Odd....

This shouldn't be here...

...I must run some more test.....
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I wake up slowly, opening my eyes. The room is dark and I look over to the faint glow of the clock. O-five-hundred. Two hours before our mission start. I roll over in the small bed and across from me on the other side is Twilight still sleeping. Her mane is disheveled and she has a small smile on her lips. With a smile of my own I get off my bed to go check on everyone else.

Above my bed is Lyra. She faces the wall with the thin blanket over her body, her chest raising and falling gently while she slept. Across from her is the cream colored mare, Bon-Bon. She is slightly smaller than Lyra and has her UNSC shirt over her body, the blanket scrunched up at the foot of the bed. Next are Flitter and Cloudchaser. I smile to see Cloudchaser sleeping well before turning to Flitter, and frowned. I feel bad for her. Two weeks into the training they started to give fillies at her age injections to increase their growth, much like spartans. And unfortunately some of the side effects are the same. Flitter however was lucky. Most she went through were growing pains. The one orange filly, Scootaloo I think is her name, will never be able to fly.

There was one, Applebloom, she went into a squad with her brother Big Mac as a heavy. She, like Flitter made it through the process mostly unharmed. I did hear that she is now blind in her left eye and is deaf as well, so they had to instal hearing-aids in her helmet. Unfortunately not all of them made it. Some died weeks afterwards, some within minutes, some so broken they had to be put down so they wouldn't suffer. Rarity told me what happened to her sister, how her bones grew too fast and cracked and her muscles ripped and tore, so they but her down and Rarity cried for days on end.

With a quiet sigh I shake Flitter gently till she woke, yawning and stretching her limbs. She rubs her eyes with her fore-hooves and looks at me. "Morning, sir." she say's before yawning again.

"Morning Flitter. Why don't you get your mom up and hit the showers while I get everyone else?"

Flitter nods before groggily climbing out of bed and over to her mom's. I go back to Lyra's bed and shook her awake as well as Bon-Bon. The two said their good mornings to each other before Lyra kisses Bon-Bon after which the cream colored mare blushes profusely. I go over to Twilight who is still sleeping and lean down, kissing her on her nose. She squirms a little before letting out a long groan.

"Come on, Twi, need to wake up."

She groans again before turning to face the wall. "Twi, don't be like that." she doesn't reply. "If that's how you want it." I say as I stand back up and take a deep breath. "On your feet marine!" I yell as loud as I can. Twilight jolts up and scrambles to her hooves and almost falls off the bed. She eventually finds her way to the floor and stands at attention in front of me. The rest did the same, Flitter glancing at me from the far end. "Showers then get some grub, we have two hours before we deploy for our mission. And next time I decide to wake you all nicely I suggest you comply. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" they all reply in unison.

I glare at Twilight and her ears fall back slightly. "Morning Twi."

"Morning..." she replies meekly.

I smile at her and she returns it. "You're all dismissed." They begin to walk towards the door, but I stop Twilight. "Twilight, wait." The moment I say that she freezes in her tracks and I wait for the rest to leave. "You stayed up again didn't you?"

Twilight lets out a short sigh and sits on the floor. "I was just studying up on the Covenant more. I didn't stay up that late." she says, her tone agitated. I raise a brow and she gives me the 'what?' look.

I cross my arms and she continues to glare at me. "How late did you stay up?"

"I can take care of myself you know. I have been for a while in case you haven't noticed!"

I let out a sigh and uncross my arms. Kneeling down I stroke her cheek with my hand. "I just want to make sure you getting enough sleep." I say in almost a whisper. Twilight give me a half smile before pushing her head into my hand. I rub behind her ear and she lets out a short sigh.

I take my hand away and Twilight looks up at me, almost disappointed expression. "Why dont you go take that shower, you could use one."

She smiles before looking me up and down. "Same could be said for you too." she says with a slight gigle.

With a grin I follow her to the showers.
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No! This cannot be right!

This shouldn't be here!

...Core overheating.... need to calm down and think, Renona...

.......no, this requires my every bit of attention......
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I stand in the shower, the hot water running down my back and steam filling the air. The white walls are the only thing accompanying me sense the rest already finished their showers and probably went off the breakfast. My mind goes back to Rarity. I cam still hear her screaming for her sister back after she was told her sister didn't make it through the process. After that she completely changed.

She wasn't the only one either. Fluttershy disappeared, some saying she had ran away, others that she drowned herself in the Everfree. No one really knows so they listed her as MIA. After her sister's death Rarity became a weapons specialist and technician. Pinkie is now a code breaker and communications interceptor, and the UNSC is still trying to figure out how she breaks the laws of physics.

Rainbow of course became part of the air units and Applejack... I don't even remember what she's doing anymore. She had been moved around so much it started to take a toll on her health. Last I heard she was in the infirmary to recover from the flu. Twilight told me the flu could be dangerous for ponies if it wasn't caught within the first few days.

I come back from my thoughts and turn off the water, grab a towel and go back to the barracks. Like I expected the rest have already gone to breakfast. I quickly change into my clothes and make my to dinning room. It's a short walk there and the doors are open. I'm surprised to see so many already up, then again every squad runs on different schedules.

I find my squad at a table and sit with them. I look over at Lyra and I let out a long groan. "Lyra, how many times do I have to tell you to not take my stuff?" I say as i reach over and grab my tac-pad. Lyra let out a groan of her own and a look of disappointment.

"Sorry..."

"It's okay, it's just really annoying some time." Lyra's ears lay flat as I say this and Bon-Bon goes to hug her. Flitter, Twilight and Cloudchaser all eat quietly. I look over at twilight and she has her brow furled while doing something on her tac-pad. I lean over to see what she's doing.

Twilight looks up at me. "What?"

I shrug. "Just seeing what you're doing."

"Well I'm looking for those files I was reading last night but I can't find them."

I watch for a few more seconds as she continues to go through separate folders. As she went through them she begins to get more frustrated. I reach over, holding my hand out. "Let me see it real quick." Twilight levitates the pad over and I begin to search. I couldn't find anything in her personal save so I went through the data bases Renona had set up till I found a good compilation for Twi. I hand it back to her and she smiles, almost holding in how giddy she is.

Twilight looks over at me and then back to the pad. "This.... this is amazing! This is more than what i had last night by far!"

"It helps to know where to look." I reply before going through files on my own tac-pad. I quickly found that Lyra had somehow disorganized everything I have on the stupid thing and begin to reorganize. Debriefs, intel, message folder. I stop at the message folder and open it. In it I find a few things that don't really need my attention and delete them.
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This is not good.....

....I must warn the rest.....
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I jump from my seat as the sirens outside begin to blare out their warning. Everyone in the dinning hall got up from their seats and begin to rush out the door to get to the barracks. Renona comes on over the loud speakers.

"Warning: All units prepare for immediate combat. I repeat, prepare for immediate combat, this is not a drill."

It doesn't take much more to get the rest of the squad moving and I quickly decide that going out the main doors will be too much of a hassle and take my squad through the kitchen. "Guys, on me!" I burst through the doors and find the cooks already gone off to get their combat gear.

We run through the cluttered kitchen where pots and pans were thrown in random areas by the cooks and a few on the floor. I find a door and burst through it to find that it puts us on the wrong side of the castle, so I begin to sprint down the hall with the rest following close behind. We pass up other people and ponies already in the armor before reaching our section.

I rush to my locker and open it, grabbing the chest piece and sliding it over my body and connecting the velcro straps. I then put on my shoulder armor, leggings, boots, and helmet. Lastly I grab the silenced magnum and SMG. I pack a few extra mags with me before turning to help Bon-Bon get her armor on. Lyra and Twilight help Flitter and Cloudchaser get theirs on and the sound of weapons locking fills the room.

Bon-Bon is equipped with a sniper rifle variant of the armor mount weapon platform, and Lyra, her spotter, is equipped with a semi-auto rifle variant. Twilight and Cloudchaser both have full-auto/burst rifles while Flitter has a quad mount SMG variant mounted on stability wings for high-speed engagements in the air. During training they designed these to give pegasi more control in flight for air maneuvers and speed.

The stability wings also have options for attaching light-weight missiles and bombs or the slots can be used to quad mount small AMWP side arm variants. Flitter also has wingblades attached to her wings for close quarter engagements against any enemies. Not that the UNSC recommends close quarter fighting but she wanted them anyway.

"All units, please gather in the courtyard for immediate deployment status. Instructions will be given."

"All right, you heard the lady. Move!" I yell and the sound of hooves moving about fills the air. Outside people and ponies are rushing to the courtyard by the hundreds. The marble hallways are barely big enough for the masses to rush through and numerous times I almost lose track of my squad while we sprint through the halls. Pagasi fly overhead and unicorns teleport to the courtyard which made room for the humans and earth ponies.

"All units, please gather in the courtyard for immediate Evacuation. EOD teams, stand by for instructions."

"Evacuation?" I hear Twilight ask as we continue to run.

"They're taking us out on pelicans which means what ever is happening is really, really bad."

"EOD teams, please reroute to the Canterlot dungeons immediately."

"What the fuck is Renona doing?"

"Warning: Covenant forces inbound."

"Move it........."

I suddenly find myself on the floor, a bright flash blinding me and debris flying through the air. The floor is covered in small bits of marble, stone and dust and the air fills with smoke. My whole body hurts and I look over to see many ponies and people laying on the ground as well, then picking themselves up. I try to do the same but fall back down, and then everything goes black.
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Author's Note

Alright, I'm back with part 1 of this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it.
A little information on what the UNSC has been doing to the ponies. And what lives under the mountain?
So now I'm bringing in Cloudchaser and Flitter, and Lyra is back after a few chapters, along with Bon-Bon.
Little 'fun' fact: I originally toyed with the idea of shipping Lyra with Taylor, but then thought against it.