“I’m glad to have you with me then,” Gadrik said solemnly.

“Speaking of being with you,” Rainbow said, looking around suddenly. “Where’s Anthony?”

“He’s dead," Gadrik said with a deep scowl. "One of the NC got to him while he and I were at Fluttershy’s.”

Rainbow’s mouth dropped open in shock. “H-he’s dead? But how? With all that armor and those big guns…how?”

“He’d taken his armor off while talking to Fluttershy. He was trying to get back into it when an NC Heavy caught him.”

“I can’t believe it. He’s dead.” Rainbow leaned against the building as she came to terms with the revelation. Then another thought occurred to her. “Hold on. Fluttershy? Where is she? She’s not hurt is she?”

“Not badly hurt. She was with me on our way to…”

He trailed off as he recalled leaving her behind as he ran off after his revenge. He put his hand over his face as the counterproductive nature of this fight sank in. He’d returned to town in an effort to convince the Princess that he could be trusted and he’d gone right back to what he’d been kicked out for. He groaned at his own stupidity.

“She’s in town somewhere," he continued. "But we became separated when I ran into this NC trooper.”

“Well, as long as she stays away from the fighting, she’ll be fine.” Rainbow looked out into the street again. “And if we pull this off, we won’t have to worry about any more fighting in town.”

“We need to coordinate before we rush in there. I like your idea but we need to make sure we’re both ready when it comes time for our parts.”

“Okay Major.” Rainbow saluted sharply. “So what’s the plan?”

“You’ll need to be close enough to make your move when there’s an opening but out of sight enough that he doesn’t see it coming.”

“I can manage that easy.” Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively. “What kind of opening am I looking for?”

“Catch him reloading. I’ll get his attention on me sure enough. He seems to be itching for a fight and I’m going to see if he’s willing to chase me for it. Just don’t leave me hanging.”

“You can count on me, Major.” She saluted again. “Loyalty until death!”

“Strength in unity,” Gadrik replied with a grin.

Rainbow took off, staying just below the rooftops. Gadrik waited for her to get some separation from his position before making a mad dash to a different alleyway. The bits of wood and plaster strewn across the street by the fighting crunched under his boots. He half expected to be attacked as he made his move, but all was still. When he reached the alley, he turned to scan the area. The broken front of the shop was empty of life and the street was deserted. There was no movement anywhere. He grunted and prayed that Rainbow Dash was ready. He stepped out into the open with his arms held wide, inviting his enemy to attack.

~*~*~

Katie didn’t have to guess where her enemy was for long. Gunfire popped and sputtered a few streets over moments after she left the library. She was closing in on the source when the shots subsided again. She proceeded cautiously. She rounded a corner and found herself at the site of the exchange. She stepped back into the shadows to observe. Crouching back in the darker alley, she noted the damaged front to a pony’s store and the abandoned MANA Turret aimed at it. The best she could tell, the TR had pinned the NC down in the building. But judging from the angle of the damage on the turret, they hadn’t kept them there.

No sooner had she completed this analysis than the TR Engineer broke cover at a run and crossed the street. He disappeared into another alley. A minute of silence passed. Then he walked back into the open. Katie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He was exposing himself so obviously that she almost jumped up to shoot him right there. But she also read that it was a ruse. She couldn’t fathom how it would work to the TR’s advantage to get himself killed, but she also knew that giving away one’s position with ill-timed attacks was just as deadly as such blatant disregard for caution. And patient soldiers like her were the reason it was so. Thus, she waited for the NC to take the bait.

It only took moments. The NC Light Assault ducked out from behind a chimney above the building behind the damaged shop. He fired a quick burst and jumped to the top of a nearer building for a cleaner shot. He didn’t get one though because the Engineer had been expecting him and bolted for cover down another alley. The NC gave chase, turning his back on Katie. She waited until they were getting out of sight before pursuing. She traveled a parallel path to the two enemy soldiers, pausing every so often to make sure they didn’t double back into her. All the while, she listened to them exchange fire. The chase led them all back into the town square.

The Engineer threw himself behind a fountain and fired back toward the Light Assault as he came out of the cover of the buildings. The Light Assault used his jetpack to dodge the volley while moving around the fountain to flank the Engineer. The Engineer’s magazine clicked empty and he broke cover for the streets again. The Light Assault sprayed bullets at him as he fled, but only managed to take a chunk out of his shields. He then dropped behind the fountain as he too was forced to reload.

Katie paused to calculate her next move. As she was weighing the risks of attempting to eliminate the Light Assault while he was reloading, someone else took the initiative. In a streak of blue outlined by a prism of color, a Pegasus dropped out of the sky from behind a low hanging cloud formation and landed on the NC soldier. He flailed in surprise and the Pegasus kicked his gun away from him. With a deft flip of her hooves, the Pegasus managed to grab the Light Assault from behind and pin him in a kneeling position by standing on his legs and holding him under the arms. Every effort the human made to free himself was met with a harsh yank and a beat of his captor’s wings as she kept herself stable in the awkward position.

“Now Major!” the Pegasus shouted.

There was no response.

“Major!” the Pegasus shouted again, twisting to keep the struggling Light Assault from slipping away. “Get him, quick!”

There was still no response. Before any of them could determine what had become of the Engineer, an orange pony came barreling into the square and rammed into the Pegasus. All three of them went down in a heap. The orange pony pushed the Pegasus off of her and pulled the NC trooper back to his feet.

“You alright Mathew?” she asked him.

“Yeah, thanks Applejack,” he said, dusting himself off and scooping up his weapon.

“What are you doing AJ?!” the Pegasus yell, leaping back to her hooves and preparing to jump on the Light Assault again.

“Helpin’ out a friend, that’s what!” she shouted back, grabbing hold of the Pegasus so she couldn’t attack. “What reason did ya have fer wrappin’ him up like that?”

“He’s an NC soldier, that’s what!”

The Pegasus struggled mightily but couldn’t break free of the other pony’s grip.

“That don’t mean nothin’!” the orange pony exclaimed. “He’s only lost and tryin’ ta get home.”

“He’s trying to kill the Major!” the Pegasus shot back.

“He shot at me first,” the Light Assault cut in, scanning the streets in vain for the Engineer.

“But you killed Anthony!” the Pegasus countered.

“The Major? Anthony?” The orange pony looked between the Light Assault and the Pegasus in confusion. “What’s going on?”

“Trevor killed that MAX. And the best I can tell, this Engineer killed Trevor.” With a decisive snap of the magazine, the Light Assault finished reloading. “I don’t intend to leave until he pays for it.”

“Not on my watch,” the Pegasus said, gritting her teeth at him.

“Is that so? You’re with the TR?” He turned his full attention to the Pegasus, raising his Mercenary. “Then you picked the wrong side.”

“Wait!” the orange pony said, holding up a hoof to stop the human. “Don’t shoot! She’s a friend of mine.”

“Are you actually on his side?!” the Pegasus asked her incredulously.

“I’m not going to let some pony get me killed, friend or not,” the Light Assault said, refusing to lower the gun.

As the chaos and shouting rose to a feverish pitch in the town square, Katie watched patiently. She knew that the time to strike was near. All she needed to do was to wait for the NC soldier to step out from behind the two mares and she would have a clear shot. And if she’d heard correctly, both the MAX and the NC Heavy Assault were no longer a problem. It would be down to the Engineer and herself. She weighed those odds and found them favorable.

That was when she heard someone approaching her from behind.

Chapter Fifteen: Crossfire

Gadrik felt his shields buckling under the barrage of the NC Light Assault. He also counted down the rounds he knew were left in his opponent’s magazine. Just a sliver of shields remained on the HUD indicator when the bullets stopped. Gadrik smiled as he threw himself behind the wall of the house. He made sure his own magazine was full and properly locked in place. The chase had gone perfectly so far. The Light Assault had taken the bait and let himself be drawn out on the Major’s terms. All he had to do was to wait for Rainbow Dash to make her move and he’d have one less enemy to worry about.

With something to show for all this trouble, he mused. I might even be able to convince the Princess that I’m worth the hassle of helping me get back to my own world.

Out by the fountain, the Major heard a struggle and a shout. His grin broadened. Rainbow had done her part in the plan. Now he would finish it. He tightened his grip on his carbine and it let out a loud squeak. Gadrik looked down at it in surprise and found that he was holding a rubber chicken.

“Hi’ya there!” the pink pony from the bakery said, seeming to materialize behind him.

Gadrik jumped in surprise, pointing the rubber chicken at her before realizing what he was doing. He dropped the prop quickly and glared at her as sourly as he could to cover for the ridiculous mistake.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed, trying to keep his voice down.

“I’m here to talk at you,” she replied brightly.

“Talk at me?” he asked, perplexed.

“Yeah! See, you don’t seem like the type who would want to talk to somepony like me and you were kind of rude back at Sugarcube Corner, so I figured talking at you would be easier than talking with you. Plus, you don’t even have to pay attention, so you won’t be nearly as annoyed with me for…”

She began to unleash a deluge of nearly useless information on subjects that the Major cared nothing about, changing subjects faster than she could finish sentences. Gadrik shook his head, dumbfounded by the pony, until he heard another shout from the square.

“Major! Get him, quick!”

He risked a quick glance around the corner. Rainbow was struggling to maintain her position over the NC Light Assault. If he didn’t act soon, he might lose his chance. He turned quickly to the pony again.

“Listen for two seconds,” he said with a pleading gesture. “I need my weapon back. I’ve got to take out this target before he manages to escape again.”

“No can do,” she said with a shake of her head. “I need to keep talking at you. See I’m not done yet, what with all of the different ways to say the word aunt and…”

Gadrik threw his hands up in disgust. A new commotion at the fountain told him that Rainbow had already bought more time than he had a right to ask of her. With the pony babbling nonsense and his carbine nowhere to be seen, he went for his Commissioner. But as the weapon cleared its holster, it snapped back on him. He let out a yelp of pain and pulled the mouse trap off of his fingers. He rounded on the pony again.

“What in the blazes do you mean by this?” he demanded, shaking the mouse trap under her muzzle. “Are you trying to ruin our plan?”

“Yep!” she declared with a wide smile.

He balked at her, not quite sure he’d heard her correctly. Having exhausted all other options, Gadrik resorted to being nice.

“Please, stop doing this. I need to complete my mission or the Princess will never agree to help me. And that pony out there is counting on me to do my part. So if you’d kindly give me back my weapons, I would appreciate it.”

The pink pony thought hard and Gadrik grit his teeth as she took precious seconds to come to her conclusion.

“Nope,” she said at last. “I still can’t do it. I’ve got a mission too and you winning isn’t part of it.”

Gadrik blinked. “You’re here to distract me so he can jump me aren’t you?”

“How’d ya guess?!” she gasped with what seemed to be genuine surprise.

“You’re siding with the NC?! Why would…!” He growled and swung a fist at the wall next to him. After taking a deep breath, he turned back to the pony. “Fine! If you want to be my enemy, I’ll treat you like an enemy!”

He whipped out his chainblade and it revved up with a sinister growl. Before he could do more than point it at her, she moved. He’d missed the movement before, since he hadn’t been looking directly at her. This time, she had his full attention. Her hoof reached out like a snake’s strike, knocking the knife free from his hand and scooping it away. Her other hoof swung in behind the first to deposit a small wooden mixing spoon in the knife’s place.

“Oops,” the pony said, as the chainblade disappeared behind her, never to reappear. “I forgot one of your little toys.”

She giggled at him until he knocked her legs out from under her with a swift, sweeping kick. But instead of falling, she hung in the air for an extra second, looking back at him in astonishment. Gadrik froze to watch the strange phenomenon. Then she looked down at the empty air between her and the ground with a silent oh on her lips, and fell into the dirt with a grunt. She shook her head and looked up at him with mild irritation.

“So it’s going to be like that, is it?” she said with a playfully sinister grin.

Moving faster than the Major could react, she rolled sideways and stood up again. She then pulled out a huge, brightly colored cannon from behind a nearby crate that Gadrik could have sworn was too small to conceal it. Gadrik didn’t have time to do more than open his mouth to exclaim before a blast of confetti and pressurized air threw him head over heels into the square.

~*~*~

Katie spun around toward whoever it was who had managed to sneak up on her, Nathan’s Phantom held ready. She nearly squeezed the trigger at the first thing she saw moving, but a shock of royal purple stopped her. Rarity was frozen in her tracks at the other corner of the building she was using as cover, apprehensively eyeing the weapon pointed at her.

“Oh. It’s only you,” Katie said, lowering the rifle with a relieved smile. “I thought I’d been flanked for sure.”

Rarity returned the smile and walked the rest of the way to Katie’s side.

“What are you doing here,” Katie asked.

“Making sure that whatever you face out here, you don’t face it alone,” Rarity replied softly, offering her hoof.

Katie tried to form words but she couldn’t manage to find her voice. She wiped a grateful tear away before it could fall and allowed herself to accept Rarity’s hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I owe you so much.”

“All you will ever owe me is your promise that you won’t give up.” Rarity pulled away to look Katie in the eye. “Please don’t shut others out, dear. I cannot say I know exactly what you’ve gone through, but I would give anything to help you overcome it.”

Katie shook her head. “There isn’t anything that can undo what has already happened.”

“You don’t need to undo it, darling,” Rarity said. “You need to find the strength to carry on. And a friend is the best source of strength there is.”

“Nathan was more than a friend,” Katie said, her voice even but hard. “He and I…I’ve never been closer to anyone. And I’ve never been so misled by anyone. The man I loved was as false as the mask he wore.”

“When a friend is untrue or when they conceal their true nature from you, it can be hard to trust others,” Rarity nodded in agreement. “But you have to try. There is a chance to be hurt in every choice. But there is an equal chance that it brings you joy. Life isn’t worth living if you shun everyone else."

Katie was silent. She looked back the way she’d come, both through town and through her life. She saw emptiness in both. This town was supposed to be full of lively ponies and the war she was now fighting was forcing them to hide. The path she was now taking would leave her similarly alone for the rest of her life. She took a long, shaky breath.

“Alright,” she said. “I promise I will not give up on my friends.”

“That’s my girl,” she said affectionately, touching Katie’s cheek with a hoof.

The shouting in the square rose to a new pitch and Katie was reminded bluntly why she was here. Rarity also turned her attention to the struggle.

“Now, what are we to do about this situation?” Rarity mused, half to herself.

“I’m waiting for the right time to attack,” Katie explained. “Those two humans seem intent on finishing each other off and I see no reason to interrupt them.”

“Hmm,” Rarity said, turning her gaze to the Pegasus and the Earth Pony beside the Light Assault. “But some of my friends seem to have been caught up in this as well. We’ll have to remedy that.”

She turned and began marching resolutely out of their concealment. Her horn flashed once and a veil of light crossed over her coat, giving it an almost metallic sheen for a split second. Katie put her hand on Rarity’s shoulder urgently to restrain her.

“What are you doing?!” Katie hissed. “Don’t give away our position. That NC soldier is itching for something to shoot and the TR could be waiting for a vulnerable target just like we are!”

“I for one do not intend to wait back in the shadows and watch the fighting,” she responded calmly. “And you should know that I am more than capable of handling myself.”

Katie remained unconvinced and her concern showed on her face.

“You’re welcome to accompany me if you feel I need protection,” Rarity offered, stepping out of Katie’s grip and making directly for the others at the fountain.

Katie hesitated, unwilling to step into the sights of her enemy at the inopportune time but equally torn at letting Rarity walk into the line of fire. Her conscience waged war with her mind as both choices seemed essential to comply to. In the end, she realized she would be more useful to Rarity staying back and providing cover with her rifle. Having satisfied her conflicting obligations, Katie held her position, choosing to still keep to her concealment and wait for the right moment to strike.

~*~*~

“It ain’t yer business! This trouble is between the NC and the TR, so ya’ll should go and take a nap or some such!”

“I’m not about to sit out the fight when my friends are in danger!”

Applejack’s and Rainbow Dash’s muzzles were mere inches apart as they shouted at each other. Mat stood to one side, stunned by the ferocity of their argument. He’d never expected to see these ponies get so worked up over the human conflict.

“It ain’t right ta be jumpin’ into the middle of a mess when it ain’t yours!”

“I might not have been there when it started, but I’m here now!” Rainbow said, slamming her hoof into the ground. “It’s as much my mess as it is theirs. The NC made it my mess when they killed my friend!”

“Ya don’t understand the first thing ‘bout this fight!” Applejack replied in exasperation, gesturing at Mat. “Ya don’t even understand which side yer takin’, do ya?”

“What do you think you know that I wouldn’t?”

“Ah know plenty about the oppression the TR have put these humans through. Ah can’t see how ya could have missed it!”

“What they’re calling oppression is just the rules that were put in place to protect humanity from self-destructing! Do you even understand how bad it was before the TR came together?”

“Ah understand that they’ve outstayed they’re welcome! Everyone deserves freedom ta live their own lives, Rainbow. Ain’t no amount of rules gonna be enough to replace that!”

“And the inability to understand that causing this conflict by disobeying the rules is what’s forcing them to make the constricting rules they say are causing the conflict in the first place!” Rainbow shot back.

Mat’s Mercenary hung from a limp hand at his side. He could only watch in wonder as the argument went back and forth in front of him. He hadn’t seen anyone go toe to toe in this debate before. Not without shooting each other in between words, anyway. He’d been ready to treat the Pegasus like an enemy but Applejack’s insistence in handling her misinformed friend had stayed his hand. Now it looked like she would come to blows with the other pony herself. He cast a glance around to see if the TR had decided to show up again and spotted a vaguely familiar white Unicorn approaching from a different street.

She was making directly for him and he didn’t like the steely gaze she directed at him as she took in the scene. He took a better grip of his weapon as she drew closer. Neither Rainbow nor Applejack seemed to notice the newcomer. The Unicorn closed the gap, still showing no sign of her intentions other than her dissatisfied expression. And since he’d seen firsthand the dangers a Unicorn might pose to him, he wasn’t inclined to let her have the first move. He swung up his Mercenary and put her squarely in his sights.

“Not another step!” he commanded.

The Unicorn didn’t even pause in the face of his threatening stance. Mat shifted his grip nervously, watching her horn for any sign of magic. He flinched when she spoke to him.

“I assure you, I am only here to properly inform my friends of the situation,” she said smoothly.

“I don’t have any reason to believe that’s your only motive in this,” Mat said uneasily.

“You don’t recognize me? I was with Twilight back at the library.” She made a gesture of innocence.

Mat nearly relaxed his grip as he remembered where he knew her from. She’d been behind Twilight when the Princess had saved him from the Vanu. He would have let his guard down completely if it weren’t for a nagging suspicion that began and ended with the unfavorable look she was still giving him. And as she continued forward, he glimpsed the barrel of the Vanu Phantom rifle being slowly brought up to aim at him from the same street corner the Unicorn had come from.

“It’s a trick!” Mat shouted, squeezing the trigger and diving behind the fountain to avoid the bolt of plasma that arced past him.

Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash became aware of the new disturbances and looked over in time to see the Unicorn hit full in the chest by the spray of bullets. With sharp cracks and pops, bits of the Unicorn flew away, glittering in the sun’s light as they fell to the ground. The broken pieces continued to catch the light almost like….

Gemstones? Mat thought, recognizing sapphire blues and emerald greens in the fragmented debris.

The Unicorn herself seemed unfazed by the damage. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any, even where Mat knew bits had broken off. She considered him with a small, sinister smirk. Her coat flashed with a polished sheen that Mat hadn’t noticed before. Then her entire body crumbled away into a pile of various precious stones. The Unicorn seemed to rematerialize again several feet away. At the same moment, the TR Engineer was launched out of his concealment and into the square with a concussive blast.

Mat didn’t have time to react to any of this because Rainbow Dash threw herself into him and lifted him off the ground. They struggled as they rose higher and higher until Mat broke away with a burst from his jetpack. He let himself drop for a few moments, measuring the distance to the ground and slowed his descent with short burns. He didn’t make it more than half way back to the ground before Rainbow came back around and rammed him again. He went spinning through the air, flailing to regain control of his fall.

Ten feet off the ground, he got his pack under him and set the jets on full. He was launched parallel to the ground, crashing straight into the TR Engineer as he was picking himself off the ground. The collision saved the Major’s life as a bolt of plasma ripped through the air where he had been a second before. Mat and the Major tumbled in the dirt until Mat lifted clear on his jets. He made it five feet off the ground again when his jets were hit by the Vanu soldier’s repeated shots. They sputtered and then died, dropping him back to the ground hard. He scrambled back to his feet and threw himself behind the relative safety of the nearest street corner.

When he risked a quick look back into the square, he saw the different sides arrayed clearly. The TR Engineer hid behind the fountain again, with Rainbow Dash hovering protectively over him and speaking with him in hushed tones. He didn’t appear to have any weapons on hand but Mat didn’t rule it out. The Unicorn stood boldly in the open, or at least she appeared to. Mat wasn’t sure what had happened but he was fairly certain some manner of cloaking was involved. The Vanu soldier remained in the cover of the street across from him. Applejack had moved to stand between Rainbow and Mat, eyeing the Pegasus warily.

Mat felt more than heard Pinkie behind him, looking over his shoulder at the scene. She made no comment, possibly waiting, as he was, for someone else to make the next move.

Chapter Sixteen: Fight for Your Future

The standoff lasted for many long moments, all three sides waiting for the others to take the initiative. Gadrik took full advantage of the ceasefire to work out his next few moves with Rainbow. He quickly informed her that Pinkie Pie, as Rainbow called her, had taken his weapons. Though the Pegasus was put off by the revelation that another of her friends had chosen to support the other side, she kept a cool head.

“If we get rid of these two hostiles,” she said, regarding the NC and VS soldiers arrayed against them. “I’m sure my friends will back off. But they’ll pose a challenge trying to do that.”

Gadrik considered her for a moment. “What if they get hurt in all this?”

Rainbow didn’t respond right away. She looked at Gadrik and then back to her friends, weighing the possibilities.

“Please don’t hurt them,” she said at last. “They’re on the wrong side but they’re still my best friends.”

“It’s hard to make promises like that,” Gadrik replied ruefully.

“But, you won’t try to hurt them, right?” she asked apprehensively.

“I’ll tell you what,” Gadrik offered. “You get them out of the fight and I’ll make sure I’m checking my targets. We’ll each do our part and you won’t have to worry about a thing.”

Rainbow nodded resolutely. “I can do that.”

“What’s the matter, Major?” the Light Assault shouted, cutting through the stillness of the ceasefire. “Don’t you have a plan that includes more than running and hiding?”

“Rich talk coming from behind that wall over there!” Rainbow yelled back with a growl.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the NC replied in a mocking tone. “I didn’t realize I was running this through your pony proxy. Can’t manage to retort on your own, Major?”

Rainbow almost yelled something else but checked herself and looked to Gadrik.

“I thought you’d appreciate me allowing my allies the freedom to respond of their own accord,” the Major returned as evenly as he could while shouting. “But if you want me to override them, I could.”

“Yer barkin’ mad if ya think ya’ll have any authority over us, Major,” Applejack snorted.

“He’s got the authority over me that I give him, AJ.” Rainbow shot back. “I’m choosing this! It’s a choice to serve the right side.”

“If the right side is the one locking us up and trying to control what we think, I’m too damn happy to be on the wrong side!” The Light Assault practically sang out. Then his tone turned sour. “Sociopathic control freaks. Can’t think for themselves long enough to realize what it is they’re actually working for.”

“At least I’m not a slave to a paycheck,” the Major retorted.

“Oh, right,” the NC replied sarcastically. “Because being told where to go with no choice at all is better than putting cash in your pocket for all the trouble.”

“I chose to follow the Republic. I chose to serve and to fight. And I haven’t regretted it for a minute!”

“That’s because you’ve been brainwashed by all the propaganda the Republic is so great at spreading. You don’t know any better because you’ve never even known what freedom is!”

“You are both victims of that same trap,” the VS soldier interjected from across the street. “You were both born into ignorance and thus have never known true knowledge. If you could but see a fraction of that truth, you would realize that all of your petty ideals are insignificant in the light of humanity’s inevitable future.”

“Petty ideals?!” both of them shouted in unison. They both voiced a rebuke at the same time, raising their voices to be heard over the other.

“Those ideals are the foundation of an empire that pulled humanity back from the brink of annihilation. You would not even be here if it were not for the efforts of those who believed in these ‘petty ideals’. You owe it to the Republic that you have the opportunity to conduct your research!”

“Letting go of those beliefs would mean giving up everything that makes us human! If that’s your goal, than you’re sick and need to be put down. And don’t even start with that bullshit about it being ‘evolution’. It’s cybernetics and alien technomancy! I might not know much, but I know that’s not the same as the evolution of the human race!”

“You forget, both of you, what the reality of the situation is.” The Vanu soldier responded coolly. “Major, the Republic was founded and led by those who recognized the need to move past the old ways. They knew that the ideals that had driven the wars of old Earth could no longer be trusted to guide our race’s future. Tom Connery, one of your Presidents and also the leader of the original expedition through the wormhole, knew this better than anyone. It was his effort and initiative that led to the discovery of Vanu! He even encouraged his friend, Henry Briggs, to pursue his work with Vanu technologies, where Briggs eventually came to lead the Vanu Science Division. There is nothing the Republic stands for that Vanu did not bring into being.”

She paused briefly to let him absorb her words. He was silent, so she continued.

“And you, Mathew, don’t seem to recall the reason for our advancements over the last few hundred years. The entire reason your little company exists at all! Technology that was developed as a direct result of humanity uniting behind the discovery of the wormhole and the Vanu artifact was the basis of commerce in the Terran solar system for centuries. And before that, it might interest you to learn, the brink of annihilation the Major mentioned was a result of those ideals driving humanity down into the mire of barbarism. So whatever value you might place on them, the results they produced cannot be ignored.”

“This is bullshit,” Mathew said in exasperation.

The Major thought long and hard about the other’s words before responding.

“The wormhole was the catalyst for the events that led to the formation of the Republic. Humanity pulled itself together of its own accord, proving that those values were what we needed to survive; unity above any personal achievement or advancement. We were strong because we stood together. Only later did we discover Vanu’s influence. We did all of this of our own volition.”

Mathew spoke up before the VS soldier could respond.

“I think you’re both missing an important aspect of this. I. Don’t. Care! You can go on for days about history and philosophy, but I’m not going to buy it. And I shouldn’t have to! Why can’t you just let people think differently than you?”

“You can think differently as long as it isn’t causing problems for others. Armed conflict is one such problem,” the Major said. He then motioned Rainbow lower to speak in a whisper.

~*~*~

Katie was silent in the wake of the other soldiers’ comments. She realized that there was merit to what they’d said. It bothered her that she could be starting to agree with anything said by the materialistic rebels or the outdated warlords. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she should give it serious consideration. Given everything she’d been though today, she was unsure what she believed anymore. She didn’t think she had any tears left in her, even though the thought made her feel like she would succumb to them again.

In that argument, she’d been speaking automatically, saying what she’d believed before and saying it because it came naturally. Like a machine; input in, output out. She’d spoken with conviction born from long years of study and defiantly enduring the ridicule of the other factions for her beliefs. Now, seeing that she may have missed something in all of her studies, something she might just have found in these ponies, she couldn’t be sure who had been brainwashed.

The NC soldier poked his head around the corner he was hiding behind and Katie shifted her Phantom’s sights toward him.

Whatever he might believe, she thought. I’ll kill him if he’s going to be stupid enough to put himself in the open like that. Right or wrong, I’ll be able to sort out his words whether he’s alive or not.

The Light Assault ducked back before she could line up the shot. She let out the breath she was holding and eased off the trigger.

Just as well. It means he’s not that stupid. And if he isn’t, then I’m not stupid for thinking he might be right about something.

She kept watching the corner in case he decided to make the mistake of taking a second look. No such lapse in intelligence seemed forthcoming. She relaxed marginally and let her mind wander to the subject of Rarity. The Unicorn had surprised her with whatever trick she’d pulled. It had been some sort of hologram over a telekinetically controlled construct composed of gemstones. And Rarity herself had been invisible the whole time. Even now, Katie was unsure if the Unicorn standing in the open was the real Rarity.

Katie smiled at the other’s ingenuity. Not only was it a brilliant plan, it was a shining example of the kind of magic that intrigued her so much. She would have to make a point of asking more about it when this was over. Then again, she still needed to complete her research on finding a way home. She’d been gone too long already. She had to get back to Auraxis and the war. And the endless killing. And the blind, unyielding, senseless hatred.

She suddenly couldn’t remember why she wanted to go back. She lowered the rifle slowly. This fight was pointless. And after it was done, there would only be a more pointless fight to return to. The only difference was that this one would end, one way or another. The war on Auraxis would not. She could admittedly tip the scales in her empire’s favor by returning and even more by eliminating these two before they could return to the battle, but all she would really accomplish is to make the battles marginally easier to win. Day after day, they would have to worry about facing two fewer soldiers while relying on one more of their own. In the grander scheme, it was a negligible difference.

The only way there could be a real end to the fighting would be if the other two factions gave up. And the chances of that happening were slim to none. Even if they could be pressed to the breaking point, they would still never surrender. They would only be motivated to fight harder. Admittedly, if she were placed in a desperate situation such as that, she would never have considered surrender to be an option. So what could be done to end it all? She thought back to the merit in the others’ words.

Could the key be hidden there? she asked herself. Is there some part of all of this that we’ve missed until now?

A pink pony bounced casually out of the NC’s hiding place and Katie shook herself back to the present. The pony headed for the TR’s position as the Light Assault broke cover as well. Katie swore under her breath at not having her rifle ready and swung it back up to track the NC soldier.

~*~*~

Mat risked a quick look out from behind his cover. Rainbow was hovering close to where the Major was hiding, apparently listening to something the other was saying. He leaned out a little farther and saw the barrel of the VS weapon still protruding from their place of concealment. It shifted toward him and he ducked back. That Vanu soldier was waiting over there, looking for the opportunity to take one of them out of the picture. Then he realized that every pony except Pinkie was standing out in the open at that moment.

None of us are shooting at them, he thought with vaguely cynical amusement. Must be nice to be a pony right now. Pick whatever side you want and earn none of the enemies.

He then realized that if, and more likely, when Rainbow attacked on the Major’s orders, and if he tried to hurt her, every pony would probably turn on him. In fact, he’d fired at what he’d thought had been the Unicorn and Rainbow had been on him right away. He glanced back at Pinkie nervously and then shook himself mentally. He wasn’t about to make that mistake again. Instead, he was going to take the initiative and win this fight before it got any more messed up.

“Hey, Pinkie?” he asked in a whisper.

“Yeah?” she replied, also lowering her voice conspiratorially.

“That Pegasus Rainbow Dash is your friend, right?”

“Yep, she’s one of my bestest friends,” Pinkie nodded.

“We don’t want her to get hurt,” he said slowly. “So we need to get her out of the way while I take out the Major. Can you do that?”

“I sure can!”

“Okay, when I say…”

Pinkie bounced cheerfully into the square.

“…Go,” Mat finished despondently. He shook his head as he steeled himself for the charge. That pony has no low gear. Just one, hypersonic on button.

After a couple quick, puffing breaths, he dashed for the fountain. Applejack looked over questioningly as he surged into view and he gestured wildly.

“Flank him! Get him from the other side!”

She nodded and charged as well, headed for the far side of the fountain. Rainbow still hovered above the Major’s hiding place, but when Applejack started moving, she sped to intercept her.

“After telling me not to get involved, you’re not going to-oof!”

Rainbow never got to Applejack because Pinkie launched herself into the speeding Pegasus and dragged her into the ground in a heap. Applejack bypassed the struggling ponies without breaking stride and continued to close on her target. Mat ran as hard as he could, ducking the two shots the VS sent chasing after him.

“No! AJ, stop!” Rainbow yelled.

The desperation in her voice caused the other to slow marginally to look back at the prone Pegasus.

“It’s not what you think,” Rainbow yelled again. “Get out of there!”

“That’s an odd taste,” Pinkie said suddenly, sitting up and releasing Rainbow. Pinkie looked in Mat’s direction as she considered something intensely.

Mat caught the words as he leapt the last few feet to where he would see the Major. Only, the Major wasn’t behind the fountain. As Applejack slowed down, having reached the same conclusion, Mat realized what Rainbow had meant. He stepped into the claymore’s faint red motion detecting laser the same moment he saw it pressed back against the base of the fountain. He threw himself backward, his jets sputtering to life briefly, as the click of the mine told him he’d triggered it.

The explosion tore his shields apart and shrapnel cut into his leg and side, but he managed to avoid the worst of it. Once the ringing in his ears died down, he pushed himself back to his feet and looked around. The wall of the fountain was damaged and water spilled out from the fractured hole.

“No! AJ!?”

“Oh dear! Applejack!?”

Rainbow and the Unicorn rushed to their friend’s side with Pinkie following apprehensively. As the fountain flooded the surrounding ground, the stricken pony was lying in a darker pool. Her eyes were wide and staring as her chest rose and fell rapidly. The claymore’s shrapnel had ripped deep into her foreleg, exposing bone. Her face was bloody on one side and she was bleeding from multiple other smaller cuts. Slowly, a cry built in her throat and she let out a panicked scream of pain.

While the Unicorn and the Pegasus tried to assist the fallen pony, Mat spun around to look for the Major, determined to get him back for this. Instead, the Major seemed to have found him. Mat saw his arm flash out from an open doorway, throwing a small object that bounced once and rolled to his feet. Pinkie looked over at him. She smacked her lips as if testing an aftertaste. She considered the phenomenon briefly before suddenly grabbing Rainbow and throwing her behind what was left of the fountain.

“Take cover!” Pinkie yelled, jumping directly into the water.

Rarity dropped down between Applejack and the grenade, shielding her from further harm with her own body. Mat followed Pinkie’s lead and dove into the fountain. The grenade went off, sounding like a muffled drum beat from under the water. He surfaced again, spitting water and gasping for breath. He pulled himself out of the water and dropped onto the ground, dripping and chilled. He didn’t have enough time to take stock of the others around him because he saw the Major winding up another grenade and aimed straight at him. He took off running farther into the square, emptying a magazine blindly behind him as he fled.

Chapter Seventeen: Rules of Engagement

Gadrik wound up and threw the grenade as hard as he could. It struck the fleeing NC squarely in the back of his helmet, causing him to stagger. Seeing his opponent flailing his arms to regain his balance, the Major called out a taunt.

“That’s right. Run you—”

The Major was cut off when the NC’s haphazardly returned fire found its mark. His shields collapsed and he felt the bullets cut into him. He grunted and spun back behind the door frame. He pressed a hand to his left side to stop the bleeding, and when the motion cause additional pain to jolt through him, he realized he’d also been hit in the right shoulder.

“...you lucky bastard,” he finished under his breath.

His shields chirped at him briefly before they recharged and, together with his suit, stabilized the bleeding. Still, he knew he was in bad shape.

Fortunately, Gadrik thought with grim satisfaction. I seem to have some breathing room with that rebel scurrying off like that.

He took the opportunity to analyze his options. They weren’t doing much better than he was. He was out of weapons, save his last claymore mine. He was low on allies, with only Rainbow accounted for and he was surrounded by enemies, human and pony alike. And at the rate this was going, he would likely find himself an enemy of the Princess as well.

He looked around the building he was in and spotted a pair of ponies clutching each other and huddled in the corner of what seemed to be a living room. The holes from the NC’s latest bullet hail scarred the wall above their heads. They regarded the Major with fear and shrank from him when his gaze passed over them. If he weren’t in such pain, he might have said something sympathetic. He moved on in his examination of the house and noticed a door that led to what appeared to be a kitchen.

His rapidly thinning options seemed to leave him little choice and he sighed in defeat at what he was stooping to. He walked into the kitchen, gritting his teeth against the pain, and grabbed a sharp knife that fit more or less into his sheath. He walked back to the door and took stock of the scene. The first thing he saw was the injured pony and the Unicorn by the fountain. The Unicorn seemed to have interceded between the grenade and the other pony. But the Major noticed that she did not appear injured. Instead, bits of gemstones littered the ground around her, obviously blasted away by the shrapnel.

And as the Major expected, the Unicorn’s body crumbled away into a pile of gemstones just as it had before. Gadrik watched them closely this time, determined to learn the secret of the impressive trick. The Unicorn appeared from behind the fountain and rushed back to Applejack’s side. As she did so, Gadrik saw the gemstones shudder and move toward her. They turned invisible when they touched her hoof and she shimmered. Gadrik peered closer and saw a ripple in the air detach itself from the Unicorn and move away. He grinned to himself.

She keeps replacing herself with the gems and using invisibility to escape danger. Have to admit, it's a smart strategy.

Rainbow also emerged from behind the fountain and moved to the fallen pony’s side. She exchanged a few words with the Unicorn and received a curt response that Rainbow was visibly offended by. When she tried to respond, the Unicorn shoved her away with a burst of magic. The Pegasus recoiled, obviously hurt and outraged at the same time. She struggled with words for another second before retreating toward the Major.

“I’m sorry,” the Major said sincerely, the moment Rainbow was close enough to hear him.

She hardly looked at him as she passed through the door and landed at his side.

“Don’t be. Applejack made her choice,” Rainbow said with spite sharpening her words. “I warned her and she didn’t listen. The same way she didn’t listen to reason when she decided to be against us.”

The Major was silent, considering the change he was seeing in her and not liking what he saw. The silence wasn’t long. Rainbow lifted her wing to reveal Gadrik’s Commissioner.

“I managed to grab one of your guns,” Rainbow said, holding out the Commissioner to him. “Pinkie dropped it when she tackled me.”

“Excellent work,” the Major said, taking the pistol and checking the ammo. “We’ll end this soon, I promise.”

Rainbow looked at him then. She was on the verge of tears.

“I hope so. I don’t think I can take much more of this.”

There was a pair of quick flashes of light from outside and they looked back toward the fountain. The incapacitated pony was gone and the Unicorn was looking around, bewildered. The color of the light was reminiscent of the shield that Gadrik had seen the Princess use back at the library. He looked around but saw no sign of her. Still, to be safe, he decided to operate under the assumption that she had arrived to intervene.

“What’s the plan?” Rainbow asked.

“Move our position. We don’t want to be predictable. Stick close to me until we know enough to put a real plan together.”

Gadrik glanced out into the square. He saw the Unicorn galloping into the city hall and no one else. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, the Light Assault and the Medic were out of sight.

“Let’s go. Before they pin us down in here.”

“Wait. You’re hurt,” Rainbow pointed out.

“We all are,” Gadrik muttered as he stepped out into the square once more, Commissioner held ready. The two made their way stealthily toward the city hall.

~*~*~

The grenade struck Mat a solid blow and lights flashed before his eyes as he ran. He heard his magazine click empty and decided he needed to do better than just run and shoot blindly. Instead, he veered toward the city hall as the grenade exploded ineffectually behind him. He dropped the empty mag and pulled out another. As he did so, he realized it was his last mag and it wasn’t even full. He continued resolutely toward the closed door of the city hall.

Not breaking stride, Mat rammed his shoulder into the door and it flew open. He stumbled into the room and glanced around. What he found was the last thing he expected. The VS medic was staring back at him with as much shock as he felt from across the open layout of the ground floor. She blinked once. Her Pulsar and the infiltrator’s Phantom were slung at her side and out of the way while his weapon was gripped tightly in front of him at the ready. He swung up the Mercenary and pulled the trigger as fast as he could, but she managed to make her move first.

She pulled a grenade from her belt and threw it hard. As she followed through with her throw, his bullets hit her. They ripped her shields apart and pierced her body. She gasped in pain and crumpled to the ground. The grenade went wide of him and he heard it bounce off the wall behind him. He knew it would be rolling back toward his feet and that he had to move to avoid it. He sprinted back through the doors, rounded the corner and kept running past the city hall and back into the streets.

What the hell is it with everyone and fucking grenades all of a sudden?

He’d heard the grenade discharge but it took a few moments to realize that it hadn’t been the sound of an ordinary frag. He racked his brain for the kind of grenade it had been and then skidded to a stop.

“That clever little bitch,” he breathed. “A revive grenade?!”

He leaned against a wall to catch his breath and let his mind catch up with him as well. After panting for several seconds, he got his wits about him.

“Pinkie?!” he shouted, hoping she would find her way to him.

He didn’t have to wait long. She zipped around the corner and stood on her hind legs, pressing her back against the wall beside him. Her chest heaved as she, too, caught her breath.

“Yeah? What did you need?” she asked. By the sound of her voice, she was badly shaken by today’s encounters.

“You did a great job disarming the Major. Do you think you could do that again with the VS in there?” He gestured toward the door of the city hall.

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” she said.

She still sounded a bit distressed but she once again ran off before he could say anything more. He sighed and accepted it with a shrug. He decided he’d better get into position before shit hit the fan again. She was working wonders with everything he asked of her. He just needed to try to keep up with her until he could capitalize on it for a win. He worked his way around the square in the back alleys, trying to flank the city hall. He wanted to be right on top of it by the time Pinkie had her way with the VS. He went over the situation in his mind as he maneuvered.

He could be fairly sure the Major was out of weapons at this point. And the VS seemed to be avoiding a direct firefight. If he could get the drop on the Medic and finish her off, it would be down to him and the Major. The results there were obvious. The NC could win this day if he kept his head about him. Still, he wasn’t in the best shape. He’d been torn up by the claymore, though his shields were back to full. His jets seemed to have been damaged but were still partially functional. He was down to his last mag in his…

He looked down at the Mercenary in his hands. With a chill of fear, he slipped the mag out and looked at it. It was empty.

Taking out that medic, he thought bleakly. For all the good that did.

He put the empty mag back into the weapon with trembling hands.

I just about ran head long into this with an empty mag. I almost fucked up in the worst way!

He slung the weapon and pulled his Mag-Shot, checked its magazine in paranoia and moved ahead once more. He felt the odds against him coming back closer to even and he sighed.

If nothing else, it will at least be interesting.

He crossed into the square again, striding up to the city hall from behind and skirting around toward the front.

~*~*~

Katie came to with a groan. As soon as she could manage to move, she rolled to one side and leveled her Pulsar at the empty door. For one tense moment, she wondered where the Light Assault was hiding. As seconds of silence ticked by, she realized he had probably not realized her strategy and left assuming she was finished. She relaxed marginally and retreated farther into the building before any more surprises found her. She shook her head in incredulity. It had seemed like such a good idea to change up her location after firing from the same spot twice. Yet somehow, the NC had managed to charge straight into her new position the moment she’d closed the door.

She cursed her lack of training with the Phantom as she made her way up the stairs. If she’d been half as good with it as she was with a Beamer, she would have dropped both of her opponents by now. As it was, it was still the better weapon for her situation, so long as she could find another vantage point. As she crept up the stairs to search the second floor, she became aware of a pony at her side. She froze, shocked that she hadn’t realized the mare was with her until just then.

The pink pony stopped with her, leaned in close and whispered to her conspiratorially. “What are we searching for?”

“We…I, um,” Katie stumbled with her words briefly. “Who are…I mean, what are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” the pony said simply. “My name is Pinkie Pie. What’s yours?”

“I am Katie Lani, Disciple of the Vanu Sovereignty.”

Katie held out her hand cautiously and Pinkie shook it warmly. Katie recovered from her shock quickly and remembered something strange that had been waiting in the back of her mind for an opportunity to be considered. Now, such an opportunity was shaking her hand and smiling.

“Actually Pinkie, there is something I wanted to discuss with you.”

“What’s that?”

They continued up to the top of the stairs and found a room that looked down on the square.

“Your involvement at the fountain just a moment ago,” Katie said. “I wanted to know what it was you did, specifically your reactions to the TR.”

“You mean all of those explosives?” Pinkie asked after thinking back.

“Precisely. I could have sworn I heard you say something about an ‘odd taste’ and look toward the claymore, even though you couldn’t have known it was there.” Katie watched the pony closely for any reaction. “I saw a similar expression on your face just before the Major threw the first grenade as well. Care to explain?”

Pinkie nodded sagely. “That’s my Pinkie sense. It’s what I call it anyway. I get strange feelings that warn me when something is about to happen. I’d never gotten that one before but once things started exploding, I figured it out.”

“What kind of strange feelings?” Katie pressed.

“They’re all different, depending on what is about to happen. This one was kind of a weird taste in the back of my mouth. Like onion and banana juice. And…maybe pickles?” She looked at Katie for her opinion but the Medic could only shrug. “Anyway, Now I know that one means things are about to explode! Not a bad one to know about, eh.”

“I can see the practical applications of—”

Katie stopped speaking as rapid steps approached from the floor below. She reached for her Pulsar but couldn’t find it. She cast about hurriedly but it had vanished. The Phantom had also disappeared.

“Pinkie, where is my…” Katie began, but stopped again when she saw her weapons, including her Force Blade, Proximity Mines, C4, and remaining grenades being carried swiftly out of the room by the pink pony. “Pinkie?!”

Rarity reached the top of the stairs at the same time Pinkie did and stared in confusion as the other raced by with the weapons.

“Pinkie, darling? Where in Equestria are you going with those?”

“No time to talk, jobs to do!” she replied without looking back.

She disappeared down the stairs and fled the building in a flurry of pink. Rarity turned to Katie again, questions in her eyes. Katie was stunned. She’d been so busy with the discussion that she hadn’t noticed Pinkie lifting her equipment. Katie realized too late that Pinkie had been with the NC while charging the fountain.

“What just happened up here?” Rarity asked.

“Pinkie just took my weapons while distracting me,” Katie answered in a detached voice. She reached to her belt unconsciously and found Nathan’s Beamer still safely tucked away in its holster behind her applicator. “But she didn’t get all of them.”

She drew the Beamer solemnly.

“It’s time to end this,” she said. “There are no more tricks, no more running. And I’ve run out of patience for this conflict.”

Rarity nodded slowly in understanding. They descended the stairs together and headed for the door. The door was still open and they approached it cautiously. They strode through it and looked around. She looked one way and then the other…

…and then did a double take in both directions. She heard Rarity let out a squeak of surprise and fear when she saw what waited for them. On her left was the NC Light Assault, Mag-Shot held ready and a grim set to his jaw. On her right, the TR Major was advancing with his Commissioner in steady hands and a steely gaze directed at her. Pinkie Pie crouched beside the Light Assault, ready to leap into action. Rainbow Dash coiled to spring forward from the Major’s side at his word.

For a fraction of a second, all three groups were frozen, each as surprised as the others. For a fraction of a second, the world stood still, holding its breath to see what would happen. For a fraction of a second, Katie was able to see her life in perfect clarity, from the first she could remember to the moments leading up to this one. And in that fraction of a second, in the space between synapses firing in the brain, she wished she could say she was sorry.

Then everything disappeared in a cacophony of gunfire and light.

Chapter Eighteen: We are Tomorrow

Pinkie had worked her magic again. The VS weapons had been snatched away and deposited in a back alley. All that remained was to deliver the final blow. But when Mat crept around the edge of the city hall, he found himself face to face with both of his foes. As he and the Major spied each other on opposite sides of the city hall’s door, the VS medic stepped out between them. With hardly the space of a breath in which to think, Mat picked his target and fired hard and fast. He wasn’t about to let the VS get away with duping him with their revive grenade trick. He could care less if the Major won. If he had to go down, he’d go down free and fighting. His thirst for vengeance against the Major tasted bitter in his mouth anyway. He figured it was better that he die with his pride intact.

The Major saw the blue and gold of Mat’s uniform and his aim was drawn like a magnet. With the first crack of his Commissioner, Rainbow launched herself at the Light Assault with a ferocious cry. The Medic’s eyes told of a hundred calculations being made as they darted between the opponents that flanked her. She raised her Beamer and fired a series of zipping shots in rapid succession toward the TR, seemingly intent on eliminating the heavier of the two weapons arrayed against her. The Unicorn jumped up to intercept Mat’s shots before they could reach the Medic and shot a blast of energy from her horn at the speeding Pegasus. Pinkie sprang into action, throwing a cloud of confetti up between Mat and Rainbow Dash like chaff and rushing the Unicorn with reckless abandon.

But none of the attacks reached their targets. With pings and zaps, the bullets and lasers were stopped by a wall of force that sprang up to separate all three groups from each other. The Unicorn’s blast bounced upward and faded away into the sky. Rainbow and Pinkie collided with the obstruction and fell back to the ground, confused. The three soldiers stopped shooting and looked from one to the other before turning to search for the source of the wall. Major Gadrik was the first to find her.

Princess Twilight Sparkle was hovering above them, her horn aglow and her expression severe. Mat thought he saw the Major turn white as the Princess’ gaze swept over him.

“I’ve allowed this to continue for far too long,” she said in a voice that was greatly magnified. She made a gesture of exasperation that encompassed all of them. “I had hoped that you would be able to control yourselves, that you could comply with my simple expectations of non-aggression, that you might be able to find it in yourselves to cease the pointless violence long enough to save yourselves. But apparently, I was wrong. You seem neither capable of it nor willing to put forth the effort to try!”

“Worse than that, you’ve managed to polarize most of my friends. And now they are paying the price for your incognizance.” Twilight looked at her friends with a mix of pity and irritation as her voice returned to its normal volume. “I thought you would have enough sense not to become enmeshed in such a pointless and thoughtless fight. At least have the sense to stop now. Please.”

Pinkie, Rainbow and Rarity looked at each other, seeing how the conflict had turned them against each other. They shuffled their hooves guiltily, having trouble making eye contact with any of the others. And yet, none of them moved.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked, dropping lower until she was hovering a few feet off the ground. “Step away from them and leave this horrible display of animosity behind.”

“We can’t,” Rainbow said.

The other two nodded. All three humans looked around at her questioningly, then at each other to see if there were answers to be found on each others’ faces.

“Why can’t you?” Twilight asked. She cast an accusing glance at the Major. “Is he forcing you to do this? Threatening you?! If he is, I’ll…”

“No Twilight! It’s not like that at all,” Rainbow said quickly. “I made this choice because…” She paused to put her thoughts in order. “Because the ideals that the Terran Republic represents sound like the kinds of things that need to be defended. I thought I could contribute to that. And I’m not about to back out on that commitment.”

Rainbow looked at Rarity, who then spoke up as well.

“I cannot, in good conscience, leave someone whom I consider a friend to face danger and hardship alone.” Rarity turned to smile at the Medic. “Katie is such a friend to me, despite how short a time I’ve known her. I won’t leave her side until the end.”

Both mares looked to Pinkie Pie. The pink pony sat down in defeat.

“I only want to see the fighting stop. Mat seemed like a nice person and I…I don’t know! I just thought if someone was trying to hurt him, they had to be a bad guy! I helped him because I thought he’d put a stop to it all. If it hasn’t stopped yet, then I’m not done trying to stop it.”

Twilight regarded her friends impassively and Mat got the impression that she was weighing her options at light speed. She blinked then and gave all three humans an appraising once over. The tiniest smile tugged at the corner of her lips before being forced down into a frown of concentration.

“I see,” she said curtly. “You all have compelling reasons to stand by these humans. But do these humans have compelling reasons to continue fighting?”

She fixed Mat with a glare that felt as if it were boring all the way to the back of his skull.

“I, uh,” he stumbled, not expecting to be put on the spot. “Well it’s, um…it’s…” He stopped and took a steadying breath. “Look, I’m not about to be pushed around and told how to live my life. And with what they did to Trevor, I wouldn’t mind doing a little pushing of my own.”

“You’re willing to do this at the cost of those around you?” Twilight pressed. “Are your grievances worth so much more than the lives of the ponies in this town that you will manipulate them into helping you exact revenge?”

“It’s not just about me,” he responded indignantly. “It’s about not backing down to the likes of them! If I roll over and play the good slave, it would be a betrayal of everything I believe in! I’m not going to compromise my freedom to suit their view of a perfect society. Those of us with the New Conglomerate don’t believe the Terran Republic deserves to lead us anymore. Not with the way they’ve been running things. And we’re not on board with the trans-human experiments of the Vanu either. I’d rather die fighting than give in to the likes of them! I will never give in to tyranny and, if that’s what it takes, I’ll never stop fighting to remain free!”

He finished, breathing heavily from the intensity of his declaration. Twilight continued to consider him for a long time but whatever she thought of his speech, she kept it well hidden.

~*~*~

Katie watched Mathew’s response to the Princess with surreal detachment. She knew she would soon fall under the scrutiny of the Princess and she knew she wasn’t ready. The last day was a blur in her mind and it swam before her eyes now. Nathan’s voice, both the remembered softness in her fondest memories of him and the darker side he’d revealed here, overlapped until she couldn’t be sure if any of her memories were the truth anymore. The words exchanged with the other soldiers beside her played back against the rhetoric of Vanu’s teachings and they conflicted horribly, each finding holes in the other; questions without answers. She shut her eyes against it but only succeeded in locking herself inside the darkness of her mind with the thoughts that haunted her.

“And you?” Twilight asked.

Katie’s eyes shot open and her mind went blank. She wasn’t ready to offer a defense of her actions yet. She scrambled to put her thoughts in order and she was about to stammer that she needed a moment when Katie realized Twilight hadn’t been addressing her. Instead, the Princess’ eyes were narrowed at the Major.

“I suppose there’s no two ways about it,” the TR Engineer began. “I’ve disobeyed your direct orders and endangered your citizens with my actions. And I suppose an apology would fall short of fixing the problem.”

Katie was shocked to hear him admit so openly to any wrongdoing. She had expected him to weasel out of it or cast the blame on either herself or the NC soldier. She didn’t have to wait long, however, for him to shift his tone away from self-incrimination.

“But you have to understand the position I was in,” he continued. “On the one hand, I may have been outside my jurisdiction. But on the other, I still have obligations to the Republic. I am not willing to cast off my duty because I find myself in unfamiliar territory.”

“Territory under my authority,” Twilight interjected. “You said it yourself. You are outside your jurisdiction. What right did you have to demand I bend to your wishes? On what authority do you override my decisions? How can you excuse actions that endanger others who have done nothing to provoke you?!”

The Major flinched visibly as her words stung him. When the Princess paused for a breath, he held his hands up in a placating gesture.

“Believe me Princess,” he spoke quickly, hoping to keep her from cutting him off. “I regret that my actions have brought harm to your subjects.”

Katie could see his mind working rapidly, she imagined, on ways to further downplay his involvement and cast himself in a better light. What he actually said amazed her.

“And I take full responsibility for my part in this. I was wrong. In almost every action and decision I’ve made since getting here, in fact.” He shook his head with a mild grimace. “I only ask that you see the reasons behind my actions.”

“Which are?” Twilight asked with strained patience.

Katie found herself wondering the same thing. She caught herself leaning forward to hear and quickly fixed her expression to reveal nothing of her thoughts once more.

“When we first arrived here, our goal was to regain contact with Command and return to our stations. Of course, that proved beyond our capabilities, which is when we sought out aid in town. You offered to assist us.” The Major paused and then added, “And I am grateful for that.”

Twilight did not seem moved by his acknowledgement and the Major went on quickly.

“But, you see, there would have been no problem after that if it hadn’t been for the presence of our enemies in this town as well as your agreeing to aid them. Up to that point, I’d been given no reason to believe they would refrain from attacking us, and thus, I had every reason to disregard your instructions in the interest of both myself and my subordinate’s security.”

“Every reason?” Twilight repeated incredulously. “Your own safety is not as…”

The Princess checked herself and attempted to return to a calmer tone. Katie could see how difficult it was for her to have this discussion at all. Still, she was making a very concerted effort to steer the situation toward an end that Katie was still trying to discern. She’d seen a flash of it first in that barely perceptible smile before she’d addressed Mathew and she was seeing signs of it again now. The Princess had some sort of plan; one that obviously was not best served by losing her patience.

“I gave those instructions specifically to prevent any of you from encountering each other,” Twilight said. “If you had gone back to Fluttershy’s and stayed there, none of you would even be aware of the others.”

“And instead of informing us of the entire situation,” the Major replied evenly. “You allowed us to walk into those encounters blindly. Your methods forced us to deal as best we could with what we had, as opposed to you giving us what we needed to know to prevent us from fighting in the first place.”

“Do you have what you need to prevent you from continuing to fight now?” she shot back scornfully.

The Major shut his mouth and frowned. He looked to Mathew. The two soldiers measured each other silently for a tense moment. He turned to Katie and she stiffened under his scrutiny. His eyes searched her face for a long time while he chewed on his lip in thought. Then he looked around at the other ponies gathered there, lastly finding Rainbow. She matched his gaze, waiting for him to speak again. The Major let out a long, slow breath.

“Yes. I believe I do have what I need.”

He holstered his Commissioner and snapped it in place with finality. He then folded his arms and fixed the ground in front of him with a severe stare. Rainbow blinked twice, surprised at his decision, and then sat down beside him in a show of continued solidarity.

As Katie contemplated what she had heard, she realized it was her turn. Twilight was giving the Major one last judgmental glance as she shifted toward the Medic. Katie gathered her thoughts together and, to her surprise, she had an answer. It was couched in the words spoken by the ponies around her, hidden in the conviction they’d showed for each of these disparate ideals. All at once, Katie felt she could finally divine the Princess’s intentions and it very nearly took her breath away. And even as she was shaken by the implications of it all, she felt she’d found solid ground on which to stand for the first time since she’d begun to lose her faith. As Twilight finally gave Katie her full attention, the Vanu soldier took a deep breath and began.

~*~*~

Gadrik didn’t have much time to brood over what equated to his surrender before the VS Medic spoke up. And what she said made him do a double take.

“All of us are wrong.”

They waited for her to continue, all wearing expressions of varying levels of surprise. All except for Twilight, who was smiling ever so slightly. Katie looked around at them all and mustered the courage to continue.

“Don’t you see,” she said, addressing the other two humans. “We each have something we believe in, so strongly that we’ll fight for it. And we all have good reasons to believe that ours is the ‘right side’. But no matter what we believe in, and no matter how right any of us might be, we’re all making the same mistakes and so we are all equally guilty of being the cause of the problem.”

Katie looked at the ground and her voice dropped to near a whisper.

“I just wish it hadn’t taken losing Nathan for me to see it.”

She wiped her eyes and a sniffle escaped her. Twilight winged over to the Medic’s side and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

“It seems we’ve all lost someone to get here now,” the Princess observed as the Medic gave herself over to the other’s embrace.

Mat shuffled his feet and cleared his throat gruffly, refusing to meet anyone’s eye. Gadrik turned his gaze back toward Fluttershy’s cottage. A few miles away, Anthony was still tightly cocooned inside the MAX suit, all but forgotten in the struggle. The Major sighed and shook his head. He was doing a lousy job of making the Corporal’s sacrifice count for something. He was doing an even worse job of paying these ponies back for all of the kindness they’d shown, especially Fluttershy. He glanced over at the NC soldier curiously.

Mat was frowning at the ground as if it had personally wronged him. As the Major watched, Mat reached up under his visor and rubbed at his eyes. Gadrik let out a thoughtful rumble from deep in his throat. He’d killed the Heavy Assault, Trevor, if he was remembering correctly. Mat’s anger at him for that was entirely understandable. It was also something Gadrik would likely find himself apologizing for eventually. He added it to a growing mental list.

The Princess was giving the VS Medic an inordinate amount of sympathy for the loss of her friend. Come to think of it, this was the first Gadrik had heard of the Infiltrator’s demise. He wondered how such a thing had happened. She certainly didn’t seem to be blaming Mathew for it and yet there weren’t exactly a whole lot of other options. As the Princess pulled away from the Medic, Gadrik came to an even more troubling realization.

“If I may, your Highness?” he began cautiously.

She turned to him with a measuring glance before nodding for him to continue.

“You said that we’ve all lost someone. Forgive me, but it seemed as if you were including yourself?”

Her intake of breath and the tightening of her jaw told him he was on thin ice. Gadrik held his breath while he waited for her response.

“Yes,” she said, her voice taut with what might have been repressed anger. “Each of you have lost one of your companions and, over the course of that rampage, I seem to be paying a collateral price.”

The ponies edged forward worriedly.

“Darling!” Rarity exclaimed. “You don’t mean that Applejack…”

“She went into shock and lost consciousness,” Twilight reported, cutting off the Unicorn briskly. “I did everything I could before I left and Nurse Red Heart is looking after her now, but she’s still not in good condition. I…I don’t know if she’ll make it.” She glanced at Mat and shifted to address Gadrik. “And Fluttershy is resting now as well. She made it to the library in time to inform me of the situation but she started coughing up blood. It seems the strain of rushing to me aggravated her injuries. She wasn’t able to tell me much more after that, but she was able to give me the basics. It seems my friends are most apt to be injured around you. I can’t say you’ve heard the last of this.”

Gadrik went cold from the hardness in the Princess’ eyes but managed to nod stiffly. Twilight seemed to be satisfied with that response and turned back to the Medic who had regained her composer.

“I used to know what I believed,” Katie said softly. “I thought that there was no higher calling than the advancement of knowledge. But when my companion threatened Twilight over the knowledge in her books, I saw exactly how wrong I had been about my priorities. We can’t afford to lose sight of the other things that matter around us. And undervaluing others might not be the worst we’ve done.”

She fell silent again, looking to Twilight in wordless apology. Twilight smiled as she responded.

“Knowledge was once the most important aspect of my life. I was always studying new sciences and magic. But one day, I realized that I had been blind to something more important. Friendship. I was missing someone to care about, and who cared about me. All the books and spells in the world aren’t worth as much to me as my friends.”

The Medic leaned back against the door frame, lowering her head to her chest while a silent sob sent a shudder though her. Twilight turned to Major Gadrik. He regarded her as stoically as he could, afraid that showing a reaction could hurt her already tenuous opinion of him.

“Loyalty until death, right?” She waited for his nod before continuing. “Loyalty is an indispensable trait. It’s what holds everyone together. But why would anyone want to be loyal to someone who just barks orders and is mean all the time? Who would want to follow a tyrant?”

The Major’s mouth became a fine crease as he absorbed her words. Twilight turned lastly to Mathew. The NC soldier took a steadying breath as he braced for what she might say to him.

“Freedom.” Twilight let the word hang in the air. She looked at the ground and gave a short, dry laugh. “It sounds like such a wondrous idea, but do we really know what it means? We can lose our freedom even though we aren’t bound and shackled. But we can also be free without casting off anything that ties us down. Freedom isn’t about doing whatever we want, all the time, especially not when that means hurting others. Sometimes, freedom can mean having the choice to give up something important to you for the sake of others’ needs. Kindness is doing so.”

Mat opened his mouth to reply but bit his tongue as if he wasn’t sure if he knew what to believe anymore. Twilight looked around at all of them again, measuring what she found in their eyes.

“Each one of you stands for a powerful and important ideal,” she said, addressing all of them. “Each one of you knows that yours is worth fighting for. But you don’t seem to see that fighting each other isn’t the answer. Instead, you should find ways to defend each other so that you can be strong together.”

“I agree,” the Medic said, her voice firm now. “We’ve wasted far too much time and effort trying to repress each other. If I’ve learned anything here, it’s that no one has all the answers. We of the Vanu Sovereignty quest for knowledge. The way I see it, there’s still a lot we can learn from each other. Maybe, with a bit of patience, we’ll be able to move past our differences and build a better future for all of us.”

She stepped up to the shield that separated her from Mat and the Major. She glanced back at Twilight, who nodded and allowed the shield to drop.

“Peace?” she asked, extending her hand to the Light Assault.

“Peace,” he replied, taking her hand and shaking it firmly.

She approached Gadrik as well. He took her hand and shook once.

“Peace,” he acknowledged flatly.

“Is that it?” Mat asked, looking around. “Is it just over?”

“Oh, no,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “There’s a lot for us to do yet.”

Chapter Nineteen: When Forever Ends

“You don’t plan on throwing us in prison for all this, do you?” Mat asked weakly, gesturing toward the fountain and then more vaguely at the town around them.

“I have something else in mind,” Twilight said, though she didn’t expand on that.

Instead, she gestured to someone behind Mat. He and the other humans turned to see who it was and Mat just about had a heart attack. Descending from the lowest clouds and stepping out from doors and alleys around the square, were enough heavily armored stallions to fill an entire platoon. The golden plate mail was filled out by muscular bodies that would have towered over most of the other ponies in town. The steel spears flashed threateningly as they shifted in the hooves of the guards. Four of the armored ponies took up positions beside Twilight and one passed a scroll to her. Twilight unfurled and scanned the scroll intently, occasionally looking at one of the humans or around at the square.

“Um, where did all these armored ponies come from?” Mat asked in a hushed voice, aware that almost every one of them turned to look at him warily as soon as he opened his mouth.

“They’ve been there for our entire conversation,” the Princess said nonchalantly, not even bothering to glance at him. “I called in a detachment of the Royal Guard in case you couldn’t be reasoned with and I needed to use force to stop you.”

“Oh, right,” Mat chuckled nervously. “Good thing that wasn’t necessary.”

He grinned at the nearest guard, but apparently the stallion didn’t share his sense of humor.

“It is a good thing, Mathew,” Twilight said without a hint of amusement. “You are all very dangerous and the thought of fighting openly with you was not a pleasant one. I was relieved when I saw another way, and am equally relieved you all were receptive to it.”

“What other way was that?” Mat asked, not quite making the connection.

“Convincing you to see past your differences,” Twilight replied, looking over the top of the scroll at the Light Assault. “Fluttershy wasn’t able to tell me everything she meant to say, but she told me enough to realize you humans weren’t all beyond reason. Anthony had planned on returning to speak with me. He explicitly stated that he wanted to apologize. That was enough for me to hope the rest of you could see your battle for what it was; wanton destruction fueled by hatred.” She paused to look at one last item on the scroll and rolled it up telekinetically. “Once I’d heard the NC’s view from you and contrasted it with what I’d heard from Nathan and Katie concerning the VS, and also with Fluttershy’s take on the TR, I realized that there was enough merit to all of your arguments to warrant serious consideration of each position. I figured that, if I could get you all to talk it out and listen to each other, you would eventually understand.”

“Understand what exactly?” the Major asked.

Twilight frowned at him in frustration. “What did you just learn from all of this? You did learn something, didn’t you?”

“If you expect me to have learned that we needed to stop fighting, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.” He folded his arms stubbornly. “You see, the Republic never wanted to fight. We wanted to maintain the order and cohesion of the remainder of our expedition. Rebels and terrorists started the armed conflict and we attempted to end it. It was the New Conglomerate’s choice to enter into full scale war that put everything over the edge.”

“Now hold on a second, Major,” Mat interjected. “We didn’t exactly have a choice at that point. The TR were power-crazed, locking everything down and feeding off the people’s fear to grab even more power. It was do-or-die time for us and we chose not become slaves!”

“The people voted for the steps taken for their security. It was a willing transition to…”

“It was fear, not willingness,” Mat interrupted. He made a sweeping gesture at the sky. “They didn’t see what they were doing to themselves. And it wasn’t unanimous either. A majority passed that vote, but that still threw many of us who could see what was happening under the bus. Even Connery didn’t want to put those ‘security measures’ in place. He was disappointed in the people who voted away their freedom.”

“But those measures were necessary due to the violent events that threatened the safety of everyone in the expedition,” the Major countered.

Before Mat could offer a rebuttal, Katie interrupted them.

“There’s no point to arguing about how it all started or why. The fact is that it started, even though it shouldn’t have. What we need to concern ourselves with now is how to mend the damage that it has caused…without reopening old wounds,” she finished with a meaningful glance between the two.

They both realized how quickly the argument had become heated. Mat shuffled his feet sheepishly.

“This is going to be harder than I thought,” the Major said with a shake of his head.

“Naw,” Mat said with a wide grin, throwing his arm over the other’s shoulders companionably. “We NC know how to let a few stupid jokes slide. We just have to remember that we’re all on the same side now. Strength in unity, right?” He winked at the Major.

“I suppose,” Gadrik said, shifting awkwardly in the embrace. “But give me a little time. I’m still getting my head around this.”

Katie joined in on the Major’s other side, pinning him between the two.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be right here to help you through it.” She smiled at him benignly.

“Thanks,” the Major grumbled, though it sounded as if a chuckle was hiding underneath the gruffness.

Twilight cleared her throat to get their attention. When she had it, she smiled at them and spoke.

“I’m glad you were able to defuse that argument and come to an understanding between the three of you. It shows promise for your future endeavors together. But before we can move forward with anything else, we need to deal with this.”

She held up the scroll she’d been looking through and her expression became more businesslike.

“Most of the damage has been detailed in it, though the last few hours were covered quickly and will need to be reviewed for more precise estimates. I’ve informed a series of contractors to begin working on repairs as soon as I give the all clear.”

She pointed at the three humans and gave them a stern frown.

“I would be well within my rights as Princess to sentence you to many years in prison on any one of the crimes you’ve committed over the past day or so. But since locking you away would serve no purpose, least of all to help you learn from your mistakes, I’ve instead decided to sentence you to community service until all of the repairs are completed. You will begin as soon as I’ve finished instructing the Guards of my expectations during my absence.”

“Absence?” Katie asked.

“I am leaving for the Crystal Empire,” Twilight replied with a nod. “I expect to be back in a few days. You should be well underway by the time I return.”

Mat looked around, seeing every bullet hole and blast mark differently now that he would be expected to fix them all without nanites. He sighed inwardly at the thought.

“You don’t mind if I start over here, do you?” the Major asked the Princess, gesturing toward one side of the square.

“I suppose not,” she said slowly. “But why?”

The Major grunted as he started walking off in the direction of one of the houses.

“I borrowed their kitchen knife and I need to return it.”

~*~*~

Mat held the ladder as Gadrik descended.

“Was that the last of them, Finn?” he asked the Major.

It had been five days since the fighting ended and the repairs had progressed steadily. The house they were working on had been damaged by the NC’s C4 and the windows were the last to be installed. Gadrik’s uniform was stripped of its armor plates and his helmet was elsewhere. Mat’s uniform was similarly stripped of accessories. Both uniforms still bore scars from the fighting but were in functional condition after a quick patch job by Rarity. The sensation of the hot sunlight that beamed down on the Major was amplified by the exertion, and yet he found a certain satisfaction in the overall effect. Something about the manual labor gave him a sense of accomplishment and he relished it. He wiped his brow as he stepped off the ladder.

“Yeah, for this house anyway,” he said with a contented sigh. “Where’s the next one?”

Mat looked around before responding. “No idea. I’ll go ask.”

Mat walked off toward a group of ponies in construction vests. Gadrik sat down on one of the lower rungs of the ladder and waited. Ponies passed through the streets on their daily business, hardly glancing at the humans now. He much preferred the lack of attention to the fearful and suspicious looks they’d been given for the first few days. The other two had adapted well to their situation, judging from their relatively cheery dispositions. They were on first name terms now, and Mat had taken to shortening those names further. Gadrik couldn’t remember the last time he’d been referred to by his first name outside of official documentation. It wasn’t the only thing he was getting used to.

One thing he was totally used to, if not totally comfortable with, was the presence of watchful guardponies escorting them everywhere they went and never letting them out of sight. Two of them were standing in front of the house directly across the street from him, their hard, staring eyes fixed on him. Two more were on the top of the city hall building, watching Mat. There were others, he knew, but they were hidden away somewhere. His gaze shifted to where Mat and the head of the construction crew were talking and noticed that they were headed back to him.

“Where to?” he asked, standing up again when they were in speaking distance.

Mat grinned. “To the nearest and comfiest chair. We’re done!”

Gadrik blinked and looked at the pony for confirmation. Ambrosia nodded with an amused smile.

“That was the last project right there,” the head of the repair crew said, gesturing to the house behind them. “As far as I’m aware, that’s all that the Princess assigned for your community service. Not sure if you’re free now, but I don’t see any problems with you grabbing a shady patch of grass to relax in until we hear otherwise.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Gadrik said. “Where do you think we should settle in?”

“I’ll bet she knows a good place,” Mat said, waving at Katie, who was walking toward them from across town square.

Beside her was a yellow pony with an orange mane and behind them were two watchful Guards. The civilian pony was pulling a large cart with him.

“Who’s the friend?” Mat asked when Katie reached them.

“This is Mr. Cake,” she said slowly, clearly confused that Mat didn’t know.

“He wasn’t with us when we were introduced,” Gadrik reminded Katie. “It was just us two who helped with that project. I believe Mathew was in the Town Hall, replacing wall panels?” He looked to the NC trooper to confirm.

Mat nodded. “Right. Well, better late than never. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cake. The name’s Mathew Hadley.”

“Likewise, Mr. Hadley,” Mr. Cake said warmly, shaking the offered hand.

“Call me Mat.”

Mr. Cake nodded and Katie led them over to the Town Hall, where they all sat down on the lower steps. They opened the cart to reveal an assortment of treats and beverages. Mr. Cake set about passing them around to the humans and to Ambrosia, who had followed them. Mat contemplated the pastries with mild concern until he put two and two together.

“You own that shop, the one where Pinkie Pie works?” he asked.

“I do,” Mr. Cake replied neutrally. “My wife and I own and operate it.”

“I didn’t cause any trouble for Pinkie, did I?” Mat asked in a subdued voice.

Mr. Cake frowned slightly. “Pinkie caused that trouble for herself, but she’s worked it out with us already.”

“Oh,” Mat said. “As long as it’s all behind us, I guess.”

Gadrik cleared his throat. “And there are no hard feelings between us either, I hope?”

“On the contrary!” Mr. Cake said, surprising them all with a laugh. “I managed to sneak a few renovations in on the repair list. You might have put us out for a few days, but you saved us weeks by putting in that extension on the south wall and the flooring in the kitchen.”

“Slipping one by me like that? How could you?” Ambrosia gave Mr. Cake an exasperated shake of her head before laughing the matter aside. She then turned to Katie. “So where have you been the past two days. Can’t say I’ve seen you out fixing up walls and such lately.”

“I’ve been at the hospital, helping to treat those who had been injured,” she replied solemnly.

“How bad was it?” Mat asked, leaning forward in concern.

“There were ten being treated for shrapnel wounds, stray bullets and the traumas related to a building exploding near them.” She glanced at the house Mat and Gadrik had just finished repairs on and flashed them a teasing smile. It faded quickly as she continued. “Most of them have been released already, but there are still two ponies left that haven’t completely recovered. One was in the house and suffered a deep laceration from flying debris and multiple shrapnel wounds that ended up requiring surgery to treat.”

Katie paused to take a deep breath. “The other is Applejack. While most of her injuries have been treated and are healing well, her leg is not. The blast from the claymore cut all the way to the bone and we’re afraid there will be permanent damage. Until yesterday, we were also afraid she’d remain in a coma. But she came to and she’s been improving steadily. I’m hopeful that she’ll make a full recovery…so long as she doesn’t rush herself.”

“You can’t just zap her full of nanites and be done with it?” Mat asked.

Katie shook her head. “No. I wish I could, but the applicator is calibrated to humans, and only programmed with the codes for reconstructing those who have been integrated into the Rebirthing system.”

“That sucks,” Mat said, leaning back against one of the columns.

“Was I supposed to understand any of that?” Ambrosia asked, looking to Mr. Cake for help. The stallion only shrugged.

“Not likely,” Gadrik rumbled ruefully.

Ambrosia grunted and kept listening anyway.

“The ponies have gotten by without nanites, though,” Katie was saying. “You wouldn’t believe how efficient surgeries are when the doctor has telekinesis.”

“I’ll bet,” Mat laughed. “But if you couldn’t use the applicator, how did you help out?”

“I might be out of practice with the older forms of medicine, but I am still knowledgeable. I also offered insights on the kinds of injuries they were dealing with and the best ways to treat them. They don’t often deal with cauterized lacerations after all.”

“Fair enough.”

They sat in silence then, eating the pastries that Mr. Cake had brought. At one point, Mat offered for the Guards to join them, but the stoic stallions did not even answer him. After several minutes, Ambrosia excused herself.

“I’d best get back to the crew. We had to put off another project on the other side of town for all this work here and I’ll be glad to be getting back to it. You take care of yourselves, you hear?”

They waved to her as she left and let the silence return. The clouds that drifted overhead were wispy and light. Birds trilled from the trees in the park some distance away. Katie chewed slowly, clearly distracted by her thoughts. Mat kept looking around as if anxious to find some excuse to keep moving. Gadrik ate his fill and sat still, trying to relax but finding it impossible to be comfortable with the inactivity. After a few more minutes passed, Mat couldn’t keep himself quiet.

“Hey, Finn?” he said, sitting forward to address Gadrik. “What do you think we’ll be doing now that were done fixing this place up?”

Gadrik frowned in thought. “Can’t say. The Princess may have only meant for this to be the first stage of our punishment. Or this is the worst we’ll get. It will be up to her. After she’s done with us? Who’s to say? I know I haven’t made any plans.”

“I plan to beg her to let me continue studying the knowledge and culture of their country,” Katie said in a small voice.

They both looked over at her.

“Everything may have gone wrong eventually, but in the beginning, we were getting along with Twilight so well.” She sighed sadly. “I want to go back to that and do things right this time.”

Gadrik found himself nodding unconsciously in agreement.

“I got along with the ponies I met too, I guess," Mat said. "But where I might not be the bookish type, I know that I do appreciate some fine scenery.”

He turned to look north, where the mountains framed the clear blue skies like a gateway to the rolling hills beyond.

“If I get the chance, I want to see the world. Earth is one thing. Auraxis was another. But this place is a completely different story. No TR, no war, no wormhole. Not even the New Conglomerate. It was good to have so many likeminded allies with me. But once the war started, it wasn’t going to stop, and an endless fight like that is its own kind of slavery. That doesn’t exist here. This is a whole new level of freedom.”

Mat scuffed the ground with his boot.

“Or at least it will be. You know. If the Princess lets us go and all.”

“That is a matter we can resolve now,” a voice said suddenly.

Twilight descended from the balcony above them and landed near them in front of the stairs. The Guards saluted sharply and Mr. Cake bowed hurriedly. Katie stood up and bowed low, while Gadrik bowed from where he sat. Mat nodded politely while touching his head as if to tip a hat. Twilight nodded in acknowledgement and they relaxed.

“I’ve been watching you three since I returned yesterday. I’m pleased with your work and even more pleased with how well you’ve gotten along. And I’ve decided that you are no longer a threat to Equestria. You’ve learned to overcome your differences and put the past behind you.”

“Are you saying we’ve completed our sentences?” Gadrik asked.

“I am. And I believe the time has come for you to choose where you go from here. And from what I just heard, you have some ideas.”

Twilight waited expectantly.

“Actually, I think we do,” Mat spoke up. “I might have been fighting for freedom back on Auraxis, but I wasn’t really free so long as I was going along with someone else’s agenda with no end in sight. Now, I can make decisions for me, on my terms, in my time. That’s freedom. And I can’t think of anything I’d like to do with that freedom more than to start walking in whatever direction I feel inclined to and have nothing in the way to stop me. So, with your permission, I’d like to travel this world, see the sights, and just live a little.”

“I can accommodate that request,” Twilight said with a smile. “But I will have to assign an escort to you in your travels.”

“I don’t intend to cause trouble,” Mat said defensively.

“I’m sure you don’t,” Twilight replied. “But trouble has a way of finding the unwary. The guards will not be there to stop you from causing anything. They will be there for your protection on your travels and to make sure nopony gives you trouble. You are an alien creature in our world after all. But with the guards making it official business, I doubt you’ll have to worry about it.”

“Oh, I get it. My thanks, your Highness,” he said with another tip of his invisible hat.

Twilight turned to Katie. “And what would you like to do now?”

Katie took a deep breath before speaking. “I would ask if I may study your ways and knowledge, to further my understanding of Equestria and its citizens. I understand if you are unwilling to share your knowledge…”

Twilight cut her off with a wave of her hoof. “I would be more than happy to teach you anything you wish to know. But I am afraid I will be busy much of the time with my duties. What I can offer you is full access to our places of higher learning in Canterlot.”

Katie beamed. “I would like that very much.”

“I’ll help you get settled in and I’ll make sure to check in on you when I get the chance, but our instructors and professors are fully capable of seeing to it that you find the answers you seek. What I will say, however, is that you might want to be cautious of how much of your knowledge you share with them. Many ponies will not be ready for such things.”

Katie nodded solemnly. Twilight turned to Gadrik and hesitated. She seemed apprehensive over what he might suggest, but overcame it in the end.

“What of your plans?” she asked, more coldly than she might have meant to.

Gadrik didn’t answer right away. He was still working through it himself. What Katie had said about going back to the beginning and trying again had struck a chord with him, but not quite the same way she’d meant it. He was thinking back to the beginning of his career in the Republic Guard. He had risen through the ranks quickly and found himself distanced from the rest of the general infantry. He missed those days of camaraderie. Thinking of them brought back the bitterness of losing Anthony.

No matter how belligerent Gadrik had been, Anthony never lost respect for him; never failed to go above and beyond for him. He’d always shown the same companionable attitude with the Major as with any other soldier in the outfit. Gadrik had admired the Corporal for that but it hadn’t occurred to him until now that he hadn’t done the same. Now he wished he could go back and show the Corporal the respect he deserved.

“Major?” Twilight’s voice cut through his thoughts with a tone of impatience.

Gadrik cleared his throat gruffly. “My apologies, your Highness. But what I would ask is likely to be outside your ability to grant.”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” Twilight countered.

“I wanted to…I wish that I’d…Bah!” He sighed, failing to put his feelings to words. “I can’t go back. I can’t do it over. Not unless your magic can reverse time?” He looked at her imploringly.

“No,” Twilight replied firmly. “Not in any useful way, at least. If you intended to prevent your whole war from happening, or even just to stop this disaster, I’m afraid it isn’t within our power to do such a thing.”

Gadrik grimaced. “Noble as that might have been, that was not my intent. I was aiming for something less grandiose than stopping the war from starting. I only wanted to repay my fallen comrade for everything he did for the Republic, and for me, over the years.” He looked at his hands and rubbed them together fretfully. “I never showed how much I appreciated him. I never gave him the respect he deserved.”

Gadrik actually had to stop speaking to keep himself from losing his composure. He glanced around furtively and the look he caught on Katie’s face told him she sensed how close he’d been to breaking his stone mask. Mat seemed to be thinking hard about something, not even blinking as he fixed Gadrik with an intense stare. Twilight was considering him thoughtfully.

“I think that, if he were here now, he’d be proud of you, Major,” Twilight said gently. “I’m sure he’d be grateful to hear you say that.”

Gadrik nodded, not meeting her eyes.

“And while we cannot change the past,” she went on. “The future is a different matter entirely. I would be willing to help you in any endeavor you choose.”

“There aren’t a whole lot of options for me,” Gadrik said despondently. When he thought of jobs or hobbies he could pursue, all he came back to was the community service he’d just completed. That and the Guards that had still not stopped eyeing him suspiciously from every side. He shook his head. “I want to repay my comrade in some way for being a truly loyal soldier and a firm friend to me. The only way I can see to do that is to do for my future comrades what I didn’t do for him. I also want to repay you for helping me to see this. But I don’t have anything to offer except my skills as a soldier. I’ve spent my whole life being a link in the chain of command. I don’t think I can learn another way. So, if it is possible, I’d like to join your Guard.”

Twilight blinked, taken aback. Katie tilted her head to one side and then looked to Twilight, waiting for her response. Mat didn’t move. If anything, he stared at the Major harder.

“You want to join the Equestrian military?” Twilight asked slowly.

“Yes,” Gadrik replied.

“And you want to serve this country?” she pressed.

“Yes, I do,” he responded, more firmly this time.

“And you want to command ponies in battle?” Twilight questioned pointedly.

“Ye‒well, no. Actually, that’s not what I want.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at him.

“I don’t want to command anyone at all,” Gadrik explained. “I’ve had enough of that. I’ve seen what it was doing to me and where it was getting all of us. I think I could learn a lot from seeing your command structure and following your leadership. I need to see how it’s done here instead of relying only on the ways of the Republic.”

“It might do you some good to study our methods, but do you think joining our Guard is the right way to do so?”

“I don’t know if I could handle civilian life, to be honest.” Gadrik picked at his uniform and glanced around at the town. “I’ve given too much of myself to being a soldier.”

“You wouldn’t be likely to see combat with us,” Twilight informed him. “We don’t exactly have any enemies.”

“Oh, I figured as much,” he nodded. “Might not see any action, but you can be sure I won’t back down if trouble does come along.”

Twilight considered him for a long time.

“I believe I know how to accommodate you,” she said at last. “A new platoon is forming in the Crystal Empire. I could sign you on with them for their training period and see where that leads us. They will be trained personally by Shining Armor. Prince Shining Armor. My brother.” She added extra emphasis to make sure the implications were not lost on any of them.

Gadrik nodded solemnly. “I will not disappoint you.”

Twilight smiled at him unexpectedly. “I believe you.” With that, she cleared her throat importantly and addressed the guards that surrounded them. “Two of you will escort Mr. Finnegan Gadrik to the Crystal Empire where he will join the platoon in training under Prince Shining Armor.”

Two of the heavily armored stallions saluted and gestured for Gadrik to follow them. Gadrik stepped over beside them dutifully and waited for Twilight to finish.

“Two of you will travel with Mr. Mathew Hadley,” Twilight went on. “You will keep him safe from harm, being lost, or straying into foreign territory, as well as insure that his travels are not waylaid, by ponies or otherwise.”

Two stallions saluted and took positions beside Mat, who gave them apprehensive glances when their expressions remained grim and severe.

“Miss Katie Lani will be traveling with me to Canterlot in the next day or so. All three of these humans are now officially free to go. Therefore, their equipment and possessions are to be returned to them at this time.”

Twilight pointed to one of the guards and gestured toward the Town Hall. He saluted and marched inside. He returned in a minute with a large bundle which he laid out on the steps. The humans quietly picked through the items for the ones they would take with them. They refitted their suits with the armored plates and packs. Gadrik took almost everything that was his. Mat took his Mag-Shot and Mag-Cutter along with the last of the medical kits. Katie took only her medical applicator. The rest were loaded back up and the guard carried the pack over to await the Princess’ instructions.

“That should just about cover it,” Twilight said brightly. She turned to Gadrik. “I’ll send a scroll ahead to my brother. Since he already knows about you from my last visit, I should be able to fill him in on why you’re there in one scroll.” She addressed everyone again. “Good luck all of you. I hope to hear good things from each of you when next we meet.”

With that, they parted ways. Twilight and Katie stood discussing their next steps while the guards awaited the Princess’ orders. As Gadrik followed his escort toward the train station, he heard Mat trying to convince his own escort to give him more feedback than hard glares. Gadrik smiled and placed mental bets on the Light Assault’s chances.

Author's Note

This chapter went on longer than I was ready for, so I'm splitting it into two separate chapters. Where there would normally be three sections, one for each faction, the NC and TR sections will be in this chapter and the VS will be in the next. I just figured having a chapter three times normal length could be problematic so I cut it down. The next chapter is nearly done, so it will follow this one MUCH quicker than this chapter came out.

Chapter Twenty: Lessons Still To Be Learned

Katie stood in the shade of a willow tree near a small lake. She was a few miles outside of Ponyville, with the tops of the tallest buildings just barely in view over the trees. She wore her basic uniform without the armor. She’d left the rest of her equipment in Canterlot. She closed her eyes to take in the peacefulness that surrounded her. The animals in the surrounding countryside chirped and called occasionally, punctuating the quiet atmosphere with their natural ambiance. The trees whispered in the gentle breeze that passed though their leaves. The willow tree creaked as a gust caught its branches and shifted them languidly to one side before letting them sink back into their restful positions. It had been almost two months since the humans had parted ways and spread out across Equestria. Katie was worn out from the long hours of study and research in the city and it felt good to get away from it.

Ponies rarely came out this far from town. But when Katie opened her eyes again, she could see the evidence of recent visitation near the base of the tree. Flowers had been laid out carefully before the three gravestones. Even though it had been weeks since any of the humans had been here to pay their respects to their fallen companions, the flowers couldn’t have been more than a day old. The freshness of the arrangements suggested that at least some of their pony friends had continued to return here to pay tribute to the memories of the dead.

The burial had happened on the second day of their community service sentence. Recovering the bodies was hard on all of them, as their emotions were still raw from the fighting. Most of the guards had escorted the Major and Mathew to Fluttershy’s cottage on Twilight’s orders, apparently to ensure returning to that place and seeing the remains of the battle didn’t spark new conflict. Anthony’s body was removed from the MAX suit, which was carted off to Canterlot for safekeeping, just as the rest of their equipment had been after their sentences were completed. Trevor’s equipment was similarly seized and sent away.

The ponies assisted in preparing the bodies and their resting place was decided on, but after burying them, the graves had been marked with basic, temporary headstones. Now it was time to offer more permanent farewells. Katie had been able to drown out her sorrow with hard work; had been able to put on a smile for the ponies around her because of the infectious smiles they offered her; had even been able to see clearly into her own future without Nathan and find hope. But standing here now, she found it hard to feel anything but the sting of his death and the heavy guilt that it had come at her hands. She heard voices behind her and wiped away the tears that had crept up at the corners of her eyes.

“Lookin’ sharp Major!” Mat called out.

The Light Assault was striding toward the graves from the hills to the west, followed by his pony companions. He waved to Gadrik as the other made his way around the lake from town to where Katie was waiting for them both. Mat still wore his armor, though he’d opted to sling his helmet from his belt, and now sported a travel bag over one shoulder. He walked with a saunter that exuded confidence. His armor had been scrubbed of the dirt it had undoubtedly accumulated on the road and his wind whipped hair was clean even if it wasn’t neat.

Gadrik was outfitted in light plates of steel armor with a pale purple uniform underneath. Although none of his TR weapons were visible, a steel spear was strapped across his back. He was accompanied by a pair of translucent ponies in similar attire.

“I see that the road has not tarnished you either,” he replied.

As he drew nearer, Gadrik shifted the box he held so that he could draw his spear. The ponies with him did the same and as one, they knelt as if in prayer and planted the spears in the ground. Then they stood again and walked the rest of the way to where Katie and Mat stood. Mat nodded to Katie and shook her hand when she offered it.

“I trust you’ve enjoyed yourself?” she asked.

“You’d better believe it!” Mat laughed. “I thought I was going to walk country roads the whole time, but then, about a week out, these two decided they’d actually act like living beings and talk to me. And boy did they know where the sights were!”

He glanced back at the guards, one of whom flashed him a cocky smile in return. Both guards were a stark contrast to the rigid attention they had held when the three had first set out. Now they stood leisurely to one side, exchanging idle chatter occasionally.

“Did you know they had cities with skyscrapers? Whole bustling populations and with all the excitement that comes with it!”

Mat let out a contented sigh as he reveled in the memories. His smile faded as his eyes wandered and eventually found the graves. He bowed his head and nodded at the ground, glancing at Katie, who was watching him neutrally.

“Who are these two you’ve got trailing after you, Major?” he asked Gadrik in a more sober tone.

“A couple of soldiers from my unit in the Crystal Empire, Privates Glory Grey and White Spire. They’ve decided to accompany me here to pay respects.” Gadrik inclined his head to each of them and they nodded in turn. “And I’m no longer a Major. I’m only a Corporal now. But I am perfectly content to leave it where it is.”

“The change of pace isn’t tripping you up?” Mat asked.

“I didn’t expect it to be easy,” he replied, but didn’t expand on that. Instead, he turned to Katie. “How has the city been treating you?”

Katie felt the smile she’d worn so easily over the past month slide back into place as her enthusiasm for her work took hold again.

“It’s been wonderful. Ponies generally accepted me once introductions were out of the way. Granted, those were hard and in some cases, a bit awkward. But as soon as we could find common ground, there was hardly a snag. I’ve been working with Princess Twilight off and on when she has time and our project has been progressing nicely. I think I’ll wait until after we’re done here to go into that though.” She was excited to share it with them but knew that this wasn’t the right moment for such news. So she took a deep breath and moved on. “Other than that, my studies are fascinating. So much history and culture, not to mention all of the differences in technology brought on by their magic. I’ve only begun to explore how much there is that I still have to learn!”

She let out a breath of excitement at the mere prospect of digging into such a vast wealth of knowledge.

“What about you though. You didn’t give us a whole lot to go on.”

Gadrik remained stone-faced. But as both Mat and Katie waited patiently for him to say something, he relented. He began with a great, resigned sigh. “Ponies aren’t as accepting of me as they seem to be of the two of you. I’ve tried my best, I really have. But I still can’t shake the feeling that I’m out of place. Thing is, I can’t think of any other place I belong than in a platoon, following orders.” He considered the ground at his feet dejectedly. “Perhaps I’ve made a mistake.”

“You’re not alone Finnegan,” White Spire said suddenly. “We are with you.”

Private Grey nodded emphatically. “It isn’t your fault. Most of us in the Crystal Empire are still trying to adjust to being free after out long absence from Equestria. They’ll come around eventually. Just give it time.”

Gadrik gave them a shadow of a smile to show his appreciation for their words. Mat stepped over and put his hand on Gadrik’s shoulder.

“Listen, Finn. Don’t worry about it. You can’t make everyone happy. You can’t make everyone your friend. But if experience has taught us anything here, it’s that if we keep at it and stick together, we’ll get though our trouble.” He gestured at the graves. “We’ve got a lot of baggage between us and yet we’re still managing to move past it. If the three of us can come together after something like this, you can find acceptance in Equestria. And it looks like you’ve already got a start on that.” He indicated the Crystal ponies. “Keep at it, but remember that it takes time.”

Gadrik’s smile widened until he genuinely looked optimistic. He nodded and placed his hand on Mat’s shoulder in a show of solidarity. They both broke away when they heard several others approaching. Princess Twilight made her way toward the lake unhurriedly. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked together just behind her, speaking in low tones. Applejack was a few paces back, stepping gingerly as she favored one leg, but otherwise appearing to have recovered well. Rarity stayed close at her side, ready to give support if needed. Pinkie Pie bounded merrily ahead of them all, reaching the humans first and launching herself at Mat.

“Whoa hey!” he exclaimed as he staggered back and caught his balance.

“You’re back!” she shouted, hugging him until his armor creaked. “You’ve got to tell me all about it! Where did you go? What did you see? What kind of food did you meet? What kind of ponies did you…wait, that’s not right. But still! You have to tell me ALL OF IT!”

Mat managed to dislodge her stranglehold as he laughed. “Don’t you worry, I’ll fill you in on the whole adventure. But it’ll have to wait until later.”

Pinkie nodded in understanding and made an effort to contain herself. The others trotted up and set their saddlebags down. Rarity passed a box to Applejack and helped her open it. Rainbow took a wrapped bundle out of her bag and looked at Fluttershy, who nodded encouragingly. Rainbow approached Gadrik hesitantly while he waited stoically. She held out the bundle for him to take.

“What’s this?” he asked as he unwrapped it carefully.

“We wanted to put something together for you…and for him,” Rainbow replied forlornly, glancing at Anthony’s grave. “It’s not much, but still.”

Inside the thin cloth wrap was a gathering of white gladiolus flowers and a single pink rose. Gadrik held the gift tenderly for a long time before reaching down and drawing the Pegasus into a one-armed hug. He gestured to Fluttershy to join them and wrapped his other arm around her while still holding the flowers.

“It’s more than enough,” he said softly, closing his eyes as he held them both.

They returned the hug in kind. While they shared their moment, Applejack brought her box over to Mat.

“We put a little something together too,” she said with a small smile.

He accepted the box wordlessly and opened it. Inside was an arrangement of white tulips and red poppies.

“I don’t know what to say,” he began, unable to look away from the gift. “Thanks, for sure, but I never would have…I mean…”

“It’s alright." Applejack batted the air with her hoof. "There ain’t nothing else that needs sayin’.”

He kept looking at the flowers until a thought crossed his mind.

“Um, these flowers are really nice and I appreciate the thought but, well...Trevor and I were really good friends but I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea…”

Rarity stepped forward, anticipating his meaning. “Not to worry dear. This arrangement is completely platonic. I have enough experience in this field to avoid that mistake.”

“Platonic?” Pinkie observed, looking closely at them. “Those flowers don’t look like they’re made of Play-Doh.”

The others laughed while Rarity took Pinkie aside with a patient smile and explained it to her. Katie looked over to see what Twilight was doing and found her marking off space behind the gravestones. With a final nod, she turned to the gravestones. With a flash and three sharp pops, the temporary stones were replaced with flat marble slabs, about two feet square each. They featured the name and faction symbol of their respective soldier along the top, leaving the rest of the marker smooth and open. The others noticed then and gathered as Twilight turned to address them.

“Is it time for the…” Pinkie began, but clamped a hoof over her mouth to prevent herself from saying any more.

Twilight nodded, which caused Pinkie to vibrate with excitement.

“Since we last gathered," Twilight began. "I have put some thought into the best way to honor these lives lost and at the same time mark this moment as the first step toward moving past the conflict. I commissioned a special piece to be made so that we will always remember how much our peace has cost us.”

Her horn lit up and the area that she’d marked off behind the gravestones glowed. With a bright burst of purple energy, a life-sized statue appeared. All three soldiers were present in the blue marble, posing side by side and intricately detailed. The MAX stood tall and menacing in the middle with its weapons raised at the ready. To the MAX’s right was the Heavy Assault, stance unyielding and shotgun aimed outward. On the other side, the Infiltrator was a subtle presence behind its expressionless mask while the rifle was held in a casual position.

Most of the ponies, including a few of the guards, uttered sounds of surprise and admiration for the exquisite sculpture. The humans considered it solemnly, taking it all in. Pinkie looked between them eagerly, waiting for their reactions. Then Gadrik raised his right hand to his brow slowly and deliberately, placed his feet together and stood rigid. After a pause, he finished the salute sharply. Mat walked over to the statue, glanced at Twilight for permission, and put his hand on the Heavy’s shoulder. He bowed his head and closed his eyes, not moving for a long time. Katie stood where she was, hugging herself tightly as she absorbed every facet of Nathan’s stone likeness. Twilight stood beside her, lending a sympathetic presence.

With a shuddering breath, Katie said, “It’s perfect.”

“I’ll say,” Mat commented. He ran his hand along the lines and edges, following the etched details of the Heavy’s armor plates. “This is a fine cut. The quality of the stone is incredible.”

“It’s the work of one of the top sculptors in Equestria, Chisel Chip,” Twilight said.

“And the stone came from my family’s rock farm!” Pinkie interjected excitedly. “You should have seen the look on Maud’s face when she heard they’d gotten a royal commission!”

“It’s a fitting inscription as well,” Gadrik said.

“What’s a what?” Mat asked, looking back at him.

Gadrik pointed to where a neat script was etched into the base of the stone.

“I’ll be,” Mat breathed, stepping back to read it for himself.

Katie moved closer so that she too could see what it said.

The inscription read: These three soldiers, though not Equestrian or aligned with each other, are held in memorial here as a symbol of devotion to the causes they lost their lives to uphold, as well as a reminder of the cost of violent conflict. Each of them was consumed by a war of divisions that threatened to engulf the ponies of Ponyville, yet through their sacrifice, each was able to teach us a part of the lesson that would put that conflict to rest. Now we carry on, still mindful of what sets us apart, but with a new focus on what brings us together.

Mat took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?”

“There’s something it doesn’t say. It doesn’t speak with your words,” Twilight said. She gestured to the headstones on which there was ample space for inscriptions. “Let me know what you want them to say and I’ll carve it in with my magic.”

Mat stepped back to look at the blank space and frowned.

“Can I have a moment to think it over?” he asked.

“Of course,” she nodded. “Take all the time you need.”

Gadrik cleared his throat. “If I might, I think I’ve decided what I would say.”

“Go ahead,” Twilight said as her horn lit up.

Gadrik cleared his throat again and spoke with a formal tone. “The epitome of loyalty, ready to give his all, right to the end.” As he finished, his voice grew husky with the feelings his words invoked and he wiped his eyes quickly.

The beam from Twilight’s horn traced across the smooth stone of Anthony’s grave. In its wake were the words Gadrik had spoken, marked in the same neat script as the statue’s inscription. When she’d finished, Twilight turned to Katie expectantly. Katie was once again struck by a wave of guilt. Nathan had been her enemy in the end, willing to kill any of them if it served his purpose. She couldn’t shake that tainted image of him from her mind but she didn’t want to let it rob him of the tribute he deserved. She still loved him, even if she only loved the part of him that was preserved in the pleasant memories of him she still carried. She thought back to the times they had laughed together, both on Auraxis and in Equestria. She found that almost all of those memories were in a lab or during their search for a way home: In research and discovery. She knew then what she would say of him now.

She did not cry as she spoke. Instead, she wore a reflective smile, sustained by Nathan’s child-like enthusiasm for learning. “I’d like it to read ‘Endlessly seeking knowledge, now exploring the last great mystery.’”

Twilight’s magic cut across the stone in a fluid motion and the words appeared behind it. She turned to Mat and waited. The Light Assault had gone several paces away and was gazing out over the lake. One of his companions was standing beside him, conversing in low tones. No one tried to approach them or listen in; what they were saying was between them alone. Applejack stepped over to the statue to get a closer look.

“Ah never thought it would go as far as it did. We all got caught up in things so quick, Ah didn’t even stop ta think we were fightin’ our friends.”

“Ideological divides can sneak up on us,” Katie murmured.

Gadrik nodded. “It can cut families apart and whole nations with them. Much of Earth’s history is fraught with such conflicts. But when that wormhole appeared, we realized that we had our priorities mixed up. All it took was a common cause for us to put aside our differences and unite. The rise of the Republic happened almost overnight and the wars stopped before the year was out. In the Republic, we were one people: One human race. With that common denominator, the old, bitter grudges that had kept us in perpetual war for centuries fell away.”

“The key, I think, is to accept the differences and learn how they can become strengths,” Katie added. “To look past first impressions and seek deeper understanding.”

“Funny how you needed to learn that lesson again here in order to stop this fight,” Rainbow laughed humorlessly.

Katie and Gadrik were both guiltily silent. Fluttershy approached the statue as well, gazing up at the grim mask of Anthony’s MAX.

“Did it really have to cost so much for us to realize how wrong it was?”

“I think it did,” Gadrik said despondently. “It’s hard to come to a conclusion so far from your established ideals without a shocking example staring you in the face. It’s petty and it’s sad, but it’s also mostly true of humans in general.”

“I know plenty of ponies who can be the same way too,” Twilight said solemnly.

Mat rejoined them then, making his way slowly, still mulling things over. The pony with him gave no indication of what had passed between them.

“I’m ready,” Mat said simply. When Twilight’s horn lit up, he spoke, intoning slowly and purposefully. “Fighter. Leader. Rebel. Friend. Free at last; free forever.”

The words, gone from his lips in a moment and carried away on a soft breeze, lingered on in the deep-felt emotions inspired by them, and longer still in the stone they had been etched into. With the inscriptions complete, Twilight backed away to let the humans lay out their flowers. Katie stepped behind the willow tree to retrieve a pack she had brought. She took out a small basket of purple hyacinth that had a ring of eleven blue roses woven around the edge.

She stood back while Gadrik spread the fan of gladiolus at the edge of the Corporal’s grave. He took an extra moment to make sure the pink rose stayed in the center. He straightened up, saluted and stepped back. Then Mat followed, putting the arrangement of tulips and poppies down carefully and then laying a hand on Trevor’s name. He murmured a few words before stepping back as well. Katie took her turn, kneeling down in the grass. She placed the basket on the marker and fussed with it for a moment, her hand lingering on the blue roses and tracing the ring they formed. There was a surreal finality to it as she stood again. By leaving the flowers, she was truly leaving Nathan behind and moving forward in her life. The tears that fell from her cheeks were not of sorrow this time. They were of hope and relief. As she stepped away, the weight of her guilt lifted and she took a deep, calming breath.

The entire group moved away from the graves, splitting off into smaller groups. Twilight spoke with Gadrik about his training in the north while Rarity explained the exact meanings of each flower arrangement to a curious Mat. Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow crowded around Applejack, bothering her with concerns and questions about her recovery that she was trying to deflect. Mat’s companions were speaking with the Crystal ponies that had arrived with Gadrik, exchanging their views on their respective human acquaintances. Katie was doing up her pack when Gadrik and Twilight approached her.

With a glance at Twilight, Gadrik spoke, “You’d mentioned earlier that your work with the Princess was progressing well. I’m curious what work that was.”

“Oh, yes.” She turned to Twilight. “Should we tell them now?”

“It seems like an appropriate time,” she replied with a shrug.

“Very well.” Katie stepped out to stand prominently before the other groups. She raised her voice to get their attention “If you would gather around, there is a rather important announcement I’d like to share.” When she had their attention, she went on. “Over the past month, the Princess and I have been working to understand the events that brought us to Equestria and last week, we made a series of breakthroughs.”

“First off, I want to say that nothing is final yet, since we haven’t had nearly enough time to run the required tests. But we believe we will be able to return home. Twilight has some experience with portals to other worlds, and after analyzing texts from a known extra-dimensional traveler called Starswirl the Bearded, we’ve begun unraveling the secrets of creating our own portals.”

Twilight spoke up then as Katie indicated for her to share her part.

“By using a combination of my own understandings of the magic of the portal in the Crystal Empire and Katie’s technology to enhance our ability to measure and manipulate the energy of it, we have been able to recreate its properties and open portals to other locations,” Twilight said. “These have been little more than short range windows but we believe they have the capacity to reach Auraxis with the proper conditions.”

“Those conditions would include a target destination for the portal,” Katie said, taking over again. “I have used parts from our equipment to create a signal amplifier that has already succeeded at probing beyond this world’s boundaries. Since our systems are constantly trying to link up with the rest of our faction’s network, I only need to scan for that connecting signal and the amplifier will be able to lock onto it.”

Mat ran a hand through his hair as he worked through it in his head. “So you’re saying…it sounds like you’re saying…”

“You will finally be able to go home!” Twilight finished enthusiastically.

Mat chuckled nervously and glanced at Gadrik. Gadrik’s mouth became a thin line of concern. Katie looked between them inquisitively, having expected a completely different response to this news.

“Is something wrong?” she asked after a minute without any indication of their thoughts.

“Maybe,” Mat said. “I mean, if we go home, back to Auraxis, the war will still be going on.” He searched for words but came up short and gestured for Gadrik to back him up.

“They will never listen to us if we speak against the war," he said, crossing his arms. "We will be ignored at best and executed at worst. The three of us would be buried by the hate that has overrun our people.”

“What Finn said,” Mat said with finality.

Katie’s shoulders slumped. “Oh. I hadn’t considered that. I suppose I’ll still finish the tests, but if returning will be like that…”

“We’ll need to make sure we develop a plan for when you complete those tests,” Twilight broke in to bolster Katie’s rapidly disintegrating confidence. “It will take some time to get all of the data needed and set up the final preparations. In the mean time, we can organize a procedure for imparting the lessons you’ve learned to your allies. I think we will be ready for your return when the time comes.” She gave an encouraging smile that Katie found infectious.

“I’m sure we will,” she agreed. “One day, when we’re ready, we will return to end the war.”

“Whatever happens,” Mat said. “Going home or staying here, I’m going to enjoy every second I get to spend here.”

Gadrik grunted neutrally and made no other comment. Katie was not convinced that they were out of the woods yet, but she did feel hopeful. After all, she was surrounded by friends who would support her in the journey. The humans had proven that they could overcome the divisions between them once. She knew there was a way to bring that peace to the rest of the factions of Auraxis. And with the help of the Equestrians, she was sure they would find it.

“Come on, everypony…and human!” Pinkie Pie shouted suddenly. “Every second you spend here isn’t going to enjoy itself.” She bounded off toward town. “It’s Party O’clock and the clock is ticking!”

“Wait up Pinkie!” Rainbow shouted, taking to the air to catch up with her. “You still need to tell us where the party is!”

“The party is wherever we are, Rainbow!” Mat laughed.

He let out a triumphant whoop and launched himself after the rapidly retreating pink figure with a burst from his jetpack. Gadrik made a gesture of invitation to Katie.

“Shall we?” he offered.

“I’ll be along in a bit,” she said.

He nodded and started off, with Fluttershy falling into step beside him. She nuzzled up against his side and he looked down at her. An understanding passed between them wordlessly and Gadrik reached down to scratch her behind the ears. The other mares followed after at a slower pace since Applejack wasn’t supposed to run yet. The guards assigned to Mat spoke with Twilight as they walked and the Crystal ponies trailed a few steps behind.

Katie finished packing up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Before she followed the others, she paused in front of the graves. She slowly read the inscriptions on them and on the statue and then studied the statue itself. Today, she could easily see why the other soldiers had supported the causes they had. She could even see why the other factions had fought so tenaciously for their own ideologies. Hindsight helped her see past the dogma and rhetoric that had stubbornly refused to budge for centuries.

She still believed that Vanu had called to humanity and that pursuing the knowledge that Vanu offered was in humanity’s best interests. But she also saw that humanity would not be made to accept that knowledge through force. She could see that working together, as one united people, was far more practical than separating and fragmenting as they had. Katie looked out over the lake to the mountains beyond and then around to the forests and hills that surrounded her. It was a beautiful land and it was filled with beautiful creatures. Vanu wasn’t the only alien being with secrets worth exploring.

Katie adjusted the bag on her shoulder and marched off toward Ponyville and the friends she knew held the answers she’d never known she needed.

~*~*~

Celestia stared at the image for a long time without saying a word. The strange box that held it hovered before her apparently under its own power. The screen held the last moment of the graveside gathering for a minute longer before it and the box disappeared from reality. Discord floated over her shoulder, leaning in closer than she was currently comfortable with, and smiled expectantly at her.

“Well?” he asked.

“I’m not sure what kind of response you’re looking for,” she returned reproachfully.

“Perhaps you would share your thoughts on a certain adorably faithful former student of yours and how she faired in overcoming this little obstacle,” he offered benignly.

Celestia repressed an urge to blast Discord. It wouldn’t work and she would just end up needing to replace portions of her chambers when her magic invariably passed through him ineffectually. She could tell by the twinkle in his eye as he waited that he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“I believe she handled herself and the situation admirably, though I’m surprised that you are taking these events so lightly.” She gave him a gaze of piercing scrutiny. “You wouldn’t, by chance, know how all of this came about, would you?”

“Search me,” he said unconcernedly.

He then began to actually search his pockets, which appeared at various absurd places across his serpentine form, and tossing out a number of random items ranging from live chickens to billiard balls to a very confused pony in a canoe. Last of all was what looked like a discharged EMP grenade with laser scarring. He examined the grenade briefly and glanced at Celestia before conjuring a trashcan and throwing it away. She raised an eyebrow at him dangerously and he tried a disarming smile on her, but to no avail.

“Indeed,” Celestia said. “It seems Twilight succeeded, despite your best efforts to array insurmountable odds against her.”

“My dear Celestia!” he exclaimed in mocking astonishment as he floated lazily toward the ceiling. “I had full confidence in her the whole time. Show some faith in your own protégé.”

Celestia’s nostrils flared. “I do not entertain myself by putting my former student through unnecessary hardships. And I absolutely refuse to treat this situation like a joke!”

“Come now, Celly,” Discord harrumphed, stretching his neck down until his head was at her level. “It’s not as if anypony died!”

Celestia had to take a deep breath to keep a grip on her rising irritation. “Though the ponies injured in this scheme of yours will recover, three of the humans lost their lives.”

“Yes…well…” Discord fished for words briefly before sweeping the matter aside with a wave of a paw. “I have a wager to win, and thanks to our lovely lavender friend, I think I’ll finally manage to cash in on this one.”

He dropped to the ground and walked toward the door casually. Celestia started in shock and rounded on him.

“Wager?! What wager? With whom?”

Discord stopped but didn’t turn around.

“An old acquaintance of mine,” he said, gesturing vaguely. “From eons back and a few dimensions away. You probably wouldn’t know him.”

He pulled out a small figurine of a design Celestia was sure she’d never seen before. He held it for a moment before slipping it back into the rift in space he’d brought it out of. When it vanished, Celestia felt more than heard a surge of whispers in her mind, as if a hundred voices were speaking over each other. But when they faded away, she could only remember one word.

Vanu

Author's Note

No ponies in canoes were harmed in the writing of this fic