Almost immediately, every firearm on the rooftop was focused on the man in the leather jacket, even the officer’s pistol.  The man just took a drag off his cigarette and flicked it over his shoulder, hopping off the balcony and taking a step towards the soldiers.  Shining and Cadence could only watch in confusion as the man slowly raised his hands, the smile never leaving his face.  “Congratulations, you got me.”

“I-Identify yourself!”  The officer barked, the pistol wavering in his grip.

“Well, if you insist,” the man spread his arms out with theatrical embellishment.  “The name’s Swarm: firearms expert, Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in Equestria, Mayor of Los Angeles 205649-XD, Lord of the Dance, and all-around handsome devil.”  He winked an eye Cadence’s way, who arched an eyebrow at him in return.

“I’m sorry,” the leader said, staring at the newcomer in confusion.  “Did you just say: ‘Commander of American Expeditionary Forces in Equestria’?”

“Hmph,” Swarm crossed his arms and pouted.  “And here I was hoping you’d be more interested in hearing about my mayoral race in L.A.  Why does nobody EVER want to hear about that!?  I had to kiss, like, a million kids for that shit!”

Sighing, he continued: “Yes, I’m the guy who, on paper, is running the show down there.”  He hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the American forces gathered below.  “Really though, it’s all ceremonial.  I’ve had a couple other guys doing the job for me.  Honestly, I could die right now and it probably wouldn’t faze them a bit.”

“Oh,” the leader sighed.  “That’s unfortunate.”

“Now, what makes you say that?”

“Because if you had some real power, I’d have a reason to spare your life,” and with a snap of his fingers, his men immediately opened fire, pouring dozens of rounds of hot lead into Swarm’s body within the space of a few seconds.  The Commander watched, grinning.

And then the grin faded.  His eyes widened in horror.  The man standing on the rooftop across from him was still standing there, completely unshaken by a barrage that should have killed him fifty times over.  “H-how…” he gasped, his men starting to reload.

“Oh, it’s quite simple really,” Swarm replied proudly.  “I just…”

He was interrupted by yet another barrage of bullets.  Sighing, the man in the leather jacket waited patiently until the weapons around him were spent once again.  Once that finished, he looked back at the other men on the rooftop, tapping his foot impatiently.  “Now, are we done?”

“I…how…”

“Okay, good.”

The Ridchir officer holstered his weapon and strode up to the man in the leather jacket.  Eyes wide, he swept a hand across Swarm’s face, only to watch it pass through.  He sighed and allowed his hand to return to his side, his eyes narrowing again.  “A projection.”

“Bingo bango.”

“How cute.  Tell me, how is this possible?  Mirrors?  Some light-bending technology we haven’t acquired yet?”

“Actually, the answer is far more complicated,” Swarm pulled the cigarette pack out of his pocket again and held it up to the officer, extending one as an offering.  The officer actually started to reach for it before catching himself, grimacing at the little joke.  Swarm grinned as he stuck one of the cigarettes into his mouth and lit it up.  “Basically, you can think of me as a few tiny but highly advanced photonic generators exciting the atomic structure of the air comprising my structure, forcing it to emit light at the proper wavelengths required to maintain this illusion.”

“Marvelous,” the officer smiled widely, his eyes lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning.  “Such technology could be put to incredible use for The Ridchir!”

“Oh, but that’s not all!”  Swarm raised his finger and spoke like a game show host revealing the prize behind door number 3: “It’s also capable of manufacturing a crack in the bulk polymer of a given adhesive, propagating it throughout said adhesive’s structure to cause a complete cohesive fracture!”

“I…um…great!”  The officer smiled, not wanting to give away that he had no idea what Swarm had just said.  Neither he, nor the men behind him, noticed when the tape binding Cadence’s lips suddenly came loose, flopping uselessly off her upper lip but remaining stuck tight to her lower.  She looked up in shock, ready to scream for help just as Swarm raised a finger to his lips and eyed her for the quickest split second, long enough for her to see, but fast enough to be dismissed as a weird gesture.  She swallowed the scream and pressed her upper lip against the tape, making it look as natural as possible just as the officer looked her way.  He gave his prisoners a quick once-over and returned his attention to the man in the leather jacket as he started talking again.

“But really, all this is truly irrelevant when compared to this device’s real use!”

“And what would that be?”  The officer asked in honest anticipation.

Swarm looked to his left, then to his right, and beckoned the officer forward, eyeing the other men on the rooftop suspiciously.  The officer leaned forward, allowing Swarm to press his lips to his ear and whisper: “It makes for a great distraction.”

“What-“ the officer started, already reaching for his pistol just as the door to the stairwell burst open and Ramirez exploded into view, Uzi blasting.  The officer died instantly, the hail of bullets aimed at his back slicing through his body and passing harmlessly through the projection in front of him.  Another of his men swiftly followed as Cadence fell over, one of the soldier’s boots clocking her in the face in his frantic bid to turn and face the new threat in time.  Completely disoriented, she cried out in pain and surprise, the weakened tape easily falling off her face.  Her scream was quickly followed by a cavalcade of sniper shots, slicing down the last of the men while they twisted around to face Ramirez.

It was all over in the space of a few seconds.  Just like that, every Ridchir soldier on the roof was dead, Marines and SEALs alike were charging the building and dashing up the stairs, and Ramirez was still standing in the doorway, his Uzi smoking from having spent yet another magazine.  The automatic and rifle fire echoed off into the distance as the SEAL reloaded his weapon and stooped by Armor’s side, peeling the tape off his lips.

“Y-you get away from…” Cadence started.

“No, hon, it’s alright!  Really!”  Shining interrupted, smiling up at Ramirez.  “He’s a friend.”

“Damn right,” Ramirez added before clocking the unicorn across the jaw.

“Ow!  What in the…”

“Shining!”

“That was for choking me out and leaving me down there,” Ramirez said, waggling his finger in Shining’s face.  “And by the way: you only won because you got the drop on me.  I had you down for the count before you pulled that bitch move.”

“Okay, fine, I guess I deserved that,” Shining sighed, working his jaw while Ramirez set to work freeing his hooves.  “But…thanks for saving us, all the same.”

“That only makes the second time today,” Ramirez grinned.

“Yeah, I really should…” a glint of something caught the unicorn’s eye, and he looked just in time to see one of the Ridchir soldiers yank the pin off his grenade and roll it towards them.  His eyes widened.  He’d seen these strange little balls in action during the initial assault on Coltton: they were the whole reason why the town’s hall was now a burning ruin.  Ramirez took one look at it and threw himself over the two ponies while Shining summoned a shield.  The unicorn watched the little explosive bounce towards them, could almost hear the clicking of the tiny mechanism inside ticking off the moments until it would release its payload, and watched the faint shimmering of a weakened shield rise around them.

‘Oh Celestia,’ he realized, watching the ball spin to a stop just a few yards away, ‘I can’t contain the whole explosion!  I’m still too weak, we’re gonna die, and Cadence is gonna die and Ramirez isn’t gonna see his family againandit’sallbecauseI’msoweakand…’

Hardly thinking about what he was doing, Shining pressed his hind hooves against the ground and launched himself over Ramirez’s shoulder, flattening his body in mid-air to cover as much of the SEAL and the Alicorn as he could with his own body.  He watched Cadence’s eyes widen in horror, her mouth slowly moving to form his name.  He watched Ramirez twist around, lunging for his hoof.  He wondered why he hadn’t hit the ground yet.

And then the world exploded.

Next Chapter: Chapter XXVII: Chaos Falling Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 2 Minutes