The crackle of a fire could be heard for a short distance as flames rose into the air before slowly dissipating. Around the campfire were four ponies, dj, aqua, lorthalis and razor all clad in different apparel although there was two things that they all had in common. The dog tags hanging from their necks all with the same engraving NLR, and just how dirty and generally disgusting they all looked. Dj took a swig of the bottle of whiskey in his hand feeling the familiar sensation of burning against the back of his throat as he swallowed passing the bottle to his best friend lorthalis.

Lorthalis was a changeling his large muscular body covered in the familiar holes...as if the black skin and fangs weren't enough. He didn't feel like drinking however and past it off to aqua, she seemed like a relatively normal unicorn, if it wasn't for the dog tags it would be strange seeing her here. On her arm was a red arm band with a white cross on it signifying she was a medic. She took a swig of the whiskey...at this point the bottle had barely any alcohol left in it and she didn't want all of the alcohol to go to waste.

Instead of passing it to the earth pony known as Razor and their squad leader she put the bottle in a satchel so dj wouldn't try and get it back. Razor was a bit disappointed but hey they all had enough to drink for the night.

"You know the thing I hate about the everfree?" The earth pony asked "the fact that you can never tell what time it is without a watch...but even they seem to malfunction here" he said tapping the electronic watch on his wrist before taking if off

Dj sighed softly as he pulled his fingerless gloves off allowing the skin underneath to finally breath having been suffocated for hours

"well...I don't know about you guys but I'm going to crash" he told the group hearing a unanimous chatter of acknowledgement as he laid down on the cot he'd rolled out. He used the hoodie he was wearing as a makeshift blanket as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

That morning the group had awoken, some slept peacefully that night others not so much but shut eye was shut eye. Packing up the camp was easy all it required was snuffing out the last remaining burning embers and rolling up their cots

"Come on let's move it people we gotta move as soon as possible" Razor encouraged clapping his hands as a way to get them to move faster

"Maybe we'd hurry up if you helped jackass" lorthalis replied as he hoisted a large bag over his shoulder with some effort grunting, whatever was in the bag made a loud metallic scraping sound. But this was overshadowed as he picked an M249 light machine gun off the ground. Come to think of it all of them were carrying weapons from simple handguns and shotguns to smg's and high-powered rifles, it was clear these people weren't veterans on a camping trip in the everfree.

The team had been hiking through the everfree for quite awhile having woken up deep inside the confines of the forest, having fended off some of the many denizens that lived throughout he dark and foreboding forest on the outskirts of ponyville. It felt like hours had started to pass as they walked through the dark forest...it was all the same to them having gone through the forest multiple times in their lives. So when the small Ray's of light began to shine through they knew they were getting close to the edge of the forest and so they started going double time, picking up the pace so they could finally get their bearings and figure out their next move.

Stepping out of the forest they groaned as their eyes adjusted to the sudden influx of light before finally adjusting. The first thing Dj saw as his eyes adjusted was the iconic image of Canterlot castle.

"Well that's... odd" Dj said as he tilted his head to the side resting a hand on his waist

"Yes it is...where's the shield guarding them from bombardment?" Razor asked

"Maybe they finally ran out of batteries?" Aqua said with a shrug

"No fucking way...maybe their just getting cocky, the bastards" Lorthalis scoffed

"Well whatever's going on I'll be sure to report it" Razor said, if only his radio wasn't crushed. Despite this the group moved on but they didn't feel quite right...like something was just ever so slightly off, everything seemed to bright and colorful not like how it usually was, did they all sustain bad head injuries? Despite these weird oddities the team pressed on determined to get to ponyville, it was a lot closer then turning right back around and going to the old ruins headquarters. It was a pretty sweet deal, they let ponyville keep going and sending supplies to the solar empire and the NLR occupied the town and stored supplies their all while hiding in plain sight. It was pretty brilliant especially when some officers would slip a nice surprise in the shipments.

As they moved towards the town they followed a small trail, it was an odd thing to just have out their but the thought had barely entered their minds when a pony yellow pony came into view infront of them and gasped in fear.

Fluttershy had just gotten done with her shopping trip, her bag was full of treats and food for her and her animal friends, so far just a normal day for her. She was on her way back to her cottage however when she was thrown a curve ball in the form of four people all carrying firearms....and a changeling. She wanted to run, to scream to do anything! But her body didn't move as eye contact was made with her.

Author's Note

Hello authors notes here, sorry if the story is a little disjointed or their are any typos I'm on mobile at the moment but I'm doing my best to mitigate issues ^^ hope you enjoy. If you want this to continue let me know and I'll happily keep it going