Rising Tensions, Shifting Powers (version 0)

Location: U.S., the Pentagon
Time: 1 day after first contact
Perspective: researcher, TR6 Omar pilot Jasper Rhodes, 3rd person

"Okay, as far as we can tell, the footage along with audio is authentic" said a young female researcher blowing strands of hair from her face so they won't ubstruct her vision.

"But what do you think?" She asked, her curiosity reaching it's peek.

"Well, they seemed to be mesmerized by the TR6, so I'm gonna go on a wimb and say they're hundreds of years behind us in technology" he said with a Small smirk.

"I feel like you're insinuating something. So if you are, please tell me" she asked politely.

"Okay, what I mean is, they wouldn't pose a significant threat. They don't seem to have any advanced technology to speak of, so the threat part is already out of the window" he said with a devious smile.

"So, you're saying that all that 'possible threat' stuff the NASA scientists are saying is wrong?" She asked with her eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, basically"

"Well I guess we have no need to worry about the locals"

Location: U.S. tactical space attack satillite "Tungsten Fury"
Time: 1 day 3 hours after first contact
Perspective: Jerry Springsteen, James Vayron

The 27 meters (89 feet) wide, 20 meter (60 feet) long ground attack satellite loomed over the land mass in the upper atmosphere like a hawk watching it's pray, and it had lots of pray, because if the crew wanted to, they could level every city in an hour.

The satellite was holding 24 tungsten rods that where 30 feet long and 5 inches wide, and when launched towards earth would create an explosion 5 times the size of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But they were told only to survey with its on board cameras, that could see everything on the ground clearly even with clouds blocking its view, it did this with the help of the newest in ladar technology, so the United States now had entire maps, and 3D Renditions of the landmass.

"So James, what do you think about the pony civilization 60 plus miles below us?"

"Jerry, you should be asking me what I think about the ponies technological prowess, they seemed rather primitive compared to us" Jerry said with a bored attitude.

"Well, I think it's pretty cool they can create structures and speak English, no matter how primitive they may be" he said smiling while looking at the survey camera screen.

"I'm just waiting for first contact, wether military or not" Jerry said with a sigh, he than frowned and said "god help them if they approach with hostility"

Location: U.S. Eagle claw class light assault ship "smoky"
Time: 2 day after first contact
Perspective: none, 3rd person

The 10 light assault ships accompanied by 5 BB-76 arsenal ships where appearing over the horizon, they then came to a halt 32 kilometers (20 miles) away from the shore, and they were more than 123 kilometers (80 miles) from the city closest to the U.S. (baltimare).

After 20 or so minutes, 6 mobile infantry boats came out of the back of the light assault ships, along with 5 F/A-70 "panther" multi-purpose attack aircraft flew off the ship, while 3 F-35D's took off to survey the area, while 2 WHA-91 "screech owl" stealth observations helicopters took off carrying 1 squad of 6 navy seals each.

The mobile infantry boats carried 40 marines each, each boat also carried 2 M1A2 sep v4 Abrams with tusk 2 armor, the strongest and most resistant armor in the United States inventory. They were also joined by 2 M3A3 Bradley IFV's with temper armor, aslo being the strongest and resistant armor for the vehicle.

The expeditionary Force was so large it looks like an invasion Force, though that wasn't the mission, the mission was to survey and make contact with any locals to show good intentions and destroy any fear the locals would have.

20 minutes later

The boats made landfall, their front cargo doors opened, letting the 12 Abrams, along with the 12 Bradley's come on the beach and form a perimeter, the beach was plane and spanned for a mile and a half, until it reached the tree line, giving both the Marines and their vehicles a clear view of anything that came from the forest.

Location: Equestria, Baltimare beach
Time: 2 days 1 hour after first contact
Perspective: none, 3rd person

"Okay, making land fall in 3. 2. 1... *lights flash and doors open* *tanks roll out and form perimeter* Go, Go, Go!"

The Marines run out of the Infantry boat's and formed a position that allowed them to see the whole of the beach. In their positions nothing would sneak up on them.

They stayed monitoring the beach for five minutes, now 40 of the Marines and 2 M3A3's made their way towards the tree line leaving 200 marines and 4 M3A3's to set up camp along with the 12 abrams. In about 15 meters (50 feet), they stopped their trek towards the forest and allowed 2 M3A3's to survey the tree line with they're thermals and heartbeat sensors, the only thing they picked up was a wolf pack, containing about 5 wolves, nothing serious.

The Marines ascended into the forest, they split into teams of 10 to spread out to cover more ground, but they still followed the M3A3's in a straight line, checking their 6 o'clock with their heartbeat sensors several times each minute to make sure nothing was following them, and low and behold the wolf pack was following them. So to make sure the wolves wouldn't get any funny ideas, one Marine pointed their LMG, an M60E6 with black paint scheme with light brown Picatinny rails adorning the top of the guns feeding mechanism, as well as the side, top and bottom of the barrel covers. The bottom of the barrel cover had a fore grip, while the left side had a laser-flashlight combo, the feeding mechanism had a Red Dot sight while the barrel had a suppressor. The Marine lined up a shot on a tree 3 meters (9 feet) to the right of the wolves, he fired, obliterating the trees where the Bullet hit, causing it to fall forward scaring the wolves away.

They continued their trek for 11 kilometers (7 miles) until they reached a train track that lead away towards the town (Baltimare), they determined they where a safe distance away from the town, so they headed back to base to plan the the way they'll make contact.

Location: Equestria, Canterlot castle
Time: 2 days 1 hour after contact
Perspective: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle, 3rd person

"Art thou telling the truth?" Luna asks with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Celeste responds with "yes sister, you know I would never lie to you!"

"Mmm...thou seems to be telling the truth, but I would like to see the creatures myself" Luna says with a smirk.

Twilight tells Luna "the creatures went past baltimare into the unknown seas, disappearing over the horizon faster than anything in Equestrian history."

"Well than, there seems to be nothing else to do, but follow their trail" Celestia said with a blank expression.

"B-but princess, those things could be dangerous! Who knows what magic they possess, especially since it just materialized out of thin air!" twilight says trying to persuade Celestia not to do so.

To this Luna gave a suggestion, "me and 3,000 lunar guards will travel to the unknown and see if we can find their nest."

"But princess Luna, who knows what lay beyond the horizon, you may get injured!"

"thou thinks a creature can defeat I, the ruler of the night?" Luna says this with the up most confidence in her ability, while also not believing there descriptions of the creature.

" I shall see thee in 18 moons, and expect me to have the creature in chains"

She left the room, both celestia and twilight wanted to stop her, though it wasn't possible, she was determined to find and capture the creatures, and when she was determined to do something, she did it.

Location: Equestria, changeling hive
Time: 2 days 2 hours after contact
Perspective: changeling princess Marcela, gunnery sergeant Nathan Reeds, Lt. Tristan Summers, Bradley driver Melvin Lara, Bradley turret operator Marco Stain, 3rd person

Chrysalis's only daughter, princess Marcela was out for a walk by herself after she sneaked out of the hive. So far she was enjoying herself, though she smelled something she thoroughly enjoyed, chocolate. She than followed the sent to 10 bipedal creatures walking next to a large metal creature, these bipedal creatures where wearing strange clothes under these metal skeletons, so she started approaching the creatures, but was startled to find out they could speak, one said "what's that" while another said "stop where you are, now!"

She did so unintentionally because of fear, they than started approaching her, pointing large and bulky metal sticks with red dots coming out landing on Marcela heads. They stood 6 feet or more, taller than her mom, and even the princess of night and day, soon they stood not even a foot away from her, still pointing the sticks at her.

Than one said from behind the first two "leave it alone, new world, new animals!"

Marcela than shouted "I'm no-not an i-it, or a-an an-ani-animal, I'm a pr-prin-princess, prin-princess of t-the cha-cha-changeling empire!" She said, failing to sound intimidating, actually sounding more adorable to the Marines.

"Wow, did sh-she just talk?" Said one of the creatures pointing the stick at her.

After he said that, the one in the back repeated his last quote with only minor changes, "like I said, new world, new species of...sentient life" he than moved the other two aside and started kneeling down and taking something out of his pocket and said "hey little fella, you don't need to be scared. Do you like chocolate?"

Marcela than slowly smiled, she shook her head up and down. He pulled a Hershey's bar out of his pocket and handed it to her, she than sat down, and slowly extended her front hooves and took the chocolate, she examined it before taking a bite out of it, her eyes widened as she thought 'this is the best chocolate I've ever had!'

She swallowed it, than looked at the person who gave it to her and asked "who are you?"

Her eyes widened as the front of the creatures face seemed to open, it showed her a light skinned man with bright blue eyes and freckles, he than told her his name, and who he was, "I'm a human, my name is Tristan Summers of the United States Marine Corps, I'm a lieutenant princess"

She than extended her left front hoove to shake his hand, he grasped it gently and shook.

"So, does your mom know you're here with us?" He asked her in a fatherly tone.

After finishing another bite, Marcela shook her head and said "no, I snuck out of the hive to go on a walk, than I smelled chocolate, than I found you hoo-mans"

This made the two other marine squeal on the inside at how cute she said humans.

Lt. Tristan than asked "do you want to come to our base, you'll be able to ride the Bradley and meet more humans"

"Who's Bradley?" She asked tilting her head while Lt. Tristan eternally facepalm, he remembered there current technological state.

He than point at the M3A3 behind him, she looked at it and smiled, while waving her left hoove, "hello mister Bradley"

This made the Marines giggle slightly, Lt. Tristan than picked her up, and to his surprise, she didn't struggle against him. So he took her to the Bradley and set her next to the turret and climbed the Bradley, knocking on the drivers hatch, and to Marcela's surprise it opened showing another human, only this time with different helmets showing his face until it reached his eyes, to her, they looked like glasses. She than she thought 'this was Bradley.'

She waved a second time, and said "hello Bradley." He smiled and pushed his viser into his helmet than said, "my name isn't Bradley, it's the vehicles name. My name is Melvin Lara."

"Oh, hi Melvin!"

"Hello miss uhh-"

"Princess Marcela"

"Oh, hello princess"

He than motioned her to come closer, than picked her up and pulled her in, at first she felt scared, but after a few seconds she felt...safe?

13 minutes later

Marcela sat on Melvin's lap while the second man in the M3A3, who she now knows is named Marco Stain petted her Softly on the head.

She than felt the Bradley stop as Melvin picked her up and exited the Bradley, she than saw several more Bradley's, and a few bigger vehicles with larger sticks than Bradley extending from the front. She than saw a hundred or so hoo-mans carrying boxes, talking, or setting up large tents, but the most marvelous sight to her was two black objects shaped oddly with five oddly shaped wings on the top, all pointing in different directions.

She asked Melvin what it was, he said "that's the WHA-91 stealth helicopter, it's almost undetectable by most radar, and it's fast."

"How fast?" She asked, her head tilting

"From a full stop, it can accelerate to 257 kilometers (160 miles) in 12 seconds flast, full speed is 473 kilometers an hour (294 miles an hour)"

She than looked at the helicopters in awe, knowing it was faster than every changeling, including her mother, and was 3 times their size.

She than felt a burst of happiness knowing these hoo-mans where nice and wanted to be her friend's.

She than was approached by a man who wore the same clothes as the rest, but wasn't wearing his helmet, he asked her to follow him, she obliged. She followed the man to a tent, he motioned her to go inside, she did so, and was greeted by another man, less bulky than the other, he was sitting down reading a book, not even noticing her arrival.

She than quickly asked what he was reading, he looked up and smiled and said "oh, just a history book, but that's not important right now"

She tilted her head and said "what do you mean, are there more important matters at hand?"

"Yes actually, there are. come and sit down and I'll explain"

She trotted towards him and sat next to him, he than asked "you're princess Marcela correct?" She shook her head up and down and asked "what's your name?"

"My name is Nathan Reeds, I'm a gunnery sergeant for the U.S. Marines. Is it okay if I ask you some questions?"

"Yay, it's okay"

"Cool, what species are you from?"

"The Changeling's"

"Oh, do you have any special abilities other than your bug like look"

"Yay, we can change our appearances to other ponies at will"

"Oh, that's cool. Next question, do you know of a large castle on the side of a mountain looking over a small town?"

"Hmm, yay that's Canterlot, that's the capital of the Equestrian empire"

"Does it have ponies?"

"Yay, my momma went their a week ago with a lot of other changeling's, but only half came back, she says there in a better place" she said with a large smile, though Nathan knew what her mother meant by "in a better place."

"Okay, last question, do you know where your home is?"

"Yay, do you have a map so I could show you?"

"Yes, I do"

Nathan than got up and went to backpack, pulling a tablet out and coming back to sit down next to Marcela.

He turned it on and showed her the map, which was a bird's eye view of the Baltimare and the forest near it.

Marcela was mesmerized once again at the humans "magic," she looked at the tablet than looked at Nathan.

"What kind lf magic are you using?"

This threw Nathan off a little bet, but soon he thought nothing of it and said "no magic, just electricity and engineering, and for a matter a fact, we don't use magic"

Marcela looked dumbfounded, she couldn't believe they didn't use magic, how could they have survived without it?

"B-but how did you hoo-mans survive without it"

Thoroughly confused, Nathan asked "why, are you capable of using magic?"

Marcela nods.

"Uhh, can you demonstrate?"

Marcela nods once again, and to Nathan's amazement, her little horn starts to glow, and than slowly, the book he had on his lap begins too float in mid-air, with a blue aura surrounding it.

"Wow, that's freaky"

It than falls back down on his lap, and Marcela asks again out of breath, "how did you hoo-mans survive without magic?"

"Well, us humans got smarter and smarter that we started creating technology, than it got so advanced that we were able to travel space and cure extremely deadly diseases, This took place for over 6,000,000 years"

Marcela couldn't believe what she was hearing, the hoo-mans species were older than Equestria itself, and lasted all that time without magic, that would explain all their metal beasts.

Nathan than broke the silence with his last question, "so, can you show me where your home is?"

Marcela than snapped out of her silence and answered the question, "y-yes."

She than pointed towards clearing that seemed to go into a cave.

"That's where my home is"

"Oh... Would you like us to take you there? Maybe we could meet your mom"

Marcela eyes seemed to shine at the question, these hoo-mans wanted to be friends with here mom as well, which made her 10 times more happy.

"Yes! That would be amazing!"