"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."- Martin Luther King Jr.

"UGH!" groaned Rainbow Dash, trying to pull the cart.

"I'm getting tired." moaned Pinkie Pie. The party pony had nearly given up.

"Come on sugarcube we're almost there!" motivated Applejack.

In order to move the nearly paralyzed Shadow squad, the equines had to pull them through a cart that Pinkie had built. Despite Twilight using a force inversion spell to help reduce Shadow's pressure on the device, pulling the contraption was still a pain in the flank.

In 1 hour, the equines only managed to cover 3 miles.

Twilight and nopony else could take it for much longer. Even Applejack, who had a ton of experience moving carts felt like she could collapse any moment. Taking a break was out of the question as the mane 6 was already overdue to get back to Ponyville. It would only be a matter of time before the town started panicking.

Twilight's forehead was trickling with sweat and the lavender mare was panting hard. She turned back to face the masked humans.

"Are you 4 enjoying yourselves?" sarcastically remarked the alicorn.

"YES!" chanted Shadow Squad nonchalantly.

While the mares were busy at work trying to haul their behemoth bodies, Shadow was quite relaxed in the kart. Scarecrow was reading a comic book, Overwatch was drawing the entire scene, X-ray was playing some open world shooter on Scorch's laptop while Scorch was watching a movie on X-ray's tablet.

While the squad didn't have to move, one thing was bringing their ride down.

"God damn it, this wood is hard." muttered X-ray.

The commando looked up to see his 3 friends staring right at him. X-ray pondered what he had said only to realize that he just made a sexual intendo.

"Ohh....uh"

As if Scarecrow ignored him; "Well sitting on this cart isn't exactly soft but come on, we put any more weight on this cart and it'll collapse to saw dust forcing us to trot like dirty animals."

The cart stopped.

"No offense! Again!"

The cart continued moving.

"We'll never make it at this rate." whimpered Fluttershy. "I still have to get to my animals, I hope they didn't miss me. I mean it's not like they can't take care of themselves-"

"Well maybe we would have gotten there sooner if someone didn't suggest using a peacekeeping force for travel!" suggested Rainbow Dash.

With his left hand still holding the comic, Scarecrow lifted his right and and flexed it up and down to give the 'blah, blah, blah' gesture.

Being handless, the ponies obviously didn't get his insult.

"I know what you mean Fluttershy!" sighed Rarity. "All those dress orders still need to be done, Sweetie Bell is probably crying and I still need to feed Opal."

"Opal?" said a voice from behing the ponies.

"Oh, Opal is the name of my cat." explained Rarity.

Scarecrow snapped his head from his comic book and onto the white unicorn. "You have CATS! As in those furry quadrupeds with claws, whiskers and are fucking lazy."

Rarity tried to wash the insult out of her mind and nodded 'yes'.

"I have a cat too." whispered Shadow's commander.

"This is impossible. Cats are from EARTH!" yelled Scorch. "Earth is a bunch of light years away."

Twilight rolled her eyes at Scorch's unnecessary cussing. 'Wow Earth and Epona are similar.' awed the mare. "First animals and than myths. But their planet came first and is much older than ours so-"

"You think cats were enough." snorted X-ray. He snatched his tablet from Scorch and turned on an app for analyzing flora. "All plant life within this vicinity are some form of oak, maple or spruce tree."

Overwatch face palmed. This information was overwhelming.

"Oh well at least we don't have to waste time gathering plant samples." shrugged Scarecrow.

"New theory!" piped up Scorch. "What if Epona was really a piece of Earth that was blasted of during the planet's formation and traveled across the galaxy, carrying life that would eventually evolve into these things like they would have on Earth?"

The other ponies looked at Twilight pleadingly.

"I don't know what to say to that but it sound ridiculous." replied the alicorn.

"Oh and a talking pink horse with wings and a horn isn't?" countered Scorch. Overwatch almost laughed. Almost.

"Na, Twilight is right." implied X-ray. "Based on the distance between Epona and Earth, it would take billions of years for said fragment to reach its current position while this planet is thousands of years old, not to mention it would have deteriorated in a vacuum over time."

"But this planet does seem artificial." reminded Scarecrow.

Rainbow tried to join in on conversation, but it was hard to think while pulling the load. "If everything on this planet is Earth like, then it would have to have built by humans."

"Nu-huh" shacked Scorch. "By the time your planet was in the process of formation, we had barely discovered the wheel. If we were ancient astronauts there should have been a monument or technological ruins of some sorts."

"He's right." added Scarecrow. "If we can find old pottery from Paleolithic times, then we should be able find something as obvious as a spaceship."

"Or it could have another race from Earth that had the technology to build worlds." proposed Rarity.

"That wouldn't be possible as well." countered X-ray. "Humans are the only species on Earth with intelligence. If there was another species that was an intelligent, again, we should have found some ruins."

Pinkie's eyes widened with an epiphany. "But if the aliens got rid of all their technology on purpose because they felt bad that you weren't so advanced and wouldn't get discouraged from discovering and let you have room to build your towns and cities?"

"That is stupid even for you." remarked Scorch.

"Hey!" responded the pink Mare.

"Any species that powerful would have probably assimilated our ancestors for slave labor." said Scarecrow.

"Why would they do that? Slavery is horrible." whispered Fluttershy.

"Didn't stop the white Englishmen from enslaving the blacks." panned Overwatch.

"My that's a dark piece of history you have there." gulped Twilight. "I couldn't imagine anything worse than that."

The humans snorted. There were way worse things about Shadow alone.

Applejack sniffed in the air. "Gosh, ah can smell 'em apples from here."

"Speaking of home, you never got to inform us about your families." panned Scorch. His voice turned blubbery. "Do they know you're in the big scary forest?"

Rainbow Dash snorted "Hey! We're not telling you-"

"My mother and father aren't in town as of now." interrupted Rarity before the humans could mistake Dash's stubbornness as a threat. "My sister Sweetie Bell lives with me and the boutique I run."

"I work at Sugarcube corner with the cake family. My real family works at a rock farm!" cheered Pinkie.

"Pinkie...why the fucking hell would your folks work at rock farm?" questioned X-ray.

Pinkie's mouth dropped. "I'll have you know you mr. meanie, that rocks are important and have many uses."

"Yeah, but you don't need to grow them. Besides working at a rock farm sounds depressing." muttered Scorch.

Pinkie knitted her eyes and continued trotting forward. Now it was Applejacks turn to speak. Her voice turned from general annoyance to depression.

"Ma folks are gone." sighed the cowpony. Her force on the roped suddenly dwindled.

Scarecrow dropped his resting position and stood up straight. "I'm sorry." he whispered.

"Why would' ya be?" questioned Applejack.

"Growing up without parents must be hard right?" asked Scorch.

"Na." shook the cowpony. "Ah have ma little sister Applebloom, ma Granny Smith and ma brother Big Mac. Together with the rest of the apple clan, we got quite a lovin bunch."

"My mom died a while back." explained Rainbow Dash although she didn't sound depressed. "My dad still lives in Cloudsdale. I haven't seen him for years come to think of it."

"Is he as hot headed as you?" teased Scorch as he was lying on his back.

"Nah." blurted Rainbow Dash. "He's been a solitary guy even before my mom died."

"My parents are still in the military." whimpered Fluttershy.

Shadow-minus Overwatch-laughed hard at the statement. Their laughing unknowingly put Fluttershy in a lot more pain than she already was.

Suddenly Scarecrow forced himself to stop laughing. "Um, Fluttershy, by any chance, were your parents...rough on you?"

The yellow pegasus nodded. Her friends surrounded her to comfort her, they knew how much of a sensitive topic her upbringing was.

Suddenly Shadow realized why the yellow mare had been so timid all along. Sure the entire Mane 6 was near soiling themselves because of Shadow's overall malevolence, but Fluttershy was a severe case.

"Hey we're sorry, we shouldn't have been so inconsiderate." apologized Scorch.

"No offense but you've been pretty rude the entire time we've known you." snarled Twilight.

"Well this is what happens when your government sends young adults with a ton of combat experience." shrugged X-ray.

"Well we could have been nicer had this planet not essentially be an Earth rip-off." kicked back Scarecrow.

"Anyway." sighed Twilight. "My parents are just civilians living in the capital city. My brother is captain of the royal guard and he's married to Princess Cadance."

"Is Cadance related to your diarchs?" yawned X-ray. The ride was starting to get comfortable.

"No." blurted Twilight. "Although people call her Celestia's niece for some reason."

"Now it's your turn to enlighten us about your families." ordered Rarity

"That's classified information." said Scarecrow blankly.

"Oh please! Like they're capable of doing anything to us if they know something like that!" remarked X-ray. The ponies turned to face the rifleman.

"Especially now that we got rid of their elements."

The pony's faces of confusion became scowls. They had never been so frustrated in their lives.

"All of our parents are still on Requiem." explained X-ray. "Good thing as well since its basically the planet with the lowest insurrection support. I have a brother slightly younger than me. He's training to be a cargo pilot."

"I have two younger brothers." added Scorch. "The youngest is graduating high school by now. The older is training to be a business man."

"I have an older sister." sighed Overwatch.

"A HOT OLDER sister." chirped Scarecrow.

Overwatch punched his commander in the chin. It actually did quite a number on his barrier.

Scarecrow was unharmed and spoke as if nothing just happened. "I have a younger sister. She's a veterinarian."

"Oh my, that's a wonderful job. Taking care of all those cute animals." complimented Fluttershy.

"What about your parents?" began Rarity. "Do they know about your...profession."

"Their not exactly supportive." chuckled X-ray. "We're not family guys so we haven't been in contact with our parents for quite a while other than the 'I almost died today' or 'Guess how many people I killed today?' text."

"Are they aware your that your making first contact? And a pretty bad one too?" asked Twilight.

"Nope." said Shadow in unison.

Meanwhile on Pewter city, Requiem

"Honey, where's Robert? (Scorch)" asked his mother.

"Some uncharted alien world." replied his father.

Back on Epona

"Please tell me ya'll are gonna be healed soon." wailed Applejack. The ponies couldn't continue pulling any longer.

Scarecrow checked the time on his watch. "Actually the medicine was supposed to finish taking effect 5 minutes ago."

"WHAT!" screamed the mares.

"Thanks for the ride anyway!" cheered X-ray. The rest of Shadow got up and jumped into the air. The lighter gravity allowed the squad to soar at distanced that even impressed Rainbow Dash before landing.

Scorch stood upright and faced Twilight. "Hey Twilight we won't need a force inversion anymore."

Twilight rolled her eyes and cast another force inversion spell on Shadow. Once again trying to cast on Shadow despite their apparent size required Twilight to use double the force she would use normally.

Shadow felt the ground feel less like a solid piece of titanium but instead soft, mushy dirt like it was supposed to be. Their feet were now exerting force like it was supposed to.

The squad nodded and continued walking, despite the 6 sweaty mares suggesting otherwise.

"Come on. We're less than 5 miles away!" motivated Scorch.

"Speak for yourself! You weren't the one pulling." gritted Rainbow Dash.

"Look on the bright side Dash!" skipped Pinkie. "We'll never get the chance to exercise like this again and get super duper strong muscles."

"That's something I wouldn't mind missing." shook Rarity.

Suddenly Shadow tensed and turned east. Simultaneously, the squad drew their weapons.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong? There's-"

Scarecrow shot a fist in the air to silence the mare. As Shadow started tensing, the mind fuck the mares were getting started to escalate.

"ROAR!"

The Equines eyes widened and they headed into a group huddle. Disturbed buy the monstrous cry.

"Hissss!"

Suddenly trees were knocked down and the voices became more and more apparent. Out of nowhere, a giant, black, lizard appeared, with three serpent like heads and sharp, pointy claws.

"What do you know, it's a damn Hydra." awed X-ray.

Overwatch shot up his sniper rifle and aimed at the head of the hydra. Right when the hooded sniper was about to fire at the gazing serpent, Scarecrow placed his hand on the barrel.

"Overwatch don't engage." ordered the masked soldier. Scarecrow turned to face the cowering ponies. "Twilight, Hydra heads regrow unless they are set on fire right? That way, their wounds will be cauterized and their cells can't multiply to make up for the damage."

Twilight gave a nod.

"Then we'll rip it's fucking heart out!" threatened X-ray. The hydra snarled at him.

"Hydra rounds are supposed to be bullet proof due to tight cell structure." gulped Scarecrow.

"Bullshit, our rounds are full metal jacket, that's bullet proof proof!"

Scorch looked at each of his Squad mates. "I'm not allowed to use incendiary ammunition after the "incident". Do any of you have some by any chance?"

"Don't look at me." defended X-ray, still staring at the hydra's middle head. "I'm using FMJ rounds."

"I'm using said rounds for my LMG and shotgun." said Scarecrow.

Overwatch shook his head no.

The hydra gave out a large roar with all three of its heads. The force of the shout was strong enough to flip off Shadow's hoods. Just before Twilight could analyze their 'manes', the squad flipped their hoods up with fast reflexes.

"What are you waiting for?" yelled Scorch to Scarecrow. "Throw your fucking pyro grenade at it!"

"I'm still trying get over the shock that I'm looking at a damn hydra! Not to mention it's moving it's heads fast." responded Scarecrow.

"Twilight can you set it's head on fire or some shit?" asked X-ray.

Twilight stopped nibbling on her hooves and used Cadance's technique to calm her self. "I can summon a flame at will, but to do it to burn off a hydra's head is magic I have yet to be competent in. Plus I'm not helping you kill." Twilight went back to being a coward.

"You know it hasn't attacked us for some reason." pointed Scorch. The demo man adjusted his shades "I think it wants something."

"Fluttershy." called Scarecrow.

The yellow pegasus piped up from the pile of cowering ponies.

"Can you please tell this lizard reject to fuck off?"

Fluttershy for some reason couldn't find herself to pull off her 'stare.'. It was probably the human's odd magic of somehow scrambling her mind.

The yellow pegasus flied up to the hydra. The 3 headed behemoth stopped growling and turned to face the floating mare.

Fluttershy cleared her throat and spoke in an ever sweet voice. "Um Mr. Hydra, can you please." Fluttershy blushed a bright red. "F...ffff..fuuu"

"I didn't mean it literally!" scolded Scarecrow.

The yellow mare paled at the insult. "Mr. Hydra, these 4 humans (the hydra snarled when he heard Fluttershy say 'human) don't want to hurt you unless you want to hurt them and nopony want's that. Can you just leave and enjoy your day if that's okay with you?"

The hydra gave a series of snarls and growls.

Fluttershy faced the humans. "He says he wants you to apologize for your tyranny."

The humans were dumbfounded underneath their masks. Scorch spoke up.

"Fluttershy, tell this jerk that we've never met him before so we're not apologizing for jack shit!"

Fluttershy looked at her friends first. They were all literally paralyzed with fear. Rainbow Dash and Applejack never looked so frightened and for once didn't care if they were showing it. Rarity had fainted and Pinkie was trying to wave air to the white mare. Twilight was lost in thought as well as fear. Fluttershy knew deep down however, that her friends weren't afraid of the hydra attacking them, they were afraid of what Shadow was going to do to the hydra.

Fluttershy collected her thoughts. "Mr. Hydra, there seems to be a mistake. These humans have done nothing wrong to you, yet. So they don't have to apologize for anything."

The hydra snapped all three of its heads and charged them straight at the masked humans.

Shadow's reflexes kicked in and the 4 of them vaulted, flipped and jumped aside to avoid the hydra's sharp teeth.

Overwatch drew his rifle and used his HUD to no scope a head. The hydra's left head dismembered and blue animated blood spilled from it's neck. Said blood spilled all over the Mane 6. Each one of them gave out a high pitched scream. Even Rainbow Dash and Applejack squealed.

Suddenly the now two headed hydra stood up. It's two remaining heads gave a hiss and from where the third head had been cut off, two new ones grew.

"Nice job Overwatch!" scolded Scarecrow. "Now there are 4 heads for each of us."

"On the bright side, I got a blood sample." proclaimed X-ray. He held a vial that had contents of they hydra's wound.

The hydra swiped its tail at X-ray. The rifleman jumped in the nick of time, almost loosing his blood sample.

The 4 soldiers wasted no time firing at it's chest, hoping to rip of its heart. Much to Shadow's dismay, as bullets entered the hydra's system, the wounds immediately closed, undoing any effort their bullets did.

Two hydra heads launched straight at Scarecrow and Scorch. Both masked commandos side stepped and Scarecrow gave his aggressor head a jaw shattering kick.

The hydra recoiled. It wasn't about to loose to it's prey. Much to the beast's frustration however, it seemed like the humans were having fun making it's life miserable.

Scorch readied a rifle grenade and aimed it at the hydra's chest. Suddenly there was a loud 'plop' as the explosive was launched from the rifle and hit the hydra right where its heart should have been.

The hydra roared in pain as its entire mid-section was exposed. The Mane 6 nearly vomited at the sight of the 4 headed beast's internal organs.

Right when Scarecrow and X-ray fired bullets that would have ripped the Hydra's (four) hearts, its hide regenerated.

Shadow groaned in frustration. Killing a giant insurrection mecha would have been easier. Suddenly, the beast turned to face the Mane 6 who due to being to afraid to move or think, were crowded behind a rock. The Hydra realized that the ponies were making no effort to aid him in facing his adversaries.

"Traitors." it said in its native language. Right before Scarecrow finally got a clear throw with his pyro grenade on the hydra's heads, all four faces lunged at the ponies.

Thankfully, the equines dodged the attack and scrambled.

The hydra roared (ignoring all the holes in it's body that were harmlessly regenerating) and charged at the helpless ponies.

The equines managed to cover some distance in their adrenaline like speed. However, the hydra was about to catch up to them. Splitting in different directions was not an option for the Mane 6 as the forest's trees were closely packed in this section, making crashing easy.

Unfortunately for the 4 headed lizard, Shadow was much faster. Right when they were about to catch up to the beast, X-ray had realized something.

"Guys? Is it just me or do you notice something off of the hydra's colors?"

Scorch's eye knitted. "Yeah, hydras are supposed to be green if they're male, red if they're female and if they're black...than that must mean-"

"It's the fucking hydra King!" awed Scarecrow. "That explains why its Autotomy readings are off the chart!"

"If we don't kill it, it's going to kill Twilight and the rest of the gang!" screamed Scorch.

The hydra finally caught the Mane 6 at a dead end. Right before it could lunge-

"Pulse grenade out!" yelled X-ray.

In the heart of the moment, a blue cylinder with a flashing green light and white lightning bolt landed in front of the hydra. Right when the beast looked down at the device, the green light flashed red and a huge shockwave struck the hydra.

The 4headed beast yelled in pain and was frozen still by the electric current. It was also vibrating violently.

Suddenly a small force, like a gust of humid wind struck the ponies. However, they did not go into shock like the giant black lizard.

"Twilight set its head on fire!" shrieked Pinkie.

Twilight tried to spark her horn with a flame, but for some reason felt like she couldn't absorb any infrared energy from the atmosphere. She couldn't even feel her horn.

"Twilight bash it with a rock!" screamed Applejack.

Twilight tried to yank a tree with her telekinesis but couldn't feel the essence of the tree. And once again, she couldn't connect to her horn.

"Twilight do something!" pleaded Rainbow Dash. It was only a matter of seconds before the hydra was going to overcome its electrical punishment.

"I can't. I can't feel my horn." admitted Twilight.

"What?" questioned Rarity. The white unicorn tried to grab hold of a near by boulder with telekinesis, but much to her shock, she couldn't fell her horn as well.

"My magic isn't working too!" screamed the white unicorn.

Suddenly the atmosphere had gotten hotter. The hydra was no longer covered in blue electric sparks, but instead a blazing red fire. The very look of which wasn't Eponan.

The equines covered their eyes at that gruesome image. The hydra was about to yell in pain until...

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

When the Mane 6 opened their eyes, they found all of the hydra's heads dismembered. Instead of regenerating, the sockets in the neck were covered with a black, non animated ash.

After noticing that they were covered in more blue blood, the ponies heard something coming from their right. They turned around to see Shadow uncloak and reveal themselves.

Scarecrow calmly addressed the ponies. "Is everypony alright?"

Pinkie Pie stared at the humans. "You....killed the hydra."

"Your welcome." growled X-ray. "Had we not killed it, the mutant lizard would have killed you."

"Tell us were you were when the hydra was being shocked!" demanded Twilight. "It was a good thirty seconds in before it you decided to do something. I thought you abandoned us!"

"We were waiting for you to use a god damn fire spell on that piece of shit." answered Scorch. "But once again, you seem to forget-"

"I didn't forget this time!" stood up Twilight. "I was about to set it on fire and knock it out with a tree but for some reason, after you threw that...thing, my horn stopped working."

"So did mine." added Rarity.

"What the hay did ya throw at the hydra anyway that caused 'em sparks to go flyin' around?" asked Applejack.

"It was a pulse grenade." answered X-ray. "It draws energy from solar or conventional electric outputs and stores them within its base. When I set it off, it releases an electromagnetic pulse of the stored energy, causing organics to feel a paralyzing shock but causing electronic devices to shut down."

"We don't need to worry about pulse grenades though. Our suits are EMP proof." added Scarecrow.

"Is there anything that will kill you?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Scorch folded his arms. "And why would you like to know that Ms. Dash?"

"Wait a minute." piped up Pinkie Pie. "You said that your pulse thingies switch off things right?"

"Electrically operated appliances yes." nodded X-ray.

"What if it switched off our horns?" gasped Rarity.

"That's impossible." assured Scarecrow. "X-ray's pulse grenades should only disable electromagnetic devices and......wait a minute, X-ray you said the way horns work is through electromagnetism within brain pulses so-"

"My Pulse grenades don't just disable tech, they disable magic." interrupted X-ray.

"Wow something that could turn off magic. I wish I has something like that once in a while." remarked Twilight. Twilight thought of the times she faced Discord and Trixie. Oh how easy it would have been to subdue them had they had their magic turned off.

"Traitor." Everypony and everybody turned to Fluttershy.

"It called us a traitor." whispered Fluttershy. "It said that right before it attacked us."

"You said something about it wanting an apology of some sort of tyranny." added Scarecrow.

"What could he mean by that? You said humans have never been on this planet before." reminded Twilight.

"I have no idea. I bet he just mistook us for someone else." proposed Scorch. "Although how you mistake someone for something that's clearly not of your world, I have no idea. I guess Hydra's are retarded."

"Although....human myths, human culture and Terran plants? Something isn't right here." pondered Scarecrow.

"By da way," piped up Applejack. "You do realize what's gonna happen now that you killed da Hydra king?"

X-ray snorted. "Yeah, now we have the entire Hydra species up our ass as well."

Author's Notes:

For those of you who don't get the title; when you take off a hydra's head, it will grow back with two.