Phoenix

Chapter 10

“Absolutely not.”

Dante turned around to Solar Princess, who had just heard his statement about how he was going to kill a bunch of slavers. A single eyebrow on his face was raised

“And why not? It’s a win-win for everyone!”

Celestia rubbed her face with a foreleg, sighing. “General, can you even imagine the uproar the nobles would have if they found out I was allowing an alien to run around and extrajudicially execute Equestrian beings? Slavers or no.”

Dante shrugged. “Alright, I’ll “arrest” them” Dante’s intonation turned mocking as he said arrest as he raised both of his hands, making air quotations around the word, although the gesture was lost on Celestia. She was able to figure out the meaning, however, based on his tone. “And then kill them when they resist arrest.”

“General, you may have had arrest powers back in Imperial territory, but this is Equestrian territory.”

Dante pointed an accusatory finger at Celestia. “Then you all owe me money!” Celestia took on a shocked look, bringing her hoof to her chest.

“What do we owe you money for?”

Dante waves his hands around, gesturing to the entire room. “Look around you! You all are illegally squatting on Imperial territory! You all owe me rent!”

“Rent! Why I never!” Celestia gasped out. “We are not renting this castle from the Imperium!”

“You’re right, because you illegally built on Imperial property! You all didn’t even pay taxes or fill out the correct paperwork!”

The guards watched on as Princess Celestia glared at the smirking biped “What’s your angle here, General?”

Some of the guard’s shifted uncomfortably as the smile on the biped’s face became more predatory. “I know plenty of people in administrative positions, and no one ever said I had to bury you all in bullets and blood to get my way. I could just bury Equestria in paperwork once the Imperium gets here.”

He continued grinning as he fixed the Solar Princess with his own stare. “I’m perfectly willing to forget this matter, if I were to receive your blessing to go wipe out some slavers, save some pretty little ponies and get my damned silver. And then there’s also the PR! Just imagine, headlines!” Dante shot his hands out forward, opening his fingers, imitating a burst of light.“Alien saves ponies from slavers! Princess Celestia approved operation” If that doesn’t improve your already probably amazing approval ratings, there ain’t shit in the universe that will!”

The white alicorn rubbed her eyes with her forelegs once more, sighing. She realized the general wasn’t going to drop this matter. That’s assuming he didn’t just disobey her and do it without her approval to begin with. She realized she was lucky he was even coming to her before doing anything, given his previous actions.

With a heavy sigh, she relented. “On a few conditions, I will allow it.”

Dante cocked his head slightly. “And what would those conditions be, Princess?”

Celestia hated what she was about to propose for various reasons. But she steeled herself and continued. “An official agent of Equestria must be present with you during the raid and you must attempt a non-lethal intervention, lethal action must only be taken in legitimate self-defense. That is, if the slavers attempt to kill the agent or the captives, but not you. Given what you have shown us General, you have no legitimate claims to self-defense unless you’re defending somepony else.” Celestia paused for a short moment when the alien raised an enclosed fist and raised the middle finger. Though the gesture was lost on the guards and Twilight, only being able to assume it was an insult based on the context, Celestia knew better. It was a common gesture in gryphon culture and she had seen it enough times during her time in the Gryphon Empire to know it was an insult. Regardless, she kept a straight face and continued. “I promise you, Dante, that these slavers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of Equestrian law. Furthermore, given that the only common species in Equestria that utilizes slave labor, I am assuming you mean Diamond Dogs, which means the altercation will take place underground. If I may suggest one of my sister’s guards, the thest-”Celestia was cut off by Dante suddenly speaking.

“I want maybe killer-eyes.” He stated.

“Uh… I’m sorry, who is that?” Celestia asked, the confusion evident in her voice.

“You know, the guard I was fuckin’ with the other day. The one guarding your room right now.” Celestia’s eyes widened slightly as she realized who the alien was talking about. Corporal Bulwark… the same stallion who had, without hesitation, voiced his distaste for the alien when Celestia questioned him about it. And she had made a promise with him to keep him as far away from Dante as physically possible.

As such, she summoned her couple of thousand years of political experience to try.

“General, are you sure. A thestral will be far more useful to you in underground, close quarters combat. Their ears are more keen, their eyesight far better then a normal pony’s and their teeth are no joke.”

Dante waved his hand. “Nah, I want Bulwark. But!” Dante raised a single finger. “Now it’s time for my condition. He has to understand that he has the right to refuse with no risk to his reputation or career and should he refuse then officially the question was never asked. Furthermore, he has the right to leave the joint-op whenever he wants. I am not forcing him to be here. Agreed?”

Celestia found no problem with the alien’s surprisingly liberal conditions that were actually in Bulwark’s favor then in Dante’s favor. “Agreed, however, I must ask. Why are you so insistent on the corporal.”

Dante smiled once more. “My dear Princess, I am nearly fifteen millennia old. For ten of those, I have done nothing but kill in battle after battle, countless beings have had their lives snuffed out by my hand. Trust me, I’ve learned to spot killer eyes even before they’ve had the chance to become killer eyes. Simply put, I believe Bulwark is the pony least likely to be traumatized by being forced to kill a living, breathing being. Let me ask you this, Princess, how many ponies have your guards killed?”

Celestia sighed. “The last legally justified killing by a royal guard was nearly fifty years ago. It was an unfortunate situation. A stallion snapped and murdered a thestral with an illegally concealed short sword. A unicorn guard by himself was the first one on the scene and was forced to kill the stallion in defense of himself and several other ponies present. It caused an unnecessary outrage amongst the public, exacerbated media stories and a parliamentary inquiry, but ended with the guard’s acquittal on the grounds of self-defense.” Celestia shook her head, and although imperceptible to Twilight and the guards in the room, the ancient alien caught a frown on Celestia’s face for a split second before it was banished with a smile.

“If I may, Princess, I would like to ask. There’s more to this story, isn’t there? It didn’t end in a happy ending for the pony, did it?” Celestia didn’ttry to hide the frown that plastered her face.

“You are more perceptive then you let on with your attitude. Unfortunately, yes. Due to the stress caused by the trial and parliamentary inquiry, as well as constant harassment by journalists trying to get the:” Celestia’s face became a stupid looking face that Twilight had never seen before, struggling to avoid snickering at the scrunched up face of the solar princess, due to both the fact that this was somepony she respected and the serious matter. “Latest scoop on the murderer being protected by the Diarchy!” Celestia’s tone became deeper, obviously mocking the journalists. Her face returned to normal as she looked down at Dante. “The guard committed suicide.” Her eyes looked down, a face of regret forming. “I should have done more to stop it before it became so extreme. But I was advised to allow the parliament to do its own thing. “Due process” for a stallion who had obviously committed no wrong. The “due process” he was afforded by the Diarchy is what led to his death.” It was obvious Celestia was getting angry at the thought of the guard.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Princess. You’re right, the stallion did nothing wrong. In fact, I’d call him a hero.” Twilight looked the biped in shock, she had never heard his tone be so… she wouldn’t say sad, but somber. “Killing someone, especially for the first time, is never easy. There have been plenty of media circuses, both on Earth and in the Imperium, around people who have used lethal force lawfully.”

Dante looked to the shocked Twilight and sighed. “Oh, come on Twi, way to ruin the moment, we’ve all got to start somewhere. What, you think I came out of the womb a killer? I didn’t kill someone until my thirteenth summer.”

Celestia cleared her throat, catching the attention of the two before they could begin arguing. “In any case, let’s not dwell on the past. Since we must have the consent of Corporal Bulwark before we continue, let us bring the proposal to him.” With that, the Solar Princess lifted herself from her throne, descending the stairs.

Dante gestured to the door with both hands. “Princesses first, lead the way.”

S-4292 was not in a good position. The flight from Canterlot had been a relatively organized one, but the large army was forced to separate into groups in order to prevent them being tracked back to their hive. After all, tracking a massive buzzing cloud of black equinoid parasitic insects isn’t exactly the definition of difficult.

And then add to the fact that her apparently mentally-challenged group leader decided it was a good idea to fly through a massive storm squall despite her protests.

Which is how she found herself in her current position. She had lost the group in the squall and due to decreasing energy reserves was forced to land. In a good stroke of luck, she had enough energy to transform, which turned out to be good considering she was now being forced to wander through a pony settlement. She did not have the energy to fly, but she could walk to the hive.

And, should the worst come to worst, the changeling could always slip into a brothel and get some love there. But that was something she would prefer to avoid, if at all possible.

The form the changeling had chosen to hide was a unicorn mare, her coat aqua and her mane and tail green. She had foregone the more commonly used pegasus form due to her lack of energy to fly.

‘Information takes a little while to travel, so with any luck these ponies haven’t heard the news about the attack on Canterlot… or at least not the specifics.’ 4292 thought to herself.

The settlement she had to traverse through was a small town in central Equestria, called “Ponyville”. 4292 suppressed a snort at the unoriginality of the name and continued her trot through the streets.

She suppressed a niggle in the back of her head telling her that someone had eyes on her. She may not have been trained as an infiltrator, but every changeling knew the basics of blending in with prey and how not to get caught.

‘Act like you belong.’

She continued her trotting, keeping an eye out for possible threats. If she ran into trouble, she was going to have to hoof it with her legs and make for someplace with air cover. She was too low on energy to fly.

‘Don’t try to avoid interactions.’

“Oh, hello! I’ve never seen you around these parts! You new here?” A tan earth pony with a red mane who was tending to a garden of roses said to the passing changeling. Instead of ignoring her and continuing on, 4292 stopped and responded.

“Hello! Sort of, I’m really just passing through on my way home. I was in Canterlot for a… business meeting and it’s finished, so just heading back out now!”

The mare smiled at the disguised changeling. “Ooh, Canterlot, was it as wonderful as everypony says it is? I hear there’s an amazing florist up there who teaches the best of the best! And then there’s watching the princesses lower and raise the sun and moon! Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there!”

4292 chuckled. “Yeah, it certainly is a sight to see.” The pony stuck a hoof out to 4292.

“My name’s Rose, it’s nice to meet you...”

The masked changeling took a quick glance at the hoof and then met it in a bump. “F- Er, I mean Sea Biscuit. It’s nice to meet you, Rose.” 4292 gave the mare a feigned but convincing smile, in truth the soldier was far more interested in getting out of the town then talking to the mare.

“Which way are you headed?” The pony, Rose, asked.

“Oh, out west. To a small town named “Forgotten”.” Rose turned her head, having never heard of the town. 4292 continued. “It’s very small. Most ponies call it Appleloosa but it’s a couple of miles away and independent from Appleloosa. It’s just that more ponies know where Appleloosa is then Forgotten.”

“Forgotten, what a perfect name for it.” Rose giggled, as 4292 internally groaned, wanting the encounter to be over.

“Do you mind if I walk you out of town.” Rose asked.

Although the pony known as Sea Biscuit displayed a cool, calm and collected face. The changeling known as S-4292 was internally screaming.

“Oh, no, it’s perfectly fine, I wouldn’t want you to have to go through so much trouble for me, and besides you have these… beautiful roses to take care of!” Rose waved a hoof.

“No, the roses will be fine. I’d like to walk with you!”

All 4292 could do was hesitantly agree. She wanted to get away, but wanted to avoid making the mare angry, not because she felt bad for the mare, but because she didn’t have the energy to fight.

So the two began walking out of Ponyville, with Rose leading the conversation.

Corporal Bulwark straightened up as he spotted the Princess walking down the hallway towards her quarters, the alien and the purple unicorn by her sides.

Bulwark still couldn’t help but be suspicious of the biped. What kind of alien willingly reveals it’s an alien, and yet here that General was, just going about and apparently violating operational security by revealing his species’ capabilities. Something in Bulwark’s gut just told him that something wasn’t right about this alien.

He banished the thoughts as Princess Celestia approached him, saluting. “Your Highness, your sister Princess Luna is safely in your room. She is still asleep and no further interactions beyond the… General bringing her in has occurred.”

Princess Celestia gave the guard a warm smile. “At ease, Corporal.” The stallion lowered his foreleg.

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’m glad that nothing else has occurred. However, we also have something else to discuss. General, if you would.” Celestia nodded to the biped and stepped back, allowing the biped to step forward.

“Corporal Bulwark, before I continue I would like to inform you of these very important caveats. You have the absolute right to refuse my offer, should you refuse this offer it will, in no way, affect your reputation or career. Furthermore, should you refuse the matter will be dropped entirely and officially the question was never asked. Should you accept this proposal, you also have the right leave the position at your leisure. This is a request and I encourage you to take it if you so want it, not because you feel like you have a duty to obey Celestia. Do you understand?”

Bulwark nodded, fighting back shock at the creature’s politeness. So far, he had only seen the alien harass guards and insult a princess.

“Very good. The position is simple. Twilight,” Dante gestured over to the purple unicorn, who sheepishly waved. “Informed me of a mine inhabited by Diamond Dogs. Who apparently utilize slave labor. Since both I and the Imperium despise slavery, my initial plan was to just go in guns blazing, kill all the dogs and rescue the captives, however,” Dante jabbed his thumb over to Princess Celestia. “That plan was shot out of the sky by the Princess on the basis that the nobles would get their non-existent panties in a twist over me killing a bunch of slavers. However, we came to a compromise. We attempt a non-lethal arrest of the dogs first, lethal force last and only in defense of you or the captives. However, I have to have an official agent of Equestria present with me to carry out the arrests due to fears of the nobility making a scene.”

Dante paused, looking to the guard for any sign that wasn’t following along.

“There’s a very good chance this will fall into lethal action, as Twilight has informed that silver seems to make the dogs insane and I’m slightly doubtful they’re going to let us take their silver without a fight. So there’s a very good chance you will have to legitimately kill something. So, before you say yes, I want you to think about it. Questions?”

Bulwark nodded. “Yes, do we have confirmation that there are any captives currently at the location.”

“We do not. I didn’t bother to look through any missing persons reports coming from the area that I’m certain the Royal Guard has on the basis that I’m going into that mine either way so if they don’t have captives, great! We got them before they got anyone. If they do have captives, we can rescue them regardless of whether or not we know about them to begin with.”

Bulwark once more nodded. “If I were to agree, when would the operation take place.”

“Approximately one week from now. If it was just me, I’d have already left. However, I want to give you a crash course in not getting shot in the back because you decided it was a smart idea to run in front of me while I was shooting and you not shooting me.”

Celestia looked to Dante, perplexed. “You seem absolutely convinced that this is going to end in bloodshed, general. Why is that?” Dante frowned.

“I’ve brought down enough slave operations to know how the mind of an asshole who thinks its acceptable to treat a sapient being as property works. They’re not going to give up without a fight because they don’t see what they’re doing as wrong.”

“I accept your offer, General.” The Corporal held out a hoof and Dante met it by wrapping his hand around it and shaking it.

The Corporal withdrew his hoof, staring at it. Wondering what just happened, perhaps that was the alien’s equivalent of a hoof bump.

“Awesome. Venus is saying it’s eleven in the morning. Bulwark, take a lunch and then meet me in the throne room. I’m going to teach you how not to die. Twilight, come on. I gotta set some things up and I think you’d like to see it.”

Bulwark looked to Celestia to confirm it was okay for him to go, the alicorn merely waving him off. “Go ahead. For the duration of this operation, the General is your commanding officer. So listen to him.” Bulwark saluted.

“Yes ma’am.” And off he went for his lunch as Twilight and Dante went off in another direction to do whatever the biped had in mind.

“Well…” Celestia stated to no one in particular, since the hall was completely empty. “I don’t suppose anypony will be too mad if I were to take a nap. And since Dante seems to be commandeering Canterlot as his own, I’m sure he’ll respond should any danger pop up.” With that, Celestia nodded to herself and entered her room. Floating her regalia off and slipping into her bed, being cautious not to wake the slumbering Luna. Which Celestia had to admit, she probably could have gotten involved in a fight with a god and not woken Luna, so slipping into the bed without waking her was a pretty easy feat.

Celestia snuggled herself closer to the warm body of her sister, sleep quickly taking hold of her.

“-so that’s how I got my cutie-mark! How did you get yours?” Rose asked the still transformed 4292, who really wanted the mare to just go home and leave her alone. She took a quick glance to her flank, which contained a made up cutie-mark. It was a ship’s sail and wheel.

4292’s mind scrambled for an explanation. “Uh, I… sailed with an ape pirate captain after stowing aboard a ship.”

The changeling mentally kicked herself. ‘An ape pirate captain? Who in Tartarus is going to believe that load of hooey?’

“Oh, wow! That’s so neat!” 4292 groaned, this mare was extraordinary dumb, apparently.

The soldier continued scanning for possible threats, hoping to reach the town limits so she could finally be rid of the mare. Just how far did the town extend. They were already in a forested area, quite a ways away from the main town.

4292 heard a scream to her left and jumped, swiveling to investigate.

She could only come to despise her life even more once she realized what it was.

A grey canoid stood there, gripping the unicorn mare, a paw wrapped around the muzzle.

4292 knew exactly what it was. A Diamond Dog. Changelings had encountered them enough to know they were dangerous. A lone dog outmatched even a fully-fed, fully-grown changeling, no less a starving changeling who didn’t even have the energy to fly. The only exception to this being the Queen.

“Pony, stop or other pony get hurt.” The dog spoke, their Equestrian having always been among the worst of the sapient species.

4292 knew exactly what she was going to do… She ran.

Sure, she may have been a soldier, but there were reasons why changelings preferred to fight through subterfuge and should trickery be impossible, just outright swarming their enemies. A changeling by itself had many predators. Their chitin may have been strong, but it was not invincible.

She could not fly, but she could hope she could run away. That is until another dog popped up from the ground in front of her, an attempt to intercept her. However, she was faster on her hooves andchanged direction, running back towards the initial dog, she lowered her horn.

The dog wasn’t expecting the sudden change in direction as he received the business end of a unicorn horn to his leg.

The dog dropped the earth mare as 4292 yelled the only thing she could. “Rose! Go! Get help!” Without hesitation the earth mare shot back up and began galloping full force for the safety of Ponyville.

Dealing with the Equestrians or dealing with the Diamond Dogs. Neither were particularly favorable to S-4292, but she figured she would have a better chance with the Equestrians so long as she could keep her shapeshifted form. And by no means did 4292 like this Rose, but she was the only one who could get help from other Equestrians.

The changeling found herself being forcefully ripped from the dog she had stabbed with her horn. The dog who had stopped her from running away bared its fangs menacingly in the face of the changeling, growling.

“You pay for that.” It stated.

“Sir.” Bulwark saluted Dante as he entered the throne room, the alien at some point having slipped back into his armor. The biped waved the salute away.

“No need for that, Corporal. Just Dante’s fine.” Bulwark nodded as he looked around the throne room, the only ponies present were the dozens of guards, no princesses in sight.

“Anyway, you ready for the crash course?” Dante asked as he pulled something from his pocket.

“Yes si-, er… Dante.”

“Great! You ever been teleported by a unicorn?”

Bulwark nodded.

“Awesome, I set up a recall beacon on the ship properly so I wouldn’t have to keep walking to and fro from it, from my understanding both Imperial transportation tech and Unicorn teleportation magic is pretty similar. Brace yourself.”

Dante held up a rectangular device and pressed a button.

Bulwark’s vision went white, as he quickly blinked, in an attempt to clear his vision faster.

The stallion found himself in a large room, a tiled floor, wall and roof surrounded him. This was the first time he had ever been in the alien ship that was apparently the mountain Canterlot had been built upon. Rumors travel fast across the guard.

“Alright,” Dante began. “Corporal, this is a holodeck. It’s used mainly for training simulations, although it’s also possible to use it for entertainment. That being said, this is what I’m going to use to teach you how to safely operate in unison with me so you don’t end up with a bullet in your back. Venus, start up program Digging Freedom”

The walls came to life, displaying the interior of a stone building, enclosed walls on all sides.

Dante walked up to the unicorn with one of his alien weapons in his hands and held it out to the unicorn. “This is an M4 carbine. This is what you’re going to be using during the assault. It has three fire modes controlled by the fire selector switch.” Dante flipped the weapon so the side that had previously been facing his body was now facing Bulwark, displaying a switch.

“Safe. So long as this is on safety, the gun shouldn’t fire. However, do not solely rely on this mode to not negligently discharge the rifle.” Bulwark nodded.

Dante flipped the switch up one. “This is semi-automatic. This is the mode you will be using the most. What it means is that every time you pull the trigger, a single bullet will come out of the barrel. The trigger then has to reset and needs to be pulled again before the rifle will fire again. You do this by letting go of the trigger.” Once more, nods. Dante flipped the switch over once more.

“Automatic, this will only be used if shit hits the fan and we need to start getting heads down. In this is mode, for as long as this trigger is held down, bullets will continue to come out of that barrel until the mag is done.”

Dante held out his hand as a crooked rectangle appeared in it.

“Now, to load the rifle, you insert the mag.” Dante inserted the magazine into an empty slot on the M4, tapping the bottom slightly. “Make sure it’s seated properly. There ain’t nothin’ more embarassing then taking a shot and then losing your mag because it wasn’t seated.”

Dante pointed to handle close to the back of the weapon. “Then once you have the mag inserted, you pull the charging handle all the way back,” Dante did as he said, and then let the handle go, snapping back. “And then just let it fly home.” A target materialized on a wall.

“Now, I’m going to show you what all three modes look like. This is safe.”

Dante took a stance, burying the rifle into his shoulder and then pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

“Absolutely make sure before you go into a lethal engagement that safety is off. Now, semi. Also, be mindful because this shit is loud and the holodeck imitates it perfectly.”

Dante turned back to target, took aim. Bulwark was dazed as several bangs in rapid succession sounded, brass shells clinking to the ground from the rifle.

“That was semi, this is auto.” Dante turned back and pulled the trigger, dumping the rest of the thirty round mag downrange.

The biped did a quick visual check the ensure the chamber of the rifle was empty and locked back. He turned back to Bulwark.

“Now, loading it with the bolt locked back is a bit different. First, drop the mag with this button, the mag catch.” Dante gestured at a button with his right hand, and the pressed it, allowing the mag to drop to the floor.

“Then you load another mag.” Another curved rectangle, a mag, Bulwark had learned, materialized in his hands. He once more inserted the magazine into the slot and then turned the rifle once more so the side with the fire selector was facing Bulwark. Dante pointed to a button that was slightly higher and closer to the middle of the rifle.

“This is the bolt catch. In order to close the bolt and load a round, you need to depress this,” Dante did just that. Dante then depressed the magazine catch, caught the mag in his hand, pulled the charging handle back and allowed the round to fall to the floor. He pulled the trigger and Bulwark heard a click.

“And then you have a live rifle. Now, take it and load it exactly how I showed you.” Bulwark lifted the alien weaponry in his magic, repeating the process. Inserting the mag, pulling the charging handle back and letting fly home.

The biped nodded.

“Now a few rules before I push you into the combat simulation. First rule: Always be sure of what you’re firing at. Bullets are no joke and they can overpenetrate and keep going. So it is possible for bullet to kill something you didn’t mean to kill. You’re responsible for every single round that comes out of the end of that barrel. Second: Don’t muzzle anything you don’t intend to destroy. A well-made and upkept gun should never go off unless the trigger is pulled. However, it’s better to be safe then for your buddy to end up with a bullet in his brain because you were swinging the damned gun around the room like an idiot. Got it?”

Bulwark nodded.

“Fuckin’ A. Right, now, follow me.” Dante ordered the stallion, as the made their way over to another wall, a doorway suddenly appearing. Bulwark glanced down the hallway, noticing it was quite narrow, with limited cover. A few solid wooden boxes.

Dante continued.

“Now, the program is simple, we move up the hallway against enemy fire. You get shot, you lose. The objective is to hit the bell at the end of this hallway and that room on the other side. We start here,” Dante gestured to the room they were now occupying. “And then we start advancing. I’ll lay down suppressing fire as you move forward. Once you get to concealment, and there’s a difference between cover and concealment, those boxes are not cover, you take suppressing fire over until I reach the next layer of concealment. The we leap frog over each other. End objective is for you to ring that bell at the other end of the other room. Once we reach the room, we’re going to be in close quarters combat. So be ready for some vicious fighting. We’re fighting against Humanoid AI so they’ll be using guns as well.”

“Uh, sir, shouldn’t I get some practice on the… M4 first?”

Dante smiled. “Normally I’d say yes. But you know what the saying is. Necessity is the mother of invention and desperation is the bastard father.”

“Uh, no sir, I can’t say I did know that.”

Dante shrugged, and Bulwark felt some weight around his sides. He glanced and realized several pouches containing the curved rectangles, or mags, were now on his armor.

“Oh, yeah, one other thing. The bullets are going to feel real, but don’t worry, it’s just the tech firing your neurons to make you feel like you got shot. It won’t actually let you go into shock. Alright, Venus start the sim!”

“Wait, wh-” Bulwark was cut off as something very fast past his head, as he ducked for cover. Dante had already leaned over the edge of the doorway with a new rifle and began firing. For the duration of his shots, there were no returning shots. Bulwark was still on the floor already regretting the agreement.

He noticed the biped dropping the mag in his rifle and replacing it with another one, having pulled his entire body back around the corner.

He started shouting at the pony, however Bulwark’s ears picked nothing up from the sheer loudness of the gunshots.

Apparently realizing this, the alien began waving his hand forward, telling Bulwark to advance.

Bulwark collected his hooves under him, paused and took a breath… then nodded at Dante.

The biped took his nod to mean he was ready, and leaned back around the corner, putting down shot after shot.

Bulwark shot off from his cover charging for the concealment of one of the boxes. His mind was so focused on getting to concealment he was paying no attention to the other doorway.

He slid in behind it and raised the rifle from behind the barrel with his magic. He tried to fire the rifle, but for some odd reason, the trigger wouldn’t move.

In a panic, he brought the rifle back down to his eye level, trying to figure out what happened.

His brain was firing all cylinders as he examined the alien weaponry. He flipped the rifle over and examined the left side, his eyes rested on the fire selector switch. His eyes widened as he realized what happened, he had left the safety on.

Bullets were cutting through his cover as he slammed the switch to the automatic fire option and raised the rifle, pulling the trigger back.

Dante sprinted down the hall for the next bit of cover, but since Bulwark had decided to hold the trigger down, his rifle was soon out of ammo, forcing Dante to dive to a prone position or receive a simulated round to his body.

Bringing his rifle back up to bear, he began firing more rounds downrange in a controlled manner.

“I said use semi! Not auto!” The biped shouted to the unicorn, who was now struggling to remember just how he had been shown to reload. He dropped the magazine and retrieved another one from one of the pouches on his armor. He inserted the magazine and attempted to pull the charging handle back, it just limply fell back, no force present.

Bulwark was panicking, it was how Dante had shown him.

“Bolt catch! Bolt catch!” Dante yelled over the gun fire. Bulwark glanced over to the left side of the rifle once more and saw the small button. Putting pressure on it with his magic, he felt the bolt slam to the front of the rifle, while also taking the moment to switch the rifle to semi-automatic.

He raised the rifle back to where it had been, and fired once, Dante shot up from his position as the unicorn continued firing. The alien slid in behind the box Bulwark was taking cover behind.

“One other thing I forgot to mention, buddy! Watch your crossfire!” The biped shouted over the explosions, patting the unicorn on the shoulder.

“What’s a cro- Dante!” This general’s flippant attitude was really making him mad, as the biped shot back out from behind the box and continued advancing. He returned to providing his partner cover fire. “Son of a!” He shouted.

As Bulwark was lamenting his comrade’s Nightmare Moon – may – care attitude, Dante was sliding in behind another one of the boxes. Raising his own rifle, he began laying down covering fire. Bulwark saw the moment and bolted. This time reaching the next box with no trouble. He raised his rifle and fire one shot, two shots. Three shots… no, wait, his rifle clicked.

Bulwark lowered the rifle once more his eye level. As he was no longer laying down fire to cover Dante’s approach, the marine had to once more dive to prone, but this did not help, as a round slammed into his shoulder.

Just as suddenly as the shooting had began, it ended, as Dante picked himself up and dusted off his shoulder. The shot hadn’t actually done anything to his armor, the simulation just fired up his neurons informing him that he had been struck in that area.

He calmly walked over to the still struggling unicorn, who had no idea what happened to the rifle.

“Rifle malfunctioned, huh?” Dante asked, the unicorn looked up to him.

“I’m not sure, one minute it’s firing and the next it’s clicking every time I pull the trigger. I even checked the mag and there’s still rounds in it. What went wrong?”

Dante nudged the unicorn a bit, grunting. He took the rifle from the unicorn’s magical grip and racked the charging handle, the round flying out of the chamber. He let go of the handle, aimed the rifle in a direction away from them and fired. This time the rifle functioned fine.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. Malfunctions can occur. Could be bad ammo, light primer strike, so on and so on. Only thing you can do is clear the round and get a good round in there. Come on, I’ll show you how to clear the malfunctions that are likely to occur. Then we’ll run the sim again. Then once we’re done, I’ll buy us some drinks.”

Bulwark grinned, maybe this general wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Only if you invite the barracks, sir.”

The biped grinned. “Tell ya what, Corporal, you ring that bell on the other side before we’re done, and I’ll invite the whole damned guard, you day shift guys and the night shift guys.”

Bulwark nodded.

“Great, Venus, simulate a double feed in the M4.”

“Let me go, let me go you flankholes!” 4292 wriggled in the arms of her captors, having been reduced to being carried like a lapdog, still in her pony disguise.

The diamond dog who was carrying her was the one who had cut off her escape, as the one she impaled in the leg with her horn was being helped along by some of his comrades.

“Pony annoying”

“Fuck you!” 4292 shouted at the dog, as one of the other dogs grunted in agreement.

“Can’t we just eat her?”

“I’ll fucking kill you if you come near me! Let me go!”

“No. Pony strong, she make good worker.” The dog she had injured spoke back to his packmate.

“Ugh, you’re going to regret this! Rose is going back to town and she’s going to get help from the Royal Guard. Let me go!” Although 4292 was also undoubtedly wanted by the Royal Guard, she had better chances with the Royal Guard then she did with the cannibalistic Diamond Dogs. And if she could maintain her pony form long enough, she could slip away from the guard after she was freed.

Almost in unison, the pack of dogs began laughing.

“Royal guard not come to den. They scared of us.” Although the soldier was remiss to admit it, she knew the Royal Guard were pretty terrible fighters, and knowing their track record of winning she wouldn’t be surprised if the dogs were telling the truth about the guards not coming. But maybe… just maybe… Luna’s stars would align in her favor.

In the meantime, she continued struggling to escape her captor’s grip.

Bulwark slammed the bayonet that had been attached to his rifle into the gut of the hologram of what Dante had called a Humanoid. The being itself featureless. The creature gave a death rattle as Bulwark shot a round into its gut to ensure it was indeed dead.

He turned around and watched Dante slam a Humanoid into ground, crushing what was supposed to be its head with his armored foot.

He made a wave towards the button on the other side of the room, gesturing to Bulwark to continue on and hit the button to end the simulation.

They had been at this for hours, Bulwark could feel the sweat coating his body, and he could tell Dante’s body was also sweating in an attempt to cool down. But this was it, if he managed to hit that button without taking a bullet or a wound, free booze galore.

He took an aimed shot at another humanoid, as Dante followed at a slower pace behind him.

The room was much longer then he had initially thought. At least two hundred meters, but this one had proper cover. Not that Bulwark was worried about that now. He had learned the simulator’s moves. If they stayed behind cover for too long, it would keep sending out more of those humanoid creatures to swarm and overwhelm them. So while Dante was bringing up the rear, Bulwark was at full gallop.

However, he crashed into on of the humanoids who popped up from behind cover, toppling the unicorn over.

However, with luck, Bulwark landed on top and quickly crushed the creature’s head his hoof while yelling.

“Cunt!” He may have also picked up some of Dante’s verbal tics.

He recovered from the tackle and raced to finish the course, as bullets continued to fly around him. The simulation had been failed many times. Either from Bulwark shooting Dante, Dante getting shot because the unicorn was too slow or a variety of other things.

But not this time. Bulwark slammed into the button, as a buzzer sounded. All humanoids on the field froze what they were doing and then disappeared.

Bulwark collapsed, his chest heaving. How he had stayed up that long, he had no idea. He may not have physically been holding the rifle, but holding it up all day and working against the recoil still was work.

“Congratulations, Bulwark, the guards are gonna love ya. “All hail Bulwark! Free booze!” In any case, that was a good run. Took ya a while but you managed to not blue on blue me. Must have been really hard, you really seemed to enjoy putting bullets in my back.” Dante grinned as he looked at the unicorn stallion.

Bulwark in response, continued gasping, as he clumsily pulled his helmet off, revealing a dark brown coated stallion with a black mane.

He raised a single hoof. ‘Fuck off, ya cunt.” He gasped between breaths.

Dante raised a fist and then raised his middle finger, returning the gesture. “You fuck off, faggot.”

There was a pause, the only noise being the exhausted stallion.

And then both broke out laughing.

“In any case,” Dante spoke through the laughing. “I suppose I owe y’all a shit ton of booze.”

The simulation disappeared, once more revealing the tiled floors.

“I’m afraid that will have to wait, Dante. Miss Sparkle has some important information for you.” A disembodied female voice spoke.

“Who was that?” Bulwark questioned.

Dante gave a small wave with his hand. “Venus, a combat AI. Venus. Patch her through the comms system.” Dante spoke to the ceiling, as Bulwark watched on.

“Will do. Miss Sparkle, if you could just speak into the mic. Yes… yes, that one.”

“Uh… Dante?”

“Yo, what’s going on Purple?”

“Um… well...” There was a bit of hesitation in her voice.

“Seriously, Twilight, what’s going on?”

“There’s been a… slight snag in your plan. You know how we didn’t know whether or not there were any captives in the Diamond Dog den?”

“Yeah.” Dante raised his eyebrow. “Spit it out, Purple.”

“Well… Princess Celestia received a letter from my assistant, Spike, informing her that we… kind of… do know that Diamond Dogs have a captive.”

Dante cursed to himself.

“They attacked two ponies on the outskirts of Ponyville. According to the Royal Guard report Spike attached to the letter, two ponies, a non-resident unicorn mare named Sea Biscuit and an earth pony named Rose were attacked while walking. One of the Diamond Dogs seized Rose and Sea Biscuit attempted to run away. However, her retreat was stopped by another Diamond Dog. She turned tail and… impaled the Diamond Dog who had captured Rose in the leg, forcing him to drop her. She then told her to run and get help.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Uh… Rose… got help… about twelve hours ago… Dante.”

“And they waited that long to escalate an abduction against a force they’re ill prepared to deal with. I mean, I know they don’t know about me, but what took them twelve hours to escalate this to government?”

“Well… the local guard contingent in Ponyville attempted to intercept the Diamond Dogs before they made it back to their den. But they weren’t able to find them.”

“Fuckin’ A… Venus, do we have the resources necessary to make mark one battle armor.”

“We do.” Came the reply form the AI.

“Great, begin making some in Bulwark’s dimensions. Helmet, neck, torso and legs. Bulwark?”

“Aye?”

“Can you keep fighting?”

“Aye, I think so.”

Dante began walking towards a door. “Great. Follow me, we’re heading to the armory to get you stocked up on armor and supplies. We’re hunting dogs.”

“Dante, how are you planning to get to Ponyville.” Twilight asked over the intercom in the room.

“Don’t you remember, Sparkle? The Raptor!”

4292 groaned as she was thrown into a cage, hitting her head on the ground and eventually rolling to end up on her back.

She laid there with her eyes closed for a few moments, still a bit dazed from the forceful toss.

“Dickhead.” The disguised changeling muttered. She felt something prod her side. She peeked open of her eyes, spotting a fairly emaciated stallion looking at her.

“Excuse me, miss, are you okay?” He whispered to her. 4292 rolled over onto her back, and shakily got to her hooves.

“Yeah. Where are we?”

The stallion sighed as 4292 realized there were even more ponies in the cage. All of them bearing signs of abuse. Some of them had scars, there were marks around the majority of their necks. They ranged in age, sex and race. There were unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies.

“We’re underground. I think in an abandoned silver mine.”

4292 rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Awesome.” Was all she could mutter. Pretty soon she was going to be running out of magic and would be unable to keep her form.

“Any news from the outside? How is Equestria doing?” One of the ponies whispered to the changeling.

“You really don’t know?” She shot back.

Another pony shook their head. “No, the last pony who was brought here was brought months ago. Some of us have been here for years.”

Upon hearing the news, 4292 realized a very important fact in her survival. None of the ponies here knew about the changeling attack. Which means if she could endear herself to them, she could survive off that love.

Well, she’d have to figure out how to do that.

“This is absolutely amazing! I’m about to ride in an alien ground craft! Ooh! I’m so happy!”

Twilight could barely keep her excitement at tolerable levels as she clambered into the back of the… well, Dante had called it a truck.

Dante dropped a couple of duffel bags into the bed of the truck and then slid into the driver’s seat of the truck, slipping a rifle and a shotgun into a rack that had been fitted between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat.

“Yeah, that’s great and all, but why do we have seven ponies coming along with us?” Dante gestured to the other five ponies that he had learned were called the Elements of Harmony, apparently national heroes, and Bulwark The dark brown stallion now sporting the armor Dante had made for him. His neck, legs and torso were covered with a black material with an odd weave in it.

“I understand you and Bulwark. Bulwark because I need him to do this op with me and you because… well… you’ve basically been glued to my leg. Why everyone else?”

As all of the ponies clambered into the back, with the exception of Bulwark, who walked to the right side of the truck and opened the door, slowly but surely making his way into the alien craft designed for creatures significantly larger then he.

“We figured we’d hitch a ride. While you and Corporal Bulwark were off at the armory I met up with the girls and they heard about this, and they all wanted a ride… well, Rainbow Dash just wanted to race it.” Twilight stated, rolling her eyes at the last sentence.

“Heck yeah I want to race this! It looks a bit too cramped for my tastes. By the way, Dante what speeds does this thing reach.”

Dante inserted the keys into the engine and turned them away from him, as something cranked to life.

“Well, the stock one is zero to sixty in about seven seconds. Speedo goes all the way to one-forty. This one, though. It’s been seriously upgraded. The engine itself is capable of sustaining speeds up to five hundred miles per hour. But the chassis and wheels can only keep a sustained speed of around four hundred miles an hour. And if I redline this, I can get it zero to sixty in less then a second. Zero to one-forty at three seconds. Max speed that it’s been governed at is four-fifty, that takes six seconds to reach.”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped. Sure, it was no where near the speeds she was capable, but it was fast. “How does something this big and... clunky even go that fast!” Dante knocked on the hood of the truck.

“Nuclear!” He responded.

“Nuclear? Like a nucleus of a cell?” Twilight questioned

Dante looked back to the unicorn who was looking at him curiously in the backseat.

“Twilight, you live in a medieval society, how in the ever-loving fuck do you even know what a cell is? That shit took Humanity a long time to find out.” Twilight merely shrugged and sheepishly grinned as Dante rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Whatever, not the weirdest thing. Hey, Rainbow!”

“Yeah?” The blue pegasus responded.

“So, are you riding in the truck or are you flying all the way to Ponyville? Because we gotta go! We got dogs to kill an-”

“Arrest.” Bulwark cut Dante off, resulting in a glare from the biped.

“Shut up, fuckface, we have dogs to kill,” Dante put an emphasis on the word “kill” while glaring at the corporal. “And ponies to rescue from slavery!” Normally the ponies would have been shocked at the open admittance of a being’s plan to commit murder, but they had seemed to resign themselves to his abrasive personality and speech.

“I’m flying, I don’t do well in cramped spaces.” Rainbow Dash waved her hoof, as Dante grabbed something from the truck and gestured the cerulean pegasus over to him.

As she approached him, he held up what appeared to be a collar with a coiled tube hanging off of it.

Before she could ask just what he was doing with a collar, he started his explanation.

“No, this isn’t a collar. This is a throat microphone. It picks up vibrations made by the voice box and is best used for windy environments, and if you’re going to be flying, I figure it would be best if we’re able to communicate with each other.”

He held the microphone out to her.

“Now, it’s your choice, I can’t force you to wear it, but it would work best. That way if there are any threats to either you or us, we can correspond a defense.”

“Why are you worried about being attacked? Equestria’s pretty peaceful.” Rainbow Dash asked, a response that received a blank stare from the biped.

“Pony, you do realize I woke up in the middle of a hostile invasion of your country with natives firing magical goo shit at me and am now responding to a call about a pony being kidnapped to be used for slave labor right.” Rainbow rolled her eyes and muttered something, still hovering in the air.

“Fine. But I’m taking it off if I don’t like it.”

Dante shrugged. “That’s fine, now come over here so I can put it on you.” The pegasus slowly made her way to the biped, who slipped the seemingly too small collar over her neck with no issue and then grabbed the piece that was dangling off the main collar.

“The collar itself is made of nanitic material, so it will adjust to your neck size so as to not be choking tight or uncomfortable. Now, I’m going to put the ear piece in your ear, is that okay?”

The pegasus nodded as the biped maneuvered the ear piece to her ear.

Rainbow felt something expand in her ear. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just there. In fact, Rainbow had to admit it wasn’t that bad.

“The ear piece is also nanitic in nature, so it adjusts itself to you ear.”

With that Dante slapped the car once more, causing the ponies present to jump as small bit.

“Everyone read to go?”

Multiple positive responses were enough for Dante, as he closed his doors.

“A’ight, road trip!” Pinkie Pie shouted from the backseat, with Dante nodding.

“Yep! I’m the first Human to do a road trip on this planet, took me long enough.”

The ponies in the car watched as the biped manipulated various levers and the wheel the wheel to get the truck positioned correctly.

“Venus, open the bay doors, will you?”

At the far end of the room, a straight, a large door began opening.

“Hey, Rainbow?” Dante asked, through his own microphone.

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash’s voice through the speakers of the car, as some of the less familiar with the alien’s communications technology looked around.

Twilight noticed something in the mirror that was facing the back of the vehicle, an evil grin growing on Dante’s face.

“Threetwoonego!” With that, Twilight heard the truck’s engine roar to life, as it propelled forward, pushing everyone on the truck into the backs of their seat, Fluttershy and Rarity screamed bloody murder at the sudden acceleration, Applejack began cursing, Twilight grimaced and Bulwark had a bored look on his face. After the day in the simulation, the human didn’t surprise him anymore. Dante himself was cackling maniacally at the chaos in the cabin and Rainbow Dash rushed to catch up to the truck, which had already left the truck and hit a green pasture at the base of the ship that was acting as a mountain.

“Not fair, you cheated!” The cerulean pegasus shouted over the radio.

Twilight could only cringe harder as Dante’s laughter grew stronger, the truck propelling itself farther into the night.

However, he soon calmed down.

“Chill, RD. You’re flying so you’ll beat me anyways. But if you do get tired, feel free to drop into the bed and rest.” The biped glanced into the back seat, taking in the various reactions of his passengers. Smiling once more, he decided to mess with them again.

“I hope everyone used the bathroom before we left, because I ain’t stoppin’ ‘til we get to Ponyville!”

Author's Notes:

I think we all know Dante isn't actually planning to try and arrest the Diamond Dogs at this point.

Sea Biscuit is a reference to the story by Dropbear: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/158214/ponies-pirates-and-peculiar-psychopaths

Go and give it a read if you haven't already. It's a great fic.

Again, as always, if you liked and favorited this story, please tell me why. If you disliked this story, please tell me why you disliked it. Thank you very much. I also enjoy criticism as it helps me to improve. So if you do downvote, please leave a comment letting me know why. Be it grammar, spelling, pacing, or you just fucking hate the character!