The Insignium

The three started walking down the stairs to the third floor and Bullet said:

“They didn’t just have invisibility they somehow even tricked my thermal scope!”,

“Yes we need to notify the princess, this is a serious thread!”, the captain whispered back,

“Stop!”, Gearhead whispered loudly and added: “I can hear something around the corner!”,

“Bullet how many can you see?”, the captain asked,

“5”, he answered, “but I can’t be sure if there aren’t any with that invisibility thing.”,

“That’s enough we swing around the corner and you get whatever we miss!”, the captain commanded and with a quick wave of his hoof he motioned for the attack. Spearhead and Gearhead jumped around the corner firing targeted burst at three of them and Bullet gets the other two with quick headshots, Citrus waited behind the corner avoiding any gunfire or reason to shoot.

” Luckily, they gave all the offices glass walls for some reason, otherwise supporting you would be very difficult!”, Bullet snickered through the comms ,

“Yes but the other two floors are mostly cellblocks so you really need to aim precisely”, the captain pointed out sternly,

”He said to the pony with a literal sniper bullet as cutie mark!”, the Pegasus with hat teased and he was right he didn’t earn his mark for nothing, stories say he can shoot a coin at a distance of a thousand meters and others say he could shoot the pilot out of a drone flying at full speed at a thousand meters distance. As the ponies continued walking down the stairs Bullet explained:

“I can see 5 changelings, three of them are talking to at least one other changeling but since the walls block a good bit of my sight I would guess at least 15, I can get said 5 but the rest is up to you.”,

“Copy that.”, the captain answered and added: “Gearhead you get the left side of the room I get the right.”,

“Affirmative.”, the red stallion answered. They once more jumped around the corner, Bullet kills his 5 in no time and both the captain and Gearhead get 3 leaving 5 of the originally not 15 but 16 Changelings who hid behind barricades they prepared as soon as they got told about the incoming assault. Bullets flew through the room but not a single one hit as both factions took cover, the ponies leaping back around the corner,

“Grenade!”, Gearhead shouted and Spearhead didn’t think twice he just pulled it off the ground with a forehoof, turned around and bucked it away throwing it back behind a changeling barricade killing one of them as it exploded,

“Move just a bit!”, Bullet mumbled into his earpiece and as if he heard him a changeling moved behind the barricade being greeted by a sniper bullet to the head.

“Three left!”, the sniper announced over the earpiece. As he heard that Spearhead pulled the pin of his last grenade but didn’t throw it instantly instead, he waited a few seconds before throwing it making it explode as soon as it flew behind the barricades eliminating the last three.

“After this is over you have to tell me where you learned all of that”, Gearhead said surprised about all the knowledge about combat his friend had,

“Ok it seems like we have 5 more on the bottom floor all guarding a stairway in the center that leads towards the basement.”, Bullet told his friends as he scouted out the last floor he could see,

“I have an idea”, the captain explained, “Citrus give us your grenades, Gearhead we need yours too!”,

“What are you planning?”, Gearhead asked not knowing what to expect,

“It´s simple”, Spearhead started, “This brake between the crosswalks over there”, he pointed to a gap in the middle of the room, “Is directly over the enemies and since they all centered around there we pull out all the pins of the grenades and throw them down and because it´s still dark they won’t see them in time.”,

“You´re a genius!”, Gearhead whispered surprised by the plan and so that’s what they did and as the grenades dropped the Changelings went into battle stances but they were too late. With a mighty BOOM the grenades all exploded leaving only blood and gore.

“Descending now”, Spearhead said as he put the grappling hook around the railing and climbed down the rope, once more Gearhead and Citrus were surprised by the idea none of them would have even thought about and did the same. The ponies lined up in front of the stairs looking at each other if someone starts and after sometime the captain started trotting down the stairs the others following him and said:

“Bullet watch our flanks and be ready to transmit the pick up signal!”,

“Copy that.”, came back from a already bored sniper. As they trotted down Spearhead again had this bad feeling and said:

“Wait! More of those invisible changelings are down here!”,

“But how can we fight them when we can’t even see them?”, Gearhead answered, the captain thought for a bit and then said,

“According to the Plans the princess gave us this basement stretches out behind the north wall where a lake is located it´s surface is frozen but the Bottom should still be liquid, so if we somehow destroy the celling water will flow in and disable the invisibility since it´s most likely caused by some kind of electronic device.”,

“Maybe this will help”, Gearhead said as he lifted two grenades that likely belonged to the changelings they killed on the second floor,

“O yes it does!”, the captain happily said and took one of them and added, “As soon as I say remove the pin and as soon as say so throw it towards the celling but not earlier!”,

“Ok I see let´s hope this works”, Gearhead said with a bit of worry as he looked at the grenade still in his hoof,

“Pull the pin!”, the captain commanded and after a few seconds he added: “Throw it now!”. The Grenades flew into the big room and as soon as they hit the celling they explode and leave the celling with a lot of cracks, Gearhead already let his head hag down reloading his weapons but the captain said:

“Wait for it…...”, and as if he pressed a button water dropped down from the cracks raising the heads of the invisible changelings and the water started flowing through the cracks and with a thud the fist celling part fell down, followed by another one and another one and in the end a big wave descended into the open room and quickly the pieces floated up wrapped in green magic and the celling mended itself but too late, the room was already filled to the ankle deactivating all the stealth machines and the changelings looked at each other trying to comprehend that they can see each other and while they were still lost in thoughts the ponies used that element of surprise and killed the first 6 of the originally 10 changeling but the rest didn’t have any weapons maybe they thought they could sneak up close enough and so they were eliminated as they tried to charge towards the two ponies who killed the others.

As they trotted forward, they found what was so important behind a metal door was what could only be described as a mission base they made out of the CCTV room.

“Our soldiers will kill them with the new stealth devices General.”, a changeling who judging by his armor had to be some kind of special forces captain, explained to a changeling with armor similar to that from General Deadhit,

“Are you sure about that”, Spearhead said as he dashed into the room filling first the captain then the general with bullets while Gearhead killed the few remaining changelings sitting in front of the computers.

“Clear.”, He simply said as he exited the room with his friends in tow, as they walked back up the stairs Spearhead said into his earpiece:

“Bullet the compound is clear send the signal!”,

“Affirmative, Sir!”, Bullet said as he hit the transmit button on his rucksack and antennas extended beginning to send the signal and soon a lander touched down in front of the prison building and soldiers trotted out and the pilot said:

“Hop in fellas I’m gonna bring you to Canterlot!”, the ponies walked into the shuttle and it took of towards the capital of Equestria. As they arrived Spearhead said:

“You go back to the Insignium I have to go to the council.”,

“Ok see you soon.”, Citrus said with her happy smile, turning back towards the shuttle and Spearhead walked towards the castle feeling the rage he held back for so long finally surface. He once again raced through the halls and busted through the door to the council’s chamber and the princess raised her head and happily said:

“Captain congratulations on freeing the prison!”,

“Yes”, he said still walking towards the mares, “I learned something very interesting there…”, he said and he stood right in front of Applejack and said.

“But you already know that don´t you.”, he said and raised his gun right between her eyes and with a gasp the guards raised the rifles,

“Whatever do you mean sugarcube?”, Applejack asked,

“Oh shove it you forgot the scarf!”, and he turned the gun to her forehoof and shot, the guards were about to shoot him as to their surprise Applejack was wrapped into green magic and turned into a changeling,

“How did you know!”, the changeling gasped,

“Simple,”, Spearhead explained with his weapon still on the changeling, “First somepony rattled us out but it couldn’t have been the guard who guided me through the secret tunnel because I’m friends with him and his personality is to special to be imitable and you forgot the scarf she always wears, that she inherited from her Grandmother!”, he once more lifted the gun between the eyes of the changeling and said:

“You nearly got my marefriend raped and I don’t take lightly to that!”, he pressed the trigger and the changeling who already was down fell to the ground with a bullet hole in the head.