Looking through the list of vessels, Princess Twilight Sparkle had to admit… maybe they were a bit too well-armed for a simple First Contact mission. Twenty ships, all of them over fifty meters in length except for the Diplomacy, which was a hundred meter long command and control ship. All had the same sleek shape, like polished sewing needles with swept back wings, and gleamed silver in the sunlight. Orbiting above Equus, they all rotated about each other, “webbed” together by a complex system of airtight walkways to allow quick passage between during the final mission checklist hours. Flicking a hoof across the arcano-tech console, Twilight nodded slowly, eyes whipping rapidfire across the specifications of each starship.

Dawnstar

Captain: Princess Twilight Sparkle

Designation: C&C. Diplomatic Services vessel. Tactical Rainbomb Depository.

Crew Content: Three thousand, four hundred, ninety. Mixed species.

Evening Star

Captain: Princess Fluttershy

Designation: Medical vessel. Quarantine. Science/Xenobiological Studies

Crew Content: Four hundred, eighty. Mixed species.

Luna’s Grace

Captain: Princess Rarity

Designation: Supply vessel. Geological Studies.

Crew Content: Five hundred. Unicorn and Cervine.

And the list went on. Almost every Princess of Equestria, as well as several Griffon commanders, Minotaur chiefs, and a single Cervine Priestess, captained a ship in the fleet. This was mostly due to financial backing, as Equestria had payed for almost every vessel itself, and because they wanted to show the humans the full range of Equus culture. Humans… Twilight smiled cheerfully up at the screen overlooking the bridge. It had been Pinkie Pie’s idea to beam captured Earth signals and programming over the ships while they were preparing to leave, to give the crewponies and other crew members a good bit of giggling. Only a few of the human languages had been decoded so for- Spanish, English, and Chinese- and even those were difficult on the subtitle programming. Some of the subtitles for this “Friends” show was… not making all that much sense.

Discovery of the humans had stunned all of Equus: well, discovery of their signals, at least. Arcano-radar receivers had picked up the first signals coming from a small probe passing just outside the Solar Influence Zone, and Luna had been able to guide the little craft closer to Equus. The first spaceflight in Equusian history had been made to pick up that probe, this Voyager 2. Arcane scans of the metallic craft revealed wormhole residue, and Luna was able to confirm the placement of the wormhole on the outskirts of the SIZ.

Twilight had been on the team that studied the Voyager 2, and the bronze disk

that had been found onboard. In her seventy years of life, that project had been the single most intellectually rewarding task (aside from studying the Elements of Harmony, and their magical radiation that had brought about the Alicornization of Ponyville) she had ever undertaken. The disk had been loaded with sounds and language tidbits from multiple human cultures, and a stylized picture of two humans, of male and female genders. Once human television signals had been decoded through the wormhole, they had been able to “spy” on more bits and pieces of their culture. So far, humans seemed to vary in color and musculature, but they seemed to only be a singular race. Surprisingly enough, their attitude to war showed them to be fairly similar to Griffons, though they did not share the same honor system: wars tended to be short and ruthless, with heavy casualties on all sides before they’d call things off or surrender. It was a sad thing to witness, and a scary one from a political point of view. But the Council had convened, and decided the possible risk was definitely worth the possible rewards of trade and discovery of a new race.

It was likely that risk that had made Luna demand a proper military escort and response be ready, just in case, and Twilight couldn’t entirely go against that line of thinking. Each ship had a full compliment of zero-gee trained marines, and batteries of Diamond-class missiles onboard. The security destroyers had eight such batteries, and two cone-shaped Magical Arrays on their wings, to project shields and destruction spells into space as needed. The security destroyers were also loaded with several small fighter craft, and shuttles that could be outfitted for assault or exploration, as needed. Back on Equus’ surface, two ships the size of the Dawnstar, named the Matterhorn and the Thunderhead, were parked just above the two largest military bases, one in Equestria, and the other in the Minotaur-Griffin Union. Nopony expected the invasion ships to be needed, but the Council had been determined to be ready for any instance. Twilight prayed she wouldn’t have to give that particular order.

“Activate Pre-Mission Checkpoint,” Twilight suddenly ordered, her crew quickly scrambling to their positions on the bridge, “Dawnstar?”

“All reports in the green, Your Highness. We’re ready to launch.”

“Go down the list, fillies and gentlecolts. We don’t leave till we’re all ready. Begin to disengage the Web.”

Twilight sat back comfortably in her seat, humming a bit as she listened to each thrum and clunk from her beautiful starship, shifting as the Web conduits retracted into the ship smoothly. Her magic, glimmering a soft purple in the bright bridge room, danced over the captain’s controls, and the purple ley lines and pentagrams embedded into her seat began to glow. Magic sung across her wings and natural pathways, and a smile rose to Twilight’s face. She always loved this feeling, the tingling of the arcane as it danced over her nerves like the muzzles and tongues of her herd. It would be hard, not seeing them as often as she’d like during this mission, but Twilight would survive.

Delving into the Magical Link System, Twilight found herself overlooking a massive, white grid pattern, each blue dot representing one of her ships. A little focus would allow her to bring up knowledge and the ship’s status, and even an outside view of it, thanks to the cameras and spells dotting them. Astral bodies, like the Sun, Moon, and Equus, showed up as brilliant globes of green; Twilight could bring up plenty of knowledge about all three, thanks to the dozens, perhaps hundreds of probes lining their solar system. And at the very edge…

The wormhole showed up as a slowly swirling vortex of blue and purple, a beautiful sight to both Twilight’s magical vision, and her corporeal sight granted by the cameras. It was so beautiful, so trance-like, that it took a few message beeps from worried captains to realize that the fleet was ready to be underway.

Oops!

Blushing slightly, Twilight let out a breath. And here they go.

“Attention United Equestrian Fleet. We are a go. Launch.”

**********************

The wormhole journey wasn’t nearly as violent as Trixie Lulamoon, Princess of Illusion, had feared. Her ship, the Mesmer, was one of the security vessels, and thus at the head of the fleet. Deep in the Magical Linkway, Trixie took a good deal of time double-checking the outside of her vessel for breaches and scraps. Her crew was a mix of unicorns, pegasi, and sea ponies, and all artists, illusionists, or battle magi; thus, most were just as creative as Trixie was. Before the Launch, all six hundred ponies had gathered together to paint their vessel, leaving it a brilliant, eclectic mass of electric blues, whites, and purples. Trixie liked to think of it as a look into illusionary magic itself.

“Launch stealth probes,” Trixie ordered, following Twilight Sparkle’s mission protocol; a long time ago, she would have bristled and raged at following the purple alicorn’s… well, anything.

But being apart of said alicorn’s herd tended to change that. Sixty years ago, Trixie’s caravan had been visiting Twilight Sparkle’s home of Ponyville when the Alicornization Event spawned, filling everypony in the town with enough magic to elevate them beyond the threshold for alicornhood. It had been a major scandal in Equestria, one that had shaken the nation to the very core. One that had shaken Trixie to her core. Faced with an on-set of chronic immortality, loneliness had blazed to the forefront of Trixie’s mind. What good was a grudge if you could never be rid of it? After a year of being a “princess” of her own College of Illusionary Magic, Trixie had sent a heartfelt apology letter to Twilight, and agreed to meet her for lunch. The rest, well… was history.

“Probes launched, Your Highness!” one of the bridge ponies called out cheerfully, “Telemetry should be coming in shortly. Three are on course for Earth.”

“Keep me informed,” she replied curtly, hiding a grin at the officer’s snicker.

It was a running joke that Trixie was the “toughest” captain in the fleet, when in reality she was probably one of the most caring, sans one of the Element’s. She had spent considerable bits to give her crew the best rations, entertainment, and gear. Trixie would give everything for her loyal crewponies, and they knew it.

“Admiral Sparkle wants us to prepare for a micro-teleport to the dark side of Earth’s moon,” her comm officer called out, “And prepare more stealth probes for launch.”

Trixie nodded, already giving the orders over the Linkway. All according to the Protocol, so far. A few reports from her other probes were starting to come in; advanced radiation layers from some of the gaseous outer planets, and even a life sign scan on a few of the icier moons. The Xenobiologists would have a fun time with that, those who weren’t assigned to studying Earth’s biology. Trixie was more excited about their culture and entertainment, if she was honest. If they could find peaceful trade, she would be the first illusion teacher for this species! Trixie’s name would go down in the history of-

“Err, Your Highness? Ready check for micro-jump?”

Bah, Twilight interrupting my monologue…

“Ahem, yes. The Mesmer is a go.”

************************

As the Dawnstar materialized from its Mass Teleportation Spell, it took Twilight a few seconds to puzzle out exactly what she was seeing on the scanners. Three gigantic masses, kilometers long and wide, were arrayed in orbit around the planet. Every few minutes, a pulse of intense radiation would spread out from each mass, and smaller masses would fall onto the planet below. And when they hit the surface, the human life signatures would…

Oh Celestia, no…

Thousands of life signatures were fading away with each attack- as that was certainly what they were witnessing. The United Equestrian Fleet was watching an orbital extermination at close range. The bridge of the Dawnstar was deathly silent, every crew members stunned as they stared at their consoles.

“All ships, launch stealth probes. Tap into whatever communication you can find. I want to know what is going on… right. Now.”

The bridge exploded with life within seconds, shouts and clopping hooves filling the confined space; Twilight’s mind tuned it out, focused on the reports of dozens of probes launching out from her fleet. The little round objects, packed with sensors both magical and mundane, were quite fast, maneuvering with powerful dragonfire rocket engines, and crested the lip of Earth’s rocky moon within a few minutes. What it revealed was stunning.

The three masses were huge, rivalling the size of some Equestrian cities, and gleaming a pale, flesh-white. With each pulse, green light would radiate out from the ships, and green asteroids would be flung down at the day-lit continent below. Double-checking her Earth data, it was the continent known as North America. Scans showed major ecological and structural damage to the continent; fires raged unchecked for hundreds of miles, and several spots showed signs of cities that had once stood in their place. A low-flying probe got a good scan of one; radio waves in the area named the former city as New Orleans. It was now a massive lake of sizzling acid, battling against the waves of an encroaching, poisoned sea. Other pods showed similar damage across the planet, especially in areas that had formerly been built up with technology and cityscapes.

Frowning, Twilight scrolled through one of the low-fliers, currently skidding over a battlefield. Hundreds of black-skinned humans in camouflage uniforms were battling in the middle of a dying jungle, assaults weapons blazing as they fought… maggots. Twilight paled in her seat, staring in undisguised horror at the seven-foot tall monstrosities. As pale as their ships, and looking strangely alike, the maggots walked on four spiked legs, four more waving in the air around a gaping, tooth-filled maw. Several had bloated abdomens, and their upper arms had been replaced by large acid-spitting orifices. The probe saw one of the black-skinned humans take a bolt of the green substance to the chest, and promptly melted in a display that would have made a younger Twilight vomit uncontrollably. A medical alarm went off nearby, and a med-team rushed the sobbing, retching remote pilot of the probe away as quickly as possible, leaving the probe to fly on in auto-pilot.

Twilight’s teeth set slowly. The Council had gone over a few war situations like this, as well, though they had mostly been for wars between humans. For those, they would not intervene on either side, and merely observe until someone crossed a major ethical line. As Twilight watched a maggot devour a young human alive, she slowly flicked on the Red Alert alarms. Whatever these creatures were… they had crossed a line. The Linkway view was slowly replaced by the viewscreens of all of the captains of the Fleet; many of them looked just as pale and sick as Twilight felt; Fluttershy looked close to abject sobbing, but was holding herself together for Twilight.

Brave, beautiful mare.

“Fluttershy, send a shuttle back through the portal to Equus; we’re going to need those extra ships after all.”

Fluttershy started in surprise, then nodded, blinking gratefully out of the conference call to follow her orders. Letting out a breath, Twilight turned her baleful gaze to the rest of her captains.

“I know our orders were to not to interfere in human conflicts,” she began slowly, voice rising as she went on, “But this is not a simple war. Probes are recording an abject slaughter on the surface, and those orbital attacks are destroying entire tracts of land. I’m sure why these… creatures are doing this, but I will not allow genocide on my watch.”

“As my kind know well,” Chief Bloodhoof, an older Minotaur male, in charge of the artillery ship Titan, chimed in, smiling faintly.

Twilight gave a faint smile of her own. Minotaurs had dealt with that stain before, having to crush one of their own clans several years prior; the clan had attempted to wipe out the Diamond Dog subrace that made their home underneath the Minotaur homeland. Having battled the Diamond Dogs for generations, the clan refused any attempts at peace, and had nearly butchered the Dogs before the other clans could put a bloody, if efficient, end to it. If they hadn’t, well… several thousand pony soldiers had been quite ready to do it themselves.

“Indeed. I want you all to prepare fighters for launchers, and load the shuttles for bombing. We will attempt to intimidate these creatures into leaving with a volley of Diamonds. If that doesn’t work, well…”

Twilight closed her eyes. She really had not wanted to do this. Not on their first trip past the Sun. But Twilight had fought hard all her life for the right thing. She had given much for it, lost much, and gained more. She could only hope that this decision did not spell death for too many of her people. She could only hope they were in time to save this species, these humans, before it was too late.

“It will be war.”

****************

Washington D.C had been hit hard in the first days of the attack. The Drekas- that name had been burned into all human minds by the overmind of this species- had struck without warning, and without mercy. Millions had perished as New York City, London, and Rome took direct hits from solidified balls of acid, which had burst and flooded the surrounding landscape, leaving it all uninhabitable. Luckily for President Warren Hart, the strike had given his Secret Service detail just enough time to get him in the Presidential bunker beneath the White House. Ten minutes later, Washington D.C perished in a flood of acidic death, never having a clue what was coming.

With only a few remaining video feeds coming into the bunker, the President, the Chief of Staff, and the Secretary of State could only stare in mute, abject horror.

“Christ, there’s too many! Richmond defenses are falling back, we have-” Static.

“ABOVE! IT’S COMING FROM AB-” Static.

“NORAD’s gone dark! Cheyenne Mountain has gone dark!”

“We have the Joint Chiefs on the ground, sir, but our troops can’t hold onto that airbase for much longer!”

Every one of Warren’s fifty-seven years seemed to hit him all at once, weighing down on his back like a massive barbell. Leaning his head against his hands, the old man closed his eyes. The human race was going to die with him. There was a pretty good chance that here, in his bunker, the last few men and women of the human race would survive till their water ran out. Or the Drekas got to them. Whichever came first. Not for the first time, he glanced over at his trembling, pale aide, the man handcuffed to the “Nuclear Football” briefcase Perhaps going out in a blaze of nuclear glory would be worth it. Kill a few million of the maggots. Or maybe it was just foolish nonsense going through the head of a dying-

“Sir, sir!”

A young man in a dusty white jacket looked up from his console; his brown hair was disheveled from nearly a week with minimal sleep, and his eyes were bloodshot beneath his glasses. He gulped thickly, looking like a deer in the head-lights with the President’s eyes actually upon him.

“What is it, son?” Warren asked softly, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible.

“I-I… I got some new i-i-images from the satellite, sir,” he managed, wilting a bit from the glares from exhausted Secret Service agents, “of the D-drekas fleet. I… I think there are new ships up there.”

Warren sighed, closing his eyes again.

“Reinforcements to finish the job?”

“N-no, sir! I… well, l-look!”

The young man spun around in his seat, tapping furiously on the coffee-stained keyboard. The clacking was overly loud to Warren’s tired mind, and he half-glared up at the screen. What was this kid going… on… The President of the United States slowly rose to his tired legs, his staff rising around him and gaping at the screen above them. The satellite must have been right above them, as they were getting a video feed from its powerful cameras, once used to spy on Iranian nuclear emplacements that had long been turned to acidic slag. The leader of the free world watched in awe as twenty needle-nosed ships rose up from the crest of the moon, surrounded by a small cloud of smaller craft, and powered towards the orbiting Drekas craft. Two trails of fire leaped from the front ship, exploding just to the left of the closest Drekas destroyer.

For a moment, all was still… till a ball of acid leaped back from the Drekas ship, and heaven’s blazing fury roared from every ship in the alien fleet, streaking towards the genocidal monstrosities murdering Warren’s race. A hand gripped Warren’s shoulder, and he tore his gaze from the captivating screen, peering back at one of his aides. The young women, she couldn’t have been older than twenty, was wide-eyed, and holding a satphone.

“I-I have NORAD on the line, sir, they’re still there!”

Warren Hart, former U.S Marine, former Senator, and father of three soldier children, grinned with a fierceness fit for a man decades younger, spinning towards his “nuclear” aide with an outstretched hand.

“Get that damn thing open, son. We aren’t dead yet.”