//------------------------------//
// First contact, First conflict. 
// Story: X-COM Ponies 
// by Sneaky Breeze 
//------------------------------//

Chap1: First contact, first conflict. 


Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Cotton panted as he took a sip of water from his camel bag on his back and wiped his forehead with a soot stained glove, it seemed like everyday he was stuck fighting in San Francisco the temperature rose.

The entire past week had been unlike anything the young soldier had ever thought possible, he and his men had been fighting an invading army like nothing they had ever seen before. In no less than a week and a half this enemy had descended from the dark ocean of space and systematically assaulted many of the other nations around the world, slaughtering countless innocents and kidnapping many more for some unknown purpose. Entire towns or cities were left either completely dead or as a ghost town. No human resident was to be found.

Cotton and his troopers were members of the 82nd Airborne and had been on exercises at Fort Benning when the first reports came in. Alien ships of immense size swarming into the Earth's atmosphere with little warning. By the time most militaries had mobilized the invasion was underway and the aliens had set up shop in cities all over the world and were pillaging and plundering, kidnapping civilians en masse and killing any who proved to be an annoyance. 

Cotton barely had any time to call his mother and tell her to find shelter in her home's basement, when the call came, even though she was in Kansas and a fair distance from the fighting Cotton still wanted her safe. She was the only family he had left.

Cotton's squad, and anyone else that could make it to the invasion site of San Francisco, were there in only a matter of hours and yet from the damage it looked like the aliens had occupied the city for weeks. Since their initial arrival into the city they had remained under constant attack as at random intervals one of the alien's larger ships would fly down and drop more invaders to keep up the fight for San Francisco. Some theorized that they possibly were also picking up captured Humans and taking them to some unknown hell that the aliens had concocted for the prisoners.

The Air-Force had tried to drop heavy explosives on a large alien ship that had remained stationary since it landed and acted as a sort of FOB but when they did their planes would either be shot down by plasma weapons or if they managed to drop their bombs, they would smash harmlessly against an energy shield around the ship. The Navy could not do much either since the alien's fighter craft were much faster than anything the humans had and would consider any ships in the area to be easy prey, especially with their powerful energy weapons.

Cotton and his men had seen some heavy fighting while working alongside local police forces, firemen and militias to evacuate as many civilians as they could while making strikes against the attackers.

One such mission had been two days ago when he and the commanders of two other groups assaulted a heavily manned position fortified by the grays. It had turned out to be a supply depot that was also being guarded the enemy version of tanks, of the fifty men that went in only twenty-five made it out, four of which died from their injuries and a fifth had been med-evaced. 

The lieutenant felt sick to his stomach as his gaze passed around the room of the hospital he sat in, soldiers from many different battalions and branches where in stretchers all around. Many of which were still in desert camouflage as they were called over immediately from other areas. The smell was the worst part, so much burnt flesh from the alien's energy weapons.

"God dammit" He muttered quietly under his breath as he witnessed a nurse close the eyes of one infantryman who had taken a direct plasma blast to his stomach, the doctors had managed to stabilize him but it was not enough and he simply stopped living, without a word or anything dramatic. As if someone flicked the poor man's off switch.

Cotton couldn’t stand to see so many wounded anymore so he decided to check how the evacuation was going. Making his way down the staircase of the hospital he was treated to the agonizing sight of a few injured children sobbing and screaming as doctors tried to treat their injuries. Two military medics were working on a little girl who had 3rd degree burns on her face, in her hand she clutched and squeezed a small teddy bear as if believing that if she squeezed hard enough everything would be back to normal.

Cotton rushed outside into the hospital parking lot where his troopers were helping civilians get food and treatment so he wouldn’t have to see more of the pain inside the hospital. A trio of tanks thundered past, looking like they had been through hell itself, one had a gaping hole in its side where cotton could actually see the tank crew.

"Sir! I could use some help, sir,” a nearby soldier shouted to cotton as he tried to push a stretcher with an injured man on it.

Cotton looked around and saw a Hispanic looking soldier who did not appear busy. "Ramirez! Make yourself useful and get over here!" Cotton barked to the Mexican immigrant who was trying to earn his American citizenship through military service. 

"Si lt. I do now senor." Ramirez said in his broken English that tended to pop up whenever he was stressed and sometimes led to humorous insults being thrown around. Ramirez slid his gloved hands into the bars of the stretcher and with a grunt of effort helped lift the injured man onto the vehicle.

Cotton was about to go searching around the perimeter to inspect the hospital's defenses when there was a strange sensation of danger running through Cotton. That sixth sense many wished they had. Then the danger made itself known when an alien fighter craft sped over the hospital, causing everyone to freeze where they were in terror.

Everyone outside looked up to see the an alien fighter that had flew past them suddenly alter course. It was now heading towards them at high speed. But ,as if by miracle, before panic could break out the sound of jets overhead overshadowed the cries of fear and cotton couldn't help but shout out,

“Fuck yeah!” as a trio of friendly F15’s raced to meet the alien ship. The three of them raced after the enemy fighter and gave it everything they had, firing rockets and cannons at it and managed to take down its shield, to the cheers of the people around him as they chased it out of sight but didn’t shoot it down to the ground.

"If I meet those flyboys I might just kiss them." Cotton said and noticed a soldier looking at him as if about to make a joke.

"If you have time to stare then you sure as fuck have time to work! Get moving!" Cotton shouted and the trooper saluted before running off to do his part. 

Cotton then counted his blessing that he was doing well so far. A lot of the men under his command were from different units and even branches. The enemy seemed smart enough at times to know to attack the humans that seemed to be giving orders, while at other times would make mistakes like attacking a squad of seven marines with only three of themselves out in the open. 

The rest of the day continued on without incident and Cotton managed to evac all the civilians at his center along with some of the wounded who could be moved ahead of schedule. Everything seemed to be going better than expected, until another alien ship landed and unloaded more troops to the fray. Now the battles seemed to get closer and the number of civilians making it to the hospital had stopped.

A few men at the edges reported sightings of the aliens or at least feeling as if they were being watched and yet despite all of this Cotton still couldn’t get reinforcements sent to his position.	

"What do you mean you can’t get me more men? We took out a fucking enemy supply depot two days ago that should have helped soften enemy resistance in my area!” Cotton shouted into a radio with command back on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

“I’m sorry commander. We are stretched thin as it is with reports of alien contacts outside of the combat zone. If more forces arrive soon you will be one of the first to receive aid but until then you are on your own."

“Get someone to send an Apache over to Evac-point Echo!” another voice echoed over the radio as the officer cotton was speaking to continued on. “Look I will see if I can get you some fast movers if you need them but until more forces arrive you are on your own, I'm sorry lieutenant." 

“Understood, over." Cotton sighed after the officer hung up and handed the headset back to his radio operator.

The lieutenant made sure to go into an empty room before letting himself loose his cool, grabbing an empty trash can and throwing it at a wall. He shouted in anger and kicked over a few plastic chairs before he forced himself to calm down. 

His superiors expected Cotton to hold onto the hospital and his block with only twenty healthy men, two of which were busy helping the doctors with the wounded that could not be moved, and a single Humvee with a TOW launcher that only had two rockets left. One was already loaded into the weapon while the other was in the back of the Humvee in case they needed to fire another shot.

At that moment his radio activated as the marksman up on the roof with an M14 overlooking the hospital courtyard called to him 

“Lieutenant,  Ramirez here, I’ve got a runner heading towards us; he hurt bad, looks like someone from Fox company." 

Cotton responded quickly. “Understood. Troopers! Prepare for possible enemy contacts!” he shouted out and began running down the staircase.

The Lt. quickly reached the bottom floor and rushed out to the courtyard as doctors inside the hospital rushed out along with one of the medics who helped push a crash cart for the injured trooper whose left side was burned badly and he missed an arm and an ear on the same side. But before the soldier got any closer to the hospital the marksman shouted out the words that turned every soldiers blood to ice with fear when they heard it over the radio. 

"Cyber disc incoming!”

And sure enough Cotton caught the glint in his eye of a small UFO shaped device the size of an average car, it closed in on the helpless soldier and sliced him in half by the waist, painting its silvery chrome body red with blood. Its spine like tail retreating into its chrome body before it continued flying to the hospital. 

Cotton ordered his men to open fire at it and shouted for the doctors to get back into the hospital with the medic. The machine closed in and an M60 gunner near a line of sandbags at the parking lot of the hospital opened fire with his loader readying more boxes of ammo as at the same time the Humvee rushed forward out into a position behind a palm tree for partial cover as its handler readied its TOW missile to fire and another trooper waited in the driver's seat in case they needed to move.

Cotton quickly dove behind a sandbag emplacement near the Humvee and opened up with his M4 as the soldiers around the hospital also reported being under fire by enemy troopers trying to sneak in from the flank. The Grays, small gray aliens with large heads and frail bodies but deadly claws and plasma weapons.

The lieutenant fired in very short bursts knowing that when the cyber disk was in its UFO form not much damage could be done to it.

The cyber disc floated to them with an almost ghostly calmness and ease despite being riddled with bullets, as it seemed to be bidding it’s time for just as the Machine gun emplacement ceased firing to reload the disc opened up, turning itself upright, its bottom half shifting to reveal a metallic spine like tail that uncoiled and slithered up and down like a snake in water as several metal spikes jutted out from underneath it for some unknown purpose and a small pair of twin barrels , plasma cannons, revealed themselves. The top portion then opened to reveal a yellow light that acted as an eye and small metal flaps acted as wings.

“Light it up now, its vulnerable!” Cotton shouted over his radio and switched his rifle to full automatic and began spraying the enemy tank.

At this time the Humvee seized the opportunity and fired its TOW right at the metal monstrosity aiming directly for the center of its body hoping to reduce it to nothing. The cyber disc calmly turned to the missile and opened up with its twin plasma cannons, blowing it up in midair just a few feet from it as it then floated towards the Humvee before the MG emplacement opened up with a barrage. The spray of 7.62 rounds managing to make a few strikes into its more vulnerable components. The moment the disc registered the damage and decided to take action against them as it saw machine gun as the more immediate threat.

The tail of the cyber disc suddenly coiled to its head and produced a strange device before the whole cyber disc began spinning horizontally like a demented hellish yoyo, launching the object at the MG emplacement, which landed and detonated between the poor souls before they could move, blowing the two soldiers there to bloody shreds without so much as a scream. The arm of the machine gunner was all that was left of him, still holding onto his weapon. While the charred torso of his loader flew up in the air and slammed down onto the sandbags, spilling gore everywhere, a testament to the cyber disc’s destructive capabilities.

Cotton’s marksman fired at the cyber disc’s mechanical eye and managed to damage it before shouting out in his heavily accented English.

“Take that you piece of bitch!” 

This moment allowed Cotton to seize the initiative of quick thinking and run from his position to get onto the machine gun. Quickly pulling off the deceased trooper's hand from the handle and pulling back the slide, the weapon was ready. Wasting no time cotton slid his finger into the trigger and let out a war cry while squeezing the trigger with all his strength. Cotton started spraying the enemy device with bullets, causing it to retreat for a moment as more of his men, now finished with the assault from the flanks, opened fire from the hospital windows, their bullets hitting the disc all over its body and making it wobble as it began to have trouble floating. 

This served to buy the TOW time as a new missile was finally loaded and fired at the distracted machine, striking it on its side, detonating and blowing the enemy up and spraying the side walk with pieces of metal.

The entire facility cheered in victory at the sight of the disc being left as a smoking piece of trash and even the commander himself had to feel the joy of seeing it dead, but in this war moments of happiness wouldn’t last as the cries of victory were overshadowed by a loud thud and metallic grinding sound.

Cotton wasted no time and over his com told his radioman to get command to send an airstrike his way 

“Tell them it’s something new so send us some ground pounders! Ramirez, I want you take half the men and pull out the doctors and whoever else is left out the back entrance now! Head to Evac-point Delta!”

Ramirez gritted his teeth and acknowledged as he rappelled down the side of the hospital into an open balcony and began getting everyone in the hospital together to escape.

Cotton didn’t find himself praying to god often, and in fact wasn’t a hundred percent on whether there was a god but right now he hoped there was because he felt like the devil was coming for them.\\

It might as well have been the devil, because soon, what looked something like one of the two legged walkers from star wars appeared at the far end of the street flanked by a squad of about 4 gray’s with lasers strapped to their wrists and two more cyber discs. 

“Oh, god help us,” was all Cotton could say and he could have sworn he heard a voice say 'You rang?' as he checked the M60 and found it only had half a belt of about 59 rounds left.

Even from that distance the oncoming enemy walker looked fierce, the thing was charcoal colored and had 4 mechanical eyes in a U shape, it had two large mechanical legs which gave it very good speed as it charged towards the soldier’s position and the cyber discs opened up and glided at its sides, with the Gray’s bringing up the rear. It easily crushed several cars that were in its way, with each crushed car feeling like the swing of a pendulum.

Cotton was not a coward but he wasn’t stupid either. He knew his men would likely win against the grays but they wouldn’t survive contact with that walker or even one of those cyber discs, especially without any heavy ordinance so he ordered the last of his men to pull back. The distraught commander lifted up the M60 and began carrying it towards the Humvee while firing in bursts at the enemy as he strafed to the side, hopelessly trying to wound some of the enemy, but a large beam of energy struck the truck before he could get close, destroying it and the two soldiers inside in a big fiery blast that sent the Humvee practically into oblivion with the two soldiers inside disintegrated to ashes.

The shockwave sent Cotton flying back, the machine gun wrenched from his hands, and making him land on his front with his ears ringing and his head disorientated from the concussion of the explosion as at the same time he felt like his organs had been reduced to jelly with all his senses overloaded. At that moment he thought it was the end and he would soon die, he could only open his eyes in pain as tears swelled up in them at how he had failed his mission, his men, and any other civilians they might have saved.

"I cant die here." he said, his thoughts traveling to his mother, who had raised him all by herself after his father ran off. "Get the fuck up." Cotton whispered to himself as he tried to force his body to get back up.

Cotton found himself silently praying that if he didn’t survive at least his men and the rest of the people inside the hospital might have a chance at survival. The feeling slowly returning to him gave him one last burst of courage and he decided it was time to at least make a final stand.

The machine closed in on the hospital, its powerful steps a reminder of the end that was coming as Cotton agonizingly attempted to crawl to reach the M60 as back at the hospital some of his men had stayed behind and were firing at the walker as it drew closer but it wouldn’t matter, it was the end.

But then it was like his prayers had been answered for when cotton heard a familiar and welcome sound he stopped moving and looked toward the sky, seeing an a pair of A-10s overhead.

The two A-10s continuously strafed from side to side to make it harder for the walker to fire at them. The pilots opened up with their 30millimeter cannons, the depleted uranium rounds slamming into the armor of the new enemy machine causing visible damage but not enough as it aimed itself skywards and fired at the Tank killers with a bright red beam that would surely destroy them with a single hit as the cyber discs joined in with plasma fire.

The A-10s separated slightly and raced towards the robots, spraying that area with their cannons on a strafing run before rapidly turning around. Now out of its field of view the fighters came back around then let loose with a barrage of rockets. One rocket with the words  “E.T. go home!” painted on its chassis smashed into the walker’s back, which left a large smoking hole in it, while the grays it had been with were reduced to charred chunks of flesh. 

But the walker was not defeated yet as is began to try moving again.

But it and the cyber discs were dealt with when the second A-10 opened fire with a set of  XAGM missiles which took out all the remaining enemies in a nice fire filled detonation. The force of it shattering windows and making vibrations strong enough to rattle Cotton's teeth. The A-10’s flew over the hospital to head to other areas but made sure to tip their wings side to side in salute.

Cotton let out several ragged and relieved laughs at his luck as soon four APCs pulled up and soldiers unloaded. 

”Get more defenses up god dammit. Set up a perimeter and check the wounded! I want this place up to speed now!” shouted an older African American man in a black beret and grey military fatigues who walked over to Cotton and kneeled down to place an hand on his chest as he shouted to some medics who quickly came over with a stretcher and carried him back to the hospital as in the distance Cotton saw the alien ship that had landed was taking off, being chased by a wing of F-35 Lightnings and any other plane in the area. 

As Cotton was carried into the hospital he hoped that he wasn’t hurt too bad because after the small victory he just witnessed he felt more determined than ever that they could defeat the enemy and drive the aliens from Earth.

Unbeknownst to the lieutenant though, at that very moment a secret meeting of the UN Security Council was just then finalizing plans for an international joint force against the aliens that would be known as “The Extraterrestrial Combat unit” or in short, Xcom.



Meanwhile in another universe, in the Canterlot gardens stood the statue of an ancient god of chaos. In his existence he had been called many things, abomination, anomaly, bringer of chaos and chocolate rain, John De Lancie, Q , and Discord.

He chuckled deeply in his stone throat, almost drawing the attention of an elderly groundskeeper who was picking up loose leaves.

Despite being turned to stone discord could still see anything he wanted with what little powers he had left from his battle with the elements. Sometimes he would watch dear old princess Celestia in the shower, or when she snuck pieces of cake in between her royal duties, but at the moment he was very interested in this little war going on in a far off land, he wished he had some chocolate glass to go with the show.

The humans of Earth doing battle with the creatures of the empire, or the Ethereal collective, depending on which Ethereal you asked.

Despite how much discord himself would have wanted to turn the human world upside down and inside out, he found himself wanting to destroy the empire more. They were so orderly, everything was calculated and tallied, births, deaths, what to eat, when to eat. Who gets born on what date and for what purpose. What race gets cloned and in how many quantities.

It made discord sicker to his granite stomach than anything Celestia and the ponies could do, sure they had order and were boring but they were just one civilization, not almost whole galaxy of different species acting like drones.

Humans on the other hand were on the border between chaos and order, they always had been, and it reminded Discord of his younger years when he didn’t know better. He then got an idea in his twisted head that the big bad ever so organized empire could use some well deserved chaos. The Ethereals had never really encountered a species that could actually hold its ground, that would be sure to cause panic among them, especially the rulers who like so many spoiled children were so used to having their way. Discord then schemed up a plan in his mind to help bring fear and disorder to the empire, and all he needed were a few ponies and a great and powerful fool.

"And maybe I can use this for more than just staving off boredom." He said cackling and making the old colt picking up leaves think he was going senile as he fruitlessly looked around to find the source of laughter.