Changing of Tides

"How have you been holding up, your Highness?" Asked a light green Servant mare as her magic lowered a tray of supper to a clear area of the large, dark wood table Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were positioned at, both of their eyes being drawn from the many different maps and papers spread across the table to the tray.

"Exhausted... but the shield still holds. Thank you for bringing refreshments, Mint." Addressed the worn-out Princess of the Sun, her expression highlighted by the bright glow emanating from her horn.

For a full 3 days now had Celestia been holding an intense force field around Canterlot City and Canterlot Castle; her mind and body alike ached from the constant power being manipulated by her magic. The force field had been active for 2 weeks, but every 3 to 4 days Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would swap in order to share the burden. The Changelings constant chipping away at the shield had only added to the difficulty of keeping the spell held strong.

"I did what I could to scrape together a nice meal for the two of you; the reserves are starting to run dry."

"Your work is greatly appreciated, Mint. I haven't eaten since 8 this morning." Groaned Celestia, one of two bowls of soup from the tray being taken in her aurora.

Mint stood for a moment as she watched the Princess take a sip of her meal, her unchanged expression giving no indication as to whether she had enjoyed the soup or not. The mare's attention went to Princess Luna as the younger Alicorn let out a sigh, her eyes fixed on some documents before her instead of her meal.

"Y-Your Highness... your soup is going to get cold," Mint spoke quietly, taking the bowl in her magic and moving it half-way down the table.

"Oh? Thank you, Servant. I apologize; my mind is in other places."

The bowl was taken from Mint's magic and brought to rest beside the items of Luna's interest, her gaze instantly returning to her work upon taking her meal.

"I hate to see the two of you so stressed..." Lamented Mint, her ears falling flat to her head.

"I hate being this stressed. This second Changeling invasion has been more of a psychological war than it has conventional."

For a full 3 months now had Equestria and it's neighboring Nations attempted to hold off the estimated 100,000 strong Changeling army that had flooded across the lands in a complete surprise attack. The Griffon Kingdoms, Germaneigh, Glidendale, and even Ib'xian had all been cut off from Equestria; all land or sea routes were held by the Changelings to prevent any Nation from attempting to give aid to Equestria, even if that Nation was known for having poor relations with the country. There only remained 5 strongholds throughout Equestria; the Crystal Empire, the City of Manehattan, the City of Canterlot and its Castle, Cloudsdale, and Ponyville. It may seem as if Equestria had been holding it's own as of current, but the candle held to the string of defeat was a quick burning one. In only 3 months had the Changelings taken over three-fourths of Equestria's population as prisoners to feed their species with the love held within each pony's heart, and now they had their eyes set on taking the remaining portions.

The problem encountered with this invasion was not only the incredible size of the force but also the fact no chain of command was visible. The previous invasion had been removed easily because Queen Chrysalis had basically presented herself as a target, but she had not made the same mistake this go around. Equestria's small E.U.P Guard had been completely pushed back by the force of the Changelings, and without being able to directly confront Queen Chrysalis, nothing could be done to stem the tide of the Changeling's army.

"I would go as far as to say this has not been a war, but simply a stomping. We have but 5 points on our entire map still under control, and that is a stretch..." Luna commented from across the table, finally bringing the bowl of soup to her lips.

"That's why Twilight Sparkle was sent to that world you two discovered... right? To try and get help?" Mint asked.

"Indeed. She was sent forth a full 5 days ago, and we have not gotten a single letter from her confirming if we are to open our world to these outsiders or not. Not only do I fear she has not made allies with the inhabitants of this new world, but I fear she may not return. If that is the case; our Contingency may come into effect."

The mentioned world had been discovered by Princess Twilight Sparkle many nights ago during times of peace while the Alicorn had been studying other systems beyond Equestria's home planet; Equus, in Canterlot's impressively powerful Observatory. Although even the largest of details upon the planet could not be seen due to the Observatory's limitations, it was certainly visible that this planet had an atmosphere similar to Equus', and held liquid water as well as organic life. Curious as always, Twilight disclosed her discovery to Princess Celestia, who thought it to be intriguing to discover if this world had any type of life other than simple trees and grass. Many days of spell working yielded an unstable, power-draining spell with roots back to the castings used to imprison Nightmare Moon's mind and body within the Lunar body. This spell, while extremely dangerous, would allow the caster's mind and sight to be moved anywhere they willed for a mere 5 seconds. Celestia, under extreme supervision by Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle, had used this spell on 6 occasions to covertly investigate this world, and her findings had been shocking.

The Bipedal inhabitants of this planet were a highly advanced and civilized race capable of building immense cities and structures without the assistance of magic, as it had not been observed yet that any of the members of this race had the ability to manipulate such energies. Even more shocking, though; was that in a particular city somewhere on this planet Equestrian writing had been observed by Celestia. She vividly remembered reading the words 'Starbucks' and 'Well's Fargo' on large, illuminated signs during the night. For a while, this discovery had really been nothing more than something to ponder on; but once the second Changeling advance began threatening Equestria's very existence, Twilight had hatched an idea. Since this world's population was intelligent and capable of rational thought, and in some places, had the same written language as those in Equestria, she thought it to be a good last ditch effort for her to be teleported to this world with many books and documents in toe to seek their help. That plan had been devised a month prior to the current situation; times had not been as dire then, but as time went on the young Princess's idea seemed more and more feasible.

Both Princess Luna and Celestia had initially denounced this idea as crazy; there were too many variables at play, but Twilight had been quick to remind the two Monarchs that they had both gone to extremes in the past to solve problems and that their 'Contingency' was far more drastic than seeking the help of those beyond Equus's boundaries. She had also been keen to state that in the event things went sour her own magic abilities would certainly be enough to defend herself and return to Equestria. Although the young Alicorn completing such a task would nearly kill her, it could be done.

"Luna, that idea is not even to be indirectly mentioned, you know this." Spoke the angered Celestia as her tired eyes shot a look to her sister.

"W-wait... what contingency? With all due respect, your Majesty's, if you had a plan to defeat this invasion that didn't involve risking Princess Twilight Sparkle's life... why haven't you done it?"

"It is a subject you should not concern yourself with, Mrs. Mint. I apologize for my accidental mention of this scenario." Luna piped up.

Celestia sighed as her hooves rubbed either side of her temple, her heavy eyelids shutting for a moment.

"Enjoy your meals, Princesses. You know the drill if you need anything else." Mint finally spoke as she bowed to the two Alicorns before departing from the quiet room.

Both Princesses remained silent as they continued on with their business, Celestia's sight occasionally diverting over to her Sister as she watched the focused Alicorn obsess over the maps and papers before her.

"What have you been so consumed with, Luna?" Inquired the Solar Princess as she continued to massage her temple.

"Sister, have you had the chance yet to view our census?" Luna returned, her attention finally coming from the papers before her to her Sister.

Celestia's head shook.

"Our total population is estimated at only 300,000. The Changelings have captured a near 75 percent of all beings living in Equestria... how did we let such a thing happen?"

"We didn't let this happen because there was nothing you or I could do. The Guard did what it could, and is doing what it can, to defend those who remain... but Queen Chrysalis has amassed an army of such size that I doubt you or I could do much in the ways of stopping it."

"Other than the contingency." Commented Luna.

"Yes, dear Sister, other than the contingency. You seem very keen on mentioning that whole plan; I was under the impression you were against it, as it meant so many lives were to be lost if enacted."

"Those in the path are most likely dead or near death by this point, Sister. We know not what the Changelings do to their prey once they have consumed the last of their love; I only assume that these unfortunate souls are not kept alive. As this fight goes on and on, the want to taste revenge upon the Queen and her minions only grows. Seeing them all burn would please me so, and from how I hear our citizens speak I am not the only one." Explained Luna with a venom to her voice towards the closing of her words.

Celestia's self-administered massage paused as her mind hung on her Sister's words; the thought of so many lives being taken in such a terrible way, that is; if those captured by the Changelings have their life taken from them once a town is taken over and it's population is moved to the Changeling's home country, only caused her more mental distress. It was a double-edged sword; if the droves of her subjects that had been taken were disposed of, then that was the end of the discussion, but if they were kept alive, it was a certainty that the conditions maintained would be poor. The Sun Princess's attention was taken from her thoughts as the crackle of magic echoed through the room, her eyes catching a deep blue light flash from her Sister's horn. The two Princesses eyes rested upon the scroll that had materialized from Luna's horn, each Alicorn sharing a look with the other as the document was taken in the Lunar Princess's magic.

"Read it, quick! What did she write?!" Celestia exclaimed, leaning forward in her chair as her front hooves went to the table to support her stance.

"Dear Princess Luna and Princess Celestia,

We had our doubts about this plan; even I did, and I was the one to come up with it. Writing this, I am overjoyed to say that I have created a somewhat positive relationship with the Humans, as they call themselves. I say somewhat because, as I expected, the Humans are fairly suspect of this whole thing; and my writings are being supervised by a male from the Department of Defense of the United States; which is where I am. Sadly, I'm not allowed to tell you where I am exactly or how I got here, but I can tell you I am safe and that the information I hold in my mind and the information held in the documents brought here with me has been taken seriously by the Government officials who have been questioning me. Unfortunately, the Government of the Nation I am in will not be instantly sending large scale Military aid to us. They will send a small Naval recon through our portal to act as recon for any future operations if it is decided that more will be sent in. I had the privilege to speak personally with a commander of their Navy, and while he must conform to his orders, he has promised me that the small recon force given to us will do what they can in terms of helping repel the Changelings.

I cannot exactly describe things, but I am allowed to say this: a single one of their ships could most likely take on Queen Chrysalis and win. These humans have no access to or knowledge of the magic we possess, but that does not mean they are weaker than us. What their weapons can accomplish is simply amazing.

The plan made up by the Commanders of the United States Military has been kept secret from me, for very understandable reasons, but I am told that you two will be informed of what they plan on doing once the Navy ships arrive through the portal. Princess Luna; Equestria's end of the portal will be opened north of Dream Valley in the ocean; make sure you are far from land, these vessels are large and will need lots of space to operate.

One further thing for me to mention; I am not returning to Equestria once our portal is opened. I am to remain with the United States Government as a form or protection for their Navy. Think of it as insurance. The Humans do not know for certain if I am being truthful, and they do not know if hostile forces are to come through the portal I am to open; so I will remain on this planet until it is deemed that we really are to be friendly. As I said before; I am safe here, and I wish for the two of you to not act brashly in retaliation for my holding.

I hope you too are still safe and I hope the shield around Canterlot will hold until our new allies can arrive.

-Love, Twilight Sparkle."

Upon finishing her reading, Luna's eyes moving from the paper to the extremely delighted Alicorn across from her.

"I do not believe it... she actually did it," Celestia spoke with a bright smile.

"I fear this will have long lasting consciences for Equestria, Sister."

"Of course, it will; this moment changes our entire world... our other option is one that would be more destructive than any force ever unleashed."

The light murmur of conversation in the lecture room styled briefing room came to a halt as a door to the bottom right of the room came open, a US Navy Commander walking stepping inside; his appearance causing the many elite Navy SEAL combatants to stand at attention.

"At ease."

In complete unison every Soldier sat back down in their seats, their attention now fixed solely on the Commander as he stepped in front of a projector screen as the lights dimmed.

"Alright, everyone; this is probably the most historically significant mission any of us will ever be part of. In 48 hours you will all be part of an expeditionary Recce force of 5 ships being sent here," Explained the Commander, the projector screen on the wall behind him showing a zoomed in portion of one of the maps brought by Twilight Sparkle, the words 'Equestria' written in fine, calligraphic text at the center of that Nation's territory. There was a confused murmur from the SEALs as their collective gaze lay upon the image, "As many of you have started to notice, Equestria isn't the name of any known Country on earth, and that's because it isn't on earth."

The Commander paused as he looked across the many confused faces in the room.

"Exact details on what exactly has happened in the past 5 days are included in the briefings given to each of your Squad leaders; but here's the gist of it. We are the first Nation in history to make contact with an alien species; they came to us. A Princess by the name of Twilight Sparkle from this Nation was teleported to our world using some sort of magical power that only Unicorn ponies have access to," An image of the mentioned Princess replaced the map, the image of the somewhat shy looking Alicorn taken during her interrogation causing many of the hardened fighters in the room to laugh.

"Excuse me for interrupting, sir; but do you mean to tell us that a magical pegasus came to earth?" Piped up one of the SEALs.

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm telling you. This is where it gets even more odd; she was sent to ask for our help. That Country shown earlier; Equestria, is under heavy siege by an army commanded by one Queen Chrysalis," The Commander gave a pause as he turned to look at the projector, a very detailed depiction of the Queen being displayed; it, along with the other papers and books brought by Twilight had been taken by the NSA and scanned so that digital copies could be easily and readily distributed, "She's quite the evil bitch. This ongoing siege is the second to happen to Equestria; the first failed, the current one hasn't. According to the information given to us by Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Changelings, which look like this," The image of Queen Chrysalis was replaced by another image taken from one of Twilight's books; a single Changeling Soldier bearing its fangs with its wings spread drawn in wonderful detail. A few in the room gave a chuckle upon seeing the image, others gave slight looks of disgust, "have been taking over cities and towns throughout Equestria in order to use the ponies living there as food, apparently these creature's main food source is the 'love' of others. Lucky for you, if you get caught, you'll be useless to them," There was a quick chuckle from each SEAL in the room, "The Changelings are extremely bug-like; a single Changeling is too unmotivated and too stupid to do much, but when they operate together in large groups like a swarm, they are extremely effective; essencially, they have a hive mind. It is advised that you do not directly engage the Changelings unless you have to; shooting one of them is like throwing a rock into a wasps nest. Additionally; they have the ability to assume the form of a normal pony, for reference, this is what a normal pony would appear as," The projector went back to the picture of Twilight, "According to the Princess, who is shown in this picture, it is possible for a specially trained Unicorn to use their magic and detect if someone is a Changeling or not. To that end, once you're deployed to the other side we will attempt to have at least one of their Soldiers join each squad. Maybe you can teach them to man the top-side MG on your MRAP, who knows."

Another short round of laughter came from the SEALs as the Commander cleared his throat, the slide on the projector screen changing back to a detailed strategic map drawn up to visualize the overall plan for the first phase of Operation: Crossguard.

"Alright; welcome to Operation: CrossGuard. The finer details are gone over in your briefings, as per usual, but here's the gist: 2 Littoral Class ships, the USS Independance and the USS Freedom, which you are being split between, are being sent in with the USNS Arctic, which will be serving as a logistics support platform and communications platform, and 2 LCACs loaded with 6 MRAPs each; those MRAPs will be your primary mode of transport throughout Equestria. Additionally, there will be a total of 4 KnightHawks for general transport, a Sea Hawk for reconnosance and light fire support, and a single Marine Viper that will be operating from the USS Freedom to give day and night air support when needed. Since there is no GPS network, direct line of sight is going to be required for any of our weapons, meaning no Tomahawk strikes. Phase 2 of this whole operation will be attempting to launch a basic network of comms and GPS satellites into orbit around this world to allow full effectivness of any weapons. Now, once on the other side of the portal, the Independance and the Arctic will stay put in open waters while the Freedom will traverse up this river here to Luna Bay, where it can give support to the city of Manehattan," Upon hearing the name of the city, some within the room gave a short laugh.

"Permission to speak, sir?" Inquired one of the SEALs towards the front of the room.

"Granted."

"Is there really a city called Manehattan? That's not just a bad pun the DOD came up with, is it?"

"No, the DOD didn't come up with that one. A bunch of their cities have terrible, pun-related names," The Commander cleared his throat, turning back to the projector, "Anyway; Manehattan is the objective for the Freedom and those of you deployed with it. That city is one of the last remaining places still held by the Equestrians. Going back to your objectives, your teams will all be dropped off by KnightHawk on the southern coast of Equestria where your squads will be linked up with your MRAPs. Once everyone's established, half of you with the Freedom will make your way up north to Manehattan, and the rest of you will move to the Capital city of Canterlot, which is built into this mountain range here," The SEALs attention went to the marker pointed to by the Commander, "It's currently safe under a magic force field held by Equestria's two rulers; Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but the Changelings have been whiddling down the shield for weeks now, and it won't hold for much longer. The AH-1 and the SeaHawk will be flying support for those of you being deployed on with the Independance; your main task at first will be removing the Changelings from around Canterlot. Once they've been pushed back KnightHawks from the Arctic will start off-loading communications officers and long range comms equipment to set up a semi-permanent Command infastructure at Canterlot Castle. From that point on, those of you with the Independance will continue on with the main objective: recon. Now, along with this; all of you have a side objective. Capture a Changeling. There's another reason we want to have at least one of the Equestrian Soldiers join each of your squads; without someone else able to use magic, capturing one of the Changelings alive is impossible. The Princess states that a well-trained Unicorn Soldier will be more than capable of incapacitating a lone Changeling, but getting one to be alone is the hard part. This is merely a side objective; if the opprotunity shows itself, take it. Don't endanger your vehicle or your squad mates in an attempt to take one of these horse bugs."

The Commander stood facing the SEALs before him as the projector screen was shut off.

"Secure Manehattan and Canterlot, preform recon on the areas captured by the Changelings and gather what you can on how these things work. If possible; capture one of them. Any questions?"

No hands went up.

"Alright, Dismissed."