Heat

by TLP


Chapter 2: Mane Six Meet 'The Quiet Professionals'

Over the jungles of Vietnam, near the North/South border..




A Bell UH-1 Iroquois 'Huey Gunship' helicopter is flying over the the border of Vietnam, armed with free-fire XM-157seven-tube rocket pods on both sides, two more miniguns aside the pods that are remotley controlled, with one gunner, another and two pilots. Flying along with it, is another UH-1 Huey 1A armed with two Browning Mk-ll twin machine guns on the port side that are controlled by the co-pilot, carrying a four-man team of Green Berets on a special reconnaissance mission deep in enemy territory for coordinates for B-52 bombers.

The Huey's callsigns were Stinger two-one for the Huey 1A and Stinger one-niner for the gunship. The Green Berets' callsigns were Casanova, Grimsake, Ramsoar, and Manhunter.

"Stinger One-Niner, this is Stinger Two-One, approaching LZ, reduce wind speed to eighty knots and hover seven feet as we set our guys, how copy?"

"Stinger One-Niner, Wilco."

The Green Berets were topping off their weapons and double-checking their equipment, radios, and ammo as they approached the LZ.

"Hey, did you hear about the four Phantoms that disappeared yesterday? Poor Marines had to pull back and lose both LZ's.." Casanova spoke as he tapped a 30 round 5.56mm magazine on his head to clear it from any dirt that might have gotten in.

"Yeah, the members of their squadron are devastated.." Responded Ramsoar ".. they didn't even find a wreckage. I still don't think it was a SAM turret. But if it was, we're gonna find 'em and send Charlie to kingdom come.."

The others nodded silently as the Huey slowed to a hover, and started to slowly fly down as the gunship slowly flew in a circle, patrolling the area and ready to blow any VC that dare try to engage them or the Green Berets.

"Here we are, boys. Welcome to paradise. Good luck out there." The pilot said as the Huey hovered a good four feet from the ground below. The Green Berets jumped out, two on each side. They kneel'd and scanned the area around them, not noticing anything peculiar. Manhunter then told the rest to move forward to the north. But before they could, they heard Stinger One-Niner over the radio.

"This is Stinger One-Niner, be advised, we're spotting several hostiles armed with RPG's. Requesting that you take them out ASAP. Wait.. when do RPG's lock on? OH SHIT!!" They heard the pilot yell. Casanova looked up and saw a white streak head towards the Huey. He then saw where the missile came from, a hidden SAM site up in the mountain caves high above "Fucking Soviets..." He said as the rocket missed the Huey, barley. Then the roaring sound of the miniguns brightened up the VC advancing towards the Green Berets.

The pilot spoke up again "Gong in deep for a strafe run, Stinger Two-One, hover up high and cover them with the Browning!" They could barley hear the pilot over the sound of the minigun, but Two-One complied as it rose from the ground and the Browning turrets opened fire one the V.C's near the bushline, while the Green Berets opened fire to keep them suppressed, but then they heard another streaking sound as a missile dangerously close to the Huey, exploding and sending fragments into the side and the cockpit.

"AW SHIT! C'MON! C'MON!" Shouted the pilot as he tried to keep the Huey stable for the gunner. Grimsake picked off the V.C's with RPG's. He turned around and picked off more of them that were stupidly rushing them with bayonets on their AK-47's firing steadily towards the bush line, the M-1 Garand kicked like a mule, but his strong grip on the rifle made it a bit easy to fire, but not much. The rest of the G.B's kept firing as Grimsake shot off the last of his rounds, the M-1 letting out an audible *PING*, which was another fault the M-1 had. He knew if one of the VC heard that, that he would be vunerable and be an easy kill. And he was right, Grimsake looked up and saw a VC aim his AK-47 at him, but before he could fire, the gunship soared down in a strafing pattern over the bush line and opened fire, sending a steady stream of lead from the miniguns and sending rockets down to the treeline, shredding apart the vegetation and any VC hiding near or in them.

"Be advised, we got more VC's coming in from the south, and unknown birds half a click away! We have to abort the mission! SHIT!" Shouted One-Niner as he avoided another SAM, the pilot of Two-One flew back down to the ground and hovered about three feet from the ground, but was still being shot by heavy AK-47 fire. The G.B's slowly walked backwards to the sides of the Huey, effectively picking off more VC's as they went. The gunner pulled up Casanova and Ramsoar, while Grimsake and Manhunter climbed themselves up.

"Heading back to base, One-Niner! Mind taking off a bit of the heat to get some breathing room?!" Said the pilot

"Negative! Those birds are closing in fast, just fly away and I'll shoot off some rounds to try to scare 'em off!" Responded One-Niner. He then shot off the miniguns, actually making the VC's run to cover. They flew even higher and started flying off at top speed towards Khe-Sahn, with Two-One in the back, and One-Niner in the front.

"Damn, that was close! Brass isn't gonna be too happy about this shit.." Spoke the pilot of One-Niner, breathing heavily as the adrenaline slowly started to fade away.

"Yeah.. let's just get back and re-arm. Maybe take a couple more Huey's from the 61'st.." The pilot of Two-One said, still shaking slightly.

After about 15 minutes of steady flying, something weird in the distance soar to them.

"Stinger One-Niner, this is Stinger Two-One.. what the fuck is that in the distance?.." The pilot asked.

"I have no idea, Two-One.. should we engage?" The co-pilot asked over the radio.

"Negative, try to see what it looks like first..."

"Wilco, but keep your weapons at the ready.." The pilot of One-Niner then pulled down the sun flaps to block the sun and squinted his eyes at the object in the distance. What he saw both confused him and worried him. He saw a huge, purple and black hole soar to them at an accelerating rate. He also noticed that inside it were several, white lines. He shouted over his radio.

"Stinger Two-One, I don't know WHAT the fuck this is, but it's coming right at us! EVADE EVADE! SHI-" He shouted over the radio, but was taken over by static as the black hole soared and 'swallowed' them in. The crew of Two-One could only watch as the gunship disappeared in a flash of white. The pilot tried to evade the black hole, but it was futile, since the black hole actually sucked them in with ease.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" Shouted Casanova as they were sucked in the black hole, nothing really happened, but as they looked outside in panic, they saw several stars, and a couple galaxies. They realized they were in SPACE. In some sort of weird portal.

"THIS IS SOME COMIC BOOK SHIT, MAN!" Shouted Manhunter. Before anyone could reply, they were now flying back in the sky.

"Uh...shit... you all okay?" Said Casanova, shaking his head.

"Yeah.. we're good. Hey, pilots. The chopper steady and good to go?" Asked Ramsoar.

"Yeah.. hydraulics and fuel systems are good.. uh.. Peterson! Check the wind speed and weapons systems!" The pilot commanded the co-pilot.

"Both are good to go, Captain." Peterson responded, then looked up to see Stinger One-Niner in front of them, and seemingly in good condition, aside from a few bullet dents here and there.

The pilot tried to test if comms were up by grabbing his radio "Stinger One-Niner, this is Stinger Two-One, do you roger?.."

After a couple of seconds, he switched the radio on and off, but he got nothing but static "Fuck.. comms are down." He said, then looked at the cockpit of the gunship and saw both pilots give him a thumbs-up.

"Alright, at least we're still here. Hey Peterson, check the ground and see where we are."

"Copy that. Hey... you see what I'm seeing down there?..." The pilot asked. Peterson looked down below to the ground, and noticed that they were flying over several buildings. A small town, covered in large, spiky, black branches. He looked closer and saw several ponies.. colored ponies, run around screaming, while others were trying to break and pull at the branches,and a pair of six were looking up at the Huey's in confusion, before they ran off towards what looked like a Zebra.

"Captain.. we're flying over a small town with screaming ponies, sir.. and they seem to be in trouble. There's a lot of weird, huge branches covering the entire town." Peterson then looked at the sky, there were several dark, spiky clouds streaking over the airspace and shooting down lightning at the poor ponies below. Then he looked at where the branches were coming from. A dark, gloomy forest with a purple sky above it, and what looks like a huge fire in the border of the forest "And the branches are coming from that creepy forest over there. What's our call?"

The pilot thought for a second. If these ponies were really in trouble, then they could use all the help they can get, but they didn't know what was out there. Then again, One-Niner was still airworthy.. they could fly over and provide air cover and scout the area ahead.

"Okay, here's what we'll do.. they look like they're in hell, and we're gonna walk 'em out." He then informed the other pilots with hand motions to follow him.

"Alright, now what do we do?" Peterson asked.

"That seems to be where the branches are coming from.. we'll chopper in our boys and we'll see if they can figure this shit out. We'll provide air cover and scout the area ahead of them in case anything desides to fuck with us."

The pilot the informed the gunship to follow him. He nodded and slowed down so Two-One could take lead.

Stinger Two-One and One-Niner then flew off towards the forest. Casanova and the others were loading their weapons and gathering their gear. He then looked down and saw that the forest canopy was burned severley.

"Did they use napalm?... Nah." He doubted as the Huey found a good place to land on. The Huey flew down and hovered five feet above the ground as the Green Berets dropped down, kneeling and looking at the surroundings around them, with their weapons aimed up.

"Alright, let's head northwest and see if we can find something..." Manhunter said. As they walked off into the dense, dark forest, they heard the Huey fly ahead to scout the area.

"Alright. They're gonna scout ahead of us, I guess. Stay alert and shoot anything that engages us." Casanova said. The others nodded as they walked into the forest with their weapons drawn up to them.





In the ground below...


The mane six were comforting Fluttershy as she was crying over what had happened to the forest. She was also worried that her cottage was burned to the ground with all the animals still inside.

"Don't worry, Flutters. I don't think those things dropped the fire nowhere near your cottage. They're fine. Trust me." Rainbow Dash as she comforted her with a hug. Fluttershy calmed down a bit as Twilight was still pondering about who or what caused all this.

"There's way too much chaos for it to be coincidence... it must be Discord's work." Twilight said.

"Then let's spawn that thing here and see what he has to say!" Rainbow said. The girls then get in a circle and spawn Discord. They ask her why he was causing this much chaos, but he told them that he's been 'reformed'. But looked at the border of the Everfree and his jaw dropped.

"My...my SEEDS! WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING TO MY SEEDS?!" He thought. The fire was spreading and looked kinda sticky, like jelly. But he was brought back to reality as the girls yelled at him in question.

"Then who did it?!" They asked in unison.

"Maybe your zebra friend over there will know..." Discord said as he sowed a branch into an arrow, pointing at Zecora. Before they could go to Zecora to help her, they heard a whoosh-whoosh sound coming closer to them.

"What is THAT noise?" Asked Pinkie Pie. The girls decided to look up into the sky, and saw something that both shocked and annoyed them. The sound got louder and louder until it was right above them. Wind was brewing as a weird, metallic object hovered over them with what looked like wings, but they were spinning too fast to count how many there were, there was also another rotor in an outstreched metal stick that was much smaller, but was spinning just as fast. They both were colored in green and black patches and streaks, like camoflauge.

"What the HAY is THAT?!" Rainbow shouted over the noise. The things hovered over them as Twilight looked closer at them. Both were a bit different, one had metal tubes and boxes on each side, while another didn't. They stood there looking at these odd machines until they flew towards the Everfree.

"I don't know, but let's go see if Zecora knows anything about it!" Twilight said as they ran towards Zecora, who was carrying her belongings.

They saw that that she was carrying a bag of her items, and dragging another bag with her teeth, and she also had several scratch marks and that her hair has been singed a bit. Probably from the wall of fire. Rainbow and Fluttershy took the bag off her and helped her.

Twilight spoke frantically "Zecora! Are you okay? Did the fire hurt you?"

"The wall of fire burned most of the trees, luckily it didn't fully burn me ." Zecora said in rhyme.

"Do you know why the Everfree is acting like this?" Twilight said in a panic.

Zecora said it might have something to do with the Tree of Harmony. The girls looked at her in confusion. Zecora then gave Twilight a potion to look into the past. She was hesitant, but she drank it anyway. Twilight was then brought into the past, on the night Princess Luna was banished to the moon by Princess Celestia. She then woke up, and saw her friends looking at her oddly.

"Uh.. why are you all looking at me like that?" Twilight said, confused.

"You were mumbling to yourself and crying.." Fluttershy said quietly.

"I for one found it amusing.." Said Discord.

"So do you know who caused the Everfree to act like this? Rainbow asked. Twilight shook her head.

"Maybe you should go further into the past, and maybe you will know why at last." Zecora then handed her the potion and told her to drink from it again. She hesitantly sipped it again, as she was taken even further into the past, to Discord's first reign of chaos, and when the Princesses turned him into stone. Then she was taken to another location. And she saw what she was sure was the Tree of Harmony, as Celestia put the elements into the tree. Twilight then got herself out of the flashback and told the others about the Tree of Harmony. They looked at her in confusion as she explained.


"I think the Tree of Harmony is in danger.. we need to go the the Everfree, find it, and -" She was cut off when Applejack spoke.

"Ah don't think that's a good idea, sugercube.. ah mean, those weird, flying.. whatever those are, they flew towards the Everfree! What if we run into them?" She asked worriedly.

Rainbow tried to reassure them "Uh.. you DO realize we have the Elements of Harmony with us, right? We can on a couple of weird machines!" She said boastly.

"Rainbow's right. But we need to go, now!" Twilight said as they ran off into the Everfree, hoping that the town would hold on until they returned.



After running towards the road that lead into the Everfree. To their suprise, they noticed that the fire had eased a bit and had not hit the road. Slowly, they walked down the road and noticed that the fire had greatly burned off the top of the trees, but once they moved deeper into the forest, it was then that it got darker and creepier. They then took a trail, hoping it would lead them to the Tree of Harmony, but were stopped when they heard the whoosh-whoosh sound again, this time it was ahead of them.

"Okay.. let's cross this creek here. Stay low and quiet so the weird thing won't see or hear you." Twilight said quietly. The girls nodded as they moved quietly, but then they heard several loud cracks on the other side of the creek. Then they saw four weird creatures being attacked by timberwolves.





Green Beret's P.O.V




The G.B's were slowly, but progressivley moving through the forest, with the Huey's still flying ahead of them to scout the area in case any unknown entities appear. They then came across a bubbily creek as they saw six silhouettes in the distance on the other side.

"We got unknown entities on the other side of the creek.. let's hide ourselves in the bushes and wait for 'em to pass.." Spoke Grimsake quietly.

"Roger, moving now. Keep us updated on those six." Casanova said. They then walked silently into the bushes and went prone, waiting to see what was approaching them. After they settled in, they saw six multicolored ponies on the other side of the creek. Grimsake was looked through the scope of his M1-Garand. He then whispered the details to the rest of the guys.

"Six ponies.. three have wings, two have a horn on their head.. and the other two seem like regular ponies." He stated "One is purple with lavander, one is cyan with.. rainbow hair? Another is orange and blonde, wearing a Stetson.. one is light yellow and pink, another is just.. bright pink, and the last one is white an-"

Grimsake was cut off when they heard a growl behind him. He turned and saw a pair of yellow, glowing eyes.

"CONTACT! ON OUR SIX! OPEN FIRE!" He shouted, and without thinking, he and the rest jumped out of the bushes and opened fire. Before they did, they heard a series of gasps. Then over the roar of gunfire, several yelps.

Casanova noticed that the wolves were made out of wood, so he kept shooting their heads, even after they fell limp on the ground, dead. Grimsake and Ramsoar turned around to face the ponies, aiming their weapons at them. The ponies just stood there in fear as Grimsake studied their face features more. They actually looked more human than pony facial wise, and the fact that they had wings and horns made him a bit uneasy and more than confused. But the fact that they yelled and screamed made his mind hurt just thinking about it.

"Who.. wha... what are you? A-are you gonna hurt us?" Spoke the purple pony, who slowly stepped away. Grimsake noticed that the pony was female.

"Um Twilight.. I think you forgot that we have the ELEMENTS OF HARMONY WITH US!!" Shouted the cyan pony "They couldn't hurt us even if they tried!"

Already, Grimsake was getting annoyed with them, especially the pony with the raspy female voice "How the fuck can you ponies talk?!"

The ponies were taken aback by the sudden shout, but the cyan one wouldn't back down "Uh, ever since we were a filly, you stupid ape! Who and what the hay are YOU? And why do you have those weird black things on you?" The pony said as it flew straight into Grimsake's face, pushing a hoof against his chest.

Grimsake forcefully slapped the hoof away, making the pony yelp a bit as he pulled out his M1911 and put it under its jaw "Don't. Ever. Touch. Me."

The pony stared at him with anger in her eyes "Nobody.. and I mean NOBODY. Slaps. My. HOOF!" The pony then tackled Grimsake and pinned him to a tree while standing on its hindlegs.

"Rainbow! NO! DON'T!" The orange pony with a Stetson shouted with a slight Southern female accent.

But the one called 'Rainbow' ignored the other pony as she pulled back her hoof to punch Grimsake in the face, but before she could do so, Casanova forcefully turned the pony to face him, and hit her face with the buttstock of his M16 twice, knocking her out cold as she hit the ground. Casanova then pressed the barrel of the M16 on her head in case she decides to try anything when she awakens. Manhunter saw the ponies with a look of anger on their faces as they started to run towards their friend, but they stopped dead in their tracks as he pulled up his M-60 at them.

"Don't even think about it.." He said as his trigger finger ached to fire the weapon. The ponies were hesitant to move back, but just stood there in curiosity of what they were looking at.

Casanova heard the cyan pony groan, but he applied more pressure onto her head as she tried to get up.

"Jesus, what a shit sho-" Casanova was cut off was he heard what sounded like jet engines. He looked above the sky, but the treelines covered almost all of the sky. He turned to ask Grimsake, but then he heard a series of large explosions in the distance, and a strong shockwave afterwards, then the explosions got closer and closer..

"B-52's?.." His thoughts were confirmed as he saw a huge shadow of a B-52 overhead cover the little holes of sunlight with its sheer size.