To the members of the old/new RED Team,

It was come to my attention that you have returned to our company in search of employment. I will not comment on the matter, because I am sure that your overwhelming faith in Team Fortress Industry's capability to properly utilize your unique talents was the cause. In fact, I am glad to hear that you have returned to our employment, since there are a never ending stream of incidents that require your unique understanding of problem "solving." One of which has just come up.

For your first assignment back, I am assigning some of you to guard some very special VIPs that have selected Team Fortress Industries and Mann Co. to be their primary caretakers.

As always, failure is not an option.

This deal was negotiated over some very selective terms, and both Team Fortress Industries and Mann Co. have invested heavily into your success. I am assigning you, some of the strongest mercenaries in the former RED team, to this mission because you have proven yourselves in the past. More details about your assignment will be provided to you after you arrive in the capital of Equestria, Canterlot.  

You will also be in the presence of true royalty, often, so I expect you all to conduct yourselves in a manner fitting for mercenaries selectively chosen by Team Fortress Industries and Mann Co. In other words, do not make a monkey out of yourselves by thinking your unusual hat puts you on par with them.

Expecting mediocre results,

The Administrator.

P.S.: I suggest you arrive prepared to fight. Be sure to make your first impressions good ones.

♪~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~♪

Celestia clutched the note in her hoof, having it read it over for what felt like the tenth time in the week.

Be prepared to fight? Could it be a warning for what threats I described? Or is something else...?

"Good evening, sister."

Inviting herself in, Princess Luna strode into her older sister's bedroom from the balcony where she had landed. She immediately took notice to the disheveled and messy state her older sister's room was in. For whatever reason, the normal servants responsible for cleaning and maintaining the castle hadn't been allowed in during the day. It probably had something to do with the fact that Celestia was surrounded by papers on her bed. Papers that contained sensitive information on them that she didn't want anypony to see. On a table next to her was a small serving tray of baked goods, and a half-finished cup of coffee that had been refilled several times.

Celestia remained affixed to her paperwork around her. "Mmm. Same to you, Luna."

"Oh my, such a stern expression," Luna mused, circling around her older sister's bed. "What troubles you, Tia?"

Celestia placed down the paper and quill held by her magic. "I've decided to accept Helen's offer. But I am still worried about these...champions of hers."

"Oh?" Luna nodded in understanding. She then tapped her chin in thought with her hoof. "Are you worried about being double crossed? Or that nine blood thirsty lunatics will be freely roaming our lands? Or do you think that Twilight and her friends won't understand why they need to be protected by several ruthless, monstrous, ab--"

"Luna! Please!" Celestia cut her sister off. "I'm in no mood for your sense of humor."

"Tsk, tsk. You worry far too much, Tia." With a spring in her step, Luna circled around Celestia one more time and snatched up the last sugar pastry from the tray. "These things have a way of working themselves out, yes?"

"That's exactly what I'm worried about." Celestia sighed. "Nothing good has ever come from our interactions with humanity."

"I cannot say that I know," Luna puffed her cheeks out. "Because SOME mare I know happened to schedule diplomatic discussions when I was in the middle of my beauty rest."

"Luna, as I've told you, you didn't miss anything," Celestia muttered, trying to not remember the meeting that had brought up more questions than answers. "If anything, you would probably have objected to their coming to Equestria."

"Nonsense!" Luna waved her older sister off. "I always welcome a little change to break up the monotony of our courts."

That's because you usually sleep through it, Celestia couldn't help but think, while Luna took her cup up with her magic and finished off the rest of her coffee without asking. A swarm of parasprites, Discord's revival, the royal wedding, and an attack by a giant fire-breathing Cockatrice were a few incidents Celestia had dealt with that Luna had slept soundly through. If Chrysalis attacks again, maybe I'll let her put you in one of those nasty cocoons first.

"So!" Luna continued cheerfully, unaware of her sister's devious thoughts. "When did you say that they would be arriving?"

"Some time tomorrow. Would you like me to wake you?"

"Of course!" Luna trotted toward the exit of Celestia's room, a small smile across her face. "This is our diarchy, after all. They are first guests we have entertained from another dimension in...a millennia! Now, if you'll excuse us."

"Luna!" The princess of the night could hear the warning tone in her older sister's voice. "I told everypony to stay away from the teleporter room. I don't care if it is deactivated, I don't want anypony near it." Luna rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

"We were just considering a small walk around the castle before we begin the night court. Since you seem so busy after your normal hours, we wanted to leave you in peace."

"I'm sorry, Luna. I didn't mean to sound overbearing." Celestia apologized, and Luna secretly congratulated herself for staying innocent after getting caught. "I'm just still very worried about this whole idea. Do you think I'm worrying too much?"

"About what?" Luna turned her neck around, opening the doors to leave. "Twilight and her friends being in danger? Or the reliability of Helen's champions?"

"...Both."

"Well, we are certainly unsure of what the future holds," Luna ran a hoof through her astral mane, turning back to her sister and letting it blow in the wind coming inside from the open balcony. She flashed her a confident smile before she continued. "But are we not an example of what can happen with a little faith in those close to you?"

"Yes... Of course," Celestia returned the assuring smile Luna was trying to give her. But your pain is something I could have prevented, if had known better...

"Well, excuse us as we take our leave." Luna said simply, with her head held high. "We shall speak again at dawn, dear sister."

"Of course, Lulu. Goodnight to you."

Closing the doors to Celestia's chambers behind her, Luna looked out the windows of the hallway at her moon shining bright in the sky. Outside her night sky held a deceiving calm, that showed no signs of the troubles and turmoils living creatures still experienced in parts of the world. A thousand years ago, she never would have imagined that she would come to rule over a kingdom of thousands upon thousands of ponies with her sister. The idea still amazed her, and she thought about it endlessly before going to bed in the morning after the night court.

The future truly was uncertain. That much was for certain.

"Our sister doth worry too much," Luna told herself, breaking into a brisk trot. "But we shall remain vigilant."

The night court could wait for another night. Tonight, there were curiosities to be satisfied.

♪~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~♪

"And... What does this do? Oh, this is cool."

"Shirley... What have you learned 'bout touchin' booksmart's toys?"

Down on the ground Scout poked the modified teleporter carefully, looking at all of the sleek and curved surfaces that the Engineer's regular teleporters never had. Placed in the central capture point of the Lumbermill, it was wired to several larger computers and power generators that had been brought in during the days after their arrival. The platform where members of the RED team would stand to go from one place to another seemed the same, abet much bigger. But the actual arms of the teleporter that rotated like the props on an airplanes rotor had multiplied to five.

"Hey, don't pretend like you're not curious," Scout said, looking back over his shoulder at the Sniper. "You wanta' see what a land filled with talkin' technicolor pansy ponies is like too, don't you?"

"I still think this is some shonky business," Sniper spat. "How do we know this isn't some giant trap to off us for good?"

"Huh, you know, I didn't think of it that way." Scout admitted. He continued to looked around, until he noticed the on/off switch in the same place that the Engineer's teleporters normally had them. "You think hard-hat's got this workin?"

"Scout, I'm warnin' ya." Sniper furrowed his brow as Scout inched closer to the button. "Don't go messing with truckie's toys."

"Ah, chill out, man." Scout waved the Sniper off with his hand. "I totally know what I'm doing."

Not listening to the Sniper giving him another warning, Scout pressed the button on the base of teleporter to turn on the automatic assembly process. Like so many times he'd seen it before, the teleporter entrance began to unfold itself and self-assemble, making mechanical sounds as it unpacked itself.

Click. Whhhiiiiiiiirrrrrrrr... Beep.

"Oh baby, there we go." Scout rubbed his hands together in anticipation, watching the teleporter finish its normal routine and begin to power up.

"Don't even think about going in there! Cripes, mate. You don't know if he's even put in the right coordinates."

"Since it turned on, it means that Del put an exit somewhere. Right?" Scout hovered over the edge of the teleporter, looking into the glowing red light that lead to a one-way trip to anywhere in the universe. "And you know the Engineer, he always plans these things out well ahead of time."

"Your funeral, mate." Sniper grunted, watching Scout lean closer and closer to the powered teleporter.

All five arms of the teleporter were spinning fast enough that they were generating a small wind around them like a fan. Scout rarely took the Engineer's teleporters, since in a combat situation it was better to let slower members of the team reach the front lines first. It wasn't that teleporting hurt or anything, going from one place to another possibly thousands of miles away in the blink of an eye was crazy for the Scout. It didn't help either that the journey was a one-way trip, with no hope of return or rescue if the teleporter exit was destroyed.

Thinking about his odds to himself, Scout stood up and started to back away from the teleporter. Behind him, Sniper chuckled.

"Having second thought, Shirley?"

"Yeah, well," Scout stood up and continued to shuffle back. "The universe is a big place, right? I don't want to get sent to medieval times in some alternate dimension or some crazy shit."

"Oh? Is that right?" Sniper said, deciding to play along.

"Yeah, and...and, like, I don't have my track bag with me filled with all my stuff. I wouldn't want to go without being prepared, right? I need my guns, my ammo, my hats and clothes..."

"Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure." Sniper agreed as Scout continued to ramble on, all the while sneaking closer behind the fast talking Bostonian.

"And I gotta, uh, write a letter! Yeah! I gotta' write back to my family about--" Scout stopped talking, and turned around to see Sniper face to face with him. "...Um?"

Without a word, Sniper pushed Scout onto the teleporter entrance.

"Thanks for standin' still, wanker." Sniper said, giving Scout a wink.

"WHAT!?" Scout yelled, trying to pick himself up. But he knew it was already too late. He could feel the teleporter under him pulling him right down to atoms into the machine, to be sent to wherever the machine was connected. There was nothing that could be done to save himself from going on a free ride across dimensions. "YOU CAMPIN' CONVICT! I'M GONNA--"

And with a red flash of light, Scout was gone.

"Heh, heh, heh," Sniper chuckled to himself, fishing around in his back pocket for his cigarettes. "That'll teach you, ya' little mongrel."

Now then...

To describe what it's like to go through an Engineer's teleporter is something hard to do. Not just because the trip is usually instantaneous, but because the bright camera-like flash is the only thing most people can remember going from point A to point B. There was nothing in between. No time for life changing visions. No visiting the cosmos. No seeing your own molecular structure broken down and sent through australium-fueled super technology. Nothing.

It certainly never involved falling, which Scout was doing a lot of right now.

"AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGHHH!" Scout screamed at the top of his lungs, waving and failing his arms helplessly as he continued to tumble over and over in some kind of red energy vortex. There was no signs above him of where he had come from, and no signs below him of where he was going to land.

And so Scout fell...

"Aaahhhhhhhh!"

And fell...

"Aaahhhhh...pant, pant, pant... Aaahhhhhh!"

And fell...

"Aahhhhh...ahhh...ugh..."

And continued to fall...

Until after a few minutes, Scout stopped screaming and decided to fall to his doom in silence.

Holy crap this goes on forever, he thought to himself still tumbling head over heels in the void. Looking around, the universe (or between universes?) he was in seemed to just be like a giant funnel of electricity colored red. In between the flashing lights were little stars, or explosions. Needless to say, it would be a bad idea to try and reach out and grab a hold of something, he reasoned.

"Is this crap gonna' end any time soon?" Scout shouted at no one in particular. "If I'm gonna' die, just kill me al--"

And then without warning, Scout arrived.

"AAAHHHHHH!"

"EEEEEP!"

Princess Luna screamed in surprise, but quickly covered her own mouth as she scrambled toward the corner of the room and into the shadows. She had thought herself clever sneaking into the teleporter room without her own guards noticing, but it mattered little since her magic was beyond what any guards of the castle were on level with detecting. To her surprise, the machine had been turned on by somepony before she had entered the room. And now, just before she could finish her inspection, the infernal device had ejected some kind of hairless ape wearing clothes out of its magic well.

"What the devil?" Luna questioned, watching the strange creature take pick itself up off of the floor. She adjusted her own tiara self consciously as the mystery creature put his hat back on his head. "Could this be?"

She watched as the teleporter spit out what appeared to be a backpack of some sort, which hit the poor creature from behind and knocked him down onto the floor again.

"Oh, that BASTARD!" Scout shouted enraged. "When I get my hands on that stupid camper, I'm gonna' make him drink his own piss!"

How uncouth this creature is, Luna couldn't help but think, after listening him continue to cuss out someone unknown to her. Are all of his kind so unruly? Perhaps our sister was right; we must be cautious.

Waiting a moment for the creature to collect his things and place his bag over his back, Luna cleared her own throat loud enough so that she was sure he would hear.

"Ahem."

She watched the hairless ape freeze in place, suddenly aware that he wasn't alone.

"You there. Are you perchance a member of...Reliable Excavation and Demolition?"

Normally, Scout's first reflex was to run. Naturally. It wasn't meant as a form of disrespect, but when you (on rare occasions) found yourself in a place you weren't familiar with and someone you don't know tells you to not move (or implies that you shouldn't) you don't listen. Especially when people who usually did that were dressed in the color blue, and planned to kill you regardless of whether you listened. But the sight before him made Scout freeze. Completely freeze, as if he had just been backstabbed by a Spy with a spycicle.

"Umm," Scout said intelligently, failing to find the words to answer.

Standing in the shadowy corner of the room (almost as if she had been hiding) was some kind of horse with wings and horn. Not just any horse (ignoring the wings and the horn), but a horse out of some crazy ancient history mythology story. Her mane and tail matched her deep blue coat, shining with little stars and waving majestically on its own. Her eyes were big with teal colored irises, that held an alert attentiveness that was beyond any animal on earth. She also wore some kind of silvery regalia, befitting someone of higher status than some common...horse.

In short, Scout was suddenly glad that he had arrived where he was supposed to.

And realized that he was looking stupid in front of one of the only creatures his boss had warned him not to.

"We say again, can you understand us?" Luna asked, with caution in her voice. "Are you a member of the RED team?"

"Oh! Uh," Scout jumped up immediately, surprising her a little as he looked himself over. Everything he had planned on wearing for his first meeting was still packed in his supply crate back in the base at Lumbermill. "Awww, crap."  

"...Is something the matter? What say you? Speak up!"

What are you doing, moron! Play it cool! Just...just, chill! Deep breath. Gotta relaaaaax...

"Milady," Scout started, desperately trying to remember how his words would change whenever he visited DeGroot Keep. "I am Sir Scout, knight of DeGroot Keep. Who do...er...I have the...uh...honor of addressing?"

Luna almost bursting out laughing at the young human's behavior. She was well aware that the world he was coming from was much like the modern Equestria, and nothing like her world had been several hundred years ago. Still, she decided to play along for a little. It would be amusing, to say the least. Maybe she would have him keep her company through the night court.

"We are Princess Luna, diarch of the Equestrian Empire." Luna spread her wings as she spoke. "We were awaiting your arrival, Sir Scout. Where are your other comrades in arms?"

"The guys?" Scout asked, shaking his head and kicking himself for breaking character. "Oh! Uh, well, your majesty, I took it upon myself to, uh, arrive early. You know, give the palace a once over to see if everything was alright? For security reasons!"

Could this young human be some sort of a spy? Luna thought about it silently. The secrecy of their arrival would make for the perfect cover for their parent company to sneak some humans in as spies. After all, if she hadn't broke into the room on her own volition, who would have known about this...Sir Scout's arrival? She had even read over papers showing technology and other devices that could mask the appearances of the users.

Perhaps he is more dangerous than we first imagined. We should keep him close, so he can not slip past our hooves...

"Very well then!" Walking up to him, Luna gave the Scout a warm, welcoming look and held out her hoof to him. "We welcome you to Equestria. Will you accept our invitation to join us for breakfast?"

"Wait, breakfast?" Scout looked outside a nearby window, seeing the moon raised high and the stars shining.

"Yes, breakfast," Luna repeated before explaining. "I am responsible for ruling over my kingdom with my sister. She raises the sun and governs our lands during the day, and we are responsible for raising the moon and ruling during the night."

"Really?" Scout turned his head. "Wow! That's pretty bad ass. You can actually raise the moon by yourself?"

"Oh? Erm, yes." Luna said, caught a little off guard. There were many things used to describe her role and powers throughout her years, but bad ass usually wasn't one of them. It was a compliment of course, but such a blunt one that the regent of the moon found herself at a loss of words. She hastily cleared her throat to recompose herself.

"Now, we ask again: would you care to join us for breakfast before we begin the night court?"

"Sure!" Scout grinned, taking her hoof in his hand and leading her out to the doors. "What's on the menu, princess?"

"Hmm... Do you like oatmeal pancakes?"

"Do I!? Hah! Let me tell you a story..."

Princess Luna and Scout strode boldly out the doors, ignoring the questions of the two guards who were supposed to have not let anyone into the room, never mind out. Already engrossed in their conversation (which was mostly Scout bragging and Luna listening), they failed to notice the teleporter giving off sparks in the room they were leaving. With another bright flash of light, the inter-dimensional teleporter spit out the another mercenary, tossing him out as haphazardly as it had the Scout.

"Merde," the Spy muttered, picking himself up and pulling the cowl of his dashin' hashshashin back over his head.

♪~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~♪

Deep in the crystal caverns below Canterlot, and even farther from the eyes and ears of the Equestrian Guard, the busy buzz and chittering of creatures hiding in the shadows echoed in the darkness. One by one in single file, they marched in perfect unison down pathways undeterred by the confusing chasms of the caves they were in. They drove onward together, with no hesitation between any of them.

Finally, the marching line stopped with the lead creature scanning the darkness ahead.

"...My queen, have you returned to us?"

"Yes. I hope you and your swarm are prepared, sergeant. Tonight we shall seize Canterlot castle from the inside, and make Celestia pay for her arrogance."

"We are ready, my queen. We shall obey as we always have, for the swarm."

"Yesss," Chrysalis hissed, looking at her beautiful reflection in one of the crystals growing out of the walls. "Even after I imprisoned her niece in these caverns, they have done nothing to secure them from our use. We will infiltrate the castle, and begin our attack after I have fed from Celestia's power in her sleep."

"Yes, your majesty."

"Prepare yourself sergeant. We will make our new hive cluster in Canterlot castle, and from there, devour this world!"