He came from Space

Chapter Seven

End of Diplomacy

January 7th, 2129

Equestrian star system (unlisted)

Town of Ponyville

Unicorn Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle paced back in forth in front of her friends, who stood in a row before the lavender Unicorn, waiting to see what she had to say.

A lot had changed in the past few days; Marcus had gone off to Canterlot and then he abruptly left the planet. Princess Celestia sent a letter to Twilight explaining that the Griffons have declared open war on the ponies and that she ordered Marcus to leave the planet.

Twilight had of course challenged this decision, stating that the help the human could provide with his spaceship would be invaluable.

Her protests were shut down immediately, however, as the Princess ordered her to assemble the other Elements for some kind of special mission.

It was necessary that the ponies make the first strike against the technologically superior Griffons, who had already mobilized their military and already had talons on Equestria soil, slowly encroaching on multiple cities.

The mission was incredibly risky, however; the six Elements of Harmony were to proceed through the Everfree forest to reach a Griffon encampment that was part of a strike force that had come through the Flamewood Forest. Equestrian military intelligence had reason to believe this strike force's mission was to invade Canterlot.

There was also one other detail; Princess Celestia would be providing a squad of Equestrian Special Forces to aid the Elements. Twilight had insisted that they didn't need an escort, to no avail.

"Alright girls, here's the deal; Princess Celestia has ordered the six of us on a special mission to sabotage a Griffon strike force currently staying in the province of Brindleton, which is between the Flamewood and Everfree forests. We will be travelling with a squad of Equestrian Special Forces which will escort us through the Everfree" Twilight started.

"Once we're through the Everfree forest Princess Celestia will send a message stating what we must do next" the lavender Unicorn stated.

"Any questions?" Sparkle asked, looking over her friends. Fluttershy raised her hoof.

"Do we have to do this?" the meek Pegasus inquired.

"Yes, I wish we didn't but the Princess seems to think we're the best choice for this special mission. I don't know what we're gonna do when we reach the encampment but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we reach it" Twilight answered.

Just then there was a knock at the door and Sparkle opened it, revealing seven soldiers, presumably the squad that was to escort the Elements of Harmony.

"Alright girls, let's go" Twilight said, she gathered up the Elemental pieces and stored them in her saddlebags, walking out of the library along with her friends.

The group made their way to the edge of the forest and stood before it, hesitating to enter. The squad leader suddenly appeared next to Twilight, she hadn't even heard him come up.

"We need to keep moving" the squad leader said, it was clear that he wasn't very comfortable around ponies equivalent to civilians.

"I know but…it's kinda scary" Sparkle finally replied, earning a huff from the squad leader. The group started their way into the forest.

"Listen up; we need to stay as quiet as possible, the more noise we make the higher the chance we'll be detected by wildlife and Griffon scouts" the squad leader announced.

The SF squad could move quickly with no noise but the Elements weren't that skilled, and were forced to move slower to keep the noise down. Twilight could sense the annoyance emanating from the soldiers.

As they made their way through the forest Twilight grew increasingly nervous; the Everfree forest was quite the dangerous place, filled to the brim with wild creatures and bloodthirsty monsters, just waiting for stray ponies to come along to make a meal out of them.

Of course the monsters would be discouraged by the fact there were thirteen ponies in the group, meaning they wouldn't be able to just jump in and start munching on one without the others attacking.

By the time the group was halfway through the forest night had fallen on Equestria, making navigation in the thick jungle even more difficult. They had to slow their pace even more just to avoid getting separated.

Twilight looked up at the moon as they reached the other end of the forest; based on its position Twilight guessed it was somewhere around 4am.

The group looked around and saw that to the right, about half a mile away, were several fires illuminating what appeared to be several structures.

The squad leader took a look through a pair of binoculars and nodded a moment later. "There's the Griffon encampment."

Just then there was a flash and a scroll appeared out of the air and dropped to the ground, Twilight picked it up with her magic and began to read aloud.

"Elemental strike team,"

"I see you have reached the other side of the Everfree, and I hope you all made it intact."

"The next part of the plan is quite risky; you are to infiltrate the Griffon base, at which point the SF team will plant several explosive charges at key points around the base while the Elements infiltrate the interior and collect vital intelligence."

"Good luck, my little ponies."

Twilight stored the message in her saddlebags and looked up, the Special Forces team motioned for the Elements to follow them.

It took the group close to an hour to reach the edge of the encampment, slowly sneaking along at the edges of the forest to avoid detection.

"Let's get in there" the squad leader said, the group made it over the fence with the help of Rainbow Dash and proceeded toward the main building which was a large structure featuring ventilation shafts that a pony could easy fit in.

"OK, you six get in there and find out whatever it is the Princess wants you to find. We meet back here at 0445 hours" the squad leader said, earning blank stares from the Element carriers.

"That means 4:45 am."

The Elements all bore a look of realization before they nodded and proceeded into the ventilation shaft.

"Ugh, there's dust everywhere. So dreadful" Rarity, a white Unicorn with purple mane and tail and bearer of the Element Generosity, complained.

"Quit your whining" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"That wasn't whining. Thiiiis is whiiiining" Rarity said in an overly emphasized voice, irritating the rainbow Pegasus.

"Quiet! Or the Griffons will hear us!" Twilight whispered forcefully, her friends fell silent.

They slowly made their way deeper into the building before coming across what appeared to be some kind of briefing room, standing in it was a Griffon that looked quite familiar.

"Is that Gilda?" Twilight whispered, she watched as the Griffon turned on some kind of device and another Griffon's face appeared on it; it was clearly a male and he sported three scars across his face.

What is that thing? Where did they get it? Twilight wondered, she craned her ear towards the room to listen to what the Griffons were saying.

"No, the ponies and the Griffon government don't expect anything, our plan is working perfectly. We'll be in position to move soon" Gilda said, picking the claws on one of her hands.

"Excellent. Now, there's been a change of plan. We're not going to move on Canterlot just yet, I have a 'special' shipment being prepped for delivery; it's currently being stored in the town of Whinniesport in the Province of Jenniata. Your strike force is to proceed to Appleloosa, wipe the town off the map" the male Griffon ordered.

"Of course, sir" Gilda finished, ending the discussion and switching the strange device off and leaving the room.

"What are they planning?" Twilight asked herself, she looked over at Rainbow Dash who was seething.

"Stupid friggin' Gilda, I never thought I'd see that jerk ever again, let alone see her part of some Griffon army" Dash quietly exclaimed.

"Come on, let's go" Sparkle said, the Elements made their way back through the ventilation and exited the same place they entered, the Special Forces team already waiting for them.

"You're early" the squad leader said.

"We found what we needed; the Griffon strike force at this base is gonna make their move on Appeloosa. There's also some kind of 'special' package waiting in the town of Whinniesport" Twilight explained.

The squad leader wrote this down and had Twilight send it to Princess Celestia, informing her of the coming situation.

"We'll stall the attack on Appleloosa by destroying this base. Let's get out of here" the squad leader declared.

The sun began to rise over the horizon as the group began to make their way back to the Everfree forest, they were almost out of the base when a squad of Griffon soldiers saw them and opened fire.

Twilight turned and saw that the Griffon soldiers were holding in their hands L-shaped devices similar to what Marcus Calaway had, though quite different in design. The weapons loudly cracked in the morning air.

The group took cover behind a wall but not before a whizzing noise was heard before being overshadowed by the gurgled pains of Applejack, who was holding her hooves up to her neck as blood flowed out.

"Shoot! Help her" Rainbow Dash yelled, Twilight and a medic from the SF team immediately got to work; Twilight removed the bullet with her magic while the Unicorn medic sealed the wound. They succeeded but Applejack had fallen unconscious from the blood loss.

"Is she OK?" Rainbow demanded, looking over her friend.

"She'll make it but we need to get out of here" the medic said, Dash slung Applejack across her back and they began to leave the base once again, constantly under fire from the Griffons.

They made it to the edge of the Everfree forest when Rainbow Dash got hit, the same whizzing noise was heard and the Pegasus collapsed, blood spilling out of one of her legs.

"Ah horseapples!" Rainbow cursed, tumbling down and holding her wounded leg. Twilight and the medic helped her after taking cover behind a fallen tree.

"How are we supposed to get out of this one?" one of the soldiers asked, a spear-launcher unfolded from his saddle-rig and he fired, the spear flying into a Griffon soldier.

"I'll call for extraction!" the squad leader yelled, he quickly scrabbled a message and sent it off to the nearest Pegasus team.

"Hold 'em back 'til evac arrives!" the squad leader ordered, he opened fire with his own spear launcher but was soon hit; the spear launchers were no match for the Griffon's weapons.

"Just keep them back!"

Twilight was about say something when she herself was hit, a hole opening up on her left flank, directly in the middle of her cutie mark.

"Ahhhhh!" the lavender Unicorn screamed, the wound wasn't severe, there was no blood spilling out in fact, but it still hurt none the less.

Twilight looked over the fallen tree and saw that hundreds of Griffons were gunning for them, steadily encroaching in the assuredly doomed ponies.

Celestia knows what the Griffons next move is…we helped…that's all we can ask for Twilight mused as she hunkered back down, the SF team still fruitlessly trying to hold the Griffons back.

Just when all hope seemed lost there were hundreds of tremendous explosions, the extremely high amount of decibels assaulting Twilight's ears. The lavender Unicorn looked over the tree and witnessed thousands of massive fireballs as they began to collapse; thousands of Griffons lay dead.

A second later there was a tremendous rumbling and a shadow fell over the land; looking up Twilight saw a massive gray hull of a spaceship soar overhead, tubular devices flying out of the square holes on the side, the tubes rocketed down to the ground before turning into the massive fireballs.

Painted in enormous white letters on the side of the ship were the words Evil in the name of Good.

The ship proceeded to completely level the Griffon encampment, leaving nothing behind but scorched earth and charred remains.

Right next to the other ship was another, smaller one. Painted on the sides of the other ship was the word Freedom.

The same name of Marcus Calaway's ship.

Unable to contain her joy Twilight stood up as much as she could and a massive smile spread across her face.

"He came back! HE'S BACK!" the Unicorn screamed triumphantly as the two ships loomed over the land, hovering over like epic symbols of heroism.

Twilight though they were the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

The first engagement of the war had been fought with the ponies coming out on top through the aid of the humans, now Celestia would have no choice but to let the humans help as they'd gotten involved of their own accord.

With humanity in on the fight the ponies would be supplied with weapons, transportation, and plenty more supplies.

And with the aid of the ships the ponies' victory was assuredly secured.

It was time to go to war.

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Author's note: And so it begins...

I would like to thank Michael Blackburn for beta-reading this chapter.

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Legal Note: Marcus(Mark)James Calaway, the Special Forces leader and team, and all related characters belong to me. Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, and all related characters belong to Hasbro. My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro.