War Was All We Knew.

Chapter Thirteen

You humans, you humans know how to wage war so well. If we were to go to war with you we would surrender immediately after the first battle because there would be such devastation to us and our forces.

(Shining Armor commenting during his visit on the aftermath of the Battle of Ponyville)

***

Sugarcube Corner.
24 hours after the Battle of Ponyville.

If there was one thing that Marcus hated it was the constant silence that had settled over the town since the fight against the dragons. So far, not a lot of the townsponies had been talking nor had the dark feeling of mass death settled. Marcus could only sigh and take a swig of the recently made Appleshine. Not many ponies were in Sugarcube Corner nor were there there a lot of Gears. Most of them had been out in the town, cleaning up the place after the dragons had wrecked the place. So far the only ponies in the building were Pinkie and the two owners of the store, as for Marcus's fellow squad, the only members who were around were Anya and Hoffman. As for the rest of the squad, Marcus knew that they were out helping the ponies rebuild the town and clean up the dragon remains. Marcus let out another sigh and stood up, he turned to leave the store just as the bell to the front door rang, he looked up and saw Carmine with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Both of the fillies were hiding behind Carmine and shaking slightly.

"Come on you two," Carmine said, "A little something to eat might calm you down."

"Guess you've bonded with the kids really well," Marcus said as they passed him.

"Yeah, poor girls are still a little shaken from what happened yesterday."

"Them and the rest of the town."

"Marcus, aren't you going to go see Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle said. Marcus stood still for a second before pulling the letter out of his back pocket. There were a few droplets of blood on it but it was still intact and readable.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me."

Marcus left Sugarcube Corner without another word. As he entered the open air the smell of a hundred rotting bodies, firearm discharge and burnt buildings filled his nose. Marcus ignored it and walked on towards Scootaloo's house, she had told him where she lived in the letter and from what was written in it, she wanted to keep what she wrote to him private. Marcus respected that, he too liked to keep things quiet but he couldn't shake a feeling that there was something more to this letter than intel. As he walked thought the town he opened up the letter and read it carefully.

"Dear Marcus Fenix,

My name is Scootaloo. The reason why I am writing this to you is because I need to tell you something about that portal that you said you came to Equestria through. I know a little bit about it because I went there a while ago, I can't tell you what happened in this letter because I'm afraid that it might get stolen or lost. Please come and visit me at some point while you are here. Preferably at my house, I can trust you because you showed me that you are not an evil creature. I live at the south end of Ponyville in the black cottage. I want to keep this between us before I talk to the humans who are in charge.

Signed Scootaloo.

Marcus tucked the letter back into his pocket and continued the way to Scootaloo's house. None of the ponies or Gears took notice of him, they seemed to be more occupied with cleaning up the town. As he made his way into the quieter part of Ponyville he wondered what Scootaloo had to say about the portal, maybe she knew what was up with all the Locust defences or how it came to be a portal. Maybe she even knew some secret about Sera that could save it. He kept his pace and made his way to Scootaloo's house. It wasn't much in the way of fanciness, in fact it look slightly run down than the other buildings around it. Marcus looked at the windows for any signs of life and saw nothing, he shook his head and went to the front door. He hoped that he wouldn't scare Scootaloo's family with his bloodstained armor, he had cleaned most of the dragon gore off but there was still a fine layer of it on most of his chest armor. He walked up to the door and knocked a few times. He leaned closer to the door and listened for movement, after a few seconds the sound of small hooves trotting against a wooden floor drifted through the door and then the rattle of the door handle. Marcus stepped back as it opened and Scootaloo was standing behind the door, looking rather pleased.

"Hi Marcus," she said cheerfully, "I'm really glad you decided to come and hear the cool stuff I have to tell you."

"Look, I'm only here to get a little intel about it so I can give it to Hoffman."

"Oh, I'll tell him. I just want you to hear it first."

"Why me?"

"Well, it's because I need to tell someone who'll both believe me and back me up. You seem like you're capable of both."

"I'm gonna take that as a complement."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend. You like soda? Do you want one?"

"No thank you. I'd rather get this intel first."

Scootaloo led Marcus to the front room of the house where she pulled out a book from a drawer and sat down on the couch. Marcus stood next to her but Scootaloo said he could sit down if he wanted to. Once Marcus sat down Scootaloo opened up the book, inside was a diary with somewhat familiar drawings.

"Wait a second, are these supposed to be Locust?" Marcus said as he pointed to a drawing of what looked like a scaly monster.

"You mean those monsters you fought? Yeah, it's them."

Marcus stared at Scootaloo dead in her eye.

"What are you about to tell me?"

"Well, you know the portal? A year ago I stumbled upon the place while I was trying to find my special talent for my cutie mark. I didn't really know what it was at first but once I realized it wasn't going to hurt me I went though it. It was so weird, there were so many weird looking building and rock carvings and a massive door. As I was looking around the doors opened and then those monsters walked into the giant room. I was so scared I couldn't move, one of them saw me and then they all came over to where I was. Before I could run away one of them grabbed me by the tail and held me up. All I could do was stare into their red eyes and hope they wouldn't kill me. I was able to understand some of what they were saying. It seemed like they were asking about where I came from, one of them pointed to the portal. I tried to talk to them but they didn't seem to pay attention to me at first. Afterwards they put me down but they all surrounded me and demanded to know what was behind the portal."

"Did you tell them?" Marcus asked.

"I did," Scootaloo said with a grin, "But I didn't tell them the truth."

"What did you tell them?"

"I knew that there was something up with the monsters."

"Call them Locust."

"Right, Locust. So I knew that they were trying to do something that might be bad so I told them a bunch of lies about Equestria, saying that the ponies were really mythical and really powerful and that they could wipe all of them out. The Locust seemed to believe me in a way, so they let me go and I ran away from them. But ever now and then, I'd sneak back and watch them as they built buildings with guns on them. I kept hidden but I managed to bring my diary with me so I could write and draw all the stuff I was seeing. Here, take a look."

Scootaloo gave the diary to Marcus. He flicked through it and nodded, there were indeed a lot of drawings and documents of the Locust activities inside the caves, a few pages even had glyphs and symbols. Marcus closed the book and stood up.

"Thank you for this intel Scootaloo, we'll be sure to make good use of it."

Just as he was about to go to the door, it clicked and slowly opened. Scootaloo jumped off from the couch and stood next to Marcus.

"Who's that?" Marcus asked.

"My parents," Scootaloo replied, "You wanna meet them?"

"I can spare a few minutes."

Marcus slid the book into his belt and watched as Scootaloo's parents entered.

"Hey mom, hi dad," Scootaloo said.

"Hello, Scoot," her dad said.

"Did you have a good day today?" her mom asked.

"Yep, I also want you to meet someone," Scootaloo said.

Scootaloo's parents shifted their attention from their daughter to Marcus. Their expressions changed instantly, Scootaloo's dad placed a hoof around Scootaloo and pulled her closer to him.

"Hi," Marcus said casually, "I'm Marcus Fenix."

"Ah, one of the humans," Scootaloo's mom said, her tone shifting.

"I know what you're thinking, I'm not here to hurt you."

"Like you aren't," Scootaloo's dad said sternly, "Did you see how much destruction you caused to the town? I was going to touch this house up but then you freaks burst in and destroy all the stores."

"That was not us, that was the dragons," Marcus said, retaining his calmness.

"Who cares who it was, you still coated the town in blood and dragon parts," Scootaloo's mom said.

"It was either that or you and your daughter would end up dead."

Scootaloo's parents remained silent as Marcus made his way to the door. He stopped and turned to Scootaloo.

"By the way, Carmine made it through the fight, you should go see him."

"Thanks, Marcus." Scootaloo said. Her dad stepped in front of her.

"No, I forbid you from any and all interaction with these humans."

"But dad, I want to go with them to Canterlot."

"No, you're not going."

"But Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are going. I wanna go too."

"No, you'll get hurt when they try and take over."

"Actually, it's just a diplomatic visit," Marcus said, "We had this planned this morning because the Princess wants us to meet the rest of the Royal family and Canterlot's elite."

"She's still not going."

"Okay, I'll expect to see her sometime tomorrow when we're leaving."

"What do you mean by that?" Scootaloo's mom asked.

"She'll be with us when we go to Canterlot. I recommend you pack her some stuff. Trust me, nothing will happen to her when she's with Carmine. Good day to you both."

Marcus turned to the door and left without saying another word.

Sweet Apple Acres.

"Glad you could take a break from your little project to come and try out this AppleShine with us," Cole said to Baird as he handed him a mug of Appleshine.

"How'd Dizzy and Applejack make so much so fast?" Baird asked.

"I think Applejack's got some sort of superpowered distillery or something."

"Makes sense."

Baird took a swig and looked around.

"Say, where is Dizzy?"

"Over there testing the new batch with AJ," Cole said, nodding over to the barn.

"You mean a drinking contest?"

"You think that's what they're doing?"

"Oh, I know that's what they're doing."

"Shittttt, were missing the fun," Cole said as he jogged towards the barn. Baird sighed and followed, he wondered what kind of game Dizzy had dreamed up for the ponies. Hopefully it would involve the golden "bits" that were used as currency, mostly because they were proven to be solid gold. And a large quantity of the bits could help refinance Sera, there were even whispered rumors that one of the mountain caves contained treasure. Baird was hoping that they were true so he could assist the expedition to the mountain and get a cut of the takings. As he and Cole made their way to the barn, they noticed that there were a lot of Gears and ponies inside surrounding something, they pushed their way to the front and saw Applejack and Dizzy sitting at a small table that was covered in empty mugs and a few filled ones. Baird and Cole watched as Dizzy took one of the mugs, stared at Applejack and chugged it down in less than a second. Applejack bit her lip and shakily took one of the mugs, she looked at it and then raised it up to drink it. But before a drop could come out she fell off her stool and fell flat on her face in a pool of Appleshine. The Gears cheered and the ponies groaned.

"Heh heh, lil gal couldn't hold her drink," Dizzy said as he stood up. Cole made his way to Applejack and crouched over her.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Ah...ah can't feel mah tail..." Applejack said, a distinct slur in her voice. Cole chuckled and picked her up.

"Come on, let the Cole Train get you to sleep."

Applejack smiled weakly then cringed. She gagged a few times and before anyone could react, vomited on Cole's chest armor.

"Oh, what the fuck?" Cole said. Baird instantly burst out laughing.

"Ha ha! That's what you get for puking on the Raven. Oh, karma really is a bitch."

"Shit, it's gonna take me weeks to clean this out."

"Oops...sorry mishter Cole Train," Applejack said, she then passed out in his arms, a small amount of vomit on her chest and face. Cole sighed and carried her out of the barn, Baird following several paces behind him.

"Man, you stink more than ever."

"Yeah, but I didn't know she was gonna chuck."

"Well hopefully you won't have to clean her up."

"I need to clean myself up. Hopefully she'll be okay tomorrow when we leave."

"Aside from the massive hangover."

"She can tough it out," Cole said as he knocked on the door to the farmhouse. He stepped back as the door opened and Big Macintosh was standing in front of him.

"Oh my," he said as he stared at Applejack, "What happened to her?"

"Had a little too much Appleshine," Cole said as he set her on Big Mac's back.

"Well, this isn't the first time this happened. I'll make sure she recovers."

"So long as she's better by tomorrow. Twilight wants her to join us when we go to Canterlot."

"I'll do what I can."

Applejack then promptly vomited on his back. Big Mac cringed and then shut the door, Cole turned around and saw Baird smothering his laughter behind him. Cole walked past him, not looking at Baird.

"Come on, let's find a place to get this armor clean."

"Hey, I haven't had much to laugh at recently. This is great, I feel so alive."

"Can't say I blame you," Cole said as he tried to use his canteen to wash off the vomit.

"Also, I'm staying a few feet behind you until you get rid of the smell."

Ponyville Spa.
One hour later.

"So Twilight," Rarity said as she was sitting next to her getting her mane curled, "Mind telling us anything else about the humans?"

"Well, they are a much more advanced race than us. But from all the years of war they're pretty much reduced to living a life similar to us."

"That's horrible," Fluttershy said, her face coated in mud. "At least we're helping them."

"So, what are we gonna do tomorrow?" Pinkie asked as she burst out of the bath, soaking Rainbow Dash.

"We're going to Canterlot so Chairman Hoffman and Princess Celestia can discuss interdimensional relations," Twilight replied.

"Sound boring if you ask me," Rainbow Dash said as she wrung water and soap out of her mane.

"Chairman Hoffman is going to bring most of his armed forces to Canterlot, so there might be something to do if you hang around with them."

"Yeah!" Pinkie exclaimed, "Maybe you'll got to go in one of those big flying machines of theirs!"

"They're called Ravens."

The ponies looked towards the door and saw Bernie walk in. She was wearing all of her combat armor and had her trusty Longshot slung over her shoulder and a Lancer cradled in her arms.

"Bernie," Twilight said, "What are you doing here?"

"Just making sure you lot were okay, and to tell you that Applejack's sick."

"What?" Rarity said.

"Is she okay?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah," Bernie said, "She's just got sick off Appleshine. She'll be okay by tomorrow."

"You ready to go to Canterlot Bernie?" Pinkie asked as she splashed Dash again.

"Yep, say Dash. Do you want to come and ride in one of the Ravens?"

Rainbow Dash sat up in the tub and grinned.

"Sure thing."

"Okay, just make sure you've got everything. We leave tomorrow at nine A.M."

"Thanks Bernie," Pinkie said.

"I'd thought you'd use your military jargon," Twilight said. Bernie shrugged

"Well, after a few days here, I don't feel it's necessary around the ponies. Anyways, see you guys tomorrow."