(A/N) Alrighty then. Thank you to everyone who faved and followed this story, I'm glad you all enjoyed that first bit. Secondly, I'd like to thank everyone who sent in an OC for me to use in this story of mine, I'm glad to know this peaked your interest enough for you to like to see your character included in it. So without further delay, here's the next chapter.

Oh, and because I forgot it in the first bit.

Disclaimer: I do not own STH or MLP, they belong to SEGA and Hasbro respectively. All OC's belong to their rightful owners. I own this story and my own character. (Insert more legal stuff here)

The Celestial Empire

"This is, Tomahawk one," the pilot spoke into his radio. "Returning to base and requesting permission to land."

There was only a momentary pause before the operator on the other end replied. "Copy that, Tomahawk one. Permission granted, welcome home."

"Good to be back, Watchtower. Over and out," the pilot finished, hanging up his radio and turning his attention back to flying the ship. "So who's buying the first round?" He called out to his passengers behind him.

"Well I thought you'd be the one buying drinks tonight," an arctic blue fox chuckled, standing in the between the pilot and his copilot.

"All you did was run, Gold. Didn't you see the maneuvers we had to pull to avoid being shot down?" The pilot retorted.

"Whatever you say," the three tailed fox, known as Gold, laughed.

"Seriously though," the copilot spoke up. "That's the last time I want to have to pull off an extraction that hot."

"I'm pretty sure having to pull off shit like that is in the job description," one of the soldiers in the back laughed.

There was another round of laughter from those aboard the ship as it flew into the landing zone. The jets on the wings slowed down slightly, rotating into a downwards position towards the ground so the ship was left hovering in the air. The jets eased off even more, lowering the ship down onto the ground below. The landing gears unfolded, allowing the ship to touch down on the ground with a clunk.

"Ladies and gentleman, we have finally arrived at our destination," the pilot spoke over the radio. "We would like to thank you for flying with us today on air Tomahawk. Remember to collect any and all luggage you brought with you before disembarking the aircraft. We wish you all a great day and hope to see you again in the future."

Gold rolled his eyes and chuckled quietly before stepping off the ship and walking away. From behind him, the rest of the soldiers stepped off, followed closely by the pilots of the ship. After they had all left the landing zone, one last, familiar figure stepped off from the ship. His boots thudded on the ground, though they were unheard by any nearby ears. Connor leaned back and stretched his arms out to the side, letting out a small groan as he did. He let out a relieved sigh as he dropped his arms back down to his sides.

"So, here we are," Connor began. "Canterlot city. Formerly known as the home of the two sisters, now a home for any who support the Celestial Empire. They've been busy these days," Connor continued, walking ahead. "The fighting between the Empire and the Lunar Dominion has been getting worse as time has gone on. Each side becoming more and more desperate to secure victory. But in this desperation, both sides have managed to avoid performing any truly despicable acts of violence. A pretty decent effort, if I do say so myself."

Something off in the distance caught Connors attention, a grin making its way onto his face.

"Now this is something I've been wanting see for a while now," he stated. "C'mon, come check this out," he added, suddenly disappearing in a puff of grey mist. He reappeared not a second later in the same manner. "Did I forget to mention that ghosts can teleport? Well now you know, so try to keep up."

Connor disappeared from the landing zone in a puff of mist, reappearing in what appeared to be a warehouse. He lit up a cigarette as he walked through two soldiers having a conversation with each other.

"Is it just me, or did it feel like it got colder in here," one of them shivered, receiving a shrug from his friend.

"If they knew the truth, I reckon they'd just about shit their pants," Connor chuckled.

Over in the direction Connor was walking was a red hedgehog. The hedgehog wore a black leather jacket, blue ripped jeans and a pair of black and white hi top trainers. His name was, Scott Rider. With him was a purple walrus by the name of, Rotor Walrus. Rotor appeared to be fitting Scott with some sort of black glove. The glove covered Scotts right hand and ran up the entirety of his arm, all the way up to his shoulder.

"I've ran every systems check I can think of, every algorithm I have. Everything seems to be coming up operational," Rotor explained.

"Glad to hear it," Scott replied.

"I still don't know where you got this thing from," Rotor said.

"Lucky find, I guess," Scott answered.

"You mean, a forgotten G.U.N. cache?" Rotor smirked.

"Call it what you want," Scott chuckled. "This could be one hell of a find."

"What could be one hell of a find?" A voice asked.

Scott and Rotor turned their attention to the source of the voice, finding Gold walking towards them.

"Is that the nano glove you found?" He asked.

"The one and only," Scott replied.

"I thought nano tech only worked for people who had cybernetic implants or were robots," Gold stated.

"In theory, you'd be correct," Rotor explained. "But before everything went to hell during the Merging, G.U.N. was working on creating nano tech that could be controlled by pure organics. As far as I know, the nano glove here is what they ended up with. I'm pretty sure it's also the only one in existence. All the data and blueprints from their research was lost after the Merging. It took a phenomenal amount of work for them to get as far as they did, I don't know how they'd go trying to make another now that everyone's divided."

"Well I'll be damned," Gold said. "So what does it do?"

"Depends on how you configure it," Scott explained. "But for me."

Thin metallic lines lit up all down the glove, segments of it seemed to shift and move. In the palm of the glove, something appeared to be building up. In seconds, Scott appeared to be holding some sort of handle. Onto the handle a stock was formed, then a barrel and then a scope. In a few short moments, the nano glove had created sniper rifle. Gold watched as Scott appeared to focus on the weapon in his hand, the sniper rifle broke down and was recreated into a shotgun.

"Now that's impressive," Gold laughed.

"It'll be a damn sight easier than having to lug round a number of guns," Scott explained. "It's also a lot easier in regards of ammunition. Heat builds up inside of it after firing the weapon for a certain amount of time, it varies depending on what form of gun it's currently using. All it has to do is vent the heat out of itself and you're good to go again, the cooling period takes about the same amount of time as it would to reload any normal firearm."

"If I create the right schematics, we might be able to give it several more forms for it to use," Rotor added.

"Well at least we have something over our opponents," Gold muttered. "That reminds, I managed to get ahold of some blueprints for a new piece of gear the Dominion's been rolling out. It's been taken to the science lab if you want to check it out later," he said to Rotor.

"Awesome, I'll head over there now," Rotor replied.

The walrus said his goodbyes to the two before quickly leaving the warehouse, making his way to his next location. Scott and Gold followed him out, heading off in a different direction. Unawares to them, Connor was following closely behind.

"So how did the mission go?" Scott asked.

"About as well as you'd expect," Gold replied. "The research outpost we hit wasn't quite as hidden as they had thought, their alarm system works quite well though it would seem."

"Really? How so?"

"Well we had thought we'd taken care of their security before we breached the compound," Gold continued. "But I can only guess they must have had a back up system that we overlooked. The moment we went through the first door, the alarm bells started ringing. The blueprints we brought back were the only thing we managed to secure, they wiped everything else from the systems."

"Common protocol, you really shouldn't be that surprised," Connor commented.

"So how's everything been going here since I've been gone?" Gold asked.

"Well our engineers have been setting up some new firewalls for our systems, it seems someone was trying to hack into our defense systems, can't be to careful," Scott replied.

"I'll second that," Gold agreed.

"As for our comrades," Scott continued. "Typhoon's been helping Sally select new recruits for our division. From what I hear, things haven't been going so well for them, no one's really showing any promise. Sonic would be helping them out, but he's still out on a recon mission. We still haven't received a report from him. Blade got back about the same time you left, I believe his mission was quite the success. At the moment, we've got more resources than we know what to do with."

"It kind of sounds like we're somewhere between good and bad," Gold commented.

"You got that right," Scott agreed. "It seems that whenever something goes right, some other shit falls on our plate that just screws everything up."

"You certainly have a way with words, you know that, Scott?" Gold chuckled.

"All part of my charm," Scott chuckled.

A beep came from a metal band on both of their left wrists, accompanied by a red flashing light. They tapped the said light with their fingers, a holographic screen lit up above the band, showing a new message waiting for them.

All Knights, report to briefing room immediately - Sally Acorn

"I'm gonna guess we've got another mission," Scott stated.

"Probably," Gold sighed. "I wonder if I'll have a chance to get a bite to eat."

"We'd better get going," Scott replied. "You know how Sally can be if we turn up late."

The two of them broke into a jog, heading off to their next destination. Connor stood in place where the other two had just been, a smirk slowly making its way onto his face.

"I believe things are going to get interesting," he chuckled.

Inside the briefing room, Sally was patiently waiting for Gold and Scott. With her was a blue cat known as, Typhoon. Blade, a leatherish brown colored hedgehog, was also there. The doors to the room opened up and in walked Scott and Gold.

"If we're here for what I think we are, I gather I don't have time for any R&R?" Gold commented. The response came in the form of a cold glare from Sally. "Not in the mood for jokes I take it," he muttered, scratching the back of his head.

"What did you call us here for?" Blade asked. "Another mission?"

"You would be correct in assuming that," Sally replied. "I've received word that the defense systems for one of our outposts has gone offline. This wouldn't really be an extreme issue, if it weren't for one detail."

"Alright, what's the detail," Typhoon sighed.

"We have a prisoner at that outpost," Sally explained. "We recently moved them to that outpost. This prisoner is a strong asset to the Dominion. We're making preparations to move them back here, to Canterlot. If we can do that, then we'll certainly strike a blow to the Dominion."

"So when do we leave?" Scott asked.

"Right now," Sally replied. "An attempt was made at hacking into our defense systems here. We can only assume it was the Dominion, the same goes for our outpost, especially considering what we have of theirs."

"We'll get it done," Typhoon stated.

"See that you do," Sally answered. "You're mission is to watch over our outpost until we can get the defense systems back online, and defend it if it happens to come under attack."

The four Knights left the briefing room and headed for the landing zone, making their way towards the ship that awaited them. Blade made a quick stop at the armory, collecting his two short swords and sheathing them in the leather belt he wore. Over at the landing zone, Connor had already taken a seat on the ship as he waited for the others. The four boarded the ship, the pilot wasted no time taking off and flying them towards their next destination.

"You guys expecting trouble?" The pilot asked.

"Always," Gold replied.

The flight to the outpost was a relatively quiet one, all except for Connor calmly humming the tune to, 'Highway to Hell'.

As they approached their destination, the pilot and his passengers got a full view of the outpost they would soon arrive at. Most of the environment around the base was sand a rock, a few sections of greenery and trees seemed to be the only change of color in the area. Two large guns had been built on either end of the outpost, their twin cannons faced downwards towards the ground, showing that they were indeed currently offline. The ship slowed down and fell into a steady descent, kicking up a cloud of sand as it neared the ground. The landing feet on the ship folded out from its underside, softly touching the ground and bringing the ship to a standstill. The passengers on board the ship dropped from the deck onto the ground, the sand underneath their boots jumping to the sides as they made contact with the surface.

Up ahead of the group, a scavenger approached them at an orderly pace. Scavengers were droids, humanoid machines that had originally been created to locate and collect any form of resource that could be of any use. Though some time ago, many had been changed and outfitted for combat purposes. Upgraded systems, stronger bodies and strengthening the metal which they were made of is all it took. The Scavenger carried a simple assault rifle, three small missiles could also be seen attached to a platform on its left shoulder.

"Greetings, Knights," the Scavenger said in its robotic voice, coming to a standstill in front of the group. "You're attention in this matter is appreciated."

"Let's walk and talk," Gold replied.

Everyone soon began walking further into the outpost, no one appeared to be outside at this moment, making the outpost seem as if it were deserted.

"So what can you tell us?" Scott asked the Scavenger.

"I believe you already know everything there is to know," the Scavenger replied. "A patrol group of ours managed to capture the prisoner, we found him with a small group, they were searching a nearby area for supplies. Not long after we brought him in, someone hacked into our defenses systems and took them offline. We can only assume it was the Dominion. Our people are working overtime trying to get them back online."

"So who is the prisoner?" Blade was next to ask.

"The Dominion call him, The Engineer."

Upon hearing the name of the prisoner, Gold stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth open only slightly. The others stopped and turned to face him.

"Is something the matter sir?" The Scavenger asked.

"The Engineer? You're certain?" Gold said to it.

"Of course. We did a thorough investigation to make sure our assumptions were correct."

"Where is he?" Gold asked rather quickly.

"In the interrogation rooms, straight ahead of us," the Scavenger answered. "I was taking you there right now if you would li-"

Gold didn't wait the hear the rest of the droids sentence, quickly walking ahead of the group and making his way towards the interrogation rooms.

"Who's the Engineer?" Typhoon asked.

"I honestly don't know?" Scott replied. "What about you Blade?"

"Never heard of him," Blade replied.

"The Engineer has a high standing within the Dominion," the Scavenger explained. "He is credited with creating most of their inventions, the defense systems of the Empire are actually modeled from blueprints we believe we stole from his research."

"And I'm guessing Gold knows his real identity," Scott said to no one in particular.

"I believe you're assumptions would be correct, sir."

Gold pushed the door to the building open, immediately moving towards one of the rooms inside. No one inside tried to stop him when shoved one of the interrogation room doors open, allowing it to slam against the wall as it opened up. The inside of the room was dark, it would have been difficult to see anything if it weren't for the light flowing in through the single barred window at the back of the room. Gold could see a figure inside the room, the Engineer. His hands were bound behind the chair he sat upon, his legs tied to the legs of the chair. The Engineer looked up from the floor, directing his attention towards the three tailed fox.

"Gold, it's been a while," he greeted.

"Yes it has," Gold replied, switching on the lights to reveal a two tailed fox. "Tails."

Outside of the building, the rest of the Knights either stood or sat outside by the door.

"So, Tails is the Engineer," Blade began. "I knew he was with the Dominion, but I didn't think he was one for code names."

"Maybe he didn't want the exposure," Typhoon replied. "Even if it would only do so much."

Their conversation was cut short when sirens began sounding around the Outpost. Men and women began running out from the surrounding buildings, the majority of them appeared to be soldiers.

"Hey! What's going on?" Scott said, stopping one of the soldiers running by.

"We've got unknown ships inbound," the soldier replied. "And we're pretty sure it's the Dominion."

"Looks like all those assumptions were correct," Typhoon stated. "The Dominion wants their man back."

"That's not all," the soldier continued. "We think the Sentinels are with the enemy forces."

All of the Knights turned their attention from the soldier, staring at one another for a moment. Scott hurriedly raced inside the building to find his comrade.

"Gold, get out here," he said to the fox. "The shit's about to hit the fan!"

As Scott ran back out of the building, Gold spared one last look at Tails.

"You'd better get going, Gold," Tails said with a small smirk. "You're about to have one hell of a fight on your hands."

"We'll see," Gold replied, turning his back on Tails and walking outside.

Back outside, everything was dissolving into chaos. Several ships were stopping in the air to drop off the enemy forces, the soldiers ran for any cover they could find the moment they hit the ground. Some were unfortunate enough to be killed in the air before they even made it to the surface, their lifeless bodies plummeting to the ground below. Gold sprinted past the ongoing chaos, making his way to the front of the outpost. Already there were the other Knights, watching an incoming ship approach.

"That's the Sentinels," Scott stated.

"How can you tell?" Blade asked.

"It's a different class of ship, better than the other ones flying around," Scott explained.

"Then we need to take it down before they get here," Gold said.

"That's exactly what we're doing," Scott smirked.

On the roof of a building across from them, Gold heard a voice yelling out orders.

"Ready all Lance's!" The voice shouted. "Aim! Fire!"

Three soldiers were down on one knee atop the building, rocket launchers, or Lance's as they were called, resting over one of their shoulders. Upon hearing the order, all three soldiers fired their weapons. The rockets launched from the tubes, propelling straight towards the incoming ship. Half way along its flight path, the outer casing of the missiles broke off. Their main bodies extended outwards giving them a long slender appearance, much like that of a Lance. The missiles continued along their flight path, finally crashing straight into their intended target. The explosion was massive, engulfing the entirety of the enemy ship within it. Debris and scraps of metal shot outwards and plummeted to the ground below, flames still coating much of it.

"That seemed to easy," Blade stated.

Not a moment after the words had left his lips, each of the Knights radios crackled to life.

"Nothing could have survived that, but some of our scans of the ship are coming back in now," a voice spoke. "That was definitely a Sentinel drop ship, but our scans show it was being remotely controlled. There was no one on board to begin with!"

It didn't take long for each of the Knights to put the pieces together, but they didn't get a chance to say anything to one another. No sooner had it gone quiet, their radios once again crackled to life.

"There's an enemy drop ship at the back of the outpost!" The same voice spoke urgently. "We've got high value targets dropping in! The Sentinels are here!"

A sense of urgency washed over all of the Knights. If the Sentinels were here, then they were about to have one hell of a fight on their hands. Each of them ran ahead, rushing off to different sections of the outpost to find their targets. No sooner had they began running however, the whole world came to a standstill, frozen in place. Connor made his way through the entire scene, whistling a merry tune to himself.

"Now I'm sure we're all eager to see what happens next," he spoke. "But I think it only fair that we get to know the opposition of Celestias Knights. Wouldn't you agree?"

(A/N) That's another chapter finished. Just in time for Christmas for a lot of my readers I do believe. Next chapter we'll be seeing some of the Lunar Dominion and the people who make up its numbers.

Now then, getting away from the story. I like to think that 2014 has been a good year on Fanfiction, at least it has for me anyway. I've discovered a number of new authors, made a few friends and read some amazing stories. Seeing people's creativity come to life and watching as they turn that creativity into a story is a great thing. Whether it be something light and fluffy, or dark and serious, it all makes for something incredible. On that note, I have a question for all you readers and authors out there. What has been your favorite story this year? That could be a fairly hard question to answer, given the number of incredible writers on here, but do try to single it down to just one if you can. Tell us what story it is and why, I'm just really interested in hearing what everyone's favorite story has been. For me, it would probably be a little story known as, Six. I'm not sure if any of you have heard about it, by some guy who calls himself, Gold the Fox... Yes, there was a little sarcasm there. If you don't know who Gold is, then I believe you should check this particular story out.

Six has become my favorite story this year because its idea is something of an original one, and it also has a dark tone to it that I just love. If you haven't noticed, the majority of my stories have something of a dark tone to them, that's just how I write. But it isn't all doom and gloom, there are moments of humor and those fluffy bits we all love added in here and there. The plot is well thought out, the character interactions are great and the dialogue is very well done. It all just makes for a great story for me. That was my pick of the year, what's yours?

My next update will probably be in the new year. So until 2015, a lot of you probably know what I say by now.

Catchya :)