Equestria: New Dawn

“With the creation of the new Special Purpose Reconnaissance (designated model number SPR-A2) Suit featuring the integrated Pony Tracker 16 programming, the new military forces of Equestria will have the capability to track troop movements and positions in real time, the ability to check weapon system status along with armor integrity. Laboratory analysis has shown that the SPR-A2 to be successful with an 82% pass rate in accordance with the Defense Ministry’s ‘Combat Effectiveness Tests.’

Currently, two effective designs have been produced. The standard A2 variant, along with the A3. The A3 model is currently still in the prototype phase and has not been as rigorously tested as its cousin. This particular variant of the SPR suit features all the capabilities of the A2 model as well as some new concepts. The tactical heads-up display also includes health monitoring of the operator and a self healing unit. This affectively allows the wearer to fully function in a combat scenario even in the event of being wounded. Weighing about eight pounds lighter than the A2 variant, the SPR-A3 is ideal for what it is designed for, stealth reconnaissance operations. Its lighter weight allows for higher maneuverability without sacrificing armor integrity for the wearer. This also allowed for the addition of a stealth unit, rendering the operator nearly invisible to the naked eye. A slight design flaw however, prevents the user from being fully ‘concealed’ while moving quickly. It is recommended that users only use this function while moving in a slow and controlled manner.

The IFF research ponies have also made a breakthrough. My colleagues who have been conducting tests on subjects 20-23 have discovered that Changelings are only capable of adapting their outward appearance, but not their fundamental molecular structure which remains intact. To counter the threat presented by the Changeling nature of shape-shifting, we have produced an IFF system unique to each pony. Simply put, the IFF system is able to identify between the genetic makeup of ponies and Changelings, outlining the shapes of ponies in blue and those of Changelings in red, significantly reducing the threat of friendly fire incidents. This particular technology has not been fully perfected as of current, but research is nearing completion.

As per your request Commander, I have shipped along with this letter, eight SPR-A3 suits. This is the first field test of this type of technology, so be aware that catastrophic system failure may occur. And if you can, try to bring the suits back in one piece. There’s a lot of expensive hardware in them.”

-Letter from Research Dept. Head: Twilight Sparkle to Cmdr. Boulder

●●●

Strong whistled as he marveled at the technology laid out before him. “Wow. Impressive, huh?” he asked his battle buddy. Chaser had to admit, these things were certainly impressive as they were menacing. And it was very cool seeing as this was the first new piece of equipment she had seen during their fourteen week training session.

“I’m gonna try mine out!” Chaser exclaimed with a little more excitement in her voice than she intended. After several minutes of struggle, Chaser finally donned the new armor. She heard Strong laugh.

“Looks a little bit big on you, Chaser!” he said, snickering at her. She did have to admit, the suit probably looked ridiculous on her. Everything was far too loose and flopping around with every step she took. Chaser heard a small ping as the suit unexpectedly activated itself.

“Welcome Lance Corporal Cloud Chaser, service number 6322590. Please stand still while the suit adjusts itself to your body frame. This should only take a few seconds.” Chaser was frightened, did her suit just talk to her? Within seconds, the armor that had been ill-fitting for Chaser was now altering itself.  Strong watched, dumbfounded at what was unfolding before him. “Terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but I still have to do a final system scan.” Chaser knew the ponies that had been hoof-picked by the Commander to create the new technology were good, but this was intense! Not to mention bordering ‘creepy-town.’ The Heads Up Display winked to life inside her helmet visor. Chaser looked at Strong and a faint blue outline could be seen around his body along with his name, rank, service number along with health and armor status.

“Strong,” said Chaser trying to hide the excitement from her voice. “You gotta try this!” Without hesitation, her buddy began to suit up, filling out the armor much better than she had initially. She saw him twitch nervously when Strong’s suit began to automatically adjust itself to his body. A sharp crackle of static came through her helmet mounted communications unit.

“THIS IS AWESOME!” shouted Strong through her headset. Chaser winced as his voice came in booming through.

“Sweet Celestia, Strong! You don’t need to be so loud, I’d probably be able to hear a pin drop with this headset!” she scolded.

“Oh, sorry about that.” Strong looked down at his hooves. “But I mean, come on! Isn’t this amazing? I didn’t even think stuff was possible!” He began to ramble. Chaser face-hooved.

“Hey, I think they installed stealth units on some of them. Maybe we got those.” That ought to shut him up for a bit. Strong stopped talking and began to tear up the package the armored suits arrived in. Chaser laughed to herself. Too bad she couldn’t see his face. His eyes were probably popping out with excitement.

“SPR-A3” muttered Strong.

“What?” asked Chaser.

“It says here, SPR-A3. I wonder what that means. Kinda wish somepony from the labs could explain to us what that means.” Chaser couldn’t have agreed more. “In fact,” continued Strong, “I kinda wish somepony could explain to us how to use these contraptions to their fullest instead of just droppin’ ‘em off like they did.” Now that she thought about it, it certainly was odd. The package was just dropped off at her and Strong’s barracks room with no instruction. Now she was curious. Trotting over to where the package now laid, Chaser turned the box over. On it in large bold print were the words ‘DO NOT OPEN.’

“Uh oh,” she said.

“What is it?” asked Strong as he walked over. “Oh…shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like you two opened your presents a little bit early? What are you, foals on Hearth’s Warming Eve?” said a gruff voice. Both ponies looked up and saw Commander Boulder standing before them.

“Sir,” began Strong. “We can explain!” The Commander began to laugh much to the confusion of both Strong and Chaser.

“It’s fine, you two weren’t the only ones” said Commander Boulder. “I was just coming here to tell you two to go to the Staff room. Managed to grab the tech who delivered these new toys so he can give all of us a briefing about the suits.”

“Trackin’ sir,” sounded off both ponies as they took off running for the Staff room. Boulder sighed. It had been a rough fourteen weeks for all of them. Every minute they trained, the enemy was growing stronger and regrouping. That idea had been bothering him for a while now. Boulder began to trot over to the Staff room. Hopefully that egg-head can explain how to use those damn suits, he thought. Once his ponies were efficient with them, they’d be unstoppable.

Boulder’s contemplations were interrupted by an enthusiastic “Morning sir!”

“The same to you Shining. How’s everything?”

“Good so far, been making sure that 4thCompany has been doing their duties around the Palace. They rather hate their new jobs. Not that I blame them. Babysitting a building sucks.”

“I understand,” said Boulder. “But we need to keep a small contingent there.”

“No argument here, sir. Hey, I think I saw Strong and Chaser running to the Staff room in some high-speed looking armor suits. Care to let me in on that?”

Boulder chuckled, “What I can tell you, Captain is that these suits are the most advanced pieces of hardware the Equestrian Defense Force has at its disposal. And the ponies that’ll be operating them are the most efficient and effective warfighters you’ll ever meet.”

“Good to know, and if I may sir. Who designed these?”

“Would you believe it if I said your sister?”

Shining Armor gave Boulder a shocked look. “Seriously, sir? You gotta be joking.”

“Negatory, Shining. She’s doing her part. Made some drastic improvements on the first concepts my techs had drawn up.” Boulder paused, “Your sister’s brain might just be a key factor in winning this war.

Shining nodded in agreement. “Roger, sir.”

“Now if you’ll excuse me, Captain. I have to head off to the Staff room. Figure I might as well know how those damn suits work. And if I recall, you have an operation to plan.”

“Take care, Commander,” said Shining as he trotted away to the war-room.

●●●

Shining opened the door to the Ops-Room, or as affectionately called by the few ponies who worked there, the ‘war-room.’ While the majority of the plans were being written up in the Staff-room, the real magic so to speak, happened here. “OFFICER ON DECK!” cried out a Sergeant. The whole room stood at attention. Shining gave a quick salute, he hated these formalities.

“Captain, if you could come over here sir, I think the newest intel report might be of use,” said a Corporal. Shining Armor walked over to where the young Corporal was.

“Alright, Corporal…BLUF(1)”

“Well, sir. It appears we may have the location of Queen Chrysalis, the leader of the element responsible for the attack on Canterlot.”

“Leader of the element?” inquired Shining. “But she’s a Queen, correct? Wouldn’t that make her…”

“One would think sir,” interrupted the Corporal. “But the Changelings aren’t exactly like us. There are multiple Queens from what our field intelligence teams are reporting. The queens are just the commanders of various combat elements. Think of them as our generals.”

“So who’s leading all the Changelings, then? If not the Queens, then who?”

The Corporal shook his head. “We have no idea, sir.” Shining Armor stomped his hoof in frustration.

“Okay, Corporal. So we at least have the location of one of their Queens. I’m thinking we take that bitch out. What’s the general consensus here?”

The Corporal laughed. “Sir, we couldn’t agree with ya more.”

Shining grinned. “If I could have everyone’s attention,” He called out rather loudly. All eyes in the war-room turned to him. “Get ready, ponies. We’re planning our first real Op(2).” Cheering erupted throughout the room, yup today was going to be a good day.

●●●

“..And that’s all there is to the suits,” chirped the tech with too much enthusiasm. “Can I go now, Commander? We got some new weapons we’re working on in the labs.”

Boulder sighed in annoyance. At least the teams now knew how to use these things. Too bad he missed the first part of the class, all this technology was far above his head. I must be getting too old for this, Boulder thought. “Alright, fine” he said gruffly. “And say hello to Ms. Sparkle for me.”

“Yes Commander,” stammered the mare as she backed out the door. Civilians, Boulder scoffed. His personal messenger beeped as a holographic image of Captain Armor came into view. The Captain’s sister never ceased to amaze him with the products she and her scientists could manufacture.

“Sir, we know where Queen Chrysalis is located,” said Shining’s holographic self.

A dangerous smile crept up on Boulder’s lips. “Good work, Captain. Looks like your Ops-room isn’t a waste of space after all.”

“Never, was Commander” spoke Shining with confidence. “My ponies are putting together an OPORD(3) as we speak.”

“I understand. I’ll keep the teams training until you’re ready.”

“Roger sir,” said Shining’s holographic image as it flickered and vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

Boulder turned to the team members. “ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP!” Silence enveloped the room as the ponies of 1st SPRD-Delta turned in his direction. “GET YOUR ASSES TO THE RANGE! We got some killin’ to do.”

●●●

“Damn! It’s hotter than Chaser’s temper in here,” the Captain joked. Almost all the team members laughed except Chaser, whose face was turning red with annoyance. “I’m just messing with you, Chaser” laughed the Captain. “Alright, now let’s get down to business. As we already know, the Changeling forces have been in disarray after their defeat in Canterlot. While we believed that this chaos would be prolonged, this is unfortunately not the case.”

Shining pointed to the map behind him. “Our intelligence shows that while there is still some confusion in the Changeling ranks, they are beginning to regroup and rearm for another offensive. In the mountains and near the plains, their forces are starting to mass. Understandably, we cannot allow for another attack to occur, which is why we need to hit the Changelings first.

Your objective is straightforward, ‘eliminate Queen Chrysalis with extreme prejudice.’ You will achieve this through superior technology, training, and weaponry. Here’s how it’s going to go down, take notes on this shit. Teams 1 and 2 will be inserting on the plains in the morning via aerial assets, where we have solid intel that Queen Chrysalis will be located here. The weather is going to be foggy tomorrow so use that to your advantage with the stealth features on your suits. You will be facing a highly motivated enemy force about company size. Keep in mind that although we did manage to push them back at Canterlot, their morale is still very high after the political victory of attacking our Capitol and the military victory at Commander Boulder’s former area of operations. These Changelings will search for and engage you if they find evidence of your presence. Most deadly course of action will be a full-blown fire fight, something we want to avoid. Remember that while you are all better trained and equipped than these fuckers, they still outnumber you 30-1. So only kill when absolutely necessary and keep it quiet. Your time on target will be no later than 0850 hours. There will be no other friendly forces in the area other than yourselves. We managed to acquire a few Manticore Gunships that will be on station to provide air support only once the target has been removed.

Since their forces have decided to regroup in the plains there will not be much cover or even terrain features until you reach their area of operations. In order for this operation to be successful, I need all of you to stay sharp. Keep your heads on a swivel, your HUD systems may be affected by the weather. This will also be the first time the new suits will be fielded, so do not become reliant on the fancy gadgets on them. Rely on the training Commander Boulder here gave you. Stay quiet and move quickly. The longer you stay there, the higher your chances of being caught are.

I’m going to turn it over now to the Commander to fill you in on some additional information you’re going to need to know in regards to their military structure,” finished Shining.

“Thank you, Captain” began Boulder. “So as you already know, Queen Chrysalis is the one responsible for leading the assault against Canterlot. But what you may not know is that she is not the leader of the Changelings. As a Queen she is essentially the commander of a unit, in this case a company sized element. We never would have discovered this if it weren’t for Corporal Lightning here.” The Op-Room stallion shrank from sight in slight embarrassment. The Commander continued his brief, “Sadly this also means that we still don’t know who is in command of the Changeling forces.”

“Are there any questions?” asked the Captain.

Sergeant Nova raised her hoof, “Do we have any ROE’s(4)?”

“There are no ROE’s. However this IS a deniable op(5). Keep that in mind. So as stated previously, stay hidden and move quickly with efficiency,” Shining replied quickly.

“Do you want us to gather intel from any Changelings we may happen to engage? And if so, what qualifies as ‘useful?’” asked PFC Tumble.

Commander Boulder stepped up to answer. “The usual, Tumble. Maps, communications equipment, or anything you can beat out of them. If you can manage to take one alive on your exfil out, we could seriously use the information it could have. But that is a secondary objective. Your primary concern is to take out the Queen.”

Strong inquired, “What weapons will we be operating with?”

“I was wondering if somepony was gonna ask about that,” chuckled Shining. “You will be using suppressed assault rifles and light machine guns as your primaries. Figure out who is going to be the overwatch team and which will be the assaulting element. The team on overwatch should be using magnifying optics and the assault element should be looking at either iron or red-dot sights. Make sure to be packing sub-sonic ammo. Don’t want to give away your position now do you?”

Chaser looked around, nopony else had their hand up or was asking anything more. “Sir,” she asked. “When do we leave?”

“You got one hour before your rides get here,” said the Captain. “Additional information will be sent to your suit HUDs, I recommend reading it on the flight out. It’s gonna be a long trip. Dismissed!” As the ponies of the two 1st SPRD-Delta teams began to file out of the Ops-room, Shining Armor muttered to himself “Make us proud.”

●●●

Shining Armor stepped into his little sister’s new labs. Looking around him there was so much technology in this place he didn’t even know where to begin to look. A few of the pony techs gave him strange and inquisitive looks. Didn’t look like they were used to having any sort of military presence here, he thought to himself.

“SHINING!” an excited voice pierced the monotonous tone of whirring and humming from the machines. Twilight came out of an adjacent room, running at her brother before enveloping him in a hug.

“Hey Twily, just wanted to see how you’re doing here? But seems that you’re making some real progress here.”

“Oh we’ve made more than just progress, Shining. We’ve ushered in a whole new era of knowledge. I hope that the Commander liked the new armor systems we sent him?”

Shining laughed quietly, “Oh yes, the ponies using them are really excited about them. Boulder likes them as well, but I think he’s in over his head about the new gear. Says it’s a wonder how these things work. Enough about work though. Have you been taking time off to see your friends?”

Twilight sighed, “Shining I’m not a little filly anymore. You don’t need to check up on me to see if I’m…”

“That’s not what I asked Twilight,” Interrupted Shining Armor. “Are you taking some time off?”

“Well,” began Twilight, “I got some help from Rarity on the application of camouflage on the suits.”

“Twily, come on. You need to take a break. Just hang out with your friends for a day or two. I’m sure your mind could use the relaxation.”

“How can you talk about relaxing?” cried Twilight. “We have a war on our hooves here and you want me to relax? I can’t relax! I’m in charge of creating the best equipment for our troops and you want me to relax?!”

Shining was taken aback by his sister’s sudden outburst. She definitely needed a break even if she didn’t think likewise. “As your superior officer and older brother Twilight, I’m ordering you to take the remainder of the day off as well as tomorrow,” he said with sternness in his voice.

Twilight stood there, stunned. He couldn’t order her like that, could he? Then again, she was working for the Commander, who her brother happened to be the right hand stallion of. Nuts, she thought. “Alright, Shining,” she said with her head hung in defeat. “I’ll take a few days off whether I like it or not.”

“You’ll leaving the labs in capable hooves Twily,” reassured her brother. “After all, you weren’t the only pony behind the new developments, right?”

“I guess so,” said Twilight. “Sometimes Shining, why can’t you be wrong?”

“Hey, it’s what I do” he said with a laugh. “And plus I’m sure your friends will be happy to see you.”

Twilight smiled, whether or not she agreed with his views, her brother always did mean the best for her. That’s all she could ever ask for. Plus it might be nice to catch up with her friends, she wondered what stories they would have to tell her.

●●●

-Authors’ Dictionary-

(1) BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front, to prevent whatever is being said or written from being too long or wordy

(2) Op: Operation (Op) is the coordinated military actions of the state in response to a developing situation

(3) OPORD: An Operations Order (OPORD), is an executable plan that directs a unit to conduct a military operation

(4) ROE: Rules of Engagement (ROE) refers to those responses that are permitted in the employment of military personnel during operations or in the course of their duties

(5) Deniable Op: The withholding of information from senior officials in order to protect them from repercussions in the event that illegal or unpopular activities by 1st SPRD-Delta became public knowledge.