"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives." Teddy Roosevelt

Right when Scorch started laughing like a maniac, the demo man hit himself to knock him out of his trance.

"Is it just me, or am I being driven more insane as time goes on?" complained Scorch. "Universe damn it. This planet is getting the better of me."

"We're not going to make any allies with that kind of attitude." chastised Scarecrow. "We'll need to approach it slowly and calmly."

Twilight led the way to the town, the humans and the rest of the Mane 6 followed.

"We'll probably cause a moral panic if we just show ourselves." noted Scorch. "We should only reveal ourselves until they're ready."

Suddenly, the 4 commandos disappeared into the air.

"Scarecrow, Overwatch, X-ray, Scorch, where are you?" pleaded the alicorn. Violently looking around.

"We're right here." said X-ray's disembodied voice. "We're cloaked."

The ponies turned to their left, hopefully facing the invisible commandos.

"Listen, you've kind've blown it with us. Ya might as well not screw up anymore." snorted Applejack.

"Well sorry, when we thought about first contact, we didn't think we'd be meeting english speaking mythical equines who're plagiarizing everything about Earth." responded Scarecrow. "Besides, there's a very good reason as to why we act so relentless."

"Why's that?" asked Rainbow Dash.

The commandos paused for a minute. It was as if they had a secret they weren't proud of at all.

"We can't and don't want to tell you." growled Overwatch.

"The fact still remains is that this planet is not how humans pictured meeting with aliens." sighed Scorch.

"I forgive you." stated Fluttershy. "It must be very confusing to end up on a place that's just like your home. Right?"

Right. To be fair, had anyone else showed up in our place. All these anomalies would have gotten the better of them a while ago." noted X-ray. "Regardless, if we're going to meet your princesses, we should probably see how Ponyville functions."

"Hopefully nopony has any reason to kill us too." chuckled Scorch.

"Hey ponies would never attack a stranger!" scolded Pinkie. "Ponies are the nicest and most welcoming creatures to ever walk the face of Epona!"

"Let's hope." muttered Scarecrow.

Meanwhile, the two mares working the fields, by the name of Cherry Berry and AppleFritter respectively turned around the moment they heard the Mane 6 approach. Anxiety however, was quickly replaced by replaced by confucian. From their perspective, the Mane 6 were speaking to an invisible force.

"Who are they talking to?" asked Cherry.

"I don't know." replied Fritter. "I know Twilight's the princess and all with magic powers, but this is just weird."

"They've been at it for the last few minutes."

"They keep looking up too, but there's nothing in the sky."

Cherry started grasping her head with her hooves. "Ugh, for some reason my head just keeps hurting the more I stare at them." muttered the pink Earth Pony.

"I know what you mean." added Fritter, feeling the throbbing sensation as well. "I think we're going crazy for working in the fields too long."

"We should head inside and get water." stated Cherry.

Meanwhile, Twilight broke her conversation with the cloaked humans and noticed two Earth ponies heading inside, with the look of getting the 'Fluttershy Stare.'.

"Hey!" interrupted the alicorn. "I think you humans should head inside, ponies are eventually going to notice you."

"I think you should stay at my cottage. I mean...if that's fine." whimpered Fluttershy. "It's just a few feet from here. And it would give me the chance to check up on my animals."

"I agree." proposed Rarity. "Ponies don't normally visit her house. Besides, we all need to get back to our homes, clean up and catch up on work."

"Oh fuck no." panned X-ray. The Mare's eyes widened "You're staying on our sights the entire time, we're not going to risk you telling ponies that we're evil and have your species up our ass too."

"Please, we're smart enough not to choose enemies we know we can't win against. Especially since the elements are gone." sighed Pinkie Pie

"Twilight, while we relocate to Fluttershy's home, you gather the town for the big reveal." pointed Scarecrow, although there was no point considering he was invisible.

"Hey Twilight is an Alicorn princess, she doesn't take orders from you!" gritted Rainbow Dash.

"No it's fine Dash." insisted Twilight. For some reason, she felt compelled to follow the orders of the humans.

"Ah think we should move, ponies are startin' ta stare." stated Applejack.

Over the meadow, three ponies were staring quizzically at the Mane 6, unaware of their situation. In retaliation, the Mane 6 nervously trotted west where Fluttershy's home would be waiting. The cloaked humans followed, trying hard to slow their walking pace.

Soon Shadow's HUDs read that there were no more untagged ponies within their vicinity. Using neural controls rather than manual ones, Shadow uncloaked.

"Hey I think I should be the one to rally the town. I don't mean to brag, but I can get word out quickly. I am ponyville's fastest flier after all." gloated Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight's the damn princess, she'll have more charisma." countered Scarecrow.

Twilight shook her head down. She wasn't a very good speaker as she always ended up boring somepony, but because ponies feared her, they always gave her false applause.

The humans took awe of the sight of the cottage. When the animals gazed at the 4 masked bi-peds, they immediately started cowering fear at the new sight.

In turn, the humans dropped their jaws at the sight of all the Earth like animals. Their HUDS started clouding their vision with information and data of the creatures.

"Is something wrong." whispered Fluttershy.

"All these fucking (Fluttershy covered her self with her wings) animals are ones from Earth." gritted Scorch.

"Except they're animated and appear to be slightly more intelligent." added Scarecrow.

"Slightly more intelligent?" quizzed Twilight.

"Animals on Earth aren't as...organized as the ones we've seen on here." explained Scorch as he watched what appeared to be a squirrel and a toucan arguing with each other.

"And their expressions aren't as...sentient." concluded X-ray.

"At least it saves you the trouble of having to study them." remarked Rarity.

"Not necessarily." countered X-ray. "I still think we should get a few blood samples." from out of nowhere, Overwatch got out what appeared to be a giant container of needles.

"Tell your animals to get in line." ordered Scarecrow as he drew a threatening and sharp needle.

Fluttershy gulped. Once again, she couldn't bring herself to deny the humans. Right when she was about to fly over to her precious animals, Twilight spoke up.

"I don't think you need to be worrying about such trivial matters." shook Twilight.

"TRIVIAL?" exclaimed Scorch. Had he yelled any louder, the town would have heard him.

"We are dealing with animals that are supposed to have evolved from humanity's home planet, light years away and you expect us to stop caring?"

"Come on, I'm sure not ALL of these are Earth native." shrugged Pinkie.

"Let's see, we have beavers, ducks, squirrels, blue jay birds, eagles, falcons, rabbits, mice, dogs, cats, turtles, wasps (X-ray shivered), ferrets, weasels, chickens and even fucking platypuses." gritted Scarecrow

"Point taken." sighed the pink mare.

"What makes it more strange is that half of these animals are predators to the other, and yet they live in harmony with their environment." noted X-ray.

"Well that's because I train them well." sighed Fluttershy.

"Okay, that is fucking with mother nature big time!" scolded Scorch.

"Do you have to swear at everything?" beamed Rarity.

"Sorry, part of me is trying to get over the shock that I'm staring at multicolored ponies and animals from Earth." sarcastically stated the demo man.

"Well while you 4 wait here with the rest of the girls, I'm going to rally the town. In a hour or so, school will be over and everpony will get to see you." said Twilight, although it was painfully obvious she wasn't excited.

The purple alicorn started galloping back to town before Scarecrow's voice startled her;

"Hey, you realize you can teleport right?"

Twilight turned around and gave a faint blushed. A moment later, her horn flashed and purple mare vanished.

"Now look, ah don't want any of you'all giving ponies trouble while we're here. Is dat clear?" threatened Applejack.

"Sorry, but we can't make any promises." chuckled Scarecrow. "If it was needed, we'd clear Ponyville of the map."

The atmosphere turned dark at Scarecrow's black jokes despite the welcoming environment.

"Why you!" fumed Applejack. "Would ya seriously hurt a filly or colt?"

"If they were threatening us, well then we'd have no choice." snorted Scorch. "We're lawful, not good."

"Besides, it's not like you could do anything to us." gloated X-ray.

Applejack's face turned red. She trotted towards the slender soldier.

"Ya take that back!" growled the cowpony.

"Make me."

Applejack turned around, readied both her legs, and gave an almighty buck to X-ray.

Instead of hitting the masked human and flying a distance, X-ray remained in his position, smirking underneath his mask. Applejack turned around to see that where she bucked X-ray, were a series of transparent purple hexagons. She had only hit his kinetic barrier.

"Try again." dared X-ray.

Applejack scowled and putting more power into her legs, gave the soldier another buck. Nothing happened.

As Rarity and Rainbow Dash watched Applejack try to hurt X-ray, Fluttershy was instantly reminded of her animals that missed her.

"Oh dear, I have to get back inside and feed my animals."

"I'll help." proposed Scarecrow.

Fluttershy turned around. "Y..Y-ou?"

Scarecrow nodded. "My duty is to help civillians, human or not."

"Um..it's fine. Really."

"Nonsense. I insist. I used to help out my sister at the animal shelter."

Fluttershy gave up and lead the human in. Right after she got through the door, she heard a slam. Quickly turning around she saw Scarecrow hunched over, his face glowing purple with his barrier.

"Sorry, I hit my head. Forgot how tall I am and how short you are."

Fluttershy nodded and head inside. The animals inside the room we're awe struck at the sight of Scarecrow's structure and body formation. His non-Epona origin was clear.

The method used to take care of the animals was just like the ones used at the animal shelter. Scarecrow helped Fluttershy carry all the animal litter and pet food around. His strength was the marvel of all the creature's in the yellow mare's home. As he walked, his huge size caused some dents to appear on the floor.

In about 20 minutes or so, the chores were done and the animals inside were fed. Fluttershy was amazed how quickly she was able to get through her tasks, though she felt deep down the animals were moving quickly because they were scared of the hooded human.

Scarecrow retreated to the living room, still hunched. Suddenly he noticed something poking at his arm. Looking down, he saw a miniature white rabbit. If looks could kill. even a 23rd member would be struck down.

Scarecrow ignored the rabbit's expression. "Well aren't you just the cutest bunny ever?" The soldier reached down to stroke the rabbit only for it to hit his hand back with its paw. Much to the rabbit's dismay, Scarecrow didn't feel anything.

Scarecrow raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what was that for?"

The rabbit puffed and pointed its hand out the door.

Scarecrow chuckled. "Yeah, like I'm gonna get kicked out of a house by a semi intelligent fur ball."

"Oh, Scarecrow, I see you've met Angel." said Fluttershy's nervous voice.

"Angel? My HUD says your rabbit is a boy." remarked Scarecrow.

In the heart of the moment, the rabbit hopped towards Fluttershy and crossed its arms. It raised its nose up to speak to the pegasus.

When Angel finished, Fluttershy's eyes widened. "Angel, how could you say that about our guest?"

Scarecrow wished he could understand rabbit.

Angel spoke again and Fluttershy gulped. "He's not a monster and I don't think it's a good idea to tell him to leave."

Scarecrow flexed his gloved palms. "Fluttershy if Angel wants me to leave I'll-"

"Don't worry Scarecrow, I think Angel is just hungry." interrupted Fluttershy.

The pegasus flew over to the table and picked up a boll of colorful vegetables using her fore hooves like a scooper. The yellow mare glided to the rabbit and offered the boll to the rabbit.

Angel inspected the bowl with his nose and gave a scowl. In the next second, the rabbit gave the bowl a kick, causing the vegetables to fly on Fluttershy's face. Scarecrow gave a fierce expression underneath his shades and bandanna.

Fluttershy wiped some lettuce off her eye. "Oh I'm sorry. I thought you'd like it. I'll make you one in a moment, just let me feed my animals outside.

Angel face palmed as the yellow mare flew out. Turning around, the rabbit pointed outside to Scarecrow. The commando had enough. Springing to action, Scarecrow dashed to the rabbit and alerted all the animals in the room.

Scarecrow looked down at the midget rabbit. Much to Angel's credit, the white rabbit was unmoved by Scarecrow's fierce size and structure.

"Listen punk." scolded Scarecrow. "You know you're rude when Scarecrow of all people is calling you out." Angel rolled his eyes. "Look here. Fluttershy is perhaps the kindest per-pony I have ever met and the fact that she puts up with you is fucking unbelievable."

The other animals started to look weary. Angel held his ground.

"I want you to stop treating Fluttershy like this. It's my job to make people's lives miserable. So quit acting like a cunt or else you are going to be very sorry."

Angel raised one of his fingers, as if he was trying to flip the bird to Scarecrow. Due to the rabbit having 4 fingers though, it was hard to tell which one he was raising.

Scarecrow snapped his hand at the bunny before it could react and pulled Angel to meet his black mask. Deep down though, Scarecrow was somewhat amazed at the Rabbit's perseverance. He knew he wasn't actually using interrogation techniques, otherwise the rabbit would have needed to go to an asylum.

Scarecrow pulled down his bandanna, not caring of the negative effects and revealed his sharp teeth to signify to the rabbit he was a meat eater.

"Normally a pony would be offended by that. But I'm not a pony. I'm a human and you're a damn animal. You will have to to a better job if you want me to fuck off."

Angel raised his legs, and slammed them onto Scarecrows teeth. Had the rabbit kicked harder, Scarecrow's mouth would have been filled with blood.

Scarecrow could not believe an animated Rabbit could do this to him. After cursing himself for lowering his mask and leaving his mouth exposed. The human returned his gaze to the Rabbit.

"I'm warning you asshole, be nice or you're going to find out your place in the animal kingdom."

The rabbit smirked and spat in the mouth of the human.

Scarecrow had it. Opening his mouth wide, Scarecrow bit and ripped off the lower section of the rabbit with his teeth. Before Angel could comprehend the horror, Scarecrow shoved the rest of the rabbit down his throat. Much to the human's surprise, the midget rabbit fit well in his mouth and its bones broke down from his bites with relative ease.

Scarecrow swallowed the rabbit down an pulled up his bandanna to hide his blood covered mouth. All the other animals were staring in shock.

Fluttershy, on the other side of the house, opened the door and saw Scarecrow hunched over and cleaning his mouth with a tooth pick underneath his bandanna.

The yellow mare was oblivious to the facial expressions of her animals. "Oh, hi Scarecrow. I just finished with my animals outside." Fluttershy looked around the room. "Hey where's Angel?"

Before any of the animals could respond-

"Long story short, Angel a found a cute girl rabbit outside your window and he fell in love instantly, but the the girl bunny would never be tamed and Angel had to answer the call of the wild to be with her so after a moment of thought, I encouraged Angel to moved on and Angel told me to tell you that he loves you and is sorry he was such an asshole."

".....RIGHT ANIMALS?" screamed Scarecrow.

The other animals started to mutter signs he hoped were them agreeing with his lie.

Fluttershy looked sorrow. "Oh...but he just left so soon without saying good-bye."

Scarecrow threw away his toothpick. "Don't worry, I know for sure he's where he belongs."

Fluttershy sighed and headed out the window.

Just before Scarecrow exited the facility, he turned to face the still horrified animals.

"By the way, Shadow hears all and knows all. If any of you speak up, I will see to it that you will be joining angel in my stomach. Oh and by the way, he was delicious. Raw, but delicious."

Fluttershy never did find out.

Scarecrow finally got back to the open fields and gave a satisfying stretch, hearing his back crack in the process. He was glad to be able to stand to his full hight.

The commando looked at the company down the hill. Applejack was still trying to buck X-ray and was getting clearly tired in the process. The scrawny soldier on the other hand, was completely relaxed and was reading a book on his tablet. Pinkie Pie was taking a nap in Scorch's lap, the demo man stroking her Pink Mane in the process. Overwatch was drawing something while Rarity was trying to take a peak.

Rainbow Dash flew in front of X-ray, still being bucked.

"Man how can you tolerate standing still for so long? I'd go insane if I wasn't flying around for at least 10 minutes an hour." stated Rainbow Dash.

Applejack finally collapsed. X-ray lowered his head to the grounded Earth Pony. "I'll give you credit AJ, your bucks are strong like a World War 1 era pistol, but at the rate you were going at, you'd only deplete 5% of my shields at the end of the day." The cowpony gave a small scowl.

X-ray looked up at Rainbow Dash. "You know Dash, you really remind of the Eagle rangers."

Dash raised an eyebrow. "The Eagle Rangers?"

"Yeah, they're the main commando group that belongs to the air force. The fly on anti gravity packs and every one of them is obsessed with speed and flight."

"Do they perform cool air shows like the Wonderbolts?"

"What's a Wonderbolt?"

Rainbow Dash gasped. "How could you not know-"

It was as if Applejack saw X-ray glaring at her underneath his mask. "Sugar cube, he ain't from here."

"Anyway, the Eagle Rangers don't perform air shows. They're soldiers. Their armor is magnetic and when in used in conjugation with their anti gravity packs, makes them the perfect candidate for intercepting enemy VTOLs and transport ships to gun down crew and hijack information and vehicles."

"Do they race!" asked the Rainbow maned Pegasus.

"They're obsessed with racing and all. They get cocky so there have been accidents, but their amour is shielded and like the one a super soldier uses, so there's nothing serious."

"They sound awesome!" awed Rainbow Dash.

"Tell that to the millions their unit has slaughtered." remarked Overwatch, doing a great job of breaking the ice.

Minutes Ago

Twilight materialized in the center of city hall. If she was going to reveal humanity to the equine race, she wanted to make sure that she could organize the event in a way for everypony could see. So, she would have to inform Mayor Mare of the announcement who would in turn get word out and see to it that town was prepared.

She thought the best way to reveal Shadow at once without making a huge scene was to make sure everpony was gathered in the town center, where the humans could wait before uncloaking.

Twilight still panicked about how Shadow was going to explain themselves. All 4 of them were foul mouthed, agressive and rude. These were traits that were not welcome in Ponyville. She'd have to make the counter terrorists swear not to go into detail about their profession of their efficiency in killing and to control their behaviour. However, she knew for a fact that Shadow would make no such promise.

Then there was the media. The moment Shadow was revealed, there would be no doubt their presence would escape the town and make it to newspapers in Manehatten, Fillydelphia, Coltifornia, The Crystal Empire and Canterlot.

Canterlot. Twilight scolded herself for not talking to the princesses about the subject. The humans were clearly messing with her train of thought. There would be no time to see the princesses however, Twilight didn't want to know what Shadow did when they were bored. After all she was a princess anyway. She could trust herself.

Twilight hadn't realized that she was awkwardly being by a group of ponies who were bowing on the floor for the last 2 minutes.

Twilight calmed herself with Cadance's technique and trotted to the reception area. Working as a receptionist was a teal blue pegasus with a yellow mane.

"Excuse me." spoke the alicorn. "I need to see Mare Mayor."

The pegasus was so absorbed in her magazine, she didn't realize who she was talking to. "The Mayor's in a meeting, you'll have to wait for a while."

"No problem." Smiled the princess. The alicorn trotted over to a table and used her telekinesis to pick up a physics magazine. Twilight sat on the share and happily read. She hoped she didn't have to wait too long however, otherwise it would have been wasted time she could have spent with the princesses.

Still, reading the magazine was a great way to clear her mind.

In a few minutes the receptionist looked up to see the princess of magic reading a magazine. Suddenly the pegasus realized who she had denied nonchalantly.

"Your majesty." said the receptionist nervously. "The mayor will see you now."

Twilight smiled and galloped to the mayor's office.

The alicorn knocked on the door with her hoof and spoke with her cheery voice. "Mayor Mare, it's me Twilight. I have something to dis-"

Suddenly the door slammed open and two ponies who the Mayor was talking to were thrown out to the other side. Before Twilight could react, the Mayor pulled her in and slammed the door closed.

"Princess Twilight!" shrieked the Mayor as she went into a deep bow. "What a pleasant surprise. What brings you here."

"Mayor, I don't know how to explain this. But I'm going to need to have the town rallied in around an hour."

The Mayor got up. "Anything for you, your majesty. What's the occasion?

"Mayor, I assume you were informed of the anomally in the sky the other night."

"Why yes." nodded the Mayor. "Many astronomers are still trying to determine its meaning. Have you figured it out? I would expect nothing less of the Princess of magic."

Twilight blushed. "Well, me and the other element bearers trekked to the Everfree forest to discover why an army of Griffins had gone missing in the woods and..."

Twilight took in a deep breath. "Mayor, do you believe aliens?"

"Why yes." cheered the Mayor. "Don't tell anypony this, but I'm part of a group that's dedicated to the discovery of alien life outside the planet."

"Well consider this your lucky day."

The Mayor's mouth hung open. "Do you mean that what came out of that cosmic object-"

"Were aliens. There are 4 of them to be exact. They call themselves humans. THey're nothing like you've ever seen."

"Humans huh? You sound disturbed by them."

"Well they're elite soldiers, and they're not exactly the most pleasant of people. Let's just say they were the reason the Grififn army went missing."

"Oh dear. Are they agressors?"

"The humans we've met are rude and very lethal in combat. However, part of their attitude is residue shock from meeting us ponies and a number of other factors you'll have to hear them explain. On the other hoof, they're pretty tolerable if we have done nothing to threaten them. Now, they want to make contact with the pony race."

"Twilight you still sound worried, do you have a guard unit we could get in touch with-"

"I don't think having guards is the best idea because it might provoke the squadron. Like I said, they might be harsh, but they still have some sense of soldier honor. The fact that I'm unhurt proves that."

"I see. Could you elaborate on their appearances for me please?"

"Well they're bi-pedal and have hands and feet. They're also all wearing a black armor that covers their body. But be warned. There's something about their appearance that doesn't seem right and staring at them for too long gives me headaches."

"I see. Have the princesses been informed of this affair?"

"Not yet. I want to be certain that the humans won't cause any conflict in small towns before getting the nation up up their throats. This also reminds me, no word can get out until I speak to the princesses."

"Don't worry Twilight, I'll see to it that everything will go smoothly."

After a few more minutes of discussion. Twilight readied her self and teleported to Fluttershy's home.

To her pleasure, the humans hadn't relocated.

Scorch was the first to notice her. "So I trust we're going to be making a fiery reveal to town?

Twilight nodded. "But first, you're going to have to follow a few certain instructions."

"You're timing could not have been more perfect Twilight!" exclaimed Rarity's voice. The white mare joined the group. Her body smelled of fragrance to the ponies. The human's only smelt in air due to their mask's filters.

"I just finished taking a bath and vanished the revolting stench."

"Oh boy!" cheered Pinkie. "After we make the big reveal, I got a super duper surprise for you!"

"Oh joy." sighed X-ray.

Before Twilight could speak, everypony was turned to Overwatch, ignoring the entire ordeal and still drawing.

"What are you drawing anyway?" remarked Rainbow Dash.

Overwatch slowly looked at the ponies. After a moment's glare;

"I'm just drawing what the 6 of you would look like has humans."

Overwatch flipped his art book and showed his design to the Mane 6. The ponies were too invested into the art to realize that they were looking at unmasked humans.

Overwatch's vision was perfect. Not only was his technique professional, but his idea of a ponified Mane 6 was as well. Each body structure of the humanized Mane 6 was spot on along with the clothes they would have been wearing had they been humans. Their hair matched the ponies' Manes and their cutie marks were on the humanized's arms.

Rarity used her telekinesis to flip the to the next page.

There was another drawing of the human Mane 6, only this time they were wearing revealing lingerie and were lying seductively on a bed with naughty expressions.

Before the ponies could realize what Overwatch's drawing meant, the marksman ripped the paper from his notebook, crumpled it up, snatched Scarecrow's pyro grenade, and set the erotic drawing on fire.

-------

Everypony was gathered at front of city hall, eagerly waiting for the revelation. Fillies and colts wasted no time trying to get a better view. The young ones climbed on their parent's heads to see what would await them or dashed to the front of the stage. The Pegasai used their ability of flight to get an ariel view of the event and to make it less crowded at the front.

There murmurs of excitement amongst the crowd. The citizens of Ponyville weren't exactly informed of what would await them, but when it was a gathering requested by princess Twilight herself, nopony would dare not show up out of a mixture of fear and respect.

Twilight finally approached on stage, the alicorn looking over the entire population of the town. In turn, her subjects motioned themselves in a faithful bow.

Raising her hoof, the purple mare signalled the town to rise. The ponies did so. The rest of the Mane 6 were faithfully positioned next to their friend, ready to support her.

Clearing her throat, the alicorn spoke into the microphone;

"Good afternoon my humble subjects. It is with a great honor that I announce that a remarkable discovery had been made a few days ago."

The eyes of the ponies widened at the statement. Cheers of excitement were growing louder and more audible.

"For a long time, we the ponies of Epona believed that the vast and infinite cosmos were a lifeless void with our planet being a tiny beacon of life. Now I am pleased to say, that we have been proved wrong."

The excitement and whispers amongst the crowd was reaching new levels.

"A few days ago, my and friends and I made a history defining discovery. At night time, an extraequestrian ship descended from the stars and landed on our planet. Today marks the day that Epona will make contact with the human race!"

Suddenly, the 4 black clad bipeds uncloaked and revealed themselves to the public. There were a mummer of "oohs" and "ahs" as the ponies were mesmerized by the humans.

Scarecrow stepped in front of the microphone, shot up his hand, and managed to silence the crowd. The other 3 members of Shadow stood behind him. With a calm demeanor, his mechanical voice spoke into the device.

"Good evening ladies and gentleman. Or should I say fillies and gentlecolts?"

The crowd laughed hard.

"I am Scarecrow, the leader of Shadow squad, one of the most renowned units amongst the human military. I am pleased to say that my squadron will act as the representatives of our race on your world."

The crowd gave a cheer.

Right before Scarecrow could speak, he froze and placed his index finger on his hood where his ear would be. The other 3 members stood uncannily still. The ponies stopped cheering all the while.

It was as if the excitement was just murdered.

"Don't worry, we'll get it done sir. Scarecrow out." growled the commando in a strange montone voice.

Scarecrow looked up to the crowd of confused ponies. Much to Twilight's confusion, Shadow was drawing their weapons and loading magazines in their gauss operated rifles. Scarecrow spoke calmly in the microphone.

"The Federation has declared you an enemy of the state. You will be terminated within 5 minutes."

Before Twilight could react, Scarecrow fired a bullet of his LMG that ripped through a confused mare's face and struck down another pony behind her.

Just as the crowd could comprehend the horror and flee, a massive explosion engulfed the entire front of the crowd. Twilight turned left and saw Scorch's grenade launcher smoking. The demo man passively fired another.

"TWILIGHT!" yelled a voice to her right that belonged to Pinkie Pie. It was off however, it sounded mechanical.

Twilight, eyes full of tears and hears nearly bleeding due to the gunfire, slowly turned around to see both Rarity and Pinkie Pie dead and slumped to the floor. Both their heads had holes in them that were leaking with blood.

Suddenly, X-ray uncloaked, his SMG clearly had been utilized. The masked soldier pointed his sidearm at the alicorn and fired two bullets at her. Just before they could strike the mare, a stroke of luck allowed the Mare to teleport aside.

Much to the princesse's horror, dozens of ponies had been slain before her, their blood mixing together.

"TWILIGHT!" shrieked another voice that should have been Rainbow Dash's, but was too masculine and robotic.

The blue pegasus was trying to lead others to safety but it was no use. Shadow simply gunned them from the distance with ease. In the heart of the moment, an invisible force pressed against Rainbow Dash's throat and broke her neck.

The force revealed itself to be Overwatch. The sniper, somehow more blank han ever, raised his sniper at a filly and pulled the trigger, the force of the bullet ripping the young one in half and another sniper bullet stuck none other than Applejack in the eye.

"TWILIGHT!" yelled a voice that she knew belonged to nopony but a certain group of humans.

Just when Twilight gained the courage to open her eyes as the screams and gunfire deafened her, Twilight saw Fluttershy leaking with blood with a knife embedded deep in her heart.

The alicorn tried to run as far as possible as her subjects called for their princess.

"TWILIGHT!"

"TWILIGHT!"

"Twilight wake up." said Overwatch.

Suddenly the purple mare's eyes shot open. As she slowly regained consciousness, the blurs of 4 black blobs slowly reconfigured to form Shadow.

"Twilight are you alright?" asked Fluttershy's tender voice.

The alicorn's head was pounding and there she was hearing a small but sharp buzz. After letting her hoofs off her head, Twilight turned to the yellow pegasus and nodded.

"What happened?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah all 4 of us just looked at you for a second and you just immediately blacked out." remarked X-ray.

"I don't know what happened, I felt darkness." lied the Alicorn, She had no heart to say what she dreamed.

"Have you been drinking fluids by any chance? I don't think you've consumed or drinken anything since morning." claimed Scorch.

Twilight shook her head no. Scarecrow's HUD glowed blue as he analyzed their bio readings.

"It seems all of you are near the stages of borderline dehydration. You'll need liquids really soon." warned Scarecrow.

"Don't worry everpony you're friend Rarity planned ahead." cheered the white unicorn.

Rarity used her telekineses to lift 6 water bottles she had brought along to her friends. Twilight and Rarity used telekinesis to hold there bottles while the others cradled them with their fore hooves.

"How do you plan on opening those bottles that without fingers?" asked Scorch.

"Who said anythin' bout fingers?" stated Applejack as she used her teeth to pry open the bottle.

The other hornless mares did the same. Twilight on the other hoof, couldn't find the strength in her to open the casing. "Ugh." she groaned. I can't seem to focus on magic right now."

"Well looks like there's only one thing left to do." shrugged Scarecrow. The commando walked towards Twilight and opened the cartoon bottle with his 'realistic' gloved hands. He then held the liquid to the purple pony who drank it all.

X-ray and Overwatch looked at the mare's bio stats on their wrist computers. "Good news everypony, your vitals are going up. Just keep yourselves hydrated and well fed."

"What about you silly?" asked Pinkie Pie as she licked the inside of her bottle with her stretched out tongue.

"Like we said, human soldiers can go days without food and water. Our bodies are well....augmented to artificially lower the ratio of minerals needed to commit bodily functions." explained Scorch.

"Darn. All the work ah could get dun' if ah didn't need ta eat or drink all da time." sighed Applejack.

"Or all the flying." added Rainbow Dash.

"Alright then, we have a town expecting our presence, let's move." pointed Scarecrow.

"Hold on!" yelled Twilight. Shadow stopped in their tracks and turned around.

"What's wrong?" asked X-ray.

Twilight took in a deep breath and used Cadance's technique. "If the Federation gave you the order, would you fire open on ponies?

The squad paused before;

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!...............................................................no." said the Shadow uniformly.

Twilight gave a sigh of relief.

"But you're soldiers, aren't you suposed to be loyal and taking orders from the government?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"Our loyalty belongs to the laws of the UTF constitution." proclaimed Scarecrow. "One of those laws, specifically Law 4 of the armed forces, subsection 5 states; No soldier shall harm another sentient being without due cause or justification. Failure* to comprehend this law will result in court martial."

"So if the government just ordered us to massacre the town for no apparent reason, then by law, soldiers are expected to disregard the order as commands like that are unconstitutional." chuckled X-ray.

"Well that's a relief." sighed Rarity. Fluttershy could breathe easier.

"Although if we go to town and we find out your town is planning on lynching us or feeding us to the hydras, you better be prepared to die." threatened Scorch.

"Well what are we supposed to do if YOU try to attack us?" questioned Pinkie Pie.

"Then it's your right to try to stop us." shrugged Scarecrow. "I mean, you'd be dealing with highly trained and heavily armed soldiers, combat drones, interceptors, VTOLs, tanks and Starships. But by all means, try to stop us."

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "What's a combat drone, interceptor and tank?"

"I'll tell you when your older." sarcastically remarked X-ray as he stroked the pink mare's mane.

"But before we go." spoke up Twilight. "I want you 4 to promise us that you'll be nice."

"We'll try." sighed Scarecrow. "But like I said, there's a very good reason as to why we, or any other trooper of the 23rd, can't stop ourselves form lashing out at others. But still, we'll try." Really, Scarecrow had no intention to control his attitude, but if meant getting information out of the ponies...

"Pinkie promise?" hissed the party pony.

"You have no pinky fingers to promise off of." pointed X-ray.

"Not Pinkie as the finger but Pinkie as the pony." explained Twilight.

"A Pinkie promise is a solemn oath that you are to never ever go back on. Or else." stated Rarity.

"Fine we 'Pinkie Promise'." flexed Scorch.

"Now repeat after me." instructed the party pony. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." repeated Shadow. Nopony could tell how fake their statement was despite it being blatantly obvious.

"And promise you won't swear." pleaded Fluttershy "Or insu-"

"Don't push it." hissed Scarecrow. "Alright, let's head back to town so we can get to the bottom of this cosmic mystery."

"Right behind you." acknowledged Overwatch.

"Come on, those multi colored ponies aren't going to wait forever. We're probably over due anyway." exclaimed X-ray.

The group started heading to the main sections of town. "Don't worry Shadow, the reveal isn't supposed to happen until another hour and a half or so."

"Now when we get back, we're going to be swarmed by ponies who were worried about our departure." reminded Rarity. "Especially you Twilight, being the princess and all."

"I think the giant, bi-ped, masked soldiers are going to be a bigger concern." countered X-ray. "Which reminds me."

Suddenly the 4 humans vanished into the scenery as they cloaked.

Twilight really hoped they wouldn't wander off. The conversations of ponies made her ears flip up.

The town of cheery ponies filled the Mane 6's heart with warmth and hope.

"So where should we remain until the event begins?" asked Scorch's disembodied voice.

"I reckon' we should head ta ma barn. I could see ma family and get some farm work done." proposed Applejack.

"I don't think relocating to a site with fillies or colts is such a good idea." said Scarecrow's voice.

"I think should head to my home." whispered Twilight. Luckily for the Mane 6, any pony who had seen the group immediately bowed at the sight of the princess. Shadow's cloaking helped the situation tenfold.

"Our databank and HUD doesn't read the presence of a castle anywhere." noted Scorch.

"I don't live in a castle, I live in GoldenOaks Library, it's located inside a tree. And by the way, keep quiet or else ponies are going to start staring." hissed the Alicorn.

"GoldenOaks has been located an marked on our HUD." checked the invisible X-ray. "Alright mares, we're going dark. We'll meet you at the library."

The Mane 6 heard the sounds of Shadow's footsteps grow fainter and fainter into the distance. Before they could try and accelerate their pace, ponies from all over were surrounding their position.

Cries of "Where have you been all this time?", "I thought you left town.", "Why are you calling for a meeting?", "You missed a lot of work." and "What's the gathering going to be about?" flooded the their ears.

In the midst of all the questions, Twilight remembered something important. Spike. She forgot to tell Shadow that she had a dragon assistant and since the squad slew 2 dragons on their arrival of the planet, they were going to think Spike was a threat as well.

Ignoring all questions, the Alicorn teleported herself in a bright light, much to everypony's confucian.

Meanwhile

Shadow used neural controls on their HUD to switch their COMs to make sure that only certain tagged units would hear their radio chatter. The squad also diverted power to stealth capabilities to help solidify the light refraction on their cloaking devices to a point where they couldn't cast a shadow and their foot prints were silent.

The commandos were passing the town quite easily, their HUDs did good job identifying who was nearing their position as well as the overall awareness of the equines. They hadn't caused a single noise to the oblivious ponies.

"I swear cloaking makes everything too easy." radioed Scorch as he jumped over an unstartled mare reading a paper.

"I wish the same thing could have been said about the urge not to start cuddling these adorable things." joked X-ray.

Scarecrow switched to magnetics to see if they were getting close to the library. Sure enough the structure was behind a set of building, Unfortunately, it was also crowded with ponies occupying every inch of the place.

"Split up team. It's too risky to continue walking as a group." ordered Scarecrow.

"Solid copy." acknowledged the rest of Shadow.

The team split in 4 as they approached the library.

Overwatch took advantage of the lighter gravity and leaped on top of a house. Sticking to the roof tops, the cloaked sniper jumped from building to building and nopony was the wiser.

As he flipped to another building, he landed with a bit more force than expected and crashed through the concrete structure.

In less than a second, the still invisible masked commando was up and collected. He hoped nopony had heard him crash. Still though, the dimensions and material of the home indicated that the force he exerted should not have been enough to break down the building.

The sniper suddenly realized his motion tracker was flashing a yellow dot. Quickly turning around, the cloaked sniper saw a small, blue unicorn foal. His HUD red the foal was female.

Right before the foal could awaken, the hooded marksman grabbed a kitten doll and offered it to the young pony who slept soundly in the crib. For once in his lifetime he was almost caught, by a foal. Still, his tactic should have worked.

Overwatch leaped back on the rooftops, approaching the library at a more steady pace.

'It's a unicorn foal, maybe the parents will think the hole was caused by premature magic.'

Meanwhile X-ray stuck to the low ground and positioned himself behind a wall. His HUD marked that the library was just a straight dash from his position. Right before he could sprint however-

X-ray heard a buzzing that could only belong to a certain insect. Jerking his invisible head right he was startled by an abnormally large hornet with the creepiest eyes ever and a noticeable poison gland.

X-ray, the man who had fought worse mutations on extraterrestrial was beginning to loose willpower. The hornet obviously couldn't see the hooded commando but was flying straight where his body was.

Instinctively, X-ray swatted the hornet aside. Unfortunately, the insect's body landed across a stallion with a lucky clover cutie mark and a light brown pegasus mare. Both were clearly stupefied by the insect's unfeasible motion.

"Did that hornet just get swatted out of nowhere?" asked the mare.

Normally X-ray would have pulled out his suppressed side arm and shoot the two dead, but these weren't terrorists.

Charging his speed the cloaked soldier front flipped silently over the pony couple and ran in a straight line to the library. The commando skillfully sidestepped an incoming earth pony and then leaped over a bench with two sitting ponies. Right when the library was a few feet away, X-ray noticed two mares carrying what appeared to be a large couch infront of him.

'Can't go around it. Can't go over it. Let's go under it'. chanted black clad soldier, remembering his training.

X-ray built his speed and slid under the furniture, making no dent on the floor at the same time.

Scorch on the other hand, had no setback along his path to the library. Right when the building was a few meters away, the commando heard somepony, a young filly, crying.

Scorch didn't want to get involved but he remembered his oath. The filly could be seriously hurt. Turning around, the invisible demo man ducked behind a structure where the source of the crying was coming from.

Turning to magnetics to see behind the wall, Scorch saw the outline of a crouched and depresses filly with...glasses? And two others pointing at her.

'Bullies.' thought Scorch. He had to deal with a few at Pewter City high. Scorch knew such a trivial situation was above a 23rd commando, but he just couldn't bear himself to see such a young soul so traumatized.

Taking a deep sigh, the commando circled the building and laid eyes on 3 earth pony fillies. One, the victim, had a puffy red mane and the agressors were a pink earth pony with a tiara and a grey filly with glasses as well.

"Where did you even get those glasses loser?" mocked the grey filly.

"Um...my mom gave them to me. They used to be hers." replied the tearful white filly.

"So stupid is a family heirloom?" teased the pink filly.

Scorch didn't know what was worse about the two, their jokes or their attitudes. The invisible counter terrorist looked aside and a bucket of yellow paint.

Scorch knew a professional shouldn't resort to such juvenile behavior. But it was a planet of talking ponies after all. Expectations meant nothing anymore. Yellow was the color of laughter after all.

Picking up the bucket of paint, Scorch aimed it carefully so no liquid would splash him and reveal his position. With everypony in the vicinity distracted by the ordeal, nopony noticed a bucket levitate by itself and barrage the snobbish pink and grey fillies with a load of yellow liquid.

In the heart of the moment, the red maned filly with glasses started to chuckle at the sight of her yellow colored bullies.

All the while, the cloaked Scarecrow had been waiting in the front of the library. His squad was taking longer than Shadow's normal standards. This planet really was getting to them.

Luckily his HUD showed the outlines of his cloaked squad mates approaching his position.

Scarecrow rolled his eyes underneath his mask. After making sure his COMs weren't set to 'public'; "I know you're only a minute late but how is getting to a library a daunting task?"

"Never mind, you're here anyway." sighed Scarecrow.

"So, should we head inside?" asked Scorch.

"This isn't Vancouver dumb ass. People, I mean ponies actually lock their doors."stated X-ray as he tried to open the locked door to demonstrate.

Scarecrow yawned. "Looks like we'll have until Twilight-"

Suddenly there was an illuminating purple pink flash followed by the presence of a certain alicorn. The princess desperately turned left and right while trying to avoid looking strange.

"Scarecrow, Overwatch, Scorch, X-ray? Where are you?" she nervously gritted.

X-ray tapped her on the mane to signal his appearance. In turn the quine turned 180 and upon seeing nopony that could have possibly touched her, exhaled in relief.

"Come on in." whispered Twilight.

Meanwhile, a little dragon had awoken from his nap to the sound of mechanical voices. Yawning awake, Spike waddled down the staircase with his eyes still closed.

"Hey Twi-"

"DRAGON!" yelled Scarecrow.

The purple dragon shot his eyes open to see an indescribable black-clad bi ped charge straight at him with immense speed. Before Spike could react, Scarecrow grabbed the baby dragon on the neck almost choking Spike to death.

Twilight realized what Scarecrow intended to do.

As the rest of Shadow blankly watched, Scarecrow threw Spike across the room with immense force. Spike hit the wall with a near bone baking impact and struggled to get up.

To finish the job Scarecrow drew his shotgun from the magnetic place. Right when he was about to elevate the weapon however, he felt something tug his gun back.

Scarecrow looked at his gun and saw nobody was pulling back at him, rather it was a certain somepony using her telekinesis.

Scarecrow thrust his arm forward and broke Twilight's spell, freeing his arm. Right when aimed his crosshairs at the dragon, Twilight screamed desperately;

"NO. DON'T KILL SPIKE!"

"Spike?" asked Shadow uniformly.

Tears were forming down the mare's eyes. "That's Spike. He's my dragon assistant and brother."

Scarecrow's mouth opened under his mask. "Why would you have a dra-". Suddenly Scarecrow heard another person crying, this time it came from Spike.

Scarecrow lowered the weapon. "A dragon, crying?"

"Get away from me!" sobbed Spike as he ran to the bathroom and locked himself in.

The atmosphere was densely quiet with Spike's sobbing being the only source of sound.

"You never mentioned anything about a talking dragon assistant Twilight." noted X-ray.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think we'd make it this far." apologized Twilight. "With your arrival on Epona, I haven't been able to think things straight lately."

"Guys we should go apologize to Spike." insisted Scorch.

"You were crying really hard. He really means a lot to you huh?" muttered X-ray.

"I hatched him." glumly said Twilight.

The 4 humans sidestepped to the bathroom door and knocked.

"Spike. My call sign is Scarecrow and-"

"Go away you monster!" shrieked Spike from the inside.

The thought of being called a monster from a dragon got to Scarecrow. "Spike listen to me. I know you're scared but you need to understand. We are aliens from beyond Epona. When we touched down, we were attacked by an army of Grififns and two hostile dragons. After we took them down we assumed all dragons on this planet were-"

The bathroom door opened and the dragon crawled outside.

"Did you say you kiled two dragons?" asked Spike nervously.

"Yes. But they were adults." explained X-ray. "We understand if you hate us."

"No no." shook Spike. "It all makes sense now. Those other dragons are evil jerks. I'm glad I'm not one of them. In fact I kinda see why'd you attack me if you met them first."

"Well after the whole showdown, we thought you would have been one of them to. But I guess you can't judge a book by its cover huh?" muttered Scorch.

Scarecrow tried to apologize. "Again, I'm really, really....... uh."

Shadow's leader couldn't bring himself to say these words. Part of his mental condition not only prevented him from being relentless, but incapable of feeling remorse as well.

Luckily, Spike seemed to understand.

"Hey it was a misunderstanding and I'm willing to put it behind me." shrugged Spike.

Scorch curled his fingers into a fist and offered it to the dragon.

"Hey you have claws too." pointed Spike.

"These are fingers but close enough." chuckled Scorch. "Fist bump."

"Of course! I always have to bro hoof." Spike bro fisted Scorch and the other humans.

"I'm Scorch."

"I'm X-ray."

"Scarecrow."

"Overwatch."

"And we're Shadow squad. Elite counter terrorist unit of the United Terran Federation."

Twilight trotted in. "So I suggest everybody and Spike made peace?"

Shadow nodded and Twilight smiled wide in return.

In reality though, Shadow didn't really apologize. As much as they wanted to, it was not an emotion they could feel. They started to make excuses to justify their actions in their head.

"So you know Twilight?" spoke up Spike. Shadow explained the situation, although they left out the part of the elements getting destroyed.

A while later, the squad approached Twilight, who was reading a book on public speaking.

"So you live in a library huh?" questioned Scarecrow.

Twilight nodded. "The library didn't always look this elaborate though. It used to be much simpler before I became a princess."

"Man, you're one lucky pony."

"Humans read books?"

"Twilight we read stories on holograms that can store millions of virtual books. So yes we read." explained X-ray.

"Scarecrow however is still one of the few people who reads books physically." muttered Scorch.

"I'm also one of the only one in this squad who doesn't need to wear contacts." countered the leader of Shadow.

"You can help yourself to any book you like. I never get any customers anyway. I don't think ponies read."

"Well I intend to change that." snarked Scarecrow as he opened a book from the shelf.

As Shadow helped themselves, X-ray still faced Twilight. "Say Twi, my scanning of town seem to suggest that females outweigh males significantly. My data reads there are only 25 males in the surrounding area."

Twilight giggled. "Well yes, for every 10 fillies born, you get a colt. "The odds of a filly being born are especially in their favor in Ponyville."

"Then how do you keep the population in check. I mean not every male get's married and has foals right?" questioned Scorch as he read his book.

"Well most stallions who get married usually end up having more than one kid anyway. Single childs like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are actually rare."

Twilight paused awkwardly. "For stallions who don't get married however, they are expected to offer 'services' for mares who want to be single mothers or are in a lesbian relationship."

Scarecrow couldn't help himself. The statement was serious yet vulgar. "So you mean to tell me, stallions fuck all the mares?"

Twilight blushed. "As juvenille as you put it......yes."

Shadow laughed hard. The moment after Spike entered the room with a tray of animated juice pitchers.

"Apple juice?" asked the dragon.

"We're not exactly supposed to be drinking right now." backed off Scarecrow.

"So anyway, funny you 4 showed up after Twilight asked if we were alone in the galaxy." smirked the dragon.

Twilight blushed.

"Twilight you know you're not supposed to ask that unless you want something bad to happen." sighed X-ray.

"Yeah you're lucky we showed up and not some alien mass murderers." assured Scorch. Although truth be told, he probably would have shot the ponies on sight if he knew they were intelligent and discovered his existence.

"Like you're not a murderer?" joked the alicorn.