Rainbow Dash smiled faintly as she found herself being wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair, the bandages on her shoulder had been removed and she honestly felt better than she had in a long time. Of course she wasn’t sure where she would go or what she would do for money, her hospital fees had been paid for by Princess Luna, but they had yet to really tell her what to do now that she had left the hospital. As the nurse pushed her past the threshold and out into the hot desert sun she found herself covering her eyes, the hustle and bustle of the city was a stark contrast to the relative quiet inside the building.

The mare blinked her eyes a couple times, clearing away the spots that had come from the bright early morning sun. She could see human vehicles driving along in the streets of the city, many of the buildings were made of tan clay like material, with the exception of a few wooden buildings that had been standing when the town had first been established.

“Hey, Dash!” A voice shouted from the right, Rainbow turned and was surprised to see Gilda walking towards her. She wore a black leather flight jacket adorned with a couple patches and was missing the bandages that had been wrapped around her head the last time they’d met. The nurse stopped the wheelchair, allowing Rainbow Dash to stand up and give a nod of goodbye. The nurse quietly entered the hospital again, leaving the griffon and the pegasus to look each other over. “Was wondering when you’d get out, they said some time today, but…”

“What’re you doing here, G?” Rainbow Dash asked as she walked towards her friend, Gilda shrugged for a moment. It was the traditional shit eating grin that completed the picture, Gilda was Gilda, and Rainbow Dash was more than happy to see that.

“Oh, you know, I was in the neighborhood.” Gilda said jokingly before she adjusted her jacket. “Actually, I’m here to pick you up. Orders and all that.” The griffon seemed a bit annoyed that that had to be her reason to go see her friend. “You said when you defected you wanted to be military, it’s time we get you training and earning those wings.” Rainbow Dash smirked quietly, she hadn’t imagined they’d actually accept her request considering she’d been a defector. She and Gilda began walking along the streets, passing by a couple human businesses as human vehicles moved back and forth on the road. “So, how’s the shoulder feeling?”

“Fine, a little tight, but some training should clear that up.” Rainbow Dash replied, Gilda smirked at that. Rainbow meanwhile was amazed at how much New Liberty had grown, from a small town to a bustling city. The shops were all rather interesting, some of them were Griffon butchers, Changeling couples therapy, and even a couple thestral owned restaurants. She hadn’t seen such diversity in Equestria, that was for sure. “Sure is big, eh?”

“It’s decent.” Gilda said with a shrug as they came to a crosswalk, Rainbow stopped and waited for the passing traffic to clear up before she and Gilda began walking again. “Let’s talk a bit about what you’re going to be doing, because the NUS doesn’t really have a military acrobatics team.” Rainbow looked over at Gilda attentively, displaying with her eyes that she was ready to hear what the griffon had to say. “From what I hear you’re into that exploring stuff, so Luna pulled a few strings and got you into my outfit.” The griffon tapped a patch on her shoulder, an eagle clutching a sword and a telescope in in its talons.

“What sort of outfit is that?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow, Gilda smirked and flexed her powerful wing muscles. The pegasus was stunned, whatever Gilda had been doing to train was working, because her muscles looked like they had muscles of their own.

“Forward Aerial Scout Team Alpha.” Gilda said proudly, her wings retracted to their normal position on her back. “Fast Alpha for short. We’re going to be getting some action soon, word is they’re looking to colonize some unclaimed land to the north. Mostly mountain and thick forest.” Rainbow Dash found herself a bit surprised by the revelation, then again, she supposed that Gilda wouldn’t be telling her if she didn’t trust her implicitly. “We basically fly in, map the area, mark any hostile threats, and so on.”

“Sounds boring.” Rainbow Dash said with a shrug, Gilda shook her head. “It does! What, you just fly in, make a map, and leave?”

“Of course not, Dash. There’s way more to it than that, we could encounter some sort of undiscovered hostile tribe, or maybe there’s hostile wildlife, then we get to use the guns.” Gilda explained, Rainbow Dash shrugged quietly. She supposed that was a bit of a plus, Gilda smirked as she saw her friend thinking over the options. “Oh, and we also would be the first troops to respond if Equestria invaded.”

“Wait, what?!” Rainbow Dash said with a bit of shock, Gilda adjusted her jacket again as they passed by another storefront.

“If Equestria invades, or there’s a threat along the Northern Border, we would be the ones to respond to it first.” Gilda said simply, Rainbow Dash was a bit surprised by just how much information she was getting. “The chances of a war with Equestria are actually kinda slim, but the chances of Equestrian criminals coming to New Liberty and causing trouble is much higher, especially now that they’ve withdrawn a good number of our forces from the border.” Gilda sighed quietly and looked over at Rainbow Dash with a serious expression. “They aren’t just petty criminals either, they’re intent on hurting the people of this city, and any future cities that we plan to build.”

“Alright… I just, hope it doesn’t come to actual war.” Rainbow Dash said, she smirked quietly as she looked towards the gate of the military base that was now just ahead of them. “So, what’s our CO like?”

“Total bitch. I mean, she’s alright every once in awhile, but...” Gilda said with a slight scowl, Rainbow Dash looked at her with a raised eyebrow. A couple seconds later the griffon’s face contorted into a wide grin. “It’s me, Dash.” The look on Gilda’s face was one of pure excitement, Rainbow could tell that she was extremely proud of her position. “Those jerks in flight school said I’d never amount to anything, but look at me now! Kickass special operations unit commander!” Rainbow Dash caught a glimpse of a pair of captain’s bars on Gilda’s collar, the mare couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that her friend was so far ahead of her in rank.

Gilda straightened up as they reached the gate, the sound of a song echoed from the guard house as a human MP stepped out. He was a bit on the heavy side, with a shaved head and squinting blue eyes. He adjusted his belt and walked over to the two newcomers, pausing to salute Gilda before speaking.

“Papiere, bitte.” He said in german, it was becoming more and more popular in the military, mainly because Equestrians had a bitch of a time translating it, especially over the radio. Gilda fished into her jacket and withdrew a pair of ID cards, one had Gilda’s face on it, the other had Rainbow Dash’s. The MP took a moment to look over the cards before he turned to Rainbow Dash and saluted, then he handed the IDs back to Gilda and walked into the guard house.

“What just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked quietly as she watched the large man speaking to someone over a radio. Gilda smiled before she handed one of the cards over to Rainbow Dash, letting her get a look for herself.

“He’s just saluting an officer, Lieutenant Dash.” Gilda said with a cheshire grin, Rainbow Dash found her chest swelling with pride at the mention of her new rank. She supposed she’d earned it in the battle with the changelings, not just because she had defected. The chainlink gate began opening, allowing the griffon and the pegasus to walk through. It closed behind them and a second gate opened, once they had passed that they were in the base. “Come on, we’ll get you outfitted, then we’ll hit the obstacle course. Once you’re up to speed we’ll go meet the rest of the team.”

“Alright.” Rainbow said with a smile.

“Just know I’m not going to go easy on you, I’m gonna go a lot harder actually. I need to know you can watch my six.” Gilda said in that same mature tone as they began walking towards an almost unmarked building. Rainbow Dash nodded determinedly, she wasn’t about to let her friend Gilda down, especially after she had done so much to help get her on her hooves. “After that we’ll head over to my place, you can crash their until you get set up.”

“Thanks, G.” Rainbow Dash said warmly, Gilda just gave her a sisterly smile before grabbing Rainbow around the neck and pulling her close for a noogie. In the distance the sound of the train from Equestria’s whistle echoed, undoubtedly signaling a new flood of Equestrian tourists that would certainly make for another full day for the MPs on patrol through the city.

[♠]

Octavia Melody stepped off the train into the hot desert sun, the cellist immediately found herself covering her eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. Her roommate had convinced her to come down to the odd country of New Liberty, under the guise that she could be some sort of cultural enlightenment to the refugees. Speaking of her roommate, Octavia turned and looked over her shoulder at the DJ that stepped off the train with her trademark sunglasses and electric blue mane. Octavia sighed quietly, feeling truly out of place amongst the natives of the odd town.

Thestrals, changelings, diamond dogs and numerous other races were going about their daily business outside of the train station. The buildings were a mix of wood and some sort of clay adobe structure, off to the right was a walled off section of housing with two large metal machines parked outside.

“Come on, Tavi! Lighten up!” Vinyl Scratch said as she patted Octavia on the back, the two of them began walking away from the train and towards the city. As they walked they spotted a group of humans with a dog walking along the train, they wore tan uniforms with light blue berets and mirrored sunglasses. Octavia was a bit surprised to see them, mainly because she had never really seen a human up close. She still technically hadn’t, but so far that was her first experience with them, it seemed the dog was sniffing the train for some odd reason.

“I’d lighten up if I hadn’t been shanghaied here, there’s no way I could improve the culture here.” Octavia replied as they began walking towards the main street, passing by numerous odd shops that had their signs in an odd language that they could only suppose was English. “Listen to me, I almost sound as snobbish as those unicorns in Canterlot…”

“Don’t worry about it… Hey, let’s see if we can find a bunch of humans! I’ve been dying to meet real life aliens!” Vinyl said excitedly, Octavia was about to object, but she had to admit she had a bit of a curiosity for the mysterious race that had started taking refuge in their dimension. The two mares began walking further into the city, passing by a couple more stores that seemed to be run by thestrals. Octavia was surprised to see meat being openly advertised in some of the windows, she supposed that was the ‘culture shock’ she’d heard so much about.

“Alright… We’ll look for humans, but there has to be something else you want to do besides meet a human. We’ve got two days for our vacation, it can’t all be spent talking to humans.” Octavia inquired, she probably should’ve asked about the itinerary sooner, there wasn’t really an excuse for it. She could say that maybe she had been busy thinking about trying for the first chair in the Canterlot ochestra, but honestly it had just slipped her mind. “Why don’t we see what passes for…” Octavia stopped herself, she hated that she immediately assumed the worst about the small country. She’d been trying to break her snobbish habits for a while, but she still had her weak days. “Why don’t we see what sort of music is down here? Check out a music hall, I suppose even a bar would be a good glimpse into it.

“We should totally go to a bar!” Vinyl cheered, Octavia just rubbed the bridge of her nose and continued following Vinyl on her odd aimless quest. After about half an hour Vinyl and Octavia found themselves wandering towards a large fenced off area on the edge of town, in the distance they could hear what sounded like fire crackers popping off one after another. It was clear to them that it was some sort of military installation, judging by the fact that there was a guard standing by the gates. “There’s one!”

“Vinyl, I don’t think it would be…” Octavia began, she trailed off as the unicorn’s horn ignited and she found herself teleported right in front of the gates. “Wise.” The guard was a human alright, certainly rounder than she’d expected, but still amazingly fast. As soon as the flash had faded Octavia and Vinyl found themselves staring at a shiny piece of metal.

“State your business!” Ordered the guard, adjusting his helmet as he continued holding the metal device in his right hand. Octavia assumed that was some sort of weapon and quickly clamped a hoof over Vinyl’s mouth before she could get them both killed.

“I’m really sorry for my friend, she’s just really excited to be here and she wanted to meet a human.” Octavia explained, she heard the human mumble something before he slipped the metal device into a holster on his belt.

“This area is restricted to military personnel only, sorry.” He said sternly as he put his hands on his hips, Vinyl seemed a little crest fallen, but she supposed that was what one could expect from any sort of military officer. “Please, step out of the way…” Vinyl and Octavia watched the man walk past them, stepping back a bit as they spotted a vehicle rolling up to the gate.

“Come on, Vinyl, we’ll find somewhere else with humans. There’s bound to be tons of them here somewhere.” Octavia said in a cheery voice, Vinyl shrugged and adjusted her sunglasses as they began walking away.

“Maybe we could sneak in on one of those vehicles and get a look at their cool military stuff.” Vinyl said in a hushed tone, Octavia looked at her with serious concern. “I’m kidding! Yeesh! Let’s try getting something to eat , I’m starving.”

“Well, we’ll have to look for something that caters to Equestrian pallets, I don’t think I could stomach meat.” Octavia replied, Vinyl shrugged and once again they were off, wandering through the foreign city. The architecture began to change a tad, becoming less gothic and more of a type of Equestrian-Griffon mix. Octavia’s ears perked up as they entered that strange district that was closer to the train station than the military base. She thought that perhaps they were deceiving her, but to her shock it sounded like an actual quartet. Without thinking she grabbed Vinyl and began dragging her through the crowded street towards the source of the music, drawn in as if by a siren as her friend protested.

Suddenly she emerged through a crowd of people who were watching four humans sitting on a stoop in front of a four story apartment building with a hat placed out in front of them. Octavia found herself tuning out the background noise of the city and Vinyl’s questions, watching the four musicians play. The music was so alien to her ears, and yet it was just as somber. After a couple seconds she shook herself from her revery and looked over at Vinyl.

“You okay?” The unicorn asked over the noise of the crowd, Octavia nodded and went back to watching the quartet. They weren’t like many of the quartets that the mare saw in Canterlot, they didn’t wear fancy tuxedos and dresses. Three of them wore old clothes that looked clean, but threadbare nonetheless, the fourth wore an olive drab uniform. Octavia assumed it was a human male due to the short hair and muscular build, he was playing a cello while his compatriots played violins.

“I didn’t think they had cellos…” Octavia said with a bit of surprise, watching the people as they continued playing their music. She supposed that given all their species had been through, a bit of sad music was fitting. “Let’s meet that one, the one with the cello.”

“Of course…” Vinyl said with a snarky smile, the two of them stood there quietly and listened to the song through its entirety, Octavia found herself drawn in even more by the music. She watched the young man play the cello with skill that obviously came from years of practice, the way his fingers danced across the strings was like watching poetry in motion. When the song finally came to an end there was a wave of applause from the crowd, the quartet stood up as a couple ponies stepped forwards from the crowd to put money in the hat that had been placed on the ground. Octavia was about to join them until shouting erupted from the crowd, to her shock a couple seconds later an Equestrian teenager burst out of the throng of onlookers with a rock in hoof.

Before anyone could stop him he chucked it hard at the cello, Octavia watched in abject horror as the instrument was smashed. She could see the look on the man’s face shift from one of surprise, to fear, to down right sadness. Vinyl could hear her friend’s teeth grinding as the teen began laughing and pointing at the ruined instrument, without warning Octavia charged out at the teen. Screaming obscenities that she herself had never dared utter before, she grabbed the teen and delivered a slap so loud that numerous ponies covered their ears.

“How dare you!” She bellowed at the teen who was staring at her in shock, Octavia was beyond words. The teen took off running through the crowd, in turn many people in the crowd took off running after the teen. Octavia was panting with fury, turning rapidly and angrily as she felt a hoof on her shoulder. “What!?”

“Tavi, remember what the judge said about keeping your temper in check?” Vinyl said calmly, Octavia took a moment to collect herself, knowing that she had taken a huge step back in her anger management courses. She fixed her mane and looked around, quickly spotting the young man who was staring at his ruined instrument while the other members of the quartet looked on with equally sullen expressions. Octavia quietly approached, unsure of why they all seemed so transfixed on the ruined cello. Granted, she was upset it had been destroyed, but cellos weren’t that expensive of an instrument in Equestria.

“Um… Excuse me?” Octavia finally said as she got the courage to speak up, the young man adjusted his uniform before turning to look at her. “Are you okay?” He nodded, but Octavia could see that there was a deep sadness in his eyes.

“Just… Upset. Obviously.” He said in a somber tone, looking back at the remains of his instrument. “This was from Earth, you know? My sister kept it in good shape for four years, now it’s… Just…” Octavia found herself struggling to hold back another surge of anger, she was staring at a piece of human culture that had been destroyed by a teenager with an axe to grind.

“I… I’m sorry…” Octavia said, she paused for a moment. “I play the cello myself, and the way you played was beautiful…” The man just nodded quietly, still staring at the remains of his instrument. “I happen to know a rather good repair shop, perhaps I could put you in contact with them?” The mare looked at the man a bit closer, he had auburn hair and blue starburst eyes, a rather pronounced jaw and a grizzly pink scar running down the length of his cheek. Octavia could only imagine what had happened to cause such a wound. “What’s your name?”

“Eugene.” The man said quietly, seeming to brighten up at the possibility of getting his instrument fixed. “My name’s Eugene.”

[♠]

Johnny let out a content sigh as he and Jen sat side by side in a booth in his bar, laid out in front of them was a big binder filled with ideas. In the background a record was playing opera softly through the establishment, the crowd was rather light, and Johnny wasn’t needed at the POW camp. That gave him and Jen time to actually begin planning their wedding, though he was having trouble staying focussed. Every time he tried to say his thoughts he’d get lost in Jen’s gorgeous eyes, but that was okay with him. She deserved anything she wanted, it was her special day after all.

The man adjusted his suit while he looked over Jen once again, her hair was growing longer now that she could let it grow out. She wore jeans that hid her combat boots and a light grey T-shirt with a picture of a dolphin on the front. The woman was excitedly pouring over the possibilities in the binder, withdrawing a couple cards of information and setting them aside. The binder had been a pet project of Johnny’s while Jen had been through the portal, there was bound to be a couple things that Jen would want to change.

“Oh, honey, I’m so glad you came up with this…” Jen said as she nuzzled against the man, causing him to blush and smile a bit more. “You thought of just about everything, but I’ve noticed you forgot something rather important…” The man only hummed in response. “What day?”

“That’s up to you, I didn’t want to deprive you of the right to pick your wedding day.” Johnny replied in a warm tone, Jen let out a tiny happy squeal and looked back at the binder. The man was just happy to see her safe and sound, but hearing that familiar squeal of delight had completely made his day. He paused for a moment to look around the bar, at the moment it was a couple regulars and an Equestrian tourist that looked like he’d be right at home in the ranks of the EOL. He had a hat pulled down over his face as he reclined in his seat in the corner, appearing very edgy for a pony.

Johnny did his best to ignore him, he wasn’t about to interrupt Jen’s happiness on a wild feeling that perhaps there was something up. Despite that his eyes continued flicking back and forth towards the pony, he shook his head quietly and forced himself to pay attention to Jen.

“How about a couple weeks from now?” Jen said with a big smile. “I mean, it’s not likely we’d be able to get all the fancy stuff in the binder, but a simple wedding is something I wouldn’t mind either?” Johnny leaned back in his seat and rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of two weeks was even enough time to find a venue. Despite that, he gave a slow nod. “Yay! As long as we’re together I’m happy!” Johnny grinned widely as Jen put her arms around him and hugged him tightly, the man turned and started to hug Jen as well. However, as he was doing that he spotted something in the reflection of the window. The man turned his body so that his back was facing the pony he’d spotted earlier, now revealed to be a unicorn with a glowing horn.

“Get under the table!” The man groaned as he felt five bolts of magic slam into his back, it stung like a taser, but aside from that he knew he’d be okay. By that point Jen had spotted the would be assassin, something in her mind snapped. Someone had the unmitigated gall to attack her fiance right as they had made plans for their wedding, that wasn’t going to fly with her. The unicorn seemed surprised that his attack hadn’t had some sort of effect beyond inflicting great pain, during that time of surprise Jen slipped under the table and crawled out.

Before Jen could inflict a rampage of epic proportions on the assassin she spotted the stallion behind the bar, Oregano, jumping over the counter and slamming into the unicorn with his shoulder. Jen ran over as the pair tumbled to the ground, to Oregano’s surprise he was pushed aside. He watched as the tank commander bride-to-be grabbed the unicorn by his mane and slammed his head against the floor, growling like an animal. Oregano knew that if there was any chance of finding out who had sent the assassin he would need to be taken alive, but it seemed that Jen had other plans. With a sigh, Oregano shoved the woman off of the unicorn and punched the attacker, effectively knocking him out.

“Check on the big guy, I’ll take care of this mook.” Oregano said with an angry expression, the other patrons in the bar had all stood up and watched what had happened. Jen realized that she had left Johnny in the booth, her anger quickly changed to concern as she turned and rushed to his side. Oregano hoisted the assassin over his shoulder and looked at the patrons. “You didn’t see nothin’.” With that he carried the unicorn behind the bar and to a stairway that would lead him to the upstairs office.

Johnny, in the meantime, was wincing as he stood up from the seat. His suit was ruined, but from the looks of him he was okay otherwise.

“That fucking son of a cocksucking whore…” He cursed loudly due to the pain and the anger that was running through him, he turned to see Jen and grabbed her in his arms. “You’re okay, right?! You’re not hurt?!”

“O-Of course, I’m okay! Are you okay!?” Jen replied, sounding on the verge of tears.

“Obviously…A little sore, but I’m okay.” Johnny said as he patted her back and held her close, his eyes roved over the room and settled on Oregano who was signalling him that he had the unicorn upstairs. “Get Anton to take her home, make sure she’s safe, get these people out of here.” Johnny ordered, Oregano nodded and began making motions for the regular customers to leave. “Jen, sweetie, I gotta take care of this… Just, go home and stay away from the windows.” The woman looked at him and was about to argue, but she could see just how serious he was, she could hear Anton was already coming down the steps.

“Be careful.” Was all she could manage, doing her best to calm herself down. She wiped her eyes and began walking out with Anton, the hulking griffon held the door open for her before stepping out. As soon as she was out of earshot Johnny began cursing under his breath, intense pain radiated off of his back and deep rooted anger had taken hold of his mind.

“Oregano, get me a car battery, jumper cables and… call it five lemons.” Johnny said through gritted teeth as he walked towards the stairs, Oregano blinked quietly at the order. “Oh, and some speakers. Loud ones.” The earth pony quickly rushed out of the bar, being sure to flip the ‘Open’ sign to ‘Closed’. Johnny wandered up the stairs, shedding his ruined suit jacket and shirt into a trash can. In his office he saw the unicorn tied to a chair, laid out beneath him was a plastic tarp. Already Oregano was thinking ahead.

Johnny slowly made his way to his liquor cabinet and pulled a bottle of Griffon scotch from within, followed by a glass. He poured himself a glass and took a sip before walking over to his desk and leaning against it, taking up a position that put him face to face with the pony that had tried to kill him. The pain was starting to fade, it felt more like he’d been winged by a fastball now than anything else. He took a moment to look the unicorn up and down, they were light blue with a yellow mane, obviously a stallion. Their cutiemark was some sort of yellow and blue swirly shape that Johnny didn’t feel inclined to examine further.

The mob boss wandered behind his desk and pulled open the drawer, from within he drew a black Colt 1911 with polished wood handles. Johnny checked the magazine before resting it on the desk and walking back to his position in the front of the still unconscious unicorn. He sipped his drink, waiting for either the assassin to wake up or for Oregano to get back. As Johnny watched the clock he heard a soft groan, shifting his attention to the unconscious fellow in front of him. Twenty minutes had passed by that point.

“Wha? What the?” Mumbled the unicorn as he tried to get out of the ropes that kept him tied to the chair, his head lifted up as he blinked wearily. His vision cleared and he found himself staring at a very angry looking man, Johnny took a sip of his glass silently before he rested it on the desk. “H-How are you still alive?”

“I could ask you the same question, dipshit.” Johnny said harshly as his fingers drummed across his desk near his handgun. “You fuckin’ piece of shit, you got the balls to come to my fuckin’ bar and try to whack me in front of the woman I love!?” The unicorn’s horn began to glow, Johnny grabbed his gun and leveled it at the pony’s head. “Not so fast, fuckface!”

“You’re not gonna-” The unicorn began, only to be cut off as a bang echoed through the office. The unicorn’s ears were ringing loudly and he felt a great deal of pain from his horn, what was left of it at least.

“I’m sorry, what am I not gonna do?” Johnny asked before he set the handgun down on the desk again. The unicorn blinked as his ears stopped ringing, pain still radiating down from his horn as he tried to comprehend just what had happened. “You’re in a lot of trouble, so I suggest you start talking before my boys get back with the battery and jumper cables that I will gladly hook up to your balls.” The unicorn’s eyes went wide, even if he wasn’t sure what those things would do to him. “Who the fuck sent you? Those fucks in Manehattan trying to muscle in on my territory?”

“Your mother!” The unicorn replied defiantely, Johnny hummed for a moment before he picked up the gun again. He wordlessly approached the stallion and pressed the barrel of the gun up against one of his kneecaps, then quietly drew back the handle.

“Now, you know very well I’ll pull the trigger, so…” Johnny said as he looked the stallion in the eyes. “Who sent you?” The unicorn responded by spitting in Johnny’s face, and Johnny responded by pulling the trigger and putting a bullet in the stallion’s kneecap. He howled in pain and tried to get out of the chair, but despite his protests he remained stuck. Johnny wiped his face and stood up straight, looking at his gun with an annoyed expression. “I just cleaned this, you know? That was rude of you, making me get it dirty.” The pain in his back was feeding his actions, even as it grew duller and duller. He paused as he heard the door to the office open, Oregano and a man entered carrying the items he’d requested.

Johnny recognized the man as another promising member of his under the table business, a tall Italian American with a shaved head and a big belly. His face was rather round, and handsome despite his weight, stark blue eyes helped in that regard. He wore jeans, a white tank top, and boots covered by rubber slip overs, he also had a plastic apron on. The man’s name was ‘Big John’, Johnny’s latest trigger man. With him in the room dressed like he was, there was a good chance the assassin would be talking within the hour. Without needing to ask Oregano turned on the speakers and plugged them into a CD player that Johnny kept in his desk, loud classical music began blaring through the room as Johnny pointed to Big John.

“Here’s your job for the day.” He said over the music, the unicorn looked over at the man in the apron who was pulling on a blue surgical mask, a wild look had entered his eyes as he walked over, his six foot frame towering over the unicorn.

“Thank you…” He said simply, Johnny and Oregano walked out of the room and closed the door. As they descended the steps they could still make out the faint sound of screaming over the music that had started to blast, perhaps it would take more than an hour. Big John was known to be very thorough.

[♠]

Rainbow Dash gasped as she crawled under the barbed wire in the obstacle course, doing her best to hold her breath in the process. Animal carcasses had been scattered about, rotting in the hot sun. On top of that there was a machine gunner firing live rounds over her head, despite all that she fell back on her experience in the battle for New Liberty. She did her best to shut out the gunfire and the smell, putting all her attention on completing the obstacle course. In the beginning she had done extremely well, as it wasn’t that different from the one at the Wonderbolt Academy. The difference was that in New America she was wearing a uniform and gear, as opposed to just wearing her training uniform at the WA.

“Grenade!” She heard a male voice shout from the side, seconds later an explosion went off ten feet ahead of her. It was mainly for loud noise, despite the flash and boom Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and continued crawling. Finally she reached the edge of the barbed wire and crawled out, then began galloping towards the next obstacle. There was a log suspended over a pit of mud that she would have to move across rapidly and carefully without the use of her wings. Soon enough she did just that, rushing past it towards the next obstacle. It was more of a who than a what, four large human males in olive drab football armor started charging at her. Rainbow knew from experience that hitting them with her shoulder would be bad, so instead she pulled her wings in tight and tucked herself as small as possible at the last second, sure enough she passed between their legs.

Rainbow grunted loudly and began galloping again, ahead of her she could see Gilda waiting with a wooden training sword. The pegasus gulped as she spotted another training sword resting on the ground in front of the griffon, she knew that Gilda wasn’t going to go easy on her, she was in for the fight of her life. Rainbow scooped up the training sword and rolled just as Gilda made a swing at her, she came out of the roll and raised the sword up to catch another blow. With another grunt she brought the sword around to try and whack Gilda’s side, the griffon caught it with a grunt.

“Come on! You can do better than this!” Gilda said through a clenched beak, Rainbow Dash decided to use her speed to her advantage and used her wings to push her to the side. She hadn’t flown, just used it as a boosted jump, that gave her the edge to land a blow on Gilda’s side. “Fuck! You learn fast! Now back through the course, go go go!” Gilda ordered, Rainbow Dash gulped and turned around as Gilda took to the air. She knew that she could do it, she had outrun the wonderbolts after all. With a grunt she took off running again, this time using the same jump boost to catapult herself over the charging humans and the mud pit. Dash dropped to the ground and began combat crawling through the barbed wire as machine gun fire began flying overhead again. She held her breath as she passed particularly close to a rotting animal carcass until finally she’d cleared the obstacle.

Minutes ticked by as she ran through every obstacle she had just overcome, panting and sweating as she was covered from head to hoof in mud, dirt, and rotted pig intestines. The mare was nearly ready to pass out by the time she reached the other end of the course, Gilda was waiting there for her with her eye on her watch.

“Time!” She called out as Rainbow went past her, then looked at her friend who was catching her breath. “Well, you did about as well as any of us, but considering you’ve never run the course before and you just got out of the hospital…” Rainbow Dash smiled faintly, pausing as she saw Gilda pull a red bandana from her coat. “Now let’s see you do it blindfolded!” Gilda began laughing loudly as she saw Rainbow Dash’s eyes widen, the griffon quickly tossed the mare the bandanna. “I’m kidding, just wipe your face off, then we’ll go meet the rest of the team.”

“Preferably someplace that’s cool?” Rainbow asked as she wiped her face with bandanna, Gilda nodded and began leading her towards other buildings in the complex. “You know, this place isn’t that bad… Granted, I’ve never been shot at before.”

“Yeah, Globe Corps training is a bitch.” Gilda remarked, unzipping her jacket in the desert heat. “I see you keep the mane short now, that’s good to keep you cool, but I’d recommend wearing a hat or something.” The griffon gestured up to the shining bright sun. “Liable to get a sunburn otherwise.” Rainbow Dash paused and looked at the bandanna, then used her wings to tie it up over her head. The two of them walked past a group of humans walking towards the obstacle course, some of them wore odd digital camouflage while others wore the more common olive or tan. Now that the fight on earth had been finished it seemed that tan would become the standard uniform color, the jury was still out on digital camouflage.

“What’s with those blue helmets they have?” Rainbow asked as she noted more than a few of them wore the odd helmets, Gilda chuckled quietly.

“Those are UN guys that are going over there for Globe Corps certification, since the UN folded into the New United States they’ve gotta adhere to American training protocols.” Gilda explained, watching the group march past. Some of them had the flags of France or England on their uniforms, others had Russian or Japanese patches. “They’ve also been bringing in a lot of their VIPs, they’re a strange bunch though… A couple human celebrities, mainly scientists and professors, not a lot of politicians thankfully.”

“Why do you say that?” Rainbow asked, looking over her shoulder at the soldiers that they had just passed.

“Because they piss a lot of the guys off, self entitled assholes who keep trying to make waves.” Gilda explained, looking off towards the refugee center across town. “Unlike President Occisor, they care more about reestablishing their status, that’s why the refugee center refuses to let them in.” Rainbow Dash was a bit surprised to hear that. “A lot of humans blame the old politicians for what happened to their planet, and after seeing it, can’t say I blame ‘em.” The griffon sighed and brushed a bit of mud off of Rainbow’s shoulder. “By the way, those three team members I told you about. Two are thestrals and there’s one human, and he’s a UN VIP.”

“Politician?” Rainbow asked, Gilda shook her head with a bit of a smile.

“You’re gonna love him, he’s the son of some scientist, surprisingly laid back…” Gilda said with a smirk, the griffon began leading Rainbow towards a building on the edge of the military complex, right next to a hanger where a couple mechanics were working on a pair of aircraft. They were slightly different from the normal fighter planes that Rainbow Dash had seen from her hospital room, they had hook attachments on the tops wings and seemed to have a pair of smaller machine guns mounted on the noses.

The two of them walked into small building, Rainbow Dash was glad to feel the air inside was cool. There were five cots at the end of the room, as well as a weapon’s locker with some weapons that Rainbow Dash didn’t really recognize. The rest of the room had a small card table set up, with numerous chairs set up around it. The walls were unpainted wood, and Rainbow could see up into the rafters while a couple windows allowed natural light to fill the room.

Seated on a windowsill was a radio, Rainbow could hear odd accordion music playing from it. Hanging from the rafters were two silhouettes tucked up in leathery wings, meanwhile there was a young man seated at the card table. He had his boots resting on the table while he lounged back in his chair. She could see there was a checkerboard set up on the table as well.

“Hey, she’s back!” He called out tiredly in what sounded similar to a griffon accent before bringing his feet down off of the table and standing up. As he walked towards Rainbow and Gilda the two thestrals dropped down from the rafters and stood at attention. Gilda just gestured for the three of them to relax. “Is that the new LT?”

“Yup.” Gilda said, giving Rainbow a hard slap on the back. “Lieutenant Dash, this is Corporal Boris Petrovich our pilot, corporals Hans and Wolfgang are our fellow troopers.” Rainbow Dash smiled and waved at the three of them, thought she was a bit surprised they had need of a pilot, considering they all had wings. Perhaps reading her confusion Boris spoke up, he had a buzzed crop of brown hair and bright hazel eyes, as well as a rather pronounced jaw.

“I fly you guys over the drop zone on the wings of the plane, then you guys unhook and I provide air support, and then I fly you guys home!” He said proudly, Rainbow Dash caught on pretty quickly after that. They were drop troops, she’d heard of them in some of her sci-fi comic books, she had to admit that made her feel pretty badass. “Anyway, as she said, I’m Boris…” The man looked over at Gilda. “We’re going to continue our game, da?”

“Da…” Gilda replied with a nod, Rainbow Dash rarely ever heard Gilda speak in her native tongue, and she was surprised that there were humans that spoke it so well. From what she had heard most of that had to do with them being refugees from a country named ‘Russia’, meaning that Boris was likely a double refugee. “Anyway, Hans and Wolfgang will give you a quick course on our weapons, they’re a lot different from those peashooters the Equestrians have.”

“Ja, much better!” Hans said with a hissing chuckle, Rainbow Dash followed the two of them to the weapons locker as Gilda made her way over to the checkerboard with Boris. “Humans know how to make weapon, zhat is for sure.” Wolfgang nodded as he grinned from ear to ear, then pulled open the weapon’s locker revealing the weapons inside. Rainbow Dash had heard of human rifles, but the ones she was seeing looked different. “And weapon platform isn’t that bad either. Thestral engineering.”

Wolfgang pulled one of them from the locker and slipped the self tightening straps over his barrel, on his right side was the actual weapon and a large metal box with an odd metal rectangle bent up to the bottom. The stallion slipped two horseshoe type items onto his hooves, they had wires running up from them to the weapon as well.

“Large box holds ammunition, these shoes work the safety mechanism, clear weapon jams, and fire the weapon.” Wolfgang explained as he depressed one of the buttons, Rainbow could hear clicks repeating from inside the weapon. “This one is not loaded, obviously.” The mare was somewhat grateful to hear the radio across the room change to a bit of classical waltz, she wasn’t the biggest fan of accordion. Rainbow Dash internally berated herself for a second, she should be more focussed on the deadly weapon than the music. She watched as Wolfgang withdrew a flight helmet from inside, he pulled it on and pinned the rubber face mask in place before flicking down a darkly tinted visor.

“Helmet is plugged into weapon platform like so.” Hans said as Wolfgang plugged a cord from the helmet into a box on the weapon platform. “And now he can speak on radio and there is even aiming crosshair.” Rainbow Dash watched the stallion adjust the straps across his barrel, noting they were more like a harness for a backpack than anything else, and there was an odd short strap with a loop on the end that was most likely meant to hook onto the plane. “Very advanced gear, much better than Equestrians. Doubt they even know it exists…”

“Anuu cheeki breeki iv damke!” The thestrals and Rainbow Dash turned to look at Boris who had his hands up in the air triumphantly while Gilda was forced to king one of his checkers. Wolfgang and Hans chuckled before the thestral in the gear began taking it off and putting it back into the weapon’s locker.

“I am sure you know how to fall off of a blimp, ja?” Hans asked as Wolfgang began closing the weapons locker, Rainbow had mild experience with that, both from Twilight Sparkle’s balloon and some stunts she had done in the Wonderbolts Academy. She nodded, earning a smile from the thestral. “Good, ve don’t need to tell you how release from zhe plane zhen. Volfgang, fetch the schapps!”

“No drinking on duty!” Gilda shouted, earning a groan from Wolfgang and Hans. The two thestrals wandered off towards the card table, leaving Rainbow Dash to stare at the locker full of weapons and wonder just what she had gotten herself into. With a sigh she too wandered over to the table to sit down and watch the checkers game play out, she supposed things could’ve been worse, she could be up to her ears in paperwork.

[♠]

“Shoot me.” Dominic said quietly as he looked over the enormous amount of papers that had piled up on his desk. So far there were reports of Equestrian youths vandalizing and destroying human instruments, pony civilians nearly teleporting into the military base, and numerous other reports regarding his latest measure to help keep the border safe. “Maria, get your Mosin and fucking shoot me.” He looked up from his desk and looked across the room at Maria, she was currently sitting by the window and looking out at the city. It was a far different view inside the capitol building as opposed to the one they got from their home.

“Come on, sweetie, you can do it.” Maria said reassuringly as she looked over at him with half lidded eyes. “If you get through that pile today I’ll do something really special.”

“You’re starting to sound like Jen…” Dominic said flatly as he adjusted his uniform jacket, Maria was still neglecting to wear her fatigues, though that was okay. Dominic was just about ready to write her a discharge anyway. Maria’s smirk grew mischievous as she adjusted her tank top, it was far tighter than it needed to be.

“Nah, I just never knew how much of a motivator I was to you.” Maria said jokingly, Dominic blushed quietly and went back to sifting through his paperwork with that same tired scowl of his. Thankfully the radio was playing something nice a waltz by strauss, it sounded like the Kaiser Waltz by the sound of it. “Come on, Dominic… You know I’m kidding.”

“Yeah… I know, it’s just… This is kinda what I was talking about when I said I might resign.” Dominic said with a tired expression as he held up a paper that had landed on his desk once before, one that he had vetoed. “They’re insisting on electing me to serve at least a hundred years, or until I die… Whichever comes first, if they don’t extend it before that.”

“So?” Maria asked as she looked over at the man, he returned her gaze with a slightly unsure expression. “They like you, they want you to lead them for a long time, why don’t you?” Dominic was about to speak up, but Maria cut him off. “Bear in mind term limits were not instituted until the nineteen forties and fifties, meaning that you can’t use that ‘It’s not what the founders would want.’ argument.” Dominic was surprised by just how much she remembered of their American history class, though he was unsure on the accuracy of it. “Also bear in mind that this is New America, with a new identity and a new view on the world.”

“I realize that… But, seriously, Maria… I have other things I want to do with my life.” Dominic said in a rather quiet tone, Maria raised an eyebrow at him. “I want to spend time with you and Luna, I want to work on my military career and training… Maybe one day, I don’t know, have a family…” He sighed quietly and looked at the legislation in his hand. “If I let this pass that likely won’t happen, or it’ll be very different from what it would be if I just… Step down.”

“Who would take over for you?” Maria asked, her tone becoming serious. “Luna? Sonar? Putin? Some other nut off the street?” Dominic remained quiet as her words hit home with him, she had the chops to tell it as it needed to be when things were really serious. “You’ve never been a quitter, Dominic. You’re too god damn stubborn, me sitting here is a direct result of that… That’s the kind of dedication that people need now more than ever.” Dominic quietly sighed and looked back to his paperwork. “I’ll support you either way, you know that… So will Luna.”

“I know…” Dominic said softly as he looked over the paper in his hands, similar bills had passed in front of him, he’d vetoed them and brushed them off as jokes. It was now clear that the people of the country wanted him around for a long time, and with the knowledge that Maria thought it was right, Dominic signed his name at the bottom. “Guess I better get used to this paperwork.”

“You’ll figure it out.” Maria said cheerfully, Dominic only nodded as he continued reading over the reports and papers. “So, what was that you said about a family?” Dominic froze and looked up at Maria, she had a warm smile on her face.

“I… Uh… Isn’t it a bit soon to, you know…? Talk about that?” Dominic said nervously, Maria shrugged. “Well, if you really want to know… I wouldn’t mind a family, but… That’s a couple years down the road.” Maria nodded respectfully, then paused and cleared her throat before pretending to toss her hair to the side. With a bit of a gasp she held up a finger and opened her mouth to speak. “I swear if you make a My Cousin Vinny joke… I’ll… I don’t know.”

“Why not?” Maria asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Because I fucking love that movie.” Dominic said as he looked at her. “After Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs and Doctor Strangelove it’s my favorite comedy.” Maria raised her finger to speak again. “Yes, for the tenth time, Doctor Strangelove is a comedy!” Maria continued holding her finger up, Dominic continued to stare at her. “The part at the end where Peter Sellers stands up out of the wheelchair, that’s not fucking hysterical?”

“I mean, I giggled, but… It was meh…” Maria said with a shrug, Dominic stayed quiet for a couple seconds before he smiled and looked at his desk again. “What’s that grin for?”

“Nothing…” Dominic said, the smile didn’t leave his face. “It’s just nice having these chats again, is all.” Maria smiled as well, remembering days gone by where they had had more than a few conversations like the one they had just had. “Is there any word from Luna, she said she was getting things ready for when we go to Equestria for that big dance party… Which I’m still against, by the way.”

“You’re not the only one having second thoughts, I’m kinda afraid of what will happen…” Maria said as she looked back to the window. “Riots? Protests?”

“We’ve got the best security team in the world, Maria…” Dominic said reassuringly, the man quietly shifted a few more papers over to one side of his desk, as he had read them already and was hoping to get to the bottom of the papers. “Besides, Luna’s going to have her guards on standby as well.” Maria just hummed quietly, continuing to look out the window at the people in the streets below.

“I know… It’s just… Remember that night we were watching the news, I had a very bad feeling that things would go wrong…?” Maria said quietly, Dominic looked up as he heard a bit of fear in her voice. “Even with things on the border calmed down, I have that feeling again and I’m afraid something could happen to you, to us… To everyone and everything you’ve built here.” Dominic quietly stood up and walked towards her, standing behind her as she looked out the window the man placed his hands on her shoulder and began giving her a slight massage. “O-Oh… I didn’t know those big hands of yours could do that…”

“Just relax… Things are going to be fine…” Dominic said in a soft voice as Maria leaned her head back with her eyes closed, she felt like she was melting into Dominic’s fingers. “It’s going to be okay.” Despite his optimism, Dominic couldn’t help but hide a deep notion that what Maria had said held some merit. They were one rogue general or one crazy hillbilly faction away from an all out war, and considering how tenuously the Equestria populace held onto rational thought, it wasn’t really a matter of if, but when. Somewhere, someone would do something stupid. As if to accent his point there was a knock on his door, the man paused his massage and looked towards the doorway. “It’s open.”

A changeling private entered the room with a dossier in his magical grasp, without a word he gave it to Dominic and left. The man looked at it quietly, noting the emblem on the front. It was a pyramid with an eye inside it, the words ‘Videmus Omnia’ were printed in latin beneath it. The man quickly tucked it under his arm and looked at Maria, she was still looking out the window.

“Hey, would you mind going and getting some coffee for me? I’m probably going to be at this all day.” Dominic said quietly, the woman nodded and stood up. With a small wave she left, Dominic could tell that she didn’t like having to leave. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, far from it, but one less person knowing was better. Dominic walked to his desk and set the dossier down on it, pushing his other paperwork aside. He rarely ever got dossiers with that emblem located on the front, mainly because there was never something important enough that it made it up to him. The Dossier was from a part of the New American Government that was relatively unknown, an agency simply known as ‘Providentia’.

An agency originally set up as a framework for counter intelligence against agents of Equestria and other nations around the world, it’s ranks had increased to include ponies, changelings, thestrals, and just about every other race living in New Liberty. They were also in charge of managing reports that came through the mirror portal, though those were few and far between, and they also were a part of the covert border monitoring stations that had been disguised as clouds and mounds of sand. As Dominic looked at the dossier cover he momentarily wondered what could be inside of it, what earth shattering news could be contained on its humble paper pages.

With a stoic nod the man opened the dossier and was greeted with numerous pictures of what looked like dry docks, that seemed odd as New Liberty was a landlocked state. There were items circled in red, he took a closer look at those. It seemed there was a ship being built, but the bottom looked odd, it was flat. It had wheels. Dominic’s eyes glanced to another picture, there was a ship that looked far more complete. This one had an odd pair of poles running upwards to something, it was then that Dominic looked at a third photo that he realized just what it was. Airships, at least half a dozen of them, perhaps more, with armor plating being set up on their hulls, and places that were obviously meant for weapons. Large weapons.

Dominic set the photos down and picked up a briefing, his eyes quickly reading over every word as he felt a lump growing deep in his chest.

“...Conclusions indicate they are not intended for long distance use, as the rigging and construction method suggests they are meant to be…” Dominic stopped, his hands shaking quietly. “Mein gott…” He felt goosebumps spring up over his body, as he looked at his reflection in a nearby mirror on the wall he could see he’d become quite pale. “An invasion fleet…” The assumption had always been that if an invasion were to come it would come from the ground, tanks and soldiers could take care of them with ease. An invasion from the air, with ships and heavy weapons, was a situation that hadn’t been given much thought.

The man quietly took a moment to catch his breath, his mind clearing up as he continued reading over the papers. The report indicated it would take the Equestrians another six weeks to complete their fleet, plenty of time to come up with a solution, just in case worst came to worst. He knew they had T-34 guns rolling off the assembly line and being stockpiled, in case the factory were to be taken out in an air raid, slapping a one of those onto reinforced rabbit carriages could make for an effective weapon, but he’d leave that up to Fortress Wall and his think tank to decide. As he heard footsteps outside his office door he quickly closed the file and slipped it into his desk, one of the drawers that had a heavy duty lock installed, time had passed rather quickly. Maria entered with a smile and a couple cups of coffee.

“Lucky you got the last of the hazelnut!” She said as she set the coffee down on his desk, Dominic looked at her and did his best to smile. “I got stuck with boring regular.”

“You can take mine, I don’t mind.” Dominic said as he started working on his regular paperwork again, he could tell that Maria knew he was rattled by something, but she knew he wouldn’t tell her for one reason or another. Despite that they still lapsed into their semi normal routine of conversation and paperwork, Maria happily sipping away on her cup of hazelnut coffee that Dominic had freely offered up. It was calm, peaceful even, but despite that Dominic’s eyes occasionally found themselves drawn to his locked desk drawer. That was just another one of the burdens of command he had to face.

Author's Notes:

Here's another chapter for your guys, I'm going to be uploading a couple of the ones I have backlogged today.

As always, here's your clip of the day! I can't recall if I've posted this one before, but if I haven't, it's from a movie called 'Kelly's Heroes'. Clint Eastwood's in it,the movie's pretty funny and cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC4lVoCFZvk