Victor Squad: New Frontier

Chapters

Chapter 2: General Grievous in Equestria
Chapter 3: Victor Squad
Chapter 4: Landing at They Don't Know Where
Chapter 5: Friend or Fiend?
Chapter 6: Grievous' Public Appearance
Chapter 7: The Day the Moon Fell
Chapter 8: In the Aftermath of it All
Chapter 9: Confessions
Chapter 10: Abandonment Issues
Chapter 11: Alignment
Chapter 12: Live and Let Spy
Chapter 13: Bogged
Chapter 14: Intersection— Part 1
Chapter 15: Impressions
Chapter 1: New Frontier

Chapter 2: General Grievous in Equestria

~~~Canterlot Tunnel System, Canterlot, 6 hours and 40 minutes after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Compared to the glistening whites and purples of the spires that dotted Canterlot, the tunnels that currently held Grievous, his company of droids, and his escort of guards were dull, dim, and spooky to the less hardened individuals. Grievous's walk to the throne room had gone underground almost instantly, so as to avoid terrorizing the citizens that were enjoying their war-free lives above them.

The group had been walking through the tunnels for around ten minutes. During that time, one of the less experienced guards had attempted to start some sort of conversation with the droids and Grievous once or twice, but was either shushed immediately by one of the higher ranked guards, or was ignored completely. No further attempts at conversation were made, and now the only sounds that they made were the sounds of their hooves, pointed metal talons, and feet on the smooth stone surface.

Several minutes later, the group approached a short staircase with a closed trapdoor at the top. One of the guards took the initiative to open the door and run ahead to inform the princesses that they had a visitor. The process of climbing the staircase was unexpectedly and embarrassingly more complex than it should have been. One of the magna guards hit its head on the ceiling as it climbed the stairs, causing it to stumble back a step. This wouldn't have mattered too much had the stairs been sized for the feet of a magna guard. But they were pony sized, and therefore, the magna guard's step back caused to lose its balance entirely, falling into one of the commando droids that was close behind it.

After a few more failed attempts, some pushing, and moving limbs in directions that would have destroyed them had they been biological, the droids and ponies found themselves in one of the castle's storage rooms. It was large enough to hold them all and a large supply of boxes and barrels, and thankfully had a ceiling tall enough to accommodate the mechanical behemoths.

One of guards cleared his throat. "Alright Grievous, we're close to the princesses. You've been compliant so far, so I doubt this warning will be necessary, but should you do anything suspicious, you will be apprehended and imprisoned until we decide what to do with you."

Grievous looked down at the guard, uninterested, and said nothing.

"Right..." the guard continued awkwardly. "Let's continue."

The walk through Canterlot Castle was significantly livelier than the one in the tunnels just minutes before. Grievous continued to walk hunched over slightly with his hands clasped behind his back. He still had nothing to say, but at least he had something to look at. Something impressive to look at. The brick walls that surrounded him were massive, a common feature of most palaces, and seemed to glow with an uplifting white light. Large windows lined some of the more busy hallways that the group walked through, permitting generous amounts of bright sunlight in. Other corridors were lined with stained glass windows depicting what Grievous assumed were important ponies and events from the land's history.

Around him, guardsponies patrolled and servants hurried about, casting glances towards him and the droids as they passed. Some, mostly the guardsponies, looked with curious or angry glances, which Grievous easily ignored. What Grievous couldn't ignore were the looks of absolute fear given unto him by the servants and other nonmilitary ponies. He couldn't tell whether to be proud of this, since that would mean that his mechanical body was working properly, or ashamed, since he obviously was making poor impressions. After some consideration, Grievous determined that the thoughts of lowly servants were negligible, seeing as he really only needed approval from the princesses.

Mentioning the princesses in his thoughts reminded him that Dooku still hadn't told him why he was interested in them; Grievous was only told that the war effort may depend on his success, and that he was to let Dooku speak to the princesses. A wise decision; Grievous was not a fan of diplomacy.

Grievous and company turned another corner before stopping abruptly. The guards that had been escorting him snapped to attention and gave a salute to the pony that blocked their path.

"At ease, soldiers," said the pony as he stepped forward. This pony was obviously important; he had an all-white coat covered in a suit of purple armor with gold trim. He stood a couple inches taller than the ponies around him. He wore no helmet, and instead allowed his medium length mane of varying shades of blue blow with the gentle breeze coming from the nearby open windows. Grievous was about to note how this pony's horn was slightly longer than the horns of other horned ponies (Unicorns. They're called unicorns, Grievous remembered), he had seen, but his mental processes were interrupted when the pony spoke.

"Hello. I'm Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard, the protective forces of Princess Celestia. I've been told by Private Longbow here," Shining Armor gestured to the guard behind him, the guard who had gone ahead several minutes ago, "that you are seeking an audience with our Princess. Before I let you into the throne room, I'd like you to introduce yourself and state your business here in Equestria."

Grievous was impressed with the bravery shown by the captain; he showed no signs of fear or hesitation. Out of respect, Grievous complied. "I am General Grievous of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, CIS for short. My business is to meet with your leader."

Shining Armor's brow lowered, and with agitation in his voice, he replied "I'm aware of that. Be more specific."

"My master has not provided me the details pertaining to the nature of my visit," Grievous responded, growing impatient.

Shining Armor moved his head out a little, gaze narrowing further. "That's awfully suspicious. How are we supposed to trust you when even your mas-"

His statement was cut off by a loud, low growl from the general. "Listen here, captain," Grievous said with a raised voice. "I know not what my master has planned for your princess, but it shouldn't matter. I am aware of good intentions; that is all." He let his words linger before adding "And even if I was told to attack your princess, I have no weapons, so I doubt that I could do harm." What a lie.

The pony put a hoof to his chin and hummed in thought for a moment. "I do suppose you're right, Grievous. Come, let's see Celestia."

~~~Throne Room, Canterlot, 7 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

The massive wooden doors creaked open, glowing with an aura matching the pinkish glow coming from Shining Armor's horn. Grievous, his droids, and the now dozens of guards accompanying him entered the castle's grand throne room. They stepped onto a long and wide red carpet. It stretched from the doorway to the base of the immaculate golden throne in the back of the room. The throne was empty, but to its right stood the most unusual pony Grievous had seen yet. The pony, which Grievous assumed was the princess, was facing away from the group who had entered the room, gaze focused out of one of the many windows that covered the walls of the throne room. Its coat was the purest white, with the exception of what Grievous assumed was a sun-shaped tattoo on its butt. Its mane was long and was patterned with four stripes in the colors of light blue, light green, bluish purple, and a darker shade of pink. Its tail had a similar coloring to it, and both its mane and tail seemed to move and flow of its own accord. The pony had a large set of wings, but strangely, it also bore a horn that seemed disproportionately long relative to the size of its skull.

"Princess Celestia, this is General Grievous of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the one who wished an audience with you," Shining Armor spoke.

Celestia turned away from the window that she had been staring out of to look upon the newcomers. Now that she was facing him, Grievous could pick out more distinguishing features, such as the gilded horseshoes and other accessories she wore. What struck him most were her eyes. They were a deep purple, and radiated an air of age, wisdom, and experience. They were beautiful in a way, but also sad.

"Grievous it is a pleasure to meet you," Celestia said.

"Likewise," Grievous said after a moment of hesitation.

Shining Armor spoke up. "Grievous doesn't seem to be one for small talk, princess. Perhaps it would be best to get straight to the point?" he inquired.

"Yes, I'd like to make this as quick and painless as I can," Grievous agreed. Before the princess could respond, he reached for a small, round device attached to his waist. He grasped it and threw it to the floor a few feet from the princess. The guards in the room tensed and raised their weapons.

"My master is the one who wishes to speak to you, Celestia, but he is unable to come here in person. He has sent me in his stead, and will be contacting us in a few minutes at the most," Grievous elaborated.

As if on cue, the device Grievous had thrown came to life, emitting a life sized hologram of a hooded figure. "Greetings, Princess Celestia," said the figure as it pulled down its hood.

It was Dooku.

Dooku's hologram glanced around to observe his surroundings. He was met with the stares from many a confused guardsponies. Even Shining Armor was taken aback at the thought of something as big as the hologram (obviously not knowing that it was a projection, not actual matter) coming out of such a tiny...thing.

"Celestia, before our meeting continues, I would like to request that your guards leave us. The information I have for you is highly classified and sensitive. For now, it would be wise for only you and perhaps your most trusted soldier to hear this. I can assure you that Grievous will not bring harm upon you." The hologram said the last sentence with a wave before putting both hands between its back and cape.

She complied, and all the guards filed out except for Shining Armor. A soundproofing ward was placed over the doors to ensure that none of the guards were eavesdropping.

Dooku watched Celestia place the ward, staring intently at her horn as the spell was cast, a smirk slowly forming on his face until Celestia returned her attention to his hologram. His face quickly regained its unreadable stoic expression, and his gaze fixed back to Celestia's face. "Princess Celestia, allow me to introduce myself. I am Count Dooku, though may also hear me called Darth Tyrannus. Either is fine. And this, my ambassador," he gestured towards Grievous before returning his hand to behind his back, "is Grievous, as you already know. I am the head of a grand organization called the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and Grievous is the general of its armies. We have grave news to share with you."

"Please do explain what your Confederacy accomplishes, Count Dooku," Celestia stated.

"Very well. The Confederacy is a large alliance of planetary systems in a galaxy not far from your planet, relatively speaking. Almost every planet in the Confederacy is ruled by a monarchy or a diarchy, like yours, and are independent from each other except in military. Our goal is to cleanse our galaxy of a vile organization called the Republic and their allies, the Jedi. They are troublemakers; they invade Confederate systems and overthrow the monarchs, then try to establish their slow and ineffective democracy."

"That's all fine and well, Count, but I'm not seeing how Equestria fits into this. I hope you don't mean to bring us into your conflict," Celestia responded, clearly confused and irritated.

"Dear Celestia, I'm afraid you've already been drawn in."

Celestia cocked an eyebrow; Shining Armor visibly tensed.

"As you may or may not have been able to figure out, my civilization has mastered interplanetary travel. And, regrettably, the Republic has found your planet."

In Celestia's mind the pieces of what Dooku had told her clicked together.

"Our ships followed a Republic vessel into your planet's space and managed to prevent it from landing on your planet, but they will send more ships in your direction," Dooku continued.

"And what would happen if the Republic were to successfully land on this planet?" Celestia queried.

Dooku lowered his head slightly and frowned. "They would land and send out their troops. They would work to remove you and your sister from your seats of power, most likely by killing you, and then establish their own leaders. They would kill any who oppose them. Chaos would spread throughout Equestria."

Celestia cringed as Dooku said this.

"But they wouldn't stop there. No, their hunger for power is insatiable," Dooku said with disgust. "Once your kingdom is in ruins, they would spread their efforts to the other nations of this planet, if they haven't already crumbled by the time Equestria falls." Dooku raised his head and stared at Celestia intently.

"Your conflict is violent? This is...an unsettling revelation. I have two more questions for you before you are dismissed: first, what are the Jedi? And second, why are you telling me this?"

"The Jedi are self-proclaimed peace-keepers; soldiers for peace. But they do not see that they are actually monsters, driven by lust for power and control. I could tell you of their horrible deeds all day, but I believe Grievous would give a better account of the atrocities that the Jedi perform."

Dooku looked to Grievous after finishing his sentence. He was seething in rage, likely reflecting on the day the Jedi stripped him everything he held dear. Dooku smirked before looking back to the princess. "To answer your second question, I tell you this because I wish to offer my services at protecting your country."

Grievous and Shining Armor looked at the hologram, shocked. Celestia began to listen more intently.

"The Confederacy is a generous organization; we are willing to assist any system with repelling the Republic. And though it may seem disrespectful, I must assume that your army is not strong enough to resist the Republic for any extended period of time."

"Hey!" Shining Armor objected, offended. "My Royal Guard is the finest military institution from all of this planet's kingdoms!"

Grievous gave an amused laugh. "Foolish pony. The Republic has machines that fly in space; would it only make sense that they have similarly advanced weapons?"

"I-I guess?" Shining Armor stuttered.

"Enough!" Celestia intervened. "Your petty rivalries can wait till after this situation has been handled." She turned to Dooku. "I am appreciative of your offer; certainly you request something in return for your services?"

"Nothing too extreme, dear princess. All that I need in return is access to whatever is required to establish effective counter-resistance measures. More specifically, all I need is permission to use your airspace freely, as well as permission to station troops where Grievous sees fit. He is my general after all. Which reminds me. Should you accept my offer, Grievous, my best soldier, will be staying to organize the defenses, and perhaps he can better your army. He is...exceptionally skilled with his trade." Dooku stood silent for a moment, contemplating an idea. "In fact, I believe that I could provide your civilization with some of our technologies if you're willing to house Grievous for the duration of his stay."

Now it was Celestia's turn to contemplate. She sat for several long moments that eventually dragged into minuets. Dooku had provided him with some dreadful information; she didn't want to think about the kind of anarchy that the Republic was bound to bring upon her fair country. But then again, she didn't know whether or not anything that Dooku had said was true.

Celestia decided that such a decision could not be left to her alone. It would be best to consult with Luna and get her opinion. After all, her voice, though louder and Royal Canterlot, was just as important as Celestia's, especially in a matter as significant as this.

"I thank you for the information, Count Dooku," Celestia started. "I will take everything you've said into consideration. However, with you being a leader, you must understand that choices such as this must not be made too hastily and ill informed. If it is within your patience, I'd like to discuss this with my sister, Luna, and get her view on the situation, before coming to an agreement."

"I understand perfectly, dear Celestia. However, I must warn you to not take too long. Grievous may be needed back here soon, and should that be the case, we will be unable to provide you with protection."

A muffled and incomprehensible droid voice could be heard in the background from the hologram, and Dooku's attention was pulled away from Celestia for a few seconds. Once the droid had finished its business, Dooku returned his attention to Celestia. "I apologize if I have not been able to satisfy your inquiries, Celestia, but I have urgent matters that I must attend to. If you have any more questions, Grievous will answer them to the best of his abilities. I await your decision."

The hologram cut out, producing loud static, but "choose wisely" could be faintly heard over it. Grievous went and retrieved the hologram-emitting device from the floor and placed it back onto his waist. He strode back to his original spot and looked at Celestia expectantly. "Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"As of right now, I'd like to think over what I've been told," she replied. "I am interested in hearing your story with the Jedi. However, that should wait until later; perhaps during dinner?"

Grievous grunted. "Very well."

"Excellent. Shining Armor, why don't you find a room for Grievous and each of his men, then show them around the castle. Provide them with the greatest hospitality Canterlot has to offer."

"Yes, your highness," Shining Armor agreed.

"I'll send a servant to fetch you when it is time to eat. In the meantime, enjoy yourself," Celestia said as Shining Armor, Grievous, and his droids departed.

Once they were out of the company of Celestia, Shining Armor turned to Grievous and his droids and said "I'll find a room for each of you, then have everything of yours delivered to them."

"My droids need only one room," Grievous said.

"But...don't they all need a bed to sleep on? And a bathroom? And-"

Grievous cut him off by saying "They are droids; they do not have biological needs, and don't need beds."

Shining Armor stared awkwardly at the droids following Grievous before turning back to Grievous, saying "Okay then...whatever you say; you know them better than I do."

~~~Canterlot Castle Sparring Grounds, Canterlot, 8 hours and 25 minutes after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Grievous watched as Shining Armor went through basic spear drills with his men...er, ponies. They moved well in sync, but were still far inferior to his droids. He had been watching them for around a half hour, silently analyzing them and their fighting style. Based on what he could judge, they fought using old, primitive block formations, placing their spear-holders in the front with their archers in the back.

After another five minutes of instruction, the soldiers took a break. Shining Armor walked up to Grievous, evidently fatigued, but satisfied. "Well, now that you've seen some of my forces in action, what do you think?" he asked, eager to hear the general's compliments.

Grievous took a moment to word his response correctly before replying. "Your guard is ill suited for combat."

The guard captain froze for a second before glaring at Grievous accusingly. "What's wrong with my forces?"

"Your spear wielding technique is wrong and doesn't allow for maneuverability; your aerial troops are not being utilized correctly; your ground formation is suicidal; your equipment is subpar, and your soldiers are weak."

"My men are not weak!" Shining retaliated. "They are strong, devoted, courageous, and smart! They-"

"Prove it, then," Grievous challenged. "Have your best soldier spar me, and I'll judge how strong and smart they are. Or even better, spar me yourself, and show all your men how courageous you are."

"Alright then, we'll spar right now," he agreed.

"Excellent," Grievous said in an amused tone. "I'm feeling generous right now; I'll refrain from using any weapons."

A few minutes later, Grievous and Shining Armor found themselves in a small patch of dirt outlined by a painted white circle. Grievous stood hunched with his hands behind his back, as per usual. Shining Armor stood opposite of him, dressed in is entire suit of armor, steel-tipped spear held in his right hoof. Another pegasus guard stood in the middle, wearing standard guard gold, but with a black and white striped plume instead of the typical blue.

"Alright, here are this match's rules," the guard started. "You may use any tactics to incapacitate your opponent except for choking, limb-breaking, or other such forms of lingering bodily injury. If a strike you launch would be the lethal blow, you are to halt your attack and announce 'dead', indicating the end of the spar. Understood?"

The combatants grunted in understanding.

"Begin!"

But aside from Shining Armor hefting his spear, neither of them moved. They stood still, gazes unwavering, waiting for the other to strike first. Grievous' patience gave out after a couple minutes of staring, and he made deliberately slow steps toward Shining Armor. Between each step, he straightened himself and let his arms drop to his sides. By the time he was within Shining Armor's reach, he stood at his maximum six and a half feet tall. He glared down at Shining, admiring the fear shown on his face. Obviously, confronting him to chat was much less nerve racking than confronting him in combat, even though it was simulated.

Shining Armor's resolve broke and he panicked, thrusting his spear up towards Grievous' chest. Before Shining Armor could react, Grievous had grabbed and snapped off the tip of his spear, and now had it pointed towards his unprotected face.

"Dead," Grievous said simply.

Shining needed to spend a few moments composing himself after having had his life flash before his eyes. He looked up to Grievous, who had by now retreated a couple steps and had tossed away the tip of Shining's spear. "Again," Shining requested. The crowd of guards around them looked amongst each other with concern in their eyes.

"Yes, sir," the pegasus from earlier acknowledged.

Once again, Grievous and Shining Armor faced each other in the same circle. This time, Grievous stood at his tallest, arms hanging to his sides. Shining Armor had equipped himself with a sword this time, and had removed his helmet.

"Rules from the previous spar are still in effect," the referee pegasus noted. "Begin."

This time, Shining Armor made the first move. Gripping his sword in his mouth, he charged straight for Grievous. Grievous lunged at Shining, stretching out his left arm to grab him by the head. His arm was inches away from Shining when he suddenly disappeared in a flash of white light. Grievous stumbled forward and fell, maneuvering himself so he landed on his back. Above him, Shining Armor reappeared, dropping quickly with his sword aimed for Grievous' chest. Grievous lifted a leg, grabbing the end of Shining's sword with his taloned foot, and yanked it out of Shining's mouth, bending the blade as he did so. Immediately afterwards, Grievous' other leg rose and snatched Shining out of the air, talons clamped firmly around the entirety of his head. Shining's momentum carried his body down, pulling hard against his neck, causing it to crack and giving him pain.

So there Grievous lay, resting on his back, with one leg raised holding a struggling Shining Armor in its grip. Deciding to stand and end this quickly, Grievous twisted his head and hips around, simultaneously splitting and lifting himself with his arms. Grievous looked towards the terrified guards before flipping himself upright on his feet, body twisting back into place and arms reconnecting. He made sure not to put his weight on the foot that still held Shining Armor, who had now been forced to the ground with the general standing on top of him.

"Dead," Grievous said again. To emphasize this, he leaned a little harder on the leg holding Shining Armor, putting pressure on his skull. He released Shining Armor after a couple seconds of crushing him. Shining Armor refrained from moving any part of his body except for his eyes, looking up towards the now leaving Grievous, petrified. He lay there, unmoving, until the referee came to help him up. Shining didn't need the help; Grievous had left his body unharmed. He took the help anyways, as to not be rude. After dusting himself off quickly, he looked in Grievous' direction, and saw him heading back to his temporary chamber, resuming his typical posture.

"That guy's got skill," was all that the referee could think of saying.

"Perhaps too much skill for us to be safe," Shining Armor responded. He then began to trot after Grievous, catching up to him within a few seconds. "Hey where are you going?"

"Back to my quarters," Grievous answered without facing him.

"I must admit, I underestimated you," Shining said while rubbing a part of his face that was beginning to grow irritated due to the tight clamping it had just experienced. "You put up a good fight."

They had reached the door to Grievous' room. He opened the relatively small door, and stooped into his room. "You didn't," he said before tossing the door closed behind him.

~~~Canterlot Castle Banquet Hall, Canterlot, 13 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

It was evening now; more precisely, it was the time that two very important alicorns had their supper. Tonight, however, they had more than just the company of their servants to dine with. Tonight, Celestia and Luna were prepared for several more mouths to feed.

Grievous had been in his room since his spar with Shining Armor, and spent his time going over how weak he and his men were, and how to improve them. Ten minutes ago, he had received a message from one of the servants, telling him that he was wanted at the banquet hall.

He now stood in front of the doors to the hall. Unlike most doors in the castle, these were tall enough to accommodate his height without him needing to lean forward. He pushed the doors apart, shocking the servant who had led him there, since none were known to be strong enough to push the solid chunks of wood without magical assistance, and stepped in.

Before him stood a medium sized rectangular table. Upon it were several platters of variously prepared vegetables and glasses of water for the ones who were seated around it. He saw Celestia sitting at the head of the table, with who Grievous assumed was Luna, her sister, to her right. To Celestia's left was another alicorn with a pink coat and a gold, pink, and purple striped mane. To that alicorn's left sat Shining Armor, looking slightly glum and upset. Across the table from Celestia sat another chair that was empty, presumably his. He approached the table unspeaking, and looked down to find that is reached to just above his knees. He continued to stare at the short table, confused on how to handle his seating arrangement. The pink alicorn gave a soft giggle as she noticed the height disparity between him and the table.

Finally, Grievous opted to take the chair he was provided with and place it next to Luna before sitting as cross-legged as his legs allowed where his seat used to be. He looked up and turned to meet the gazes of the three alicorns looking at him and the zoning-out Shining Armor. He waited for one of them to begin conversation, though was content with remaining silent.

Celestia was the first to say something. "Welcome, Grievous. I'm glad you could join us. I don't believe you've met everpony here, so please allow me to introduce them. "This is my sister, Princess Luna," she said nodding towards Luna, "and this is Princess Cadence, Shining Armor's wife," she said, this time indicating the pink alicorn. Grievous gave a nod to each as they were introduced.

"I'm General Grievous, Supreme Commander of the Separatist droid army," Grievous replied.

"It is a pleasure for us to meet thee, General Grievous," Luna chimed, though the volume more closely resembled someone hitting a bass drum as hard as they could. "Sorry," she said quietly after catching herself using the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"Yes, it's very nice to meet you," Cadence said light-heartedly, smiling. "Shiny here told me about how you spent afternoon together, and he made you to seem like an interesting character," she said, tone going from serious to irritated as her sentence continued. Shining Armor looked down towards the table as his wife spoke.

"We didn't know what kinds of things composed your diet, so if you have any requests, feel free to request them. What we have here-" Celestia stated before Grievous interrupted her, saying, "I don't eat."

"Certainly thou must hunger though?" Luna part asked, part declared, stunned that a living being didn't need to eat.

"I am artificially sustained. I have no need of food and little need for rest. Also, I physically can't eat, seeing as I have no mouth," Grievous stated.

Cadence spoke up. "I hope you don't feel offended or disrespected by us eating without you."

"Such insignificant things are not a bother to me."

"Teriffic! Then let thine consuming begin!" Luna announced happily, signaling the ponies in the room to begin eating.

For being princesses, the way that Celestia and Luna ate was rather...uncouth. Luna was the worst offender, not using silverware and letting the juices and fluids from her fruits and vegetables spray as she bit into them eagerly and aggressively. Grievous was glad that he was so distant from the lunar princess. Cadence was the polar opposite, pacing herself and using her silverware to ensure her bites were not excessively large. Grievous noted that Shining Armor had eaten almost nothing.

Then there was Celestia, who had done well in making her eating civilized until cake was brought in for desert. At that point, Celestia went primal. Grievous could have sworn that on multiple occasions Celestia's jaw dislocated itself to expand entirely around a large piece of cake before closing and fixing itself, like a snake. Somehow, during her ravenous gorging, she had managed to splatter small amounts of icing on Grievous' faceplate.

Eventually, the three princesses and the captain had finished their supper, and were now sitting quietly while the servants cleared the table. They sat like that for a few minutes, until the last of the servants left them. Grievous noticed that Celestia was watching the last servant intently as he left, indicating to Grievous that she wished to discuss something important with him.

Once Celestia determined that the servant was out of range of their voices, she turned to Grievous and began speaking. "Luna and I have been discussing the information and offer your master has provided us with. It is a heavy decision, and therefore, we cannot make a bad choice."

Luna turned to speak to Celestia. "Sister, did you not tell us that Grievous is one who prefers to quickly get to the point?" Her gaze turned to Grievous. "We have considered your master's offer, but we have decided that we need more information regarding the scenario before we meet his request."

"What do you want to know?" Grievous asked.

Celestia spoke this time. "When we were talking with your master earlier, he mentioned this group called 'Jedi', but failed to elaborate what they were and what they do. He told me that you would be able to tell us who these 'Jedi' are, so this is what I'd like to hear from you."

"The Jedi are evil. They are monsters, and they let civilizations fall to ruins. They committed such atrocities against me and my people." His anger rose as he reflected on the pain the Jedi had brought to his people.

"This was the extent to which Dooku described the Jedi. It's not enough to make an educated decision with. Could you possibly tell us what they did to you and your people?" Celestia inquired.

"I can, though I'll not enjoy it."

"If the memory becomes too painful, let us know and we will let the issue rest," Luna reassured.

"Fine," Grievous relented. After taking a few seconds to organize his thoughts, he began his tale.

"You know me as General Grievous, but that is not my birth-given name. My real name is Qymaen jal Sheelal. I also used to be an organic organism, but that has been taken from me by the Jedi. I'll explain later. My home world is a planet called Kalee, and I, being one of the planet's inhabitants, am a Kaleesh. We are reptilian species that has always been experiencing hardships. As far as I can remember, and as far back as my parents and their parents and their parents still can remember, our species has been struggling for survival against the Huk. The Huk, for all intents and purposes, are oversized, soulless mantises. For several generations, they had been attacking and raiding our planet, capturing my people for the slave trade and desecrating our sacred grounds."

"Eventually, I showed up and proved to be effective for fighting off the Huk invaders. My partner in war, Ronderu lij Kummar, and I were able to drive the Huk off of Kalee, though at the cost of her life. After removing the Huk from Kalee, I led a campaign against the Huk and, with the assistance of a group of Kaleesh generals, known as the Izvoshra, we managed to drive them out of their colonies and back to their home world."

"This is where the Jedi get involved. We were close to our retribution when the Huk consulted the Republic for help, and they got that help, despite being the aggressor and the ones taking my people for slavery! The Republic sent about fifty Jedi to mediate the situation, and while we Kaleesh were certainly the victims in this conflict, the Jedi sided with the Huk. My people were faced with hefty and unjust fines. My planet was thrown into economic crisis, causing hundreds of thousands of impoverished Kaleesh to die."

"But the crimes of the Huk and the Jedi don't end there. As a result of my planet's debt, I had taken a contract with the InterGalactic Banking Clan. I was to be their collection agent and they would pay off the debt. Kalee's economy managed to stabilize, but after hearing that the Huk were vandalizing sacred burial grounds, I left to exact revenge. I gathered the Izvoshra and boarded one of our troop shuttles, the Martyr, which had unknowingly been rigged by the Jedi to explode. Shortly after takeoff, the ship exploded, killing the Izvoshra, and damaging my body beyond repair."

"My memory of the time between then and reawakening as I am now is not very clear, but Dooku had informed me that he had found me after my ship had been rigged, and that it was the Republic that did it. Since then, I have been serving justice throughout the Jedi order alongside the Separatists."

Grievous hadn't noticed that he had stood while telling his story. He also hadn't noticed that he had smashed a corner of the table in a fit of rage. He looked to the four ponies that were watching him and soaking in the story he had just told them. Grievous decided that he didn't wish to converse anymore. "The Jedi took everything away from me, and from too many Kaleesh as well" was his parting phrase. He didn't look back until the doors to the banquet hall slammed behind him.

~~~Grievous' Room, Canterlot, 14 hours and 20 minutes after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Grievous sat silent in his room. His thoughts were wandering all throughout his past, reminding him of random snippets of his past, though they occasionally strayed to Ronderu, the cause of all of his happiness and all of his grief. Soon, all of his thoughts were centered on his life with her, feeling more and more empty and alone the longer he dwelled. In an attempt to relocate his thoughts, Grievous tried field-stripping his pistol, which had been delivered to his room a few hours earlier, as promised by Shining Armor. Working on his pistol succeeded in getting his thoughts off of Ronderu, but strangely, they now pointed to Celestia.

He had noticed that his thought had been being interrupted annoyingly often since he had landed in Equestria, something that usually aggravated him greatly. This time, he couldn't be more grateful for the interruption as his holovid shimmered to life, projecting a miniature Count Dooku next to Grievous. He stopped fidgeting with his pistol and looked at his master. He'd have bowed had he not been cramped in the room already.

"My lord, what is it?" Grievous inquired.

"I need an update with regards to Celestia's decision," the hologram responded.

"She has discussed it with her sister and they have agreed that they need more time to consider."

"This is most unsettling. Give them two days to come to a decision before resorting to...aggressive negotiations," Dooku commanded.

"Yes, my lord," Grievous complied, deactivating the holovid.

~~~Throne Room, Canterlot, 1 day and 1 hour after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Grievous approached the throne room after having been informed that his presence was required as soon as possible by the princesses. As he neared the doors, he saw that it was protected by two spear wielding unicorns, one near each door. Using their magic, they opened the doors for him once he got to them. His first glimpse of the room's interior was Celestia and Luna sitting in their grand thrones. The doors continued to open, granting Grievous view of Cadence and Shining Armor next to them. The doors were finally open, and he saw that the room had been filled with Royal Guards, standing in orderly rows that faced the unoccupied red carpet in the center of the room. He strode through the room, panning his head from left to right and back, observing the guards. Grievous had to admit that they were more disciplined than he thought they'd be. He quickly reached the base of the small stairs leading the Celestia's and Luna's thrones. Celestia sat a couple inches higher than Grievous.

Grievous cleared his throat, or at least did whatever his mechanical body does to simulate that, before saying "You summoned me?"

"Yes, Grievous, I did," Celestia started. She began to smile slightly, continuing. "Luna and I have reached a decision..."

Chapter 3: Victor Squad

~~~Republic Cruiser Loyalty, Outer Rim, 1 hour after the Ambush at US-01 (Unknown System-01)~~~

Except for one bored clone and a stubby brown and silver astromech, the medical room aboard the Loyalty was void of occupants. He had stupidly dislocated his shoulder during a recent training exercise. The bacta treatment helped with the pain and repaired most to the damage done, but dislocation was, unfortunately for the clone, one of the few injury types that a nice, long dip in a bacta tank couldn't heal completely. Thus, for the past two days, he remained in the medical center. He was to be checked out in a few hours, but this enlightening bit of news didn't do anything to allieviate his boredom. The clone sighed.

He decided to do the only entertaining thing he was capable of doing while bedridden: toss the ball he happened to have at the wall, hoping that it would hit the floor and bounce back to him before he hit it again, trying to repeat that pattern. His last attempt a few minutes ago ended after the second repetition. That was the score to beat. The clone chucked the ball at the wall facing him. As predicted it bounced down before hitting the floor and rebounding towards him.

The door to the medical room opened and one of the many medical officers aboard the Loyalty, whom the clone got to know quite well, entered the room. The disturbance distracted the injured clone, causing him to miss the ball that had just pelted him in the face. The clone grabbed his face and rubbed it in an attempt to reduce the irritation caused by the rubber rubbing against his flesh.

A chuckle was heard from the medical officer, who came to stand next to the injured clone's bed. However, his attention was focused on the holopad he was holding. "Alright, let's see," the medical officer thought out loud. "RC-1491, sent in two days ago for dislocated shoulder, to be checked out...now."

RC-1491 looked up to the medical officer, slightly confused. "B-but I'm not to be checked out for another couple of hours. Certainly there is a mistake," he argued.

"Nope, you're to be checked out immediately by order of General Kenobi. He says he's got an assignment for you, but the briefing's not for a few hours. You don't need to be in here for those hours, as long as you don't do anything too strenuous with your arm," the officer replied.

RC-1491 simply shrugged and let the medical officer do his final check up. He removed the sling from the injured clone's arm before announcing "Alright Captain Viktor, you're free to go." He returned to his holopad and left the room.

Viktor propped himself up onto his feet, smiling at his good fortune. Looking down, he saw the astromech standing beside his bed, holding his ball in a thin grasping apparatus and offering it to him. "Thanks, R8," he said as he took the ball, patting the droid afterwards. Today feels like it's going to be a good day, Viktor thought.

The door to Viktor's room slid open with a hiss as Viktor stepped near the frame, the astromech a couple of paces behind him. Viktor reached his now operable arm behind his back and stretched, relaxing in the more comfortable surroundings. His room was small by most species' standards, only large enough for a single bunk, a closet holding two pairs of casual uniforms, a footlocker for his armor, and enough free space so that one could reach all of these amenities with their arm without needing to take a step.

There were still a few hours until the briefing for his next assignment started, giving Viktor ample time to polish his armor and clean his weapons so as to look presentable for General Kenobi. He moved to his footlocker and unlocked it, opening the lid and peering inside. The astromech rolled beside him.

On top of the pile of various armor plates lay Viktor's helmet, staring lifelessly at him. Viktor picked the helmet up, gazing into the T-shaped visor typical of Mandalorian armor before wiping some grime off of it. He tossed it up lightly a couple of times before placing it on his bunk and moving his attention to the other pieces of armor in his footlocker, inspecting each piece carefully for visual imperfections.

Viktor walked down the halls of Loyalty, making his way to the armory to check up in his DC-17 and prized custom-modified bowcaster. He had donned his armor, having spent the previous couple of hours aggressively polishing its dull gray surface. Other clones looked at him warily as he passed, something all commandos eventually got used to.

Viktor had been a rare exception with regards to commando training; he had managed to earn his way into training despite being originally designated as a standard infantry trooper. As such, he requested only a few decals be placed on his commando armor. Namely, he had a thin blue stripe placed on the center of his elbow and knee pads, as well as a blue stripe running from above the center of his visor, over the dome that lacked the solid metal plume of standard clone helmets, and ended halfway down the back of his helmet.

He reached the armory and retrieved his DC and his bowcaster, inspecting their surfaces for scratches and other minor damages. Finding none, he moved to a part of the room dedicated to disassembling and reassembling weapons. Viktor sat himself down in front of one of the few workbenches and began taking apart his DC-17. The internal components turned out to be fine, and he diverted his attention to his bowcaster.

He grasped the bowcaster, admiring the modifications he had made to it. Shortly after he had obtained it, he had trimmed its size to fit his human dimensions, and modified the firing mechanism to magnetically fire solid metal bolts from a magazine, rendering it almost completely silenced, while maintaining effectiveness against fleshy targets. Aside from these changes, Viktor avoided messing with the internal components of it, preferring instead to let the astromech that had followed him and now stood by his side to do that.

The astromech surveyed the bowcaster's parts, making a few adjustments to it before reassembling it and returning it to Viktor. "Thanks again, R8," the commando said to the droid as he claimed his bowcaster. The droid whistled happily. Viktor stood up and went to the droid who maintained the armory. "I've got a deployment in a couple of hours," he said to the droid, "I'm going to want these delivered to me before I leave. R8 will tell you when and where to deliver these."

"Yes, sir," the droid replied before retreating to do...whatever business it did; Viktor didn't know. Having finished all of his pre-briefing preparations, Viktor decided to retire to his bunk and wait until he was summoned.

~~~Republic Cruiser Loyalty, Outer Rim, 5 hours and 55 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Viktor sprinted through the halls, struggling to reach the briefing room in time. He had misplaced his holovid, causing him to receive his summons later that he would have liked. Following closely behind him was R8, jet boosters projecting a long and powerful stream of fire. At the rate he was going, Viktor would be several minutes late for the briefing, not the impression a clone commando should be giving to a Jedi general, especially one as well known as Kenobi.

R8 nudged Viktor's leg, causing him to stumble. He turned to the droid and glared underneath his helmet before realizing what R8 was doing. Viktor stopped running and stepped behind the now grounded droid, and grabbed the handles attached to the astromech's back, another one of Viktor's genius technical modifications. The droids boosters lit again, this time unleashing all of its modified and amplified glory, shooting itself and Viktor at high speeds through the tight corridors of the vessel.

~~~Republic Cruiser Loyalty, Outer Rim, 5 hours and 59 minutes after the ambush as US-01~~~

On time. I'm on time, Viktor thought as he sighed in relief. He had reached the briefing room in record time, though he was sure that he made a show of himself by riding the astromech that stood at his side. This was Viktor's first deployment since he had finished his commando training, so he was eager to finally see the elite squad he was to be assigned to. Perhaps a new squad will lessen the pain of losing my old one, he mused. Finally ready, he strode into the room.

He glanced around, noting several figures in the room. Standing next to the hologram projection table that occupied the center of the room stood Generals Obi-Wan and Mace Windu. On a bench next to the wall to Viktor's right were two standard clones and one ARF trooper. The clone farthest from Viktor was busying himself with a careful inspection of the innards of his pistol. The ARF trooper was leaning against the wall, hands clasped on the back of his head while laying one ankle on the knee of the other leg. The other clone sat still, arms folded across his chest. Viktor noticed that there was a crack in his helmet. One last figure occupied the room, but before he could get a look at it, the generals grabbed his attention.

"RC-1491, it's good to see you could make it," General Mace said flatly.

"Indeed, and it's nice to hear that you enjoyed yourself while getting here," General Kenobi added.

Viktor blushed under his helmet, embarrassed, not having expected the Generals to know of his droid-riding antics. "Uh, uhm, well, I was running late, so..." Viktor stammered.

"It's fine, Captain," General Kenobi assured. "Stand over there," he pointed to a spot next to the clone with the cracked helmet, "so we can begin."

Viktor saluted and walked to his spot, R8 rolling to be on the side of him opposite of the sitting clone.

"Welcome soldiers," General Mace began, "you four have been selected to be a part of a very important operation. Several hours ago, one of our Outer Rim communications vessels, the Valiance, had received a transmission from a stray Republic probe. This probe provided the crew of the Valiance with the location of a planet outside of our galaxy, which was being orbited by multiple CIS frigates. After being sent to investigate, our ship was ambushed and quickly disabled. As such, you are being called upon to continue the investigation led by the Valiance and its crew."

Mace paused and Viktor nodded in acknowledgement.

"We would be sending a Jedi along with you, but after making a few observations, we decided that it would be a dangerous idea," Mace stated.

"You are to be leaving shortly, so Mace and I must leave. However, we have entrusted Sergeant Moon with all of the mission details. He will continue the briefing. Gook luck, men, and may the Force be with you," General Kenobi concluded.

"May the Force be with you," General Mace agreed. The Jedi turned and left the room, and the previously unidentified figure, now known to be Sergeant Moon, stepped forward.

Moon wore standard clone armor, though his shoulder pads were decaled black with the exception of a crescent moon shaped patch on each one. An indigo stripe ran down the length of each arm, stopping at the end of his gauntlet. He cleared his throat before addressing the clones in front of him. "Greetings, soldiers, I'm Sergeant Moon, though I prefer to omit the title." He turned to Viktor and asked "Captain Viktor, there are two parts to this briefing: your mission and a brief introduction to your squad. Which would you like to do first?"

Viktor requested that the mission be stated first. "Very well," the Sergeant acknowledged. "As the Generals said, you are to continue the investigation of the unknown planet, hereafter referred to as US-01. You are going to be sent to its surface to do so, and will operate under the name of Victor squad. The stray probe managed to send the Valiance two images before its transmission was ended. The first one simply shows a CIS frigate orbiting the planet; the other is the one you'll be interested in." Moon brought an image of two small mesas up on the holographic table. "This is the only image of the planet's surface that we have, and as such, this location will act as your first LZ and camp. We've determined that a stealth gunship will fit in the space between the mesas in the picture, and as such, you'll be using one to get to the surface. A vehicle like Loyalty has no chance of approaching the planet undetected, whereas a stealth gunship would most likely be able to do so. Therefore, you're to head out and arrive on the planet before Loyalty does and set up a small encampment. Once you're finished with that, stay in the area until we can contact you and give you further directives. The time you spend waiting for us would be a good time for you to begin collecting data. Any questions?"

The clone who had been fiddling with his pistol earlier looked to the room's other occupants nervously before speaking up. "What kind of information should we be gathering?" he asked at a volume equivalent to half an indoor voice.

"Good question," Moon responded. "Over the course of your stay, you're to gather as much data as possible about, well, everything. I know it seems like a tall task, but you're all reasonable people; you'll be able to deduce what things should be studied first. The thing is, we know nothing about this planet, so we've got no leads for you."

The ARF trooper, still sitting in his relaxed pose, spoke up. "So we're being sent down to a completely unknown planet with ties to the Seps to do basically whatever we want before telling the upstairs what we've done? Sounds good to me."

"Um, something like that, though without the 'do whatever you want' part," Moon replied. "We don't truly need every little detail as of now, though. Officially, you're supposed to observe everything and report it, but if you'll accept my unofficial advice, I suggest that you begin researching the planet's indigenous species, if any, as well as what allows them to live there, and anything that seems like it would interest the Seps."

"What about the tinnies?" the clone with the cracked helmet asked. His voice was a mix of the clone's normal voice and static. "Do we shoot them up if we see them?"

"Not unless you've been compromised. You're to avoid contact with the droids and monitor their actions on the planet. We need to find out what on the planet has caught their eye. This is why we need as much data about the planet as possible. If you do find something significant down there, you're to report it so that we can intervene."

"How will we get the information we collect to you?" asked Viktor.

"You'll be provided with a special transmitter once we begin loading the gunship. Its transmissions will be encrypted, and only one terminal will be able decode it. That terminal happens to be mine, so anything you report will go to me to review and analyze for future use. You'll also be able to contact me by normal means if you've got any questions. I'll show you how to send me data using the transmitter once we get to the hangar; describing the process without having the device here for reference will be somewhat difficult."

"When do we leave?" Viktor queried.

"Well, I've gone through everything I need to go through with regards to your mission, so I guess now I get to present each of you to the rest of your squad quickly. After that, we'll head to the hangar to load your gunship, then you'll all be off," Moon responded.

"Right. Can we hurry through this though? I'm getting bored," the ARF trooper replied. Viktor couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Fine, but it helps if you don't interrupt," Moon scolded. "Anyways," he started while pulling up Viktor's file, "the commando here is RC-1491, or Captain Viktor. Quite the record he's got; served with the Muunilinst 10 I see. Oh, and an operation on Christophsis." Viktor cringed when Moon mentioned this part of his service. "Anyways, he will be leading you on the surface. Viktor here is a well rounded soldier, but is mostly an infantry specialist."

Moon pulled down Viktor's file and replaced it with the ARF trooper's file. "Alright, the ARF trooper is CS-1265, or Private Spy. He's had a little combat experience with Lightning Squadron on Ryloth, and his most logical position would be as the reconnaissance specialist."

"Uh...you forgot to mention that I got, like, fifty or sixty kills during that fight. And you left out the fact that I'm also the 'being awesome' specialist," the ARF trooper said. Moon shook his head and sighed, but provided no further acknowledgement of the ARF trooper's statement.

The next file to be brought up was for the trooper with the cracked helmet. "This is CC-1000, or Private Gore. He's got some experience fighting with the 212th on Ryloth and on Geonosis; heavy assault specialist."

"And finally, for CC-1874, or Corporal Shy," the Sargent said as he pulled up the file for the final clone. "Looks like he's got some experience with the 212th as well. Fought in the same battles as Gore. Anyways, Shy appears to be your best bet as a sniper and science officer."

Viktor nodded towards Moon as he pulled down Shy's file and deactivated the hologram projection table. He redirected his attention to the still sitting clones that were now under his command, getting a strange feeling that something was wrong. He quickly dismissed it and regarded it as anxiety; after all, this was his first time leading an operation.

"There's a LAAT/s waiting for you in one of the hangars, and everything we think you'll need is waiting to be loaded. If you've go not further questions, then we'll head down there and second check everything, just in case any of you see anything we missed. Also, there are a couple of surprises waiting for Spy, Shy, and Gore."

"We get presents? What are we waiting for, let's go!" Spy proclaimed enthusiastically while reaching a standing position. Moon face palmed. Viktor crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow at him. Shy and Gore regarded him with strange glances, though Gore also chose to rise.

"Right, let's get going," Viktor said awkwardly, still peering at Spy.

"Yes, sir," Viktor got as a reply from Spy and Gore. Shy looked up to Viktor, then to Spy and Gore, then back to Viktor before going to his feet. The clones followed Moon out of the briefing room and began their trek to the hangars.

~~~Republic Cruiser Loyalty, Heading towards US-01, 6 hours and 20 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Sergeant Moon, Victor squad, and R8 entered the hangar containing the gunship that was to be Victor squad's transport to US-01. It was a special gunship in that it was a LAAT/s model, a slimmer and stealthier, though more expensive, variant of the standard LAAT/i. The barrels for the rocket launchers mounted on the vehicle's top were shorter than that of a LAAT/i, and it had a desert camo, whereas normal LAAT/s' were usually entirely black. Around the hangar were various pieces of transmitting equipment and other machines meant for establishing a small encampment. Two BARC speeders with sidecars were found near the gunship.

Viktor spent a few minutes inspecting the equipment with Moon, eventually figuring out what was to be brought: both BARC speeders, the special transmitter, which Viktor had been quickly instructed with its operation, a small signal jammer, a couple of small radio receivers, some portable repulsor-lifts, a couple small crates of ordinance, and a few crates of various survival equipment.

While Viktor was working with Moon, Spy tried conversing with Shy and Gore about what their 'presents' were going to be. Gore participated in the chat, offering ideas that were more realistic than the 'personal assortment of Twi'lek dancers' Spy had suggested. Shy remained quiet throughout, simply nodding or shrugging whenever he was addressed directly.

Thankfully, for the rest of Victor Squad, Viktor and Moon and finally finished checking their equipment and had returned to them to tell them what was to happen next. Moon spoke up first. "Alright you guys, we've got everything you'll need picked out and prepared to load. Now, for your surprise-"

"It's a pet rancor, isn't it," Spy interrupted.

"No...?" Moon replied, thrown off guard by the ridiculous concept of owning a rancor as a pet. Who in the right mind would do that? "No, your surprise is something a little more meaningful. We've been authorized to decal your armor, which will be done while Viktor and I load the ship."

"Decals, huh?" Spy repeated. "Yeah that's better than rancors. Don't know why I thought of that."

"Maybe that's because you're defec-" Moon muttered, a little too loudly, but caught his slip and corrected himself. "Definitely a creative one. It's because you're definitely creative," he said, glad that his helmet covered the grin of a lying man that had appeared on his face.

"Uhm, thanks?" Spy said, not catching Moon's mistake.

"So, where do we go for these decals?" Gore asked, wanting to get going.

Moon signaled to a group of clones near the back of the hangar. "Those guys over there will take care of that for you, but you'll need to stick with them to tell them what you want and make sure you're okay with the quality."

"Sweet," Spy said, looking towards the previously indicated clones. "I think I'll have a crotch on my crotch," he said, walking away from his squad as he said that.

"...What?" Gore said, wanting to make sure he had heard correctly. Moon and Viktor face palmed.

After a few steps, Spy burst out laughing, almost overloading his helmet's internal speakers. "I'm joking!" he said between spasms. After his fit subsided, he looked back to his dumbstruck squad. "Oh man, we're gonna get along great!"

"We've wasted enough time," Viktor declared. "Get your decals quick, then lets get out of here."

"You're no fun," Spy mumbled as he resumed his original path, this time accompanied by Shy and Gore.

Today is going to be a long day, Viktor thought.

~~~Republic Cruiser Loyalty, Heading towards US-01, 7 hours after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Viktor, Moon, and R8 waited near for the now loaded gunship for the other members of Victor squad to finish getting their decals. Viktor was surprised that it was taking so long for the decals to be applied; his only took about ten minutes when he had gotten them. Then again, his were almost as simplistic as one could get. He wasn't quite a fan of excessively flashy decals. Moon's decals were probably the flashiest that Viktor could tolerate.

Aside from getting the feeling that he would be faced with a lot of color very soon, the feeling of doubt that Viktor had been feeling before returned. This time, he couldn't get rid of it. "Sergeant, do you mind if I ask you a question?" Viktor asked, still trying to find the words to portray his feelings.

"Sure, Captain. What'd you like to know?"

"Well...I'm a bit curious as to why I've been assigned with standard clones instead of commandos for this operation," he said, hoping to ease a different curiosity while still trying to word his previous concern.

"Do you have something against standard clones, Captain?" Moon asked, more aggressively than intended.

Feir'fek, Viktor mentally cursed, completely forgetting the fact that Moon was a standard clone as well. Offending other clones was usually not well tolerated, but when one offended the clone that was to be their supervisor, then there was certainly trouble to be had.

"Relax, I'm joking," Moon assured, causing Viktor to sigh and visibly release tension. "As for your question, you've been assigned with these clones because they have the potential to be as great as you. It's rare that such raw abilities are found in clones, but it's possible. I mean, look at you, you're a commando, but that wasn't even your designated position. These clones are basically an early stage of you."

"Don't you mean I am an early stage of him?" Spy asked. Apparently, he was finished decaling up and had walked in on Viktor and Moon's conversation unnoticed. "After all, Vikky here is older than me. And the rest of us. Heck, he's, like, our grandpa at this point."

"I-I do you suppose that the answer to your question is yes, but surely you can show more respect for your superior than what you've just shown," Moon responded.

"And don't call me 'Vikky'," Viktor said with disgust.

"Only if Moon doesn't call me 'Shirley'," he said, turning to face Moon and grinning.

"Wait, when did I call...oh, you're so immature," Moon chided distastefully. "Don't you have any idea how stupid that joke is?"

"Eeyup," Spy said, still grinning widely. His grin slowly diminished as the trio stood in silence. Neither Viktor or Moon dared speak in fear that Spy would make another lame pun.

Viktor took the time to look over Spy's decals. Fortunately, Spy had chosen a simple pattern with no crotches on his crotch. Spy's decals consisted of forest green shoulder pads, elbow pads, kneepads, gloves, and boot soles, as well as the default ARF trooper decals on his helmet.

The four of them waited under the wing of the gunship for about ten minutes more before Shy had finished getting his decals. He approached them, but said nothing, something that Viktor was fine with. It seemed to Viktor that Shy was trying to hide from the group of them by standing half behind the gunship, forcing Viktor to adjust where he was standing to look at his decals.

Like Spy, Shy had chosen simple decals. He had an orange stripe running along the length of the metal plumage on the top of his helmet, as well as along the center of his kneepads and gloves. Additionally, there was a lime green stripe of the same width going across his elbow pads lengthwise. The most significant change, though, was a box attached to the right side of his helmet. He had seen other clones attach rangefinders and visors to their helmets in a similar fashion. Viktor had never seen a helmet attachment like the one Shy had, though; it was as large as a Wookie's fist and was covered by a white casing, but the front had several lights of varying color and other buttons on it.

Viktor had determined by now that Shy was not talkative, so he decided to confront Moon about the strange contraption. Viktor found that Moon was apparently watching him watch Shy once he turned around. Viktor raised his arm, pointing his thumb to Shy behind him, before tapping the side of his helmet a couple of times with him index finger before finally shrugging. Moon understood what Viktor was indicating.

"Uh, that would be a science module," Moon clarified. "I should have told you earlier that we were going to equip him with that. It's a handy tool that stores scientific data. It's also capable of running simple tasks such as detecting vitals, analyzing radiation patterns, and determining the chemical composition and molecular structure of samples of stuff."

"Alright, that kind of stuff is boring but I know that it's not simple. How could you possibly call that stuff simple?" Spy interjected.

"It's simple relatively speaking," Moon said, rolling his eyes under his helmet. It's amazing that some clones can be so dumb. "Anyways, we had to keep his decals simple so that there would be time to instruct him in the module's use. I hadn't expected him to be finished learning how to operate that before you and Gore got finished decaling, though."

"Gore must be having an art museum put on his armor or something in order for it to take so long," Spy panned.

"You don't say," Moon muttered.

After another half hour of waiting, Gore finally presented himself and his freshly decaled armor. Viktor thought that Moon's armor was a little flashy, but it was nothing compared to what Gore had had done. A dark red line went down the spike on his helmet, leading to what appeared to be a dark red scorpion stinger. The tip of the stinger rested just above the center of Gore's visor. On his gloves and kneepads were three jagged lines running across their entire lengths, also dark red. Each breastplate on his chest armor had been colored to appear like dark red bat wings, and his shoulder straps had been colored tan. Somehow, he had mounted the sheathes to each of his combat knives just under the shoulder straps, blade end pointing up, giving his shoulders and the bat wings on his chest a spiked appearance.

"Gore," Spy began saying, "your armor is the most random assortment of images I've ever seen."

Gore glanced down to look at his armor again. "It's not random," he defended. "It means something."

"What could lines, bats, and scorpions possibly mean together?" Spy asked rhetorically.

Moon face palmed again, causing Victor squad's attention to focus on him. "Did you really just spend an hour of our precious time trying to get yourself to resemble a manticore?" he asked, sighing afterwards.

"Hey! At least someone knows their mythical creatures. And no, most of the time was spent mounting my knives," Gore stated, not catching Moon's exasperation.

"What the heck is a manticore?" Spy asked confused.

"It's a mythical creature that's half lion, half scorpion, and half bat," Gore replied.

"Really?" Spy asked sarcastically. "I wasn't aware that something could be three halves other stuff."

Gore stared at Spy, ready to counter that claim, but paused after realizing the flaw in his previous statement. "Well...shut up," he said, ending any chance of retribution.

"Both of you shut up; you've got a job to do, and you've already wasted too much time decaling and bickering," Moon yelled, resolve finally crumbling. He seethed for a moment before collecting himself. "Now, I've got one more thing for Shy, Gore and Spy, there you're out of here."

"Oh, we still get a rancor?" Spy inquired.

Moon clenched his fist, tempted to punch Spy. "No..." he hissed. He looked over to a crate in the corner of the hangar. It was supposed to be brought over to him by some of the service droids, but he decided to get it himself, so as to get away from Spy, even if only for a minute. "Be right back," he said with fake calm, and headed towards the crate.

A couple of minutes later, he had returned to the waiting clones, and dropped the crate with a loud thud. The walk had done wonders for his serenity, and he spoke with sincere calmness now. "This mission may very well be the most important of the war, and as such, it has been decided that you're going to be equipped with the best we have to offer."

Moon lifted the top of the crate such that the contents were still hidden from Victor squad's view. He reached in and pulled out a small weapons crate. This crate was also opened, and Moon revealed the DC-15s inside to Spy.

"This...this is a DC-15. There's nothing special about a DC-15," Spy pouted.

"You'll be happy to know that this one has been slightly modified."

Spy perked up.

"The muzzle of the weapon has been slightly modified to allow use of a commando grade silencer. Now those are beautiful things," Moon said. "Commando silencers are shorter than standard silencers, and they don't affect accuracy and range. Cost a fortune to produce though...anyways, Spy, this is yours. The silencer is in here somewhere, I'll give it to you when I find it," he said, handing Spy the DC-15s.

The next thing to be pulled out of the crate was another weapons crate, this one long. Inside was a DC-15a rifle and a scope. "Alright, Shy, this is for you," he said as he attached the scope and handed the rifle to Shy. "Aside from the scope, which has a times two, ten, and twenty zoom, there have been no modifications to it."

"That's fine," Shy said almost inaudibly.

"Oh man; the big package," Moon muttered as he leaned over the crate and grunted, obviously lifting a heavy object. Once he stood up again, he was wielding a formidable looking chain gun. "This bad boy is yours, Gore," he said, hefting the heavy machine towards Gore. Surprisingly, Gore caught it with little effort. "Now, this has had some serious modding done to it. It has two power cores instead of one. There is a button on the handle that will change the core that you're drawing power from. However, if you switch cores regularly and don't let them overheat, then you can fire nearly indefinitely. Sadly, this extra firepower comes at the cost of a heavier and less mobile weapon. It should make short work of any tinnies you can't help but fight though."

"Sweet; can't wait to try it. Any volunteers? Spy?"

There was no response.

"Okay then!" Moon said awkwardly, trying to hurry things up. He pulled one last weapons crate out of the large crate, this one more bulky than the others. He opened it and took out one of the four DC-17 pistols and its holster. "Lastly, it's been decided to equip you guys with some real commando equipment. These are DC-17 pistols. They are heavy pistols, capable of taking down a B2 in a couple of hits, but they feel like a standard pistol and are the same size. However, you can get off about twice as many shots before it overheats than a standard pistol can, and it's more accurate. I've got one here for Spy, one for Gore, and two for Shy."

"Why does Shy get two but we only get one?" Spy asked, jealous.

"Well, I don't know; it's just what I was told to do. I must say, though, that, based on how much I like you and Gore, Shy would get the extra regardless of who I was originally told to give it to," Moon said, smiling, feeling proud of how that statement would get under Spy's skin.

"Eh, fair enough," Spy said with a shrug.

Moon fell silent, and was once again happy to have his dumbfounded expression covered by his helmet. I really wanted that to annoy him, Moon mentally pouted.

During the time that Moon had been providing the rest of his squad with their weapons, the droid from the armory had delivered Viktor's weapons to him. He now looked upon his fully equipped squad, feeling content with what they had.

"One more thing to mention before you leave," Moon said to Victor squad, though his gaze really only went to Spy, Shy, and Gore. "Each of your weapons, excluding the pistols, has had a magnetic attaching module put in them, which will allow them to magnetically attach to the back of your armor, which should eliminate the need for straps or anything of the like."

Spy decided to test Moon's claim. He swung his silenced DC-15s over his back and let go of the handle. No clanging noise was heard. He glanced at his shoulder and saw his weapon resting peacefully on his back. A light tug later, and the DC was back in Spy's grasp. "That's awesome," he commented.

Moon directed his attention to Viktor. "I've said it a lot already, but for real this time, that's all I have to say. Now, you're behind schedule, so get aboard your ship and get out of here. Good luck."

Viktor nodded and Victor squad boarded their gunship.

Chapter 4: Landing at They Don't Know Where

~~~LAAT/s, Heading towards US-01, 8 hours and 25 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

The gunship silently shuttled through empty space. It and its cargo were alone in the void, with the exception of the innumerable stars that surrounded them. Victor squad had disembarked from the Loyalty around fifteen minutes ago after some last-minute system checks, and already the cruiser was out of visual range. Viktor had taken the role of the pilot, sitting in the first domed canopy of the gunship. Directly behind him sat Shy, who had been given the role of gunner and navigator. Gore and Spy had taken up positions in the turrets mounted on the sides of the gunship, while R8 stayed in the troop bay, making sure that the gear inside remained restrained and undamaged.

Since boarding the gunship, the only communication had been small talk between Spy and Gore and important takeoff chatter between Viktor and the hangar personnel, both of which had ceased after the gunship had gotten out of range of Loyalty's communicators. The metaphorical atmosphere around the clones was tense and awkward; each of them wanted to talk, with the exception of Shy, but none knew what to discuss, nor did any of them know what topics would be sensitive to discuss.

Spy braved the awkwardness first. "So...how's everybody doin'?" he asked.

"Fine," was Viktor's delayed response.

"Alright..." Spy said after confirming that Shy and Gore were not going to reply. "What should we talk about, boss man?" he directed to Viktor.

Viktor hesitated. "Why don't you guys tell me about your skills? Moon's brief introduction was a bit, well, brief. I'd like to know what I really have to work with."

Spy jumped on the opportunity to brag. "Well, I'm glad you asked boss man-"

"Just...don't give me any nickname other than Viktor...please?" Viktor interrupted with a sigh.

"Sure, Vikky, whatever. Anyways..." Spy continued nonchalantly.

Viktor sighed again and mentally facepalmed.

"So, as I'm sure you've figured out by now by virtue that you're not a complete idiot-at least I hope you're not-I'm an ARF trooper. I do all sorts of recon things. I was part of Lightning Squadron before this assignment. I was the best stealth unit in the squad, and was pretty capable of handling one of those AT-RT walkers. I'm quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat also. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that I'm the best hand-to-hand fighter here."

Shy snickered quietly at that statement. His contribution was left unnoticed to his delight.

"I'm gonna put you up to that bet soon," Gore threatened.

"Sure thing. Anyways, as I was saying, I'm an ARF trooper, and that means I've been specially trained to be faster and more agile than normal troops like Gore and Shy. I'll admit, though, that I don't handle being in the front lines all that well unless I've got some sort of support or vehicle to back me up," Spy finished.

"Anything else?" Viktor asked.

"Well, unless you want me to describe my sheer awesomeness and my dashing good looks, I've got nothing else you'd be interested in," Spy said.

"Um...right...well...Gore, would you like to describe your specialties?" Viktor stammered.

"Yeah sure," he said, his helmet's speakers feed backing as he paused. "I good with big guns and big booms. Mostly big guns."

"That's awfully vague," Spy commented sarcastically.

"Well, unlike you, I don't feel like describing every little detail about my skills to the boss, most of which is stuff he probably already knows. He probably knew everything you said about ARFs too; he is a commando after all," Gore spat back.

Viktor coughed loudly into his helmet radio, shutting up Gore and Spy. "Could you two possibly not bicker for once?" he said authoritatively. "Or if you two must argue, could you at least do it not at the expense of Shy and I's ears?"

"Well...fine," Spy huffed.

Gore grunted and looked to Spy in the bubble turret across from him. "I hate you," he mumbled.

"Love you too," came the response.

Another five hours passed by in silence. In the far distance, Viktor, Shy, and, had they been paying attention to what was in front of them, Spy and Gore, could make out a celestial body that actually seemed to get closer. According to the vehicle's navicomputer, it was their destination. Finally, their trip in the gunship was coming to an end, and the real mission was beginning.

Viktor's mind was racing, trying to determine the best course of action for once they landed on the planet. Obviously, getting the camp readied is a first priority. And some scouting should be done as soon as possible. Maybe we should delay intel gathering for the duration of our first day there and work up a schedule. After all, time management is important. Shy needs to be inst-

Viktor's rambling thoughts were cut off by a staticy, crackly voice coming from the ship's on-board communicator. "So, uh, boss, did Moon mention anything to you about what happened to the Valiance beyond what we were told in the briefing?"

"No, Gore, and I don't see how that is relevant to anything," Viktor replied, irritated that he had been interrupted over such a stupid question.

"Well, do we know what happened to it? I mean, it may have been destroyed, which could lead to survivors on the planet if the escape pods had been launched," Gore thought aloud.

"That'd sure make our job easier," Spy stated.

"Alternatively," Gore continued, ignoring Spy's interjection, "the Seps may have taken over the ship, and may plan to use to crew as hostages or some other sinister plot that only those soulless creeps could conceive of."

"I do see your point," Viktor conceded. "Sadly, I don't have an answer. The best we can do is hope that the Valiance's fate doesn't affect our mission for at least long enough so that we can ask Moon once we get back into contact with him."

"Alright. Well, what if the CIS ships detect us once we're closer to the planet? What then?"

"Um..." Viktor hesitated, trying to put the response as sensitively as possible.

"Well, we are in a stealth gunship, so was should be able to pass by unnoticed. But, if we are caught..." Spy partially answered for him.

"Then we're dead," Viktor finished for him.

"Huh. Well, I was going to say that our molecules would be used to perpetuate the cycle of life on some distant planet...but sure, the pessimistic approach works too," Spy deadpanned.

"Terrific," Gore proclaimed with false enthusiasm. "I don't want to live on this planet anymore," he grumbled.

Spy turned as best as he could to Gore while Shy and Viktor exchanged glance up front.

"You're not on a planet," they said in unison, though Shy's contribution was meek and hardly noticeable.

"You...I'ma kill you all," Gore mumbled, adjusting the turret so that he was faced as far away from them as possible.

~~~LAAT/s, Atmosphere of US-01, 15 hours after the Ambush at US-01~~~

It was very dark. The starry array of space, which had enveloped the gunship just minutes prior now shone dimly above them as they descended towards the planet's surface. At first the clones saw decrepit and abandoned wastelands, which were shrouded in an eerie and unsettling green fog. After a couple of minutes, they were close to their landing zone. They passed over a large mountain range, which seemed to divide the land in two; inhospitable looking badlands on one side, and barren but much more aesthetically pleasing desert on the other. To all of the clones' relief, their LZ was on the desert side of the mountain range.

Before long, their destination was in view. In front of them sat two mesas, which stood isolated from any other geographic formation, with a gap between them that could fit their gunship and other gear snugly. As an added bonus, the gap was nearly completely surrounded by large boulders, which would easily conceal their position and provide cover should the need arise. Hopefully it wouldn't.

The gunship halted as they hovered over the LZ. Viktor slowly descended, being careful to not make any jerky movements and smash the wings or cause damage by other means. After a minute of careful maneuvering, the gunship touched earth, its silent thrusters kicking up a massive amount of dust as it sat idle. Finally, the engines ceased running, and Victor squad began extracting themselves from the gunship.

Viktor and Shy shut off all unnecessary systems while Spy and Gore exited the turrets and checked the gear, which was a little shaken from the turbulence caused by entering the atmosphere, but was otherwise fine. Viktor's seat lowered out of the cockpit, followed closely by Shy's, and they made their way into the troop bay where Spy, Gore, and R8 were waiting for instruction.

"Well, squad, looks like we made it," Viktor congratulated. The rest of the squad nodded, or in R8's case, whistled their agreements. "Spy and Gore, you're going to help me unload and set up camp. For now, be on guard; we don't know if we've been traced yet. Shy, you're to ride R8 up to the top of one of the mesas. Take a grapple and find a suitable place for us to get a line up there. Once you've done that, I want you to survey the area using your rifle. R8, stay up there with Shy and stay alert for any Sep vehicles that come our way, specifically if they're searching for us."

"Yes sir," Spy and Gore said before opening the doors and boarding ramp.

Spy and Gore immediately went to work pulling the BARC speeders out of the bay. Viktor made his way towards the specialized transmitter to bring it out of the gunship, but was stopped by Shy.

"I want to make sure I heard you correctly...you said, "ride R8", right?" he asked quietly, both confused and concerned.

"Yeah, that's what I said. Um, I'd rather not get into the details, but just know that I modified him a little. He had handles on his back and his boosters are capable of transporting a clone short distances quickly. It's completely safe," Viktor assured.

"Oh...okay then," Shy half replied.

R8 waited for Shy outside of the gunship while Shy grabbed his equipment, namely his rifle and grenade pouch, which rattled as he lifted it and attached it to the back of his belt. He approached the droid once he had what he needed. The droid beeped and whirred at him excitedly, hopping up and down repeatedly to get Shy to hurry up. Shy stared down to the hyper droid, mentally questioning whether or not riding an astromech was safe or, more importantly, sane. It's an order, he thought, resolving himself.

Shy walked behind the droid, crouching to grasp the handles. As soon as he had a firm grip, the droid boosted into the air, carrying Shy as his legs hung uselessly underneath him. The urge to flail about was almost overwhelming to the terrified soldier.

Back on the ground, the remaining clones had unloaded the speeders, the ordinance crates, Gore's chain gun, and the transmitter. Spy was helping Gore with a long and heavy crate of portable repulsor lifts. He looked up to see Shy being helplessly dragged up the cliff face by the astromech, and tried to hold back a hysterical laugh at the pathetic sight.

Gore was not as amused. His arms were hurting, and Spy's sudden pause to watch R8 and Shy tried Gore's already tired patience. He could hear Spy chuckling, tryng poorly to contain some sort of laughter. Gore decided to continue moving forward, knocking Spy off of his center of balance and having the crate land on top of his chest as Gore let go of his end.

"Ow! Hey! What the heck!?" Spy yelled as he tried to get the massive weight pinning him down off of him.

Gore sneered. "You totally deserved that."

"Did not! Now, get this crap off me," Spy demanded, still futilely pushing at the crate. "What's in this crate that's so heavy anyways?"

"Repulsor lifts, a-"

Viktor interrupted Gore as he peered from around the boarding ramp. He had been dealing with some of the smaller pieces of equipment when he heard a loud thump followed by Spy yelling. "What did you two screw up now?"

"Spy had an accident," Gore responded immediately.

"I see that," Viktor replied, unamused. "Why don't you help him?"

"I was going to, but you're distracting me."

During the brief exchange between Gore and Viktor, Spy had begun a short rant about how much of a jerk Gore was, how much of a jerk Viktor and Gore were being by ignoring him, and why they weren't helping him. Suddenly, a thought came to Spy's mind.

"Why aren't we using these repulsor lifts to move our heavy equipment around?" he asked.

Gore and Viktor paused their discussion to look at Spy, who was still pinned, then looked back to each other.

"That's..." Gore began.

"That's a good idea. Why weren't we doing that?" Viktor finished for him.

Progress towards finishing the encampment went speedily after Spy's epiphany. Within the hour, they had the speeders off to the side, the ordinance organized, the transmitter ready to transmit, the radar jammers active, hammocks set up in the troop bay, and the rations and other survival gear distributed, with the extras packed in the gunship's storage compartments. There was no more business that could be done until Shy came down, leaving them to resort to small chat, word games, and tic-tac-toe.

Shy lay on top of the mesa, trying to recuperate from the short but terrifying trip up the cliff face. Flying without a solid surface under your feet is unnerving. R8 sat next to him, prodding him with his now extended retractable leg in an attempt to get him to move. After a few minutes of composing himself, Shy stood and immediately set about his task. He found a sturdy ledge, and placed the grapple there before turning his attention to the horizon.

It was too dark for him to make anything out at a distance, so he switched his visor to low-light mode. A quick look in all directions revealed nothing but flatlands except for the nearby mountain range, which had no interesting features visible at this distance. A slight whirring sound came from his right. Looking, Shy found it to be a spinning radar-like appendage protruding from R8's head meant to locate Separatist ships in the vicinity.

The quiet inside of Shy's helmet was abruptly broken with the cries of "Ow! Hey! What the heck!?", coming from Spy via helmet comm, reached him. The sudden noise caused Shy to cringe. After quickly checking the oxygen levels of the atmosphere with the science module and confirming that the air was breathable, Shy removed his helmet and set it on the ground near the edge of the mesa.

The air was dry, cool, and bland, a nice contrast to the overly-sterilized atmosphere of Kamino's structures, or the stale air of Republic cruisers. He sat down and crossed his legs, taking some time to appreciate his surroundings and contemplate his mission. Thoughts of Spy and all of the headaches he was bound to get from his pointless babbling caused him to rub his bald head and light scruffy beard in frustration and despair. Gore and Viktor were alright, he decided, though they couldn't match his old squad. No, don't think about that. In an attempt to divert his thoughts, Shy grabbed the grenade pouch from the back of his belt and opened it.

Contrary to its name, Shy didn't have any grenades in the pouch. Instead, a dull dark grey rod-like device was dumped out of it. It was cylindrical for most of its length, except for the hollow rectangular end, which protruded past a piece that resembled a cross guard. The cylindrical portion of the rod was long and thick enough for Shy to put both of his hands around it comfortably.

Shy stared at the device, wondering if he would need to use it, but hoping that the need would not arise. He sat like that for a few minutes before having his back prodded by R8; or more accurately, before having R8 roll into him at R8's fastest ground speed. The impact jolted Shy out of his stupor, and he quickly placed the cylindrical device beck in his pouch before returning to his assignment. He removed his DC-15a from his back, though refrained from replacing his helmet, rather enjoying the silence that came with not hearing Spy.

Shy rested himself on his chest and elbows a few feet from one of the edges of the mesa facing the mountain range. He aligned his eye with the rifle's scope and peered through at two times zoom, and in low-light mode.

He gazed across the mountain range for several minutes, switching zoom levels and making notes that would eventually make it to an intel report. The mountains closely resembled mountains found on planets like Naboo and Alderaan, though this specific range lacked any type of vegetation as far as he could tell, though the low-light setting was probably screwing with his visuals. He'd have to try looking again at a more optimal light level. Even at the times twenty zoom, the mountains were still relatively distant, and he doubted that he would find anything of importance in the other directions.

Still, he diligently went about his survey. A quick glance around at two times zoom revealed nothing of particular interest; only a few shrubs and some decent sized rocks. After finishing his sweep, he returned to the original starting point and retried at ten times zoom. This yielded more interesting results. He found a light trail of what appeared to be hoof prints in the dry, cracked ground. Based on the conditions, Shy figured that the prints were made by a bantha-like creature, but he would hold off on concluding this until he could observe the prints more fully. He could also conclude that rain was rare in this part. Just my luck that I end up in the Tatooine end of wherever this place is. However, after some thinking back to the fog-covered region he had seen, he figured it could be worse.

Shy also observed a small spot of light on the horizon, but dismissed it as a low-lying star.

Finally, Shy's final sweep of the area, this time using times twenty zoom, began. He took his time with this sweep, noting every detail he could see, which unfortunately wasn't many due to the low-light mode and high zoom. Upon reaching the halfway point, all he had found was one interesting but insignificant rock formation.

Eventually, Shy's rifle was pointed at the spot of light he had seen earlier. It was really bright now, and too large to be a star. The contrast was unfortunately too much for him to make much out, but there were figures in the light. He could see two relatively large, unmoving, blurry black blobs, as well as the occasional tiny dot scurry across his line of sight. Shy's focus remained on the light for several minutes before he decided that he should finish his sweep and compile his findings. Along the remainder of his sweep, he noticed what appeared to be tracks, presumably for some sort of vehicle. His gaze followed the tracks until he could no longer see them, and at that point, the light he had been observing was in the center of his view again. Prehaps it's a civilization, he pondered. Shortly afterwards, he felt that he had spent enough time observing and needed to report his findings.

Shy spent around ten minutes recording his notes on the holopad he had brought with him and sorted out which bits of data were immediately important for the rest of the squad to know. Once this was finished, Shy had no further need to be on the mesa. He stood and walked towards the grapple he had placed earlier. He attached the grapple to the ascension cable on his DC and rappelled down the mesa.

~~~LZ, US-01, 16 hours and 30 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

The LZ's preparations were complete and all of the members of Victor squad were now all in the crevasse that was their new home. Shy and R8 had descended from the mesa around a half hour ago, and since then, Shy and Viktor had been discussing the data Shy had collected, trying to determine their course of action.

In one of the large, open areas of the camp, Spy and Gore were disputing the claim Spy had made earlier regarding his hand-to-hand combat abilities. Disputing by means of physically testing Spy's theory, to be precise. They, as well as R8 as referee, had been at this for around the last twenty minutes, and each bout ended quickly and with Gore being pinned on the ground. Stubbornly, Gore wanted to test Spy again.

They distanced themselves around ten feet and faced each other, each in a boxing stance. In each of Gore's previous attempt to usurp the current champion, he had made the first move, which each led to him on the ground. He figured that he would let Spy move first this time, and hopefully he would be able to land a powerful counter-blow.

R8 gave the signal that the round had started, and, to Gore's delight, Spy did move first. Spy awkwardly leapt towards him a few feet, but maintained his arm position and refrained from making any sort of aggressive move. As soon as Spy landed, Gore lunged forward and tried a strong uppercut with his right arm. Spy leaned back, letting Gore's arm sail a few inches from his head and chest, and pushed Gore's arm up after Gore had finished his motion. Gore's balance was thrown off due to Spy's shove, and Spy followed it up with a heavy punch to the face, sending Gore sprawling to the dirt. R8 gave the signal that Gore had lost this bout.

Spy strolled over to where Gore lay and offered a hand to help him up, which Gore accepted.

"You're quite predictable," Spy said to Gore as he helped him brush some dust off his armor. "It's like I know exactly what you're going to do next."

"I get it; there's no need for you to rub it in," Gore retaliated.

"Yes there is," Spy said innocently. "Cuz this means I'm better than you, and I want to make sure you know that," he continued with a sheepish grin, which was unfortunately covered by his helmet.

Gore growled in annoyance and clenched his fist.

"Oh, and it's to make up for you dropping that crate on me earlier," said Spy, after seeing that his attempt at humor failed to ease Gore.

"At least that was funny," Gore spat.

"Actually, that was quite mea-" Spy began, before Viktor yelled at them to "Shut up" from across the camp.

After an awkward silence, Spy spoke up. "Well, looks like it's settled, then. I appear to be at least your superior in hand-to-hand combat."

"You brag about that one more time and I'll break your jaw."

"If you could land a hit there maybe..." Spy said, putting a hand to his chin in thought. Gore swung at him after he finished his comment, but he swiftly dodged.

"I said shut up!" Viktor yelled again. "Get your shebs over here; We've got stuff to discuss, and I don't feel like yelling." As Spy and Gore sauntered over, Viktor mumbled to himself, "Honestly, if there was a way to just delete their mouths, I'd go for it." Shy nodded in agreement.

Viktor began a quick briefing as soon as Spy and Gore got near and seated themselves. "Alright, thanks to Shy, we've got a little bit of data to give to Moon." Viktor diverted his attention to the holopad Shy had made his notes on. "So far, he's determined that the air is breathable for humans, saying that the atmosphere here is basically identical to planets similar to Naboo. There are also indications of this planet being inhabited. Off in a that way direction," he said while pointing roughly in the direction Shy had noticed the hoof-prints, "are some tracks to, what Shy says, 'could possibly be a small bantha-like creature, though further study needs to be done before any conclusions can be made'. Shy also noted a possible civilization over there," he said, this time pointing and looking in the direction opposite that of the nearby mountains. He redirected his gaze to the holopad. "There also appears to be some set of vehicle tracks leading to the suspected civilization. That's all that Shy has gotten so far. Before we decide what our course of action will be, I'd like to state R8 has determined that we got past the Seps unnoticed."

"Yep, I knew we would," Spy said. "I mean, it was a guarantee that we would; after all, you've got me here with you."

"From what I've seen, you being here is detrimental to being stealthy," Gore panned.

Viktor growled, causing Spy and Gore to return their attention to him. "Listen guys, we've got a job to do and this is supposed to be a serious discussion. Save your useless banter for after we've made the important decisions."

Spy opened his mouth, ready to give a snide remark, but decided that Viktor was right, so he simply said, "Eh, yeah, you're right. Sorry, Vikky." Gore non-verbally agreed.

Viktor prepared himself to lash out against Spy for calling him Vikky again, but stopped himself after seeing how hypocritical it would be to do that, so instead, he just continued as if nothing had happened. "So, now that we've got some leads, we've got to determine our next move. Shy and I figured that we should head out to the hoof-prints via BARC shortly after we wake. We let Shy study them for a while, then we move on to the possible civilization, and see if we can't find any more good intel."

"Sounds good to me," said Spy.

Gore took a moment to contemplate before saying, "Plan's good; makes sense, but how do you propose we approach this supposed civilization? Do we want to follow the tracks, which would give us a clear path but make us likely to be seen, or do we try to find an indirect path to it. Also, do we want to let the civvys know we're here, or do we remain hidden? Oh, and how close do we want to get to observe them?"

Viktor huffed. "You make good points, Gore. I wish you were more astute more often," he chided. "To answer your questions, I was thinking that we follow the tracks, but we try to keep our distance from it. We want to be able to get close enough that we can clearly see the possible civilization through Shy's and I's times ten scope. We want to avoid contact with any civvys."

"Well, I've got no further qualms, then," Gore said, leaning back on his elbows.

"Excellent," Viktor said, satisfied. He glanced to the starry sky, then to the sliver of moon that was showing. "It looks like it's late. We'll head out in twelve hours, and spit watch duty into four three-hour shifts. Shy, you take the first one, and leave your rifle for the next one of us to use. Once you're done, feel free to pick who gets next shift. Alert us if anything weird happens."

Shy nodded and began his ascent up the cliff, using the grapple he had placed earlier this time. Viktor turned to regard the other two clones that were awaiting dismissal. "I'm going to hit the hay now, and I want you two to do the same within an hour. Dismissed." They stood and nodded, surprising Viktor be heading towards the gunship, presumably to sleep, instead of heading somewhere else to cause trouble, leaving Viktor alone to his thoughts.

Spy and Gore stepped into the troop bay, which had earlier been converted into their sleeping area. Spy claimed the hammock closest to the now closed boarding ramp, and Gore took the one next to him. As Spy made himself comfortable, he noticed that R8 was sitting deactivated on the side of him opposite of Gore. He looked to the droid and patted its domed head. He turned away, clasping his hands behind his head and looking to the roof of the gunship, saying "Goodnight, Lumpy," before dozing off to sleep...

...Only to be awaked a couple of seconds later by a sharp jolt to his armpit. "Ow!" he yelped, looking down to the taser appendage R8 had zapped him with. The zap didn't hurt, but it so unexpected that he couldn't help himself from saying so. "That was rude. Gore did you see that?" he asked, directing his attention to Gore, who had removed his helmet and was already sleeping heavily. He looked back to the droid, who was whirring and whistling angrily at him. "That was uncalled for, Lumpy," Spy said to the droid. R8's angry noises increased in volume and he zapped Spy again. "Hey! Cut that out! Just-just go to your corner and leave me alone," he scolded, pointing to a far corner of the gunship. R8 beeped which, Spy assumed was his way of saying "humph", and retreated to his original spot, deactivating himself. Spy grumbled to himself a little about the droid's poor behavior before succumbing to sleep.

Shortly afterwards, Viktor made his way to the gunship and began his rest.

Once again, Shy found himself alone atop the mesa. However, this time, he was thoroughly alone; not even R8 decided to spend the night awake with him. After having spent well over an hour in the same spot, he was felt that he knew his surroundings well enough to relax. As a side effect, he also had nothing to occupy himself with. Thus, his thoughts strayed. At first, his thoughts were of a more mundane nature; how the gentle breeze felt upon his exposed face, what his meals would be like for the duration of his adventure, and other similar thoughts.

The last ten and a half hours had been quite wearying upon Shy, especially with regards to his resolve to avoid reflecting upon his past squad. Ever since the incident, he had been tormented, his dreams riddled with with the dying screams of his brothers, his waking moments saturated with the guilt of letting them perish. For the most part, however, he had been able to suppress his emotions.

At least until then and a half hours ago, when he met Viktor. Something about him reminded Shy of his former squad leader for some inexplicable reason. Not inexplicable; everything can be decided within reason, he mentally argued with his scientific mindset in an attempt to regain control. Could it be because Viktor acts like my former Captain? Or is it because he's a commando? Shy was unsure, but was too tired to try to formulate an answer. As weariness wore upon him, his musing became distant and muddled.

Shy discovered that three hours pass quickly when the stress of a couple years of one's strictly regulated emotions finally break through their wall of steel known as resolve, and they try futilely to rebuild. He dejectedly rappelled down the cliff face again via his rifle's ascension cable, leaving it dangling from the line for the next one to take watch with. His spirits lightened slightly when he entered the gunship door and saw his squadmates resting peacefully, knowing that he could exact some slight compensation for an unnecessary headache upon one particularly deserving clone...

Spy spent the next three hours drowsily sputtering meaningless nonsense about his wonderful dream consisting of 'rainbows and unicorns and flying horses' being crudely interrupted.

~~~Sheriff's Office, Appleloosa, 1 day after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

The bright morning sun was making its way over the horizon, painting the sky and small township of Appleloosa various shades of orange, pink, and blue. A gentle chill breeze drifted between the various buildings that lined the main stretch of the town, which was slowly coming to life as shops and saloons prepared for opening hour. A few ponies strolled through the road, some with purpose, and some simply enjoying a morning walk. Among these ponies was Braeburn, the town's lead apple farmer and almost the mayor figure of the town.

Most days, he would set out early to relax in the morning conditions, and was usually accompanied by his friend, Sheriff Silverstar. Silverstar could usually be found waiting for him on the porch to his office, but in the cases where he was unavailable, he always left a note explaining why, unless it was obvious.

Thus, Braeburn was puzzled to find no signs of Silverstar in the porch nor a note explaining his absence on the door. Braeburn approached the door with caution, hoping that his friend was not in any sort of trouble. A voice from behind the door seemed to answer his concerns. "Ah know it's a direct decree, but this type'a job can't be handled but just one pony like mahself." It was Silverstar.

Curious as to Silverstar's plight, Braeburn knocked on the door.

"Uh, sorry pardner, I'm a might busy at the moment, yall'll haveta' come back later," Silverstar replied from inside.

"Star, it's me, Braeburn. Can Ah come in?"

"Oh, Braeburn, sorry. Ah didn't recognize ya voice there for a sec," he apologized. Presumably to somepony else inside, Silverstar said, "Wouldja mind gettin' the door for 'im?"

Braeburn heard some hoof steps from the other side of the door before the pony opened it for him, and he found himself face-to-face with...

...A bat pony? Luna's night guard? Why're they here?

The guard stepped aside and allowed Braeburn to enter, where he saw another one of Luna's guard standing across from Silverstar, who was seated at his desk, grimly staring at a piece of parchment in front of him.

"Hey, Brae," he said, not looking up. "Sorry Ah can't join ya on yer walk. I'd like ta, but I gotta big order from her highness herself."

"Oh, really? What could she be possibly wantin' from us?" he asked, genuinely intrigued.

The night guard who stood near Silverstar spoke up. "Her majesties Celestia and Luna hast formed a decree this past night requesting the presence of all ponies under their jurisdiction to assemble in Canterlot and its immediate areas."

Braeburn stared blankly at the guards. "Say who ta what now?"

"The princesses want all of their subjects to gather at Canterlot for some big announcement or somethin'. Since I'm the sheriff, I guess I've been put in charge of makin' sure all uh Appleloosa gets on them trains an' up to Canterlot." Silverstar clarified. "Not terribly difficult, but still, it's uh lot fer just one pony to coerd'nate."

"Thine princesses request it of thee, and would like their demands met in a timely manner," the guard who had opened the door said off-handedly.

"Ah know," Silverstar said with a sigh, "but it's just somethin' that can't be expected ta happen in just'a few hours."

"Ah could help ya ya know," Braeburn offered.

Silverstar perked up. "Really? That'd be wonderful. If yall'n them guards could spread the word 'round, I can get the trains ready, an' I think that'll be all we really need ta do, aside from makin' sure everypony moves along at uh steady pace."

The guards nodded in agreement. Braeburn turned towards the guards before asking, "What'll we tell everypony what they need ta bring?"

"The princesses shall ensure that shelter, food, and beds be provided for everypony who makes themselves present. Thus, they will be fine with bringing nothing," one of the guards responded.

With those details out of way, Braeburn and Silverstar said their farewells and headed off to do their self-assigned duties.

~~~Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville, 1 day after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Rays of sunlight brutally assaulted Spike's closed eyelids. He stirred, but couldn't force himself bask to sleep. Groggily, Spike sat himself, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and stretching to prepare himself for another tiring day of chores. Underneath the window that so rudely allowed photons to enter and intrude his slumber was Twilight Sparkle's unoccupied bed. It looked as if Twilight hadn't spent any time in it at all during the night, something that the studious unicorn was doing more regularly than was healthy.

Oh well. At least I don't have to make her bed this morning.

Spike made his way down the small staircase that led to the library's main room, and just as he predicted, Twilight sat at the table in the center, reading.

"Morning, Twilight," he greeted, receiving a grunt in response.

A flash of annoyance passed over his face. She could be so rude, sometimes; especially when she was engrained in her studies. She didn't mean it though, so Spike quickly forgave her.

"Had breakfast yet?" he inquired, wondering if that was another chore that he could get away with not doing. Twilight said nothing, but raised a glass of some sort of black liquid so that Spike could see it before taking a large gulp. She gagged as the foul liquid passes down he throat.

"Burnt juice again? Seriously, how is it so hard for you to not burn your food...or drinks," he deadpanned, before heading into the kitchen to prepare an actual meal for the two of them.

Broken out her 'relentless study mode' by consuming the terrible drink, the effects of a night without sleep began to bear down on her. Pushing the book she had been reading aside, she folded her front legs on the table and rested her head on them. She began to doze, but a loud rumble from outside snapped her awake instantly.

No, that rumble wasn't from outside...

Her stomach growled again. I need to stop skipping meals, she thought. The delicious scent of pancakes and hay fries wafted in from the kitchen, causing Twilight's stomach to growl even more profusely. In an attempt to distract herself from the smells that were amplifying here hunger, which were in turn preventing her from napping, she pulled the book back towards her and tried to read.

Knock. Knock.

Who would come by at this hour? The library's not even open! Groaning, she pulled herself out of her chair and walked towards the door, ready to give a verbal beating to the pony who was so blatantly disregarding the library's policies.

"Whaddya want?" she almost yelled as she opened the door, words unintentionally slurring due to her weariness. It took her a second to notice that it was Rarity who stood in front of her with a concerned look on her face.

"Twilight, darling, are you alright? You look like a mess. Did you stay up all night again?" inquired Rarity.

"Oh, hi Rarity, sorry for yelling at you. Come in," Twilight apologized, stepping aside to let Rarity through. "Yeah, I skipped sleep...again," she continued as Rarity walked by, closing the door once Rarity had made her way in.

"You should really stop doing that so often, Twilight. It's unhealthy and it really shows in your complexion," Rarity scolded. "What is that smell? Is Spikey-Wikey making his marvelous pancakes again?"

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, he is. And I'm glad, too. Burnt juice tastes really bad, though is does wonders to wake you up."

"You burn your juice too? That's...somewhat of a relief," Rarity said. "At least Sweetie Belle isn't the only one."

"Gee, thanks for equating my juice preparing skills to that of a filly. Does wonders for my self-esteem," Twilight replied sarcastically, though the sarcasm was lost.

Rarity reared back. She had not come over to insult her friend! She had to correct herself. "I-I'm sorry Twilight, I didn't mean it like that. I-"

"Relax, I'm teasing," Twilight said. Rarity sighed in relief. "So, care to explain why you're here?"

Taking a moment to remember why she had indeed come to Twilight, she said, "Yes. Well, you see, I received a special order late last night for some outfits in a more...outdated style. Yes, and I came over to see if you had a book which described these styles of outfits that I could use for reference."

"Yeah, I've got stuff about that. I'll find you one after we've eaten. That is, if you're interested in sharing some breakfast."

"Oh, most indubitably, Twilight. I'd love to."

Several minutes later, Spike came out of the kitchen carrying two platters, one piled high with pancakes, and the other generously doused in hay fries. He went to the table where the two mares were waiting patiently for him. Setting the platters down in front of them, he bowed, saying, "Enjoy, my ladies."

"Oh, why thanks ever so much, Spike," Rarity said, to which Spike assumed a standing posture and said, "It's my pleas-BELCH"

Green flames projected from his mouth, and out of them, a regal letter shot out at a high velocity, hitting Rarity directly in the face. Spike relentlessly apologized, and Twilight couldn't help but laugh at the situation as she grabbed the letter with her magic.

Ignoring Spike and Rarity, who was assuring Spike that it was fine while simultaneously scolding him for his unexcused burp, she read the letter:

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

A new era for Equestria is about to begin. In fact, it will begin tomorrow, and it is important that all able-bodied ponies from across Equestria are present in Canterlot at that time.

It is important that you and the other Elements of Harmony ensure that Ponyville is successfully ferried to Conterlot. I will be sending guards to assist you with this, and to explain the situation to any who ask, as I doubt that I will be able to explain via letter.

Attached to this letter is a note from me to the conductors of the Ponyville train station, which I would like delivered to them as soon as possible. Additionally, I will be sending a chariot for you and the Elements. When you all are ready, it will bring you to Canterlot, where you'll see this glorious era begin first hand.

Thank you and good luck,

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna

Upon finishing the letter, Twilight was giddy with excitement, all weariness forgotten.

"What does it say, Twilight?" Rarity asked.

Twilight grinned. "We've got an assignment from the princesses!"

~~~LZ, US-01, 1 day and 5 hours after the Ambush at US-01~~~

After touching ground, Gore detached the ascension cable from Shy's rife and mounted the weapon on his back. The sun was high in the sky and shone down brightly upon the LZ. It wasn't quite noon yet, but It was getting close; Viktor must have underestimated the lateness of the hour when he ordered everyone to sleep. Regardless of the exact time, it had been approximately twelve hours since they had begun sleeping, and now it was time to progress their mission.

Actually, now was the fun part of getting the squad to wake up. R8 was already about, scurrying between the pieces of equipment they had brought and making sure that is was functioning properly. Not that Gore had wanted to rudely awake R8; he heard the droid zap Spy twice for calling it 'Lumpy'. Gore was not interested in getting a similar experience.

Gore strode to hammocks that bore Shy and Viktor, which were conveniently adjacent to each other. He removed his helmet as shook each of their shoulders softly. This prompted Shy awake, and Gore indicated to him to stay silent. After all, Shy was definitely the noisiest out of all of them (sarcasm). Viktor, however, resisted the motion, but was stirred awake after a few taps to his visor. Again, Gore indicated to him to remain silent.

Gore stalked over to where Spy lay and carefully contemplated his next move. He really wanted to just flip the hammock over, but that was a bit too simple. He needed to do something more drastic...

Finally, an idea. He silently made his way to the end of the hammock cradling Spy's head. Reaching for the knot that held the hammock up, he slowly pulled on the cords. Looser and looser he made them until, finally, Spy's weight was too much for the weakened knot to handle.

Spy crashed to the floor head first, and let out a moan that seemed to be a mix of tiredness, anger, and pain. Gore glanced to Viktor, who was holding his helmet, and indicated to him to leave the gunship.

Coming to his senses, Spy stood up and looked around, only to find that no one was present in the gunship. He looked to where the end of the hammock had previously been suspended and sighed, cursing his poor knot-tying skills.

Now that everyone was awake and in a good mood, it was time for Victor squad to prepare for the day's happenings. After eating bland rations as their breakfasts, the squad checked their weapons and the BARCs to ensure they would be running properly. They hoped that their weapons wouldn't be needed, but their guard would be up regardless.

The squad was about to leave, but were stopped when Gore made yet another astute observation. He found that, when he placed his chain gun on his back, the weight made him fall over.

"This is going to be a problem," he muttered, struggling to stand.

Spy laughed, but Shy and Viktor shared concerned looks.

Gore got to his feet and set the chain gun on the ground in front of him, looking at Shy and Viktor, hoping that one of them would have a solution.

"I could modify this a bit," said Shy quietly. "I should be able to attach one of the repulsor lifts to is, and make it so that it is activated when the magnetization module is activated. That should be able to help counter the weight."

Gore looked to Shy, surprised that he was capable of saying more than two sentences back-to-back. Shy looked to Viktor for approval.

"If you can get it finished within an hour, go a head and do it now. If not, it'll have to wait until we return," Viktor ordered.

In less than an hour's time, Shy had managed to make his proposed system work flawlessly. Gore was now able to carry his chain gun while it was magnetized on his back, and as long as his back wasn't near horizontal, the weapon actually felt weightless.

With that problem dealt with, Victor squad was headed towards the hoof prints that Shy had wanted to study. They left R8 behind to monitor the equipment.

Not long after heading out, they had already reached the prints. Shy handed his rifle to Spy, who used it to check to horizon, while Viktor and Gore established a perimeter.

"So I don't know if you saw anything," Gore said to Viktor via helmet comm while Shy worked, "but throughout my entire watch, there was seemingly a lot of activity in the direction of the suspected civilization."

"Yeah, I saw some activity during the last half of my watch as well," Viktor agreed. "It was getting to be morning, though, so I'd be willing to bet that whatever they are, they're not nocturnal."

"Ugh, why did I have to get the shift that had nothing interesting happen?" Spy complained. "Even now, there's nothing going on in that direction."

Viktor and Gore looked towards the suspected settlement, though it was too distant for them to actually see anything. "Huh," Viktor said. "Maybe they are nocturnal?"

Twenty minutes passed, and Victor squad was still at the hoof prints. Viktor liked to consider himself patient, but even now, he was starting to get restless. How could a simple set of tracks be so interesting?, he wondered. Shy didn't appear to have moved much since the last time Viktor had glanced at him a few minutes ago, so he decided to see what Shy had found so far.

"Got anything to report, Shy?"

Shy took his time responding. "Um, well, this track was made by a creature with some sort of split hoof. I originally suspected that they were from a batha-like creature, but as you can see, this only splits once, while banthas have two divergences on their hooves. I also found a small tuft of fur near one of these prints. It was brown, long, and thick, similar to a bantha. So while the things that made these tracks are not banthas, it would be pretty safe to say that they were made by something similar to a bantha; closer to a dwarf bantha, I should say, given the small size."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah. The moisture content of the dirt in this region seems to be quite low. It's likely that is hasn't rained for a while, and based on the cloud patterns that I've observed, it's not likely that it will rain soon. Basically, were in this planet's version of Tatooine."

Lovely, Viktor thought. At least the planet isn't entirely like this, unlike Tatooine. Reflecting on what he had just been told, Viktor found it surprising how conversational Shy was when talking about stuff that was more...sciencey.

He looked to the sky and saw that the sun had made relatively significant progress. "Good work, but we should probably get going now. I want to be back at the LZ by nightfall."

After receiving a nod from Shy, Victor squad loaded their speeders and headed towards the suspected civilization.

~~~Ponyville Train Station, Ponyville, 1 day, 3 hours and 30 minutes after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Twilight was not surprised that Ponyville had made its way onto the trains to Canterlot at an astoundingly quick pace. She had her expert organizational skills to thank for that...as well as the town's proximity to Canterlot, the willingness of the townsponies to cooperate, her friends, the guards that Celestia had sent-

Okay, so maybe Twilight's contribution was only a small part of the wonderful success, but regardless of how it happened, it did, and she was proud of the accomplishment.

Finally, the last train departed from the station, leaving the Elements of Harmony and their escort behind to make their own way to Canterlot. After boarding the chariot, the group took off. In a couple of short hours, Twilight would get to see her beloved teacher again, and finally appease her curiosity about this 'new era for Equestria'.

~~~Appleloosa Train Station, Appleloosa, 1 day and 5 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Braeburn was surprised at how quickly he and Silverstar had managed to get all of Appleloosa onto the trains to Canterlot. Actually, it wasn't all that surprising. Most of the ponies in the town had never been to Canterlot, and would jump at the chance to go free of charge. The citizens were pleasantly cooperative and willing to leave their belongings with the assurance that is would only be three days at the most that they'd be gone. It was nice to see everything run smoothly.

"All of the ponies hast been escorted onto the trains save us," said one of the night guards who stood behind Braeburn.

"Whoo, that's what Ah like ta hear," he cheered, proud to have been efficient and effective at complying with his princesses. "I guess we should be getting on now, eh, 'Star?"

"Ah agree. Let's go."

Braeburn, Silverstar, and the two night guards made their way onto the last train out of Appleloosa and began their trip to Canterlot.

~~~Outskirts of Suspected Civilization, US-01, 1 day, 7 hours and 25 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Well, this was unexpected. In front of Victor squad lay an entire township. Entire, except for any sort of civilian. It couldn't have been abandoned for long; the buildings were completely intact and nothing looked incredibly worn down.

They were still a good few hundred feet from the town, each looking at it though the binoculars built into their helmets, except for Shy who used his rifle scope. Needless to say, the scenario was strange and a bit discomforting; perhaps they would need their weapons after all.

"I really can't see any signs of life," Spy said.

No one responded; they had all come to that conclusion several minutes ago.

"Maybe we should go in and investigate," Gore suggested. "After all, we need to collect data on all of the species that we can, and what better way to do so that to see their handiwork firsthand?"

Viktor considered this very true fact.

"And I doubt that we'd be in any real danger if we get found. We've not seen any signs of any tinnies, plus those buildings are made of wood, indicative of a low state of technological advancement."

"Lotta big words there, smart guy," Spy teased.

"Shut up, you probably didn't even know what I meant," Gore retorted.

"Of course I know what you meant," Spy defended. "You called them dumb."

"Like you."

"Knock it off," Viktor seethed.

After a few seconds, the tension levels lowered. At least until Spy spoke again. "That was a lousy comeback."

Viktor facepalmed.

Victor squad carefully eased themself what was presumably the main road of the town, making sure not to break formation. Gore took point, spinning the barrels of his weapon to be prepared for an attack should one come. Spy and Shy covered the left and right flanks respectively, though Shy was wielding his pistols rather than his rifle due to the close-quarters nature of their surroundings. Viktor took the rear, checking and rechecking every possible point from which they could be ambushed with his DC-17.

The squad made it completely down the road without any complications. At this point, Viktor was about ready to declare the town abandoned. It was still a strange sight, though; there were no signs of any type of conflict, all of the stores still had goods, and no windows were boarded or broken. It was almost as if everyone in the town just took off at the same time.

Viktor was also able to confirm the last point Gore had made regarding the civilization's level of technological advancement. They were really underdeveloped. He doubted that any of them were at risk of being injured, even if there was an ambush waiting for them. The tension released itself from Viktor, something the rest of the squad seemed to pick up on, and they too relaxed and lowered their weapons.

"So what now, boss?" Spy asked. Spy seemed to always be the first to talk.

He hadn't really thought this through; he had no idea what to do next. "I don't know," he finally said. "Any ideas?"

"I have one, sir," aid Shy. "We should split up and and search all of the unlocked buildings. Look through them and report your findings to me, but don't touch anything."

"Sounds good, but what if there are no unlocked buildings?" Gore asked.

"Anyone here know how to lockpick?" Viktor asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

Spy raised his hand, and Shy raised his slightly. "I've got a little experience," he said.

"Good. Shy and I will check the buildings down this road. Spy and Gore, go...somewhere else, I don't think it really matters where, just stay in contact. Feel free to pick any locked doors, but don't break any of the locks and don't touch anything inside the buildings you enter. And lock the door behind you as you leave."

Spy and Gore saluted and walked away. Viktor turned and nodded to Shy, and they were off.

After an hour of searching, Victor squad had made some minor progress with their data collection. They had discovered that the species that had inhabited the town were equine in form, very similar to a horse, but with a few differences, mainly in head shape, coat color, and eye size, though some also bore wings or a horn. Fortunately for the clones, Spy and Gore had managed to find photographs of the ex-inhabitants in some of the houses they broke into, providing Victor squad with the visual details they had collected. There was probably more that Shy could gather from the images, but, pressed for time, the best that could be done is scan the images now to be analyzed later.

Shy and Viktor had been having significantly less luck with finding information. They had almost reached the end of the road, and, having forced themselves into every building up to that point, discovered that the members of this species were herbivores and short. They had bumper their heads on the ceilings a few times to testify that last point.

Viktor found himself peering through a large window to what appeared o be a general store of sorts while Shy messed with the lock on the door. There were cooking utensils and other such household maintenance items visible on the shelves; nothing they hadn't seen in another building already. Viktor really doubted that any new information would be found in this building, but it couldn't hurt to check. A few seconds after Shy and started fiddling with the lock, the door creaked open.

Lighting inside was not optimal; thanks to the position of the sun, not enough light got in to make seeing easy, but it wasn't dark enough to justify using low-light mode. They would have to do with their floodlights.

They hunched their through the store's aisles, seeing nothing of interest along the way. They met up in the front of the store after completing their search, each disappointed that more of their time had been wasted. Viktor turned to leave, but Shy stayed put, seeming lost in thought.

"You know, since this is a store, it's likely to have some sort of currency lying about," Shy said, probably thinking out loud as opposed to trying to make a point.

"Yeah. But we're not going to be taking any of their money, if that's what you're thinking," Viktor responded.

"Oh, I would never consider stealing it, but maybe it would be beneficial for us to look at some of it."

Confused as to where this train of thought was going, Viktor questioned why.

"Well, it's obvious that this society is underdeveloped, which means that is probably doesn't use digital currency like we do. At least in our galaxy, older civilizations used coins with impressions of their society's leader on them as currency. If this society is similar, then we might be able to get some information about their leader figures," Shy explained.

Viktor agreed, and together they made their way to the store's cash register. Shy picked the lock on it and pulled out a tray filled with tiny gold coins. Picking one up and holding in front of his science module's scanner, he began to observe the coin. Viktor watched as Shy stared at the coin, and tried to find something divert his attention to.

Off in one of the store's back corners was a barrel filled with scrolls and a sign labeled 'Maps' above it. Viktor couldn't believe his squad's fortune. He walked over, taking one of the maps out of the barrel and unrolled it.

"Shy, drop the coin. I found a map."

Shy immediately dropped the coin back into the register and closed it, rushing over to Viktor's side as he studied he map.

Shy stared at the map that Viktor held for a few seconds. Something about it was curious.

"These things...speak Basic?"

That slight detail had slipped past Viktor's mind while he had been looking over the map, but now that Shy had pointed it out, the coincidence seemed almost too good to be true. That, and also somewhat strange.

"I know that I said we're not stealing things, but this map might be a bit to valuable for us to simply leave behind. I'm grabbing a couple, and then we're getting out of here," Viktor said. He and Shy left the store, locking the door behind them, and made for Spy and Gore's location.

~~~LZ, Equestria, 1 day and 13 hours after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Overall, Viktor felt that the day had been successful. He and his squad had identified at least one of the planet's indigenous species, made a reasonable analysis of the lifestyle led by the species that they knew they had identified, and found a map depicting their geographical location, albeit there was some dispute over their location on the map, since two locations seemed to match their surroundings. Despite the dispute, they at least knew that they were in a place called Equestria. Whether that was the name of the country, region, or planet was still to be determined, but it was a start.

Viktor felt that his squad deserved some rest, so let them off to sleep once they had given Shy all of the data they had collected, saying that they would worry about tomorrow's plans tomorrow. Viktor decided to take the first watch while his Spy and Gore slept and while Shy mulled over their findings and prepared a report for Sargent Moon.

It was evening when his shift started, and he watched as the sun slowly dipped below the horizon, casting the world into another starry night. Looking up to the sky, Viktor admired the brightly shining full moon that occupied the majority of the sky. Wait, full moon? It was just a crescent moon last night. Either this planet has really fast-paced moon phases, or someone decides how the moon looks each night. Pfft, that's unreasonable...definitely fast moon phases.

Now that that was resolved, it was time for Viktor to actually keep watch, though his experience so far told him that there was really no need; they hadn't encountered any type of hostilities yet. Yet.

Viktor waited peacefully on top of the mesa, observing his surroundings casually through his DC-17 sniper, before something caught his eye. In the distance, something in the sky gave a hint of reflected moonlight. Speedily moving his crosshairs over the disturbance, he zoomed in on it to find...

Ugh, why do the Seps have to come and ruin everything?

...that it was a droid transport. More motion in the distance was picked up by his infrared scope.

And what is that swarm?

Chapter 5: Friend or Fiend?

~~~Throne Room, Canterlot, 1 day and 1 hour after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

"You summoned me?"

"Yes, Grievous, I did," Celestia started. She began to smile slightly, continuing. "Luna and I have reached a decision. Equestria is willing to accept your protection, as long as we can finalize a couple minor details."

Grievous was elated. He had expected to get the princesses on his side sooner or later, though he considered the latter to be the likely case. Not that he was complaining; it's just that there were usually complications in his plans. This was a nice change of pace from Grievous' regular routine.

"Of course, your highness," he said, tone noticeably less gruff as compared to how he had talked to them before. "I am pleased to have been granted your consideration."

Celestia smiled warmly at Grievous, who had dipped his head as he spoke; not quite a full bow, but certainly more than he had given her or Luna in their previous encounters.

Luna giggled slightly at Grievous' gesture, saying, "Thou need not bow to us, Grievous. You are our guest, and we are not your masters."

"No, you're not," Grievous reinforced, looking up intimidatingly. "And any attempts to convince me otherwise will be refuted."

The guards in the room eyed Grievous suspiciously, ready to suppress him if his mood swing resulted in violence. Grievous payed them no notice.

After a few moments of tense silence, Celestia decided it best to progress with their meeting. "Hostilities will not be necessary, Grievous; we have no intentions of making you a servant to us."

Grievous relented. "Of course...my apologies," he said with an indeterminable amount of sincerity. "So, what are these 'final details' that need to be worked out?"

"Our concerns are mostly related to the command structure of our combined forces," Luna elaborated.

Celestia finished the statement. "You have made us aware that your forces are armed to kill. This somewhat conflicts with our Guard, whose purpose is to act as defenders, not as aggressors. As such, killing is a last resort for our Guard. Luna and I are willing to trust that you'd not have your 'droids', as you called them, wander our country unmonitored. But, for security reasons that I'm sure someone of your experience would understand, we need to make sure that Equestria has some sort of power over your units."

"I understand."

"So do you have any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?" Luna inquired of Grievous.

After a couple of minutes of contemplation and careful wording, Grievous presented a compromise. "I would be willing to let the two of you and Shining Armor command my droids during a time of crisis, such as an invasion, which is a completely likely situation, so long as I am permitted to use my droids as I see fit during other times, so long as such use does not violate the laws of your country, except for cases in which the Republic is involved, in which case I will deal with the situation as I see fit."

Smiling again at Grievous, Celestia said, "A perfectly reasonable and agreeable compromise, Grievous. There is but one more thing that we need to discuss...you."

Grievous stared at Celestia, not comprehending the implications of he comment.

"What we mean is," Luna explained, "is that, now that we've reached an agreement about the handling of thine droids, we need to know how it is that you will be handled."

"I will command my droids and act within the laws of your society, unless such laws conflict with my master's demands or with winning my war against the Republic, in which case, I will be forced to neglect them," Grievous said.

"We can agree to that," said Celestia. "Would you be capable of commanding your troops from here, or do you need to be given leave to travel in order to do so."

"I can remotely communicate with any all of my forces fine from here, and can stay here should the hospitality be provided."

"Indeed it shall," Luna confirmed.

"That is all that we needed to hear before we would be willing to finalize our agreement. Welcome to Equestira, General Grievous," Celestia concluded.

~~~Girevous' Room, Canterlot, 1 day and 2 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

"Report, General."

"I have made agreements with the princesses as you commanded, master. They have given me permission to deploy my troops as I see fit, and as far as I am aware, they will be assisting us against the Republic."

"Very good, General," said the hologram as a sly smile crept upon the old man's face. "It is good to see you finally working ahead of schedule."

"These ponies are very trusting. I've managed to maintain effectively complete control over my droids. It will provide very beneficial to our plans...which are what, exactly? You've still not told me why I'm here, when I could be out fighting for you, which is my specialty."

"Really?" Dooku said. "You seem to have made quite the diplomat out of yourself from what you've told me. I would have never thought of you as the...charismatic type."

Grievous growled in irritation.

"As for my plans, I'm afraid I can't tell you yet. I need to make some more observations before I am willing to present it to you, and it seems that you've got a visitor."

With that, Dooku's hologram vanished from Grievous' holovid. He turned to the door to his room, which was still closed. Listening carefully, he could hear the slow clip-clopping of hooves coming from the other side, which ceased sounding as the source neared the door. Before the visitor had a chance to knock, Grievous opened the door. He found Celestia's beautiful eyes peering up to him.

"What do you want?" he asked in an unfriendly manner, which Celestia seemed to ignore when she responded.

"I'd like you to come with me; there are some important ponies arriving soon that I'd like you to be introduced to."

Ugh, more politics. "Fine, but let's make this short. I do have droids to coordinate."

~~~Ponyville Train Station, Ponyville, 1 day, 3 hours and 30 minutes after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Twilight Sparkle sighed in relief as the last train to Canterlot departed from the station, leaving her, her friends, and a contingent of guards the only ones at the station. She looked to the chariot that was to be her and her friends' ride to Canterlot with anticipation and excitement for the events to come.

"Thanks for all of your help, girls," she said, turning to her group of friends behind her. "I don't think I'd have gotten everypony on the trains in a timely manner without you."

"No problem, Twi, it's what we're here for," Rainbow Dash said, casually brushing off the praise but secretly relishing it.

"Yep, anytime," Applejack agreed, pulling her stetson down and nodding as she said it.

From behind her, the group heard one of the guards speak. "I'm sorry to interrupt, Miss Sparkle, but we should be going. We don't want to keep the princesses waiting." Collectively agreeing, the group of six friends climbed onto the chariot and were whisked away by the pegusi pulling it.

During the process of getting all of Ponyville's citizens onto the trains, Twilight's mind considered the possibilities of the news Celestia and Luna had sent her. Several ideas of what this 'new era' could consist of had gone through her head, though most had to do with collections of powerful, society-altering spells. Curious as to what her friends thought, she asked, "What do you think Celestia meant by 'a new era for Equestria'?"

"Maybe the princess has a bunch of awesome stunts that she wants all of Equestria to see," Rainbow Dash said hopefully.

"I don't see how that constitutes a 'new era for Equestria', Rainbow Dash," Rarity said. "Perhaps she has a new clothing line that she wants to show off," she thought aloud.

"'Cause that constitutes a new era," Twilight panned, rolling her eyes as she spoke.

"Were you not my dear friend, I would be offended at your lack of respect for fashion," Rarity huffed.

"I never said I didn't respect it, Rarity. I was just saying that Princess Celestia doesn't find fashion important enough to justify an event like this."

Rarity put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, saying, "Darling, you take everything I say too seriously. I was merely teasing you again."

"Oh...sorry," Twilight said sheepishly.

"No need to apologize, darling. Just a small misunderstanding." Rarity smiled her reassurance. "Does anypony else have any speculations as to why Celestia is summoning us?" she asked the rest of the group.

Wanting to get her two bits in, Applejack spoke up. "Ah honestly got no idea what the princess is riled up 'bout, but Ah'm eager ta find out."

"I hope it's nothing...bad," Fluttershy said meekly.

"I don't think it'll be anything bad. We haven't had anything terrible happen since..." Twilight replied, taking a moment to recall the last catastrophe to assail Equestria. "Would you consider letting Discord free to have been something potentially terrible?" she asked, hoping to get an opinion.

"Yes," the others agreed.

"Well, then; we haven't had any potential disasters since we let Discord free. Pinkie Pie, you've been awfully quite about this," Twilight said, addressing her pink friend. "What do you have to say about-"

Pinkie cut her off. "ALIENS!" she shouted, leaping off of the chariot and literally hovering as she screamed.

Twilight was caught off guard by Pinkie's unexpected outburst, and took a couple of seconds to compose some sort of response. "Excuse me?"

"Aliens. I think Celestia made contact with an alien species and that they've come here to be our friends and help us and party and eat cupcakes and be our bestest friends, but then they'll turn out to be evil monsters trying to take over the universe and enslave all of ponykind," she said with certainty.

"I...I don't...I don't know what to say to that," Twilight stuttered, utterly confused. She was not alone, though. The rest of her friends and even a couple of their accompanying guards looked at her as if he was crazy.

"You probably shouldn't say anything to it. We don't want any spoilers," she said.

I'll never understand Pinkie, Twilight thought, and decided to drop the issue.

~~~Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, 1 day and 5 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

The chariot landed gracefully on the short airstrip intended for that purpose, with several other pegusi guards touched down around it and its occupants. As the occupants got off, a few guards approached them, led by none other than Shining Armor. Seeing her beloved brother, Twilight Sparkle immediately went to give him a hug.

"Shining Armor, its so nice to see you!" she said enthusiastically, embracing him in an armor crushing hug while the rest of her friends caught up.

"Yeah, hello, Twily," he replied uncharacteristically gravely, returning the hug.

Twilight could immediately tell that Shining Armor was troubled. Glancing around, she could see that a couple of the other guards showed similar signs of tension.

Still holding Twilight, Shining Armor greeted her friends. "Is something wrong?" Twilight asked from within his arms.

"I hope not," he said, releasing his sister. "I'd love to chat more, but Celestia is extremely eager to see you all, so we shouldn't keep her waiting."

Shining Armor and his guards led the six mares through the castle's many winding corridors for several minute before finally arriving at the Princess' throne room. "Stay here," he told them before having the unicorn guards as the door let him in. The doors quickly shut behind him, denying a glance into the room to the mares that had followed him.

"Somethin' 'bout this don't seem right," Applejack remarked, to which no reply was given.

The guard captain came through the door again shortly, with the door closing in a similar manner as before behind him. Before he could speak, a heavy, masculine cough resounded from the opposite side of the door.

"Who was that?" Twilight queried.

"Alright girls, the princess and I are going to introduce you to someone really important. He's a bit...unusual, but I need you all to remain calm and collected. Can you do that?" Shining Armor said, ignoring Twilight's question.

"We can do that," Twilight assured. "Wait, 'someone'?"

Before Twilight's question could be answered, Shining Armor moved behind them and threw the doors open with his magic, revealing the extravagant throne room to the Element bearers.

At that moment, though, none of them could care at all for the pristinely maintained floor, or the lavish adornments, or even their regal princess, sitting patiently in her opulent throne for them. Instead, all of their focus was drawn by the behemoth standing by her.

Shining Armor walked past them, turning to beckon them to follow. Twilight cautiously obeyed, keeping her eyes on the monstrosity before them, greatly unnerved as the being's wicked, yellow eyes followed her. Her friends slowly followed her example, not a decision made by herself for one butter yellow pegasus, who only budged by being shoved by Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

The tension in the room could almost be cut by a knife, or a lightsaber for those lacking knives. Eventually, Shining Armor, Twilight, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony stood, or cowered in Fluttershy's case, before Celestia and the strange creature.

"Here they are, your highness," Shining Armor said to Celestia.

"Thank you, Captain," she said, her soothing voice seeming to bring some sort of relief to the intimidated ponies in front of her. "You are dismissed."

Shining Armor gave a salute before leaving for the back of the room. The lack of sound from the doors indicated to Twilight that her brother had not left them. She watched the giant sweep his gaze across the group of them, giving each of them a cold, calculating glare...except for when it saw Fluttershy; it seemed to get an evil glimmer in its eyes as it watched her tremble in fear behind Applejack.

"My little ponies, thank you all for coming on such short notice," Celestia said, finally managing to divert their attention from hulking being adjacent to her, "but I felt that this was something you needed to do as soon as possible. Please allow me to introduce you to General Grievous, the Supreme Commander of the droid army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Did I get that right?" she asked, turning to Grievous for confirmation

"Yes," he said, regaining the attention from the ponies again.

Addressing the Elements again, Celestia asked, "Would you care to introduce yourselves to him?"

"Certainly, Princess," Twilight said, albeit rather shakily. "I-I'm Twilight Sparkle, personal student of the princess. It's a p-pleasure to meet you, Mr. Grievous?" she said, though the tone sounded questioning as she neared the end of her statement. Next to her, Rarity spoke next.

"I'm Rarity, Ponyville's pirmere fashonista. And it is an honor to meet you."

Grievous said nothing and turned his gaze towards the overly pink pony next to her. As soon as Pinkie got the hint that it was her turn to speak, her forlorn expression turned to one of absolute glee. She jumped, raising her front hoofs, and shouting, "I knew it was aliens!"

Not another second was given for anyone to react before Pinkie was right in Grievous' face, levitating again and giving no regards to personal space. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! It's so awesome to meet you. So, you're an alien? That's so cool! I've always wanted to meet an alien. I've always thought that it would be awesome to have an alien friend be my bestest friend and then we'd go to space and go world hopping and party! Ooh, speaking of parties, I love parties! Do you love parties? How do aliens party? Do you have cupcakes, or do you prefer muffins? Derpy thinks that muffins are better, but that's impossible, 'cause cupcakes are sooooooo much tastier, and-"

Finally hearing enough of the pink pony's mindless rant, Grievous forced her to the ground and shoved her away with his foot, clamping her mouth shut as he did so.

"You have bird feet?" she asked upon having her mouth unrestrained and after noticing that Grievous did indeed have talons as opposed to toes or hooves.

"That's quite enough, Pinkine Pie," Celestia intervened before she could go off on another tangent. Blushing, Pinkie returned to her original spot. After a final menacing glare, Grievous turned his attention to Rainbow Dash, who was now hovering.

"And I'm Rainbow Dash," she said, crossing her forelegs and puffing up her chest. "I'm the fastest and most awesome flier in all of Equestria."

Satisfied that no outburst like Pinkie's was to follow, Grievous turned to the last two ponies in line, the yellow and pink one still hiding behind the orange one with the hat, though her trembling had ceased.

"Ah'm Applejack," the orange one said. "Ah'm one uh the owners of Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville. And this'n behind me Fluttershy. She's a bit skittish 'round strangers, but she's real sweet once ya get ta know 'er."

Fluttershy peeked around Applejack's behind as the earth pony introduced her, but after catching another glimpse at the monster before her, she retreated to her original hiding position.

Scoffing at the notion, Grievous turned to Celestia. "So what about these ponies requires them to meet me?" he asked.

Smiling, she answered his question. "These six ponies before you are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony."

A pause. "The what?"

"The Elemtens of Harmony are a set of powerful artifacts that are capable of restoring peace and harmony during a time of chaos and anarchy. There are six of them, each representative of a virtue valuable for maintaining a good friendship. Each one can only be wielded by the pony that most exemplifies the virtue that each particular Element represents. And these six are those six ponies capable of using the Elements," Celestia explained.

"Fluttershy," Celestia said, pointing to Fluttershy with her hoof, "is the Element of kindness. Applejack is honesty, Rainbow Dash represents loyalty, Pinkie Pie is laughter, Rarity exemplifies generosity, and Twilight is magic."

"Uh-huh..." Grievous replied, not truly believing Celestia but not wanting to hear more 'friendship' blasphemy.

"If you don't mind me asking, princess, why is Grievous here, and what is he?" Twilight asked.

"Grievous has informed me of a new threat to Equestria, but I fear that the Elements may not be enough to stop this one. Grievous has valiantly volunteered his services protecting us from this threat," Celestia replied, turning to smile at Grievous, who had returned to giving the mares in front of him death glares.

"What kind of threat?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's...the details are a private matter between Luna, him and I, but in essence, it is an alien invasion, however cliché that sounds," said Celestia.

"And Grievous here is going to single-hoofedly protect us from this invasion?" Rainbow asked, disbelieving.

"Were you not listening?" he scolded. "I am a commander of an army; of course I'm not alone."

"Geez, sorry, ya don't need to yell," she muttered.

"Yeah, Grievous, no need to yell," Pinkie said. She then turned to Rainbow Dash. "But seriously, Dashie, you need to pay attention. He had hands, not hooves, silly."

Grievous glanced over the Element bearers one again before turning to Celestia. "I've been distracted long enough, Princess. I need to go coordinate my troops if you want them here by tomorrow."

And with that, he headed down the small set of stairs towards the large doors at the opposite end of the room. The Elements parted for him and their gazes followed him as he made his way, slightly hunched and hands behind his back. As they faced the rear of the room, the mares saw two other tall creatures standing near the door. They were a dull silver, unlike Grievous, who was white. Also unlike Grievous, their eyes glowed an unblinking red. One wore a tattered tan cape and head wrap. Overall, they were less intimidating than the general, even with the long poles they held which Twilight easily deduced as weapons.

Grievous pushed the heavy wooden door open without any assistance, a feat that Twilight hadn't thought possible by anything other than a dragon of substantial size. As he strode out of the room, the beings with the poles followed him out. They were obviously some his Grievous' troops.

The door closed behind him, leaving the room void of alien life. Twilight and her friends turned towards Celestia, and for the first time since she saw Grievous, Fluttershy, stopped cowering.

"Well he isn't the most pleasant of individuals," Rarity off-handedly commented.

"It is understandable. He has gone through much struggle and grief. Now is not the time for us to discuss his past, however; you will have time to ask him your questions yourselves later. Instead, I want us to think about Equestria's future. Grievous comes from another galaxy, one where space travel is commonplace, and aliens life is nothing spectacular. According to him, his galaxy is very technologically advanced, and he his living proof of that," said Celestia.

"How so?" asked Twilight.

"Did you see his body? It's made of metal...it's inorganic. He's almost completely machine."

"That's amazing!" Twilight said enthusiastically.

"It is, and as a result of Grievous being here, some of his galaxy's technologies will make their way here for us. Truly this is a new era for Equestria. One of new technologies and discoveries...oh, but look at me rambling," Celestia said, chiding herself. "I plan to introduce him to the Equestrian public tomorrow; that was why I had summoned all of Equestria to Canterlot."

"Sounds like uh fine idea, Princess," Applejack agreed.

"Indeed," Celestia said. "But, as such, there are many preparations that must be done, so I am going to have to dismiss you all. I have already had rooms prepared for you all in the suite tower. Just ask a guard to escort you to your room when you're ready to go there. In the meantime, feel free to take full advantage of everything I have to offer."

"Thank you kindly, Princess," Applejack thanked before bowing. The others followed suit, then followed Shining Armor out of the room.

Once outside of the throne room, Shining Armor turned to the mares and said, "Well, I've got to prepare my troops for tomorrow. You can come with me if you want, but I don't think you'll really find it entertaining in any way. But, uh, well, enjoy yourselves." With that, he trotted away, but to where was unknown to Twilight or the others.

"I think I'll go with my brother," Twilight said to her friends. Her friends had other plans; Rarity and Pinkie wanted to go to their rooms, Fluttershy wanted to spend some time in the gardens, Rainbow Dash was going to fly around Canterlot, and Applejack decided to find some grub.

They each went their separate ways, and Twilight caught up to he brother, who had not gotten far from the group.

"So what's wrong?" she asked once she got next to Shining, who still looked worse for wear.

"It's nothing, Twi," he said, hoping that she wouldn't press the matter further. But he knew her better.

"Are you sure? I saw you give that Grievous guy a weird look when you saw him. Is there something about him that troubles you? I wouldn't blame you if there was; he's sort of intimidating." she pressed.

"It's...I...I don't want to talk about it," he said adamantly.

"C'mon, if there's something troubling you, you should talk about it; it'll make you feel better," she encouraged.

He sighed, battle lost, but continued trotting towards his destination. Without looking to Twilight, he began his rant. "Grievous disturbs me. He seems aggressive and inconsiderate. Did you see how he looked at your friend Fluttershy?" He waited for Twilight to nod yes before continuing. "He was enjoying watching her tremble. From what I've seem, he's a heartless bucker, and I don't trust him," he said, stressing the word enjoying for emphasis.

She took a moment to take in what Shining had said before giving her response. "That can't be all that's troubling you, though. You look like you haven't slept well for a while, and I'm pretty sure that this Grievous thing hasn't been happening long enough for that."

"Grievous aside," Shining Armor said, "our scouts have been observing more changeling activity near the Macintosh Hills, and we suspect another invasion soon. I've been trying to get the Guard ready to fight them off better than last time, but I can't say I'm completely confident in our chances."

"Ugh, changelings again?" Twilight muttered. "Well, at least you've got Grievous on your side now. Maybe you'll get to see him and his troops in action?"

"I've already see him in action," he said, head drooping as he recalled the thrashing that Grievous had given him yesterday. Speaking of which, his jaw still hurt from having his sword wrenched out from his mouth. "He was watching me drill my troops yesterday, and when I asked him his opinion about the troops I was drilling, he said that everything that we were doing was wrong or needed improvement. In an attempt to prove him wrong, I decided to spar him. Even without his weapons, he broke the tip off of my spear and almost stabbed me with it, and he bent my sword with his foot. His foot! Not to mention that immediately afterwards, he could've crushed my skull in while he was standing on me."

Twilight held a shocked expression as she listened to her brother describe his experience sparring with the general.

"He's a very dangerous fighter; if he wanted to, he could probably single-handedly wipe out the entire Royal Guard. And I don't even know if he can use magic or not, or what his weapons are capable of. He's scary, and I don't trust him."

Having said his piece, Shining Armor resigned himself to silence. Twilight made no attempt to pretend she understood how her brother felt, having had no similar experiences before, so she, like her brother, said nothing.

Soon, Twilight found herself assisting Shining Armor and some other guards with blocking off Canterlot's main road for 'military exercises'. Luckily for them, Canterlot was not a heavily populated city, despite the recent visitors from Ponyville, and thus they faced little complaint from the civilians whose days had been inconvenienced. With the area secured, the guards began establishing where they were to be for tomorrow. The guards moved with efficiency, placing themselves around the perimeter of the secured area, leaving...large gaps in their formation that could easily hold two or three more guards? Confused, Twilight went to confront her brother about the wide spacing.

"Why are the guards spaced so far apart? Don't you usually only have a couple feet in between each guard?"

"Well, this is a special case," he replied. "Grievous will be having some of his troops come later in the evening or overnight. In each unoccupied space will go a...what did he call them? 'B1's' and 'B2's'?"

He put a hoof to his chin in thought, and after a moment, said, "Yeah, something like that. Point is, our troops will be alternating as you go down the road. Anyways, I gotta get back to giving instructions."

Having ended the conversation, Twilight trotted to someplace out of the way of the guards where she could still hear Shining Armor give his instructions. The process was surprisingly time consuming; after fifteen minutes, Twilight had lost interest in her brother's voice and the unmoving guard, and left to find some food. The guard didn't finish their drill until at least a half hour later from what Twilight could tell.

At this point, it was evening, and Twilight had already gone to her suite to read herself to sleep.

Fluttershy yawned and groggily awoke to the sounds of exotic birds chirping and the sweet aroma of Canterlot Garden's perfectly maintained flora. Stretching her wings, she stood up and looked to the sky. It wasn't quite evening yet, not a proper time to go get supper, but she wasn't drowsy enough to continue napping; she had already spent the last hour or so doing that since she and her friends had split up.

She hadn't taken a proper tour of the gardens, she soon thought, and now was as good a time as ever.

Her hooves made light crunching noises on the gravel path beneath her as she strolled through the massive gardens. She quietly admired the beauty around her, occasionally smelling an enticing looking flower and gawking at the expertly carved statues of important ponies from Equestria's history, most of whom she couldn't recognize. She passed by statues of powerful mages and brave pegusi, rose bushes and hedges of rare plants, as well as a small patch of poison joke, which she assumed were used in many of the pranks the immortal sisters were notorious for pulling on each other.

Her wandering brought her atop a small hill. The hill was small indeed, but it provided a gorgeous view of Canterlot's labyrinth. Her breath would have been taken away by the marvelous view had she not already had prior negative experiences within the hedge walls of that labyrinth. It was the place where she had been corrupted; the place where Equestria may have very well crumbled; the source of many of Fluttershy's nightmares that she had just recently managed to get under control.

She turned away forcefully, mood soured, and stomach now troubling her for food. Turning a corner, she saw a familiar statue, one that she had not expected, but had nevertheless wanted to avoid. Sitting atop a dias was the form of the draconequus that everypony loved to hate: Discord.

Not that Fluttershy hated Discord; she just found his presence to be distasteful and aggravating. She wanted to turn away and find a different route to the castle, but something odd struck her about the Discord statue: it was, indeed, a statue. Curious as to why the creature she reluctantly called a friend was trapped in stone...again...she approached the statue.

As she made her way towards the statue, the gray stone began to fade into colored flesh. Scared by the sudden change, Fluttershy lowered her body to the ground and trembled, trying to hide behind her long pink mane.

"Hello again, Fluttershy," a voice said.

Looking up, she saw the towering figure of Discord looming above her, talon extended in front of her to help her to her hooves. She didn't need the help, but accepted the gesture anyways as to not be rude.

As soon as Discord's talon gripped her delicate hoof, she was aggressively swept into a large and unexpected hug, causing her to squeak.

"It's quite a delight to see you again, dear Fluttershy," Discord exclaimed, setting the shaken Fluttershy back on the ground.

"Um, it's good to see you...too," she replied quietly.

A look of concern crossed Discord's features. "You look troubled, friend."

"It's nothing," she said.

"It's not nothing, Fluttershy. I know things, remember that. And as a friend, it's my obligation to help you feel better. Now what's the matter?" Discord asked.

Her stomach growled in response.

"Ah, so you're a little hungry. Let me help with that," he said, reaching his hand behind his back, only to have it come out of Fluttershy's mane holding a large bowl of fresh salad for her.

She was a little disgruntled with the method of delivery Discord had chose- knowing Discord, it could have been worse- but took the salad regardless. One bite in, she had decided that it was the best salad she had ever eaten.

"It's delicious, thank you Discord," she said.

"Not a problem at all," he said, smiling. "So is there anything that you'd feel like discussing?"

"Um...," she said while chewing. After swallowing her bite of salad, she asked, "Why were you turned to stone? Again?"

"You'd be surprised how little respect a redeemed god-of-chaos gets around here. Celestia has basically forbid me from using any of my powers at all, and she and Luna don't permit me outside of the castle," he scoffed, crossing his arms. He gave Fluttershy a mischievous smirk, adding, "Not that they actually enforce those regulations."

"You don't do anything bad, do you?" Fluttershy asked, concerned about the revelation.

"No, of course not. I don't intervene with the affairs of anypony anymore. It's really quite boring; there's almost no juicy chaos to monitor, but at least I can make due with the small bouts of chaos you ponies are prone to."

"How do you do that?" she asked, taking another bite of her salad.

"It's a really complicated spell that only a powerful and talent magic-user as myself could possibly cast," he boasted, receiving a giggle from Fluttershy in response.

"You sound like Rainbow Dash," she said.

"I've had time to work on my impersonations," Discord said. "Anyways, to answer your first and last questions, the spell allows me to observe anything I wish, regardless of the dimension or universe it's located in. However, to use it, I must sever my spirit from my physical body, and the resulting split petrifies my body. I'm unable to do anything while exploring the multiverse, however, so I am in no way related to the occurrences of wherever I happen to be looking."

"Oh," said Fluttershy. "I guess that makes sense...kind of."

"It's perfectly alright if you don't understand it. It took me all of ten thousand years or so to get it right for the first time, so I wouldn't expect somepony with no experience meddling with magic to understand it. Would you like some more salad or something to drink?"

Looking down into her bowl, Fluttershy realized that she had eaten the entire thing and was now parched. "Some water would be nice," she requested. The bowl disappeared in a flash of light and was replace by a glass of water. Somehow, she managed to not flinch at the unexpected event. Discord must be rubbing off on her.

She took a long drought of her water before refocusing her gaze on Discord. His eyes were soft and full of worry. "I know that the fact that I was encased in stone was not the only thing that was disturbing you. I believe I know what is, but I think you should bring it up and talk about it so as to get it off your chest."

Sighing, knowing that Discord would not give up, Fluttershy relented. "Are you familiar with that Grievous thing that arrived recently?"

"Why yes I am. He's been quite the maelstrom of chaos in his home galaxy; quite the follower of greatness I do say so myself," replied Discord, slicking his short mane back as he finished his comment.

Rolling her eyes, Fluttershy continued. "Well, he just...scares me. It's not the type of scary that you are, though..."

Discord feigned offense at that statement.

"...not the 'unnerving, does unexpected stuff that you can laugh at afterwards' scary; he's sort of the 'intimidating, does stuff that could potentially hurt somepony' scary. You know what I mean?"

"I know exactly what you mean," he said, moving to comfort the now teary-eyed pony that was his only friend. Something about Grievous disturbed her more than she was willing to say, that much was obvious, but Discord decided not to press her. "I'll not pretend to know what his plans are for Celestia and for Equestria," he started, "but I can tell you that everypony should be cautious around him. He has a checkered past that's been terrible not only to him, but to those he's affiliated himself with as well."

"If he's so terrible, then Celestia should get him out of Equestria," Fluttershy said.

Discord sighed. "Despite the chaos that I predict will befall Equestia due to his presence, I fear that Celestia will not be convinced of that conclusion until it's too late. You see, Celestia doesn't trust me, despite my promise to 'use my powers for good'. Let's say that you tell Celestia of our concerns. If you mention that I was involved in reaching this conclusion, she would interpret it as an attempt by me to undermine her judgment and authority, and she would declare our concerns invalid, and likely punish me in some way. Now, if you were to leave my involvement out of your argument, she would tell you that you've just met him and know nothing about his past, therefore declaring our concerns invalid."

Fluttershy nodded in understanding.

"You see, this is a lose-lose situation here. That best course of action would be for you to keep this information to yourself; maybe your friends if you feel the need to, but really no more than that. Should things be going south, I will try to do my best to assist in a way that preserves Equestria and Celestia's integrity, but I cannot make any promises."

Fluttershy sniffled and wiped her eyes dry. She was surprised that she had avoided letting any tears loose during her reflection on how badly Grievous had impacted her. Maybe Discord is more comforting that ponies are willing to see. Regardless, he had helped her out, and she felt exponentially better.

"Thanks, Discord," she finally said, giving the draconequus a tight hug, which he returned. "You're a great friend."

A sincere smile formed on his lips. "Thank you, Fluttershy." Giving her mane a final pat, he said, "You should probably be headed indoors; it's almost time to sleep, and there's a big day coming up tomorrow."

She looked to the sky to see that time had indeed passed rather quickly. Already Celestia had brought the sun down and Luna's beautiful moon shone fully in the sky. Saying her goodbye to Discord, she slowly made her way in the general direction of the castle, though having never actually been there before slowed her progress tremendously. Fortunately for her, arrows formed in the gravel in front of her to lead her way when she was really lost, presumably thanks to Discord.

Several minutes later, Fluttershy made her way out of the unintentional labyrinth and to the entry area. And her timing couldn't have been more perfect. Well, perfect probably wasn't the most proper word to describe the circumstances; terrifying was probably more accurate. Just as soon as she made her way past the hedges leading out of the gardens, none other then General Grievous stepped through the door that was Fluttershy's destination. Normally, she would have hid in the nearest bush she could find, but in a rouge act of bravery, she decided to make her way past the general and pay him no heed.

Regretfully, that was not how the encounter had turned out. She and the general approached each other, Fluttershy's attention on the door and Grievous' focus on some distant object. Her resolve broke as the general got within a couple of feet of her; her legs seemingly gave out, and she resumed the cowering position that she had struck when she had first laid eyes on Grievous. By the time her body had reached the ground, the general had already passed her, but the unexpected movement caught Grievous' attention. He turned to look at the quivering mass of yellow and pink behind him, halting his movement. He stared for a moment before grunting and continuing his path. Once the general was out of sight, Fluttershy made for the shortest possible route to her room.

~~~Canterlot Gardens, Canterlot, 1 day and 13 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Grievous stood in a large clearing near Canterlot castle's labyrinth, waiting patiently for the first group of droids to make their landing on the planet. After a few minutes of waiting, he could see the silhouette of a droid transport in the far distance. There was a crunching sound behind him, and he turned to see Shining Armor approaching him.

The Royal Guard captain came to Grievous' side before halting and turning his head to the sky above him. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" he asked.

Grievous didn't care. The condition of the sky was trivial. If he had eyebrows, one would be raised. But, seeing as he didn't, Grievous opted for the next best response: silence.

The captain's eyes continued to scan the sky, trying to locate the incoming transport, Grievous presumed. Eventually Captain Armor found it. Pointing in its general direction with his hoof, he asked, "Is that the thing with the first group of droids?" The general nodded yes.

The pair stood in silence for the next few minute, watching as the speck that was the droid transport got closer and larger. Within fifteen minutes, the vehicle was hovering above them and beginning its decent.

Shining Armor watched in awe as the large chunk of metal floated above him, no magic, no strings attached.

The shuttle's landing gear deployed with a hiss, and it landed softly in the grass in front of Grievous. The rear doors opened as the boarding ramp extended, allowing the vehicle's occupants to exit. One commando droid made its way to the entrance before turning and grabbing something inside the shuttle. It pulled, and slowly, a large metal rack was dragged out and down the ramp to the solid earth below, followed by another commando droid, who had presumably been pushing. Once the rack and the droids were on the ground, the shuttle's ramp retreated and the doors closed, allowing it to fly back to the frigate from whence it came.

Shining Armor eyed the rack curiously. Hanging on the rack were several droids, arranged in two pairs of rows. The droids were curled up into uncomfortable looking balls, knee joints sticking above their lowered necks, arms to their sides and hands wrapped around their lower legs. The commando droids fiddled with some buttons on the side of the rack, emitting a loud hissing sound. The rack groaned and the bottom rows of droids projected outwards while the top rows slid down, causing all for rows of droids to be level with each other.

All at once, the droids on the rack came to life. Their limbs all jerked once before the droids unfolded into standing positions. Shining Armor could see these droids much more clearly now that they were fully exposed. They looked very similar to the commando droids that he had gotten somewhat use to seeing, only these had longer heads and thinned limbs.

The droids marched away from the rack, and once the area was clear, the commando droids closed the rack back to its original state, except for the lack of droids hanging off of it.

"Captain Shining Armor, these are some of my B1 battle droids. They compose the bulk of my forces. These forty droids should be able to defend Canterlot, with the Guard's help of course. I am expecting two more shuttles to come down during the night; one more carrying forty more B1's, and another carrying twenty B2's."

With nothing to be said and weariness in his eyes, Shining Armor left the general to his own devices and made his way back to the castle to rest himself for the day ahead.

Chapter 6: Grievous' Public Appearance

~~~LZ, Equestria, 1 day and 23 hours after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Gore's eyes slowly opened as he pulled himself out of his restful sleep. He stretched his arms over his exposed head, and heaved a relaxed sigh as he returned them atop his chest plate. A noise sounded from outside the gunship, and he raised his head in an attempt to see what it was. To his relief, it was only Viktor messing with some of the camp's electronics and Shy descending from atop the mesa. Satisfied that he could relax in his hammock for a couple more minutes, he lowered his head and turned his gaze to the figure adjacent to him that appeared to be sleeping comfortably.

Across the camp, Viktor noticed some stirring from inside the gunship, which turned out to be Gore waking up. He turned to R8, who was standing patiently next to him. “Get them out of bed, would you?” he asked R8, who complied and began the short trek to the gunship.

The sound of the resident astromech approaching brought Gore out of his private musings. Figuring that the droid was his wake up call, Gore swung his legs out of the hammock and stood, stretching again as he did. R8 had almost made it to the gunship once Gore was finished waking. “I'll get him up,” Gore said to the droid. Upon hearing this, R8 spun around and headed back to Viktor who was now conversing with Shy.

Why does Shy not talk to Spy and I?, he wondered. Gore turned to Spy. Then again, who'd really want to talk to Spy? That was justification enough for him to drop the issue and put his mind to the important task at hand: waking up Spy in the most humiliating and painful way that Gore could think of. Undoing the knots in his hammock again was out of the question; Spy had thoroughly secured those after yesterday's little prank. Struggling to think of something creative to get the job done, Gore decided to go with good old physical violence. He swung his leg back and prepared a powerful kick, which made contact with Spy's hammock underneath his butt.

“Feir'fek!” Spy exclaimed at the unexpected contact, almost falling out of his hammock as he did so.

“That was for yesterday,” muttered Gore as he picked his helmet off of the gunship floor.

Rubbing the armor over where he had been kicked in a feeble attempt to rid his rear of soreness, Spy said, “So you like it that way, huh?”

Gore blanched. “You're not insinuating anything, are you?” He placed his helmet back on after finishing his statement.

“Actually, I was asking you if you were insinuating something. After all, you were the one to touch my butt first,” Spy replied.

“Maybe a swift kick in the butt is what you needed to finally start making yourself useful,” Gore retorted.

“That was actually a decent comeback,” Spy said after a moment of thought.

The two clones made their way out of the gunship and into the light of the low-lying sun. Viktor had apparently finished his discussion with Shy, and was now staring at the screen of a holopad. Shy had gone ahead and began eating his breakfast ration for the day. Eating sounded like an agreeable course of action to Gore, so he made his way to the crate containing their rations and got his breakfast while Spy made his way over to Viktor to bother him. After claiming his food, Gore strode over to where Shy was sitting and made himself comfortable next to him.

“Hello, Shy,” Gore greeted. Shy grunted in response.

“So you've been awfully silent towards Spy and I since we've met. Avoiding talking to Spy, I can understand, but there's no reason why you need to be so silent to me,” he said, hoping to get words out of Shy this time.

“I'm-I'm sorry if my silence bothers you,” Shy responded, quiet enough to the point where Gore had to strain himself to hear. “It's just in my nature to be quiet. I'll talk business, but other than that, I prefer to say nothing.”

“Ugh, I can see that,” Gore said. He resigned himself to the fact that he and Shy had no business to discuss. “If it's part of your nature, I guess I can't blame you for it, and I can respect that. Still, if you ever feel like chatting about something non-business and don't want to be constantly interrupted with stupid jokes, I'd be willing to listen.”

Shy nodded in thanks for Gore's understanding, and the two resumed their breakfasts in silence.

“So, boss, what'cha doin'?”

“Ugh, not right now Spy. Go get breakfast and we'll brief in a few minutes.”

“So we got a lead?”

“No, Shy and I have determined a course of action. 'Lead' implies that an investigation of sorts is being conducted.”

After a second of thought, Spy asked, “Isn't that our whole purpose here?”

“...I...I guess it is. Whatever, leave me alone while I get a couple of small details finalized.”

“What if I want to-”

“R8, get him out of here please.”

“Oh, so you don't want me around, huh? Well, fine...R8, put the taser away, there's no need for that kind of violence here.”

Spy's protests went unheeded as R8 zapped the gap in his armor plates near his crotch.

“Ow!” he yelled, cradling his sensitive area. “I was just leaving...” he moaned.

“That's what I like to hear.”

Across the camp, Gore erupted into hysterical laughter.

Spy hung his head in shame and waddled over to the crate of rations, holding his crotch all the while. Even Shy had to snicker at the pathetic sight before him.

“Squad, pay attention, and don't interrupt with pointless comments. Spy, that means you,” Viktor said, addressing his squad. “So I've spent the last hour or so going over some of the data we collected yesterday trying to determine where to go from here. Before I do that, I'm going to give you a brief overview of what we've discovered, just so that we're all on the same page. We've determined that the atmosphere is breathable for humans, and that the area we are in is inhabited by at least two species, one of which appears to be either a large wild animal or a nomadic intelligent civilization. The other species we found appears to be a somewhat modern civilization, though none were present when we investigated their town. Each species shows signs of being equine in structure and short compared to us in stature. We can assume that the second species I noted is the dominant one in the area.”

“Moving on to geographical information, we've collected two maps of the region, which goes by the name of Equestria. The map does not provide information about the name of the planet as a whole, however, so we will continue to call it US-01. It also does not tell us whether Equestria is a country, region, province, or some other politically divided area. I'm going to go ahead and refer to it as a country, based on the observations Shy and I have made about the map, but again, this is just an educated guess and is subject to being proven wrong.”

“We know this, can we get to the point?” Spy interjected.

“I was just about to,” Viktor growled.

“Oh, sorry. Carry on, then.”

“So as I was saying, Shy and I have looked at the map and determined that there are two possible settlements that we are near, but we haven't determined which one it is. The two places in question are Appleloosa and Dodge City. We need to clear this discrepancy before we can move on to other places. According to the map, Appleloosa has some sort of field of trees outside of its borders. As such, our first objective for the day is to head to the town we located earlier and scout for trees. It shouldn't be too hard to find them if they are in fact there. If we find no trees in the vicinity, then we can say quite assuredly that we are in the area of Dodge City.”

“Makes sense,” Gore said.

“Shy and I both personally believe that we are near Appleloosa, not Dodge City, but we aren't ready to eliminate that possibility.”

“When do we make to leave?” Gore asked.

“As soon as I'm finished with the briefing,” Viktor replied. “I'm almost done.”

“Good; you're boring me,” Spy moaned.

“Shut up or I'll have you do all of the preparations by yourself,” threatened Viktor.

“You have my silence,” Spy said, quickly halting his ramblings.

“Once we arrive at the settlement, we'll spend at most an hour and a half looking for signs of trees within a mile or so radius. We'll make our guess as to where we are based on what we find. After we're done searching, we're going to return and prepare everything we've discovered for transmission to Sergeant Moon,” Viktor continued.

“And after that?” asked Gore.

“Not important for you to know yet, and it will change based on where we actually are,” Viktor answered.

“One last thing,” he started. “Last night, I got a visual of three Separatist shuttles heading to...based on the map, I'm going to say it was Canterlot or Ponyville. Point is, we've got clankers on the surface with us, so there is a chance that we'll have to engage them. Until we get a clue as to why they're here, we're best off avoiding contact with them, as well as any civvys that may have returned over the course of the night.”

“Is there anything else that should be addressed?” Viktor asked Shy. Nodding his head no, Viktor dismissed the clones so that they could prepare for their venture.

~~~LZ, Outskirts of Appleloosa, 2 days and 2 hours after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Upon returning to the LZ, Viktor was pleased with being able to add another successful outing to Victor squad's record. They had gone to the town, now identified to be Appleloosa, and found it to still be abandoned. This fact made their search for trees to go along without hampering, and within ten minutes of arriving, they had found an expansive apple orchard near the outer edges of the North part of the town. Apples...Appleloosa...should've seen that one coming. Unimaginative names aside, they had successfully pinpointed their location, and Shy had been brave enough to take a couple apples off of one of the trees for scientific study. “One for determining chemical composition, and one for edibility testing afterward, should the chemical composition be safe for consumption,” Shy had said to justify his actions.

Viktor really couldn't blame Shy for his complex excuse to take some apples; they did look very enticing, and rations got bland quick.

Now that their objective had been completed, the next phase of their mission was a waiting game; for how long was yet to be seen. Fortunately, they had gathered a generous amount of data relative to the amount of time they had spent on the planet, and each of them save for Viktor had something productive to do in the down time; Shy had apples to test before compiling their report and Spy was helping Gore with his hand-to-hand combat skills.

Viktor could only hope that the Loyalty wasn't too far away from the system at this point. He wanted to make sure that the data they had collected by now got into Republic hands before it could be lost somehow. Then again, they did have a very good camp location. There was no way that they could be discovered unless someone was actively searching for them. So far, no one had. So there is nothing to worry about. Right?

~~~Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, 1 day and 20 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

Shining Armor drowsily removed his aching head from his pillow. He tried to rub the tiredness out of his eyes, only to find that it stubbornly refused to leave. It wasn't surprising, he supposed; he had hardly managed more than an hour of sleep, for he found himself anxious for the day's big event.

Big event was an understatement. This event would likely be the most monumental in the lives of all of the ponies who had gathered to Canterlot per the Princess' request, save perhaps his sister and her friends.

Finding that returning to a state of slumber was a futile endeavor, Shining Armor rose from his bed, grunting as he stretched his sore muscles. Princess Cadence stirred where she had been lying, but remained asleep. Shining Armor cast her an envious look before getting himself ready for the long day ahead. He stepped out onto the balcony that was a part of his and Cadence's room and looked to the early morning sky. It was still dark, and Luna's moon still prevailed over the sun. The hour was one at which most were still asleep, and Shining Armor wished that he was one of them. But, he had his duties.

Within the hour, Shining Armor had taken care of all of his hygienic needs, donned his armor, equipped his sword, and was now headed to the barracks. He reached the room and pushed open the door, hinges speaking loudly as the door gave way to the force of Captain Armor's hoof. “Alright troops, get your flanks up and moving, outside in half an hour! We've got a big day, we can't afford to disappoint!” he yelled, waking the light sleepers in the room while some of the heavy sleepers remained unfazed.

The troops slowly aroused themselves from sleep, taking care of their simple hygienic needs before heading to the armory to gather their armor and spears. The atmosphere was almost overwhelmingly apprehensive, as most of the guards were aware that the public might not take to Grievous well.

In a timely manner, the first team of thirty or so guards had arranged themselves in a block in the castle courtyard, awaiting orders from their Captain.

“Alright troops, remember the instructions from yesterday. Block off the alleyways long enough for Grievous and I to get his droids in position, after which we'll have the other teams take their positions. Await further orders once you've finished your task. Due to the time, I doubt that you'll have to deal with any citizens, so this shouldn't take long,” he told them.

The ponies remained in a rigid attention, waiting to be dismissed by their Captain. He was about to do so when he remembered that he had news to share with them. “Before I let you go, I want to give you all a warning. I don't know whether you're aware of this or not, but there have been reports of increased changeling activity near the Macintosh Hills. My guess is that they're preparing another invasion, though one much less subtle than their previous one. And while I doubt they'd be stupid enough to attack us soon, it's still a possibility. Thus, remain alert and watchful of suspicious activity, and report any you see to a superior. That is all, dismissed.”

The guards took their leave and dispersed to fulfill their orders. A clanking and whirring sound sounded to the side of Shining Armor, and he turned to see none other than General Grievous approaching him. “Well, I suppose I should thank you for sparing me the trouble of finding you,” he said to Grievous.

“I doubt that doing that would have been an issue due to my stature, Captain,” Grievous replied.

“Yeah, well, it'd still be a waste of time, just like this chat is,” Shining Armor muttered. “Are your droids ready to go?”

“Yes, they are,” Grievous assured. “You mentioned 'changelings' and labeled them a threat. It would be wise for you to share you knowledge of them with me.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Shining Armor said. “Let's see...as their name implies, they can change form. Their normal look is all black pony shape with insect-like wings, short pointed horn, large blue eyes with no pupils, and holes in their legs. They can change their appearance to be, as far as I know, any living thing. I don't know about inanimate objects...anyways, and they're led by their queen, Queen Chrysalis. The only differences in appearance between her and other changelings is that she's taller, has a larger horn, long cerulean hair, and her eyes look similar to...yours, I guess, except that the iris is green and her eyes have whites.”

Grievous let Shining Armor think for a few seconds more before pressing for more information. “Anything else?” he asked.

“Um, sorry, no. Twilight should know more if you're really interested; I heard that she began studying them after our last incident with them,” he said.

Before Grievous could bash Shining Armor for neglecting to make more notes about their potential enemy, a pegasus guard landed next to the Captain and interrupted. “We've ensured that the public has no entry to the main road.”

“Very good, soldier,” Shining Armor said to the guard. “Go ahead and get a division of pegusi to cover the sky while Grievous and I get the droids and other troops into formation.”

~~~Canterlot Square, Canterlot, 2 days and 3 hours after the Ambush at EGP-01~~~

The guards were in position and a crowd had started in the square, awaiting Princess Celestia's address. Many of them were warily looking around at the tall...things that stood by their country's guard. The things stood completely still, almost as if they were statues, not responding to any external stimuli. More and more ponies were escorted into the square, most of them giving concerned looks to the things while a few eyed the Royal Guards mischievously. Every once in a while, some of the foals in the crowd would make a game of trying to get the towering things to respond, which they could never win. For the most part, the crowd was accepting of the newcomers; despite their intimidating appearance, they didn't seem hostile and were apparently friendly, as indicated by their proximity to the Royal Guards.

Shining Armor approached the next group of ponies to be brought into the square, and the last one that was his responsibility to escort. He couldn't say that he recognized any of the hundred or so ponies in the group, but there were three of them that stood out. The first was a very tall and bulky red stallion with emerald green eyes and a large green apple as a cutie mark. Twilight had mentioned a pony that matched this one in one of letters that she occasionally sent to him, mostly describing her adventures. There was no doubt that this pony was Big Macintosh Apple. On his back rested a pale yellow filly with a pink bow in her mane, which was a dark shade of pink. This was obviously Apple Bloom, who was also mentioned a couple of times by Twilight. Together, they stood next to another pony that was staring ominously at Shining Armor.

This pony was a mare, much smaller than 'Big Mac', as Twilight had referred to him as in her letters. Her coat was dark green and her mane was long, straight, and cerulean in color. She stared intensely at Shining Armor, eyes reflecting pure anger and hatred. Her cutie mark consisted of a skull and crossbones over a black leminscate.

Shining Armor beckoned the group forward. Big Mac was the first to respond to the Captain's beckoning, following a couple of steps behind Shining Armor, while the mysterious mare kept pace with Big Mac. They reached the interior of the square, which at this point was nearly half full of ponies. Shining Armor estimated around two thousand ponies in the square. The group was placed near the center of the square, and once they reached it, Shining Armor made a motion to another guard in the distance, who then began to take up the Captain's previous role of escorting ponies in.

Shining Armor glanced around to make sure that everything was in order. As he turned his gaze, he found that Big Mac was standing to his right, the mysterious mare to his left, and that several ponies in the crowd around him and even a couple of his guards were watching her with anticipation.

It was a little odd that his guards were doing that, but he guessed that they were simply looking for suspicious activity, which can be dreadfully difficult when staring directly in front of you the whole time like guards were supposed to do. Finally satisfied that nothing too peculiar was going on, he turned to Big Mac.

“So, you're Big Macintosh Apple, right?” he asked.

“Eeyup.”

“Twilight's mentioned you a couple of times in her letters to me,” he said.

Big Mac gave no indication of having heard him.

“She says you're a good pony; nice, hardworking, caring, strong...actually, I think she may have a thing for you,” Shining Armor continued.

“Ah ain't meanin' ta be rude, Captain, but Ah'm a might uncomfortable with this topic. And ya shouldn't be spreadin' rumors like that with uh filly 'round,” Big Mac said.

“Sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, or to spread rumors. I was thinking aloud for a second,” he apologized.

“'S alright 'long as ya didn't mean it.”

“Actually, I was meaning to ask you if you've ever considered joining the guard. From what Twilight says about you, you've got skills that we could use,” said Shining Armor.

“That would be so cool!” Apple Bloom said excitedly. “If ya joined, I'd be able to introduce mahself as 'Apple Bloom, sister of the Element of Honesty and brother to the best Royal Guard in Equestria'! I'd be the envy of mah school, despite bein' a blank flank!”

Big Mac chuckled at that. “Ah 'preciate the offer Captain, but Ah gotta stay on th' farm an' work. Ain't nopony else 'round strong enough ta pull the plow.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I'll respect your decision,” Shining Armor conceded, ending the conversation. Glancing around again, he found that the mysterious mare was still staring at him, and had even inched closer to him while he had been talking with Big Mac. It was a little unnerving, but not too unbearable. After all, the situation could get worse.

Grievous stood in the throne room, arms crossed and talons impatiently tapping against the marble floor. It was almost time for him to be introduced to the public. He was anxious, not because he cared what the public thought of him, but because he'd be able to set his plans in motion after this silly waste of time. Near him, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence were all preparing for their own public appearance, making sure they looked presentable. That was one advantage to not having a biological body; preparing your looks was a very quick process. Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and a couple of Royal Guards, one of which was stirring nervously, were also in the throne room. Aside from Rarity, who was wearing an overly flashy and dreadful looking dress, the others had not made any special changes for the event.

Grievous looked around the room out of boredom. It wasn't until he looked up to the ceiling that he noticed something off. In one of the corners was a small black camera-like device. He immediately recognized it as one of his probes, which he had never ordered to be disabled. Chuckling at his mistake, he made his way across the room to the spot underneath the probe. The sudden motion caught the attention of the Element bearers, who had gotten good at ignoring his presence.

“Something wrong, Grievous?” asked Twilight. “Why are you staring at the wall?”

Looking up to where Grievous was staring, the group of them saw a small black thing nestled in the corner of the room.

“What is that?” she asked, while Rainbow flew up to investigate.

Rainbow approached it cautiously. “It looks like some sort of techy thing. It's probably Grievous',” she guessed.

“And you are right,” he said. The probe dislodged itself from the corner and flew down to Grievous' level, startling Rainbow in the process.

“What is that thing?” Rainbow asked, flying down to Grievous' level to get a better look at it. She stared at it, watching it hover in place in front of Grievous without wings.

Ignoring Rainbow, Grievous addressed the probe. “Cancel probe operations. Store all data and clear each probe's memories. Set them all to self-destruct, except this one.”

In space, the crew of the Superior received the command, and all of the probes except for the one near Grievous self-destructed.

“I asked you what that thing is,” Rainbow almost yelled at Grievous, angry at being ignored.

However, Grievous continued to ignore her. He set his hand under the probe. “Disable operation,” he commanded of it. It complied, completely disabling itself and falling into Grievous' outstretched hand. “It's nothing that you would understand,” he said, finally answering Rainbow's query.

“What did you do to it?” Twilight asked.

“Is it...dead?” asked Fluttershy.

“It's a droid; it was never alive to begin with,” Grievous said. “And I disabled it, since it has no further use.”

Grievous tossed the disabled probe towards Twilight, and she caught it using her magic. “Keep it,” he said. “Consider it my first contribution to your society.”

As Twilight held the droid in her hooves, the door to the throne room opened in a yellowish aura. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence stepped through the threshold all looking...exactly the same as they had before. What a magnificent waste of time, thought Grievous. Celestia gave Grievous a warm and reassuring smile as she stepped past him and towards the balcony overlooking the overpopulated square. Luna followed, giving him a still friendly but much less enthusiastic smile. Cadence gave Grievous no acknowledgment as she stepped by. His gaze followed the three of them as they stepped out onto the balcony, receiving an almost overwhelming chorus of praise from the several thousand ponies that has somehow squeezed into the tight space of the square. Grievous was no stranger to the inexplicable; being a Jedi hunter, he had his experience with such things. The two guards followed them and set up a position on either side of the group, one maintaining the typical stoic expression while the other eyed everyone warily.

Grievous stayed concealed inside the room with Twilight and her friends, waiting for Celestia to finally mention him so that he could step forward.

After several minutes, the yells of the crowd began to die down, and Celestia cleared her throat as she prepared to deliver her short speech.

“My little ponies,” Celestia started, amplifying her voice magically, I have gathered you here to deliver unto you some bittersweet news. For the duration of our history, we have existed on this world by the power of magic and our own physical strength. As a society, we have become dependent on the qualities of ourselves. But as of today, we will open our relations beyond that of our own society. As of today, several new worlds of possibilities will open to us!”

“Now, I'm certain that you are all wondering what the tall beings standing with our Guard are and why they are here. Let me tell you that they are our first step towards these new worlds that I have mentioned...literally.”

The crowd gasped and looked frantically at the droids surrounding them.

“They are aliens. They are not from Equus. And they are our friends. Please allow me to introduce you to a most important visitor, General Grievous.”

At the mention of his name, Grievous strode out onto the balcony, looking over the vast array of colors that lay before him. Those in the crowd that could see him gasped or released other fearful sounds. Only a few alien enthusiasts in the crowd gave Grievous some form of positive reception.

“Grievous comes to us from the planet Kalee, in a galaxy that is distant from our own. The planets of his galaxy are highly technologically advanced, and have many things that our society, and the other societies of Equus, could benefit from. And Grievous can make these things happen for us, and thus, Luna and I have decided to ally ourselves with him and his organization, the Confederacy of Independent Systems.”

Surprisingly, the crowd began to cheer. Comparing the amount of cheering that Grievous was receiving to the amount of cheering Celestia had received was like comparing the size of a cupcake to a wedding cake. Regardless, it was another step in the right direction, and allowed for a delicious simile.

The ponies were surprisingly accepting of him. He had never felt so welcome since being separated from his people.

“Unfortunately, there is one stipulation that we must fulfill before this new era of Equestrian history can begin. Grievous' organization, which goes by 'CIS', is at war with another evil organization from his galaxy, called the Republic. If we allow the Republic any influence on our planet, Equestria and the other societies of the world will fall to ruin and corruption. The Republic must be stopped.”

The light cheering of the crowd died down immediately.

“Grievous has informed me that the Republic has found our planet. His forces have intercepted the Republic forces once already, and Grievous has generously offered to assist us in protecting ourselves from the Republic. He has selflessly asked nothing of you in return for his services. As such, I expect that he and his forces be treated respectfully across our lands.”

“For now, we are safe, and we should take this opportunity to try to understand the great new times we are in. And I hope that our interactions now will lead to the betterment of both of our societies.”

With the Princess' speech concluded, the crowd erupted into ecstatic celebration. Celestia turned away from the crowd and waited for Cadence and Luna to file back into the room, the guards accompanying them turning to follow Celestia.

Behind Celestia, the previously fidgety guard raised his spear and prepared to lunge while she was unaware. The guard thrust his spear towards her neck, tip skewering her neck completely through.

Or at least that was the intent. For some reason, the guard found his spear moving the opposite direction of where he was thrusting, pulling him away from the Princess. He stumbled off of his rear hooves, but before he could reach the ground, a massive white and gray clamp secured itself around his neck. The clamp, which turned out to be Grievous' hand, lifted the guard effortlessly off of the ground, forcing him to face the General's deathly, rage saturated yellow eyes. The guard trembled in his grip, dropping his spear to try to pry the hand away from his throat, an impressive feat considering the force put into Grievous' grip. The spear's clanking got the attention of the three princesses, the six mares still inside the room, and the other guard, all of whom gasped at the sight of Grievous strangling the guard.

“That will be the last mistake of your pathetic life,” Grievous taunted.

“Grievous!” Celestia yelled.

“Unhand our guard,” Luna threatened, preparing a strong offensive spell to counter the General's murderous actions.

Without acknowledging them, Grievous smashed the guard's head into the rail of the balcony, cracking the marble and the guard's skull.

Green blood dribbled out of the massive wound in the guard's head, falling many feet to the road below where the crowd had reeled in shock and disgust at the scene.

Green blood? the princesses and Twilight collectively thought.

As if confirming their suspicions, the pony in Grievous' grip combusted into a torrent of temperature-less green flame, leaving Grievous holding the bloody, probably dead form of a changeling.

“Changelings?” Celestia asked nopony in particular.

“So these are the changelings that Shining Armor warned me about?” Grievous asked, shaking the body in his grip for emphasis. “Awfully weak.”

Without a second thought, Grievous tossed the body off of the balcony to have it plummet to the street below. The changeling was lucky that ponies were merciful; a couple of pegusi flew to save the changeling from its lethal fall.

Beside Shining Armor, the mysterious mare watched, staring up disdainfully at the General who had almost murdered the changeling. “Excuse me, ma'am,” he said, addressing the mysterious mare, now confident that her identity wasn't as mysterious as he had first thought.

She glared at him contemptuously before turning and bucking him in the chest. Hard. The wind was knocked out of him and he would have collapsed if not for the sturdy body of Big Macintosh next to him keeping him on his hooves. The mare ran off, heading to the back of the crowd, the ponies that had seen her buck the Captain giving her space.

“Get her!” he yelled when breath had returned to his lungs, and two guards near him broke formation to give chase. All the while, the droids stood resolute and unmoving. Screams sounded throughout the crowd and several more scattered bouts of fire flashed, revealing changelings where ponies had just been.

“Guards, get the civilians out of here!” Shining Armor ordered, seeing the direness of the situation. Around him, civilians panicked as the changelings pounced on them, the guards trying their best to keep the invaders at bay. A terribly hard impact sounded behind him, and he turned to see the collapsed form of a changeling being stood over by Big Mac, Apple Bloom shaking fearfully at his hooves. “Thanks,” the Captain said, receiving a nod in return from the hardy stallion. Drawing his sword, Shining Armor rushed into the crowd in an attempt to protect the civilians as they retreated.

The tension in the room was high. The ponies in the room were restless, some taking the violence they had just witnessed more intensely than others. Celestia paced around the throne room. “How did I not see something like this coming? What was I thinking, bringing everypony here? This invasion could have been avoided so easily if only I-”

“Silence yourself,” Grievous demanded from the balcony, which he now observed the situation from.

“Thou dost not address my sister like an inferior!” yelled Luna in Celestia's defense.

Ignoring Luna, Grievous continued his statement. “Despite appearances, this is actually a convenient occurrence.”

“What!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “How is this possibly convenient?”

“I get to observe how your guard functions in a crisis. If I'm to improve them, I need to know how good they are,” he reasoned.

“I'll not let this situation become a costly experiment. Involve yourself, show me that you intend to keep you promise to protect us,” Celestia said, slightly irritated.

“Of course. I've already commanded my droids to eliminate any changeling that appears to be ready to make a kill,” he said.

“And how are we supposed to believe that?” criticized Rainbow. “You haven't moved from that spot since this started.”

“I can remotely communicate with my troops,” he stated simply.

“Oh, so you're psychopathic?” asked Pinkie, seemingly unfazed from the events that were transpiring.

“Pinkie, that's so rude! Grievous is not a psychopath. I think you're looking for tele-” Twilight said. However, she was interrupted by Pinkie.

“Oh, wait, no, I didn't mean psychopathic, I meant telephonic,” Pinkie corrected.

At this point, Grievous was staring confusedly at Pinkie, completely lost as to what she was trying to say. Luckily for her, Grievous was not offended at her 'psychopath' comment.

“Pinkie, you mean telepathic,” Twilight finished for her. “Are you telepathic, Grievous?” she asked.

“No. I'd explain how it works, but now is not the time,” he responded, annoyed. He returned his attention to the battle. The changelings had done an extraordinarily good job placing themselves around the city. Though he couldn't make out many of the details, he could see that the Royal Guard's ground forces were a disorganized mess, and they were having significant trouble. There were consistent green flashes, and he saw many more droids in action than he would have liked. Fortunately, the aerial conflict was going well; the changelings were being dominated. From what he could tell, the bug-like wings of the changelings provided vastly inferior speed, power, and agility while in flight.

“How's it lookin'?” Applejack asked the General concernedly, breaking the silence that was several minutes in the making.

“The aerial forces are doing predictably well; the changelings are ill prepared for fighting them. The ground forces are performing disappointingly poorly.”

“No, that ain't good,” she said, distressed. “Big Mac and Apple Bloom're down there. What if the changelings get 'em?”

“AJ, Big Mac is a strong pony; it'll take far more than a few changelings to get him down, especially if he's fighting to protect Apple Bloom,” assured Twilight.

“Ah...Ah guess that's true,” said Applejack. “Guess Ah was gettin' worked up over nothin'.”

“If the forces are in peril, then our help is required,” stated Luna. Celestia turned to tell her to stay put, but was too late. She had already flown off the balcony to the streets below by the time Celestia was ready to speak.

“Good luck, then, sister,” she said to the floor. Cadence came over and placed a reassuring hoof over her shoulder.

How the changelings had managed to set up such an invasion as this was beyond Shining Armor's comprehension. Unlike their previous engagement (he mentally laughed at the irony behind those words), the changelings were making good use of their ability to change appearance. Many civilians were still panicking about him and Big Mac; the streets were simply too crowded, causing almost all of the ways out of the square to get jammed with traffic and fighting.

Despite the chaos, the guards had done well in protecting the civilians. So far, Shining Armor had seen no civilian casualties. Sadly, the same couldn't be said for his guards. He and Big Mac had seen around ten dead guard, and they had been unfortunate enough to have seen a couple get ambushed by other changelings posing as guards and civilians. However, their casualties were nothing compared to the number of dead changelings littering the ground. Some dropped out of the sky, knocked unconscious from some impact sustained from the raging battle overhead, only for them to fall to their deaths; others had been stabbed by the guards' spears, and Shining Armor had sliced up a couple himself.

Off to their side, they saw a guard who had been cornered trying to protect a blue pony with a purple mane behind him. The guard swung his spear in wide arcs, forcing the changelings back, only to be pounced on by the pony, now a changeling, that he had been trying to protect.

The only redeeming quality of the Royal Guard's performance was the support they received from the droids. The droids had been milling about the square casually, using their weird magic beam shooting devices to take out changelings that were about to obtain a kill. Shining Armor inferred that the droids could have easily handled the changelings by themselves, but that Grievous was restricting their actions.

Grievous is testing them.

It was a cruel game, but Shining Armor could see the logic behind his choice. Now, all he had to do was not disappoint.

A changeling dived towards them at full speed, which wasn't very fast, all things considered. Shining Armor and Big Mac easily sidestepped. The Captain brought his sword up as the changeling passed, removing the tip of the changeling’s wing. It fell to the ground in front of Big Mac, writhing in agony, before Big Mac mercifully stamped its head with his hoof, rendering the changeling unconscious. Shining Armor took a second to observe the downed changeling. It was really thin. Looking around, he noticed that all of the changelings were thin. In fact, they looked gaunt; as if they had been deprived of food for an extended period of time.

A glimmer of hope sparked in the Captain's mind as a connection was made. The changelings are hungry! If we can find a way to get them a consistent supply of food, we could stop these conflicts altogether!

“Big Mac!” he yelled, though the stallion was right next to him. His loud voice stirred the frightful filly resting on his back, clamping her hooves tightly around his neck.

“Eeyup?” replied Big Mac as he looked around for any oncoming changelings.

“We need to get to the princess; care to come with?”

“Sure thing,” agreed Big Mac, and they slowly made their way towards the castle.

Overhead, Princess Luna opened her wings and pulled out of her steep dive. She glided above the crowd of struggling ponies, blasting changelings with her magic whenever she could get a clear shot. A changeling tried to dive-bomb her, but she twisted before she could be hit, kicking the changeling unconscious before returning to her original flight path.

Grievous was correct with the assessment of the ground battle; the Guard was outnumbered and was being outsmarted. Her appearance seemed to provide a massive morale boost to the troops that saw her aiding them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Luna saw a small orange, purple maned pegasus filly cowering in a corner as two changelings surrounded her. Luna dived towards them, impaling the closest one with her horn, catching the other changeling off-guard. Taking advantage of the diversion, she reared up and bucked the distracted changeling's face, metal shod hooves rendering its face nearly unidentifiable as one. Needless to say, it was dead. Luna withdrew he horn from the side of the previously impaled changeling, and it fell limply to the ground.

The princess turned her gore-splattered face to the filly that she had just saved, and recognized her as Scootaloo from one of her earlier dreamscape explorations.

The filly looked up to her savior. “Prin-Princess Luna?” she asked with disbelief.

“Come with us, Scootaloo, and we shall bring you to safety,” Luna replied.

“Why don't you let me help you?” Scootaloo asked.

“Because you are a filly and it is dangerous. Now come quickly.”

“But I want to help; it's the least I could do,” Scootaloo whined, giving Luna the best puppy-dog eyes she could muster under the circumstances. Unwilling to delay any longer, the Princess agreed. Once Scootaloo was on her back, Luna took off away from the square to continue the battle.

As the fight raged on in the square, the number of civilians present had declined drastically; most had made it out of the square, though at this point, the entire city was infested with changelings anyways. Grievous' droids had been efficient with removing the pests in the square, and were now spreading out throughout Canterlot to continue their jobs, as commanded by the General from the throne room.

And while the other civilians still left in the square were either running or fighting, a red mare with a long, cerulean mane sat in the center of the action, resting on her haunches, watching as Princess Luna jumped down from the balcony and began her own personal assault on the changelings. From the civilian's perspective, she could watch as Captain Armor and his buff companion slowly fought through an onslaught of changelings. Many of them were mercifully spared from death as the Captain dodged their attacks and delivered glancing blows, leaving them open for a devastating hit from his red friend.

The mare grinned at the sight of the Captain's slow progress. She stood up and started on a path to the castle's main entrance, which was stupidly guarded by only two unicorn guards. As the mare progressed, several guards began to flank her and trot with her. Fifteen guards surrounded the mare as she progressed, and once the formation was complete, green flames consumed the mare, leaving the form of Shining Armor in her place.

“Guards!” the Captain yelled as he and his small troop ran up to the door. “Let us in, I have an urgent report for Princess Celestia.”

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison, using their magic to open the door for their Captain.

As the Captain went by the unicorn guards, he provided them with a warning. “I expect that the changelings will try to impersonate me to get into the castle. Don't let anypony else get in; you won't know who to trust.”

“Yes, sir,” they said again before closing the doors behind Shining Armor.

Once a good distance from the door, Shining Armor gave a maniacal laugh, combusting into flames as he did so. Once the light show was over, an evilly grinning Princess Luna stood in his place.

“Guards!” the Captain yelled as he and his small troop, consisting of himself, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and their recent additions of Braeburn, Sweetie Belle, and Babs Seed, ran up to the door. “Let us in, I have an urgent report for Princess Celestia.”

“Our orders are to let none in,” one of the guards said. “Be gone, imposter!” The two guards raised their weapons.

“Wha...?” Shining Armor asked, confused. Oh, buck, he thought as he realized what had transpired. “I'm sorry about this,” he said with a sigh. Turning to Big Macintosh, he nodded, and as one, the two of them spun, reared, and kicked, rendering the two guards unconscious.

Using his magic to hold the door open, Shining Armor ushered his group in before slamming the door behind him.

Princess Luna and her escort slowly made their way through the familiar, winding corridors of Canterlot Castle. He guards walked with her, covering her from all sides, each wearing a malicious smile.

Soon enough, their target, the throne room was within view. It was now or never. The time for vengeance had arrived.

As the battle waged underneath him, Grievous stood ever so diligently in his spot on the balcony overlooking the square. By now, the conflict had spread citywide, and had moved to the ground once the changelings were wise enough to realize that they were hopeless in the sky. On the ground, Grievous could make out a few of his droids, each surrounded by civilians savoring the safety that the droids' superior combat skills provided. Overall, Grievous was extremely disappointed at how the Royal Guard had fared during the battle.

He had not had a visual of Princess Luna for several minutes, which wasn't surprising since she had flown to a different part of Canterlot that Grievous couldn't see. Her arrival on the scene was the pivotal moment of the battle; not only was her powerful magic a blessing for the troops, but her appearance sparked something in them, and they slowly began gaining the upper hand.

The road beneath him was littered with corpses, most of them changeling, a fortunate revelation for Grievous.

As he continues to survey the battlefield, the door to the throne room opened. Grievous payed it no heed until a very familiar voice rang through the room.

“Sister, we beseech thee for assistance,” Luna yelled frantically.

Grievous turned to see...a perfectly uninjured Luna surrounded by several guards, each of which appeared to be looking around the room, him, Celestia, Cadence, and the others up. The sight was certainly unexpected. If Luna is in need of help, she should at least look like it. And why would she bring so many guards out of the fight?

The scene was suspicious. Furthermore, Grievous caught her using 'I' as she explained the situation to her sister. That doesn't match her speech patterns.

As Celestia and Luna conversed, Grievous reached to his waist for his pistol and one of his many lightsabers. His actions were undetected by all but Twilight, who observed the General's motions with increasing worry. She could tell that he had just drawn weapons, though having not witnessed any of the fighting outside, she had no idea what to expect from his tools of war.

“Someone get me a visual confirmation of Princess Luna,” Grievous commanded remotely.

The talking between Celestia and Luna had gotten rather heated; they were yelling, though Grievous was too busy monitoring the chatter from his droids to pay attention to what was being argued over. However, he noticed that the two remained distant, Luna never leaving her circle of guards.

“Unit 3TY7, visual acquired of requested entity: Princess Luna; visual confirmed of requested entity engaging enemy entity: changelings,” a droid reported.

The evidence was overwhelming; time to take action.

Celestia argued with Luna, trying to convince her to stay in the throne room where it was safe and let the guards do their job. Apparently, the room was not as safe as she had thought.

To her right, Grievous had equipped a small gray device, and had it raised and pointed to one of the guards around her sister. Celestia knew not what the device did, but she could assume that it was a weapon of some kind.

The device sounded, making a sound unlike anything that Celestia had heard before. It propelled a red beam, similar to a blast of magic, at the guard that Grievous had aimed at. The beam struck the guard's armor, leaving it slightly melted where the blast had hit, and charring the area around it. The guard grunted in pain, falling to its knees, breathing becoming more and more difficult.

Admittedly, Grievous thought that the guard would have dies after one shot; perhaps he should have gone for a head shot after all. Before he could fire again, a yellow aura surrounded the weapon and ripped it from Grievous' grip. He turned to Celestia, who held his pistol in the air next to her.

“How dare you assault another one of my guards!” she yelled, making use of the Royal Canterlot Voice for the first time in years. To her surprise, Grievous remained unfazed.

“And what happened with the last one I assaulted?” Grievous asked smugly.

“It turned out to be a...oh no.”

The guard finally fell to the ground, dead, and the corpse erupted into green flames, leaving the scorched body of a changeling.

Celestia looked back to the group of guards, catching a glimpse of a snarling Luna, horn encased in a green glow as a spell of some kind was being prepared. Queen Chrysalis yelled in rage, dropping her disguise and releasing the pent up spell. The projectile went straight towards Celestia, and before she could react, Grievous had stepped in the way, the orange blade of Poh Drüne's lightsaber deflecting it up. Large cracks formed where the missile had hit the ceiling.

Around the changeling queen, the guards had also transformed, and were now charging Grievous and Celestia.

As the first changeling reached Grievous, he snapped his talon over its face, the creature's momentum carrying its body forward, cracking its neck with a loud and disgusting pop. He pelted the limp changeling towards the others, hitting two and slowing their progress. Another changeling assaulted him from the front, only for its throat to meet Grievous' metal fist. The impact destroyed the changeling's windpipe, and it fell to the ground at Grievous' feet, slowly dying of asphyxiation.

Two more changelings rushed at him, one from his left and another from the front. Grievous grabbed the changeling coming from his left and propelled it into the one going straight for him, causing the thrown changeling's horn to pierce its companion. The two crashed to the ground, and the uninjured one struggled to get its curved horn out of its brethren. The General approached the struggling changeling, bringing his blade through its neck and cleanly removing the head.

Another beam of magic sailed his way, courtesy of Chrysalis, and he swiftly deflected the shot into a changeling hovering adjacent to her.

The changelings stopped their assault for a moment, and Grievous took the opportunity to glance over to the ponies that were now his responsibility to protect. Fluttershy, predictably, was cowering behind Applejack. The other five basically shared the same expression of shock and bewilderment, each of them wanting to look away from the horror before them, but just seeming unable to. Celestia's expression was unreadable.

The conflict resumed, this time five of the changelings charging from several different directions. Grievous swung his lightsaber downward at the first one to approach him, cleaving its body in two. Carrying on with the momentum of his powerful swing, Grievous stepped forward, spun, and delivered a roundhouse kick to the next changeling to foolishly challenge him. The impact sent the changeling across the room at a speed rivaling Rainbow's. It hit the wall, all bones in its body shattering. As gravity slowly peeled the corpse off of the wall, a deep imprint remained embedded in the wall.

Grievous turned to face the next changeling. It arrived sooner than he had expected, and the changeling barreled into Grievous' shoulder with its own. The force was enough to cause Grievous to stumble back a step, but the unfortunate consequence of such force being exerted on a solid metal surface is a destroyed limb. The changeling attempted to limp away, dragging its annihilated hoof across the floor, but Grievous scooped it up in his talon and thrust it back into the ground, crushing its ribcage and causing some of its innards to splatter over several feet.

The second to last changeling to have charged him learned from the mistakes of its brethren. It stopped charging just out of the range of Grievous' weapon and launched a weak shot of magic at the behemoth. Grievous reflected the shot, returning it to the tip of the changeling's horn, and it fell to the ground unconscious.

The final changeling of the wave deviated away from Grievous completely. It propelled itself high towards the ceiling, before turning to face Grievous. Once it turned, a thin blue stick of light came spinning in its direction, too fast for it to be able to avoid the blade. The lightsaber embedded itself into a high part of the wall while the two changeling halves plopped unceremoniously to the floor.

Chrysalis was left with five changelings and herself. Somehow, the monster before her has seen though her ploy and took out two thirds of her top troops with ease. And upon noticing that several more of the silver cylinders that resembled the one that it was holding now around its waist, she determined that this thing was just going easy on her. It was toying with her. And she was helpless to stop it.

In a final effort to take town this thing, the last five changelings rushed it. A swift uppercut severed one of them down the middle while the other four moved around Grievous, and in a surprising turn of events, the General tossed his weapon high into the air. In an even more surprising turn of events, Grievous leaned forward onto one of his hands, catching his falling weapon with his right talon, using his other arm to keep his balance. A changeling charged from Grievous' left and one from his right. He adjusted the position of his legs to counter each of them, and each one shot out in a quick, almost spring-loaded kick. Neither kick was lethal, however, and his lightsaber had missed the changeling on his right.

Another changeling charged Grievous from the front, only to have its extended foreleg removed as the General brought his lightsaber down upon it and corrected himself into a standing position. Aside from Chrysalis and the two changelings that were still recovering from being kicked, there was one changeling remaining. It panicked, and out of instinct, fired a shot of magic at Grievous. Grievous flung his lightsaber back into the air using his talon and caught it before reflecting the shot back into the changeling's eye.

The two changelings had recovered from their injury, but stupidly attacked in the same fashion as before. Wanting to end the skirmish, Grievous removed another lightsaber from his waist and activated its green blade. He stared intensely at Chrysalis, spinning his wrists rapidly, effectively forming a shield on either side of him as he did so. The charging changelings had too much momentum, and were too late to prevent themselves from flying into Grievous' rapidly spinning lightsabers. Slices of changeling littered the ground at Grievous' feet.

“You are Queen Chrysalis, I presume,” Grievous said, taking a step towards the changeling queen.

She took a step back, wanting to get away from the murderous beast that stalked towards her.

The General deactivated his lightsabers and put the green one back on his waist. Chrysalis continued to retreat, but Grievous would not allow this aggressor to flee easily...or at all. Raising his arm at the Queen, he shot his grappling hook. The projectile move incredibly fast, sailing through a large hole in Chrysalis' leg and attaching itself to the marble floor beneath them.

The changeling tried desperately to dislodge the hook, but its grip was too strong. In a final attempt to remove the grapple, she prepared to grab it telekinetically. Her horn glowed dark green as the spell was cast, and the cable became slack; though not due to her efforts.

Grievous was within grabbing range of the immobile changeling. He released the grapple hook, causing the cable to fall on the ground. He brought his hand under the changeling's head and brought it up, gripping tightly around her neck.

Panicking, Chrysalis began casting a teleport spell, but a hard punch to her chest foiled her concentration. Grievous clenched his hand tighter around her neck.

“Why have you attacked us?” Celestia asked the incapacitated changeling queen, startling everyone in the room except for Grievous. She looked at Grievous' helpless victim, and she was shocked to see the emaciated state the Queen's body appeared to be in.

“We are starving to death,” she attempted to explain through her restricted breathing, trying to look at Celestia. “We need your love. And no, you can't just give it to us. We must steal it or take it by force. And since the first, more peaceful way failed, it was time to employ the second method.” Chrysalis turned he head and glared at Grievous, saying, “But then you go and find this monster, dooming us to extinction. Oh, but we'll not go down easily. We will cause as much misery as we can to you pathetic ponies, though it can only be a fraction of the suffering you've forced upon us!”

Fully enraged, Chrysalis swung both of her rear hooves back before thrusting them towards Grievous' crotch. A loud crack resounded from the impact. Grievous laughed sinisterly as pain flashed across the changeling's face; one or both of her hooves must have fractured from the force of the impact.

“You attacked without provocation,” Grievous scolded. “You could have very well found a diplomatic solution to your issue. But, since you so foolishly chose to fight, you will face the consequences of your actions.”

With that, Grievous placed the hilt of his lightsaber to the Queen's chest and activated it. The orange blade pierced the changeling cleanly, instantly killing her. He withdrew his blade from the corpse and roughly dropped it at his feet.

“Eliminate all of the changelings.”

Shining Armor and his crew rush through the hallways of Canterlot Castle. Outside, the sounds of battle had diminished quite substantially. A civilian's occasional scream of horror could be heard as they had been no doubt ambushed by a changeling, only for a zapping sound to follow it, no doubt one of the weapons carried by Grievous' droids. The droids had been ridiculously efficient with protecting Equestria's civilians and guards, giving Shining Armor a strange sense of safety and unease.

The throne room was in sight, and using a final burst of speed, he rocketed to the doors. He was weary, and thus his magic was slow, but he managed to get the doors open by the time the rest of his group had caught up.

They looked into the room just in time to watch Grievous drop the lifeless body of the former Queen Chrysalis. Grievous was holding one of the small silver cylinders that he had noticed surrounding his waist before. Protruding from it was a long orange light, roughly the same diameter as the hole that went through Chrysalis' body.

Shining Armor and his group stepped into the room, allowing the Captain to shut the door behind them. Outside, the sounds of the droids' weapons increased in frequency. Obviously, Grievous was taking the battle into his own hands.

Beside him, the stallions that had joined him warily eyed the General, and the fillies hid their faces from the gore-ridden floor.

Grievous walked over to Celestia and grabbed his pistol from the air, her magic releasing its grip as the weapon was claimed.

“Shining Armor, you have something to report?” Celestia asked her Captain.

Glancing around to the dead changelings around him, he could only sigh and respond with, “Not anymore, your highness.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I figured that we could reason with Chrysalis and reach a peaceful compromise; looks like it is too late for that.” He raised his head as he finished his statement. The Kaleesh warlord was giving him the most vile and unnerving look that Shining Armor had ever seen.

A light tapping sound came from the balcony outside. Princess Luna with Scootaloo on her back gracefully landed and strode into the throne room, utterly dumbstruck at the scene. “What...what happened here?”

“Some changelings infiltrated the castle and made to ambush me, disguised as you. Grievous here...dispatched them, to put it lightly,” explained Celestia.

“Princess Cadence,” she said, directing her attention to the pink alicorn, “would you mind leading everypony out of the room except for Grievous and your husband? I believe we need to discuss something with him privately, and the fillies should not be in this environment.”

“Of course,” replied Cadence.

Eventually, the room was vacated except for Celestia, her sister, Grievous, and Shining Armor. Outside, the blaster fire could still be heard.

“Grievous,” Celestia started after some time had passed in silence, “I would like to thank you for your assistance in helping us deal with this issue. However, I am disappointed that you killed Chrysalis. She did not need to die, and we could have reached some sort of agreement with her, as you said.”

“Before you berate me for my actions, let me inform you that she had considered the diplomatic approach to her dilemma, but she chose to lead an attack instead. And she would have killed many of your subjects. She had her chance to make peace, and she has paid the fully justifiable price for not doing so.”

“Sadly, this is true,” Celestia said with a sigh.

“Were the changelings the only threat to your country? Or are there other things I should be wary of,” Grievous inquired.

“Only the changelings have given us trouble on this scale. Aside from Discord, who had been dealt with,” answered Celestia.

“Good, then the Republic is our next concern.”

“How can thee disregard the current circumstances so easily? There are still changelings to worry about,” Luna asked.

“My droids are ending the rest of them as we speak. They will finish what your Guard had barely started.” Grievous' second sentence was directed at Shining Armor.

“Are you hinting at something?” he asked the General.

“Yes, I am. Your troops are pitiful excuses for warriors. I would not be surprised if one Republic clone were capable of killing the entire Guard, single-handedly. It seems as if I have a lot of work to do before you can even think of considering the Guards a respectable fighting force. And until then, you'll have none of my respect.”

“Your degrading talk sours our mood,” Luna growled.

“Then I shall refrain from talking.”

“Enough,” Celestia commanded. “Grievous, we will discuss your opinions of our Guard at a more convenient time. As for now, help us clean your mess, and we will find a proper way to thank you for your services.”

The door creaked behind them, and each of them turned to find Applejack slowly walking towards them. The doors, surrounded in a purple aura, closed behind her.

“Cap'in Armor; General Grievous,” she said as she continued walking forward. “Ah-Ah just wanna thank y'all fer helpin' ta save mah friends an' family. Ah don't think Ah'd've been able to manage had I lost Big Mac 'r Apple Bloom in that there battle.” Walking up to the Captain, she embraced him in a strong and unexpected hug. “Thank ya fer protectin' mah family,” she said as she squeezed him tightly.

She let go and walked over to the General. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, completely indifferent to the thanks that he was receiving. She stood for a few seconds, looking confusedly at his leg. Eventually, she thought of a way to give the General the hug that he deserved. She stretched onto her hind hooves and wrapped her forelegs around his waist. Sure it was awkward, but it was the least she could do for the one that potentially saved the life of her and her friends.

“Thank ya fer savin' mah friends; they're like family ta me.” She maintained her embrace, finding the sensation of the General's cold metal body on her coat...oddly satisfying.

Grievous couldn't say that he was affected at all by Applejack's actions, but as long as it didn't hurt him, he'd let her have her moment. And after her moment, she made to leave.

“Shining Armor, you are dismissed. Leave us; get the Guard to begin cleaning the streets, and make sure we collect our dead so they can have their respects given,” commanded Celestia. The Captain saluted and left the room with Applejack.

Once Grievous and the alicorn sisters were alone, Luna spoke her mind. “I would not have expected such affection form one such as Applejack.”

“She loves her family and friends very dearly, and anypony willing to risk themselves for the sake of her family and friends get very good standing with her,” Celestia elaborated. “Though, it should be more than just her thanking you. You kept countless families from having to lose their loved ones, including Luna...twice. While it is unfortunate that the changelings had to be dealt with the way that they have been, it was better than the alternative. I doubt we'd have survived on our own. Equestria as a while owes you an debt we cannot repay, though we will try our best.”

“You owe me nothing,” Grievous said, starting to get annoyed from all of the praise.

“Oh, Grievous, you are so noble and selfless,” she complimented, smiling at him. His eyes caught hers for a moment before finding something else to look at, but her eyes seemed to sparkle affectionately for that moment.

He turned his head towards the corpses that littered the room. “Let's get to work,” he said, hoping to avoid more conversation.

~~~LZ, Outskirts of Appleloosa, 2 days, 7 hours and 20 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

“Sir, we've got contact with Moon!” Shy yelled excitedly. He looked around to his squad all startled at his outburst. “Sorry,” he said, resuming his nearly inaudible volume.

“Great,” Viktor responded, walking over to the transmitter that Shy had been laboring over for the past few hours.

“He's sent us a transmission; the machine is decrypting it now.”

After several seconds, the transmission was decoded, and a small hologram of Sergeant Moon's helmet appeared over the transmitter.

“Victor squad, this is Sergeant Moon,” the hologram said. “I'm contacting you to report that the Loyalty has made it to the system. All of the data that you've accumulated needs to be sent to me as soon as possible. Moon out.”

“The report's been compiled; all that's left is for you to give him a quick acknowledgment,” Shy told Viktor.

After recording a quick, “Transmission received, data report inbound,” the information was encrypted and sent to Moons terminal aboard the Loyalty.

~~~Throne Room, Canterlot, 2 days, 7 hours and 21 minutes after the Ambush at Equus~~~

“Unit 5H-A1, Superior, unauthorized encrypted transmission intercepted; entity: Republic Cruiser confirmed in system; relative coordinates of entity: Republic Cruiser confirmed.”

“Good. Let's give the Republic their little toy back.”

~~~Republic Cruiser Valiance, Strategic location away from Equus, 2 days, 7 hours and 25 minutes after the Ambush at Equus~~~

“Unit 5H-A1, Superior, request acknowledgment from entity: Valiance.”

“Unit F9 120, entity: Valiance, acknowledging.”

“Coordinates of entity: Republic Cruiser currently in transmission. Prepare hyperspace jump to coordinates.”

“Roger, roger.”

~~~Throne Room, Canterlot, 2 days, 7 hours and 35 minutes after the Ambush at Equus~~~

As before, Grievous stood on the balcony that overlooked the square where an intense battle had taken place not four hours before. His stance was his standard hands-behind-his-back, and his gaze was directed at the bright afternoon sky. Behind him, the Princesses, Element bearers, and the ponies that had been with Shining Armor all chatted with each other, recalling the day's events and considering themselves lucky.

For the most part, they had all gotten over the violence that they had just witnessed, seeing it as necessary for their own preservation. The Element bearers had also thanked Grievous for protecting them, though Applejack had by far been the most expressive of her thanks.

Grievous tuned them all out, though. He had other things to think about; more specifically, a very precise ambush to monitor. In reality, though, he was helpless to change how anything up there went. The entire process was dependent on his droids, and Grievous lacked confidence that the droids would pull the operation off without complications.

“Grievous? Y'alright?” Grievous turned to see that the mare with the hat had come to his side. “Y'all've been standing here starin' at the sky for several minutes now. Somethin' wrong?”

“Leave me alone, I'm busy.”

“Busy doin' what?” she asked.

“None of your concern,” Grievous replied. Before Applejack had a chance to speak again, Grievous reached for her hat and threw it across the room. Predictably, Applejack made to retrieve it, and left him alone once she had.

Several minutes passed, and Grievous continued to stare upon the uneventful sky. That's not right, there should have been something, Grievous thought. As if sensing his distress, Princess Celestia had made her way to Grievous' side.

“What are you looking for, Grievous?” she asked.

“I've made arrangements for some fireworks, but they've been delayed,” he monotonously said.

“Unit 5H-A1, Superior, contact with entity: Republic Cruiser made; destruction imminent.”

Two bright flashes appeared over the skies of Equestria. It was done, then. The Republic had been rerouted again, and another threat had been removed from Equestria.

The flashes lingered, and soon caught the attention of the throne room's other occupants, as well as many of the civilians that had been braving the streets.

“It's gorgeous,” Celestia admired. “Thank you.”

Grievous remained stagnant, even as the Princess lightly nuzzled the cool metal of his side.

Chapter 7: The Day the Moon Fell

~~~Republic Cruiser Loyalty, Orbit of US-01, 2 days and 7 hours after the Ambush at US-01~~~

“Victor squad, this is Sergeant Moon,” Moon recorded into his terminal. “I'm contacting you to report that the Loyalty has made it to the system. All of the data that you've accumulated needs to be sent to me as soon as possible. Moon out.”

Concluding his message, Moon turned from his terminal and walked to a different section of the bridge.

“Soldier,” he said, addressing one of the communications specialists as he approached the clone's terminal. “I have an encrypted message that needs to be sent to Victor squad. They have a terminal that has the same encryption signature as the message; find their terminal and send them the message.”

“Yes, sir,” the specialist replied before focusing all of his attention on his assignment.

Content that his message would make its way to Victor squad in a timely manner, he went about to report to the commander-on-deck. He made his way to the hologram projection table near the back of the room, where the commander was predictably standing and monitoring the vessel's activities.

Truth be told, the commander was not a commander at all. Instead, he was an ARC Trooper Captain, and a very intimidating one at that. The base color of his armor was standard white, and he had several light gray diamonds running up the front of his legs, and a large one on his chest. He wore a kama around his waist and a pauldron over his shoulder, the exposed portions of each dark red while the underside of each was yellow. He wore a Phase I helmet with enhanced respirator, like all ARC troopers, and above his visor was a purple line. He was equipped with all of the other ARC amenities, like dual DC-17 pistols, buff gauntlets with a myriad of functions, and a bulky backpack with who-knows-what in it. In addition to this, he had two personalized vibroblades mounted on the sides of his backpack.

“Captain, sir,” Moon said when he got near the ARC Trooper, “we're about to make contact with Victor squad on the surface.”

“Very good, Sergeant,” the ARC Trooper said. “When should I expect to hear that they've responded?”

“Most preferably now, sir, but most likely within the next half hour,” Moon answered.

“Terrific. Don't bother me until then.”

With that, Moon went back to his terminal.

Around twenty minutes later, Moon received a notification on his terminal from the communications specialist he had given orders to earlier saying that the message had been sent. He closed the notification and waited for Victor squad to respond. Like the good soldiers they were, Moon had his response within a few seconds.

“Transmission received, data report inbound,” said the display of Viktor's helmet. At the same time, the data that Victor squad had collected began to make its way to the terminal's hard drive, where it was to be decrypted off of once the entire report had made it to him. Within a matter of seconds, the entire report had made into Moon's hands, and he let a satisfied sigh escape him.

Suddenly, an alarm blared from one of the communications specialist's terminals.

“Sir, we're intercepting a Separatist transmission!” the clone yelled, catching the attention of the bored ARC Trooper.

“Well, let's listen in,” the ARC Trooper directed.

“Yes, sir, playing it now.”

“Unit 5H-A1, Superior, unauthorized encrypted transmission intercepted; entity: Republic Cruiser confirmed in system; relative coordinates of entity: Republic Cruiser confirmed.”

“Good. Let's give the Republic their little toy back.”

The bridge stood eerily quiet for a few seconds.

“Our 'little toy'?” a clone asked.

That sounded like Grievous there at the end. Why would he leave his transmission completely unencrypted? Unless...he wanted us to intercept the message, concluded Moon. Realization struck him only seconds later. We made a mistake somewhere...and now he's taunting us. We're screwed.

The ARC Trooper waited for a few seconds before issuing his commands. “Comms, trace the sources of those transmissions! Everyone else, make to engage; we've been found!”

The bridge erupted into a flurry of activity. Throughout the vessel, sirens blared and clones made to their battle stations. Moon rushed to his terminal, ready to quickly issue the ARC Trooper's commands throughout the ship. Upon seating himself, an important thought came to his mind, and he sat up and hurried to the ARC Trooper. “Captain Ghir, what should we tell Victor squad?”

“Contact them and keep them in contact. Make sure to tell them about the forces we experience up here, so as to warn them about what they'll likely face down there,” Captain Ghir responded.

“Right away, sir,” Moon complied, saluting before making his way back to his terminal.

~~~LZ, Outskirts of Appleloosa, 2 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

“Sir, Moon is contacting us,” Shy informed Viktor. The commando made his way back over to the special transmitter and waited for Shy to patch the transmission through. “There'll be a couple second delay since the message will need to be decrypted, but it shouldn't be too noticeable.”

“Thanks, Shy. Moon, Victor 91 here, copy?”

His response came a couple of seconds later. “This is Sergeant Moon here. Nice to see you haven't been killed. Anyways, we've got to ditch the formalities. We've be located. The head clanker said he's sending our 'little toy' back to us.”

“That's unsettling news,” Viktor said, concerned. Spy and Gore had taken a break from their sparring session several minutes ago. They were about to resume, but overheard the transmission, and decided to investigate.

“What's up?” Spy asked without concern.

“To make it short, air support may have been compromised,” Viktor said.

“Basically, Loyalty was caught, and now we've got-” Moon started before being cut off by Shy.

“I'm sorry to interrupt, Sergeant, but there is a bit of a delay with the transmission. It'd be best if you paused for a couple seconds after a question, just so that we can avoid having a question answered twice and wasting time.”

“Duly noted, Corporal,” Moon said after an inherent delay. “Back to the topic, I've had no time to look at your report. Tell me, have you found any Republic property that could possibly be this 'toy' that Grievous is so generously returning to us?”

“I'm sorry to say that we've seen no such thing,” admitted Viktor. “To be truthful, we've had no interactions with and droids thus far. Did you say Grievous?”

“Yes. The men up here have intercepted a Sep transmission,” Moon confirmed. “The first part was from a Superior, which I'm guessing is one of the clanker's ships, and the other part was the head clanker.”

“Shoot,” moaned Spy. “If that guy's down here, then we're hopeless. I might as well say goodbye to my-”

“Quit bantering, Spy, this is serious,” Viktor scolded. “And I hope you weren't going to say the part of human anatomy that I think you were going to say,” he couldn't resist adding.

“Pray tell, what 'part of human anatomy' did you think I was going to say?” Spy replied smugly.

“Um...genitalia,” Viktor said slowly.

“Ugh, you've got a sick mind,” Spy chastised. “Though I guess I'd have to say goodbye to that too.”

“Silence Victor squad,” Moon shouted irritated. The camp was silent for several tense seconds.

“Fier'fek,” Gore muttered to himself. “It's the Valiance.” The rest of Victor squad turned to them. Although their helmets were all in place, he could almost see realization passing across their countenances.

“I'm sorry, Gore, the static from your helmet made what you said completely unintelligible,” Moon said. “Would you mind removing your helmet and repeating what you said?”

Gore complied. “The 'little toy' in the Valiance.”

Moon didn't move for several more seconds. “Fier'fek...”

~~~Republic Cruiser Loyalty, Orbit of US-01, 2 days, 7 hours and 25 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

“Sir, we're picking up more unprotected Separatist transmissions!”

“Patch them through!”

“Unit 5H-A1, Superior, request acknowledgment from entity: Valiance.”

“Unit F9 120, entity: Valiance, acknowledging.”

“Coordinates of entity: Republic Cruiser currently in transmission. Prepare hyperspace jump to coordinates.”

“Roger, roger.”

Once again, silence reigned across the bridge of the ship. All eyes and helmets turned to face the ARC Trooper at the back of the bridge. This silence was short lived as the ARC Trooper decided that they could not afford to waste a second longer. “Get everyone to the escape pods now!” At his command, the evacuation sirens clamored throughout the vessel, and everywhere, clones scrambled to the nearest escape pod.

“What's going on, Sergeant?” the display of Victor squad on his terminal asked.

“We intercepted another Sep message. They're gonna ram the Valiance into us. I gotta get to an escape pod now. Um, stay put, unless an escape pod lands in your vicinity. Moon out!” After concluding his command, Moon slammed a button on his terminal, ending the transmission and nearly breaking the button. He was the last one out of the bridge, and he hoped that someone would reserve a spot for him in a nearby pod. Or in any pod, for that matter.

Dashing out of the elevator that connected the bridge and the main corridors, he made his way to the nearest escape pod area that he knew of. Several blasts sounded in front of him. He and several other clones passed through an emergency bulkhead, and after turning a corner, found, to their dismay, that the blasts had been all of the escape pods in that wing.

Cursing, he turned back to try to get to the next set of pods that he knew the location of. He and most of the clones that had failed to get to the first set of pods sprinted for a couple of minutes before reaching the next set of thankfully untouched pods. The corridor that contained the pods was, for the most part, windowed, allowing the clones to look out into space as they prepped the pods. What they saw was disheartening; as if predicting their use of escape pods, the CIS had dispatched vulture droids and droch-class boarding ships to intercept the pods. Only one or two pods actually made in into the atmosphere of the planet they had only minutes before been safely orbiting.

Suddenly, a ship ended a hyperspace jump outside the window.

It was the Valiance.

The commandeered vessel made straight for the Loyalty, which wasn't a very far path due to the dangerously close proximity it had ended its jump with. The Valiance's wing collided with the front of the Loyalty, the immense momentum of the former causing high magnitude tremors throughout each ship. Several vital systems began failing immediately as contact was made, and no clone or droid in either vessel maintained its footing. For several seconds. Fires started and explosions boomed as each vehicle perished a slow, painful death.

The main power reserves aboard the Loyalty gave out after a minute, and the reserves quickly strained to provide the needed energy to run the lights. Sadly, this meant that the engines were dead, and the planet's gravity was now the only thing propelling the ship. The heavy shaking from the initial impact ceased, and the clones were finally able to stand. Not wanting to be incinerated by the friction of a completely unshielded ship plummeting through the planet's atmosphere, the clones doubled their efforts to get the pods ready for launch.

The process was quick by virtue of the fact that they were escape pods, but with the additional vigor of clones not wanting to die, the many pods that lined the corridor were prepped in seemingly ten seconds flat. Several of the pods near him took flight shortly after. Instead of getting into his pod immediately, however, Moon took one final glance through the thankfully still intact window. The scene was substantially worse than it had been before. Pods that had been cracked open and other debris floated around the compromised vessels, while at the same time, other perfectly lively pods met a similar fate.

An explosion resounded through the halls uncomfortably close to his still idle escape pod. Moon took that as his cue to get his butt moving. He crouched into the pod, closing the airlock behind him and placing on his restraints. The clone that had volunteered to be the pod's pilot made a couple of final system checks, and then they were off. Moon and the other ten clones in the pod with him lurched at the sudden and wrenching acceleration.

They were immediately thrust into a war zone. Many of the pods that had been in the same wing as his had already been destroyed. While the cover that their remnants provided kept them from being discovered too easily by the vulture droids and boarding ships, the small impacts took a heavy toll on their shields. Saying that Moon felt hopeful about reaching the surface would be a lie.

The Sergeant looked back through the tiny porthole that donned the pod's airlock door. Behind them, the two Republic cruisers continued to get dismembered. It was then that Moon noticed that there were raging infernos near the back ends of each vessel, where the engines and generators were located. As well as the fuel. And the reserve ammunition.

Another wave of pods ejected from the side of what was once the Loyalty, but they were all too late. The volatile combustibles combusted in the largest and brightest twin explosions that Moon had ever seen; so bright, in fact, that he had to redirect his vision to the front of the pod and close his eyes.

The explosions consumed several miles of space, leaving anything caught inside its radius thoroughly charred at best. Large chucks of metal projected from all directions as the massive ships disintegrated, destroying anything in their paths, from clone-filled pods to vulture droids.

Needless to say, Moon and his companions were overjoyed at the fact that they had survived the hailstorm of metal, and even more so that many of the enemies in their vicinity had been decimated.

~~~Throne Room, Canterlot, 2 days, 7 hours and 40 minutes after the Ambush at Equus~~~

Grievous stared at the planet's two new temporary suns, a mix of pride and disdain forming in his chest. His droids had successfully destroyed not one, but two Republic cruisers simultaneously, while maintaining significantly fewer casualties than they would of suffered had they tried a standard assault. Ambushes and I go together well, it seems.

“It's gorgeous. Thank you,” he heard Celestia say from beside him. He ignored her, though, as he was silently mulling over his droids' stupidity. They told me that they had received the Republic's coordinated twenty minutes ago. The ships should have exploded no more that five minutes after. Stupid battle droids missed their target! Now there will probably escape pods that make it to the surface...I don't have the forces to deal with them at the moment, let alone troops spread far enough to get them once they land. Incompetent pieces of scrap!

And right on cue, a droid from the Superior contacted him, informing him of what he had already deduced. “Unit 5H-A1, Superior, entity: Republic cruiser has been eliminated; entity: Valiance has been eliminated. Escape pods launched from entity: Republic cruiser. Most destroyed, five confirmed to have breached air forces.”

“Track those pods and estimate a landing zone for each one. Send a droch after each one immediately after you've determined the LZ's. Also, prepare more racks of infantry for arrival to the surface. We'll deploy them once this little slip-up has been dealt with.”

“Roger, roger. We've been monitoring a continuous signal to the South of your position, near area entity: Macintosh Hills. Data is encrypted, but it is the same encryption style as what we detected from entity: Republic cruiser. Republic forces on surface confirmed.”

Grievous' eyes widened. We've already been infiltrated! He turned to Celestia, just now noticing that her neck was located comfortably (at least he presumed it was comfortable for her; it wouldn't make sense to do it otherwise) on his thigh.

“I must leave temporarily,” he announced, startling all of the ponies that had gathered around to watch the still present light show from space.

“For what reason?” Celestia inquired, no longer nuzzling Grievous.

“My droids have made a mistake and allowed Republic forces to make it to the surface. I'm going to deal with them.”

“Let our guard assist,” offered Luna.

“No,” Grievous snapped. He looked to Shining Armor. “They'd be nothing but meat shields.” Without waiting for a retort, Grievous leapt over the balcony. The ponies gasped at the unexpected gesture and leaned over the still cracked railing to watch the General plummet. Rainbow Dash took no time in racing after the falling cyborg in an attempt to stop his suicidal maneuver.

He landed on his feet with a hard thud, kicking up a substantial quantity of dirt, his legs compressing to allow the kinetic energy to harmlessly dissipate. The General righted himself and wiped a bit of dust off of one of his arms. Rainbow Dash came to an abrupt stop next to him, seemly ignoring the law of inertia. She stared an awe and disbelief at the unharmed Kaleesh. “You just...fell, like, two hundred feet...and you're completely fine?” she stuttered.

“Yes, now go back to the throne room. I'll not be having you slow me down,” Grievous retorted, turning to begin his sprint to his shuttle, the Inheritor, that had remained parked on the opposite side of the mountain for the duration of his stay.

“Are you calling me slow?” she asked challengingly.

“No, now get out of my sight!” he yelled, storming off at an impressively fast pace towards his shuttle. Rainbow Dash stealthily followed him, misinterpreting his command for a challenge and wanting to prove the warlord wrong.

Within five minutes, Grievous was already well out of Canterlot, but his progress was slowed by the steep and mountainous terrain that he was currently crossing. Most obstacles in his path were easily avoided thanks to his enhanced agility, but he still took his time to bore his talons into the ground beneath him each step for stability. After all, a two hundred foot fall was nothing compared to a several thousand foot fall off the mountain.

“Unit 5H-A1, Superior, the coordinates for all Republic escape pod landing zones and the source of previous encrypted transmission have be confirmed relative to the location of shuttle Inheritor.Awaiting commands.”

“Send the coordinates to the Inheritor. I'll deal with the pod nearest to the shuttle. Have a boarding craft attend the other LZ's. I'm going to prepare a scouting party down here to deal with the Republic forces near Macintosh Hills.”

“Roger, roger.”

Above him, several streaks of light could be seen dotting the sky. Some of it was shrapnel from the destroyed vessels, but those quickly dissolved into nothingness as the atmosphere relentlessly had its way with them. Others were large enough to make it to the surface, and Grievous surmised that they were some of the escape pods that had survived the ambush. Conveniently, one landed in a forest only a couple of miles from where he was.

Grievous reached the Inheritor a couple of minutes later. The boarding ramp lowered as Grievous approached and he rushed on board. The commando droid that had ordered to watch with the ship during the entire stay sat at the terminal at the front. “Sir, receiving coordinates for enemy pods,” it said in its default voice.

“Good,” Grievous said to the droid. “Transfer the coordinates of the nearest pod to the STAP; I'll deal with them. Prepare a standard scouting party to investigate the signal to the south, near Macintosh Hills. Use the shuttle to get there, and get working on it now.”

“Roger, roger. Coordinates successfully sent to STAP. Scanners are detecting one life form in the shuttle's perimeter.”

Grievous looked out the open hatch. A blur of color zipped behind the nearby rock face as Grievous peered outside. Foolish ponies, he berated mentally. He had bigger problems at the moment, however, so he quickly dismissed Rainbow Dash from his mind and mounted the STAP that had been brought on the shuttle when he had first arrived. Behind him, the commando droid relayed Grievous' orders to the other troops that he had brought.

The STAP zoomed out of the open boarding ramp, Grievous' head barely making it out without hitting the top of the opening, and began its quick descent down the mountainside. Rainbow Dash followed, struggling to keep pace with the rapidly falling General.

Grievous' progress was being slowed considerably. The terrain was dense with trees, unfamiliar, the STAP was not sized to properly carry something with Grievous' stature. At the moment, he would have made faster time on foot, but all in all, the STAP was the way to go. The ever-persistent Rainbow Dash flew from treetop to treetop, 'stealthily' avoiding being caught by the General, though he already knew she was there. Grievous figured that as long as Rainbow Dash stayed relatively close to him, she'd be safe from harm, so bringing her along really couldn't turn out too bad.

Eventually, the crashed pod was in sight. From what he could hear, the clones that were in it had survived the crash and were still about, probably salvaging whatever they could and determining a course of action. Instead of taking the time to approach the clones stealthily and ambush them when their defenses were down, he decided that he would charge straight into them.

His STAP broke through the tree line formed by the crashed pod. He cut the engines and leapt off, the momentum of the vehicle carried it through the group of clones, forcing them to jump aside to avoid getting rammed. It stopped its forward movement at the other edge of the artificial clearing.

As the ten or so clones scrambled to their feet, Grievous sailed through the air, whipping out his pistol and one him lightsabers. He landed on the back of one poor clone who hadn't managed to gain his footing; it immediately broke in the places where Grievous' feet had landed. A shocked clone stared horrified for a second too long, resulting in a blast to the chest.

Grievous activated his blade in time to deflect a shot from another clone in front of him who had his weapon raised. He stepped towards the clone and, grabbing the body of the clone that he had stepped on with his talon, used the corpse as shield for the next shot. Before the clone could fire again, Grievous launched the body into him and used the distraction to get within striking range. He slashed down across the clone's chest, and the corpse collapsed into a crumpled heap.

A shot from his left was deflected back to the assailant, killing the clone instantly. Another clone was stupid enough to charge at the General, and was quickly hacked out of the way. One of the clones attempted to commandeer the abandoned STAP, and was shot down as his back was turned from the warlord.

Two of the remaining clones crouched at a piece of the pod that had fallen a significant distance from the main skirmish, firing at the General and halting his progress towards him. Behind Grievous, the final two clones raised their weapons to fire at his unprotected back. Grievous expertly deflected one of the shots from the clones in front of him, causing it to hit and kill one of the ambushing clones. He unexpectedly pelted his lightsaber at the clones behind cover. They ducked, just as Grievous had predicted they'd do, and the lightsaber went straight through their cover, and therefore their bodies.

The General grabbed and activated another one of his lightsabers. He heard a loud clanging noise, and he turned to see the clone collapse, head twisted to the side, with Rainbow Dash flying over him, recoiling from a powerful buck. However, the General had already thrown his newly equipped lightsaber at when the clone had been standing, almost slicing Rainbow Dash in the process. She screamed and dropped to the ground, cowering as the killing machine flew right above her head.

“I don't want to die!” she whimpered, shaking.

“Relax, you're fine,” Grievous' growled in the most tensing fashion.

She got to her feet, legs turned to jelly from the nerve racking experience of almost being killed. “That guy was gonna shoot you in the back. I couldn't just let it do that,” she said absentmindedly.

“I had the situation under control. Unlike you, I don't just rush into things without a plan,” Grievous scolded, retrieving the weapon that he had just thrown. “Next time, don't interfere. You may not be so lucky.” He moved on to get his other lightsaber, Rainbow Dash flying next to him.

“So, who are these guys?” she asked, finally returning to her normal self.

“These are Republic clones. They're our enemies, and you shouldn't feel bad if you kill any.”

“Kill? Oh, no, I don't think I'd be able to kill one. If I did that, I'd never get it off my conscious,” she said.

“Didn't you just kill one though?” he said as smugly as possible. They both turned back to check Dash's work. Needless to say, they were both surprised to see the clone still on the ground, but with a pistol aimed at them. The clone fired.

Grievous make a quick estimation in his head as to the trajectory of the shot. There was no way he'd be able to activate one of his lightsabers to block the shot in time, so his did the next best thing; pushing Rainbow Dash out of the way. The shot hit Grievous' now outstretched hand as he returned fire. The clone's head dropped, a smoking charred spot resting on the center of his forehead.

The General did a quick survey of the area, checking to see if any of the other clones were moving. After confirming that they were all dead, he picked the first lightsaber he had thrown off of the ground and returned both it and his pistol to his waist.

“Grievous? Are...are you okay?” Rainbow asked next to him, staring at his blackened hand. Now diverting his attention to the wound, he tested the appendage for damage. It was nothing too serious; connections had been lost to the bottom three fingers of that hand, but he still had three working ones, which would suffice.

“I'm fine,” he said. “Help me destroy the pod,” he commanded.

“I guess I owe you one, so I'll get on that!” she said enthusiastically, giving him an overdone salute. The pegusus sped off, only to return a half second later to ask, “Um...how would I go about doing that, and why do we need to?”

Grievous walked over to the nearest dead clone and took his grenade pouch. “We can't let the Republic reclaim it. This is standard operating procedure, deal with it or go away.” He continued before she could refute his rude statement. “Each of the clones has a pouch like this.” He shook the pouch in his hand for emphasis. “Get them all and throw them into the pod.”

She saluted again and darted off to get all of the pouches. Grievous opened the pouch in his hand and pulled out the one of the several thermal detonators that it held before tossing the remaining grenades into the pod. It only took a few seconds for Rainbow to return with the pouches from the other clones, all of which were emptied into the pod.

“Now, we need to get the corpses in there,” Grievous instructed.

“What!? That's just sick. Why do we need to do that?” she shouted.

“Standard operating procedure,” the General panned. “Now get working.”

The corpses were a bit too heavy for the disgusted and disgruntled Rainbow Dash to move around effectively, so most of the work was done by Grievous. Still, the two of them had the corpses stashed in the pod with their grenades in a timely manner. Once finished with that, Grievous handed the thermal detonator that he had taken earlier to Rainbow Dash.

“We're good now; all we need to do is blow it up. Push the button and toss it into the pod. Then get out of the area immediately, unless you want to be killed. I'd also cover your ears; it might be loud,” Grievous told her. She complied, igniting the detonator and throwing it into the pod.

With that done, Rainbow launched a safe distance into the air while Grievous sprinted for the STAP, getting on and out of the blast radius, leaving only a couple of seconds to spare before the detonator detonated, causing a chain reaction with the other grenades. The resulting explosion could be seen and heard by ponies as far as the castle's throne room.

~~~Escape pod, US-01, 2 days, 7 hours and 50 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

Crash.

The pod hit the dry, cracked earth with a devastating amount of force. The drift through the remnants of the Loyalty and Valiance had devastated the pod's shields, and the pod lacked the energy needed to suppress the intensity of the landing. The front of the pod crumpled several inches and a massive crater formed, and only the things that had been restrained stayed relatively put.

Sadly, the rough landing had its victims; the pilot's legs had been crushed by the pushed in control console, and the force had whipped his head around violently enough to snap his neck, killing him. One other clone had a restraint malfunction, and his body launched out of his seat upon impact, wrecking several of his bones, including his ribs, which shifted inside of his chest, piercing at least one vital organ. Additionally, his body careened into another stationary clone, causing the impacted clone to break his wrist as he tried to protect himself from the dead projectile.

Fortunately, aside from some vertigo and bruises from rifles flying about the cabin, no other injuries existed. This was the first time that Moon managed to get a decent look at the clones that had boarded the pod with him. Twelve other clones had filled all available seats. With two dead and one injured, that made ten clones fit for duty. He also noticed that he was the highest ranking soldier present.

As soon as his assessment was finished, he began issuing commands. “Alright men, get yourselves out of here. Help the injured one out, I'll stay in and get your weapons and to find a med kit. Survey the area and check for Seps. Move!”

The other clones shouted a collective “Sir, yes, sir!” and began to fulfill their orders. Moon removed his restraints and found gravity trying to pull him to the front of the pod; obviously, they had crashed front first and formed a crater instead of sliding across the ground. It was a less than optimal situation.

The other clones deduced the angle of the pod after removing their own harnesses as well, and, after orienting themselves, began the awkward climb out of the pod. The clone that had previously been sitting opposite of Moon was the first to make a move towards the exit. The latch opened and brilliant sunlight poured into the pod, which was previously lit only by the dim red emergency light.

Moon dropped to the front of the pod, being careful to avoid the clones that were climbing up to the open latch. Once finding footing, he paid his quick and silent respects to the two dead clones that lay unceremoniously across the wrecked console. He looked up to see that the clones had been fast with complying with his orders; all had gotten out except for two that had been assisting the injured clone out of the pod.

The injured clone made his painful way through the open hatch, and the other two clones turned their attention to Moon. “Sir, hand us the weapons and we'll toss them out,” the one closest to the hatch said. Moon nodded, and the assembly line quickly got all of their weapons to their respective owners outside of the pod. In the process, Moon found his pistol and placed it in the empty holster on his belt.

“Get out and watch for Seps,” Moon said to the two clones in the cabin once the task was finished. “I'm going to try to find a med kit.” The two clones climbed out, leaving to do his self-assigned task alone. Several compartments lined the sides of the pod above the seats. One of them had to have a med kit in it; that was protocol, after all.

He checked the compartments that were within his arms reach, to no avail. Sighing, he tried to make his way up the aisle between the vertically oriented seats, positioning his legs to support him when he reached for another unchecked compartment. He had finally made it to the back of the pod, and had one more compartment to check. Of course it's in the last one I check, he grumbled mentally. Moon opened the door to the compartment, and to his satisfaction, there lay a fully equipped first aid kit.

Crash.

Something large landed near the pod. The ground shook, which by proxy caused the pod to tremble. Moon's boots lost traction with the seat that he was leaning against, and he fell back down to the front of the pod. His back hurt and the wind was knocked out of him, but he'd be able to stand within a couple of minutes. From outside the pod, he heard a mechanical contraption operate, and several small clanks followed.

“Boarding craft!” a clone yelled. All other noise was drowned out by the heated firefight that followed. Moon tried to stand, his breath having returned, but as he rose to his feet, something in his leg pained him. It wasn't broken, and likely not fractured, so Moon was at a loss as to what was hurting in his leg. However, the pain was manageable, probably thanks to the adrenaline now coursing through his veins, and he began to climb back up the pod to see what was going on.

Moon didn't like what he saw, to say the least. He peeked his head out of the open latch, only to witness the last standing clone from his small troop murdered by a B2 super battle droid, one of the three droids that were left standing from the quick skirmish.

Enraged, Moon pulled his pistol out of his holster and opened fire on the super battle droid, the powerful DC-17's shots easily piercing the droid's tough armor. The destroyed droid fell to the parched arid ground, leaving a tiny cloud of dust in its wake. Before Moon could direct his fire to the B1 next to it, return fire was delivered from a commando droid from elsewhere.

Moon ducked into the pod, waiting for the droid to stop shooting. Within a few seconds, it did, and mechanical footsteps could be heard very close to the pod. With the element of surprise on his side, Moon stood again and blasted the B1's head off with a perfectly placed head shot, it's body dropping to the ground after having failed to climb the steeply angled pod.

Two thunks sounded behind Moon, and he turned to see the commando droid standing above him, the droid having leapt onto the pod in one swift jump. More accurately, Moon saw the droid's fist zooming towards him. The punch landed directly on his visor, and while it didn't hurt him, it left him dazed. His grip on his supports slackened, and he slipped down to the front of the pod. Again.

This time, he caught himself, and though it wrenched his arm a little, he could at least try to retaliate. Another impact hit him; this time, the droid had stomped on his head. There goes any hope of retaliating.

He fell to the front of the pod. The distance was much shorter than his first fall, so he was completely fine upon landing. Above him, the droid peered into the cabin to see if Moon had died. Moon stirred, and the droid entered to finish the job.

Instead of climbing down through the hatch, the droid decided to jump and fall through the opening. It touched down, and a loud crack was heard as the droid's heavy foot landed on Moon's unarmored elbow joint. The clone screamed in pain as his arm became limp. The droid raised its arm to deliver another punch to Moon's head. A shot hit the raised fist, courtesy of the pistol held in Moon's other hand. The distraction gave the Sergeant ample time to line up and fire a perfect shot to the commando droid's weakly protected neck. The despoiled droid fell backwards upon the nearly vertically standing floor of the pod, and it slouched into a wasted heap of metal.

With the menace removed, Moon turned his attention to his ruined arm. It was in bad shape, but it was repairable. If he could get his hands on a first aid kit, he'd be able to apply some bacta and a splint, which would help out tremendously. Maybe some painkillers as well, he thought, as he felt the adrenaline rush die down, pain and unconsciousness slowly pulling at him.

I just need a med kit. He heard a sudden sound come from the back of the pod. He looked up, and saw something fall out of the open compartment above him.

Oh, the irony. That was his last thought before the first aid kit landed on his head and he finally passed out.

~~~LZ, Outskirts of Appleloosa, 2 days, 7 hours and 45 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

The four clones and one droid that was Victor squad stared to the sky, silently observing the twin explosions as they finally finished extinguishing themselves. The fading remnants of the Loyalty represented the clones' fading enthusiasm quite well. With the Loyalty gone, so were their connections with outside Republic forces.

“Well...” Spy began speaking. “We're screwed.”

“Eeyup,” Gore agreed, drawing out his agreement.

“Men, we need to lie low for a couple of days,” said Viktor. “The Seps are probably scouting the planet for Republic forces right now. We need to shut off and hide anything giving off a signal. That means most of this transmitting and jamming equipment. We'll keep the speeders out, but basically everything else needs to go in the gunship.”

“Yes, sir,” said Spy and Gore while saluting. Shy also saluted, but didn't speak. The four of them set about moving their now useless equipment into the gunship. With the help of the portable repulsorlifts, the process was quick, and within a couple of minutes, the camp was cleared of their transmitting and jamming machines.

Five long streaks of fire appeared in the sky as they finished their assignment. Looking up, all four of them deduced that they were escape pods from the Loyalty. Maybe we're not as screwed as we think.

Shy's science module tracked the pods and roughly calculated the distance each one would land from their position. “Viktor, sir, one of the pods will be landing not too far from us,” he said.

Viktor was about to respond, but the distant sound of a pod landing interrupted his statement.

“How far is 'not too far'?” asked Spy.

“Half-hour drive in a straight line, no more than an hour with the inevitable obstacles,” Shy responded. Spy reveled in what seemed like was the first thing Shy had said directly to him.

“Viktor, sir, perhaps we should check the pod out?” suggested Gore.

Viktor put a hand to his chin in contemplation.

“It's probably for the best,” Shy agreed.

Viktor turned to Shy. “I'll trust your judgment, Corporal.” Addressing the entirety of his squad, he said, “Load up the BARCs. Someone grab a med kit, just in case they need help. R8, stay behind and watch the camp. If any Seps show up, don't get caught. You're more valuable than the camp.”

The clones quickly prepped their speeders, making sure to grab a med kit before heading out.

After an uneventful forty five minutes of driving, Victor squad arrived at the sad scene in front of the escape pod. A droch-class boarding craft had landed nearby, and several bodies, droid and clone alike, littered the ground. Viktor looked upon the downed soldiers, sad that they had been too late to rescue the clones. He walked around the pod, checking for signs of survivors that had escaped; the evidence pointed to the contrary. Shy, at the same time, was checking the corpses for any wounded survivors, but sadly found none.

“Spy, why don't you head in the pod and see what you can find?” said Shy as he checked the bodies.

“Sure thing, other boss,” he said, then made his way to the pod's hatch, which stuck in the air due to the angle of the pod's impact. He peered inside, surprised to see three clones at the bottom, as well as a destroyed commando droid. Attaching his weapon to his back, Spy carefully climbed down the pod's near vertical aisle.

Is that...is that Moon? he thought once he reached the bottom. Spy crouched to get a better look in the dimly lit area, and upon seeing the crescent moons on the clone's shoulders, confirmed his suspicion. He checked Moon's pulse.

“Hey boss man,” he said via a private helmet channel, “I found Moon here. He's alive.” He noticed the Sergeant's wrecked elbow. “But, he's a bit mangled. There's a conveniently placed med kit here, so I'm gonna do what I can to patch him up before bringing him out of the pod.”

“Copy that,” Viktor replied. “We'll cover you.”

Spy opened the med kit and pulled out the gauze, syringe, vial of liquid painkiller, and splint. He withdrew a small canister of bacta from his belt, and injected a small amount of it into Moon's arm using the syringe. After the bacta came the painkillers, applied with the same method. With those applied, Spy began adjusting the broken part of Moon's elbow, moving the large chunks back to approximately the correct spot. With that done, Spy removed the armor on Moon's arm, wrapped it in a thin layer of gauze, and them replaced the armor.

“Spy, hurry up,” Gore said using the same channel as before.

“Calm down, Gore, I'm almost finished. Just gotta get the man a splint and a sling,” Spy said, surprising Gore by using a serious tone for the first time since they've been on the mission.

Within a couple more minutes, Moon's arm had the splint applied and Spy had fashioned a sling out of the remaining gauze and a piece of fabric from the kit. Spy looked up to the top of the hatch to see Shy peering down to him.

“I'm ready to get out of here. Care to help me up?”

Shy said nothing, but raised his rifle and launched an ascension cable into the ground next to Spy. Shy tightened the cable, and once it was taut, Spy began to use it to climb out, holding onto it with one hand and grasping Moon with the other. Once Spy was near the hatch, Shy relived him of Moon. They carefully lowered the unconscious clone to the ground, resting his back comfortably against the pod.

“So...did I patch him up well?” Spy asked as Shy checked his work. Shy nodded yes.

“Good,” Viktor said from behind them. “We need to get back to camp as soon as possible. We need to find a way to load him up on one of the speed-”

A groan interrupted Viktor. Victor squad turned their attention to Moon as he stirred, regaining consciousness. “Ugh, where am I?” he said groggily.

“Moon, you're with Victor squad,” Viktor answered.

“Well, what luck,” Moon muttered. The Sergeant looked around him, seeing Victor squad and the corpses of clones and droids around him. “What happened?”

Viktor glanced around. “We weren't there, but the evidence suggests that your pod was ambushed soon after landing. You're the only survivor, and we're gonna bring you to the LZ so you can catch up with some rest and with what we've discovered.”

Moon groaned as he stood. The pain in his leg flared up unexpectedly, and he fell, catching himself with his good arm. On his second attempt, Moon got to his feet, leg hurting, but the pain manageable. “Yeah, that's what happened,” he said, the fog in his mind clearing up. “That commando droid crushed my arm. Fier'fek.”

“How are we going to get all five of us to the LZ? There's only four seats?” Spy asked.

Shy had been contemplating the issue, and presented his solution. “Viktor takes one with Moon as the passenger. Spy, you take the other, Gore rides in the sidecar, and I'll sit myself somewhere in between the two, using the repulsorlift in Gore’s weapon to help balance my weight.”

“Good idea,” Moon agreed.

“Right. Load up, I'll destroy the pod,” Viktor said. Victor squad went to the speeders, helping Moon into the sidecar of the first speeder before struggling to situate themselves in the other. In the meantime, Viktor went to each of the dead clones, taking their grenade pouches and dumping the grenades into the pod's cabin. Once finished, he set a charge, setting the timer for two minutes.

Finished with that, Viktor strode over to the speeders, which had been completely prepped. Spy, Shy, and Gore had managed to place themselves on the speeder, though Shy looked extremely uncomfortable. He mounted the speeder, saying, “We've got two minutes before it blows; let get well out of range.” With that, the engines for speeder revved, and they took off back to the LZ.

[ b]~~~Republic Camp, Outskirts of Appleloosa, 2 days, 8 hours and 15 minutes after the Ambush at Equus~~~

A massive dust storm whipped up around the shuttle as it landed atop one of the two mesas that were the only interesting geological structures in the area. The boarding ramp opened, and droids immediately began to file out. Grapple hooks quickly lined the edge of the mesa, and the scouting party poured into the camp. It looked abandoned; most of the equipment had been stored in the gunship. There were semi-fresh footprints in the dirt, and much newer wheel tracks, likely from an astromech, but no other signs of life were present.

A small explosion resounded through the confined space as a breaching charge blew open the gunship door. Three B1's marched in, looking for anything they could use to identify the clones responsible for the gunship and where they went.

The clones had been minimalists when packing, and thus, within five minutes, everything except for the gunship's databanks had been searched to no avail. One of the B1's in the party reported this to magna guard that headed the group. “What is our course of action?” it asked after concluding its brief report.

“The Republic gunships erase all data regularly, except for navicomputer coordinates. We'll gain nothing from hacking the ship; destroy it.”

“Roger, roger,” the B1 affirmed, then set out to rig the gunship.

Conveniently, there were a couple of small crates of ordinance in the troop bay of the gunship already, so all that the droids needed to do was to prime a detonator nearby. After retreating around the mesa, the magna guard triggered the bomb.

The gunship and its contents ceased to exist.

~~~Unspecified Location, Heading towards LZ, 2 days, 8 hours and 35 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

For the fourth time that day, Victor squad looked upon an explosion that signified another failure. Not too far ahead of them, smoke and fire spewed up from the gap in between the mesas that had served them as their home. They slowed their speeders to a stop as the situation became clearer.

“Well...what do we do now?” Spy asked no one in particular.

“I say that we drive in there and blast those tinnies to spare parts,” Gore seethed.

“That's too reckless,” Moon rebuked.

“Well, we'd have surprise on our side. That's worth something,” Gore defended.

Spy turned to Viktor. “Boss man, your thoughts?” Viktor ignored Spy. He was staring intently in the direction of the LZ. “What's wrong?” he asked, looking to where he thought Viktor was looking after not getting a response.

After several moments of silence, Viktor finally spoke. “That's R8 out there.” He sent everyone a video feed of what he saw so that they knew what he meant. “If R8's alive, then we can meet up with him. He'll tell us what we'll be up against so we can plan accordingly.”

Victor squad resumed heading towards the LZ, stopping once they met up with R8. “Stay put,” Viktor commanded as he dismounted to check up on his droid. “R8, good to see you made it out,” he said to the droid. R8 whirred in response.

“So, uh, we found Sergeant Moon by luck,” he started. “That's not important right now, though. Were Seps behind the explosion?” R8 beeped in confirmation.

“How many, and are they still there?” As a response, R8 gave a long series of beeps and whistles that the rest of Victor squad save for Shy understood. Shy sighed in relief once R8 concluded, causing the others to give him a curious glance.

“You understand astromech?” Spy asked, confused.

Shy nodded yes, then indicated to Viktor who was approaching them.

“R8 tells me that there's only a standard scouting party at the LZ. That's a few B1's, three or four B2's, and either a commando droid or an IG-100 magna guard. R8 tells me we've got a magna guard there,” Viktor informed them once he got there. “They haven't left yet; if we're gonna attack them, it's gotta be soon. Like, in a couple of minutes.”

“If we plan to leave the LZ behind, we should attack,” Moon said. “As long as we give no leads as to where we have headed off to, the Seps'll probably send the bulk of their forces here, which will allow going elsewhere safer.”

“Agreed,” Viktor said. “Here's the plan: we'll leave the speeders behind. Moon, since you're wounded, you'll stay with them. Gore and I will enter the camp on foot and lay suppressing fire. While they're distracted there, Shy will take R8 up and establish a sniper position while Spy sneaks behind. Got it?”

“Yes, sir; good plan,” Gore said.

“Copy that, sir,” confirmed Spy.

Moon and Shy both nodded.

Having left Moon to tend to the speeders a few hundred feet away, Viktor and Gore found themselves crouching behind the rocks that they had not long ago been safely on the other side of. Continuing to commune via private helmet comm, Viktor gave one last instruction. “Gore and I on 'go', Shy and Spy on 'sync'. Ready?”

Gore tensed.

“Go.”

Viktor dashed out from behind cover, spreading his fire across the span of the entire camp. He was met with little success; only one B1 went down. But that was not his objective. With the droids now concentrating their fire on Viktor who had just taken cover behind another boulder, Gore stepped out. His chain gun, having already been revved during Viktor's maneuver, spewed insane amounts of plasma down range. Several droids went down due to Gore.

The droids reacted quickly, taking cover behind the several large chunks of gunship strewn about the landing zone. Gore continued to spray his fire at the protected droids, any of whom stood to shoot him being immediately taken down by Viktor. The droids were pinned, exactly where Viktor wanted them.

“Sync.”

R8's thrusters sparked to life, easily carrying his cargo up the face of the mesa. Once over the flat surface of the mesa, Shy let go of the handholds, rolling to allow his forward momentum to dissipate, and crawled to the edge. Now at a good vantage point, Shy pulled his rifle off his back and began to open fire on the B2s.

Upon receiving the command, Spy burst from the boulder he was hiding behind, making himself the last wall of the box that trapped the droids. He unleashed all the silent fury of his DC-15. The droids, however, had cover around all of their sides, and while they were completely encircled, they still had a rather safe location.

At least, it would have been rather safe if not for the complete exposure to Shy's near dead-on accuracy.

As the droids numbers slowly diminished, the magna guard withdrew its reserve weapon from its back: a Bulldog rocket launcher. Shy attempted to shoot the small weapon out of the droid's hand, but missed. Before he could try again, the magna guard fired. Its first rocket was directed at Gore. He dived behind a boulder while the rocket hit an adjacent one, sending small pieces of debris in all directions. Swiftly turning, the second rocket was aimed at Spy, with similar end results. The third rocket was sent in Shy's direction. He crawled back as the rocked hit just under the edge when he was lying.

The magna guard expended his last three rockets, repeating the cycle. With the edge of the mesa severely weakened, Shy's weight broke the first foot or so off. His upper body jerked down as the ground gave way, and he lost his grip on his rifle. It and several rocks fell to the bottom of the crevice.

With the clones distracted due to the explosives, the magna guard put its plan into action. It dropped its weapon and turned to the mesa. It's hand shot out of its wrist, gripping the edge of the mesa and acting as a grappling hook. A powerful winch in its arm pulled the droid up the face of the mesa, and within a few seconds, it was atop it with Shy, who fumbled to draw his pistols.

Viktor, Gore, and Spy resumed their attack after a couple of seconds of not having rockets fired at them. When they turned to the now almost non-existent group of droids between them, they were surprised to see that the magna guard was missing. Viktor spared a glance up. He could no longer see Shy, instead seeing the very end of an activated electrostaff.

“Shy is in trouble!” Viktor shouted, distressed. “Hurry up, we've got to help him!”

“Get the droids' attention and I'll EMP them,” Spy suggested. Immediately, Viktor and Gore split up and broke cover. The droids divided their fire between the two of them. Gore stopped between each piece of passable cover while Viktor allowed his katarn armor to take minor blows. Whatever would get the job done fastest.

A brilliant blue staticy field surrounded the droids. They twitched erratically, then fell to the ground deactivated.

“I'll make sure they're dead,” Gore said. “Get up there and help Shy.”

Viktor and Spy prepared their weapon's ascension cables. They aimed at the edge of the mesa, ready to fire and scale the steep face.

Then, unexpectedly, they saw Shy. He was pushing the magna guard towards the cliff face. And once it was near the edge, he continued to push, sending the wrecked droid off the cliff. It hit the bottom with a loud thud and a crack. The commando went to inspect the damage as Spy fired his cable to provide Shy a way down.

The droid had an odd array of wounds. Most noticeable was the electrostaff that completely impaled it through the light that had once been lit on its chest. The next thing Viktor saw was the absence of one of the droid's hands. It had been cleanly severed off. And finally, its face had been dented, shoved back into its head about an inch in roughly the shape of a fist. Shy, you've got some explaining to do later.

Spy and Gore had gathered around the ruined droid by now, and Shy had made it to the bottom with them. He found his rifle amongst the rubble and joined his squad. The attention of the others was focused entirely on the magna guard.

Shy lightly tapped Viktor on the shoulder, bringing him back to reality. “Oh, um, yes. Spy and Gore, search the camp for anything salvageable, primarily survival supplies. Shy and I are going to retrieve the speeders.

“Yep, sure thing. And Shy? You're gonna have to tell me what exactly you did to make this droid look like that,” Spy responded. Shy didn't respond, and Victor squad went back to their duties.

“Most of the rations survived, as did two of our med kits and a small crate of ammunition,” Gore said to Viktor upon his return with the speeders.

Viktor looked over the assorted items in front of him. “Well, it'd be nice to maybe have a little bit more, but we need to travel light to maintain our speed.”

“About that, where are we going now?” inquired Spy.

“The maps!” Viktor exclaimed, suddenly panic-stricken. “Did you find the maps?”

“Uh...no,” Gore said glumly.

“Fier'fek. Shy, please tell me that you scanned the map and have the scan with you.”

Shy nodded, and Viktor sighed heavily in relief, shoulders slumping several inches as he tried to lower his suddenly fast heart rate. Finding a suitable dark surface, Shy projected the scan onto it, the dark surface contrasting with the bright projection and causing it to appear sharp and clear.

“So, you found a map, huh,” Moon said, impressed. “Why hasn't it been 3-D rendered?” he asked upon noticing that it was a simple, old school map.

“The original map was a print of a hand drawn copy. I'm not trusting that the map was originally drawn precisely to scale, and 3-D rendering such a map yields much more misleading results than simply following the 2-D rendition,” Shy said.

“Fair enough. So, Captain Viktor, where exactly are we going?” Moon asked.

Viktor cleared his throat before giving his brief briefing. “Right, so we are approximately here,” he said, pointing to a spot between Appleloosa and Macintosh Hills. “The original plan was to follow these tracks here up to this place here, Canterlot. The depiction of Canterlot is that of a castle, so it's safe to assume that Canterlot is the capital of Equestria, the country we're in. It is also depicted here on the side of a mountain, so it's also safe to assume that it's on the side of a mountain for real. At the base of the mountain is a nearby settlement: Ponyville.

“These two places appear to be a kind of hub for all the tracks in the country. Thus, we were going to gather as much intel as we could on our way up to said hub. Once there, we were going to set a sort of base camp, likely in the Ponyville area, due to Canterlot's inaccessibility and probably lack of cover. After a camp was set up, the plan was to follow each branch to their end, again gathering what data we could before returning to camp to compile and send it."

Moon let what Viktor had explained sink in before commenting. “I must say, that is quite the solid plan, except for the fact that contact with the locals is extremely likely.”

“We've already determined that the locals are not a threat. They're underdeveloped technologically, and, based on what we saw in Appleloosa, they're not substantially militarized,” said Viktor.

“Uh-huh. So, what were the plans for once this was finished?”

"Wait for Loyalty to provide pick-up.”

Moon snickered. “Anyways, that was the original plan,” Viktor continued, a little annoyed. “With the Loyalty gone, the camp and most of our gear destroyed, and Seps likely working in conjunction with the locals on some level, we've obviously got to rethink our strategy.”

“Obviously,” Spy chimed in.

“Do we have another strategy?” asked Gore.

Viktor hummed in thought while the others thought to themselves silently. Shy quietly spoke up. “Well, if Canterlot is really the capital of Equestria, it would make sense that Grievous would be there. So, if we can make it to the hub, we'd be able to observe what kind of relations have developed between the Seps and the locals, as well as simply observe what the Seps are doing. They should be our first priority since they pose a threat to the Republic.”

“Agreed,” agreed Viktor.

“However, with the CIS aware of our presence, we should take an out-of-the-way route to the hub, so as to minimize our chances of being found. Look, we can go West and into the San Palomino Desert, then North around Ghastly Gorge, before finally heading North East through Froggy Bottom Bog. We'll end up in the Everfree Forest, which should provide a good spot to observe from.”

The remainder of the group contemplated. “Look, we don't have much time to waste here,” Gore pointed out. “We've got to go soon, and this is probably the best course of action. I'm with Shy.” R8 agreed.

“While it's dangerous to go without any knowledge of what lies in those parts, I must say that I've no better or safer alternatives,” admitted Viktor. “Let's pack up and leave no clues as to where we're going behind. Let's make for the hub.”

Chapter 8: In the Aftermath of it All

~~~Main Gate, Canterlot, 2 days and 9 hours after the First Ambush at Equus~~~

After disposing of the Republic pod, Grievous and Rainbow Dash speedily made their way back to Canterlot. With the Inheritor no longer in the vicinity, Grievous decided to bring his STAP into the city with him. As the two of the approached the main gate, they were a bit surprised to see the streets rather full of ponies, some of them guard and most of them civilian.

“What's going on here?” Grievous asked one of the unicorn guards once he had made his way to him.

“The Princesses are sending everypony back to their homes,” the guard explained after curiously looking over Grievous' STAP.

“Are my friends being sent home too?” Rainbow Dash asked the guard.

The guard hesitated, trying to remember. “I don't believe so. I think Celestia is waiting for you in the castle.”

“Oh, best not keep her waiting,” she said. Turning to Grievous, she said, “C'mon Grievous, let's hurry.”

Grievous dismounted his STAP and walked up to the guard. “I'm leaving this with you. No one is to touch it. I'll send one of droids to fetch it once the crowd has cleared.”

The guard looked up fearfully at the looming and glaring cyborg. “Um, yes, sir, understood,” he said shakily, adding a whimper at the end to further show his discomfort.

Saying nothing, Grievous walked into Canterlot. The crowds about him parted to let him pass while Rainbow Dash flew a few paces behind him. They walked for a couple of minutes in silence before Rainbow Dash finally spoke. “You know, scaring that guard like that was kind of mean.”

“It's not my fault he has no courage,” Grievous scoffed. “Though, it's not very surprising that he didn't. So far, the Royal Guard has been a disappointment in every area, not even worthy of their title.”

“Isn't that a little harsh?” she asked, somewhat shocked that Grievous was so willing to bash the Guard.

“Based on what I've observed, not at all. But it shouldn't concern you; you're not a part of the guard, and my droids will fix their errors.”

“I know I'm not a part of the Guard, but with Shining Armor being Twilight's brother, my friends and I get to know most of the going-ons of the Guard,” she reasoned.

Grievous waited for a few seconds for Rainbow Dash to continue. When she did not, Grievous spoke. “And your point is...?”

“Well, I guess, uh, well-” she stuttered, not sure how to put her thoughts into words. Defeated by her vocabulary, Rainbow Dash sighed. “Never mind.” And Grievous didn't, and the two of them continued through the crowds in silence.

Soon enough, Grievous and Dash made their way to the square, which was now occupied by the majority of Grievous' droids and a few Royal Guards. In the center of the square was a large fire, fueled by the many changeling corpses that had accumulated during the day. The air smelled vile, and Rainbow Dash had to cover her muzzle to keep from vomiting. Even with the smell dealt with, just the sight of so much dead stuff was churning her stomach. There had to have been at least one hundred corpses in the fire already, and the number continued to increase as the droids piled more changelings in.

The two of them stopped to watch the activity. “How many are there?” Dash asked quietly, trying not to inhale any fumes.

Grievous contemplated for a second. “Four hundred would not be an unreasonable number.”

“Four hundred!? Your droids killed four hundred changelings? That's so many!” she exclaimed, throwing her hooves up for emphasis. She quickly replaced her hooves after receiving a whiff of the foul stench.

“Hopefully it's enough that changelings will be discouraged from coming here in the future, if any still remain. Come on, let's get going.”

Not five minutes later, Grievous and Rainbow Dash were making their way down one of the castle's many elaborate hallways. Grievous was intent on making it to his room so he could begin repairing his hand. He reflected back on the incident, clenching what he could of his wounded hand in rage at Dash's foolishness and stupidity. He cast her an angry glare while she looked away.

They made it to Grievous' room. “So this is where Celestia put you, huh?” Dash asked. The answer was obvious enough, so Grievous didn't reply. Instead, he just reached out and pulled on the knob.

And pulled on the knob.

And shook the knob violently.

Grievous growled in anger. He was ready to kick the locked door down, but refrained from doing so since he didn't want to make the Princesses mad. Successfully calming himself down, he lowered himself to the knob's level. He took a tool equivalent to a Swiss army knife off of his waist and withdrew a thin metal rod from it. Grievous put the rod in the keyhole and began to attempt to pick the lock.

A minute passed, and he was met with no success. Rainbow Dash fluttered about impatiently. “Do you even know what you're doing?” she finally asked.

“I believe so,” he muttered. “You don't often find hard locks in my galaxy.”

“Ugh, well hurry up. We're probably late for whatever the Princess wants us to do now.”

A click sounded from the door. Grievous tested the knob and found the door to be unlocked. Satisfied, he replaced his tool and walked into his room. Rainbow Dash followed him in, looking at the rather bland adornments and lack of techy stuff.

“Huh, I'm surprised there's no fancy electronic stuff in here, this being your room and all,” Rainbow said. She looked to Grievous, who was frantically pacing around the room, pulling out drawers and sifting through the closet. “Uh, Grievous? What'cha lookin' for?”

“I'm looking for my repair kit,” he said, flinging the made bed sheets up to see if it was there before crouching to check under the bed.

Being distracted, Grievous didn't notice the piece of paper slowly drifting down onto Dash's head. She pulled the paper off her head once it landed and looked at it. “Hey Grievous, this is for you”. He stood and tore the note out of Dash's hooves.

Dear Grievous,

Words cannot describe the gratitude I feel towards you for your actions. As a small and insignificant token of my appreciation, I'm having you relocated to a much more roomy suite. You'll undoubtedly find the new arrangements much more comfortable.

I've had some of my servants move your few belongings to your new room while you were gone.

Once you have read this, please return to the throne room. The others would like to thank you, and once that is done, my sister and I will show you to your new accommodations.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

“So...what's it say?” Dashed asked eagerly. These ponies are incredibly aggravating.

“The Princesses want us in the throne room as soon as possible.”

The large doors gave way to Grievous' might as he pushed them aside to let himself into the throne room. Aside from the two alicorn princesses sitting on their thrones, the room was vacant of anyone.

“Grievous and Rainbow Dash, it's good to see that you've returned safely and unharmed,” Celestia said as they stepped forward.

“Show me to my room,” Grievous commanded. Luna glared at him, but Grievous gave no notice.

Celestia was evidently startled to be addressed as harshly as she was. “And it can't wait?” she said, narrowing her eyes at Grievous.

“It could, but I prefer that it doesn't,” replied Grievous. “I've been wounded and need to fix myself, which I can't do now that you've had my tools and other possessions moved without my consent.” He showed his blackened hand to the Princesses. Celestia went wide-eyed and she grabbed Grievous' hand to inspect the wound.

“Oh, my, I-I'm sorry; I didn't know,” she said concernedly.

“Art thou-” Luna started, then cleared her throat, “-are you hurting?” Luna's glare vanished as she looked at the injury.

“It's nothing mortal,” Grievous grunted, ripping his hand out of Celestia's hooves. “I just need my repair kit.”

“Um, right,” Celestia said. She was at a loss for words.

“I told you we shouldn't have touched his belongings without his consent, sister,” Luna chastised. “We are sorry, Grievous. We'll lead you to your room.” Celestia nodded, and the two Princesses led Grievous and Rainbow Dash out of the throne room.

Grievous' new accommodations were rather impressive, significantly so when compared to his original room. This room was tall enough for Grievous to stand at his maximum height with ample room to spare, and the floor room was sufficient enough to allow Grievous to pace around in large circles without hindrance from walls or other furnishings. A large bed -large for a pony, anyway- occupied one side of the room with a dresser and nightstand adjacent to it, and there was a table with a mirror mounted on it on the other, but other than those, the room was bare of adornments.

Sitting in a small pile in the center of the room were all of Grievous' things, including the repair kit that Grievous was longing for.

“Wow, Princess,” Rainbow Dash admired as she flew around the room's ample air space. “This is like the room you let Rarity use when she visited. Aren't these rooms reserved for, like, super important guests?”

“Are you saying that an advanced cyborg warrior-diplomat from another galaxy isn't a 'super important guest'?” Celestia asked in return.

Dash halted her flying and began rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof. “No, I'm not saying that. I just...didn't think of Grievous that way.”

“So how did you think of Grievous?” Luna asked. Rainbow was saved from answering by a loud metallic creaking sound coming from the opening of the repair kit. Having been caught up in their own conversation, the three mares had zoned Grievous out, therefore not seeing Grievous grab the repair kit from the pile of his things.

The Princesses and Dash gave the General curious glances. Grievous sat cross-legged on the floor with the repair kit in front of him like a filly opening a gift on Hearth's Warming Eve,. “I apologize for the interruption,” Grievous said upon noticing that the conversation between the room's other occupants had ceased, though he didn't look up. “The hinges haven't been oiled recently,” he stated. He looked up to see the three mares continuing to stare at him, Celestia blushing slightly.

“There's a table, you know,” Dash pointed out.

“I know, but it's too small. A table to you is a desk to me.”

“He's kind of cute like that,” Celestia blurted out, silencing herself with a hoof before she could say anymore. Luna and Dash gave her strange stares. Removing her hoof, she said, “He... doesn't he kind of remind you a filly opening gifts when he sits like that?”

“I guess,” Dash agreed, looking back to Grievous. Grievous face palmed, producing a very loud clicking sound. “I don't think he appreciated your comment, though.”

“Speaking of, um, gifts,” Luna started, giving an awkward fake cough, “shouldn't we be going down to the ball room?”

Having regained her composure, Celestia replied. “Of course. Grievous, how long until you're ready?”

“Without you three distracting me, half an hour.”

“I don't think Pinkie Pie would appreciate us stalling for that long,” Celestia said, sighing afterward.

“Is Pinkie doing what I think she's doing?” Dash asked, suddenly giddy.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash,” Luna answered. “Grievous, We're- I'm sure that Twilight would be intrigued to observe you repair yourself...that was weird to say. Perhaps you could do that in the ball room and teach her a little about how...you...work.” Luna bore an unusual expression. “It's weird to talk of another living being as if they weren't.”

“Fine,” Grievous growled, shutting the squeaky lid of the repair kit.

Grievous was expecting a celebration of some kind, not an unusual thing for a party to do after a victory. And when Luna mentioned the 'ball room' in their earlier discussion, he was expecting a more formal and organized celebration. Thus, he was surprised to enter the ballroom and find it decorated as if they were celebrating a five year old's birthday party. The entire atmosphere, despite the presence of notable figures such as Shining Armor, was infantile, and it disgusted Grievous.

Fortunately for him, he had work to do, and that excused him from the celebratory festivities. He sat himself at a large, unoccupied table in the corner of the room and began to diagnose the damages.

Using a specialized tool from his repair kit, he pried the charred armor plate off of the back of his injured hand and inspected the machinery. Grabbing a different tool, this one a thin rod with an electrode on one end, he began probing the various pistons, wires, and servos that formed his hand. His prodding provided mixed results. The good news for him was that the only broken part was the primary servo motor, which rested approximately in his palm. The drawback to this, however, was that almost all of the other circuitry connected to it in one way or another.

Fixing his hand would be precise and tedious work.

The Kaleesh spared a glance around him to see what the party's other attendees were up to. On the opposite side of the room from him was a refreshment table, piled high with pastries of various kinds. A large group of ponies consisting of the Element bearers and their families congregated near it, chatting by the looks of it. There were also three fillies that seemed to be enjoying themselves, each chasing each other about the room in their childish games. Scattered about the room were a few Royal Guards as well. Though they were still clothed in their iconic golden armor, indicating that they were on duty, they nonetheless partook in the festivities. Finally, at a table not far from the Element bearers sat Celestia and Luna, who were caught up in their own conversation.

Grievous returned to his work, quietly picking through the repair kit for any spare primary servos, or at the very least, the components to make one. To his dismay, he had neither the spare part or the components; just a few of the servo's internal mechanisms.

With his work now about doubled, Grievous split his arms, giving himself three hands with which to work as opposed to just one. He immediately sent to work loosening the wrist that had the broken hand, and eventually, he was able to pull the hand completely out of the wrist. Doing so allowed the hand to be manipulated more easily, giving him easy access to bolts and other fasteners that would otherwise have been nearly impossible to reach before. Holding his removed hand still with its mirrored counterpart, Grievous diligently went about removing the wrecked servo.

“...We turned around, and that was when the guy fired. And he would have gotten me, too, but Grievous pushed me out of the way, taking the hit for me.”

“Wow, Dash, that's quite the story,” Twilight admired.

“Indeed. Putting himself in harm's way for your sake was quite the honorable move,” agreed Rarity. “Perhaps he's not as brutish as he originally came across as.”

“The guy sure knows how to make a heroic impression,” admitted Shining Armor, who was now out of uniform.

“But if he's injured, why is he here and not in the infirmary of something?” Twilight queried.

“Um, I'm not too keen on the details, but he said something about a his hand simply being broken. It looked pretty bad when I saw it; the entire back of his hand was all burnt and stuff. Grievous said that all he needed was his repair kit and then he'd be fine.”

“Oh, right, 'cause his body is metal, not flesh. It's just such a weird concept, so weird that that fact seems to slip my mind,” Twilight reasoned.

“Ya know, Dash,” interjected Applejack, “Ah think ya'll owe the guy 'n apology.”

“Uh, for what?”

“Well, for one thing, ya followed 'im when he told ya ta stay here. Then ya got'churself involved in his fight when ya shouldn't've, since he does know more about these 'clones' than we do. And then, because ya got'churself mixed up in his fight, he had to get injured to save ya. And now look at 'im; he's gotta sit there all alone fixin' himself up instead'a enjoying the party. His party.”

Dash sighed heavily. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Ugh, I know,” Pinkie said with a hint of sadness in her voice. “Nopony should be forced to sit out at their own party. And while I'm completely fine with throwing another party for him to make up for this one, I don't know if he'd like it or not.”

“You do know that Grievous doesn't have to be sitting alone, right?” Twilight asked. The others agreed. “So then, why don't we go over and talk with him; Dash, you could apologize to him, and Pinkie, you could ask him whether or not he'd like another party.”

Dash glanced over towards Grievous. “It looks like he's already got company,” she snickered, and the others looked to him as well. They watched as three blank flank fillies disrupted the injured general's delicate repairs.

“Why don't we go help him before they break him more,” suggested Rarity. “Or vice versa,” she added after catching a glimpse of Grievous' hate filled eyes and one of his arms struggling to refrain itself from drawing one of his weapons. Her other friends agreed, and, leaving Shining Armor and Big Mac to their own one-sided conversation, they made towards Grievous, with Fluttershy lagging behind a couple of paces.

With surgeon-like precision, Grievous had managed to extract the primary servo from his hand. All that remained to do was disassemble the servo and replace anything in it that was broken, then replace the servo and reattach everything.

Grievous put his hand and the fasteners he had removed from it in a pile to the side before focusing on the servo. He meticulously brought his tools to the small contraption and began to disassemble it. After a few minutes, he finally found the issue: melted wires. Fortunately, he had replacement wires in his kit. Keeping his eyes on the servo, he reached out towards the kit to retrieve the spare wires. His hand swiped the empty air a few times before he looked up to find his kit not where he had put it.

“Um, Scoots?” said a light yellow filly to the orange one with the purple mane that was rummaging through the repair kit. “Ah, uh, Ah think he needs that back.”

The orange one looked up to Grievous on the receiving end of a deathly glare. “Oh, uh, sorry,” she said, pushing the kit towards the General. Surprisingly, she showed little fear.

He took the kit and peered inside. The inside was a mess; the organized chaos that it once was was now simply pure chaos. He sighed in irritation.

“So you're Grievous?” the orange one continued. “I'm Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash was telling us about how awesome you were, and how you saved her life...twice...in one day.” Grievous gave no response. “She thinks that you're an awesome friend, and any friend of hers is a friend of mine!” Scootaloo exclaimed happily while Grievous continued to ignore her.

“And Ah'm Applebloom,” the yellow one introduced herself as. “Applejack's also been sayin' good things 'bout you.”

“I'm Sweetie Belle,” said the white unicorn, speaking up for the first time. “My sister seems to like you as well. You've made quite the impression.”

But Grievous ignored them too, to engrossed in repairing himself to care about what they were saying, though he managed to catch their names. “What're you doin'?” Scootaloo asked curiously. The three fillies diverted their attention to what Grievous was doing.

“Oh dear Celestia, your hand!” Sweetie Belle yelped once she noticed the arm that had no hand.

Celestia, having heard her name, looked to the source of it, and chuckled when she saw Grievous sitting with the fillies.

Sweetie Belle bounded across the table to get a closer look at the wound, scattering Grievous' precariously placed parts about the tabletop. If the fillies didn't have his attention before, they certainly did now.

“Dude, you alright?” Scootaloo asked, picking up and inspecting Grievous' detached hand. “Why is your hand metal?”

“You're not bleeding? Or anything?” Sweetie Belle thought aloud, now grasping his incomplete arm.

Grievous couldn't find words to respond. He was seething, and in his rage, found himself unable to speak...or at least say something not insulting. He knew that harming these fillies in any way would tarnish the good reputation that the CIS had garnered so far, and so he tried his best to calm himself down. Regardless, one of his arms still twitched towards the weapons at his waist.

“Girls, you should probably leave him alone for a bit.” The three fillies turned to see the newcomer. Rarity and her friends approached the table. “You appear to have annoyed him.”

“We're sorry,” Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo told Grievous in unison. They walked away, giving the adults room to occupy the other seats at Grievous' table.

Grievous quickly reattached his arms and looked to the mess that the fillies had made. He proceeded to sort the mess, disregarding the six mares' presence.

“I apologize if my sister disturbed you,” apologized Rarity. “She and her friends are quite destructive if left to their own devices.”

Again, Grievous ignored his companions. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked after a few awkward seconds. The General sighed, resigning himself to the fact that he'd not be left alone for a while.

“I'm repairing my hand,” he said simply.

“Yeah, about that,” Rainbow started. “I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you in the first place, and that you got hurt because of me.”

Grievous grunted in acknowledgment, then continued to reorganize the table top. After several seconds of awkward silence, Twilight spoke up. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

“No,” Grievous snapped, but after a second of consideration, he changed his mind. “Actually, if you're insistent on helping, you can help me sort the repair kit.” He shoved the disorganized container towards her. “Just make a pile for each type of part.”

“Okay,” she said. Using her magic, she emptied the kit's contents on the table and began sorting. Rarity and Fluttershy moved to her side to help her out.

“So, Grievous, are you enjoying the party?” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.

Stalling for a couple of seconds, Grievous allowed himself to finish fixing up the mess the fillies had made before replying. “Not particularly.” Pinkie seemed to literally deflate. “I've never actually attended a party, but if all one does at a party is talk, it seems like a pointless endeavor to me.”

“Oh, but you do soooo much more than just talk,” Pinkie began to elaborate. “You play games like pin the tail on the donkey and spin the bottle and truth or dare and other board games, and you also dance and listen to music, and you eat delicious cake and cupcakes and muffins and drink punch and-”

“Ah think he gets the point, Pinkie,” Applejack interrupted.

“How have you never been to a party, though?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Do you even party in your galaxy?”

“Some do, but I've never had the opportunity. My time has been spent fighting.”

“If you haven't been to a party, then that means that you haven't had cupcakes! And of you haven't had cupcakes, then you need to have some! Stay right there, I'll go get you some,” rambled Pinkie.

“Don't bother,” Grievous said before Pinkie could run off to get him some cupcakes. “I can't eat.”

“What do you mean you can't eat?”

“I have no mouth,” he said, bemused. Isn't it obvious?

Pinkie chuckled. “Oh, silly, of course you have a mouth. You can't speak without a mouth, I know from experience. You also can't speak when your tongue is all huge and blue spotted and makes you sound like 'plllltt', but since you can speak, that means that you do have a mouth!”

“From...experience?” Grievous stuttered, slightly bewildered. “Even if I did have a mouth, I wouldn't be interested in eating a cupcake.”

Pinkie was shocked.

“In any case,” he continued, “Kaleesh are mostly carnivorous; I doubt pastries would go with our digestive systems well.”

“What's a 'Kaleesh'?” Twilight asked from directly beside him, her attention to the assortment of parts on the table. “And if you're carnivorous but have no mouth, how do you get nourishment? And-”

“Twilight,” Applejack interrupted, “Ah know that ya want'a learn every little detail 'bout Grievous, but don'cha think that should wait 'til after we finish this up?”

“I'll get to your questions after I'm done with my hand,” agreed Grievous. “But your distractions are significantly drawing the process out.”

“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy said meekly. “If you need privacy to finish, I think it's best that we let you have it.” Without waiting for any response, Fluttershy retreated from the table.

“Uh,” sighed Rarity. “I suppose I'll follow her and see if she's alright.” She followed after Fluttershy.

Applejack looked her remaining friends. “It's prob'ly best to let 'im finish up uninterrupted. C'mon Dash, Pinkie, Twi.” With that, Applejack got up and went elsewhere, seconded by Rainbow Dash who was quickly followed by Pinkie Pie.

Twilight looked up to Grievous, who had resumed his work. “Um, would it be alright with you if just sat here and observed? I find what you're doing extremely fascinating, and it something that-”

“Yes, fine, just be quite while you 'observe',” Grievous groaned. Confound these ponies; if I had a mouth, they'd drive me to drink.

She and Grievous sat silently at the table until Grievous had repaired his hand, which took no more than twenty minutes. All the while, Twilight had been generating questions for the alien to answer, and as soon as he was in working order, the torrent of inquiries was unleashed upon the general. For around two hours he sat answering questions about his species, the galaxy's technological advance advancement, and other trivial factoids to the best of his ability and patience.

“Sister, may We -I- ask you of your opinions about Grievous?” asked Luna as she sipped from her cup of delicious purple punch known simply as 'Gummy's favorite'. “You seem to have taken a quick liking to him, and have been not-too-subtle about it.”

“Ah, gossip,” Celestia said with a relaxed sigh. “Such a dirty indulgence that we rarely get to indulge in.”

“I ask not out of a want for juicy gossip, sister,” clarified Luna. “We ask out of fear of what the confirmation of our suspicions may possibly lead too.”

The solar princess' mood immediately soured. “I don't believe I understand what you mean.”

Luna allowed herself a few seconds to gather her thoughts before speaking. “You've made it apparent that you are infatuated with Grievous. And while I'll not criticize you for your choice, We do have our -excuse me, I do have my- concerns. He is brash, disrespectful, reckless, and violent.”

Celestia gave her sister a questioning look. “And your concerns are?”

“I fear what might happen if his presence brings chaos upon us; he certainly has the attributes to do so. But even more that that, I fear that he may be deceiving you or using your affections to blind you to his true purpose here.” Luna's expression grew sad, and with pleading eyes, she said to her sister, “The well-being and prosperity of our subjects comes before us. I just don't want you to forget that like I once have.”

With watery eyes, Celestia reached a hoof over to her sister's shoulder and laid it there comfortingly. “I will not forget.”

Luna returned the gesture, “Thank you,” she said as their reassurance somehow turned into an embrace.

Breaking the contact, Celestia resumed the conversation. “To answer your first question, I sympathize with him. He has had a troubled past. Many who have gone through the suffering that he has would have given up on their lives, but he has remained determined to overcome all challenges placed before him. The sad truth from what he told us is that he has none who cares for him.

“He is like Discord in the way that both are alone. But while Discord hadn't known of the magic of friendship until recently, Grievous once knew it and had it was stripped from him. The Kaleesh he once was or could have been has been laid in a coffin of hate and grief secured shut by nails of loneliness.

“I'm ranting aren't I? I apologize; these things get me started. I suppose, to sum up, I want him to feel appreciated, not just for his actions, but for what he is and could be.”

Throughout Celestia's short speech, Luna listened with a neutral expression. When she was done, Luna carefully considered what she had said and formulated her response. “Sister, your goal is a noble one. I will remain wary of Grievous, for he still does not have our -my- full trust. On the other hand, It pains me to see one's life so tragic. Please help him, but always be safe and remain cautious until his trustworthiness is gleaned.”

Celestia gave her sister a wide and warm smile. “It pleases me to know that the cold of the moon did not numb your heart.”

Luna smiled at the joke and compliment, which grew into a contagious giggle. It jumped to Celestia, and few several seconds, the two alicorns were in a quiet fit of hysterics.

~~~San Palomino Desert, Equestria, 2 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes after the Ambush at US-01~~~

All around the small group of clones rolled seemingly endless ranges of sand dunes. The descending sun caused any exposed sand to give an amber glow, sharply contrasting with the unlit shaded sides of the dunes. Combined with the pink, orange, and yellow sky, the scene was picturesque.

For the last hour and a half, Victor squad had been making steady progress through the desert, slowed only by the consistent breaks that R8 needed to cool down his boosters. Currently, they were on one such break. They had tucked themselves in between two high dunes, using them as cover while waiting for the droid.

“Hey, boss man,” Spy wearily said through their private comms. “I know we're in a hurry, but have we determined when we'll get to eat? I mean, it's been a long day since breakfast.”

“Quiet your infantile banter,” Gore barked.

“Hey, calm down, I was only asking,” Spy replied.

“Stop it, both of you,” Moon ordered. “We'll eat once we've finished traveling for the time being; that's how these things work.”

“Speaking of which,” Viktor started, “Shy, how much farther do you think we should go?” He looked up to Shy, who was laying on one of the dunes surrounding them, peering through his scope.

Predictably, he took his time in answering. “If the time taken to get from the LZ to the river is any indication of scale, then we should be about two hours away from the point at which we should head north. We should stop for the night around there.”

“Very good,” replied Viktor. “R8, you ready to get moving?” The droid beeped in confirmation. “Right then. Shy, get down here and let's get going.” Shy made his way down the dune, and when he was back with the group, they mounted their speeders and again made their way east.

The minutes wore into an hour and then some in uneventful silence, except for Spy's occasional request for nourishment. He was ignored, and the clones trudged on. The sun had now descended, dying their surroundings an eerie shade of blue.

The dunes had given way to dry, cracked earth like that of their old camp and its neighboring areas. Unlike the unchanging dunes, their current environment featured natural formations, including a small plateau with a convenient cave in the side.

“Spy,” Viktor said upon noticing the cave. “Over there; we'll see if it's safe to camp there for the night.”

“Right away Boss man.”

The two clones swerved towards the entrance, stopping once they got the mouth of it. “Spy, Gore, you're with me to check out the cave. Shy, Moon, R8, stay with the speeders,” commanded Viktor. Spy and Gore dismounted and, with Viktor with them, made their way inside the cave.

It was dark, so the three of them switched to low-light mode on their visors. Spy entered first, putting his stealth training to good use. He made no sound as he ventured forth, sweeping his weapon around the cavern. Behind him, Viktor followed, his DC-17 copying Spy's motions. Taking up the rear was Gore, his pistol readied and aimed behind them in case something decided to ambush them from there.

Surprisingly, the cave was quite clean, as if someone took care to get the dust out of it. It only took about a minute for the group of clones to find themselves in an extremely large open area which was the farthest they could go. Piled in the center was a moderately large pile of gems and other treasure.

“Peculiar,” Viktor noted, speaking over an internal private channel.

The three clones had lowered their weapons, having not seen any threats in the chamber. Spy walked towards the pile. “Who just leaves valuables like this in a pile on the floor?”

Some clicking sounds were heard from above them, and they shifted their attention and weapons towards the ceiling. Movement was seen going behind one of the many stalactites that hung from the ceiling.

“Circle it,” Viktor ordered. Spy crept to his right while Gore took the left, withdrawing his chain gun. Before they could completely encircle the thing, it dropped from the ceiling. It unfolded it wings, catching itself and gliding -or more accurately, barreling,- towards Viktor. He rolled out of the way as the creature sped by him, unleashing a stream of purple flames from what was presumably its mouth.

The creature pivoted once it reached the entrance of the room, and the flames had lit two wooden torches placed at either side of it. With the torches burning brightly, the clones could see the creature that now stood to block their way out.

It was a reptilian creature, standing about a foot shorter than one of the clones, covered in golden scales save for black spines that ran from the top of its head to the tip of its tail and its claws. It stood on all four of its legs, and it also had a pair of large, membranous wings, which were currently flared out in an aggressive stance. The irises of its eyes were a deep purple, and the eyes themselves were very large relative to the other parts of its head. And its brow was furrowed in anger.

“Who dares intrude in my home?” it bellowed in a distinctly feminine voice. For emphasis, the creature snorted, letting loose puffs of purple smoke.

Not expecting the thing to speak, let alone in Basic, the clones looked amongst each other in confusion. After a few seconds, Viktor cautiously responded. “People in need of a place to spend the night.”

Like the clones were a second ago, the fact that the clones spoke its language took the creature by surprise. “You speak?” it said, all previous aggression replaced with confusion and curiosity. “I've not seen anything like you before,” it said as it approached the clones. Its wings were no longer splayed out, and Viktor took that as a sign that it was no longer hostile. “Tell me, what are you?”

“Humans,” Gore replied instantly. However, the creature looked between the three of them, clearly at a loss as to which of them had spoken. Putting his chain gun back on his back, Gore followed up his answer with, “And you're a dragon?”

The movement caught the dragon's attention. “Yes,” it answered, now looking at Gore.

Wanting to end the conversation before Gore divulged too much information, Viktor said, “We apologize for intruding, dragon. But this cave is obviously occupied, so we'll just leave you alone and find somewhere else to stay.”

“It's not often -or at all, really,- that I get visitors, and you've piqued my curiosity,” the dragon said. “If you need shelter, you may stay here, so long as you do not harm me nor steal from me.”

Gore looked to Viktor. “It's probably best to take the offer. This dragon might have knowledge that we might find useful as well.”

“It's our best option,” conceded Viktor. “We'll accept your hospitality.”

The dragon sniffed the speeders curiously as the clones sat in a half circle elsewhere, eating some of the few bland rations that they had. With their helmets off, the dragon was able to see which of the humans was speaking, but it stayed out of their conversation while they ate, so as to not be rude.

“Gore?” Spy asked with his mouth full. “How did you know that that thing was a...what's you call it? A dragon?”

“Dragons are a mythological creature from several of the galaxy's cultures,” he explained, with Shy nodding in agreement. “It just so happens that I'm a bit of a mythology buff, and that dragon looks like how most myths I know say dragons look like. So I guessed, and I was right.”

“Okay, but how have you learned about other culture's myths? I mean, where did you find the spare time to do that?”

“I didn't,” Gore smirked. “Part of initial training is learning about some of the galaxy's more prevalent cultures so that we can act in acceptable ways around them. It's basically day one stuff. Did you forget it all?”

“Um, yes,” Spy replied. “I suppose I hadn't planned on running into mythological creatures in my lifetime.”

“You mean to say that my kind doesn't exist to yours?” the dragon asked from across the chamber.

“Yes, that's correct,” Gore responded. “Hey, why don't you come over here so we can get acquainted?” he suggested.

The dragon slowly made its way to where the five sitting clones were and rested itself on its belly in the large gap between Gore and Shy.

“I'll start,” said Gore. “My name is Gore, and I'm a heavy infantry unit from the Grand Army of the Republic.”

“Name's Spy,” followed Spy, though he gave no further information.

“Moon,” said Moon simply.

“I'm Viktor,” started Viktor. “I'm the leader of the group. The brown droid over there by our speeders is R8, and this one next to me is Shy.” Shy extended a hand for a shake, which the dragon surprisingly returned. “As the name implies, he's shy, and I doubt he'd've said anything to introduce himself.”

“Well, I welcome you all to my home. Company is something hard to come by when you're a dragon like me, so it's nice that...interesting creatures like you have stopped by. You certainly livened my evening.”

“So, um, do you have a name?” asked Spy.

“Yes,” replied the dragon. “I have two in fact. My first name in the language of dragons is Ku'Shaag'Worr. It's a little unusual for those who aren't dragons to pronounce, so I go by the translated version of it. It literally translates to 'of clouded vision', but I've further simplified it to Haze. Haze the dragoness.”

“Simply starting with 'Haze' would've been fine; we don't need the language lesson,” complained Spy.

Haze narrowed her eyes at him. “There's no need to be rude; considering that you're not from around here, I figured that you'd like to know some facts.”

“Actually, if you could do that for us, that'd be much appreciated,” requested Viktor. “I can't give you all of the details, but we're on a mission and we need some rather specific information to maximize our chances of success.”

“Sadly, I know not of recent happenings, for I am isolated. I can give you some information about how pony civilization works and how dragon society operates, but not much else,” Haze replied apologetically.

Having finished his meal, Gore turned his full attention to Haze. “Dragon society, huh? I''d be interested in hearing about that, if you're willing to share.”

“Certainly,” Haze happily replied. “What would you like to know?”

“What's with the gems and stuff?” Spy asked offhandedly, beginning to reach the end of his ration.

“Well,” Haze began, “a dragon's success in dragon society is based off of the amount of treasure that they accumulate, usually be raiding the villages of the various kingdoms here on Equus or by attacking other dragons.”

“Equus?” asked Viktor.

“The name of the planet. Anyways, looting does more than simply improving a dragon's standing; a dragon's physical size and strength are directly related to their greed, which is directly related to the amount of things they've accumulated,” elaborated Haze.

Gore looked to the pile of things in the center of the room, then back to Haze. “I'm going to assume that you're not...particularly high on the social ladder?”

Haze chuckled, confusing Gore. “Yes, that's true.” She laughed a little harder, confusing Gore and the others even more. Isn't low standing a bad thing?

Noticing their confused glances, she collected herself. “You know, it's surprising how easy to read you're feelings are, despite the fact that we're different species,” she noted before explaining her previous behavior. “Right, well, where to begin? Dragon society is brutal, basically a 'survival of the fittest' social system. Most dragons are okay with that, but others have looked at pony society and have seen how much better off everydragon -excuse me, everypony- is with a less chaotic kind of social structure. Ponies try to be good; they help others when they can, and they look down upon betrayal, theft, lying, greed, and other such evil practices that are common in dragon society. Thus, some dragons, such as myself, have shunned our old ways.

“Our goal is to assimilate into pony civilization. It seems like a difficult task, but it is possible; one dragon is known to have made his way into pony society. However, except for that dragon, we have a bad reputation as thieves and destroyers, and thus, dragons are pushed away whenever we get near. We dragons who have shunned the old ways are prime targets for other dragons looking for easy loot, so we have mostly resigned ourselves to isolated caves for protection.”

“Interesting,” Viktor thought aloud. “Say Moon, if these ponies are trying to run a peace based government, would you suppose that that reduces the possibility of them allying with the Seps?”

“I feel that the Seps being more likely to have occupied the land is a more appropriate wording.”

“What are the 'Seps'?” asked Haze.

“They are our enemy,” responded Viktor. “'Seps' is short for the Separatists, a political force that opposes the Republic. They mean to unify all known systems under their banner, but they wish to do so by villainous means: cheating, lying, assassinating politicians who oppose them...It's a bit complex, for there's more than just the Seps and the Republic involved and I can't tell you everything. I suppose the closest analogy would be that they are dragons who abide by the old way while the Republic are dragons who have shunned those ways...only, we're not dragons.”

“So it appears that we have similar ideals, then,” Haze said with a smile. “Wonderful. Maybe if you ever find yourselves around the ponies, you could put in a good word for me.”

“We're not going to be interacting with these ponies,” Moon said. “I apologize for any issues it causes, but it cannot be helped.”

With a sigh, Haze said, “I see. But if your plans change, keep me in mind.”

“Of course,” said Gore, putting the issue to rest.

The clones and the dragon sat in awkward silence for a few seconds. They were all finished eating, so Viktor replaced his helmet to check the time. “Alright men, I want us moving out in fifteen hours. Three hours, then we'll begin resting, two hour watch shifts, and that'll give us two hours to pack and make ready to leave.”

“Copy that,” said Spy.

“Roger,” acknowledged Gore.

“Yes, sir,” answered Moon.

“...” responded Shy.

With three hours until the clones decided they would start sleeping, Haze took the opportunity to observe how they acted on their own. The one known as Shy sat alone with his helmet on as far away from anyone as possible. Viktor was doing something with the stubby thing identified as R8; she knew not what, but whatever he was doing was causing sand to come out of R8. Spy and Gore were sparring with each other near the speeders, while Moon watched from one of the vehicle's seats.

“Hey Vikky,” Spy said after easily pushing Gore to the ground.

Viktor groaned. “What do you want, Spy?”

“You know how I said that I believed myself to have to most superior hand-to-hand combat skills out of the four of us?” he asked.

“Yeah...”

“Well, care to try to prove me wrong?”

Viktor looked up from his position on the ground to Spy. “I'm getting the sand out of R8 right now, which is a bit more important than fighting you. But once I finish, I'd gladly shut you up.”

Haze chortled. “You humans are amusing; like a group of hatchlings, you are.”

Looking to Haze, Spy asked, “Where have I heard that broken grammar before?”

“General Yoda, you idiot,” answered Gore.

“Can you say something that doesn't question my intelligence?” Spy retorted.

“Um...no.”

Spy smirked. “You just did.”

“...Shut up.”

Once again, Haze laughed.

After a few minutes, Viktor had finished dusting out R8 and had begun to spar with Spy. Surprisingly, Spy was able to hold his own quite well against the commando; his unpredictability and unorthodox methods countered the commando's methodical and precise techniques. Gore had let Viktor take on Spy alone after having been beaten terribly, and he sat himself next to Haze, who was watching the spar while munching on a large chunk of quartz.

However, the fight soon ended when Spy, slightly worn from sparring with Gore, was unable to avoid a roundhouse kick to the head. Severely dazed and with a growing headache, he called it quits, but declared a rematch at a time at which both of them were equally ready.

With the fun at a close, each clone headed off to do their own thing. Gore and Haze engaged in some small talk while Spy headed to a wall to get some rest early. Viktor made his way to where Shy was and hadn't moved in well over an hour.

“Shy?” Viktor asked concernedly. Shy stirred, but didn't look to up to him. Viktor removed his helmet and sat down next to Shy. “Shy, you alright?” The clone shrugged slightly, continuing to stare at the ground a few feet in front of him. “What're you doing under that helmet?” Viktor finally asked.

“Research,” Shy answered, his voice coming out quiet and raspy from a lack of use and probably hydration.

“Researching what, exactly?”

Shy flinched; whatever he was doing, he didn't want to share. However, he succumbed to his superior, and Shy displayed the item of his research on the floor in front of him via his science module.

It was one of the pictures that they had scanned from Appleloosa. The projection was in full color, and it was obviously a family photo, featuring three ponies on it. One had a green coat and a long straight white mane, and on its flank was an image of a mandolin. Opposite that one was a pale blue pony with a dark short dark blue mane. This one had a horn and an image of a guitar on its flank. In between the two was a small pony, likely a child of the two, that was mint green and had a medium length teal mane with a white stripe on the side. This one had a short horn and golden eyes.

Some words were written on the bottom of the image, specifically under each of the ponies. Under the green hornless one read 'Mandy Heartstrings'. Under the pale blue one read 'Les Paul Heartstrings', and under the mint green one were the words 'Lyra Heartstrings'.

“Something about this image sticks out to you, Shy,” observed Viktor.

“It, um, shows family dynamic in pony society...”

Viktor looked at Shy. “There's more to it than that. I'm not going to press it now, but I will want an explanation soon; about this and the magna guard.”

“Yes, sir.”

With nothing more to say, Viktor stood up and headed towards Haze, ready to get some information from her. Now alone, Shy turned off the projection. His mind went numb as unpleasant memories slowly poured into his mind, memories of a past filled with loss and despair. And through the flood of recollections, one word permeated them: Lyra.

It was late; really late. Gore's shift had hardly begun, and there were only six hours until Victor squad resumed their journey. He was supposed to be watching the entrance for any droids who may wander in, but he wound himself completely distracted by the dragon who was awake with him.

She was sitting next to her small pile of treasures, staring at them distantly, though every once in a while she'd shake her head to snap back to reality. And Gore couldn't help but stare at her as often as he could. Noises from outside only captured Gore's attention for a second or two before he'd dismiss it and revert to admiring the dragon.

Sometimes, before zoning out again, she would catch Gore staring at her with admiration in his uncovered eyes. She was both discomforted yet flattered that he couldn't keep his eyes off her. After almost half an hour of being watched, however, she decided it was time to tease him about it.

“Do you like what you see?” she asked playfully, unfurling her wings and batting her eyes.

“I can't deny that you are much more beautiful and gracious than the myths said you'd be,” he admitted, fully serious.

Detecting no hint of sarcasm, Haze blushed slightly. “Um, I'm really nothing special,” she said, unsure of how she felt of this revelation.

Gore picked up on her discomfort, and after replay the past few seconds in his mind, he found his error. “I'm sorry. I probably should have used 'dragons' in place of 'you' in my last remark. Though, to be fair, since you're the first dragon I've met, you set the standard, and it's my personal opinion that that standard would be hard to beat. Gold can be a nice color.”

Haze blushed harder.

“Especially with a little red.”

The dragon's blush instantly disappeared. “Oh, you tease!” she chuckled heartily, and Gore joined in shortly after. After their fit, Gore continued. “I was teasing about the red part, but I was completely serious about what I said before. You're probably the most glorious thing I've laid eyes on. And one of the kindest begins I've met as well. It's a shame that these ponies judge you based on stereotypes and not on who you are as a pers -er, dragon.”

Haze sighed. “I would agree with that, but there's no need for you to worry about me. We hardly know each other; my concerns should not be yours.”

“And with that, I'd have to disagree,” Gore said. Haze looked up to him as he completely disregarded his watch duties and walked over to where Haze was sitting. “The Republic's goal is to unify all known systems so as to resolve all issues with diplomacy. And while that's not feasible yet, they instill the beliefs that all sentient beings are equal and that all have a chance at redemption into all of its soldiers.

“However, despite that, there are some very harsh stereotypes that are placed on clones like me, the worst of them being that we're nothing more than fleshy droids, and are expendable as such. Even amongst some of the leading members of the Republic, this stereotype prevails. It's wrong that we can be classified in such a manner and furthermore treated in a certain way based on that stereotype alone as opposed to who we are as a person...or dragon.

“I...I suppose I should get to the point. My purpose is to fix wrongs such as those being forced upon you. I have to put my mission first, but should the opportunity arise, I'll try my best to get you seen as something beyond the stereotype.”

Haze looked to Gore with misty eyes. “You...you'd do that? For a dragon that you hardly know?”

“I'd do it for anyone being treated unjustly except for Spy, especially for a dragon like you; it's the least I could do to thank you for your gracious hospitality.” He them gave Haze a light punch on the shoulder. With a chuckle, he said, “Now, toughen up. Dragons aren't supposed to cry.”

She wiped her eyes dry. “Ugh, stop teasing,” she teased, pushing Gore over and chuckling as well.

Morning broke as Shy finished off his shift, the final one before Victor squad began packing. He had spent his shift in the mouth of the cave, just far enough back so that he couldn't be seen by any prying eyes outside. But, with his job complete, it was time for the squad to get moving.

He entered the cavern where the rest of the squad was sound asleep on the hard rock surface. The second task for him was to wake his team, so he headed to the nearest clone to do so.

Incidentally, the nearest clone was Spy, the heaviest sleeper of all of them. Shy's quiet voice was easily ignored by the unconscious Spy, and shaking him was ineffective as well.

“Good morning,” he heard Haze say from behind him as she woke. He could hear several bones pop as she stretched, and she let herself rumble in content.

The dragon glanced over to Shy, who was still struggling to wake Spy. She came to Shy's side to watch him. Shy persisted for a couple of minutes before Haze felt the obligation to help.

“May I?” she asked, to which Shy vigorously nodded yes. “You may want to cover your ears,” she warned. He cut the input volume of his helmet to very low as Haze drew a large breath, releasing a deafening roar that, when further amplified by the resonant nature of the chamber, immediately brought the four sleeping clones to their feet. She smiled bashfully as the four clones gave her irritated looks. “I was only helping Shy wake you,” she defended, backing a couple of steps.

Suddenly, Spy burst out into laughter. “Shy, you're a genius. Getting a dragon wake us up for you? Never saw that coming. I never thought you'd have the balls to do something like that. Kudos to you.”

No one else said anything as Spy's laughter died down to awkward 'he he's. He coughed to signify that he had finished, at which point Viktor resumed talking. “Right. Shy, how bright out was it?”

“Pretty bright, but it's still early morning. It's best to leave sooner rather than later. If we leave in half an hour, we should be able to make it to the bog by nightfall with time enough to prepare camp suited for that environment.”

“Sorry, Haze, but I'd have to agree with him,” Viktor said to the dragon. “While I'd like to stay longer and hear more of what you have to say, we've got priorities and orders.”

“I understand,” she said. “I'll not bother you while you prepare, but let me know when you're about to leave. I'd like to say good-bye to each of you personally.”

Viktor nodded. “Will do. Victor squad, pack up and be ready for departure as soon as possible.”

“Haze, we're ready to leave. Please keep it brief, we've got to go soon.”

“I will, I will,” she said, rolling he eyes. She extended a claw towards the commando, and they engaged in a firm handshake. “I wish you the best of fortunes on your mission. You five seem adept enough to get any job done.”

“Thank you, ma'am.”

Making her way to Moon, who sat in the side car of one the speeders, she shook his uninjured arm. “I wish you luck as well, and I hope that your injury recovers in a timely manner.”

“Thank you, ma'am.”

Spy was next in line. Once again, she offered her hand for a shake, and the clone obliged. “I wish you success; enjoy life, and don't take everything too seriously.”

“You know me too well.”

Next was Shy. Her expression was sad when she looked to him, but nevertheless, the offered her claw with the same enthusiasm as the others. “It's a shame that we were not able to get better acquainted, but please, try to be happy.” Shy gave no response, verbal or nonverbal.

Finally, she reached Gore. Unlike the others, Gore's helmet was off and he was giving Haze a warm smile. She raised her claw a few inches, then hesitated for a second before deciding to go straight to a hug. She lunged towards Gore, wrapping her front legs around his torso and her head on his shoulder.

Being a clone, he didn't know quite how to respond. At first, he kept his arms up from the initial response of trying to pull away, but his arms slowly found their way around Haze's neck, though the contact was awkward and his eyes jumped around, clearly showing his discomfort.

“Gore, you're the kindest individual I've met in many many years,” she started.

“Gore? Kind? What's I miss last night?” Spy whispered to Viktor.

“Be safe, maintain your integrity, and don't forget me,” she continued. Haze let go of Gore and looked up to him. “There is something I'd like to give you, if you'd have it.”

“Sure.”

Haze lifted a wing and, using her long tail, fetched a triangular shaped gem with a golden sheen. She placed the small gem in Gore's open palm, where he admired it for a few seconds. “I hope you still think gold can be a nice color.”

He put the gem on his chest atop his decals. Gore strained to see it for a few seconds, but once he caught a glimpse of it, he smiled and said, “Especially with a little red.”

There was a final exchange of thanks and farewells, and then the clones mounted their speeders and made for north.

Chapter 9: Confessions

~~~Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, 2 days and 13 hours after the Ambush at Equus~~~

After a very long and unusually active day, one would find simply laying back and staring into the expansive night sky to be a pleasantly relaxing and unwinding endeavor. Such was the state of Princess Luna, who found it fit to simply sit on the balcony of the tall spire that housed her room and admire her work.

Once the party had finished, the Princesses had decided to demonstrate a bit of their culture to Grievous by having Luna bring forth the night in the castle courtyard with him observing. The coming of the night was an act that Luna still felt was under appreciated throughout Equestria, but to her surprise, their alien guest had gained an interest in it. Although, in a Twilightesque bout of scientific mindedness, he had responded to the event by saying something along the lines of, “This explains the planet's irregular rotation,” so she doubted that he had any personal attachments to the night.

That had been nearly an hour ago, and after it had been finished, the general had headed off in the direction of the gardens for an unspecified reason, followed soon after by Shining Armor. From her perspective atop the gilded spire, Luna could see the entire expanse of the gardens, and so decided to see what Grievous was up to using the telescope that she had on her balcony at all times.

She stood and stretched before taking the two-step trip to the telescope's eyepiece. Peering through, she made a survey of the gardens, quickly finding Grievous standing with his back towards her near a large, flat, and open patch of grass. The general was not alone, however. Before him was another one of his shuttles, which must have landed before she had gotten to her balcony. It was currently having its cargo consisting of a rack of folded battle droids unloaded. Shining Armor stood adjacent to him, holding a map with his magical grip while the two of them studied it.

The Princess was far to distant to tell specifically what was happening or even read the map, but she could infer that they were making plans of some sort. But, with Shining Armor there to monitor their guest, she felt that she had no reason to worry about any potential devious plots. So why did she?

Throughout his stay, Grievous had been aggressive, violent, and disrespectful to everypony he'd interacted with. The story about his past was a sad one indeed, but Luna didn't feel like the entire truth had been given, nor did she feel that Dooku had been entirely honest with his reasons for wanting to protect them. Unlike her sister, she didn't trust them.

Something moving in the sky caught her attention, and she turned her instrument to observe it. It was yet another one of Grievous' shuttles.

Suddenly, a large yellow-green circular object with a smaller red circle in its center covered the entirety of Luna's vision. She yelped and stumbled back a couple of steps, revealing the object to be Discord, whose body was dangling off of the balcony railing, and who was immaturely looking through the telescope's wrong end.

Realizing this, she angrily stepped forward and turned the lens away from Discord's eye.

“I'm sorry; did I disturb you?” he asked innocently.

“Thou knowst that your antics are not appreciated with us,” she replied, her eyes furrowed in irritation.

“Ah-ah; modern Equuish, please,” he smirked.

“Buck off.”

Discord reeled back, letting go of the railing, allowing his wings to take over supporting him. Feigning insult, he said, “Well that was a little harsh, Princess. I didn't mean that modern. I meant you no harm, anyhow; I am reformed, after all.”

“And all the more bothersome because of it, seeing as we cannot turn you back to stone without good reason.”

Luna turned away from him, and he took the opportunity to place himself on the balcony with her, sitting cross-legged in the corner. “I'd have never thought you'd hate me so much, dear Luna, seeing as you are my favorite between you and your sister.”

“I'm you favorite?” she asked, turning to him with a curious expression. This expression instantly turned to unsuppressed anger, an unexpected turn that left even Discord surprised. “If We're thoust favorite, then why would thou corrupt our minds to make us into the nightmare that betrayed our sister and all of Equestria, threatening to plunge it into eternal darkness and despair, furthermore forcing our beloved sister to banish us upon the moon for a century? Thou hast ruined our image and trust with our subjects, our sister, and even ourselves, yet you insist on declaring us thoust most preferred!?”

“Relax, Luna,” he said casually. “It was nothing more than...light teasing amongst friends.” Luna's face contorted in rage. “But this isn't what I visited you for. I came to talk.”

“We've nothing to discuss,” she huffed, turning away from him again, still evidently furious. It took all her self-control to not impale the draconequus with her horn right there.

“I believe we do,” Discord replied, spawning a dark blue pillow next to him, beckoning Luna to sit.

“And what would that be?” she inquired, though she refused to face him.

“Oh, just someone we know that we don't really know.”

“Grievous?”

“How astute.”

Luna once again turned back to Discord. Although she was still furious at Discord, she was also curious to hear what insights the draconequus had about their guest. As such, she trotted over to where he was and plopped her rump on the amazingly soft pillow that he had laid out for her. “What about him?” she asked.

“During my time encased in that horrid stone prison,” Discord started, “I spent my time observing events beyond our little world. Obviously, being trapped in stone, I was unable to interact with what I saw, but nonetheless, I enjoyed some of the bouts of chaos I witnessed.”

“And this has to do with Grievous...how?” Luna impatiently questioned.

“During the last few years of my imprisonment, I happened upon a war torn galaxy. Now, this galaxy had many intriguing individuals, including one Qymaen Jai Sheelal.”

“That is Grievous' old name, is it not?”

“Another astute acknowledgment, my dear Luna. Now, this fellow was a curious one; very entertaining to follow. I tell you, his past is as distraught as he said it was when he first came here.”

Luna glared at Discord. “How dost thou -how do you know what he said when you weren't there?”

“If I told you, that'd spoil the fun. Now, back to my story: while I hadn't been accompanying our friend Grievous during his entire history, I know enough about him to know that I don't know how smart your accord with him is. From what I've observed, he has been honest about his past, but his behaviors here differ greatly from his behaviors in his home galaxy. Simply put; I don't trust him entirely.”

Luna looked deep in thought, and she stayed that way for several minutes before asking Discord, “And I don't trust you entirely. Why tell me this?”

“Because I know you have your doubts about him as well, and I want you to know that you're not the only one.”

“How are you aware of what I think?” she suddenly asked angrily.

“Oh, Luna, you have no idea how fun it is to romp around in your mind when I'm bored.”

At this, Luna leapt to her hooves and pointed her horn at Discord threateningly. “You...you stay out of my head! I'll not have you use me as a tool to threaten Equestria again! Nor will I allow you to drive a wedge between my sister and myself again with your manipulative talk!”

“Luna, you misinterpret my intentions,” Discord said with a sigh, though he was sincere with what he had said.

“I doubt you,” she affirmed. “You would use any discrepancies between my sister's judgment and my own to have us tear each other down, only to have you take our place. I will not allow a repeat of Nightmare Moon.”

Discord stood to his full height, towering over the comparatively short pony princess. “This is not a ruse, and I do not intend on betraying either you or Celestia,” he adamantly defended. “Believe it or not, for reasons that are my own, I genuinely care for the well being of Equestria. I have suspicions that Grievous doesn't. Are you really going to trust Grievous, who you've known for all of two days, more than me, your century old friend?”

“You are not my friend,” she spat. “And Grievous is indefinitely more trustworthy than you are. Now, begone, demon, before I charge you of treason.”

Now agitated, Discord crossed his arms and looked to Luna. “It is apparent that my input in the situation is not welcome...just as I expected.” He leaned down to look straight into her eyes. “It is also apparent that any involvement on my part is unwelcome. I'll oblige, but if our suspicions are correct, and Grievous does leave Equestria in smoke, it will be your situation to handle.”

“I assure you,” she began, “that Grievous is here to benefit us, not destroy us. I will trust Celestia's judgment with him.”

“Going back on your instincts?” Discord said as he straightened himself. “I know you well enough to know that you're stubborn with your views. Good night, Princess.” With a flash, he was gone, and with his departure, Luna felt stresses that she didn't even know she had fade to nothingness.

She felt proud. She had successfully thwarted a suspected attempt by Discord to usurp the crown. And in modern Equuish, too.

~~~Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, 2 days and 15 hours after the Ambush at Equus~~~

Behind him, the two massive wooden doors that led to the gardens slammed shut as he made his way in. It had been a very long time since Grievous felt genuinely tired, but this day had been perfect enough to put an end to that. Yet, before he could rest, he still had one more task to complete: report to Dooku.

He marched through the castle's massive hallways, diligently making his way towards his new room; or at least he hoped he was. The castle's layout was still largely unknown to him, and the only paths he had truly learned were those from his old room to the throne room and from the throne room to the gardens. Fortunately for him, he made his way to the wing that held his room with little trouble.

This was when he forgot where to go. Six short halls spanned out of the main one that Grievous stood in, each one leading to a staircase that, in turn, led to a room. He knew one of them was his, but he just couldn't remember which one. Two of them were out of the question immediately, however; the one to his right was evidently Celestia's due to the sun banner draped near it while the left one was evidently Luna's due to the moon banner.

A light trotting sounded behind him, and Grievous turned to see who was approaching him. Slightly to his surprise, it was Celestia.

“I thought you'd have retired to you bed by now,” he noted. Celestia's lack of any formal wear indicated that she has at least tried.

She shrugged a little; as much as possible while keeping her bare hooves on the ground. “I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd take a short walk to clear my head. Looks like I returned in time, too; you seem lost.”

“My memory seems to have failed me,” he replied.

Celestia now stood next to Grievous. “Hm...I suppose I should apologize for not letting you get used to the castle before moving you.”

“Just point me in the right direction and this'll be behind us,” Grievous requested.

“Of course,” Celestia complied, pointing to one of the hallways. “Your room is just up there.” She then turned and daintily made her way down the hallway marked by the sun banner. “Good night!” she offered.

“Yes, good night,” Grievous grumbled almost inaudibly, then headed up the stairs to his own room.

“Grievous, your report's been delayed. There better be good reason for this,” chastised the small image of Count Dooku.

“There is, my lord,” he said, standing in his typical posture, lit only by the eerie blue light of the hologram before him. “I've made some great improvements that you'll be glad to hear,” Grievous said while rising from his half-bow stance.

“Well, go on. I've been kept waiting long enough.”

Grievous stood to his full height and looked down to the holovid that was resting on his bed. “My lord, my droids and I have already achieved significant standing; militarily, socially, and politically. An invasion occurred this morning and afternoon, led by one of the planet's indigenous species called changelings. The Princess' Royal Guard was proven incapable of withstanding the invasion, but my droids proved to be exceptionally superior to these changelings. The ponies regarded changelings as a major threat, and with them no longer in existence, it is safe to assume that our droids are capable of overpowering most any opposing force born of this world.”

“That is good news indeed, general, but for your own sake, tell me that you have more to share,” Dooku warned.

Shrugging off the threat, Grievous continued. “As far as I can tell, the Princesses, or at least Celestia, regard us as heroes. She's allowed me to retain control of my droids, but there are still numerous issues that I face.”

“And those issues would be...?”

“The first one is on your part, my lord,” he scolded, lowering his faceplate to mere inches from the hologram. “You've sent me here to do...something, yet you've failed to tell me exactly what that something is. I need to know what our goals are before I can continue, else I risk ruining your precious plans.”

Dooku appeared contemplative. “Grievous,” he said after a few seconds, “it appears that you have done well by Celestia's standards, thus putting my plans further into motion. I will share my goals with you once you've listed your remaining problems.”

“The next issue is one I've repeatedly told you of, yet you've failed to fix. All you give me to use are battle droids!” he yelled, beginning to pace. “They're incompetent pawns; they almost always screw something up!” His pacing had left him turned away from the small hologram. Taking a deep breath, Grievous calmed himself and turned his head towards the hologram. He resumed in a near whisper. “What I need are real soldiers; soldiers of flesh and blood who are capable of outstanding thinking and adaptation; soldiers like the Isvoshra.”

“It's fortunate that Equestria has its own military, then,” mused Dooku. “They may be weak, but there are certain advantages that they have over our droids. Use them, and fix their weaknesses. Break them if need be.”

“This leads to the next obstacle.” Grievous returned to his original position before Dooku. “Their Captain, Shining Armor, is not on agreeable terms with us. Before I came in to report, I was overseeing the deployment of several groups of droids and tanks throughout the country. I've sent a detachment of droids and one AAT to each of Equestria's major population centers, excluding Canterlot, which isn't ideal for tanks anyways. However, he doesn't like that this has been done. He sees it as an act of military occupation, and is fearful of violent consequences.”

“Grievous, such deployments should not have been necessary. Something went wrong.”

“Indeed they did, my lord. You stupid droids were unable to prevent some clones from reaching the surface. I don't know their numbers, but I've already lost a shuttle, one search party, and the crews from at least three different droch vessels. I would estimate their numbers around forty.”

“You cannot blame every issue on the droids. They follow your orders to the letter. It is more likely that the clones breached you due to an oversight on your part.”

“Regardless, my lord, Shining Armor is opposed to the movement of our troops. He can do nothing to physically stop us, but we could be compromised if he voices his concerns to the Princesses.”

Dooku allowed himself a minute to mull over the information that was presented. “Do you still have a set of confiscated clone armor from the Valiance?” he asked.

“I do, but I don't see how it would be useful.”

“Think creatively, general. That armor provides us the means to tackle two objectives at once: degrading the Princess' image of the Republic further, and removing Shining Armor as an obstacle.”

“Have a droid pose as a clone and assassinate him?” Grievous inquired.

A sinister grin spread along Dooku's face. “Indeed.” In an instant, his expression reverted to its unreadable state. “Details regarding that must wait, however, as that is a new development. Is there anything else you wish to rant about?”

“Nothing else of immediate concern, my lord.”

“If there is nothing else, then it is time to tell you why you are here. Quite simply, I believe the Princesses Celestia and Luna are very powerful Force users, and thus it is imperative that they are sided with us and not the Republic. Additionally, I believe that the entire system in saturated in the presence of the Force. If we were to utilize every Force-sensitive resource on that planet, we would no doubt control the means to win the war.”

“They don't have the Force here; they use some other power that they call magic,” countered Grievous.

“What they call it is irrelevant, the fact remains that it is a manifestation of the Force. Powerful at that; tell me, what's have you seen 'magic' do so far?”

“I've seen telekinesis, teleportation, shape shifting, its use as a projectile, and the rotating of the planet. Additionally, they claim to have several powerful magical artifacts known as the Elements of Harmony.”

“Telekinesis is a basic feat by way of the Force, but none in our galaxy have been able to teleport themselves or shape shift. The manipulation of matter on the scale required to do that is nigh unreachable for us here. As for moving the planet? Not even master Yoda would be able to do that. Surely you are seeing their value as allies?”

“I am,” answered Grievous. “Do these Elements of Harmony have any merit?”

“It is likely that they are a Force-sensitive artifact, much like the starforge from our own galaxy. However, this is no longer relevant, as you have your mission.”

“I understand, my lord. One more question, if you'll permit it.”

“Ask it, then.”

“Why didn't you come here yourself to handle the diplomacy?”

“That is a sensitive issue that a non-Force wielder like you would likely not understand. But you're smart, so I'll attempt to explain anyways. To put it simply, the Force is so concentrated there that any Force-sensitive being from our galaxy would suffer terrible pain, among other things,” explained Dooku.

“What proof of this do you have?”

“My master has informed me of this. He managed to obtain one of the Republic's security tapes; a top secret one from the Valiance. The tape in question was a conversation between the Jedi Poh Drüne and one of his clones. In the tape, he describes having such feelings.”

“That would explain why he was sedated when I killed him...” mused Grievous. “However, that concludes my report. Is there anything else you require of me?”

“There is nothing else. Do what you must. Remember, Celestia either chooses to side with us, or she is removed before she can make the wrong choice. Do not report again until there is an important update.” With those parting words, the hologram vanished, plunging the room into complete darkness.

After placing the holovid back on his waist, Grievous stepped over to the long side of his new bed and sat. For several minutes he sat there reflecting back on the conversation he had just had. Celestia would back a powerful ally indeed, he finally concluded. It'd be a shame to see her fall.

The day had been long and stressful, so Grievous lay himself across the mattress. It was sized for him and the frame held. As comfortable as he could get, Grievous let himself fall into a restful and dreamless sleep for the first time in a very long time.

~~~San Palomino Desert, Equestria, 3 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes after the Ambush at Equus~~~

Once again Victor squad found themselves amidst a calm sea of golden sand. The near midday sun beat down relentlessly on the small group as they made their way north, hoping to run into Ghastly Gorge or some other landmark that was present on the map.

Ever since their departure from Haze's residence a couple of hours ago, silence had pervaded them, broken only by the rumbling of their speeders' engines. As before, Viktor drove in the lead with Moon in his sidecar while Spy piloted the other, Gore in the sidecar and Shy mounted awkwardly on the beams attaching it to the speeder's frame. R8 flew between them. Their small crate of ordinance rested with Shy while the other larger crate of their precious few rations stayed bound to Viktor's vehicle.

“Ugh, can we have breakfast now? It's been, like, eighteen hours since we've eaten last,” Spy said, finally breaking their silence.

“Always thinking with you're stomach, aren't you?” Gore remarked rhetorically.

“Spy, we can't quite afford to have breakfast anymore,” replied Viktor. “We've very few rations left, and we can't risk staying put for too long. Just long enough for R8 to recover when he needs it, no longer; at least, until we get the cover of night.”

“Well, that blows,” muttered Spy, effectively ending that argument. Of course, he couldn't help himself from starting another. “You know, Gore, maybe you should let the egghead here ride the sidecar for once. He can't be comfortable back there, and you've rode it the entire time.”

Shy answered without turning to face him. “No, it's really fine; I don't mean to impose.” He was left unheard.

“Hey, he basically claimed that spot himself,” Gore defended. “I'd be willing to relinquish this seat, but he's insistent on sitting there with my chain gun. Something about knowing the angle at which to point it so that the repulsorlift on it will counterbalance his weight, or something like that.”

“Sounds like a bunch of bantha dung if you ask me. I think you're just greedily taking that seat for yourself, and-”

“You've no right to call me greedy. As far as I remember, I don't even recall you offering to let Shy drive. If you're concerned about his comfort, why not let him take your seat? Hypocrite.”

“Hey!” Spy yelled, offended. “Don't call me things I don't know the meaning of!”

“How could you not know what hypocrite means? You're the master of hypocrisy!” Gore yelled in response, flabbergasted. “You're more brainless than I thought.”

“I make up for it with bigger balls,” Spy countered casually.

Gore was irritated. “You claim to have balls, yet you use a skimpy DC-15s. Real men use chain guns.”

“Sure they do, but only if they're real men that are compensating for something.”

“Why you little son of a...!”

There they were, at another pointless argument...again. Honestly, how had Victor squad gotten anything done so far?

“I would imagine that you find the behavior of Gore and Spy to be disappointing at times, Viktor,” commented Moon.

“It's obnoxious, but manageable. It'd be nice if Spy was a little less sarcastic and provocative, and it'd be nice if Gore was a little less irritable, but their absurd interactions are still inexplicably charming,” he replied.

“Charming? You find such dysfunctionality...charming?” asked a bewildered Moon. “You do know that their behavior is...wrong. Clones are not supposed to be so aggressive towards each other over menial things like their preferred weapon. They seem like they can be counterproductive and potentially compromising.”

“What do you have against them, Moon? Despite their differences, they work together efficiently, from what I've seen. As long as they get the job done, I could care less how they behave in their spare time...right, so maybe I do care about what they do, but so long as they're not doing stupid things, I'm cool with them.”

“We obviously have different views on what constitutes 'stupid',” muttered Moon.

Viktor looked to Moon. “That's fine by me. We may be clones, but we are nonetheless independent beings with our own thoughts and beliefs.”

“Quite the profound view...for a clone.”

At that, Viktor cocked his head to the side confusedly. “I'm not sure why you're...thinking negatively about clones, considering you are one. And if it's any consolation, commandos like myself are trained to think more freely that standard clones. I know; I was once standard myself.”

Looking ahead, Viktor swerved around a decent sized boulder that happened to be in his way. First impressive geological formation in a while...maybe we're getting somewhere? When he reverted his attention to Moon, he found him chuckling.

“You are aware that that's one of the reasons standard clones like me have some disdain for commandos, right?”

“I know,” Viktor replied honestly. “And conversely, commandos have some disdain towards standards due to their lack of higher thinking and diversity...at least, pure-bred commandos do. During commando training and on my first deployment as a commando on Christophsis, my squad regarded me as inferior to them because I was not fully in the commando mindset.”

“And look what happened; they all die and you get deployed on some random extragalactic planet doing recon with some inferior clones.”

“Moon, I don't want you considering yourself or any member of my squad 'inferior', especially compared to me. I'm not perfect, and my record probably has more blemishes that anyone else here anyways. By way of bookkeeping, I'm the most inferior, and I wouldn't have it any other way.”

Moon shook his head and sighed. “I don't think anyone here is inferior...I know it. And-”

“That was an order, Moon!”

The sudden rise in volume stunned the Sergeant for a second. “I-uh...yes, sir. Permission to continue, sir?”

“Permission granted.”

He cleared his throat before continuing. “As I was about to say, you'd be surprised to hear about the service record of one of your men here.”

Viktor gave no inclination of interest.

“Or lack thereof.”

“'Lack thereof'?” Viktor repeated. He turned to Moon. “What do you mean by that?”

“I can't tell you that, sir, nor can I tell you who the soldier in question is; those are private and classified details, and you knowing them will not assist you in completing your assignment. I also have directives to stop you should you attempt to gain this information from the subject without his consent.”

“I'm sure it'll come up in conversation later,” Viktor grunted, returning his focus to not crashing into the vast nothing before him.

“I'm certain it won't.”

The commando gave no response, and the two fell into an awkward silence. As a whole, though, the group was not silent, as Spy and Gore continued to argue, the topic somehow having gone to which Jedi general was the manliest. Courtesy of Spy, the argument was in favor of Ashoka Tano.

Grass was a welcome sight. After nearly three days stuck in the dreary land of browns and tans, the green was a welcome oasis of color.

“Well, that's a nice change,” Spy remarked.

“Pleasantries will have to wait, Spy,” Viktor retorted, slowing his speeder down while Spy followed suit. “Now that we have gotten out of the desert, we should take the opportunity to find about where we are and get a heading.”

No one complained, and the tiny convoy halted. “Might as well let R8 take a few minutes to cool off anyways,” he muttered to himself before addressing his squad. “Alright, Shy, you study the map and tell us which way to go. Moon and Gore will stay here and keep watch for Seps. Spy, you're with me in checking the ground for anything that may be of interest. We'll stay within range of short-range radio. Understood?”

“Got it,” they all said in their own way. Viktor and Spy left, leaving Gore and Moon to sit there in silence while Shy toiled with his task. For several minutes, Gore watched as Shy used the hard copy of the map that they had, actually writing on it and doing what seemed to be far more that simply trying to locate them. Finally, Gore's curiosity finally got the best of him, and he approached Shy.

“Gore, you're supposed to be watching for Seps, not pestering Shy,” Moon complained.

Gore shrugged him off. “We don't need two sets of eyes for that; we're such a small group.” He now stood behind Shy and looked down at the map that was riddled with numbers and equations. “But Shy here is supposed to be finding out where we are, not doing...this math stuff.”

“I'm doing my task,” Shy defended, looking to Gore, with an offended tone. “I've been keeping careful track of all of our migrations. Everything from our speeds, times, travel durations, and direction I've been keeping tabs on. And now I'm using that data to not only try to pinpoint our location, but to see if I can make this map more systematic.”

“Oh,” said Gore awkwardly, unsure of how to respond to that. “Well, uh, sorry for accusing you of goofing off, there. You're no Spy, I guess, so I'll just...leave you alone." And so he did. He went back to where Moon was a few paces away and gave him a hand signal indicating the wish to talk over a private channel, to which Moon complied.

“What is it?” Moon asked irritatedly.

“Shy's awfully smart and meticulous, isn't he?” Gore asked rhetorically. “It's no wonder why Shy has been Viktor's most trusted man so far, but somehow, he seems a little too overqualified for something as menial as recon.”

“Your point? Spit it out; we've got a job we're supposed to be doing.”

“Shy's just a Corporal. That's no commanding position, that's just combat prestige. But yet, he thinks beyond the capacity of what he should be thinking. He's just a run-of-the-mill standard sharpshooter, but he's acting, in the professional way, much like, nay, beyond Viktor.”

“I don't quite follow,” replied Moon. He immediately face palmed after saying that, as he dragged on the conversation longer than necessary.

Gore, meanwhile, hesitated as he tried to form his thoughts into words. “Well, let me give you an example of what I mean. When we first got here and checked out that Appleloosa place, it was Shy who formulated the proceedings. And you were there when Shy unveiled the plan of action that was abandoned yesterday, then gave us a new plan of attack. It's almost as if leadership of this mission has slowly gone to Shy. Now that I think of it, the dynamic between Shy and Viktor have seemed to have comically switched: Viktor is the commando who's taking orders from a standard while Shy is the standard giving orders to the commando.”

“I'm sure there's a...good explanation for that,” Moon muttered. “You're point is noted, but irrelevant. Now, you had a job you were assigned by your Captain, I suggest you do them.” Gore started to speak, but he was cut off by Moon before a complete word came out. “That's an order by both your superiors.”

“Yer, Sergeant,” grumbled Gore as he returned to his duties.

Their brief stop, over the course of an hour, soon became an hour long stop. Much to Viktor's annoyance, Shy was the one holding the group back this time, refusing to oblige his commands that they were to get moving. But finally, at the end of that hour, Shy had claimed his work finished and now approached Viktor with it.”

“You know I respect you, Shy,” Viktor started as the timid clone approached him, “but my orders take precedence over the musings of any one of us here.”

“I know, sir, and I apologize, but I think you'll like what I was able to figure out.”

“If at the very least you know where we are and where we're going to go next, I'll at least be satisfied.”

“Right. Well, throughout our travels since coming here, I've been monitoring every important statistical detail about them, hoping to sometime have enough time to systematize the map. And I did. I'll not bore you with the details, but I was able to obtain a rough grid for the area shown on the map. The map was surprisingly close to scale; it's fairly accurate, and now we have some sort of coordinate system to go off of. I've also been able to place a couple of key locations down, namely our original LZ and Haze's cave.”

Viktor sighed. “Shy, this is impressive and all, but we've got to go soon, so just tell me where we are and what direction we go in now.”

“Yes, sir,” said Shy. “So we're basically directly south of Ghastly Gorge; lucky us. So all we need to do is follow the gorge -once we reach it- north till we intersect this road that leads to Applewood. We cross that road and follow the trees on the opposite side of the road to some tracks, which we'll cross and then be in Froggy Bottom bog.”

“Very good,” Viktor complimented. He turned to his squad mates. “Off your shebs, everyone, we're moving out.”

With that, the group got back into their original formation. “We didn't even get to eat,” Spy murmured to himself, and then they were off.

If Viktor had gotten any sense of time since landing, he would estimate the time to be a few hours into the afternoon; perhaps around four o'clock by the standard twenty-four hour clock. The sun was no longer at its climax, and the flat grasslands around them started gaining a more yellowish hue. Presumably, Ghastly Gorge was behaving the same way, but seeing as it wasn't anywhere in their sight like it was supposed to be at this point, it was hard to tell.

Something had gone wrong, either in their travel, Shy's calculations, or with the map itself, but they certainly weren't where they wanted to be. Shy had taken Gore's spot in the sidecar so that he could recheck his work, but that had been several minutes ago, and Viktor feared that they may be lost.

The ground became progressively less flat, beginning with depressions that morphed into fully mature hills. In the far distance ahead of them was a hill that rivaled any they had seen since leaving the desert. It was more of a ridge, really, spanning across the entirety of the horizon in front of them. Some boulders dotted its crest, and as they got closer, they saw other large rocks resting on the hill's side, and its true size became apparent.

It inclined up no less that thirty feet at a shallow angle, nearing forty five degrees about halfway before reaching its parabolic top. They reduced their speed so as to not crash unnecessarily. The engines of their vehicles quieted as a result, and Viktor could swear that he heard light marching. That's odd. The group passed over the crest, unveiling a relatively steep sixty-foot decline and the reason for the sounds Viktor heard: a detachment of droids and an AAT.

Viktor and Spy turned their speeders around as fast as they could, but they had not escaped notice from the droids. A couple of shots were fried off in their direction and wildly missed. Given the temporary safety of the cover the hill provided, Viktor began issuing orders.

“We're not outrunning that tank,” he said. “There's no cover for us if we run. Gore, you're with me. We'll use the rocks as cover to take out the infantry. Shy, find a sniping position. Moon, go with him; it'll be the safest spot where you can still be useful. Spy, do something to distract the tank.” Some droids could be heard finishing the trip up their side of the hill. “Hurry!”

Within a few second, everyone had dismounted save for Spy who insisted on using the speeder to distract the tank. It was reckless, but there was no time to argue. And, Spy was ex-Lightning Squadron, so what could go wrong?

Some droid heads peeked up from over the top of the hill and were quickly gunned down by the entire lot of them. Before more droids could make it up, Viktor and Gore had already dashed to the boulders there where they got a good glimpse as to what they were facing.

Excluding the few droids that they had taken down already, Viktor estimated thirty five B1 battle droids and fifteen B2's, then there were definitively three commando droids, one commando droid captain, one magna guard, and one AAT. Victor squad had their work cut out for them.

The tank fired, and Viktor was glad for the droids' incredibly terrible accuracy. The blast landed a couple of feet from the boulder he was hiding behind, kicking up vast amounts of dirt and grass. Before it got a second shot off, Spy launched himself and the speeder over the top of the hill, crushing a B1 that was attempting to scale the sleep incline as he landed. The tank recognized the speeder as a more dangerous threat, and its guns attempted to follow the fast moving vehicle, allowing Viktor and Gore to begin to take down the infantry.

The droids gave of a hefty amount of suppressing fire. Viktor tried his best to get some shots off, but he only managed a couple of seconds to do so at a time. Gore was having worse luck; with the bulk and rev up time for his weapon, he was effectively useless.

Nearly fifty feet down the ridge in the direction that the droids had originally been coming from, Shy found himself a good spot behind the droids. Moon lay down as low and comfortably as he could while still being able to assist despite his broken arm. Together, they fired upon the unknowing infantry. At this range, Moon's pistol found itself significantly less effective than Shy's rifle, but regardless, they had taken down at least six droids before their location had been discovered.

Shy and Moon had diverted the main fire from the droids enough so that Viktor was more capable of defending his position. Beside him, Gore returned his chain gun to his back in favor of his pistol. Between Shy and Moon and Viktor and Gore, the droids had already taken significant losses: half of the B1's were down as well as a couple of B2's.

Again the AAT fired, and again it missed as Spy went for another pass, firing off three shots before zooming past the clunky vehicle. And for the heck of it, he ran down an unsuspecting commando droid. Predictably, the tank pivoted its cannon in an attempt to line up a shot. Spy circled back away from where the bulk of the skirmish was taking place, though he had earned himself attention by running down the commando droid. The droids' fire was now spit in three ways; one part towards Viktor and Gore, another towards Shy and Moon, and a smaller portion in his general direction.

He circled around and made another successful sweep...successful as in he didn't get blown to pieces. His shots, however, failed to do any noticeable damage. To the tank's armor; just like the last few times. “Hey Boss man,” he said, narrowly avoiding a surprisingly close shot from the AAT. “We might want a change of strategy here; this speeder's guns aren't doing osik.”

“Keep up the distraction,” replied Viktor. “My DC-17 has a grenade launcher attachment. The tank's armor stands no chance against it, but these infantry need to be taken down first.”

“Copy that,” confirmed Spy. Then, he pivoted the speeder in a tight turn, hoping that the unexpected maneuver would throw the tank crew off for a few seconds. What he forgot, however, was the fact that this speeder had a sidecar. The sidecar rammed into the ground, leaving a deep impression in the dirt where it had made contact. Spy tried to regain stability, but was too late. The AAT fired again.

The sidecar was torn off the speeder and shredded; large pieces of shrapnel flew in all directions, though none of it hit anything. Spy nearly lost control of the rebalanced speeder, but his quick reflexes allowed him to save it, though any chance of shooting the tank that pass was out of the question.

“Di'kut, you okay?” Gore asked concernedly as he saw half the speeder explode from atop the hill.

“Aw, the brute cares for me doesn't he?” teased Spy nonchalantly as if nothing had happened.

“I want the pleasure of killing you myself,” muttered Gore as he returned his attention to the vastly dwindled number of droids. A quick recount told him that five B1's remained, along with seven B2's, one commando droid, the droid captain, the tank, and...well, the magna droid hadn't been killed, but it wasn't there either. Where could it have gone?

Both Shy and Moon lay behind the cover of the hill; after a stray shot from the tank had nearly gotten them, they both agreed it best to wait till a safer time to resume firing. They had waited like this for around a half-minute before Shy moved back to his original spot. What he was not expecting was the sparkling pink shaft the barely missed his head as soon as he broke cover. He rolled back several feet and Moon tried his best to crawl next him, but his injury was making it difficult.

Not a second later, the magna guard leapt over the top of the ridge and jabbed his staff into Moon's back, as he had not yet begun to stand. Dangerously large amounts of electricity coursed through Moon, and he screamed in pain. It was short lived as the now standing Shy charged the droid and knocked it off of him. The droids recovered quickly, though, and swept its arm out, catching Shy in the face with a painful crack. Shy lost his balance and fell over, rolling to the bottom of the hill before finally coming to rest.

As Shy recovered, the magna guard walked up to Moon, who was himself recovering from the unexpected and painful jolt. The droid reached down and grabbed Moon by the neck. He was in no state to try to fight back, so he let himself go limp in the droid's grip. Surprisingly, the droid didn't crush his windpipe like he was expecting; it instead threw him up and over the top of the hill, where he landed on his broken limb, exposed to the sight of the remaining droids.

The droid turned around and began walking towards Shy, who had managed to get back to his feet and draw his knife, which he held in his left hand. Shy matched the droid's movements, and within a few seconds, the two opponents were only a few feet away. The magna guard began spinning its electrostaff around it in a fantastic display of precision and dexterity, and the flurry of swings ended with a horizontal swing at Shy. The clone stepped back, the weapon swinging at a safe several inches from his face. Immediately, he lunged forwards with his knife, bringing it towards the droid's head.

In response to Shy's movements, the magna guard brought the staff back in the direction he had just swung, but Shy already had his right arm up to block. The weapon and his arm collided with a loud clang. Shy's knife plunged into one of the droid's eye sockets, releasing an electrical discharge that was harmlessly inhibited by the rubber grip of Shy's weapon.

The droid reeled back, but was otherwise unaffected by the attack. It spun its staff in front of it in a defensive circle, driving Shy back. Once Shy was around six feet away from the magna guard, it thrust its weapon forward in a stab. Shy moved to the side of the predictable attack, grabbing onto the staff with his unarmed hand and pulling it forward, pulling the droid off balance.

It fell to the ground, but it managed to twist itself so that its front faced Shy as the clone pounced the fallen droid. The droid held its staff with both hands, pushing up while Shy lay on top of it, pushing down on the staff. The clone was strong, but the droid was ever so slowly managing to push the clone off.

Unexpectedly, Shy took his right arm off the staff and brought it down onto the droid's other eye. Its face was dented in and its eye was destroyed where Shy had punched. The droid, with a final thrust, launched Shy off of it. Using the newly found momentum, Shy rolled behind the droid. It stood up, its now useless head unmoving as it tried to locate the clone using the optical sensor in its chest. Shy stayed behind the droid's back until it stopped turning, at which point he embraced it with his right arm and shoved the knife into the light in its chest. Anther discharge indicated that the damage was done. The droid twitched, then went limp in Shy's grasp. Letting go, the dead droid toppled to the ground.

There was no time to for him to celebrate his victory. However; Moon was injured and now at risk of death. Shy's pistol and rifle had escaped him during the tussle, so he grabbed the nearest weapon he could find, the electrostaff, and rushed over the hill to get Moon to safety.

The battle with the infantry was slowly going downhill. As it turns out, the B2's that were accompanying this group of droids were grenadier models; as such, one the first line of droids, namely almost all of the B1's, were taken out, they stepped up and began raining explosives over Viktor and Gore's cover. Like their B1 counterparts, these B2's were pathetically bad shots, but nonetheless, they drove the two clones out from piece of cover to piece of cover. To add to the mess, Viktor had begun switching out for his own grenade launcher, but now that he had to concentrate on avoiding being blown to bits, his half converted weapon was in no state to fire anything. That, and the fact that Shy and Moon were not providing support fire, left them all quite exposed.

Not even Spy had escaped being a target from the rain of grenades. With one of the B2's trained on him as well as the AAT, he was finding it difficult to do much of anything offensive. For many minutes they were at such a standoff.

Off in the distance, Spy saw Shy run over the top of the hill to where Moon had been thrown to, surprisingly carrying an electrostaff.

“'Ey boss man, I think Shy has more explaining to do. The magna guard is down, and it looks like Moon is too.”

“Thanks for the update. Keep them distracted.”

“Trying to, boss, but this grenadier isn't making it easy for-” BOOM.

One of the BARC's engines blow to pieces, spreading more shrapnel over the ground. Back near the road, a B2 placed a fresh grenade in its arm and turned its attention to the clones still on the hill. The speeder wobbled uncontrollably, veering towards the small group of remaining droids.

Finally, the remaining engine gave out, and the speeder hurtled into the droids, running down the commando droid captain. The speeder skidded on its side, leaving a trail of upturned soil and vegetation in its wake. To Spy's good fortune, it remained mostly intact and didn't flip, though he was dazed as he toppled out of the seat and landed hard on the ground. The wind was knocked out of him and thinking coherently suddenly became very difficult. The flaming wreckage provided cover as he recuperated from his near death experience, and he dared not move.

“Spy!” yelled Gore. Spy mumbled something undecipherable.

Thankfully, the speeder crashing through their ranks had offered enough of a distraction for Viktor to finally assemble the grenade launcher. He loaded his first of his limited supply into the chamber and peeked up over the rock he was hiding behind. The tank was right there, not even aiming for him and Gore; such an easy target.

No, instead, the cannon was aimed extremely distantly from where he, Gore, and now Spy were. That meant that...

Viktor turned to see where the tank was aiming. Off in the distance, he saw Shy with Moon slung over his shoulder retreating behind the hill. The issue was, they weren't behind the hill.

“Shy, behind you!” exclaimed Viktor. As soon as his warning was sounded, the AAT fired. Dirt erupted from where they had been. He saw two bodies soar through the air and land on the opposite side of the hill.

Enraged, Viktor opened fire on the tank. The explosion tore a large segment off of the tank; chunks of it flew everywhere, most of the large and dangerous ones not straying too far from the chassis. Other pieces impaled and took down some of the remaining droids. For good measure, Viktor launched another grenade at the tank. It was almost unrecognizable.

He crouched down behind cover to convert his weapon back to its standard function. “Gore, dispose of the remaining droids now! Shy and Moon are down, possibly dead.”

Holstering his pistol, Gore withdrew his chain gun. He revved it and prepared to unleash its full furry upon the droids below. He broke cover and was about to fire when Spy sprung up from the wreckage, taking the droids by surprise. The unexpected attack tore through them, and within one clip, Spy had downed the remainder of the droids.

Viktor gave no time to congratulate them in their small victory, however. As soon as the droids were confirmed to be inoperable, he made straight for Shy and Moon's location. When he got there, he saw that R8 had already left their remaining speeder behind to check up on them. Surprisingly and to his relief, Shy was moving; in fact, he looked well for having just been shot by a tank, and he was having R8 help him with the disassembly of the nearby magna guard.

On the other hand, Moon was obviously in bad shape; really bad. The arm that had once been unbroken evidently was now, the armor around it having bent slightly. One of his shoulder pads had been torn off, and the rest of his armor was riddled with dents, including one big one right over his stomach.

In no time at all, Viktor was by Moon's side and was fiddling with his field medical kit. He produced a small vial of painkillers and a syringe. After attaching the vial to the syringe, he infected it into Moon's shoulder.

“Don't waste you resources on me,” he weakly groaned, surprising Viktor by not only being alive, but conscious too. “There's no way I'm making it out of this.”

“Sergeant, I'm going to do whatever is in my power to ensure your survival,” assured Viktor.

“Don't be a fool, Captain; the mission is more important that I am,” yelled Moon, though he clenched in pain from the exertion.

“Not to me.”

And suddenly, Moon began to laugh. His body shook in hysterics, though his injuries quickly forced him to cough and end his fit. By now, Spy and Gore had made their ways to Viktor's side.

“It's funny you say that,” Moon started quietly, “because that is why you're here on this rock.”

The puzzled look on Viktor's face was masked by his helmet, but his confusion was clearly shown through his tone. “I'm...not sure I follow.”

“I'm not sure I should tell you; that's classified...but, I'm about to die, so I've got nothing to lose. I told you before you took off from the Loyalty that you were all extremely qualified for this mission.” A heavy cough interrupted him. “But, that's only half true; you're qualified, but for reasons that you wouldn't expect.

“Viktor, you're a failure and an insult to commandos. Your 'men are more important than the mission' mentality not only got your squad mates killed on Christophsis, but it's also what made you fail the mission. And it was a simple scouting mission, too. There's no reason that that mission should have failed, yet thanks to your contributions, it did. Since your promotion as a commando, you've been nothing but derogatory; a waste of resources. And so the Republic is cutting it losses.

“And you two, Gore and Spy, you're here for similar reasons. You're both defective. Your personalities are not correct, and your inability to work harmoniously with others is bad for efficiency. You two are the types of clones that would have never made it through training. But, the Republic is correcting that oversight now.”

Shy slowly approached the four of them, followed closely by R8. Viktor looked back to check him out, and was surprised at what he saw. Around his left leg was a splint made of two halves of a magna guard arm tied loosely with the wires they once covered, and his gait was assisted by a crutch that was the guard's electrostaff with its hands welded onto it, one under the armpit for support, the other down lower to be used as a grip for more comfortable use.

“And you,” Moon spat, turning his head towards Shy. “Oh, you have no idea what kind of trouble you've caused the Republic. I don't know what you were thinking, going on the little escapade of yours, but the Republic figured you out, Shy...or do you still prefer Reaper?”

“Moon, what are you talking about?” asked Viktor. He was promptly ignored.

Moon coughed again, splattering blood on the interior of his helmet. “I'd say not to consider running off like you did before, Reaper, but you won't get the chance,” he said in a quieter voice

“What do you mean by that?” a confused and irritated Spy asked.

“To be truthful, none of you will get that chance,” replied Moon, his voice fading as he progressed. “You were told to expect extraction once your goal was complete, but the truth is, that was never even considered. You're expected to die here. By what, they don't know, but they don't care either. As long as you put a hiccup in the Seps plans and are no longer able to hinder the progress of the Republic, that's all that's needed from you.”

“So let me get this straight,” Spy began. “The higher-ups sent us four on this mission, not expecting us to come back, just because we hurt the Republic...somehow. And then, even if we were to survive the process of kicking the Spes out and gathering intel, we'd still be left here?”

“Precisely,” confirmed Moon.

“That's hardly reasonable or justifiable.”

“Not justifiable?” laughed Moon. “Not reasonable? Spy, this course of action is both. You're all faulty; Viktor's a failure, you and Gore are defective, and Shy is a traitor. None of these are good for the Republic, so once they had this chance to get rid of you and get something progressive done, they were smart to take it. Accomplish two goals at once. Perfectly reasonable.”

“But...why would the Republic do that? We're not droids, who can be expended at will for failing a task; no offense R8. We're men; real, live individuals who learn from their mistakes so as to not do them again. The Republic can't justly sentence us to death like this without even giving us a chance to redeem ourselves.”

“So the Republic is punishing Spy and I for something we can't control?” interjected Gore.

Moon coughed heavily, and his breathing slowed. Drawing a pained breath, he spoke faintly again. “The Republic is punishing you because you're not up to standard.”

“That's not fair or right!” Spy proclaimed, throwing his arms up for emphasis.

“It's not your place to determine what's right or not,” countered Moon. “Your job is to follow orders. And if that means you don't come back, you don't come back. Likewise, you have orders to complete your mission, and my broken body will only hinder you. Now you leave me to die in peace and continue on your doomed mission.” Moon then broke into a coughing fit. His body shuddered as his vitals finally gave out, and his head slumped to the ground. Moon was dead.

The remaining clones stared at the body in a tense silence, which Viktor was the first to break. “Those were some...unsettling revelations. But, we should honor his last request and continue the mission.”

“Any why should we do that?” Spy questioned. “What reasons do we have to help the Republic who so blatantly disregard our well being? What have they done for us that makes them deserve our sacrifice?”

“Spy, now is not the time to argue! We shouldn't stay here too much longer.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” muttered Spy as he passed Viktor and headed towards the remaining speeder. “But if the Republic doesn't want me, then I don't want the Republic. Sorry guys, you're on your own.” He mounted the speeder, and before any of them could object, he took off, following the road in the direction the droids had originated from.

The rest of Victor squad stared after him in silence. “He just...took our speeder and abandoned us, didn't he?” asked Gore in disbelief.

“He did.”

“If we run into him again, I am going to murder him.”

Chapter 10: Abandonment Issues