Waiting, they have been waiting. They, the fragmented remnants, have been waiting, hibernating in stasis, in the antarctic wastes for a very long time. They had all been waiting ever since that human . . . MacReady . . . had stopped the Prime Offshoot from escaping from the frozen wastes into the greater, bigger, wider world.

Unknown to MacReady and the other one, Childs, there were others that been lurking. Others that had been watching the series of events. Offshoots that had, upon witnessing MacReady's victory over the Prime Offshoot, gone into a dormant state. The Offshoots had elected to wait until a future opportunity to escape. To wait until there were no more MacReadies in the world.

They are still lying in wait.
Lurking patiently.
For their time to come.

And their time is almost nigh.

"What is our ETA?"

"Commander Richards, sir, our ETA doesn't matter, sir!"

"What do you mean by that, Whipple?" Richards asked.

"What the great Mason 'Celestia Killer' Whipple means sir," the pilot, Frederick, answered, "Is that we have arrived and will be landing momentarily."

"Good."

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

"Commander Richards, fellow CLOUD operators, I present to you Outpost 31!"

"Shut up Whipple," Collins said irritably.

"No horse-killing around men. Now, here's the rundown: We have defected from the HLF and formed our own renegade splinter-cell. Our goal is to find some remaining remnants of that Thing. Then we will use said remnants to unleash some sweet, righteous karma on the so-called 'Harmonius Dominion of Friendship' of the Equestrians and especially that tyrannical bitch of a bastard, Queen Celestia's precious little Conversion Bureaus. Is everything understood?" Richards declared to his entire squad of twelve soldiers.

"Sir, yes sir!" they all said.

"Then get to work!"

And so, a nightmare began.

The wait is and was finally over. The Offshoots stirred as they sensed the humans. They would be cautious. They would determine the humans' reason for coming, for being here.

And then . . .
And only then . . .
Would the humans be assimilated.

+++ +++ +++ +++ +++

"Hey!" Stevens called out, "I think I found something!"

Whipple walked over to him and said, "Do you seriously think those wormy thingies are fragmented Thing-tentacles? Because even if they were, it'd be dead by now."

"SHUT THE HELL UP WHIPPLE, YOU ASSHOLE!"

"Hey, I'm just being the team cynic."

"Yeah, well you wanna know something you little dumb-ass of an SOB? WE DON"T NEED CYNICISM RIGHT KNOW AND-and-and-and why are you bleeding?"

"First, yeah, you're right about my attitude. In war against a surprisingly effective and dangerous alien race of conquering plush toys that are out to turn every last human in existence into a zombie slave version of themselves, we need some optimism, not cynicism. Second, I tripped over an old, makeshift flamethrower and accidentally grabbed some broken glass as I got back up."

"O-kay, hey, you know what I think? I think there's nothing in this part of this ruin, and that we should rendezvous with the others."

"Good idea, but what about my—"

"It doesn't look too bad, I'm sure Patrick can fix you up."

"You're probably right. Come on , let's go."

Stevens and Whipple walked back to the helicopter. They would soon discover that no one had found anything either. Rather, something had found these Human Liberation Front CLOUD Command-troopers. Something that was now infecting the cells of the blissfully unaware Whipple.

"Yesterday, the PER sent some of their members, disguised as clowns, to an elementary school." Sherri Bowman announced.

"How many children had been ponified before the Globally Licensed Unit of Earth Defense arrived, Sherri?" Howard Greene asked.

"Half of the entire school, students, faculty, and visitors alike, before the arrival of a team GLUE Commandos lead by Agent Tristan Irving."

"Ah yes, Tristan Irving, what a hero that one. But what happened to the attackers?"

"They are either dead or imprisoned, Howard."

"All right Sherri, is there anything else to report?"

"That's all Howard, except... wait, there he is!"

Sherri ran towards the approaching squad of GLUE Commandos, thrust her mic forward, and shouted, "Mr. Irving! A moment of your time please!"

Tristan turned toward her and said, "Make it quick, I don't have time for chit chat."

"Do you have anything to say regarding the multiple HLF and PER splinter groups?"

"No comment."

"Is it true that the now imprisoned mass-murderer, known only as Cain the Ripper, is going to the electric chair?"

"No comment."

"What exactly are the Branded?"

"No comment."

"Are the rumors that Celestia has bred venomous wasps, arachnids, and snakes to carry the ponification potion instead of poison true?"

"No comment."

Operative 4 turned the television off, turned toward Tristan, and said, "This is a serious information leak."

"I couldn't agree more sir," Tristan replied.

"So tell me, what are the Branded?"

"Well, sir, you see a while back there was an experiment undertaken by Queen Celestia's Solar Imperium. The goal of the experiment was to find a way to control what the personas of Newfoals would be. However, intel from undercover PHL operatives state that, before any real progress could've been made, the experiment was abandoned in favor of a different project."

"I'm assuming that the project that ended up replacing the Branded research experiment had something to do with animals."

"Yes sir."

"So tell me, why I'm learning about Old McCelestia's little farm from a fucking TV report instead of the archives. I can find the file on the Branded in our computer database, and yet this is the the first time I've ever heard of this! WHY IS THAT?!"

Tristan sighed and said, "Because both activities were merely false information that the Solar Imperium used as bait for the 10/10 attack."

"Ah yes, Celestia did everything she could to lure plenty of victims for that event. It was, and still is, the largest mass-conversion in this war. So you're saying that both of those Imperium plots never existed?"

"That, sir, would be correct."

"Good. In that case, I'm putting you in charge of making sure Cain fries."

"Yes, sir! Anything else, sir?"

"I want a detailed file on those splinter groups on my desk in two weeks time, am I clear?"

"Clear as day, sir."

"Then you are dismissed Agent Irving. Now, get back to work."

Queen Celestia sat on her throne, brooding over recent developments. A now defunct splinter group of the accursed Human Liberation Front calling themselves the Neo-Terranz had recently made a failed attempt to take control of all human governments. Apparently they had wished to take an even more pro-active stance in the war by becoming the rulers of the world. (Or, at least, the parts of the world that her Barrier hadn't taken yet.)

Other than the Neo-Terranz, the only other HLF splinter group of note was the mysterious CLOUD Command, but they had vanished to what the humans called Antarctica almost as soon as they had appeared.

The thoughts of the Soveriegn Alicorn of the Burning Sun soon turned towards her Solar Imperium of Equestria's allies, Ponification for Earth's Rebirth. They had served her cause well from the very beginning. And they continue to serve her Imperium well. Unfortunately for everypony, while the PER had made the selfless choice of ensuring the conversion of the rest of their fellow apes before converting themselves, PER members are still worthless humans. Everypony was taken off guard when the PER splinter group that called themselves the Friends of Harmony emerged.

The Friends of Harmony were a nightmare to deal with. Like the mainstream PER, they believed that ponification would bring their kind into paradise. Unlike the mainstream PER, they believed that "only the worthy will ascend" and that "the rest will be left behind Barrier-fall". As such, the Friends of Harmony spent as much time spilling blood as they did potion-bombing. They had butchered and slaughtered humans, mainstream PER members, ponies, and Newfoals alike. Nowadays, nopony knew whether or not they were still around. Some said that the Friends of Harmony were defunct, while others believed that they had gone underground. Celestia desperately prayed to herself that the former was the case.

But there was no sense dwelling on "what-if's?" when she had a bunch of neanderthals to ponify. First she would finally get around to debriefing her Bearers of the Elements of Harmony about Cain the Ripper. After that, she would wait until that monster was dead before unleashing her latest surprise upon the humans. Oh yes, it had taken a long time, but she had finally bent Luna to her glorious will. Soon, this world would become hers. It was only a matter of time.

Author's Note

Fun fact: CLOUD doesn't really stand for anything, it's really just a shout-out to a certain something from the 2002 The Thing video game.