THE UNITED TAIWAN-CHINESE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGES CITIZENS TO FORM MILITIAS AS THE COUNTRIES MILITARY IS STRETCHED “DANGEROUSLY THIN” IN RESPONCE TO COMBINED ATTACKS FROM BOTH EQUESTRIAN AND INVADER FORCES;

LEAKED SATELLITE FOOTAGE OF ALIEN SHIPS BOMBING EQUESTRIAN TARGETS SPARKS CONTROVERSY AS IT BECOMES ON OF THE MOST LIKED VIDEOS IN THE HISTORY OF YOUTUBE;

03:26, 18/07/2050, XCOM BASE, GYM

Dubravka and Mark entered the gym wearing standart XCOM off-duty uniforms, ready to begin their workout routine. The gym was surprisingly empty this monday, which granted the two soldiers a full reign over the place. “The treadmill was a good place to start” she thought, approaching the aformentioned training apparatus. Mark joined her side on the second threadmill. Silence fell upon the room as they ran, and someone had to address the elephant in the room.

“So, what’s the deal with your trigger-happy attitude?” The woman asked, and got a silent treatment in responce. After waiting for a few seconds she continued. “Listen, i know we all hate the ponies, it’s a given, really, when taking our job into perspective, but that was a civvie!” An irritated expression passed the soldier’s face, but he remained silent. “I guess you have Pete’s endorsement, but i’t be a bad look for XCOM if-”

“You don’t know what these things can do.” The man finally replied. The rocketeer looked quizzically at him.

“I’ve fought my fair share of unicorns, i think i’ve got a good idea of what they can do.”

“Well then, enlighten me.” The man responded.

“I had my rocket stopped dead in its tracks some two meters away from its target” She scratched her chin, thinking about any other examples. “Oh, and they can shoot lasers too!” The man snorted.

“That’s cute. I saw one take on an entire heli all on its own.” The woman wanted to question, but he continued.

“The heli was preparing to evac, when the damned thing appeared out of nowhere!” The man gritted his teeth. “I-its horn glowed green, the bird just hanged in the air for a second, and then... I-it crumpled like a can!” His hands were clutched to the point of his knuckles being white. She reached her hand out in an attempt to sympathise, when a loud siren rang throught the base.

ALL STRIKE TEAMS REPORT TO BRIEFING ROOM IMMIDEATLY

“Bloody hell, what’s happened this time?” The man said, snapping out and looking annoyed.

“Don’t know, but we better report to briefing, or there’ll be hell to pay.”

The halls were swarming with soldiers as the pair made it’s way to the briefing room. The majority was tired, some were annoyed, and a small part of them was... Wet. “Duty calls, i suppose.” Dubravka thought.

The first thing she noticed when she entered the room was the strict figure of the Commander. He was standing ramrod straight, and his glare was harsher than usual. “Something got him mighty pissed.” a thought passed her mind. Once the room was filled and the soldiers quieted down Bradford raised a hand. In said hand, was a remote.

“Yesterday, at 22:30 and 22:35, two energy spikes from the Crystal Empire were detected by our satellites” A sattelite image appeared to his right, showing two brightly lit areas with timestamps. “The Equestrians launched an artillery strike against Rome and Mecca, in what is thought to be a retaliation to our recent succesess in combating their forces.” The picture changed to depict a clean, crystal-like surface with several large angular objects sticking out of the ground. The room was silent as the realisation creeped in.

“The cities in question were turned into crystal.”

”There were no reported survivors.”

03:24, 18/07/2050, TWILIGHTS QUARTERS, CANTERLOT CASTLE

Today was not kind to Twilight Sparkle. Not only did she have to bear witness to the use of one of the most fearsome weapons Equestria had, but she was having another nightmare. They became quite commonplace since the death of her brother, and though Luna helped as much as she could Twilight was having trouble resting. Death. It was still hard to think her brother was dead. The mission was supposed to be like any other, get in, do what they always do, and get out. “A 20 minute adventure.” he said. “I’ll be back before dinner.” he said. Twilight felt like she would cry, but she was all out of tears at this point. Her night of despair was interrupted by a familiar voice of the Lunar Diarch.

“Twilight, we believe we have news about your brother.” She glided down in her dream, scenery changing around her before the lavender alicorn could utter a word. The smell of medical supplies made Twilights nose wrinkle, as she observed her surroundings. The first thing the young alicorn noticed was the black haze that surrounded the scene. The room she found herself in resembled an operating room, but it was... Wrong, somehow. The walls were all wobbly, and the various pieces of furniture were phasing in and out of existence. Shining was lying on a white operating table, eyes closed, his horn, to Twilights horror, broken. Several human figures in white lab coats appeared and disappeared around him, and their voices could be heard, as faint as they were. She looked closely, but try as she might, she couldn’t discern their faces: they blended into a blurry mess the moment she tried looking at them.

“Wha- What are they doing to him? Why is his horn broken? Where is he?” Twilights torrent of questions was silenced when Luna held up her hoof and uttered a single word. “Listen.” Twilight strained her hearing, and started to listen just as a figure approached her brother.

“Begin log. This is Doctor Yuri Romalov, time is... 03:26, 18/07/2050. Subject remains unconscious, no deviation from expected behavior. We expected to begin the first memory extraction today, hopefully our specialist won’t fry the subject’s brain. Wait, hightened neuron activity detected in parts of frontal lobe responsible for channeling magic.” A note of distress could be heard in the voice as the figure turned its head. “Doctor Vahlen! Can you come here for a second? I’m getting some unusual activity, and i would like to get your opinion on that.” The figure on the table shifted in his sleep at the mention of the name.

“Yes, Doctor Romalov?” Another figure appeared, and Twilight had to double-check herself. This figure’s face was visible. She was a fairly young, professional-looking woman, her hair styled into a neat ponytail. Despite her unassuming appearance, one detail made Twilight freeze like a deer in the headlights. Her eyes were full of cold, all-consuming hatred.

“What was it you needed my opinion on?” She continued in an accent that sounded german, if Twilight’s memory was correct.

“Here, look at this. The target is sedated, but our scanners detect alarming spike of activity in the subjects frontal lobe. That wasn’t the case when the subject was awake, so what is going on here? What kind of magic could it be channeling?” The male voice asked, and after a few seconds, the woman replied in a thoughtful voice.

“That part is responsible for conjuring spells, yes, but also for transmitting and recieving magical sign-” The voice cut out suddenly, before resuming in a somewhat panicked tone. “Teufel! Someone might be using the subject as a beacon to track us down! Hurry, wake the subject this instant! I’ll notify Bradford!” The noise of clutter could be heard and the room became even more unstable as Shining sturred in his sleep. Finally, the pair of alicorns was forcibly ripped from the dream when a loud blaring sound of a base alert woke the Captain up.

A myriad of questions appeared in Twilights head, but before she could ask them, she woke up in her bed and a single sentence left her lips.

“Sweet Celestia, what have you done Cadance?”

02:22, 18/07/2050, UNKNOWN LOCATION

The room was dark and almost devoid of furniture, save for an almost featureless desk and chair. The room might have been mistaken for a long-forgotten office or storage room were it not for the lack of dust combined with the well-dressed man who stepped into the room. Out of long-ingrained habit he sat in the seat after straightening his tie. His posture was ramrod straight as he pressed a seemingly random spot on the desk before tapping in front of him as though he had a keyboard.

The wall across from the desk flickered as power fed into a monitor hidden in the darkness. Text began to scrawl as the system powered up.

SYSTEM ACTIVATION
LOGIN/PASSWORD REQUIRED
”0”
”********************”
USER AUTHENTICATED
ESTABLISHING SECURE CONNECTION
SECURE CONNECTION ESTABLISHED
0 IS NOW IN ATTENDANCE
CURRENT ATTENDANCE INCLUDES 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
ALL MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE

“Good evening, gentelmen,” The man said to the empty room and his speech appeared on the screen. “I believe you all know the reason behind our premature meeting. You all had time to review the reports, and we will now discuss the matter at hand.”

2: Are these reports correct? Are Rome and Mecca really... Gone?

4: Unfortunately, that appears to be the case.

3: I still can’t believe it, what could’ve provoked such a responce?

14: The recent capture of captain Shining Armor may have been a cause, but it’s uncertain at the moment.

10: Who cares what provoked them?! Humanity needs to put its foot down to prevent further tragedies and teach them a lesson.

16 has called for a vote: ENABLE ‘ABSOLUTION’ PROTOCOL
Yes votes: 10 total, No votes: 0 total, 6 Abstain.
Proposal accepted

10: Speaking of the captain, what’s the holdup? Is Dr. Vahlen getting cold feet?

11: Reports indicate that Commander Bradford believed the captive would be advantageous to the project politically.

4: Any hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict has been gone for a long time, what was he hoping to achieve?

3: The subject is related to two of the four alicorns orchestrating this invasion, perhaps a hostage on our hands was supposed to prevent them from acting. Clearly, that didn’t work.

8: The subject also presents us with an opportunity to test the effects of psioic influence on a responsive target.

9: Making the best out of a bad situation, i guess.

7: I propose the following: since the working prototypes of Thallion devices are complete within a month, we authorise the Commander to attempt a live capture of one of the Alicorn Princesses. Taking ‘ABSOLUTION’ protocol into account, ‘Cadance’ is a priority target. In a best case scenario, the protocol would leave no witnesses, leaving the capture of their official a secret to Equestrians.

7 has called a vote : authorise the capture of target designated “Cadance”
Yes voted : 10 total, No votes: 3 total, 3 Abstain.
Proposal accepted

13:After reviewing the latest operation’s report and in light of recent events i can’t help but ask: what will happen to the live equestrians?

10:Vahlen’s team will take care of them.

11:While i don’t take the doctor’s abilities into question, I believe professionals from Argentina will do the job just as well, without hampering the project’s other research ventures.

3:Agreed. The captives are civilians, there’s wouldn’t be a problem with information extraction.

9:What about the new gear? Beam weapons are remarkable and have proven their worth, but when are the “gauss” prototypes entering production?

2:Current projections indicate a working prototype in two months and a streamlined production shortly thereafter. Keep in mind that the project will supply itself with a sizable amount of gear before even considering lending the Council nations the weapons.

“Excellent. If there are no further matters to discuss, this emergency Council is now adjourned.” One by one the other Councilmen disconnected.

Zero tapped his desk as he too disconnected from the conference. He tapped another place on his desk and clasped his hands before him.

“Good morning, Commander.”

Author's Note

Things are about to get hot, huh?