“Blitz is locked, loaded, and ready to go.”

“Bull here is itching to get a move on.”

“Nitro is fit and ready to kick, ass. How about you Major?”

Cobra stepped forward and adjusted his weapon strap before fixing his chemical mask to his face. Voice muffled he looked at his three squadmates. “I’m just as eager as you boys are,” He said, his tone sounded ragged as if he’d inhaled plenty amount of smoke in his days.

Blitz, a large burly guy you’d probably wouldn’t want to fuck with, pulled a mag from his AR and checked it one last time before sliding it back into his rifle and wracking a round. “Heh,” His deep voice chuckled, “Who’d a thought we’d be entering the rift to abduct one of those things.” He smiled behind his mask.

“Yeah,” Nitro agreed, his smaller and slimmer body shifted his tactical vest a bit. “Makes me wonder about them old farmer stories about aliens abducting cattle,” He says before glancing over his shoulder. “Hey, Major, can you help tighten my pack.”

Cobra nodded, not really wanting to get involved with the chit chat, his mind more focused on the mission planning. He leaned forward a bit and pulled a couple straps till the lad in front of him cursed and told him, sarcastically, that he was crushing him.

“Strike Team, this is Central,” Came the deep voice of the Commanding Officer in each of their earpieces. “The Rift will be opening in E.T.A twenty seconds.”

“Nice,” Bull muttered quietly, like Cobra, he wasn’t much for chit chat.

“What’s the weather like on the other side?” Blitz asked, his finger on the ear piece.

“Cloudy with a twenty percent chance to rain, time of day is relative to our midnight. Not much has changed since briefing.”

“Damn.” Nitro muttered.

“Looks like you ain’t getting that afternoon tan,” Blitz snickered as the large metallic doors in front of the screeched open. A bright, navy blue light filling the dimly lit airlock the four men were in.

Nitro shrugged. “Hey man, one can hope.”

“Yeah and knowing your pale ass, we’ll be spotted the second we step foot into the rift,” Blitz laughed.

“And knowing your black ass you’d blend right into my kitchen,” Nitro retorts with a smirk, the larger man glanced back and laughed.

“Alright girls, focus!” Cobra ordered as he cracked his neck.

“Strike team, you’re now clear to enter the Rift. May the lord guide you through to the other side, Godspeed.”

Cobra and his men crouch ran out shortly after jumping through the rift towards what looked to be a pastel colored building. Shoulders making contact the wall, the four men hugged against it and glanced at one another to check if everyone made it. Taking a brief moment Cobra glanced about their surroundings, just as the egg heads predicted. The four operatives were right in the middle of what looked to be a town, waiting for a few silent moments as he listened, he finally worked the urge to peek around the corner. They were on the edge of what looked like a shopping district, further on he couldn’t really tell due the dim moonlight not revealing much to him.

Taking a deep breath, he took his NODs and lowered them over his eyes. Turning them on he adjusted the settings until he could just make out the silhouette of their targeted area, a distant castle. Suddenly, Cobra felt a light tap on his thigh. He turned back and saw Bull with his NODs holding up the number three before pointing towards their seven o’clock, in the distance he could make out three native civilians casually strolling down the street.

The sight of them made Cobra frown a bit, something about their anatomy made it so he just couldn’t take them seriously. In all other circumstances they resembled a small pony you’d find on a farm, except for the fact that these ones had larger eyes and appeared thicker and more rounded in some areas. Not only that there were different breeds, such as the ones that could fly or the ones that the horns that gave the psionic abilities. Yet, because of their physical features, they almost seemed relatively harmless and almost adorable in certain aspects.

But due to specific circumstances, his men were not meant to be seen. Therefore they needed to change positions immediately, glancing back at Bull he pointed to Blitz, who was covering their rear and gestured for them to proceed down the wall.

Bull nodded his head and tapped Nitro, who then tapped Blitz and transferred the orders. Within a few seconds the four men were moving down the wall away from the three natives. A few moments past and the four men came upon an alleyway, breaking formation briefly, Cobra kept his head low as he dashed up to Blitz.

“Alright what’s our position?” He whispers.

“From the aerial mapping we got from the drones, I can safely assure you we’re right here.” Blitz tapped the map, showing Cobra that the four of them were somewhere, if not exactly, in the center of town. “We’re about two clicks from our target destination.”

“How long do you think it’ll take for us to get there?” Cobra asked as he glanced at the map then down the alley way, there were a couple dumpsters and garbage they could take cover behind.

Blitz shrugged. “Depends on what we run into. If we can get there smoothly without any interruptions, I’d says about ten minutes or so.”

“Sounds good to me, though recommend we stick to the back streets and alleys.” Cobra pointed his route on the map. “May take a tad longer but it’s most likely the safest and covert path.”

“Agreed,” Blitz nodded, “I just hope we get this done so I can get back and get some extra Zs” He jokes.

Cobra lightly patted his back. “Believe me, we’ll be home before we know it.” He muttered before glancing back at the other two and gesturing for them to come up.

The two squadmates nodded and stepped towards the two. “So what are you two love birds talking about?” Nitro asked.

“We’re talking about what we’re gonna have for dinner.” Blitz replied, causing the other guy to smirk.

Cobra smiled a bit before glancing at the other two and briefly gives them a run down of the path they’ll be taking. “Bull, I need you to cover our ass, if anything seems out of the ordinary or we’re spotted, speak up. Nitro, you’ll assist Bull in keeping watch. Once we reach the walls I’ll need you to create an entry point for us.” Nitro nodded his head and gave a thumbs up. “Alright, remember, stay silent and invisible.”

“Y’know, I prefer the term, invisiblessed.” Nitro muttered.

“Man, shut the fuck up.” Blitz rolled his eyes.

“Both of you!” Cobra hissed and moved in behind Blitz. “Blitz, you have the map, therefore you’ll be point. Let’s go.”

With the night in their favor, the four men reach the exterior walls at their estimated time. Cobra gestured to Nitro who immediately unslung his bag and took out what looked to be a small crossbow with a cable and hook attached to it. Loading the hook, the man took a few moments to aim before squeezing the trigger and firing the hook and cable over the wall.

Taking the remainder of the cable in hand, he tests it to make sure it was secured properly before stabbing a stake into the ground and fastening it. “Just to be safe, I recommend we each go up one at a time. No telling if it’ll come loose or not if we’re all on it.”

“So if I fall, will you catch me?” Blitz asked.

“Man, fuck no. With your fat ass I’d rather try and catch a boulder,” Nitro said as he takes his belt hook and latches it to the cable. “Besides, I’ll go up first seeing that I most likely weigh less than all of you.”

Bull snorted. “Well be my guest, Sunshine. We’ll keep an eye out for any of the locals,” He said.

Cobra nodded and said, “Holler if you see anything, and if worse comes to worse, get back down here as soon as possible.” Nitro gave a thumbs up and finished strapping himself down, grabbing the cable, he started his ascend up the side of the wall.

Cobra gestured at the other two to take cover in the nearby shrubbery. As seconds counted a way into minutes, Cobra notices the faint light of Nitro’s lighter flickering from above as the man swayed it back and forth. Reaching into his own pocket, Cobra ignites but quickly extinguishes his own lighter as a response. He then glanced back at the other guys behind him. “Alright, I’m going up now, you two keep an eye out for my signal, Blitz you’ll go up next.”

Nodding, Cobra dashes out of the bushes and over to the cable, latching himself to it, he starts his ascend up the wall. Reaching out he takes Nitro’s hand and is assisted up onto the stony surface, overlooking what seemed to be a city and even more a valley in the distance.

“Holy shit,” Nitro muttered quietly as he adjusted the distance on his NODs. “We’re on top of a fucking mountain.”

Cobra took a few deep breaths. “No wonder the air’s so thin,” he says half tempted to take off his chemical mask, but knew that’d be the stupidest thing he could ever do. Fishing out his flashlight, he hangs it over the edge before quickly flashing it at the boys before. Within minutes Bull, and then Blitz, came clambering over the edge and onto the wall.

“Alright, good, we’re all here.” Cobra muttered quietly as the four men went back to back, giving themselves a three hundred and sixty degree view of their surroundings. From the look of it, no guards were in their a immediate vicinity, but off in the distance, handful of patrols could be seen being made. “Okay, Blitz. I need you to remind who we’re––” Cobra stops when he hears a faint sound.

Blitz blinked. “I’m sorry, Major, but wha––” Cobra shushed the man.

“Shut the fuck up, for a second,” He hissed and the four men fell deathly silent, the faint sound of clopping hooves and what sounded like a singing voice drifted to them on the midnight wind. “The singing voice. Do you three hear it?”

Most of them nodded. “Yeah, I can hear it.” Nitro pointed up towards a spiraling tower. “It seems it like it’s coming from up there.”

Cobra nodded and turned to face said tower, gazing up at it he adjusts the settings of his NODs, opting to use the binocular built within, it took a few moments but soon he could see their singing culprit. On top of the balcony was a dark colored figure, barely visible against the night time background, singing to itself. Blinking once more Cobra took note of its glistening and waving mane, which he only noticed to the faint light coming from the room behind it. Cobra switched his NODs back to its normal setting.

“Blitz, show me the target photo again,” Cobra instructed, the man beside him nodded a fished out a rather blurry, but still able to read, image they were given during briefing. He handed it over to Cobra who thanked him as he took it, gazing down the image he smirked. The picture displayed a similar, if not exact, image of the singing creature on the balcony.

Cobra pressed the edge of his gun against the creature’s throat, collapsing its windpipe, the horse animal bucked wildly, but he remained vigilant. Within a matter of a few moments, the creature soon became sluggish before collapsing onto the floor unconscious. Rolling off of it’s back he took a deep breath. “That was the last guard,” he said clambering onto his feet. “Who’d a known they were strong.”

Blitz chuckled. “Looks can be deceiving.”

“Yeah especially when you look at pictures of Blitz’s mother,” Nitro chuckled. “I swore she was your Dad.”

Blitz snorted and glanced at Nitro. “Y’know, having a mission of four and ending with three isn’t entirely bad.”

“Oh shut it, you love my shit,” Nitro grinned, “When I’m out of the service, believe me, that’s all you’re gonna miss.”

“Bullshit.” Blitz chuckled and glanced over at Cobra who was checking the unconscious guard’s pulse, double checking to see if he didn’t strangle the poor thing. Gazing past him, the four men were standing just outside the spiral tower where the singing was louder than before. Blitz couldn’t make out the words, hell none of them could if they tried. The creatures here spoke an entirely different language than they did, one that sounded rather cool and cute. If he had to compare it to something it was if the German language and nearly any Asian language had a literal love child.

“How are we going to get into the tower?” Bull asked, shattering the silence. “We can’t just walk through the front entrance, and there is no side door here.”

Nitro snickered. “Well I have another cable.” Cobra nodded and pointed at Nitro.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. There’s a window about thirty yards up, we’re gonna climb through it.”

“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Bull chuckled lightly and rested against the side of the wall.

Nitro unslung his bag and grabbed his crossbow and cable once more. “I just pray to God that window doesn’t shatter.”

“Pray to God there is no window,” Blitz said as he took a kneel next to Nitro who finished loading the crossbow and took aim. After a few moments of adjustment, Nitro squeezes the trigger and fires the hook and cable towards their desired location. Holding his breath the hook flies through the window, not making a single noise when doing so.

“Ha, it was open!” Nitro grabs the cable and tests it before staking it to the ground and clipping himself on.

“Ladies first,” Blitz said as he gestures for Nitro to go.

“Eat my ass,” Nitro laughed and nodded to the man before climbing up rather speedily.

The men followed the same order as last time; Cobra went up, then Bull, and followed by Blitz.

“F-fuck my pack is stuck!” The larger man whispered as his bag was hooked against the edge of the stone window sill.

“Goddammit, I knew your fat ass was gonna hold us up.” Nitro muttered as he reached around to help the man inside.

“Shut it.” Blitz growled before finally popping through the window, to which the men carefully lowered him to the floor. “Alright...where are we?” He glanced about to see they were in a small corridor, on the far end was a stair well, the singing at this point was loud enough that it echoed through the hall. However, it wasn’t to the point of annoyance, matter of fact it was quite the opposite. The creature singing above, though they cannot make out her words, it sounded very beautiful.

“A damn shame we’re gonna have to put a cork in that thing’s mouth,” Bull mumbled, Nitro chuckled.

“A cork? Never heard that phrase,” Nitro smiled.

“Something my Pa used to say,” Bull replied before falling silent, past the singing he could hear faint clopping of hooves followed by seeing the gleam of a torch light. “There’s a patrol coming.”

“Pack your shit, Nitro, we’re going,” Cobra told him and the two other guys. Nitro nodded and took his hook and cable, quickly rolling it up, he stuffed it into his bag in the matter of a few seconds. Swinging his strap onto his shoulder the four men quickly dashed up the hallway just as the patrol reached their floor.

If there’s one thing Cobra had to thank humanity for, rubber shoes. Unlike those horse creatures and their hooves which clipped and clopped louder than a pop stand falling over in a store, the four operatives ran with complete silence. The four men took cover in what seemed to be a restroom.

“Alright lads, non lethals ready,” Cobra told them as he took out a small tranquilizer gun the shape of a handgun.

The four men rounded a corner of the restroom, just as the guards appeared. Placing their backs against the wall, Bull glanced around the doorway and spotted the three armored creatures. Turning back he looked Cobra and held up three fingers. Cobra took a breath and shook his head and motioned for them to keep going, there was just no way they could take out three guards without making too much noise. They would either have to let the guards pass, or keep moving ahead by always having one foot forward.

They couldn’t afford to waste more time, they were losing precious night light. Pointing to the three men, he gave the gesture to continue forward with the mission. The men nodded and held their non-lethals up just as Cobra turned and they silently exited the restroom without being spotted darted down the hall towards the sound.

With the lullaby her mother had always sang her before bed finally coming to an end, Princess Luna lowers head and smiles happily to herself as she gazes over Canterlot and her subjects. Humming softly she couldn’t help but feel good whenever she saw the remainder of her subjects wandering about to either attend to their night shifts, have fun, or even just arrive late to home. It was much different than how things used to be. Back in the day, some odd thousands of years ago, the night just meant everything came to a halt. Pony’s stopped what they were doing and then immediately retired to their homes.

Yet nowadays, the night meant nothing. Instead it opened up a whole new way to how ponies treated life. Yes the night did open up the bad side to pony’s more than what the day did, but that was to be expected when a good half of the population was asleep, and the darkness of the sky was there to cover your hoof tracks. But it also opened up for new ways for pony’s to play, or to go to work and get things done or finished before the next morning.

Everything about this new kind of night was just so different compared to how things used to be. Luna took in a deep breath and stretched her wings, the thought of opening them and catching the wind thrilled her slightly. She hadn’t gone for a fly around in quite some time? Matter of fact she couldn’t even believe the last time she––

Luna let off a short yelp when she felt something sting the side of her neck. Eyes widening a bit, she couldn’t help but think she had been stung by a bee. “But...that’s not right...it’s too late...in the...” She began to feel drowsy for some reason which didn’t quite make sense. She had only woken up about thirty minutes ago, why was she so tired.

Luna stepped back from her balcony, casting her magic, she goes to pull the bee’s stinger out. Yet what she found didn’t make even more sense, it wasn’t no bee stinger, it was a blue feathered syringe. “Wh-what in the world––” Before Luna could finish her sentence, fatigue struck her like a flying chariot and she pummeled the floor.

As her conscience drifted off into nothingness, she could hear the the faint, disfigured voices and the shadows of creatures she could not recognize. “Blitz, take its back legs, Bull you get its front!”

Nitro covered the door and glanced back at Cobra. “Sir, we have three more guards coming this way. I think we’ve been busted!”

Cobra had back pack on the floor as he rifled through its compartments, trying to find that strange device the lab coats handed them. “Take care of them, but for God’s sake stick to non-lethals!”

Nitro nodded his head and took out his tranquilizer gun once more. “Her Majesty’s room!” Came the shout of a guard who was quickly silenced by dart going into its throat, causing it to stumble back from shock and slowly fall into fatigue. Out of fear for their possible friend the other two guards immediately backed off and dragged their companion away.

“Alright I found it!” Cobra said as he cheered silently as he pulled out the device.

“The fuck is that? A Ham Radio?” Blitz blinked as he watched Cobra set the object on the ground.

“Like I fucking know what this is, the egg heads just told me this will be our ride home. Something along the lines of some kind of homing device.” Cobra briefly explained as he started flicking switches and turning knobs in some kind of pattern the others didn’t know.

Cobra flicked the large red switch on the side, and the metallic box whirred to life, it’s flashing blue screen humming as blocky words appeared saying, “Detecting.” Cobra looked over at Blitz and Bull and motioned for them to bring the creature over to him.

Blitz and Bull dragged the dark colored horse to Cobra and sat it down beside the machine. Cobra stood up and looked to his comrades. “Alright the device is set, if I’m right the boys back home should be able to to track our position.”

“How long?” Blitz asked before glancing over his shoulder when he heard the shouts of incoming guards.

“At least seventy-five seconds! Nitro, close that door!” Cobra ran over to a large dresser beside the door and took hold of it. “Bull I need you help me block the door with this!” He began to drag the dresser towards the door just as Nitro closed it, Bull ran up beside the major and picked up the other end. The shouts of the guards alerting them that they weren’t as far as they previously were, in the distance a loud copper bell rang loudly into the night.

“Fuck!” Blitz cursed as he ran towards the balcony and saw hundreds of lantern light coming on. “The whole fucking kingdom knows!”

Bull growled and jumped back when the door suddenly lurched as something kicked it from the other side. He took a step back and shouldered his gun up. “Where the fuck is our exit, Sir?!”

Cobra bit his lip and glanced back at the device and saw that the blocky letters had changed to: “Rosen Bridge Activated!” The top of the black box suddenly slid open and a pair of glowing prongs projected out of the device. Cobra’s attention was suddenly brought back to the lurching door, biting his lip he looked to his boys.

“Fall back to the device! Protect it all costs!” The men nodded and the squad retreated back towards the to black box.

“Permission to switch to lethal, Sir?” Nitro asked as he glanced towards Cobra.

“Denied,” Cobra said sternly, his breathing becoming ragged as the air suddenly grew thin around them. “We gotta stick to the plan.”

Bull coughed and took a deep breath. “Jesus, why the fuck is it so hard to breathe?” He wiped his mouth.

Blitz gulped and wiped the sweat off his brow. “Maybe if you hadn’t been sucking dick before the––” A white flash silenced the operative and the four jumped back as the door was blown off its hinges and was launched at the men along with the dresser. “Fuck!”

“Open fire!” Cobra shouted as the device began to buzz loudly and crackle with what sounded like electricity. “Protect the asset!” He ordered as he squeezed the trigger on his rifle and began to fire non-lethal darts into the blinding light, which seemed to move towards them.

The room was filled with the sharp retorts coming from the four soldier’s rifles as they fired their weapons into the now fading light. Cobra gritted his teeth and unloaded an entire magazine into what appeared to be a silhouette of another tall creature similar to the one they acquired, however, despite how many darts the men fired into this one. It just didn’t seem to go down, it was if each tranquilizer was disintegrated before it reached the intended target.

“Where the fuck is the exit!” Blitz practically screamed.

Stealing a quick glance over his shoulder, Cobra went to respond, but before he could, the four men were suddenly engulfed by another light.

Cobra’s vision immediately shot to darkness and his mind seemed to swim, he felt nauseous and weightless. It reminded him of the feeling he always got after jumping out of a plan, except he would be spinning on his way back to earth. Yet except he couldn’t see the earth during this fall, he couldn’t even make out the blue sky.

After a few moments of drifting through the black abyss, he could faintly make out something. It looked almost like water, except he was below it and swimming upwards. Yet it didn’t feel like he was swimming, instead he seemed like he was being pulled towards it. Though with no reference point, he was not able to tell how far it was or how fast he was being pulled towards it.

Few more minutes had past and now he could make out objects through the watery wall in which he was being dragged to. With a reference now he could tell he was moving fast, almost too fast for his liking, and as he got closer he realized past the watery barrier there were eggheads, and machines on the other side.

He was being dragged home.

Was he inside the device? Some kind of backpack wormhole the eggheads whipped out of the laboratory? Cobra couldn’t help but smirk as he moved closer to home, he had to give it to them. Pocket wormhole was kinda cool, but then something occurred to him.

Where were the others? The asset? Cobra glanced about, except all he could see behind him was darkness. There was no way in hell he could figure out if the others were behind him. Were they too far from the box? He knew he was practically standing over it, but the others were a few inches away from him. Is that all it took not to enter? Cobra bit his lip, he shouldn’t panic, hell he was trained not to worry yet for some reason he couldn’t help it.

Not only were those guys his squad mates, they were also his friends.

Cobra suddenly dropped to his knees, the air being sucked completely from his lungs and he vomited onto the floor. Dry heaving, he planted his hand onto the concrete in order to keep himself from falling despite his muscles feeling like jelly.

“Major!” He could faintly make out someone’s voice over the loud, mixed chattering of voices and the humming of machines.

The major tried opening his eyes but that only seemed to make his nausea worse as his vision was all soupy and spinning. Before he could close them, Cobra vomited once more onto the floor, adding to the puddle of bile.

Cobra felt someone grab his side and pull him to his feet. “Take him into quarantine with the others!” He heard before blacking out.

Author's Notes:

Something I wished to write for fun, feel free to leave a rating or a comment if you enjoyed or not, I'm of course down for some criticism!