"I don't believe this," Oak Vale said for the thousandth time this morning. He's been in this loop of denial for hours after proving that I could understand and respond to him by writing on a notepad. It's like brain refused to accept that out there, in the universe, there is intelligent life amongst the stars. Just the mere thought of not being alone in the Universe brings such omnipresent fear from deep within him. It's fucking annoying.

We Humans never had that kind of fear. Sure we were scared back when we couldn't leave the inner ring of the solar system with our limited technology during the millennial era, but our curiosity and love of the unknown brought us to wonder. Wonder about who is out there? Are they like us? Could we be friends or are we enemies? Hell, back then our first response to an alien threat was to nuke it until its dead. Which, depending on the type of kinetic, electromagnetic, or radioactive shielding the aliens had, nukes would be useless against them. Nowadays, we have anti-matter weaponry! Screw nukes! They are only good for glassing a planet infected with The Red Plague, but that's a story for another day.

"Please tell me I'm dreaming? If there are Humans that are intelligent, then what's happening to them? Why aren't they trying to gain freedom? Slavery is wrong!" Rolling my eyes, I went back to eating my MRE while watching the sunrise bathe a cornucopia of color in reds, oranges, and pinks across the lake. Meanwhile, the Equestrian Humans had left back to...wherever the hell they went, leaving me and the swollen balls mini-horse to our own devices.

'I don't know,' I tried to say, which led to my throat making a broken mismatch amalgamation of sound similar to a dying fox-dog-cat thing. Poor Oak Vale skin attempted to leave the body from the fright my voice caused. And when he looked my way to try and figure out what the fuck that was. I glared pure death at him. He whimpered and shied away...or tried too, as he was still tied to the tree. 'Arg, I hate it when people talk about my voice, or mention it, or asked to hear it. It's not like I have feelings or anything. I only have to wait eight months for my surgery to get my voice back. So why does everyone have to act like I was a cripple? Whatever, I'll deal with my doctor later when I return to the Sol System.'

Finishing up my apocalypse proof bacon, eggs, and coffee in a bag, I began digging through my stuff. 'Alright, let's see; clothes, hatchet, two climbing picks, my eight-inch combat knife, (should use that instead of the four-inch gold dagger), Med-kit, solar charger, wallet, one-person tent, (packed up properly), sleeping bag, cell phone, Tac-Visor, Ghost Cloak, my "toy," and my bow with a quiver of arrows.' With all those things out of the backpack and laid in front of me, I equipped what I needed and repacked everything else away.

"W-What are you up to now?" Professor Oak inquired. "And what are those things?" he continued, pointing at my visor, cloak, bow case, and cell phone. Letting out a sigh, I grabbed my notepad and wrote my response.

["My Tac Visor connects to my phone. It also displays map data created by its internal echolocation device, a compass, thermal imaging, a regular camera, important tactical information, internet, and it has a night vision feature, though I hardly use that one."]

"I have no idea what half those things are." I shrugged and continued.

["My Ghost Cloak—the little hexagonal piece of metal—makes me invisible by refracting light around me. Works wonders in the shadows, but in the light? It faintly shimmers like a pool of water."] Pausing, I grabbed the case and opened it up, revealing an arctic-camo tritanium compound bow. I pulled it out and checked to make sure the tension on the pullies were the correct and quickly found that it was a little loose. Frowning, I grabbed a tension wrench from within the case and fixed that problem. Once done, all the while Oak Vale watching in awe, I gave him a close up of my weapon.

["This is my bow. It's has a draw strength of 120 pounds, and shoots out an arrow at 640fps. It's made from Tritanium, carbon fiber, and a meta-crystalline plastic with similar properties to wood and diamond. It's perfect for hunting, or killing creatures from afar, and in silence."]

I could see his eyes go wide in shock at all the information about my bow. I know he probably doesn't know half of what I wrote about it. I think he only understands the pound part or the height part. I'm not sure which. My brief observation of the tech-level of the mini-horses showed that they weren't all that advanced. So I think he understands the base power of how the draw strength of the bow creates. Either than that, this bow is as long as my torso from groin to the top of my head, and it's sexy. Not as sexy as my rifle, but still sexy nonetheless.

Putting the bow aside for later, I picked up my cell phone, turned it on and with a swipe of my thumb, activated my text-to-speech app. That's when I hear the dumbest question come from the mini-horse.

"Wait, wait, wait...how do you understand me or what I'm saying? How does a space Human from another world know what I'm saying?!"

'Really, out of all the questions you could have asked, you had to choose that one?' I deadpanned at the mini-horse. 'Very well then.' Typing with the app on my phone, my voice, synthesized from the program on my phone, spoke all the words that I wrote. 'Still can't believe it sounds exactly like me. Was I always a tomboyishly silky tenor? No wonder all my boyfriends and girlfriends say my voice sounded "husky" all the time.'

["You are speaking Ea!o'ch!o, the primary language of the Praedatos. I know how to speak this tongue because I had to learn two languages in High School; one from Alliance Space, the other from Confederation Space. I learned Ea!o'cho!o, (which is Confederate), and Faunari, (which is Alliance). Does that answer your question?"] I replied. 'That and I had to learn it for diplomatic missions with the Praedatos, but he doesn't need to know I'm military.'

He just stared at me for a long, long time. I don't understand why. He was quite accepting that I was from the planet Mars of the Sol System in the Orion Arm of the Milkyway Galaxy. How does knowing an alien language make me the odd one? Does he know how impossible it is for a Human to speak Ea!o'ch!o? It's all clicks, snorts, whinnies, neighs, and slops in hyper-complex patterns that a Human can't replicate naturally with their throat or their mouths! Well, I suppose he doesn't know. They only way I could make those sounds was with a translator. I don't think the mindless apes he calls "Human" could make those sounds naturally either, now that I think about it. Weird.

After a few minutes of silence, and packing most of my stuff away, Oak Vale decided to return to the land of the living. His filthy exterior, looked very fatigued like he hasn't slept for a few days. Could have been my fault due to how I tied him up to the tree. I made sure he was the most uncomfortable position possible for his quadrupedal stance.

"If you are speaking an alien language, then what are the odds of two worlds—who have never met—know the same tongue? Wouldn't that be astronomically improbable?" he asked simply.

["Yep, it would be very improbable, however. It is widely believed that an ancient race called: The Nomads, planted seeds across the galaxy; giving all sapient races a way of communicating with each other if they should ever meet. It could be that the Nomads interacted with your race at one point, giving you a means to create Ea!o'cho!o somewhere down the line. They did it with the Praedatos, and the Cth!'lae!okh!th!lok. I wouldn't be surprised if they did it with you ponies too."] I explained. 'Goddess, C'th!'lae!o'kh!th!lo'k is such a fucking mouthful. Why can't those bugs have a shorter name for their race? Thank the Goddess that my translator doesn't automatically speak the meaning of that name. We would be waiting for hours just for it to finish talking.'

"A-Are you saying that aliens invaded our world long ago?"

Shaking my head, ["No, but it's a far better explanation than the insane number that goes behind "luck" with two races from different parts of the universe knowing the same language."] He went silent again.

"C-Can you let me go?" he yawned. "I have family, friends, ponies that will come looking for me. I already told you everything I know. What more do you want from me?"

Tapping my chin in thought, I did milk him for all he's worth. You can't garner much information from a mole planted in a sting operation on another world. I had what I needed to know; the world I'm on, country I'm in, all information about the "totally-not-humans," who ruled the country, religion, all races that lived on this planet, other countries and their outlook on Humans in general. There isn't much else I needed to know to begin my search for other Intelligent Humans in Equestria and save them from captivity. The only thing I lacked was a place where I can safely house those Intelligent Humans, and how to find them. 'Hmm, Oak Vale could be useful in that regard, but with the way I treated him. His loyalty could be compromised. I wonder....'

Shaking my head, I had to turn my emotions off for this min-pony to protect who I am, and what I am. If word gets out that an Intelligent Human from outer-space was caught and treated as a common animal, then there will be hell to pay. Like seriously; this world would be fucking razed by the Alliance for how they treat these "totally-not-humans." Seriously! Human pit fighting rings to the death? Sex dungeons/brothels? Breeding farms? Even food! FOOD! Forget The Red Plague and the Alliances protocol for dealing with that problem. Equis was going to get glassed with whatever experimental doomsday weapon we had.

Letting out a sigh, I narrowed my eyes and pulled out my combat knife from its sheath holstered behind my back. Oak Vale saw what I was holding, causing his eyes to turn to pinpricks. He looked up at me as I took a step forward, tears beginning to form in his eyes. It was moments like these that I hated being a soldier. With each kill, I removed a father or mother, a brother or sister, from the universe. As a soldier, I take and rip apart families from one another. Sometimes they were monsters that needed to be put down to bring peace, other times it was people who were just protecting their home. In any case, my mission is first and foremost, and I had to ensure it's success by any means necessary. This includes removing all witnesses who know too much information for their own good.

"P-Please," he choked, tears now forming rivers down his matted cheeks. "I have a filly at home, a wife!" Stopping in front of the terrified stallion, I pulled out my cell and turned on the text-to-speech app one, last, time.

["I'm sorry, but my survival is more important than yours,"] the translator said. ["No hard feelings, love."]

"I-I... I u-understand," he coughed, his head wilting in acceptance. "You know things, and you are an intelligent soldier from another world. If the wrong ponies capture you, then I don't think they would be able to stop what you could do to them. Just...just have kindness in your heart for when this world wrongs you." I rested my hand on his mane, kneeling down while I did so, and brought the dagger to his throat. A sharp, icy glare encased my face. I stopped my blade.

["How did you know?"] I quickly typed out.

"Heh, I may not be the bravest stallion, but I do know a thing or two. Your movements are precise and silent. Your eyes are always moving, looking at places where enemies could use as cover. Plus, they know such a primal ferocity that no pony shall ever know. It's terrifying," he stopped to look directly into my eyes. He smiled, "And you ask questions that give you the best tactical advantages in an unknown environment. I would do the same. Not very subtle, are you?"

'Well, he has me there, but don't think I don't know what you are trying to do. I've seen it before, and it has killed my comrades months later,' I thought bitterly, for being found out so easily. Letting out a sigh, I typed out my final response.

["You think appealing to my inquisitive nature would give you a few more hours alive?"] His face lit up with hope. My eyes narrowed. ["You are wrong."]

His fear returned just in time for my blade to make it's home in his throat. Blood vomited out of his mouth as he tried to say something else to appease my falsely merciful nature. I watched the life drain from his eyes as he squirmed in his bonds, trying desperately to break free in a vain attempt of defiance, however, in mere moments. His body went limp, his life extinguished. Was I making a mistake for ending his life? Probably. Was Oak Vale a liability? Majorly. He was too much of a risk to keep around for what I have planned until command finds this world, and rescue me and all those that I could set free. Did I want to kill him? No, but my training demands it.

Pulling out my blade, I untied the rope binding the pony to the tree and where his body flopped down on the forest floor. I left the gold mini-horse dagger beside him, covered in his blood while I cleaned mine in the lake. Without missing a beat, I erased all my tracks by the body with a stick, and before leaving the area. I glanced at the body of Oak Vale one final time.

'May the ancestors watch over you and judge me for all that I've sinned. For I am a warrior of Mars.'

'A Daughter of War.'

"Sir, we have secured the area, and we couldn't find any trail leading away from the body. What do we do now?" spoke a deep, gruff voice, standing at full attention beside a tall, purple-armored stallion. Shining Armor let out a sigh as he had nothing else for his subordinates to do in this situation. The murder of Master Sergeant Oak Vale was a mystery, and there were very few leads on who the murderer was.

"Have you scanned for magical resonance or any form of magical tampering?" Shining Armor questioned. The stallion beside him was Second Lieutenant Silver Shield. He was a dark-gray Pegasus with a silvery-blue short mane from Cloudsdale. He was pulled into this investigation at Captain Armors request. Mostly, because Silver had an impressive record dealing with anything that the Royal Guard couldn't solve. His inquisitive mind and attention to detail were far above anything that Shining has ever seen. He would say even his sister, but Twilight had the tendency to be blinded by the larger picture and ignored the little details that mattered. The other reason Silver was brought into the investigation has to do with Oak Vale: His younger brother.

Silver shook his head, "I had Lieutenant Mystic Script look for any magical tampering, but she couldn't find anything that would suggest sabotage of the crime scene. Not even Oak Vale's signature."

Shining Armor frowned. He knew Oak Vale personally. That stallion was one hell of an escape artist, and no amount of rope, chain, or even some of the toughest sealing spells could hold him down. At least, not very long. 'So why didn't he teleport out if he was only tied to the tree? Something is wrong here.' Turning to the Lieutenant, he asked, "What do you think happened here? You knew Oak as much as I do, so why didn't he escape if only rope held him down?"

Silver's brow furrowed, eyes narrowed, wings twitching in frustration. He took a step closer to the body of his dead brother, careful not to ruin the circle of tape surrounding him. With a closer look at all the bruises, scabs, his swollen stallion-hood, cuts, and burns, he began painting a picture of what happened to the stallion.

"Bruising of the back and neck shows signs of struggling, against a larger opponent. The burns are from the friction caused by the rope—" he paused for a moment, tapping his hoof against his chin. He didn't know where some of the scabs came from, but they looked older, probably from a few days ago before his capture. 'Maybe from the Humans he was supposed to diagnose as part of his cover? They do look like bite and scratch marks from Humans.'

"—Scabs are too old to be relevant, and the cuts are too jagged and small to match the dagger by the body. Those must've been made by running through a few bushes."

Shining took in all the information, seeing the same picture going through Silver's head, however. Most of what he said doesn't explain why Oak couldn't use his magic or tried another method of escape. 'Did he chose to stay captured? Did he learn something that would require him to risk his life? You knew something, but what?' Pulling himself from his reverie, he saw Silver staring at Oak's horn intensely. Finding this rather odd, he walked over to check what has Silvers attention. What he saw answered some of his questions.

"His horn is cracked down the middle, which explains why he couldn't escape," Silver pointed out. "The fracture looks like it was created from some form of extreme compression, likely from being crushed on against a hard surface. Whoever did this didn't want to take any chances fighting against a Unicorn, but to severely cripple his magic? That's not a tactic used by other ponies, not even the worst of scum would do such a thing. It also explains why we can't find any evidence. We could be dealing with a Griffin mercenary hired to cover Leather Whips tracks. They are known to be grossly efficient when dealing with threats."

"A Griffin 'merc? Then what are those strange hoofprints we found in the forest and around the lake? They couldn't be Griffin," Shining added.

"Those look like Human bootprints. Expensive too. It's not often that you see such a design, but it's clear they are meant for extremely rough terrain that would originally shred a Human's bare feet into ribbons," Silver replied, taking a step away from his fallen brother to rejoin the Captain on the other side of the dividing tape. "On a side note, those prints also belong to a very heavy female. She was carrying something, but no idea what. And why was she here? I have no clue either. Could have seen the body while doing whatever she was trained to do, but it looks like she avoided it altogether."

Shining groaned in annoyance. He realized with this information. He could be dealing a Griffin mercenary group hired by Leather Whip to gather information and tie up loose ends. Knowing this, moving forward with his original plan for dealing with the Zebra crimelord, Zodiac—and his second in command, Black Crystal—was no longer a viable option. Their only card against them is long gone, and most likely already hunkered down in a location where the Royal Guard couldn't enter without severe casualties. Not only that, but his primary mole was dead after being tortured for whatever information the Griffin could gather. His options were limited, and his next move against Zodiac and Black Crystal could spell disaster.

"Sir, if I may ask. Can I pick up the slack where Master Sergeant Oak Vale left behind?" Silver asked with a firm voice, filled with a mixture of pride, anger, and conviction.

Shining Armor looked at the stallion with a calculating eye for a moment, thinking of role Silver Shield could possibly play in this operation. Sure, he was a brilliant detective and fighter, but his teamwork is lacking. The only thing Silver would be useful in this operation would be chasing down the mercenary group, and that would leave him on his own without backup. 'No, he is smarter than that. Silver wouldn't blindly risk himself like Oak on a slim chance for an advantage. I guess that's all I can do at the moment until I can meet up with the other Captains back in Canterlot. I just hope it's the right call.' Letting out a long exhale, he looked right into Silver's fiery steel-blue eyes and gave him his orders.

"Lieutenant, figure out who killed Oak Vale, who they work for, and try to find where Leather Whip is hiding. I believe figuring out your first two objectives will help with the third. You have full access to all materials in the armory that you deem necessary for this mission. I'll expect a weekly report, and any missing reports will be seen as you going M.I.A. until proven otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Sir!" Silver saluted proudly before jumping into the air and flying off into the direction of Canterlot to gather what he needs. All the while, Shining Armor is wondering one little detail that's been bugging him ever since Silver pointed it out.

'Why was there a trained female Human in the forest?'

Author's Note

I'll give you an OC cameo if you can pronounce Ea!o'ch!o. The (!) is a click. You have to click your tongue with each (!).

I'll give you an oc side-story if you could pronounce C'th!'lae!o'kh!th!lo'k. Good luck with that one.

Let me know if I make an error! They are evil hentai monsters that deserve to be destroyed!