//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Interruptions 
// Story: The Unity Pact 
// by Truthseeker 
//------------------------------//

"Now repeat after me Princess: varnotchk." instructed a tan unicorn mare.

"Vernoct." the word was utterly butchered by the tall white Alicorn seated in front of her.

The Alicorn mare was bright, shiny white with a mane and tail that flowed in soothing pastel colors, constantly rippling in a nonexistent breeze. Atop her head sat a golden crown with a huge purple gem set into the center. The crown was indicative of her royal status, the crown was not alone though, golden shoes shod her feet, while an extremely wide gleaming golden necklace stretched from her withers to the base of her chest.

"No," the young mare repeated patiently, "Varnotchk."

The two were seated in the Royal Palace in Canterlot, in Princess Celestia's personal chambers to be precise.

It was mid-afternoon and Princess Celestia had almost forgotten her language lesson. She was trying to learn several new slang terms in Draconic, but the words were being problematic, 'Why do they have to be so complex?' she idly wondered.

"Vernotch." she tried again, "Phphphbt!" she blew a royal raspberry at her instructor, "How can you pronounce it so fluently?"

The unicorn mare smiled and somewhat proudly fluffed her fuchsia mane with her left fore hoof, "Lots and lots and lots of practice. You wouldn't believe how many times I destroyed the pronunciation before I got it right. Now, let's try again: varnotchk."

Princess Celestia had her mouth open when a heavy pounding sounded against her door, "Enter." she commanded softly.

An armored, dark gray unicorn stallion opened the door and executed a deep bow, "Your majesty, there has been a violent incident."

"Rise Sargent," the Princess spoke calmly, "Violent incidents have occurred before and I'm sure they will again in the future. What led you to believe I needed to be involved? We have laws for dealing with violence."

"The incident involved a filly and an unidentified creature. Apparently the filly performed a spell on the creature and her father attacked it. The filly has been crying inconsolably and has been talking about memories of a strange place, memories that her parents say are not her own. The creature has sustained serious, possibly life-threatening injury. The most troubling part is that apparently it did not speak but was attempting to communicate. The filly's parents believe it was trying to ask for sanctuary for others of its kind."

The princess rose fluidly to her hooves, "I apologize, Razor Wit but it seems I am needed elsewhere."

The unicorn mare bit her lip briefly before speaking, "Your Majesty, I'm fluent in every language and dialect in the world. I may be able to lend some assistance."

The Princess quirked an eyebrow, "You may join me if you wish but I ask that you not speak of this event until I say otherwise."

Razor Wit bowed her head, "As you command."

"Sargent," the Princess addressed as she turned back to the stallion, "Take me to those involved."

*          *          *

Bright Spark gently stroked her daughter's mane. Rose Quartz, the filly, had been heavily sedated. She was lying on a bed in Canterlot General while her father, Stout, and her sister, Morning Glory, sat in the waiting room near the hospital's entrance, three floors down.

The room's door burst open revealing four more mares, all wearing anxious expressions. The first was an ice white pegasus mare who sported a burnt orange mane and tail. The second was another pegasus who had a veridian coat and gleaming silver mane and tail. The third was an earth pony. She was light blue and her mane and tail shone like spun gold. The final mare was a bright red unicorn mare whose light brown mane and tail were tied up in a bun.

"What happened?" asked the light blue earth pony mare. 

"Stout and I decided to take Rose and Morning on a little hike when we came upon some kind of creature. It was injured and it couldn't speak. It seemed harmless at first but... "

She was cut off by the veridian pegasus mare, "Where is it?" she asked angrily, "I'll pound it into oblivion!"

"You don't have to, Storm Front." Bright Spark said quietly, "Stout already broke its skull."

"No surprise there!" Storm Front said, suddenly jovial, "He always was a bit rough."

"Enough." the command was quiet but cutting, "What caused Stout to attack the creature? He may be a bit... exuberant but I've never heard of him getting violent." the question came from the lone earth pony.

Bright Spark looked over to her and shrugged, "I'm not sure, Veneer. The creature was trying to communicate something about others of its kind. I think it was trying to ask for a place to stay. Stout and I got into an argument... "

The ice white pegasus mare face hoofed, "Again Sparky, really?" she asked in disbelief, "You like to argue more than a noble. None of us argue with him that much."

"Let her finish, Snowflake." said the red unicorn mare, "We've interrupted her enough as is."

Bright Spark nodded gratefully to the unicorn, "Thanks Crimson. Anyway we got to arguing and Rosy decided she really wanted to help the creature. She... she... I think she read its mind. She was crying about machines and wars and death."

The other mares were struck silent.

Crimson approached Bright Spark and laid a comforting hoof on her shoulder, "That still doesn't explain why Stout attacked the thing." she nuzzled the distraught yellow unicorn mare, "What happened?"

"Rose touched her horn to its head and the thing tried pushing her off. Rose started screaming and Stout bucked it in the head. He may have killed it."

"The creature is alive for the moment." said a smooth, regal voice from the doorway.

The five mares turned and bowed as two Royal Guards and Princess Celestia herself entered the room, "Your majesty," Crimson said, "We weren't expecting you."

The Alicorn Princess slowly stepped toward the filly on the bed, "One of my little ponies may have used a forbidden spell and another one nearly murdered the creature the spell was used on. How could I ignore such events? I would be a very poor leader indeed, had I chosen to do so."

She stopped next to the bed and gazed at the sleeping filly, "These circumstances are highly unusual, as such, I'm going to see if there has been any actual infraction by Rose Quartz."

Bright Spark instantly dissolved into hysterics, "She didn't know what she was doing! She never meant any harm... "

"Peace, my little pony." Celestia said calmly, "I never thought she did so intentionally. After all my years, do you really think I'm ignorant of young unicorn's magical surges? Rose Quartz will come to no harm from me. In fact she has likely already suffered far worse than any punishment I could ever render. I intend to repair the damage to her mind. This may take some time. Be patient."

The two Royal Guards closed the room's door then took up positions on either side of it. The five mares stood back as Princess Celestia lit her horn and lowered her head, touching her horn to that of Rose Quartz.

Time oozed by at a snail's pace for Bright Spark as she fretted over her daughter's well being. The presence of the four other mares brought her some measure of comfort as the hours performed their terrible dance.

Princess Celestia was as still as a statue during the entire process. Not one muscle or fiber, not a hair on her coat moved as much as a millionth of an inch.

After nine hours of mental anguish for Bright Spark, she heard a sound that could have been the voice of an angel, "Mommy?"

The yellow unicorn mare sprang up from her seated position on the floor and nearly tackled her daughter as she cried tears of relief, "Rosy!" she wept, "Oh I was so worried about you baby!"

"What happened Mommy? The last thing I remember was wanting to help that injured creature." the filly asked with the kind of innocent ignorance only a young child knows.

"You got hurt, little one, but you're all better now." Celestia said as she raised her head.

"PRINCESS!" Rose Quartz cried eyes wide with adoration, "Wow! How bad did I get hurt?"

Celestia smiled warmly, "You're all better now. Does it really matter?"

The little filly put her right hoof up to her mouth as she tilted her head upward, eyes to the ceiling in intense adolescent thought,
"Nope!"

The ancient Alicorn smiled at the adorable filly's antics, "All I ask is that you be more careful in the future." the Princess turned her attention to Bright Spark, "You may not want to wait too long on teaching her about the consequences of using forbidden magic. Fare you well Bright Spark. You needn't concern yourself with hospital fees but I do ask that this incident remains unspoken of to anypony until such a time as I chose to divulge it to all."

The family bowed as the Alicorn princess left the room and headed toward the stairs. She was quiet and contemplative, a fact that was not lost on her two escorts.

The elder of the Royal Guards voiced an observation, "The last time I saw you so troubled Your Majesty, was during the last incident with Princess Twilight."

Celestia smiled mildly, "As observant as always Sargent. Yes I am troubled. I took the memories from Rose Quartz' mind and put them in my own."

"If I may be so bold Princess, what did you see that's causing you so much turmoil?" the Guard asked quietly.

Celestia's expression hardened, "I saw several hundred years of the history of an entire species. Our creature admired the subject it seems. He made a study about their wars."

"Pardon me Princess, but what could be so bad about history?" the Guard queried.

"You would understand if you had seen it." she let out a heavy sigh, stopping in front of a North facing window, "We have some preparing to do Sargent. Rally the Guard."

The last time he heard those words was a couple of days before the Changelings had attacked, the situation was dire apparently,
"How many, your majesty?"

Celestia gazed out the window, looking past the mountain and toward the forest beyond. Her jaw clenched as she carefully considered her exact course of action. There were so many possibilities, so many ways the situation might spiral out of control, so many lives as stake. The decision rested on her shoulders and she was loathe to act before she was certain of the outcome. Her long years had taught her to think in directions and on scales her beloved subjects would never dream of. She schooled her face into her impassive expression as she calculated.

New pieces had been added to an already overflowing board and she would see to them personally. Some had already been permanently removed and some had yet to take the field. She knew she was but one more piece on the board, even if she oversaw a great multitude of others. She had just been gifted with a rare trump, a complete overview of a being's entire life. She was uncomfortable with the potential power she could exercise over the creature as it was not her way. Yet in accessing the creature's memory she found, to her horror, exactly what the species was capable of, if left to their own devices. The safety of her subjects was her single highest priority and she would ensure it, but at what cost? At what point did the importance of a single sentient species outweigh that of another? Difficult positions made for even more difficult choices. She had learned that long ago. She knew when a difficult choice was before her. Without a doubt there was one to be made in regard to the most recent developments. Suddenly, the most difficult and possibly far-reaching decision of her long life reared its ugly head and demanded immediate action. She knew she was not the only one who would have to live with her decision.

The choice was difficult, but in the end, it was the only one she could make, "All of them."

*          *          *

Masonete was not a man who was prone to flights of fancy or wild fits of imaginative panic. He was a calm man, a man who generally accepted the entirety of the world around him with more understanding than most. Andrew Masonete was worried. He was very worried.

The night had fallen on the fifth day since Pering had left. Mario LeBlanch had yet to be captured, a fact that grated on Masonete's nerves. He had much more pressing matters to see to though. The night was warm, much like every night had been since everyone had arrived. The sky was as cloudless as always and the moon shone brightly through the thick foliage above. Masonete made his way through the forest, silent as a thought. There had been a light breeze earlier in the evening.

It was on that breeze that Masonete smelled something potent enough to wake him from his sleep. He had risen from his place of peaceful slumber and followed his nose, which was where he found himself presently. His feet always seemed to locate exactly the right places to find purchase. He simply had a sense of where to safely step without making a single sound. Some of the people with the group had begun referring to him as 'Specter'. Masonete rolled his eyes, he knew he wasn't anything that special, he just knew how to go about the world, unseen. He had a lifetime of practice after all.

Everyone else had gone to sleep more than an hour ago by his estimation and the injured who were tasked with keeping an eye out never paid any attention to his movements.

It took him quite a lot of time to determine the exact location of the source of the smell. He had been trekking South-East for an hour, by his estimation, when he spotted a flicker of light ahead of him and slightly to his left. He instantly froze and crouched down in she shadows of the thick bushes, shrubs, and trees. His eyes darted left and right, trying to spot any possible sign of a raised alarm. He held perfectly still for many long minutes before venturing forward once more.

His dark chocolate skin merged with the thick shadows as he slunk, invisibly toward the source of the light. As he crept closer, he began seeing more and more of them, 'Fires.' he silently observed, 'Camp fires. Could this be the relief Pering went to ask for?' His heart leapt for joy at the thought, 'Man, what I wouldn't give for just one roll of toilet paper.' Elated at the thought of simple amenities or not, he decided to maintain his caution and crept ever closer to the fires.

He began seeing movement around the fires and halted and crouched down again. He simply observed. The movements around the fires were difficult to make out, there were trees and bushes in the way. Masonete silently crept to his left until he had a clear line of sight to the closest fire. Having achieved his desired angle, he crept forward and into a small bush. He settled down on his knees and pried the foliage apart to watch.

He saw dozens of four legged creatures walking around the fires. Tents had been pitched all over the place, brown, canvas looking tents. Each tent was fairly small maybe five feet tall and maybe six feet wide. The creatures were ladling what looked like a type of thick stew into small bowls. The sources of the stew were small, iron kettles which hung suspended over each fire. The stew smelled strongly of garlic. Masonete had finally found the source of the smell that had awoken him.

He silently watched the camp. It was full of activity, 'Equinoud creatures, just like Pering said. They're all wearing armor though. Why would a relief effort be clad in armor and what is with their coats? They're all the same color, heck they all look like clones.'

Masonete continued to watch, 'Armor looks to be either brass or bronze... ' a flash of white reflected light glanced into his eyes. He instantly zeroed in on the source. The reflection was from one of the creatures pulling out a short, wide bladed sword from a scabbard which was held by a baldric on the side of a creature's armor. The creature began polishing the blade with a grey cloth, 'Weapons? Why would they be armed? Well we are a new species, or probably are. I could see it, I guess. Still worrying though.'

Deciding he had seen as much as he could from the distance, Masonete decided to get closer. Worry was eating at the edge of his mind, 'Where are the supplies for us? Maybe they're keeping them at the center of their camp. There sure a lot of them though.' He crept closer and closer to the equinoids. They had set up camp in a wide, barren field. Fortunately they had placed their camp right up against the tree line. Masonete decided to stop about ten feet away from the edge of the forest. His vision of the camps inhabitants was as clear as he could hope for without actually being in the camp, but even that idea was not closed to him.

The equinoids puzzled him greatly, 'Granted, I don't know much about horses but I would have thought that at ten feet, they would be able to at least smell me if not see and hear me too. What is going on?'

A flicker of blue light began shining forth from the horn of one of the creatures. The creature was clad in armor just like the rest but it had an unstrung bow and quiver of arrows tied to its armor. It was lying down in front of one of the fires, 'Unicorns?' he wondered, 'Pering didn't say anything about any unicorns... ' his attention was violently yanked from him and his eyes bulged. The bow inside the quiver on the creature's side lit up with a blue glow and floated out of the quiver.

Masonete crossed himself, shaking, 'What the HELL are these things!?' The bow bent and strung itself. A small round wad of white matter floated out of a pair of brown bags next to where the equinoid was lying. The white mass was glowing the same blue as the unicorn's horn and the bow, 'The glows are all the same color? They must be linked! What kind of power is this?' The white mass began rubbing itself on the taut bowstring, 'It's waxing the string of the bow! I remember Pering talking about that. He said it was necessary for bowstrings to stay waxed or else they would fray and snap.'

Things began settling into place in Masonete's mind, 'These creature must be soldiers.' his roaming eyes found many, many more of them throughout the camp, 'Hundreds of soldiers, all armored and polishing weapons? What's going on? Where's the relief effort?' worry began to gnaw in earnest within Masonete's heart, 'Please don't let this be what it looks like.' he silently prayed, 'Please, let me be wrong.'

Shifting his focus, he shook his head and scoured the equinoid's camp once more, 'Armor and weapons look like something from Roman times. Swords, spears, bows, heck even the crests on their helmets. Still no sign of supplies though... Wait.' motion caught his eye.

One of the equinoids had pulled a large crate out of one of the tents. A second one approached the first and the two began speaking. Masonete couldn't understand anything either one was saying but the second one looked agitated. Both creatures sounded male. The first one pried the lid off a crate and pulled out a cord wrapped net and held it out to the second one with a hoof. The second one gestured to the net then to every other tent in sight. The first one placed the net back in the crate and nodded firmly.

'Nets?' Masonete's blood ran cold as pieces seemed to fall together, 'Lots of armor, weapons, and nets? Oh no.'

Masonete turned around and silently headed back toward the field where the group was, 'I have to warn them.'

*          *          *

The Fellowship of Leadership sat and listened to Masonete as he told of what he had seen. They had been roused from their sleep by an agitated, chattering Andrew Masonete. They knew something important had happened. They were all seated around the dying embers of the night's bonfire as Masonete walked in circles around it, gesturing as he spoke.

"And then I came back here." he finished.

Everyone was silent, to their surprise Masonete spoke up again, "Please," he said, voice strained, "Someone, anyone, PLEASE tell me that I'm misconstruing what seems to be going on here."

"I wish I could." Hord said quietly, "But I'd be lying if I did. It looks like they mean to either kill us or take us prisoner by force."

"What bugs me the most is that they have some kind o' telekinesis." Richardson said, "We ain't prepared to fight that."

"What kind of country sends armed soldiers to respond to a plea for help?" Morris asked.

"Our kind." Jewel said sourly, "That's the kind of response the U.S. government would send."

"And yall wonder why us black people don't trust em." Leo said pointedly, "We dealin' with the same shit we would if aliens ended up on our world."

"And that's our advantage." Joyner said, "If we have a good idea of their mentality we can predict what they're going to do."

"Well what good do that do us if we ain't got nothin' to survive with?" Calvin asked.

"He's right." Vacca said, "We can run for now but once winter hits we're screwed. We managed to make some shelters here but if we're on the run we have nothing."

"Speaking of the shelters," Spearman said, "We couldn't have painted a bigger target on ourselves, building out in the middle of a field. No offense Calvin and Vacca."

"Sall good." Calvin said.

"No biggie, but you do bring up a valid point. We're sitting ducks out here. We have no weapons of our own, no tools, nothing."

"I'll bet Masonete could sneak into their camp an' rob 'em blind." Brinsin said.

"That ain't a bad idea." Kaneesha said, "We know their intentions an' all that. Why not take they shit?"

"Because it would alert them to us." Ludwig said, "We can't fight them off with stone knives and sticks."

"They won't know nothin' if we kill 'em all." Kaneesha said.

Her comment drew many nasty looks, but she continued, "Look, we the good guys, they the bad guys. They got good shit an' we don't. They don't know Masonete got that close. We need they shit. I say a couple o' us go tent to tent an' use they own weapons against 'em. Bad guys get what's commin' to 'em an' we get shit we need an' get away."

"I'm no killer." Masonete said, "I'll defend myself if I got to but killing someone in their sleep?" he shook his head emphatically, "I won't do it."

"I don't much like to say it, but she's got a point." Jewel said, "Raiding them would get us supplies we dearly need. It might just be the thing to tip the scales in our favor."

"Jason," Joyner addressed, "You've been really quiet so far. Penny for your thoughts?"

Jason Campbell looked up, lips pressed into a thin line, "We could use those nets to catch fish. Our cabbage patch is already beginning to run low. We have to move on or risk starving and any tools or equipment they have could easily mean the difference between life and death to literally hundreds of people. As much as I hate to say it, a raid seems to be our best... shit, our ONLY option at this point. We're backed into a corner here and we need a way out. I vote yes to raiding the camp."

"Keep in mind, these are trained soldiers." Hord said, "If a bunch of unarmed civilians attacked a Marine outpost, they'd be wiped out. Even if we win, we're looking at losing a lot of lives on both sides."

"And besides whose to say that they all bad?" Calvin said.

"I agree. The ones that gave Pering the blanket were nice enough. They can't all be bad." Ludwig stated.

"If there's enough of them to mass produce anything and we show ourselves to be dangerous, they're going so see us as a threat and I think we all know how the U.S. government deals with threats. If we start down this path we'll be declaring ourselves to be their enemies. We're going to be committed to this course of action. We have to be willing to go all the way with this. Once we start down this path, there's no going back. We have to consider every possibility, we have to go into this with both eyes open. We have to ask ourselves if we're willing to face thousands maybe millions of them and maybe end up with a lot of blood on our hands." Joyner said.

"This choice is too big for just us. We got to wake ereone up and let 'em decide what they wanna do. It's they lives too." Brinsin added.

Joyner nodded,
"Let's wake them up. We have to decide this quickly."