NIGHTMARE BEFORE HEARTH'S WARMING

HEART OF THE EVERFREE FOREST, 1500 HOURS

Walking beside towering trees and lush vegetation were a team consisting of heavily armed Solar Empire soldiers led by Colonel Thunderlane. He, along with the rest of his squad, were on the look-out for any sign of a trap set by the Lunar Republic as they made their way through the infamous Everfree Forest where everything (including, the trees) looked ominous. Thus, he and every single one of his fellow team members were both wearing armor and carrying weapons on their backs.

Rumble had a revolver shotgun-type gunstaff equipped with an axe head, it was the same length as the standard pony infantry poleaxe or spear yet allowed the welder to shoot five rounds of 12 gauge shotshells of various types at mid to close ranges.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was armed with a CA20B assault rifle and Cloudchaser had a CA18SR bolt-action sniper rifle. Like most firearms used by both militaries of the Solar Empire and Lunar Republic, they were either Griffon or Minotaur designs, which were heavily modified to use by ponies or other hoofed species.

Lyra had a CA40A1 40mm pump-action grenade launcher and Thunderlane himself had a Flim & Flam Mark I Laser Bowgun after giving the shotgun-type gunstaff he had before to his little brother prior to leaving the bunker.

"Everypony, keep your eyes peeled", he said as they approached a clearing. "The distress signal came from somewhere in this area. This means a republic ambush could come from any direction now. Sweetie, are you detecting anything?"

Upon hearing that question, Sweetie Belle pulled out a small device from her left pocket with her telekinesis and looked at the small green screen for a few seconds before replying, "No heat signatures yet, sir. In fact, the only thing generating any heat at all is us."

"Alright, then. Keep me posted", Thunderlane announced.

After they continued to walk for another half hour or so, he heard Rumble sigh deeply near him and even noticed a few drops of sweat on his face. This prompted him to ask, "You doing okay, bro?"

Rumble responded by quickly wiping away the sweat from his brow and declaring, "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... This isn't exactly how I imagined my very first mission as a captain would be."

Thunderlane softly chuckled when he heard that and said, "Don't worry about it too much. My first mission at your rank was very much like this. Just stick close to me and you'll be fine."

Rumble then took a deep breath and smiled at his brother before replying, "Thanks, bro. Really appreciate the help. Although, there is one more thing that I can't seem to stop worrying about. How are mom and dad gonna react if we miss the Hearth's Warming Eve party because of this mission?"

"Oh, I'm sure they'll understand", Thunderlane assured him. "I mean, it's not like we're young enough to be punished, right? That said, I really hope that we won't have to spend several hours re-organizing dad's massive library again. Remember the time we had to do that after accidentally breaking down the carriage wheel?"

Both of them shuddered at the same time before Sweetie Belle ran up to them and announced, "SIR! I'm detecting five heat signatures coming from the west! They're half a mile away from our position."

Thunderlane immediately grabbed the device she was holding and upon taking a quick look at it, he exclaimed, "Son of a gun... ALRIGHT, MOVE IT, PONIES! Standard defense positions! On the double!"

As ordered everypony spread out to take their positions. Rumble and Thunderlane hid inside a bush, Sweetie Belle hid inside another bush, Cloudchaser flew towards a large tree branch, and Lyra teleported herself to another large branch on top of a seperate tree.

They silently waited for almost a full minute for the sources of the heat signatures to arrive. Then, they noticed a total of three mares wearing Lunar Republic armor in the distance and pointed their weapons at them as quietly as possible. Thunderlane took out a pair of binoculars to take a good look at their visitors, but once he did, the expression on his face changed from determined to confused.

"Something's wrong", he whispered to Rumble. "I've seen these soldiers before. They're part of an advanced recon team. They can't be the ones the republic had sent to set up the trap."

"Who cares which team they belong to, bro?", Rumble whispered back. "They're here and they're wearing the enemy's colors. Let's take them out before they notice us, and then go home."

"Not yet", declared Thunderlane. "We have to first find out the exact reason they're here and only engage if they start shooting at us. Understood?"

Even though Rumble let out a frustrated sigh, he nevertheless nodded in approval. After seeing his brother nod back, he took the binoculars from his hooves in order to see the soldiers with his own eyes and became as shocked as Thunderlane was when he first saw them.

He recognized all of them as Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, and Flitter from his days as a foal living in Ponyville and this revelation prompted him to nudge Thunderlane on the left shoulder, point towards the mares, and ask, "Wait, is that- "

"YOU!!!"

Both of them were startled by the sudden shout coming from Cloudchaser, who was positioned directly above them and aiming her sniper directly at the intruders. They then looked at each other in utter confusion as they had never seen her this furious before.

She then yelled once again, "You take one more fucking step and I will bathe this entire forest with your guts!"

In response, Flitter took out a throwing knife and prepared to throw it straight at her before yelling back, "Come give it a try! I'll hit every single one of your explosive rounds and set the forest on fire with the resulting explosions instead!"

This prompted Lyra to take aim at her and exclaim, "Don't even think about it, republic scum!"

Then, Octavia grabbed her laser bowgun and took aim at her and subsequently, Sweetie Belle using telekinesis to aim her assault rifle at the gray mare, turning the whole situation into a Mexicolt stand-off. At that point, Thunderlane and Rumble came out of the bush, and Thunderlane ordered, "Everypony, please calm down! We are not here to start a fight!"

"No, of course, you're not", Octavia commented. "After all, you sent that distress signal to lure our soldiers here, so that you could ambush and kill them before a fight could even begin."

Upon hearing this, every single one of the Solar Empire soldiers looked at each other in complete puzzlement and Thunderlane asked, "Wait a minute. You mean to tell us that you received the same signal too? We thought you were the ones who had sent it in order to lure us here for a trap."

Then, the Lunar Republic soldiers looked at each other in puzzlement as well and Octavia revealed, "We did no such thing. If you did not send that signal either, then whoever did is not just working for a third party, but also an enemy to both sides."

As all the ponies started lowering their weapons (except for Cloudchaser and Flitter, who kept aiming and glaring at each other), two more soldiers wearing Lunar Republic armor came running them and stopped near Octavia to salute her.

"Ma'am, we've finished conducting our search in the sector you've assigned us", the one with the fully brown coat announced. "There are no signs of any traps set up by the Solar Empire."

A few seconds later, however, they noticed the tense situation around them and gave each other confused expressions.

"Button?!", Rumble exclaimed with a combination of shock and anger, causing the fully brown-coated Earth pony to turn to him and incredulously ask, "Rumble?! Is that you? I-If you're here, does that mean- "

"Yeah, I'm here too!", Sweetie Belle suddenly exclaimed with utter rage in her voice.

Button Mash became even more shocked upon seeing her and managed to utter, "S-Sweetie? I... I can't believe this..."

While watching this scene unfolding before him, Pipsqueak facehoof and quietly said to himself, "Shit!"

Immediately afterwards, Rumbled quickly raised his shotgun, aimed it directly at Button Mash, and yelled, "You're under arrest, dirtbag! Get down on the ground! NOW!"

Then, Octavia took aim at him and declared, "Not a chance in Tartarus, kid. He's just joined my squad and he'll leave only when I tell him to do so!"

This, in turn, caused Sweetie Belle to take aim at Octavia and announce, "From one girl to another, you would not want this worthless piece of trash in any squad whatsoever. Trust me."

Thunderlane then came between them and shouted, "Whoa! Whoa! WHOA! What is going on here?! Rumble, what do you and Sweetie Belle think you're doing?"

"We're bringing a war criminal to justice!", Rumble replied. "He is a traitor to the Solar Empire and a fugitive from her majesty's law! More importantly, he is a liar who betrayed the trust of not only his best friend, but also the love of his life! Isn't that true, Button?! HUH?! Tell everypony here exactly what you did!"

Button Mash was extremely perplexed by everything that was going on and unable to find the right words to say at the moment. He looked back and forth towards the faces of his former friends, and felt a great deal of shame for the things he had done to receive their hate.

Therefore, he slowly took a few steps towards them and revealed, "I know what I did was very wrong… and not a day goes by that I don't regret everything about it. I don't expect nor deserve any ounce of forgiveness from either of you, but I do want you to at least hear that I'm deeply sorry for betraying the trust you two had in me and causing you all that pain. If I could go back in time and change what I've done... Believe me, I would."

Rumble and Sweetie Belle said nothing for a while, and continued to aim their weapons at Button Mash and Octavia, respectively. Then, Sweetie Belle finally took a deep breath, before telling the earth pony stallion, "It doesn't matter whether or not you're sorry about what you did, Button. What IS important is that you did it and thus, you committed war crimes against the Solar Empire. For that, you must go before the imperial court and serve your time in prison. I do not want to see or hear from you ever again!" She said as tears started running down her cheek, Button hung his head in shame and Pipsqueak placed a hoof on his shoulder in an effort to show emotional support.

Meanwhile, Vinyl Scratch, who hadn't said a single word during this whole event, sighed in frustration and started looking at the nearby trees, instead. However, she soon became puzzled by the rather strange appearance of one particular large tree right beside her team. It looked wooden and tall like all the others, but at the same, it looked as if it had branches for arms and trunks for legs. On top of that, its overall appearance seemed like it had bones inside and if that wasn't strange enough, at the very top of it were a pair of sirens. They resembled the same kind used on air raid early warning systems she often saw in major towns and cities, which didn't make any sense at all. Why would anypony install a pair of air raid sirens in the middle of the Everfree Forest of all places?

Then, after thinking a little bit harder about it, she finally realized the answer and her eyes widened with sheer terror.

"Oh... no...", she managed to utter under her breath before a loud and terrifying sound was heard by everypony.