As one of the advisers handed out new clean sheets of paper to write on, Sworstrike was intrigued by what Marcus said about here being more to talk about. "Oh? Well what other things should be know about?"
"I know you all have questions for us, so let's start with those." Marcus replied. The others nodded.
"So what did you mean about us knowing other things? You said you just mainly mentioned the Cryptids, Hives, and their leaders. What else is there really?" Swordstrike asked.
"Oh man... where do I start?..." Marcus said, leaning back into his chair and going into deep thought for a couple of moments on what he should first talk about. Before he could speak, Nimbius was already in the process of asking a question himself.
"How did these Cryptids appear in your world? Where you all came from? You mentioned how briefly, but can you go more in depth?" He asked.
Marcus snapped his fingers. "That's easy. Alright. The Cryptids. Back on our planet, which was called 'Earth', the Cryptids appeared long before us Humans, around 550 million years ago. They evolved before the dinosaurs, when Earth was just a huge planet of gas and fumes. Skies were stained black from countless volcano eruptions when the planet was slowly forming. Sometime later, a comet came in and ignited the oxygen from the atmosphere, causing a devastating fire storm that incinerated all life on the surface of the earth. The Cryptids foresaw this catastrophe, and devised an Ark to ensure their survival of the ancient apocalypse in an underground cave area under Colorado, which was a state in our home country called the United States."
"What's this 'Ark' you speak of?" Nimbius asked.
"I'll get to that in a moment. Several millions of years later, in the year 2016, our country was fighting two wars. One was the Federation War, which involved South American countries uniting as one, and planned to take over the United States. The other war was the Tel-Aviv War, which was fought in the Middle East, and was the war we were all mainly involved in. During the war, the Federation took over a space satellite, the S.S Odin-"
"Wait, your planet had a space station?!" The girls asked in astonishment. Marcus nodded as he noticed that Rainbow and Applejack had recovered from fainting.
"Yes. We had four stations, actually. The Odin satellite, or the Orbital Defense Initiative, is an orbital kinetic bombardment weapons platform developed by the United States. The station was armed with a battery of sophisticated kinetic projecticle launchers that can launch tungsten rods with pinpoint precision anywhere around the world. The tungsten rods were 6.1 by 0.3m and had the equivalent of a small tactical nuclear warhead, but without the fear of nuclear fallout, reaching speeds at about Mach 10, or ten times the speed of sound, and can reach its target in a matter of minutes, about 12-15 minutes in fact."
"Wait... ten times the speed of sound?!" Rainbow asked in shock.
"Yep." Marcus responded back simply. Only to see Rainbow faint once more. "What's with her and fainting all of a sudden?.."
"Eheh... anyways, long story short, soldiers from the Federation took over Odin, and were planning to use the tungsten rods on our own cities. One of those rods hit a small town called Caldrea Peak in the state of Colorado. When the rod hit the mountain, it unveiled a huge underground Cryptid colony. When the Cryptids were awoken, they..." He paused for a moment before continuing. "They went towards the small town and basically killed every living thing there." Marcus explained. Swordstrike and Shearslice nodded slowly and silently before he continued. "Three military units, two CIF Teams and one Tier-One squad were sent there to eradicate the Cryptids and activate a nuclear device that was dropped near the colony, but never detonated. Two of those units were eradicated in less than an hour after deployment, and were never heard from again."
"They then sent in a third squad, called 'Task Force Spectre', and Night Stalkers to the site where they successfully detonated the nuke, eradicating all of the Cryptids there."
Then, Mike butted into the conversation. "And we were the ones who deployed two of the teams."
The Marines turned to the pilots. "You were?..." They asked in unison. The pilots nodded in response.
"Small world..." Kevin muttered, getting a chuckle from Jackson before Marcus continued.
"But this is where it really starts to get interesting..." Marcus said, showing the ponies a picture of a man wearing a red beret on his head, and was equipped with a black vest.
"This is David Archer. According to General Godfather Castle, our old commander, he was 'a top shooter in the Special Air Service, another type of Tier-One special operations group, but foreign, until he washed out on a Section 8, which means he was mentally scarred, being deemed mentally unfit to return to duty'. He was initially known as someone who wouldn't crack under pressure. But intel says otherwise. Archer was also fighting in the Tel-Aviv war, where he and a six-man kill team were assigned to a black ops in Swat Valley, Pakistan. After the op, they were denied extraction, having to hide out in caves for six weeks with his team. He claims that he made contact with "Aliens" in the cave. He was told that he was insane for thinking of such a thing, but damn whoever told them that must be regretting it right now, huh?" Marcus asked, trying to add a bit of dark humor. As an awkward silence loomed over, he continued. "Cheeky bastards... anyways, after he learned about the Cryptid outbreak in Colorado, he went to the quarantine zone and smuggled Cryptid specimens out while the U.S. Military fought against the outbreak. Then, he created the Nightfall Program."
"What's this 'Nightfall Program', you speak of?" Nimbius asked.
"I'm glad you asked! I thought I would never had said it in the first place!" Marcus said, sarcasm dripping down each and every word. He then sighed and explained.
"The Nightfall Program was a research project lead by Captain David Archer. Archer founded the program in 2016, a year after encountering the Cryptid colony in the Tel Aviv War. The program consisted of at least 127 scientists, employees, and private military contractors based out of Point Barrow, in the state of Alaska, the site of the project's headquarters. While its benefactors believed it was investing in biochemical weaponry, Nightfall's true intentions were to investigate a means of severing the ties between the Cryptids and their masters, gaining control of the creatures themselves." Marcus explained simply.
"So.. let me get this straight," Shearslice bumped in. "This 'Nightfall Program', was established to gain control of the Cryptids and use them yourselves? For what?"
"In a way. The program was funded by the United States Government, thinking that the entire thing was to develop new biochemical weapons. But really, the true purpose of Nightfall was much more sinister; to find a way to seize control over the Cryptids for Archer's own use. I don't know what, but I'm guessing it's not too far off the line of the old 'taking over the world' cliche.. but it would make sense."
"Anyways, During an archeological dig in South America, Nightfall uncovered numerous structures surrounding a Cryptid meteor covered in complex heiroglyphics, showing signs of it having ancient relations to ancient tribes and languages. This is the part where he recruited a woman named Dr. Samantha Cross, a vey well known natural code breaker, and has a PhD in Paleontology Linguistics, but we'll get to her in a second. After the ODIN strike on Caldrea Peak and revealing the Cryptids underground, he was intrigued, prompting him to lead an investigation of the site. He returned with numerous Cryptid samples and a large obelisk carved of obsidian rock and inscribed with Cryptid heiroglypthics, known as an 'Ark'. As Cross began tirelessly decoding the Ark, Archer expressed interest in finding more of the items globally, believing one to be located in the South Pacific that inspired the lost continent of Mu, which was a former continent in which the Cryptids inhabited back then before the meteor hit. Requiring a ship and crew, he began covertly negotiating with a Chinese client known only as 'Contact 28' by Godfather, offering Nightfall's impressive weaponry and research to the country in exchange for his requests. Meanwhile, Cross, now fearful of Nightfall's true intentions, breached the location of their head facility to the U.S. government, revealing Nightfall's true as well as sabotaging the hatchery that contained live specimens, under the influence of the Cryptid masters who had brainwashed her with the mimetic virus as she decrypted the Obelisks."
"With over 100 scientists, soldiers, agents, and contractors killed in the outbreak, Nightfall was deemed terminated by the U.S. after we, CIF Team One, de-contaminated the overrun facility. However, the few who survived the outbreak, including Archer and a captured Dr. Cross, attempted to recover from the fallout and sailed for the second Ark aboard Stormbreaker, a decommisioned Chinese stealth destroyed ship, Archer's vessel supplied by Contact 28. Onboard, the survivors focused their attentions on experimenting with anti-Cryptid technology, and ways to transform Cryptids into friendlies still to protect themselves from another attack, as well as the defecting Samantha Cross, who was surgically bonded to a Beacon Amplifier that would aid them in their travels to the second Ark, and alert them of Cryptids both in the ship, and nearby in the sea, since they're known to swim easily. However, problems arose when the crew began experiencing vivid nightmares from the increasingly-hostile mental presence of Cross, rumors threatening a mutiny and even some going against Archer's commands. Then after a couple of days,almost all of the ship's crew abandoned ship to keep their lives and sanity. After they abandoned ship, Cross summoned the Ancestor's aquatic guardian, The Kraken, to keep Nightfall from reaching its ultimate goal. Due to that happening, it igniting a third outbreak in the process, which we had to deal with. We arrived and defeated the Cryptids, and The Kraken itself in less than seven hours. Nightfall had completely dissolved when the U.S Government found out At this time, Archer himself defected as a double-agent to the United States, 'helping' us out in the process."
As he finished explaining, the whole room fell into a deadly silence for almost four minutes as the ponies soaked in all of the information, while also writing down important parts to it, which was basically everything he said. Before the four minutes turned into five, Swordstrike looked up at Marcus. "What happened to Archer after he left the ship?" He asked.
"Long story short, we found him in the second Ark, and left him for dead." Marcus responded with a deadpanned tone. The ponies gasped, but before they could say anything, Marcus went into further detail. "We did it because one, he could not, I say again, could not be trusted. He was still focusing on his own agenda, and we couldn't help but think he would turn on us again. Secondly, we're in the military. We follow orders. We were ordered to leave him."
The ponies thought about it for a moment or so before accepting the fact that they most likely did the right choice, especially if Archer was planing to still go along with what he had in mind. "Reasonable, and understandable, but I have another question." Swordstrike asked.
"Shoot."
"You said that while they were on the Stormbreaker, they invented anti-Cryptid technology. Can you tell us what they built specifically?" He asked.
"Sure. One of the first things we found in the ship was something called the 'Hypno Trap',"
"The Hypno Trap is made up of orange container sheets, a metallic sheet that acts as a pressure plate on top, wires, electrical equipment, cell batteries, and biolum, which are canisters that contain 'brain juice' inside them. The Hypno Trap is able to convert Cryptids that touch it into friendlies, and able to even turn Rhinos to become friendly. However, it cannot turn Gargoyles or the Mammoth into friendlies, and the downside is that the hypnotic-friendly state only stays for about five minutes before their hearts stop and they die instantly."
"That's a bummer. You could show us how to build them, which would help us in the technology department, and in the whole Cryptid thing in general." Swordstrike suggested, getting nods from the other ponies.
"I'll think about that. But that's not all we found. We also found a similar trap. The Tesla Trap."
"The Tesla Trap is made up of orange container sheets, wires, tape, Amolecular Magnets,and a Nucleic Battery. This trap is able to shock Cryptids that are around it periodically. There are four pylons in the middle, which creates for a maximum damage, and can chain with other Tesla Traps to create a huge barrier. The downside to these traps, is that their batteries last for around fifteen minutes, and are very rare to come by."
What happened to Archer after he left the ship?" He asked.
"Long story short, we found him in the second Ark, and left him for dead." Marcus responded with a deadpanned tone. The ponies gasped, but before they could say anything, Marcus went into further detail. "We did it because one, he could not, I say again, could not be trusted. He was still focusing on his own agenda, and we couldn't help but think he would turn on us again. Secondly, we're in the military. We follow orders. We were ordered to leave him."
The ponies thought about it for a moment before finally coming to the conclusion that they did the right thing, and that they did what they were told.
"We could produce them to create barriers when we need to..." Nimbius suggested. "The Tesla Traps, I mean." Marcus and the others nodded as he continued.
"Alright there's one more important item, but I'll save it for last. Now we have another person to talk about. Dr. Samantha Cross." Marcus spoke, mentally grimacing at the look of her face as he looked upon her. He then continued. "he is a doctor in paleolinguistics and a former member of the Nightfall Program, where she studied the origins of the Cryptids. She received her PhD in Paleontology Linguistics from Harvard University almost a year before the events of Nightfall. She turned down a seven figure contract with the NSA, a.. well, think of it as a 'spying' agency, and instead decided to "dig holes in the jungle", or in other words, look through the jungle, solwing ancient languages that were lost thousands of years ago. In an interview, she revealed that she was born with a rare neurological condition, which allows her brain to process complex patterns into a code or language. Because of this condition, she is known as a natural code breaker. Because of her publicity, Cross was brought out to the Nightfall Program's head facility in Alaska by David Archer to study the Cryptid specimens he retrieved from Colorado." Marcus then paused for a moment, waiting for the ponies to finish writing before he continued.
"Cross had spent months at the Nightfall facility learning about the Cryptid species. During her time there, Archer and the other members of the project denied her questions she wanted answers to. After four months of learning the origins of Cryptids, Archer tasked her with the decoding of the Obelisk, an obsidian stone carved with Cryptid glyphs found at the Colorado colony. After weeks of insomnia caused by her devotion to decode the obelisk, Archer unveiled his newest creation, the monstrous Breeder, causing Samantha to fear the true intentions of Nightfall. Giving into her suspicions, she breached the facility's location to the U.S. government, begging them to put an end to the group's work. Unbeknownst to Cross, her ongoing translations of the Ark began affecting her subconscious, making her suffer from the mimetic virus the stone carried, allowing her to broadcast the telepathic commands sent to the Cryptids from their distant commanding Ancestors. Under their influence, Cross breached Nightfall's hatchery in an outbreak that slaughtered 127 of the Program's employees, her being one of the remaining survivors due to the Cryptids' refusal to harm her."
"Why did they refuse to harm her?" Nimbius asked.
"To be honest.. it.. she never really explained why. I guess she's like some sort of 'Goddess' to the Cryptids. The Cryptids can't and won't kill her, but she could kill them with ease and without retaliation." Marcus explained.
"What happened to her?"
"Well, after Samantha reported Nightfall's true intentions to the U.S Government, the U.S. Military organized a Rapid Reaction Force, us, to retrieve Dr. Cross, gather intelligence related to the Nightfall project and eradicate any and all Cryptids and Hives in the process. We were under the command of RRF's General Castle. After we encountered and defeating the Breeder in the first area of the facility, Castle declared Cross among the deceased killed, and the mission switched from a search-and-rescue, to a salvage and de-contamination mission. But as we entered the main laboratories/storage area however, Samantha herself revealed over the intercom she was hiding in one of the facility's research rooms. After we breached the lab, Cross actually prepared to kill herself after finally finishing the translations of the Ark, as her brain slowly turned further to the Cryptid's favor. Moments later, Archer, being the cheeky little shit he is, quickly incapacitated Cross by shooting her in her shoulder and kidnapped Cross. We tried to shoot our way through the glass and into the room, but the shit was bulletproof, and we couldn't risk killing Cross. Godfather then told us that her and Archer were escaping from the compound in a vehicle. When we made it outside, we saw it drive away, leaving us with a pissed of Breeder to deal with. After we killed the Breeder, we called in a Napalm strike on the facility and awaited evacuation about half a mile away in the freezing ice. As we did, an unconscious Cross was taken aboard Stormbreaker, Archer's escape vessel, and oversaw the bonding of her brain to the Beacon Amplifier, a device designed by surviving Nightfall scientist Dr. Kassar, to lead Archer and his men to the next Ark."
"What an unfortunate.. I can't.. wow." Twilight whispered as she payed close attention.
"Yeah... but without her, we wouldn't be here, really. After we escaped the facility, we tracked the location of theStormbreaker and got in to find Cross. When we couldn't find her, Godfather told us that she and Archer were already at the second Ark. So we went there after killing The Kraken. When we arrived at the shored, Samantha was already inside the Ark with the Ancestors, and the Ancestors showed her what exactly they had planned for us. She foresaw the Ancestors' intentions: to awaken all of the Arks and release the Cryptids onto the Earth's surface, eliminating the human race. After Archer and his squad arrived in Ball's Pyramid, she saves Archer's life by cutting off his right arm due to a poisonous infection and offered him a deal; she will guide him and his soldiers into the Ark for the brain of an Ancestor's for a passage off of the island, which Archer accepts. Once Archer received what he needed, however, he attempted to shoot Cross. Samantha responded by taking control of Archer,forcing him to kill his men and shoot himself in the leg. Cross left him to die, but we arrived, took the Cortex, and left. As we did, we encountered Samantha on the way, and escorted her out along with us."
"What happened to Samantha after that?" Rainbow asked.
"Again, long story short, we flew in to help fight off the Cryptids laying siege to the last remnants of human resistance. We were one of the last hopes for all of Humanity. Our main goal was to get key personnel to safety by restoring power to a space shuttle and launch it to the safety of a low earth orbit space station, where they would be able to go into a cryogenic sleep for a thousand years." Marcus explained.
"A thousand years?" Twilight asked, clearly shocked.
"Yes. A thousand years. The shuttle was filled with the top scientists, paleobiologists, elite soldiers, and leaders. Where someday our species would fight back, and reclaim the Earth. The four of us are actually supposed to be in a cryogenic slumber right now, but we were denied access to board the shuttle, since we were the only ones who could hold off the Cryptids until it launched." Marcus explained in a somewhat saddened tone. "But it was worth it. Kinda."
He was responded by several strong 'Oorah's' and 'Hooah's'. The ponies however, were saddened by this news, but decided not to push it further.
"Very... very informative. Now that's generated even more questions for us. First of all, what are these Arks?" The Las Pegasus adviser asked.
"The Arks are underground pyramids made by the Ancestors to help them survive basically any ancient apocalypse or natural disaster, while also housing millions, or even trillions of Cryptids in each, along with dozens of Ancestors. Back on Earth, there were at least one hundred-or-so Arks. Or at least enough that the Arks were spread worldwide, and were able to take over about ninety percent of the planet's surface in less than two hundred hours." Marcus said in a dark tone.
"T-they took over in less tha-than..." Swordstrike stuttered. "Two hundred hours?..." The humans all nodded at the same time. "A-and their intentions are to kill and take over, right?..."
"Yes. They're basically bred for war and to take over." Jackson added.
General Swordstrike's eyes widened as sweat started to roll down his forehead. He then collapsed onto his chair before whispering. "Oh my Celestia..."
Before anyone else could panic, Nimbius spoke up with a question of his own. "What is the Cortex?"
"The Cortex is a tissue sample collected from the brain of an Ancestor. After we used a prototype drill to scan several obelisks, we arrived into the Ark room with the Ancestors and Archer. Archer was holding a Cortex when we entered, so we took it, along with other items. The Cortex sucks up bio-electric energy, stores it like a psychic battery, then detonates like a neutron bomb if focused in a way. It's also the main part to creating the NX-1 Disruptor."
With that, Marcus lifted up his NX-1 Disruptor from the table, showing the ponies the weapon. The other Marines did the same, all of them having their own NX-1's. The General and the Commander looked closer at the pulsating brain that was known as the Cortex.
"This weapon.. oh man, is it something. It overheats at ten rounds, which are pure energetic kinetic rounds at the ready. One of the best things about this weapon, is that it has
basically unlimited ammunition, since it cools down, setting a round at the ready every few seconds. And these shots are so powerful it can take out a Rhino in about four shots, whilst killing Scouts, Seekers, Hunters, Scorpions, Bombers, and the Leper in one well-aimed shot. These shots do take time to hit their target, so it is ill advised to attempt to shoot aliens from afar. Pulling and holding the trigger will charge a very powerful, huge, slow-moving Disruptor round which upon making contact with a Cryptid the ball of energy will disperse, killing weaker Cryptids, and damaging tougher Cryptids. It will also disable the Ancestors' shields, making them vulnerable to other conventional means of firepower."
"Wow..." The ponies said in unison, making it the understatement of the century. Marcus and the others chuckled before putting their NX-1's on the floor.
"So... I know you all want to know how we operate, but we have time for that later. What other questions are there?"
That's when Commander Shearslice spoke up. "Okay then.. first of all, how will you all help us out on this entire thing?"
Marcus and the others did their best to hold in a breath of disappointment before he responded. "Well I thought we were already helping out? Seriously though, us alone aren't enough to take them all out. We don't have a clue on how many Cryptids there are, but I'm guessing there's more than we can all count. We're gonna need everybody's help if we're to even stand a chance against these things."
Shearslice tilted his head to the side a bit. "Well, what do you propose we do? It seems like you all know how to handle situations involving Cryptids. We have no clue where they are, and how many."
Marcus went into deep thought once more before responding. "Well even with all eight of us alone, we most likely will not be enough to deal with the Cryptids. And no offense, but you and your guards are nowhere near in the condition to even be thinking of fighting the Cryptids head on."
Swordstrike nodded in understanding. "I see your point. I have seen how your weapons operate and the sheer power they possess."
"Yeah. Our weapons are several thousand years ahead of yours. I see guards here equipped with spears, swords, shields, and even slingshots! The only modern weaponry we've seen are cannons and crossbows. The problem with that is that the cannons just fire huge balls of lead-"
Shearslice cut him off. "Can't those be effective at all?"
Marcus shook his head. "They can be to a certain degree, but they're slow to move and reload. The cannonballs don't even explode!"
"What about crossbows?"
"They could be, but the problem with that is they're made of wood and cheap metal. The crossbows that existed in our world were made of pure, sleek, strong metals, rope or metallic ropes, and sophisticated firing mechanisms. Even then however, they are not standard issued to most, if not, all modern military due to them being so obsolete."
"What about magic crossbows with lethal spells on them?" Nimbius suggested. Again, Marcus shook his head.
"The arrows themselves won't be powerful enough to even penetrate their skin. Unless you have invented explosive-tips." Marcus asked.
"We have explosive, incendiary, and poison spells, but they only last around five to seven seconds on a solid object, let alone on an arrow." Shearslice replied. He then thought for a couple of seconds before coming up with an idea. "I got it! How about you show us how to build your weaponry? We can customize them to be used by ponies, Unicorns especially, and we could at least help out in operations, which would make things easier."
As the Commander said this, red flags popped up all over the idea. Marcus and the others were very skeptical about this. And from the looks of it, so were the Princess' themselves.
"I see some problems with this. First of all, I don't want to burden this entire planet with our weapons, and secondly, what if they fall into the wrong hands? I mean, I know that this place is peaceful and all, but not everything is all sunshine and rainbows. Especially since we all now the Cryptids exist here." Marcus exclaimed. The ponies nodded in agreement, clearly seeing the issues with this problem.
"We could keep this whole weapons project thing a secret to the public?" Shearslice suggested. "I can assign the weapons to only the very best of the Royal Guard, and the Lunar Guard."
"Have you heard the saying 'what's done in the dark, will be brought to the light'?" Marcus asked with an eyebrow raised. Shearslice nodded. The entire room fell into a silence as everybody went into deep thought once more.
After what seemed like an eternity, Marcus spoke up. "Look... I don't know about the weapons, but I can, however, give you the schematics on the traps if it'll help. Better something than nothing, right?" He said with a sly smile. The ponies nodded.
"I suppose. I'll give you a couple of days to think about what we should do. On another note, I am awfully curious on seeing how that 'NX-1 Disruptor' of yours works. Would you mind showing us?" Swordstrike asked. Marcus was about to retort, until he saw that the others were also interested in seeing the NX-1 in action, including the soldiers and the Princess'.
Marcus then sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine. Let's go outside, and we'll give you all a show." As he said this, the girls whooped, along with Kevin, who quickly shut himself up. The Marines chuckled as they stood up from their chairs. Marcus then turned to Kayla. "Hey, can you give the General here the schematics? We already have enough equipment back at Twilight's library."
Kayla nodded and handed over the Tesla schematics over to the General, who took it in his mouth. She then turned to Celestia to ask her a question. "Do you still have the bodies of the Cryptids we killed back at the lab?"
Celestia nodded, albeit a bit hesitant. "Yes. Why do you ask?"
"Because those schematics are gonna need the 'brain juice' from the Cryptids for the cell batteries." Kayla said simply. Celestia kept a straight face and stopped herself from shivering and nodded. After the General stored the schematic, they walked out to the hallway once more.
Before another silence could approach the group once more, Celestia turned to Marcus. "I forgot to ask.. is there anything you will need at all?" She asked.
Marcus nodded. "Yeah, there is actually. For starters, we don't want to stay at the girls' houses for an extended period of time." He then turned to the girls. "No offense. We just don't want to occupy your space and store our stuff there."
"Don't worry about it," Twilight responded. "we understand."
Celestia also nodded. "I can arrange a construction group from here to be sent to Ponyville to build you all a place to stay. It will take a bit of time, and the construction workers are going to need specifics, but it should be done easily."
"Thank you, Celestia. We can also double it as a forward operating base." Marcus said thankfully, with the others having the same look of gratitude.
"Is there anything else?"
"Yes. And this will not only benefit us, but everypony in general. First of all, how many guards are in the whole entire guard?" He asked.
General Swordstrike spoke up. "There's about seventy two thousand guards spread all over Equestria, with four hundred Lunar Guards, and only twenty in our newly formed special forces."
Marcus lifted an eyebrow. "When were these special forces made?"
"It was formed when we got into some political and territorial heat with the Griffon Empire. We decided to keep it."
"You might want to increase your guard count in general. Trust me when I say that even with us ourselves, we're not going to be enough to fight the Cryptids. I suggest you and Commander Shearslice, along with Captain Shining Armor, try to increase your guard count, especially in the special forces area." Marcus suggested. "We'll help out in any way we can with the effort. Hell, we can even train them."
The General was very into doing this, along with Shearslice and Celestia herself. "We'll see."
"Also, once we get all of our stuff organized, we can go and find where the Cryptids came from. Since the Cricket came from beyond the mountains, I guess we can search up there. But it's too early to tell right now."
They all nodded in agreement. As they walked out of the hallway and into the courtyard, Dempsey spoke up.
"Wait, what about the locals in Ponyville? Surely the news had already spread that I.. well, you know. How are gonna deal with them?"
The girls thought for a second, until Twilight came up with a possible solution. "I got it! Nightmare Night is just around the corner, isn't it?" She turned to the girls. They nodded with a smile as they now had the same idea as Twilight."
"Oh yeah! You guys can warm up with everypony there by participating in the event!" Rainbow suggested with a smile.
Dempsey was into it, along with the others. "Sounds good.. except I have one more question. What's 'Nightmare Night'?"
Twilight was about to answer, but Rainbow did it instead. "To put it simply, it's where mainly colts and fillies dress up and go around getting candy and stuff." Rainbow said. She then turned over to Twilight, who was glaring daggers back at her. "What? I just saved us an hour is all!" She said, crossing her forehooves, and making the humans chuckle.
"She's got a point, Twi." Applejack added. Twilight just rolled her eyes as they stopped walking and watched the Marines pull out their NX-1 Disruptors. They then aimed at whatever remaining mannequins were left from their weapons demonstration before.
"Alright. We're gonna show you all how fast we can shoot it, then we'll show you the best part this thing has to offer." Marcus said. With that, the four Marines got in a line, five feet from each other. After pressing a button on the side that extended the barrel and switching the Cortex on, they all raised their NX-1's simultaneously and took aim.
Marcus rose his left hand slightly and used his fingers to count down from three. As soon as he only had one finger left, they unleashed hell on the mannequins. Their trigger fingers squeezed and left as quickly as they came into contact with the trigger, doing it as fast as they could over and over. Dozens of balls of blue, pure electrical energy came into contact with the mannequins, melting straight through and leaving a gaping hole with each shot. The shots then connected with the concrete wall behind it, causing a mini-detonation, while also creating a mini-electric shockwave. The balls of energy then stopped as soon as they started, their NX-1's making a slight, yet rapid beeping sound, indicating that the Cortex needed a couple of seconds to recharge.
The Marines then turned to the ponies. "Well?" Jackson asked.
The girls' reactions were about the same as showing them the Barrett .50 Cal, along with the Princess'. Swordstrike and Shearslice were very impressed, along with the advisers. "Woah... that looks very painful. And that was like what?... ten seconds flat?"
"Oh, that's nothing..." Marcus said. The Marines then turned back around and raised their NX-1's once more. As they did, they all held squeezed on the trigger, but not letting go however. As they held the trigger, the ponies noticed that all of their NX-1's were slightly shaking every half second, and were making a sort of energy-filling sound. After about nine seconds, their NX-1's were now shaking violently in their hands, along with a bright blue energetic light emitting from the barrel. They then let go of the triggers, and out came a single huge blue ball of electrical energy from each of their NX-1's, while making all of the Marines step back a couple of steps from the sheer recoil. The balls moved slowly at the wall. After three seconds, the balls made contact with the wall. The balls emerged as one and shrunk to the size of a penny, before emitting a deafening boom, and causing a shockwave that made the Marines and the ponies stumble, while causing a small dome of energy emerge and spread quickly before dissipating. Once everybody recovered, they looked back, noticing an enormous black stain on the once pure-white concrete wall. Another thing they noticed, is that there were no signs of mannequin remains.
"I... Uh... Wo-... Holy..." The General was at a loss of words. The Marines also noticed that everypony's manes were now slicked all the way back from the sheer force of the blast, let alone the energy dome. The funniest of all, however, were the looks on the Princess' faces. They looked as if they'd just seen their castle blow up right in front of them, and their manes were also slicked back in an awesome fashion that would make the singers from K.I.S.S jealous. They resisted the urge to laugh as Celestia recovered herself and fixed everypony's manes back to their original style.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" Rainbow shouted in pure joy of what she'd just witnessed. The girls nodded in agreement, even Fluttershy. Nevermind that she was hiding behind the others the entire time.
"That was something..." Nimbius said. What an understatement...
"Yeah.. oh yeah, it sure as hell was. But we still have some more stuff to show you." Marcus added as he and his squad shut off their NX-1's and stored them.
"Oh really? Care to tell us?" Nimbius said with a slight smile and an eyebrow raised.
"Nah. We'll show you instead." Marcus replied with a smile as Nimbius waited anxiously to see what else they had in store. Marcus then turned to Twilight.
"Hey Twi, do you think you can teleport some of our stuff from below your basement at the library over here? I'm sure these guys would like to see what else we have in store..."
Twilight was once again a bit hesitant. "Oh... I don't know. I haven't really mastered long-range teleportation yet.."
"Please? Can you at least try?" Marcus asked politely. Twilight was about to retaliate, but she sighed.
"O-okay, fine..." Twilight then took in a deep breath as she stepped forward. She then turned to the humans and the other ponies. "Everypony, stand back..."
They all did what they were told as Twilight breathed in once more and aimed her horn at the ground. It then started to sparkle as she closed her eyes and focused on the spell. After a couple of seconds, she was then able to cast a beam of magic onto the ground in front of her. With a final grunt of frustration, the beam stopped and emitted a bright purplish flash on where it aimed. Everybody covered their eyes as Twilight breathed in heavily and smiled. They then all waited for the slight smoke to clear. But they all saw something that they didn't really expect.
Instead of seeing a Sentry Gun, or a MAAWS, as they intended...
They saw what looked like a black sniper rifle.
"What the hell?" Marcus said with an eyebrow raised, in utter confusion. The Marines then all walked forward. That's when Kayla reached down and picked up the slightly steamy sniper rifle.
As she did, the first thing they noticed was that it was about near the same size as Kayla's Barrett .50 Cal, except it had several clear differences. The first, and the most obvious one, was that it was black, but it had several strange red markings all over the gun. The second one was that it seemed a lot more bigger in width, especially the magazine. The third one was that it had two wired connected to the scope, and seemed to be bolt-action.
"What kind of a sniper is it, Kayla?" Thompson asked, looking at the sniper in awe.
"I... I don't know.. but it's pretty damn heavy. Like this shoots 20mm rounds..." Kayla said, studying the sides of the weapon. She then noticed some slight writing etched into the magazine of the sniper rifle.
"What does it say?..." Jackson asked.
"Uhm..." She narrowed her eyes a bit. "It says... '40935115'... 'Proto Hyena Infra-Dead'?... Whatever that means." Kayla then turned around and looked down the sight of the sniper. "Woah! Check this shit out!"
"What is it?" The other Marines asked in unison.
"This thing has a infrared scope on it!" Kayla said with glee. Marcus couldn't help but let out a throaty chuckle at her reaction.
"I'm gonna shot this thing and see if this is just a modified fifty, or a twenty millimeter...or something from fucking Star Wars..." Kayla said as she crouched and aimed at the blackened concrete wall. Everybody then took a couple steps back as they watched curiously at what this new weapon was. For all Marcus and Jackson knew, it looked like some sort of Russian prototype sniper rifle of sorts. Thompson however, thought it was something from Star Wars, like Kayla said.
"Alright... let's see if this baby packs-a-punch..." Kayla muttered as she aimed at the wall. She took in a deep, quiet breath of air from her mouth to steady her aim. Once her hands started shaking, she slowly breathed out as her hands, let alone her entire body, stood still for a precious second.
That's when she pulled the trigger.
"Oh fuck!" Kayla said, being knocked onto her ass by the sheer force of the weapon. It had about twice the amount of recoil of a Barrett, made an odd 'Pew' sound combined with a deafening boom as she clutched her shoulder as the sniper rifle. Her shoulder started throbbing as her fellow Marines went to help her. As they helped her up, Kayla noticed that there was what looked like to be a huge metal arrow-like bullet lodged onto the wall right where she aimed at, and it emitted a beeping sound that got faster and faster by the second.
"Shit! Everybody! Get down!" Kayla shouted. Everybody did what they were told as the beeping got louder. But not loud enough to hear a male pony's voice from above.
"What the bu-"
That's when the rod emitted a deafening explosion.
Meanwhile, on the balcony...
As the Marines aimed their NX-1's at the mannequins, Prince Blueblood was inside of his room, just outside the hallway, taking a nap, and resting himself after what had happened with the human and his weird machine. He was still very pissed off about the creature disrespecting him like that, and he was going to get them back hard..
... but not before he took a 'beauty' sleep.
Blueblood was snoring rather peacefully, until he heard slight, odd sounds outside. He grunted as he rolled over on the couch and tried to ignore it. After a couple of seconds, he was once again drifting into his sleep, but then he heard a monstrous, nearly deafening blast from outside.
He yelped as he jumped off from his royal couch and hit the floor below with another yelp. He was now wide awake, thanks to anger and sheer confusion flowing through his veins. With an angry grunt, he stood up on his good foreleg and limped towards the door.
"Grrr.... whoever that was is really going to get it now... ungrateful slobs, don't they know I need my sleep?!" Blueblood thought angrily as he stupidly used his bad hoof to push open the door. He hissed in pain, but kept on going out of his room. He then slammed the door shut with as he looked to his left and saw a Unicorn maid carrying a plate with water cups with her magic.
As Blueblood walked past, he stumbled on his bad leg and fell next to the maid with a grunt, spilling all the water on her. Blueblood quickly stood up and huffed.
"Watch where you're going!" He shouted as he walked and stumbled forward faster to a balcony. As he did, he heard a deafening 'boom'-like sound mixed with a 'pew' noise, and a beeping noise started to emit slightly.
As he reached the doorway of the balcony, he heard a couple of voices over the beeping, which had started getting louder by the second.
Once he stepped outside, he saw the eight creatures, the four Element Bearers, a couple of guards, and both of the Princess' themselves. He then heard a female voice yell out.
"Shit! Everybody! Get Down!"
Blueblood made his way to the railing, noticing an orange light blinking rapidly on the white concrete wall. He was then deafened by a huge purple explosion, blowing away the wall as if it wasn't there.
"What the bu-"
Is what he would've said if he wasn't knocked out by a slab of the wall itself that was launched at him by the explosion.