Forward Thinking
"I think we would always take a chance to get away from an angry CO." - Tech, Or whatever your constantly-changing alias is. 
"Uh oh..." The crew said in unison at the sight of their airfield... Or what was left of it, rather.
"Oh my." Celestia whispered.
"Echo One Actual, report!" A voice called over the radio.
"Hey... Cele-... Princess Celestia, could we come back with you for a bit?" Splash pleaded.
The pony chuckled. "Please, you may just call me Celestia, and yes, I owe you that much."
...
With a flash, pop, and fizzle, three guys and an alicorn returned to Equestrian soil, specifically, the Canterlot Castle's courtroom (which had suffered quite some damage), even more specifically...
"I'm at grid: Zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero." Splash said with a smirk, receiving a disbelieving look from Raptor.
The ponies that had stayed within the room subsequently to the group's departing looked to the re-arriving humans that stood to the side of their princess, who looked as tired as ever. A group of six who were commonly known as the "Elements of Harmony" approached.
"Princess? Are you okay?" Twilight asked.
The room's occupants looked to the princess in question, she'd been wounded in her combat with the changeling queen, ending up with a scorched horn. The alicorn had only made her condition worse when she'd teleported herself, a armored fighting vehicle, and it's crew to and from another world in the multiverse.
She huffed wearily. "Casting something like that takes plenty of energy, I may need to have cut back and have some tea."
Splash snorted and grinned. "Tea... Hold on Celestia, I got you covered."
The gunner walked back to the stryker, where the telltale sounds of rummaging came from seconds later. The last two crew members continued to stand by Celestia.
"Well," Roar started. "You guys're probably wondering why we're back, or here in the first place."
"We're all girls." Rainbow Dash corrected him.
"Gals." He amended, before continuing. "It's pretty obvious we're military right? So on our world we were guarding our base, when all of a sudden, this helicopter comes around-"
"What's a helicopter?" Applejack said with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh oh oh I know!" Pinkie said. "I made one, it's a type of thing in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors! It lets ponies without wings fly!"
"You... Made one?" Raptor questioned disbelievingly.
"Anyway, so this heli comes around right? It's big, loud, makes stuff go boom, and it had bad guys in it. After the guy that just left, Splash, tried to shoot it down, it crashed on us."
"It made us very ded." Raptor supplied, remembering the pain.
"Dead?!" Twilight shouted.
"We respawn, it's all good." Roar continued. "Anyway, we're about to respawn, and unknown period of sitting in the void later, we wind up in this stryker, just like the one that had been destroyed, about a click away from the castle."
"Click?" Rarity asked.
"Kilometer."
"Kilometer?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"One-thousand meters?"
"What'sa meter?" Dash said.
"Nevermind." Roar sighed. "It's like two minutes away with the stryker, plus three from the mountain climb."
"I'm back." Splash said, appearing beside his crew. He popped open a reflective blue can labeled "Nos" and took a swig before offering it to Celestia. "Here you go."
"Oh my god." Whispered Raptor.
The alicorn cautiously accepted the aluminum can, looking within and inspecting the contents before looking back to Splash, who simply grinned. Celestia levitated the can to her mouth and tipping the container enough for a small amount of the liquid to wash over her taste buds.
She clucked her tongue, considering the taste, before taking a larger drink. Silent moments passed before Celestia's eyes dilated in half a second.
"I can see sounds." She whispered, standing rigid.
Roar administered a smack to the back of Splash's head before continuing the story. "Anyway, Celestia teleports us back to our world and we see our base just completely torn apart! After we get there our commanding officer calls in sounding absolutely pissed, so Splash here asks if we can come back."
"And she said yes, which we are very grateful for." Raptor finished.
"Well then, it's great that you came when you did. I don't believe we've all been acquainted." Rarity spoke.
Raptor cringed at her voice for some reason, earning a "Don't be fucking rude" look from Splash.
"I'm Splash," The man started, pointing to himself. "Number three in our unit and the guy that operates the Stryker cannon."
Roar spoke up. "I'm Roar, Echo One-Two. I drive the vehicle."
"And I'm Raptor, Echo One-One Actual, I'm here to make sure these two don't screw up." Raptor finished with a smile.
"Ah have no idea what's with the numbers and titles..." Applejack deadpanned. "But I'm Applejack, Element of Honesty."
And so it was that the each of the ponies, representing their respective Element of Harmony, introduced themselves to the crew of the M1128 Mobile Gun System. Before anything else occurred, the leader of the pony group that had fought along the Stryker stepped into the room. His armor was still on his body, matted by goo and dents, his face was covered by dirt and scratches. Through all that you could still see his blood red mane and brown coat.
The pegasus snorted at the antics as he walked in. "Oh don't forget me, I'm River, a lieutenant of the guard."
Roar blinked. "Alrighty."
"No problem." Splash filled in. Then rubbed his palms together. "So, how long are we able to stay?"
The lieutenant shrugged. "I figure that's up to our highness, except she doesn't really seem to be in the position to make decisions right now."
Roar gave Splash an accusing look. He looked like he was about to say something when River spoke again
"It's no worry though, we can work out something temporary, considering that 'the Metal Rhino'has been declared hero of the city."
"The Stryker doesn't look anything like a rhino." Raptor frowned.
River shrugged. "You tell the populace that. Also, you three will be expected to make a public appearance, be sure to explain that it's just a vehicle, because I get funny looks every time I've mentioned the thing's 'crew'."
"Public appearance." Splash frowned. "Gross."
The stallion snorted. "I'm sure you'll be fine, you had a lot of eyes on you during the invasion."
Splash rolled his eyes, but smiled. "I was behind a barrier of solid steel during that."
"Uh huh, right, sure. Come on, let's get you three settled."
"Auntie!" The voice called from down the hallway outside the throne room. "Aunt Celestia!"
River visibly jerked at the sound of the voice. "Actually, maybe later."
He gave a mock salute to the crew, smiled, and flew off through the changeling queen sized hole in the throne room's main window.
The crew noticed a grimace on the face of Rarity and Applejack as another unicorn came into the room, a stallion with a blonde mane and pure white coat, he looked slightly shaken with his disheveled mane and messy collar. He wore a extremely dissatisfied expression on his face.
"Celestia, what happened? Those changelings interrupted something very important of mine!"
"I have seen the end of all time..." Celestia whispered. Still in a shock-like state.
"Important?" Roar raised an eyebrow and gestured to Shining Armor and Cadance, who hadn't yet spoke. "I'm pretty sure these two were having a wedding."
Blueblood looked to the Stryker crew, facial expression shifting from annoyance, to surprise, to disgust.
"Eugh!" He groaned. "What is that garbage you're all wearing!"
Roar pulled his aviators down the bridge of his nose. "Don't fuck with the aviators."
"And I'll have you know," the unicorn continued unaware of Roar's challenge. "My hygienic procedures are very important!"
"Procedures?" Raptor asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh yes, I'm sure you know, someone with such royal status like mine must bathe frequently."
"Big-fuckin' whoop!" Splash snapped, stepping forward. "Oh I'm sooo sorry your greatness that your bath was interrupted. Riddle me this, asshole. While you were getting scrubbed, who was fighting and getting hurt out in the street? Do you see the armor on our vehicle? Those changelings were hitting us nearly fast enough to punch through that, and civilians were out there getting hit by them!"
Silence, wide eyes throughout the room. The accused unicorn's jaw was slack, he soon excused himself from the room, the deafening silence proving too much for him to handle.
"Hardcore as hell." Roar finally chuckled.
Everypony looked to Splash, except Celestia. Cadence finally spoke. "Are you always able to switch between happy and irate like that?"
Splash's only answer was an apology and a smile. Which was replaced with a frown with Raptor spoke.
"You know, the MGS is only resistant up to Seven-Six-Two rounds."
"I know," Splash replied with a shake of his head. "But he didn't need to know that. Hell, those KSVKs we see bushwookies toting every now and then is probably enough to punch through the driver's armor and make a mess of Roar's head."
The driver shuddered.
"Speaking of guns, did our gear come through?" He asked.
"I don't know," Splash replied. "I mean, my Nos did, so surely..."
He trailed off, walking back to the stryker and looking in the rear entrance before reaching around within, his crewmates following shortly after. The normal IAV Stryker would easily fit a squad in addition to the crew. In the MGS however, where one side of the interior you'd usually see seats there was an ammo rack containing a plentiful amount of one-hundred-five millimeter HESH and AP rounds along with the turret's autoloader. The little bit of space remaining was dominated by dufflebags and "coyote" packs.
The three men knew that one of them contained nearly ten satchels of a remote high-explosive, thanks to respawning gear, and handled the bags accordingly until the bag containing them was found and loaded onto Splash's back.
Dufflebag number one contained rations, each including the much needed sixteen fluid ounces of liquid composed of caffeine, guarana, vitamin b-twelve, b-six, L-theanine, and taurine.
"I don't believe you." Roar said to Splash.
Dufflebag number two contained spare clothing, containing replicas of the crew's current getups neatly folded within. The crew, however, didn't remember packing them.
The third pack contained what the men had been holding their breath for. Their firearms, their sweet, noisy, and (in Splash's opinion) damn sexy firearms.
"Found the guns." Splash said jokingly.
Raptor placed himself between Splash and Roar and reached into the bag, rifling (Hue) through the bag and retrieving an Springfield Armory M14, a red-dot scope attached to the weapons top. He grabbed the rectangular magazines before hastily stuffing them into his tactical vest and retreating.
Splash took to one knee and reached into the bag, he pulled out three large green boxes that jingled when they were nudged, then he reached to the bag again and pulled out a hunk of metal weighing seven and a half kilograms, the Mike-Two-Fourty-Nine. A devastating weapon that spewed five-point-fifty-six like no one's business. He put two of the boxes in the few pouches that would carry them before attaching the remaining box to his weapon and stepping away.
Finally, Roar retrieved his weapons. The first to come out was AKM, a symbolic Russian-made seven-point-six-two assault rifle that'd been in service for fifty-five years, and was likely to see continued use. After slinging it over his back and stuffing it's magazines into his vest he kneeled down and reached into the bag again.
His hands fell upon his trusty hockey stick, and when they did, thunder cracked in the distance. This was no ordinary hockey stick, it's power was immense, rumored to have been forged in a volcano. The Canadian man himself had pulled the stick from an enchanted stone, and he alone bore the will to wield it.
He nonchalantly holstered it on his back.
"TWO, THREE, REPORT STATUS."
"READY."
"WAITING."
Raptor turned to his crew, eyeing them critically, or pretending to really. He looked to Splash, who stood straight, arms at his side, and trademark goofy grin on his face. Then Raptor looked to Roar, who had been trying to straighten his vest out before cleaning the lenses on his aviators. His headset was around his neck instead of on his head, there wasn't much point as squad chatter always came through with or without it.
He cleared his throat to get their attention and spoke loudly. "I hereby declare this point, FOB Echo!"
"S'cuse me." Splash started. "Lemme tell you why that's a terrible idea."
Raptor looked to his crew mate confusedly.
"You see, 'Echo' is the callsign of our unit. During radio communications if someone said 'Echo something something blah blah' we might confuse that for FOB Echo instead of our unit, Echo, or vice versa." Splash continued.
Roar was the next to speak. "You're overthinking this."
"I'm not overthinking," Came a grunted reply. "I'm thinking ahead, which you seem to have trouble doing."
"Excuse me." Roar spoke, putting his hand to his chest in mock offense.
"Besides," Raptor started. "Who's going to ring us up here in Equestria? Crossroads? Yeah right."
Directly behind Raptor stood Princess Celestia, he could hear her erratic breathing almost directly into his ear. His fellow crewmates stared at the tall mare, eyes wide with fear. It could've had something to with the twitching eyes, concerning smile, and dilated pupils.
"I am Crossroads." She whispered, before snickering to herself quietly, with her eyes leaving their posts and turning away from eachother in their sockets.
Splash hadn't screamed like that since the Cloakers.
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Oh my gawd I love you so much for this!
hahahahahaha! X'D Oh man, this... this should be canon, Celly hopped up on NOs. I approve!
Awesome job man!
So awesome to see a sequel!
This was full of laughes, and I can't wait to see more! :D
Keep it up!
.......Payday?
6029599 Yep. They used to scare me senseless, i'd scream and my Skype buddies would laugh at me. :c
Then I rolled Fugitive.
NOW I'M THE ONE LAUGHING.
All of my yes are belong to this.
Are you going to have the Russians in their Hind from the Crystal Empire join up w/ them, or something?
6030594 I hadn't thought of that. I was just settling in for the night, it's not likely but now you've got my head whirring with new ideas. :P
6030667 I mean, Cadence said that she had the power to send only one of them back, but what would they say to three others who were playing the game, and Celestia's ability to transfer them, and their APC, back and forth across dimensions, while injured?
6030682 Ah you're referencing Tech's story. That story is completely alternate from this one, his own take on it, really.
YAY! A continuation!
Okay, a few errors here and there.
*dead
I'm
the thing's crew
And I'll... (happened a few more times after that)
(Missing a blank between vehicle? and Those)
Great, can't wait to read further.
6567559
I mean... Game universe...
Hockexcalibur!
This has inspired fear of a new kind in me.