Prologue

Equestria. A beautiful land full of luscious colors and rolling landscapes. The lands inhabitants are small equiens, more known as ponies, gryphons, small shape shifting bugs called changelings, and other types of animals from across the animal kingdom. The dominant species of the planet are the ponies.

There are three main types of ponies: Earth ponies, who use their strength to (mostly) help out food production by farming. Unicorns, who use their magical abilities to help with just about everything. And finally, the Pegisi, who use their wings to fly and magic to create and control the weather. The rarest of them are the Alicorns. In all of Equestrian history, only five have been known to exist. Those would be sisters Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Princess of Love, Mi Amore Cadenza (or Cadence), Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, and newborn, Princess Flurry Heart.

Equestria's history is known to be rough. Evil powers tried, and some did, conquer the large country before being turned to stone or banished by Princess Celestia and Luna with the Elements of Harmony. The Elements of Harmony are six magical items that can only be activated by it's bearers. I'll get more into this later. The last Princess Celestia had to battle was her own sister. Luna, jealous of her taking all of the spotlight, turned into Nightmare Moon, a dark version of Princess Luna, and plunged the world into eternal darkness. Celestia had a showdown with her and, with the help of the Elements of Harmony, sent her to the moon for one thousand years.

For the next thousand years, life was peaceful for the country. Nothing really important happened during that time frame... except that one pony broke the sound barrier and did something called the Sonic Rainboom. we'll talk about her in a bit. The day before the Summer Sun festival, a festival to celebrate the longest day in the year, a unicorn mare named Twilight Sparkle was looking into the legend of Nightmare Moon and warned her teacher, Princess Celestia, about her return that Summer. Celestia purposeful lied and told her that she needed to get out of that study she was in and meet some friends, so she moved her to a town named Ponyville with her dragon assistant, Spike. Twilight met some... interesting characters that were crazy! one being a bright pink earth pony with a curly mane and three balloons as a cutie mark, a mark that shows a ponies special talent. Her name was Pinkie Pie. Another was an orange earth pony with a cowboy hat and a Blonde mane, and three apples as a cutie mark. Her name was Applejack. She met two pegisi on her route for the Festival. One being a yellow coated, pink maned mare with three butterflies as her cutie mark. She was called Fluttershy. The other pegasus had a cyan blue coat and a rainbow mane with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud as her cutie mark. This one was named Rainbow Dash. Twilight met a pure white unicorn with a curly purple mane as she was getting cleaned up from an accident caused by Rainbow Dash. The white unicorn was named Rarity. When the festival started, the mayor of Ponyville, Mayor Mare, did a short speech and pulled the curtains only to not see Princess Celestia standing on the pedestal. It was Nightmare Moon! Scared, Twilight and the one's she met ran to the local library to find a book about the Elements of Harmony and found that they're located at the old castle that Celestia and Luna once lived in. Unfortunately, it was in the Everfree Forest, a forest that scares everone for it's appearance. They went through the trials of the Elements of Harmony. Applejack passed Honesty, Pinky Pie passed Laughter, Fluttershy passed Kindness, Rarity passed Generosity, Rainbow passed Loyalty, and Twilight passed the most important part of the Elements, the one that brings them all together. Magic. With the six elements in hoof, they blasted Nightmare Moon and turned her back into her normal self.

The following years passed with new and old enemies coming and going. Twilight was turned into a princess by Celestia herself and was given the title, "Princess of Friendship."

One day, she was just studying all six of the Elements of Harmony for a way to improve their efficiency when Rainbow barged in, interrupting her focus. Twilight accidentally casted a teleportation spell, sending the six to an unknown world. Unknowingly, they landed on top of someone. That someone is me. Maverick Howard. I took them in at my home in New York. It wasn't the best house but they didn't seem to mind. After about a month of them in my world, a pink alicorn asked for them. I obliged and gave her the six. It was tougher on me then for them. I haven't had such good friends since before the Iraq war. Once they left, I cried. I'm not a religious man at heart but I prayed to God for me to have another chance to meet them. Three days later, it seemed like he got my message and a blue warp gate opened in my bedroom and sucked me in. I awoke on the other side of the warp gate in a very vibrant, almost cartoonish, world.

Long story short, I found Twilight, we found out Luna went missing, we went to seach for her, I got captured twice, I found Luna, I got killed by Tirek and revived into an alicorn by Celestia, found the missing seventh element of Freedom, banished Tirek to Tarturous forever, and I got married to Twilight.

While all of this was happening, Earth was just passing to March of 2015. In New York city, the U.N. were talking to sixteen individual countries about threats from outer space. The meeting lasted for a few days until they all agreed on the cause, calling it XCOM, the Extraterrestrial Combat unit. The sixteen countries that made up the council were the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, the U.K, Germany, France, Russia, China, India, Australia, and Japan.

Each country had to give a certain pay roll if the Commander of XCOM would launch a satellite in that area. North America all together would give 340,000 dollars, Europe would give 440,000 dollars, Africa 250,000, Asia 830,000, and South America would give 150,000 dollars if satellites were launched over all of their countries for the continent bonus.

North America promises to lower costs on aircraft and time on maintenance. Europe would improve workshops and laboratorys by 50%. Asia will help increase the effectiveness of the troops on the battlefield. Africa would increase XCOM funding by 30% and South America would give it's best scientists to speed up autopsies.

When all of that was done, they then turned their attention to the staffing. They needed three staff members that would lead each department. Science, engineering, and mission control. The leader of the science department would be Doctor Vahlen, a German physiologist from Munich who was also an interrogator for the German military. Engineering would be led by Cheif Engineering Officer Doctor Raymond Shen, a Taiwanese engineer who is world renowned for his construction and help in the world military's effort versus terrorism. Lastly, the leader for mission control would be Central Officer John Bradford, a previous American soldier who is now the executive officer of XCOM.

Now the problem for the council was the Commander. They couldn't just pick someone from a known database and chose them. No, they needed a strategic powerhouse, one that will expect every move the enemy makes. Generals and politicians were out of the question. Even the best chess players wouldn't know what to do in a real war. The U.N. gave orders for all the countries to come back in two hours with a list of three possible candidates for the role of Commander. When they came back the list read:

Possible candidates for the role of Commander in order from most competent

1. Maverick Howard

2. Brittany Murphy

3. John Armstrong

The U.N. gained permission from Canada for the base to be built with the most important and futuristic technology the world has ever seen. It would be built a week before the Summer Sun festival in Equestria and a week before the start of April. They also ordered 10 of the most elite soldiers from all around the world to help fight the possible menace from outer space.

The council finally came up with a motto for XCOM. One that, if said, would send shivers up anybody's spine. Vigilo Confido. To be vigilant and have confidence.

Have fun reading!

-Prince Boss.

NOTE: Equestria's time is slower than Earth's in this story. The Summer Sun festival will be one day before April. I will NOT explain why this is due to the complexity of both school and family. This is a story I made for my love of both XCOM and My Little Pony. XCOM belongs to Firaxis and 2K Studios and My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro and Lauren Faust. I do not plan to sell this story on any accounts, this is purely for entertainment purposes only.Thanks!