The hidden village of The Quarry joining the forces of the crusade had been a boon. Their extensive mines, rock farms and mineral fields had added much needed supplies to reequip military forces and even speed along the launching of the next airship, which had been christened The Starswirl. That had given the crusade forces two new heavy airships with new turbojet engines and enough weaponry to turn a small city into rubble, each. Other projects suddenly found themselves fast tracked, such as smaller transport airships with much faster afterburner jets, spark-propelled troop transport vehicles, a high-speed monorail system, that nearly perfectly followed the much older railroad tracks that ran from just outside The Quarry, down to the new Fraternity keep known as Shattered Brass and then on to Apple Orchard, though its completion was still at best twenty-four months out. There had been plans of building the monorail system across the desert to the four rapidly growing cities that had been formerly controlled by the sphinxes, but between the dangerously wild magical radiation, the bandits, the bandit gangs, mutant mobs, cultists and wildly unpredictable storms that could come out of the deep desert at any time, the cost at the time to garrison the line with specially trained troops and specialists was too expensive, so using air travel, though slower, was safer and more reliable. Thankfully a small fleet of unarmored airships were nearing completion, once they were launched, a portion would be relegated to flying back and forth across the desert, bringing troops and goods both ways.

Currently Twilight was inspecting the newest batch of rifles that had been released from the steadily growing forge that had been set up outside The Quarry that had been loosely based on the weapons that had been surrendered by the two mares, whom until just a couple of months ago, had been on the run from New Unicornia. Levitating a magazine, she pulled a round out from it and pulled the bullet apart. The decision to go with the smaller Equestrian caliber instead of the larger New Unicornian caliber had been a tactical decision. True, a larger caliber would have caused greater tissue damage, but with a smaller caliber, for the same cost in materials, nearly three times the rounds could be made and soldiers could carry twice as much ammo as their New Unicornian counterparts, plus the rank-and-file soldier wouldn't have to be trained with a new caliber.

Twilight closely inspected every part of the round, the casing, the propellant, the conical bullet. She noted the minuscule ruby chip on the back. "What's this gem chip for?"

The tech monk's eyes, glowing an electronic green, flickered in a way that could be construed as pride as it answered in a mechanical tone,"Query registered: Seeking permission to answer on behalf of Constructor General. Please standby." The cybernetic pony's electronic green eyes flickered rapidly as a small whirring sound came from beneath its blue robes with silver trim. "Permission has been granted: The small gem chip is made from compressed ruby powder that has been enchanted with a propulsion spell to increase muzzle velocity. End result: Greater target penetration and tissue damage."

Twilight nodded and placed the disassembled round into a reclamation bin. Placing the magazine into the receiver on the rifle, she grasped the charging lever with a hoof, chambered a round and rook aim at a series of targets. Slipping a hoof into the trigger guard, she squeezed the trigger. With the usual bang, the round fired off, though she noted that there was a notable red streak marking the path and it made a screaming sound. She also noted that though the bullet made the same sized hole on entry, there was a lot of stuffing the came out as the round exited the target. She flipped the switch by the trigger guard a single click and depressed the trigger again. In just a little over a second the twenty-eight remaining rounds roared out of the muzzle of the rifle, turning the target into nothing but shredded cloth, smoldering stuffing and Swiss cheesed wood. She made an excited whoop before flipping the rifle's selector switch to safe, removing the magazine and returning the weapon to the tech monk.

"Exciting, isn't it?", Sunset said, walking up, "The rifle, I mean. It reminded me of shooting bottles and cans when I was still on the other side of the mirror on Applejack's farm."

Twilight's mood soured at the mention, her expression matching her mood as she remembered her long-dead friends, both pony and human. Pushing the thoughts down, she returned her expression back to the princessly mask. "Sunset, I'm sorry for the Tree of Harmony pulling you through the mirror and depositing you in my chambers. None of us at the time knew it's roots extended--"

"Stop right there Twilight.", Sunset interrupted, "Though at first I was upset at being pulled back to Equestria without my consent or even a bit of notice, I have had plenty of time to process it and the tree wouldn't have done something so drastic unless it was necessary, plus I've made my peace with it. Besides, if I didn't bring my knowledge of human technology and ingenuity, you might still be fighting this campaign to take back the homeland with spears, crossbows and muskets. Besides it's both amazing, frightening and a bit concerning when I think about it, if we developed in just two hundred years fully stable magically and genetically engineered super soldiers, who have advanced power armor and weapons, I sometimes wonder if humans have taken to the stars and developed massive space stations the size of small moons that can blow planets up and laser swords."

"Is that a reference to that movie you once showed me? What was it called, War of the Stars?"

Sunset couldn't help but snicker."It was called Star Wars and it was pretty good until this company with a mouse mascot bought it and screwed up the lore."

It was Twilight's turn to snicker. "I remember seeing a couple of those movies that company you mentioned. They were well animated, but their portrayals of princesses made them to be waifs who waited to be rescued by the human stallions. What was the name of the company? Dick-knees?"

Sunset rolled on the ground, guffawing, nearly peeing herself. "That's...hahahehhah! Close enough.", she said rising from the ground, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go check on the new recruits and make sure the Masters-at-Arms don't march them do death." She walked away still chuckling, occasionally chuckling and saying between laughs, "Dick-knees."

Twilight, returning her composure to her usual neutral mask, gave a quick nod to the tech monk before walking off.

"Organics. Feh!", the tech monk grumbled in binary static.

****

Cadance's nose rankled at the smell as the walked through the Nova Guard barracks as she made her way to her personal quarters. It always smelled to her like a cross between a buck ball locker room and a gym bag full of unwashed sweaty workout gear that had been left to marinate for a month in a sauna. Most of the transequine bodyguards were walking around without their armor, something they only did in private with each other or with only the princesses. Twilight had explained to her, along with the other princesses that the smell came from a special tank that was installed in power armor that processes and purified their natural body waste, taking the useful parts, like proteins and water, and cycled it back into their bodies, while the parts that couldn't be used was eventually dumped automatically when the tank was full. That meant that as long as the armor's power cells held, the transequine warriors would always receive some level of nutrition and water, and could theoretically fight indefinitely.

The Nova Guard, like the transequine marines, lacked any secondary sexual characteristics, looking like stallions and mares simultaneously. The transequine warriors had the primary sexual organs that was natural for their sex, but had their sex drives magically, genetically and chemically deactivated so that they could focus on their primary missions. The Nova Guard, like the ponemarchs, used neither masculine nor feminine pronouns. The bodies of the transequine bodyguards had small circular ports that were sunk in and metallic rectangular diodes that poked out of their flesh that, like the transequine marines, allowed their power armor to link into their nervous systems. The marine legions that all took after one of the three primary tribes, while the Nova Guard looked like alicorns that had short horns and stumpy wings. Like most of the legions, the Nova Guard kept they manes and tails shaved or close cropped.

***

Luna stood on a balcony overlooking the induction of new recruits, that had passed the physical and psychological tests, as they were being put through the first of the final steps to becoming full legionaries.

Each pony was brought before them a small covered bowl that held a small, cherry-sized fruit, that swirled with rainbow-colored light. Upon a single shouted command, the ponies all uncovered their bowls at the same time. The ponies picked up the small fruit in a hoof. The order was shouted and the ponies swallowed the fruit whole, though a few did chew, which resulted in a magical explosion that sent the headless corpses slumping to the floor.

For twenty minutes the ponies sat in their positions looking at each other in confusion as marines in full battle armor walked in through the side doors and stood to attention. Almost as if on cue, the pony inductees felt like their bodies were on fire as the fruit they had swallowed began radically expanding and altering their wellsprings. The ponies began moaning and crying out in pain as they collapsed on the floor and thrashed about, some tried to remain on their hooves, attempting to defy the pain, but all eventually succumbed and collapsed.

As the inductees cried out, their bodies began to morph and distort. The magical, cherry-sized fruit was forcing their bodies to increase muscle and bone mass, some had their horns or wings shrivel and slough off their bodies as the magic made them reject the external appendages, while other had horns or wings practically explode in growth from their bodies. A small number of inductees went into full grand mal seizures, their bodies unable to handle the drastic changes they were experiencing and died, leaving a pool of foam leaking from their mouths. A smaller number of inductees bodies began to wildly mutate, the marines in full battle armor rushed over, leveled the gun mounted in their shoulder sockets and fired a mass reaction round into the inductees skull, mercifully killing them before the mutations transformed into mindless monsters.

After several hours, the ordeal was over. Some had completely swapped their base tribe, while others had remained their base tribe. The surviving inductees were openly embraced by the marines, regardless of the legion, as full-on siblings. The now new transequine marines that had passed their first test, had the magic of all three tribes, even if they had the primary and secondary traits of just one tribe. The newest battle brethren were escorted to the mess hall so they could receive their first meal with their siblings and soon-to-be cousins, then taken to personal chambers to recover. The fruit they ate had a pit in it, that would over time, embed itself into their intestines, infusing and supplementing the transequines' wellsprings until they died.

Flurry Heart stood in the observation deck as transequine marines were subjected to the surgeries that would fully transform them into full battle brethren, all without the benefit of anesthesia, as learning to endure pain was part of each step. Many had their chests held open with with rib spreaders as their old four-chambered hearts were removed and replaced with the larger, stronger, genetically engineered eight-chambered hearts, along with a secondary mechanical heart. Others had special bone growth plates implanted into their ribs, that would over several months, transform their rib cage into a series of interlocking plates. Others had combination drill/syringe devices that deposited small grape-sized bits of tissue implanted in their skull and body, that would grow into specialized organs over the next fem months. The ones going through their last surgeries had special metal threads woven into their muscles, rectangular diodes implanted into their flash and connected to their nervous system, and small hollow cylinders that were connected to their lymphatic system. The whole time a slurry of alchemically-treated metal suspended in saline, and special steroids, were injected into their bloodstream, ensuring that their skeletons were a lattice of bone and metal, and that their muscle mass, along with their height were greatly increased and ensuring their blood coagulated faster while their bodies grew accustomed to the specially implanted organs.

***

Peach Nectar, her face still bearing the scars from surgery that helped to reconstruct part of her face with bone grafts and metal plates, sat on a cushion as the griffon Pauline fussed over her, smearing a foul-smelling past over the scars to help them fade faster.

Across from them sat the earth pony mare Apple Pie while Dew Drop sat in the corner running a sharpening stone.

"I've noticed that she doesn't have her cutie mark.", Peach whispered to Apple Pie, "I mean, she's old enough to have one. Did something happen to her?"

"She told me once that the ponies where she came from don't get cutie marks and that before meeting the goddesses and their armies, she never saw a cutie mark before.", Apple Pie replied. She gestured to Dew Drop. "Dewy, would you mind coming over here and telling them what you you told me about where you grew up?"

The half-Equestrian/half-Saddle Arabian pony slid her saber into its scabbard, placed it on her back and walked over. Sitting down, she began telling about growing up as a slave,being groomed for a life of sexual service for her masters and being abused by the sphinx.

The two mares and one hen all shuddered at the story.

Dew Drop, visibly unsettled from telling the story from her time as a slave, leaned against Apple Pie for comfort. "I don't like telling that story. I much prefer telling how the goddess taught me to read or striking down infidels in the name of the goddesses."

"If you don't mind me asking, do none of the ponies of your land have cutie marks?", Peach Nectar asked.

"I never knew that a pony could have a mark until I first saw a goddess.", Dew Drop answered.

"I've never seen a pony with a blank flank, unless they were foals.", Peach said, "Why do all the ponies from your land not have cutie marks?"

"Because she's half-Equestrian pony.", Princess Celestia said stepping into the room, "She's half Saddle Arabian horse."

The four immediately prostrated them selves before the princess.

"Rise.", Celestia said, "No need to prostrate yourselves before me. Court isn't in."

"She's half-horse?", Pauline asked, "The only horses I've ever seen have cutie marks."

"Those were Equestrian horses.", Celestia replied, "The Saddle Arabian horses are close cousins to we Equestrians, but they don't gain cutie marks upon reaching maturity."

All four listened with determination, eyes glittering as the white-furred princess began a simplified lesson on Equestrian ponies and horses, and the slight difference with their cousins that lived beyond the ancient borders of Equestria.

***

Cloud Runner walked into the gymnasium, a portion of his wing had been replaced with cybernetics after a sever infection had set in the bone and had to be cut out. The machinery gave small clicks and whirs each time he twitched his wing, something he had not gotten used to, even though he'd had it for nearly a year.

On a treadmill Rose Blossom was running fast and hard, the four cybernetic legs moving in blurs. When the bandits had taken them, she had been drug off to be forcibly impregnated by a large group of them. Something she didn't do quietly or easily and fought them with every ounce of strength she had, injuring or killing several of them until they subjected her to their form of "justice" when a slave fights back too hard. Though it had taken her a long time to recover from the exceedingly brutal treatment, she pushed herself as hard as she could go, often muttering the mantra "Never again" over and over again to herself.

Rose tripped over her metal hooves and face planted on the treadmill, the exercise machine flinging her off the back of it.

Cloud Runner rushed over and helped Rose Blossom up to her hooves. "Take it easy RB. You've broken every medical record, recovering from not only a quad forcible amputation faster than anypony I've ever seen, but also recovering from major cybernetic reconstruction faster than anypony who isn't a legionnaire."

"I'll take it easy when I'm dead!", Rose snarled as she shoved the pegasus stallion back, "As long as there is a single pony being abused or yearning to breathe free, I'll not rest. Yes it sucks that you were tortured and had to mangle your wing to escape, but you didn't have your legs chopped off and then raped in every hole." Tears stung her eyes and visible tremble ran across her body. Her emotions began to boil over and she broke down right on the gym floor.

Cloud Runner hugged the mare close to him as she gave plaintive wails and anguished screams into his chest fluff. "That's it. Just let it all out." Once she had cried herself out, he released her from the hug. "Feel better?" The mare nodded yes, then shook her head no. "That's alright. Let's go get something to drink, then take it easy for the rest of the day. You're no good to anypony if you wreck your body before getting out in the field."

"Thank you.", Rose Blossom said, her voice a ragged, hoarse croak.

***

As the spring thaw started, the last span of monorail track was laid. Twilight, hefting a ceremonial gold-platted sledgehammer in her magic, drove the last spike.

A new mobile forge was placed on the track that began pumping out new lengths of track, which the tech monks anointed with oil, said prayers in binary static over and laid with the reverence one would when constructing a temple. The first of the monorail maglev engines with various cars were placed on the track and soon were travelling fast as a pegasus down the track, ferrying ponies and supplies from The Quarry, all the down to Apple Orchard.

Squads of transequine marines and heavily armed tech monks escorted the specially built forge that was making the lengths of track. Hour-by-hour the forge pumped out lengths of tracks that were fifteen body lengths long.

That's when the first of the bonded guild trader caravans met the forces of The Crusade. Word was quickly sent to the princesses, who sent out several ambassadors to begin negotiations. After nearly a week of deliberations, the trader guilds and the New Equestrian Empire came to a mutually beneficial agreement. The first part of the agreement was the majority of the guild caravans were allowed to continue trade along their usual routes, as long as they did not trade in slaves, dark magic artifacts and certain prohibited drugs, in turn they would provide the forges with the lion's share of scrap in return for foodstuffs, medical supplies and the caravan guards would receive official training from the NEE military and proper weaponry. The second part of the agreement was that the NEE and their crusade forces would provide security and safe harbor to any bonded guild caravaneers, in return the caravaneers would provide the NEE or it's crusade forces with intelligence on the surrounding territories, any kingdoms that would be friendly, hostile or neutral, storm tracking, and knowledge on where bandits gangs, slavers, mutant bands and monster hunting grounds. The final part of the agreement was that the guild would receive thirty-four airships, along with their crews to be bonded to their service to serve as guild traders and protection, and in return the guild would give the same number of caravans would be supplied to the NEE to serve as official Equestrian traders, advanced scouts and ambassadors.

***

Once spring had broke in full nearly all of the snow and ice from winter had melted, the Crusade began rolling out in earnest. Soldiers loaded up into airships and mobile barracks. The monorail track was still being built, having been delayed from seasonal flooding, though the construction would be delayed, the Crusade couldn't. Transequine marine legions loaded up into their heavily armored and armed airships. Finally the princesses loaded up into the massive Harmony-class Luster Dawn and flags were unfurled demarking it as the primary command airship. The ponemarchs loaded up on the other massive airship, the Harmony and flags of the ten legions were unfurled. The two massive airships lifted off the ground. the Luster Dawn took up its position at the head of the bulk of the airship fleet, while the Harmony at the head of the legions airships. The signal was given and the air and land armadas began moving forward.

Mortal and transequine pegasi flew bewteen the airships and the ground vehicles, half delivering messages, while the others flew in patrol circuits. Pegasi flew out ahead of the massive armada, scouting the area, while ponies, both mortal and transequine, along with the loyal minotaur tribes, patrolled the ground on both sides of the armada.

For weeks the Crusade forces steadily moved towards the kingdom of New Unicornia. Meanwhile the forge along the monorail steadily laid tracks, stopping when bandits,mutants or monster attacked, or when the terrainforced them to change direction.

The guild caravans had sunk special poles in the ground, marking the outer boundaries of where New Unicornian patrols would pass. The airships spread out into wide crescent formations as the ground vehicles formed into box formations. For a full day the Crusade came to a stop just outside the markers as the princesses, the ponemarchs, the generals and high ranking members of the Ponyhood of Steel deliberated on how to face this new enemy. For a full day and night deliberations proceeded, sometimes breaking out into heated arguments. Finally they came to an agreement.

As the sun peeked over the horizon, the Sky Hunters legion took flight from their airships. The transequine pegasi in their midnight blue armor with yellow and silver lightning bolts painted down the sides, spreading out across the skies ahead of the Crusade. They ranged across the skies, scouting far and wide, using their sensors to map out the land and search for troop movements.

Shortly after the Crusade began moving forward again, the Saddle Ragers left their airships. Though not as fast or strong fliers in the Sky Hunters, they were still competent fliers. They mostly kept to the forests, hills and ravines, their yellowish-tan armor with green highlights giving them better camouflage than most of the other legions. They moved across the landscape in groups of twelve, serving as hunter-killer squads.

As the sun began slipping towards the horizon, swarms of thestrals, carrying new designs of sniper rifles and as much ammunition and supplies as they could carry, flew from their barracks in swarms, before breaking off into groups of two-pony sniper teams.

The Night Hunters fast roped from their airships and spread out across the countryside. They quickly disappeared into the lengthening shadows.

Finally the Implacable Hooves, along with the Celestial Hooves, Solar Flames and Stone Legion formed a wide vanguard.

Above the airships spread out in a wide formation, guns were slid into place as crewponies strained their eyes in the dark or peered through scanning equipment, searching for enemy troop movements. The mobile barracks, medbays and forges were circled up as folding metal structures were set up for bivouacs or placed as barricades and the entire army settled in for the night.

***

Three wings of aerial screws were sent out on patrol at first light. Long-range radar had picked up some unusual blips and they were sent out once the sun to investigate. Each wing of aerial screws consisted of one fast scout, two medium gunships and two heavy gunships.

At the aerial screws spun up the blades on top and rear, all fifteen took off from their various landing pads at the forward operating base as one. The commander of the wings thought she saw for a moment a dark figure slinking through the shadows of early morning as her aerial medium gunship screw began banking in a circular pattern as it gained altitude, but just as quickly it was gone and she shrugged it off.

For an hour the aerial screws flew towards the last reported location of the radar hit when their collision radar detected an unknown, fast-moving anomaly, then it disappeared just as quickly as it showed up. A second later, the rear-most heavy gunship reported a mechanical malfunction with its rear rotor and it began to spin wildly as it plummeted down to the ground. The fourteen remaining aerial screws began a circular pattern, noting where their gunship had crashed and dropped smoke flares.

"Command actual, this is Fast Hawk actual. We lost a screw to mechanical failure in sector seventeen-beta-five. We have dropped smoke flares for rescue screws and are moving onto primary target. How copy?", the wing commander said into the radio.

"Fast Hawk actual, this is Command actual. We had received your--*skrt*"

The wing commander scowled. "Command actual, say again. You broke up." No reply. "Command actual, are you there?" Again no answer. "Fast hawk two, send your scout back to base to find out what's happening as we head back onto target."

"Roger Fast actual."

The wing commander watched as the scout screw broke formation and began banking back towards base. She gripped the aerial screw's yoke in her hooves and began to bank her medium gunship back on course when a midnight blue streak descended above and struck the scout crew on its tail, shearing it off. She stared dumbfounded as the streak looped back up and flew past her aerial screw. She only saw it for a second before it was out of sight. It looked like a big pegasus in heavy armor. Suddenly alarms went off in the cockpit as the short-range and anti-collision radar picked up first one,then five,then dozens of blips. "Everypony scatter!", she screamed into the radio headset.

Aerial screws broke formation as the marines of the Sky Hunters descended upon them. Five aerial screws went into uncontrolled spins as the transequine pegasi sliced their tail sections off with their wing blades. Another three plummeted from the sky like stones when the pegasi marines sliced off the top rotors. On the two remaining heavy gunships, the doors were slid open as the gunners gripped their rotary cannons in an attempt to open fire on the attacking transequines. The gunners never got their chance to fire off as a single pegasi for each swooped in, slicing gunner and gun in two, before slaughtering the crew, before bursting through the canopies, leaving the gunships to careen to the ground.

The wing commander screamed curses as she ejected all the ammo and weapons to lighten her screw and opened the engine up to full speed. Her wingpony's screw went up in a fireball as an explosive one of pegasi planted went off, sending the machine plummeting down to the ground in a smoldering wreck. She could only watch helplessly as fellow pilots were ripped from their cockpits and hurled screaming to the ground. She bobbed and weaver her machine, trying to get as close to the ground as possible, while avoiding the armored flying ponies. Her machine lurched as warning klaxons screamed, alerting her that her rear rotor had been knocked out. While bleeding as much speed as possible, she feathered the wildly spinning aerial screw towards a small patch of trees. She lost consciousness from the g-forces and woke up an unknown time later, her aerial screw suspended from the branches of the trees.

The wing commander wiggled her legs, ensuring she wasn't crippled and had no broken bones. Reaching under he seat, she pulled out her survival gear and pistol, then began working to get the canopy door open. Tossing out rope, she shimmied down the line to the ground. Keeping her eye to the sky looking for those weird armored ponies, she saw none and broke cover to begin the long trek back to the FOB. Scanning the skies and nearby landscape, she was searching for any threats when the last thing she saw was a muzzle flash, a split second later a sniper's bullet entered just below her left eye and blew a gaping hole in the back of her neck.

Back at the FOB, the Night Hunters were dragging the last of the bodies of New Unicornian soldiers to several pits as marines of the Saddle Ragers formed up a secure perimeter. Fuel that was meant for aerial screws and ground vehicles were dumped into the body-filled pits and lit. The first of the airships flew overhead and landed. Exoskeltal armored soldiers of the Ponyhood of Steel scrambled out to secure the buildings as the tech monks began swarming to the vehicles and other machinery, binary speech buzzing excitedly, wrenches and other tools gripped in metallic tendrils and cybernetic hooves. The damage to the FOB had been kept to a minimum, with only the command tower, main radar dish and primary barracks destroyed.

The invasion of New Unicornia has officially begun and everypony in the Crusade agreed that as they ventured further in, it would become even more difficult.

Over the next week mortal soldiers were sent out to capture other FOBs and listening posts, to further secure the hoofhold and boost morale.

Word has reached Burnished Bronze,and more importantly, Cozy Glow, that several FOBs and listening posts along their western border regions had gone silent, and that the few survivors reported massive ponies wearing thick armor, accompanied by regular ponies, had overwhelmed the bases, slaughtering nearly everypony.

As Burnished Bronze began ordering a series of reprisal attacks, Cozy Glow began weaving a dark spell on the unicorn and planning her exit strategy/

Author's Note

The war against New Unicornia has begun.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you all enjoy.

Spot any typos, misspellings or sentence structure issues? Have any cricisms? Like or hate the story? Want to throw shade or pure bane? Leave the down below.

A special thanks to New_Rebellion for his input and ideas. Go show him some My Little Pony love.