The War of the Otherworlders

by LoneDrifter213

First Contact

Twilight Sparkle stared at the man before her. Only minutes ago, she had watched a small number of human’s battle three mechanical scorpions. Now, she would be talking to them, so many questions needed answers.

The human attached his helmet to his belt, then raised his left hand and gave her a small wave, “Err...Hi,” he began, and pointed at himself, “I am Staff Sergeant Ghatrif...”

“With all due respect Staff Sergeant, I think you’re wasting your time,” said the gravelly voiced human, “I doubt the dumb animal can understand you.”

Before Twilight could open her mouth, Rainbow Dash zoomed past her towards the human.

“HEY, who are you calling a dumb animal?” she yelled while jabbing the human’s chest with her hoof.

“IT TALKS!?” said the gravelly voiced human, all of them stared at the Pegasus. Twilight could see the surprise in the Staff Sergeants face.

“YEAH, ‘IT’ TALKS!” Rainbow Dash growled, “WE ALL TALK! Dumb Animal!”

Staff Sergeant Ghatrif face-palmed and Twilight just rolled her eyes; there were better ways to start diplomacy.

“I’m sorry for this,” Said Staff Sergeant Ghatrif in a disappointed tone.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight reassured him, “Rainbow Dash doesn’t like insults.”

“I noticed.”

Both Twilight and the staff sergeant quickly separated the bickering pair, before attempting diplomacy again.

“With that out of the way, my name is Twilight Sparkle, a Princess of Equestria,” the lavender alicorn held out her hoof, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Staff Sergeant Gha... Gha...”

“Ghatrif,” the Staff Sergeant politely finished, and shook her hoof, “Staff Sergeant Saafir Ghatrif. These are my men.”

Before Twilight could speak, Pinkie Pie appeared directly between her and Saafir.

“Well, welcome to Ponyville!” the pink Earth pony shouted, while rapidly shaking Saafir’s hand, “I’m Pinkie Pie, and I’ll be giving you and your friends the Welcome to Ponyville party!”

Saafir just stared at the pink pony in surprise. Twilight let out a small chuckle.

“This is Pinkie Pie, she’s a close friend of mine,” Twilight said, and pointed to the others, “And they are, Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and, as you know, Rainbow Dash.”

“Hello,” all said in union.

“So, who are your men?” Twilight asked.

“Hello, I’m Corporal Louis West,” the soft spoken human was the first to say and removed his helmet. He had short, dirty blood hair, dark green eyes, and fair skin, covered with scars. Like Saafir, he had equipment wrapped around his head.

“No need to sound so excited,” the gravelly voice human removed his helmet. He had light brown hair that was mid length, with dark brown eyes. His skin was slightly darker than Louis’s, and marked with scars. One of the most defined began below his left eye, cutting across his mouth and ending at his chin, and the other ran horizontally across his forehead. “Name’s Scott Crane, Sergeant.”

“I am Sergeant Seth Smith,” said the fourth, and pulled his helmet off. He had short dark brown hair, his skin was pale and, like the others, littered with scars. However, his most distinctive feature was his eyes. They were solid black in colour and appeared to be artificial, the flesh around them covered in scars. At a quick glance, it looked like his eyes had been gouged out.

“Your eyes are weird,” Pinkie Pie said, pointing at them. Seth growled while the others either face-hoofed or glared at her.

“Put your helmet back on before you give ‘em nightmares,” Scott said before laughing.

“Fuck you, Crane!” Seth yelled.

“Oh for FUCK SAKE!” roared Saafir, catching everyone’s attention. “I have had enough of you two bitching about each other! I don’t care how repulsive you find the other! In the field, I expect you to put aside your petty whining and try not to shoot each other! AM I CLEAR?!”

Both Sergeants stood at attention, “Yes Staff Sergeant!”

“Good, now you two can gather up the remains of the scorpions for transport,” Saafir commanded.

The two sergeants left to clear up the remains, Louis chuckled.

“Something funny, Corporal?” asked Saafir.

“N-No, Staff Sergeant,” Louis shook his head.

“Good, then you can help the sergeants scavenge?” Louis complied.

Saafir then placed a hand over his earpiece, “Excuse me Twilight.” He walked away and started talking, his hand still on his earpiece.

“Getting friendly with the Mechs?” a new voice asked. All eyes spun round to see the other two humans. Both had removed their helmets. The first was a woman, with dark skin, shoulder long black hair and dark brown eyes, with a small scar on her left cheek. The second was a man, slightly shorter than the woman, with olive skin, with short black hair and hazel eyes.

“Sorry, who are you?” asked Twilight, having forgotten about the other bipeds.

“Corporal Rebecca Blaine,” the woman said with a smile, “friends call me Becky.”

“Private Bill Wilson,” the man replied, standing to attention.

“What were ya’ll saying about them over there?” asked Applejack, pointing towards the others.

“Their Powered Infantry. We call them Mechs, comes from their suits, less of a mouthful than Mechanically Enhancing Cyber Hardware, and more catchy than P.I.” The Smile then left Becky’s face. “Be careful.”

Everypony eyed the two humans in confusion. “What ya’ll mean, ‘be careful’?” Applejack asked.

“Mechs have a reputation,” Rebecca explained, “mainly...”

Before she could finish, green burning embers erupted from Spikes mouth to form a scroll. Twilight caught the scroll in her magic. The two humans stared dumbfounded. Twilight unravelled the scroll and quickly read through it.

“Princess Celestia has-”

“TOLD YA IT WAS IN THE SCRIPT!” shouted a triumphant Pinkie Pie. Everypony rolled their eyes.

“As I was saying,” resumed Twilight, “Princess Celestia has just written about how her investigations into the strange sightings aren’t yielding much, and she has asked us to help.” Everypony stared at the humans. “Spike, write a message to Celestia...”

“With what, Twilight?” Spike held out his empty hands, “Everything’s back at the picnic.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a stash,” said Pinkie and she grabbed Applejacks hat. She then pulled out a quill, a pot of ink and some parchment, and gave them to Spike. Applejack snatched her hat back and cautiously looked inside it before returning it to her head.

Immediately, Spike began scribbling on the paper, copying each word Twilight spoke. Once finished, Spike sent the letter off in a flash of green flames.

“LISTEN IN!” roared Saafir, everyone stopped. “Just got off the radio, General Cole is on his way here!” There was a collective sigh from the humans.

“We’re dead,” Rebecca muttered under her breath.

“Sigma One, gather the remains of the Scorpions and Bikes. Scouts locate your fallen comrades, and everyone prepare for a debrief. The General’s going to be in a bad mood.”

All of the humans began their assigned tasks. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of white light, and once it faded, stood Princess Celestia and Luna, along with roughly thirty Royal Guards, all Pegasus’.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” The mane six ran up to meet the Royal Sisters.

“Hello all of you,” Celestia greeted them with a small smile that disappeared as quickly as it appeared; “I received your letter and had to witness this.”

The six humans became very defensive; Seth, Scott, Louise and Bill had drawn their weapons.

“STAND DOWN!” commanded Saafir.

Then the Staff Sergeant slowly approached the Alicorn sisters. The Pegasus’ guards landed and pointed their spears towards Saafir.

“LET HIM APPROACH!” boomed Luna, the guards complied and backed away, allowing Saafir to approach.

“Ma’am!” Saafir said proudly, standing to attention, with his helmet under his left arm. “I am Staff Sergeant Saafir Ghatrif. May I ask who are you?”

“I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister Luna,” Celestia gestured to her sibling with her wing, “Together we rule Equestria.”

“Now a question for you,” said Luna. “Why are you here?”

A frown formed on Saafir’s face he sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“We have time,” replied Luna, giving him a firm stare.

Again, Saafir sighed and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. “We are engaged in a war, back on our world. Our enemy had been developing something, and so we went after it. Turns out they had built a teleportation system and had sent a small force over. So, we were sent after them. When we arrived here, we were ordered to avoid contact with any locals.”

Everypony cast a glance towards the scene behind him.

“As you can see, that didn’t happen.”

“Quite,” replied Celestia.

“Our CO is on his way here, after our little scuffle...and the fact that we made contact,” Saafir again sighed, “he’s not in the best of moods.”

“Your CO?” Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, decent man, but he’s at his limits.”

Soon, the atmosphere echoed with the familiar sound of the helicopter returning. Everyone backed away as it landed; dust was flying in the wind of the Helicopters rotors. Soldiers quickly disembarked from the aircraft as the rotors started to stop. Once the dust cleared away, everyone could see sixteen soldiers standing in front of them. Twilight noticed that their armour was similar to the scouts, but with a black vest, with pouches along the front and waist, covering the torso.

Stepping from the helicopter next, was a large figure wearing armour almost identical to that of the Powered Infantry, with additional large grey metal plates covering its torso, shoulders and shins. Saafir put on his helmet and approached the figure.

“General!” Saafir raised his arm in salute, his right hand level with his eyes and palm facing outwards.

“Don’t bother Staff Sergeant, I don’t have time!” General Cole quickly rebuked Saafir’s salute, and instead approached the Princesses. “I am General Ryan Cole, of the Freedom Alliance.”

After the initial greetings were quickly exchanged, Celestia brought the conversation to the humans’ presence.

“Now General, your soldiers have informed us of how you came to our world,” said Celestia.

“Have they?” The General sounded disappointed. Celestia raised an eyebrow, but chose not to pursue the matter, yet.

“Yes, but I would like more details and I would like to know what effect this will have in our world.”

“As you wish,” replied the General.

---

Inside Twilight’s palace, the mane six, Spike, the Princesses, ten guards, along with General Cole. The hall was easily the largest room in the Palace, with sunlight shining through the green windows, and reflecting off the Crystal walls and floor.

Ryan stood before the Princesses and removed his helmet. He had light skin covered with scars, dull grey eyes and dark grey hair cut short. He wore the same head set as Saafir.

“Now, let us begin our discussion,” Luna was the first to speak. “How exactly did you get here?”

General Cole cleared his throat. “Back in our home system, our Intel had told us that our enemy had been working on some sort of project. I was partially responsible for leading several operations to take the facility and the surrounding areas, took us three months to get there. Once we arrived, we discovered that our enemy had discovered some experimental pre-war technology: teleportation.”

“Wait, it took you guys THREE MONTHS to get there and find this thing? WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST MOVE IT?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Ryan just ignored her remark. “With this tech, our enemy had discovered a new world, a world untouched by the war...your world. And we found out our enemy had been assembling an occupational force. However, our operations against them severely undermined it, diverting most of it to the frontlines. But our Enemy was still able to send a task force here. So, we were forced to scrape a task force together and go after them.”

“How long ago was your arrival?” asked Luna, “And what of your enemy?”

“Nearly two weeks ago, hadn’t found any trace of enemy until now. When we first arrived, we sent scouts out to track down our enemy, but then things became complicated. We discovered there was an indigenous civilization here, and that they...you appeared to be unaware of any arrivals. I gave the order for my men to reframe from moving during the day; instead everything was to be carried out at night.”

“I might not be familiar with your tactics,” Celestia eyed Ryan with suspicion, “But wouldn’t restricting yourself in such away put you at a tactical disadvantage.”

“Yes, and it has been difficult,” Ryan said with a slight nod.

“And why would you put yourself at such a disadvantage?” Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“Because Princess Celestia, the last thing I want to do is drag your people into the crossfire.” Ryan explained. Celestia silently processed the information in her head; the idea of two alien armies crawling around in the shadows of the world was not the most pleasant thought.

---

Outside, in the plaza in front of the palace, the atmosphere was tense. Crowds had gathered to stare at the strangers before them. The Royal Guard doing their best to keep them at bay, while the humans casually paced around, looked around in all directions. Despite the commotion, neither one group had attempted to interact with the other.

Some of the more perceptive guards noticed that the humans were watching each other with even greater suspicion than their surroundings. More specifically, the four known as Mechs, as if they would attack if unsupervised.

“STAFF SERGEANT WHITLEY!” the silence was broken by a masculine voiced human. Another human ran across to the caller, standing in the far left of the plaza.

The soldier pointed down a street, and this Staff Sergeant Whitley pulled out a small pair of binoculars.

---

“So what can you tell us about your enemy?” asked Luna.

“Unfortunately not much, the past two weeks we’ve been trying to track them down. The scorpion drones are the only contact we’ve made,” Ryan explained.

“How exactly were you aware of the scorpions?” Twilight remembered the four scout bikes charging in when they were trapped.

“We detected them scouting around near our camp in far end of the forest, sent out two fire teams to deal with...” Ryan stopped and placed a hand over the headphone that covered his right ear. “Excuse me Princesses.”

“Sierra Foxtrot Tango One, this is Alpha Zero, reading you loud and clear, over,” said Ryan. A barely audible, muffled voice replied. Everypony watched as the Generals face fell and his eyes widened in horror.

“Repeat, over!” Distress was clear in his voice. Once again, the muffled voice could be heard. “Shit! Sierra Foxtrot Tango One, roger, await my arrival. Out.”

“Excuse me General,” Celestia was finding Ryan’s distress to be unnerving. “But what is going on?”

“My troops have spotting three incoming aircraft, and have been confirmed to be hostiles! Princesses, you need to get your people to safety!”

“GUARDS!” Luna’s voice thundered throughout castle, “Gather everypony in the town, escort them to the castle, and prepare for battle!”

“Princesses, I request you keep you guards out of this! They wouldn’t last five minutes!”

“Hey this is OUR home!” Rainbow Dash yelled, “No way are we letting anything push us around!”

“Won’t make a difference when you’re a corpse!” Ryan argued. The general then pulled his helmet on, and ran out of the Chamber.

“Twilight,” Celestia turned to her student, “help get everypony to your castle. Luna and I will protect them here.”

Twilight nodded and turned to her friends ready to follow her. Suddenly, everypony could hear the roar of helicopter rotors followed by the crack and zap of the Human’s and their enemy’s weaponry. Everypony broke into a mad dash for the exit as the screams of terrified Ponies rang from outside.