“Hold your fire!" I yelled into the mic. "Wait ‘til the shield drops, we have to give them time to get to the elements!” I then rolled over onto my back, placing the butt of the rifle against my right shoulder, aiming through the scope at one of the multiple targets surrounding the sphere shaped force field around Canterlot. The force field ended on the rock ledge about thirty meters behind me, cutting me off from the outside, also making it so we had time to get ready. My suppressed M107 was ready to fire as soon as the shield dropped.

“Stones, are you nuts?! We should attack them now before they get into the city and put the girls in jeopardy.” I heard through the radio.

“Tyrock if you fire now your shots won’t go through the shield. They’ll just help these bastards get in faster. Now hold your fire until I say so,” I yelled. “Jane, what’s the shield’s integrity?”

“The shield is at 50% and falling fast, if they continue at this pace it’ll reach zero in about twenty seconds.” Jane said through my radio.

On that note I quickly looked through the scope and lined the crosshairs up on the head of my first target. These looked like they were a smaller version of the ones we have seen before and their ranks seemed sloppy, lacking the large coordination the others shown. The fact that they using their heads and bodies besides their hooves to hit the shield made me pause for a second. They didn't seem to be the soldier type.

“Shield at 20% “ Jane stated, pulling me from my thoughts. I quickly check my aim. Then I heard the changeling queen calling out from the castle.

“You can run but you can’t hide.” The sound of it sent a chill up my spine.

“Shield failure in 4… 3… 2… 1.” Jane said. Then the shield shattered. When it did, it placed Tyrock and me as the last line of defense for Canterlot. Once the shield disappeared, the air filled with a sound which could only be described as a massive swarm of bees. Too bad for these bugs they are not the only ones with stingers. Once the shield was cleared from our sights the sound of our safety switches flicked to fire.

“Weapons free!” I yelled pulling the trigger taking out the first changeling with a quiet crack from the rifle and a direct shot to the head. Soon the gun was ejecting empty casings and cycling in a new round as fast as it could go, each one symbolizing the death of a changeling. As soon as the magazine was empty I dumped it and slammed in a new one and continued the ongoing battle. Then I heard my cousin yelling into the radio.

“Stones the girls are on the move to your side of the castle,” then in the background I heard the sound of something snarling, followed by the sound of a knife digging into flesh. “Get out of my face you piece of shit bugger!”

“Tyrock you okay?” I yelled, dumping another empty mag and slamming in the next one.

“I’m fine, protect the girls, a large swarm is heading their way.” He said followed by the sound of him removing the knife. I quickly rolled over onto my stomach and laid out the bi-pods. After I spotted the girls, I knew they were in way over their heads. The girls were surrounded by about a hundred Changelings and some of them were changing their appearance making themselves just like the elements.

“Shit, Jane put marks on my HUD for the real elements before we lose them in the swarm.” I yelled, hoping it was in time. Thanks to the changeling magic in the air the implanted trackers were doing next to nothing, along with the magic sensors.

“How they started fighting and I can’t use the sensors to pinpoint them.” She said, i let out a few curses as the changelings could successfully camouflage themselves as the girls, it seemed like nothing could be done to tell them apart no matter how hard I tried. Then I realized something, the changelings have a hard outer shell. A shell that can absorb the impact of dive bombing into the ground hard enough to make a crater and our shot if we weren’t using 50 caliber rounds. With armor that strong, it could shoe up differently on thermals. I quickly reached up on the scope and flipped the small switch on the side of it, changing the view of the scope, and what I saw was a nice warm signature in the outline of Rainbow Dash surrounded by a bunch of cold outlines of the changelings.

"Not so camouflaged now." I thought as I took aim at the first target.

“Tyrock, use thermals, it shows changelings as cold signatures.” After passing on that information I turned my attention back to the girls. I then started dropping changelings, one after another, trying to make sure that the girls didn’t see it but causing enough confusion among the changelings that the girls had a chance to get out of there alive.

As the fight went on I soon ran out of stealth targets to hit and turn my sights to a few civilians that were in trouble along with some members of the royal guards. I quickly took the changelings out around them, but before I could turn my sight back to the girls a changeling hit the ground in front of me.

The sudden appearance of the changeling surprised me, the fact that I let it happen made me give myself a mental kick to the rear. The fact that I focused all of my attention on my scope left me open to the world around me. Another problem was how close this thing was. It was close enough that I couldn’t take a shot, and then it fired a magic blast before I could draw my side arm. The blast wasn’t aimed at me but at my rifle. When the shot connected I could feel the heat coming off it and when it made contact, the force of it knocked the gun out of my hand and threw us both at the mountain side forty feet behind me. I let out a grunt at the impact but when my right side slammed on the ledge my right arm give a pop. I gasped in pain, I could feel that my arm was dislocated at the shoulder. As I laid there on the ground in pain, the thought of the girls in trouble made me get back up and prepared to fight the changeling. When I stood up the changeling snarled at me and charged.

With the changeling charging at me I reached for the pistol attached to the magnetic plating on my right thigh with my one good arm. With the gun facing the wrong way for me to grab it properly taking a shot was not an option. Leaving the gun almost useless to me, almost. As I reached over the changeling was almost to me, ready to drive its horn into my chest. I ripped the gun from its place by the barrel and hit the changeling in the head with an upward swing, connecting the handle with its skull just below its crooked horn. When the gun made contact the changeling stumbled back. Thankfully giving me just enough room to spin the gun around and flip the safety switch before putting the sights on the changlings head. When the changeling saw the gun it charged up its horn again hoping to repeat its attack from before. I didn't give the bastard the chance and pulled the trigger, ending the creature’s life with a spray of red and pink mist out the back of its skull. The discharge of the weapon was loud, loud enough to be heard by any nearby changelings. I didn’t have a suppressor for it so I hoped it could be put off as a changeling dive bombing the ground, or something. Lucky for me all of the changelings had their focus on either civilians or the girls. As soon as my brain caught up with that train of thought I jerked my head towards the castle.

“Tyrock, can you see the girls!?” I asked, grabbing my dislocated arm. I took a look at the rock face behind me and slammed my shoulder into it. The impactforced it back into place with a repeated pop. After a flash of pain and a quick breather, I moved it around testing it for any more damage. Once I was satisfied it was usable I put the pistol back in its place on my leg. “let's hope I don't have to deal with something like that again today." Wishful thinking rolling through my head. At this point my radio clicked on with Tyrock alerting me to a new snag.

“Stones, be advise the charges are surrounded and the enamy is charging up some kind of spell. Unknown situation please advise” He said as I picked up my rifle. But when I did the weight was off. Then I saw the suppressor, or rather what was left of it. The end was completely melted shut and what was left of the thing was bent at a ninety-degree angle pointing up. Without the silencer, the rifle was ten times louder than anything else I had. Good thing I keep a backup.

“Copy moving to deal with situation.” I said removing the damaged piece of equipment from the rifle and reaching for its replacement that I have been carrying on my vest, but all I felt was an empty pouch. Looking down I let out another curse when my eyes confirmed what my hands were telling me.

“Copy that. Be advised ammo supplies are running low. Request to move to resupply point and to a better fighting posistion.” He asked as my mind race trying to think of a way out of the current mess we were in. It’s like what they say: bad luck comes in threes. With the scilencet gone it would allow the changelings and the guards a chance to locate me. Putting me, Tyrock, and our mission in jeopardy. Unless there is only one of us in the city.

“Negative Tyrock, situation has gotten too hot. Fall back to rally point delta then back to HQ.” I commanded.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, a tone of worry filled his voice. Dropping radio protocol. Rally point delta ment that only one of use was leaving.

“I also have low ammo along with a damaged silencer." I stated checking my empty mag pouches." Situation has reached a omega level. Fall back to rally point delta then to HQ, how copy?”

"Nagative copy, you can't take on that many alone."

"Tyrock you are low on ammo and are to far away to do anything, now follow my orders. This is not up for debate." I demanded.

“But Stones…?”

“No buts now get yours out of here.” I said giving my strongest authority behind it. Begging what ever God was out there that he would listen. After a short pause he answered.

“Copy that, you better make it out alive, if you don't I'll come back and put you in the grave myself."

“Deal, now get out of here, Sarah transfer a field copy of yourself over to my systems, I might need you." I said laying down once more resting the rifle on the bi-pods.

"Copying..... transfer complete, let us get to work." she said as a small image of her appeared on my HUD.

"See you at dinner cuz, Stones out.” I said shutting off the radio. I then dropped the mag out of the rifle checking for ammo, when I saw it was empty I gave a small grumble and threw it away. I then pulled the slide back on the rifle praying again to the gods to have at least one round left. I gave a sigh or relief when the shiny brass metal meet my gaze. I let the slide slam forward once more and looked down sights. I could see a bright green glow coming from the courtyard. After some small adjustments I found the source of the glow.

What I saw was a guardian's worst nightmare. The girls were surrounded by about fifty changelings but instead of taking a different form and attacking in hand to hand as their normal MO, their magic was flowling up to a large sphere over the girls head. All of their magic combined was enough to create a small, and I guessed with the numbers scrolling across the side of my HUD. A combined force strong enough to level a large house, making them capable of taking out the girls and themselves, along with a good chunk of the ground. These changelings were on a suicide mission. I could also see a shield surrounding the girls to keep them in place till the spell was ready. As I watched them working on the spell, I saw Twilight putting up a secondary shield over her and the girls inside the other one, trying to compensate for the ball of destruction over them.

“That’s not enough.” I said softly to myself, searching the massive hoard of changelings trying to find some way to save them. The chance of them surviving this was like finding a needle in a mile long haystack. Even if Twilight was at full capacity she will have to put every drop of magic into the shield to save them, thought that would be when she was at full power. She was just barely able to stand let alone stop the ball of destruction above their heads.

"Stones there." Sarah said a small arrow appeared on my HUD. I aimed the scope at it to find the needle I was looking for.

There was one changeling standing near the back of the group that didn’t have his magic transferring into the sphere. He was the one creating and controlling the sphere, most likely the one also controling the sheild. I quickly lined up the crosshairs not on his head but on his horn.

As soon as I was lined up, I exhaled slowly and softly squeezed the trigger. The sound of the rifle was loud enough to me through the helmet, I guarantee you could have heard it outside the city, but I could tell the shot was dead on. When the tip of the changeling’s horn shattered, I gave a sigh of relief. My prayers were answered. As soon as the changeling in charge lost control of the spell, the sphere disappeared causing the rest if the changelings to drop their magic in shock. Releasing the magic to go back where it came from but with a more shocking effect. When the changelings drop from the spell and start shaking from the magic discharge in their brain, I gave myself a few seconds to relax. Dropping my head and letting go of the breath i didnt notice I was holding. When the changelings died the girls looked around in confusion and fear, either from the surprising changelings' death or from the sound of the rifle, I do not know which but I knew I had to get out of here. Preferably before either the royal guard came or more changelings. When I stood up to try and leave, I heard the sound of changelings reinforcements. I tensed up but saw they weren’t heading for me, they were heading for the girls. I let my shoulders drop in frustration. Murphy was working over time today.

Now shit has hit the fan, with me sending Tyrock out of the city and since I was out of rifle ammo, there was nothing I could do to help them. There was a supply cashe below me but it would take to long to climb down and return before the girls were over runned. All I have is my pistol, along with an assault shotgun. To use them would changing tactics from snipping to close quarters but if I get closer, that means a massively higher chance of being found and killed as soon as Celestia or Luna sees me. If I show myself to the girls there is no chance to get out of here alive. I lift my rifle and looked down sights at the girls. Twilight was drained of energy lying on the ground near unconscious and the rest of them looked like they might drop at any second. I sighed. Knowing that they had no chance and that ment I would have to put my life fully on the line to keep them safe.

"What are we going to do now?" Sarah asked. her voice filled with worry and desperation, but under it all, I could sense a bit of hope. I looked down at them then to Ponyville in the distance.

“I guess we do what we have always done. Protect them at all cost,” I said, quoting Jane from the day we first arrived here. The one rule we lived by since that day. I gave a chuckle, knowing today was the first time since we got here that I might have to pay the ultimate price. I shook off those feelings before backing up a few steps. Tightening my grip on the rifle and ran for the edge of the rock ledge.

Author's Note

This is a redone version of my other story. I hope people like this one better and I also hope to keep this one going. Please leave a comment and suggestions down below. I hope you enjoy this and other chapters to come.