"So..." Cole began, unsure, as he and Rachel entered the cave system's 'parlor'. They had left Cervius and the Princess to 'nerd it out', as Cole had put, in the main cavern. On the way back, they were passed by Cervius's Stryder as it made to find it's Pilot.

"What do you want to do?" Cole asked as he strode up to his Ogre and set the LMG into the rack built inside the cockpit.

"I'm going to head south and see where those ponies came from," Rachel replied as she turned and began to walk toward the cave's mouth.

"You're not taking your Titan?" he asked, scratching his helmeted head.

"And alert half the world of my movements? Yeah, no," she retorted without breaking stride, "And no, you can't come. Your about as stealthy as your Ogre."

With that final quip, the sniper faded from view as she activated her suit's active cloak. In good lighting, Cole would be able to see the hazy outline of her body but, as it were, he couldn't see her at all in the dim lighting of the natural sun roof.

"Bitch," Cole muttered as he jetted onto the back of his Titan and looked at the remains of the Comm antennas. Seeing nothing else to do he started the process of removing the remains of the antennas. No point in having them if they didn't work, right?

I wonder what those two are talking about, he thought as he glanced at the softly glowing tunnel.

--------

"Voltage travels from the suit's nuclear reactor-"

"That's possible?"

"Yep. It travels from there through a high power switching module, which takes the voltage and disperses it throughout the Titan for use-"

--------

Probably talking about how great molecules are or something, Cole deduced with a groan as he got back to the task at hand.

-------

Rachel sprinted along a branch before jumping the small gap to a neighboring branch and continuing her run, slithering around the trunks with ease. She was smiling wide under helmet as she ran along the trees. She felt so alive. With no one trying to kill her and no battle to get to, she was finally, fully enjoying the sport of parkour that she had mastered. During battles, it was a means to survive but take away the threats and it was the most exhilarating thing in the world for the sniper. Add to that the Jump Pack and the sniper had to stop herself from whooping in joy.

Course, all of her excitement didn't derail her of the task that she had given herself. She wanted, no, needed to know where these ponies came from. It would give them an insight on how advanced they were and whether they were a threat or not. Judging by Twilight's position as 'Princess', she was expecting a stone castle surrounded by similarly stone walls while smaller walls protected the castle's surrounding city.

For all she knew, however, 'Princess' could be the term given to describe the local librarian of all things. This is an alien race, afterall, she reasoned internally as she jumped to another branch, not breaking stride. She knew the ponies came from the south and she remembered Cervius saying something about the forest ending before falling asleep last night. It was as good a place to start as any.

Her cloaking had given out shortly after starting her free-running adventure. This left her armored body for all to see, if one was to ever look up into the trees that is. The armor of a female Sharpshooter was extremely form-fitting, the suit hugging her curves just right. Rachel knew it was 'just right' because of the lewd comments Cole would throw her way... or how Cervius's eyes would drift occasionally.

Wonder what they're talking about.

-------

"The rockets for the rocket salvo actually take negative voltage to fire."

"Negative voltage?"

"Yeah, it's basically when the polar fields of the emitter are reversed but the charge is forced to still flow the same direction."

"Oh! But why?"

"So as to avoid accidental discharge, of course!"

-------

Whatever, she concluded with a shake of her head. With her rifle still slung across her back, she began to climb up one of the trees with the speed and agility of a squirrel. Reaching as high a point as the tree could support her, she looked out. She discovered, to her delight, that she was high enough to see where the forest ended and the plains began. From her vantage point, she saw what looked to be a village a little bit outside the forest.

With a destination and direction in mind, Rachel clambered back down the tree and again took off over the branches. Her mind, the war-forged organ it was, constantly scanned for threats with both eyes and ears. Rachel would rather catch herself in some frilly dress than be caught off-guard by some colorful pony, or other such creature.

------

"Um, Cervius?" Twilight questioned as she looked up from her note taking. Crouched atop the Stryder, as she remember him calling it, and peering into what she assumed to be a maintenance hatch was the human in question. He had removed his helmet at the beginning of the back and forth, letting the Princess examine every inch of it, and make a quick sketch of the features, before launching into the current 'Titan lesson'.

"Yes Princess?" he asked, glancing over at the lavender alicorn.

"Do humans always wear clothing or do you just because of your job?"

She watched as one of Cervius's brows skyrocketed before realization dawned, "Forgot that your technically naked."

Twilight felt her cheeks heat up at the comment as she tucked her tail subconsciously. Seeing this, a blush began to grace the human's face as well as he cleared his throat loudly.

"Anyway, yes, all humans wear clothes all the time except to bathe or... well, ahem, procreate," Cervius replied with a deeper blush as he quickly turned his focus back to open maintenance panel atop his Titan. Twilight's cheeks burned at the combined comment of her... nakedness and procreation. While Twilight, like every other pony, was normally naked, having it pointed out by someone else was embarrassing.

"I see. Well, in Equestrian society, clothes are usually worn only for special occasions," Twilight informed the human, who had pulled out his own 'pen' and paper during the start of the back and forth. Cervius chuckled as he jotted that down into his notebook.

"Well, every second is gonna be a 'special occasion' for us then," he stated, still chuckling.

Twilight joined in the soft laughter, dispelling the previous awkwardness, "Indeed it will be."

Cervius closed the hatch on his Titan before jumping back down to earth, his Jump Pack alighting enough to slow his fall. During the lesson on the massive machine, Cervius had mentioned that a smaller form of the reactor in the Titan was used to power the Jump Pack. Such a feat caused Twilight's mind to almost implode on itself but she had pushed it aside for the sake of continuing the trade of information.

"So, Princess," Cervius began as sat down cross-legged in front of the alicorn, who sat on her haunches, "tell me, who exactly rules your country?"

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the co-rulers of Equestria with Princess Cadence in charge of the Crystal Empire, which is a protectorate of Equestria," she explained.

"An Empire is a protectorate of a Kingdom?" Cervius questioned in disbelief.

"Well, yes, most of the Empire's land was either conquered or lost to the winds of the Frozen North after the Crystal City's disappearance."

"Disappearance?"

"Yes. See, over a thousand years ago, the Crystal Empire had been taken over by a tyrant known as King Sombra, the rightful ruler having been usurped of their throne. Sombra's rule was harsh and many ponies suffered underneath his iron hoof. It was when the two Regal Sisters and their Heavenly Army intervened that the true corruption became known. Using an army of ponies twisted by the way of Dark Magic, Sombra met their challenge again and again, slowly being pushed back each time. Finally came the the siege of the Crystal City itself.

"With hundreds dead in their Army, the Regal Sisters took off to face the tyrant themselves. A long battle ensued between the three immensely powerful beings as the armies of Light and Dark tore apart the outer sections of the city. With defeat growing close, Sombra placed a curse on the inner most sections of the Crystal City so that when the Regal Sisters used the Elements of Harmony against him, the city vanished into the void."

"But it reappeared?" Cervius asked, his full attention on the tale.

"It did, not even a couple years ago and, again, Sombra threatened the city. He was finally defeated, however, and the people were freed from his curse. The city now lies has a beacon of Friendship and Love for all the Kingdom."

"I see. And what do you rule over, Princess?"

Twilight blanked at the question. What did she rule over? A library and a sarcastic dragon.

"Nothing, as of yet," she replied with a sheepish smile, "I'm still new to being a Princess after-all."

"New to... how does that work?"

"Well, you see-"

---------

Rachel was frozen mid-stride. At her command, her armor had made her nigh invisible. She breathed slowly, her muscles twitching from the awkward position she was on. Her eyes stared at the ground below, a glare of annoyance within her blue orbs.

Below her, laughing as they wrestled in the dirt, were three fillies. Three fillies, each of whom were a different sub-species, that were wearing little red capes with a blue badge. At any other moment, Rachel would have called them adorable but the burning in her legs made her think of why the hell the fillies were out here.

"Stop! You're gonna ruin my mane!" whined the white unicorn with the pink and purple mane.

"Jeez, you sound just like Rarity," retorted the orange pegasus as she spat out the white one's mane. Put the unsanitary and rude act aside, Rachel continued to observe in silence.

"Hey!" squeaked the white one, "Leave my sister alone!"

"And if I don't?" within seconds, the two were butting heads again. Rachel groaned as she rolled her eyes. If this kept up, she'd collapse from lack of blood flow.

"Girls!" the yellow one shoved her way between her two friends, her pink bow bouncing as she did, "Can ya quit your fighting an' focus on the task at hoof?"

The white one blinked as she sat on her haunches but the orange one beat her to the punch it seemed.

"What was that again?"

Rachel felt the urge to facepalm. They were out in a forest, alone, and forgot why they were out here?

"To find the things that our sisters were whisperin' about?" the yellow one replied with an eyebrow raised and a look that asked: 'Seriously?'.

"Oh yeah!" the white... squeaked as her voice struggled with a range it wasn't meant for.

"Right! The aliens," stated the orange one in what Rachel had to guess was supposed to be a whisper. She watched as the orange one's eyes darted back and forth as if waiting for something to jump out. The Pilot found her eyes rolling.

"Seriously?" questioned the yellow one in her thick accent before shaking her head rapidly, "Never mind, let's go!"

With a childish battlecry, and giggles a-many, the three fillies took off further into the woods. Breathing a sigh of relief, Rachel dropped her cloak and turned to continue toward the village. She paused, however, as a howl sounded somewhere in the forest. Glancing at the way the fillies went, the Pilot sighed as she weighed her options. She could follow the fillies and make sure they didn't get into trouble or she could continue to the forest's edge and recon the village. Her maternal instincts screamed to follow the children while her war-hardened mind commanded her to recon the village.

Another howl and the maternal instincts won. That didn't mean that Rachel didn't groan and mutter a few curses as she turned around, however. I'll just recon the village real quick when they head home, she internally reasoned, calming her inner soldier.

--------

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were trotting through the forest but their earlier excitement was slowly seeping. They could feel the oppressiveness of the forest close in as they trekked deeper into the forest. Besides their hoofsteps and the rustling of leaves in the breeze, it was silent.

"I'm beginning to think this was a bad idea," Scootaloo muttered as she glanced nervously at the surrounding foliage, darkened by the canopy. Her ears were lowered to her head, which itself was low to the ground. Her tail had tucked itself between her hindlegs as every primal, pony instinct urged her to get to open ground and find a large group of ponies.

"Stop being chicken," Applebloom retorted, even as her own eyes darted from shadow to shadow as she walked backward at the rear of the group.

"I-it feels like there's something w-watching us," admitted Sweetie Belle, who was shaking like a leaf in between the other two. Her eyes were looking at the dirt, which meant that she didn't see that Scootaloo had stepped. "OOF!"

"Hey, what's the big-"

"G-g-girls," interrupted Scootaloo, fear evident in her voice, "I think I found what was watching us."

The other two girls peeked around their frozen friend, only to have themselves freeze in terror. Their ears were pinned to their heads as the being in front of them gave a mighty, if a bit smelly, roar.

"TIMBERWOLF!" the three cried in unison as they turned and galloped away, their tails tucked firmly underneath them. The wolf moved to follow but it only got one step before three-hundred pounds of cloaked human landed on it's back. A crack appeared in the Timberwolves head and, as the cloak crackled out, a knife became visible in the human's hands. It was halfway embedded in the creatures head and held there until the light died from it's evil eyes and it stopped squirming to get away. Satisfied, the Pilot looked up to see that the fillies were still running away, screaming their lungs out.

Yanking the knife from the Timberwolf, the Pilot once more took to the trees.

--------

"So you were molded for the position?" Cervius asked as Twilight finished her tale of her rise to Princess-hood.

"I... guess that's a way to describe it," Twilight answered with a hoof to her chin in thought. As she looked back on her time in Ponyville, Twilight could see what Cervius meant. Despite the more crazy instances, it seemed like Celestia specifically chose her to deal with the issues of a Kingdom that had hundreds of ponies within it's armed services. Yet, time and again, the Princesses put their trust in six mares from a small village.

"Still, it's amazing, honestly, how much power these Princesses seem to wield," Cervius commented, his mind reeling as he still tried to comprehend the act of changing one's physical and biological make-up through magic. It seemed surreal.

"What's your government like?" Twilight suddenly asked, her ears perked to ear every word and her eyes sparkled with curiosity as a genuine smile graced her muzzle. Despite such an innocent look being on an alien face, Cervius couldn't help but smile. It had been so long since he had seen such a look. Not since...

Mentally shoving those memories aside, Cervius smiled back at the alicorn, "Well, humans, with how wide-spread we are, have a wide assortment of governments to match. We have monarchies, republics, democracies, confederations, empires, clans, dictatorships, and so many more."

Twilight had her head tilted to the side and an eyebrow raised but the her smile had grown just a bit wider at the chance to learn, "What's a republic?"

"A republic is really a combination of ideals so to understand a republic, you need to understand the others," he explained.

"Oh?" she asked, her face scrunched in confusion, to which she received a nod, "Then what's a confederacy?"

"A confederacy is a governmental idea where many different geo-political entities, countries, join together under a weak central government for mutual trade and protection. The job of the central government is little as most of the work is done by the members themselves. Really, the central government just serves as a united flag for the confederacy to rally under and as a way for the representatives of the members to convene is mass," Cervius explained.

"That seems like it would be unstable," Twilight assessed with a quizzical expression.

Cervius shrugged, "It, like all other governments, has pros and cons that allow it to work in certain settings."

"I guess," Twilight agreed as she jotted down some more notes. As she wrote, she glanced up at Cervius, "What's a democracy though?"

Cervius chuckled.

"What?" Twilight asked, puffing her cheeks in irritation at being laughed at. Cervius looked at the glaring alicorn and gave a smile.

"Nothing, let's just continue with the lesson."

"Alright..." Twilight agreed, sounding unsure. She wanted to know why he laughed but her desire to learn took the front seat. She would find out though, when the sun was ready to set, she'd ask and get her answer.

-------

"AAAAAHH!" screamed three fillies as they changed direction to avoid a leaping Timberwolf. They a 'CRUNCH!' and whimper behind them but the girls continued to run towards the forest's edge. They had been ambushed at least three times now, each time narrowly avoiding being tackled and each time hearing the 'CRUNCH!' and whimper behind them.

"There's the orchard! We're almost there!" Scootaloo cried. Sure enough, almost a hundred meters ahead of them lay the edge of the spooky, wildly grown forest and the beginning of the organized orchard.

As if the world wanted to mock the orange filly, two Timberwolves jumped out at once, blocking the girls' path. Screaming, the fillies skidded to a halt as they stared down the wood beasts with wide, terrified eyes. A snarl behind them, alerted them of the presence of yet another Timberwolf. Shutting their eyes in terror, the girls gripped each other in their forelegs and hugged each other tightly. Tears ran down their cheeks as they each silently prayed for somepony to save them.

A thump sounded on either side of their terrified huddle.

The sounds that followed were terrifying for the fillies as they the roars and whimpers of Timberowlves, the splintering of wood, and howls that faded to dying whimpers. The most impacting noise for the fillies was that of a pained cry from the presence that stood over them. The noise caused to tears to flow faster and for the fillies to huddle closer. Through it all, the presence stayed standing over the fillies, protecting them.

As the sounds of fighting subsided, the only sounds left was the crying of the fillies and the heavy breathing of their savior. Feeling brave, Sweetie Belle opened her eyes to find a weird leg covered in a type of white clothing in front of her vision. Slowly, her eyes drifted upward, taking in the straps and design of the clothes, as well as the pouches hanging off the creature's upper leg. By the way the leg was bent, Sweetie Belle assumed that the creature was crouched in a defensive position. Finally, she found herself looking up at what she could only guess to be, and this brought a blush to her cheeks, the crotch of the creature.

Deeming it safe, the creature relaxed her stance and, after the 'shinck' of a blade being sheathed, stepped back from the huddle. Following her movement, Sweetie Belle found herself squirming in the middle of the huddle to properly face her savior. When she could, she stared wide eyed and jaw dropped as four blue eyes looked back at her.

As if realizing what she was looking at, the creature reached up and first pushed back it's hood before pulling off it's head to reveal another head underneath. A helmet, Sweetie concluded, sparing the headgear a brief glance before looking at the revealed face. It was obviously feminine with it's soft features, only broken by a scar on her cheek. She had her brown hair pulled back and a soft smile on her strange lips as her weirdly small eyes examined Sweetie and her friends.

"Are you okay?" it, she, asked as she crouched down to be more eye level with Sweetie Belle. The only thing the young pony could do was nod her head slowly, staring at the creature in shock. She watched a corner of her lips quirked higher than the other corner, "That's good. You got yourselves in quite a pinch there."

Hearing the soothing voice, the other Cutie Mark Crusaders opened their eyes. They squirmed in each others' grip and repositioned to face the creature, still too shocked to let go of each other.

"A-are you an alien?" Scootaloo managed to mutter as she stared at the being in awe.

"I guess to you, I am. However, to me, you are also an alien," she replied, the smile/smirk not leaving her face.

"Awesome," breathed the pegasus filly as a small smile formed on her muzzle.

"That is it," she agreed, "but what were you girls doing in such a dangerous forest?"

"We were trying ta find the thing our sisters found out here and were hidin' from us," Applebloom replied, feeling confident after watching the conversation between Scootaloo and the alien.

"And I guess we kinda found it," Sweetie added as she smiled sheepishly at the alien.

"I guess you did," the alien replied with a soft chuckle.

"Girls?!" shouted a familiar voice to both parties, "Where y'all at?"

The girls squirmed again as Applebloom and Scootaloo turned to the new voice.

"We're over here sis!" Applebloom shouted in response.

"Thanks," Sweetie Belle said to the alien, who had put her helmet back on. She raised her hood as she stood.

"Your welcome," she replied. With a flash of blue and a 'WHOOSH!', the alien went up and back. Startled, Sweetie Belle hesitated in watching her go. When she finally looked, the alien was gone.

"Oh girls, Ah'm glad you're okay but..." in the pause, Sweetie Belle turned to face AJ. Applebloom had since detached from the huddle in favor of trying to crush her sister's neck, "what happened here?"

"An alien saved us!" Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly, waving her forehooves into the air. Sweetie noticed AJ's eyes widen just a tad while a brow shot up in confusion.

"An alien ya say? What did they look like?"

Taking this as her cue, Sweetie Belle spoke up. She was the sister of the resident fashionista, afterall, "Well, she wore a white outfit that hugged her body and had a lot of straps on her legs. Oh! She also had a helmet that had these four scary blue eyes and a hood! It was scary but looked really awesome!"

AJ looked lost in thought as she glanced at the trees above them, "Well, she's gone now so why don't I take ya fillies inside for some pie?"

"Yay! Pie!" the three fillies screamed in unison.

"But," AJ began again with an authoritative tone, "We are gonna have a talk about y'all heading into the forest on ya own. Y'all are luck that alien was around when she was."

The fillies moaned in disappointment as they followed the older mare with their heads down. Not one of their party noticed Pilot watching them from the edge of the clearing with a smile hidden behind her helmet. Satisfied, and seeing that the sun was beginning it's downward path, Rachel jumped back into the trees and began the trek back to the cave.

--------

Twilight yawned as she magicked the stack of paper and quill back to wherever she got it from.

"Here, I'll lead you out," Cervius stated as he got to his feet and grabbed his helmet. Tucking the headgear under his left arm, he held his right out to the pony. Smiling, Twilight accepted the hand and was helped to her hooves.

"You are quite the gentlepony," she pointed out with a giggle.

Cervius chuckled back, "Well, I figured since you are royalty, that I'd try to make a good impression."

"So you're saying that if I wasn't royalty, you wouldn't be this nice?" Twilight asked with a teasing smirk.

Cervius's smile lessened as he scratched the back of his head, "Well, no. I guess the only thing that would change would be the me calling you 'Princess'."

As the two began down the tunnel leading back to the first cavern, the Titan stomped slowly behind them, staying close to it's Pilot. Twilight couldn't help but glance back at it every couple of steps, making sure it wasn't about to step on her. One look at Cervius showed that, besides the smirk that Twilight was sure was pointed at her, he was as calm as can be about a multi-ton machine stomping the ground right behind it.

"How do you do it?" Twilight asked, looking back again as the Titan's foot came stomping down just a couple yards behind the pair. Her wings twitched for her to take off and get ahead of the thing but she fought that instinct. If she were to continue to be the emissary between the humans and Equestria, she would have to get used to it eventually.

"Stay calm with the Titan behind me?" Cervius asked, the smirk growing.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Yeah."

The smirked died slightly as Cervius glanced back at the Titan. By the way he walked, and the look on his face, the glance wasn't out of trepidation of being stepped on. No, Twilight knew that he was sifting through memories that, by the look in his eyes, were not the most pleasant.

"Months of practice," was his simple reply as he gave a sad smile to Twilight.

"Oh," she responded softly as she looked at the dirt in front of her. The duo walked in silence, the hissing of the Titan's hydraulics, broken by the stomping of a foot, the only audible sound between the two. After rounding the turn in the tunnel, Twilight looked back up at Cervius, "You've seen horrible things haven't you? The worst in po-people?"

Cervius smiled softly at the slip up but nodded with sad eyes that now seemed to belong to someone eons older than the young man Twilight saw. Giving him a comforting smile, Twilight reached her head over and nuzzled his side. This elicited a jump from the Pilot but, when Twilight retracted and looked at his face, she could see happiness return to his eyes and a genuine, if not confused, smile on his face.

"Thanks."

Twilight smiled up at him, "You're welcome."

They both looked forward and continued to walk in relative silence, both with smiles on their faces. Reaching the cavern, they spotted Cole curled up in the seat of his Ogre with his head slumped and eyes closed. When their Stryder shadow came to a halt, they could hear the large man snoring, causing Twilight to giggle while Cervius just shook his head.

"I can find my way from here," Twilight stated softly.

"You sure?"

"Mhmm," Twilight smirked, "Good night, Pilot Cervius."

Cervius returned the smirked as he gave a small bow, "And you, Princess Sparkle."

With a final laugh between the two, Twilight turned and started trotting from the cave, eager to get home before it truly turned dark. She also had to make sure Spike didn't eat all the ice cream... again. The alicorn gave a nod to Rachel, which was returned, when the two passed.

"Had fun nerding out?" Rachel asked as she got closer to Cervius, who was examining a pile of wood that sat where the basket used to be. Cole must've collected it for tonight, he concluded as he turned to face Rachel.

"Very. What did you do all day?" he asked as the female Pilot joined him at the pile of sticks and took off her helmet and hood.

She gave him a smirk, "Recon." Next Chapter: Unexpected Guest Estimated time remaining: 27 Minutes