The Deltas didn't speak merely fell in on either side of the white unicorn.

Boss radioed Celestia "Primary target found, moving to the secondary objective."

"Wonderful Delta lead, Just make sure no matter what Rarity's current mental state and feeling she stays out of the line of fire," Celestia ordered. Boss stole a glance at the unicorn.

"You warned us about underestimating..." Boss implied his feelings

"The only situation these six haven't been through is war it'self. Regrettably, this is Rarity's second time being ponynapped." Celestia said wistfully.

Boss let some of his frustration at being kept in the dark out. "Then why act like we're rescuing civilians, Ma'am? From what my squad and I have seen it's starting to feel like we're recovering another Commando squad." He could hear the beginning of a sigh escape the Princess.

"In many ways, you are not wrong Deltas. Perhaps on the way back, I'll explain further, but for now, Four-Oh's probably going to explode from all this idle chatter." Boss could practically hear her smirk as the line ended. But did glance in Fixers direction for a second. Everything was quiet for a couple steps. Until Scorch couldn't help it anymore.

"It was totally bothering you wasn't it?" Fixer's steps didn't change, but his helmet tilted back a little.

"Sounded like viable intel."

Scorch nodded in agreement then motioned his blaster at Rarity. "Well, we have the source in front of us." Scorch clicked on his external speaker. "So Command tells us this isn't your first time being ponynapped."

Rarity cast a glance at him still walking "Unfortunately Six-Two darling." She scrunched her face a bit. "Though I can't say which was worse. The Diamond Dogs or these barbaric Elk. Both times I was just an object of value. For the Dogs, they wanted my gem finding skills, And for the Elk, Their leader wanted to break me into some sort of trophy mare!" She spat out the word sounding offended and disgusted at the concept. "So neither could risk killing me."

"You weren't even scared? Heck, even Applejack cried a little" Fixer started, but Applejack hissed over the coms.

"Don't go telling her that!" Then his words clicked in Rarity's mind she whipped around to face Four-Oh throwing her hooves up and leaning on his armor. Causing him to let out an undignified yelp.

"By the Princesses is my precious farm mare ok?" She asked manically. If it weren't for what was slowly leaking out on the floor one room back, he'd have thought her meek, cute even. Now his instincts labeled her as threatening and cute. He stood stiff as a board.

"Got a mission update Delta's" Applejack called out, and Scorch reached behind him and pulled out the holodisk. A little blue Applejack popped up "Is it on? Oh, I can see em. Thanks, partner."

"No problem." Twenty-Five could be heard off-screen. Rarity blushed crossing her legs.

"Oh hi um AJ... I didn't realize you were uh." She tried yet failed at being nonchalant. Applejack chuckled.

"Ee'yup. The Delta boys are the best squad you could have. We'll be talking about that "precious" comment once your back in Canterlot. But for now got a mission update we've managed to translate some of the Elkish the prisoners were saying. Looks like most of the big bosses are gathering at that messed up shrine. Took a pregnant mare with em. Judging from what we've seen it ain't gonna be pretty. Oh-Sevens clearing out the lower levels now. Your gonna meet him near the front gate." Applejacks hologram was replaced with Celestia's Rarity bowed.

"Thank you Oh-Four, Main priority is escorting Rarity Oh-Five And the other prisoners safely through the castle. Eliminate anything that gets in your way. The amount of Prejudice is at your discretion Delta's." Celestia looked at Rarity "Expect you. Do not endanger Delta squad or their mission in any form of vengeance." Rarity dipped her head, and Applejack's voice came back.

"Thou I gotta say, your handling this better then I would have Rars." She praised

Rarity chuckled darkly. " Oh AJ you know a lady doesn't scream or cry for real. She merely gets Even." The look on the white mare's face would have made a droideka roll up and run away. Applejack gulped.

"I like her," Sev said open mic Celestia came back.

"Good luck." The disk shut down, and Scorch stashed it. They reached the door leading to the ritual hall and went into Breach formation. Rarity noticing a pattern filled in Sev's spot. Chanting and tribal drums could be heard.

"Fixer use that clear line of sight find the mare. Scorch I want one Flash, one droid. If the Civies clear I'm gonna rearrange some architect." Boss planned, and the other two nodded with a duet of

"Copy"

"On my mark." Boss positioned himself to kick the door in. Fixer took a knee changing his rifle to sniper mode. Scorch holstered his blaster and readied the requested ordinance.

"In position," Fixer reported

"Elks go boom, Sir." Scorch readied. Boss nodded and kicked the door in. To several disgruntled shouts and gasps in Elkish. Scorch made a judgment call and tossed the Flash Det first.

"Flash out!" he shouted and Fixer lowered his scope waited for the flash to settle then rescoped finding the mare.

"Targets out of Det range." Boss smiled and pressed the red button.

The Elk priest was trying to figure out what heathens had interrupted the birthing ritual and what manner of spell was on his eyes and ears. As the white began to clear, he noticed something white and black on his altar. Something he had not put there, It angered and appalled him. Then a little red light came on. Another boom and he didn't have to worry about his shrine anymore. Cause whatever parts of his face wasn't atomized were forcefully ejected out the back of his head to shower his herd in charred fleshy bits.

Unable to focus on their shields the first sniper bolt ripped a beautiful path through the guard on the right's face. Whipping it back hard enough to fling the corpse. The guard on the left of the mare was lucky enough to see well enough to watch the bolt that killed him. Delta squad lept from the smoke of the shrine, Blue bolts dropping cultist after cultist. The two remaining guards around the mare recovered enough to pull up their shields. Fixer laid covering fire as Scorch and Boss rushed them. Boss took, right and Scorch took, left Firing at the guards to keep their attention on each Delta. Scorch turned his rifle to shot at Boss's guard. Catching him in the knee. Boss used the stumble to jump on it's back to fire at Scorch's Elk. The guard changed his focus moving the shield only to catch a bolt to the face. Boss whipped out his pistol and double tapped his Elk and rushed the pregnant mare. Scorch added his cover fire as Boss crouched over the whimpering pony who curled protectively over her stomach.

He tried to wrap his arms around her, but she kicked out screaming "No!" as she tried to crawl away. She looked into the blue visor terrified. Scorch barely ducked under a jumping Elk that cleared him to rush Boss. Boss throw himself between her and the Elk. Rolling to avoid a spear he redrew his pistol and put two in the chest and one in the head. As she scrambled away from the smoking Elk corpse, she made an urgent judgment call and crawled closer to Boss.

Holstering the pistol, he put his arms under her. Taking care not to press her full belly. He lifted the full-grown mare with a grunt and tried to hurry back to cover. Using his back and Shields to protect her he looked at Scorch.

"Droid Popper now!" The Yellow commando pulled the cylinder and tossed it. The blue electro smoke surged through the Elk lines disrupting magic and stunning the Warriors. Boss and Scorch retreated. Scorch ran his blaster dry popping as many of the stunned as he could. Once back to the doors Scorch flipped a table and Boss laid the mare behind the door with Rarity telling her to stay there. Rejoining his pod in holding back the herd. A couple overzealous charges which fell quickly to the blue fire the Deltas pumped down range before the tactics changed. They watched as a solid row of red shields formed. Then crystal tipped arrows began to rain down on their position. They ducked hearing the arrows pelt the table relentlessly. A lucky shot hit Boss in the bicep sticking into his armor rocking the whole Commando with a curse. His shields took the brunt of the force, but he could already feel a bruise.

"Blast it to hell that hurt. For primitives, these things are well armed!" Boss cursed.

"Our shields are meant to withstand energy bolts, Sir. These crystals look like the ones from the empire pretty nasty stuff, Sir." Fixer explained dodging one meant for his head.

"Sir their shields are too thick, I might as well be throwing stones here!" Scorch complained.

"Then throw something else Delta," Boss ordered, and Scorch nodded dropping down to dig out another droid popper. Giving his Second to last popper a small toss before catching it. Boss changed his rifle to anti-armor mode. Leaning back he chucked the grenade only for an arrow to meet it mid-arch. It exploded with a fizzle.

"Blast it to bits! readying another charge." As he pulled back, an arrow hit his arm sending him to the ground and the popper rolling away. He groaned in annoyance as he removed it.

Rarity watched the cylinder roll towards her. Her eyes flicked from the battle to the grenade. Picking it up in her magic she galloped towards the barricade dodging arrows left and right only avoiding a few by luck and a few inches. She remembered what the blue ones did. Charging the levitation spell into a fever pitch, she beamed the grenade right into an Elk's face rocking it back. The popper went off the Shields flickered out, and Boss's launcher went off with a thump. The explosion shook the walls, and Elk rained over the area in gory charred bits. Scorch looked at the mess than to the unicorn.

"Nice arm, Er horn." He praised but before Rarity could comment the sound of hooves pierced the air. They thundered fast and heavy as Four Elk came galloping full speed out of the blast smoke. Each commando aimed and fire but their bolts bounced off the crystal armor adorning their hides. Small animal skulls hung and clanked on their mighty crystal tipped horns. The thud of hooves and the clink of bones made a deathly tone as they got closer.

The Dark purple crystals the encased their heads deflected every attack. Boss squinted and aimed for the small black pits that were the eye holes and fired. The bolt in a stroke of luck hit. They watched the bolt ricochet inside the Elks Skull until it dropped. Seeing their brother fall spurred the Others into a frenzy. The three Elks jumped the table easily each singling out a Delta. Scorch brought up his rifle only for the Elk's staff to smack it out of his hands. Drawing his Vibroblade, he squared up. The Elk towered over the Delta looking down at him.

"Let's go you Shabuir Demagolka!" Scorch shouted He managed to block the first swing with his right forearm but the other end caught him in the Helmet hard enough to crack the visor. With a gunt, he was sent to the floor. Rarity kicked his blaster to him, but before he could wrap his hands around the weapon, a red swarming glow picked it up and floated to the Elk. He watched the Magic form around the trigger. The Elite grinned as he pointed it at the Delta. That's when Scorch noticed the amplification cone sticking partially out the side.

"Oh, no.." Scorch let out plainly before throwing himself over the exposed Rarity. The Elk pulled the trigger the energy hit the cone and fed back into the rifle. It glowed and whined before exploding with enough force to throw the now dead Elk. The clones shields took most of the explosion but knocked him out with a groan trapping the white unicorn under him. She struggled to lift him to no avail. She looked all around seeing the other two occupied with their own Elk.

Boss held the beasts antlers in an attempt to not get impaled. Fixer danced around his opponent cut off from the other two. Rarity moved the Clone slightly to see another black shape in a case on his hip. She reached out with her magic and pulled it out. It had the same general form of the blaster just smaller. She shaped her magic to grip it like she'd seen Boss due and pointed it away from anything and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened she let out a groan of frustration looking at it for something she was surely missing she saw a small switch on the side. Flipping it, the thing roared to life with lights and a pleasant hum. She aimed it at the Elk harassing Boss. But the kickback took her by surprise, and the bolt went wide. Hitting Boss's shields He let out a grunt and Rarity's ears flattened.

"sorry! First time Darling." She shouted and aimed. Carefully making sure she was ready for the kick. The blaster went off and shot the Elk in the thick exposed neck fur. It winced giving Boss enough time to pull his own pistol and press it to the exposed chin of the Elk. Three quick shots and the Elk was dead. An unearthly howl of pain and Fixer's Elk dropped to the floor with the clones vibroblade sunk to the knuckles in the back of its neck. He gave Boss a thumbs up, and Boss nodded. After seeing the two signal Rarity relaxed letting the blaster set next to her. As she calmed her breathing.

"Good, we're all alive. Mind waking your friend up darlings he's rather heavy." Rarity called out trying to suppress the giggles from the adrenaline slowly leaving her system.

Author's Note

I had alot of fun writing how the Elk fight tell me if you liked it as much as i did!