Chapters The Everfree forest was a strange and terrifying place to most of Equestria, especially to those living right on its door step in Ponyville. It was a place that seemed to violate many of the laws of the world, the weather would act on its own and change seemingly at random, animals would fend for themselves without the aid of anypony, and worst of all were the beast that lurked beyond the tree line.
From packs of timberwolves to mighty manticores, these creatures were what kept most ponies away, and this was perfectly fine for the creatures of the Everfree as they would almost never leave the forest without being provoked first.
This is why when a roar filled the air one faithful night followed by the sounds of twisting metal and a putrid stench, nopony went to investigate hoping that the source would keep to itself.
It has been 20 years since the aliens successfully concurred earth. Which brought massive breakthroughs in science, from cures to many of the worst genetic conditions plaguing humanity, to highly effective power generation that can allow for everyone to have access to electricity. It all seemed to be a golden age of humanity brought to them by the Elders.
If only that was the whole story...
Everyone thought that the abductions ended after the invasion. However they did not the Elders, or to be more accurate, their advent coalition just had to be more subtle but they were still kidnapping people almost every day, and now they even got the luxury of picking those with ideal genetics for whatever experiment they were forced to participate in.
However not all hope is lost resistance factions have formed all over the world, still trying to fight off the aliens and take back their home. And serving as the main fighting force of the resistance are four main factions.
The first is the Reapers, a group specializing in stealth and hunting their targets the, they prefer to fight at range making great use of their marksmanship, stealth, and knowledge of setting up traps. They also have a taste for eating many of the alien species that make up the advent forces as well as forbidding the use of any technology developed by the aliens or Advent.
Second is the Templars, a cult who believes that psionic energy flows through the earth and that the Elders have come to steal it all. All of their members are psionic to some degree and use specialized gauntlets to aid them in shaping their psionic powers from blades, to shields and even into what can be described as a psionic lighting rod.
Third are the Skirmishers, this group consists entirely of hybrids, the most used species in the fighting force of the Advent coalition who were either cloned from an existing hybrid, or were formerly human before being transformed through the use of alien DNA. The Skirmishers have been freed from their mid control inflicted onto them by advent and now seek to free their other hybrid brothers and sisters, weather it be through removing the chip that is used to mind control them, or through death. The Skirmishers specialise in close-quarters combat using extensive use of grappling hooks, as well as compact weapons and blades to get in close with their enemy.
Finally there is XCOM, the group uniting these separate factions into a cohesive fighting force. Formed from the remnants of the original XCOM, which was a international organisation formed to protect against alien threats. The new XCOM serves as the main thorn in the side of Advent, as they have shown time and again their ability to adapt to whatever is thrown at them as a result of their expert researchers and engineers, as well as their soldiers consisting of members from the other three main resistance factions, as well as those that they have trained on their own.
Together they are taking the fight to advent and the elders, with the ultimate goal to drive them off world, but right now the objective is to stop the avatar project, no one knows what it is and many don't even know it exists even those within Advent, but what is known is that if it is completed it will spell doom for the resistance and the war will be lost.
A grope of eight heavily armed and armoured individuals all sat in silence in the dimly lit skyranger, five of them were XCOMs home grown operatives while the other three were members of the other three main resistance groups. It was a little cramped for most of their linking due to the additional two members that were coming along for this mission instead of the standard six person team, but they were soldiers and this was far from the worst thing any of them have experienced so none showed any signs of complaint.
The silence was broken when the piolet called out from the front of the craft "fifteen minutes from the drop point."
"So …. could anyone tell me why this is an eight person mission instead of the usual six?" a woman with a Spanish accent asked while puffing away on a cigar. "Don't get me wrong I'm all for more help in the field but I want to know before I go getting exited." This was Wolfmother a veteran of XCOM, working for the organisation even before the invasion, she was the teams combat engineer and hacker. She was also possibly one of the most laid back human beings to ever exist as you would never find her without one of two things, a cigar or a bottle of alcohol but more often than not she would have both.
"Of course you didn't listen to the briefing." the man sitting directly opposite of her said with a exasperated sigh as he dropped his head low, but a slight chuckle could be heard from him soon after. This was Stinger the highest ranking member and leader of the squad as well as its resident ranger. Instead of the standard XCOM plate armour he wore an armoured suite that was mostly made of what looked to be snake skin, he and the man next to him, his best friend, known as Hat Trick were also equipped with much more unique weapons then the rest of the squad as they had a much more sleek and elegant design to them. Both the weapons and the suite were trophies taken from some of the tougher enemies they had faced. Stingers sword and shotgun as well as Hat Tricks rifle were taken from the chosen assassin and hunter respectively, while the suite was made from the corpse of an escaped test subject known as the viper king.
"Well sorry but you all know I like to nap on the skyranger so it isn't my fault no one woke me up." Wolfmother said in a voice of mock irritation.
"Basically we are going to blow up and retrieve some data from a heavily guarded advent black sight, but not necessarily in that order." Hat Trick chirped up answering Wolfmother's original question.
"Ok, but aren't all black sights heavily guarded?" Wolfmother continued. "Why the extra meat on this one?"
"The Jailers have put considerably more recourses into defending this sight than all of the others." Fatal, the lone hybrid and Skirmisher replied. She wore modified Advent troop armour having several pieces removed from the arms and the replacement parts being bound by cloth wrapping, and instead of a helmet she wore a leather aviators hat, complete with a pair of white goggles that didn't actually fit over her large eyes so she instead opted to wear them on her head.
"Hmm.... Fifty bucks says it's some genetic monster." Wolfmother said holding up fifty dollars.
Hat Trick immediately perked up at this "I'll take that bet, I say it's a bunch a powerful psionics that they have locked up." he said holding up his own fifty dollars.
Stinger glanced up at the two with a slight smirk, while fatal was enraptured with the idea of gimbaling for the first time as she hoped it would unlock some memories from before she was a hybrid. The both decided to join in with Stinger saying that it was some kind of advanced robotics factory, and Fatal betting that the facility had something to do with portals as she remembered something like them being used in a few Advent facilities before she was freed.
"Anyone else want in?" Wolfmother called out.
"I wish to abstain." Said Raven from the corner of the skyranger not even looking away from her weapon as she spoke, she wore the standard Reaper uniform complete with the gas mask that covered her face, however she did leave one of her arms exposed showing a full sleeve tattoo depicting earth near the shoulder and various constellation descending down her arm.
Everyone soon found their eyes locked onto her as it was fairly rare for her to speak out unless being directly spoken to.
Stinger was the first to regain his composure, "you sure?" he began "This pots getting fairly big."
Raven then looked up from her weapon deeming that it was indeed in top condition, "I am positive, but thank you for the offer."
"Okay then, Guardian you in?" Wolfmother said looking to the woman to her immediate right.
Guardian was the teams combat medic and had saved the squad more time then any of them could count. But ever since operation flying rain, a mission to destroy an Advent black sight that turned out to be particularly bloody on XCOMs side, she had been particularly distant with everyone except the only other survivor of that mission, and even then it wasn't much better.
Guardian gave a defeated sigh and pulled out fifty dollars "Fine, I say it's just a regular black sight with a bit more security."
Wolfmother hesitated a bit before taking the money. "Hey you don't have to paly if you don't want to." she said softly.
Guardian looked up at her with a cold expression on her face, only made worse by her eyes being hidden by her aviator sun glasses, hiding any emotion in her eyes. "No it's fine just take my money." She said pushing the bills into Wolfmother hand.
This action quickly brought down the mood, however Hat Trick knew what to do in order to bring it back up. "Hey Demon how about you?"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP STORMYS TEACHING ME SHIT!" Shouted the squads resident foul mouthed Psi operative Demon, who is noted by many of the templars that she has met that she should capable of great feats of psionics if she focused herself to her training. Unfortunately for them and everyone in her immediate vicinity that she does not consider a friend, she is not the most stable of individuals and as such struggles to keep her powers focused enough to use them to her true potential. However her raw power does make up for this in some regards.
Sat directly across from her was Stormwalker, the only other survivor of operation flying rain, guiding her in meditation. Stormwalker was the squads templar, as well as being an enigma as not even the templars know who he is. Apparently he just showed up to one of their camps one day, beat the guards in combat, and then asked to be trained. After confirming that he was not with advent by checking for any form of mind control or means of communication to outside sources, the Templars accepted him into their ranks. But this did not clear up the mystery surrounding as no one ever saw his face and no one knows his real name, Stormwalker is all he has ever gone by.
A moment of silence passed after Demon shout as she continued to meditate. "Wow, that was awesome!" She shouted looking up at Stormwalker.
"What was awesome?" asked Hat Trick thoroughly confused as to what was going on.
"Stormy showed me this thing that let us check out the outside of the base ahead of time, it was so fucking cool!" Demon answered, gesticulating wildly as she spoke.
Stinger perked up at the mention of the two them doing reconnaissance. "Any thing we should know?" he asked hoping this would help them complete the mission, and more importantly survive.
Stormwalker was the one to answer his question. "There was at one point a very strong psionic presence near the centre of the facility, however it is no longer present and we could only detect traces of its signature. Other that that there was nothing else of note that has not already been covered in the briefing,"
At the mention of psionics Hat Trick and Fatal had smiles grow on their faces, as that could hint to either of their theories being true and them winning the bet. Singer lamented the lack of anything immediately useful so instead he decided to try and keep the mood light. "Hey Wolfmother can I change my bet?" He asked. "Robot factory is looking less likely."
Wolfmother laughed at his words before denying the change of bet. Demon on the other hand was practically jumping out of her seat upon hearing the word bet. "Oo are we betting on what's in there? Because I bet there doing something to buff up the sectoids."
Wolfmother turned her attention to Demon. "A bit specific but alright hand over fifty bucks."
Demons grin quickly turned to a frown and then to a sheepish smile. "How about thirty bucks and drinks on me for the rest of the day for the winner?"
All the betters turned to look at each other and silently came to the agreement that this was an adequate compromise, and with that the bets were set with 280 dollars and drinks for the night on the table.
Suddenly the piolet shouted "Two minutes from drop, get ready people." With those words the cabin lights shifted from white to red signalling everyone to get up and retrieve their weapons and for Wolfmother to stow away the betting money in one of the skyrangers cargo compartments.
So far the mission was going well, Stinger, Fatal, and Raven have been able to isolate and eliminate small groups of hostiles with relative ease while not setting of the bases alarms, Demon had even managed to mind control an advent stun lancer for added support. However now the team reached a road block, a massive group of hostiles were guarding the entrance to the base so things were going to have to go loud. Everyone moved to encircle the enemies, and after that was complete all hell broke loose. Wolfmother sent her gremlin drone, who she affectionately called joule, to release a massive discharge of electricity in the centre of the group destroying an Advent Mec and heavily damaging a muton and some troopers. All of the hostiles began to move for cover but could not reach it in time as they were ripped apart by weapons fire from unseen positions, the archon tried to fly into the air in an attempt to spot the squad but it only made it half way when Hat Trick took its head off with a precise shot.
The last few troopers along with two vipers and a sectoid were huddles around cover desperately searching for their foes when Demons mind controlled stun lancer raced forward towards them, the lancer was then promptly ripped to shreds by the combination of mag rifle slugs and plasma fire, but it provided the distraction Stormwalker needed to get in close and unleash a psionic storm, killing the remaining hostiles.
With combat over the teams ear pieces crackled to life, relaying a message from Central. "Menace 1-5, you've got hostile interceptors inbound on your position, grab that data, plant the X-4 charges and get the hell out of there. "
"Affirmative Central." Stinger replied. "Wolfmother, guardian you two go and secure the data. Hat Trick, Fatal you two secure the evac sight, the rest of us will set the charges."
And with that the team split up, Hat trick and Fatal stayed outside throwing down blue flairs to signal for firebrand to come and pick them up. The rest of the squad entered the facility and swept through the immediate vicinity, deeming it to be clear Wolfmother and Guardian moved to the nearest computer and began downloading as much data as they could onto their Gremlin drones. All the while Stinger, Stormwalker, Raven, and Demon began planting X-4 charges on any support structures and anything that looked particularly volatile.
"God damn it." Wolfmother cursed under her breath.
Raven looked up from the charge she was planting. "What is the matter?" She asked with slight worry in her voice.
Wolfmother just sighed not looking up from the screen on the back of Joule. "Looks like Fatal won the bet, they were doing something to do with portals here."
A series of groan could be heard, followed by a cry of victory. "Demon I shall prepare a list of drinks for tonight ." Fatal cheered over the radio, eliciting a longer groan to come from Demon followed by a series of curses.
With the final charges placed, Stinger ordered everyone to regroup and move to evac. Everyone one managed to regroup without coming into contact with any more hostiles and arrived at the evac point just as firebrand arrived. "Alright Everyone, lets get moving ." Firebrand called out over the coms as several ropes dropped down from the skyranger as it hovered in the air.
The team boarded the skyranger and were away as soon as the first of the hostile reinforcements toughed down, and good thing too there was a lot of them, around 20 transports holding a squad of at least five members each consisting of everything from troopers, to priests, mutons, andromedon and gatekeepers. The squad even saw a sectopod touch down as they left and the skyranger ramp closed.
"Well that was an anti-climax." Hat Trick began. "Even with all that extra security nothing bad ha-"
He was cut off by the sound of an explosion and immediately after a purple wave washed over the ship causing it to jerk forward suddenly. "What the hell was that." Stinger exclaimed before a sudden feeling of weightlessness took over.
Fatal looked towards the pilot seat and her eyes grew wide at what she saw. Firebrand was slumped over in her seat leaning against the controls, seemingly unresponsive. Thinking quickly Fatal pulled firebrand out of the seat and pulled back on the controls hoping to gain altitude. But when she looked out the window two emotions came to her, the first was confusion as what she saw was a massive dark forest which should be impossible because the root back to the avenger took them over the ocean not land. This confusion was soon over taken by a second more powerful emotion, fear, they were already too low to prevent a crash so all Fatal could do was try to minimise damage. "EVERYONE HOLD ON TO SOMTING!" she screamed as she pushed the engines as hard as they could go in an attempt to slow their descent.
Author's Note
Hi this is my first story ever, so any criticism would be appetited, I also don't have an editor so expect some mistakes.
Also here are some pictures of the squad if my descriptions weren't enough for you.
Author's Note
Scootaloo's an orphan in this story.
Chapter 1: Arrival
Guardian awoke abruptly, all she could see was a grey haze but the sounds of sparking electronics and fire confirmed what she thought. A fire had broken out as a result of the crash, Immediately ripping off her seat harness she ripped the emergency fire extinguisher off the wall and smothered the flames with a dry powder. She then grabbed the closest of her squad mates, who happened to be Stormwalker, along with her gremlin and brought outside through the doors on the side of the cockpit. Once she got outside she led Stormwalker on the ground and activated her gremlin, ordering it to preform a medical detail before going back inside the skyranger to get everyone else. She wasn't going to let any more die on her watch.
Guardian worked long through the night trying her hardest to keep everyone alive and intact, but there was only so much she could do, Wolfmother and Demon had sever burn on their left arm and right leg respectively that would take months to heal, Fatal had suffered some head trauma during the crash but it was nothing major that some rest couldn't fix, the worst however had been firebrand. Due to her not being secured during the crash she was thrown around the ship resulting in several broken ribs that punctured her lungs, she was dead within minutes of being pulled out.
Everyone with the exception of Fatal had awoken and quickly brought up to speed on what had happened.
"Central Firebrand is down, we need a pickup." Stinger said into the emergency two way radio of the ship. Everyone was very relieved when they found it to still be functional.
That relief was quickly striped from them when no reply came.
"Central this is Menace. Do. You. Read." They were met with nothing once again.
Stinger let out a long exasperated sigh before turning to the squad. "Alright, does anyone have any idea where we are."
Raven stepped forward "No, our flight route was supposed to pass over nothing but ocean." she stated.
"Well I gotta say this a lot better than drowning." Hat Trick joked trying to lighten the mood.
Stinger pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, me and Guardian will stay here and secure a perimeter. You three." He gestured to Hat Trick, Stormwalker, and Raven ."Scout out the surrounding area, see if there is anything we can use like sources of water or food, maybe even civilization."
"What about us boss?" Wolfmother called out smoking a brand new cigar, while she would've gladly take the excuse to relax, in the current situation she wanted to help as much as she could and Demon mirrored this sentiment.
Stinger turned to face the two wounded soldiers. "Wolfmother check the skyranger and see what else still works, but if its completely totalled we can still use it as shelter. Demon check what supplies we have, there should be an emergency stash under the flooring."
With that everyone had their objectives, Wolfmother helped Demon get to the skyranger, while the scouting party split up to cover as much ground as possible. Stinger then turned to Guardian, who he just now realised was still kneeling next to firebrands body, she hadn't left since she died.
He walked over to her and knelt beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey." he began "I know its cold comfort but she would've wanted us to keep going. So how about we get up and secure the perimeter to make that wish of hers come true." He said with a reassuring smile.
Guardian turned to look at him, her emotions were still hidden behind her glasses and stony face but stinger could feel a bit of hope coming off her. "Alright... At least she'll get a burial, that's better than what most of us will probably get." She stated rather coldly. And with that she got up and moved to secure the area around the skyranger.
(Meanwhile near Ponyville)
Scootaloo was board. She had absolutely nothing to do, Rainbow Dash was away in the Crystal Empire so she couldn't help her learn to fly. The other crusaders were busy, Applebloom having to help do Applejack's chores while she was also away at the Crystal Empire, and Sweety Bell having to look after the boutique for Rarity while she was also gone. Sure Fluttershy asked her to feed her animals while she was gone, but Scootaloo had already done that. She could go back to the orphanage but she was the only foal there so she would just be board somewhere else.
So this is where she found he self riding back to Ponyville, thinking of something to do. Then she remembered what happened last night, a weird sound came from the Everfree but no one went to check out what it was, they had all said it was likely some monster and it was too dangerous. But Scootaloo saw something else, she saw adventure and excitement awaiting her and maybe even a cutey mark.
And with that Scootaloo changed direction and moved towards the Everfree.
Guardian scanned the surrounding area, no one had actually spotted anything of note so everything was silent. Fatal had woken up soon after the squad split up and helped in securing the area by claiming on top of the skyranger and use it as an overwatch point.
"I have come across something peculiar. " Stormwalker stated calmly over the radio.
"What is it?" stinger asked speaking into his com.
"A beast the likes of which has only been seen in legends, a manticore. " Stormwalker replied.
"Wait are you telling me there's mythological creatures in this forest. " Hat Trick said with a chuckle thinking this was a joke.
"Yes. " Was the only reply Stormwalker gave.
Raven next spoke over the coms. "If you killed it bring it back to the camp I will see if we can eat it. "
"Of course the Reaper says that. " Hat Trick snarked. "Oh and by the way I found a river so were good for water. "
Demon then chose this time to hobble out of the skyranger cursing all the while. "I'd say we've got a weeks worth of food for all of us and around twelve thousand rounds total, so don't be afraid to shoot anything, were good on ammo. Also Wolfmother said that the solar panels, ramp, and some lights work but everything else is cooked."
Guardian was about to respond but she heard a sudden rustling in the bushes. She trained her rifle on the bush, along with everyone else at the campsite, and she slowly approached.
She had messed up, Scootaloo never should have gone into the Everfree. Everything had gone well up until this point, she hadn't run into any monsters and she could follow her scooters track back out so she wouldn't get lost. Then she heard what sounded like somepony talking.
Her curiosity peeked, Scootaloo moved towards the voices to see who else was out here with her. When she got close enough she saw three of the strangest creatures she had ever seen. They stood on two legs and had claws like appendages on the ends of their arms, much like spike. Unlike spike however these things were tall, REALLY tall, Scootaloo would only come up to about their knees. They also only had hair on their heads from what Scootaloo could see, and they all wore strange boxy armour, except one who looked like they were wearing snake skin, and carried boxy objects in their 'claws'.
The one wearing snake skin then asked what something was to seemingly nopony but the look on their face looked like he was having a conversation with somepony.
A fourth creature then came out of the metal structure in the centre of the clearing saying something about how much food they had and how they had a lot of 'ammo'. Scootaloo had no idea what the second thing the creature said as her mind began to work. 'Ammo kind of like arrow, maybe those thing they're holding are fancy looking crossbows? ' She thought.
A chill ran up her spine at the idea of these creatures having weapons. She began to back away but bumped into a tree, thinking it was a monster Scootaloo flailed around slightly rustling the bush she was hid in. The creatures were all pointing their weapons in her direction now, alerted by the noise, and one of the creatures was coming closer. All Scootaloo could do was freeze as her legs gave out on her in fear.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. "So, what's the weirdest and toughest things you've fought?" Scootaloo asked Fatal as they walked through the Everfree. Scootaloo had been asking constant questions about the aliens, Advent, and the different resistance factions of humanity. Fatal for her part was happy to answer, but she left out as many mentions of death and killing as she could.
Fatal hummed in thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "The strangest of the aliens in my opinion are the gatekeepers, they are squid like creatures that reside in a floating white sphere most of the time. The strongest would have to go to one of the Chosen, they could teleport into a battle seemingly at random and we had to track them down to their bases to deal with them."
"Why did you have to track them down, couldn't you just take them down when they showed up?" Scootaloo asked.
Fatal thought of a way to answer that avoided mentioning that they had to kill the Chosen many times to deal with them. "We did... But they would always return, the only way to stop them for good was to track them down."
"So did they just always run away from fights, or could they come back from the dead?" Fatal was shocked by the bluntness of this question and that Scootaloo had managed to work out that the Chosen were dying and then coming back to life.
Scootaloo noticed Fatal's shocked look. "What?"
"How did you know that we were dealing with them that way?" Fatal asked.
"Well you said you were soldiers earlier, Equestria hasn't had a war for a long time but we still learn about them in history class, and I know Ponies, or well in your case people, die in them. Also thinking about the way that Guardian talked about the manticore made it sound like she was used to that sort of thing happening." Scootaloo answered in a calm tone.
"Ah... I see, well then yes, you are right. The Chosen could come back to life once... dealt with." Fatal was still uncomfortable about using language like killed in front of the filly. "We had to track down their bases to destroy the devices that kept reviving them."
"Wow." Scootaloo was simply amazed by the idea of something that could bring back the dead. "Do you know how they worked?"
"No, the devices were left in no condition to study once we were done with them." Fatal stated simply.
The two then returned to science as Scootaloo had no more questions. After a few minutes of walking both arrived at the edge of the Everfree, in the distance Fatal saw a town which she assumed to be Ponyville. Most of the buildings seemed to thatch roofing and from this distance Fatal could make out two land marks. The first was a much larger building which Fatal assumed to probably be a town hall of some sort, the second was a large tree growing within the town.
"Well I better get going before I get in more trouble than I already am." Scootaloo said with a slight chuckle. "Do you think I could see you guys tomorrow?"
"Give me a moment." Fatal said while reaching for her comm. "Stinger, this is Fatal we have arrived at the edge of the forest near the town. Also Scootaloo is asking if she can visit again tomorrow."
There was a moment of silence before the response. "Copy that Fatal can you mark the trail on your way back, and yes Scootaloo can come tomorrow. Also if your backup comm is still intact can you give it to her so we don't have a repeat of our first encounter. " For once stingers paranoia for each member of a squad carrying a backup of all of their more fragile gear came in handy.
Scootaloo watched as Fatal reached into one of the pouches on her chest and pulled out a small circular device. "This is a communication device." She said lowering her hand to allow Scootaloo to get a better look at the device. "This will allow us to communicate over a distance, place it in your ear and push down on it when you want to speak with us, you can also twist it to allow direct communication with an individual or the entire squad. Tell us you are on your way before you arrive tomorrow."
Scootaloo took the comm and looked into Fatal's large eyes and gave her a smile. "Alright, see you tomorrow." She said before hopping on her scooter and riding of towards Ponyville.
Fatal turned back towards the forest and pulled out a small beacon, she then used her ripjack to dig out a small amount of dirt out from under one of the nearby trees. Once she was done, Fatal placed the beacon inside the hole and covered it back up.
With the way back to the town marked, Fatal began the walk back to camp.
Overall the walk to the edge of the Everfree and back to the camp took about an hour. When Fatal arrived back to camp she was greeted by soothing sizzles and the smell of cooking meat.
In her absence the rest of the squad had set up a large fire pit, which they were all huddled around telling stories and cooking some meat, they had also taken some of the plating from the skyrangers interior walls and were using it as a makeshift skillet.
When Fatal approached the group turned to face her. "Ah you are back." Said Raven as she placed another piece of meat onto the metal plate. "I believe that the creature that Stormwalker killed earlier today is safe to eat, I will cook a piece for you now."
"So anything happen while you two were gone?" Hat Trick asked while cutting a slice of meat off his manticore steak.
"Well... Firstly I doubt that this nation has the capability to construct the parts that we would need to repair the skyranger if we plan to do so, their architecture at least seems very primitive, mainly consisting of stone building with wooden supports and thatch roofing."
Stinger looked contemplative for a moment. "We shouldn't give up hope just yet. For all we know they just developed in a different way then us." He stated.
Fatal gave a nod before continuing. "The second event of note is that Scootaloo now knows about the aliens."
There was a moment of stunned silence that was soon broken by Guardian. "How did she find out." She did not speak in her usual cold tone, instead she spoke with a minor amount of frustration.
Fatal did not flinch from this however. "She asked me why I was different from the rest of you, I could not come up with a true answer that would not lead to more questions, so I decided to tell her the truth. Although I did leave out mentions of violence and death where I could."
Guardian let out a sigh but seemed to calm down with this explanation.
"Why didn't you just lie?" Hat Trick asked through a mouthful of meat.
"Lying would only betray her trust." Stormwalker said. "She is the only one with information of us, as such she can construct any narrative she wants and could be seen as true. We should build a favrorable relationship with the young one."
Stinger nodded. "I don't think she's the type to do something like that, but Stormwalker right. It would be better to start a good relationship with her, it can help kickstart a good one with the general public and maybe whoever's in charge."
"Yes." Fatal agreed simply. "Also she likely would have found out regardless, when the topic of conversation moved to The Chosen she was able to piece together that we were unable to kill them just from the way I spoke of them, so she is rather intelligent."
"Well she did wander into a supposedly super dangerous forest on her own." Demon said.
Guardian looked at her with a look of irritation. "She's a kid if there anything like they are on earth, then I wouldn't blame her for poor decision making skills."
Demon's looked down to the ground, a look of guilt spreading across her face. "Yeah sorry, I was being a dick there."
Wolfmother gave her a look of sympathy. "Hey it's alright, were all a bit stressed." She reached into a pouch on her chest and pulled out two cigars, she put one in her mouth and handed the other to Demon. "Here chill fir a bit."
Stinger narrowed his eyes at this display, but not for the fact that Wolfmother was sharing one of her cigars. "Okay, where are you getting all those you've pulled out four now since we've got here."
Wolfmother gave him a sly smile. "Wouldn't you like to know."
Stinger gave her a hard look. "Yes I would. I want one."
He did not get one.
It was the dawn of the second day since the squad arrived in Equestria and Hat Trick and Stinger were currently patrolling the area around the camp. They had encountered a few threats during this, like some wolves made of wood that just put themselves back together once shot, but they couldn't do any real damage through the duos armour so Hat Trick and Stinger won the war of attrition. Now however, they just encountered something that they had actually received a warning about the night before while talking with Scootaloo, a cockatrice.
Hat Trick had spotted it from a distance and picked it off with his rifle before it even noticed them, he was sceptical about Scootaloos claims that it could turn things it looked at to stone, but given what they had only recently faced, he decided to play it safe.
"Think it'll safe to eat?" Hat Trick asked while taking the magazine of his rifle out and replacing it with a fresh one.
Stinger just gave him a shrug. "How would I know? If you wanna know take it to Raven. But I'm not carrying it for you."
Hat Trick walked over to the carcass. "Alright, alright." he said as he picked the cockatrice up by the feet, letting the remaining blood drain from the stump where it's head used to be. "You think this'll taste like chicken or more like a reptile?" He asked.
"You do know that most lizards taste like chicken already right?" Stinger responded. When he saw his friends face he could see a look absolute devastation.
"What!" Hat Trick shouted. "God damn it, you just crush a childhood dream you know."
Stinger began to laugh at his friends overreaction. "How does telling you that lizards taste like chicken 'crush a childhood dream.'" He asked once he got his laughing under control.
Hat Trick glared at him. "You know how I hate chicken right?" Stinger nodded, interested in seeing where this was going. "When I was younger I always wanted to know what a crocodile tasted like. I imagined that it tasted something like beef but stronger and maybe with a bit of a fishy after taste, or something like that. But now I know that it tastes like chicken! My dreams have been ruined." There was silence for a moment before Stinger burst out into a much stronger bout of laughter.
"Firstly that is the dumbest childhood dream I've heard of, no offence but couldn't you come up with something better? And secondly I didn't choose how it tastes so don't shoot the messenger." Stinger managed to say through his laughter.
Hat Trick initially looked at his friend with a look of betrayal in his eyes, but soon the laughter got to him as well and he began to laugh along with Stinger.
A few moments passed until the two could finally stop laughing, after which Stinger decided to ask. "Hey aren't you from Nigeria? I thought Crocodile was fairly common thing to eat over there, so how come you never got to try it?"
"Aliens." Hat trick answered simply.
With that silence fell between then and the two continued on, mostly in silence. That is until Hat Trick stopped dead in his tracks, a look of dread on his face. “Did we ever tell Scootaloo not to mention us to anyone?”
“…”
“…”
“… Fuck.”
(Meanwhile in Ponyville)
The school bell rung, signalling to all the colts and fillies that they were free from the drudgery of their lessons. A wave of foals erupt out of the school house, each going of to hang out with their friends or to simply relax at home. Applebloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were some of the last ponies to exit the building. "So did either of your sisters tell you when they'll be back?" Scootaloo asked.
"Sis sent me a letter sayin' they'll be back in two days." Applebloom answered.
"So in two days we can get beck to crusading!" Sweetie Bell cheered.
Large grins spread across the faces of the other crusaders faces. "Alright, I've got tons of Cutie Mark ideas we can try." Scootaloo said as she grabbed her scooter and wagon.
Wordlessly, Sweetie Bell hopped into the wagon. Applebloom meanwhile turned in the opposite direction of town towards Sweet Apple Acres and said her goodbyes to her friends. Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell gave their own goodbyes before heading off towards town.
"Hey Scoots?" Sweetie Bell called out as the pair made their way into the town. "What have you been doing while we cant go crusading?"
Not taking her eyes of the road Scootaloo responded. "I made some other friends recently, I'm gonna hangout with them.”
Sweeties Bells was shocked to hear this and felt somewhat betrayed. “But what about me and Applebloom?! What about the Crusaders?!” She screamed prompting Scootaloo to stop and turn to look at her friend.
“Whoa, calm down Sweetie. You and AB are still my best friends, I’m not replacing you guys.” Scootaloo said as reassuringly as possible. “And I’m definitely not leaving the Crusaders. I’m just hanging out with somepony else for a bit.”
“B..But-“ Sweetie Bell stammered before being cut off.
“Alright think about it like this.” Scootaloo said. “Rarity and Rainbow Dash are friends, right?” Sweetie Bell nodded. “But they also have friends that the other isn’t friends with that the other isn’t friends with, not because they don’t like the other’s friends, but because they just don’t really know them that well, right?” Sweetie Bell nodded again. “Does that mean that Rarity’s and Dash’s friendship is in danger because of that?”
Sweetie Bell contemplated Scootaloos words for a while before giving her answer. “I guess not.” She said meekly. “Sorry, I guess I got scared that you weren’t going to hang out with us anymore.”
Scootaloo smiled and started racing along the streets of Ponyville. “Good, I’ll always make time for you two when I can. Remember that.”
The rest of the ride continued with Sweetie Bell asking Scootaloo about her new friends. Scootaloo wanted to tell her everything about them, but she decided to withhold some details. She did say that they were soldiers, which Sweetie Bell was very surprised by, but she didn’t mention that they were alien soldiers in a war with different aliens. No she would much rather leave that as a fun surprise if she were to ever introduce them.
Eventually the duo arrived at Carousel Boutique, where Sweetie Bell hopped out of the wagon, and the two waved goodbye to each other. Scootaloo then looked into the wagon and reached for her saddle bags, she was about to pull out the comm when she looked at her bit pouch.
She had about seventy bits in there, months worth of saving up as much as she could from her merger pay she got from helping with chores at the orphanage. Scootaloos original plan was to buy a brand new scooter and replace her current one, but right now there were some humans and a hybrid who she did want to help out... and she had grown attached to her current scooter.
With her mind made up Scootaloo rode off towards the market.
(On the outskirts of the Everfree)
Raven looked down onto the quaint town, taking in every detail she could see from her vantage point up in the trees and jotting them down on to a crude map. Singer had tasked her with creating this map, the only explanation her gave being "it's better to not need it and have it, then need it and not have it." When Raven had first started working with XCOM Stingers insane over preparedness had been soothing that drove everyone he worked with mad, Raven included.
However this tendency had managed to save the lives of everyone who criticised him, even in the most improbable ways, like the time he brought an inflatable dinghy with a small elerium powered motor built into it. So no one really questions what he asks to be brought or done anymore, it was part of the reason they had so much ammo after all, the average Skyranger only held half the amount they currently had.
So here Raven now was, drawing a map they may not even need to use. She had just finished the rough outline of the town as well as some of the landmarks on the outskirts of town. All of a sudden her comm crackled to life. “Raven, come in we have a situation. ” Stingers voice called from the other side.
“I copy, what is the problem?” Raven asked.
“It looks like with all the stress from yesterday we forgot to tell Scootaloo to keep us a secret. She’s not answering the comm we gave her too, so we’re gonna need you to infiltrate the town and find her. ”
“Affirmative, it will be done.” Raven replied before jumping down from the canopy of the Everfree. The only cover between her and the town was the scattered trees and bushes, meaning that her approach would have to be a series of dashes form cover to cover through open areas, not ideal but Raven was a Reaper, she had made worse work before.
Author's Note
I now know what writers block is like… I hate it.