//------------------------------// // CH 4: Strike-Back! // Story: The Conversion Bureau: A New Age, A New Life - Part II // by BlueDWarrior //------------------------------// The Conversion Bureau: A New Age, A New Life - Part II Chapter 4:  Strike-Back! === [ Safe Haven -- March 15, 2082 ] ===         "Well it's nice to see that you are finally coming around to our way of thinking of things, President Aguillar. There is really no sense in bothering with the formalities of a Legislature when we're just going to hand you every edict that you will have to enforce over the rest of your tenure," Peter Vaughn said, as he sat backwards in his chair, staring at President Aguillar with a very strong and confident grin. "If I understand the purpose of this arrangement, you are effectively consolidating all executive power to my title, and granting me the ability to declare and enact Executive Edicts. These would be equivalent to any Act of Congress, correct?" President Aguillar said, as she read over the 'proposal' with a keen eye, looking for any loopholes. "Indeed Madame President," Vaughn started, with a rather snide and disrespectful tone. "Of course, if you issue any edict that we don't agree with; well, let's say I cannot guarantee the continued safety and well being of the populace. Because of your failure of leadership, the federal Armed Forces have been reduced to a scant couple of thousand at most. And as you have surely realized by now, the Black Guard answers only to us." "I think it has more to do with your blatant disregard for life that isn't your own," Aguillar replied coldly, not that Vaughn appeared to care either way. Aguillar was visibly concerned at that state of affairs -- effectively the SPH was holding hostage the continued functioning of the cities the Outsiders called home, ensuring her continued compliance in all respects. "And if I were to refuse this arrangement?" Aguillar asked, not giving away any hint of concern as she looked straight at Peter with an even-keeled face. "Well it'd be obvious then. You have an accident and we replace you with someone who will listen to us," Peter responded while still cracking a smile. I would have figured as much... Aguillar thought to herself as she continued to read over the documents, still scanning for any potential loopholes. "Anyway, I will be magnanimous and give you 24 hours to consider the proposal, that should be fair, no?" Peter said as he stood up and walked toward the door of the Oval Office. "Yes, I guess I will see you tomorrow," Aguillar responded, exhaling as Peter closed the door behind him. Aguillar sat calmly in her chair, as the amethyst centerpiece of her new necklace glistened and glittered. Do you believe they suspect anything? No, although we have to be sure that there are no kind of loopholes or anything that would void any order I would give under this arrangement. I believe we have enough lawyers here to go over these few pages. For a major para-military organization supposedly run by the best and the brightest of humanity, they certainly don't seem to have a good sense of politics. Not at all, I believe the years inside that cultural bubble has atrophied any sense of dealing with normal people. Their loss is our gain, it would seem. Yes, although I do notice one thing. If I were to leave the country for any reason and attempt to issue an order, it would immediately declare null my power and leave them the opportunity to formally appoint a successor. Yes, that would be a problem. They could send you overseas and then attempt something while you were gone. Once you gave any kind of command to what is left of your armed forces, that'd go in violation of the order. So the most obvious solution would be... Making sure they couldn't send you outside of these borders... -----         The next day, President Aguillar with heavy heart, at least on the outside, signed the Emergency Powers Consolidation Act, which effectively gave her near-unilateral power over Congress, not that the now SPH dominated body would ever defy the Men (and Woman) behind the proverbial Curtain. === [ Somewhere in the American Great Plains -- March 20, 2012 ] ===         "It's always weird being out in the middle of nowhere, especially given how jacked up the ground and the sky is out this way," one of the Earth Pony engineers said, as he directed fellow Earth Ponies and a couple of humans in marking out a nice sizeable space for the prototype Q-Drones to operate in. "I'd love to build this edifice myself, but time is of the essence," he continued, as a combination of silver, green, and blue runes produced block after block of reinforced concrete. There was plenty of material to manipulate given all the trash and waste that no one was exactly using at the time. And so the Ponies, Humans, and machines worked under the cover of Luna's enhanced darkness, constructing what was to become the Presidential Safe House, a VERY small scale version of Safe Haven. "So what's gonna be the deal with this place anyway once we’re done?" one of the human workers asked. "Well this is basically gonna be where we keep the President while we go and clear out Washington, D.C. from SPH control. Apparently the SPH got it in their heads that they needed absolute and total control of the major powers so they just started issuing all these full control edicts," his human partner responded. He then went on to show on a pad how similar safe houses were being built in Hokkaido and Western Germany near Cologne. One of the Pony workers thought about it for a few seconds, and came to the conclusion that most others who had heard the news came to. "Isn't that incredibly reckless and to some extent stupid?" "I guess the assumption is that they aren't going anywhere. And if they tried to do something like outlaw the SPH, they'd be removed and replaced with someone more compliant," the human responded. "Pretty stone cold if you ask me. I don't even know why the SPH wants this kind of overt power," another Pony stated for the 'record'. "Hard to say, I guess they are just obsessed with power. Anyway it's making our job extremely easy. It's nice to have dumb opponents," the second human stated as he ducked out of the way of the Q-Drone lifting more concrete slabs to put into place. === [ Safe Haven -- March 22, 2082 ] ===         "It is amazing what you can produce with just a little bit of inspiration," Blue Vague said as he looked at the production model armors and armaments for the newly christened H.E.A. Advance Force. He was with Rainbow Dash and a pair of newbies to the facility, a young Gryphon and Dragon brought in to get 'battle experience', seeing as starting fights in Equestrian or nearby soil back on Equus would be a foolhardy venture at the time. "I will say, these blades are pretty good, the material you used makes it much easier for us to use our Sword Skills on them," Graywing said, as he gripped the sword's pommel in his hand and took some cuts clear of others. Rainbow Dash just sighed, wondering what Gilda would think if she were part of the Gryphon contingent of the Advance Force. "Just so long as you don't go crazy trying to carve everything up wearing Black when you all move out, we should be fine." "Oh come on, a Gryphon worth his salt knows how to keep his head and emotions in check during battle," Graywing said dismissively, as he sheathed the sword. "And yet you all still have a tendency to get a little wild when the fight gets too hectic," a young emerald-green and red-spined Dragon said, probably no more than 20 years older than Spike. "Hah, and you Dragons are a bit too calm in battle, if you ask me. Sometimes you just have to feel the fight, Backdraft," Graywing said as he made several motions that were supposed to demonstrate a Gryphons battle-instinct, before his arm was caught and twisted into an armbar by Backdraft. "And if you feel it too much, you end up making mistakes," Backdraft said as he torqued Graywing's arm a little more bit before letting go. "Damn, you always play a little rough, 'Draft," Graywing complained in mild protest. Backdraft just shrugged his shoulders as he looked on at Graywing. "Oh come on I didn't even twist that hard that time. Besides, I know you can take it." "So I guess you two know each other?" Rainbow Dash asked, hovering over a rack of empty nanoskin suits. "Yeah we got to know each other during the orientation process a month or so back. Honestly I was skeptical at first about this whole travelling to a new world thing; but then I wasn't doing much back at Rockfall so, eh, might as well go see the world. Or an entirely different one in this case," Graywing said, as he continued shaking his arm loose. "I was the same way. Dural is a quiet town most of the time, and I'm still trying to figure out if I want to become a forge-dragon in Equestria or just roam like most of the others. I figure if I came here, I'd get some inspiration," Backdraft added, as he picked up a what looked like a small cannon with no obvious handgrip. "Yeah, I wonder how this thing is supposed to work?" he asked aloud, as no one could figure out at first, until a Zebra walked into the room they were all talking in. "That'd be the Alchemical Shell Launcher V2, standard equipment for Zebra Front-Line Support," said a ash-gray and black striped Zebra. "Name's Tal'Ro, pleasure to meet you all," the somewhat older sounding Zebra stallion said, shaking Blue Vague's hoof. "Alright so what's your story? The Zebra Tribes really aren't known for their military acumen or military anything really," Backdraft said as he sat on a bench, looking at the Zebra as he manipulated the Launcher. "That is because, by and large, we don't speak all that much about our military exploits. Plus we do live half a world away, so you most likely wouldn't hear of the fights we've had unless they were particularly major," Tal'Ro responded, as he tested the loading mechanism. Graywing nodded sagely as he understood the Zebra's sentiment. "He's got a point there 'Draft. Zebras don't talk all that much to outsiders anyway. I was surprised when they agreed to the Treaty in the numbers they did." "That treaty took a good while to ratify - initially the isolationist wing of the Congress deadlocked the vote. It took several personal appeals by Prime Minister Al'Kadar in order to break the logjam and get a successful one," Tal'Ro responded as he quickly jotted down some notes. "Well, however you did it, you're here now," Blue Vague said, with a smile on his face. "Indeed, I have seen the Spirit of the humans here, and I sense a Will that is unbreakable. It will be needed though, there is darkness that lurks all through this world. Even if we get rid of the Black Shield, there will still be a long struggle ahead to rebuild what has been broken." "Is that what your consult with the spirits say?" Backdraft asked, half-jokingly. "That, and just my own observations. Yet, no job ever got done by just idly discussing the size of it," Tal'Ro responded. No, no it hasn't Tal'Ro. If we are going to do this, we're gonna have to take it into our own hooves, hands, and claws... Vague thought to himself. -----         "And I am saying the new Bureaus should have a capacity of at least 1,000 at any given time," Luna said with some manner of certainty. A certainty not quite shared by her sister. "I just do not want to create too big of a target for reprisal attack. Even if these new Bureaus would have the same, if not stronger, legal standing than those before, they would still be large targets." Richard Edwards sat in his chair and thought for a few moments. "If you ask me Princess Celestia, I believe we should think on a larger scale than that." "Oh? what kind of scale are you thinking, Mr. Edwards?" Celestia asked, now having gotten a sense for when Richard was having one of his ideas. "Alright, the last run of Bureaus were located right outside of major metropolitan areas because we didn't want to be too far from the population, right? Instead, what I think we should do is angle for a carve out in the boondocks if you will," Richard started, as Luna was now paying attention as well. "I figure with the combined Terran and Equestrian Magic, we could revitalize the land and build up mixed communities." Princess Luna then leapt to her own thoughts along those lines. "Perhaps this communities, centered around a Bureau, could serve as an innate buffer, and a place of cultural exchange." Princess Celestia thought herself a few more moments. "Not only that, but it will allow us to lead by example. Instead of just reciting like schoolteachers how Ponies and the other species operate, we will show them live and in the flesh." "Sometimes it is better to show than to tell, I would guess," Richard added, wondering if the Princesses really were reading his mind whenever he had his brainstorms. "Do you think Aguillar and the other world leaders would give us such an opportunity, should we be successful in the end?" Princess Celestia asked, already figuring some of the answer. Richard responded quickly and reassuringly. "I can't speak to the other nations, but Hayashi and Koenig should be quite grateful. We will also need presences in Europe and Asia anyway; it would not be fair to the Eastern Hemisphere if the only Bureaus were in the Western." "I would suspect that taking 'useless' land off their hands partially, as a reclamation project, should be within reason. And besides, that is the long-term goal of this entire venture: to repair the environmental damage to Earth and foster long-term viability," Princess Luna stated firmly. Celestia and Richard nodded in silent agreement. The three then began discussing how to, instead of building a large building, plan out an entire community. === [ Safe Haven -- March 28, 2082 ] === "I'm telling you man a magi-bolt pistol is a better primary weapon." "Yeah but what if you get stuck trying to fight something with a magic-nullifier or absorber, then you're just feeding it." Fluttershy just sighed at the background conversation. "Sometimes I wonder if Humans would ever not be so aggressive." "Eh, it just comes with the culture most of the time. At least we aren't like the Gryphons," one of the arguing humans said as an aside "I'm just saying that katanas are too skinny, they just look like they'd break too easily." "Hey come on, they look skinny but they work. They cut cleaner than a broadsword anyway." "Pfft, really? That's probably all special effects in their movies or whatever." Sometimes I wonder about that... Fluttershy thought to herself as she fluttered away from all the weapon-talk. -----         "So we're good to go in about two weeks? Are we reasonably sure that the SPH aren't going to try anything crazy in that timeframe?" Captain Rodriguez asked, as he was now head of the Human contingent of the HEA Advance Force. "Hard to say, but Silentclaw has been getting some deep contacts now that he has his human guise, and his information is solid way more than it isn't. So yeah, I think two weeks is a good enough timeframe to stretch this out," Razorline said, who was the spokesdragon for the War Sub-Council and de-facto head of the Dragon Contingent. "You know, I half expected Bloodthorn to be leading your side of this." "Trust me, you don't want any part of her. Her idea of this operation would be probably to raze the Washington D.C.-area Domes and salt the Earth where they stood for good measure," Razorline replied, wondering just went through his superior officer's head most of the time. "Yeah, not a Dragoness to be trifled with. She almost single-clawed destroyed a rogue clan's leadership by herself some decades ago. The survivors are still traumatized to this day," said a tiger and hawk-morph Gryphon. "Really Trivak... Well I have to ask now - Hominid morph or full Dragon form?" "Both. Thank the Elders she only went after the leadership. She might be cruel in battle, but she is not stupid nor evil," Trivak said, with a heavy sigh afterward. Well, I'll have to be especially careful around her, then... Rodriguez thought to himself. A white and forest-green striped Zebra, wearing a gold sash, then spoke up. "In any case, all of the safe houses are online and reporting all green. And we are still getting healthy signals from the charms on Aguillar, Koenig, and Hayashi. So when we are ready to move, we should be good to go." "Good to hear General Blila. We should take the intervening two weeks for training. The Princesses and Dr. Jun finished the new line of Training Golems not that long ago, and it'd be best to try them out with the production model armors and weaponry," Rodriguez said, as waved an arm to shutoff the projection of the preliminary battle plans. === [ Terran Training Field inside Safe Haven -- March 29, 2082 ] ===         "So why exactly am I here and in this armor again?" Spike asked incredulously as Twilight Sparkle and Golden Storm looked on. "Because Razorline and Capt. Rodriguez want you to get practice using that armor. Even though you aren't formally in the Dragon Contingent of the Advanced Force, you are important enough being tied so closely to Miss Sparkle over there, you need to learn how to carry yourself properly. And besides, you're an Adult Dragon (by hook or crook anyway), so this will be good for you regardless," Backdraft replied, acting the elder brother to Spike despite them looking at first blush to be the same age. As they talked, two black Golems with silver and white trim became active, vaguely humanoid shaped in their effect. Backdraft looked at Spike and gave the explanation for the exercise. "Alright the Golems are set for normal combat, just focus on hitting them with the incantations or the weapons we're practicing with. Since we're in this space, they will just reform themselves when broken until they are deactivated again." "So what are we going to practice now?" Spike asked as faced the golem in front of him. "Good old-fashioned fire-breathing!" Backdraft shouted as he loosed an impressive torrent of red-orange fire at the golem immediately in front of him. The golem dodged for the most part, but it's arm melted into slag. Which, as per Backdraft's explanation, was assimilated into the golem and the arm reformed, as if nothing had happened. Spike tried to follow with the same, but his green fire did little to nothing to damage the Golem. Backdraft just sighed and face-palmed. "Emerald Flame? Yeah you aren't gonna torch anything but paper with that." "Gee ya think?" Spike replied flatly. Backdraft then continued what he was going to say before being interrupted. "But! That does mean you will be a lot better at incantations than me, as much as I hate to admit that this early..." "Wait really?" Spike replied, this time genuinely surprised "Yeah, let's just try it out," Backdraft said, as focused his mana. "Proc Ural!" he shouted as the fireball blasted away some of the chest armor and the left arm of his golem. "Ok, so the beginner fireball, where here goes -- Proc Ural!" Spike shouted following Backdraft's lead. While the fireball was no bigger, it lead to a far more intense explosion, blasting away the entire upper body of the golem sans core. While the golems were restoring themselves, Backdraft was explaining what happened to Golden Storm, who had the most utter look of confusion on his face at the whole display. "You see there are different kinds of a Flame a Dragon has. Ruby like mine means we are natural fire-breathers, Emerald like Spike's means they are natural magi. There are some others, but that'd be better saved for another time." "You know Twilight, Magic just seems to be attracted to you. No wonder you're its Element Bearer," Golden Storm said half-jokingly. "I guess so," Twilight answered sheepishly. ----- "A few years ago he was following me around like a kid brother, and now he's... well... that," Twilight thought out loud as she watched Spike being put through basic hand-to-hand combat drills by Backdraft and another Dragon. "You have a good combat sense for someone of your experience level, but your forte is definitely Invocation. Still, you have to know how to carry yourself if you find yourself in a situation where you need to go bare-clawed..." the elder Dragon of the three said, walking all around Spike as he practiced against the hand-to-hand combat golems, yellow-gold scales glistening in the false sun. "Yeah, not really any time to practice with all the goings on," Spike said, as was learning (the hard way) when to kick, punch, and dodge. "Don't worry. Elders willing you'll have plenty of time to learn. Some'd argue too much time really," the golden Dragon replied. ----- "These things are perfect stress relievers man, don't matter what you do to them, they'll build themselves back up," one of the Gryphons from earlier said, as he swung a broadsword coated in red flames through one of the golems, shattering the left side of it temporarily. "Yeah, but we got a job to do, before long. So don't mess around too much..." the other said as he cleaved the right side of another with an ice-covered katana. "You know, I think the fire would work better with the katana and the ice with the broadsword," a Pony who was watching for a short while said, while off to the side. The two Gryphons shrugged and canceled their sword art, and changed 'elements' as it were. A few moments later, they found themselves hard-pressed to argue with the random passer-by. ----- "Next time we argue about whether or not Ponies or Zebras would make good marksmen, remind me to just shut my mouth," a human at the firing range said, as he watched Rarity score 40/50 bullseyes on a relatively decent ranged target range. "To be honest, I probably would have far more trouble with a firearm designed for someone with digits. These are designed to fit over the back or shoulders, and work off Explicit Magic or a psychic signal," Rarity said as she turned the safety on the rifle and walked over to her 'opponent', a Zebra that score 38/50 in terms of bull's-eyes. "The psychic trigger as you call it is still a bit hard to trip, but better to have a stiff trigger than a hair-trigger. Anything to reduce potential friendly fire incidents," the Zebra said as he dismounted the other rifle. "You do have an amazing eye for detail and precision though. What is your stock and trade?" Rarity beamed like a lightbulb just turned on. "If you would believe it, I am a fashion designer. I was recently featured in Canterlot's ‘Up And Comers’ Show about, I believe it was 6 months ago now." "I heard you designed some clothes for the President's daughter when you all first got here. And here you are looking like someone that has been around a firearm more than once in her life," one of the humans said as he looked at how calmly the well-groomed white mare was handling the military equipment. Rarity stopped to think for a few moments about the statement. Do I? I'm nervous as any other Pony... but I can't show it... this is something I'm going to have to get used to for the near future... I'm more worried about dear Fluttershy, though... ----- "If I didn't see it myself... I wouldn't have believed it..." Blue Vague said as he stood, mouth agape. "She just suplexed a 5'10" Dragon, and a clean German Suplex at that too..." Rodriguez said, as he was trying to work how the butter-yellow Pegasus even managed it. "You think that's something? You should see how she handles bears," Rainbow Dash replied, entirely unsurprised by the scene. "OH MY... I'm... I'm so sorry!" Fluttershy said, hooves over her mouth as the Dragon was still planted a couple of inches into the ground of the Training Field. "Oh... don't worry about it... hard heads are something we're known for. Although I'm still wondering just how you got any kind of grip on me that fast," the Dragon replied, as he finally extricated himself. === [ Safe Haven -- April 13, 2082 ] ===         "You look pretty nice in your white suit, Richie!" Pinkie Pie said while bounding around a bit outside one of the media rooms that was now decorated with a fancier version of the HEA's logo. "Considering what we are doing starting today, public relations will be absolutely crucial. So Princess Celestia and myself need to make a good 'second' impression, if you will," as Richard adjusted his tie and pocket handkerchief in a portable full-length mirror, while Rarity handled the makeup and lighting. "I estimate a 91.95% chance of positive response to the news you all are set to deliver in within the next two hours, barring unforeseen circumstance. The degrading conditions the Society for the Preservation of Humanity are promulgating should make the bulk of humanity quite receptive to the ideas and proposals you and the Principles of the Four Nations alliance agreed upon roughly ten days ago," replied a green, glasses wearing 'female' fairy floating inside of the monitors behind the cameras set up in front of the stage Mr. Edwards and Princess Celestia were due to speak at in a couple of hours time. "I do appreciate your apparent precision in your projections, Miss Control, but you really should work on your language and communication skills. You come off so cold, sometimes," Twilight asked as she looked at Control through the teleprompter. "I am sorry, but I do not like being overly informal, not like Alternate, anyway," Control said, attempting to maintain a calm, dispassionate tone. "Hey c'mon Control, we're all friends here anyway. What's a little informality between friends?" the blue cyber-fae asked as she peered into the room from a different monitor. "We are nearing zero hour for the commencement of Operation Trump Card, and it is important to maintain formality when in the middle of an operation, Alternate," the green fairy responded, adjusting her glasses. Alternate just 'sat' on a program window and was visibly pouting a bit. Shift decided to appear to redirect Alternate to some other task. "Alright, that's enough of that Alternate, let's just go so we can support Control while we get all of this underway, you two can argue about how to talk to the operators when this is all done." "Oh... all-right," Alternate said as she floated away to another terminal, leaving only Control again in the media room. A mild flash of light heralded Princess Celestia and Luna's return Earthside, behind the cameras and the teleprompters. "So I trust that everything is proceeding apace?" Princess Luna asked, indigo and blue mane floating in the non-existent breeze. "Connections to major information hubs have not been detected. I am fully prepared to assume direct control of the major streams when the time arrives," Miss Control responded with her customary coolness. Princess Celestia sighed a sigh of mild relief. "That is good news, indeed. A lot of this plan starting as planned hinges upon us having access to the major broadcast channels and news-streams, I believe you call it." "If I understand correctly, this plan begins with the announcement of our 're-arrival' on Earth. Which is then followed by the US, EU, and Japanese presidents and prime ministers announcing that their nation's militaries will no longer be at the call of the S.P.H. At which point we start moving against the forces entrenched in Washington D.C.," Red Blaze recounted, as she paced on-side of the stage. "That would be the general sequence of events, if everything goes how we think it will," Silentclaw said, sitting in a chair far off to the side, outside of the view of the cameras. He and Razorline were to watch the speech, along with Trivak and Gen. Blila in the background. None were due to show up for this message, although all of the leaders of the three nations did promise public appearances should the liberation of Washington (at the very least) prove successful. !~~!~~! "So, how is everyone doing, we should be ready to go sometime in the next few hours, right!" one of the human HEA soldiers said, as he put on the pale gray bodysuit and strapped on the ivory white armor. They wanted to be a clear and discernable contrast to the SPH's black, and figured white was good enough for now. "Yeah, everyone is lookin good to go. Boy wait until they get a load of us, I'm not even sure if a bunch of those Black Shielders would even want to fight after they do," a Dragon replied, using some Invocation to change his default Ruby Red armor into his personal colors of ash gray and violet. "Hrm, I wonder what'd scare them more, a lizardman with near impenetrable-skin, or a half-bird/half-big-cat with razor sharp talons and claws?" one of the Zebra medics asked, making sure the regeneration and vitality potions were good to go. "Pfft, you know they'd say the big cats." "Nah, totally lizardmen."         "Anyway, they might be more shocked they'd see us Ponies again. Pretty sure they thought they ran us out of town forever," a Unicorn Guards-stallion said, as he adjusted the visor to make sure it didn't obstruct his snout. His cutie mark of a stone striking a bull's-eye 'bleeding' through his white, gold, and blue armor like all Pony Cutie Marks seemed to do with skin-hugging material. "Yo Rock Shot, weren't you in a rear-guard trying to get everyone out of the Bureaus a year ago?" another human soldier asked, hearing some of the rumors. "Yeah, saw some stuff I never wanted to see, or even so much as feel, again. Nothing as gory as the humans saw outside, but it was more the fear... all of that fear in the humans coming in for treatment or emergency Conversion. Not to mention the fear in the Ponies we had to evacuate, some before they could even walk straight," Rock Shot replied, as he shook his head around to make sure nothing banged on the inner-walls of his new helmet. "Can't really say this is revenge... but damn, what the SPH has done since then is nothing more than gross negligence in my opinion," the second human replied back. "Yeah, the less we bring 'revenge' into this whole scenario, the better," Rock Shot concluded, as he took the helmet back off after his adjustments were completed. !~~!~~!         "Fifteen minutes until show-time people! Miss Control, how are our uplinks looking," one of the humans in the control room asked of the green fairy, as Shift and Alternate looked on, apparently drinking milkshakes all the while. "Uplinks are all green. I am ready to proceed once the broadcast is scheduled to commence," Miss Control responded, her 'hair' sprayed out like so many tendrils going out into the 'Net, representing all of the connections she was prepared to act through. Across the soundproof glass, The Princesses stood to the side as they watched Richard Edwards go over his speech on his digital pad, which was linked to the teleprompter in front of him. "So, Mr. Edwards, making any last minute edits or the like?" Princess Luna asked, while drinking from a levitated tea-cup. "Sort of, more just reading it back to myself to make sure everything flows correctly; this isn't going to be long anyway. Our actions today are going to speak louder than any words that at least I could say at the moment," he said, glancing at the two tall winged-unicorns. "As others have said before, sometimes it is better to show rather than tell," Celestia reasoned aloud, to the agreement of everyone in front of the sound-proof divider. Time ticked away some more, right down to zero hour. !~~!~~!         "You know, it is strange. About now is the time we receive our courtesy call from Washington, D.C. from the good Madame President, but she is late... by a good half-hour," Peter Vaughn remarked, as he sat in the lounge at the still-unofficial headquarters for the S.P.H. Nathan and Claire were out shopping, Nathan having been volunteered for the job by Claire. So it was just him in the large bar looking at the various news reports, looking closely to spy any unflattering news reports about the S.P.H.'s conduct of national business. He was more than surprised when, at precisely 2:00 PM, every single holo-vision station and major news feed switched over to an image of a pentagon with five colored wedges on a white background, White, Blue, Gold, Red, and Black. What stunned him more were the gold letters over a blue banner underneath said pentagon. "H.E.A.?  That organization disappeared a year ago! What in the bloody hell is this?!" Peter shouted as he stood up, flipping the channels but finding nothing that had anything but that pentagon on it. As he was, he got a ring on his holo-cell phone regarding the service interruption. "Peter, dear, are you seeing this? All of the screens in Manhattan just flipped to this strange logo with the acronym of that organization we crushed all those months ago on it!" Claire shouted through the phone, stamping her feet all the while. "Yeah I'm seeing it, and I'm getting neuro-net messages that all of the stations worldwide and the major 'Net feeds are showing nothing but that as well. I want to know what the fuck is going on and why no one seems to be fixing it!" Peter said as he started rifling off messages to every major network tech he knew. !~~!~~!         "Such pitiful encryption these computer networks use. By the time they even start figuring out how I took control, I'll be long gone..." Miss Control thought to herself, as she 'felt' her iron grip over all the world's primary communications networks. "Mr. Edwards, I am ready to begin the broadcast as soon as you give the signal!" !~~!~~! "Richard Edwards, you'd better give the presentation of your life..." Melinda Aguillar said, as she sat with her family, finally reunited after 8 long and grueling months apart, little Rosa having never let her go since she arrived at the Safe House. !~~!~~! Well Rich, time to throw these dice and see if I come up seven or snake-eyes...         "Good day, citizens of Earth. My name is Richard Edwards: leader of the Human-Equus Alliance. If that name sounds familiar, it should. For in times recently passed, the H.E.A. was known as the Human-Equestrian Alliance. Nearly a year ago, our organization was driven to the brink of full collapse, due to the collapse of the myriad governments of the world after the worldwide coups by the Society for the Preservation of Humanity. In the intervening time, the H.E.A. has bided it's time, observing to see if the S.P.H. was truly an organization designed to restore and improve humanity and the world from the unenviable position we found ourselves in. To our dismay, but non-surprise, the S.P.H. has done little more than consolidate even more political and socio-economic power within the Domes. To that end, we feel that the S.P.H. is an organization that is simply organized around the preservation and accumulation of power in a select few hands, and nothing more.         "Consider the many incidents of thaumatic accidents. The many instances of monsters or other shadowy creatures either killing or kidnapping humans. These incidents do not see any sort of investigation by the S.P.H. dominated police forces. We cannot speculate as to the true nature of these incidents, although we do have suspicions of an ulterior motive on the part of the S.P.H. As we as an organization have remained in the shadows of the world, I have remained, to the surprise I am sure of many watching or reading this message, in constant contact with the Princesses of Equestria." Richard drew in a breath, and began to conclude his initial remarks. "Eventually, we have come to an understanding, and a realization, that we must be more proactive in our efforts to build a world that is truly for the benefit of all. That will require some stepping on toes of those who hold this world in the palm of their hands now, but no change nor progress comes without a struggle. No truly lasting gain could be achieved without the possibility of an equally lasting loss. While some may consider me a traitor to my species, it is my firm belief that those of make up the 'Equus' part of this Human-Equus alliance have so much to teach us, and that we would be utter fools to dismiss them. And with that, I would like to pass the proverbial baton to someone, or to be more precise, some-pony I believe you all should be quite familiar with." Richard then walked off to the side as Princess Celestia stepped to the microphone. "Citizens of Earth," she began to speak, not needing any notes since her remarks were to be even more brief. "As Mr. Edwards stated earlier, we are part of the Equus half of the Human-Equus Alliance. The other members have chosen not to speak live at this point and time, choosing instead to allow myself to give brief remarks in order to set the stage. Despite the best efforts of the Society for the Preservation of Humanity, we remain in contact with the Earth. Yet, since we could not gauge the true intent of the S.P.H. and did not want to commit troops, we decided to bide our time and observe.         "To be perfectly honest. What we have seen has saddened, and in some cases, infuriated us. Instead of leveraging the Magic that has become nascent and ever-growing in this world in order to fix what has been breaking, it has instead been used to begin fueling a war-machine in order to consolidate political power. We feel this cycle needs to be arrested before it is allowed to grow out of control. I know those on this side will feel that I am overstepping my bounds when I make this declaration, but they only need consider the previous eight months. In all the time the S.P.H. has had to merely announce plans, they have not done so. Whenever the old national leaders or advocacy groups have come to air their grievances with the S.P.H., they have been rebuffed or ignored. With all of the incidents of varying natures occurring in the major population centers, there has been little to no action to address these incidents, unless it involved citizens of the Domes. I will refuse to stand idly by and watch the so-called leadership of humanity fritter away the lives of billions if I could do something at all about it. And so, ourselves, the other major nations of Equus, and humans who think along these same lines shall indeed do something about it." !~~!~~!         For the third time in two years, something involving Princess Celestia had ground the world to a screeching halt. The Princesses of the Land beyond the Aurora Barrier had returned, and with allies apparently. And to top it all off, they all but issued an ultimatum to the self-professed axis of power of the world. A fact that was not lost upon Peter Vaughn. "YOU GET ME PRESIDENT AGUILLAR ON THE LINE, AND YOU GET HER ON THE LINE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!" he shouted into the holo-phone, demanding to see, in the 'flesh', the woman who was supposed to be his personal avatar of political power. "Sir, we have not been able to locate her for the last roughly 45 minutes." "WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T FIND HER! WE HAVE THAT ENTIRE PLACE ON LOCKDOWN 24/7! NO ONE CAN GET IN OR OUT WITHOUT US KNOWING!!" "Well, sir, we cannot find any perimeter breaches, nor do any of the security cameras show anything out of the ordinary. But mechanical and human-conducted searches of the entire premises of the White House reveal no President Aguillar anywhere in the complex," the operator on the other end responded. "GODDAMNIT ALL TO HELL!" he shouted as he hung up the phone. It was immediately followed by another call, this one from Strasbourg, France. Goddamnit what is it now...         "Sir! We have an emergency. We have completely lost contact with Prime Minister Koenig in the last 10 minutes. None of the sensors we have set up in his residence record his presence, nor can we find it through our tracking scanners. It's as if he just completely disappeared!" said a SPH grunt in a weak French accent. "Jesus... just... ok... really. You really mean to FUCKING TELL ME YOU CAN'T FIND KOENIG ANYWHERE?!" Vaughn shouted in a combination of fury and frustration. Said fury and frustration was only about to be compounded in the next phone call he was to receive. "Leader Vaughn, we have recently lost contact with Prime Minister Hayashi. Our sensors nor his personal escorts have been able to find him for the last, roughly 10 minutes!" the Japanese SPH grunt said, apologizing profusely throughout. "I don't  need your apologies, I NEED YOU TO FUCKING FIND HIM!" Vaughn said as he hung up on both grunts. "THIS IS COMPLETELY FUCKING INSANE. HOW DO WE LOSE ALL THREE OF THEM IN HALF AN HOUR'S TIME... THIS... this... oh no... oh no no no... THIS SHIT IS NOT HAPPENING," Vaughn said out loud as his mind was racing to a conclusion he did not want. "This has to be part of Celestia's plan. That fucking bitch-on-hooves, if I ever get my hands on her I will saw her goddamned horn off myself!" Vaughn shouted as he looked around for someone, anyone who could tell him something useful. Meanwhile Claire and Nathan had arrived at the bar, and were trying to calm Peter down some before he went and did something stupid. "Peter, I just received the news through the secure-link. What the hell do they mean they can't find Aguillar, Koenig, or Hayashi? That's our fulcrum of power here in the Americas, Europe, and Asia!" Claire said as she tried to sit Peter down. "I don't fucking know. According to all of them they just poofed into thin fucking air and none of their tracking devices nor any other sensors can pick them up," Peter said, no longer shouting but still very much high strung. "I cannot for the life of me figure out how you lose three VIPs that fast... and our techs still cannot figure out how to break the HEA's apparent grip on our communications. They have just been showing this test pattern for the last 5 minutes or so now," A test pattern that was about to be broken in short order. !~~!~~!         "We will return you all to your regularly scheduled programming in due time," Richard started. "But first, we have a very special guest that would like to address you all." The scene then shifted to a very large and remarkably green field. In front a bunker dug into said field, stood a middle-aged Hispanic woman behind a lectern with the 'true' Seal of the United States Presidency on it, flanked by a pair of human guards in white body armor. Alright then, President Aguillar, the stage is yours... Princess Celestia said to Melinda telepathically, giving her, her cue.         "Good afternoon, my fellow Americans, and fellow citizens of the world. Over these last eight months, I will admit to having been pressured by the Society for the Preservation of Humanity into issuing edicts and orders that have gone against every fiber of my being, as a politician entrusted with the highest office in the land. Some of these things I will have to answer for eventually, but I am now committed as I have ever been to seeing through my original plans, which were the restoration of living conditions and the hope of all people, and not whomever happens to have the most money at any given point in time. To that end, I am using the power I still hold that the S.P.H. so graciously handed me, in order to issue two new edicts at the current time. First, I hereby declare that the Society for the Preservation of Humanity a terrorist organization and an Enemy of the United States of America. Secondly, I will allow the Human-Equus Alliance limited access to official military channels and whatever personnel they require in order to begin clearing out the terrorists now currently occupying Washington, D.C. Once that trash has been swept away, I shall begin formal negotiations toward a true rebuilding effort. I hope that our nation and the Nations of Equus can forge A New Age of greater cooperation and, if I may use the word, harmony, going into our now joint future. Thank you, and God Bless the United States of America and her people." Aguillar was then immediately followed by EU and Japanese Prime Ministers Koenig and Hayashi respectively, giving edicts and expressing similar sentiment. Afterward, Richard Edwards then appeared back on the screen to give his closing remarks. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first. The S.P.H. has been declared a terrorist organization by the duly elected leaders of the three largest powers remaining. While I do not pretend that to mean the Human-Equestrian Alliance to now be some kind of political power, we will do our level best in order to ensure that not only those governments, but all the governments of the world are restored to their rightful owners, the citizens of their respective countries. You now have a choice humanity. You can either continue to wallow in apathy, or blindly follow the Pied Piper’s flute of the S.P.H. Or... or you can rise up, and grab your future in your own two hands. This world was not built to be ruled over like some kind of fiefdom to the benefit of a few. This was a world that was meant to be shared and presided over by all who are so lucky to be born or live here. There is a lot of work to be done, and I would hope that all those who hear or reads these words will heed them: Take your future into your own hands, and do not cede your gift of self to anyone else. Thank you, and have a pleasant day." With that, Miss Control slowly relinquished her grip on the information channels of Earth, making sure that no one could accidentally back-trace her back to Safe Haven's computer networks. "Control over the world's communications channels are now relinquished. Soon holographic television stations and webcasts should return to their normal slate of programming," Miss Control said as her hair returned to its normal style. Princess Luna looked into the teleprompter as Richard was decompressing after the experience of being watched by so many eyes at once. "Excellent work Miss Control, I dare say the Society's engineers had no idea how to wrest control of the media channels away from you." "A proper analogy of the situation would be watching a toddler attempting to wrest something out of the hands of a full-grown adult," Miss Control added, adjusting her false glasses. My my, quite confident in our abilities, aren't we? Luna thought to herself, wondering just how well-developed an ego the three Fairy Sisters had now. Captain Rodriguez then stepped forward from the area where the other Advance Force leaders were sitting, all discussing some of the finer points of the speeches given. "So, we should be ready to begin Phase II of Operation Trump Card before long, right?" "Indeed, although I believe you should give the SPH a couple of hours to reveal themselves. I would guess the leaders are currently in a state of furor, if not outright panic," Silentclaw thought aloud. === [ Washington D.C. -- April 13, 2082 @ roughly 18:00 GMT-5 ] ===         "Sir, we have riots breaking out all over Washington D.C., the public is throwing a huge fit that we're deciding to hang around," one of the exasperated grunts told his SPH captain, already run ragged from trying to search for Aguillar in the White House before she revealed herself to be nowhere near the White House, or apparently anywhere for that matter. "That's it! If they want this damn city back, they are taking it from us. I don't know why Vaughn didn't just deep-six her to start with, it wasn't like there was anyone to fight back against us," the Captain responded, as they boarded the Thauma-Tank to go put down another protest. Before long, thaumatic-powered tanks and APCs were rolling down the streets of uncovered sections of Washington, D.C., as the S.P.H. tried to put on a show of force that would prove to the public that they indeed were still the sole axis of power in the world. A status that was about to be challenged immediately. "Sir, we are picking up several, no, dozens of high-class thaumatic signals on the outskirts of the city! And none of them are hailing our request for contact with a proper SPH signature." the radarman in the tank shouted to everyone's surprise. "Wait, where?" The captain shouted, thoroughly confused how there could be anything like that in existence. "North-by-Northwest sir, about 20 kilometers... Thaumatic radar counts 60 signatures and rising, it's like there is a whole damn battalion coming in out of nowhere!" "Turn our forces around and go meet them, we will not have our superiority challenged like this!!" With that, the SPH's black thaumatic tanks turned around and began heading north, through increasingly poorer sections of town, pretty much bulldozing anything (or anyone) in their way. !~~!~~!         The HEA Advance Force were sitting near what used to be Agricultural History Farm Park of Maryland in an era bygone. "So, you think they're dumb enough to take the bait?" one of the HEA soldiers said, standing with a gold-yellow armored Gryphon peering at the horizon into the outskirts of D.C. proper. "Given how they seem to react to every kind of provocation, yeah, probably," the Gryphon replied, starting to notice a dust cloud kicking up. "Yeah I got a good one hundred thaumatically-powered vehicles coming in from the South, it looks like they're coming in hot after us. Bet that little series of speeches by the Princesses and your President got them good and riled up," one of the Pony engineers replied, as he buckled his helmet back on and boarded a sleek looking white Command Truck, as they called the vehicles that helped coordinate the forces in the field. "Yep, alright, we're moving out North. I want them in a nice wide open space so we don't cause undue collateral damage. We're only trying to break the Black Shield, not D.C. itself, got it?!" the human field commander shouted. Members of the force from all species shouted in agreement, and the chase was then on. !~~!~~!         "I have no idea where the hell they are going but this little chase is gonna have to come to a close. Start firing men!" the SPH captain shouted, as volleys of shells began landing in the HEA's vehicle formation. The HEA's vehicle formation began to scatter somewhat, as the both the cluster of white and black vehicles moved further and further North. --- "Do we call 'em in now?" one of the HEA gunners asked, as he looked out of a viewport at the barrage of shells and streams of fireballs. Only a few hits and some moderate damage was scored on the HEA's tanks as they continued rolling north, but now slowing the pace somewhat. "Yeah, signal artillery to start firing!" the tank commander shouted. --- "What in the blue hell is all of this!" the SPH tank commander shouted, as bolts of magic and shells fell upon the SPH tank formations like hailstones, many of the tanks already starting to take significant damage. "I thought these tanks were shielded against magic!" one of the gunners shouted at the SPH tank commander. "They are, but not like this..." he started, before he was interrupted by direct hit in the back of his tank. "Everyone out!" the tank commander shouted. The three men leapt from the tank as many of the vehicles began to break down or explode around them, suffering mightily under the intense barrage. --- "Alright, tell em to cut the heavy artillery for now, we’re going ground combat. Are the bikes primed and ready to go?" HEA Field Commander Young asked of an operator. "All bike sensors are reporting green, sir," one of the techs in the Command truck responded. Paul Young scratched his beard some, and then gave the order. "Alright, tell the Zebra Corps to start launching the fog canisters. We're about to show these motherfuckers what real MagiTechnology is!" "Sir, yes sir!" the tech responded as he tapped out the commands to the Zebra Corps helmets. --- "It would seem that that is our cue, and now the Society's debt has come due," one of the Zebras quipped as he received the signal to begin launch the Fog Canisters at the SPH infantry formations. "How do you all do that so easily?" one of his human squad-mates asked, looking on somewhat incredulously. "It just comes to us. Now, shall we be on our way?" "I guess we shall..." the human said as he boarded his bike and prepared to ride out. --- "Where in the hell is this fog coming from, I can hardly see," one of the SPH grunts said, as he walked around in his full black body armor. He stumbled around blindly until he began to hear several things at once. Deep booming roars from some inhuman beast, shrill cries from equally-as-inhuman sounding beasts, and the synthesized roar from an internal combustion engine, which according to most people ceased production nearly 40 years ago. "Oh god, what in the hell is all of that..." he shouted, trying to figure out what was going on through all the fog. He looked all around, only to see the headlight of what looked to be a motorcycle. The SPH grunt quickly ducked around of the way as all he could see were faint traces of green Earth mana from the 'exhaust' of the motorcycle. "Hey, Black Shield scum, I hope you're ready to dance," the HEA Thauma-bike Soldier shouted, as he wheeled around and dashed at the SPH grunt again. "OH MY GOD, SOMEONE HELP ME, I NEED SUPPORTING FIRE," the SPH grunt shouted over his com-link. But it wouldn't come. For the next 10 minutes He could hear the screams of his squad-mates, being harassed by similar, or possibly worse. As the engines and the roaring and the shrieking continued, it seemed to come from everywhere all at once. But then it all ceased... and that is when a gale-force gust of wind blew the 'fog' away. To reveal to the SPH in just how much deep shit they were in. !~~!~~!         "Man that fog was damn useful in getting all of us setup. They couldn't run even if they wanted to now," Commander Young said to himself, as he looked at the display on the wall of his truck. The SPH were nearly entirely boxed in. "Alright, open up a universal channel, once they see our entire force clearly, I want to see if they have the God-given sense to give up the ghost and surrender quietly." !~~!~~!         "Oh my god... what in the hell are those things?!" one of the SPH grunts shouted out loud. There were roughly 150 meters separating the forces now. The SPH's main contingent of 5000 soldiers, at least half of their worldwide force was concentrated in the Washington, D.C. area. Something Field Commander Young was quite thankful for. And now they were being boxed in something fierce. The SPH saw creatures of all shapes and size and color. There were what looked to be humans in all white armor with blue helmets and visors. Then there were the Dragons, many wearing red armor, looking menacing as they didn't even bother to wear helmets for the most part, instead opting for simple eye-protection. The Gryphons were clad in gold armor, some appearing to hone their claws as they stared a piercing gaze into the humans close enough to see their visored eyes. The Zebras and Ponies wore similar armor, Zebras striped in various dark grays and greens, whereas the Ponies were decorated similar to their standard-issue Royal Guard armor.         A somewhat gruff sounding man in his early 40s took up a microphone from the control truck and began to speak, audible over all com-links. "This is HEA North American Division Advance Guard Field Commander Young. You are hereby being offered one, and ONLY one chance to surrender and be taken into custody of the American Government for debriefing, detention, and trial if necessary." "On what grounds! That damn bitch Aguillar doesn't have any power. All the Power rests in the leadership of the S.P.H. High Command!" the SPH field commander retorted, thoroughly pissed off. "Right, the same High Command that’s defined as terrorists by no less than 3 separate countries," Young replied, as he just shook his head at the techs in the Truck. "WE are the Power in this world! We will not be cowed by the likes of YOU! No matter how many of those damn monsters you have on your side!" the SPH field commander shouted back. One of the SPH front-liners got a bit overzealous, and fired a machine gun straight at the chest of a Gryphon. "SEE, those Monsters cannot stand up to the might of Human ingenuity and technology!" the SPH field commander shouted, looking on at the incident through his cameras. The Gryphon merely got back up, no worse for wear than a few dents in his gold-colored armor. "Hrm, that probably would have dealt real damage if I weren't wearing this stuff, still stings though," he replied over the com-link as a Human medic brought him a pain-reliever capsule. "Alright, one last shot. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Choice is still in your hands," Young said, as he gave a couple of orders while muting the mic. "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK. FIRE AT WILL!" the SPH Field commander shouted, as a hail of bullets and Fire-streams sped toward the crowd. Quick reflexes by a Dragon and a Human Magi conjured a giant wall of Earth to stop most of the oncoming projectiles and flame cold in its tracks. "Alright people, move out. We are operating under normal protocol. Take prisoners if they offer themselves, hell one of them might talk and tell us who the hell is running that operation," Commander Young ordered, as a shield went up around the Command Truck. And with that, the battle was joined. !~~~~!~~~~! "THERE'S WHAT?!" Peter Vaughn shouted as he was in utter disbelief at what he was hearing. "Sir, we got some kind of combined force from the H.E.A. bearing down on our commandos north of D.C.. And quite frankly, they are getting crushed," "Jesus Christ almighty, ugh, bring it up on the monitors. As if anything else could go wrong today," Peter said to himself, Claire trying to console him. This is going to cost me a goddamn fortune to recover from... !~~~~!~~~~! "Damnit what in the hell is that thing!" one of the SPH goons shouted as he fired at the flying golden feline/avian hybrid. "Oh come on, don't tell me you've never seen a Gryphon before. I'm sure they had something like me in this side, even if it were in the story books!" Slingblade shouted, deciding the taunt the Black Shield by speaking directly to them. Slingblade rushed the first grunt with an outstretched claw and swiped his semi-automatic away, leaving the human mostly defenseless and staggering away in abject fear. The two SPH soldiers around him spin around and tried to fire on the Gryphon at near point blank, but the cat-like reflexes prevented them from getting any kind of good aim on the creature. "Hrm, now what are you supposed to do without your gun? Perhaps the two of them can cover you?" Slingblade said with a truly inquisitive tone, as he stalked around the three soldiers. He was hemming them in, driving their fear up and their logical thinking down, which further reduced the two still gun-wielding soldier's aim to next to nothing as far as he was concerned. "You know, if you just wave the white flag, I won't have to do anything but drag you in. Perhaps if you talked like a triad of stool pigeons... you'd get let off with just some minor prison time, you never know," the Gryphon said, seeing if he could break up the little cluster. To their credit in one respect, the three SPH grunts held together. To their demerit though, they made about the most stupid decision they would make in their short lives - they attempted again to fire again upon Slingblade. He noticed one of the humans placing his finger on the trigger, and immediately sliced off the muzzle of the gun with a two-foot, sectioned blade, and began speaking with an eerily calm tone. "Next time, it's your arm." The other human with gun raised it up pointing at the helmeted head of Slingblade, and pulled the trigger, firing a nice volley at said head. To the sheer terror of the three humans, the helmet Slingblade wore was just as resilient as his body armor. "Well, it seems that I have my answer," Slingblade said despondently. He whipped his arm around and flicked his wrist, sending top half the blade screaming toward the chest of the human furthest away from him. The blade embedded itself deep in the armor of the human furthest away. Said human was staggered by the sheer impact, and couldn't react to what happened next. Slingblade dashed ahead, propelled by his wings, and jammed the bottom half of his sectioned blade into the embedded top-half, now completely puncturing the body armor and the ribcage of the poor sod. He began coughing up blood immediately as Slingblade yanked out the now rejoined blade. "Ah I do love my armor piercing Sword Art, although I had to use more mana than usual. Oh well that's war for you."         The run-through human collapsed on the ground, bleeding out as many of his main arteries were pierced. The other two just staggered backward, now completely engulfed in terror. Slingblade turned around at looked one of the humans dashing for his gun. Another flick of his wrist embedded the 'sling' portion of his blade into the outstretched hand of the human, causing him to snap it back in extreme agony. "Now you see if you had just surrendered like nice people would, none of this would have to have happened," Slingblade said as he drove the blade back into its hilt, and nearly severed the man's hand off. His pain was short lived though, as Slingblade promptly snapped his neck. "Frankly, I would have expected you to have been running in terror away from here by now, but I guess you are braver than I thought. Or you're completely paralyzed with fear. Oh well, I give my condolences to any loved ones you have in advance," Slingblade said, using his short sword in a more traditional sense to slice right through the third man's brachial artery. "Whoever was paying you should have brought you some better armor..." Slingblade said, as he left the man dying on the ground. !~~~!~~~! "You can't seriously be trying that against me," a bright orange Dragoness said as she calmly approached a human wielding a thauma-flamethrower at her. The flamethrower was obviously having little to no effect on her. Eventually the SPH grunt got the hint and tried something else - reaching for the nearest heavy weapon he could find, a thaumatic-propelled grenade launcher. Hrm, now that might be a problem... Aliza thought as the human took aim. Perhaps if the human was a little quicker on the trigger, it would have mattered more in the long run. The element of surprise was lost, though, when it took a long 20 seconds for the him to figure how out to even fire the thing. By that time, Aliza had closed the gap and loosed a far more intense stream of dragonfire at the grenade launcher. It exploded in the arms of the human, blowing off much of his arm with it, as the thaumatic propellant reacted with Aliza's dragonfire. "Oh my, such a shame. Well, can't very well just leave you writhing on the ground like that. Zalka Yanda," Aliza said, almost at a whisper. As she grabbed the human's still existing hand, his eyes lit up as five thousand volts of magically-induced electricity flowed through his body, and stopped his heart almost immediately. !~~~!~~~!         "What in the hell is your armor made out of?!" an SPH grunt shouted as he fired upon what looked like a Pony with zebra striped-armor. "Such a bother..." the Zebra said to himself, as a green spell-circle appeared underneath the two of them. Now then Al'Zaul, what phantasm should you call upon... the Zebra thought to himself while his human target remained frozen in the second circle. Oh that is a nice one indeed... The human's field of vision suddenly went 'dark', leaving only the ground and the zebra-striped, armored 'Pony' in front of him. He couldn't figure what was going on, as he heard the ones with no horns couldn't cast spells like this, although he was about to be rudely awakened as to what exactly he drew as an opponent. "Now then, Soldier of the Black Shield, I believe it is time for you to experience the exact difference between a Pony and myself," Al'Zaul's thought aloud, as his eyes began to glow a faded green. The human tried to fire his gun, but the gun jammed, both the mechanical and thaumatic firing mechanisms failing. He could hardly move his limbs, paralyzed by the spell circle's interfering effects. What he then saw was a ghastly figure - a skeletal creature made of bone and sparse wolf fur; and a wolf's skull that was partially detached from the spine, ghostly yellow lights where the eyes would be were the creature fully fleshed out. The skeletal beast was several times taller and longer than the human, who was already quailing in fear at the sight. "What in God's name is that thing?!" the human shouted as best he could, glad his vocal cords were not paralyzed. "Just a little figure I dredged up from a spirit lake on the Astral Plane. I believe it will properly 're-adjust' your thinking," Al'Zaul replied calmly, to ensure his control over the wolf-like skeleton. The human could not resist the advance of skeleton monster, as it reached out a bone paw and grabbed him around the head. He began to scream in abject horror as the skeleton beast fed him vision after vision of horrifying events - the dead and dying from all human wars previous, the destruction wrought as invading armies decimated their hated enemy. The horrifying screams of civllians being slaughtered by invaders. The equally horrifying screams of those being tortured and raped all through time. The entirety of the human history of warfare, in all its bloody darkness, was fed to an untrained mind; the experience feeling like an eternity, and yet was only a scant few moments of real-time. It was vision meant to crush a soldier's will to fight; and leveraging the sum total of human warfare to that point, said soldier's will to fight was indeed shattered into a million pieces. As the creature released his head and faded back into the Astral Plane, the human began babbling incoherently, screaming in abject terror. "STOP IT! PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP. PLEASE... STOP... PLEASE... STOP." "My vision has already ended, perhaps you should take this time to leave this field of battle lest your life ends as well," Al'Zaul calmly stated as he resumed a normal stance. The human said nothing as he ran away, hoping to see no more dead bodies or anything of the like for the rest of his time alive. !~~~!~~~!         "And now I finally get some payback for what you did to this country all those months ago," Terry said to himself, wearing his ivory-white armor (with the microphone muted so he could only get input). Terry was running extraordinarily fast, though not as fast as his squadmates on thauma-bikes or anything with hooves or wings. Still, it was still faster than any of the SPH could manage unassisted, and that's all that mattered at the moment. "What in the hell is in that armor they're using? They are way too fast to be normal humans!" Terry heard from the SPH grunt speaking over the universal channels. He was somewhat amused by the chaos and confusion in their ranks, but he knew there was a job to be done.         Terry took a couple of shots with his rifle at a pair of SPH Grunts firing RPGs at a cluster of Gryphons coming in from the east. He did not want to take any chances that the grunts were hiding some weapons the HEA hadn't planned to defend against. "Damn, I'm surprised that they hadn't used any of those Red Bombs yet," he thought out loud as he took a few moments to see if two he had shot were still attempting to fire. That was before his sensors and warnings from the HEA's Command Truck were picking up unusually high concentrations of raw Fire Mana. Well, that's what I get for jinxing it, fuck... he thought to himself as tried to pinpoint exactly where the Bombs were being thrown or laid. He saw the familiar shape - a black and red-striped spheroid creation that appeared to be positively glowing red. Amongst the survivors and those who have read about it, that glow was something that struck fear in all.         OH GOD WHAT?! Terry shouted in his head as he ran as far back toward the HEA's lines as he could, dodging rocket fire from the SPH. He didn't notice until a few moments later a few Unicorns running toward the Red Bombs lying on the ground waiting to go off. "Rapid River, what are you doing? You know damn well what those things can do!" Terry shouted at the Unicorn with the whitewater-rapid-like Cutie Mark. "Trust us, we got something just for this!" the Unicorn guards-stallion shouted back. Terry jammed a device into the ground and created a wall of thick earth in a shallow arc in front of him. Damn this Bulwark Creator is useful, now what in the hell is River doing? He sniped some at SPH grunts that were firing in River's general direction; while River was cloaked, he was definitely not invincible, and surely he couldn't withstand the sheer heat and energy of the Red Bomb once it goes off. His heart sank though, when he saw the trademark red flash and the rapidly expanding red sphere of mana. Terry activated his Fire-Magic shielding (which turned his armor nice shade of pale pink) and ducked. Dammit River, why did you have to be so stupid... why did you have to be so reckless... why did you have to... be... wait why isn't the temperature going up? He looked around the battlefield from behind his bulwark, and all of the fighting just appeared to have come to a total cease, both the SPH and HEA already falling back to their positions for the most part. The most odd sight, though, were the red spheres of mana that appeared to have stopped expanding, looking like red and pink glowing domes, all with heavily focused Unicorns in front of them (from the perspective of the HEA). Just what in the hell is going on? Terry thought to himself as he looked around to see if anyone was aiming at Rapid River in front of him. When he saw nothing, he just stared at the red domes that usually just grew and consumed everything, after the bomb blew, just sit there nearly static. And then something shocking happened, as far as Terry was concerned... the domes shrank. Ok, seriously... WHAT IS GOING ON! Terry then thought to himself. He crept forward from the bulwark, a collapsible shield in front of him as he approached Rapid River, and noticed with his zoom on his visor that there were other Unicorns near the other now shrinking Fire Mana domes casting similar looking spells. "Rapid River, mind giving me the lowdown on what's going on?" Terry asked, voice relatively quiet now, over a private channel. "Just a moment... almost done," River started to respond. And with a final, and somehow resounding fwimp-sound, all of the compressed mana in the Red Bombs were sucked away to parts unknown. And with it, any hope of the SPH would win this battle. !~~~!~~~!                  Once the devices had cooled to a dull black and gray shell, the Unicorns carefully levitated shells back toward the HEA lines. The SPH didn't protest, as their lines rapidly receded. They boarded their remaining working vehicles and booked it as fast as they could to the west, avoiding the fire of the now victorious Advance Guard of the Human-Equus Alliance. "So what do we do now, Captain Young?" Terry raidoed in, looking at the battlefield filled with dead, dying, or abandoned SPH grunts. The leadership and able-bodied survivors were already nearly 30 miles away from the battlefield, and there were no indications of any incoming ballistic fire. As far as any of the HEA there on the field of battle knew, this fight was pretty much over for the time being. "Have the Unicorns erect shields and we'll take our time to assess the situation, I might want to ask Razorline to come to the field as well. Perhaps the SPH could use a little fear of God stricken into them beyond what's already happened," Young responded, as he checked the radar one last time for missiles or bombs from afar before exiting the Command Truck.         The entire field of battle became wrapped in a pale blue shield, as the Unicorns who performed the Mana Drain spell on the Red Bombs were already in a thaumatic-powered armored personnel carrier (TAPC) getting an early start on their recuperation. The Gryphons and Humans began rounding up the able-bodied survivors from the SPH to be carried back as prisoners for processing, as the Ponies and Zebras started burying the dead of the SPH; thankfully, as far they were concerned, they didn't have to do the same for their side. The Dragons continued to search and watch for any stragglers to fire back at the shield, or for any unexploded Red Bombs. ---         As the Unicorns cleared the ambient mana and the Pegasi cleared the air of pollutants and dust, the now disarmed SPH grunts just sat around in some teleported in prisoner carriers. "Just what in the hell are you all monsters? Where did you come from? Why are you helping the Ponies and traitors?!" one of the grunts shouted angrily at a Gryphon who really did not feel like answering questions. He eventually relented when he remembered that he was under the Gryphon Rules of War, which clearly stated that he could not severely injure or kill any prisoner that was of no threat to him. "The lizard-men are Dragons, the striped horses are Zebras, and we're Gryphons," Graywing replied from behind the bulletproof divider in the back of the large, bus-like vehicle. The convoy of white vehicles were heading into Washington, D.C. proper. "So what are you going to do with us all, feed us to some hellbeast?" one of the other grunts asked in a snide tone. "While that is tempting, we're gonna do something far more mundane. Actually use your nation's POW laws to process you properly," Graywing responded, sitting back on his hindlegs and knocking some dirt out of the crevasses of his armor. "You know some of you can make your lives a lot easier if you just tell us where you got your commanders holed up," he then added, almost as an aside. "Piss off, like we'd do anything help you monsters or your traitor allies!" one of the grunts shouted. "Suit yourself..." Graywing said as he turned around to look at the delipidated outskirts of the nation's capital. This was the best the humans could do for themselves, just depressing... Well, all things considered, some of them could make good Gryphons with proper tutelage... Graywing thought to himself as he could hear some faint whooping and cheering from outside. The word was already starting to spread how the HEA were beginning to fight back against the SPH; not only fight back, but actually dealing a decisive blow against them. === [ April 14, 2082 and a few days following ] ===         The days after the Battle of Maryland, as it was already becoming known, saw the SPH being turned out in a major fashion in the three major capitals. Washington, Strasburg, and Kyoto all saw major fights, and all three resulted in decisive victories for the HEA. Vaughn, deciding discretion was the better part of valor, began recalling all remaining SPH forces to relatively safe areas, including Manhattan for North America.         Meanwhile, President Aguillar and Prime Ministers Koenig and Hayashi were restored to their proper seats and locations (though the Safe Houses were retained, just in case). The Ten Elements and Spike all sat with their new confidants in the Advance Force to hear of the battles near the major capitals. Though they didn't exactly care for some of the more gory aspects of the fight, they all felt they needed to hear what had to be done to get them to this point.         A few days after the Battle of Maryland, while discussions were underway on how to conduct special elections to fill the now emptied Legislatures across the major powers in other channels, HEA Leader Edwards and President Aguillar had a nice heart to heart. Their combined efforts had gained them, and potentially humanity, a huge windfall, and now they had to sort out how to begin using it. --- "So how does it feel to be back in the Oval Office without omnipresent black-clad military grunts hounding your every move?" Richard said, wearing a white suit similar to the one he wore during his announcement address a few days previous. "It feels very good, Richard. I am concerned if we are going to find people to refill the legislature in any kind of decent time-frame. I honestly do not like having all of this consolidated political power, it makes me feel like a dictator," Melinda replied, looking out at the now more blue sky around Washington, a few Pegasi flying overhead clearing the air in and around the city as a whole. "They do amazing work Melinda, like I said in my address. What all of those species can do is simply amazing, and we would be fools to pass this opportunity up," Richard said, looking out of the same window. Melinda thought a few seconds. "Hrm, they've even been teaching my kids: Rosa having Fire and Reggie having Earth just seems to fit, for the most part." She chuckled as she was reminded of Rosa showing her a trick with different colored fireballs. "And I feel that they can teach us all how to use the power growing inside of the Earth day by day. The thing is, the vast majority of humanity is not going to want to Convert and move to Equus in order to learn," Richard said, in a tone that implied he was about to ask a question that might merit a harsh reaction. "Now what could you mean by that?" Melinda asked, while still looking out at the slowly clearing skyline. "The other principles in the HEA, as well as myself, want some of the empty land in order to construct communities to surround the Bureaus mk. II." "Do you know what you're asking of me, Richard? Such a move would be seen as an undue concession on my part by a not-insignificant minority of the population." "President Aguillar, we're at the point now that either we start stepping on some toes to start fixing this world and advance all of humanity, or forever leave ourselves at the mercy of the current power structure. This structure just won't collapse on its own, you know." "Yes, it's going to have to be pushed aside actively. I just wished that the means by which we had to do that were different." "I don't mean to imply that I want to see all of Humanity converted or the like. But, we have some truly benevolent, or at the very least not antagonistic aliens who want to genuinely help us be what we were supposed to be as a species. I just have this feeling that we were always meant to work in close concert the species of Equus." "Do you really believe that, Richard?" "It's hard to say, but that's just the hunch I have. The way that the converted humans that represent our Magic's four elements work with their Magic's six elements is just TOO close if you ask me." "That much is true. I tell you what. I can get that land for you, but it's going to need to be away from major population centers, and we ask for a nominal fee. The less this appears like some kind of giveaway the better." "I believe we can work with that, President Aguillar." ---         Deep within the Earth, in the slowly regenerating Shrine of the Elements, a now less-elderly and somewhat brighter looking Will of the Earth looked on at the events of the last eight months with some mild optimism, for the first time in eons. "Conduits of Terra, Bearers of Harmony, Keepers of the Other World... your machinations are beginning to lift one of the veils of darkness on this world. But do not misunderstand. Your task to truly rescue this world is far from over..."