Sons of Equestria

Chapter 2: Forging Alliances

  I stood in front of a line of armed ponies. If I had not been a military in the time I was I might have been impressed. Three of them broke rank and approached us. I could tell the two taller were of high social ranking and that the other might just be a leader of their military since he had the armor like the other, only slightly more elaborate.

  “Welcome to our land, travelers, please, come with us.” Max and I nodded and followed them and soon were surrounded on all sides by guards. We were quickly ushered into a train, which quickly was found much too small for Max and my tall and bulky structure. Max, the captain of the guard, the two taller ponies, and I entered the slightly taller caboose while the guards stayed in the next cart over.

  “I am Celestia, ruler of the day…”

  “And I am Luna, ruler of the night…”

  “Why have you come to our lands?” the two rulers stated.

  “I am Major General Jason Paladin Webster and this Colonel Larzyhorintorhmax, Max for short, and we are representatives of the U.S. armed forces. Our mission is to make peace with your people.”

  “It would be at least polite to show your true faces, don’t you agree?” I nodded and grabbed the sides of my helmet. I pushed in slightly and the sides of the helmet released excess gasses. I slowly lifted my helmet up and set in on my knee.

  “Max isn’t wearing a helmet so don’t expect him to take off any.” The white one nodded. By the expression on her face I could tell I looked strange to her, not surprising since we had detected no human life signals.

  After a while in the train, in came to a stop and we were guided off of it, and into a group of soldiers. I put my helmet back on and activated my cloak when we entered the town. The guards around us were a little spooked when I disappeared, but more so when Max basically turned into a green pony with a black mane. He might not have a suit, but at least he has some things to help him. I could probably guess that every pony in the city was slightly concerned when they saw a battalion of troops marching a rather interesting pony down the street and occasionally running into something that wasn’t there. We eventually reached the inside of the castle where I deactivated my active camouflage and Max showed his true form once more. We were quickly ushered into a room where a rather large assembly of ponies was together. I guessed that these were the Lords and Ladies while the two others we had met were the greater two of the kingdom. The two ponies we had met earlier walked to the two biggest seats at the end of the table. Max and I preferred to stand at the end of the table instead of trusting two tons or two hundred pounds onto chairs meant for a hundred and maybe a little more. I removed my helmet and placed it on the table and folded my arms behind my back while Max simply stood straight as lower officers do when the higher officer is present. The room was silent for a little while. In most cases I was accustomed to having the natives speak first, but I could only guess that they wanted us to go first. I cleared my throat, whether by luck or the fact they thought I was yielding the floor to them, they started any way.

  “Please state your purpose to us, travelers.” said Celestia, most likely trying to speed things along a bit. Being as I was not a fan of dragging out P.E.T. missions myself, I happily obliged.

  “I am Mayor General Jason of the U.S. armed forces; our purpose here is to make peace with your kind.” This statement brought a few odd stares from the ponies at the table.

  “You must know that this is a rather strange request being as this is the first well known encounter that we have had with your kind, where do you come from, and  what exactly are you would be questions I would like answers to.” A particular grey pony said.

  “We come from the planet Earth, I am a human while Max is a Rahgahgogarian, and we came here through inter-universal travel. In correct speaking, we are not only not of this world, but also not of this universe.”

  “Princesses, if I may be so bold, I see no advantages or disadvantages if we join ourselves or no. I see it would be better to simply reject them and continue since, for all that I see, there are no bonuses to gain if we join or negative results we couldn’t handle if we refuse.” said a white pegasus.

  “Sir, who are you and what is your rank in this government?” I said sternly to the pegasus. The pegasus turned to me and lifted his nose at me.

  “I am Ironside, a minor prince of the Manehaten area.” He said in a voice that yelled out snob to the high heavens.

  “Well, Ironside, under army protocol, all beings who see the alliance we offer you as you do we are to show a small sign of our force to you.” I grabbed my stun rifle and set it to repeater mode and aimed down sights at the pony that stood ever snobbishly at his doom, or temporary removing from the world of the awake. “Don’t worry; this won’t hurt that much.” I said as I pulled the trigger. A single shot of energy was released and slammed right into the stallion’s chest. The force of impact would be enough to make any person lay on the ground for a while, but behind that force was a shock that over loaded any person’s nervous system until they just fell down into the embrace of sleep, and this pony certainly was no exception. The other ponies in the room stood up room their seats, some rushing to the unconscious Ironside, others yelling at me for shooting him, and others still pleading that the princesses dispatch of Max and I. The guards came in and raised their spears; one even attacked me, only to find my armor very much superior to his weapon’s abilities.

  “SILENCE, BE STILL PONIES!” Every single pony stopped in their tracks and turned towards me. Although the voice had come from my direction, I had not been the instigator. I tapped the back of my helmet and removed Orion’s chip and placed it on the table, and when it was stable it projected Orion’s small form. “Your fellow is not dead nor will he sustain permanent damage, he simply will be unconscious for a few hours.”

  “W-what is that… thing?” One of the ponies stammered.

  “I am the A.I. Orion I assist Jason in his missions.”

  “What is an A.I.?” Another pony asked.

  “A.I. stands for Artificial Intelligence, I am not a real living being but simply a program that is designed to be able to think and assist his partner, who in my case is Jason.” Celestia and Luna calmed down the ponies and sat them down once more and had the guards take Ironside to a room where he could be tended to.

  “Now, travelers, what is this treaty consist of and what will happen if we accept and what will happen if we refuse?” Celestia asked us.

  “In our world we are at war with a faction of our own kind, this war is no longer just ours but now has spread across the universe. In some people’s eyes the only reason we are going through the universes is to forge alliances with other kinds before our enemies do. Basically, if you accept we promise to protect you and to aid you in any way possible. The basic risks of joining us are our enemies will most likely try to attack, but if you are with us we will not let you fall without a fight. But if you refuse this treaty then we will be forced to wage war on your world as well. If you refuse then our armies will attack this world, killing all men, women, and children alike, because if you are not for us, you are therefore against us and need to be killed. You have seen yourself what we can do with the demonstration that Stonewall allowed us to see, but trust me, that is nothing compared to what we are able to do. That dark spot on your horizon is just one of our entire fleet of space traveling vehicles, and that ship is but a small transport. And believe me when I say we have ships almost as large as this planet ready to be launched. But all this war and death can be avoided by accepting our treaty.” All the ponies at the table were quite shook up when I told them of their fate if they declined and how bluntly I placed the answer in front of them. Even though I knew what their response would be, and what they would do next, which would be rather unnecessary considering, I smiled expectantly on the inside while keeping my outward appearance as blank as possible.

  “We will need a few moments to consider, please, stay outside until we send for you.” Celestia said with as blank face as mine, but to any military her poker face was as legible as a book, and showed deep signs of worry and strain.

  “Of course, but before any of you say which option you would take, let me make it as clear as crystal that you are not deciding your fate nor your kind’s fate, but the fate of the planet. Your planet’s entire existence is in the balance and way it will go is up to you. Choose not with your own interests in mind but in the interests of the entire planet.” I grabbed my helmet and inserted Orion into the slot and went outside were I placed my helmet back on.

  “I guess we can start thinking on how we are going to contact base. The terminal has been shut for too long and I can’t find a way to fix it and get a message through.”

  “Don’t worry, Max, if we can’t contact them they’ll send a troop here in a week according to protocol so whether or not we make contact is a matter of preference.” Max nodded but continued his work of breaking interference with H.Q. terminals of communication on his holographic wrist pad.

  “So, Orion, any chance you want to help him?” I asked Orion with a smile.

  “My abilities would be put to better use if I was.” I nodded and ejected his chip from my helmet and handing it to Max, who inserted it into his wrist pad, which cause Orion’s image come up and begin to shuffle through holographic pages of information. To tell the truth, Max and Orion were the two greatest technicians our team has, and when our two greatest minds combine on a task, it won’t take long to get a verdict.

  “Jason, we got something.” Right on schedule,

  “What do we got guys?”

  “It seems that the U.N. ship we got shot by is also jamming signals, we can only hope that our troops are coming soon, and in a good size ship.”

  “Alright, at least we got some results; we can only hope to be able to set up a beacon to H.Q. and get a cruiser class over here, whether for the U.N. or the natives and hopefully not for both.”

  The ponies inside the hall were quiet for some time. Even after the new comers had left the room they just didn’t know what to say. Celestia finally regained her composure and began.

  “My dear ponies, I think we can agree with what the human said to us, we must not think in our own interests and must think for our entire planet. What are our thoughts on this? Do we join then or do we fight them?”

  “Well, princesses, I for one think that if we join them than we would be better off. If they have weapons like they do, armor like they do and the ability to travel through universal boundaries and through space itself, we would be very foolish to reject their alliance.” One unicorn said, only to be cut off by an earth pony,

  “But what of Stonewall? He merely doubted the value of the alliance and was attacked! You can’t say that that incident doesn’t deserve considering in this affair!”

  “But you heard their reason, it was protocol for them, I for one am glad they showed us a little of their power to give us a small insight to how we might fair if we decide to refuse. Although I am not thankful they harmed a fellow pony I think they had our best interests in mind.” The same unicorn replied flatly.

  “All ponies who wish to reject the proposed alliance raise your hoof.” Celestia said disrupting the argument quickly. Seven of the fifteen present minor princes and princesses raised their hoof. “All ponies who wish to embrace these strangers into our kingdom and in so doing accept the alliance they have proposed raise you hoof.” Seven again raised their hooves. Celestia always hated things like this, whenever big decisions were t be made it always fell upon her to make the final vote.

  How would she vote? Would she join herself and her kingdom to these travelers or would she shun them from her realm? In reality she knew there was only one choice. The choice she knew was right for her ponies and her world.

  A guard had just told us that the leaders had come to an agreement and were waiting for us. I mentally prepared myself for the questions they would give. I knew the outcome would in all likelihood would be a yes since our tech was greater than theirs and I doubt any smart leader would put their kingdom into a fight they had no hope of winning in a century, much less than the usual two month campaign we give to worlds that decline, after those two months we usually nuke the planet and harvest al the metals that start floating around in space. Although there was the small possibility of refusal because they thought they were better, but I doubt after all the demonstration we gave them that they would possibly think that, not to mention we were two times at least as tall as their leaders, who seemed to be the tallest of the kingdom. We came to the two tall oak doors; the two guards at the side pushed them open and let us in once more. Max passed me Orion’s chip back, which I instantly pushed into its slot. His face came up on the screen, at first his expression was extremely serious, but slowly lightened until it was a smile. He lowered his head slightly and did a small salute. I only smiled back at him, this was it, either these ponies were with us or against us. And I could only hope for their sakes and ours that they were for us.

  “Travelers, we have come to a decision.” I took a deep breath and looked at the princess of this world through my visor. The status my screen gave me showed she was calm, too calm. “We have made the decision to join your alliance.” I removed my helmet and held it to my hip in normal pose. I slammed my foot into the ground and gave her a salute, with Max following suit. I relaxed after a minute and gave her a smile.

  “Thank you, you are most gracious to accept our alliance.” If it had been said my attitude suffered a slight change, it would have been a very severe understatement. Under a part of our code of conduct we treated any before accepting our alliance as if they were either same in rank as us or lower in rank, but if they accepted then all respect due to them was to be given. I would bet she was slightly concerned by my conduct, but after a few days of humans around I bet she would get used to it.

  “I would like to ask you two a few questions, you understand?” I nodded and popped Orion’s chip from my helmet and set it on the table where it once more projected Orion’s image. “First, why do you wear such heavy armor?”

  “Orion, pull up all files on W suit from model Iv until present model.” Orion nodded and flipped up a few screens from seemingly nowhere and began to shuffle through them. “Our suit, the W suit as it is called, is an advanced military exoskeleton, only a select few in our army use them since they are high value and we don’t want our enemies finding out how to make one if one of our men falls and they get the suit.”

  “The current total of men, women, and beings from other worlds in the U.S. military amounts to approximately 1,010,550,230, humans comprise two thirds of these numbers while Rahgahgogarians comprise three fourths of the last third and other species comprise the rest. As of yet, only humans wear the W suit and only 60 men and women use them in active missions.” Orion said as he pulled up a few records.

  “Only ‘W’ soldiers wear these suits. W’s are already some of the most fit and physically capable humans and the suit simply compounds that. This suit originally was used for extremely difficult missions, but for those who have proven themselves capable fighters, we get to wear them each mission. The army will only give these suits to those men and women who are the best of the best already so a stray bullet or misdirected attack doesn’t kill them. With that background I can say your question is mostly answered.” Celestia nodded as I finished.

  “Second, who exactly are you fighting?”

  “Orion, all records on U.N. and current fighting forces gathered from intelligence we gained.” Orion saluted me and shoved the old files away and popped up more new ones. “We are fighting an organization that at one time we were a large part of. It was called the United Nations and was formed when the League of Nations failed.”

  “The United Nations was formed in the year 1945 and was majorly funded by North America by over twenty-two percent while China had three and Russia one for over twenty-seven years.

  In the year 2017 the U.N. established bases in all official countries that were part of it.

  In 2021 Russia and China became the new major funders of the U.N. as the United States of America slowly suffered a economical decline and dropped from its twenty-two percent to seven percent, while Russia leaped up to thirty percent and China went up to twenty-three while the other countries either had one or two percents or half of a percent.

  In the year 2023, Russia attacked the state of Alaska and later claimed that they had received intelligence that a terrorist group had been stationed there. After two months of searching the Russians left and the search ended with the claim that false intelligence had been given to distract the U.N.

  In the year 2034 Johann Webster created the Rift Maker and traveled to a sector that was called A-1 since it was the closest to Earth, or Sector 0. This caused a race to begin within Russia and China to create a better version even though they had no idea how to create the base model.

  In 2036, after three more attacks on American soil, the U.S. declared open war on Russia and China and disconnected all ties to the U.N. At this point in time the U.N. declared, under the provocation of Russia and China, that U.S. was therefore a terrorist nation and a threat to the mission of peace that the U.N. sought to uphold.

  In the year 2038 the U.S. began recruiting young boys and girls from eight and up to become ‘infant trainees’. These soldiers became the W soldiers later on, joined by normal recruits who had proven themselves.

  In 2048 the first fully trained group of W soldiers was given their A.I’s and W suits and put into active duty.

  In 2053 the U.S. discovered that indeed the U.N. had Rift Maker-like technology in their possession and had been sending troops to other worlds when U.S. troop traveled to a universe that housed the species of Gohoritykah and were attacked upon landing. Upon this attack the U.S. set a two month campaign against it and ultimately destroyed the planet and harvested two tons of metals, only in the shadow of the same doom for the planet of the Rahgahgogarians. Since this point on the Earth has been the home for three major kinds of people.” Orion said as he shuffled through more files.

  “That is basically what we live through in a day by day basis.” I could tell she was surprised by what Orion had said. I had to say that anyone who had some knowledge of war would be. In WW2 the death toll on all side was said to be around 60 million, military and civilians combined, and lasted around six years. This war wasn’t over and it had already lasted seventeen years and counting. The death toll is estimated to be 40 million on the U.S. side, and we can only imagine how many the U.N. has suffered.

  “Do you have any sight on a near victory?” Luna asked, looking rather worried.

  “Sadly, even after these seventeen years of all out wars, we are at a vicious stalemate, on Earth, we are only one nation against the rest of the world, but in the cosmos we fight as well. All worlds where a U.S. or U.N. soldier has stepped, there is conflict. I, along with many other men and women who I fight with, am afraid that if this stale mate were to be broken, it would be broken in the U.N.’s favor. You have heard our army is rather massive, but the U.N. has an estimated 10,780,920,370 men and women in their army. If I was to say what is keeping us from falling is these suits and men and women who are trained to their limits, while the U.N. war machine shoves every man or woman into battle with a bullet-proof vest, a gun, and sometimes a suicide mission. But even untrained men and women make a difference in war when they can shoot right and take down even one man before they are brought down.” The room was silent. I knew the feeling, the feeling of awe and despair. To the military, and the men and women who comprised it, it was seventeen years of looking over your shoulder, seventeen long years of listening for the next mortar, seventeen long years of shooting and being shot at, seventeen long years of separation from family and friends, seventeen long, long years of a seemingly unbroken routine of wake up, kill and survive, sleep, repeat. But to the civilians it was seventeen years of waiting, hoping, praying, seventeen years of seeing how men and women leaving home to the local draft office, seventeen years of uncertainty, seventeen long years of looking up for the next bomber plain to come into view, seventeen long years of letters saying apologies for the death of a loved one in service, seventeen long years, wandering, waiting, hoping for the end of the war. Seventeen years of tears, loss, and little gain to show. Seventeen scar leaving years from which few expected to come out of.

  “Jason… we are truly sorry for you and your kind. Our ponies haven’t seen war in millennium, and even after hearing all this, of how you feel as if you are losing, and how you suffer, we WILL stand beside you in the fight. We WILL fight with you, we WILL help you, we WILL comfort you in times of sadness, and we WILL be beside you in the end.” At this I could only start to clap my hands slowly, followed by Max and Orion, and soon, all the ponies in all of the room, who slammed their hooves against the hard stone floor. Very few, if any, of the other worlds had a leader who had the strength and leadership abilities to make a statement like the one I had just witnessed. “Just one last question for you, sir.” I nodded, hoping this question to be quick; I had a few questions of my own to give. “Do you know of a human who came to this world a few years back, left, then came back with to others, then left again?” I was stunned; my mind froze at what I had just heard, but it slowly began to recover, and when it did I fell to my knees with a fist in the floor and a hand at my chest with an intense pain growing. It wasn’t just pain; it was a mixture of pain, regret, and sorrow.

  I walked along side my father and mother in the new town we had come to. It was kind of weird being in a different body, but it was also kind of cool. I had little wings, which I used to buzz in the air for a second or two, while my mother had no wings or horn like my dad did.

  “Hey, Dad, how long until we get to that candy store that you talked about?” I asked my dad as I continued to bounce along side of him.

  “Not too long now, it’s right around this corner.”

  I fell to the ground as I finally came to myself. Max grabbed me under my shoulders and helped me up. I nodded at him and put a hand on my forehead, even though I was still wearing my helmet. I looked at the table of ponies before me, all looking at me with concerned looks. I took a deep breath and removed my helmet and placed it on the table before me.

  “Aye, Princess, I know of them. I of all people should know of them being as I am one of them. The original human who came here was my father, then when he returned he brought my mother and I. We originally were planning to live here and that last visit was a visit to show my mother this land so she would know what it would be like beforehand.”

  “Then why didn’t you return until now, and with a treaty?”

  “We were going to return, but something went wrong. We were in the machine, ready to come back, but the machine was falling apart, my father saved my mother and me, and I can only guess he was crushed under the rubble before he teleported back. It has been seventeen years since that time; we were coming here just before the war between the U.S. and the U.N. started. Two years after he died I was drafted as an ‘infant trainee’ into the war effort. Three years later my mother died and the body was never found, and I was only told ten years after the fact.” I could see the tears forming in Celestia’s eyes.

  “But how have seventeen years passed with you and only five years for us?” Luna asked me, with pain in her voice.

  “Time between universes passes slightly different, some universes differ by minutes or days, and others are off by millenniums.” There was a pause for a while, but eventually the silence broke as Celestia began,

  “You have my sincerest apologies for the passing of your mother and father. Shall I arrange a train ride for you and your friends to go to the town you live near in your visit?”

  “Yes, if anything so I can tell a few ponies of his… passing.” She nodded and called too one of the guards and gave him instructions to tell the conductor pony that we were to be given a free ride to Ponyville by order of the Princess. Then she turned to us,

  “You need not be afraid of showing your true form in public, soon enough we will tell our ponies of your coming and our alliance.” I nodded and followed the guard out of the palace and towards the train station. Being as tall and as menacing as Max and I were, a few ponies screamed, others fainted on the spot, and others simply were petrified by fear. We eventually reached the train station, where a train bound for Ponyville was ready to leave. The guard gave the conductor the message, and soon Max and I were seated in the caboose as we were before. I was gathering on how I would proceed through with my plan, how would I tell the ponies my father was close to about his passing? I finally came to the plan that I first would visit the old house and see how it faired in our absence. Then after visiting there I would tell the six mares that he had made friends with about his passing. I wasn’t about to plan how though, I knew that all plans of telling them would fall through once I found them. I could say that the one who probably would react less emotionally would be the blue rainbow pegasus, and the one who would react greatest would be the yellow pegasus who lived with all the animals. This was going to be one tough day, something that even the first and second parts of the Gohoritykah campaign would have a tough time competing with.