Hey guys, TSO here yet again. EXAMS ARE DONE! I am a free man for the rest of the year (from university. Work is another issue, but shouldn't interfere). To celebrate, here's a chapter for HVP.

Nothing much else to say.

Enjoy!

6 months after Twilight's arrival to Earth
Task Force One-Four-One Headquarters, undisclosed location in the central United States.

Twilight sat at Shade's desk, typing ferociously on the laptop that she was given a few months ago. Ever since she received it, she would spent an hour after each day making notes and adding information to her growing report on her time on Earth. Shade and the rest of his team were more than willing to help Twilight out, teaching her and providing her the resources necessary to complete her report. She learnt something new practically every week, including general human history, inter-human behaviour, basic geography, basic biology, and a refresher in the English language. The latter did not make much sense to Twilight, until she was told that she was still using terms like 'anypony' when she spoke. It took some time, but she was able to kick the habit after a month.

Twilight also learnt about the things that Shade and his team, mainly the fact that they are a group of highly-trained soldiers tasked with combating terror around the world. At first, Twilight questioned the need for such a group to exist, but she was told about the acts committed by people like Osama Bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, and Saddam Hussein, or groups and organisations like Al Qaeda, the Donetsk People's Republic and The Inner Circle. The mere thought of those acts sent shivers down Twilight's spine, unable to comprehend such violence and terror occurring, the video footage of the Twin Towers collapsing made Twilight want to throw up, for she could see people jumping from the towers, the news footage of President Obama announcing that Osama Bin Laden had been killed left Twilight feeling relieved, the photos and news articles about gun fights and shelling in Gaza had Twilight desperately wanting to have the Elements of Harmony and rid this world of conflict. But Twilight accepted that without the Elements, these men were the best chance the world had at stopping this, or at least prevent it from getting any worse.

Alongside her theoretical study, Twilight also learnt about some of the things that Shade and his team did during missions. She had been taken for a ride in an MH-6 Littlebird, which felt way different to her flying with wings back in Equestria, for she could not control the actions the pilot made with the helicopter. All she could do was sit back and attempt to enjoy the ride. Twilight also was given the chance to fastrope from a Blackhawk, and parachute from a C-130 Hercules. She eventually jumped out of the Hercules, albeit while strapped tandem to Shade, but could not be convinced to rope from the helicopter. Ghost had taught her some basic techniques in regards to questioning people, Archer and Toad had shared their tips on how to avoid being seen, Chemo and Nurse Myers had taught her basic first aid, Meat had instructed her in the speaking of other languages, Royce helped Twilight take apart and reassemble a field radio, while Shade taught her how to shoot.

Target shooting, as it were, happened to be Twilight's most promising ability, given that she was exceptionally skilled for someone with her lack of experience or desire. After being given the mandatory safety training and weapons handling training, she was given a simple M9 sidearm to fire. While the noise and the force scared Twilight, she was able to place a full magazine worth of rounds onto the paper target at fifteen meters, with a ten centimetre grouping. When she was given a larger M16A4 rifle, and the target placed out to thirty meters, her grouping only increased by a centimetre. Archer had been impressed enough to invite her to use some of the team's specialist sniper rifles, like the M200 Intervention and Barrett M107. While she had initially disliked the excessive noise and recoil that the rifles had generated, her accuracy had come as a surprise to both the experienced snipers and Twilight herself.

The weapons that they had shown her and let her use were all immensely fascinating to Twilight, who's only experiences with projectile weaponry were Pinkie Pie's party cannons, and her sister-in-law Princess Cadence when she was thrown by her older brother Shining Armour. When she was shown the internals and the mechanisms that each weapon used to operate, she was greatly impressed with how ingenious human technology could get. Sure, other things like laptops, radios, mobile phones, cameras and other mundane objects often surprised the girl, but the firearms took it to a whole new level. It also led her to respect these weapons even more; something that complicated had to be manufactured properly, otherwise the risks of catastrophic failure increased dramatically. She also was enthralled at the fact that so many different weapons existed, each with their own differences and uses, made obvious by the many weapons the team used on their missions, and how each man had a different preference.

Twilight was touching up that particular area of her report, going through the team that saved her and describing what they did and what they used. While the men were apprehensive at first of Twilight noting down in detail what they did and what they used for their job, she had assure them that it would only be read by the princesses back in her world, where there was little to no risk of that information leaking to anyone that should not see it. The report would serve as both evidence of life on another world, and as a memory of Twilight's time with these men. She had grown close to them, and despite the fact that she stayed back at base while the men went on missions; Twilight felt like had accepted her as part of their 'family'. This was made evident by the fact that she had been bestowed a nickname, like many of the men before her.

It happened during a small survival field exercise that the men had taken Twilight on, and was somewhat at Twilight's expense. Royce was in charge of starting the small fire they had set up for camp, and had taken the opportunity to teach Twilight how humans started fires with only the barest of essentials, like a flint and steel lighter and some kindling. While the two of them were away gathering some more firewood, Meat had taken the chance to lace the kindling with a small amount of gunpowder and fuel from the ATVs. When Twilight took her place besides the kindling with the lighter, and sparked the flint, the mixture of gunpowder and fuel ignited and combusted instantaneously. The resulting, albeit small, explosion sent sparks everywhere, including into Twilight's hair, causing her to scream in shock and panic. Meat was the first one to respond, naturally wanting to inspect the aftermath of his prank. His first words to her were "Hey guys, Sparks has got the fire lit!" Since then, whenever Meat, Royce and a handful of the others saw her, they called her Sparks.

Shade explained that most of the men had earned their names in other humorous, weird or spectacular ways; like Scarecrow and his surveillance stint in a farm, or Roach and his insane ability to avoid or cheat death multiple times, or Rook with his rookie-like appearance upon recruitment to the task force. A few names were based on personality or behaviour, like Ghost and his quiet but intimidating nature, and some names were just shortened surnames or first names, like Royce with his surname Roycewitz. Twilight was fortunate that her new nickname was fortunate to be an abbreviation of her surname, Sparkle, and also be based off something that happened, the campfire accident.

"Hey Twilight, you free for a minute? We need you in the briefing room." Shade poked his head through the door to confirm that she was there before he stepped into the room. Twilight look at him and saw that instead of the usual t-shirt and cargo pants that he wore at the end of the day, he was dressed in his combat uniform and wore his plate carrier, his helmet tucked under his left arm. "Something has come up and I think you might want to see it for yourself." The sense of urgency and importance in Shade's voice tipped off to Twilight that something was wrong.

Twilight stood up from the desk and walked over to Shade, grabbing her hat on the way. She was wearing a pair of camouflage combat pants and a plain white tee shirt, with a matching camouflage cap. "You never need me for something unless it's fairly serious, Shade. I can continue that report later, whatever has happened is more important. Let's go."

The pair of them made their way to the briefing room, meeting up with Rook, Roach and Scarecrow on the way. All three of them were in their respective combat attire, and all of them had their game faces on. The apparent change in attitude was enough to put Twilight on edge, made even more apparent as they walked into the briefing room. The remainder of Hotel team sat in the room, all dressed and ready to go into battle. Captain Mactavish and Ghost stood up the front of the room, either side of a large projector screen. A video was paused on the screen, the image showing a group of three men, two of them wearing black masks and magazine holders, while the third wore dark sunglasses and a tactical load-bearing vest.

Captain Mactavish looked up from his notes and over to Twilight, and gestured for her to sit down. She took a spot beside Shade and Rook, and waited for the captain to begin.

"Glad you could join us Ms Sparkle, I apologise for calling you away from your work but I feel that you would be of better use to us here."

"It's no problem sir, I'm here whenever you need me." Twilight said with a nod of respect.

Mactavish turned back to the screen and continued. "We've been tracking the terrorist group known as the Inner Circle for a few months now. They've been rising fast, but unlike most organisations that focus on high-casualty and high-impact violence, they've opted for low-casualty high-impact. A recent string of attacks have seen members of IC kidnap and execute civilians in various cities at random, worldwide. Most attacks are unprovoked and have little to no warning prior, but have been said to been spurred on by the continued intervention of NATO in places like Afghanistan and Ukraine. Right now, IC's body count stands at thirteen. They've killed three citizens within the United States, three in the United Kingdom, two in Canada, two in Australia, and one each in France, Italy and Germany. The killings have all been brutal in some form, but one of the common themes is the act of committing the act in a public place, such as a major transit centre or in the capital area of each city. Five of the killings have been beheadings, three of them involved firearms, the rest being a brutal beating using hammers and other heavy tools or blunt objects."

Captain Mactavish switched the paused video for four other videos, smaller but set up in a grid format. He pressed the button to play them all at the same time, but without sound.

"All of the attacks were filmed on handheld devices, and each attack has a similar introductory speech before the execution."

Twilight read the subtitles that surmised the basic message from each video's intro.

For too long have the countries of NATO and the Coalition played the role of the world's policeman. They act using excessive force, much like a corrupt officer would when overreacting to an everyday occurrence. It is time for the citizens to rise up and fight this brutality. Until NATO realises that they are no longer welcome where they are, innocent people shall die! The videos cut out before the final act, sparing Twilight the gruesome details. The rest of the men had seen these videos before, and knew what followed. While they did not show it, the videos disturbed them immensely.

"There has been at least one IC-related attack per month, completely randomised in method and location. Like stated earlier, we only know they are linked by their methods and declarations. There are no clear host nations for this terror group, nor are there any major figureheads. But we all knew that." Captain Mactavish brought back the original paused video to the screen. "A few hours ago, our signal snipers managed to pick up an uploaded video with ties to the Inner Circle. The video is slightly longer to previous videos and does not feature any actual execution." He played the video, Twilight and the men in the room watching the video with great focus.

Three men stood in front of the camera on video, two of them wearing full facemasks and simple magazine carriers on their chests. The third wore a half mask over his nose and mouth, leaving his eyes, forehead and thinning hair exposed. He also wore a black soft tactical vest, a pistol tucked in the cross-draw holster. He held a piece of paper in his outstretched hand, a sound that could be barely heard in the background.

"Attention to the leaders of NATO, specifically the United States and United Kingdom," the leader started, his accent clear yet distinctly recognisable as an American accent. "The time has come for you to finally wake up to your horrendous acts in the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Over two million casualties have been caused by the reckless acts of violence committed by the military forces of NATO member nations during their alleged war on terror. A great portion of those killed were innocent civilians caught in indiscriminate shelling, bombings and gunfights instigated by the Coalition. It is time for you to realise your mistakes, and for you to make the call. You have seventy two hours to begin withdrawing from all combat deployments, or we will execute one of these innocent girls for every day after the deadline, in retribution for every two hundred thousand or so casualties." The man gestured to someone off to the side, and the black sheet that hung behind them dropped, revealing six bound and gagged figures. Five of them were young, the sixth being significantly older. "We are waiting."

Twilight gasped in shock as she studied each individual's features, recognition creeping into her mind. The five younger girls all appeared to be the same age as Twilight. One of them had wavy purple hair, still looking somewhat pristine despite the appearance of the girl that it belonged to. She was distressed but still remained composed, a worried but fearless look on her face. Another had long pink hair down to her legs, and was quite visibly distraught with tears running down her face. The third also had pink hair, noticeably shorter and much curlier. Her expression matched that of the first girl, but also seemed distracted, her arms twitching at random intervals. The forth had long blonde hair, pulled up into a pony tail. She wore a tattered hat on her head, the brim covering the top part of her face. The last girl wore rough looking rainbow-dyed hair, her expression that of determination and defiance, occasionally moving to break her restraints.

The last person was an older looking woman, Twilight would have to assume that she was the same age as some of the men she was with. Unlike the other girls, her expression was calm and thoughtful, as if she understood the gravity of her situation but was not letting it affect her emotions. She was acting calm but strong for the sake of the others. Her hair was perfectly straight, but swayed slightly in the evident breeze in the room, the colours of pink, aqua and blue blending perfectly.

Twilight could not comprehend it, yet she knew who exactly they were. She had failed to notice that the video had paused on the shot of all six of them, with Captain Mactavish watching her with a slightly amused look on his face.

"But... but how..." was all Twilight could manage before Mactavish walked over and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Ms Sparkle. I would ask you if you knew who they were, but your reaction confirms my suspicions. Still, for your own sake, can you please tell us who they are?" Twilight broke her focus and looked at the man now crouched in front of her.

"Those are my friends."

Princess Celestia sat in the dark and cramped storage room of the warehouse that her and the five remaining element bearers had been brought to. In front of her were Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, their bindings and gags removed. Rainbow held Fluttershy in her arms, desperately trying to comfort her greatly distraught friend, while Applejack looked around the room for structural weaknesses in the room, something she could strike against to create an escape route. Rarity absentmindedly fiddled with the bare sheets on her small bunk, while Pinkie Pie just lay there on her own bunk, staring up to the bare ceiling.

They had spent at least a month on the planet, after spending the previous five searching around their own world for any trace of Twilight Sparkle, who seemingly disappeared without a trace after a magic-based accident. After four months of aimless and hopeless searchers, Princess Celestia had completed going through Twilight's notes on her recent work. After inspecting the room that Twilight had cast the spell in, she had detected the faintest residue from the ill-fated spell, and in turn had managed to trace Twilight to this land. After an additional month of re-learning old spells, and researching everything that could be found about this land, she and Twilight's five close friends made the jump from their own world as ponies to Twilight's new world as animals called 'humans'.

They had arrived in a country known as the United States of America, in a city known as Denver. The five girls and one woman spent the next month adjusting to the new environment and culture, eventually managing to blend in with the local population. To their relief and intrigue, their unique hairstyles had not caused them any trouble, and in fact had gathered some acknowledgement from other young human females that they had encountered during their travels. The lack of proper identification and funding did cause them some problems with the local law enforcement, however with a few spells cast using Celestia's retained magical ability, they were able to avoid any serious penalties.

On one fateful day however, their journey along one of the town's main roads was cut short, as a group of armed men in a van halted beside them and forcibly dragged them away in broad daylight, the men rendering the girls unconscious using chloroform and other anaesthetics. When they had regained consciousness, they all found themselves restrained in a dark warehouse-style building. The group of men that had kidnapped them watched over them, giving them little in the way of food and water.

Celestia had recalled how they were recorded on a camera, the leader of these men speaking a message of warning to the recipients of the footage. She silently wished for whoever the video was for, that they would act and free them. She at first wanted to use her magic, and had attempted to do so at one point. The reaction of the men had been brutal, to say the least. Her hands remained bound and fixed in plaster, and the bruising on the back of her neck left a painful reminder for her to not try anything like that again.

For the first time during their ordeal since Twilight went missing, Celestia felt truly hopeless. Back in Equestria, she could have magically summoned the guard to wherever she may be, and be back in relative safety in time to lower the sun. Here, not only was her magic restricted, she had no way of communicating for help. The Elements of Harmony were not an option, for the fact that the five with her were not in the mental and emotional state to use them, and that one of the elements was missing outright.

Celestia lowered her head and turned away from the group. The gravity of the situation had finally sunk in. Stranded, practically alone, and failed her goal after coming so close. I'm so sorry my student. I could not help you this time.

An hour later...

"Our phone snipers retraced the upload and were able to navigate through the immense web of decoy IPs and other attempts at concealing the source." Mactavish looked to his laptop on the desk, then back at Twilight, who was standing beside him. "It took some time, but we worked it back to a place on the outskirts of Denver, a small airfield south east of Denver International. Incidentally, there was a reported kidnapping of six individuals in that city a day prior to the upload of the video. Descriptions were vague, but witness reports only barely match those of your friends as seen in the video. Local police were not able to track down the culprits, but had kept a lookout for them."

Twilight looked at the laptop screen and read the patches of information from it. The map displayed a small digital map of the zone that the upload had been traced to. She took in the layout of the buildings situated on the field, memorising the names of the small streets that fed into them, committing every little bit she could into memory.

"The airfield was decommissioned about seven months ago, hence why it looks desolate and abandoned. Occasionally, a group of racers gather there to use the long runway as a drag strip. Outside of that though, the place is empty. I pulled satellite telemetry from around the time the video was supposedly uploaded." A thermal scan image from a military satellite flashed onto the screen, most of the hangers and structures completely dark except for one on the eastern side of the complex. A group of white spots were clustered inside, individual spots spread around the larger group. There was very little in the way of detail offered by the image, but it was enough.

Twilight's attention was drawn away from the captain and his laptop, to Shade and the rest of the team. After the initial brief of the situation had been concluded, and Twilight consoled in regards to the fate of her friends, the team had decided to commence an emergency mission to rescue them. For reasons unknown to even Twilight herself, she had volunteered to go with the team, much to the displeasure of Captain Mactavish, Ghost and even Shade. They had argued that with her status as a civilian, and the risk level of the mission, she would more than likely end up in harm's way. She had counter-argued that she would be the only way that the men could convince her friends that they were to be trusted, as well as be able to confirm that they were indeed her friends that they were rescuing.

The group of men had changed out of their usual set of clothing, the long sleeved combat shirts and camouflage pants, and had changed into something more casual looking: tee shirts, polo shirts, cargo pants and jeans. The lighter clothing allowed a better range of movement, and was also aimed to help look less intimidating to their objective. As Twilight was going with them, she had also changed into a simple black shirt and pair of blue jeans. She was given a plate carrier, clean of pouches and other attachments, and also given a sidearm in a drop leg holster. She had been told that the weapon was there for emergency only, and she was not required to carry it into the fight like everyone else. She had trained in the use of various pistols in the area of self defence, and was more than understanding of the damage such a weapon could do if mishandled or misused. She was hesitant to carry the weapon, but was confident that she could use it if she needed to.

"The plan is to fly in and touchdown as close as we can to the building. Once on the ground, we'll rush to the entrances and enter the structure through a synchronised dual breach. That should disorient any hostiles inside and give us the advantage. After we secure the hostages, we'll bring you in to confirm their identities. If they are who they say they are, then we'll bring them back to base for treatment and debriefing." Mactavish said to Twilight, bringing her back from her thoughts.

She turned to face him directly, a confident look forming on her face.

"When do we leave?"

[insert dramatic music cue here]

It's finally heating up. Probably another three or four chapters like this before HVP comes to an end! Updates should be more frequent given the massive increase of time I have available now.

Until next time,

TSO out!