Hey there all, TSO back with the SEQUEL to Hotel Victor Papa. I am really surprised how well HVP was received, given it was my first foray into writing MLP fic (I've read plenty of it to get an understanding though). So I want to give a HUGE thanks to those to read it and enjoyed it, even if you didn't fav/follow/comment on it.

I spent a lot of time working on the first chapter for this, I think I ran through seven different versions before I settled on this one. The music I listened to during the writing helped (NLJ megamixes, Calvin Harris, Linkin Park, Blackgryphon, etc).

Oh, also, belated Merry Christmas to you all. I guess I can label this as a late-ish gift, since it is Boxing Day for me down here in Australia.

Enough from me, ENJOY!

[GPS ERR – LOCSAT Ident Fail]
0200 hours...

Shade woke with a start, coughing out the small amount of water that was in his lungs. The air in the cabin of the overturned SUV was cool and damp, water slowly dripping from the flooded compartments onto the ceiling. Shade looked around, still hanging upside down from his seat. Unable to get the belt release working, he drew his combat knife from its sheath and slowly cut the belt, his free arm holding him in his seat and stopping him from falling to the ground.

After lowering himself from the seat, Shade quickly checked over his own injuries. He felt lightheaded, a result of having the blood rush from his head when he righted himself, and also felt tight around the chest, no doubt from having the seatbelt lock him into place during the initial impact. He also found a few other small cuts and bruises, caused by the shattered glass and from being mildly thrown around in his seat.

The darkness inside and outside severely limited Shade's visibility, so after he made sure that he was good to move, he cracked a chemlight that he had stored in his vest, the light filling the cabin with an eerie blue glow. The first thing he saw in the new light was his friend Rook, sprawled out on the ground and still unconscious. Unlike Shade, Rook had not been strapped in and had ended up being tossed around in the vehicle during the crash.

Shade felt his friend's neck and found a weak pulse, and after holding his palm in front of Rooks nose and mouth, felt his shallow breaths. Relieved that he was still alive, Shade crawled past Rook into the boot space and reached for one of the small medical kits they brought along with them. It was similar to what a traditional combat medic would carry with them, but augmented with additional equipment from Chemo. Equipment like a neck brace, which was what Shade was desperately looking for.

Since Rook had been thrown around during the crash, Shade had fears that he might have suffered spinal damage of some kind. While he lacked a backboard, Shade could at least prevent further injury to the spinal cord in his neck by fitting Rook with a neck brace. After digging through the kit for what felt like an eternity, Shade retrieved the collar and made his way to his fallen comrade. Rook laid supine on the roof, his head tilted to one side and his arms out by his sides. Shade gingerly moved Rook's head so it was straight in relation to the rest of his body, and very slowly fitted the collar around the man's neck. Satisfied with his work, Shade started checking over his body for other injuries.

You must be one very lucky sonofabitch Rook... thought Shade as all he found in the way of injuries were a severely bruised right leg and left arm, as well as cuts along his other arm and leg from fragments of glass. There was a large gash along Rooks forehead, measuring an inch long but only cutting shallowly. Shade applied gauze to this cut and the other cuts on Rook's body, before taking a minute to finally let the realisation that they were indeed alive sink in.

Shade sat there, his back against one of the seats, and started running through the previous events in his mind. First, there was that unexpected arrival to the exchange, followed by Royce's call that they had been compromised. After that message went out, they had rammed into another vehicle that had somehow snuck up behind them. They immediately took off and started their egress from the target, with the vehicle they had rammed into in pursuit. The chase had taken them onto a freeway that ran past the airport, and the particular stretch of freeway that they had gone off was on the water's edge. There was fairly heavy traffic on the road when they went off.

So why is it so fucking quiet right now?

Shade shifted forward and leant down to get a glimpse of the surroundings through the broken window in the door. He took off his helmet and detached the mounted light on the side rail, then activated and pointed it around the outside. To the front of the vehicle was a thick line of trees, to the rear of was a river that fed into a small lake, a windmill feeding to another small river situated a small distance away. To either side were the banks of the river they were on, the bank leading up to the tree line that ran along the edge of the river and lake. Shade shone his light towards the windmill, and the light reached far enough to uncover the shape of civilisation in the distance, and as Shade looked harder, he could see the glow of lights from within the settlement.

He reached back to the front of the cabin, and opened the glove box to grab the small flare gun that was stored inside. A single shot was all he needed to alert whoever was nearby, not caring about who exactly would come to find them. Given the severity of the crash, whoever was chasing them would likely assume that they had died, and not somehow survived to wash ashore someplace else.

Shade lay on his back, his right arm through the side of the window with the flare gun aimed towards the sky. With a squeeze of the trigger, the flare shot up into the dark night's sky, climbing high before igniting and casting a bright red glow over the town. With the sight of the flare, Shade felt a wave of calm crash over him. Before the fatigue took place, Shade slipped on a balaclava over his face, and also covered Rook's face with his own; concealing their identities to whoever might find them.

The red glow from the flare outside and the blue glow from the chemlight gave way to black as Shade fell asleep in the overturned Range Rover SUV.

That same time, 150m AGL (above ground level)...

Rainbow Dash could not sleep that night, try as hard as she could to get comfortable in her cloud home. She spent half an hour trying to force herself to sleep, but gave up and decided to go for a fly to burn off her excess energy. And it had been uneventful, up until a red ball of fire shot into her immediate flight path and ruined her night vision.

What in the hay was that? She quickly recovered from her evasive manoeuvre and hovered near the floating red fireball. It burned as a bright red, nearly white- flame, the red coloured smoke rising above it as the fire slowly fell to the ground. In the light, she could see that a small parachute was attached to the ball of fire, and that was why it was slowly falling to the ground.

She hovered and watched it fall towards the ground, the land below becoming more and more visible as the light got closer and closer to it. It was there she saw a strange shape resting on the bank of the river, near the south-western windmill. Curiosity filled her mind, and she slowly flew closer to the object, the fire now illuminating the object in its light. Her mind froze with recognition of the shape.

That's a car! How in the hay did a car from Earth get here?

Without warning, the fire died out, plunging the area into darkness, save for an eerie dull blue glow coming from the car. Rainbow touched down on the bank of the river, and slowly trotted closer to the vehicle, taking in the severe amount of damage it had sustained.

This car took quite a beating, looks like one of AJ's old apple carts.

She stood to the side of the car, just staring at the wreck, trying to work out a plan of action. Her instincts were telling her to go fetch Twilight and the others before touching anything, but her inner 'Daring Do' was telling her to take a closer look and even look inside. In the end, 'Daring' won out and Rainbow Dash slowly put crept into the vehicle through one of the broken windows. The blue light was brighter inside, but the source was partially obscured by a body that was lying flat on the ground. It took a few seconds for Dash's mind to recognise the shape of the body, but when it did, she nearly screamed, both out of shock and surprise.

I need to get Twilight!

Twilight Sparkle sat by herself on the couch, curled up with a book in her hands, a pair of reading glasses perched on the end of her nose. Aside from the occasional sound of a page turning in her book, the room was silent. Outside, the base was also relatively quiet, most of the personnel having retired to their quarters for the night. Every half hour or so, a soldier on guard duty would pop their head in and check the room, curious as to why the lights were still on at that hour of the night.

Only when she heard the dull thudding of a helicopter approaching did she look up from her book and towards the windows, into the dark night's sky. The sounds of the rotors grew louder and deeper as the helicopter approached, Twilight's mind jumping in recognition of the specific type of aircraft that made that sound. She had grown accustomed to the different sounds of the vehicles that the Task Force used, having spent over two years with them now. Littlebirds were higher in pitch while Pave Low's were far deeper in comparison. The noise she was hearing belonged to a Pave Low, and a Pave Low returning to the base at this time of night could only mean one thing.

They're back.

Setting her book down, Twilight made her way from the recreation room to the helipad, her pace quickening t as she closed in on her destination. The Pave Low approached overhead, circling to the right of the base before descending onto the permanently-lit aircraft apron. Twilight waited by the edge of the exclusion zone and watched the Pave Low set down, the landing gear taking the weight of the large helicopter. The rear ramp lowered to the ground, the crew chief stepping out to make sure it was secure before she gave the all clear for the passengers on board to disembark. From the distance, Twilight could see Meat and Royce walk out first, rifles hanging by their sides, weary expressions on their faces, blotches of mud and other filth on their uniforms. Archer and Toad followed them, sniper rifles slung over their backs, still wearing their ghillie net suits, Archer with his arm around Toad's shoulders. Ghost stepped off after them, rubbing the back of his neck and shaking his head, looking fairly agitated.

Scarecrow and Jayhawk emerged, a large package in their arms. Twilight remembered that the objective was to secure and recover some critical components from a surveillance satellite that had made landfall in Columbia. By the looks of it, the mission went well, with what appeared to be the critical parts in their hands. Chemo followed them, his weapon slung over his back and carrying a second rifle in his right arm. He looked upset, and his clothes were stained with blood. Twilight's attention focused back onto the helicopter, where she saw Captain Mactavish holding a hand to his face, rubbing his forehead while sighing heavily. He turned to face Twilight, but quickly averted his gaze when they made eye contact. He looked back into the cabin of the Pave Low, and nodded his head to whoever remained inside.

Rook slowly backed out of the aircraft, holding the end of something long in his arms. From the distance, Twilight could not make out the shape as it emerged from the helicopter. Roach stepped out, the other end of the object in his arms. Mactavish stopped them and said something to the both of them, and then took the end that Rook was holding in his arms. Rook turned and looked at Twilight, his eyes visibly widening at the sight of her. He started walking over to Twilight, who at this point started to shake uncontrollably. She quickly ran through who she had seen come back on the helicopter. Meat and Royce, Ghost, Archer and Toad, Jayhawk, Scarecrow, Chemo, Mactavish, Rook, Roac- no... please no...

Rook stopped in front of Twilight and looked her in the eyes. Twilight looked in the operators face and could see that he was visibly distraught, but trying to put on a brave face. She peered around Rook and caught a better view of the object that Mactavish and Roach were carrying; a black plastic bag, big enough to carry a body in. She looked back at Rook, who had also looked back at the body bag and saw the realisation in Twilight's eyes. She did all she could to choke back the sobs as she asked the question she already knew the answer to.

"Is that..." she trailed off. Rook took a breath and nodded his head slowly. His emotional barrier was now beginning to crack, and tears started to run from his eyes.

"I'm so sorry Twilight." His voice cracked and he did his best to maintain his composure. But the dam burst as he felt a pair of arms wrap around his mid section, a dampness slowly forming on his chest. He had removed his plate carrier during the flight, the plates in his vest shattered as result of pieces of debris from an explosion, created by an IED placed at the site of the satellite. Twilight sobbed into Rook's chest, not noticing that he was slowly leading her back to her room.

The rest of that night and the following day was a blur to Twilight, who was lying still on the bed in her room. The men on the team had dropped by and offered their condolences, everyone except for Roach and Rook. They had taken the death the hardest, having been the best of friends with the fallen operator. Twilight curled up into a ball, clutching a pillow to her chest. She had spent the last few hours quietly sobbing into the pillow, blocking out the world around her as she cried. Captain Mactavish and Ghost had paid her a visit shortly after their debriefing had concluded; both of the officers were worried for Twilight's welfare, as both were aware of the attachment she had with the fallen operator.

They had tried to console her and talk to her about what she was feeling, but were unable to get her to speak at all. After they had left, the other men had individually checked on their friend, each one of them unable to crack through the emotional barrier that Twilight had erected. Even some of the members from other teams, like Neon from Bravo Team, had dropped by to talk to her. But they too had no luck.

"Twilight..."

A quiet voice in the room caught Twilight's attention, and when she turned to face the source of the voice, she nearly burst into tears. Shade stood by the bed, dressed in his ceremonial dress uniform from the Australian Army, a green beret with the diamonds and dagger of the 2nd Commando Regiment pinned to the front in his left hand. While Twilight knew he had this uniform, as she had seen it in his closet a few times, she had never seen him actually wear it. She studied the uniform from top to bottom, taking in every detail it had to offer, from the embroidered insignia of the Australian Army to the medals pinned to his chest, including the Medal for Gallantry.

"Twilight..."

She broke her stare and looked up into his blue-green eyes, tears starting to form in her own. She reached out a hand to touch him, making contact on his arm. He crouched down to meet her at eye level. With a gentle smile he put his right hand on Twilight's face, using his thumb to wipe away a tear that had fallen. She melted under his touch, and she placed her own hand over his.

"I thought...Mactavish said that you-" She was stopped as Shade placed a finger over her lips.

"He's right, I am..." His expression faltered for a second as he looked to the ground, trailing off. "But that doesn't mean I can't say goodbye..." He looked Twilight back in the eyes, his gentle smile having returned.

"But... but how?" Twilight choked through her tears.

"Magic, Twilight. You of all people should know the power of magic when combined with the love you have for someone close to your heart."

"I guess... it makes sense when you put it that way... but why you?"

"It was either me or the team Twi, and you know that I would give my life in an instant for my brothers. At least they are here to look after you now that I'm gone. You couldn't be in better hands, you know."

"But I want to be in yours!" Twilight cried out loudly, Shade shushing her and making an attempt to calm her down.

"I know Twilight, but sometimes we need to make the wrong decision for the right reasons." He let the silence fill the room as he let the words sink in. With a breath, he spoke up again. "Twilight?"

"Yes Tom?" she sniffed, trying to smile at him.

"I need you to do something for me, it's really important okay?"

"Anything for you, you know that. What is it?"

"I need you to wake up."

Poor Twi, it kinda broke my heart to have to write Twi going through something like that.

Let me know what you guys thought of this, I will take ANY and EVERY piece of advice I can get.

Until next time, TSO out!