"Well, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight, welcome to the humble town of Thorne's Glade." Mayor Root said awkwardly as they stepped off a train, and onto the welcome platform. "I wish your visit was under better circumstances."

Twilight had to agree with the mayor on that thought. The trip to the remote town from Canterlot had taken the better part of a day, and though it was now nighttime, the lights in the plaza were still brightly lit.

And that light revealed the faces of the citizens, which showed a mixture of relief and fear. As the Lunar Guards spread out, Root brought Luna and Twilight to a longhouse covered in vines.

"This is Healing Salve's place." Root said. "Best doctor this side of Equestria. Knows every plant and animal in the forest like the back of his hoof. It's thanks to him we can actually get crops to grow in a dark forest."

As the three of them entered, Healing Salve, a unicorn with a rusty brown coat and a yellow-green mane greeted them. He wore a lab coat and surgeon's apron, though the multitude of stains on it indicated it hadn't been properly washed in some time, or it was just that frequently used.

"Princesses, welcome to my clinic." he said. "I've got the bodies preserved back here. Just know they don't look pretty, so if you lose your lunch...don't blame me."

He rolled a cart forward that bore the still forms of the slain lumberworkers, each covered in a cloth drapery. One by one, he removed the white sheets, revealing the extent of their injuries.

"How did they die?" Luna asked with distaste and anger clear in her voice.

"A multitude of puncture wounds from those conical arrows, for lack of a better term." Salve replied. "They may be small, but they were going so fast, they tore straight through the poor saps."

"What exactly happened before they were killed?" Twilight asked. "Was there any evidence of what produced those arrows?"

"Well, I found this a good distance away in the treeline." Salve nodded, producing a shell of some kind, a cylinder tapering to a point, hollow on the inside. A small circular dent lay on the bottom, and writing in a blocky language was engraved on the side, with the numbers 7.62x39 also visible.

"What does this have to do with the arrows?" Root asked.

"I tried placing one of the arrows back into this other shell, and it fit perfectly." Salve replied, showing them a combined shell/arrow on a desk nearby. "I think this shell holds the arrow, and when it's fired or whatever, the shell is cast away while the projectile goes forward. That's my guess, anyway."

"Here's the thing, though." Salve continued. "Those lumberworkers weren't as stupid as most ponies thought. They just wanted to find out who was going after the harvest, and look what happened."

"So, who do you think did this?" Twilight asked.

"That's what really scares me, and that's something I don't say lightly." Salve sighed. "I once snuck into a hydra nest to collect their scales once during their mating season. That wasn't as scary as what I saw at the scene of the murders that night."

"What do you mean?" Root asked, sounding quite surprised. "You saw somepony there? Who?"

"This wasn't a pony." Salve said, making everypony there go quiet. "It was tall, like a minotaur, only no crooked legs. It was a lot thinner in frame and stance. It was tough to see the details at night, but I know it was wearing clothing. It had a rounded head to boot, and no horns or wings to speak of."

"And this creature killed all three of them?" Luna asked.

"Nope. There were more of them. At least five." Salve replied. "They were carrying strange objects in their limbs. And when those three jumped them, those objects started spitting fire and making some noise, and those workers fell dead. They took the bait and left after that, but they picked up more of those casings before they did."

There was stunned silence from both Princesses and the Mayor. Luna was the first to speak after several moments.

"If these creatures killed our citizens, they must be dealt with." she growled. "Have everypony head inside and lock their doors. We'll go after these creatures ourselves."

"Luna, stop." Twilight interrupted. "You're thinking too far ahead. We don't know where they are, or how many of them are there. We don't even know if they're going to come back. We need to be cautious and try to avoid any more bloodshed."

Luna paused, pondered Twilight's words, and sighed,

"You're right." she replied. "We'll alert the Guards of the threat, and see what we can do. In the meantime, Doctor Salve, Mayor Root, assemble everypony in one location and hide. We and we alone shall go after them."

"Yes, Princess." Mayor Root replied. "Any objections, Doc?"

"Nope." Salve nodded. "Good luck, Princesses. You'll need it."

As the two of them headed outside towards the waiting Lunar Guards, they didn't notice a series of flashes of azure light come from the nearby mountainside, not far from the town's eastern edge…

====

As each of the CIA agents appeared in a flash, they soon stumbled and fell over, their weapons falling to the side. It had been two hours since their raid in South Africa, and Dragonfly, before he was escorted to the medical wing for a checkup, had provided them with a dossier he had swiped before his capture.

Which had apparently contained the necessary computer script and a note on the means to activate the mirror, which was in fact a portal to another world as Dragonfly had initially suspected.

Though there was one major problem. As the script was in at least three different languages and exceedingly complicated in setup and execution, it would be a monumental task to get it all together and running properly.

The team had tried to use the hard disks that Bell had retrieved on the ship earlier, but they soon found to their frustration (and after nearly blowing up one of the terminals aboard the Carrier) that the disks were each single use, and rigged with a mechanism that overheated and killed the disk if used more than once.

Eventually, Bell, with a lot of help supplied over the phone from Samantha Maxis and Grigori Weaver, had succeeded in recreating the initial code from scratch in English, and then working the new code in tandem with the already established mechanism to activate the portal anew. Then, they saved the code to a new disk, after checking it thoroughly for any sign of sabotage.

After resupplying their ammo and equipment, and establishing communications to and from the USS North Dakota, using Bell as the involuntary guinea pig to go through first (Woods had kicked him in) the other members of the combined team had jumped through the portal themselves.

Which had deposited them in the middle of a rocky clearing on a mountainside, as dusk settled over the sky. As Bell waved sarcastically from a nearby ridge, the others dusted themselves off and retrieved their weapons.

"Well, it looks like this is Equestria." Crewe said, as he helped Conway to his feet, who promptly began scanning the horizon with binoculars. "Or at least, that's where I hope we are."

"I'd agree that we made it, Crewe." Adler replied as the rest of the team got their bearings and checked their weapons, and their replenished supply of gear and ammo. "The stars aren't in the same positions as Earth, and the moon kinda looks like a horse's face." Adler pointed out. "That's Scorpio, a summer constellation, but it's winter back on Earth."

"That's actually a pony's face, sir." Maddox corrected. "I grew up on a large farm, since my dad used to breed racehorses in his spare time. The muzzle's too short and rounded for that face to be a horse. I would know." she added, seeing as the others were staring at her curiously.

"Alright, let's get a move on." Bell said, has he readied his Krig 6 and attached a suppressor. "We don't know where we are, so let's find out."

"Looks like some kind of clearing in the forest near here, with a few buildings." Conway replied, looking through his binoculars. "And the locals are getting ready to go somewhere."

"Then let's move." Crewe said, cocking his XM4. "We don't have much time before nightfall, and I'd hate to be in this forest in the dark."

As the team slid down the mountainside and headed towards the clearing, each of the CIA agents activated a flashlight attached to their weapon, or a handheld one. Sweeping their lights from one corner to another, they were expecting and prepared for the worst as they reached a fenced wall near a field of wheat as the sun fully went down.

As they took cover on hearing footsteps coming their way, Crewe saw a pair of equines that roughly came up past his waist come forward. Though they both had a horn and wings, one was taller than the other, with a floating blue mane and tail and a dark coat.

The other was lavender with some pink and purple, with a more straight-cut mane and tail. The other equines wearing armor and carrying spears, swords, or bows that followed, though none had a horn and wings together, suggested they were in a position of authority.

What really startled the agents was the fact they were speaking in English. And from what the team could tell...they weren't the only humans here who were armed with guns.

"What's the play?" Woods asked. "We can't just walk up to them and say hi."

"Why not?" Adler replied. "We gotta start somewhere. Your call, Crewe."

"Weapons down." Crewe said, standing up a bit and sighing. "Here goes."

"Hey there." he called out, standing up and coming out of the wheatfield. "Something wrong?"

As expected, the armored Ponies soon had their weapons pointed directly at him, and the two horned and winged Equestrians came forward suspiciously.

"Who are you? Were you spying on us?" the lavender one asked suspiciously.

"Well, our team just got here, as a matter of fact." Crewe replied, motioning to the other agents as they also stood up with weapons ready. "But we did overhear a few things that concerned us. I apologize for eavesdropping, but we felt it was necessary to find out where we are. This world is Equestria, right?"

"Indeed it is." the other one said as she came forward. "I am Princess Luna, Alicorn of the moon and a ruler of Equestria, one of the Royal Sisters. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, and my Lunar Guards."

"Well met, Princesses." Crewe replied ."I'm Lieutenant Thomas Crewe, leader of the CIA Requiem Strike Team. That's Maddox, Holt, Conway, Adler, Woods, Mason, Bell, and Simms. We're pursuing a group of armed criminals from our world that came here. I suspect those are the ones who are responsible for that triple murder you were talking about. If you'll allow us, we can help you stop them."

Luna and Twilight looked at each other, asked for a few minutes, and stepped back. They began talking avidly under their breath, and while the Guards lowered their weapons, they, like the CIA Agents, kept them ready.

The two Princesses came forward, and Twilight spoke.

"We'd like to compare notes before we do anything." she said. "We need to be sure if we can trust you. Is that okay?"

"That'd be fine." Adler said. "So, where do we start?"

====

After the humans were escorted to the town hall, which was quickly converted to a conference area, Crewe and the team sat down across from Luna and Twilight. After both sides gave a brief history lesson alongside other relevant information such as recent events, Luna cleared her throat.

"So, as to the murders…" she said. "Three lumberworkers were found dead after trying to catch the criminals who were stealing the harvests. Doctor Healing Salve pulled these from their bodies, and found this nearby."

She produced the bullets and the casing, and Crewe raised an eyebrow as he looked them over.

"This is a 7.62 by 39mm bullet." he sighed. "It's used primarily in a Soviet-made weapon called the AK47. It looks like the Emissary's been sending guns here after all."

"Who's the Emissary?" Twilight asked.

"He's the leader of this criminal group." Crewe replied. "He primarily trades illegal guns and weaponry, among other things. We only learned of him because the leader of Requiem, Grigori Weaver, got an intel package from one of our agents about him."

"Earlier, we attacked one of his supply bases in South Africa, rescued a captured CIA Agent, destroyed his headquarters on Earth, and secured a portal that led us here. From what we've gathered, he's been sending guns here for some time now. We think he's building an army, as he's got the weapons, supplies, ammunition, and resources to do so."

Crewe handed Luna and Twilight some of the recovered dossiers, and her eyes flared as she went pale in anger, shock, and surprise as they read through them.

"This madness must be stopped." Luna said. "We would be fools to decline your help, Sir Crewe. You've certainly given us a new insight as to what's going on."

"Thanks, but I prefer to be called just Crewe, or you could call me Cougar." Crewe replied. "It's my old call sign from the US Marine Corps. We use nicknames to hide our identities. Maddox is called Aspen, Holt is Raider, and Conway is called Dart."

"Very well." Luna replied. "So, Cougar, what must we do now? Those murderers must be brought to justice."

"I agree." Crewe nodded. "However, we can't just go back into the forest, guns blazing, and hope for the best. We need more intelligence on them. Their locations, for one thing. And seeing as there's only nine of us against god knows how many hostiles...rushing in is a bad idea."

"But we can help!" Twilight protested.

"I don't doubt that you can, but you're a civilian with little military training or experience." Adler said, the other agents nodding. "With all due respect, you'd be in danger."

"I can see why you'd think that." Luna smiled broadly, causing the agents to look at her in curiosity. "I am over 1000 years old, and have been in battle before. And while spears and bows certainly pale in comparison to your guns, our magic is capable of more than you think."

"Magic?" Mason asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"And more importantly...what can you do with it?" Bell added.

"Why tell you...when we can show you?" Luna smiled. "Come with me. There is much to be seen and done before we depart. You'll be in for quite a few surprises, that I am sure of."

"Alright then." Maddox nodded. "Shall we take this outside?"

"Of course." Luna nodded confidently. "I have a feeling...you'll be quite impressed."

Author's Note

Wow. This was a really fun chapter to write, and a long one at that. I didn't realize I had written so many words until I got to the endpoint. But it was well worth it.

Next time - A combat magic demonstration, the hostiles are located, and a plan gets made to attack at dawn. In the meantime, the Emissary learns of the attack on the Pantheon...