Colonel Mitchell Hunter, lately of the Capitol Armed Forces, was bored. He’d been sitting in the briefing room for well over half an hour now, and now he was pacing back and forth. “Aren’t people supposed to have shown up by now?” he asked the empty air.
“You need to lighten up, Colonel!” said the other man in the room. Corporal Robert Watts, known to most as Big Bob, sat across the table from where Hunter was pacing, his huge combat boot-clad feet on the table. From one of the many pockets of his uniform he had produced a yo-yo which he spun lazily in increasingly intricate ways. Hunter sighed. Big Bob had always been an unflappable and easy-going type, and very adept at making his own fun.
“You’re right, Bob.” Hunter said, and sat down at the table again.
“Beginning to doubt the wisdom of volunteering for the Doomtroopers, sir?”, Big Bob asked.
Hunter snorted. “Ask me again when I see where we’re going, Bob. I’m just not good at waiting, you know?”. Big Bob knew.
Colonel Mitchell Hunter and his trusted sidekick Big Bob Watts were legends throughout the Capitol corporation. Hunter had led Airborne Ranger teams against the corporation’s enemies in pretty much every warzone the corporation had been involved in, first against conquistadors from Imperial on Mars, then against Mishimans. A quick transfer to the Sea Lions had seen him off to fight Bauhausers in the Graveton archipelago on Venus, and it was there disaster had struck. His orders had been clear. Attack and hold the cargo shipping facility on Kizaki Island. Sadly, no-one had discovered that Bauhaus had sold the facility to Mishima a week earlier, and Capitol was nominally at peace with Mishima’s Venusian branch.
Needless to say, a diplomatic mess-up of immense proportions had ensued. Hunter had been kept out of that, but gotten a set of different problems. His first response to the whole situation had been to punch out the general who had given the operation the go-ahead. Luckily, his record so far was exemplary and he could prove that he had been acting on faulty intel, meaning that the court-martial gave him the option of joining the Free Marines, instead of facing a firing squad.
It was in the Free Marines Mitchell Hunter had met Big Bob for the first time. The Free Marines were an elite unit, composed solely of decorated Special Forces veterans who had been sentenced to death by a court-martial. Big Bob had been an Airborne Ranger, and was court-martialed for “some crap” he refused to further elaborate on. The two of them, along with a team of forty fellow misfits, had been deployed to the MacCraig line, in order to prepare for an assault on what lay beyond, the citadel of the nepharite Saladin and a large portion of the Dark Legion. The Free Marines had been stationed at an out-of-the-way outpost, an outpost Saladin chose to attack that very night. The Free Marines were heavily outnumbered, outgunned and ill-equipped for a holding action, but hold they did. Saladin threw everything it had at them, captured tanks modified with dark, perverted technology, hordes of the zombie-like Legionnaires, and even the powers of the Dark Symmetry itself, but the Free Marines held. When reinforcements finally arrived, the Dark Legion was in retreat, but the only two Free Marines standing were Hunter and Big Bob.
Needless to say, Capitol media milked this heroic action for all it was worth. The pair were hailed as heroes of the corporation. The tale of their fall and redemption was becoming a major motion picture. The handsome, dark-haired, lantern-jawed colonel and the huge, dark corporal with the shaved head and broad smile had appeared on endorsements of everything from breakfast cereal to skis. That’s when the Brotherhood had become interested in them, and someone had recommended them for the Doomtroopers. And now they were sitting here, in a briefing room in the Brotherhood cathedral in Heimburg, waiting for….
The door flew open and a man and a woman in Bauhaus uniforms walked in. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, tall, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with a shaggy mane of unkempt blond hair. The woman was slightly older, with long, light brown hair and a body most professional dancers would be jealous of. She would have been gorgeous, if not for her eyes. They had probably been innocent and baby blue once. Now, they were flat, hard, emotionless. The eyes of a hunter and killer.
Hunter shuddered. For all his experience facing almost any enemy, from Mishiman kamikaze to the nightmares given flesh the Dark Legion fielded, Valerie Duval was one of the few things that still frightened him. However, he still put on a cheery grin.
“Max, Valerie, how good of you to join us!”. Max Steiner looked annoyed, but clicked his heels and dipped his head. Duval just stared at him. Hunter, Duval and Steiner sat at the table. The silence in the room was deafening, only interrupted by the quiet whirring of Big Bob’s yo-yo.
Steiner was the one to break the silence. “Zo, who are ve vaiting for?” he asked in his heavy Bauhaus accent.
Big Bob answered “Inquisitor Nicodemus.”. He paused. “And Crenshaw”.
Steiner whistled through his teeth. “Zey’re bringing in Crenshaw on zis? Must be big…”.
Sebastian Crenshaw was a fixture in the gossip columns of the Luna Observer. Of clan Crenshaw of the Imperial corporation by birth, he had been cast out of the clan at a very young age for reasons known only to him. The black sheep of his family, he had made a big entrance on the social scene in Luna City. His remittance made it possible for him to maintain a high-rolling lifestyle, and he had spent the past forty years breaking hearts and winning friends through-out Luna.
The other side of Sebastian Crenshaw was far less well-known. Crenshaw had been a Mortificator, one of the Brotherhood’s assassins, for most of those forty years. The Mortificators were myths to most. Doomtroopers knew better. They also knew that all Mortificators spoke of Sebastian Crenshaw in reverential tones. His skills were the stuff of legend. That he could appear out of any shadow at will was probably false. That there was no place in the solar system he could not enter, and that he had never failed a mission, was probably true.
The door opened again, and Nicodemus and Sebastian Crenshaw entered. They all knew Crenshaw’s face from the papers, of course. A distinguished-looking man, with a full head of brilliant white hair, a splendid moustache and an easy, genial smile that seemed habitual. However, he moved with a panther’s grace, and his grey eyes constantly scanned the room, ready to spot and deal with any threat. He gave all of them a looking over, judging, assessing, and finally nodding in approval. He was dressed in the uniform of the Mortificators, tight-fitting matte black trousers and a knee-length tunic in the same fabric, slit to the hip on both sides.
Nicodemus, on the other hand, was tall and heroically built, and the left side of his face was made entirely of scar tissue, which made reading his facial expression difficult. His hair was black, close-cropped, and his dark, sunken eyes smoldered with zeal. Even here, inside one of the largest and most well-guarded safe havens in the solar system, he kept the red combat armor and cloak and the black helmet that identified him as an Inquisitor of the Brotherhood, though the helmet was in his hand. Hunter rose and bowed, as did all the others. Crenshaw was a living legend, and Nicodemus a well-known field Inquisitor, one who had destroyed countless monsters and heretics. Besides, even if they hadn’t deserved respect as individuals, no-one failed to give members of the Brotherhood the proper respect.
Nicodemus motioned for everyone to sit. “Sorry I’m late. Interrogation took longer than anticipated.” he said curtly, and rolled out a large map onto the table. “The heretic interrogated was believed to have information regarding a nest of heretics we’ve been tracking, and it turned out to be true. We have identified not only a hideout but the beginnings of a castrum, an underground citadel, led by a nepharite of Semaj tentatively identified as Chaghul.”.
Hunter interrupted. “Chaghul? I thought he was killed on Kirkwood.”.
“So did we.” Nicodemus answered, and continued. “In any case, this castrum is still under construction, and our… source… indicates that the only ones present were some fifty heretics and the nepharite. No monstrosities of any kind.”.
Steiner butted in. “Vere is zis castrum?” Nicodemus pointed to the map. The team leaned forward and looked. The place Nicodemus had pointed to was in the jungle less than five hundred miles south of Heimburg. All the team members sat back in shock.
Nicodemus nodded at the others. “Yes. If this castrum grows to full size, the best case scenario is that Bauhaus is forced to withdraw soldiers from other areas on Venus making humanity weak, and opening up other areas for incursions by the Dark Legion.".
Duval spoke up for the first time. “Worst?”.
“Heimburg is overrun.” Nicodemus stated flatly, and let the implication sink in.
Steiner was the first to regain his faculties. “Do ve know anyzing about ze interior?” he asked.
Nicodemus shook his head. “The heretic did not survive preliminary interrogation. Any further questions?”.
“Just one.” Big Bob rumbled. “Why send us? Why not just bomb the place flat?”.
”They will.” Nicodemus answered. “The installation is important, but our target is the nepharite. Chaghul has already died once, and we need to make sure we get it right this time.”. He straightened. “If there’s nothing further, there’s a Doomlord transport standing by. It will drop us three miles south of the castrum.". He pointed to a point on the map. "Extraction is the same site, four hours after deployment.". He turned to Hunter. "Colonel Hunter, I hereby relinquish command to you.”.
Hunter nodded. “I hereby assume command. Assembly at the landing pad as soon as anyone’s ready.”
Twenty minutes later, the team assembled at the landing pad and began to march into the Doomlord. Steiner, wearing the pristine white armor and skull helmet of the Venusian Rangers, which made Hunter feel slightly jealous and more than a little self-conscious about his own battle-scarred and hastily painted armor, and carrying two elegant, lavishly decorated machine-pistols. Nicodemus, in red armor and black helmet, power stabilizer unit on his back. The tubes on the stabilizer, which symbolized his mastery of the power of the Light, flared out over his shoulders like a peacock’s tail. The Book of Law, a pistol and a straight sword hung at his belt. Duval had complemented her uniform with a white breastplate, and waved her weapon of choice, two tonfa sporting wicked-looking blades, as if she dared Hunter to say something. Crenshaw wore the characteristic Mortificator helmet and cloak, and carried a pistol at his hip and two of the curved two-edged swords Mortificators favored on his back. And Big Bob was….
“Bob… what in the name of the Cardinal is that!?”, Hunter blurted out.
Big Bob put on his best shit-eating grin. “This old thing? Atlas Mega-cannon. Twin-linked 30mm auto-cannon mounted on a shoulder harness. Prototype”.
“And you expect to use that monster underground… how, exactly?” Hunter wondered incredulously.
Bob’s grin didn’t waver for a split second. “Never know when you might need to take down a helicopter, SIR!”.
Hunter sighed theatrically and his shoulders slumped. Bob’s grin widened, if that was at all possible, and he walked up the loading ramp.
Hunter checked the safety on his own weapon, a trusty old Capitolian shotgun. He looked at the coin he carried around his neck. It was a large gold ten thousand Cardinal’s Crown piece, emblazoned with the seal of the Brotherhood, and the words THE LIGHT AND WISDOM OF THE CARDINAL around the seal. He looked up at the night sky, and slid the coin back underneath his armor. He looked up at the red sun, slowly sliding down behind the eastern horizon, and then walked up the ramp, singing softly to himself.
“Jellicle cats, come out tonight, Jellicle cats, come one, come all. The Jellicle moon is shining bright, Jellicles, come the Jellicle ball…”.
The team dropped at their drop zone and slid into the jungle quietly. Crenshaw moved through the trees, and Steiner put his jungle survival skills to good use, leading them through the jungle by map and compass, without landmarks to guide him. It was already dark when they found the entrance. A fire stood in a clearing in the jungle, next to a hole in the side of a hill. Six men were sitting around it… but one of them clearly had horns, and another had a spike instead of a hand. The spike’s chitinous plating gleamed in the firelight, visible from the bushes on the other side of the clearing. There were gleams of gun-metal visible near the fire too. Hunter gave Crenshaw and Duval a few signals. The two of them vanished into the jungle.
The rest of the team hid and waited. Suddenly a sharp crack came from the other side of the clearing. Three minutes later, it was followed by a scream. Then there were a few seconds of fighting sounds, and then Crenshaw and Duval reappeared. Crenshaw described the abilities of his enemies in one curt phrase. “Bloody amateurs.”. Duval nodded emphatically.
Hunter clicked off the safety on his shotgun. “Alright, let’s go!”.
The team began moving towards the entrance. As they moved across the clearing, a cackling laugh burst forth from nowhere. Hunter raised his shotgun and scanned for a threat. Suddenly, an… entity appeared in front of the hole in the hill. It didn’t walk out. One second it wasn’t there, the next, it was. It may have been human once. It wasn’t human anymore.
The entity stood well over seven feet tall, well-muscled, and its skin was a sickly red. There were cracks and sores covering the visible skin, oozing a thick black liquid, but that didn’t seem to inconvenience the being in the slightest. Its lips were gone, and its mouth twisted into a permanent maniacal grin. It had no visible hair or eyebrows, and its yellow eyes shone with a deep, completely inhuman malice. On the being’s left shoulder a symbol was burned into the twisted flesh, the hated ring and flame of Semaj, Lord of Spite. “Chaghul.” Hunter whispered.
The nepharite spoke, its voice cracked, rasping, with a tone that set everyone’s teeth on edge. “Doomtroopers. Did you really think…” Hunter’s shotgun roared. The others followed their leader but the projectiles merely passed through the nepharite, shredding a completely innocent piece of foliage. The nepharite vanished but the mocking alien voice remained. “How do you think you will defeat me? You can’t even find me! Am I here?” The nepharite appeared. Everyone turned towards it. “Or here?”. An exact copy of the nepharite appeared at the opposite edge of the clearing. “Or here?” This time another copy appeared among them. Before anyone could react, the nepharite had grabbed Duval, lifted her off the ground and smashed her into a nearby tree. Valerie Duval crumpled to the ground and lay still.
Crenshaw rushed towards the nepharite, swords drawn, but it had already vanished again. The voice began speaking again. Hunter ignored it. Instead he cried out.
“Nicodemus! Can you do something?!”
“On it.” the Inquisitor replied.
The tubes on his power stabilizer began to glow a bright blue, and the clearing was suddenly awash in a golden light. The shadows vanished, and the nepharite appeared again. It looked… almost shocked, as far as its features could be read. Big Bob was ready this time. His cannons thundered. And this time, the projectiles didn’t just pass through. They struck home and exploded in a white-hot burst of shrapnel. The nepharite spun, clutching its shoulder. Crenshaw, Duval and Nicodemus moved forward as one, going for the kill. The nepharite shouted words in a language that made Hunter’s teeth rattle and sent chills down his spine, and raised its hands.
In the clearing a vortex opened, a hole of black, screaming nothing. There was a second of absolute stillness. Then the vortex collapsed in on itself with a roar of rushing air, leaving the clearing empty.
Hunter fell through a void. Everywhere he looked there was nothing but a blackness so profound his eyes hurt from looking at it. Suddenly, something appeared in front of him. He braced himself… and landed face first on a mattress of leaves. He groaned, then grabbed his shotgun and started to his feet. Chaghul was nowhere to be seen. The rest of his team was lying on the ground around him, getting up, shaking cobwebs out of their heads.
“Everyone here?” Hunter called. Replies came in from all around him.
“Steiner.”.
“Nicodemus.”.
“Crenshaw.”.
“Watts.”.
Everyone except…. Hunter looked around, feeling the panic rise.
Duval’s white breastplate was easy to find, even among the thick foliage. Hunter rushed forward. Duval was hurt. Badly. She was unconscious. Her breathing was ragged, her pulse racing. Her arm was visibly broken. Her long brown hair was matted with blood.
Hunter clenched his fists. “Light damn it, Duval! Don’t die on me!” he muttered. He looked around. The woods here were… unfamiliar. They didn’t seem like the Venusian jungles at all. But that was something to deal with later. There were more important things to deal with now.
“Duval’s down!”, he shouted. “Crenshaw, get up a tree, see if you can spot something, settlements, landmarks, anything! Steiner, take care of her cuts, and prepare her for transport! Watts, help me make a stretcher!”. Steiner set about getting Duval out of armor, applying bandages and fixating her neck. Big Bob and Hunter drew their knives and began cutting branches and vines, and soon had a crude stretcher ready.
Crenshaw suddenly dropped out of a tree, landing soundlessly among the dry leaves, and made his report. “There are no known landmarks anywhere. A few mountains, but nothing I can recognize. However, there seems to be a settlement of some sort a mile and a half in that direction.”. He gestured. “Also...”
“Spit it out, Crenshaw!” Hunter snarled.
“The sky is wrong.”.
Hunter wasn’t in a good mood to begin with. Crenshaw wasn’t making it better. “What do you mean, “wrong”?!” he yelled.
Crenshaw shrugged, apparently untouched by Hunter’s outburst. “I don’t recognize any constellations and… well, you need to see this to believe it.”.
Hunter snorted. “Alright. Crenshaw, take point, the rest of us are on stretcher duty.”. The team carefully loaded Duval onto the stretcher and set off through the jungle.
After what seemed to Hunter like forever-and-a-half, they reached the edge of the forest. Hunter looked up, and his jaw dropped. The night sky was full of stars of all sizes and colors. They spread from horizon to horizon, studding the night sky like gems on black velvet. A wide belt of distant stars glowed, stretching from horizon to horizon. The biggest change, however, was the moon. Of the settled worlds, only Mars had moons. This moon, however, was much larger than Phobos, perfectly round, and it hadn’t been defaced. The seal of Muawijhe didn’t mar its surface. Instead, the moon spread a silvery light across the lands in front of them.
After a silence that stretched for what seemed like hours, Big Bob spoke. “Where are we?” he whispered.
Nicodemus let out a booming laugh. “In a place where the light rules both day and night! We are truly blessed, if the servants of Darkness attempt to destroy us, and instead, we are brought to a place where the power of light over darkness manifests like this!”.
The others bowed their heads and intoned: “Blessed are we who walk in the Light.”. As they spoke, the horizon began to glow, in the red of the rising sun.
Hunter was still marveling at the sky, when Steiner spoke up. “Colonel, I’ve been zinking.”. Hunter motioned for him to go ahead. “About ze town down there…”. He gestured with his free hand. “How do ve know ze locals are friendly?”.
Hunter sighed. “We don’t.”.
“Zo, should ve really be risking zis?”, Steiner persisted.
Hunter’s head snapped around. “Stretcher down!” he commanded. He then paced over to Steiner, unslung his shotgun and thrust it towards Steiner. “Unless you want to put a bullet in Duval’s head right here, right now, then yes!” he roared. Steiner’s features were unreadable through his helmet, but he took a nervous half-step backwards.
Hunter took a deep breath and tried to compose himself. “Listen, Steiner. Duval needs proper medical attention an hour ago. Either we take a chance on the locals being friendly, or she dies. If they turn out to be hostile, it’s probably nothing we can’t handle. If they’re friendly Duval has a chance to live. You with me?”.
Steiner nodded curtly.
Hunter smiled a completely humorless grin. “Good. Stretcher up!”. They began walking towards the settlement.
Hunter looked at the buildings around him. The structures were in no architectural style he had ever seen. Low one- or two-floor buildings of wood and stone, but no concrete or steel construction anywhere. No defense arrangements of any kind anywhere along the outskirts of town. All windows were much larger than the firing slits he was used to seeing in small out-of-the-way towns. The streets were packed dirt, no asphalt or concrete road surfacing in sight. Where were they? Suddenly, something turned a corner. It looked like a small horse, but its proportions were wrong. Eyes too large and on the front of its head, rather than the sides, muzzle too small, legs too broad and wrongly proportioned, and to top it all off, it had a single horn in the middle of its forehead, and its coat and mane were vibrant shades of purple.
Twilight Sparkle trotted down the streets of Ponyville. She had woken up early, and Spike was still asleep, so she decided to go to Sugarcube Corner to get some muffins for breakfast. Ponyville was still quiet and still so early in the morning, but the birds were beginning to sing in the distance. Twilight rounded the corner, and fell flat on her behind. Her mouth fell open. Five enormous bipeds were standing in the street. Twilight felt her stomach churn with fear. Five huge, unknown creatures here, now. One of them turned towards her. Its forelimbs reached for an object of some kind hanging from its belt. Twilight scrambled backwards. The black-clad monstrosity cocked its head to one side and looked at her.
“Stay back!” Twilight shouted.
The black-clad thing started, and then held up its forelimbs. “Please, don’t panic! We have someone with us who is badly hurt, she needs medical aid. Help us, please!”.
Twilight blinked. Had that thing just spoken? It had. It had asked her for help. Then she saw the stretcher. It was a crude thing of branches and vines, and on it lay a lifeless body. Twilight gulped. “I just wanted to get breakfast.” she thought to herself.
Ponyville Medical Center was almost deserted when Twilight hurled herself through the door, followed by the strange bipeds. The doctor dropped his clipboard and his mouth fell open. One of the bipeds barked a command, “Stretcher down!”. The stretcher carriers put the stretcher on the floor, and the one which had spoken stalked over to him. Twilight didn’t know if these things, whatever they were, had the same body language as ponies, but it didn’t look happy.
Hunter eyed the small unicorn, incongruously clad in an approximation of a white doctor’s coat, glasses and a stethoscope. “You a doctor?!” he asked.
The unicorn gulped. “Y-y-yes” it answered. It was apparently nervous.
“Who wouldn’t be, if five large, heavily armed men barged into your clinic early one morning?” Hunter thought to himself. “Good. The woman on the stretcher needs help.” he said.
The doctor looked at Major Duval, and then turned to the purple unicorn. “Go and get Fluttershy. Run!”.
The little purple unicorn hesitated. “But…”.
The doctor cut her off. “Twilight, don’t. Fluttershy is the greatest expert on non-pony physiology we have, we’ll need her here.”. The purple unicorn nodded and started off.
The doctor unicorn began looking at Duval, poking and prodding. He even levitated over a flashlight and checked pupil reflexes. He muttered to himself as he went. “Left foreleg, class three break… concussion… abdomen distended, possible internal bleeding…”
Meanwhile, Hunter moved over to Duval’s head. “She’ll never forgive me for this…” he muttered to himself, then slid his hand inside her shirt and searched around. The coin, same as he and most soldiers wore, a... locket of some kind… ah. There. He pulled out her dogtags. He looked at them. AB+. He let out a small sigh of relief. Then he turned to the doctor.
“Might want to get someone out here to get blood, Doc.”.
The doctor looked at him, then realization dawned. “Yes, yes, of course. What blood type is she?” He paused. ”Do you even have blood types?”.
Hunter sighed. “Yes, we have blood types, and she’s a universal recipient. None of us have blood that’ll react negatively to hers. I checked” The doctor barked out some orders, something to do with getting a gurney, preparing an operating room and getting blood for transfusion.
The team found themselves led aside into a smaller room by other small equines, these in nurse’s uniforms. Hunter, who had seen quite a few hospitals in his career, noted that procedures and equipment were remarkably similar to what he was used to. The team removed their armor, and showed the nurses where the superficial veins were.
After having been drained of a pint of blood, Hunter was feeling a little woozy. The nurses had taken their blood away, and the team was alone. Hunter began talking mostly to himself. “Problem one solved. Duval is getting help. Now, problems two, three and four and five. Where are we? How do we get home? Where is Chaghul? And why is everyone here a pastel-colored pony?”.
Nicodemus looked at him. “I can help you with the fourth, Colonel. Not here. There was a residual taint of Darkness from the portal, but a nepharite coming through would have left something more. Besides, we’re alive.”.
Hunter nodded. Both were good points. “And the rest?” he asked on a whim.
Nicodemus shrugged. “Wait and see.”.
Twilight ran through the town, over the hills and up to Fluttershy’s cottage. The yellow, pink-maned pegasus was outside, tending to a small bird. Twilight stopped, panting. “Fluttershy…” she gasped.
The pegasus made a startled noise and turned around. “Oh. Hi Twilight. Umm… did you want something?”
Twilight still panted. “Down… Medical Centre… need you… expert.”.
Fluttershy hesitated. “Has somepony been hurt?”.
“Not somepony… some… thing. Please. Go. Now.” Twilight managed to get out. Fluttershy looked confused, but gathered herself and started along the path. Twilight regained her breath. Now something else... letter to Princess Celestia!
Twilight burst into the library and let out a shout. “SPIKE!” Something rustled on the top floor. She heard a great big yawn, followed by Spike’s voice.
“Morning, Twilight. Get those muffins yet?”.
“No time, Spike, I have to send a letter to the Princess.”.
She heard Spike’s feet on the stairs, and the little purple dragon soon appeared. ”But… what about breakfast?”
“Later, Spike. This is important!”. Spike sighed, shrugged, and produced a quill and parchment. Twilight began dictating.
Dear Princess Celestia.
This morning six creatures of a previously unknown kind entered Ponyville. These creatures are bipedal, obviously intelligent, capable of speech, and, while they have not been overtly threatening, potentially aggressive. They came seeking medical treatment for one of their number, who had been severely injured. That one is still being treated at the medical center, but its prospects for survival are unknown. I await your instructions concerning the proper course of action.
Your faithful student
Twilight Sparkle.
“Send it, Spike.”.
Spike blew green fire on the letter which turned it into a ball of green smoke. The smoke vanished out the window. Almost immediately afterwards, Spike belched out a parchment. He picked it up and read it aloud.
My faithful student.
Your report is troubling, to say the least. DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO KEEP THEM IN PONYVILLE, but do not endanger yourself or anypony else. I will be arriving within two hours to ascertain what these beings are and if there is a threat to Equestria.
Your mentor
Princess Celestia.
“Alright, Spike. We need to get back to the medical center.”. Spike’s stomach rumbled
“But Twilight! Breakfast?!” he whined.
“We’ll get something on the way, now hurry!” Twilight answered, and gestured for him to get on her back.
The Doomtroopers sat in the surgical unit waiting room. Crenshaw had been reading from Nicodemus’ Book of Law, and was deep in meditation over some obscure passage. Nicodemus had gone to oversee the surgery. While he claimed not to have sensed the Dark Symmetry anywhere in the community, he felt it was a reasonable precaution. Big Bob had brought out his yo-yo again. Steiner was watching the doors. Hunter was pacing back and forth. “What’s taking so long?!” He asked the air.
Steiner answered him, but didn’t take his eyes off the door. “Zey’ve only been in zere for haff an hour, Colonel. Surgery like zat… it’ll probably be anozzer two hours before ve get news.”.
Hunter let out a groan of desperation. “I need to DO something!”. Big Bob rumbled a suggestion. “Get some local money and buy us breakfast?”. Hunter stared at him.
Bob put down his yo-yo and put his hands up in a placating gesture. “We need to eat sooner or later, preferably sooner since we all lost about a pint of blood. We didn’t bring any rations and we don’t seem to be going home anytime soon, which means that sooner or later we’re going to have to eat the local stuff. And my pa used to say that you can’t get anything useful done when you’re hungry, angry, tired or drunk, and I’m getting hungry.”.
Steiner also spoke. “Ve have ozzer zings to discuss too, Colonel. Vat do ve tell ze locals?”
“About what?” Hunter wondered, bemused.
Steiner began ticking off on his fingers. “Chaghul. Us.” He made a gesture that seemed to encompass all of creation. “Our mission. Our homes and culture. Ve are aliens here. From ze little purple vun’s reaction, zey may very vell never have seen humans.” He gestured at Crenshaw. “His identity is supposed to be a secret… need I go on?”.
Hunter nodded. Steiner was making sense. He looked at Crenshaw. “As far as I’m concerned, we tell the truth, provided we can do so without divulging confidential information. The locals clearly have paranormalists among them, which means there’s a chance they can find us a way home. We’ll need their help, which means we have to build trust. Hearts and minds is the ticket. What do you think?”
Crenshaw scratched himself absently. “I’m with you, Colonel. It’s not like I can just blend into a crowd here. Besides, who are they going to tell?”. Hunter nodded. “Good”. At that time the door opened. Everyone went for their guns.
Twilight had bought a bag of bran muffins at Sugarcube Corner on her way to the hospital. Fluttershy claimed food was a good way to build rapport with most animals, and she hoped these… whatever they were… would be similar. Spike was munching happily on his muffin. The receptionist at the medical center pointed her towards the surgical wing waiting room. Twilight looked at Spike, who slid off her back, and opened the door… and stared into a very large, very dark hole. She looked above it, into the eyes of one of the creatures, a looming creature, hairless except for a black mane on the top of its head, small beady eyes, sharp nose, and small tightly-clenched mouth. It lifted the… thing it was holding. Some kind of weapon, she was certain.
It called into the room. “Stand down.”.Several metallic clicks came from within. It held the door open, and had the decency to look… embarrassed? “Come in. I’m sorry about that.” it said.
Twilight levitated the bag of muffins in, walked in nervously, and shut the door behind her. She looked around. The creatures were much less scary now. They had all removed pieces of their armor and were doing perfectly normal things. A dark-skinned one who made even the other hulking creatures look small was playing with some kind of toy. The black-clad one who had asked her for help earlier was reading a book, his helmet beside him. Twilight looked at them nervously. What to say? She finally decided to go with an old standby from Spike’s comics.
“I come in peace?”. They all looked up at her. She hefted her bag. “I brought breakfast.”.
The dark-skinned one spoke first. “Praise the Light! You just made yourself a new friend.”.
Twilight smiled. Apparently, Fluttershy was right. She levitated the bag over to it. It picked up one of the muffins, looked at it and took a big bite. It chewed slowly, and made little pleased noises. It passed the bag along, and soon the room was filled with sounds of contented eating. The one which had met her at the door licked the crumbs off its fingers and looked at her.
“So, who do I have to thank for that?”.
Twilight gathered herself. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.”. It looked slightly bemused, but nodded.
“Very well. Thank you for breakfast, Twilight Sparkle.”.
Twilight giggled. “You’re welcome. Now, who and what are you?”.
It shrugged. “How specific do you want to get? Our species is known as “human”. By profession, I’m an officer, a colonel, in the Capitol Armed Forces, and my name is Mitchell Hunter. Call me Mitchell, or just Mitch.”.
That was a lot of information at once. However, there was one thing that bugged her. “This is kind of awkward, but… are you mares or stallions?”
Mitchell coughed. “What?” he blurted.
The one in the white armor spoke up. “She means women or men.”. Mitchell glared at it.
“I know what a mare is, thank you, Steiner.” he said testily. “Steiner” shrugged. Twilight noted that “Steiner” had an accent which was very different from Mitchell’s, and it seemed that body language, facial expressions and even tones of voice didn’t differ much from that of ponies.
Twilight smiled awkwardly. “I just want to know if you’re “he” or “she”. It’s kind of rude to have to think of you as “it”.”.
Mitchell smiled. “It’s “she” for the one in surgery, “he” for the rest of us. I’m guessing you’re a “she”?”. Twilight nodded.
“Good.” he said. “Now, where are we, and what will happen to us?”.
Twilight thought, but decided honesty was the best approach. “You are in the town of Ponyville, in the nation of Equestria. As for what will happen to you, Princess Celestia is on her way, and the decision is hers.”. Twilight bit her lip. “Actually, I was sent here to keep you here until she gets here.”.
Mitchell nodded. He didn’t seem at all concerned. “We aren’t going anywhere. We have a comrade fighting for her life in there. We didn’t abandon her when we got to this world, we won’t do it now.”.