Will finished opening the last of the latches on the floor and the sides of his jeep, revealing a rack of G36, M4 carbines and FAL variants vertically stacked on top of each other, two MP-7 variants and sig sauer P229 pistols placed at their feet. On the sides were a lone stinger missile and a lone Mk14 Mod 1 sniper rifle. Boxes of ammunition and attachments for every weapon were crammed in every place they could fit. The entire collection stretched from the very back of the jeep and through the back seats.
“Damn” Was all Jay could say.
“Yeah, a NATO shipment came in, carrying more than enough weapons. My status let me take a neat percentage.” Will explained to him.
“We should probably suppress every weapon we can” Jay thought aloud. “Are all the suppressors modern?”
“Yeah” Will said opening a box filled with suppressors. “Oh, I forgot to give this to you” He dropped the box, opened the passenger door and got a medium sized suppressor. “For your G36C, made sure to pick one up for you.”
Jay took the thin black tube with gratitude. “Thanks! I was wondering when I could get my hands on one of these.” He slid it into his jacket pocked and zipped it shut.
“So I don’t think were going to have to remove this, luck was with us and the tree was not too big and my door took most of the damage.” The driver’s door was scratched in multiple places and one large dent caved the upper metal and the ballistic glass was cracked and broken in several places. The top and some parts on the side were damaged from the flip and the bomb itself.
“But how are we going to get another door?” Jay questioned.
“We’re not, were just going to reverse the dents and put another coat of paint on it for the moment.” Will examined the ballistic glass. “But for the glass, I don’t know. I’ll have to ask the princesses if there is such a material here.”
“Reversing a dent in a titanium alloy door?”
“Fuck man, I don’t know”
“Maybe some unicorn engineer could whip up some magic sauce”
“Maybe”
Jay thought for a second, Celestia told him that she sent someone out to help them, but most likely they would be studying the entire vehicle rather that fixing it.
~~
Skid marks, blast hole, and no car.
What the fuck happened to the car.
“Command there’s solid evidence that they hit a roadside bomb, but their car is nowhere in sight.”
Huey waited for a response.
“Their car must have been completely taken by scavengers” A crackled voice said back.
“No command, the marks simply end, as if they just tumbled over and disappeared.”
Again, a brief silence.
“You’re telling us that they just disappeared”
“Yup”
Huey looked around, the same rocky terrain showed no signs of the missing vehicle. Little did he know he was not alone. His stalker watched from behind the large boulders.
Huey knew the feeling of being watched, and he felt it hard. The entity observing him wasn’t taking much care in doing so. Loud breathing accompanied it. However this breathing was definitely not normal, like the breathing that would be made by an insane person.
The stalker grew impatient and decided to make his move, he fluttered his wings and took off high for a dive-bombing style attack. Huey heard this and snapped around, pistol ready for his attacker, or not. Huey was ready for an insane person, not this… thing.
It looked like an equine, sized more to a dog rather. It had a completely black body and a dark purple back. Its wings were clear and looked strangely like Swiss cheese, as did its legs and two spiked ears. Its eyes were like an insect, but had a blue shade. The only thing on its bald head was a horn, which Huey figured was used for combat.
“The fuck!?”
Huey released two shots on the thing but it moved too fast. By the time he registered the thing had moved it was already headed straight for him. He just had enough time to sloppily dive to the side and the insect crashed, throwing him off guard. Huey did not hesitate at his opportunity, he shot at it three times, twice hitting him, causing him to hiss in pain.
“What the hell is that?” He asked himself.
Huey very rarely panicked, but right now he really didn’t know what to do. So he did what he was trained to do with humans.
“Who are you and who sent you?”
The creature only spat in return. Huey figured that it didn’t understand him.
“Looking for your freindsss?” it hissed back.
Okay, now Huey was panicking.
“The fuck are you, and where are my friends?”
“I am a changeling, and your friendss were transported to Equestria.”
This thing was giving Huey a headache. “Command I just made contact with alien life and they know about the missing unit! Get down here ASAP!”
~~
Jay decided to return to the library after he had explained nearly every part of the engine to the ‘engineer’ Celestia sent. He seemed happy with what he learned and finally got to help repair the damaged vehicle.
He continued the walk through town, getting stares from the locals, but he didn’t care. The tree house was in sight, and so was Celestia, looking through the heavily decorated telescope that sat on the balcony of the upper floor.
What in the fuck could she possibly be looking at?
He realized that it was aimed at the castle built on the mountain, where he suspected she lived. Jay finally reached the door and knocked twice before entering. The same wooden bookshelves welcomed him.
“Hello Jay! Made a dent in your repairs yet?” Cadence asked him.
Jay chuckled, “I bet you’ve been waiting a while to say that to me.”
Cadence giggled to herself “You bet I did.”
Luna suddenly emerged from the living room, obviously deprived of sleep. Jay had still slept on the balcony last night, but Luna had to help Twilight with the new teleportation spells.
“Ah Jay, nice to see you.” She said.
“You look pretty tired.” Jay responded.
Luna smiled “I know, I’ll get plenty of sleep on the train ride.”
“Train ride?”
“Yes, we are taking a train to Canterlot. You’re coming too.”
Shit, he had never been on a train before. “I’m guessing Canterlot is the city on the mountain.”
“That’s right”
“Do they know about me?”
Shining Armor threw him a newspaper with incredibly accurate drawings of him and Will on the front cover.
“You’re all over the country, being on the front cover of Equestria daily is pretty serious.” He said.
Jay looked down at the front article.
An alien species known as ‘humans’ have entered Equestria just two days ago. They are supposedly rebels in the world that they come from; this was made clear that their government began killing innocent ‘people’ and both humans were orphaned at a very young age. One of the humans, named Jay (left picture) stated that he hates the war and he hates all suffering in their public appearance. The same human had broken into a burning house and saved four lives, burning himself multiple times in the process. His friend Will (Right picture) smashed the wall of the house when the four ponies and the human were trapped inside, creating an opening for them. The ponies trapped in the building were all related to the element of honesty and generosity, Applejack and Rarity, the mother and one of the fillies to Rarity and one filly to Applejack. The third filly’s name and relations are unknown. No ponies were harmed in the incident but Jay suffered minor burns and passed out due to lack of oxygen.
While these good deeds were done, Will, scolded the royal guard in front of their captain. “You wouldn’t last ten minutes in a real battle with that ridiculous armor!” He said. However, it is clear from their weapons and ‘active camouflage’ that these species are far more advanced in terms of weaponry and experience in battle. Princess Celestia herself said that upon looking through Jay’s memories that his battles made the Griffin war look like a water balloon fight. Apparently, Jay has seen his friend’s brain matter splattered across the floor.
Jay tossed the newspaper on the table, he didn’t want to find out what else they knew about him. “Telling the media about Will’s outburst eh?”
Shining armor instantly stiffened his neck up,
“Don’t worry I wont tell him”
He relaxed a bit, and let out his breath.
“But really, was that necessary?”
“I don’t know Jay, he made fun of all my colleagues, and me.”
“I haven’t seen your troops in action, but your armor is pretty flashy, you’d get sniped pretty quickly.” Jay said, sitting down on one of the chairs in the kitchen.
“What does sniped mean?” Shining asked.
“It’s when your enemy uses a high powered rifle to shoot or ‘snipe’ you from a maximum of about 2,000 yards away. They use scopes to see farther and clearer. So if you decide to wear gold and diamonds that day, you’re not going to have much fun.” Jay explained.
Most of that would have flown over Shining’s head had Will not taught everypony the basics of human weaponry. “So what do you want me to do?”
“I want to give you camouflage, kevlar, titanium and firearms. That is only if you plan on following me to earth.” It seemed impossible for war to have ever reached here, which is why they lack modern armory.
“Don’t know what half of that is, but okay” Shining nodded. “I would take the opportunity for you to train some of my men.”
The image of him and Will training ponies was amusing to him for some reason. “That should be fun.” Running cadences through town all morning, doing hand to hand, shooting, endurance, survival techniques, parkour, man that would be nice. “Actually, now that I think about it, I’m pretty keen on that idea. When do I start?”
Shining laughed a little, “Well, they are circling around ponyville like you asked.”
“What is your boot camp like here?” Jay asked for curiosity.
“Well we regularly exercise, practice basic self defense maneuvers, things like that.”
“Really?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“No pissed off drill sergeants, mud runs, obstacle courses, cadences, endurance training, none of that?”
“No, that’s pretty serious though. Did you have to do that kind of stuff?”
Jay smiled. “This will be very fun.”
~~
“Tie it down!” The sergeant barked.
The grunts scrambled with their ropes, one was loading a tranquilizer dart into his gun.
“Get that slime to stay still!”
They held him in a bipedal position in front of the grunt with the tranquilizer, holding him for a clear shot. The shooter slapped the bolt release and took aim at the insect’s chest.
“You shoot one of us we’ll kill ya cowboy!” One of the grunts joked.
The grunt fired, hitting true. The changeling went limp in the grunts arms.
“Very good boys! Now get that shit-sucker in the truck, were taking it to camp.”
Huey approached the sergeant and saluted. “Sir”
“Go ahead Huey” He said, lighting a cigar.
“Permission to personally interrogate the creature on the subject of the missing unit.”
“Permission granted, I’ll be watching that.”
Huey eased, “Thank you sir.”
~~
“Start the engine!” Will shouted over to the engineer. It rumbled to life, shaking the room. The engine seemed intact, no ignition problems, no unnatural stutters, everything was ok.
“Okay cut it!” The engine died.
“Alright, everything is in good shape, thanks.” He said in hopeful dismissal.
“Oh no! Thank you!” The engineer somehow grabbed his hand and shook it madly. “You’ve taught me so-“ a guard storming in the door cut him off.
“Lieutenant Will SIR!”
“What the…”
“Sir Lieutenant Jay sent me to inform you that you are both now in charge of training a Special Forces group, and that you should be in full combat gear by fifteen-hundred SIR!”
“Wow, Jay must have done a lot of convincing.” Will was liking this already.
He was already wearing his ripstop urban digital pants, olive drab shirt and his boots. He scrambled to his backpack and hastily unzipped the pocket containing his gloves, kneepads and empty vest. He threw them all on and filled his pouches with magazines and spare equipment. Finally he wrapped his veil scarf around his neck, re secured his backpack, slung it in his back and grabbed his M16A3.
“Lets go”
Will and the guard left out the door leaving the engineer to his own business in observing the massive green beast.
“So what kind of special forces group are we making?” Will asked the stallion, not bothering to slow down.
“We picked our best out of the Captains company. I guess Jay thinks our military is too primitive. Captain Shiny said his boot camp was twice as hard as ours.” The stallion rolled his eyes.
“Hehe, I bet it was, Jay started his training at youth.” Will said, quickening into a sprint.
He kept sprinting through the streets of the town, using the visible top of the treehouse to direct him. He got weird stares form the locals as usual, but some of them looked scared because of the guard running behind him looked like he was chasing him.
Turning the last corner sharply he could see Jay standing in full battle dress in front of three lines of celestial guards, doing what looked like to be the pony equivalent of push ups.
“One! Two! Three! Four! I! Love! Equestrian Core!” They chanted as they exercised.
Jay turned around and saw Will and the guard barley catching along. He almost looked identical to Will except he wore tight black t-shirt and had only one kneepad up on his right knee. But they did both get curious looks from the guards because of their similarities, even down to the dragon tattoo on their right arms.
“Your calls now” Jay said. Will nodded.
“Alright listen up! I am lieutenant Will Kendrick, and you will address me as such. My job is to make the next few weeks of your life hell! Because you are the selected few that will be assigned to guarding your princesses in my world which is a dark, cold and unforgiving hell!”
The guards tried to do as Jay told them to and to remain an erect posture, look straight and have a blank expression.
“While you are in training, the last words to come out of your mouths will be sir, and you will follow our command at utmost importance. Am I understood?”
“SIR YES SIR!”