I inserted my final magazine into my pistol and moved into the Canterlot Castle as the changeling army flew above me. I joined one of the royal guards who was preparing to breach the Throne Room. Before we could enter the door exploded and we were thrown into the opposite wall and dragged in by changeling underlings. Luckily, I was able to holster my pistol before they noticed. Queen Chrysalis addressed me directly, "Ah, and you must be Captain Sanderson, the ape who has struck fear into my underlings that even I couldn't." she addressed the underlings dragging us, "Take them to the others." They took us to the other prisoners and sat me next to Twilight. I asked what the plan was. She responded by telling me that she would free Cadance, who would try to unbrainwash Twilight's brother. The only thing they needed was a distraction. Having taught her the NATO phonetic alphabet, I spelled out I have a gun( India Hotel-Alpha-Victor-Echo Alpha Golf-Uniform-November). She wished me luck and untied me. I quickly drew my gun, pistol-whipped the nearest changeling and took aim at Chrysalis.
Oh wait shit, nearly gave away the ending. Ok, um sorry but at least I got it in time. Now well, I guess I'll start from the beginning and please try to forget that this ever happened.
Prologue Part 1
Operation Thunderstorm
Midnight
"Gentlemen, we are going to Afghanistan for this op," began General Fredrickson. We were sitting in a hangar, dressed in full combat gear, rifles, LMGs and SMGs locked and loaded. "As you may know, we are going in to capture General Rogers, who has gone rogue. He is hiding out in Site Hotel Charlie, with his company of loyal soldiers, who will no doubt, fight to the death. Capture is not an option for them. At 3:00 you will fly over the drop zone. We are taking a risk here, as you will be flying through a thunderstorm. If you run into any major trouble, which I wouldn't make any betts on, reinforcements are prepped and an AC-255 that will follow you in will provide air support. Now, any questions on that." No one raised their hand so he continued. "Ok, Delta Teams take the C-250 codenamed Spooky, Trapper Teams take Thunder, Cruncher Teams take PeaceKeeper and Hunter Teams take Terminator. From this point on, Rogers is codenamed Fox and remember we need him alive. RANGERS LEAD THE WAY, HOOHAH!" Receiving a resounding HOOHAH from the men, he walked off towards the command center.
Being Captain of the Hunter Teams, I went to work on my briefing. "Alright boys, you heard the General, we take Fox alive." I stepped over to the map being displayed of Site Hotel Charlie. "We are going in for the kill, figuratively of course. We are going through the East entrance and we are going in stealth. The other teams will draw attention away from the east entrance. If we are forced to break stealth, don't use explosives. God knows how old the cave system is and I don't know about you, but I don't want fuck knows how much rock crushing me because I threw a frag that took out one of the support columns. Now are we ready." I got a hoohah and responded with "You call that a hoohah, louder," Getting a louder one, I yelled once more, "LOUDER!" and joined in the loudest HOOHAH ever recorded. "That's better, now let's go you sons of bitches!"
Hunter Teams good luck charm was always singing 'When I get to Heaven' before missions. "Alright you know what's next, repeat after me."When I get to heaven, Saint Peter's gonna say, "How'd you earn your livin' boy?, How'd you earn your pay?", I'll reply with a whole lot of anger, "I made my living as an Airborne Ranger!, Blood, guts, sex and danger, That's the life of an Airborne Ranger!", When I get to hell, Satan's gonna say, "How'd you earn your livin' boy?, How'd you earn your pay?", I'll reply with a boot to his face, "I made my living sending souls to this place!" We finished as we got on the plane. The jumpmaster greeted us on the entrance ramp, "Good evening boys and girls, this is your captain speaking, sit down, strap in, shut the fuck up and don't touch nothing."
2hrs 47mins later
"13 minutes!" yelled the jumpmaster. Turbulence rocked the plane and he added, "Christ if we aren't shot down, this storm will take us down.". Suddenly the lights went out and we would have been thrown out of our seats if we weren't strapped in as the plane rocked much worse than before. Then we all felt an electric shock that knocked most of us out, including me.
I awoke minutes later to find the emergency lights on. "Alright, Captain's up, we're alright." said Pvt. Johnson
"Alright what happened." The private started, but was cut off by the voice of one of the pilots from the intercom
"We were hit by lightning, engines 1 and 3 were overloaded and have blown out. But sir, you need to see where we are." I went to the pilots cabin and was struck by the vibrance of the color of the land.
"Well this isn't Afghanistan, that's for sure." I said.
"Sir, we aren't going to be able to keep this thing steady and there's a town down their." said the co-pilot.
"Alright aim us toward an unpopulated area and we'll bail. I'll tell the men" I said moving towards the intercom, "Gentlemen, this is Captain Sanderson and we are ditching this plane. If you have a glider wing, don't activate your propulsion until the plane has touched down. If you don't, then slow your decent via parachute until this thing touches down." I joined them in the cargo bay and prepared my glider wing, which we would be using to infiltrate Site Hotel Charlie.
The jumpmaster opened the ramp and released the cargo in the bay. "Hopefully the altimeter still works on the parachutes. Alright three, two, ONE let's go you sons of bitches!" yelled the jumpmaster. I looked behind me one more time and saw the pilots grabbing parachutes.
I jumped, activated my wings and joined the formation. We waited as the plane crashed into the forest nearby one of the towns. We activated the propulsion and headed towards the crash site. We landed and secured the perimeter. A few of the crates had landed near the site. Ammo, food and equipment. I used a tree stump as a table and began formulating a plan. "Ok boys here's the plan. We are going to the town that our pilots stopped our plane from taking out." I was cut off by Sgt. Volk, who had activated the heartbeat monitor function on his wrist mounted computer. "Boss, I'm getting 7 signatures to the southwest, and one of them is hostile." I grabbed my SCAR-H and motioned for Volk to follow me. "Assess the situation, decide how to engage." I said as he grabbed his DSR and followed.
We stopped when we were 5 meters away and activated optical camo. I whispered "Activate thermal vision." and began activating thermal vision on my T.A.G( Tactical Assistance Glasses). 6 of the signatures Volk's monitor had recognized were small and horse-like. The other was large had wings and a tail. And he was the one recognized as hostile. "Assessment sir?" asked Volk, taking the safety on his sniper. "Wildlife, don't engage unless the unknowns are attacked." I responded. "Hoohah" Seconds later, we got the sign to attack as the big thing roared at the unknowns. It was quickly dispatched by a 50 caliber round to the chest and two 3 round bursts from my SCAR to the head. I motioned for the Volk to move out of cover and reveal ourselves. We recieved a collective gasp from the six.
Prologue Part 2
The Big, Tan and Brown, Flying, Burning Box
It was an average Wednesday for Twilight. She went downstairs without waking Spike, made some coffee and began reading. However, she was interrupted by a large rumbling that made her turn her head towards the window. What she saw was what she could only describe as a big, tan and brown, flying, burning box. She went outside and saw that boxes were flying out of the back as it began to turn away from Ponyville and towards the Everfree Forest. A few moments later, other smaller shapes began flying out. However, most of the smaller objects didn't drop like bricks and instead stayed in the air. Moments later, the box disappeared and moments after that there was a thundering crash that could've woken everything from Ponyville to Phillydelphia and the small shapes went faster than Rainbow Dash. Twilight went to find her friends. She found them looking for her. Rainbow said "That those small things went faster than ME!", Rarity exclaimed that it had woken her from her beauty sleep and Fluttershy said that it had frightened not only her but all her animals. They headed towards the Everfree Forest and made a quick stop a Fluttershy's cottage to get some snacks. As they reached the edge of the forest, Fluttershy took note that the place they were going into a place where manticores are common. They went into the forest and could smell the smoke coming from the crash site, when they heard 2 somethings rustling leaves nearby. The one in the direction of the crash stopped and they could hear whispering. However, the other sound revealed itself to be a manticore. It roared and prepared to attack when around seven loud bangs rang out, and the manticore collapsed, dead. Moments later, our saviors revealed themselves as 2 bipedal figures holding long sticks that were colored similarly to the thing that they were looking for. They were covered, head to hoof, in tan outfits and had helmets. From what Twilight could guess, through what they were wearing and what they did, they were their species equivalent of the royal guards. My friends and I all gasped.