The Alien Warriors: Battle for Equestria

by Texas Style Brony

Haysead

Skies over the Haysead Swamp

Shining Armor and Prince Blueblood were riding in a large and fancy chariot being pulled by two pegasus Royal Guards. Since it was Blueblood’s personal chariot, it was decorated in gold with silver trims along its edges. Despite this luxurious accomodations, Blueblood was not the kind of pony who enjoyed long trips.

“Uhg, Captain, do tell me, are we there yet??” he questioned annoyingly.

“Uh no, your highness, not yet. We should be very close tho-” Shining Armor’s response was cut off by the Prince who stomped his hoof in anger, slightly shaking the chariot.

“This trip is taking much too long!” The prince stuck his head over the railing. “Hurry it up you ill-bred garnish! It has been over six hours! My previous guards would have had it done in three! When we are done here, I ought to have you reported for delaying royal affairs!” Blueblood complained to the pegasi pulling the chariot before crossing his hooves and releasing a sound “HMPF!”.

“Please your highness, I assure you it has only been four hours and we are nearly there.” Shining Armor said trying to calm the impatient prince.

“Ohhhh, how do you know? Let me guess, is it the smoke that tipped you off or is it that you have been to this facility so many times without my knowledge or my permission? Blueblood asked snidely.

Shining Armor was beginning lose his patience. “Alright, I’ll have you know that I have indeed been here many times without your knowledge because you haven’t taken interest of such affairs until recently; second, I don’t even need your permission because the royalty that I report to are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and third,--wait, smoke?!?!”

Shining quickly made his way to the railing and looked out at the horizon to see, undoubtedly, smoke billowing ahead of them from where the facility should be.

“Oh for the sake of my aunt’s name, did you just now notice that?!” Blueblood exclaimed.

Shining Armor looked to the guards pulling the chariot.
“We just noticed ourselves sir, ‘twas hard a bit hard to pay attention with the ‘interference’.” One of the guards quickly explained while gesturing with his eyes and ears to Blueblood. “What do you think is going on” The other pegasus asked.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good! Get us down there quickly!” Shining Armor commanded. The two guard ponies exchanged worried looks before doubling their speed toward the grey plume.

---

Haysead Swamps Royal Research Facility, approx. twenty minutes later

The group made their way to the facility after having parked the chariot to avoid being seen by potential hostiles. Shining Armor lead the way to the front gate with his horn pointed ahead while the two pegasi took from behind armed with spears with Blueblood in the middle nervously glancing in every direction looking for possible threats.

The air smelt toxic, like a mix between burnt hair and ozone. As they got within sight, they noticed the gate had been completely knocked down and crushed to splinters. As they approached further, they noticed the first body lying still on it’s side in front of the remains of the gate. Shining Armor immediately broke formation and sprinted straight to it. “Jim!” He called desperately. Upon reaching it he attempted to lift Jim up in his hooves. The corpse was stiff and moved like a piece of wood. “NOO!” Shining Armor cried. “Captain!” one of the pegasi guards complained looking about nervously, afraid that they might have been heard. “Jim was supposed to be married next spring! He had personally asked me and Cadence to attend as special guests! How am I supposed to be there to support him and his bride if he isn’t even gonna make it to his own wedding!!” Shining cried letting the corpse fall to the ground.

“Captain, please!” the pegasus begged.

Shining sat on his rear and quietly sniffled. The two pegusi guards kept silent watching Shining and ignoring Blueblood who was off in the bushes noisily hurling cupcakes and tea. Shining’s horn began to glow and the tears vanished.

Shining looked to what killed his friend. The corpse, an earth pony formally known as Jim Ginnery, had a small puncture in his head slightly above his left eye, on the other side of his head was a large gaping hole where something had blown through his head and helmet. Shining looked at the lower half of the corpse to see that its hind legs were disfigured and half buried in the ground. There was a groove that was nearly three hooves wide where something had crushed the victim shortly after he was killed. The grove continued towards the facility. Shining Armor slowly rose to his hooves and turned to the pegasi.

“Whoever or whatever did this is no longer here.” Shining calmly stated. This was not his first rodeo.

“W-w-w-what do you mean” the more talkative of the two pegasi stammered still staring wide eyed at Shining.

Shining motioned to the body with his hoof, “this pony is as stiff as your spear and his blood is all but dried up. Whatever happened here occurred more than six hours ago, possibly early this morning.” Shining Armor stated matter-of-factly.

The guard stared blankly at Shining, baffled by his mood swing. “What? I just cast an emotion-control spell; one of the perks of being having Twilight Sparkle as a sister,” Shining complacently stated.

Blueblood came back from the bushes looking a bit green past his white fur.

“I shouldn’t have come here” he complained.

“We have hardly scratched the surface to what happened here. However, based on the wounds on that soldier, I fear the worst has yet to be seen.” Shining replied as he walked over the remains of the front gate toward the facility. The two guardsponies followed with Blueblood shakily following behind. They followed the track of the thing that had crushed Shining's friend further into the base. Past the front gate lay another corpse. This one was similar to Jim except it was full of multiple similar holes. There were more about. Shining counted. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Five corpses all with similar wounds. Shining looked on ahead.

Within the scope of what he saw, the remains of multiple crumbled structures burned releasing the black plume that blotted out the sun. One structure stuck out in particular. The main testing facility. Corpses lay everywhere. Many lay alone having died where they stood save for the few that fell atop one another. The wind blew sending some of the plume their way. Shining's nostrils filled with ravaging toxicity and the two guards and Blueblood all hacked and coughed in response. Shining continued forward leaving the rest in their fit.

He walked to the remains of the first structure that lay on his right. This is where the check in office used to be. It was already nothing but ashes and coals smoldering on the ground. That wasn't what drew his attention though. There was the crisped skeletal remains of a unicorn in the middle of the ashes. Shining observed it for but a moment before continuing on. He turned around and began to walk towards the next building. He made it a few feet before tripping and falling on his muzzle. "Oof!" He quickly righted himself. He looked behind to see if anybody saw him fall. Blueblood stood behind one of his guards and was busy watching him turning over a corpse. The other was elsewhere investigating. Shining looked to see what he tripped on. There was yet another three hoof wide groove about two full body lengths away from the previous one. Shining Armor followed the groove with his eyes all the way back to the front gate. It ran parallel to the one he fell in. "A cart? What pulled it?" Shining thought to himself. He looked to the ground between the groove. There were no hoof prints. "Huh? Whatever came through here and made those groves must have weighed a ton! It should have taken at least two dozen ponies to pull it." Shining thought.

"SIR! I THINK YOU MAY WANT TO SEE THIS!” one of the royal guard ponies called out.

Shining Armor immediately galloped over to the guardspony’s location. The guard pointed at some strange markings in the ground.

"What do you make of it?" the guard asked.

Shining observed the marking. What was there seemed to be hoof prints except each hoof print was elongated with a smaller reversed hoof print behind it.

Shining's heart sank to his hooves. Why didn't he notice right off the bat? The wounds should have been enough! He looked at the ground near one of the corpses. He saw the light glint of neon orange right next to it.

Blueblood approached from behind. "Well? What did you find?" He looked at the marking on the ground. "What is that?"

"It's a f-f-f-footprint" Shining answered shakily.

"A footprint? A footprint of what?!"

"Well, Blueblood, this particular one is the print that is made when..." Shining turned his head to look Blueblood in the eyes. "...when a human steps on the ground."

Blueblood's eye steadily widened in fear and his face, which was already white, somehow turned even whiter.

Shining lifted a hoof and pointed to the pegasus. "You! Fly to Dodge Junction and send word to the station in Baytown that we need reinforcements. Be sure to let them know that it was Captain Shining Armor that sent you.”

The Pegasus stomped his hooves in salute before taking off towards the west.

Shining then galloped past Blueblood to the towards the burning remains of the research facility, passing all the other structures along the way. Blueblood and the remaining guard chased after him. "Where are you going?!" Blueblood called out to him.

"The research! I need to see if any of it is intact!" Shining responded.

He arrived at the front entrance of the still burning structure. The structure was at least three stories tall. A large collection of the rubble form the third story covered the entrance. Effortless he telepathically moved the rubble, revealing a pair of double doors. He tugged on one of the doors. It didn't budge. He used the same strength to that when he moved the rubble. Both doors burst open revealing a hallway that was relatively empty save for a few dead ponies in lab coats. As he opened the doors, he felt a sudden rush of wind almost blow him into the hallway. Not a second later, a wall of fire rushed down the hallway and burst out the door, sending Shining flying back onto his rear with a blackened muzzle.

"Captain!" The guard caught up to Shining and attempted to help him up.

Blueblood had stopped further behind and stared at the burning facility. The flames had increased with astounding intensity since Shining had opened up a new air way. Shining and the royal guard both made their way back to where Blueblood stood.

"CRACK!!"

All three ponies dialed their heads back towards the burning structure just in time to watch all three stories of the facility crumble to the ground with a resounding crash sending a large cloud of dust and debris their way. All three ponies coughed soundly.

Blueblood complained "Well this is just lovely! -cough- As if this day wasn't bad enough, now my clothes -cough- are dirty!"

-----------

Three hours later.

The sun was setting, casting long shadows on the remains of the Hayseed swamp facility. Pegasi teams flew overhead collecting rain clouds and bunching them together over the few buildings that still burned. Multiple tents littered the area with many royal guard ponies scattered around them taking pictures of cutie marks of dead ponies and throwing white cloths over them. Shining sat in a tent giving orders and listening to reports from teams that were scouring the area. Blueblood was busy yelling at guards outside for not having tea available. Shining rubbed his temples with his hooves while the group of guards he just conversed with left the tent. He stared at the mixed evidence that he picked up from the field: blood crusted darts sat in a heaping pile in the middle of the tent. He could identify some of the assortment since the Equestrian Rangers used similar calibers, but a few designs were mysteries to him.

Blueblood came in eating a muffin and trying to properly sip tea from a tin cup he took from a soldier. He finished the cup and shoved it and the unfinished muffin to the guard at the tent entrance. The guard dropped his spear to fumble with the unexpected items.

"Shining Armor, I have come to address the problem we all have been avoiding." Blueblood proclaimed.

"And what problem would that be?" Shining asked clearly annoyed by the question.

"The problem that involves the fact that the Equestrian Rangers have gone rogue!" Blueblood exclaimed.

“That is impossible." Shining Armor retorted. "They’re Equestrian citizens who would never harm any ponies. My sister and her friends have kept an eye on them when they were in Ponyville. It is beside their nature. Heck, we were attending court with them right at the time this should have happened. Besides, look me in the eyes and tell me that the Equestrian Rangers can eliminate an ENTIRE ROYAL BATTALION in a matter of minutes!”

"Well you saw what they did in Las Pegasus and what do you mean minutes?!"

"You saw the corpses! Did you notice that almost that there was little evidence of struggle from any of them?! Most of them died were they stood! Our humans are very efficient, but five men can only do so much!"

Blueblood’s eyes widened “So, are you saying that you think that we somehow have more humans here?!”

“So far, it’s the best theory I’ve been able to formulate.”

Blueblood scoffed “That’s preposterous!”

“Preposterous?! Blueblood, I know you have some sort of spur measuring contest with those boys, but thanks to them, I still have my family and a kingdom left to protect. Many other ponies can also testify to their character. Besides, how do you explain those strange tracks we found running through here?!”

“Well Upper Crust brought up a rumor in court that the humans were building some sort of new weapon. Maybe they tested it here?”

“Again! How did they test them while we were in court with them?!”

“I wouldn’t know… but we did learn from Princess Twilight that they were in training to become engineers in their world. Maybe they crafted some alien device that could carry out the deed while they were in court?!”

“Ok, Blueblood. That’s just plain stupid.” Shining flatly replied to the paranoid prince. “You’re wasting my time. I have a meeting with the scout group that followed the strange pairs of tracks that headed east, they should be here any minute.”

Blueblood loudly scoffed before promptly turning to leave with his chin held high. Shining continued to rub his temples, listening to Blueblood tell off the guard at the entrance of the tent who had apparently eaten his muffin.

“Where is Sergeant Shoals?!” Shining yelled to the guards outside.

---

Somewhere east from the facility.

“Come on guys! The tracks lead here, past the bog!” exclaimed Sergeant Muscle Shoals. He was a young pegasus leading a scouting team of five ponies out to look for evidence of what happened to the base. The team fixated on a pair of tire tracks and had followed them far beyond the perimeter set by Shining Armor.

“Muscle. We’re pretty far out from the group, don’t you think we should turn back?” asked Private Sandy Shoals, a female pegasus guard who was also Muscle’s sister.

“Don’t worry about it sis! We’ll be--”

BANG!

Everypony jumped at the sudden sound of the gunshot. Everyone, except for Muscle, whose body fell limp to the ground.

“MUSCLE!!!” Sandy shouted as she rushed to her brother. As she moved to help her brother, however, another shot rang out. She felt something knock against her armor and pain erupted along her side.

“AAAHH!! MY WING!” As she shouted, more gunfire erupted from the brush in front of them; they had fallen into an ambush.

“RUN!!” One of the other guards yelled. Everypony took off running in different directions through the swamp.

All Sandy thought about was running as she hopped over crevices and ducked under vines, fleeing from where the shots came from.

After minute of mindless fleeing, Private Shoals stopped to catch her breath. The shots had stopped a while back. She looked back to see if any of her teammates or if whatever attacked them had followed her. She was relieved when there was nothing behind her. Her wing hurt like hell. The only thing she could compare it to was somepony driving a hot iron straight through it. She turned around and was scared to near death when a new unexpected obstacle suddenly appeared a foot in front of her.

“WOAH WOAH SANDY! It’s me!” the stallion earth pony guard said keeping her from bolting by holding her with both hooves.

“Oh! Tide Turner! Thank Celestia it’s you!” Sandy Shoals exclaimed.

“Have you seen the others?” Tide Turner asked.

“No! What in Tartarus happened back there?!” Shoals exclaimed as she thought that they were safe. Tide Turner was about to respond when he suddenly appeared as if he saw a ghost.

“Tide Turner????” Sandy tried to call his attention before the stallion charged and hurled his spear past her as she ducked. A sharp crack filled the air as the spear flew toward the foliage and a large bloody hole appeared in the foreleg that threw the spear. Sandy gasped in fear as the pony fell to the ground.

“RUUUUUNNNN!!!! GOOOO!!!!! GET TO DA-” Tide Turner tried to warn Sandy off before another shot ended him. As his body fell limp in front of Sandy, she took off running again, only to find herself stuck in muck a few feet away. She began struggling, which caused her to sink deeper.

“SOMEPONY!!! HELP ME!!!!” She thrashed and screamed at the top of her lungs. When she turned back, she was horrified to see a tall, bipedal creature dressed in black come out of the brush. She didn’t manage to get a good look at it before it scooped her out of the muck. At this point, she was now in absolute panic mode. She screamed and thrashed around as two more of the tall creatures approached.

“JEEZ! SOMEONE SHUT IT UP!” She heard one of the creatures yell before her head suddenly filled with pain, stars, and nothingness.

---

Ruins of Hayseed Swamps Royal Research Facility

Shining Armor kept pacing around. After having heard the gunshots that rang out, he feared the worst had happened to Sergeant Shoals and his squad. He had sent out a small search party with strict orders to stick together the whole time. Prince Blueblood stood nearby, hoping that the next chariot would hurry up and get him out of there. Soon, the search party returned dragging along two objects.

“Sir, we’ve found two bodies.” One of the guards told him. Shining Armor went over and looked over the corpses. He noticed that they indeed had the same wounds in them as the dead guards all around, thus confirming his theory.

“Have you found the other three?” Shining asked his troops.

“No sir, we only found these two.”

As nightfall approached, more pony reinforcements landed into the base. Blueblood had found his personal guards and was headed back to Canterlot. Shining’s troops further occupied and reinforced the base, hoping that they may prevent the unseen hostile force from attacking again or worse yet moving on to attack Dodge City or Baltimare.

---

Darkness

Darkness was all that Sandy Shoals saw as she woke from her forced slumber. As she steadily regained consciousness, she heard voices talking off in the distance. Eventually, she opened her eyes to see some sort of campfire fill her field of view. In her blurred vision, she noticed that several creatures also sat around the campfire. However, as her focus sharpened, she suddenly realized that she had seen these kinds of creatures before. These were humans. Around the humans were a bunch of tents and strange metal boxes on wheels. She found that she was in a sitting position, and tried to move. She immediately realized that her upper body was tied to a wooden pole. She looked down and saw that her armor had been removed and that she still had traces of mud in her fur coat.

“Wait, it’s awake,” a voice spoke. All of the faces around the fire turned to look at her. Sandy stifled a scream for fear that she might suffer the same fate as her brother and Tide Turner if she tried. All she could do was shiver in fear as one of the humans walked up to see her.

“Wow. This is incredible. I never thought for a moment that I would see such a colorful horse in my lifetime.” The human said to himself. He crouched down and examined her face.

“Little birdie told me you can speak; is that true?” The human said, this time clearly addressing Sandy.

“I… I can.” She responded.

“Good. Good. I’m terribly sorry about the incident earlier. A lot of my men really don’t like your kind.” Chilling images came to Sandy’s mind. Chilling images of her brother and of Tide Turner. She soon spoke up.

“B-b-but Man was supposed to be our friend.” Some of the other humans around the fire began laughing.

The human signaled for the others to be quiet. “Unfortunately, you can’t define a whole species by the actions of just five of their kind,” He continued.

They knew about the Equestrian Rangers. Could they be here for them? This question was soon answered as the human noticed her shocked expression.

“Oh, so you do know about our runaways!” The human said excitedly. “Say, can you tell me how I can find them?” Sandy remained quiet. These humans had just consciously attacked and killed ponies. As Equestrian Citizens, the Rangers may or may not be excluded from these humans aggression.

The human looked Sandy in the eye for a moment that felt like forever. Eventually the human stood up. “Ok then. We’ll discuss it in the morning. Leash!” he waved to one of the figures loitering at the fire.

Immediately, another human came up and strapped a collar and leash around her neck. The rope that kept her tied to the pole was then cut off. Sandy looked at humans. Some of them were holding weapons that looked very similar to the ones the Rangers wielded. She decided it best not to resist and allowed the human with the leash to led her to a tent. As she was dragged in, she noticed that two of her comrades were tied up vertically to the pole in a similar manner that she was tied up earlier. Soon, another human came in with rope and had her sit back while he tied her forelegs and back to the pole again.

“Sweet dreams little horse” one human said sarcastically while the other sadistically laughed. After they departed the tent, Sandy began gently weeping as she began thinking of the horrors that awaited her the next day...

Author's Note:

Merry Christmas y'all! Sorry this chapter is so long overdue, but on the upside, Chapter 5 should come along much quicker!

Looks like somepony strayed too far from her camp. What will happen next??

Comments

[SummerTime]

"Sandy look at humans"

Dear Lord, your editor but be ready to kill himself after reading this and realizing something so simple got through.
Anyway, am glad you could get the chapter out. I too hope Chapter 5 will come alot quicker.
Read, write, and rewrite well my friend.

[The Atlantean]

I get the feeling that Blueblood is gonna tell Celestia that the Rangers did it. Which she is unlikely to believe, but will deal with it anyway because her nephew is a pain in the [REDACTED] and she'd probably want him to shut up. And then the Rangers are gonna be like "Seriously, it wasn't us!" and Shining is gonna vouch for them. Then the bad humans invade Canterlot, take hostages (hopefully Blueblood since he'll have deserved it by then) and the Rangers will either have to counterattack, betraying their own kind, or leave Equestria, which would turn their backs on the ponies they hold dear.

It's gonna be one ride I don't want to miss.

[SummerTime]

8620170
You, I like you.

[Texas Style Brony]

8620170
Lol “My Little Die Hard”!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/9/23/1542792__safe_storm+king_tempest+shadow_twilight+sparkle_my+little+pony-colon-+the+movie_spoiler-colon-my+little+pony+movie_alicorn_animated_cage_cante.gif
Ooh! That’s a good chapter title!