As the villains went over their plan, Phantom left to take care of something, but everyone kept an eye on the hooded figure. Even Mira was curious, but they had no time; they were to move out on an outpost outside Equestria. They had planned the attack to look like a changeling invasion, so Celestia wouldn’t be aware of Phantom’s involvement. "Let’s go," Phantom shouted appearing from the shadows, as he continued to go outside the base. Eventually the rest followed.
When she went outside, Trixie glanced around, surprised. The once wooded area surrounding the cave base was now covered in a layer of steel sheets. It appeared to be some sort of training ground. Looking at Phantom, she saw him readying his battalion of around 60 highly trained troops. To her right was the much larger but more disorganized changeling army.
She turned to see Mira walking up. "Phantom has assigned you a small group of soldiers, and he wants me to give you this," she said, holding up a gauntlet with a gold insignia, with a ruby gem at the base.
"What could impress the Great and Powerful Trixie?" she questioned in pride. Curiosity got the best of her, however, and she put her hoof through it. Suddenly, there was a shock of pure energy running through her body. Closing her eyes, she was slightly shocked from the power.
Phantom came toward them. "Try it out," he said, nodding his head to an engineer. The engineer then hit a button, causing a 6 by 6 foot block of steel to come up, with what Trixie thought was a... cupcake and balloon insignia on it? Shaking her head she shot a bolt of energy from her horn, it didn't seem out of what it usually looked like but suddenly when it hit the target the target shook and was consumed by an energy pulse of purple, and it disintegrated.
Trixie stood, rather stunned. She had always thought of herself as being well-versed in magic, but this was beyond anything she had ever seen anyone possess; except for maybe Phantom. Trixie smiled her approval. With this, no one would question her now. "Well," Phantom said, "it seems we are ready. Let’s move out!"
As Trixie watched her soldiers move by, she noticed that they seemed worried. Of what, she was not certain of. She looked to Mira and asked her, “Why do they look so nervous?"
"There’s worse here than animals," Mira replied before jumping up to fly overhead . They continued on.
As the troops traversed through the terrain, they started to calm down. The forest sounds were almost soothing.
After roughly thirty minutes, however, they ran into a manticore. The beast roared viciously in a challenge. Phantom just chuckled. He turned toward his men and Trixie. The lead guard stepped forward and said, “Do you wish us to deal with this?”
Phantom laughed. “Heh. No, let’s let our new commander get into the habit of using her new weapon.”
Trixie smirked. All of this attention was fabulous, just what she wanted. She motioned the others out of the way and stepped toward the manticore. It was already angry over this many intruders in its territory. The manticore growled in a low, grumbling voice and lunged at Trixie. She lowered her head and a pulse beam erupted out of the end of her horn and vaporized it mid-air. She shook her head. This was incredible! There was no way that they could lose! She felt as if she could take on the whole of the royal guard on her own. Trixie stepped back and took her position in front of her troops and behind Phantom and Mira. Phantom grinned in approval and marched on. Their trip through the rest of the forest went unimpeded, and soon they were only a short distance from the outpost.
The plan was simple. A small force of changelings bombarded the fort while the rest of the changelings, Trixie, Chrysalis charged the outpost. Phantom would provide air support and made sure no one made it out alive. Trixie wondered why Discord and that useless lump Screwball didn't come.
PONYVILLE
Discord watched out over the peaceful town of Ponyville. It made him sick. The power, the order promised meant nothing to him; Chaos was all that mattered. Everything was working out as planned...
Turning to his faithful assistant Screwball, he said, smiling, “Let’s have some fun." The draconequus made a sickly movement that would have made another, more sane being, shiver.
Screwball just turned and smiled. "Let’s."
EQUESTRIAN OUTPOST 0068: 20 MILES FROM THE EQUESTRIAN BORDER
As Surge looked out across the desert, he thought of his family back inside the Equestrian border. The desert itself started just a mile after the edge of the boundary.
Surge himself was large for a unicorn, pure white just like his guards. For some odd reason, Surge had recently received reinforcements, supplies, and a warning to be on the lookout. He assumed that the other outposts along the border had received these supplies also. He turned around to look at his fort: barbed wire fences all around them, large walls in a square, each side 200 feet long covered in unicorn snipers, and a small number of heavy close quarters combat guards in armor that no one should be able to carry. Inside the walls, there were four small closely packed barracks. He smiled looking down at his base from the scouting tower placed in the very middle of the four barracks.
A large thud shook him out of his deep thought. “That’s cannon fire! RED ALERT!” he shouted as he scrambled down the staircase. When he came out, all he could see was his snipers firing repeatedly at something in the distance. He scrambled up the wall ramp and came alongside one of his snipers. He couldn't make out what there attacker was.
Looking closer, he saw a large number of changelings, and... the revelation shocked him. There were also ponies! Ponies should not be with changelings! Turning, he saw the one and only Soarin, or as the military addressed him: commander. “Soarin!” Surge shouted. "Get word to princess Celestia! Tell her what’s happening here!"
Soarin nodded, calling three Pegasus air soldiers to come with him before taking off. Surge returned his attention to the oncoming enemy. “Keep firing! Don’t let them get close!"
Suddenly, three black Pegasi flew overhead, going after Soarin and his pony escorts. "Snipers, concentrate fire on those Pegasi!" Surge called out.
The snipers turned their attention to the Pegasus, hitting two quickly, but the third avoided every shot. Surge saw something out of the corner of his eye and, assuming that it was one of his guards on alert he ignored it. Then he felt a sharp pain in his back. The pain was too much. This was not supposed to happen—and the world fell into darkness as he collapsed.
"Sir!" the sniper standing a few feet away from him yelled. "Are you—?" He was cut off with a slash across his back. As he fell, he managed to roll over to see a slim dark Pegasus mare standing over him smiling.
"Too easy."