Chapter 2 - Canter City

As Twilight helped the human Applejack load gasoline into the refurbished bus that would take them to Washington DC, Applejack stood back and wiped some sweat from her brow.

"That should do it, Twilight." she said, as Twilight replaced the gas cap. "You should be ready to go once everything here's taken care of."

"Alright, and thanks for everything, Applejack." Twilight said. "Is there anything else we can do?"

Applejack was about to reply when a voice came over the walkie-talkie on Applejack's belt. Twilight recognized it as the voice of human Big Macintosh.

"Sis, we've got a few trucks incoming, with some armed fellows inside. I think we've got trouble."

"Right." Applejack said, replying through the small radio. Twilight, get everyone inside. They could be traders, but I'm not betting on it."

Twilight gulped and headed out, and everyone was soon gathered inside the house, the gate to the orchard was quickly closed. As the three flatbed pickups and one SUV drove to a stop outside the farm, a company of armed men and women stepped out. Their clothes were filthy and covered in patches, but what scared Twilight was the various civilian grade weapons held in their hands.

Not to mention one of the pickups had a machine gun mounted on the truck's flatbed. As the group of scavengers approached, one of them pulled out a battery-powered loudspeaker.

"Alright! Whoever's in there, come on out! We don't want any trouble!"

Applejack, inside the farmhouse, tapped into the rudimentary speaker system they had rigged up at the gate.

"And neither do we." she spoke. "What do you want?"

"We're in need of supplies." their leader said, carrying a hunting rifle. "We heard this place had some. You up for a bit of trading?"

"Not at the moment, no." Applejack said. "You'd best be off, we don't have anything to spare."

"Can't we take a look around for ourselves?" the leader asked. 'Seems to me you might have some after all, and you just don't want to share."

"We know the folks that we trade with, and you're not one of them." Applejack replied firmly. "Leave us alone. We're not trading with you."

"Look, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." the scavenger growled. "Your choice."

The scavengers were so focused on the lure of fresh food, they didn't notice a set of four figures moving into offensive positions behind them.

====

cursed inwardly as the JTF convoy took the exit for "Canter City" off a rare stretch of cleared highway from Manhattan. It had been a few hours since they had left the city, but so far they had cleared three roadblocks, four civilian settlements, and avoided two firefights with scavengers or rioters already, and it wasn't even Eleven AM yet.

"So, what can we expect from this place?" Thomas asked.

"Not sure." Kyrie said, manipulating her SHD Watch to the Division's Archive, or basically their version of the internet before the global blackout. "Huh, this is interesting. This town's apparently been the site of several paranormal or extraterrestrial events, including wormholes appearing during a school athletics event."

"Well, that's something you don't hear about every day." Leo said. "You got footage we could see?"

"Nope, data's scrubbed." Kyrie groaned. "Not by the usual folks."

"Usual folks?" Thomas asked.

"FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, etc." Kyrie replied. "The usual government agencies. This data was apparently scrubbed by the SHD before the outbreak. Won't tell me why, though."

"Not important right now." Ethan said. "Driver, stop the convoy. I think we might have trouble brewing."

"Yes, sir!" the JTF Driver replied. As the convoy of Humvees and military pickups skidded to a halt, Ethan picked up his Enhanced ACR assault rifle and exited the vehicle.

"What's up?" Thomas asked.

"There's an ECHO here." Thomas said, downloading the virtual reconstruction into his watch. "Let's see what's going on."

As Ethan activated his SHD interface, a hologram appeared of several armed men and women, most likely scavengers or Rioters.

"You sure there's stuff here?" one of them asked.

"Dead sure." another replied. "Those assholes at the last settlement said they got a still-living apple orchard here and it hasn't been harvested yet. That's good food going to waste. I say we go in and teach 'em a lesson about wasting supplies."

"Then let's go." said a third. "We won't get another chance like this for a long time."

As the ECHO faded, Ethan motioned his SHD team forward.

"What's the plan?" Thomas asked, loading his Military P416.

"We stop 'em cold." Ethan said. "JTF, hold position! We'll take care of these assholes."

"You got it!" the JTF sergeant replied. As the agents entered the town, they stacked up behind a toppled bench and a burnt SUV at the sight of about ten scavengers yelling at a farmhouse gate.

"Looks like that's them." Ethan said. "Thomas, flank over to that fountain and get your Pulse ready. Leo, prep a Seeker on my signal. Kyrie, let's use that Firefly as a distraction. Once we thin them out, I'll push in. We clear?"

"Yep." the Agents replied as they loaded their weapons. Slowly advancing through the debris, Thomas aligned his P416's ACOG scope to a Rioter's head.

"Engage!" Ethan said as Kyrie Ethaned the rioters with the Firefly. The small robot buzzed forward and prepped its strobes for combat. Each flash from the strobe had more power than a flashbang grenade thanks to high-powered LEDs and SHD tech. The Firefly moved to the hostiles' right flank, and let loose.

====

"FUCK! I CAN'T SEE!"

"What the hell?"

"Where are they?"

As the Rioters' vision turned white and they scrambled to recover, Thomas opened fire with his P416, dropping two of them with a pair of quick bursts. Once the Rioters realized they were taking fire, the one on the technical's turret began to return fire.

"Hostile technical! Flank its gun!" Ethan yelled as Leo's Seeker Mine unleashed seven Mini-mines, which detonated at the feet of seven unlucky Rioters. As they were blown apart or injured by the blasts, the machine gun's ammo belt locked in place, jamming the weapon.

"It's jammed! Take him down, Kyrie!" Ethan yelled, as his ACR dropped three wounded hostiles with three clean headshots. Kyrie lined up the scope of her M700 Carbon and loosed a clean shot on the gunner, killing him. As the Rioter's leader opened fire with a shotgun, Leo tossed an ovoid object out of cover.

This was The Hive, a new piece of SHD tech capable of delivering micro-drones to Division agents or hostiles, equipped with varying payloads. From Stim drones that revived downed agents, to a magnetic field that increased outgoing bullets' velocity and impact, to Restoration drones that healed the armor of friendly Division agents.

The final payload was Leo's favorite. The Stinger Drone sent out a swarm of micro-drones equipped with SHD-grade explosives mixed with shrapnel. The drones attached to targets and their armor and detonated, shredding the armor as well as the unfortunate hostile. In the case of these Rioters, they were the unfortunate ones.

The drones swarmed out like a horde of locusts, and began tracking the three remaining Rioters. Five drones attached to each of their ballistic vests, and exploded as one. The detonations on one caused the others to follow suit, peppering the area with shrapnel. As the Rioters fell, the Hive self-destructed, its payload expired.

"Clear?" Kyrie asked.

"Clear." Ethan said, exiting cover and approaching the gate. "I'll talk with whoever's listening on the other side of the gate. You three, secure the area."

As Ethan tapped the mic, an accented voice spoke.

"Hello? What's going on? Who's there?"

"Ma'am, those Rioters won't be giving you any more trouble." Ethan said. "Can you let us in?"

"Who are you?" the voice replied.

"My name is Ethan Harris, I'm an Agent of the United States Strategic Homeland Division. My team and I have neutralized the hostiles outside, and the area is clear. We have supplies with us in case you're in need of anything. Can you open the gate?"

"One sec." the voice replied. Ethan looked away for one moment, and the gate creaked open. As the four Agents entered the orchard, the farmhouse door opened. A girl of about nineteen, wearing cowboy-like clothing, albeit rather dirty and patched, and equipped with a shotgun, answered.

"You killed those people at the gate?" she asked.

"We did." Ethan said. "Rest assured, we're not looking for trouble. We were assigned to the Manhattan Joint Task Force. We're en route to Washington DC."

"Well, if you're going there, there's some people inside who might want to go with you." Applejack said, standing to the side. "Talk to them first. They'll probably want to talk to you, anyway."

"Much obliged." Ethan replied as the four Agents entered the house and froze. Sitting in the family room were twelve equine beings, of varying colors and types. Six of them wore ornate gold armor and carried a spear on their backs, but all of them also had a pistol or shotgun with them.

The others were varied in color and shape, though one with a lavender coat and a horn and wings seemed to be the most interested in her.

"So, you're heading to DC?" she, at least it sounded like a she, asked.

"Yep." Ethan said, one hand on his PF45 sidearm.

"We are too." she said. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic, and…"

"I need a favor. A big one."

Author's Note

Update!

EDIT - Made changes to the SHD Agents' reaction to the Equestrians.

EDIT 3 - New Names again.