The Hive was abuzz with activity, news having spread about the groups successful mission and the six changelings that were captured had become the most popular in the Hive. All six had been recognised by the Queen herself, Chrysalis having made the official announcement of the groups’ success at sunrise. The six Changelings had spent the majority of the night in the medical area, their multiple wounds being treated and Reflection was once again able to move under her own power. Nestor had acted as the spokesling, entertaining the other members of the Hive with the details of the mission, from the rescue from the cells in Canterlot castle to the night spent hiding in a farm barely three hundred meters from a local garrison.

The Humans had chosen to stay amongst themselves, discussing the events of the past few days and the Commander made sure to show off the tiara he had plundered from the castle during the assault, making sure that Stevens had a front row seat, yellow sombrero outshined. The scientists had asked a multitude of questions, ranging from what level of advancement pony society appeared to be as to how the Commander managed to acquire a pony foal. The colt in question had spent most of the night either sleeping or exploring the makeshift human base, evidently feeling safe enough around the many bipeds to leave the safety of the Commander’s arms. Many of the humans noted how the child still seemed to keep within a distance of twenty meters from Commander Chalmers, and when the scientists had found out about the circumstances surrounding the foal, questions were raised about what would become of it.

The UIP was quite accepting of foreign cultures, and the unicorn colt would have no problem with being integrated with the UIP, especially considering Commander Chalmers’s influence as well as his rumoured vast sums of wealth. The problem was who would look after it, UIP policy dictating that any alien not affiliated with the UIP or a member of an allied empire would have to be escorted by a member of the Department of Security and Intelligence. Commander Chalmers was a member of that Department but the biggest question was would he look after it properly, the Commander not being known for his nurturing personality.

These problems were currently forgotten however, as the morale in the Hive was high, bolstered by the fact that starvation was no longer a big concern, the humans having promised the Changelings a constant source of the chemical salvation in return for information and friendly relations, a deal that was readily accepted by the Queen.

The scientists were discussing their plans for the day, jokes being shared all round while the wraiths were, as usual, engaged in their own private conversation, with the exception of Corporal Jacobs who had left to visit Reflection in the medical area, the two having become good friends during the trip. Nigel had just prepared a cup of delicious coffee, having brought real beans grown back on Terra. The price he paid for them had been high, but for real coffee, not standard issue stuff, it was defiantly worth it.

Nigel had removed his helmet, the first time since arriving on planet and was about to take a nice sip of fresh mouth-watering caffeinated bevera-

“There’s an enemy army approaching, we have only an hour before they arrive!”

A frantic changeling messenger announced, zooming past the Commander before running out the other side of the room, in the process causing the Commander’s cup of coffee to spill all over the floor. Nigel stared down at his fallen beverage, a single manly tear leaving his eye. His fists clenched, and he strolled over towards where his helmet was located, affixing the war helm to his armoured shoulders.

As the wraiths and scientists scrambled around grabbing weapons and equipment Bleak Horizon dashed up to Nigel’s legs, throwing his hooves around the armoured trunks and burying his face into Nigel’s shins. Nigel sighed, pushing the anger deep, deep down like his therapist had told him to, before picking Horizon up, placing his hands underneath were the forelegs met the body (Armpits?).

“Now Horizon, I need you to stay in the Hive okay, the Changelings won’t hurt you and I’ll get one of the nurses to look after you, who knows, maybe you could make some friends with the nymphs.”

“Why, where are you going Mister Nigel, are you going out to fight again?”

“I’m going to have to, Horizon” Nigel, spotting a nurse drone (Identifiable by the white hats with a red cross on them, why they needed to wear the hats Nigel had no clue) gestured it to come over, before placing Horizon on the ground next to him, the nurse flashing the colt a reassuring smile as it arrived “I need you to go with the nurse here okay? I promise that I’ll come back and get you”

Boland came up to the Commander, handing him a rifle and some extra charge packs, the scientists having manufactured a few extra since their arrival. Nigel nodded towards Boland, the Sergeant leaving out the throne room doors, heading towards the exit to the Hive. The nurse drone prompted Horizon towards a side door leading to the nursery, the colt giving Nigel a final wave before exiting the room with the nurse. Nigel was the only being left in the room, all the other occupants having left in order to assist in the upcoming battle. Nigel’s thoughts strayed to his fallen coffee, his rage at the Equestrians building, they being the cause of its loss.

Rifle in hand he exited the room, heading outside to join his soldiers in possible the greatest test of their skills since arriving on the planet.

‘Those horses are going to pay for ruining my breakfast, if it’s the last thing I do.’

Celestia and Luna watched over the combined army from their spot at the rear, the various Pony, Zebra, Minotaur and Griffon generals and officers organizing the force into perfect ranks, all spaced out evenly, Each race sporting a thousand soldiers each, all armed with spears, swords, axes, bows, crossbows, pikes and other assorted blades. The army had stopped just short of the hive, awaiting the Princesses orders to attack, the Equestrians being given over-all command due to the fact that they lost the most to the bipeds and Changelings. In the distance figures could be spotted moving at the entrance of the Hive, makeshift barricades had been erected and the sky above the mountain was filled with changelings, all of them taking up defensive positions on the mountain side. Celestia looked over to her left, Twilight and her friends standing firm, eyeing the Hive warily. Celestia had ordered that they be spared the details of the attack on the castle, feeling that they did not need to know of such violence, however it now appeared that they would experience it first-hoof.

“Princess Celestia!”

Celestia turned towards the Solar Guard Sergeant who had called her name

“What is it Sergeant?”

“One of the monsters is approaching Princess; it appears to be wearing your Royal Crown!”

“Let us confront the beast, come guards!” Luna shouted as she flew towards the head of the army accompanied by ten of her Lunar Guard, the bat-ponies an unusual sight during the day.

“Luna wait!” Celestia chased after her Sister, the Elements rushing behind her.

Nigel strode ahead of the Hive’s defences, much to the chagrin of Chrysalis and Boland, the Sergeant not understanding how a matter of an invading army could be ‘Personal’. Nigel had tried to explain about the loss of his coffee, but all that had yielded was confused looks so he just went out anyway.

As a wise man had once said,

‘YOLO’

He was about fifty meters in front of the main defensive line, the enemy army before him, comprised of ponies, zebras, minotaurs and griffons, began to jeer, throwing out labels such as ‘Demon’, ‘Monster’ and the ponies even called him a ‘Flankhole’. Nigel got the hint that he wasn’t popular, much like the new kid at school, so he responded in the way outlined in the ISA handbook. He stopped his advance, raised both fists towards the enemy and extended both middle fingers into the air. He then proceeded to strafe the enemy lines with this gesture, making sure that everyone got a taste. This only served to confuse the enemy, the majority not possessing fingers, so he switched tactics

“GO AND GET A JOB YOU BLUDGERS!”

This served its intended purpose, elements of the army starting to break ranks and began to charge, however they stopped when a group of ponies flew down in front of him, barely twenty meters away. There were ten of the bat-pony hybrids, a large blue horse clad in black armour and sporting a tiara, much like the one he was wearing. Following shortly after the blue horse was the white one he recalled knocking out in the assault at the castle during his window entrance, the horse Princess shooting him a glare filled with the fury of the sun as she landed. Nigel was not intimidated; after all, she did not possess a bitchin’ tiara. Running up behind the white horse were six ponies, all possessing some of the most God-awful colourations Nigel had ever seen, there was even one with hair the colour of the rainbow, the Pegasus who was the owner of the hair glaring at him, no doubt itching for a rumble. The Blue horse opened its mouth, preparing to challenge him

“Foul Creature, for too long hath you terrorized our fair subjects, sowing chaos were thou treads, thou even had the nerve to rob thy Sister of her Royal Crown after assaulting her! What say you, monster, vile Demon, destroyer of peace and harmony, what say you?”

Nigel collected his breath and prepared his rebuttal

“In my defence, she really shouldn’t have been standing that close to the window and the tiara does look better on me, you have to admit”

“You and your minions killed fifty of my guards!” The White horse finally found its voice, however the six smaller non-guard ponies obviously had not been told of the castle attack, all wearing expressions of shock

“Fi-fifty?” a yellow Pegasus quietly said, the pony looking up at him with fear-filled eyes

“Oh come on! It wasn’t fifty” Nigel replied, acting as if he had been insulted

“It was Fifty-nine guards, get it right next time, I work hard at my job, some proper recognition is all I ask”

“Regardless of the number, it was a completely unprovoked attack!” Nigel was starting to wish that the white horse had just stayed quite; its voice was beginning to annoy him

“If I recall correctly, you abducted six Changelings, and we happen to be quite good friends with the Changelings, so rescuing them was the least we could do, besides, the conduct of your guards was most unbecoming!”

“They tried to invade during my Brother’s wedding!” The purple unicorn spoke up, a tiara that looked far more bling then his sitting on its head

‘Change of plans, kill them all, then take the purple one’s tiara’ thought Nigel before the orange Earth pony pitched in its two cents

“Those critters are downright dishonest!”

“And they’re very scary” yellow Pegasus again

“They almost ruined the party!” Squealed the pink pony, somehow managing to corkscrew up into the air

“Alright, how the hell did she just do that?” Questioned Nigel, a question that went unanswered

“They look downright horrendous, I shudder at the very thought of them!” Nigel assumed that the white unicorn was one of those prissy types, much like the wives of high-ranking generals

“But we still kicked their flanks, just like we’re going to kick yours Monster!” The rainbow pony punctuated its statement by flying right into Nigel’s face

“Rainbow Dash, come back here!” Shouted the purple unicorn while the cyan Pegasus preoccupied itself by trying to win a staring contest with his optics

“Your name is Rainbow” Nigel stated in a flat voice “Were you parents’ that unimaginative or just plain moronic?”

“THEY WERE NOT UNIMAGINATIVE!” yelled the flying pony before punching Nigel square in the face with its right foreleg

CRUNCH!

“Ow Ow Ow! What the buck are you made of, solid metal!?” Moaned the brash Pegasus, rubbing its hoof while retreating back to its friends

‘Real genius this one’ thought Nigel before replying In a faux Irish accent

“No, I be made out o’ wee fairy floss an’ gumdrops an’ all sorts o' yummy candy!”

The pink one gasped “You must taste delicious!” before starting too bound up and down rapidly

“Sorry Pinks, you’re not my type, and even if you were it would still be a no”

“SILENCE!”

The voice of the blue horse Boomed around the space, silencing all conversation. Nigel noticed that the bat guards surrounding it had all covered their ears and were wearing expressions of extreme pain.

“With a voice like that I had you mistaken for my ex-wife” Nigel commented

“Creature!” White horse again “You have been nothing but a source of Chaos and disharmony, and as such you are to be destroyed by the Elements of Harmony!”

“And just what are they supposed to be” responded Nigel “a Christian rock band, ready to spread the love of Jesus through music, changing my heretical ways?”

“No, Monster! They are our most powerful weapon, used to destroy evil creatures like you!” As the white horse was talking, the six mares had begun to glow, each piece of jewellery humming with power. The six ponies began to levitate, the musical hum increasing.

“And just what are they going to do, shoot me with a Fucking Rainbo-“

‘WHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS’

Celestia watched with a smile on her face as the rainbow shot out from the Elements and collided with the biped, leaving a white after glow.

‘Finally, with their leader defete-‘

The glow cleared, revealing a biped that was very much alive and well, the Elements having no effect on it. Celestia’s jaw had dropped, the army behind her had been stunned into silence, Luna’s face was scrunched up in shock and the Elements were all staring at this Biped with fear, how could it have survived Equestria’s most powerful weapon with no effects?

Nigel glanced down at his groin

‘Thank God I’m wearing armour, otherwise this would be really embarrassing’ he thought, returning his attention towards the group of horses. They were all wearing expressions of shock; clearly they expected their ‘ultimate weapon’ to do more than simulate the effects of a certain pill marketed to the older generation. Nigel took this opportunity to give a speech, switching his external speakers to max volume, his ego demanding satisfaction

“HEAR ME PONIES, MINOTAURS, ZEBRAS AND GRIFFONS! I HAVE VANQUISED YOUR MOST POWERFUL WEAPON, IT NOT EVEN SCRATCHING THE PAINT ON MY ARMOUR! YOUR LEADERS ARE POWERLESS, YOUR FORCES INSIGNIFICANT, YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS CRUSHED! YOU SOUGHT TO DEFEAT US, TO DESTROY US UTTERLY, BUT KNOW THIS! YOU MAY TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT WILL NEVER TAKE OUR-“

“FIRE THE MISSILES!”

Nigel was broken out of his speech, turning towards the source of the interruption, and nearly collapsed out of shock.

Standing a little bit out of the defences at the entrance of the Hive was Klaus, but this wasn’t what surprised Nigel, oh no. What surprised Nigel (as well as the enemy army, Princesses and Element Bearers included) was the lone Changeling, looking absolutely scared to death with what appeared to be two large boxes strapped to its back via a metal harness standing next to Klaus. The Changeling was rooted to the ground, four metal lpoles digging into the ground on either side, supports of some kind to reduce recoil Nigel guessed.

Klaus Steiner, upon completing his ruination of the Commander’s heroic speech, slapped the side of the Changeling, activating a button attached to the harness. With a massive belch of flame, swarms of rockets erupted from the boxes on the back of the Changeling, flying over the shocked ponies in front of Nigel to land amidst the assembled enemy army.

The Explosives claimed a terrible toll, with the Minotaurs and griffons being the worst hit. The survivors of the first barrage turned tail and fled, before more rockets spurted from the back of the Changeling, sowing more confusion and chaos. A Pressure filled the air, and with one last look of hatred from the princesses they, the mares and their guards teleported away in a flash of light.

“WAIT!”

Nigel looked over to the source of the voice, one of the Bat-pony guards was looking franticly were the Princesses once were, left behind in their haste to escape. Nigel began to approach the pony, a mare judging from its voice. The mare turned and looked at him, fear in its eyes

“Hey, not one more st-step Mo-monster!” exclaimed the guard, brandishing a short sickle –like blade with a leathery bat-wing.

Nigel darted towards the mare catching the blade in his armoured hand, the inferior metal unable to pierce his armour. Nigel made a show of crushing the blade in his hand, the silvery metal bending and breaking while the mare stared at the spectacle with wide eyes. With the weapon destroyed Nigel grabbed the mare’s un-armoured neck with his other hand, lifting the struggling bat-pony off the ground. He held onto its neck, staring into the mare’s pleading eyes with his red optics until the pony passed out from lack of oxygen. Nigel dropped the unconscious body to the ground, right as the twenty wraiths ran up to meet him

“Secure that prisoner, retrieve all of the enemy wounded that can be saved and execute the rest”

The wraiths moved to carry out his orders, one grabbing the unconscious hybrid pony whilst the others went about the messy business of field executions, shooting those who had been too gravely injured in the rocket attack, a large number of changelings flying over to assist with securing those which could be helped, after all, the ponies would most likely try to attack again, at least next time the humans and changelings would have hostages to complicate matters.

Nigel glanced to were Klaus was, the scientist attempting to extinguish the tail of the still-rooted Changeling, the creature thrashing around as it tried to put out the fire that had been caused by the back-blast of the rocket tubes.

Nigel turned and looked upon the fleeing enemies, some flying with the majority running. Thinking of a way conclude his interrupted speech he ran over towards an outcropping of rock, passing burnt and dismembered corpses of griffons and stood atop the rock, facing the retreating army with his arms spread wide

“FEAR ME MORTALS, FOR I AM POSEIDON! LORD OF THE SEA!”