///LOCATION - NLTT-512-3A///TIME - 14:23 LMT///DATE - 20-05-2232///

They kept firing. Seemingly endless streams of hot lead pierced the clouds. They could be seen from across the city. The Guards were baffled by the volume of fire that was coming from those armoured vehicles. Many of them had a hard time believing what they saw. It was as if their eyes were deceiving them. Their enemies. Killing their other enemies, and saving them in the process.

The gunners and drivers of the AVTs had opened their hatches, and as the automated turrets were destroying the Changelings in the sky, they yelled at the enemy, to show that they knew no fear. "YEAH! GET SOME!" The Guards looked at them. They were confused by this behaviour, but they saw that the Humans were enjoying it, so some of the Guards gave it a try as best as they could. "YAAH! GHAT SOUME!" It wasn't exactly the same, but it sounded close enough, and the drivers and gunners looked over at the Guards. They smiled and laughed. Some things were the same, no matter what planet you're from.

The majority of the Changeling-Horde had been taken out before they had even reached the ground. The few remaining hostiles that had made it to the ground, had taken up positions in the plaza. They took cover behind statues, poking their heads up every now and then to fire another shot at the Guards and the convoy. The AVTs had a hard time engaging the Changelings whilst they were on the ground, so the Marines dismounted, pouring out troops onto the plaza. The Guards quickly followed the actions of the UEN-Marines, taking cover with them, and helping in any way they could.

As he was trying to get to another position, a Private from the Royal Guard was hit in the chest by a shot from a Changeling. He was laying there, in the middle of the plaza, as the Changelings continued to approach on his position. One of the Changelings was now standing next to him, his gun aimed at the pony's head. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable bang, and whatever would follow after that. To his surprise, there never was a bang. All he could hear, was hissing, the sound of someone struggling to survive, and then nothing.

The Private opened his eyes, revealing to him a Human, kneeling over him, as shots flew past them. "You're not just gonna die like that! Grab my gun, and kill those bastards!" It was Vermaas. He had jumped up as soon as he saw the wounded pony, grabbing his knife as the Changeling was about to execute the soldier. He had jumped on top of the Changeling, knocking it over, and proceeding to shove the knife into the creatures throat. Vermaas was covered in thick, sickly green blood. He had hit the main artery, causing a fountain of blood to spray over him.

Now, all that was standing between him and the shots from Changelings, was his Esper-Shield, which was ricocheting rounds left and right, but the shield wouldn't be able to hold up much longer. Those shields generate a lot of heat when they stop an incoming round, and the more they are fired at, the more heat is generated. This heat is stored in the soldier's backpack, in a heat-sink unit, but this can only take so much energy. He had to get rid of it and put in a new one at some point, or it might melt or fracture, which would be catastrofic.

Vermaas dragged the wounded pony to cover, sitting behind the footing of a shattered statue, which used to honour the ponies who had built the first buildings of the town that later became Canterlot. Now, all that remained of this once beautifull commemoration, was a pile or marble. After safely making it to cover, Vermaas took his rifle in his hands, and continued to surpress the enemy, who were relentlesly pushing up on them. He looked around the battlefield, trying to find any way to turn this battle in their favour. Destroyed statues, rubble, a damaged truck, shattered windows...

He looked back at the damaged truck. He saw that the fuel-tank was ruptured, and that it was spreading fuel all over the Changeling-controlled parts of the plaza. Vermaas had no other option. He was going to regret this, and his Medic would be really mad at him, but he had to do something. Putting his weapon down against the remains of the statue, he disconnected the Esper-Shield from his backpack, and took the heat-regulation-unit in his hands. Even while the heatsink was inside this isolated box, the heat that radiated off of it was almost unbearable. He had no other choice.

Disconnecting the safety, he opened the box, reveling a large black disc, which would boil the moisture in your eyes if you looked at it for more than a few seconds. He quickly took a hold of the disc, screaming out in pain as the flesh of his hands began to melt, and he quickly tossed the heatsink, along with pieces of his skin, across the plaza towards the large puddle of fuel that the Changelings were standing in. Almost as soon as the heatsink touched the highly flammable petrol, half of the plaza erupted in an astonishingly bright flash, blinding most Guards, and leaving the Marines who were wearing auto-shading goggles in awe. They jumped up, to neatralize the remaining Changelings, and celebrated, as the Changelings had just been wiped out in one quick swoop.

Meanwhile, Ruben Vermaas was still screaming in pain. His suit pumped him full of painkillers, but it did very little to the feeling of molten and smouldering nerves inside his hand. He could see the bones, which had turned black from the heat. A Medic quickly ran to his aid, injecting him with anesthesia to ease the pain. It only worked to a certain extent, leaving Vermaas feeling very uncomfortable, but atleast he had stopped screaming. The Medic, who had desinfected and bandaged his burnt hand, was now calling over another Medic to help him load Vermaas onto a stretcher.

The Medic decided to immediatly evacuate Vermaas to Atlas Beta, to have him put in cryo-sleep while his conditions were checked and monitored, and a plan could be made to patch him up. First off, all they had to do, was get him out of there. They had managed to make contact with a MedEvac-ship that happened to be on standby nearby, as the range of communications was now extended, since the storm had started to slow down.

It only took the MedEvac two minutes to reach the extraction-zone, as they no longer had to worry about AA-fire. It had seemed word of a possible peace had begun to spread across the city, and the Guards were quite eager to end this conflict. They had seen too many of their friends suffer and die. They had had enough of it.

The MedEvac quickly arrived at the EZ, where it gently touched down at the northern side of the Plaza, close to the gate. Wounded soldiers, both human and pony, were loaded into the H250A. It quickly took off, racing upwards out of the atmosphere to the fleet that was still in position above the capital. Now, the convoy was left alone with the Guards, without their leader. Luckily, they still had a translator. Dr. Märtha made her way out of the AVT, where she had stayed for the entire duration of the battle.

"IT'S HER!" The Guards looked at the Changeling Queen with fear and anger. Had the humans kept her with them? Had she drawn the humans to her side? Maybe, those humans were actually CHANGELINGS?! They didn't know. They thought that it was over, that the fighting was done, but now that she had arrived, they believed that they were far from peace. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" yelled one of the Guards, pointing his rifle towards Dr. Märtha.

"Please, calm down! I do not mean to do harm. I am here with the UEN as a translator!" Dr. Märtha started to get scared. She could stop one or two bullets with her magic, but she wasn't sure if she could stop hundreds of them at once. "Please! We just want to end this war!"

"And what in Tartarus is the UEN then?!" asked the Guard

"The United Earth Navy, humanity's military."

"Why are YOU working with those humans?!" The Guards was getting more and more frustrated.

"I'm one of them!"

"No you're not! You are a Changeling! You are their Queen!"

"I'm not who you think I am! It's complicated, but basically, there's a virus, which is causing those creatures, which you call Changelings, to go crazy and violent. Please, we need to stop this fight, and destroy those infected beings!" Dr. Märtha tried her best to convince the Guard, but it wouldn't work. They couldn't trust her. Fortunatly for Dr. Märtha, there was atleast one pony that knew the truth, and who trusted her.

"STOP! She is telling the truth!" Solar walked out of the AVT. Still somewhat dizzy from the Nerve Gas, he stumbled towards his fellow Guards, in an attempt to stop them from killing their only hope of communication with the humans. If they killed her, there would be no way for them to know what the humans were saying, let alone establish an agreement with them. "She isn't Queen Chrysalis. That's a figure from legends, nothing more! This is Dr. Märtha, she is, or used to be, a human like these soldiers. There really is a virus, and those Changelings are infected with it!"

While the Guards had a very hard time trusting a stranger, which was eerily close to the stuff of legends, they were interested in Solar's story. He was one of them. They had served alongside him, and they trusted him. As much as they believed they would regret it later, they accepted the idea that the aliens, or humans, and this 'Dr. Märtha' were friendly. "Fine. We believe you. Just make sure we don't regret this descision!

"I'll do my best! Now, we must make our way to the Palace! I have to speak to the Princesses!" said Solar, relieved that they had atleast somewhat calmed the conflict down.

The Leader of the Guards at the gate stepped forward, voicing his demands. "Fine. We'll escort you to the Palace. You can take this 'Dr. Märtha' with you, aswell as two humans. the rest stays with us at this gate! And NO WEAPONS! Even you, Captain. Hand it in." The Guard extended his hoof towards Solar, gesturing him to hand over his firearm. Solar hestitated. Could he trust his own comrades? Did he have any reason not to trust them? Yes, he did, but that wasn't important. He had to trust them.

"Okay then. I assume the humans have to hand over their weapons aswell?"

"That's right. Hand them over." Solar had no choice. He turned towards Dr. Märtha, who had been listening along, and he nodded to her, letting her know that he agreed to the plan. Dr. Märtha then walked over to two of the highest-ranking Marines of the convoy, and told them what they were about to do. The Marines seemed to hestitate, but eventually agreed that it was for the best. They gave their rifles and pistols to the Guards, but not before making sure that the ammunition had been removed, and that the weapons had been disabled. Just in case they tried to use them.

The rest of the Marines stood at the gate, along with most of the Guards, as Solar Streak, Dr. Märtha, and the two Marines, under escort of Guards, made their way to the magnificient palace standing ahead of them.

Author's Note

I tried to make this chapter confusing on purpose. I swear it didn't end up this weird because I wrote it over the course of more than a week, whilst being completely deprived of sleep. Totally not.

I'm now also taking submission/applications for roles in my next story, which will be a sequel to this once it is finished. You can take a look at my latest blog-post to see more about that!