Jean, the other soldiers, as well as Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity continued to watch as the remains of their comrades were feasted upon by the titans. Despite wanting nothing more than to save anyone that was unfortunate to have still been alive for the titans to devour, he knew that they would need to make it to HQ soon or he and the rest of his comrades would be doomed as well.

“Jean?” asked Fluttershy, still crouching on the roof and trembling. “What do we do now?”

Jean looked at the frightened pegasus and quickly realized what he was fighting for. While she didn’t seem to have the guts that he and his soldiers had, Jean knew that these ponies had the great possibility to change the tide of the war on the titans. If they could talk, fly, or display vast intelligence on a human level, then there was no telling how valuable of an asset these ponies were to them.

Suddenly realizing what he had to do, he knelt down to Fluttershy and gently wiped her tears away with his fingers, allowing her to look up to him with shimmering, wondering eyes. The soldiers behind him on the rooftops of other buildings looked at him intently.

“Just what is he doing now?” wondered Annie.

“Could he really…” muttered Rarity.

Jean, while still looking sternly at Fluttershy, kept his voice down as his only means of easing her.

“Fluttershy, was it?” he quietly asked her, getting a nod of approval. “Right. Here’s what we need to do. Me and the rest of my soldiers are going to get to the HQ. You’re going to fly as fast as you can there. Once you do, with or without me, you’re going to go in and find a place to hide. You got it?”

“But,” stuttered Fluttershy, worried about his plan. “What about you? What about your friends?”

“We’ll be just fine. While these titans are distracted, we’re going to take off. Just fly high and get there safe and sound, alright?”

Jean’s rare words of comfort and support came as a shock to the soldiers, who, while not hearing what he had said, could see an identifiable smile becoming drawn on Fluttershy's face, which also surprised Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

“Ready?” Jean asked her.

“Ready,” confirmed Fluttershy.

“Alright. Once I give the order, we fly.”

Jean stood back up, looking out over the city to look for the cleanest path without being caught by titans. His comrades stood nervously, awaiting him to make an action. Once Jean, saw his road, he began immediately.

“GO!” he shouted, pointing his sword out at the HQ building. “Get to HQ while you can! Everyone, CHARGE!"

With his final declaration, Jean hooked into some nearby roofs and had them pull him forwards. As Fluttershy had promised, she leapt off the roof and flew behind Jean as fast as her wings could carry her. The others soon followed, with Sasha allowing Rarity to piggyback on once again. Rarity still screamed as she felt the sudden pull forwards and became airborne.

It's now or never! Jean thought. Either way, if we run out of gas, it’s over.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Mikasa swung though the streets towards another titan. It moved to slow to avoid her agile body and was cut down by her swords. Conny swung up close behind, with Rainbow Dash and Twilight following him, the latter having Armin and Spike on her back. Applejack galloped as fast as she could down the streets to catch up, just managing to stay underneath Conny.

The rogue titan ahead of them pushed a titan into a building, finishing it off with three powerful punches to the head. As the rogue titan finished its kill, Mikasa and Conny swung past while Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Armin, and Spike flew past while Applejack ran past it.

As the rogue titan looked for another titan to mercilessly kill, it looked out to the faraway HQ to see a massive load of titans crawling the side of the building.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Jean could see that the quickest way was through a street filled with titans. Knowing that trying to stay and kill them off would waste his gas, he expertly maneuvered around their grabbing hands and gaping mouths, escaping each one with relative ease. Fluttershy stayed high as instructed, but was able to fly over Jean at all times, keeping a close watch for him.

As Jean went forwards with another pull, now just a hundred feet away, he tried to soar faster than a titan’s hand that was grabbing for him. However, the titan’s speed was far greater than Jean’s body, as the titan grabbed him by the calf and foot, its permanent triumphant smile on its face.

“JEAN!” shouted Fluttershy, diving down as fast as she could.

Flapping her wings even harder and using her downward momentum, she aimed her nosediving body at the titan’s forearm. Then, quickly performing a front flip with her right leg extended out, she added more momentum to her kick as she slammed the back of the hoof into the titan’s forearm near the wrist.

With Fluttershy’s fury drowning out her hearing, she couldn’t hear the bones inside the titan’s arm break, causing the titan to relinquish Jean and let him fly out again. The titan looked at its arm, the skin around where Fluttershy hit it sunken in. However, with hissing and cracking, the titan’s arm began to reform. Not wanting to face whatever anger the titan might have come after it healed, Fluttershy flew back towards HQ and followed Jean again.

Rarity and Sasha watched the whole event, all while trying to dodge and avoid titans without wasting their gas.

“Isn’t that the shy one?” asked Sasha.

“Normally,” answered Rarity.

Without any more seconds to lose, the two continued towards HQ.

Meanwhile, Jean ran upon the rooftops, conserving the small amount of gas that he had left. As he looked up at the yellow pegasus who surprisingly saved his life, Marco landed besides him and ran alongside.

"Jean!" he called, getting Jean's attention. "Thank you. I only got out because of you."

"Huh?" Jean questioned, unsure of what he meant.

"It's all thanks to you! I told you before, didn't I? You are cut out to be a leader!"

With a smile, Jean responded, "I seriously don't know."

Flying back into the air, Jean was now just yards away from the HQ and his gas was still in use. He would make it. He was sure of it. Jean dodged two last titans before coming towards the top window of the HQ building, putting his foot up both to land and to break the window down, his arms shielding his face. Falling in, the glass shattered around him as he landed on the floor and slid into the side of a wooden desk, wincing as he struck it.

Fluttershy flew into the now broken window, making sure to hide underneath the nearest desk that she could find. Upon doing so, however, a soldier hiding underneath the same desk caught sight of the yellow pegasus and began screaming and backing out in a crab position, revealing himself to Jean.

Other soldiers burst inside, smashing more glass as the soldiers behind them went through the holes they created one by one. Sasha slipped inside, allowing Rarity to dismount her. As soon as her hooves touched the floor, the unicorn began to slip her saddlebag out and place it onto a nearby desk with her magic horn.

“Finally,” spoke Rarity. “I thought I’d never be able to take this thing off.”

The soldiers present were in shock watching the unicorn levitate her bag, Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie especially. Jean looked as Rarity grabbed a brush from her bag, again with magic, and began to brush her hair, taking out any lose ends. Seething beyond his boiling point, he began to walk to Rarity, tripping over the foot of the previously hiding soldier as he went, causing him to redirect his attention back to him.

“You,” he said. “You’re part of the supply squad, right?”

“Yeah,” he answered timidly.

Jean only stared at him for a few seconds before he grabbed the soldier by the lapels and brought his fist upon the left side of his jaw.

“JEAN!” shouted Fluttershy, jumping on his back and trying to pull him off by flying backwards, but his fury was too strong as he continued to wail on the soldier.

“Stop it, Jean!” Marco ordered.

Eventually, Marco stepped in and placed his arms underneath Jean’s arms and pulled him back by his shoulders, leaving Fluttershy to fly close to Rarity, not wanting to leave her side. A female soldier that hid under another desk went to her injured friend’s aid.

“It’s their fault!” Jean yelled. “They left us on the roofs! More people died than they should have because of you bastards!”

“The titan’s invaded the storage room!” cried the female soldier in response. “There was nothing we could do!”

“Doing something about it is your job!!”

Jean, still restrained by Marco, looked to the ponies hiding off in the corner.

“You!” he continued to shout, causing Fluttershy to recede. “What were you doing back there while they were all getting eaten? I saw you break that titan’s arm to save me, so why couldn’t you do the same for the others before?”

“There were too many,” Fluttershy fearfully mumbled, which went unheard by Jean.

“And you!” he exclaimed, looking right at Rarity. “What the hell was that that you did with your brush?”

“Why I…” she spoke, trying to use the right words for the livid Jean. “I used magic. All unicorns can.”

While some of the guards gasped at the word “magic,” as fantastical as it was, Jean was still not fazed.

“Then why didn’t you use this ‘magic’ to take out a few of those titans?”

Rarity herself was becoming sickened of Jean’s lashing and her demeanor began to match his.

“Rarity,” asked Fluttershy, seeing the scowl forming on her face, “are you alright?”

“Well?” demanded Jean.

“I didn’t use my ‘magic’ for the same reason you didn’t use your swords,” she spoke, stepping closer to Jean and Marco, “it’s because I was scared. We all were. Much like you and your men, you know how foolish it is to just waltz into battle unprepared and outnumbered. Do I not get to express the same thoughts?”

Rarity’s reason began to seep into Jean’s mind, Marco noting that the tension in Jean’s arms was lessening.

“And Fluttershy on the other hand said she couldn’t save the others because there were too many of them. And what strength and speed do you think a pegasus like her could muster against that many of them?”

“Apparently,” said Jean, “the same speed and strength she used to save me.”

“She saved you because she saw you as a true friend!” she barked back, this statement finally causing Jean to gasp. “She may not be the bravest pony most of the time, but when her friends are in trouble, there’s nothing she won’t do for them.

“She might not have been able to muster the courage to save the others, but the way you talked to her back there, you made her feel safe. She trusted you. That’s why she wanted to save you. And then you have the gall to go off on her like that? How your other comrades can even bear to stomach you, yet alone Fluttershy, I have no idea!”

Jean knew that she was right, but he wasn’t going to fold just yet. As he winced as he struggled to admit his being wrong, but Rarity would not give in easily either. As Rarity continued her tirade, Reiner looked out the window to see something that deeply made him nervous.

“Take cover!” he shouted, interrupting anything that was happening in the room.

Reiner began running towards the center of the room, bringing more attention to him. Just then, a large portion of the wall behind him exploded, forcing the other soldiers back, some even being hit in the blast. Jean and Marco also fled, just barely avoiding the debris and brick that was hurling towards them. Fluttershy, still somewhat scared of Jean again, hid in a corner away from the blast

When the dust cleared, the heads of two titans peered inside, looking at all the humans that were stuck and theirs for the eating. Outside, even more titans crawled up the building wanting their fill as well. Rarity, upon seeing the massive beings, ran back to Fluttershy and get her towards the back, but Fluttershy couldn’t help but look at Jean, who stood still as he looked out the newly formed hole.

"Dammit," stammered Jean. "There are too many people gathered in here."

The appearance of the titans outside caused mass panic in the soldiers as they rushed to the back.

“Where did Mikasa go?” shouted a male soldier.

“Hurry,” led another soldier, trying to move everyone back.

“Mikasa ran out of gas and got eaten on the way here!” shouted another.

“Further in!”

“Fluttershy,” shouted Rarity. “We have to move!”

Jean was oblivious to the chaos around him, instead being held still by the fear of his imminent fate.

This is normal, thought Jean, feeling his desperation slowly eating at him more and more. This is reality. Was I just chasing a delusional dream? A vision? I thought I knew reality. It’s simple really. Just thinking about it, it's obvious. There’s just no way to beat these gigantic monsters.

Jean continued to stand still in fright, forcing Fluttershy to break free of Rarity’s bind and gallop towards him.

“Jean!” she shouted
.
“Fluttershy?” he shouted, looking at her. “Stay back! It’s not saf–”

A thunderous striking noise sounded outside, and when Jean and Fluttershy turned around, they saw as a fist collided into the titan’s face, knocking both titans clear off the building.

“Huh?” questioned Jean and Fluttershy at the same time.

Stepping in front of the hole for the remaining soldiers to see was the rogue titan. Watching the titan that it struck fall, it produced another loud yell that made Fluttershy tremble, but she stood her ground, wanting to be as close to Jean at all times. The other soldiers just stood there, stunned.

“Wha…”muttered Jean. “What the hell is that thing?”

From just outside, Twilight, with Armin and Spike on her back, along with Mikasa, Conny, and Rainbow Dash, were soon approaching the HQ.

“We’re going to make it!” shouted Conny, ready to launch another hook. “We’re going to–”

As he tried to fire his hook, he was shocked to only see it fly about ten feet before it fell limp. Along with a sputter from his device, Conny knew what this meant: his gas was empty.

“No, no, NO, NO!!” shouted Conny as he began to fall short of his destination towards the titan infested streets.

However, he found himself flying up again as he felt a push from his lower back. Turning around, he saw the familiar cyan coat and rainbow-colored tail just behind him.

“I got you, bud!” she spoke as she aimed him towards a window next to the one where Mikasa was landing.

With both people shielding themselves, both Mikasa and Conny burst through the windows and landed on the floor, with the other soldiers seeing who it was. Once Twilight entered inside along with Rainbow Dash from the next window down, the soldiers were shocked again, including the soldiers originally holed up inside the HQ.

“Haha!” cheered Spike, throwing his arms into the air. “We did it!”

“Mikasa!” shouted Jean, getting her attention. “You’re… you’re alive!”

“Woo!” exclaimed Conny, patting Rainbow Dash heartily on the back. “That was a close one. Thanks for the save.”

“Sure thing,” she responded. “I never leave my friends hanging!”

Conny and Rainbow Dash shared a mutual smile. As Armin and Spike dismounted Twilight, she began taking her cumbersome luggage off of her, including Rarity’s, and place them over by Rarity’s discarded bags.

“Hey,” called Mikasa, scanning the room. “Where’s Applejack?”

“Or Pinkie Pie?” called Sasha, remembering that she was still outside too.

The sound of Applejack’s voice screaming, “Yeehaw!” could be heard from outside. Leaving Armin, Conny, Mikasa, and Sasha to look out at the nearest window to the sound. Sure enough, the whoop got louder as Pinkie Pie, with Applejack riding her like a bucking bronco, literally bounced into the window with four large springs on each of her hooves.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack landed back on the ground as Pinkie Pie began to take the springs off her hooves.

“Thanks for the lift, Pinkie,” spoke Applejack as she straightened her hat.

Mikasa sighed in relief while Sasha joyfully ran to Pinkie Pie and hugged her tight.

“Thank God you’re alright!” she exclaimed.

“No need to thank this ‘Gawd’ of yours, Sasha!” answered Pinkie Pie as she patted Sasha’s head. “Just your friendly neighborhood Pinkie Pie coming to help.”

As Rainbow Dash began to take off her saddlebags, Conny approached Armin and slapped him on the back, getting an, “Ow!” from the frail young man.

“We did it, Armin!” he shouted. “Your plan was a success!”

Then, getting the attention of his fellow cadets, he pointed at the hole were the rogue titan was still visible.

“Guys!” he roared. “That titan's an abnormality that kills other titans! On top of it, it has no interest in attacking humans! If we play our cards right, we can all get outta' here alive!”

Upon Conny’s insistence of using a titan, the other soldiers, including and especially Rarity and Fluttershy, murmured loudly with doubt or disapproval.

“‘Use’ a titan?” asked Jean incredulously. “You’re saying that it’ll help us? You must be dreaming–”

“It's not a dream,” answered Mikasa. “I don’t care if it’s an abnormal or whatever. Just let it rampage here for as long as possible. Realistically,” she concluded, looking at the rogue titan as it punched another titan in the face, “that’s our best means of surviving.”

“That’s great, Mikasa, but the storage room is filled with titans as well, and without the gas needed to get out of here, we’re about as fit for survival as a mouse in a cat’s mouth.”

“Hey,” called Conny. “Twilight can use magic. Can’t she just get some gas for us?”

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah. The titans shouldn’t bother her, so she can just go downstairs and grab some gas canisters for us.”

“As simple as that sounds,” spoke Jean, “that still doesn’t solve the problem of the titans downstairs. Our job as soldiers is to hunt and exterminate the titans, not walk around and ignore them.”

“Hey!” retorted Conny, “I’m trying to not get our men killed needlessly, alright?”

Armin wanted nothing more than a quick plan to satisfy Jean’s wanting to kill titan’s and Conny’s wanting to help his fellow cadets. Suddenly, a thought clicked into his head.

“Wait!” cried Armin. “I’ve got an idea!”

“Well, I’m all ears,” Jean answered in deadpan. “It’s not like I have any better options.”

“I say Twilight and Rarity go down and kill them.”

“WHAT?” shouted Twilight and Rarity in unison.

“You want us to go in and kill all of those things?” Twilight yelled.

The soldiers, knowing the unicorns’ capabilities of magic, began to nod in agreement to Armin’s plan. However, Armin knew there was only one person… one pony who could allow herself to go down.

“Please, Twilight,” begged Armin, on his knees and his hands on Twilight’s shoulders, “I don’t want to send a team down there with the risk of losing more of my friends, just like I did with Eren.”

The memory of Armin’s friend caused a small gasp in Twilight’s breath.

“Twilight, I’m certain that if you and Rarity go down there, you’ll make it. You two have a better chance of survival against those things than any of us.”

Twilight herself was scared, but knew that Armin was more than likely right about the titans not attacking her. And if it were to spare more human lives this way, she knew it had to be done. Rarity even knew that her duty to Celestia was to help the humans, and Armin’s plan was actually quite reasonable. With a nod to each other, Twilight and Rarity had made up their minds.

“Alright,” Twilight agreed. “We’ll do it, but we will need some weapons. I was warned before I came here that our magic won’t nearly be as strong as it is in my home world, so any advanced spells that we could’ve possibly used to kill these things can’t be used here.”

“Borrow my blades!” Sasha called almost immediately, pulling the four blades from the sheaths at her sides with her fingers and letting them drop to the floor.

Twilight and Rarity were surprised at Sasha’s generosity, but smiled at her nonetheless, also allowing Sasha to smile back.

“Thank you, darling” spoke Rarity. “This will be most helpful. Now where is the storage room?”

“Just take that door,” a female soldier said, pointing at a door at the far end of the room. “Take the stairs as far as you can down, that’s where it is.”

“What about a backup plan?” asked Armin. “What if one or more of those titans are abnormal and tries attacking you?”

“I’ll find a way to escape. Just allow us to try this.”

“Okay,” spoke Armin. “Good luck.”

Twilight and Rarity, using their magic, levitated two blades each from in front of Sasha and close to their sides. However a tugging at Twilight’s leg caused her to turn back around to see Spike hugging her leg.

“Be careful Twilight,” he advised, a nerve-stricken look upon his face.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at her longtime companion’s concern and turned to face him, rubbing the top of his head with her hoof.

“Don’t worry, Spike,” she assured him. “I’ll be out of there in no time.”

Upon seeing Spike’s smile, she turned back towards the direction of the stairwell door.

“Alright,” Twilight stated, “We’re going in.”

Twilight walked down to the end of the room as the other soldiers watched her bravely face the titans herself. With Twilight using her magic to open the door, they began to descend the wooden stairs to the titan’s lair, passing by a wooden elevator in the center gap with a rope-and-pulley crank system. As they continued further down, the light began to decrease. That was until they reached the basement, where fires from the torches that lined the walls gave some more ample light.

Twilight and Rarity stifled their shocked gasps as they saw the titans wandering aimlessly throughout the floors, which were smeared with blood and body parts of the humans that found themselves stuck down there at the titan’s mercy. Upon sniffing the stench of death, Rarity couldn’t help but gag. A titan with medium blonde hair looked directly at the two. Twilight and Rarity stayed absolutely still, their eyes wide and trembling in fear that the titan would react. However, the titan ignored them and continued to walk.

“Rarity,” hissed Twilight in a whisper. “Quiet. We need to be diligent. Otherwise, Armin’s plan was all for naught.”

“It’s just,” whimpered Rarity quietly, tears starting to fall from her eyes, “the smell…”

“I smell it too, but the sooner we take care of these things, the faster we can go back up. Now follow my lead.”

Twilight took her levitating blades and slowly hovered them out to just behind an unsuspecting titan’s neck. Rarity, seeing what Twilight was doing, levitated her own blades to behind the neck of one with long black hair, large eyes, and a permanent scowl. Twilight could even see as Rarity’s blades shook in her magical grasp.

“Rarity,” whispered Twilight. “I know this is scary, but I need you to focus. There’s no guarantee that if these titans won’t attack us if they know we’re attacking them.”

“But Armin said–”

“I know what Armin said, Rarity, but when that rogue titan killed a titan that was about to kill Mikasa, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, another titan came and attacked it. So just remember Rarity, this has to go on without a hitch. Are you ready?”

“I suppose…”

“Just go for the back of the neck. Nowhere else. On three.”

Twilight and Rarity placed their blades just inches from their respective titans’ necks, ready to strike.

“One,” counted Twilight. “Two. Three!”

Twilight quickly raised her blades up and then sliced through the nape of the titan’s neck, cutting it free from the body and feeling the titan. Rarity on the other hand, whipped her blades out to the side and then slashed them towards the titan. Rarity couldn’t even stand to look upon the act that she was about to do.

As she heard the slicing of metal against flesh as well as a painful cry, Rarity looked up with a smile on her face certain she had accomplished her task. But to her and Twilight’s horror, they looked as there were two long gashes that ran down the titan’s back. Both Twilight and Rarity watched in horror as the gashes on the titan’s back closed, clotted, scarred, and healed within seconds. The titan then looked right at Twilight and Rarity with malicious intent in its eyes.

“Oh no…” whispered Twilight, knowing what was going to happen.

The titan roared at the two, signaling the remaining titans to their presence and began to charge the two ponies. Rarity began to scream as Twilight dropped her blades and quickly threw her arms around Rarity, charging up her horn. Before the titan’s hands could reach them, Twilight and Rarity were encased with light that popped like a bubble almost instantly.

The two suddenly appeared back at the top floor in a similar bubble of energy, surprising the other soldiers immensely.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted, running up and giving his friend a hug.

However, Mikasa and Jean were more concerned about the success of the mission.

“What happened?” asked Jean. “Did you kill them?”

“Only one,” muttered Twilight unhappily, shocking the others. “The other titans caught on to us attacking them and tried attacking us, and we had to escape. I’m so sorry.”

Rarity was surprised that she didn’t mention that she was the one who botched the mission in the first place. But knowing that Twilight wouldn’t rat her out like that, she produced a weak smile, knowing that she would have to make up for it in some way.

The other soldiers were also disheartened by the lack of success, bowing their heads in shame.

“So that’s it,” Jean sighed, sitting down on the floor in defeat. “We’re stuck up here.”

“That’s not entirely true,” spoke Armin, putting all eyes on him. “That plan was only for Twilight and Rarity so that they could defeat the titans without being attacked themselves. Since that didn’t work, I came up with a Plan B, but it’s going to involve our combined efforts.”

“What is it then?”

Armin gulped in preparation to give his crazy and desperate plan to his comrades.