From Humans, to Cryptids, to... Ponies?

by TLP

Chapter 32: Kill First, Ask Questions Later

Marcus and eveyone/pony in the room waited for the co-pilot to come back after about five minutes of showing nothing but a thousand-yard-stare. Marcus then went up to his face and snapped his fingers.

"Hey buddy, you there?" He said while snapping his fingers right in his face. The co-pilot then shook his head, and sighed.

"Um.. yeah, sorry. Just... well.. uh..." The co-pilot blabbered on, not finding the right words to say about his current situation, but Marcus did.

"Mind-fucked?"

The co-pilot nodded. "A bit of an understatement.. but yeah. That'll do." Marcus chuckled as he helped him up to his feet. The co-pilot then clutched his head and groaned loudly.

"Fuck man, I have a helluva headache. Did I really hit my head that hard?" He asked. Marcus then pointed to the crack on the window of the Little Bird.

"Heh. Seems like it."

The co-pilot's eyes widened as he ran towards the Little Bird, limping a bit as he did so. He looked over the helicopter's frame and condition. Then, he leaned in to look at the inside of the cockpit, then sighed a breath of relief. "Oh thank God.. somehow, this sunovabitch looks operational. The weapons are good... the electrical systems look fine, except for the GPS systems. Damn they're fried beyond repair. Must've been the impact." He kept talking as he looked at the interior. "The controls look like they did before we came here.. Okay, all we need to do is somehow pull this baby out of this building, repair it a bit, and it'll be operational." He then opened the storage box in the back that contained the blue-prints. "Wait... where are the blue-prints?.."

The co-pilot then turned around to face Marcus, who was waving a blue paper roll in his left hand. "This it?" He said, chuckling. The co-pilot nodded as Marcus chucked him the blue-prints.

"Nice. Now we just need to get this thing out of here." Before he could say anything else, he heard a female voice behind him speak up.

"Um.. e-excuse me, sir, but I think the tail of the machine seems very.. well, b-broken." A very soft voice spoke out quietly. The co-pilot turned around and noticed a small horse with a light-yellow coat, a pink mane, and... wings? He shook his head hard after wondering how the hell can they talk as he noticed that she was nervously pointing a hoof at the tail section of the Little Bird, which was snapped in half, but the electrical wires still seemed like they were intact.

"Aw crap.." He then walked over to the tail. "The main tail frame can be easily welded and bolted back in, but the freaking rotor though..." He then stood up on a pile of rubble, the back rotors were bent, had a couple missing, and was slightly smoking white. "It's gonna need a new one if it's ever gonna fly again." He then heard a raspy, female voice behind him.

"I still don't get how this big, metal thing can fly. I mean, look at it! It's made of metal!" The co-pilot then turned around and noticed a cyan-colored horse with a rainbow mane, who also had a pair of wings.

"I won't explain it right now, but I wanna see you say that when it starts hovering over your head." The co-pilot said with a smirk. The cyan horse just rolled her eyes as he turned back towards Marcus.

"So, is there anything else that I need to know that will blow my mind away? Y'know, aside from talking, miniature, technicolored horses?" He asked.

"Hey! We're not horses, dang it! We're ponies!" The cyan hor- pony shouted with irritation dripping from each of her words. The co-pilot turned around and glared daggers at her, which the cyan pony easily returned. Then, the lavender pony spoke up.

"She's right, you know. And there's three types of ponies. I'm a Unicorn, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are Pegasi, or Pegasus, and Applejack here is an Earth Pony." The lavender Unicorn said.

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry! Let's just do introductions later and go back to what I was saying, okay?" The girls nodded. "Thank you. Anyways, is there anything else that is on this damn planet that we should know about?" He asked Marcus.

Marcus nodded. "Yeah. The Cryptids. Yes, the one from back on Earth, exist here." Marcus said. The co-pilot's jaw dropped at this in disbelief. "I'll explain why later. All I know right know is that we're here because we got reports of there being a Hive near here, and the sighting of a Cricket Cryptid."

The Sheriff then spoke up. "Is that what those huge, red plant things are?"

Marcus then looked at the Sheriff and nodded. "Yeah. Can you lead us there in a bit? We need to clear some things up first." The Sheriff nodded as Marcus looked back at the co-pilot.

"So now that you know, me and my squad were sent here after detonating the Medusa Device back at the Exodus Launch Site near San Diego. We helped several scientists, paleobiologists, and elite soldiers to escape from Earth." Marcus exclaimed.

The co-pilot's eyes widened. "Wait.. so you and the others are C.I.F Team-1? As in the legendary Rapid Reaction Team?"

Marcus and his squad nodded. "Yeah. What about it?" He asked nervously, since he, for some reason, said 'legendary'.

"Don't you get it? You're the ones who sacrificed yourselves for Humanity!" He said loudly. The girls were now extremely curious, and were trying their best not to unload a barrage of questions upon them.

"Look, kid. We know that, but you're part of the military, damn it! Can you act like it?" Marcus asked irritatingly. The co-pilot nodded and eased up a bit. "Good. Now before we do anything else, we need to know your names, rank, and what your specific occupation is."

The co-pilot nodded once again and spoke. "Alright. I'm Sergeant Mike Preston, U.S Army."

Marcus nodded. "And your callsign?"

"Hellstorm."

"What avionics group are you a part of in the Army?"

"The 160'th Special Operations Aviation Regiment." Mike said proudly. "Me and my pilot here, Randy, choppered in one of the other C.I.F Teams into Caldera Peak in Colorado in a Black Hawk, then we choppered in a Task Force that contained Delta Force Operators, called 'Task Force: Spectre'."

"Oh shit.. these guys are the best of the best!" Marcus thought. "Damn, then it's good to know we don't have a bunch of newbie pilots joining us. Anyways, look. We're here to destroy a Hive, and when we were in the Exodus Launch Facility, they didn't equip us with a Laser Mounted Drill, since most of the Hives there were thought to have been destroyed by previous attacks. Since you said that you've helped one of the Teams destroy Hives, we need to get that Little Bird up and running so we can destroy that Hive."

Mike nodded, but he came up with a problem. "Wait, how are we gonna repair the Little Bird? Hell, even take it our of this building?"

Then, he heard the lavender pony speak up behind him. "Uh, I can try to lift it up with my magic?" She suggested. Marcus saw that Mike had yet another case of the 'thousand-yard stare' as he was probably wondering how in the hell they had magic. Marcus snapped his fingers in front of him again, making Mike jump back into reality.

"S-sorry about it again.. I just.. yeah. Anyways, yeah, you can go ahead and try." Mike said. The lavender Unicorn smiled, then a purple aura enveloped her horn as she closed her eyes, and aimed it at the Little Bird. The purple aura then shot out a beam, connecting with the Little Bird, and enveloping it in a purple 'bubble'. She then slowly, but cautiously lifted it from the crushed floor below the helicopter's cockpit, and put an extra energetic hold on the broken tail frame as she lifted it. As it rose from the roof, she slowly walked out the door, with Applejack holding it open for her, as everyone/pony, except for Fluttershy and Thompson, walked outside to see Twilight using all of her magical strength to settle the helicopter down onto the ground. The ponies around her and the squad watched in awe as she lifted the unknown object and placed it on the desert ground. Twilight then collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily. The girls and the squad ran to her and helped her up.

"Twilight, you okay there? Seems like you pushed yourself a bit too much.." Kayla said as she helped her up.

"Y-yeah.. it's just that thing is so heavy!" Twilight said with a breathless chuckle. Rainbow was about to call bluff, but she curiously flew over towards the Little Bird and put both of her hooves under the miniguns and lifted. Marcus turned around and saw Rainbow using all of her strength to try to lift it up from the ground. Her muscles in her back contracted, showing she was using every bit of her strength, but she didn't even lift it off the ground an inch. Rainbow gave up and turned around, noticing Marcus smirking. Rainbow blushed a bit and flew back to Twilight.

"Yep. It is. That thing weighs more than a Hydra!" She exclaimed.

"Wait, Hydra's exist here?" Mike asked, raising an eyebrow. The girls nodded, making Mike's head hurt at just the thought of it. Before things could get worse, Marcus walked between them and grabbed the blueprints from Mike's hands, kneel'd, and handed it over to Twilight, who grabbed it in her mouth. She looked at Marcus with a confused expression.

"Those are the blueprints for the Little Bird. I only see a couple dents and stuff, but you need to help Mike and Randy repair the thing and make it operational while me and Jackson go and visit the Hive. I can see that you used up most of your energy, so Kayla will try to go look for some other Unicorns willing to help, okay?" Marcus explained his plan to Twilight, who nodded in agreement. He turned to his squad, who also nodded.

Marcus then stood up and walked towards Jackson, who was prepping his M27-IAR. "Okay. Jackson, you're with me. You still got your Thermite grenades on you?" He asked. Jackson the pulled out his AN-164 Thermite grenade and shook it in his hand with a smirk, which Marcus returned. "Good. Let's get moving." He then turned to the Sheriff, who was looking at the Little Bird. "Hey, Sheriff. Can you lead the way?"

The Sheriff nodded as he turned around and pointed a hoof in front of him. Marcus and Jackson then walked down the desert trail, ignoring the confused looks the local ponies were giving them. The Sheriff noticed this and nervously chuckled.

"Uh, sorry about the looks you're gettin' fellas, we've just never seen anything like ya here before in Appleloosa, or in Equestria in general..." He said nervously.

"Don't worry about it, Sheriff. We're used to people living in the desert giving us looks." Marcus said, making Jackson chuckle in agreement, but the Sheriff didn't get it.

"What do ya mean? You've been in the desert before or somethin'?" He asked.

"In a way, but that's a story for another time. Let's just say that the 'desert people' gave us more than dirty looks.." Jackson said, making Marcus let out a strong 'Oorah'.

The Sheriff was as confused as the locals, but he wasn't about to express it anytime soon. Especially if these creatures were going to help them out with the weird plant and the unknown creature; all without the need for recognition, pay, or anything. It seemed like they were just doing it for the safety of the locals, and probably Equestria in general. In other words, they seemed like they were doing it for the greater good. They kept walking in silence as they approached the orchards, which were not too far from the cherry factory.

"Here it is." The Sheriff said, opening the wooden gate that lead to the orchards. "Just wait right here, I'm gonna tell the farmers to clear out of here for a bit."

"You do that. We'll be right here waiting." Jackson said. The Sheriff then ran off towards a small farm house. Jackson then pulled out his M1014 and ejected the 'bean-bag' rounds out of the chamber, one by one. Then, he opened his ammo pouch and loaded in 12-gauge incendiary rounds, loaded with small pouches of flammable gasoline that, when fired, the shot would eject a huge ball of fire along with the pellets, increasing its close-range lethality.

Marcus saw this and took out the magazine from his Honey Badger. He noticed that Kayla had only given him two extra magazines in reserve, filled with armor-piercing rounds. He started wondering how they would take care of ammunition problems in case their ammo supplies ran dry, until the Sheriff came back with a farmer and his family behind him. Marcus opened the gate and let the family walk through the gate. The ponies gave him a nervous look, but Marcus gave them a reassuring, warm smile, which the family then returned. As Marcus was about to walk in, he felt a tug on his pants. Looking down, he noticed a small pony with a light yellow coat, red mane, and a bow on top.

"You're not gonna destroy are farm, are ya' mister?" She asked nervously with the saddest expression on her face that made him just want to cry himself.

Marcus chuckled and smiled. "Of course not. We're just gonna take care of some big meanies that came here and tried to hurt you. Your barn will look just the same as you left it. I promise." He said, kneeling down and ruffling her red mane, making her giggle as she smiled back at him and ran off to his family. The Sheriff then turned to Marcus before following the family.

"The weird plant-thing is behind those apple trees in a ditch, a bit submerged in water. Also, one of my deputies noticed some caves dug deep into the caves. Maybe that's where the weird creature is hiding in?" The Sheriff guessed, somehow shrugging his shoulders. "Just be careful, ya' hear?"

Marcus and Jackson nodded. "Don't worry, we know what we're doing." With that, the Sheriff tipped his hat and ran to the family, who were waiting for him. Then, Marcus turned to Jackson, who nodded his head as Marcus walked into the orchard with his Honey Badger raised up to his shoulders. Jackson followed behind him, the M27 hindered his movement speed very slightly as they walked down the dirt path, aiming their weapons at the treeline as they did so.

"Marcus, I see the Hive, 9 o'clock. Along with the hill with the huge ass cave on it. And it's covered up in wooden boards." Jackson said. Marcus then walked up to him, then did a hand signal to cover him as he moved next to the cave.

Jackson nodded as he flipped up the bipods on his M27 and went prone, aiming at the barricated cave in case something jumped out. Marcus then sprinted until his shoulder touched the side of the hill. He then turned to Jackson and nodded. Jackson then got up and sprinted, kneeling in front of the ditch that contained the medium-sized Hive.

"Okay. Jackson, toss me a Thermite." Marcus asked. Jackson tossed one of his Thermite's at him. He caught it and unholstered his M1911 .45 and his black-tinted combat knife. "I'm gonna go inside the cave and see if the Cricket is inside." Marcus then reached behind him and pulled out his NX-1 Disruptor and threw it to Jackson, who caught it. "Once I get out, we'll see if the NX-1's can destroy the Hive."

"Oorah. Watch yourself in there, Sarge." Jackson said.

Marcus then used the buttstock of his Honey Badger to break the wooden boards. He then put his Honey Badger on his back, brought out his '1911 and knife, flicked on the flashlight on his helmet and walked into the cave. As he walked deeper into the cave, he turned right and kept walking. Marcus then notice green stains along the dirt walls. He ran a finger over one of the stains, making it stick to his finger. He looked at it, the green blood glisening from the light his helmet light emitted..

"Cricket. Definatley a Cricket.." Marcus thought as he wiped his finger and moved on. The ground below him was a bit moist, since his feet were sinking deeply into the dirt. Then, he came upon a small cave room, in which his eyes widened at what it contained.

In the room was a huge pile of hundreds of thousands marble-sized green eggs. A couple dozen of them were fully grown, waiting for the right moment to hatch. In the middle of the room, was the Cricket.

"There you are..." Marcus said quietly, but loud enough for the Cricket to hear. The Cricket was lying on the floor, and from the looks of it, looked too exhausted to get up and fight. It lifted its head, eggs dripping down from its fish-like gills and onto the ground and looked straight into Marcus' hazel eyes, and let out a pathetic screech.

Marcus chuckled as he slowly walked towards the Cryptid. Marcus knew that it was in the process of laying several eggs, which meant that it could do nothing but wait for the laying process to finish before it could even stand. He crouched next to it, took of his shades, and looked back at the Cryptid, who was staring back at him.

He chuckled again and used his right hand to forcefully lift its face up towards him. The Cryptid's mouth was moving a bit from his breathing. Marcus then spoke out-loud.

"You are one ugly motherfucker.." He said. He then slapped the Cryptid's face with the back of his right hand. The Cryptid could do nothing but screech again. Marcus then stood up and waved the Thermite grenade in front of its face. With a smile, he then pulled the pin and dropped it in front of the Cricket.

"Sweet dreams, motherfucker.." Marcus said as he bolted out of the room and back into the cave tunnels. He heard an even louder screech behind him as he ran out of the cave, with Jackson still outside. He aimed his M27 at Marcus, but he lowered it once he identified him.. Marcus then looked at Jackson with his ears covered.

"You might want to cover your ears!" Marcus said.

"Why-" Jackson started to speak, but then a huge, yet muffled blasting sound cut him off, causing a small shockwave as the cave behind Marcus lit up in a bright red, and an intense heat hit Marcus like a freight train, making him move away from the cave entrance. Jackson then walked over to the cave entrance, and saw that further down, the inside was covered in rubble, preventing re-entry.

"Damn, I didn't know Thermite could be that powerful.." Jackson said with widened eyes. "It's a good thing I packed them."

"You mean it's a good thing I reminded you to do so.." Marcus said, giving Jackson a glare. Jackson rolled his eyes as he handed Marcus his NX-1 Disruptor.

"Alright, now that you got that out of the way, let's see if these things cause any damage to the Hive." Jackson said, bringing up his own NX-1, pressing the button on the side, and extending the barrel. They then walked over to the Hive, which was in the ditch; it's plant-like feature at the top pulsing slowly. If the plant was pulsing rapidly, then they knew it was on the brink of it being destroyed.

"Okay, let's charge them up first and see how much damage it does." Marcus said. Jackson nodded as they aimed their NX-1's at the Hive and held down the trigger. A charging noise rapidly started to become more audible as the weapon itself shook. Once the Cortex inside the NX-1 started glowing to the point where it could blind them, the NX-1 started shaking violently in their hands, due to the huge amount of energy it contained.

"Release!" Marcus shouted. Then, they both released the trigger, the huge orb of pure blue, electric energy shot out from the barrel, and slowly made its way to the Hive. The orbs connected and shrunk, until exploding, making an energetic noise, and creating a blue, static shockwave on the ground below their feet, making them lose their balance a bit as the NX-1 recharged.

Once they regained their footing, they looked at the Hive's plant like feature. It was still pulsing at the same rate it was before. Marcus and Jackson lowered their NX-1's and sighed in irritation and disappointment, until they heard the faint sound of helicopter rotors behind them in the distance.

They turned around, and saw the Little Bird helicopter streaking towards them over the horizon, its outline covering the sun behind it as it flew closer. Marcus and Jackson waved their right arms in the air to signal the pilots. Then, they saw a rainbow blur fly out of the Little Bird and towards them.

Marcus smiled as Rainbow Dash landed right in front of them. The Little Bird was now hovering over the apple trees, about fifteen feet from the ground, and twenty feet away.

"The pilots said if you want them to destroy the Hive!" Rainbow shouted of the nearly deafening sound of the rotors. Dust formed around them, making Rainbow's mane fly all over the place, with her entire body being coated in a bit of sand, and she was covering her eyes with a hoof over her forehead.

"Yeah, we do! Tell them to use their miniguns only though! We don't want to destroy the entire place!" Marcus shouted back. Rainbow nodded and flew back to the Little Bird, avoiding trying to get in front of the helicopter, which she found that its front design looked a bit menacing. Marcus didn't need to cover his eyes, since he had his shades on. He saw Rainbow talk over the pilot's shoulder. The pilot then looked at Marcus and gave him a thumbs up, which he returned.

Marcus then turned to Jackson and patted his shoulder, moving his head to inform him to follow him. Jackson nodded as they ran away from the Little Bird's line of fire.

Marcus then gave the pilots another thumbs-up as the Little Bird hovered over the Hive a bit, spun its miniguns, and fired.

"Whooo!!! Yeah!!" Jackson shouted over the deafening sounds of the blaring miniguns and rotors.

"Yeah!! Get sum, baby!" Marcus also shouted as the explosive rounds started tearing into the Hive.

Author's Note:

The site wouldn't let me upload the chapter yesterday. Why? I don't know, but for those of you who are wondering if I'm rushing this story, this story will last for about 200-300,000 words at most. So I've just barley started..

As usual and annoying as it is, I hope you liked this chapter!

(Also, the reason Apple Bloom was in this, is because she was visiting Braeburn at his orchards. And the imagesat the bottom for those of you who don't know, is the NX-1 Disruptor, and what it shoots out.)

Comments

[FIMScourge]

5141408
Hee. That was funny.
But seriously. Nothing happened. She showed up, tried a move, I kicked her through the rift. Simple.

Also, it would take to long for me to properly explain it.
Abridged version? I got a rift in my room. Anything can come through, I can go in..... It's nice when you want to be some hero in your own universe. Or an existing one..... Though it isn't with out a price.....
Believe me, you are better off not visiting other universes.....
Heh.....heh....
He basically said,
He lost his sanity.
No.
I lost my sanity.
Heh.
Oh well.
Was your question answered?
Good.
Look behind you.

[The Gentlebot 6]

Soooo... what about Dempsey and the other pilot?

[JDPrime22]

Okay, so the Cricket is dead. Good. And now the characters got some air support, which is even better! Things are looking up for our cast...for now.
Excellent work with this chapter, Patriot. Keep up the great work!

[TLP]

5145270 Next chapter.

5145364 Thank you very much.

One Cricket down... and so many more to go. (I lost count after three million or so.. or was it three billion? )

And you think air support is good? Wait until you see the entire cast combined...

[TLP]

5144305 I've always wondered...

*Throws a frag grenade into the rift*.

Eh. Why not?

[TLP]

5147400 ... I wonder what caused that?

[FIMScourge]

5145895

Patriot... you just.... wow.... im not exactly sure what would happen to that, if it would be pulled apart because nothing was keeping it together, or if you just blew up your imagination, or just killed someone...... do you feel any different? if not you got nothing to worry about.

5147400
heh....heh.....
dont worry about it.
i can't kill you.
at least.
not in this universe....
you felt the Cryptid Ancestor version of you die.
......
......
hey! just because my other side is loony doesn't mean he can't help out!
and believe me...
when he's mad...
its nothing....
when i'm mad...
I.
scare.
Him.
i.ytimg.com/vi/p1xWYMSc1oM/maxresdefault.jpg

[TLP]

5148341 I feel fin- *Pukes Rainbows*

Ugh... nevermind..

And holy shit.. that image...

Stop it. Both of you. Or I'll call in the Navy SEAL's.

quickmeme.com/img/4f/4f66ffe06a71efb15469f41ac1f14cfa80785f188f4e6f3848a216ca356358ba.jpg

[FIMScourge]

5148453
ummm....o-ok.... *whimper*
aww, dont worry Fluttershy, he wasn't talking to you..... shhh.. its ok...... here, ill show you some cute animals on my Ipod, ok? i need to...have a....talk...with him...
*sniffle* a-are you sure? i don't want to impose....
nah, its fine, you're too sweet to deny!
*whoosh*
GOOD JOB! YOU MADE HER BUCKIN CRY!! You should feel ashamed of yourself!
sigh... i'm sorry, i let my temper get to me.... ah well.
the pic?, that was my other sides first(and last) time at a photo shoot! turned out great, in his... twisted... opinion. Photo Finish knows her stuff!
oh and one more thing....
SEAL's?
I got ARMIES on speed dial.
not to mention my .... heh....heh...
me.
you'd call in the SEALs?
heh.
weaklings....
actually...
please do.
i need someone to.....
experiment on.....

[TLP]

5148604 I didn't mean to make her cry! I'm sorry!

Seals? Weaklings?

...

...

Okay then.. how about an AC-130?

i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/066/472/AC130Gunship.png

[TLP]

5148681 Okay then...

EAT THIS!

33.media.tumblr.com/e91e8e8831b0ea729ea500eb294bd939/tumblr_mmg1abfbQ31rnq3cto2_500.gif

(I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing. I think I'm gonna stop here.)

[H550]

5148637 knock knock?
Who's there?
AMERICAN FIREPOWER
American firepower wh FUCK!
*things explode*