//------------------------------//
// -2:Situation Unclear- 
// Story: My Little Vanguard 
// by Zaarlika 
//------------------------------//

My Little Vanguard
-2:Situation Unclear-
Thomas looked over his helmet. While it was a capable helmet, combining, well, protection, with advanced HUD tech, suit controls linking directly or his MenComm, and a gas filter that would show up even 25th century gas masks, it wouldn't take a strike of genius to realise the engineers at Vanguard Armories designed it just to look as badass as possible. In some respects you could say they succeeded. The Marine sharing the dorm, whom he had confirmed was a Sapper, watched as he looked over the mouth grill.
"You doin' anything or you just staying in here?" She asked.
"Hm, what? Why?"
"Well, the Captain told me to go on patrol, and it takes basic Vanguard intuition to know a solo patrol is suicidal. You wanna come? My friends Beth and Alex from downstairs are coming along as well."
Thomas thought. He had nothing better to do.
"Might as well."

Twilight tried looking through the woods as the chariot headed through at a brisk pace. They wanted to surround the object covertly, so they decided to head through beneath the canopy. Further ahead she saw an opening, and it looked like several trees had collapsed. Was this the object? Indeed, the chariot slowed to a halt, and as she got off she spotted a large amount of Royal Guards, all lying in wait. Indeed, her friends had chosen to come, but she told them to hang back until she said it was safe. Or safe enough. They were dealing with the unknown, if something went wrong they didn't want all six Element Bearers in the line of fire. As she approached, she was stopped by a large white hoof. Where she had come from she didn't know, but Celestia had somehow arrived, silently.
"Not so quickly, Twilight." Was all she said, keeping her eyes on the clearing.
"You came?" Twilight asked.
"Yes. This is far more than your average upset noble, I think it is appropriate I help to deal with this."
"Is Luna here too?"
"No, she is on her way. How long she will be, however, I don't know." Celestia said before lowering her hoof, her gaze not breaking from whatever lay in there. The two slowly approached the tree line. The guards there moved aside, but kept an eye on the two princesses. The object was large and shiny, it was metal, but not the sort of shiny you got from jewelry. Instead, this appeared robust, that 'you're not getting in' shiny that made it look like a fortress. After a moment where the force of guards and the two princesses all observed this thing, the large section with a jagged line down the middle wheezed and clicked apart. Something was coming out. The two princesses ducked and hid in the foliage.

Thomas and the three other Marines all stepped outside as the gate slowly opened. While the two scientists in the base had confirmed the air was green, all four Marines wore their helmets. No clue what lay out there. Thomas had his VoHSAR (the Vanguard's main assault rifle), the Sapper, whom was called Lillian, had a micro-RPG cannon, a sort of cross between a standard RPG and a grenade launcher, Bethany had a shotgun and Alex had an LMG. Apparently, Alex had passed training at the same time Thomas had; he used the LMG because it made him feel safer. The four Marines stepped off the metal ramp on the soft, warm dirt and grass. It didn't seem like much was beyond the dozens of felled trees, but patrol doesn't serve much if you can't be sure, so Lillian had decided to check just past the tree line. The four Marines stood, trying to decide what to do with themselves. The crew had left some crates outside intentionally, so if they came under attack they had some cover. Bethany pointed to a slightly clearer area off to their left.
"More open. Something could have more room to move." Was all she said. Thomas sighed, his helmet, combined with his MenComm, blocking it. She wasn't one of those 'I'm-Gonna-Be-Like-An-Assassin' types, was she?
"No, again, too much room to move. Over there's some thick foliage, perfect for an ambush."
"Everything around us is perfect for an ambush. It's too thick there. We go Beth's way." Lillian gestured. The four Marines began to head over. Cautious, Thomas raised his rifle. He saw something out of place. He raised his hand. Even though nobody could see him, they all knew he had performed the action, so they stopped.
"What is it, Thomas?" Alex asked.
"Something's in there." He said. Alex threw him a scope.
"Look." Alex pointed before Thomas raised the scope. His helmet reacted and blocked out everything else, so he could only see down the scope. Indeed, there was something hiding in the bushes. If he was to guess, it looked like an ear. He threw the scope back.
"Unconfirmed creature. Hiding in bushes. Only detail is a purple ear. Purpose unknown." Thomas reported.
"Appropriate action, take cover." Lillian added. Almost as if they were robots, the Marines moved to the side, all crouching and taking cover behind crates, Bethany using a section of the base wall that stuck out.
"Unconfirmed Xeno! We know of your presence! Exit cover and identify yourself or we will use force!" Lillian yelled. A moment passed before any response was received. The ear twitched though.

Everyone went motionless as the four strange, two-legged things hid behind various things, three of them behind crates, all pointing their strange objects, possibly weapons of some description, directly at Twilight. Celestia slowly turned her head. Her ear was sticking out.
"Twilight. Our cover is blown." Celestia muttered.
"Surround them?"
"Yes." Celestia turned to the guard next to her and whispered something to him. The message, whatever it was, traveled quickly, and the thirty-plus Royal Guards leapt out of cover, spears raised, pointed at the four humans, followed a moment later by Celestia and Twilight. The four human soldiers remained silent, unsure how to react. They had seen signs of an animal and pointed guns at it to be cautious. Suddenly they were surrounded by a bunch of armored horses pointing spears at them, and the ear turned out to be a purple horse. Everyone was silent for what felt like hours.
"What the fuck?" Was all that one human, Lillian, said.

Celestia stepped forward, despite the strange bipeds refusing to lower their tools.
"I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. To whom am I speaking?" She asked, her voice loud and almost imposing. The bipeds refused to respond, instead looking at each other. One turned back and spoke, but the language was strange, complex, foreign. It did, however, have a confused tone to it.
One of them, whom was one of the slimmer two, noticed Twilight, and slowly stepped forward, lowering its weapon slightly, reaching out to her. Why, none of them knew. One of the Guards stepped forward.
"Halt! Do not approach Princess Twilight Sparkle!" He demanded. The biped stared at him. It paused, before standing straight up, standing well over Celestia, and grabbed the bottom of its jaw, or where its jaw should have been, and pulled its white face off. To reveal another face. This had less sharp edges and was a beige colour, and looked far more organic. It turned to its comrades and said something, just as foreign as the last sentence. Celestia pushed Twilight back slightly. It turned back and crouched fully, resting its thighs on its forelegs, staring at Twilight again, before pulling a face. While the exact emotion they couldn't tell, it looked a lot like a smile, before the creature reached out again with its strange, Multi-ended appendage.

Lillian reached out towards the purple horse again, mostly ignoring the angry, armed horse. The purple one was adorable and Marines had priorities. Which Lillian probably needed to look over.
"Lil, I don't think that's a good idea." Alex called.
"Its a tiny, fluffy, purple horse, I always wanted one as a kid."
"You have no idea what would happen if you touch it."
"I pet it and give it hugs, that's what." Lillian called back. The larger white horse, visibly a mare, with a strange, multi-colored, flowing mane behind the purple one stepped forward, pushing it back with its hoof before saying something to it in a language that most certainly did not consist of neighs. The purple horse paused, before turning and running into the woods again. Lillian clenched her fist and stood up. Seems these ponies weren't all that friendly after all. Not that the armed stallions made that clear or anything.

Twilight headed back, hopping on the chariot. One of the creatures had attempted to touch her, and it didn't at all seem hostile, but Celestia insisted she try to find a spell to translate between unknown languages, as nobody there had a clue what these mysterious bipeds were saying. Despite that, she could've sworn the one that came near her smiled at her.
The chariot sped off at high speed towards Ponyville. It wasn't long until they left the forest and were headed through town. Rainbow had chosen to follow.
"Twilight, what's going on in there?"
"Aliens. Weird, armored, aliens, that stand on two legs and have a fort in there."
"What? Why are we here, then? Shouldn't we, I dunno, kickin' them off our world or something?"
"That isn't the answer to everything, Rainbowdash." Twilight grunted as she got off the chariot and hurried into her house, followed by her aqua friend.
"No, maybe not, but, are they hostile? Are they just trying to get our guards down? We don't know what they're doing."
"Looking at how the thing they came from exploded, I doubt this is normal. That's like blowing up your house to go to the market." Twilight blinked, searching through her scrolls.
"What're you trying to do, anyway?" Rainbow asked.
"Celestia told me to find a scroll that translates unknown languages, so we can talk to them."
"Hm. I dunno. Need me to come along?"
"If you want. They haven't attacked us, at least yet."
"Okay. If they try anything I'll knock them on their rumps!" Rainbow stood on her hind legs, punching the air with her front hooves. Twilight picked a scroll out and looked over it.
"Aha! This is the one!" Twilight raised it triumphantly, slumping her saddle bags on and dropping the scroll in one of them, hurrying back out and onto the chariot, heading back to the strange metal fort, Rainbow in hot pursuit.