Solar Conquest II: A Trip to a New... World? Book 1: First Contact

Chapter 1

A strange portal appeared in the deepest darks of the Everfree Forest at midnight, the moon gave it an ominous glow. As it hovered in the air, if a pony were to look through it, they would see a rounded head, with yellow-tinged skin. The head had a helmet on it, and what seemed to be strange goggles with green lenses. The face said, "Overwatch, you're gonna wanna see this. Let me turn on my cam." It paused for a few seconds. "Yeah. It's creepy here. Advancing through tear." The portal opened up, and the head's body was revealed. It wore a dark uniform with a grey stick with thick appendages strapped around its upper torso. Other similarly looking people could be seen behind. "Move up, team." They all followed their leader, the one who had spoken.
As they advanced through the Everfree, they didn't realize a pack of timberwolves was stalking them. Suddenly, one of the timberwolves stepped on a small branch. "Hey, Alpha, you hear something?"
"Probably just your imagination, Charlie. My IR goggles don't detect anything."
"Alright then." Suddenly, a timberwolf pounced on Charlie. As he screamed, two shots were fired, and the timberwolf limped back into the darkness.
"The fuck was that?" asked Alpha.
"I dunno," Charlie replied. "It was standing on four legs, it was really big, and it was made out of wood!"
"Makes sense why we couldn't see it on IR then. What doesn't make sense is how the damn thing exists!"
As the team got closer to Ponyville, zap apples could be seen more often on the trees. They were very peculiar, shaped seemingly like normal apples, having all the colors of the rainbow on them. As they approached the edge of the forest, a barn could be seen. "Overwatch, we have approached some sort of building. From the outside it appears to be used for storage," said Alpha. "Copy that, proceeding with caution."