X-COM: Friendship is Magic

by ChaserGrey

The Man in the Back Says "Everyone Attack!" (Revised & Updated)

"Brace for it!"

That was the only warning the four troopers of Strike-1 got before a white wave of pure energy slammed into the back of their Skyranger. The transport rolled onto its left side and dropped like a stone, and for about fifteen seconds Colonel Alex McKay was convinced this was it. Six months fighting a war against the alien invaders, more missions than he had a right to survive, finally landing a killing blow on the Ethereal Collective that might just bring peace, and he was going to buy it in a transport crash five minutes before everyone had it made. It just wasn't fair.

Then the 'Ranger lifted up again, leaving Alex's stomach to catch up as they straightened out. He kept his lips clamped as tightly as he could. If one of them started puking in the tiny space of the Skyranger's troop cabin they'd all be doing it, and that wasn't the way he wanted to spend the ride back to base. Once he was sure he was going to hold onto breakfast, Alex punched the wall intercom button.

"Nice flying, Dusty. We in the clear?"

"I…think so." The Skyranger's pilot's voice was hesitant. "We're flying instead of falling, so that's step one. But that blast must have scrambled most of the other systems. I've got no comms with Central, no telemetry, no GPS- heck, even civilian air traffic control isn't talking. We're going to have to find somewhere to land soon, because I'm not taking this thing hypersonic with most of my cockpit out to lunch." Alex winced a bit, but nodded to himself. The Skyranger normally cruised somewhere around five times the speed of sound, which was not something you wanted to do with a compass and a map.

"Allright. Keep me informed." Alex released the intercom and switched his Titan armor's radio onto the squad channel. "We're in the clear, people. Electronics are a little fried, but she'll hold together until we hit the coast of Brazil. And wherever we touch down, we're going to throw one damn big victory party."

"Kate?" It was the first word Liam Doyle had said since they took off from the disintegrating temple ship. He'd kept the ramp covered in his Paladin until the very end, hoping to see one more figure sprinting for the back of the Skyranger. It hadn't come. Alex shook his head.

"Didn't see her after the ship started coming apart." Which wasn't quite true, but he wasn't sure if he was willing to tell that story yet. "Anything's possible, though." Which was more true than usual when it came to Kate Hill. She'd been far and away X-COM's strongest psion even before she'd melded with a piece of alien technology, and after that she'd just been plain scary.

"Uh, Colonel?" It was Dusty again, breaking in on the squad channel. "I think you'd better take a look at this." Without waiting for a reply, an image appeared on Alex's heads-up display. Alex took one look. Took another. Then hit the button to share it with his squad as he shook his head.

"Oh now what the hell is this?"

It was daylight below them, and they'd taken off after nightfall. It said a lot about their situation that the time difference was the least weird thing about the picture. The ground was mostly gently rolling grass, with some impossibly big trees dotting the landscape and a few fluffy white clouds. Coming up on their nose was what looked like a decent sized settlement- but it was composed entirely of thatch-roof houses that looked like they came out of a historical drama, connected by dirt roads. No sign of cars or industry.

Or for that matter, people.

As Alex watched through the Skyranger's cameras, he could see a number of inhabitants down in the settlement below. It looked like they were running errands, making deliveries, buying, selling, talking, laughing- everything you'd expect to see in a small town square. Except that none of them were human. They were equines, like a shrunken horse with incredibly long multicolored manes and tails, clopping along on four hooves as they talked animatedly back and forth. Alex keyed the comm.

"Straight answer, troops. Everyone else see tons of pastel-colored ponies down there instead of people?" Dead silence, followed by a mumbled chorus of "Yes" from the other troopers. Well, there went the hallucination theory. Which was a shame, because it was actually one of his better alternatives right now. "Allright. We're dealing with a potential first contact situation. Remember, we cannot assume they're allied with the invaders. That means we-"

"Sir?" Dusty broke in, and Alex fought the urge to bite his head off. "I think we can assume they're not." The view from the Skyranger's cameras panned over, moving to the other side of the settlement. Alex saw something familiar there, and suddenly wished he hadn't. Because what he saw were metallic cubes on the ground, tendrils of green slime already heading for the nearest ponies, and beyond that an alien scout craft preparing to set down. Abduction run.

"Allright, boys and girls!" The other three troopers jerked their heads up, plainly still confused by the images from below. Well, he was too. But suddenly it didn't matter. "I'll be straight with you. I don't know what happened or where we are." He paused, going over his last sentence. "And the crazy-colored ponies? Flat-out no idea. But we all know that sound." Alex gritted his teeth and patched into an exterior microphone. It was the most familiar and most horrible thing they'd heard since coming here. The low hum of the abduction cubes. The high, inhuman clicking of Sectoid speech. And, just starting, a chorus of screams that sounded completely human. "And that means that personally, I don't give a flying fuck where we are. The invaders are down there, so we do what we do best. Hit dirt, save everybody we can, and turn anything that gets in our way into a grease stain." At least the objective would be familiar. "Vigilo!"

"Confido!" The squad all gave the response back as they started pulling on helmets, powering up their armor, and charging their weapons. Alex keyed the intercom again.

"Big Sky, we'll take a straight in delivery to the first LZ you can spot. Looks like we have a job to do." Dusty acknowledged, and Alex felt the big Skyranger reef into a turn, slowing as it prepared to drop the troops. As the ramp came down and he prepared to charge plasma fire for a bunch of anthropomorphic ponies, Alex shook his head and quoted their other, unofficial motto to himself.

"That's X-COM, baby."

Author's Note:

It's probably been done. But I have a bet.

Revising for relaunch. The profanity filter idea didn't turn out to be nearly as clever in practice as it was in theory, and I've got a more gradual buildup of events planned. Chapter 2 relaunching shortly.

Comments

[Matt345]

First.

Also, this.
t.qkme.me/3qx7t3.jpg

[FleetlordAvatar]

XCOM For the WIN!!

[Axquirix]

It's like a more serious take on the first XCOM:MLP fic I read. I like!

[Sneaky Breeze]

You have my interest good sir. Please, continue.

[Rokkurin]

the girl in the corner said, "Boy, I want to warn you it'll turn into a ballroom blitz"

Good story by the way. XCOM is one of my favorite strategy game.