The Visitors

Mike awoke in the soft glow of his cockpit's display. He looked around and tried his radio.

"This is Viper one, calling any Imperial vessels. Any Imperial-"

He was cut off by a shower of sparks from the side of his helmet.

"God damn piece of shit!" He swore loudly as he tore to broken piece of equipment from his head and trough it into the console in front of him. He looked up and saw a thin layer of snow covering the top of his cockpit. He then looked at the picture in the upper right side of his cockpit.

"Well, Sally, looks like I won't be joining you after all." He said, smiling sadly. "Oh well, maybe next time....." His voice trailed off.

He could have sworn he heard something.

"I think it hit over here!" Came the shout again.

'Well that's because I did hear something,' he thought, quickly undoing his restraints.

"What the hay is that thing?" Now they could see him? Great.

"I don't know, let's find out!" Shouted another voice. Mike grabbed his sidearm, a standard issue pistol, and grabbed the emergence release for the cockpit when he heard scratching. He looked up.

There was an odd creature looking through the glass at him, and he felt his anger rise as a thought occurred to him.

"God Damn Changeling Sack of Shit!" He screamed, causing the odd creature to jump off of his cockpit, which then exploded upwards as the emergence release was hit.

The odd creature yelled something, but Mike paid no heed as he brought his weapon to bear.

'Wait,' he suddenly thought. 'Theres something off about.......' Mike felt his jaw drop.

There were five.........not Changeling.........things,  standing around, in armor, looking at him with terror and fascination in their eyes.

"Hello.......can you understand me?" Asked one of them in perfect Standard English.

"What the fuck are you? How did I get here? And more importantly, how can you speak Standard?" He yelled, pointing the gun from thing to thing.

"He speaks Equestrian? How remarkable. I guess that joke about Equestrian being the universal trade language was right after all." Said one of them, who looked younger then the others and who, if his armory condition was an indicator, was a lower rank.

"Can it, Night Light." Said one of the others, reaching for a spear.

"I wouldn't do that, If I were you." Said Mike, aiming the gun at the moving thing.

"Stop antagonizing this thing, Snow Flurry, and lets take it back to camp with us." Said a slightly higher pitched voice.

"Remeber who's in charge here."

"Well stop messing with the noob."

Mike checked his HUD. The radio, which he had torn out, was the only thing damaged. He still had a shield, basic jump pack capabilities, overdrive, and internal heating and cooling. He turned to the not changelings, who were all occupied arguing, and shrugged.

'Their all incompetent anyway, why waste the ammo. Besides, I can out run them, and the fighters no use without a pilots implants.' He turned and started running.

"Hey, he's getting away!"

"Come back!"

He smiled as he looked over his shoulder. The things couldn't catchup to him, and he was safe from any of their weird powers within his shield.

He turned his head back to his front and smiled. He was safe, for now.

"Should we report this to the princesses?" Asked Night Light worriedly.

"No." Replied Snow Flurry. "That thing can't survive out here without food or water, and the nearest town is weeks away. It'll freeze before it reaches the train tracks. Now lets get back to base."

With one look at the now distant figure, the five soldiers turned around and headed towards their base, the crashed object forgotten.

Exactly one week, a few hours, and five minutes later.

Mike looked up from the trench where he had been hiding. He had run across the train tracks several days ago, and had started heading south. The dual tracks appeared to be in disuse, and he guessed they only existed to service the encampment those soldiers who found him had come from. He had heard the rumbling of a train from the North earlier, and had hidden to try to hitch a ride on it. He waited until it came into view, and then hit the ground. He was now waiting for it to get close. In overdrive he could run fast, and thanks to the cold, he could run longer then normal without his armor overheating. But the train would still be faster over long distances.

The train began to pass him, and he saw a car he could use. It was a cargo car that had one door, the one facing him, opened.

'Perfect.' He thought, as he jumped up and ran to the car. He jumped in and felt the car lurch a bit at the added weight.

'Well, at least now I can relax for a bit, he thought, sitting in a dark corner and going to sleep.

He awoke to the sound of a commotion out side.

"Why the hay are you stopping us, buddy? I got a schedule to keep, and this isn't on it."

"By order of the Princesses, all incoming traffic is to be searched for intruders or contraband. Or you can be arrested and your train and its contents confiscated. Ether way, I get payed and I follow my orders."

'Oh shit, their going to search the car' Mike thought, sneaking to the open door. He was on a raised platform, on the side of a mountain. Looking to his left, there were train tracks built into the mountain. Looking to his right, there was......a whole fucking city built into the mountain.

'I could kill everyone there with one bomb. That's a major weakness.' Was his first thought. 'Is that what I think it is?' Was a close second.

Standing on one of the towers was one of the things. But this one looked like a Changeling. It was white, and it's horn was glowing a golden color. She had a sun on her flank, and a mane that looked like pure sunlight.

'Shit, if I'm gonna get to the bottom of this, I need to get to that thing. And fast. The suns coming up.'

He put a tracer on it so that he could ID it if he saw it again, and then looked around frantically.

'There has to be a way into......' He looked up. There was a drain just above the height of the car he was in, and it didn't have a grate on it.

'Bingo.' He thought, activating his jump pack and ascended to the height of the pipe, turning of the jets keeping him aloft and dropping to the bottom of the scum covered pipe. It looked like it hadn't been used for anything in centuries, but it had to lead somewhere, and he had time to explore.

As he wandered deeper in to the pipelines, he noticed that he was headed straight for the tower he had seen in the city. He started running, eager to see what would be at the end of the tunnel. He stopped when he saw a light. He moved forward courteously, drawing his sidearm.

He entered a room with three abnormalities.

One, a crystal in the center which was emitting light, and had a beam of light from a hole in the roof to the room.

Two, a small stairway to the right of where Mike had entered the room from.

And finally three, a massive window in the wall opposite the opening he had used to gain entrance to the room.

He walked over to the window and looked through.

He jumped back as he raised his pistol.

There was a Changeling walking between two groups of the not changelings. It was disguised, had a pink coat and a crystal heart on its flank, and was dressed like......

'Is that a fucking bridal train?' He asked, looking through the window again. It was. 'Holy crap, it's marrying one of those, wait, a horned thing?'

He looked at the crowd. There were some of the ones he had seen up north, that looked like a Changeling without the horn or wings, and then there were ones with the only the horn, and ones with only the wings. The white one from earlier, with both horns and wings, was standing in front of the crowd, on a platform.

'That thing.......that level of power......it's her........it's the Bitch.......the bitch who killed......' He backed up to the opening he had entered from and ran through the far window.

The glass shattered as he flew through, sending a million shards the size of a grain of sand falling to the floor below.

The shouts of surprise and fear went unnoticed by the pilot, who hit the ground, rolled, and stood up. He whirled around and cast a glance at his shield strength. It was down to half from the landing and the shards of glass which it vaporized, but it was holding.

He pointed the gun at the changeling as he stopped his about face, and retracted his helmet.

"Remember Me, Bitch? Cause I Remember You!" He screamed, pulling the trigger. The rounds fired by his pistol were solid shell, molten core rounds. They were the standard ammo type for all weapons used by Imperial forces in ground based combat. The gun had fired three times, and the rounds flew straight towards their target.

They then hit a barrier which had been erected by the white not changeling thing, which sent a blast of energy at Mike in retaliation.

The things superior expression went to one of shock as Mike simple stood there, aiming his pistol at the strange creatures, and said loudly, "Shields are a new trick, right? We took the lessons you taught us to heart. Shields are standard on all Imperial armor, now."

The Changeling looked at him with a shocked expression on its face, but regained its composure and turned to the other one.

"How is it still standing? That was a sleeping spell!" The white one said, shocked. She turned to the other. They both nodded, and turned towards Mike, who was nervous all of a sudden. That last blast was more powerful then anything the changelings had ever been recorded using, and his shields were at ten percent. He looked around for anything that could give him an advantage, then dove as two beams of light raced toward him. One, the one from the changeling, hit his shield, and dropped it. The other hit him, and he felt himself lifting off of the ground, his pistol torn from his grip. He glared at the white one, who's horn was glowing golden.

"Now then, what manner of creature are you?" Asked the white one, as it and the changeling stopped talking and turned towards him, apparently having come to some sort of an agreement.

"Ask the Bitch of New Belfast." Said Mike angrily, nodding his unrestrained head at the pink thing which the changeling had hidden itself as. "She knows me, even if she's gotten I new look. Don't you, you changeling bitch."

The white one turned to the changeling.

"What does he mean by-"

*BOOOOOM*

The white one stopped talking and looked at the door. "What was that noise?" She asked

Mike smiled.

'That sounded like one of Jackson's creations.' He thought, remembering the demo man who had saved his life.

He heard the door shatter and looked over his shoulder in time to see five power armored figures run into the room.

'Ah, it was Jackson.' Thought the pilot, as he saw the demo mans armor, with 'born to burn' stenciled on the front.

"Holy, shit. Mike?"

"Hello Ben. It's been a long time sense New Belfast." Said Mike, smiling at his old friend.