//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Meeting 
// Story: Xcom 2: crash landing 
// by hydroemperor 
//------------------------------//

Guardian was mere steps away from the bush now, she could make out a vague orange shape and what sounded like... Whimpering?

Reaching forward Guardian grasped hold of the bush and braced her self for whatever lay inside. Pushing the bush aside she was met with... A horse, a tiny orange horse with wings and a purple mane. "What the hell?" was all she could say as he brain struggled to find an explanation for what she was looking at. When Stormwalker told them about the manticore she thought he was either joking (as unlikely as that was knowing him), misidentifying something, or he had gone crazy. But now Guardian was much more inclined to believe him.

"Oi Guardian, what is it" Guardian heard Demon whispering from behind her, but before she could answer the horse spoke.

"Please don't eat me!" the creature said in a voice that sounded much like a young girl. "I could get you some apples if you let me go, how does that sound?"

Guardians heart shattered upon hearing this... Desperate girls please. Usually she would be ok with scaring an alien, it meant that they were less likely to be a threat, but this was just a little girl not the alien soldiers she and her squad went up against.

"Hey kid calm down." Guardian said in as soft of a voice as she could manage. "We don't want to hurt you, we just thought you might be something dangerous." The girl seemed to calm down at this but was still noticeably tense.

"W-what are you?" she asked with a slight shudder in her voice.

"I'm a human and you can call me guardian. Can I ask what you are?"

The little alien girl seemed puzzled for a moment before responding "I'm a pegasus, and my name is Scootaloo."




Scootaloo was confused by the fact that these 'humans' didn't know what a pony was, but then she thought about it for a bit. 'I've never heard of a human before, maybe they lived far away where there are no ponies?'

"Guardian, you good?" The human wearing the snake skin asked, prompting guardian to turn around to face him.

"I have good news and bad news." Guardian said in a much colder tone of voice compared to the one she spoke to Scootaloo in. "The good news is it's one of the locals. The bad news is I don't think we're on earth anymore."

Scootaloo took this as her que to peek out from behind guardian. "Uh... hi."

The snake skin wearing human looked dumbfounded by the appearance of Scootaloo, while the one that had come out of the metal structure rushed towards Scootaloo at speeds that were very surprising given her limp and scooped Scootaloo into her arms. "Oh my god, they're adorable!" She squealed as she hugged Scootaloo tight.

"Carful Demon." the human standing on top of the metal structure said in a distorted voice. "We do not want to scare her."

The human Scootaloo now knew was called Demon loosened her grip on the filly and turned to look at her companion. "Well I'm sorry but look at how cute she is!" She said holding Scootaloo up.

"Can you please put me down." Scootaloo asked. "And I am not cute!"

Demon chuckled as she put Scootaloo down "Well I'm sorry but I don't like lo lie, unless it's to my benefit."




After a moment of staring Stingers mind finally rebooted after learning that they had to deal with an alien child. He looked at Scootaloo before weighing his options 'She might be with Advent but they've have never used any species that looks like her. Fatal also hasn't said anything about her being Advent and she is the expert on the subject. There's also the fact that she hasn't attacked us when all other Advent forces are hostile on contact, even against overwhelming odds.' With his mind made up Stinger walked over to Scootaloo, knelt down and extended his hand.

"Nice to meet you I'm stinger, you've already med Guardian and Demon." He said gesturing towards the two before pointing over to the skyranger. "Up there is Fatal and Wolfmother is inside the skyranger" Stinger watched as Scootaloos eyes widen slightly as she presumably just noticed Wolfmother watching from the window of the skyranger.

Scootaloo turned to face Stinger "What are you all doing here?"

Wolfmother then opened the door to the Skyranger to speak up. "Pilot got knocked out and we crashed."

Scootaloo at Wolfmother with shock. "So you all are stuck here?"

"Well yeah, until we can either get in contact with command or fix the skyranger, both of which seem to becoming less and less likely." Wolfmother said while stomping out her old cigar and lighting a new one.

"Oh.." Scootaloo said looking towards the ground, before suddenly perking up. "Hey, you guys could come back to Ponyville with me. I'm Sure somepony will give you a place to stay."

Stinger looked at Scootaloo with a look of contemplation for a bit. "Sorry kid, but given your reaction to us earlier we wouldn't want to cause a panic by just walking into town. Maybe we will at some point but for now we have everything we need right here."

Scootaloo seemed saddened by this but simply nodded in response.




Hours went by with Scootaloo telling the squad about the local area, apparently they were in a place called the Everfree forest, which Scootaloo said was unnatural. However when pressed for details on what makes the place un natural it all just seemed to be things that were completely normal.

"Wait so clouds moving on their own and animals fending for them selves is considered un natural here?" Demon asked, her voice dripping with scepticism.

"Yeah, I mean it would be crazy if that happened all over the world right?" Scootaloo asked, confused by Demons reaction.

Hat Trick then piped up having returned from his scouting mission a while ago. "So what do you guys control the weather or something and all the animals need to be looked after?"

Scootaloo simply nodded.

"Okay, that is weird." Hat Trick said prompting a confused look to come from Scootaloo. "Everywhere on Earth works like this place, weather happens naturally and animals look after themselves." He said hoping to ease the fillies confusion.

Scootaloo was about to ask another question before being interrupted. "We have returned"

Stormwalker and Raven had just arrived together both dragging a makeshift sled made from slightly singed wood. On top of the raft lay a manticore that was not moving. 

"Whoa." Scootaloo exclaimed before running up to the two. "Did you two knock out a manticore, that's so cool!"

Stormwalker looked at the filly, not questioning who she was after they were informed over radio. "It was killed not subdued little one, and I was the one to do it alone."

Scootaloos face somehow paled despite her fur covering her. "K-killed? Why would you do that?" she said backing away from the two.

Stormwalker, unperturbed by Scootaloos reaction, stepped forward. "The beast attacked me. If I had not slay it then it would have slain me."

These words did not seem to calm Scootaloo so Guardian to speak with her. "hey kid." She spoke with the same soothing tone she did earlier. "Remember how you said that this forest doesn't work like the rest of this world right?" Scootaloo nodded. "And that where were from works mor like this place?" Again Scootaloo nodded again. "Well where were from things like this happen sometimes, there not really good or bad, they just happen."

This seemed to put Scootaloo at ease somewhat and soon the group went back to talking.




A few hours had passed as Scootaloo kept asking questions about the squad's world and them answering to the best of their ability while leaving out any of the more violent details, this resulted in none of them mentioning Advent or the Elders.

As the sun began to set Scootaloo looked up into the sky "Oh ponyfeathers" She exclaimed, causing Demon and Hat Trick to giggle at the ridiculous sounding curse. "I'm passed curfew, I gotta get back now!" She shouted while she ran over to her scooter.

Fatal stood up "I will escort you." she said while grabbing her bullpup rifle.

"Uh ok, Ponyville should be north of here." And with that the two were off. 

Minutes passed with the two saying nothing as they proceeded through the Everfree, the awkward science began to get to Scootaloo however Decided to break it. "Hey Fatal, can I ask you something?" 

Fatal looked at the filly with a cheeky grin spreading across her face "You just did."

"Ugh... Can I ask you three questions?" she asked knowing that old joke all to well.

"What would you like to know?" Fatal asked deciding to indulge Scootaloos curiosity.

"Well I didn't want to ask this in front of the others in case it was personal but... Why do you look so different from the others?"

Fatal searched her mind for a truthful answer that would not prompt more questions leading them to discuss the aliens. But she simply could not think of one so she decided to tell the whole truth. "I was once human before being turned into a hybrid soldier."

Scootaloo stared at her wide eyed but pressed forward. "By who?"

"Our world was invaded by aliens called the elders, they destroyed the old world governments and established the Advent Coalition. They then took people like myself in secret and turned us into hybrids so they could mind control us into obedient soldiers. Up until recently I was there prisoner until a group called the Skirmishers freed me from the mind control, I then joined them as thanks."

Fatal then noticed that Scootaloo had stopped and was staring at her with both her eyes and mouth wide open. "Are the others part of the Skirmishers as well?" she asked.

"No, Raven is part of the Reapers, and Stormwalker is part of the Templars, the rest are members of XCOM. Our different factions did not always get along but we recently set aside our differences to face off against the elders." Fatal finished and awaited Scootaloos reaction.

"That's. Is. AWSOME!." she squealed "You've fought aliens? How many different aliens have you fought? What's the weirdest alien you've seen? What's the toughest thing you've fought? why didn't the Reapers, Skirmishers, Templars, and XCOM get along? Have you beaten the Elders yet?" 

Fatal could only smile at Scootaloos enthusiasm, it reminded her of something that she could not place. The two continued to walk with Fatal answering as many questions the filly had.