A New Field

Chapters

Prolouge: Old enemies
First Contact
Ponyville
New Friends
New Life
Reunion
The more things change...
...The more they stay the same
Cold War
The Calm
The Coming Storm
Upgrades

Prolouge: Old enemies

I can't let him get away again, he needs to pay for what he's done. I think to myself as I sneak through the facility. My Black special operations uniform kept me hidden in dark corners. I also had prototype stealth optical camouflage as well. If need be, I just push a button and the camouflage activates allowing light to pass right through me, giving the illusion of vacancy in a room that is actually populated by me. I was also carrying my M1911 handgun, suppressed of course. This nickel-plated handgun was a gift from my father, I won't tell about my family right now. Just know that it isn't a happy subject for me. On my back was my ACR assault rifle, chambered in the Remington 6.8 special purpose cartridge. My rifle was equipped with a suppressor and EOTech Holographic sight. I can use ironsights just fine, but an optical attachment was always better.

"He must be close, I'll take him down and destroy his prototype EMP too"

Nikola Brevinski, a mercenary leader who specialized in stealing prototype weapons, was my main target. Not for what he planned to do with the weapons, but for... personal reasons. My past in general wasn't a particularly pleasant subject either, but sadly, Brevinski was a big part of it.

"That weapons hangar is just around here, I can feel it" I arrived at a door labeled, "Оружие ангар". "This is it..."I thought to myself. I tried the door the normal, civilian way, but of course, it was locked. Looking around the general vicinity to make sure no one was around, I proceeded to kick the door down. Any door was no match for me, a 6' 2" 200 pound man. Sights up, I walked into the room. I pointed my rifle at the corners of the room first. "All clear?" Apart from a few patrols outside, which I had no problem carefully taking out, the base was deserted. I walked to the center of the room where there was a table with weapons next to a box of ammunition. On the table there were rifles, AKs mainly, along with a few SMGs. Something caught my eye at the edge of the table. There were two weapons that I had been looking into acquiring for a little while now. On the table was a Kel-Tec KSG shotgun and a Five-seveN handgun. I slung the shotgun over my back and put the Five-seveN in a holster around my waist. I moved to the ammo box and grabbed a fair amount of ammo for each. wasting no further amount of time I went to the console and saw the countdown, I had two minutes before the weapon fired and the entire United States power grid went down and my country slipped into anarchy.

I was about to enter the override codes when I heard the unmistakable sound of a hammer being cocked, and felt the unmistakable cold of a gun barrel at the back of my head.

"Grayson Davidson." said a cold Russian voice.

With my hands at my head and my weapons dangling by their slings, I slowly turned to face...

"Brevinski" I muttered in reply. He was standing there with a few of his mercenary troops that had their AN-94s focused between my eyes.

"I had the courtesy to address you by your proper name. Why didn't you have the manners to do the same?" asked the cold-blooded Russian

"What manners and courtesy do you think you deserve?" I replied. I was staring down the barrel of his MP443 handgun, I could see the faint shimmer of the 9mm projectile eager to make acquaintance with the contents of my head.

"Have you not heard of respect for your fellow man?"

"I never had any respect for you."

"Really, what about when I was helping your father to create this weapon?"

At this I just scowled at him. I was tempted to say that he had no right to even mention my father, but sometimes the best response was silence.

He let out a small chuckle with a grin on his face and said, " This weapon will erase your oppressive government and lay the foundation for a new nation founded on better ideals."

"Notice how few communist nations are left in the world." I said, a smug look on my face.

"Notice how much better they are doing than yours." he said, turning the smug look on my face back to its usual scowl.

"Are you sure the device will work?"

"Yes, I made sure my scientists carried the 1."

All three of the mercenaries he had with him snickered at his bad joke. He turned to silence them and I made my move.

In one motion I drew the Five-seveN and grabbed Brevinski in a choke hold and shoved the gun barrel against his temple.

Now, in control of the situation I dragged him to where I could see both the mercenaries and the console next to the EMP.

"Disable the weapon or this bastard gets it!" I demanded.

One of the mercenaries walked to the console after setting down his rifle and began to enter something into the console.

"Don't accidently set off the device." Brevinski pleaded.

"Did I say you could talk?" I growled.

A minute later, the merc fiddling with the console began swearing in Russian as the ground began to shake and the weapon began to glow.

"That jackass set it off didn't he?" I shouted.

"Yes, I win even when you think you have the advantage. So unlucky you are. Must've come with your genes." mocked Brevinski.

This was my breaking point. I kicked his knee and it gave a satisfying "SNAP" as he fell to ground I took three shots with the Five-seveN, putting a 5.7x28mm sized hole through the head of each merc. Then I turned back to Brevinski.

"You may have won, but you won't live to see the results."

I drew my M1911 pistol and detached the suppressor, "This is for my father, and every other life you've managed to fuck up over the years."

I placed the white dot of my handgun's sight over Brevinski's face and pulled the trigger as the EMP went off and engulfed the facility in a white light.

I heard the sound of my handgun fire as well as the sound of a .45 ACP passing through Brevinski's head. Then it all faded. "That must have been more than an EMP" I thought to myself.

I awoke in a forest. Which was odd because the facility was far from any heavily vegetated area. "Where am I" I thought to myself.

Thankfully I still had my equipment, even my KSG and Five-seveN. I heard voices speaking in Russian and then a stacatto explosion, followed very feminine scream,"Pistol shot." I whispered to myself. I ran to the source of the sounds. I blinked and pinched myself trying to wake from what must have been a dream. I say this because I saw a squad of 4 mercs, standing around a lavender colored, unicorn? It was lying on it's side with a gunshot wound in one of the hind legs just under a mark that looked like a cluster of stars. I pinched myself once more, asked myself, "What the hell?" and moved into position. That thing was in danger and needed my help,"No innocent pe... beings will die if there is something I can do about it."

First Contact

Equestria, Everfree Forest, Twilight's Perspective

Twilight was confused and in extreme amounts of pain. She was investigating the area following an epic explosion of white light in the forest. Unfortunately, the curious lavender mare found the result of the phenomenon, 4 bipedal beings with weapons that really hurt when you were on the receiving end. Now she was laying on the ground, with an intense pain and possible bleeding in her hind leg, surrounded by hostile creatures shouting something in what sounded like Stalliongradi, she could only hope if they were going to kill her, they would do it quickly.

"I-I'm sorry, I c-can't understand you." Twilight managed to choke out.

Now all she could wish for was a miracle, but thankfully luck was on her side, as her wish was granted.

Grayson's Perspective

Wasting no time, I activated my optical camouflage and got into position. There were four mercs, all clad in their urban camo uniforms, two with their AN-94s slung across their chests, one with an SVD sniper rifle, and the other had his MP-443 in his hand, shouting in Russian at the defenseless purple unicorn.

"I-I'm sorry, I c-can't understand you." the unicorn spat out.

I had to do a double take after it spoke, I immediately realized a few things about this creature:

1.) It could talk.

2.) It spoke English, or a similar language.

3.) It didn't speak/understand Russian.

4.) The poor thing was scared and in pain beyond it's previous comprehension.

The mercs were still shouting at it, and I was tired of just watching it in pain. I had to act fast. I raised the EOTech sight of my rifle to my right eye and placed the holographic reticle over the back of the first merc's head. I fired a single shot and my target dropped to the ground, away from the purple unicorn.

The mercs jolted back and began shouting Russian phrases that I couldn't understand. The second one was about to say more, but was interrupted by me, more specifically the bullet from my rifle passing through his head(which he was probably not using anyways). The last two had their rifles at their faces, scanning the vegetation for movement. But right as number 3 was passing in front of me, I let loose a single shot, which flew right through his head, and grazed the last one's hood.

The last one carried a sniper rifle, an SVD to be precise, he frantically looked around, trying to spot what his comrades could not. The lavender mare covered her eyes with her hooves. I was moving in to hopefully interrogate him, but my optic camo ran out of charge at the worst time. He gasped, and I riddled his chest with 6.8 rounds before he could raise his rifle to shoot me.

With the mercs taken care of, I walked over to the creature to examine it. Knowing it understood my language, I asked, "Are you okay?, Can you let me help you?"

She turned and stared at me with huge, scared purple eyes.

"Yes." came her short reply.

Twilight's Perspective

This day was getting weirder by the minute. First I was at the mercy of four strange beings that walked on two legs and were capable of causing series damage. For my own sanity I didn't think of what they would do if the made it into Ponyville. Catastrophic couldn't describe a minute fraction of the damage they would've done

Three of them just dropped dead shortly after one another as a red pool formed around where their heads lay. The fourth one had been frantically scanning the area for the threat, while at this point I just put my hooves over my eyes. I heard a gasp, followed by a sound that I had never heard before, it sounded like a loud clicking noise, but that was a very broad, inaccurate description.

A voice asked, "Are you okay?, Can you let me help you?"

I turned and stared him, at least I assumed it was male, based on the deep, masculine voice. He was different, he wore all black clothing as opposed to the red, white, gray and black pattern of the others. He had short red hair and wore no helmet or facial covering like the other ones.

"Yes." I replied, I wanted to say more, but in the confusion and pain I was in, that was all I could manage.

"I'm going to give first-aid to that bullet wound on your hind leg, alright?"

"Alright." I replied. I had so many questions to ask him, What are you?, Did you take out the guys that were here earlier?, What's a bullet?

He pulled a pair of forceps from a small black sack on the back of his uniform and pulled a small lead dome from the wound. It stung slightly, but didn't hurt as much as when it went in.

"So now the bullet is extracted." he said

"Thank you."

"I'm not done yet. I still need to apply disinfectant and a bandage."

"Why are you helping me?" I finally asked after working up the courage.

He stared at me in thought for a second and replied, "Because I hate to see the innocent suffer."

Ponyville

Grayson's Perspective

"Because I hate to see the innocent suffer."

I answered the mare's question with the simple statement which was partially true, but the main reason was I needed information about what this place was. I assumed she had questions for me as well, which I was more than happy to answer.

I was finishing wrapping the bandage when she broke the silence, "What is your name?"

A simple question with an equally simple answer, "Grayson, What's yours?"

"My name is Twilight Sparkle." An interesting name, but assuming names like her's are normal, my name was probably unique in her eyes. Or ears rather.

"Can you walk?, If not I can help." I wanted to make it seem like a friendly gesture, but I didn't want her to get hurt if there were more mercs roaming the forest.

"I think I can walk just fine, but I would like if you could come back to my home in Ponyville to answer a few questions."

This was the first time a female of any species had invited me into it's home. Unfortunately it wasn't human, but I had to say yes.

"Sure," I replied, "I have a few questions of my own. I would really appreciate it if you could answer them for me."

"Believe me, that won't be a problem."

With Twilight's short and promising response we set out in the direction of Ponyville.

After walking for a few minutes, we were on the edge of the forest with a small village in sight. I figured I wouldn't need my weapons for a while, so I stopped and hid them in bushes at the forest's edge. Twilight noticed that I wasn't next to her and turned and saw me placing my KSG into a bush, thick with brambles and thorns, my ACR and Five-seveN were hidden in similarly difficult-to-access locations. I kept my M1911 and combat knife concealed in my uniform. I assumed there were still mercs lurking around, and I didn't want to be completely unarmed if/when they showed up.

"What are you doing?" asked Twilight. Her second question, more were sure to come when we reached our destination. I decided I'd better get used to answering questions, as it was something I saw myself doing a lot of in the immediate future.

"Hiding my weapons, I think it is best to come across as friendly and I don't think I can do that carrying lethal weapons."

"You're positive nopony will notice them? They stand out pretty well."

"I don't think anyone will want to reach through thorns and brambles that thick to get a device that they don't know much about."

"Hmm... Well, we're almost back to Ponyville. Hurry up because I want to get to asking questions." She began walking again. A small wince dashing across her face every time she set weight on her injured leg. She was most likely wondering what would happen if small children came across my weapons, but I'd imagine that forest wasn't the most popular spot to hang around, especially for small children.

After walking for a few more minutes, we walked/trotted/limped into town. I noticed right away the bright colors of the other ponies, along with the curious stares of said townsfolk. I guess that was to be expected, if the only thing you've seen is creatures that walk on four legs, a creature about two feet taller than you walking on two legs would be something to stare at indeed. We finally reached the purple mare's residence. The dream of all children, a house that was made of a hollowed out tree.

"Well, here we are."

"Interesting, where I come from, not many people live in trees. Well, we best go inside, I don't know how many more awkward stares I can take."

It seemed that some ponies heard me as I saw a few ponies turn their heads away, except for a turquoise one with a lyre marking on her flank. This one was looking intently at me and almost studying me. When she realized I was looking at her. A huge grin appeared on her face. I quickly followed Twilight inside before the situation got anymore awkward.

The interior of the tree house was just as impressive as the exterior. The high walls were covered in shelves bulging with books. It had been a while since I last read for leisure. Maybe after questions she would know me a bit better and could recommend a book to read.

"SPIKE!", yelled Twilight.

"Yes? What is it Twilight?" responded a child's voice that I assumed was Spike.

"Can you come down here?, Bring quills, ink and parchment too."

Quills, ink and parchment? No wonder she didn't recognize my weapons. The guards/military probably carried spears and wore huge bulky suits of heavy, non-bullet-resistant metal armor too or something like that.

Down the staircase came a small... dragon? Yes, dragon, carrying the dated(from my prospective, to the natives of this interesting land this was most likely cutting edge technology) writing materials, "So Twilight, what do you need all this for... WHAT IS THAT!?!" exclaimed Spike nearly tripping down the stairs.

"My name is Grayson, I'm a human being. Don't worry I don't bite." I said, smiling for the first time in a while, revealing my teeth to the unicorn and dragon.

"Those teeth..." began Twilight," are they for, tearing meat?" Twilight finished her question and was obviously growing fearful, then slowly moved in front of Spike in a defensive manner.

"Yes, but I have never eaten pony, or dragon, dragons exist only in mythology in my world, and besides, I've heard horse doesn't taste that good any ways."

A sigh of relief came from both Twilight and Spike as they noticeably relaxed and resumed their previous activities.

"You said you're a human being?, Like those things Lyra is obsessing over?"

"Who?"

"Maybe, I doubt it. Maybe I'll have an answer by the end of our question session, which reminds me. Spike, notify Princess Celestia of the arrival of our guest. I would like the Princess to be here too if possible to here him answer our questions. Make sure to include that he's friendly." dictated Twilight.

"... also he is friendly. Done! Now I'll just send this to the Princess and wait for a response." Spike then burned the letter with his breath.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked.

"That's how I send letters to Princess Celestia." answered Spike.

"How does that work?"

This time Twilight chimed in, "Spike's flame breath is magical to where it can send messages to whomever I need to send it to. I just tell Spike who to send it too and it is sent."

"Seems simple enough, how do you receive messages?"

That question answered itself, as Spike opened his mouth to answer he burped out a ball of fire that turned into a scroll that was shortly engulfed by a dark purple aura, similarly to Twilight's horn at this time. I assumed that this was some of the magic that had been described earlier. I could ask later.

Twilight had unfurled the scroll and began reading,

"Dear Twilight, This human you have described is very interesting, I will be coming to Ponyville to see and hear more about it. Joining me will be Princess Luna, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. Each will most likely have questions of their own as well. Feel free to invite your own friends as well. It would be best if they all knew what was happening as well. Until tomorrow keep him somewhere, preferably out of sight. I, along with everypony else, is very excited to learn about this creature. Warmest regards, Princess Celestia."

"She sounds nice."

"Oh believe me, she is. And you also get to meet her sister Luna, and Cadance! She's the wife of my brother and Royal Guard Captain, Shining Armor." Twilight finished, barely being able to control her excitement. These ponies sounded really nice. By the way Twilight described them, I felt fortunate being able to know them. She also mentioned her brother being Captain of the Royal Guard, he sounded like the one to talk to about the threat of the mercs roaming Equestria, but I didn't want to explain my dark past to all of these ponies. They all seemed so innocent. But if I really had to I would.

New Friends

Today I had questions to ask and answer. I had new faces to meet. I wanted it done quickly.

"Grayson?"

"Yes Twilight?"

"Good you're awake, I want to introduce you to my other friends before the Princess and her guests arrive."

I had just woken up from the best sleep i'd had in years. No joke. I slept on something designed for cushioning, without having to worry about the enemy finding and killing me in my sleep. I'd explain more when the time was right. I wasn't opposed to meeting more ponies either, so I was in a particularly good mood.

I was walking up the stairs from the basement that Twilight had so generously offered me for the night. She said she needed to repay me in some fashion for saving her life and tending to her wound. I accepted, only because I had grown sick of sleeping in mediocre outdoor shelters and living of stolen rations and ramen noodles, but told her she really didn't need to repay me. Technically, I was just doing my job. I reached the top of the stairs and saw five other ponies, one had an orange coat, blond mane and wore a cowboy(cowgirl?) hat. Another was levitating with it's wings a few feet of the ground and had a light blue coat with a rainbow mane(I swore I had started tripping acid when I saw her mane). Cowering behind her was a cream colored pegasus with a light pink mane. Another unicorn had a dark purple mane with a white coat. The last one had a pink mane with a pink coat. Twilight finished talking to them then turned to me and said, "I would like you to meet the rest of my friends." then gestured for them to introduce themselves. They exchanged awkward glances between each other then the rainbow one said, "Alright, seeing as the rest of my friends are too chicken, I'm Rainbow Dash. Fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"

She did a small flip when she said that last bit, then the pink one bounded over to me, getting uncomfortably close before saying, "Hi I'm Pinkie Pie, nice too meet you!"

"Hmm, that was a little lacking in energy, considering it's Pinkie..." commented Twilight.

"Ah'm Applejack, nice ta meet ya sugarcube." The orange one said through a thick southern accent.

"You may call me Rarity." I found it interesting that the one with a classy accent is white. Hmm.

"Nice to meet all of you-" I started, but was cut off by Pinkie.

"WAIT, you haven't met Fluttershy yet!"

"Oh, where is she?"

"Hiding in that plant." Based on the other's reactions, Pinkie was the only one who could see that. Seemingly breaking the laws of physics and every other imaginable science, Pinkie disappeared, then materialized holding the yellow pegasus that was cowering behind Rainbow Dash.

"You must be Fluttershy, It's nice to meet you." I said in my politest voice possible. Despite that, she let out what sounded like a small squeal and retreated into her mane, leaving me staring at a wall of pink.

"Is she always like this?"

"Only around new or scary things." Pinkie answered.

"Oh, sorry, I'm not going to hurt you, Promise."

She peeked out, then backed in shaking like a leaf.

"It's alright. I know who she is now, so I've met her."

"Well then, I'll get my supplies and wait for the Princess and her guests to arrive." said Twilight walking up to the second floor.

"So, did you really save Twilight's life yesterday?" asked Rainbow once she was sure Twilight was out of an earshot.

"I guess so, wasn't too much trouble anyway."

"Why'd ya do it?, ya know, save our friend?" Applejack spoke up this time.

"I don't completely know myself, I guess I saw her in danger, helpless and I knew I could help easily."

"What I'm getting out of this was it was easy for you, would you have done it if it was more challenging?" Rarity asked.

"Probably, I hate to see the innocent suffer." There it was, the second time i have said that. Maybe I should take it as a catch phrase.

"Twilight said that three of them just dropped dead, did you have anything to do with that?" Pinkie asked this question, I had to think of a response for this one. The others gave her a nervous look, realizing what she had asked.

"Well..."

I was interrupted by the sound of wheels skidding to a halt just outside the library, followed by the sound of doors opening and ponies getting out of vehicles. I looked outside and saw chariots being pulled by pegasi guards, or what looked like guards, they wore bulky suits of metal armor. I assumed it wasn't bullet resistant.

"They're here! Oh, I can't wait!" Twilight exclaimed, nearly tripping down the stairs with writing utensils in telekinetic grip.

Twilight opened the door with her magic(I still needed to ask how that worked) and greeted the guests, "Princess, I see everypony made it."

"Indeed we did Twilight." said the tallest of the three ponies with both wings and a horn. She spoke in a familiar sounding voice, but I didn't know where I knew it from.

She turned to me with a smile and said, "So you're the being my student mentioned in her letter. What is your name?"

She was the only one on the room who was at eye-level with me, everybody else was at least 6-12 inches lower than me.

"My name is Grayson, Nice to meet you Princess..."

"Celestia, It is very nice to meet you, Grayson. I would like to introduce my sister Luna-" She gestured to a navy blue pony with a wings, a horn and a mane that seemed to flow in a nonexistent breeze, sparkling with what appeared to be stars.

"-my niece, Cadance and her husband Shining Armor." she finished, gesturing to the last two members of the party. A pink pony with the wing+horn combination and a tri color mane, standing next to her husband, a white unicorn stallion with a blue and white mane.

"It's nice to meet all of you, really. Now that the formalities are out of the way, should we get to the questions?"

As if on cue, Twilight jumped in between her brother and his wife with inked quill, a blank parchment and a huge smile on her face. The sight was enough to gain a slight grin from me, but there were more pressing items on the agenda.

"So, Grayson, What is your species called?"

"We call ourselves humans."

At this Celestia's expression became a bit nervous. But regained its regularly cheerful composure shortly afterwords. No one seemed to notice, however.

"What does the diet of thine species consist of?" asked Luna.

Oh boy, this again. I was prepared here, "Our species in omnivorous, we consume both plants and meat. And no I don't eat pony."

Everyone cringed, then relaxed as I made the last statement. Reassured that they would not be passed through my digestive system.

This went on for a little while, then we got into the events of yesterday.

"What made you come to the aid of my sister." asked Shining Armor.

I didn't feel like giving the same answer twice, so I had to tell the truth. I sighed, and told the true reason, "Well to put it simply, I am a soldier, and they were my enemy. I believe you know what that means, Shining Armor."

"I do know..." he replied glancing nervously at Celestia.

Celestia thought for a moment and asked, "I had been considering granting you refuge in our world, but this information makes me a bit, hesitant to do so. I will look to your past to see if your previous actions deem you deserving of housing and assistance."

She might as well killed me right then and there. I knew my past would get me thrown out of this beautiful world, one way or another.

"I will cast a spell that allows all of us here here to see key events in your past. Is everypony ready?"

Everyone nodded their heads, still smiling kindly at me.

"Wait." I said, "I want to tell you about something you won't see much of while looking through my past. I want to tell you about my mother."

Everyone glanced around at each other, then at Celestia, " Alright but try to make it fairly quick."

(Music)

"Okay. My mother was special, she was always smiling. She had that kind of smile when that you saw it, no matter what kind of mood you were in, you couldn't help but smile back. No matter what, she was always smiling. She died when I was young. I was three years old. She was fighting on and off against cancer. Giving birth to me left her very weak, that's when the cancer came back, only this time it would eventually win. I wasn't in the room when she passed on, but my father told me that she went out with the smile everyone knew her for."

I looked up, not a dry eye in the library. "We can dive deep into the dark abyss that is my past whenever you are ready."

Celestia closed her eyes and her horn began to glow, then I blacked out

I woke up in a hospital, not just any hospital, the hospital my mom spent her last few weeks in.

"Grayson, I just want you to know, no matter how far away I am from you, or what separates us, I'll always love you."

I was then carried out of the room by my father, managing only to choke out the words, "Goodbye mommy, I love you."

I stared at the scene for as long as I could. My mother laying in the bed, surrounded by machines and doctors. I blacked out again, coming to in a different scene. This was my first day of school, nothing notable. Just stereotypical first day of school.

My next memory was in middle school, standing up to a bully.

"You stupid, creepy, ginger, get out of here before I throw up all over your dumbass cheap clothes."

This was Lance, resident douchebag and head jock. What happened next got me detention, but was worth it.

"Hey, come on man, no need to result to petty name calling." I said, tears forming in my eyes.

"Oh look, ginger over here is about to cry, need your mommy to hug you and tell you it's alright?"

My head snapped upright, the tears flowing now. I walked up to Lance, who was laughing his ass off at this point, and drove my fist into his face, sending him on to the ground.

"MY MOTHER DIED WHEN I WAS THREE, JACKASS!" I screamed into his face, shortly before curb stomping him, leaving a nice shoe print on his face.

I blacked out again, waking up this time at my father's work. Oh no not this again...

My father walked in to the room arguing with his partner, Nikola Brevinski.

"For the last time, I don't care if the government won't buy the weapon, we wont sell it on the black market."

"I have spent weeks of sleepless nights, perfecting this weapon, I will gain something from it, legally or not."

"Nikola, I told you no."

"I will profit off this weapon, with or with out you at my side."

He then drew his MP-443 and shot my father in the chest. I was still hiding in my father's locker, waiting to congratulate him in completing the weapon, which Brevinski had stolen, along with the plans and specifications. I waited until the door was shut and the last footsteps had faded.

"DAD!"

I burst out of the locker and ran to my mortally wounded father, "Dad, please, pull through this for me, for your wife, for my step-brother."

My father remarried when I was ten. My step-mom had just given birth to my step-brother, Alex.

My father reached into his jacket and pulled something to give to me, a handgun, a nickel-plated M1911.

"Find your grandfather, my father, he can give you the knowledge to defeat Brevinski."

There were tears streaming from my eyes at this point, I couldn't argue with him. I was fourteen

I blacked out again, waking up with my grandfather telling me about his involvement with a secret US Army project.

"You know I served in the second world war and earned the Medal of Honor."

"Yes sir."

"What you don't know is that after the war, I was selected to have my genes tested and possibly mutated in an attempt to create the perfect soldier."

"What!? That's insane! Genes don't work that way-"

"At the time they didn't know that. It seems that my genes were mutated, but I didn't change and the project was deemed a failure."

I was pacing around the room, not believing what I was hearing.

"When your father was young, he showed characteristics of a veteran soldier, he was disciplined and calm in any situation and his marksmanship was unrivaled."

"So what you're saying is that you passed on your mutated genes to my father, and he passed on those same genes to me?"

"Yes, he knew this as well, that's why you are here training with me. In my old age, I can only teach you the basics. That's why I've made arrangements for you to train with the US. Navy SEALs."

I stared him straight in the face, "WHAT!"

"Don't worry, you can do it."

I blacked out. I saw my days in boot camp flash before me. I was eighteen. I hadn't seen my step-brother since my father died. He was about eight years old.

I came to in front of my grandfather.

"I'm proud of you. You're officially a US. Navy SEAL and ready to take on Brevinski and his mercenary army. Right after you complete training with the Russian Spetsnaz. You need to be the most lethal soldier you can be. They'll make you into that."

Then flashed in front of me the brutal Spetsnaz training, followed by the Friday night drinking games. I blacked out once more, not due to alcohol, but due to moving on to the last memory.

I came to with my step-brother, Alex, by my side as he said goodbye to me. He was staying with Bruce, a good friend of mine I met in the SEALs.

"Be good, Alex."

"You know that won't be a problem, and here your grandfather wanted you to have this." He pulled out a USB drive and handed it to me

"What do I need this for?"

"He said you might need it. He didn't say anything other than that."

"Hmm... Ok, I'm sorry it has to be like this, Alex."

"It's ok Grayson, I may only be ten, but I understand."

I blacked out again. Only this time finding myself back at the facility where I was sent to Equestria in the first place.

After the events in the facility I blacked out again, only to find myself in the Ponyville library, with ten ponies staring at me with mixed expressions.

"So, when are you going to send me away."

"I won't. You've demonstrated that you are capable of love and friendship, even in through the darkest of times." said Celestia, only now I recognized the voice. She sounded just like my mother.

New Life

"What just happened?" asked Twilight.

"I must apologize, my faithful student, I peered into Grayson's past ahead of everypony else and decided that only my sister and I out of everypony here should have seen it's contents." replied Celestia, glancing over towards the princess of the night, tears slowly streaming down both of the regal ponies faces.

"So I guess it was really that bad huh?, I've never told anyone about my past before, maybe that's a good thing." I said, glancing out the window at passing ponies, thinking about how fortunate they are to have normal lives in such a peaceful world.

"Of course you may stay in our world and start over." The solar princess somehow read my mind.

"Well... I... I can't even begin to say how much I can't thank you enough!, You've seen the hell I grew up in and came out of, and with barely even a second thought, you've given me a second chance at life. I don't mean to sound ungrateful but..." I trailed off, my mind thinking of the one good thing that was still in my world.

"I understand you are concerned about your friends and family back home, correct?" Luna asked with a look of empathy on her face.

These ponies, more specifically the princesses, seemed to have the ability to read minds. Must take some powerful magic, which I still haven't the slightest clue of how that works. "Yes, I can only hope that my step-brother can make it without me."

"I am confident that he will, he still has your friend to help him." said Celestia

"You're right, he's in good hands, I should stop worrying so much, I only hope he doesn't try to follow in my footsteps...

Anyways, I can't just go walking around town without attracting an uncomfortable amount of attention. What can I do about it?"

Celestia thought for a moment, looked out at her day then turned back to me, "I can grant you the ability to take the form of a native Equestrian if you would really wish to start over."

"That would be perfect!, but I'm really going to miss my human body..." I replied, already missing my fingers.

"I understand, you have agreed to become a new being and completely erase your past."

As good as that sounded, I still had this nagging feeling that there were more mercs roaming around Equestria. With my new form I would be powerless to stop them.

"I also understand your concerns, and that you will miss your old form, that's why I am giving you the ability to change back into a human whenever you want." Celestia was definitely reading my mind.

"I can't thank you enough, for everything."

"You saved my student, I should be thanking you."

For instant friends/favors, just save their lives.

"Y- You haven't a clue how much this means to me!"

"I could imagine..." The princess of the night grinned at me.

"There is one thing that still troubles me though, if there were those four enemies lurking in the forest, could there be more of them elsewhere? If that's the case I need to be able to access my weapons to defend myself. And the ones around me of course."

"It's nice to see that you are already willing to give your life for Equestria, although I'm sure it's nothing the Royal Guard can't handle." said Shining Armor in a confident tone.

"Well i'm sure it is, Those four had enough firepower to control all of Ponyville, maybe more if they wanted to." I replied.

"I highly doubt that any weapon could could grant four single soldiers that much power." replied Shining Armor, still keeping his confident voice.

"Maybe it's best if I just showed you what I meant. Seeing human weapons in action may give you some perspective as to what exactly you're dealing with."

"I am interested as to how these weapons work and would like to see how they are used. Maybe you could show us?" asked Celestia.

"Are you sure? They're very loud."

"Yes, I am willing to take your word for it, seeing as you've been fighting this enemy for a long time and you have more experience." said Celestia.

"I can't use my rifle without my hands. I would love to be a pony, but I need human appendages to operate my weapons." I said, directed at Celestia

Celestia stared off deep in thought,considering the potential outcomes before finally speaking up again, "Can I trust you with the ability to change your being whenever you want, meaning you would only become a human again under special circumstances? As in, hostile humans or other species try to harm any of my little ponies."

"Not a problem, you have my word." I replied calmly, somehow managing to contain my excitement. I could start over and be prepared in the unlikely event that a human army shows up.

"He still doesn't have anywhere to stay, right?" Twilight spoke up for the first time in a while.

"He will come with us back to Canterlot-" started the Solar princess,

"Only for a short time I hope. He's more than welcome to stay with me." Twilight nervously interrupted, speaking as if she was about to lose something dear to her...

"I can't thank you enough, Twilight, really I can't. All I can do right now is say thank you. I still feel that's not enough..."

"Oh, that's more than enough for me." replied Twilight. I swore I caught what appeared to be a blush spread across her face just before she turned away from me abruptly.

Cadance smiled at Twilight while Shining Armor gave me a quizzical look. It was awkward to say the least.

"So you will be coming to Canterlot for a short time?" asked the Guard captain.

"I guess so, I'm also assuming that I'll be returning as a pony." I replied, now being careful with certain feelings about me surfacing from Twilight. At least that's what I saw. It doesn't necessarily mean something.

Upon hearing that I would most likely becoming a stallion in the near future, Rarity perked up, "That will be most interesting to see, Although I really wanted to try designing something for you as a human. It would be a personal challenge to myself, and of course, I would give it to you free of charge."

"Wow, that's very generous of you Rarity, I really don't know what to say."

"Oh it comes naturally dear, It is my Element of Harmony after all."

"Element of Harmony?" I asked.

"The Elements of Harmony are the six guardians of order in Equestria." Said Twilight, as if reciting from a textbook.

Sounded to me like a watered down version, but that was enough for me. I'm pretty smart, and it isn't difficult to see that's why Celestia would invite these six mares in particular.

"So I guess I'm going to Canterlot now?"

"Yes you will return with us to the capitol city for a few days where I will make you a pony and help you adjust to your new body." replied Celestia, her face back in it's usually cheerful smile.

"Thank you, all of you, again, for everything." I then followed Celestia and her guests back to the carriages and we set out for Canterlot.

Reunion

"Grayson..." The voice was one I had not heard for some time. The last time I heard it I was fourteen...

"DAD?!" It had to be him, no one else had such a strong and reassuring voice. It had to be may father.

"Son, you have done well. Brevinski can not control the majority of his forces in his current state, but he is far from dead..."

"Wha-But how?" That couldn't be right. I know for a fact that I shot him in the face, with a .45 no less. He had to be dead. Right?

"He is weak, but commands a small force, a force large enough to cause trouble for your new friends." My father knew about my situation? I didn't question how, the majority of his methods still confuse me to this day. But my greatest enemy was still alive, according to my deceased father. "He is making friends of his own. They are arrogant, yet deadly. However if you and your friends are prepared, I am confident that they won't be worse than anything you have faced in the past."

"How do you know all of this, Where is Brevinski?"

"He is closer than you realize..."

"Grayson?..." A new familiar, feminine voice, Mom?

"Grayson, wake up, there is work to be done today. You need to learn at least a few basic spells." Nope just Celestia, they sound just about the same though.

I opened my eyes and sluggishly climbed out of bed, best night sleep in my entire life. Trumping even the previous night in Twilight's basement. Good thing I didn't say that last sentence out loud to anypony, that would have been awkward.

I looked at myself in the mirror again. I was about as tall, if not slightly taller than Shining Armor. I had about the same muscle build as him. I thought back to the dream and what my dad predicted. I didn't know if it was just a dream or if my late father was trying to warn me from beyond the grave about something. If it was true, there was no way that the Royal guard could defend Equestria, let alone the castle.

That could wait until later. Now I had to learn basic spells with the princess. Never thought that would be a true statement.

"Grayson, are you up yet?" The Solar Princess gracefully entered my room to see me observing my new form in the mirror. "You seem to be adjusting to your new form quite well."

"Yeah, I'm a bit of a fast learner. Adjusting to new things comes quite easily, or maybe it's due to the fact that for the past three years I've been constantly moving and changing environments."

"Adaptability is a good skill to have, Grayson. Speaking of you, do you think you should change your name to something more, pony-like?"

I hadn't thought about that at all. But when she mentioned it, a name popped in to my mind right away, "Shadowstorm"

The princess looked at me for a second, then smiled and said, "It fits you well, Storm, How did you come up with that name?"

"It was the first thing that came to mind when you mentioned a pony name."

"Interesting, we will start with your lessons now. Starting with making sure you can change between your human and pony forms. Focus intensely on a feature that you only had as a human and the rest will follow."

That was easy enough I just focused on my hands and fingers, and suddenly, I had them again! It was pretty easy, or maybe Celestia is a good teacher, or both. "Now to change back, just focus on a feature you have in your pony form."

This was slightly more challenging. I decided to focus on my horn, I imagined it protruding off of my head and proudly into the air. I closed my eyes, felt a sensation of warmth spread throughout my body and I was back on four hooves once more.

In a span of a few hours we covered most basic forms of magic, everything from telekinesis to teleportation. The princess was impressed, "Storm, you are a very fast learner! Where Twilight Sparkle had raw power in her magic, you have control. I am sure that with time, the strength of your magic will improve."

"So you're saying that I could be as strong as Twilight?"

"In time, it is a possibility. Don't count on it however. Speaking of which I will send you back to Ponyville now. You have shown proficiency in enough magic to perform most tasks and jobs. When you discover your special talent, you should study magic that relates to that."

"Alright Princess, and thank you once more."

"You're welcome, Storm." and with that, Celestia's horn glowed a magnificent yellow, and she teleported me to the outskirts of Ponyville.

The first thing I noticed was that the town, while normally not a bustling city to begin with, was abnormally tranquil. Nopony was out walking through the streets or browsing the businesses and shops of the town. The second thing I noticed was the Humvee parked outside town hall. After thinking for approximately one second, I changed back into a human to greet the new human, or possibly humans, in Equestria. I had a hunch as to just who they might be, the Humvee's licence plate read, "IPTBAW", an acronym used by a good friend of mine for the phrase, "It Pays to be a Winner" which is a motto of the U.S. Navy Seals. I could think of only one person who owned a Humvee and was a Seal. I broke into a sprint to see if my theory was right.

As I got closer to town hall I looked through the window and saw my Ponyville friends from the previous day. They were all standing around two humans, that's all I could see because they were moving around a bit. They were familiar figures to say the least. I came to a stop outside town hall, took a quick breath and stepped inside.

(Music, Hint, open in new tab)

I stepped inside and the two humans turned to face me. I was right.

"Grayson?!" they both said in unison.

"Yeah, it's me." I said, my lips forming a grin.

"R-really?" said the smaller of the two. He ran up to me and pulled me into the biggest bear hug he possibly could.

"It's great to see you too, Alex." I said, my eyes began to tear up. It had been years since I had last seen my step-brother. I didn't know what he was doing in Equestria, or how he got here. It was a relief to know that he was safe.

I turned to the other human with Alex still hugging me, "Hey Bruce, how have you been for the past 4 years?"

"Not too bad, I've been watching over your step-brother, that's about it." Bruce replied calmly. He was the same as ever, just a tad bit less full of himself. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I looked around at all of my pony friends, they all had tears in their eyes. Surprisingly even Rainbow Dash, but she looked like she was desperately trying to hold back some tears, and her personality was a lot like Bruce's, who also was tearing up a bit.

"Now that introductions are over with, I'm assuming you've introduced yourselves, I want to know how you got here." I said, my face taking a more serious tone and Alex pulled away from me.

"Well," Bruce started, scratching the back of his head, "We're here most likely because, he attacked, Brevinski attacked."

"What?" I said, this was impossible! Was he giving orders from beyond the grave somehow? Or was he still alive?

"Not him, his forces. He disappeared in what was apparently an old WMD manufacturing plant."

"Yeah, you're welcome."

Bruce stared at me for a second before asking, "Wait, you did that?, We thought it was an accident."

"It was, kind of. You see, when I was there, I was about to disable the weapon then, he showed up. Almost had me, I turned it around, had my gun at his head. Then one of his lackeys failed to disable the EMP. It went off and here I am, two days later."

"After that his forces went crazy. Invaded the US, started droppin' ordnance all over. They wanted payback for their boss going MIA."

"Well, I guess we just leave it up to everyone back home, but how did you get here?"

"I was driving with your brother, trying to get away from the heavy fighting, but my timing was horrible. We drove right past an EMP just as it went off."

"Wait, so if an EMP brought me and you here, I hope i'm wrong but, Brevinski and his forces might be here as well."

I finished explaining when Twilight spoke up,

"Excuse me but, What are you talking about?" the lavender unicorn exclaimed, followed by nods of approval from her friends.

"He's talking about a war which, I swear I had finally gotten away from. Nikola Brevinski, a mercenary leader with cold blood flowing through his veins. He hungers for power, control and he has the resources to get it, an army of men fighting for nothing more than money. His vision is one where he is supreme above all others, he has no conscience, or regard for other life. He lets nothing stand in his way. He betrayed and killed my father in front of me. Until then I thought he was just my father's partner in business, I soon found out he was playing my father for a fool. Using him to get his hands on a WMD he was creating. This weapon was made to restore order, not plunge our race into chaos. Brevinski kidnapped me in an attempt to exchange my life for the weapon, my father died rather than give up the weapon. Brevinski got what he wanted anyways. I thought I smoked him at the facility where he was attempting to replicate the weapon, a device that would fry every electric circuit in it's ridiculous blast radius. I barely got a shot on him as the weapon went off, sending me here. I guess he somehow survived, and is raising an army here, somewhere."

"H-how could one..." Twilight was at a loss for words, she had never heard of such acts even considered by any power-hungry organization. "The only thing I could think to compare that too would be when the Changelings attacked my brother's wedding and they did that out of desperation. Just to survive."

"I don't understand it either Twilight, I just know I need to stop him and his madness."

"So that's why you've been fighting, all these years I thought you just wanted revenge." Bruce said.

"That's part of it, but not all of it."

A scroll materialized in front of Twilight. She picked it up with her magic, read it quickly then said, "Oh my gosh! The princess wants to see us in Canterlot right away!"

"Should we come too?" Bruce asked.

"We should, you need to meet the princesses and see if we can help with what's going on, I have a feeling we will be of use." I said to Bruce. Alex on the other hand was being quiet. That was just him though, he's shy around strangers.

With that we set out for Canterlot, our group consisting of six ponies and three humans.

The more things change...

"Are you sure it's a good idea to take the train?" I asked.

"Yeah, three humans might not be the best things to take on a train filled with ponies." Bruce added.

"Well the Princess wants us in Canterlot as soon as possible, so if you know of a quicker mode of transportation, I'd be happy to hear it." Twilight replied.

"Fine, we'll do it your way. We are going to attract a lot of attention though." I finished.

"It feels like everyone is watching us." Alex said, finally finding his voice and speaking up.

"They are." Bruce said in a whisper while scanning the crowd that we towered over.

We walked until we reached the train station just as a train pulled up. Lucky us.

"Well, we better hurry, I don't know exactly what the Princess wants, but she sounded rather urgent in her letter." Twilight said with some urgency.

"Yeah, the sooner we go to Canterlot, the sooner we come back and the sooner I can throw a 'Welcome to Equestria Party' for our new friends!" Pinkie was bouncing around our group with her seemingly boundless energy. The rest of the ponies in our party just smiled at Pinkie as she bounded circles around us while outside ponies just cleared a path for us on to the train.

The train ride was uneventful. Twilight was trying to get answers about my past and what made it so bad that Celestia prevented her from seeing it. On one hand I got to know Twilight a bit better, on the other hand I didn't particularly enjoy getting assaulted with questions. I got so fed up I just told her the story of my father's death. That got her to quiet down for the rest of the train ride.

We arrived at Canterlot a few hours later. The sun was setting, or Celestia was setting the sun and Luna was about to raise the moon from what I'd heard, and we hurried past ponies staring with confused and fearful looks. When we finally arrived at the castle we were stopped by a small squadron of guards stationed at the entrance, "Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia told us you would be stopping by with some 'humans', Are these them?" Said one of the guards gesturing with his hoof towards me, Bruce and Alex.

"Yes, these two just arrived today-" she gestured to Bruce and Alex, "-and the last one arrived two days ago." finished Twilight.

"Alright then, you may move along then. Best not to keep the Princess waiting." replied the guard. His squad stared suspiciously as we walked past. To be fair, most of them had no idea what exactly we were capable of doing. So it was right of them to keep their guard up around us.

We wasted no time finding the throne room. We walked right in to see the Sun Princess sitting on her throne smiling at all of us. Alex was standing behind me peeking out at Celestia, "Sorry we took so long Princess, we took the train from Ponyville-" Twilight was about to go on, but she was cut off by her mentor,

"That's quite alright my dear Twilight, I understand that the even the trains take time to cover that distance. I thank you for coming on such short notice however." said Celestia.

Twilight visibly relaxed upon hearing her mentors words, "Why are we here anyways?"

"I summoned you here to tell you that I had sensed an energy similar to when Grayson arrived in Equestria. It looks like you found the new arrivals just fine. I did not warn you last time because I was confident that you and the other Elements of Harmony could handle whatever it could have been. I guess I underestimated what had entered our world." Celestia said with a touch of regret in her voice.

"It's alright Princess." Man, ponies are quick to forgive.

"Well, while you are here, I need to ask if you want to have the ability to blend in with the rest of the population. Grayson has undergone this change and has adjusted quite well." Celestia said.

"What change?" asked Bruce.

Well, I guess they needed to find out at some point. I focused on my horn and let my Celestia-given ability take over as I went from two legs down to four hooves. I turned back to my friends who were all staring at me with a unanimous expression plastered on all of their faces. Surprise.

"How did-" started Bruce.

"You may thank Celestia for that. She wants to do the same to you so we can blend in more easily, are you up for it?" I finished explaining to a flabbergasted Bruce. Alex was looking all over me with amazement in his eyes.

"I- I'll do it." Alex said. what surprised me was that Alex spoke directly to the Princess. I figured he wouldn't do it, or he would have his answer relayed through me.

"You are very brave for volunteering, Alex." replied Celestia. Smiling at him with her usual demeanor that you can't help but smile back at. Which is exactly what he did.

"She knows my name?" Alex whispered to me.

"Yeah, I told her about us. Well, actually she went into my mind and saw some of my past, which included you."

Celestia had stood up and walked towards the group and I had moved so Alex was standing by himself. I guess he picked the perfect time to grow some confidence because he didn't move at all. Another possibility could have been that he was so scared that his muscles froze and were ignoring orders. The first scenario was infinitely better. Celestia's horn took on a vivid yellow hue and an aura of the same color enveloped my step-brother. His face changed little, but he was slightly unnerved. The yellow aura around his body solidified and a bright yellow light erupted from the sphere. As soon as it started, it was over and in the place of Alex, lay a small light blue-coated unicorn colt with a dark blue mane with streaks of black and vivid green eyes, just like mine. He laid still for a few seconds then blinked a few times then stood up on all fours.

"So how do you feel?" I asked, smiling at him.

"Different. Why do I have a horn? I can't see it, but I can feel it." Alex said trying to look up at his new found appendage.

"You're a unicorn, like me, your horn lets you use magic. Princess Celestia gave me a crash course on basic magic and apparently I'm pretty good."

"Magic? Cool! I can't wait." my step-brother was jumping up and down, he was excited to learn how to use magic.

"I'll be happy to teach you, Alex." Twilight said. I think she was excited to finally have a student of your own.

"You know what, I'll do it. Go ahead Princess, make me a pony!" Bruce exclaimed. I had expected to need to convince him, but that confident look in his eyes said 'let's do this'. That was much easier than I expected.

"Alright Bruce, you might not be a unicorn like Alex and Grayson, or should I say Shadowstorm." Celestia said, glancing over towards me as she said the last part.

"Shadowstorm?, Who's that.?" asked a suddenly confused Bruce.

"Me, more specifically me as a unicorn. But yeah, me." I explained.

"Should I be thinking of a pony name?" asked Alex.

"Sure, anything you want." I answered.

Bruce turned back to Celestia and said, "So are you going to make me a pony now or what?" He could have been a bit more respectful to royalty, but thankfully Celestia is a forgiving leader.

"Yes, get ready Bruce." Celestia replied.

Once more, the horn of the regal pony glowed yellow, a familiar aura appeared around my best friend and a familiar light flashed and there lay a pegasus, bright green coat, golden mane, same brown eyes and a blank flank, just like me and Alex.

He came to faster than Alex. He was already up and used to his new form. "Sweet, can I switch back and forth between, or am I stuck with hooves forever."

I knew the answer to this one, "Focus on having fingers again. Seriously, think about having fingers, and you will."

"Really? It's that simple, huh?"

I grinned at him, "Don't believe me, try it!"

Bruce and Alex closed their eyes, their bodies glowed white and transformed into bi-pedal beings once again.

"That was easy."

"Told you so."

Celestia cleared her throat, "Have you two come up with names yet?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'll be," Bruce thought for a moment, "Thunderhead, that's a cool pegasus name. Right?"

The Sun Princess turned to Alex, "Um, I guess I'll be Raincloud. I mean, if that's okay with you."

Celestia smiled at Ale- Raincloud, "That's perfectly fine my little pony. Now all of you, I have one thing to ask," she turned to face the six mares in the room, who admittedly looked slightly more attractive now that I was a stallion. "Please help them to adjust to life in Ponyville. That means housing them for the time being."

"I'll gladly take Shadowstorm and Raincloud to help them understand their magic better." Twilight said smiling warmly at me. It's official, she likes me. Only one thing to do; Pretend not to notice.

Rainbow Dash was eyeing the new pegasus stallion with curiosity. "You know, you actually seem like a cool guy Thunder. You can stay with me, that is if you can figure out how to use those wings of yours to fly up to my cloud home."

Thunderhead blinked a few times, "What do you mean by cloud home?"

"Isn't it obvious? My home is made of clouds! Only pegasi can walk on and manipulate clouds." answered the rainbow pegasus.

"I can walk on clouds!? Hmm... I think I may have been given too much power..." Thunder was thinking about how easy sneaking missions would be with his new ability.

"Good to see that was resolved fairly quickly, I realize it is late, so to spare you the long train ride home, I'll send you back myself." Celestia's horn took on a yellow hue and with a brief flash of yellow light we were back in Ponyville, the outskirts to be precise.

We said our good nights and returned to our respective dwellings. As Twilight, Raincloud and I walked back to the Golden Oaks Library, I turned and saw Thunderhead following close to Rainbow Dash through the air. 'He's flying already?' I thought to myself, then remembered my magical skills.

"So, who sleeps where?" I asked.

"Well, I only have one guest bed in my room plus the basement." replied Twilight.

"I'll take the basement. I need some time to get used to myself as a pony." said Raincloud.

We reached the library as the stars and moon came out. Twilight opened the door with her magic and led us in. A quick burst of magic from Twilight lit a few candles in the room. "Goodnight Raincloud, don't sleep too heavily. We need to work on your magic tomorrow." Twilight said.

"Okay, goodnight Twilight, goodnight Storm." came Raincloud's short reply as he walked down to the basement.

"So I guess we will introduce Spike to everypony tommorow, among other things?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess. Oh, remember how Princess Celestia mentioned adjusting to life in Ponyville? I think part of that might mean getting a job, not pressuring you or anything, just something to think about." Twilight was right, if I was to live here, I would need to get a job sooner or later.

"Raincloud will need to go to school as well." I said, mostly to myself. I followed Twilight up the stairs to the bedroom and crawled into the guest bed. I shut my eyes and fell asleep thinking about how I would approach Bruce, I mean, Thunderhead with the concept of a job in Ponyville.

...The more they stay the same

"Good morning everypony." I said walking down the stairs. I entered the kitchen to see Twilight sitting next to Raincloud who was moving a glass around the table with telekinesis and Spike making what appeared to be pancakes.

"Good morning Shadowstorm, that's your name right?, would you like some pancakes?" said Spike

"Yes Spike, my name is Shadowstorm, but please call me Storm. It sounds much friendlier than Shadow and yes I would love some pancakes." I replied. I had two pancakes because I was very hungry. About halfway through my second pancake, I noticed a sizzling sound a distinctive smell. I wasn't sure so I asked, "What is that smell and sizzling noise?"

Spike was flipping strips of what appeared to be hay, he turned to me and said, "I think you smell and hear the Haycon."

Haycon? Really, I had gotten used to most of the horse puns, but this was plain dumb. It smelled and sounded just like bacon, but bacon is made from pigs so I guess hay was a substitute for some meats. But did it taste like bacon? Only one way to find out. "Um, okay. Can I try a strip?"

"Sure." Spike tossed me a strip of haycon(I still think it's a bad pun for the record). I caught the strip in my telekinesis and popped it into my mouth. I had found the pony equivalent of bacon. On the outside I looked like a normal pony eating a slice of haycon, but on the inside I was trying so hard to contain my foodgasm. After living off of pre-packed meals and rations for four years, genuine food tasted amazing. I guess being a pony had changed my tastes as well as my appearance.

"This is amazing! Raincloud have you tried this?" I said.

Raincloud put his glass down and said, "Yes, and I love it!."

I finished my breakfast and set out to find Thunderhead and talk to him about how he was adjusting to the new life. I found him and Rainbow Dash at Sugarcube Corner.

"Hey Thunder, how's it going?"

"Good, I'm learning how to fly, not that hard. Easier than flying jets." replied Thunder. Bruce had flown jets, specifically F-16s, in the Air Force before re-enlisting in the Army. He was then transferred to the SEALs due to his exceptional infantry skills.

"Yeah, He's pretty good, but I was better when I first started." said Rainbow. I figured they would get along well, they complement each other pretty well.

I sat down at their table and turned to Thunder, " So, it seems we're all adjusting well to our new situation, and while we can't mooch off our generous hosts for the rest of our lives, I think you and I should strongly consider getting jobs."

Thunder looked at me for a second, nodded, then turned to Dash and said, "I agree. I mean, as awesome as your cloud home is, I would like a place of my own. Although I don't know what kinds of jobs I could do. I can't go back to what I did as a human because, well, maybe I could, but it would take some adjustments. Going from automatic firearms and Kevlar vests to spears and suits of armor is a pretty big jump backwards."

Dash was confused about the last part of what Thunder said, asked, "Firearms, was that what caused those loud firecracker like sounds that came from Canterlot?"

"Probably, I demonstrated the power of human weapons to the Princesses and Captain of the Royal Guard. Their ears will never be the same again." I said with a smirk. "So have you told Dash about what you did for a living back home?"

"He says he was in an organization that parallels the Royal Guard." said Rainbow.

"I was, and I hope I can find some sort of employment. I'd hate to live off of someone else for much longer." finished Thunder.

Rainbow had been waiting to speak up again, "You know Thunder, you're actually a really good at flying, especially for just getting wings literally yesterday. I mean, you're not nearly as good as me, nor will you probably ever be, but I think you could join the Ponyville weather team, that is if you're up to the challenge."

Thunder stood up from the table with a confident look on his face, "I'm always up for a challenge!" and we all walked out of Sugarcube corner together.

"Well, now you've found a probable job. What could I do here?" I asked Thunder.

Thunder answered, "Well, I've been talking with Dash, I briefly summarized your military career to her if you don't mind,"

"You've already told her, I really don't have much choice." I commented.

Dash smiled while Thunder kept talking, "Right, well, she said that Applejack is always looking for help at Sweet Apple Acres."

"I think I could help Applejack at the farm during the week." I said.

"Hmm, that could work, but you would probably be pretty tired after a while." added Thunder.

"Maybe, but most likely less strenuous then what I've been doing for the past four years." I finished.

We parted ways at the library, Rainbow was getting a book from Twilight, the next "Daring Do" book is what Dash told me, and Thunder was tagging along to get to know Ponyville a bit better. I set off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres to see if what Dash had said was true.

When I reached the farm, I saw a red stallion plowing the fields. He was about as tall as me, with a slightly more muscular build.

"Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Can ah help you with somthin'?" asked the stallion in an accent similar to Applejack's.

I briefly overheard Applejack mentioning an older brother when I first met Twilight's other friends. I assumed this was him. "Hi, I'm Shadowstorm. Is Applejack around?" I politely asked.

"Eeyup, she's in the house takin' a break." came his reply.

As I approached the house the door opened and out rushed a yellow filly with a big red bow tied in her hair. She didn't have enough time to see that I was standing so close and she slammed right in to me.

"Ow!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry, are you all right?" I said as a offered a hoof to help the filly up.

"Yeah, ahm' fine. Hey!, are you one of the new stallions in town that mah big sister told me about?" asked the filly.

"Uh-huh, my name's Shadowstorm, just call me storm." I replied.

"Nice bumpin' in to ya, see ya 'round town. I gotta run to mah crusader's meeting." She was about to run off but stopped abruptly, "HEY!, You don't have your cutie mark either! Applejack didn't tell me that, you should come with me to our meeting to help you find your special talent!"

"Howdy Storm, sorry about Applebloom, she was about to go meet with her friends to see if they could get their cutie marks in, somethin'." Applejack walked up to see me talking with Applebloom.

"Ah, well it was nice meeting you Applebloom, I'll see you later." I replied.

"Alright, see ya 'round Storm." Applebloom yelled to me as she galloped away.

"She's an energetic little filly that one. Come on in Storm, Do you need somthin'?"

I walked inside the house and Applejack sat at a table. "I have a question, Rainbow Dash says that you're always looking for some extra help around the farm and I was wondering, if maybe I could help out. Possibly for a small salary?" I asked.

"If yer gonna work here, of course ah'll pay ya." Applejack replied.

"Thank you Applejack, I really need this. Mainly so I can stop feeling like such a freeloader. How about I start tommorow. I have a few more errands I need to run today."

"Sure, see ya tommorow. Bright and early." said Applejack.

"Of course, Bye." I left Sweet Apple Acres and set out in the direction of Sugarcube Corner to hopefully find Pinkie and ask about the party she said she was going to throw us. After walking the short five minutes into town, I found the pink mare I was looking for bounding towards the bakery.

"Hey Pinkie!"

"Storm! Do you need something?" asked Pinkie, jumping up and down in place.

"Well, I just got a job working with Applejack and her family, and I was wondering when you were going to throw our 'Welcome to Equestria' party." I asked.

"*GASP* Now that you have a job, I need to throw you a 'Congratulations on getting a job' party too! But I still haven't thrown your, 'Welcome to Equestria' party yet. I can't throw two parties at the same time. WHAT DO I DO?!" Pinkie replied. She stopped bouncing and stood still. Surprisingly.

"Pinkie, its really not that hard. Just throw one party and have it honor both events." I said. Pinkie perked right back up and started bouncing again. "Great. Have the party this Friday night so everypony can be there."

"Okie-dokie-lokie." chanted Pinkie as she bounced away.

With nothing else to do I decided to head back to the library. Coincidentally, Pinkie was headed there as well. I just followed her inside to see Twilight and all of her friends, as well as Thunderhead, sitting in the middle of the floor around Twilight holding a scroll from the Princess.

"There you are. Where have you been?" asked Twilight.

"I got a job at Sweet Apple Acres, thanks for asking." I briefly replied.

"Oh, great! Well this just came and I think you all should know what's going on." Twilight opened the scroll and began reading, "Dear Twilight, Yesterday we lost all contact with the Crystal Empire. We've sent scouts to see what the problem may be. Crystal Ponies leaving the empire by train and other modes of transportation have been showing up as of late and they say that something big is going on. I've yet to receive word from your brother or Cadance. I can only hope for their safety. I will send you more details as they come. Best wishes, Princess Celestia."

We all sat in silence for a brief period of time. We were all thinking the same thing, "What could happen to cause us to lose all contact with an entire empire?" Twilight was the one to vocalize our thoughts.

I had a theory, but I hoped I was wrong. If I was right, well, bad things were happening to say the least.

"Any idea as to what's happened?" I asked before we fell back into awkward silence.

"I hope nothing to bad, maybe all of the mailponies are sick?" Fluttershy theorized.

I was thinking something more along the lines of hostile takeover and occupation by a militant group, but that was also a possibility. Wait, no it wasn't. In the letter, Celestia said something about Crystal ponies pouring into Canterlot by the trainload. She also said that there have been reports of something big going on. My theory was looking more solid by the minute, much to my dismay. And there was what my father had told me in my dream. Was it Brevinski? Had he forcefully taken the Crystal Empire and was holding Shining Armor and Cadance hostage? I surely hoped not, but there was enough information to suggest that something along those lines have happened.

The others were talking with themselves as I was thinking about the likely scenario. It could be possible, but I doubted it. Mostly for the fact that if I accepted that as what happened I would lose sleep thinking over what was happening to Shining Armor and his wife.

If that was the case, there wouldn't be much I could do about it, or was there? I decided to let Thunder in on my theory,

"Hey Thunder," I called. He gave me his attention by staring at me. Unfortunately, everypony else in the room followed suit. "I need to tell you something in private, come downstairs with me."

Twilight's Perspective

I didn't know what was up, but my brother was potentially in danger and Storm knew something about it. I hated to be so sneaky, but I need to know what was going on. When the two stallions walked into the basement, I left the door slightly ajar so I could listen in.

Storm took a breath before he spoke, "I think, he's made his move."

Thunder looked at him quizzically for a second then replied, "Who?, You mean..." He had a worried look on his face.

"Yeah, I think it's him. I also think you and me may be the only ones with the knowledge and equipment to do anything about it." What was Storm talking about?, Who's 'him'? What knowledge and equipment?

"Well, I don't know what equipment you have, I don't know if you saw, but earlier today I moved the Humvee to the forest. In the Humvee is enough weapons and ammo to survive a short zombie apocalypse." Now I had no idea what they were talking about. All I could figure out is that 'He' could be responsible for the loss of communication to the Crystal Empire, and that in Thunder's vehicle there were weapons and lots of them. I decided to let them finish their conversation in privacy like they thought they were the whole time.

Shadowstorm's Perspective

"... to survive a short zombie apocalypse." finished Thunder. Great he had enough munitions to last us awhile, or at least enough for a short reconnaissance mission to the Crystal Empire.

"It could also be nothing and I'm just paranoid." I replied. With my late father's warning I was worried that I was right and for once hoped I was wrong. Out of all of the events of the past few days, this would make the most sense.

"True, we'll wait a few days before taking action." replied Thunder.

I hoped it was nothing too drastic going on up north, but all I could do was hope. I didn't want to think about what could be happening for the sake of my own sanity. I decided to wait a few days and hopefully receive word from Celestia about the situation before worrying further.

Three Days Later

We were in Canterlot, more specifically in the castle hurrying towards the throne room. I had fallen right into the routine of having a job bucking apples with Applejack. My experience kicking doors down translated perfectly to harvesting fruit apparently, but that's not important right now.

Celestia sent us a letter telling us that she had discovered development regarding the Crystal Empire. Apparently, the Crystal Ponies had been talking about being driven from the empire by "large things with eight wheels and other things with treads and flying things that make a scary buzzing noise". You see why we were in a hurry, my theory was just about rock solid.

"Princess!," exclaimed Twilight as me , Thunder, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony burst through the throne room doors. "We came as soon as we heard. Is my brother alright?"

Celestia held up a hoof to quiet her student. "I am still unsure of your brother's condition. The news I have to give you worries me further." We all silently took a deep breath, awaiting what the Princess had to say, "We believe the Griffons are responsible in some form. We also have reports and images of vehicles causing major destruction all throughout the empire." Her horn glowed and she projected an image. It showed, cruising down a street, a BTR-90.

I visibly recoiled and almost fainted. What are armored APCs doing in Equestria? Celsetia changed the image to an Mi-24 "Hind" helicopter unloading a payload of missiles into what looked like a castle in the center of the empire. The image changed yet again to the same chopper with Griffons fast-roping out of the Hind with AKM rifles slung across their chests.

What were gunships doing in Equestria? How did the Griffons of this world get their claws on automatic rifles? There was only one thing she could show me to make this worse, and she did. Celestia changed the image once more. This time it showed the thing that pushed me over the edge. I stared at the T-90 rolling down the street for about a second, then I actually fainted.

I woke up about five minutes later with all of my friends staring at me. "What are those things?" asked Celestia's student.

"They are vehicles used for the purpose of waging war. They are all human made. I have no idea how they fell into possession of them." I replied.

"Hold on, You know these things?" asked Dash.

"I already told you, human vehicles of warfare. And it looks like the Crystal Empire is trashed. That's going to take a while to rebuild." I told Dash.

I could still barely believe what I was hearing and seeing. What was described as one of the most beautiful places in Equestria, reduced down to a ruined urban wasteland. I've seen utopias fall before, but seeing such a peaceful race marred by the horrors of war, a once beautiful land burning in the rage and confusion. It was enough to make me wonder just how different our worlds were.

Celestia caught wind of my thoughts. "It appears the Griffons came in about four days ago, armed with these vehicles and weapons, they started causing mass destruction in a quick stretch of time. Possibly fueled by the soreness that came with us beating them last time."

Last time? These races had clashed before? Revenge looked like a possible motive, but where did they find that technology? It didn't just fall out of the sky into Griffon territory, or did it? And how did they know how to use it? They wouldn't unless there were humans with those vehicles...

"What do you mean 'Last time?" I asked.

Celestia looked at me with a depressing expression, "The Griffons are a very war-like race. The first Pony-Griffon war took place ages ago, much before the time of most of the ones in this room. Although it lasted only a few years, the effects lasted much longer. The Griffon Emperor, Bellicose is his name, found himself in possession of a new technology. Eerily similar to your weapons, only they were made of primarily wood with few steel parts and had to be manually cycled before firing again. Using weapons based off of captured Griffon technology and the Elements of Harmony, we pushed them back to the border of their home before Bellicose agreed to an armistice." Celestia finished, leaving me speechless. Not only have these ponies seen war before, but they at one point had weapons much like what I could only assume to be bolt-action rifles, pump-action shotguns and or single action revolvers. But then why go back to swords and spears?

"After the war, we went back to more traditional weapons due to the new ones having too much destructive capabilities. We didn't need weapons that powerful. The Griffon Kingdom and Equestria have remained neutral ever since." Oh that explains just about everything then.

"So much destruction in so little time. No wonder we couldn't communicate with them, they were too busy running for their lives! I hope my brother is out of harm's way." Twilight was worrying herself sick over Shining Armor. Maybe the guard captain was okay, maybe he was already six feet under. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was alive.

"I have a feeling he's fine Twi." She snapped up at the sound of my voice. It was also the first time I had called her by her shortened nickname usually reserved for her friends. She smiled warmly at me,

"I hope you're right Storm, I hope you're right." She replied sinking back to a depressed mass. Twilight's words couldn't mask the lack of faith she had in them. She knew her brother was in danger. She didn't know I planned to visit the occupied empire in a few days on unofficial reconnaissance for Equestria.

"I did not want to place fear in your hearts my little ponies, my goal was merely to keep you informed." Celestia said. Her usually cheerful grin replaced by a much more fearful expression.

"You did both, Celestia." I replied as we walked out of the throne room.

The train ride back to Ponyville was dead silent. Nopony dared say anything for fear of instilling more fear than we were already contending with. Even Pinkie Pie sat and stared out the window towards the horizon. The Crystal Empire, or what was left of it, was off in the distance surrounded by thick black clouds occasionally flashing with a streak of lightning. Conditions in the empire were dictated by the emotions of the Crystal Ponies. With little left, and the ones left most likely gripped by darkness and fear, the prominent emotion was reflected by violent thunderstorms.

"They went from being scheduled to be the host of the next Equestria games to ruin within the space of less than a few days. This is horrible." The last part of the prism-maned pegasi's statement was painfully obvious, but the first part made it hurt even more. What happened to cause such a successful state fall to ashes so quickly? The Griffons and their new armament, hell-bent on revenge happened. And they might start spreading and not stop until every last corner of Equestria was squashed under their thumb.

No, not if there was anything I could do about it. No doubt that Twilight wasn't about to just let me waltz into what was currently Griffon territory. I had to be sneaky about it, or else the Griffons would ravage this land until there was nothing left.

The next day...

It was a normal day. It started as any routine day, harvesting apples at the farm. Then I heard a sound I had hoped never to hear in Equestria.

*POW POW POW*

Three gunshots, there was no mistaking it. Something was in Ponyville armed with a rifle and traumatizing the population. Immieadiately following the shots came terrified screams of ponies scattering to avoid further attacks. But no further shots came.

A terrified Twilight and a serious looking Bruce materialized in front of me. Not Thunderhead, Bruce. The human stood a good three inches above me.

"Your brother and three little fillies were just foalnapped by Griffon soldiers!" Yelled a very scared and almost hyperventilating Twilight.

"Grayson, it's time to show this world just what Navy SEALs can do." Bruce said exactly what I was thinking.

I changed back into human form, my black special operations camouflage covering me entirely. Bruce was wearing a similarly styled uniform with a helmet and face mask.

"You got equipment?" I asked Bruce.

"Follow me." he replied.

We walked to the Everfree forest where Bruce's Humvee was parked just a small distance in. Far enough to avoid detection and investigation by normal ponies, but close enough to be easily accessed by me and Bruce in a situation like this. The hostages were being held in an old castle deep in the forest, apparently where the Elements of Harmony lay dormant for 1,000 years before Twilight and her friends came along and defeated Nightmare Moon to free Princess Luna.

Now the Griffons were occupying it and the surrounding area of the forest. Bruce and I stocked up on equipment. I carried my ACR with EOTech sight and suppressor and my suppressed M1911 on my hip, while Bruce had an MK14 Mod 0 Enhanced Battle Rifle(M14 EBR) equipped with a scope offering zoom ranging from 8-12 times magnification and sound suppressor along with a suppressed MP7 as a close range backup. If you couldn't tell from the suppressors, this was a stealth op.

(Music)

"Contact, twelve o' clock. Range twenty meters." I whispered to Bruce, notifying him of a three man patrol of Griffon soldiers. They carried AKM rifles and wore a B.D.U eerily similar to the ones worn by Brevenski's mercenaries, red, white and gray jigsaw pattern, I didn't like the resemblance.

"I got a shot on the two on the right." replied Bruce in a whisper equally quiet to mine.

"On three." We crouched down,

"One," Bruce focused intensely on his targets,

"Two," I set the Griffon's head behind my reticle,

"Three," Two Griffons dropped dead from a well aimed shot from Bruce. The third didn't have much time to react as three 6.8 rounds hit him in the upper torso and head. We quietly walked past the bodies and the accumulating pool of red around the corpses.

"Nicely done." I commented.

"Copy that." replied Bruce.

We walked in silence for a few more minutes, passed over an old rope bridge that we had to cross one-at-a-time, then we came up on the castle, what was left of it. It was in ruin, not because of the Griffons, but because of the age of the place. It was just as old, if not older than the Princesses according to Twilight. Now it served whoever found it. Today it was used by the Griffons to hold my brother and three innocent fillies, not for much longer.

"Large patrol out front." I breathed the words on instinct. Just outside the door there were six Griffon soldiers all standing in a group talking to themselves.

"This won't be easy, there are too many of them to take at once." Bruce said just above a whisper.

"Then we'll take our time and search the castle quickly if we break stealth. Let me get closer before engaging." I replied quietly.

"Roger." Bruce replied as I crawled closer to the enemy patrol.

I gave Bruce a small thumbs up to signify I was ready. He put the scope up to his right eye as I turned back to the Griffons.

Three Griffons dropped when Bruce sent a 7.62 round through their skulls. One of the remaining Griffons drew breath to shout something, it would be his last. I cut the last three down with the remainder of my magazine. I reloaded my rifle as Bruce came up to the entrance. "We still have stealth on our side." Bruce said.

Music

Just then one of the radios on the Griffons came to life, "To the remaining units in the area, we've lost contact with one of the scout teams and the sentries outside the castle are not responding, moving into high alert."

"Somewhat." Bruce added to his previous statement.

We quickly and quietly went in the main entrance. Bruce had equipped his MP7 while I still had my ACR. We silently crept through the castle not daring to make a sound. I take all of my missions seriously, even more so this time because my last living blood relative was in danger. We hurried through the castle ducking into corners to avoid passing Griffons.

Our search led us to the last room, inside there was a Griffon talking on a radio with someone, presumably a commander, and three foalnapped fillies cowering behind my brother. "We have successfully secured hostages to assist negotiations, Sombra."

Who's Sombra? "Excellent, we have the Crystal Empire locked down as well. We will have what we want in a very short time. Keep our 'bargaining chips' secure for the time being." The voice that replied over the Griffon's radio was cold and menacing, but also sounded like he had failed at something before and made a sort of half-baked attempt to get it back.

"Understood, Colonel Sombra. Over and out." The Griffon replied before switching off his radio.

My brother was the only thing between the three Griffons in the room and the three fillies. I immediately recognized Applebloom cowering between a pale white unicorn with pink and light purple hair and an orange pegasus with dark purple hair. He made friends and was prepared to give his life for them. I was so proud.

"So how do we deal with these guys without traumatizing the kids?" Bruce asked in a whisper.

"We could sneak up and get in close for hand-to-hand, I mean, hand-to-claw combat, and only knock them out." I whispered back.

Before we could go on, one of the Griffons was on the ground unconscious and another spoke up, "A human!?, Impossible!"

I peeked out and saw Alex struggling with a Griffon that had a knife and was attempting to stab him. Alex hit the Griffon's wrist with the lower part of his hand and the knife fell to the ground. One more swift strike to the Griffon's temple and he was out cold. The final Griffon raised his rifle and fired two shots that thankfully missed. In that time Alex had ran up to the Griffon, stuck the AK's barrel under his shoulder with the muzzle poking out from underneath, ripped the magazine from the gun and pulled the charging handle to eject the last bullet in the chamber. He took the empty rifle and struck the Griffon upside the head, knocking him out instantly. I was stunned. Either my brother was following in my footsteps by training with someone, or the Griffons really sucked. Three of them just got bested by a ten-year-old, so I was assuming the latter.

I stepped out with Bruce following behind me, "Nice job Alex, I guess I don't need to worry about you so much anymore."

Alex whipped around to face me, "You saw that? I did pretty good didn't I?"

"You beat three opponents without taking as much as a scratch. That's more than good Alex."

He turned to his friends who were still sitting in the corner, "Come on girls, now that my brother and Bruce are here, nothing will even touch us." The three fillies got up and wrapped Alex in a group hug, I couldn't help but smile at the cutest thing I have ever seen. I saw Bruce crack a slight smile before turning to me and saying,

"We can't just leave these guys here, when they come to, the first thing they'll do is contact their H.Q. and have an entire army flatten Ponyville."

I thought for a second, "You're right, we'll carry them back and hold them in Ponyville until we can send them off to Canterlot for questioning."

"Alright, let's do it."

Me and Bruce each carried an unconscious Griffon while Alex and his friends, who I learned to be called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, were dragging the last one over the ground. We reached the end of the forest to be greeted by Twilight and her friends, Wh- What happened?" asked the confused lavender mare.

"These guys were keeping us prisoner, but Raincloud was always between us and the bad guys. Then he did this thing and he became like he is now, standing on two legs and fighting the Griffons. One tried to stab him but he grabbed his claw and punched his wrist making him drop the knife then he punched him in the head and knocked him out, then he grabbed the other one's loud noise stick and took it apart and knocked him out with it!" The orange filly finished. We set the griffons down and Twilight came over and examined them.

"Are these?, no way! They are!" she exclaimed with an extremely shocked look on her face.

"What, what is it?" I asked.

"Th-these are Black Talon soldiers! The deadliest fighting force in existence, that we know of. They're a big part of the reason Celestia wanted to remain neutral with the Griffon Kingdom after the Griffon-Pony war. " Twilight stammered while staring at Alex in disbelief.

"Well, three of them just got beaten by a ten-year-old, so they can't be that good." Bruce commented/mocked.

"That's what scares me, these guys could mop the floor with our Royal Guard. How he managed to take out three of them is beyond me." Twilight finished, gesturing at Alex.

"Well in any case, we'd better get back home and secure these guys until we can have them shipped to Canterlot for interrogation." I said.

The crusaders, whose names I had learned from Alex telling them goodbye, ran back to their older sisters. Scootaloo ran over to Rainbow Dash who, while not blood related, had become a sort of older sister figure in the young filly's life. We all went our respective ways back home. While walking back home, I gave myself a pat on the back for a job well done and began thinking about when I would head off to the Crystal Empire. What exactly I would be looking for, how I would get there, things like that. It had gotten late and Luna had raised the moon and stars. Applejack took the Griffons back to the farm to tie them up and throw them in the barn. I gave my brother a big hug and went upstairs into the guest bed. Apparently Twilight was going to arrange a public reveal of the humans living in Ponyville. I fell asleep as a pony. I decided to take the day off from work tommorow. After helping save my bosses' younger sister, I thought I deserved it.

Cold War

"So you're soldiers?" asked a cream colored earth pony with a blue and pink mane.

"Yes, we were. Then we came here, some things happened and we are seemingly in active duty again. Anyways, I would like to thank all of you for coming out and asking questions. I hope you now know a bit more about your human friends." I replied. We were standing in front of town hall where me and Bruce were answering questions from the citizens of Ponyville. It was the last thing on the agenda before we headed out for the Crystal Empire, or what was left of it. Pinkie finally got around to throwing our party, and it was amazing. There was delicious cake, punch(hard cider was available for the older ponies), even a DJ! I don't know how, but it was amazing. I guess there's a reason ponies say, "Ain't no party like a Pinkie Pie party!"

"That took long enough." said Bruce.

"Yeah, I agree. So we're heading out now?" I asked.

"Yep, Rarity finally finished our arctic uniforms. We can leave as soon as we pick them up." replied Bruce.

"We'll be taking the Humvee, right?"

"It's got a full tank, we can make it there and back hopefully in less than a day. Maybe two depending on what the situation actually is." Bruce said. We picked up our new black and white digital patterned B.D.Us from Rarity, she did it all for free, she knew a surprisingly large amount about military Battle Dress Uniforms. "So Rarity said she enjoyed designing for us. Maybe we can get a bit more out of this?"

"Come on, we'll pay her eventually. Everything is ready, we're just going to say our goodbyes and go scout an occupied empire." I told Bruce. We walked back to the library where everypony was waiting. We walked inside and were immediately assaulted with hugs.

"Good luck!" called Applejack,

"Don't get the uniforms dirty or I might have to charge you for them." I gave Rarity a look that said, 'Really?' She smiled awkwardly and sunk behind Fluttershy.

"Bruce, do me a favor and come back in one piece. Grayson, keep an eye on him will ya?" Yelled Rainbow.

"Yeah, 'cause if you don't, I won't be able to throw a 'Good job saving the Crystal Empire" party, and I really want to throw that one!!" Pinkie yelled in a voice that rationalizes the use of two exclamation points. She bounced around and was off being Pinkie Pie when Fluttershy poked my shoulder,

"Please come back alive, I think most ponies have taken a liking to the two of you." She said.

"I'll try my best, where's Twilight?" I asked.

"Right here," came a voice from behind me. In her telekinetic grip was my M1911 and Five-seveN. "Do you need these?, they were on top of your bed."

"Thanks Twi. I appreciate it." I holstered my handguns and leaned in close to the distraught lavender unicorn,"I'll find your brother, don't you worry." She looked up at me,

"Thanks, I can't imagine what he's been through. Just please get him back safe." she replied.

"No problem, We'll be back before you know it." I told everyone.

They all yelled a collective "Goodbye, good luck!"

Bruce and I entered the Humvee and began driving north. We had gotten a fair distance into the snow, about three quarters of the way there, when Bruce stopped.

"What's up?" I asked.

"We've spent half a tank getting this far." He replied.

"So?"

"It'll take us half a tank to get back to Ponyville from here. We have to walk the rest of the way."

We got out and began walking through the barren tundra, following the train tracks, "See anything yet?"

"Besides snow, snow and more goddamn snow? Not much." replied Bruce.

"Hey! Just up ahead, there it is!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, the storm clouds in the middle of this blizzard are just there for no reason. Let's get in, find what we came here for and leave." Bruce replied with a touch of sarcasm towards the beginning of his statement.

(Background Music Open in new tab.)

We walked into the clouds and the blizzard stopped, replaced by dry lightning going off around a ruined city. The sky was a dark and ominous yellow, crows could be heard all around. Buildings were in ruin and in pieces. Bruce and I changed into ponies to take advantage of our smaller sizes as ponies. We headed straight for the castle. If Shining Armor and Cadance were still here, that's were they would be.

"Over here, in this building!" Thunder whispered as a BTR-90 approached. We made it inside what appeared to be a spa as the vehicle passed, shaking the ground around it. "Look at this place, 50,000 ponies used to live in this city, now it's a ghost town. I've never seen anything like it." I looked around, the spa looked like it was once fairly popular. Couldn't have been cheap either.

"If they're still here, they'd probably be in the castle. Probably guarded too. You got the C4 to cover our escape if necessary?"

"Yeah, hope we don't have to use it."

"I second that motion." I replied.

My armament consisted of my M1911 suppressed, and my combat knife. I also carried my Five-seveN, but didn't intend to use it. Bruce carried his FNP-45(also suppressed) and enough C4 to level what was left of the empire.

We stuck to the shadows to avoid the patrolling Hind helicopters. "It's coming this way!" whispered Thunder. The patrolling Helo was about to shine it's light on our position. I thought of my possible solutions and settled on a long shot. I closed my eyes and focused my energy to my horn. Channeling magic to hopefully cloak me and Thunderhead. Thankfully it worked. I opened my eyes and Thunder and I were nowhere to be found. The Hind passed right over us and I released the spell. Thunder slowly materialized into view and I followed suit. "Nice job, whatever it is you did."

"Invisibility spell, just figured it out. Probably going to come in handy." I replied.

"Yeah, we'd better hurry. We're falling behind the timeline." replied Thunder. He was right we were supposed to at least be in the castle searching for the high value individuals. We finally reached the castle, what was left of it, and walked right in. I cast the invisibility spell just to be safe. Good thing too, in the main entrance there were soldiers, griffons and humans. They were definitely Brevinski's mercenaries. My father was right.

"Figures there would be mercs behind all of this." I whispered to Thunder.

"Let's listen in, maybe we can learn something." he replied.

We crawled closer to the group, still invisible, "So we finally get our shot at revenge." said the first griffon.

"We're taking full advantage of it. These weapons rock! Have you seen how easily they tear through ponies?" said another, stroking his AKM.

What he said disturbed me greatly, ponies had died? If so how many?

"Well don't get too excited, Colonel Sombra is going to publicly execute the two ponies who were ruling the empire tommorow and broadcast the footage all over this land. After that, the Human-Griffon Coalition moves into Equestria." said one of the humans.

"Aw yeah, more chances to take revenge on ponies, right?"

"Yeah, General Bellicose wants ten dead ponies for every griffon lost in the war of Equestrian oppression."

War of Equestrian oppression? That's what the griffons called the first Griffon-Pony war, even though they came close to victory.

"Once Sombra has control over the empire again, HGC will use it as the forward operating base into Equestria. Nothing will deny us our revenge."

I whispered to Thunder, "I've heard enough, let's go. We've got a few hours until the prisoners are executed. We'd better find them and hopefully be out of here by then."

We looked around, still under the cover of my invisibility spell, until we found a tunnel leading to an unexplored area. "Any idea as to where that heads?" asked Thunder.

"No, we'd better check it out just so we don't miss anything." I replied.

We followed the tunnel out into what looked like a stadium. Only it was being used as the occupant's vehicle depot. The field was covered with BTRs, BMPs, T-72s and T-90s. Even Mi-24 Hind and AH-6 helicopters. Mobile anti-air vehicles were strewn about as well. Next to a 2K22 Tunguska SAM system I saw the Princess of the Crystal Empire sitting next to the Captain of the Royal Guard. They both looked pretty bad. Of course it is difficult to look good, even for a princess, when your tied and gagged while surrounded by armed guards constantly sneering at you.

"I see 'em, over by the mobile AA gun." I whispered to Thunder.

"Copy your last, how do we get them out of here?" he replied.

"Hmm, good question. Plant C4 on the vehicles as a 'Plan B' if we need it. I'll go sneak up to make sure they're all right." I crawled over to the hostages, still invisible. Halfway there, a voice echoed through the stadium. "All units, report to HQ for the demonstration. Leave the prisoners where they are, they won't be going anywhere anytime soon."

What did he mean by demonstration? Demonstration of Power? That would make sense, but what would be demonstrated? No matter, the patrols walked back up the tunnel leaving me and Thunder alone with our objectives and a vehicle depot rigged with C4. Perfect. Too perfect...

I disengaged my cloaking spell and approached the prisoners, "H-hey, Who are you?" asked Shining Armor. His tone was slightly aggressive and he shifted to put himself in front of Cadance as best as he could.

"I figured you wouldn't recognize me." I replied.

Any aggression melted and he relaxed, recognizing the sound of my voice, "Grayson? Is that you?" he asked, dumbfounded at my presence.

"Yeah it's me. By the way, the name's Shadowstorm." I replied.

"Oh, nice. You're here to get us out, right?"

"Yeah, your sister's worried sick about the both of you."

At the mention of his sister, Shining Armor was once again nervous, "Is Twiliy alright?"

I couldn't help but snicker at the nickname used by Twilight's older brother. For whatever reason, I just found it humorous. "Yes she's fine, a bit worried but safe with the rest of her friends in Ponyville. To my knowledge, the Crystal Empire was the only place that was invaded."

"That's certainly a relief. Do you still want to talk or can we get going."

I had lost track of how long we'd been talking and freed the prisoners as Thunder came up to me, "Explosives planted on the vehicles, we can leave whenever."

"Who's this?" asked Cadance.

Just then, I heard the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the tunnel leading to the field.

"We'll have time for a formal introduction later, follow us and keep quiet. I've got and idea. It's a bit reckless, but stupid enough to where it might just work." I said.

All four of us got down and we crawled with me leading, over towards the helicopters. "Thunder, get the detonator ready. We'll more than likely have to resort to 'Plan B'." I whispered as we all crept behind a stationary Hind. "We're going to 'borrow' an AH-6 and hit Plan B to cover our escape."

"What?" Cadance and Shining whispered in unison.

"Just follow me." I replied.

"Where'd they go?" I turned back to see soldiers beginning to scout the area for the missing hostages.

"Were going to have to pick up the pace, stay low and follow me." I said, climbing back to my hooves and walking in a crouched position. We reached the Littlebird helicopter, I opened the back doors and ushered Shining and Cadance inside. I shut the back door and climbed in the pilot seat. It wasn't my first time flying an AH-6, My grandfather made me learn how to fly helicopters, he was right when he told me it was a useful skill for any military activity.

"Hold on tight to something, this might be a bit turbulent getting out." I advised. I started the engine and ascended as quick as I could. Not without attracting attention of course. The soldiers on the field had opened fire with their assault rifles. It didn't do much against the helo. I got nervous when I saw soldiers running to the AA vehicles, "Thunder, Plan B, do it now!" I exclaimed over the commotion. Thunder was sitting in the co-pilot seat up front and squeezed the remote with his hoof, somehow.

The resulting explosion engulfed everything on the field, nothing was left, soldiers, vehicles, even the fueling tanks were engulfed and added their contents to the inferno. I nearly lost control of the helicopter, but managed to pull it together and flew us right out of the occupied empire, and back into the blizzard. Apart from not being able to see much, The flight was stable and I headed south towards Ponyville.

A flash of bright light emanated from behind us. I turned to see a ball of energy giving out a huge shock wave, "An EMP?" I whispered to myself. The shock wave reached the Littlebird and short circuited everything. We were going down. I blacked out before we hit the ground.

A short time later...

I awoke inside the smoking helo. There was smoke everywhere and I was the only one in the vehicle. I looked around and saw Thunder helping Cadance away from the wreckage. I summoned the energy I had left and climbed out of the wreckage. I saw Shining Armor a short distance away laying face-first in the snow. I assumed he was flung out of the helo as it spun out of control. I ran over to him, "You're still in one piece, get up. Come on, we need to get moving before the search parties get here." I said.

"I, can't move. I think I broke a leg." He uttered. I took a closer look and sure enough, his back left leg was bent in an unnatural position.

"Hold on, I'll be right back." I ran back to the Littlebird crash site which was now on fire, and grabbed the First-Aid kit under the pilot seat. I grabbed a small broken tree branch and headed back to the injured pony. "First, I'm going to cast a painkilling spell, alright?"

"Go ahead," He said between breaths. I tried to cast a spell, but couldn't seem to cast forth any magic. I couldn't even pick up the first-aid kit. "Hey, my magic's not working, can you use yours?" I asked.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, but nothing. "I'm not working either, this is weird." he replied.

"Alright, this next part is going to hurt a bit. I'm going to have to put the broken bone back in to place." I said.

He grabbed the branch and bit down on it, he then closed his eyes and nodded his head. I moved the break back into place with a sickening 'snap'. I heard a muffled scream from the Guard Captain, but the stick did its job and kept it from bursting our eardrums. I took the branch, and used it in a splint with some bandages from the first-aid kit. "Sorry, but I needed to get that back into place so it would heal properly."

Shining's breathing slowed, "Thanks, I'm feeling better already." He tried to get up but struggled when he put weight on his injured leg.

I rushed over and caught him before he fell over again. He draped a foreleg around the back of my neck, "Thanks, for everything."

I let out a small smile, "Anytime."

We limped back to Cadance and Thunder. Shining sat down next to his wife and they embraced each other. I turned to Thunder, "Any injuries?"

He shook his head, "Surprisingly no. You and I are fine, Cadance suffered only a few cuts. It looks like Shining got the worst with his broken leg."

"Hmm. Well we better get moving, They're probably looking for us and I don't think they'll hesitate to kill us on sight." I announced to our party.

(Background music)

We set out in a southernly direction. A bit slower than I would've liked due to Shining Armor and his injury. But we were making progress nonetheless. The blizzard had let up slightly and we were making even better time thanks to the break in the weather. After walking far about an hour in the cold arctic sun, I saw a familiar shape in the distance. It was a brown box with black circles at the bottom. I signaled everpony to follow me towards the Humvee. "What's this?" asked Shining.

"Transportation, we'll be back in a few hours as opposed to a few days." I replied.We loaded into the Humvee and Thunder started driving.

"So, did you learn something about the griffons and humans working together?" I asked.

"They call their alliance HGC, for Human-Griffon Coalition." replied Shining.

"We heard, anything else?" asked Thunder.

"Well, we heard that the griffons have a human advisor, we didn't find his name. Only that invading was his idea and he supplied the weapons." said Shining. Cadance was still pretty quiet, it was understandable, helicopter crashes tend to leave you shaken up for a little while.

"Are these weapons supplied wholly by the griffon's new friends or are they producing their own as well?" asked Thunder.

"The griffons love the new weapons and have been producing more of them here." answered the Guard Captain.

"Figures, I don't know what's really going on but I'm pretty sure the griffons are blinded by the chance at revenge to see it."

"See what?" asked Thunder.

"The human's real intentions, whatever they may be. Humans don't naturally share things, especially military technology. They're giving the griffons everything." I said, trying to piece things together. Griffons are working with humans, humans gave griffons modern military technology. Griffons used human tech to wage a war against Equestria for payback from the first Pony-Griffon war. "Any idea as to what's happened to the ponies that didn't make it out of the empire in time?"

"I heard the soldiers complain about being tired from long walks in the unforgiving weather. They would take prisoners out on marches over the tundra. Every time fewer and fewer ponies returned." replied Shining. This is starting to sound a lot like World War II. The nation starving for revenge, the leader promising it to them by blaming their problems on a race then exterminating it.

"Doesn't this sound familiar?" I whispered to Thunder, he nodded indicating that he saw it too.

We reached the outskirts of Ponyville as the sun was setting, but the snow hadn't let up. The blizzard still raged around the Humvee. I had heard something about the conditions of the Crystal Empire being reflected across Equestria. I guess there was a major snowstorm all over. We drove into town, our first stop being the hospital to get Shining Armor proper medical attention. "Thunder, go inside and tell them we need help."

Thunder nodded and ran inside the hospital. I turned and looked back at our friends in the back, "Besides Shining Armor's leg, Is everything alright?"

Cadance nodded, "I'm fine, just a bit fatigued. A little sleep and I'll be good as new." she said in a forced cheery tone.

"Great, Shining will probably stay in the hospital for a while. Cadance, you'll probably be staying with me and Twilight at the library." A genuine smile flashed on Cadance's face at the mention of her husband's sister,

"It's been a while since I've seen Twilight, I can't wait!" her expression and happiness seemed warm enough to melt the snow and frost surrounding the Humvee.

"I'll probably have to wait until a while to see my sister, It's getting really late." said Shining Armor. Three ponies came out of the hospital, a doctor, a nurse and Thunder.

"Nurse Redheart, get the patient inside and examine the wound." the doctor ordered.

"It's just a broken leg that I put a basic bandage on." I said.

"It looks like the bone was put back into place shortly after it was broken." the nurse stated.

"You're welcome." I said with a smirk.

Shining was carried into the hospital by the medical ponies into the hospital. Cadance was staring at her husband with a worrying expression. "Don't worry he's in good hooves now, let's get back to the library." I said as Thunder climbed back into the driver's seat of the Humvee. We drove the short distance to the library. I got out of the Humvee with Thunder and Cadance following suit. I walked up to the door,

*knock knock knock*, "TWILIGHT?",*knock knock knock*, "TWILIGHT?," *knock knock knock*, "TWILIGHT?"

The door opened to reveal the mare in question, standing in the doorway with a saddened expression on her face. She then recognized the pink alicorn and her expression was immediately replaced with one of joy and relief. "CADANCE!" exclaimed the now overjoyed lavender mare.

The two mares briefly embraced each other than chanted, "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!" The chant had a corresponding routine that consisted of jumping up and down, covering their eyes with their hooves and finally 'doing a little shake' of their backsides in the air. I didn't stare, can't say for certain about Thunder.

"Hey Twilight, I told you I'd be back." I said.

"You said you'd get my brother back safely, Where is he?" asked Twilight, her mood becoming more grim as she realized who wasn't in the library.

"Don't worry, he's in the hospital with a broken leg, that's all." I said.

"Broken leg?" said Twilight, her eyes shrinking to the size of pinpricks.

"Yes, he did get the worst out of all of us, but it's late, we're all very tired. We'll visit him tommorow." reassured Cadance.

I climbed up the stairs and crawled into bed. I heard Thunder say good night and saw him fly away from the window. "Mission accomplished, good work." I whispered to myself as I drifted of to sleep.

The Calm

I awoke with the sun shining brightly in my eyes, "Celestia manages to hit headshots from 93 million miles with the sun, while my best is 300 meters with an M24. Could the Princess of the Sun be a sniper?" I asked myself as I walked down the stairs. "Good morning everypony." I called as I walked into the kitchen.

"Storm, you're finally up." Twilight deadpanned.

"Sorry, I had a busy day yesterday. You know, saving your brother and his wife. I don't typically stick to a normal sleep schedule anyways." I retorted. "So everypony sleep well?"

"Mm-hm, Sleep comes easier when you're not scared for your brother's life." Twilight replied.

"A bed helps too." added Cadance.

"I bet it would, So where's my brother?" I asked. He wasn't at the breakfast table with everyone else.

"He left for school this morning, didn't you hear him say good bye to you? Or were you fast asleep.?" inquired Twilight.

"Given that I could probably sleep through a hurricane, you figure it out. So Raincloud started school?"

"Yes, just this morning. He seems to have become friends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the three fillies you saved from the griffons." replied Twilight.

"Alex did most of the saving. Took down three griffons with his bare hands."

"Still can't believe he took down three Black Talon soldiers without taking a single blow."

"Either the definition of a skilled soldier is different here than where I come from, Alex is better than I give him credit for, or these soldiers really aren't as good as you say they are."

"I told you earlier, those soldiers are the griffon's elite fighting force and the reason Celestia pushed to stay neutral with the Griffon Empire after the Griffon-Pony war." Twilight said.

"Didn't you say you wanted to go visit your brother at the hospital? With only a broken leg he might be out today." I said.

"Maybe, He might know about the griffons and their skill level." Twilight finished. I grabbed a grass pancake and quickly ate it before running out the front door to catch up to Twilight and Cadance.

"Wow, that was fast, if not a little gross.." commented Twilight.

I stopped and quickly wiped my mouth with my hoof. It was a bit sticky from the syrup, but I didn't mind. We trotted off in the direction of the hospital, we passed the school when the kids were on recess. My brother was taking part in what appeared to be a standoff with his three friends against two fillies, both earth ponies, one with a pink coat and purple mane with a white stripe. The other had a grey coat and mane with a slight grey highlight in her mane.

"Wow, you're a blank flank and a different species and you don't have parents?, How much more of a loser could you be?" the pink one spat.

"Yeah your mom probably hated you too." added the grey one. I don't know what gave these kids the right to spout this kind of insults, but I hated it. Twilight stopped and stared not believing what she had just heard. Cadance was about to walk over and give the group a piece of her mind, but I had a better idea, "Wait," she turned and gave me a quizzical look. "I want to see where this goes."

"Are you sure? Those fillies were saying some nasty things to your brother." Cadance replied.

"Exactly, I wonder how he's going to respond."

She turned back to the scene where Raincloud's friends were backing him up, "How dare you even think of saying something like that!" yelled Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah, he's awesome!, and a much better pony then you'll ever be, even if he's also a different species!" added Scootaloo.

And then my brother opened his mouth and astounded the two mares in my group, "I'd rather have no parents than a single father who is too busy greasing his hair and counting his money to properly raise me." Raincloud stared back at his antagonists with a smirk on his face.

Cadance and Twilight stared with wide eyes and open mouths while I just nodded in approval, "Couldn't have said it better myself. Come on, I'm sure Shining Armor is getting bored." We continued to the hospital,

"He really said that..." Twilight muttered.

"Yeah, Sad but true. I'm afraid that neither me or my brother have had anything close to an easy life. Those fillies were almost human like with the amount of venom in their insults." I said.

"And he just let it roll off his back like water." finished Twilight. I had no idea what kind of psychological hurt my brother went through on a daily basis back home. He isn't the most social, he only had one parent. When he lost his mom, he went further into his shell. I couldn't take him in because of my military service. Bruce did me a huge favor by taking him in, for that I can't thank him enough.

"I think having good friends will really help him turn his life around, I haven't seen him so confident around others like this in a long time." I told Twilight. She glanced back at Raincloud, who was currently flanked by his friends, then back to me,

"Believe me, he'll change for the better." she replied.

We reached the hospital at around noon, as confirmed by a quick glance at the sun and it's position in the sky. We walked inside the hospital and outside of the harsh weather. It was still snowing and didn't show any signs of letting up anytime soon. Just as we entered the hospital, a nurse entered the waiting room followed by-

"B.B.B.F.F.!" exclaimed Twilight as she ran to her older brother and wrapped him in a tight embrace. He returned the motion following a pained grunt resulting from the strain placed on his injured leg.

"Back on your own hooves I see."

"Yeah, not for long though, I'm supposed to get into bed as soon as possible and just sit for about three days." he replied.

"Well after all you've been through, a little bit of rest would suit you well. Let's go." I said.

We stepped back into the snow, which was apparently due to the state of the Crystal Empire according to Cadance. She was also unable to use her magic. Most likely something to do with the EMP. We headed back to the library and got Shining Armor into the guest bed that I had been using. Now I would share with my brother for the next few days.

"So none of you can use any of your magic?, Like at all?" asked Twilight.

We all shook our heads, "We lost it when that thing-"

"EMP." I interuppted Cadance,

"Right, EMP went off and crashed the vehicle we were flying in." Cadance finished.

"Hmm, this doesn't make much sense." Twilight mumbled to herself.

It made a little sense to me, and now, more than ever we were at a greater risk of attack. "The EMP did it."

"It took our magic?" asked Shining Armor.

"Yeah, and that's not the worst part. What if they set one off over Canterlot?" I asked.

"The capital city loses power, not much else-" began Cadance.

"Your forgetting about the magic effects, The Princesses are powerless, Canterlot falls. Without a functioning capital the rest of the nation will fall with it. And as your fine country slips into total fucking anarchy, HGC comes knocking." I rarely swore, except when I was really pissed, or drunk. I hadn't any alcohol in months.

Twilight paced around the room nervously, "This is really, really bad. I need to tell Princess Celestia right away!"

There wasn't much she could do. Except for maybe take back the Crystal Empire, but that was unlikely due to the lack of capable troops and technological gap. In most situations, AK-47 > Spear. I suppose I could lend the engineers in Canterlot a few firearms to reverse-engineer for use by ponies, but how long would that take? "I need to take a walk, I'll be back later." I left the library and headed for Rainbow Dash's house.

"Thunder?, You up there?" I called to the cloud home.

"Hey Storm, what's up?" replied my friend.

"Well you are right now, get down here. I gotta tell you about some, well, some bad stuff."

He let out a sigh, "Alright, what's going on."

We started walking, "Well, you know how me, Shining Armor and Cadance couldn't use our magic after the crash?"

"Yeah, she tried to cast a heating spell but she couldn't."

"We lost our magic because of the EMP."

Thunder stopped with his pupils shrinking to a fraction of the normal size, "That's what did it!?" he exclaimed.

I nodded. "Yeah, there's got to be more where that came from. They can essentially disable any city in Equestria they want."

"What the hell are we supposed to do about this?" asked Thunder.

"No clue, warning Celestia would just cause panic. As of now, there's nothing the Royal Guard can do to even impede them in the slightest way. You saw what they did to the Crystal Empire." I said, turning back towards the library. I had taken a few steps then it clicked, "We'll have to do it."

"Do what?" Thunder replied.

"Prepare Equestria for a war on a human level."

Thunder had a nervous expression on his face, "I don't know if we can do that..." he trailed off.

"If you got a better idea, I'd honestly love to hear it."

He let out an exhausted sigh, "The first thing we'll have to do is take back the Crystal Empire."

I grinned, "That sounds better. First thing we do, actually, Is get the Royal Guards into proper equipment and training. Then we take back the Crystal Empire."

"You're right, we'd better do it quickly too. I don't know how much more of this blizzard I can take."

"Amen to that. I'll talk to Shining Armor to see if he's up to it, once he recovers of course."

"See you later Storm." yelled Thunder.

"Catch you later, Thunder." I called as he flew away into the blizzard.

I walked into the library to see Cadance and Twilight sitting on the couch, The pink alicorn had a smile across her face. When the purple unicorn turned towards me, her face went from lavender to a bright crimson. I assumed the conversation involved me, somehow. It wasn't my business so I didn't ask. "Is Shining Armor upstairs?"

"Yes, I think he's bored out of his mind, If you need to talk to him I'm sure he'd appreciate the company." Cadance replied. She took a look at me, then glanced over at Twilight, who still hadn't looked at me since I walked in, back to me, snickered a little, then looked back at Twilight.

Something's up here, but I don't have time to think about that right now. I trotted up the stairs and saw Shining Armor, alone, in my bed, with a guilty look on his face. It took me about two seconds to put the pieces together. I let out an annoyed sigh, "You're married to the Princess of love, why are you still doing that?"

His face turned a bright red, "Well, she's not always available and the broken leg makes it difficult for me to-"

"Woah!, That's enough don't go any further. I'm sorry I asked."

"Yeah, so what did you want?"

"Well, we figured out that we're screwed unless we take back the Crystal Empire. We can't do that with what you know as the 'military'. We can do this, but we'll have to do this my way." I said.

The Guard Captain laid back on his pillow, "What do you mean, 'your way'?"

I drew my Five-seveN, "Well for starters, you'll need to learn how to use these."

He took the handgun in his hoof and examined it, then set it in a drawer in the night stand. "Well, I guess when I get better I'll have to talk to the Princess about it."

I shook my head, "There's no time for that, either we start now or it could be too late."

"I'll be back on my hooves in just under two days, I think we'll be fine."

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"If I think otherwise, I'll go insane." he replied.

"Too true, so you're up for it?"

"You bet, I'll get the guard back in Canterlot in this too. Well need all the horsepower we can get our hooves on."

"Thanks, that will really make things easier for everypony."

"No problem, friend."

I was descending the stairs but stopped at the word 'friend'. I turned back to him, "You consider me a friend?"

"Any reason I shouldn't?"

"No." I'm good at using one word answers.

My intention was to replace the Royal Guard with something more suitable for the new age of warfare coming to this land. I hope they're ready for it. I trotted past Cadance and Twilight who were still sitting on the couch. Cadance giggled a bit as I looked at Twilight who did her best to avoid all eye contact with me. I went down into the basement. When the Humvee was moved into the forest, all of the munitions were moved into the library basement. I climbed into the bed and fell asleep instantly. I started to have another dream. I had the same feeling that I did when my father communicated with me last time, only now I could tell there was somepony with me in my dream. I couldn't see her, but I could tell that standing next to me was a certain navy-blue alicorn.

The Coming Storm

"Son..." My father's voice washed over me, giving me a renewed sense of strength, but also making me ask a burning question I've had for a while.

"Dad?, How are you talking to me?" I yelled into the abyss.

"I'm not. What you are hearing is a manifestation of thoughts and observations you might have missed, but your sub-conscience picked up and saved." replied my father's voice.

"So basically, I'm hearing myself?"

"Correct." the one-word reply came not from my father, but from the Alicorn Princess of the Night, who positioned herself next to me, just barely in my field of vision.

"Luna?, what are you doing here? How are you here? Why are you-"

"I am the Princess of the Night. Tis my duty to observe key subjects in their slumber. In your case, I decided to visit out of curiosity. I, as well as my sister, are wondering greatly what you are up to at this time. We see that you rescued our niece from the Crystal Empire, we are in your debt once again." said Luna.

"Well that answers a few questions actually. But what does my sub-conscience need to tell me?" I yelled into the abyss.

"Train, and train hard. These ponies are willing to defend this land with their lives, you need to prove to them that they can." replied my father's voice.

"We still don't have our magic, what's the deal with that?" I asked.

My father replied, "Soon it will be back. Time is a very effective medicine if you let it do it's job."

I felt the scene begin to fade away, the sun was rising and I would soon awake, "Wait! I have more questions!"

"You will answer them yourself, In due time however..."

I awoke with a start, "Luna?" I looked around the basement now loaded with weapons and ammunition, but the Princess of the Night was nowhere to be found.

"Grayson? Are you up? Why are you looking for Luna?" asked a small purple scaly figure.

"Hey Spike, Luna visited me in my dream last night. Wanted to see what I was up to."

"Oh, That's it? She visited my dream once." replied Spike.

"What'd she say?"

"That I don't have a chance with Rarity..." He trailed off.

"Wait, you mean-"

"Yeah, I kind of have this crush on her. Please don't tell anypony!, I mean, I'm pretty sure she knows but just to be safe-"

"Isn't she a bit old for you?" I inquired.

"Well actually, with the way dragons age, we're not as far apart as you might guess."

"Alright then, your secret is safe with me."

I leaped out of bed, quietly setting my feet on the ground and resetting the sheets with my hands so as not to disrupt my sleeping brother, and followed the dragon upstairs. I stepped into the main room of the library to see Bruce showing Shining Armor how to use a handgun.

"So you take the magazine and insert it into the gun like so," Bruce slid the magazine of .45 ACP ammunition into his FNP. Shining Armor copied the motion with his Five-seveN.

"Alright, now I push the little lever," Shining Armor said as he racked the slide into position. "and I'm ready to go."

"Now to unload it, push the mag release," Shining Armor looked over at him with a lost expression, "The little button on the side."

Shining nodded and ejected the magazine. "There's still a round in the chamber, pull the slide back to eject it." I said. He nodded at me and pulled back the slide, ejecting the 5.7x28mm round. It landed with a faint rattle. Spike picked up the round as he walked past,

"So this can kill things," he said as he examined the bullet.

"Yes, give it back and go eat breakfast." I said. I wasn't normally demanding like this, but I was tired. Spike surrendered the round to me and I placed it back into Shining Armor's pistol magazine.

"Tip, keep out of reach of children." I told him. He nodded and walked down to the basement with Bruce.

I followed them into the basement where Bruce had grabbed his rifle of choice, an HK416 fitted with a foregrip and AimpointCompM4 sight. Shining Armor was looking around at the wide selection of rifles. He settled on a SCAR-L with an ACOG sight.

"So what's the plan here?" I asked. Shining Armor was examining his rifle as I walked over and equipped my ACR.

"We need to train a few ponies as drill instructors then let them train the majority of the new army." said Bruce.

"How long's that going to take?" I asked.

"About a week for the first guys, give or take. So long as we train them like Bruce has been training me." Shining said.

I'm a capable soldier, there's no denying that. But Drill Instructors are much different. If they could take some kid fresh out of High School and turn them into a trained killer, I suppose I could show some technicolor ponies how to at least defend themselves.

"Alright, I have a feeling it's going to be a long few weeks." I said.

So there we were, in Canterlot. Shining Armor and Cadance had moved from the library back to Shining's old place in Canterlot. Five days after Shining Armor first picked up his Five-SeveN, he was screaming at recruits like any respectable Drill Instructor. Me and Bruce were whipping ponies into shape as well, surprisingly not very many had broken down in tears. I heard a few muffled sobs emanating out of the bunks at night, but that was it. Today was the last day of all-out drills for me. While these newbies lacked the combat experience, they could at least teach each other the basic skills of fighting.

The last group was an interesting one, "Welcome to, Pull the Trigger, 101. I notice a lot of you seem to, for lack of a better term, do it wrong."

The recruits glanced among themselves, a blue unicorn with purple eyes and a mane of light blue and white who had an annoying habit of talking to herself in the third person. A brown earth pony with an hour glass cutie mark. And a Minotaur. Yeah, Minotaur. A bit full of himself, but could definitely hold his own.

"Whenever you fire on your targets, you never aim down your sights so you spray bullets all over the place and all you end up doing is wasting ammo." I concluded.

We were training in a warehouse on the outskirts of Canterlot. We had set up a camp just outside the city for a makeshift training ground, it provided us with sufficient space and was far enough away not to disturb the daily city activities. The recruits consisted of Royal Guards and other ponies who wanted to fight for their nation. Rarity had been generous enough to aid in designing uniforms for us. As of now they were a black and white tiger stripe pattern for the wintry conditions around the Crystal Empire, as that where our first mission would take place.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie disagrees. I don't waste ammunition, the rounds passing by the enemy must surely scare them to the point of forcing them to take cover." said the most annoying recruit ever.

"Sure, suppressing targets can have an effect on them, but if you took the time to aim down your sights, from a stable stance, you can actually hit your targets as opposed to letting them barely escape."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will humor you by trying to do as you say. My methods are still far superior." Good grief that mare doesn't shut up.

She took her TAR-21 assault rifle and approached the targets, stopping at the line of sandbags. She raised the rifle to her face and lined up the sights with the target. She opened fire and hit her target, there's a first for everything.

"It appears you were right, patience when taking shots is important after all. Thank you, Grayson." Said the Great and Sharpshooting Trixie.

"Alright, if it worked for her, it'll work for you. Show me what you've learned."

The last two scrambled to the sandbags and finished off the remaining targets.

"Nice work, you've dramatically improved in, everything really, Now head on over to the pit, Celestia wants to see you all run the course to make sure she's not throwing resources at nothing." I said. They ran off to run the course while I went up to the observation area of the course. I was at the stairs leading up and Bruce walked up. "So, how's it going on your end?" I asked.

"Not bad. For not having hands, these ponies can handle firearms pretty well."

"Iv'e seen some unicorns holding their weapons with magic, but most of them prefer to hold them with their forelegs and shoot that way." replied Bruce.

I imagined a squadron of unicorns pinned down behind cover and returning fire with floating rifles whilst laying prone. I chuckled at the thought. "To be honest, I don't care how they hold them. If they can consistently hit their targets it's fine by me. So where's Shining Armor?"

"He's up in observation. Is it just me or does he remind you of Johnson?"

I stopped halfway up the staircase at the mention of my old drill instructor, "So he's been screaming that much?" If there was one thing Sgt. Johnson knew how to do, it was making you feel horrible after making even the smallest mistake. How did he do this? Screamed. Loud. I credit that man with about 50 percent of my minor hearing loss. The other 50 percent is from overall combat, gunshots, explosions. All that good stuff.

"Yeah, that much. He even scares me! Somewhat."

We climbed up the remainder of the stairs to find Princess Celestia sitting inside a circle of royal guards, who would still be around even after the formation of the Equestrian Defense Force(EDF) for ceremonial purposes, and Shining Armor stood at the edge of the observation platform. I walked to get a better view of the course. As I stood next to Shining, I noticed that Trixie was next up. Following after Iron Will, the Minotaur, who had a final time of about 30 seconds.

Shining Armor called to her, "Alright, you know the drill. Timer starts after the first target pops. Good Luck."

Trixie nodded and approached the beginning. The first two paper targets were lifted into view by Shining Armor's magic, "Clear the first area, Go,Go,Go!" he yelled.

Trixie responded with two, controlled three round bursts from her assault rifle. Both targets were down and she was running to the next area: three enemies and two civilians. Trixie was quick in her reactions, she downed two targets with controlled bursts, then after pausing over a civilian cut-out, moved to hit the last target. Now she was on to the final part, the small-two story building with more civilians than enemies.

As she entered the building I saw her remove the weapon's magazine to reload. I quickly yelled, "Just switch to your pistol, it's faster!"

Trixie took my advice and quickly drew her SIG Sauer P220. She entered with the sights raised and I heard her fire three shots. I knew there were three targets on the lower floor so I knew she hadn't messed up. She reached the top floor and downed all four targets on the second floor. After she hit the last target she jumped out the hole in the second floor wall and sprinted to the finish, parallel to the starting position. She clocked in at 25.32 seconds.

"Good hustle, you knew what you were doing." I called to her.

"Yes sir, Thank you sir." She replied. This took me by surprise.

Shining Armor leaned a bit closer to me and said, "I hope you don't mind, I screamed a little respect into her."

"Thanks, I don't know how long it's going to last, but good job."

"So, are we ready to retake the Crystal Empire?" asked Shining.

"I don't know, you saw that they had vehicles and lots of them. Without some vehicles of our own we don't stand much of a chance."

"Well, where will we get our own vehicles?"

I thought for a minute, the only way we could get our own armored vehicles is if we built them. But I'm no engineer, I haven't the slightest clue how we would build tanks, APCs, etc, without any sort of blueprints, schematics or even a vehicle to reverse engineer.

"I haven't a clue." I replied.

"Well, at least we have a strong defense force capable of preventing HGC from gaining any other footholds in Equestria."

"Well so far, that's all we have." I said.

"Is that enough?" He asked.

"I hope so Shining Armor, I hope so."

It was then that Princess Celestia spoke up, "Your recruits certainly appear very capable of defending Equestria, you all have done very well."

The Princess' comment filled me with a strong sense of pride. We could do this, we will protect Equestria. We will succeed in our campaign. "Thank you Princess, I hope this demonstration will let you rest easier."

"It has Grayson, it has." replied the Princess.

I hope if we are invaded again, it won't be soon. But of course, knowing my luck, HGC will strike any day now. At least we're somewhat ready.

Upgrades

Following a short delay due to me retrieving my ACR from it's hiding place outside the forest, I was once again with the Princess and company travelling to the capital city.

"So, Grayson, you mentioned that these 'guns' could grant a small amount of troops lots of power. Can you explain how they work?" I figured Shining Armor would be the one to ask this question, being the Captain of the closest thing resembling a military faction.

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure you won't like it, or at least be somewhat disturbed by all of it."

"I'm Captain of the Royal Guard, I should be knowing of things that are as powerful as you say they are."

"Alright." I pulled back the slide on my M1911, ejecting a round which I picked up and held for the Guard Captain to see. "This is a bullet, when I pull the trigger, it ignites the gunpowder in the shell casing forcing the lead projectile out of the barrel at speeds too fast to be traced by the naked eye. The bullet carries a lot of force behind it, tearing through most anything in it's path. It can pierce living flesh with ease, that's what it was designed for. It can easily puncture vital organs, larger calibers can fracture bone. Bullets can penetrate through thin obstacles like wood, plaster and sheet metal, with little to no resistance. Meaning hiding behind thin cover will only cause visual obstruction to your enemy."

"I'll believe it when I see it." Shining Armor said with a tone of doubt.

"You will, don't worry." I replied with confidence.

Canterlot is a huge city, I couldn't see much from the chariot, but I did see a city much like any capital city, buildings everywhere and upper class citizens holding their heads a bit too high. We finally touched down at Canterlot Castle. What everyone else saw as an impenetrable fortress, I saw as something that tanks, airstrikes and other heavy ordnance could level in minutes.

"Alright, let's see if these weapons can live up to your claims."

I was ready to wipe the grin right off of Shining Armor's face. Me, Princess Celestia, Luna and Shining Armor were deep in the castle labyrinth, while Cadance was resting for her trip back to the Crystal Empire with her husband. I was going to show off my M1911 and ACR, that should be enough to prove my point.

"Are you all ready?" I asked.

"Yes" came the unanimous response.

There was a small unit of six mannequins dressed in standard Royal Guard armor. I was ready to put some holes in the "magically enhanced" armor.

"Alright, here goes." I then opened fire with my ACR, riddling the first three mannequins with 6.8 rounds. After my assault rifle mag ran dry, I quickly switched to my M1911 and finished off the last three with .45 ACP.

I turned to see to see three ponies introducing their jaws to the ground.

"I told you so, Let's go see the extent of the damage." I said, now it was my turn to bear a cocky grin.

After walking 25 meters or so to where the targets were set up, my pony companions decided to to re-introduce the ground with their jaws. Both types of round went right through the armor. On one mannequin I left a shot grouping that resembled a face on what remained of the head. "I already explained how these work, are you really that surprised? Besides, you haven't seen the exit holes yet."

"It went through the other side?" Shining Armor was about to faint, he had never in his "military" career seen or heard of weapons other than swords and spears, let alone automatic rifles.

"You bet, did you honestly think I would show you a big noisemaker?"

"These weapons are quite terrifying, I would hate to have to see what they did on living ponies."

We all turned to face the pink alicorn pony joining us in the labyrinth.

"I woke you up didn't I? Sorry, I thought I warned you." I said apologetically to Cadance, I'd imagine waking the royal pony from her sleep wasn't going to help me with anything, I could only hope it wouldn't hurt me either.

"It's alright, I guess I could have listened." She didn't sound mad, thankfully. I glanced over at Shining Armor who bore a blank expression, hopefully that meant his wife was not about to explode in anger all over me.

"Well, that's one part of my visit done with. Should we move on to the second?" I asked.

"We will, but I believe Cadance and Shining Armor must return to the Crystal Empire to tend to their royal duties." said Princess Celestia.

"She's right, It was nice to meet you Grayson." said Shining Armor walking towards the exit of the labyrinth.

"Yeah, you should really visit us up north sometime." replied Cadance, moving to her husband's side.

I smiled and waved a friendly goodbye then turned to Celestia, "Crystal Empire? Sounds interesting, maybe i'll visit someday."

"Yes, to get there you must first pass through a barren arctic tundra, but if you can handle that you are rewarded with one of the most beautiful places in Equestria. Now Grayson, we must grant you your second wish, your reward for saving my prized student."

"I thought after seeing my weapons in action you would understand that it wasn't really that hard. It was pretty easy, I still don't get why you are going through this much trouble just for me, or how you you can accept the fact that I saved your pupil by killing my enemies."

The royal sisters exchanged uncomfortable glances, then Celestia turned to me and said, "I accept your actions because they were of necessity, there wasn't much you could do in your situation, but I'm glad you did what you could to rescue my student, speaking of whom, I think she may like you a little." Celestia grinned as she said the last part.

"As a friend? Of course." I replied.

"I think a little more than that." Luna said, a playful smirk on her face.

"Interesting, May we move on now?"

"Oh, yes of course. I will now cast a spell turning you into a pony, I don't know which race for sure, but I do know regardless, you will have the ability to change back at anytime by focusing intensely on your old form." said the Solar Princess, her horn glowing a vivid yellow. I felt a warm sensation spreading through my body, I was floating in the air, then I blacked out.

I awoke in what I assumed to be the princess's royal chambers. Celestia and Luna were standing over me, smiling as usual.

"So how do I look?" I asked.

"Why don't you get out of bed and see?" replied Celestia.

I shoved the bed covers off of me and stood on four legs for the first time. I was a bit wobbly at first. But was walking like a normal pony in a no time at all. I'm a fast learner, what can I say?

I then looked in the mirror and stood for a few seconds, taking in my new form.

In the mirror a saw a unicorn with a grey coat and a flowing jet black mane with streaks of my natural red hair. I kept my emerald green eyes and serious expression. But strangely, I hadn't an emblem on my flank like everyone-er, everypony else. "Princess, Is there any reason I don't have a marking on my flank?"

"The mark you speak of is called a cutie mark and only appears after a pony discovers their special talent." Celestia answered.

Special talent? I'm surprised it wasn't a rifle or crosshair or something to do with special forces, or military in general.

"Oh well, I'm sure it will appear eventually."

"That's the spirit! Now get some rest. The next few days you will spend here learning the basics of magic from me."

"Will I have to write letters to you every so often like Twilight?"

"No. Don't tell her I said this but, I don't actually read most of Twilight's letters." The Solar Princess replied, softly chuckling.

"Okay then, thanks for everything Princess, really, It means a lot."

"Please, you may just call me Celestia, like my friends."

"You consider me a friend?"

"Why yes, of course. Now rest, it's getting late and there's lots of basic magic I want to begin teaching you tomorrow."

"Okay, Celestia." It felt weird not addressing her as princess, but I would eventually adjust.

"Your room is just down the hall, I'll be there first thing in the morning."

I went down to my room and crawled into bed. I fell asleep instantly without getting to look around too much.