-Planet Equis (Equestria): Ponyville
[Group POV, Third-Person]

Diamond and co. stopped running/galloping when they came back to Ponyville. On the way there, Link had recovered his Master Sword, Hylian Shield, Hero's Bow and Longshot, but was still missing a good majority of his items. After 5 years, Diamond had helped the Equines advance. Some of them had added GemTech technology to their homes, others had robotic parts attached in place of their normal limbs.

"Alright then, so, we'll split up. Meet me back here in about half an hour, an hour and a half at max," Diamond said. "I gotta go check out these anomalies a bit closer. Find out where they're coming from."

"Sounds good, Diamond. See you here later," Lt. Blast replied, with him and the other Lieutenants galloping off in separate directions. Link sprinted off in a different direction as well, mainly to recover a few more missing items.

-Sweet Apple Acres
[Lt. Hammer's POV, Third-Person]

Lt. Hammer found himself in Sweet Apple Acres, looking for ponies to befriend. He then heard a mighty clank, like the sound of metal striking wood...or flesh striking metal. He decided to follow the sound, ending up at the barn, where he noticed a few strange looking ponies. One of them was old and wrinkled, but had a robotic flank that still exposed the cutie mark. She had green fur, a white mane and tail, and a cutie mark in the form of an apple pie. The second was middle-aged, with no technological advances. She had orange fur, a yellow mane and tail with red hairbands holding them in shape and a cowboy hat was balanced on her head. Her cutie mark appeared to be three red apples, and she had a VERY nasty kick. The third was a teenage filly with a robotic eye and front legs. She had lime green fur, a red mane and tail and a pink bow tied behind her head. Her cutie mark was a red, white and purple shield with a purple apple in the centre.

"Uh, excuse me for asking, but what was that giant clank I heard just now?" Lt. Hammer asked on the way through the gate.

"Oh, that'd be Big Mac bucking those apple trees. He had his two hind legs replaced with robotic ones, since he thought it could help with the process," the orange pony answered. "Makes a lotta noise, though. About as much as a sick rooster with a distorted crow using a voice changer o' Diamond's during Cider Season."

"Eeyup," said a big, red stallion emerging from the orchard. He had an orange mane and tail and carried a large basket of apples on his back. His cutie mark was a halved green apple with the open end visible.

"Name's Applejack, by the way. This here's Apple Bloom and Granny Smith," Applejack introduced, pointing to each pony respectively. "That stallion over there's Big Mac. So...who might you be?"

"Lieutenant Hammer, at your service, ma'am!" Lt. Hammer cried, performing a very horrible salute with his right hoof.

"A lieutenant, eh? Which army do ya serve, if you're OK sharing?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Uh..." Lt. Hammer stumbled, not knowing how to respond. "I'm a lieutenant of an interplanetary task force known as the Koopa Troop."

"Then...how come we never see your kind round here?" AJ followed, trying to bribe out more information.

"We don't usually come to this world," Lt. Hammer answered, lying pretty badly.

"...right. Anyway, what brings ya to Equestria?" It was Granny Smith's turn to ask a question this time, and Diamond had made her sound a lot younger than she actually was.

"I thought I was on Planet Equis. Where's this Equestria you speak of?" Lt. Hammer asked.

"You ARE in Equestria. Beings from alternate planets call our land Planet Equis, though," AJ pointed out. "And that ponish DNA Diamond gave ya ain't fooling anypony."

"Can we see your original form?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Uh...how do I change forms with multiple forms of DNA inside my body?" Lt. Hammer responded.

"All ya gotta do is think of the form you wanna take. Diamond reconfigures his own genes all the time, to match the natural form of the main residents of a planet. After your form is in the thought, the genes will reconfigure themselves."

"Sounds easy enough," Lt. Hammer said, letting his Koopa form circulate through his brain. His body became black, and bones could be heard cracking as the Equine DNA was overpowered by the original. When the body recoloured itself and Lt. Hammer regained his vision, all of the currently present Apple family members had dropped their jaws. Literally, their jaws were on the floor, so he had to pick them up and replace them on the face.

"Diamond said there were lots 'a worlds out in what he calls the Galactic System, but I never expected THIS," AJ said.

"Ya never know what planets the galaxy has ta offer," Apple Bloom followed.

"Just wait until you meet the rest of the Lieutenants and my boss." Hammer lightly chucked a hammer into the air, then tossed it at one of the apple trees in the orchard, most of the apples falling into the baskets that were preset. A few missed, but most hit the mark.

"You got quite an arm there," Big Mac said, clearly impressed. "Guess you've been tossing those hammers all your life."

"Let's talk more about this inside, how's that?" Hammer asked. The Equines nodded, heading into the barn.

-Carousel Boutique: 1st Floor
[Lt. Pyro's POV, Third Person]

Lt. Pyro arrived in front of the fashion shop in Ponyville and used his warrior's blood to burst into the place. The bell went off quite loud as the door slammed open, sending a large sound wave through the building.

-Carousel Boutique: Rarity's Room
[Rarity POV, Third Person]

Rarity was still asleep, eye mask over her face, lightly snoring. The door's slam caused a light stir, with Sweetie Belle charging in moments later to wake her.

"Rarity, someone just burst into the store!" Sweetie Belle said, jolting Rarity awake in a flash. She didn't even have time to take off the mask charging downstairs.

-Carousel Boutique: 1st Floor
[Group POV, Third Person]

Since the building had hardly any advancements in tech, Pyro hardly noticed he'd set off an alarm until Rarity and Sweetie Belle appeared in the opposite doorway. Sweetie had replaced her left eye with a mechanical one, and the horn had been altered to work with Electromagic, a very temperamental but very powerful form of magic physically and chemically bonded to electricity. Rarity had replaced her two front legs with mechanical ones, which were thousands of times better at creating garments, and had also altered her horn to conduct and control Electromagic as well as normal magic. She had also taken an offer on Diamond's experimental robotic organs by replacing one lung with a mechanical one and her brain with an extremely powerful processor.

"Oh...crud." This was all Pyro could say when he realised his mistake. Rarity finally removed her eye mask to reveal that she had altered her eyes into something akin to Diamond's visor. You could see a bit of energy surrounding the retinas, and the organic parts of her eyes were heavily bloodshot.

"What are you doing here?" Sweetie asked, charging up her horn's electrical energy. Rarity did a similar motion, taking a battle stance and locking onto the target. Her eyes turned red, like how Diamond's tend to do when fighting: she'd activated the Combat Visor.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were closed. But, if this is how it's gonna be, then bring it on," Pyro said, cloaking himself in magical fire. Just as he was about to throw an explosive fireball, however, Rarity completed a scan, as she had switched to her Scan Visor as Pyro cloaked himself in flames. She immediately changed into Neutral mode and stopped charging her horn.

"Relax, Sweetie Belle. He doesn't seem to be malicious, he just has the blood of a warrior," she assured. Sweetie Belle contained the energy in her horn, albeit not easily, allowing the three to initiate conversation properly.

"So...I know we kinda got off to a rough start, but I didn't know the place was locked," Pyro said. "I'm not really good at these whole apology things, since my boss, Bowser, never lets me when I'm commanding my squadron."

"It's alright. We can forgive you," Rarity replied. "Now, who might you be?"

"Lieutenant Pyro, reporting for duty!" Pyro yelled, clumsily saluting with his hooves. "You can probably already tell I'm not an Equine."

"Definitely. What does your regular form look like?" Sweetie Belle asked. Pyro shifted his genes and reverted back into his Koopa form to answer that question, and Rarity switched once again to her Scan Visor. This is what data was returned:

-Recorded to Logbook.
-Morphology: Shroomian Fire Bro
-The Shroomian Fire Bro is an elite-ranking member of the Koopa Troop, an army of Koopas led by the Koopa King Bowser, but they are only evil under specific orders.
-The Shroomian Fire Bros are capable of throwing powerful fireballs from their hands at any opponents they come across. Like other elite soldiers, they also have incredible jumping power.
-When combined with Equine DNA, they become unicorns with a mastery of flame magic and knowledge of other basic spells.

"I see...so you come from...and this is a complete guess, Planet Mushroom?" Rarity asked.

"Spot-on guess...uh..." Pyro stumbled with his words, since he didn't know the pony's names.

"Rarity, and this is my sister, Sweetie Belle."

"Pleased to meet you, even though we got off to a rough start," Sweetie said. Pyro just saluted, then went to jump out.

"My goodness, Pyro! You can't leave here in THAT! I HAVE to find you a new outfit!" Rarity sped off to grab her equipment.

"She always like this, Sweetie?" Pyro asked.

"Yep. She probably doesn't like that armour."

"The only reason I wear this stuff is because it's compulsory Koopa Troop garb. It helps with defence, as well as offence since we can slide around in them."

"Nonsense, dear! I will make you something new to wear. That shell's got to be uncomfortable, right?" Rarity asked, reappearing with her sewing equipment.

"A bit, but I can't take it off or else I'll be fired. I appreciate the offer, but I just can't."

"Then take off, my friend. Come back whenever you need a new garment!" Rarity called as Pyro jumped out. Rarity extended her left hoof and shut the door behind him, then pulled up a hologram of him to create a few Koopa garments.

-Cloudsdale
[Lt. Frost POV: Third-Person]

Lt. Frost flew to where most Pegasi make their homes: Cloudsdale. A LOT of Pegasi had been technologically advanced, a few of them COMPLETELY roboticised. They were all still able to walk on clouds, luckily for them. Lt. Frost touched down on one of the clouds, finding he could stand on it without falling through. Koopas could do that anyway, but Planet Mushroom's clouds were quite a bit thicker than the Equine ones.

"Hey, look at this guy! No robotic advancements!" one Pegasus said.

"Guess he didn't quite stick with the times," replied another.

"That, or he isn't from this world," added a third.

"Don't judge me, Pegasi, or I'll summon a hailstorm on ya! And a BIG one at that," Frost threatened, reaching for his Icy Conch. Everypony instantly backed off, but one Pegasus refused to retreat. She had a rainbow mane and tail, light blue fur and no technological advancements. A teenage filly stood behind her, with a purple mane and tail and robotic wings.

"Another bio-Pegasus, eh? Thought I was the only one left," the rainbow-maned Pegasus said. "Also, you can actually call hailstorms with that conch alone? Gimme a taste of that!" Frost unbelted the Icy Conch and blew into it for a few seconds. Almost immediately, storm clouds formed above and decently small hailstones began to drop.

"They're small right now, but the longer I blow into that thing, the larger the stones will be," Frost explained, belting his conch back to his left flank. "Now, let's clear this baby up." He flew into the air and began bucking at the hail clouds, with the rainbow-maned Pegasus and a few other Pegasi helping him.

"Hey, we never really introduced ourselves. I'm Rainbow Dash," she introduced.

"Lieutenant Frost, at your service!" Frost saluted clumsily in the air, then dashed forward and coated his hind legs in ice. His next buck released a large frozen shockwave, popping the majority of the hail clouds rather easily. Rainbow Dash, looking to top that, flew at speeds no cyborg Pegasus could handle and eventually created a huge explosion of rainbows behind her at maximum speed. She couldn't help but be impressed by Frost's icy kick, though.

"Hoof. You guys do this every d-oh right, these robot Pegasi are complete RACISTS," Frost said.

"Yeah, we control the weather here," Rainbow answered. "Come on, let's head to my place. We can talk more there." She took off towards home, Frost following close behind.

-Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash's House
[Frost + Rainbow's POV, Third Person]

"So, not from this world, are we?" Rainbow asked.

"Not from here. I come from Planet Mushroom, a planet in the Superstar System," Frost answered.

"I can't lie, though, that buck was pretty cool, what when you coated your hind legs in ice."

"I call it the Cryo Kick. Incredible way to clear out clouds in Equine form." Frost then reconfigured his genes to re-assume his Koopa form. Rainbow just gawked for a couple seconds, then contained herself. Another Pegasus glided in, this one a teenage filly, which Frost recognised as the one he saw with Dash earlier.

"I didn't know your species could stand on clouds. Oh, and hey, Scoot!" Rainbow called. "Frost, this is my...preemptively adopted sister, Scootaloo. Scoot, this is Lt. Frost from the Superstar System."

"Pleasure to meet you, Frost! What even are yo-wait, don't answer that," Scootaloo said, pulling up a Scan Visor. Here is the data she got back:

-Recorded to Logbook
-Morphology: Shroomian Ice Bro
-A Shroomian Ice Bro is the polar opposite of a Shroomian Fire Bro, but still an elite-ranking member of Bowser's army.
-Being an opposite of the Fire Bro, the Ice Bro has the uncanny ability to throw impossibly cold ice balls at opponents that freeze any entity they contact while still retaining the agility of the Shroomian Elites.
-When combined with Equine DNA, they have a chance to either become a unicorn or a Pegasus. The unicorn has a mastery of ice magic and knowledge of simple spells, while the Pegasus can summon snowstorms and hailstorms with the conchs on their flanks.

"Interesting...Planet Mushroom, is it?"

"Spot on. Now, where were we?" Frost asked.

"I was wondering how you can walk on clouds!" Rainbow said.

"Oh right. Nobody knows why, but our shoes are enchanted so we can walk on clouds, but unfortunately, we still can't walk over liquids."

The conversation carried on for a few minutes as the Lt. and the Pegasi exchanged information, but eventually Frost took his leave to punish some of the Pegasi who teased him before.

-Sugarcube Corner: Pinkie's Party Cave
[Pinkie's POV, FP]

Planning parties down here is as easy for a party pony like I am as it is for Twilight to do her science-y stuff, what with the Mirror Machine and all the early technology she created before Diamond got into the picture. Anyway, I was busy planning parties in my secret party-planning cave (though really it isn't much of a secret now I just told you all,) when all of a sudden I hear a knock upstairs.

"Cheese, I thought these panels were soundproof!" I yelled.

"They're sound RESISTANT, not soundproof, Pinkie!" he yelled back. Regardless, I slid back up the slide and headed down to the lobby.

-Sugarcube Corner: Lobby
[Group POV: TP]

Lt. Blast clumsily knocked on the door again, since he was nowhere NEAR used to his Equine body. An amber-coloured Earth pony answered the door in mere seconds, which was still strange for the Lieutenant. He had a brown poofy mane and a poofy tail, and seemed to carry...a rubber chicken with a number 2 on his back?

"Hey there, stranger! Had a doozy just now, so it must have been you arriving here that caused it," the Earth pony said. "My name's Cheese Sandwich. I know it sounds weird, but...don't judge."

"Not gonna. Who's in charge here? Usually, I say that looking to blow them up," Blast replied.

"Blow them up? Don't be setting off any bombs in here."

"Again, not gonna. My bomb bag's sealed...for now."

"Anyway, if you're looking for Pinkie, she's probably upstairs." Blast immediately charged past and used his superior strength as an Earth pony to thrust himself up the stairs in a single go, with a small bang to go with it. He came face to face with the pink pony, who was probably going to be Pinkie Pie when the dots were connected.

"Hi there! I'm Pinkie Pie, but you probably already guessed that. I can tell you aren't from this world with the way you handle the Equine DNA, which is clumsy at best." she said, and all in one go.

...did I just jump into some living quarters or a simulation of crazy? Lt. Blast thought. It's alright, Blast. Just...act casual.

"Hey," Blast said. "I'm Lt. Blast."

"Not much of a talker, eh? I think a party can change that attitude!"

"I don't DO parties." Pinkie gasped at this, and pretty hard. "In fact, none of the Koopas do fun of any kind."

"Oh boy, this won't do at all! I better-"

"Eat it, you little pink bitch!" Blast shouted, unsealing his bomb bag and pulling out a stick of dynamite. "One more word about parties from you, and I'll light it," he threatened.

"I...I see," Pinkie said. This threat, along with Blast's swearing, forced Pinkie into a state of depression and caused her hair to deflate. Blast put his bomb away and resealed his bag as Cheese walked in.

"Is something going on up he-WHAT DID YOU DO TO PINKIE?!" he yelled. "She's in no condition to throw a party like that!"

"Good. Wouldn't shut the fuck up about them," Blast said. "And don't you start either, or I'll blow up the both of you with a single stick of trinitrotoluene."

"Uhh...what?" Pinkamena was confused.

"TNT." Blast summed it up in one word, causing everypony to retaliate. "In fact, why wait? Detonating this place'll be fun."

"No, wait! There's fillies in the vicinity!" Cheese warned.

"Don't care. I'll detonate them too. And maybe I'll grab this cannon from whatever remains." He directed the attention to Pinkie's Party Cannon before galloping over and firing it. Confetti and party decorations flew everywhere.

"Now THAT'S what I need!" Pinkie's hair re-inflated as she sprang upwards and tossed a few hooffuls of confetti around the room. This didn't stop Lt. Blast from lighting one of his bombs and chucking it into the room, though. He then leapt out of a window to escape the explosion. Cheese charged downstairs to grab the fillies, then escaped the building at the last second. Pinkie dived out of the window in desperation, but the bomb went off before she could get too far out.

-Ponyville: Town Centre
[Diamond's POV, TP]

Diamond was trying to locate Link's lost equipment when he heard a large explosion. He followed the sound to see black smoke escalating from Sugarcube Corner.

"God dammit!" he yelled, attempting to thrust over when his Sonic Thrusters shut down. He fell to the ground quickly and attempted to analyse the problem, but most of his tech seemed to be malfunctioning. "Gah, I'll just run," he said, sprinting towards the area.

-Sugarcube Corner: Wreckage
[Group POV: TP]

Lt. Blast observed the damage he'd caused to the building, as an evil smirk broke onto his face. The Cakes were left homeless, and wept over the wreck. Pinkie had fallen unconscious, but had barely escaped the explosion. However, her rump had been completely incinerated, and her hind legs had been ripped off her body nowhere near cleanly. Blood spilled over the dirt roads in extremely large quantities as Diamond showed up, panting for breath.

Sheesh, is this what normal people do? This is nuts! he thought.

"Diamond! That guy is INSANE!" Pinkie warned.

"No duh, Sherclop Pones!" Diamond said. "I could tell just by looking at ya!"

"Maybe stop standing around and START HELPING!" Cheese yelled. Diamond dashed over and set up one of his workbenches. He made two mechanical legs for Pinkie, bones and all, and quickly fastened them to her body to stop the bleeding.

"Won't be able to walk on those for a few hours. Give 'em until tomorrow morning to initialise." Diamond pocketed his workbench, then turned to Blast and activated his Mask of Fury. His visor immediately disappeared to be replaced by a large metal mask covering the entire head. Where Diamond's eyes were, magical red orbs flickered inside the plastic slots, most of it shining in Diamond's eyes. As the brightness reached it's max, Diamond was consumed by fury and his tech was forced online. Most of it now showed a red glow instead of it's usual cyan.

"LT. BLAST. EXPLAIN YOURSELF." Diamond menaced over Blast, using his Atom Resizer to make himself 3 times as big as he was usually.

"I...uh...I..."

"NO...YOU'RE NOT WORTH THE HASSLE. BUT I SWEAR TO SATAN, I WILL MAKE SURE BOWSER KNOWS ABOUT THIS." He then took off the Mask and reverted down to normal size. "Rosette, deploy the probes. We gotta get this place fixed."

-Starship Onyx: Command Deck
[Onyx POV: TP]

Onyx saw over everything that happened on Planet Equis, proud to see that Lt. Blast's short temper could make him a perfect ally for evil. He grabbed his microphone and tapped into Blast's brain with a simple command.

"Lt. Blast. If you hear me, I have need of your services. Head to the Castle of the Two Sisters. I will meet you there," he spoke into Blast's head. Almost instantly, Blast could be visualised on the many, MANY monitors following his orders. "As for you, Diamond..." he added, no longer into the mic. "Well, you'll see. Your tech is down, giving you a HEAVY disadvantage. Now, it's my turn..."

Author's Note

Midway through the chapter, I kinda gave up labelling the perspective in full each time. You see an FP, it's First Person, ThP is Third Person.