With the Cold War Escalating in 1980, it all started in Korea. Will the remaining Free World survive in this alien world they've landed upon?
It all started in 1978... The Korean Peninsula became hot, and so did the Fulda Gap. Tensions were already becoming high as the DPRK Modernization program threatened the South Korean military which went on the offensive. The dominos fell as the Soviets got involved and so did the Chinese, then did the United States and the rest of NATO and her allies.
Everything in Europe was quiet, until tank waves from the Warsaw Pact bulldozed over West Berlin as the NATO forces gave a stiff resistance but ultimately fell. West Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, all fell under the Soviet Armored might, but at a steep cost. As Europe fell and the British Isles again being the last lifeboat of Democracy in Europe, NORAD had what one might call, a miss input. The screens rang red as the personnel were panicking and the use of Nuclear Retaliation has be authorized, but none of them knew it was a storm that tricked their sensors.
With a sudden nuclear attack from NATO, the Soviet Union returned the favor by unleashing the entirety of it's nuclear arsenal, NATO did the same. One by one, every major city became nothing but ash. What's left of NATO, pulled it's resources together to make a portal to transport Humanity as scientists estimated that a new Ice Age would be arriving soon.
In a new world, with 600,000 military personnel and only 5,000 civilians, the United States must reform and rebuild in this new and unknown world. 6 years of grueling hell, and now they must deal with the local aliens that inhabit this world, while violently inserting itself into their geopolitical matters.
Two secret service agents approach a door while being followed behind by a General. The General rushes into the room. The room seems to be hastily rushed.
"Mr. President!" The General shouted. "Reports came in, we are safe. But the portal closed after the base on Earth was nuked. We have more Military Personnel than civilians, sir." He said with a worried face.
The President sighed "General Parker, what options do we have and what can we still do?" Ronald Reagan said to the General
"Well sir, we could start finishing the civilian housings so we can get the base fully operational." Parker said with whats left of relief he had hearing that they could still rebuild.
"Well then, lets get onward towards rebuilding the United States, shall we?" Reagan said with smile to try and give hope to the people around him.
"Yes, sir." Said the General smiling too after noticing Reagan trying to bring up morale.
While the rebuilding process was going on, the President issued a scouting party to explore the area they've come upon. The United States has teleported whatever they can to ensure the survival of the United States, they are limited but nonetheless a power still. They do not know the area or if they're able to live in this new world.
With the squads in shock on what they've found. One of the soldiers said "Sarge, I don't think we left earth. Did we go back in time?" With multiple reports coming in from multiple squads of artificial roads, the President put discovering the lands a top priority. With the first reserve air squadrons already set up after a day of preparation, they began to prepare to scout where the roads lead to.
The currently inactive Gateway is on a hill which is now Fort Liberty. Fort Liberty is currently a mess of tents, military equipment, and personnel. Thankfully, scientists, researchers, factories, mining companies, and heads of State arrived before the civilians to allow the United States to function again. Fort Liberty is currently surrounded by several trench systems, bunkers, and other modern defenses necessary to stop any Soviet attacks or other foreign attacks that could happen.
Multiple towers have been built for AA purposes, mostly Anti-Air Missiles and Phalanx CIWS systems. Surprisingly they got those set up rather quickly. Most of what remains of the military is currently a few hundred tanks and thousands of other military ground assets ranging from Humvees, Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Self Propelled Guns, and Anti-Air ground vehicles. There currently resides 20 M1 Abrams that escaped, but with the rest of the armored force backed by M60's, M48's, M41's, and M551 Sheridans.
"Mr. President, I have a feeling that we should have our recon units have at least some armed support." a Senator from Virginia said.
"Senator," Reagan said "have you not noticed that our recon units are literally attack helicopters?"
The Senator stayed quiet after he learned of his stupidity. A guard whispered to the President. "Sir, the meeting is going start." After Reagan forgot about the time the meeting was going to start, he quickly walked to the make shift congress room. After he got settled down, Reagan made a speech.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a situation." He gave a serious look and paused for a moment. "We've discovered that we may not be alone in this world, we found artificial roads leading to somewhere. I need your approval to send a recon squadron to oversee whatever these roads led too without being spotted, since we don't know the technological level of the natives." The crowd gasped in shock that we may not be alone in this new world. Reagan sighed and continued talking. "And I'll need your approval to send a diplomat with a security detail after we gain information of the area. Also to spy on the natives to gain information before we send any of our people to meet them." Multiple murmurs would be heard while Reagan awaits their decision. A representative from Ohio would stand up and say "We all stand with you, Mr. President." Reagan smiled and said on the microphone. "Then lets get to work, shall we?" The crowd applauded and cheered at Reagan for his fast reaction to the current situation, which brought hope that the American People would rebuild once again in one United Nation.
A few days later....
"Sir, we're ready for takeoff." A pilot said in the comms. After Reagan's announcement to congress, Fort Liberty was given a makeshift airfield and the personnel unpacked most of the remaining US equipment they brought from Earth. While the pilot was waiting for the order to takeoff, they heard on their helmets. "Squad Lead, you're ready for takeoff." The next second you'd hear roaring engines start to take off, with the aircraft equipped with the best and most advanced reconnaissance equipment. That includes thermals, night vision, cameras, etc.
"Sir, we're in the air. Heading towards assigned target." the Squad Lead said. As the squadron approached their destination, command was watching them through multiple screens showing feed from the cameras on the F-18s.
As things were just getting calm, there was a yelp of shock from one of the officers. She yelled, "Sir! There's a city!" It immediately caught everyone's attention. There were gasps from others in the room, they all saw a unmistakable shape of buildings in the distance. Since this was during the night, they couldn't get that much of a good look since they were too far away. General Shepard immediately told a Lieutenant, "Go tell the President on what we found. Inform him that it's now time for the next phase." The Lieutenant nodded and immediately ran to find the President.
3 days later...
With congress approving Reagan's plan for First Contact with the natives of this strange world. Multiple fire-teams of Special Forces from different NATO countries were sent to find out what the natives look like.
Captain Roger's P.O.V. Delta Force, 0:00 Military Time
"Alright Johnson, I need you to set up an overlooking position of the area."
"Yes, sir." He replied.
We'd infiltrate a village and saw a house that seemed to be, I kid you not, a house covered in candy. I'd whisper to the men.
"Bravo, Micheal, on me. We'll infiltrate that building over there so we can try and find intel on the area, if they have any." We'd being to sneakily break into the house. Since the lights were out, we used our night vision to find at least a map of the City.
I'd hear a whisper, "Sir, contact 3 o'clock." I'd signal the men to get into cover to avoid being seen. I'd being to hear 2 sets of footsteps and I'd take a peak on who entered the room. All I saw was a... bright colored pony? It was bright pink and had big eyes. I had no idea what it was so I signaled Bravo and Micheal that it was clear.
I'd hear a voice saying "Who is there?" I'd immediately signaled the two to stay back in cover while I did the same. The person or persons lit a lamp and tried searching on where we were. I'd hear clopping as the voice got closer, I'd get confused and thought to myself, 'Who rides a horse indoors?' As I'd get up to tackle the person, I felt nothing above the horse. It was then I looked down and saw a terrified Pony with wide eyes stare at me. I'd begin to be confused as well.
"W-who are you?!" It spoke
I'd begin to feel very lost and confused, thinking to myself. 'Did that pony just talk?!'
I'd tell Bravo and Micheal to help me understand on what was going on.
I spoke back "Well, who are you?"
She responded, "I'm Pinky Pie! Now what are you guys?!" She said while trembling.
Before she was able to speak again, I signaled Bravo to tranquilize her. As he tranquilized her, we began to call for a helo extract.
As Dr. Schmidt was briefed on how and where the creature was captured. With it being able to talk he had many questions that he would ask, and the ease of tension knowing that he doesn't have to decipher or translate anything. He walked towards the interrogation room while two guards escorted him, with a 2nd observatory room watching the interrogation room through a black one-way tinted glass. Dr. Schmidt entered with a hazmat suite to be safe of anything. And within the observatory room, another doctor was in there to record the entire thing.
"Greetings, Miss-?" The doctor said as he entered the interrogation room.
Before the doctor could finish his sentence, the pink pony on the other side of the room jumps at the sudden appearance of this being entering, disrupting the tense and uncomfortable silence. In her sudden movement, Pinkie Pie once again realized that she was tied up and the fact that this…unknown bipedal creature clad in a hazmat suit was approaching her, frightened her to the core. And the fact it was clad in a hazmat suit didn’t help her terror any less. It was probably the thing that tied her up, that abducted her, that brought her here. She started to struggle within her restrains, trying to put distance between her and the creature. Despite knowing that such a struggle was futile.
As he walked in, he saw the pink pony stressed. So he pulled out a chair and sat down. He spoke, "Hallo, my name is Dr. Schmidt, I will be asking you some questions, Ms.-? We didn't catch your name earlier, if you don't mind telling us what it is."
The fact that this large creature could talk lessen Pinkie Pie’s fears a bit…especially speaking Equestrian. Though his sudden approach towards her and taking a seat in front of her frightened her, because now this creature was literally right across the table from her, staring at her through the lens of the gas mask. She could just barely make out this creatures face through the lens, she couldn’t tell at all what it was. “Is this an interrogation!? Where am I, and what are you!?” Loud and with panic consuming the pink pony’s voice, Pinkie Pie cowered against herself, pulling herself tightly together as possible despite the restrains. The pony was putting as much distance as she could from this creature…after all who knew what this thing was going to do to her if it resorted to having to kidnap her.
"Well yes and no, I am Dr. Schmidt. I cannot tell you where you are just now. And I am a Scientist from the Federal Republic of Germany.. or what's left of it. Now calm down, I'm not here to hurt you. Just only to ask some questions about you and your kind, if you don't mind." He said, trying to calm down the pink pony
Fear and terror was still adamant in Pinkie’s bright eyes, her pupils the size of pinpricks as her eyes darted back and forth between the different features on this creature’s face. Devoid of any fur or feathers, it’s skin completely visible, it’s small eyes eying her curiously. It quelled her fears a tiny bit to see what this creature looked like…but the fear of the unknown took its place, because she had never seen a creature like this before. “W-what do you want with me? I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” Stammering and her voice shaking, Pinkie Pie tried her best to ask the question that was rampaging through her mind. Why was she here?
"Don't worry, we're just here to question you about you're..." as he said that, he thought how to say her population but as she's already distressed he tried to make it sound friendly, "hometown!" he jumped up as he finally figured out how to do it. "And you didn't do anything wrong, you just so happened to be in the way of something. And that something, we can't allow it to get out." he said in a serious tone. "So anyways, time for the questions. Just, what are you and how can you speak?"
As he awaited for her to calm down, he begins to continues thinking how this one pink pony would probably shape the future of Mankind. He begins to wonder if human tanks would steamroll over the native armies or if the native armies walk over Fort Liberty. For now, all he could think of was getting questions out of this pink pony.
Meanwhile behind the black tinted glass...
"Huh, she looks pretty" the other doctor said as she awaits for the pink pony's next response to Dr. Schmidt. "Doesn't she?" She asked one of the guards.
"What? Oh yes, she is indeed. It's strange seeing a pony that talks, I've been at a farm my entire life before I got drafted." he replied.
In the interrogating room...
"If you answer our questions, and even ask some of yours. We'll let you out, harm free." said Dr. Schmidt to re-assure the pony that they won't harm her
"My hometown?" Pinkie Pie expressed with utter bewilderment, recoiling her head back. She was expecting way worse...especially how they have her tied up and restrained against her will. Not to mention, kidnapping her over something every newcomer asks? "Well, you didn't have to kidnap me if you just wanted to know about Ponyville!"
"Well, you're arrival during our search kind of complicated things. We didn't expect you to be there, nor did we need you to spread the word that we currently exist in this world." He said trying to explain what happened, "We couldn't take any risks, so we took you back here for questioning."
"So onto the questions, does your-... Ponyville have a president? Or any other important people with power in your hometown?" He said with confusion and hesitation while trying to figure out how to simplify the complicated words the pink pony. "Or does... Ponyville have any important buildings? Such as statues, castles, and such."
"Huh? What do you mean you don't want others to know you currently ex- Wait a minute...ARE YOU ALIENS!?!" Pinkie Pie suddenly, with a ear piercing intensity, shouted out with a mixture of fear and excitement in her voice, her ears drooping down at the possibility that she's been abducted by aliens.
With confusion on this pony's exact feelings, he decided to answer straightly. "Well, yes. We just got here a few weeks ago. We don't know how you speak perfect English, how your civilization is, and your history. Anyways, back on track. What is the most advanced thing you can think of in your hometown? Mostly anything that has to do with the military or guards?"
As she expected worse, she answered while quivering. "What's English? The only thing I know is that you guys are speaking Equestrian!" She said thinking that the Doctor is crazy. "I mean, the best thing the Royal Guard has is, swords, spears, and bows. It's the best we have and probably more advanced than the others. I don't really know, but we do know is that they're the most strongest people in Equestria! Unless if it was Princess Celestia, she's the most powerful pony." She yelled with confidence because she knew that the Royal Guard and Celestia could defeat anybody. "Oh! Oh! My turn to ask you. Where did you guys come from? And were you guys the people behind the loud metal birds in the air during night time earlier this week?"
As he also expected someone else the pink pony would ask something else more sensitive or classified. With relief, he replied. "I'm from Earth, even the rest of these people on base were from Earth too. It was our home, but we lost it due to a war that we all expected to happen. It ended our world, nuclear winter, endless problems, and radiation killing us in the thousands. It was a beautiful, lush in green, and was home to millions of years of history. Those weapons we hope we don't use again in this world, we don't want to lose this world too." As he noticed he got carried away, he straightened his posture and cleared his throat. "As for the 'metal birds', I can't say."
With a dread shock and a depressed look on her face, she was terrified on what these creatures could do. Especially if they destroyed their own home! She asked, "H-how did you destroy you're own planet?!" As she thought on the fact that their planet may be alien, they still had years and years of history that they decided to end it. "Why did you destroy it in an instant?!" She quivered while trying to hold out a cry from all the thoughts of how much destruction they could hold.
Whilst intrigued on the fact that a pink pony was interested on a topic that he of course knew very well, he took a breath and spoke. "We had a very powerful weapon we used once, it was a bloody war when we used them for the first time. It was very bloody, many died in a single war that lasted for 5 years. With the use of these weapons, it ended the war. But now, they were all used with millions dead. But now, we're here. With our survival depending on you, we need you to answer our questions." He said from a depressed tone to a serious one. "And who is this, Princess Celestia?"
With more sadness being set on her with the pressure that a dying species that she just met, rests upon her. She vowed to answer truthfully. "Uhm... Princess Celestia is the leader of Equestria. She makes the sun and moon rise and fall, and she's also the only pony who is a unicorn and a pegasus hybrid. One of our best friends is a student of hers, Twilight studies almost everything!" After saying this, she realized that she also could have possibly endangered her friend Twilight. So she decided to hesitate more to try and move questions of her friends so she doesn't put them in danger. If they do hurt them.
He mumbled to himself, "So they have an empire of some sorts..." He nodded to Pinkie Pie and walked out the room. With the human gone, she stared at the gas mask he left behind and wondered what it does. Then she looked at the black-tinted glass, wondering what it was. Meanwhile behind the glass, Dr. Schmidt decided to grab a phone on the wall and contacted one of the Generals about some questions.
"Sir, this is Dr. Schmidt. Would it be possible if questions to our... 'guest' that were marked classified be told to her? It could lead her to give us more sensitive information about their society. Which we now discovered that they have a kingdom. And we've managed to find out that their technological level is that to our medieval age. But, with something they call magic. They have a queen that is apparently the strongest unicorn in what they call their world or country 'Equestria'."
The General replied. "Good work Doctor, now. The only classified intel we can allow you to tell our guest is our regional location. As in the only thing you can tell her is that we're on a mountain."
With Dr. Schmidt expecting more, he decided to go along with what he was authorized to say. "Understood General." He hung up the phone.
A few minutes later, Dr, Schmidt re-entered a room. He decided to tell the location of Fort Liberty but not the exact location. But if the natives didn't know what coordinates were, he might use it to show higher intellect over Pinkie Pie. "Hello Ms... you actually never told me your name."
With her forgetting the fact that he never did tell the Doctor her name, she said quietly. "M-my name is Pinkie-Pie."
"Hello Ms. Pie, now in turn for your truth, I'll tell you your location." He said, confidently, hoping for a response.
With Pinkie Pie surprised that she would've been given no chance of getting anything from them, she said. "Well sure, go ahead." The Doctor replies with, "Where is this Pony-ville? And are there any other villages or cities that exist? Or even a capital?"
"Uhm... the top of my head I guess Canterlot is the biggest city or capital. It's where the Princess's live. And Canterlot is on a mountain, so I guess its easy to find. OOOH! I forgot that we're having a Gala in two days!" She yelled.
"A Gala, do you mean a dance with royals?" He said, hopefully their 'version' of a Gala. If it was their version, then they're more similar than they originally thought. Maybe even changing the course of history for them.
"Yes! That is exactly what a Gala means. The princess and all my friends are going to be there! It's going to start at night, it's going to be really fun!" As she was excited, she didn't realize that she gave away where her friends and the princess is going to be. Endangering them all and probably endangering the fate of Equestria. Even until now she hasn't noticed this.
With the Doctor using his assistant's clipboard, he writes down the location, VIP's, and possible locations on where said VIP's will be. A few hours later, Reagan decided to host a meeting for his next actions. With the Generals from countries the United States has assimilated into their emergency Military Junta.
Meanwhile in the War Room....
As he entered the room, late again. He spoke out. "Gentlemen, we have another problem. Our operations were halted due to several complications. We have figured out from our 'guest' that the natives will be hosting a Gala and it will be the best way to introduce ourselves. The United States will take care of the Diplomat and security detail with transportation. Now we need you guys to provide more firepower support in case things get heated up." After hearing about their situation, all the generals nodded in agreement.
"The 1st Panzer Division will be at your side, Mr. President!" A German commander shouted in support. "The Parachute Regiment has your backs." A British General spoke in pride. "If they get hostile, they'll know that the First Armored Division will punch a hole in their pride!" An American yelled. "31st Air Wing will clear the skies." Another American spoke out.
With Reagan smiling, he'd expected that the commanders would back down. But he was wrong, they were at his backs and they trusted him with their lives for getting them out of their dying world. But nonetheless he felt pride that Humanity has another chance if we have men like this. "Well then, lets see if you boys can make me proud! I'll leave you guys to the planning and whatnot, but what I do want is that once our diplomat touches down, I want you boys rolling in with your vehicles as a show of strength! If these creatures try to undermine us, they'll know whats coming. And what we know so far is that they don't know what we are capable of, or that we even exist."
A Marine Commander came running in. "Mr. President, we have news! We found a city that seems to be the description our 'Guest' has given us. She was correct, our scouts spotted the city. They were stunned in its beauty and how it was on a mountain." A German Commander cut him off, "Wait, I thought you guys were preparing for combat practice? You guys brought enough equipment to take an entire City, tanks, recon vehicles, infantry, everything!". The Marine replied, "Oh, it was only for reconnaissance." The British commander facepalmed while the German commander muttered, "Americans...."
(American "RECON" near an abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts of Canterlot)
Twilight walks up to Fluttershy and asks her, "Hey Fluttershy, have you seen Pinkie Pie anywhere? I haven't seen her since yesterday. I'm kind of worried because we don't know what she'll do. After all, the Gala is tomorrow. And Rarity is having a meltdown trying to figure out what she should wear. But she managed to get us dresses before she chose hers."
Fluttershy replied quietly, "Well, that sounds like Rarity. I wonder what she chose for me, and I don't know where Pinkie Pie is. I was going to ask you." With Fluttershy still remembering the 'metal birds', she started to worry about mysterious flying objects being connected to Pinkie Pie's disappearance. She spoke out to Twilight when she was just about to leave, "Twilight? Do you think the metal birds have something to do with Pinkie Pie going missing? I'm also getting worried about her too."
Twilight had completely forgot about the 'metal birds'. She then began to be in a scared state thinking that they had something to do with Pinkie Pie going missing but more exaggerated. "I may not know where they came from, but they cause an awful loud noise." With her still thinking on what she could do, Fluttershy waited for her response. Twilight jumped in excitement for figuring something out, "I can use the loud noises and possibly ponynapping of Pinkie pie to justify to investigate where these metal birds come from!"
Fluttershy began to smile because they finally were able to do something about the loud birds. "Then we'll be needing the help of the others, we don't know if we need the elements of harmony once we get Pinkie Pie back."
Twilight ran off while yelling, "You go to Rainbow-Dash! I'll tell Applejack and Rarity! If she isn't busy that is."
A few hours later....
Twilight entered the farm as fast as she can, causing her to be less aware of her surroundings. She trips and accidentally falls on Applejack, she then began to talk quickly. "Pinkie was abducted by the metal birds and we need your help in taking her back and finding where she is!"
As surprised as she is, Applejack replied. "Well, I thought that little critter got lost somewhere in Ponyville somehow. But if she's been abducted, then I'll be happy to help!" Twilight smiled, then Applejack began to speak again, "If you get off of me." Twilight smiled awkwardly and began to get up and walk slowly away.
A few minutes later....
"Rainbow-Dash!" Fluttershy yelled, "Pinkie pie has bee-" Rainbow-Dash cut her off. She then spoke, "Abducted by the metal birds? Yeah I kinda noticed. And you're about to ask me for help?" Fluttershy nodded. "Well, why wouldn't I? She's my friend."
An hour later...
Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow-Dash, and Applejack were headed towards another village. After a few conversations with the inhabitants, the four gathered that there were mysterious creatures capable of making loud noises that can be heard from miles away! And also the same description of metal bird sounds they too had heard, but here it was more constant. Then luckily enough, a metal bird was heard and Rainbow-Dash, dashed towards the sound. Twilight yelled, "Wait, Rainbow! Stop!" Without hearing Twilight, Rainbow rushed towards the sounds of the metal birds. She saw it. She was just about to reach until what seemed to be the bird noticing that she was chasing the thing. Rainbow was exhausted and the bird flew off twice as fast than before, she began to think that they were being watched by the birds. She landed back to the village exhausted, she then asked Fluttershy, "Do you know what those things are?" She then looked at Twilight, "Do you? They flew faster than me, even if I tried my rainbow boom!" This worried the four, but nonetheless they heard explosions that shocked them. They began walking back towards Ponyville in fear that they might be endangering the inhabitants of the village.
Meanwhile an hour earlier...
General Parker was overseeing a military war game going on, to get the troops back on their feet. Then Reagan approached behind him with 2 guards. "General Parker, how are our boys doing?" General Parker smiled with the reassurance that their troops are doing better than anyone anticipated. It's probably because the fate of humanity rests on them. He replied, "Mr. President, our troops are doing better than expected. I know that these boys are going to protect us to the end, and with morale being at an all high. We'll never be seeing the end." Reagan smiled back, expecting that his only defense if everything else fails, would be exhausted for teleporting to another world. But strangely they weren't, they were working harder as ever.
30 minutes later....
Several Leopard 1's began firing. The commanders were especially surprised because the crew were hitting their targets precisely. Even the infantry were hitting their targets with a %75.9 of hitting their target. With the best of the best being the First Armored Division of the United States.
(First Armored Division during the war games preparing for the eventual First Contact)
Meanwhile the P.O.V. of a German tank squad leader. We were what was supposed to be an ambush of the natives. "Elias, bring the tank around. Gunner, aim at that target, 247!" I then switched my radio to connect to the other tanks, "Gunther, take your tank and Tobias's to defend our flanks at direction: 152. They'll overrun our tanks before infantry gets here. Weapons free, whoever hits their targets the most will a round of drinks on me!" The crew began firing precisely, even making me surprised. Then I noticed that there were figures miles away that looked like ponies, I then reported the tanks to halt their fire and contacted HQ about what we were seeing.
A few hours later in the briefing room...
We all began talking and saying what the native military power was going to be, although not always accurate. It did give the troops hope because all of us thought that they'd be behind the technology level of pre-Cold War. General Parker walked into the room, the entire room became quiet. He yelled, "Tomorrow we begin what we've been practicing for! We will show these natives that if they decide to mess with us, they'll know very well what they will receive. Now, make me proud! The fate of humanity rests with you, make us all proud!"
Tank Platoon Leader Adler, outskirts of Canterlot, Military Time: 1858 Hours
After a few hours, we were briefed and our units were already getting into position as reinforcements. We were then briefed on the departure of the Diplomat. It was the Vice President, George Bush. The fly boys were already getting their engines warmed up while the rest were trying to hide their equipment in their designated spots. For example, a German tank commander ordered his tank to stay at the edge of a forest line, covered in bushes and what they can gather to camouflage the tank. We all heard a voice on the radio, "GALA IS IN 3 MINUTES! THE DIPLOMAT WILL ARRIVE IN 2. STAY READY TROOPS!"
With it getting dark, I'd get down from my cupola and talk on the intercom, "Platoon, activate night vision. It's going to be dark." As expected, the tank platoon would all have their night vision turned on.
Meanwhile in Canterlot, the Castle, Time: 6:59
Twilight Sparkle rushed to meet the Princess up the stairs while she was greeting the guests. When Twilight caught up, she yelled and spoke quickly. "PRINCESS! PINKIE PIE HAS BEEN ABDUCTED BY THE METAL BIRDS! WHEN WE TRIED TO SAVE HER BUT WE HEARD MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS AND I MIGHT HAVE AN IDEA ON WHO IT IS!" Princess Celestia tried to calm her down but she realized what her student was talking about might have something to do with what she knows very well. She teleported Twilight to a statue, Celestia was shocked and her jaw dropped. Luna ran into the room and tried to check on the same thing but Celestia and Twilight were there first. Luna said, "No, it can't be... if it isn't Discord, then who is it?!" Then a guard walked in, telling the three to go look out of the castle. All they heard was a weird sound that kept getting louder and louder.
Everyone's jaws dropped and many were panicked as to what they saw.
5 minutes until First Contact, Fort Liberty, Military Time: 1858
The entire base was crawling with activity, except the roads designated for vehicles. Mostly the airfields, a CH-53 Sea stallion and 2 Hueys are on standby on an airfield with Vice-President George Bush. With them getting on, two heavily armed squads of Marines started rushing towards the UH-1Y's. A few minutes later they get a message on the intercoms, "Cleared to go, godspeed Marines." The marines were chatting, expecting to see the natives to either be technologically more advanced than them or still catching up after World War 2 era tech. A few minutes later, there was only silence. For that the only way to answer their questions is by seeing it for themselves. A voice through the comms broke the silence between the marines, "Check weapons and ammo, we don't know if we'll be using them." Marines rushed to check their ammunition and weapons, they were all intimidated with the fact that they will be Humanity's spearhead with their future. But now, they just have to wait.
A Marine talked on the intercoms, saying. "Command told me to install this, they said it was 'appropriate'." Fortunate son began to play and several marines and even the pilots said, "Can you shut that shit off?" The song ceased to play a few seconds after they said that.
(Diplomat and Marine Escorts heading towards Canterlot)
Meanwhile at the Gala...
They heard screaming that was heading towards them quickly, the screams finally became clear and people could make it out. It sounded like Pinkie Pie's voice, "HEY! HEY! I'M BACK! THEY LET ME GO!" Rainbow-Dash flew over to Pinkie Pie and Applejack ran to Pinkie pie and asked, "Where were you?! We were worried about you!" Out of breath, Pinkie Pie got a few words out. "Dr. Schmidt, United Something, aliens!" With no one being able to figure out what she was talking about, Rainbow-Dash asked. "So you're saying that Aliens abducted you with the name of Dr. Schmod, schmit, something? And that they are at someplace called United?" Pinkie Pie nodded, and when she was about to tell Twilight to report to Celestia, something else was heard.
"What is that horrid noise?" A pony spoke out. "Look above!" Another shouted while pointing. Twilight looked up and saw metal boxes in the air heading towards them at high speeds. "Those aren't the metal birds, are they different?" She was in disbelief on how metal is being lifted in the air that high, she then asked Celestia, "What kind of magic are they using?!" Celestia didn't respond because she was too busy trying to figure out what they were. "Who are they? They aren't Discord, they must be somepony else!" Luna yelled. "Call the guards, all of them!" Celestia said to one of her accompanying generals. He ran out of the door to get more guards to approach the 'visitors'.
Twilight's P.O.V.
Weird metal box landed first, it caught the attention of most if not all ponies in Canterlot. The crowd below cleared an area for them to land by running in fear. The doors opened, there seemed to be no light emitting from the box so no one could see inside it. No one could see inside the the box besides darkness, then footsteps would be heard. Twilight couldn't understand what was happening, then the rest of her friends ran up to her in fear, asking her what was happening. "Twilight! Who are these guys?!" Rainbow-Dash yelled in an exhausted voice.
A loud bang was heard, a guard rammed into one of the Huey's doors once. Then he rammed up and tried again, when he charged the door opened and a strange bipedal creature covered in green wearing a strange hat, jumped out of the box's side and rammed the strange iron rod he was holding into the guard's face. Knocking him on the ground. A second one jumped out aiming it's iron rod onto the guard's face and yelling "STAY THE FUCK DOWN! OR WE WILL SHOOT!"
(The guard's POV when he was hit)
I thought to myself, that thing can't shoot an arrow, it has no arrows visible! Everyone near the metal boxes were already running away while more guards appeared on the scene. Another one but from the bigger box walked out while more green creatures just like him began running out into what seems to be a defensive circle, with the person in the suit in the middle. The other creatures from the other boxes too did the same but instead of a person, it was what they got out of. They aimed their iron rods at the guards, one of them spotted to Celestia and told the one in the suit.
3rd Person P.O.V.
As the Marines surrounded their transports guarding them, the Vice President was approaching to the guard's line. He then asked, "May I speak to the person in charge before things get heated up?" The guard with a surprise on his face, not knowing the creature could talk, replied by yelling, "STAY BACK! OR WE WILL-" He was cut off as F-18's flew over them in a formation while flying low, it spooked everyone besides the Marines and the Vice President. With the ponies in shock, the Vice President approached the armored pony with his arms behind his back, staring down at the guard who was clearly attempting to repress the feelings of fear within him. “Allow me to rephrase my statement. We desire cooperation, and I wish to speak with your leader. However we won’t hesitate to defend ourselves if we’re attacked.”
Pinkie Pie finally reached Twilight and tried talking to her “Twilight! I don’t think we should attack these guys! They destro-” One of the generals cut her off by scoffing and saying “They think they can beat us? We can easily overwhelm them. And those things they are holding, are most likely nothing more than weirdly modeled spears.” The general said with a smirk.
Twilight asked Pinkie Pie, “So you were ponynapped by them? They must be hostile! Who ponynaps someone and just expect us to be friendly to them!” Pinkie Pie remembered that the Humans were in a desperate state and they were scared, she then replied. “They were just scared! They didn’t know what to do!” Twilight with a confused face told her, “Then why ponynap? Who ponynaps someone when they’re scared?!” Pinkie Pie kept trying to convince Twilight to calm down and help the Humans. But with everyone in fear, they didn’t know what to do.
Meanwhile, the Marines were just as surprised but more focused on defending the Vice President and their transports. Two of them struck up a conversation while still aiming their rifles, “You heard that horse officer? They think that our M16’s are spears, they really are behind us.” The other marine silently laughed, “Bet $50 that we’ll get out of this, guns blazing.”
One of the guards overheard them and asked his sergeant, “Sir, what are guns?” The sergeant replied with, "I don't know what guns are or what they do. Same thing goes for these creatures, we don't know what they're capable of."
The two marines began talking again, one of them sparked the conversation by saying “Again, they don’t even know what guns are. They don’t even know what we’re capable of, I’ll be taking that $50 now because we can easily take them all down.” The other marine replied with, “We’re outnumbered though, but I’m guessing that we can easily overpower them. But our transports can provide some air support, I saw some M134’s mounted on them.” A third marine tried holding back his laugh because of how behind these natives are technologically.
Both sides are in shock while the marines look like they’re stiff, nothing can break them. Even the sight of seeing aliens from another world, they still look as if they’ve been through worse. But nonetheless they are still as frightened as the natives are, but they can control their fear because they already know of the ponies and their technology level relieves them seeing that they can take them all down easily.
(US Marines aiming their weapons at the Royal Guard)
Celestia walked down the stairs and spoke out, “We may not know who you are, but we also will not hesitate to defend ourselves if it comes to it. But nonetheless, what are your requests since we think that you’re here for something more than talking after all the ruckus you’ve caused.” Celestia stood firm but also was becoming more hostile towards the Vice-President.
Bush replied with, “Well, we can’t expect to let an important asset go by himself, can we? So that is why our fine marines are here to protect me. And we are here just to talk since we didn’t want to cause a ruckus in the first place, so. When will we be able to start diplomatic talks?” Bush said with a smirk, awaiting for what seems to be a royal member to reply.
“We will start now.” Celestia replied. Twilight was ordered to follow her and the Marines followed with Bush up the stairs into the castle. Bush started to ask the princess, “If it’s not enough trouble, are we able to keep this entire thing a secret? We don’t want to release our secrets this early.” Celestia stopped walking and looked at Bush with her surprised face, she is wondering why they wouldn’t want to be known. She then nodded her head and looked to her Generals, one of them began to order the Royal Guards to blockade the witnesses in order to erase their memories of this event.
Twilight with the help of Luna manage to perform the task of erasing the witness's memories of the event, for they do not want to anger those who arrived from the sky. For all they know, they managed to ponynap Pinkie Pie and let her go for some reason? But nonetheless, neither side wanted to cause a disagreement over something this quickly.
They were in a giant hallway with a pink carpet and what was supposed to be a giant room full of ponies for the Gala. Giant windows surrounded the side of one wall and painting of what were thought to be past leaders or important figures. While they were walking towards the end, they stopped and saw 2 grand wooden doors. They opened and what appears to be a conference room.
While the group was headed to the conference room to discuss their situation, a marine with a radio ran up to Bush to hand him the radio. The Princess and the others were spooked because a visitor began running, especially holding something they do not know. While Bush was on the radio, the Princess was wondering why a creature would hold a tin can next to his ear? He then spoke out, "So that's why he wanted me to do that? What can I expect, it's Reagan." He said while laughing a bit. It was regarding the fact that Reagan wanted the entire thing to be a secret and didn't give a reason why.
Bush also instructed the Marine to report to HQ to order the other divisions waiting outside of Canterlot to hold positions and to let an airborne division evacuate him if need be. The outskirts of Canterlot was very tense with thousands of soldiers waiting for the call to attack, for it would be a second time they would have to wait to attack or defend. For it were these divisions that defended Europe when the war first struck out, and now, they wouldn't waste any time to complete their objectives. The echoes of gunfire still rang throughout the soldiers, accompanied with explosions, they may be experiencing these but they are trying their best to stay focused. Then the commanding officer got a radio message saying, "Stand down, alert all units to stay in position until further notice." A few minutes later the message was then spread throughout the awaiting divisions.
They finally reached the conference room. It had a giant round table with tall windows surrounding the room. Princess Celestia was across the table from Bush, two officers and two guards were to enter the room. The officers would stand near their commander while the guards and marines would defend the doorway.
With the room being gigantic, whenever anyone spoke, their voice would echo. Everyone would take their positions, Twilight was also there but in the corner of the room to only observe. The marines saw Luna walk next to Celestia and heard a scoff from her, she then sat next to Celestia to begin the discussions. Celestia then spoke out with a big echo, "Now onto the biggest question, why are you here?" Bush then responded with a serious tone, "Survival."
"So why are you here?", Bush then replied with a serious tone. "Survival."
Luna then barked out, "What do you mean survival? You ruined our event!"
"It was the best way we could've gotten your attention, with full support from our president. And when I mean survival, our species is at the brink of extinction. A dreadful war has broken out that forced us to to to evacuate to your lands. We didn't know that this world was inhabited until we found your roads."
Celestia spoke out, "So you learned from our existence from kidnapping one of my subjects? And elaborate on this war you say lead to you to evacuate to our lands without notifying us."
Bush sighed and the two officers were holding back their tears so they tipped their heads downwards to hide their guilt of losing their world. And what was it for? To protect ego's that was the expense of billions? They tried their best to hide their tears. Celestia didn't know why their heads were looking downwards, she had a lot of suspicions and thought they might be planning an attack on her.
(The Marine officers with their heads facing down.)
She then spoke out to address the Marine officers, "You two! Why are your heads down?" They didn't listen to her so they kept their heads down. She then spoke out with a louder and aggressive tone, "Answer me! Why are your heads down-" she was cut off by Bush. "Ma'am, they've been through a lot, our world has been torn to pieces and billions of our own people and families have been lost. Let them be." Celestia still couldn't believe that they destroyed their own world, a few seconds after they raised their heads with their eyes red and tears going down their faces. She then felt guilty for forcing them to raise their heads while they were mourning their families and friends left back on their home world.
Luna barked at them, "How can you possibly destroy your own world? How can one war destroy billions? We barely have millions in Equestria! This story is most unlikely-" Celestia cut her off, she then scolded Luna by saying "We don't know if this is true or not, but if this is true. Then we would be seen as the aggressors, they've just been through a tragedy. If they are able to destroy their own world, then we wouldn't want to escalate things with them. Either we may have more power than them, or not. We must respect them, they've been through a lot. Possibly more than what the history of Equestria has been through." Luna's pride was smashed after hearing this, she didn't realize that she was acting as the aggressor.
"The war lasted for 5 years, an entire continent was lost within 2 years. The soviets never stopped to think all the damage they've done, we fought tooth and nail to defend Europe. But this didn't come cheap, we lost millions of our own. What's left of us out of 4 billion people on Earth, only less than a quarter survived. We are what's left. We seek shelter in your world to ensure the survival of Humanity. No matter the cost, we will ensure the safety of our people. If your people decide to threaten us, we will make sure than we will fight to the end if it comes to this." After this speech, the entire room went quiet after hearing the fate of Earth.
"If this is true, then you have our condolences. But if you decide to ponynap one of my subjects, then we were forced to think you as hostile. Now onto the topic of strange things occurring that might be you, the strange metal birds and explosions being heard in the distance ." With Celestia still holding firm, Bush was trying to understand what she meant by strange events she was talking about. One of the marines whispered into his ear saying, "I think she might be talking about our jets and weaponry, they still don't know what we're capable of." Bush then realized what she was originally talking about, then said. "The 'metal birds', yes that was us. And for anything else strange occurring, I cannot disclose that information with you."
Celestia started to become intrigued on why and how they destroyed their own world over a single war. Twilight's curiousness got the best of her and asked, "What was this war? And why did it start?" Bush looked at her and told her, "This war was known as the Third World War, NATO and the Warsaw Pact had been at each other's throats for decades after the Second World War, but this one, no one expected what would've happened. We wanted to defend the free world, so we had an alliance known as NATO. And why it started you ask? The North Koreans attacked South Korea for the second and last time, it sparked the war, causing millions to die in the first few weeks. We fought hard with everything we've been training for, over 40 years of preparations was finally put into use but we wished we never did have to use them." Bush kept talking about the War and the Generals, Twilight, Luna, and Celestia learned that Humanity was in a desperate situation and that they've been through worse situations they have been in. They looked to the Marines in the room and saw that they are still holding after all that they've been through. Twilight again asked if there was devastating wars that the United States has endured before the Third World War, Bush told her that there were 2 other World Wars before. She began to think, 'These people must be hungry for blood, but if they were. Then why am I still alive, having a civilized conversation with them?' After a few minutes, they began to work things through but they never talked about the firearms the United States has, so it gives an advantage to them.
With everyone being curious on why there are different types of species that are sentient, Bush asked. "So, we noticed that there are different types of ponies? If you don't mind telling us what these different types are." Celestia was about to speak but Luna cut her off because she was interested on how these creatures would react. "There are the Earth Ponies, like Twilight Sparkle," She pointed her hoof at Twilight. "Then there are the Pegusi, unlike the Earth Ponies, they have wings. And lastly Unicorns," She pointed her hoof at her horn," These horns give us the power to use magic. But I forgot to mention that Alicorns like me and Princess Celestia are royalty." Bush gave an interesting look as one of the officers on his side started to take notes down about the different types of species.
Celestia told Twilight to talk outside of the Conference room to talk. Celestia ordered Twilight to learn about the war and history of Humanity to better understand them. Twilight went ahead with her request. Celestia told Twilight that they recently received a threat from an anonymous source targeting Canterlot, she thinks that it might be the humans or someone else. But they didn't have intentions to steal or destroy anything for now. For now, they would be studying off of each other.
A few hours later...
One of the officers went towards the Marine with the radio, and informed him to report back to base about the information of the natives and the different species that they have under their empire. With some mentions of a weapon called the Elements of Harmony. But for now the United States rules the skies.
A few weeks have passed and Humanity is still kept a secret and the remaining military personnel have been training non-stop ever since their units have been re-activated. Out of everypony in Equestria, only Celestia, Luna, the Generals, and Twilight Sparkle know the existence of Humanity. Twilight hasn't been able to find anything on Humanity in any library, but since she heard that Humanity might be building a library, she instantly became interested. She tried her best to keep Humanity a secret. A projector with several reels of the First and Second world war of footage of military marches to limited combat footage. She wasn't allowed access to the knowledge on how firearms work or how powerful the modern weaponry that Humanity has now.
Celestia received a note about Twilight's brother and Princess Cadence's wedding about to happen a week later. With also a special request to give Twilight a special invite to his wedding a few days before the wedding. Celestia requested for Humanity's security to protect Canterlot if anything were to happen. Reagan accepted the request and sent 4 squads consisting of 1 Delta Force and 3 squads of regular infantrymen. A few weeks before, a F.O.B. was established at the outskirts of Canterlot to provide immediate support to Canterlot if needed. This made Celestia trust Humanity. The Royal Guard was informed that unknown support would arrive if Canterlot was in immediate danger, so they US forces would coordinate with Equestrian guards.
While this was all happening, Fort Liberty has been expanding. There wasn't enough space to allow the troops and civilians to stay in the same base. So Reagan with the approval of Congress, ordered Fort Liberty to create F.O.B.'s (Forward Operating Base) to spread out and to expand the size of Humanity's gains in this world. But every F.O.B. was hidden out of sight, and some of them completely impossible to find if it weren't the intel to guide US forces to find the bases. Currently there are 5 F.O.B.'s that are close enough for Fort Liberty to supply them instantly.
Soldiers have reported that a dark pony have been appearing in their dreams and looked most likely like Princess Luna. Most of the time when she appeared she was hiding somewhere to stay safe from most of the soldier's nightmares when they re-live battles that they have been in. She always flinched when she heard a gunshot or an explosion, only a few soldiers offered to help her get to safety but they woke up whenever they attempted to help her. This brought some tension between the United States and Princess Luna, although Celestia isn't aware of this yet.
(Nightmares of Bundeswehr Soldiers defending Berlin)
With the secrecy of Humanity still being kept, Celestia decided to prove that Humanity is ready in being in this world. So she requested that Humanity would attend or at least provide some security to the event. Reagan accepted the request by sending a few soldiers. No one besides the higherups knew of Humanity's existence, but with only a limited force being present and a bigger event happening, no one would usually focus on the Human soldiers too often because there is a wedding going on. Celestia also informed Reagan that Canterlot received a message making the sender a threat, possibly aiming to cause disruption the wedding.
A week before, a German and Spanish scouts have found a hidden hole under Canterlot and explored the cave. It seemed to be crystalized and reported it to command. With it being under Canterlot, it was considered a strategic position in case any military operations were needed near the area. They set up a research base to learn about the cave itself.
One of the infantrymen struck up a conversation with another soldier in his squad, "So, who do you think is getting married?" he said. The other soldier didn't know much, but just a few details. "A captain from the Royal guard and a princess from somewhere." he replied. "Huh, and we're supposed to be guarding an event we don't know much about?" He scoffed. The attendees were still preparing and rehearsing the wedding while the US Soldiers watched in the corners as only a few people cared to look at them. They thought that they were just a weird color scheme armor on a mannequin, although it is strange for them since no one could fit the clothing. But they did not know that those were filled with creatures they have never seen before. The Soldiers also thought of this too, so they tried their best not to move.
During Rehearsal they noticed a Purple pony who they were informed was the diplomat Twilight Sparkle. She was the diplomat between Equestria and the United States, barged into the rehearsal to yell at Princess Cadence. "You are not Cadence! You zapped Shining Armor with a green ray! You did something to Cadence and I know your planning to do something evil with Shining Armor!" She yelled while making the bride walk backwards into a corner. She started to cry and screamed, "Why are you doing this?! This was supposed to be my special day!" She ran out of the room while crying. The people in the rehearsal looked at Twilight with a disappointed face and a shocked face. What seemed to be the groom walked up to her saying, "That 'green ray' was a spell to calm my headaches for keeping the only shield protecting Canterlot up! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a run away bride to catch. And forget being my best mane." He paced out of the room to chase after the Bride. Celestia walked up to Twilight and said in a disappointed tone, "You have a lot of re-thinking to do.", she then walked out of the building. After everyone left because of the interruption, Twilight walked up to one of the Soldiers, crying, she asked. "What have I done?" The Soldiers looked around the room to see if anyone was still there and he told Twilight to try and calm her down. "We'll keep an eye out if she isn't the bride, but for now. You need to stay clear and say sorry to the bride to see if she is the bride or not." She nodded and decided to go find and apologize to her.
The Human squad leader ordered his squad to go follow and watch over Twilight as she ran. A few minutes later, they were scattered around the building that they thought Twilight was entering. But they didn't know that Twilight went another way and headed to another building, so they were looking in the wrong direction.
Twilight ran up to Cadence to apologize, "Cadence! I'm so sorry for what happened, I was being too overprotective over my brother! I hope you can forgive me after for what I've done..." Cadence laughed maniacally and walked over to a confused Twilight Sparkle. "So you think O was actually Cadence, do you? Hah, I'm using Shining Armor just to control his shield!" What was probably Cadence, answered. "So you're not Princess Cadence?" Twilight asked with a shocked face. "Haha, no! I'm Queen Chrysalis! Leader of the Changelings, and I'm feeding off your brother's love for Cadence!" She laughed out loud. She then made a green orb trap Twilight in and began going down through the floor.
The Human infantry began trying to find Twilight and Cadence because they both were missing. Cadence arrived to the actual wedding with no sign of Twilight. The person in command of the Squad reported Twilight going missing and the message was relayed to HQ. High Command was in high alert on what was happening and were too also confused on why or how Twilight went missing and still no sight. The infantry guarding the wedding were put on high alert.
Meanwhile in the caves...
"Come on Cadance! We can get out of here! Just a few more steps!" Twilight yelled. As they ran, they started to see other figures of ponies, and they soon found out that they were possessed by the Bug Queen. "You three.." Cadence muttered. The three spoke in synchronous, "You will not escape, you will-" they were cut off. Twilight saw the research team's Guards knock out the three with the backs of their M16's. "WHO ARE YOU?!" Cadence yelled, surprised that she never knew what these creatures were. Twilight explained to her, "These are humans, Celestia and Luna tried keeping them a secret. They made themselves public before by showing themselves at the Gala before, but their leader decided to keep them a secret, so we erased a lot of ponies minds of the event to keep them a secret. They're our allies." Cadence was still shocked that these creatures were kept a secret. "Ms. Twilight, we heard of your disappearance and we have a transport ready for you in case we found you. Follow me." A soldier spoke out to Twilight.
Twilight and Cadence were escorted through the research Facility, they were surprised that they knew a lot on what and how the Cave was formed. "Are you sure we can trust them?" Cadence asked Twilight as they walked. They finally reached outside of the cave and got into a Humvee, they were put in the back because the soldiers didn't know how they would sit or at least fit. Some soldiers were also put in the back to safeguard them.
(Research base in the Caves)
As the bride and groom were about to be officially married, a purple pony bursts through the door and yelled, "That's not Cadence! It's a fake!" As the Soldiers were confused, everyone else who were attending the wedding knew that she was just being overprotective and payed no mind except the fact that she was ruining the wedding. Then an exact copy of Princess Cadence entered the room and confirmed the fact that the one near the Royal Guard's Captain was indeed a copy. "Someone stop her! This was supposed to be my day, but I was put into a crystal mine!" Everyone gasped because they were all fooled by the fake. "How did you escape the crystal mines?!" Chrysalis yelled. Twilight knew that Humanity's secret couldn't be exposed, so she said. "I've been through worse." She replied. Cadence was confused why she didn't tell everyone about the humans, and she then remembered that it was per Humanity's request to keep them a secret.
Chrysalis stunned everyone with them being completely fooled, and with Shining Armor under her control, her ego was expanded. She then walked in confidently to the building doors and laughed maniacally while also scoffing at whoever told her that she couldn't possibly get away with this. She then mentioned that her army is outside of Canterlot's shields with them just about to break in. "Ha, Canterlot will fall with me, Queen Chrysalis ruling all of Equestri-" she felt a sharp pain at the back of her head. While her head was falling downwards, she noticed that the suits of green armor were missing from the corners, she noticed that they were looking down at her with weird iron spears pointed at her. She was confused that suit of armors with no creature being able to fit in them were moving smoothly and independently as if they weren't armor at all. One of them yelled at her dizzy head, "STAY THE FUCK DOWN OR WE'LL BREAK YOUR LEG!" She couldn't think straight so she didn't hear much. She tried getting up and felt a loud crack and a sharp pain in her hoof. The soldier broke her leg with the back of his M16. She let out a sharp scream. Celestia's face was in complete and utter shock because she hasn't seen this amount of torture for such a little action. She kept her cool and began to speak, "My subjects, we are under attack. Remain calm, these soldiers may seem weird but they are here to help protect us." She said, trying to gather as much strength to speak or even stand up at the sight of a broken hoof with the bone sticking out and a lot of blood coming out. She gulped because she is disgusted from the sight.
Celestia overheard one of the soldiers,"Possible enemy troops outside of the shield. We need confirmation." She began to have a crippling wave of fear.
A few minutes earlier...
A certain Leopard 1A5 tank squadron were noticing a large amounts of thermal readings around the shield protecting Canterlot. The squadron commander yelled on the intercom, "Gunther! Alert Command! We have possible hostiles surrounding the city!" Gunther then relayed his message back to HQ on the intercoms.
Present...
Command replied on the radio, "Hostiles confirmed. Prepare for combat, weapons free. Description of the hostiles, black-ish grey with blue elements around their bodies." The Corporal was given his orders to relay the message to his Squad leader, he nodded to his squad lead. The Sergeant knew what it meant so he cocked his rifle and ordered his men to get ready for combat. The Corporal told the squad of the description of the hostiles to prepare for them. The Sergeant walked up to Celestia and asked her about what creatures were that the men were described about. She replied, "Changelings, they have the power to change into anypony." The Sergeant wondered if it could do the same thing to humans. But when he turned around, he noticed an entirely spooked and horrified crowd looking at him and his men, wondering what they were. "What are these things?!" one shouted, "I've never seen them before!" another shouted.
Twilight then ran up to her group of friends and during her explaining things, "Okay guys, don't panic. These guys are with us." "Well, their fashion choice isn't that special, or fashionable!" Rarity stated. "Well, they aren't really for fashion, Rarity. They use it as camouflage, and we've met them before." Twilight Responded. "What do you mean we've met them before?! If I did, then I'm darn sure I would've remembered them!" AppleJack yelled. "Well...." Twilight said awkwardly, "Well what dear?" Rarity said. "We kinda.... uhm..... erased your memories of them when we met them at the Gala!" Twilight said in a quick voice. "How could you? We're your friends!" Rainbow-Dash said. "It was their request and since we don't know what they could do, we listened to them. They wanted to keep themselves a secret." Twilight answered. "Why in the world would they want to keep themselves a secre-" Rarity interrupted herself after realizing the fact that they might be "ALIENS!" Pinkie Pie yelled. Pinkie Pie rose up and noticed something. She pointed out one of the Soldiers and yelled, "Hey I know you!" Twilight sighed and told her, "Pinkie, don't disturb them. They're going to protect us." Pinkie Pie didn't listen and AppleJack then replied with, "Protect us? Look at what they did! They broke Chryslis's hoof!" Twilight explained how she was leading an invasion of Canterlot and it was somewhat justified "Look, they did help us in stopping her, did they not?" Fluttershy acknowledged and said to Twilight, "Well yes. But-" She was cut off by Princess Luna. "Neither you or my sister knows what they are here for after they lost their world. For now, I think they're here to help us. I'm starting to feel that my sister is starting to feel sympathetic over them. They might use her to their advantage but I think she knows what she's doing." After that she then tried to tend to her confused brother with the help of Princess Cadence.
Pinkie Pie ran up to the Soldier she pointed out and yelled, "Hey I remember you! You were at the sugar corner!" That soldier she pointed out to was the one and only, Captain Rogers. Captain Rogers was part of Delta Force and was the person responsible of retrieving Pinkie Pie to interrogate her with Dr. Schmidt. But with Pinkie Pie's memory being erased, he was confused on how she could possibly remember him. But sadly, they forgot to get rid of that memory and people kept telling her that she just had a nightmare during that night. "Oh shit, not you again!" He yelled while running away. "Ummm.... the hell was that all about?" Roger's squadmates said to each other after he ran away to stay away from Pinkie Pie.
The Corporal’s radio suddenly exploded to life with the German accented voice of the Tank Squadron leader. "Scheisse! They broke through the shield! Units within Canterlot, prepare for an attack!" Luna overheard and looked towards Celestia. They both nodded to each other, Luna ran to one of the Generals to alert the Equestrian Royal Guard.
The Infantry squads decide to go next to the walls and hide to ambush the Changelings when they break into the wedding room. 2 Medics decide to patch up Chrysalis to stop the bleeding, "You two, patch duct tape to shut her up." A sergeant told the Medics. "HMFMFMMHFHH!" said Chrysalis while getting her mouth taped. Several soldiers start to use whatever is in the room as cover to hide themselves, as they do. They make space to aim their weapons to possible entry points, and every entry point that can either be broken or opened are now secretly aimed by Rifles and Machine guns. In the back round, the Sergeant was telling his squads where to position themselves and where to aim. "You there, get your men towards that corner and watch this column of windows. Lieutenant Backer, I need you to bring your squad over there," He pointed to a area covered in props, "And watch the main door."
A few seconds later, the squads were in position and the Sergeant yelled on the Radio, "Radio silence until my command. We'll strike these bastards and tear a new asshole in their attack once they breach. Once the first shot fires, you all would continue firing. Keep your trigger fingers at bay, we need to conserve our ammunition." His radio awakened with several soldiers saying, "Yes sir." or "In Position, Sarge."
"You good there, Micheal?" A soldier from the squad said to the MG Gunner, "Yeah, just waiting for them to burst through the window. You think these guys have more modern weaponry?" He asked in a German accent, "I don't know.... but stay frosty." John replied. Another soldier overheard them and muttered to himself, "Of course, let the German handle the Machine gun."
(The Sergeant and a rifleman aiming their weapons.)
Chrysalis, and the Princess's are hidden behind the soldiers, and Celestia overhears them talking about when they are supposed to hide and aid their weapons. She muttered to herself, "Why are they aiming their spears from a distance? Do they know how to use their own weapons?!" She gets a wave of fear from the fact that these creatures might now know how their own weapons work. After a while, she hears nothing but silence from the soldiers and a few seconds later, she hears a sound of a window breaking. After that, multiple similar sounds were heard and screams from the attendees that weren't hidden but put into cover. Because all they know is that weird creatures have kidnapped the VIP's and ran away. "Where are they?" Twilight asked herself.
The Changelings were charging through the main door and breaking through the windows. The first few that broke through were in a stalemate because the Mane 6 were in a defense stance and didn't expect those weird creatures weren't here to save them anymore. "I bet that I'll go after them creatures for taking our Princess without any consequence!" AppleJack yelled. Meanwhile in the hiding spot, Celestia began to feel pride because her subjects truly cared about her. "They're surrounded! Aren't you going to do anything?!" Luna asked the Sergeant. The Sergeant didn't respond and stayed focus on when to strike. "You expect us to stay here and do nothin-" She was cut off by Celestia whispering to her, "They're staying focused, if they don't do anything... then we'll handle it ourselves, my dear sister."
The Sergeant silently signaled to ask the other squads if they're ready. Luna and Cadence gave a confused face behind them and were wondering what they were doing. "Sister, any idea on what they're doing?" Luna asked to Celestia. Celestia retorted with, "I don't know, but they are preparing for something." Everyone had their weapons aimed and ready, so the Sergeant moved down one finger down by another on one hand. The finger reached to zero, and a soldier motioned his hand signaling to keep the VIP's heads down. The Sergeant tapped the shoulder of one soldier and he fired.
Everyone heard a loud bang and everyone stopped after hearing the loud bang. A Changeling dropped to the floor with a hole on both sides of his head with blood spurring out. Everyone was panic-stricken and the Mane 6 backed away from their defense circle. "W-what happened?" Rainbow-Dash asked. "T-twilight? Is this some sort of spell?!" AppleJack asked. "I-I I didn't do this! He's dead!" Twilight yelled. They then heard a yell, "OPEN FIRE!" Other loud bangs of various sounds. Everyone was shrieking in fear with chaos going around the entire room. "EVERYONE RUN!" Rainbow-Dash yelled.
(Infantry gunner firing at the Changlings flooding through the main doors)
"What is this magic they're using?! They can emit fire from their iron rods!" Luna yelled at Celestia. "Sister?" Luna asked, but Celestia wouldn't respond because she was in awestruck in the amount of destruction they were causing against their foe. One by one fell in the dozens as the Changelings tried to run away. "Sarge! They're running away, should we pursue?" A soldier asked the Sergeant. "Princess Celestia, where is your royal guard?" He wouldn't get a response because she was still shocked, "Princess Luna, where is your Royal guard?" "They-they're occupied with holding back the changelings." Luna responded. "Well, that makes things harder....." He looked at his Corporal, "Corporal, get HQ on the line, we need air support and reinforcements. And all squads, you're clear to get back up. It's clear." He said to his men.
They all got up and stretched, while also checking their weapons to reload their ammunition. As the few remaining Changelings that raided the wedding building were fleeing, the Soldiers opened fire upon them, killing them all in an instant. But inside the building, everyone was shell shocked from the firefight that they never expected. The Sergeant walked up to the Bug Queen and asked, "So you have 2 seconds to answer our questions or you'll have the same treatment as your friends, understood?" He said in a smug voice. Chrysalis nodded. "You, take off the tape, we're giving her to the Diplomat." said the Sergeant ordering a medic. The medic dragged Chrysalis to Twilight, "Ms. Sparkle, are you willing to use their Queen to call off the attack?" Twilight nodded, the Medic left to regroup with his Squad.
"What happened?!" Pinkie Pie asked, "I don't know... but I thought they left." Twilight responded. "They're monsters! They killed them all! They didn't even give them a chance to talk!" Rarity yelled. Twilight gulped and said, "They said they were in a war making them flee to us..... but I never thought their wars would be fought like this..." Twilight said in a sad tone. Twilight gathered enough strength to speak, "But nonetheless they helped us keep everyone safe from those bugs. We need to use Chrysalis as a bargaining tool, I know its not right, but it must be done to protect Canterlot." The others nodded and Twilight lifted Chrysalis with magic. As they walked through the dead bodies of her fallen troops, Chrysalis spoke while bursting tears, "How could they do such a thing?! We didn't do anything this harmful to them... Where did they come from anyways? This can't be! There wasn't any magic from them, they don't even show a bit of mercy!" she yelled while crying. As they walked out of the building, the convoy that dropped off Cadence and Twilight were still outside and were firing at the incoming Changelings. "Move it! We have to get to clear ground to start announcing for them to call off the attack or we'll handle it ourselves!" The commanding officer of the convoy yelled. The Mane 6 rushed to the back of the humvee with Chrysalis injured with them too.
The C.O. of the convoy banged on the top of his humvee as he got in. Every soldier's radio blared, "We have to get our guests to the LZ to call off the attack. Watch out for friendly ground units and native infantry on the way, I'll be headed to Fort Providence to lead our reinforcements. Godspeed." After this announcement, his humvee began going another direction, breaking off of the convoy. Another transmission came from the Radio, "All units, be advised. Friendly armored and infantry units are in Canterlot. Watch your fire." HQ commanded. AppleJack faced towards one of the Soldiers, "What is Fort Providence?" She asked. The Soldier told her while still aiming his M16 and firing, "It's our Forward Operation Base, or a Base of Operations." He said while still gunning down Changelings. The ponies were trying to grab onto something because they weren't used to being on a engine based vehicle before.
Meanwhile at the LZ...
"On your right!", "SHIT THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!" two soldiers were yelling to each other while picking their targets and shooting their weapons. "Get that Heli out of here! It's going to be overrun!" the Captain yelled. "Sir! Look! The convoy arrived!" A soldier yelled. "Then make space for them! Move it Marines!" The Captain ordered.
“LOAD HEAT!” The tank commander of the M60 tank yelled. The crew loaded a shell into the cannon while the Radio and Commander were firing their Coaxial and Heavy machine guns on the tank to fend off the changeling horde chasing the Convoy. The Commander got on the radio and ordered the infantry squad leader, “Lieutenant, I need your men to make an opening and cover the flanks for the Convoy as they pass through! Our tank can only do so much.” As the Lieutenant received the message, he signalled some of his men with his hands to clear some space for the incoming convoy.
Meanwhile in the convoy…
“They’re catching up!” Rarity yelled. “Can’t this thing go any faster!” Rainbow-Dash yelled. Rainbow Dash stretched her wings and it was signaling that she was going to fly. The Soldier on the M2 Browning noticed this and yelled, “Stay down! We might mistake you for them!” Rainbow Dash then realized what he was talking about and decided to stay down. The Gunner swept and turned the MG around and stopping occasionally to aim and shoot the Browning. He’d sometimes order the diplomats to stay down so he can shoot at the Changelings behind them.
The sound of the M2 Browning scared the ponies, and a shell casing fell on the ground in front of Twilight. “What is this thing….?” She picked it up, “HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT HOT HOOOOT!” she yelled after picking up the bullet casing. “IT BURNS!” She yelled. The Gunner stopped firing and looked down to see what the screaming was about. ‘Did she get shot? But how? They don’t have gunpowder yet.’ he thought. He looked down and noticed that the purple diplomat touched one of the bullet casings.
“We’re approaching the checkpoint!” The Driver of the humvee yelled. “They got here quickly.” The gunner stated. “They probably got dropped off by a Heli.” The driver replied on the radio. “How’d they get a tank if they were airlifted?” He asked. “Probably drove it here earlier.” The driver responded.
“Lieutenant! We have 3 Humvees moving towards our position.” The Soldier asked on the radio, looking at the incoming vehicles. “That’s the convoy. Protect their asses.” The Lieutenant responded.
As the first humvee entered their checkpoint, the soldiers defending it yelled to the convoy, “Courtesy of the 82nd Airborne!” The Soldiers began firing the Changelings chasing the convoy. “You boys lost or something?” Another soldier yelled at the convoy because they were expecting them to come a few minutes earlier.
(82nd Airborne troops at the Checkpoint as the Humvee passes.)
Twilight peaked out of the cover to see the checkpoint, "Is that an Iron Golem?" She said as she didn't know what the M60 tank was. "What do you mean by that, Twilight?" Rarity asked. She also looked out of cover to see what she was looking at. "WHAT IS THAT THING?!" Rarity yelled in shock. The Browning Gunner chuckles a bit as he remembers that they've never seen a tank before. The M60 tank fired its 105mm cannon, causing the Ponies to freak out and scream in horror as they never heard of such explosions this loud.
A crew of an M1 Abrams were hiding in a street to catch the Changelings off guard since no one thinks that the object is commanded by Humans, only the human soldiers knew about the tank. And with this, they used this to their advantage. "Commander, you think that these bugs know that we're in here?" The Loader asked. "I don't think so.... they probably think that the Abrams is a building. But nonetheless, they are very much wrong when they find out." The Commander retorted. The Gunner laughed, "Haha! Look at these fools! They don't realize that they are passing the very thing that'll end their life if they surrender!" he laughed as Changelings crossed the dark alleyway the Abrams hid in. "Get ready driver, we'll drive out into the middle of the street as they pass and we'll strike them from the back!" The Commander shouted. As the rest of the changelings passed, the driver immediately moved the Abrams forwards and turned it to the left, aiming the tank at them. The Changelings were horrified as all they could think of is that mechanical sound of the tracks and the sounds of the transmission and engine. And an Iron Golem is protecting Canterlot and they completely missed it. The Commander of the tank opened his hatch and manned the M2 Browning on the top of the tank. He muttered, "You bastards are going to know who you're messing with in about 2 seconds." He said as he loaded his M2. The Gunner's intercom lit up with a voice, "Light it up!" he yelled. The 105mm cannon and other MG's started to gun down the changelings who were too scared to move because of the shock of only seeing the tank.
(US Abrams defending a street from the Changelings)
The convoy arrived to an arranged opening being defended by airborne troops transported by Huey's. As the Mane 6 carrying Chrysalis while being escorted by US infantry, they got to the center of the opening. The Soldiers defending the area had been chasing the Changelings from the area because they're afraid of being shot. A soldier saw the convoy and ran to his captain, "Captain! They're here, the Convoy arrived with the Prisoner." The captain responded, "Good, now clear some space for them and hold fire." he ordered. A few seconds later, all gunshots went to silence as Chrysalis was being put in position. "Now you're going to call off the attack or you'll end up like your friend over there." He pointed his pistol at a charging Changeling. He fired a shot and the Changeling fell dead. He then looked back at Chrysalis, "So, you gonna start or what?" Chrysalis gulped and yelled. "EVERYONE STOP! STOP THE ATTACK! WE'RE NOT GOING TO WIN! WE'RE GOING TO DIE IF WE CONTINUE!" she yelled while crying. "RETURN HOME! WE HAVE NO HOPE OF SURVIVAL IF WE KEEP THIS UP!" she yelled.
Every changeling were all running back to where they came from. The Captain chuckled, "Good. Now take her back to the Princess, they'll decide what to do with her." A humvee carried the Mane 6 and Chrysalis back to the Ceremony to give Chrysalis to Celestia. "Princess Celestia, they called off the attack. I- I don't think they'll be coming back. They lost over 500 lives." Twilight told Celestia "How many did the Changelings did they lose?" Luna asked. "I was talking about the Changelings..." Twilight replied. "And.. the humans?" Celestia asked. "The Humans... they lost.. none, your majesty." Twilight responded. Luna and Celestia were in utter shock that the Humans didn't lose a single soldier during a massive battle. A Royal guard busted through the doors, "Your Majesty, our reports say that we lost no guards but only 57 injured. The creatures that helped us are now keeping them captive! They just took them off in metal carriages! Should we follow?" Celestia retorted, "No, I'm sure that they're going to nurse them back to health. Besides, they did help us, did they not?" The Guard responded, "Yes, your highness." He walked back out the doors to organize whatever defense they had to gather up any wounded or dead.
Celestia tried not to panic, and replied to Twilight. "These.... Humans... They've proven themselves more than formidable, I'm glad we didn't escalate the situation during the Gala, or otherwise.... Equestria wouldn't be..." Twilight was shocked that even Celestia was afraid of them. Twilight added, "We need to keep them on our good sides, we can't risk a war after what we've seen from their defense for us. They have these 'iron rods' that can destroy the ground itself! I saw their metal boxes they called an 'M60' or 'tank', it can emit an explosion from it's long nose... and that was only one of thousands that they have!" Celestia looked at Chrysalis, "So, you tried to attack Canerlot?" She nodded. "I'll let you off for NOW because we have bigger fish to fry. Luna, escort her to the medics. We'll release her because she's learnt her lesson and so has her supporters." Celestia moved her head telling Luna to get her moving while Celestia walked away to tend to the destruction the attack caused.
"Your Majesty! The Humans!" He yelled. Celestia looked up and saw the many helicopters fly upwards and head towards Fort Liberty.
Meanwhile at Fort Liberty...
Reagan was walking through a crowded area full of soldiers returning from the attack. He greeted everybody as they passed telling them, "Good work boys, we made sure that they won't be messing with us!" The troops yelled a massive 'oorah!' after his statement. Reagan got onto a overseeing pad and announced after he moved the microphone in front of him to fix its position. "Everyone, get your rest. You'll be needing it for whats to come. Our future is unknown, so we must prepare for the worst, Gentlemen."
As the helicopters returned to base, the soldiers had their spirits high. Before, they thought that they would be defending a country that would not be an ally for them, and Humanity's future seemed to be dim. But after the battle, they were cheering. They weren't fighting to hold out against total annihilation, they were fighting to defend a friendly country. But after the cheering and patriotism quieting down, there was an empty hole they needed to fill. Then the idea of a Memorial of Earth truly sparked in Congress.
During and after the attack on Canterlot, Congress has been deciding weather or not to host a Memorial of Earth. The discussion has been going on for several hours with many things being decided.
"Last call. Raise your hand in favor of hosting the Memorial." A congressman spoke out.
"Now raise your hand, NOT in favor of hosting the Memorial." He spoke again.
"82% in favor of hosting the Memorial of Earth at Canterlot." He stated. There was silence after he spoke. Humanity was finally going to create a memorial for those they have lost.
Meanwhile in Ponyville a day later...
Twilight was walking around her library, and told spike. "Spike, take note. 'Your Majesty, we've confirmed that the humans had took our injured troops and are indeed, nursing them back to health. But... we did receive a request from the Humans. Apparently they are hosting a memorial of some kind, and they're hoping for our presence and it being hosted in Canterlot. Oh, and also the Changelings accepted our request of returning Chrysalis and keeping her as their Queen. For some reason she brought hope and pride ' Hopefully nothing wrong happens unlike last time. Spike, did you write that down?"
Spike finally finished writing down the note and was about to give it to Celestia. "Yes Twilight, I finished writing it down." he replied.
"Good." Twilight responded.
Meanwhile in Canterlot...
Luna received Twilight's message before Celestia, so she 'calmly' ran into Celestia's room. She BARGED into the doors in panic and yelled to her sister. "Sister, the humans want to host a memorial for something at Canterlot, and they request that we also attend it!"
Celestia was also in shock, she believed that Humanity didn't think of them much after they had helped defend Canterlot, with them being the main reason that Humanity is the reason that she is still in power. She thought that they would be asking for a lot more to pay for their debts of defending her and her capital. "We will attend the memorial. They helped us, we cannot let them down. We must learn more about these humans, but nonetheless. We still need to attend to mourn their losses." Celestia said.
"Yes, sister. I hope nothing goes wrong this time, and should we invite the other leaders?" Luna asked.
"Yes, they should also know about Humanity. For all they know, Humanity is nothing but a myth and a rumor." Celestia responded.
A few hours later, Ember, the leader of the dragons received the invitation and accepted it. So did the other leaders. Grampa Guff for the Griffons and Prince Rutheford accepted the invitation but with caution. For neither they know about Humanity's existence or if this was a trap to assassinate the other world leaders.
Meanwhile in Ponyville...
"Rarity, you need to stop freaking out about what you're going to wear!" Apple Jack yelled.
"But I can't rest, they saved us, I can't figure out what to choose!" Rarity retorted.
Rainbow-Dash walks in and asks, "Uhhh, Apple Jack? What is Rarity doing?"
"She's trying to figure out what she's going to wear for the memorial." Apple Jack replied.
"What memorial?" Rainbow-Dash asked.
"The Memorial of Earth, the Humans are hosting it at Canterlot. They're inviting the other leaders of OUR world to make aware that they are ready to defend themselves." Apple Jack replied.
"How did I not hear about this?! Honestly, I feel guilty now for not knowing about the memorial after they SAVED us!" Rainbow-Dash yelled.
A few minutes later, Luna flew to Twilight to ask how everything is going in Ponyville. Luna enters the library and asks, "Twilight Sparkle, how are things going? Are you and your friends okay after the attack?" She asked.
"Oh, Princess Luna, I didn't know you were coming. And I guess we're all okay." She replied.
A loud crash was heard, it was coming from the Boutique Rarity owned. "What was that?" Luna asked.
"Probably Rarity, she's been panicking after I told her about the Human memorial." Twilight added.
They walked over to the boutique, Luna walked into the doorway and saw Apple Jack walking out. "There is no point in trying, she cannot pick a dress! I suggest you two start running!" Apple Jack yelled as she ran out.
"Interesting... I thought it was something more dangerous happening here." Luna said after the short interaction she just had. They both looked at Rarity, she was picking different dresses from her hangars and she looked like she was REALLY stressed about the memorial. "What do I choose?! What do I choose?! What do I choose?!?!?" She kept yelling.
"Uhm.. Rarity? Are you okay?" Twilight asked with a confused face.
"Yes, I'm quite alright. Anyways, what is that sound?" Rarity asked. A loud roaring sound was approaching fast and they all recognized that familiar sound. They all went outside and looked upwards. An F-18 was flying in the air, Rainbow-Dash felt a jolt of adrenaline pump throughout her entire body. She flew over ponyville yelling, "I'm going to race that thing! I'm going to win!" She yelled, catching everyone's attention in the town. She flew upwards at high speeds to reach the F-18's level. The 2 pilots noticed her trying to catch up so they lowered their speed to make her catch up.
She finally caught up and saw the 2 pilots. She was amazed that they managed to get an object into the air at this speed. She yelled at them, "I'm going to beat you in a race!" she yelled with a smug face. The 2 pilots looked at each other and nodded. She heard a faint and muffled voice yelling, "We'll do it!" She smiled and went as fast as she can. The F-18 was put into half throttle and it was catching up to her at fast speeds. Rainbow-Dash thought in her head, 'I bet I can beat them with a sonic boom! Yeah! I'll do it'. She went downwards to pick up a lot of speed, and she didn't notice that she caused the sonic boom! The Pilots were amazed from the rainbow that she created, but they put the F-18 into full throttle. The pilot asked the other pilot, "You think we'll let her win Lieutenant?" She asked. "Hell no! Let's make her think she's winning then we'll go full speed ahead!" The Lieutenant replied.
Rainbow-Dash yelled, "HA! I'M GOING TO WIN! THEY CAN'T BEAT ME-" She was cut off as the F-18 went 3 times as fast as her sonic boom. Her jaw dropped because she was in awe on how fast on how one of the Human creations that they are riding is faster than her! She started to fly down to Ponyville, she blushed in embarrassment as she lost miserably and her ego was bloated until it flew right past her during her sonic boom.
Rainbow-Dash walked back to the Boutique. Luna was amazed by how fast the Humans were able to achieve, "They're at the brink of extinction! How can they achieve such feats?!" Luna said while awestruck. Twilight thought the same but was more stunned from how loud the sonic boom and the jet's engines were. Rarity didn't pay attention because she was still choosing her dress. Apple Jack passed Rainbow-Dash and told her, "That was embarrassing." Rainbow-Dash walked up to Luna and asked her. "How are they able to go this fast?! Not even the WonderBolts can compare!" She yelled. Luna replied, "I do not know... but it is impressive nonetheless. It scares me how they're able to achieve such feats... hopefully, they do not turn against us." Luna said as she watched the F-18 return to Fort Liberty.
Their attention returns to Rarity panicking. She's quivering in a corner, because she's afraid that Humans would get mad at her for not choosing the right dress, or just because Rarity is just being Rarity. "Rarity, are you okay? This dress would look good on you. It matches your... eyes?" Twilight asked Rarity, Twilight chose a white and blue-ish dress. Rarity smiled to Twilight and hugged her. "OOOOOH Thank you so much Twilight! I couldn't have done this without you!" Rarity exclaimed. Twilight was confused on how easy that was. But nonetheless they managed to keep Rarity at bay before she goes into madness. "Now, time to find another dress that'll compliment me in case I lose this dress!" Rarity yelled. "Oh no." Twilight muttered to herself.
Luna walked back out in because the situation right now was awkward, "Yeah... I'm going back to the castle. I need to tend to some diplomatic meetings about the Memorial." Luna said as she flew away. As she flew, she saw Human helicopters heading towards Canterlot. She thought to herself, 'Why are they headed to Canterlot this early? Are they going to attack!?! No, can't be. They might just be heading to Canterlot to prepare the Memorial.' she calmed herself down from her worries about Humanity turning on them.
As Luna flew back to Canterlot, Rainbow-Dash asked Twilight. "Twi? How are the humans so fast? Even better question, what are those weapons they're using! It can kill anyone in an instant! You just need to point and it'll die!" Rainbow-Dash yelled in a panicked voice. "I don't know, what I do know is that they're on our side. They just want to survive, they lost their homeworld, remember? And besides, they are very civilized, even when they're almost extinct. Let's just hope that no one angers them." Twilight explained.
Rarity returned to her chaotic stage as she tried to find another dress. "Oooh no that won't work, neither will that, or that. I can't find anything that'll match me besides this one dress!" Rarity yelled. She ran up to Twilight and asked, "Oh dear Twilight! What do Humans like? What do they like to wear?! Do I have to wear camouflage?! Anything to please them!" Rarity kept yelling.
Twilight took a breath and said to Rarity to try and calm her down. "Rarity, it doesn't matter what you wear, as long as it isn't offensive. They focus on survival, not fashion. Let's show some respect, do you understand, Rarity?" Twilight explained
"Yes yes, quite. I guess a dress won't matter for this event." Rarity said as she calmed down. "I wonder what got over me to get this stressed about anything." Rarity exclaimed.
"Now, let's gather the others to head to Canterlot. We need to help prepare." Twilight added. "For what?" Rainbow-Dash asked.
"The MEMORIAL!" Twilight and Rarity said in unison.
Rainbow-Dash was starting to get curious about the Memorial and asked Twilight, "Should we follow Princess Luna? I'm itching to see how they're going to do it. And besides, we're going to Canterlot anyways for the Memorial."
Twilight was surprised that Rainbow-Dash was becoming interested, "Uhhh.... Sure? I guess we're heading to Canterlot since we're supposed to watch over the preparations to see if they needed any help." Twilight then remembered something and made a surprised face as she did, "Well then, we better catch the train before we leave!" She ran to make Spike tell everyone to get onto the train before it leaves.
Meanwhile, Dr. Schmidt has been gathering the reports of the underground cave that the staff had been studying since the wedding incident. As he was getting back to the Huey stationed outside of the outpost, his radio bursts with a static voice. "Doctor, we need you to plan where the memorial will be. Your pilot has been briefed while you were in the outpost." A voice with a layer of static said from Schmidt's radio.
Dr. Schmidt replied with a German accent as he acknowledged his orders. "Understood. I do have one question though, who stole my sandwich from the fridge?" He asked.
A voice came from the radio, "Uhmmmmm... see you later Senorita!" it yelled and no further communication was no longer available for the time being. Dr. Schmidt hurried through the different labs and samples to reach the awaiting Huey. As he got in, the Huey lifted off and was in a direct course for Canterlot. He put on a headset to listen to the intercoms on the Huey. A few minutes later, he saw 2 other Hueys start to follow him and he heard on the intercom. "Doc, this is Viper 2. We're here to escort you and now apparently your colleague to Canterlot to prepare for the Memorial."
Schmidt replied with, "Understood Marine, now, lets get to Canterlot without any incidents this time." He said in a sarcastic voice. "And what do you mean by my colleague?" He asked.
"Look to your right doc." The Pilot replied. As he looked through the glass, he saw a unmistakable figure of Princess Luna and he immediately knew who his 'colleague' was. Schmidt noticed something from her pace, he thought to himself, 'Something is stressing her out, probably internal affairs with the kingdom.' He then started to map out the preparations.
Meanwhile in the train...
The Mane 6 were on the train and caught the train on time. But a few minutes later, spike asks, "Twilight? What's a human?" Everyone gasped as they were confused on how Spike didn't know what a Human was. They all yelled in unison, "WHAT!?" Spike was spooked on what was happening, and so he asked. "What? I didn't do anything wrong? Did I?" They all took turns in talking to him after they finish their sentences. "The loud noises in the air?" "The Wedding?" "The creatures who can bring down Equestria?!" They all exclaimed to him. He was shaking after he heard them speak, "They can take down E-equestria?!" He yelled. "Why haven't I heard of them? If they're this powerful, why haven't we defeated them before?!" He yelled again and again. Twilight tried to calm him down by saying, "They were just discovered recently, they wanted to keep themselves a secret. They protected us many times, including the wedding incident." Spike was peaking in curiosity, "So they saved you guys? Then why do they have the power to destroy Equestria? Are they powerful than Celestia herself?!" He yelled. "From what it looks like so far, yes." Twilight said in a depressing tone.
As the train headed towards Canterlot, they heard distant but mistakable explosions. "Speaking of which, that might be them testing one of their many weapons. And Spike, if you're curious, they lost their world to a war. And led them here, to our world. And I do not suggest that we not offend or insult them. Is that understood Spike? I don't want to cause a war." Twilight said in a shaky and worried voice. "Well geez, I couldn't imagine what a war between us and the Humans are then." A closer and a louder explosion was heard, shaking everyone's calm. The Mane 6 already knew some of Human weaponry and remembered that they have a lot of explosive equipment. Twilight looked outside the window and saw explosions coming out of nowhere and immediately knew it was the Humans. She pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked intensely into them to try and find the Humans.
"What do you see, Twilight?" Apple Jack asked. "Nothing... nothing.. nothing..." Twilight replied. "Found something!" She then yelled. "What is it?" Rarity asked in a worried voice. "It's their tank! Multiple of them! It's one of their newer tanks!" Twilight screamed. "Are they firing at us?!" Rarity cried. "No, it seems like they're practicing! I guess we're safe. I guess they didn't know that there was a train near their practicing fields." Twilight added.
Meanwhile at Fort Liberty...
A Abrams platoon has been practicing with their new tanks and are surprised about the upgrades they have compared to the older M60 models. The tank crew's radios blew out, "Is- is that a train?! Hold your fire! They have a train!" The tank platoon leader yelled over the intercom. One of the gunners yelled, "Shit, they have a train? We really need more intel on them." The Tank platoon halted their firepower that Equestria couldn't match.
(U.S. Tank Platoon firing.)
Canterlot a few minutes after...
"Doc, we'll be landing in 30 seconds. We're seeing a big opening that I suggest would be the main area for the memorial. It can fit multiple divisions! This place is huge!" The pilot yelled on the intercom. "Then I guess I'll get to work, I need 2 Marine Squads to follow me, we don't know what to expect anymore." Schmidt added.
The Huey landed and Schmidt opened the door, an exhausted Luna rushed over to meet Schmidt to ask, "W-what's happening? Why are you here? Are you here to attack us?!" She yelled frantically. Schmidt was confused and figured out what she was worrying about. "
Oh, Princess Luna.... we're just planning the Memorial. Nothing to worry about, and besides, we thought you guys would attack us first." He said in a casual tone.
Luna sighed in relief as all her stress began to fade away. "So nothings wrong?" She asked.
"Do you happen to know any large spaces around this area connecting to that road?" He pointed to a dirr road that hasn't been used in ages. But the dirt road led to Fort Liberty, it gave Luna a general direction and she began speculating on where it led to.
"Oh, why yes, follow me. I'll show you the largest open areas you can use." She replied after getting lost in her thoughts.
As a few hours passed, Dr. Schmidt was finishing up on the planning for the humans but gave Luna the authority to do whatever with the remaining spaces that isn't being used by humans. They were in the middle of a large opening with what seems to be a town square, with marbled tiles covering the ground and medieval like buildings covering a long pathway, big enough for several columns of tanks to fit through.
Dr. Schmidt looked at Luna as she was thinking, he noticed her cutie mark and became curious on what it meant. So he spoke, "Uhm, Princess? What does that symbol represent?"
Luna became confused and looked around, she then noticed what he was staring at. "Oh, my cutie mark. It symbolizes what we our special talents are. Mine is the moon, hence my name and my responsibility of raising and making the moon descend. Making way for Celestia to rise the sun." She explained.
Dr. Schmidt was surprised at the explanation about cutie marks. He began thinking if the ponies were making this up to give her and her sister power over the kingdom or they just don't know about their solar system. But they're in another world or dimension, so he thought of this being true at some extent.
Luna became curious about Humans, so she asked Schmidt, "Doctor, do you humans have cutie marks yourselves?" She asked in a shy tone.
Dr. Schmidt was very confused and tried to hold back a chuckle. "No no, my princess. Us humans don't have cutie marks, if we did, then it would change history of our species. And besides, the only thing we have similar to your world's inhabitants is a pony that doesn't speak, and isn't that intelligent. It's usually a farm animal from our world, so you can see our surprise." He explained.
Luna was in shock about what the human world was like and their version of them. She then heard more helicopters arriving. It was the Marine Squads that Dr. Schmidt had requested.
As the CH-53 Sea Stallion's sounds of its helicopter blades became closer and louder, it finally landed. The door behind it's frame lowered, a muffled but loud yell was heard.
"Move your asses marines!" The Sergeant yelled as he put his rifle at bay.
After his yell, a formation of 2 columns of 20 Marines in a green camoflauge holding M16's run in the opening and getting into a shoulder-to-shoulder formation on the left side of Dr. Schmidt.
As the Sergeant got in front of the formation, he put his rifle on his back, and yelled.
"Sir, 2nd Marine Division awaiting your orders, Doctor!" The Sergeant yelled.
Luna was surprised that they are so stiff and loyal to their commander, even though he isn't part of their branch. She began getting ideas for the Royal Guard.
"Sergeant, move your troops into defensive positions around this area and scout the area for any threats." Schmidt ordered while raising his voice in a German accent.
After his order, the Sergeant ordered his squad leaders to certain positions and showed the chokepoints for any attackers.
As the German scientist studied and explored more of Canterlot while marking strategic positions for the city. He took advantage of the powers he was given to map out the entire city.
Meanwhile at the train station.....
Everyone was scared and still shocked from the encounter they had with the Human tanks during their train ride. As they all got down their trains, they all hears the unmistakable sounds of helicopter propellers. At this point, spike only hears of rumors that Humanity exists, but after this train ride, he fully believed and feared Humans.
As a CH-53 flies over them, spike asks Twilight, "Um... Twilight? Is that Human?"
Twilight looked up in the sky, "Yes Spike, it is human. Last time I saw it, it carried a very important person to the humans." Twilight replied.
Rarity jumped out of the train and yelled, "So they're not attacking us?!" She panicked.
"No, they aren't." AppleJack answered. Rarity and the rest sighed a breath of relief.
"Maybe we should help them plan!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Everyone shrugged because they didn't know what to do. Pinkie Pie ran, following the Human vehicle in the sky to see where it leads.
As the Lance Corporal got up from resting in the corner of an empty wooden house, he loaded his weapon as the Machine gunner signaled that it was his turn to provide overwatch on the rotation schedule they have to watch over Dr. Schmidt.
As his clumped up equipment was moved to a comfortable position, he aimed his M16 through a window with 4 square holes.
The Lance corporal saw a colorful group, and what seemed to be a moving rainbow running towards Dr. Schmidt. He moved his goggles from his face and stuck it on his helmet. He turned on his radio on his shoulder and notified the personnel in the area, "Be advised, fast moving natives towards the doctor, permission to fire warning shots?"
Schmidt look behind him and saw the diplomats, he ordered on his comms.
A German voice exploded from the Lance corporal's radio, "Stand down, those are the diplomats! Hold your fire."
"He's over there!" Pinkie Pie yelled. Twilight saw the white cloak of the Scientist, and thought to herself, 'Its just him, didn't he bring their Marines to protect him?'
As their running came to a halt, they saw princess Luna standing near the Human scientist. "Princess Luna, do you need any help from us?" Twilight asked.
Luna looked at the group and replied, "Its not me you need to help." Twilight looked at Schmidt, and awaited his response.
Dr. Schmidt had a confused face as he was holding his checkbook and leaned towards Luna and asked, "What exactly do they do?"
Luna stared at the group and leaned back to Schmidt, and whispered, "They usually fix friendships, and fix problems." She replied. Schmidt was still confused and told the group, "Do whatever you guys do, we're all pretty set for now, but we'll call you when needed." He told them.
Twilight was still feeling that all of Equestria was still in a massive debt after changing the fate of Equestria. She kept thinking that Equestria, and even herself owes them anything they can offer for saving them. She looked to her group of friends and said, " The least we could do is throw them a welcome party, right?" Pinkie Pie was excited as she hasn't been able to find a reason to throw a party. She was so excited that she flung into the air at supersonic speeds.
Meanwhile in recently moved NORAD building...
"The fuck?!" The commander yelled, "I THOUGHT THERE WEREN'T ANY NUKES THOSE PONIES HAD!"
Back in Canterlot....
A voice blasted through the radios, "Possible nuclear attack, origin, native capital. All units, stay at ready." Schmidt got on his radio and told NORAD, "It's our diplomat, she uhh.... Jumped into the air. If you ask me, I don't really know either."
A minute later, NORAD declared a false alarm at the same time the Australian prime minister shat himself in a rations building, "all I saw was a fucking mutant spider covered in shit." A witness said about the situation.
As an hour passed, Pinkie Pie finished getting the party ready. It was an open open field with decorations set up with tables holding cakes. Schmidt and the Marines had a surprisingly good and chilling time, considering what happened a month before.
Schmidt rose up on a table and gathered everyone's attention, he made a speech.
"History has proven us that Humanity will surpass any event that may make us extinct. But as humans, we are unpredictable, the soviets never thought that we'd be hanging out with magical ponies. And for what is to come next, we will prevail after what hits us." It was silent after his speech.
"And we'll blame nuclear war on the soviets!" Schmidt added. "OORAH" The Marines cheered.
As he got his tie ready, he sipped the remaining coffee in his cup, and walked out of the new White House office. As he walked down the corridor with a red carpet and white walls covered in items that were from the White House on Earth. But as he exited the main doorway of the building, he took a big breath and exhaled. "So this is our new home." Reagan then walked towards an awaiting UH-60 Blackhawk in front of the White House.
As the door of a UH-60 opened, Reagan entered the helicopter. As they lifted off, heading to Canterlot, he looked down and saw formations of troops. He put on his headset and asked, "Are those our troops?"
"Yes, Mr. President, they're the last ones heading out." The Secretary of Defense answered. The co-pilot overheard the conversation and added, "We'll have landfall before the first of our troops arrive."
Reagan looked downwards out the window to see the immense amount of troops heading to Canterlot in formation. The SoD noticed the President's interest and said, "That's the last division heading out of Fort Liberty." Reagan gave an impressed face, as he didn't know that this many troops were able to get out of Earth in time.
"So many of them, I'm even surprised that they didn't defy going on a long march towards an alien capital." Reagan replied with astonishment.
(US Troops leaving Fort Liberty to Canterlot)
Meanwhile in Canterlot, the leaders of the other nations of Equus have arrived for the Memorial. Many of them speculate if Humanity is even real, especially Govenor of the Commonwealth of New Mareland, Jet Set.
As Twilight greeted the nations' leaders, she noticed Jet Set. As he approached the stairs heading up to the castle, Twilight greeted him, "Hello Governor, welcome to Canterlot. Princess Celestia has been awaiting your visit. She's currently in the Gala room."
He replied, "Thank you Twilight, but I do ask, are these 'Humans' even real?"
"Yes, they very much are." She answered.
Jet Set continued walking to Celestia, but he was still very suspicious if Humans were real or not. As he entered the Gala room, he saw Princess Luna, Celestia, and the leader of the Griffons.
"Greetings, Set. Welcome back to Canterlot." Luna greeted.
"Yes, thank you Princess. It's great being here, and I am curious, are these 'humans' real?" Jet Set asked.
"Oh, they are very much real. They saved me and my sister." Luna answered.
"Even from royal words, I still don't feel convinced." Jet replied.
"Well, if you don't believe us. We'll let their head scientist convince you." Luna added.
As Jet was still in disbelief, his mouth dropped as a bipedal creature, dressed in white, walked towards Luna as he heard her talk about him. Out of interest, he walked towards her. He tried not to bump into the crowd that was in the giant room, as he was holding a glass of apple cider.
"Hallo, Princess Luna. If you can, could you tell the Apple Family that their cider is absolutely amazing!" He opened with.
"I shall try. And I must introduce you to Mayor Jet Set. He hasn't seen a human and doesn't believe that they exist. As you can see with his expression... He's bewildered that he was wrong about something huge as this." Luna pointed out.
Jet's facial expression made Schmidt chuckle a bit, but he replied, "Well, Mr. Set, it appears that you are greatly mistaken, but nonetheless it is nice to meet someone that is associated with the Princess." Schmidt added.
"Likewise..." Jet said. "Anyways.. when are the human soldiers going to be arriving?" Jet asked.
Schmidt looked down at his arm and moved his sleeve and looked at his watch. "In about... now!" He excitingly ran towards the balcony that oversees most of Canterlot, he looks at the Gate and sees the American divisions arrive at the gates of Canterlot.
Everyone was curious on what he was looking at, until they all heard noises of celebration happening near the gates, so they all ran towards the window and they were astonished on the amount of technilogical advancements Humanity has, as Marine 1, carrying the President, lands in the courtyard of the Castle, where Marines and other Special Forces guarded.
The Soldiers opened the door of the UH-60 and welcomed Reagan by saying, "Welcome to Canterlot sir, glad you could make it."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world, soldier." Reagan greeted back.
"Sir, we've seen the native higherups, and I should say that you may have impressed everyone by now." The Soldier complimented.
Reagan smiled and got out of the Black Hawk, and proceeded to walk to the main square, to where the human divisions would be stationed for the upcoming speech.
Princess Ember, confused what was going on tried moving through the crowded window saying, "What's all the commotion? Have the so called 'humans' arrived?" She looked out the window and her jaw was wide open. Schmidt saw this and laughed.
Princess Cadence, Luna, and Celestia also did the same, with their mouths wide open, "Sister, I did not believe the humans had this many soldiers! I thought they had only a few hundred..." Luna told Celestia, Celestia nodded as she too had the same idea.
Twilight walked towards the Princesses and told them, "Come on, we have to get to the city square before we're late." The Princesses, Prince Ruthford who was also in disbelief, Princess Ember, and Grampa Gruff followed the Equestion leadership to the City Square.
As they arrived, they saw a massive crowd of species consisting of Griffons, Ponies, and a few dragons in the sidelines of the main road leading to the Square, with Reagan getting on stage.
Celestia and Luna took their seats behind Reagan, with Reagan's guards looking straight forward to show the Equestrians that they are still disciplined.
As the US divisions marched to the city square, they all got into columns on the sidelines of the square. As all the divisions finished their parade, leaving the Equines speechless, Reagan started his speech.
"As history has shown us, war is built into the minds of Humanity, we cannot stop it, if it is against us. Pity rivalry has brought Humanity near extinction, we only had selfish reasons to wage war, but we had learned our lesson. In this new world, the United States, if not the Free World, shall protect our new world as it reminds us on what we humans can do. Harmony, is the main focus of the nation of Equestria, and as Humans, we must follow in their ways to ensure peace, I don't mean waiting for war, I mean to end all wars. Before the war, we only intervened when it was in our interests, but now, we will intervene to keep democracy, equality, and now, Harmony." As he went on with his speech, everyone, including the two sisters were speechless, as they thought Humanity wasn't interested in Equestrian interests, or even Harmony. But seeing as what they went through, they were happy that they had another ally.
"And any aggressor that aims to harm our goal of peace, shall be met with the Arsenal of Democracy. We no longer care who it angers, if innocent lives are going to be lost, we must prevent it at all costs. So as the President of the United States, and Commander of the Armed Forces, I order all to protect the peace and harmony of this world. And I declare that all innocent nations have the backing and support of the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United States. And those seeking to break the peace, heed this warning, it will be your last, and final mistake." Reagan warned.
Schmidt, also in astonishment, wondered to himself, "I wish my dad were here, he'd hope to see freedom thrive as it is now." He said as he looked down to his watch that his father gave to him.
Luna and Celestia we're shocked at how threatening but yet inspirational speech Reagan put on. But then Luna started to notice that the other leaders weren't present.
Meanwhile in Canterlot Castle, the other leaders were planning in fear with the threatening presence of Humanity suddenly arriving in what they thought were mere rumors.
Gruff states to the group, "We must attack before they do! They are clearly undermining Equestrians. These humans.. if the rumors are true, they have the power to take over all of Equestria."
Ember agreed, "I side with the Griffon, if it's strength you need, the dragons got you covered. But a pre-emptive strike is needed to protect Harmony before these apes destroy it entirely!"
Jer Set, intruded in the conversation and added, "We must strike within the month to save Equestria before these... Humans... Use their 'World Enders' on us, like they did on themselves. Princess Ember, gather your best dragons to strike their base, and Gruff, we need your armies stationed in the border to assist the dragons. The attack will start within 4 weeks, and these humans must not be seen again." Jet Set ordered.
"Don't." Said a familiar feminine tone in the shadows of the Castle.
"Who is there!" Jet ordered.
The person who mysteriously interrupted their plans to attack America, was the infamous bug queen. The group was shocked that she overhears their plans, but they did expect that from the bugs.
"Why are you here?" Ember asked.
"To warn you to not attack the humans. We outnumbered them and look what happened! I almost lost my hoof, half of my kingdom is gone, and they will find out what is going on here sooner or later." Chrysalis argued.
"Their weapons may just be fakes for all we know, we may just be more powerful than you bugs! You couldn't even take down a group of apes! And besides, if we have dragons on our side, the griffons, and yaks. We may as well be invincible." Gruff stated.
"I'm telling you! Their weapons aren't fakes! If you don't believe me, go ask what remains of my kingdom! The humans have been spying on us since the attack on Canterlot. But I'm warning you, attack the humans, and your families, friends, and your kingdoms will be gone in an instant." Chrysalis countered.
"Even if what you're saying is true, it's giving us more reasons to attack the humans. Like you said, they'll attack our families, kill our friends, and take away our loved ones. Not to mention our nations." Jet reasoned.
"NO! You don't understand! These humans, whatever they are, they'll tear through your forces and bring the fight back to your homes!" Chrysalis cried.
"They are nothing but a former shell of what they used to be, right? So that would mean, they have less than 10,000 soldiers overall. We could counter with a million! We'll show Equestria that they're going too soft on these creatures that are bent on destruction." Gruff stated.
"What did you expect we did?! We didn't know of their existence until they appeared and counter-attacked! We outnumbered them, and they still were victorious! It's suicide to attack them!" Chrysalis yelled.
"Again, more proof to give reason to attack them. It'll be too long and they'll become too strong by thar time. We'll need to strike now." Ember countered. The rest nodded and Chrysalis scoffed while walking out, she stopped at the doorway and said, "It's your funeral." She walked out of the Castle after that, in disguise of a pony.
As a week passes, the armies of the Griffons, Yaks, and a few dragons have gathered a few miles from Fort Liberty, and they all can see the faint outline of multiple construction sites of huge buildings. Reagan's speech had shocked all of Equus, most nations have stayed quiet, or supported Jet Set's movement against the humans.
"Anything knew?" The Captain asked the Private.
"Nothing, sir. Those animals haven't moved, but there has been a visit of a pony. He looks important." The private replied.
"Color? Description? Anything else?" The Captain pulled out a notepad and a pen to write down.
"Look for yourself." The private told the Captain. The Captain then grabbed the private's binoculars and looked through them. He then took a big breath, and told the private. "BREAK RADIO SILENCE!"
The private panicked and said, "But sir, we have to maintain radio silence- oh yeah that's right..." He said as he turns on the radio.
"Tell command, that a certain Jet Set had arrived on the stage." The Captain ordered.
"This is Echo 2-3, actor Jet Set has arrived on stage." The private said on the radio.
Nothing but static was sent back, until, "Roger that, we'll inform the director." Command said in an excited tone.
The SoD barged into Reagan's office, saying, "Mr. President, we have confirmation that our recon in the mountains have spotted Mr. Jet Set with the gathering of the hostile enemies."
"Understood, keep a close eye on him. And send Captain Roger's team and the KSK to investigate his frequently visited buildings in New Manehatten." Reagan ordered.
"Yes, sir." The SoD said as the two MP's behind him saluted.
Meanwhile the front guards, "Command said to stay here until reinforcements arrive." The Sergeant said as he jumped back into the trench.
"Why'd they place us so close to the frontlines, we might as well be smelling their breath!" The corporal complained.
"Reagan's idea. But why do they think a single recon squad with a M113 could do against an entire army? But I'm guessing since it's Reagan's idea, there's a trick on his sleeve he's itching to show." The MG Lance Corporal said as he checked his gun.
"Sounds about right." The Sergeant said as he put on his combat gloves. "Whatever it is, it's been an honor serving you boys."
"Aye!" The squad cheered in unison.
Meanwhile within the airfield.
"Alright Rogers, you got another mission. Destination, New Manehattan. You boys will be searching the most visited places by Jet Set. Don't leave anything I searched, because we'll need to know if these are splinter groups or not that are going to attack us. Now move your asses!" The General briefed Roger's squad, as they ran to the Huey's that just landed on the airfield.
As they got on, Rogers briefed his men inside the huey, saying, "Alright, we're going to hit the mayor's office. The Krauts will be checking Jet's house and friends. Find anything that has proof or at least talks about communicating with other species. It doesn't matter what happens or what we have to do, the President has given us the command to do what is necessary. So we're set loose to do what we want to for information. Got that?" He asked his squad. They all nodded and activated their NVG's as the sun sets in the horizon.
The General back at the airbase gets a call from one of the base telephone lines, "Yeah? Who is it?."
"It's Parker, I need you to send some of our fly boys to scout what we're dealing with. We've dealt with bugs, but not horse owls and dragons."
"Understood, sir. Over and out." The general replied.
"Alright!" The General said to the newly gathered Recon Squads, "you're being sent to scout the hostiles outside our base, in case they attack or more forces gather with them. So get in your hell's and move out!" The General ordered.
The squads ran towards their Huey's as the propellors started up. As they got in, one by one, the Huey's began to lift off to their designated spots on nearby mountains, hills, or forests.
A day later..
Meanwhile in Canterlot, one of Luna's Royal Guards ran up to Luna with a scroll, stating, "Princess! We have reports of New Mareland's troop movement, we didn't order them to switch stations. Only our Garrison stays at New Mareland, and reports of Human troop gathering at their base in huge numbers." He reported.
Luna thought and said, "I fear that our subjects are getting ready to attack the Humans. First the Griffons, then the Dragons, and now our subjects? War is brewing, and find search the castle again, we're still getting sightings of humans soldiers hiding, although we have no proof than mere eyesightings." Luna ordered. She looked to the corridor on her left, as the guard left. Nothing was there, but behind cover, a French and American soldier are hidden, holding their breath and their rifles. After a certain amount of time, they heard footsteps walking away, then the Portuguese soldier aimed his FNFAL over cover to check if it's clear, he signals the American and he too gets up.
"That was close." The American stated, followed by the Portuguese soldier nodding. "But why the hell did doc place us here?" The American added.They both checked the big hallway Luna was in, and it was clear, then the Portuguese man got in his radio to report on what they overheard.
Meanwhile, one of the recon squads were touching down on their designated spot, the Sergeant opened the door and yelled, "Move!" As they all got out. The private slipped on the helicopter and fell down on the ground, the Sergeant picked him up and they ran towards some rocks overseeing the entire enemy force.
As they all lay down behind the rocks, the Sergeant signalled the squad rifleman who was special enough to be given a M82 to watch the skies for anyone headed their way. As they were, the Huey left to head back to the airbase.
While on the ground, Princess Ember arrived with her two guards, and immediately stated to Gruff, "We're being watched, they already know we're here."
"Yeah yeah, I know. I'm just wondering what this Jet Set would make us do next." Grampa Gruff asked.
Jet overheard this, and walked up to them and said to Ember, "Well, if you're so worried of being watched, send a dragon to go an kill them. If your dragon fails us, we're not going to give these humans any breathing space to get ready to attack us."
Ember groaned and pointed at the mountain where the recon squad was located, the fire dragon who was escorting her flew immediately towards the mountain.
"We've got a bogey!" The sniper yelled.
"Shoot when you can! Corporal, break radio silence and tell command we're being engaged, rest of the squad, support the marksman when you can!" He said as he aimed his M16 over the rocks, trying to find the bogey.
The sniper fired a shot, only grazing the dragon's arm, the dragon didn't know where they were, but he surely does now. The dragon began to go twice as fast, directly towards the squad.
"Squad, head into the what cover you can find, we'll fire on him when he's on top of us!" The Sergeant ordered. They then began to run behind trees, tre trunks, other rocks, and bushes. The dragon then arrived at their former location, giving above the small clearing, then a scream was heard, "Light him up!" Multiple gunfire of a variety of calibers were heard, and the tracers were all headed to the dragon. Then a loud shot from the M82, aimed at the Dragon's head, the bullet went straight through the scales that the Equines thought impossible to penetrate, the jaw of the dragon broke off.
Meanwhile on the ground, the loud gunshot was heard, and Ember's face was covered with nothing but terror, her invincible flame dragon was missing it's lower jaw and had multiple holes in it's wings as it fell straight down to the ground, making a loud thud. "No!" She screamed.
"Those humans are more powerful than I thought, we need to attack now!" Gruff argued.
"I agree, Ember?" Jet asked. Ember was in tears, for she had sent the closest thing to her that was a brother. "Fine!" She grunted.
"I guess we are all in agreement, Gruff and Ember, tell everyone to charge, we're not letting these humans get any breathing room!" Jet yelled.
Meanwhile in New Mareland, the squads were just getting dropped off by their transports. Especially Roger's Huey, they were dropped off in the middle of the street, attracting a lot of attention. Rogers got off first and raised his weapon to look for any armed hostiles, and his squad followed suit. As the Huey left, Rogers ordered his squad to ask for directions.
"Excuse me! Ma'am? May I ask, where is the Mayor's building? We're kind of lost." William asked innocently. The confused mare pointed right, as she couldn't speak out of shock.
"Much appreciated." William said as he whistled to his squad who were too asking the populace for directions. "Due East!" William yelled as his squad ran East.
As they ran, they all expected to have many eyes on them and they were nothing but all true. Many ponies were staring at them, wondering if they were the creatures they read on the newspapers on the attack on Canterlot. "Hey! Stop right there!" A pony guard yelled, chasing the squad. The squad marksman signalled his squad to keep going as he aimed at the incoming guard. "Stay back!" He yelled. The guard didn't budge, "Stay the fuck back or it's your kneecaps that you're going to have to pay!" He yelled. The guard didn't budge, until the marksman fired two shots into the guard. Both bullets hit exactly the two front kneecaps, forcing the guard to fall. The marksman then ran to catch up with his squad as most if not all of the ponies ran in panic, screaming, away from the humans.
As they got to the Mayor's office, the Royal Guard questioned Rogers, "What do I owe the pleasure to the humans causing a ruckus?" He asked.
"We need entrance, New Mareland is going to attack us, like you just heard a minute ago!" Rogers argued. "Fine, but I'll have to speak to Princess Celestia." The guard replied.
William butted into the conversation and said, "Look, if you won't let us in, the human race may die, and if that happens, the Princesses' would have to look for someone to blame, the same person who won't let us into the Mayor's office!" He argued.
The guard let a reluctant sigh and let the squad into the building. As the doors closed behind the squad, multiple New Mareland troops covered in Greenish tainted armor arrived to talk to the Royal Guard garrison, asking the squad leader, "Have you seen any creatures?" He asked.
"No, but I heard some commotion two blocks down." The guard replied, tricking the New Mareland troops to keep following the street.
The Marksman sighed in relief as he watched from a window inside the mayor's office, he looked straight towards and saw a CH-53 land on top of one of the roofs, allowing the KSK soldiers to dismount from the helicopter and into the two story library.
"What're you think they're raiding the library for?" Marksman Eddie asked. William kneeled down to look out the window and answered, "Probably getting books on magic."
"William! Get down here and get that radio working!" Rogers yelled as William activated his backpack radio. Williams climbed down the ladder and Rogers immediately got on the radio, "This is Delta 3-7, we've got nothing on Fort Liberty. But surprisingly a lot of books on humans, only the basic knowledge we gave them."
Nothing but static came from the radio, until the radio bursted into life saying, "Fort Liberty is under attack! All units not in the area, you are clear to engage hostiles that aren't the Equestrian Royal Guard, those ponies in green are hostiles. Communication would be halted from Command until the attack is over. Create as much problems as you can for the enemy, friendly air calvary will be sent to carry your squads to enemy capitals, orders from Commander in Chief himself, godspeed."
"Things are going to shit sir!" Eddie said as he broke the window to aim his modified M14 marksman rifle and fired a few rounds.
"I hear that, anyways, we're going to torch this place to the ground, we're going to leave a message. And we're going to regroup with some IDF and KSK squads and we're going to hit any military installation in this city. Come on, let's move!" Rogers said as his demolitions expert Alejandro planted C4 bombs throughout the entire building. As the squad ran out, Rogers screamed at the Royal Guardsman, "Move away from the building!" The guardsmen were confused until the last Human soldier was running out frantically, then the guards ran across the street, blocking traffic.
"Blow it!" Rogers yelled as the squad ran through crowded streets. Alejandro pressed the trigger, and a giant inferno erupted from the Mayor's office, causing unmeasurable damage to the building, but also scaring the bystanders to panic.
Meanwhile in the War Room in the White House, "Mr. President, we should consider giving the natives a warning to turn back now." Schmidt warned Reagan. "And why should we?" He said.
"To have proof that we're victims, of course." Schmidt answered. Reagan smiled and chuckled, "I like your thinking, doctor. Parker, get on the intercoms outside the base and set them on full volume and give these natives a warning." Reagan ordered as he walked out of the room to see the battle from a distance.
"Schmidt, I don't know where you get these ideas, but if you wanted to perform an autopsy on their bodies or study their magic via interrogation, this is your lucky day. We'll try to bring some alive." Parker said as he looked down on the giant light map table in the room. Schmidt chuckled and left the room to prepare his lab, now laughing maniacally. "That guy scares me, and I've known him longer than anyone!" A German officer in the room said out loud, making the entire room laugh.
As the forces were charging, they split into groups of divisions as they ran, they all heard a faint sounds of the air being chopped as it got louder and louder. They then saw the little dot in the sky approach faster as it got bigger. Ember then yelled out as she stopped in front of their forces to halt their advance. "Wait! What is that?" She yelled. They all looked at the flying object which had it's undeniable shape and sound, it was a human machine. "Finally! Some humans to fight!" A soldier yelled in the crowd as the rest cheered. "No! It looks like it's stopping!" Ember yelled.
Just as Ember said, the OH-6 Littlebird moved upwards to slow it's speed and it has two large speakers attached to it's sides. As it leveled itself, the speakers came to life yelling, "HALT! YOU ARE ENTERING THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. TURN AROUND, TRESPASSING INTO OUR TERRITORY WILL BE CONSIDERED AN ACT OF WAR." It warned.
The entire crowd laughed as Grampa Gruff ordered, "Attack that flying thing!" The crowd fired their magic horns, the helicopter turned around and flew back. As it turned around, the helicopter was hit with hundreds of magic bolts, causing it's tail to break completely off and the glass to be pierced. The speakers were still turned on and the pilot was still yelling in pain as he got hit by dozens upon dozens of magic bolts, "Shit! Fucking shit! We're going down, I'm hit, co-pilot's fucking dead!" He said as he turned to the co-pilot who had a crack in his visor, bleeding, with a hole leading to his right eye. He then looked downwards to his torso which was all red with many similar holes to bullet holes.
The bird crashed into the ground, the pilot was still alive but the entire craft was destroyed, and he unbuckled and grabbed a hooked MP5 under his seat. He climbed out of the helicopter and dragged himself in the open, making him able to see the coming horde converge on his position. He raised his gun and said, "Come at me you bastards!" He fired his weapon as he bled out. Many of their troops fell down as he fired his weapon, but not enough to stop them all. As his magazine ran out, he tried his best to get up and run. The horde was catching up to him but a big push on his back knocked him down to the ground. He was pushed by one of the pony troops to the ground and he got stampeded. His helmet and head was crushed, with the glass falling around his now crushed body, causing some of the pony troops hooves to be injured by glass that was pushed deep into them. Many of them fell down, causing a cascade of more of their troops tripping.
"Sarge! The bird's down!" The Lance-Corporal yelled.
"Prepare for siege!" The Sergeant yelled as the Private on the M113 turret cocked the M2 Browning .50 Cal. The Corporal and Private First Class riflemen ran out of the M113 and into the trench their squad has been digging and aimed their weapons at the coming horde. The 7 man infantry squad all aimed their weapons on their horde and awaited for their Sergeant to yell... "Open fire you leathernecks!" As he yelled, they unleashed hell onto the horde.
The horde was within 2 miles from them and closing in fast, "Take some you mutated horses!" the MG gunner screamed as he fired his M60. But as they unleashed hell, they've at least killed a thousand at this point, causing their morale to rise.
"They're nothing but diversions! Take a group of 100 to take them down!" Ember ordered. A splinter group then ran towards the trench as the main force went around them.
"Fuck! They're splitting! Keep hitting them hard Marines!" The Sergeant yelled. But as the M113's .50 cal ran out of ammunition, the squad was now relying on their own small arms, were frantically yelling for the MG gunner to reload as they're guns aren't enough. But as they were yelling, the force that was sent to deal with them finally arrived in front of their trench, after losing about 70 of their own troops to reach them. "Shit!" A private yelled as he was tackled down by a pony soldier. As he was knocked down, the Lance Corporal fired his gun at the pony that brought down the private, and he also hit a pony with his stock that was charging at him. The squad was now in hand-to-hand fighting, using bayonets, fists, and their sidearms to hold the pony force off. A pony guard tackled the Lance Corporal to the ground and used his spear to stab the LCPL's throat. His throat was bleeding with massive amounts of blood coming out, covering his face and the stab wound, making the soldier that stabbed him to be in shock as he isn't used to killing humans, or killing at all since they're only conscripts. Not only did the spear make the LCPL bleed, his own blood was now drowning him. The private that was previously saved by the LCPL used his attached bayonet on his M16 to charge and stab the pony.
Both the human and ponies were losing most of their troops. From 30-7, 15-5, 7-3.. they were losing their men, and the M2 gunner finally reloaded his 50 cal but a dragon towered over the M113, causing the gunner to look upwards at it's face, it's mouth opened and it seems that fire is coming from within it's throat. The Sergeant killed another pony by using his fists to tackle it down and using his fingers to pierce into and open the pinned pony's throat as it tried it's best to push him away while screaming. After killing it, he looked to the M113, he saw the dragon, and at the next moment, the dragon unleashed it's fiery breath on the M113. The APC melted with the gunner screaming as he melted with the M113. "Retreat!" he called out as what remained of his squad ran out of the trench and towards Fort Liberty. "Where the fuck are our reinforceme-" The private yelled as he was cut off by explosions and helicopter blades cutting the air.
They looked upwards and found Hueys, Sea Stallions, and little birds that were heavily armed with machine guns, turrets, rockets, any thing a marine would think of as fire support was attached to these helicopters. The sounds that were gunshots, explosions, screaming, or the helicopter blades, the iconic song of "Paint it black" was playing from the helicopters as they provided air support. But just as the squad stopped in awe, a CH-53 turned to it's side towards the squad and it's side MG and opened fire. The squad fell down to the ground as they covered their heads, they looked back behind them and saw that the helicopter were shooting not at them, but the remaining pony survivors that were fighting the squad. "Get in!" The gunner yelled out as the helicopter lowered itself and opened it's back to allow the remaining troops in.
The squad sprinted into the CH-53 and it lifted off as they got in. "You leathernecks lost of something? And also, Artillery is about to hit the ground in 10 seconds, so brace yourselves!" The gunner yelled back to the infantry. "So what's our plan here exactly?" The Private asked. "Air cav, arty, and ground forces to mop up! Ground units are now engaging the scouts of the enemy. They'll engage the main force soon." The gunner explained. The private looked out of the small windows on the helicopter and saw the artillery hit, with the sounds of explosions coming a few moments after. One of the artillery shells hit the dragon that burnt the M113, causing what remains of the squad to cheer.
And just as the helo gunner said, human ground forces were now fighting the main enemy force. Tanks in the middle followed by APC's and IFV's with Infantry on the side in lines that are slowly advancing as they shoot whatever is left of the enemy. And what used to be clear quiet skies near Tartarus, is now lit up by tracers from small-arms and M163 anti-air vehicles aimed at dragons and pegusi trying to flee or carelessly charging at the human lines.
Back in Fort Liberty, many civilians were watching behind the Fort's fences and checkpoints to see the battle go on. They were cheering, and so we're the border guards. Two border guards began talking to each other, "Hey Tim! Bet you that they'll be surrendering in 10 minutes." Charles chuckled as he holstered his M14.
"I'll place my bets in 20, our guys are going to make them think they're safe, but just at the last moment they sweep in the clear the rest." Tim responded.
"So, what's the wager? 500?" Charles asked.
"Yeah sure." Tim answered. But as they were watching the battle, they were just in as much awe as the civilians were cheering. But the cheering was cut off by loud explosions near them in perfect synchronization, it was the artillery batteries firing on the ponies.
Meanwhile at the front, Ember was scared to death, all she could do is watch her forces and her friends fall down into the sky, with most of their bodies not being intact. She looks like to the right and sees a steel colossus cast explosions to a group of ponies and griffons without even using magic or charging it's breathe, it's like their not alive she thought. She looked to the left and saw another steel beast, but it was casting smaller but still deadly breathes of fire as it mowed down a large group of pony soldiers. She looked up and saw the birds of steel casting hell onto them, "Do they have no bounds?!" She thought as explosions erupted all across the battlefield on her troops.
While she was daydreaming, Grampa Gruff who was running back to the treeline stopped in front of her and yelled go her, "Call a retreat! We can't win this!" He yelled as he started to use his wings to fly back. This got Ember back into her senses and she yelled, "Retreat!" The forces from New Mareland troops, Dragons, and the Griffons together were fleeing the battlefield as they ran for their lives.
Meanwhile in Canterlot...
Luna and Celestia were having breakfast on a long table as they are Celestia's homemade breakfast and pancakes. "It's been a long time since we had eaten together, isn't that right?" Celestia stated.
"Yeah, it's been very busy lately, with the whole human thing. I've been seeing some of their dreams and-" Luna was cut off.
"Not right now sister, it's time to relax while we still have the time to. But on other news, wasn't there something going on with New Mareland?" Celestia asked.
"Uhm.. yeah, the dragons, Griffons, and New Mareland troops were heading near Tartarus, I don't know why, but we've been getting reports of Human activity there. Might be their so called 'Fort Liberty', and also more human sightings in our castle. They might be watching us." Luna responded.
"Well, I wouldn't put it past them, we didn't get much out of them but it sounds like this 'Cold War' they got through was through a lot of spies and paranoia. Must've been hard for them. But I think these humans are just ones who were left behind, or they're here to actually.. SPY ON US!" Celestia yelled as she turned around and fired a magic beam onto the door's hinge, making it fall down. And what came onto the falling door, was an American and Portuguese soldier with an M16 and a FNFAL. The two looked towards the towering Princesses who walked up to them and the American soldier gave an awkward smile as the Portuguese soldier got up and smacked the American behind his helmet, "Idiota."
"They're on the run! Move in to mop them up, only a few we should capture." A voice from the radio ordered.
"Copy." The helicopter squadron said in unison as they turned their helicopters to face the retreating troops. Firing their mighty mouse rockets, M134 miniguns, and some small arms from the pilots and accompanying infantry on the helos.
But as they unleashed hell on the enemy, nothing but cheers and hurrahs came from the radio. But on the other side, it was a different story.
Platoons worth of infantry were being shredded by explosions and bullets by the second, what once was known as indestructible dragons now littered in the battlefield. "It's not even a war, it's a massacre." Jet said as he appeared within the treeline, approaching Ember and Gruff.
"Where were you?! Did you just watch our people die in a massacre while you're sitting here drinking tea?!" Ember screamed as what remained of a strong coalition of 100,000 soldiers, reduced to only 500.
"No.. but that's not the point. What is important now is that we can't beat these creatures, and if we return back, Equestria may not even consider ourselves as allies. I guess I now know what Chrysalis was trying to warn us about.." jet said as he rubbed his chin to think.
"You think?! We just lost over more than half of our troops! And you're saying we couldn't win now?! What's wrong with you!" Ember yelled.
"Nothing.. I just overestimated their strength, but for now. I cannot return back, you guys can go, I'll stay and watch until-" Jet was cut off as almost immediately the trees around them began moving as if there was a storm, but it was from the human made blades on a helicopter. Everyone looked up in shock and most of them were thinking about their families and their fallen comrades as this may be the last time they'll be alive.
"Surrender, or we will use lethal force.. again." The speaker from a Huey said as more Huey's dropped off infantry. "Move move move!" The squad leader said as his squad dropped off of the helicopter in a clearing, they saw the brightly colored ponies and other creatures staring at them in shock as his squad rapidly approached them, weapons raised.
"Stand the fuck down or we will shoot!" The squad lead said. As ordered, the remaining troops dropped their weapons and stood still. Then a soldier in officer's uniform came out from behind the squad and pulled out a clipboard and looked at it.
"Jet Set, Ember, and... Gruff?" He questioned as he laughed. "Yeah, y'all are going onto the helicopter on the left. The rest of you will walk to the Fort you tried to besiege, we're taking you as prisoners of war."
A unicorn soldier was brave enough to start charging his horn and charging at the humans who just landed yelling, "Come on! We can take these humans in revenge to our falle-" he was cut off by a loud gunshot and his body falling to the floor.
"Anyone else?" The squad leader said after lowering his gun. They all nodded no and the squad leader restated, "Ember, Gruff, Jet, move to the helicopters or we're going to pluck your forces one by one to capture you!" He screamed as the door gunner on the Huey started revving his mounted mini-gun.
Ember sighed and Gruff grunted, "We can't do anything else, we must go hand ourselves in." Ember said as she walked towards the humans, followed by Gruff. Gruff looked behind and signalled Jet to come but Jet nodded no, so Gruff kept going with Ember.
"So you're... Ember. And you must be Gruff, welcome aboard. Now, where's Jet?" The officer asked as he put his clipboard away.
Gruff answered, "He... He didn't want to come. I don't know why."
The officer scoffed and said, "Oh, well, I know what'll motivate him." The officer quickly pulled out his M1911, aimed it at Gruff, and at this point, Gruff's eyes were wide open in shock and so we're Ember's. The officer shot his pistol, instantly killing Gruff. Ember tried to tackle the officer but one of the soldiers hit her in the head with his rifle and kicked her just for good measure.
"That's enough gentlemen, we'll make him feel safe until our units in New Mareland arrest him, then we'll let the CIA interrogate him." The officer ordered.
Two soldiers picked up Ember and carried her to the Huey, as the squad leader dragged Gruff's body into a bush. The Huey began to lift off as everyone got in. The officer grabbed onto a pair of headphones and reported, "This is 2-4, targets have been acquired but one had resisted, target 'Bravo' has been terminated. Target 'Charlie' is M.I.A. and we'll give SF the chance to capture him.."
"Understood, return back to base. Over and out." A voice from the radio responded.
The officer got up and tapped the pilot's shoulder, signalling the pilot to return to base.
Two MP's we're following General Shepard as he entered a laboratory. The three were shocked as how big the size of the room was, but also the inventions and contraptions within the room. "Schmidt? Mind explaining what's happeni-...." Shepard paused as he looked at a big blueprint labeled "OPERATION OVERWATCH". What the blueprint had on it was a sketch plan of a launch shuttle and a sort of tube building, with a large satellite with rods that hinted it would be launched from said satellite.
"Ah! General, I've been working on my plans and requests from the President and your Army Council. Some of them will take a while.. although still possible. Anyways, what do I owe the pleasure?" Schmidt said as he walked up to Shepard, wiping his hands on paper towel from working with machines.
"Uhm... Was just coming to check up on you but.. wait, what the hell is that?" Shepard asked as he looked behind Schmidt and saw Nazi symbols, flags, weaponry, maps of German operations and construction plans in 1943-1945, helmets, equipment, a scientist coat, documents, and old blueprints of experimental technology.
"Oh that? I'm trying to figure out a mystery of-" he was cut off by Shepard.
"Yeah, how he disappeared and how nobody found any remains. Look, he probably died in '44 with the reds taking Poland, but there isn't anythi-" Shepard was cut off.
"Then explain this." Schmidt pulled out a document from 1946 reading:
Daily Report
May 5th 1946, we believe the war is still at a standstill, and our activation efforts of Project HK-42 has not been working, all we've got is a spark. But still, the SS is becoming worried that the Soviets may find us before the Americans. We're still at full strength, an 15 divisions worth of troops, tanks, and supplies because we're supposed to defend Hitler's relocation through HK-42, a waste of resources, but we are still safe to continue our studies. We still await further instructions from Berlin, we hope the war comes to an end with the destruction of the Soviet Union, so I can surrender to the Americans than die in gulags. - Signed, Hoffman Schmidt.
"Where did you get this?" Shepard said as he grabbed the paper.
"Found it from a former contact of mine in the Lithuanian SSR." Schmidt answered.
"So, I'm guessing your father isn't a Nazi sympathizer?" Shepard asked.
"Nein, never. He only worked for them to provide for our family, until he was dragged by the SS. Last I saw of him was since I was a child. But I still like to think he's still alive, and these technologies and blueprints, they're amazing." Schmidt answered.
"Okay doc, just don't overdo it, okay?"
"Ja, ja. Just don't knock down the box near the door." Schmidt said as he walked back into his workshop.
He turned the corner while being followed by 2 Secret Servicemen. "Alright, tell me what's happening." Bush asked as he stopped behind Parker. Parker was surprised that Reagan didn't come instead to their tower overseeing the now makeshift P.O.W. camp.
"As you can see sir, we've won the battle with little casualties and we've prepared a P.O.W. camp, surrounded by the National Guard and MP's. The creatures have been separated by species and variant, their tents have been split by a maze of fences." Parker said as he pointed out the camp to Bush. Bush nodded and was impressed, "Good good, now. How are our troops in New Mareland?" Bush asked.
"Well sir, they're still stuck there and have been left to their devices. We'll send help extracts once they've done enough damage. It was Reagan's plan, sir." Parker explained.
"Fair enough, keep up the good work." Bush said as he walked away to report to Reagan.
"Weird inspection but okay." Parker said as he looked back to the camp.
A soldier ran up to Parker. "Sir, Schmidt's men have been captured, our scouts haven't seen them in their assigned spots." He said as he carried a radio on his back. "The scouts await your orders."
Parker groaned and grabbed the radio, "Tell the scouts to infiltrate and extract. Tell them to do it secretly, any witnesses must be terminated to limit the risk of their presence being known. If any VIP's are seen, knock 'em out without killing them. We don't want to start another war than the one we're in." Parker ordered.
"Yes sir." The radio blurted as it cut out afterwards.
"I wonder how those two idiots got captured." Parker said as he looked at one of his guards who shrugged his shoulders. "We're already tied up as it is, and I still don't know why Schmidt still has men stationed in Canterlot."
Meanwhile in Canterlot...
"Alright!" Luna slammed her hoof onto a table. "Why are you two here?!" She yelled. Two guards removed the blindfolds on the two soldiers. The Portuguese soldier looked around and saw he was in a dark old room with a single door and a single light that barely was working but still lit up the room.
The American soldier coughed from the dust in the room and said, "Fuck you." As he tried his best to act tough to allow the Portuguese to not take the fall.
Luna gasped in disbelief. "How dare you?! I'm the Princess of the Moon and you treat me like this?! You're kind is only alive because of me!" She screamed to undermine the Humans to give up and spill their secrets.
The Portuguese soldier laughed, "Y- You think we're alive because of you? Come and attack us, we'll bring the war to this very location! You've seen our power in this city before, and now we won't discriminate." He said in an intimidating tone. Luna's plan backfired on her. Instead of scaring the humans, they scared her. She tried to undermine them with a simple lie, but the truth came out from the humans, and might have sparked a reason for war. But they were spying on her, so it's somewhat reasonable to interrogate them.
The American spoke up, "Yeah, if our species is going down, we're taking you with us!" He said with a proud face.
Meanwhile outside the interrogation door, 2 lines of 6 scouts in plain green camo lined up outside of the room. A soldier who forgot to ready his weapon when they moved into the castle, started twisting a silencer onto the tip of his gun barrel. His squad leader grabbed his attention by snapping his fingers and pointing to the corner of the hallway where a guard was approaching, so he readied and aimed his rifle. The guard turned the corner and her eyes were now wide open and her mouth wide open. The humans she heard of were now in front of her, they were leaning on the wall of the room she was told to guard, and their faces were covered by black masks and their eyes blocked by their goggles. She wanted to scream out of fear of seeing this creatures firsthand. Her fear consumed her body, and she tried to run, but the scout had already pressed the trigger and a bullet went straight through her helmet and skull.
"Target down." The scout whispered. The squad leader counted down his fingers from 5 to 1. He kicked down the door and the squad rushed into the room.
Luna screamed as the door broke down, and the two guards started running to the humans flooding into the room, but two hushed shots were more than enough to deal with the two guards who now lay on the floor, lifeless. Luna charged her horn to fire onto the soldiers but. The scout who recently attached his a silencer on his M14, hit the back of Luna's head with the stock of his rifle, knocking her out in an instant. "Nice hit." The captured Americans soldier scoffed.
The Lieutenant in charge of the squads lowered his rifle and pointed to the two soldiers, "You two, how in the living hell did you get captured by talking horses?!" He yelled.
"Well sir, they trapped us and we were ordered to not bring any harm to the ponies." The Portuguese soldier answered.
"Interesting that you don't know, we're ordered to shoot on sight personnel that isn't important." The squad leader mentioned.
"Now, let's get out of here. You two are going back to Schmidt and we're going to evac through trucks." The Lieutenant ordered.
The scouts untied the two soldiers as the rushed out the room to regroup with the other squad guarding their escape. Several guards passed by and all of them were shot and killed so they couldn't alert more guards as the scouts ran through the massive hallways of Canterlot Castle.
Meanwhile in a research lab in a cave, multiple black humvees drove through the checkpoints of the entrance to the lab and drove straight to Canterlot Castle. The commander got on his radio and said, "This is Hog 3-2, approaching your position 3-7, over."
"Roger, this is 3-7, headed to exfil. Over." The radio replied.
"Copy." The commander said as he got off his radio and looked around him as he got up into the gunner seat, and saw as his and the other 2 humvees entered Canterlot with many eyes staring at them in fear and many ponies running out of the way of the humvees.
The squads were rushing down the staircases into the main area where many dead bodies of guards now lay, they saw the humvees arrive and parked in front of them, with their gunners scanning the area. "Move your asses!" The commander yelled to the squads.
Just as ordered, the squads rushed into the humvees until they and the escapees were in them. A soldier in the front humvee hit the humvees roof twice as he got in, making the gunner hit the roof where the driver's position is to signal to him to start moving.
The first humvee started moving and so did the others, but when more guards were rushing down the staircase to pursue the convoy, the humvees we're already outside of the castle's borders and we're halfway out of Canterlot already.
The two escapees let out a large sigh as they were saved from boredom, and probably death.
Meanwhile in New Mareland, the special forces were regrouping in the town square as fires spread throughout the city from military targets and some civilian under the orders to cause as much chaos as they can to distract enemy forces.
Rogers' squad was one of them, and they were stationed in defensive positions and ordered to fire on anyone who wasn't human and was headed directly towards them until helo extract arrives.
"Great, waiting duty. I'd rather be planting bombs than be bored to death." Alejandro sighed.
"Calm down, we already caused enough destruction as it is. Half of the city is destroyed because of us, and I'm already sure we're just here to cause more harm than good, because their main forces might be obliterated when approaching Fort Liberty." Rogers explained.
"True, but there's nothing else to do here, the only remaining troops loyal to Jet are dead or fleeing. And those helos aren't getting here fast enough because their carrying bodies from the big battle going on at the FOB. And we might accidentally start a war with Equestria with the damage we caused here." Alejandro added.
Twilight was strolling across town until she came across Applejack. "Hey Applejack, did you hear about what's happening to the Humans?" She asked.
"No idea, but all I heard were soldiers lining up. Don't know who's troops they are though." Applejack answered.
"Well whatever it is, we need to check it out before things get messy." Twilight suggested. Applejack nodded and they both went to gather the others.
A day later, the Mane 6 were traveling to where they heard New Mareland troops were gathering. But within the Heart of Fort Liberty, Reagan and the council have decided to declare all nations a threat, and are debating if they should release a New Mareland POW to deliver this message or to let a diplomat deliver the message. But just in their luck, a soldier walked into Congress and was given the opportunity to speak out. "Excuse me, but I think we may have found the solution to this debate. Celestia's disciple and her group have been spotted moving to our location unarmed." He spoke out. The room cheered until he added more to his sentence, "Should we detain them or welcome them?" He asked.
The entire room was filled with talking as he asked and they all decided once a senator from Washington stated, "We'll let them in, and we'll let them send the message since we have our hands full with New Mareland."
The soldier nodded, did a quick salute, and walked out the room to report to Shepard.
Meanwhile in the treeline, "Ugh, what is that horrible wretched smell?" Rarity asked as she tried to cover her nose.
"No idea, but it smells worse with the smell of something burning." Rainbow Dash added.
"Wait, why are you walking? Why aren't you flying?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow Dash answered, "I can't risk being shot by the humans, they might think I'm hostile if I'm going fast over them." She gulped.
Twilight rubbed her chin to think as the group stopped with her. Pinkie Pie had no idea on what's happening but she went along with them, she didn't even notice that she's in the forest on a dirt path to somewhere, but the smell she couldn't ignore.
"So, we'll approach them slowly and walk up to the first human we find so we're not thought as hostile to them." Twilight spoke.
They all nodded and continued on their path. A few minutes later, they figured out what the horrible smell was. Twilight was the first to see and almost threw up. Rarity and Fluttershy passed out and Applejack stood still as her face is was in horror. Rainbow Dash barfed and Pinkie Pie's colorfulness drained away as her hair straightened and she looked depressed and is on the verge of crying. The group was collapsing in keeping their senses.
What was once a beautiful green field, was now brown with fires, dead bodies, organs and blood mixed with the mud, craters filling the field, and only a few dead trees remain standing. The field was covered in bodies, with the humans soldiers walking around the field, firing their weapons onto the bodies to see if their dead.
But not only did the human infantry strike fear in her. The cold heartless steel that the beasts are made out of, the same steel that went through hell and brought hell to it's foes, it surprised her that the humans were able to make this without magic. She's overheard some of the humans call it a "tank", she's seen what they can do during the incursion at the Capitol, and now they were aimed at her allies, the destructive power of a lifeless beast under control by the ruthless humans. She never understood how they work, all she knows is what they can do, and how no one in the Royal Guard or any conventional form of magic can take down, or even slow down the mighty beast, it stared at her as the humans clad in green and helmets discovered her position and started running to her.
Twilight was unable to move due to her state of shock, Applejack asked, "Alright Twilight, we don't have much time. We go to 'em or we hoof it and run! Either way, I'm stayin' here with you." She said as she got in front of Twilight and into a defensive stance.
Twilight couldn't decide. She just stood still as she tried to hold her tears on the amount of lives were lost and the feeling of guilt that she could've prevented this if she had arrived earlier. "I- I could've stopped this..." Twilight muttered to herself as she looked down.
Rainbow Dash wiped her mouth and tried to get Twilight go start thinking straight. She yelled at her, "Twi! We need to move or we get captured by the humans. So what's our move?!" She screamed.
Twilight rubbed her eyes go get rid of the tests and she took a large breath. "We'll let them take us. We need to show that we mean no harm." Twilight explained.
"Well, if that's what you think is best. Then I'll go with it." Applejack stood up.
"Yeah, well, we need them to carry Fluttershy and Rarity if we're going to surrender. I still don't trust the humans." Rainbow Dash pointed. The soldiers were sprinting up the little hill that the group was on, and they stopped in front of them with their weapons raised.
"Wait no!" Twilight raised on of her hooves. "We're here to investigate what's going on!" She explained. The soldiers still aimed their FAMAS rifles at them until a soldier wearing a cap approached them.
The soldier spoke in a French accent, "Are you Twilight Sparkle?" He asked.
Twilight put her hoof down as Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood next to her. "Y-yes. That's me."
The soldiers looked at each other in confusion on what to do with her until the French Lieutenant ordered, "Tell Lucas to report our findings. Tell him to double time it." One of the soldiers nodded and ran back to the M60 tank they were accompanying.
"Anyways, you're coming with us." The Lieutenant said as the soldiers surrounded them at a distance to watch over them and cover them. "Just have to wait for a truck to arrive." The Lieutenant added.
Private Nathan, average height, higher voice compared to the rest of his unit, nervous, and is overall new to the Army. He was driving a transport version of the famous Humvee. Soldiers and vehicles were patrolling the field. He was driving through a make-shift clearing of the carnage that happened on the battlefield that was a road, he took a turn left and saw a small hill on the treeline with soldiers on it. He drove to it as his humvee began to drive on green grass. He arrived to the hill where he was requested. He looked to his right and saw French soldiers guarding a group of colorful horses.
"Oh no not this again." Rainbow Dash muttered as she remembered the humvee ride in Canterlot during the Changeling attack. She got on the back with her hooves to not startle the soldiers by flying. They all sat down and two soldiers closed the gate in the back. Then the French soldiers walked back down the hill to continue their patrol.
"Where are they going?" Applejack asked.
"Probably to get back to guarding. They're on high alert. I had no idea that a battle was happening, I thought they were only trying to scare the humans, not attack them." Twilight replied.
Nathan opened his window and tried in a deep voice, "Hey! Quiet down, we're heading out." He revved the engine to scare the six. The corporal on the passenger seat looked at him as he closed the window and scoffed, "You're an idiot. Just get us moving." The humvee began to move which startled the ponies as the smell of fire, gunpowder, burning and rotting flesh began to get stronger as they approached the base.
"Ugh, that horrendous smell is getting worse." Rarity stated. They still had no idea what it was besides AJ and Twilight. "Yeah, what is that?" Fluttershy asked as she was still trying to comfort Pinkie Pie. As they asked, they tried not to barf from the stench.
"Well, it's hard to sugarcoat it but..." Twilight tried to answer.
"Look around, that's the smell." Rainbow Dash answered. Then they really were trying not to barf. Their faces were turning into a shade of green, most of them swallowed it back down but they tried to cover their noses but could taste the smell. Fluttershy and Rarity stood up and put their face over the wooden barrier and vomited.
The Private looked at his mirror and saw them depressed and sick. "Poor guys." The corporal looked back and felt sympathetic. "Yeah, but we can't get too attached. They could mean war between us and Equestria. Only think of them as tools to be used, so it's easier to kill them if need be." The corporal gulped as he put his hand on his helmet as he looked down. He began looking back at his memories as he was just like the Private, including the rank. But with most of his unit dead or missing, he's been promoted. He knows what the Private is going through and is watching over him.
"Yeah... Yeah.." the Private muttered as looked back at them again and began to think, 'Do I really have to kill them?' he sighed as he continued driving.
"God I wish we weren't in, THIS FUCKING SITUATION!" The corporal bashed his hand on the window. "Why the hell are we back in a warzone?! I thought we fucking left one!" He screamed. He took a deep breath and said, "I'm fine, I'm fine."
The ponies were spooked in the back when the Corporal screamed. "What was that all about?" Applejack asked.
"They're stressed. They don't want to be in this situation more than we do. We need to hurry before an accident happens." Twilight explained. The group all had a depressed face, but Pinkie's was worse. Less than 10 minutes ago, she was happy and excited to see the humans again. But now that she's here and seeing their capabilities, she doesn't seem to show any emotions other than sadness. She's reverted to her sad form when she was still working in the Pie rock farm.
The humvee passed the checkpoint that was heavily guarded and a maze of defenses and cover. But the humvee passed straight through since the road was clear, the group looked around and saw a massive area covered by fences and tents. What they saw shocked them. They saw ponies and griffons separated by area, and the subspecies of ponies too. They were stripped of their armor and equipment, and they even saw some ponies being beaten up by a different uniform of human soldiers with a armband and helmet saying "MP". They were using batons and kicking a unicorn for trying to attack them with magic. They were yelling at her as they were attacking.
They were shocked and scared on what they were seeing. Rarity was thinking if dying from them is better than being captured by them. Now they all truly feared Humanity. They haven't seen this much cruelty at this level. They tried looking around, away from the cruelty because it was too much. They were passing by tanks, infantry, and other vehicles. And they're starting to notice that in the time Humanity came here, they've built an entire working town!
This surprised the group but as the humvee went through it. They notice that the town of was only a short portion of the base. The rest was military, brick and cement structures that rarely get to 3 stories high. All highly guarded. And they saw an opening, it was a big structure for any normal building. They all looked at it with wonder until they saw a sign saying, "NORAD". They wondered what it meant. But they cleared their minds off it as the humvee stopped in front of a cement building. It was a 1 story building but it was big.
The corporal opened his door and got off. He hit the wood of the humvee that is meant as a fence to keep the passengers from falling, several times to alert the ponies. "Alright, dismount!" He yelled. He put down the back gate. He moved to the side as the group got off.
"Where do ya reckon we're at, Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"Don't know, but it looks important." She answered.
A certain German scientist came out of the doors with arms wide open and a big smile. "Heyyy! How's my favourite diploma-" he cut himself off as he noticed how their sadness and depressed looks filled their faces. "Hmm, looks like you guys saw the battlefield." He spoke. He sighed as he didn't want to see them like this. "Alright. Tranq them." He ordered the two MP's who had small gun shaped tranq launchers which they fired. They mane 6 fell down as they fell asleep. "Alright. Let's move them."
The corporal ran back into the humvee and quickly told the Private, "Get this thing moving before we have to work to carry those horses." Which he then shut his door and the humvee quickly got moving. Schmidt facepalmed and looked at the MP's who looked at the horses thinking how they're going to carry them. "Yeah no, you're nerd lab is more than enough to carry them." The two MP's said as they continued to guard the Science building's door. "Fuck sakes..." Schmidt muttered.
10 minutes later, Schmidt carried them on a cart through the hallways of his Lab. Which did attract attention to him from his colleagues. He got them into separate interrogation rooms, and Pinkie was in her old room she was in before. But since Schmidt's colleagues were awkward, Military Policemen we're in charge with interrogating the other 5, but Schmidt would interrogate Pinkie. Just like last time he thought.
POV: Pinkie Pie, 11:24 PM, Fort Liberty.
I don't know what's happening. I remember this feeling, I just forgot it! How could I forget such a feeling?! I feel sleepy but I can barely move. Wait, wait, what if I open my eyes? Ugh, it can barely move. One more time.
POV: no one
Schmidt was freaking out as he saw Pinkie Pie's eyelids struggling to open. He grabbed his clipboard and put on his lab coat with the pin of the German flag. He thought to himself, "Alright, round 2 I guess. After Pinkie I'm going to.... Twilight? Yeah, Twilight. But Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to Pinkie?"
Pinkie Pie's eyes finally opened, and she was surprised to see a worried Schmidt's face. But all of her memories began to kick back in, her face turned back to sadness.
"Ms. Pie? You okay?" Schmidt asked. Pinkie only responded by a sigh and looked away. "You saw it. Didn't you?" Schmidt referred to the battlefield. "Not our proudest moment, but we had to defend ourselves. Any threat we come across we must deal with quickly. We can't afford any messups, so tell me, why are you and your friends here?" Schmidt asked. Pinkie didn't answer. "Ms. Pie. I need you to answer or more will die." She didn't answer. Schmidt sighed, "It didn't have to come to this..." Schmidt said as he pulled his coat and walked out the door. A few seconds later, a Marine Corps MP walked in angrily, he stood next to Pinkie and slammed his hand on the table. This shocked Pinkie but she only flinched.
"More are going to die! If you don't tell us, Ponyville will most likely be in the crossfire, and I know that your family is there! And if you don't answer, I will personally make sure they mistakingly be thought as armed combatants!" He yelled. Pinkie began crying. "Oh? I'm sorry. You want to go home?" The MP said in a caring voice. He slammed his hand on the table again, "THEN TELL US WHILE THERE'S STILL A HOME TO CRY ABOUT!"
"FINE! Fine?" Pinkie cried. "We're here to investigate what Jet Set was doing wit- with his army!"
"Good." The MP said as he got up and fixed his displaced white glove. He placed his sunglasses and ordered, "Well we're going to send you back to deliver a message." The MP said as left the room.
Pinkie was left crying on the table, she put her head on the table and began to cry rivers. "Poor thing." Schmidt said behind the tinted glass. He looked at his clipboard and said, "Well, onto Twilight." He walked out and through the halls to Twilight's position.
Schmidt passed down the interrogation rooms and heard objects crashing and being thrown and some screaming. He saw a room with the sign, "Interrogation Room #1" on a black plaque on the wall. He entered it to find a Purple unicorn screaming at the MP's with no response. Schmidt excused the MP's out of the room and sat down.
"So, Ms. Sparkle. I have a few questions to ask of you, if you don't mind." Schmidt asked.
"Why would I tell anything to you? You foalnapped us!" She screamed.
"Now calm down, there's no need for screaming. We only kidnapped you so you don't see anything classified on the way here. Now onto the questions. Why are you here and what were you going to do?" He asked.
Twilight sighed, looked down, and said, "We were sent here to investigate New Mareland troops suspiciously gathering near Tartarus. We thought they were challenging something that escaped Tartarus but it was you humans. We didn't expect a battle to happen here! Why didn't you inform Canterlot of the coming atta-" she was cut off.
"Because our men were captured in Canterlot!" Schmidt screamed. "Our scouts were captured by your Princess Luna, and many of your Royal Guards paid the price with their lives! So you see Ms. Sparkle. We are at war! If you don't deliver our message to make Equestria lower hostilities. Then Ponyville and many of the Equestrian cities will be burnt to the ground! You saw the battlefield?! That's only us defending with only a bit of power! And what us defending Canterlot from those bugs? We kept most of our troops back to defend this Fort! And remember our troops marching in Canterlot for the ceremony? It'll happen again, just without the peaceful happiness that the ceremony had! It'll be a victory march!" Schmidt leaned towards Twilight on the table and lowered his voice, "So you listen here Ms. Sparkle, if you don't deliver our message, then I will willingly make sure that your family gets into one of our POW camps like you saw before entering this building. Do you understand!?"
Twilight gulped and nodded as her eyes were wide open. She was scared, she's known the human cruelty on the battlefield but never on this personal level. They threatened her family, friends, and her too. She knows she has to deliver the message, but she needs her friends to understand before they do something stupid.
Schmidt walked out of the room and got on his radio. "Gather all subjects to meet with Ms. Sparkle. She'll inform them of our situation." Just as ordered, all the doors opened with the ponies walking out with the MP's. "Greetings! Now this is not the time for formal talks so enter this room." Schmidt pointed with both his arms. Applejack got angry, she charged at Schmidt but as she jumped to tackle him, a baton struck her straight in the face, causing her to fall down in a different direction. "Do that again, and you're not going to be walking anytime soon." The MP warned as he pointed his baton at her. The second MP grabbed Applejack and pushed her into the room, causing the others to panic to rush into the room as the MP said, "All of you, get the fuck in!"
Twilight jumped as she saw Applejack get thrown into the room, Applejack got up and wiped her nose and huffed. Twilight ran towards Applejack and asked if she was okay, she nodded and said, "Yeah, it's just those darn humans. Why'd they think they can treat us like this?" She asked as the group walked in.
Twilight sighed and said, "Because we're at war."
The group all gasped and their eyes widened, they were clearly panicking and Rainbow Dash was the first to ask, "Why?!"
"Because of New Mareland, due to their attack on Humanity, Humanity has declared war on all non-ponies. I know they didn't say it clearly to me, but I know the path is going down a dark one. We can still save our families and prevent war reaching our homes and especially Canterlot. They want us to deliver a message for Equestria to stand down or surrender in actual words. They're treating us like this because we're their enemies, and we're the reason if they're species is going to be invaded or not. We need to hurry before things heat up." Twilight explained. Some of the group cried as the amount of stress being put upon them, but Rarity was still comforting Pinkie who was crying.
"Pinkie, you hear that? We can still save Equestria. And our homes." Rarity stood up and spoke out, "We're not going to give in, we've saved Equestria time and again! And we have a graceful moment of peace, and I intend to keep it that way for my sake, and my friends and family's sake. So we need to hurry, immediately!" She bravely spoke, giving confidence in the others. Pinkie was still grey and depressed, but she smiled a bit.
A knock on the door came soon after, and an MP opened it and banged on the metal door with his baton, "Recon 3-7 will be escorting you 6 to Canterlot. NOW MOVE IT!" he screamed. Causing the 6 to run, with Twilight and Rainbow Dash pushing Pinkie to run faster.
Meanwhile in the White House, Reagan, Bush and his son, and other generals have been debating on what should they do if Celestia doesn't take the message correctly. Until, "What if we send someone and say that since their puppet has attacked us with no reason, then we have a reason to go to war!" Bush's son said. Which surprised the rest, but Bush had to put his hand over his son's mouth before he mentions anything about WMD's or Iraq.
Meanwhile in Canterlot...
As soon as the alicorn turned the corner into the room…she was met with an a ghastly sight that had her heart jump out from her chest into terror, and her eyes widen to the size vivid red apples.
Blood…it was absolutely everywhere, spilled upon seemingly every surface in the room, detailing a gruesome and horrifically violent struggle. Crimson tendrils of the bodily substance flowed down the white vibrant walls, which only amplified just how much the terrifying sight stood out.
But it was when Celestia turned her horror filled gaze down to the floor that she felt her heart skip a beat, and let out a shaky gasp.
Luna…barely conscious, with two guards surrounding her.
“LUNA!” Practically screaming, the princess of the sun rushed over to her sister’s side faster than a bullet, sitting down beside her battered body and observing all of her wounds.
Celestia briefly turned back around to face the two guards that were with her. “Guards! Attend to these two!” Putting on a more authoritative voice, Celestia gestured to the two bodies of the guards who lied motionless on the ground. She had no idea if they were still alive, but if they could still be saved, they had to be cared for.
The guards, who were back by the entrance in a state of shock, immediately hardened in response to their leader’s order.
“Yes, your highness!” Their voices trembling slightly, the two guards immediately rushed over to the bodies of the two motionless ones on the floor, immediately checking for any sights of life. They both checked the guard's bodies but found holes still leaking blood, both on the sides of their heads. The guards backed away in shock as they gasped.
Celestia got more worried and doubled checked her little sister's wounds, she let out a sigh in relief that her sister didn't get hit by one of the human's bullets. She still felt sorry for the guards who had died in defending her sister, but she doesn't know if these were caused by the US themselves or a rogue group of humans. She worries that this may spark a war...
The soldier checked his M14's magazine to check his ammo count. "Still 20, didn't fire my rifle while we were at Canterlot." He said to a soldier on the right as they sat side by side on the back of a M939.
"Because you're an idiot. Oh shit here they come." The soldier he was talking to immediately stood up to seem like professionals to intimidate the ponies. Which they did, making the ponies feel scared when entering the M939. Most of their squad was in the humvee escorting them, while only 4 stayed on the truck to allow space for the ponies. The two vehicles started moving out of Fort Liberty when the soldiers in the back got bored.
"Great, another 'combat Mission' again." A soldier groaned.
Another one spoke out, "Hey, be grateful it's only against colorful talking horses, and not the tanks of the Reds. I'll take this job any day." The soldier laughed, "And besides, what are they gonna do? They have magic, I haven't seen much of it. I don't think it's even real."
"We lost a little bird to their magic bolts, apparently it's like a slower bullet and only their magic users can well, use them. But I bet it does jack shit when we have cover. Like this white one here, I don't think she'll be able to attack us." The 1st soldier commented.
This made Rarity angry, they massacred her fellow citizens and not to mention that they were mocking her ability to use magic in a lethal sense. Her rage made her pick up the truck a bit, but it was too heavy for her, she dropped it and both the humvee and the truck had to stop. The soldiers pulled her and pushed her on the ground and held her down by the neck and head while she screamed.
This made the rest of the group nervous and on the edge of attacking the humans if it weren't for the soldiers not holding down Rarity aiming their weapons at them to stay still. The fact that the humans have already violated them by kidnapping and interrogating them, and now they're abusing them. They all knew that to the humans are more than willing to kill them for the attack Jet Set ordered but they couldn't hold themselves much longer because of the amount of stress put on them. This isn't the first time they had to save Equestria, but it was the first time they had been threaten by possible extermination.
The soldiers tied up Rarity on her chair so she wouldn't do anything, and they tied a cap onto her horn to stop her magic. The squad leader banged his hand on the top of truck to signal the convoy to continue moving. The driver honked the trunk and the humvee started moving, followed by the truck. The squad leader pointed at Rarity and said, "Next time you try to do something, I'll shoot you myself." He said as he pulled out his pistol and shook it, holstering back to check how far from Fort Liberty they were now.
"You six need to make sure that none of us go to war, if you somehow fail, then we will consider you as hostiles. So get things done or we'll do it ourselves." The squad leader threatened.
"God I hate diplomacy duty." The infantryman who tied up Rarity said out loud, as he was one of the Marine soldiers who was with Bush during first contact before being reassigned to a scout unit.
The men in New Manehattan were running low on ammo, as they spent most of their munitions on strategic targets and enemy infantry.
Rogers fired a few rounds on a pegasus flying at his position, with one of his men shooting it twice once it hit the floor to confirm his kill. Rogers sighed and ducked back into cover. It was a makeshift fort with carriages and whatever can be found on the town square. The SF units regrouped at the square for evac but haven't heard from Fort Liberty yet. Rogers got on his radio and spoke, "What's the ETA on our evac?"
He was surprised as a voice came through, since no one else got a response until now. "ETA 2 minutes, clear us an LZ so we can get you boys home." A pilot answered.
"Understood." Rogers added. He got off the radio and he yelled, "Evac, 2 minutes!" The other soldiers across the fort spread the message by yelling.
They all heard the too familiar sounds of the helicopter blades cutting through the air. Rogers got up to find the helo, he saw multiple of them in formation in the distance. 8 Huey's, 2 Blackhawks and 4 AH-1Gs. Rogers yelled out, "Echo! Lima! Your squads go first, we'll cover you!" The 2 squads then ran to a clearing but still hid behind cover to keep the LZ clear. One of the soldiers threw a flare to an open area.
The other squad threw red flares to where the New Mareland troops have been trying to get through. Rogers got on the radio, "This is Echo 1-2, possible enemy troops marked in red. LZ marked by green."
"Copy that." The radio cut off, "Echo 1-2, it seems that the enemy troops are gathering for a final mass assault. You boys need to get onto a rooftop, we cannot risk enemy AA targeting our birds. We'll cover you, now get your asses moving!" The pilot of the AH-1G 'Raptor 1-1' ordered.
"Move on to the rooftop on that building!" Rogers pointed as he yelled to the other squads. They all moved in small groups to cover each other as they approached and eventually entered the tall building. They then raced up to the top and wait for the helo evac.
30 minutes pass and only Roger's squad remained. "Hey Rogers, we are picking up heavy fire, get ready cuz we're going to get the hell out of here once you get on." The pilot warned on the radio.
"Roger that, just get us out of here." He acknowledged.
Just as he got off the radio, the pilot he just had the conversation with appeared from under the ledge with the helicopter. He turned the helicopter to its side to allow the squad inside. Just as they took off, a New Mareland soldier bursted through the door to the roof and threw her spear at the helicopter.
The helicopter tilted away and the spear hit the propellor, it destroyed the spear entirely but a huge splinter hit Alejandro's eye. He screamed in pain as blood spurted out, he was still alive but on his back. "Man down!" One of his squad mates called out.
"Shit! What happened?" The pilot asked.
"Just focus on getting us back to base." Rogers replied.
Meanwhile in Canterlot, the 12 man squad dismounted from their vehicles and made 4 of their soldiers escort the Mane 6. They walked into the castle, unapposed by the guards since most of them were the ones they dropped just not too long ago.
"What happened to em?" Applejack asked.
"Don't know.. but I think something strong came through he-" Twilight was cut off.
"It was us. We were here a while ago to evac some of our troops they held hostage." The squad leader explained.
The Mane 6 had their jaws drop. They tried to gather their calm as they continued moving forward, trying to avoid the dead bodies, blood, and bullet casings. They sort of expected this from the humans, but Equestria took some of their soldiers hostage? Twilight didn't know who to believe anymore, especially since New Mareland had just attacked the Humans. And the humans retaliating on an attack on Canterlot? Sure it wasn't as big as they repelled the Changelings, but killed Equestrian soldiers themselves. "Are we at war...?" Twilight thought to herself.
"Alright, keep moving." The Sergeant saw the ponies lacking behind as they try to hold in their panic.
"Halt!" A guard yelled as the group turned the corner. The soldiers got behind the pillars to use as cover and aimed at the guard.
"Wait!" Twilight yelled.
The soldiers didn't pay attention as they had their weapons steadily aimed at the guard who they can clearly see him trying to keep his calm. The guard lowered his spear as he saw Twilight and the other ponies.
"Twilight? Move away from these creatures! They've already killed-!"
"Yes, I know. They're with us." She states. "And they're going to kill more if you don't lead us to Princess Celestia and Luna." Twilight warned.
The guard, shaking. Should he trust his instincts and charge at the enemy like his fallen comrades or follow the orders of his superior who is held captive who will lead your enemy to your holiness. The Guard grunted, grabbed her spear and charged at the squad. Screaming, "aaaAAAAAAAA!-"
Two. Two gunshots is all it took to bring an armored raging pony down.
Twilight shocked beyond control, as well as the rest of her friends either cannot control themselves being scared shitless or trying not to bawl their eyes out.
"SHE WAS-!" Twilight was cut off.
"She was a threat. Now lets move, we'll check this entire damn castle if we have to." The Squad Leader ordered. "You three go with the Rainbow, Jackass, and Fancy one. We'll meet up back here in 30 minutes, if you find the Princess' radio back to us. Understood?"
"Yes sir." The 3 nodded. They then nudged Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity out of their shocked stance and to make them acknowledge they're supposed to be moving.
They eventually followed the 3 soldiers, then the other group continued forwards.
"Why did you make us split up?" Twilight asked.
"So we can cover more ground quickly, in case the Princess' decide to escape before we can talk to them. In that case we might have to execute you and your friends. Leading to a war of survival for the United States if not Humanity overall. A small price to pay for survival of our race, is it not?" He said as he and his squad constantly checked their corners and possible ambush spots.
"Well.. That's a large price to pay! You're asking for a peaceful world to-"
The Corporal scoffed, "Peaceful? We're being attacked back at Fort Liberty and you call yourselves peaceful? Not to mention the crisis in this city less than a year ago and you call yourselves peaceful? Ever since we got here, we've seen nothing but war and violence between your species. I don't think you're peaceful."
"Well.. that's because they want to harm us!" Twilight retorted.
"Either that or it's for revenge.." The Private muttered.
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie tried to ignore their conversation but they can't. They keep stopping due to the shock of what they're hearing. Fluttershy stopped again, collapsing as she realized that they are basically a tool for the Humans after showing kindness to them.
The Squad Leader was getting pissed off and tired of their bullshit. He raised his weapon and fired 2 shots into Fluttershy. She cried out in pain as blood poured out of her hooves as she screamed and cried in pain.
"You! Stay here with her. Might as well leave you both behind instead of having to make you catch up." The Squad Leader huffed.
Twilight, shocked and trying to charge to the Squad Leader for hurting her friend. Was quickly cut off by the butt of an M14 from the Corporal. "KEEP MOVING!" He screamed as blood came out of Twilight's mouth. They continued moving as she looked behind to see a panicked Pinkie Pie trying her best to stop the bleeding from her hooves.
"Why?!" Twilight screamed.
"You're not the only one with family and friends on the line. You're only lucky as you all have actual food and security. We have to carry your bullshit so we could at least buy ourselves a week without war. We just got out of a damn World War if you haven't fucking noticed, we're pretty tired and we haven't gotten rest since. Except here, we at least get to hunt some horses pretending to have an actual military. 6 fucking long years against a superpower all over the world, how would you feel if you had family burnt to crisp in an instant and your nation collapsing, as well as a millenia of history turned to dust in an instant?" He explained.
Twilight then shut up for the rest of the jog through the Castle, until they saw 2 giant doors.
"This must be it." The Private pointed out the obvious.
"Might as well be." The Squad Leader added. The Corporal and Private kicked both of the doors open. Everything went to a bright white as gunfire was heard.
The Squad Leader rushed in with his M14 raised as the Corporal and Private followed suit. The Squad Leader reported on the radio, "We've spotted them. Get your asses over here."
The Sergeant dodged a spear, grabbed it headbutted the guard charging at him. Raising his M14, firing 5 rounds. His Lance Corporal and Marksman formed a perimeter around him in the corridor as they slowly moved forwards, firing their weapons at the incoming guards. With their hostages trying their best to keep up with them. The Lance Corporal had an attachment at the bottom of his M16. He pointed his M16 at a row of guards, instead of firing bullets, the attachment breathed out flames, burning the guards behind them.
The Sergeant had dodged a sword, throwing it away and pulling out his M1911 sidearm, shooting the guardsman at point blank range to the head.
Meanwhile in between the recon troops, Rarity was trying to keep her cool, Rainbow Dash was trying not to get involved and cowered on the ground as Applejack tried motivating them to keep moving. Otherwise... they would be shot.
They passed by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, which Pinkie Pie was able to cover her wounds with the cloth from the dead guards around her.
"Fluttershy!" Rarity screamed. "What happened to you?"
"She- She was shot by the humans..." Pinkie Pie, still crying.
Fluttershy couldn't answer as she was passed out from the pain.
"THEY DID WHAT?!" Rarity screamed as she ran to Fluttershy's unconscious body.
The Sergeant raised his 1911 at her and said, "You're next unless you keep moving."
Rarity, shaking to her core couldn't decide on what to do. Until she snapped out of it by Fluttershy, "Please.. go with them... Save yourselves..." She cried.
Rarity started crying, her makeup dripping to the ground. "Fine.. I will. Keep yourselves safe and I'll try to find you both!" Rarity said as she started running with the Humans once they started jogging.
Meanwhile in the throne room...
"No wait! No I'm sorry!" She screamed.
"Shut the fuck up, do that shit again and you'll be more sorry about ruining the floor with your brains!" The Squad Leader kneeled Twilight down after kicking her down.
As the bright light lowered, the guards, Princesses', and soldiers recovering from the bright light Twilight casted to stop the humans from firing onto the Princesses'.
"Twilight!" Celestia screamed. "Release her at once!" She stomped her hoof down.
"First you tell your troops to stand down, 'Your Highness." The Sergeant said as his squad arrived to the room.
"How dare you address my sister like that-!" Luna was cut off.
"How about you shove your opinion up your ass and tell your sister to go kill herself or we'll do it for her!" The Sergeant replied.
The corporal, keeping a cool head interrupted. "Tell your troops at our base to stop attacking or we'll cut their leadership into pieces."
Both Princesses were confused. "Our troops?! We have not ordered such an action, even with something this aggressive!" Luna replied.
"Bullshit!" The Sergeant yelled. "Then who's the green bastards attacking our base with dragons and griffons?!"
"Green? Oh no.." Luna realised. She looked to Celestia who had already figured out who would do such an action.
"Jet..." She whispered.
The Squad Leader finally got off of Twilight. With her friends crowding around her to see if she's stable. She gasped for air, but was still perfectly fine.
Twilight, confused from what she had just heard. Started to talk to herself. "If it isn't our troops... Then the only other nation that has green armor is.." she started to cry as the bloodshed the Humans have caused were unjust.
"You brutes! You killed those guards for nothing!-" she was cut off by the Corporal.
"Nothing?! She kidnapped one of our soldiers in this castle!"
Applejack then decided to shut up as a shriek came from the corridor outside.
"Wait... Is that.. No wait, why is she here out of all places in this time?!" Twilight told her friends.
"Auntie Luna! There are dead guards everywhere!-"
A scared, bright pink, princess arrived at the door. Seeing the humans aiming their spears of death at the guards.
"Auntie Celestia? What's going on?!"
"We appear to have been in a very, serious misunderstanding.. it seems that blooming bucking flank Jet Set attacked the Humans and framed it on us!" Celestia stomped her hoof again and spoke in a serious voice.
"Wait.. what..?" Cadence started to go into shock.
"What now Lieutenant?" The Corporal asked the Squad Leader.
He sighed. He took a breath. "First off. Report back to HQ that our target is Jet Set. Equestria has no involvement in the operation. And that we're going to retrieve any intel on Jet Set and any strategic information on New Mareland."
"Sir!" The corporal said as he grabbed a radio and relayed the message.
"Alright men! Let's move out!" The Squad Leader ordered as the squad just left the traumatized ponies behind and ran back to their vehicles. Sprinting out to the exit, jumping over the dead bodies they had dropped an hour before.
Another hour later...
"So you're telling me.. is that we struck on a neutral nation?!" Shephard asked
"Seems like it, sir." The Lieutenant responded.
"Don't give me that 'seems like it' bullshit. The brass is going to fucking kill us." Shephard replied.
"Sir? Aren't you the Brass?" The Lieutenant responded.
"Oh wait. That's right. We don't have to mention this again, understood?" Shephard asked.
"Yes sir." The Lieutenant answered.
"You're dismissed." Shephard said as he looked over the airfield as helicopters flew in and out constantly. With wounded or dead coming out of the helicopters with medical personnel being overworked.
The Lieutenant saluted and left the room.
"This is going to be a nightmare to explain." Shephard spoke to himself. He then started thinking on how he can cover it up, with him thinking he could say that they were collaborators with the forces that struck them. The populace would understand since they are on the brink of extinction. But he couldn't decide on what to choose so he decided to mash them all together as the last thing the remains of Humanity needs now is more bad news on how they screwed up against the Nation that was peaceful with them.
