A New Field

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.