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.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2. Where am I? Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes