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.

Next Chapter: Chapter 8. Death on a Pale Horse Estimated time remaining: 37 Minutes