“Yes!” John whooped. After out flying and finally shooting down the two enemy fighters and forcing their pilots to eject, he deserved to be celebrating. The two fighters had come out of nowhere. The feeling of elation soon evaporated as he remembered why and how he got into this situation.

It was the year 2016 and the world was at war once again. John was a simple 21 year old who hailed from New England. But now he was a pilot in the Air Force, flying the FA 35B, and was armed to the teeth with missiles. He was part of a task force tasked with the destruction of the fleet blockading the Strait of Oman. He remembered how he got ended up in this situation as he rejoined his squad.

Two Years Earlier.

“In other news, protests have broken out all over the country in response to the reinstatement of the Draft. The President issued a statement saying ‘it is with a heavy heart that I have come to this decision, that more lives be sacrificed upon the alter of peace but it is a sacrifice that must be made to keep the world safe.’” John went to the fridge and returned with a fresh Dr. Pepper. Life had not been good. War broke out one year earlier forcing a return of the United States to the Middle East. The Public naturally was furious. John was a simple guy with dreams of joining NASA, going into space. But those dreams were put on hold from budget cuts to fund the war. And now here he was; going to MIT for Aerospace engineering to chase a dream that most likely wouldn’t happen. The world had become a cruel place. Then the mail came. And with that John found his way into the Air Force academy.

‘Present’ day

BEEP BEEP. “WARNING, MISSILE LOCK,” chirped the fighter’s onboard computer. John glanced at his counsel.

“Shit, SAMs,” John yelped. He activated his radio. “Um, Lincoln Actual, this is lightning I thought the SAMs were going to be neutralized by the time we got here,” John said.

“This is Lincoln Actual, our ground forces ran into heavy resistance on the way in, continue with the mission but be careful,” came the reply.

“Yeah, don’t need to tell me twice, lightning out,” John said as he and his squad rolled their jets. His formation has just emerged from the clouds allowing for visual locks. The scene before him was something out of a WWII movie. The fleet was emerging from the fog below and engaging the enemy warships in the strait. Missiles flew, on the ground the troops were just landing. Everything was off.

“MISSILE LOCK, MISSILE LOCK, MISSILE LOCK.”

“Shit, Shit, Shit,” John said. He looked to his right in time to see the missile collide with the rolling jet.
“Evasive maneuvers!” a yell came over the radio.

John rolled his jet. Though he hated the war he proved to be an excellent pilot. He threw his jet into a series of rolls and dives. The missiles were still coming hard. He looked around for the squad. Most still had their flares and were able to throw off the devices. The last engagement left his plane without flares and missing two missiles. The missiles were coming hard. They weren’t being thrown off.

“INCOMING,” said the computer.
“OH SHI-” John said as the world disappeared in a flash of light.

Luna stood on the bridge of her flagship, The Eclipse

“It seems I underestimated you again, sister dear,” the Pegasus unicorn said to herself.

The ships of the New Lunar Republic were supposed to form a wedge and collapse The Solar Empire’s defensive line. At first it appeared to work but now, Princess Luna’s fleet was surrounded.

Cannons on both ships launched powerful blasts of magic energy, doing everything from blowing a hole the size of a three story building in the enemy ship to turning the enemy gun into flower pot. Fighters on both sides clashed in the skies above and below the two fleets, shooting each other down and forcing the surviving Pegasus to eject.

This battle was not going as planned.

The battle was not going according to plan. Princess Celestia knew this as much as her sister. While she had forced her into a trap, she was losing too many ships for it to be called a victory.

There. She saw it; her sister’s flagship.

“Helmspony, hard to port and follow that ship,” ordered the Princess. And with that The Daylight Flare rotated on its axis and began its pursuit of its sister ship. Suddenly a flash of light and a shockwave struck the clashing fleets

John reappeared in flash of light. He opened his eyes and released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Something wasn’t right, the SAMs were gone, and his radar was empty. He did a check of his craft. Air speed correct, engine temperature normal, no damage, missile count ∞, wait what? Weapon count ∞? Ok, fuel check, again, that’s not right. He should have used at least one fifth of his fuel getting to the Strait of Oman. Come to think of it, where was he? Was he dead? Is this the afterlife?

BEEP. He looked at his radar. “Shit, no time for this,” John said as he rolled his plane to avoid the incoming fighters.

Princess Luna regained her footing. The shockwave had completely thrown off the both fleets’ equilibrium. The Eclipse was now point downward at a 30 degree angle. What was that?

Unicorns were running left and right. “Magic levels in the ship are stable,” “The levitation spell hasn’t been broken,” “weapons are… erratic.” Luna looked out the bridge windows. Her sister looked to be dealing with the same types of problems as she was; a comforting thought.

Spitfire was puzzled. Of all the changes this war had caused, all the inventions and machines built, the object in front of her was the strangest. It wasn’t a diamond shaped like most other craft, but had the shape of an arrow head, with an almost feathered tail. And it was fast. Spitfire’s squadron was barely keeping up with it, all while it dipped and dove, trying to shake them off it. And judging by the strange glow that enveloped it, it was the cause of the shockwave that had just crippled all the large ships in the battle zone. Suddenly a new group of fighters came up next to her. Soarin, and his squad of Shadowbolts.

When the war started the Wonderbolts were unsure of what action to take. Some thought that they should support the sun princess. Others thought neutrality was the best option. But something changed in Soarin immediately after war between the sun and the moon gods broke out. His normal joking and laid back personality disappeared, replaced by an extremist who looked at the princess of the sun as a dictator. He’d taken half of the Wonderbolts with him when he left, and joined Luna’s army to form the Shadowbolts. Spitfire wondered what changed in her once good friend. But now she needed to focus. Friend or not, he wasn’t going to get that craft.

And with one quick glance, the two took off, in pursuit of the strange craft.

John was starting to get desperate. Instead of one squad of ten strange fighters, there were two, and both were not giving up. Where did these strange fighters come from? As far as he knew, no country in the Middle East or anywhere for that matter operated such a strange, diamond shaped aircraft. Assuming he still was in the Middle East.

After that strange flash, right after the SAMs should have hit him, right after he should be dead, he wasn’t. He pulled up and into a cloud formation in an attempt to lose the pursuing planes. What he saw when he emerged blew his mind.

A large group of huge arrow shaped ships were in what looked to be a chaotic battle. But no shots were being fired. Smaller vehicles buzzed all around them like angry bees.

“Ok, we are defiantly not in Kansas anymore,” he said aloud.

“Princess, Spitfire reports a strange arrow head craft has just been sighted. She says it looks to be the cause to the shockwave,” a unicorn wearing a guard uniform said. Judging by his rank, he was a simple communications officer.

“Does my sister have anything to do with this?” asked Celestia, intrigued.

“No ma’am, the craft does not have markings indicative of a New Lunar Republic vehicle. It is completely unknown to both sides.”

“Order Spitfire to bring it in if she can, if not, at least keep my sister from having it,” Celestia said glumly.

John weaved his plane through the maze of ships, his followers close behind. He dipped around one ship before coming back around what looked like the bow. As he made his pass he saw something that completely startled him. Ponies! The bridge of the ship was occupied by ponies, and they looked to be giving him the same look as he was to them.

FFFFFFFFSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH

John looked up in time to see a dark blue bolt of… something fly over his jet and impact a passing fighter, turning it to glass. The pony pilot barely scrambled out of his bird and took flight before it disintegrated. Wait, again a pony, but with WINGS?!

“Alright, something is defiantly not right here,” John said. FFFFFFFFFFFSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH
Another bolt flew past.

“Oh there is no way I’m getting hit with that,” said John as he dove toward the ground, avoiding planes and ponies as he went. Up above the battle resumed, and the strange planes still followed. John pulled up just before he hit the ground rejoining the fray.

Bolts of blue and yellow energy flew around him. Below a ship was just disabled by a shot to its engines, destroying them as the ship screeched towards the ground.

“Forget this,” said John looking down, “I’m not ending up like that poor sucker.” And with that he pushed his hand to the throttle and accelerated to Mach one, leaving his pursuers and the battle behind.

Luna turned her head in time to see the wave front forming on the nose of the alien fighter as it pushed through the sound barrier. The resulting boom shattered half the windows on her bridge and knocked her out.

Spitfire’s jaw dropped. In one graceful motion, the craft had broken the sound barrier as if nothing was there, leaving her and her squad in the dust. She looked at Soarin’s fighter. Even he was awestruck as they watched the fighter sail off into the setting sun.

Luna awoke. Not from somepony rousing her but from the impact of an energy blast. The weapon splashed across the starboard side armor plating before exploding in a brilliant flash of orange light.

The remaining bridge windows shattered from the shock wave.

Something dripped down Luna’s face. She put her hoof to her head and viewed the liquid on it. Blood; she must have been closer to the windows than she thought.

Luna surveyed the situation. The fleet was in complete disarray. Her once proud fleet of warships was now slashed in half. Cruisers and carriers engaged each other at random. Rouge fighters flew left and right, shooting at anything they could lock on to.

From the look of things, her sister wasn’t faring any better. The once proud flagship of the Solar Empire was now a shadow of its former glory. Holes big and small riddled the ship. Impact craters from out of control fighters were all over its hull. Black charcoal stains were all over the once snow white ship. Weapon emplacements ranged from damaged to not even existent.

Luna doubted her ship looked any better. The Eclipse had taken heavy damage from that last hit. The ship feared by the Solar Empire was aflame all over. Damage control unicorns rushed to extinguish the fires and patch the holes.

The invasion had failed.

“Order the fleet to turn around. Sound a retreat,” Luna ordered.

Ponies went left and right, responding to the princess’ commands. Orders were being shouted into the glowing microphones of the communication consoles. Slowly the fleet began to turn.

Luna watched as her command was carried out with exact precision.

“Get me the science and magic officer,” she commanded, a small phone like device was brought up to the princess’s head, “Get me everything we know about that strange fighter and determine where the hay it came from.”

Celestia watched her sisters’ fleet execute its retreat. Under normal circumstances she would have pursued but considering half her fleet was on fire she decided against it.

“Princess, Spitfire’s report on the mysterious vehicle. She reports it was of alien origin, agile, and fast, incredibly fast. In fact the reason she couldn’t catch it was because it left the battlefield at supersonic speeds,” a guard levitating a file reported.

“What?! The only thing known to do that is The Element of Loyalty. Rainbow Dash is the only thing in the world to ever pull off such a feat,” Celestia said, astonished.

“Well whatever it was, it is clearly not from our world; built by a species with wisdom beyond ours,” the guard replied.

Two hours earlier.

Rainbow Dash fluttered up to her favorite spot above Ponyville, a small cloud above town square.

“Ah, this is the life,” she sighed contently as she drifted off to sleep.

Ever since the war began things changed. Canterlot was no longer the residence of the Princesses. Luna massed an army outside of Equestria in preparation for invasion. Celestia massed an army inside in preparation for defense. She moved her flag out of Canterlot and into Trotterdam. Far away from Ponyville and the other cities who had sworn to be neutral in the conflict. The war was far away for Rainbow Dash. Until today.

WWWWHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH

“AAHHH,” Rainbow Dash screamed, her cries joining those below. The cyan Pegasus was blown off her cloud and into Sugarcube Corner.

The wave of energy subsided. Ponyville looked to have just survived a wind storm. Carts and ponies and anything else that wasn’t bolted to the ground was flipped and tossed by the shock wave.

“What the hay was that?” Rainbow Dash said as she entered Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie was white, covered in flour, helping the Cakes clean up a mess of fallen jars and broken glass displays.

“I don’t know but all I can say is WWWWWEEEEEEEEEE go again!” she said bouncing up and down, flour shaking off her body.

“Ok, I’m gonna go see if Twilight needs any help,” Dash said as she walked back out the door. And with that she spread her wings and took off toward the town library.

When she entered the scene reminded her of one of Twilight’s reorganization days. All the books in the library were tossed onto the floor.

“Spike! Where are you?” Twilight called.

“MMMMMHHHMMMM,” came the reply. A small green claw pushed itself out of a pile of books. Twilight’s magic grabbed it and pulled its owner out.

“One more minute in there and I was going to burn my way out,” Spike said, small bruises covered his body but other than that, he looked fine.

“Hey, Twilight. Need any help with anything?” Rainbow asked.

“No I think we’re fine here. Why don’t you go see Fluttershy? You know how easily she spooks.”

“Good idea, see ya later Twilight,” and with that Rainbow rushed out the door towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

Four hours later

John decelerated his jet. He’d traveled a Mach one for about twenty minutes before he felt far enough away from whatever was going on there to be safe. He was still having trouble comprehending what had just happened. It had defiantly been a battle but the participants were ponies! He’d dismissed that as a stress induced hallucination. The weapons used by the combatants were nothing he’d ever seen. Was he dead? No, he’d figured that out after several minutes of slapping his face and making turns at four Gs. He was clearly alive. But where was he? He’d find out later. Now it was getting dark and he needed a place to land. That clearing should do nicely.

“Thanks, Lockheed Martin, for putting VTOL in this thing,” John said relieved as he brought the jet into a hover. The engine rotated down and the door covering the lift fan opened. Slowly, he lowered the jet in to the clearing.

He flipped a switch and deployed the jet’s landing gear. It lowered with a satisfying click. The jet landed with a soft thud.

He opened the cockpit and clambered out of the pilot’s seat. He pulled off his helmet.

“Alright, let’s just see one thing,” he opened up the internal weapon bays. He looked inside. NO, that shouldn’t be possible. Instead of six missiles with two missing there was a full eight. But he had fired two, hadn’t he? This was getting weird.

He looked at his fuel gage. It stayed on 100%. How had he flown the jet at Mach one and not lost a drop of fuel? He sat in the cockpit, dumbfounded, his hands resting on the sticks. Suddenly the jet powered up, the engines began whirring. He quickly pulled his hands away from the controls.

“What the hell was that?”

His pulled off his gloves and shut the plane off completely. Wait, what’s that on his hands? When did he get tattoos? On both his hands were two bird wings with a plane in between them. They were glowing.

“Ok, this is officially off the weird scale,” John said.

He reached over and began to pull himself out of the jet. Just as his hands passed a stick the tattoos on his hands started glowing, the jet powered on.

“Hmmm,” he moved his hand away from the stick, the jet powered down and his hands stopped glowing.

He hopped out of the jet. He placed his hand on the side of the plane. It didn’t respond.

Try thinking about it

“What?” John asked, turning around looking for the source of the voice. “Wait, try thinking about it?”

He focused on the jet and snapped his fingers. His hands glowed and the jet powered on.

“Whoa, that’s awesome.”

“Hmm, I wonder,” he said. He thought of the plane’s engines, and raised his hand. The plane’s engines began whirring and it slowly started to rise with his arm. He lowered his arm and the plane followed.

“Oh, now that’s sick,” he laughed.

He raised the plane again and rotated his hand. The plane began to lean to the right. He raised his other hand and rotated it and watched as the plane began to rotate, facing him. He moved his hand to the right, and the jet followed.

“Let’s try this.” He took his index finger and flicked it downward. The missile bay doors opened. Making a finger gun he pointed into the forest.

“Bang.” On command a missile took off from the plane and into the forest.

SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHFFFFFFFFFFEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Rainbow Dash was sleeping soundly. The cloud bed was so comfortable. A soft boom in the distance roused her. “Eh, what? Ah forget it,” she said with a yawn and flopped back onto her bed.

A small fire ball rose into the sky.

“OK, enough of that,” John said and lowered the plane and shut it down. He couldn’t stay here. He had to find civilization of some kind. “Don’t want anyone finding you,” John said to the plane. It flashed its lights almost as a response. He grabbed his knife and began to cut branches and brush and began to cover the jet’s top and sides. In a green forest a gray jet wouldn’t be too difficult to find. Finally after four hours of cutting and placing, the whole top of the plane was covered in green.

John grabbed his sidearm and knife, pocketing both in his boots. He headed into the forest. After an hour of walking, the sun began to rise. Just in time, he’d reached the edge of the woods. A small cottage lay just beyond the edge of the wood.

“♫ La la la laa laaa ♫ ,” sung a friendly, silky voice, “Wake up sleepy heads, time for breakfast.”

John ran toward the sound of the voice, “Hey! I need help, can you tell me where I am.”

“EEEEE, Um sure I guess,” came the reply from around the cottage, “who are you exactly, oh did I sound too mean?”

“No, you sounded quite friendly,” John said as he rounded the corner, “my name is J-.” Before him stood something strait out his ‘hallucination.’ A cream yellow pony with a pink mane stood in front of him. She immediately screamed, “MONSTER!”

“wha, how, I uh, no, that’s not possib, I uh, ahhhh,” and with that, John’s eyes rolled into his head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Rainbow Dash sat in the waiting room of the Ponyville Hospital. All she had heard was that Fluttershy almost pulled off a Sonic Rainboom getting to Twilight’s house. Apparently she had burst into the library, nearly knocking spike unconscious with the door, rambling about some monster that had collapsed in her yard.

Twilight and Fluttershy had brought the alien into the hospital where he was treated for a head injury. Now all there was to do was wait until it woke up.

Still wish I could see it, thought Rainbow.

Luna stepped out of the The Eclipse. The large ship was docked at Luna’s own shipyard on the edge of the capital of The New Lunar Republic, the city of Tycho. The city had surprisingly been built in the short time period of two years. Now, four years into the war, it was the center of industry, shipbuilding, and military for The New Lunar Republic.

Luna flew up to her quarters on the top of the city’s central spire. She shed her rank badge and tiara and headed to her war room. A hooded figure waited.

“This war is not proceeding as you predicted,” Luna said, irritated, “both my sister and I have been blasting away at each other for the past six months, I need a decisive victory, and soon.”

“You’re leaving out something important that happened today, Princess,” The figure said, “Something I couldn’t have foreseen. The appearance of that alien craft has tossed another ball into the air. It is too unknown of a variable. I will adjust my calculations to include the possible reappearance of the craft. You will have a victory, princess, in due time.”

“I better; this war has dragged on for too long. There aren’t a people in the world anymore who aren’t neutral in this conflict. Even some ponies are pledging to weather this storm rather than fight it. We have no allies. I want a new battle plan by this time next week.”

And with that Luna turned and left the room.

Rainbow jumped out of her seat, bashing her head on the ceiling. Twilight and Applejack rushed past her and into the hospital room.

A Blood curdling scream could be hear along with the sounds of Rarity and Pinkie Pie trying to calm its owner. From the sounds of it, Fluttershy was huddled in a corner, covering her ears.

“Yes! It’s awake, what’s it look like?” Rainbow asked as she followed Applejack into the room.

Thirty seconds earlier.

John felt something. It was in the back of his mind. It was a simple message.

End it

A flicker of consciousness turned into an explosion. John shot up and examined his surroundings.

Good, he thought, I’m in a hospital. What ship am I on? Not the Lincoln, the infirmary is too ugly on that ship. Where am I?

His thoughts were cut short by a bouncing pink fluff in front of his face.

“Ooooo, look Rarity, he’s awake!” John took one look at the creature in front of him, this shouldn’t be possible. He began screaming.

Fluttershy scrambled into a corner and cowered in fear. Rarity jumped up.

“Darling, please calm down, your safe. You hit your head when you fainted, please calm down. You’re scaring Fluttershy.”

“Uh, stop screaming please? I… Uh… I’ll throw you a party! I’ll be your best friend! Um, look at the funny face, Bllaababaa!” Pinkie Pie stuttered.

Twilight followed by Applejack burst in.

“Oh, my, I didn’t think this would happen,” Twilight said.

“uh, now partner, calm ur’self. Ur fine. Don’t be frightn’d now,” Applejack said, concern in her voice.

“Yes! It’s awake, what’s it look like?” came an all but familiar voice. John stopped screaming as Rainbow Dash came into view. He suddenly felt drained.

He coughed and wheezed before looking up. A glass of water hovered in front of him, held up by a purple field.

“Here, drink this,” Twilight said.

John chugged down the water, “Not possible,” he wheezed.

“Pardon?” Applejack asked.

John regained his voice, “This can’t be possible, I’m hallucinating, I’m in my jet still. I’ve just fallen asleep.”

“Um, I hate to burst your bubble, good sir, but you’re not hallucinating,” Rarity said.

“Where am I?” asked John.

“You’re in Ponyville hospital,” Rainbow Dash answered, “Wow! An alien. You’re not as ugly as I thought you would be.”

“RAINBOW,” came a chorus of four voices.

“Of course,” said John laughing, “I’m in Ponyville hospital, talking to the mane six. This Isn’t Real.”

Fluttershy finally stopped her cowering, “the bandage on your head looks real,” she said sheepishly.

“What?” John felt the back of his head. Bandages. And pain. The pain was defiantly real. Could it be possible that he was somehow transported to Equestria? It would explain the ponies on the warships but not the warships. It would explain his surviving a SAM strike and his tattoos on his hands and his ability to control his plane.

“I… I… really am in Equestria?” John asked.

“Last time I checked, silly,” beamed Pinkie.

“YEAHOO!!” shouted John, “Of all the places, Equestria! This has got to be the greatest thing to happen to me since… I don’t know… nothing this great has ever happened to me before.”

“You’re not from Equestria?” asked Twilight.

“No, I’m from… a faraway land.”

“Come one partner, let’s get you outta here,” Applejack laughed.

The next hour was spent in Twilight’s tree. Tests and more tests, John was getting tired of all the testing and examination. Finally it was over.

John sat on the library floor as the ponies gathered around.

“So, what are you exactly?” asked Rainbow.

“I’m something called a human.”

“And do humans always dress so… unusually?” asked Rarity.

“Heh heh, no. This is just my flight uniform.”

“Where are you from? What do you do for fun? What are humans good at?” asked Twilight, “Oh I have so many questions.”

“Let me start from the beginning,” John said, “My name is John Daniels. I’m from another universe from a planet called Earth. Humans actually have some of the same traditions and customs as Ponies. We play football or hoofball as you call it, we play soccer, we have board games like chess, we go swimming, we bake, we do most of the same stuff you do. What we’re good at though is another story. You may not like what you’re about to hear. My race is good at only one thing. War. We invented slings to launch rocks at each other, spears to stab, eventually swords to slice, large catapults to launch boulders at others, and eventually weapons that could kill at range, and even beyond that into horrifying creations, capable of wiping an entire city off the face of the earth. Our technology advanced faster than our emotional capacity.”

The ponies sat dumbfounded, possibly regretting their decision to bring John to Ponyville.

“Where I come from, we are aware of your world, to a degree,” said John.

“What to do you mean by ‘a degree?’” asked Twilight.

“In my world, this place exists in a show called ‘My little Pony.’ I kind of watched the show as an escape from the evil of my world. In my world this place seems like the perfect escape from a place so cold and hostile. A number of people back on Earth watch the show. That’s how I know you names.”

The ponies looked slightly embarrassed. They had forgotten to introduce themselves. John pointed from left to right.

“You’re Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic. You’re Applejack, the element of honesty. You’re Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter. You’re Fluttershy, the element of kindness. You’re Rarity, the element of generosity,” John looked at Rainbow, “And you’re Rainbow Dash, the best flier in all of Equestria, the element of Loyalty.”

The ponies stare dumbfounded, looking at John who knew so much about them. Rainbow just blushed from the recognition.

“But there’s something you’re not telling me,” John said solemnly, “something important.” The six ponies instantly go rigid.

“When I left my world, it was at war with itself. When I appeared here, I was in the middle of a battle. What happened to this place?”

Twilight spoke up first, “About four years ago, there was a power struggle between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They both thought the other was trying to bide for power. Maybe one of them was, we don’t know. Luna took half of the Equestrian populace and left and formed The New Lunar Republic. She returned with an army. Those who chose to stay with Princess Celestia became part of the Solar Empire. Equestria has been at war with itself ever since. Being the elements of harmony, whoever we sided with would win the war. So we stay neutral, until the war is over, and this land returns to peace. Ponyville and its neighboring towns are one of the few safe places now.”

“But since they both control the sun and the moon here, how come they both rise and lower naturally?”

“They agreed on a mutual agreement to not use their elements in the war. Now the sun and moon will rise up and down by an auto spell.”

John stared dumbfounded. The six all had solemn looks on their faces. Even Pinkie Pie looked depressed. This made no sense to John. Equestria at war? How? This land was a peaceful paradise. The one place he’d only dreamed of going was at war with itself.

Change it

Where was that voice coming from?

Rainbow spoke up first.

“Wait, earlier you said that what your wearing was your flight uniform. How can you fly without wings?”

“Oh I have wings, Rainbow Dash,” John said grinning, “you wanna see them?”

“Sure,” She said excitedly jumping into the air. The happy mood had returned.

“Follow me, I’ll show you where I left it,” John said. The six ponies headed off into Everfree forest.

They walked until they reached the clearing. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy stared at the strange vehicle before them. Rainbow Dash grinned like a kid in a candy store. John raised his hand and turned the jet on. The engine started whirring and the lights powered on. He proceeded to clear the top of the brush and branches. The F35 stood glimmering in the sun.

Twilight noticed the marks on John’s hand, “That’s an unusual cutie mark.”

“Yeah. It lets me control the plane with magic I guess. I’m still figuring out how it works,” he answered, blushing slightly, remembering the rouge missile that flew into the forest the night before.

“So how fast is it?” Rainbow asked, flexing her wings

“Fast, why? You up for a race?” John asked. He’d always dreamed of being a Pegasus, racing Rainbow Dash. But racing in a jet fighter would have to do.

John clambered in the pilot’s seat. The plane flashed its lights and uttered a chirp, welcoming him back. He pulled his helmet back on and closed the cock pit.

Twilight’s horn glowed, “Now you can talk to us while inside that thing.” Her voice resonated through the helmet.

“Cool,” John said.

“First on to town hall wins,” said Dash. Pinkie Pie’s balloon landed, picking up the remaining five.

“We’ll meet you back in Ponyville,” Pinkie shouted, “On your mark, get set…. GO RACERS GO!”

Rainbow took off, she was fast.

John pushed the throttle down and the jet accelerated forward. Rainbow still held the lead.

“I thought you said that hunk of junk was fast, hotshot,” she taunted.

“Oh, it is,” John pushed the throttle down more and the jet began gaining on Rainbow. Soon they were neck and neck. John looked out the canopy at Rainbow. She was blushed slightly as he waved.

“Ok, I admit that that thing is giving me a challenge. First real competition I’ve had in a while,” she huffed. Her face showed signs of exertion as she began to pull ahead.

“But your still going to lose, hotshot,” she taunted as she pulled ahead of the jet.

“Oh really? You wanna make a bet on that?” John answered.

“Yeah, when I win, you have to do something for me. Whatever I ask, I haven’t decided yet,” she panted.

“And if I win?”

“I don’t know; what do you want?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

And with that, John pushed the throttle down and accelerated the plane past the sound barrier, leaving Rainbow Dash in the dust.

As he pulled ahead he could have sworn he saw Dash’s jaw drop in the wake of the boom.

The Daylight Flare docked with the sun princess’s castle suite. It sat atop the Trotterdam Sky needle, a large elongated cone with four radial arms extending to an observatory ring. The princess walked through the docking bay and onto the tower. Her flagship detached itself and lumbered over to the shipyard for repairs.

Trotterdam had become the military fortress of the Solar Empire. It was surrounded by a wall which four years ago did not exist. The wall was constantly patrolled and armed with AA batteries to shoot down any attacking craft. The once peaceful city was now a battle ready megalopolitan.

Celestia immediately strode to into her command center. A large table stood in the middle with volumetric projections of past battles warring on over it. A dark figure stood by the table, watching the battles unfold.

“Something has happened, something unexpected,” the sun princess said dryly.

“Yes I know,” the figure replied, pulling up a projection of the battle from the cruiser Corona's point of view. It showed the alien craft zipping away just after the ship crippled a New Lunar Republic heavy destroyer, “This is quite an unexpected turn of events. It adds more complications to the war, as I’m sure you already know.”

“Yes; my sister and I have been locked in a stalemate for six months. I need a game changing victory to throw the scales in my favor. And I need it soon.”

“You will have my results by next week,” the figure said as the princess trotted to her quarters.

“WOW, that was so awesome!” screamed Rainbow Dash.

John hopped out of his jet he’d affectionately named Lightning. The Apple family had been kind enough to allow John to park ‘Lightning’ in their old barn. Pinkie Pie, with the others in tow bounced over, joining the conversation.

“How’d you get that ‘jet’ you called it to go so fast?” Rainbow asked, “I mean, it just pulled off a sonic rainboom without even trying.”

“It’s complicated, but for now, the engine in her worked really hard to pull that off. It looks easy but the plane has to put a lot into it. Kind of like when you did a sonic rainboom, but not that much.”

“Cool, so you won our bet, but I want a rematch,” she affirmed.

“Now Rainbow, don’t go gettin urself into caught up in this. Ya already owe the fella a favor for losin that race,” Applejack added.

“Yeah yeah, but that thing in your barn has been the first real competition in this town for some time. I will beat it in a race,” the determination obvious.

“Just don’t go hurting yourself in the process, darling. We all remember how long you were stuck in the hospital last time,” Rarity said.
“Don’t remind me.”

“Hey, I don’t mean to be a bother, but do you know any good hotels here? I kind of don’t have a place to stay tonight,” John remarked.

“He can stay with me!” Rainbow jumped up enthusiastically.

“Uh, hate to burst ur bubble Rainbow but he can’t walk on clouds,” Applejack cut in, “Why don’t ya stay with us? We have an extra bedroom that nopony’s using, you can sleep there.”

“Sure, I appreciate this, as soon as I have some money I’ll pay you back,” out of the corner of his eye he saw Rainbow slump down slightly, a disappointed look on her face. It quickly evaporated as she put on a poker face.

“And come by my shop tomorrow dear, I simply must get your measurements,” Rarity declared.

“Why?”

“You can’t go around wearing that hideous thing all day can you?”

“Heh heh, no, I guess not,” John chuckled…

John lay on the bed. It was too small for him. His feet stuck out like he was some kind of giant. Which he was here. He thought back to earlier that day. Why did Rainbow ask him to stay over her place? Why did she look depressed after she found out he couldn’t? These questions nagged at the back of his head. He removed his knife and sidearm and placed them on the night stand.

John’s dreams were haunted with war. He was in Equestria. He was a Pegasus flying with Rainbow dash. They were all laughing, everypony was happy. Then the sky went dark, large ships passed overhead. The screaming started. The fleet started firing on the town. War machines crept out of the bellies of the ships. Then the world went black.

John awoke with a start. He looked at the clock. 8:00. a large thudding of hoof steps came to the door. The door opened; Big Mac stood before you.

“Breakfast is ready,” he says indifferent to the alien in the guest bed. John crawled out of bed and made his way downstairs.

Applejack is cooking; the smells of eggs and toast fill his nose. On the table is everything a pony could ask for, eggs, toast, fruit, bagels, crescent roles, and flowers and other unfamiliar pony foods. Applebloom is retrieving a glass of apple juice.

“Morinin partner, how’d ya sleep?” AJ asks.

“Uh, not well. I think that bed is too small for me.”

“Sorry bout that. Not much I can do there. So watcha plannin on doin today?”

John sat down at the table, “I think I’m gonna go look for a job. I need something to do other than flying my jet around, which just doesn’t pay well here.”

“Where ya gonna look? I would recommend the weather patrol, Rainbow could always use and extra hoof with the weather, but since ur not a Pegasus I don’t know.”

“Hey, wait a minute, doesn’t DJ Pon-3 live in Ponyville?”

“Yup, why? Ya thinkin of DJing with her?”

“Yeah, it was kind of a hobby of mine before I ended up here.”

“Well ok then.”

John finishes his breakfast and heads out the door. Better go see Rarity today, I can’t keep wearing this all the time, he thinks. He heads to the Carousel Boutique. The bells ring as he enters.

“Darling, you’re here,” she says, her fancy voice warm and welcoming. She retrieves her measuring tape, “Now stand perfectly straight dear. I must be perfect.” She measures his height and begins writing.

“Now don’t move too much,” she says as she measures his waist, “Now hold your arms out.”

She measures the lengths of his arms and records the measurement.

“I should have your new clothes done by the end of today,” she says.

“Cool, I’ll hopefully have a job by then so I can pay you.”

“Oh, there’s no need darling. Their free of charge,”

“Wow, thanks Rarity. I guess that’s why you’re the element of generosity.”

“Oh you; come back at 4:00 sharp now.”

“I will,” John said as he walked out the door.

John walked through town, soliciting a lot of weird stares and gawks. He blushed at the attention. He quickly ducked into Sugarcube Corner.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie, how may I help y- JOHN!” Pinkie pie yips.

“Hi Pinkie, Do you know where I can find DJ Pon-3?”

“Oh sure, Vinyl is always at The Zone. It’s her club, record store, and home, all in one!”

“Wait, her name is Vinyl? As in Vinyl Scratch?”

“Yup, the very same. How’d you know? Are you physic or something?” Pinkie giggles.
“Lucky guess, can I have directions?” Wow, the similarities are uncanny, John thought

“Sure, take a left and go down five blocks before taking right. It’s on the outskirts of town. Don’t want anypony waking up from too much partying now do we?”

“Thanks Pinkie, I’ll see ya later,” John said as he waved as he left.

Vinyl Scratch had a dilemma. She needed inspiration, new ideas for music. Summer was just around the corner and The Zone would be crowded. She needed something new, something fresh, something alien.

She sighed, as she finished what she’d been writing, ‘help wanted, can’t be tone deaf and must know a thing or two about music.’ She placed the sign on the window of the shop.

A little unconventional, she thought to herself. She had heard of some alien that landed in Ponyville. Hmm if only something interesting like that dropped into this place. Vinyl took out the latest issue of Equestria Daily news magazine and flipped through the pages.

The bells on the door rang, Vinyl lifted her head, and nearly shattered her glasses as her ruby colored eyes processed what just walked through her door.

John approached the club. It was a three story structure at the end of the street. Farther down the street John could see cloud houses of the various pegasi that lived in the small town. He approached the building. There was a sign on the window, ‘help wanted, can’t be tone deaf and must know a thing or two about music.’ Good, he was in luck. He had one more thing from earth that may help him here. His iPhone. He’d always take it with him when he went on a flight. A good luck charm. The device had everything piece of music he owned on it. All sorts of artists, all sorts of mixes, even some of his own. But it also carried a dark history, the memories of the day that changed everything…

One year ago

Hale forward operations base, Kuwait
“Your mission is to recon enemy bases, air fields, and ship yards and assess the likely hood of an immediate strike before returning to base. Any questions? No? Dismissed.”

“Hey, lightning. You got your good luck charm? I got mine, cause I think we’re gonna need all the luck we can get on this one.” John’s wingman Firefly ran up to him holding a small wooden carving. It was a battered fish carving, hand carved by Firefly when he lived in Alaska. One probably couldn’t tell that it was once a shark, due to the large piece of shrapnel embedded deep in the wood.

John held up his, the iPhone 5.

“Dude that has got to be the strangest good luck charm ever. I still can’t believe he lets you bring that thing with you on all you flights. Get a better charm.”

“Hey don’t judge, the 4 stopped a bullet for me that attack in march. Remember? That’s when your shark took one to the head, ya crazy ice hick.”

“Hey, now who’s being judgmental?”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll see ya in the clag.”

John hopped into his plane, the F35A equipped with a surveillance package. In a few minutes he was up in the sky.

The mission went as planned, accept for the fact that both Lightning and Firefly returned with bullet holes and engine damage. The planes landed, John hopped out of his plane followed by Firefly. Firefly stood examining the holes in his craft.

“Well shit,” he said, “CAGs gonna have my ass for this one.”

“Your ass? I was the CO on this one, if anything I’ll be the one hanging from the barracks by his thumbs,” LOUDER, came the Rainbow Dash ring tone, “hold on man I got a call.”

He walked into the mess hall and looked at the caller ID, UNKNOWN. He answered, “hello?”

SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW

BOOOM

John jumped along with half the mess hall. He looked back at his plane just as another rocket stuck the wrecks.

Firefly.

“Jacob?! Jacob?!” he ran toward the planes, now flaming hulks. He stared at the spot where his best friend had just stood. Nothing. Not even a piece of his uniform. John sank to his knees.

“NO! NO! NO! NO!” he wailed as alarms blared and search lights looked for the attackers. Shots rang out as a skirmish was fought outside the once safe walls of the base. Damage crews rushed to put out the fires.

John looked at the tarmac. Wait, what’s that? A small piece of charred wood. It was the head of the shark, shrapnel still embedded in its head. He picked it up and held it close, realizing that that random call probably just saved his life…

Present Day
John strode into The Zone, hoping his luck would hold out just once more. The white mare DJ looked up from her magazine and gasped.

So, you’re sure about this?

Yes, of course, why wouldn’t I be? I know this will work.

Just remember that this is your doing. I specifically warned you against it. I already saw that it wasn’t going to be successful. And now she has to fix it.

How was I supposed to know? It’s not like I can see the future! Father Sir. So is this going to work?

I don’t know yet. There are too many possibilities this time. So will it? This is your show.

I will make sure it works, now both of you shut up; you’re lucky that the twins aren’t here. They’d be so pissed at you guys that they’d break. Again and Gigi and I would be forced to put them back together again.

Just watch what happens.

John entered the record store. He knew who the mare behind the counter was. In his world, probably one of the most famous DJs ever; and she’d never released a single track.

She gasped as he entered, “Uh, um, I, uh, hi,” she stuttered, pulling off her purple shades, as though her eyes were deceiving her.

“Uh, hi. I saw your sign and I was hoping I could get a job here. Don’t worry I’m not going to eat your brains or anything; I’ve gotten enough of those looks today. I’m not tone deaf and I know my way around a pair of turntables,” John said awkwardly.

“Uh, ok. So you’re the alien that they say dropped into Ponyville?” she finally blurts out.

“Yeah, well I more or less fainted into town. Kinda embarrassing,” John responded.

Her spunky attitude and confidence begin to return, “So you wanted a job here, watcha got?”

“Well if you have any mixers or anything I can show you.”

“Well here, follow me.” She hops up from behind the counter and opens a door downstairs. Soon John finds himself in a Techno themed computer land. Wires are scattered all over, coffee cups and records litter the floor.

“What happened here? Looks like you had a wild party here last night.”

“I wish, I started using this place to compose new stuff over the winter. When summer comes, my new club will be opened. It’s a lot larger than this place and a lot nicer. The only problem is that I can’t come up with any new stuff to play. I’m having like a block of some kind.”

“Well I might be able to help you out there; you mentioned a new club. Where?”

“Oh it’s across the street. The whole building is dedicated to it. Unlike this old place.”
She approaches the DJ station, “Alright big guy, show me watcha got.”

I don’t get it. He’s just playing with a mixer. Sure he’s going to get a job but how will this fix anything?

It won’t, yet. But soon he will find the peace there that he never found before. He will make it work. I’ve made sure of it.

“Wow! That was excellent; it was new, original, exciting. I like it, can I use it at my rave next week?” she asks excitedly.

“Sure, so do I have the job?”

“You bet, how’d you like to coDJ with me next week? We’d have a blast.”

“I’d love to. I think I can solve your new record problem too,” John says holding up his IPhone.

“Wow that almost looks like a Hoof phone; you have anything good on that?”

“Yup, here listen to this;” John scrolls down the list of tracks, “You have any amps I can hook this up to?”

“Uh huh,” she says, she brings up a connecter cable; it fits perfectly into the phone.

John hits play, Spitfire by Archie V echoes through the building.

Vinyl bobs her head to the beat. The music flows over her body, through her body as she dances to the beat. The song finishes and she runs up to him, “That was awesome! How many others like that do you have?”

“I have about two hundred and fifty of the most popular songs from my planet. If you want I can copy all of these and give them to you.”

“Oh sweet Celestia, Thank you so much. This will make the opening of the club the BEST NIGHT EVER!”

John chuckles slightly.

“What’s so funny?”

“Well, in my world, this whole universe is just a TV show. In one of the episodes, you may remember this; you were the DJ at that fashion show of Rarity’s. You were only on the screen for five seconds but somehow, you’ve become one of the most popular DJs ever in my world.”

“Wow, Your world has great taste,” she smiles as she uses her magic to copy the songs.

“Really? I mean you’re not disturbed by the fact that in my world this place is just a show? And that you’re all characters in that show?”

“Nah, While that is strange, it’s not the craziest thing I’ve seen or heard before,” she laughs, her ruby eyes sparkling in the light, “There was one time at a Daft Pony rave, Rainbow went up to th-I’m not allowed to say, ya know, Pinkie Promise, ‘losing a friends trust’”

“Is the fastest way to lose a friend,” they both finish.

A ceiling tile opens and Pinkie Pie pops out, “FOREVER.”

Both John and Vinyl stare at the sight as Pinkie disappears into the ceiling.

“Ok, I’m just going to ignore the fact that the laws of physics as I know them were just broken,” John said.

“Eh you get used to it,” Scratch says laughing, as though it’s a normal thing.

They both head upstairs to the record store.

“So you live here?” John asks.

“Yup, it’s pretty nice, but the club and sometimes the record store would get pretty messy by the end of most of the parties. So I decided to expand. But until you came along I was trying to come up with new songs and tracks to play at the grand opening. But now with you and me, we can be the best DJ pair in all of Equestria!” her enthusiasm intoxicating.

John begins chuckling.

“What’s so funny?”

“You, your enthusiasm. My world was dying, so finding people or ponies like all of you would be extremely difficult.”

“Aw, you say the nicest things, which is weird because I normally only say that to my sister.”

“Don’t tell me, your sister is Octavia?”

“Yup, the World Famous composer and cello player,” she says, “How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess.”

“So, you wanna see it?”

“See what?”

“The new club, of course.”

“Sure.”

Vinyl and John head across the street to the club. Everything is new, pristine, and crystal clear. The floor is a shiny onyx black. Until the lights turn on.

Scratch heads to a circuit breaker and flips a lever.

The lights come on, the floor lights up, laser lights shine all over the club, the once black floor glows with a rainbow of colors. The club is amazing; the entrance reveals an open layout. Stairs lead up to the second floor where booths and couches await. A kitchen waiting for orders hides in the back, out of sight, out of mind until called upon. The first floor has more tables that sit before the dance floor; a bar sits behind the staircase, lined with drinks. More counters line the walls on both sides. The floor allows an open feel, giving a view to the balconies overlooking the dance floor. The stage is the most spectacular feature. On it sits a DJ station; behind it are a series of light panels, ready to display a series of programs. For now it’s on default view of a rainbow, shinning into the heavens.

“So do you like it?” Scratch asks, a smile dominating her face.

“It’s amazing, how did you do this?”

“I came into some money a while ago, won the Equestrian lottery and all. So I designed and built this club; with some help of course.”

“It’s incredible, nice work.”

“I’ll bring in an extra station for this weekend. We can rehearse on Friday night if you’d like.”

“I’d love to,” John said, taking out his phone, “Crap, I’m supposed to pick up some clothes at Rarity’s in 20 minutes. So I’ll see ya tomorrow then?”

“Sure, you can honestly show up whenever. I wake up whenever I feel like it so, don’t rush to be early,” She laughs.

“Alrighty, see ya tomorrow Scratch,” John said as headed to Rarity’s.

John reached The Carousel Boutique just as the clock struck 4:00.

“Darling, I have your new clothes right here,” Rarity says, handing John a large bag, “I chose a design that would best fit your personality and talents.”

John removed a shirt. It was blue with a yellow strip going down the center and the sleeves. On the back was a pair of wings and a jet.

“Aw, no way. How’d you get my… I guess it’s a cutie mark, on it?”

“Oh when you were demonstrating your abilities I got a look at it. Just a quick look but it was enough.”

“Wow, that’s highly observant of you.”

“So you like them?”

“Yes, I love them!” John said examining a pair of pants. They were a causal denim material; like jeans, “Thanks Rarity, I love them.”

“If you need anything else don’t hesitate to drop by,” her fancy voice calls as John headed to Sweet Apple Acres.

“So how’s it go partner?” Applejack asked as they ate.

“It went great, I got a Job as Vinyl’s partner at her new club,” John said in between bites of salad. It was surprisingly delicious. If he had to be a vegetarian for the rest of his life this was the way to do it, “Wow, this is delicious! What did you put in it?”

“Oh, just normal lettuce, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, and a sweet apple sauce,” Applejack blushes, “Applebloom helped.”

“It’s wonderful. Both of you.”

“EEEYYUUP,” Big Mac agrees.

After dinner John heads upstairs to the guest room. Falling asleep his dreams are happier than the night before.

“Tonight, on CBS nightly news… The success of Operation Black Phoenix was marred by the heavy loss of lives. The death toll has risen to 3900 while the missing in action has remained at 1. The missing man is none other than Captain John Daniels, commander of the Black Dragons air group that led the assault. He was drafted into the Air force two years ago and quickly rose to the top of his class. He took command of the squadron four months ago. No debris from his plane has been found nor the captain’s body. No immediate family members have been found. In other news…”

So, they think he’s dead basically. They say missing but they mean dead.

Of course they mean dead, Em. In that line of work missing means they just don’t have a body.

Shut up, both of you, I swear you’re like an old married couple. Watch; now he’s found everything he could never have there. Now all connections with his old life are gone. He’s one of them now…

Princess Luna returned to her war room. The figure was there, holding a pad. The Princess examined the contents and smiled. This had to work, if not, then…

***

Princess Celestia woke to knock at her door. She opened the door to find no one. A pad lay on the floor. Picking it up she examined what it had to offer. This strategy would allow her to wipe the New Lunar Republic off the face of the planet. If this last ditch effort failed then there truly was no hope; for either of them…

***

Now do you see why this was a bad idea? They’re going to murder each other! Most likely taking half their militaries with them.

Again, how could I have foreseen that this would happen? I don’t see into the future like some people!

You just could have listened to my suggestion in the first place and canceled your experiment.

BOTH OF YOU KINDLY SHUT UP OR I SWEAR I WILL GET U TO ERASE BOTH OF YOU!

Thank you Gigi. Now it may not be a total disaster, in fact, I’ve set this in motion to put him on a collision course with his destiny…

***

John headed out of Sweet Apple Acres, waving good bye to Granny Smith and Big Mac. Well, he thought, might as well go see what everyone is doing today. Scratch didn’t want me showing up to early.

He made his way to Twilight’s. Opening up the door, “Hey Twilight, you up for doing anything today? I’m free until 12:00.”

“I’d love to John, but I have to catch up on my botany study,” she said while closely examining a plant with a magnifying glass.

“Ok, I’ll see ya later then.”

He headed out to Sugarcube Corner; Pinkie Pie was always doing something fun.

***

The Daylight Flare broke its docking connections and rose from dry dock. The rest of the fleet was doing the same. In the haste to get ready for the coming battle most of the ships hadn’t been fully repaired. But if everything went according to plan then they wouldn’t need to be. The fleet cleared the dock and headed north, preparing to stab a line right into the heart of The New Lunar Republic.

***
The Eclipse was at the front of the precession of ships. They formed an arrow head meant to cut the Solar Empire in half. If all went well, they would never even meet the Solar Empire’s last battered fleet. Then again…

***

“Hey, Pinkie! You doing anything today?” John asked.

“I’d love to but I’m extremely busy today. I have to bake, five cakes, seven pies, two dozen cupcakes, and sixteen muffins. All by the end of today!” She says, rushing back and forth between ovens and mixing bowls in frenzy.

“Alright, I’ll get out of your hair,” John laughed, walking out and back into the sunlight. Ponies still stared but by now most had just about gotten used to him.

“Might as well go see what Rainbow Dash is doing.”

***

Rainbow Dash was dreaming. She was flying fast as usual, but this time was different. There was something following her, it was gaining. She’d known where this was going. Every few nights her dreams would be haunted by the strange fighters that now haunted the skies outside her mind. This time it wasn’t a fighter. It was a creature of some kind. It had two legs and two arms and wings on its back. It was John. How’d he get wings? More importantly, how’d he get so good at using them?

He quickly caught up to her; looking over he smiled, “Race ya.”

“You’re on.”

With that they were off. Dipping and dodging random clouds; laughing along the way. Then the sky went dark. There was an object blocking out the sun. Rainbow looked up. It was a ship. It bore no markings of its origin or owner. It stared malevolently down on her. She looked to her right. John was gone.

It began to open its hanger bays. Fighters zipped out of the enormous beast. Rainbow screamed as she ran from the monsters. The fighters were slowly gaining. She looked behind her. The pilots stared back. Black eyes and malevolent, toothy, smiles dominated their faces. A blast impacted her. She screamed as she fell from the sky; her wings shedding feathers like she was a fallen angel.

Rainbow awoke in a cold sweat. A thumping sound echoed through her messy cloud home.

***

Prince Blueblood stood on the bridge of his ship, The Golden Arch. He’d normally been a frilly, pompous, prince, but like others, he’d changed. He bore the hardened expression of somepony who’d survived countless battles and lost hundreds under him.

The Solar fleet moved through the thick fog. Unusually thick. It was blocking all sensor capability to within a few feet. By linking their systems the ships managed to prevent catastrophic collisions. The fleet moved closer to the neutral city of Stalliongrad.

The cultural center of the world attempted to maintain its isolation, attempting to promote peace and love and the arts. It was the place many fled to escape the war. Little did the inhabitants know that their world would be upside down in the course of eighteen hours…

***

Princess Cadence sighed loudly. She was beginning, well had already been for a long time, regretting her decision to take a side in the war. Every day she woke up and as a daily ritual, cursed herself a thousand times over. Her decision had taken her away from her love in Canterlot. Shining Armor pleaded with her to stay out of the war. For the sake of their wedding he asked her to stay out, to stay with him. But the ideals with Princess Luna and the New Lunar Republic attracted her. But now after watching countless hundreds die under her command, she felt as guilty as the Princesses themselves.

“Steady as she goes,” she sighed. She ran a tight ship and kept everything in order. Not out of some princess pet peeve but out of the faint hope she could prevent further death because of her mistakes. But the next thirty seconds were unavoidable.

BLEEP, the klaxon blared. The collision alarm sounded; too fast for the ponies to react.

***

So now you show us your cruel side? I hope you know you’ve just murdered about two thousand souls on that ship.

Oh for the love of U, please shut up. You never stop complaining do you?

I’ve been around for a long time. A very long time. Old age will eventually get to you too. Unless you suffer a quantum fluctuation and die.

I swear if the two of you don’t resolve your differences I’m going to kill both you! Yes, what I may have done was cruel; she will go one believing she is responsible for the death of her brother but she will learn the truth soon enough…

***

Thirty seconds earlier.

Prince Blueblood sat in his chair. He was contemplating his past choices. Had he made a mistake joining the Solar Empire? Had his decision coerced his sister to join the New Lunar Republic? Did his pompous attitude drive others away from him? He knew the answer to that one. At the Grand Galloping Gala five years ago, he drove away a nice mare, Rarity was her name, with his stuck up and high and mighty attitude. He wondered what could have been.

The Klaxon blared. Collision alarm. At this range, the alarm made no difference.

He hit the intercom with his hoof, “All hands brace for impact!” his flowing accent echoed through the ship. The bow of the Aristarchus crashed through the bridge, killing all on Deck One. The impact crippled the ship, causing it to descend into the foggy mists below. Meanwhile the Fleets of the New Lunar Republic and the Solar Empire collided in an explosive burst of chaos…

***

Stormy Days was overall a happy pony. He’d migrated into Stalliongrad to escape the darkness of the war. He was a sculptor pony, who’d made his living in the cultural city. All the positive feelings in the world seemed to make their way to the metropolitan. Now he sat atop a skyscraper in his apartment overlooking the city. His view was blocked by the dense fog that occupied the city, but he didn’t mind. He was having a great day.

A roaring sound of a failing levitation spell and overheated engines filled his ears as The Golden Arch crashed into the skyscraper, annihilating the top of the building, sending debris crashing to the ground. Screams of ponies could be heard as cobblestone, brick, and metal impacted the street.

The fog began to clear, revealing a scene of death and destruction above. The fleets had, in some cases literally, collided with each other. Cruisers engaged their opponents at point blank range, firing full broadsides into each other. In one case, two hulks were still locked together, fighting so violently that many simply ignored the fact their enemies were only a few yards away. Fighters zipped and chased, shooting and sending entire squadrons spiraling to the ground.

Ponies screamed and ran all over the city, in an attempt to escape to the violence. The city had no weapons to defend against the two instigators. They were entirely helpless to the battle above. It was official; The City of Stalliongrad was under siege. The war had found its way to the capital of innocence…

***

Rainbow Dash opened her door. A group of small rocks sat on her door step. Another rock found its way up and thumped Rainbow on the head.

“What the hay?” she yelped, “Stop doing that before I come down there an-”

John waved up, “Hey Rainbow! Sorry for all the rocks but I was wondering if you wanted to hang out before I go to work!”

“Sure, but next time just ring the doorbell!”

“Um, how? I can’t exactly just snap my fingers and walk on clouds and fly like you.”

“Oh, I forgot about that, I’ll be right down.”

With a leap she flew down and landed next to John. For a few moments they just stood there and smiled at each other. Rainbow blushed, “So, watcha wanna do?”

“Honestly? I was hoping you had something in mind.”

“Oh I have an idea! Follow me.” She said and dashed off with John close behind…

John was led, well more like dragged and tossed, to Ponyville Park. It was a serene, peaceful location. Ponies were going about their various businesses in the park; playing Frisbee or flying kites or just relaxing. Rainbow led John to the lake; ponies were splashing and swimming about. The stood on the grassy knoll before the water

“Wanna go swimming?” she asks.

“Sure, just let me-whoa!” Rainbow had lightly tapped him on the back and laughed in glee as he struggled to regain his balance before falling into the water face first.

Rainbow sat giggling.

“Oh you wanna play that way? I got you,” John said jumping out of the water before grabbing Rainbow and pulling her in with him. She jumped up, soaked, looking for her attacker.

“Whoa!” she yelped, “h-h-hey! Come back here!”

John was already one third of the way across the lake, laughing. Rainbow’s wings weren’t meant to help her in the water and she was slow to catch up. John slowed and met her half way.

Using her wings she splashed him with a wave of water, “That wasn’t funny,” she laughed.

“You’re right, it was hilarious.”

They continued to play, having fun. John had never felt more at peace in his life.

***

The Sunspot found her prey. A small Lunar light cruiser. It turned and broke into pursuit. The lumbering ships weaved through the forest of skyscrapers. The Solar ship fired its main battery. Shots streaked across the city, half of them impacting the ship’s port armor while the other blasted the skyscraper that the cruiser rushed to use for cover. Emerging from the opposite side the Lunar ship emerged. Its port side armor riddled with holes; the ship returned fire. The shots impacted the lower armor on the starboard side. The ship shook on impact.

***

From the cockpit of her fighter, Spitfire watched in morbid fascination as the two metal beasts spat their respective fire at each other. Her mission was to wreak as much havoc with the enemy as possible. Her fighter was equipped with two, 500 LB energy bombs. She pulled her plane high above the battle zone before leveling out and diving on the Lunar ship. Her wingman, Fleetfoot was right beside her.

The two planes accelerated to their targets, the ponies feeling the effects of the drop. The Lunar ship grew larger in her windscreen. The ship was delivering a pounding on The Sunspot. The solar ship had taken heavy damage to her starboard batteries and was only able to defend herself with one fourth of her guns.

700 feet above her target she released her ordinance. Right beside her, Fleetfoot did the same. The two planes pulled up and away from the warship, barely having enough time to look behind them and see three blue fire balls rise out of the Lunar ship. A fourth explosion came from inside a high rise tower. The small blue sun shattered all the windows in the structure before dragging the building to the ground.

Behind them the Lunar ship was completely crippled beyond repair. One of the bombs had penetrated into the hanger deck of the ship and exploded directly in the middle of the decks. A large hole was now carved straight through the ship. The now floating hulk suddenly accelerated, the engines overloaded from the loss of control caused by the bombs. The flaming wreck sailed across the city before impacting an apartment building. The engines still overloaded, pushed the ship off its unstable perch and sent it smashing into the ground. The reactors detonated, vaporizing an entire square block of the city and sending a purple fire ball into the sky. The shockwave of the explosion rushed across the city, shattering all the glass within a 500 square yard area.

Meanwhile ponies all over the besieged city ran to escape the carnage or watched in morbid fascination as the city burned around them.

***

The hooded figure stood in front of the table, watching a projection of the battle. He watched as the Lunar ship detonated as the feed was cut off. His hooded face smiled to reveal large sharp tooth protruding from his lips.

“Send them in.”

***

The gargoyle moved through the darkness of the city. The two militaries above had taken leave from battle for the night and for now were circling on the outskirts of the city like a lion assessing its prey. The citizens of the besieged city had begun to evacuate out of the ruined city. The seen was almost apocalyptic.

Skyscrapers were in ruins. Most had their tops missing from when a ship or weapon impacted them. Others had crater or even holes blown in them from weapons or crashing fighters. Others still had everything from fighters to even entire ships lodged in their framework.

The gargoyle team lurked through the city, careful to avoid evacuating ponies. If some got to close they stood rigid like statues long enough to be ignored. When they were alone, the five moved through the city towards their objective. They each carried a bag on their backs, carefully placed to avoid their wings.

They lurked along, not making a single sound. The rain had started and darkness had set. Lights flashed and advertisement signs fizzed on and off. Electrical wires lay sparking along the ground. The gargoyles did not need to fear this as their stone bodies would be unaffected.

They approached their objective. The Horn Tower; named so because of its conical shape, rose one hundred and fifty stories into the sky. The top had been knocked off and now lay shattered along the street. The once crown jewel of the city was riddled with holes and cracked windows. The gargoyles griped the side and climbed.

***

It had been quite a day. After going back to Sweet Apple Acres to change, John headed to Vinyl’s new club, The Zone. They got down to making a playlist for Friday night, which Vinyl still believed was going to be the best night ever. After that they designed a holographic light show to go with the music.

Now they were going to test it to make sure it danced along with the music.

“Ready, Scratch?”

“Yeah! Just one more wire and… ok now we’re good. Flip the switch big guy.”

John flipped the switch and the display activated. Holographic shapes floated above the dance floor, phasing in and out of alignment to the beat of the music. The shapes slowly were changing color from red or blue to orange and purple. The song was Our World by Archie.V. Vinyl nodded her head to the beat of the music and laughed.

“Yes! This will do perfectly for the playlist,” she laughed playing with the mixer, modifying the sounds and tempo.

“I can’t wait. Speaking of which, what time is it?” John asked.

“Uh let’s see,” Vinyl said, playing with a control board. The shapes were replaced by a giant digital clock above the floor. It read 10:00.

“Oh crap,” he said, “Looks like it’s getting late, and I should be getting back to AJ’s place now.”

“Oh come on, I’ve stayed here to like 2:00 in the morning. If you need to, you can bunk at my place for the night.”

“I should make a quick run down to Sweet Apple Acres and tell them where I’ll be. Last time Granny Smith nearly beat me over the head with her walker,” John grimaced at the thought.

“Alright big guy. I’ll keep working on this; hopefully tomorrow we can test out the whole system.”

“Sound’s good. Alright I’ll be back.”

***

Princess Cadence was feeling dreadfully crestfallen. Intel was still coming in but it was nearly certain that her brother had been on that ship she had rammed. Now it was night and raining heavily and the battle could not continue. Nearly every ship had suffered damage; sensors and weapons were damaged or erratic. Those that were functional could not possible supplement the needs of the whole fleet.

Now, close to 75% of the fleet had landed outside the city, trapping the refugees of the city in the ruins of the once lively utopia. The fleet began to unload ground troops; weapons, tanks, mortars, all sorts of death machines. The Lunar ships were also launching gunships and stealth fighters.

The plan was to sneak up on the Solar fleet and destroy them from the bottom up. Little did they know that the Sun Empire was planning the exact same thing.

The ground troops of both sides began to march into the city.

***

Soarin moved his gunship quietly through the city. The muffled engines hid the signature of the small craft while he scouted ahead for the Lunar forces. He brought his search light back and forth, scanning for threats. A piece of rubble fell from the ruined Horn Tower. Soarin brought his now yellow eyes and ship in focus of the noise. The search light brought the rubble into view. It was a piece of an upper floor that had collapsed. Soarin turned his craft and moved on to the next sector.

***

The gargoyle reanimated itself. The gunship was gone. He looked down at the one who caused the collapse and growled. Slowly they began to crawl back up the tower.

***

John returned to The Zone. He entered the club to find Vinyl playing Welcome to the Club by Manian.

“Oh! I’m glad you’re back,” she yipped excitedly, “What do ya think about this for opening night?”

“Seems fitting,” John said, “So after this we play the main playlist?”

“Yeah, this will just be a welcoming song before the party really starts.”

“So let’s play this thing and iron out the kinks before the Friday,” John said.

***

Celestia watched as her army penetrated the city. The tanks went first, followed by the infantry, followed by the artillery teams who would set up their guns behind the main force. The coming battle was inevitable and she knew it.

How had it come to this? How had the two once benevolent rulers of Equestria gone to war with each other? How had the innocence of the world disappeared so quickly?

She sighed, “I’m sorry, sister.”

***

The gargoyles reached the top of the tower. It was ruined beyond all recognition. Burned furniture littered the concrete floor, pieces of metal jutted out from the walls, debris littered all over. The five demons dropped their bags. All over the city, other gargoyle teams had done the same as they took position atop the city’s tallest skyscrapers. The gargoyle removed a piece of equipment from the bag and smiled to reveal a set of razor sharp teeth.

Everything was going according to plan.

The Lunar forces marched into the city. The rain was refusing to let up. Sensors were erratic and visibility was down to only 50 feet. Artillery and mortars were set up in the rear of the formation while tanks and troops in the front. Sparks from wires flew in the night as the rain impacted the exposed electronics.

Constellation or Constance as his friends called him trotted through the city. His weapon close by, he turned and surveyed an alley. It was empty. He carried with him his standard Lunar energy rifle, capable of putting a blast up to 400 yards away without compromising accuracy; he also carried two energy grenades, a standard med kit, food, tools, and a side arm. Standard issue for most of the Lunar troops.

A Gunship flew overhead. The searchlight watching for movement like an eagle hunting for its prey. Constellation looked ahead. Something was moving. What was it? He brought his binoculars to his eyes. Some shapes moved in the night.

FFFFUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH

BOOM

A reaper class energy bolt crashed into the gunship. The pilot was dead and the ship began to lose control. It spun through the air before impacting a high-rise and firmly embedding itself in the brick. The once fearsome craft burned with a blue flame in the night.

More shots rang out as Constellation dove for cover. His partner’s scream was silenced as he took one to the head. Both sides now shot into the darkness ahead. Explosions of grenades rang out, screams of the wounded or dying rang out in the night. The artillery began firing. Tanks brought their huge guns to bear; spitting fire at their enemies.

The ground war had begun.

***

John was sleeping. Sleeping being a relative term; more like unconscious. He was hanging over a railing on the second floor of Vinyl’s club overlooking the dance floor.

Vinyl hung over the dance floor in a tangle of wires and cables hanging from the ceiling. Again she was more unconscious than sleeping.

The club was a mess. Cups and other litter lined the floor. Rouge holograms danced up and around Vinyl’s perch. Lights flickered on and off. The clock read 10:30.

John slowly slipped from his position and fell, landing on a couch before bouncing and landing on the coffee table. He awoke with a jolt. He looked around, what the hell happened last night.

Vinyl rolled over and fell, hitting the dance floor with a thud.

John looked over at the white unicorn. He stumbled over to her, shaking her to get her to wake. Slowly her eyes opened to reveal the two red orbs in her skull.

“Hey. Wake up,” John said.

“Eh? Wha?” She said scrabbling up on her hooves.

“What’s up Scratch?” John asked, “What the hell happened last night?”

“Uh, I, let’s see here,” she said grabbing her shades and pulling them over her head, “Oh, I remember! We were testing out the track and I guess we went a little crazy.” She grinned.

“Well I guess we know the playlist is good for Friday, right?” she laughed.

“Yeah. Ow my back,” John said, rubbing his back, “I guess I hit that table harder than I thought.”

“What table?”

John nodded behind him. Vinyl looked over. The glass holotable was cracked in three places. There was a slight depression along the cracks. Vinyl trotted over to the table and pressed the ‘on’ button. The program sputtered before flashing off.

“Oh I can fix this,” She said. Her horn glowed and the table’s cracks began righting themselves. The program jumped back on the table; perfect.

“Here,” Vinyl said, “Let me see your back.”

John pulled up his shirt. His back was bruised and battered from the impact.

“I know a few healing spells. Let me see here.” Her horn glowed and suddenly the pain in John’s back disappeared.

“Wow, that’s so cool. Thanks,” John said, amazed.

“Don’t mention it!” Vinyl beamed.

Both their stomachs growled.

“Wanna get some breakfast?”

“Sure, just let me fix this.” Vinyl’s horn glowed again and the club instantly fixed itself. The litter instantly disappeared. The wires righted themselves. Soon everything was just as pristine as the day John first saw the club.

“Sick,” He said as they walked out of the club. They headed over to a Café. They were almost at a table when something impacted John in the side with a loud thud.

Rainbow Dash got up, rubbing her head. She looked over her body. Nothing broken, good.

“Ow,” She said. She looked over at the object she just collided with. John lay on the ground, with his head in a shattered flower pot. He was unconscious.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh,” She yelped. Vinyl stood with her hoof over her mouth, suppressing a grin, looking over at Rainbow.

“I don’t even know what to say,” She laughed, “Ya know, he fell from a second story balcony this morning and didn’t break a thing but this I’m not so sure of!” She flopped on her back looking over at John with his head in the pot and laughed.

“Come one DJ,” Rainbow groaned, “Help me get him to Twilight’s. She’ll know what to do.”

“Ok, Ok.”

They carried John’s unconscious body over to the library. They kicked open the door.

“Hi Rainbow, And Vinyl! Great to see you, you never stop by and-Oh dear Celestia, what happened?” Twilight rushed over to the two.

“Ya know Twi, He’s a lot heavier than he looks,” Rainbow said. They flopped his body on the couch. Rainbow turned to leave.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Vinyl asked sternly, “You knocked him out, so you stay with the rest of us.”

Rainbow’s face depicted fear and embarrassment. Her ears dropped.

“Bu bu- what if he’s mad at me when he wakes up?”

“I don’t know but what were you doing that made you crash into him like that?”

“I was, uh, I was-hey what’s that?” Rainbow rushed for the door only to be suspended in midair by Twilight and Vinyl.

“OH NO YOU DON’T,” they both yelled, “YOU”RE STAYING.”

Rainbow was flopped down onto a chair, “STAY.”

Twilight walked over to John and examined him with her magic.

“Well, you did a number on him. He’s got two broken ribs, a bruised lung, and a concussion; probably from hitting the ground with such force.”

“Well it was more like a flower pot,” Vinyl suppressed a grin, “He must have a pretty hard head to completely shatter the thing.”

***

Do you know what’s about to happen now? Those creatures are going to kill everyone.

Not everyone. Those who will be needed will survive. This darkness will end.

But you’ve failed to mention to him that there is a chance of his death as a result of this fight.

If he does, he will accept it. At that point nothing else will matter to him other than the mission. He will fix it. And when he does, please go easy on EM. This who thing isn’t totally her fault. Even you couldn’t see this coming.

No I could not. But either way, this war must end.

***

A loud screeching sound could be heard above the battlefield. A heavy artillery shell streaked across the sky before impacting a cluster of Lunar troops and exploding in a flash of yellow light. The six ponies that had stood there before were completely vaporized.

Shots streaked through the streets. Tanks moved up and fired their massive guns. The Lunar forces did the same. Fire Spirit and his spotter moved to the top of a heavily damaged building. He looked down at the battle below.

All across the city, similar ground battles were occurring. The two militaries met in the streets and proceeded to slaughter each other. Fire Spirit set up his sniper rifle. It was the heavy Radiation class rifle with and effective range of up to one mile.

He set up the bipod and sighted through the scoop. His spotter found a target. A pony wielding a small rocket launcher, loading the next round. Fire Spirit saw it too.

“Shift right two degrees, and up five.”

Fire Spirit fired. The focused blast of yellow energy impacted the pony directly in the chest. Blood spattered against a nearby wall and all over his cover as he died.

“There,” his spotter said, marking a new target. A gunner on a heavy cannon about 5000 feet away, “Shift up five degrees, to the left three.”

“I got him.” He fired. The shot traveled the 5000 feet and shot through the control board and into the controller. The gunner’s shot went wild; impacting the top of a business tower. Debris and stone from the building fell onto the combatants below.

***

Constellation dove into an alley way. The rubble fell, splattering combatants on both sides. He jumped out from behind the corner and aimed his rifle. The dust still hadn’t settled. Shots were being fired into the cloud in hopes of a lucky kill. Constellation fired his rifle. A scream was heard followed by a thump. He’d just killed another pony.

How? What? He killed somepony. Who was he? What was his name? Where did he come from? His face drew a look of horror. He fell back into the alley, holding his head. His rifle fell to the ground with a clatter.

“AAAHHHH!” he screamed as the battle raged around him. He felt terrible. He never wanted to be in a war. He was a simple construction pony, drafted last year. He’d managed to avoid any real battles for as long as possible. Why had he shot into the dust? Was it instinct? Self-preservation? Ha! He’d just murdered a pony in the name of self-preservation. He was stained; guilty as the rest of them.

A shot louder than the others rang out. Constellation felt an impact and a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down. Blood. He was shot. He smiled. His act rectified. His judgment was near. He looked up for where the shot came from. A glint on one of the high-rises gave his savior away. He gave a quick salute before the darkness over took him.

Don’t fret young one. It’s not your fault. You’re free now. Your journey, all your journeys are only just beginning.

***

Fire Spirit brought his rifle down. That was strange. He’d normally never felt anything when he killed another. He’d stopped feeling by the end of the first year of the war. He’d become a war machine, a harbinger of death. But that soldier had looked at him. Directly at him. He had a hole in his chest, he was dying, yet he smiled at him and gave a salute. Like a symbol of brotherhood. Why? Why had he been happy to die? What had happened to him? Who was he?

His thoughts were interrupted. A fighter flew by followed by its pursuer.

“Hey,” his spotter called, “time to go.”

“Yeah,” Fire Spirit agreed. They both go up and moved up to the roof. They were up for rotation. Time to get back to the ship.

“Janus 1 2, this is grim reaper team five, requesting extraction.”

“This is Janus actual; your ride is on its way reapers. Activate your homing beacons when you’re ready; Janus out.”

***

The condor heavy transport picked up the sniper team and quickly headed out of the city. Beneath them that battle raged on. The team felt lucky to be leaving the battle zone. The headed to the cockpit. In front of them a large part of the Solar fleet rose from the ground to meet the rising Lunar fleet. The two fleets would again converge over the city, leaving only a few ships to manage ground operations.

The sniper team felt happy to be leaving the violence and to be getting to a safe and sound place. They had no idea how lucky they really were.

Yes. Everything was going according to plan. The two princesses had maneuvered their ships so that only one ship each was outside the city; orbiting at a distance. They were both most likely the flagships of the Sun and Moon princesses.

Pity that they weren’t in the fray themselves, it would make things easier. Oh well, time to implement stage four.

“Activate.”

***

The gargoyle teams emerged from the underground. They had snuck out through the sewer systems. Inside the city the fleet of ships fought with a passion not seen since the griffon wars thousands of years ago.

The gargoyle looked at the pad in his hand. Green lights; they were ready. He pulled up the activation screen and entered in the code. He looked at the blue button before him.

Looking at his companions he smiled deviously. He watched the scene unfold as he pressed the button.

***

Soarin prepared to board his craft. He and his Shadowbolts resided on The Eclipse itself. The hanger doors opened above him. He pulled on his helmet and closed the cockpit of his fighter.

In a few minutes he was in the air. His squad was close behind. He zoomed in on his HUD. Another group of Solar fighters was heading into the city also. Spitfire.

He was only three miles away when it happened. Beams of energy from all over the city’s high rise towers shot towards The Horn. They all converged on the building’s top. A larger, center beam shot into the sky. It spread out in to a dome that lowered around the city. The edges cut into the ground with a blue fire. The ponies still in the city were trapped. The fighting stopped as they all looked up to observe the strange phenomena.

The dome’s field instantly collapsed onto the tower before exploding outward in a brilliant flash of light and power. The buildings nearest to the blast were instantly vaporized. The shockwave continued outward radiating over the city and its combatants. Everything the wave hit was violently destroyed in a flash. The carnage continued to the edge of the city before the wave’s explosive power dispersed. The wave itself continued on impacting the two remaining vessels.

Sensors and communications relays, every system was damaged to some degree. The fighters not in the city were forced back toward their ships. In one move the militaries of the Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic were crippled.

***

Celestia was terrified for the first time in years. The city was gone. It couldn’t have been a Lunar weapon as Luna’s ships were destroyed too. She had her own problems to worry about. Her last ship was crippled. Sensors were not functional, same with communications, the engines were offline.

The bridge was in chaos.

“Weapons offline, the communications relay is not functioning, weapons are offline, engines are not functioning,” said the system’s manager.

“Did…did any of our fighters survive?” The princess asked.

“Spitfire was heading into the city at the time of the blast, but it appears that she and her squad are alive.”

“Flash an emergency recall.”

Search lights on damaged dreadnought flashed the message.

***

Spitfire struggled to keep her fighter aloft. Her entire squad was having the same problems as her. Slowly she and her squad turned away from the smoldering crater that was once Stalliongrad. A light flashed to her right. The Daylight Flare was attempting to contact them. The message was simple; recall.

“Alright guys the flare called us back to the barn so try not to die on the way there,” She called. The formation headed back to the ship.

***

“So what you’re telling me is that we’re at the mercy of the wind?” Luna asked.

“Well yes,” her science officer replied, “Without engines we can’t move under our own power. Maneuvering thrusters won’t do anything against this wind.”

“Can we use a spell to move?”

“Unless you have an army of unicorns that know a level five wind spell.”

The princess sighed, “Then get me a map and recall the fighters.”

***

“What’s our current heading?”

“Well since all the paper records were destroyed when that shock wave hit us, we basically have no idea,” the navigation officer said, “And the computer core is out of commission for now we’re basically at the mercy of the winds. It’s a miracle that the spell holding this ship up didn’t break.”

“Could we use all the fighters and transports to push us?” asked Celestia.

“No, one engine used to move this behemoth produced more thrust than all the aircraft this ship carries combined. That along with the fact that it takes a minimum of four engines to even move this hulk a few feet we won’t get anywhere,” the chief engineer said.

“Then I guess we’re stuck wherever the wind dumps us.”

***

The two remnants of the Solar and Lunar fleets drifted into the nearby mountains. Unseen by each other they had no idea that their course was plotted and watched by them.

***

Oh, now I see what you did. YOU JUST DESTROYED CLOSE TO 200,000 LIFE FORMS!

I didn’t do anything. As you are so keen on pointing out Father Sir, he did that. But since Em created him she does share part of the blame.

Well then what happens next?

You see into the future, find out yourself.

You’re a real bitch.

***

John awoke with a headache. He sat up and an ice pack fell onto his lap. He felt his head. A bandage was wrapped around it. He tapped the bandage and immediately saw stars.

“Ow,” he said, looking around. He was in Twilight’s library on the couch. Two ponies came out of the kitchen.

“Oh good you’re awake,” Twilight said.

“How ya feeling big guy?” asked Vinyl.

“Well my head hurts like hell but that’s about it,” John responded.

“Well at least the healing spell worked,” Twilight said.

“Why? What happened?”

“Well you had a few broken ribs and a concussion from the impact of Rainbow Dash’s crash landing,” Vinyl explained.

Rainbow walked in with her head down. When she noticed John looking at her she paled and looked at the floor again.

“I…I-I… I’m sorry,” She said despondently. A single tear came down her face, “Please forgive me.”

A lump formed in John’s throat, “Why are you sorry? It was an accident.”

Rainbow looked up, her eyes beginning to water, “B-b but aren’t you mad? I hurt you really badly.”

“No, I’m not. If it makes you feel better, I forgive you; now come here you nutty Pegasus you,” John smiled at her.

Her confidence returning, she slowly approached him. John held out his arms and let Rainbow fall into them in a hug.

“Friends?” John asked.

“Friends,” Rainbow responded happily.

After what seemed like an eternity Rainbow let go.

“Aw, you guys look so cute together,” Vinyl teased.

John stuck his tongue out at her with a grin.

“So, Rainbow, you coming to opening night of The Zone on Friday?” John asked.

“I guess; are you going to be there?”

“Heck yeah!” Vinyl shouted, “He’s my coDJ now.”

“You got a job?” Twilight asked, “That’s wonderful.”

“Yup, full time with Scratch. A little confused about the hours since she sleeps like a rock so I show up whenever.”

Vinyl turned red at mention of her sleeping habits.

John sat up, putting his feet on the floor. He rubbed the top of Rainbow’s head affectionately, feeling the soft scruff of her mane. She closed her eyes and smiled, rubbing against his hand.

“So, you up for a race today?” John asked.

“Sure,” Rainbow yipped, “this time I will beat you and Lightning.”

“Well your race will have to wait until tomorrow,” Twilight said, “You need some time to let your head heal before I let you fly that contraption or Lightning as you call it.”

“UH, FINE,” Both John and Rainbow say. Looking at each other they mutually blush. After a long silence John spoke up.

“So, what can I do today?”

“Nothing too athletic or exertive,” Twilight responded.

“Fine, I guess I’ll just hang out for today.”

After eating some lunch John headed out saying goodbye to Rainbow and Twilight he decided to find something to do. He pulled his pair of aviator sunglasses out of his pocket along with his phone and headphones. Putting on some music he decided to lay back and relax. He headed over to Ponyville Park and found a tree and climbed into it. Lying down on the branch he observed the scene of peace before him. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t on his toes, looking over his shoulder, he could let his guard down. His rock hard exterior had been shattered when he came into this new world. He could feel things here.

As a soldier he had very little room to feel much of anything. Most of his friends had been killed in combat so he finally stopped making them. But here he was at peace. For now.

As he drifted off in his perch his thoughts were occupied by a certain rainbow manned, cyan Pegasus.

***

Rainbow Dash watched John from above on her cloud. Every time she saw him she felt strange. She couldn’t place her hoof on it but she felt like she could be herself around him. When she found out what kind of damage she did to him, her heart fell. She expected him to be mad at her or worse. But he forgave her as simply as someone would say hello.

While he was an entirely different species as her, he didn’t seem to let that stop him when he made friends. He never said where he was from or what he did in his old world that made him fly that strange thing or Lightning. Did it matter? Would he hurt anyone? No. If he did he would have done so already. He wouldn’t have made friends with everypony. Rainbow wouldn’t have fallen in-Wait what?

Did she just admit to herself that she had feelings for him? Did she? What did she see in him? He wasn’t a pony but his personality was attractive. He had a fun loving aspect about him. He wasn’t too bad looking either. Every time she was around him she felt butterflies in her stomach. Her heart fluttered whenever he looked at her. Who was she kidding? She liked him. She liked him a lot. But did he feel the same? Would he be disgusted if she told her feelings to him? Her thoughts were interrupted as she leaned over the edge of the cloud and fell.

***

John awoke to a shout. He jumped up and looked for where the noise came from. He looked down at the ground and saw a cyan Pegasus sprawled along the grass. She got up.

“Well hello there,” John smiled warmly at her from his perch, “may I ask what you’re doing falling out of the sky like that?”

“Oh uh, nothing,” Rainbow replied, quickly getting up and dusting herself off.

“You’re a funny Pegasus, you know,” John laughed.

Rainbow blushed, “Really?”

“Yeah; you’re fun to be around.”

Rainbow rubbed the back of her mane.

“Here,” John said, hopping down from the tree, “why don’t you pull up a seat and relax.”

Rainbow sat on her haunches next to John under the tree. The sun was beginning to go down.

“Can I ask you a question?” Rainbow asked.

“Shoot.”

“What did you do in the human world? I mean, do humans normally fly around in strange contraptions like that?”

John sighed, he knew this was coming, “I was a soldier. My country went to war for a stupid reason and began to draft people into the military. I ended up becoming a pilot in the Air Force. As a soldier it was my job to kill,” John began to choke up; moving away from Rainbow.

“I was given a plane and was forced to kill or be killed. A lot of my friends I made died around me so I eventually stopped making them. I hated the war. It made me do horrible things. It made me k…k…kill others. It turned me into a monster,” John put his face in his hands, tears flowing down his face.

“If you don’t want to be around me now I understand.”

Rainbow stared at him, tears in her eyes too. He was a soldier. Like the other ponies that had fought in this terrible war he was forced to kill. But she could see it in his eyes, he had never wanted that. He never wanted to kill anyone. She felt sorry for him. She felt bad seeing him like that.

John felt a hoof on his shoulder. He looked up. Rainbow had scooted over and put her hoof around him. She gave him a comforting smile, “I don’t care about that. I don’t care how you were a soldier. I like you the way you are.”

“You what?”

“I… I… I really like you,” Rainbow stuttered, blushing terribly. She looked at the ground

Rainbow liked him. No one had ever said that to him before. Hell, people barely talked to him let alone confess themselves to him. He finally found his voice.

“B…b…but why me? I’m not even a pony.”

“I don’t care about that. I like you for you. You… you make me feel like I can be myself around you. You make me feel happy. I don’t know why and I don’t care,” Rainbow smiled, still red as an apple.

John stared at her in awe. Suddenly it hit him. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. That was why he kept dreaming about her. He’d never found love on earth. Hell, he’d never been happy on earth. But here, with her, he was the happiest man alive. He didn’t care that she was a pony. He liked her for how she made him feel. She made him feel happy, alive, not a cold, hard, rock. He could finally feel around her.

“I…I…I,” John stuttered.

“I…I…I,” John stuttered. He couldn’t talk. He could only stare at the beautiful mare before him. Rainbow was still red and starring at the ground. She finally looked up.

“Well?” She asked her eyes close to tears, “please just give me an honest answer.” Her head sank.

John still couldn’t speak. The only thing he knew was that in about ten seconds he was about to create the happiest mare in Equestria.

He turned to Rainbow, “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, you nutty Pegasus.” He put his arm around her and whispered, “yes.”

Rainbow looked up, “What?”

“I said I like you too, you nutty Pegasus.”

John barely had time to take his next breath before a cyan, rainbow blur smashed into him with the force of a train. He felt his insides begin to crush and the air slowly being squeezed out of his lungs as Rainbow hugged him. He returned the hug and let his head fall into her mane.

They stayed there for what seemed like forever. Finally John was able to pry Rainbow off of him. He looked at her and smiled. Her rose colored eyes ripped away all previous feeling of apprehension. The sun was beginning to set.

“We should probably be getting home now,” He said.

Rainbow leaned against him, “Do we have too?” she sighed.

“Sorry but yes. I have a rave to prepare for tomorrow night. But I can walk you home.”

They got up and headed to Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. They reached her home.

“This has been the best day ever,” Rainbow sighed, nuzzling his side with her head. John knelt and returned the gesture with a hug.

“I don’t know why but all the guilt and sorrow I’ve been carrying around disappeared when you…well you know,” John said blushing.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow?” Rainbow asked hopefully.

“You bet! You’re still coming to the rave tomorrow night?”

“You bet your flank on it!” she yipped.

“Well I guess this is goodbye for now,” John said as Dash began to slowly fly up to her home. As soon as she was at head level with him he planted a kiss on her cheek.

Rainbow gasped and turned and looked back down at him. Her eyes wide she slowly touched her cheek with her hoof. John grinned like fool back up at her. He waited until Rainbow was at her doorstep before turning to leave.

Rainbow walked up to her room, her eyes still wide as saucers as she entered her room. She jumped into the air and squealed with happiness before floating down onto her bed. She blissfully fell asleep.

John reached the Apple family’s farm. He nodded at Big Mac before heading up to the guest room. He sat on the bed before jumping up and whispering as loud as he could, “YES.” He fell back onto the bed, not caring how small it was he fell asleep.

***

John rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he headed down into the Apple family’s dining room. The whole room said a friendly greeting. John took his seat at the table, smiling contently.

“So sugarcube, you made a little ruckus when you came back last night; mind tellin what it was about?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, I just feel like I got a huge weight off my chest,” John sighed.

“We’ll good for you.”

“Eeeyuup,” Big Mac commented.

“So, are you guys coming to the rave tonight?” John asked.

“What’s a rave?” Applejack asked.

“Well I guess it’s a kind of party. It has a DJ or two to select and play the music. The music is commonly electronic and is accompanied by light shows. You might like it.”

“Eh, what the heck? I’m game.”

“What about you Big Mac? You game?”

A flicker of a smile appeared on his face, “Eeeyuup.”

“Can I come?” Appleboom asked, with big pleading eyes.

“I don’t know. Raves in my old world weren’t normally the place for young fillies but here I guess it’s OK,” John said.

“Yay! I’ll go tell Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle,” She zipped out the door.

“She has such energy. Reminds me a lot of my little cousin,” John sighed.

“So, now how ‘bout you tell us what really has you all happy an such,” AJ said grinning.

“What are you talking about?” John said blushing, “I said I just got a weight off my chest. I’m feeling a little lighter is all.”

“You’re feelin a little more than lighter from what I’m hearin,” AJ giggled, “Rainbow stopped by this morning and told me everything,” she dragged the last five words out, “You. Two. Are. In. Love.”

John was as red a stop sign, “She told you huh? Fine, I’ve been thinking about Rainbow a lot and yes I like her a lot.”

“Heh heh, well I’ll be. I’d never think I’d see the day where Rainbow was dating a stallion from another world but here it is. You’re all she’s been talking about since you came here.”

“Really? She’s an absolutely amazing pony. I really think I can make a life for myself here now, thanks to her.”

“Well none the less, we’re all happy for you and Rainbow.”

***

John awoke. He was in a tree this time and he wasn’t alone. Rainbow Dash lay on top of him. All at once a thousand things went through his mind. What the fuck happened last night? How did I end up in this tree? Did me and Rainbow…?

Slowly it all started to come back to him. His pleasant thoughts were interrupted as he and Rainbow fell out of the tree and landed in a bush. Rainbow jumped up rubbing her head.

“Eh wha? What happened? Where am I?” She asked.

“Some party last night, huh?”

“Oh, that’s what happened,” she smiled.

“Wanna get some breakfast? It is about that time,” John grinned at her. He couldn’t help it. After last night it was almost a natural reaction. John ran over and scooped her up and carried her into Ponyville. She sighed contently and nuzzled his chest. It was a perfect moment soon to be gone.

A rumbling noise followed by the sky going dark destroyed the moment. John looked up and nearly dropped the cyan mare in his arms. His jaw dropped in horror.

“Hey, who turned off the sun?” Rainbow asked.

“No, this can’t be happening,” John said in shock.

Rainbow looked up and gasped. A huge arrow head craft at least a mile long was making its way into the skies of Ponyville. All around, ponies of all types screamed in terror of gaped at the sight. The ship was battered. Fresh metal plating covered the ship’s wounds. Scorch marks failed to hide the insignia on the bottom of the hull. The Solar Empire had arrived in Ponyville.

“Look!” some random pony shouted.

About five miles away, another dark shape came over the mountains. John’s heart sank even more. Even at this distance he could tell it was a Lunar ship. John’s heart sank; even here, in this world, war still found its way to him. He felt like crying. A hoof on his shoulder brought him back to reality.

Rainbow looked at him, almost desperately, “what do we do now?”

***

A few hours earlier.

John looked at his phone. He was pretty sure that the time was synced to this world’s clocks so he was also sure that Rainbow was late. He stood outside of Sweet Apple Acres waiting for Rainbow to stop by so they could walk to the club together. He looked towards Ponyville, a small cloud hung over head. John sighed and headed over to Lightning’s barn. He put his Aviator sun glasses into his pocket and pulled on his flight helmet. Directing the plane out of the barn he set it to VTOL and took off.

***

Rainbow napped happily. Life was good. She had a nice job, great friends, and now her crush. Things were good. She dreamed of John. Her happy dream was interrupted by a whirring of an engine. She woke up annoyed. John stood in front of her smiling with his hands crossed. She smiled back at him. Wait. How was he standing next to her when she was on a cloud?

“Having nice dreams you nutty Pegasus?” John asked. He stood balanced perfectly on the wing of lightning.

“Yeah, why?” she asked.

“You kept moaning my name.”

Rainbow turned red, “Uh, how much of that did you hear?”

“Enough,” John said grinning as he carefully navigated his way back into the cockpit of the plane; careful to avoid the lift fan.

“You ready?” John asked.

“You bet. Race ya there,” Rainbow said zipping off.

John accelerated after her, he knew better than to try to race her in an urban area. He kept Lightning in VTOL and navigated the plane toward the club. When he landed Rainbow was waiting for him.

“Guess I win,” she said smiling.

“And here’s your reward,” John ran over to her and scooped her up, giving her a noogie.

“Ah, hey. Stop that,” she giggled.

John put her down only to have her tackle him to the ground. She smiled at him and pressed her lips against his. He didn’t fight it and returned the kiss. John’s face was on fire. He swore that if someone put a piece of paper on his face it would burst into flames. Slowly, her tongue slipped into his mouth, exploring the unknown spaces. John’s tongue met hers and they danced around each other. They would have been there all night if John didn’t have to breathe. He broke the kiss and stared at her face, grinning like an idiot.

“Whoa, that was…awesome,” Rainbow gasped, “Where did you learn to kiss?”

“I never did,” John laughed. He got up and dusted himself off. Rainbow walked next to him as he entered the club.

“Yes! You made it!” Vinyl yipped, “The party starts in thirty minutes and we’ve got a lot to do.”

***

♫ It’s all right
You’re ready for the night of your life ♫

♫ Stars will shine show bright
They say, we’re dancing the stress away. Hey hey ♫

♫ This beat gets underneath your feet
Right now, together we will meet ♫

♫ This place will blow your mind away. Hey hey ♫

♫ Welcome to the club now
Gonna pump it up now
This is an emergency
Music is my galaxy♫

♫ Welcome to the club now
Everypony’s up now
We’ve got it going on
Till the break of dawn
So put the record on ♫

John and Vinyl stood at their turn tables, nodding their heads to the beat. They both wore their respective glasses; Vinyl with her purple goggles and John with his aviators. The crowd was going wild. Dancing along to the beat. John spotted his friends. Applejack had left her Stetson on a table and let her mane down and let herself go crazy. Rarity sat the bar with Octavia, chatting away over some margaritas. Twilight was doing her signature yet scary party dance. Pinkie quite literally was bouncing off the walls and Big Mac looked like he was getting some liquid courage before heading over to Fluttershy.

He and Vinyl nodded to each other and placed the next record on the turn tables and began to sync the beats. The party was perfect. The light show worked like a charm. The bar tender was busy mixing drinks for all the ponies. Though John noticed that something wasn’t right; a certain rainbow manned Pegasus was sitting at a table alone. She didn’t look to be enjoying herself.

“Hey, can you take over for a few?” John asked Vinyl.

“Sure,” she smiled.

John headed off stage and toward the tables. Rainbow didn’t appear to notice him.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Ah it’s nothing. Go have fun, I’ll be fine,” She sighed.

“Not without you, now tell me what’s bothering you.”

She took a deep breath, “I’ve never been to a rave before and I never learned how to dance at a party like this,” she said in one breath.

“Well that’s no excuse. When I was in the eighth grade they held an end of the school year party for us. Believe it or not, my parents paid me to go there and have fun. I sat a table for about ten minutes, kinda like you are now. I finally worked up the courage to join the mass of people dancing. I figured, ‘what did I have to lose?’ and let the music take control and all my apprehensions disappear. I had no idea what I was doing but I danced anyway and had the time of my life. It was one of the happiest nights of my life.”

A new song began to play.

♫ Captured by the light
Like it’s coming from your eyes
Like diamonds ♫

John smiled. He knew this song. He looked over to Vinyl and gave a salute. She winked and mouthed, ‘Go get em tiger’

“Come on, you never know if you don’t try.”

♫ Dancing in twilight
I’m blinded by the lightning
And now I’ve got your stare
You’ll see my love is shining ♫

Rainbow looked around, “But what if I’m laughed at by the others? What if they make fun of me?”

♫ Just for tonight let me inside
And I can show you the time of your life
Just for tonight let us explore
Places you’ve never been before♫

John smiled and held out his hand as he stood up.

♫ Suddenly you see how foolish
And unruly love can be
Just for tonight let me inside
And I can show you the time of your life ♫

Tentatively she took his hand and let herself be pulled onto the dance floor. John pulled her into a hug and whispered, “Just let the music take control.”

He pulled away and headed back up onto the stage. Giving her an encouraging smile he watched as she let herself get pulled into the sound. He turned to Vinyl and said, “Thanks.”

He pulled on his headphones and continued to party, every now and again glancing at Rainbow. She now had a huge grin on her face and was dancing with Pinkie. Once again, everything was perfect.

***

The party ended at two in the morning. All the guests had left for home. John and Vinyl stayed behind to lock up.

“Wow, that was some rave. I can’t thank you enough for the new songs. I don’t know what I would have done without them,” Vinyl said.

“You would have figured something out, but you’re welcome anyway,” he smiled.

“Well I guess I’ll see ya tomorrow,” she said as she began to head across the street.

“Same time?”

“Yup. See ya round big guy!”

John smiled as he walked back toward the Apple farm. He thought a lot. He needed to get a house. If he was going to live here for the rest of his life, not that he minded, he was going to need a place to live that wasn’t on the Apple family’s farm. He was also gonna need a hanger built for Lightning.

“Aw shit,” he said aloud. He’d forgotten he flew to the club. He turned around and headed back to the club. He walked past the park and suddenly found himself getting pulled up into the sky. He was placed in a tree and found a certain cyan Pegasus on his chest. She was grinning like mad.

“So I’m betting you had fun tonight?”

“Oh my gosh, it was so awesome! You were right; I did have the time of my life. I never had a chance to thank you for that,” she purred.
She had a mischievous look on her face as she leaned in for a kiss. John smiled as their lips met. He stroked her mane as she forced her way into his mouth…

***

Present.

They ran toward Twilight’s tree. Above them the two ships got closer to each other. Weapons systems activating as they prepared to fight once again.

Above them Celestia stood on the bridge of her ship. The Daylight Flare was somewhat repaired. Communications were up again. Sensors were up but with limited range. Weapons were functioning. Engines were at 50% power.

She was tired. And now the wind brought them to the one place they both swore to never fight in. Through a steak of luck the two ships ended up in Ponyville.

“The Eclipse is arming itself ma’am.”

“Then let us do the same,” she sighed, “Prepare to launch gunships.”

***

Luna hadn’t gotten any sleep in the few days since Stalliongrad was turned into a sheet of glass. In all senses of the word she was tired.

“Launch the gunships,” she ordered.

Her ship systems were somewhat repaired. The holes in the hull patched up. Sensors, communications, weapons were all at about 50%. She sighed as she watched the topside hanger open and release the firefly gunships.

***

John and Rainbow burst into the library. Rarity, AJ, Fluttershy, and Pinkie were all there. Twilight stood over a case.

“Twilight! What’s going on? I thought that they both swore never to return here until the war was over,”
Rainbow cried.

“I don’t know but we have to be ready for anything,” she said as Rainbow’s element hovered in front of her. She placed it around her neck.

“Alright, let’s go.”

They all galloped out of the tree followed by John running on foot.

“Hey wait,” he said. The six ponies halted. He said, “I recognize those ships. They were shooting at each other when I first entered this world. Though last time I saw them they were accompanied by a fleet of ships and they weren’t in such bad condition. Needless to say, they’ve seen my plane and I refuse to let either one of them have it. I’ll meet you guys in town square.”

He turned and ran towards Vinyl’s club. He found Lightning right where he left her, “Alright girl, get ready. This time, we fight the good fight.” He pulled on his helmet and climbed into the cockpit. The plane chirped to his presence and took off as the cock pit closed.

He flew over the town towards the square.

On the ground Vinyl looked up and saw him go by. He gave her a quick salute, before continuing one. The ships had stopped above the town; their gunships hovering around their mother ships. John had seen this before. It was a standoff. John set down next to the elements.

“Oh no,” Twilight said, “Their going to destroy each other. I…I…I,” the normally calm Twilight stuttered. “I don’t know what to do.”

John spoke up, “When I left my world there was no hope for my race. We had been at war for thousands of years. When I came here I thought I found peace, no I did find peace here. And now I refuse to lose that peace to two princesses who can’t get along. I’m sick and tired of war and for once I’m going fight for something worth fighting for. Its end. Now let’s fight for peace and harmony in the world again. Let’s fight the good fight!”

He hadn’t realized a crowd had gathered around them and heard his speech. A cheer rose up from the crowd. The looks on their collective faces said everything. They had had enough of the fighting.

The Elements smiled with a new found determination.

“Let’s do this,” Rainbow shouted. John pulled lightning into the air and brought her to a hover between the two armies. Twilight’s horn glowed as the ground they were standing on was ripped up and into the air. The six of them hovered next to John. On the ground, Pegasus ponies took to the skies. They stood facing the two armies, unwilling to let them fight.

***

Celestia watched the scene unfold. There was a small army of pegasi hovering in front of her army. They made shields out of their bodies, preventing any side from fighting. The elements stood on a floating rock in the middle of the wall of pegasi. And right next to them was that strange craft. The one factor in the war no one could control. It somehow found its way into Ponyville. From the looks of things its owner made friends with the elements. She sighed and teleported onto the bow of her ship.

***

Twilight watched as her old mentor appeared before her. She looked like she’d aged a lot in the war’s four years. She sighed, “Please move.”

They all stood their ground, unwilling to move.

“Twilight, please listen.”

“My sister is right Twilight, please move,” said Luna who had also appeared near her ship.

“No. You two listen. You’re sisters for crying out loud. You’re not supposed to fight like this. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. You told me princess that everything could be resolved peacefully. Is that true? Were you lying to me all those years ago?”

“Young one, this is different,” Luna said.

John opened the cockpit of lightning. He stood up and pulled off his helmet. The princesses gasped as he revealed his face. John spoke up, “NO it isn’t. Nothing justifies war. My people never learned that and were nearly always at war. This supposed to be a peaceful paradise, don’t let it succumb to the cancer to war. Resolve your differences.”

The princesses’ expressions softened. They stared at each other for the longest time before finally speaking.

“What have we done sister of mine?” Luna started to cry

“I don’t know, Luna,” Celestia began to cry also.

A flash of light, “I do. You’ve been doing exactly what I’ve wanted you to do.”

Everypony turned to the source of the voice. The ponies all stared in horror at a certain fanged Chimera.

Everyone turned. The draconequus floated before them, a malevolent smile crossed his face. Celestia spoke.

“You?! How did you get free?!”

“Oh please Princess, you can’t possibly so thick as to not know the answer to that one. You! You and your war!”

“You got free because of us?” Luna asked fury in her eyes.

“Don’t take all the credit, Causing a few hallucinations and a few mental suggestions are not beyond my abilities when I’m in a statue. It was a simple matter of planting them to cause a war between you. After that, there was enough chaos for me to break free. I’ve been free from the day you went to war with each other! After all, what’s more chaotic than war?!” the draconequus laughed.

“It was you the whole time? You were the cloaked pony advising me!” Luna screamed.

“You had a cloaked advisor too?” Celestia turned back to the chimera, “It was you! You who advised our every move! You who planned the battles, you who made them happen. You who destroyed that city! You monster!”

“Oh don’t patronize me sisters!” Discord yelled suddenly with rage, “It’s my job! I’m the other end of the spectrum, the other side of the coin, the yin to the yang. It was me who caused the war, and you were supposed to be in that city when it was turned to glass. Pity you didn’t destroy each other earlier. I was so close before that thing arrived!” he yelled, pointing to John.

“I didn’t plan on an alien from another world popping into existence at the least opportune time. But now I’ve calculated enough to know you will lose princesses! Even with him you will lose!” he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of light.

They all stood dumbfounded. They had been played in the worst possible way. The spirit of chaos turned the sun and the moon against each other. A loud scream was heard.

Everyone looked at the source. A pony pointed to the horizon. Shapes were appearing. It was an army. All kinds of creatures composed the army. Trolls, gargoyles, goblins, dragons, serpents, a few zombies too. Celestia stared in horror. The army was huge. John saw what was going to happen. He reacted.

“Princesses, can you’re ships land?” he asked the soldier taking over.

“Yes,” the both replied.

“What do you have in mind?” Luna asked.

“Luna, take your ship and evacuate Canterlot. Get as many out as you can and get them to Cloudsdale. Celestia, land your ship and begin evacuations here.” He pulled his helmet on and the cockpit closed.

“I’ll hold them off for as long as I can,” he said. Suddenly there were six ponies around him. Rainbow spoke up.

“I want to go with you,” she said solemnly.

“I’m sorry Dashie but you can’t. I need you to get as many out as you can. All of you get as many people on the ship as you can. I need you to do this. Can you do that for me?”

Rainbow Dash’s expression softened, “For you I can. Don’t you DARE get yourself killed. Can you do that for me?”

“Yes,” he gave a salute before flying off. Rainbow watched him go before turning and diving towards the town.

***

The evacuation was going well. The Daylight Flare’s hangers held enough room for the town’s population. Ponies filed up the large gangplank and into the hanger.

John’s fighter terrorized the approaching army but he wasn’t making a dent in the forces. Soon most of the population was on board the ship. John landed his plane in an unused part of the hanger. He exited his craft and ran up to Rainbow Dash.

“How are we doing? I’ve bought you as much time as I can but they’re still coming. They’ve made it to the outskirts.”

“We’re almost finished. We’ll be ready for takeoff soon,” she smiled at him.

The last of the ponies filed on board followed by a few of the royal guards.

“Alright! We’re all clear let’s go!” John yelled. He felt the ship shudder and begin to rise slowly. The army was halfway into Ponyville.

John heard a scream. A small orange and purple filly was running out of an alley way. Behind her were two stone gargoyles.

“Shit!” John yelled. He jumped off the gangplank and took off towards the filly.

More gargoyles appeared in front of her. She was surrounded. Scootaloo screamed and cowered in fear, bringing her hooves above her head.

Just as on gargoyle made a grab for her a shot rang out. The creature fell to the ground; dead, a bullet through its head. The others turned towards the attacker. They snarled and ran towards him. John lined up his sights and fired. Another forty caliber round smashed into another gargoyle. It screeched as it died from a shot to the chest. John lined his sights again and fired. He’d dropped four more before he ran out of ammo. The last gargoyle smiled and bolted forward.

He tackled John only to be thrown off like a rag doll. John jumped up and unsheathed his combat knife. He brought his arms and legs into a stance. The gargoyle snarled and bolted. John ran forward and tackled the beast. He smashed it to the ground and stabbed it in the neck. Its screeches died as the knife sliced its neck. John stood up and sheathed the knife. He ran towards the cowering filly and scooped her up. He made a hard sprint towards the fleeing ship. With the extra weight it was only twenty feet off the ground. Ponies all stood on the edge of the gangplank as John threw the pony up. A white pony with a pink mane caught her and disappeared into the crowd. John continued running after the ship.

He stopped and reloaded his gun. More gargoyles were coming. A troll with a large hammer roared at him and charged. John put a round in his head. The troll fell back, flattening six other gargoyles and goblins behind him. John started running but was stopped by a wall of the zombies. He turned to his left and saw a large dragon snarling at him. He looked left, again he was screwed.

John smiled, he was surrounded.