A team of human college students who are bronies and hardcore Nerf warriors find themselves traversing a portal into Equestria, leading them to find some of their favorite characters
When a large nerf war between schools is about to be hosted in a wooded park between them, one of the schools best nerf teams, the Lunar Nightwatch, goes on a recon mission to spy on the enemy. However, on the way to the enemy camp, a mysterious portal opens up and the team goes through. Upon arrival, this band of bronies discovers three things: They're in their favorite TV show, their nerf guns work like real weapons on the creatures of this world, and that they are now the deadliest creatures in that world. What are they gonna do? Read and find out! A sorta nerf/mlp crossover
It was a warm and humid day in the middle of Nowhere, Texas. or at least that's what Houstonian Daniel Ramirez liked to call the tiny town of Gilbert, TX. A large nerf event was about to start between two of the biggest schools in the state: Texas A&M and the University of Texas. The leaders of the nerf clubs for each school contacted each other and thought it would be a good idea to hold the battle after finals week in a large state park near Gilbert so that there would be good terrain and plenty of room for all the players. Ramirez, who was on A&M's team, was often nicknamed "Sergeant Steelhooves" by his closest friends and team, the Lunar Nightwatch. This team name was no coincidence, as they were all bronies who wore the patch of the New Lunar Republic's special forces on the combat uniforms they got from a nearby surplus store.
After the massive A&M camp was set up, the lunch break started. Daniel was sitting at a park bench and was about to start digging into his bowl of freshly cooked ramen noodles when the leader of the nerf club, Thomas Lee, walked over. "Mind if I sit here?", Lee asked. "It's a free country", Ramirez replied, making some room for Lee. Lee sat down with his bowl of ramen right next to Daniel. "I really wanted to ask you if you could do something tonight before tomorrow's game", Lee stated.
"What's that?"
"Despite having a reputation for being the biggest bronies on campus, you and your team have also made a bigger reputation as the best nerfers around."
"Yeah."
"That's why I want you to take your team and survey the enemy's positions and numbers tonight".
Ramirez swallowed some ramen after hearing Lee tell him this.
"Lee, although that seems like a good idea for a real war, wouldn't spying be considered cheating in a game like this?"
"It's no big deal, I'm pretty sure that UT will send their own spies soon anyways."
"Still, sending five guys to spy on at least fifty enemies sounds pretty risky."
"That's why I'm asking for you and your guys. Y'all are probably the only ones who won't end up getting captured before the game starts."
Ramirez still looked hesitant.
"Look, you guys have the best modded weapons, have excellent flow as a team, and have done some pretty insane things, like survive all the way to the end of the Humans vs. Zombies game last month. If anyone can do it, it's you."
Ramirez was now starting to consider this plan.
8:00 p.m.
Once it got dark, Ramirez took up his modified Stryfe rifle and red see-through Strongarm revolver, and gathered his men. There was Jeff Smith, a native of College Station who used another modified Stryfe in smg configuration and a Spectre revolver. Also on the team was Corey McLaughn. His nickname was "Yankee" since he hailed from Indiana and came to A&M thanks to scholarships. He used a modified Retaliator with a 3D-printed pump action grip and a standard Strongarm. Joining this ensemble was William Parker. Parker used to go to A&M, but dropped due to poor grades. However, he was also the one who got the rest of the team into watching My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic. He only lived a short distance away from College Station in Brenham, so he liked to join his team whenever they got in a battle. Being a big guy, he used a high-powered Rapidstrike with a 9.6V battery along with a mega Cyclone Shock. Finally, there was the newbie, Andrew Summers, who was a brony-nerfer like the rest that just got recruited onto the team during the semester. He used a Rival Atlas shotgun and a mega Cyclone Shock. Each team member wore BDU jackets and pants with cargo-pockets along with either hiking boots or tactical boots. McLaughn and Parker wore dark colored baseball caps while Ramirez and Smith wore combat helmets they got from the surplus store. Ramirez's was decked out like the one from the cover of Full Metal Jacket with Nerf darts instead of bullets and a Rarity pin he got from a pony convention. Smith's only had netting on it and it looked like it was from World War II. Each member also carried a backpack with phone chargers, some snacks, first aid kits, maps, water, and extra darts.
Ramirez had the group sit around the campfire they made and told them the mission.
"Alright guys, earlier today Lee told me that he wants us to go and observe the enemy and find out just what they're packing. Their camp should be about a ten minute walk from ours through the woods over there" Ramirez pointed toward the forest.
"Sounds like fun, but what about wild animals?" McLaughn asked.
"Don't worry about that Yankee, we'll be taking a trail that runs between the camps and then spread out as we approach theirs" Ramirez replied.
"Well then what are we waiting for, let's do this!" Parker exclaimed, and soon the group headed off towards the forest.
8:15 p.m.
The group stealthily walked along the trail, but it didn't seem to lead to the camp.
"Are we there yet?" Smith said in his most annoying-child impression.
"Zip it Jeff" McLaughn replied.
"Man, I feel like we're the CMC about to run into that cockatrice in that one episode", Summers stated.
"The difference between us and the CMC is that we have blasters while they didn't though", Parker joked. The whole team snickered about it.
Suddenly, a loud bang erupted from close by, and a bright light suddenly flashed. Everyone hit the deck, thinking it may be a trap.
"Oh crap we're in for it now!" Summers yelled. However, darts weren't flying over.
"Maybe it's a thunderstorm?" Ramirez inquired.
"Well if it's a thunderstorm, how come that light is still glowing?" Parker pointed out. The light was still glowing. Parker poked his head out from beneath the high grass he was concealed in and looked on in awe. "Guys, I think y'all would wanna see this!" The rest of the team stood and their jaws immediately dropped. In front of them was a strange oval that glowed a little bit white and seemed almost liquid in form. "It looks like a portal from a sci-fi movie", McLaughn stated. "Yeah it does", Ramirez replied.
"What should we do with it?" Summers asked.
"It could be dangerous, keep your distance", Ramirez ordered.
"Screw that! If it's a portal, there could be a parallel universe on the other side! Geronimo!!!!" Smith exclaimed while running through the portal and dissappearing.
"WHAT THE HECK JEFF?! DAMN IT!" Ramirez exclaimed angrily. Smith was definitely the risk-taker of the group. As a matter of fact, Ramirez and McLaughn both often compared him to "Howling Mad" Murdock from the A-Team show. Soon however, Smith poked his head out of the portal. "Hey guys! There's a forest just like this one on the other side! Come on!"
The others looked on in confusion. "Fine, if it's safe, I guess we can take a look", Ramirez assumed. The rest of the team went into the portal. However, as soon as they got through, the portal sealed up behind them......
"WHAT THE HECK JEFF?! WE'RE PROBABLY GONNA DIE OUT HERE NOW!" Parker yelled at Smith.
"COME ON! I DIDN'T KNOW IT WOULD CLOSE ON US!" Smith rudely replied.
"EVERYBODY CALM DOWN! NOBODY IS GONNA DIE!" Ramirez yelled over the others. Everybody fell silent.
"Now, nobody panic, we can figure this out. We're still in a forest at night, it's probably the same one in some parallel universe", Ramirez reasoned.
"If we are still in the park in another dimension, then why is the trail wider?" McLaughn pointed out. There was more space between the trees and the trail now had more grass on it.
"Hmm.... I guess this universe isn't so parallel after all", Smith stated. Suddenly, there was a low growl and the sound of bushes moving.
"Oh crap, it looks like the UT guys found us", Summers stated unsurely, not wanting to get eaten by some bear or something. When the creature came out, however, he wished that it was a bear.
The creature was a lion with devil horns, dragon wings, and a scorpion tail. All the guys had seen the second episode, so they knew what this was.
"MANTICORE!!!!!" They all yelled in unison. They immediately turned and ran as the beast chased them. The chase went on a good five minutes when Ramirez got an idea. He jumped into the bushes out of the manticore's sight and aimed his Stryfe right at the beast, which was passing him to chase the others. Ramirez then revved the motors up and pulled the trigger three times.
What happened next was astounding.
Instead of popping darts like it normally would, the nerf gun shot the darts out at high velocity with a loud bang like a real firearm. The darts went straight at the manticore, which was far outside the range of a normal nerf blaster, and went straight through it's head and neck. The beast collapsed dead in front of the team, who looked on in awe.
"Dude, how did you do that?!" Smith inquired.
"After we started running from the creature I realized it was the same one from the first season of MLP, therefore I figured we were in Equestria. Suddenly I thought 'hey, if the Hasbro-created land of Equestria is real, does that mean that these Hasbro-created guns will work here?', and apparently they do!" Ramirez replied. The others nodded positively when they got the gist of his theory.
"So we have real guns now, and we're in Equestria??????" Summers asked.
"Yeah I guess", Ramirez replied.
"This.......is........AWESOME!" Parker exclaimed excitedly, the rest of the guys also got excited.
"I'm guessing that we're in the Everfree forest, and therefore if we find out where north is, we can find Ponyville!!!" McLaughn deduced. Everyone immediately got excited about getting to meet their favorite ponies in this strange new world.
Twilight's Castle
Twilight was fast asleep with Spike laying in his little bed nearby when all of a sudden, random popping noises came from outside.
"Huh? what?!" Spike jumped from his bed, startled. Twilight also heard the noises and got up.
"Spike, what was that?", She asked.
"Fireworks?", Spike answered questionably.
"It can't be, there are no holidays this month, and Trixie is out of town with Starlight", Twilight replied.
"Whatever it was, I'm pretty sure it can wait till morning, it doesn't sound dangerous", Spike replied, before curling up back to sleep.
"I don't know about that, but it does sound far off", Twilight guessed as she also went back to bed.
Canterlot Castle
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were both pacing around the throne room. They both had some startling feeling in their bodies when the portal had opened and closed. Luna was the first to guess that it was because of a great disturbance in Equestria.
"Sister, whatever just happened to both of us, I think it is because of a very powerful outburst of magic in our land, something which has never happened before", Luna told her sister.
"I think you're right Luna, but the only creature with the kind of power to do that would be Discord, yet if it were him, you would have seen it in his thoughts" Celestia replied. Luna confirmed that Discord had no plans or thoughts on this upon seeing his dreams.
Suddenly, Discord popped into the throne room wearing pajamas decorated with Celestias and Fluttershys.
"Ok before you two go jumping to any conclusions, I have no idea what that was." Discord announced, having also felt the sudden magical outburst. The princesses looked at him annoyingly and he soon snapped his fingers and the pajamas dissappeared.
"My apologies Cay Cay and the other one", Discord bluntly apologized. Luna rolled her eyes.
"Discord, can you at least tell us what the outburst was?" Luna inquired.
"I tried to find out, but it's some form of magic that isn't chaos magic, it's something far more powerful", Discord replied.
"It's time for me to raise the sun. When I'm done, I want you two to come with me to Ponyville, I bet Twilight will be able to help us figure it out", Celestia stated as she walked toward the window to begin. The other two nodded in agreement and prepared a chariot to take them.
The Lunar Nightwatch team: Ramirez, Smith, McLaughn, Parker, and Summers. Five college students who were dedicated to watching MLP and being the best nerf soldiers around, were now trekking through the sunny Everfree Forest, looking for Ponyville. Along the way, the men shot a cockatrice when it tried to turn Summers into stone, and Ramirez got bored so he decided to pull out his phone and play some music:
"Dude, that song is so old, like, 1960's old", Parker told him.
"Come on man, this forest and our gear has a very Vietnam-War vibe goin here." Ramirez replied.
"I kinda like it, it's better than those modern pop stars!" McLaughn interjected.
"Well I guess that's true Yankee". Parker replied.
Suddenly, they came across a tree with a bunch of strange objects hanging from it. It also looked like it was inhabited.
"Looks like we found Zecora's house!" Smith noticed. They decided to knock on the door. No answer.
"Seems like nopony's home. I guess it's for the best. She may freak out if she saw giant bipedal monkeys with alien weaponry" McLaughn stated. The rest agreed and kept moving.
Princess Twilight's Castle
"What is happening darling? Is it a new Friendship mission?" Rarity asked. Twilight had gathered the Mane Six in the map room after she got a letter from Princess Celestia that the Elements of Harmony may be needed.
"I'm not sure, but Princess Celestia sent me a letter this morning saying that Equestria may need the Elements again. I wonder if it has anything to do with those popping sounds last night", Twilight replied.
"If it's another bad guy or monster, we'll just pound him into dust!" Rainbow Dash interjected. Rainbow was never afraid to get into a fight. She was a very brave pony.
"Oh, I hope it's not really dangerous, maybe it's just a false alarm." Fluttershy really did not want to deal with any monsters or bad guys. They scared her.
"I'm sure everything will be fine sugarcube, we've dealt with worse before!" Applejack calmed Fluttershy so that she wouldn't get scared.
"Maybe it could be a new friend! A new friend means a new friend party!!!!" Pinkie Pie was excited at the possibility that it may just be something non threatening and fun. At that moment, the Royal Sisters and Discord arrived.
"Princess!" Twilight exclaimed. She always saw Celestia as another mother, even after she became an alicorn. She hugged Celestia, who gladly returned it.
"Well if you two are done with all your fru fru stuff, I am still curious as to what interrupted my beauty sleep last night!" Discord rudely interjected. Everypony looked at him annoyed.
"I am afraid Discord is right. The reason we came here is because last night, we sensed a strong magical pulse ripple throughout Equestria, and if it's something so powerful that Discord cannot identify it, we must find out what it is", Luna explained.
"Magical outbursts? Too powerful for the Lord of Chaos?" Twilight replied in an almost sarcastic tone. She had a smug grin on her face as she looked at Discord, who was slightly flustered at not knowing what the magical source was. Twilight had been trolled by Discord plenty, and she just returned the favor.
"Twilight, I am afraid this is no joke, we have no idea what it is or where it came from, but maybe your map does." Celestia explained. However, the map had nothing peculiar to show. The ponies and draconequus were still stumped.
"Wait, last night Spike and I were awakened by some popping noises coming from the Everfree Forest, we thought it was fireworks but there are no holidays and no Trixie, and who would pop them in the Everfree anyway?" Twilight realized. The ponies and draconequus seemed to think that this was something worth looking into.
"Well then, it seems like we will get to go exploring the dark and scary forest for strange magic!" Discord excitedly replied, now wearing a pith helmet and clothes like Daring Do. Rainbow Dash had a hard time not fangirling over it.
"Then it's settled, we will search the forest at once!" Celestia stated, and soon the group left the castle and headed for the Everfree Forest.
"I'll guard the castle incase anypony stops by!" Spike yelled from a window, having slept in.
Everfree Forest
The Lunar Nightwatch was still trekking through the Everfree Forest. They had just drank through their entire water supply, and discovered after shooting a second cockatrice that even though their darts were now lethal, they could still be reused like normal nerf darts. Also, Ramirez was still jamming to his Vietnam war-era music:
"Man, you and my grandpa would get along really well Steelhooves", Summers stated, commenting on Ramirez's taste in music.
"Thanks, I always respect the classics", Ramirez replied.
"Man I am thirsty, could go for a Dr. Pepper right about now", Smith stated. The rest of the team agreed. Suddenly Ramirez held up his fist, indicating that the team stop. There were hoofprints in the ground, meaning that ponies were close by.
"What is that music?" Rainbow Dash questioned, as Twilight shushed her and told her to whisper.
"I think that we may have found our disturbance", Twilight pointed out, as they peeked through some bushes and saw the strange bipedal creatures suddenly stop and investigate the ground. The ponies had split into groups of three with Discord, Celestia, and Luna in one group, AppleJack, Rarity, and Fluttershy in another, and Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie in the third.
"Hey, where's Pinkie?" Dash whispered to Twilight. Pinkie seemed to have disappeared.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang somewhere in the forest, and the bipedal creatures suddenly dropped to the ground and began pointing their strange sticks in various directions. "There!", one yelled, and the others pointed their sticks right at the bush where Twilight and Rainbow were hiding behind.
"Hold your fire!" Ramirez yelled as the rest of the men aimed at the shaking bushes. Ramirez wanted to see what they were about to shoot at, and he also wanted to make sure that they did not shoot a pony.
"Who's out there? Identify!" Soon a small purple alicorn and a blue pegasus about the same size of the alicorn came trotting out of the bushes. The men lowered their weapons when Parker piped up.
"Oh. My. Gosh! They're sooooo cute!!!!" The others facepalmed. Earlier they agreed that they shouldn't let the characters know that they knew of them and Equestria, and it seemed like Parker was about to ruin it.
Twilight blushed at this comment. "Oh um, hi!", she replied waving her hoof side-to-side like a princess. Now it was getting too cute for the other guys to hold their tongues. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, did not like Parker's comment. "HEY! Who do you think you're callin cute?!", she aggressively retorted. Twilight immediately had her stand down.
"Hello! I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, who are you?"
Ramirez replied. "I'm Sergeant Daniel "Steelhooves" Ramirez, and these are my men, Jeff Smith, Corey "Yankee" McLaughn, William Parker, and Newbie Andrew Summers. We are the Lunar Nightwatch, a nerf special operations team dedicated to being the best soldiers in our world."
"It's nice to meet you humans, I have seen your kind before when I came into your world a couple of times", Twilight replied.
"Wait, Twilight, these are the creatures that are on the other side of that mirror?!" Rainbow shockingly questioned. At that moment Pinkie Pie appeared from some bushes nearby.
"Hiya guys! I'm sorry that I shot off my party cannon on accident earlier, I didn't know I had it loaded and....OOOOHHHH!!!! What are those things?!" Pinkie pie was now looking at the five bipedal creatures.
"Oopsie daisy, sorry, I tend to get really excited when I see new things", Pinkie replied. The five human soldiers were a little bit shocked by how fast Pinkie Pie could speak, but they regained their composure.
"And yes Rainbow, these are creatures from the other side of the mirror, but they all look so plain compared to the ones I saw", Twilight replied to Dash's earlier question. She noticed that they were not as colorful as the humans at Canterlot High. Suddenly she used her horn to shoot a light beam into the sky like a flare. The humans recoiled from this.
"Don't be afraid, I just sent a signal so that our friends can come." Within a few minutes, the other two search teams came to the spot where Twilight's team was standing with the humans.
Celestia, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Discord seemed to have an unusual fascination with the humans.
"My my, I have never seen anything like you before", Celestia noted.
"Aww! New animals! Can I keep one?!", Fluttershy mentioned louder than she normally would. McLaughn reached down to pet her, she was always his favorite pony.
"They wear clothing! Would it be ok if I made some for you?!", Rarity excitedly inquired. Ramirez always liked Rarity, despite her girliness, and was tempted to accept her offer.
"Interesting, they also seem to carry alien equipment." Discord observed.
The others were looking at the creatures, wondering why they wore so much and why they were carrying so much equipment. Luna spoke up.
"Well, if you do not mind me asking, what exactly are 'special operations teams', and what makes them so much better than regular soldiers?"
Parker decided to answer this. "Special Operations teams, better known as spec ops, are small teams of soldiers who are trained to fight numerically superior enemies, usually by means of guerilla warfare and by use of the element of surprise." Luna noted this.
"Well if you're soldiers, then are these your weapons?" Applejack inquired, looking at the nerf guns each man carried.
"Yeah, but the thing was that we were spec ops in a simulated war, and these weapons were only toys. However, when we came to this world by accident, they started working like real weapons, and we were able to kill a manticore and two cockatrices with them." Smith replied.
"Maybe the residual magic that exists in Equestria 'brought' your play weapons to life", Twilight deduced. The soldiers pretended to agree with her, since they still presumed that Ramirez's theory was the real reason it happened.
"I'm curious, those weapons do not look like anything fielded by any forces on this world, how do they work?" Discord inquired, although he already had a pretty good idea how they worked.
"Oh all you need to do is load it, point it, and pull it!" Smith pulled out his Spectre and fired it into the ground. The ponies all jumped in shock at the sound of the gunshot, and Fluttershy immediately ran and hid behind McLaughn. Discord tried to pick up the dart which was dug into the ground, but immediately let go since it was hot. He then put on an oven mitt out of nowhere and handed it back to Smith.
"One more question, if you're all soldiers, then why are you here? Who are you fighting?" Twilight asked.
"We were originally going to fight enemy soldiers in our world who were armed with similar equipment like this, but in our world it was only a game since these were just toys. We came here when we discovered a portal along a trail we were taking to go spy on the enemy." Ramirez replied.
"Oh ok, Well if you guys need somewhere to stay, you can come with us, my castle has plenty of room." Twilight replied.
"Oh no! We couldn't possibly make ourselves a burden on you Princess!", Summers stated in concern.
"It wouldn't be a problem. Besides, I'm the only princess without guards, maybe you guys could fill in that role!" Twilight smiled. She wasn't by any means attracted to any of them, but the idea of having human guards with advanced alien weapons would be a first. Celestia and Luna gave her a jealous glare, but held their tongue.
"Okay then, lead on!" Ramirez replied. The humans, ponies, and draconequus were soon on their way back to Ponyville.
From some shrubbery nearby.
A large group of changelings was observing them. They had black exoskeletons and compound eyes. These were loyalists for Queen Chrysalis after Thorax took over. There was about fifty of them in the brush surrounding the group. Soon, the changeling in command gave a loud hiss, and they emerged from the bushes and charged the fourteen-member group.
After about five minutes of walking, the bushes began to move. "STOP!", Ramirez yelled, "Something's not right! Lock n load boys!", The soldiers soon formed a defensive circle around their new friends. Suddenly at least fifty changelings jumped from behind the bushes and attacked.
"Changelings?! I thought that Starlight and Thorax had reformed them all!" Twilight exclaimed as she and the princesses tried teleport the ponies, humans and draconequus to safety. Unfortunately they couldn't.
"What's happening?!" Twilight yelled.
"They must have one of those special stones nearby, it nullifies anything that is not changeling magic!" Discord replied, having remembered the experience back at the changeling hive.
"Well whatever, it's about time we see how good these guys really are!" Dash yelled over all the noise.
"Right, let's do this!" Ramirez yelled as he charged firing his Stryfe at the attacking changelings. It looked something like this:
Eight changelings dropped dead as the darts ripped right through them. Soon, the rest of the Lunar Nightwatch were also yelling out war cries and firing at the incoming changelings. The ponies and draconequus remained tightly at the center of the defensive circle the humans formed.
"Eat foam!", Smith yelled out as he quickly emptied his Stryfe smg and reloaded, killing ten more changelings in the process.
"Yeah! Come get some you freaking bugs!" McLaughn yelled as he was able to fire precise shots with his Retaliator at the changelings, scoring kills with all twelve darts before having to reload.
Parker had revved up his Rapidstrike and was now spewing darts all over the changelings. Although the Rapidstrike was no minigun, Parker layed down some powerful suppressive fire with it while yelling out something like this:
Summers had fired two shots from his Rival Atlas shotgun, blowing the head off one changeling and the torso out of another. At this point, there were only two changelings left, and they immediately turned and ran.
"Heck yeah!" Smith yelled as the rest of the team cheered along with him and were high fiving and patting each other on the back. However, the Mane Six looked on in a mix of awe, disgust, and fear.
"Wow. That was totally awesome!" Dash yelled as she saw how quickly it all happened.
"Oh my goodness! How can you humans live like this?! I don't believe that even the Royal Guard has seen this level of violence!", Rarity exclaimed upon seeing all the changeling bodies.
"Eeep!!" Fluttershy was cozied up to Discord the whole time, afraid of the loud noises of battle and all the dead bodies strewn around them.
"Well, now they know better than to mess with y'all", Applejack stated proudly.
"Um, that was.....kinda scary.", Pinkie stated bluntly after nearly losing her hearing to all the gunfire.
"Thank you for protecting us, but did it have to be so violent?!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Twilight, ponies may be a peaceful race, but humans are designed to be a warrior species", Ramirez replied. The Royal sisters and Discord were looking at the humans impressed, however. There were still many threats against Equestria, and these creatures did not need magic to fight them.
"Well, you certainly have proven yourselves to be fierce warriors. Thank you for protecting us and our ponies", Celestia stated.
"I believe that we should not be far from Ponyville now, let us keep moving, I do not want to stay here.", Rarity stated, seeing Twilight's castle not far off.
Everybody agreed, and soon after the Lunar Nightwatch had gathered and cleaned their ammo, they were back in Ponyville. Discord soon teleported away, and the Royal sisters boarded their chariot and left, but said that they would like to see the humans in Canterlot the next day. Twilight soon showed the humans to the guest wing of her castle. The rest of Mane Six decided that they would sleep over at Twilight's castle that night, to get to know the humans a little better. Twilight told Spike that the humans were their guests and that they may become her royal guard. Soon after, Spike began to make dinner for everypony and human.
After a couple of hours of cooking, Spike went to the map room ringing a dinner bell and yelled "Come and get it!"
The guys had to share rooms, with Ramirez and Smith in one room while the rest got a second room. Soon after they had shed all their combat equipment and unloaded their weapons, they hung out in one of the rooms. The guys were pretty hungry and thirsty after their ordeal in the Everfree forest, so they were pretty excited when Spike rang the dinner bell. They made their way to a dining room with a large circular table similar to the map room, where the Mane Six were waiting for them. "Good evening boys! Hope you're in the mood for something special, courtesy of Spike!" Twilight stated. Ramirez sat between Rarity and Twilight, McLaughn between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and Smith between Applejack and Rarity while the other two sat between Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
"Mmm, I hope they have some good salads here", Parker stated, knowing that ponies don't eat meat. Spike came out wearing a chef's hat and was pushing a cart full of pancakes.
"Oh sorry guys, I just thought that our castle was short on foods tonight, so I had Spike make what we had, which was apparently breakfast instead of dinner", Twilight explained.
"No problem, we love pancakes where we come from", Summers replied with a smile on his face. Spike was handing out the plates when he came to Smith's side and was putting his plate in front of him. "Wow, you guys are big", he stated, much to Twilights amusement.
"Well we try our best, eat healthy, run and hit the gym whenever we can, that kind of stuff", McLaughn replied. The guys had now taken off their jackets, and were wearing t-shirts. Their arms were shown to be pretty thick from keeping themselves fit for fights. After serving the others and himself, everyone and everypony started eating. After about two minutes, Rarity decided to break the silence.
"If you gentlemen do not mind me asking, what made you want to become fighters?", she inquired.
"Well like we said before, these weapons were originally just toys, and we were going to play war games with them in our world. We just all had a common interest in being the best war gamers out there I guess", Ramirez replied.
"Ooh! so you make war into a game where you come from? That sound like super duper fun!" Pinkie interjected.
"Well yeah, it is kinda fun, it also helps us to relieve boredom and stress", Parker told them.
"Stress from what exactly?" Fluttershy shyly asked.
"Well, just life. College mostly." Smith stated. From there, the group began talking about a bunch of other subjects, such as engineering classes, Donald Trump's presidency, King Thorax's takeover, Twilight's trips to Canterlot High, and a certain mint green unicorn who would love to meet them.
"Yeah we don't know why, but Lyra has always had a strange fascination with humans ever since I told her about them at the market one day", Twilight stated.
"That sounds fun, maybe we could visit her someday", Ramirez replied. He thought it would be cute to see how Lyra would react to meeting her favorite creatures. "However, I don't know what we would actually do in this world."
"My offer for you to become my personal guard is still open!" Twilight told them, with her pretty please face on.
'Good Lord, that is too adorable!', Ramirez thought. Smith saw that his commanding officer had nearly become paralyzed from cuteness overdose and decided to reply on his behalf.
"Maybe we should see what the princesses want with us tomorrow, and then decide based on that", he replied.
"Aww, I hope you will get to stay, You have been such gentlecol-- err, I mean gentlemen by saving us in the forest earlier. I apologize for my repulsive reaction to the actions you took to protect us", Rarity told them, she had hoped that these creatures could stay since they looked like they would be strong defenders against more attacks or kidnappings, such as the one that happened when Starlight went to the Sunset celebration. Fluttershy looked at McLaughn, who had pet her earlier. She considered nuzzling up to him since he was so sweet yet strong in the forest.
"Umm, yeah, what Rarity said", she stated shyly. McLaughn turned and smiled at her. By this moment, they were all finished, and everyone began going to their rooms. However, Twilight wanted to talk with Ramirez one-on-one.
"What is it your highness?" He asked.
"I noticed some strange things on you and your men when we found you in the forest today", she stated.
"What? Do you not trust us?"
"No, it's not that, it's just that some of the stuff you guys were wearing looked similar to the stuff worn by Luna's Night Guards." Ramirez gulped at this statement. He had hoped that the ponies wouldn't notice their New Lunar Republic patches on their uniforms so that they wouldn't have to tell about how they knew so much.
"Also, I think I saw a picture of Rarity on your helmet!", Twilight said giggling with her wings flapping.
"Fine, you caught us. We did know who and what you girls were before we came".
"How?"
"Well, we think that this is a case where we jumped into a world of fiction. In our world, you and your friends are part of a great story which millions of people love. We think that the best explanation is that what's fiction in our dimension is real to another dimension, and we somehow found a crossing point between those dimensions when we went through the portal." Twilight had started taking down notes.
"We also think that that is why our weapons came to life. You see, in our world, the same people who created your story, a group called Hasbro, also creates these play weapons which we used. They deal more with toys than stories, but they create stories to go with the toys, which you are in our world." Twilight looked confused at this. "Here's an example", Ramirez had brought his backpack with him, and he pulled out a Rarity plushie he got from a pony convention. Twilight suppressed a giggle when she saw a large male warrior carrying around something so cute and cuddly.
"I wonder why this doesn't come to life then", she pondered out loud.
"Probably because the real Rarity is already here, but the weapons came to life because they have never existed here before."
"That explains why they were immune to the changeling's magic nullifying stone!"
"Sounds about right."
"Well, I guess I can see what you're saying now. Thank you for answering my questions", she finished off with a hug, leaving Ramirez surprised.
"Your welcome, I'll see ya tomorrow", he replied, hugging her back. 'These ponies are so nice and cute', he thought. They soon headed off to their rooms and went to bed.
Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.
Queen Chrysalis' super secret hideout
"WHAT?! WHERE IS THE REST OF YOUR PATROL?!", the ex-changeling queen snarled at the two returning loyalist changelings.
"They're all dead, your majesty! There were these weird bipedal aliens protecting the ponies!", one of the changelings responded.
"How many were there?" She inquired.
"Five, your majesty, and they were armed with weapons which seemed to be immune to the anti-magic stone!", the other changeling responded. Queen Chrysalis immediately got angry again and slammed her hoof on the ground, creating a monstrous echo in the cave.
"What kind of weapons were they using? Swords? Spears?"
"No your majesty, these were strange weapons that made a lot of noise and light flashes, and if you see the light flash, it kills you instantly!"
"Hmm, next time you attack, use your magic beams to counter them. They may be using ranged weapons", the Queen decreed.
"Yes, your majesty", the two changelings bowed and took their leave.
Everyone had a goodnight's sleep, and after a nice oatmeal breakfast, the group got going. Even though the castle was close to Ponyville, many of the local ponies had never seen these strange humans. Their reactions were mixed. Three ponies who ran a flower shop looked on in horror as these massive beings moved through the streets, fainting and screaming "The horror! The horror!" There was a grey mare with googly eyes who was eating muffins at a local restaurant when she turned and saw the creatures. She waved at them, and they waved back. Then there was Lyra who, upon seeing the humans at the train station, got extremely excited.
"Ohmigosh! Real humans! Where are you going?", she enthusiastically inquired.
"Hello. We're going to Canterlot to see the princesses.", Summers replied.
"Oh! When will you be back?", Lyra questioned.
"Sorry Lyra, to be honest we don't know, but we'll let you see them when we come back to Ponyville." Twilight stated.
"Oh ok! I look forward to meeting you guys!" Lyra enthusiastically waved goodbye as the group boarded the train toward Canterlot.
Canterlot Castle
After all the awkward stares from the ponies on the train and the wealthy Canterlot unicorns, the group headed for Celestia's throne room, where both princesses were waiting. Twilight ran up and hugged Princess Celestia again.
"Hello Sergeant, how are you and your team doing?", the princess inquired.
"We're doing fine, thank you. You've taught Twilight well", Ramirez replied, leaving blushes on both princess' faces.
"Now mares and gentlemen, you are probably wondering why we decided to call you here", Luna stated, with the audience nodding positively in response.
"Well, since we have no idea how you got here nor any idea on how to send you back, and after seeing the skills you possessed in warfare, we believe that you would be great helpers to the Equestrian Nation if you would become our own 'spec ops' team." The guys looked at each other with surprise. "Why would you need warriors like us? From what Twilight has told us, Equestria has been at peace for a millennium." Parker replied.
"That is true, but we believe that that peace is in grave danger. The changelings have always been a thorn in the side of Equestrian foreign relations, and their hostile actions are very frequent." Celestia stated with concern.
"The ascension of King Thorax and the reforming the main changeling hive has done much to improve relations between our species, but the attack on us yesterday has shown us that Queen Chrysalis still has an army of loyalists out there, and we have no idea on how to find them." At that moment, a white unicorn with purple armor and a blue mane trotted in. Twilight immediately ran over to hug him.
"BBBFF!"
"Twily!"
"Gentlemen, may we present Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire, and also our own Captain of the Guard." Luna stated. Shining Armor trotted up to Sgt. Ramirez and looked up at his impressive height and stature. Ramirez crouched and extended his hand.
"Nice to meet you Sergeant", Shining said as shook his hand with his hoof. "Thank you for protecting my little sister and her friends yesterday, how did you do it?"
"With these", Ramirez said, pulling out his Strongarm to show to the Captain. The Lunar Nightwatch had left their primary weapons back in Ponyville, yet they still wore their revolvers on holsters. Shining Armor looked at the piece with fascination, and pondered to himself how the Equestrian military would become stronger if they could be adapted for pony use.
"Shining Armor is here to fill you in on how Equestria's military currently works, and he will also command a squad of his best guards to help you should the need arise." Celestia stated.
The room behind the throne room
The two changeling survivors had successfully snuck through the Canterlot defenses and were disguised as royal guards. Queen Chrysalis had basically punished the two by sending them out on a suicide mission: to kill as many of the important ponies (princesses, Mane Six) as possible and if necessary to kill the humans that were with them. Each changeling had brought a sword and was ready to unleash powerful magical blasts if they found the humans. If they had the anti-magic stone, killing the ponies would be no problem, but Queen Chrysalis kept it so that it wouldn't fall into Equestrian hooves. Soon, the changelings burst into the throne room and drew their swords.
"You two! What do you think you're doing?!" Shining yelled as one of them slashed at Princess Celestia's foreleg, which started bleeding.
"Sister!", Luna yelled as she formed a magical barrier around the two. Shining saw the second one charge straight at Fluttershy and so he tackled him to the ground. The changeling soon kicked him off, however, and both of them revealed their true form. The first changeling soon charged at Shining, who was lying on his back, when a dart went though his leg (not through one of the holes). The Lunar Nightwatch had evacuated the Mane Six and had their pistols drawn. The wounded changeling used his magic and levitated Shining Armor up in front of him as a meat shield while he and the other changeling began firing energy bursts from their horns. Smith was hit and fell back stunned. "Man down!" Parker yelled as he ran over and picked up Smith in a fireman's carry and put him behind a pillar nearby. The changelings kept firing magical blasts at the humans, but they had the aim of stormtroopers. Soon, Summers scored a headshot on the exposed changeling. "Tango down!", he yelled as his Cycloneshock sent a mega dart through the changeling's head and out the other side. At this point the other one levitated his sword to Shining Armor's neck. "Nobody make a move! Or his throat gets cut!" he yelled at the humans. At that point, the humans lowered their weapons. Suddenly, the changeling slashed the sword down Shining Armor's exposed chest and made a run for it. By this time Smith had recovered from the stun blast and chased after him. "Smith wait!" Ramirez yelled as he and Parker and Summers followed after him. McLaughn stayed to help take care of Celestia and Shining Armor.
Streets of Canterlot
'Gotta get out of here!!', the changeling thought to itself as he pushed Canterlot nobles and tourists out of the way, with the humans following close behind. The populace of Canterlot was stunned at the chase between some strange aliens and a wounded changeling. Soon however, the changeling was stopped dead in it's tracks when his face smacked straight into a frying pan that Summers held out in front of him since he got ahead and found a shop selling pans. Smith walked up to the barely conscious bug horse and picked it up by the horn. His enraged eyes soon met the changeling's fearful compound eyes.
"You are going to pay for that shot to my chest you little bug!" Smith spoke more venomously than a Texas diamondback, as he punched the creature in the stomach. He dropped the bug on the ground and was about to push his boot into the creature's wounded leg.
"Smith! Stop! We can use this one." Ramirez interjected before Smith could begin to torture it. When Smith looked away to see Ramirez, the changeling tried to run again, only to find Parker and Summers blocking his path. "Take him." Ramirez said. Parker picked up the changeling and carried it over his shoulder as they returned to the palace.
'Man, this is so scary and embarassing!' I thought as the one of the tall bipedal creatures carried me over his shoulder like I was some wounded animal, which I was technically. The queen had told us that we were to come back victorious or dead, and I don't think that either of our sword thrusts were kills. Also, when we had shot that one creature with our magic blasts, he simply shook it off and charged after me! What are these things, and how come one of them decided to spare me???
Canterlot Dungeon Interrogation Room
After about an hour in the dungeon, the changeling was taken by some royal guards and thrown into a special room with two chairs, a table, and a one-way window (yes, they do have those in Equestria). The room had a special magical field around it so that no magic could be used inside of it. It was cold and there were only two lights shining inside of it. The changeling grew tense in the room as the silence was starting to drive him mad. The dart that was shot at him was also still stuck inside his leg, and it hurt like crazy. Whenever he tried to pull it out, it only made the pain worse. Within a few minutes, a loud noise at the door sounded, and Sgt. Ramirez walked in with a glass of water.
"Hi", the human said in an almost friendly manner, much to the changeling's confusion.
"hi", the changeling responded, as the human took his seat.
"Please, have a drink", Ramirez said as he gave the changeling the glass of water. The changeling happily chugged the whole glass and then looked at the human.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you being so nice to me?"
"I believe that everybody deserves a second chance, and from what I've heard about King Thorax, changelings are no exception."
"B-But I slashed my sword at a princess and cut open her captain of the guard, and I shot one of your kind!"
"Yeah, you just scratched open the captain, and he'll be fine in a couple of weeks. The princess, on the other hand, was pretty hurt. We think you broke her leg, but fortunately alicorns heal fast, and all she needed was a bandage after an hour. Hell, she may not even need that in a few minutes!"
"They must really hate me."
"Well, Smith does for sure, also Luna and the Elements of Harmony were pretty upset at being attacked. I, however, managed to convince them all to hold their rage back, and I convinced Princess Celestia to work something out so that we may help you if you help us." Ramirez then slid forward a sheet of paper to the changeling, who read it carefully.
"It says that if I help you, you will send me to Thorax's Kingdom where I can be safe and no longer have to feed off love?"
"We will also get that dart out of your leg and help you to recover." The changeling thought this was a good deal. 'Wait, no!', he suddenly thought. 'I can't betray the Queen! She's our mother, and she'll kill me if she finds out I've been working with these things and the ponies!' Suddenly he spoke up.
"What if I refuse to help?" Ramirez looked down dissappointedly at first, but then regained his friendly grin and responded.
"Well, it's entirely your choice as to whether you want to help us or not, but we're offering you a really good deal here. I'd take it if I were you." Silence stood for a few seconds after that statement.
"On the other hand, however, we thought that if you didn't want to help, we could just leave you with Smith for a little while." This really sent chills down the changeling's spine. Smith was the name of that creature that had yanked him by the horn, punched him in the belly, dropped him on the ground and was about to crush him with his foot before the creature who was their leader stopped him. Smith was really mad for being shot by changeling magic, he would probably torture the poor changeling in a million ways with his weapons and those dexterous hands of his. For the changeling, the thought of being left with that guy was even scarier than that of facing Queen Chrysalis' wrath.
"Ok! Ok! I accept! What do you need from me?" The changeling shouted in desperation. The human smiled.
"Excellent. What we need from you is the location to Queen Chrysalis' hideout."
The Mane Six along with Princess Luna and the rest of the humans were standing outside of the room.
"How long is he going to take?" Rainbow Dash asked impatiently, as Ramirez wanted the conversation to be private.
"I don't know, but he should be done anytime now", McLaughn replied.
"I hope that changeling refuses the offer, I'd love to teach him a lesson or two!" Smith evilly grinned, hoping to inflict more pain on the changeling than before. Suddenly there was a loud scream from the room. It sounded like the changeling's.
"Oh my goodness! Should we go help him?!" Rarity shockingly inquired.
"Nah, he's got this. That was the changeling screaming. Looks like he beat you to the torture Smith." Parker replied and joked. Smith was unamused at first, but then started laughing. At that moment, Ramirez and the changeling walked out of the room, with Ramirez holding the green-blood covered nerf dart in his left hand while petting the limping changeling with his right hand.
"We got a new friend!"
Royal Guard Headquarters, Canterlot Castle
"......and here!", the changeling, whose name he gave as Mandible, stated. He had pointed out a bunch of locations on the map of Equestria where Queen Chrysalis had formed a network of loyalist hives and hideouts.
"You guys were really close to the Everfree hideout when you killed most of our patrol. There are still alot of changelings in that hideout though, there were about a hundred before you came." Other locations on the map included the San Palomino Desert, the Haysead Swamps, the Unicorn Range, and the Whitetail Woods. Noticing that the White Tail Woods and Sand Palomino Desert bordered Los Pegasus and the Western Ocean, this raised alarm among the ponies and humans.
"They're so close to Los Pegasus and Las Pegasus!" Luna exclaimed. The humans looked on in confusion.
"Los Pegasus is on the ground and is where most of Equestria's culture comes from, and Las Pegasus is in the clouds above it and is where ponies go to enjoy thrill rides, games, and shows." Twilight clarified. The humans understood.
"Did Chrysalis choose to create these two bases around the cities on purpose?" Ramirez asked.
"Yes, she actually has a plan to attack them in a couple of weeks with a force at least three times the size of the Royal Wedding assault", Mandible replied. Everyone and everypony looked on in shock.
"We gotta assemble as many troops as possible there and get ourselves over there soon!" McLaughn stated in alarm. "Alot of ponies may die if we don't!"
"Yeah we will get there soon. We just need our weapons back in Ponyville and--" Ramirez paused as he realized that his team didn't have enough ammunition to deal with at least three hundred changelings. He turned to Princess Luna.
"Princess? I need you to do something."
"What is it Sergeant?" Ramirez handed her a single nerf elite accustrike dart and a 12-round nerf magazine.
"I need you to give these to your scientists, chemists, and engineers, and have them replicate them and make as many as possible." Princess Luna picked up the items with her magic.
"Very well Sergeant, I will do this as soon as possible." Ramirez turned to the Mane Six and to his men.
"We need to get back to Ponyville and get our weapons ASAP."
"Don't forget about visiting Lyra! You guys will have at least a week to get ready for battle!" Twilight mentioned.
"Oh ok, I guess we can stay for one day", Ramirez figured, and the rest of his men agreed.
"Off to Ponyville then!" Twilight shouted in a very cheery way with her wings flapped open. The Mane Six and Lunar Nightwatch headed for the train station.
Almost as soon as the Mane Six and Lunar Nightwatch got off the train, an excited green mare was waiting for them with a large poster in her magic grip. It read "Welcome back Humans!". Twilight had sent a letter to Lyra earlier telling her that the humans were going to return to Ponyville for a short time before heading back into battle. Obviously, Lyra was really excited to hear this.
"Hello! Humans! Over here!", she enthusiastically yelled, as if the humans were celebrities. The humans almost were celebrities, as a matter of fact, as news had spread across Canterlot and was making its way across Equestria that they had rescued the princesses and the elements of harmony from a changeling assassination attempt. The humans and Mane Six walked over to Lyra.
"Hi there!" Parker greeted. Lyra's smile was as big as Rainbow Dash's when she found out that she became a wonderbolt. Lyra then ran up to Parker and almost knocked him off his feet with a big hug.
"Aww, it looks like you've become somepony's favorite!", Pinkie said jokingly with a small giggle.
"Are you kidding me?! I love humans! Twilight's stories about them were so amazing! I can't believe I get to see real ones now!" Lyra excitedly replied as Parker lowered her down.
"Well Lyra, I'm Sergeant Daniel "Steelhooves" Ramirez, that guy over there is William Parker, the one next to him is Jeff Smith, that guy is Corey "Yankee" McLaughn, and right here is newbie Andrew Summers."
"Oh wow! I never thought that I would get to meet five of you at once!" Lyra replied. Twilight came up to Ramirez.
"Sergeant, I'm gonna leave you guys with Lyra for a while while I see to getting your weapons ready."
"Ok Twilight, but before you do, there are some safety rules that you must know before doing that."
"Go ahead."
"Rule No. 1: Always treat the blasters as if they are ready to fire, even if they are unloaded. Rule No. 2: Always keep the muzzle (or the hole at the end of the barrel) pointed in a safe direction. Rule No. 3: DO NOT touch the trigger (or the orange piece in front of the grip)." Ramirez demonstrated using his Strongarm as an example.
"Ok, got it. I'll make sure that Spike writes that down later. Let's go girls!" Twilight replied, and soon she and the rest of the Mane Six were on their way back to her castle. Ramirez looked on in slight concern, but he realized that if anypony would be able to follow rules, it was Twilight.
"I can't wait to get this started!" Lyra excitedly stated.
Lyra's house
After a two minute walk, Lyra and the humans were sitting cozily in her living room.
"Oh my gosh! I have so many questions for you! What are those things on your sides? How do you do stuff without magic? How do your hands work? Are you ticklish?" Lyra was firing off questions faster than Parker's Rapidstrike fired off darts. She then noticed Summers reaching for a bowl of candy on the table in front of them, but was hesitant.
"It's ok, it's candy! You can have some!" Lyra stated. "Oh boy!" Summers replied as he grabbed several pieces and ate them. Summers had quite a sweet tooth.
Soon after, the Lunar Nightwatch began to answer Lyra's questions. McLaughn let Lyra look at his hand, Smith showed her his Spectre (but kept it unloaded), and Lyra found out humans were ticklish when she rubbed her hooves into Ramirez's sides and stomach. At one point, Parker showed her his Iphone and how it worked shortly before it died. However, Lyra just put her magic in the charge port and it was at 100% charge in seconds, much to the team's amazement. Soon the group began to talk about other things.
"Wow, that Donald Trump guy doesn't sound very nice." Lyra stated, after Ramirez explained about the new president to her.
"Yeah, he may not be nice, but he is strong. Other countries don't want to give us unfair trade deals or mess with our allies now." Parker stated. The group was politically diverse. Most of the guys except Parker did not like Trump at first. Most of them voted for him to stop Hillary Clinton, while Ramirez simply voted third party.
"He may be mean, but he's mean in a good way. He once attacked a country that was killing it's own people so that their government would stop killing them." Ramirez stated.
"A government is killing its own people? How could they do something like that?!" Lyra asked in shock.
"Like I told Twilight one time, ponies are a very peaceful species while humans tend to be violent. That's part of the reason we have extremely advanced weapons." Ramirez replied.
"Oh, well obviously you are pretty violent....", Lyra stated as she levitated the Ponyville newspaper to them. It went into great detail how the heroic humans saved the Royal Sisters and the elements of harmony in a duel where one changeling lost his head and the other was wounded and captured. ".... but you guys are also really sweet. Thank you for visiting today." She replied, as she began hugging the humans.
"Thank you for having us come", Smith replied, with a very warm feeling in his heart. The other guys agreed.
"You're a very sweet mare too Lyra" McLaughn stated, leaving Lyra blushing.
"Aww, thanks guys!"
"Yeah, it was nice to meet you Lyra, but I think we better go back and check up on our equipment before heading out to destroy that hive in the Everfree Forest tomorrow", Ramirez replied.
"Ok, bye guys!" Lyra said as she went and pulled them all into a big group hug with her magic.
"Bye Lyra!" The humans waved as they walked out, kneeling through her short door.
"May Faust be with them", Lyra said to herself as they left.
Twilight's Castle
Twilight and her friends had the weapons lying neatly on a table near the map of Equestria. Twilight had sorted out the weapons by ammunition type and size. When the Lunar Nightwatch arrived, she had a look of concern on her face.
"Hi girls, how did things go?" Ramirez asked.
"Oh boys! Welcome back!" Rarity stated as she trotted up to them with the rest of the ponies.
"Guys, I think we have a problem", Twilight stated bluntly.
"What's wrong?", Summers asked.
"Sergeant, when you handed Princess Luna some of your ammunition, it was only ammunition that worked for some of your weapons.", Twilight replied. The guys then realized that she didn't receive a mega dart sample or a rival ball-and-magazine sample either. Unfortunately, that would leave Summers defenseless since he would run out of ammo before the others would.
"Ok Twilight, we can fix this. We don't need that much ammo for taking down the Everfree hive, we just need to get more ammo in two weeks." Ramirez replied. Soon, the team packed samples of mega and rival ammo in a box with a message for the princesses apologizing in advance for the confusion and asking them to replicate those samples as well as the ones that they already received.
"Thanks for pointing that out Twilight, we could have gotten into trouble if it wasn't for you". Summers stated.
"You're very welcome!" She replied with a cheery grin on her face. The group then had dinner, which included fish much to the humans delight since Twilight remembered from Canterlot High that humans were omnivores. After dinner, the humans and ponies turned in for the night, with the humans anxious for the battle to come the next day.
Soon after the ponies and men woke up, the men ate some energy bars so that they would be satisfied yet light on their mission. They soon geared up and were headed out the door toward the Everfree Forest.
"Good luck guys!", Rainbow Dash cheered.
"Do be careful now boys!", Rarity warned.
"Make sure you stomp out all them bugs now, ya hear?" Applejack stated. All the ponies were cheering them on as the humans waved back to them.
"Wait! Twilight!", Pinkie piped up as soon as the humans were out of view.
"Wasn't today that day when Starlight and Trixie were coming back and you were gonna throw them, Thorax, and Discord that huge congratulations party? I thought the princesses were coming to!", she stated.
"Oh no Pinkie, you're right! I can't believe I forgot!" Twilight yelped as she ran back inside, thinking of a good present to give to Starlight.
'...Maybe a friendship mirror would do?'
At the entrance to the Everfree Forest
"Here we go guys!" Ramirez stated excitedly as he put on his music.
"Here we go again", the other guys said in unison, as they had grown used to their leader's taste in music.
"Well, too bad we don't have helicopters, it would be so much easier to find this hideout if we had one", Summers stated.
"Yeah, but what's wrong with a little hike through the forest?" Ramirez stated, being an Eagle Scout back home. Soon the guys were hiking through the forest. Thanks to the map that Mandible had labeled, they found the hideout within ten minutes. It was not difficult to spot, it looked like a giant fire ant nest like the ones that formed in Texas. Ramirez shut off the music as he saw the mound creep into view.
"Alright, Newbie, Smith, go see if anyone's guarding the entrance. Yankee, go to those bushes over there and make a sniper position. Parker, you're with me. Move!" Ramirez ordered as the team stealthily moved into position. Summers and Smith crept their way through some bushes and came to the mouth of the anthill-like cave, to see two changelings standing guard at the entrance. Smith pulled out a mirror he had in his uniform's breast pocket and flashed it back at Ramirez, indicating that there were two changelings at the entrance. Ramirez then told McLaughn to pick off the two changelings using hand signals. McLaughn took aim.
BANG! One changeling fell dead as the other felt green blood splat near him. As soon as he turned to look, BANG! McLaughn's second dart ended him. While doing this, McLaughn noticed a second entrance to the nest since he was positioned at another angle from the front.
"Hey guys! There's another entrance on this side!", he called out. Soon, buzzing was heard coming from the hive.
"Alright guys! Smith and Newbie go with Yankee into that other entrance, Parker you're still with me. Charge!" The guys then charged at both entrances, where the changelings were coming out of. Ramirez activated a new song to get him pumped up on his phone.
Soon the guys opened fire on the changelings! Darts, rival balls, and magic beams were flying all over the caves as the battle was now raging wildly in the hive. Deep within the caves of the hive, Queen Chrysalis suddenly heard the noises of gunfire, heavy metal, and magical blasts.
"What is going on out there?!" She yelled at a changeling who ran into the cave.
"My queen, the hive is under attack! It looks like those bipedal aliens are here! We need to get you out of here!", the changeling replied.
"No. First, I want to see these so-called 'aliens'", she replied. The changeling bowed and ran back into the battle.
Back in the caves, the men were shooting up a storm and yelling out battle cries as the changelings hissed at them and charged and fired magic at them. Ramirez's heavy metal echoed throughout the caves, giving the men a strong intimidation factor. Parker had revved up his rapidstrike and blew down a ton of changelings with it while Ramirez picked off the magic wielders with his stryfe rifle. At the other cave, Smith was lighting up changelings with his stryfe smg while Summers blew heads and limbs off with his rival atlas shotgun. McLaughn picked off the ones that were using magic against them with his retaliator rifle. The caves were littered with changeling bodies and the Lunar Nightwatch soon rallied where the caves connected, taking cover behind some rocks while still firing at the changelings who were defending Chrysalis' makeshift throne room. The humans were putting plenty of darts down range, killing off the changelings very quickly. Soon, they reached the throne room and soon found Queen Chrysalis standing in front of them.
"So, you are the aliens who have been killing off my children", she coldly stated while looking at their impressive gear and physiques.
"Yeah, and you saw what just five of us can do! Now put your hands.. or hooves .. up and surrender!" Ramirez yelled while he and his men raised their weapons. Queen Chrysalis just laughed at this and fired a magical beam at them. The men hit the deck and opened fire on her, but she pulled up a magical energy shield that protected her from the high-velocity darts and balls.
"Foolish creatures! Did you think that you could simply kill me? The one true changeling queen?!" She shot a very powerful magical beam at Parker, and ended up throwing him into a wall. "Man down!", McLaughn yelled as he ran over to protect him. The queen laughed.
"You pathetic creatures may have been able to defeat my small army, but this will be nothing compared to what I am about to bring upon two of Equestria's cities!", she threatened while turning and running for a secret getaway passage in the room that sealed shut behind her. The guys tried to blast through, but couldn't. Meanwhile, Parker had a large cut in his leg from being thrown into the stone wall, and McLaughn had brought out his first aid kit was now bandaging him up. Soon, the others picked up all the ammo from the dead changelings. This was a gruesome job, but one that had to be done until the Princesses could start mass-producing ammo.
"Hey Smith, do you still have that flag Twilight gave us?" Ramirez asked.
"Yeah I do", Smith replied. Before the team left, Twilight had given them an Equestrian flag to raise on top of the hive so that she could spot it. Soon, the guys climbed up to the top of the hive and set it on the highest point. It soon waved proudly in the wind.
"Good job guys! We did it!" Ramirez stated as the guys cheered. Soon, they returned to Ponyville with news of their victory.
Twilight's castle.
Pinkie Pie had just swept up a bunch of party stuff with a large teapot looking vacuum when the doors bust open. In walked the tall, dirty, battle-worn humans. "Hey girls we're-- Pinkie what is that?" Parker stated, limping while holding onto McLaughn for support.
"Oh! Just my after-party cleanup vacuum! We had a party for the heroes who saved us when Chrysalis kidnapped us!" Pinkie replied.
"Dammit, we missed out on a Pinkie party!" The guys stated in unison.
After taking off their combat gear and weapons, the humans went to the map room to relax. Thanks to unicorn magic, Parker, Summers, and McLaughn had power for their phones and could still use app games, though they couldn't use internet or data. Ramirez and Smith were sharpening their pocket knives on their whetstones. Soon, they heard the clopping of hooves walking toward the throne room, but the voices did not sound like the Mane Six. Two unicorns walked in, one with a blue mane and coat and the other with purple and blue hair with a pink coat.
".... and I'm not sure if it's a good idea to stay, but where else do I have to go?"
"Well, maybe you could go back to running your village, only a little....friendlier?"
"Yeah but I still don't know if that's a......... What in Celestia's name are those things?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" The pink one, known as Starlight Glimmer, yelped. The blue one, better known as Trixie, started shaking at the knees because of these weird aliens sitting in Twilight's castle. Soon Starlight pulled up her magic shield to protect her and Trixie from the strange creatures. The guys just sat there watching them amused. Soon Twilight walked in.
"Oh hi boys! You're back! Wait, Starlight? What are you doing? Oh, right, I didn't tell you."
"Twilight, did you let those things into the castle?!" Starlight asked.
"Yeah, they're our friends, the Lunar Nightwatch, and they're a species called humans. They're not dangerous to ponies." Twilight replied.
"Oh but we are dangerous." Smith teased with an evil grin on his face while brandishing his knife. Ramirez had him stop, and he walked up to the unicorns, who had lowered their forcefield. He then scratched Starlight behind her ear, which she seemed to really enjoy.
"Don't worry, we don't hurt ponies. My name is Sgt. 'Steelhooves' Ramirez, and these are my men." Trixie looked at how Starlight was enjoying her ear scratch and decided to speak up.
"Worried? We were not worried! Why in Equestria would the Great and Powerful Trrrrixie be worried about some beast like you?!" She said defiantly, while at the same time having a look of concern on her face. Soon Parker walked over and scratched behind Trixie's ear. Despite her initial protests, she soon melted like butter into the scratch.
"So Starlight, these humans are warriors from another world, and they came to help us finish off Queen Chrysalis and her loyalists." Twilight explained.
"I think I can get used to having these ear-scratchers.... I mean warriors here Twi", Starlight responded.
"Me too", Trixie gleefully agreed.
Three days had passed since the destruction of the Everfree Hive and the introduction of Starlight and Trixie.
During that time, the team visited Rarity's Boutique where she got their measurements and made new casual clothing for them. The guys really appreciated this, as they had nothing to wear but the clothes they came with for quite a few days. The Mane Six went on a "friendship retreat" at that time too and the guys had to help Starlight save Trixie one time from a bunch of angry ponies.
On the third day, Lyra was visiting the humans at the castle when there was a knock on the castle door. The ensemble of humans with Lyra went to the door and opened it to find the grey mare with googly eyes asking them to sign for a large crate.
"Oh hi Derpy! This crate is for the humans?" Lyra asked.
"Mhm, straight from Canterlot science labs", the mailmare responded. Ramirez soon signed for the crate. Upon opening it, the men and mare were greeted with the beautiful sight of darts, rival balls, and magazines galore.
"Oh hell yes, now we're talkin!!" Smith stated as he saw the crate full of all the ammo they needed to finish off the changelings.
"Those ponies really outdid themselves with these", Summers stated in awe. The crate not only had the standard twelve-round rival and elite magazines, but also two one hundred round elite drum magazines for Parker's Rapidstrike.
"Ohhhhh, I think I'm gonna cry!", Parker stated with a tear of happiness dripping from his eye. Lyra looked in awe as the guys picked up the ammo and magazines. There was a note in the box.
Dear Lunar Nightwatch,
I hope that you got all the equipment you needed in good condition. As you can see, we were able to make larger ammunition holders, or "magazines" as you call them. If you ever need more for your mission, just tell us. Thank you for voluntarily protecting Equestria and her ponies.
Sincerely, Princess Luna
"Wow, I didn't know that ponies could make human equipment!" Lyra noted as she saw all of the pony-produced ammo.
"Well ammunition is generally simple to make, the hard part is making the weapon to fire it", Ramirez replied.
"Oh by the way guys, I'm friends with Ms. Cheerilee who is the local schoolteacher, and I told her about you guys and suggested that you get to meet and greet with the schoolfoals. She thought it would be a great idea as long as you guys thought so too." Lyra piped up.
"I guess we can do that soon, maybe tomorrow?" McLaughn replied.
"OHTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!THEFOALSWILLBESOHAPPY!", Lyra replied as she grabbed McLaughn in a tight hug.
"Well, when do we start tomorrow?" Ramirez asked.
White Tail Woods secret base
Queen Chrysalis had just flown in after escaping from the clutches of the humans. The changelings in the hive were anxious as their queen flew in with an angry look on her face.
"My loyal subjects", she began speaking, "it has been a few weeks since I was ousted by that traitorous Thorax from our main hive." The changelings hissed at this comment, angry that one of their own would betray their leader.
"Since then, I have decided that Thorax was a threat to our species, since he decided to side with the ponies. I came up with a plan so that once we dealt a crippling blow to Equestria, we could overrun and retake our main hive." The changelings cheered for this.
"However, a new threat has risen, one that is even more dangerous than Thorax and his band of traitors, one that is even more dangerous than the pony princesses! This threat is called humanity, and they are the most dangerous creatures our species has ever faced. They walk on two legs like dragons and use weapons that are more lethal than anything our world has ever seen. They have murdered your brothers and sisters in the Everfree hideout", Chrysalis coldly spoke, to which the changelings angrily hissed and growled some more.
"It is only a matter of time before they find the rest of our hives, and once they do, they will start wiping them out one by one. Therefore, we must strike the first blow, for the survival of our species! That is why we will not attack Los Pegasus in a week, but tomorrow!!" The changelings cheered for their queen.
"We will drain the love from the ponies of the cities on the ground and in the sky, and we will become stronger, so that we may destroy this threat and save our species!!" The changelings cheered again.
"My children, prepare yourselves for battle, and send word to the San Palomino hive to do the same. Tomorrow, at dawn, we attack!!!!!" Soon, the changelings sent their spies to blend in with the locals, and sent messengers to the other hive at the San Palomino hideout.
"They'll never see this coming!" Queen Chrysalis spoke to herself as her army amassed, and she and her changelings began laughing evilly.
"Oh my gosh! Those fillies and colts are going to love you guys!" Lyra was bouncing happily the same way Pinkie Pie would on an average day. The humans were unarmed and wearing the new clothes that Rarity made for them.
"I hope so, I wouldn't want to frighten them", Summers replied.
"Are you crazy? You're now the most popular heroes in Equestria now!", Lyra replied, holding up a copy of the Foal Free Press' latest article of the heroic humans who saved the Princesses and who were always ready to kick some bug-butt. Soon Cheerilee opened the door, and signaled for the humans to come in.
"Good luck guys!" Lyra waved as the humans crouched into the small school house.
"Okay class!" Ms. Cheerilee said, "I am sure that all of you have heard the news lately about alien heroes walking among ponies, and when Ms. Lyra told me that she knew them personally, we thought that this would be a great learning opportunity for us all. So, without further ado, here they are!" The humans walked in with all the young ponies clapping and stomping their hooves at the sight.
"Howdy kids, I am Sgt. Ramirez, and these are my men, "Yankee" McLaughn, Will Parker, Jeff Smith, and Newbie Summers. What would y'all kids like to know about us?"
"Oh oh!" a young colt named Rumble exclaimed, waiving his hoof in the air. "Why are you guys so tall?"
"Well we think that we are actually the size of ponies, but since we only walk on two legs, we look taller than ponies." Smith replied.
"Why do y'all walk on two legs?", Applebloom asked.
"Well our bones are structured differently than those of ponies. Even though our arms are pretty strong, our legs are even stronger, and our center of balance is well focused above them. That's why we walk on only two legs." Ramirez answered.
"Hey! What are those cool weapon thingies you guys usually carry around? Can we see one?", a chubby colt named Snips asked.
"Oh, those are guns, and I'm afraid we can't simply pass those around. They can be dangerous when not used properly. Besides, we didn't bring them anyway.", Parker replied.
"Aw man!", Snips said to himself.
"Did you guys come in a spaceship?" a cute filly named Peachy Pie asked.
"No, we found a portal one day, and Smith here decided to drag us through!", Summers answered.
"Don't listen to him kids, he's just butthurt that he couldn't have the sense of adventure that I do!" Smith replied. The fillies and colts giggled at this.
"Where do you live now? Under a bridge?", a snarky filly named Diamond Tiara inquired.
"No, we actually live in Twilight's castle, a place that makes your house look like a bridge.", Summers replied.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The whole classroom roared at Summer's epic burn. Suddenly, the door burst open, and a frightened Starlight Glimmer ran in.
"Ear scratchers! Come to the castle quick! It's an emergency!" Starlight yelled, much to the class' confusion.
"What's going on?" Ramirez asked.
"The changelings took over Los and Las Pegasus!"
Twilight's Castle
The humans and unicorn ran into the map room where the Mane Six and Royal Sisters were waiting.
"We came as soon as we heard. What happened?" Smith asked, panting from the long run.
"Early this morning, before I rose the sun, changelings disguised as ponies captured most of the royal guard in both cities. At dawn, two massive changeling armies attacked them from the North and the South and conquered both. A wonderbolt who was based at Las Pegasus named High Winds flew here to give us the warning." Princess Celestia explained.
"Do you plan on sending us with a relief force?" Ramirez asked.
"Yes, we are sending you with 10,000 of our Royal Guard. Prince Captain Shining Armor will also be joining you. His wounds have mostly recovered and he should be of some assistance to you." Princess Luna replied.
"Where do we start?" Summers asked, cocking his atlas shotgun.
"Some chariots and the Royal guard relief force with BBBFF will show up in a few minutes", Twilight replied.
Sure enough, after thirty minutes, the Royal Guard showed up in front of Twilight's castle. Shining Armor went to see the humans, who now wore their full uniforms and had blasters in their hands, ammo on their chests, and pistols on their hips.
"Hey guys, thanks for coming to help us again. We brought some chariots to help you carry your supplies along with extra weapons and armor for our troops, The plan is that while our pegasi and some of our unicorns try to retake Las Pegasus, you will be with our earth ponies and the rest of our unicorns to retake Los Pegasus."
"Alright, let's move guys.", Ramirez commanded. Before they could leave, however, Fluttershy and Rarity came running up to McLaughn and Ramirez. They hugged them around their legs. The guys crouched down and hugged them back.
"Please come back safe guys", Fluttershy told them, in her extremely soft and soothing voice.
"Don't worry Flutters, we will," McLaughn replied, hugging the adorable yellow pegasus tighter.
"Don't worry Rare, we will come back," Ramirez comforted Rarity while also hugging her tighter.
"You better", Rarity teased back, tickling him in the side. The guys got up and turned around to see the other three and Shining Armor giggling amongst themselves.
"Well, what are y'all laughin at? Let's move!" Ramirez ordered. Soon, the massive convoy boarded the train, and rode it until they came upon tracks cut apart by the changelings just past the Ghastly Gorge. Everyone unboarded and marched toward the smoke rising in the distance. Ramirez activated a new song.
After marching for ten minutes, Prince Captain Shining Armor sent off half of his force to retake Las Pegasus. The other half of his force along with the humans, remained on the ground and kept marching toward the smoldering, smoky ruins of the once vibrant city of Los Pegasus. They soon reached a railway station which had a sign that read 'Welcome to Los Pegasus! Where everypony's a star!'. The sign had been beaten and had what looked like magic-laser impacts on it.
"Alright, Long Blade, take some stallions and secure this rail station, the rest of you, move!" Shining Armor ordered his men. The Lunar Nightwatch kept moving along with the large column of royal guards. The stallions and humans soon came upon the suburbs of Los Pegasus, which looked like a war-torn version of Beverly Hills. Everyone was on edge, especially the Lunar Nightwatch, as they soon came to the urban district. Since there seemed to be no sign of changelings or ponies on the way, Ramirez decided to speak up.
"Captain?"
"Yes Sergeant?"
"I think we're walking into a trap, they're letting our forces move into the center of the city so that we won't have a chance of escape once they decide to show up."
"What do you think we should do?"
"My men and I have a lot of experience clearing out buildings such as dorm halls back in our world, I think it would be a good idea if we started clearing more buildings as we move in order to protect against getting surrounded and possibly dealing with snipers."
"Snipers? What are those?"
"In your case, probably changelings who will strike using their magic from far off in places where you can't see them."
"Ok then Sergeant."
"Alright guys, split into two teams. Smith, Yankee, Parker, y'all take the buildings on the right, Newbie and I will deal with the ones on our left. move!" The Lunar Nightwatch split into their teams and moved in on a couple of skyscrapers.
Inside Ramirez and Summer's building
Soon after kicking down the doors, both teams saw a wretched sight. Inside the buildings were the local ponies in green, slimy cocoons, all of them comatose. Newbie almost puked when he saw them in this filthy condition. Soon, their walkie-talkies came alive.
"Steelhooves, we found some prisoners in our building, how is yours?"
"Same story over here Parker, Get your knives out and set them free, have one guy stand guard while doing so, send another to tell Shining Armor we may need help."
"Roger that."
Soon after the transmission, a hissing sound was heard among the cocoons, and a magic zap. Summers moved around the cocoons to investigate while Ramirez kept his Stryfe rifle raised. Summers turned the corner, pointing his shotgun toward the sound. He found a little pegasus filly, covered in dirt and crying. He moved toward it slowly.
"Hey little filly. Don't worry, I'm here to help. Where are your parents?", the filly backed up, scared by the massive human. Summers reached his hand out to show that he wouldn't hurt it. Suddenly, the filly snapped at his hand with sharp fangs. Summers barely managed to pull his hand away. The frightened little filly suddenly turned into a changeling, who pounced at Summers and got him on his back. Summers was suddenly panicking when the changeling hissed in his face, as it looked like the bug was about to eat it off. He shut his eyes waiting for the inevitable.
BANG!
Summer's face was suddenly covered in green, slimy blood, and the changeling fell down lifeless over his body. He looked to the left, and Ramirez stood there with smoke rising from the barrel of his Strongarm. Ramirez walked over and helped him up.
"Next time some bug horse pins you down Newbie, at least try to put up a fight."
"No prob Sarge."
Behind Ramirez, some royal guards had gotten to work cutting open the cocoons and helping the ponies out.
"Keep your eyes open boys, There are still plenty of shape-shifting changelings out there", Ramirez warned. Suddenly, gunshots erupted nearby.
Smith, Parker, and McLaughn's building
While some royal guards along with McLaughn and Parker started cutting ponies free, some of the stallion soldiers said that they found a bunch of ponies hiding in a public restroom. Smith and Parker went with them to go take a look. Sure enough, there were at least ten ponies huddled in the restroom.
"Alright, bring them out guys", Smith told the stallion guards. Soon the stallions began escorting the ponies out of the restroom, but then some of the ponies jumped out of line and bit some of the guards. As soon as they heard the screams, Parker and Smith turned around to see four changelings jump on them, one on the top and one on the legs of each of them. They got the top ones off with their hard punches. However, the ones wrapped around their legs held on. When Smith tried to kick his off, it bit him in the leg.
"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The one on Parker was about to bite down, but Parker turned his Rapidstrike on him and put five darts into him. He then got up, shot down the rest of the changelings who had bit the guards, opened his large spring-assist knife, and plunged it into the neck of the changeling on Smith. However, Smith couldn't move after this.
"My leg! I can't feel my leg!" he yelled, as he couldn't move it.
"MEDIC!!!!!!!!", Parker yelled as Smith couldn't move his leg. A couple of royal guards ran over from the other room and investigated the wounds on Smith and the other stallions with them. The four stallions who were escorting the changelings were dead. The pony who was looking at Smith's wound determined that he would live.
"A lesser known fact about the changelings is that they are venomous. Although they don't use them to feed, changeling fangs carry a very strong neurotoxin which can kill if it punches through a major vein or artery. They did manage to kill those other poor guards over there, but fortunately the one that bit your friend missed his artery by inches. He won't be able to walk on that leg again for a while though. The wound will heal, but since you are an alien species, I have no idea how long it will take for him to recover."
"Goddamn poisonous bug horses!" Smith replied.
"We can take you to the train station outside of town until your leg feels better, it heals faster if you're relaxed, or at least that's how it works on ponies," the medical pony offered.
"Ok then", Smith agreed. Ramirez, McLaughn, and Summers arrived shortly after, and Parker explained to them what happened. After constructing a makeshift stretcher with two poles and a blanket, some unicorn stallions carried off Smith to the train station outside of town.
Building on the next block
After what happened to Smith and Summers, the remainder of the team decided to stick together and begin storming the buildings while the royal guard rescued the prisoners. As they stood outside of the door, Summers moved in and shotgun-breached the door. Along with blowing out the lock, he also blew out the top of the door frame since it was too short for the humans to comfortably enter. Soon, the team entered, passing by the cocoons, and they came upon a room. After breaching the door again, they found what looked like a pony family huddled in a corner. The guys moved in with their guns pointed at the family, unsure if they were changelings or not while the family started screaming.
"Shut up! Y'all are in a war zone, and anypony who is not in a cocoon is usually a changeling!" Ramirez yelled above their screams.
"McLaughn, get the father", Ramirez ordered. McLaughn went and shakily dragged the father away from the rest of the family at gunpoint, and pushed his body onto the ground.
"Check his teeth. If he snaps at you then blow his brains out." Sure enough, when McLaughn opened his mouth, he found a set of sharp fangs inside.
"Oh to Tartarus with this!", one of the foals yelled as they all morphed into changelings and tried to jump the humans, only to be gunned down before they could reach them.
"Alright guys. From now on it's shoot on sight. Anypony who is not in a cocoon is automatically a changeling. Got that?" Ramirez said.
"Yes sir!" the team responded.
A couple of hours and several buildings later
The guys had cleared out alot of ground and had gotten through almost a third of the city. Also, the royal guards were able to free and escort many of the ponies out of danger. Shining Armor went to talk to the humans.
"Wow, you guys have done a fantastic job! Who knew that there would only be five casualties in half a day?"
"Speaking of casualties, how is our guy?" McLaughn asked.
"He's doing fine. I just got word that he has regained senses in his leg, but he still needs to wait a while before he can walk on it."
"That's good. Hey, I heard that the reason changelings attack ponies is so that they can feed off love. How do they 'feed' off an emotion exactly?" Parker asked.
"Oh, that's a common misconception. Nothing can feed off emotions, they feed off of *ahem* something else."
"What is that 'something else'?"
"Trust me, you don't want to know."
"But--"
"YOU. DON'T. WANT. TO KNOW." After a few seconds, Parker leaned down while Shining Armor whispered into his ear.
"Oh my God! That's really messed up!" Parker exclaimed.
"Told ya", Shining replied as the others looked away from the awkward scene. Suddenly, there was an explosion nearby.
"Uh oh. Here they come!" Ramirez said as he pointed at a large swarm of changelings who began attacking the royal guards nearby. The guys raised their blasters and opened fire while Shining Armor picked up his spear and shield and ran to help his troops. Soon, the changelings started shooting magic at the humans.
"Take cover!" Ramirez yelled as his men ducked behind some walls and flipped-over carts while returning fire. A lot of royal guards turned and ran into buildings while Shining Armor and about ten other guards held their ground.
"What the hell are you ponies doing?! Get out here and help us!!" Parker yelled at those who ran. They just kept running.
Some reinforcements came out of the buildings, and the unicorns were returning fire with their magic. However, Ramirez couldn't help but facepalm when he saw some of the guards drop their spears and try fighting the changelings with their hooves.
"You guys have weapons for crying out loud! USE THEM!!!!!!!!!" Ramirez yelled as he kept firing his rifle at the oncoming changelings.
Within a few minutes, it was all over. All over the place, changeling and guardspony bodies lied burning and bleeding while the remainder of the royal guard rounded up and took changeling prisoners. Shining Armor was leaning against a pillar trying to catch his breath after what just happened. Ramirez walked over to him with a mad look on his face.
"Captain, what the hell is wrong with your guards?!" Shining looked down in shame, understanding what the human was talking about.
"Equestria has never fought a war in it's whole existence, and even though we try to train our guards in the best way we can, it doesn't help when even the trainers lack experience. I'm sorry for my troops' inadequacy." Shining replied.
"Well I did notice some guards, yourself included, who fought well. You should just try to sort out the good fighters from the poor ones, and have the poor ones train harder." Ramirez replied, trying to cheer up the young captain.
"You need to train them to stand their ground and not break formation, and also for them to not just drop their weapons. In our world, our military has a saying when it comes to a soldier's weapon... "
"Wow, I thought you guys weren't real military in your world", Shining replied, impressed with the speech.
"We aren't. My grandpa was in the military a long time ago, and he taught me that creed. This battle is far from over, this is a big city and there are probably still a lot of changelings and pony prisoners out there. We need to have capable troops, both human and pony, to be ready for the rest of this fight. Otherwise, we may die out here."
"Dang venom!", Smith thought to himself as two unicorn guards carried him on a stretcher to the rail station after a changeling bit him in the leg. The spot where he was bit was painful, of course, but what really set him off was that the venom disabled the rest of his leg temporarily and made it numb. Smith then looked at his Stryfe smg.
"This wouldn't have happened if I had kept that Retaliator and let Yankee take this gun", he thought to himself. Back at A&M, Smith had modded both his Stryfe and the Retaliator, and wanted to lend the Stryfe to McLaughn, who was his roommate at the time. However, McLaughn didn't like how the smg needed to power up before firing, and he opted for the Retaliator instead. Smith always liked to be the sniper, though. Playing sniper always reminded Smith of when he and his family used to hunt hogs out on the ranches in Texas Hill Country. He was also very good at it too. He had stacked up quite a few kills while using the Retaliator at A&M's Humans vs. Zombies game.
Upon arriving to the makeshift hospital, however, Smith got an idea. He was being watched over by a white pony with a pink mane when he got the idea.
"Hey! Nurse ummm....", Smith called out, forgetting the mare's name.
"Redheart, Nurse Redheart sir. What can I do for you?" the pony responded.
"Yeah, can you get me some blue paper and a white pencil?" he asked.
"Um, sure, let me go find some." A few minutes later, Nurse Redheart walked back in a few minutes later with the paper and pencil.
"Here you go. What do you need these for?", she asked while giving him the requested material.
"I need to draw up something to so that the princesses can have it made for me", Smith replied while he began doodling. Being an engineering major, Smith had learned quite a bit on how to draw up mock-diagrams and blueprints. Suddenly he realized something.
"Hey, how much is this in Equestrian units?", Smith asked while holding his hands about one foot apart.
"Hmm, that looks like about four hooves wide", Redheart replied while counting how many hooves she could fit between his hands.
"How about this?" Smith held his fingers an inch apart. Nurse Redheart put her hoof up to his fingers.
"About a third of a hoof."
"Ok, thanks Nurse!"
"Always glad to help!" Nurse Redheart went to the other side of the room to talk with a unicorn officer while Smith began drawing up his plans while converting from U.S. units to Equestrian hooves.
The next day
Smith's leg had regained it's senses and he could walk on it again. However, due to some venom still in his system, Smith couldn't run on his leg. Yesterday after he finished his blueprint, he called in a pegasus guard and told him to send it to the princesses as soon as possible. Today, the rest of the Lunar Nightwatch were coming back to help him get back to the battle. They soon entered the room to find him holding a small crate with his name on it.
"Hey Smith, whatcha got there?" Ramirez asked. Smith pulled out his pocket knife and began prying at the crate with it. When he opened it up, inside was a custom rifle scope with a mounting system that was compatible with a nerf rail.
"Oh wow, nice man!" Parker said upon seeing it. The scope had Smith's name hoof-engraved on it and had adjustable magnification.
"Just like the scope I use on my Remington back home!" Smith eagerly replied. The package came with a letter, which Smith read out loud.
Dear Jeff,
I am very sorry to hear that you were wounded in battle yesterday. When I told Twilight and her friends, they were devastated and incredibly distressed, especially Applejack and Fluttershy. We all hope that you will make a speedy recovery.
On the topic of your request, it wasn't very easy, but Equestria's best telescope-crafters and engineers got it done. Enclosed in this crate should be the item you requested. Again, consider it a token of our gratitude for the actions you and your friends keep taking to protect a country and a species that is not your own. After this battle, my sister and I look forward to seeing you boys again.
Many blessings, Princess Celestia
"Dang, why do these ponies have to be so sweet?!" Ramirez said after hearing the very touching letter. Smith then looked at McLaughn.
"Yankee, even though I can walk again on this leg, I still can't run, and you know how much I like to use the Retaliator."
"Go ahead, although you can have it on one condition."
"Name it."
"You know that I'm not as good as you are on the smg, so I'll be going wherever you go while you use the retaliator."
"Deal."
The next day, Los Pegasus downtown district
About 80% of the city had been cleared of the changelings, and many of the innocent ponies who were captured were set free. However, there was still plenty of changeling resistance in the city, and they had started resorting to more guerilla warfare tactics. Rather than disguising as civilian ponies (which the humans stopped falling for), the changelings would now disguise themselves as royal guards and attack when nobody was expecting.
Today, a convoy of about fifteen royal guards was out patrolling a street that was leading up to an intersection. The guards could not see much beyond that intersection. However, they knew that the humans could.
On a rooftop nearby, Smith was lying down on his belly, with his retaliator with added scope mounted on a brick. He was looking ahead of the royal guard convoy through the scope, scanning for enemies. McLaughn sat near him, spotting for Smith with his binoculars. The pair had snuck to the rooftop earlier that morning, and had killed a couple of changelings who tried to establish their own sniper positions in adjacent buildings surrounding the intersection. The rest of the Lunar Nightwatch had moved with Shining Armor's group to a different part of the city that morning.
They were on that rooftop for about four hours when the royal guards came marching in. Suddenly, Smith saw movement in his scope, and he saw what looked like a royal guard helping a small colt out of a building. On normal circumstances, Smith wouldn't be bothered by this, but he noticed that that guard and colt were ahead of the guard detachment moving toward them, meaning that there weren't supposed to be any guards in that building in the first place.
"Hold up. Yankee, do you see that colt and guard over there?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Look where the rest of the guards are, they weren't supposed to clear that building yet. I think those two are bugs."
"Well man, your call."
Suddenly, the guardspony and colt began bickering to each other, and the colt spat on the ground and took off jogging toward the royal guard convoy. Smith slowed down his breathing......
BANG!
The colt immediately flew off course due to the force of the dart. The kill revealed that he was in fact a changeling. Suddenly, the guardspony that sent it off began charging up his horn to fire a magic blast. However, this guard was an earth pony, it wasn't supposed to shoot magic beams.
BANG!
Smith dropped that changeling fast, but not fast enough, as the bug sent it's beam towards the royal guard a split second before Smith took the shot. The guardsponies, fortunately, saw the beam incoming and ducked.
"Dang man, that was gnarly!" McLaughn said as he saw the colt-changeling go down.
"Oh snap", Smith stated in horror.
"What?"
"That colt-changeling was actually a changeling colt!" Smith responded. Upon looking at the body with his scope, he noticed that it's body was smaller than a normal changeling, which meant that Chrysalis had basically sent kids against the guards and humans. Suddenly, magic beams began shooting out of the walls at the guards below.
"Oh crap! Ambush!" McLaughn yelled as he pulled out the smg and began to return fire. Smith began popping any changeling heads he saw sticking out of the windows of the other buildings. Unfortunately, McLaughn's smg jammed and the changelings noticed the shots coming from the rooftop. While McLaughn tried to clear the jam, he got hit with a headshot.
"Yankee? Yankee? COREY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Smith tried to yell over the noise, but McLaughn was out cold. Meanwhile the royal guards ran for the nearest building across the street from Smith's location and were taking cover. The unicorn guards were returning fire, but the earth ponies could only sit back and wait it out.
"Screw this!" Smith yelled as he strapped his smg on and picked up McLaughn while holding his rifle. He then ran down the stairs and kept running through the floors, dodging incoming changeling blasts that were pouring through the windows. Soon, he heard hissing coming from the other side of one door, and he leaned McLaughn against a wall.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" Smith yelled as he kicked down the door and slam-fired his retaliator into changelings that had gotten into the building. There were alot of them, and when his magazine went empty, he ducked behind the doorframe to reload. A changeling came around the door to get him and as soon has he opened his mouth to bite down, Smith cocked the Retaliator and sent a dart down his throat.
"NOT THIS TIME!" he yelled as he turned the corner and raised more hell on the changelings who were still coming through. He soon ran out of ammo again, and turned to his Spectre revolver, which he was a master with. Unfortunately, after spending ten rounds on the revolver (or two magazines worth), a changeling beam hit him in the leg where he was bit, causing him to fall to the floor. Soon, the changelings poured into the room and started charging and attacking him. Smith put up a tough fight, and soon there was only one more changeling left in the room. Smith aimed his pistol at him.
click.
The changeling began laughing evilly as this human was now defenseless with no ammo and a busted leg.
"Well well well, one of those ex-terminators the others have been talking about! I'll admit, you did put up a good fight, but it's all over for you now human! I am gonna enjoy sucking up all the love from within you!!!" The feminine-sounding changeling opened up it's mouth in a different way than if it were to bite down, and it was soon sucking up some sort of aura from Smith, who was beginning to feel weak from it. Smith closed his eyes tightly.
Suddenly, a spear went through the changeling's torso, and Smith opened his eyes to see a strong earth-pony guard finish off the last changeling while other guards secured the building.
"....Thank ....... you..." Smith said before passing out.
Sometime later, Smith opened his eyes to discover that he was back in the train station where he recovered earlier. He felt something tightening around his leg and looked down to see Nurse Redheart knotting up a bandage on his knee.
"There we go! Oh! You're awake! Don't worry, you'll be able to walk now! I know it looks bad, but it's not as bad as that bite!" She said upon seeing him wake up. Smith looked around, and he suddenly remembered McLaughn.
".... Where's Corey?"
"Who?"
"Yankee?"
"Oh your friend! The guards found him lying next to you near the wall where you were propped up against. They took him back here in another room. The poor boy looks like he was hit really hard on the head. Also, judging by your helmet, you were too", Redheart answered. Smith looked to the right of his bunk to see that there was a large blackened mark in his helmet that tore through the WWII-style mesh.
"Sarge always told us helmets should be standard issue," Smith stated sarcastically while looking at the helmet that saved him.
"Well it looks like it saved you from your friend's fate. He should be waking up soon now. You guys must be really tough. A headshot like that to a pony could be fatal! Also, when the guards found you, they said that they never saw a higher kill-to-casualty ratio in their lives! There were about thirty changelings in that building with you! The guards who found you were part of a strike force that routed the remaining changelings in the city. The Battle for Los Pegasus is over." Redheart said.
"Luna Nos Custodit." Smith said with a grin.
"What?"
"It's our team motto, it translates to 'We are the night' in another language called Latin."
"Oh wow, I'm sure Princess Luna would like that." Redheart said with a grin as she left the room to check on McLaughn.
A few hours later
The sun was now setting, and after a bandage was wrapped around his head, McLaughn was cleared to leave. Smith was outside the station listening to his music.
He explained to McLaughn everything that happened after he got knocked out.
"Wow, thanks man", McLaughn replied, being alive because of Smith.
"Don't mention it", Smith replied. Soon, they saw Ramirez, Parker, and Shining Armor coming up the tracks.
"Hey! Y'all would not believe what happened to us today!" McLaughn called out.
"Guys, we need to go to Las Pegasus", Ramirez said bluntly as he walked past them, covered in slime.
"Wait what? What's going on? Where's Newbie?" Smith asked, noticing that they were missing one man.
"He's been taken," Parker replied, also trailing slime behind him.
"What?" Smith replied in disbelief.
"We pushed into a building and got ambushed. We were swarmed and they tried to spit slime at us or something, trying to trap us in cocoons. We kept fighting our way out, and even though we were covered in enough slime to look like Ghostbusters 2, we made it. Everyone, except Newbie that is. When we went back to look for him, this was what was left of him." Ramirez replied as he and Parker pulled out Summers' slime-covered shotgun and revolver.
Smith and McLaughn looked on in shock as Ramirez and Parker showed them Summers' slime-covered weaponry. They could not believe that the changelings were capable of capturing a human.
"How come they didn't take his guns?" McLaughn asked.
"How do y'all know that he'll be in Las Pegasus?", Smith interjected.
Back at the site of Summer's kidnapping
After regaining their senses and realizing that Summers did not follow them out, Ramirez, Parker, and Shining Armor turned and ran back into the building. They came into a room covered in slime, and there were two changelings who picked up Summer's weapons and began laughing.
"Oh boy! The queen will be very pleased that we caught a human and his weapons!", one changeling cackled.
"Yes, and as soon as we get him back to her, we can suck the love out of him as much as we want!!!", The changelings kept laughing until they heard that one sound that all changelings learned to fear.
The changelings soon spun around to see the humans and unicorn staring them down through the doorway, and they suddenly aimed Summers' guns at them, or at least they thought they did. They were actually levitating the guns so that they pointed back at them, and the changeling holding the shotgun pulled the trigger.
Once the other changeling saw this, he dropped Summers' Cycloneshock and raised his hooves in surrender. Suddenly, Ramirez stomped his way over and picked up the bug horse by the neck.
"WHERE IS NEWBIE???!!!!!!", he yelled in the changeling's face while slapping him like the penguins of Madagascar would do. The changeling started muttering something under his breath.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?!?!?!", Ramirez yelled while still slapping the lights out of the changeling. The changeling soon let out something in a confused babble.
"ENGLISH BUGHORSE, DO YOU SPEAK IT?!?!?!" Ramirez yelled while still slapping the changeling.
"WHERE." slap "IS." slap "SUMMERS?!?!?!?!?!" Ramirez kept slapping the changeling senseless until Shining Armor used his magic to hold his hand back.
"Sergeant! Maybe you should give this bug a chance to speak", Shining said, trying to calm the human down.
"Please, no more! He's being taken to Las Pegasus, ok?! He's being taken to the place called Gladmane's since that side of town didn't fall! Now leave me alone!", the changeling desperately told the pony and men. His face was now covered in cuts and bruises, since Ramirez was wearing a ring from his world on his slapping hand. Suddenly, Ramirez slammed the changeling against a wall and put his Strongarm to it's head.
"I swear to Celestia, I'm gonna kill you right now", Ramirez said while the changeling began crying. Shining Armor soon grew uncomfortable with what was unfolding before him.
"Sergeant! Stop! He's given up! This is going too far!!!", he yelled.
"This insect has kidnapped your wife, enslaved you, recaptured you, your family, your princesses, and your friends, tried to kill all of us, kidnapped one of our men....."
"And prevented you from having a kid," Parker interjected. Ramirez looked back in confusion.
"Shining told me that after he was freed from Chrysalis the first time, he and Cadance tried to have a foal a month after their wedding, but they couldn't. It turned out that part of the love aura that changelings fed off of was the victim's fertility. He was sterile for a year and a half before they got Flurry Heart", Parker explained.
"Even more reason to end this bug right now!" Ramirez said as he spit on the ground. Shining Armor stood his ground and fervently defended the changeling.
"If you kill him right now, what would be the difference between you and Chrysalis? You would just prove to them that you're monsters that feed off of something worse than love! Hatred!" The room went silent, except for the crying changeling. After ten seconds, Ramirez looked at his bloody hand and muttered a Bible verse that was engraved on his ring under his breath.
"...... Vengeance is mine........ I will repay......... says the Lord....." Ramirez relented and put away his pistol, while lowering the changeling to the floor. Before Shining Armor took away the changeling, Ramirez told something to the traumatized bug.
"Just so you know, if anything happens to Newbie, I'm gonna chop the wings and tails off of every changeling I find." The changeling gulped at this statement as Shining Armor escorted him out.
"Wow, that was intense", Smith responded to the story.
"Yeah, but now we know where to find Newbie. Unfortunately, the pegasus guards won't fly us to Las Pegasus in the dark, but they will fly us to the city tomorrow morning at 0500. Shining Armor will come with us. Parker and I are gonna shower and get some rest. Y'all should too. We're gonna need that energy if we're gonna find Newbie", Ramirez told the team.
"Roger that." McLaughn said. Soon, everyone turned in for the night.
In the morning, the guys got up and met Shining Armor at the chariots. After boarding and taking off with the pegasus guards, Shining Armor explained the situation to them.
"Ok guys, so far we have retaken half of Las Pegasus. However, there's a gap between the clouds that drops down to Los Pegasus where the changelings have set up a defense. We're gonna join a large force which is supposed to cross that gap and carry us on through into the rest of the city. Summers should be on the other side," the pony explained. The humans understood. Within ten minutes, their chariot had joined others which were flying over the retaken part of the city. The other chariots were carried by pegasus guards while unicorn guards rode on them.
Soon, the fleet of chariots began crossing the gap that divided Las Pegasus in half. However, halfway across the gap, changeling magic beams began to fire upon the fleet. Many pegasi who were hit plummeted along with their unicorn comrades down to their deaths among the ruins of Los Pegasus. Some chariots made it through, however, including Shining Armor's and the humans'. The chariots landed on the other side of the gap carrying the other half of Las Pegasus, the same cloud that was filling the air with green magic lasers. Before running out the back of the chariot, Ramirez blasted a new song from his phone.
"What? This feels like Omaha beach right now!" The guys shrugged and charged out of the chariot and began charging out of the chariot and shooting at the windows where the lasers were coming from. The unicorn guards who made it to the other side of the gap began to return fire as well.
An hour and a half later
The royal guards and humans finally secured a foothold onto the other half of Las Pegasus. The fighting went on for a long time because they had run into Queen Chrysalis' own royal guards. These changelings wore dark armor that proved effective at stopping magical blasts. In fact, the armor was so effective, the humans had to double-tap multiple changelings when they found that their darts failed to penetrate the armor the first time.
"Dang, these changelings had some tough armor!" Ramirez said, as he pulled out a dart that was lodged in a piece of helmet on the ground.
"Yeah, maybe we should look into developing more mega-based weaponry." Parker noted. During the battle, he noticed that he could one-tap armored changelings with his Cycloneshock revolver, which used the much larger mega-darts.
"Well, what are we waiting for now? Let's find Newbie!" Smith said.
"Hold up, I got an idea", Ramirez said. He then went to talk to Shining Armor.
"Captain?"
"Yes Sergeant?"
"My team is ready to go looking for our guy. We are going to Gladmane's to go get him. Can you send your guys to the other half of this cloud to distract the changelings?"
"Sure thing. We think that they are very thinly spread across this town. Even with their armor, they aren't going to last very long."
"Thanks." Shining Armor then had his stallions form up and move toward one side of the cloud while the humans began creeping through the streets on the other side.
After about thirty minutes of stealthily moving through the streets of Las Pegasus, the men found their target. There was a large building with a large courtyard which had the word Gladmane's on it, and there were two armored changelings standing guard at the door. In front of the building was what looked like a worn-down statue of an Elvis-impersonator pony, similar to the ones seen in Las Vegas. Ramirez then pulled out some binoculars to look inside the building, and sure enough, there were multiple cocoons with ponies in them, including an unusually large one, one that could be used to hold a human.
"Ok guys, here's the plan", Ramirez began explaining.
Inside Gladmane's a few minutes later
Two changelings were standing guard at Summers' cocoon. They just took over for the last guards who were going to get lunch by feasting on some other pony prisoners. Suddenly, one started talking to the other.
"Hey"
"What is it?"
"Since we captured a human, do you think that the other ones will come looking for him?"
"Of course they would, but there's nothing to worry about. There's at least fifty other guards in here."
"Yeah, well I heard that fifty changelings is nothing for these creatures!"
"Well we have one of them now, they probably won't be as effective as they were before!" Suddenly, the lights in the building died out. The rides and arcade games, which were dead the whole time, suddenly flashed to life. The changelings started getting nervous.
"What in the queen's name is going on?! Who deactivated the lights? How are those things coming to life??" one frightened changeling yelled.
"Everybody calm down! This is probably some sort of weird power failure!" the changeling in charge yelled. He soon started walking to the back of the building to check on the magical breaker box when the most terrifying sound known to changelings began broadcasting on all the speakers in the building.
The crushing sound of Tony Iommi's guitar saturated with the almost unholy sound of Ozzy Osbourne's vocals began to frighten all the changelings in the building.
"Demons!! These humans have to be demons straight from Tartarus!!!!!" one terrified changeling yelled above the music. Suddenly, the changelings looked toward the open-window office on the second floor of the building to see two bipedal silhouettes starring them down. As the guitar solo began, these silhouettes began shooting at the changelings. Some of the changelings began to run while others stood frozen in fear of these powerful beings.
"Everybody! Hold your --!!!!!!!!!!!!" The changeling in command was cut off when multiple darts ripped through his armor and body.
Outside Gladmane's front entrance
The changelings were in full panic mode and were running towards the courtyard to escape the vengeful humans that were shooting at them inside the building. Suddenly, one changeling stopped to catch her breath when she looked down next to her. To her own horror, she saw that one of the changelings that was standing guard outside earlier was dead on the ground with two shots through his head and chest.
"IT'S A TRAP!!!!!!", she yelled shortly before a dart ripped through her skull. Two muzzle flashes erupted from the buildings in front of the fleeing changelings. Multiple changelings were being gunned down by automatic fire from one building while a sniper picked off the rest from another. Suddenly, the changelings stopped in their tracks to try and run back into Gladmane's. Unfortunately for them, the two humans that were shooting at them inside came walking out, weapons drawn. All the remaining changelings saw no other option but to surrender.
Since Parker had the full-auto Rapidstrike, Ramirez had him escort the changeling prisoners back to Shining Armor's base camp at the gap. The Lunar Nightwatch had captured thirty changelings during the brawl, and the other team members began cutting out pony prisoners along with Summers.
"Oh man! You guys have no idea how gross that was!" Summers exclaimed as he was assisted out of his cocoon, covered in slime.
"You're welcome Newbie", Smith replied sarcastically, helping Summers out of the cocoon.
McLaughn was helping Ramirez cut out the ponies who were trapped in cocoons. They did not like seeing such sweet and adorable creatures in such filthy condition.
"There you go, stay with us until we get everypony else free," McLaughn gently told a small colt whom he had just freed. The colt saw his parents, who were also freed, nearby and ran up to hug them. The parents then walked over to McLaughn and Ramirez, who were still cutting out other ponies.
"Thank you so much for helping us! We thought that they were going to eat our internal energy!" the mother told the humans.
"Yes! Thank you! I thought I would never see my family alive again! We're all still breathing because of you creatures!" the father told them.
"Don't worry about it, helping ponies is our prime directive!" McLaughn replied to the grateful ponies.
After a couple of hours of cutting, the guys had rescued Summers along with about 150 ponies, including 12 families with fillies and colts. Unfortunately, some of the ponies whom the changelings had feasted on were too weak to walk. They were either helped out by other ponies or they were carried by the humans.
'Damn savages,' Ramirez thought to himself as he carried a filly that was about the Cutie Mark Crusaders' age. The filly had been fed on multiple times, and her parents were walking next to Ramirez. Suddenly the filly began speaking.
"Mr. Human?"
"Yes?"
"Why did those monsters attack us? What have we ever done to them?"
"I don't think that ponies have ever done anything to provoke the changelings. They just have a voracious, unnatural appetite which they satisfy by feeding on pony love energy. What's your name little filly?"
"Daisy Hearts"
"Well Daisy, you can just call me Daniel. ok?"
"Ok Mr. Daniel." The parents looked up to see the human talking with their daughter, and the father tapped Ramirez on his leg.
"I think your parents want to see you right now."
"I want to see them too." Ramirez lowered the little filly onto her father's back.
"Thank you so much, are you sure that the royal guards will be able to help us?", the mother asked.
"I think they would be able to help her more than we could. We humans have no idea on how changeling feeding works," Ramirez replied.
Shining Armor's camp
The Battle for Las Pegasus was over. Shining Armor's force had wiped out all remaining changeling resistance in the city. Now, the pony guards had begun the long process of gathering the bodies, hauling away prisoners, and helping out refugee ponies who were now liberated. Shining Armor looked at the humans who were sitting next to their ammo cart.
"You guys did a great job today. Not only did you save one of your men, but you saved a bunch of ponies as well. Some of these ponies who were fed on could have died without medical attention right now," the young captain told the creatures.
"Thanks. Where to next?" Ramirez replied.
"This was a very rough battle for all of us. I thought that you guys would like some time to recharge in Ponyville before getting into another huge fight. Princess Luna sent me the map that the changeling prisoner from Canterlot showed us. I will take royal guard forces to deal with the remaining hives. If we need you again, we'll just send for you." Shining Armor replied. The guys were relieved that they would get to take some more time off.
"Thanks Captain." Ramirez replied.
"You're welcome. I'm pretty sure my sister and her friends are looking forward to seeing you again," Shining Armor replied.
Later, as the guys were preparing to leave back to Ponyville again, Ramirez had a sudden realization and went and told Shining Armor.
"Captain?"
"Yes?"
"Today we fought some of Chrysalis' royal guards, but did you actually see her anywhere during the battle?"
"No, did you or your men see her?"
"No, she wasn't here during the battle. She's still out there, probably preparing her next move. Be careful when you go to those hives."
"I will Sergeant." After that, Ramirez turned and went back to join his men in the chariot which flew them back to Ponyville.
As the humans landed in front of Twilight's Castle, the Mane Six plus Lyra and Starlight were waiting for them. The ponies soon trotted over to see their friends after they finished unloading the chariot.
"Woah, what happened here?!" Rainbow Dash inquired after seeing the large bandage on Smith's leg.
"Oh yeah, I got bit by a changeling and shot by their magic in that spot", Smith replied, unwrapping the now-unneeded bandage to show the two bite marks left by the changeling.
"Oh no! You poor thing! You should really put that back on before it gets infected!" Fluttershy exclaimed, not wanting the human to get sick.
"It's ok, really, that wound hasn't bled out for days now", Smith replied to the yellow pegasus, trying to calm her down.
"Oh we've missed you boys so much! You poor things look so dirty!" Lyra noted. After the last battle, the guys were intensely sweaty from the ordeal in Las Pegasus, while Summers was also still covered in some changeling slime.
"Nothing to worry about Lyra! Equestria's best emergency clothing expert came prepared!" Rarity exclaimed, levitating some fresh clothes with her magic. The humans picked them up.
"Thank you so much Rarity, this helps us out more than you know", Ramirez thanked the white unicorn.
"It's no problem at all darling, it's the least I can do for Equestria's strong new defenders!" Rarity replied while batting her eyes at Ramirez.
"I'm glad you guys came back today. The princesses wanted to come but they had to stay in Canterlot to recover from a cutie mark spell I cast on them," Starlight said sheepishly.
"You what?!" Parker asked.
"ANYWAY, welcome back guys! How long are you gonna be staying?" Twilight asked, trying to deflect Parker's question.
"I think we're gonna stay until the royal guards find Chrysalis", Summers replied.
"Ok then, come inside, you boys look like you've had a long fight," Twilight replied, leading them into the castle.
After waking up in the morning, the guys were wondering what to do. Smith decided to go to Sweet Apple Acres and visit Applejack. Parker and Summers stayed at the castle to hang out with Twilight and Starlight. McLaughn went to see Fluttershy at her cottage. Ramirez went to the Carousel Boutique to visit Rarity.
Sweet Apple Acres
Smith walked over and leaned over the fence to see Applejack and Big Mac bucking apple trees like they usually do. Applejack soon turned and noticed him.
"Hey Jeff! Whatcha doin here at Sweet Apple Acres?"
"Oh nothin much, just looking for something to do."
"Oh ok, you wanna help us buck apples?"
"Sure thing, just kick the tree?"
"Sounds 'bout right, oh, and that's my big brother, Big Macintosh."
"Hey"
"Howdy stranger", Big Mac replied while continuing to buck the trees. Suddenly Smith got an idea. He walked over to one tree, and did a Chuck Norris style roundhouse kick, bringing all the apples down at once.
"Wow! I've never seen bucking like that!" Applejack said in amazement.
"Nnope!" Big Mac agreed.
"Hey y'all, I'm goin to Starlight's village to visit my marefriend Sugar Belle. Jeff, do you think you can handle things for me?" Big Mac asked.
"Sure, have fun!" Smith said before Big Mac left. He then began helping Applejack kick the apples out of the trees.
Twilight's castle
"Yeah, so now Pinkie Pie's sister is one of my friends, and I've been with Trixie for a while. I'm starting to wonder, what if I form my own friendship team of six like Twilight has?" Starlight asked while lying across Parker's lap enjoying a belly rub.
"That sounds nice, maybe you guys could save Equestria again." Parker replied while scratching behind her ear and rubbing her belly.
"Mmmm, this is soooo much better than going to the spa! Maybe after this war, you guys could work there!" Starlight complimented the human on his exceptional cuddling skills.
"Yeah totally!" Twilight agreed from nearby as Summers was massaging her wings and back.
"Aww, then who would be your royal guard Twi?" Summers asked.
"That's also true! Hey, I just thought, maybe there's something to you guys cuddling us. From what you told us about yesterday's battle, that stuff seemed pretty traumatic. You guys are super calm right now though. Are you guys enjoying this as much as we are?" Twilight inquired, thinking of 'experimenting' with human-pony petting.
"Well, war veterans in our world sometimes get dogs to help them with war trauma like this too, so maybe." Parker replied.
"SPIKE!" Twilight called. The small dragon suddenly came into the room.
"Looks like somepony is enjoying themselves" he sarcastically noted. Twilight had flipped over so that she could get her belly rubbed.
"Spike, get some quills and paper, we need to research the effects of human-pony affection! We can start right now and AAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Twilight was cut off when Summers began poking her in the belly.
"Come on Twi, Spike works so hard for us, he's cooked most of the meals we've had in the castle so far, maybe he should have a break today." Summers told Twilight while continually poking his fingers into her sensitive belly.
"Yeah Twilight, maybe I should!" Spike said while fist bumping with Summers.
"OK! OK! We can save the research for later." Twilight relented.
"Well, back to reading," Spike said as he was about to leave. Parker, however, had an idea.
"Hey Spike! Come here!" Parker called. He then pulled out his Iphone.
"Woah, what is that?" Spike asked.
"It's an Iphone, it has a ton of games on it, like this one." He pulled up an app that allowed superheroes to battle each other and let him play on it.
"Wow, this is cool!" Spike said as he tapped his claws on the phone.
"HELLO? This pony needs more petting! Less talking!" Starlight called out, eager to get back to her petting.
"Oh, right, sorry about that Glim Glam!" Parker replied. Starlight began giggling.
"Glim Glam? Is that my new name? I like it! Just don't tell it to anypony outside this room!" Starlight told him.
Fluttershy's cottage
McLaughn knocked gently on the door so he wouldn't frighten the yellow pegasus.
"uh... who's there? Oh Corey! It's you!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she opened the door for the human, who crouched through the small doorway into her humble home.
"Hi Fluttershy, I decided to come hang out with you today! Whatcha doin?"
"Oh! I just finished feeding all my animals and put them outside. All of them, except Angel of course." Fluttershy responded while looking nearby at her bunny, who was curiously looking at McLaughn. He got a pouty look on his face after a few seconds. McLaughn looked uneasy at this, knowing about what evil this little bunny was capable of.
"Oh don't worry about him, he's always like this around new ponies and people. Would you like some tea?" Fluttershy offered.
"Sure! Can you make it sweet tea please?" McLaughn replied, having grown a taste for sweet tea after being in Texas for so long.
"Of course!" Fluttershy, well, fluttered into her kitchen to start making some tea for herself and the human. She came back a few minutes later with the tea.
"Here you go. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your head?" McLaughn still had some bandages around his head from being shot by the changeling laser.
"Oh, I got knocked unconscious during the battle."
"Oh no! You poor thing! Is it feeling better?"
"Well most of the time it's fine, but I do get headaches once in a while."
"Oh, well I have pain medicine if you need some!"
"No no Fluttershy, I'll be fine."
"Oh but I insist! I don't want you feeling hurt all the time!" Fluttershy then crawled up onto his lap and gave him the most adorable face she could muster.
"Uuhh! Ok then Flutters, thank you for the meds." McLaughn said while blushing at the adorable pony in his lap. Fluttershy then hopped off and went to get the medicine. McLaughn began drinking the sweet tea. Fluttershy soon came back in and handed him a small medicine bottle.
"So Flutters, how's your life going?" he asked.
"It's going very well, thank you," Fluttershy answered while giggling.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, well, you just keep calling me Flutters. Is it my pet name?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry Fluttershy, I didn't mean to make it look like I wanted to make you my pet!"
"Oh it's no problem at all! I kinda like it actually! I sometimes dream about being the pet instead of the owner."
"...."
"Not that I actually want that to happen! But don't worry. I still like the nickname Corey."
"Oh ok then."
Carousel Boutique
Ramirez walked into the boutique with the bell clinking behind him as he crouched through the doorway. He soon heard the trotting of hooves coming his way.
"Coming! Oh Sergeant! Welcome! What can I do for you today?" The white unicorn said upon noticing him.
"Hi Rare! Just call me Daniel. I just decided to spend my free day with you!" Like the other ponies at the other places, Rarity giggled at her new nickname.
"Hehe! Daniel, when did you ever come up with a name for me such as that?"
"What? Is it bad?" Ramirez looked down nervously.
"Oh not at all darling, not at all! It's just very amusing!"
"Oh that's good then."
"So you want to spend the day with me... I am usually busy at this time, but business has been slow this week. What do you want to do?"
"What would you like to do Rare?"
"Me? Oh! I usually do things with my friends, play with my little sister, or I'm busy trying to run my three shops across Equestria."
"Hmm... I have an idea! Do you have movie theaters around here?"
"You mean the moving picture theater? Yes we do have one in Ponyville!"
"Would you like to go to a movie?"
"Of course! I'd love to see a movie with you!" Rarity excitedly stated as she headed toward the door. Ramirez stepped in front of her and held the door open as she trotted out.
"Daniel darling! You're such a gentleman!" Rarity was impressed by the chivalrous act of the human.
"No problem Rare!" Ramirez replied as he walked out the door while turning the "open" sign to "closed".
Twilight's castle, end of the day
The guys had started coming back to the castle and were sharing their stories of their day with the ponies.
"Today was a bunch of hard work! I helped Applejack buck some apples from trees all morning, and then helped myself to Granny Smith's delicious apple pie! I tried to nap under an apple tree after that, but when Applejack tried to sneak some snuggles in, I grabbed her hat and took off with it! She chased me all over Sweet Apple Acres today!" The other guys laughed at Smith's story.
"Twilight and Starlight had us for their personal cuddlers today." Parker said.
"Yeah, they were really soft and cute too!" Summers added.
"I got to have tea with Fluttershy today!" McLaughn interjected.
"Of course you'd hang out with your waifu!" Ramirez said sarcastically, with the other guys laughing.
"Yeah we talked about human anatomy, history, and technology! She was really sweet. She even got me a blanket and cuddled me when I napped on her couch." McLaughn said. The others felt heartwarmed by this, since Fluttershy's reputation as the cutest pony was well established in the fandom.
"I went and took Rarity to the movies today!" Ramirez piped up.
"Of course you'd hang out with YOUR waifu!" McLaughn replied to Ramirez, resulting in even more laughter.
"We went and saw 'Guardians of Harmony', which was sort of like 'Guardians of the Galaxy', except with ponies of course. After that I took her to Pony Joe's for lunch, and then took her home and hung out with her for the rest of the day."
"Did your pony snuggle you too?" Parker asked.
"Yep."
"Sounds like you had the perfect date!"
"What?! Pffftt. Nah! It wasn't a date!" Ramirez replied blushing. Suddenly Twilight and Spike burst into the room.
"Guys! Spike just got this letter from my B.B.B.F.F!" Twilight shouted while levitating a letter over to Ramirez.
"It says that he found plans for the changeling royal guard to attack Thorax's friendly changeling hive in two days!" Ramirez said.
"If the changeling royal guard is gonna be there, there's a strong chance that Chrysalis will show up too!" Parker said.
"Twilight, can you and Starlight come with us this time since y'all know more about the friendly changelings?" Ramirez asked the purple pony.
The guys had waken up earlier and had breakfast and were ready to move. They were supposed to go to the changeling hive with Twilight and Starlight to prepare defenses against Queen Chrysalis and her forces. Starlight soon came out of the castle.
"Hey guys, I'm sorry to tell you this, but Twilight said that she had just remembered that she had some important princess business to do and she can't come," Starlight told the humans.
"Oh well. Twilight told us that you're a pretty strong unicorn Starlight. I'm sure everything will be fine." Ramirez said. Starlight giggled and blushed at this statement. Ramirez then turned around and whispered to the team.
"Looks like Twilight is sending off others to do her dirty work like Celestia did with her." The guys snickered at this.
"Hey, I've never seen that weapon before, what is that?" Starlight spoke up. During the nerf war back in Texas, Ramirez, without informing his own men, had brought a Thunderblast rocket launcher. He kept it in his backpack up until today. He now wore it strapped across his back.
"Oh, this is our secret weapon. We tried to deal with Chrysalis one time, but her magic was too strong for our normal weapons. This one is much more powerful than the others. That bug shouldn't be able to stand up to this!" Ramirez said proudly.
"Yeah Sarge, when were you gonna tell us that you had an rpg?" Smith asked sarcastically.
"I decided that it would be best to keep it as a secret weapon just in case."
"Makes sense. We just brought our own secret weapons too," Smith said as he and Parker turned around to reveal that they both were wearing Strikeblade swords ninja-style on their backs. They both had a sword club back in Texas and they were frequent sparing partners.
"Of course y'all would bring those!" Ramirez exclaimed as the guys began laughing.
"Ok guys! Try to stand in a huddle while I teleport us!" Starlight said as she lit her horn and a magic field surrounded the pony and human, and then disappeared.
Friendly changeling hive
The local changelings were doing the same business that they had been doing since Chrysalis was ousted: cleaning up the mess from the magic explosion. Unlike Chrysalis and her loyalists, these changelings were very brightly colored with wing casings covering their sparkling wings. Suddenly, a magical field began forming in the middle of the hive. The changelings ran up to meet Starlight when she trotted out.
"Hi everypony!" Starlight waved in a friendly manner. She was just as famous among these changelings as Spike was famous in the Crystal Empire. However, the changelings started screaming and running for cover when they saw the humans walk out of the magic field in full combat gear.
"Wait! What's the matter? Why are you afraid?" Starlight called out to the fleeing changelings.
"We've heard the stories! Those creatures! They're called humans or ex-terminators! They kill changelings without remorse!" one changeling called out from behind a rock.
"Guys! They fight EVIL changelings! You guys are GOOD changelings! You're ok! They won't hurt you!" Starlight responded.
"She's right!" one changeling called out. He trotted forward to meet the humans. The humans were confused as to how one changeling was unafraid of them while the rest trembled in fear. Suddenly, Ramirez noticed a deep scar on it's yellow leg and immediately put two and two together.
"Mandible?"
"Hi Daniel! Thank you so much for giving me a second chance! I have been so happy here! I no longer have to scour and attack other creatures to feed off their love! You saved me!" The changeling actually flew up and hugged him, with Ramirez grinning nervously while awkwardly returning the hug. Smith just turned and awkwardly looked at the ground, due to his exchange with the exact same changeling in Canterlot. Soon, the other changelings started coming out to meet the humans, including a taller one with antlers.
"Thorax!"
"Starlight!" Starlight and the tall changeling ran up and hugged each other.
"Oh man! It's been so long since the party!" Starlight told the changeling.
"I know! Maybe we could throw the gourd fest while you're here! Who are your new friends?" Thorax responded.
"That's kind of why we're here. We think that Chrysalis and her loyalist forces are going to attack this hive," Starlight uneasily told him. The changelings in the room gasped in shock.
"Oh no! She intends to start a changeling civil war! What should we do?" Thorax exclaimed.
"These humans here have fought her loyalists from the Everfree Forest to Canterlot to Los Pegasus. They are, as the stories say, excellent warriors. They will help you prepare for the attack which, according to Equestrian intelligence, is supposed to occur tomorrow." Starlight told the changeling king. Thorax looked at the tall, bipedal creatures and studied their strange, alien weaponry.
"Can you help us?" he asked.
"That's what we're here for!" Ramirez said. The changelings started cheering for their new human allies. Soon, Shining Armor also arrived with royal guard reinforcements.
"Looks like tomorrow will be one hell of a turkey shoot!" Smith said upon seeing the fresh troops arrive. Soon, Ramirez, Thorax, and Shining Armor began to formulate their plan.
A few hours later, about five hundred feet outside the hive
All around the hive, ponies, changelings, and Parker and McLaughn were digging a network of trenches as part of the plan.
inside the hive
Smith along with a few unicorn guards and Starlight Glimmer were training the changelings in marksmanship skills with their magic horn blasts. Nearby, Summers was helping some changelings dig and prepare traps and hiding spots while teaching them important guerilla warfare and hit-and-run tactics.
Later that night
Ramirez and his men were gathered around a campfire outside of the hive. Many changelings and guardsponies were nearby around their own campfires and were talking, having fun, or going to sleep. The guys were eating boar meat from the surrounding badlands after Smith successfully bagged one earlier.
"How long has it been since we got here?" McLaughn asked.
"This morning?" Parker replied.
"No, since we came to this world." McLaughn said.
"I think it's been about eleven days." Ramirez spoke up.
"Dang, we've only been here for about two weeks and we've gotten ourselves involved in an alien war." Smith said.
"Because of us, I think this war will be over within a few days rather than a few months!" Summers noted. The others on the team agreed.
"Well, after this fight is over, what will we do out here?" Ramirez asked. The guys started to become concerned.
"Twilight, the princesses, and even Discord all said that they have no idea how we got here. We might be stuck here for a while, if not permanently," Parker said.
"Well, at least we won't have to do more engineering homework or put up with the political insanity in our world." Summers said. Everyone laughed at this. Yet on the inside, they all knew that they would miss their families and homes. Soon there was an awkward silence.
"Well guys, let's get some rest. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow," Ramirez told his men. They soon dumped water on the fire and went to sleep.
There were a lot of signs of put-out campfires around the changeling hive while the guardsponies, changelings, and humans were nowhere to be seen. About an hour before sunrise, a large buzzing sound along with the beat of marching hooves could be heard approaching. Soon, a massive black loyalist changeling force paused about a mile in front of the hive. As the intel noted, these changelings were indeed wearing the dark armor, sharpened fangs, and swords that identified them as Chrysalis' own personal elite guards. After observing the apparent inactivity around the hive, the changeling in command spoke up.
"We did it! We've caught them by surprise! All changelings! Attaaackk!!! For the Queen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Soon, the large black cloud began drawing out swords, flying towards the hive. However, as soon as it got to about fifty yards from the hive, a loud voice rang out.
"EVERYONE! FIRE NOW!" numerous ponies and allied changelings popped up from out of the ground and started hurling magic and spears at the oncoming loyalist onslaught. Among those shooting from the trenches were Starlight, Shining Armor, Ramirez, McLaughn, and Parker. Parker's Rapidstrike in particular was a very deadly weapon, mowing down oncoming changelings at a very high rate.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! CRY SOM MOAR!!!!!!!!" Parker yelled at the loyalist changelings while firing his weapon. He was using the one hundred round magazines that Princess Luna had made for him. Nearby to the left, Ramirez, Starlight, and Mandible were using magic blasts and rifle shots to hold a position against the changeling onslaught. To the right, McLaughn fired burst shots from the Stryfe smg. Everywhere else along the line was being held by guardsponies and allied changelings. However, the loyalist changelings kept charging while firing their own magic back at the defenders, and despite the heavy casualties they were suffering, they kept gaining ground. When they got within ten feet of the trench, Ramirez gave the order to retreat into the hive.
"FALL BACK! EVERYONE INTO THE HIVE!" Soon, the guardsponies and allied changelings began falling back into the hive while the humans covered their retreat. However, their weapons were quickly running out of ammunition, and they would need to get to their supplies inside of the hive. As soon as the last pony got in, the humans turned and jumped into the hive as the trenches were overrun. Soon, the loyalist changelings took off into the tunnels after them. They knew the area (they once lived in it after all), and were very confident that they would be able to surround the remaining forces within the hive. However, what they didn't expect was the new holes dug out by the allied changelings where they would pop out and ambush the enemy from behind. They would let the loyalist changelings pass by them and then ambush them from behind using spears and magic. Summers was in one of these ambush hideouts and he would frequently jump out and unleash multiple shotgun blasts on the enemy. This caused much confusion among the loyalist changeling ranks and severely depleted their numbers.
However, a good number of loyalist changelings were still able to make it through the booby trapped labyrinth to a large open space in the hive.
There, they found Smith, Ramirez, and Parker reloading their weapons while Mandible showed his teeth at them. They soon tried to charge and attack them when a dart from an undisclosed location took down one. Smith was perched somewhere nearby using his sniper Retaliator to provide cover. He kept on firing his rifle, putting down multiple changelings as the rest of the humans reloaded and resumed firing. At one point, the changelings charged them and tried to engage them in hoof to hand combat when Smith jumped down from his hiding spot and he and Parker pulled out their own nerf swords and charged straight for them, yelling out the motto on their team badges.
"LUNA NOS CUSTODIT!!!!!!" They began slicing through the loyalists in a similar manner to the Spartans against the Persians in 300. For the changelings, the only thing scarier than a human with a gun was a human with a sword that were bigger than theirs, charging and yelling at the same time. At the same time, McLaughn, Mandible, and Ramirez kept shooting at other loyalist changelings who tried using magic from a distance. Soon, royal guard and allied changeling reinforcements arrived with Summers and forced the remaining loyalist changelings to surrender.
A few minutes later
After rounding up all of the loyalist prisoners, reloading their guns, and searching the bodies, the Lunar Nightwatch, Thorax, Shining Armor, and Starlight all realized that they had one big problem: Queen Chrysalis wasn't here. The team needed answers, and they needed them now. Suddenly, Summers had an idea, and when he told it to Ramirez, he agreed.
"Give me that one." Ramirez said, pointing to a loyalist changeling officer. Two guardsponies immediately brought him over. Ramirez then backed up as Summers drew his Cycloneshock and pointed it to the changeling's head.
"I know what you're thinkin," he began to speak to the bughorse.
"'Is he just bluffing me or will he pull that trigger?' Well to tell you the truth, after all of this excitement, I am kind of debating that decision myself," he kept going.
"But being that this is a Nerf Mega, the most powerful handgun in the world, one that would blow your head clean off, you gotta ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'" The changeling stared down the barrel of the revolver. It definitely packed a bigger dart than what the other blasters used.
"Well do ya punk?" The changeling hesitated, and then spoke.
"Her highness sent us here mainly as a distraction. While taking Thorax or killing you humans would have been preferable, she knew that we wouldn't be able to defeat you. Therefore, she left behind evidence for this attack on purpose while secretly planning her final attempt at strengthening the 'true' changelings," the bug said with disgust as he looked toward Thorax and Mandible nearby.
"Where. is. she?" Summers leaned in while cocking the slide on the nerf hand cannon.
"She took the rest of her army from all of the remaining hives along with her powerful anti-magic stone and marched toward the Crystal Empire to steal the love from the crystal ponies, from the princess and her filly, and from the crystal heart itself," Shining Armor was nearby and turned around in horror from what he just heard.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY SHE WAS GOING TO DO TO MY FAMILY?!" He yelled as he jumped on the changeling angrily and was about to punch him.
"SHE SAID SHE WAS INVADING THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE WITH EVERYTHING SHE'S GOT!"
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! THE CRYSTAL HEART'S PROTECTIVE FIELD WOULD PREVENT ANY INVADERS FROM REACHING THE CITY!"
"NOT IF WE USED WHAT REMAINED OF HER MAGIC NULLIFYING STONE! THEN THE CRYSTAL HEART WOULD BE USELESS AGAINST US!" Upon hearing this, Shining Armor began beating up the changeling. After about ten seconds of this, Ramirez tried to pull Shining off, but to no avail. Even when Parker tried to help Ramirez pull him off of the now bruised, bleeding changeling, he wasn't budging. Suddenly, Summers went on a hunch and started scratching behind the pony's ear.
"S-STOP IT!!" Shining yelled at the humans, but after five seconds of scratching, Shining calmed down and fell flat on his belly, blissfully enjoying the scratch until Summers pulled his hand away. After a few seconds without scratches, Shining regained his senses and began getting back up.
"Sorry guys, I was very unprofessional over there." Shining told the humans soon after getting up. The changeling was now unconscious and was being dragged away by guardsponies. Ramirez then turned around to see Starlight looking up at him. She had listened in on the whole conversation and saw what Shining did.
"Need some teleportation magic?" She asked voluntarily, worried not just about the princesses and crystal ponies, but also for her friend Sunburst who lived in the Crystal Empire.
"Yeah, but can you really get the whole pony army to the Crystal Empire?" Ramirez asked skeptically.
"No, but I can get you guys, Shining Armor, about ten of his troops and me over there," she responded.
"Wait for a few minutes, I'll be back," Shining told her as he began gathering ten of his best guardsponies. The humans went and collected extra ammunition from their supplies nearby. After five minutes, every one was ready.
"Be careful out there," Thorax told them as he, Mandible, and the rest of the allied changelings and guardsponies looked at the small group.
"Do it," Shining said as he, his troops, and the humans were standing by.
"Ok, here it goes..." Starlight's horn lit up, and soon the humans and ponies were consumed in a magic field which vanished a few seconds later.
At around the same time in the early morning that the attack on Thorax's hive began, an even larger changeling force marched and flew through the snow toward the beautiful Crystal Empire. In front of this large army was none other than the evil bug queen herself, Chrysalis. Around her neck, she wore a necklace with a large, chunky stone on it. This stone was the last piece of her old throne which nullified any non-changeling magic. She soon had her army stop before the Crystal Empire's force field.
"My loyal subjects," She began addressing her army.
"At this time, your brothers and sisters are attacking the humans, Thorax and his traitors at our old hive. However, I realized that killing or taking Thorax would never save our species. In order to save our species, we must feed. The Crystal Empire is full of love!" She pointed her hoof at the large, elegant city.
"With the help of our stone, we will breach it's force field and take the city! Once we're in, you may all feed! However, I would like the Princesses and anypony in their castle brought to me! I will make her pay for what she did to me all those years ago!" the queen ordered. She hated Cadance very much since she stole her primary food source, the handsome Captain Shining Armor, a few years ago. His love aura was the sweetest she had ever tasted, and it made her even more powerful than Princess Celestia! Also, if the rumors are true, her daughter would also have a delicious aura....
"Now is our time, my children! CHARGE!!!!!!!!" The changeling army cheered and charged toward the city. Everything went as Chrysalis planned: the stone enabled the changelings to breach the shield and catch the crystal ponies totally off guard. Soon, the streets were filled with the screams of frightened ponies, and the royal guards who tried to put up a fight were either killed or captured and fed on.
Inside the Crystal castle
Princess Cadance was fast asleep in her royal bedroom with her child, Flurry Heart, in her crib closeby. However, she was awakened when she heard the screams coming from outside. She immediately got up and looked upon her kingdom, which was burning in several places with ponies running desperately for their lives from the changelings. Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door. Cadance immediately opened up. Outside was an orange and white unicorn, Sunburst, along with four crystal guards.
"Your Highness! We are under attack! We need to get you and the baby to safety!" Sunburst yelled.
"I can see that Sunburst! This is worse than the assault at my wedding!" She responded as she gently picked up Flurry Heart in her magic and joined the escort toward the area under the castle where they would be safe. The group immediately began running down the halls towards the stairs. As they ran down the stairs, changelings began to flood the stairway, and the Crystal guards began fighting them off with their spears. Much to their dismay, they found that their unicorn magic was now useless.
"Run princess! We'll cover your retreat!" one guard yelled as he and his fellow guards desperately tried to hold off the incoming hungry changelings. Soon, Sunburst, Cadance, and Flurry went deep underground to the very deepest part of the castle, where King Sombra made a panic room long ago. They soon shut themselves in and locked the door.
"We gotta keep quiet if we want the changelings to not notice us," Sunburst warned the princess.
"Understood Sunburst, I hope help comes soon," Cadance responded. Suddenly, they heard the buzzing of changeling wings coming from outside.
"Where is she? Come on! We saw her just before those guards delayed us!" one of the voices from outside said.
"I don't know! At least those guards were delicious though!" another voice said, and they both began laughing. Sunburst and Cadance tried to keep calm despite the tenseness of the situation. Unfortunately for them, Flurry Heart began to wake up from her sleep, and when she wakes up, she can get fussy.
"Flurry! Sweetie! Mommy is here! Can you please keep it down?" Cadance tried to calm the foal princess. However, the infant soon began whining very audibly.
"Flurry! Please! We need you to be quiet right ----" She was cut off when two changelings broke down the doors to reveal the three ponies in the room. Cadance was about to scream when more changelings from the stairway swarmed them.
Outside of the castle
The changelings had successfully conquered the Crystal Empire and had taken it's leaders hostage. In the castle courtyard, numerous crystal nobles sat glued to the ground by changeling slime. Queen Chrysalis looked out at the empire laughing.
"Finally! Finally! With the Crystal Empire under my control, we can rebuild our kingdom and ensure that it will last a thousand years!"
"Your Highness!" A changeling officer called out from behind her. Chrysalis turned around to see the guard and the changelings under his command bringing out Cadance and Sunburst in chains while Flurry Heart was carried in a cocoon.
"Muahahahahahaha!! Excellent! You have done well, my children! This is most certainly the greatest day in changeling history!!" Chrysalis yelled out, audibly proud of her army. Nearby, the crystal noble ponies looked on and gasped in shock that their princess had been captured by these ugly insects.
"You won't get away with this! Once my husband and his troops get here he'll---" Cadance was yelling defiantly at Chrysalis when she was cut off by the queen.
"That's what you think, my dear princess. MY FORMER husband-to-be is currently *ahem* 'busy' elsewhere. It's such a shame that he thought we were attacking my old hive rather than this place!" A tearful look of hopelessness filled Cadance's and the other ponies' faces when they heard this.
"Restrain her properly" Chrysalis ordered her troops. They immediately used their slime to bind Cadance spread-eagle to the ground, which was very uncomfortable for ponies.
"I must admit that you did a very excellent job running this land. I have never seen such a beautiful place in my life. I thought that Canterlot looked appetizing, but your empire definitely, hehe, 'takes the cake!'" Chrysalis told Cadance as she trotted over on top of her in a very dominant position.
"And now, it is time for me to repay you for what you did to me all those years ago, Princess. You stole the love that I had so rightfully claimed at that wedding, and I'm going to take that back right now." Chrysalis sat on top of Cadance and opened her mouth, hissing and bearing fangs. The crystal ponies nearby began crying, shouting, and closing their eyes, awaiting the inevitable as Chrysalis' open mouth approached Cadance's chest. Sunburst was cursing the changelings, trying to break away and save the princess while Flurry Heart began crying in her cocoon, aware of what was about to happen. It was all over....
Just as Chrysalis was about to suck the love out of Cadance however, gunshots began to ring out nearby.
Outskirts of the Crystal Empire, a few minutes earlier
On a hill overlooking the empire, a magical energy field began to appear. Out of that field came Starlight, Shining Armor, ten royal guards, and the Lunar Nightwatch. Upon seeing the empire being ransacked before their very eyes, the ponies were crushed.
"Sunburst! No!!" Starlight began to cry.
"We're too late!" Shining Armor sat down, still trying to contemplate the extent of the invasion. The royal guards were also looking on in shock at the city, from which screams and hisses could be heard. Suddenly, Shining Armor felt a human hand on his shoulder.
"Don't give up yet. Chrysalis has to be in that city. We can still stop her," Ramirez told him.
"But how? There's only seventeen of us, she has an army! She also used that magic stone, so we can't use our magic! It's all lost!" Shining replied.
"If we let Chrysalis win here, she will eventually regain strength and invade Equestria, and no one will be able to stop her!" McLaughn told the captain. Upon hearing these words, Starlight regained her composure and joined in
"Yeah! I didn't need magic to beat Chrysalis the first time! If the rest of Equestria is at risk, we must take her down!" Starlight interjected, being motivated by the humans. This seemed to get Shining and the other guardsponies motivated again.
"You're right! Even if we can't save the Empire, we must get Chrysalis! For Equestria!" Shining yelled, with his guards cheering behind him.
"Chrysalis must be stopped, no matter the cost!" Ramirez said as he charged along with his men and the ponies towards the ongoing battle.
After passing through the crystal heart's force field, the humans and ponies kept charging toward the city. There were changelings feeding on the crystal ponies' love auras and chasing down other crystal ponies when they heard the running boots and hooves of the small team approaching. The humans immediately began to open fire on some changelings while Starlight and Shining Armor and his guards began fighting off the changelings that were feeding on the crystal ponies. Upon seeing the humans, some changelings began to run or fly away. Others began shooting magic beams at them. Fortunately, these changelings were no changeling guards, and they couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.
The humans kept charging and shooting up changelings as they ran deeper and deeper into the empire. Starlight and Shining's troops kept fighting off changelings with their hooves and spears while trying to keep up with the humans. Soon, the team got to the large Spike statue, which was one block away from the royal courtyard. The humans began shooting down the changelings who were watching over the nobles of the Crystal Empire. When the Crystal ponies saw this, they began cheering.
"Whatever those things are, they are amazing!" one crystal pony yelled out as she saw how effectively the humans were gunning down the changelings. Soon, the group made it to the royal courtyard, where Chrysalis was straddling Cadance. She immediately turned around to see the small group of humans.
"YOU!!!!!!" She yelled angrily.
"This world isn't big enough for both humans and bugs! In the end, one shall stand, one shall fall!" Ramirez told her.
"Why do you waste your time on these pitiful ponies?!" Chrysalis yelled.
"That's a question you should ask yourself Chrysalis!" McLaughn yelled back at her.
"NO! I'LL CRUSH YOU ALL WITH MY BARE HOOVES!" Chrysalis immediately charged with her magic shield at the humans, who opened fire on her. As before, the darts bounced harmlessly off of her forcefield as she rammed the team. Most of the guys fell down while she rammed Ramirez against a wall. She hissed and was about to suck up his aura when McLaughn yelled at her.
"HEY COCKROACH!"
This new name infuriated Chrysalis, and she turned around to see McLaughn fire his smg at her. Chrysalis barely managed to raise her force field at the darts and deflect them. Suddenly, Parker jumped on her from behind and held on to her neck.
"TAKE YOUR STINKIN' PAWS OFF ME YOU DAMN DIRTY APE!" She yelled as she tried to buck Parker off of her. Being from Texas, he simply rode her like a rodeo horse. Soon, she let out a magical shockwave from her horn, blasting Parker off of her back. At this time, Smith tried to get a headshot on her, but the magical shockwave knocked him off target.
"Dammit!"
Summers also charged at Chrysalis from the side and pushed her over. As he leveled his shotgun at her, she used a flashbang spell that blinded everybody, herself included. She bucked Summers away and formed up her magical force field. Everything suddenly went quiet. Chrysalis got up and tried to find the humans. As the flashbang effect faded from her vision, she heard a strange noise. She turned around to see a large rocket propelled projectile smash against her force field, exploding on impact and shattering the field to bits. She was blown back by the force of the explosion. She looked at whatever destroyed her defensive shield and saw Ramirez holding the Thunderblast over his shoulder, with another rocket loaded and ready while his troops had their weapons pointed at her.
Chrysalis was no longer in any condition to fight. The explosion also sent shrapnel from both the rocket and the force field into her. She was exhausted and could barely conjure up any more magic. She looked toward her changelings, only to find them beaten up and tied up by Starlight, Shining, and the other guards.
"YOU TOO?!" She yelled in anger. Ever since Chrysalis was kicked out of the hive, the only pony she hated more than Cadance was Starlight Glimmer. Using the last bit of strength within her, Chrysalis suddenly fired a powerful magical blast at Starlight, which hit home and left a large cut in the unicorn's chest while emitting a painful cracking sound.
"GLIM GLAM!" Parker yelled as he and McLaughn ran over to help the unicorn. Shining's team medic also trotted over to check on Starlight. Her breathing was heavy and did not sound right.
"The wound is not deep, but it is possible that she could get infected by unpure changeling magic. She also seems to have broken ribs. If we don't act fast, she could die." the medic pony said after looking her over. He then prepared a special shot from a medical kit for her. Tears began to form in Parker's eyes when he heard the diagnosis. He drew his Cycloneshock and aimed at Chrysalis.
"YOU KILLED GLIM GLAM!!!" He yelled as he was about to pull the trigger, only to be interrupted by the buzzing of hundreds of changelings surrounding the team. Chrysalis began laughing.
"Don't you fools see? It doesn't matter if you beat me or not! I have already won! You lost! My children are now stronger than ever!" She began laughing and coughing while her army stared down the team. However, these changelings soon began shaking in fear and flew down to the ground to raise their hooves in the air.
"What?" Ramirez said. The group was confused on what was happening.
"Look!" Summers yelled as he pointed to a hill on the edge of the empire.
On that hill was Thorax and his army of allied changelings, including a lot of new ones from the prisoners they reformed. There was also a large royal guard force with them. They soon swept into the city and began rounding up the loyalist changelings, who tried to flee or just sat there in surrender.
"Thorax you beautiful angel!" Ramirez exclaimed as he hugged the changeling king, who awkwardly accepted it. Nearby, Shining Armor cut his family loose.
"Shining! You came! You saved us all!" Cadance said as she held the baby and kissed Shining Armor.
"I'm so glad you're ok Cadance! If it weren't for these humans, we might never have been able to stop Chrysalis!" He pointed towards Ramirez, Smith, and Summers, who were keeping guard over Chrysalis. Nearby, however, Cadance noticed the anti-magic stone, still active.
"Thorax?" She called out.
"Yes?" He replied as he trotted over.
"Can you help us get our magic back?" She said pointing to the stone.
"Gladly," He shot a magic beam at the stone, disintegrating it and allowing the unicorns in the empire to use their magic again. Cadance then heard crying coming from nearby and saw Parker being comforted by McLaughn as they watched the royal guard medic try to fix Starlight. Sunburst, who was freed by Shining's other guards, also ran over to see Starlight.
"Oh no! Is she gonna be ok?!" He asked the guard medic.
"I don't know. I'm gonna give it my best shot though!" the medic replied. Cadance trotted over to take a look. She cast a spell on Starlight to see if any of Chrysalis' unpure magic was inside of her.
"Unwrap the bandage," She ordered the medic. Starlight's large cut was tightly bound by a bandage that wrapped around her chest.
"But your highness, if I do that she could bleed to death!" the medic retorted.
"I will be quick, soldier, just unwrap the bandage please." Cadance replied. The medic complied, and upon seeing the large tear on Starlight, Cadance used some magic from her horn to drain a green aura from the opening. She then hurled this aura far off into the sky.
"There. I just removed the residual changeling magic from her," Cadance told the medic. Parker overheard this and rushed over.
"Will she survive?!" He asked the medic and the Princess.
"Her chances of living are definitely much higher without that stuff inside of her," Cadance assured him. She then got a huge hug from the human and from Sunburst.
"Thank you so much!" they told her in unison. Parker then turned around and saw the rest of the team guarding Chrysalis.
"Well, what are we gonna do with her?!" he asked, reaching for his revolver, only to have Ramirez stop him.
"We'll leave that to the Royal sisters to decide! Shining, can you give us a lift to Canterlot?" Ramirez asked the captain nearby. During this time, Chrysalis was still scowling at everything going on around her.
"Gladly," he replied, sending some of his guards to look for a train. At this point, many of the crystal ponies were now freed and receiving medical attention while the remnants of Chrysalis' army were being hauled away by Thorax's troops.
"Men, ponies, I think that we can safely say that the pony-changeling war is over!" Ramirez told everyone, from whom a loud cheer rose. Some guards came and whispered in Shining's ear.
"The troops were able to find a train at the Crystal Empire station for you guys. They also went and got an anti-magic net for Chrysalis to be contained in." Shining said as he had his guards throw the net over Chrysalis, who began to spew some colorful language at them.
"Thank you Captain. We'll make sure she stays out of trouble," Ramirez told the pony while he and his men went to board the train with Chrysalis, some guards, and the unconscious Starlight Glimmer.
All of the Lunar Nightwatch except McLaughn and Parker were in the caboose, watching over the now weakened Chrysalis. She had decided to save her energy and keep quiet rather than provoke the creatures who could kill her right there. In fact, Parker was not in the caboose because he said that he would kill her if he saw her again. Summers and Ramirez started talking to each other.
"Hey, so are we really gonna just turn her over to Celestia and Luna?" Summers asked.
"If we weren't, we would have dumped her corpse by now," Ramirez replied. Smith watched the fallen queen with some interest.
"What do you think the princesses will do with her?" Smith asked.
"Probably hold a trial for her, and then sentence her to death or something," Ramirez said.
"Pfft, nah! I don't think they do capital punishment here! They'll probably send her to the moon or something!" Smith retorted.
"Yeah whatever, I just hope that Starlight is alright," Ramirez replied, thinking of the poor wounded unicorn.
Adjacent rail car
McLaughn and Parker sat next to the makeshift bed where Starlight lied while the royal guard medic who bandaged her watched and made sure that she was alright. McLaughn prayed over Starlight while Parker just sat there hoping that she would pull through.
About halfway on the route to Canterlot, Starlight began to stir.
"Uuuhhh. What happened?" She asked, not remembering what occurred. Parker lit up like a Christmas/Hearthswarming tree.
"Oh thank God you're alive! After we took down Chrysalis, she shot you with what was left of her magic!" Parker said as he hugged the unicorn, who began struggling.
"Oh! Okay!!! Can you let me go?! Hard to breathe!!!" Starlight said as Parker's grip was incredibly strong. He soon let go.
"Oh! Sorry!"
"Yes! You're alive! Cadance had to extract some bad magic out of your system after Chrysalis shot you. She said it could have killed you!" McLaughn interjected. Starlight looked down at the rest of her body and noticed the large gauze bandage wrapped around her upper body.
"Ouch." Starlight said half-sarcastically, half-meaningfully.
"Yeah, but thanks to the medic pony here, we think that you should be able to make a full recovery now!" Parker said, pointing to the guardspony nearby.
"It was no problem at all, guys. Just doing my job!" the guard responded.
"Well thank you anyways!" Starlight said as she planted a kiss on his cheek. The guard blushed at this.
"You should really get some rest though ma'am. It will heal faster if you rest. You may also want to stay off your legs for a while. That blast was really tough," the guard told her. Starlight looked at her human friends
"Guys, can you carry me when we get off?" She asked them.
"Gladly," the guys both said in unison.
A week later
During the last week, Celestia and Luna sentenced Chrysalis to lifetime banishment to Tartarus for her numerous crimes which included war crimes, multiple kidnappings and assaults, and crimes against ponykind and humanity. Also, the vast majority of captured changelings from all past battles decided to share their love and join King Thorax's growing and now prosperous hive. Although the Mane Six were devastated at first when they heard about Starlight getting hurt, she did start recovering rapidly. By day three after her injury, she could walk again.
Now, the Lunar Nightwatch had put their nerf blasters away so that they could help Pinkie Pie prepare a big party for the celebration of the end of the Pony-Changeling war.
"EEEE!!!! I'M SO EXCITED YOU GUYS! THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST PINKIE PARTY!!!" The bubbly pink mare exclaimed while firing her party cannon around Ponyville town square to prepare for the big occasion.
"Yeah! We're so glad that you let us help set up for this!" Parker replied. Even though Pinkie said that she didn't need help at first, she was touched by how the guys were eager to lend a hand for her biggest passion.
"We heard that you throw legendary parties!" McLaughn told her.
"Awww!! Thanks you guys!" Pinkie said, running over to McLaughn and Parker to hug them. As the afternoon approached, final preparations were made, and soon ponies began coming toward the town hall.
That afternoon
Many ponies had come to the party, including the Mane Six, Lyra, the royal sisters, Discord, and Shining Armor and his family. While there were many local ponies, a lot of ponies came in from out of town as well, including Canterlot nobles, Manehattan city slickers, reformed changelings, crystal ponies, and Los Pegasus celebrities. In the middle of the party, the four princesses went up to a makeshift stage on the left side and the royal guards blew their trumpets. Soon, Twilight took center stage at the podium, with her note cards ready.
"Ponies of Equestria!" She called out to the audience.
"Today, we have gathered to celebrate a great victory in the name of peace, love, and tolerance!" She continued on.
"For many years, our nation had been harassed by the forces of Queen Chrysalis and her changelings. After the ascension of our new friend King Thorax, we thought that those days were over. However, we were mistaken, as Queen Chrysalis went underground and resorted to more brutal tactics and assaults on ponykind. Thankfully, as this new war approached, we found new friends!" Twilight pointed to the humans, who were in the audience.
"These humans, the Lunar Nightwatch, soon proved to be the best weapon that Equestria had. Their technology, physique, intelligence, and experience proved to be invaluable in the war, and they were able to fight the battles that ponies never could. Thanks to them, many ponies have survived through Chrysalis' attacks. In the end, they were able to defeat Chrysalis and her army while saving the Crystal Empire. This victory did not come to them freely, however, as they had poured out their own blood, sweat, and tears along with our brave royal guards in many battles during this dark time. I will now pass over to my mentor and our leader, Princess Celestia." Twilight trotted over to the other princesses while Celestia took center stage. The audience applauded Twilight's speech.
"Thank you, young princess. Many in the audience today have witnessed what our new human friends are capable of, and they have also seen their great courage in battle. They have selflessly put themselves in harm's way to protect a nation and a species that was not their own, despite the enormous confusion that came with being misplaced from their own home world. That is why today, I am not only proud to reward them with Equestria's highest medal of valor, but I am also proud to grant them all Equestrian citizenship!" The ponies in the crowd went wild, cheering as the humans were ushered onstage to receive their medals, which Princess Cadance put around each of their necks. After this, Luna trotted over and magically handed them a plaque, which read:
By the approval of Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight Sparkle, Princesses of Equestria, Daniel Ramirez, Jeff Smith, William Parker, Corey McLaughn, and Andrew Summers, shall be known as, from this day forward, Citizens of the Equestrian Nation
"Congratulations, my brave humans," Luna told them as the humans and princesses posed for a picture that a blue pony in a black dress with a German accent took. After the humans got off stage and the sun went down, the Mane Six along with Lyra and Starlight ran up and gave them a huge group hug.
"Oh! I'm so proud of you guys!" Lyra was extremely excited for the humans.
"Welcome to Equestria!" Starlight told them.
"I guess that journey was worth it!" McLaughn stated as Fluttershy hugged him tighter.
Pinkie Pie then took off toward a large DJ stand that was on the other side of the town square. Soon, a white unicorn with electric blue hair along with a stallion dressed like Billy Joe Armstrong with shades came to the stand after Pinkie called them up.
"Let's get this party started!" She yelled as she fired off her party cannon and the music started.
Soon, the party was in full swing, as ponies everywhere began dancing, playing party games, and eating from the food and sweets tables. Even the humans got in on the partying. McLaughn and Ramirez were both excellent dancers while Summers played many of the party games, and Smith and Parker had a ball at the food tables.
"Look!" Pinkie yelled at one point, and everyone in the audience looked up at one point to see Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts do a flyby over the party, resulting in many cheers. Dash then looped around and did an amazing sonic rainboom!
Dash soon landed with the wonderbolts close behind her in front of Ramirez and McLaughn.
"How's THAT for awesome guys?" She asked the humans.
"I've never seen anything like it Dashie!" Ramirez told her.
"That was..... AWESOMAZING!" McLaughn shouted.
"I think the term your looking for is super-ultra-extreme-awesomazing!" Dash corrected, and everyone laughed.
Back near the food table, Applejack and Smith were arm wrestling. They were actually pretty even. Suddenly, Smith felt something running down and tickling his side and he yelped while AJ pushed his arm over and won. Smith turned around and saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders nearby, rolling on the ground and giggling.
"Hey! What's the big idea you silly fillies?" He asked them.
"The big guy told us that that was your one weakness and I decided to help mah sister win!" Applebloom said, pointing to Parker who tried to look oblivious.
"Benedict Arnold!" Smith called him.
"And I'm gonna getcha little fillies!" Smith got up and playfully chased the giggling fillies around the party. At one point, Pinkie hopped onto Summers' back so that he could carry her around.
"Silly pony! Come on!"
"Yay!" Pinkie enjoyed clinging onto Summers back and getting a view from higher than most other ponies could see.
The party really turned up when the ponies began a conga line and the guys decided to join in. The guys had to crouch slightly to hold onto the ponies shoulders in front of them, while the ponies behind them had their hooves on Smith's lower back.
"I FREAKING LOVE THIS WORLD!" Parker yelled out.
"I KNOW RIGHT? I JUST WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT AND PINKIE PARTY EVERY DAY!!" Ramirez yelled above the loud and super fun party. By now, some of the other ponies had taken Pinkie's lead and hopped onto their favorite humans. Starlight hopped on Parker, Rarity on Ramirez, Fluttershy on McLaughn, and Applejack on Smith, while waving her hat around as if she were at the rodeo.
"YEEHAW! THIS REALLY IS FUN PINKIE!"
"I KNOW, RIGHT!"
Soon after, the party began to wind down, Pinkie and her friends got off the humans, the other ponies and characters went home, and the humans went with Twilight, Spike, and Starlight to their beds in Twi's castle.
And that was the humans' best night ever in Equestria.
The Mane Six with Starlight were having a picnic under an apple tree on a hill overlooking Ponyville. Summers was nearby playing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders while Parker and Spike were taking turns trying to beat each other's high scores on his fighting game app. McLaughn and Smith were with the Mane Six enjoying Granny Smith's delicious apple pies. Ramirez stood nearby, dramatically looking off into the middle distance while holding his phone in front of him.
"With no idea on how we got here, we cannot return to our planet, and fate has yielded its reward: A new world to call home," he spoke into his phone, which was recording.
"We live among it's ponies now, walking among them in plain sight, watching over them, waiting, protecting. I have witnessed their capacity for courage and friendship, and though we are worlds apart, like us, there's more to them than meets the eye," Ramirez continued. Starlight and Twilight trotted over to hear his speech.
"I am Sergeant Daniel Ramirez, and this is my first log on my team's new life here in Equestria. Let all friends and enemies of ponykind hear this: We are here. We are waiting." Ramirez looked down by his side to see Twilight and Starlight listening to him. He reached over and began petting Twilight as they all watched the sun set in the distance.
THE END
Ponyville, the day after the picnic
Pinkie Pie was trotting along the streets of Ponyville when she gasped and suddenly.....
"HI BRONIES!!!! I hoped that you enjoyed this story! Texasstylebrony really enjoyed writing it and wanted to thank all his friends and supporters for reading it!" Pinkie enthusiastically told you.
"Of course it was really fun playing a part in such a great tale! Although, ya gotta admit, with My Little Pony, Nerf, and even Transformers references appearing in the story, it seems like the author is trying to start a Hasbro Universe of some sort!" Pinkie continued while trotting through Ponyville's streets.
"I mean seriously, with all the Hasbro-ness in this story, what else could he possibly add -" Pinkie suddenly stopped and backed up to a toy store window. In the glass front display of the store was the newest line of action figures for colts. These action figures were made to look just like the humans complete with plastic-gun accessories and their boxes said Lunar Nightwatch: A Real Equestrian Hero!
"Really Tex? G.I. Joe too?" Pinkie rolled her eyes and started giggling at the creativity of the writer.
Carousel Boutique, three months after the celebration
After the celebration, the guys split up around Ponyville for employment and for places to stay. Their pony friends were more than happy to provide them with shelter and with snuggles employment. Ramirez helped Rarity with heavy lifting tasks at her Boutique, McLaughn helped Fluttershy take care of animals, Smith helped the Apples on Sweet Apple Acres, and Parker and Summers stayed with Twilight to become her personal guard.
Ever since arriving to Equestria, the guys had a problem of finding good meat to eat, since they were omnivorous. They couldn't eat burgers or steaks since cows were sentient, and they couldn't eat bacon, ham, or chicken because the Apple family used them for other parts of agriculture. They could fish, but they figured that they would eat up all of the fish in Ponyville's stream within a year. In the end, the guys decided to hunt manticores. These creatures were common in the Everfree Forest and they had enough meat to feed the men for a whole month at a time.
Ramirez walked in all sweaty with his Stryfe rifle slung over his shoulder. Soon, Rarity came over after working on her latest creations.
"Daniel darling! How was it?" She asked.
"It was definitely worth it! Got some more meat for us and thanks to Jeff, I also got you a present!" Ramirez replied, handing over a piece of freshly-tanned leather while taking a seat.
"Oh my! It's so smooth and fine!..... what is it?" Rarity asked upon inspecting the leather.
"It's leather! We humans use it to make boots and jackets in our world." Ramirez replied.
"I have never seen a material quite like it! Where did you get it?"
"Umm... it's manticore skin." Rarity almost shrieked when she heard this answer, but managed to hold it in.
"Daniel! Why on earth would you bring me something so....... gruesome?"
"Aww Rare! I thought that you might like it. There's never any blood left when you finish making it, and you even admitted that it looked like good clothing material!"
"True, but I did not know the source of that material!" Ramirez suddenly seemed kind of hurt by Rarity's statement. She noticed and trotted up and hugged him.
"I'm sorry Daniel. I didn't mean to reject your gift so harshly."
"It's ok Rare. I understand that hunting is something that ponies find to be a savage practice," Daniel said while returning the hug. Rarity then levitated the material and took a closer look at it.
"Hmm..... there is definitely no blood on this. How much did you bring?"
"Enough to make a whole new line in your store," Rarity giggled at this.
"Ok Daniel, I'll try and see what I can do with this. Thank you for your consideration in my business," Rarity hugged him again.
"You're very much welcome Rare," Ramirez said while hugging the pony back. Rarity then trotted off to begin her work on the new material while Ramirez went upstairs to shower and unload his rifle.
Twilight's castle, a few hours later
Summers and Lyra were sitting on a couch in the castle, cuddling each other. Twilight was nearby, with Spike taking notes on the "human on pony affection study" while Starlight and Parker were nearby talking.
"Mmmm!! I think this is my favorite experiment Princess!!" Lyra blissfully told Twilight as Summers stroked his fingers through her mane. When Twilight wanted a volunteer for this experiment, Lyra excitedly stepped up. The guys just decided to go with it. It was simply adorkable adorable to see Twilight go into full-nerd mode after all.
"Well after that one time when Starlight and I enjoyed this, I figured that I might as well look into why we find these aliens so comforting, and vice versa," Twilight explained to the green unicorn.
"It's definitely relaxing. We humans generally love to play with other species such as dogs and cats," Summers told them.
"We have dogs and cats too! That might be a variable to consider! Spike, did you get that?" Twilight asked the small dragon, only to find him playing more games on Parker's phone.
"Spike!"
"Wha?! Wha?! Oh! Sorry Twilight!" Spike immediately put down the phone (which Parker totally let him borrow) and began jotting down notes. Twilight levitated the phone away for good measure.
Starlight was nearby emmitting sparks from her horn, which Parker seemed to enjoy.
"That's so cool! How do you do it?!"
"Well, you can basically do just about anything with unicorn magic! Wanna see Simino Duplexis?"
"Sure!"
Sweet Apple Acres
Smith was carrying a load of apples along with Apple Bloom after having knocked them out of some of the apple trees. Smith fit into the Apple family really well, since they both shared common southern ideologies and dialogue. He would usually help them with their apple harvesting in exchange for paying for rent and food.
"So Jeff, do you know what your special talent is?" Apple Bloom asked the human.
"I don't know Apple Bloom. Humans generally don't just 'find' their special talents. They just know that they're assigned jobs by society that they have to do," he replied.
"Interestin. Probably explains why humans don't get cutie marks." She replied. One time, she did get curious as to why she and her friends couldn't examine the humans to see if they get cutie marks, but after some stern refusals and explanations, the Cutie Mark Crusaders just took the humans' word that they didn't have any.
"Do you think that your special talent is.... war?" Apple Bloom inquired, having heard the stories from the front lines.
"War is indeed something that humans are very good at. That can be a good thing to you, but a bad thing to us. Over the course of the past century, humans have developed some extremely sophisticated weapons to destroy each other with, yet conflict is a primal instinct that has resided in all humans ever since the Fall of Creation," Smith explained.
"Fall of Creation? Is that like when Sombra took over the Crystal Empire or when Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon?" Apple Bloom asked. Smith was hesitant about how to answer. Being from the belt buckle of the Bible Belt, he wondered if sharing the Christian gospel to a sentient being that did not have a human soul would be appropriate.
"It's not that, it's a little more.... complicated. I don't quite understand it myself, but I'll tell you when I get a better idea, ok?"
"Ok Jeff, I understand." Apple Bloom hoof-bumped Smith's fist as they kept carrying their harvest back to the barn.
Fluttershy's cottage
Harry the bear was outside enjoying a big piece of manticore steak that McLaughn gave to him. Even though Harry was hesitant of the human and his loud stick when he first arrived, he learned to trust the human after he began feeding him a share of his meat that he would bring back once a month. Eating berries and honey all the time gets repetitive and boring after a while if you're a bear, after all.
"Oh, thank you so much for sharing Corey, Harry gets so happy when you bring him meat." Fluttershy told McLaughn, who was sitting next to her on the sofa in her living room. Even though she was terrified when she saw McLaughn first bring meat into the house, she grew used to the fact that he and Harry needed the protein in order to stay strong. After all, it didn't look so bloody after it was cooked.
"Don't mention it Flutters! This is probably the only bear who I can be friendly with! In our world, bears usually eat people." McLaughn told her, while sipping on some sweet tea.
"Oh no! It doesn't happen often, does it?" Fluttershy asked him.
"Well, it doesn't happen too much. It's usually because the bear want's a human's food or because the human ran into the cubs," he responded.
"Oh, that's good," Suddenly, a bright flash of light entered the room, and Discord suddenly popped into the scene.
"Hello Fluttershy!! Are your ready for our tea party? Oh, and I see you've brought another friend!" the draconequus stated, looking at McLaughn as he said the last part.
"Oh! Is it time already? I'm sorry Discord, I must have lost track of time. Would you like your usual tea?" Fluttershy asked the new guest.
"Oh of course Fluttershy! That would be very good! Thank you!" Discord told her while snapping his fingers to summon his own teacup. Fluttershy then went into the kitchen to make the tea.
"So Mr. Yankee, I take it that your stay with Fluttershy has been going well?" Discord asked the human who looked at him unsure of how to answer. Discord knew that Fluttershy let McLaughn stay with her, but McLaughn was not around when the two had their special tea parties.
"Yeah, she's really nice and sweet and --- what happened to my clothes?" McLaughn questioned when he looked down and saw that he was suddenly wearing a northern blue Civil War uniform. Discord began laughing at this random prank he pulled on the human.
"Oh, I just thought that with a name like 'Yankee', you would feel more comfortable in this! Well if this isn't the 'Yankee' style you're looking for, how about this?" Discord snapped his fingers again, and McLaughn was suddenly wearing an American Revolutionary war uniform, similar to George Washington's, while this tune began playing in the background:
"Hahaha, very funny Discord. Very funny." McLaughn stated on the new style.
"Thank you! I always strive to entertain!" Discord replied, but then he snapped his fingers again and everything went back to normal. He then leaned in to get close to McLaughn.
"I can see that you care about Fluttershy very much, almost as much as I do. I can also tell that she likes having you around here because something about you makes her happy, something I am not able to pinpoint," Discord's pointing finger suddenly became a small tack at that point.
"But I'm warning you: If I ever hear that you have hurt my best friend in any way, physically or emotionally, whether intentional or unintentional, you will need more than that fancy gun of your's to prevent what would come as a result of that. Got it?" McLaughn gulped at this statement, knowing that Discord's wrath would be something he would NOT want to have to deal with.
"Got it."
"Very good then!" Discord gave McLaughn some space and leaned back. Fluttershy then came in with his tea.
"Fluttershy! Dear! Mr. Yankee and I here were just talking about you!"
"Oh really? What did you two discuss?"
Ramirez's twelfth log
We have been in Equestria for about three months now. The ponies have been very generous by allowing us to stay with and work with/for them. The local population now see us as war heroes walking among them. Even with these new jobs, however, we remain an active special forces unit in Equestria. The Royal Sisters told us that if a threat should rise again, they would have us ready. Fortunately, there have been no threats lately. Life has become peaceful again in Equestria.
I am Daniel Ramirez, and until the day of battle comes again, my men and I will stand ready to defend ponykind.
Gilbert TX, a few weeks after the Lunar Nightwatch went missing
Things were looking very grim. For the past few weeks, locals, park rangers, and police had been searching the area for any sign of the five missing nerf players. The families of the five missing people had already begun to assume the worst has happened to them. After three days of no results, local and state newspapers and TV began sending out their pictures, asking for any information on their whereabouts.
Today, two black SUV's pulled into the park. Out of these SUVs came a bunch of men in dark suits. These guys looked like the Men In Black, and were part of a top secret government division known as the Federal Agency of International and Interdimensional Affairs. However, due to the agency's cover program that invested in making toys and shows based on the cases they worked on, this agency was known to the public as the Hasbro toy company. After showing their badges to the local authorities, the men began using strange instruments to scan around the crime scene.
"Sir, why are we investigating a missing persons case?" One of the agents asked the agent in charge.
"Even though this was a nerf event, the agency dismissed the case. However, when the missing persons' reports showed that all of the missing people were bronies, we had to make sure that this wasn't another portal case."
"Portal case, sir?"
"Yes. We know that Equestrian magic is self-aware and very real. Although it very rarely happens, the magic will form wormholes between this world and Equestria. It is possible that it took these mlp-lovers from an event where they were armed with our prototype interdimensional weaponry and--"
"Sir!", a voice yelled from one of the men. He was holding a device that looked like a PKE meter from Ghostbusters. However, this device wasn't designed to find paranormal energy, but residual magic. His meter began lighting up and going crazy with high readings in the same spot where the portal that took the Lunar Nightwatch to Equestria had formed. The two other agents looked at the readings.
