Canterlot, Equestria
12/27/19
Downtown Canterlot

Celestia POV

It has been 9 days now since the humans have returned from that gruesome battle in the crystal empire. They had been busy working to install these things that Dakota had told me were called "Sirens" all throughout canterlot and other major cities. After that, they proposed that an early warning system for radios be implemented to alert the public in the event of an attack. They had Radio towers upgraded to increase their range and installed emergency broadcasting equipment. I started a draft into the equestrian military to increase our military strength and prepare for Sombra's forces to try and invade. Dakota had given our scientists plenty of guns to break down and reverse engineer to even the playing field. The research had been coming along well. It was today that all of our new emergency warning equipment would be tested for the first time. I watched Dakota begin pressing buttons and typing on a keyboard. When he turned a key and pressed one final button, a loud and strange noise began coming out of the radio in his truck followed by a loud and high pitched beeping noise. A loud and distant noise was heard all around the city and most likely in other cities. I heard a voice coming from Dakota's truck after the noise stopped.

"The following message is transmitted at the request of the authority of the royal sisters. The following is a test of the emergency alert system. This is not an emergency, This is only a test. This test is taking place in accordance with the recent declaration of war on the crystal empire. No attack is currently taking place against this country. If this was an actual emergency, you would be provided with important instructions and information on what to do and where to go. This concludes the test of the emergency alert system. We will now return to normal programming."

For a test, that gave me chills all the way down to my knees. "The amount of nostalgia that I felt from that was indescribable." He said to himself. “Why is that?” I asked him. “Back on earth, the emergency alert system was introduced as the conelrad system during a time that every human simply knows as “the Cold War” it was a time of political assinations, an arms race, a race to space, racism, proxy wars, spying, and the closest the world ever came to nuclear Armageddon.” He told me. “How could anypony be alright with that? I’m genuinely confused on how your kind wasn’t doing anything to stop it.” I told him. “Well, it all started after the end of the Second World War. It was the bloodiest war in human history with over 50 countries taking part in it and over 70 million people dying during the six years that it lasted. The official declaration of the Cold War happened back in 1949, but the chain of events that started it, began back in 1917, during world war 1. The government was putting a lot of money into civil defense policies and practices to ensure that in the event that if the Cold War went hot, the public would be safe and survive. Just like what we have been doing for the past 2 weeks, happened back home for more than 50 years.” He told me “I still don’t understand. How does your kind not have any problem with a war of any kind?” I asked him. “Warfare is second nature to every human being. We are pretty much the inventors of war. We have perfected it and enhanced it over the centuries. Every human being, regardless of who they are, has that warriors spirit inside of them, Lying dormant waiting to be awakened and charge into battle.” He told me once more. I noticed just how much he has changed ever since he and his friends attacked the crystal empire in an attempt to kill Sombra. He had been working more and more lately to help upgrade our military, he had even voluntarily enlisted in the royal guard when he got back to help train our new soldiers and has climbed through the ranks extremely fast. He had told me that he had already been promoted to a Sgt.Major for his abilities in combat and leadership skills and enforcing his “No man left behind” policy. He personally oversaw the research of the weapons that he gave our scientists to reverse engineer and manufacture.

We had a breakthrough with the research on the infinity magic that his toolbox had in it and now had the knowledge of how to use it on any object that we wanted. He wanted to a test to see what we were working with and had summoned an unusual looking vehicle from earth once again. It was an olive drab color with a white star on both of the doors and the hood, it had armor plating, it used wheels and tracks together, and had something mounted in the back with machine guns on top of it. He told me that it was called an M16 half track and it was used for a number of different purposes in ww2. He was walking over to the vehicle while carrying 4 oddly shaped ammo boxes that were infused with infinity magic and got inside of it. One by one, I watched him load each individual gun and pull a wooden handle on them as well. He then sat down in the seat in the back and pulled out his phone to use as a stopwatch.

"Let's see if I can run out of ammo now with infinity magic now part of my ammo boxes." He said. He put in a pair of earplugs and gave me a pair and told me to put them in if I wanted to keep my hearing. He adjusted the guns to point upwards towards the sky. Surprisingly, There was a small group of changelings that were spying on us. They were his new target as he began to fire at them. They dodged and weaved through the air to avoid his aim but ultimately failed. They eventually were taken down as their fate was sealed and their corpses fell to the ground. I felt sickened by this and by the fact that this was second nature to him.

"WOOOO! Now that's what I would call a successful weapons test!" He shouted. "You're damn right it is, we could hear that damn thing firing from the dining hall!" I heard one of the other humans known as Johnathan, shout as they walked over to us. One of the changeling bodies hit the broadcasting tower and knocked a dish off of it before the body finally hit the ground. "Oh come on! We just tested this stuff and already we gotta replace a transmitter!" Dakota shouted, he sounded frustrated and just upset in general by this as he walked back inside, Presumably to grab his tools and try to fix the dish. He came back out a couple of minutes later with a ladder and some engineers. They worked hard to fix the dish and reattach the dish to the tower. I walked over to the dead changeling to remove its body but noticed something. Underneath its armor, was a small folder. Grabbing the folder in my magic, I examined its contents closely. There was a map of canterlot, orders, and a small team roster inside of it. I looked at the orders sheet and was shocked by what was written on it.

"Captain Sharper, You and your squad are to perform reconnaissance of canterlot for an attack that we will be launching after you return. You are to gather any information regarding troop movements, weapon emplacements, structural weaknesses. I have given you and your team a small number of explosives to place around the city as you see fit. I recommend detonating them one after the other to further spread out their soldiers and give us an advantage when we attack. If you are spotted, Flee the area and lie low until it is clear then either continue to recon the area or return to the empire for further orders.

General Phantom"

Looking at the map, there were red X's in numerous areas throughout the city. Some said that there was an explosive already planted at that location, While others said that there was still an explosive to be placed there. I quickly ran inside the castle to look for shining armor and show this to him. I found him 5 minutes later and showed it to him.

“Thank you for showing me this princess. I’ll assemble a bomb squad now.” Shining armor told me as he called in 20 guards. They broke off into 10 teams of 2 and set off for the locations on the map. I ran back and told Dakota and his friend after the transmitter was repaired and he quickly put a notification to alert the public of the bomb threat.

"BRRRRT, BRRRRT, BRRRRT, BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT. The following message is transmitted at the request of Princess Celestia and the Equestrian Royal guard. This is not a test, I repeat, This is not a test. This is an actual emergency. At approximately 11:15 AM, 5 changelings were killed and it was discovered that they had orders to spy on canterlot and plant explosive's around the city. The locations of these explosives are The Nobility Hotel, Canterlot city hall, Canterlot castle, The Canterlot engineering plant, and numerous other locations within the residential district. If you are in the area of any of these locations, calmly move away from the area and do not panic. Do not go near any suspicious objects or devices, Instead, report it to the royal guard and a bomb squad will be dispatched to the location. All other residents are instructed to shelter in place at this time until an all clear is given. BRRT, BRRT, BRRT." And the message was now out.

10 minutes later
Shining Armor POV

I dispatched 20 guards to split up, find, and defuse the bombs around the city before they could detonate and destroy part of the city. Some of the Human's had tagged along to help search for the bombs and deactivate them before they could be detonated. They had gotten in their vehicles and tagged along with one team each to help out. I received a report back 5 minutes after they left and was informed that the bomb at the hotel was found and defusing efforts were currently in progress. After another 5 minutes went by, I got another report from the team at the hotel saying that the bomb was successfully deactivated. "1 down, who knows how many more to go." I muttered under my breath. It was 2 hours later when the final report came in saying that all of the bombs had been found and deactivated. Crisis averted.

2 hours later
Dakota POV

When I tagged along to help find the bombs, I wasn't expecting them to be the landmines that we dropped from that airship when we were leaving the crystal empire 2 weeks ago. it looked like they were modified to have a larger explosive capacity and the proximity trigger was replaced with a remote activator for safe detonation from a distance. When I went along and found the first one, I told all teams to use extreme caution around the mines because they could blow up if you got too close to them. I had some knowledge of how to deactivate a bomb from constantly playing "Keep talking and no one gets hurt" and "Hand simulator" so I had a decent idea of what to do and what wires to cut and not cut. We removed the wires completely from the explosive charge and separated them completely before putting them in a container to take back to the castle for repurposing. We met up with the other bomb teams and helped out with the process of deactivating them. We were back in the castle now trying to figure out a retaliation plan but another thought crossed my mind. If Sombra launched an air assault, How would we protect the city? That's when I came up with a solution. I went to go find Celestia and tell her about the idea I had.

"So it's settled then, We'll put the guns at 25 locations on top of skyscrapers and other buildings, and the rest will be placed on the ground throughout the city while additional guns are installed in the mountain and valley surrounding canterlot." I was in a meeting with Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, Aqua, and other military and civilian advisors to discuss air defense throughout Equestria in every major residential area. The meeting lasted for only an hour and went on without a hitch. We would summon A few hundred CRAM Phalanx guns from earth and install them in key locations in and around major areas to defend against an attack from Sombra. I was no military advisor or strategist but I was starting to feel like one now that I had enlisted in the guard and provided equestrian scientists and arms manufacturers with guns, vehicles, gear, ammo, and armor from earth that would help give us an edge on Sombra. We were now one step closer to being ready to take the fight to that shadowy bitch and kill his ass. Soon we would send him to hell and his army.

Author's Note

Was listening to X by 21 savage while writing this for inspiration. we are getting ready for war.