> Modern Warmare
>  by Beatleboy62
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 1

Prologue


Somewhere in a shipping container in an open field near New Delhi, India…
////////////////////////////
OMEGA SYSTEMS INC. 1999
////////////////////////////
CONNECTING…
CONNECTING…
CONNECTING…
The machine gave off a loud droning tone as it connected to the internet.
“Really, in this day an’ age we still have a dial up computer?” Soap asked.
“Well, if you have anything better,” Price replied, “feel free to give it to me.”
The rest of the Disavowed Task Force 141 sat around the tiny monitor inside the shipping container. It wasn’t easy getting there, all the while trying to avoid both Makarov’s men and Shepard’s soldiers, the latter being extra dangerous considering he had just been killed by Soap and Price.
“What are you trying to do anyway?” Ghost asked, his skull balaclava still slightly burned from the attempted death-by-arson, “Whoever you’re trying to contact, you could probably contact by phone.”
“No, not this guy,” Price stated, “He is perhaps the most paranoid man you’ll ever meet, he’s been hiding from both the CIA and MI-6 since 1978.”
Price paused.
“And I owe him a favor, he’s cashing in on it now.”
The screen flickered up and he began typing.
WELCOME TO OMEGA INC. EMAIL SERVICE, PLEASE ENTER LOG-IN INFROMATION.
USERNAME: $
PASSWORD:***********
CONNECTING…
CONNECTING…
CONNECTING…

The machine gave off another loud dial tone as it connected to the phone line once again.
“Ugh, can you please turn sound down?” Nikolai asked, “After flying for 5 hours straight, is not such a pleasing noise.”
“Why do you owe this guy a favor anyway, and more importantly, why do you care? Shouldn’t we be going for Makarov?” Roach questioned.
“It will all make sense in the end,” Price reassured, “He told me he has some very important Intel that I would love to get my hands on, and if he’s offering it, I’ll take it.”
He turned back to the screen, staring at it intently.
“In 1978 I was 21, working for MI-6 after they saw how efficient I was working in the field. They handpicked me and shoved me into a mission, Operation Charybdis. The goal of the mission was to take out three rogue CIA agents at the request of the US Government. MI6 put me at the head of the mission to see if I could handle it. The yanks wanted them gone for the same reason Shepard wanted us gone, no loose ends. Anyway, while looking for them in a South African town, a firefight broke out between us and them, and I got hurt, bad. One of the rogue agents found me, and surprisingly he didn’t kill me, instead saving me before running off, stealing my tags for some reason. My squad mates found me a few hours later, telling me they had found and killed all three agents.”
The machine gave off a loud mechanical buzzing, stopping when Price slammed the side of it.
“Anyway, I went home and continued on with life, working missions, fighting the bad guys, all that stuff. In 1980 while on leave I got a knock on my front door, it was the agent. Dumbfounded, I asked him how he found me; he held up my tags and said, ‘Phone book.’”
“Did he tell you why he saved you?” Soap asked.
Price stopped typing. “No, he never gave me a reason. Then again, I didn’t need one, he saved my life and that was good enough for me.”
“What was his name?” Soap asked.
“He never told me his real name, just an alias, Amazon.”
“Bit odd for a call sign, don’t ya think?”
“Well what the hell kinda name is Soap anyway?” 
“Cheeky old man.” Soap muttered, laughing.
The computer idled as everyone watched the screen, entering into a chat room…
USERS ONLINE:1/2
“He said he’d be on around this time today; we’ll give it fifteen minutes.”
--
One hour later…
--
Everyone else became preoccupied with other things as Price stayed content with staring at the computer. He hadn’t blinked in over twenty minutes, waiting for something to happen.
USER: AMAZON IS ONLINE.
Suddenly, Price began typing furiously, making sure his confidant could see his message.
$: Long time, no talk, eh?
Amazon: Yes, it’s been too long, but I know you’re not here for talk. I have the info on Makarov you wanted.
$: Thanks, it will be much appreciated. For someone in his eighties, you seem to be very resourceful.
Amazon: When you’ve lived as long as I have, you tend to build up quite a number of bridges, making sure you don’t accidentally burn them, all which seems to happen a lot in our profession. By the way, this Intel will cost you.
$: Anything.
Amazon: You’ll get it with what I promised you, it’s sending now, Amazon out.
//////////////
CHAT SESSION ENDED.
Price waited by the printer, watching the papers go through. When the intel and images came out, he first looked at what he would have to do later for Amazon as a payment for the information. Seeing what he had to do, he smiled, folding up the paper for later.
“Well,” Nikolai asked, leaning back in a chair, “Where am I flying us now?”
Price held up a map, “Tajikistan.”



Sometime later, with the group in Nikolai’s Osprey, Nikolai turned to Price, who was sitting co-pilot.
“Can you tell me exactly what we’re looking for again?”
Price pulled out the list he folded off and re-read it.
“Well, if the info that Amazon got us is correct, then it appears that Makarov and the Ultranationalists are holding a large amount of weapons and vehicles in a warehouse partially built into the mountainside in northern Tajikistan, which as you know is a former territory of the USSR.”
“Yes, so?” Nikolai replied, “There are probably twenty or thirty other places like this controlled by Makarov, why is this one so special?”
“This one might have WMDs,” Price replied, his eyes never straying from the horizon, “And this time we’re the bad guys, no one’s going to know if they get launched until it’s already too late. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Nikolai nodded, “Da, are you sure the others are ok to do this? I mean, two just got shot and nearly burned to death, and the third got stabbed in the chest. Not exactly a team in top shape.”
Price was screwing a silencer onto the end of his rifle, “The intel said that Makarov doesn’t have this place very well guarded, as he thinks no one knows about it. If we can take out the few that are there, you can swoop in as we run out with all we need.”
Nikolai looked at his bag. “But you brought C4.”
Price smiled, “Well, anything we can’t carry…”
They stopped a few miles away, as they didn’t want to give away their position.  Price was the last to get off, talking to Nikolai. “We’ll be back in a few hours. If we need your help sooner, I’ll call you.”
With the Osprey flying off to a secluded area, the group of five began to move forward with Captain Price at point, never taking his eyes off the area ahead of him. Ghost and Soap began to talk amongst themselves.
“Soap, do you want me to take lead ahead of you? You need to make sure you’re ok.”
Soap nodded, “I’m fine, it’s you I’m watching out for, getting shot in the shoulder is a bit harder to recover from than a knife to the gut.”
Yuri silently watched and listened to them. He was astounded to see just how highly these soldiers regarded each other, nervous as he himself had only met them a few hours ago on request from Nikolai. He knew Nikolai trusted him, but Nikolai wasn’t here. He just had to hope that they would trust him as well.
They soon came upon the compound; it was just was Amazon said, unprotected. There were four guards standing outside, with an additional one inside a booth adjoining the only road in or out of the facility. Price looked back at the rest of the group.
“Ok, here’s the deal, we each pick out a target, and we all take them out at the same time, they’ll all be dead before they hit the ground, got it?” Everyone nodded, “Good.”
They all set up about 20 feet apart, with Ghost aiming at the guard in the booth. Confirming that they all had a perfect line of sight, Price began to count down, “Five, four, three, two, one.” They all fired simultaneously, the guards collapsing to the ground in an instant. Price looked at the scene in front of him. “Beautiful,” was all he could say.
Breaking open a door, they all rushed inside, beginning to look around at what was in the large warehouse. There were piles upon piles of different weapons, all with the ammo to match. There were a few vehicles here and there, even a helicopter, but that’s where the normality ended. Beyond that there were weapons and vehicles pre dating the current  conflict from different countries, a British Sten machine gun from WWII here, an American M16 assault rifle from Vietnam there…
Soap looked bemused at the whole situation, “Why do you think that they have all this rubbish?”
Price was just as confused, “The modern AKs and tanks make sense, but what the bloody hell are they doing with Willy’s Jeeps from World War II?”
Yuri was on one knee, tapping the ground, “He guys, why is the floor made of plexi-glass?” they all suddenly looked at the ground, which was made of glass and glowing with a faint purple light. Roach’s curiosity got the better of him, and he fired a pistol round off at the ground. The glass made a cracking noise, but it did not shatter, the bullet now stuck firmly into the glass. “Odd,” Price said, scraping the ground with his boot, “But nothing really surprises me at this point.”  
Ghost was on top of a wall of boxes, looking out at all the equipment on the other side. “What! Why’s there a B-52 in here?”
The rest of the group scrambled up to the wall of crates and stared out in awe. There was a B-52. Seven of them to be exact, along with Cobra attack helicopters, Russian MiG fighter jets, armored troop carriers, among other vehicles and supplies, extending all the way to the back of the building, which had to be a quarter mile away.
“God, I knew this building was built into the mountain,” Price gasped, “but damn.”
“There’s got to be millions, billions in equipment here, and we do know that Makarov has the man power to use it all.” Roach stated, scanning the room. “Perhaps the WMD Amazon told you about wasn’t a particular weapon, but all this equipment. If Makarov mobilized all this at once, it would be just as devastating.”
Price had pulled out a cigar nervously and began smoking it, “It doesn’t matter, it’s getting destroyed, all of it.” He started pulling blocks of C4 out of his bag, “Put one of these on every other support column, we have to make sure the whole mountain goes down.”
As everyone began to execute his order, Price went back to the forward section of the warehouse, which was looking more and more like a hangar every minute. He could still smell the sharp aroma of a bullet as he scanned the horizon through the window. From his point of view, everything looked clear, he felt a sense of relief as he knew for once that they could get out without any trouble.
Wait.
He took out his binoculars, looking at a blip on the edge of the horizon. He could see trucks, and a large number of them too, this was the only place that they could be headed. Cupping his hands, he yelled over the wall to his soldiers on the other side, “Hurry up, we’re going to have a lot of company in the next ten minutes!” He could hear them scrambling back over the wall.
He picked up his radio, “Nikolai, we need you to get to the warehouse, quick!”
Nikolai answered, “Is there going to be a firefight when I get there?”
“Yes there is, just please save us!” Price yelled.
Nikolai sighed heavily, “Fine, I’ll be at your location in fifteen minutes.”
Price turned off the radio and looked at his meager troops, “All right, the good news: Nikolai will be here in 15 minutes. The bad news? Makarov’s men will be here in 10. Place claymores at the doors, check your ammo, get to protected spots, and when I tell you, run like hell to the exfil point!” 
Ghost snuck over to a door, silently placing a Claymore anti-personnel mine in front of it. He set the tripwire so that when the door was opened, it would explode, sending hundreds of small metal pellets hurtling at the unlucky victim. While attaching the tripwire, he noticed a control panel with a simple on/off switch titled ‘Доступ крана.’ After thinking about it for a moment, the words clicked in his head ‘Crane access!’ He looked at the wire attached to the panel and saw it ran all the way up to the roof. Looking for a moment more, he saw that the entire portion of the ceiling and roof that was outside the mountain was on a set of tracks, and more importantly, could be opened!
“Captain Price,” Ghost yelled, “I have something over here that may be of use to us!” He pointed up towards the ceiling, and Price smiled, knowing that this would make their job even easier. He pulled out his radio and talked to Nikolai again. 
“New plan Nikolai, how big of a space do you need to land that thing?”
He could hear Nikolai on the other end thinking, “Hmm, the wingspan is 85 feet, I could touch this thing down on a platform 86 feet if you needed it.”
“That’s great,” Captain Price replied, “We just found out the roof opens, and there’s more than enough room for you to land.”
Nikolai sighed, “I knew I should have said no. Just have the roof open when I get there.” Nikolai was muttering as he hung up the radio. “I don’t get paid enough for this sobach'ya.”
Price flicked the switch on the control panel to start opening the ceiling door, it was loud, slow, and noticeable. “They’re going to know someone’s in here, so don’t expect the element of surprise,” Price warned them , “Just shoot, and when Nikolai lands through the ceiling, run like hell.” 
They waited for a few more minutes, hands nervously fingering the triggers. Soon they could hear the trucks pull up and hear individual voices in the crowd. Price looked between two crates and cold see them forming an arc around the front. Watching for a bit longer, he saw one pull out a bullhorn.
“IF YOU COME OUT AND SURRENDER NOW, WE WILL NOT KILL YOU. HIDING WILL BE SEEN AS AN ACT OF AGGRESSION AND WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH.”
“Load of bullocks,” Ghost whispered, disengaging the safety on his gun.
After a few more seconds, the man with the bullhorn spoke again. “FINE, YOUR CHOICE.”
All five tensed, waited as if they were sitting on gunpowder.
Then, someone lit the match.
Two of Makarov’s men burst in through the two doors, the Claymores taking them out quickly. As more rushed in to take their place, they were soon cut down by the group of five in their secluded areas. This went on for five or six minutes, wave after wave of soldiers running in, and quickly being killed by whoever got their sights on them first, but the inevitable as still unavoidable.
“Christ, I’m out!” Soap yelled to the others, seeing that he was out of ammunition.
“Me too,” Yuri replied, taking out a few more with his pistol, “What now?”
“Hope Nikolai gets here before we’re reduced to bits of flesh on the floor,” Price answered, throwing a grenade at the entrance.
They all could suddenly hear screaming from outside, as if all of the remaining forces were screaming at once.
“They’re readying for a charge, brace yoursel-!”
He didn’t have time to finish as suddenly a huge explosion sounded from outside. As their hearing came back, they could hear propeller blades and heavy weapons fire as Nikolai fired rockets at enemy forces. 
“Good god Nikolai’s here, get ready to run,” Price yelled to the group, “Soap, you get in the cockpit with Nikolai and help him, Ghost, cover us from the rear.”
They both nodded, “Got it.”
Soon enough the Osprey came down into the building, landing with grace (or lack thereof) that only a former Soviet pilot has. As the rear hatch dropped down, everyone sprinted into the back. After Ghost dived in, Price yelled up to the front, “We’re all in, get us out of here, now!” 
As Nikolai lifted the ramp and gunned the rotors, putting them to full power right away. The downdraft began throwing boxes about, making one land on an old control panel which connected to the mysterious purple glass floor. It began to glow, shining up above and around it, blinding everyone within sight of it.
“What the bloody hell is happening?” Soap yelled, trying to be heard over the commotion below them.
As the Osprey was completely enveloped in the light, the occupants on board all experienced a brief moment of weightlessness, before suddenly appearing over a wooded forest covered with snow. The sudden teleportation caused the aircraft to list dangerously to the right, shredding it’s blades in the trees.
“Hold on, we’re going to crash!” Nikolai yelled.
With only one propeller left, the Osprey flipped over hitting a tree as the aircraft dived upside down into the snow. A sound of crunching and tearing metal could be heard for miles around as a tree fell between the cockpit and back area, cutting off access between the two. 
Then, there was silence.
The nearby residents of a small town had just begun to stir from their slumber as the crash happened, being heard for miles. The only one who had witnessed it was running, galloping into town…



An orange pony wearing a cowboy hat was galloping into town with a look of panic on her face. As others began to exit their homes to see what the noise was, she began to explain what she saw.
“I don’t know what it was; I was out gettin’ ready for the day when suddenly this big silver dragon-lookin’ monster just appeared out of thin air! It fell to the ground roaring and smoke has been billowing up out of where it landed!”
“Applejack, calm down,” a purple unicorn tried to reassure as she walked up to her friend, “We’ll gather up the other girls and go see what it is, if it really is a dragon, we’ll just get rid of it like we did the last one. Well, Fluttershy will at least.” 
The orange pony smiled, “Thanks Twi, I just hope we solve the problem soon, after the Parasprites, I can’t deal with something else ruining my crops!”
“It’ll be ok.” Twilight reassured again, “I don’t like boasting, but I think that the Elements of Harmony will be able to sort this out quickly.”



Roach was the first to gain consciousness, first noticing that he was oddly cold. ‘Weren’t we just flying over a desert?’ It was pitch black inside the overturned body of the plane, so he reached for his flashlight and turned it on, scanning around. He tried to stand up, but rockets of pain shot through his legs, sending him back to the ground. He crawled over to Captain Price, who had a nasty gash on his face, trying to wake him up by shaking him. When that didn’t work, he had an idea, taking his canteen and pouring water all over Price’s face, who woke with a sputter.
Price looked around, “Where are we?”
Roach shrugged, “Hell if I know, it’s freezing cold outside.”
After waking Ghost and Yuri, Price checked Roach’s leg. “Yup. It’s broken alright. Ghost, mind helping him while Yuri and I open the back?” Ghost put Roach’s arm around his shoulder holding him up, “Don’t worry, I got ya.” 
Price and Yuri were standing next to the emergency release handle of the door, each gripping a side. It took all their strength to open it, but they were greeted with a satisfying noise of the door creaking open. Yuri hoisted himself over the lip of the frame and landed in…snow?
“Captain Price, I’m afraid there needs to be a bit of an explanation,” He said, motioning to the snow around him.
“Well, that makes two of us.” He replied, checking his rifle.
After hoisting Ghost and Roach out, Ghost brought up the obvious, “Where the hell are Soap and Nikolai?”
Price motioned to the front of the wreck, “Well, they were sitting in the front, I’d imagine they’re still strapped to their seats.
They plodded through the snow to the front, and peered in through the only visible windshield panel.
Ghost looked in, and after a few seconds, turned back to the others, “They look ok, I can see both their chests moving, and other than hanging upside down, the only damage seems to be that Soap’s bleeding a little bit.
Price turned to the rest of the group. “Ok, Ghost, prop up Roach against a tree so you two can keep watch while-”
Yuri stopped Price and pointed behind him, “What the hell are those things?” 
Price turned around and saw six multicolored ponies, all looking a bit cartoonishly proportioned. 
“Probably nothing,” Price reassured, “we might have landed near a circus or something.”
As he continued talking one of the ponies, to their surprise, talked:
“Hey, we ain’t just some circus ponies, who do ya’ll think you are anyway?”
This caught all four by surprise, Ghost began to raise his rifle to shoot, but Price knocked it back down. “Hold your fire.”
There was a brief moment of silence, before Roach whispered, “What now?”
Price holstered his pistol. “We run.” He threw Roach over his shoulder who winced in pain, and motioned for the others to follow him. “We’ll come back for the others later.”
Rainbow Dash began flapping her wings, “Hey! Get back here!”
Right as she was about to speed off after them, Applejack bit her tail and forced her back onto the ground, “We don’t know what those things are Sugarcube, it would be best if we not go out and attack them. Yet.”
Folding her front hooves and slumping to the ground, the blue pegasus muttered, “I coulda’ caught them.”
As they began to inspect the strange craft that had crashed, Fluttershy looked into the front panel that Ghost had been looking into moments before. “Oh my. There’s two of those things asleep in there, and one looks hurt.” The other five stopped and turned to Fluttershy, “You see any way we can get them out?” Twilight questioned.
“No, not without breaking the glass.” Fluttershy replied.
“Let me try,” Twilight said, concentrating on the panel, “I’ve been wanting to try this new physical manipulation spell.” Twilight pointed her horn at the glass and began concentrating. Her horn began to glow, and a small aurora formed around it. Soon, the panel of aircraft glass that she was concentrating on popped out of its frame, being held in the air by magic.
As Twilight lowered the glass onto the snow, Rainbow Dash cautiously peeked inside. After realizing that the two odd monkey-things were stuck in their seats, she set out trying to rip their restraints. After about five minutes of thrashing around, Twilight poked her head inside, “That does look like a release button next to the seat. You do realize that, right?” Rainbow clicked the red release buttons, and the two creatures fell to the floor. “Heh heh, I missed that part.”
With Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash carrying the bleeding creature, going up ahead to get him back quicker, the other four carried the larger, more portly creature back to town.
“What do ya’ll think it is?” Applejack asked.
“Whatever it is, it has an odd sense of fashion, just look at the excessive use of blacks and grays!” Rarity commented.
“Right before that big boom, my Pinkie Sense was going crazy!” Pinkie Pie excitedly spoke. 
“I’m just wondering what these things he has with him are,” she said as she read the labels of the items on his belt quite confused, “M18 Smoke Generator? Caffeine Pills? I have no clue what any of this stuff is.”
“Maybe we can ask him when he wakes up,” Pinkie said, eyeing the caffeine pills, “We could have a party!”
“Well Pinkie, I think that will have to wait,” Applejack said, trying to calm Pinkie down, “First we have to find out where they came from, and more importantly, where their friends went.”



Soap woke up staring at the wooden ceiling of an unknown building. Looking around, he noticed that he was on a basic cot, in a small area made of dividers in an even bigger room. There was no medical equipment around, save for the cotton bandages he could feel wrapped around his head. He tried to get up, but he didn’t know whether his current surroundings were friendly or hostile. Suddenly, he heard feminine voices talking on the other side of a partition.
“Well girls, I can’t tell you much about him or his friend. The taller one’s name seems to be John from that necklace he was wearing, and when you brought him in he had a slight concussion and a small cut on his forehead, nothing life threatening though, which leads me to ask, where did you find them?”
“Thank you again Nurse Redheart,” another voice spoke, “We found them out in the woods, we think that they had something to do with that loud boom this morning.”
The voices sounded American, and that was enough for Soap.
“Hello, who’s out there, where am I?”
He was totally unprepared for what happened next.
A four foot tall purple pony walked between the curtains, and looked right at him, “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, prized student of Princess Celest-” She didn’t have time to finish, as Soap had jumped off of the cot and had backed against the wall. 
“Who are you, where are my friends, WHAT’S HAPPENING!?”
As he backed against the wall, Twilight also backed up to give him room.
“Well, that’s something we want to know as well, if you wouldn’t mind telling us.”
Soap began reaching for his sidearm. Gone. He reached for the shotgun on his back. Gone. In desperation, he reached for the knife on his belt. Also gone. Twilight noticed that he was reaching for the equipment he had, which she theorized were weapons. She tried to reassure him.
“We’re not going to hurt you. I see you’re nervous, but relax, so are we. We just want to know who you are, how you got here, and most importantly, where your friends went.” 
Soap, seeing no other option, sat down on the cot, trying to calm down. “I’ll tell you, but first, you said something about another one like me. Where is he?”
Twilight nodded, “Nikolai, if you would come in please.”
Nikolai walked in, ducking under the curtain rod to stand next to Soap, “Soap, my friend, I didn’t believe it at first, but it’s true, for once we crashed in a place full of things not trying to kill us!”
Twilight cocked her head, “Soap?”
> Cold Alliance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ch 2



Cold Alliance


Somewhere in the Everfree Forest…

Price set Roach down as Yuri and Ghost scanned the area around them.

"It looks like we're clear; I'll just watch the rear to make sure they didn't fallow us."

Yuri leaned against a tree, checking his Desert Eagle for damage, "Well, now what?"

Price was thinking, trying to figure out their next course of action. Not sure what to do, he stayed silent.

"Well? Any ideas at all?" Roach asked.

"No, I have absolutely no ideas." Price said, "The SAS doesn't exactly train you for situations like this. Horses, let alone talking ones aren't exactly a priority there."

Ghost nodded, "Where the hell are we anyway? That bright light thing just before we crashed looked like something out of an old science film, and wherever we think we are, we're probably wrong."

Price was already smoking another cigar.

"Jesus, how many of those things do you have on you?" Ghost asked.

"Enough to keep me occupied," And with that, Price started plodding back in the general direction of the crash, "Let's see if they're still there."

Soap, Nikolai, and the ponies had moved from the Infirmary to what looked to be a library built inside a tree. They were being stared at by six of colorful ponies as Soap tried to find the words to say what he felt, yet nothing came to mind. Nikolai spoke first.

"Excuse me, was that a telescope I saw on the roof?"

"Yes, why?" Twilight replied

"I'd like to use it to pinpoint the wreck and where our friends may have gone; it'd make our job easier."

Twilight nodded, "Sure, just keep following the stairs until you reach the top."

And with that, Nikolai went upstairs, leaving Soap with the ponies.

"Well, um…hello."

A pink pony with poofy hair shouted back at him, "Hi!"

As the room became silent again, the tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Looking for something, anything to say, he looked towards the purple unicorn that had talked to him earlier.

"You, what was your name again, Twilight Twinkle?"

"Sparkle." She replied.

"Yeah." He gathered his thoughts and continued. "You said you wanted to find my friends, right? Well, so do I."

"How would we go about finding them?" She asked, "When we found you, they ran off into the forest."

The words stung a little as Soap thought of his friends, the ones he relied on, leaving him. "Well, if they do anything I'd expect them to do, they're probably looking for Nikolai and myself right now, back where you found us."

Twilight spoke, enthusiastic about finding the rest of the group. "That's great; in that case we should get moving so we can-."

"I need my gear." Soap interrupted.

"What?"

"The stuff I brought with me, I need it. They'll know you don't mean harm when they see me with my gear." Soap was trying his best to keep away from the words 'gun,' or 'weapon,' less stir up any more questions.

"Why wouldn't they trust us if you didn't have your gear?"

"Just please, trust me on this. It has to do with how we do things back where I'm from. Please, trust me."

As he pleaded, Applejack tapped Twilight on the shoulder. Turning to Soap as she led Twilight to the next room, she said, "We'll be back in the whip of a tail."

Once they were alone, Twilight asked, "Get any weird feelings about him wanting his gear? I have a feeling some of his things are weapons, and that knife didn't look like it was for cooking either."

"While I don't know for sure what his intentions are, I know he doesn't want to hurt us. Ah' have a feeling that if he wanted to escape or hurt us, he would have tried already."

"Well, should we trust him and go with him to find the others?"

"Ah' think it work out for the best. If they really are dangerous, it would be good if they were corralled into one place. I think somepony else should know besides us. Some, royal pony."

Twilight nodded, "I agree, Princess Celestia should probably know about this, she'll know what to do next."

She levitated the quill and parchment over from the side table and started writing, dictating to Applejack as she wrote:

Dear Princess Celestia,

While this letter does not contain any notes about friendship, it does contain information I think you should know about. In the past few hours or so, a group of travelers have somehow ended up here in Ponyville. The thing is, there nothing like I've ever seen before. While I can't exactly explain what they look like, the technology they have is very different from what we have, and I think it would be best if we could see you right away. We have two of them with us, and while one is acting very friendly toward us, the other is a bit jumpy. I promise to be safe and keep a wary eye on them as we look for the other four that were with them.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight rolled up the letter, sealing it with a ribbon. She walked over to the small basket in the center of the room and started lightly tapping the purple dragon inside.

"Spike, Spike, wake up, I need you to do something."

The purple dragon tossed and turned, but stayed asleep, so Twilight tried tapping him a bit harder.

"Spike, Spike! This is really important."

Again, he moved around, but didn't wake up.

Applejack winked at Twilight, "Don't worry, ah' got this one."

She leaned over and whispered into Spike's ear, "Oh Spike, I think Rarity wants to talk to yah'."

Spike quickly sat up, looking around excitedly. After a few seconds, he looked at Twilight, with both a sad and slightly annoyed look on his face.

"You're not Rarity."

"No, but you're a dragon who can send letters to Princess Celestia, which is exactly what I need you to do right now."

Spike sighed, "Fine, give me the letter."

Twilight passed him the rolled up letter, and holding it in his hand, he exhaled a magical breath of fire over it, sending the letter to Princess Celestia in Canterlot.

"Good, let's hope she reads it soon."

"What was that about anyway?" Spike asked, groggily getting back into his bed.

"Oh," Twilight replied, "Just some…visitors."

In the next room Soap was left with the four other ponies staring at him. The aura of awkwardness had regained control of the room as three of the four just stared at him. The fourth, Rarity on the other hand, was thinking about Soap.

She stared at his outfit, 'Hmm, functional, suits his needs, a bit plain, but yet, so different.'

Breaking the silence, she asked him, "Excuse me, Mr. MacTavish, what is your occupation back wherever you're from?"

Soap rocked his head back and forth, still thinking that his life as a soldier back home was dangerous to discuss.

"I am a…" He thought for a moment more as the ponies leaned in, "Tactical Specialist."

"A wha?" Pinkie Pie questioned.

"I help people get out of tough situations, whether it be by stealth or force, always to protect the ones I care about most."

Rarity looked at him again, trying to analyze him, 'He looks and acts though, yet appears to also have a compassionate side for those he cares about. He has a barbaric pattern of war paint on his face, uses force in his job, and yet acts with such dignity and grace when in front of a group of ladies. I'll have to keep an eye on him, he seems…interesting.'

As Twilight and Applejack walked out of the next room, Soap questioned Twilight.

"Ms. Sparkle, have you come to a decision?"

She nodded, "Yes, we've decided that if it gains the trust of your friends, then you can have your gear. Just please, be careful." She brought out Soap's things from a dresser drawer and gave it to him.

Soap began checking his things, making a mental list in his head while the ponies watched. 'Ka-Bar Knife? Check. M1A1? Out of ammo, but check. Ranger? Six shells, use wisely, check. M9? Check, 6 rounds in gun, extra mag on vest. Journal?' He looked in his breast pocket, sighing with relief as the leather bound journal was still there. 'Check.'

Nikolai walked down from upstairs, having found what he was looking for.

"I can see smoke billowing from about five klicks east of here. If they ran father away like you said, I could only imagine that they'd be more eastward then."

"Good." Soap replied, "But before we go, I think we should get to know your names. I'm John, or 'Soap' if you want, this is Nikolai, and I know that's Twilight, but what's the rest of your names?"

"Hello darling, I'm Rarity, aspiring fashionista."

"I'm Applejack, apple farmer and best darn rodeo pony you'll ever see, thank ya' very much."

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie, and I work at Sugarcube Corner!"

"And I'm Rainbow Dash, Captain of the Weather Patrol and best young flyer in all of Equestria!"

"Captain?" Soap replied, "Seems we have something in common."

Soap and Nikolai were gradually warming up to the ponies, as they were to them, but Soap had one more question. "Who's that one hiding behind the couch?"

The five ponies looked behind the couch, where Fluttershy was cowering on the floor.

"C'mon Fluttershy," Twilight spoke in between grunts, trying to push her out, "They're friendly, they're not going to hurt you!"

Nikolai looked behind the couch, making eye contact, trying to comfort her in Russian.

"Я обещаю не ушибить вас маленькое одно." It didn't help much.

Hearing Nikolai's deep voice in a different language, Fluttershy shrieked and fell over, frozen in that position.

"Is she ok?" Soap asked.

"This happens a lot." Rainbow Dash sighed, putting a hoof over her face.

"I got it." Nikolai said, taking the frozen Fluttershy and putting her under his arm, "Let's go."
	
> Safety Set To 'ON'
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3



Safety Set To 'ON'


As they walked through town, all eyes were on the two humans. No pony had ever seen such strange creatures before, let alone walking down the main street of their town. Silence loomed as all ponies stopped dead in their tracks to let the six mares and two humans through.

"It feels like everyone is watching us." Nikolai said to Soap.

"That's because they are."

Nikolai tried to give a calm face to the crowd, but could only muster a nervous grin, only adding to the tension in the town. Once on the edge of town, Soap reached behind his back and handed Nikolai his Ranger shotgun, "Watch your back, we don't know what's out there."

Twilight silently listened, hearing his comment, worried at how aggressive he sounded.

"It's really just bunnies and squirrels, nothing to be worried about," She reassured, trying to get him off edge, "you'll be fine."

Soap made sure to flick on the safety of his pistol. "For all our sakes I hope you're right."

Price and the rest of the group had arrived back at the crashed Osprey. They were all wet and freezing as none of them had prepared for the cold, and unlike Soap and Nikolai they had been in the below freezing weather for about two hours now.

"Nothing's here sir, it looks like they found them and took them out, somehow without breaking the windshield," Ghost said, holding the perfect pane of glass, "The marks in the snow look like they dragged him, and I don't think he would have went in the direction of the hoof marks by his own will."

"Well then, you know where we're going then." Price said, "We don't leave anyone behind."

Soap, Nikolai, and the ponies had been walking for about a half hour now. The snow was getting harder to walk through as it turned to slush in the late morning sun.

"So when we find your friends, what do you plan on doing?" Twilight asked Soap.

"Well, I'll tell them that you all mean no harm, as if they ran off in the way you described, they're going to be acting very cautious. We haven't exactly seen many friendly faces lately. But whatever happens, I'll need you to stand back when we get to them. Three of the four are sane, but the fourth is unpredictable."

Inside he thought, 'Please Price, don't do anything stupid.'

About 10 minutes later, they were a mile into the Everfree Forest. The girls were quiet as Soap and Nikolai scanned their surroundings for any trace of their team. Seeing as they were about 50 feet in front of the ponies, Nikolai began whispering to Soap.

"So, if we do happen to find them, what do you plan on doing?"

"Well, while I'm unable to say I trust them one hundred percent, I can say that they're one of the more trustworthy faces we've met recently. If things do happen to go south I think that if we could take on Shepard and most of Shadow Company, we could take on a few horses."

"Ok then, say we do happen to find Price and the others and make peace with the horses. Got any clue what to do after that? There are still a lot of questions we're just avoiding about how we got here."

"That's just a bridge we'll cross when we get to it. For now, we can just stick to finding the others."

After a few more minutes of walking, Soap stopped, seeing something in the distance.

"Price? Price!" Soap yelled, waiting for a reply.

"Soap, thank god!" Price yelled, running up.

Soap turned to Nikolai, "Go back and tell the ponies to stop until I give my signal. I want to explain our situation to Price first."

Nikolai nodded and ran back, as Soap walked forward.

"You have no clue how good it is to see ya lad." Price said, "When you and Nikolai were unconscious, we thought some strange horse things captured you."

"Well, about that…" Soap replied, turning around and whistling loudly. Price stood dumbstruck as Nikolai walked up next to the ponies.

"Whatever you thought about them, you're most likely wrong. You see this bandage on my head? They applied it. They were helping us." Price didn't reply, as he was trying to take in what he had been told. "I can vouch for them, and on the off chance things go south," he said, whispering, "I'm pretty sure the remnants of Task Force 141 could take out a few colorful horses."

Price sighed, than nodded. "Well, I guess we have no other options right now. Fine, but I'm keeping a wary eye."

Soap gave a slight smile, "Good, I'll tell them."

After walking back to the ponies, Soap talked to Twilight, "They've agreed to come with us, but they're still suspicious. Try not to do anything too sudden." He looked at Pinkie Pie, who was excited at the prospect at making new friends. "Especially you Pinkie."

As they walked back to town, each group of friends kept to themselves, talking mostly about the new faces they had all met.

On the equine side…

"Why do you think that one human was wearing a mask?" Rarity asked, "I think it even had a skull on it!"

"What about the one with all the strange markings on his arms?" Applejack asked about Yuri's tattoos, "Do they have Cutie Marks too?"

Twilight was mostly concerned with Price, "He looked like the oldest, and I think he was the leader of their group. Was he the one Soap was referring to as 'unpredictable'?" Twilight sighed and continued, "I just hope Celestia gets my message soon."

And on the human side…

"Wait, so you're telling me these things have villages?" Ghost asked Soap while everyone listened.

"Yeah, with buildings specializing in certain trades and services, just like one of our towns back home. The similarity is striking."

"Well, what should we do when we get there sir?" Ghost asked, this time to Price.

"Nothing too rash," Price said, "We'll play our hand as we go along. If anything happens, keep alert and have your weapon ready at your side."

"Well, about that…" Soap interrupted. "One of them, the purple one, Twilight, I think she knew that my rifle was a weapon. She was even a bit hesitant to let me bring it along. If we stay here any amount of time I think that they'll-"

"Hey hey hey!" Yuri cut in, "Does anyone know how we even got here to begin with?" He looked around, but everyone shook their heads. "One minute we're in the Osprey over a desert, then we're in this bright light and suddenly transported over a snowy forest in a land where ponies rule. If I missed something I would enjoy being clued in."

"That's the thing, none of us know. I think for now we should just let a sleeping dog lie, and when we stabilize ourselves here, then and only then we'll worry about how to get back."

Everyone nodded in agreement to which Soap replied, "Good."

As they walked through town again, all eyes were still on the humans, who could do nothing but walk. They all kept their heads down trying to avoid eye contact, save for Price who was eyeing every pony he saw, sending some back to their houses in fear of this new creature.

Once safely back inside the library, a new silence landed on the group as they strained to figure out what to do now.

"Well…I guess we should introduce the rest of our group." Soap said, motioning for Yuri to begin talking.

"Yuri, friend of Nikolai."

"Gary, Gary Sanderson. Most people call me 'Roach.'"

"Captain John Price." Price bluntly said.

Ghost didn't say a word, staying silent.

"Hey, Ghost?" Soap said, "Excuse my friend here, he isn't exactly the most talkative guy out there. This is Ghost, and no, he doesn't take the mask off."

A bit unsure at the somewhat cold greeting, the ponies also replied.

After seeing Roach wince in pain, Soap motioned to him, "Fluttershy, it would be great if you could help Roach, his leg appears to be broken." Fluttershy nodded quietly and began bandaging Roach's leg, wrapping it around the makeshift splint Ghost and Yuri had made in the forest.

As the everlasting silence returned for what seemed to be the hundredth time, Spike walked in with a scroll.

"Twilight, Princess Celestia just sent back a message about-WOAH! Who are these guys?"

"Bloody hell!" Soap returned, "Is that a dragon?"

"I'll tell you later Spike, what does the letter say?"

"Um," He fumbled with the ribbon on the scroll. "She talked about bringing your new guests to Canterlot Castle, and that a few Pegasus Guards should be here soon to bring you all there."

"Anything else?" Twilight asked.

"No," Spike said, "It looks like she had it written in a hurry too. Something important must be happening in Canterlot right now."

A thud of hoofs hitting the ground sounded from just outside the library. "Well, that must be them." Spike said, still staring awestruck at the new guests.

Twilight quickly pulled Soap and Nikolai away to talk to them.

"We're going to meet with Princess Celestia, the ruler of our nation and eternal sun goddess of Equestria. This is really serious. While I trust you, your friends seem a little, uh, untrusting at the moment. I need to be sure they will be ok around her, do you both understand?"

"Yeah," Soap nodded, "Back where I'm from, we have a Queen who is treated with the upmost respect and security. I take it you feel the same way here about your Princess."

She nodded, "Yes. Can you please just make sure your friends stay in line?"

"I'm sure they'll all straighten up when they realize we're meeting royalty. Even they have standards."

"Thank you," Twilight said, "This first meeting with Celestia is important for all of you."

Soon enough after a brief flight in chariots to Canterlot Castle, they were at the door to Celestia's Throne Room. A lone guard stopped the humans:

"I'm afraid I'll have to confiscate any weapons before you enter."

He took all their knives and multi-tools, but let them keep their guns, as he had no clue what they were. Price chuckled as they entered the room behind the ponies.

It was the humans turn to look awestruck as they entered the room. Spread about the walls were tapestries which they could only guess told stories about the creation of this odd place. On either side on a long red carpet stood sentry two guards wearing armor reminiscent of ancient Roman armor standing confidently at the base of the throne. At the top of the stairs sat who they all assumed to be Princess Celestia. They all noted that she was bigger than all of the other ponies, and had a set of wings and a horn, a combination they had not yet seen. Seeing as none of them were able to speak, Princess Celestia began talking.

"Well, Twilight did mention that her new guests were a bit different, I was at least hoping that they were capable of intelligent speech."

After wiping the dumbfounded look off of his face, Soap stepped forward. "Um…greetings, your majesty. Please excuse us; we're at a loss for words at the moment. Traveling to a faraway land with few similarities to your own tends to do that."

"The way you speak, it makes me think you've met royalty before."

"Well…" Soap smiled as he remembered being presented his Victoria Cross by the Queen for his actions in the Royal Army, before he joined the SAS. "Yes your highness, I have."

The Princess smiled in returned, "Then it's great to know that you all come from a civilized place…wherever that may be. Where exactly are you from?"

Soap turned to Price, unsure of what to say. Price saw this and spoke, "Don't worry lad, I got this one."

"To be honest," Price said, "We know where we're from, a world not too unlike this one, but we have no clue how we got here. One moment we're in our world, the next, here. Poof."

"Poof?"

"Well, a bright flash of light, but that's beside the point. All we know is that we're here, and we shouldn't be."

"Do you have any idea on how you all plan on getting home?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not a clue, up to this point, we've just tried to get back together. We've been avoiding the question as to how we got here really. I suppose that if we got a closer look at our point of entrance, we could at least get an idea of what happened."

"Yes, and I'm quite sure Twilight and her friends would be more than delighted to help you." The 6 mares in the room became wide eyed at this. "It would be a great lesson in teamwork, considering how these gentlemen seem to work together for a living. Right Twilight?"

"Oh, well..." she saw the questioning look on Celestia's face, as if to say 'you have no choice,' "Yes, we would all be very glad to help, right girls?"

They all mumbled a collective 'yes.'

"Good, glad to see this matter settled."

As the ponies and humans began to leave, Celestia looked at Price

"Now, before you leave, Captain Price is it?"

"Yes your majesty?" Price replied.

"Could you please give me a bit of a background on you and your people? While I trust Twilight's intuition on you and your friends, I'd like to know a bit more about you, even if it is just to satisfy my own curiosity. Would you mind humoring my request?"

Price smiled. This was the first time in a while he received a warm reception from a foreign leader. Warm, as in they weren't trying to kill him.

"Sure, it would be my pleasure, what would you like to know?"

" Well, to start off, what 'are' you? Myself, and most of my subjects, are 'ponies.' What are you called?"

"Humans. To use a scientific name, Homo Sapien, but that's not used often. Think of us as big, hairless, monkeys."

Celestia laughed, "Good to know you have a sense of humor. Now, Twilight referred to you as Captain Price, is that your full name, or just a title?"

"It's just a title. My name is Jonathan Price, and Captain is just a title."

"In what group are you a Captain? Here in Canterlot, we have a Royal Guard that is managed by a Captain, and one of the ponies you met earlier, Rainbow Dash, is Captain of the Weather Patrol."

Price sighed, "I'm sure we would have to face up to this sooner or later, so I think it would be best to tell you now. Soap, the human you saw earlier with the bandage around his head, told me that he told the other ponies that he was a 'Tactical Specialist,' saying that he helps people get out of tough situations, whether it be by stealth or force, always to protect the ones he cares about most. While that is true, there's more to it." He pointed to the Task Force 141 insignia on his right sleeve, a blue spade with a skull, knife, pair of wings, and two olive branches. "This symbol shows that I am part of an elite group of soldiers meant to infiltrate enemy lands, secure anything that is needed for the good of our country and it's allies, and if needed…" He sighed, "Kill."

Both he and Celestia sighed at this, but he soon continued.

"It amazes me to see how peaceful your world is. Ours is so extremely volatile that it requires people like us to quell anything that might try to disrupt the little peace that we have. Right before we got here, we were fighting for our lives to destroy enemy equipment that would have been used to attack our home soil. That machine we crashed in was what was bringing us to safety, and then we were inexplicably brought here."

Celestia suddenly had a serious aura about here, as she readied to give Price an important question:

"Do you enjoy killing?"

Price took his M1911 out of his holster and put it on a side table, "No."

Celestia raised an eye at this and continued, "If you do not enjoy doing this, then why do you continue to do it?"

Price felt his side, remembering where to bullet struck him on the bridge with Zakeyheve.

"I don't do this because I want to; I do this because I have to. That's it, nothing else."

"Elaborate, please."

"Well, many, many years ago I joined my country's army, partially because it was a job, and partially because it was family tradition to have at least some time in the army. After my first tour of duty in hostile territory was over, I joined up again, this time in an elite squadron of troopers. We would fight the fights that no one else could. By that time, I had already been in the army for ten years. After coming home from there a hero, I had one more job opportunity available to me, to be a part of an even more elite group of people who not only go out and attack threats, but act as the first line of defense against anyone who would want to attack us. The more I worked there, the more I felt that it became my responsibility to protect my land, that if something happened anywhere, it would personally be my fault. I guess the feeling just never went away."

Celestia nodded, satisfied. "Thank you. But one more question:" She picked Price's M1911 off of the table and brought it close to her face, "What is this device? I've seen each of you with one of these, but I have no idea what role it could possibly fulfill." Price had the magazine in his pocket, so he knew it wouldn't discharge, but he still was a bit nervous. It was his gun after all.

"May I see it?" Price asked.

Celestia complied, levitating the pistol back into his hand. Price made quick work of the gun, taking it apart and laying out all of the pieces in front of Celestia.

"This device, when apart, is absolutely useless, just hunks of strangely formed metal." He began reassembling the gun with such pace that only years of repetition gives someone. "But when together, it becomes a force so powerful, that if you or your guards knew what it really was, I wouldn't be let within a mile of Canterlot with it." After unloading the bullets from the magazine, he popped it in pulled the slide back, making the satisfying noise of a gun being cocked. "This," he said holding the gun by its barrel, "Is a gun. Peacemaker, warmonger, devastator, it all depends on who you are and how you use it. It's perhaps one of my people's greatest achievements."

Even Celestia's guards leaned forward, curious to see what exactly what this device was and what it could do. Celestia herself looked puzzled, wondering how such a small device would be able to cause so much devastation. "Is there any way we could be given a demonstration?" One of her guards asked.

"Well…is there anything you wouldn't mind broken?" Price asked.

Celestia smirked, and then pointed to a bust of a griffon in the corner. "A former Griffon Delegate to Equestria, Sir Thick Feathers has recently stepped down from his position due to participating in a counterfeiting ring specializing in important documents. I was going to just return the bust, but, if that device can really devastate…"

Price nodded, and loaded the bullets back into the pistol. After flicking off the safety, he pointed at the bust of the griffon 50 feet across the room. Holding his breath, he took aim and fired. The 45 caliber bullet sent a solid crack right down the middle of the marble bust, the shockwave of the bullet breaking it into thousands of pieces.

Looking back at the guards, the two next to the throne were awestruck at this device. Looking at Celestia, Price saw that even she was leaning a bit more forward than before. He flicked the safety back on, twirled the gun on his finger, and stuck it back in the holster.

"And there are still six shots left." Price said with a smirk.

Seeing the Princess quite, Price posed a question of his own.

"Permission to speak your Majesty?" Price asked.

"Permission granted, but please, there's no need to be this formal all the time."

Thank you," Price said, relaxing a bit, "now that I've told you about my people, would you mind answering a single question?"

"Very well, what do you wish to know?"

"I told you that we have no clue about how we got here. Do you have any clue?"

"Well, while I do not know exactly what happened, I felt a large surge of energy flow throughout Equestria at approximately when you arrived in your machine. The odd thing was that whatever brought you here wasn't powered by the soft glow of magic; it was powered by a sharper energy, like lightning. That's all I've been able to gather, sorry."

Price nodded, "Thank you. Neither myself nor my men wish to be a burden on you or your people, but is there any place we can stay? Winter isn't exactly a forgiving season."

Celestia motioned to the door, "I'm more than sure that Twilight and her friends can quarter you in their homes until we find another solution."

Price sighed under his breath, "Thank you Princess. If that's all that is needed, I think I will re-join my men."

"That is all, thank you Captain Price."

As Price left he thought to himself, 'Well, this will certainly be interesting.'
> In Formation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4


Get In Formation

Outside the throne room, all six ponies and all of the Task Force, minus Price, were waiting for Price to finish his audience with Celestia. Remembering what she had said earlier, Soap asked Twilight a question.
“Twilight, you said you were Princess Celestia’s prized student?” He questioned.
“Yes,” she replied, “why do you ask?”
“Just wondering is all. We have a Queen back where we’re from, but your Princess seems to actually be in charge.”
“What, is someone else in power instead of your Queen?” Twilight asked Soap.
“Well, it’s complicated. About three hundred years ago, the Royal Family used to be in power, but started losing it as the country’s needs changed. Now the Queen is no more than a figurehead and an extension of tradition more or less. We have a group of people who get together and vote on things. Our Queen’s held the throne for about sixty five years, how long has Celestia been in power?”
Twilight replied without skipping a beat, “Over a thousand years at least.”
Soap and the others leaned forward, amazed. “A thousand years? How?”
Looking at her friends, Twilight said, “I’m going to assume that your land is quite different from ours. I can explain more when we get back to the library, but we need to wait for your friend…”
“Price.” Soap said.
“Price. As soon as he gets back, we can leave.”
As if on que, Price walked out looking quite calm. “Well, she knows just about as much as we do lads. Nothing.”
“Now what should we do?” Nikolai asked, “It’s not as if we have some safe house here filled with supplies that we can go hide in until backup arrives.”
“About that,” Price said, looking at the ponies, “I don’t wish to impose on you all, but the Princess said that you wouldn’t mind quartering us in your homes, only for a bit. We understand if you can’t, we’ll just take shelter in our crashed-”
“Nonsense!” Rarity said, “I’m more than sure that we can help you, we wouldn’t just push you out in the cold just because you’re new here, what kind of hosts would we be if we did that? The only problem is, I only have enough room at my boutique for one of you, I couldn’t run my shop if there were six of you running around.” She looked at her friends, “Would any of you care to help?”
Applejack crossed her hooves, “Well, ah’m sure one of you can stay up in the loft of my barn, lots of room up there.”
Pinkie smiled, looking at them, “Mr. and Mrs. Cake have a spare room under their shop, I don’t think they would mind letting someone borrow it.”
Fluttershy looked at the floor, talking quietly, “I have a spare bedroom at my cottage, and I’m sure the animals wouldn’t mind too much.”
Rainbow Dash looked at and spoke directly to Nikolai, “You’re not afraid of heights, right? If you can find a way to keep from falling through the clouds, you can stay at my cloud house, you seem cool enough.”
Finally, Twilight shrugged, “There’s always an extra couch at the library, besides, I’d like to ask you a few more questions about where you come from, perhaps I could even help you find a way back.”
Each of the soldiers relaxed a bit at the prospect of having a warm place to sleep for what seemed to be the first time in forever. After sleeping on the United States’ submarines and TF 141 safe houses for the past few weeks, this was a pleasant change of pace.
“Well, if Nikolai’s going with the rainbow one, where should the rest of us go?” Soap asked.
“Ghost is pretty quiet, perhaps he should go with Fluttershy.” Nikolai said, shrugging.
Fluttershy squeaked, looking up at the scary man with the mask, “Ok.”
Rarity looked at Soap, his shirt was in shreds from the Osprey crash, and he hadn’t either the time to change or another shirt to change into, “You can come with me Mr. MacTavish, I’ll have that shirt patched up for you in no time at all.”
Soap perked up a little, “That would be great, thanks.”
Next, Pinkie Pie bounded up to Roach, “Why don’t you come with me? You look a bit sad; you just a good old-fashioned Pinkie Pie welcome party!” As she said this, confetti seemed to magically appear from behind her.
“Soap?” Roach said to Soap, a bit unsure about how to respond to Pinkie.
“Roach would be more than delighted to go with you Pinkie, and he thanks you for your hospitality,” Soap said, to which Pinkie Pie smiled gleefully.
“Twilight,” Price spoke up, “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer to go with you, I’d really like to know a bit more about this world around us, knowledge is part of my job description after all.”
Twilight smiled, saying, “I always love to help somepony...err...person learn, I’d be glad if you came with me.”
Seeing that they were the last ones, Applejack approached Yuri and extended a hoof, “Well then, I guess that means you’re coming with me.”
Yuri extended a tattooed arm and shook her hoof in return, “Thanks, it’ll be nice to have a full night of sleep for the first time in a while.”
Twilight looked around, smiling, “Now that that’s all settled, I think we can head back to Ponyville. We can talk at the library before we go our separate ways for the evening.”
And with that, they proceeded back to the chariot, and back to Ponyville.

While in the chariot, the Task Force finally got a clue of just how big and amazing this new world around them was (as the first time, they didn’t want to look for fear of falling). Canterlot for example was an entire city perched impossibly close to the edge of a cliff, with picturesque waterfalls running all around it. Nothing from their home world even came close to it, with its lovely white, purple, and gold color scheme and the seemingly unending spire of the tallest tower, reaching up as if to touch the midday sun.
Looking out at the landscape, they could see a large desert to the west, a city even larger than Canterlot to the north, the Everfree Forest to the east, with smoke still billowing out of the Osprey crash site, and another, yet somewhat less densely vegetated forest to the south. While these were just the main highlights, one could still see hundreds of small towns and villages interspersed every few miles. Truly, it was an amazing place. 
After landing back in Ponyville and proceeding back to the library, Nikolai stopped Price outside of the doorway.
“I faintly heard a gunshot while you were with the Princess. What happened?”
Due to muscle memory, Price set his hand down on the gun, “She wanted to know what my gun was. I couldn’t say no.”
“How much did you tell her?”
“Almost everything. I told her what we are and what we do, including the fact that we’re just trained killers.”
“What did she say back?”
“Not much, just asked me whether or not I enjoyed killing.”
Nikolai raised an eyebrow at this, “Do you enjoy killing? Seems like a pretty important question.”
“How so?”
“Well, the fact that she asked you makes me finally think that this world isn’t just sparkles and rainbows. Would she really have asked you that if she had never dealt with it herself before?”
Price nodded, “Well, along with that, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I answered ‘no,’ so she doesn’t know we’re all crazy idiots with weapons. Yet.”
Smirking, Nikolai patted Price on the back, “C’mon, let’s get inside, it’s colder than a Russian winter here.”



Inside the library all of the humans sat in chairs that seemed just a bit too low to the ground for them. Twilight set a large book on the table before them as the soldiers looked over the cover. It appeared to be covered in leather like material, with a golden unicorn head in the middle of it, with bronze clasps and casings along the edges of the book.
Soap studied the cover, “What is it?”
“It’s a short history of Equestria, presented in a way that I think you’ll all be able to understand.”
As they stared at the book, Twilight opened the book and began reading:
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land…”

Twenty minutes later…

“ ...and with the six new bearers of the Elements of Harmony, harmony has been maintained in Equestria ever since.”
Trying to process all the information that had just been given to them, most of the Task Force sat with their faces in various forms of confusion and misunderstanding.
“Wait, just to be clear here:” Soap cleared his throat, “The two Princesses raise the sun and the moon,”

“Yes,” Twilight nodded.

“Each of the Princesses are thousands of years old.”

“Yes, go on.”

“One of them went insane and was banished to the surface of the moon.”

“Yes.”

“And you and your six friends, with no previous training in combat, were tasked with and succeeded in defeating an evil living goddess from your own world and purged her soul of all evil using the magic of friendship. Is that all?”

“That’s it exactly.”

“Good,” Soap said, jotting some notes down in his journal, “I just thought I was going crazy.”
After a few moments, Nikolai chimed in, “So, here, you don’t have anything like combustion engines? Or gasoline?”
“What?” Twilight questioned, “I’ve never heard of either of those before, I’m sorry. Most of the tools and machines we have here are either powered by ponies doing work, or unicorn magic; we don’t have a need for anything else.”
Nikolai shook his head, “Not that it’d help us, the Osprey,” he looked at the confused ponies, “The machine we were in, it’s destroyed.”
As it dawned on them that they might as well have been fighting in the 18th Century, Soap turned to Price, “Well, what should we do now, there’s not much we can do, is there?”
Price yawned, “Well, it’s late, and tomorrow’s always another day. Plus, not counting the few hours we were knocked unconscious, we’ve all been awake for the past 72 hours or so. I think we should all just get some sleep and try to sort this out in the morning.”
As every human went to leave the library following their assigned pony, Twilight stopped them all:
"And if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you all please put your things in here on the way out? At this point, I think that the less questions everypony raised about you, the better." Using her magic, she pulled out a large chest out from under a table. There was no keyhole or clasp, it was obviously controlled by magic. As for what she wanted to put in the chest, Twilight was lying. She knew that those were weapons, but she didn't want to confront them about it, not yet at lest, she just hoped her ruse would pay off.

Soap looked at Price and nodded. After a few moments Price nodded, hesitantly, back.

"All right, everything in the chest."
Twilight watched as they put absolutely everything into the chest, the strange metal objects, green orbs with pins, little devices with buttons all over them, knives of all sizes, she surely would be analyzing them later and try to figure out what they were.

As she closed and locked the magical chest, the men were left with only the clothes on their backs and the watches on their wrists. Feeling satisfied, she turned to dismiss them all.

"Unless you have anymore questions, you may all rest tonight, thank you all."
As everypony and human left, Rainbow and Nikolai stayed behind. 
“Uh Twilight, we have a tiny problem here.” 
“What? Is something wrong?”
“He doesn’t have wings; he won’t be able to stay on my cloud.”
“Cloud?” Nikolai asked.
“But, I thought you said you could fly?”
“No, I said I fly these machines, I operate them. Standing on clouds is impossible for anyone where we come from.”
“Well, can’t you use that spell on him that you used on yourself when you came to see me at the Best Young Fliers Competition? That seemed to work pretty well.”
“I guess…Nikolai, hold still for a moment.”
The tough Russian stood firm and held his breath, bracing for pain, some sort of transformation, anything. Twilight’s horn began to glow as she pointed it right at his chest. Nikolai shut his eyes, hoping that it would be short. Then, as soon as it started, it was over.
“That’s it, I can walk on clouds?”
Twilight smiled, “Yes, it’ll be just like walking on the ground. Now the only other problem I see is…”
“Don’t worry, I’ve lifted heavier things.” Rainbow said reassuringly.
As they left, Twilight made one last note to the pilot, “Just come back in the next two days so I can renew the spell, otherwise you might fall through the cloud in the middle of the night.”
Nikolai quickly turned and waved a thanks before proceeding on with the cyan pegasus. Twilight looked back at the table and saw Price still staring intensely at the book, still trying to take in everything that he had been told.
“I…I just can’t understand any of this. Magic. Ponies. Dragons. None of this makes sense, and it’s very bad when I can’t come to the conclusion on something.”
“Well,” Twilight said, trying to be optimistic, “Like you said, tomorrow’s another day, and perhaps we’ll find out more.” She nudged his arm and led him over to the couch in the middle of the room. “There are more blankets in the closet if you need them, and please, if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”
Price sat down on the comfy couch and let out a deep sigh of relaxation. “After sleeping on broken cots and hard floors for the past few weeks, you have no idea how nice this is, thank you Ms. Sparkle.”
Twilight giggled, “Please, call me Twilight, and really, it’s no problem.”
Price let out a small smile, “Ok then, thank you Twilight, goodnight.”
Twilight turned off the lantern and went up the stairs to her room, “Goodnight, Captain Price.”



Price lay on the couch for about a half hour before he knew for sure that he was the only one awake. He got up and crept to what he thought was the kitchen. He searched through all the drawers, but alas, no knives. He reluctantly took a fork and placed it under his pillow.
They were nice, but in his book they still couldn’t be trusted. Trusting was what almost got him beaten to death by Shepard. He had to keep a wary eye.
For now.
	
	
> Hold Up, Get Down
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5

As Nikolai and Rainbow Dash approached a grassy hill that her home overlooked, Nikolai gave her an incredulous look. “Ok, I know you say you’re strong, but do you really think you’ll be able to lift me up there? I weigh over two hundred pounds.”

“Pft,” she replied, unfurling her wings, showing them off, “That’s nothing, I totally got this.”

As Nikolai questioned all of his life choices up until this point, Dash put a hoof under each arm and flapped her wings hard. After a few moments, they both lifted off of the ground, albeit very, very, slowly.

Ten minutes later, they were roughly 25 feet off of the ground, a far cry from the near hundred feet the cloud home floated above them.

“Ya know what? Maybe I can just sleep on the ground, I’ve slept in worse places, at least here I’m not being held for ransom.”

Dash started flapping her wings even harder, “NO, I will get you up there, it doesn’t matter how long it takes!”

“You don’t give up easily, I'll give you that.”

“Do you want to be dropped?”

Nikolai looked down. While he knew he’d be fine, the now thirty foot drop still looked really unpleasant, even if it was into a snow bank. As Nikolai stared up at Dash and shook his head frantically, saying, “Please, don’t do it,” over and over again, Dash held him by one hoof, “What was that? Can’t hear ya!” Cupping her hooves around her ear, she watched as the Russian hilariously hung in the air for a moment, before belly flopping into a deep snow bank, leaving a Nikolai-shaped hole in the ground. As she listened closely, she could hear him say a few more words before passing out, “Нет, мне явно недоплачивают за эту работу.”

With Nikolai now asleep and less likely to complain (Well, Dash thought he was complaining), she lifted him by the belt and began flapping her wings even harder than before. “Now, let’s try this again.”
--------------------------------------------------------141------------------------------------------------------
Ghost walked behind Fluttershy, his trained footsteps so quiet that Fluttershy even had to look behind herself a few times to make sure that he was still there. While she knew that her friends would never make her do something like this if he wasn't safe, she just couldn't shake the weird feeling about him. Was it the mask? The silence? All of the above? She let the thoughts mill in her head, but didn't let them linger for too long, she just wanted to get home and sleep.

As they approached the cottage, it was eerily silent. Not even Angel Bunny was awake to scorn the new visitor that Fluttershy had brought, because he, like all other animals was asleep for the winter. As Fluttershy opened the door to her cottage, Ghost began to take note of the cottage. It was built into a tree, like the library, but a tad smaller. Just like every other door he'd been through today, he had to duck so he wouldn't hit his head. Inside, it was moderately furnished, and not unlike something he'd see back home. Everything from a comfy looking couch to a cuckoo clock filled the room. As he finished taking a look around the room, he noticed that the little yellow pegasus was looking at him. Well, his boots at least. 

"You can sleep on the couch if you want. I have a guest room, and I guess if you really want to sleep-" She didn't get anything else out as she could only make high pitched squeaks after that.

He couldn't make out a single word she tried to say to him. Instead of asking what she was trying to say, Ghost sat down on the couch, and promptly fells asleep. Fluttershy, relieved that she didn't have to say anymore to him, at least untill the next day, slunk quietly upstairs to her room, and got her well deserved sleep.
--------------------------------------------------------141------------------------------------------------------
Roach wanted to be absolutely anywhere but here. The whole time they were walking to what he assumed was a bakery called, 'Sugarcube Corner,' he wanted to gouge his inner ear out. That little pink devil wouldn't stop talking, and Roach was at wits end, ready to break at any moment.

"And that's when the cake shot out because I put the cake in the confetti cannon and the confetti in the oven!" Pinkie Pie doubled over and continued laughing like she had for the entire past fifteen minutes or so. Roach had had it, he blinked a few times, before roaring at Pinkie, "ENOUGH! I've been shot, stabbed, tortured, set on fire, beaten, fallen from high places, and absolutely NONE of that was as bad as this! I mean, if the United States got a hold of you, they'd use you as a interrogation aid against foreign criminals! All I want is three minutes of quiet!"

Pinkie Pie stared at him, confused for a few seconds, before another smile stretched across her face. "Okay!" And happily walked alongside Roach, now humming a happy tune.

Roach was tempted to say something else, but he thought better of it. Shaking his head, he followed Pinkie Pie to a large building which itself looked like a giant pastry. A sign above the door read in large letters, 'Sugarcube Corner.' Leaving Roach outside, Pinkie bounded in through the double doors, ringing the bell above the doorway. Mrs. Cake, upon hear the bell began reciting a rehearsed greeting:

"Hello, and welcome to Sugarcube Corner, how may I help you?" She turned around and finally noticed the familiar pink pony in her doorway. "Oh, hello Pinkie, what brings you home so late?" 

Beaming, Pinkie exclaimed news of her new found friend, "Today, I met a new friend, Roach, he's far away from where-" She didn't get to finish as Mrs. Cake's piercing scream stopped her instantly. 

"A cockroach? Get it out, get it out, get it out! NOW!" 

Pinkie began laughing again, pointing to the door behind her. "No, not a cockroach, my friend Roach." Using an impossibly stretchy arm, she grabbed Roach from outside the shop and dragged him in. Roach and Mrs. Cake struggled to make any sort of eye contact, as Mrs. Cake found this creature just as scary to look at as he did in the morning, and Roach just thought the situation was plain awkward.

"Um, Pinkie...why did you bring him here?"

"Because, he's lost and needs somewhere safe to stay. I knew there was extra space in the storeroom and knew it would be perfect for him to stay." She put up her best sad-eyes. "And I know that you and Mr. Cake are kind enough ponies to help somepony in need. Right?"

Mrs. Cake sighed. There was no getting around Pinkie's sad-eyes. "Fine, but make sure he stays down there, while he might be as nice as you say, he might also scare away customers."

Pinkie nodded, "Oki-doki-loki!" She grabbed Roach's arm and began leading him down the steps to the basement.

Alone once again, Mrs. Cake shook her head again, 'That pony is beyond crazy.'

Once down in the basement, Pinkie showed Roach over to a small pile of flower bags in the corner. Shrugging, Pinkie said, "I know this isn't much to offer, but I hope it's ok." 

Looking at his meager surroundings, Roach returned the shrug, "I'll be fine with it." As she was about to leave, he had a sudden thought and added one more thing, "And Pinkie Pie," She stopped, and turned around, "thank you for everything."

Smiling, Pinkie walked up the steps a final time before closing the hatch. "And yet another friend made by Pinkie Pie."





A/N Ok,I just got back from vacation and feel like I need to post something, so here's about half of the chapter. A second part should be up soon.
> Hold Up, Get Down (Part II)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6

Hold Up, Get Down (Part II)


As Yuri walked behind Applejack down the country road, he noticed that she was very quiet, but not scared. She looked like she was very deep in thought, probably about the fact that she was bringing what was basically an alien to her home. As they got closer, Yuri could faintly smell apples in the distance. It was only a few more minutes before he could see a large barn and house in the distance. He read a sign above the entrance way, 'Sweet Apple Acres.'

As they got close to the house, Applejack suddenly turned around, with a defiant face, looking at Yuri.

"Look, I'm the Element of Honesty, so I'm not gonna' beat around the bush here. Ah' know your friends can vouch for you, and you seem like an honorable person Mr. Yuri, but I'm sorry, ah' just can't trust you. Not yet at least."

Yuri wasn't sure what to say, so he let her continue.

"In the past six months alone, we've dealt with a swarm of Parasprites that nearly ruined our whole apple crop, a dragon that almost blocked out the sun with it's smoke, two greasy sales-ponies that tried to cheat their way into buying our farm, and a conniving Draconequus that turned most of Equestria on it's head." She sighed, wiping her brow with her leg, "And that's just on the good days."

She looked at the human, who was still silent.

"Look, all I'm saying is that I really don't know what to make of you and your friends, who just seemed to wander out of the forest for no good reason. While I am kind to all by nature, I'm only doing this because the Princess asked. If I had a say in the matter, I would have half a mind to ask you to go somewhere else. For my sake and my family's sake, I have to keep an eye on you, even if that means keeping you under lock and key. Got it?"

Yuri nodded.

"Good. There's a cot and water pump in the barn, and I'll bring by some food for you in the morning. Once you're in I'll lock it up. Not just to keep you in, but to keep my sister out, that nosy little filly would be up to absolutely no good with her friends if she found out someone like you was in the barn."

Yuri turned to walk to the barn, but was stopped one last time by Applejack.

"Uh, do you plan on saying anything? Anything at all?"

Without turning back, Yuri replied, "There's nothing to be said."

Shaking her head at this confusing creature, Applejack walked behind Yuri, locking the barn door behind him. 'Why can't any visitors to Ponyville ever be normal?'

After tripping over many farm tools and slowly edging his way along the edge of the wall, Yuri eventually made his way up to the loft of the barn. A small vent gave him a bit of moonlight to examine his surroundings. A cot, some rough blankets, but not much else, and he was pretty sure one of the things he tripped over was the water pump that Applejack had been talking about. As he lay on the cot, he began to take note of his current situation which seemed to get worse by the minute:

'Let's see, I'm being hunted by Makarov, I have to hide from my new allies the fact that I used to be Makarov's friend, the allies I'm with themselves are being hunted down by their own government, so I'd be hunted down for aligning myself with them, we're stuck in a foreign land with no clue how we got here or how we can get back, said world is occupied by talking ponies, ponies think we're dangerous, and probably worst of all, we have to listen to what they say.'

Needless to say, Yuri thought things would be better if they were still in Tajikistan getting shot at.

--------------------------------------------------------141------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Soap was being led by Rarity to Carousel Boutique...

"So Captain MacTavish, what do you think?"

"Er, well, it's very..."

"Yes, go on, say the first thing that comes to mind."

"Sparkly."

Right away, Rarity began taking his measurements, trying to figure out how she would clothe such a creature with strange dimensions.

"Oh, surely you have more to say than that, Captain Mac-"

"Please, call me John."

"Oh yes, John."

After a few moments of Rarity fantasizing what Soap would look like as a stallion, Soap snapped her back to reality.

"Uh, Miss Rarity," using her magic, she had her measuring tape wrapped uncomfortably around his neck, "I enjoy breathing."

"Oh, excuse me," Rarity said, blushing. After taking a few more measurements, she guided Soap to a privacy screen, waiting in the other side. "Now, if you could just hand me your clothes." She waited as Soap dropped his shirt on the other side of the screen. Rarity furrowed her brow at the shirt. "All your clothes." Grumbling, Soap dropped his pants outside the screen as well. Satisfied, Rarity levitated the clothes next to her and began walking to her sewing machine. "This should only take a few minutes dear, these rips look manageable to fix."

As she began sewing, she also began to question Soap:

"So, John, does everyone back where you come from wear clothing like this? It's very durable, at the price of also being very rough." She held the denim jeans before her eyes, wondering what it was made from.

"No, the style of clothing my friends and I wear are more durable than clothes I'd wear on my day off, because the job necessitates it, like I said, getting people out of tough situations." Soap was thumbing through a pony magazine behind the screen, 'Cosmoponyton.'

"Well, what's the clothing like that you would wear?" 

"Comfortable."

"Well, hopefully this is up to your expectations." She levitated a brand new pair of pants and shirt behind the screen to Soap. He tried them on, and they fit perfectly. A black pair of pants and a white button down shirt, with 'John' monogrammed on the pocket in purple.

Soap felt the material, and it felt light, yet strong enough to resist even the roughest of tumbles. It was especially comfortable too, like silk. He tried it on, it was a perfect fit.

"This is, this is amazing!" Soap excitedly said, "How did you make this?"

Rarity winked, "While I do have my trade secrets, I can tell you this: You said you had to sacrifice form for function. I thought, 'Why can't you have both?'"

Soap was about to thank Rarity again, when he felt something poking at his ankle. He looked down and saw a tiny white unicorn with a light purple and pink mane trying to ram it's horn into his leg.

"Run Rarity! I'll hold the monster off!"

Soap could only smile as the tiny filly's voice cracked as what he assumed was Rarity's sister tried to 'protect' Rarity.

"Aww, well aren't you just the littlest spitfire?" She flailed around as Soap picked her up.

"I'm not afraid of you!"

Rarity was visibly agitated, "Sweetie Belle, that's enough, what are you doing to our guest?"

Sweetie Belle stopped, "Guest?" She stopped wriggling and let Soap put her down. "I thought he was an evil monster trying to attack you, like when you and the others had captured the whole group of them this morning!"

"Sweetie Belle, he's not a monster, he's a gentleman, right John?" Soap nodded, close to laughing at the whole absurdity of the situation, "Anyway Sweetie Belle, what did you hope to accomplish by doing that anyway?" 

Sweetie Belle suddenly beamed, "I was trying to get my Monster Hunter Cutie Mark!" She looked at her flank which was still blank, sighing. "Nope, not this time either. Sorry Mr. John."

He patted her on the head, "That's ok, mistakes happen," still laughing.

As the others joined in on his laughter, a figure stood on the edge of the Everfree Forest, looking into Ponyville, her dark blue eyes lit by the moon in the sky.

'These creatures are...interesting. We must keep an eye on them before anything happens to thy subjects.' She flapped her wings and began flying away, back towards Canterlot, 'Their intentions seem benign, but we must talk to Tia before taking any action, hopefully she knows more about these creatures than we do.'

--------------------------------------------------------141------------------------------------------------------

A/N:For those wondering about Applejack's extreme apprehension towards Yuri and the Task Force, just think, she's the element of Honesty, and she would have easily seen through Soap's description of 'Tactical Specialist.' Certainly an alien lying about what they really do would put most on edge.

Also, if anypony has ideas for anything that would happen to the Task Force while in Equestria, send me a PM, I have a few ideas, but I want to see what you can come up with!

And don't worry, a chapter with actual action will be coming soon.

	

	
	
> Contingency 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7

Contingency


It's been...two weeks? I think it's been two weeks, the time in this place seems to move at just about the same pace as back home, at least as my watch can tell. Have absolutely no idea what the situation is at home right now. For all we know, Makarov got the bloody codes he wanted and reduced the rest of the world to a large ashtray. Even though about nintey percent of that part of the world wants us dead right now for Shepard, I honestly hope that they're still holding Makarov off.

But this place we've seemingly fallen into, it's unlike any place I've ever seen or heard before. Those Borneo jungles and Tibetan monasteries that I've visited on past missions have absolutely nothing on the sheer beauty that this untouched land does. I think that if we were ever given an assignment in a place even close to this one, everyone would be to distracted by the environment alone to get any actual work done.

As for the inhabitants...

Soap looked at the wall of his attic living space in Carousel Boutique, at the drawing of himself that Sweetie Bell had given to him after he had rescued Opal from a tree.

They're pretty nice to say the least.

The others are holding up pretty well, most of them at least. From what I've heard from Rarity, Ghost hasn't even said a word yet to Fluttershy, that during the day he'll help Fluttershy with whatever she needs getting done, but stay silent the entire time. I have a feeling it has to do with Shepard, but I'm also going to assume it wasn't the first time someone close to him double-crossed him and left him for dead, those things tend to leave impressions.

Nikolai is well, Nikolai. Well, at least that blue pegasus hasn't tried to throw him off of the cloud yet. I'm still trying to get used to that, that they live on bloody clouds! She likes having him around for the fact that since Nikolai's been piloting planes for over thirty years, he's watched her fly, he can give her little tips about what currents to ride and how tight to tuck loops, and other stuff like that. He's in good spirits, yet I'm sure she's getting tired of lifting his heavy arse up to that damn cloud home whenever the time calls for it.

Roach seems to be doing the best out of all of us. Considering he's been thrown in with what seems like the physical embodiment with happiness and laughter, no wonder too. To help out around the bakery he lives under, he takes inventory for them, telling how much they have of everything down there. It also seems like the owners know that with a 'monster' under the shop, none of the young foals even think about swiping a treat from there when their backs are turned.

Yuri. I'm not too sure what to say about his current situation. Applejack, the cowgirl, seems quite suspicious about him, I mean, she keeps him locked up in a barn all day. If that doesn't make someone wonder what she thinks about him, what would? Last time I talked to Yuri, he seemed less than pleased with the whole thing, but still understanding. He told me that she had her reasons, but he didn't tell me what they were. She told me that he does work around the farm for her during the night, when everybody's asleep and she unlocks the barn for him. Apparently she didn't put him up to it, and he just started doing it on his own. He probably feels as though he needs to do that to thank her. Overall he seems fine, so that's good.

And finally, Price. For the past two weeks, he and Twilight have just been going through all the books they can get their hands on about teleportation, lost magic, and mythological creatures that are anything like us. Price told me that they haven't had a single lead yet, but more books keep arriving from royal archives every day. When they're not doing that, Twilight begs Price to tell her what everything in the magical chest is, where all of our equipment is stored. She asked me if I could tell her, but since I know Price would snap my neck if I did so, I had to decline. Honestly, I agree with him, we shouldn't just go around telling these people what our guns are, not yet at least. I think he might lose it soon, he has to be running out of cigars.

As for me, well, I'm quite content with my current situation. Being a dressmaker's assistant has it's perks.

Soap closed the battle-worn journal and slipped it back in his pocket. Rising off of the old couch stored in the attic, he made his way to the ladder which led down to the second story. Looking at his watch, he saw it was about 12:30 AM. As per the mayor's request, the humans could only move around outside at night, as not to scare any of the townsfolk. Soap understood this request quite well. When he had saved Opal from a tree, half of the town gathered in a mob around Carousel Boutique thinking he was going to eat the cat. While the citizens now understood that they weren't barbaric savages, they still preferred to keep their distance.

Leaving the boutique with Rarity in tow, Soap stuck his hands in the jacket that Rarity had made for him. She spent hours quizzing him on the fashion of his home world, where clothing was mostly worn for modesty rather than fashion. She invited all of the soldiers over and crafted new winter clothing for all of them. She even tried to get Price to exchange his boonie hat for a fancy French-looking beret. Little did she know that was a loosing battle. They left foot and hoof prints as they walked though the snow, the windows of town mostly dark as their residents slept. Soap began making small talk while they made their way to the library, where they'd meet with others.

"So, do you think the town's a bit more tolerant of us now, that we're not the big scary monsters everyone thought us to be?"

"Well darling," Rarity looked up at Soap with a frowning face, "You know that I still have to ask you to leave the room when a client comes in. Even some of my more open minded visitors are frightened by your appearance." She shook her head, "I'm sure they'll all come around eventually."

Finally reaching the library, Soap held the door for Rarity as she walked in. Everyone had arrived before them, and was chatting away, mostly about how most ponies in town were reacting to the humans. As everyone was finally there, Twilight and Price called everyone's attention to them, Price talking first.

"I'm sure you all know why you're here and wish to know about anything we've found. The sad news is, we haven't got a damn clue how we got here." Twilight continued where he left off, "And since there doesn't seem to be an Equestrian answer as to how you all got here, we are going to take a trip in the morning to the crash site of your vehicle, where we hopefully can find some clues as to how you all got here. It seems as though the only explanation left is that something from your world brought you here, not us."

Nodding, Captain Price asked if there were any questions. Nikolai raised a hand, asking Twilight a question.

"Miss Twilight, does the town have any long term plans for us? Since they aren't exactly easy with the idea of us being here, I have a slight feeling they will ask us to leave soon."

Twilight stooped her head, "Actually...yes." Everyone, including Price turned to hear what she had to say, as even he hadn't heard this news yet, "I met with Mayor Mare today, and she told me that an increasing number of townsponies were asking when you were going to leave. She told me that even though Celestia herself had asked us to quarter you, she needs you to leave by tomorrow night, not just to cover herself, but for the safety and well being of everypony here in Ponyville. I'm sorry."

Price let out a sigh, a look of discontent on his face, before patting her on the neck. "It's ok, there's nothing you can do about it. Back home, our people are going through a difficult time, where anything foreign is viewed as scary, frightening, and people will do anything to get rid of it. It's not something you can control, so don't worry about it." 

Twilight plopped down to the floor, an exasperated look on her face, "I just wish there was a way for everypony to see that you're not as bad as they think! I mean, they thought John was going to eat Opal! EAT OPAL!" 

Suddenly, she was interrupted by a loud noise outside, silencing them all. Instinctively, Roach blew out the single candle illuminating the room as they looked out the dark windows.

"What the bloody hell is that thing?" Soap asked.

"It's a griffon, what's he doing here?" Dash asked. Suddenly, as he gave a signal to the sky, several more landed behind him, as a few other figures ran down the road into the center of town, meeting with the griffons.

"Diamond Dogs, Ponies, and Griffons, together? Nothin' good can come of this." Applejack warned. 

They watched as the griffon that seemed to be in charge cupped his hands around his beak, yelling at the top of his lungs. "All citizens please come to the Town Square immediately. If there is anyone missing from this town archive list, we will tear apart this town to find them. Anyone who acts out will be met with equal and more powerful force, do not resist."

"Well," Price quietly asked, "Are you going to go? These guys look like bad news."

"You heard them," Twilight said, "They'll tear apart the town looking for us if we don't!"'

"Yeah, and a few ponies in the process." Rainbow Dash angrily spat, "what if we get the jump on them?" 

"We don't know exactly what we're dealing with, not yet at least." Applejack replied, "It would be quite bad if we ran out there ready to fight and ended up trying to fend off fifty griffons at once."

"Well," Twilight said, nervously looking at the other ponies, "It looks like we don't have a choice."

As the Ponies exited the library single file, Soap looked at Price. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

"Yeah," He pulled the chest out from under a table, it was unlocked as Price was teaching Twilight what a radio was right before the meeting.

They began to arm themselves, and noticed how understocked they were.

"So," Price began listing what they had, "we have an M4A1, empty, an AK-47, empty, an ACR, empty, an M16A4, empty, and my M14 with a single round. We also have two M9s, with fifteen rounds between the two, my M1911 with six rounds, Yuri's Deagle with two shots, and Soap has his Ranger. How many rounds do you have?" He opened the shotgun. "Well, I have one in the gun, but an extra six-" He reached in his pocket, it was empty. "An extra six...in my other pocket." He slapped himself in the face. "Right..." Price said, "A single shell shotgun. So we have that, and our knives. Bloody great."

As they finished checking what they had, Nikolai ran down from the highest balcony.

"Well, what do their forces look like?" Price asked.

"Six of those griffons, three Diamond Dogs, and four ponies. One unicorn, one pegasus, and two earth ponies. They're wearing armor, but it looks ramshackle, like they're not part of a bigger organization. Doesn't look like it would offer much against bullets either."

"For their sake," Price said slamming the magazine into his pistol, "they better surrender easily,"

With themselves armed as best they could, Price handed Nikolai a radio, "Watch from the balcony, give us locations." Nodding, Nikolai ran back up. Sitting in the darkness, waiting to go Ghost whispered, "Well if this doesn't look familiar."

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A/N:Yes, I'm tormenting you with these cliffhangers. The next chapter will be quite exciting. As always, please review.

> Takedown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 8

Takedown


As they excited the Library, Price began checking in with Nikolai. "Ok Nikolai, we're making our way to the town square, does the situation seem to have changed?"

Up on the balcony, Nikolai peered through the telescope, "No, everyone seems to be there, just like they demanded. They're beginning to put them in rows too, must be checking to really see if anyone's hiding."

"Good, they're all in one place, no surprises. Hopefully."

"Price," Soap questioned, "You've been reading up on these ponies for the last two weeks, got any idea who these strongmen are?"

"Not a clue," Price replied, "While there have been discontented groups in the past who have staged uprisings, this looks too...systematic. And the fact that it's multiple groups working together, ponies included, worries me more."

They moved in silence as they approached the town square. Sticking to the shadows, they were all invisible as the light flurry of snow began to pick up into an intense storm. At a building corner just out of sight of the square, Price asked tthe rest of the group, "Does anyone else have a working radio?" Nikolai had Ghost's, and Soap and Yuri looked down at the broken remains of radios on them that were damaged in the crash. The only one left with one was Roach. When he leaned over to hand the radio to Price, he noticed that Roach winced when he put pressure on his leg. It was still broken from the crash, restricting his mobility. 

"Sorry lad, you aren't going anywhere near the fray with your leg like that." Before Roach could respond, Price handed him his thermal scoped M14, "You showed me your aim when we assaulted the sub base in Russia. You've got one shot to use, so don't disappoint me." As Price, Yuri, Soap, and Ghost continued moving towards the square, Roach frantically asked, "What's the signal?"

With one last turn of the head, Price answered, "You'll know it when you see it." Cursing, Roach climbed atop a cart and got into the prone position in the snow, ready to take out anyone if needed. With the thermal scope, he could see everyone, but no one could see him.

Price, Soap, Ghost, and Yuri were now hiding behind a small fountain in the town square. Getting his bearings, Price looked at his compass. Directly north east of them, about fifty feet away was the group of civilians and thugs. Looking closely, they could see that that four of the six griffons were standing at the back of the group, watching the civilians, meaning that their backs were turned away from the humans. A fifth griffon was at the front, speaking to the civilians. They had no idea where the sixth griffon was. The three Diamond Dogs were standing on the eastern side of the group of civilians, with the four ponies on the western side. Behind the civilians was a row of buildings, so escape was impossible without going through a wall of guards. For once luck seemed to be on the 141's side, as if they approached silently enough, they wouldn't be noticed until it was too late.

"Here's the plan..." Price said.

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Price handed a radio to Ghost as he motioned for the three to follow him. They crept silently until they were directly behind the four griffons. Taking their knives out of their sheathes, they waited as they all stood less than a foot behind a griffon each. With everyone ready, Price held out a hand with three fingers up.

3...

Yuri tightened his hand around the handle of his knife, ready to go at the order.

2...

Ghost raised his arm, ready to strike.

1...

Soap had one thought in his mind, 'Let's do this.'

Go.

All four of them struck swiftly, piercing the necks of the griffons and covering their beaks so not a single noise escaped. The griffons were strong, almost too strong. The only reason they were able to take them down was because they had the element of surprise on their side. If they faced them head on, well, they wouldn't have much of a chance. 

After a few moments, the griffons' bodies went limp, and the men laid them down on the ground. Remembering the plan, they split into two pairs, Soap and Price as one, Yuri and Ghost as another, and crept at the edge of the square until each was behind another group. Ghost and Yuri waited behind the Diamond Dogs for Price to give the go-ahead. Picking up the radio, Price spoke to Ghost and Yuri.

"Remember, when you strike, be quick about it. Once we attack, stealth is lost and we can't go back. And as soon as you take out the three in front of you, get the one talking out of his arse in the front. But don't kill him, only wound him, someone needs to give us answers. Three...two...one-"

"Price, griffon approaching from the west, fifty feet away, get down!" Nikolai barked over the radio.

Reflexes kicking in, Price grabbed Soap and yanked him underneath a fruit stand. Watching from underneath, they saw a griffon approaching the leader, carrying two ponies by the neck. A gray pegasus with golden, odd looking eyes, and a younger gray unicorn that must have been her daughter.

"Captain Acwel!" The griffon yelled as he ran up to his leader, carrying the two ponies, "The two missing ponies have been located." He placed them down in front of Acwel, who displayed a sinister smile at the sight of the two ponies cowering in front of him. The mother instinctively placed her foal behind her, protecting her.

"It's such a shame," Acwell started, frowning, "Such courage and bravery will go unrewarded." He looked over to the other griffon. "Anfeald, put the mother with the others, leave the foal here." The mother whimpered as she was prodded over with the other ponies, not knowing what would happen to her daughter. Acwell began speaking again, this time loud enough that Price and the others were able to hear. "Our methods may seem somewhat unorthodox to you all, as even the one we worship never thought death or torture to be the right path for those in his way. However, things have changed, and his way of thinking got him encased in a stone tomb." Walking back and fourth in front of the ponies, Soap winced as he almost stepped on the hand of a dead griffon. "Perhaps if we release him from his prison, he will realize that if you want true power...being discordant isn't enough." Regaining a serious composure, he began giving the other griffon orders.

"Anfeald," he looked at the quivering foal. "Show them that disobedience will not be tolerated."

Anfeald picked up the foal with one hand, taking out a short blade with the other. The mother strained to rush out to save her daughter, but was held back by a brown earth pony, who looked just as worried. Anfeald let out a laugh as he held the blade to the foal's neck, but didn't have time to do much else.

As he tensed to pull the blade, without warning he dropped dead to the ground, with a small pool of blood forming in the snow beneath him. A good distance away, Roach let out a quiet cheer. "One shot, one kill."

As Captain Acwel turned to look at his fallen comrade, Price took the moment to strike.

"GO!"

On the other side of the crowd, Ghost pointed his M9 at a Diamond Dog and shot three of his five bullets into his back, knocking him down for good. Quickly moving onto the second one, he did the same, the two bullets hitting him square in the back of the head. Yuri pointed his Desert Eagle at the third one and pulled the trigger...nothing, it was jammed. As he frantically tried to clear the gun, the Diamond Dog turned around and picked up Yuri, throwing him into a wall and knocking him out. Turning his attention to Ghost, he drew a knife. Seeing this, Ghost drew his own.

"C'mere you furball," He taunted, "I don't need a gun to take you out."

Meanwhile, Soap and Price had begun their own assault on the ponies. Price pushed himself out from under the fruit stand, taking out the two earth ponies with the two rounds left in his 1911 as he skidded across the snow. As Soap crawled out behind him, he took out the pegasus with his own M9, but before he could attack the unicorn, he threw both Price and Soap back, holding them down with his magic. Finally having a chance to act, Twilight ran through the crowd of ponies and headbutted the unicorn, before attacking him with her own magic. 

Finally losing the look of bewilderment of his face, Captain Acwel face turned to rage. He charged straight at Soap, holding a knife. As Soap regained his bearings, he just had enough time to pull out his Ranger and pull the trigger.

It barely made a difference.

He plunged the knife into Soap's side and pulled it out quickly, making Soap scream. As he reveled in Soap's screaming, he leaned close and whispered. "You do not yet know pain, hairless monkey." Behind him came a voice.

"You will." Price came down hard on Acwel's back with his own knife and twisted the blade. In a moment of Panic, Acwel Spread his wings and began flapping hard, launching off the ground and taking Soap's unconscious body with him. But for the griffon, it wasn't quick enough, the knife had done it's damage. Bleeding profusely, Acwel crashed down a few streets over.

"Soap!" Price screamed as he began sprinting over to where Soap had landed.

Ghost meanwhile pushed the lifeless body of the Diamond Dog he had defeated in hand to hand combat off of him. He stood up and positioned the now bent sunglasses on his face. He looked at the group of ponies in front of him, with the exception of Twilight, not a single one of them had moved during the attack, all frozen with fear. Without a word, Ghost walked over to the unicorn that Twilight was just barely holding down and struck him with the grip of his pistol, knocking him out.

"Right then." He said to the group, his words snapping everypony back to reality, "Let me put this bluntly, as I'm going to pass out in a moment. We're not going to kill you. Please help us." And true to his word, a few moments later he passed out on the ground.

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With Soap's knocked unconscious, his mind began to drift on it's own. His thoughts floated through recent events. Shepard. Makarov. Boneyard. Afghanistan. Shadow Company. Betrayal. Payback. We. Will. Kill. Him. As one memory flowed into another he drifted deeper and deeper into his slumber, with less of a chance of waking up as each moment passed.

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Soap, Yuri, and Ghost had been moved to the Ponyville Hospital, where Nikolai had soon met up with Price and Roach. As they waited outside the operating room where Soap was being worked on, they were all worried. Waiting with them was Applejack and Rarity, who's worry rivaled Price's. 

"So," Nikolai asked Applejack, "Where are the others?"

"Twi and the girls are at library, writing up a letter to send to the Princess. I 'recon that she'll be here in an hour."

"Why do you think that?" Nikolai questioned.

"Well, I'm not sure about how it is where you all come from, but this isn't exactly a common occurrence. Ponies, griffons, and Diamond Dogs working together to capture and hurt ponies? Nothing like that has ever happened before! By the way, what were those things you were using-" 

"Applejack, dear," Rarity interrupted, "I'm sure you have many questions just as I do...but please," she pleaded to her friend, "Now's not the time."

Applejack nodded and sat back down, pushing her hat over her eyes.

Earlier, after they found out that Captain Acwel and the unicorn's injuries were non life threatening, Price had Twilight get some ponies to tie them up and secure them, Twilight even cast a spell over the unicorn to weaken his magic for a bit.

They waited for what seemed like hours, but eventually a pony walked out of the operating room wearing a bloodstained scrub. He looked exasperated, but somewhat relieved.

"Well," the doctor sighed, "he looks like he'll be all right. We've never exactly operated on one of you before, but everything we did in there seems to have worked out. He's lucky that griffon didn't hit him a couple of inches up or down."

"When can we see him?" Price asked.

"I want him in bed for the next few days, without any disturbances at all. Looking at the map of scars on him, it looks like this wasn't his first time getting hurt this bad. If he turned out ok then, he should turn out ok now."

Price nodded, "Thank you doctor."

"As for the other ones, the one with the mask seems ok, just exhaustion. We can't tell the full length of his injuries unless we take the mask off, but we had a feeling that wasn't a smart idea. As for the one with the marks on his arms, he has a slight concussion, but should be awake in the next hour or so." As the doctor began to leave, he asked Roach, "Are you sure you don't want me to look at that leg?" To which Roach shrugged and said, "Sure, why not." 

As they left, Twilight and the others walked down the hallway towards them. When they reached Price and Nikolai, Twilight spoke. "I need to have a discussion with the other girls for a moment. We'll be right back." As they walked away, Nikolai and Price were left alone.

"Well, our situation gets better every moment, Nikolai said, "We've got one who looks like he's in a coma, two knocked out in a fight, one with a broken leg, and two old soldiers who should have stopped fighting long ago."

"Speak for yourself," Price laughed, lighting a cigar, "I've still got a lot of fight left in me."

A nurse quickly passed by and extinguished his cigar. "No smoking."

"Anyway," Price said, "I'm sure it'll all turn out for the best."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because I'll go mad if I think otherwise."

"Likewise," Nikolai chuckled, "Likewise."

Meanwhile, Twilight was talking to the girls about their own situation...

"Well," Applejack asked, "What's the story with the Princess?"

"She definetly listened, I wrote 'Urgent' on the outside of the scroll, and I got a reply less than thirty seconds later."

"And what did she say back?" Pinkie asked.

"She said she would be here soon. That was it."

As they waited for somepony to say something else, they heard chariot wheels from outside.

"Well, that was quick."

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A/N: I understand some of you asked for longer chapters, but this just seemed like a good place to end this one. And as always, please review, I crave your criticisms. I can't get better unless I know what I'm doing wrong!