As Standish and his team escorted Twilight Sparkle and Spike out of Celestia's office, Standish turned to the Princess of Friendship and gave a sigh.

"What's up?" Twilight asked.

"I'm still not sure why you wanted us to come with you to this Crystal Empire." he replied. "We should be hunting down the Bluebloods, not taking a vacation. It's a bad move."

"Well, I agree, but seeing as you're better equipped and know exactly what's going on here, unlike the Guards...I'd prefer to have you close by." Twilight said, raising a hoof to the back of her head sheepishly.

"Alright...I suppose that's a good enough reason." Standish admitted. "How are we getting there?"

"We'll take a train." Twilight affirmed as they proceeded through the throne room and towards the Palace gates in the courtyard. "It's already waiting for us at the Station."

"At least we're not walking." Lyle chuckled. Paulson cuffed his friend's shoulder in a mixture of annoyance and good humor. The four Hunters, Twilight, and Spike soon reached the Canterlot train station, and boarded a 8-car steam engine which bore at least two platoons of Crystal Empire Guardsponies.

As the six of them entered the lounge car and took their seats, the Guard leader, a pegasus with a tan-orange coat and a blue mane came forward.

"Welcome aboard, Princess." he said. "I'm Lt. Flash Sentry, currently in command here.."

"I remember you!" Twilight replied. "You were the Guard I met before the whole Mirror Portal incident! It's nice to see you again!"

Flash gave a smile in return.

"Happy to hear it." he replied, then turning to Standish. "From what Prince Shining Armor told me, you are the four "Hunters" in charge of the Princess's security?"

"That would be us." Jacobs replied.

"Well, we're at your command then for the time being." Flash replied. "You need anything, we'll be here and ready."

"Good." Standish replied. "How are your teams organized?"

"We have Guards stationed in every car, set in two-teams-per-car intervals." Flash replied as they sat down in the passenger car. "The engine has three teams stationed there."

"Good." Paulson replied. "Keep us posted. Is there a way of direct communication?"

"We have a magical voice relay set up for communication between teams in each car." Flash continued. "We shouldn't see any interference from the conspirators on our way to the Crystal Empire."

"Don't be so certain." Standish replied. "I have a feeling we'll have company sooner or later. Have all teams placed on standby and made ready for close-quarters-combat."

As the train took off for the Crystal Empire, a pegasus wearing chainmail and rogue's leathers, equipped with a telescope, watched them depart from atop a cloud. A unicorn next to him primed his magic and spoke.

"They're on the move. Orders?"

"Stay put and make yourselves scarce. The others will ambush the train when the opportunity is right." a voice replied.

"Understood."

====

As the train proceeded along the tracks at a brisk speed, Standish and the Hunters watched as Spike, Flash, and Twilight played a round of cards.

"Rear car, status?" Standish asked through the magic relay, which was similar to a glowing white orb that emitted smoke.

"All clear." the Guards stationed at the caboose replied. "No sign of any hostiles."

"Keep at it. Notify immediately if there's any change." Standish ordered. As he returned to his seat, he retrieved a SHD weapon repair kit from his rucksack and proceeded to field-clean his Custom P416G3. The other Hunters soon followed suit with maintaining their own gear and SHD Tech, along with sharpening their Survival Axes.

Though their weapons hadn't seen much wear and tear since their arrival, they were starting to show signs of needing a repair session. As the Hunters scrubbed, wiped down, and polished their weapons, Twilight looked over at them.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Some field repairs." Lyle replied. "Just to pass the time. This gear doesn't maintain itself."

"I see." Twilight replied. "It's so strange to me how your world developed so many incredible things without magic."

"Well, seeing as our concept of magic was primarily stage tricks and show business…" Lyle nodded. "I suppose the concept of technology seemed more believable and manageable."

"Our technology isn't always good, though." Standish added. "I mean, the nuclear bomb, poison gas, and hell, even the Green Poison virus were all developed by technological means."

"Is there always a bad side to everything you make?" Spike asked.

"Can't say for sure." Paulson mused. "I mean, I can't think of anything technological off the top of my head that can't be used in a bad way or can't cause harm."

Then, Standish looked up on his Mask's HUD, and saw several red blips appear, their position indicated to be above them. Slowly standing up, he loaded his Custom P416 and approached the window.

"Jacobs, Pulse the car." he ordered. Jacobs nodded and activated his Pulse, and the Hunters looked upwards in surprise.

Several equine shapes were shown in red on the roof of the train car, and more were appearing as time passed.

"Flash, did you position any guards on the roof?" Standish asked, though he already knew the answer.

"No." Flash replied, drawing his sword and heading to the magic relay. As he did so, the windows shattered as mercenaries in Amadeus's hire leaped in, weapons ready. As Standish and his team opened fire with their guns, Flash dive-rolled past to protect Twilight and Spike, sword at the ready.

As the relay began sounding the cries of the Guards and mercenaries, and the clashing of swords between them, Standish and his team ushered Twilight, Flash and Spike to the Engine. As the Guards stationed there took defensive positions.

"Keep them here." Standish ordered. "We'll clear the train. Don't let anyone stop you."

The Guards nodded and readied their weapons as Twilight and Spike took cover. However, as Standish and his team proceeded back to the cars occupied by the mercenaries, he didn't notice four friendly marks appear on his HUD's minimap, near the end of the train.

====

As the Mercenaries worked their way up towards the engine, fighting the Crystal Guards that stood in their path, neither side paid much attention to the interior of the caboose. Inside, as another team of Hunters got to their feet, they quickly loaded their weapons and made themselves combat ready at hearing the chaos outside.

"Team, are we good?" asked the leader of the squad, named Roberts, to each of the Hunters. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're good." said Travis, his second. "Seems we're in the middle of something."

"We always are." Levy, the squad's heavy specialist, nodded in affirmation. "Anything on the radio or minimap, Hawke?"

"I've got four marked friendlies at the front of the train." Hawke, the squad's scout, replied. "I advise we move to them and figure out what's going on here."

"Check." Roberts replied. "Let's move!"

As the Hunters exited the caboose and pushed forward, Hawke called out over the radio.

"Friendly callsigns, can you hear me?"

"Who the hell is this?" said a voice. "How are you on this channel? ID yourself?"

"My name is Hawke, I'm a Hunter, assigned to Bravo Team." Hawke replied. "Who are you?"

"This is Standish, designation Alpha Team." was the reply. "How'd you guys get here?"

"That's a long story." Roberts replied over his own radio. "What's your status Standish?"

"We're knee-deep in hostiles at the moment." Standish replied as gunfire sounded over the radio. "Do us a favor and push towards us at the front of the train, hostiles are the ones in mail and leather. Take 'em out as you go."

"Check." Roberts replied. "Team, move!"

As the two Hunter teams, steeled by the presence of the others, pushed forward to clear the train, the remaining Mercenaries found the advantage was no longer with them. The Guards, once they recovered from the surprise of the ambush, fought back ferociously, and though they were outnumbered by the mercs, they had better training and equipment, along with a very pissed off Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight had joined the battle alongside Standish's team as they advanced, and even the Hunters had to admit that Twilight made for a good fighter when she was angry. As she sent merc after merc flying with precise blasts of magic, a shot to the head from one of the four Hunters would finish the job.

As the train was cleared, and the remaining mercs fled to the skies, the once four, now eight Hunters gathered in the middle car.

"Hey, Roberts." Standish nodded, taking off his mask and giving his friend a handshake. "You look like hammered shit."

"Looks don't count for shit nowadays, man. IT's good to see you alive" Roberts replied, removing his own mask. Roberts was blonde, with a clean-shaven face and brown eyes. Hawke had auburn hair, with a rough beard. Levy had a white patch in his black hair near his right ear, an inherited birthmark, but otherwise was clean-shaven and pleasant. Travis had his pale brown hair done in a standard crew cut, but what set him apart was a white edged scar near his hairline.

As the eight Hunters sat down and learned from each other what had happened and about where they were now, Standish asked Roberts what the situation was back home on Earth.

"Tough question." Roberts replied. "It's been roughly six months since the initial outbreak, and a lot has changed. We were mostly pulled out of Manhattan by Command about two months after you guys were KIA."

"We've only been here a week at most." Standish murmured. "That's a big time dilation. Anyway, why'd you get pulled out? I thought you guys were being deployed after us to Manhattan. What went wrong?"

"These guys calling themselves Black Tusk sabotaging the SHD network is what went wrong. From what we could gather, all remaining SHD Agents are redeploying to Washington, DC to take back the capital. There's still a few of us in Manhattan performing recon and evaluation duties, but for the most part, we're on our own." Roberts continued. "We were en route to DC via a Blackhawk supplied by Command when we were shot down. We crashed outside Kenly College. None of us made it. Last thing I remember was taking a fireball to the face from the wreckage before blacking out and waking up here."

"Funny." Lyle replied. "We ended up here too, after we died. We'll have to work that out later, though. What else can you tell us?"

As the Hunters continued their conversation, Flash, Spike, and Twilight proceeded to a sleeper car. Not only was it now evening, Twilight was exhausted from combating the mercenaries. As the three of them headed to bed, later followed by the Hunters, the train chugged on to the Crystal Empire as the sun set over Equestria.

====

Blueblood Family Sanctuary, Western Mountains

The Blueblood family, long before the assassination attempt, had built a large fortress into a valley between mountains to serve as a stronghold should the need arise for them to go into hiding. It lay on the border of both the Griffon and Dragon lands, and was known to no one outside the family.

With three layers of reinforced walls, warded by a large amount of magical shielding and defenses, and guarded by highly-trained mercenaries under the pay of Amadeus, it was impenetrable by Equestrian and Amadeus's rigorous standards.

As the Bluebloods made themselves at home, Majesty proceeded to her chambers without a word to her parents. After hiding the radio she had been given in a cabinet carved into the rock, she collapsed into bed, exhausted, but relieved that her actions had not been noticed by her family.

As she strode to the window, she realized that her father was still outside with her mother and brother, and thus occupied for the moment. Mustering her strength and proceeding to her father's office, carrying a sidebag with her, she gave a small sigh, knowing she could not turn back from this. After packing a few bags of bits into her purse, she left her room.

She opened the door to Amadeus's office and quickly sliced open the lock to her father's private safe with her magic. As she stared at some of her father's most closely guarded secrets that he had ever written down, she gave a nod and took them without a second though.

Placing the stolen intelligence in her bag, Majesty also stole the schematics and needed counterspells for the Sanctuary's defenses and a copy of the Guards' daily rotation schedules. As she reattached the lock to the safe, she gave a smile.

"I know what I have to do." she murmured as she prepared to teleport. "And how I plan to do it. With any luck I have...I can make it to the Crystal Empire. There, I'll be safe...and show my spirit."

As she locked the door to her room behind her, she climbed out the window and flew to the northeast, towards the Crystal Empire.

Author's Note

Yep, Majesty is coming to the Crystal Empire.

Also, for those who are wondering why I introduced four more Hunters, here's my reasoning.

1. I needed to have a connection to The Division 2's story and canonical developments.

2. More Hunters means more ass-kicking on their part.

3. It'll serve a purpose I have yet to reveal...

Anyway, the next chapter will start the beginning of the near-climax. I've still got plans for this story to continue on.