Joshua landed inside the drop-ship with a thud as the doors slid close behind him. He walked about the cabin, waiting for the jump to the ship, only to find that they were flying over the planet still, but away from a small town along with the forest they had recently left. Across the sky, he noticed flashes of gold that were flying towards their recent position, and waved it off as just something about the planet's atmosphere or something like that.
The comms broke the silence of the room as Wesley came up on the video-feed in his HUD.
"Captain Joshua, this is the Militia vessel Horizon, come in, over."
"This is Joshua. Read you loud and clear, over."
"Copy that. We've got scans from the landing prior in your location. Confirmed Contact?"
"Confirmed. They call themselves Ponies of Equestria. First Contact meeting will be held with said Ponies in one week. Prep certifications and anything we can wrap up for them. They're willing to talk about a treaty and have already seen us in action. Recommend we prepare for documentation as well. This is one for the history books."
"Alright sir. Before we confirm this, though, we thought you should see how contact in other regions is going, though. One in particular that you may want to see."
"There are other sentient races on the planet?"
"Affirmative."
"What do we have?"
"They call themselves..."
\\\\\\//////
"...Griffons, ma'am."
The injured soldier before Celestia uttered these words before collapsing to fatigue from the various bruises and cuts from the attack. Medical staff arrived and assisted the Pegasus to a hospital as Celestia drowned herself within her thoughts, along with her telepathically linked sister.
'Sister, we have to act.'
'I know, Luna. I had no idea the Griffons were this willing to spark a war so early, let alone with such force.'
The reports before her showcased some new strategies the Griffons were using, along with sketches of their new weapons. Some kind of powdered material they packed into a large metal tube that shot out a metal ball filled with more powder that could explode on contact. A kind of devastating force that she had barely seen by even the most skilled of Unicorns. Not only that, but they now had airships that carried said weapons and could rain fire down upon buildings, and could be defended by it's crew without having to stop firing. The fact they had this was frightening enough, but the fact they were now using it, that was enough to send a shiver of fear down the Sun Princess's spine.
Just before she could continue this train of thought, however, she received two letters from clouds of magic. The first, she recognized as from the platoon of Pegasi she sent to stop the mysterious creature that supposedly came from the sky and moved towards Ponyville. She opened the letter and read the contents to herself, allowing Luna to look onto it as well.
Princesses,
We regret to say that we were too late to stop the creature from leaving the air around Ponyville, but are proud to report that nopony was harmed by its presence, nor have the majority of the population noticed it at all.
However, the Elements of Harmony have told us that they went to examine the dropped contents of said creature, but were attacked by a Hydra.
Before we could react, however, Princess Twilight Sparkle informed us that the "aliens" that came out from it had stopped the Hydra, saved them, and proposed a treaty of sorts between Equestria and their kind.
Captain Thunder Hoof
At this, the Princesses looked to each other in utter shock and gazed at the second letter: The Official Seal of Princess Twilight Sparkle. They opened it together and read the contents.
Dear Princesses Celestia and Luna,
My friends and I were having a picnic by Fluttershy's cottage earlier this afternoon, and we saw what we thought was a new type of creature that was made of metal that also carried smaller creatures. We decided to investigate what they were, but were attacked by a Hydra, one that Fluttershy couldn't get through to, at that. Rainbow Dash was injured by it, but before it could devour us, the creatures from the metal one came to save us, and started to use some kind of magic to kill the Hydra by damaging it's heads without severing them. They helped us out of the Everfree Forest, and even helped to save Rainbow Dash. I learned that they are called Humans, their leader's name, Joshua, and that the metal thing was not a creature, but a type of ship they had, and that their so called "Spaceship," needs fuel of sorts and that they are willing to have a meeting concerning "First Contact" within exactly one week. I wished to let you two know before hoof, that they will come down straight from the sky, most likely, over Ponyville, as to show they are willing to meet us at a middle ground close to their ship, but promise to keep any kind of hostilities out of this. I await your presence in Ponyville along with the other Elements, and anticipate witnessing this momentous part of our history. Thank you.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
With that, Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance once more, and went separate ways to prepare for the invasion from two different sides: Griffon territory, and from another world all together.
\\\\\\//////
"...So, let me get this straight," Joshua responded, fingers on the bridge of his nose, helmet on his side, "these, Griffons, are willing to make a treaty with us, so long as we understand they are the superior military power?"
"About there, sir." replied Wesley.
"Did we shoot them yet?"
"Negative, the team's waiting for you to arrive and see for yourself how, quote, "superior," they are."
With that, Joshua placed his helmet back on and sighed.
"Copy that. Might as well get this shit over with."
The feed turned off as the ship lurched slightly, indicating the imminent drop-off. Joshua rose from his seat and opened the hatch, examining the landing area. The city looked to be made of stone, clearly, but had ancient cannons lining the walls, along with brightly armored creatures, or Griffons, lining up alongside the cannons and checkpoints, as well as some flying around the buildings. The ground approached about a 30 meter distance as the ship stopped above a crowd of said creatures and some Militia troops were waiting for him. Joshua then jumped down and activated his exo-skeletal systems, softening the impact immensely. One of the Griffons walked up to him, head high and claws on the hilt of a sword.
"Greetings, outsider," It spoke gruffly, "I am StormClaw, leader of Outpost 1, or, better known as the Wall City, at the border to the great nation of Griffonia. I welcome you with a warning, we are armed and ready."
Joshua looked around a bit to take in the significance of this Griffon's threat and nearly burst into laughter at how pathetic they were. Their troops were scattered, their flight-patterns were gaping, at best, they had no anti-air and definitely no way to stop a Titan, not even an empty one, if all they had were big sluggish cannons like those and swords. Fucking SWORDS!? But, Joshua had to nod anyway, just to see how far they would go. If things got bad, he could always just kick the ever-loving-shit out of any of these things. Not to mention the emergency Satchel Charges he was carrying, as well. Specialty by Horizon Sciences, designed to explode either on the pull of the detonator, or if the signal is cut off in any way.
He was lead down a corridor of grey bricks and steel linings as they passed by rooms of gunpowder and barracks. Huge mistakes, but he wasn't about to tell them that. As they kept on walking, Joshua decided it be best if he were to record everything for Science. After which, he was lead into a room filled with war maps and troop deployment sketches, along with the designs for said cannons and what looked like large balloons. Joshua waved them off and continued to walk alongside the Griffon, or Storm-whatever. They then reached the table as Joshua made mental notes about their military strategies. Clunky at best. They were focusing their armor, air, and troops in different locations all at once instead of having flanking tactics laid down in case of an enemy Pincer-assault. Hell, one Titan would probably be too much against shitty tactics like these. Still, he wasn't gonna complain. Just when Joshua stepped to the table, another one spoke.
"Ah, I see the leader of the visitors has decided to grace us with it's presence."
"His." Joshua spat coldly. "Joshua."
"Well then, "Joshua," what do you think of our strategies? Hm? Surely a military leader as yourself would be impressed by our massive amounts of readiness."
Joshua shrugged at them, keeping his right hand over the AutoPistol.
"Eh."
They both looked to him with disgust.
"Oh, have you something better?" the farther one asked.
"Definitely. Not gonna share it with you, though."
At that, the nearest one drew it's sword and brought it up to Joshua's waist.
"You think you're kind is so much better?"
"I don't think so."
With that, Joshua lifted his leg and smashed the sword to the ground, shattering it to pieces as the floor was given a new crater.
"I know so."
The two stood there and looked back at each other at the Pilot's impressive display of power, stunned. They then adorned smiles as the further one continued.
"Well, soon we shall beat our most hated and powerful enemy, and soon, you will know what to fear."
It waved claws towards the table, to which Joshua narrowed his eyes at. The map showed a large amount of armor, troops, and even some balloons going towards a familiar name and date:
Ponyville. 7 days Until Attack.
Joshua looked back up at them and shifted slightly.
"Greatest foes, huh?"
"Yes, those dirty little peace-lovers. Never had a war in the last 1,500 years!"
"Have they done anything to provoke this?"
"Of course not! That's why they're such a damned menace! They just sit there and taunt us!"
"How?"
"Does it matter? The point is, we could use a claw with this, and since your here..."
"We're gonna consider that a bit. However," Joshua turned to the door and began to walk away from them as he spoke, "I guarantee that by the end of the week."
After that, the two were left in the room to wonder what the Pilot had meant, unaware of the new dangers that lay within their future.
\\\\\\//////
The Crow lifted into the air with a mighty heave and was off to the upper atmosphere when Joshua addressed the rest of the crew about their situation.
"So, they're gonna plan to start a war with peace-loving ponies that asked for this in no way whatsoever, and they plan on doing it at the same time as First Contact. Thoughts?"
Rebecca came unto his video feed and started.
"Sir, I say we hold out until they're done fighting. Not waste any time with some kind of Civil War or whatever they're going through."
Ramirez came on next.
"I don't think you paid attention. They've had no wars for over a thousand years! Do you think they'll have what it takes?"
"They've held peace for that long, so that must mean they've had a massive standing army, otherwise-"
"Bullshit! If the footage from earlier was anything to go by, then we have to help them!"
Joshua broke the back and forth with his own input.
"Ramirez is right. They'll be done for if we don't help. We've seen the gaps in strategy and what they're packing, not to mention the massive advantage of technology we have."
Rebecca came back on.
"With all due respect, sir, I don't think it'll be wise to intervene with some kind of alien war."
"Would you rather have peaceful allies that only want to further improve relations with Humanity, or a rival race that, if they reach our technological level, will undoubtedly wage a war for power against us?"
There was a moment of static on the line, until Rebecca broke it once more.
"When would you like to move in, sir?"
"Same date as First Contact. We move in after they attack and break up the party with a wave-scenario, starting with Grunt-Pods, Goblin Air Support, and, if need be, Titanfall. Ready them in 6 days and make history. Hoo-ah."
"Hoo-ah, sir!"
With that, the radio went silent as the planet faded from view, flames of war reflected in the window.