> The Alien Warriors: Battle for Equestria
>  by Texas Style Brony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Potential Problem
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

North Smithfield RI Air Force Base

Shortly after touching down, a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III opened its back hatch and allowed two black SUVs to exit. After a short 20 minute drive, the SUV's pulled up to a sizable building with a large conspicuous logo on the front constructed out of gigantic bulging blue letters.





Hasbro, Inc. 
Pawtucket, Rhode Island

A dozen men wearing black suits with black ties exited the vehicles and briskly made their way into the building. Twelve hours earlier, these agents had performed an investigation in Texas and had just now returned with some urgent news for their superiors.

After bypassing a crawling security checkpoint, these well dressed figures made their way through the factory area past a group of children with their parents on tour. One of the children took notice of the passing agents and turned to his mother saying “Hey mommy look! It’s the Men in Black!”.

The mother barely noticed as she was busy paying attention to the tour guide. One of the agents wearing a pair of dark ebony shades paused and walk over and kneel in front of the now squealing child. The agent smiled and pulled out something that looked like a pen. A small flash later, the mother turned to her child asking “What is it darling?” only to see her dazed son staring into space, completely unaware of the agent now returning to the group.

As they made their way to the back of the factory, avoiding more tour groups, the men approached an elevator. Once huddled in the elevator, one of the men took a key and turned a special lock on the elevator.

"What do you think the he is gonna say about this?" One of the agents asked as the elevator car continued to rumble downward even though the floor indicator remained firmly fixed at the lowest level.

After adjusting to the downward acceleration of the elevator, another agent replied: "I don't know, but this is definitely too big to ignore."





Federal Agency of International and Interdimensional Affairs Headquarters
Underground District 42, Rhode Island

Upon exiting the elevator, the group of agents entered a large underground warehouse, filled with vehicles, people, and weapons. Many of these things looked remarkably similar to the number of the toys that Hasbro had made and sold across the world. The men briskly began to trek across the warehouse, passing by a man wheeling a cage containing a pink monkey with abnormally large eyes. The cage had a label on it that read: Department: LPS.

As they got further along, the team passed by a squad of soldiers in the middle of a training exercise. The burly muscles showing through their shirts put steroids to shame. These men also wore uniforms with special yellow patches that depicted a black eagle head overshadowing a single black star.



One of the commanding officers overseeing the soldiers noticed the passing group and called out. "Hey guys!"

"Hey, Duke! How's training going?" One of the agents said, slowing his gait.

The agent high-fived Duke as he passed, "It's going good! How was the trip to Texas?"

"I don't know Duke. We've stumbled onto something huge. Maybe bigger than that time Optimus Prime turned on us..." the agent replied ominously before catching up to the group.

"Uh oh... Well, good luck with the Director!" Duke shrugged as he went back to training the G.I. Joes.

When the group reached the other side of the warehouse, the agents made their way up some metal grating stairs onto a balcony and entered another door. Upon entrance, the majority of the agents scattered to their offices while two of them approached the office labeled "Director". They knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a voice called from inside.

The two agents stepped in.  Inside the room was another, much older agent, with a name tag that read Director, sitting at a large rectangular desk. The square shaped room’s three glass walls overlooked the bustling warehouse below. Hanging from the center of the room was a chandelier that sported nine cube shaped lights suspended by small metal poles from a center light. A large flat screen monitor dominated the right side of the room while a boxy bleach white coffee table with a crystal ashtray etched with a diamond pattern occupied the opposite side of the room.

The Director’s gaunt frame radiated a stern authority over all his domain, and the light glinting off his slowly balding head only accentuated his dark, narrowed eyes that bored directly into the two agents lurking just inside his doorway.

"Mr. Blane, Mr. White, have a seat," the Director indicated a pair of snow white vinyl chairs.

The Director waited until the two took their seats before taking advantage of his chair’s intimidating height, "I am aware that that 'rabbit hole' case in Texas turned up some results?"

"Yes sir. We have found irrefutable evidence of Equestrian Magic in the area,” Blane, the taller of the two agents, replied.

White opened his briefcase and slid a USB drive across the desk to the Director, who then plugged the drive into a laptop he had nearby. Sounds of clicks and keystrokes filled the air for a few seconds as the Director accessed the data.

“It’s everything we could dig up. It’s got a map of the area, a couple of flyers and handouts of the event, graphs of magic levels in the area, and any photographs that might be useful, but most of those are pretty much trash since the search teams mucked through there,” White growled.

"Good Lord. This graph alone is quite daunting” the Director exclaimed. After reading further in the details, the Director added “And the fact that these boys were likely armed with Nerf guns brings this up to another whole level."

"Sir. I understand that their interaction with the natives could cause significant repercussions, but I fail to see the connection toy guns bring." Agent Blane stated flatly.

"A very reasonable question, son. Let me tell you." the Director replied.

A few taps on the keyboard later and he turned the computer to face them. Images of three different planets filled the screen. The first two looked like Earth, but the second had larger continents and smaller cloud formations. The third planet looked nothing like the other two. It looked like a large metallic ball with pins sticking out of it and with enormous carvings in it.

"The second planet is designated EA-119. We believe that this is the planet where Equestria is, since conditions there are ideal with no major storm systems and the fact that its sun and moon appear to revolve around it, and rather erratically at that.”

“Appear?” interrupted Agent Blane.

“That’s just the thing.” replied the Director. “Upon observing EA-119, we have noticed it’s sun and moon tend to accelerate unexpectedly without cause at certain intervals of their orbits, but nonetheless they still maintain their course.” the Director explained.

This seemed of no surprise to the agents considering their previous experiences with the transformers. The Director continued, “The third one was MA-220, but we now know it as Cybertron."

"As you both know, Cybertron was destroyed by centuries of civil war along with the transformers that lived on it. EA-119, on the other hand, has had peace for over a millennia and the creatures there maintain that peace. Earth may look like it's somewhere in the middle, but we are becoming more and more like Cybertron every decade. In the last century, we have had wars spanning the planet much like the Transformers, and our history is littered with smaller ones." The Director turned his computer and tapped more before turning the screen back, this time filled with images from mankind’s bloody conflicts.

"What’s worse is that, since the twentieth century, mankind's weapons technology has revolutionized our killing. One side needed weapons to give them an advantage over everyone else; the other side created a counter and improved on it. Repeaters became machine guns. Cannons became tanks. Artillery became guided missiles. Aircraft went from being scouts to being offensive bread and butter. The Cold War and its nuclear threat was just another escalation," the Director stated.

"An interesting correlation between man and transformers sir, but what does this have to do with Nerf guns and ponies?" Agent White asked, apparently lost by the Director’s monologue.

"Ah, yes yes. The thing is we have known about Equestria's existence since the eighties. When our early telescopes detected signs of life on the planet, we had to learn more. Unfortunately, it would take millennia to reach it with our poor space exploration budget.  However, in 2007, we found a potential solution. The Autobots have allowed us to reverse engineer their ‘Space Bridge’ technology, enabling us to travel between worlds light years away in a mere instant. We were able to send observers to study this native species.

“They loved what they found: an adorable race of small multicolored horses that were intelligent and peaceful. The species did have an active military, but it rarely fulfilled more than a ceremonial role. Due to their peacefulness, they never advanced their weapons technology beyond the Bronze Age. In order to keep that peace, we decided that it was best to leave the planet alone and spare them from knowing about man or his destructive tendencies. The men left the world undetected, but something went wrong," the Director stated.

The two agents shot each other nervous glances at that statement.

"Due to our use of the ‘Space Bridge’, it created some sort of,” the Director stopped, his brow wrinkled while trying to find an appropriate word, “‘portal’ that now binds our planets together, and the observers also brought back its unique radiation. It doesn’t harm humans, but it did link our worlds together somehow. That radiation was apparently Equestrian magic. The wormhole that connected our two worlds leaked more of that magic to Earth, and as a result, it now exists in our atmosphere. This has led to one case where two of these horses from Equestria stumbled through the wormhole and ended up in a forest somewhere in Alabama. Unfortunately for those horses, they ended up on the wrong end of some hunters’ guns. We have tried to seal up the wormhole, and besides one entrance at a suburban high school, we thought we had been relatively successful. However, it seems like your case has proven otherwise.” The Director explained.

He continued, “The fact that some boys from our world went through that portal is bad enough, but on top of that, they had some Nerf weapons with them.”

The two agents stared blankly at him.

“You know what Nerf is, right?” he arched his eyebrows.

“A cover to give Hasbro public legitimacy?” Blane hazarded a guess.

“Wrong. Nerf is our high-tech weapons program. Our program mass-produces toy dart guns that are cheap and harmless on Earth, yet become lethal weapons outside of our atmosphere,” He then pulled up a digital simulation on the computer showing how the Nerf dart worked.

“The standard ammunition of the guns are foam darts. The foam on these darts is actually a cheap regenerative smokeless powder that ignites with sudden release of air like in a spring blaster or contact with sudden friction such as in our electronic weapons. Since the foam-powder ignites, it naturally goes away, but upon depletion it will regenerate quickly while the dart head still flies, leaving the darts to be reused. Additionally, at high velocities, the rubber dart head will stiffen to a hardness similar to non-jacketed lead bullet. However, these features only become active when specific non-earth forms of energy, such as Equestrian magical radiation, are present,” The Director continued on.

“We started this program after learning that we are not alone in the universe, and that some factions, such as Decepticons, are hostile to Earth. Since the possibility of exploring other worlds is not entirely out of the picture, we now mass produce the weapons for future other-worldly expeditions. To keep the program under wraps, we have made the weapons available to young children considering the fact that kids wouldn’t be using them in conditions where they would become active and that they are so cheap to produce,” The Director finished.

“So what do we do?” Agent White asked.

“Now, we must get those boys out of there, before they start trouble and before they cause Equestria to fall into war and chaos,” the Director replied.

“How do you plan to execute the extraction sir? It’s been weeks since these kids disappeared. They could be anywhere on that planet by now,” Agent Blane raised his eyebrow dubiously.

“We have to put together a special team a large scale search and rescue on Equestria. Due to their taste in shock and awe, assigning the G.I. Joes would not be ideal, since we do not want to leave a lasting impact on Equestria, therefore I am going to settle with a lesser route. I am thinking about finding other Nerf players who can be used as soldiers; experts who will already know how another Nerf player would think. They will lead a special force of agents to conduct the expedition. They will have two goals: They must get those boys back home and ensure that our Nerf technology does not fall into the hands - or hooves of these magical little horses. Good lord, it sounds so stupid when I say it out loud,” the Director told them as he massaged his temples.

“Sir, what if these boys refuse to return to Earth? What if they’ve already revealed Nerf secrets to these horses and the ponies are already using them?” Agent Blane shifted nervously as silence filled the room

“Then…… the boys and any associating horses will need to be terminated,” the Director stated.

The two agents blinked in shock.

“Those boys will be a threat to Equestria if they refuse to return and if they have sold secrets of our technology to the horses then they will be a threat to us. At that point, their deaths would be the smoothest way to handle the situation. This is why the Nerf soldiers we pick will consist of mostly ‘Anti-bronies’. They will have no remorse if they kill a horse or a horse enthusiast,” the Director stated.

“Lucky for you boys, the ‘Space Bridge’ will not be ready for another use until six months from today, therefore you have until then to assemble a team and get them ready. I will also lend you department vehicles to ease supply lines on that world as well as the latest Nerf weaponry to help you complete your mission. Six months, boys. You got that?”

“Yes sir.” both agents stood and left the office while the Director sat down and began pondering how to best execute the new plan...




Six months later….

After painstakingly hand picking a dozen able commanders from a list of professional Nerf enthusiasts, Agents Blane and White finalized their plans to send in a one-hundred man team into Equestria. One hundred would be far more than sufficient to deal with any rogue wildlife and a potentially hostile military during the their time Equestria while still giving enough manpower to conduct a large-scale search. Agents Blane and White appointed the commanders over nine Hasbro agents apiece and set the remaining two professionals as leaders of the whole battalion

Both the commanders and agents were dressed in black: hats, operator gloves, tactical boots, fatigues, and athletic shirts. Their sheer numbers and uniformity stood against the dingy gray walls like a ominous storm cloud broken only by the out of place, cheery flashes of their weapons.

A majority of them wore either the standard Nerf tactical vest or custom designed magazine pouches that bulged with extra magazines and darts. A number of the agents boasted the new Elite Regulator assault rifle, a select-fire weapon and the flagship of the Nerf arsenal. Many others carried the new Mega Twinshock shotgun, a powerful close-quarters weapon that combined slam-fire capability with Mega stopping power. A few specialists were equipped with the Raptorstrike sniper rifle, normally a pitiful dart gun that made Nerf pistols look good; but in the presence of the equestrian atmosphere, it becomes a precise long-range weapon. The most devastating weapon carried by a select few was the Rival Nemesis, a lightweight, fully-automatic blaster with a one hundred round capacity hopper magazine. In addition to these various weapons, each man also wore a Disruptor revolver on their waist.

Several jeeps and humvees idled nearby pulling trailers squatted low with food, medical supplies, water, ammunition, and any other necessity a moving army would find. They too bore drab shades of greens and browns, but the effect was somewhat spoiled by the candy colored plastic machine guns mounted in place of the expected steel weapons.

Soon, Agents White and Blane came to balcony overlooking the troops who were standing in the same warehouse that had once been filled with G.I. Joes, random imprisoned fluffy animals, chests of Monopoly money, and other Hasbro related merchandise.

Agent White spoke up, “Gentlemen. You're probably wondering why we've brought you all here today. You're probably asking yourself why you're standing beneath the headquarters of a giant toy company, carrying their toy guns.”

Several amongst the group admitted that it sounded quite like a great set up for a massive game.

“Well, allow us to enlighten you of our situation” continued Agent White. “Approximately six months ago, a group of five Nerf players went missing during a Nerf competition in Texas. We have strong reason to believe that they have been displaced to a world foreign to ours. You may have wondered ‘why on earth are these numb nuts asking me about ‘My Pretty Pony?’ It turns out that the world that these boys were taken to strongly resembles the same world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. From your interviews, we now know that you will not be tempted or weakened by the populace of that world as to compromise your mission. ‘What is the mission?’ you ask. The answer is quite simple. Your mission is to get those boys home and make sure that Nerf doesn't fall into alien hands. Again, in response to the question mentioned earlier, ‘Why Nerf?’ You will come to find out that the toys in your hands are actually prototype weapons that will activate once you exit our atmosphere through this portal." Agent White said motioning to the right, where a large portal device, namely the ‘Space Bridge’, had just heated up and begun forming the wormhole to Equestria.

After Agent White pointed out the portal and the crowd had time to recover from the shock, a tall, fit young man stepped up next to White. Along with him came another young man who was significantly shorter than the first and completely bald. They both wore the same combat gear as all of the other recruits and both appeared to be in their early twenties, yet they were each armed only with a disruptor pistol while the bald one also carried a large Nerf sword slung over his back.

"Gentlemen," Agent Blane stated. "This is Commander Jacob Stevens. He will be leading you on your mission. Along with him is Captain Tyler Finn, his second-in-command."  Stevens walked up to the edge of the balcony.

Overlooking the his audience of, as Blane considered, “G.I. Joe wannabes,” Jacob began to speak. "Guys, I know that this may seem confusing. I mean, it sure did to me when I heard that we were going to a world full of magical little ponies,” Jacob said noticeably smiling to himself, before continuing, “However, we have been chosen for our skill set to achieve something which has never been done before: a search and rescue mission on an alien world. We have the resources and the will to get those guys back and, ensure that our technology does not fall into the wrong hands!”

After pausing for a short moment, Jacob gave a stern look into each individual’s eyes. “While this all may seem like a joke, I assure you, this will be no walk in the park and I have faith that we WILL prevail in our mission and take back what belongs to OUR world!"

As Jacob finished, a thunderous applause erupted from the soldiers. After Jacob had taken a step back and the applause had died down, Tyler Finn stepped forward, drew his sword and pointed it past the battalion while yelling out "Alright, guys. To the trucks!".

Soon, Jacob and Tyler climbed down the metal-grated stairs and joined the force as the agents piled into the vehicles with their respective squads. The lead vehicles began crawling toward the large, swirling portal. Soon, as the first hummer drove through each of the soldiers began to wonder what sort of trippy adventure had they gotten themselves into...
> Six Months After
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whitetail Woods, Equestria



Dark, wet, and insanely dreary. The pegasi from nearby towns were told to let the rain pour late this evening. The rainfall helped to mask the scent of the humans who were hunting their prey within the forest. Within the bushes, five silent humans wearing dark paint on their faces and camouflage uniforms crouched, looking over an area of the forest from a small cliff. Each human carried what appeared to be plastic firearms. They had spent nearly a week in these woods, following their quarry and preventing them from trying to attack nearby townships. This was an extremely dangerous mission that Princess Luna assigned them to after villagers became terrified of the beasts which lurked in the dark from this place. The tallest human from the group whispered to the one who seemed to be the leader.

"Now Sarge?" The leader immediately signaled for quiet. He then used hand signals to send two of his men to another position. One of these men appeared to be carrying dynamite on his back along with charging cord and a detonator. About a minute after these men left, the leading human shouted.

"NOW!!!!!" Soon, the sound of pouring rain was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire as the three remaining men opened fire upon the pack of timberwolves that they had been stalking. The wolves turned to face the humans, and after realizing that they could not attack the humans who were perched on high ground, the pack turned and ran. As soon as they did, however, the two other humans rose up in their path of retreat and unleashed a large wall of foam, leveling many more of the timberwolves. These wolves now turned yet again and ran into a large hole that was dug into the side of a small hill. Two of the male wolves guarded the entrance, but they were shot to pieces by automatic fire. Soon, the five humans regrouped at the mouth of the cave.

"Alright! Get those charges set before the other ones regroup!" the lead human, known as Sergeant Daniel Ramirez, told his men. After chasing these creatures for a week, he understood that they were incredibly difficult to put down, as they had a tendency to pull their pieces back together after being destroyed. That was why he went on a hunch and decided to follow the wolves to their den. Two of his men, William Parker and Jeff Smith, began setting dynamite charges around the mouth of the cave and reeling out the charging cord. The other two troops, Corey McLaughn and Andrew Summers, stood guard against the returning timberwolves which were shot down earlier. Within five minutes, the cave was set and the guys began to move a safe distance from the cave's mouth. Unfortunately, the snarling and howling of the reassembled timberwolves could now be heard coming from all sides around the team now.

"Any time now, Parker!!!!" McLaughn exclaimed as a timberwolf jumped out from the bushes.

McLaughn immediately put multiple rounds into the creature with his Stryfe smg. He dropped his empty magazine and started reaching for another when another snarling timberwolf lunged at him.

BOOM!

The timberwolf's head exploded into splinters as Summers racked his Atlas shotgun.

"Thanks, Newbie!"

"It's been six months. I think I need a new name," replied Summers.

"Save the names for later; blow that den, Parker!" Ramirez shouted as more timberwolves came out of the bushes and surrounded the group.

Parker pushed the handle.



A fireball went off nearby, and as the shockwave of the explosion passed, the rest of the timberwolves fell to pieces. The fazed, but unscathed, men began poking at the sticks with their guns, only to find them not regenerate into wolves. Ramirez spoke up.

"Mission accomplished."




After a half day hike, the humans approached a village north of Whitetail Woods

Nearly a week earlier, the Lunar Nightwatch, now renamed the Equestrian Rangers, had been in this village and had seen the devastation of the timberwolves. Multiple families had lost a loved one to the ravenous appetites of these animals. For months, these villagers had lived in fear of stepping outside, afraid to lose a limb. Many mothers kept their foals and fillies close, fearing that the moment they took eyes away, somepony would go missing in the jaws of a hungry timberwolf. Life had become unbearable in the village north of Whitetail.

A young colt keeping watch took notice of the humans coming up from the south.

“Guys! Guys! GUYS! the Rangers are back! The Rangers are back!”

All the ponies within earshot stopped what they were doing and quickly spread the word that the “Heroes of Equestria” had returned. A crowd of ponies ran to greet the humans. The dirty humans with their guns slung over their shoulders, while carrying wood chunks that came from the timberwolves, waved to the approaching ponies. The crowd arrived full of questions.

“Did you kill them? Are they dead? Are you all ok?”

After a moment of endless questions and inability to answer them, the group ceased as a little sea blue filly with a lime green mane walked up directly in front of Ramirez and pleadingly asked:

“Mister, are we safe?”

Daniel put down the pieces of timberwolf he was carrying and placed the butt of his stryfe on the ground with his left hand while kneeling down in front of the small filly. He reached out with his right hand to scratch the her behind the ear.

“You no longer have anything to worry about” Ramirez while giving the filly the biggest surest smile he could muster.

The everyone in began to cheer and stomp their hooves, tossing their hats and horseshoes in the air.

“Cliche much Daniel?” teased McLaughn.

Before Ramirez could even respond, all heads turned to a loud shouting within the crowd.

“Daaaaaaaaaaaneeeeeeeeeeeeeil!!!!!!”

The crowd split as a minty green unicorn charged out and collided with Ramirez, embracing and knocking him over while unintentionally setting off his stryfe. The crowd jumped in surprise of the loud crack that erupted from the barrel. Everyone looked behind them, to where the dart went and saw Summers standing there with a pale look on his face and a smoking groove on the very top of his head where hair had been. This seemed to strike a chord in Smith and Parker as they fell to the ground holding their sides in while crying tears laughter. The pony gasped at what she had done. The unicorn, Lyra, earlier had arrived in village with the humans along with many other ponies who brought aid and supplies to the suffering village and had stayed behind to help. Lyra always liked to come along with the humans whenever they were on a mission or adventure. The squad had allowed her to participate as long as she followed their rules and kept herself out of harm’s way.

“OH MY FAUST! I am so sorry Andrew, are you alright?” asked Lyra quickly rushing to look at Andrew’s head.

Summers sat down, still in shock from his near death experience.

“I guess we might need to start incorporating ‘safeties’......and a hat,’” said Ramirez looking over the triggering mechanism of his stryfe then looking at Summers.

An elderly stallion, who was obviously respected as an elder by the ponies around him, spoke up.

“AHEM…..I would like to thank you boys so much for saving our village along with the others in this area for those dreaded timberwolves. I don’t know what would have become of us without you help. In return for your service, we would like to invite you to our first festival that we’ve been able to have since the timberwolves came!”

The crowd started cheering again and began rushing everyone to the village to clean up and begin the festivities.





After a good three hours of watching ponies do tricks, sharing epic stories, dancing awkwardly, and eating their fill of emergency relief rations, the humans struggled to keep their eyes open. They decided that it would be best to turn in for the night after Parker accidentally bruised his head on a table while nodding off. They went with Lyra to the local makeshift hotel, a vacant shack that was setup to provide a place to sleep for the humans and ponies that had brought aid.

On their way, Lyra asked Ramirez: “Of all the amazing things that you have told me, there is still one thing I still don’t understand. What made you think that blowing up their den would stop the timberwolves from coming back to together again?”

Ramirez replied: “Well Lyra, when we learned that the wolves couldn’t simply be killed by normal means, I deduced that there must be something unique about their magic that prevents them from dying. Going on a hunch, we followed them to their den and blew it up. I figured that there might be a magic stone or something in the den which powered their life force.”

“Oh wow! That really was a clever move! Since timberwolves are so dangerous, no pony had ever thought of finding a way to eliminate them before. Aside from the ‘flutter stare’, we have had to rely on alicorn warding magic to keep them at bay. You guys might have just discovered a potential way to actually control the numbers of timberwolves in Equestria!” Lyra told him.

When they arrived at their “hotel”, they were surprised to find that a chariot with two royal guards and an earth pony was waiting for them.

“That pony looks familiar,” stated Jeff staring at the earth pony.

The pony was a color somewhere between tan and yellow and had a pink and blue mane and tail. She wore shades (even though it was pretty late in the evening) and also had saddlebags on her back. Lyra’s current smile suddenly increased tenfold.

“BON BON! I’m so glad you’re here!! The humans are here! They’re with me! Look! There they are! Hey boys! Look! It’s my BFF Bon Bon!” Lyra excitedly exclaimed.

She rushed forward and gave Bon Bon a huge hug.

“Is it me or does Lyra really like hugs,” stated Parker as Bon Bon half heartedly returned Lyra’s passionate embrace.

“Thanks Lyra, I’m so glad to see you too, but I’m afraid that I’m here on business.” said Bon Bon.

Bon Bon then turned and faced the humans.

“Guys, right now I am Special Agent Sweetie Drops of the Royal Agency of Foreign Species. You have been hereby summoned by the Royal Court Hearing in Canterlot,”

Special Agent Sweetie Drops reached a hoof into her left saddlebag and pulled out an official document, signed by the Head of the Royal Court, Prince Blueblood.

“Uh oh, we’re not in trouble, are we?” Parker asked upon seeing the summons document.

“I am afraid that I cannot tell you anything until you are in Canterlot,” Agent Sweetie Drops replied.

“Can we at least get a little shuteye?” complained Summers.

“You will have to save that for during the trip,” replied Agent Sweetie Drops.

“Ok Sweetie, but before we go, can I see your badge please? Not that I mean any disrespect or I don’t believe you, but in our world, it’s just plain cool when agents or police flash a badge to show their authority.” Ramirez asked half sarcastically, half literally.

Bon Bon pulled out a special gold plated badge from her right saddlebag and pushed it in Ramirez’s face, much to Ramirez’s pleasant surprise.

“OoooooOOOOoooo,” responded the group

“Sweet. Now I can die in peace. Well, let’s go pack up,” said Ramirez jokingly.
Soon the guys had packed their remaining things from the shack, said their last goodbyes to village ponies and boarded the chariot with Lyra and Bon Bon.
> The Royal Court
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Royal Courtroom, Canterlot Castle

“Please be seated,” a royal guard pony said as the ponies and humans sat down in a conspicuous waiting room.

“I don’t understand. Couldn’t they have let us sleep a little longer before dragging us out here? Complained Mclaughn, whilst slumping in his seat.

The humans had touched down and debriefed last night only to be summoned to the courtroom early that next morning.

“Yeah” Ramirez replied while crossing his arms. “I don’t see why they couldn’t wait until at least noon. We just saved an entire village, what more do they expect from us?”

Parker’s head drooped to his chest, careless of the discussion around him.

“Well, you see,” quirked Smith, “I bet that they couldn’t wait to hand out our rewards.”

“I don’t think that is why we are here” Summers replied while looking around the room “Besides, I don’t know what you guys a whining about, I got plenty of sleep last night.”

The three other awake team member shifted in their seats to glare at the oblivious private. Apparently, Summers was the only one that managed to fall asleep on the chariot on the trip back and had to be magically carried to his bed because of his refusal to get up.

Parker jolted as the heavy oak door beside them boomed open. A white pegasus in elaborate gold armor stepped through and looked on the bleary-eyed humans before crisply reciting what he had probably said hundreds of times before, “The court will see you now. Follow me, please.”

Without another word, he turned back to the door. The five friends looked to each other before Smith shrugged and followed the pegasus. After a moment’s hesitation, the others joined in.
Despite the sizable crowd of ponies of all classes packing the courtroom, that was not the first thing that caught the group’s attention. While the waiting room had been tastefully decorated with few items other than portraits of influential or historical legal minds, the courtroom itself chose to do just the opposite and capture some of Equestria’s most critical moments in stained glass and arches.

Nestled in the front of the room in between the central arch was a large podium where the Canterlot nobles and royalty sat whispering amongst themselves. Above that was a smaller box, almost like a balcony, where the Princesses, if attending, would have a commanding view of the court below. Today, neither Princess occupied this seat, and it was draped with an Equestrian flag instead.

A smaller table with enough seating for several ponies faced the podium. Behind this desk and towards the doorway was a fenced-off area where normal ponies and the press could sit and listen. The crowd in the back quietly murmured as the white pegasus showed the humans to their seats at the small table facing the podium. Apparently something was up.

At the center of the larger podium stood a well dressed unicorn that Ramirez had come to hate, Prince Blueblood. To the left of Blueblood sat two more well dressed ponies; a unicorn the humans knew as Fancy Pants, a fairly famous upper class pony. Next to him also sat a grey earth pony with a horseshoe for a cutie mark that the humans had yet to recognize. To the right of Blueblood was Jet Set and Upper Crust, who were also upper class ponies that the humans recognized. Behind the small desk sat the Equestrian Rangers and further behind them sat the press and many Canterlot locals

“Ladies and gentleponies, this session of the Royal Court is now in session.” Prince Blueblood announced. He looked toward the humans, who shifted a little under his steely glare.

“Don’t worry gentlepo-- Oh! Forgive me, gentlemen. This is not a criminal court case. I’m sure you’re wondering why you have been summoned today?”

The boys looked around confusedly. “Well, yes, Your Highness.” Ramirez replied to the obvious question.

Prince Blueblood cleared his throat and pulled up a sheet of paper.

“As you know, Princess Twilight Sparkle told us a fair deal about what she learned from you. She described to us about the government in your native land. Well, in Equestria, we do things differently. True, the princesses guide the country and set policy, but we of the Royal Court serve to enact laws and regulations to enforce those policies. Since this is the Royal Court, you can assume we are here for a legislative reason, specifically your weapons.” The ponies in the back of the courtroom began muttering and taking down notes for the papers: this apparently was going to be a big deal.

Prince Blueblood continued. “As you and Equestria’s scientists have stated before, your ‘guns’ are some of the most sophisticated, and potentially dangerous tools that exist in this world. While these weapons in your hands have been a tremendous benefit during the changeling insurrection six months ago, they seem to be of very little use now.”

The humans could hardly believe their ears. Obviously flustered and now fully alert, Ramirez stood up and replied to the arrogant prince “Your Highness, I’m not sure about how updated you are on current events, but I would like to say in our defense that these weapons are still being used to protect pony lives. Just yesterday, we eliminated a pack of timberwolves that were devouring ponies from nearby townships.”

Hushed whispers echoed through the now silent room at Ramirez’s cocky tone to the powerful pony before him.

“As a matter of fact” replied Blueblood with at a smirk on his face “I did read that report. And while you have my congratulations about eliminating that threat, it only clarifies my point. While you did bring your weapons to that mission, in the end, it took Equestrian dynamite to finish the threat,” Blueblood paused as he magically lifted up a crisp sheet of paper, “I’m sure you recognize your report, Ramirez. I quote: ‘Upon finding the den site, we held the timberwolves back long enough for Parker to set the dynamite charges to best destroy the cave. Due to their magical connection to the den, our shots did little more than disrupt the magic binding their bodies. Upon the destruction of their home, the timberwolves disintegrated into kindling.’”

Blueblood looked up from the page, “Is this correct?”

“Well, you forgot to include the next part where he said, ‘and so the villagers lived happily ever after. The End’,” Smith cracked a small grin.

Blueblood’s jaw clenched a little as some members of the crowd and a couple of the ponies behind him chuckled at his expense. He quickly regained the situation, “Ignoring the unconventional recording methods, is this an accurate portrayal of what happened in the White Tail Woods?”

“Well, yes. But-” Ramirez attempted to answer.

“AAAAAaaand your equipment proved to be ineffective against the timberwolves from the start?” Blueblood quickly interrupted

“They weren’t completely ineffective” Parker replied enabling Ramirez to gather his bearings “They enabled us to fight off timberwolves long enough to escape before they reassembled themselves.”

“So you mean to say that weren’t key to completing the mission in any way?”

“No your highness, they at least enabled us to survive the mission.” Mclaughn took turn to tell him.

“Ok then, besides your weapons being extremely advanced yet doing very little against monsters in the area, I and many other ponies have noticed that these weapons are also so much more dangerous than the Equestrian Militia standard-issue spear.” Blueblood paused to let the crowd murmur in response to this declaration. It was hard to deny this since many of the ponies there had heard of the terrifying feats of the Equestrian Rangers accomplished with their “alien weaponry”.

“On the note of Equestrian military, the Court would like to now invite Captain Shining Armor to the stand.” The humans were slightly surprised at this and turned around to see Shining Armor rise from a bench and trot over to a small platform by the podium. How could they have missed their favorite guards pony? Immediately the rest of the ponies in the room began murmuring and turning to take pictures of the Captain.

The Captain glanced over to the sitting humans with a look bordering between sympathy and concern before turning his attention back to the stand.

“Captain Shining Armor, since you fought against the changeling insurrection with the humans, I trust that you have seen how they work in battle?”

“Yes, I have.”

“And Captain, would you consider these humans and their weapons to be dangerous?”

“Yes, but they would never-”

“Captain, please answer the question I asked, not the question you think I asked,” Blueblood said calmly as he leaned forwards.

Shining Armor let out a resigned sigh avoiding eye contact with the humans, “Yes. I do.”

“I am also aware that you have seen the extent of the damage of their weapons, would you care to share what you saw with us?”

“Your Highness, with all due respect, I am afraid that that content is quite graphic and would be very disturbing to the public if I showed it here.”

“I understand Captain. I can assure you that there are no foals in the chamber. Can you please show us what you’ve seen?” Blueblood’s tone made it clear that it was no request.

Reluctantly, Shining Armor lit his horn and broadcasted a magical screen which showed changeling casualties from the war six months prior. A drab urban background with fires and scattered bodies filled the screen before focusing on a series of changeling corpses with blood seeping out of slices and punctures through their shells. A nasally, bored voice, probably from the medical staff that recorded this in the first place, started reporting on the analysis of the wounds,

“As you can see, changeling chitin is highly resilient to conventional bladed weapons. Most impacts did little more than make minor surface lacerations. The exception would be where the blade managed to slip past the natural and worn armor and chitin to strike the softer joints,” the screen focused on a battered body with blood clotting in a pool around it, “Most of the consistent dispatching blows came from spears where the force could be concentrated onto one pressure point or polearms where significant force could be built up in a swing.”

A few sounds of disgust could be heard through the audience, but none turned to leave.

The image in the magical screen shook as the pony reporting moved to another collection of bodies. It was quite apparent from the positions that these bodies met a different fate. Some lay bent at odd angles while others just lay in crumpled heaps as if taking a macabre nap. These lacked the gashes and bloody pooling that the previous corpses did. The screen focused on one body in particular. Small holes peppered the body’s side and neck.

“What the chitin did not prove resilient to was the human weapons. The projectiles moved at such a high speed that, unless it struck some armor first, it was guaranteed to penetrate. Upon penetration, the projectile would spread its energy in a conical fashion, rupturing tissue until either exiting the body or stopping completely. The best example of this energy dissipations is the exit wounds.”

A muddy brown hoof reached out and rolled the stiff body over. Where the other side had small holes, maybe no bigger than a large nail head, this side had gaping, hoof sized holes with pulped organs and shredded chunks of flesh with blood still seeping around them wound..

Upon seeing that, a large collective gasp filled the room. Some ponies in the audience began getting nauseous. A few ran out to the bathroom to throw up. Blueblood then used his gavel to call for order. Shining Armor dissipated the viewer and began speaking up to defend the humans.

“Your Highness, while these images do indeed show the dangerous potential of these weapons, I would still say that the humans are extremely responsible and--”

“THANK YOU, Captain for your expertise on the danger of the human weapons.” Blueblood interrupted.

“Your highness. If our guns are too dangerous or scary for you ponies, what do you propose to do about it?” Summers asked.

“A very good question, young man. I and the Court propose that we keep your weapons secured in the Royal Armory until the Court or the princesses deem them to be absolutely necessary for defense.” The courtroom went into uproar about this statement.

Some ponies defended the humans, claiming that they could protect neither Equestria nor her ponies without their weapons. Others argued that the guns were not needed at all times and that it would be a good idea to keep the humans in check. Even the nobles in the court were divided at this statement.

“Your Highness, I thought we convened to simply discuss placing a tax on their ammunition which has been paid for by taxbits up to now!” Fancy Pants said with frustration evident in his tone.

“I, for one, believe that this is a step in the right direction. We know that their weapons have also caused plenty of collateral damage to many a landmark and storefront in Los Pegasus, Las Pegasus, and the Crystal Empire!” Upper Crust retorted.

“What about their food? Princess Twilight said that the humans also use their weapons to hunt for meat since they have an omnivorous diet!” the grey counsel pony argued.

“Well I heard that they were working on some ‘big project’ back in Ponyville to create a bigger gun that shoots larger ammunition. Bigger equals more destruction!” Jet Set retorted.

“ORDER IN THE COURT!” the white pegasus in gold armour screamed while slamming the butt of his spear against the floor as to get everypony to quiet down.

After the arguing quited down Blueblood asserted “an additional reason behind this proposal was due to an incident that took place in Ponyville three weeks ago.”

Blueblood magically lifted another piece of paper and read aloud the report of the said “incident”.

All five of the humans gulped. They tuned out Blueblood’s dry recitation of the event. Their own memory served them well enough.





Twilight’s castle, three weeks earlier:

“Reckon we still have to deal with them, don’t we?” Applejack asked.

All of the Mane Six were in a big hug pile while Starlight was with two fillies nearby. Outside, a massive crowd of ponies who had been harassing the Mane Six all day argued and loitered around the doorway to the castle. Ever since Twilight published their friendship journal, a huge storm of ponies descended on Ponyville with the express purpose of bothering them. None of the six were appreciating all of the attention. However, the two fillies who were with Starlight took the journal’s words to heart, and this pleased the six. Now they were in a hug pile to celebrate their friendship.

“Stay in the friendship moment, Applejack. They can wait a little longer.” Twilight replied pleasantly.

“Well I can’t!” Ramirez shouted angrily.
He and the rest of the Equestrian Rangers were leaning against a wall nearby. Since Ramirez and his team lived with Twilight and her friends, they also had to deal with the crazy ponies that spent all day harassing their friends.

Ramirez was especially angry because many of the ponies outside voiced their distaste for Rarity and made her cry. He spent nearly three hours trying to comfort her in her boutique while ponies lined up to boycott the business which she had worked so hard to build. The protesters around her boutique were enough that he had to carry Rarity in a laundry bag to the castle to keep her hidden away from all the hecklers.

Smith was stuck working endless hours along with the rest of the Apple family when the “Sweet Apple Admirers” came and began squatting around Sweet Apple Acres. Even though he wanted to get rid of them, Applejack insisted that they just keep being hospitable and they might go away.

McLaughn had to protect Fluttershy from a bunch of ponies who kept picking on her for having to learn assertiveness over time. While the ponies kept angrily yelling stupid questions at Fluttershy, he made sure that they kept their distance.

Parker and Summers were travelling around all around Ponyville with Twilight and Starlight, witnessing all of the mayhem that was going on over the Mane Six.

“Sarge is right! This is ridiculous! These guys are almost as bad as Antifa!” Summers exclaimed.

“Yeah! And what if they don’t leave like the ‘sweet apple lazybums’ back at the farm?!” Smith replied.

“Y’all thinking what I’m thinking?” Parker asked, hand on his Cycloneshock.

“YES!” the other four guys collectively yelled. They each unholstered their pistols and began walking toward the door. Starlight immediately tried to stop them.

“Guys! This doesn’t seem like a great idea! Think this through!!!”

“Starlight, we aren’t going to hurt any ponies, but they have got to go!” McLaughn stated as all five humans walked out the door to see the huge riot in progress.

“PONIES! LEAVE NOW AND GO HOME! QUIT HARASSING THE ELEMENTS!!” Ramirez yelled above all of the arguing. Nopony listened except Lyra, who was in the audience. She slowly trotted up to meet the humans.

“I’m so sorry guys. I guess I got too caught up in the book to realize that I was hurting my friends.” She looked down and shuffled her hooves in despair.

“That’s ok Lyra, just get inside the castle, because it’s about to get loud out here.” Parker told her. She noticed the guns in their hands and immediately got a scared look on her face.

“Don’t worry. We swear that we are not going to hurt anypony.” Ramirez told her while stroking her mane. She then ran inside the castle.

“Ready guys?” Ramirez asked. The guys all nodded. After they cocked their guns, they began shooting into the air. The loud gunshots were followed by the screaming of ponies, and the crowds immediately began to disperse when they noticed the humans standing on the doorstep firing their weapons. After about twenty seconds, the area around the castle was clear.

The guys walked back into the castle to see the ponies fearfully back away from them slightly except Twilight, who instead stomped forward with her face twisted into the scowl to beat all scowls.

“What were you THINKING?!”






After Prince Blueblood finished the report, he turned back to the humans.

“Well? Do you confirm or deny these this account?” He locked his eyes on the humans.

“We were just trying to protect our friends from all of the hecklers! In fact, that’s Summers’ and Parker’s jobs!” Ramirez replied desperately.

“Answer my question.”

Ramirez sighed defeatedly, “Yes. The ponies were either mad at us or scared of us. They wouldn’t talk to us for four days! We issued a public apology stating our intentions and hoping to make amends with the populace!”

“We also made sure that we didn’t hurt anypony!” Summers added.

“Yet many of those ponies are now traumatized by you and your weapons! Which is why after the court makes the decision to lock away your weapons, you will comply!” Blueblood responded.

“But you can’t! What about the defense of ourselves and others? Where we come from, ownership of weapons is not a privilege, but a right!” McLaughn argued.

“Well this is not the human world, and ponies, which you are not, are only allowed to have lethal weapons if they are in the military!” Blueblood retorted.

“Respectfully, sir, but they ARE in the military! They were just doing their jobs!” Shining Armor tried to defend the humans.

“Captain, while they are on the battlefield, they may use their equipment as they see fit. But in the streets of Ponyville, they do not need to go around creating the atmosphere of a warzone! The court will now vote on this proposal!”

“I am in favor of the military arms proposal!” Jet Set announced, raising his hoof in the air.

“As am I!” Upper Crust added in while also raising her hoof.

“We seem to have a majority vote here, Captain Shining Armor!” Blueblood told the captain.

“I’d say not! I vote as a prince against this proposal!” Shining Armor responded, using his position as prince of the Crystal Empire to tip the vote. The courtroom gasped at this sudden new development, while the humans held their mouths, knowing that further interaction would only earn them more trouble.

“Very well then, Your Highness. If you wish to play that way, we have two votes left! Duke Fancy Pants and Count Caesar may either end the vote in a draw or vote to enable the proposal!” Blueblood shot back.

All eyes in the room were now on the two aforementioned ponies.

Both ponies seemed like they would rather be anywhere else now. On one hoof, they both appreciated the stories of the humans’ bravery in battle and sympathized with their apparent need of their weapons to keep up their exploits. On the other hoof, however, they could not simply overlook the Ponyville incident. Fancy Pants swallowed nervously as he decided on his vote.

“Umm….  I vote that we should….. We should-”

“Hello everypony!” A cheery yet calming voice rang from the back of the room. Everyone turned to see none other than Princess Celestia standing in the doorway with two guards on either side of her.

“PRINCESS!” the whole room erupted. All of the cameras and reporters soon fixated on her.

“Celestia! Thank goodness you’re here! I was just about to defuse the five time bombs that have been sitting in Equestria for six months now!” Blueblood called out to her.

“Aww. Nephew, now why would you do something like that to these five bold and handsome creatures who have put themselves in harm’s way to protect us?” Celestia responded, calmly brushing past the humans and over to the Court podium.

“Wait, handsome?” Smith looked around confusedly.

“Because, Your Highness, despite looks and valor, they’re dangerous! Look at what happened in Ponyville!”

“Calm down, my dearest nephew. There is no need to raise your voice at me.” Celestia replied with a raised brow.

Blueblood’s face blushed with shame and embarrassment as the whole room burst out laughing only to be quickly quieted by the court orderly.

Celestia cleared her throat and continued “From what I’ve heard, the Equestria Rangers made sure that they did not physically harm anypony during that-,” the princess paused to search for a proper word, “-debacle. It is true, Princess Twilight and her friends did not approve of the tactics that were used, but nonetheless, the Equestria Rangers did their duty as protectors of the Princess of Friendship. Besides, not a month ago, you yourself had your personal detachment of royal guards assault a crowd protesters when they protested to your building a private luxury resort in the middle of a nature reserve.” Celestia responded.

Members of the crowd in the spectator section booed in response as the court orderly continued his now vain attempts of silencing them .

“But Celestia! That site was perfect, and those nosy animal-rights ponies just wouldn’t go away!” protested an obviously embarrassed Blueblood amidst the noise.

“Well, at least the humans showed some restraint when they dispersed the crowd in Ponyville,” Celestia responded, “Now, where were you at this moment?”

“Oh yes! Auntie, we were waiting on Duke Fancy Pants’ and Count Ceasar’s votes. Will you be intervening?”

“No, after my input, I am quite sure I can trust the Court can handle this without my help.” Everyone in the room quickly turned to see the two ponies whispering to each other before turning back to the audience.

“After hearing the arguments and seeing the evidence from both sides in addition to Princess Celestia’s defense, I, Duke Fancy Pants, vote to deny the proposal!”

Blueblood glared daggers at him. Finally, the gray counsel pony took his turn to vote. “I, Count Caesar, too vote to deny the proposal.” The whole room began cheering. Princess Celestia turned to face the humans.

“Thank you so much, Princess!” Parker told her.

“Aww, boys, don’t worry about it. Though, if anything, let this be a valuable lesson on how to be considerate of ponies who you don’t agree with,” Celestia told them.

“Of course princess. We promise to do better next time!” McLaughn told her.

Celestia felt a slight magical tug on her tail and turned to see that Blueblood was trying to get her attention, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an angry nephew to take care of.”

As she turned to talk to Blueblood, Shining Armor made his way to the humans. Rubbing the back of his mane, he apologized, “Look, I’m sorry guys. I didn’t think they called me here to make it look like you guys were undisciplined or untrustworthy”

“Don’t even worry about it, no harm was done and we sort of deserved it” Ramirez replied sheepishly. “Right guys?”

The rest of the humans nodded solemnly.

“Anyway, why was Blueblood concerned about it? It isn’t like he was directly affected.” Ramirez inquired.

“Well since you're asking me,” said Shining Armor looking behind at where the “other prince” and Celestia quietly conversing. “It appears he was trying to get ahead by obtaining your weapons to study when you were not using them; he probably would care less about regulating them.” Shining Armor theorized.

The five friends looked at each other before Smith gave an exaggerated shrug.

“I thought we had already given y’all a spare blaster and plenty of rounds to work with.” claimed Parker questionably.

“Indeed, you have and” replied Shining Armor lowering his voice “we even have an entire dedicated military facility to studying and developing them but it appears Prince “Control-It-All” doesn’t know about it considering that he usually doesn’t have a good reason to get involved with the military…..”

“Shining Armour!” Blueblood called out having finished his conversation with Celestia. “Grab a chariot, we are leaving!”

“.....and it appears somepony just found out.” finished Shining Armor as he turned to leave.






Hayseed Swamps

Reeds, reeds everywhere. Besides the loud clicking of cicadas and the croaking of frogs, the swamp seemed to be peaceful, if a bit dank and gloomy. The damp environment allowed for many strange and unusual creatures and plants to thrive here. Here, nature was in balance.

However, the croaking and chirping soon subsided, and a herd of pigs burst out of the trees, running away from what at first seemed like an unusually strong gust of wind. However, lightning bolts began to crackle and spark from the same direction that the wind was coming from. The winds and lightning intensified until a large blue sphere appeared. Out of that sphere could be heard the revving of motors and the chatter of machines.

Soon, a drab truck drove out with its all-terrain tires churning at the damp ground, its forest camo paint job blended nicely with the woods except for a Rival Nemesis blaster mounted on a roof turret. A human manning this turret swept his gaze back and forth, scanning for enemies. Inside the humvee sat at least four other humans. Soon, this humvee was followed by another….

And another…..

And another….

And another until a train of about twenty vehicles and a large force of men standing out in the swampland. Out of the lead vehicle, Commander Stevens and Captain Finn jumped out. Unfortunately for Finn, he landed right in a waist large mud puddle.

“Goddammit!” He exclaimed as he angrily waded over to the nearest dry spot spewing out random vulgarities. Finn joined Stevens who was scanning the surroundings.

“Hmm… I don’t see any of the boys here. I suppose we’ll just try and drive around until we find-” Finn’s monologue was interrupted when Stevens raised a fist sign for him to be quiet.

Stevens glared ahead into the brush. Finn whispered “What is it?”

Steven turned to him and said “Nothing, it is just easier for me to think when you are quiet”.

Finn turned red with fury while Stevens continued to take in his surroundings.

“Where do you think we are?” asked Stevens.

Tyler rolled his eyes, “A swamp”

“Right, now if I were a group of young men like ourselves having spent the last six months on this planet, would I still be in this swamp?”

“No?”

“NO, of course they wouldn’t, then why would we be ‘looking’ for the boys in the swamp in the first place?!” asked Stevens.

Finn couldn’t answer, of course they wouldn’t, the only reason their own group was stuck here was because the portal dumped them there.

“We need to figure out where we are and how to get out of this swamp and start from there” concluded Stevens. “Send up a drone and get a good look at where we are,” commanded Stevens to a nearby soldier.

While a technician went off to unpack the drone, Stevens turned back to observe the now still swamp. He stiffened as dull pops echoed through the wet air. “Gunfire,” He said laconically.

“AH HA, they are here, I was right!” a smug grin worked its way onto Finn’s face.

The shots sounded repetitive, almost as if they were coming from a shooting range.

One of the soldiers went over to Stevens.

“Sir, those gunshots aren’t from us. It sounds like it was coming from the east.” the soldier told the commander while looking at his compass.

“Are we sure those things even work here?” Finn asked.

“Previous experience says ‘yes,’” Stevens turned back to the other man, “That’s unusual, nonetheless, it is the best lead we have now. Huh, we are in a magical pony land. Maybe everything is this easy here. Gear up men, we move east!” Stevens exclaimed while climbing back into his humvee.
> Haysead
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skies over the Haysead Swamp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





Haysead Swamps Royal Research Facility, approx. twenty minutes later

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

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

“Captain, please!” the pegasus begged.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A footprint? A footprint of what?!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"CRACK!!"

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

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

-----------

Three hours later.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blueblood scoffed “That’s preposterous!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




Somewhere east from the facility.

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

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

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

BANG!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




Ruins of Hayseed Swamps Royal Research Facility

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

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

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

“No sir, we only found these two.”

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





Darkness

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

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

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

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

“I… I can.” She responded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Royal Research Facility Command Post

By morning, Shining Armor had assembled a force of three hundred Royal guards, including two hundred of Princess Luna’s elite Thestral Guards: rare and strong bat ponies who were adept at night fighting. During the day, he had pegasi patrol the areas around the swamp with orders to alert him when the human army was spotted. At night, he would have the Thestrals take over patrols. He also sent word to Canterlot to bring in the Equestrian Rangers. Unfortunately, the request was turned down.

“WHAT?! Why can’t we have humans to fight humans?!” He ranted in his command tent at the messenger who told him.

“Sir, Prince Blueblood requested that the humans stay in Canterlot until the court comes to a final decision.” the messenger replied.

“Blueblood? Those humans in some way or another are probably the best way to prevent an inter-species war from breaking out! A war which, despite our probable numerical superiority, we are at a serious disadvantage to fight!” Shining kept shouting. He took a minute to calm down.

“Soldier, send the request again. We need our humans here before any more ponies are hurt or killed. Dismissed.”

“Yes sir.” The messenger then turned and left the tent.





Undisclosed location in the Haysead Swamps

“Sandy...Saaaandy.” a familiar voice called softly. Sandy Shoals lightly opened her eyes enough only to let the light in.

“Rose, isn’t it a little early for training to start?” Sandy murmured groggily.

“What?” the light red unicorn responded not bothering to hide the confusion in her voice.

Sandy let out a laboured sigh. She ran through the events of last night’s nightmare through her head. “Wow, dead brother and captured by humans. Talk about hidden fears.” Sandy thought to herself. Her back hurt from falling asleep in her chair. She attempted to shift to a more comfortable position. Her eyes opened in fear as the restraints and the pole at her back brought her to back to reality and she quickly recalled the terror of yesterday’s events.

“Sandy!” Rose called out in a more hushed yet stern tone. Sandy looked right to her friend since recruitment. Her *colored* her was matted with mud and her horn crudely wrapped in duct tape. She was similarly tied to a pole like Sandy was. Tears of relief welled in Sandy’s eyes.
“Oh Rose, thank Faust you’re alive!” Sandy exclaimed.

“Yep. They caught me with a net and bonked me on the head.”  Rose said turning her head to show the sizable knot on the back of her skull. “How did they get you?”

“I got stuck in the mud and then bonked likewise.” Sandy said doing the same for Rose. There was silence for a moment aside from the loud snores from, Sea Biscuit,the aquamarine unicorn tied with them.

Rose finally spoke up.“Look, I’m so sorry about what happened to your brother yesterday...Did you by chance see where Tide Turner went?” Rose inquired.

“Tide Turner…” Sandy looked down and began gently weeping. “... died trying to protect me.” Rose’s jaw dropped in shock. “Oh no! I’m so sorry!”Rose quietly exclaimed, attempting to nuzzle Sandy and comfort her.

““Did you see who or what captured us?” Rose asked. “I didn’t get to see much before blacking out.”

“We’re being held by humans. They aren’t our humans, though. There’s far more of them and they have some strange metal boxes on wheels.”

“Those wheels must have made those tracks that we started following.” Rose deducted. At that moment, the stallion tied up on Sandy’s left, Sea Biscuit, started to stir. Sea Biscuit transferred from the Equestrian Royal Navy a few weeks ago. Like Rose, there was duct tape wrapped his horn.

“Biscuit! Can you hear me?” Rose whispered.

“Oh.. my head. What happened? Why are we tied up?” Suddenly, the tent door flew open, shining bright sunlight into the ponies’ eyes.

“Well you’re about to find out!” Tyler Finn told them. Immediately, three human soldiers came in with leashes and knives. Rose tried to use her magic to cut them free, but the tape on her horn prevented her from using magic. The humans put the leashes on the ponies, cut the rope that kept them tied to the pole, and then walked them out of the tent.

Once outside of the tent, the ponies got a good idea about the scale of this army.

“What- what are those things on wheels??” Biscuit wondered out loud as he looked at the humvees.

“None of your damn business. You best keep your mouth shut until you’re spoken to horse.” Tyler responded annoyedly. Soon the escort came up to a large main tent at the center of the camp, and Tyler opened the door and led the people and ponies inside.

Inside the tent was a small folding desk with the human from the previous night in a camp chair. Elsewhere in the tent sat two cots, a couple of military backpacks, and a nerf rifle. Sandy noted that it looked similar to one of the human rifles, but was still very different at the same time. The humans who walked the ponies over pushed the ponies in front of the desk and stood behind them.

“Good morning little ponies. I hope you’ve had a good night’s rest. I am Commander Stevens.” the human announced.

“I come on behalf of the United States Federal Agency of International and Interdimensional Affairs. We believe that some of our…. ‘property’…. has been misplaced in your dimension.” The ponies remained silent. Stevens smiled so that he could reassure the ponies that he meant no harm. However, he was slightly irked when none of them responded.

“I know you can speak. Please don’t make this even more difficult for all of us.” he warned. Sandy spoke up.

“I’m sorry Mr. hu- I mean Mr. Stevens, but what do you mean by ‘property’?”

“Well young pony, what I simply mean is this.” Stevens walked over to his cot and showed them his Regulator rifle. The magazine was removed and he only had the middle barrel and stock attached.

“Surely you must have seen these somewhere around here before?” Stevens asked.

“Well…. I haven’t seen one like this but some of the features are familiar” Sandy responded. Stevens then looked to the other two ponies.

“And what about you two?” Rose and Biscuit both nodded yes.

“So, young ponies, this is what I am looking for. My government seeks to reacquire these and bring them back. Unfortunately, though, my government also gave orders to terminate any ponies seen dealing with these weapons, so unfortunately, I had to eliminate that base nearby since they were tinkering with U.S. property…”

“... what about them?” Sandy muttered under her breath.

“What about who?” Stevens inquired.

“Sergeant Muscle Shoals and Corporal Tide Turner. They had nothing to do with what was in that base, but they were killed anyway.” Sandy started shaking and her tone sounded more coarse. Rose and Biscuit looked at her nervously, knowing that she was not feeling ok. Stevens looked confused at first, but then remembered what his men told him when the ponies were captured.

“I’m…. terribly sorry about that incident. My men were on patrol and decided to target ponies who were tracking us. I myself don’t want to kill anything while I’m here, but we have our orders to take out any pony who knows about our activity…”

Suddenly, Sandy burst out.

“IS THIS WHY YOU SLAUGHTERED INNOCENT PONIES AT THAT SCIENCE LAB?? IS THIS WHY YOU MURDERED MY BROTHER AND ONE OF OUR FRIENDS?? JUST TO ASK FOR SOMETHING BACK?!”  She was suddenly felt a strong tug on her leash as her human kept her under control. Stevens, however, just sat back.

“Like I told you last night, I’m sorry for my troops ‘prejudicial’ actions toward your comrades. I didn’t want anyone or anything to get hurt. However, for the base, I’m afraid that we simply had to destroy it. You see, the blasters that they were working on there, don’t belong to ponies.” Stevens replied.

“Who are you to decide what is ours and what isn’t??” Rose Thorn retorted. At this point, Stevens was starting to get annoyed by the interruptions.

“Again, those weapons are U.S. government property, not horse toys…”

Steven continued “As I was saying, that stuff isn’t yours. Why? Because that’s human technology you’re messing with. You might think that using that kind of stuff will make you stronger, but trust me. You’re better off without it.”

“B-But our humans saved Equestria from invasion with that kind of stuff!” Sea Biscuit replied “If we had it we could- AAAHH!!!” his response was cut off when Tyler Finn suddenly kicked him in the stomach. Sandy and Rose collectively gasped in horror as he fell to the floor, gasping for air.

“Like I said, I don’t like being interrupted. However, you do bring on my next point. Those humans are fugitives since they brought our equipment out here and let you see it.” Stevens pointed to the map on his desk.

“All I want you to do is show me where I can find them. We got this map off of one of the ponies at the science lab. Once we get them and their equipment back to our dimension, no more harm will come to ponies. You’ll also be free to leave our camp once you’ve shown us where they are. Capice?” Stevens gave them a reassuring grin. Rose and Sandy looked at the map and so did Biscuit as he sat back up. It was an up-to-date map of Equestria. Each of the three ponies knew that these humans couldn’t be trusted, yet they didn’t want to upset them again. After giving each other the agreeing look, Sandy spoke up.

“Sir, I am Sandy Shores of the Equestrian Royal Guard. Despite your generous offer, I’m afraid that if we complied, it would be treason. We respectfully refuse to show you the location of our humans.” Stevens’ grin lowered to a blank stare.

“Very loyal horses. ‘Tis a pity” Stevens said bearing a rather bored expression.

“Take them back to their tent.” he ordered. Tyler and his men then dragged the ponies out and tied them back to their post. The ponies began breathing heavily after the humans left.

“What are we gonna do?!?!” Rose panicked. Thoughts of human torture plagued her mind as she tried to struggle out of her bonds.

“Rose! Keep it down! They might hear us! Whisper!” Sandy tried to calm Rose Down.

“Maybe we should tell them anyway?” Biscuit silently weazed. The two mares then turned and gave him a deadpanned look.

“Sea Biscuit! Are you insane?! We can’t do that! It’s treason!” Sandy silently scolded at Biscuit for even suggesting that they give away that information.

“Think about it! Even with their high tech advantage, no army is simply going to march up and take Canterlot! Since it’s our capital, it’s going to be the most well defended city in Equestria! Also, it will take them days to get there without the train!” Biscuit replied.

“What about the Royal Wedding incident?”

“That was different! The Changelings could shapeshift! Humans can’t! The Royal Guards will be able to spot them from miles away!”





Steven’s command tent

“Also, when our humans see what they’ve done to that base full of ponies, they’re gonna get mad, and then they’re gonna knock em back to where they came from!” Unbeknownst to the pony prisoners, Stevens had set up a bug in their tent so that he would get his information without resorting to more brutal tactics. He was carefully taking down notes and preparing the army’s route on the map…





The next day
Sandy woke up to have a leash being put back on her. She and the others had discussed the possibility of revealing where the Equestrian Rangers were, and they concluded that they keep their mouths shut. Fortunately, nothing serious happened after their interrogation the previous day. This morning, however, they were sure that Stevens was going to attempt to extract that information again.

However, instead of meeting him in his command tent, they faced him in the middle of the camp.

“I’m sorry that you guys had to go without food yesterday. I’ve done a lot of thinking about what you said yesterday and decided that we could start searching on our own. You ponies are free to leave whenever you feel ready.” Stevens told them. He then ordered his men to release them. However, none of the ponies moved.

“Thank you Mr. Human, but I’m afraid we can’t leave.” Rose spoke up.

“Why not?”

“It’s pretty obvious that you’re up to something. We can’t simply let you follow us to our army…”

“I understand. You have my word that my men will not follow you.”

“That’s not good enough. Go ahead and leave now. We’ll go home on our own.” Stevens looked concerned for a moment. By moving now, he would give away his route. However, it wasn’t like the Equestrian Army was his target anyway…

“Ok then. We’ll leave right now. Pack up and send a drone East!” Stevens ordered. Immediately, men rushed and began packing up their camp and loading up the humvees. Also, two men placed a drone on the ground and used a remote control to launch it. After about an hour, the humvees started up and all the men boarded. Stevens stepped into his, but not before giving a mock-salute to the ponies, who were still waiting. After he boarded, the humvees took off, following the path of the drone. Once they were out of view, Sandy, Rose, and Biscuit took off West, where they knew the base was after seeing the map the previous day.




Steven’s Humvee

“What are we doing? We know from this map that we’re just driving straight to the ocean!” Finn complained. He noticed the other day that all that lay east of the Haysead Swamps was indeed the ocean.

“Don’t worry. The only thing headed to the ocean is that drone. We’re going North!” Stevens said as he steered left, with the rest of the column following behind him.
> The Great Deception
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shining Armor's Base Camp

"Sir?" A young pegasus saluted Shining Armor as he sat in his tent, contemplating possible solutions to the problem: An unknown number of humans were wandering in the swamp shooting at ponies. Besides the destruction of a research facility, two more ponies had been killed two days ago. He had not been able to sleep very well, his mane and tail were a mess, and his eyes had deep bags under them, similar to when Cadance had their daughter.



He was about to drift off to sleep again when the pegasus called.

"Hmm?? Wha? WHA??! I'M AWAKE! What's going on??" 

"Sir, the rest of that scouting squad has returned, and they say that they now know about the enemy's plans" Shining Armor suddenly straightened himself up and regained his focus.

"Alright. Bring them in!" Shining ordered. The Pegasus then stepped out, and in came Rose Thorn, Sea Biscuit, and Sandy Shoals. They were dirty and had no armor, yet they clopped their hooves to attention and saluted Shining, who also saluted them.

"Soldiers, I am aware you have encountered the humans?" Shining asked.

"Yes sir, we have found a large human force out there." Rose replied.

"And did you see the Equestrian Rangers among them?" 

"No sir."

Shining suddenly exhaled in relief. "Thank Faust. I was hoping you would say that. I think Blueblood is going to use the base attack to press charges against them."

"Why would he do that sir?" Sea Biscuit asked.

"That's not important right now. Tell me everything you've learned about these new humans."

"Well sir, there's definitely somewhere around one hundred or one hundred and fifty of them, they use strange boxes on wheels as vehicles, and they have a flying machine they use to scout the area ahead of them." Sandy told Shining.

"Good job soldiers. Do you by chance know where they're going?" Shining asked further.

"Sir they are here for the Rangers and their weapons. They say that they want to take them back to their world, and they tried to get us to tell them where they were, but we kept our mouths shut. They took off to the east toward Horseshoe Bay when we last saw them."

Suddenly, a different pegasus guard burst into the tent.

"SIR! WE'VE SPOTTED AN ALIEN AIRCRAFT HEADING EAST OUT OF THE SWAMP!"

Shining and the survivors looked toward each other and then to the pegasus...




Horseshoe Bay coastline, a few hours later

"Where the heck are they?!" Shining Armor grew more and more frustrated by the minute. After the pegasi "captured" the drone, they thought that they had found the human army's next location. However, there were no humans in sight. All that could be seen for miles was nothing but coastline. 

"I-I don't understand sir! We saw them heading this direction and they always send the flying machine out as a scout!" Rose fumbled, trying to understand what happened.

"Wait, as a scout?! So this thing can see us!?" Shining looked closely at the recovered drone and saw a camera. Not knowing how it could see him, he cast it into the ocean.

"DAMMIT!! THEY TRICKED US! WHERE COULD THEY BE GOING!?!?!" Shining tossed his hooves in frustration.

"There's only one direction that matters Captain..." Sea Biscuit told him, and they all looked North along the coastline, where the rest of Equestria sat in the path of this unseen force...




Northern Region of Haysead Swamps

Unbeknownst to most ponies, there was a small, empty settlement in the northern part of the swamp. Houses were perched on docks, and a large tree with a door and windows sat close by. The area was peaceful and quiet, until today. It started when the local birds and flash bees started swarming away to the North. Then there were ripples in the water, and a low rumble was then heard.. A cajun-looking pony, the last citizen of the once populous settlement, trotted out to see what was going on.

"What the hay is goin on? Uh oh!" The pony looked at all that was happening around him and then he galloped back into his tree after seeing a frightening sight. It looked like a cattle stampede, but these cattle were on four wheels with headlights and speakers blasting a ghastly sound...



He was so terrified by this unknown force that he actually barricaded the door shut as he waited out the stampede. It was only half a minute, but he felt it was ok to come out when the music had died and the loud splashing sounds had ceased. He carefully peered out the door to see that not much had changed. Not much, that is, except for the foot-wide tire tracks that littered the ground....
> The Battle of Baltimare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haysead Swamp

After realizing that he had been duped, Prince-Captain Shining Armor immediately ordered his army of 300 ponies to rapidly  march North. However, he knew that he would not be able to alert the Baltimare Garrison in time. He pulled out two parchments and a quill, wrote down new orders, and then handed a note to one of his lieutenants as they were marching.

"You, give this to Commander Speeder. Tell him to fly his pegasus division to Baltimare and warn them." The lieutenant saluted and trotted back over to find the Commander. Shining then turned to another lieutenant marching with him.

"You, give this to Commander Night Glider. Tell him to send half of his Thestrals to join up with Commander Speeder's division." This lieutenant also fell back to inform this commander. A few minutes later, half of Shining Armor's force had taken to the skies and headed for Baltimare...




Fort MacHenry, Baltimare

"Sir! Permission to speak to you sir?" A young royal guard saluted to his superior officer. They were in the General's quarters and the earth pony he was saluting to sat behind a desk, had a tan coat with a grey mane and mustache, and had a four-star insignia as his cutie mark.

"At ease. What is it soldier?" The pony behind the desk took a sip of coffee.

"General Four Star, I have two commanders here who urgently need to speak to you." 

"Bring them in." The royal guard then ushered in a pegasus and a thestral guard. Both ponies saluted as they met the general.

"Sir, I am Commander Night Glider and this is Commander Speeder. We were sent here by Prince-Captain Shining Armor to warn you."

"Warn me about what soldier?" The general took another sip of coffee.

"Sir, we believe that at any moment, we may be engaged in an interspecies war, and that Baltimare may be ground zero." Commander Speeder announced.

"At war? Soldier, not to sound apathetic, but the most my troops have had to deal with are illegal immigrants from Klugetown trying to slip across our border." The general responded.

"Sir, I'm afraid that this is no false alarm. We have evidence that an unknown number of armed humans are heading this way with enough firepower to wipe out a Royal Guard Testing Ground." The general lowered his cup of coffee as he heard Commander Night Glider explain the situation.

"If they're humans, they should be our friends, right?" The general asked, lowering his coffee cup.

"Sir, these humans are not the humans we've heard of in the news. They've wiped out a Royal Guard facility and have fired at our troops in the Haysead Swamps. We've brought 150 troops here to reinforce you." Commander Speeder further detailed. Suddenly, a young pegasus guard came running in.

"SIR! WE'VE SPOTTED A LARGE CARAVAN OF NON-PONY ORIGIN LEAVING THE HAYSEAD SWAMP SOUTH OF HERE! THEY MAY ARRIVE TO BALTIMARE IN AN HOUR OR LESS!" The general immediately stood up.

"Commanders, I advise that you have your troops prepared for battle. This garrison has five hundred troops stationed here. I will sound the alarm and we will meet the enemy on the fields between the swamp and the railroad." All of the ponies soon rushed out of the room.




Baltimare Fields, forty-five minutes later, Human POV

"Dammit Tyler, I thought we were heading Northwest!" Commander Stevens looked at the map and then the compass in frustration, noticing that instead of heading toward Canterlot, his convoy was merely tracing up the coastline.

"Well don't blame me for not being able to use a compass in a place where we don't know where magnetic north is!" Tyler rebuked while driving the humvee. The convoy had just crossed a river and was heading to an open field. 

"Fine then, don't worry about it. We can just assume the magnetic north is off by thirty degrees clockwise and we'll adjust for- wait, do you see that?"

"See what?" Tyler then turned to look. Across a large field stood an army of ponies, clad in battle armor and carrying spears.

"Stop the truck." Stevens ordered. He then announced his order on the radio.

"Alright team, spread out and park the humvees in line formation parallel to that enemy formation ahead of us. Get behind the humvees once you've parked." The humvee convoy then spread out and parked as he ordered.




Pony POV

"Sir, they're spreading out. I think they're moving into battle positions!" Commander Speeder informed General Four Star. Along with Commander Night Glider, they were standing at the head of the Equestrian Army on the north side of the field just west of Baltimare. The General lifted his binoculars to see the human formation. He then chuckled to himself.

"Hah! I only count fifteen or so vehicles over there with five humans each at most! We have six hundred and fifty ponies here!" The two commanders looked at the General worriedly.

"Sir, despite our clear numerical advantage, I would not underestimate these humans. Remember how our human Rangers could defeat changeling armies despite the fact that there were only five of them?" Night Glider warned.

"Nonsense! Those were but insects! We are the Royal Guard! Fourth Brigade! Charge!" The General bellowed. A column of earth ponies and unicorns yelled and charged forward straight at the human line. The general pulled out his binoculars again.

"Watch and learn Commanders. When you have the numbers and know the land, you can overwhelm any foe..."




Human POV



"We've got incoming!" a soldier yelled as he stood behind a humvee, with his Regulator at the ready.

"Alright! Snipers! Aim for the unicorns first and work your way down! They're probably the only ones who can shoot back!" After Stevens gave the order, several men armed with Raptorstrikes positioned their rifles over the hoods of their humvees and opened fire. 




Pony POV

"Sir, they aren't even getting within a thousand hooves of them, look!" Commander Night Glider noted. The general looked through his binoculars and gazed on in surprise as his ponies were collapsing half-way across the field. He gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Very well. Commanders, hold your pegasi and thestrals in reserve. I will deal with these apes myself! ALL UNITS OF FORT MACHENRY! CHARGE!!!" The General and his entire army then began galloping across the field while the Commanders' flying ponies kept back. 




Human POV

"Well, that's alot more than the last wave..." One human soldier noted as nearly two-thirds of the pony army began charging at them.

"Snipers, keep up your fire! Riflemen, lock and load! Have the MGs manned! Wait on my signal to fire!" Stevens ordered. While his snipers kept on taking down ponies at long range, there were simply too many for them to hold off alone. The ponies kept galloping closer and closer...

Soon, they were about three-hundred feet out.

"FIRE!!!!" A loud, crashing sound filled the air as numerous blasters went off all at once. The effect was immediate. The front wave of the entire pony charge collapsed. The grunts with their Regulators and the Nemesis turret operators kept firing, with numerous ponies falling. A few unicorn blasts impacted the humvees, but failed to do much damage to the armor. 




Pony POV

"Oh dear Celestia, help me!" General Fourstar had taken hits in three of his legs. All around him, he was watching his ponies get mowed down like grass as the humans shot at them like fish in a barrel. He soon felt a pony try to pick him up.

"Sir! We've gotta get out of-" the pony's statement was interrupted by a dart going through him. Fourstar looked around himself again and saw the field being strewn with fallen ponies. By now, he realized that he had made a grave mistake by underestimating human firepower. He also realized that as long as he and his army kept attacking, more lives would be lost.

"RETREAT!!!"

Fourstar didn't need to bark his order twice. As soon as he gave it, everypony around him began galloping back toward their original position. Unfortunately, many wounded ponies, himself included, were stranded in that field, at the mercy of the humans a few hundred feet away...




Human POV

Cheers went up from among the ranks as the ponies desperately took off galloping away from the convoy. However, there were still alot of wounded ponies sitting in front of them.

"Sir, what do we do about the wounded?" Finn asked Stevens.

"Leave them. They've learned not to mess with us from now on."

"Alright guys, fun's over, let's get outta here." Finn ordered. Within a minute, the convoy had taken off to Canterlot again.




Pony POV an hour later

We were lucky...

We were lucky that they didn't massacre the wounded after the rest of the army retreated.

We were lucky that they didn't come and attack the two remaining divisions across the field.

We were lucky that they didn't invade and ransack Baltimare itself.

We were lucky.

-Unknown Royal Guard

"By Celestia, I hope that our Rangers will come and help us..." -Commander Night Glider
> Contact
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"... and that is my stance on the matter." The Doctor Strange-looking pony declared before the Royal court. Despite the vote conducted by the court a few days ago, Prince Blueblood convinced the court to keep on investigating into the Equestrian Rangers and their weapons. Of course, the Rangers themselves had to be there, much to their annoyance. Unfortunately, Blueblood had a new trick up his sleeve...

"Thank you Chancellor Neighsay for your 'academic' opinion on the issue. I would now like to put forth some new evidence that I have discovered in the Haysead swamp..." Ramirez smirked, believing that Blueblood was about to shoot himself in the foot by revealing the research and scientific advances made on nerf weapon samples at the base there. However, his look of confidence was wiped clean from his face as Blueblood broadcasted the images of the smoldering ruins and dead bodies of ponies onto his projection. Looking to his side, Ramirez found that the rest of the Rangers were also staring on in shock at the scene. 

"Blueblood, what the hell is this?!" Ramirez stood up and interjected.

"These are the remains of a Royal Research facility in the Everfree Forest. It's a combination of a fort and a laboratory. I went to visit it a few days ago when I was met with the odor of smoke and blood."

"What... happened?" McLaughn was gazing at the images with a horrified look on his face.

"I was hoping that you boys would be able to answer that, seeing as how I found these on the site..." Blueblood then showed images of blood-soaked darts and bootprints in the ground. Many of the ponies in the room gasped and then started crying bloody murder at them. Blueblood then had to use his gavel to call the court to order.

"That..... was not us." Ramirez stated flatly.

"Are you certain about that Sergeant? Who else could have been capable of using guns AND leaving behind human footprints?" Blueblood looked at them smirking. The whole courtroom looked on in shock at the humans.

"I'm telling you, WE DON'T HURT PONIES!" Ramirez shouted at Blueblood while slamming his fist on the table. He was suddenly pushed down back into his seat by a magic aura.

"ORDER! CALM YOURSELF, HUMAN!" the bailiff exclaimed, having used his magic to restrain Ramirez. McLaughn observed the picture closely. He noticed a small detail to the far right of the screen.

"That was definitely not us your highness."

"And what proof do you have of that?" Blueblood inquired.

"Look closer at the image with footprints. See those vertical lines on the right? Those are tire-tracks."

"Of course you would understand what they are. They are undoubtedly the prints left by a human weapon." Blueblood answered.

"Those tracks had to come from a car or something. You have no idea how complex something like that is. It would take a year, maybe more, for us to build something like that. Also, we would need materials and tools that Equestria has no access to in order to make one." Smith replied.

"But the 'car' is of human origin, yes?" Blueblood inquired. Smith hesitated before he answered.

"...yes.." The entire courtroom gasped and shouted bloody murder at the Rangers.

"ORDER!" The bailiff called out again. Blueblood then seized his opportunity to deal with the humans...

"THAT IS IT! Since you've clearly admitted that this evidence does prove that you went rogue.."

"WE DID NOT HURT AN-" Ramirez got up and yelled, right before Blueblood cut him off.

"I'M NOT FINISHED! Thanks to this new evidence, I will put forward another vote to confiscate your weapons AND to throw you all in the royal dungeon!!!"




Rooftop above the Royal Courtroom

"Ready to deploy sir!" One of the six nerf agents radioed. It was a grueling journey, but Commander Stevens, Captain Finn, and four other agents snuck through the backstreets of Canterlot before the sun came up. Along the way, they captured a frightened young mare who pointed them to the Royal Palace's courtroom. Despite Finn's insistence to take her out to keep the operation under wraps, Stevens let her go. Now, the six men had scaled the building and nailed ropes to the roof shingles in order to rappel into the building. Stevens, Finn, and two of the other agents carried regulators in submachine gun configuration while the other two agents had twinshocks. Every man also wore gas masks..

"I don't like this Commander, letting that horse go might have just spoiled the element of surprise..." Tyler radioed. 

"I understand Finn, but as long as we do this quickly, we probably won't have anything to worry about. Everyone get your smoke ready." Everyone grabbed the small canisters on their vests and pulled the pins...




Inside the courtroom

"... And maybe at that time, I'll have your citizenships revoked!!" Blueblood finished his rant.

Suddenly, the stained-glass windows around the courtrooms shattered as something flew through each one. The audience screamed at the glass breaking and the bailiff went and looked at one of the cylinders that went through. Parker looked at one and immediately recognized what it was...

"NO! DON'T!" Parker yelled, but it was too late. The smoke grenades began spewing their tear gas all over the room, blinding many ponies and humans alike. The bailiff, whose face was a few inches from the grenade he was investigating, suddenly screamed and dropped his spear as he grabbed his face, coughing on the smoke and trying to wipe his eyes...

"AAGHH!!! SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!" Blueblood also began hacking and crying as the gas took it's effect. At that moment the windows broke again, only this time, humans wearing gas masks and dressed in full combat gear moved in. The ponies in the room screamed as they heard their heavy boots storm through the room. The bailiff opened his eyes just in time to see the intruders. He picked up his spear and pointed it at one of them.

"H-HALT!!!" The human turned to him, raised his regulator, and put three darts in him. 

"OH MY AUNT!!!" Blueblood screamed from behind his pulpit. One of the strange humans leveled his Twinshock at him and fired. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Blueblood ducked just before the human shot at him.

The Rangers were still on the floor coughing and bawling their eyes out when they felt somebody tackle each of them and put zip-ties around their wrists behind their backs. Whoever was doing it also picked them up and started pushing them toward the back of the courtroom. Parker was able to open his eyes and see the assailants.

"Crap. It's the feds..."

The door at the back of the courtroom burst open and four royal guards tried to see into the room.

"WHAT IN TARTARUS IS GOING ON IN HERE?!?!?!" One of the guards yelled. The one agent who wasn't handling the Rangers then shot at the guards. Two of them fell while the other two scrambled for cover. The agents then rushed out with the Rangers, finishing off the two guards who were hiding behind pillars on the other side of the hall.

"Who are you?! What the hell are you doing!?!" Ramirez coughed out as he and his men were being rushed through the Royal Castle.

"You all have the right to remain silent, should you chose to speak, anything you say may be held against you..." Stevens began reciting the Miranda rights as they were rushing through the hall. When they came to a second door and found it locked, one of the men with a Twinshock used his shotgun to breach it. Upon opening the door, however, the group was stopped in its tracks. 

On the other side of the door were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna backed by about fifty royal guards. Neither the princesses nor the guards looked happy at the sight of the new humans...

"Excuse us please...." Stevens called out to the two powerful alicorns...

"No. You have invaded our land, destroyed Royal Property, murdered and kidnapped our subjects..." Celestia replied sternly, with a growing look of anger on her face.

"Last chance horsey, move it or lose it!!" Finn called out as he switched magazines

"Why should we fear you? You are in Equestria now. Surrender now and nopony else will be harmed." Luna called out. The agent who was handling McLaughn then pushed him aside, aimed at Celestia, and opened fire...


... only to watch his darts bounce harmlessly off of her magic forcefield. 

"Very well, you have made your choice, invaders..." Celestia flared her wings and powered up her horn, causing her eyes to glow white. She then fired a high-powered magical ray at the agent who shot at her, disintegrating him where he stood.

"LIGHT 'EM UP!" Stevens yelled. The agents raised their guns and fired at the ponies, only to find that their blasters had no effect against magic forcefields. Luna also began to fire her own powerful beam at the strange humans as the Rangers dropped to the ground to avoid getting hit. Two more agents were completely disintegrated by the alicorns powerful magic. Stevens then grabbed Smith and tried to drag him along as he and his remaining agents started to retreat.

"RELEASE HIM AT ONCE!!" Celestia bellowed in her Royal Canterlot voice. Stevens tried to shoot back at her, only to find the red indicator on his regulator blinking. He then drew his disruptor and shot back at her, but then Smith stomped on his foot and kicked him in the shin before ducking back onto the floor. Celestia then fired another magic beam, disintegrating Stevens.

"NOOOO!!!!" Finn yelled as he saw this. He wanted to keep fighting, but the other surviving agent held him back.

"Sir! We can't fight those things! We gotta go!" The soldier then broke the closest window and jumped out, with Finn following shortly after. After they were gone, the Royal Guards moved into the building to assist the wounded ponies in the courtroom....
> The Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh my Faust! Are you boys ok?!" Celestia picked up McLaughn with her hooves and checked him for injuries as her maternal instincts set in. She then did the same for Ramirez.

"We're fine Princess. Thank you for saving us." Ramirez spoke as she looked at his reddened eyes.

"What did they do to your eyes?! They're all red!" Celestia whined.

"Tear gas. It's a nonlethal chemical weapon that police and military in our world use to disperse riots or flush out enemies." Smith explained to her.

"They force you to cry in order to render your sight?! How cruel!"

"Sister, while that is indeed very cruel, I believe that it is also cruel to leave our boys restrained?" Luna noted as she looked at Summers' wrists zip-tied behind his back.

"Oh.. of course Luna." Celestia and Luna both used their magic to loosen the zip ties and allow the Rangers to move their arms freely. The boys then rubbed their eyes and picked up the new blasters left behind by the four agents who were turned to dust.

"Huh... this one looks like it has select-fire.." Smith noted as he looked at a regulator. Summers looked at a twinshock with disgust.

"Bleh! This thing is too big and chunky to use." He laid it against the wall nearby.

"Ahem. Boys, do you have any idea who those other humans were?" Luna asked them. A scowl of concern grew on her face as she saw the boys picking up the strange yet familiar blasters.

"Well Princess, I only got a glimpse of them, but I think that they were Federal agents." Parker responded.

"Federal agents?"

"That means that they are a type of police-spy employed by the American government." Ramirez added. Celestia's frown grew from there.

"Does that mean that they're here to take you back??"

"It's definitely the most likely option... but did you say that they killed ponies earlier Princess?" Smith asked.

"....yes. Shining Armor wrote to us saying that they attacked a base in the Haysead Swamp full of scientists and guards, and we recently received word about a massive battle near Baltimare." Luna reported.

"How long ago did this happen?"

"The destroyed base was discovered last week, and the Battle of Baltimare was two days ago. Many pony lives were lost in both incidents." After Luna responded, Royal guards and civilian ponies, including some of the nobles of the court began trotting out of the hall. Many of them were crying or dumbstruck after being gassed and seeing the corpses of the guards who stood in the agents' way. Blueblood was being escorted out while using a handkerchief to wipe the tears from his eyes. He then turned and looked at the Rangers who were holding the guns dropped by the agents.

"YOU!!!! YOU BROUGHT THEM HERE!!! THEY KILLED FIVE PONIES BACK THERE!!!!" Blueblood lashed out as he used his magic to grab Parker by the collar to drag him down to eye-level with him.

"NEPHEW!! That is enough!" Luna shouted at him. Blueblood shoved Parker from his magic grasp.

"You know it's true Auntie! What else would bring more humans here?!"

"Nephew, these boys were victims just as much as you and the other ponies. You can't blame them for what happened." Celestia told him.

"Also nephew, Prince-Captain Shining Armor sent me a letter. Is it true that you ordered for the Rangers to stay in Canterlot when the Captain needed them to counter this very threat?" Princess Luna asked. Blueblood responded only with silence and an embarrased-guilty look. He then rejoined the crowd and kept moving.

"Wait, Shining sent for us?" Ramirez puzzled.




Equestrian War Room, Canterlot Castle

When most think of a war-room, they usually think of a large room full of computerized maps and occupied by numerous officers. Equestria's War Room was similar, yet at the same time very different from that description. Most of the room was almost brand new, as it was hastily constructed during the Pony-Changeling war a few months ago. The walls were circular and lined with the same grey bricks used in the Royal Dungeon. The floor was made of wood planks, and in the center of the room was a massive chandelier and a map of Equestria on top of a large red rug. The map took up a large circular table, about three yards in diameter, and the rest of the room had bookshelves that were mostly empty. Whatever was on the few occupied shelves were details from the last war and various documents from Equestrian history.

"What do we know so far?" Ramirez stood at the southern end of the map while the Royal Sisters sat on the Northeast and Northwest. The rest of the Rangers sat on the southern half of the map.

"So far, all we know about is that the human force numbers around one-hundred, and that their movement appears to move Northwest from Haysead to Canterlot. Luna pointed out as she used a large blue quill to trace the path of the human invaders.

"We also know that Captain Armor originally had a force of three hundred in Haysead. He had deployed one hundred-fifty of them to Baltimare before the attack, but after watching the enemy destroy Baltimare's garrison of five-hundred ponies, Shining's commanders pulled back into the city. They are regrouping and heading to Canterlot now." Celestia added.

"Five hundred? Goddamn!" Parker muttered under his breath.

"Boys, you know what you have to do. We've acquitted Blueblood's trial from your record and you may use lethal force." Luna told them.

"........ we can't do that...."

"What was that?" Luna asked, hearing Ramirez whisper to himself.

"I said we cannot do that. We will not do it." The Rangers looked at Ramirez. After hearing about the agents' attacks on ponies, they were all ready to go and start killing them. How could anybody be so cruel as to kill a pony?! That crime was truly unforgivable. McLaughn was about to interject, but Luna beat him to it.

"Why not?! Those humans are out there murdering innocent ponies!!"

"I know Princess, and they are wrong to do that, but we can't just go out there and start killing them!"

"How come? You boys killed hundreds of changelings in the last war." Luna asked.

"Sister, easy..." Celestia tried to calm down the argument.

"That was different. Those changelings were not from our world. We killed them because we didn't look at them as we look at other men. Now you're telling us to go and start killing other humans. You wouldn't directly order your ponies to go out and kill other ponies, would you?" When confronted with this question, Luna froze up. She saw herself as Nightmare Moon again. At one time, she may have considered using her guards to hunt down those who sympathized with her sister or threatened her role as princess. She was reformed a long time ago, but hearing this question made her wonder if there was still a little bit of Nightmare Moon in her.

The boys, who might have sided with Luna earlier, seemed to calm down. Ramirez was right. They couldn't just go and attack a bunch of other people who probably came here to bring them home.

"Sister?" Luna felt a tapping on her shoulder. She looked to her right and saw that Celestia was looking at her with concern. Luna broke her silence.

"I-I'm truly sorry boys. Of course we wouldn't force you to kill your fellow man."

"Thank you Princess." Summers replied. The guys let out a collective breath of relief.

"That doesn't mean that you aren't going to do something to stop them, right?" Celestia remarked.

"Of course we're gonna stop them. I have an idea." Ramirez began explaining.





"...Ok boys. I think it should work." Celestia approved. Ramirez's plan was to use guerrilla warfare tactics to draw the invading army away from the populated parts of Equestria. The boys would fire pot-shots at the army while being sure not to hit anybody. They would lead the force west through the White Tail Woods, past the Smokey Mountains, and into the Undiscovered West. Once there, they will leave the rest to a fully retrained Equestrian Army which would be better prepared to deal with humans. 

"We'll send for Twilight to send your supplies to Canterlot. Until then, I suggest that you stay here. Shining Armor's force is moving in to engage the human force at the base of Canterlot's mountain." Celestia told them.

"He's going to attack!? What if they wipe him out too?!" Summers was concerned that Shining may face the same fate as Four Star.

"Don't worry. He told us that he'll try to conduct a night raid with some of the best ponies we have..." Luna smirked.
> Watch Where You Sleep...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Base of Canterlot Mountain

"Almost there..." Tyler and the surviving agent from the assault on the Royal court carefully scaled down the slope of the mountain where Canterlot was held. As they descended, the landscape transformed from rocky to wooded as there was a forest at the base. The pair stopped when they heard a gun cock.

"It's ok. It's Captain Tyler. Wait, where are the others?" a voice spoke nearby. From within the bushes, two armed sentries came out to see the returning humans.

"Dead. Apparently some of these horses can create bulletproof forcefields.." Tyler explained.

"Even Commander Stevens?"

"Yeah. They can also shoot magical rainbow lasers."

"Damn..." The team then trekked a few hundred yards back to the camp. 

"Sir, you know that that puts you in charge, right?" the other survivor told Finn.

"Yeah, I know. Our mission is almost done. We just gotta find a way around those winged unicorns..." Tyler began contemplating as they reached the camp. It was laid out similarly to the way it was laid out in the Haysead Swamp, with the humvees forming a defensive circle. Tyler entered his tent and tried to lay down, but seeing his former partner's belongings on the other side only irked him.

"Damn those horses and their witchcraft..." He thought as he dozed off.




Human camp, 1700 hrs

Most of the camp was asleep. The fires were out and five men were on night watch. They would sit in a humvee or in a folding chair outside of the humvee and watch for anything that tried to attack or eat a person. Tonight was no different. The agent guarding the South side was using his smartphone to pass the time.

"Come on. We end up in a magical fairy land and there's no WiFi or anything out here..." he internally mumbled as he sat outside.

A gust of wind blew through and chilled him a little, but he thought nothing of it. However, when he heard something walking around nearby, he got spooked and turned his phone off. When he heard a twig snap nearby, he picked up his Regulator and activated the flashlight attachment. He barely turned it on when something flew out, snatched him, and dragged him back into the forest. He didn't get a chance to scream, but his rifle fired a single shot as it hit the ground.

Many lanterns lit up as the men who were light sleepers woke up and went to investigate. Once Tyler went to investigate, he and two of the other sentries found only the rifle on the ground. 

"Who was stationed here?"

"Sir, I think that was Reynolds." one of the guards told him.

"JACK? JACK? I SWEAR IF THIS IS ANOTHER STUPID PRANK, YOU'RE GONNA BE DOING THIS JOB ALL NIGHT FOR THE REST OF THE MISSION!" Finn called out. No answer.

"Defensive positions. You two, go look for him." The other sentries and awakened agents took cover behind the humvees. Two of them activated their flashlight attachments and treaded into the woods. As they got deeper, they would aim at any direction where they heard noises. At one moment, they heard heavy stomping as if something was charging at them. As they turned to aim at the source of the sound, all they heard was flapping.

"Must've been an owl or something. That was pretty spooky though, right Mack?.... Mack??" One of the two agents was suddenly on his own. The heavy stomping sound came again....

Tyler was growing impatient as the two agents in the woods seemed to be taking their time. He got on his radio.

"Come in." 

Suddenly, one of the agents came flying out of the woods toward the convoy, slamming against the side of one of the humvees.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" A couple of the frightened agents opened fire on the treeline, hoping to hit something. All of a sudden, the woods around the camp came to life, and what appeared to be massive bats swarmed the convoy. The air lit up with screams, shrieks, gunfire, and hissing. The bat-creatures tore through the tents and picked up and dragged screaming humans away. Some of the creatures tried to break the humvees by stomping on them or kicking their bullet-proof glass to no avail. Tyler found himself in the thick of it.

"CRAP! SOMEONE GET ON THE DAMN NEMESIS!!!" He yelled above the chaos. He nearly got hit by one of his own men who was picked up and dropped by one of the creatures. One flew straight toward him, but he shot it down before it could grab him. When it crashed, he found that it was some sort of bat-pony hybrid.

"Dammit it's the horses!" He then got inside a humvee, but not before another batpony flew at him and started hissing and snapping it's fangs at him. He kicked it in the face, forced it out of the vehicle, and shut the door. He then grabbed the nemesis in the turret and started shooting down the batponies. Upon seeing this, the now inspired men began fighting harder to survive against these creatures. As more and more batponies were shot down, the rest began fleeing back into the woods. Tyler kept shooting at them as they fled, having flown into a primal rage. He kept firing until the hopper had run dry. After catching his breath for a minute, he got out of the humvee. He spoke to one of the agents.

"How many did we lose?"

"About sixteen, sir." Tyler let out a deep, agitated sigh upon hearing this.

"From now on, we will have ten guys holding watch at night. This is the first and last time this happens." He then turned to the rest of the camp.

"Everyone pack up and get ready to move out. They know where we are and they may come back." What was left of the camp began complying with his orders.




Canterlot Castle, the next morning.

"Good morning young men." Princess Celestia was sitting at the table with her famous pancake and pineapple breakfast ready for the Rangers.

"Good morning Princess! Wow!" Smith was amazed at how appetizing the pancakes looked. The men immediately dug in.

"Mmmm... Thank you Princess!" Summers muffled through his pancake-filled mouth.

"You are very welcome, Andrew. By the way boys, the train from Ponyville arrived this morning. Your equipment should be in Daniel's room." 

"Thank you so much Princess. We'll be sure to get them away from ponies." Ramirez told her.




Ramirez's guest room, Canterlot Castle



After the boys finished with breakfast, they went to the room to find the crate that they called "the hurt locker." The boys cracked it open and geared up. As they were putting on their uniforms and loading up their guns, a knock came at the door. McLaughn opened it and Shining Armor was there.

"Hey Shining!" he welcomed the guys' favorite stallion.

"Hey guys. Princess Celestia told me the plan. Last night I sent Luna's Thestrals on a surprise attack. We drove the bad humans West of here, and that's where we're gonna drop you off.."

“Well, time to load up the birds.” Ramirez said as he racked the slide on his strongarm.
> Shots Fired
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forest Southeast of Unicorn Range

"Goddamn..." Tyler woke up with his whole body feeling sore as he unbuckled his seatbelt. After redeploying his force away from Canterlot the night before, he and his men slept in their vehicles due to need for sleep and to prevent the bat ponies from finding them again. Looking out the windows, Tyler could see a large expanse of forest sweeping all around the convoy along with a mountain range north of them. Also, some of the men in his force were already cooking breakfast on propane stoves to start of the day. Tyler was contemplating his next move when he was jostled by a knock on the window.

"Sir, we were wondering what our next move is..." The soldier outside told him. Tyler opened the door and got out.

"Well, obviously we gotta get back to that city and get those boys."

"But how? You and Tommy said that two of those horses can use bulletproof force fields and shoot lasers!"

"I don't know... I'm working on that.." Tyler responded as he and the other soldier went to eat.

As the commander was eating at a fold-out table a few minutes later, shots rang out and some of the men grabbed their weapons in panic. 

"I swear if it's those damn horses again, I'll-" Tyler was cut-off as a round shattered a coffee cup on the table in front of him. He then got up, grabbed a regulator from the car, and took off to the direction from where the shots were coming from. Once he got there, he saw shots bouncing off of the humvees while his men took cover or fired back.

"What's going on here?!" He asked.

"Sir, a couple of minutes ago, someone began shooting from the west tree-line! I think it's those guys we're after!" One of the agents responded.

"Has anyone been hit?"

"No sir, everyone's been laying low or suppressing the enemy." Tyler then walked over to the nearest humvee and pulled out a megaphone. He then started climbing on top of the humvee.

"SIR?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"

"Relax.. They aren't hitting us because they're crap shots." Tyler then turned on the megaphone.

"OUT THERE! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Almost immediately, the gunfire stopped. Tyler then scanned the foliage, trying to find the people who were shooting at him. They were probably either too well camouflaged or were hiding behind trees or rocks.

"LISTEN UP. THIS IS CAPTAIN TYLER FINN OF THE F.B.I. WE'VE COME TO TAKE YOU GUYS HOME. COME OUT, PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS, AND WE'LL TALK THIS OUT.."





Ramirez and his men held their breaths and stayed absolutely still as Tyler called out to them on the megaphone. Despite the temptation of being reunited with their families, the team had already resolved to stay and protect the ponies.

"Do you hear me? We are agents of the United States Government. We don't want anyone else to get hurt. Come out now, put down your weapons, and we'll get you home." Finn announced again. Ramirez then moved slowly and called back.

"IF YOU WANT OUR GUNS, COME AND TAKE THEM!"





Tyler looked at the forest with both a look of surprise and amusement. These guys were serious about fighting a force at least eighteen times their size!

"ALRIGHT, WE WILL!" Tyler responded before putting away the megaphone.

"Everyone load up! Start up the Humvees and lets go!" Some of the men jumped into the Humvees they took cover behind and started the engines.

"Come on people! Let's go!" Finn urged on. 





Ramirez was giggling as he looked down at Tyler trying to get his large force to move in after the team.

"What is it Sarge?" Parker asked.

"This is the point of our plan. They might have us outnumbered, but the more guys they have, the slower they move..."

"But they have cars and we don't." McLaughn added. 

"And that's why we're taking our leave right now. Come on." The Rangers then quietly moved away from the camp and headed further west.




Five days later, somewhere in the Smokey Mountains

Ramirez's twenty-ninth log

So far, our plan seems to be working. As long as we continue to shoot over their heads, these feds keep following us toward the Undiscovered West. Thank God nobody's been hurt so far. At the rate we're going, we should have these guys out of Equestria in two days. Signing out.

"GODDAMMIT!!!!!!" Tyler flipped his camp desk in rage. "IT'S BEEN SIX FREAKIN DAYS AND WE STILL DON'T HAVE THEM!!" Tyler and two of his officers were in the command tent trying to figure out their next move to break out of the vicious daily cycle of shooting, breaking camp, driving, and resetting camp.

"Sir, calm down!" One of his men tried to calm him down.

"Sir, have you thought about the idea that they want us to keep following them?" the other trooper brought up.

"Yes, it would seem like that's what's happening."

"So... why don't we stop following them?"

"Are you kidding me? You want to lose them and expose our rear to attack?!" the other soldier protested.

"Wait, he has a point.." Tyler noted. "There's a village just southeast of here. If we go to a populated area and hold the horses hostage, that may be enough to draw these guys into the open...."
> Massacre
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forest at base of Smokey Mountains

"Alright, here we go..." Ramirez and his men were waiting about a mile away from the federal camp for the large convoy to approach them. Usually the plan was to fire at the camp in the morning, move west, let the convoy pass, and then move to the west of their camp when it got dark. Despite this tactic draining on their sleep, it had worked well for the past six days. Unfortunately, today was different. Instead of heading toward them, it sounded like the engines were driving away...

"Sarge? It doesn't sound like they're coming so much as going.." Parker noted. Summers then got up from behind his bush and looked down at the camp.

"Sir, they're driving east."

"Oh crap... Come on, let's get them back here." By the time they got to where the camp originally was, however, the humvees were long gone...

"Guys, look..." Smith had a map and compass and compared them with the tracks left by the humvees. 

"CRAP! LET'S GO!!!!" Ramirez shouted as he and his men took off in the direction of the tracks.




Whitetail Village

The village which was once shut off from the world a few weeks ago was now a small thriving community. Today, shops were opening for business, the local restaurant was serving brunch, and the fillies and colts were playing various games near the town square. In contrast to spending time in hiding a few weeks ago, things were looking very good for the village.

At around noon, however, the atmosphere took a turn for the worst. A young stallion and mare couple who lived on the west end of the village were planting a new garden that day. As the stallion went inside to get a glass of water, he noticed a small impact tremor in his water. Believing it to be from thunder nearby, he went back outside.

"Sweetie, was there a storm scheduled for today?" he asked his wife.

"No, why?" The mare replied.

"Oh, just checki--" He was suddenly noticing the soil on the ground vibrating and moving. The wife also began to notice. Then, they heard the sounds of engines. The husband looked toward the sound and saw massive humvees racing toward them.

"SUNSHINE! GET IN THE HOUSE!!!" Both ponies galloped inside their small home and shut the door as the vehicles circled around their home, smashing through fences and tearing up their fresh garden. After five seconds, the sound of multiple engines died down to one engine. Suddenly, the door was kicked down and two humans came walking in with guns pointed at them. The mare started screaming while the stallion tried to put himself between her and the massive humans. One of the humans smirked and simply picked him up by the back of his neck while the other human grabbed the wife in the same manner. They dragged the kicking and screaming couple back outside and threw them in the trunk of their vehicle before getting back in and taking off.




Whitetail Village Plaza

The citizens of the village, young and old, male and female, rich and poor, were now standing with their backs toward the city fountain as the massive force of humans dressed in black surrounded them, threatening to shoot anypony who bolted. The mares were screaming, the foals were crying, and the humans around them looked at the crowd with disgust.

"All right, shut up everybody.." Tyler called at them. The crowd was still freaking out.

"Shut up little horses.." Tyler called again, this time through his megaphone. Growing tired of the noise, he pulled out his disruptor and shot into the air.

"SHUT UP!" The crowd immediately fell silent.

"That's better. Now you all stay right where you are and nobody gets hurt, ok?" The crowd just looked at him with confusion, but stayed quiet as Tyler turned his megaphone to the other side of town.

"Alright you guys, listen up. My team and I have taken this town hostage. Either you come out and surrender within five minutes, or we start painting the town red..." The crowd once again erupted into chaos as they realized their fate. One stallion tried to run for it until he was gunned down by an agent, eliciting more screams from the distressed crowd.




Five minutes later

Ramirez and the team were rushing toward the village as fast as their legs could carry them, knowing full well what these agents could do to a herd of ponies. As they were running, Parker tripped and collapsed on the ground, panting and sweating profusely.

"Come on! Get up! We gotta-" McLaughn was interrupted by a loud thunder-like burst from the village direction. Everyone stopped in their tracks, understanding the severity of what had just occured. As Parker got up, only one word escaped his lips as everyone stood silent....

"....Shit...."




Whitetail village, two minutes later.

The Rangers treaded into the town cautiously, as there could still be snipers waiting in local cabins. Suddenly, Ramirez's hand shot up, signaling everyone to get down. Across the street was the town forum, which was now strewn with the bodies of well over 150 civilian ponies. When everyone saw the scene, there expressions went from shock to an unusual mix of disgust, fear, and anger.

"Alright guys, cover-" 

"NO!!" Ramirez was whispering orders to his men but was cut off by what sounded like the voice of a filly in the forum. Out in the forum, the same filly with the sea blue coat and lime green mane was covered in dirt and scrapes and appeared to be running from something. A few seconds later, five agents surrounded the filly.

"Please! Leave me alone! What do you want?!"

"I don't know. What do we want?" One of the agents responded sarcastically.

"Maybe we can make it our little pet. Teach it to do tricks or something.." Two of the other agents laughed, while the other two looked at the filly nervously.

"Come on guys, I think this little horsey has seen enough for today. Let's just go.." One of the unnerved agents told the others.

"Fine. But first..." One of the other agents pulled out his disruptor...

"... let's tie up loose ends." The agent raised it at the filly.

"YOU SICK BASTARD!!!!" McLaughn immediately bolted from the group, raising his Stryfe and shooting at the agents. He killed the lead agent with a headshot and hit another in the shoulder. Unfortunately, the other three agents ducked and returned fire. McLaughn took eight shots to the chest and collapsed. 

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" Ramirez and the rest of the Rangers immediately charged and started shooting at the remaining agents, who took cover behind the fountain. The poor little filly was immediately caught in the middle. All she could do was lay flat on the ground and cover her ears. Darts flew over her head and shattered pieces of the fountain and slammed into the corpses of her fellow townsponies around her. She sealed her eyes shut, praying to Celestia that it would all end soon. She soon felt a human hand sweep her up and take off. She opened her eyes to see that it was Smith who had gone into no-man's land to rescue her.

"Come on! The shots will draw the entire force here soon!" Ramirez waved back into the town as the Rangers put on a fighting retreat back into the woods. Parker picked up McLaughn's body and ran back with the team. The entire gun battle only lasted about a minute, but the cost was phenomenal. An entire village slaughtered, and one Ranger down. As the remnants of the team caught their breath in the woods, the filly looked upon the dead human and started weeping again. As the other men took off their headgear in order to pay respects to their fallen comrade, Ramirez gave a new order.

"From now on, we shoot to kill."
> Bad News Travels Fast
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot Castle

What a fine morning it was. As Celestia raised the sun to begin a new day, shops were opening, ponies were rising from their peaceful slumber, and the daily routine would begin as usual. After she had completed raising the sun, Celestia went to the castle dining room to begin making her daily pancake breakfast. This was usually her favorite time of day, as she would also take this time to read the news, which was usually good news in this world. She would also read letters from her personal friends in Ponyville. After she finished making her pancakes, she suddenly felt like something was... off. 

"Ow.. Such a headache.." she thought to herself as she rubbed her forehead. She dismissed it as she thought it was just her body ominously looking forward to the daily grind of dealing with snooty nobles, holding her head high for the press, and of course, the black operation going on in the Western territories. As she started eating, she noticed several letters were left for her by one of her guards. She picked up one from Twilight and read it. She giggled a little bit, as it was one of Twilight's OCD moments about whether princesses should do the proper "princess wave" every time they greeted somepony. After reading this letter, she opened up another one. This one came from Daniel Ramirez. She was drinking a little bit of coffee as she read, however, halfway through the paragraph she choked up and dropped the cup. Tears began forming in her eyes as she read the dreadful report...




Dear Princess Celestia,

It grieves me to update you on our current progress dealing with the agents. We think they've caught on to our plan, and now they're out shooting at ponies indiscriminately in order to draw us out. They've already massacred that village that we saved from timberwolves about a month ago. Worse yet, they killed Corey when he tried to protect a filly!

Now, we're actually killing the agents. So far, we've taken down ten of them. I'm so sorry Princess, but I think we're gonna need Royal guard support sooner than expected. 

My deepest regrets,
Sgt. Daniel Ramirez 




Celestia closed the letter and began weeping gently. These agents had actually killed even more of her beloved subjects, including one of Equestria's own humans! The reality of human warfare was now upon Equestria: total destruction was the name of the game. After crying for a few minutes, she called forth one of her guards from outside.

"Yes, Princess?"

"Please forward this letter to Shining Armor immediately. The survival of our species may very well depend on it." The guard saluted and took off with the letter. If the agents were no longer following the Rangers, then there may be nothing that stops them from actually invading a major city like Vanhoover, Los Pegasus, or Canterlot!




Base of Smokey Mountain, early afternoon

"Another morning, another damn firefight..." Finn thought to himself. At least he finally managed to draw out the pony-lovers to where he and his men could engage them. Unfortunately, his team was now taking losses. One man was killed earlier and two were wounded, but they were able to force back the pony-lovers with their nemesis-humvees. 

"I'm sick of this place, sick of these horses, and sick of these-" Finn was suddenly cut off when one of the humvees shot by him and raced into the woods. 

"HEY!!! STOP THAT TRUCK!!!" Tyler turned around and saw two of his men trying to chase down the vehicle.

"What the hell is going on??" He turned around and shouted at the men who chased the humvee.

"Rodgers and Josh are going AWOL!"
> A New Mission
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight's Castle Library

"Finally, a perfect day... for READING!!!" Princess Twilight thought to herself. After several weeks of dealing with Princess duties, she had finally found time to relax. She was reading a guide on various creatures of Equestria in her extra-comfy reading chair while Spike sat close by reading his Power Ponies comics.

"HEY PRINCESS!! GUESS WHAT?!?!" Lyra had knocked open the Library door and caused Twilight to jump at least two feet into the air.

"AAHH!!! Lyra?!" Twilight turned to the door and saw the green unicorn standing there with her teeth showing in a smile-to-beat all smiles.

"Twilightomigoshomigoshomigoshyouaren'tgoingtobelieveit!!!!"

"Woah.. Easy Lyra... What's going on?" Lyra then turned a few degrees to the left to show her lyre-cutie mark blinking...




Twilight's map room

Sure enough, once Twilight, Spike and Lyra got to the map room, a holographic image of Lyra's cutie mark was hovering around a location on the map.

"Congratulations Lyra! You're going on your first friendship mission!" Twilight congratulated her.

"Yes yes yes yes yes!!! I won't let you down Twilight!" Lyra hopped around and then saluted Twilight.

"Umm... not to be a downer or anything, but what is out there?" Spike pointed to the map showing where Lyra's cutie mark was. It was in the small strip of forest between the Smokey Mountain and the Unicorn Range.

"Beats me. But I can't wait to find out!" Lyra giggled and hopped with glee.




Unicorn Range

After a few hours of flying, courtesy of a royal guard chariot, Lyra finally landed in the middle of the forest. 

"Thank you guys so much!!" She waved off to the guards who took off back to Canterlot. Once they were out of view, however, Lyra found herself alone in the woods. Though these parts were not as dangerous or scary as the Everfree Forest, she still wondered how a friendship problem could occur in an area so.... isolated.

"HELLOOO??!!! ANYPONY HERE??!!" Lyra shouted out to the forest, only to be responded to by her own echo.

"Aw horseapples... What would Princess Twilight do??" Lyra thought to herself. She decided to trek on deeper into the woods, unaware of the danger that lay ahead...





"SOOO BORED!!!" Lyra exclaimed to herself as she had been trotting for what seemed like hours. She saw a silhouette of a raccoon hiding in some bushes up ahead. "Hey! Have you seen a friendship problem around here?" She wasn't expecting a response, so she was surprised when the raccoon seemed to expand and stand on two legs. She would've taken off screaming if the silhouette didn't become Summers.

"ANDREW!!!!!" Lyra's eyes nearly popped out of her head and she charged and tackled the human in a big fuzzy pony-hug.

"AAhh!! Lyra?! What are you doing here?!" Summers wheezed as Lyra's hug constricted him. She hopped off of him and happily cantered on the ground.

"Oh Andrew!! It's great! Princess Twilight's Friendship Map called me out here on a Friendship Mission!!!" 

"A friendship mission? Out here? That can't be right!"

"Well it has been rather hard finding somepony with a friendsh-"

"No! I mean you gotta get outta here! This place is a warzone!"

"Warzo-? What do you mean warzone?! Where are the other guys?" Summers exhaled long and deeply, trying to regain his composure.

"Follow me."





After a five minute walk, they came upon the Ranger camp. It was a very modest setup with a few sleeping bags and backpacks centered around a campfire that had yet to be lit. The area was surrounded by thick brush and tall trees and was an ideal hiding spot for a small group. Lyra was extremely eager to see the guys.

"Lyra?! What are you-?" Parker was immediately silenced by Lyra's strong hug.

"I missed you guys so much! There was nothing to do in Ponyville except sit around on benches with Bon Bon! Twilight's Friendship map sent me out here on a friendship mission!"

"Friendship mission? That's great!" Ramirez told her, trying his best to keep a cheerful attitude up despite the events which had unfolded over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, that attempt was shattered by Lyra's next question.

"Where's Corey?"
> Confrontation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why??! WHY DID THEY DO THIS?!?!" Lyra wailed loudly as she cried into Smith's chest. After asking the other's about McLaughn's whereabouts, they reluctantly walked her over to the hastily dug grave. It was mainly a pile of dirt, rocks and branches marked by a cross made of sticks. One of her favorite companions was now dead, a victim of a war that she was unaware of. She hugged Smith tightly as even the usually more resilient human was now shedding tears of grief.

"I'm so sorry Lyra. We didn't tell you about this because this situation was just too dangerous to have you involved in.." Ramirez piped up. He then felt a tug on his pant leg. The small filly, who was napping before, was roused awake by the loud sounds of mourning coming from Lyra. 

"Mister, who's that?" she sheepishly inquired. Lyra stopped bawling for a second and turned to see the filly.

"Blue Bell, this is Lyra. She's one of our friends from Ponyville. Lyra this is Blue Bell. She was the sole survivor of the bad human's raid on the nearby village." Ramirez introduced the two ponies.

"Hi Blue Bell... I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your family..." Lyra consoled Blue Bell.

"Thank you. I'm sorry about your friend. He died when some of those other humans were trying to hurt me." Lyra gasped. Not only did these new humans kill Corey, but they also threatened this little filly?? What possessed these creatures to carry out such barbaric acts against ponies and each other?! 

"Lyra, I'm sorry to dampen the mood, but you still haven't told us what you're doing here?" Summers asked her.

"Well Andrew, this thing happened in Ponyville where I-" her sentence was cut off by the sound of a collapsing tree somewhere nearby. Everyone jumped in shock at the sudden crack. The boys immediately raised their weapons toward the direction of the sound. 

"That did not sound small. Smith, on me. You two, guard the ponies." Ramirez ordered.

"No. I'm coming with you." Lyra piped up, much to everyone's surprise.

"Lyra, no. It's way to dangerous." 

"Please!!! I don't want to not be there if one of you falls again!!" Lyra begged.

"We already lost a whole village of ponies today. We don't want you to be hurt either!" Ramirez and Smith tried to leave, only to feel magic tug on their collars.

"DANIEL, PLEASE!!!"

"NO!! STOP HER!!" Parker immediately picked her up and grasped on her horn, cutting off her magic capability. She tried to shimmy out of his grip, but it was useless.

"We're so sorry Lyra.." Parker said as he and Summers walked her and Blue Bell back to their camp.





After creeping slowly through the brush, Ramirez and Smith found the very thing they were afraid to find: a humvee and two agents. The two agents had accidentally driven the massive vehicle into a small tree, and were using a jack to desperately lift it off of the stump which immobilized it. 

"Come on!!! We gotta keep moving!!" one of the agents demanded as he stood over the other who worked the jack.

"I'm trying!!! Where are we even going anyway?" the other barked back. Ramirez was in no mood to wait and see what they were up to. He immediately walked out of the brush with his gun aimed at the standing agent while Smith followed him aiming at the one working the jack.

"STAY RIGHT THERE!!!" The agents jumped in shock. The standing agent immediately reached for the rear door, only for Ramirez to shoot at the glass, frightening him and sending him landing on his back. 

"DON'T YOU DARE MOVE!!" Smith ordered the one with the jack. Both agents now had their hands on their heads. Suddenly, the agents started to glow gold, and they were lifted in the air struggling and screaming before they were thrown to the ground. They both then got up to run, but were pulled back screaming to the Rangers by the same golden aura. Smith turned around and saw a very angry Lyra using her magic to control them. Ramirez saw likewise.

"LYRA! What are you doing?!" Smith asked.

"SAVING YOU!" Lyra used her magic to hold the agents in place when Summers and Parker came back and grabbed her, forcing her to release them.

"STOP!! PLEASE!!! WE'RE NOT WITH THE GOVERNMENT ANYMORE!!!" One of the agents begged.

"Y-yeah!! Commander Finn is insane!!" the other added.

"What are you talking about?" Ramirez interrogated them. One of the agents piped up.

"We're trying to get away from that nut-job and his mob of psychos..."
> Prisoners
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



“Who the hell are you?”

Ramirez asked the two mysterious agents quite firmly. After the scuffle at the humvee, the Rangers eventually calmed Lyra down, commandeered the vehicle, and took the two new humans prisoner. They debated for a couple of hours what to do with their new guests and eventually decided to interrogate them that night. Everyone minus Blue Bell was now sitting around the campfire, with Lyra and the Rangers gazing sternly at the prisoners, who had their wrists duct-taped and could only look down uncomfortably. After a few seconds of silence, one of the prisoners, a young man who had a light beard and a similar build to Parker, spoke up.

“My name is Aaron Rodgers, and this is Josh Grant. We’re contractors working for the Federal Agency of International and Interdimensional Affairs. You probably would know them better as the Hasbro Toy Company, though.” Smith scoffed at this idea.

“Really? You work for a toy company? And that toy company somehow deployed you out here on another world to kill helpless little ponies?”

“It’s more complex than that.” Grant spoke up. He was also around the age of the Rangers, but was of East Asian descent. “Our superiors run a secretive initiative to preserve the balance of the world while using their encounters as a front. The ponies , GI Joe, Transformers, even Magic the Gathering all have something very real to offer when you dig beneath the surface a little bit. Almost all those toys you buy from them as kids are made so that people don’t suspect them or things like them to be real and not fictional.”

“Well we’ve been out here for months, so we definitely already know ponies are real. What of it?” Parker wondered.

“Your dart blasters. We were sent here for them. The people at Hasbro are concerned about you starting an arms race on a peaceful world with them.” Rodgers pointed out. This time, even Ramirez snickered.

“I’m sorry. You guys really oughta start a comedy routine! So let me get this straight: Y’all work for the Hasbro Toy Company and they sent you here to take back some nerf toys??”

“Yes! And unfortunately the plan went wildly off the rails!” Rodgers exclaimed, much to everyone else’s bewilderment. He continued.

“From day one, everything’s been going wrong. We were supposed to make a quick in-and-out to get you guys, but then our commanders discovered ponies were already weaponizing nerf technology. Therefore we did a ‘deep clean’ of that horse fort. Our cover was already blown out of the window! Then it was battle after battle, either with you or with the horses. Now I admit neither Josh nor I had much sympathy for the colorful horses to begin with, which was why we and a lot of other ‘anti-bronies‘ were hired for the job, but ever since our head leader was KIA at the horse capital, we’ve been marching aimlessly under Captain Finn.” The atmosphere got tense again as Grant picked up to recount their experience. 

“Yeah. Our first commander, Jacob Stevens, was methodical and tried to stick to the mission, but after a horse lasered him, Captain Finn took over. It was his idea to deep clean a civilian area to draw you guys out! Our last straw was when one of our squad commanders decided to take out a kid. A kid!!! That was also when we took out one of your guys…” Grant and Rodgers again looked away uncomfortably.

“And so you decided to run for it. Where were you even going to run to?” Parker asked.

“We don’t even know! All we knew was that if Finn asked us to kill more defenseless horses, we wouldn’t follow those orders, and then what? So we just looked to put as much space between us and him as possible, which led up to you finding us and then up to now.” Rodgers finished the account. 

“Alright. I’ve heard enough. Newbie, take them back to the side of the humvee and keep an eye on them.” Ramirez ordered. 

“What do you guys think?” 

“The first half of their story sounds ridiculous, but we don’t have any other reasonable theories and the second half of their narrative seems to check out.” Smith replied. 

“Even if all the dots line up, what are we supposed to do with them? During the Changeling War, we could just hand prisoners over to Shining Armor, but we don’t have the backup right now.” Parker interjected. 

“And who’s to say that they actually were leaving Finn’s side? For all we know, they could be spies that he dispatched to flush us out!” Both of Parker’s points were very daunting to the group’s plans. During the interrogations, Lyra was there, but remained silent. At this moment, however, a lightbulb went off in her head.

“Guys, I don’t think that they’re spies. In fact, I think they’re your backup...”