Skirmishers had a sense of belonging when they were together: they called themselves a tribe; everyone was a brother or sister; once the ADVENT implant was removed from a new, liberated Skirmisher, they were introduced to their new family, and if living in a different location, would head over with them. There was this spiritual aspect of acceptance of each other, old and new that grew as they discovered what it was like, living away from ADVENT's forced dominion.

Humans, Sunset concluded just a few minutes into town, acted a lot more like ponies than Skirmishers did. Rather than unite with a single purpose in mind, they united with the general idea of survival. Sure, they were pissed off at the aliens for taking over the world, but only a few fully embraced the actual mentality needed to fight back, and the rest were content to be discontent in their ramshackle housing.

Mox had drilled into her head to keep a lookout for trouble, regardless of where she was or how safe she felt. A skill (or way of thinking) she could have used when she first emerged into this world. As he had pointed out, you're not being paranoid if aliens are really coming to get you. As such, her senses were on alert the moment she crossed the gate into town.

The guards had given her a look of amusement, mixed with something she couldn't recognize. It wasn't contempt, nor outright distrust… it just made her feel like they pitied her already. Still, since no one had bothered to ask, she said nothing to them and just strolled in. So much for security.

Granted, every three steps she passed someone with machine guns of some sort or another, but the mini-skirmisher within her frowned at the level of disregard these people had for some sort of organized authority. They did look more like she did, though, so no snake-like eyes here, and although they were not ponies themselves, they were definitely easier on the eyes. She mulled over this as she walked. Could it be a biological directive prompted by her species change? She certainly wouldn't have found them too pleasant to look at as a pony.

Her thoughts drifting, she almost didn't dodge the three men that barged out of the bar. One big, muscular man wearing no shirt, swung his fist at a much smaller one, who surprisingly dodged under the punch, smashed his fist into the bigger man's stomach and flipped him over his shoulder at the last man, who was trying to tackle him from behind.

The two on the floor slowly got up, facing the last one warily. He was older than them, with a scar going across his right cheek. The man hadn't shaved in a while, but still managed to look relatively well-kept. The other two could have been exchanged with any other obvious mercenary or freedom fighter in the city.

All three stank of alcohol.

An older woman, looking more exasperated than angry emerged from the bar, but didn't interrupt the fight, other than to shout, "John! You're never coming to this bar again, you hear me?!"

The elder of the three waved drunkenly at her and that's all the shirtless, bigger of his two opponents needed to attack. John's head was grabbed by both hands, and had he not blocked the knee to the face, the fight would have been over.

Sunset considered walking past, but it was interesting to see this. After all, most Skirmishers were roughly the same build, so fights among them usually boiled to the same tactics. None of them had really had an idea on how to teach Sunset to fight, so watching first hand the underdog fight, might give her some ideas.

The older man managed to disengage, pulling down as he rounded behind the big guy. A kick to the side of the knee brought the man down, howling, and a punch straight onto the jaw knocked him out fast.

John stepped back, looking around wildly.

"Duck!" Sunset shouted, surprising herself.

John followed her order with surprising speed, just as a chair swept the air where his torso had been a second ago. While crouching, John had been spinning in place already and his fist came up in a solid uppercut that sent the second man flying.

John smirked, stumbling a little and turned to face Sunset, nodding at her once in thanks. Then he stopped and blinked at her. Before collapsing onto the floor.

"Idiot," the woman from the bar said, checking on the other two. She looked up at Sunset. "Hey, you look strong enough for this… do you want some free cash?" she asked, pulling out some chips.

Sunset raised her eyebrow. "For what?"

"Take this idiot, here," she motioned at John, who had pushed himself up to a sitting position and was muttering something to himself about… Talen? Balen? "To his home. It's nearby, a couple of blocks down the main road and to the left. He can walk, he just needs to lean on someone to make it there."

Sunset grimaced. She didn't want to walk around drunk people, but on the other hand he looked like he could fight. Maybe he could help her get set up here. The place was a mess, but if she managed to make her way up to controlling the whole thing… she smirked. That would show Celestia that Sunset had more than enough ability to lead, just like Betos and Pratal Mox had already seen.

"Sure," she said, taking the money and walking up to the man. "Come on, old man, let's get you home."

"Rookies Sunset Shimmer and Jane Kelly, step forth," Central called out.

"Sir!"

The pair stepped forward, Jane almost wobbling in place and Sunset resisting the urge to smirk at her friend's suffering.

"Last night you both took place in a very important mission for the future of XCOM," Bradford continued. "Although there were losses, thanks to you we were able to bring the commander back."

The hangar was silent. It had been a while since the last promotion, but more importantly, as much as it was about their promotion, it was about a little show and fanfare of their victory. Most of the non-essential staff had gathered, with the Engineer team and the science teams flanking the small squadron of soldiers.

"The commander is in good health, still healing, and sadly unable to attend, but sends regards," Bradford continued. "Now that we have a working military command, you have the commander's blessings in being acknowledged by formal military rank and I am honored to give you both the rank of Squaddie.

"Given your set of skills, Jane Kelly is to be designated a Specialist, and will report to Engineer Chen to pick up her GREMLIN. Sunset Shimmer is being designated a Ranger, specializing in close combat. Both of you are now assigned to the newly created team, Menace, with other two members to be assigned soon. You will also report to Engineer Shen for any additional equipment you might need."

Bradford gave the pair of saluting soldiers a nod. "Dismissed."

As soon as the hangar had cleared of higher-ups, Sunset and Jane were congratulated several times by their peers before they managed to extricate themselves and start walking down towards Engineering, which was thankfully not too far from the Hangar.

"So how are you feeling?" Sunset asked, smirking. She had seen looking ready to throw up more than once when someone patted her on the back.

"Ugh. Remind me to never let you let me drink like that again."

"I thought you couldn't help it," Sunset mock-pouted. "My Little Kelly's not Irish enough now?"

"Oh, shut it," Jane muttered.

"Still," Sunset sighed. "A new team, huh?"

"Yeah." Jane shrugged. "About time we got an actual promotion though, we've been at this for years."

"I guess it just marks the start of real XCOM operations."

"Yeah, like all the other missions weren't enough."

"I hear that the old XCOM hired professional soldiers from around the world… being a rookie here promoted to Squaddie under that bar… it's not too bad."

Jane snorted. "Aren't you setting your ambition a bit low, Commander?"

Most people in the Avenger had become used to Sunset's aspirations to leadership, and thus, when Central was not around, her given nickname was "The Commander", due to her tendency to give orders when there was no clear superior officer.

"Hah!" Sunset made a fist. "As if. You'll see, I'll start with this team, but soon enough I'll have my own Avenger, with blackjack and—"

"Engineer Shen!"

Sunset lowered her fist. "That's not… oh."

Lily Shen raised her eyebrow. "Well, don't leave me hanging. Blackjack and what?"

"Ponies," Sunset said. "Unicorns, Pegasi and regular Earth Ponies, we'll spray paint cutie marks on them and ride them into the moon."

"If you say so," Shen said, waving them into the Engineering room. "Sorry about the mess, we barely have enough space and Bradford says the Commander's first order is to build a new communications room. Then a Guerilla Tactics school then maybe an extension for us or the lab."

"We sleep in bunk beds, Shen," Jane pointed out. "We're used to cramped."

"Hello ROV-R," Sunset said as the drone floated up to them. "How are you doing?"

ROV-R bobbed up and down before flying to the other side of the room and starting to run scans on a piece of alien machinery.

"I heard about your promotion, Sunset, well done," Shen said, moving over to a table and opening a box. "Bradford asked me to check your armor and make sure it still fits you, Sunset," she said with a tone of slight annoyance. "It just needed a few adjustments, but it's all set. If it wasn't quite so unique, I'd love to dismantle it for study."

"I'm sure you'll get a chance, Shen," Sunset said. "It's just based off of ADVENT's own."

"I know! But why doesn't it break apart like the others we get our hands on?" Shen sighed. "Anyway, I got a bunch of bodies with armor that Tygan still needs to study, and then we'll be able to improve our own armors… maybe improve yours too."

"Well," Sunset gathered up her things. "Thank you for respecting this, Lily."

"Hey…" Lily hesitated. "I understand the value of gifts like that." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, besides the armor, here's your sword."

Sunset took the blade. It was made of sturdy material with a very clear sharp edge. "This looks less like a sword and more like an overgrown machete."

Lily gave her a look. "I'm not Xinpei Shen, Sunset. Name might sound similar, but we're different types of legends. Sword making is not my craft. It's long, it's metal, and it cuts through most things. It's a sword."

"Sorry, sorry," Sunset said, cringing. She slid it back on its sheath. "I hope we get some time to practice, the only things I had were those bokens in the gym and the weight is all messe—" She caught Lily's look. "Different. It handles differently."

"Glad to see you catching on," Lily deadpanned before moving over to Jane. "Well, Jane, you're almost one of us now, congratulations too."

"I can't wait," Jane said. "Hacking with those little notepads is ridiculous."

"Don't be too hard, it's good training," Lily replied. "Besides, I've been working on this baby of yours for a while now. A lot of your hacking information and tendencies are crucial to the design of your own GREMLIN, especially if it's to anticipate your actions on any level."

"Aww, you shouldn't have," Jane said. "It's like you knew I'd be promoted."

"Just a little over a month," Lily said, bending down to picked up a crate, opening it up and fishing for a couple of devices, which she passed on to Jane. "Go ahead, give it a try."

Sunset watched as Jane put one of the devices on the side of her head, like some sort of monocle. From what she understood of the process, the GREMLINS used some of the alien technology that connected the mind of the Specialist to the drone, allowing them to give them clear instructions both with verbal commands and mental prompts. It wasn't a real psionic link, since it was a machine, but it was still an incredible adaptation of alien tech. Even ADVENT didn't have anything similar.

"Oh yeah," Jane grinned as the drone levitated up. "This little guy and I will have a lot of fun out there."

"Just remember the protocols on having your drone active in the Avenger," Lily said. "And don't attempt to hack the Avenger."

"I'm not stupid," Jane muttered.

"Let me rephrase that," Lily said. "If you get drunk and the next morning we're orbiting Pluto, you will be responsible for the fallout, and I will take your GREMLIN away."

The computer console suddenly lit up and Bradford appeared on a small screen. "Lily, have Sunset and Jane picked up their equipment?"

"Yes, they're actually right here, I just gave it to them."

"Good, saves me the trouble of seeking them out," Bradford replied. "Sunset, Jane, get equipped and report to the hangar, some… friends… have made contact now that the Commander is free and we are to meet their representatives. I'm sending Menace over. I'll brief you when you're in your way. Central out."

The screen went black.

"Well, I guess I get to practice with my machete after all," Sunset muttered, earning another glare from Lily.

"No rest for the wicked," Jane retorted. "Come on, we only have a few minutes to grab our things and get dressed.

Sunset nodded, waving absently at Lily and ROV-R. Her mind was running fast. The commander hadn't even been out of whatever that machine was over a day and they were already moving to a new mission, and if Bradford's tone was any indication, it would not necessarily be a pleasant one.

She shook her head. "I wonder who these 'friends' are…"