//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Marching Orders // Story: Battlefield 2145: Strike on Equestria // by TheMossiah //------------------------------// I took a good look at the 8 equines that stood just meters from me. Now Nicholas and Ford saw them. They brought their rifles up but stopped short from pulling their triggers as they dropped to the ground unconscious. Judging from the glowing horn like feature on the large white one, it had acted in defense. I brought my hands to the air. "Hey, I'm sorry that we come out as hostiles. Everything in this planet has attempted to kill us so far." I hoped they would understand such as the rock creature did. The purple unicorn nervously spoke up. "What are you? What are you doing here? Why have you committed such acts of violence?!" It said assertively. It had a feminine aspect to it. I could only assume it was female. I was also shocked it could speak English. I shoved that fact aside for now. "We are Humans. We came here in search of resources and a warmer planet. We have only committed these acts in self-defense." I tried to sound as calm as possible hoping to remove hostility. "But you carried this out with such... Precision and speed... Like you did it everyday!" it retorted. "On my world we are known as soldiers. We are trained to fight our enemy's and keep the peace. We are currently at war with an army known as the Pan Asian Coalition or PAC for short." I hoped it would clear things up for them, these creatures seemed to have understanding. Finally the larger white unicorn with wings spoke up. "But why would you be at war? You said you kept the peace." It said. The voice had sounded so caring. Like a mother. "Well, three years ago Earth was struck with a phenomenon known as the ice-age. The planet rapidly cooled. Our government's began to fight over who gets the warmer areas for their nation. It started as a debate but quickly elevated to war" "Where is the peace keeping?" The purple unicorn retorted once again. "I'll get to that but first... What are you?" I said trying to not sound too pushy. "We are ponies. These two are the Princesses." The unicorn pointed a hoof at the large white one. "This is Princess Celestia. The darker one is Princess Luna." I was startled. Princesses? Strange. "Well... PAC had begun to invade peaceful city's. They killed many civilians. Our government was furious. They sent us in response to fight the PAC threat back. As years went on we began to start running out of the precious resources we needed to continue the fight. Both nations scientist's had discovered the secret to cross-dimensional travel. That is how we got here." An orange pony with a blond mane stepped out from the group. "I want ta see yer face so I can know you are tellin tha truth!" It said, once again it had quite the feminine quality to it. "You may not want to see my face. Over the years of fighting it has done a number to me." I hopped they would see understanding in it. "I can't believe you until I see yer face!" It said again. "If you wish to see my face then fine." I said with a sigh. I reached to the back of the visor and clipped the things that held it in place. I slowly removed the visor. I dropped it to the ground. The 8 ponies gasped at the sight. The orange one spoke up again. "I-I... I'm sorry. I didn't know it was so bad..." She backed away a bit with her head facing to the ground. The white Princess moved towards me. "I wish to read your memories. I want to confirm what you just told me. I cannot believe what you have just said without seeing it for myself." As she moved closer I noticed she was about the same size as me. She laid a hoof on my forehead. I felt a weird feeling in my head. For 2 minutes it was completely silent. Finally she drew herself back. "Your world has had 3 world wars? I did not know your planet was so... Dysfunctional..." She said with a worried tone. I replaced my visor. "Now that you know I am not hostile. My friend here needs help. He is injured. While I am a good medic, I can do nothing more to him with my current equipment." I pointed at Callaghan who laid on the grass still unconscious. A bright yellow winged pony moved out from the group. It had a pink mane. It also spoke with a feminine voice. "I- I could take care of him..." She then let out a low sqeak, attempting to avoid eye contact with me. She moved over to Callaghan and started to eye him over. "I can take him to my cottage..." She began to drag him away. With Callaghan dealt with I turned to the Princess. "What about these two? What have you done to them?" I checked their pulses. They seemed to be sleeping. "I only put them to sleep. It should ware off in 2 hours." She said calmly. The orange one spoke up again. "We could put them in ma barn." She and a cyan winged pony grabbed them and dragged them off to a nearby farm. 'And then there was one' I thought to myself. I brought my hand to my intercom and opened a link with command. "Hello can anyone hear me?" I was met with static. Something was jamming the coms. Damn it. "Well I guess I'm stuck with you ponies for now." I began to walk over to the barn. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Field Marshal! We lost 5 Titans in that engagement. We succeeded in taking out 9 of theirs but they seemed to have fallen back to a ground base. Orders sir?" The marshal gave a small chuckle. "Tell the other captains to land their Titan's! Its time we started to fight back! Tell them to prepare their Tigers and power up their battle walkers! Today we are taking the fight to PAC!" The captain gave a salute and began to bark orders over to coms. The Titan's began to land in unison. "Sir, Titans are descending and are almost ready to launch their armor." "Good! Soon we will make PAC regret coming to this world!" He began to laugh as he looked at the destroyed PAC Titan's that littered the forest floor. " Yeah lets make them regret coming here!" some of the soldiers yelled and cheered. Titan's began to touch down on the ground. Tanks and walkers scrambled from their hangers. One surviving PAC soldier attempted to crawl away. A walker spotted him and brought its armored leg down... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sat in the hay next to my two unconscious friends waiting for them to wake up. I had been talking with the two ponies. They told me much about themselves. The one called 'Applejack' seemed to have a Texas accent. She seemed to be an apple farmer in this village. The other, named 'Rainbow Dash' seemed to have a tom boyish attitude. If I didn't know any better I believe she took a liking to me. "Ugh... What happened..." I turned to see Ford rubbing his forehead. He could see me now. "Harrison? What happened... Ugh, this headache kills..." I gave a laugh. "Your fault! If you hadn't of raised your rifle, the Princess would have never done that to you!" I gave him a shove. Now Nicholas was up. "Princess? What? What the hell are you talking about man?" With I sigh I began to explain to them the current events that unfolded. For most of the conversation they just sat there, not believing what they were hearing. I told them how the Princess only had but them to sleep in self-defense and how they were a peaceful species. Finally I finished up. Ford stood up. "But wait... Where the hell is Callaghan?!" He ripped out his rifle. I put my hand on the barrel and motioned it downwards. "Don't worry. He is in good hands. From what I've been told, the one named Fluttershy was taking care of him. They told me she was very caring. We can go check on him if you would like." With that Nicholas stood up as well. "Lets go see him then!" I gave Nicholas a pat on the back and motioned them towards the cottage. Behind the bushes Rarity and Twilight subtly spied on them, trying to learn even more about them. "I wonder what kind of stuff they eat here. Do they have cars? Do they wear clothing? How are there reactions to us?" Nicholas threw a punch to Ford's shoulder. "Shut up man! Why do you gotta ask so much questions? The better question is when are we gonna get the new camo for our armor? And hopefully the new armor looks much nicer than this!" I gave a small chuckle "Ok calm down, were here. Lets knock on the door." I moved towards the door. The door seemed to be a foot smaller than me. I lightly knocked on the door hoping I wouldn't scare her. From what I heard she was also very shy. "Hello? Fluttershy? Were here to check on Callaghan." Once again I tried to sound as calm as possible. I heard a lock click and the door slowly opened. "He- Hello. Your friend is much better. Twilight was able to use some of her magic to speed up the healing process." I was startled. Healing magic? That must mean what ever that Princess did it was some sort of magic that put them to sleep. "Magic? Awesome! Do you have any books or anything like that on magic? I would enjoy reading some." Ford tended to get quite excited when he learned about new things... Fluttershy was startled at the amount of attention she was getting and back up a little bit. "Ugh... I- I think Twi-" She was cut off by Twilight as she moved up from behind them. "I have some books on it in my library. And hey, I can use magic too." Ford turned around to see a purple unicorn. A white unicorn also followed. He had a curious look in his eye. "Can you do something right now? Hmmm, can you levitate me?" Twilight tilted her head and then gave a nod. She lowered her head and her horn began to glow. Ford began to lift off the ground. As fast as it happened he set down on the ground once again. I have to admit, even I was shocked. "Wow! Ok, lets go to this library of yours!" He began to follow her with a hop in his stride. Nicholas wiped off some of the dirt on his neck. He cringed at a tear in his collar. "Don't think you have a needle and thread at this library? I hate when my suit is ripped." Now the one known as Rarity spoke up. "Now darling. I can fix that for you at the boutique. Come follow me." Nicholas quickly glaced at me and gave a shrug. He followed the White unicorn back to the town. I turned to face Fluttershy again. She seemed relieved that most of the attention had been averted. "Now... About Callaghan." She nodded and moved aside. "Ugh, you can come in. Careful." She said with a small sky squeak. I slid inside the room. My head was just an inch from the ceiling. I saw Callaghan petting a bunny that stood nearby. The bunny slapped his hand away. "Hey comon now! I just wanted to pet your furry little head!" He joyfully reached for the bunny again. The bunny dodged his hand and stuck his tongue out at him in defiance. It then moved into another room. "Don't mind angle, he can be like that sometimes." Fluttershy seemed to be cured of her shyness around Callaghan. "Ah! Harrison! Your here!" I took a seat on a nearby chair. "Yep, how have you been doing? I heard Twilight, the purple unicorn fixed you up pretty good?" I relaxed in the chair. "Yeah, I feel good as new. Fluttershy also helped with my recovery. I don't think I could have pulled through that state of unconsciousness without her." I gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?" I asked curiously. He pulled up farther in his chair. "I could hear her voice in my head. She spoke softly to me like 'Its going to be alright, just rest.' and stuff like that. It gave me the will power to wake up." He said as he took a sip of some beverage Fluttershy made him. "And she makes some damn good tea!" Fluttershy shyly nodded. "Th- Thank you. It was the least I could do after you told me all those stories of you backed when you worked for an animal shelter." Memories filled my head. I remembered dropping Callaghan off at the shelter some days. Everyday the dogs would scramble around him like they hadn't seen him in years. He was quite the animal person. After a long chat I was about to speak again when my intercom sparked to life. "...Prepare to open... The PAC position... Fire the... And send..." Once again static filled the speaker. I figured I had to find away to get back in contact with the Field Marshal. "Thanks for the tea Fluttershy but I really must go. Callaghan... Enjoy yourself ok? You deserve a break." Callaghan gave a nod and continued to chat with Fluttershy. As I left the cottage I narrowly avoided a flying creature who crashed down next to me. "My bad." The grey pegasus said as it took off again. Rainbow Dash landed next to me. "Don't mind Derpy. Be lucky she didn't pull what she pulled at the town hall..." She said as she watched the grey pegasus fly away. "So your part of the weather team correct? Is that how weather is controlled here? You do it manually?" She turned to me with a confused face. "Yeah, don't you humans use your big 'Titan' things to move the clouds around and stuff?" I shook my head. "Nope, in my world the clouds rain, snow and move themselves." I was met with a larger look of confusion. "Weird, but I have something to ask you. Can you help me with something?" She kicked the dirt on the ground. "What do you need?" I had nothing better to do, and until I could find a way to communicate why not? "Well... I had dinner reservations for 2 but since Fluttershy is occupied..." Was she trying to pull a move on me? I didn't care, if it was anything better than military rations then I'll do anything. "Well I guess I can help with that, lets go." With a look of success on her face she did a flip in the air and landed on the ground. "Yes!... I mean ugh... Lets go." She said. We moved towards the town. She seemed to skip occasionally. What have I gotten myself into?