We've been traveling for 3 days and we haven't encountered a single living being, excluding everything we've eaten of course. No wonder we began cutting down forests, this is just ridiculous. But good news is that Cap can walk again, even if slugishly so there's that atleast. We stopped so we could rest for a bit before continuing.

"How big is this forest? We've been walking 3 days without meeting anybody and have been eating cooked meat without any kind of seasoning," complained Quicky.

"What, you miss your morning sunday tea at 12 o'clock?" asked Scope sarcastically.

"Ohh hohohohooo, don't worry, Boris, if I find a bottle of vodka laying around I'll let you know," Quicky jabbed back.

"Watch your mouth, briton. Not every russian is ´Boris´ and not every russian is always fucking drunk on vodka," Scope warned. This is getting out of hand though I'm curious who gets the first and last hit.

"No, its just your national drink you bearfuckers." That did it, Scope charged Quicky who made himself invisible and went around him. Then he spun around and jumped before delivering hard roundhouse into Scope's head who fortunately had his helmet. Quicky became visible again as Scope landed onto the muddy ground. It was raining yesterday.

"STAND DOWN, BOTH OF YOU. STAND THE FUCK DOWN," Cap yelled as got between them, towering above them. "The fuck is wrong with you? We don't where we are or where to go and you're fighting in the mud like couple of goddamed dogs. We are all tired and agitated, so don't add animosity into the mix. You are soldiers of The Xcom Project. FUCKING ACT LIKE IT." He looked at both of them before continuing. "Alright then, we good?"

"Yes," Quicky lifted his hands in placating manner.

"Scope?"

"Yes sir," he said weakly before Cap turned towards me.

"We have to move, hopefully today we meet somebody," I nodded before standing up. Engie went and put him on her shoulder as Quicky offered Scope to help him stand up which he accepted. We continued foward for some time before I stopped when I saw smoke rising into the sky, something was off about it though. It was to big for it to be a camp, the same goes for a house. And it was black instead of dark grey or almost white. I turned to the others for their opinions.

"Too big and dark for a camp fire or a fireplace so... a pyre or something?" said Mercy.

"Who would make a pyre in the middle of forest?" asked Scope.

"Yeah, that's something else but what," replied Quicky.

"No use in trying to guess that, we just follow the smoke and we'll figure something out from there," Cap said. We began following the smoke for a minute or so before we both finally got to the forest edge and saw something that was... weird. Extremely weird. Seventy or so meters from us were humanoid creatures, all of them cladded in medieval armors and armed with medieval weapons like swords, axes, maces, spears, pikes, halberds, you name it. And of course, some of them had shields. It took me a while before I realised what we were seeing were some kind of deer-people and then there were 3 different kinds of horses, some had horns, some wings and some neither. Said horses were on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs, looking to the right I saw what was causing the smoke, a huge pile of burnt horse corpses. On the far left I could see carriages. I looked back and judging by the armor decor and red cloak, I was looking at their leader. It was in front of the horses and looking down at something, it began pacing and revealed that it was another horse, who had both wing and horn, and judging by its physique it was a female. I zoomed a bit to get a better look at her.

Her coat was dark blue with teal eyes, her hair... or is it mane? Whatever. Her hair was sparkling and dark blue in color with tranparent edges, it also waving in a non-existing breeze. Both her and her armor took some heavy beating when the fight was on, dents, bruises, scratches and cuts were pretty visible and she was glaring at the deer-people's leader who I assumed to be a male form his physique. I don't know what was being said but I could tell that it was grinding on the mare's nerves. She said something that made the fucker bitch-slap her so hard that she have fallen on the ground, then he grabbed her by the sides of her jaw and lifted her back to her knees before he began yelling into her face loudly. I turned back to my teammates and saw that they were looking on the former battlefield.

"What do you think?" I asked them.

"We should help the horse-people," Mercy replied.

"Not so fast, heal-lady. We don't know what is going on, we don't know who's bad and who's good, what if we make mistake by helping them?" Scope asked.

"Scope is right, we have to think this through," Engie said.

"Put me down," Cap ordered. "Okay, so this is how we are going to do this. Mercy, Quicky and I will go and talk to those... deer-people. We don't want to scare them so you, Engie and Scope will stay here and wait for my order to either come out or to engage. Everything clear?" we all saluted. "And before we go, do any of you have some white cloth and something I could use to secure it on," he looked around before his eyes landed just before his feet, "this stick?" Mercy pulled down her helmet and took out a hair pin while Scope pulled out some rag and handed it to Cap. "Good, let's go."

The 3 of them stepped out into the former battlefield holding the ´white flag´ high in the air. It didn't long before they were noticed but fortunately the flag helped as they didn't charged them right away. That doesn't mean that we weren't preparing for any nasty moves from them. I scanned them and learnt that they anatomy is 91% similar to that of a human. I unholstered my cannon and prepared Vital-Point Targeting while Scope layed down and took aim but waited for the order. Engie prepared her own cannon and granade launcher. I zoomed in again to get a better look.

The leader turned around and noticed at our teammates before marching towards him. He wasn't happy with them if his expresion was anything to go by. When they finally met the deer's mouth began moving before stoping. Cap lifted his hands placatingly before putting his right hand to his chest and then pointing it at others. The deer looked at Mercy before he pointed his finger at her and said something to which Cap nodded. Once again the dear didn't looked happy though I noticed that he licked his lips with the tip of his tongue and when I looked into his eyes... oh the lust in them. If my hands and legs haven't been replaced with prosthetics I would have been shaking form both anger and anticipation.

"What do you think they are talking about?" Engie asked.

"Whatever it is, I don't like the deer prick," said Scope.

"Same," I agreed. It didn't take long before the asshole grabbed Mercy by her right arm and tried to drag her to him before Cap hit him in the hand, and pretty hard so.

The Prick then yelled something which caused the others to close on Cap and others. That was everything I needed to open fire at the deers. Pulling the trigger the beam from the cannon went straight through several deer-people before the blast took more with it. Engie shot from her cannon and granade launcher while Scope was handing out headshots. I stepped out and began shooting left and right until my cannon began overheating. I holstered it against my back and began wreaking havoc with my fists. I swung my arms in wide arcs that killed multiple deer-people in one shot. I turned around when I heard something clanking loudly against my right leg and saw a young deer-boy. He began shaking wildly and looking at me in horror before he turned and tried to run. I caught him before he could get too far and cocked my kinetic fist back and was prepared to end his life.

"NO, PLEASE," he yelled. "DON'T KILL ME. HAVE MERCY," he began crying and making himself as small as possible in my hand. I looked him up and down. He was just a kid, no older than late teens. Maybe 16 or 17? What the hell is a kid doing here. I put him down.

"Get out," I ordered coldly. He nodded and ran away as fast as his legs would allow him. I turned around and got jumped by multiple deer-people who began pouding their weapons against my MEC with all their might. I activated my jetboots and flew up 5 meters before plumeting down and creating a small earthquake. Those deer-people that didn't get squashed and turned into a mush of soft tissue and bone were punched with my fists.

"RETREAT! RETREAT!" yelled what I assumed was the prick from before. The deer-people began retreating but not before some of them got fried by plasma. Me and my teammates came closer to each other so we could talk what to do next.

"Are you okay Mercy?" Engie asked.

"Aside from wanting to kick that motherfucker in the balls until they rapture, I'm fine," the girls laughed while the rest if us wince and grabbed our groins in unison. "Anyway can I help the horses now?"

"HOW THE FUCK DID THEE CALLED US?" good we still had our helmets on otherwise it would be worse. Man, learn how to yell, woman. We looked at the blue mare who was glaring daggers at us. "thee better apologise or We will smite thee into smithereens!" she yelled instead is doing that crazy roar this time.

"What is your species called then?" Mercy asked.

"Apology first," the mare ordered. Listen bitch we just saved your asses so how about a ´thank you´?

"Fine. I'm sorry I insulted your race by calling you incorrectly." The mare's glare lessened conciderably, turning from a hateful glare to a angry frown.

"We accept thy apology. Now if you would be so kind and unbound us," she said.

"Let's go, team," Cap said before we took anything sharp from the ground and use it to cut the bindings. The whatever-their-species-is-called stood up and rubbed their wrist and some of them did ankles as well. We came back together and waited for their leader to clarify the situation.

"We thank thee both for saving us and for setting us free," she said with a politely, something I didn't expected. "Our name is Princess Luna Brightsky, We are co-sovereign along side our sister Princess Celestia Brightsky and together we rule Equestria. But unfortunately as thee have witnessed, we are at war. Not only with the caribou, but griffins and minotaurs as well and we are losing," she said dejectedly. "What are thy names, strangers?" Cap stood up in front of us and pulled down his helmet, prompting the rest of to do the same.

"You may call me Cap, I'm leader of this team of soldiers that has been tasked with the elimination of threat to our home. And these are my teammates; Mercy, Scope, Quicky, Engie and Blaze." Cap said as he pointed his hand on each of us. His legs gave out from undeneath him but Engie managed to catch him and put him on her shoulder.

"What is wrong with thee... Cap" I chuckled invardly at her expresion when she said that.

"I was saving earth from being consumed and the explosion that followed left my legs pretty beaten."

She nodded before realising somehing. "Earth is thy home that thee said has been attacked, correct?" he nodded. "What exactly is this threat thee are speaking of? Should We worry about more enemies?" she said in an even voice but I didn't doubt that on the inside she was very concerned.

"I don't believe so. But I believie that it would be smarter to move away from here and build a camp before we continue this discusion," Cap said making the Princess blink and she realised that he was right. "Or do you have a camp that's already built?"

"Three days to south is the Everfree Castle, from there We and our sister rule. And yes it would be for the best if we took anything we can and march back," the Princess said.

"Great, more walking," grumbled Quicky, making Cap stare at him before I remembered something.

"What about the dead? Are we taking them with us or are we leaving them here?" I asked. the Princess took on a very sad expression.

"Sadly we will have to leave them here as we do not have the pony power to take them with us."

"I could do that," I offered which made the Princess's eyes hopefull and little bit skeptic. Not that I blamed her.

"We thank thee for such kind gesture but We are not certain that thee will be able to pull a carriage full of dead bodies. That and We do not wish to cumber you even more than thee must already be."

I waved my hands, "that's not a problem, Princess. Really, it isn't, I can do that," I replied.

"If... thee insist." A thankful smile founds its way on her... snout? "Many families will be greatful to thee for bringing their loved ones to be buried."

"Yeah yeah that's nice but we should really go now," I said. The princess nodded and her horn sparkled to life with light blue aura as did every body in the pile. We could only watch slacked-jawed as the bodies began floating through the air and onto one of the carriages I was going to push. One by one, the bodies were placed with care before the aura dissipated into thin air as did the one on Princess's horn. She turned to us and her expression turned from happy to confused.

"Tis something wrong?" she asked.

"You can do telekinesis?" Mercy asked. I was curious about that as well.

"Neigh, tis a simple levitation spell," she explained.

"Spell? So you have magic in here?"

"Why yes. Why are thee so shocked by it?" the Princess asked confused.

"We can talk about that when our position is not in the danger of being ambushed," Cap said. We all nodded in agreement and went towards the carriages. On the way there the princess spoke up.

"Before We begin We must ask if thee are willing to help us in these trying times," we all looked at each other before Cap looked at her and spoke.

"That depends, what are you figting for?"

"The caribou and griffons declared war against Our country in hope to take Our sister and us as their sex slaves." I wasn't the only one to scowl in disgust at that.

"Then we are going to help you as best as we can," Cap said which made the princess smile.

"Then there is only one thing to be adressed before we head out," she said as came before the caravan. We stood up in front of it before the princess began speaking again.

"My dear ponies," the pincess began, "today we have suffered a heavy loss. But do not despair for if it was not for these brave souls we all would have been dead. For now they are coming with us and Ser Blaze said that he is willing to help take the dead with us!" what little was left from the group cheered loudly. Though I should tell her that I'm not a knight. "Let's march into the castle so We may inform our sister of our current situation." With the speech ended we all looked at each other and nodded before going into our positions.

I went to the back of the caravan with Scope and Mercy at my sides while Engie and Cap were 2 carriages ahead of us.

"My dear ponies," the pincess began, "today we have suffered a heavy loss. But do not despair for we have gained new allies who said will aid us in our darkest hour," the ponies cheered loudly, "their number may not seem much but we all saw what they are capable of," they cheered again, I could hear dramatic and motivating music play in my head, "allow me to introduce them, these are Mercy, Engie, Scope, Quicky, Blaze and this is their leader, Cap," we all bowed our heads in greeting and man does she have a memory for names, "with them at our side We do not doubt that it will turn the tide in our favor. Let's march back home, to our families and friends before we must head out again!" the ponies began cheering again, louder ever before. With the speech done, we all went into our stations and began marching for the castle.

Author's Note

https://xcom.fandom.com/wiki/Particle_Cannon