> War Was All We Knew.
>  by Enfield
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter One


Two months, two goddamn months and we're already fucked. Yeah it's been all happy happy since the Locust were killed off but now we got all this new shit about running out of food and fuel. Seriously, this fuel's from before the Pendulum Wars, before Imulsion was discovered. How the hell are we gonna get all our fucking shit to work on this prehistoric crap? Do you know how many vehicles we have to modify to get this to work? Even if we manage we've only got enough fuel in this hellhole to last us about a year, tops. God I hope we can get more.

(Private James Rankora's report on the current shortage of fuel.)


***

Traxia Video Arcade.
16 A.E.
Two months after "The Purge" of the Locust and Lambent.

"Whooo! Beat ya again Baird!"
"God dammit!" Baird yelled as he kicked the leg of the thrashball game table. Cole laughed and pumped his fist in the air in victory.
"Ain't nobody gonna stop me! I'm too good even in the game."
"Horseshit. You kicked the table towards me when I was about to score."
"Yeah but that still wouldn't have helped you," Cole said as he leaned against the Thrashball game table and took hold of the sticks, "Come on, one more game."
"No, I'm getting sick of this," Baird said as he backed away from the table, "You've beaten me three times. Screw this, I'm going to play another one of the arcade games."
"Okay, just remember that we've only got ten minutes until the power's cut."
"This sucks, we only get five hours of electricity a day, less sometimes. How the hell have we managed?"
"Come on Baird, we're all in the same boat here. Until we get more fuel for the generators five hours is all we're getting."

Baird grunted and walked past a set of old wall mounted arcade games. He crouched down, removed the cover off the front and started to pull out wires and rearrange them. No matter what it was, Baird had a knack for fixing, hot wiring and repairing anything he could be bothered to. Currently in the video arcade he had been tinkering with all the machines so that they ran without the use of coins. He was glad about rigging the machines but pissed that Cole had been beating everyone at the thrashball game that he dragged out of the back. Baird had been tempted to break it but he knew that Cole or Marcus would've made him fix it for the kids in Traxia.
"Why don't they just go to the park?" Baird thought, "Be easier and maybe we'd get power for a little longer." 
He tugged on a wire and the machine hummed into life. Baird grinned and stood up to see the screen slowly light up. He took hold of the joystick and had his finger hover over the start button, just as the game started up the screen and the lights suddenly shut off, leaving the room pitch black.
"What the fuck was that?!" Baird bellowed.
"Goddamn power went out again," Cole said as he pulled a flashlight out of his back pocket. He flicked it on to see several civvies gathered up around each other, looking to the ceiling and the floor in terror. Cole gave a heavy sigh, even after all the Locust and Lambent were Purged the civvies and even the Gears were still looking to the ground whenever something went wrong. Cole waved the beam of light over towards the door. "Okay everyone, power's gone so you gotta go."
The civvies slowly made their way to the door, as the last one left Cole went to find Baird hunched over a machine hitting it with his fist.
"Come on Baird, you can play tomorrow."
"I know I know," Baird said as he picked his head up, "I'm just so sick of all these blackout curfews."
"We gotta ration whatever power we got left. You know that most of it's gone to the local barracks and police station."
"Good thing too, shame that device that Adam Fenix built didn't kill the Stranded."
Cole guffawed and slapped Baird on the back.
"Even in the dark you can still find your sense of humor."
"That wasn't a joke."

Traxia Police Station

"Yes ma'am, we'll send someone to look for your son...I know you miss him but we're still trying to get a hold of a Raven that'll run on Putionuim...Yes the old fuel...Yes we'll begin searching the plains once we have one, I promise."
Anya set down the phone and rubbed the side of her head. Another missing person already, it may've started a week ago but five missing people? Anya couldn't believe it. There weren't this many even when the Locust were still around. Anya gave another glance out of the window and then went back to the missing person report papers, the most recent one of a fifteen year old was sitting atop the other five. If finding them on foot wasn't hard enough Anya couldn't requisition a Raven to assist the local police force in the search. She stood up and went to the door, eager for some fresh air and some coffee from the break room. Another week of waiting and the engineers will have an Assault Derrick running on Putionuim. Hopefully it'll be enough to assist the search or at the least transport troops to the nearby Pre-Pendulum Wars era vehicle depot to search for fuel.

"I hope we can get another Raven or two." Anya thought as she passed a couple of Gears into the break room. She brushed past a few tables in the dimly lit room but managed to make it to the coffee machine, she looked around for the filters but didn't know where they were.
"Box on the left to the sugar."
Anya froze, she recognized that slightly hoarse and raspy voice. She kept her cool and didn't turn around but reached for the filters.
"I didn't know you were in here, Marcus."
"Hmm."
A grunt of sorts, Anya thought that mean 'Not a lot of people did'. She replaced the filter and started the coffee maker.
"You want some?"
"No thanks. I don't drink coffee before I go to sleep."
The sound of a chair scraping across the floor coupled with the sound of boots clomping across the ground towards the door meant that Marcus was leaving. Anya wanted someone to talk to before she turned in for the night.
"We got another missing person." she said. The sound of footsteps stopped suddenly. "Fifteen year old boy named Jack Hakton. Went missing several hours ago."
"Any leads on where he went?" Marcus asked.
"No, nothing."
"Just like the others." 
"Think there could be a link?"
"Nothing that I can think of," Marcus muttered. Even with his quiet tone Anya could hear everything he said. "Well, I'm gonna get going. I might help out on the search tomorrow."
"Good, we could use some more people." 
"How long until we get some vehicles?" Marcus asked. Anya turned around and saw Marcus standing in the light. He was still wearing in COG Gear issued boots and gray fatigue pants but his slightly dirty white shirt was stained with a mix of mud and oil from working in the garage, the only thing we was missing was the do-rag that he had worn throughout the war with the Locust. Anya managed to see the tattoo on his left arm, it was similar to Clayton Carmine's tattoo but the names on it said Carlos and Dom Santiago. She remembered when Marcus got that tattoo in memory of his two long dead best friends that were like family to him. Carlos had died in the Battle of Ashpo Fields in the Pendulum Wars and Dom...Dom sacrificed himself at Mercy so that the rest of Delta Squad could escape, even now after nearly three months that image of Dom driving into the fuel tanks still made Anya shudder. But it gave Fenix nightmares. Every few days Anya would see Marcus hunched over with his forehead resting on his fists, he'd sit in the break room for hours not talking to anyone. Anya felt for his loss but she knew that she'd never be able to connect with Marcus with his nightmares. The least she could do was help him out but until Marcus found something to rid his nightmares there wasn't much more she could do.

"We might get a Derrick or a Raven at the end of the week."
"Good, good. Alright then, goodnight Anya."
"Goodnight Marcus."
Anya watched as Marcus walked out of the break room and down the hall to the exit. She gave a long sigh and went back to the coffee machine, the liquid in the pot was bubbling and ready but Anya had lost her appetite. Anya turned to leave but stopped when she saw a familiar person in the doorway.
"Hoffman."
"Hello Anya," Hoffman said as he stepped through the doorway. He wasn't wearing his usual military fatigues or his hat, instead he was wearing a fancy suit similar to what Chairman Prescott had before Jacinto was sunk. Behind him were two Onyx Guards, Lancers ready and helmets hiding any emotion, but even without the helmets Anya knew that the faces of the Onyx guards would've been just as hard and disciplined as any other Gear. It was just the fact that they were Onyx Guard that made them more intimidating. 
"Oh sorry, Chairman Hoffman."
"Oh god, don't remind me." 
"I thought that you liked you new position as Chairman."
"Yeah fucking right, I can't do shit anymore, and also this suit is itchy and really uncomfortable. The only advantage of being chairman is that I get these guys as bodyguards," Hoffman said as he pointed to the Onyx Guards. 
"So how's the new position of being Chairman coming along?" Anya asked. Hoffman sighed and dismissed the Guards who went over to the coffee machine.
"Boring as hell, now that the UIR's friends with us and the Locust are gone nothing's really coming to my desk."
"You miss the army life?"
"Hell yeah I do. Now that the wars are over there's nothing really going on aside from a few small riots and missing people."
"At least it's something."
"I guess so." 
Hoffman sighed and accepted a plastic cup of coffee from one of the Onyx Guards. Anya walked over to him and leaned against the table. She had to find a way to distract Hoffman from his boredom.

"Marcus want's to help out on the missing person searches."
"Oh really?" Hoffman said as he set the cup down.
"Yeah, he looked like he wanted to do something," Anya said.
"You know that I was thinking of giving him a promotion, you know, now that the COG's military has been established."
"What were you going to promote him to?"
"First Lieutenant. I think he's earned it, especially after all he did during the war against the Locust." 
"Do you think he'll take it?"
"If he doesn't I'll make him. He's frigging earned it."	
"He might," Anya said slowly. Hoffman sighed and nodded.
"I hope so, I know that he's been through a lot and I think this what he needed." 
"Chairman Hoffman?" a voice said from down the hall, "Where's Chairman Hoffman?"
Hoffman stood up and motioned the Guards to the door. Jogging up the door was a policeman, out of breath and holding a piece of paper.
"Right here," one guard said, "What do you want with the Chairman?"
The policeman sucked in several breaths and held up the paper.
"We-we found something the Chairman might want to see." 
"What is it?" Hoffman asked. The policeman looked at Hoffman with haunted eyes.
"It's a Locust base. An actual Locust base." 
Anya stood up.
"I thought that the Locust were all dead."
"They may be dead but that doesn't mean that their bases are gone." 
"What does that mean then?"
"Well it looks like we have both a potential threat and a possible supply dump."
"Should I get some Gears ready?" Anya asked. 
"Get Fenix and his old squad," Hoffman said, "I know that they're best suited for the job."
> Chapter Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Two


I can't believe this. A Locust base, a frigging base no more than five miles away in the hills. How the hell did we not see that? More importantly, how come Traxia wasn't wiped out during the war? A town that close to a Locust base should no longer exist, nevermind remain fully capable of life. I'm impressed that the Locust left this town untouched, but I'm gonna be pissed if there's a battalion of them waiting under that hill waiting to attack. Best part about all this is that I'm going into that base. I really hope that the Locust are dead in there or we're gonna have a situation. 

(Private Jace Stratton's opinion on the report about the recently discovered Locust base made by the Traxia police force during a missing person search.)


***


Traxia Army Barracks Briefing Room
16 A.E.

"A Locust base huh?" Marcus said as he read the briefing and map that was laid out on the table in front of him. Hoffman and Bernie Mataki stood on the other side of the table. Baird and Cole were also leaning over the table along with Jace and Sam. Anya stood back flicking through a few reports.
"Yep, the police found it while searching a cave up in the hills for the missing people," Bernie said. 
"And they stumbled on an entire base? Just like that?" Baird asked, he snorted and then continued. "Well, for once the Locust were nice, leaving this town alone."
"But why would there be a base all the way out here?" Sam asked, "There's no major city around here for at least a hundred miles."
"Well whatever made them set up that base here is because they're either searching for something valuable or dangerous," Baird said.
"What makes you think that?" Hoffman asked.
"Because if you were searching for something, or had something to protect, you'd build a base so that you could keep a steady supply of troops to search or protect the area right?"
"Baird has a point," Marcus said, "No point moving for the Grubs to move their troops here only to pull them out, they'd need something to keep them here for a long period of time. A base or outpost would be perfect for keeping them here long enough to find what they were looking for."
"Hey hey! Blondie figured something out." Bernie said.
"That's my Baird for ya," Cole said as he slapped Baird on the back.
"So we gotta go in there and see if we can find what they were looking for?" Jace asked. Hoffman nodded.
"Yes, and I know that Delta squad was the best candidate for this assignment."
"Guess poking around decommissioned COG outposts wasn't enough," Marcus muttered. 
"Alright Delta Squad, gear up and get ready to deploy. Anya, you can go with them." 
"Can I ask why?" Anya said.
"We need someone to keep track of intel to radio back to Command, Baird's been recording how the Locust live and I want you to relay all that information back to me," Hoffman said, "Plus I think that this is a six person job. You've got enough combat experience to help them out."
"So when do we deploy?" Marcus asked.
"Once you've got all your gear and are ready to go," Hoffman said. 

KR-59. 
5.2 klicks outside Traxia

Jace sat in the back of the Raven and adjusted his new armor.
"This is the first time I've worn the full combat armor," he said.
"Don't worry, you get used to it," Baird said. 
"Long time since I last wore this stuff," Cole added. Marcus grunted and tugged on the sleeve that covered his tattoo. Anya could tell that Marcus was feeling a little troubled about the sleeve covering the tattoo, but then again, Anya was experiencing discomfort with her own armor. She gave the neck collar a tug to stop it from chafing but to no avail. 
"So how long until we get to the base?" Sam asked. 
"About five minutes," the pilot said.	Sam looked up from her Lancer towards the cockpit.
"Carmine?" she asked.
"You know it," Clayton said.
"God damn, Carmine's flying us to the LZ," Cole said.
"Sure am, I got a new position flying Ravens."
"How that holding up for you?" Jace asked.
"It's okay, I mainly just fly combat sorties and ferry supplies." 
"Done anything interesting lately?" Anya asked.
"Well flying you guys to this Locust base tops the riot suppression last week," Carmine said. 
"God I hated that riot, I swear the Stranded caused it," Baird said.
"I'd hate to say it but I think Baird's right," Sam added, "Last riot wasn't that big and there were no cases of arson afterwards. Even after the war I still can't believe that the Stranded hate us." 
"Right now that doesn't matter, we need to get to this base," Marcus said. 
Everyone stopped talking. For the rest of the ride the Squad's conversations was only about what to expect in terms of surviving Locust and what might be stored in the base. As they neared the LZ Carmine hovered near the ground and dropped the Armadillo APC from the underside before landing several feet away. 

"Okay then, radio back to me once you're done," Carmine said.
"Alright, thanks Carmine," Anya said as the others jumped off the Raven. 
"Later Carmine," Sam said, "Thanks for the flight."
"Thanks for making me not puke," Cole added.
"Thanks for not barfing in the back," Carmine said with a small chuckle. Marcus opened up the 'Dill and motioned the squad inside.
"Come on Delta, form up."
Delta Squad boarded the 'Dill as Carmine took off and flew away, the radio came on and Carmine's voice rang out.
"One more thing sergeant, you might like who we've put in the Bot Tube."
"No way," Baird said as he took his place at the driver's wheel, "They gave us Jack." 
"Seriously? It's Jack?" Anya asked.
"Sure as shit is," Baird said. 
"Holy hell this is awesome," Cole said joyfully.
"Look I know that it's nice to have our bot back but can we get on with the mission?" Marcus asked, sounding irritated.
"Sure thing Sarge," Jace said as he took position on the gun. Baird leaned closer to Cole.
"Who the hell pissed on his campfire?" he whispered.
"I don't know, Baird," Cole replied, "Best we keep quiet."

A half hour passed before Sam spotted the entrance to the cave in the hill and the entrance to the Locust base. Delta geared up, loaded magazines into their weapons and braced themselves for an ambush, Baird slowly drove the 'Dill into the mouth of the cave and kept his foot pressed on the accelerator in case of said ambush happened. For the most part nothing happened but Marcus kept everyone alert in case there was an attack, shortly afterwards Jace spotted something up ahead in front of them. Marcus walked over to him and looked in the gun scope.
"What am I looking for?" he asked.
"Just ahead, on the ground."
Marcus was just able to see something lying on the ground. 
"What the hell is that?" 
"I think it's a dead Locust," Jace said. Marcus focused the gun sights and was able to clearly see a Locust Drone lying in front of the APC, and Jace was right, it was dead.
"What the hell?" Marcus grunted.
"Should we take a look?" Anya asked.
"We might as well, seeing that none of his buddies are around," Baird said. Marcus shifted into his commanding mode.
"Alright Delta, form up. Cole, Baird, Anya; We're gonna take Jack and see what killed that Locust. Jace and Sam; you stay here as backup in case we need it."
"Sure thing," Sam said.
"Aww, why do I gotta stay behind?" Jace asked.
"Jace. Don't think it of being left behind, think of it as an honorary role to provide backup to Delta Squad," Cole said.
"That doesn't help at all."
"Just stay here," Marcus said, a little harder this time to shut Jace up. It worked because Jace went back inside the 'Dill and shut the front hatch. He then pointed his Lancer to the corpse. "Move out Delta."
Jack popped out from the top of the APC and floated down in front of Marcus and Anya. The comms screen from under Jack opened up and span around before stopping showing Bernie Mataki on the other side of the screen.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" she asked.
"We found a Locust body about half a klick into the cave, we're gonna check it out," Marcus said.
"How are you liking the new position Commander Mataki?" Anya asked.
"It's okay," Bernie said, "A little bit boring but you guys are making so much more interesting."
"Aww, thanks Boomer Lady," Cole said. Bernie allowed herself a small chuckle.
"No problem Cole, hey, take care of Blondie would you?"
Baird snorted.
"I can handle myself Granny." 
"Sure you can," Bernie taunted, "Okay Delta, radio back when you find something worth telling me about. Comms are limited and we don't need any unnecessary traffic."
"Sure thing," Marcus said, "Delta out."
"Good luck Marcus, Command out." 
Jack's screen clicked back into place and the bot's light flickered on. Jack shone his light around the massive cave. Marcus was strongly reminded of the time he and his squad infiltrated Mt. Kadar in the Centaur. The cave was just as big as the cave in the mountain but with less snow, and as Jack's light swept across the ground, more dead Locust.
"Ughhhh, shit." Baird said, "And I thought one rotting body was bad enough. This isn't bearable."
"Ugh, now I know why I didn't chuck on the Raven," Cole said, "I was saving it for...for thi-"
Cole didn't have time to finish, he dropped his Lancer, hunched over and vomited just a few inches away from the weapon. Baird cringed and pulled the gun closer to him with his boot.
"Oh God. Cole, don't get it on the Lancer. Cleaning this of blood and Locust guts was hard enough I don't wanna scrape your lunch off as well." 
"Sorry Baird, it's just-oh shit that smell."
"Yeah yeah. Just try not to fucking barf again okay?"

Cole wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand and took his gun from Baird. He gave him a nod of thanks and then jogged to catch up with Marcus and Anya. Once the four regrouped they then started to look through the bodies for any identifiable cause of death. Baird on the other hand was taking the Locust weapons and ammo and piling it up.
"What the hell are you doing?" Cole asked.
"Just getting some more firepower," Baird replied as he tossed a pair of Hammerbursts into the pile. Marcus payed no attention to Baird's scavenging.
"I don't know what killed these grubs, might've been my dad's weapon that killed them."
"Could be," Anya said.
"Hey, everything okay there?" Jace's voice came over the radio, "We heard something really disgusting. Were you gutting Locust?"
"Well it's got something to do with guts," Baird said.
"Sorry Jace, that was me," Cole said as he spat out some saliva.
"You kill something?" Jace asked.
"You don't sound so good," Sam said.
"You're damn lucky you're in that 'Dill, it fucking stinks out here."
"There's more than one body," Anya said. 
"How many?" Sam asked. Marcus stepped over a Boomer and kicked it's head aside which broke open and spilled out a liquid brain.
"About twenty or thirty, can't tell."
"Holy shit!" Baird yelled, "Guys! Take a look at this!"

The squad rushed over to Baird and found him standing next to a dead Brumak, it was half rotted but most of it's weapons were intact. Cole covered his face and tried to stop gagging. Marcus prodded the creature with the barrel of his Lancer and watched as a piece of flesh the size of him slide off and reveal dissolved muscle and bone.
"Damn, a whole Brumak."
"Or at least most of one," Baird said. 
"What would warrant the Locust keeping a Brumak here?" Anya asked.
"Same reason for keeping Corpsers and Reavers here too," Cole said as he pointed to said bodies littering something that looked like a holding pen.
"Hmm, seems suspicious," Marcus said.
"They probably had a whole army here," Baird said, "What were they doing that needed so many grubs?"
"Nothin' good," Marcus muttered as he pressed his finger to his radio, "Command, we've stumbled across the remains of an entire Locust army, not just a small force."
"Understood Marcus," Bernie said, "What's there?"
"Well Granny, you won't believe me but we've got a whole fucking Brumak and some Corpsers here along with a few Reavers and, oh yeah, about a hundred Drones and Boomers." 
"What?" was all Bernie managed to say.
"Baird ain't lyin' Boomer Lady," Cole said, "Smells so bad in here I puked up."
"Eurgh, well, at least they're dead."
"Still doesn't answer what they were all doing here," Marcus said.
"Should we continue down here?" Anya asked as she pointed over towards what looked like a massive set of doors. The doors were about twice the size of a Brumak and three times as wide, Marcus changed the frequency on the radio and hailed Jace and Sam to link up with them at the door. Once the APC rolled up Cole darted to it and opened up the hatch and ran inside. Baird followed but he took out a small marker and placed it on the weapon pile before opening comms with Mataki.

"Hey Granny, I found some nice toys for us."
"Good boy Baird," Bernie said.
"Just get to them before the Stranded do."
Marcus stuck his head out of the 'Dill.
"Hey Baird, come on. We're gonna go check out what's behind those doors."
"Good thing they're half open otherwise we'd have a helluva job getting them open," Baird said as he jogged up to the APC and clambered inside. He had several weapons and some ammo in his arms and he dumped it on an open seat before setting the weapons down and started to check them for rust and damage.
"I'm not getting out anymore," Cole said, "Not until we're clear of the bodies."
"But you're sure as hell getting out if you're gonna chuck again," Jace said, now taking the wheel. 
"Just drive smoothly."
"Move out Delta," Marcus said. 
The 'Dill rolled through the doors and came into an open room. Jace stopped the 'Dill so suddenly that all the weapons and ammo was thrown throughout the inside of the APC.
"Jace, what the fuck?" Baird shouted as he picked himself up along with the weapons.
"Sorry, it's just."
"What, is that?" Sam asked as she looked through the gun scope. Marcus was wondering what they had seen.
"Open the hatch," he ordered.
"What? You don't know what out's there," Cole said. 
"I don't care, we're taking a look."
The hatch opened up and Marcus stepped out followed by Anya and Cole. Baird stayed back with Jace, holding a Gnasher shotgun at his hip. 
"What's out there?" he called.
"Baird," Cole said, "You might want to see this."

Baird and Jace slowly exited the 'Dill, Jace grabbed a Longshot and aimed over Baird's shoulder but dropped it when he looked up. Above them in a very large, four sided room was a massive shimmering wall the same color as imulsion, but upon looking around the rest of the wall it seemed that the strange surface covered almost ninety percent of the back wall. Marcus looked around and saw a variety of Locust turrets and defences, a mix of Savage Lancer Turrets and ordinary Troikas along with sandbags and sniper towers, but what Marcus found strange was that the Locust defences were facing towards the imulsion wall.
"What the hell were they waiting for?" he muttered.
> Chapter Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Three


I must say for the past two months we've done really well. I thought that there would be more deaths from diseases and riots from widespread panic but since the Locust and Lambent are dead there's not much to be scared of if you count off the hostile Stranded and since the imulsion's gone we don't have anymore cases of rustlung. It was nice while it lasted but now since all the wonderfuel's gone all we've got is this really shitty old fashioned fuel. But if the COG and UIR can work together to solve this problem then we might just stand a chance.

(Jakson Derric, former Stranded doctor. Traxia Hospital)


***

Locust cave. 
6.1 kilcks outside Traxia. 
One hour into mission.

Marcus stepped forward and lowered his Lancer. Scanning the room he wasn't able to see any more dead Locust but there were a lot of defences and guns facing the strange wall. Anya walked over to him and slung her rifle over her back.
"Should we call this in?" she asked.
"Do it," Marcus said. Anya pressed her finger to her ear and connected to CIC.
"Command, this is Anya, can you read me?"
"Yeah, a little static but you're clear," Bernie said.
"We think we've found the reason behind the Locust base."
"More like the reason it's here," Baird said quietly.
"Shut it Baird," Bernie said, "What did you find?"
"A lot of unmanned defences, pointing towards something that looks like a wall of imulsion."
"Whoa, get out of there!" Bernie said. 
"It's okay Granny, it's not imulsion," Baird said.
"Well then what is it?" Jace asked.
"I dunno, but it doesn't look harmful."
"Even if you think it is I don't think you should touch it," Cole said. Baird tapped his chin and then picked up a rock. He tossed and caught it a few times before hurling it into the shimmering wall. The rock passed through and made the surface ripple violently until it gradually calmed.
"How about that, it's like water," Sam said.
"Yeah, but how deadly is it to us?" Marcus asked. 
"What do we do then?" Cole asked.
"We can't just leave now, there might be something important," Baird argued. Marcus was about to say something but he saw the bottom left of the wall ripple and a discolored tail pass through.
"Over there! I just saw something pass through it." 
"Like what?" Sam asked.
"Might've been a dog or something."
Well if a dog can go through that then shouldn't we be able to?" Jace asked.
"Maybe we should wait, until we get reinforcements," Anya said. 
"No time, that thing could be a spawning pool for Lambent," Marcus said.
"Lambent?" Sam asked.
"I thought your dad's weapon killed all the Lambent?" Cole questioned. Marcus took hold of his Lancer and walked closer to the shimmering wall.
"It might not have reached this for deep into the cave. We should take a look and confirm it's safe."
"And if it is, hey, no more big-ass evacuations," Baird said. 
"Baird's got a point, man," Cole said, "No way in hell I wanna move across the planet to find a new city and I don't think the civvies would like it either."

Marcus gave a long sigh as he paced back and two up and down the shimmering wall. It was true about no-one wanting to move again now that they had just found a new place to restart what was left of the governments. Marcus didn't like how everything for mankind had gone downhill since the Pendulum Wars, but once the Locust emerged all of the fighting for the simple necessities of life became a fight for life itself. Nothing so far had gone right for him but he hoped that soon once Sera was rebuilt he might be able to start a new life, that is, if he lived long enough to see Sera get rebuilt. He paused in front of the center of the wall and gently placed the muzzle of the weapon into the strange substance. It shimmered and rippled a little but when Marcus brought it out the end of the gun was fine.
"So what do we do now?" Baird asked as he strolled up to Marcus. Marcus placed his hand back under the Lancer and gripped it tight, he didn't want to hang around but whatever had ran into the wall was gone, maybe there was a reason behind it.
"I think this leads somewhere, I think we need to go through."
"What?" Baird asked, "You think that leads somewhere?"
"It could be some sort of Locust camouflage technology that we haven't discovered yet."
"Do the Locust have that kind of tech though?" Anya asked.
"They must if they've been scavenging COG bases for the past fifteen years," Sam said. Cole scratched the side of his head in confusion.
"So the creepy wall imulsion is now supposed to be a magic door? Damn, I think I've breathed in too much rotting Locust."
"I think Marcus so far has been breathing in the entire dead army back there," Baird said, "Marcus, you seriously think that something's behind that?"
"Whatever that thing was that ran into it sure as hell didn't come out, there has to be a reason why." 
"So what do we do?" Anya asked.
"Best course of action would be to see if anything behind there could be a threat."
"Any ideas, Marcus?" Cole asked.
"Best thing to do would be to send Jack through first, he can cloak and scout out whatever's behind there."
"He'd better not get lost because if he goes then we've got nothing to crack doors with," Baird said.
"I know how valuable these bots are, Baird. Jack can take care of himself."

Jack made a few beeps and slowly advanced towards the wall, the surface rippled violently as the bot's thrusters neared it but calmed once more after Jack had been engulfed by the substance. One minute passed, then two, three. Delta was seriously beginning to wonder what lay behind the Locust camo wall. But what didn't make sense was that if it was there to hide something wouldn't the defences be facing away from the wall and not pointed at it? After what felt like an eternity Jack re-emerged from the wall, totally unscathed and functioning normally.
"So is it safe?" Jace asked.
Jack gave a few beeps.
"I think that's a yes," Baird said. There was something about him and how he understood Jack. Marcus took up position in front of the squad.
"Okay Delta, get ready to move in."
"Lemme radio Command and tell them what's going on," Anya said.
"Good idea," Sam said, "I don't want to be labeled as 'MIA'." 
Anya flicked on her radio and connected to CIC. There was a little static but soon she managed to hear Bernie on the other side of the radio.
"Command, this is Delta. We're going through the wall, Marcus thinks it's a Locust camouflage wall hiding something."
"Okay, be careful," Bernie said.
"If it's safe we'll return and send coordinates so that we can bring in more Gears, Delta out," Marcus said. 
Anya switched off the radio and looked up at the wall. She didn't know if going through the camo wall was safe but then again, if there was anything dangerous behind it then they had to find out. 
"So then, who's going through first?" Jace asked.
"I will," Marcus said, "We must know what's behind here. No time for debating who get's to be a future martyr, we gotta do this."
Marcus stepped closer to the wall and slowly placed his hand into the shimmering substance. It rippled like it usually did but the feeling that Marcus experienced was like he plunged his hand into a fire and then into a bucket of ice water. He pulled his hand out and examined it, the glove was undamaged and after he took it off his hand, his hand was also unscathed and was fully functional. Marcus placed his glove on and looked back to his squad.
"Follow me Delta." 

The Squad stood shoulder to shoulder and looked at each other before facing the shimmering wall. Baird cringed but stepped forward with the rest of the squad through the shimmering wall. He felt the hot then soothing cool feeling wash over him, he opened up his eyes and found himself standing in a much larger cave. The shimmering wall was now behind him and a light breeze coming from the opening of the cave hit his face once he turned back around.
"This...isn't what I was expecting."
"None of us were expecting this," Cole said. 
"I was hoping for something a little more impressive," Sam said. Marcus took a few steps forward and let his eyes adjust to the darkness, there wasn't much here aside from a few pieces of Locust equipment and sandbags. 
"Well isn't this nice?" Baird said irritably, "Nothing but more frigging rock, and where the hell are we?"
"Um, in a cave?" Jace said slowly.
"God, don't pull that shit. I thought I was the one to point out all the fucking obvious shit."
"Sorry man, I was just wondering if I could do it as good as you."
"You've got a lot to learn before you reach my level." 
Marcus and Anya ignored Baird and tried to figure out how deep the cave was. It ran on for what looked like a few miles but then it slanted upwards slightly, there was a small bar of light at the end of the cave, proving that there was a way out. Marcus pressed his finger to his radio and tried to contact Command but all that came back was static.

"Shit," he mumbled.
"Any ideas?" Anya asked.
"Well it's too far to walk and the 'Dill won't have enough fuel to scout out this place and return."
"So what do we do then?"
"Go back, get Carmine and his Raven and fly in. The cave is big enough for a Brumak, a Raven's going to be no problem."
"You think Hoffman will allow it?"
"At this point he has no choice."


KR-59. 
Inside the Locust cave. 
Two days after discovery of base.

Carmine gripped the joystick tightly as he maneuvered around the oversized doors and into the room that contained the Camo Wall. Several Gears on the ground looked up at them as they flew over. Marcus had delivered Delta's findings to Hoffman the second they got back to Traxia, in response Hoffman sent half a battalion of Gears to clean the place up and see if it truly was clear of Locust life. So far they had found nothing but weapons and scavenged COG equipment. It wasn't much but it did spark a little hope in the demoralized Gears. The only thing that was out of place was the fact that the UIR hadn't shown up to see what Delta discovered, normally when Gears or Indies found something interesting that would've made the news back before E-Day both sides would gather up at the location and just sit around for a little bit chatting with each other while the officials took a look around the place. It seemed to ease the former tensions between the two governments and it also made the process of getting Sera back to what it was feel easier. But both sides knew that Sera was beyond any quick repairs, constant war had done nothing but destroy the planet. 

"Are we there yet?" Baird asked.
"No Blondie, shut it," Bernie said.
"Nice of you to tag along, commander," Anya said.
"I was getting sick of being in that stuffy office and I needed to see this for myself."
"Well what we found isn't too impressive."
"Boring as hell is more like it," Jace said. 
"I was really hoping we'd find buried treasure," Sam said sarcastically.
"Gold and jewels won't do shit around here now," Marcus said, "A patch of farmland is much more valuable than all the  money in the Jacinto vaults."
Carmine's voice chimed into the conversation.
"Okay guys, strap in. Big shimmering wall of weird shit coming up."
"I hope we don't crash," Baird said quietly.
"How far have you gone into the cave?" Bernie asked.
"Not far," Marcus said, "We just stood at the wall and then went back. Also once we go through we're gonna be cut off from the rest of the COG, there wasn't any radio communication."
"So you're saying if we get stuck on the other side of this wall we're fucked?"
"Yep, no way to call for help." 
"I like these odds," Baird said shakily.
"Okay everyone," Carmine said, "Here we go!"

Delta squad grabbed hold of the handholds that hung from the walls and ceiling. Bernie however kept both her hands on her sniper rifle, she looked around the compartment and saw each of the squad was bracing themselves. She had no idea what to expect so she nudged Cole who was sitting next to her.
"Why are you all tensed up?"
"I forgot you weren't here last trip," Cole said, "All I wanna say is be ready for the fire and ice."
Bernie sat and stared at him, slightly perplexed and confused. She shook it off and followed what the squad was doing and braced herself for whatever was about to hit. Carmine called from the cockpit saying that the front of the Raven was now in the substance and he was going through in one quick swoop rather than go through slowly and risk getting shot by Locust that everyone knew wasn't there. But everyone knew that after fighting the same enemy for the past sixteen years you've already learned how they operated and how they fought, you just didn't know when it was coming. Jace sat back and loosened his nervous grip on the handhold above him, there was no possibility of Seeders and Nemacysts now but there was no denying that each and every Raven pilot still feared the living anti-air missiles and the creature that spawned them. The Raven shuddered and then pitched forward suddenly and shot forwards through the shimmering wall, this time, no-one felt a thing, aside from Cole who was leaning out of the Raven vomiting as Baird held onto the back of his belt.
"I much prefer this now than last time," Baird said.
"Why's that?" Sam asked.
"Last time he almost coated his Lancer in puke."
"Erughhhh," Jace moaned.
"Ugh, I really hate flying," Cole said as he pulled himself back into the Raven.
"Don't sweat it buddy," Carmine said, "We'll be out of this cave in no time."
"I bloody well hope so, I hate it here underground," Sam said. Baird said up and took hold of his Lancer again.
"How do you think we feel? We had to fight the Locust in their own frigging city."
"No argument here," Jace said.

The flight out of the cave was much longer than the squad expected but the light coming from between the compartment windows indicated that the exit to the cave was coming up quickly. The Raven ascended into the sky as the cave finally opened up and Carmine was able to relax, but what he saw outside the cockpit made him freeze in amazement.
"Whoaaaaa. Guys, take a look outside."
"What's out there?" Cole asked.
"Just open up the doors."
Marcus stood up and opened up the starboard side doors and shielded his eyes from the blinding light, once his eyes adjusted he stared out of the Raven in astonishment. The rest of the Squad gathered up around behind him and stared out of the Raven too. Outside was land, lush, green and totally untouched by war, Locust or the infamous Hammer Strikes. The Squad was speechless, then Marcus spoke up, saying only three words that pretty much described what everyone was thinking.
"Holy fucking shit."
> Chapter Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Four


Okay, now that Locust are gone what good are we? Gears are soldiers, not a police force. We're not trained for policing or crowd control, all we learned to do when I joined was how to kill grubs and how to not die. Anyone remember what happened in Port Farrell and Vectes Naval Base when we tried to be a police force? Because I sure as shit did. We really need to re-establish how we're gonna maintain order in Traxia now with this new Locust base with it's freaky wall of fake imulsion. Sucks that Delta gets to go in first, but on the bright side I get to follow if it's safe to enter the wall.

(Anonymous Gear, Traxia army barracks.)


***


KR-59,
Location unknown.
30 minutes into mission.

Delta Squad stood transfixed at the sight of a world untouched by war, a world where everything is green, a world that looks like it could sustain the remainder of Sera's population. Marcus and Anya stood in front of the rest of the squad and looked at the passing scenery.
"Marcus, it's beautiful," Anya said said in nothing more than a breath.
"I wasn't expecting to find this," Marcus said, "How the hell is this possible?"
"Who gives a shit?" Baird interjected, "We're not fucked anymore!"
"Trees," Cole said, absolutely breathless, "Actual trees."
"Hey look at that, some of them have apples," Sam pointed out.
"God damn, perfect place to brush up on my survival skills," Bernie said.
"Hey Marcus, settlement at two o'clock," Carmine said. Marcus went to the port side of the Raven and looked off towards what looked like a large farm. He could easily pick out the farmhouse and barn but there was no sign of any livestock. He then felt someone nudge him and looked back to see Cole pointing at something off in the distance, Marcus focused on the approaching sight and saw that it was a large town.
"Ah shit. Carmine, increase altitude and circle the place."
"Sure thing Sarge."
"Why are we going to circle the town?" Anya asked.
"Because we should be on the lookout for anti-air emplacements, I don't feel like having a repeat of Pelion."
"I told you that the Stranded couldn't be trusted!" Baird said.
"Mhmm, we got lucky last time," Cole said.
"I still haven't forgotten you barfing on me," Jace said.
"Heh, that was great," Sam said. Jace shot her an annoyed glace.
"I smelled like shit for a week."
"Yeah, but it was still damn funny how Cole get you from halfway across the Raven."
Jace groaned and stared back down at the town, there weren't any AA batteries in place nor were there any form of defences. There didn't appear to be any life in the town at all, it looked abandoned. Carmine circled around the town a few more times until Marcus spotted a large clearing in the town for them to land the Raven. As the Raven descended Marcus took note of the large tree that they were setting down next to. Something about it didn't look quite right, the way the tree glinted and had some strange branches and appendages sticking out of it. Marcus stared at it for a few seconds until it hit him, but Bernie pointed it out faster than he could say.
"Bloody hell, it's a house built into a tree."
"Is that possible?" Jace asked. Baird rubbed his chin and nodded.
"Might be, if you had the right tools and knowhow so that the tree doesn't die. Insects could be a problem though, along with birds and shit."
"Coming in for landing," Carmine said. 

The Raven slowly descended and touched down in the center of the clearing, Delta Squad jumped out and set up a perimeter out of instinct. Once they confirmed that the coast was clear they regrouped at the Raven.
"So what now?" Jace asked.
"Best thing we can do is figure out where we are," Anya said. 
"Looks like this building here might help us out, It's got a sign with a book on it." Cole said.
"And what does the sign with the book mean? Baird said mockingly.
"Quiet Blondie," Bernie snapped, "Cole know's that it's a goddamn library." 
"And that's just what we need," Marcus said, "Carmine, say with the Raven. Delta, you're with me. Move in."
Carmine hopped out of the cockpit and leaned against the Raven, an Mk.1 Lancer in hand. Delta Squad walked over to the library and checked if there was anyone in it. Marcus stood behind Anya as she rapped on the door a few times.
"Nothing," she said.
"Can't see anything in the windows," Bernie added.
"Should we wait or just go inside?" Jace asked.
"Let's just get inside," Baird said, "If there's anything we need now it's something to tell us where we are it's going to be books."
"Dammit, no-ones answering the door," Cole said.
"Well then we'll just have to make an entrance," Sam said. Marcus nodded, at this point he was getting sick of standing around.
"Let me get the door."
Marcus walked up to the door and sized it up, it was much smaller than him but it looked like it was made of wood and easy to open. Marcus tapped the door a few times and then swung his leg at the door and smashed it clean in half with a powerful kick.
"Holy shit Marcus," Jace said as he watched him enter the library, "I didn't know you could do that."
"The door's one of those doors that are really two," Bernie said.
"Oh yeah. It's an upper and lower door." 
"Come on, let's see if anyone's in," Sam said. 

Delta Squad walked into the library and started to rummage around the place for any information to where they were. Baird, Jace, Sam and Cole started to pull random books off the shelves while Marcus, Anya and Bernie searched the library for any occupants. As Marcus, Anya and Bernie searched upstairs, Baird, Cole, Sam and Jace searched through the books. 
"What the hell?" Baird said as he looked through a book, "It's nothing but symbols."
"I can't understand any of this," Jace said as he tossed a book over his shoulder and started leafing through another one. 
"Can you translate this, Baird?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, you managed to figure out the Locust stuff," Cole said.
"That was different. The Locust used glyphs, this is all stupid symbols. I mean look at this, a horseshoe, suns, a moon, stars? What the hell is this?" 
"I'm really confused with this," Cole said as he sat on the floor and flicked through a book. 
"I wonder how the others are doing?" Jace said, tossing another book behind him. 

"Form up," Marcus said. Bernie and Anya stood behind him as he entered a room much like the one downstairs but with another floor with a bed that was visible. 
"Seems like something was living here," Bernie said.
"Yeah, but what? That bed looks too small for us," Anya said.
"Let's take a look around," Marcus said as he lowered his Lancer and wandered around the room. Anya and Bernie walked around and tried to investigate too, after pulling a few books of the shelves they realized that this definitely wasn't Sera. A human settlement using strange and childish symbols in books as text? This couldn't be any form of a UIR country's language, it wasn't that advanced. Anya flicked through the books while Bernie started to pull them off shelves and search in the empty spaces for anything that could help her find out where she and Delta Squad was.
"Find anything Marcus?" Anya called up the stairs. Marcus appeared over them on the floor above.
"Nothing but a real fucking weird bed sheet."
Marcus was holding said bedsheet as he spoke. It was purple but the logo on it was peculiar indeed, it looked like a purple and pink star but with white blips around it. Anya and Bernie exchanged glances as Marcus tossed it aside and went down to join them.
"So you get anything useful?" he asked.
"Nothing that I would consider useful," Bernie said. Anya was about to add how the books were all full of strange symbols when she saw a shadow creeping around behind Marcus.
"Marcus, don't move."
"What is it?" he asked, shifting into his battle-ready tone. He raised his Lancer and shifted so that he could turn around quickly if he needed to.
"What's that shadow?" Bernie said as she raised her Longshot rifle and aimed at the shadow which started to back away into a room. Marcus span around and saw it too.
"Hey! Can you come out here? We just want to talk."
The shadow darted back into the darkness of the room and vanished, Marcus ran after it in pursuit. Anya and Bernie also followed in case it was dangerous. Marcus kept up with it but the shadow vanished into a room and the sound of a door slamming and a lock latch was heard. He got to the door and stopped and waited for Bernie and Anya.
"It's in here," Marcus said.
"Want me to get the door?" Bernie asked.
"Be my guest."

Bernie propped her boot up against the door and planted it next to the door handle. She then thrust forward and the door handle snapped off, then she spun around and back kicked the door sending it flying several feet into what looked like a bathroom. The sound of a yelp then crying emanated from the bathtub, Bernie raised her Lancer and slowly approached the bath with Anya covering her with a sawn-off shotgun. Using the rifle's muzzle Bernie parted the curtains and stood aghast at what was behind it.
"Holy shit."
Inside the bathtub was a small purple unicorn, covering it's face with it's hooves. The mark that was on its flank was the same logo that was on the bed sheet that Marcus found. Marcus and Anya were now both staring at the creature with great curiosity, the unicorn would occasionally look at them with tear filled eyes then go back to shielding itself with its legs and hooves. 
"What the hell?" Marcus muttered.
"But, unicorns only exist in fantasy stories," Anya said.
"Well then what are we bloody looking at?" Bernie asked irritably, "I know I'm not crazy and I know this because you two can see this thing too." 
"Yeah, but what the fuck is going on? A unicorn? Where the hell are we?"
Marcus reached out a hand to touch the unicorn but it swatted his hand away with its hoof.
"Get away from me you monsters!" it yelled.
"Okay, what the fuck?!" Marcus bellowed, "That that thing just fucking talk?"
"It sure as shit did," Bernie said.
"How is that possible?" Anya asked, "How could this unicorn talk?"
"I don't know you want to fucking ask it?" Marcus said, his tone a little more calm but sounding just as confused.
"Well considering that it can talk we might as well try and see where we are."

Bernie crouched down so that she was eye level with the unicorn. If there was any hope in figuring out where they were it lied with this talking unicorn.
"Hey there. Sorry for scaring you, do you have a name?"
The unicorn kept itself shielded but it nodded.
"Do you want to talk?"
A head shake 'no' was the reply. Bernie sighed and held her hand out to the unicorn. 
"My name is Bernadette Mataki. What's yours?"
The unicorn sniffed and looked up to see Bernie's hand extended out to her and a small smile on her face. It then looked up at Anya and Marcus and cowered again.
"It's okay, we're not going to hurt you," Marcus said as he and Anya lowered their rifles. The unicorn slowly sat up and reached out a hoof to Bernie's hand. It hesitated and recoiled as Bernie enclosed her fingers around the unicorn's hoof but it allowed her to take hold of her hoof.
"What's your name?" Bernie repeated, she then turned to Marcus and Anya. "Go on, tell her yours."
"I'm Marcus Fenix."
"I'm Anya Stroud."
The unicorn looked up again and then nervously told them it's name.
"T-Twilight Sparkle."
"Fucking weird name," Marcus muttered. 
"At least we now know that it's female," Anya replied.
Bernie went let go of Twilight's hoof but Twilight placed her over hoof over Bernie's hand. 
"Wow, you creatures have a strange anatomy for your front hooves."
"They're called hands." 
"Hands?" Twilight asked, "And what are the bendy things on the end?"
"Fingers."
"Amazing," Twilight said as she let go of Bernie, "Do all of your kind look like you do? Covered in metal?"
"What? In this armor?" Anya asked.
"That stuff is armor?" Twilight asked as she pointed to Anya's armor.
"Yeah, we use it to keep from getting hurt," Marcus said.
"But what would want to hurt you? You're so big," Twilight asked. 
"You have no idea," Marcus said grimly.

Twilight kept quiet after hearing Marcus's tone but perked up when she saw the Lancer in his hands.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the weapon.
"What? My Lancer?" Marcus asked. Twilight nodded but Anya interrupted before Marcus could answer.
"Look, we'll tell you everything that you want to know, but we really need to know where we are first."
"Oh, uh. You don't know where you are?"
"Please Twilight, we need to know." 
"Well, you're in a town called Ponyville in a place called Equestria."
Marcus grunted and shifted the weight of his rifle to one hand so that he could contact Baird.
"Hey Baird, you got anything on places called 'Ponyville' and 'Equestria'?"
"Um, no. Still figuring this shit out. And what the hell kind of names are those anyway? Where the fuck did you hear them?"
"It'd be best to explain once we all link back up downstairs."
Marcus turned off the radio and saw Twilight staring at him in amazement.
"What was that?" she asked, "Were you were talking to somepony else in your head?"
"No, that was my radio," Marcus said, "We've all got one."
"You mean that all you bipedals have a thing in your head that lets you talk to other bipedals?"
"Sort of, the people who Marcus was talking too were only downstairs," Bernie said. 
"Wait, there are more of you?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, you might like some of them. I'll show you who to avoid."
"Can I ask one more thing?"
"Go ahead," Anya said.
"What are you called? I mean species wise."
"We're called humans by most, groundwalkers and fascists by some," Marcus said.
"So what term do you want me to use?"
"Human. Use that and we'll get along just fine."

Twilight slowly got out of the bathtub and looked up at the humans. Marcus was by far the tallest, clearing at least four feet above her horn. Bernie and Anya were only three feet taller than her but Twilight wasn't as phased as before, she was clearly terrified about the size and sharp teeth of the Lancer but she had no clue what it was. Marcus left the bathroom and let Bernie usher Twilight out, even if Bernie had no idea about the unicorn she could tell that it was scared and confused by the way her head had sunken to the floor and her ears flat against her head in fear. Her eyes were also darting back and forth between Anya and Marcus. Eventually, they managed to get downstairs to find the rest of Delta looking through anything they could get their hands on. Books and papers littered the floor and the Gears took no heed of them as they were crushed underfoot as they paced around the room. 
"Figure anything out yet Baird?" Sam asked.
"Well if you'd quit distracting me I'd get done quicker." 
"Damn they've got some really nice pictures in some of these books," Jace said.
"What the hell?" Cole said in impressment, "There's no Thrashball books in here." 
Baird and Sam looked up from the papers they were writing on and saw Marcus, Bernie, Anya and Twilight standing in the doorway.
"Hey, hey. The guys are back," Sam said.
"Oh look Cole, Granny got you a horse, just like you've always wanted," Baird said, sarcasm totally evident. Twilight frowned and glared at him. Cole jumped up and saw Twilight.
"Why's it all purple? Did you do something to it?"
"No, we found her like this," Anya said.
"You found her?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, found her in the bathroom upstairs," Marcus said.
"Sure you did, you may as well take it back up there and wash it off," Baird said, "Also, get that ice-cream cone off its head. It looks fucking stupid."
"Hey! I'm a unicorn you know," Twilight said. Jace, Sam, Cole and Baird all jumped back in surprise. Baird was the only one to grab a Lancer and aim it at Twilight.
"Cool it Baird," Marcus said, stepping in front of Twilight.
"No way, that thing just fucking talked. How the hell is it able to do that? Horses can't talk!"
"Easy Damon, baby," Cole said as he pushed the muzzle down, "I know that it's freaky but we can't shoot them like the grubs."
"I don't fucking care, what if they're like the Stranded? What if it want to eat us like that fucking giant worm?" 
"Eat you?" Twilight asked, "I don't want to eat you." 
"Rightttt, sure you don't."
"No really, I don't want to eat you. Why would I anyway?"
"The purple thing's got a point," Jace said.
"Yeah come on Baird," Sam said, "Even if it did want to eat you I'd bet it spit you right back out."
"Like it wouldn't do the same to you," Baird retorted. 
"I have a name you know," Twilight said.
"Tell us then horsy," Cole requested. Twilight shot a quick glance at Cole then cleared her throat.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle."

For a few minutes there was silence then Baird burst out laughing. 
"What kinda name is that?" he said through heavy laughter, "And to think I was scared of you. Oh my God."
"Come on Baird, that isn't nice," Cole said, but it was clear that he was suppressing laughter too.
"Come on, it's pretty funny. Her name sounds like a frigging laundry detergent." 
"Hey guys!" Carmine yelled from outside, "We've got a problem!"
All of Delta Squad except Bernie raced outside to the Raven but stopped dead when they saw what was surrounding them. There was an entire ring of more horses had encircled them and the Raven, each one of them had a spear and was heavily armored, standing in the center of the line was a large white stallion in golden armor. Delta Squad backed up into the library and looked at each other.
"Okay then," Baird said, "Who wants to talk to Mr. Big Fucker out there?"
> Chapter Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Five


Dear Princess Celestia,
We have a situation in Ponyville; A large, shiny and loud monster has appeared in the sky and is now circling the town. It did this a few times and then landed outside my library. I watched as several large bipedal creatures of which I've never seen before get out of the monster and head towards my home. I don't know what their intentions are but they are scary and look like they want to take over the town. I write now to ask if you would send over my brother and a garrison of soldiers to repel the monsters. Please hurry! They've just broken down the door to my house and are coming in! I'm going to try and hide. If I don't make it, tell Shining and my friends that I love them.
Your student, Twilight Sparkle

(Twilight's panic induced letter to Princess Celestia, five minutes after Delta landed in Ponyville.)


***


Ponyville Library.
One hour into mission.
Five minutes into standoff with inhabitants.

Bernie kept her rifle sighted on the large unicorn in the center of the mass of soldier ponies, she knew that he was a commander of sorts and she knew that if he went down then the rest of the troops would be in disarray and they could make it to the Raven and escape. The only problem with that plan was Twilight, she kept trying to get in her way. 
"What are you doing with that?" 
"Well if the big sod won't move I'm going to put a nice hole in his head and make him move."
Twilight cocked her head to her side. Baird saw this and leaned over to whisper in her ear.
"She means that he might not have a lot of his head anymore."
"WHAT?!" Twilight yelled, "You're going to kill my brother?"
"Your brother?" Carmine asked.
"That unicorn out there is my BBBFF, you can't hurt him."
"BBBFF?" Cole asked.
"Best Big Brother Friend Forever," Twilight said, her voice cracking with muffled sobs, "Please don't hurt him."
"What's his name?" Marcus asked.
"His name is Shining armor and I love him a lot."
Marcus jogged over to Bernie and pushed the rifle upwards so that she was aiming over Shining's head.
"Warning shots only Delta, we don't want to upset the natives."
"Come on Marcus, we can take them all," Baird said.
"Yeah, that is if we don't get our asses full of spears," Jace said. 
"Spears?" Sam said as she looked out the window, "Holy shit he's right. They've got a ton of spears."
"And a lotta civvies behind them," Cole said as he pointed out the non armored ponies behind the ring of armored ones, "At least I think they're civvies."
"Who gives a fuck?" Baird said, "They all look the same to me. A bunch of colorful ponies with horns and wings with the intention to murder us."
"Shut it Baird!" Sam barked. 

"Unknown creatures!" a loud and commanding voice bellowed, "By order of Princess Celestia you are to release Twilight Sparkle and surrender yourselves." 
"What is he talking about?" Anya asked.
"Well if I had to take a guess they think that we're here as a sort of hostile species and that we've taken the unicorn as a prisoner," Baird said, "Makes sense since we made a nice little entrance with the Raven and stormed in here." 
"So what do we do then?" Sam asked.
"Well if I could reach the Raven I could get out of here and get help," Carmine said.
"That would be a good option, yes," Bernie said.
"I think that we should try and distract them in the meantime," Cole said.
"Do you have a plan?" Marcus asked.
"Yeah, we go out there and give the purple horsey back to the big horsey."
"But we won't surrender, right?" Baird asked.
"No, we keep it at weapons ready," Marcus said, "We have no idea how these inhabitants will react to us." 
"We should go out there in a circle, keep Twilight in the middle of us," Anya said.
"Planning a negotiation?" Bernie asked. Anya nodded. Even now years later Anya was just like her mother, Helena Stroud. It seemed like the military really did run in the family and when it came to Stroud and Fenix, they both would pass the Gear gene down for generations to come, that is, if they survived. 

Delta Squad assumed their escort and covering fire formation and slowly walked outside into the sunlight which seemed to have almost gained in intensity and brightness.
"Holy shit, how hot did it get when we were inside?" Baird asked.
"Shut it and keep your gun up," Sam hissed. The crowd of civvie ponies stared between the soldiers as Delta made their way to Shining Armor. Twilight too looked around and saw her friends but didn't dare move in case Delta decided to harm them. The soldiers had never seen such a strange array of weapons that the bipedals had, all of them were two handed but only one had a blade on the end of it. a few of them had spikes underneath but they didn't hold them like maces of clubs. Shining Armor glared at Marcus who returned with a hardened scowl. 
"The nerve of these bipedals," Shining thought, "How dare they invade my favorite town and take my little sister prisoner."
Delta walked up to Shining, Marcus and Anya in were on point so they assumed the role of talking to Shining. After a few minutes of silence and glowering Anya spoke up.
"You the one in charge around here?"
"Yes," Shining said roughly, "I demand that you get my sister go and surrender."
"That's not gonna happen until we get some goddamn answers," Marcus said.
"You want answers?" Shining said icily, "Here's my answer on how I'm going to respond to your invasion." 
The soldiers inched closer, each bearing their teeth and holding out their spears. Delta backed up into each other and looked around, the soldiers were getting too close for comfort.
"Get ready for a fight Delta," Marcus said. The Squad was cut off, no way to get to the Raven nor was there any escape. Bernie saw that at least half of them had stood back to keep the civves at bay and the rest along were advancing on Delta with Shining Armor. She looked behind her and saw Twilight cowering behind her, there was general fear in her eyes and the look on Shining's face led her to believe that Shining just wanted his sister back unharmed. But from how Delta's situation was she could put two and two together and see that none of them were gonna live for much longer unless someone acted. Bernie span around and aimed her Longshot at a wall and fired. The shot rang out and stuck into the wall of the library. All of the ponies recoiled in fright, the soldiers dropped their weapons and cowered in surrender. Shining froze and also backed up in fear. Baird saw him and sneer.

"What, never seen a Longshot Sniper rifle before?" he said. Shining only stammered, some of the crowd had started crying out of fear. Bernie stepped up and gently pushed Marcus and Anya aside.
"Here's your sister," she said pointing to Twilight, "Now then, can we talk without us having to actually shoot any of you?"
"Brother!" Twilight said with tears in her eyes. Shining leaned down so that he could scoop her up when she ran over to him. The two looked back up at Bernie, Shining stood back as she reloaded. 
"So, um...uh-" he stammered.
"Yes?" Bernie asked. 
"So are you here to accept the terms of our surrender?"
"Surrender? We're not here to invade."
Marcus stepped forward and stood in front of Shining. 
"Look, we're not here to invade or hurt any of you. We're here to see if we could find a way to save our home planet."
"Save your home planet?" Twilight asked, "What are you bipedals talking about?" 
Before Marcus could reply a bolt of what looked like a small Hammer of Dawn laser blasted the ground in front of Marcus, Delta immediately shifted their aim upwards. Whatever was above them was obscured by the brightness of the sun. From what Marcus could see it looked like some sort of large flying creature of sorts but it was too high to see. Another blast of the strange beam hit the ground again and Delta aimed at the creature.
"Bring it down!" Anya yelled. Gunfire followed, a mix of Lancer, Retro Lancer, Hammerburst, Longshot and Gnasher shots flew at the flying creature but there seemed to be no effect.
"Hold fire! Goddammit, fucking hold fire!" Marcus yelled. 
"Why the hell should we?" Baird yelled back, "That thing tried to vaporize you."
"No-one hurts my friends!" Cole said, he looked up to the creature, "You hear me bitch? You don't ever fucking hurt my buddies or the Cole Train's gonna be on your ass!"
"Bipedals!" The creature responded, "You are ordered to surrender immediately for crimes against ponykind!" 
"What the hell is that?" Jace asked.
"Nothing good," Sam replied.

Delta watched as the creature descended and landed between them and Shining armor. The squad backed up when they saw that this particular creature was in fact a very large female unicorn but with wings. What made it stand out even more was that it was bright white with a multicolored mane and tail that flowed like water in a stream, it was also wearing a large gold tiara that made it look like royalty. Baird leaned back so that he could see it as well.
"Holy shit that's fucking weird."
"Dare you insult me?" the winged unicorn asked.
"No no, it's just that the last queen we came across was a little less strange. Considering she was the ruler of the ugliest fucking things ever spawned."
"Damn right," Cole chimed. The unicorn glowered and stomped on the ground, Twilight, Shining, the soldiers and the crowd of ponies all bowed towards the unicorn. Marcus and Anya stepped up.
"Are you in charge around here? We just want to make sure," Anya asked. The unicorn nodded.
"I am, I'm the ruler of Equestria."
"And I'm guessing that Equestria is the name of this country?" Marcus asked.
"That it is bipedal. But if I may I must ask you something, what are your names and where do you come from?" 
Baird pushed his way up to the unicorn and looked her dead in the eye.
"I really think that we should be the ones asking the questions here, questions such as why the fuck are you trying to kill us and why you call us bipedals? And while you're at it why don't you tell us your name?"
The unicorn's cheeks turned bright red at Baird's demand.
"WHAT? HOW DARE YOU ORDER ME AROUND!" it bellowed. Baird leaned back from the blast of the voice and then waved his hand over his face.
"You could really use a breath mint you know."
"Baird," Bernie whispered to him, "That wasn't a good idea." 
The unicorn flushed cheeks faded a little along with the angry look. It stopped, stared dumbfounded at Baird and then started chuckling. Delta looked around and saw that the soldiers and crowd had relaxed a little, some were even laughing. 
"Oh you bipedals," the unicorn chuckled, "Such a strange sense of humor but it's very funny."
"I wasn't even trying there," Baird said. 
"Even if you weren't I liked your little joke," the unicorn said, it extended a hoof out to Baird, "As for your question regarding names, my name is Princess Celestia."

Baird hesitated but then shrugged and took hold of her hoof and shook it.
"Damon Baird. I was gonna freak out and saw you in half but I think I'll let it slide for now." 
Celestia smiled but then stared in amazement at Baird's hand.
"Sweet Faust, this appendage you have..."
Baird looked down and saw Celestia turning her hoof in his enclosed fingers, he then shook his head in disbelief.
"Why me?"
"Can you manipulate some objects for me to see?" 
Baird pulled his hand back and clenched it into a fist then opened it up. He shook his head and stepped back. Princess Celestia sighed and looked around, the crowd had relaxed a little but were still nervous from the actions of Delta squad. She looked back to Delta and stood tall.
"Bipedals, are you willing to tell us why you are here?"
"Important business," Bernie said. 
"Oh, what is that then?"
"We're trying to save our home planet," Marcus said. 
"Save your home planet? Are you not from here?" 
"No, we're from Tyrus."
"Where is Tyrus?" Celestia asked with great curiosity. 
"On Sera. It's a northern country."
Celestia gave a nod of acknowledgment.
"So then, what are your names?"
"Marcus Fenix, and this is Delta Squad."
"Anya Stroud," Anya said, stepping up. The rest of Delta ended up introducing themselves as well.
"Augustus Cole.Most call me Cole Train."
"Jace Stratton."
"Samantha Byrne." 
"Bernadette Mataki." 
"Clayton Carmine."
"You already know we," Baird said with a smirk.
"Are you seriously enjoying this?" Sam asked.
"Nope, I hate every single minute." 

The crowd all slightly perked up and had approached the squad, most had their heads up but looked uneasy. Some, mostly kids, were slowly walking over to them but their heads were down and ears flat against their heads. The soldiers too walked over to them, weapons forgotten. Just when they were a few feet from the Gears they stopped and looked at Celestia.
"Go on, they are no longer hostile to us."
"Yep, just a misunderstanding," Bernie said. Cole nodded and slung his rifle over his back.
"Come on you guys, Boomer Lady's real nice. Same goes for all of us, we've all just been through a lot." 
Some of the ponies ended up walking over to them, they were a little afraid but as the Gears started to introduce themselves again the townsponies warmed up to them and introduced themselves followed by a hail of questions.
"So where are you from?"
"What's it like being a bipedal?"
"Why are you wearing all that metal?"
"What's that big thing you have on your back." 
"Are you gonna show us stuff from where you come from?" 
Marcus and Anya kept their focus on Celestia, Marcus occasionally shaking hooves with the townsponies while Anya patted them on the head. Princess Celestia smiled as they interacted with the citizens of the town.
"So then, Marcus Fenix and Anya Stroud. Would you like to tell me why you are here?" 
"Well let's just get one thing straight, we're known as humans, not bipedals," Marcus said. 
"We prefer humans because it's just what we are," Anya said. Celestia respectfully nodded.
"Very well, may I ask again why you are here?"
"We're trying to find a way to save the human race and our planet," Marcus said. 
"Oh, why is that?"
"For the past eighty seven years our planet has been ravaged by war. We've destroyed everything in an effort to gain footholds, fuel and eventually survival." 
"Survival? What do you mean by that?"
"Let me explain," Anya said, "Look Princess Celestia, for the past sixteen years we were fighting an enemy that was completely, murderous, evil, merciless, and very deadly."
"What were they?" Celestia asked, her eyes growing wide. Marcus and Anya looked at each other, they hoped that it would never come to this.

"Do you really want to know?" Marcus said, barely a whisper emanated from him but Celetia caught every single word.
"Yes Marcus Fenix of Tyrus. Please tell me, I know something's troubling you and I want to help."
Marcus sighed and looked to Baird. Baird saw him and his usual cocky look dropped off his face. 
"Where's Jack?" Marcus asked. Baird nodded.
"Around here somewhere, why?" 
"The Princess wants to see what we've been doing the last two wars." 
Baird froze for a second then shuddered, not much unnerved him but after a long time fighting he had to show all the records of the war against the Locust that he stored on Jack for future reference. Baird hailed Jack and the little bot appeared out of thin air as it de-cloaked and hovered next to him. The ponies gathered around Baird all recoiled in shock as Jack appeared but then it changed to fascination as the bot glided over to Princess Celestia. Carmine picked up on what was going to happen before Baird said anything and he walked over to the Raven and shut one of the bay doors.
"Put it up here so that everyone can see," he said tapping the shut bay door. Baird nodded and looked over to Jack.
"Jack, access the Locust war footage file." 
Jack gave a few beeps and then a projector emitted from the bot's sensors and shone a screen on the side of the Raven. The ponies all gathered up to watch the flickering screen on the side of the helicopter, Baird motioned them over to sit on the ground in front of them. 
"Gather around and watch the fifteen year nightmare we had to fight through to survive." 

The crowd all gathered up around the door of the Raven and organized themselves so that each and every one of them could see the movie being played. Baird pressed a button on the side of Jack and the projector started up. Jack's files ended up showing various news excerpts, combat footage and short interviews of Gears after they got back from combat. The ponies all stared in amazement as the footage started up. 
"We have confirmed reports that Pelles had been overrun."
"You won't believe how big the Grubs are up close."
"Go go go! Kill them all!" 
"Locust! Locust are killing everyone!"
"Help! Help!"
"ARGHHHHH!"
"I watched as all of my squad died by the hands of Raam. I was lucky to escape his Kryll swarm." 
"I'm here at one of the sites of the Hammer strike. As you can see, there is nothing left." 
"So...much...blood...so...many...dead."
"Look at this ugly fucker I bagged!"
"This will be the last news report I shall ever broadcast. The Locust are near and the Hammer Strike is about to commence. Goodbye Sera, it's been an honor."
The projection ended with a fireball engulfing the reporter and then cutting to static. The ponies all stared in awe as the movie ended. Marcus turned back to the crowd and sighed.
"Yeah, that was what we had to go through for sixteen years." 
	
> Chapter Six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Six


They were all there, just huddled in a circle as they walked over to Shining Armor. Each of them looked to be several hooves tall and they were all coated in some strange sort of armor that I've never seen before, the things they held in their hands were shiny. A few looked like they had spikes on the underside of them. As I watched the Canterlot Guards surround them one of the monsters looked up and pointed the strange pole thing at Twilight's library, a flash of light and a loud boom followed, almost deafening me. I guessed that this was a weapon of some weird origin and I dove on Dinkie to protect her but there were no more sounds until Princess Celestia turned up and had those weird weapons up and spitting fire at her. But after that I ran away with my daughter and hid in the post office until it had quieted down. We came back out and saw the ponies of Ponyville running, screaming, fainting and being sick as they looked at the side of the big metal monster. I couldn't see the side they were on which makes me wonder what they had seen to create such horrible reactions.

(Ditzy "Derpy" Hooves describing the encounter of Delta Squad from her point of view.)


***
 

Outside Twilight Sparkle's library.
One hour and ten minutes into mission.
Status on friendly relationships with ponies: Fucked because of Baird. Nice going, asshole...

Celestia stood agape with Shining after Jack's projector shut off and the little robot hovered over to Baird.
"Look at that, we've gone and scared them now," Bernie said. 
"I don't think that this'll go down well later," Anya stated. Marcus grunted and poked Celestia in the side of her head. No reaction. Cole, Jace, and Sam also tried to coax the stunned ponies out of their stupor.
"Shit, we're gonna need a lotta smelling salts," Cole said.
"Or I could try something," Baird suggested. 
"What are you think of Blondie?" Bernie asked. Baird started to fiddle with Jack, a sort of wry and mischievous smile on his face.
"Just trust me on this." 
Jack's projector started up again and the bot faced the Raven again. This time the footage was not any interviews of Gears or combat footage. This time the footage was footage of Delta Squad when they were in the inside the body of the Riftworm after the sinking of Ilima city. The footage ran a whole half hour, ending with the sawing of the Riftworm's arteries and the escape from the body of the Riftworm after it died. As Delta sawed their way out of the worm and fell out along with a tidal wave of blood the ponies were shocked out of their frozen state and started to run around screaming. Some fainted while others promptly vomited just from the site of the blood. Baird stood back and let Jack's little horror show play out before the bot stopped the projector and then cloaked. Delta stood by as the ponies all ran off, fainted or were sick in plants and behind bushes. Marcus shot a glance at Baird who shrugged in reply.
"What?" he asked. Bernie strode over to him and slapped him upside the back of the head. "Ow, what the fuck Granny?"
"Great going tosser, now the whole fucking mission is over." 

Marcus grunted and then looked to the crowd, most of them had ran off, taking the ones who had fainted with them. The soldiers were all trying to clean their armor of both vomit and terrified piss. He shook his head and then walked over to Celestia with Anya.
"Do you think this'll end up like Vetres?" Anya asked.
"I hope not," Marcus grimly replied. The two walked over to Celestia and saw her frozen.
"Princess Celestia?" Marcus said.
"Princess, are you okay?"
Princess Celestia's face turned sickly green as a response. Before Marcus could say 'shit' she had bolted into Twilight's library and then disappeared. Anya could only guess what had happened to Celestia.
"I don't think they're going to like us here," Anya said. 
"Well, maybe not Baird," Cole said loudly. Baird flinched and then received another swat on the back of the head from Bernie. Cole let out a laugh and then walked over to the remaining crowd of ponies who backed up in fear. Cole set his Lancer down and then picked up a ball that had been dropped. 
"Who's is this?" Cole said as he held up the ball. One small colt emerged from a group of ponies and looked up at the ball in Cole's hand. Cole saw the colt and crouched down next to him and held the ball in front of him. 
"This yours?" he asked with a smile. The colt nodded and stood a little taller. 
"Thank you mister," the colt said. 
"Hey, call me Cole. What's your name anyways?"
"Thrash," the colt said. Cole leaned back and smiled.
"Thrash? Damn awesome name you have there. You play Thrashball?" 
"What's Thrashball?" Thrash asked. Cole stood up and rubbed the back of his head.
"How have you not heard of Thrashball?" 
"Because they're not from our planet," Baird said as he walked over to Cole. Thrash yelped and bolted behind a few larger ponies, still clutching his ball. 
"Looks like they're still afraid of you," Sam said as she walked over to him. 
"No I just think that it saw you walk over and saw your hidden personality," Baird retorted. 
"Well at least I didn't show off the footage of Marcus ripping a giant worm's arteries apart with my Lancer," Sam shot back.  Baird was about to say something back when the door to the Library opened and Celestia walked out. 

"I do apologize, I've never done that before."
"What? Vomit?" Cole asked, "Baby, I did that a lot when I was on a Raven." 
"Yeah, you fucking coated me in your shit once," Baird said.
"Well you shouldn't have gotten in the way of the blast zone." 
Celestia let out a weak chuckle and got the attention of the bickering Gears.
"I appreciate you trying to cheer me up but there is no need," she said, "Now, might I ask who is in charge of your little group?"
"That would be me," Bernie said, "I'm the senior officer."
"Ah good. Now can I ask you something else?"
"Yes?"
"Who is in charge of your settlement?" 
"What do you mean? You mean where we come from?"
"Yes, something like that," Celestia said. 
"Well Chairman Hoffman is in charge of the COG now,"  "After Prescott died we re-established the Coalition and Hoffman became the new Chairman."
"May I meet this, Chairman Hoffman?"  
"Sure, after we can establish communications with Command." 
"If I might interrupt," Marcus said stepping forward, "Can I ask a couple things regarding you, Princess?"
"Yes?"
"The first was when we were shooting you, how are you not dead?"
"Oh that's simple, I created a shield to protect me from your weapons."
"Created a shield?" Baird asked.
"Yes, I have the ability to create protective barriers," Celestia replied. Marcus was about to ask how but decided to hold off until there was a possibility of getting some of the COG in Ponyville to study and research the place. He went on to the other question.
"We shot at you and endangered the entire town. How come you stood down after Baird's joke?"
"Hey! That was a statement!"

Celestia leaned closer to Marcus and Bernie and spoke quietly so that only they could hear.
"If I may say this, I thought that the joke was funny but this...Baird character is rather rude and he seems very sullen, self centered and annoying."
"You just listed all his best features," Bernie whispered back. 
"But the reason I was relaxed and backed off was because I was afraid, your weapons are absolutely terrifying and I knew that you could easily take over the whole of Equestria if you wanted to."
"Ugh, I've had enough of bloody wars." 
"Why is that?" 
"We've been fighting on our world for almost ninety years," Marcus said, "This is the longest that we have gone without having a major enemy to fight. First it was the UIR then it was the Locust and then the Lambent, we never seem to get a break from wars. It's all we know, and it cost me everything." 
"I know how you feel, Marcus Fenix," Celestia said, placing a hoof on his shoulder, "We also are at war so to speak."
"Goddamn it!" Marcus yelled, "Can we ever get a break from all the fucking fighting and dying?"
Celestia recoiled and took her hoof off of Marcus.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."
Marcus let out a disgruntled sigh and looked back up at Celestia, he adjusted the hold on his Lancer.
"No need to be, it's just been a long time since we had any peace and we really need that peace to fix up our home planet." 
"Maybe we can help each other out," Celestia said. Bernie and Marcus looked at her perplexedly. 
"Where are you going with this?" Bernie asked. Celestia gave a small smile and leaned down closer to the Gears. 
"Well, your race is very experienced with war and since we are currently in the middle of one I was thinking that you would be able to fight for us and in return we would help you rebuild your world." 

Marcus and Bernie stood fast and didn't speak for several seconds, they just glared at Celestia until she broke the silence.
"What?" she asked.
"You want us, a bunch of Gears who you barely know and who just fought for friggin years, to become your fucking lapdogs?" Bernie said.
"If lapdogs are what your race calls mercenaries then yes."
"No, fuck that," Marcus said, "We are not gonna fight anymore, we're goddamn sick of it!" 
"I don't want you to fight, I want you to scare the enemy."
Marcus had turned and walked a few steps but stopped when Celestia said what she wanted him to do. Scare off the enemy? Why would she want that instead of crushing them with brute force? More importantly, who were the enemy? Marcus looked to Bernie and saw that she had the 'why-don't-we-ask-her-more?' face, something that she had just recently started to use. Marcus jogged back over and shifted the weight of the Lancer in his arms. 
"What do you mean 'scare them off'?" Bernie asked.
"And who are you fighting anyway?" Marcus added. Celestia let out a disgruntled sigh and turned to face the horizon.
"Didn't Prescott used to do that?" Cole asked.
"Yeah, every single time he had to say something just to get our attention and make himself look important," Baird replied. 
Celestia didn't hear them and started to speak. 
"For the past month we have been at war with the Changelings led by Queen Chrysalis. Ever since we defeated them at the Royal Wedding they have become much more violent and have attacked several towns and villages, we have tried everything we can to stop them but a lot of my brave soldiers have been injured in the fighting. This is why I need you Marcus Fenix and Bernadette Mataki, you said that your kind has been fighting for as long as you can remember. I need your experience to help us fight the Changelings or at least train my soldier to fight like you."
"I don't think that'll go down well," Baird muttered. 
"So you want us to either fight for you or train your soldiers?" Marcus asked. Celestia nodded and turned her head so that she could look at Marcus out of the corner of her eye. 
"I will ask you once more, you may refuse if you wish. Marcus Fenix, will you and your race help Equestria in the war against the Changelings?"
Bernie didn't miss a beat.
"What's in it for us?" 
"We help you rebuild your world."
"And how are you gonna do that?" Baird said as he walked over with Cole. 
"Simple. I can gather ponies who are willing to help and we can fix up your planet."
"Have you seen what we have done to the place in all those years of fighting?" Marcus asked.
"I will see it if you decide to help us in defeating the Changelings."
"You're trying to bloody swindle us aren't you?" Sam said.
"I'm not trying to 'swindle' you, more of trying to 'convince' you." 
Marcus growled and Baird leaned closer to him. 
"I have an idea," he whispered, "Why don't we call in the rest of the COG to convince her to back off and not use us as her personal Gears?"
Marcus's scowl dropped and he gave Baird a nod. He didn't want anything else to do with fighting, he had lost too much and if they accepted this they could jeopardize the future of Sera and the rest of mankind. 
"Seems crazy enough to work."
"Oh it will, don't you remember the reaction we got from just us when we came out of the Library? Now imagine that multiplied by about a thousand. They'll have to agree to our terms." 
"Anyone else agree we go with Baird's idea?"
Delta agreed to go with the plan, aside from the few sarcastic comments, Baird seem genuinely proud of himself. But it wasn't too much to be proud of, there was still no way of getting the COG in to Equestria nor was there any radio communication. The only proof of Delta being in Equestria was Jack and the recorded files of everything that he had seen through his photoreceptors and cameras so if they wanted the COG to follow them, then Jack would have to go back to Command to have the files extracted. Marcus didn't like having to give up their bot but Command, and more importantly Chairman Hoffman, had to see this. Marcus drummed his fingers on his Lancer before coming up with a decision. 

"Carmine, take Sam, Jace, and Jack back to Command. They need to see what Jack's got on his files so that they can brief the COG forces that are coming here."
"What? How come we have to go with Carmine?" Jace asked. 
"Because this place in at war right now and we can't risk losing Jack to the enemy in case they get critical information from him," Marcus replied.
"But hasn't Jack only got what's been going on in this mission only?" Sam said. 
"Actually no," Baird said, "Jack's get a lot of important Locust information and battle strategies. We don't know what those 'Changelings' really are but there's no telling what they could do with that kind of information. It's best that you go with Carmine in case those things decide to try and get Jack, not that they will because they barely have any technology here and there's no way they could crack Jack's files without some sort of super computer." 
Sam nodded and smiled.
"That's nice of you Baird, you didn't try any say anything else."
"Nah, I'm saving it until you leave."
Sam shot Baird a sly smile. Baird smiled back but then movement in the corner of his eye made him spin around and raise his Lancer. He kept his sights trained on a pink object bouncing around behind the other ponies. He had no idea what it was but it seemed that he was the only one who saw the pink object, Baird was about to open fire when a loud voice make him stop.
"Hey! Freaky monster things!" it yelled. Delta turned around and saw the pink object.
"What the hell is that?" Marcus asked. Twilight walked over to him and smiled. 
"I was wondering when she would show up," Twilight said.
"Who's 'she'?"	
"One of my friends, she's really nice once you get to know her." 
"But who is she?"
Twilight smiled as the pink object pushed its way through the crowd until it revealed that it was a pink pony with a box on it's head.
"Who's that?" Cole asked. Before Twilight could answer the pink pony spoke up. 
"Hi monsters! My name is Pinkie Pie!"
Delta stared at Pinkie until Baird said something.
"Well then...This is weird."
"Does she usually act like this?" Bernie asked Twilight.
"Yep, that's Pinkie for you. Our resident party pony knows when there are any newcomers. She actually was the first to see your big metal transport thing."
"So what's she doing here?" Marcus asked.
"Probably going to give you a welcome cake." 
"A welcome cake?" Anya said. Cole let out a chuckle and stepped forward.
"A cake, damn. Hell, I'll go for anything now I'm that hungry." 

Pinkie trotted over to Delta, a small box balanced on her head and a large grin on her face. Even the presence of eight heavily armed and armored Gears, Pinkie could easily retain her pleasant cheerfulness and overzealously happy personality. 
"Helloooo monsters!" 
"Um...what?" Baird said.
"We ain't monsters," Jace said.
"Oh, well what are you then?" Pinkie asked. 
"We're called humans," Sam said. Pinkie cocked her head to one side and then smiled and nodded.
"Ohhhh. Okay okay. Lemme start again."
"You can't be serious," Baird muttered. Pinkie cleared her throat and started again.
"Hellooooooo humans! Welcome to Ponyville. I brought you a cake." 
Pinkie leaned forward so that Marcus could take it. He took hold of the box and Pinkie bowed and backed up. Marcus stared at her and then slowly opened up the box, inside was a small cake with 'Welcome to Ponyville' written on it in bright pink icing.
"Awwww, now ain't that cute?" Cole said. He went to reach for a piece when Baird stopped him.
"Hold up Cole. Be careful with that, we have no idea what's in it."
"Come on Baird, lighten up a little," Sam said as she scooped up a part of the cake. 
"Yeah Blondie," Bernie said, "It's just a little bit of cake."
"Yeah, well, don't come crying to me when you're shitting out blood." 
Most of Delta had gotten a piece of the cake and were about to eat it when Pinkie got their attention.
"Waitwaitwait!" she said, "I forgot to give you the Welcome Song." 
"What welcome song?" Marcus asked.
"Oh dear," Twilight said. 

Pinkie darted off, leaving a cloud of dust that comically took the shape of her form before being blown away. The Gears looked at each other then back to Pinkie as she was pushing a small cart. It didn't look special, just what almost looked like trunk on wheels with a few frilly decorations. Pinkie motioned the Gears forward which they did, clearly confused about what this thing was. 
"So what now?" Jace asked. Before anyone could answer him Pinkie pressed a small button on the side of the cart and it instantly sprung open. Flags of many colors, trumpets, chimneys that looked like candy canes, baked goods and even a open popped out of the inside of the cart, taking Delta by surprise.
"HOLY SHIT!" Baird yelled. Pinkie took no notice of Baird's surprised outburst and started her little Welcome Song as she danced and pranced around the cart and the Gears. 

"Welcome welcome welcome, a fine welcome to you. Welcome welcome welcome, I say how do you do?"
"God, my fucking head hurts," Marcus grunted.
"My ears are gonna start bleeding soon," Baird said.
"Welcome welcome welcome, I say hip-hip hooray. Welcome welcome welcome, to Ponyville, tooodaaaaaaaaaay!"
Pinkie ended with a slide before stopping just in front of Marcus. She was grinning and nodding towards the cart.
"Wait for itttt."
"Wait for what?" Marcus asked. Suddenly the chimneys blasted out a heavy stream of confetti coating the Gears.
"What the hell was that?!" Bernie yelled. 
"Just a little confetti," Pinkie said, "Now for the cake."
"Um, is it supposed to be doing that?" Carmine asked as he pointed to the cart which was shaking violently. Delta watched as it rocked back and forth before the front of the oven blasted open and a large cake shot out of the oven and hit Carmine directly in the face. He flew backwards and landed on his back and stayed still.
"Carmine!" Marcus yelled. This seemed to stir Carmine, he sat up and wiped some of the cake off his helmet. He looked up to the sky and brushed himself off.
"Mmmm, vanilla. My favorite."
> Chapter Seven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Seven


Holy shit, that was the funniest thing I had ever seen; Carmine getting wasted by a fucking cake! I can barely breath. Lemme tell you what happened, that Pinkie Pie or whatever, brought out some sorta weird looking cart. She pushed a button and the whole thing sprung open and allowed several attachments to shoot out such as flags and an oven, a fucking oven! I dunno how that's possible but what I do know is that the old gag of throwing baked goods into people's faces still hasn't died out. I know it's wrong to bring this up but the Carmine brothers haven't had too much of a good history in war. Anthony got shot in the head, Benjamin was eaten by parasites in the Riftworm, and then Clayton almost got his head blown off by a cake. That would've been an embarrassing way to go. But it'd still be fucking hilarious.

(Damon Baird expressing his opinion on Clayton Carmine getting shot in the face with a rouge cake.)


***


Still outside Twilight's library.
One minute after Clayton got shot in the face by a half baked vanilla cake.
Why did that have to happen?

"Oops, sorry mister," Pinkie giggled as she helped Carmine brush off the remains of the cake crumbs. 
"It's okay, I haven't had cake in a long time," Carmine said as he used his knife to pluck bits of the cake out of the helmet's air filter. "Could you have used chocolate though? I like chocolate more." 
"Oh sure, I have a lot of cake where I work." 
"You okay Carmine?" Marcus asked as he jogged over to him.
"Never better," Carmine replied. 
"Well that was interesting," Anya said.
"I wish I had more for you guys," Pinkie said sadly, "But in the meantime, do you wanna meet my friends?"
"Might as well try and improve our relations with these guys," Bernie said. She shot Baird a glance and he raised his arms questioningly.
"What?"
"You bloody well know what."
"So where are your friends?" Anya asked Pinkie. Pinkie looked into the crowd and tapped her chin.
"I don't know, you already met Twilight but I can't see the others anywhere." 
"Maybe they left?" Sam suggested. 
"No they'd never do that."
Pinkie scanned the crowd again and then spotted one of her friends. She waved and ran over to them. Delta watched as Pinkie dragged an orange pony with a large rancher hat out of the crowd by their tail.
"Ah'm tellin' ya Pinkie, ah don't wanna meet them."
"Come on AJ, they just wanna say hi." 
"Ah don't care. They look like they wanna eat me."
"But they already ate some of the cake, plus they don't look like they want to eat us."

Delta watched the orange pony struggle to escape but Pinkie had a firm hold on her tail. The orange pony looked up at the Gears fearfully and froze. Pinkie deposited the pony in front of Marcus and Anya who stared astounded at her. Marcus cocked his head to one side as Anya leaned down next to the pony who was now shaking with tears forming in her eyes. Anya bit her lower lip and tried to say something to the pony.
"Um...Hello."
The orange pony burst out crying and curled up into a little ball and continued to sob.
"Good start to making friends," Marcus muttered.
"Hey, it's okay," Anya said, "We're not going to hurt you." 
"Leave-me-alone!" the pony sobbed. 
"Maybe we should leave this one alone for a little bit," Bernie said.
"Hey!" a voice yelled at the Gear, it almost sounded like it was coming from above them. Delta looked up to see a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail hover above them. "Leave my friends alone!"
"Well this should be interesting," Carmine said. The pegasus flew down and landed square in front of Marcus, she stood up on her hind legs and swung her front hooves around like a boxer.
"You stay away from Applejack you monsters!"
"You can't be serious," Baird muttered.
"Hey, it's okay. We're not here to hurt you or your friend," Anya said.
"Yeah right," the pegasus said. 
"Look," Marcus said, his tone shifting to something much more calm and collective. "We're not here to fight we just want to find out more about this place." 
"I don't believe you. Give me one reason to not kick your butts."
"Hmm, let me see," Baird said as he tapped his chin, "We're bigger, stronger, well trained and heavily armed Gears with heavy combat armor on. I don"t think that it'd be smart to fight us."
"Easy, Blondie," Bernie said, "We don't want to cause another panic."
The pegasus flew up and stopped at Bernie's eye level, staring daggers into her eyes. Bernie stepped backwards and put one hand up.
"Listen, we can be friends. Just calm down and we can talk."
"I don't think so monster, you don't look like you could win a race against me."
"Why would I want to race you?"
"To show who's best," the pegasus said with a sneer.
"Dash, please calm down. The humans have got some powerful weapons on them," Twilight said. 
"Oh yeah?" The pegasus asked Twilight, "Like what?"
"That spiky weapon next to your face is one of them."
The pegasus looked back towards Bernie and saw the teeth of the Lancer's chainsaw staring right back at her. The pegasus dropped out of the air like a rock and scooted back behind the orange pony.
"Wha-what is that?" the pegasus stammered.
"This," Baird said as he stepped up next to Bernie, "Is the Mark Two Lancer. This is the primary weapon of the Gears."
"But why are there spikes on it?" Twilight asked. 
"Because it's a chainsaw as well as an assault rifle. Care to show them Bernie?"
"I don't think that's a good idea," Bernie said. 
"No no no," Twilight said, "I want to study your race later, I need to see as much as I can before I can get something to write with." 
"You sure that you want us to do this?" 
"Yes, please go on."

Bernie sighed and flicked on the Lancer's chainsaw power switch. As much as she thought that this was a bad idea, she had to do it in order to establish some sort of diplomatic relation with the ponies. Not that revving the chainsaw of the Lancer would be a good start but at least it was something. Bernie blipped the chainsaw a few times then let out a few second burst of power. The ponies all stepped back and watched in amazement as the blade of the saw span and shimmered in the sunlight. Bernie stopped and saw that the ponies had all backed up and the orange one has stopped crying to watch. 
"And that," Baird said, startling Bernie, "Was the Mark Two Lancer Chainsaw. Any questions?"
None of the ponies raised a hoof.
"Good," Baird said, he then muttered, "I really hate talking to these freaks." 
"It's okay," Anya said, "We are not here to hurt you, we just want to get to know you better." 
"Come on everypony!" Pinkie yelled, "They aren't monsters, just misunderstood."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Carmine asked. 
The ponies all looked at each other and slowly approached the Gears, Pinkie kept ushering them forward with her cheerful tone and that did ease the frightened ponies. But it still didn't hide the massive weapons that Delta was carrying. Twilight smiled a little and then looked up to Marcus. 
"I think we should get reacquainted," she said holding out a hoof, "Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle."
Marcus hesitated at first but he took the tiny hoof in his hand and shook.
"Marcus Fenix," he said. Twilight gave a small smile as Marcus shook her hoof. Marcus saw that she was staring at his hand once more and his expression relaxed a little. "Still fascinated about my hand?"
"Yes, very," Twilight said. Marcus paid no heed to Twilight but tried to get her to let go of his hand. Twilight realized this and let go, giggling somewhat. Marcus gave her a friendly nod and went back to observing the squad. Currently, Bernie and Sam were being interviewed by a white unicorn with three diamonds on its flanks and a purple mane and tail, Marcus walked over so he could hear what they were talking about. He stopped because he didn't understand what conversation was going on between them, it sounded like they were talking about the latest Tyran fashion. Gear armor.

"So is this what your kind wears?" the unicorn asked.
"Not all of us, just the Gears," Bernie explained.
"So what is all this apparel made of?"
"A mix of tungsten steel, kevlar and titanium," Sam said, "It's relatively bulletproof." 
"Hmmm, looks hideous to me," the Unicorn said as she paced around Bernie and Sam. She then stopped and looked up, seeing Marcus she shook her head. "I cannot believe that you have to all wear such uncomfortable clothes." 
"I'd rather wear this than get a bullet wound," Marcus replied.
"But all that looks so heavy, how do you move in it?" 
"You get used to it."
The unicorn suddenly put a hoof to her face and shook her head.
"Do excuse me, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Rarity, I own Carousel Boutique."
"What's that?" Bernie asked.
"It's an amazing designer shop where I can make the greatest clothes Equestria has ever seen!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Sounds nice." 
"Oh it is. Many famous ponies have come and bought stuff that I created from my shop! I have never been so proud of myself." 
"So Rarity," Sam said sitting on a stump in front of the unicorn, "Do you have any other family members?"
"I do, most of them are around Equestria aside from my little sister."
"Okay, where's she then?" 
Rarity looked around and spotted Anya and Carmine talking with a trio of fillies, one of which was a white unicorn like Rarity aside from her mane and tail being a light pink and purple rather than dark purple. Marcus stood back and listened to them.
"So what are your names?" Anya asked the slightly nervous fillies. Rarity's little sister cowered behind an an orange pegasus filly as a pony filly shakily stepped forwards.
"Mah-mah name's Apple Bloom." 
"Apple Bloom?" Carmine repeated.
"That's a very sweet name," Anya said softly. 
"Th-thank you." Apple Bloom said. Carmine crouched down beside Anya and held his hand out to the pegasus filly.
"It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you." 
"Are-are you sure?" the pegasus asked. Carmine nodded and the pegasus slowly walked forward into Carmine's outstretched hand. She allowed him to gently stroke her mane unto which Carmine took hold of her ear between his thumb and forefinger and started rubbing the filly's ear, which caused the filly to make a small, satisfied sound.
"Yeahhhhh," she said, "That feels so nice." 
"You like that?" Carmine asked. The filly nodded in reply, Carmine nodded and kept up rubbing the filly's ear. "So what's your name?"
"Scootaloo, yours?"
"Clayton Carmine." 
"Cool name."
"Yours isn't bad either."
Scootaloo giggled and gently pushed Carmine's hand away. She looked back and then pulled the unicorn over who froze up and started shaking.
"This is Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo said, nodding towards the unicorn filly. "She's my other best friend."
"Hi there," Carmine said to Sweetie Belle. The unicorn teared up and curled up on the ground.
"Please don't eat meeeee!" she cried. Scootaloo sat down next to Sweetie Belle and tried to comfort her. 
"It's okay, Sweetie. He's good, he won't hurt you."
"I don't care! He scares me!" 
"It's okay," Carmine said as he got Sweetie Belle's attention, "I promise I won't hurt you." 
Sweetie Belle looked up and saw Carmine's open, outstretched hand in front of her. She slowly sat up and placed her front hooves in Carmine's palm. She looked at his hand and then up to Carmine's emotionless helmet, even though she couldn't tell that he was smiling she grinned and giggled a little. 
"Your hoof is all funny," she said. Carmine smiled under his helmet and closed his fingers around Sweetie Belle's hooves making her recoil and then giggle again.
"What was that?" Scootaloo asked. 
"What? I only just closed my fingers," Carmine said.
"Fingers?" Sweetie Belle asked. 
"Yes, that's what the appendages on the end of my hand are called." 
"Hands?" Scootaloo said, "Is that what you call your front hooves?" 
Carmine nodded and looked up to see Anya, Jace and Apple Bloom, the filly was on her back while Anya rubbed Apple Bloom's stomach, making her laugh and roll around. Jace was standing behind Anya, smiling too.
"That's pretty damn cute." 

Meanwhile in the back of the crowd, Cole and Baird were with the blue, rainbow maned pegasus along with a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail. The yellow pegasus was cowering behind the other pegasus who was trying to look tough but was still shaking like a leaf.
"You-you-you stay back!" she stammered.
"Hey, come on. I ain't gonna hurt you," Cole said. The yellow pegasus squeaked and shuffled back, in response Cole shifted his weight to one knee and crouched down next to the pegasus. "You wanna tell me your name?"
"You tell us yours first," the blue pegasus said. 
"My name's Augustus Cole. I'm more famously known as the Cole Train." 
"B-b-b-but you don't l-l-l-l-look like a s-s-s-s-steam locomotive," the yellow pegasus stammered. 
"It's my Thrashball name, baby. They called me that because I was unstoppable. Whooo!"
The two pegasi recoiled and then looked at each other. 
"So who's the other one?" The blue pegasus asked.
"That's Baird, best you stay away from him."
"Good," Baird snapped, "I'm not talking to freaky talking pony things."
"I...um...that's not nice...mister..." the yellow pegasus said. 
"Yeah! What makes you think that you can speak to us like that?" the blue pegasus demanded.
"Because I've been through a lot of shit and I don't want to end up insane from talking to you anomalies."
"He's not very friendly is he?" the blue pegasus whispered to Cole.
"Yeah, but he's okay once you get to know him. So what are your names?"
"I'm Rainbow Dash," the blue pegasus said. 
"I'm F-F-F-Fluttershy," the yellow pegasus said. Cole smiled and offered the two an outstretched hand, Rainbow Dash hesitated and then walked forward into Cole's open hand. She allowed him to stroke her mane and then realizing that he wasn't going to hurt her she walked closer so that Cole could hug her around her neck.
"Hey thanks," Dash said. 
"No problem," Cole replied, "I've always wanted to hug a horsey."
"Hey, I'm a pegasus." 
"Sorry," Cole said. He then looked up and saw Fluttershy had stood up and was looking up at Cole and Dash, he was surprised to see that she was smiling. Cole held out an arm and ushered her over. "Come on Shy, you wanna join in the hugs too?"
Fluttershy squeaked and ran into Cole's open arm where she embraced the Gear and giggled.
"Awww, ain't you the cute one?" Cole said.  
"Thank you Mr. Cole," Fluttershy said. Baird looked over his shoulder and saw the ponies cuddling with Cole, he groaned and sat down on a tree stump.
"I wonder where I can throw up?"
"Hey, come on Baird. No need to be like that." 
"You know that I'm not enjoying this." 
"Why Mr. Baird?" Twilight said as she walked over with Marcus. 
"Because I don't like being in this girly world," Baird snapped back, "It fucking sucks and I wanna just get back to fixing Ravens and shit."
"What?" 
"He wants to fix up machines," Marcus said. 
"Like what?" Twilight asked.
"Anything!" Baird barked. 
"Would fixing a parade float make you happy?" 
Baird looked up and then to Twilight and then cocked his head to one side. He looked like he was mulling over what to do when he suddenly stood up and walked over to Twilight.
"Show me to the machines," he said.

Twilight led the still irritated but a much less bitter Baird to what looked like a workshop in the center of the town and showed him inside. Baird looked around the place and saw that it was packed with engine parts, broken machinery, and various tools to work with. Baird nodded and cracked his knuckles.
"Okay, show me to the broken shit." 
Twilight led Baird to a large dilapidated float that was made to look like a large basket of fruit. Baird let out an irritated grunt and then he walked around it, looking for something appealing about the float. 
"So what's up with it?" Twilight asked him.
"How the hell should I know?" Baird said, "You said that you knew what was up with this piece of shit." 
"No I didn't, I asked if you wanted to fix up one of our floats."
"Well then how the hell am I supposed to do that without any information on what's wrong with it?"
"I thought that you were smart."
"I am smart!" Baird shot back as he stormed over to Twilight, "You just haven't seen what I can do with a wrench and all the stuff I dug up on the Locust. I friggin researched them ever since they first popped out of the ground and I managed to help save Sera from being wiped out." 
Twilight looked at Baird quizzically as she took in what he just said. 
"You study other species too?"
"Um, yeah. Why? Is that a big thing here?"
"Well, I also have been studying and researching other Equestrian species but I've never had the chance to study something like you before."
"I'm not an idiot Twilight," Baird said, "I know what you're gonna say next and the answer is no."
"Awww, pleassssssssse?" Twilight begged, "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I really think that it'll help Princess Celestia understand your kind better." 
"Well if you want to learn about Sera and humans then go and study the others, I need to figure out how to fix this scrapheap."
Twilight left Baird alone, a few curses drifted through the door as Twilight left but she didn't know what they meant. All she could guess was that it was normal. 
"But what if it's some sort of old human dialect?" Twilight thought. She nodded as she came up with the idea on how she was going to greet the Gears next time she saw them. 

Back at the Library, Carmine had gotten the Raven fired up and was loading up Jack, Jace and Sam for transport back to Command HQ. The Raven's rotors hadn't started up yet but the hum of the engine was present and somewhat relaxing. Twilight saw Delta all gathered up around the Raven, she could see that they were talking and she wanted to find out and see if they'd like her new greeting. She smiled and trotted over to the squad, hoping to strengthen the relationship between their races. Delta didn't notice as she trotted over and take in a breath.
"What's up, motherfuckers?"
> Chapter Eight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Eight


A reminder to all citizens of Ponyville. Due to the recent rise of Changeling attacks all ponies are to be indoors no later than 10:00 pm. All suspicious activities, duplicated ponies, and Changeling sightings are to be reported immediately! Failure to do so will result in punishment and possible imprisonment depending on the nature of the crime and if there is a following attack. Thank you.

(Ponyville Changeling attack warning poster. Found on the side of the Ponyville town hall)


***


Sugarcube Corner.
Two hours into-
Hi there!
Gah! What the fuck?!
I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name?
Holy shit, how'd you get here? Look, can you let me get on with this?
Okiedokielokie! Seeya later mister!
...
Well fuck me...

Roughly a half hour had passed since Twilight decided to greet Delta in what could only be described as the most hilarious and rather inappropriate way to say hi. Cole was still suffering from the aftereffects of laughing so hard and even now he was still chuckling. Carmine, Sam and Jace had left with Jack and were on their way to Command to show the footage of Ponyville that was taken. As for the remainder of the Squad, they remained in the town and were taken to Sugarcube Corner for something to eat. Baird still hadn't returned from fixing the float, but no-one really seemed to care since they all knew that it was Baird who must have made Twilight curse. Bernie was now sitting next to the unicorn and talking to her.
"I'm sorry Bernie, I didn't know what it meant at the time."
"Hey, it's okay. You didn't know."
Twilight smiled and hugged Bernie.
"I think I should stay away from Baird for a little bit," she said. Bernie let herself chuckle as she rubbed Twilight's back.
"Yeah, Blondie says a lot of stuff like that. Good choice you made." 
Twilight smiled and used her magic to levitate a cake and eat some. Bernie marveled at the sight but she diverted her attention when she saw Marcus and Anya sitting with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. 
"So what is the reason behind all those wars?" Apple Bloom asked. 
"Many reasons," Anya replied, "More than enough to keep the fighting from stopping." 
"But why fight?" Sweetie Belle asked, "Why didn't you work something out."
"If we did then the Pendulum Wars would've ended a lot quicker," Marcus said, "And if they did, so many lives could've been saved, including my brother."
The ponies all sat up and leaned closer. Marcus grunted and turned away.
"Ya wanna talk about it, sugarcube?" Applejack asked. Marcus sighed and turned back to them.
"As much as I don't want to I'm gonna anyway. I need to get it off my chest."
"Sounds like something that's really troubled you for a long time," Scootaloo said.
"Yeah, a really long time."

In the back of the store, Cole was minding his own business sitting down and trying to write a letter on a crumpled piece of paper and with a dying pen. He grunted in irritation as it faded but he managed to get it going again. As he was in the middle of a sentence a shadow was cast over his table, he looked up to see Pinkie Pie smiling at him. Behind her was Rarity and Fluttershy. 
"Hi there Mr. Cole Train!" Pinkie said.
"Hey Pinkie," Cole said. 
"Whatca doing?"
"Writing a letter to my momma. I've been doing it for a while now."
"Oooooh. Can I be included? Can my friends be in it too?!"
"Yeah all of ya are gonna be in it." 
"So..um...can I meet your mother?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yes, I would like that as well," Rarity added, "I do like to meet new ponies, I mean, people." 
"I wish you could...I also wish she could read this too..." Cole said then drifted off. Pinkie saw him let out a stuttered sigh and wipe off a tear. She knew what had upset Cole and her ears drooped in sadness and sympathy.
"Oh...I'm sorry mister. I didn't know I'd offend you." 
"It's okay Pinkie. And call me Cole."
Fluttershy too saw the tears and she sat next to him and placed her wing around his back and hugged him. Cole returned the hug and then felt both Pinkie and Rarity hug him from the other side. Cole hugged them too and smiled.
"Here," Rarity said, "Let me get you something proper to write on rather than that old piece of paper."
"Nah, it's okay. I'm done anyways."
"Nonsense, what if you want to write again? You must have something nice to write on." 
Cole shrugged and stroked Fluttershy's mane as Rarity rummaged around in her saddlebag for a mix of parchment rolls and quills. Pinkie prodded Cole in the side and gave him a cake once he turned around to see what she wanted, he smiled and ruffled Pinkie's fuzzy mane. 

The buzz of conversation in Sugarcube corner was interrupted when the front door to the shop burst open and a silhouette of a thin but stocky human was standing in the door. Delta and the ponies all sat up. Anya, Rainbow Dash and Applejack all covered the ears of the fillies because they knew what was coming. 
"Holy shit it's hot out there." 
"Hello Blondie," Bernie said. 
"I managed to fix up that shitty little float of yours, well I got it running at least."
"And that's a good thing, how?" Marcus asked.
"Once the COG get here I can work on it properly. Best that you don't go and see it, I want to keep it a surprise."
"What are you planning, Baird?" Cole asked. Baird was about to answer but he froze when he saw Fluttershy cuddled up to him.
"Oh, really. You serious?" 
"What?" 
"You're hugging one of them."
"And? I ain't seeing anything wrong with this." 
"Nevermind, I'm here because one of the ponies wanted to ask us something."
Baird let out a heavy sigh and stepped aside, revealing a earth pony. Twilight stood up and walked over to her.
"Hi Miss Cheerilee, what brings you here?"
"Hello Twilight. I was here because I wanted to talk to the humans, I need to ask them something."
Bernie stood up and went to go stand next to Twilight.
"Sure thing, what did you want to ask?"
Cheerilee looked a little nervous at first but then spoke up.
"Well I'm a teacher at Ponyville's school and currently I am teaching them about different Equestrian species. Since you are not from Ponyville I was wondering if you would come along as guests and tell the foals a little about yourselves." 
Bernie turned back to Delta and gave them a questioning look.
"Well? Shall we?" 

After a brief conversation with each other and a few goodbyes to the ponies, Delta all stood up and joined Bernie and Baird and let Cheerilee lead them to the school house. Being unfamiliar with the humans and wanting to know a little more about them, Cheerilee asked the squad a few questions relating to their lives, Sera, and what brought them to Ponyville. The mare was rather shocked but amazed to hear the stories of the Gears and what their home planet was like after nearly ninety years of constant warfare. 
"My goodness, how did you manage to survive?" she asked. 
"We just did," Bernie replied, "We weren't gonna give up. Not after everything that we've done."
"I'm impressed, so then, anything that you want me to add to my presentation?" 
"Nah, you got everything you need, baby," Cole said. Cheerilee giggled and blushed, causing Baird to grunt in irritation.
"So where is this schoolhouse anyways?" Anya asked Cheerilee.
"Oh, just over there. You can't miss it. Follow me."
Delta followed Cheerilee into the schoolhouse and stood over by the side of her desk. As of now the single classroom school was empty but the sounds of approaching fillies and colts let Delta know that the desks would soon be filled. As the foals entered the room there was a mix of reactions; some sat down and stared at the Gears, a few stopped and froze in fear but were ushered in and sat down, only the three fillies that Delta had met were glad too see them. Cheerilee trotted up to the front of the class and hushed the whispers that had broken out. 
"Class, I want you all to welcome Delta Squad. They're going to be our guests for today on our subject on Equestrian species and races." 
"Hey," Baird said, "We're not from here."
"Oh, sorry. Would you mind telling me where you are from then?" 
"Yeah, go on Blondie," Bernie said with a smile, "Tell the little kiddies where we came from." 
Baird let out a heavy and disgruntled sigh.
"Shittttt," he hissed.
"And he's screwed it up already," Bernie whispered to Cole, who snorted and grinned.
"Baird's got a talent for doing that."

Baird grunted and stepped forwards to face the class, hands behind his back and a hardened look in his face.  
"Okay then, since you have no clue as to who we are or where we came from I might as well tell you. We are humans and we come from Sera. There, anything else? No? Good." 
Baird then stepped back and nodded to Bernie, a smirk on his face.
"Over to you, Granny." 
A few of the foals giggled as Bernie stepped up and gave Baird a playful punch on the arm. She stepped up and adopted the same pose as Baird. 
"Hello there, kids. I'm Commander Bernie Mataki of the Coalition of Ordinated Governments. I've been a COG soldier since the Seventy-fifth year of the Pendulum Wars. These Gears behind me are Delta Squad. They'll introduce themselves and tell you a little about themselves and then afterwards you can ask us any questions you want. Sound good?"
The foals nodded. Cheerilee stepped up and spoke.
"You may call them by name, class. They want to feel more welcome here." 
"Thank you Miss. Cheerilee," Bernie said, she then turned to the squad, "Go on Marcus, you can be first."
Marcus stepped up and grunted. He kept his face blank and took a spot next to Bernie. He then drew breath and spoke.
"My name's Marcus Fenix. I'm a sergeant in the COG's armed forces. I've fought in both the Pendulum Wars and the war against the Locust. My father was a scientist and he helped the COG develop weapons, as for me, I became a Gear. A soldier."  
One of the foals raised a hoof.
"Save your questions for after they introduce themselves," Cheerilee said. The foal then lowered their hoof. This time Anya stepped forward.
"Hello there. I'm Anya Stroud. I used to be Delta's CIC informant. What I did was I used to tell the squad what to do and where to go while they gave me information as to what was going on in the field. After a while I became a soldier and fought in Delta." 
Cole stepped up as Anya stepped back. 
"Hey there kids. My name's Augustus Cole, better known as the world famous Thashball player, The Cole Train! Whooo!" 
Some of the schoolponies jumped when Cole did his trademark cheer. A few others stared at him and giggled.
"No I know y'all don't know what Thrashball is but I can tell you one thing, I'm the best at it. Ain't no-one who plays the game like me, nobody!" 
By now most of the fillies and colts had relaxed and were eager to hear the last human talk, but Delta was a little on edge about it.
Baird took Cole's place and spoke.
"Okay then, I'm gonna make this quick cuz I don't like talking. I'm Baird and I'm an engineer, and for those of you who don't know what that is I basically fix and build stuff. Now I'm not gonna answer any questions about me unless I want to okay?"
The foals nodded and Baird stepped behind Cheerilee, happy that he had gotten his little intro out of the way. Cheerilee smiled to the squad and then turned to the class.
"Okay, you may ask them some questions now." 

The foal who raised their hoof earlier did so again, Cheerilee nodded.
"This one is for Marcus. If your dad's a scientist, then are you smart too?"
"Yeah, I know a decent amount of stuff." 
This time a young colt raised a hoof and pointed to Cole.
"Whadda wanna ask me?" Cole said cheerfully.
"Well, um, how'd you get to be so good at what you do?"
"Simple little guy, I just kept at it until I knew I was the best."
The colt nodded, smiled and leaned back. This time Apple Bloom wanted to ask a question. 
"Um...Miss Matacki. Ah was wondering what that big noisy thing you had was."
"What do you mean?"
"That long thing that looked like a big metal stick." 
"Oh, you mean my Longshot sniper rifle?"
"Yeah. Why is it so loud?"
"Well, that's because it is. Longshot rounds are quite big so they are gonna be loud." 
"Cool!" Scootaloo said, "Can we see it later?" 
"Sure, if anyone knows where I can get some targets I can show you guys." 
Most of the foals nodded gingerly and grinned, however, one filly raised a hoof. Cheerilee noticed her.
"Yes Diamond Tiara?" 
"I wanted to ask something for all of these humans. If you're supposed to be great soldiers or whatever, how come you don't have any cutie marks?"
"Cutie marks?" Baird asked, "What the hell are those?"
"Ah yes, I forgot that you didn't know about those." 
"Would you mind explaining what they are?"
"Cutie marks are marks that show your special talent."
"Something that you don't have," Diamond Tiara said with what was unmistakably an evil sneer. 

Baird strided over and placed both of his hands flat on her desk and stared at her dead in her eyes.
"You're one little rude piece of shit aren't you?" he said flatly. Diamond Tiara leaned back in her chair and scowled at Baird.
"So? At least I've got my cutie mark. Where's yours Mr. so-called engineer?" 
"What's a funny little mark gotta do with something that I can do that I know you can't do for shit?"
"Because it makes me pretty and not a blank flank."
She shot an evil glance at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Baird looked behind him to Bernie and shook his head.
"Can you believe this?"
"No, I can't," Bernie said. If Baird hadn't been extremely pissed off at Diamond Tiara a flash of amazement would've crossed his face, Bernie was glowering at Diamond rather than Baird. Baird then turned to Marcus.
"Why don't you show her what kind of marks we have over in Tyrus?"
He then nodded to the sleeve that covered Marcus's tattoo, Marcus nodded and then walked over. Currently Diamond Tiara was distracted so he took his glove off and rolled up his sleeve. He then clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it down on Diamond's desk making her yelp and jump. She looked up and saw Marcus's tattoo which he then jabbed a finger to. 
"You see this? These name here? These are the names of my brothers. You know what happened to them? They fucking died for me, I didn't want them to do that but you know what? They fucking did. This here isn't a mark to show that all the people who I fought with die like it's what they're good at, it's here to honor, commemorate and remember them. And that's something you're shitty little ass tattoo can't do." 
Baird backed up and smothered a few laughs. Cole leaned out from behind Marcus and grinned at Diamond.
"Bad idea to piss off Marcus, Diamond baby." 

Several of the foals burst out laughing as Diamond buried her head under her hooves in shame. Marcus rolled his sleeve back down and pulled his glove on before going to stand back next to Anya.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" she asked.
"Better these ponies learn what shit we went through rather than let it all slide by," Marcus replied, "I'm not putting up with them insulting my friends. No matter who they are." 
Marcus looked over to the three fillies and gave them a friendly nod. The three smiled back. Cheerilee then stepped up and smiled nervously to the class, she clearly didn't want this debacle to continue. 
"Okay class, let's all thank Delta Squad for coming."
"Thank you Delta!" the class chimed, then they applauded as they left, Marcus stepped in front of Diamond's desk and tapped it, making her look up. He jabbed a finger close to her face and spoke sternly to her.
"Don't you ever fucking insult my friends!"
Then he strolled out, not even looking back to see her reaction. 
"Nice one," Baird said as Marcus passed him. Marcus nodded and took his Lancer from the bench where it was resting.
"Let's go find a place to sleep. Move out Delta." 

Half an hour and a few friendly directions later Delta arrived at the Corral Bed and Breakfast inn. Much to the surprise of the Gears, the place had rooms that could accommodate their sheer size. Unfortunately there were only three rooms meaning that four of the squad had to share. After a brief argument between Bernie and Baird the Gears each managed to organize who was in what room. Anya and Bernie were paired up in one room while Cole and Baird got another room, Marcus however got a room to himself. As he sat there on the bed he looked up to the sky through the open window and sighed deeply.
"I wish you were here Dom. I really do." 
Realizing that there was no sign of any sort of threat Marcus decided to take off his armor. He didn't see any need for it nor would the others be wearing theirs for much longer. As he pulled off the heavy outer plating there was a knock on his door, he tossed the plates on the bed and walked over to it, the weight of his boots making a sound that made it seem as if the floor was about to collapse. He opened up the door and saw a gray pegasus wearing a mailbag hovering at his eye level and grinning at him. Marcus simply stared back, not because his time alone had been interrupted but because the pegasus's eyes seemed to be off center by a massive margin.
"Um...Hello," Marcus said. 
"Hi there mister," The pegasus replied, "Are you Marcus Fenix?"
"Yeah. Who are you though?" 
"I'm Ditzy Hooves, Ponyville's mailmare. Although, everypony calls me Derpy instead of Ditzy. I dunno why but I don't mind the name Derpy, you can call me Derpy too if you want." 
"Okay then, so why are you here?"
"Oh, well I was told to deliver these to you," Derpy said as she reached into her mailbag and pulled out several colorful letters and gave them to Marcus. He looked through them and then gave Derpy a questioning look. "The fillies and colts who saw you at the school today were told to write letters to you and your friends. They're mainly questions though, nothing interesting." 
"I bet," Marcus muttered. Derpy gave Marcus a little salute and flew off, the sounds of various objects breaking followed. Marcus sighed and sat down on the bed to read some of the letters. A lot of them were in colorful and decorated with a mix of stickers, glitter or crude drawings of him and the rest of his squad. He let out a small huff and randomly picked up a bright orange letter, he turned it over in his hand and read what it said on the front. 
"To Marcus Fenix, from Scootaloo" 
Marcus opened it up and decided to read it. After all, who knew what the little filly had written to Marcus about.
> Chapter Nine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Nine


Dear Mr. Cole, 
My name is Rumble. I am writing this to you so that I can learn more about you, I too am a sort of sporty pegasus and I'm guessing that Thrashball in your world is some sort of sport. I want to ask you if you were any good at this sport and if you could show me what it was like playing and how to play it. I hope that we might be able to become friends, you seem like such a cool human and I'd really like to know you better. Write back if you can, it would make me super happy!

signed, Rumble

(Letter sent to Cole from a colt named "Rumble". Cole sent a reply letter shortly afterwards.)


***


Ponyville town center.
24 hours since mission start.

"Baby, I feel so good for shedding that armor." 
"You said it. I am so glad that Command isn't here to see us." 
Cole looked around and saw that after a day of being in Ponyville, a lot of the residents had gone back to living their lives normally. Aside from a few terrified looks, most waved to them or said hi to Baird and Cole. As for the two Gears, they also had shed their plate armor and were now dressed only in their fatigues. As for their weapons, Cole and Baird kept their Lancers slung on their back and Snub Pistols in their holsters, just in case something happened. Even after all the fighting had stopped, the Gears were still a little on edge, paranoid that Locust or Lambent might pop out of the ground and attack. After fifteen years of fighting the same enemy only to have the fighting stop so suddenly was a little bit of a shock to the Gears. They still expected an attack even in this world. Baird, bored and feeling as if he was going to go mad in the world of colorful talking ponies decided to strike up a conversation. 

"What did you think of yesterday while we were at the school?" 
"It was nice," Cole replied, "I got some letters from the little kids."
"Same here, how many did you get?"
"Got about six." 
"Interesting, I got six too but that's half the class. Did each of those kids write a letter to each of the squad."
"Seems like it. So, you wanna go to that bakery again?" 
Baird let out a sigh and nodded reluctantly.
"Might as well, it's frigging boring around here." 
Cole slapped Baird on the back and smiled.
"That's what I'm talking about baby! Come on, I'm hungry as well." 
Cole and Baird made their way to Sugarcube Corner, attracting a lot of attention and a following crowd of ponies. Baird paid no heed to the following ponies but Cole was merrily talking to them. As they neared the bakery Baird stopped to look back, once again Cole was talking to the older ponies and hugging the fillies and colts, Baird let out an irritated sigh and walked directly into Applejack.
"Oof!" Applejack grunted.
"Shit, sorry," Baird said as he helped her back up. 
"That's okay," Applejack replied, "Ah wasn't looking either."  
"You okay though?"
"Yeah ah'm fine. So what brought you here?" 
"I'm bored, Cole's hungry. You know, usual crap." 
"Ahm sorry to hear that."
"Nah, it's okay. I just want to make myself useful is all."
Applejack tapped her chin and looked over to Cole who was now watching the crowd depart. She looked back to Baird and then nodded.
"Well, ah have a proposition for you if you're interested." 
"What is it?" Baird asked. 
"Mah family's coming to Ponyville for the annual Apple Family Reunion and this year we're having a Barn Raising."
"Barn Raising? What the hell is a Barn Raise?" 
"Oh yeah, I forgot that you don't know much about here." 
"Mind explaining what a Barn Raising is?" Baird asked. Applejack nodded and explained.
"Well, what we do is tear down one of our old apple barns and then rebuilt it from scratch." 
"How hard is it?"
"Not very hard because the whole family will be there to help. But ah think if you and Cole came it'd be much quicker since you got those weird things on your...um...forelegs."
"You mean my hands?" Baird asked holding up one hand, Applejack nodded in reply. 
"So, you want to help?"
"Will there be food for us too?" Cole asked as he walked over.
"Yeah! Mah family cooks a lotta stuff so there'll be something to eat." 
"I'm in for the job, baby," Cole said. Baird shrugged and nodded too.
"I might as well make myself useful, where to then?"

Applejack nodded and turned back to the inside of the bakery.
"Hey, Apple Bloom. We gotta go back to the farm now." 
"Okay Applejack," Apple Bloom said as the little filly ran over to her older sister with a large smile, "So can we go see the family now?"
"Sure thing, Cole and Baird are coming too."
"Neat-o! Come on, let's go!"
Cole chuckled in good nature as they let Apple Bloom lead the way back to the farm. As the ecstatic filly led Applejack, Cole and Baird to Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack went and started a conversation with the two Gears.
"So how'd you guys get here anyways?" 
"Dunno really," Baird said, "We came across some sort of portal or something and then we ended up here." 
"That's strange." 
"Hell yeah it was," Cole said, "I'm still confused about the Locust defences though. If this place was what was behind that wall, then why were all those defences towards it?" 
"Maybe the Locust don't like talking ponies." 
"Heh, maybe."
"Hey, Mr. Cole and Mr. Baird," Apple Bloom said, "Where are the others who were with you?" 
"You mean Marcus, Anya and Bernie?" Cole asked. Apple Bloom nodded. Baird huffed and rubbed his chin a little as he thought.
"I think Marcus went to go find Ms. Cheerilee to apologize for yesterday, as for Anya and Granny, I dunno. Who knows where they might be. But still, I'm a little confused about what happened to Marcus." 
"Whadda mean?" Applejack asked.
"Marcus shouted at Diamond Tiara yesterday because she was making fun of the humans," Apple Bloom said.
"Thing is though," Baird continued, "He's not usually like that. He's very calm and nothing really fazes him. Guess all of this crap about losing Dom and his dad along with all his other buddies might've gotten to him."
"D'you think it might be because we got nothing to fight or do no-more?" Cole asked.
"Could be. We should go find him later." 

Several minutes later the four arrived at Sweet Apple Acres and were greeted by a mass crowd of ponies. Cole and Baird looked to each other and then back to the crowd which were all staring or talking with each other.
"Lotta ponies here," Baird whispered to Cole.
"Mhmm, how many do you think there are?" 
"I'm not even gonna try."
A lot of the ponies were slowly approaching the Gears but they seemed more curious than scared. Ironically, the fillies and colts were at the front of the crowd, staring in amazement at Cole and Baird. 
"Aww, ain't they cute?" Cole said.
"Yeah, whatever, what the hell do we do now?" Baird asked. Applejack guided the ponies over to the Gears and spoke up.
"Everypony, if I could get your attention. These two humans here are named Cole and Baird, they are not here to hurt us, they want to help us with the Barn Raising. They're very nice and are willing to talk with you if that's okay with y'all."
Some murmuring broke out and then the crowd surged forward and then ended up letting Applejack introducing them. Much to Baird's dismay, Applejack was introducing all of her family. The entire process took about an hour and by the end of it, Baird's head was spinning. As for Cole, he was more pleased and rather happy because a lot of the ponies had given him a hug and complimented him on how friendly and nice he was. Cole and Baird then followed the Apple Family to an open area where there were parts of a barn strewn around the place along with a large assortment of tools and a massive table filled with food. Cole nodded in approval and watched as the family dispersed and took their places at various places, Baird then turned to Applejack and looked at her, scowling slightly.
"So where are we at?"
"Oh, y'all can go and help out with sawing the planks and beams."
"What about the food?" Cole asked, "It all looks so good."
"You can take as much as you like as you work," Applejack said with a smile, she then turned to the family. "Okay everypony! Let's get to work!" 

Baird and Cole went to join three fillies over where there was a workbench and a few fillies. Several planks and beams were sitting on the ground next to the workbench along with a few large stallions bringing more planks and beams before going into the forest and disappearing behind the apple trees. Cole and Baird walked over to the table and watched as the fillies stared up at them, one of them was Apple Bloom but the other two the Gears didn't recognize. The first filly was the same size as Apple Bloom but a light brown with a pinkish colored, brushed over mane and a short, messy looking tail. The other filly looked to be a few years older than other two fillies, she had a bright red colored coat and a golden mane and tail. She also had a necklace with a jade ring looped through it. She also had a cutie mark that looked like an sock surrounded by small apples. The two fillies stared at Cole and Baird until Apple Bloom trotted over and looked up at the two, grinning widely. 
"Hi Mr. Cole and Baird. You ready for the Barn Raising?"
"Yeah," Baird said half-heartedly, "Who are these two?" 
"Oh, these are Babs Seed and Spring Apple. My cousins." 
"So Babs is her on the left?" Cole said as he pointed to the small brown filly then to the red filly, "And Spring is the one on the right?" 
"Yep," Babs said.
"You're right there," Spring said, she then looked up at Cole and stared in amazement. "You've got some really big forelegs."
"Their called arms, baby. And yeah, it's from all that training for Thrashball." 
"Ooooooh."
"So then," Baird said, "Where are you two from?"
"Oh, I'm from Manehatten," Babs said.
"Never heard of it. What about you, Spring?" 
"I'm from Appleoosa," Spring said, "It's such a great place. Apples everywhere!" 
"Righttttttt."
"So y'all getting to know these three?" Applejack said as she trotted over. Spring's eyes lit up and she immediately dove at Applejack and embraced her in a massive hug. 
"Hi Applejack!" she almost yelped in glee.
"Hi Spring," Applejack said with a chuckle. Baird and Cole stared at Spring as she held Applejack in a tight hug. 
"I'm guessing that she really likes you," Cole said.
"Like her?" Spring said, "AJ's my favorite cousin! She's so cool and she's the Element of Honesty." 
"What?" Baird asked. Before Spring could answer Applejack clapped her hooves together.  
"Okay everypony, let's get started!"
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Baird thought, he then turned to Apple Bloom. "What happens now?" 
"Oh yeah, we sing as we build!"
"This is my first time!" Spring said. 
"Wait? Singing?!" Baird exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Apple Bloom said. 
"Singin' ponies?" Cole said, "Damn, this should be interesting." 	
Baird was about to say something in protest when Applejack started trotting around, and began singing. 

"Yee-hoo!
Raise this barn, raise this barn
One, two, three, four."

"Aw crap," Baird thought.

"Together, we can raise this barn
One, two, three, four
Up, up, up, go the beams
Hammer those joints, work in teams
Turn 'em round quick by the right elbow
Grab a new partner, here we go!"

Cole and Baird looked at each other, Baird shook his head, mouthed the word "no" at him then went back to sawing planks and beams just as he jumped at the Apple Family yelling, "YEAH!"

"Come on, Apple family! Let's get to it! Wee-hoo!
Raise this barn, raise this barn
One, two, three, four
Together, we can raise this barn
One, two, three, four
Finish the frame, recycling wood
Workin' hard, you're doin' good
Turn 'em round quick by the right elbow
Grab your partner, here we go!"
"YEAH!" the family yelled again. Baird let out an irritated grunt as he tried to saw through a beam with a weak and flimsy saw. He let out a sigh and tried to get it unstuck from the beam.
"God, these things are fucking crap."

"Whoo-Whee! Raise this barn, oh, raise this barn
One, two, three, four
Together, we can raise this barn
One, two, three, four."
"I can't take this shit no-more," Baird muttered. Cole looked up in surprise.
"Damn Baird, I didn't know you wanted in on the singing."
Baird suddenly looked up in horror.
"Wait! No! Shit! I didn't mean to do that!"

"Slats of wood come off the ground
Hold 'em up and nail 'em down
Turn 'em round quick by the left elbow
Grab a new partner, here we go!"
Just as everyone yelled, "Yeah!", Baird's saw snapped in half.
"Fuck!" he said to himself, he looked over to Cole and got his attention. "Hey, where're the Lancers at?"
"Over by the tree," Cole said, "Why?"
"Let's give our new friends a little help, shall we?"
Cole nodded and smiled, he too was getting annoyed with the manual sawing but he was hiding his annoyance because he was listening to the Apple Family sing and build. He and Baird retrieved their Lancers and went back over to the beams of wood. Apple Bloom, Babs and Spring weren't paying attention to them. 

"Bow your partner, circle right
Get down if you're scared of heights
Forward back and twirl around
This barn's gonna be the best in town!"
"Raise this barn, raise this barn
One, two, three, four
Together, we can raise this barn
One, two, three, four
Take your brushes, young and old
Together, paint it, bright and bold
Turn 'em round quick by the left elbow
Grab a new partner, here we g-"
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The sudden sound of a Lancer chainsaw made the whole family stop and stare at Cole and Baird who had just cut through both the beam and the workbench it was sitting on. Baird turned around and stared back at the agape ponies and held his arms up at his waist and shrugged.
"What? I was gonna say sorry afterwards."
	
> Chapter Ten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Ten





(Artistic representation of the Barn Raising. By Spring Apple.)

***


Outside Carousel Boutique.
24 hours since mission start.

"24 hours, one day. Has is really been that long?"
Anya sat on the seat of the bench and watched as Bernie and Rainbow Dash talked about the pegasus city of Cloudsdale.  Scootaloo was sitting next to them, smiling and listening intently. Anya looked over to her left and saw that Rarity was examining a piece of Gear body armor and trying to work out how it was built and out together. Her little sister, Sweetie Belle, was sitting between her and Anya looking somewhat bored. In the spirit of keeping things friendly between them and the residents of Ponyville Anya decided to the and distract the filly from her boredom. 
"So Sweetie Belle. You like living around here?"
"Yeah, it's okay. Not much happens though. But at least you guys are here so now everything is much more interesting."
"You're right there, you wait until we can get some more of the COG here."
Sweetie Belle looked up at Anya questioningly.
"Why are those humans coming here? Is there something you want?"
"Not exactly," Anya said, her tone shifting to something slightly more grim. "Our homeworld has been ravaged by two very long and very destructive wars. So many people died and so much has been lost. Main reason why we are here is because we need to find a way to fix up our planet so that we can try and save what is left of our race." 
"Sounds like you guys have been thought a lot," Sweetie Belle said, her ears drooping. Anya placed a hand on the filly's head.
"We have, but we're pulling through." 

Over on the other side of the table, Bernie was telling Rainbow Dash how she was both a sniper and a survival specialist. Dash was inclined to hear how she became a master of both tasks and her stories of being in the COG. Scootaloo also was impressed with Bernie's stories and skills.
"Wow, you sure did a lot," Rainbow Dash said.
"Yep, years of practice and experience," Bernie replied. 
"So how good of a sniper are you?" Scootaloo asked.
"A bloody good one, believe me." 
"Can you show me? I'd love to see how good you are." 
"Sure, you have anything I could use as targets?"
"Well, there might be some old cider bottles around here," Rainbow Dash said. Bernie smiled and picked up her rifle.
"Mind if I use them?" 
"Sure, but I think we should go out somewhere safe." 
"No argument here, I was just about to suggest that."
Bernie followed Rainbow Dash out into an open area with a large dirt mound, behind them Anya, Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo kept up their pace. Anya jogged over to Bernie's side.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure that the ponies here will understand that it's just nothing more than a demonstration." 
"You think they trust us that much?"
"Well they don't seem very pissed off or else we'd be in the shitter."
Rainbow Dash stopped in front of a massive mound of dirt and walked around it before flying up to the top of it and then setting down next to Bernie. 
"Yeah, this seems like a good place." 
"Think so?" Bernie asked.
"Yep, I don't think you'll be endangering the town out here."

Bernie managed to find a picnic table and after rotating it towards the dirt mound, sat down and aimed her Longshot over towards it.
"Yep, this'll work." 
"You gonna try and use this as a shooting platform?" Anya asked.
"Yeah, it'll be good for all of our weapons."
"Are we using our Lancers and Snubs as well?"
"We might as well, since we're not gonna use them for awhile. Also, we may need to brush up on our aiming in case something does happen."
As Bernie was setting up her Longshot the ponies trotted over behind them.
"So you're just gonna shoot those bottles I set up?" Rainbow Dash asked her.
"Yep. Just stay behind us, okay?"
"These things are so cool!" Scootaloo exclaimed.
"Not to mention very dangerous," Anya said, "You take care to stay behind us when we're using these. We don't want you to get hurt." 
"So, how do these get made?" Rarity asked as she examined Bernie's Snub Pistol that was sitting on the table.
"Usually most are made in a factory but since most of them got destroyed we mainly scavenge for out weapons and ammo."
"You scavenge?"
"We have no other choice. It's either we scavenge for what we need, or we die."
"That's horrible!" Rarity said.
"You have no idea how bad it was." 
"Right-o," Bernie said, "I got the sights zeroed in. Let's see if I've still got my skills." 

An hour later Bernie and Anya had blasted apart more than twenty bottle and were now cleaning out their weapons while talking to the ponies. The main topic of the conversation was when the rest of the COG were going to pass through the portal and join Delta in Ponyville. The citizens of Ponyville had heard that Chairman Hoffman and the COG's armed forces were going to arrive in the town and had prepared a large celebratory greeting for them. Bernie wasn't sure how the Gears would take such a surprise but she hoped that they would be easy on the ponies. She was ready to explain to Hoffman what the ponies were doing and she knew that he would understand her. As she cleaned out the barrel of the longshot, she felt something tug her sleeve, she looked down and saw Sweetie Belle looking up at her.
"Um...Miss Mataki. Do you know when Carmine will be back?"
"He'll be back soon, don't you worry. Why? You miss him?"
"Yes, he was really friendly and kind. Even though he's got that big scary pet monster."
"You mean his Raven? Nah, it's not a monster, just a machine."
"So, it won't hurt us then?"
"Nope, not unless you do something really dumb around it."
Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to ask what those dumb things would be but she stayed quiet, more focused on when Carmine was coming back to Ponyville. Reason being was because she had become somewhat attached to him and had also written him a letter asking about what his life was like when he was in the COG's military. Also, she was secretly looking forward to getting earrubs from him. Sweetie Belle sighed and leaned against Bernie, a little bored but glad that there was the possibility of seeing Carmine again. Bernie looked down, saw the little filly resting against her and smiled. It was a cute sight and she wished she could savor this moment. As she went back to cleaning the Longshot, she heard a faint whisper in her ear. 
"You say something, Anya?"
Anya looked up from her Snub pistol and shook her head.
"I didn't hear anything."
"I swear I just heard something-"
"KR Five-Nine to Delta One. Do you read me Delta?" 

Bernie jumped and then switched on her radio transmitter. 
"Carmine? What the bloody hell? How'd the radio work?"
"Simple, the engineers managed to build a radio tower for us to use. Also, I've got someone on board who'd like to talk to you." 
Bernie held her breath for what felt like an eternity before she heard a familiar voice speak.
"Commander Mataki, it's Hoffman. You'd better explain what the fuck is going on in this place."
"I'll try my best, Chairman. You did see the footage that Jack shot?"
"I sure as hell did, what's going on with this place?" 
"It's best just to go with it, sir. Trust me, there's a lotta weird stuff going on here."
"Hm, is that so?"
"Yes sir. The inhabitants here want to set up some sort of massive greeting for you and the COG forces."
"Is that so?" Hoffman said, Bernie could tell that he was rubbing his chin. "Well, I'll wait here until the entire force gets here so that'll give them some time to get all set up." 
"Okay," Bernie replied, "I'll go tell them to get ready. Commander Mataki out." 
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"And why were you talking to no-pony?" Sweetie Belle added.
"Dash, you're fast, you mind going around and telling the townsfolk that the rest of our friends are about to arrive?"
Rainbow Dash jumped up, saluted Bernie and shot off leaving a trail of rainbows behind her. 
"She's so cool," Scootaloo said.

Sweet Apple Acres.
A few minutes after the Barn Raising.

"Ah have to say, this looks amazing," Applejack said as she admired the newly built barn.
"We did such a great job on this," Apple Bloom added. Applejack nodded and turn around to face the two Gears standing behind her.
"Ah do think that we owe our thanks to Baird and Cole."
Baird gave his trademark smirk as Cole nodded and grinned widely. The apple family behind them all cheered and approached to shake hands with Cole and Baird. Cole treated the moment like he had just won a major Thrashball game and was waving and accepting hugs from the ponies who gave him one. Baird groaned and shook his head.
"Shit, can't he ever get enough attention? he thought.
Applejack managed to get the family's attention by announcing that the food was ready. Cole and Baird looked at each other and shrugged, they had spent the last few hours helping the Apple Family build the barn and they were slightly famished. As they followed them, a loud whoosh came from behind them. Baird and Cole span around with their Lancers raised only to have Rainbow Dash fly past them and land next to Applejack. 
"Hey! Watch where you're flying!" Baird said to her. Rainbow Dash ignored him and talked to Applejack. Cole and Baird didn't hear what she was saying but they knew that it involved them when Applejack turned to look at them.  
"Aww, hell. This don't look good," Cole said. Baird sighed and stepped forward.
"Look, I said I was sorry for the workbench we sawed in half. You really don't need to hold that against us." 
"It's not that," Applejack said, "It's something else."
"Oh, well. What is it?" 
"You know that old human who's with you?"
"Granny? Yeah, what about her?"
"She was talking in her head to someone called 'Chairman Hoffman', sound familiar to you?" 
Cole and Baird looked at each other with stunned looks.
"He's here?" Cole asked.
"If he is we gotta get ourselves in our combat rigs now." 
"Also, Bernie wants us to set up the big welcome for the rest of the humans," Rainbow Dash said. Applejack nodded and trotted off to tell her family what was going on. Baird and Cole jumped up and grabbed their Lancers.
"Where are you going?" Spring asked.
"We gotta get suited up for the Chairman," Cole said, "He prefers us in formal wear."
"Okay, bye guys."
Cole waited until Baird was distracted and he managed to give Spring a quick hug before going to join Baird. He didn't want to admit it but he really loved hugging the ponies because it helped him keep up his cheery and friendly personality. He gave off a relaxed sigh and jogged next to Baird as they made their way back to the hotel they were staying in. 
"Baby, I love it here."

Corral Bed and Breakfast Inn.
Room 2B.

Marcus lay on his bed as he stared at the ceiling. He had been lying there for almost twelve hours, trying to sleep only to be awaken by the same series of nightmares of the two wars and watching his friends and father die over and over again. Marcus knew that he either had to get up and find something to do or try and fall asleep, but he didn't have the will to move or the feeling of sleeping anymore. After laying in one position for so long he finally found the ability to move and upon sitting up he discovered that he hadn't eaten properly for almost fourteen hours. His stomach growled and Marcus wasn't really in the mood for walking all the way to Sugarcube Corner for a small cake. Instead he decided to go to the small cafe that was downstairs to see if they had some food there. Marcus let out a grunt and stretched out the stiffness in his joints, he stood up and walked to the door but just when he was halfway there he spotted the letter that Scootaloo had written to him and after looking over it one more time, slid it into a pocket in his pants. He had to investigate what she has said to him at some point, but right now, he needed something to eat. 

Ten minutes later Marcus was sitting at a low table, slowly eating his way through a sandwich. He payed no attention to the few ponies in the room who were staring at him and instead focused on the letter that Scootaloo had written to him. He had looked over it several times and still couldn't work out what was in the letter, Marcus made a mental note to go see Scootaloo later. As he took a sip of his cider he heard the heavy clanking of Gear boots, he turned around and saw Baird and Cole enter the front of the hotel, Baird saw Marcus and jogged over to his table. 
"What are you two doing back?" Marcus asked.
"Hey man, big news," Baird said, "Hoffman's here with the rest of the COG."
Marcus stood up slowly and looked at Baird dead in his eye.
"You shitting me?"
"No, I swear I'm not. Hoffman's here and he's got a lot of Gears with him." 
"Shit, we gotta get our combat rigs on." 
"That's why we're here, Marcus," Cole said, "Gotta look good for when the Chairman arrives." 
"Chairman?" the pony stallion behind the counter asked, "There's a diplomat coming to Ponyville?"
"Yeah," Marcus said to the stallion, "Our Chairman is coming to the town to work out an agreement with the Princess."
"Princess Celestia?" a pegasus mare said. 
"Yeah, Princess Celestia," Baird said irritably, "Look, shouldn't you guys be doing something if the Princess and a foreign leader are coming to town?" 
The ponies all looked at each other and then ran out of the hotel cafe in an instant, leaving just the three Gears alone. Cole looked at the two and nodded towards the main lobby.
"So are we gonna get ready or not? I don't wanna piss off the Chairman." 
Marcus and Baird followed Cole, both of them not particularly pleased with Hoffman's arrival but more interested in how the Gears and Hoffman would react when they saw the greeting that the ponies had set up for them. Marcus knew that he had to look into Scootaloo's letter later but for now, the Chairman arriving was his top priority. 

Ponyville town center.
One hour later.

"Holy shit, there's a lot of ponies, Marcus thought as he looked around.
"Looks like the whole town's here," Baird said as he walked up behind him. Marcus let out a grunt.
"You read my thoughts. So, when's the rest of the army show up?"
"Soon, you got your radio on?"
Marcus reached up and flicked it on. The sound of static filled his ear for a second then it went quiet, he then flicked through the channels until he was able to pick up Anya and Bernie making their way to where he and Baird was. 
"Bernie to Marcus, are you receiving?"
"Yeah, I hear you Bernie."
"Hey Granny, where are you?" 
"I'm near Sugarcube Corner, heading your way. Where's Cole?" 
"I'm over by Marcus and Baird," Cole said over the radio, "There's a lotta ponies who wanted help with stuff." 
"And you went to help them?" Baird asked.
"I couldn't leave them alone, they looked like they needed help."  
"Well, at least he's improving relations with the inhabitants," Hoffman's voice said over the radio.
"Chairman Hoffman?" Anya said as she pressed a finger to her ear, "Chairman Hoffman, are you on your way to the town?" 
"Yeah. Are the ponies or whatever done with their greeting for us?"
Anya looked around to see if everything was all ready for the COG. Ponies were all standing around towards the predicted route where the COG would be arriving. Tables with entire mounds of food were set up on the sides of the road and huge greeting banners were erected above the center of the road and Pinkie Pie was bouncing around, expressing her eagerness about meeting the Chairman of the COG. Anya smiled and pressed her finger to her radio earpiece again.
"Yep, they're all ready for you." 
"Excellent, I'll mobilize the troops. Make sure you alert the residents for our arrival." 
"Wilco, Delta out."

"So then," Baird said as Anya and Bernie joined him, Marcus and Cole, "When do the COG arrive?" 
"Soon, Blondie, soon," Bernie replied. As Delta waited for Hoffman's arrival, Twilight and her friends walked over to join them. 
"Isn't this great?" Twilight said, "Both of our leaders are finally going to meet! I'm so excited."
"Same here, Ah got mah whole family here as well to help out," Applejack added.
"I do wonder what the leaders of your world wear," Rarity said.
"Seems like your friends are taking a long time," Rainbow Dash huffed.
"I...um...hope they are nice like you guys," Fluttershy said uneasily.
"OOOOOOOH! I'M SO EXCITED TOO, TWILIGHT!" Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced around them, "I GOTTA GO GET MY PARTY GREETING WAGON!" 
Pinkie darted off, leaving a semi pink cloud where she was standing. Delta exchanged looks before going back to discussing what might happen when the COG arrive.
"So now what?" Cole asked.
"Now we wait," Marcus replied. 
"Whoo. Will the fun ever end?" Baird muttered. Bernie grinned and lightly punched Baird in the arm.
"Come on Blondie. Where's your sense of adventure." 
"It joined my sense of humor and left a long time ago."
Bernie chuckled and went back to staring at the horizon. As she was awaiting the arrival of Hoffman's personal Raven, she realized something, where was Princess Celestia? She was meant to arrive in Ponyville before Hoffman but there was no sign of the princess or any royalty. Bernie looked around in the sky and saw nothing, she gave a sigh and went back to watching the ponies all get ready for the arrival of the COG. Several minutes passed and still nothing had happened. Bernie leaned down to Twilight to break the ice. 
"Hey, Twilight. When is the Princess coming?"
"Soon, I think, very soon." 
Suddenly, the sound of trumpets and trotting erupted from behind them. Delta span around and saw entire legions of pegasi and unicorn Royal guards making their way towards them. As the Royal Guards were making their way through the town, Cole pointed up to a large chariot being pulled by eight large pegasus Guards. Delta stood and waited as the chariot descended and landed several feet in front of the squad. Delta waited and watched as Princess Celestia and another alicorn descended off the chariot and walked over to Delta escorted by several very large pegasi and unicorn Guards. Celetia approached Bernie and gave her a nod of approval.
"Commander Mataki," she said.
"Hello Princess Celestia," Bernie replied, "Glad to see you arrived before the Chairman did."  
"Thank you, good to see that the ponies are all ready for your leader's arrival." 
"Who's the other princess?" Marcus asked. Celestia turned around and smiled.
"Ah, that is my younger sister, Luna. She is the princess of the night." 
Luna slowly walked over to Delta and hesitated when she saw Marcus. She stared at him for a minute and then turned her attention to the rest of the squad.
"Hello there, squad Delta." 
Marcus stared back at Luna and then stepped forward towards her. 
"Hey. Why were you staring at me?"
"Nothing," Luna said shakily, "Nothing at all."
Luna then broke eye contact with Marcus and started to talk to Bernie. Marcus continued to stare at her as Cole walked over to him, looking somewhat confused.
"Yo Marcus. What's up with you and her?"
"She gave me a weird look. One that says that she's seen me before, but I've never seen anything like her in my whole life." 
"Yeah, we've seen some weird shit but nothing like her before." 

Marcus let out a sigh and stood by, listening to the two princesses talk to the rest of the squad. He knew that he had to confront the princess at some point but until then, all he could do was wait. For the next several minutes he stood and watched the ponies talk and the Royal Guards stand firm in the center of the road. Currently, Bernie was waiting for Hoffman to arrive in the town. So far nothing had shown up and Bernie was starting to get impatient. She was about to contact Hoffman when the distinct sound of rotors cut through the air. Bernie looked towards the horizon and saw a small black dot hover over the top of a large hill. This also caught the attention of the ponies in the town, they all looked up and smiled as the dot grew larger and took the form of a black Raven.
"They're here!" Pinkie yelled with joy. The townsponies all gathered up underneath the largest welcome banner and held their gifts ready, the Guards stood tall and held their spears at an angle, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna took their place next to Delta squad and stared at the oncoming helicopter. 
"Isn't this exciting?" Twilight said, "Our leaders are finally going to meet!"
"Royal Guards! Stand tall and be ready!" Celestia said to her Guards. 
As the soldiers stood ready and the townsponies gathered up behind them and stared as the black Raven slowed down and hovered above a small forest. Marcus stepped forward and waited.
"What the hell is Hoffman doing?"
"Looks like he's waiting," Anya said.
"Yeah," Baird said, "But for what?" 

Suddenly, the sound of multiple Raven rotors started to increase and the single black Raven was joined by what appeared to be a hundred more silver Ravens. This was followed by the rumble of large engines and the ground slowly starting to shake. The townsponies all dropped their gifts and started to look around for the source of the shaking and rumbling, the Guards all looked at each other and cringed, nervous of what was to come. Delta squad exchanged looked with each other and the princesses. 
"What's going on?" Anya asked.
"No idea," Baird said, "But if I had to guess I think that Hoffman might've brought some Centaurs and 'Dills to show off."
"That, or he's taking his security details to the next level," Marcus added. 
"Knowing Hoffman, it's probably what Marcus said," Bernie said. 
Delta stood and watched as Hoffman's Raven was joined by an entire fleet of Raven gunships and transport choppers. Baird was right as well because from the forest a convoy consisting of Grindlift Derricks, Centaurs and Armadillo APCs rolled onto the road. The ponies all gathered up and held each other in terrified hugs and the Guards all dropped their weapons and cowered as the Ravens flew overhead and circled around the town. As the front column of Centaurs and 'Dills rolled into the town, Hoffman's Raven landed several feet in front of Delta Squad. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna backed up a few feet and watched as the bay doors to the Raven opened and Hoffman stepped out followed by four Onyx Guards. Seeing this, several Royal Guards all gathered up their weapons and stood by Celestia and Luna and tried to look as intimidating as the Onyx Guards. Marcus, Bernie and Anya stepped forward to greet Hoffman.
"Chairman Hoffman, welcome to Ponyville," Marcus said.
"Damn, you guys weren't kidding," Hoffman said, "This is some weird shit. So who's in charge around here?"
"That would be me," Princess Celestia said as she stepped forward. The Onyx Guard raised their Lancers a little and in response the Royal Guards stepped forward with their spears raised. Hoffman and Celestia met in the center of the Guards, looked at each other for a few seconds before Celestia rose a hoof to him. Hoffman eyed her and then her hoof for a few seconds before taking it in his hand and shaking it slowly. Celestia smiled a little and spoke.
"Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria."
"Chairman Hoffman of the Coalition of Ordinated Governments." 
"Wait! Wait! Don't start yet!" Pinkie yelled from behind a corner. Hoffman and Celestia looked at each other and watched as Pinkie dragged her Welcome Wagon and was about to press the button on the side when a loud honking horn and the sound of a large speeding engine broke the silence and shook the ground violently. The ponies and humans all looked up and towards the source of the sound, speeding towards them was an out of control Grindlift Derrick. 
"MOVE!" Marcus yelled. 
The ponies and humans dived out of the way just as the Derrick screeched to a halt, crushing Pinkie's wagon. Marcus picked himself up and looked up at the Derrick, on the side was the name 'Betty'.
"Dizzy," Marcus muttered. Almost instantly, the sound of metal boots clanking on the metal floor of the Derrick sounded and the voice of the driver was heard. 
"Howdy there, Delta. What did I miss?"
> Chapter Eleven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Eleven


If there's two things that I didn't expect when I joined the COG, it was when I had to become an Onyx Guard and then escort Chairman Hoffman into a world of colored talking ponies. Not fighting any surviving Locust, not getting attacked by Stranded, but this. What I am doing I hope will end up in the history books, once we start making them again...

(Master Sergeant Willis Janson expressing his opinion on arriving in Equestria.) 


***


Ponyville town center.
Five Minutes after Chairman Hoffman's arrival.

Hoffman and Celestia stared at Pinkie as she stood over the remains of her wagon. She was still staring in shock after Dizzy had ran over it in his Rig and was unresponsive to anything that her friends were doing to bring her around. As for Marcus, he was standing by the Grindlift Rig and waiting for it's driver to descend from his beloved machine. 
"Hey Dizzy! Are you coming down?"
"Yeah I am Delta, keep your pants on." 
"What did he say?" Celestia asked. Baird gave her his smirk and looked up at the Rig.
"That's Dizzy for you, he says stuff like that." 
Celestia stared as Dizzy descended from the Rig and swaggered over to Marcus giving him a polite tip of his hat. 
"Welcome to the big suck, Dizzy," Marcus said. Dizzy gave Marcus a small chuckle.
"Nice to be back with the old squad," Dizzy replied.
"What about being in a world of talking horses?" Baird asked him.
"That isn't how I expected to meet you again. I was kinda hoping that we'd be celebrating or something." 
"Mhmm, I know that feeling," Cole added. Anya walked over to the Rig and looked up, sitting on top of the massive machine was what appeared to be a large cannon sitting on top where the mechanism that once deployed Grindlifts once stood.
"Dizzy, what is that you have up there?" 
Dizzy looked up and saw what Anya had asked about and in response he smiled. 
"That there is a Pounder Light Artillery cannon," he said, "It's a little something that we had fitted a short time ago to the remaining Grindlift Rigs. Turned Betty into a sweet little killer." 
"Little being an understatement," Baird muttered. 
"When'd the COG start making mobile artillery?" Marcus said. 
"About time when we started repopulating the South Islands," Bernie replied, "We sent a lot of Gears back to Tyrus in order to scavenge and secure the remaining weapons and vehicle depots. In one we found a large number of light artillery pieces and Grindlift Rigs, after a little improvisation we ended up creating what is now in front of you."
"You test any of them yet?" Cole asked.
"The guns yes, not while they're on the Rig." 
"Maybe we can fire off a few shots after everyone gets settled in," Baird said.

Ponyville town hall.
Ten minutes later.

"Nice of you to allow my forces to roll into town," Hoffman said to Celestia. As he walked with her through the halls of the  town hall.
"It's nothing," Celestia replied, "I wanted my little ponies to see that your race is as peaceful as ours."
"We're not entirely peaceful, we just know how to act around civilians. Regardless of race or species." 
"I understand, Chairman. My race too is not as peaceful as it seems, currently we too are at war. For the past few months we have been fighting Queen Chrysalis and her swarm of Changelings. My armies are capable of holding off her attacks but recently a lot of my brave Guards have been injured badly in the fighting, I'm worried that I may have lost some of my Guards."
"Hm, I know how that feels. But I've had to lose almost ten times as many troops, you don't know how much loss I've experienced." 
Celestia let out a heavy sigh and placed a hoof on Hoffman's shoulder. Hoffman's hands dropped from behind his back to his sides as he let his shoulders slump forward slightly, he looked up and saw Celestia was offering him a look of comfort and sympathy. Hoffman regained his posture and continued down the hall, Celestia picked up her pace to keep up. Hoffman didn't speak for a while but then he drew breath and spoke.
"Princess Celestia, do you want to know something?"
"Do tell me, Chairman Hoffman," Celestia replied. 
"Have you seen what is left of our world?"
"Yes, sadly. I have seen what is now left of your planet and I mourn for your losses." 
"If only there were a way to fix the damage," Hoffman sighed. 
"I believe I have a way to help," Celestia said, "But only if you will help me."
"There's always a catch," Hoffman thought, he stopped walking and turned to face Celestia. "What are you proposing, Princess?"
"I hope you do not mind me saying this, Chairman, but you know how we are at war?"
"Yes, what about it?" 
"Well, I propose that if you and your army help us out, then I shall have my best ponies, pegasi and unicorns go into your world and help you rebuild." 

Hoffman rubbed his chin as he stared at Celestia. He nodded a couple of times before placing his hands behind his back.
"Princess Celestia. I would accept this offer, if you had proof that your kind could rebuild planets."
"Trust me Chairman, allow me to show you that we can help you. I promise that I won't disappoint you."
"Very well," Hoffman said, giving Celetia his hardened stare. "I'll accept your offer but I warn you, I'm very hard to convince."
"Thank you, Chairman. Please follow me."
Hoffman followed Celestia outside to a small garden that sat outside of the town hall. Standing around it were a few Onyx Guards and several ponies. The garden was no more than ten square feet big but looked very pretty, in it was a mix of flowers and fruit plants. Hoffman approached the garden and plucked a strawberry, he examined it closely before eating it and nodding in approval. Princess Celestia walked up next to him and stared at the Onyx guards, one of them appeared to be holding a large metallic object with a tiny flame coming out of the end in front of a large opening. It seemed to have a large disk on one side and what looked like a small shield in the center of the object. Hoffman then turned to Celestia.
"So how are you going to be fixing up our planet?" he asked her.
"Simple, I will have my student tell you. Twilight." 
Twilight Sparkle approached Hoffman and held out a hoof to him, which Hoffman shook without hesitation. 
"Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you, Chairman Hoffman." 
"Likewise Twilight, I heard that there's a way to save my planet from being rendered uninhabitable."
"Yes, there is a way Chairman. But we need to show you that we can repair botanical damage, no matter how major it is." 
"Well then you'd better show me how good you are. We've got a lot of damage to repair."
"Okay then," Twilight said uneasily, "Shall we get on with the test?" 
"Yes, all this talk isn't going to help me get the planet back to the way it was."
"So what test have you planned out?" Twilight asked.
"See this garden here?" Hoffman said as he pointed to it, "I'm going to simulate what we did on the day we used the Hammer Of Dawn. We don't have the satellites here, so we're going to use this Scorcher instead." 
"Wait, what is a Scorcher?" Celestia asked.
"It's the device that Onyx Guard is holding there," Hoffman said, pointing to the Guard with the Scorcher in hand, "Basically, it's a flamethrower." 
"What is a flamethrower?" 

Hoffman, looked at the Guard holding the Scorcher and nodded once. The Guard nodded back and stepped forward with the Scorcher raised and aimed at the garden. Without a moment's hesitation, the Guard pulled the trigger and a jet of fire shot out of the Scorcher and incinerated the entire garden within a few seconds. The ponies who were in the crowd were staring in shock and amazement at the now blackened ruin of the garden. Hoffman placed his hands behind his back and span on his heels to face Celestia and Twilight. 
"So, you think you can fix this?" he said. Celestia and Twilight looked at each other before going back to staring at Hoffman. Twilight stepped forward and spoke
"Yes, I can do this. The spell is easy to do for someone like me."
"Very well," Hoffman said, "Show me." 
Twilight took a deep breath and lowered her horn down at the charred and smoldering garden, as she stared at it the garden her horn started to glow slightly. Hoffman and his Onyx Guards stared in amazement as the dull light on Twilight's horn slowly intensified until it sparked and shot out a beam of purple energy that engulfed the garden. Hoffman watched as the ruined plants slowly began to rematerialize and regrow. Hoffman ran the palm of his hand down the side of his face as he stared slack jawed at the newly revamped garden that now contained much larger and more amazing flowers and fruits. 
"So then Chairman," Celestia said, smiling slightly, "Are you convinced now?" 
"Yeah, more than now. So then onto the matter of these Changelings." 

Sweet Apple Acres.
Fifty minutes after Hoffman's arrival.

Pinkie sat in the back of the newly built barn and stared unblinking at a spot on the wall. The barn still smelled of sawdust, paint and Lancer chainsaw fuel. She didn't really care about anything though, now that her prized party wagon had been crushed underneath the massive metal monster that was known as Betty. Pinkie shifted her weight on the small chair she was sitting on and tuned out the noise of Gears and ponies coming from from outside, it had been a half hour since she last spoke but she didn't care, no-one understood her loss. She gave a heavy sigh and hugged herself. The sound of dull thumping footsteps emanated behind her, Pinkie held her breath and didn't turn around. She had a feeling who it was.
"Hey Pinkie," Dizzy said as he walked up to her. Pinkie didn't reply so he continued. "Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for crushing your little wagon. To be honest, I did see it but the brakes of my old Rig were shot so there wasn't a lot I could do. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, just say so and I'll do what I can. I promise." 
Pinkie looked up and then felt a hand on her shoulder, she huffed and placed her hoof over Dizzy's hand.	
"Thank you for apologizing," she said. Dizzy smiled and crouched down next to her.
"It's just something I wanted to set straight, also, I brought you this." 
Pinkie looked up and saw that Dizzy was holding a mug of Apple Cider up. She looked at the mug then at Dizzy before taking it, she looked at the mug again before smiling at Dizzy and then hugging him. Dizzy chuckled and hugged back.
"You're welcome, Pinkie."
"So what's everyone doing outside?" 
"Why don't you come out and see?"
Pinkie got up from her stool and followed Dizzy, careful not to spill her cider, she stayed close to him as he made his way towards a large crowd of Gears and ponies. Pinkie wasn't sure what was going on but it sounded like something big was happening, she then jumped when a loud cheer erupted from the Gears. 
"Dizzy, what's going on?" 
"Well, a lotta Gears were getting bored from sitting around and setting up the temporary barracks. So Cole had a nice idea, we'd set up a Thrashball game, Onyx Guards against Royal Guards." 
"What's Thrashball?" 
Dizzy's only response was a smile.
"Why don'tcha come and see?" 
Pinkie kept up her pace and tried to see though the mass of ponies and Gears. The more they made their way through the crowd, the more she could see what had been set up. A large, fenced off Corral had been taken for the use of a Thrashball field. It seemed as if the game had been going for a while because the two teams didn't consist entirely of Onyx and Royal Guards. A lot of large stallions had taken the place of the worn out Royal Guards and most of the Gear's team were regular Gears who had ditched some of their armor in favor of the warm climate. Pinkie kept up with Dizzy until he managed to find Delta squad. 

"Howdy Delta, how's the game going?"
"We're up by six points and only need one more point to win," Bernie said, "Thanks to our star player out there." 
"Who's that?" Pinkie asked. 
"The Cole Train," Bernie replied. Pinkie looked out to the Thrashball field and saw Cole standing in front of a group of Gears. In front of them were several very buff and large looking stallions and Royal Guards. So far, the Gears had possession of the ball and were sizing up the opponents for the final run to end the game. The ponies shifted uneasily and waited for the Gears to make their move. Cole then stepped back, grabbed the ball from the Gear handing it to him and charged forwards. The ponies hesitated for a split second and then charged at the Gears, Cole was planning every move he did and was ready for each of the stallions that tried to get the ball away from him. One pony jumped at Cole but he easily ducked under him and then shoved his way past three ponies that tried to tackle him from the side. Cole almost stopped when two large pegasus Royal Guards stood on their hind legs and spread their wings to create a barrier but instead, Cole crouched lower to the ground and sprinted at the two guards. The guards had little time to react as Cole ducked under them and used his body weight and kinetic energy to crash head-on with the guards and send them flying up and over him. Cole then ran to the end of the Field and slammed the ball against the ground which caused the Gears to shout and whoop with admiration, they had won. The Gears all rushed the field and picked up Cole as he pumped his fist in the air, the ponies all gathered around and applauded him, not caring that they had lost. 
"No one plays this game like me! Nobody!" 
Cole was then lowered down so that he could shake the hands of the Gears and the hooves of the ponies. Much to his surprise, even Marcus came over and shook his hand. 
"Good work Cole, this helps our relations with the ponies." 
"By beating in a game they barely know?" Cole asked quizzically.
"No, you showed them that they have nothing to fear from us." 
"I like the sound of that," Cole said happily. 
"Still keeping up to your reputation I see, Cole," a familiar voice said. Marcus and Cole span around and saw Sam, Jace and Clayton Carmine making their way over to them. 
"Heyyyyyy, Sam," Cole said as he walked over to her, "Nice to see you guys back here again." 
"Likewise big fella."
"So how was staying here?" Jace asked. 
"Not too bad," Marcus said, "It was a little tricky gaining their trust at first but it's worked out." 
"Yeah, me and Baird helped out a family ponies build a barn," Cole said. 
"How'd that turn out?" Carmine asked. 
"Okay. The only thing is that we owe the Apple Family two workbenches."
"Lancer accident?" Sam asked. Cole nodded in reply. 
"Well, so long as you didn't hurt Apple Bloom," Carmine said. The squad looked at Carmine quizzically. 
"When did you get so protective of the filly?" Sam asked.
"I always was," Carmine replied, "Her, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I dunno why but I really love those kids." 
"I don't blame you," Jace said, "Anyone could get attached to these guys." 
"Carmine!" a small and excited voice yelled.
"Speaking of which." 
Carmine span around and saw Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo running over to him. He knelt down and embraced the three fillies as they hugged him. Even with his helmet on, the squad could tell he was smiling. 
"Hey kids, you miss me?"
"We sure did," Apple Bloom said. 
"We're so glad you're here," Sweetie Belle added. 
"Are you gonna go again?" Scootaloo asked. 
"No, not this time," Carmine said, "I'm staying here for good." 
The Crusaders smiled and hugged Carmine even tighter. 

Just as the three fillies let go of Carmine Dizzy and Applejack walked over to them. 
"Ah see that you've become attached to mah sister," Applejack said to Carmine. 
"Goddamn, I love her accent," Dizzy said. Sam chuckled and turned to Marcus.
"Hey Marcus, where's Anya and Bernie?" 
"In the town I think. They took some Gears and is looking for Hoffman so that we can set up a HQ in the town hall, we need a place for CIC to be set up."  
"Sounds like a plan," Jace said.
"What about Baird? Where's he?"
"Same place he's been for the past hour," Cole said, "He's with some of the engineers making some sort of new vehicle. He's not telling me what it is though, he'd said that he'd show it to us when it's done." 
"Hopefully it'll help us fix up Sera for when we get back," Marcus said. 
"Hey, anyone else know if the relay stations are set up?" Jace asked. 
"Yep, we managed to set up about five so far," Carmine replied. 
"Sounds a good enough reason to try out the new Moonshine I've been making with Applejack here," Dizzy said.
"You've been making Moonshine with her?" Cole asked.
"Actually, it's called Appleshine," Applejack said, "Ah couldn't let Dizzy's skills go to waste, not with a hat like that." 
Cole, Sam, Carmine and Jace chuckled. Marcus grunted and looked around, He spotted something over towards the town but the sun was behind it and casting a silhouette. Suddenly, Marcus's gut feeling kicked in, something wasn't right. The strange object had now grown in size and was now covering the town in a massive shadow, then a large group of smaller object appeared from behind it and were now either flying around the town or landing in the town center. 
"Hey, Applejack."
"Yeah Marcus?" she asked.
"What the hell is that thing over in the town?" 
"Ah don't know, it's hard to see when the sun's behind it." 
The large object then raised an appendage into the sky and a plume of fire shot out of it followed by a ground shaking roar.	
"What the fuck is that?!" Jace yelled.
"DRAGONS!" a terrified scream rang out followed by an uproar of terrified ponies running for the apple orchard. 
"Dragons? What the hell are dragons doin' here?" Cole said. But he couldn't get a reply from any of the ponies. Only Pinkie, Applejack and the Crusaders stayed with Delta and the confused Gears. 
"We gotta get into the town, Twilight and the others are there," Applejack said.
"Wait, shit!" Marcus said, "Hoffman's in there!"
"Along with Bernie and Anya," Sam added.
"Holy fuck, we gotta go save them!" Carmine said. Marcus jogged through the panicking ponies and made his way to the Gears. Several Gears were putting on their armor and loading their Lancers as Marcus made his way to some Onyx Guards.
"We gotta get to the town, Chairman Hoffman is in there," Marcus said to the Guard Captain.
"You don't think I fucking know?" the Captain replied, he then turned to the Gears and Guards. "Everyone load up and get to the town! We're gonna go save our Chairman and show these talking ponies how we Gears truly fight!"
Most of the Gears let out a battlecry and followed Marcus, Delta squad and the Captain as they charged to the town.
> Chapter Twelve
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Twelve


Sir, I have one small question about this mission...WHERE THE FUCK DOES IT SAY IN THE MISSION SPECS THAT WE WOULD BE FIGHTING DRAGONS?! I signed up to fight Locust and keep Jacinto safe. Now after almost ten years I'm in a world of talking ponies helping finding a way to save Sera from being rendered uninhabitable, and now I'm trying to protect a town full of the talking things and the Chairman against a bunch of massive, scale covered, fire breathing assholes. I just hope our weapons are able to kill these fuckers because we need to stop these things, not piss them off like we did the Locust.

(Onyx Guard Master Sergeant Biff Ralorez asking the Onyx Guard Captain about the new threat in Ponyville)


***
 

Ponyville town hall.
Three Minutes after the Dragon attack. 

"Shit, I wasn't expecting this."
"This isn't like them, this isn't like them at all." 
"Princess Celestia, I'm scared," Twilight said as she huddled up next to the princess. 
Hoffman turned and gave Celestia a hardened stare.
"Why the hell didn't you tell us that there'd be dragons here too?"
"You never asked," Celestia replied. Hoffman gave a low growl and looked out the window again. Outside there were several very large dragons, one massive dragon and a horde of smaller ones bigger than Bezerkers, Hoffman ground his teeth and then turned to his Onyx Guards.
"Okay, now what?"
"You're the Chairman," one of the Guards said, Hoffman grunted and went back to looking out the window. 
"I know I am but I never expected to be fighting Puff the Magic Dragon and his asshole friends." 
"What about your soldiers?" Celestia said, "Surely they have weapons capable of stopping the Dragons." 
"We might do but I don't know if we'd be able to attack without being destroyed." 
Celestia let go of Twilight and stood firm, staring at Hoffman directly.
"What we need is a distraction so that your army can ambush them." 
"You have a distraction in mind?" Hoffman asked.
"Yes," the princess replied, "Me."
"Princess Celestia, you can't do this!" Twilight said. 
"I have to Twilight, for the safety of the town and the ponies." 
"I agree with Twilight," Hoffman said, "My troops should be here soon, the Ravens will arrive a few minutes later but our armor will cover them." 
"Do you think we'll be okay?" Twilight asked. Celestia sighed and hugged her again.
"I don't know." 
Hoffman went back to staring out the window when his radio kicked in. 
"Anya to Hoffman, are you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here, you seen what's outside?" 
"Yes, unfortunately. Where are the troops at?"
"Hopefully, on their way," Hoffman said, "Where are you?"
"In Rarity's shop with Bernie."
"Okay. Hold your position until the troops get here."

Carousel Boutique. Shop center.

Anya took her finger off her radio and sighed. There was no hope of getting out of this alive without serious firepower and massive numbers. Both of which were more than several minutes away and anything could happen in that short period of time. She went over to the window and looked outside, several large dragons were walking in the streets, looking in each open window they came across as if they were looking for something. She then felt a hand on her shoulder and looked behind her to see Bernie staring out the window as well. 
"Dragons," she said, "Fucking dragons. How the hell did this happen?"
"I don't know," Anya replied, "Where's the rest of our escort?"
"Hiding in the building, they're setting up defensive positions."
"What about Rarity? Is she here still?"
"Yeah, she's gone a hidden in the basement. I don't think she'll come out at all until these buggers are gone." 
"So what do we do?"
"Keep our heads down, from what I know about how these tossers are behaving they're looking for something. So if they keep that up they should be taken by surprise when our Gears show up."  
"If our guys keep quiet though and sneak in the town."
"Radio them and tell them that."
"Looks like I'm going back to my days in CIC," Anya said as she pressed her finger to her ear. "Anya to Marcus, are you receiving?" 
"Copy Anya, where are you?"
"Were in Rarity's shop in the middle of town, where are you?"
"About one klick from the edge of town, why?"
"Look, you need to stay quiet and sneak in, the dragons are unaware of our presence here. If you can get the drop on them you might be able to kill them without any major casualties." 
"Copy, I'll broadcast that on an open channel so the others hear it. Where is Chairman Hoffman?"
"In the town hall. You guys should go to him first. We'll be okay." 
"Shit, you sure?" 
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Okay, Marcus out."

Ponyville Town Hall. Main Lobby.

"Okay Princess," Hoffman said as he paced between the Onyx Guards and terrified ponies, "Would you mind filling us in about these dragons?"
"Well, these creatures have been around for as long as anypony can remember. They don't really come around to our towns because they have their own sources of food and we know to never provoke them or cross into their territory."
"What is their main diet?" 
"Us," Twilight squeaked, "They eat ponies sometimes, I've heard stories of entire towns ending up as dragon food." 
"And if they don't eat you?"
"Then we become their slaves. It's happened before in the distant parts of the kingdom." 
"So why are they here?" 
"That, I do not know," Celestia said. 
"Oh poniesssssssss," a sinister and almost juvenile voice said, "Come on out little ponies." 
"Was that one of them?" A Onyx Guard said. Celestia nodded.
"Sound like a little asshole," another replied, "Should we go out there?"
"No," Hoffman said, "We need backup."
"Also, the dragons are much bigger than they sound," Twilight said, "The smaller ones are three times your size."
"I can hear them in here!" a slightly louder dragon voice barked. 
"HIDE!" an Onyx guard yelled as he pulled Hoffman into an office behind them as the rest of the Guards followed. The slammed the door shut and trained their weapons on the door.
"I hope Fenix is on his way," Hoffman said.

Meanwhile, out in the lobby, the dragons were starting to get impatient and angry.
"Come on out ponies. Don't make us come after you."
"What do we do?" Twilight asked Princess Celestia. The sound of a loud crunching followed with a set of terrified screams. Celetia cringed and looked at Twilight, she sighed and then looked back out of the window.
"We go out there. We go out there and hope they don't hurt us." 
"Are-are you sure?"
"It's either that or more ponies get hurt. I do not want my little ponies to get hurt."
"We've got some ponies!" a dragon shouted, "Come out and they live." 
Celestia huffed and walked over to the door, Twilight following close behind her along with the rest of the hiding ponies. Celestia opened the door with her magic and was then grabbed by two massive dragons and then dragged out to the middle of the town center and in the center of a pack of dragons. The other ponies were surrounded themselves by the dragons, Twilight looked around fearfully then went back to watching Celestia be closed in by several evil looking, sniggering dragons.
"Marcus," Twilight thought, "Where are you?" 
"Well well well," a young red dragon said, "If it isn't the princess of the ponies. We didn't know you were here, this makes our attack even more worth it." 
"Why are you here?" Celestia demanded. 
"You remember Smoke? The dragon you kicked out of the mountain a while ago?"
"What about him?"
"After he was expelled from the mountain he ended up weak and powerless. He's now lost all his self esteem and strength and we're here to get him back to his usual self."
"And how are you going to do that?" 
"Simple, we're going to bring him a feast. With you as the starter." 
The dragons all laughed and started to smash houses and pull out screaming ponies from inside the buildings. Twilight watched in horror as the dragons started the herd the ponies into groups and crush more buildings for the fun of it. She looked around to see if she could find her friends but there was no sign of any of them. She was starting to get very worried until she saw movement behind a building. She focused on it and saw that it was Baird hiding behind a corner of a building. He made eye contact with Twilight and pointed at the ground and then his ear before ducking behind the building again. She didn't know what Baird was trying to say but she knew that he wanted her to look on the ground for something, she looked down and saw a small black device sitting next to her hoof. Twilight picked it up and examined it, from what Bernie had shown her on the first day they arrived it was a radio earpiece. She put it in her ear and looked around to see if the dragons had noticed, none of them were paying attention to her and the ponies she was with so she backed up into the group and tried to talk. 

"H-hello?" she whispered, "Anyone there?"
"Twilight, this is Baird. Listen, there's no chance of escape right now. You need to make sure that once the COG arrive your civvies are out of there. Lead them to the east side of town and hide in the forest. Got it?" 
"But, I thought you hated us? Why are you trying to help us?" 
"Look, I don't like you but I have standards. I'm not leaving you guys to die in the crossfire." 
Thank you Baird." 
"Also, keep your heads down when the bullets start flying. I don't think any of you guys will be shot but it's better safe than sorry." 
Twilight sighed and disconnected. So far the dragons were starting to make fires and spits out of the broken wood from the houses and building that were wrecked. Twilight watched as they dragged the princess over to the largest one. 
"Um, what are you doing?" Celestia asked one of the dragons. 
"Well, it's been a long trip and a lot of us are hungry. We thought that we'd sample some of the buffet before we take it to Smoke." 
"But-but I thought I was going to be Smoke's starter."
"Nah, I don't think he'll mind if we bring him several hundred ponies to make up for it."
Celetia stared at the massive spit, horrified that she was about to become dragon food. She could escape but if she tried to there was the risk of the dragons lashing out on the innocent ponies instead. One of the dragons placed the spit on her back as another tied her to it, Celestia started to struggle but the ropes holding her were too tight. If there was any hope of escape it had long passed.
"No! Please!" Celestia pleaded as she was lifted up over the fire.
"As if," a dragon said. Celestia let out a loud scream as she was lowered over the fire. 

"Hey you scaly assholes! Put her down!"
The dragons stopped and looked behind them at the source of the voice: A metal bipedal creature holding a strange weapon. 
"Who are you?" a large dragon asked.
"Clayton Carmine. And I'm here to kick your ass."
Three dragons closed in on Carmine and laughed. 
"You think you can stop us with your little toy?" One said. 
"I don't think, I know," Carmine replied. He aimed his Retro Lancer upwards at the upper chest of the dragon in the center and pulled the trigger, sending a four round burst into the sternum of the dragon. The rounds cleanly punched through the hide of the dragon and made a sickening crunching sound. The dragon placed his hand over the heavily bleeding wounds and then looked at Carmine once before keeling over backwards and laying still on the ground which was now turning a dark red. The other two dragons stared at their fallen friend then shot their glances at Carmine, they bared their teeth and snarled at him. Before they could attack a thundering boom rang out and the dragon on the left had his head blown off and was now staggering around spraying blood over Carmine and the other dragon. The remaining dragon looked up and saw Cole standing on the back of a Packhorse with a Oneshot resting on the top of the cab. Standing around the Packhorse were a hundred Gears and several Centaurs and Armadillo APCs, a fleet of Ravens then flew overhead and circled the town, gunners were in place on the Raven's guns along with Gears standing in the bay with Vulture heavy machine guns.
"Game on, baby!" 

The dragon that was holding Celestia continued to stare, he then pointed the spit at the Gears like a sword.
"Attack them!" he bellowed.
The smaller Dragons charged forward and were met with a hail of gunfire from the Gears. The Ravens dropped lower and then showered the larger dragons with the Vultures. As the dragons were pushed back or killed Marcus heaved himself up on the Packhorse with Cole.
"All Gears, engage targets at will!"
Centaurs suddenly rolled in from the west side of town and the Gears swarmed into the center of the battle, utilizing whatever was around for cover. The now more terrified ponies all huddled up together and kept their heads down as bullets flew over them, a loud and rhythmic thumping started making its way over to them, Twilight looked up and saw several massive metal bipedal creatures heading towards her. A voice then rang out in Twilight's ear along with the sound of mechanical machinery and the same rhythmic thumping.
"This is Silverback Squad One-Four, we're making our way to the prisoners."
"Copy that," Marcus said, "Get them out of there and extract the Chairman." 
"Wait, what about the princess?" Twilight asked.
"It's okay, we got our top sniper ready to free her." 
"Bernie? How's she going to do that?"
"Simple my purple friend," Bernie said over the radio, "I'm gonna shoot the dragon's fingers off." 
"Please don't miss," Twilight said fearfully. 
"I'll make sure I don't, now get out of here." 
Twilight followed the ponies as several Gears made their way through the Silverbacks and escorted them out of the battlefield. She looked back as the Silverbacks opened fire and tore apart two dragons that were trying to cut them off from escaping. Twilight turned away and then ran off with the rest of the ponies, hoping that the Gears could win the fight against the dragons. Meanwhile in the center of the battle, Marcus had teamed up with Cole and they shot out the knees of a smaller dragon and then blasted it's arms off before they both jumped up onto it's chest and revved up their Lancer chainsaws and drove the blades deep into the eye sockets of the dragon which was now screaming loudly. Cole pulled out two grenades and dropped them into the blood pooled eye sockets and he and Marcus jumped off the dragon's face just as they detonated sending up a mix of fire, blood and brain matter that showered the body, the two Gears and several square yards.
"Remind you of the Riftworm?" Cole asked Marcus.
"Not really, it didn't blow up in a fountain of gore."
Marcus and Cole took cover from a burst of fire that a dragon had shot at them. The dragon roared and then a small rocket plume entered it's mouth and then vanished inside it's gullet before exploding showering Cole and Marcus in more gore and organs. They looked up and saw Baird standing behind them with a Longspear launcher on his shoulder and his usual smug grin.
"Sorry guys, did I get you?" 
"Yeah, thank for that," Marcus said. Baird ran over and slid behind the body.
"So how's it going?" 
"Well, from what I can see, we're kicking their asses. The ponies are all save as well, all we need to do now is get Hoffman."
"Sounds easy enough," Baird said.
"You kiddin', Baird?" Cole said, "Have you seen the number of dragons out there?" 
"Yep, but I got some help for us," Baird said. He looked up at the Ravens and then pressed his finger to his ear. "Hey, Gettner. You still with me?"
"Loud and clear," Gettner replied, "You ready for my help now?"
"Took the words right out of my mouth." 
"Okay, I'm coming in, stay under me so that you don't get shot." 
"Copy that. You two ready?" 
"Ready as I'll ever be," Marcus said.
"Hey! Hold up!" Carmine's voice rang out, "Lemme help out too!" 
Marcus looked up and saw Carmine running over to him, also he saw a dragon looming over him.
"Carmine! Look out!" 
Carmine had no time to react as the dragon pushed the house that was next to him over and send it falling on top of Carmine and several Gears. 
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Marcus screamed. He grabbed the Longspear from Baird, loaded another rocket, aimed and fired at the dragon which was now standing on the rubble letting out a roar of victory. The rocket impacted the side of the dragon's head and exploded in a fireball leaving no trace of it's skull once the smoke cleared.
"FUCK YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!" Marcus bellowed. 
"Shit, Carmine," Cole said. Baird sighed and placed a hand on Marcus's back.
"Look, we need to get to Hoffman now. We'll dig him out later once the dragons are all dead."
"No, we need to get Carmine and the other Gears out of there."
"Marcus? Hey, Marcus!" Carmine said over the radio, "Listen, get to the Chairman now. I'm gonna be okay." 
"You sure?" 
"Yeah, me and the Gear got stuck in a massive hollow part of the rubble. We're gonna try and dig our way out."
"Okay, try to not bury yourself."
"Wilco, Marcus. Good luck."
Marcus changed frequencies and then contacted Gettner.
"Okay, you can cover us now, we're gonna make the run." 
"Copy, coming in for gunrun." 

Gettner's Raven circled around and then flew at Marcus, Cole and Baird. Marcus could see that she had two Gears on the guns and a few more with Vultures in the bay. Marcus, Cole and Baird all faced towards the Town Hall and just as Gettner's bird was overhead, sprinted through the hail of gunfire and fire plumes. In order to ward off the smaller dragons coming towards them they opened fire and dropped grenades causing most of their attackers to lose limbs, wings or sensory appendages. Just as they reached the battered door to the Town Hall, Marcus span around and saw that the largest dragon still had Celestia tied to the spit.
"Bernie, where the fuck are you? The princess is still in trouble."
"You want me to free her or not?" Bernie snapped back.
"Now would be a better time than later." 
"Hold on, almost there."
A loud crack of a firearm sounded over the explosions and gunfire and the princess fell from the spit, blinded the dragon with a flash if light and flew upwards where a Raven caught her and flew off. The dragon staggered around a few steps before tripping over a 'Dill and falling flat on it's face in a pile of burning and jagged rubble. It struggled against the rubble and pulled itself up, letting out an earthshaking roar. It looked up and then saw that it was staring down the barrel of a Centaur's main cannon.
"Surprise motherfucker!" The gunner yelled. The cannon then discharged and blasted a hole clean through the dragons face and out the back of it's skull before detonating against another dragon in flight that was pursuing a Raven. by now the dragons had gained second thoughts and had now started to run. Most of the 'Dills and Centuars were now setting up position to shoot down the low flying dragons while the Ravens cut them off and sprayed bullets into their wings to make them fall out of the sky.
"God damn, we really fucked up those guys didn't we?" Cole said.
"Yeah," Baird said, "Fucked up them, and most of the town." 
Marcus looked around and sighed.
"Shit," he muttered under his breath. He then turned and started to kick at the door with Cole and Baird, after several unsuccessful attempts to open it a Silverback approached them from behind. 
"Here guys, let me help you out," The pilot said. The Silverback tromped up to the door and swung it's leg around and impacted the door which sent the doors flying into the empty building, Marcus, Cole and Baird stormed in and checked the inside for any surviving dragons. Marcus took a few more steps into the building and looked around.
"Chairman Hoffman, are you in here?" 
A door creaked open and Hoffman exited followed by his Onyx Guards. 
"Good of you to show up," Hoffman said, "What's it like outside?" 
"All dragons are either dead or have run away," Anya said over the radio, a few of our Ravens are doing an aerial sweep of the area. 
"Alright, good. What about Princess Celestia? Is she safe?"
"Yes, one of our Ravens picked her up mid air and took her to safety. She'll be outside soon, you'd best go and show you're okay too." 
Hoffman let out a sigh and followed the Gears outside. 
"Something wrong?" Baird asked.
"Yeah, I didn't get a chance to kick some ass myself. What did I miss?"
"Why don't you come and see for yourself?" 
Hoffman took up the front of the squad and looked around as he entered the battlefield. Bloody chunks of mutilated dragon was strewn across the center of the town, huge puddles of blood had now formed under the lifeless bodies of the dragons and were being spread around by Gears and armored vehicles. Several Gears were sawing off parts of the dragons and mounting them on the Centaurs, a few were even climbing on the larger bodies and taking pictures of themselves on the bodies. Hoffman didn't get in the way of his Gears, they seemed to be celebrating in a way and they had precious little to celebrate for eighty years. He waited as the Raven carrying Princess Celestia landed several feet in front of him and the Princess stepped out, Hoffman kept his posture as the Princess shakily walked over to Hoffman, she looked around and then stopped in front of him. Celestia took a deep breath and then spoke.
"Even though half of the town has been destroyed, I thank you and your soldiers for saving us." 
"We'll help you rebuild," Hoffman replied, "There's enough manpower here to get this place fixed up in a few days." 
"Thank you again, but I must ask, what your soldiers are doing?" 
"Collecting proof that they killed dragons. They're pretty damn happy about that." 
"Please, these dragons were a pushover," Bernie said as she walked over to them, "All they seemed to be were just large, easy to shoot targets." 
"Bernie. Were you the one who shot me free?" Celestia asked her.
"Yes, I was."
"Thank you for doing that, I thought I was done for."
"Well, I was going for the dragon's fingers so he'd drop you but I thought it would cause a ricochet and hit you instead." 
"You are impressive with that weapon, but your round did graze me a little."
Celestia held up her front hoof to show a small cut on her front leg. Bernie cringed and reached for her first aid kit.
"Here, let me fix it up for you," she said as she approached the Princess. Celestia held up her hoof and backed up a little.
"No no, I can heal myself. But I do thank you for offering to help me." 
Bernie put her first aid kit away as Celesita's horn glowed and the cut disappeared. 
"Impressive," Bernie thought, "Only if we had that sort of thing back in the Pendulum Wars. So many lives would've been saved." 

Several minutes later most of the town's residents returned only to find destroyed homes, dead dragons and a lot of bloodsoaked Gears patrolling the place. Many of them just stood and stared in shock of what had happened, their town had been wrecked by a horde of dragons that now lay in the center of the town, all killed by the humans and their terrifying weapons. But what stunned them more was that the Gears had actually killed the dragons rather than warding them off like they had originally thought. As they wandered around the town in total silence, staring at the bodies, two small voices rang out and broke the monotony of light conversation. 
"Carmine! Carmine!"
Marcus turned around to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle running through the town, looking around frantically and calling the same name over again. Apple Bloom saw Marcus and ran over to him, Sweetie Belle followed.
"Marcus, where's Carmine?" 
"Is he okay?" Sweetie Belle said, tears forming in her eyes. "Please say he's okay." 
"Girls, listen to me. He's okay but he got trapped under a building, we're digging him out now."
The two fillies started to cry and they sank down to the ground.
"Is he hurt?" Apple Bloom asked.
"I don't know." 
"Girls? Hey! Girls!" 
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked up and saw Carmine running over to them, they jumped up and ran over to him, still crying. Carmine crouched down and held his arms out to the fillies who ran into them and hugged him.
"It's okay, I'm still here."
"We thought you died." Sweetie Belle wept.
"Well, I'm still here. There there, calm down." 
"We're glad you're still alive. We'd miss you if you were gone." 
"Say, where's Scootaloo at?"
"She ran back home and hid there. You need to show that you're okay."
"I'll go and tell her," Marcus said, "I need to talk to her anyways."
"Why do you need to talk to her?" Carmine asked as he picked up the two fillies and carried them over to him.
"It's on a need to know basis."
"Is that something like a secret?" Sweetie Belle asked. 
"Yeah," Marcus said as he stroked her mane, "It's a secret." 
A second later a voice blared over the radio.
"KR-Six-Three reporting in, we've got company! Up high!"
Pretty much everyone looked up to see six very large dragons descending on the town. The Ravens all scrambled and set up a perimeter while the ground forces reloaded and aimed high. 
"Shit, we didn't need this," Hoffman said.
"They're too far away for our machine guns and our Centaurs can't aim that high," Baird said. 
"Relax Delta," Dizzy called over the radio, "Me and the boys got this covered. You can thank us later."
Several thundering booms shattered the air and the sky lit up with explosions the sound of the dragons screams were carried on as each of them burst into fireballs and fell from the sky, vaporizing before they even hit the ground. Marcus ground his teeth for a second before putting a finger to his ear.
"Well one things for sure, Dizzy. Those guns work."
> Chapter Thirteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Thirteen


You humans, you humans know how to wage war so well. If we were to go to war with you we would surrender immediately after the first battle because there would be such devastation to us and our forces.

(Shining Armor commenting during his visit on the aftermath of the Battle of Ponyville)


***


Sugarcube Corner.
24 hours after the Battle of Ponyville.

If there was one thing that Marcus hated it was the constant silence that had settled over the town since the fight against the dragons. So far, not a lot of the townsponies had been talking nor had the dark feeling of mass death settled. Marcus could only sigh and take a swig of the recently made Appleshine. Not many ponies were in Sugarcube Corner nor were there there a lot of Gears. Most of them had been out in the town, cleaning up the place after the dragons had wrecked the place. So far the only ponies in the building were Pinkie and the two owners of the store, as for Marcus's fellow squad, the only members who were around were Anya and Hoffman. As for the rest of the squad, Marcus knew that they were out helping the ponies rebuild the town and clean up the dragon remains. Marcus let out another sigh and stood up, he turned to leave the store just as the bell to the front door rang, he looked up and saw Carmine with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Both of the fillies were hiding behind Carmine and shaking slightly. 
"Come on you two," Carmine said, "A little something to eat might calm you down." 
"Guess you've bonded with the kids really well," Marcus said as they passed him.
"Yeah, poor girls are still a little shaken from what happened yesterday." 
"Them and the rest of the town." 
"Marcus, aren't you going to go see Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle said. Marcus stood still for a second before pulling the letter out of his back pocket. There were a few droplets of blood on it but it was still intact and readable. 
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." 
Marcus left Sugarcube Corner without another word. As he entered the open air the smell of a hundred rotting bodies, firearm discharge and burnt buildings filled his nose. Marcus ignored it and walked on towards Scootaloo's house, she had told him where she lived in the letter and from what was written in it, she wanted to keep what she wrote to him private. Marcus respected that, he too liked to keep things quiet but he couldn't shake a feeling that there was something more to this letter than intel. As he walked thought the town he opened up the letter and read it carefully.

"Dear Marcus Fenix,
My name is Scootaloo. The reason why I am writing this to you is because I need to tell you something about that portal that you said you came to Equestria through. I know a little bit about it because I went there a while ago, I can't tell you what happened in this letter because I'm afraid that it might get stolen or lost. Please come and visit me at some point while you are here. Preferably at my house, I can trust you because you showed me that you are not an evil creature. I live at the south end of Ponyville in the black cottage. I want to keep this between us before I talk to the humans who are in charge.
Signed Scootaloo.

Marcus tucked the letter back into his pocket and continued the way to Scootaloo's house. None of the ponies or Gears took notice of him, they seemed to be more occupied with cleaning up the town. As he made his way into the quieter part of Ponyville he wondered what Scootaloo had to say about the portal, maybe she knew what was up with all the Locust defences or how it came to be a portal. Maybe she even knew some secret about Sera that could save it. He kept his pace and made his way to Scootaloo's house. It wasn't much in the way of fanciness, in fact it look slightly run down than the other buildings around it. Marcus looked at the windows for any signs of life and saw nothing, he shook his head and went to the front door. He hoped that he wouldn't scare Scootaloo's family with his bloodstained armor, he had cleaned most of the dragon gore off but there was still a fine layer of it on most of his chest armor. He walked up to the door and knocked a few times. He leaned closer to the door and listened for movement, after a few seconds the sound of small hooves trotting against a wooden floor drifted through the door and then the rattle of the door handle. Marcus stepped back as it opened and Scootaloo was standing behind the door, looking rather pleased. 
"Hi Marcus," she said cheerfully, "I'm really glad you decided to come and hear the cool stuff I have to tell you." 
"Look, I'm only here to get a little intel about it so I can give it to Hoffman."
"Oh, I'll tell him. I just want you to hear it first."
"Why me?" 
"Well, it's because I need to tell someone who'll both believe me and back me up. You seem like you're capable of both."
"I'm gonna take that as a complement." 
"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend. You like soda? Do you want one?"
"No thank you. I'd rather get this intel first."
Scootaloo led Marcus to the front room of the house where she pulled out a book from a drawer and sat down on the couch. Marcus stood next to her but Scootaloo said he could sit down if he wanted to. Once Marcus sat down Scootaloo opened up the book, inside was a diary with somewhat familiar drawings.
"Wait a second, are these supposed to be Locust?" Marcus said as he pointed to a drawing of what looked like a scaly monster. 
"You mean those monsters you fought? Yeah, it's them." 
Marcus stared at Scootaloo dead in her eye.
"What are you about to tell me?" 
"Well, you know the portal? A year ago I stumbled upon the place while I was trying to find my special talent for my cutie mark. I didn't really know what it was at first but once I realized it wasn't going to hurt me I went though it. It was so weird, there were so many weird looking building and rock carvings and a massive door. As I was looking around the doors opened and then those monsters walked into the giant room. I was so scared I couldn't move, one of them saw me and then they all came over to where I was. Before I could run away one of them grabbed me by the tail and held me up. All I could do was stare into their red eyes and hope they wouldn't kill me. I was able to understand some of what they were saying. It seemed like they were asking about where I came from, one of them pointed to the portal. I tried to talk to them but they didn't seem to pay attention to me at first. Afterwards they put me down but they all surrounded me and demanded to know what was behind the portal."
"Did you tell them?" Marcus asked.
"I did," Scootaloo said with a grin, "But I didn't tell them the truth." 
"What did you tell them?" 
"I knew that there was something up with the monsters."
"Call them Locust."
"Right, Locust. So I knew that they were trying to do something that might be bad so I told them a bunch of lies about Equestria, saying that the ponies were really mythical and really powerful and that they could wipe all of them out. The Locust seemed to believe me in a way, so they let me go and I ran away from them. But ever now and then, I'd sneak back and watch them as they built buildings with guns on them. I kept hidden but I managed to bring my diary with me so I could write and draw all the stuff I was seeing. Here, take a look." 

Scootaloo gave the diary to Marcus. He flicked through it and nodded, there were indeed a lot of drawings and documents of the Locust activities inside the caves, a few pages even had glyphs and symbols. Marcus closed the book and stood up.
"Thank you for this intel Scootaloo, we'll be sure to make good use of it."
Just as he was about to go to the door, it clicked and slowly opened. Scootaloo jumped off from the couch and stood next to Marcus. 
"Who's that?" Marcus asked.
"My parents," Scootaloo replied, "You wanna meet them?"
"I can spare a few minutes." 
Marcus slid the book into his belt and watched as Scootaloo's parents entered.
"Hey mom, hi dad," Scootaloo said. 
"Hello, Scoot," her dad said. 
"Did you have a good day today?" her mom asked.
"Yep, I also want you to meet someone," Scootaloo said. 
Scootaloo's parents shifted their attention from their daughter to Marcus. Their expressions changed instantly, Scootaloo's dad placed a hoof around Scootaloo and pulled her closer to him.
"Hi," Marcus said casually, "I'm Marcus Fenix."
"Ah, one of the humans," Scootaloo's mom said, her tone shifting.
"I know what you're thinking, I'm not here to hurt you."
"Like you aren't," Scootaloo's dad said sternly, "Did you see how much destruction you caused to the town? I was going to touch this house up but then you freaks burst in and destroy all the stores." 
"That was not us, that was the dragons," Marcus said, retaining his calmness. 
"Who cares who it was, you still coated the town in blood and dragon parts," Scootaloo's mom said.
"It was either that or you and your daughter would end up dead." 
Scootaloo's parents remained silent as Marcus made his way to the door. He stopped and turned to Scootaloo.
"By the way, Carmine made it through the fight, you should go see him." 
"Thanks, Marcus." Scootaloo said. Her dad stepped in front of her.
"No, I forbid you from any and all interaction with these humans."
"But dad, I want to go with them to Canterlot."
"No, you're not going."
"But Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are going. I wanna go too." 
"No, you'll get hurt when they try and take over."
"Actually, it's just a diplomatic visit," Marcus said, "We had this planned this morning because the Princess wants us to meet the rest of the Royal family and Canterlot's elite."
"She's still not going." 
"Okay, I'll expect to see her sometime tomorrow when we're leaving."
"What do you mean by that?" Scootaloo's mom asked.
"She'll be with us when we go to Canterlot. I recommend you pack her some stuff. Trust me, nothing will happen to her when she's with Carmine. Good day to you both." 
Marcus turned to the door and left without saying another word.

Sweet Apple Acres.

"Glad you could take a break from your little project to come and try out this AppleShine with us," Cole said to Baird as he handed him a mug of Appleshine.
"How'd Dizzy and Applejack make so much so fast?" Baird asked.
"I think Applejack's got some sort of superpowered distillery or something."
"Makes sense."
Baird took a swig and looked around.
"Say, where is Dizzy?"
"Over there testing the new batch with AJ," Cole said, nodding over to the barn.
"You mean a drinking contest?"  
"You think that's what they're doing?"
"Oh, I know that's what they're doing."
"Shittttt, were missing the fun," Cole said as he jogged towards the barn. Baird sighed and followed, he wondered what kind of game Dizzy had dreamed up for the ponies. Hopefully it would involve the golden "bits" that were used as currency, mostly because they were proven to be solid gold. And a large quantity of the bits could help refinance Sera, there were even whispered rumors that one of the mountain caves contained treasure. Baird was hoping that they were true so he could assist the expedition to the mountain and get a cut of the takings. As he and Cole made their way to the barn, they noticed that there were a lot of Gears and ponies inside surrounding something, they pushed their way to the front and saw Applejack and Dizzy sitting at a small table that was covered in empty mugs and a few filled ones. Baird and Cole watched as Dizzy took one of the mugs, stared at Applejack and chugged it down in less than a second. Applejack bit her lip and shakily took one of the mugs, she looked at it and then raised it up to drink it. But before a drop could come out she fell off her stool and fell flat on her face in a pool of Appleshine. The Gears cheered and the ponies groaned.
"Heh heh, lil gal couldn't hold her drink," Dizzy said as he stood up. Cole made his way to Applejack and crouched over her.
"You okay?" he asked her.
"Ah...ah can't feel mah tail..." Applejack said, a distinct slur in her voice. Cole chuckled and picked her up.
"Come on, let the Cole Train get you to sleep." 
Applejack smiled weakly then cringed. She gagged a few times and before anyone could react, vomited on Cole's chest armor.
"Oh, what the fuck?" Cole said. Baird instantly burst out laughing. 
"Ha ha! That's what you get for puking on the Raven. Oh, karma really is a bitch."
"Shit, it's gonna take me weeks to clean this out." 
"Oops...sorry mishter Cole Train," Applejack said, she then passed out in his arms, a small amount of vomit on her chest and face. Cole sighed and carried her out of the barn, Baird following several paces behind him.
"Man, you stink more than ever." 
"Yeah, but I didn't know she was gonna chuck."
"Well hopefully you won't have to clean her up."
"I need to clean myself up. Hopefully she'll be okay tomorrow when we leave." 
"Aside from the massive hangover."
"She can tough it out," Cole said as he knocked on the door to the farmhouse. He stepped back as the door opened and Big Macintosh was standing in front of him. 
"Oh my," he said as he stared at Applejack, "What happened to her?"
"Had a little too much Appleshine," Cole said as he set her on Big Mac's back. 
"Well, this isn't the first time this happened. I'll make sure she recovers."
"So long as she's better by tomorrow. Twilight wants her to join us when we go to Canterlot."
"I'll do what I can."
Applejack then promptly vomited on his back. Big Mac cringed and then shut the door, Cole turned around and saw Baird smothering his laughter behind him. Cole walked past him, not looking at Baird.
"Come on, let's find a place to get this armor clean."
"Hey, I haven't had much to laugh at recently. This is great, I feel so alive."
"Can't say I blame you," Cole said as he tried to use his canteen to wash off the vomit. 
"Also, I'm staying a few feet behind you until you get rid of the smell."  

Ponyville Spa.
One hour later.

"So Twilight," Rarity said as she was sitting next to her getting her mane curled, "Mind telling us anything else about the humans?"
"Well, they are a much more advanced race than us. But from all the years of war they're pretty much reduced to living a life similar to us."
"That's horrible," Fluttershy said, her face coated in mud. "At least we're helping them." 
"So, what are we gonna do tomorrow?" Pinkie asked as she burst out of the bath, soaking Rainbow Dash.
"We're going to Canterlot so Chairman Hoffman and Princess Celestia can discuss interdimensional relations," Twilight replied. 
"Sound boring if you ask me," Rainbow Dash said as she wrung water and soap out of her mane. 
"Chairman Hoffman is going to bring most of his armed forces to Canterlot, so there might be something to do if you hang around with them." 
"Yeah!" Pinkie exclaimed, "Maybe you'll got to go in one of those big flying machines of theirs!" 
"They're called Ravens."
The ponies looked towards the door and saw Bernie walk in. She was wearing all of her combat armor and had her trusty Longshot slung over her shoulder and a Lancer cradled in her arms. 
"Bernie," Twilight said, "What are you doing here?"
"Just making sure you lot were okay, and to tell you that Applejack's sick."
"What?" Rarity said.
"Is she okay?" Fluttershy asked. 
"Yeah," Bernie said, "She's just got sick off Appleshine. She'll be okay by tomorrow."
"You ready to go to Canterlot Bernie?" Pinkie asked as she splashed Dash again. 
"Yep, say Dash. Do you want to come and ride in one of the Ravens?"
Rainbow Dash sat up in the tub and grinned.
"Sure thing." 
"Okay, just make sure you've got everything. We leave tomorrow at nine A.M."
"Thanks Bernie," Pinkie said.
"I'd thought you'd use your military jargon," Twilight said. Bernie shrugged
"Well, after a few days here, I don't feel it's necessary around the ponies. Anyways, see you guys tomorrow." 
> Chapter Fourteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Fourteen



ATTENTION ALL CITIZENS OF CANTERLOT!

Due to recent events, the Chairman and military forces of the Coalition of Ordered Governments will be arriving in the city within two days. It is recommended that no hostile action is to be directed towards them for they are fully capable of taking over the entire kingdom of Equestria with ease. All interaction with the humans is to be kept friendly and on no account must be asked of what happened in Ponyville.
Thank you all for cooperation.

(Notification poster put up in Canterlot referring to the arrival of the COG)


***
 

KR-Zero-Two. Two klicks outside Ponyville airspace.

Applejack leaned back against the rear wall of the Raven but the vibrations were making her feel sick so she leaned forwards again. 
"Hey, if you're gonna chuck make sure you bag it," Baird said. 
"Urg, don't make me think of it," Cole said. 
"I'm just warning her." 
"You okay AJ?" Twilight asked. 
"A little better than yesterday, but ah still feel kind of sick." 
"No kidding, you drank half a keg of Appleshine with Dizzy," Baird said. 	
"Ah didn't know how strong the stuff was."
"Well, at least it's better than the old stuff he used to brew up in Port Farrell. Man that was some nasty stuff." 
"I thought it was pretty good," Cole said. 
"That's only because you got used to the taste." 
"It didn't take long though." 
Applejack hunched over and groaned, Rarity patted her back and sighed.
"You poor thing. When are we going to get there?"
"Soon," Marcus said, "Very soon." 
"How soon?" Pinkie asked. 
"We keep up this airspeed and we'll be there in several minutes," Carmine said from the cockpit. 
"What's this button do, Carmine?" Apple Bloom asked. 
"That's the button to operate the winch. Don't touch it okay?" 
"Okay."
Bernie leaned back in the gunner seat and watched as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew up to them. 
"Say Bernie, what's that you're carrying under your flying machine?" 
"Oh, that's something that Baird made while he was here. Go on Blondie, tell them what you made." 
"Let's land first, then I'll show it off." 
"Is Applejack doing okay?" Fluttershy asked. Bernie turned around to see her with her head in a large back and a sickening sound emanating from her. 
"No, I don't think she's doing well."
"Oh my. Well, I'll be here to help her if she needs it." 
"Thanks Fluttershy," Applejack moaned. 
"Urg. Dibs on the bag after you AJ, flight sickness setting in," Cole said, his face going pale. 

Several minutes and four air sickness bags later, the fleet of Ravens arrived in Canterlot airspace. Marcus kept a grip of the bar overhead and stared down at the ponies below. He could make out that a lot of them were in the upper class of the kingdom's society. He leaned out and watched as the ponies below pointed upwards at them. As the Ravens circled the castle, Marcus finally was able to see just how big it truly was. 
"This place is much bigger up close," he shouted over the multiple rotors of the Ravens. 
"Canterlot castle is much bigger than it seems," Twilight replied. 
"It looked big from Ponyville," Baird said, "Since it was on the side of a fucking mountain." 
"Canterlot Castle is easily the biggest Castle in the whole kingdom. Princess Celestia has made accommodations for your Chairman and soldiers." 
"Wait, the Princess voluntarily allowed the COG to stay at the Castle?"
"Oh yes, she thought it would be a form of repayment for saving Ponyville."
"Seems a little extreme, there's another reason behind it isn't there?"
"Yes, actually. Since we are at war with Queen Chrysalis and her Changelings we need to have the security of the Castle improved. Changelings are able to disguise themselves as a pony or Royal Guard, it's so good that we have to create spells that nullify their ability to change into ponies. But it hasn't been very effective recently, the Changelings have adapted to the spells and have almost infiltrated the Castle." 
"And by having us there you think that the Changelings will have a hard time being accurate copies of humans?" Baird asked.
"Exactly," Twilight said. 
The Ravens circled around and then landed by the front gate of the Castle. Carmine dropped off Baird's custom vehicle and then landed several feet away from it. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash touched down next to the Raven, avoiding the rotors.
"Delta Squad," Twilight said as she hopped off the Raven, "Welcome to Canterlot." 
"Not too bad a place," Baird said as he looked around, "Pristine, large, clean. Reminds me of Jacinto before everything went to hell." 
"Let's get off this chopper," Cole said, "Me and AJ have had enough of flyin' for one day." 
As the ponies and Gears disembarked the Raven there was another noise that emanated from the back of the Raven's bay. Carmine hopped back up to the Raven and opened the rear cargo door, allowing the CMC to spill out and land in a heap next to his boots. Apple Bloom rolled off Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo and looked up at Carmine.
"Hey Carmine."
"Girls? What are you doing here?" Carmine asked. 
"We stowed away in the back of your flying machine," Scootaloo said, "We wanted to come with you." 
"Why didn't you just ask?"
"Because we didn't think it would be as fun," Sweetie Belle said. Carmine chuckled and ruffled the manes of the three fillies. 
"Come on, let's get going."
The fillies followed Carmine as he went over to join the remainder of Delta as Baird was showing the new creation he had made with several of the engineers. What it appeared to be was an Armadillo APC but the front of the hull was bulged and had more weapons protruding out of it, there was also what looked like a long, upward curved tail on the back of it that had a Longspear rocket launcher on the tip.  
"So what is it?" Bernie asked. 
"This, my friends," Baird said as he patted the side, "Is a new type of APC I'm thinking of getting mass produced once we get Sera back in working order."
"What are you going to call it?" Marcus asked.
"The Scorpion. I named it that because of the modified Longspear launcher on the tail end, also I had the old guns taken out and replaced with four Vulcans and a Mulcher in the tail."
"Sounds a little overkill, Blondie," Bernie said. 
"It may be but when we get back we are gonna be fighting Stranded and I think a little overkill might be enough to make them give up fighting." 
"So does it work?" Cole asked.
"Oh yeah, it works."  
"Let's ride it to the castle," Twilight said. 

Canterlot Castle. One hour after landing.

"I have to say, Princess, you've got one impressive castle." Hoffman said as he walked next to Celestia. 
"Thank you, Canterlot Castle has been around for over a thousand years. It's been the place where the rulers of Equestria can keep watch over their land with little threat of attack."
"So, you're not the first ruler, am I right?"
"Indeed, there were a few before me. But that was long ago, they are not spoke of nowadays. Did you have rulers before you?"
"Yeah, there were a lot of rulers before me. It all started with the Allfathers, they founded the COG many years ago, long before the Pendulum Wars. It's a little different to what you guys have." 
"Sounds very different indeed," Celestia replied, "So then, shall we discuss the matter of this war we are in?"
"What you are in, me and my troops are done with fighting." 
"I am not asking for you and your soldiers to fight, I only ask of assistance of how to fight. I know that you were a great Commander at one point, I wish to see if that you can still command the way you used to." 
"I guess I can do that. Show me what you've got and I'll make it work better."

Meanwhile, Delta had claimed one of the larger, empty rooms as their own and had set up collapsable bunks, tables and chairs. As the squad went to one of the chambers that had been adapted to a large mess hall for the Gears, Marcus stayed behind in the room. For the past few days the same nightmare had been tormenting him and interrupting his sleep. He so far had been sleeping for a few hours, trying to make up what was lost in the nights but once again, the dream came to him. It started out the same way each time, Dom would break him out of a prison cell similar to the one in the Slab and toss him a bag of armor and a weapon. Then once they made their way through the maze of cells that contained shrieking Locust and Lambent they would be outside where a pitched battle was going on between Gears and Locust. Marcus would then follow Dom to where Carlos and Adam Fenix would be firing at the Locust. Carlos would be shouting orders that Helena Stroud was giving while Adam Fenix covered him, Marcus joined the fray and engaged the Locust with Dom, Carlos and his father until a Raven circled around and landed on a helipad to the left of them.
"Marcus!" Carlos yelled over the gunfire, "You gotta get your dad out of here!"
"No, I don't want to leave my men," Adam argued.
"Come on, dad!" Marcus bellowed as he picked up his dad by the arm and pushed him towards the chopper. 
"We'll cover you!" Dom said. The radio then flared up and Helena Stroud was heard shouting.
"Fenix! You've got to get out of here with the files!"
"What files?" Marcus asked.
"The info on the Locust queen," Carlos said, "We finally know her weakness."
"Come on, let's go!" Dom said. As the four sprinted to the chopper, they were intercepted by several Drones and a pair of Boomers. Marcus ordered them to push through until they got to the Raven, as they fired upon the Drones the Boomers returned fire and blasted the wall that Carlos was hiding behind to bits, leaving him on the floor, incapacitated. 
"Carlos!" Marcus yelled. 
"Go! Get your dad out of here!" Dom shouted as he ran to help his brother. One of the Boomers lept over the wall and swiped at Adam with it's large fist and sent him crashing to the ground. Marcus span around and emptied a clip into it before picking up his dad and dragging him back, but Adam pulled out his Snub pistol and scored a headshot on the Boomer.
"Come on dad, you can make it." 
"No, Marcus, you need to do this," his father replied, looking behind him. Locust were swarming towards them, many more than they could handle. "You have to take the files and get out of here."
"No! I'm not leaving you behind!"
"Do it Marcus!" Dom yelled.
"We'll cover you as long as we can," Carlos said. He sat up and then gunned down a Drone making it's way to him. "GO!"
Marcus ran back as his squad held their ground against the horde, when he reached the Raven he looked back.
"I'm not leaving you guys behind again."
He tossed the files up to a Raven gunner.
"Take those back to Command, now!"
"Yes sir!"
As the Raven took off and flew away, Marcus charged back to assist his squad in their final stand. The battle was long and arduous but they seemed to be holding their ground.
"We're winning!" Dom yelled.
"Keep shooting!" Marcus said. As Carlos was gunning down a Grenadier it dropped one live grenade that rolled over to Dom. Carlos jumped up and dove at it.
"Dom! Look out!"
Dom had little time to react as his brother pushed him away and landed on the grenade. It then detonated, splitting Carlos in half and showering Dom in blood. 
"NOOOOOOO!" he yelled as he sprayed bullets at the Locust, "YOU MOTHERFUCKERS KILLED MY BROTHER!"
"Sniper!" Adam yelled. But it was too late, the sniper fired and Dom's head exploded in a shower of skull, blood and brain.
"DOM!" Marcus yelled. He span around to see a Savage Drone with a Retro Lancer charge at his dad and then skewer him on the bayonet. He fired and killed the Drone but his dad was dead before he could reach him. Marcus opened fire again and managed to kill a few more Drones when he heard something behind him, he span around and was then looking at General RAAM with his huge knife that killed Lieutenant Kim. RAAM brought then knife back and then thrust forward at Marcus, Marcus shut his eyes for the blow but instead of feeling the knife penetrate his armor and flesh Marcus felt nothing.  He opened his eyes and saw that he was no longer in the battle, but in a field in the middle of the night. Then, a voice called to him.

"Marcus Fenix. Do not worry, you are safe now." 
"What the hell. Who are you?"
"I am Luna, Princess of the night." 
"Show yourself," Marcus said, trying to focus on the voice. 
"Very well."
Marcus watched as several stars descended from the sky and settled on what appeared to be a, flowing, dark blue mane and tail. The pinpricks of light then lit up more showing the Princess standing in front of Marcus. She had a very calm look on her face as she approached him, nothing like the first time she laid her eyes on him. Marcus kept his stance and his expression the whole time as she slowly made her way to him.
"How'd you do that?" he asked her. 
"Do what?" Luna said.
"My dream, how'd you pull me out of it?" 
"I didn't pull you out of it, I stopped it before it got too bad." 
"But how did you stop it?"
"It's simple, Marcus. I have the power to enter and alter dreams at my will."
"That's right, you're the Princess of the night. Makes sense that you can do that." 
"You are very intelligent, just like your father."
"I'm guessing you can access memories too?" 
"Indeed I can, I've seen a lot of your memories since you arrived."
What do you mean?"
Luna sighed and stared off towards the horizon.
"Ever since you arrived here, Marcus, I've felt that there is something great about you. Something that even you do not know about yourself. I've watched your dreams, seen the things you have done, the losses you have suffered. But I know what you are to become in the future."
"Then what am I gonna be?" Marcus asked with great interest. 
"Marcus Fenix, you are to become the next Chairman of Sera."
Marcus stood in silence, unblinking and unsure what Luna said was true.
"How the hell can you predict something like that?" he said, "You're not even from our world." 
"Ah, but you are capable of commanding with efficiency. You would do anything for your government and your fellow soldiers, do you not feel as if their lives are your responsibility?" 
"This is some crazy shit your saying, Luna." 
"It may be, but it may also come true as dreams have in the past."
"I don't dream of being the next Chairman. I just want my home planet to be back to normal."
"Then why not lead it to salvation?" Luna said with a small smile on her face. Marcus ground his teeth and looked up at Luna.
"I see what you mean, and I might take it into consideration. But I'm not guaranteeing it." 
Suddenly a strange green aura formed behind Luna. Marcus saw it and raised his rifle, Luna turned around and stared in horror as it engulfed her and turned into a bubble. She stared at Marcus and then tried to blast her way free with magic bolts.
"What the hell is going on?" Marcus said, he raised his Lancer and pulled the trigger but the weapon jammed. Marcus tried to clear the jam but the bubble had winked out of existence, along with Princess Luna. He suddenly awoke, lying on the cot he set up before he slept. Marcus then sat up and rubbed his eyes and looked out the window, totally unsure of what happened.
"What the fuck just happened?" he said to the empty air. 

He shook it off and decided to go to the mess hall for something to eat. As he made his way through the halls he noticed that there were a lot of Gears patrolling the place. Even though there was a war going on he thought that all this security was a little overzealous, but if was going to deter the Changelings then it was guaranteed to work. He made his way past a couple of Onyx Guards and went over to join his Squad sitting at a large table with a few other ponies. Cole was the first to see him.
"Heyyy, Marcus."
"You sleep well?" Baird asked. 
"Not really, I had same dream again." 
"Haven't you had that ever since we killed the Locust?" Bernie asked him.
"Yeah, but it was different at the end."
"How's that?" Carmine asked as he stroked Apple Bloom's mane. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were snuggled up to him, hoping to get some attention from him too.
"I dunno what happened but right at the part where RAAM was going to kill me, Luna showed up and stopped the dream. Then she went on to tell me that I was going to become the next Chairman."
"Okay, that's a little weird," Sam said, "You sure it was her?"
"Positive."
"Next question is what happened next?" Jace asked.
"I dunno. Next thing that happened was that some sort of green mist started to form behind Luna then it turned into a bubble and then engulfed her before disappearing."  
"Wow, that's interesting," Anya said, "So you woke up after that?"
"Yep. I don't know if it was real or not, it seemed real." 
"That's weird," Baird said. As Marcus went to go get some food, Princess Celestia stopped by the table. 
"Good Morning, Delta. Have you seen my sister Luna? She's missing."
"Marcus did," Cole said, "He said she was in his dream or something."
"Hmmm, did he say anything else?"
"Yes, he said that there was some sort of green mist and a bubble that took Luna away." 
"Did he say what kind of green it was?"
"Dark," Marcus said, "A dark, almost military green." 
"Oh dear," Celestia said, her eyes filling with fear. "She's here, she's close. Get your army ready, NOW!" 
And without another word, she bolted from the mess hall, leaving the Gears both perplexed and confused.
> Chapter Fifteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Fifteen


If I was told to describe this mission with one word it would be "shit". Not for it being shit but for being so unbelieveable. So far we've arrived in a world of talking ponies, had a Thrashball game with them, killed a horde of dragons, and now we're guarding a huge castle from shape-shifting beings bent on destroying this place. What's net? I dunno, I just hope it's something that's easy to deal with.

(Excerpt of Corporal Adrian Zar's diary)


***


Improvised mess hall, Canterlot Castle

Baird tapped his finger on the table a few times before getting up from his chair.
"Well, I don't know what's up with her but I'm gonna go see the rest of the castle. Anyone else want to come?"
"I will," Cole said, "Hell, it's not like we have anything better to do." 
"Good point, see you guys later," Sam said. Baird and Cole took their Lancers and left the mess, as they made their way through the halls and up some staircases Cole was wondering what he was looking for. 
"Somethin' got you spooked?"
"No, but there is something strange going on. Notice something that wasn't there earlier?"
"Not really, seems quiet enough that you would though."
"Exactly," Baird said, "This place was packed with ponies a half hour ago, now the only ones here in this place are us and the Gears patrolling the place." 
"Yeah," Cole said as he looked behind him, "Where are all the ponies at?"
"I dunno. But it's not good, that's for sure." 
"Let's go see where they went."
"Why? I wanted to take a look around this place." 
"We'll just go and see if they're okay then we can go back to exploring."
Baird sighed and then faced Cole.
"Okay, but let's make this quick." 
Cole took point and led Baird down several hallways and through several rooms and staircases until they came across a very large chamber full of terrified looking ponies, nervous Royal Guards and several squads of confused Gears. Baird looked around the room to see if Delta was here or at least one of the ponies they met, he then saw Carmine with the CMC cowering next to him and he made his way over to them. Carmine crouched down next to the fillies and pulled them closer to him unto which they jumped up into his arms and shivered, Baird approached him as he was trying to calm the fillies.
"Hey Carmine, what's going on?" 
"I don't know, only that Celestia's freaking out and a lot of the ponies are spooked."
"What do you think it is?" 
"Something bad, real bad."
Baird gritted his teeth and motioned for Cole to join him with Carmine. As Carmine was explaining what was going on with the ponies all gathering up in the Royal Chamber Princess Celestia appeared on a balcony with Chairman Hoffman and a few Onyx Guards. 

"Attention citizens of Canterlot," she said, loud enough to quiet the talking ponies. "As many of you know and have guessed, Canterlot has been infiltrated by the Changling forces. As we are aware we know that they have changed themselves into ponies and have managed to get past our guards and the humans but fortunately, according to our intelligence about them, they do not know how to replicate the humans. This is a good thing because we can now narrow down our search to find them. Chairman Hoffman, you can now give your orders."
Hoffman stepped forwards and addressed his Gears. 
"Troops, this is probably very confusing and very strange but we need to help these ponies out with this infiltration of their capital. From what we've been told, these 'Changelings' will take over this place, learn how to replicate us and then go into our world so that they can arm themselves and take over Equestria."
"Seems kinda long-fetched that plan," Baird said.
"Yeah, but how are we supposed to tell who's who?" Carmine asked.
"Simple, humble human," Celestia said, "I managed to develop a spell that can render the Changeling's ability to disguise themselves useless for a short time." 
Cole noticed that a stallion was shuffling his hooves nervously and looking towards the guards and the door.
"Show us," Baird said. Celestia gave Baird a short, sharp stare and raised her horn to the sky. Her horn then glowed a light blue and then intensified until it discharged and sent a wave of shimmering sparkles that engulfed the whole room. Carmine suddenly dropped the fillies and started to yell and claw at his armor. 
"Carmine!" Baird said, "What is it?"
"It's my armor," Carmine said as he tried to pull it off, "It-it...itches like hell!"
As Carmine kept trying to scratch his armor off the Crusaders were rolling around laughing heavily. Baird stared at them as they tried to get up but fell on their backs and stomachs amid their own laughter.
"Make it stopppppppp!" Apple Bloom said, tears streaming down her face.
"Pleaseeeeeee!" Scootaloo wailed, going red in the face.
"It ticklessssssss!" Sweetie Belle cried. Baird sighed and then got a small tingling feeling on his arm with then grew into a massive and irritating itch.
"Oh fuck!" he said as he tried to pull his sleeve up. He then looked up at Celestia and raised his arm in annoyance. "What gives? Why the hell am I all itchy?"
"Do not be afraid, humans and ponies. The itches and tickly feelings are no more than temporary side effects they should wear off soon."
"So did the spell or whatever work?" Cole asked as he managed to keep his cool while scratching at his head. 
"Yep!" Carmine shouted, "Look behind you!"

Cole span around and saw that the suspicious stallion was now on the floor, writhing around in pain and letting out an almost demonic scream of anguish. Cole watched as the coat of the stallion dissolved and revealed a darker coat and hooves that were full of holes like they had been shot through multiple times. As the outer coat dissolved around the face the stallion's eyes sent from being a bright green to a eerie light blue with no eyeries or pupils, Cole was amazed at what was happening before his very eyes and could only guess that this is what a Changeling really looks like. The outer coat of the Changeling had finally dissolved and the creature stood up and stared at Cole, baring its fangs that were as big as bullets and just as deadly. The ponies around it screamed and retreated, some being dragged because they had experienced the tickling side effect of the spell. Cole and the Changeling stared at each other, Cole switched on his Lancer's chainsaw and got ready to defend himself in case it attacked. But before it could strike, several Gears and Onyx Guards surrounded it, weapons raised and ready to fire. Baird strolled up to the Changeling with his sidearm aimed at hip level.
"If you know what's good for you you'll be a good bug and surrender, or you can attack and then get crushed like one."
Hoffman stared as the Gears surrounded the Changeling, as they made their way closer it, it it let out a loud hiss and then opened up it's hole filled wings and took off, hovering above the Gears and grinning. The Gears looked at each other and then to Baird, who has his pistol raised and pointed at the Changeling.
"It didn't surrender," he said with his trademark sneer, "So we crush it." 
The Gears raised their weapons and opened fire on the Changeling, which thought it was safe so long as it was put of reach of the humans. Bullets and buckshot ripped apart the Changeling and managed to keep it in the air for a few seconds even after it was dead, gunfire echoed through the castle until the Changeling had finally landed on the ground and stopped twitching. The crowd of ponies that were watching the ordeal had never seen such brutality, most of them huddled up with each other as Baird crouched down over the peppered body and stare at the curved horn on the Changeling. Currently it was glowing a dark green and leaking a strange liquid on the floor with the same viscosity as blood. 
"Hello, what's this you've got here?" he said as he took out his knife and started to use the serrated part of the blade to saw off the Changeling's horn. As he did Cole jogged up to him.
"Damn Baird. Leave the freaky bug alone." 
"Hold on, there's something in it's horn." 
"I don't think there is."
Baird gave the horn one good tug and it cleanly snapped off the Changeling's head. He span it around in his hand and looked inside of it and eyed the inside of it closely.
"Holy shit, this is interesting." 
"What?" Cole asked. A few Gears had joined Cole in seeing what Baird had discovered. Baird probed the hollow inside of the horn and produced a small, strange looking organ. 
"This right here. This is very interesting." 
"Urg, smells like shit," a Gear said. 
"I'm more interested on what it does," Baird said as he placed the organ back in the horn.
"You're really fucking weird, you know?"
"Like I give a fuck what you think."
"Come on, Baird. We gotta check who else in the crowd is one of these freaky shape-shifting bugs," Cole said. Baird  wrapped the horn up in the shredded remains of the Changeling's wing and put it in an empty ammo pouch and then joined Cole and a squad of Gears as they combed through the petrified crowds, searching for any more Changelings. 

COG CIC HQ. Canterlot Castle recreation hall.
24 hours after discovery of Changeling infiltration.

Shaken. If Twilight has to describe her current condition shaken would be that very word. She couldn't believe that Chrysalis's whole swarm had managed to infiltrate Canterlot and possibly Ponyville, the only comfort she could find in this terrible situation was that the COG had locked down the city and with the help of a new and better spell to reveal Changelings, they could catch the swarm before they launched a full attack on the capital.
"Twilight!" a voice rang out, startling the unicorn out of her stupor. Twilight looked up and cringed as the hardened face of Chairman Hoffman stared at her from the other end of the table she was sitting at. She had totally forgotten what was going on and why she was brought to the COG's CIC headquarters. 
"Sorry, I-um-got a little distracted."
"It's okay, sweetie." Bernie said as she leaned against the table edge closest to Twilight, "Now tell us again about the Changelings and how you beat them last time."
Twilight let out a deep sigh and recited everything that happened when her older brother was getting married, the events that led up to the discovery of Chrysalis and the battle that led to the defeat and exile of the Changeling queen. Hoffman and Bernie took in every piece of information and then looked at each other when Twilight had finished. 
"Well, Chairman. Any ideas?" Bernie asked. Hoffman shook his head and sighed.
"I don't think that getting the Gears to hug each other will produce enough "love" to repeat the events the like time these Changelings were here. "I think we'll just have to stick with our current plan of collaborated martial law until we can oust the Changelings." 
"What will that mean for me and my friends?" Twilight asked, "We have the Elements of Harmony, why can't we use them?" 
"The Elements eliminate or expel any form of Disharmony," Bernie said, "From What Celestia told us, if you use the Elements of Harmony there is a possibility of erasing or expelling us from your world. We can't have that because if the COG is lost then our home planet is doomed, even if the UIR is there." 
Twilight sighed and nodded her head.
"I understand."
"It's okay, our soldiers have been trained for this and I'm totally sure that we've got this under control. You and your friends are safe so long as we're here." 
Twilight smiled and stood up from her chair. The door to the room then opened and Cole peeked in.
"Sir? Would you mind coming to the research lab? I think Baird just discovered something about that horn he picked up back in the castle." 
Hoffman and Bernie stood up and followed Cole as he led them to the labs, Twilight trotting to keep pace with the much longer strides that the humans had.
"What did Baird find?" Twilight asked with great interest.
"Won't know until we get there," Bernie replied, a look of grim determination on her face, not looking down at Twilight. Twilight kept quiet for the rest of the walk, she stopped dead for a few seconds when she saw the research labs. It appeared to be a hastily constructed series of examination tables, test tubes, beakers, geiger counters and computers all set up around a room that really should be full of exercise equipment. Twilight kept her pace with the Gears until they came to a table that Baird was leaning over, his smug grin let her know that he had found out something big.

"Okay," Baird said, eager to tell the others what he found, "You see this horn here?" 
Twilight hopped upon a chair and saw the Changeling horn that Baird was holding up.
"Yeah, what about it?" Hoffman asked. 
"Well, we know why the Changeling are called Changelings, right? I Guess what, I found out what allows them to change their form."
"What? How?" Bernie asked. Twilight too was perplexed but she sat and listened.
"It's simple once you hear it, granny. You see the organ inside the horn and how it's secreting all this goop? Turns out that this stuff is a chameleonic gel that can change the outer skin of the Changeling into whatever they want, provided they get a good look of whatever non-plant organic life they want to be." 
"So, can we use this to fight the Changelings?" Hoffman asked.
"No, we can't find a way to use it against the Changelings, but we have found one use for it."
"What's that?"
Baird picked up his Lancer from the table and pulled on the chainsaw blade.
"Lubricant." 
Hoffman and Bernie stared at Baird for what seemed like several minutes before Hoffman broke the silence. 
"So the only use you could find for this shit is to grease up Lancers?"
"Oh, more than just Lancers. We can use this on our other guns and even our vehicles, this stuff is way better than what we scavenge back on Sera."
"But won't getting this be hard?" Bernie asked, "After all, Blondie, you're gonna have to cut all the horns off each Changeling you kill."
"Well, if they attack us then it's fair game. But for now, I'm gonna keep checking this stuff out until I can find something else it's good for." 
Twilight got off the stool she was sitting on and looked at the clock affixed to the wall which now indicated that it had passed midnight, she forgot how late it was because she had been so long in the COG's CIC HQ. She worked the stiffness out of her joints and then sighed. 

"I'd best get back to my room, go to sleep."
"Okay, see ya," Baird said, not paying attention to Twilight.
"I'll walk you back if you want," Bernie said, "I need to get back to my quarters anyways." 
"Thanks Bernie." 
Twilight let Bernie join her as she walked through the halls of the castle and past the barracks. Twilight stopped walking and looked inside the room and saw the sleeping Gears. Every now and then one would sit bolt upright, look around frantically then rub his eyes and lie back down and then stay still, Twilight guessed that these Gears were having nightmares after all, she heard about the horrors of the last two wars that were fought. She sighed and backed up into Bernie.
"It's okay," Bernie said, "You don't need to say anything. I think you understand." 
"I do, and I feel so bad for your race and your planet," Twilight said. Bernie crouched down and stroked the unicorn's mane, Twilight then smiled and hugged her around the waist and held on.
"You going to your room now?" Bernie asked, hugging Twilight back. Twilight let go and nodded. 
"Thanks for walking with me, I feel a lot safer with you guys here." 
"It's nothing, sweetheart. You go get some sleep." 
Twilight turned and trotted to her room, she passed a few patrolling Gears and Royal Guards and was stopped three times to be checked if she was a Changeling. At first, she used to protest these checkpoints and random checks but after a pair of Changelings sneaked past the checkpoints and got into the Royal Chambers before being shot dead by Onyx Guards, she tolerated them. As Twilight made it to her room she paused and listened for the sounds of nighttime  wildlife and insects, the chirps and calls relaxed her and made her feel at ease. Until the sound of automatic gunfire and shouting started up and overpowered the normalcy of the night. She sighed and opened the door to her room and found all her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled up to each other on the floor, there had been several sleeping bags set up on the floor next to her bed, all of which now lay in a crumpled pile next to the huddle of terrified ponies.
"Girls, what are you all doing in here?" Twilight asked.
"We came to stay in your room," Pinkie said.
"Yeah, Marcus said that it would be best if we stuck together," Rainbow Dash added.
"W-what's happening out there?" a shaken Sweetie Belle asked. 
"It's okay, just a little disturbance." Twilight said. 
"GET THE FUCK BACK HERE YOU LITTLE PARASITE!" a loud voice rang out, followed by more gunfire. Twilight cringed and shut the door behind her.
"Anypony want to get some sleep?" she asked. 
The ponies nodded in reply and crawled back into their sleeping bags, huddled up to each other and drifted off. As Twilight climbed up into her bed and pulled the covers over her she wondered what would happen tomorrow, and if she and her friends would live to see the day after that.
> Chapter Sixteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Sixteen


Much to my surprise, the Changelings have been attempting to infiltrate the Castle much more than expected. Are they not intimidated by the COG? I thought they would be at least back down and try to create a diversion so they could launch a full attack, but it seems like they want to get close to the Gears for some reason. What are they planning to do? What is their motive that risks getting caught constantly? All I can hope is that Chairman Hoffman and his loyal soldiers can find out before it's too late.

(Princess Celestia's personal journal.) 


***


Canterlot Castle Courtyard. 
Two days later.

"Come on guys, you can't fight Changelings if you can't keep focused in a battle field."
Marcus was pacing up and down the line of Canterlot Royal Guards mock fighting each other. Marcus thought that this was a good idea, considering that the Changelings could become Royal Guards themselves and they'll end up fighting each other. He stopped next to a pair of Unicorn Guards who were trying to pin one another and then thrust a wooden sword into each other.
"Hey, hey. What did I tell you before the drill?"
The two guards stopped and looked up at Marcus.
"Um...Don't kill your attacker until you can confirm he's a Changeling," one guard said. Marcus nodded.
"Exactly, and how do you do that?" 
"Look into their eyes for any abnormal traces of green or blue?" the other guard said slowly and shakily.
"Good, so why aren't you doing just that?" Marcus asked.
"Um...Wouldn't it be hard if we're fighting?"
"No, all you've got to do is look at the irises for a few seconds and the color flash will give them away. You're supposed to be training how to do that covertly."
"How do you humans know all this?"
"We've been studying the Changelings we captured," Marcus replied, "You learn a lot from your enemies when you've got them under your control."
"How did you make them do your bidding?" the first guard asked, "Changelings are notoriously violent and uncooperative. It's hard for us to just get them in a holding cell."
"We showed them what would happen if they didn't work with us," Marcus said grimly, "As you were."
He walked away from the two guards and walked up to Cole, who was showing a group of guards how to set up a defensive wall similar to defensive positions that thrashball players used. He stopped and smiled when he saw Marcus walking over to him. He dismissed the guards and stood up.
"Yo Marcus, how's training the guards going?"
"I don't think these guards have had a lot of combat experience. They're great as guards, as soldiers, they could get killed if things turn violent."
"Mhmm, if we could spare the weapons or they had the ability to hold them for a long time we could train them with our weapons."
"Hoffman already told me we can't. The Princess doesn't want our weapons in the guard's possession, she's worried that they might hurt themselves with the chainsaws." 
"Can't blame her," Cole said, looking over to the Gear drill sergeants who were shouting at the guard ponies. "Wanna go see if Baird's found anything interesting in the labs?"
"Sure, hopefully we finally use that gel shit for something other than an epoxy."

COG R&D labs. Formerly Canterlot Castle dungeons. 

Baird paced up and down the Changeling holding cell, staring dead in the eyes of each and every one of the hissing creatures. He gritted his teeth and stopped in front of the growing mound, pulled a frag grenade out of his back pouch and held onto the chain.
"Now, I'm gonna tell you assholes one more time, we put you in this cell for a reason. We want to see what you can create when you all morph together like you did last night. Don't bullshit me on this, I saw the footage of you guys turning into Minotaurs and Timberwolves. So, you show us what you can do or I'm throwing this grenade in there and afterwards, take your horns."
The Changelings hissed back at Baird, who just smirked and put his fingers over the pin.
"Okay, if you're gonna be like that, then no point in keeping you." 
The Changelings then growled and then gathered up into a huge mound. Baird stepped back and watched as the gel seeped over them and hardened into a semi-transparent, green pile of goo until it changed color and moved. Baird stood in amazement as the Changelings had turned themselves into a small dragon. Its head them moved and stared at Baird who was nodding in approval and putting the grenade back in his pouch.
"Okay, I'm convinced. That is pretty neat," he said and then looked to the Gear who was guarding the cell, "Gas them so they don't escape."
The Gear nodded and then pulled a lever on the wall, which caused a metal wall to drop from the ceiling and seal the cell. Baird watched through the small window as the knockout gas was delivered through a series of small holes and pipes in the walls and ceiling of the cell, causing the Changeling dragon to dissolve and fall apart as Changelings were rendered unconscious. Baird stepped back and sighed and shook his head.
"I'm impressed with how they can turn into a dragon, but I'm more impressed on how this cell is equipped with knockout gas. It's like they were expecting this." 
"Oh yes," one of the unicorn scientists said, "We had these cells built many years ago to hold some of Equestria's more violent residents. The gas is actually a magical sleeping elixir, only to be used when the prisoner gets too rowdy or is trying to escape."
"Seems legit," Baird said. The door opened behind him and he turned to see Cole and Marcus walk into the room. 
"Baird, how's the research going?" Marcus asked.
"I've gotten a lot more information about the Changelings that I could ever need. There's more info about these bugs here on this table than all the years we've fought the Locust, but that's because we got some as prisoners rather than the old "shoot-to-kill" policy we had with the Locust."
"So you got anything good?" Cole asked.
"I'll tell you once we move these guys," Baird said as he jerked a thumb behind him at the cell full of sleeping Changelings. "Gotta separate these tenacious fuckers before they wake up." 
"Why's that?" 
"Just help me and I'll explain when we're done."
Cole, Marcus and a few other Gears helped out Baird as they placed small groups of Changelings in several cells. Cole picked up the last Changeling and hoisted it over his shoulder.
"Shit, these guys are heavy for hole filled bugs."
"I'm still working on why that is," Baird said, "But the holes in their legs do decrease drag when flying. Don't know how they keep flying with the holes in their wings."
The Changeling on Cole's shoulder started making clicking sounds and move slightly.
"Don't worry, it's all involuntary," Baird said. Suddenly it sprang awake, let out a piercing scream and flew out of Cole's grasp.
"Ah, shit! Kill it!" Marcus bellowed. The Changeling darted around the room, knocking over beakers and computers, the unicorn scientists hid under tables as the Gears tried to keep track of it with their weapons. One Gear ran to the door and slammed it shut. The Changeling stopped dead in front of the Gear and then gel started to secrete from its horn.
"No point trying to change your look," the Gear said, raising his Lancer. Before the Gear could fire a shot the gel formed into a bullet shaped mold and rocketed off the horn and hit the Gear directly in the chest, sending him flying into the door. Cole vaulted over a table and planted his boots on the back of the Changeling's head and crushing it once he hit the floor.
"That's how I crush bugs, bitch!"
"Shit, you okay?" Marcus said as he ran over to the Gear.
"Fuck..." the Gear choughed, "Bastard got me through my armor." 
"Well, that's new as well," Baird said, "They can create ballistic projectiles with the gel."
"Why didn't you warn us?" Marcus said in a low growl. Baird put up his hands and stepped back as Marcus helped up the stricken Gear and Cole wiped the Changeling's head off his boot.
"I didn't fucking know until now." 
"Shitttt, get him to the infirmary." 
The other two Gears nodded and carried the wounded Gear out of the room as the unicorn scientists came out from under the tables.
"Wh-what happened?" one asked.
"I think this one held it's breath until the doors opened," Baird said, leaning over the corpse. He smirked and then pulled the half-crushed horn from the pile of brain matter, skull and blood. "Thank you, bug."
Marcus sighed and went to the door. Memories of the Slab resurfacing.
"Come on, let's get out of here. I'm sick of being in this fucking hole."

Canterlot Castle Gardens.

Carmine sat across from Sam, watching her disassemble her Longshot and clean it out. Sweetie Belle was cradled in his arms, sleeping, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were leaning against him fro either side both yawning from the lack of sleep they had the last few nights. The day was when they felt safe to sleep and especially when Carmine was with them. Sam leaned over the table and saw Sweetie Belle curled up and fast asleep and smiled.
"That's cute," Sam said, her voice lowered as to not disturb the sleeping fillies. Carmine smiled under his helmet and stroked the filly's mane.
"Yep, poor girls kept having nightmares. But they seem to be sleeping easy now."
"So do you think the Changelings will back off now that we've upped the patrols and number of active guards?"
"Maybe, I mean, there's a lot less changeling activity. But I dunno, hopefully they'll do." 
Sam nodded and went back to cleaning her rifle when the sound of hooves approaching the table where she and Carmine were sitting at. She looked up and saw Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack trotting over to them, Sam waved at them and motioned for them to stay quiet as she pointed at Carmine and the Crusaders.
"Hello there," Fluttershy said, "How are you?"
"Doing fine," Sam said, "Been keeping to myself, slotting the occasional Changeling, usual stuff."  
"Aww, ain't that cute?" Applejack said as she sat down next to Apple Bloom, "How ya'll been with Carmine?"
Sweetie Belle rolled over in Carmine's arms and Apple Bloom looked up at her sister.
"He's been great. Keeping us safe and letting us sleep in his arms."
"They like doing that," Carmine said, gently shaking Sweetie Belle awake. 
"Hmm, what is it Carmine?"
"Hi Sweetie Belle," Rarity said softly. Sweetie Belle leaned her head back and saw her older sister smiling at her.
"Hi Rarity."
"Sleeping okay there?"
"You should try it, it's more comfortable than it looks." 
"It won't be for me," Carmine said. 
"I could probably hold her."
The ponies and two Gears looked up and saw Cole jogging over to them, smiling. Baird and Marcus were several steps behind him, but both of them weren't smiling, their expression was grim and solum. 
"You wanna take a turn holding these kids?" Carmine asked, holding up Sweetie Belle. 
"Awwww, that's cute," Cole said.
"Shit...not again," Baird hissed under his breath. 
"Where were you guys?" Sam asked.
"Down in the dungeons with the Changelings," Marcus said, "Baird's made some interesting discoveries. One of which we saw firsthand."  
"What did you learn about them?" Fluttershy asked. Baird sat down between Carmine and Fluttershy and pulled out a small notebook and opened it.
"Well, the first thing we learned out these bugs is that the horn contains an organ that makes a gel which is what the Changelings use to change their outer look. The only use we could make of it was weapon grease."
"Really?" Sam asked, "I could use some of that stuff now."
"Next time I get one of those Changelings I'll save the horn for you. Anyways, we also learned that they can change into much bigger creatures so long as they can somehow link together into one mound of bugs. What else? Oh yeah, they can also use the gel to make ballistic projectiles. Bullets if you don't know what I mean." 
Sam and Carmine looked at Baird, then at each other and back to Baird.
"Saw it firsthand," Marcus said, folding his arms. "The Changelings are now an official threat."
"Well...shit," Carmine sighed. 
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"One of the Changelings woke up and escaped the cell," Baird said, "It managed to make it to the door but a Gear blocked it off. Then the Changeling used its gel to shoot a bullet shaped mold at him. Punched through the armor."
"Is the Gear okay?" Fluttershy asked.
"Might be, didn't seem to be bleeding," Marcus said. 
"What do we do now?" Applejack asked.
But to everyone's surprise, no-one had an answer.

Canterlot Royal Library.
One day later.

"Books, parchment, scrolls. This library is really stuck in the past, but it's got stuff we won't have on Sera for years," Hoffman thought as he strolled through the aisles of the library. He stopped at one large looking scroll, read the side and placed it back on the shelf.
"What I would give for decent toilet paper back home."
However, Hoffman's leisurely stroll through the library was interrupted when an Onyx Guard jogged over to him and saluted.
"Sir, we've got a problem."
"What is it? And don't bullshit me on the details, I want to know everything." 
"It appears that Corporal Damon Baird has discovered that the Changelings have the ability to produce ballistic projectiles that are capable of penetrating Gear armor."
Hoffman went silent which seemed to last several minutes. He grit his teeth and then spoke, the color slowly draining from his face.
"So now these Changelings can kill us?" he asked.
"No sir, the Gear who was wounded survived with minor bruising. Corporal Baird has offered a theory stating that these 'gel bullets' or whatever terminology is used for them could kill Gears if large enough or multiple rounds were to hit a Gear and break the armor."
"Well...shit. This is fucking great, I thought these bugs would back down but now they can kill our Gears. Did word of this get out?" 
"No sir, the Changeling that did this has been terminated. We believe they won't learn this ability unless by fluke."
"Okay, no more dicking around," Hoffman said, "From now on, I'm issuing a shoot to kill policy on the Changelings. This discovery is Classified from now on." 
"Sir, do you think that this shoot to kill order is a good idea?"
"No, not for keeping a good relation with the ponies. But if we don't take action any hope of saving Sera is gonna turn FUBAR real fast."
"Understood sir," the Onyx Guard said, "What are your orders now?"
"Get our Gears together and tell them the new policy, we'll tell Princess Celestia too," Hoffman said. He then realized something, he had not seen the Princess or her sister Luna for a while, he turned to the Onyx Guard. "Say, where is Princess Celestia?"  
"We're not sure, sir. She hasn't been seen by either our Gears or the Royal Guards. Not even the Guard Captain has seen the Princess." 
Hoffman rubbed his chin and shook his head. Both Princesses missing, what was going on? Clearly whoever, or whatever was at commanding the Changelings clearly had been watching the COG and had planned the attack for a very long time. He marched out of the library, the Onyx Guard followed him after taking a book out of his back pocket and slid into a space on one of the shelves. He looked behind him and then jogged to catch up with Hoffman."
"Hope no-one notices the missing pages, or the smell." 

Hoffman grunted and placed a finger to his ear and switched on his radio. Even as a Chairman, Hoffman prefered to  have a radio on him at all times like back in his days in the COG military. He knew that he'd have to contact someone important quickly and having someone go find that person would be nothing more than a waste of time, also, there were no COG phone lines in Equestria and there was no need for them after the radio relays were set up. 
"Chairman Hoffman to Commander Mataki, you there Bernie?"
"Roger that, Chairman," Bernie replied, "Something important you want to tell me? You only use the radio if it's urgent."
"Yes, do you know where Princess Celestia or Luna is?" 
"No actually, I don't. Did you ask Twilight?"
"The unicorn? No. Why should I ask her? Does she know where the Princesses are?"
"Maybe, Twilight sends letters to Princess Celestia. I can go find her if you want."
"Do that and then report to me once you find out where the Princess is, we need to have another announcement." 
"Yes sir, what's this new announcement of yours?"
"I'll tell you when we're alone, it's classified information. Baird discovered something particularly nasty about the Changelings. Because of it, I'm issuing a shoot to kill, no tolerance policy."
White noise was all Hoffman heard for what felt like several minutes before he heard Bernie draw breath and speak.
"Okay, I'll make sure that Twilight or her brother finds the Princess." 
"Make sure you do and tell her to meet with me, Marcus, Anya, Cole and Baird. You all need to hear what Baird has discovered the Changelings can do. Trust me, you won't like it."
"Shit, this mission just got a whole lot harder didn't it?"
"We were fucked the minute we found that portal," Hoffman sighed, "But I'm confident that if it hits the fan, we can fight through it and win."
"You've still got the Two-Six RTI spirit in you, haven't you, Victor?" Bernie said, a much more calm tone in her voice.
"I'll have it until the day I die."
> Chapter Seventeen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Seventeen


Addendum #12: Further research into the physiology and psychological states of the Changelings have yielded unparalleled results, thanks to Damon Baird and his previous experience researching the "Locust". We managed to discover that the Changelings are able to heal wounds at a rapid rate and have twice the physical strength of a fully grown pony stallion. Further analysis of the Changeling's chameleonic secretions show that the gel only works on Changelings, tests on willing pony, unicorn, pegasus and human subjects ended with failure. The human subjects complained that the gel stuck to their skin and the gel had to be removed with spells and tonics. The Changelings do have a form of communication but it varies upon who they are communicating with, if it is with other Changelings then they will communicate through a series of clicks and hisses. If communication is between them and an Equestrian species then they will use a similar Equestrian language albeit with noticeable lisps and mispronunciations, only one Changeling will use this language at a time rather than two or three of them, the reason behind this is unknown. Further studies into the Changelings will be discontinued after tomorrow under official order from Chairman Hoffman and all Changeling subjects are to be terminated. We will allow the Gears to commence the Changeling's terminations. This isn't right.

(Last record on Changeling research in the Canterlot Castle Dungeons. Written by Canterlot Head Scientist, Steamus Beaker.)


***


Front Gate of Canterlot Castle

"Can you believe this shit?" Baird said as he jostled his way through the crowd of confused looking ponies to join his squad at the stairs of Canterlot Castle, "All because of what we just found out what the Changelings can do."
"At least we found out ourselves, could've been a lot worse if we didn't find that out sooner." Cole replied as he jogged to keep up. 
"Good thing Hoffman has the balls to stick this new policy up, Prescott would've tried to reason with those fucking bugs the same way he did with the Stranded. We should've started this policy a long time ago."
"But we didn't know if they were gonna be hostile to us when we first heard of them. Hoffman thought that just our presence could've scared the Changelings."
"Yeah, but Prescott said the same thing about the Stranded at Peluran and what happened? The assholes attacked the town and tried to take our fishing trawlers, even with the Clement and the Zepthr keeping check on the patrols."
Cole shrugged and kept following, he didn't know why the Changelings hadn't surrendered or ran away when they had the chance. They just seemed to keep coming, much like the Locust. But the Locust would retreat when they had to, the Changelings hadn't shown any sign of doing just that ever since they were first discovered in the city. Baird nudged past a few more ponies and came to the stairs, but there was a rather large white unicorn stallion standing in the way. The unicorn was wearing a white tuxedo and was staring directly at Baird, not moving but he did give a very aristocratic sniff of disapproval. Baird stared back and tried to find out why this unicorn was standing in his way.
"Uhhh, excuse me. I need to get through."
"And who might you me?" the unicorn asked.
"Why is that relevant?" Baird asked.
"Wait a second, you ain't Shining," Cole said.
"No, I am not Shining Armor. I am Prince Blueblood," the unicorn said, "Now, may I inquire who you are?"
"What's it to you?" Baird asked.
"I am asking the questions here, not you," Blueblood said.  
"Holy shit, this guy is really fucking annoying," Baird thought.
"Look, sir. Can we get through? It's important business," Cole said. Blueblood sighed and nodded.
"Very well, you may proceed. After you kiss the royal hoof."
He stuck out one of his forelegs and held his hoof in front of Baird's face who stared in disgust for a few seconds before swatting it away.
"You can kiss my ass before I kiss your hoof, come on Cole."
Baird shoved his way past Blueblood and started up the stairs, Cole followed but stopping briefly to talk to Blueblood.
"You really should treat your guests better, it'll give you a better reputation."
Blueblood scoffed and turned his nose up at Cole before walking away. Cole sighed and caught up to Baird who was waiting at the top of the stairs for him.
"He'll come crawling back to us once he gets a bunch of Changelings up his ass," Baird said, "His ego will crumble once he gets attacked. So, where're the Princesses at?"

Cole looked to his right and saw that Hoffman, all of Delta Squad and a handful of Onyx and Royal Guards were occupying the last few steps that led to the doors of Canterlot Castle. Twilight's friends and her older brother Shining Armor were all there too along with the fillies who were rather close to Carmine's boots, as for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they had not yet appeared. Twilight had been sent to go and find them but that was almost an hour ago. Cole nudged Baird and went to join Delta Squad who were scanning the crowd for any signs of Changelings. 
"Yo, Marcus. Anything suspicious?" 
"Nothing yet, Cole. But we've got Gears down in the crowd just in case, at this rate we can be sure that we'll find several."
"They really are little suicidal bastards aren't they?" Baird said.
"Would you take them over the Stranded, Blondie?" Bernie asked.
"Check back once this all blows over. I haven't faced the Changelings in combat." 
The sound of royal trumpets silenced the murmur from the crowd. Delta stepped back as the front doors of the castle opened up and Princess Celestia and Twilight stepped into the mid-afternoon sun, both looking uncomfortable. The Royal Guards saluted as the Princess walked past them, the Onyx Guards simply stepped out of the way, Hoffman stared at Princess Celestia as she took her place next to him, she was very nervous and seemed spooked as well. As Celestia gave her speech about the Changeling presence in Canterlot Hoffman leaned down and whispered to Twilight.
"Where's Princess Luna?"
"Gone," Twilight said, "She's nowhere to be found in the Castle. She isn't even in her own castle on the moon." 
"She's got a castle on the moon?"
"Yes, she is the Princess of the Night after all." 
"Did you say that Princess Luna is missing?" Marcus asked, clearly he had overheard the conversation.
"Yes, she went missing a few days ago," Twilight said, "Why do you ask?"
"I think she visited me in a dream, stopped it and said that she'd been watching my dreams since I first arrived here. Then she got taken away in a ball of green light or something."
"A ball of green light? In your dream? Was it the same color as Changeling gel?" 
"Yeah, what about it?" 
Twilight's eyes went wide with fear. She took a couple of ragged breaths and then spoke.
"Changelings can't penetrate dreams unless they possess magical abilities."
"What does that mean then?" Hoffman asked. Twilight swallowed and then stepped back to look at both humans, eyes wide with fear and dread.
"Marcus, I think you witnessed Queen Chrysalis kidnap Princess Luna which means one thing; She's here." 
"Well, shit. That isn't good," Hoffman said, "Does Princess Celestia think Chrysalis is here?"
"I don't know, I'll ask her when you give your speech." 

Princess Celestia's speech went on for several more minutes until she finished and then stepped off the podium so that Hoffman could give his speech on the new "Shoot-to-Kill" policy on the Changelings. Marcus scanned the crowd, so far there hadn't been much suspicious activity, each of the ponies in the crowd were just staring at Hoffman. None of them moving too much nor speaking to each other, not even the ones behind the large fountain with a statue of Princess Celestia were moving to get a better look. The only background noises heard consisted of the COG patrols of the city outside of the Castle walls and the distant chocca-chocca of Ravens patrolling the skies. It seemed very quiet for a city that was being infiltrated each day by Changelings, too quiet. Marcus glanced over at Twilight and Princess Celestia, he knew just from their posture that Twilight was telling Celestia that Princess Luna had been captured by the Changelings. Celestia turned her head quickly to look at the crowd, but it wasn't quick enough for Marcus to clearly see the tear running down her cheek. He sighed and pressed a finger to his ear to listen to the radio chatter.
"KR Five-Four reporting in. The sky ways are clear over the south."
"Centaur Eight-One here, can we get some engineers to our position? We've got a busted hydraulics line."
"Control, this is squad Omega Nine. Are there any reports of Changeling activity in the city? We've seen nothing so far."
"Control to Omega Nine, that's a negative on the Changeling activity. Several squads have been reporting that as well, we have no idea where the Changelings are." 
"Roger that, Control. It's like they just vanished."
"Theta Three to all squads, has anyone seen the civvies? There aren't a lot of them around."
"Control to Theta Three, the civvies are all in hiding. Nothing to worry about." 
Marcus became perplexed about this, he walked back behind the squad and turned on his transmitter.
"Fenix to Control, did you just say that the civvies were all in hiding?"
"Confirmed sergeant Fenix. Several teams reported that most of the city's population had taken refuge in their homes." 
"You sure about those reports? We've got several hundred civvie ponies by the front gates of the Castle."
"KR Zero-Five to Fenix, we can see them too, but we did not see them travel to the castle. Repeat, we did not see any activity around there prior to the speeches, Gear or civvie."
"Oh my god..."
Marcus shoved his way past his squadmates to Hoffman, who had just finished his speech when a deafening explosion shook the ground and a frantic voice pierced the radio. 
"Mayday! Mayday! This is KR Zero-Five, we are going down! I say again, we are going down!"
Delta Squad, Hoffman, Princess Celestia, Twilight, her friends and the Royal Guards looked up and saw the Raven spiral out of the sky, fire and smoke pouring from it's tail until it disappeared behind the wall and a fireball erupted from where it vanished.
"Holy shit! What the hell happened?!" Hoffman barked. Chuckling suddenly broke the stunned silence. 
"I happened, Chairman. That is what happened."
The crowd of ponies turned to face the statue on the fountain which was now glowing green and appeared to be melting, no, the stone of the statue was melting revealing a much larger Changeling underneath the rock. But this Changeling was more more slender, had longer wings and a deformed looking horn that poked out from a messy mane unto which a crown could easily be spotted. It was clear that this was Queen Chrysalis. 

"Oh good, it's the queen of the bugs. I was wondering when she'd show up," Baird said.
"Chrysalis!" Celestia shouted, "Where is my sister?" 
Chrysalis chuckled and smiled, her pointed fangs showing clearly.
"She's safe, for now. If you wish to see her alive again I suggest you surrender while you have the chance, I have to upper hoof now."
"Like hell you do!" Hoffman barked back, "The COG is here this time and if you dare try anything we will kick your asses!"
"Guards! Stand ready!" Shining ordered the Royal Guards. The Guards stood in attack positions and aimed their weapons directly at Chrysalis, just as the sound of several other weapons were being shouldered and cocked. Hoffman and Shining looked up and saw the Onyx Guards had their weapons up and ready, but they were't pointed at Chrysalis. They were aimed at Hoffman, Celestia and Delta squad.
"Oh shit, this is bad." Cole said. Chrysalis opened up her wings and flew up and stopped several feet away from the podium.
"Like I said before, Chairman, I have the upper hoof." 
Delta and the Royal Guards raised their weapons in response, Hoffman grabbed Bernie's sidearm and pointed it at an Onyx Guard next to him. 
"What did you do to my guards?" Hoffman asked.
"I did nothing, aside from teach my soldiers to copy various forms from your species," Chrysalis said.
"Wait, we studied your kind," Baird said, "None of the tests showed that a single Changeling was capable of producing enough gel to copy our form and even if they did, they would have a hard time trying to manipulate our movements."
"So, doesn't mean we can't practice. And I thought you were the smartest of your kind, Damon Baird."
"How the hell do you know my name?" 
"I watched what happens in your mind when you sleep. I know who you are, what you've done and I also know your biggest fears."
"What the hell is she talking about?" Marcus said. Chrysalis flew over the crowd and landed back on the fountain. The crowd turned to face the Gears and then revealed that they were Changelings, but in one slow synchronized move they all stood up on their hind legs, climbed up on each other in twos to fives and then secreted the gel. Chrysalis too was coating herself in the gel and Marcus could clearly see that it was hardening into something that looked vaguely familiar, Delta and the ponies stood and watched as the Changelings shifted and changed into the very essence of a nightmare in such a peaceful land; their armor, weapons and appearance may have been a mix of black and green but every one of the humans knew what kind of monster the Changelings had taken a liking to. 

"Oh my god," Bernie said, "They've made themselves look like the Locust!"
"Holy fuck! They got everything about the grubs right," Baird exclaimed.
"Aside from their color," Sam said. 
"I don't think the color of the grub wannabes is our biggest problem right now."
"You see, humans? Your kind is worthless and weak against mine. We will destroy you."
Marcus froze when he heard the new but very familiar voice. He switched his gaze from the army of Locust Changelings to the fountain where Chrysalis was standing but instead of seeing the leader of the Changelings, he was looking directly at the face of Queen Myrrah. Chrysalis had copied the former Locust queen in her battle armor, aside from changing the color to a mix of black and green like the rest of the Changelings. Even the face looked like hers. The sly grin that Chrysalis had burned deep into Marcus, fueling an inner rage that he thought has been extinguished long ago. 
"Look inside yourself, Marcus Fenix. Do you have the will to win?" 
Even the voice was a perfect replication. Hoffman pushed his way past Marcus and pointed his Snub pistol at Chrysalis.
"If you think you've got enough bugs to defeat us, then you've underestimated what the COG can do."
"Do you really think that this is all I have? I posted hundreds of my troops around and inside the city to fight your forces, you cannot win this fight Chairman. You will die here, all of you."
"Like hell we will!" Marcus bellowed. He then turned to face one of the Onyx Guards, revved up his chainsaw and drove the blade deep into the shoulder of the Guard. The shriek that the Guard emitted was much more high pitched than Marcus was expecting, proving that the Changelings had the ability to change into humans. Marcus yanked his saw out of the abdomen of the top Changeling and put a burst of Lancer rounds through the Changeling acting as the lower torso. He span around and then gunned down another Onyx Changeling that was about to attack Hoffman. Hoffman backed away from the podium, firing at any of the Onyx Changelings that dared come close to his Gears.
"Get inside the Castle! It's our best chance of escape!"
"Princess, have your Guards escort your subjects to a safe place," Bernie said.
"Very well, your kind has more experience fighting," Celestia said. She bolted into the Castle followed by Twilight and her friends then the Royal Guards who proceeded to shut the doors and lower the portcullis. Marcus saw the Guards and directed the Squad's attention to get inside. Delta sprinted inside, Carmine bayoneting an Onyx Changeling and Cole tackling another out of the way before they got inside and sealed the doors and gate. 
"So then," Baird said, "Anyone have a plan of action?"
"Didn't Chrysalis say that she already had Changelings in the city?" Bernie asked.
"Yeah, do you think that the rest of our forces are experiencing this?" Sam said.
Anya turned on her radio and listened to the chatter, Sam was right, the other Gears were reporting Locust Changelings throughout Canterlot and were engaging them. She glanced over at Marcus who was staring at the front door of the castle which was now being battered by the Changelings from outside, the replicated screams of various Locust were muffled but they still sent chills down the spines of each of the Gears. 
"Okay, I know what to do. Anya, Cole, Baird, you come with me. If we get out of here and assist the Gears in taking back the city then we can get everyone to the Castle. Jace, Sam, Carmine, stay here and hold down the Castle with the Royal Guards until we get some more backup."
"But how are you going to get to the city?" Twilight asked, "The Castle is probably surrounded."
"We're going to fly there," Marcus said as he pressed a finger to his ear, "KR Five-Nine, you receiving?" 
"I'm here, Marcus," Gettner's voice replied, "Anything you need?"
"I need you to pick us up from Canterlot Castle and drop us off in the city."
"Wilco, but you need to get to the gardens, that's the only place I can land."
"We're on it."
"You can get there faster if you take the lower halls in the south side of the Castle," Shining armor said.
"Thanks, and make sure you keep both Celestia and Hoffman safe." 
"I'll make sure of that." 
"Let's move out Delta!" Marcus said. 

Marcus and his squad followed Princess Celestia's directions, which led them through a maze of long forgotten corridors and secret passageways until the sounds of birds chirping and the smell of fresh air greeted them. Marcus slowed his run to a steady jog as the sunlight from outside streamed into the hallway, they had made it to the Canterlot castle gardens. Marcus and Anya took cover by the pillars that led towards the gardens and looked around for any Changelings, none were seen or heard so the squad moved out into the open grounds and Marcus contacted Gettner again.
"You there Major? We're ready for pickup."
"Roger that Marcus. I'm coming in for landing." 
The squad watched as the Raven broke through the low hanging clouds and descended towards them. As it did Marcus turned towards Carmine, Sam and Jace.
"Make sure that you stay with Hoffman and Bernie. I don't know where the Onyx Guards are but until they show up you are all the decent protection that they have."
"Count on us, Marcus," Sam said just as the Raven landed. Screeching suddenly overpowered the sound of the Raven's rotors and the squad turned to see several Locust Changelings leap over the ornate banister on the other side of the green and charge towards them. Carmine shoved his way past Marcus and Sam and opened fire with his Mk 1 Lancer.
"Get the fuck back you ugly shits!" he yelled, spraying bullets towards the Changelings. Several of them dropped dead but more kept charging.
"On the Raven, now!" Marcus barked. Marcus, Cole, Baird and Anya jumped into the transport bay as Sam, Jace and Carmine   ran back into the castle, stopping a few times to engage the still charging Locust Changelings. 
"Okay, Sergeant Fenix. Anywhere you want to go?" Gettner asked.
"Where's the main trouble spot in the city?" 
"That'll be the city center, most of the bugs gathered up there when they were acting as ponies."
"Pretending to look and act like the local population before they attacked, good thing the Grubs didn't try that," Baird said.
"They didn't try it because they were too ugly, baby!" Cole guffawed, "No Locust could ever get away with looking like some Thrashball mom, no matter how much makeup they use."
Anya smiled but stopped when she saw Marcus staring out of the bay, eyes fixated on the now burning city of Canterlot.
"Marcus, are we going to set down there or try somewhere else?"
He didn't reply at first but then nodded a few seconds later.
"We're going in. Gettner, take us in to the AO as close as possible."
"Roger that, I'd better not get a grenade up my ass like last time."
"Don't worry," Baird said, "The bugs can't make their gel shit explode."
Gettner sighed and turned the nose of the Raven to the city center, Marcus flicked the safety on his Lancer to off.
"Okay people, the bugs know how to act as the Locust so get ready for a fight."
"These guys better be easier than the Dragons," Cole said.
> Chapter Eighteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Eighteen






(Crimson Omen cake made by Pinkie Pie while in Canterlot. Cake was brought to the mess hall and was promptly set upon by several Gears. Reported as being, "the best fucking cake ever made" by several Gears.)


***


The sky above Canterlot City.
Five minutes into Changeling attack.

"Hold on everyone!" Gettner barked as the Raven banked hard to the right to avoid what appeared to be a small, green meteorite fall from the clouds and crash into a building. Baird looked out of the Raven's gun port and shook his head. 
"I'm really starting to regret this trip. I kinda miss the old simplicity of home; find food, kill Locust, move around the planet. Now it's make friends with ponies and kill shape-shifting bugs." 
"Come on Baird, change is good," Cole said.
"Yeah, if you like all this crazy shit."
The Raven banked again to avoid another falling, green meteorite, this one landing in the middle of a road. Baird leaned out of the Raven and watched as the smoke from the falling object cleared and a Changeling emerged from the crater and then jump onto another two Changeling and then morph into a Bloodmount.
"Well, that's new. They can drop from the sky like that without hurting themselves, now we know what took out the Raven from earlier."
"Shit, now we really are fucked." Gettner said.
"Not yet we're not," Marcus said as he looked for an LZ, "Drop us off down in that street."
Gettner turned the Raven and descended down towards the street, the Raven skimmed across the road and then stopped in a wide clearing, allowing Marcus, Anya, Cole and Baird to jump out and run into cover just as a hail of gel bullets hit the side of the Raven.
"Bastards," Gettner hissed as she took off and turned towards the oncoming Locust Changelings, "Take this you freaks!"
Gettner opened fire with the Raven's main gun and showered the Locust Changelings with a firestorm of rounds, leaving none standing after the dust cleared.
"Thanks for the assist," Marcus said as Gettner flew off over the buildings. Gettner chuckled and responded.
"See you on the other side." 
"Okay, Delta. Let's move out."

Delta Squad traveled through the maze of streets and back alleys until the sound of gunfire close by made them stop in the middle of a smashed shopping street that was littered with spent casings and a mix of Gear and Changeling corpses.
"Lancer?" Anya asked.
"Not ours," Baird said, "I think the Changelings found a way to copy our weapons as well."
"How the hell did they know how to copy both the Onyx Guards and the Locust?" Cole asked.
"Hey Marcus, didn't Twilight say something about certain Changelings being able to see the dreams of others?"
"Yeah, she said that Queen Chrysalis was able to see dreams and even enter them." 
"Maybe they got into the dreams of the Gears somehow and found out how to change into Locust. But it doesn't seem like they got Locust tactics and battle strategies down, maybe they were only able to get so much since the Gears all wake up halfway through their nightmares." 
"Guess that makes sense," Anya said, "So where do we go Marc-"
A terrified and scared scream suddenly rang out over the sound of gunfire and explosions. Marcus looked around and deduced that the scream came from a wrecked food shop across the street, he pointed it out to the squad and they rushed over there and took cover under the shattered window. Anya peeked over the windowsill and saw the inside had been ransacked but there was no sign of Changelings or the owner of the scream. 
"Should we go inside?"
"If we think there's a civilian pony in there then we have to find out," Marcus replied, "I think there are two floors so we'll split up and search this place faster. Cole, Baird, you check downstairs. Anya, you're with me, we're gonna search upstairs." 
"What's the protocol if we find a civvie?" Baird asked. 
"Keep them safe and call for an evac, the COG's bound to have set up some sort of safezone for civvies caught in the crossfire."
Marcus raised his Lancer and entered the shop through the front door. The sounds of the outside battle dropped slightly but the floor still shook with every explosion, Marcus didn't let it hinder him as he went upstairs with Anya trailing behind him and Baird and Cole searching the aisles for any ponies or Changelings. A crash from down in the store make Marcus spin around and shoulder his Lancer but he lowered it when he heard Baird cursing.
"God, this is fucking bullshit. Just a loose shelf everyone."
"Damn, they've got some good stuff in here," Cole said.
Marcus motioned for Anya to follow him up the stairs, once they reached the last step the stairs turned into a long hallway with several doorways, a few of them open.
"Stay alert as you search these rooms," Marcus whispered, "This is a perfect place for an ambush." 
Anya nodded and opened a door to her left and entered the room. Marcus jogged several steps down the hall and peeked into an open room, there appeared to be something cowering in the shadows behind a bed, he raised his Lancer again and slowly made his way towards it.
"Hey, you a civvie? It's okay, I'm COG, I'm here to help." 
A battered looking and teary pony looked up from behind the bed and then ducked back behind the bed. Marcus jogged over, Lancer still raised and walked around the bed. The pony was curled up in a ball and crying.
"You okay?" Marcus asked as he lowered his Lancer. 
"They got him!" the pony cried.
"Who got him?"
"The monsters, they've got my little colt! I don't know what they've done to him but he's gone."
"Calm down, I'm here to help. When did you last see your colt?"
"Downstairs, in the storeroom. He was hiding when I found him and then the monsters came out from the shadows and attacked us, I managed to sneak away when they were searching the building." 
Marcus turned his radio on and hailed Baird and Cole.
"Baird, Cole. Where are you in the store?"
"Down in the basement, we're heading for the storeroom."
"Okay, stay alert. I found a civvie pony who says that there might be Changelings in the building. She last saw them in the storeroom with her kid. Recommend you search there for him." 
"Okay, thanks for the tip. This has better not be a repeat of the fucking Hollow." 

Downstairs in the shop's basement.

"So what did he say?" Cole asked, "There are Changelings in here?"
"Yep, said there's a civvie upstairs too and their kid is somewhere in the storeroom." 
"So we gonna check it out?"
"Doesn't look like we have a choice," Baird said as he planted himself against the wall and switched the Lancer's safety off. Cole stood behind him and raised his Lancer before going to the door and kicking it open. They rushed into the room, weapons raised and poised to fire at anything that moved, but the darkness of the room made it hard to deduce how large the room was or what was inside.
"Is there a light switch around here?" Baird said.
"I think so," Cole replied as he felt the wall inside the storage room, his fingers ran over a switch and he flicked it down. "Found it."
The lights flickered for a second before they filled the room with a sudden burst of fluorescent lighting, Baird rubbed his eyes and let his eyes adjust to the new lighting, once they did he knew that he was in the storage room. Crates, boxes, sacks and bags were scattered around the room, aside from several large crates that looked as if they had been arranged into a fort. Baird and Cole raised their Lancers and slowly approached the makeshift fort.
"Yo, anyone behind there?" Cole asked. The reply he got was a Locust Drone Changeling burst up from behind the box and open fire with its gel Hammerburst.
"Shit!" Baird yelled as he dove behind a large box and blind fired around the side. Cole rolled behind a small wall that jutted out and fired around the wall, hitting the Drone Changeling in the head, killing the Changeling making the top half of the Drone. The Changeling on the bottom jumped up and let out a shriek before Baird put several rounds neatly into its face, splattering gel and a dark green blood against the wall behind it. Two more Drone Changelings popped up and opened fire. 
"Suppress them, I'm gonna try and flank them!" Baird barked at Cole. Cole nodded and fired again, punching several holes through the other Changeling Drone. Baird vaulted over one crate, powered up his chainsaw and drove the blade up between the Changeling's legs and pulling upwards, splattering both the floor and himself with a mix of gel and blood until he reach the shoulder blade of the upper Changeling and pulling his saw free, letting the dismembered body fall to the floor. Baird wiped the gore off his armor and sighed.
"You know, they may be different to the Locust, but that felt strangely satisfying. What is it Cole?"
Cole was staring and pointing up at a ceiling corner in the storeroom, Baird turned around and couldn't believe what he was seeing. There were what looked like semi transparent pods on the ceiling, all of them in a large cluster and each one appeared to have something inside. Baird looked closer and saw that they were ponies and even Gears inside the pods, they seemed to be in a comatose state. Baird prodded one with his Lancer and the pony inside wriggled and then went still. 
"Holy shit," Baird said, "This must be how they take and contain prisoners."
"Urg, that's fucking gross," Cole said. Baird turned on his radio and contacted Marcus.
"Marcus, this is Baird. We found what might be a Changeling POW camp or something. There are pods with ponies and Gears inside them."
"What the hell? Are you shitting me?"
"Negative on that," Cole said, "I can see them too.You should get down here so we can help them."
"Okay, we're on our way. I've got to see this to believe it." 

Baird examined the pods as he and Cole waited for Marcus and Anya to join them in the storage room. The words that Marcus uttered wasn't subtle, but it worked in the situation. 
"Holy shit."
"Oh god, what are those things?" Anya asked.
"Seems like some sort of shell similar to a caterpillar but I don't the Changelings go through metamorphosis. It looks like they made these to take and contain prisoners."
"But how did they capture Gears?" Marcus asked.
"We'll find out once we cut these guys free. Help me out here."
Marcus and Cole pulled at one pod that was stuck to a wall until it was wrenched free from the gel holding it in place. Baird crouched over the pod and pulled out his knife and rammed the blade into the thin membrane of the the outside and pulled down, ripping the front of the pod open and tossed the membrane away to help the pony who was inside. The pony stirred and then woke up, rubbing his eyes and looking at the Gears.
"Huh? Where am I?" the stallion asked.
"It's okay, you're safe," Anya said, "Are you okay?"
"I think so...What happened? First I remember the Changelings falling from the sky then a green light before it went dark." 
"Do you have any memory of what happened when you were knocked out?" Marcus asked.
"Nope, nothing. Say, who are you guys anyways?" 
Before anyone could reply a screech echoed off the walls and a large Changeling vaulted through the open doorway and landed on a box, teeth bared and blue eyes in a permanent fix to kill. But before it could pounce Cole pulled his Gnasher shotgun off his back and fired point blank at the Changeling, splattering the giblet remains all over the floor and boxes of the storeroom. The stallion was horrified by the site but was shaken back to reality by Baird.
"Hey, stay with us. We're gonna get you out of here."
Marcus and Cole started to pull down more pods as Baird and Anya cut them open, freeing several ponies and a few Gears. The ponies gathered up in a group and cowered in a corner while the Gears cursed about the smell that the gel from the inside of the pods secreted. Marcus found the Gears' weapons and then helped Anya and Baird gather up the civvie ponies and take a head count of how many they had rescued.
"So that's seven ponies and three Gears we've saved," Baird said, "Not a bad way to preform a building sweep." 
"Hell yeah, Damon baby," Cole said.
"Agreed, let's get them outside," Anya said.

Canterlot Castle. 
Thirty minutes into the Changeling attack. 

"How the fuck do they keep getting in?" Bernie said to Shining Armor as she shot a Drone Changeling's head off and then smashed the butt of her Longshot into the other Changeling's back, "I thought this was a castle."
"I don't know," Shining said as he bucked another Changeling Drone against a wall and backed away, sword raised with his magic. Carmine, Jace and Sam were behind a low wall and firing bursts over it at Locust Changelings.
"I thought a castle was meant to keep bad guys out," Carmine said, letting off a long stream of Lancer fire that hit a Boomer Changeling in the chest unto which the outer shell dissolved and fell away as the surviving Changelings retreated and morphed into a Kantus and a Drone. 
"Dammit, they just keep coming," Jace said, "Do we have enough Gears to hold this place?"
"We've only got a platoon of regular Gears here along with four squads of Onyx Guards," Bernie said, "From the looks of outside I think the Changeling's have an entire army trying to get in the castle." 
Sam tossed a grenade over into the open doorway on the other side of the room and the screams that followed the explosion indicated that he had wiped out a squad of Changelings. Bernie pulled out her Lancer and laid down a hail of suppressive fire so that  Shining Armor and his Royal Guards behind him could escape through up the stairs into the Princess's personal quarters and guard Celestia, Twilight and her friends. The Changelings were now starting to return fire in bulk, although the Boomshot rounds didn't explode, the emancipated and headless bodies of Gears laying in the center of the room reminded her that they were still lethal. Carmine reloaded and then faced the door to the left of him just in time to unload a clip into a cluster of Grenadier Changelings armed with Sawn-off and Gnasher shotguns, he then took cover again and pulled something out from his belt that Bernie took immediate interest in.
"Is that a Gut Puncher?"
"Yep," Carmine replied, "Found it in an old ordinance crate down in the supply basement we set up. Didn't know there were any left."
"Same here, I haven't seen those since Aspho Fields. But aren't those armor piercing only?" 
"Well, not this one."
Carmine loaded the grenade and fired it into the largest squad of Drone Changelings, the fireball that erupted was much bigger than Bernie expected along with the trajectory of the Changeling's remains that showered over the squad of Gears to the far left of Carmine.
"Thanks for that," an irritated sigh said over the radio.
"Hey, at least I got some," Carmine replied. The radio suddenly flared on and Hoffman's voice came online.
"Hoffman to all call signs, I'm ordering a full retreat of the first floor. We can't hold down there any longer with the numbers we currently have, we're gonna take to the top floors and mount a defense there."
"Sir, do we have any automated defenses in place?" Bernie asked.
"Negative on that Mataki, we've got them up here and loaded. We're just waiting for you to retreat so we can set them up and not get in the way."
"Good plan. Okay everyone, upstairs now!" 
The Gear's and Mataki's squad pulled out of cover, still firing at the Changelings and bolted upstairs stopping occasionally to help a wounded Gear back on their feet.
"Come on, just go!" Carmine said as he pushed a Gear up the stairs. The squad made their way up past the barriers just as several other Gears came out of a doorway carrying several Gnasher point defense automated weapons. 
"Get out of the way," one Gear said, "We've got to set these up now!" 
"Get the wounded to the third floor," another said as he mounted a turret. Bernie stopped to urge the Gears onwards to set up more defenses when Hoffman hailed her again.
"Bernie, you busy?"
"No sir, what do you want?"
"I need you and your squad at the Throne Room ASAP. It's a damn long hallway, we need another sniper."  
"On it!" Bernie said as she got Jace, Carmine and Sam's attention. She motioned them to follow her as they ran through several hallways and staircases until they came across a very large and long hallway that undoubtedly led to the Throne room. Bernie jogged over to an Onyx Guard at the front barricade.

"Is Chairman Hoffman here?" she asked.
"Yeah, back there," the Onyx Guard said as he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. Bernie walked past the turrets, barricades and Onyx Guards until she came to the door of the throne room, it was slightly open and inside was another large barrier but this one was being protected by Canterlot Royal Guards. Bernie slowly walked inside and saw Shining Armor was striding over to her.
"How is it out there?" he asked.
"Really bad, the whole first floor is overrun and the Changeling's are moving closer to our positions."
The sound of muffled explosions and gunfire indicated that the Changelings had indeed mobilized. Bernie went to search for Hoffman, as she did that Carmine jogged over to Shining Armor.
"Hey, where's Twilight and her friends?" he asked.
"Hiding in Celestia's Royal Den. Why do you want to know."
"I want to make sure my friends are okay. Am I allowed to see them?" 
"You might as well since we're not under attack."
Jace and Sam joined Carmine as he jogged over to the Royal Den and opened the door, inside were a few more Royal Guards who stared at Carmine for a few seconds before leaving. Twilight and her friends were there along with the fillies. Celestia was the first to notice the Gears.
"Ah, Jace, Sam and Carmine. Good to see some more excellent soldiers here."
"Carmine?" Apple Bloom said, looking up and seeing the Gear in question. 
"Carmine!" Sweetie Belle yelped as she dove from Rarity's hooves and ran over to Carmine's outstretched arms. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both jumped up and ran over to him, each one of them leaping up into Carmine and knocking him over.
"Hi girls, you miss me?" he said.
"We sure did," Scootaloo said cheerily, but it was clear that she was about to cry in joy. Carmine kept hold of the fillies as he stood up but the door behind him nearly sent him falling on his face, he turned to curse out whoever opened the door when Hoffman walked through the threshold. What made Carmine freeze in place was that Hoffman was wearing a full combat rig and holding a Lancer in his arms and his usual don't-fuck-with-me look on his face.
"Feels good to be back in combat gear." 
"Damn, does it still fit?" Jace asked.
"Hell yes it does, I'm not letting this armor go to waste. What's the sitrep out there?"
Bernie sighed and stepped into Hoffman's line of sight.
"Well, sir, the Changeling's have completely taken the courtyards, the lower floors and are working their way to our position."
"Can you spare any more soldiers?" Celestia asked.
"Negative, all of the Gears I can spare are guarding strategic points throughout the castle. What Gears we have here is all we're gonna get until the Gears in the city can make a push to the castle.
"How long will that take?"
"It'll take as long as those damn bugs can make it." 
"Changelings!" a frantic but disciplined voice barked through the open door.
"Speak of the devils," Sam said as she ran out of the room with Jace. Carmine put the fillies down and knelt next to them.
"Listen, stay in here okay? I can't protect you if you follow me, I'm gonna be in combat."
"You'll come back, won't you?" Apple Bloom said tearily. Carmine nodded and stroked her mane. 
"I promise I'll come back, one way or another."
"Hey, Carmine, let's go," Bernie said.
"Save this shit for later," Hoffman barked, "We've got bugs to squash."
Carmine stood up and jogged out of the room followed by Hoffman and Bernie. Bernie knew that Hoffman shouldn't be fighting, to be honest, neither should she. They were way past their prime, two wars had taken it's toll on the both of them but Hoffman didn't show it. He had been through so much shit he knew how to hide his emotions as all high ranking officers did, Bernie could do the same but she would occasionally grow a soft spot for certain Gears. Hoffman, Cole, Marcus and Dom were some of the few Gears she had become attached to. The comradeship between Gears was something that could be closely resembled to a family bond, and because of that it hurt more whenever someone was lost in the heat of a furious firefight. Bernie shuddered as the memories of Aspho Fields resurfaced; the initial battle, Kennen's death, Major Stroud getting killed and worst of all, Carlos getting shot and then blowing himself up in order to save Marcus from getting killed. The memory of her about her lining up the sights of her sniper rifle on Carlos's head so she could put him out of his misery haunted every dream she had about the battle. She knew that after seeing Marcus unleash every ounce of despondency after he retrieved Carlos's body, he'd never be the same ever again. Bernie shook the memories out of her mind as she dropped into cover next to Hoffman against a pile of sandbags.
"Any idea what the Changeling's strategy is?" Hoffman asked as he focused down the extremely long hall. 
"I don't know, it seemed to be totally random when I was fighting them earlier. Do you think Baird knows?"
"I hope to god he does, if he knows a lot about the Locust then he'll probably know a lot about the Changelings too."
"Blondie'll figure it out soon enough," Bernie said as a Drone Changeling ascended the stairs and walked into her crosshair, "He's gonna be fighting them."
The Drone Changeling didn't have time to react as Bernie pulled the trigger of her Longshot and placed a round clean through it's head.

Canterlot city streets. 

"Stay down! Keep your fucking heads down!" Marcus barked at the civvie ponies as he sprayed a burst of Lancer rounds over the front window of the shop he was taking cover behind. Baird took aim and fired at a Drone Changeling, almost cutting it in half from the sustained shots, Cole had pulled one through the door and thrust his chainsaw into its gut, coating him in a thick layer of gel and Changeling blood. Anya had her finger to one ear and was trying to hail another squad for assistance.
"I repeat, this is Delta, anyone receiving?"
"What's up?" one of the Gears they rescued asked, "Are the comms being jammed?"
"I don't think that the Changeling's have that ability," Baird said, "Might just be the lack of receiver towers in Canterlot. That or the Changelings busted them...assholes." 
"What do we do now?" another Gear asked. Marcus looked over at them and let another burst loose at a single Changeling, punching holes through it's body.
"Keep firing until we get some goddamn assistance. These guys won't hold back."
"It looks like their battle strategy is to swarm us with everything they have, regardless of how many casualties they take."
"Any way we can counter this?" Anya asked.
"Keep shooting." 
Delta and the Gears kept up hammering the Changelings, but as some were killed, more came from the shadows of the alleyways or straight from the sky. Marcus reloaded his Lancer when he saw that he was down to his last clip. He grit his teeth and then popped up and opened fire at a Boomer Changeling, sending rounds directly into its arm and chest but the Changeling didn't seem to stop. Suddenly, a very loud truck horn blared through the street, shaking the windows and causing some of the Changelings to stop and listen. Marcus looked up and down the street but saw nothing. He cursed under his breath and sighted up another Changeling when the ground shook violently and a hailstorm of bullets rained down upon the Changelings, tearing them apart and staining the posh sidewalks green with gel and Changeling blood.
"Well, that's lucky," Baird said.
"Luck ain't got nothing to do with it," a voice over the radio said. Marcus knew who it was.
"Dizzy, is that you?"
"Hell yeah Delta, saw you could use a hand."
"Where are you at?"
"Coming down the street now, stay on the sidewalks." 
Marcus left the cover he was hiding behind and looked down towards the source of the noise, it was indeed Dizzy, but he had also brought his Rig with him. He wasn't alone either, on board was a squad of Gears, one of them holding a Vulcan and another on the Assault Derrick's main turret.
"Shittt, what a mess we made," Dizzy said, "So then, who's up for making another one?" 
Delta and the Gears led the civvie ponies onto the Rig and then mounted up themselves, Marcus stood at the front of the Rig and watched as anti-aircraft fire, both COG and Changeling, streamed across the sky. He pressed a finger to his ear and contacted Bernie.
"Bernie, how're you at holding the Castle?"
"Not good," Bernie said, "The Changelings are just constantly overrunning different sections of the castle. We can't hold these guys back forever." 
"Well, hold out for as long as you can, we're gonna make our way to you once we drop off the civvies we found."
"Don't make me wait!" Hoffman barked. Marcus grunted and switched his radio off and turned to the squad.
"Okay, once we drop the civvies off we've got to fight our way to the castle. If we're gonna do that we need as many Gears as possible."
"Well, if that's your plan we should openly broadcast that," Anya said. Marcus nodded and switched his radio on and turned the transceiver on to all channels. 

"All call signs, this is sergeant Fenix. I'm requesting all non-essential squads who are not in combat to advance on Canterlot castle immediately, the Chairman is under attack and requires immediate assistance. We're going to need as many Gears as possible because the Changelings have overran the castle and will counterattack in bulk."
Baird then turned on his radio and broadcast to all channels as well.
"Everyone, this is Baird. The Changeling battle plan that I've seen so far is that they plan to swarm us as quickly as possible. Word of advice, don't let them get close. Use explosives to take out the large groups then suppress them, they don't know how to use cover too well."
Within several minutes the civvie ponies had been dropped off at a improvised COG base in the outskirts of the city and a large force of Gears, 'Dills, Centaurs, Ravens and even Baird's Scorpion had gathered up outside the base. Marcus stepped up onto the back of a Packhorse with the rest of Delta and looked out to see the battalion's worth of the COG's remaining armed forces staring up at him. Marcus sighed and stepped forward but Anya caught his arm and looked at him.
"If you don't want to do this, I will."
Marcus didn't even look back at her, his eyes still transfixed on some point in the horizon. 
"No, I'm the one who wants to lead the assault. I've gotta do this myself."
Anya stepped back and let go of Marcus. He sighed and then stood on the edge of the back of the Packhorse.
"Alright Gears, this may have been the weirdest mission any of you have been on but right now that doesn't matter. What is going on in that city is more important than anything else we have done when fighting the Locust, not only do we have our Chairman back there who's currently under siege but our only hope of saving our home planet is back there too. If we are going to give up now we will we going back to Sera as it's destroyers, not it's saviors. We have fought too hard and too long, lost too much to stop now. If we want to go back to Sera and rebuild our shattered cities, regrow our trees and build monuments to those who sacrificed themselves so that we could be here today, we will fight the Changelings. We will kill them all. We will save this planet so that in return, they can save ours! We are Gears, we are not going to back down from this fight. Not while we can still win this. I am not going to let some fucking bugs take away our chances of restoring our home back to the way it once was. Once Sera is rebuilt, once all of civilization is restored, once the history books are rewritten we will be remembered as the Gears who saved Sera!" 
A roar of cheers and shouts rose from the Gears as they pumped their rifles and fists into the air. Baird looked at Cole and nodded, Cole grinned and nodded as a reply. He looked over to Anya and saw her staring at Marcus, totally amazed at his speech. Marcus paid no heed to his squad and finished up.
"Soldiers of the COG, my brothers-in-arms. Get into that city, and FUCK-UP-THOSE-CHANGELINGS!"
The Gears kept up their cheering as they mounted up in 'Dills, Centaurs and Ravens. Most of them saluted Marcus as they rode past him, Marcus kept his stance and saluted back. Cole raised his Lancer in the air with the Gears.
"It's go time baby! WHOOOO!" 
"Is this your own planned path to redemption after you screwed up all those years ago?" Baird asked Marcus, "Because it's working for sure."
"It's not about me, it's about the survival of humanity."
"Rightttt, so are we gonna mount up and move out."
"You read my mind. Let's go." 
Delta Squad boarded Baird's Scorpion and joined the front of the convoy as it rolled through the city. Anya watched the carnage pass the firing slit she was aiming her Lancer through, occasionally glancing at Marcus who was staring at the control panel, unblinking. She was amazed by his speech, mostly because he barely spoke more than a few words at a time. But a whole speech, it was never heard of from him. She looked over to Baird, who was looking through the scope of the main gun and for some reason, he seemed to be smiling. Cole noticed as well and leaned over to look at him.
"What's gotten you all perked up?"
"Nothing much, just been looking forward to testing this thing out."
Well, you're gonna get your chance in a few seconds," Marcus said, "KR Nine-Five reported that there's a shit load of bugs in our way to the castle."
"Are we gonna dismount to engage?" Anya asked.
"Hell no, we're plowing right through them." 
"Hell yeah!" Cole shouted, "Aw baby, this is gonna feel like one of my Thrashball games. Except we're gonna be running over bugs inside Baird custom dream ride." 
"Yeah, you'll miss me once I'm gone."
"Save the talk for later," Marcus said, stomping on the gas pedal, "Hang on."
The Scorpion lurched forward and sped up rapidly, Baird armed the APC's guns and sneered as the first line of Changelings came into view. The Centaurs in the front of the convoy realized what Marcus was doing and engaged their boosters, tearing past the Scorpion and flattening the swarm of Changelings before stopping and turning to open fire at the ones that managed to dodge the armored beasts. Marcus evaded the larger Boomer, Mauler and Grinder Changelings, letting Baird riddle them with rounds from the Scorpion's four heavy machine guns.
"I haven't has this much fun since high school!" Baird said.
"Whatca do back then?" Cole asked.
"Machine stuff, I'll tell you when this is over." 
"Eyes front, we're coming up to the Castle," Marcus said. 

In front of the Castle gates was a massive swarm of Changelings, each one of them firing wildly at the oncoming wall of metal. Marcus gunned the engine, and braced for the impact of the two Mauler Changelings that were in front of the main entrance. The impact wasn't as bad as Marcus expected, the Scorpion bounced over the two masses and landed smack in the center courtyard to the front gates of the Castle, where even more Changelings were waiting.
"Aw shit," Baird said, letting loose with all the guns, killing Changelings en masse. 
"Where do we go now?" Cole asked.
"I don't think we should get out of the Scorp'," Anya said.
"Good call," Marcus replied as he turned on his radio, "This is Fenix to all callsigns, there's a lotta bugs in the courtyard, we're going for the Chairman. You guys clear the place out."
"Will do Sergent Fenix."
So how are we going to get to Hoffman and Bernie?" Baird asked. Marcus revved the engine.
"Same way we stormed the Hollow back on Mount Kadar."
"Shit, there better not be any big ass jumps." 
"Nah Damon. Just a lotta bugs to crush," Cole said. Marcus let go of the brake and the Scorpion screamed forwards, running over several Changelings and tearing up the front stairs and smashing through the front doors. Baird tossed Cole a microphone.
"I fitted a PA system on the outside of the Scorp'. I'd hate to come to a party unannounced."
Cole grinned and turned the mic on, a sharp drone emitted from the outside speakers.
"Hell yeah, this is gonna be fun."
"Now which way to the throne room?" Marcus said.

Canterlot Castle Throne Room

Bernie had never been in such intense combat before; not during the Pendulum Wars, not when she fought the Locust, not even when she had to fight the Dragons only days earlier. She shifted her aim and fired a round into the head of an oncoming Beast Rider Changeling. 
"We've gotta fall back!" an Onyx Guard yelled over the storm of gunfire. Hoffman looked up over his cover and saw that the Changelings had indeed started to close the gap between them, even under pressure from the tagged grenades and sustained machine gun fire from the Vulcan. He swore under his breath and jumped up and ran to the door to the throne room. 
"Fall back! We've gotta get back now!"
Bernie followed suit along with the last three surviving squads of Onyx guards. A few of which were impaled by five foot long gel spears that were shot by the Sniper Changelings. Carmine pulled one wounded guard though the door and slammed it shut.
"Holy fuck, we're dead."
"How long before help arrives?" Sam asked. 
"I'm hoping soon or else we're screwed," Hoffman added. Suddenly, the gunfire outside stopped. The Gears stepped back from the door and readied their weapons. The sound of a door creaking open behind them didn't alert them, mostly because they knew who it was.
"Is...is it safe?" Twilight's shaken voice asked. 
"Never assume because the fighting's stopped it's over," Bernie said. Carmine turned around and saw that Princess Celestia and all the ponies had left the safe room, including the fillies.
"Girls, get back in there," Carmine said, "It's not safe out he-"
A shattering crash echoed through the room and as a massive fist had punched through the door and then grabbed Carmine by his head. Carmine struggled as the arm slammed him against the door before throwing him off to the side.
"Carmineeeeeeee!" the fillies all screamed as their favorite human lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. Hoffman fired upon the hand and the rest of the Gears engaged as the hand ripped the door off its hinge and a mass of Locust Changelings swarmed into the throne room. Celestia knew that if she didn't do anything they would be doomed. She stepped out into the center of the Gears and charged up a spell that would stun the Changelings long enough for her and the Gears to escape. Her horn was fully engulfed in the magical charge when a very signature gunshot rang out and Celestia felt a burning and tearing pain rip through her front left shoulder and exit out into her abdomen. The fighting had suddenly stopped but Celestia didn't notice it until she hit the floor hard, sending a more intense pain shoot through her left leg and stomach. She looked up and saw Queen Chrysalis in the form of Queen Myrrah who was holding a Gorgon Pistol and shaking her head in disappointment.
"Tut, tut Princess Celestia. Did you really think that your little spells would work again after the last time I beat you?" 
Celestia cringed as Bernie helped her up. The Locust Changelings had now fully surrounded the Gears and the ponies. Hoffman gritted his teeth and slowly turned in a circle before stopping at Queen Chrysalis, who now had her Gorgon pistol pointed at him.
"Now, if you want to live a little longer, I suggest you drop your weapons."
Hoffman's blood was boiling, he wanted to keep fighting, but he was outnumbered and outgunned. But he knew that help was coming, he just didn't know how soon. So long as he could stall the Changelings there was a chance of fighting back. 
"Everyone, drop your guns."
"Sir?" one of the Onyx Guards asked.	
"Just do what the bitch says!" Hoffman barked back. The Gears looked at each other before they slowly placed their weapons on the ground. The Royal Guards did so as well, knowing full well that they would be killed if they didn't drop their weapons too.
"So what now?" Jace asked Bernie.
"Hope to God that Marcus is coming." 
"You humans," Chrysalis said, "Always so violent and pretentious. No wonder your home world is dead, your kind killed it through years of warfare. But did you stop? No. Even when a new threat arises you still continue to fight even when you know it will destroy you. Too bad it had to come to this, we could've worked together."
"Bullshit!" Hoffman said, "You assholes attacked us first, we retaliated. That's how warfare works. And we don't give a shit if something will destroy us, so long as we go out fighting hard." 
Chrysalis chuckled and pointed her pistol at Hoffman's head. Hoffman balled his fists and stared into the barrel of the gun, but realistically, he was near to shitting himself. 
"Come on you bitch, pull the fucking trigger. I'm sick of all this fucking fighting and bullshit politics."
Chrysalis was pulling back on the trigger when a voice echoed through the hallways, a loud, booming voice that made her stop and turn around to look down the hallway.

"Ladies and gentlemen. He's Hanover's favorite son. Numberrrr eightyyyyy threeee. THE COLE TRAINNNNNNN!
Chrysalis barely had time to react as the Scorpion plowed through her swarm and span around, guns blazing and cutting down more Changelings as the front hatch opened and Marcus, Cole and Anya jumped out and opened fire upon the charging Changelings. Hoffman reacted faster than he thought we was capable of and grabbed his Lancer and let out a burst of bullets, hitting a Changeling directly in the face. Chrysalis summoned a few Mauler Changelings to cover her escape, as she ran towards the door, a window exploded and showered her in glass. A few grappling hooks latched onto the wall and Gears jumped over the shattered window sill and landed in the room, firing their own weapons. Chrysalis retreated and found herself stuck in the middle of a full blown firefight, More Gears were pouring into the room, bullets flew all around the room and Gears and Changelings fell. Chrysalis was amazed how well disciplined the humans were, maintaining firing lines, issuing orders, even gaining the upper hand in melee combat. She growled and joined the fray, firing her pistol at the Gears and shoving her way past the Changelings. She knew that at this rate she couldn't escape unless she killed one of the human's commanders and used their death as a distraction to make the slip. She smashed her fist into a Gear and shoved him out of the way and sighted up on the first human she knew would be a high ranking commander. Marcus Fenix. Marcus had just pulled the smoking muzzle of his Lancer out of a Drone Changeling when he felt the whizz of a bullet pass his ear, he span around, saw Chrysalis and opened fire. Chrysalis dodged the Lancer fire and shot back, her rounds missed Marcus and took out an Onyx Guard behind him. Marcus revved up his chainsaw and ran at Chrysalis, sawing a Grenadier Changeling that got in his way. Chrysalis used her gel to make herself a large sword and swung it at Marcus, but he ducked and drove his Lancer upwards into Chrysalis's abdomen but her armor jammed the teeth of the saw and she shoved Marcus back and fired her pistol. Marcus felt the impact of the gel bullet hit his shin and splinter bone, he fell hard. The Lancer was lost as he tried to stem the flow of blood that was streaming down his calf. Chrysalis came into his view and pointed her pistol at him.
"Pathetic human, did you really think you could take on me and win? I am more powerful than you could ever imagine, I am incapable of being remotely harmed by your puny weapons. Even if you kill my swarm, I will survive and return again with a much larger and stronger swarm. You will have no chance then. You will not survive, Marcus Fenix, not this time. You will die like your friend. What was his name? Dominic Santiago wasn't it? Don't you worry, you'll see him soon enough." 
Chrysalis raised her pistol and pulled the hammer back.
"Any last words?"
Marcus bared his teeth, suppressed the agonizing pain and spoke.
"Go to hell, you fucking bitch."
Chrysalis scoffed and sighted up on Marcus's head.
"You humans make me sick."
Marcus braced himself for the round. He was about to die, shot near point blank in the head by a shapeshifting bug creature. He didn't care though, so much in his life was lost. His friends, his honor, his best friend and his father. He waited for the bullet to impact his skull and take him to oblivion. But instead of hearing a gunshot, he heard the sound of a loud wet splat and a faint gurgling. He opened his eyes and looked up to see Hoffman behind Chrysalis, teeth gritted, veins visible, a Retro Lancer in his hands and the bayonet protruding several inches clean though Chrysalis's chest, dripping with her blood. He pulled back and twisted the rifle, making her moan with the pain.
"Just because I became a politician, doesn't mean I forgot how to be a soldier."
Hoffman yanked the bayonet out of the Changeling queen, sidestepped and swung the blade at her neck, slicing open her main arteries and spraying a shower of blood over the floor. She gave Marcus one last look of horror and defeat, gurgled and then collapsed face first onto the floor. Marcus stared at the body as Hoffman walked over to Chrysalis's head.
"Time to put an end to this," he said. And with that, Hoffman brought his boot down hard on the former Changeling queen's skull, crushing it to a pulp. Suddenly, the Changelings in the room started wailing and their gel disguises started to dissolve.
"What the hell is happening?" Sam yelled. 
"They're losing control!" Baird barked back, "Someone must've killed the queen!" 
"You can thank me later, Baird," Hoffman said. He and the Gears stopped fighting to watch the Changelings stagger around, screaming in pain as they tried to work out what they were doing. Most of them looked at the Gears and then flew out of the windows at high speeds, others fell on their backs and struggled until they stopped twitching and lay on the floor, still and eyes wide open. The Gears, now realizing that victory was theirs, starting walking around the room and executing any Changeling that was left behind. Hoffman turned around and helped Marcus up from the floor.
"On your feet, soldier. You're not dying while I'm in command." 
"Shit this fucking hurts," Marcus grunted as he limped over to the Scorpion. Anya and Baird helped him onto the step while Cole searched the inside of the APC for the medical supplies. 
"Shit, look at you," Anya said, "What happened?"
"Chrysalis got me, but Hoffman bayoneted her." 
Cole jumped down from inside the APC and opened up the first aid kit when the click of a weapon being cocked attracted their attention. The squad and several Gears nearby turned around to the mount of door debris and saw a single, bloodied Changeling standing on the wreckage, holding a Boltok pistol pointed at the heads of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. 
"You know what you all are?" the Changeling hissed, "A swarm of parasprites!"
The Changeling pressed the barrel of the gun to Apple Bloom's temple and was about to pull the trigger when a huge mass slammed into it from behind and wrestled it to the ground, the Changeling struggled as it looked up and saw the battered helmet of Clayton Carmine stare into it's eyes, it then felt the heavy impact of his fist on its face. The gruesome sound of bones breaking and Carmine's enraged screams clearly echoed through the battle damaged throne room. 

"GET!"
Crunch.
"THE!"
Crunch.
"FUCK!"
Crunch.
"AWAY!"
Crunch.
"FROM!"
Crunch.
"THOSE!" 
Crunch.
"FILLIES!"
Carmine reared his arm back once more and delivered a blow directly into the Changeling's face, crushing and depressing the skull and causing a pool of blood to form under it's head in a matter of seconds. Breathing heavily, Carmine stood up and stared at the body of the Changeling he had just killed with his bare hands. His fist hurt and was covered in blood, both his and the Changeling's. The fillies behind him slowly walked over next to him and looked up.
"Are-are you okay, Carmine?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Carmine didn't reply, he reached up, unbuckled his smashed helmet and slowly slid it off his head. The fillies stood as still as bricks as their savior turned around to look down at them, his dark brown hair hid the head wound were a trickle of blood was seeping from and running down his slightly pale cheek and onto his lips. For the first time they were seeing what Carmine looked like under his helmet, he hadn't taken it off since he first arrived in Ponyville. His bright blue eyes weren't staring the recent rage into theirs, they were showing kindness, friendship and love. Carmine crouched down and held his hand out to the fillies. The three hesitated for a second then slowly walked into his chest armor and hugged him, Carmine put his arm around them looked at Delta Squad and sighed.
"I think we're done here, don't you?"
> Chapter Nineteen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter Nineteen


As per request, here is the report on the casualties we took during the battle. All figures are an approximation as we are still searching for MIA Gears. We also added the number of Changelings killed during the battle so that you can know that our troops fought hard and were fully capable of taking on this enemy and winning.

Total number of COG Gears in Canterlot: 1,500.
Total number of COG vehicles in Canterlot: 200. 
Total estimated Changeling numbers in Canterlot during battle: 3,695.
Total estimated COG Gears KIA: 184.
Total estimated COG Gears WIA: 493. 
Total estimated COG Gears MIA: 18.
Total number of COG vehicles destroyed: 23.
Total estimated number of Changelings killed: 2,480.
Total number of Changelings escaped: 210. 

Addendum: Oh yeah, we really kicked some ass. ~Damon Baird.

(Segment of the report on the battle of Canterlot.)


***


Streets of Canterlot.
48 hours after the battle of Canterlot.

It wasn't the fact that Marcus has been shot, it was how much residual pain he was going through. The bullet may have been made of gel but analysis of the entry and exit wound showed that it had cleanly punched through his muscle and still had enough force to ricochet off the floor and embed itself into the back of Cole's armor. He winced slightly as he placed his foot on the floor and stood up from the bench he was sitting at, he glanced over his shoulder to the ruined store behind him. It was the same store from two days ago where he and Delta found out that the Changelings had been taking prisoners, it was unknown what they Changelings wanted with the prisoners but as of now, Marcus couldn't care less. He was amazed how quickly the bodies had been extracted and the shop cleaned and fixed up. Through the newly installed glass window he could see ponies shopping for groceries, happily talking to each other, one even looked at Marcus and gave him a friendly wave. Marcus rose his hand in response, turned and then walked away. As he limped down the street, the cleanup detail had done a great job of fixing the city up merely two days after the battle. Gears and ponies were all working side by side to restore Canterlot back to the way it was. The only real signs of the battle were the bulletholes in various objects, bodybags that were stacked up on the sides of the road being loaded into Packhorses and the stains of blood that was splattered over the white walls of the buildings and pooled up in the roads and the occasional crashed Raven jutting out of the roof of a building. Marcus stopped on the sidewalk of a crossroads and watched as the Ravens swooped overhead, blowing dust and smoke and obstructing the sunlight, the Assault Derricks carrying Gears, alive, wounded and dead back to base or the Castle. He sighed and turned on his radio, most of the chatter was reports from the Raven pilots or Gears just simply looking for their buddies so they could get together afterwards and have a drink. Something that Marcus wanted to do. 

"Yo, Marcus," Cole's voice said from behind him. Marcus turned around and leaned against the lamppost he was next to.
"Cole Train, I thought you were on patrol." 
"Nah, Command's gotten enough Gears looking after the place. Besides, we busted our asses trying to save Hoffman."
"Truer words have never been spoken."
"Something up?" Cole asked Marcus, noticing that he seemed to be in pain.
"Yeah, my fucking leg hurts like hell." 
"Shit, really? Didn't you get that checked?"
"I did, but there's nothing I can do until it heals." 
"Some painkillers might help. Well, if we had any to spare."
"I can tough it out," Marcus said, "So why'd you come to find me, I know that's why you're here."
"Damn, he's good at reading minds," Cole thought, "Chairman Hoffman actually sent me to find you. Said it's important." 
"I'd get a place to sit down," Marcus said as he followed Cole through the streets of a rebuilding Canterlot. 

Canterlot Castle COG barracks. 

All was surprisingly quiet in the barracks, most of the Gears that were in the room seemed to be sleeping or eating with their squad. Carmine didn't pay attention to them, he was too busy with the CMC, who were all fast asleep on his lap and in his arms. Carmine had found them sleeping on his bed earlier, when he woke them up they said that they'd had nightmares and didn't feel safe so they went to sleep on Carmine's bed in the barracks. Carmine could only chuckle and keep watch on the foals until the older ponies arrived to take them back home. He picked up his ruined helmet and looked it over, one side was crushed badly, the eye pieces were shattered beyond repair and there was a large chunk of shrapnel embedded in the back of it, very close to where Carmine's spine would be if he were wearing it. Carmine sighed and placed the helmet back on the table, finally glad he didn't need to wear a helmet anymore.
"Is it too hot in this castle to wear helmet?" Sam said as she walked over to Carmine. Carmine chuckled and sat up, careful not to wake the fillies.
"Nah, just got sick of wearing that thing for so long. And it smelled." 
Sam smiled and sat down next to Carmine, stroking Apple Bloom's ears making the filly giggle and roll over in Carmine's arms. 
"So what do you think will happen now?" she asked as she watched the fillies sleep.
"I dunno, Bernie told me that Hoffman was planning something with Celestia. Don't know what it is." 
"We might find out soon. Anyways, where's the rest of the squad?"
"One of them is right behind you." 
Sam and Carmine turned around and saw Jace walking over to them with Dizzy, in his arms was a keg of what was definitely Appleshine. He strided over and slammed the keg on the table, waking up the fillies. 
"Huh? What was that?" Scootaloo groaned.
"I'm sorta impressed how they didn't freak out." Jace said. 
"Nah, I managed to calm them down before they went to sleep," Carmine replied, "I dunno why but I'm really good with these kids." 
Sweetie Belle giggled and curled up in Carmine's lap and fell back asleep. Scootaloo rubbed her eyes and sat up, she stayed on Carmine's lap and looked up at the keg.
"What's in here?" Scootaloo asked.
"Just a little something to celebrate victory." Dizzy said, smiling widely.
"A big metal barrel thing?" Scootaloo said, smiling. "You humans are weird."
"We're not using the keg," Dizzy said, "It's what's inside that we're using."
"What's inside?"
"Is it that nasty Appleshine you made yesterday?" Carmine asked nervously. 
"Nah, Dizzy dumped that stuff last night when the Gears who were lined up by the heads gave up and went into the bushes," Jace said with a slight chuckle. 
"I thought I smelled something worse than Baird's personality this morning," Sam retorted with a sly smile which earned her a few short laughs from a few nearby Gears.

Canterlot Castle 
Veranda outside Princess Celestia's bedroom.

Celestia stared down at the half ruined and battle scarred city of Canterlot and sighed doefully, if it weren't for the Ravens patrolling the skies could have easily slept through the day. She sat down on her plush floor cushion next to the fire and used her magic to bring her teapot closer so that she could pour herself a warm and soothing herbal tea to ease her growing headache. Unfortunately at that time there was a knock on her door, the noise sent dull thumps through her head.
"Come in," She said quietly. As Celestia stood up in walked Hoffman, a squad of Onyx Guards and a pair of Royal Guards. Between the two Royal Guards was an alicorn that Celestia recognized.
"Luna!" she squeaked with joy as she ran over and embraced her younger sister, tears starting to form in both their eyes.
"My Gears found her in one of those cocoon prisons in a cave that we located under the castle during a patrol." Hoffman said. "She seemed to be unharmed after they pulled her out of that thing, the smell was the worst part of the rescue." 
The two princesses let go of one another and smiled, Celestia bowed for Hoffman and spoke.
"My sister and I are in debt to you, Chairman Hoffman. If there is anything we can do in return for you for saving our world from the Changelings, name it and we will make it so." 
"Well, did you say that you could help us to fix our world?"
"Oh yes, I'll make it so when you and your soldiers are ready to depart. I'll send as many ponies to your world in order to assist you for as long as possible until your world is fully rebuilt." 
"That sounds like a deal to me." Hoffman said as he held out his hand to Celestia. The princess hesitated for a second and then shook his hand with her hoof. 
"T-thank you for saving me as well." Luna spoke up. 
"Thank the Gears that saved you, not me." Hoffman said, "Actually, can I ask you two of a small favor?"
"Do tell us." Celestia said.
"I'm planning a small memorial ceremony for the Gears who we lost during the battle and I'd be grateful if you could attend." 
Celestia and Luna looked at each other and smiled. 
"I guess we can do this one little thing for you and your brave soldiers. And I may get some of Canterlot's most talented stonemasons to carve a memorial for those who sacrificed their lives to save our home." 
"Thank you," Hoffman said, a small smile starting to form, "That means a lot." 

Canterlot Castle Courtyard.
Four hours later.

Anya adjusted her uniform nervously when none of the other Onyx Guards were looking, she wasn't used to being back in her old CIC uniform, not to mention that it seemed slightly smaller than she remembered but it still fit and it looked as if were new. She carefully glanced down the line and saw Marcus and the rest of Delta Squad standing in line next to him, none of them were talking but were staring ahead of them as the crowd consisting of Gears and ponies below gathered and looked up at the pedestal that had been set up on the edge of the stage. Behind them was a very large rectangular object, but they had no idea what it was since it was covered by a large golden sheet and were ordered by Bernie (who was standing next to the object) not to uncover it. A sudden round of applause broke out and Anya straightened her posture just as Hoffman and Celestia walked up the stage, Hoffman silenced the crowd with a single wave of his hand and took his place in front of the stage. 
"Thank you citizens of Canterlot and fellow Gears." he started.
"Acknowledge the ponies first. Good move, Hoffman." Anya thought as she continued to stare straight on at the Gears who were guarding the gates with two Centaur tanks. She shivered and listened to Hoffman's speech. 
"As many of you know, we are currently helping you rebuild after the battle with the Changelings that ended with a COG victory. Something that would not be possible if wasn't for all of the bravery of the citizens of Canterlot and the help you provided to my troops as they fought to defend your homes and families. Their sacrifices were not in vain. My Gears gave what they could in order for you to live, it is with respect that you show your gratitude towards them the same way you showed your hospitality. In return, we will remain here until we help you rebuild and repair the city and then we shall leave Canterlot so that we don't disturb you and then allow you all to move on from what happened. It's the least we can do for you in this world before we return to ours." 
Hoffman sighed and stepped backwards as Celestia took his place. She scanned the crowd and then began.

"Thank you Chairman Hoffman and thank you to the loyal soldiers who fought for the safety of this city and everypony in it. As we promised, we shall help you rebuild your world as a token of our gratitude and thanks. Also, my best stonemasons have taken the liberty of making something for the soldiers who were lost during the battle."
Celestia's horn glowed and the golden sheet fell away from the rectangular object, revealing it to be a large memorial with the names of the slain Gears carved into the front of it, each name also had a small epigraph and a personal quote. Most of the Gears in the front of the crowd looked down or shifted uncomfortably but the ponies who were standing next to them offered warms smiles and sympathetic hugs, most of which the Gears returned. Celestia allowed the Gears a few minutes to regain their posture and slip on their helmets before speaking again. 
"Now then. I shall return the floor to Chairman Hoffman so that he may proceed with the promotions."
As Celestia stepped back Hoffman returned with a pair of Onyx Guards carrying small boxes. Most of Delta looked at each other then back to the Chairman as he took one of the boxes and walked over to Carmine, Jace and Sam.
"Privates Clayton Carmine, Jace Stratton and Samantha Byrne. Due to your outstanding actions during the defense of Canterlot Castle I hereby promote you all to the rank of Corporal. The COG has never had finer soldiers than you."

The audience applauded as Hoffman opened the box and pinned their new rank insignias on their uniforms. Carmine glanced down at the crowd and saw Dizzy with the Crusaders as they were cheering and waving at Carmine, Dizzy chuckled and picked up the fillies so they could see Carmine better. The applause died down as Hoffman approached Baird and Cole and Hoffman opened up the box.
"Corporal Damon Baird, I hereby promote you to Sergeant due to your actions during the Battle of Canterlot. Private Augustus Cole, I hereby promote you to Corporal due to your actions during the Battle of Canterlot. Both of you make the COG proud."
After Hoffman affixed Baird's new insignia on his uniform his expression changed from neutral to extremely smug. Cole on the other hand seemed to be quite the opposite. 
"Huh, I never did accept promotion before. Guess this time I gotta accept it."
"You deserved it a long time ago, Cole," Hoffman said. Cole chuckled and let Hoffman pin the insignia on his armor.
"Yeah, guess I did after all these years." 
Everyone in the crowd went silent as Hoffman approached Anya and Marcus, Hoffman went to Anya first and opened the other box that the Onyx guards were holding. He let out a small sigh and turned to face Anya.
"Lieutenant Anya Stroud. In recognition for your actions in the Battle of Canterlot, I hereby promote you to Colonel. We need officers like you, and I hope that you'll inspire many more to come." 
"Thank you Chairman Hoffman." Anya said as Hoffman pinned the insignias to her uniform. The applause for Anya was loud enough to echo off the walls of the castle and trigger a small headache in Hoffman's skull, but once he approached Marcus the crowd stopped suddenly. Hoffman took a smaller box out from the larger box that the Onyx Guard was holding, it was about the size of an envelope and thick enough to contain something large.
"Marcus Fenix. In recognition of your actions during the Battle of Canterlot and in honor of your father I hereby promote you to First Lieutenant and award you with the Embry Star."
Hoffman opened up the box and inside was a perfect, polished and almost like new Embry Star. On either side of the medal were Lieutenant insignias, also looking like new. Marcus stared at them for what seemed like an hour before he looked up at Hoffman, his expression no longer his usual battle hardened look but one of confusion.
"Sir? You sure about this? This is one hell of a rank jump that you've given me." 
"If that's your bullshit excuse to avoid this I'm not taking it. You're accepting this promotion one way or the other."
Marcus looked at the insignias and then back up, Hoffman was surprised when he saw that Fenix had the slightest smile on his face. 
"I never said anything about declining." 
Hoffman nodded and pinned the insignias to his uniform before giving him the box with the medal inside. As Hoffman stepped back and then turned to the crowd Marcus looked over at his squad. Most of them were nodding approvals, Baird even gave Marcus a mock salute before facing front towards Hoffman. Bernie looked back at him and smiled. 
"Bloody good job you did, rallying the troops like that." 
Marcus nodded and returned his gaze forward as Hoffman addressed the crowd once more, he hadn't noticed the massive applause that he had gotten just died down.

"I thank all of the citizens of Canterlot for your support in allowing me and my soldiers to stay here in this amazing place but soon, we must leave. However if all goes to plan we may come back but not to occupy your homes but to introduce our future generations the friendly race of talking ponies who saved our planet." 
Most of the ponies looked at the Gears in the crowd and proceeded to lean against or hug them, nearly all the Gears tolerated this and a few of them even picked up the foals and held them in their arms. Hoffman watched the crowd and how the ponies behaved, it seemed that a lot of the ponies didn't want the Gears to leave. The same could even be said with a handful of the Gears, this world was perfect but Hoffman knew that there would be no way they could stay and live in Equestria. They had fought too long and lost too much on Sera to abandon it now. Hoffman felt something on his shoulder and looked back to see Celestia with a saddened look on her face and a hoof on his shoulder. 
"It's a shame you and your brave soldiers have to leave, but you have a home to return to." 
"You're gonna help us fix the place up, right?" 
"Indeed. You saved two towns and helped fix them both and in return we'll help fix your planet as best we can." 
"Thanks." Hoffman said he walked up to the edge of the stage and spoke only two words that would end the ceremony be the last that the crowd would hear today. 
"Everyone, dismissed."