Skies of Harmony: Starbound

by BusterBuizel

First published 21st of January, 2014

A Starbound Fan Fic featuring the Mane 6 traveling together with some well known Brony Analysts into the stars!

Ever since pony kind looked up into the stars we always wondered, are we truly alone in the universe? What wonders, what exciting new discoveries remain untouched by our hooves? Whenever I was lonely, I'd look up at the stars as a flew on. I'd fly higher and higher, reaching for the stars, only to have my breath cut short by the thin oxygen in the higher atmosphere. I've dreamed of someday venturing to the stars...

Then, one day, the stars came to us...

Launch Day: 0159 Hours

Ever since pony kind looked up into the stars we always wondered, are we truly alone in the universe? What wonders, what exciting new discoveries remain untouched by our hooves? Whenever I was lonely, I'd look up at the stars as a flew on. I'd fly higher and higher, reaching for the stars, only to have my breath cut short by the thin oxygen in the higher atmosphere. I've dreamed of someday venturing to the stars...

Then, one day, the stars came to us. The Floran Incident as it was called, left Equestria and it's allied nations in ruins. Tidas Aurora and Vulcan Sol were devastated, now the two empires are merely a shadow of their former selves. Torn by these savage extraterrestrials Equestria and it's kingdoms united to fight the invaders. We deployed everything, the Elements of Harmony, Discord's wrath, the full might of the sun and moon... Fury, hellfire, and our will to survive drove us on. We won the war, but at a heavy cost, and high reward.

Faster than light travel was finally a reality. Reverse engineered from the Floran ships, steam powered warp drives, magic enchanted molecular teleporters, soul saving spells, and advanced magic driven cloning devices, gravity wells. The pony nations of the world united to form the Equestrian Air and Space Administration. Germaneigh, Nieghpon, Austrotia, Equestria, and The Crystal Empire pooled together our resources to expand into the stars.

Now as I look up at the stars one more time, my dream will finally become a reality. And with me are my friends I hold dear to me. After this there is no going back. I sit in my spacecraft and prepare for launch.

Our exploration crew are some of the best in their fields of expertise. Leading the exploration is our Princess: Twilight Sparkle. It seemed fitting for the Princess of the Stars to finally explore the worlds above. Joining her is her husband, AnY or “An-ne” for short. Earth pony, brown coat, blue eyes and mane, vest and big glasses. He served as the German chancellor for quite some time before settling down with Twi. Now he's the German volunteer for diplomatic relations, seeing no point in that. Each spacecraft we have can comfortably house two ponies. Reason being is that once we launch into space, we won't be back for quite some time. Their very sturdy built, roomy and modeled like the Equestrian castle. Crew number two is yours truly, Sky Buster and my wife Rainbow Dash. We were the top two picked for this operation, mainly because of our backgrounds in flight and our already high ranking in the Equestrian military. After three wars, numerous medals, and a year or so of peace we jumped on the opportunity to take to the stars. I'm in charge of security detail and our ship is heavily armed and armored for escort duty. Ship number three is Apple Jack and Digibro. AJ is one of the best farmers in Equestria and she's here to survey any viable planets for the growth of food. Likewise, Digi is a well respected analyst and scientist in various fields of study. He's great at picking up details and working with computers, which is why he's on the research team. Spacecraft number four is Fluttershy and Ink Rose. Fluttershy is our team medical officer and her skills communicating with animals will save our lives when we encounter any odd beings. Rose is our book keeper and scribe. She will record all of our adventures and log each one as a report of the days events. In the number five craft is Pinkie Pie and Puzzle Piece. Pinkie is here for her skills in cooking, baking, and morale support. If anypony can make a meal out of strange alien plant and a hotdog bun, it's her. Puzzle Piece is our intern, but he will most likely stick around with Digi and help him with his research. Six is Rarity and Tommy Oliver. I honestly don't know why we brought Rarity along, but seeing as how we are all friends and family we got to pick who came along for the ride. Maybe her improvisational skills and craft in fabric can help weave some advanced armor, but that's a little doubtful. Tommy is another scientist and is a colleague Digi. From what I've heard he'll round out our research team quite well. The Austrotians are launching their own spacecraft as well. Piloting it is the unstoppable team of Kim and Antony. I know them both personally and fought with them during the last three wars. Kim is an amazing spy and her stealth is second to none. She's not bad with a silenced pistol either and I'll take all the help I can get with the security detail. Antony as well, he's an intelligence agent and an Air Force analyst. Not bad for an Earth Pony.

Months of training have prepared us for this day that will go on forever in Equestrian history. Fourteen brave souls will ascend to the stars to claim, explore, and conquer new worlds beyond. The world is watching us now as we all step into our spaceships, the sound powered engines giving violent “wub wubs” from their distinctive stereo-like thrusters. Our ships now upright and pointed to the heavens, our flight crew readies us for our departure.

“Ponies of Equestria, I, Princess Celestia wish the best of luck to our brave starbound pioneers to forge on a new path for our nation, our world, and our well-being. Let us all honor their sacrifice as we count down to our ventures in the worlds above,” The Princess gave quite the moving speech. I could feel my hoof being squeezed tightly as Rainbow and I listened on.

“As the Princess of the Night I second this statement and hope that their ventures will inspire the generations of the future to follow in their footsteps. As we prepare for their heroic mission into unknown lands we give them our prayers, solace, and wisdom. Everypony! Cheer with me to salute our brave astronauts as they embark on the journey of the century! HA ZA!”

“HA ZA!” I exclaimed with the chorus of cheers. My eyes started to water and a surge of positive emotions flooded through me. I can see it right now: Game Theory and Kami are watching us on TV, Scootaloo is hovering over us in her F8 chase plane, Apple Bloom, Vinyl, Derpy, Peace Walker, Doctor Whooves, Lyra, Cadance, Shining Armor, Celestia, and Luna looking on from the control room to guide us into space. Yanna reciting prayers in German for AnY and our safe passage, Crown Heart on stage giving her thoughts about our flight and acting out our ventures in upcoming movies, Sweetie Belle singing on about the Fourteen Heroes of Stars Fortune. Everypony in the world is watching us now, heads lifted up into the sky as they await our rainbow trail of smoke and on the other end will be our hope, riches, and fortune.

“Initiating launch sequence: Ten,” The countdown starts and my heart starts beating. I can't stop thinking about how many people are looking up to us now, and how many future fillies and colts will remember this day. Our countries will remember us as heroes.

“Nine,” I look at Dashie and she returns a smile, tears in her eyes as our journey begins.

“Eight,” my pulse hightens.

“Seven,” I close my eyes to suppress my own tears.

“Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Drop the bass!” the three stage booster rockets ignite and we are met with the full G force as the rocket accelerated to launch velocity. Seven stripes of rainbow smoke graced the sky as the world watched in baited breath. Our rockets sailed into the sky flawlessly and our ships rendezvoused in orbit.

“Operation Exodus is a-go! Happy Trails everypony!” Derpy came in over the radio and we all heard the cheers within the control room. My heart fluttered with excitement as I recovered and looked out our plasma field window into the brilliant starlit space around us.

“Good bye Equestria! We will return one day, I promise!” I radioed out to Derpy. Our ships formed up and our navigation systems linked to the lead ship of A n Twi.

“Alright everypony, set your course to the Alpha Centauri sector and follow close,” Twilight gave us our instructions, “I can't believe we're finally exploring the stars.”

“It's beautiful isn't it?” I commented, “Take to the stars.”

Our ships spooled up the FTL drives and we warped away to the closest star system.

Day 7

Day 7:

As the days go by we think to ourselves about going home. Already we are all tired and cramped in our ships with nothing to do. The last few planets were dead ends. Most either had too much gravity or not enough, no atmosphere or unbreathable atmosphere. That or the fact that it was too cold or hot to sustain any viable life. We've already ran out of fuel and we're hovering in orbit of an unknown planet. I lay on my bed and looked at the ceiling as Digi came over the intercom.

“Hey hey every-poneigh!”

“Digi, what in Celestia's name is it now? I swear if you and Pinkie sing another bucking Singing Telegram I am gonna lose it,” I cupped my hooves to my face and slid them down the length of my snout. I turn to a mirror and see myself: red maned with sky blue coat. Yellow tail and a Fillypine sunburst cutiemark.

“Nope! I just got done analyzing the readings of the planet below us. Turns out it's got just the right amount of gravity, oxygen, temperature, and soil composition. We're heading down to the surface!” His face appeared before me with a hologram. His stringy pink and purple mane went well with his lavender body. I jumped up out of my bed in excitement.

“Wait, really?” a chorus of questions erupted. We started to cheer.

“Good job Digi! Prepare to set hoof on the surface everypony!” Twilight was relieved and I could see her trot into her ship from the window. I waved to her and walked over to Dashie, slumpt back in the captain's chair napping. Boy, she can sleep anywhere I tell you.

“Dash! Dashie wake up! We're finally stepping off to the surface!”

As I jar her awake she jumped slightly and looked at me with joy in her eyes, “Alright! Finally some action!”

She darted off to the back of the ship and came back with our two gun cases. I started to don my uniform until I noticed a warm and firm hug stopped me from proceeding, followed by a quick peck on the cheek.

“I love you too,” I finished getting into my uniform and grabbed the revolver from my case. Rainbow and I stepped inside the teleporter room of the ship and awaited for the rest to radio in.

“This is Princess Twilight, all hooves report to teleporter decks!”

“Honey I'm already there. Go ask the others,” AnY looked like he had just woken up from a nap from the hologram. His thick German accent was always nice to hear. I didn't make fun of it, I just love the way it sounds. I can see why he became a chancellor, his charisma and voice helps.

“AJ and I are good to go here Supreme Overlord Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Digi smiled and messed around with AJ's hat.

“Now don't be too rowdy ya hear Digi! Haha,” she returned the playful gesture by putting her hat on him and blocking his eyes.

“Shall we get started Kim?” Antony came on screen and looked at KP. The white coated, blue haired stallion glanced back at the camera with light green eyes.

“This better be worth it... I woke up from a nap for this you know,” she was equally grumpy as AnY cramped inside the dusty hull of a spacecraft for a whole week. The bright teal pegasus mare wanted to fly so bad. Her yellow stripped auburn hair was pretty ruffled.

“HEL-LO!” Pinkie Pie and Puzzle Piece are the most optimistic of the bunch. They were posing for the camera and both had quite the look of excitement on their face. That green pony Puzzle was wearing his blue collar-cape... Thing... His glasses matched his eyes: a bright blue. His stained yellow mane was hidden under a red hat that reminded me of something Robinhood would wear.

“Fluttershy and I are ready! Come on now Flutters, don't you want to make friends with new animals you've never seen before?” Ink Rose, a maroon colored mare with dark brown hair was dragging Fluttershy into the teleporter room by her tail.

“Um... Well, if you put it that way,” Flutters smiled and tucked her pink tail behind her, “I could get excited about that!” She was barely talking above a whisper and was scratching at her chin in thought.

“I hope it's not too yicky down there. We can't have a dirty exploration team!” Rarity was her usual self as ever. I respected her craft, really I did, but I just found her to be the more annoying of the bunch. Obviously our two personalities don't mix, so I try to stray away from our dislikes and focus on the positives about her abilities. She IS the one who will make our clothes from scratch for the next year or two. A dark blue unicorn stepped into the frame and put one hoof around her in a hug.

“Don't worry my fair Rarity. I brought you your hazmat suit!” Tommy was wearing his trademark beret. His light green eyes shifted up and down at his wife.

“Oh you're such a dear Tommy darling!”

“Can we quit messing around and just get down there already?” Rainbow was impatient and put her hoof on the holograms.

“I agree, does everypony have their matter manipulators?” Twilight floated her's up with magic. Everyone else did so, some grasped with their mouths, wings, or just bare hooves, “Right! Starbound Team! Beam Down!”

The surface of the planet Alpha Velocia 98 I greeted us with a stunning sight of an evening sunset, tinting the atmosphere a bright amber color. We had beamed down into a large clearing of the forested planet. Ink Rose gasped at the beautiful trees that surrounded us. They were giant roses! Beautiful red flowers that gave off a crisp clean air. The trees themselves had no thorns, just pure essence of the pretty flowers that graced our sight. Beyond us is a mountain far in the distance with a snow capped peak rising softly from the rolling green hills.

“...This place is breathtaking...” Ink Rose stood in awe at the trees, “Oh my Celestia! I've never could have imagined a sight!”

“I do agree with you Inky dear, this is simply magnificent!” Rarity took off her helmet and sniffed the air, “Oh my! Such sweet aroma fills my lungs! This. Is. Truly. MARVELOUS!”

She bounced with glee. Rainbow turns to me.

“So, whatcha think?” she asked and smiled.

“...It reminds me of home...” the amber tinted sky brought me back to memories of when I was a colt growing up in the Fillypines. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, the tall rose trees, the picturesque mountain in the back, and... Something caught my eye. Something artificial. I trotted over the the edge of the hill we stood on and I saw what looked like a bunker, “Squad, hold up.”

“Something wron-whoa,” Dashie stopped next to me and I held her back gently with one hoof outstretched. From within I can hear a low whining. The rest of our team looked on.

“Dash, Kim, Tony with me. Let's check this out. Everypony else stay put. Everyone else have a sword with them?”

A few of our members flashed their defensive weapons.

“Good, Twilight if that will be okay with you?” I asked our leader.

“Well, you don't really need to ask me for everything,” She was still reluctant in her leadership role, “But it's your call.”

“Hmph, okay. Kim, Tony stay here. If we need backup we'll call,” I altered my plan of approach.

“Gotcha. Can you try and get some food on the way back?” Kim's stomach rumbled.

“We'll try. Digi, could you hand me your scanner?”

Digi came up to me and handed me something to scan the surrounding plants with to make sure they were edible. Most of our group came from Equestria, so most didn't eat meat. Although I myself don't mind it at all. Plus, AnY is half Changeling so meat doesn't bother him. I know Ink Rose and KP wouldn't say no to a some “Yes Bacon” though.

Rainbow and I cautiously flew over the structure. There were no guards and we landed softly on top of the roof. I placed my head to it and heard the whining from inside, it was mechanical in nature and I could only hazard a guess to what was inside.

That was until the floor collapsed under my weight to reveal spinning sawblades beneath me. I reacted quickly, but Dash caught me in time as I flew up. I jinked both of us upward and flew back to the outside door of the structure.

“Woo! Thanks Dashie.”

“Anytime buddy,” she ruffled my mane and I returned with a pat on her back. She dropped her pistol into the building and I took point opening the door. Inside was an empty room, aside from the spinning metal death machines that were thinly covered with dried blood. There was an odd alien symbol in the room of a sun with a bird like alien face in the middle, “What the hell is this?”

“First contact... At least we weren't anal probed,” I looked at the center of the room: treasure chests! My eyes widened as my mercenary days came back to me, “Loot!”

“Huh? Where?” Rainbow looked around, I grasped her head and pointed it to the center of the room. Her smile let out a small squee, “You thinkin what I'm thinkin?”

“MMHM!” I grinned but glanced back to reality, “Careful though, it could be a trap.”

I scanned the chests with the X-ray function of the scanner. No explosive compounds or additional traps. As pegasi we simply just flew over the saws and claimed our prize: the first chest held an alien medical kit complete with bandages, alcohol based disinfectant, and gauze. It was oddly fairly conventional, it even had a red cross over a white background on the front. It also had five pieces of coal that we could use to fuel our ships, albeit only warping faster than light to a couple hundred yards. The next chest was full of good stuff! There was a spear, a spear! Our first alien weapon was... A crappy little damaged spear. Well, you gotta start somewhere. At the bottom was a bounty! Ten pieces of gold and what appeared to be alien currency, shaped in squares with rounded edges. They felt like a cobbled together material used for manufacturing something.

We left the building with the traps intact and came back to the hill. Everyone else had started to make camp and three of the trees around us were chopped down to make our crafting tables and shelters. This was gonna be our first colony. Rarity was busy making beds out of plant fiber and rosewood with her husband while AJ, Pinkie, and Puzzle set to work on our farm. Some of the carrot seeds we brought had sprouted with the help of Earth Pony magic. Kim and Antony sat atop two of the rose trees that marked the beginning and end of our settlement with sniper rifles in hoof. They had beamed up to my ship and grabbed them from the armory. They were old rifles, Mauser 98Ks. It was what we had left after the wars. AnY and Twilight were helping to build the wooden houses that would be our homes. KP waved to me from her sniper perch.

“Did you find any food!” she yelled.

“No! But-” I flew up to her and showed her the contents of my bag, gold ore, alien money, and coal.

“Not bad, but I want fooood,” Kim was still hungry, “Everyone else here seems to have everything covered. Why don't you guys go and hunt for a while. I don't mind meat, I just want food. Food foood food fooood.”

Our lead bullets might poison any edible alien if we aren't careful. So we decide to fashion two hunting bows and a multitude of arrows. We set off in the other direction, east from camp. Our first contact with alien animals came in the form of an odd beast with a walrus like head and a boney tail that ended in a scythe. It had two toed feet and a streamlined body for swimming, as we encountered it near a pond. We gave them the name of Longtoothed Scythetails and they were aggressive predators. Rainbow approached one of them and it lunged into the air. We both drew our bows and pinned it right in the head, killing it with some well placed blows. We scanned the body and found it to be deemed edible. Good, I started to gut the creature and cut away into the meat. Rainbow looked away and kept guard as I prepared the animal. It was fairly familiar, mammalian with all the regular bits and pieces in place. The streamlined mid section had a delicious layer of fat that I didn't waste on cutting out some bits to cook for later. The skin on the abdomen felt like a feral pig. I found the liver and scanned it for toxins. The test showed positive and I was disappointed. I wanted to make alien Sisig, that was the first recipe that came to mind. I just needed a good liver.

A few more Sycthetails later we had a good haul of meat for our omnivorous members. We also stumbled upon of all things: RICE! And not some type of weird alien rice, actual, legit, white rice! It was growing on the side of the pond that one of the Sycthetails was occupying. That was another ingredient I needed in my journey, that I had so foolishly forgot to bring with me. I gathered the rice plants and placed them into my saddlebags. As we made our way back to camp I trip on a metallic object that seemed questionable. My gut instinct was to assume that it was a landmine and my heart skipped a beat. Thankfully I was proven wrong as the item broke away and spilled out ten of those alien coins. We collected them and started to notice that... They were hidden everywhere and in peculiar locations. It's as if someone was leaving them here. We galloped back to camp as night began to fall. It was getting cold fast and we made it to the gate of our colony. Pinkie Pie and Puzzle greeted us as the sun dipped below the mountain.

“Welcome back! Did you find any food?” Puzzle smiled.

I dug into my bag and pulled out bushels of rice plants and slabs of alien meat, “ WE GOT FOOD!”

The majority of the group cheered, some were disgusted by the meat but they were quickly silenced when the smell of roasted Sycthetail filled their noses. Pinkie Pie and AJ had baked some fresh loaves of bread while we were venturing out. I planted half of the rice plants and gave the rest to our resident farmer pony to process. We built our settlement in only a few hours with the matter manipulators and magic spells we used. Our houses were fully furnished with basic wooden furniture and we planted the rest of the saplings to grow more trees in the future. This was going to be our home in the stars, so we landed our ships within the fenced in area of our town. We decided to call it “New Ponyville” and I can see why. We passed the time by singing songs and gathering around the campfire. It was then we noticed the planet we were on was simply a moon of an even larger desert looking planet that filled the night sky. It was as equally mind-blowing as our first moments of stepping onto the surface. All of us looked into the night sky and bonded closer together as an extended family that day. The sense of camaraderie filled our hearts with joy as we opened the first chapter of our existence in the stars...

Day 8

I stirred awake to the sound of my phones alarm app. I had set the alarm to a song my friend Vinyl made. “Hello World” it was called and woke me with a smile. I stretched my hooves and bobbed my head to the beat. Carefully stepping over Dashie I made my way downstairs in our newly built wooden house. I looked out of the window and saw the others starting to wake as well. I stepped outside and took in the fresh, clean, and rosy air. The brisk chill of the morning breeze wove into my coat and mane. A smile was wide on my face as I turned to Puzzle Piece as he emerged from his house.

“Good morning Puz!” I waved to him, “What you gonna do with that pickaxe?”

“Pinkie and I are going rock farming! We might need some protection though if you wanna come along!” he exclaimed to me from his front door as Pinkie came from behind him and gave him a great big hug. Puzzle kissed her on the forehead and the pink pony muzzled him back. She pulled his red hat away and slapped on some night vision goggles for cave mining.

“You got your flashlight?” Pinkie whipped a flashlight from her mane and flipped it on, pointing into Puzzle's NVGs and blissfully unaware in her playful manner.

“OWW! IRNV FLASHLIGHT! IT'S LIKE EATING GLASS CEREAL!” Puzzle took off the goggles and started to rub his hurt eyes.

“OOPS! Sorry sorry! I forgot those were on!” Pinkie picked up the dazed unicorn and dusted him off, “Hehe...”

“I see birdies,” Puzzle regained his footing and I helped him up.

“Sure, I'll tag along,” I had my revolver holstered in my uniform as I got dressed. I didn't skip a beat as we explored westward. I had them follow me to a cave that I found during my hunting trip with Dashie. It was a deep cave and from inside I could hear the cries of Scythetails.

“Oo! This is super duper a-okay for rock farming! Daddy Pie told me to look for caves juuust like this one! With lots of scary monsters inside!” Pinkie's bliss brought a smile to my face. Puzzle backed away from the cave entrance and I gazed at him.

“What? You scared?” I teased.

“N-no! Why would I b-be?” he shook a little.

“Pfft! Pussy, watch this! Pinkie, giggle at the ghosties!”

“When I was a little silly and the sun was going dooowwn!” we both started to sing as we made our way in, “The darkness and the shadows they would always make us froown!”

“I'd hide behind some cover, to what I thought I saw! But my sergeant said that wasn't the way to face your fears at all!” I added my lyrics.

“Then what is?” Puzzle asked as he cowered.

“HE SAID: Buster you gotta stand up tall! Learn to face your fears! You'll see that you can kill 'em with your pistol and make them disappeeeearr!” I nonchalantly noticed a Scythetail sneaking up on Puzzle, “Load! Cock! BOOM!”

I shot the beast dead and it collapsed, “Soo! Headshot on the Scythetail! Stab 'em in the heart-FAIL!”

“This guy's kinda creepy!” Puzzle sang too as he was chased by one of them.

“Wait till he sees my Kukri!” I stabbed the Scythetail dead in it's tracks.

“This one's kinda squeeky!” Pinkie pulled her head from the jaws of one just in time in her usual playful manner.

I jumped onto its back and slit its throat, “Now he's lookin' sleepy!”

“And tell that dumbass alien to take a hike and just piss off and if he thinks he can kill us just say WAPOW and blow his face off and the sheer thought of it just makes you wanna!” Pinkie and I put our arms around Puzzle and continued to sing, “Laaaaaaauuuuuuugggggh!”

“Hahahahaa! Oh Puzzle, you underestimate us,” our outburst of song pretty much cleared the cave of any hostile creatures. Pinkie was holding her flashlight up for Puzzle to see in front of us. Pinkie stopped as she sensed some ore nearby with her Pinkie sense.

“Oo! Oo! Oo! Right there! Right there! Look at all that copper! And not that far in either, we can still see the light of the entrance!” She pointed up and shined her light onto the deposit. Puzzle got out his manipulator and formed a platform out of dirt to reach the ceiling to mine out the ore. As he did Pinkie and I kept watch of our left and right flanks. I had a head torch and could see much of my surroundings as my eyes adjusted to the light. Puzzle chipped away and stored the eight pieces of ore inside his saddlebags. It was Pinkie's turn to mine out some of the dirt at our feet. She dug up three pieces of coal, one bit of copper, and two bits of iron, plus some cobblestone for later on.

As we trotted back to New Ponyville we stumbled upon a new species of more peaceful alien. They were large and furry with bushy tails and a zigzaging camouflage pattern of peace and brown. The most striking feature was their heads: it was shaped like a snail shell with an external skull. The largest bottom head had a neutral look to it and the other sections of the skull shell had eyes that gave it a 360 degree view. It was very docile, and Pinkie even gave it a hug. The alien smiled and lead us to its cave where its family was. One was just patrolling the outside and looked to be female. Inside the cave was most likely their son, digging up some dirt and looking at us with curiosity. We decided to call them Shellhead Yetis, they were playful, intelligent, and surprising welcoming. Pinkie noticed a few more bits of coal ore, six of them, on the ceiling and one piece of copper on the cave floor. When she picked at it with the pickaxe the aliens started to help by digging up the dirt around it. Apparently they didn't like the look of the ore as they refused to turn to it. I found that odd, so I told Puzzle and Pinkie to turn off their lights. My assumption was correct as a bit of sunlight glared into one of their eyes reflected off the copper and the Shellhead started to beat the bit of ore mercilessly.

“Oo! Thanks a bunch mister Shelly!” she picked the crumbled rock and placed in in her bag, “See you later and have fun! Hehe!”

“Quick thinking Buster,” Puzzle looked at me.

“Rule of thumb for big muscly creatures: they really, REALLY like shiny things... Or they hate the living shit out of them for blinding their eyes. And seeing as how those Yetis have a ton of eyes, I was right!” I came off a little smug, but Puzzle nodded in respect as I might have just saved all three of us.

Back in New Ponyville I noticed a new flagpole erected with the banner of Equestria flying high. I gave it a firm salute and was greeted by Twilight.

“Nice of you to get up early and start off strong! How's the rock farming Pinkie Pie?”

“Oh! You're gonna love this!” She spilled the contents of our bags onto the ground and darted back and forth at all the individual items, “Ten bits of copper! Nine pieces of coal! And two bits of iron!”

“Not bad for a first mining attempt, good job Pinkie!” Twilight stuffed the ore into a chest and hovered it over into my house, “Sky Buster, since your expertise in weaponry is the highest among the group I want you to see what you can do with all the ore we picked up.”

“Cool! Finally I get to some fun smithing. How are the crops?” I turned to the farm and noticed long stalks of rice, wheat, and big apple trees.

“Very good! I just helped Applejack finish the windmill for our flour. No more hoof-cranked bread for us!”

“Yippee! Oh, also,” I dug into my bags and pulled a few more rice plants, “I found some more rice on the other end of that alien building I came across the other day.”

“That's great! I'll have AJ plant those right away. Any! Could you help Sky plant more of the rice he found?” Twi waved to her German husband who was tilling the soil.

“One moment Princess! I have yet to finish turning the dirt,” AnY was standing upright and using a hoe to till the soil. Once he finished I handed him my rice plants and with a little alicorn magic we flooded the rice field, “Phew! There we go.”

“Thanks Any. You'll get to eat my cooking soon enough! That rice is gonna grow like crazy with earth pony enchantment,” I patted him on the back.

“Ja, I wonder if you can make sushi out of alien fish here.”

“I saw some in a pond the other day. Haven't gotten a chance to scan them to be edible though. I'll see what I can do after my job for the day is done. I've got some ore to melt down,” I looked around and saw everyone else having a good time. Kim was taking shifts with Antony and Rainbow to watch over the town for any hostile aliens. I came back to the front of my house and noticed Ink Rose drawing in her sketchbook while on a bench next to our well. She was starting up a new comic and I could see that she was not only recording our ventures in written form, but also drawn out as well.

“Hello there Buster,” she greeted me as I turned to the sight of my newly built furnace and crafting station right outside my house.

“Good morning Ink Rose. Keeping busy I see?”

“Yup, I got done early with last night's reports to I figured I'd draw a new comic series! What do you think?” she showed me her work in progress. One of her highlights was a page of Dash and I exploring the strange alien building.

“Looks nice,” I sat on the ground and fired up the bellows of my furnace, the warm heat making us toasty and comfortable in the cold morning air.

“Can you tell me about what happened yesterday? I'd love to know what amazing adventures you've had,” she smiled and watched some of the embers float off into the air.

I told her everything I did yesterday and he wrote it down in her notepad. The inside of my furnace glowed softly and the fires danced inside. I took the bags of ore at my feet and carefully stuffed the iron in first. The two pieces of ore melted and formed a single ingot of iron. I used some metal tongs to grab the molded piece and put it aside to cool. Then the copper next, enough for five bars. Ink Rose stared on quietly.

“Where'd you learn how to make it like that?”

“I was a mercenary remember? And sometimes I had to make my own bullets and weapon parts on the fly. I like to do this as a hobby given the chance but never really had the equipment to do it. Right now I'm heat treating the iron so it doesn't become too brittle. We're gonna need more though, but it's a start,” I finished heat treating the iron and placed it in a pile to the side. Next is the copper, which I made into kitchenware and crafted a cooking table to boot. Now it's party time.

With my matter manipulator I placed the table inside my house and looked at the ingredients I had with me. It was almost lunch time and I wanted to make everyone something nice. Let's see, I had wheat, bread, rice, carrots, apples, and alien meat to work with. Those rose pedals from the trees were also edible, and I expected as much. I got it! I'll do a little bit of barbecue. Carrot dogs, alien burgers for the meat lovers, and petal sandwiches. I began to work on the doughs as they would be the ones that took the most time to prepare. Once the breads and buns were almost done I started with the fillers. I ground up the leftover Scythetail meat from yesterday with my matter manipulator and formed it into patties. It was a delicious animal. Tasted vaguely gamey with a mix of pork and beef to taste, textured like that of pork with a green color that faded to a juicy red when cooked. I fried it over the top of my furnace with a copper frying pan and the savory smell filled the colony. Everypony knew I was cooking lunch. I slid the burgers off onto some glazed clay plates Tommy had made for me while I was out. Working fast and efficiently I cut the loaves and buns. The omnivorous of the bunch gathered first to the lunch line. KP, Ink Rose, AnY, Twi, Pinkie, and Rainbow were the first in line, in that order.

Kim smiled as I slid an alien burger onto her plate, “Thanks dude!”

“No, thanks for watching my ass in the last three wars. Hope you like that burger!”

“Smells delicious! Hopefully we can get some Nacos soon,” she flew back up to her sniper tower and watched the road that lead into town as she bit into her burger. Ink came up to me awaiting her meal.

“Pretty pwease?” she asked in a high pitched cutesy tone.

“I know how much you like burgers. We've got more than enough to feed everypony so help yourselves!” I served her the sandwich and she took her seat on the bench near my crafting center. Her eyes widened in delight at the juicy, meaty patty of that red/green tint. Her reaction put a smile on my face and I wondered how well it did taste. I had forgotten to try it before serving the others. By the time I was done Applejack and Digi rolled into the scene with a small cart full of... APPLE CIDER.

“Hoo wee! Just got done making the first batch of the famous Apple Family Apple Cider! Drink up everypony!” AJ and Digi started to hand out wooden mugs of much appreciated foaming cider. I traded him a carrot dog for a mug and all of us gathered around. I took my place near Rainbow Dash and put one arm around her.

“Everypony! I'd like to make a toast!” Twilight held up her mug in hoof and smiled, “We have traveled far, braved the rigors of flight into space, and now I am honored to say that each and every one of you has done a fine job in their parts to forge New Ponyville as our first colony in the stars. May our future ventures take us higher! To the stars everypony!”

“TO THE STARS!” everyone cheered and we drank up. I looked to my burger and finally got a chance to bite into it. It was as delicious as I expected it to be. Sweet, savory, juicy, meaty, and tender. Even without toppings or condiments this was a meal fit for a Princess. Between the hard apple cider and this omnipotent masterpiece of a burger; I think I'm good...

That afternoon we set out to explore more of the planets surface. Again, Kim and Tony Pony were left to guard the now fortified town, now fenced in with a large cobblestone wall, taken from our mining expedition and the repurposed materials from the alien bunker. The makeshift sniper perches now turned into fully protected battlements, built so expertly like that of Twilight's old castle with the matter manipulators. Our exploration party was a four pony team consisting of myself, Digi, AJ, and AnY. Digi wanted to collect dirt samples and other scientific research beyond our town. Which was a perfect opportunity for me to train AnY on proper self defense. I recruited AJ into the search team because of her already strong fighting skills and cowgirl background. She never told Fluttershy this but she owned a gun back home to stop any stray Timber Wolves from romping around her farm. It was only after the incident with Spike where she took the problem seriously enough to get herself a firearm. She brought with her that very same revolver, Little Macintosh, named after her brother. The grip was fashioned to fit into her mouth, unlike my own revolver which I grasped with my right wing to shoot using my feathers like fingers. Her's had a small rifle scope mounted on top for added precision and fired .44 magnum wadcutters, unlike mine which was only a .357 magnum standard issue. I felt a little “inadequate” compared to her weapon of choice. We ventured west for an hour or two and found that the trees changed from brilliant giant roses to thorny dark blue trees with equally giant flowers of four dark petals. The ground had small dark blue bushes and tiny flowers of matching color. It was an odd, but sweet scent unfamiliar to me or anyone in our group. AJ glanced at them.

“My my, these are quite something huh Digi?” Applejack touched the bark and felt its strange texture.

“I'm gonna have to collect some samples of this tree. I think I'm gonna call it a Fourthorn for reference,” he approached and started to scrape some bark with the manipulator. I flew up to dislodge a giant petal and it floated to the ground like a large blanket, covering them both. I laughed.

“Sky Buster! What ya'll doin' up there?”

“You wanted to collect some samples didn't you Digi! That one should do you good!” I looked from the top of the tree to see a large metallic structure military in nature. My eyes widened and I flew back down, “Guys, I think you should see this!”

“You're a dick Sky, how do I know this isn't one of your usual pranks?” Digi scanned the giant petal and took more samples of it. Curious as he was, he started to eat a bit of it as he found it to be edible, “What the apple fucck? That tastes like a wet potato chip.”

“Hold on! Let me taste!” I stopped my train of thought and ripped off a piece. He was right! I could dry this up for some salty snacks for later, “Well, I'm stuffing as much of this leaf into my bags. But where was I? Oh yeah! I found a metallic structure just beyond this hill. It doesn't look welcoming.”

“I'm not sure we should check that out,” AnY spoke up as we walked to the top of the hill, “After all, what purpose does a metal building have other than to protect something inside of it. It could be booby trapped you know.”

“AnY, you know me... When there's a risk, there's a reward. I ain't concerned about the risk, just the reward!” I replied half-jokingly as we looked at it from a distance, “But I'm not gonna put the three of you in danger. I'll scout it alone and signal if I need help. I know my limits.”

I should have kept my big mouth shut. The ensuing result was our party being jumped by a pair of tracked autonomous drones that pursued us relentlessly, armed with pulse machine guns that had enough force to shoot clean through the trunk of one of the Fourthorn trees. As I flew up to dodge its fire, thankfully very inaccurate fire, Applejack took one of them out with her .44 magnum from a distance. I started to notice that these drones were damaged by wear and tear from years of neglect. Their shielding systems tried to repel our bullets only to fail upon impact. We destroyed one of the drones and the other ran out of battery for its guns. AnY gave the last one a firm buck and it fell back on its side. I flew down and started to rip out the wiring and stuff the contents into my bag.

“What in tarnation are these things?”

“They're drones AJ. I think I can reprogram them to help defend the town if we managed to repair at least one using the spare parts from the other. Sky Buster how are you doing?” Digi turned to me as I was beating the other drone with a stick.

“ARE YOU DEAD YET! ARE YOU DEAD YET! ARE YOU DEAD YET!” I looked at the machine. Comically the LCD screen that served as its face flashed a sad frowny face. I felt a little sorry for it.

“Sky, stop beating the shit out of it you dickwad,” Digi gazed at me and stuffed the two wrecks into his bags.

“Those things tried to kill us, wouldn't you wanna beat it to death?” I replied like a smartass.

“You saw it, that thing had feelings. Which is why I'm gonna keep them and repair them to make it our pet,” he was a little angry at me.

“Well-maybe it had feelings... OR! It could be a psychological weapon to put you at ease so that thing can blow your brains out. But if you managed to reprogram it then I'm okay with it that way.”

“Are we done yet? I think the building is clear,” AnY stood at the door to the futuristic bunker.

“Let me scan it to make sure,” Digi gave it a examination with his portable scanner, “It's clear. Looks like they were guarding a treasure chest inside.”

“LOOT!” I dashed in and found the chest on the second level. I opened it to find ten pieces of coal and a bunch of that alien money, “Aww fuck! What is this shit?”

“Coal for the naughty boy I presume?” Digi rubbed in the karma.

“Shutup...” I closed the chest and stuffed the contents in my bag for now, my face contorted with the deepest frown of unamusement.

We continued our ventures west and found a deep system of underground caves beneath us. Within were the eerie sounds of alien animals, some of which I doubt were friendly. It was then that we stumbled on a new alien, a large ape-like creature with a snowy white coat and ice anthers for a tail. It was extremely odd.

“Is it just me, or does that look like a Pokemon?” Digi assessed the creature, “It looks highly territorial and dangerous. We should stay clear.”

“I second both statements,” we sneaked by them and proceeded onward. The cave system we found was going to be valuable for mining. Digi stopped in front of us and scanned at the ground.

“Hold up, I think I found the reason why those petals tasted like potato chips. Check this out!” he dug at the ground with one hoof and unearthed the familiar root vegetable. We stood in surprise.

“Lemme see that!” AJ gently swiped the potato from his hoof, “Eeyup! That's a spud alright! And not one of them alien ones too!”

“That is strange. First Sky Buster finds white rice of all things-”

“I'm Asian! What do you expect!” I joked. Digi couldn't help but laugh along with us.

“Second, we have just found a batch of potatoes in a middle of an alien planet lightyears away from Equestria,” AnY added, “I'm starting to wonder about our state of existence. Though I am not going so far as to agree with our friend Lyra back home to be a human groupie.”

“I think I've seen enough let's head back guys.”

“I'm with ya on that one Digi!” AJ trotted close to him and Digi gave her a hug.

“Let's go bitch,” I turned to AnY.

“Oh haha,” AnY rolled his eyes, “At least I helped to destroy those drones after our little incident.”

“Yeah, but at least I was the only one in actual danger. Those things never shot at you,” I replied.

“Well, that's teamwork then,” AnY looked forward.

“Hold it right there!” suddenly we were surrounded by six strange hairless bipedal creatures, humans... I was taken by surprise and had no time to unholster my revolver. They had strange digital blue camouflage uniforms that could make them completely invisible, optical camouflage, “Hold on, they're... Ponies... Or at least I think they are.”

Their leader was a light brown skinned male wearing a blue military helmet and glasses. Holographic images floated on the lenses as he eyed us back and forth.

“Holy crap Lyra is gonna shit her brick if she was here,” I commented.

“Shut up, just hand us the goods and we'll be on our way,” one of them aimed his assault rifle at me, it was a futuristic looking version of an AK-47 with the magazine in the back instead of the front.

“Fucking god dammit!” One of their members with a pale face and black hair started to walk away.

“Oh come on Nick!” their leader turned to him, “We have to loot them to survive We can't just ask for fucking handovers you know!”

“No. I'll take their shit, but I want nothing to do with ponies. Unless of course they are literally baby horses that aren't some flash animated technicolor BS,” the guard turned his back to us.

“Fine! Just guard the rear then,” the leader let him have his way.

“Fair enough,” he retreated into the bushes to cover them.

“I'll handle this,” AnY stepped up to the plate. Now I realize the full extent that his diplomatic skills would come into play, “Hallo there! I am ze AnY Pony! Surely we can strike a compromise to our situation. We have more than enough food to go around!”

“Mira what do you think?” the leader turned to one of the two females of their group, the one with silky brown hair and blue eyes.

“Sure, I guess. I mean, I could trade some food.”

“What could we possibly trade? We've got nothing!” he lowered his weapon and rolled his eyes, “And they're horses! What kind of food do you think they eat?”

“Fruit,” she shows a stockpile of different fruits to their leader, “I was saving these for emergencies. But we can't live off of these.”

“I guess we can trade after all. Squad, at ease,” they all lowered their weapons and my heart lifted in relief. I highly underestimated AnY.

“Phew, Luna's asshole AnY, you saved us,” I pat him on the shoulder.

“Think nothing of it,” he winked, “Now, can we trade with these?”

AnY flashed the alien money that we had been carrying around with us all the time. The humans nodded to each other and smiled.

“That will do nicely...” I was still surprised that they spoke our common language. I swear to Celestia, Lyra would be rubbing it in our faces right now about Ancient Humans.

“Great! How much are you willing to sell all of that for?” AnY started to barter.

“Mira, it's your fruit,” their leader returned to the rest of their group.

“Not all of it. But I can give you two things of grapes, a single container of coralcreep, five bananas and three kiwi. For all that I'll take about 150 pixels,” she started to lay out the fruit for AnY.

“Hold on there, I'll have to scan the alien looking fruit for any toxins,” Digi came up with his scanner on the container. Sure enough it was toxic, “Coralcreep is toxic to us.”

“Ah, okay then. How's about the other fruit you offered?” AnY examined the odd multicolored fruit and gave it to Digi to scan, deeming it edible.

“All the other fruit would come down to 120 pixels,” Mira took away the Coralcreep.

“He wants the Avesmingo. What in the world do we need that for, we need the money. Throw in fifty pixels for that fruit,” the leader pointed to the Avesmingo. I had to question the price of it, but kept my mouth shut.

“If you say so. We'll throw in two of those for a total of 170 pixels,” Mira handed us the fruit as AnY made the transaction.

“Danke, that means thank you in German,” he stuffed the fruit into his saddlebags.

“German?!” the leader of the humans recoiled back.

“Ich kenne. Sprichst deutsch,” Mira replied back with a smile. AnY's eyes widened. They went back and forth in in German. I spoke up when they were done.

“Hold on a minute, we speak the same languages, but we're aliens in each others eyes. How the hell is this possible?”

“And why is your voice the same as mine?!” their leader recoiled again, I just now noticed his familiar tone.

“I didn't notice that until now...” I dug at the ground with one hoof.

Now that the tension eased, Nick and his leader started some back and forth shenanigans. I offered my hoof of friendship.

“Do you guys have a place to stay?”

“Not really. We've been darting from planet to planet in search of a new home. Our old home planet was destroyed,” he sighed heavily.

“If it's anything, we cleaned out that metal building over the hill over there. You guys can stay there and be our neighbors. We'll help you out,” I put out my hoof, “What's your name?”

“Troy. Troy Gambino. My second in command is Nick, you've already met Mira,” he shook my hoof and shouldered his bullpup rifle, “Nick! Come say hi!”

“Hell nah! I ain't dealing with any space ponies. It's bad enough that Earth was wrecked,” he turned our back to us. I saw a futuristic plastic looking rifle on his back with a glowing magazine on the side.

“Excuse him, he doesn't like aliens. I'm more open minded though. The girl with the bandana and sniper rifle is my girlfriend, May, and the two other guys are Rex and Alex.”

“Hey,” each of them waved to us. The girl walked up to us and started to hug me.

“OH! He's so cute can we keep him Troy?” May was squeezing me.

“H-Hey! No touchy! I've got a wife you know!”

“No May, he's a sentient lifeform that should be respected. Let him be, he is not a pet,” Troy rolled his eyes and poked her to let go.

“If ya'll are done, we need to get back before the sun goes down!” AJ trotted back with the others. I followed and told the humans the location of our town, just east beyond the caves in a clearing of the rose forest.

We came back to town exhausted as we unloaded our cargo: two drone wrecks, Fourthorn petals, a few potatoes, coal, grapes, bananas, kiwis and those strange Avesmingo fruits. I gave the fruits to AJ and she placed them in a magic powered refrigerator for safe keeping. With a little bit of relaxation I took the one of the Avesmingos and sliced a few pieces off. With each slice a different smell lifted into the air. I tried a small piece and it tasted like passion fruit. As I chewed the flavor changed to that of watermelon, then guavas, then finally mango as I swallowed. I took another piece just to make sure, this time it alternated between blackberries, lemon, oranges, and maple syrup. I was amazed at this alien fruit! It would be a challenge to make a dish from this, as it consistently changed flavor as you chewed. I spit out the seeds and placed them on a copper plate to the side. I'll give them to AJ in the morning. We had leftover barbecue for dinner and went to bed shortly after.

Day 9

Everypony got up bright and early to do their chores. AJ started to plant the seeds for our fruit, I spent the first four hours awake guarding the town gate as Antony and Kim set out with Puzzle and Pinkie for more rock farming, Rainbow on the other side of town in her sniper perch on the east gate. I could see Digi in his window tinkering with the drone wrecks with Twilight, trying to fix them up so that we'd have an automated defense system. We had Fourthorn and rose petal sandwiches for breakfast. The Fourthorn sandwiches were odd, imagine stuffing french fries in between two pieces of toast. It was good but it could have been better. Oh well.

It was getting to right around the equivalent of noon time on this planet. Digi calculated that the day and year cycle was around 26.5 hours in a day and 321 days in a Velocia year. Our mining party returned home, but something was amiss. Tony was carrying Kim on his back and she looked sick, very sick. I rushed down to help.

“Holy crap! What happened?” I eyed Kim, her face turned a shade of green.

“We don't know! She started to just get sick all of a sudden on the way back,” Tony Pony explained as best he could.

“We need to get her to Flutters. Digi! Get over here we got a mare down!” I yelled for Digi to come over, “Come on, let's get you some medical attention.”

“Ugh, I think I'm gonna puke,” Kim induced her vomiting and spilled all over the ground, luckily it didn't get on anyone else as we dragged her to Fluttershy's house.

“Oh you poor thing! What's wrong with her?” Fluttershy started to diagnose her patient, “She has a high fever and nausea. She's showing some symptoms of poisoning.”

“Somethin's wrong with Rainbow too!” AJ burst through the door and laid her on another empty bed. I immediately rushed to her side.

“Sweetheart, where does it hurt?!” I held her hoof, it was burning hot to the touch.

“My stomach, uggh!” she was cupping her gut and trying to suppress the urge to expel the contents of her stomach. Fluttershy came over to with a bucket and helped.

“This is not good, they must have ate something bad,” Fluttershy prepared some cold packs to reduce their fevers.

“Rainbow, what did you eat aside from the sandwiches today?”

“A banana. Owww,” she was in deep pain that crept from her stomach.

“Me too!” Kim wasn't fairing any better. Instantly I began to boil.

“Flutters, Digi, Twi, stabilize them. Tony Pony let's go kick some ass!”

“Whoa whoa whoa, let's be reasonable here. Maybe it's just an unknown pathogen that just so happened to be on the bananas. For now I suggest we stop eating those. Let's not jump to conclusions,” Digi tried to negotiate.

“You're not the one with their wife in danger!” Antony lashed, “I'm going with Sky Buster. Either way, we'll find out exactly what happened.”

We grabbed our weapons and searched for those humans that scammed us. It wasn't gonna be a fair fight, so I was going to distract and lure them out. We were both seething with rage.

“I can't believe those hairless bastards! Selling us poisoned food like that!”

“To be fair, they did try to hold you up yesterday. I believe they get a kick out of making others suffer. The only way we are going to find out is to barge in,” Tony and I stood at the door.

“You got your .45?” I glanced at him as he took the gun in his mouth and nodded, “Good...”

We burst through the door and Antony fired his pistol into the air. I yelled out.

“Sit the buck down motherfuckers!” I looked back and forth as I took them by surprise. I came up to Troy and slammed him into the wall, “You sold us poisoned fruit!”

“Oh shit... Sorry!” he-apologized?! I let him go and backed off, “Dammit! Those were Apex bananas after all! Tell me, how many of your kind ate them?”

“Um-wait? Those are?”

“They're Apex bananas, genetically engineered to grow faster but it's only safe for humans and Apex to eat! Dammit Mira, I thought you told me those were earth bananas!”

“I didn't know okay, it was the first thing I grabbed at a fruit stand before we left.”

“Look, it was all an accident but we gotta act fast. Take me to your town,” he quickly put on his uniform and hastily snatched his rifle.

“Oh, sorry I-” he cut me off.

“I accept your apology, but we gotta go!” he ruffled his head of thick black hair.

“You heard the man Tony, let's haul ass!”

Troy the human hopped on top of Antony's saddle.

“Excuse me, what are you doing?” Antony looked up at him.

“Oh come on!” Troy rolled his eyes, “You're a horse! We'll get there much faster if you gallop over ther-”

This time I cut him off and used my wings to slap him onto my back. I spread my wings and took my stance.

“Hang on!” I accelerated forward flew as fast as I could back to town. I knew I was flying just shy of 400 knots with this dangling meat puppet clinging for dear life on my neck. I landed in the middle of the town square and he jumped off my back.

“Okay, that was... Unexpected. Fuck I just rode a flying horse,” he stumbled a bit.

“We're not horses! We're ponies. And I am a pegasus thank you very much!”

“Whatever, let's just see what's wrong.”

I lead him into our medical house and his head barely cleared the door. He examined our two sick mares and shook his head back and forth. The rest of our group looked on at him, amazed at the alien.

“Shit, just as I thought. Apex Banana Sickness. They'll die if we don't give them the antidote.”

My heart dropped and I was pinned with fear. I couldn't think about losing her! Not now! After all we've been through, all the tears shed and the mending of my broken heart. I lost my whole family once... And I didn't want it to happen again.

“So what is the antidote?” Twilight asked while she helped Fluttershy treat our two mares in agony.

“Red stim packs. They'll cure anything for any species. We can buy them from a town nearby, hopefully we can make it in time. Come on, I'll show you the way,” he walked out the door and I saw two of the other humans come into town with Antony.

“So what's the verdict? Is my Kimmy going to be alright?” Tony was extremely worried. I could barely look at him, “Oh no...”

“No, we can save them... What we have to find are things called red stim packs. Where is this town we can buy them from Troy?” I turned away from my friend and asked the human.

“It's about a day's journey away from here. We won't make it on foot in time,” he looked at my wings and frowned, “Aw crap...”

“I. DON'T. NEED. FEET,” I slapped him onto my back again and lifted off, “We'll be back with the medicine! Hang on meat puppet!”

“What the fuck are you doing! I have a fear of heights you know!” Troy was screaming at the top of his lungs in terror.

“No, I don't know that! Which is why I'm punching supersonic!” I streamlined my body and put one hoof forward to spike the air.

“OH FUCK NOOOOOO!” Troy dug in and was clinging on with the might of a thousand chains. His voice turned high pitch as he screamed uncontrollably.

“Is that the town right there?” I noticed a few plumes of smoke from campfires.

“YES YES YES!! LAND ALREADY!!”

And so I did, doing so right in a clearing that served as a makeshift runway for a conventional landing. Troy rolled off me and got on his hands and knees to puke into a cave.

“God dammit Sky Buster!”

“Hey, if your sweetheart was dying and you had wings, wouldn't you use them?”

“Ugh, I suppose... I hate flying in atmosphere...” he got up and shouldered his rifle, “Put your weapon away, these Florans will attack anyone brandishing a weapon.”

FLORANS?! As in the savage pony-eating race that nearly ended my planet Florans? Oh man, what a day... I'm seething with rage again.

“Something wrong Sky?”

“The thing that's WRONG here is that I am to trust an evil race of carnivorous plants to the survival of my wife?! You sir do business with these vile creatures... And I thought Vulcan Sol bastards were evil...” I refused to put away my revolver.

“Relax Sky, these guys don't know anything about that. So the same thing happened to you too huh?”

“Wait, so your race got wrecked by them too?” I started to reason.

“Well, no. But I know of one race that did. But just trust me, these Floran don't want any trouble,” he patted me on the back, “What do you say?”

I sighed, “...Fine... JUST THIS ONCE!”

We walked into the Floran village and Troy lead the way. These plant people are vile, evil, pony-eating creatures that were eying me like a piece of meat. I had one wing on my revolver at all times, and I was thinking of beaming back to my ship and taking off to bomb the hell out of this place, burn it to the ground I thought. The buildings were made of wood, bamboo, and thatch. Their furniture looked like something cave ponies threw together: savage and uncultured. Some of the taller buildings were carved trees that reminded me of the Old Ponyville library where I'd spend by days hanging out with Twi, AnY, and Rainbow as we read books and discussed in our book club. We finally came to the merchant of the town and his spoken language was flawless, not like the other Florans I heard which spoke in broken sentences and hissing sounds.

“Hello there human! What do you want today?” he put one elbow on the counter and went eye level with Troy.

“Please, two of my friends are sick. I'm going to need some red stim packs to treat them,” Troy told it to the Floran straight.

“Well, red stim packs are hard to come by these days. What with Earth destroyed and all. I'd sell a batch of ten for five hundred pixels.”

“Sounds about right, here you go,” Troy handed him the money.

“You want some pet food for your tiny alien there?” he looked at me in that disgustingly superior way. My anger reached the boiling point.

“LISTEN HERE AND LISTEN STRAIGHT YOU OVERGROWN FLYTRAP! Never! And I repeat: never! Call me a fucking pet again you fucking asshole crabgrass!” a puff of steam came from my nose.

“Sky Buster! Control yourself!” Troy yelled at me. This made me even more furious. I stuck my middle feather out at both of them.

“FUCK YOU! AND FUCK THIS WORLD!” I swiped the medicine and flew off. I couldn't take the sight of those damned Florans and what they did to my homeworld. Troy ran out of the village to try and stop me.

“Sky! Sky! Dammit that fucking horse!”

I flew as fast as I could back to New Ponyville. I touched down at the door of Fluttershy's house and busted inside, “I have the medicine! How are they?”

“Bad, they're just barely holding on...” Twi and all the others gathered around our sick. Antony was beside Kim helping her to hang on for life as a heart monitor dipped in and out of life and death. I opened the case of stim packs and handed one to Fluttershy. I had one as well and wanted to administer it to my Dashie.

“On three! One, two, three,” we injected both of them with the serum and I whispered to Rainbow softly, “...I could be sitting here on a cloud... Watching the sun as it starts to go down... The only thing missing...”

I burst into tears, feeling the cold and lifeless hoof of my sweetheart as she faded away. I let my head fall onto her chest and I couldn't hear her breathing. I held onto her hoof and cried into her fur. I couldn't believe it... My love, my wife, my-my guardian angel and savior from myself... She's dead in my arms... All of my thoughts subsided and my mind was hallow. Nothing but emptiness and the muffled sounds of my sobbing pierced into my soul... Then something soft caught my ear.

“...is you by my side,” she so faintly whispered into my ear. At first I thought her soul reached out to me beyond the grave, with how faint and inaudible her whisper was. Then I heard more singing, “Give me a smidge of confidence... Give me a speck of something that makes sense...”

“...Give me an idea of dependency!” I jumped up and sang along, embracing her in my arms and sobbing into her shoulder in relief.

“Give me a dash of-,” she coughed, recovering from her illness, “Loyalty...”

“I could save my lonely soul for you!” I continued to sing with all my heart, “But the feeling in my heart can't follow through!”

“You can give your broken heart to me... Because you know that I'll stay with you... That's why they call us Loyalty!” she started to rock back and forth stoking my mane. My heart pounded and I couldn't stop crying in relief. Everypony else gathered around us and we all came together for a group hug.

After all was said and done I had to report to Twilight on Floran activity. We were living on a planet inhabited by them, and I didn't tell anypony else least that cripple our morale.

“Sky Buster, are you sure about this?” she looked at me in a serious demeanor.

“Yes. I wanted to address it to you first. If word got out that we're living on a Floran planet then morale would plummet,” I gave my opinion.

“It's bad enough that we have two of our own security team too sick to fight. AJ already threw away those bananas and I've ordered everypony to scan thoroughly everything we might encounter in the future, even if it is familiar,” she looked outside the window and saw our ships, “Sky Buster. Could we possibly destroy that town by bombing it?”

“Maybe. I'd use up all the aircraft ordinance on my ship though. But wouldn't that be suspicious to just take off in the middle of the night like that? Plus their town is pretty large and who knows how many there are on this planet?” I looked out the window with her, “However, to be honest maybe we can find a peaceful route. We're outnumbered a hundred to one so peace might be our only option. From what I've heard this village doesn't know about the Floran Incident back home.”

“I'll see to it then. I'm putting you in charge as my guard for this diplomatic mission. I'll take AnY with us as well,” Twilight outlined the plan, “I agree with you, we might not have a choice but peace. We're not giving up this colony.”

“Now if you'll excuse me, I think I left a human back at that town. I'll need to pick him up,” I walked out of the door and took off back in the direction of the town.

A few minutes of flying and I saw that blue dot of a human in the same clearing I landed in. He was fighting off a few dark blue colored birds with long beaks and feathered bat wings. They shot out bolts of plasma at him and he was firing at them as they swarmed. I looked down and yelled to him.

“Troy! I've got your back!” I pulled my royal guard sword and took it in one hoof. If there was one thing I was good at it was aerial combat. It's what my cutie mark meant: a Fillypine sunburst that symbolized the love for my homeland and my ability to always keep clear skies. I was fast and aggressive in my strikes and swings, cutting down a few of those Boltbeaks as I called them. The contents of their stomach were Floran remains and alien coins which I learned were called Pixels. Troy was being overwhelmed by this swarm and had to reload.

“Shit! Changing mags!” he reloaded his bullpup AK. He was too late as a Boltbeak dug its talons into him. It charged a shot in its mouth and pinned him to the ground. I was there to intercept the creature and cut its head clean off before it could kill him.

“Sorry about that,” I helped him up to his feet.

“Just for the record, don't leave me behind again. I've been walking for hours,” he dusted himself off and cupped his shoulder in pain.

“You're hurt,” I examined the wound on his shoulder, “Ouch, that's gotta burn but you'll be okay.”

I got out the medkit and treated him. We sat under a tree as the evening set. He took off his helmet and he asked me a question.

“So, what's your beef with the Florans?”

“They ravaged my homeworld and ate many of my kind. We nearly faced extinction but somehow we managed to win the war. The lesser nations of my world didn't fair as well and we're still trying to clean up the mess back home. We were sent to explore the stars to give hope to those who needed it. My friends and family that you see in town are the first ponies to go beyond our solar system,” I readied the disinfectant to pour onto his wound, “This is gonna hurt. Stay still.”

I saw him take a bullet from his rifles magazine and he bit into it as I poured the disinfectant onto his plasma burnt wound. Then I carefully bandaged it and examined his rifle.

“Pardon me, mind if I take a look?”

“Sure, go ahead,” he handed me his rifle and I followed its contours. It was made of a special type of steel alloy and looked to be machined with high precision, “It's called an AK-113. Fires an iron tipped 5.9 millimeter ball cartridge. Shreds unarmored enemies nicely and it's a common weapon for Russian and Chinese Colonial Marines.”

“Semi, full, and burst huh? What's this thing on the top?” I touched the odd piece of glass and metal that projected from the top of the gun.

“That's called a holographic sight. Notice how the gun has rails on top, bottom, and under the barrel. That's where you mount the attachments. It's very modular and reliable.”

“Well, it looks so much like my own rifle. Have you ever heard of an AK-47?” I gave him back his rifle.

“Oh that legendary rifle! Who hasn't? It's still being used today. How far advanced is your world?”

“Well, I'd say we're semi-modern compared to your standard. We have television, computers, and electronics but they aren't as advanced as your own I take it. There are legends on my planet that humans were the first to take to the stars,” I helped him up and we continued.

“That's right. Say, how do you fly so fast with just wing power alone?”

“It's called magic. My wings separate oxygen and hydrogen molecules and act as ramjet engines. That's how most pegasi fly at high speeds,” I explained.

“Oh really? A Pegasus huh?” he looked back and forth, hearing a strange sound. I thought I heard it too but it faded away, “You're a talking horse though.”

“Correction: horses are feral animals on my world like chimps are supposedly to humans. I'm a pony,” I placed one hoof to my chest to make my point, “There are several different types of ponies. There are earth ponies which look like normal horses and can grow plants really fast, unicorns with their spell casting horns, pegasi like me who can fly and walk on clouds, changelings which are insect-like, bat ponies with bat wings and fangs, and that sort of thing.”

“Well that's interesting. And what of that one that I saw with the horn and wings?”

“Those are called Alicorns, and she is our leader and Princess: the highest ruling body in our country. They serve as our benevolent leaders and diplomats. Only a few ponies can transcend and transform to become an Alicorn. My friend Digi almost did once, but he only ended up with one wing and he had to change back to be a unicorn. I gave him so much shit for that teasing him about how he drank half a red bull potion.”

“Wow, us humans got the short end of the stick. How come other races get to have such cool abilities? At least you can't eat meat so haha!” he pointed at me with both hands and shuffled them back and forth.

“Oh yes we can. See?” I lifted my gums to prove my point, “We've got incisors and shit like that, just more molars for primarily eating plants. In mainland Equestria, our most dominant country, eating meat isn't taboo, but most choose to eat veggies.”

“Dammit, I feel like a fleshy meatbag here. I mean, Florans get more energy in sunshine, Hylotls can breathe underwater, Apex are fast and agile as fuck, Avians can glide, and Glitch are robots. Those are all the primary sentient races you can expect to encounter and I'm jelly bro.”

“Hehehe!” I patted him on the back, “You'll get used to it.”

“Hey ow! That part still hurts you know!”

“I know, I'm just teasing you,” I looked up into the night sky and that large desert planet hovering over us, “Wanna fly? I'll be slower this time.”

“I think I'll pass. Say, can you beam up to your ship from here?” Troy crossed his arms as it was starting to get cold out.

“Yes I can, and it's landed in my village,” I paused for thought, “And maybe I can link it to teleport you back to town huh?”

“Exactly what I was thinking. Here, hand-or... Is it hoof me your transponder?”

“Dude I'll just give it to you,” I shared teleport links to his transponder. It was reverse engineered from Floran tech and I found out later that Florans recycled human technology as well. So the process was quick and easy and we both teleported back to New Ponyville.

We invited the rest of the humans, aside from Nick, to our town and let them stay for a little bit. Almost all of the group was fascinated by their fleshy, hairless, and bipedal stance. We remembered Lyra Heartstrings back home. She would have went wild and been all up in their faces just oozing with excitement. I understood why she loved humans so much, hell I find guns and military shit as wonderful as her obsession with humans. They told us about the stars, where Earth was and how a giant tentacle monster ate all of it. The human race: Cauasian, Hispanic, African Americans, and all their other ethnic groups. Their food was mostly rice, wheat, and meat based and with that knowledge I cooked them up some Sycthetail burgers for dinner. Apparently our flower sandwiches were inedible to them and the carrot dogs didn't suite their taste. Everyone found the humans to be both weird and fascinating as we exchanged stories, lore, culture, and music. As the night drew on it was time for them to go and we handed them some supplies to help. Our first contact with sentient life:

Still not anal probed...

Day 10

Twilight Sparkle

“Dear Princess Celestia,” I began to write my letter to the princess, “Space bananas are poisonous. Signed, Twilight Sparkle.”

With a quick messaging spell the written note burst into cosmic dust and shot into space, back to Equestria, our homeland. Normally I'd have Spike to send these notes. But ever since he met Tommy he's never been the same. He moved away and I haven't seen him since. I hope he's okay after the Floran Incident. Most ponies don't want to remember that. All the blood, bodies, and half-eaten remains littering the streets. Those plant people were vicious and murderous with no reasoning. I really hope this village can be reasoned with, but just in case I have complete faith in Sky Buster and Antony to guard us on our diplomatic mission. I've known Sky Buster for quite some time, my big brother Shining Armor was his commanding officer when he enrolled in the Royal Guard Academy. At first he was quiet and secretive, barely talking to anypony. It was only later that I learned that while he was attending the academy his whole family was killed at their reunion when his home country was invaded by Vulcan Sol. I'm reminded by that flavor of brutality when I think of the Florans as well. I never want to see war ever again.

“Princess, are you okay?” Sky Buster knocked on my door.

“Oh hello Sky Buster. Are we all set?” I smiled and he returned with a nod.

“All set ma'am!” he was clad in ceremonial iron armor, reminiscent of old Pegasopolis guard uniforms as he saluted. On his back was a sword and he had with him his old revolver as well.

“At ease soldier,” I saluted back, “How are you feeling today?”

“Fine thank you. I'm glad Dashie's okay. AC should be ready by now, our armor will not only make a good first impression but just in case we get screwed over, we're prepared,” he reassured me, “How's AnY?”

“He's okay,” I blushed, “But let's get to work. We'll have to take one of the ships to get over there in a hurry. I hope you're up to fly.”

“You know me Twi, if it flies then I'm your guy. Let's use your ship, it's a lot less threatening than mine.”

“I agree, my husband should be there right now. Let's go,” we trotted over to my spacecraft parked in a large stone hangar. AnY was sleeping on the couch as Sky Buster and Antony took their place at the controls.

“Regal One to ground control clear the area we are taking off from VTOL mode over,” Sky radioed out as I took my place next to my husband. He was muttering something in his sleep. As the engines fired up he jumped awake from the dubstep that propelled the craft. I had questioned the choice of propulsion before. Technically a sound based thruster unit shouldn't work in space as there is no medium to create an equal and opposite reaction. However since magic is a force that can transcend and alter the universe in different ways then these enchanted engines provided enough output to lift us into the air. AnY rubbed his eyes and tried to plug his ears.

“Give me a break,” he yawned and I gave him a hug, “Oh hallo there! Good morning my Twilight.”

“Good morning. I hope you're all rested up! We've got a very important diplomatic mission to partake in.”

“Oh, and who may we be interacting with today?” his thick German accent always made him sound smart. But I hesitated in my response.

“Promise me you won't tell anypony. We have to make a deal with some Florans...” I gave a serious and straight faced answer.

“Wait-Florans?!” Antony jumped.

“Tony Pony, I know, it's a lot to take in,” Sky Buster placed one hoof on his shoulder.

“I swear plants are out to kill me. Before this all ever happened a tree almost fell onto my house. That was the first instance before those damned Florans arrived. You of all ponies Princess should realize that those are animalistic, savage, and bloodthirsty beasts. And from what you're saying, we are living on the same planet as them?”

“Antony, I assure you these Floran know nothing of Equestria's damage. We can reason with them,” I looked at AnY, “Were you going to add to that?”

“As much as I would like to agree with AC, I have to question why in Celestia's name are we trying to make peace with them?”

“It's a better option than a preemptive strike. Sky Buster and I discussed that course of action in private, but he gave a valid point: we're outnumbered here. We're only fourteen ponies and that village is quite large from his reports. Who knows how many more there are on his planet. Peace is the only option for now.”

“So what's the backup plan if peace can't be attained?” Antony asked from the copilots chair.

“...Then we have to evacuate. Relocate to a new planet and alter our directive to remove and replace our colony,” I felt the ship land and the engines wub down.

“We're here,” Sky Buster opened the door for us, “Let's roll out the red carpet.”

I held my head up high with my husband as we trotted out of our ship. We were both wearing ceremonial attire for peace meetings. My crown, cape, and (reluctantly) my scepter. My creepy... Face scepter... I stood before the crowd of carnivorous plant people, uncomfortable at the way they were looking at us. Sky Buster and Antony shielded their faces.

“Greetings Floran!” I started, “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria with my prince: Chancellor AnY.”

“Hallo there, we would like an audience with your leader to discuss our arrival.”

We stood there uncomfortably for a few minutes before a Floran clad in a large headdress stepped before us.

“I am chief Bone Ssstabber. What you weird aliensss want?” she spoke in a very sore and hissing tone, like that of a snake. I recoiled back as she flicked her tongue in my face, “Ssspeak now or be eaten!”

“Um, I would like to extend a hoof of peace to your village and open up our trade and commerce. We wish to seek peace and come to an understanding of our differences,” I gave it my best shot.

“Floran weirded out by big wordsss! You sspeak sssmall wordss now!” she hissed at me. AnY took front and center.

“We sell you meat, you don't kill us, make friends?” he smiled.

“Much better! Floran like little alien. Think it ssmell nice!” her hiss became less threatening.

“Oh why thank you,” AnY smiled.

“Floran think it sssmell nice to eat!” the hiss became deeper. I could see Sky Buster start to pull his sword, “But Floran don't! New meaty friendsss!”

I sighed in relief. I honestly didn't think we'd have a chance. Sky Buster replaced his sword and sighed too.

“Here are gifts!” Sky lifted up a basket of cooked meat and placed it on the ground. The Florans swarmed it like piranhas and tore it apart. I was both disgusted and terrified at their speed and ferocity. I was horrified, yet, I had to wonder about their biology, physiology, anatomy, and psychology. I was curious. From my initial observation they seemed beautiful and one would expect them to be peaceful environmentalists. But their savagery and culture are primitive and they were hyper aggressive. It was lucky that we found a tamer village of Floran. The ones we encountered at first showed no mercy, only a hunger and lust for blood that could never be satisfied.

“I still think this is a very bad idea...” Antony whispered under his breath. We all recoiled back at the sight of the Floran eating our gift.

“Good meatsss! Good friendsss!” the chief put both of her arms around all of us and gave us an awkward hug. I could feel slimy half-dried blood on her arms and her breath smelled of rot and decay. I tried to suppress my gag reflex and held my breath.

“We're happy to see good friends yes?” AnY used his charm.

“Yesss. Floran welcome you to planet!” she crossed her arms and nodded, “Meatsss for Pixels! Pixels for meeatss!”

“Yes... Yes... Meats...” AnY started to back away, “I think we're done here. Let's get going guys!”

“Yeah let's get the fuck out of here...” Sky whispered as we got back onto the ship, “Holy shit that... Could have ended badly...”

“I believe my heart has now put up residence within my throat,” Antony sighed in and out.

“Well, I think it's time for a good shower huh? That Floran was slimy. Ugh...” I tried to wipe off the smell of blood and rot off my coat.

We landed just in time for lunch. Pinkie baked us a whole bunch of Derpy's special muffins, only that they were kiwi flavored instead of the blueberries that she'd usually use. Some of the humans were there too, and they shared with us some of their food as well. They gave out a strange soda called Dr. Pepper. It was unlike any drink I've ever had and there was no way I could have possibly described the mix of twenty three supposed flavors contained in that one can. Sky Buster was immediately hooked onto it, which isn't surprising given his affinity with alcohol and drinks of all sorts. He's obviously more in control of it than our resident Berry Punch back in Old Ponyville and I'd say he was more into drinking for the taste. They also prepared something called a pepperoni pizza. It was a large circular pie like dish topped with cheese and tomatoes with an odd meat on top. Before I became a princess I would never have touched meat. I always found it to be disgusting when you think about it: the flesh of an animal cooked and eaten. That was a living, thinking organism once. But that all changed after I met AnY. In his country meat was a staple, so he nudged me ever so closer to trying it. All was said and done after I tried my first German sausage, and it was delicious. It also helps to know the fact that you're eating a feral animal as oppose to a sentient one. Sky Buster highlighted that detail for Rainbow and I and now both of us don't mind eating meat. It has natural benefits sure: more protein, more complete protein, lesser reliance on grown produce in times of shortage, and it's a stable year long resource. When I get back I should raise more awareness on the benefits of meat.

“So, what is in that pepperoni?” I looked at the strange, large sausage.

“Cured pork, peppers, and some secret ingredients. Don't worry, it's safe for your biology. That unicorn over there already scanned it,” Troy was cutting up some to top the pizza, “Over to you May!”

“Thank you! Pinkie Pie!” the girl with the bandana slid the tray over to Pinkie.

“I got it! I got it!” she slipped under her and accidentally dropped the pizza. It was caught in mid fall by Puzzle Piece with magic.

“Allow me,” he gently placed the pizza into the stone oven with magic. Pinkie giggled and pecked him on the cheek.

“Weird horse magic...” Troy looked at Puzzle.

“Um, we're not horses,” I corrected him.

“Oh sorry, ponies... Right?”

“Mhm,” I looked off at the farm area and saw our five pegasi playing volleyball. I smiled at their rapid recovery. I thought about it again, how pegasi have naturally well developed immune systems, rapid healing, and extreme resistance to injury. It stemmed from their warrior past and selective breeding. Only the strongest individuals could reproduce, much like natural selection but at a controlled level in their past society. They were all happy and healthy, you wouldn't have known that Kim and Rainbow were on the verge of death just yesterday.

“Just let that bake for a few. Say, can we have some coal to power our ship sometime?” Troy asked me.

“Oh um, sure thing. How much do you need?”

“One hundred pieces. If that's too much then that's fine,” he continued to make another pizza.

“Sorry, but I don't think we can spare that much coal. The rock farming on this planet is not that great. All we've found so far are basic ores like copper, iron, a little bit of gold, and silver. We were actually expecting much more than this to be honest.”

“Ah, that is because we are on a threat level one planet. Fleshy organisms like us can easily live a comfortable life on this world and the flora and fauna are the least dangerous. But because it's so easy to colonize this world, prospectors and scavengers have already cleaned out most of the rare ore on this planet. Which is the reason why so many Pixel capsules are scattered underground. You may think those are natural caves, but they're actually remnants of Floran mining. You can tell: they like to be messy with everything. Which brings me to my next point: why I needed that coal in the first place. You see that desert planet just hovering above our heads at night? Threat level five... That's were the goods are. You get us some coal or enough fuel to go back and forth and we'll pay you back with interest,” Troy smiled and pointed up at the planet above us.

Threat level one?! This planet was only a threat level one? My friends almost got killed by a banana for Celestia's sake! I have no idea was unimaginable creatures there could be, what strange and horrific beasts lay in wait on the very planet we orbit. I looked to my crew. We were unequipped for anything more than just the most basic of threats. Our weapons and (lack of) armor were no match for that of the humans. They had with them such advanced ballistic weaponry and bulletproof clothe that could repel any one of our attacks, aside from magic of course. If I just ask I could have Sky Buster outline their combat capability.

“So what can we expect to find on a threat level five planet?” I asked, ever so curious.

“Oh the usual,” he tipped his head to one side, “space pirates, mutant animals, giant bugs, the occasional asshole or two.”

He smirked.

“Annnd from our last venture onto that planet, this!” he pulled out a silvery lavender tinted piece of ore, “Titanium... One of the strongest metals known to man. And we found that just near the surface.”

I gazed in wonder at the piece of ore. Titanium in Equestria was rare and could only be mined deep underground. To find a vein on the surface was near impossible.

“And this was just on the surface? What strange new metals could lay in wait beneath the sands of that planet then?”

“Platinum, Aegisalt, and Cerulium probably. We're after those metals to enhance our weapons and armor. The lesser metals we can just give to you as we have enough on our ship to last us a while.”

I raised my eyebrows, “Aegisalt? Cerulium? I've never heard of such metals.”

“That's because they don't occur on threat level one planets like Earth. Or your pony planet I presume?” he checked the oven for the pizza, “Little bit more, gotta have that crust nice and crispy.”

“Um, no. Our ships default setting were set to find planets similar to our own. Our limiters prevent us from teleporting onto high threat planets for a reason,” I explained.

“Where there's risk there is reward Princess Twilight. And up there, in the stars are monsters, psychopaths, pirates, and evil monkeys in closets. But at the end of the day: what you face in difficulty is what you receive in reward tenfold. Once my team and I ran for our lives at the destruction of our planet. Now we are searching the stars for riches. Pizza's done!” he removed the tray from the oven and sliced it with a strange laser pen. He sliced up the two pizzas into ten pieces and handed them off to our omnivores, myself included. As I took a bite it was a fresh and hot, gooey, cheesy, crisp, and crunchy crust wonderful! A string of loose cheese drooped down and I tried to bite it off, only to have more of the stringy goodness pull away. I was trying to fumble around with it using my tongue and AnY looked at me funny. The rest of us had wheat stalks and we were all content for lunch.

For some reason later on that day I felt like the fabric of existence was rocked by a screaming deity. Was it just me, or did I just hear Princess Celestia cry out? I was worried, until a note magically appeared in front of me, addressed from the Princess herself.

“Dear Princess Twilight,” I started to read it out loud, “Nooooooooooooooooooo?”

It was all in capital letters and I couldn't help but giggle, then roll on the floor with laughter. I'm horrible sometimes. And you thought Celestia was the ultimate troll? Bitch please. Aside from that instance the rest of the day was spent reading books about scientific theories and studies of possible space colonization. No one else really did anything today. The farm was abundant, the soldiers relaxed as our new pet drone patrolled the town, Digi and Tommy were playing a video game again, and Ink Rose was recording the day's events. Rainbow, Pinkie, and Puzzle came back to town with more basic ores. I saw them talk to Sky Buster as he took the ore and made something out of it. I was bored so I decided to join in.

“Hey Pinkie, Hey Puzzle, Hi Sky what are you guys doing?”

“Hey Twi!” Sky waved, “Nothin' I was just gonna melt down this ore into some more weapons and armor. The mining tools I made for these two are really helping to gather more ore. I was just talking to them about how I needed to make steel. My furnace isn't hot enough to alloy the iron and I've got no tools to really produce it. I'll need a dedicated metalwork station.”

“Mind if I ask if we can get better guns? Our peashooters are less useful than our iron hunting bows now,” Rainbow addressed her concern.

“I'll see what I can do about that,” I scratched my chin, “What we need to do for Sky is to have a source of controlled heat that can be set to a precise temperature for proper steel production. Something like the engine of a spacecraft or a purpose built steel furnace.”

“Pardon me Princess, but I don't advise stripping the engines from one of our own spacecraft. The only way we could get one is to find or destroy a hostile one,” Puzzle added.

“And those Florans don't have a gun shop either. I just checked with Troy on that bit,” Sky was well.

“And we're out of sugar! Sweet Celestia! WHY ARE WE OUT OF SUGAR!” Pinkie got onto her knees and yelled into the heavens. Puzzle looked at her as she balled up on the ground. He started to comfort her and dragged her back to their house.

“No worries! I'll see what I can do about everything!” I returned to my house, “Spike! Take a-”

I stopped myself. I saw AnY look at me.

“He's not here... Remember?” he paused, “Are you okay my love?”

“Fine, just worried about Spike again is all. That and the townsfolk need a few things done. Can you hand me my list?”

“Sure thing honey,” he gave me my quill and paper and I started to list out the things to do.

“Okay, Sky Buster wants a metalwork station, We need better guns for protection, and sugar cane for baking. Okay, that should be easy. The last bit anyway. Where can I find a crashed space ship?”

“Well why don't we make one?” my husband joked. I rolled my eyes and nudged his shoulder.

Wait... Make one?... THAT'S IT! I grabbed his shoulders and rocker him back and forth, “AnY you're a genius!”

“Wait-what?!” his eyes spun around, “You're not serious are you? Crashing one of our own craft just to have some silly steel?”

“Not our craft... But maybe if we can craft a distress signal we can keep it on long enough and hopefully lure a hostile craft to destroy! Brilliant isn't it?” I hugged him, “Thank you!”

“Um... That's crazy Twilight. You need to ask yourself: is it worth the risk?”

I reflected back on what Troy said and thought about it, “Yes... But we need a plan. Fortify a defensive bunker suited for anti aircraft duties. And think about it this way: we've got two ace pilots who have shot down a hundred or so aircraft between them. I'll need to add that on my list. Battle saddles for Rainbow, Kim, and Sky Buster plus anti air guns for added protection. Maybe the humans can help as well.”

“Now that I think about it, maybe you are on to something just as long as we have the right equipment. We will need to gather enough materials to build them though. However: it would be a lot easier if Digi can find a way to get those damned 3D Printers to work.”

“Well, we can address it in the morning. It's starting to get late,” I yawned, “Coming to bed dear?”

“Oh yes,” he took a rose in his teeth and I giggled.

Day 11

Puzzle Piece

Today started off unexpectedly. The first thing I remember was Princess Twilight's speech about how there were peaceful Florans on the planet and that they had negotiated this in secret to not cause alarm. I was willing to give this peace a chance but I've seen what those Floran did to Equestria. Some of our other members gave their less than approving opinions on it. Especially Applejack and Digi. I don't want to talk about what happened to Granny Smith, but that was a topic that shouldn't really be discussed anyway. Sky Buster came up to me wearing some iron royal guard armor he had fashioned last night with the help of Rarity. That was probably a first since the two don't really mix. They were cool, they didn't hate each other or anything, they just had conflicting personalities. He looked at me with a bow and quiver tucked into his wing.

“Hey Puzz!” he smiled, but couldn't keep his face straight, “How does glass cereal taste?”

“LIKE PAIN!” I put one arm around him and we laughed at my own misfortune, “So what's up?”

He threw me the bow and quiver and iron arrows, “That is for you my friend! We're going on a hunt!”

Wait-really?! He made this bow just for me? It was a flexible recurve bow made from wood and reinforced with iron to keep its curve. My eyes widened and I gave him a big hug.

“You do care!” I squeezed him tight. I knew he was having trouble breathing but that didn't last long as I let go and he dusted himself off.

“After what you did in the last war for me. I owe you one,” he was right. We were both unconventional soldiers in the last two wars. I was a thief who fought against Vulcan Sol as they invaded Equestria. But even then I kept my optimistic and positive attitude in the face of war and bloodshed. I stole from the rich and gave to the poor during my adventures and I always believed in using my abilities for good and not evil. Even though I often broke the law, I did it so a family didn't starve and the smiles on their faces drove me on to fight for them. I'm a deep thinker and philosopher, which was why I'm named Puzzle Piece. When I have a figurative “puzzle” before me I “piece” out the answers. Although philosophy was represented by my cutie mark; a red puzzle piece with a blue question mark, my second talent was archery. I did it mostly for sport and not for sustenance like most ponies and I also used it to strike at my foes as a last resort. You wouldn't figure a stallion with glasses to be a top markspony but I however am one of the best shots with a longbow. This recurve bow was perfect for my needs!

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” I started to hop around as I tested it. The string drew back smoothly as a green glow of magic engulfed my weapon. I let go and the silent twang was music to my ears.

“So what's the verdict? Good?”

“Great! A little heavy, but overall powerful with a smooth pull and a smoother shot. But I'll have to shoot an arrow for the final test.” I gave it one last inspection before I notched an arrow. The tips looked to be cast from specially designed molds as well and sharpened to a fine point.

Sky Buster looked up at a piece of metal hanging on a tree. I had noticed it yesterday but hadn't bothered to question it.

“See if you can hit that tiny pixel capsule on that branch right there. That's gotta be a hundred yards out,” he was gauged the distance.

With arrow notched I leveled the bow to my eye, half my sight was on the arrow and half was on the target. I could imagine the flight path of the arrow, just as long as gravity was roughly the same. I hadn't thought about that until I shot the arrow and it missed it just by a hair, hitting the branch and knocking it off the tree. It broke on the ground and spilled ten of those coins.

“Hey! That counts. Not bad!” he patted me on the shoulder and collected the money, “You deserve it, here's my bet I made to myself”

He also gave me ten more of the similar looking coins. They were odd little things that seemed to be made of a special material. I put them in my pocket and adjusted my glasses.

“Kim! You ready to hunt?”

“Yeah yeah, I should be good,” Kim was all well and good. I was surprised she was so up and about. Last I heard she almost died, “Also: if anypony finds out that I almost died to a freakin' banana I will kill you both. So will Rainbow if you say the same thing.”

“Yeah, I agree, that would be embarrassing,” Sky nodded, “Did anypony else hear a scream last night?”

“I dunno, I was doing stuff with Antony,” Kim looked away and I noticed she also had an iron hunting bow with her, “So what are we looking for today? More Scythetails? Those things are freaky man.”

“I know! That reminds me, hey Puzz how's Gummy handling this trip? I know Tank's just clonging around the house during the day bored out of his mind. So I decided to put guns on him and make him our UTAV, the Unmerciful Tortoise Aerial Vehicle.”

“Oh, Gummy is... Getting too big for the bathtub. Last night he was trying to death roll my head but ended up giving me a wet scalp massage. Fluttershy assures me that he's just doing that for fun though and would never hurt Pinkie or I. You don't have a pet do you KP?”

“Hell nah, Tommy and Rarity's cat tried to claw my face off that fucking thing! I don't want a pet after that,” her face scrunched up, “I like Ink's cat better, it's much tamer. Angel bunny is a dick though.”

“I know right? That silly rabbit tried to eat the last of my cereal last month. How he got up to the cloud house I have no fucking clue,” Sky Buster facehoofed, “Well, we should be coming up to that pond. Ah! There they are.”

His voice turned to a whisper.

I looked at them once again. These odd beasts were little more than furry alligators on this world. If I had known that earlier they wouldn't have scared me so easily. They actually looked kinda cute if it wasn't trying to eat you. They weren't too fast either but could jump short distances out of the water and on land. I don't normally eat meat though, it's a little frowned upon in mainland Equestria. And I found it a little disgusting as well. I notched an arrow on my bow and the others did as well.

“Okay, KP, Puzzle, I want you two to take up positions around the pond and surround them. Corral them into a killing zone,” Sky outlined the plan.

“Sounds good, what's the signal?” KP turned to him.

“Pheasant call, just like old times.”

“Roger! I'm off,” she went ahead and flew stealthily through the air to take up a spot on a tree. Back during the war she was a legendary spy for Equestria's MI6. Her and Antony were the two who paved the way for the dambusters to destroy Vulcan Sol's hydro-electric plants. They were the spies who went into hostile enemy airspace to photograph a secret weapons base at low altitude near Mount Schirm, Vulcan Sol. And their most famous mission, operation Keynote, had them roping into a fortified castle with an experimental helicopter as Rainbow and Sky Buster covered them from the air. The tales of Kim and Antony went into the legends of Equestrian history. So much so that they've made a few Applewood movies about their missions. Her personality and spunk also drove her success, and she would always find a way to catch her enemies off guard. After the war I took up science and philosophy to study in my spare time. Which was how I met my love: Pinkie. One day I was studying in the Ponyville library when she approached me and her smile caught my eye. She wanted to be friends right off the bat and her positive aura just made me feel comfortable in her presence despite the seemingly awkward introduction.

“Puzzle! Go over there to my right. Cover that angle of approach,” Sky pointed to a bush hidden under a branch of a rosewood tree. I was naturally camouflaged with my green coat color and my hat and cape were reversible to match my coat. I levitated my bow to my eyes as I got into position. I cast a Zoom Vision spell focusing right on my target, giving me a level of magnification like that of a sniper rifle. I aimed right for its forehead and let the arrow fly as Sky called out. The sleeping Scythetail was undisturbed as the arrow went into its skull, killing it mercifully. The rest of the group retreated underwater in panic and we just bagged the three large corpses.

“Good shot Puzzle!” KP patted me on the back. I was going to retrieve my arrow before Sky Buster stopped me.

“Hello, you're the unicorn here? Let's NOT get near the edge of the water and just drag those bodies with magic or something,” he smirked, “Unless you want a walrus toothed scalp massage.”

“I think I'll pass on that idea,” I took a stance and hefted one of the carcasses into our flying wagon. It was heavy and my levitation spell was lacking in strength to haul the other two. I ended up just dragging the two remaining bodies as Kim and Sky loaded it into the wagon.

“There! If you can get past the smell they're delicious when cooked,” Sky nodded and pulled the cart into the air.

“Can't argue there. It's still pretty disgusting though. Oh well, I eat processed food back home and we all know what horror stories come from that,” KP rolled her eyes, “I'm hungry for a Naco now...”

“We need corn, cheese, and spices for that Kim. Which is why we're going into town. Buut,” Sky awkwardly smiled, “I might have pissed off the merchant. So can you use your wit and charm to get in there and drop off these bastards Puzz?”

“That I can most certainly do,” I smiled smugly as I got on top of the cart and raised one hoof into the air.

“Oh! And for your guys hard work: here's some money. Go ahead and buy whatever you need from the guy. He speaks fluently so feel free,” Sky Buster handed the cart to KP as we landed, “I'll just stay here at the entrance. Remember! Try and look for sugarcane!”

“Will do!” I tried not to think about the last time Pinkie had a sugar relapse. Let's just say her cupcakes tasted a little off...

As I walked into town the Florans eyed us like animals. Bitter memories of war with them flew into my mind and I swear I saw a few of them licking their mouths at us, or maybe it was just the meat in our cart. We offloaded it and KP pulled out her silenced pistol.

“Back away from the merchandise! You go ahead Puzzle,” Kim sat by to guard our shipment. I entered the store and was greeted by the merchant.

“Hello there! As a reminder, you break it you buy it!” He smiled and looked at me normally. This was actually the first really friendly Floran I've met.

“Hello good sir, my name is Puzzle Piece of New Ponyville. I believe the leaders of my town came by yesterday for some peace talks?”

“Oh yes, lots of Floran here are actually really tame. We've all come from our mother tribes questioning the savagery of our race. I for one was raised by a human family when I was to be cannibalized as a child. Pardon our way of greetings, they might seem a little hostile but we all mean no harm. Really, it's how most of us were raised all our lives. What can I do you for?”

“Some sugarcane seeds would be nice please! If you have any that is,” I felt comfortable talking to him.

“Lucky for you I just got a shipment from my human contacts! Here's a bag full of them for 150 Pixels,” he placed a bag of seeds on the table. It was pocket sized but full of seeds.

“Thank you!” I placed the money on the counter, and we exchanged goods, “By the way, I'd like to drop off some meat for the village to sell.”

“How many carcasses and what kind?”

“Scythetails as we call them. The ones with the two big teeth in their mouths, three of them.”

“Ah! We call those Toothy Stabs, but I can see why you call them Scythetails. Rolls off the tongue easier. Here's 1200 Pixels for them. Unless you want more to trade for?” he directed me to this shelves full of wares, “I have books on Floran culture and lore. Iron and silver bars, coal if you need the heat, a copper pickaxe, and if you're interested I've also got a few melee weapons. Like this Blunt Whacker Firecracker!”

He placed down a large mallet coated in pitch.

“It's a Floran weapon. It sets people you hit on fire. Us Florans hate fire and that's why I'm trying to sell this. I've also got tomato seeds, refined iron and copper ore, a karaoke set if you want! I believe I also have some more red stim packs if you need to get better in a hurry. What a magic little medicine that is huh?”

“Yeah, thank you for selling us those. Two of our party almost died last night. One of them is with me and she's okay now,” I looked in wonder at the store shelves, “Say, what are these strange seeds?”

“Pearlpeas! Delicious if you can get past the shell. I recommend boiling them,” he brought them down and I felt them in my hoof, hard and pearl like given their name.

“Are they safe to eat?” I asked, remembering about the bananas.

“Of course they are. Anything can eat Pearlpeas. You just gotta bite down hard enough,” he dusted the large seeds off and placed them on the counter, “Would you like to try them?”

“Yes peas!” I giggled and made him smile as well, “Can I also get a few tomato seeds and some of those books you mentioned?”

“Sure thing, I'll just subtract 800 Pixels from your meat pay. Here you go and enjoy your day!” he waved and placed the money in his cash register. I went outside to see some of the workers take the carcasses into the store. I noticed that all the Floran houses were made of wood, bamboo, and thatch. Some were even carved into large trees like the Old Ponyville Library. I'm sure Pinkie will be happy to see sugarcane again! As we stepped out of town Sky Buster met us at the gate.

“Did you get the goods?” he asked, arms crossed and hovering in place.

“Got it right here,” I gave him the bag of sugarcane and he gave it a good sniff.

“That's sugarcane alright! Interesting little story: my family actually got rich off this stuff. The Fillypines was the number one producer of sugar back in the day and my family had invested heavily in sugar plantations. Shame that I never got any of that cash though,” he took the cart and I climbed in. We took to the skies and KP flew in formation.

“That's pretty cool Sky. I've also got tomato seeds, books for Twilight, and some peas too.”

“Good haul! How much money did we make for the meat?” he turned his head to glance at me before returning to face front.

“Eight hundred Pixels. I wonder how much is that in bits,” I scratched my chin as my hat fell off from the rush of wind. KP flew back to get it and wore it for the rest of the way back. My dull yellow mane flew in the breeze.

“Funny you mentioned that Puzz, I asked Troy how much a sandwich costs on his home planet. He said it was like three dollars for a basic ham sandwich. Now compare that to a basic petal sandwich in Equestria which was often three bits. Judging by that, our monetary values are roughly the same for our home currency. And! He also told me that ten Pixels equals a dollar, so that makes eight hundred Pixels...”

He paused to calculate.

“Eighty bits! Not bad but we still got more. We gotta pool together our money to see how much we have. So now that sugarcane is off the list, we need guns, and I need a metalwork station. Oh! And Digi found out how to use those 3D Printers we have on our ships! Turns out that these little pixels are made of high density molecules of all known elements in the universe. We just toss them into the machine and out comes what we need! It doesn't print food or refined metal though. However, I made a few flight helmets from my leftover pixels for the upcoming pirate ship ambush. Digi and Tommy are working on the avionics while I try and build the flight saddles for our squadron. Anyway, we're here.”

Sky Buster landed in the road that lead into town. Waiting at the gate was Pinkie Pie, eager as ever awaiting for my arrival.

“PUZZLE!” she jumped me and gave me a big firm hug, “My lovey dovey extraordinary little Puzzy! I missed you!”

“Ah, how I do love thee,” I returned the hug and kissed her, “I brought you a present.”

“Is it sugaaar?” she started to nuzzle under my chin.

“Oh yes, here you go Pinkie Pie!” I pulled the sugarcane seeds from my pocket and she bounced around me in joy.

“Oh goody fun fun! I'm going to get these to Applejack right away!”

“I think I'll join you. See you later Sky and KP!”

“Yup, see ya bro,” Sky Buster went to his crafting station and started work on his usual projects.

“Well, nap time for me,” Kim trotted inside her house and waved, “Bye Puzzle.”

I held Pinkie close and I could feel her warmth seeping into my coat. I remembered when we first met at the Ponyville Library as I was studying the philosophy of Starswirl. I got so caught up talking with her that I forgot to read. We talked, and talked, and talked that night away. I could still feel it, the brisk breeze of that summer night, the taste of the cupcakes we had on our first date, and from there we grew onto each others optimism. I wanted to be like her, always full of energy and wanting to make everypony smile even in the face of adversity. Honestly, I like the joyful way she approaches life and the two of us just naturally fell in love. We brought the seeds to Applejack and they sprouted immediately from earth pony magic. It was really wonderful to scratch out our living in the stars. As the first ponies in space I'm honored to be part of such a close group of friends. Had I not met Pinkie I'm not sure where I'd end up today. But now as I look up into the sky as the sandy colored planet hovered above our heads in place of Luna's beautiful moon I realize that our place in the stars was well worth it. We sat in the farm for hours looking at the planet, the shimmering rice field, and playing hide and seek among the apple trees and grain field. Laughing and giggling as we enjoyed our time together away from any worries, fears, or doubts back home. Only the two of us together cuddling in the wheat field. Looking up at the stars.

“That one looks like a lollipop!” she pointed to a bright red star with three tinier stars right under it.

“I see some clouds rolling in. That one looks like a boat,” I joined her as we poked at the sky.

“Looky there! That one looks like Ink Rose.”

“You're right, it kinda does,” I looked up at the smooth and silky form of the cloud that made up the silhouette of Ink Rose's hair. I admired her work as a comic artist, writer, and scribe. Although she, like Sky and Rainbow, served in the Equestrian Air Force she retired to take up her dreams. She was one of the best writers, even rivaling that of A.K. Yearling among Equestria. Her novel and comic series: Shapeless Sun, has sold millions of copies worldwide. Her retelling of Equestrian history through fiction and carefully woven words left us in awe and amazement, giving her stories a sense of personal experience one has to read to believe.

“And that one looks like AnY! Hehe! What a funny name,” she snuggled into my coat and I tucked her into my cape endearingly. I started to think about AnY, the hero of the German people. During the war with Vulcan Sol he encouraged and inspired legions of soldiers to defend Equestria and his homeland with brave and powerful speeches, rallying cries of zealous fury, and the sheer willpower to support our troops fighting for our freedom and our land. Most politicians would have abused the emergency powers granted to him during the war, but AnY was a pure heart who lead many to victory. Although he did play around with his title to a joking extent, throwing around words like world domination and power hunger in a lighthearted fashion. He is quick to embrace the leadership role should Twilight hesitate and the two go well together like Pinkie and I.

“Look Pinkie, it's a shooting star,” I pointed to a star that streaked across and hid behind the desert planet, “Make a wish sweetie...”

We closed our eyes and made our wishes, walking off back to our home.

Day 12

Ink Rose

I stirred awake as a beam of sunlight touched my face. It was a gentle wake up call and I slowly propped up trying not to wake my cat, Simba. I had brought him along for company in our space voyage and he was sleeping at the foot of my bed all comfy and warm. I could see the sun crest over the mountain in the distance as I went to my chair to write. I was greeted by a brisk breeze of rose scented air as it wafted from my open window. I took my pencil in my mouth and started to weave my stories about our ventures in the stars. From my window I could see everything in town. The others were still asleep and I just looked out at the beautiful interstellar sunrise. It's hard to think that this sun was not the very sun that our Princess Celestia rose during the dawn and set in the dusk. I could sense adventure and excitement in the air as this new day begins. It was really something to be a part of this wonderful journey! Simba woke up and jumped on top of my desk. He lay beside me and pawed at the air, which was his way of asking me to pet him. I felt his soft fur as I ran my hoof through it and he started to mew cutely. Everyday I would record a summary of events so far. I've been so inspired by all my friends going out and sharing their stories with me that I've been so busy trying to write and draw everything on paper and type it on my computer. Speaking of stories, I have my own to share on how I got here, among the stars...

A few years ago I was drafted into the Equestrian Air Force when my number was pulled. I had just finished university with a major in creative writing and a minor in visual arts. Because I was a pegasus they wanted me to fly, either with planes or on my own wing power. I was a strong flier, no doubt, but I was reluctant to fight in a war I never wanted to be a part of. I passed my exams and I was to become a pilot, which didn't really mean that I was going to fly a plane, I just flew on my own power with a battle saddle strapped on my back. This was where I met my flight instructor: Sky Buster. At first I thought he'd be as rough as the drill instructors in basic training, but in a classroom environment he was a patient and understanding teacher who never abandoned any of his students. He was also a writer and at the time he was the boyfriend of my idol: Rainbow Dash, the best flier in all of Equestria. I've heard about her amazing Sonic Rainboom and her neat acrobatic tricks during the last war before the Vulcan Sol Conflict. I wanted to be like her and she reminded me about my best qualities. I was competitive and always pushed myself to do better. Sky Buster and I became fast friends, and I do mean literally fast friends as I beat him in a short sprint race through Ghastly Gorge. He was really impressed with my flying style. He told me about how fast I could accelerate to my top speed, how my wings were extremely powerful for their normal size, and how I like to sweep my wings back and forth for low and high speed performance. Sky personally requested that I be put in the same unit as Kim and Antony. It was a really good decision, Kim and I became the best of friends during the Vulcan Conflict. When I retired from the military after the war I went on to write my first book and bestseller: Shapeless Sun. It was based on the hypothetical event where Queen Chrysalis and the Changeling Invasion succeeded. It became popular as a reminder of what could have happened had our enemies won the war. Then came the Floran Incident, that was some thing I never want to remember. As a bestselling writer and with an Air Force background I was chosen again by Sky Buster to come with the exploration team. I jumped on the chance and now I'm here amongst the stars beyond. However, I'm still a little disappointed that I haven't gone on an adventure yet. And it just so happened that adventure came knocking on my door.

“Good morning Ink Rose!” it was Sky Buster, “How are you today?”

“Fine thank you. I just finished up writing a record of yesterdays events,” I smiled to the guard dressed in iron armor.

“Say, would you like to come with us on a little adventure? The humans told us a planet where we can get some decent guns for the upcoming fight.”

Wait-there was gonna be an upcoming fight?! Oh no...

“Are the Florans planning to invade our town?” I shrieked.

“Rose, calm down. We need a spare space ship engine so we can start steel production. The only way we can do that is to lure down a pirate ship that shoots us first with a distress beacon,” he explained. I was skeptical.

“Isn't that sort of an underhoofed tactic? We're not just gonna kill innocents are we?” I frowned at the idea. Even though I've been through war, I still felt killing was wrong and isn't easily justified.

“Oh no! If they try and help we'll offer them a reward. But from what I've heard there is a good bounty for pirate hunting. Remember what Vulcan Sol did? These guys are the same,” he still hasn't sold me on the idea, “Okay, I know this is a lot to take in, but we need the steel to show for our progress out here. And we had strict orders not to dismantle our craft for any reason. Twilight's orders.”

“Okay. I still don't feel comfortable about this,” a spoke with a soft concern.

“Don't worry, we'll only fire upon them if they shoot first. It's standard rules of engagement remember that I taught you?” he returned with an assuring smile.

“Yes sir,” I gave him a respectful salute, “How are we going to fly to another planet though?”

“Thank Pinkie and Puzzle for the rock farming. They managed to mine out a ton of coal for our steam powered warp drives. The humans are also chipping in some plutonium for the trip back. We'll take my ship and sell all these inferior guns we have. I'm still rather surprised they were left over from the Vulcan Conflict. Seriously, I was thinking we'd get new XM16E1s on our trip. But no, Kar98s and leftover weapons from the 1940s Vulcan Conflict. I need to have a talk with Flash Sentry and his total mishap with our weapons selection that bastard.”

“Huh uh,” I dismissed his rather vulgar choice of vocabulary. I put on a smile and it hit me; I was finally gonna get to go out with the exploration team for a change! Discomfort turned into excitement as I got hyped up for our mission. I was looking forward to going out. I started to pack what I needed; some snacks, my notebook, pens, and pencils. Two of the humans were also tagging along for the ride. They already had a base of operations on this planet and often traded with the merchants there.

A few minutes later we boarded Sky Buster's ship. All of our security team cam along for the ride and our human friends offered to guard the town while we were away. I sat next to my friend Kim and looked outside to see us lift off into the sky. Troy sat in the copilot's seat but his head was touching the ceiling. Humans were awfully tall creatures.

“Okay, so what coordinates do I need to put in?” Sky asked his copilot.

“We're going to Alpha WAZ 10 IV. It's a threat level one arid planet, Coordinates: X: 34095546 Y: -95159178”

I wrote that down for later as Sky Buster punched in the coordinates into his navigation computer. Our ascent into space was marked by a darkening of the blue sky into a deep black with brilliant swirls of cosmic radiation and twinkling stars. As we broke free from orbit our craft started to accelerate faster and faster at a rapid pace. The twinkling stars outside our window began to streak across our sight as beams of white, yellow, and red as we broke past the light barrier. I stared in amazement before Kim poked my shoulder.

“Poke!” she smiled, “So, you excited Ink?”

“Oh very! It's just that I have to question Sky Buster's plan in this. Do we really have to salvage a spare spaceship engine?”

“Well yeah, there's no other way we can really make whatever he needed to make steel since we're completely cut off from Equestria. Normally we'd use magic, but he's not a unicorn,” she paused, “And come to think of it none of our unicorns now any temperature spells. I dunno, I'm just here to guard things. Oh and one more thing, can I ask that you remove the part where I almost died from a banana?”

“Sure thing, I'll just change it to a strange alien fruit,” I opened my laptop and rewrote her entry.

“No no no, it's too obvious. Just remove it all, nopony's gonna buy it. Seriously, that's the last thing I wanna get killed by or remembered for. It's just awkward,” her face scrunched up, “Meh. What's taking so long? It's in the same sector isn't it?”

“Yeah, we're here though,” Sky turned to Kim, “Next stop planet Wazzup ten-five!”

“Are we seriously gonna call this planet Wazzup?” I rolled my eyes.

“WAZZUP!” Sky Buster derped and stuck his tongue out.

“WAAZZZUUP!” Troy did the same.

“WAAAZZZUUUPP!” Kim too.

“Well, let's not dilly dally then. This has all been well and fun but we have a planet to explore. Onwards to the surface everypony. I mean-everybody,” Antony grabbed his transponder, “Sir, you first.”

“Roger Tony Pony,” Sky took his device and pressed the teleport button with one of his feathers. He turned into a vivid blue swirl of energy that beamed upward and came back down arcing past my window. A few seconds later he radioed in, “Looks clear! But you might wanna wipe off your hooves before getting back in the ship. There's tar all over the place.”

“Well you heard him,” Antony activated his teleporter, “Away!”

“Last one down is a rotten-” Kim began but I was quick to the trigger, teleporting down before she had a chance to finish. She followed after me, “Dammit Ink Rose.”

I couldn't help but giggle, “You snooze you lose!”

I felt something stick to my feet. It was the thick and gooey tar that Sky had warned us about. I shuddered as I saw bones of animals starved to death by this icky mess.

“Ewww! How'd we end up here?”

“Um... A little help please?” Antony was stuck face first into the sticky slime. Kim flew over him and grabbed his back hooves, pulling hard. She dislodged Antony and flew upwards, “Ugh, thanks.”

“No problem honey,” she smiled as she hovered over the tar, “Hey Sky! Can you toss me that rag?”

Sky Buster, with his impeccable aim, threw a cleaning rag at Kim's face. It plopped on her face and I was amused.

“Hehehe,” Sky snickered, “Good thing that's clean. I suggest everypony flies.”

I beat my wings hard and I felt myself lift upwards dragging a sticky strand of goo from my hooves. It felt oily and gross. Rainbow came over to me and wiped my hooves off.

“I gotcha,” she patted my shoulder, “Hey! You two okay down there?”

“Fine thank you!” Troy shouted up to us, “We're not stuck! We got our nonstick boots.”

“Say what?” Rainbow cocked her head to the side as we flew in next to them.

“I'm guessing ponies don't wear shoes too often huh?” Troy lifted his foot and the tar slid right off his boot.

“Well that's not true. They have horse... Or is it ponyshoes?” May, Troy's girlfriend, corrected him.

“Oddly enough they're still called horseshoes back from where we're from. Damn it's hot out here,” Sky Buster hovered next to them.

I noticed it now. The slight comfortable chill of the spacecraft was now replaced by a hot and dry badland air that left us in a sweltering heat. I started to sweat.

“Hey Troy, what are these?” Sky Buster noticed some strange plants growing in the tar.

“Those are called Boneboo. We might need some of these for later,” Troy picked the strange ripe and red colored fruit. It looked very strange, like a bulbous berry made out of meat. The stalk of the plant was made of segments that looked like femurs and the berry drooped down at the end, “We were actually looking for these. They taste amazing when you make soup broth out of it. Plus: it's the only plant that tastes like meat! I'm sure you ponies might want some.”

“Hold on, I gotta try this!” Sky Buster picked one of the berries and scanned it for poison. He bit into it and the fruit squelched, “NOW THAT! Is awesome! That does taste like meat! And the insides, they taste like bone marrow! Holy shit! I could make a mean fuckin stew out of this! Aww yeah! You guys are in for a treat!”

If what he said was true, this might be a new popular food crop for Equestria! I had no problem eating meat from a young age. I always enjoyed hamburgers because they were so yummy and juicy. He tossed the fruit over to me and I ate the fleshy bit of it. It was juicy and tasted like ground beef, albeit a little rare. Oh my goodness it was delicious.

“Everypony pick some up for later. We can have AJ farm these things!” Sky ate the rest of his Boneboo, “Ohhh... Soo good!”

The heat was finally getting to us. We flew higher as the humans parted ways with us.

“Air's cooler up high. Everypony stay up and make sure to identify heat stroke,” Sky advised.

“Phew! Much better! We can barely see those humans from up here though,” Rainbow flew in formation next to her husband, “Where is this gunshop anyway?”

“West of our locale. Everypony reference their maps for the location.”

“Wait, why does it look like a boat?” Kim looked at her wrist mounted computer.

“It's an airship. Like the ones in Canterlot. We should see it past these clouds.”

As we crested over the puffy white clouds we saw what appeared to be a large pirate ship held aloft by helicopter like rotors. They hadn't shot at us and I could see many anti-aircraft guns mounted on the deck and on their broadsides. Sky Buster swooped in and was the first to land.

“Hello there! We're here to trade in peace,” he smiled confidently.

The crew of the ship struck me as both odd and comfortingly familiar. They were human like birds that stood on two feet. They reminded me of the griffins, but their wings were flightless arms. If one were to simply imagine a bird in the shape of a human, these creatures would be it. They stood in place, looking at us in awe.

“Hello there flying travelers,” the captain of the ship greeted us with a smile. His voice was kind and comforting with soft tone of voice, his feathers dark grey with full set of pirate attire. At first I thought that these pirates would murder us on sight but my first judgment was thrown out the window with the kind words of their captain, “My name is Captain Cloud Cuckoo of the Avian Traders Guild. I welcome you to my ship and please, feel free to browse our wares.”

“Thank you captain,” Sky saluted with the rest of our soldiers saluting as well, “I am Colonel Sky Buster of Equestria. We are from a far off country on a distant planet as the first colonizers of our race. This is my second in command and wife, Colonel Rainbow Dash.”

“Sir!” she stepped forward and continued to salute.

“At ease Rainbow,” Sky continued, “These two are my squadmates, Major Kim Possible and Major Caius Antonius Percival Degroot Canon The Third. But we just call him Antony C.”

“Pleasure to meet you!” Kim came forward.

“Likewise,” the captain shook Kim's hoof.

“Good day sir!”

“Thank you, thank you,” he shook Antony's as well.

“And this is our scribe, Ink Rose,” Sky introduced me next. The Avian had a smile outlined in his beak.

“Hello there. Your wings are magnificent, all of you.”

“Thank you, I do love my wings. I don't suppose you can fly can you?” I asked politely.

“Sadly not. We sit among the grounded as we were stripped of our gift for coming into mortal realms, so says the lore of our race and the god of Kluex. I for one think that our ancestors just evolved past their need for flight. I still have much envy and wonder to fly under my own power. Tell me, what is it like to fly the blue and open skies?”

I closed my eyes and meditated, “The feeling of flight is unlike any other. Imagine yourself with the wind weaving into your feathers, flowing through your hair, and the defiance of gravity taking hold of you. You are free; flying past all fear, doubts, worries, and malice. As you fly free your only thoughts are of the clouds and the bright blue sky. You fear no evil, for you are thirty thousand feet and climbing...”

I heard a wide applause from the crew. They were all so moved by my poetic explanation.

“Bravo! Bravo! I am truly touched by such powerful words from a masterful poet,” Cloud bowed before us, “It is an honor to welcome you to my ship.”

“Thank you Captain. We will need weapons for our settlement's defense,” Sky Buster went straight to the point.

“Speak with my quartermaster, Silver Quill. He will provide you with our stock of armaments. I will send word to give you a half priced discount.”

Sky's eyes widened and a smile shot across his face as we saluted, “Thank you Captain!”

Then he turned to me.

“And thank you Ink Rose!”

“You're welcome,” I smiled at him and followed the group.

We were directed to bow of the ship and the walls were lined with weapons of all sorts. Rifles, pistols, snipers, shotguns, and SMGs all mounted perfectly in display for sale. There was a white headed eagle Avian at the counter welcoming us to his store.

“Welcome to Silver Quill's Weapon Emporium! How may I help you today?” this Avian sounded confident and optimistic. His voice was equally as soothing as Cloud's, but had more volume.

“So! Ponies my friends, I cannot express my delight!” Sky broke out into song, “For somewhere in here are some guns that will suit us just right!”

“Respectfully sir, I don't think we need another impromptu musical number,” Antony gently stuffed his hoof on Sky's mouth, “As much of a gun nut that you are, let's stay focused.”

“Right! Buut they're all soo cool!” Sky started to paw at all of the guns, “I want that one! And that one! And that one! And that one!”

“I don't suppose you want a brief explanation of what they do?” Silver Quill got Sky's attention.

“Yeeeeees! PLEASE?” I've never seen Sky melt like this, “What's this?”

“That is a BKB-26. It's a police rifle commonly available on Earth before it was destroyed. Fires a unique 9x39mm round, normally armor piercing but all we have is standard ball ammunition.”

“Huh. So if I scan this ammo in my 3D printer I'll be all set right?”

“Oh yes, don't forget to do that if you have one.”

“Good, I'll take a few of those!” Sky bought a crate of them and strapped it to his back, “What else you got?”

“We've got MSS-22 shotguns, MBS-32 and HBM-9 pistols, and a whole bunch of WDM 5mm assault rifles,” Silver Quill and Sky Buster continued to talk for a good hour or so as the rest of the team browsed the shop. Kim found herself a neat little machine pistol while Antony grabbed one of the sniper rifles for later. Sky Buster went back to the ship to sell some of our own inferior weapons for the upgraded guns that the Avians sold to us. We had even bought two anti-aircraft guns for good measure and we were set for our ambush.

The trip was fun and I was surprised to find myself as much of an asset as the rest of the group. Now we just had to find those humans. We found their base to the East. It was hidden in a cave and we could see May as she set off a flare pistol as we flew into view. We touched down on the sand, Kim and I greeted May.

“Hey, what's goin' on?” Kim asked.

“We're offloading all of our supplies and making Alpha Velocia our home planet now. With what you guys and gals did for us, we'll be great allies,” she turned to the cave and yelled, “You done in there?”

“Done! I've got the crates and everything,” he was using a matter manipulator to lift the heavy crates filled with supplies, “Help me load these into the ship please.”

Kim and I stood guard with May and Rainbow as the gentlecolts of our group helped to load the ship up with the human supplies. We spent a few hours talking amongst ourselves as the boys worked. Finally we were ready to head back home.

“Done and done!” Sky gave a high five to Troy, “Home sweet home here we come!”

“Uh oh...”

“What?” Sky turned to Troy.

“The coordinates didn't save!”

“Are you shittin' me bro?!” Sky facehoofed, “Did anypony write down the coordinates of Alpha Velocia?”

“I did sir!” I got up and saluted. I gave Sky my notebook and he sighed in relief.

“One again, Ink Rose to the rescue. Good job! FTL drives spooled up! Hang tight!” the stars warped and streaked across our view as the ship jumped past light speed. This time I was uninterrupted as I gazed outside at the beautiful light show of the cosmic bodies rushing past our ship. Everyone was tired and some of us fell asleep. I couldn't take my eyes off space as it swirled past me at light speed. I joined the rest in slumber and rested my head on Kim's back, dreaming of our next adventure in the stars.

Day 13

Day 13:

Rainbow Dash

Every morning I wake up in my husbands embrace. I always found myself wrapped by a gentle hug or his awesome white wings engulfing me like a warm blanket. Today was no different and he greeted me awake with a kind nuzzle on my cheek.

“Good morning Rainbow,” he spoke to me softly and continued to nuzzle and hug me.

“Your breathe stinks,” I joked around. Obviously mine did too. I returned his affection by wrapping my own wings around his back, tucking them under his wings. He started to stroke my mane and I blushed.

“Hmmm,” he hummed gently, “I love you Dashie.”

I yawned and kissed him on the nose, “I love you too Sky.”

It's an odd story about how we met in the first place. I sometimes think about it whenever I see his face and the slightest hint of pain flashes in his eyes, a pain that I hold back and replace with love and loyalty.

I had actually met Sky Buster during my days at the Junior Speedsters Flight Camp. Back then he was playful, friendly, and a tad awkward at times. Him and I shared a passion for flight and even though he was a major egghead, he was still one of my friends even from early on. Compared to the way I fly his agility is even better than my own but he couldn't keep up in a race, although he could come close. My mom, Firefly, was the director of the flight camp and she pulled me out of it to train me herself. When I stopped going I sort of forgot about the guy and he simply just faded into memory. It wasn't until my first taste of war that I saw him again. It was years ago during the Equestrian War with the Griffin Kingdom. My flight was assigned to protect an aircraft carrier from our allies, Tidas Aurora, as they sent their peacekeeping forces into the fight. As we flew in formation a lone mercenary pilot came in from the clouds to join in, his calls on the radio gave me a sense of familiarity. To my surprise it was Sky Buster and he became a pilot for the First Tidas Auroran Special Volunteer Group. That day I learned that he was the sole survivor of his unit and he'd been through a lot. He was in a state of mental agony that tore at his soul. He had watched his friends die in his hooves, his family was murdered by our last enemy, Vulcan Sol, and he'd wake up from nightmares induced by those memories. It was during one night that he suffered a panic attack in his sleep. We were bunked in the same room in our barracks and he collapsed to the floor from the top bunk. I jumped awake and saw him on the ground, squirming in deep mental and emotional trauma, mumbling and screaming out names of people he'd seen die before him. I started to cry as well and couldn't bare to watch, so I took it upon myself to embrace and comfort him. His broken heart needed to be healed. He stopped crying and looked up to me. The look in his eyes at that moment looked like he just saw his guardian angel. That guardian angel...

Was me...

“Ready to fly birthday filly?” he got out of bed and got onto the balcony, wings poised for launch.

“You bet!” I stood by his side and we both rocketed into the sky.

Taking flight we were faster than any of the predatory birds that liked to annoy our camp at times. We climbed higher into the sky. The wind in our manes, the freedom of the open skies, and just the two of us together playfully flying back and forth weaving amongst the clouds. It reminded me of our days in flight camp. It's hard to believe that was years ago when it just felt like yesterday. We descended into the treetops and started to maneuver at low altitude, topping out at I'd say 350 knots in airspeed. We were pulling a playful thatch weave as we zigzagged in and out of the forest all the while laughing and giggling to each other. We latched on and performed a rolling scissors, leaving a rainbow double helix contrail behind us. Sky pulled us upwards and we hovered in place as we reached the top of our arc. We were still spinning and near the edge of space. I could see all the stars and the planets zoom by as Sky Buster took me in his embrace. He tucked his wings in and I followed, letting gravity take hold in our freefall. The air rushed past us as we gained speed in our dive. It was exciting and I couldn't help but laugh. Pure joy and euphoria filled my heart as I looked into Sky Buster's eyes.

“You ready?” he said calmly as the ground rapidly came into view.

“Let's do it!”

“On three! One! Two! Three! Break!” We peeled away as we deployed our wings, looping around to bleed the airspeed as we landed perfectly in the center of town. We had spooked Digi as he was eating a bag of chips near the town well.

“Holy fuck! Do you guys know the word subtle? You made me spill my bag of chips.”

“Digi, you of all ponies should know by now that we ain't subtle,” Sky looked at him smugly, “And we're you get a bag of chips?”

“I got a huge stack of human food in my basement for those long hours of anime and scientific analysis. Speaking of which, I have a present for the both of you. I have it in my workshop. Come on guys,” Digi led us to the back of his house where he kept a large shed and workshop. He unveiled to us four brand new battle saddles for use in our ambush, “Built these fuckers just like your old ones. Well, the really old ones. I couldn't find a good blueprint for our more advanced designs.”

“These look great! But, I don't remember forging these wings and metal though,” Sky gave an examination of the saddles.

“I just used the 3D printer for most of this stuff. It took forever but it got the job done. I'm printing out the belts of ammo for the cannons too,” Digi gave a quick overview before turning to me, “Oh, and happy birthday RD!”

“Oh hey, thanks dude,” I smiled to him and gave my saddle a try, “Not bad. It's a little heavier than my last one.”

“We have to make due out here,” Digi was fiddling around with a weird device on his crafting table.

“These will do nicely Digi. The HDMs are working perfectly,” Sky did a systems check with his computerized helmet, “Navigation: check, master arm: link established, Control surfaces: check. All systems green! Say, what's that thing you're messing with?”

“This my friend is the distress beacon we're gonna use to lure a pirate ship down here. I got started on it last night. Hope you don't mind that I had to borrow some metals from your workshop,” Digi continued to work on it without glancing back at Sky.

“It was Twilight's orders, so go ahead I guess. Too late now.”

“Speaking of Twilight, you should probably pay her a visit. I think she wants you to go off on another mission of some sorts,” Digi turned back and helped us get out of our saddles, “It won't be long now until this beacon is done. I hope this works.”

“Alrighty then, see you later Digi,” Sky came over to me and nudged the back of my neck with his wing, “Come on, let's see what Twi wants us to do today.”

“Probably some more shopping by the looks of it,” I rolled my eyes and looked around.

“Doubt it, we got a lot of surplus. We got food, clean water, happy ponies. We just gotta concentrate on the objectives of the mission. We need steel and a dedicated metalwork station for working with any number of unknown metals. We do need to return to Equestria with something to show for,” he stepped up onto the front door of Twilight's house, “PACKAGE FOR MIDNIGHT SPORKLE!

He was flailing his hoof onto the door as Twi opened it, only to be greeted by Sky Buster's silly slapping to her face.

“Sky! Sky! Geez!” She played along and smiled, “That's enough now.”

“Watcha need Great Reader?” Sky used one of the many playful nicknames he'd given to Twilight.

“I want you to gather up Digi, Tommy, AJ, and Puzzle to build fortifications to the east. Our plan is to lure a pirate ship away from our town and ambush it with our anti aircraft base that you will supervise on building.”

“Yes ma'am Great Reader!” Sky Buster saluted and derped.

“Go on now, it's your job now.”

“Me too Twilight?” I asked.

“Mhm, you two go on. I'll need to have a town treasury for the future while you're building the outpost. Have fun you guys!”

And with that she sent us off with those matter manipulating doohickeys that could hold all the cobblestone we had mined out. We settled on a relatively flat area where we started to lay the foundation of our outpost. We were building hardened structures built to withstand air attack and we even had plans for a runway so we could make a rolling takeoff with the battle saddles. There was also the wagon full of flak cannons that we had to assemble and place on top of the bunkers. Some we had bought from the gunshop, others we made by 3D printing from blueprints. It was a mixed bag, the ones we bought were all lasers or something while our own AA turrets were the tried and truth 40mm Bofors. Slowly the base started to take shape and by the time we were finished it looked like a mini fortress.

“Well! That there looks like a mighty fine FOB to me!” Applejack wiped the sweat off her forehead.

“This looks pretty great. Hard to believe we built this in a day huh?” Tommy looked around.

“Believe it dude, technology is fucking amazing,” Digi placed his hoof onto Tommy's shoulder, “I think we're ready to kick some ass buddy.”

“You guys up for a little fun?...” Sky glanced at all of us and pointed to the AA guns, “What's say we do a little Mad Minute to celebrate!”

“Heavy machine guns, AA fire, explosions and awesomeness! I'm in!” I hugged him and trotted over to one of the guns.

“This is gonna be fuckin sweet,” Digi took his place on another gun.

“Fun!” Puzzle joined in too.

“Okay everypony! Remember, right wheel to turn, left wheel for elevation, right back hoof to fire! Puzzle! Pinkie! You ready with the balloons?!” Sky readied the team.

“Ready for fun!” I could see Pinkie stuffing a ton of balloons under a net.

“Pull!” I yelled out as I cocked my Bofors. The cloud of balloons flew up into the sky and the whole fury and hellfire of our combined tracer and flak fire erupted onto our rubbery adversaries. Lasers and puffs of black flak filled the skies. All I could hear were the explosions and gunshots of our turrets aimed skywards. I could hear somepony yell out.

“Cease fire! Cease fire! Haha!” Sky Buster waved, “Stop shooting you fucktards!”

“WOOO!” AJ hollered in excitement, “I love these six-shooters! It's like a heavy metal shoot-off!”

“Everything checks out. You guys up for some lunch?”

“Hell yeah, you owe me for that bag of chips you know,” Digi called out to Sky.

“What do you have in mind bro?” Tommy asked.

“Oh you're gonna love this traditional Filipino noodle dish I'm gonna make with the Boneboo! It's a surprise, I'll just tell you that much,” Sky Buster is a great cook. I saw him fiddling around with something in the kitchen last night and it smelled wonderful. I could hazard a guess that it was going to be served for lunch the next day.

When we all got back to town he immediately rushed into our house to bring out the large pot of broth and started reheating it in the middle of the campfire. My husband started to prepare homemade noodles as the soup sat in the fire pit and he recruited Pinkie to help him out.

“Now Pinkie, we're gonna make some noodles by rolling them out flat, take this big ball of dough and really flatten it out,” I stood there as they started to cook.

“Oooo! I've never made noodles before!” she smiled.

“Oh it's easy. You got a rolling pin?”

Pinkie pulled out a comically giant rolling pin from underneath the table, much to the surprise of Sky Buster, “Sure do!”

“I want to ask where the hell did you get that, but I fear that some wall somewhere might break open. Eh! Works for me!” I saw them roll the ball of dough flat, almost covering the whole width of the table, “Now what you wanna do is to flour this side of the dough and start folding it up like paper, each time flouring the folds. Once we rolled up the dough, we're gonna use a knife to cut it into really thin strips! Like so. Then throw it into some hot water and cook those for five minutes. Now you try with the next dough ball.”

I got bored and looked up into the sky. There were many clouds that drifted by and I wondered about home. Cloudsdale, Ponyville, Canterlot... I'm curious to see how they are doing and if our mission into the stars brought about the much needed hope of a war torn nation. We've been through so much bloodshed, so much hardships, and I know that Equestria will never be the same. But, at the same time our plight into space will be a new chapter for ponies everywhere. Speaking of chapters, I wonder when the new Daring Do book will be out? Hopefully it arrives soon by care package. I did hear that we'd have to return some samples back to Equestria to receive it though and that's why we're out here, to prove that outer space is in fact awesome enough to colonize.

“Lunch is ready!”

And with that my husband all served us another one of his strange recipes he had brought along with him from his cookbook. It was a ramen like noodle dish with a thin tasting, very flavorful meaty broth. It was warm and yummy, something you'd crave on a cold day like today. It was a great meal and Sky Buster had made the Boneboo we found into something everypony enjoyed.

“Hard to believe that's all vegetarian huh?” Sky Buster sat beside me, scooting me closer with one of his wings. In his embrace I could feel his warmth as the wind picked up, flying flower petals in the breeze.

“Hmmm...” I rested my head onto his shoulder as I took a sip of my soup, “This is tasty...”

“Happy birthday honey...” he kissed me on the forehead, “You up for some training later?”

“You bet! Let's keep combat ready when we can. You never know what we're gonna face when we lure those pirates down.”

“I feel like taking a nap first. Come on sweetheart,” Sky got up and ran the dishwasher after everypony got done eating. We both looked up into the clouds, “Pick any one you want dear...”

“Oh... Maybe... That one!” I picked the fluffiest one in the sky. We flew up to it and laid down, letting the soft and plush puffball support our weight.

“Huh, guess it still works on other planets,” Sky mumbled to me.

“Hrm?”

“Pegasi walking on clouds. I read somewhere that it's only possible on our home planet. Mmmmm... Feels good,” Sky felt warmer as I got on top of him. He was laying down on his back.

I kissed him on the nose, “Hehehe, I love you Sky Buster...”

He embraced me in his wings as he pulled part of the cloud over, encasing us in a warm blanket of fluff.

“I love you too Rainbow Dash,” he kissed me again on the forehead and stroked my mane, “Sleep tight sweetheart...”

I could feel his soft heartbeat lull me into slumber. All the while soft pets and strokes ran through my fur. I felt asleep within seconds in my husbands embrace. I dreamed of vivid landscapes of rolling hills, vast rainbow colored deserts, and vast, immortal suns as my spirit lifted away from my body. I could see all the heavens and the surreal space before me. Stars, galaxies, nebulas, and vast oceans of cosmic energy.

About an hour later I woke up to him snuggling me awake. He nuzzled my belly and started to motorboat. I laughed as I playfully slapped him in the face.

“I'm awake! I'm awake! The hell man?” I pushed him off the cloud and he returned, flying back up.

“Hehehe,” he stuck his tongue out playfully and gave me a hug, “Okay, serious time now. I'll assemble the troops.”

After some setup with the matter thingies, Sky Buster went ahead and wore his flight instructor uniform from the ship. He had a megaphone with him and yelled into town.

“All security personnel and soldiers in training, report outside the town wall for combat maneuvers! Ready up everypony! I want Kim, Antony, Puzzle, AJ, and AnY front and center!”

Within a few minutes they lined up in formation. I got in line as well and stood at attention.

“Listen up! This drill will stress test your combat abilities. I have set up an obstacle course beyond the trees. You will each have to identify, engage, and take out fifteen hologram targets that will try to attack you in the forest and you have to do it as fast as possible. Some will try to melee you, others will use ranged weapons. If you get hit you are out of the game. You may choose your weapons from the selection I've placed.”

I took a good look at the weapons. Some where our old rifles we had brought along. Others were the new guns we bought from those aliens. There were also swords, knives, and spears from our armory. I turned to Puzzle as he took a bow and arrow.

“Hey, why are you still using that thing? We've got plenty of guns you know.”

“Don't ever underestimate a well placed arrow Rainbow Dash. I almost got your husband with one and he had quite the bounty on his head during the war. It was a good thing that never happened huh?”

I looked at him with mistrust, “You... What?”

“Rainbow, don't sweat it. He was just trying to feed his family during that war. Let's not dilly dally and see who's up. Tony Pony! Let's go, you're up first,” Sky Buster put one hoof on my shoulder to calm me down. This was news to me, although I did remember that he said he was shot with an arrow once when he got home after a classified contract.

Antony stepped into the training area. I saw him take in a sniper rifle and his reliable .45 caliber.

“Alright, drill begins in three... two... one...” Sky counted down and AC rushed into the arena. He had his pistol in his mouth and rifle in hoof. He preferred long range attacks with his sniper rifle and would switch it up with his .45 at close quarters. Overall he didn't like melee, but when one hologram jumped him he returned with a swift buck, “One minute twenty two seconds! Puzzle you're up!”

“Roger,” he looked back to the wall to see Pinkie cheering on for him.

“Woo! Go Puzzly Puzz!” she cheered on with pom poms.

Puzzle started off strong with a well placed arrow at a simulated sniper hiding in the trees. With a flash of magic smoke he was gone in a flash. Suddenly reappearing behind one of the holograms with a stealthy stab with his hidden dagger, cloaked by his cape. I found it quite odd that he could pull off trick shots with a bow and arrow at ranges that an assault rifle would excel. That was until I noticed a shimmering, transparent magic telescope that floated up to his eye on every draw of the bow.

“Good! Keep going Puzzle! You're almost there!” Sky shouted to him as he neared the exit. Unfortunately, a hologram caught him off guard, hitting him from behind. The pulse of energy only knocked him back with a stunning bolt of charged particles, “You're out!”

“What?! But that was a cheap shot! How did that guy sneak up on me?”

“Situational awareness Puzzle. The holograms are always random. That may looked like it was roughly the same set as Antony, but that last guy threw you off for a curve ball. Cheer up, you did great for a trainee. And let's not forget the time you almost killed me. Walk it off soldier, you're good,” Sky Buster patted him on the back.

“Thanks I guess. Can I try again later?”

“Of course, NEXT!” Sky yelled.

“Watch and learn pretty boys,” Kim smirked.

This was gonna be good. Kim had dual silenced pistols and she wore her spy outfit that allowed her to perform her usual tricks of parkour and free running. Her time trial started, this time two snipers were in two separate trees trying to pin her down. Instead of flying she used her momentum, wall jumping, and leaping from tree trunk to tree trunk to foul the aim of the two snipers. With two forehoof mounted pistols she flipped into the air and shot both snipers while spinning. She never wasted a bit of momentum as she touched down on the ground, using her wings to keep her agile both on the ground and in the air to mix it up and confuse the enemies. Melee was nothing for KP. As one pony charged at her with a spear she deflected it away with a well timed karate block, giving her an opening for a deadly and quick stab into the unprotected neck. Her pistols ran dry and I saw her reload them with her wings instead of using her hooves, something she obviously picked up from my husband. With her last opponent she concentrated on an unarmed take down with a weapon reversal as she flipped a simulated sub machine gun into her grasp and shot point blank at her last enemy.

“Time!” KP threw down the weapon.

“One minute nineteen seconds! Last take down was flashy and cut into your time, but hell, that was impressive as always Kim,” Sky gave her an approving nod.

“Thank you sir!” she saluted.

“Dismissed, NEXT! Let's see what you can do AnY.”

“Danke Commandant,” AnY stepped up to the plate. Once the whistle blew he charged forward into the arena with nothing but a sword held in his mouth and a riot shield on his left leg. I was skeptical of his choice of weapon, until I saw him completely wreck everything in front of him. Although he wasn't as agile as Kim or Puzzle his sheer Earth pony strength was enough to plow past his melee targets and the one with guns were deflected with clever use of his heavy bulletproof riot shield. He moved almost at normal speed with the heavy shield and continued to lay waste to the enemies. He had the most trouble with the snipers in the trees. He found his solution by bucking them out and slaying them in close range. As he finished he put away the sword and looked to my husband.

“Time is one minute twenty seven seconds. I suggest you work on your marksmanship and not rely too heavily on melee. Rainbow?”

“I thought you'd never ask,” I went over to the weapons station and slung a WDM assault rifle over my shoulder and an MBS-32 machine pistol on my hip. The rifle looked fairly basic, with the mag stuck in the front like a normal assault rifle, but the bullets were tiny by comparison to our bolt actions. Same goes with my sidearm.

“You ready RD?” Sky placed his hoof near the button to start the simulation.

“Ready!”

Now it was my turn. A squad of three rifleponies appeared in front of me and I slid into the cover of a nearby tree. I turned my rifle's sights onto them and fired in short bursts, downing them in a flurry of automatic fire. I reloaded a fresh magazine and scanned around, seeing another random sniper hidden in the trees. I used my wings to dart from one piece of cover to the next as I popped my next shots at the sniper. It missed but managed to suppress the shooter long enough for me to close in and lead my shots into center mass. Sprinting to the next tree with my head on a swivel I saw more enemies as I slid into cover, reloading another mag into my rifle. One of them caught me off guard and tried to stab into me with a simulated knife which I deflected to counter knife, plunging it into their chest. I continued my cover to cover maneuvers popping in and out of cover to shoot. Before long I was at the finish line, having shown off the tactical skills my husband trained me to do over the years. I held my hoof up.

“Time!”

“One minute eighteen! That's what I'm looking for! Quick, clean, and it speaks for itself. Nicely done Rainbow,” Sky patted me on the shoulder, “Take five everypony. Puzzle, AnY you guys stay. I want more training done for you guys. Pinkie you're free to watch.”

“So I guess I'll just see you later then dude?” I smiled and approached Sky.

“Yup, I'll be home in a bit. Go and read up on the books we brought home.”

“Okay, see you later honey,” I pecked him on the cheek.

“Bye dear! Puzzle! You're up again!”

“Yes sir!” I saw Puzzle step up to the plate once more as I glanced back one last time walking into town.

Day 14

Digibro

For as long as I can remember I've always had these thoughts that parallel those of my reality. When I was a young colt I was confused and confounded by this dual existence caused by what appeared to be a retention and re-experience of a former life. It wasn't bad, per say, and often times I found it pleasurable once I had a true grasp of what everything really meant. I was somehow in touch with a parallel universe that my own universe is dependent on in a way where everything is written out by these strange humans for some sort of television program and accompanying fan work. Call me crazy right?

I woke up alone in bed as Applejack moved on with the early morning chores that needed to be done. She and I have vastly different sleeping schedules even before we went up into space. She would always get up bright and early while I slept in. I balanced it out by staying up all night working on many of my projects that I keep myself busy with. You'd think that our conflicting schedules would cause a rift between us, but in actuality I wake up relaxed and ready to comfort her as she gets home from a hard days work. I always find time to hang out with her, Big Mac, and my little sis Applebloom back home in Old Ponyville.

I got out of bed and walked outside to see the others eating lunch. This time it was Pinkie Pie serving the group as Sky Buster and the rest of the soldiers ventured off to the thing we built yesterday. I took my seat next to Applejack who was covered in a thin layer of mud. She decided to pat me on the back with a muddy hoof.

“Howdy there sleepy head! Rise and shine,” AJ smiled. I let out a small squeak as I took a bushel of wheat and crammed it down my throat.

“Good morning dear,” I smiled as I gulped down my food, “Sky Buster and the other guards went off again I see?”

“Well, not quite. Them rascals just gone for a little training. They were waitin on you the whole time to get up.”

“Oh shit! Okay AJ, gotta go see ya!” I hurried back to the house and into my shed, “Love you!”

“There he goes again, bye honey!”

With that I was back home hurriedly trying to pile all the stuff into one of the wagons we had sitting out back. I was suppose to deliver the distress beacon, the battle saddles, and a bunch of wooden crates Sky Buster had dropped off yesterday. I made my way to the outpost and saw them standing by. There was Kim, Antony, Sky, Puzzle, and Rainbow. Three of the humans were there too: Troy, May, and the other one who is rather racist to us, I forget who that bastard was called.

“Ah there you are Digi! Late to the party again I see?” Sky looked at me funny.

“Okay, shit I forgot alright? I got everything you need in the wagon. Ammo, your battle saddles, the distress beacon and everything. Let's just get to work okay? I'll be in the bunker waiting to see what happens. Let me show you how to turn on the beacon,” I floated the distress beacon up from underneath the junk I had piled on top of it. It was intact and ready to go, “Where do you want it?”

“Right there in between the two runways where I've marked the X. Troy, get over here. You're the one who has to turn on the beacon. I need to suit up in my flight saddle along with my squadron,” Sky sounded just a little ticked off, and rightly so because I was the one to accidentally have the minor fuck up. One of the humans came up to me.

“Alright, show me how the beacon do?”

“Well, all you have to do is push this button, crank this knob and switch!” I started to sing song to the rhythm of cupcakes, “Now you take a little step back, don't be scared don't twitch! Using this thing is such a synch add a 9-volt battery will-ya! Just a little more then to count to four then a starship will come here-a! Beacons, so big and twirly! Beacons, so spinning whirly! Beacons! Beacons, beacons, beacons!”

“...Um... Okay?” Troy looked at me weirded out, “Does your race often break into song like that?”

“A little, sometimes we can't help it. It's just so happy, well... It used to be just so happy back home that people broke out into song when they felt like it. It was part of our overall culture so vastly different from your own. Music and magic are cornerstones of our society. That and cutiemarks.”

“Uh, cutiemarks?” He looked at the symbol on my flank, “So you had that tattooed on your ass?”

“Oh no. A cutiemark is a thumbnail image of our destined talent. It's a magical symbol that appears on our butts after we learn our true calling in life, typically during our elementary school years. Our society revolves around the discovery of our true talents and how to best implement them. As you can see, my mark is that of a magnifying glass over a color wheel. It's rather vague but my true talent is analysis in its raw form. Making me suited to be a scientist. By the look on your face I'm guessing your society works differently?”

“Yes it does,” Troy sighed. I figured as much because the humans from that other dimension in my past life had a much different set of rules than ours, “We go to school, learn so much useless shit that we can't practically use in the real world, yet no one teaches us how to look for jobs, how to save money, how to do the practical everyday things that we need to survive, and all the other shit that we have to deal with. And frankly, even if you had a special talent some people end up working on something so unrelated to that talent that it just becomes a hobby for them. I, as a gamer could not make a living off that. I was viewed as a food service worker with a nack for video games, military knowledge, and firearms. Again, more reason why I think humans get the short end of the stick when it comes to interstellar races.”

That matched what I had lived through in my past life. I patted him on the shoulder.

“Sorry to hear that, but let's not dilly dally. Sky Buster can be quite bossy when he's pissed off,” I placed the beacon and trotted back to the bunker, “You ready over there?”

“Ready. I'm running back into the woods,” Troy yelled as he disappeared from sight, using his optical camo. I could hear Sky, Rainbow, and Kim rocketing overhead in a combat air patrol formation. There was a long pause before we heard anything. Tony and Puzzle were in the bunker with me.

“Do you feel that?” Tony turned to me.

“I do,” Puzzle looked out of the bunker into the sky. The ground started to shake as something from the heavens descended from the clouds. It was a massive alien flying disc that hovered with a soft hum. I saw Puzzle turn wide eyed at me, “Um! Digi!”

“Hold on, hold your fire until Sky says to engage,” I trotted to the radio and vectored it to Sky Buster, “What's it look like up there?

“We're still in CAP formation and in combat spread. We're assessing the craft. I'm seeing,” he paused, confused, “Um, I think I see a penguin piloting the damned thing!”

Troy came in shocked and pushed me away from the microphone, “Get out of there Sky! That's Dreadwing the pirate!”

“Say again? I-” Sky Buster was cut off by the sound of anti aircraft fire that erupted from the space ship into the clouds, “Whoa! Confirmed bandit is hostile! My squadron is engaging!”

“I've got times two, five hundred pound bombs! I'm going in for a diving attack!” Kim exclaimed, “Digi some flak would be a nice distraction!”

“Flak is going up!” I raced out of the bunker to one of the AA guns as Antony and Puzzle did the same. I got into my flak gun and whirled it upwards at the UFO. I floated up clips of ammo into my Bofors and with a quick press of the right pedal forty millimeter shells filled the sky and it was barely denting the spaceship.

I looked over to Tony as he handled the ammo. He carried it back between Puzzle and I with the rounds harnessed in his saddlebags. I quickly exhausted my clip and he came over to me.

“That thing's not even scratched! Give it another go! I've set some impact fuses on those chap!” Antony gave me a pat on the head and loaded in a fresh clip.

“Let's bring this fucker down!” I started to unload another volley at the enemy spaceship before it hovered right over me with what I assumed to be its particle beam charging up at me. I was so screwed had I not ran out of there. The beam shot down an accelerated bolt of particles that completely destroyed the AA gun. There was little more than charred scrap left of what was once my gun emplacement.

“No damage on target! That flak's not doing any good,” Kim came over the radio with a damage assessment, “I've dropped two bombs on that thing and it's still flying!”

“Press the attack! We've got the air superiority!” Sky Buster swooped in with his volley of rockets fired from his battle saddle. Upon impact the pirate ship started to wobble as the rockets disabled one of its engines. Sky yelled victoriously, “Critical hit! He's not going back into space with one of his engines knocked out!”

I saw another charge of the massive particle beam under the craft as balls of energy focused into the middle of the glowing energy weapon. What came after it was fully charged surprised me. Instead of the expected volley of particle fire the ship beamed down a small army of penguin soldiers complete with rocket launchers, machine guns, and even a few tanks. Now we were really screwed.

“Guys! They got reinforcements!” I galloped back to the bunker fearing for my life as I slid to the floor to keep my head down. Antony busted in to check up on me.

“Okay, so we have a little bit of a situation.”

“Just a little bit? We're getting fucking owned dude!” I grabbed his collar and pulled him to the floor. Machine gun bullets ricocheted around the room and we both kept our heads down. Antony took the rifle off his back and returned fire.

“Well what are you waiting for Digi? Fire back!” he shoved a sniper rifle into my hooves and I looked at it with confusion. He knew as well as I did that I wasn't up to snuff with firearms let alone fighting a war.

“I have deep moral reservations about this you know! I don't even know how to use this thing!”

Antony glared back at me in panic, “Well figure something out! There is a tank rolling towards the bunker!”

In curiosity I peeked at above the lip of the bunker opening to see three penguin tanks aiming their guns right at us. I could see the commander of the lead tank lift a flipper ready to bring it down with an order to fire.

“Ready!” I heard him yell in a squeaky yet raspy voice, “Aim!”

“Duck!” Antony grabbed me and threw me to the floor. He was right on top of me using his own body to shield from the shrapnel. In mere seconds I expected a deafening explosion and total loss of hearing. Instead I could hear metal being scrapped and torn outside. Antony got up and looked out. His jaw was wide agape.

“Now that is awesome. I think you might want to check this out,” he dusted me off and I got to my feet. To my surprise there was a mech suit that had just bulldozed the three tanks and was rampaging the others that were beaming down. In the pilot seat of the bipedal heavily armored beast I saw Troy the human.

“Hey guys! Thought you could use some heavy firepower!” the radio on my chest rang out in his voice. The mech he piloted had twin chain guns mounted on the sides of the cockpit, “I'll take care of the tanks. Looks like your friend Puzzle is clearing the area of infantry.”

“Wait what? Puzz-” Antony stopped as we both saw Puzzle Piece being a complete badass using his agility to dodge rockets and fake out enemy soldiers with a ninja like assortment of spells. From smoke bombs, double teaming, and even short invisibility spells he was quite a sight and killed the penguins with nothing but his bow and arrows landing shot after shot even while jumping, sprinting, and on the move. He ran up to the bunker to greet us.

“Hey guys!” he was casual in his tone of voice and we just sat there dumbfounded, “You okay?”

“Um. Yes, quite,” Antony walked up to him and patted him in the shoulder, “You did good out there but let's finish the job.”

“This is Sky Buster! Enemy craft is launching fighter saucers to intercept us! Ground crew, can you keep them busy with some flak?” Sky chimed in.

“We'll try! Most of our AA guns are out of commission,” I saw the last of the turrets get pummeled by a shot of particle beam from the alien mothership right as I said that, “Scratch that, AA defenses are down.”

“Digi I got a suggestion,” I almost confused Troy with Sky Buster, “I've got some crates on the back of this walker. I'd love to come over there but I'm a tad busy. May! Help them out with some cover fire!”

Something popped up in my mind that hinted that Sky and Troy were being controlled by the same person in that other dimension. I shrugged it off and focused, “Will do! I need you guys to cover me while I go for those crates.”

“Say no more Digi I'm ready!” Puzzle notched another arrow in with his magic and nodded.

“Some day you're gonna have to learn how to defend yourself Digi,” Antony sighed, “But that's what I'm here for after all. Let's go!”

Antony was on point as we emerged into the battlefield. The army of penguins kept spewing out of the mothership and Troy was doing his best to keep them off us. One of his sniper friends was also picking off multiple penguins with a semi automatic rifle in the distance. Bullets whizzed past our heads and our three pegasi were engaged in dogfights with many smaller UFOs that chased them relentlessly. Puzzle and Antony were doing a damn fine job at keeping me alive as we got near Troy's walker. I levitated the crates off the back with my magic and used the large frame of the robot as cover. I opened them to find missile launchers that were human in origin.

“Those are Redeyes! Fire and forget AA missiles, single use. Flip up the IR dish and once you hear the lock on tone change to a solid ring fire away!” Troy briefly gave instruction.

I lifted the launcher up out of the crate and sighted it with my eye. I flipped the receiver dish like I was told and locked to the nearest UFO that was chasing Kim. I was being careful not to lock on to my friend but the damned thing was fickle and kept switching targets. I heard the solid ring of the lock on sound and fired. The recoil of it planted me face first into the dirt from the back blast. I forgot that Antony was right behind me and he was subjected to a small burn and the knock back of the rocket motor. I ran up to him in panic.

“Holy shit I'm so sorry! Are you okay?” I assessed his condition. He got right back up and put out the fire on his tail.

“Digi I swear to Celestia. You could have killed me with that thing!” Luckily he was far enough away and only suffered minor injuries, “Let me handle that!”

He tried to manipulate the next launcher out of the crate and shouldered it with one hoof. He tracked another UFO and fired making sure that Puzzle and I were out of the way of his back blast. The missile shot up and impacted. The small UFO was blown to bits but it still wasn't enough. Their mothership was still flying and we had to take it down.

“No matter what we do that thing is still gonna phew out mini saucers, tanks, and penguins! It's like it has some sort of teleporter for them,” Antony kept my head down as he called to Puzzle.

Puzzle was surprising us both with the accuracy of his bow. He shot down a lot of the mini UFOs with well placed shots into their glass cockpits as he bounded back and forth between them in an amazing show of agility. It was then that I noticed that he prepared a spell that gave him butterfly wings similar to Rarity's during the Young Fliers Competition. He was actually up there dogfighting with those mini-saucers with a fucking bow and arrow!

“Remind me not to piss off that green unicorn,” Antony just starred up as they thinned out their air support. Rainbow flew in underneath the mothership and shot up another engine. Now the ship began to wobble and list uncontrollably.

“Number two engine is down! Wahoo!” she gave an excited yell as she zoom climbed to make an attack run on the top of the craft.

“Mothership AA turrets destroyed!” Kim chimed in as smoke bellowed from the large spacecraft.

Troy advanced forward as his mech was being barraged by penguin tank shells. We hung back as the dirt and dust was kicked up by the explosions. The mothership hovered right above us and started to charge its particle beams again.

“Take cover!” Troy yelled to Antony and I as the mothership sent down a full volley of beams that crippled Troy's mech, “It's no use! I have to eject! Stand back!”

Antony lead me into the tree line and shielded me from the blast of the exploding robot. We saw Troy shot up to the mothership and rodeo onto one of the engines. He used his assault rifle to jam the turbines and jumped off. He used a waist mounted jump pack to glide softly to the ground.

“Three engines down! Tell your ponies we got this!” he came up to me and secured my location. The mothership stopped beaming down reinforcements and was just struggling to stay aloft, “Nick! Bring in the Obsidian Class MPRG!”

“Boom boom motherfuckers!” Nick shouldered a strange weapon that fired off a loud and brilliant blue colored tracer that impacted the ship with no travel time or bullet drop. At first glance I thought it was some sort of laser until I saw that Nick recoiled with each shot. It was some sort of portable railgun.

“What the hell was that?!” Sky Buster called in, “Was that the humans?”

“Yeah, it was. They've got some sort of man portable railgun!” I radioed back out and looked as the mothership finally started to lose altitude and crash into the ground, “I see the ship! Confirmed shot down! We did it! We did it!”

A chorus of screams and victorious yells came over the radio as an explosion rocked the ground signaling the demise of the mothership. Sky stayed in the air while the rest of his squadron came in for a landing to offload their battle saddles. With us being the ground team Puzzle, Antony, myself, and the rest of the humans walked to the wreckage to see the single penguin that piloted the craft.

“Oohh, what happened,” it asked in a squeaky and raspy voice, “Bah! Humans and, are you fucking ponies?!”

“You're under arrest Dreadwing! Flippers up!” Troy demanded to the pirate captain.

“I can't believe I was shot down by a bunch of candy colored equines and your middling humans!” Dreadwing was shackled by May and prodded in the back with her sniper rifle.

“Preaching to the choir honey,” she lead the pirate back to Troy and he eyed the penguin with interest.

“Tell that to the USCM. I'm sure they'll find a nice cozy off world prison cell for you to call home,” Troy pulled his radio and communicated to his whole team, “Guys! We captured Dreadwing the pirate! Yes, THAT Dreadwing the pirate. We're rich boys and girls! Beam up to our ship and wait for May and I.”

I turned my head to see Antony, Kim, Rainbow, and Sky Buster hauling away one of the power cores of the ship.

“We got it!” Sky yelled to me,“ There's a temperature control device on this molten core! We'll be able to mass produce steel in no time! Yahoo!”

Troy tapped me on the shoulder and bent down to my eye level, “Hey Digi, thanks.”

“For what?” I cocked my head.

“For what your race has shown to mine. Never in our travels have we been so treated with the hospitality that you and your group has provided us,” he pulled something from his pocket and gave it to me, “I want you to take this. Blueprints for special teleporters we call Spawners. They'll be able to summon anyone from any race to the planet you place it on. Consider it a gift.”

“Oh my, thank you!” my face was a wide grin as I stuffed my prize into my saddlebags. Troy got back up and brought the radio to his mouth.

“We're beaming up now! Goodbye Digi. We will meet again soon,” he waved to the rest of my group, “Good bye everypony! Until we meet again in the stars!”

“Wait, you're leaving?” Sky Buster dropped his end of the core right on Puzzle's tail, “Oh! Sorry Puzzle!”

Puzzle's tail was chopped off and he was left with only a stub on his ass. I tried to hold back a chuckle.

“Yeah! We're leaving and we don't know when we're gonna get back! Gotta take this criminal in for his bounty!”

“Okay dude! See ya later!” Sky tried to tie on Puzzle's missing tail with a piece of string and a rubber band. Puzzle was quite angry at Sky Buster and tolerated his shenanigans.

“Okay, now for real. Good bye Digi, we will meet again some day,” his own body was enveloped by a beam of light that morphed and twirled into a swirling mass that shot up into the sky followed by his friend and captive. I looked on and smiled into the sky and the wonders that crossed my mind in the stars above.

Day 44

AntonyC

It has been nearly a month since our fight with the penguin mothership. By this time our town has grown by leaps and bounds. With our first parcel sent back to Equestria the folks at EASA finally deemed it worthy to send in the colonists for further space exploration. What was once our fledgling town of only fourteen ponies rocketed up to a few hundred now. With Digi's gift of the Spawner technology we could teleport our family and friends up to this planet without the need for another spacecraft. In due time we transported several hundred volunteers to our new home in the stars. Although some didn't get the memo that the teleporter beamed them up with little warning which lead to some embarrassing yet sometimes hilarious instances of arrival. With our security team greatly expanded we could now take shifts in guarding the town gates. Not only that, I had more time to spend with my lovely wife.

I found her next to the town fountain with our best friend Ink Rose. They were going back and forth to Ink's new comic she just recently published about our adventures in the stars.

“So Antony and I- Oh hello there honey!” Kim waved to me and smiled. Her teal coat reflected off a bit of sunlight in a beautiful shimmer.

“Good morning Antony! Would you like to see what I've been drawing?” Ink invited me into the circle. I trotted on over and sat down next to them.

“Please! Do share,” I smiled to her as well and took interest at her various sketches on the page. It was of our battle with the flying saucer detailed with an action packed summary of what went on, “Oh wow, I do like it. You even got Digi's reactions right!”

The three of us chuckled. It was still early in the morning as the town square was deserted for the most part. It was only the three of us and the only others I could hazard a guess to be awake at this time would be Sky Buster and the rest of the new recruits.

“Two! Four! Six! Eight! Speed it up nuggets!” my commanding officer was hard at work trolling the new soldiers and putting them through their paces, “Come on nuggets! My gramma can march faster than you!”

“Good morning sir!” I saluted to Sky Buster and he saluted back with a smile.

“At ease soldier, you I can trust. Thunderlane you better move your ass! NCO I want you to lead the squad in the march! And don't let me catch you guys on a breather you hear or I'll have each and everyone of you on toilet scrubbing duty!” Sky Buster approached us and pointed to my wife and I, “Hey guys. I might need your help in regards of something. We picked up this not too long ago.”

“To anyone out there! This is a distress signal from Beta Castor Minoris I USCM Penal Colony! We are under attack and need backup! Coordinates: X-2898296 Y:-66499827 Code: Indignant Koala. Please! Hurry! This message repeats. To anyon-” Sky played a recording of a message broadcasted to us from the Beta sector. With our steady trade from the Floran we had enough fuel to go on some extraplanetary adventures.

“We're the closest ones to try and help them out. We haven't had any adventures in a while. What do you say guys?”

“I'm in! I've been bored to tears for the past month. Let's go kick some ass shall we sweetheart?” Kim turned to me and pecked me in the cheek.

“Well, maybe we should mind our own business and not snoop around other species issues?” she shot that wide-eyed cutesy wootsy pout at me like she always does, “Oh! Not the puppy dog pout! You know I can't resist that!”

Sky Buster giggled under his much more impressive steel armor. He took off his helmet and patted my shoulder, “What do ya say! The more allies we got the better we have out here you know!”

“I do suppose diplomacy has it's merits. Okay! I'm in too. So, who else will be in our motley group of space faring conquistadors?” I asked with an air of debonair.

“I'm waiting on Puzzle to return from his rock farming with Pinkie and the rest of their miners. However!” Sky Buster whistled to the soldiers marching on, “Attention! I would like two volunteers to come with us on an important mission. This will be a rescue operation and if you think you've got the moxie to come along then step up!”

“Sir!” a blue earth pony with short black mane steps up from the group, “Private Itzchak Coltberg sir!”

“I expected as much. Tony, I'd like you to meet Private Coltberg. He's one of my brightest recruits and will be a great asset to the team! His nickname is Rolo. Introduce yourself private!”

“Sir! It's a pleasure to meet you sir!” Rolo stood at full attention to me and saluted. I could make out his six pointed star cutie mark and bushy black tail.

“At ease soldier! Welcome to the team. My name is Major Caius Antonius Percival Degroot Canon The Third. You may address me as Major Antony though if you're so inclined,” I saluted back to him and gave him a pat on the back.

“So! Anypony else?” Sky turned back to the group as one of the others jumped up and fell face first to the floor, “Okay! You, Private Dawn Shy! Get over here!”

“Um, sir?” The stallion looked up from his tipped over posture. His dirty blond mane drooped into his eyes and his dark blue-grey coat was covered with mud.

“Don't you um sir me! You need the tactical training private!” Sky barked his orders like a good drill sergeant, “Why don't you take an example from Private Coltberg nugget!”

He took off Dawn Shy's necklace and found a locket of whom I assumed was his girlfriend.

“This your lover Private?”

“Sir! Yes sir!” He jumped back up at attention and was sweating in fear.

Sky Buster smirked and gave the locket to Rolo, “Private Coltberg! Go into the bathroom and have some fun with that!”

Rolo recoiled his head back and reluctantly spoke, “Sir, yes sir...”

“If you'll excuse me I need to find Puzzle and the mining crew. They should be back by now,” Sky flew off to the west where our mineshaft was located. I saw Rolo give the locket back to Dawn. Admittedly a strange name for a unicorn stallion.

“Don't worry friend. I won't violate your relationship.”

“Oh hey, thanks a lot,” DS dusted off his locket and placed it back into his pocket.

“Ahem, officers on deck?” Rolo poked DS to get him back to his feet.

“Oh-right! Yes um! Private Doen Sh-I MEAN! Private Dawn Sho! I-I'm so sorry Major! I-”

“Sit down shut up Private,” my wife placed a hoof on him to calm him, “At ease soldier you'll do fine. Hopefully.”

“This was all well and fun but I think I gotta go sketch some more of my comics for later. See you around Kim and Antony!” Ink Rose departed back to her dwelling with a soft flutter of her wings.

“Well then, before we go let's get you something to eat. It looks like Sky Buster hasn't given you two much of a break huh?” I gathered the two ponies accompanying us while the rest of their squad kept on with the days training.

“Yes sir, but the training is serving to condition us for what lies ahead. I am no stranger to war Major,” Rolo kept pace but Dawn Shy was lagging behind.

“Yo! You gonna pass out back there?” Kim turned back to our least coordinated operative.

“Ha, no I-I” once again he fell face first into the dirt. It seemed that he was lacking sleep as he snored with his butt stuck into the air. Kim slid her face into her hoof, “Nuggets I tell you. I was never that guy.”

“No, but I was. He reminds me a lot about when I first went through training,” I lifted him onto my back and carried him the rest of the way, “Sky Buster was never the easy drill instructor.”

“I remember one time where he made a grunt eat a bag of dick shaped macaroni. He's quite creative with his training that's for sure,” Kim rolled her eyes at the funny memory. I couldn't help but laugh along as well.

“And that time where he left his tail gunner hanging upside down in his parachute harness from tripping out of the door upon landing like a moron? That was classic!” my wife and I went back and worth, “He even puked on himself for good measure during the flight back.”

“Oh yeah, he's a crazy ass pilot. I remember that time were I rode with him as he landed a plane backwards,” she shook her head with a smirk.

“Oh I do remember that! He damn well tricked us both huh?”

“Oh yeah. Thank Celestia Crowne Prince bitch slapped him with a boatload of karma huh?”

“Oh yes, Miss 'I'm a guy, you're a guy, everypony's a guy' act,” I sighed in delight, “good times!”

“So now that we're done being idiots shouldn't we be gearing up the nuggets?” she put her face to mine and squeezed my cheeks. And not those cheeks you crazy naughty shippers you!

“Well we'll need to prod around in Mister Sky Buster's humble abode for the armory so well why not!” we trotted on to Sky's house and carefully navigated to the back. His shed was more of a bunker that housed all of our important weapons for missions and whatnot. The only thing we really used them for was to control the varmints that plagued the deep mining tunnels of our colony. Once fully equipped like some extraterrestrial fighting covert operatives with our brilliant steel and silver armor we set back to the town square as the miners rolled in with their haul of mineral wealth and riches. They were all rather tired with the two exceptions of Pinkie Pie and Puzzle Piece. Sky Buster was among them as well and they had some rather odd pieces of clothing.

“Hey guys! Look what Puzzle found inside a chest for me! It's an old human military helmet from their second world war! I think I'll keep it,” Sky knocked on his noggin and the helmet made a distinctive ping. I noticed Puzzle and Pinkie wore some type of lantern on a stick strapped to their backs.

“Good morning to you sir Puzzle Piece! Any good news with the rock farming?”

“Same as always,” he smiled and his eyes turned to Pinkie, “But I do have some other great news! We can talk about it over some brunch.”

We were invited to brunch at their house near the center of town. Pinkie had baked us a whole bunch of cupcakes and other vegetarian foodstuffs. Of course our commanding officer Sky Buster was not content unless he had meat in his diet. He had stashed some rations in his pockets and shared them with Rolo and DS. It was then that I noticed Pinkie's pet alligator chilling in a pond dug at the back of the house. The reptilian beast submerged back into the murky water as Dawn Shy sat down to view the pond.

“Nice pond you guys hav-OH MY CELESTIA!” I turned back to see him startled to the toothless gator that managed to engulf his entire head. Now that I think about it that thing has grown a lot bigger since my first introduction, “AAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

The rest of us didn't panic but Rolo leaped into action. He was stopped by Sky Buster who couldn't stop laughing that the unfortunate victim of toothless alligator.

“Private, just take note: never encroach on a prankster toothless alligator, or any alligator for that matter.”

“Sir, that thing is... Toothless?” Rolo looked back and forth at the panicking pony trying to hilariously dislodge the giant reptile off his face. I laughed along but at the same time felt sorry for the young soldier.

“Yes private, let's just see how long it takes for him to assess that there is no threat.”

Finally after running in circles for a good minute or so Dawn Shy finally comes to grips that the scaly gator posed no threat to his well being. With a gentle tickling from Pinkie Pie the alligator dropped off Dawn's face and he breathed in some fresh air.

“Why in the world do you keep that thing?!” his mane was wet with drool and smelled of rotted meat.

“Because Gummy's oh so super duper awesome and playful and fun to talk to! Aren't you just the cutest space alligator in the universe?” Pinkie hugged Gummy and the gator simply looked off blankly in the distance, “I love you too! And guess what, you're gonna have a new playmate coming!”

“A playmate?” Sky turned to Puzzle, “Oh! Have we finally domesticated the Scythetails with the help of Twilight and Fluttershy?”

“Well yes, there's two of them in the pond. That one on the right is Taffy and the other one is Walrus. It seems that they like Boneboo and Gummy has taken a liking to it as well,” Puzzle took a bite from his hay burger and eyed the two other beasts emerge from the waters edge. Pinkie tossed in some of those strange fleshy meat-fruits into the water and they happily consumed it with one gulp. Puzzle continued, “That's not what she was talking about though. You've heard that Twilight is conducting tests and experiments regarding the colony right?”

“Yes, and?” Sky Buster downed his can of preserved meat and stuffed a hay burger into his mouth.

“Oh! She's been experimenting with all these new types of kooky experiments like genetics, messing around with these new super duper plants and flowers, and those trees that tasted like potatoes, and I also heard her talking about making a banana!” Pinkie went on with her usual fast paced and often jumbled explanations.

“So, that only leaves-” Buster trailed off and he smiled to Puzzle, “No way! You two?”

“Yup. I'm going to be a father,” Puzzle smirked and wrapped his arm around Buster with a firm pat on the shoulder, “Pinkie and I, well mostly Pinkie, volunteered to test how embryonic development would occur on this planet. It's only been a month and Twilight is keeping tabs on us every week to make sure the foal is gonna be okay.”

“Dude, congrats! If this experiment goes well maybe Dashie and I will have our kid next,” Sky clapped his hooves and we all congratulated sir Puzzle.

“Sir! Are we ready to proceed with the mission to the Beta sector?” Rolo turned his attention to Sky.

“Yes we are recruit! Puzzle, we'll need your help on this mission to rescue some humans in danger. I hope you don't mind Pinkie.”

“Nope! Not a problem at all!” she gave Puzzle a hug and pecked him on the cheek, “Come back home safe okay?”

“I will, for you and the baby,” Puzzle returned with his own hug and a gentle rub of Pinkie's belly. I was also entertained to the idea of finally settling down with Kim to start a family.

“We'll take my ship. Tony Pony, you wanna be co-pilot?” Buster smirked to me and held out his hoof.

“Of course good lad! HMM! BROHOOF!” I gave him the mightiest of brohoofs and he was knocked back a few feet and splashed into the pond. He emerged with Gummy biting his foot and threw his forehooves into the air.

“WOO! Let's roll!”

The airfield was only a short trot away near the outskirts of town. What used to just be a grass parking lot for our ships became a full fledged spaceport with flights from Equestria that brought in supplies and volunteers every month. We all piled into the commander's ship and I took my place as the co-pilot.

“Alright everypony, are we all geared up and ready for adventure?” I turned to my friends as they strapped into their seats.

“And exactly who is armed with what? Can you guys give me a quick loadout for each of you?” Sky turned to them as well as they donned their armor and equipment.

“I've got a sniper rifle, target finder, and iron armor on. Gotta say this looks great Sky!” Kim smiled to our squad leader.

“Oh don't thank me, that was made by the engineering team. Notice how it's custom fit, not even I could do that. Puzzle what about you?”

“I honestly prefer my bow. Do I have to use this sniper rifle?”

“Yes you do, I want you to get some training done with that thing. I see you got a nano-fiber vest! Good on you,” Sky fiddled around with the preflight checks and switches before radioing out to the control tower, “Control tower this is Big Sky! We're taking off for the beta sector!”

“Read you loud and clear Big Sky you are cleared for takeoff!”

“Roger that tower see you in a few hours!” Sky disengaged the radio as we rocketed into outer space.

With the coordinates punched into the navigation console the ship did its thing and jumped past light speed. With the swirling stars turning into blurs and streaks of light the ship maintained stable in hyperspace before coming to a halt as it bled off speed. The autopilot kicked in and leveled the ship with the planets orbit. We all looked outside to see the lush green planet beneath us.

“Alright, we're in position and ready to beam down. We do it altogether now!” Sky Buster put a hoof to his transponder and waited for us to do the same, “We don't know what we're gonna find down there so heads up and keep a sharp eye! Let's go!”

Our concentrated balls of energy shot up and out of the ship to materialize us on the surface of the planet. We touched down in a low valley of this hot and humid jungle world. To the west was a large tree with vines that crawled up and around its trunk and all around us were plants that lined the forest floor. Something did stink rather badly behind us and it came from one of the large flowers next to a tiny pixel capsule left by another interstellar pilgrim.

“Oh look! It's a rafflesia,” Buster looked on at the large and awfully stinky flower as he donned a gas mask, “I remember these things. They grow in the Fillypines and have the largest known flower of any plant back home.”

“Good grief! It smells like something died in there,” my wife shuddered as she tried to pinch her nose shut with two hooves. I lead her away from it and we sat down next to a more fragrant vine that bloomed with a brilliant white flower.

“I hope that's better my love. Sir! Shall we scout ahead?”

“Roger that Tony! Looks like Dawny got himself stuck on some vines. And be careful what you touch! You never know what plants could be poisonous,” Sky advised to all of us.

“It's a good thing we all brought our manipulators. The scanners on this are sure quite helpful,” I bought out my matter manipulator and picked the flower off the vine for my wife. It was a harmless little thing with five petals in the shape of diamonds. I placed it into her crest pocket and nuzzled her neck, “Shall we madam?”

“Oh hush Antony,” she trotted on to the tree and beckoned, “Well come on!”

“I'm keeping close miss KP. Oh hello!” we stopped at the opening of a large cavern that was right past the tree. One could have easily fallen into it had they not been paying attention. I took a moment to warn the group, “There's a big hole here! You might want to go around it!”

“Copy that! We'll catch up! Radio back if you find anything else!” Buster was hacking away at the vines DS was caught in with a bolo knife, “Okay Dawn Shy! Don't squirm or I might miss!”

I rather enjoyed my commanders sick sense of humor. I gave a smile as Kim and I scouted on deeper into the jungle. The ground was thick with vegetation and we hacked our way on with our own sharp iron short swords through the brush and foliage. A few minutes of hacking and slashing brought us to another clearing with a small Floran hut halfway between the insertion point and the location of the distress call. Kim and I held back.

“Colonel! Come in this is Kim,” she sighted in with her sniper rifle and I scoped in with my binoculars as well, “There's a Floran hut I've marked on your map between the drop point and the objective. What do you want us to do?”

“Approach carefully and have one tongue, hoof, wing-whatever on the trigger. Engage only if you are fired upon got it?”

“Yes sir,” Kim went to prone and called to me, “Honey, can you go over there and see what's up? I'll cover you from here. You know I don't miss easily.”

She gave me a wink and I gave her a nod. I went on slowly as I made contact with the hut.

“Hello and good tidings to anyone in there! I come in peace,” I knocked on the door and was greeted by a dark brown Floran man.

“Hello there. I don't usually get visitors. I'm Hunter Flytrap of the Alpha Velocia Tribe. I've been stranded on this planet for a week now. Are you here because of the prison?” he looked at me with curious big, black eyes. He spoke more like a human than a Floran.

“Well, that's on a need to know basis. Classified intel I'm afraid,” I wasn't hesitant to keep our plans under wraps.

“Well don't go there. The place went quiet a few days ago. I had some human friends who worked there but they're all dead as far as I know. Something else isn't quite right either. I can't beam up to my ship anymore and I fear that someone sabotaged it. And exactly who and what are you?”

“I am Major Antonius Percival Degroot Canon The Third! And I am an earth pony good sir. I do thank you for not stabbing me on sight,” I bowed in respect to this gentleman.

“I don't think you're from Earth. If you were a horse from Earth you wouldn't be talking,” he opened his door all the way and crossed his arms in disbelief.

“Oh no, you misunderstand. I meant earth as in dirt and not Earth the planet. I am a humble pony of the ground, thank you,” I explained further, “And horses on my world are like monkeys to humans. Pardon, but didn't you say that you come from Alpha Velocia?”

“Hmph? You know of it?” his eyes widened and the one leaf that served as one of his eyebrows lifted.

“That is where our colony resides. And by my guess you must be related to the shop keep of the village am I right?”

“Yes! I'm his brother! Please, you have to take me back home! I'll put in a good word for you when I get back to the village!” his face was filled with hope and he went down to his knees to my eye level.

“Consider it done. Come with us, we may need your help on the prison then.”

“I said you shouldn't go there. That place is a death trap,” he got back up and paced the room, “Some freaky stuff went on and I haven't even got past the Flamengators.”

“Flamen-what?” I recoiled back, confused.

“They are white alligator like aliens that breath fire,” he shuddered, “Still a Floran! I hate fire and being burned!”

“Well rest assured we have the finest warriors my planet has to offer on this mission! We are here to spread good word for all of ponykind,” I brought him outside and waved for Kim to come closer, “This is my wife, Kim. She is our sniper and the top spy pony in all of Equestria.”

“Hey, what's up?” she was nonchalant about the Floran.

“Pleasure to meet you. Is that the rest of your squad up on that hill?”

I turned to see the four others eying the area. Sky Buster flew over to me and took off his gas mask.

“Major! Report!”

“Sir, this Floran can help us with the layout of the prison. He is also from the same planet as our colony and would like a safe return back in exchange for his services.”

Buster smiled and looked to the Floran. He looked back at me, “Good work Tony! Here, arm yourself with this Mr. Floran.”

“Um, this is just a knife,” he examined the tiny dagger.

“Yes, yes it is. Don't try anything funny you hear. My race had some pretty bad first encounters with your kind and I'm not so eager to trust any strange plant man I see. Got it?”

Flytrap sighed, “Damn my race. I fully understand. You're not the only one to suffer at the hands of us Floran. I apologize for all that we did to you.”

Sky Buster held back his anger and let out a deep sigh, “Alright, Puzzle! Looks like you're gonna use your bow after all. Give me your pistol.”

“Yay!” Puzzle gave a soft cheer, “Thank you sir!”

“And by the way. Tony, since you're the one who found him I suggest you keep a close eye on him. If he endangers anypony, anypony at all. Shoot him dead.”

“I-Yes sir...”

The rest of the group went on was Kim and I stood by our Floran friend.

“He really hates us huh?”

“What? No Flytrap, he's-” I struggled to find the right words, “racist at times. Our commander isn't the one to let things go after the trauma he experienced.”

“Again, I fully understand the gravity of it. I wish my race was like the humans, all helpful instead of hurtful. Constructive rather than destructive. And above all understanding and wise, not like the savage and pitiful excuse that my people have always been. I was lucky at my brother and I were raised by humans.”

We all stopped at the sight of an odd one eyed plump creature that waddled around on four flippers.

“Oh, don't mind those. We call them Stalkeyes and they're rather passive herbivores. I say rather passive because as you can see, I'm a plant. Funny, one of those was trying to eat me while I was sleeping on the roof of my house one time,” Flytrap chuckled as proceeded on. Sky Buster shot right next to his foot.

“And WHO gave you the permission to step out of line?”

“I-I'm sorry! Please, calm down,” Flytrap held his hands up high.

“You know how much I can't stand the sight of you bastards?”

“Sir! Let it go!” Kim came forward to stop him.

“If you don't mind, we still have a mission to complete,” Puzzle added. I was hoping his soft voice was help to defuse the situation.

Sky was holding back his anger, “You win this round Floran! And don't go running off.”

“I promise I won't,” Flytrap stepped back and fell in line. I began to question my CO's reactions. Suddenly Flytrap whipped his pistol up at two white gators that fell from the top of the mountain we were about to climb, “Pull back! Pull back! They shoot fire!”

“Engage!” Buster opened up with a shotgun blast that knocked one of the Flamengators back. The other regurgitated out a long stream of flame that burned at the forest around us, “Kim! Puzzle! Some sniper fire would be nice!”

Two shots rang out and killed one of the gators with well placed headshots. The wounded Flamengator stumbled back to its feet and waved another stream of hellfire at our commander. He managed to evade the blast with only a spot of singed fur. Flytrap took the opportunity to rush in and stab right into the underbelly of the beast with his dagger. He threw the alien off to the side and wiped his knife clean.

“Clear!” I yelled to the group.

“Confirmed clear!” Kim scanned our surroundings now engulfed with fire.

“Go! Go around the fire and back up the mountain! Let's not dilly dally!” Sky Buster signaled and we followed his lead.

Before long we stumbled upon a cave near the top of the mountain. Kim and I took point and we found a treasure chest at the mouth of the cave. She flew in gently and starred at the container.

“Ooo! Finders keepers!” she rummaged inside and presented us with her findings, “Bunch of pixels, a block of coal, an anvil, and what the heck is this thing?”

“Oh that,” Flytrap crested the entrance of the cave, “That's a Blue Stim Pack. You'll be able to jump really high with that stuff.”

“Well I guess I'll take it,” Kim placed the useful items in her pockets while storing the chest and anvil in the quantum storage of her matter manipulator. We continued our way up the mountain and found another oddity that looked like a very large rotating pixel capsule. We stood back before Flytrap explained again.

“That's a status pod. I suggest you avoid those unless you're in a pinch. They could be useful or some can be traps. You'll never know until you try-”

“YOLO!” Dawn Shy touched the pod and was engulfed in a green cloud of vapor. I wholly expected his bout of crape diem for the stupid to result in a rather misfortunate accident. Instead he was gifted with the a boost in speed, “Hoo! Look at me! I can shuffle my legs around really fast!”

“Rookie, I don't need you to piss me off even more you know that right?” Sky Buster slapped his hoof into his face.

“Yes sir, but think about it this way. I should have this for the rest of the mission. I think. You yourself told me that the highest risk yields the best reward,” Dawn Shy made his point.

“Hm, there might be some hope for you after all. Okay soldier, good call for now. But do that again and I will have you scrubbing the barracks toilets with your toothbrush. Got it?”

“Yes sir!” DS saluted and crested the edge of the mountain, “Sir, I've found the prison.”

As we all took a view from the top of the ridge we could see a large complex surrounded by barbed wire, chain link fence, and fortifications. It was a harden stone and brick structure that imposed a gritty and impressive aura. Something about it was quite off though but I couldn't place a hoof on it.

“Alright. KP, Puzzle, scope it out,” Buster addressed to our snipers.

“That place looks abandoned. There's no one in the guard towers and the entrance looked like it was blown open,” my wife whispered to our commander.

“Confirmed, there's no one down there. Wait! I've got movement,” Puzzle turned his attention to the second guard tower. I could see it for myself: there was a tiny dot of orange that slowly darted at the top of the tower with the broken searchlight. I investigated further with my binoculars and saw that the figure was human and female. She was armed with a strange energy pistol and was clad in bright orange.

“She doesn't look military, nor friendly for that matter,” I advised to Sky Buster.

“Nope, looks like humans have some funny looking prison outfits for their inmates. Guess we know what's up. Come on, let's see if there are any survivors.”

The commander lead us on. A short trot later and we were at the gate of the building.

“USCM Penal Colony,” Buster read out the cleverly placed sign at the entrance to the facility and chuckled, “Penal. Ahem! Okay I want everypony in combat mode and weapons ready. Be prepared for the unexpected. Stack up on the door.”

We all drew our primary firearms and stacked up on the sliding metal door past the tunnel of chain link fence. I took my 5mm assault carbine in my mouth and waited as we prepared to breach silently. The commander at the control panel with a shotgun held in his wings.

“Breaching,” the door slid open with a pressurized hiss. Sky was the first to go in and clear the room, “Clear, looks overgrown with foliage.”

“After only a week? That's not natural for plants around here,” Flytrap commented, “Yes, these were genetically engineered.”

“Scans show no airborne toxins,” Rolo probed the air with his manipulator.

“Good, keep going. I've got this corner,” we opened the first barred door and cleared the lobby of the prison. There was a human lady sitting on one of the benches next to a cola machine with a rather large axe and spiked metallic armor. She recoiled at first but started coming closer with malice in her expression. Sky Buster yelled to her, “Hey! Get back! Get the fuck back or we'll blow your brains out!”

“M-Must-Kill,” she twitched and continued on with her suicidal attack.

“Open fire!” Buster ordered and all of us, including Flytrap, brought down the crazed human with a hail of gunfire. Flytrap stepped forward and examined the body.

“This is strange,” he patted down the body and found something dead on her skull. He turned to us and presented a grotesques insectoid creature that was latched on to the back of her head, “This looks like a Chryssalid. But it isn't any Chryssalid I've ever seen.”

“That thing is disgusting. What the fuck is it?” Sky Buster approached with curiosity and caution at the twitching corpse of the blue alien parasite held in Flytrap's hand.

“This is a Chryssalid. It's a large parasitic insect that can be used as a biological weapon. Namely because it can reproduce and kill at an alarming rate. That and its method of procreation involves it laying an egg into your dead body and having a newborn, and very deadly, hatchling ready within a few minutes after you've become a zombie. This one is different though, it seems to control its host with high cognitive function.”

“Wait, okay. I'll admit it: I'm a little scared now. But who would use these as a biological weapon?” Buster poked the insect and it twitched, “What the fuck! Kill it!”

“Calm down! It twitches like this even when dead. The only race I know of that uses these as weapons are the Apex. Humans have them as pets and livestock though after their planet was invaded by the Ethereals.”

“These things are pets? Good goddess, humans are weird. But, do they taste like crab?” Sky scanned the insect and found it to be mostly edible to ponies, except for the venomous glads at the claws, “Well, it is edible.”

“Might as well,” Flytrap messily ate the insect and we could hear the crunch of exoskeleton in his maw. He gave a satisfied gulp and belch as he wiped the green goo off his face, “Yup, tastes like shellfish alright.”

My wife turned to the corner and vomited. Puzzle somehow became even more green and sickly to the sight and upchucked as well.

“I'm keeping her axe though,” Flytrap took the dead womans weapon and read the inscription engraved onto it, “Precious Stardude.”

“Okay, let's focus people. There are stairs to the upper level here. Kim, why don't you throw a battle scanner up there!”

“Okay,” my wife pulled a motion sensor from her pocket and threw it up the stairs, “Scanner is active! I got something up there!”

“Okay! Tony, Dawn Shy with me! Run and gun up there!” the commander and DS ran up to the security office upstairs and brought down another inmate with shotgun and SMG fire. I was the last to crest up and saw them looking at the dead body, “We got another! Chryssalid got this one too!”

The tiny bug did a high pitched squeal of agony as Sky crunched it down with an iron horseshoe, “Die die die! Rot in hell! Die!”

“Oh look, I found a Holy Fishcutter,” Dawny took the inmates knife, “I'm storing that in my manipulator.”

“Um, commander. I think you should check this out,” Rolo came through on the radio as we went down the stairs, “There's an egg here!”

Flytrap shot it open and a gooey embryonic Chryssalid popped out only to die a few seconds later. He stored its meat in his bag and came back to the group, “Shoot those on sight.”

“Point taken, you're not so bad afterall,” Sky Buster patted his shoulder and went on, “Let's go and find out what happened.”

As we entered the next wing of the prison we came under fire from another inmate. She was on the top flight of stairs of this guard tower and was firing down upon us with an assault rifle. We dashed back into the lobby and took cover behind the desks.

“Everyone on overwatch! If anything comes through that door it dies!”

“Roger sir, on overwatch,” Rolo deployed the bipod of his machine gun.

“Overwatch confirmed,” Kim was right next to me. We both watched the door with our rifles.

“Sir! If I may, I might be able to lure them down,” Dawny turned to our squad leader.

“How so?” he spoke without taking his .357 magnum off the door.

“I'm a story teller pony, my spells help with depicting scenes, casting 3D images, and making noises happen without sources. I can enchant this rock to serve as a mimic beacon but I can only do that twice per day.”

“Make it happen! Throw it at the door and lure them into the kill zone.”

“Roger sir! Mimic beacon out!” I saw the rock fly past me and roll into the door frame. The human went down to investigate and was cut down by our gunfire. Two more tried to run into the lobby and we gunned them down as well. We ceased our fire and advanced up the stairs to clear out the first wing of the prison.

“Looks clear! I'll set up shop up here. Provide me with some squad sight as you advance will you?”

“Got it Kim, Puzzle you're a better snapshot so stick with the group. That's odd, looks like her rifle was destroyed,” Buster picked up the remains of the weapon and placed it in his manipulator.

“It's bound to the user. If they die then the weapon is unrecoverable. Safety measure of the prison and it looks like the rifle was offline when this prison was raided,” it was comforting that Flytrap had a keen sense of observation.

We entered the courtyard of the first wing and we stood frozen. The whole area was covered in eggs and fleshy strands of Chryssalid goo. Sky Buster yelled at the top of his lungs.

“OPEN FIRE!”

We all filled the area with bullets as we tried to kill all of the unhatched eggs. They started to burst open and groups of their mothers rushed out into the courtyard from the second wing of the prison. They were much larger than any pony or human I've seen and scurried about on four clawed legs. They were blue in color and had back spikes with a bioluminescent yellow glow. There were a lot of them and we were all scared.

“NO Celestia! I don't want to die!” Dawn Shy panicked and blindly fired at an already wounded Chryssalid that was about to strike Sky Buster. This freed our commander to fall back into the lobby.

“Suck it up Dawn Shy! You just saved my ass back there!” He was trying to coax him out of his panic as I kept up my rifle suppression onto our enemies, “Fall back! Fall back!”

He grabbed DS by the collar and dragged him away further back into the lobby. The horde was thinned to a much more manageable level but I felt in my gut that something wasn't right. It was at that moment I heard my wife scream from upstairs.

“KIM!” I jumped up and rushed the flight of stairs through the fire of my squad. I didn't care that I was getting into the line of fire. Kim was hurt, or worse. Upon coming up to the top level I saw a Chryssalid that was ready to implant its proboscis into her now limp body. With all the fury in my heart I emptied the mag of my rifle and for good measure I bucked it off the side of the tower as it fell to its death. I held onto my wife and stroked her blood soaked auburn mane, “Kim! Kim it's me! I'm here.”

She was heavily lacerated and bleeding profusely. I went to work with my medical kit.

“T-Tony...” She coughed out a bit of blood, “You s-saved me.”

“Shh, save your strength. You're gonna be fine,” I was able to stabilize her condition and her bleeding stopped with the advanced nanosutures and high-potency stimulants derived from those red stim packs. I cleaned up her mane and tail and noticed the flower still untouched in her tactical rig pocket. I picked it up and carefully tucked it behind her ear with a gentle caress of her face, “I was so scared I lost you.”

“Thank you,” I heard her whimper as I held her close to me. I could hear something else coming up the stairs.

“Get away from her you bitches!” I readied my rifle with another magazine of bullets and shot two bullets at the top of the stairs. My heart sank into the sweet euphoria of relief as I heard my commanders voice.

“It's me! It's me! Tony what the fuck happened?”

“We're down a sniper. You've cleared the courtyard right?”

“Yes, is your wife okay?!” Buster put a hoof to my shoulder and looked back.

“Yes, she's critically wounded but I managed to stabilize her. What do we do from here?” I sighed to catch my breath.

“First we get her to safety,” he trotted over to my wife and bent down, “Hey Kim, it's Sky Buster. Don't panic okay? I'm gonna beam you up back to the ship so don't think you're dead just yet.”

“R-Roger. Keep Tony safe,” her voice was barely audible as she mumbled to Buster.

“I will,” he shook my wifes limp hoof and pressed the button on her transponder to beam her back into the ship. Her teal energetic aura beamed up into the heavens and twinkled as it disappeared. I held one hoof into the air and thought about our situation, “Press on. We have to find out what happened.”

“Sir! If I may-” Sky cut me off.

“I don't want to hear it Tony. Right now we need to do the right thing and find out exactly what happened! That distress beacon is still active and at the other end of the facility. If we don't find answers we'll have come here for nothing.”

“And risk the lives of all our soldiers?! Sir, please think about what we are doing!”

“Tony! We're still in good shape. Everypony else is unhurt and we've got Flytrap down there being a great asset and ally. We can still complete the mission. Don't go soft on me Tony, we've been through worse.”

I sighed again, “You've made your point. Sorry, that was just nervous jitters.”

I didn't expect a full bro hug from my commander, “Hey, I almost lost my wife too remember? Not only that but all of you, my soldiers, are my family now. You're like my brother AC and I wouldn't endanger your life or anyone under my command.”

I needed that reminder. He was my friend and brother, “Thank you sir!”

“Anytime bro,” he held out his hoof and I returned with another brohoof. We smiled and trotted back down into the lobby as the rest of the squad recovered the bodies, “Alright! Let's move up. You guys all good on ammo?”

“Yes sir. We've still got plenty!” Rolo reported in. We made our way to the second wing of the prison. There was one egg on the floor and Sky filled it with buckshot from his shotgun. This attracted another infected inmate to rush at us with a spear primed to stab.

“KILL!” she screeched as we filled her full of holes. We recovered her pike and pressed on to the main holding cells of the prison. We were ambushed by another three humans and one of them was using a plasma pistol.

“Keep your heads down and put some fire on those melee inmates! Rolo throw a frag grenade up there and blow em to bits!”

“Yes sir!” he primed the apple shaped grenade and cooked it to explode in mid air right in between the three humans. It knocked them back and the platform supporting the shooter gave way and she fell to her death. The Chryssalid controlling her hopped off and scurried into a vent before I could give it a burst from my rifle.

“Damn! I hope that thing doesn't come back.”

“Just focus on the last two prisoners Tony. I got your back,” Sky was quick to cover me with a well placed shotgun shell at my attacker, “Booyah! Chalk up another.”

“Help! Help is anyone out there! Save me!” we heard a voice from further up stairs. We rushed up to one of the cells that held one of the surviving female guards, “I don't care who or what you are! You're here to help right?”

“Yes! What the hell happened here?” Buster stood near the barred cell door.

“I've been stuck in here for days now! The whole prison's overrun with those fuckers and we were attacked by-” something from behind the crates jumped onto the back of their skull and latched into their spine, “AAARRRRGGGHH! HELP ME!”

Sky blew the door open with blasts from his shotgun and shot the survivor right in the head, “I'm sorry! I couldn't save you!”

“He's right. That thing latched onto the spine. Even if we did shoot it off them they'd be paralyzed and in agony for life,” Flytrap examined the body, “Here, she left us a gun.”

“And a whole bunch of supplies in the crates! Tony take a look at this. Red, blue, and yellow stim packs and forty pixels in this large crate. I suggest you carry the red one. Everypony these grab the rest and don't be afraid to use them if need be.”

“Roger squad lead,” Dawn Shy swiped a green one and gave himself another speed boost, “Hell, it's the same shade of green as the status pod. I was beginning to wear that boost out.”

“I found ten copper ingots and six pixels in this one!” Puzzle rummaged through a crate stacked on the large one, “Looks like the empty ones had food in them and our dead friend ate it all. Is there anymore survivors do you think?”

“That distress beacon is still active and my preliminary scan shows one guy still alive at the far end of the prison. We have to rescue them! Sniper fire get down!”

We took another shot from the higher level of the base. Sky took a hit and his left wing was wounded.

“Fuck! I'm hit hard! AGGGH! Holy shit my wing!” I rushed to his side and looked at the damage. His wing was ready to fall off.

“Hold still! I'm blowing away the red stim pack on you,” I plunged the needle into the root of his broken wing and shifted the limb into place. The advanced medicine of the syringe managed to mend the wing and it was back in place. There was still an open gash where the seem was but that had stopped bleeding. All the while Buster screamed in pain.

“MOTHERFUCKER THAT HURTS! Phew! Thanks to you I can feel my wing again,” Sky patted me on the shoulder and returned fire.

“Anytime pal!” I downed the next inmate and we brought the body count plus three, “We're cleared!”

“Sir, looks like this is a surveillance room,” Dawn came down from one of the many flights of stairs and reported to where he was prodding at.

“Let me see,” Sky lead the way for all of us to pile into the room, “You're right and check this out.”

He pointed to one of the screens to see the sole survivor of the prison. A guard in blue digital camo much like what Troy wore.

“He's USCM. Take a look at this view,” Flytrap pointed to another screen of the same room, “He doesn't have one latched onto him! We have to save him.”

“Alright, we got a confirmed location now. Let's move!”

“Stop for a second,” Puzzle investigated the top most floor and came back down, “I think you might want this Sky!”

“What is it?” Puzzle tossed him an ice cold can of that one human soda, Dr. Pepper it was called, “Oh my Celestia! I haven't had one of these in over a month! Aw dude, Puzzle thanks!”

“You could use it, there's a cola machine full of them up here,” Puzzle pointed up as Sky took a big gulp from the can. As Puzzle finished his sentence Buster nearly spat his mouthful out before recoiling to look at the can. He drank the remainder of his drink and crushed the can.

“We are taking that cola machine,” Sky turned to us with a look of determination in his eyes.

“The whole cola machine sir?”

“Yes Rolo! THE WHOLE DAMN SODA MACHINE!” he exclaimed with wide eyes and stuffed the whole thing into his matter manipulator, drinks and all.

The more I stared at the walls the more I noticed the graffiti. All of which held disturbing text. Turn back, there is no escape, and get out blanketed the walls and gave the prison an even heavier glow. The dark hallways and lack of light sources didn't help either and at least we were doing this during the day. We entered the next room. It was a workshop that held a few more crates. Buster couldn't resist taking a good look.

“Puzzle, let's clear out these crates for anything useful. Tony, Rolo, DS you guys Watch the unopened door,” he began to forcibly unlock each one with his shotgun while Puzzle took a more subtle approach with his bobby pins, “I got some unrefined wood here. Probably using these for their barrel fires.”

“I got something over here! One blue and yellow stim pack and forty pixels!” Puzzle placed them into his pockets and continued to look.

“Haha! Blue and red over here with sixty five pixels!” Buster threw the encased red stim pack to me, “Present for you Tony!”

“Thank you!” I tucked that away and continued to watch the door.

“Two more! One red and yellow with fifteen bits of cash!” Puzzle was on a roll, “I'll save this red one just in case.”

“Good job! Next room everypony,” we stacked up again and Sky was the first to breach, “Breaching! Two contacts spotted!”

One prisoner and one guard. The guard had a sniper rifle and took cover behind a desk. Meanwhile the prisoner charged at us with a spear. She was brought down by Sky Buster slam firing his shotgun with two shells of buckshot. The noise of which aggroed two more guards sniping from the guard post of this mess hall. We all took to the nearest cover we could find.

“Two more contacts! Dammit they got the high ground! Rolo it's time to fire a rocket! Take down that sniper nest!”

“Yes sir!” Rolo tossed his LMG to his back and primed the recoilless weapon in his hooves, “How's this on for size!”

The rocket made a brilliant fireball that took out most of the sniper nest and knocked the two guards to our level. Surprisingly Dawny was able to close in on the first sniper and pump his SMG into the bugger without so much as a scratch. I was quite amazed at this rookie.

“Nice shot Rolo!” Buster drew the overwatch of the two fallen snipers with his lightning fast reflexes, “I drew their fire! Hit em hard!”

I leveled my sights to one of the wounded guards and fired. My weapon gave a silent click and no report. The sniper I was trained onto leveled their sights onto me and fired. I took a hit right in the shoulder and was knocked to the ground. I felt my shoulder blade shatter at the sheer velocity of the sniper round that exploded inside of me with a burning sharp pain that felt all too familiar. I rolled to see my assailant get an arrow in the knee followed by a shotgun to the face from Puzzle and Sky Buster respectfully.

“Tony's wounded! Puzzle you gotta help him!”

“Roger that sir!” I could hear my friend's hooves clatter along the stone floor to me. I felt another rush of pain mixed with adrenaline as I felt my bones shift and combine into their rightful place. I was quite happy now that we took a moment to search for these much needed items, “You okay Antony?!”

“I'm good and back in the game. Thank you sir Puzzle!” I got right back up and gave him a firm pat.

“I've got your back too you know. You want us to stack up again on that door Sky?”

“Negative, Dawny flip these tables and make some cover. I want a half circle of tables surrounding the door. Everyone get into position and we're gonna toss another mimic beacon at the fatal funnel.”

“Roger, does this prison have a pool I can flip?” Dawn Shy began to turn them over. Sky gave a chuckle.

“Dammit Crowne Prince. I'll never live that down,” we all got behind our cover and overwatched the door, “Just throw the damned rock!”

“Mimic beacon out,” DS plinked another screaming rock at the foot of the door.

“Two guys coming through! Inmate and guard gun em down!”

“More coming in! There's so many of them!” Puzzle could see past the two with more of their buddies coming to the door.

“Stagger your reloads! Keep firing!”

“Sir! There's still more coming!” Rolo advised while still laying down as much LMG fire as possible, “I can't stop to reload at a time like this!”

“Keep firing Rolo! I want a damned bullet wall on that door! Tony you too!”

“Right! Rolo you reload! I'll keep the door suppressed!” I kept up my bursts of fire into the doorway. They piled up dead and were actually using the bodies of their fallen as cover. That was until the Chryssalids arrived, “Oh crap! We got more Chryssalids!”

“Don't let them get near those bodies!” Flytrap yelled to all of us as he shot on, “I need more ammo!”

“Here! Use it!” I tossed him more magazines of pistol ammo and Rolo finally reloaded his machine gun.

“Good to go sir!”

“Does anyone have any explosives left?!”

“Negative sir! All spent!” Dawn Shy switched out the magazine on his SMG, “They're coming closer!”

“Too late! One of them got a body! Oh my Luna!” Rolo watched as one of the dead bodies rose up and shambled to us, “We've got zombies!”

“Puzzle! Shoot them in the head!”

“I'm trying!” one shot from Puzzle, missed, “This bolt action isn't fast enough!”

A Chryssalid took a swipe at Puzzle and pierced right into his armor like it was butter. Buster tackled the beast to the floor and finished it with two shots from this scattergun.

“PUZZLE!”

“I think I'm gonna be sick,” it was clear that he was nauseous and poisoned by the creature. The deep puncture wound on his side was nothing to sneeze at either. I still concentrated my fire at the doorway with the mass of bugs and zombified humans coming through. Sky Buster threw Puzzle onto his back and signaled to all of us.

“FALL BACK! EVERYONE FALL BACK! ABORT THE MISSION!” He yelled through the fire and smoke and galloped to the door, “Go! Tony you take Puzzle! Get back outside and beam back to the ship from the infil point!”

“Sir! What about-”

“Just go Tony! Go!” he pushed me away and shot back at the lightning fast insects. I ran and ran for my life. Past the mess hall, past the courtyard, and past the lobby to the entrance of the prison. I took one look back and heard the click of an empty shotgun. I had to go back for him. I didn't want my brother in arms to die.

“Sky Buster!” I yelled in zealous fury as I gunned down a Chyrssalid about to impale him. Sky got back up and pushed me on.

“No! Go dammit! Don't stop for me!” we both saw it. More of them scurried into the building, a whole swarm of them all ravenous and hungry with slimy mouths that oozed saliva. With a swift buck I felt my weight kicked back into the open and my transponder was beeping. I was shocked and looked back at my commander and friend as I turned into energy and phased through the one abomination about to strike at me. He looked at me with a deep sorrow in his eyes and a gaze that told me: “Take care of her...” In that instant the last thing I saw before I was beamed up were those insects piling onto him to feast.

Seconds later I was in the hull of our spacecraft. I couldn't breath, I couldn't speak. I wanted to cry but I couldn't. My whole body was shaking and I saw everyone turn their attention to me. My wife was the first to whimper.

“Where's S-Sky?” she could read my expression and was already sobbing. I didn't say a word and froze in place, “N-No!”

“You mean... H-He's-” Puzzle limped to me.

“Dead,” as I uttered the word my legs gave out from under me and I collapsed to the floor. What was once frozen panic turned into deep and grieving sobs that filled the empty metallic hull of the ship. Tears pooled on my face as I lay on the ground immobilized by the death of one of my best friends. Sky... was dead. We all hung our heads low and let the tears fall. I gathered around them and we all wept into each others shoulders.

“Big Sky! You guys okay?” the subspace transmission from New Ponyville came over the radio. We sat there in silence, “Big Sky! Do you read Big Sky?”

I was hesitant to leave the group and slowly brought the radio to my mouth, “This is Major Antony Canon... Mission failed. Big Sky is coming home minus one commander.”

Day 75

Fluttershy

Sky Buster's funeral was held exactly one month after his death. It as an odd coincidence that the weather reflected the somber mood around us. The once bright blue sky was replaced with a dead grey and rain poured down from the clouds. We didn't bother to clear the weather. Everypony, especially my good friend Rainbow Dash, was caught up in grief that filled the whole town. Twilight and AnY took front stage to read out his eulogy.

“What would one pony say would be the mark of a great soldier? Patriotism? Honor? Sacrifice? We all know that Sky Buster was a pony we could always count on in our time of need. He was a shining beacon of hope for all those who fought alongside him and to those who called him friend. A normal pony like you or I that did so many good things for Equestria and the worlds beyond. He was a friend, soldier, husband, and part of our family among the stars. Decorated and loved by many nations, liberator of lands like Vulcan Sol and Tidas Aurora. Sky Buster was one of the legends of our time. Please, let us all take a moment of silence to celebrate the life of our brother in arms,” Twilight spoke on with a heavy heart. I could see the tears in her face that contrasted with the rain.

We all stood still and silent. The only one of us still sobbing was Rainbow Dash as the coffin was lowered into the grave. I gave her my shoulder to cry into as I saw our childhood friend lowered into place. I cried with her and held Rainbow close. I was no stranger to death. Most animals ever live long enough to outlast most ponies. Every time I had to say goodbye to any of my dying animal friends I'd give them a nice warm bed and make them as comfortable as can be before their final moments. All of the animals under my care died happy knowing that they lived a good life.

This was different. There was no happy ending, no last goodbyes, kisses on the forehead, or a lullaby to sing him to final slumber. He was dead. He died of one of the most horrific ways I could think of. And this was a pony, a friend, my friend. I went to school with him, played games in flight camp, and remembered him as a happy go lucky colt that liked to race around with Rainbow at breakneck speed. I flew with him in the same squadron during all those wars, all those awful wars. He was the one who told me that peace was worth fighting for. He saved my life on many occasions and never judged me for who I was or what I did. Like Rainbow, he was one of the few ponies I could really be comfortable around. He really loved animals too, especially insects. There was such a cruel irony to his death, killed by a very thing he once loved.

“Troops! Three volley salute!” Antony stepped up on the pedestal with Kim, Dawny, and Rolo. They all shouldered AK-47s, Sky's favorite rifle, as they stepped onto the stage. Kim was using Buster's personal AK as they fired three times in unison. It was followed by a flight of four pegasi overhead in formation with one peeling away. It was a fitting end for our friend. We all formed a line to say our final goodbyes at the end of the ceremony.

“You were the best military adviser I could ever hope for. And one of the most loyal guardians to have served under my rule,” Twilight was first to pay her respects. Rainbow requested to be the last.

"Ruhe in frieden mein freund,“ AnY was next.

“You gave your life to save me. Thank you sir!“ then Antony. He saluted and his wife came next.

“You helped us to win the war. We will never forget.“

Puzzle began to play on his lute and sing, “He said: Son, have you seen the world? Well what would you say, if I said that you could... Just carry this gun, you'll even get paid. I said: That sounds pretty good. Black leather boots, spit shined so bright. They cut off my hair, but it looked alright. We marched and we sang, we all became friends. As we learned how to fight...“

The line moved along as he continued the song.

“Even though you were always annoying as fuck, you were always a cool bro dude. We're gonna miss you Sky Buster,“ Digi paid his rather vulgar regards. Knowing Sky he wouldn't have cared for the langauge.

“Although I barely knew him, I've heard many a story. He was a great pony, a great fighter, a great husband. He gave his life for those he cared for most, and in doing so, he will never be forgotten,“ Rolo stepped up and held a hoof to his heart.

“You were always my favorite mentor. Thank you for choosing me to come on this mission and I hope you will rest in peace my friend,“ Ink Rose cried over the grave, “I really wish it didn't have to be this way.“

“See you in the next life brother. You did what you could and saved so many ponies,“ Tommy came up and hung his head over the casket.

“This concludes the funeral process. Everypony is dismissed,“ Twilight had her eyes closed as she announced. Slowly we all went back home except for the original four... Thirteen ponies that first set hoof on this planet.

“Of all the things I did as a party pony. This was one event I never wanted to plan,“ Pinkie has held close by her husband as we continued to grieve at the loss.

“He saved all of us. I'm here because of him and he kept his promise-“ Puzzle sobbed into Pinkie's depressed and drooping mane, “to the end...“

“Come on, let's all go home,“ Twilight trotted on back to the town hall before stopping, “Rainbow-“

Dashie lifted her head to Twilight as the rain and tears soaked her coat. She didn't bother to speak.

“If you need anything. Don't be afraid to reach out, to any of us,“ she trotted back and gave her a hug. I flew in gently to join in as the ten others joined together in our group hug, “If you need any help at all.“

“I-I'll try,“ Rainbow whimpered and staggered upwards. We all went home but I took it upon myself to escort her back.

Tank was knocking at the front door trying to get out as we came home. We trotted inside and sat on the couch. Rainbow slid her hooves to her face and cried on.

“He's gone! H-He's gone Fluttershy! Dammit! J-Just dammit!” she cursed into the wind as her tortoise landed on her lap to try and cheer her up, “Tank, thanks buddy...”

The cute shelled reptile nuzzled at her belly and gave her a place to put her chin on. I passed Rainbow a box of tissues and a garbage tin lined with a plastic bag.

“Flutters,” she hung her head without turning to me, “I-I loved him.”

“I loved him too, as a brother,” I gave my best friend a much needed hug and let her cry into my shoulder, “If you really want. I could stay here with you while you get to grips.”

“Thank y-you,” she sobbed, “He was my buddy, my soulmate, m-my husband. I brought him up when he needed me. And now I-”

She winced trying to hold back tears. Rainbow looked right at me and tried to wipe her face.

“I need him more than ever. Fluttershy, I'm late...” her wide eyes started to pool up again.

“Late? Late for what?” at first I didn't get it. Then, like the whole weight of the universe I realized what she meant. I-I didn't know what to say. I cupped my hooves to my mouth and gasped. I felt my own eyes swell with tears, “Oh my. Dashie...”

“All this time. I was going to surprise him after he came back. I volunteered for Twilight's experiment with Pinkie. I mean, later than Pinkie,” she blew her nose and tossed the crumpled tissue into the trash, “I need all the help I can.”

“Well don't worry Rainbow Dash. I'll be there for you for all the steps along the way. If it's any solace, Pinkie's foal is developing okay,” I tried to say something to give her something to think about.

“I suppose you're right. I'll be alright.”

“There's still a bright future ahead Rainbow. For you and everypony else in the colony,” I held her closer and whispered into her ear, “I'm here for you sister.”

I felt her constrict me in a heartfelt embrace, “I-I know... Thank you Fluttershy.”

I stayed home with Rainbow for the rest of the day. Things passed by as normal with a sober tone among the town. I had Rainbow follow me back to my house as today was the day for Pinkie's check up. She and her husband were there on schedule for their weekly examination and Twilight was there to record anything new. I noticed that Pinkie's mane was now halfway drooped and somewhat puffy. Not as puffy as it normally would be in her happy mood but it was getting there.

“How are you doing today Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

“Okay I guess. How can I be perky on a day like today? I'm not very hyper either like I usually am,” she spoke in a normal pace. Halfway between sad and neutral as she laid down on her back on one of my hospital beds.

“We have to move on. There is still a bright future ahead if this experiment is successful. Pinkie, Puzzle, I want to thank you both for volunteering,” Twilight prepared her notes and read them out loud, “So far so good. Gestation period should be a normal eleven months or approximately three hundred forty days. Anything to say Fluttershy?”

“Well, by now the embryo should have a visible heartbeat. Let me just prepare the ultrasound,” I gathered my medical equipment and put some gel on the probe and Pinkie's belly.

“Hehe, that tickles,” her mane poofed once and dropped again. We turned our attention to the monitor as the static filled image turned into the vague shape of the embryo, “Oh. My baby...”

“Look Pinkie, you can see the heart beating,” Puzzle pointed to the screen and scooted close to his wife.

“Pulse looks normal and everything checks out!” I smiled to Pinkie and gave her a rub on her belly, “You're all good Pinkie.”

Rainbow sat beside and eyed us. I could see the curiosity in her eyes and her head was cocked to one side.

“Make sure you have the proper nutrition for the developing foal okay Pinkie!”

“Okay Twilight! We'll see you all later, Puzzle and I have some stuff to do at the rock quarry,” Pinkie waved goodbye and trotted away with her husband. Rainbow looked back at them and stood there with a depressed and shallow look.

“It's your turn Rainbow. I know you want to keep this a secret,” Twi gave her a comforting pat.

“I know. That's why I came along,” she laid down on the same bed and spread her limbs, “Go ahead Flutters, do what you need to do.”

“Well, I'm going to need to vaccinate you first. Hold still!” I pulled a syringe and bottle of vaccine from one of my shelves. I tapped the needle to clear it of air as I went back to Dashie.

“WHOA! Hell no! You know that scares the shit out of me!” Rainbow dashed to the door before being caught in Twilight's stasis spell.

“Rainbow! This is for your own good. You need this vaccine,” Twilight placed her back on the operating table as she tried to squirm.

“No no no no no!” Dash tried to claw to the door.

“But Rainbow you need this EHV-1 vaccine or else you might suffer a miscarriage,” I stroked her mane to reassure her.

“M-Miscarriage?!” she darted her head back and forth and bit her bottom lip, “O-Okay! Make it quick. I don't want to lose the only legacy he left me.”

“Okay Twilight if you could please hold her down,” I requested gently.

“Got it,” she preformed her stasis spell and held Rainbow down. I carefully inserted the syringe into her rump and that was it.

“All done! That wasn't so bad was it?”

“I guess not. That still creeps me out when I feel that thing probing in me,” Dash shuddered to the thought, “Now, do I get an ultrasound?”

“Yes, lay on your back so I can begin,” I noticed her coat was slightly thicker than Pinkie's. I went to work with an electric razor so the ultrasound probe had a clear view.

“Um, what are you doing?”

“I'm just making sure the ultrasound can reach into your womb. Your coat is awfully thick and that can make the sound waves bounce oddly,” I explained to Rainbow as I gelled the probe and her stomach, “Now, I'm going to be looking for a fixated embryo. There it is!”

“Oh my Celestia... Um, how can you tell?”

“See this area in black that the ultrasound picked up? That's called a blastocyst. From there the foal will branch out and grow, like a tree.”

“Like you?” she giggled. It was good to see her laugh and I played along as well.

“Yes, like me because I am a tree,” I packed away my things and hugged Dashie, “You're all set! Everything is normal and you should hopefully have a healthy foal ten months from now.”

“Cool, but what do I do about this bald spot?”

“Tell everypony that Flutters gave you an ultrasound for a kidney stone,” Twi suggested, “That should help hide it for now.”

“Thanks Twi,” Twilight came over to hug Rainbow.

“You're going to be a mother now. You have to stay strong for the foal. You and Pinkie both.”

“I understand Twilight. He gave me another reason to go on,” Rainbow started to sob.

“Even in death he still inspires us. Go on, you've got some troops to attend to.”

“Yes ma'am!” Dash saluted and flew off.

Twilight now turned her attention to me, “Fluttershy, I have a very important assignment for you. Come meet me at Digi's place and bring your medical supplies.”

“Okay, will do Twilight,” I packed my things with the help of Angel Bunny. He passed me the case of my scalpels.

“You gonna be okay Fluttershy?” he spoke, sort of. I could understand rabbit language just fine and any normal animal speak for that matter ever since I was a filly.

“Yes Angel. I'll be okay.”

“Hey, don't sweat it girl. Things always turn out fo the better,” he patted me on the hoof, “Look, you should probably take a day off after this ya dig?”

“I suppose,” I sighed and petted his ear.

“Alright,” he stopped right before his bed, “And 'Shy. I'm sorry for being such a hard ass on you all these years. I've seen you grow girl into somepony better than you were before. I admit it, I can be a little shit, a pain in yo ass, and even a complete dick at times but never forget that I love you like a sister. If ya need anyone to talk to without anypony knowin I'll be here.”

“Thank you, Angel,” I finished packing my things and sighed.

“Hey, let's watch a movie after this thing you gotta do. Maybe I can ask my tortoise homey for some popcorn or something.”

“Okay Angel, you prepare the movie and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Good bye sweet prince,” I shook his paw and hovered out.

“Yo where that Thunder Blur pony at?”

I flew over to the door of Digi's house and knocked. Before I could set hoof on the door Tommy and Digi pulled me in and I squeaked in surprise. Digi cupped my mouth gently and they escorted me into their shed, now turned into an underground bunker filled with many rooms of odd experiments. Digi let go of my muzzle.

“Shh. I just didn't want any pony to hear you,” he put a hoof to his mouth and shushed.

“Um, I'm right here Digi,” AnY was following us.

“You know what I mean dickwad. I meant the others aren't suppose to hear in town,” Digi shot a glare at AnY who smiled deviously.

“You know I like to pull your horse apples.”

“AnY it's serious time dude. Now is not the time to dick around,” Digi lead us into one of the rooms with a tarp draped over something that twitched inside. He revealed it to be a giant dead bug that I've never seen before. It was quite odd that it was still twitching. It was then that I noticed Dawny and Rolo stood by as guards with their weapons.

“Now Fluttershy,” Twilight was dressed in a lab coat along with the rest of the science team of Digi, AnY, and Tommy, “We need your medical expertise in our autopsy of this so called Chryssalid. Let's not waste any time and get to work.”

All of them donned rubber socks and surgical masks for the procedure. I prepared my tools for the job and began to work. I wasn't at all squeamish when it came to medicine and surgery, after all it was my job as the chief medical officer of the mission.

“Okay, let's start with the abdomen. Ugh it stinks,” I started to cut but my scalpel wasn't able to dent the chitin, “I'll need a bonesaw.”

“Bonesaw,” AnY passed me the saw and I rocked back and forth with it held in my wing. It gave me the dexterity I needed to make fine incisions.

“Got it,” I pulled away the carapace and viewed the insides, “Oh my, take a look at this.”

“What is it?” Twi gazed in and held her clipboard close.

“This thing has both male and female parts. Oddly there's no tube that lays them.”

“Miss Fluttershy, these things might have the tub run upwards. See here?” Rolo came over to give his input, “These things implanted their eggs with their jaws.”

“You're right,” I took a close look at the carapace I took away and saw a tube that fused into the shell. It ran up to the mouth and was segmented along the body.

“What's more disgusting is the fact that the male and female bits are connected. It's like this thing can reproduce on its own,” Tommy pointed his laser pointer to the organs.

“Ech, it's like when I first molted in Changeling form,” I forgot AnY was half Changeling, “But this organism is so different from you and I. There are so many things wrong with it.”

“I know, it's been heavily genetically engineered into a killing machine,” Digi began to work on the claws.

“Careful with the claws! They're venomous at the tip,” Dawny put a hoof on Digi.

“Point taken,” he recoiled back and used some duct tape to cover the pointy ends, “Much better.”

“You know, this chitin is pretty damn hard. Do you think we can mold it in any way Princess?”

“What do you suppose Tommy?” Twilight wrote on her clipboard.

“I propose that we try to make armor out of its hardened monster plate. Something like an insert that we could give to our soldiers.”

“I'll take note of that. You got any ideas Digi?”

“Do you remember when those humans had those strange shotgun shells with all those metallic darts? I want to machine the carapace of this creature into flechettes and use them in grenade form. What do you think Princess?”

“I think both are valid projects but we only have resources to continue with one. Honey, since you're now the head of military command what do you think?” Twi turned to AnY.

“Let's not repeat Sky Buster's death. My heart goes for the armor, hooves down.”

“Alright, we can being research immediately. Digi, Tommy, and Fluttershy get on it. And remember: speak of this to no one.”

Day 76

AnY

We got a distress call early in the morning from one of our transports. After what happened to Sky Buster our foreign policy was restricted to looking after our own for now and the missions to far off planets were extremely limited. This one however we could not ignore as the transport held two key ponies for our morale situation. Our goal was to rescue Vinyl Scratch and Octavia.

“Okay everypony gather around gather around. It's important that we start this briefing and not waste any time. About an hour ago one of our transport ships from mainland Equestria was fired upon and shot down on Alpha Izar 56 III. The crew has survived but are taking extreme resistance from an unknown enemy. We are here to serve as the extraction team and find out what happened. Understand?”

“Yes sir!” all of my soldiers saluted.

“So does anypony have any questions before I give you our full plan of attack?”

“General AnY, what is the crew composition of our allied craft?” Rolo raised a hoof to ask.

“Ten ponies, eight of whom were the guards assigned to protect them. It would be a devastating loss for our morale if we do not retrieve them alive. The two ponies we have to bring back home are Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. Best put on your fancy hats people!” I continued on and fully briefed the squad I was to take out. Before me was Rolo, Dawny, Antony, KP, and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow requested to go out on this mission on the slim chance that this attack could be linked to the death of her husband. I allowed her to entertain the idea as she was a little on edge. Something else doesn't seem quite right about her either but that's to be expected when dealing with the death of a loved one. I'm sure she'll do fine on the battlefield though. Her focus wasn't broken easily while fighting.

We finished the briefing and loaded onto the ship. We were well equipped for the task at hoof with brand new and custom fit steel armor. Rolo was our heavy weapons specialist equipped with our new chitin plating and target finder apart from his usual weapons. Thanks to our new tactical rigging copied from human designs we were able to carry additional, and much needed, equipment into battle.

“Control tower this is Big Sky, we're on our way to the objective!” Antony reported out. He made sure to bring along more medkits and two flashbangs for good measure.

“Roger Big Sky, cleared to depart. Bring our ponies back safety.”

“This time, we will,” Rainbow sat in the back of the ship with her husband's AK-47, carefully polishing it with care.

“Hell yeah! To the stars we go!” Kim gave a firm pat on Dash's shoulder and she returned with her own. The ship launched past light speed and emerged in orbit above our target location. I got up from the control console and rallied my troops.

“Okay everypony! Once we touch down we head straight for the beacon. We have no time to waste. At the same time keep your eyes peeled and ears open. We're deploying now!”

We beamed down to the surface and found ourselves on a forest planet with more familiar looking leafy trees. We were all bunched together and watching each others backs.

“Clear,” Rainbow hollered.

“Confirmed clear,” Antony as well.

“Good, we need to head east from our location to find our missing craft.”

“Sir I have a visual on a friendly. He's down there taking cover by that tree,” Dawny pointed to the wounded Equestrian soldier armed with an M16 rifle.

“Hey! Are you the ops team? Get over here!” He called us over and we all secured the perimeter around him, “1st Lieutenant Firebrand of the Equestrian Marine Corps at your service sir!”

“Don't worry, we have a medic that can patch you up. Tony get your flank over here! Now tell me, what happened?” I asked the soldier as we heard gunshots further to the east.

“We started to take fire from an unknown stealth space fighter as we neared this planet. It didn't come up on radar until it was already shooting missiles at us. Damn thing had a cloaking device on it or something. Had we been flying a pegasus military gunship we could have shot him down, but instead we flew in with a civilian earth pony craft for the extra cargo space,” the red and yellow maned unicorn stallion went on as Antony bandaged his wounds, “Look, my squad is in no shape to take on these monkey freaks. You should best go see for your self.”

“Roger that,” I fiddled with the transponder on his chest to beam him up to our ship, “You heard him everypony! Let's go.”

We approached the crash sight and saw a monkey fly through the air carried by a pulsating beam of pure energy that let off a distinctive electronic bass. We dashed to the scene with the soldiers fighting alongside Vinyl and Tavi.

“Octy! One on your right!” Vinyl alerted to her friend as she jumped from behind cover and sliced an ape with her cello string beam saber.

“Enemy dispatched. Looks like the rescue team is here as well,” she drew her tommy gun off her back and took cover next to us, “How's the colony AnY?”

“Pardon? I thought you didn't have this under control,” I was surprised that she was rather calm.

“Well, those oh so helpful Marines got our experimental weapons for us in the cargo hold. Hold on, there is more coming and we may need your support trying to get out of here. Please, tend to the soldiers first, Vinyl and I can hold our own with you,” she charged her beam saber and reloaded the drum magazine of her tommy gun, “Let's make this a red orchestra.”

“Copy that Tavi. Everypony! Reposition on the crash and hold them off while I set my transponder to link with the group! It's going to take some time,” I gathered all of our soldiers in close proximity as their transponders started to download the files, “Three minutes!”

“Okay! On overwatch!” Dawny took cover inside the burnt out hull with his SMG.

“Roger, got my eyes peeled,” Rainbow occupied the same cover as me. She bumped my Panzerfaust 44, “Don't be afraid to use that thing! Nor your German buzzsaw you got there too.”

She referred to my MG3, “Oh but of course Rainbow. But I fear that this weapon's bark might be more intimidating than its bite against these enemies.”

“After what we faced in the prison, you never know,” KP kept her cool with one eye in her scope, “Got something! Enemy contacts moving on our position! They're monkeys!”

I could see them now. They were like humans, only with more fur and so familiar to the monkeys and apes we would see in Equestria. Their fur looked sickly and altered and they brandished advanced glowing weapons.

“Wuba dub dub mothafuckers!” Vinyl shouldered her dubstep rifle and projected a focused stream of sound that tore at our enemies at the molecular level, “Tavi, you're up!”

With the grace and agility of an ninja Octavia surprised us all by going out into the open and rebounding off trees and rocks to strike within melee range with her Thompson and cello string saber. It was then that I noticed her horseshoes were glowing with blue energy.

“AnY, if you could please. Thin out the Apex to your front and protect those soldiers,” she asked politely in her gentlemares voice.

“Roger! You draw their fire while my team mops up!”

“RAH!” Rainbow gunned down one of the apes that tried to shoot at her, “ Looks like they got lasers! We'll be in a world of hurt if those hit us!”

“Whoa! I'm suppressed back here!” Tony had his head pinned to the wall by an ape machine gunner.

“You know I always got your back honey,” Kim winked to her husband as her sniper rifle found its mark on center mass, “Wow! These new reaper rounds are kickass!”

“Like the reaper,” Dawn Shy was ballsy enough to skid next to one of those monkeys and unload with all of his SMG rounds.

“Dawny! Watch out!” Rolo called to him as another one jumped from the top of the tree and stabbed him with a knife. Octavia took down the assaulting Apex with her beam saber.

“I suggest you get yourself one of these. Pulse jump hooves. They make for great hit and run attacks,” Octavia shot a cable built into her armor and hooked over to us, “And that is a grappling hook. A lot has changed in Equestria after you've been gone.”

“I can see that!”

“Sir! I've confirmed that these soldiers are genetically augmented! Take a look at this,” one of the marines we were protecting dragged a body as the wave died down. The eyes of this sniper were altered and by my guess gave him greater depth perception, “How long until the evac?”

“Two minute-wait! That can't be right,” I looked to my transponder and saw that the timer had stopped, “Verdammt ! I'm trying again!”

Download stopped, nothing, “Dawny! Try and see if you can beam up and secure the ship!”

“Negative sir! My transponder isn't working!” the unicorn pounded at the device, “We're trapped!”

“Können die Dinge noch schlimmer werden?” I cursed to the wind in German. Then cruel irony slapped me in the face.

“WE GOT MECH SUITS!” one marine yelled to us as a lumbering bipedal tank tackled down a row of trees, “HEADS DOW-”

He was cut short to death by a particle beam that destroyed his cover and left nothing but bits and pieces.

“Two more coming from the trees!” Kim screamed to us. Octavia was unphased.

“I'll distract them. Vinyl come with me.”

“Ah yeah! Lancer charged and primed! Nothin' special,” on Vinyl's back was another bass weapon, only it was the size of a rocket launcher and she had to brace herself on two hooves as she shouldered it to fire, “JUST MA BASS CANNON!”

With a release of the trigger her bass cannon shot out another, much larger, pulsating stream of blue focused sound waves that tore into one of the mechs like it was a tin can. The metal flayed and peeled as the walking panzer was blown away to scrap.

“SO AWESOME,” Rainbow pressed together her cheeks and went all fangirly.

“I'm out of sparkle packs! Octy you gotta get em!”

“With pleasure Vinyl,” her pulse jets allowed her to stick to rocks, trees, and run on vertical surfaces. The guns of the walker could not track her as she made her rebounds from tree to tree with her elegant and flowing parkour. She got its attention with shots from her SMG which were somehow reflected back at her with some sort of vortex shield that lined the mech. She dodged it with ease as her cable latched on and swung her around to rodeo the giant walker, “I've pulled off the reactor panel! Say goodnight you disgusting ape.”

She emptied all of her drum into the reactor of the walker and the vehicle slowly started to explode. We all saw the pilot eject and Octavia followed with a pulse from her horseshoes. At the crest of their height she gave him a firm buck to the face with one back hoof as she landed softly with another pulse jump.

“And that my friends is how the upper class handle their arguemen-AH!” she was shot with a laser from an unseen sniper ape. We gasped as she collapsed to the ground.

“OCTY!” Vinyl tried to rush forward but was cut down with another bolt of light. I saw the sniper hiding behind a rock but she was, no her skin! Mein Gott it melded perfectly with the colors of the rock like a chameleon.

“Focus all of your fire on those rocks to the north! Forget about the walker!” I directed my troops to fire and take out the sniper's cover.

“Whoa! There's someone there! I didn't see her!” Kim put the sniper down with another reaper round, “Antony! Get em back here!”

“I'll draw the fire!” Rainbow darted forward to draw the overwatch of the mech as Antony dragged Octavia and Vinyl to safety. Rainbow bashed in the glass of the cockpit and shot the pilot dead with a zealous roar, “RAAAAAAAHH!”

“Get back! Get back! It's going to explode!”

“What?!” she glanced back before the wreckage blew up in her face. She was thrown into a tree and broke one of her wings, “ARGH! My wing! Medic!”

“Dammit! No red stim packs,” Tony applied a splint and bandages to Rainbow, “You're back in the fight but you won't be able to use those lightning reflexes of yours without your wings.”

“You don't have to tell me twice, AH!” she grasped Tony's hoof and got back up, “Holy fuck, more!”

“More here too!” Rolo tried to rocket another mech coming out of the woods but missed as it sailed past into the distance, “Not good! I needed that to hit!”

“Kopf nach unten! Heads down!” I brought my rocket to my shoulder and fired. The RPG hit my traget but the damned thing kept walking!

“I'm out of medkits! Vinyl and Octy are stabilized!” Tony reported in.

“It's not gonna matter if we're all dead! I wanna go home! Sweet Celestia we need evac now! Dammit now!” Dawny panicked and hunkered down in his position.

“Put that gun to use Corporal and shoot the damn thing!” Kim knocked some sense into Dawn Shy and they were both hit from the splash damage of a brain bot's beam cannon, “AGGH!”

“KIM!” Antony rushed to his wife and dragged her into the crashed ship, “No, please! Don't die!”

“She's bleeding out heavily! If we can't get an extraction soon we'll all be dead,” Rolo dragged in Dawn Shy as we all fell back into the hull of the ship. All the marines were dead as the enemy drew closer.

“We're all dead aren't we sir?” Rainbow looked on out of the window as the mechs clanked and pounded to us.

...Dammit, she was right. Our transponders jammed, no evac, and a technologically advanced alien enemy all conspiring against us. Nothing short of a miracle would help us now. What surprised me the most was that Rainbow was the first one to cry hysterically.

“I shouldn't have come! I wanted to get even but now we're all gonna die!” she held her belly close and cried into it, “Dammit! Just dammit!”

“Rainbow. Are you-pregnant?” she was oddly protective of her belly. She gave a silent nod and continued to sob. Ho-ly-shit. Had I only know! Had I only fucking known! UGH! I felt like punching her after she did what she did. But, what use would come of it? Instead, fury turned to guilt as I was washed with a heavy feeling that I just sent all of us to die. We all huddled together for a final goodbye.

“T-This is the end?” Kim coughed as her sides bled.

“I'm afraid so Kimmy. Hush now, quiet now, it's t-time to lay your sleepy head,” Antony began to sing to his dying wife. Rolo hunkered down and started to recite prayers in-Hebrew?! It was quite an honor to inspire this soldier after the hatred of the German changelings and ponies. He viewed me as an equal and not a monster. Dawny lit up a cigarette and offered it to anypony who wanted it.

“Stole it from Digi. Sorry, any last whiffs?”

“No,” we all gave a solid answer.

“Suite yourself,” he took a long whiff and counted down, “Five... Four...”

We could hear the particle beams charge.

“Three... Two... On-”

Explosions. At that moment I expected burning pain to shoot into every corner of my body or nothing at all as I was killed instantly. The ground shook and I was thrown to the cabin floor. In the seconds that followed I patted down my entire body.

I was alive... Good Luna I was alive!

“Area clear pack commander!” we heard another voice from outside.

“Not just yet! I've got heat signatures inside this crashed UFO. I'm sending in a gun drone to see what's inside,” another yelled as this pure white flying machine dipped from the opening in the ceiling, “Halt! Identify yourselves, friend or foe!”

“Friend! Friend! For the love of Celestia friends!” I shouted to the drone, “Please help us! We have wounded!”

“Roger that! Shas 'Ui! We have wounded aliens inside the craft. It looks like the Apex almost overran them.”

“Pack, spread out! Get a medic over here Shas 'La!”

“With haste pack leader!” two of them entered the ship and stood about our height. They were like tiny feathered dinosaurs with pure white armor and four floppy ears. They were also very adorable with their cute faces and big beady eyes, “We gotcha. Are you carbon based organisms?”

“Yes,” I nodded to the medic as he went to work on Kim, “What are you?”

“We're called the Avali. And you are?” the blue feathered raptor asked.

“Um, talking ponies. I myself am the military leader and diplomat for my colony. My name is General AnY.”

“Shas 'La Nia Stormfeather!” she saluted, “It's an honor General!”

“Please, tell me what is going on around here. Do you have any idea why these monkeys attacked us?”

“Nia, you okay?” another Avali came into the ship. He took off his helmet and nuzzled Nia.

“Yes Tuni. I'm fine,” she directed her attention to us and flopped an ear as she was done patching up Kim, “This is my commander and pack leader, Shas 'Ui Tuni Stormfeather. Hee hee!”

“Yes, forgive my family member. She is quite perky,” he smiled to us cutely with one sharp tooth exposed. He ruffled his black feathers and ordered his men to tend to us, “Come, we have much to talk about.”

Other Avali gathered to meet us outside as their ships, aircraft, and battlesuits dropped into the planet. It was quite an impressive sight with all sorts of advanced technology I've never even seen.

“Mont'ka at it's finest. Once we rid this planet of the Miniknog the Universal United Forces should gain the foothold on this sector,” we marched into an odd, angular flying dropship with fins that swept back and forth with Tuni and his squad, “Was that your ship hovering above the atmosphere? It didn't match any of radar signatures of other races ships.”

“Yes, we have a wounded soldier on board. Now, may I please ask what happened to our transport that got shot down?”

“Yes. You flew over a Miniknog controlled planet. The Avali allies of the UUF and the Apex have been fighting over this world as a strategic point of interest. Your race was caught in the crossfire,” Tuni ignored Nia as she picked at his feathers. Tuni also gave me a computer chip of some kind, “That should help you on your travels. It's a processor that can control multiple functions at once. Useful if you want say, a robotic crafting table. We recovered it from that brain bot.”

“Thank you,” I placed the chip in my pocket and looked to Tony.

“So what do these monkey men even want?” Antony stroked his wife's mane as she was fast asleep and recovering from her wounds.

“Absolute control over the universe. The Miniknog are notorious for their dystopian society and their creed to impose their will on others, by force. They do not follow the ethical rules of warfare set about by the humans and their Geneva Convention unlike others such as the newly formed Hylotl Empire and us, the Avali.”

“Why is it so cold in here?” Dawn Shy started to shiver. All of us started to feel it now.

“Oh shoot! Nivra! Warm up the ship, these organisms can't stand the cold,” Tuni turned to the pilot.

“Got it Shas 'Ui! Heads up we're flying into space to link up with the alien ship.”
“I thank you for saving all of us. Please, come with us to our colony with your representatives. We will hold a celebration for your kindness,” I bowed to our saviors as they pulled up next to our own dropship.

“You're lucky that we caught you in time,” Tuni patted my chin, “Up, up! No need to be so formal. My pack is quite friendly.”

“Your pack? Are you all family?” Rolo surveyed the six Avali on the ship.

“Well, only Nia and I are related by blood, but in Avali culture your pack is your family, even more so than family. Nia is my sister. Nivra is our pilot. Newa is the one with the Heads Up Display, Bennel is our sniper, and Fenra is my mate.”

“Greetings xenos!” Newa lifted his three fingered claw, his arm feathered with alternating purple and white.

“And good day!” Bennel pressed a button on the side of his combat helmet and it sheathed back into a singular point at the back of his head. His happy grin exposed a mouth full of razor sharp teeth but his eyes were awfully cute when closed. He was a pure white from head to tail feather.

Fenra took a seat next to Tuni and nuzzled, “Neva tu neer san!”

“Pardon her, she doesn't speak Human English. She can understand just fine and she says hello and good tidings,” Tuni spoke for his wife.

“You got any good music?” Nia asked to all of us. Vinyl stirred awake upon hearing that.

“You're just in luck my strange feathery alien. I am hooves down the best DJ in all of Equestria! Listen to this!” Vinyl deployed her shoulder mounted bass cannon into stereo mode and put her iconic sunglasses into place, “Let me show you how to make a scene. Let's party!”

She played her newest track. The first drop was immediate and satisfying with electronic beats that filled the room with energy as our Avali friends happily bounced back and forth with ears flopping with joy.

“Okay Tavy it's time to-” the music stopped to a screech, “Blaaah. That's what it's time for. Hehe!”

Another drop! This kicked the song into high gear as she mixed in samples of Dashie yelling: louder! Octavia jumped awake and sighed, glaring right at Vinyl.

“You're cute when you're mad,” Vinyl pecked Tavi's cheek and continued with the music.

“Binko! Tuni Binko!”

“She says more! More music!” Tuni danced on with his wife.

“Aw yeah! Music is the sound of the soul to the Avali! Woo hoo!” Nia twirled and bounced as we all took a moment to relax and enjoy the music. I looked out of the window and saw the stars once more. We were safe, and that's all that mattered.

Day 226

Kim

So for so good. I woke up to the sound of my husband snoring as the sun rose lazily off in the distance. It's been five months such our first contact with the fluffy dinosaur dudes. We partied pretty hard last night at the dance club with our new Avali friends and by now the town grew to include thousands of ponies. It felt like home, like we were back in Old Ponyville. I got up and walked downstairs to get myself a pancake from the fridge. Groggily I plopped the bitch onto a plate and stuffed it into the microwave. I sat down on the dinner table and fell right back asleep only to have a rude awakening from the microwave. My wings fluttered and I was dragged into the air as I flailed one hoof to shut down the alarm.

“Ugggh, coffee,” I banged my face onto the buttons of the coffee machine and awaited the rich black nectar of the gods to pour into my cup. One sip and my world finally opened up, “Ah! That's better.”

I went back to the table and poured some syrup on my breakfast. Antony slid down the stairs still wrapped in the comforter from our bed. I trotted over to him and stuffed a pancake into his mouth dipped in coffee.

“I made you breakfast,” I giggled as he got up and chewed the lump of food I rolled into his mouth.

“Hrrm,” he moaned then burped, “Too much cider.”

I carried him over to the table and we both had our morning coffee. There was a knock on my door and my eye twitched with anger. To the door I flew to find Rainbow Dash, now rather plump with a foal. I was relieved that it wasn't anypony going out on a mission again.

“Hey KP, sorry to knock on such short notice. Can I come in?”

“Sure thing,” I lead her into my house and she looked at Antony slump over face first into his pancake, “Uh? Hung over much?”

“Yeah, we got drunk last night. How have you been doing since,” I tried to come off sensitive, “you know.”

She sighed and shook her head, “Fine, just fine. Fluttershy is a really big help around my house.”

“If there's anything at all that you need I won't hesitate to chip in,” I gave her a hug and felt her foal kick.

“Hey! Knock it off in there will you?” she giggled and turned to me, “Actually, there is one thing.”

“Anything at all. Lay it on me RD,” I kicked back and offered her some coffee.

“No thanks, light early morning exercise woke me up just fine,” she had her own water bottle and drank out of it, “However, I'd like to as you a favor. You know how Twilight appointed her husband as the military leader?”

“Yeah, AnY knows his shit but I don't think he's well suited to field operations just yet,” I thought about how I almost died three times during this whole space thing, “What you asking for?”

“Will you vote for me as the supreme commander instead? You've seen what I can do out there after all those wars we fought together,” she paused, “I'm not saying that I'm going out on missions or anything in my condition. I'd just like to-hey ow!”

I saw her belly bump again.

“Blah! And I gotta carry this little dude for another four months? Geez this is tough. I seriously wish he was here to take care of me.”

“Hey,” I gave her a pat on the back, “It's okay Rainbow. All of us are your family now. It's time to move on.”

“Move on?” she shook, “Move. On?!”

Anger welled within her and she started to cry.

“Do you know that every night I cry myself to sleep because I can't feel his wings wrap around me in loving embrace! Do you know that can't look at a single cloud anymore without thinking about how we use to nap and cuddle while we sang songs and laughed! Do you...” her tears pooled on the floor, “Know. How hard it is. To lose someone you love?”

She got me there. I wouldn't be quite the same without Antony either, “I'm sorry. Please stop.”

I hugged her in my arms and wings and rocked her until she stopped crying. She regained her composure and sighed.

“I'm sorry too. Hormones don't help either,” she brushed that aside and continued, “I just want to give you guys the tactical know how you need while on the battlefield if we ever go out again. AnY may have inspired soldiers, but to lead them is another thing all together. Sky was my husband, and he taught me everything I ever needed to know about war.”

“I get your concerns Rainbow. I will talk to Twilight about this issue,” I patted her once more on the shoulder, “Stay safe, that little guy needs you to stay strong.”

“I will, thanks for everything KP,” she flew off back to her house and I closed my door. Antony jumped awake to the sound after being half asleep and buried in pancake.

“Hubuh? WOOOOER!” he made the sound of a dying whale, “What in Luna's damned moon was that?”

“That was the door honey. Rainbow just came over.”

“Well, this hangover is dreadfully awful. How are you doing today?” he groaned as he stuffed another fork full of pancake into his mouth.

“Fine after last night,” I nuzzled his syrupy chin and licked some off, “And that was fun.”

Antony raised his sensually luscious manly eyebrows and smirked. I giggled like a schoolfilly and gave him a firm hug.

“Your wings are up you know,” he poked my side and I blushed. My wings shot down and folded into place.

“N-NO they're not!” I sucked in my lips and heard a knock on the door again. Phew! Saved by the bell. I answered it to find purple pony.

“Sup Princess. What's on you mind?”

“Kim, as the head of our intelligence bureau I need you and your husband to prepare a report to Princess Celestia herself. You will find all the resources you need inside Digi's bunker complex. That is all I can tell you for now,” she looked back and forth, “I have to go tend to some other things.”

“Wait! Twilight! Dammit,” she trotted off into the distance before I could intercept her, “Well AC, let's get to work for today.”

“Alright let me just put on my pants.”

“You don't have pants! Come on sleepy, let's go,” we went over to the shed where Digi dug out a whole bunker complex with Pinkie, Puzzle, and the rest of the miner ponies. He greeted us at the entrance of the facility.

“Welcome to NPV Central Colonels,” Digi saluted to us, “Ready to get started on your assignment?”

“Yup, what do we gotta do Digi?” I put my wings behind my head and followed him to the control room of the base.

“Well, Princess Celestia wants to have a threat report done on all the races we know. And with us is our cute and fluffy raptor buddies from when you rescued Vinyl,” Digi lead us into the main room with a starmap of our sector. I recognized the Avali that saved me down below talking to the others in the room.

“Greetings Pony!” Tuni glanced over to us with his big beady eyes, “My pack has been assigned to share with you the secrets of the starbound races!”

“Okay then, so where do we start good lad?” my husband trotted down the flight of stairs to meet up with the rest of Tuni's pack.

“Shenva neh gurn!”

“She says we'll start with the humans. What do you know so far?”

“Well, having served as an air force analyst I have noticed that humans like to use conventional firearms with jacketed bullets. However, we do not know whether or not they have been enchanted with magic like our own.”

“Magic? That's not real,” Tuni crossed his arms in disbelief.

“Then what is this?” Digi floated up a bag of chips and popped it open.

“Big deal, it's some sort of psychic power. I've seen some humans do that,” Tuni was unimpressed. Digi frowned.

“Well, what about,” his horn glowed and he teleported behind Tuni, “This?”

“So? Blink tech. Not all that impressive.”

“B-BUT!” Digi facehoofed.

“Okay then, try this,” Puzzle came in from the other room and bound a butterfly wing spell to himself. He flew right down to us and showed off his wings, “Go ahead, feel them.”

“These feel like they aren't there. You're not flying with a wire are you?” Tuni waved his claw through Puzzle's wings.

“Nope, nothing but the gossamer and morning dew wings.”

“Those look retarded on you,” Digi coughed bluntly.

“And you drank half a red bull,” Puzzle retorted then started to think, “I really wish Sky was here to give his input.”

“Puzzle, not now,” I shot him a glare.

“Who?” Nia asked from the other end of the room.

“It's not important right now,” Digi lit a cigarette and gave it a whiff, “Much better.”

“Since when did you smoke?” Antony turned to Digi. He only returned with a look of 'you know when' and continued to smoke.

“Okay, about those humans,” I reminded Tuni.

“Right, I'll share with you what I know,” Tuni loaded an Avali data chit into our holo computer. Various bits of data filled the screen and Tuni sifted through the juicy bits of the intel, “Humans have lost their home planet a few years ago. They aren't a threat and are actually very helpful now that they recently opened up their foreign policy to assistance from xenos like us. Their military is one of the best, with combined arms tactics and firearms to boot. They use guns and lots of bullets. It stems from their shock and awe tactics from the twenty first century.”

“And what of their air power and navy?” Antony read the data back and forth on the holoscreen.

“Air power relies on mostly unstealthy ground attack platforms with heavy armor while air supremacy is maintained by stealthy long range interceptor craft. Their navy mostly uses missiles for long range engagements and their ships are well balanced.”

“Okay, what can you tell us about the Apex?” I wanted to know more about our most recent enemy.

“The Apex are deadly. Large military, massed wave attacks, and they don't play by the rules. They make liberal use of terror weapons such as biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. Case and point: their recent terror attack on the Beta Castor planet,” Tuni flashed the gruesome slides of the prison Sky Buster died at. The last slide was disturbing, it was Sky Buster dismembered and turned into a Chryssalid breeding nest, “Hit hard by Apex experimental bio weapons. We found this alien creature that we thought was a winged horse. Turns out it was one of yours. I am sorry for your loss.”

“He,” I shook trying to hold back tears and the disgust in my stomach. I saw it in the faces of the others, “Was a model fighter pilot until the end.”

Digi turned away as he took another long whiff of his cigarette, “He was. You three wouldn't be here without him.”

“Sky...” Puzzle tried to touch the screen but his hoof phased through the hologram, “Did you at least recover the body?”

“Yes we did. Pardon the butcher work from the autopsy. We do that to most alien carcasses we don't know about.”

I saw Puzzle snap to the direction of Tuni, “You did what?!”

“Hey! It wasn't my fault! It's standard scientific proceedure!” Tuni explained as we held Puzzle back.

“Save it for the enemy! THAT enemy right there,” Antony looked to the screen and saw the face of a giant ape with eyes that seemed to follow us, even from that still image. We let Puzzle go as his rage simmered down.

“You're right. It's bad enough that we've restricted this foreign policy. Sky would have wanted us to go out and help others. That's what he did and always has.”

“And it's only a matter of time until the Apex find this planet. The Avali can't help you to defend, our forces are concentrated on precision attacks and quick application of force. We don't have heavily armored tanks or much emphasis on defensive fighting techniques. We usually rely on the Hylotl or the USCM to planetary defense or ambush tactics to suite our needs,” Tuni continued.

“Well, if the Apex don't know that you're on this planet. Maybe we can lure them out into an ambush,” Antony thought about it.

“Here's the thing, we don't know when they will strike or even if they discovered this planet yet. We can't plan for an ambush unless we know they will take the bait,” I gave my input, “Dammit, what would Sky Buster do?”

“I suggest we rally Twilight and AnY here to talk about our battle strategy. Also, we finally set up an automated factory with robotic crafting tables that will churn out the gear we need just as long as we get raw materials flowing from the mines. Let's see what we can come up with,” Digi viewed the screen and took in all the data.

“I'll go get Twilight and AnY. They should hear this,” Puzzle went off to the surface as we continued.

“While he is away, what can you tell us about your race?” Tuni and his pack gathered around to hear us talk.

“Say, are we authorized to disclose this stuff?”

“Well Kim, they saved us afterall. We just had a big festival celebrating our new alliance,” Antony leaned on the wall, “Twilight gave us the get go.”

“Yeah! That was fun. Our representative from Avalon really loved your music!” Nia smiled with big sharp teeth and cute cat like eyes, “You can count on us, Avali are very trustworthy allies and we wouldn't want to squander a new racial alliance and a chance for new commerce.”

“Exactly Nia, our leaders authorized us to share with you everything we know about our enemies and allies. So please, go on,” Tuni sat down and his pack gathered in a half circle.

Digi gathered an old dusty book on Equestrian History and read it out loud, “One thousand years ago in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her alicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger alicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.”

“Well, until she came back that is,” Antony added.

“I have a question. What's an alicorn?” Nia raised her claw.

“Hen new tin han magic we?” Fenra asked.

“She says how does magic work?” Tuni translated.

“An alicorn is like a unicorn with wings, feathery wings. Temporary spells like what Puzzle did don't count,” Digi explained, “Magic is a force that can transcend and alter the universe in different ways. It literally bends and shapes the laws of physics as we see fit and it takes a lot of time to master and perfect. Even to this day we are trying to understand how it works and it's rather complicated. Anyway, back to the history lesson. After Nightmare moon returned to Equestria six heroes emerged to challenge her worldwide threat. We call them the Mane Six and are with us right now supporting our journey into space. The six mares Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and last but not least Twilight Sparkle used an ancient superweapon called the Elements of Harmony to restore the good in the heart of Nightmare Moon. Banishing the darkness she returned to her righteous rule as the Princess of the Night, Luna. Then let's fast forward a few years to just before the Floran invasion of our planet. After one thousand years of peace was broken by not one, but two wars, us ponies went to rebuild what was left. Then came the Floran Wars. They wiped out some of the most major world superpowers on our planet and we only won by no small miracle. This project of colonization was started because of that war: to insure that ponies will continue to live on forever no matter what happens to Equestria. Our timeline places us right in the Equestrian year 1960 by now.”

“And your weapons?” Bennel eyed his sniper rifle, “I'd like to compare.”

“And ships too!” Nivra requested

“Oh what kind of ships are we talking about? In pony culture ship can mean two things: who you're in love with or the vehicle,” Antony added as he raised a hoof.

“The vehicles. And you two are a ship?” Nivra cocked her head.

“Well yes, but the correct grammar is that we are shipped,” Antony explained as he wrapped an arm around me, “Aren't we honey?”

“And it's all Rio's fault,” I remembered my friend back in Equestria. She was always the prankster.

“Well then. Equestrian firearms are the best on our world, at least they now are only because the Kingdom of Tidas Aurora was destroyed. Like humans that inspired most of our weapons we use jacketed projectiles with gunpowder as our primary charge. However, what makes our guns different from human arms that we've acquired is the fact that our weapons are enchanted to provide different effects with magic. Take this submachine gun my friend is using,” he swiped Dawn Shy's SMG.

“Hey!”

“You'll get it back. Anywho, this SMG has been enchanted to fire faster. Notice the slight glow of light blue?”

“Why yes Sir Antony,” Tuni examined the gun with interest.

“There you are good chap,” he returned it to Dawny, “And that's just the most basic of magic enchantments. We can have a guns loaded with normal bullets that can shoot fire, ice, poison, acid, and any number of enchantments that meld onto the bullets. The secret are jem stones. You may not know this but each rare crystalline jem holds a certain amount of magic charge undetectable by normal electronics. You know why sentient life forms gravitate to jems? It's because of their magic allure and it's more pronounced with ponies than with any other species. Did you happen to notice a small sapphire serving as the iron sight of that gun?”

“Yes I did, I was wondering why it was there. Now I know and this magic of yours is unlike anything we've ever encountered,” Tuni slowly applauded, “And, undetectable by regular electronics?”

“Yes, and these combat spells are often designed to break once the weapon itself breaks or is dismantled completely as a safe guard to prevent it from falling into the wrong clutches. And as you may have noticed during our first encounter we also use sound based weapons,” Antony caught Tuni off guard as he was drinking a soda. He pat it out and looked at him wide eyed.

“YOUR RACE HAS PERFECTED SOUND BASED WEAPONS?!” Tuni sat in surprise. All of his pack looked at Tony.

“Yes we have,” I inserted myself into the conversation, “Because of magic music can be used as a weapon. Which is why you heard that awesome dubstep coming from our crash sight.”

“Mother of all Avalon...” Tuni's ears flopped down, “Us, the Avali, value music the most as an art form. Mostly because we have a better sense of hearing than sight. To use music, let alone sound, as a weapon is something we've been working towards for ages.”

“What you really want in a sound based weapon is modular frequencies and ever changing pulses to ensure total effectiveness. That is why our Engineering DJ built her weapons to use dubstep. Goddesses I love Vinyl's work,” I smiled and put one of my earpieces in. Nia slid next to me and put the other end in one of her left ears.

“You ponies have some fucking awesome music,” Nia melted into feels as the music played. The song was Vinylicious.

“Continue with your air power,” Newa asked as her heads up display flashed data in front of her eyes.

“Well, as you can see my wife is a pegasus. In Equestria air power, and the military, is often supervised by this overall subspecies of pony. The best soldiers, pilots, and officers are usually pegasi. Unhindered the average pegasi can reach speeds above Mach two in an atmosphere like this. Our air power was once maintained by nothing more than strapping a few guns onto these gals and having them fly off into the sunset.”

“So no planes Sir Antony?” Tuni sighed.

“Oh no, we do use planes from time to time. The added armor and payload of an aircraft makes them worth considering. I myself flew a Royal Equestrian Mosquito during the Vulcan Sol conflict fourteen some years ago. Again, we are finally copying some old blueprints our human benefactors left us when they first took to the stars. Things like these MiG-21s, F4 Phantoms, and my new personal favorite: the Mirage III.”

“Hey guys, I'm back,” Puzzle came in with prince and princess in tow.

“So what is this all about Kim?” Twilight waved to me from the top of the catwalk as she made her way down.

“Take a look at this,” we showed her the slide with Sky Buster's dead corpse. As expected she turned away in disgust, “He was killed by them.”

I flashed the big face of that Apex leader.

“That is the face of the enemy. Our new enemy,” Puzzle huffed in anger, “We can't keep hiding forever with our closed foreign policy.”

“It's true, they'll stop at nothing to annex the universe. The Avali, Humans, and Hylotl are holding back their offensive and this planet is well within the battlefield,” Tuni explained to our princess.

“So your majesties, what shall it be?” Tony glanced at both our leaders and the two nodded to each other.

“We'll join the fight. We have to, for our survival,” Twilight's answer made me smile, “Rally new allies, ask for help, and go for diplomacy with both the Humans and these so called Hylotl.”

“So we're back in the game huh?” Puzzle wiped his glasses clean, “I'm ready to settle a score with those apes for what they did to our friend.”

“I wanted to ask you something Princess Twilight.”

“Yes? Is there anything else you need Kim?”

“Rainbow requested to be put in charge of our military again. It would help if she was put as the military adviser for the whole of our colony.”

“What say you hon?” Twi turned to her husband.

“I agree. After what happened during the last mission, I feel as though I need to have somepony else in charge. I will send word back to Equestria for arms shipments to our colony and I will begin training more soldiers. Also, I will make sure AnY Corporation sends their support on those arms shipments,” AnY stuck his tongue out.

“Your family company and head arms manufacturer of Germaneigh?” Twilight smiled to her husband.

“Honey you know I have friends in high places. And I'm sure you'll love the new helmets with the windshield wipers for the security forces!”

“Practical. I like that,” I thought about it for a minute even if said helmet would be a bit goofy looking. I mean, my grappling hook did look like a hair dryer for Celestia's sake.

“Keep going on that report, I'll want that threat assessment on my desk first thing in the morning. Thank you for all your support Stormfeathers,” Twilight bowed to the Avali.

Tuni saluted, “On behalf of all the Avali. May our alliance be long and prosperous.”

Day 348

Rainbow Dash

I sat wide awake at my office desk handling some paperwork for our military acquisitions. So many files, so many signatures, and forms too. We were getting crates and crates of arms from Equestria with tanks and aircraft to boot. We're caught in a warzone all this time and we never knew it. Seems like war always finds a way to creep up on us. The additional soldiers sent in from Equestria help a lot too now that we finally know that the situation back home is all well and good. My nation was finally rebuilding but now our colony dances at the edges of a new conflict. Somepony knocked on my office door.

“Come in!” I saw Fluttershy slowly open the door, “Hey Flutters, is it time for my check up again?”

“Oh yes, come on now. Let's just take some time to relax and unwind. Stress isn't good for the baby you know.”

I felt my son squirm inside of me. I patted my belly and talked to calm him down, “Okay okay I hear ya. I know you don't like it when I sit down like this all day. I'll lay down instead.”

I slid into my bed and laid on my side to give Fluttershy a good examination. She put her hooves on my now swollen abdomen and messaged them around to feel my foal. I started to giggle when I got ticklish.

“H-Hey there! What are you doing now?” I asked as she continued to move her hooves around my belly.

“I'm trying to feel if the foal is in the right position for the birth. It's past your due date Rainbow and you could have this foal any day now. Anyway, he's in the right position to come out head first. It should be all smooth sailing from here,” she stroked my belly softly and my foal gave her a kick, “Aww! Such a sweet little guy.”

“Yeah, if you can get past the mood swings, morning sickness, and carrying this guy around for eleven months. But still, it's the last gift he ever left me and I'll do anything in my power to protect him. Right Jumpy?” like that I felt a gentle bump in response, “That's my baby...”

“Is that what you're going to name him?”

I nodded, “Yup. Jump Jet. I settled on that when he jumps around a lot in here. I wonder what he's gonna look like though.”

“Well I'm sure he'll make a wonderful son. And he'll be just like his father,” Fluttershy gave me a hug and kept petting my belly, “It's really adorable. I think you look really cute with that belly. I want to be a mother like you someday Rainbow.”

“Thanks Fluttershy. Hmmm,” I laid my head down and felt the subtle movements of my growing child as I closed my eyes. It was still a strange yet heartwarming sensation that I had a child to call my own. How he was going to be the closest thing I'd ever get to see Sky Buster again. I grabbed the comforter with my wing and folded it over my belly to protect my child, “I should get to sleep. I've been up all night signing forms and finalizing deals with AnY Corp. The baby and I need our sleep.”

“Okay Rainbow. Do you want me to sleep on the couch to keep you company again?”

“Sure. Good night Flutters,” I turned off the lights and went back to my bed, wrapping myself and my foal in warmth as the winter air filled the outside, “And good night baby. Mommy loves you.”

I kissed my belly and began to sing him to sleep.

“You see me soaring through the sky. I see you below as you walk on by. I can clear the sky in ten seconds flat. Well how about that, how about that. I could be sitting here on a cloud, watching the sun as it starts to go down. The only thing missing... Is you by my side,” I felt my foal curl himself to sleep. I felt myself blush as I found that absolutely adorable. I kissed him again and rubbed gently, “Sleep tight Jump Jet.”

And with that I drifted to sleep. Jet stopped moving and in the silence and tranquility I could feel his heart beating along with mine. I wanted to hold him close and feel him in my arms. I was excited to be a mother after the long wait.

I was in a dream. White fluffy clouds all around me. Bright blue skies for miles around and a crisp cold air that flowed through my coat and feathers. I stood there for a minute in silence before I heard a voice.

“Hi Dashie!” it was Sky Buster, but he was a young colt. I didn't feel sad but more so surprised to see him, “Tag! You're it!”

As he touched my wing I noticed it was awfully short. I was a foal as well. I laughed and chased after him as he jumped off the cloud to fly off.

“Hey-hey! You're not gonna get away from me that easy!” I caught up to him easily and tried to swipe at him with my hoof, only to be dodged with a sudden reversal.

“Na na na!” he teased as he tucked his wings and dove into the clouds. I rolled upside down and followed into the hole in the cloud cover. He was waiting on another cloud that was suppose to be home plate and booped me on the nose, “Boop! Hehehe!”

“How are you so fast?” I asked and noticed my voice changed to a foal's as well.

“I'm not fast, I'm just agile!” he booped me on the nose again, “Bippity boopy!”

I sat down and watched him dance.

“Watch this Dashie!” he backflipped off the cloud and flew away. I rolled my eyes and followed with a nap.

You became my friend...

I blinked for one second and I heard a loud thud on the ground. I looked around and found myself in a military barracks. There was a locker near the bunk bed and I could hear screaming from somewhere. I threw my blanket off to the side and jumped off my bed to see Sky Buster sprawled on the floor screaming and squirming in mental agony. I was reliving my memories of him.

“DAMMIT! I COULD HAVE SAVED THEM! WHY?! WHY?! CELESTIA DAMMIT WHY?!” he was sobbing his eyes out and wrenching at his chest in pain. He was crying out for his family that was murdered years ago. I watched him like I did during this whole moment as the memory felt so familiar. I made the same choice and approached him slowly. His heartache was unbearable to watch and at that moment I felt the same from my memory. I had to pick him up and save him from himself. I wrapped my arms around him and carried him up.

“You're not alone Sky,” I whispered into his ear and embraced him more firmly. He was still crying but I felt him calm down.

“They're all dead Dash! Every single damn one of them! Mom, dad, brother, uncles, aunts! Dammit! Everypony I knew, dead!”

“Stop!” I only held onto him closer, “This isn't you, where is the happy colt I knew in flight camp? He's still there in your heart somewhere. Listen to my voice, I will never leave your side for as long as we're still friends. No, we're more than friends now. I... I can be your family.”

He shook as the tears fell again. He wiped his eyes and returned with his own hug, “Family...”

“Yeah, It's been a long time Sky Buster. I know you and you know me. I'm the Element of Loyalty and I'll never abandon you, ever,” I laid him on the bed and stroked his mane. I rocked him back and forth as I took him under my wing.

You picked me up when I fell...

I opened my eyes again to see that I was flying. I felt a helmet on my head and in front of my eyes was a heads up display screen. I looked around and found myself strapped to a flying battle saddle, fully armed with rockets and machine guns.

“Angels four, bandits spotted! Yo Dash, your still there?” Sky looked back at me. His amber tinted visor gleamed in the sunshine with a smile wide on his face.

“Yeah! I just spaced out for a minute. What say we take on these Vulcan bastards from the sun?” I felt a zeal wash over me as I nodded to him as my flight leader.

“Hell yeah! Watch this Dashie!” we rolled inverted and zoomed past two Spitfire planes in our dive. I closed my eyes again and felt the rush of wind on my face.

You were always there for me...

Once more, I opened my eyes and felt a soft grass beneath my hooves. I also felt something gently around my back and neck. It was a white wing, Sky's wing. He held me close as we walked on in the peaceful morning breeze.

“The war is finally over Rainbow. Hard to believe that this was once a battlefield huh?” we looked out at the beautiful green valley outside of Ponyville. The trees to the Everfree forest all lovely green pine trees with a mountain in the background. The grass was unspoiled and wet with dew. I took in the beauty and the crisp air that filled my lungs with scents of flowers.

Buster looked at me with his short, handsome red mane flowing in the wind, “What say we get married here? In our own backyard.”

He pointed upward and I saw my house hovering over the field with a huge proposal sign hung right above the door. I nuzzled him and he wrapped his wings around me. I felt myself break down in tears of joy.

“Yes! Sky Buster Yes!” I picked him up into the air and twirled with joy.

Now and forever...

I had the same feeling of joy wash over me as my eyes opened to... The same place where we first played tag! The cloud we stood on was the very cloud Sky had tagged me on in flight camp.

“Tag! You're it!” He smiled and giggled as he poked a hoof to my side, “Happy birthday Rainbow Dash...”

“Oh, that's right! It's my birthday today huh?”

“Exactly why I wanted to fly to Cloudsdale with you, back to our old play cloud all those years ago,” he scooted closer to me and pecked me on the cheek.

“All these years in the blink of an eye?” I looked to my hooves and found something within the cloud. I dug at it and found something red. It was a ribbon, no, a gift! This wasn't in the memory but Sky still smiled and nuzzled me on the nose.

“Well? Go ahead Dashie. Open it.”

And so I did, it was a light that shined so bright and engulfed me in a warm silken embrace. I felt Sky's brilliant white wings wrap around me again in warmth. I heard him whisper.

“I will never leave you Dash. I love you...”

-Day 349:

I woke up sobbing and found a single long, white feather that tickled my nose. I stared at it for what seems like a lifetime and gently grasped it in my hooves. I wanted to cry so bad, I miss him so much. I held onto the feather that once belonged to my husband and felt my heart sink into sadness. Tears flowed onto my cotton pillow before I felt a bump from inside of me. I was reminded that I was still pregnant and had a future to look forward to. My foal moved slowly, like he was nuzzling me to cheer me up.

“Thanks buddy,” I kissed my belly and spoke to him, “Mommy's gonna be okay. She just misses daddy...”

I pulled myself from the blanket and caressed my child. I hovered up into the air and sat down at the edge of my bed as I tucked the feather behind my ear.

“So whatcha want for breakfast little dude?” he gave a gentle buck upwards, “Okay, waffles with mustard it is.”

I flew downstairs and saw Fluttershy already up.

“Good morning Rainbow Dash!” she greeted me with a smile. Jet bumped inside of me again and I gave an oof, “And good morning to you too Jump Jet. Is there anything you want to eat today?”

“He's been bugging me for waffles dipped in honey mustard. This is even weirder than what Sky used to cook,” of all the seafood, strange mollusks, and food my husband has served me over the years I still wasn't used to all the cravings the baby wanted. I sat down as Fluttershy used the waffle iron to make us some breakfast.

“So what's the agenda for today General Dash?” she placed the waffles on a plate and slid one to me. I took the bottle of mustard and covered it with the delicious yet slightly off tasting sauce the baby wanted me to eat.

“I'm suppose to inspect an arms shipment today. Let me get into my uniform after this,” I stuffed the waffles messily into my mouth and ate it all. I smiled silently and pet my belly as I continued to eat. I could feel my baby wiggle in delight, “Hmmm, you like that don't you?”

“Awww! That's so cute,” Fluttershy gave a little squee and helped me up from the table, “Okay, let's get you into your uniform General.”

“Flutters, although I may be the leader of the colony's military you don't have to call me General all the time. Just between you and me, caz you know, we're friends,” we flew upstairs and back to my office. She helped me get dressed in my formal Equestrian Air Force uniform. Although there was one thing added to it to make it stand out. At the shoulder was our new symbol for the space colony military: a white four pointed star in the middle of a white outer circle.

“Your necklace Rainbow,” Fluttershy draped the emblem necklace on my neck, “You look lovely in uniform. I didn't fit it too tightly for the baby did I?”

“No no, Fluttershy. He's pretty comfy in there. He's all snuggled up and warm,” I giggled and smiled into the mirror. I looked pretty and ready to take on the universe.

“Let's proceed General,” Fluttershy donned her uniform as well as her emblem necklace. The necklace signified us as top military staff.

“Let's,” we trotted outside and saw New Ponyville as a city with over a hundred thousand ponies. This wasn't our only colony now, there were plenty of cities on this planet now. They're all self sufficient and one city, appropriately named New Cloudsdale, was a floating battleship that hovered over the planet to guard all of us.

“Hard to believe it's only been almost one year huh?” Fluttershy gazed at our beautiful city all filled with happy ponies that called it home.

“Let's get focused Flutters,” we hopped into my jeep parked out in front. Fluttershy helped me to get in as my giant belly made squeezing into things a little difficult, “Thanks for the help.”

“You're welcome!” she smiled to me and drove us to the space port. The newest arms shipment arrived in an earth pony dropship that landed right on the helipad by the checkpoint gate.

“Morning General!” a soldier greeted us as he opened the gate, “How's the foal doing today ma'am?”

“Good, keep up the good work Gryph,” I saluted to the dark haired navy stallion as we drove into the base and parked next to the dropship, “Flutters, help me up please.”

“You got it Rainbow,” she plucked me from my seat and placed me down on the ground, “There you go.”

“Thanks again,” I looked to the shipments being offloaded. There was a jet, a tank, and crates of small arms being offloaded from the massive transport.

“Officer on deck!” the soldiers guarding the craft stood at attention as I made my approach.

“At ease. I've come to inspect the arms shipment from the home planet. Whatcha guys got?”

“Well General, everypony back home is pitching in with the defense of the colonies. We got a Stallionrad MiG-21X, an Equestrian M551 Sheridan, and crates of German small arms from AnY Corp. What do you wish to inspect first General Dash?”

“Hmph,” I smiled and looked at the plane, “You know me. I'd like to see that plane first.”

“Yes sir! This here is a Stallionrad MiG-21. Heavily modified to incorporate Avali and Human stealth technology and avionics systems, hence the X designation,” he went on as I inspected the ailerons.

“Why are there gemstones on each of the control surfaces?” I noticed each had a tiny gem that glowed with magic to give the plane some sort of enchantment.

“Space capability sir! Magic will make this plane able to maneuver in space just as well as it would in atmosphere. We also swapped out the engine for the magic sound based thrusters used in our spacecraft.”

I noticed a note attached to the plane and read it out loud, “Best regards on the new foal-Nuke Fire and Peace Walker.”

I smiled as I remembered the two Stallionrad engineers who sent me this plane.

“Thanks guys,” I folded the note and placed it in my pocket, “Also, what's up with all the weird angles on the access panels?”

“Planform alignment. Each angle is set the same as another part of the aircraft to defect radar. You can thank your buddy Zero from Neighpon for that innovation. The Avali just provided us with the materials to build it,” the officer continued to explain.

“Yeah I remember Zero. He was always quite the maverick inventor. I find this plane kickass Lieutenant. Onto the tank if you may,” I pointed to the Sheridan.

“This is a not-so-standard M551 Sheridan airborne tank made in Equestria. The low velocity gun is replaced with magic enhanced railgun technology donated to us by the Avali. Requires no external power source as it draws electricity from a charged gem inside the turret. Carries the standard twenty rounds of ready use kinetic armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot shells. And just in case it's still able to fire the standard Shillelagh missiles out of its main gun when need be.”

“Did you do anything to the armor?” I tapped the hull and put an ear to it.

“There wasn't much we could do with the armor. But what you can see is that we replaced all the smoke grenade launchers with something called a hard kill defense system. Basically once the automated system detects an incoming large caliber munition it fires off an interception warhead that will detonate the enemy munition at a safe distance away from the tank. We wanted to keep all the weight down for your battle doctrine ma'am!” he saluted again.

“It wasn't my battle doctrine. It was from my late husband,” I sat down on the tank and rubbed my belly as Jet started to stir again, “He wanted to emphasize on the effective use of air cavalry and rapid deployment with total air superiority. With the Avalis help and tactics that we adapted to our own uses the drills have gone very successful so far. If anything hits this planet, they'll be in a world of hurt. Hey! Ow!”

Jet started to jump.

“You okay General?” the officer cocked his head to the side.

“Yes yes, I'm fine. Just the foal kicking. Anywho, what about the small arms you brought in?”

“Well General, these are crates of G3 assault rifles provided to us by Prince AnY's family business: AnY Corporation. 7.62 caliber and augmented with synthetics to be as light as possible. Each rifle also has an enchanted gem embedded into the stock that allows the bullets fired an elemental property. Things like fire, shock damage, frost spells, you name it. Just press the gem to change up the magic charge.”

I picked one up in my wings and sighted it to my eye, “Perfect. Say, what about some anti-ta-AH!”

I cupped my stomach and felt it twist in pain. This wasn't right. I screamed out as Fluttershy caught me.

“Rainbow! Are you okay?”

“I-I dunno Fluttershy! Ooooooh!” I felt a pop from inside of me and fluid ran down my back legs. I started to breath more rapidly as another wave of pain hit. I knew what this meant, “THE BABY'S COMING!”

“Oh my! Quick, we have to get you home,” Fluttershy and the officer pony helped me into the jeep as I was incapacitated by pain. I had my wings and forehooves wrapped around my belly as I hissed in agony, “Lieutenant, if you would be so kind to dispatch MPs with sirens to lead the way to the General's house.”

“Right away Miss Fluttershy! Hey! Get those LAV-150 Commandos to escort the General back home! She's having her baby for Celestia's sake!” he shouted to his troops. Fluttershy rubbed my back to comfort me.

“Don't worry Rainbow Dash, it normally takes hours for the delivery to take place,” she patted my belly as I recoiled in pain.

“OOOOOH! But I can feel the head!” I was hyperventilating as Fluttershy felt around for the foal.

“O-Or I could be wrong and that baby is coming out! Quick please!” she shouted, or what passed as a shout, to the soldiers driving up to us.

“Got it, just follow us Miss Fluttershy,” the large armored car wailed on its siren and drove us back to my house past the traffic of cars and carriages. The few minutes it took felt like torturous eras as well pulled up to the house. Fluttershy and the Lieutenant helped me onto my bed and curled me up in pillows.

“Thank you so much sir. May I ask that you come with me to gather our Princess?”

“Yes Miss Fluttershy! Hop to it squad!”

“Hey,” Fluttershy gave me a big hug, “I'm going to get Twilight to record the birth. If all goes well just like it did with Pinkie you should have nothing to fear. Just hang on and resist the urge to push until I get back. And don't cross your legs either or you might crush the baby.”

“I-I'll remember that. OOW!” another contraction shot across me. Fluttershy kissed me on the forehead.

“I'll be right back. Hang on Dashie,” she closed the door behind her and I was left to my own with my colt coming out of me. I moaned, hissed, and rocked in pain trying to find comfort in any position.

“J-Jet!” I caressed my belly and spoke to him, “You're gonna be okay... Mommy is here little guy. Just-just AHHH!”

I could feel my abdomen contract and my foal moved lower. I could feel him squeezed by my labor and he squirmed in panic. I continued to talk to him.

“You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay Jet. Momma's here. Shhh, shhh. Don't panic, you're OOOOOOO,” I wrenched at my side with another contraction. I piled on my pillows but nothing was working. I wanted to push so bad but Fluttershy still wasn't back yet. I don't think I've ever been in so much pain. Finally somepony burst through the door. It was Fluttershy and Twilight dressed in their lab coats with plenty of medical tools in tow.

“How is she Fluttershy?” Twi asked as another contraction set in, this time getting closer together.

“She's well within the second stage of labor. She might have been asleep when the first stage hit last night. Rainbow is a heavy sleeper and she might have just experienced the pain in a dream. Everything should be all set for the birth,” Fluttershy explained as she went over to check on me, “Now Rainbow, where do you feel him?”

“Coming... He's coming out!” another contraction. I bit my lower lip in pain.

“Okay Dash, I need you to push as hard as you can once another contraction hits. Twilight I'm going to need your help in pulling out the foal.”

“Got it Fluttershy, same thing we did with Pinkie. Just as long as it's safe for live birth I can call this experiment a success,” Twi patted my swollen belly with her wing, “We're right here Rainbow. We're gonna help you get through this.”

“AHH! I need to push!” I curled into my belly and pushed.

“Okay! Keep pushing until I stop: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Good good! He's coming along just fine,” Fluttershy counted me on as pain tore through my body. My wings jutted out and hit Twilight in the face as she attached some wires to my tummy.

“Twi,” I breathed in and out, pained, “What are you doing?”

“I'm getting a heart reading on the baby. Just in case. There we go! Looks like he's doing just fine,” the machine started to beep with the familiar tone of a heart rate monitor. Only it was beeping rather fast.

“Don't you worry about the beeping Rainbow, Jet's just a little stressed. He's probably going through just as much pain as you are,” Flutters held my hoof. I looked to her with sweat running down my face.

“R-Really?” I squeezed her hoof hard as another spike of pain made the both of us squeak.

“Ouch! I mean, yes. You two have to stay strong now. Another push! Okay: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! You got it Rainbow!”

I felt another painful pop from below. This time it was solid and squishy.

Twilight gasped, “Oh no! Looks like the heart rate is dipping.”

“Then we have have to act fast. Help me pull on the legs!” they both moved around to my butt area and they were both blocked by my huge belly, “No magic! You could hurt them both if you pull too hard.”

“Right, I see the legs,” I felt them grab my colt and he stirred in protest.

“Rainbow, push with the contraction now! One, two, three,” I felt an unbelievable surge of pain as every muscle in my body twisted and tore as my foal moved outward, “Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Good good! Don't panic Dashie!”

I could hear the heart rate monitor dip again. It was hard not to panic and I started to cry. I curled into my belly and spoke to Jet.

“Jet! Don't give up, you're one of the only things your father left for me! Baby, don't die, please don't die,” I yelled to him as I sobbed into my coat. Another contraction, surging pain, and tears, “AAAHHHHHH!”

“He's coming right out! Come on Rainbow! You can do it!” Twilight cheered on.

“And come on Jet! Don't leave your mother so soon! You're the only thing left that she's got. Come on, push! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven-” Fluttershy cut out as I felt Jet slide out of me and the heart rate monitor went to a flat tone. I looked to my side and stared at the machine.

“No! No...” I looked at the flat line and started to cry. My heart was breaking all over again as all those months carrying my foal were for nothing. I took one of my pillows and sobbed uncontrollably into it, “JET! MY LITTLE FOAL NO!”

Silence filled the room. All I could hear were my sobs and the occasional burst of pain from my now empty womb. My yells muffled by the pillow and my cries of agony and grief to the loss of my baby whom I worked so hard for only to perish in birth. What happens to me next?...

“Rainbow!” Twilight tried to stir me, “Don't cry! Listen!”

I heard a wet cough followed by crying. Something wet and squishy was laid on my belly and I removed the pillow from my face to find... My baby...

“Congratulations Rainbow Dash. You just gave birth to a healthy eight pound five ounce pegasus colt,” Fluttershy came around and stroked my mane. My heart with filled with joy, relief, and love for my new son crying on my tummy.

“B-But, the heart monitor!”

“Well, that only measures when he's inside of you and not when he came out,” Twilight wheeled away the machine.

“Oh, and sorry for being quiet all this time, I was concentrating on removing the sac from his cute little nose so he could breath. Take a good look at your son Rainbow, he looks a lot like this father,” Fluttershy explained.

“Like his...” I looked to my child now curled into slumber. His coat blended into mine with the same shade of light blue. His mane a brilliant red like that of Sky Buster. With the wag of his tail I could see the familiar banana shape of my late husband's tail but instead of the banana butt yellow it was a rainbow, like my own, “father...”

Fluttershy cleaned him up and wrapped him in soft cloth before giving him to me again. I wrapped him with my wings in tender loving embrace as he gave a gentle coo. I nuzzled his tiny nose and my heart exploded with cuteness as he gave the most adorable little sneeze. I ran my hoof through his mane which reminded me so much about his father. Then I remembered. I still had the white feather tucked into my ear all this time. Something compelled me to give it to Jet so I set it close to his muzzle. He opened his beautiful green eyes to look at me and smile. He was adorable and I couldn't help but blush.

“Go on,” I nudged the feather closer to him. At first he eyed it in curiosity before sniffing at it. Again, he gave another gentle sneeze and blew the feather to my face. I giggled to him and blew the feather onto his face. He gave a blissful yawn and took the feather in his mouth, “There you go little guy.”

“There you go Rainbow. All done. You get plenty of rest now and I'll be here for you if you need anything at all,” Fluttershy smiled to me and I looked to her.

“Thank you for delivering my baby,” I whispered as my child slept with his father's feather tucked into his mouth.

“I'd say this experiment was a success. You go ahead and take the whole week off to bond with the baby. I'll let our friends know everything went a okay,” Twilight packed her things and sat next to me, “I wish Sky Buster could have seen this.”

“I,” I was reluctant to say a thing, “I'm sure he did, wherever his soul may be.”

“We're just gonna leave you alone now. Again, congratulations Rainbow. Good bye,” Twilight exited my house and Fluttershy sat on the couch listening to the radio. I continued to caress and envelop my foal as he slept soundly in my wings. I gave him one more kiss and joined him in sleep.

Day 350

Pinkie Pie

So today is another really fun and super day with my new baby. I've been off the rock farming for a few months now and I've had time to take care of my newborn foal. I also heard that Dashie had hers the other day and Puzzle and I went to say hi and greet her new foal a happy birthday with a super special baby party! I was waiting on Puzzle to come home after a hard day of work at the mines.

“PUZZLE!” I jumped onto him to give him a big hug. He looked really tired. Our little yellow baby crawled on over to greet his father hello. His tiny wings fluttered in joy as Puzzle ruffled his dark blue mane. Did I mention he was a pegasus?

“Hello Pinkie!” he yawned and picked up our foal, “And hello to you too Sugar Rush.”

Our baby boy gave a soft coo and drooled onto his fathers cape. I giggled and got him off Puzzle.

“So, is everything set for the play date with Rainbow's kid so we can have the night out?” Puzzle threw his cape into the washer and got a new one from the closet. I started to message his shoulders with the foal on my head.

“All set Puzzly! Let's go say hi. I'll drive.”

We went into the garage and started up the yellow slug bug. Puzzle strapped Rush into his baby seat and he yawned to his father. Puzzle smiled.

“He sure is beautiful,” he leaned over on me and yawned as well. I nipped at his ear and gave him a hug, “Hmmm, wake me up when we get there okay honey?”

“Sure thing,” I backed up into the street and drove to Rainbow's house. The traffic was still pretty bad at this hour as the many city ponies started to come home after a hard days work. It took us about an hour to get to Rainbow's house. My husband and baby were fast asleep as I pulled up, “Wakey wakey.”

Puzzle stirred awake and rubbed his eyes, “I needed that nap. Okay, let's drop off the baby.”

He unhooked the car seat and I knocked on RD's front door. We were greeted by Ink Rose surprisingly.

“Oh hello Pinkie Pie. Hello Puzzle,” she smiled to us as she peeked past the door, “Come on in.”

“I'm surprised to see you here Ink. What's going on?”

“Oh nothing Puzzle, I'm giving Fluttershy and Rainbow a break by volunteering to babysit tonight. Flutters went with Rarity to the spa and Rainbow is upstairs sleeping,” she sat down next to Rainbow's foal who was watching TV with her. He was really really cute making babbling sounds and cooing at the screen.

“Okay, so everything is set right? You'll just need to watch him for two hours until we get back okay Inky?” I smiled to her as I handed her my baby. Rush bubbled with spit as he did a raspberry. Ink Rose only giggled as she wiped her face off.

“He's so cute! I just wanna huggle you!” she blew into Rush's belly and he squeed in laughter, “Yup! Everything is all set. I'll take the baby and his bag of supplies off your hooves. You two have fun okay!”

“Thank you so much Inky!” I gave her a hug and kissed my baby goodbye, “Say bye bye! Bye bye Rush!”

“Buuu!” he pawed at the air with his hoof as we returned to the car.

“So whatcha in the mood for honey?” I started up the car and pulled away.

“I'm in the mood for some pizza. What do you think?”

“Pizza's good! All cheesy and gooey and yummy yum yum!” I smiled and went back home to phone in the pizza. It was a short wait as the doorbell rang.

“I'll get it!” Puzzle trotted to the door and lifted the pizzas onto his back, “Here's your tip good sir!”

The delivery pony smiled and nodded, “Thank you. Enjoy your night!”

I sneaked up behind Puzzle and wrapped an arm around him, “Oh, we will... Hehehe!”

He gave me a kiss as he set down the pies on the table. I gathered the plates and we served ourselves as we sat together at the table. I started to sprinkle gumdrops onto my slice and we both giggled.

“It's so nice that we've got this time to ourselves. It's been quite a while since we could do this,” Puzzle scooted me closer, his hooves untouched by grease as he ate with magic. He was starting to use magic more often around the house ever since we had the baby, “Any thing you wanna watch on TV we can relax to?”

“You choose, I just wanna snuggle buggle with my Puzzle!” I nuzzled him under the chin and cuddled into his chest. He took me in a warm embrace and carried me to the living room.

For the rest of the night we relaxed and watched a show called Dr. Whooves. It was a live action series based on the adventures of one of the most famous ponies in Ponyville and his adventures with Derpy as his assistant and wife.

I started to fall asleep as Puzzle watched on. Then from out of the blue a small earthquake hit, shaking the house with a faint rumble.

“What was that?” I rubbed my eyes and looked up at Puzzle.

“Pinkie! Look!” He got up and his full attention was directed to the screen. There was a news pony on with an urgent message.

“We interrupt this broadcast for breaking news! This just in! An unknown alien ship has started bombarding New Canterlot without warning! We advise all ponies to stay indoors for their own safety as the situation develops! This is-” the screen cut to static as another, much stronger, explosion rocked the ground.

“Sweet Celestia and Luna in all the heavens no!” Puzzle rushed to the door with me by his side. We both saw a large hovering battleship with its fleet firing into downtown New Ponyville. For a moment we froze, “Pinkie! Pack your things we have to get to Rush!”

“I-I know!” my mane drooped to grey as I started to cry and frantically stuff everything I owned into hammer space. I ran back to Puzzle as he pulled the car from the garage.

“Get in! Get in!” he hurried me into the car and drove away before I even slammed the door shut. I strapped into my seat belt and held one hoof to my husband.

“Puzzle, I'm scared,” I shook in fear for my baby.

“I know, I know. Just hang tight we're gonna get through this. Dang!” he pounded on the wheel as a traffic jam held us up, “Of course, Pinkie we gotta go on foot beside the freeway!”

He grabbed his bow and quiver of arrows from the trunk. This had me worried.

“I think we're gonna need these. No matter what happens I'll keep you and the baby safe at all costs. And we have to go now!”

“Right,” I ran with my husband past the jumbled mess of cars with a forest to our right. I could hear something flying behind us. I looked back to see a metallic gunship fire into the mass of cars.

“Get down!” my husband tackled me to the floor and threw his cape over to protect me. I curled up, too afraid to stand. I held onto him for dear life as the explosions died down. What followed were screams of agony and cries of the ponies caught on the road.

“Oh my Luna, they're all dead and dying,” Puzzle cupped his hooves to his mouth, “Don't look, don't look Pinkie.”

Too late. I saw one pony engulfed in flames turning over in searing pain as he suffered a slow and painful death. I ran, and ran next to my husband as he shielded me from an all too real and grim reminders of war. We kept running as we came upon a military convoy driving into the city.

“Friendly!” he shouted to them, “Over here! Please help!”

“Hey! Hey! It's Puzzle Piece and Pinkie Pie! Two of the original colonists! Stop you fucktards!” the soldier on top of the tank held up his convoy, “Sir, is there anything we can help with?”

“Please! Our baby was dropped off at General Dash's house for a playdate. We need escort over there to see if he's okay.”

“Solid copy sir! Dawny, Rolo! I'm retasking you two to escort our leaders to the north suburbs.”

“Roger that Commander Firebrand! We're gonna help you guys out, get in!” Dawny helped us into the back ramp of the troop carrying tank, “Rolo, flip this 113 around and let's go!”

“On it!” Rolo revved up the tank and drove through the abandoned and burning cars on the freeway, “Damn, look at all these wrecks.”

Another explosion came from behind us. Dawny looked back to see the convoy get hit by the same space ship that destroyed the freeway.

“HOLY SHIT! DRIVE DRIVE THAT GUNSHIP IS COMING BACK!” Dawny stuffed my head back into the tank and fired his machine gun at the aircraft. The force of another explosion threw all four of us to the floor as the tank was flipped to its side. The smell of gasoline filled the compartment as it started to pour from the fuel tanks, soaking me and my husband.

“Get out! Get out!” Rolo suffered a head wound as blood dripped from his face. He dragged me out of the burning tank with Dawny carrying Puzzle out as well, “We all alive? Good!”

“Not for long! That thing's coming back!”

“Sweet Filly Luna we don't have the guns to bring it down!” Dawny and Rolo fired at the hovering ship and I froze in place. I crawled to my husband for protection.

“P-Puzzle! Please, I'm scared!”

“No matter what, I'm here for you. Hold on tight and don't let go!” he held me tighter as the smell of gasoline seeped into his coat made me dizzy. I was a total wreck of a mare as everything around me was filled with horror and death. Puzzle started to sing, “Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile. Yes I do. It fills my heart with sunshine all the while. Yes it does. 'Cause all I really need's a smile, smile, smile...”

“...From these happy friends of mine...” I finished the song as another explosion hit followed by a loud metallic crash. Rolo and Dawny cheered and I shot up to look.

“Thought you guys could use some close air support!” there was another ship that hovered above us with a loud whine of its engines, “Hey Puzzle! Remember me?”

“No, it can't be! Sky Buster is that you?”

“Wrong again, damn we really do have the same voices. It's Troy! Got myself an Anvil Aerospace Super Hornet with the money I got from Dreadwing!”

“You guys need a lift?” another dropship came from out of the sky and landed right next to us. That other human girl, Mira was her name, stepped out and waved for us, “Get in!”

“Nice ride you guys got,” Dawny sat down inside the hull of the massive ship.

“Redeemer class gunship! One of the best mercenary gunships available on the human market! Where to?”

“North end of the suburbs! We've got to rescue their kid,” Rolo pointed to Puzzle and I.

“Hate to break it to you, that area looks bad. And it would help if your guns stop shooting at us!” Nick was at the controls of the ship.

“Here! I'll patch your IFF,” Dawny trotted up to the cockpit and punched in some buttons, “You're good! Keep flying!”

“Good! Thanks. Troy can you copy my IFF frequency and scout the LZ for any possible hostiles?”

“Roger Nick, IFF is updated. Not good I'm seeing multiple hostiles at the LZ. Confirmed Apex! Lighting it up!”

I looked out the window to see Troy's space ship firing its machine guns at some targets below. Rolo stepped up to the center.

“Okay! We're gonna be touching down on a hot LZ. I will need Dawny and Puzzle you too!” he tossed him a combat vest and a rifle, “What is your name miss?”

“Mira! Mira Toren sir. I'm the team sniper but I need to stay in the gunship to operate the turrets. You can take Rex Alder and Alex Vowlt with you to the drop zone! They're good soldiers. We're gonna fast rope you in once we clear the primary LZ!” she opened the door and I could hear all the sounds of battle below. With one last chance I embrace my husband.

“Bring our baby home...”

“I will,” and with that he grabbed the rope and slid down to the ground.

-Day 351:

Rolo
12:22 Hours

My squad touched down into a firefight as the two gunships hovered above us like guardian angels. I had with me an impromptu squad of Dawn Shy, Puzzle Piece, and two humans: Alex and Rex. There was no time for a combat assessment as we were locked in place with heavy machine gun fire.

“This is Sergeant Coltberg! To the gunships in the area I need this area sanitized with close air support! Reference the IR strobe!”

“Solid copy Sergeant! Suppressing fire is inbound!” Mira radioed out as lot lead rained like the seven plagues on our enemies. I smirked and yelled to my team.

“We are freed to move! Go go go!” I urged them to proceed as I laid down fire with my Galil ARM. I waited on them to settle into firing location before I moved up with them.

“Squad lead! Where to?” Alex, the human with nut brown hair and green eyes, directed his attention to me.

“Up the street past the fountain on that roundabout! Gunships do you have visual on the house?”

“Copy, the house looks crushed to rubble, I'm detecting faint signs of life buried in it! You gotta hurry!”

“Please Celestia in all the heavens let my baby be safe,” Puzzle prayed as he continued to fire at our ape enemies, “I'm coming Rush!”

“Covering you Puzzle! I got your back, you had mine in our last mission,” Dawny gave him a pat on the shoulder. The gunships kept their fire at our attackers and laid waste to any who they could see, lighting up the night with tracers.

“Rolo! Can you confirm if that convoy moving in from the west is friendly? I can't make out which is which with just IR.”

“Roger gunship, we have a visual on the convoy! It's friendly!” I went onto the street and waved to our trucks, “Stop! Stop!”

AnY hopped out of the armored car and trotted to me.

“Sir! What is going on around here?”

“The whole damn planet is being hit by those apes! Twilight just gave the order to evacuate the whole planet! We're in deep deep shit Rolo and we came to get Ink Rose out of here! Most of the others have made it onto the New Cloudsdale. We're still missing Rainbow and her foal, Tommy, Ink Rose, Pinkie, Puzzle, Fluttershy, and Rarity!” AnY flashed his MG3 as he pointed back and forth.

“I have recovered Pinkie and Puzzle sir, but their foal is missing as well! We're proceeding to Rainbow's house to mount a rescue operation. Above us are two human gunships providing fire support.”

AnY nodded, “Troops! Up the road to General Dash's house! Mark any targets for those allied gunships!”

“Solid copy Commandant! Leopard tanks are rolling up! Be advised! Enemy walkers have been spotted!” one of the other German soldiers yelled to AnY.

“This is Mira! Callsign: Fifi. I've linked into your comms. I'm above you guys right now in the fat gunship. Mark targets!”

“Fifi targets are marked with laser rangefinders from our tanks! Reference your IR sights!” AnY yelled into the radio.

“Copy! Marked four walkers, stand by for fire!” the bomb bay of the massive ship swung open to reveal several missiles that fired in rapid sucession, “Four away!”

“Rolo! I can see the impacts, good hits good hits!” Dawny reported in and our armored column moved to the house with my squad.

“I'm detecting two faint heat signatures buried in the rubble!” Rex scanned the debris of the house his black hair blended into the night, “I hear crying in there too!”

Puzzle started to frantically dig into the rubble and yelled to us, “WELL DON'T JUST STAND THERE! HELP ME GET MY BABY!”

“Right!” I ran forward and tossed away the bits of wood and fallen walls. I could also hear it.

“...Help!” Somepony was trapped underneath. It was a mare's voice, and not of General Dash's.

“Ink Rose! Ink! We're here!” AnY started to help as well, “Don't worry Inky, you're going to be okay!”

We unearthed her from the fallen house as she held two tiny pegasus foals in her arms.

“You gotta help! This one isn't breathing!” she started to cry. Puzzle rushed over as it was his son. The other foal was crying.

“I know CPR stand back!” I tried to revive the foal with chest compressions. Puzzle was next to me holding one hoof of his foal, “One! Two! Three! Four! Come on! Live!”

I could feel Puzzle's tears and heard his sobs as he stood by. He hissed in emotional pain.

“Do not die on us young one! You must live!” I began rescue breathing techniques on the foal. The others looked on with deep concern and solemn silence only broken by the sounds of the warzone. Again, I continued with CPR, “Breathe! Dammit breathe!”

With welcome relief came a cough and cry from the baby. Puzzle carefully lifted his child up and embraced him in his arms.

“Thank you sweet Luna you're alive... Don't cry baby, daddy's here. Shhh, shhh,” he looked to me, tears stained in his glasses with a deep look of gratitude, “Thank you... For saving my baby...”

“It was nothing friend,” I gave him a pat on the shoulder and got up, “Now, Miss Ink Rose, where is the General?”

“She flew off once she heard about the attacks. She left me in the basement for safe keeping but the whole house crumbled from a nearby bombardment. Thank you all for saving me as well,” she stood in the rubble still holding Rainbow's foal.

“Right now we need to get out of here! This planet has fallen and we need to evacuate as many ponies as possible! Redcord! Kim! Antony! How are things on your end?”

“I found Tommy but he's in critical condition! His right back leg's been blown off by an RPG but we've secured him in the New Cloudsdale over!” a pony with an odd accent reported. It was clear enough for me to understand.

“Tony Pony to AnY! Kim and I got Fluttershy and Rarity out of the danger zone! You're the only ones left and we need to evac ASAP!”

“Copy that Antony! We're still missing Rainbow!”

“Oh no you're not!” a fighter jet came flying past us with rainbow painted wings. It was General Dash, “Did you honestly think I'd just sit by while this whole planet gets hit? Hell no! I've still got my MiG and I'll clear the skies from here to the Cloudsdale! You guys mount up!”

“Copy that General! Thank you for the support,” I helped Ink Rose and Dawn Shy into the truck as we drove off and away from the town. It was overrun by the enemy apes and we sat there looking on to the death and destruction left in their wake. I suppressed my mind from flashing back to the holocaust.

“We're not out of the woods yet,” AnY drove on and stopped at a roadblock, “Make way! Top clearance VIPs in our convoy!”

“Yes sir General AnY!” they let us on through and we could see hundreds of thousands of ponies piling into our capital ships to escape the planet. We were given the military treatment and boarded first.

“This is your Princess speaking! All soldiers on station! This is not a drill! We are commencing evacuation of Alpha Velocia! Please remain calm and proceed in an orderly manner into our space ships for departure!”

“We'll be needed at the bridge for support. Rolo, Dawny, Puzzle, Ink Rose and you two humans can come with me as well as the foals. I think the original thirteen needs to band together again,” we followed AnY up to the bridge of the New Cloudsdale. Everypony who first set hoof on this planet was there on the bridge. AnY trotted to his wife, “Twily!”

“I'm so glad you're safe,” she wrapped him in her wings, “Is everypony accounted for?”

“Of the original thirteen colonists, yes. But some of the civilians are still boarding the ships. Tommy is in critical condition in the med bay,” he explained to his wife. She gave him a sorrowful look.

“There's no time... Admiral! We have to take off!”

“B-But Princess! There are still civilians boarding the ship!”

“Then have them board the military dropships leaving last! We can't stay here!” she yelled to the Admiral, “You know we can't...”

“I-I...” he turned away, “Yes Princess. Crew! Prepare for lift off!”

“Main thruster units powering up! Tell those civies to stand back!” one of the officer mares operated the control console.

“Civies have been corralled by MPs to a safe distance! We're launching!” Digi lifted the ship off the ground and rocketed it past escape velocity into the edge of space.

“We can wait here while the rest of the planet is evacuated! We're gonna save as many as we can!” the Admiral rendezvoused with the other capital ships escaping the planet.

“Give me a sitrep on the evacuation Admiral!”

“Ninety five percent of the population has made it onto the ships. The final five are being loaded into military transports now Princess!”

The original colonists all sat with baited breath along with the humans who helped us.

“This is the EMS Soaren of the United Equus Space Force Navy! We're joining in formation with the New Cloudsdale now!”

“This is the EMS Fleetfoot! We're filled to capacity and are joining your fleet!”

“EMS Easy Glider here! We're on your six Princess!”

“Our fleet size has doubled to ten battleships, three escort carriers, five cruisers, and several destroyers, frigates, and supporting ships! What are your orders Princess?” the Admiral looked to our leader.

“Set a course for the next inhabitable planet in the sector: Alpha Harobed 84 IV a. Coordinates: X: -12802667 Y: -18830369. Get us out of here Admiral.”

“Yes ma'am! We're spooling up the FTL drives now!”

“Wait!” Digi pounded on the console, “Something's wrong! We can't make the jump!”

“Here, let me see,” Troy went over to view the status screen, “Shit! Those apes are jamming any wrap drives being activated!”

“Look...” Kim pointed out to space as dozens of enemy ships appeared in front of us. Digi did a double take on the radar screen.

“Twenty! Thirty! Forty! A hundred! Confirmed! It's a full naval blockade and I'm detecting a large two kilometer size super battleship among their fleet!” Digi was in a full panic, “We're not gonna make it out of here!”

“This is the EMS Fleetfoot! We've taken heavy damage to our hull and passenger areas! We can't stabilize! WE-” the transmission cut off as the whole ship was obliterated by the enemy super battleships laser cannon. All those ponies...

“We're not gonna die like this! I order all ships to break through their defenses!” Twilight was washed with more zeal than ever. She wasn't about to give up just yet.

“Oh Luna! Oh sweet Luna we can't do it! We just can't!” Digi was crying and panicked at his station. Kim trotted forcefully over and threw a flashlight at his face.

“GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF!” she shook him and continued to slap him awake, “We're gonna get out of this alive!”

“Don't humor me,” the holoscreens all lit up with the face of a big ape eying us for the slaughter, “I've kept track of all your little space adventures all this time and frankly I do not enjoy that a new race is colonizing the stars and what is rightfully mine. Tell me, how was it when I killed your last General? Hahaha!”

Rainbow stepped forward with tears in her eyes and a fiery anger in her heart, “YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!”

“But of course! But to be fair it was foolish of me to think that removing just one head of power would cripple any resolve of a new space faring race. You must all be eradicated for the glory of the Apex. It's been fun... NOW DIE!” all the screens faded to black and the whole ships power was cut.

“What the hell happened?!” Antony cried from the darkness.

“It's a virus! They've shut down power to all our ships!” the Admiral reported in. This was the end.

I could make out Twilight's head sink to the ground, “How did it come to this?...”

I looked out to see the massive enemy ship charging its equally titanic laser weapon aimed right for us. I felt someone grab me and huddle me in a pile. Everyone formed up to say one last goodbye as I heard sobs, curses, prayers, and pleads. What saddens me the most were the cries of the two foals, denied a future by an enemy that holds no mercy.

Death never came and the lights came on. Everyone jumped up. I was still on the floor and someone was cheered. Then more cheers filled the room with relief. Something good just happened.

“What? What is going on!” I jumped to my feet as the enemy battleship broke in half and exploded in a fiery end. The holoscreen of the Cloudsdale transmitted us an image of a strange space fighter with swept back wings and a tail in the shape of an X. The cockpit was also all metal with no visible glass.

“Those-Those fighters,” Troy looked at the screen, “Blue bodies, cyan trim. It's them, Task Force Frostbite!”

“Twilight, you are not gonna believe this. Those four fighters just decimated one tenth of their whole fleet!” Digi was dumbfounded, “More warp ins inbound! Another super battleship is detected!”

“No no! It's friendly! Look! Oh my God, it's the UPFS New Supremacy!” Troy pointed out to the large fleet of blue ships that warped in to ambush the Apex fleet. Thousands of friendly fighters scrambled to mop up the remainder of the enemy in only a matter of minutes. One of the blue and cyan fighters pulled up next to the bridge of the Cloudsdale.

“This is Major Micheal Scott Rivers of the United Pokemorph Federation Navy in alliance with the United States Colonial Marines, the Avali Empire, and the Imperial Hylotl Self Defense Forces. This area is under lockdown by the order of all Coalition Forces! State your identification and intention,” the pilot of the craft radioed to us.

“This is Princess Twilight Sparkle of the United Equus Space Colonies. My race was forced off our first colonized planet by the Apex.”

“Wait, what did you say your name was?” the pilot radioed to us back.

“My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh Arceus dammit! Of all the universes we had to expand to! This one's got the ponies! Tanya you deal with them!”

“This is Captain Tanya Rubi Rivers of the UPFN, we will escort you to our Ender Outposts to meet with our President. Set your navigation system to these coordinates we linked you,” the voice was female, sweet and bubbly.

“Thank you for saving us,” Twilight sighed in great relief as everyone else jumped with joy.

“And thank you for the fandom you helped create in my universe. You'll see what I'm talking about later Princess. It's an honor to meet you,” Tanya tipped her wings back and forth and warped away with her squadron. We followed as the stars streaked past light speed.

Day 357

Twilight Sparkle

We came back to Equestria to repair our ships on the now sprawling and retro-futuristic Canterlot. Our whole fleet was escorted back by the UPF and Task Force Frostbite. It was a good thing to know that our home planet was well behind the front lines of this space conflict. We gathered in the meeting room of the Two Sisters as we awaited the UPF leaders to step in to start the diplomatic relations. We were all there: myself and my five friends, AnY, Antony, Kim, Ink, and the rest of the original colonists. Rolo and Dawn Shy have also been appointed to be our personal guards thanks to their heroic actions in saving our lives many times over. It was fair of me to knight them both.

“All rise for the United Pokemorph Federation delegates: President Buster Ricardo Rivers and his three children Major Micheal Scott Rivers and Captain Tanya Rubi Rivers of Task Force Frostbite as well as the head UPF researcher and scientist Dr. David Maxwell Rivers. With them are their two guards requested to be formally introduced: Captain Zakary Halker Sintari and Captain Ghost Robert Lee of Task Force Frostbite. Please take your places,” Rolo introduced all six of the strange aliens. They all looked of different species and this confused me.

“Thank you,” the President collates a few stacks of paper and calmly takes his place he was like a red and white otter with two tails that spun around. He also wore a military uniform and a signature blue beret that matched, “Now that we've been properly introduced let's start.”

He cupped his paws together and rested his chin on them, “Tell us what exactly was your race doing in Coalition controlled space?”

Princess Celestia looked to me and nodded her head.

“Mr. President I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of the United Equus Space Colonies. I was given this mission for our race to expand into the stars as a relief effort for our previous war with the Florans. Said war almost caused our extinction,” I explained with a level head. My friends applauded.

“Fair enough. My nation extends its sympathy. We too have experienced such a war in our past, but not with Florans though,” he smiles calmly and flicks his pen to his side, “However, I feel as though I should explain a few things to all of you. My glorious nation of the United Pokemorph Federation, as it is known here, is not native to this one universe. We are among the most advanced space faring nations in this existence as we not only travel faster than light but we leap between the boundaries of space and time itself. The reason why I am telling you this is because your universe has caused quite a stir in my native realm as well as other realms beyond this one that we have spied on. David, would you please elaborate.”

“Yes father,” the yellow and white spiky cat like scientist got up and presented a large hologram that bloomed from his phone, “What my father would like me to explain is the fact that your universe is simply a cartoon television program that exists in our parallel dimension. It is called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and with it has spawned a pop culture among not only the targeted demographic of little girls but the show itself is so well written and deeply awesome that teenagers and young adults, mostly intellectuals like myself included, find themselves fixated on this wonderful and epic cartoon. However this timeline has split after Princess Twilights encounter with Tirek to the events we now see today. Sorry to break the forth wall as you may call it but we had to get some things off our chests. Father if you please.”

“Going back to that point. I hold no hatred to any one of you. But what I do mind is the fact that some individuals take things a little too far,” he glared at one of his guards. The dark fox like one with a sky blue Vinyl Scratch shirt with a design I've never seen before.

“Really dude? You had to come into this meeting with that shirt on?” Zak, the hybrid cat/dragon looking Pokemorph stared at his friend.

Ghost looked back and forth. One of his eyes was replaced with a synthetic one, “Yes, sorry to be so informal.”

I rolled my eyes and half expected a backlash from Princess Celestia. To my surprise she gave a firm chuckle.

“Oh yes, I have known about this little predicament since yesterday. I find it quite amusing that our two universes are connected in such a way. And to humor you,” she cleared her throat, “SO I HEARD YOU LIKE BANANAS!”

Three of the delegates started cheering at each other back and forth like they were nerdgasming. It was Tanya, David, and Ghost. Zak, Micheal, and the President facepalmed.

“I am surrounded by idiots...” President Rivers was rather embarrassed, “Arceus strike me down right now.”

“Not yet Uncle, let's see how this pans out,” Zak patted the President in the back.

“I'd like to add something as well Princess,” Digi raised his hoof.

“Please, do go on,” Celestia admired the informality of the three stooges.

“I too have known about this break in the dimensions all my life, but I never had the chance to prove that I wasn't crazy. We're basically being all controlled by a twenty year old gamer writing this on his computer right now,” Digi smirked.

“I second that statement! Woo!” Pinkie raised her hoof as well. Things were getting out of control and I sat there unamused.

“That's riight!” David cocked his head back and composed himself, “BUT! Let me make this clear, this universe still exists and the consequences of our actions will have lasting effects on this timeline. We cannot go back and for all intents and purposes we must treat this reality as being perspectively real and physical. With no doubts whatsoever to its existence. Are we clear?”

We all nodded as the meeting continued.

“Please pardon my sister. She can be somewhat of an airhead. Let us continue,” Princess Luna had her say.

“Thank you,” the President adjusted his tie, “But say no more, the United Pokemorph Federation will support you as allies. You mean well and it is my duty to safeguard any innocent races expanding peacefully into the stars. Unlike the Apex regime of the Miniknog which seeks only to control, enslave, and pillage those otherwise innocent of any crimes against sentient life forms. I am a President of the people and you have my word. Meeting dismissed!”

“Just like that huh?” I turned to AnY.

“Just like that. What other strange and wonderful things should we expect in this crazy world we now live in?” he twirled his hoof around one side of his head.

“Probably another war. I hate to admit it but we're not out of the fire just yet. So long as the Miniknog Regime exist our world is still in danger.”

“That is correct Twilight,” Celestia trotted over to me, “We must prepare to defend ourselves once again. No longer do we live in a time of peace. It saddens me greatly that we must do this again.”

“Princess,” I bowed to her and closed my eyes, “Let me lead in the war effort. So you can stay here and focus on keeping our homeworld safe.”

“So be it,” she touched a hoof to my horn, “I now place full authority of the United Equus Space Forces in your control. Please Twilight, bring an end to this war!”

“Yes Princess. I will not fail you,” I got up and saluted. It was all in my hooves now, but I am not alone.

Everypony else went back to the ship. Meanwhile I took some time to wander Canterlot again and set my hooves down at my old stalking grounds: Doughnut Joe's. I felt at home again and waved him down.

“One of everything please!” I just let myself go. My husband rolled his eyes and joined in.

“Don't mind me, I'll have whatever she doesn't finish,” he smiled to Joe and the shop keep gave a quick nod.

“One of everything for the Princess and her Chancellor! Coming right up,” he receded into the kitchen and I noticed a few familiar voices to my left. It was Rolo with two other mares. One a unicorn and the other an earth pony.

“Rolo! Hey Rolo it's me Twilight!” I waved to him.

“Shalom Princess! Come come! Join us,” he smiled back as my husband and I switched seats. As I got closer I noticed the familiar reddish brown braided mane and tail of the white unicorn mare. It was “Cakey” Crowne Heart, one of the most famous actors in all of Equestria! I wonder what she was doing here?

“You glad to be back on Equestria again Sir Coltberg?”

“Yes my Princess. I'd like you to meet my wife Astrid Heart and her sister Crowne. I'm sure you've seen her on the big screen.”

“Oh yes! I especially loved your portrayal of Clover the Clever in the Starswirl Trilogy!”

Crowne squeed in delight, “Oh thank you thank you thank you Princess Twilight! It's really an honor to meet you!”

“Likewi-whoa!” she started to shake my hoof rigorously. She was really delighted to see me. She put me down and I was shaken by her spasm.

“Please excuse my sister. She is easily excited,” the brownish blonde Astrid stroked her pregnant belly as her husband held her close, “I missed you Itzchak.”

“I missed you too my sweetheart. I'm so sorry I had to leave for so long,” he pecked her on the muzzle and she returned the favor.

I was now starting to notice a recent baby boom in Equestria. To be honest it was to be expected after so many long wars. Ponies everywhere were finally settling down to have families and Rolo was no exception. This made me think about having a foal of my own with AnY.

“One jelly-custard filled chocolate dipped sprinkled doughnut covered doughnut, glazed for the lovely blonde pregnant mare and two sufganiyot for the newly knighted soldier. Thank you for your duty sir! And I will have the doughnuts you ordered in a moment Princess.”

“Thank you Joe,” I smiled to him as he went back to check on my order.

“Thank you as well friend!” Rolo waved to him and Joe raised his hoof in acknowledgment. I saw Astrid turn to me.

“Princess,” she spoke in a soft tone, “Is my husband coming with you again out into space?”

“Well, yes. He's been a valuable asset and an extremely dependable guard who has saved many lives including mine and my husband. Is something on your mind?”

“Yes, please allow me to come with you into the stars. It's been so long since we've been together and it would be a shame if he left again. Please Princess, I don't want our son to grow up without his father,” her last words brought about thoughts of Sky Buster. At the same time I was reluctant to say yes due to our situation with a new war on the horizon.

“I'm not sure. One of my best friends died up there. Not to mention that we lost a few ships in our flight back home. Are you sure you want to go? It's a dangerous universe and you'd be much safer in Equestria.”

“Please Princess,” she giggled as she presented me her military ID, “Royal Equestrian Special Forces. I met my husband during the last war.”

“She's currently on maternity leave. May I please request that she come along as well?” Rolo smiled and bowed his head.

“Okay,” I nodded slowly, “We'll let you come along. AnY your thoughts?”

“I agree as well but all civilians should report to the colony ships for the safest possible transit into space. We'll keep them at the back of the fleet while our military vessels guard their perimeter. Oh goody! The doughnuts are here!” my husband rubbed his hooves and started to dig into the massive pile of pastries. There was another ring from the door that signaled more customers.

“Welcome to! Whoa, are these your alien friends Princess Twilight?” Doughnut Joe looked to them and back to me. It was Task Force Frostbite that just came in.

“I can't believe we're in Canterlot ordering doughnuts from Doughnut Joe's!” the one girl in the group who I could best describe as a mermaid cat with shark gills and a scar on the right side of her neck squeed in delight.

“Tanya, come on. The more we stick around the more we stand out. Plus the roof is a little low for bipeds like us-OW!” the ice colored fox-cat hit one of his ears on the ceiling fan, “Son of a bitch!”

“I dunno about you, but I am loving this place,” the dark gray fox one with the cybernetic eye and left arm was as excited as Tanya to be here, “Can I get two apple tarts and a coffee for here?”

“Ghost, we don't have time,” the ice cat told his friend.

“Oh come on Mikey we're not leaving until tomorrow! Why not mingle with the locals? That's what we did in Lylat! Do you guys accept Pixels?”

“Sorry bud, only Equestrian grade Gold Bits accepted here,” Joe told them with a straight face.

“Crap! You'd think these things would be accepted everywhere now. Guess this species really is new to space travel,” Ghost placed the square coins back into his pocket.

“Excuse me!” I waved to them and two of their members, Ghost and Tanya approached, “Task Force Frostbite was it? I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle. I want to thank you personally for saving us.”

I saw Tanya blush and turn away shyly all the while squealing softly with glee. Ghost cleared his throat.

“Well good afternoon Princess Twilight!” he bowed and I saw some odd triple barreled weapon and a rocket launcher on his back, “I am Captain Ghost Robert Lee of the United Pokemorph Federation's elite Task Force Frostbite! May we sit here in the booth next to you?”

“Yes you may, please! Come sit and talk,” I was curious to know more about them. Two of them didn't want to.

“Mikey! Zak! Come sit down!” Tanya waved them to come over, “It's rude to ignore the Princess!”

“Okay okay, we'll bite,” they seemed annoyed. Mikey sat down next to Tanya and I could make out the similarities in their faces.

“So, Tanya was it? Are you and Mikey related?”

“Yes Princess! We're twins!” she was awfully bubbly and grasped her brother's face to bring it next to hers, “See?”

“Uh huh,” I looked to the hybrid cat/dragon looking one in the corner, “And what is your name?”

“Captain Zakary Halker Sintari. UPF Navy: Task Force Frostbite. Support gunner and ace fighter pilot ma'am,” he puffed out a bit of flame, “Sorry for my lack of excitement but this is rather odd for me.”

“I see, you and Mikey both. Why are you two so dismissive?”

“It's because they're anti-bronies. And Tanya is sort of to blame for that,” Ghost explained.

“Hey! I only tried to cram Mikey to like the show about fourteen times okay? It's a little sibling prank you know. Zak just doesn't like the show and I respect that. I just like to annoy my brother from time to time,” Tanya smirked to her brother as he gave a long sigh.

“I will get you back one of these days, you and David both,” he rolled his eyes and gave her a hug, “But you're still my sister and squadmate. I never hated any of you for doing so.”

“So my universe is a TV show in yours? How much do you know?” I eyed them strangely as their antics continued.

“Okay, it started off when you were a unicorn who found the magic of friendship and returned Nightmare Moon into Princess Luna with the help of the Elements of Harmony. Then a couple months later Discord broke from his stone prison, tried to fuck up Equestria, then you stoned him again,” Ghost trailed off.

“Then you saved Equestria from the Changelings, saved the Crystal Empire from Sombra, turned into an Alicorn Princess, jumped through another multi-dimensional portal into a human only world, Discord tries to fuck Equestria again with some popcorn seeds, then you defeated Tirek with Rainbow Power. Did we get it right?” Tanya smiled. She was completely correct! Even down to my venture into the human world! Only Spike and I know about that!

“You know too much,” I recoiled back in surprise, “Let's keep all of that a secret unless we start to upset some of the populous.”

“Yes Princess Twilight!” Tanya saluted with Ghost.

“Since you know so much about us can you tell me more about your nation?”

“Ooo! This should be fun,” AnY listened closely as Tanya and Ghost prepared some holograms from their astonishingly advanced phones.

Tanya started to read out loud, “The United Pokemorph Federation is a vast galactic and interdimensional democratic socialist limited monarchy, renowned for its complete lack of prisons. It is located in the Blue Spiral Galaxy and controls a healthy sum of 50 planets and the compassionate, intelligent population of 272 billion love a good election with the government giving them plenty. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are regulated and the wealthy viewed with slight suspicion. The enormous, socially-minded government is mainly concerned with Social Welfare, although Education and Defense are on the agenda. A healthy private sector is led by the Electronic Technology industry, followed by Automobile and Aerospace Manufacturing and Resource Mining. Citizens select which government department gets their income tax Credits each year, voting is earned by serving at least one full standard year (365, 24 hour days) of federal service (for example; serving in the military) and tariffs protect local industry. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. The United Planetary Federation's national animal is the Pikachu, and its currency is the Credit. The current date is AD 2525.”

“We are very reliant on out technology, but not as much as the Avali. Our technology is more external devices rather than internal augments. Unless of course you're like me. I need these cybernetics to stay alive,” Ghost detached his arm and gave it to me, “Take a good look. It interfaces with my neurons and the whole prosthetic feels natural.”

“That is quite something,” Rolo eyed the arm as well, “Look how many electronics are integrated into it.”

“Exactly,” Ghost reattached his arm and ate one of this tarts, “We only use internal augments for medical emergencies. Most of our technology revolves around gadgets like heads up displays, smartphones, and that sort of thing. What really stands us apart from the chaff is our tried and true military!”

“You mentioned something about earning the right to vote. Why do you do that?” AnY asked.

“It's to make sure we are dedicated to our nation. When we reach the legal adult age we can choose to apply for Citizenship. Citizens get the right to vote and have their say in political matters. It keeps the rift raft from giving us convoluted mindless votes based on politically uneducated masses. It's a genius system that works well for our race. But here's the thing: you have to either serve in the military or become a resource miner to apply for Citizenship. It teaches discipline and it's a nice system,” Ghost finished the rest of his tarts and took a sip of coffee.

“Which is why our military is one of the best in this universe. We've got more than a hundred billion troops stationed on twenty two major military planets under our control. The only race that can potentially give us trouble are the Apex since they make widespread use of cloning technology. In terms of military flavor we prefer adaptive tactics with a hard hitting mix of bullets, missiles, gauss guns, and specialized energy weapons. You see that my squad is all fully armed and I want to show you my sniper rifle,” Tanya placed the large weapon onto the table and the barrel telescoped outwards, “This is the R-20 Rainbow anti-materiel laser rifle. And yes, it's named after one of your friends. This fires a solid beam of charged hologram light that impacts with simulated mass on target with enough force to cut through the most advanced tank armor. It has two fire modes: a focused piercing shot and a slicing sweep to cut down multiple hostiles.”

“My my my!” Astrid started to pet it, “If what you say is true then this rifle is one of the best long range precision arms I've ever seen. And I too am a sniper and weapons specialist.”

“To be honest with you I prefer bullets,” Tanya shrugged with a smile, “I like a little bit of challenge with my old SVX Nova Dragon.”

“Does your brother have an assault rifle?” Rolo eyed the familiar looking rifle on the back of Mikey. It looked the same as the plastic looking rifle that one of those humans Troy was part of.

“Well, guess I can talk about this thing,” Mikey started to open up, “Assault Rifle-Pulse model five. The ARP-5 Pinprick is an old rifle that the UPF uses. It was designed by my brother as a compromise to supersonic bullets and subsonic flat trajectory plasma bolts. There's a firing pin in the weapon that zaps an antimatter cell to discharge a supersonic micro bolt of plasma. More direct damage than a bullet but the wound is immediately cauterized. Which is why some troops prefer bullets like my sister. Dual feed, thirty five rounds in the mag, and can use two at once for seventy rounds. Also passively recharges one shot for every second the weapon isn't fired. I tell you, my younger brother is a genius.”

“I'm saddened to see that this puts my Galil to shame. It's so light as well!” Rolo was really fascinated with the rifle. I paid not heed to Astrid and Tanya continuing to talk in the corner.

“Any good panzers? I hope you have some really fun tanks in your nation,” my husband joined in. I might as well jot down any good notes as I teleported my quill and notepad to the table.

“Tanks huh? We got several, all powered by antigravity. They're hovertanks that can cross any surface,” Ghost finished his coffee and tossed the cup to the garbage can in the corner, “Yeah! Got it!”

“Oh please share your most advanced design! Within declassified reason of course.”

“Sure,” Ghost flicked his phone and touched the screen. The phone gave the sound of a confirmation and something rumbled outside. We stopped eating and all trotted out to see four hovering armored vehicles roaring loudly with their whining engines. They fell silent as they stood still, “Type 37A2 Zorua Main Battle Tanks! These ones are custom built for Task Force Frostbite and operate with only a single crew member. They have a built in AI that can autonomously operate the vehicle and also help the driver with any tasks he or she may need. Fully loaded with a 135mm gauss cannon, two coaxial 23mm autocannons, and a set of twelve air defense/antitank missiles for use against all manners of foes! The armor itself is a second generation regenerative resin that also acts as a non-newtonian fluid, basically making sabot rounds useless against this thing. Couple that with some mid grade plasma shielding and this tank is almost unkillable. Almost though special energy weapons can cut right through if we're not careful.”

They all got in their tanks and waved us goodbye.

“Well! We gotta go Princess! It was nice talking to you!” Tanya shouted as the roar of the tanks engine echoed in the streets. They drove off back to their own ships in the distance and we stood there for a few minutes.

I had to wonder what else was out there. If the UPF was so advanced then there is no telling what the Apex could do if they were to discover the location of our home planet. If we are to colonize the stars again we would need all the help we can get from the Coalition.

Day 365

Major Micheal Scott Rivers (Glaceon)
United Pokemorph Federation Special Task Force One: Frostbite
Alpha Harobed 84 IV a (0205hours)
Operation: Horseshoe

Of all the interstellar races we could have ever met, of all the universes the Federation could have expanded to. We got ponies... Arceus dammit the times my brother and sister tried to cram this show down my throat made it unbearable for me to watch. I'd never think that I'd be fighting with them side by side on the battlefield, let alone meeting some of the main characters. Especially Pinkie Pie, Arceus I fucking hate Pinkie Pie but strangely enough she isn't as annoying in person. I shouldn't be thinking this way, they're our allies now much to the disagreement of some of the others within the UPF back home. I swear things went to shit on the UPF internet when that damn show came over from Lylat. How do male teenagers and adults find anything to LIKE about this show? It's all a bunch of hippie bullshit they feed to kids to keep their ADHD in check. The sad state of TV nowadays. Luckily for me these cast of characters seem to know how to fight a war.

“ETA two minutes to drop! Hope you guys are good back there!” my wife, Emerald, piloted our transport into the area of operation. Her sparkly green eyes were hidden behind the mask of a helmet mounted display. I could see her Buizel tails swish back and forth in discomfort. I heard her whisper under her breath, “fucking ponies.”

Yeah no kidding. Luckily the ponies in the back of the ship didn't hear her. I caught wind of it because us Pokemorphs have a better sense of hearing than our new allies. That, and it helps to have four ears, being a Glaceon and all. She wasn't fond of our new allies either, mostly because of her equinophobia. She had a traumatic accident as a child with a feral horse back in the day. No amount of colorful pastel ponies could save her from that. Among those I know my father, the president, also dislikes the show. I was honestly surprised to see him ally with these fuckers. He's a major geek like the rest of us and one of the biggest trolls known on the UPF web. He doesn't run the country that way though, just his internet antics. He can't stand the show and what it has spawned in our universe. For your whole life you were trained to either be a soldier or a worker within the Federation. Suddenly this comes along and tries to redefine what it is to be a man? I find it crap, Emmy finds it crap, and my dad finds it crap too. At least we don't have to worry about being kid friendly in this universe. It was time to open a can of whoop ass on these Apex and luckily this would be how the inside of a can of whoop ass looked. This was a Bo-1C, a cargo conversion of the UPF's main heavy stealth bomber. The bomb bay and back engines were replaced with a large cargo hold able to hold fifty four troops plus the two Type 23 armored recon jeeps tied down to the back.

“Yo Mikey, why no HUD today?” Zak waved to me from the opposite side of the ship. He was another one intolerant of Bronies and a hybrid Pokemorph: Absol/Charmeleon.

“Oh opps!” I put my earpiece in and flipped down my HUD screen to my eye, “Much better. Okay Prism! Activate augmented reality combat heads up display.”

ARCHUD ENABLED. LINK ESTABLISHED TO UPF HQ. WELCOME MIKEY.

My vision was filled with an advanced UI overlayed on the single lens on my right eye.

I looked to my twin sister to my right. She was asleep and curled around her sniper rifle like a deadly teddy bear. One could easily confuse her for a Hylotl due to her Vaporeon features. Unlike other Vaporeon the circular frills on her neck were replaced with shark like gill slits. Her iconic violet bandana was wrapped snug on her head with tinted goggles that helped keep it in place. I prodded her awake.

“Yo sis! Look alive we're gonna drop,” I patted her shoulder as she stretched.

“Alright, alright! Let me work my magic,” she loaded a fresh magazine into her SVX Nova Dragon and yawned, “I'm chill man. Let's just get down there and fuck shit up.”

She was very nonchalant about the whole war thing. We all were except for the ponies. Us Pokemorphs are born and bred warriors. Our culture has turned war into a bloodless sport with virtual arenas and augmented reality. We become numb, jaded, and used to all the violence and simulated bloodshed. When an actual war hit we were prepared for it. The war with Lylat served to train us well to fight this new foe.

“Hey! You stupid unicorn in the power armor. I think something's wrong with it,” one of the other UPF soldiers in the transport mouthed off to that Dawn Shy guy in the corner, “There's already a dead horse it in! Haha!”

I turned away. I wanted to do that as well but that would reflect badly on the UPF's new allies. Of course, I can't stop all the soldiers from hating them. I glared at my sister and she instantly knew what I meant.

“Yeah yeah, I know I'm sorry for trying to cram that show down your eyes.”

“Just between us,” I whispered to her, “I want nothing to do with this horse shit. Let's just help them gain a foothold on this planet and fly right back to the home universe okay?”

“Just give them a chance. They're OCs, not show canon. That Dawn Shy guy right there. In our universe he's Scalez Signkiller. I've been spying past our universe with David for quite a bit and it seems that each one of us here is an OC or character of a guy sitting on a computer right now. Hard to believe that huh? We're all just play things of an author who subjects us to his whim. Still, this is very much real, physical, and it's happening here and now in this plain of existence. And at least we are in control of our own actions.”

“Yeah, that was quite something to wrap my head around. What the hell is Ghost doing?” I looked to the back to see him chatting with Vinyl.

“Man! I love your music! When is the new album coming out?”

“Heh, couple of weeks. Ready to see my bass cannon in action bro?”

“Bitch please, I got a sonic shotgun mounted on my exosuit,” Ghost showed off the UPF Reactionary Shock Trooper Armor with the modular weapons and electronics package, “custom user interface, modular rail mounted weapons systems, with servomotors that enhance my speed, agility, and strength. Couple this with the nanobots already in my system and we kick things into overdrive.”

“Well don't start the party without us,” the teal pegasus mare in the corner waved to Vinyl. Tanya poked my shoulder.

“That's Kim. OC, pegasus. Super spy pony and her creator wants to be an animator. One of the most famous female MLP analysts.”

“Okay, what can she do and why should I care?” I looked at Kim and assessed her combat capacity.

“Sniper, many years of special forces experience. Three wars under her belt, at least in fan fiction canon, and almost as good of a shot as I am... Almost...” my sister smirked as she placed the goggles on her face, “bout time to rock and roll.”

“One minute to drop!”

“Mikey, you might wanna get ready,” Zak pointed to my guns, “You bringing the Hydra Helix?”

“Of course. My Bitch Cannon with thirty two frag rounds. Never leave home without it. Also, David gave me this to try out,” I slid a brand new rifle off my back and loaded in a fresh twenty round mag of 7.62x51 FED, “He calls this the PAR or Precision Attack Rifle. Says it uses IFF to lock onto enemy troops. Comes with a built in target finder screen in place of the accessory rail. The barrel free floats and uses servo motors to move vertically and horizontally to track the targets.”

“Your brother is a fucking genius. He's like Iron Man or something,” Zak laughed as he readied his RPK-113.

“Thirty seconds to drop! Load up now!” Emmy shouted on the PA system as I looked outside to see flak starting to puff up.

“That's our cue,” Tanya stepped up and lined up with the other droptroopers, “Ghost, you gun when we touch down.”

“On it,” Ghost climbed into the top of the jeep and armed the anti-tank railgun before running back to his harness, “Serious whoop ass in a magnetic package.”

“No kidding. Zak you're with me. Command whatcha got?”

“Frostbite this is AWACS Murkrow be advised Avali and Human forces are joining the fight as well. Proceed with Operation Horseshoe, out.”

“Copy command! We are dropping into the AO! Deploy! Deploy!”

The cargo door slid open with the blaring alarm and bright red lights that fill the hull of the plane. The loadmaster unlatched the two jeeps and they parachuted in slowly. We had the more exciting insertion.

Our seats latched onto us with full metal braces and we were enveloped in a cocoon of steel and metal. The hiss of pressurized air sealed our drop pods and I looked to the ponies caught off guard. I smirked.

“Pffft, pussies,” with one more loud metallic clank we were launched from the bottom of the dropship in a sudden drop. The pod shook and rattled but I shrugged it off with indifference as I had done this many times in my special forces career. I was bounced around and shaken like beans in a can. I saw Ghost guide his pod into my viewing window and he stuck his tongue out at me playfully. I waved to him and smiled.

Touchdown was precluded by the rocket boosters that slowed our descent as the pods dug into the ground. With both paws on my rifle the front panel blew off and lodged itself into the ground as a makeshift piece of cover. Already on the front lines, we hit the ground shooting. I leaned into my right and took aim down the electronic sights of the PAR. With a satisfying lock sound that rang in my ears I pulled the trigger once and the rifle did all the work downing three enemies with one trigger pull.

“Automated, nice!” I took time to admire my tool and glanced over to Tanya, “Tanya lay down some sniper fire Zak and I are moving up!”

“Roger bro! Can you help those ponies back there? They don't look too good from the drop,” Tanya wrapped her left arm around her rifles magazine well and picked off her foes with accurate semi automatic fire.

“They're noobs, why should I go and help them?” I carried on casually as I moved to the engine block of the Type 23 Koda that dropped in. I dug into my cover with Zak to my right using the armored back of the jeep to suppress those apes with LMG fire.

“The reputation of the Federation hinges on the survival of these guys you know?” Tanya ran dry and dipped into her cover, “Zak cover me I need to tac load.”

“Copy, got these shit throwers on lockdown,” Zak's RPK clattered with rapid fire. I could see his tracers taking off some heads, “Hell yeah! That'll teach you to poke your little noggin out!”

“So you want us to do some babysitting?” I rolled my eyes at my sister as one Apex soldier flanked us, only to be shot dead with my automatic explosive shotgun, “Seriously monkeyshit? I saw you coming four hundred meters away.”

“Yes, you gotta do the babysitting. It's in the script,” Tanya poked back up and continued to fire, “Back up! Freed up to move guys!”

“Mother of Arceus fuck,” I facepalmed but remembered to move my HUD to the side, “Zak c'mon! Let's see what these ponies need.”

As we retreated back to see what's going on we could tell that the ponies were rather shaken by their drop into hostile territory. I walked over and shook my head in disappointment.

“The hell is going on here? It's like you guys never used a drop pod before.”

“That's just it, that was rather unexpected,” the teal pegasus mare was the only one up and able, “My name's KP. I'm in charge of these guys here.”

“Walk it off now! Come on Rolo,” the white normal pony with the blue hair steadied his squadmate with a six pointed star on his ass.

“That was a fucked up landing. Ugh, I'm good sir!” Rolo stood up and looked around, “Okay, you, KP, Vinyl, Octavia, and Dawny. Are they all up?”

“I'm good!” the dark unicorn with the dirty blonde mane in power armor stood tall.

“Same here,” Vinyl wore the same power armor with a bass cannon mounted on the side.

“Can we quit being pussies and get out there and fight? Geez it's like you guys don't know how to fight a war. When we hit the ground we were already shooting!” I started to lose my temper, “Come on, we gotta secure a foothold here.”

Tanya and Ghost managed to secure the Type 23 Kodas that dropped from the plane and drove it over to us.

“Get in! Change of plan, bro you gun!”

“Copy, you ponies better not slow us down! Get the fuck in already!”

“Okay okay! You sure are bossy,” KP got into the front passenger seat and pulled out her radio, “Squad check in check in can you guys hear me okay?”

“Loud and clear Miss Possible. I'm with Dawny and Vinyl in the other jeep. What is our objectives over?”

“Our objective for today Rolo is to assault an Apex stronghold on this planet to claim it for Equestria. We've got full support from our allies today so don't be afraid to call in some fire support.”

“Yes ma'am!”

“This is the Avali Second Special Forces Brigade Firepack Stormfeather, be advised Frostbite we are on your six providing drone and gunship overwatch.”

“Oh hey Tuni! Long time no see!”

“Wait, KP? Good to hear you again! Call us in when you need the backup,” the Avali gunship flew right over us with five gun drones in escort.

Good, at least the Avali know how to fight. They're awesome warriors and pretty fluffy too.

“This is Troy, callsign Ferret. I'm in support of the operation as well. Be advised, my merc team has times two Anvil Hornets and times one Redeemer gunship! We're clearing the skies.”

Human mercenaries. They're a mixed bag for the UPF. Their society makes no sense to us. Why isn't their race united under one flag like all the others? Why so much internal hatred in their species? Oh well, humans...

“David, give me a sitrep on the mission objectives,” I tuned my earpiece to my brother who acted as our support officer.

“Mikey you've got three objectives for the mission. Destroy the hostile armor, infiltrate and capture the base, and mop up any remaining Apex resistance. Pretty standard mission I'd say.”

“Yeah, if you don't count the ponies...”

“Look, I know you're upset about the small equines in ones possession and I am sorry for trying to cram this fandom down your throat with Tanya but they are allies of the UPF now. You should probably treat them with more respect.”

“Whatever bro,” I hung up on the radio and the ponies in the jeep all murmured back and forth.

“What's the big deal with you guys? Can't you save that crap for the enemy?” Kim prodded at my back leg as I looked down from my gunner seat.

I really just wanted to say just go shove it up your ass. I ignored her.

“Hello! I asked you a question.”

“I'm focusing on the mission at hand. I suggest you don't distract me rookie,” my voice was stoic as I scanned back and forth for any movement as we advanced, “Tanya, let's hang with these tanks for a second and use them as cover for the infantry to dismount.”

“Roger! Everypony this is your stop! Grab some anti-tank railguns from the back of the jeep and lay down some covering fire for us!” my sister patted Kim on the shoulder and smiled to her.

“At least you're friendly. Alright squad, let's give these guys some support while they move up. Hole up on this hill and provide some covering fire for the UPF and our own troops to move up. Say, how do I work this thing?”

“You twist the battery in the back to lock and unlock it in place. And don't touch the barrel! It will melt your hooves off. And I suggest you brace for the recoil when you shoot it. Got it?” Tanya winked.

“Sure thing. Let's go!”

“Following you my dear,” the white pony addressed Kim affectionately.

“As I am Major,” Octavia and the others dismounted as we drove off into battle.

“Tanya support these UPF and pony tanks by staying at distance and give me some good firing angles on these guys.”

“Got it bro! Say did you listen to the newest album from Ascend Enemy?”

“Hell yeah! The Black Market? I am loving it. Oh, hold up here, I got an enemy mech spotted on thermal. One on the way!” the loud discharge of my magnetic weapon kicked up the dust around us and crippled the enemy walker with a piercing hit right into the cockpit as the metal beast fell to its knees and exploded, “Okay move! They're gonna see that bright blue tracer we left behind.”

“Wait, shouldn't we have told the ponies about that design flaw?” she was talking about how UPF gauss and rail guns leave behind a superheated blue tracer of plasma due to the high flight speed of the projectile. It was enough to turn the air into a neon blue plasma that could be traced back to the firer.

“Shit, okay. Let's go back,” those ponies were really slowing us down. As we drove back to their location it was apparent that one of them was already wounded.

“Damned sniper took a chunk out of me!” that white pony was applying pressure to his profusely bleeding neck pierced by a laser beam.

“You're gonna be okay honey! Just stay awake, we can fix you up!” Kim started to cry. I saw the look in her eyes and I knew what it meant. She thought his wound was too critical to be fixed. Tanya rushed to the white pony.

“You're okay. This is gonna hurt like a bitch though,” Tanya squirted some biofoam onto her palm and pasted it onto the neck of the white stallion. The pony twisted in agony as the foam mended his flesh and sealed off the wound, “That should do it. UPF's finest battlefield medicine.”

“Oh sweet Celestia, thank you!” Kim breathed a sigh of relief, “These snipers are pinning us down. They saw our tracers from your railguns.”

“Yeah, that was my bad. I don't really use those AT weapons as the recoil is a bit too much for me. Don't worry, I'll get these snipers!” Tanya winked again and sharply inhaled. With a satisfied sigh her smile became a zealous grin as she took the rifle off her back and did was she does best. She isn't the top UPF sniper for nothing, “Enemy bearing 3-3-0, snapping on!”

One trigger pull, one kill confirmed. Her sharp eyes and snappy aim was a sight to behold. She's killed so many through the scope of her rifle that we all lost count after the last war. Her rifle was scored with scratches of kill marks and sadly the polymer finish was dulled with so many of them that she ran out of space to put more.

“Enemy 3-1-4! Got him!” two kills confirmed for my sister, “Anti-tank team on the ridgeline bearing 2-9-9!”

“I see him! Taking a shot!” Kim shot her bolt action rifle and the enemy ape burst into flames, “Booyah! These new magic rounds are awesome.”

“Kim, another guy, sniper 2-8-7 bearing.”

“Roger, I see him!” another shot from Kim. Her target dropped to the floor, “Squad! Move up what's her name and I got you guys covered with sniper fire.”

“Yes sir Miss Possible!” Rolo took the lead of the squad, “Dawny, Octavia, Vinyl all of you on me!”

“Don't start the party without us!” Ghost impacted the ground next to us fully geared in his armored exosuit with the mechanical reload of his sonic shotgun. Zak slipped in from the jeep they secured.

“Yo Mikey! Get this gauss rifle switched out to a minigun, we are proceeding into the base! Their armor is fucked up from our air support.”

“This is Troy! Callsign Ferret! Be advised new enemy aircraft are spotted by AWACs inbound to support the enemy defense! We need reinforcements in the air!”

“Zak, you know what,” I smiled to my absol/charmeleon friend as I pulled out a special flare pistol from my chest rig.

“Hell yeah,” we high-fived and got our flare guns up.

“Emmy! Skyhook now!” I radioed out to my wife as she flew into the battle with a specially modified cargo aircraft only used by Task Force Frostbite.

“Roger sweetheart, Rayna's got your Cazador Zak in the other Bo-1TFF.”

“See yeah later bitches!” I fired the flare gun into the air and it inflated into a small hydrogen balloon with a line attached to my chest and harness. Zak did the same and I was the first to be grabbed by my wife's low flying cargo plane with my fighter craft recessed in the modified bomb bay. We used a Skyhook for quick extraction and my line was rolled up by my cousin waiting for me in the open cargo bay door.

“I got you Mikey,” Ammad, my buizel cousin grabbed my arm and pulled me into the cargo bay of the plane, “Your Type 10 Cazador is ready for action.”

“Thanks cous!” I hopped right into the cockpit and fitted my helmet. With a quick preflight check I turned my radio to Zak.

“Yo Zak! You up?”

“Yup. Wait till these guys see me in action.”

“Word. This is Mikey, Callsign Frosty. Zak and I are supporting the air forces with our own fighters. We're taking to the air.”

“Wait, hold on. Weren't you just on the ground?!” Ferret came over the intercom as he pulled up next to Emmy's plane.

“The UPF has its ways,” my plane detached from the mothership and my ion engines roared to life. This was the deadliest space fighter the UPF has to offer and was just recently put into full scale production. However, Task Force Frostbite has been using the prototypes since the last war five years ago.

“Wow, now that is a nice plane. Is that a drone?” Troy asked. It was typical for humans to be so curious.

“Nope, UPF does not use dedicated drones. We prefer our manpower to do the fighting. It's dishonorable in the UPF to use drones unless we really need them. It's just an all metal cockpit with camera nodes all over the ship. I've got a complete three hundred sixty degree view of everything,” flight data filled my eyepiece as it linked to the planes systems. Zak, Troy, and two other pony planes pulled up to us.

“Good to be flying with you Ferret! This is Brigadier General Rainbow Dash of the United Equus Space Force. I'm right behind you kid.”

“Thanks, May is in my back seat as my RIO and turret gunner. This Anvil Hornet is an armored boom and zoomer. Should be good against Apex light fighters.”

I could see Rainbow glance back and forth to view her surroundings, “I've got my personal MiG-21X. Agile, fast, and stealthy like me. If you can lure them on your tail I can come in for a clean kill. Ink Rose, how you holding up?”

“Good, I'm glad to be flying again with you General. I've got Derpy in my back seat operating the radar and weapons systems. She's rather good at the technical stuff.”

“I did help to program the avionics of this F-14X Spacecat when Applebloom built it. I figured I could help test the prototype in this operation,” the crosseyed grey mare looked too out of place to be flying a combat aircraft.

Her maroon colored pony pilot pulled up next to my plane and looked to it, “Drone huh? Who's piloting it?”

I rolled my eyes and cloaked my cockpit to transparency, “Ain't a drone little missy. I'm flying.”

“How'd you get up here?”

“I'll tell you later, AWACs what's the sitrep?” I radioed out to my brother and our C&C assets.

“Squadron of fifty drone fighters inbound from vector 2-7-5. Mostly ground attackers with manned fighter escorts numbering in the twenties,” my brother linked us his data feed of the enemy planes.

“Copy that. I am assuming control of this combined flight. We're in formation and ready to intercept,” I radioed out to the four planes in V formation to my wings with Zak as my wingman to my right.

“Roger that, you lead the way,” Troy tipped his wings in agreement.

“Mind if Ink Rose and I remain a separate element?” Rainbow radioed out to me as they split off from the formation.

“Roger, stay in touch. Contact! Bandits are within firing range. Switching to AIM-210 Altaria missiles!” the LCD screen on my instrument panel lit up with my weapons as I selected my long range missiles, “Frosty! Vulpix Three! Vulpix Three!”

With the press of the button four long range air to air missiles dropped from my internal payload and zoomed off beyond visual range. The dots on my AESA radar started to disperse as the coalition missiles found their targets despite their evasive moves. My threat warning alarm alerted me to an enemy radar missile lock. I responded immediately.

“Missiles coming in! Chaff and flares! Chaff and flares! Break! Break!” the sky started to blur as my vision tinted black from my high G combat turns. The countermeasures that popped from my craft formed into the shape of an angel guarding me from harm, “Missiles evaded! You guys okay?”

“Yeah! Ferret's good! I took a hit in the fuselage but she'll hold. My auto repair is working its magic.”

“Roger! Rainbow here! Be advised my fighter has no long range arms! Ink Rose! Derpy you gotta get some phoenix volleys into the enemy!” Rainbow was deftly avoiding several missiles on her tail. Just from her flight style alone I could tell she was an ace pilot as the missiles failed to connect and fell to the ground.

“Copy! Bloodrose has good tone! Fox Three! Fox Three!” Ink inverted her plane to instantly launch her missiles. This was a little trick to get your missiles on target faster at the expense of some range.

“I've got good tracking! Monitoring missile flight paths to target!” Ink's back seater managed her radar and weapons while her pilot focused on air combat maneuvers.

“Bingo! Four blips on radar are gone with that volley. Splash four!” Zak confirmed the hits, “Give me a minute, my ADMMs are warming up.”

“You guys are gonna love this,” I smirked as I knew what was about to happen next.

“We're almost into the merge! What is your wingman doing Frosty?”

“Just hold your horses Rainbow, he's got something,” I pulled up next to Zak as his fuselage mounted missile pods deployed their numerous vertical launch holes.

“Razgriz, DRIVE DRIVE!” hundreds of micro missiles erupted from Zak's fighter in the shape of a fiery and impressive Y. The majority of the enemy air fleet was vaporized in a cloud of miniature nuclear explosions when we merged. Our five fighters shot past the enemy and we turned hard back into them. My G suit was keeping me conscious as blood was drawn from my head in the intense turns.

“Damn, look at those ponies go! They must be pulling twelve Gs with their combat maneuvers!” Zak noticed their craft turning even tighter than our own, “You must have some really good G suits huh?”

“Nope! Pegasi pilots don't have to wear one. I pull Gs this hard in my sleep,” Rainbow was snapping her fighter back and forth effortlessly in and out of the enemy formation, “Rainbow! Guns! Guns! Guns!”

“Confirmed kill RD! He's smoking!” Ink Rose banked her plane to view the crash, “They're no match for our flying skills Dashie.”

“Wil-co! Be advised I've exhausted my guns. I've only got missiles left. Four of them to be exact.”

At least that was one thing going for us. UPF short range missiles are stored in twenty round pods that make one of our planes a one man air force.

“I've still got my guns and times two Sidewinders. I've got enough magic charge to stay up for a bit to support the ground troops,” Ink formed up with her leader as we cleared the skies of Apex fighters. I noticed the distinct wub wub sounds of those pony fighters.

“Just circle round for CAP. We're good on the air to air front!” Rainbow waved to me and I shrugged.

“Yo Zak, switch to the ground forces channel and let's see if we can get some fire support missions up.”

“Roger Mikey, to all ground forces allied aircraft have mopped up airspace around the base. Call in for CAS runs when you need it.”

“Hey Troy, switch us over to VTOL mode. I can't get good firing positions from up here,” Troy's back seater, May, radioed out in the open channel.

“Roger, we're breaking off from the flight and forming up with Nick and Mira in the Redeemer.”

“Yo bro! We got a shit load of enemy mechs that are pouring out of the base. Can you deal with these guys!” Tanya radioed out. I rolled my plane inverted and dove to the ground.

“Zak, follow me. Tanya, is it too danger close for ADMM strikes?”

“Affirmative! They've surrounded our position and our AT weapons are out!”

“You human mercs better get down up in that shit! Our fighters can't VTOL for that close of air support,” I gave another glance at my systems and thought quickly, “Emmy can you make another pass with the Bo-1? And do you still have some AT left?”

“Negative but Rayna's got some AT weapons left in her Bo-1. What you gonna do hubby?”

“Rayna requesting permission to dock! I need to get down there again to tip the scales!” I pulled up next to our other modified transport and flew right under it.

“Permission granted. Dock with the transport now.”

With a gentle latch the huge cargo plane coupled with my fighter and brought it into the cargo bay. I shut off my Cazador as Mika greeted me with her Purrloin face when I opened the cockpit.

“Sup dude, need these drop pod crates?”

“Yeah! Set me up with some Pilums, Obsidian MPRGs, and some RL-22s!” I got one of the unguided shoulder mounted railguns from the aerodynamic crates and slung it over my back. I stepped into one of the unoccupied drop pods and strapped in, “Drop me down Miks.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head with a smile, “Go fuck yourself.”

I smiled back and deployed once more into the thick of the ground combat. This was what the Federation did best: adaptive combat tactics and Task Force Frostbite was the best of the best. As before, I touched down onto the surface and began to lay down fire on the enemies as I slid into cover next to my sister and the rest of the ponies we babysat.

“Hey! Brought some presents! Where the hell is Ghost?”

Tanya put on a blank face and pointed above the ridge. With a peek I saw my friend punching the shit out of one of the enemy mechs with his agile exosuit. I saw him finish it off with a dubstep shotgun right into the cockpit.

“Enemy neutralized!” Ghost's suit boosters dashed him quickly back to our position, “Yo Mikey! Thanks for the AT weapons!”

He detached the sonic shotgun from his left arm and I helped him mount a railgun to it instead.

“Go kick some ass out there buddy!” I patted him on the shoulder and he dashed away back into the thick of combat. I relayed back to the open channel, “This is Frosty of Task Force Frostbite! We are now proceeding with the infiltration of the facility!”

“Copy that Frosty, all assigned units move into the base,” my brother radioed out to all the UPF infantry that began to dismount from our APCs.

“You ponies stay close! This is gonna be a shitstorm of close in combat!” I unhooked my helix shotgun from my back and check the mag, “Thirty two round frags. All praise Lord Helix.”

“Octy we're gonna need that beam sword of yours here you know that right?”

“Of course Vinyl. Only if you bring the wubs,” the soft toned normal pony mare spoke to the white unicorn.

“Aww yeah!” I heard her side mounted weapon click with an automatic reload.

“Don't start the party without us,” Kim and the others in her squad stood up, “Let's do this.”

“Once we breach this gate hell incarnate is gonna pour the fuck out! Light assaults boost up the wall and clear out the high ground! Do your job jump troopers!” I looked around me to see our jetpack equipped soldiers fly up to assault the Apex base.

“This is Firepack Stormfeather! Be adivsed Avali drop pods are inbound and our gun drones will support the UPF jump troopers.”

“Copy that, light assault troopers are clearing out the battlements of the base. Whatcha wanna do to breach that gate Mikey?” David radioed back to me from the C&C elements.

“Airstrike would be nice. Hey Zak can you just launch one ADMM?”

“Copy that, standby for fire mission ETA twenty seconds,” Zak zoomed over with his fighter and tipped his wings to us. I waved back and turned to the rest of my squad, “Alright guys! Back the hell up. Zak is gonna drop a nuke on this gate.”

“Isn't that a little dangerous? Aren't we in the blast area!” Kim stared at me with a look of shock.

“Don't worry, it's a low yield oxygen nuke. No radiation but it packs just as much punch as a 500 pound thermobarric bomb in a five pound package. Which is why we strap a hundred or so of them in launch pods on his fighter,” I pointed upwards to my friend circling above, “Like I said, stand the fuck back.”

“Razgriz! DRIVE DRIVE!” Zak uttered the brevity code for the launch of the ADMM. His Cazador cleared the way with the gate blasted open in a fiery nuclear explosion complete with a mini mushroom cloud.

“Move move move! Friendly elements have breached the gate and are inside the facility!”

“Frosty be advised allied gun drones are flying in to provide pincer fire. We've got them sandwiched.”

“Nice one Tuni! Hey! You ponies still have some AT weapons? You there! Rolo right? Why don't you take that RPG of yours and rocket the bastard in that MG tower to our front! My railgun doesn't have much explosive power,” I called to one of the ponies as I slid under a concrete pillar that had fallen over.

“Roger! Rocket away!” the dust kicked up from Rolo's RPG and the explosive impact silenced the MG tower.

“Good job! We're free to move!” I flipped my shotgun from my back and disengaged the safety, “Multiple enemy contacts! I've got em!”

I vaulted over the pillar with my sister and Kim giving some much needed sniper cover. The one they called Dawny was in the thick of the action with Vinyl and Octavia. It seems like some sort of magic was protecting their armor and acted like a plasma shield. Apes to our front fell defeated to our combined firepower. My shotgun spat explosive shells with a steady four hundred rounds per minute stream of death. Dawny was quite the fighter. His magic levitated an SMG around effortlessly and his accurate unaimed fire thinned the ranks of our enemies. With a swift buck he flung an Apex soldier trying to get into melee range straight into the sky where Octavia finished him off with a jump boosted slice of a beam saber. Held in her mouth her quick movements and erratic dashes served to foul the aim of anyone shooting at her. She was really using that jump boost tech to it potential as she closed within melee range of an enemy squad to cut them to pieces.

“Vinyl! What's keeping you?” She yelled to her white unicorn friend.

“Octy! I'm such a dumbass! I didn't bring any wubs!”

“Vinyl! That bass cannon of yours is the only thing between us and the hordes of enemies pouring out of that base! How in tartarus did you forget to bring the wubs!” Kim yelled furiously as her rifle ran dry, “Shit! Cover me while I reload Tanya.”

“You should try getting a semi-auto! Much better for multiple engagements like this!” Tanya kept their heads down with her continuous fire, “Does your weapon run off a USB port by any chance?”

Vinyl's power armor dashed her into Tanya's cover, “Yeah! It does.”

“Lucky for you, I brought mine...” Tanya removed her Fluttershy USB necklace and gave it to Vinyl as I went back into cover to reload my own shotgun, “I suggest Klaypex-Chinter's Will”

“Got it!” Vinyl plugged in the USB drive and I saw my sister wink to her with a smile. Knowing her, that was the theme song she picked for herself. As the song started its melodic intro the power meter on Vinyl's weapon began to charge. My sister's fins stood on ends as the music climaxes to the drop. She was in the zone now, focused, concentrated, and letting the music take her away, her shots synchronized with the beat. With each hard drop Vinyl's sound based weapon tore into the enemy with sustained pulsating streams of magical energy cutting them down like stalks of wheat.

“YEAH!” Vinyl's sunglasses shimmered electrically as she cheered.

“Times fifteen tangos down,” Tanya's zealous smirk was wide on her face as she reloaded another fifteen round magazine into her sniper rifle, “Perfect clip and not one bullet wasted.”

“Good, let's mop up,” I stood to view the damage. Most of the enemy retreated back into their facility as we gained ground on them. The Avali drop pods started to rain down to give the UPF and pony troops some support, “All infantry sections assault the interior of the facility!”

“You ponies stay close now! Just watch and learn from the very best that is Task Force Frostbite!” Tanya patted Kim as she casually walked up and out of the cover, “Well, come now. Let's not wait.”

“Yeah, I need to switch out my PAR. Wait up for me sis! Hey can you guys hand me a ARP-5A2?”

The UPF soldiers I flagged down handed me one of our iconic rifles.

“I'm good! Let's go! We've won this, so let's mop up,” as I walked on I thought about those ponies one more time.

Maybe they aren't so bad after all.

Year 1: Day 1

Dawn Shy

Happy New Year Everypony! Or at else it would have been if I was still on Equestria. Technically with all the time and space mumbo jumbo the thingies: clocks, time, stuff like that are all screwed up. But it was a good thing I had kept my phone to Equestrian Standard Time.

I woke up inside what used to be the Apex base mecha hangar on this planet we just took over with the help of the weird Pokemon dudes. Strange, I don't recall much last night. That probably meant that I was drinking and partying hard like I usually would after a successful mission. Boy, I sure do miss Sky Buster. When he wasn't having me clean latrines or scrubbing the barracks floor with my toothbrush he'd treat all his men out for a drink or nice meal. It kept morale up and reaffirmed that he was only an asshole when he needed to be and it helped to train your ass into the ground. But it worked, even though I was there when he died it helped to save my own life. Funny, piss ass drunk and sprawled on the floor, I was having this hindsight of my late commander.

“Yo, get up Dawny. Up and at em,” I was prodded awake by a familiar mares voice. It was of my new commanding officer, Kim, “Rolo and I are gonna go out hunting to provide some food to set up the new colony. Mind keeping us company?”

“No, not at all ma'am!” I jumped to my hooves but staggered as I tried to get my footing.

“At ease soldier. We're still friends you know? Anyway, we have to find food and water while there's no fighting until the equipment from Equestria ships in. It's a bit of a hike to where I wanna go so give me a hoof with carrying it all back,” There was a quiver of arrows on her back but no bow. Only a strange looking rifle that looked to be from those Pokemon guys. I shook my head and tried to wake up.

“Okay, let me just get some coffee or something and then we'll head out.”

After my short but sweet break for coffee Kim latched on a manually drawn pegasus wagon to her back and Rolo jumped in. I could see he took a bow with him so I did so as well, but not without a trusty sidearm for good measure. We arrived after a few minutes of flight to a watering hole to the north of our village. It was a swampy area with lots of small birds chirping in the background with reeds of grass and still waters that hid many unknown beasts and alien animals. I was still getting used to all the trees that had the white and pink brains on them. This was quite the odd planet for sure.

“See those things. Digi called them Lizard Tailed Crescent Slugs. Said they're completely edible so they'll make a good catch. Oh and watch out for Three Prong headed Spikearms. At least you can tell what they look like by the names he gave them. They too are a good catch but are aggressive,” Kim shot an arrow of of her new rifle and it lodged into the neck of one of the Prongheads chasing one of those slugs, “Got it!”

We both looked at her as she casually loaded in the next arrow.

“That Vaporeon girl, Tanya, gave me this railgun rifle. It's powered by electricity so if I swap out bullets for these arrows,” she took aim at something that looked like a grape hippo and landed that arrow right into its forehead. It took the dumb creature a few seconds before it flopped to the floor rather comically with the same stupid look on its face.

“Wow, you're good!” I smiled to her and admired her rifle.

“Tanya said I was the best shot among everypony there. That's why she gave this to me,” she loaded in another arrow, “What do you say? You want to try it?”

“Oh! Can I?” I looked down to see Rolo pumping water into some empty barrels as one of his pumps broke. The startled earth pony jumped to try to repair it.

Although I wasn't the best sniper I tried my hoof at one of the large flying birds that were piss ass annoying all the time. Seriously, are all the alien birds out here assholes?

“Got one!” I had a wide smile on my face as I scoped out and saw it plummet to the floor.

“Wow, nice shot Dawny,” she rested her chin on her hoof and stayed put as I went over to see my lunch.

I peeked past a row of reeds and saw the plump and juicy bird on the ground, “Ah! There it is!”

I picked it up and smiled with glee. Only... it was strange. It was then that I noticed a second arrow stuck into it. I heard a faint whistle through the air and jumped back as another arrow shot out of the grass, barely avoiding contact with my throat. I pulled my pistol from my belt and sat there wide alert. A faint rustle of grass to my left had me snap in that direction to fire off a shot. There was a hunting bow that flew into the air from my assailant. He had to be here somewhere. I cleared a stovepipe jam from my gun as the shell got stuck. I zoned out the sound of the empty hull tingle on the floor and listened intently for anything at all.

Then I felt a small breeze from behind me and a presence as well. I quickly ducked to avoid the slice of a meat cleaver and managed to luckily deflect it with a well timed shot. I saw him, the face of my attacker. He was a thin Avian in a red and black officers uniform with flowing white feathers and sharp beak.

“I'm impressed, pony,” he smirked at me and made no sudden moves. I was still aiming my gun at him with magic with my dead bird in my hoof.

“Who the hell are you?” I growled as I stood my ground.

“I'm with the Pony Eradication Forces Far East Theater. Commander Vanu!” he lifted his blade parallel to the ground and glared at me with intent to murder.

“Pony Eradication Forces?” I raised my weapon and eyebrow.

“There are two useful pieces of information for you: First, the Pony Eradication Forces kill all ponies and coalition forces who dare expand into our space for the will of our Apex allies and our god Kluex. Second, that game is my dinner and you will hand it to me.”

I felt the bird twitch a little and presented it to him, “It is, is it? Geez, I'm ever so sorry. I'll return it right this MINUTE!”

I squeezed its tail hard and it started to flail, giving me enough of a distraction to pull my gun and fire. With four rapid clicks I knew my pistol had ran out of ammo. I tossed the squirming bird and my gun to the floor as I prepared a spell.

Vanu smacked the bird out of the way and rushed for me, “You're not getting away!”

He stopped and looked to what I was doing. A blue handled magic katana floated in the air summoned by my magic as I slowly unsheathed it, “Who's running? Don't insult me! Who the hell do you think I am? My name is Dawn Shy and I was trained by the very best soldier in all of my planet. I will never turn my back on an enemy!”

“That bravado will get you killed,” he stood his ground as I came in for the first slice. My sword connected to nothing but reeds as he somehow dodged my attack. In a flurry of swift slices he was now on the offensive and striking me down hard. Most of his strikes I blocked but a few managed to score my flesh with minor lacerations. I felt little bits of bloods seep into my coat.

“You fight well, but you're just an amateur at swordplay!” another slice hits home. I was lucky it was another glancing blow, “Do you honestly think you're a match for a professional soldier?!”

“Dumbass! I don't think, I act!” I reached into my belt and sliced upwards with an arrow KP gave to me. I landed the hit right on his cheek and only several inches away from his throat.

“Was that?!”

I twirled the arrow in my hoof and dropped it to the floor, “Damn, slippery creep dodged it...”

“Impressive, you managed to injure me,” he smiled menacingly to me as he wiped the blood from his face. He rushed towards me but I held fast, “But that's just it, sneak attacks only work once. IT'S OVER!”

“Dawny!” Rolo interrupted the fight by tackling him out of the way.

“Rolo! Nice save!”

“I came when I heard gunfire!” He looked to me as Vanu dashed away.

“Another one?!” he dashed away again as Kim took aim and shot him with her magnetic rifle. The bullet made a hard splash of dust as he spotted her scope glint. I heard Kim fire a few more times trying to get a drop on him but none of her shots connected as Vanu somehow fled at breakneck speed.

“Do you think we should tell the Princess about this?” Rolo kept his guard as our enemy retreated. Suddenly there was a low rumbling at our hooves. We looked off into the distance to see a massive mech drop down from the sky, a terrifying white mech with two faces.

“Great, out of the frying pan into the fire,” Kim slid into the scene as she flew down to greet us, “We gotta get out of here! I'll try to buy us some time.”

The magnetic whine of her charged shots were followed by hypersonic bullets impacting the enemy mech. With all that immense kinetic energy even these bullets weren't enough to even make a dent in the armor of our enemy as he closed the gap casually.

“Hmph, not even your new Federation toys will save you...”

I looked back to see a missile pod deploy from his shoulder and it was locked right onto us.

“Shit! My rifle isn't even phasing it!” Kim kept firing into any suspected weak point as our enemy closed the distance.

“Something itches...” Vanu released a flurry of missiles that impacted all around us. We were all knocked back by the concussion wave and thrown helpless on the ground, ears ringing and vision blurred, “Time to finish you off. RAAAAH!”

He thrust his giant metal foot down before being interrupted by an explosion. It knocked him back and gave me time to looked around.

“I thought you could use some assistance,” Octavia stood near me with a professional looking smirk on her face. Her voice was always formal and confident in combat. She was wearing pulse jump hooves and on her flanks were the brand new 3D Maneuver Gear systems Equestria had been testing since before our ventures into outer space, “I brought some friends too.”

“What up!” Vinyl was here as well, pulse jump hooves, 3D gear, and all as she landed next to me.

“I gotcha Colonel Possible. My unit is engaging the enemy mech!” there was a fiery red unicorn marine by the name of Commander Firebrand was already in the thick of the fight and swarming the enemy robot with his squad. He latched onto the back of the robot and fired into the back of its neck with his M16A1, “Ha! Got it right in its power conduit! Those Federation guys were right!”

“Damn! My reactor is doomed!” Vanu left on the open channel and his mech spoke to the world, “Just try and find me now.”

With that comment his mech started to self-destruct and caught a few soldiers in the blast. I rushed to the charred hull and opened the cockpit to find nothing but an empty space. I heard a loud thud to my right and saw an ejection seat lodge itself into the ground.

“Commander! Are you okay?”

“I'm fine Dawny. Squad! I want that bird found! Sweep the area and evac our wounded to the medivac dropship. Copy?”

“Yes sir!” his team relayed back over the radio.

“Okay, now I think we should report this to Twilight,” Kim came over with the wagon full of meat, “Anyway, we got a good haul. Let's RTB for lunch.”

“I'm down for that. Say, how are you doing now that you're in the United Equus Space Force as part of the top brass with your husband?” I glanced over to my commander.

“We're good on that. It's nice to have a break like this every once and a while, even if assholes tend to follow. Not you by the way, that guy right there,” she pointed one hoof to the wreck of the mecha, “I wonder where they're operating from.”

“He actually monologued to me, the cocky cunt. Said something about a Pony Eradication Force or something like that. I'll try to recall everything I can for questioning.”

“Got it, I'll have my assistant, Rio, to interview you in a couple of minutes while it's still fresh in your head. Don't be late.”

A few hours later after both a lunch break and thorough examination of my interview we contacted some of the UPF guys again. The big wigs of the military and a few key soldiers, including Rolo and myself, converged in the war room of our base. The holoscreen jumped to life and displayed the face of the red otter president of the UPF and his yellow spiky son, President Rivers and David as I recalled.

“President Rivers, we've discovered a new enemy force operating in our area,” Princess Twilight reported, “Apparently some Avians have allied themselves with the Apex.”

“I am well aware of this Princess. I am not at all surprised because the declaration of war from Avos only came mere hours before this conversation. Were you attacked at all?”

“Yes, but we've only sustained minor causalities and no deaths. What worries me is that this Pony Eradication Force is operating so close to us and we have no idea of their strength, tactics, or firepower.”

“It seems like you need all the help you can get Miss Twilight,” David sat back in his chair, “Yo Mikey, you busy?”

The screen blips to a third image of that ice fox guy of Task Force Frostbite fighting on the battlefield and in cover behind a destroyed tank.

“Not really. Whatcha need David? Oh! And hi dad!” he was nonchalant about all the explosions and lasers flying in the background.

“Mikey, may I request that you help our pony allies again?”

“Okay dad,” he rolled his eyes, “Anything Frostbite can help with?”

“Some hostile Avians have set up near their new colony. Will you kindly show them the muzzle break of a Federation rifle?”

“Will do! We'll be there tomorrow! Shit!” Mikey switched to his shotgun and blew up an enemy off screen with his high explosive rounds, “Ha! Almost but not quite assmunch. Seriously, can I carry on this talk while I fight out here. Anyway, got to go mop up some stuff. Yo Tanya! That enemy sniper's got me pinned can you-”

A shot from an extremely loud gun resounded right next to him. Mikey smiled and laughed.

“Thanks sis! Bye guys!” his screen rapidly faded and we were left with David and the president.

“And that is why my son is the best soldier in our nation. David, have you found the location of the enemy base yet?”

“Copy that dad, my team has detected an anomaly on the planet next to you guys. Alpha Harobed VI, snow biome, surface scan suggests possible unknown base location. Retasking satellite probe for identification. Got it!” David was typing away like a madman on his computer, “Avian tomb, right there. They're using that as their base of operations within this sector! Funny, you'd think they'd do a better job at hiding it.”

“Well... They did! The whole base is thermal camouflaged and hidden deep underground. How did you find this?” Digi did a second scan of the planet and came up with nothing.

“Oh, it's a simple psyonic scan of the whole planet for any hostile life forms. I just had to filter for sentients. What? Doesn't your race have psyonic technology?”

“Pardon my Prench, but what the buck is that?” Digi asked rather bluntly.

“What? Psy tech? Wow, you guys are really far down the tech tree,” David fiddled with a pen, “You know how all beings emit brainwaves right? The UPF has had technology to visually represent that with optics since I was ten. Actually, come to think of it, I might have engineered it. Funny, I'm the smartest guy in the whole UPF but yet my memory sucks. Oh well, I've lost count of many of the things I invented.”

“But I'm sure you will recall it when mentioned, no?”

“Of course dad. Also, since this might be a little bit too much for your hooves I will request a detachment of the Imperial Hylotl Navy for some assistance. Any attack on any Coalition member should be dealt with with extreme prejudice.”

“Thank you President Rivers,” Twilight and her husband bowed down.

“Please, call me Buster...”

And with that Rainbow shuddered. She slid her face into her hooves and grit her teeth with tears starting to flow from her eyes. She rushed out of the room.

“Oh shit!” Twilight swore in front of the president.

“Hm? Did I do something wrong?” he sat confused on the screen. Kim was the first one to go out and try and comfort Rainbow.

“Well, no... You just so happened to share the same name as our General's late husband who was killed by the Apex.”

“Oh... I'm sorry Princess. David!”

“Yes father?”

“Send General Rainbow Dash a present straight from my heart. Award her with the Federation UCP and one of our Fi-2 fighters straight from the factory. I need to get writing a formal letter of apology.”

“Yes father,” David was left to his own as his father's screen faded and blipped away, “Just so you know, it's a Federation honor to be awarded with a Universal Combat Pistol. It's roughly the same as receiving a Medal of Honor in the human military, but more on a different criteria. They aren't given often but it's both a ceremonial and practical firearm. It acknowledges the recipient as a hero of the UPF. I hope General Dash feels better.”

“Thank you so much for all you've done. How can we ever hope to repay you?” AnY looked up and smiled to David.

David simply pointed two fingers at us and smirked, “Just keep being awesome and stand together as a family of friends. That's what the magic of friendship is all about. You ponies are a shining beacon of hope to many in my nation, while at the same time a catalyst for hatred among others. Don't ever stop being who you are. I've watched you for a long time now up until Tirek and you've grown so keen over the course of your journeys Princess. I know you've read Fallout: Equestria. Do you remember why your nation fell in that book?”

“It was because...” Twilight began, “...It was because we were all separated by distractions within the ministries and could never come together as friends and a family. Divided our world fell into the apocalypse. It was a beautiful piece of literature and I was glad to be a part of it. It really put things into a new light for me.”

“Exactly. Your core values: Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, and Magic all formed into one will never break. Everyone, not just ponies, should always strive for those values. When all the hate and animosity come back to stop you never have a doubt in your mind that your friends, your family, will always be there to support you no matter what. It is an honor and a privilege to have you as an ally of the UPF. Until next time, David out! See ya!” David blipped away and we all looked to each other. He was right. Look at all of us now, still strong, still a family. We all smiled and exited the room to greet Rainbow.

“Hey,” Twilight hugged Dash, “You're gonna be okay.”

“I'm here too partner,” Applejack as well.

“Hush now quiet now Rainbow,” Fluttershy soothed her friend.

“Smile, smile, smile...” Pinkie came in, “from these happy friends of mine!”

“Never forget me either darling. Thank you for all that you do,” then Rarity.

“Call me beep me if you wanna reach me Rainbow. I'm always here,” Kim joined in.

“As am I,” Antony put a hoof to his chest with pride.

“We'll always be right here Rainbow,” AnY chimed in.

She was rather moved by all her friends coming to shield her, “You guys... Are awesome...”

“We're not done yet General! Ink Rose is reporting for duty!” she saluted to the general.

We all fell in line. Puzzle, Rolo, Digi, Tommy in his wheelchair, Kim, Antony, Firebrand, Vinyl, Octavia, Derpy, and right outside the window all of our troops saluted up to us as our soldiers stretched for miles.

“All this, for me?” Rainbow looked on at everyone.

“You were upset and David reminded us about a very important lesson.”

“And let's just say a little birdy told them to assemble like that,” Kim winked as she held a PDA in her hoof. Rainbow smiled and looked outside again, now renewed with a wash of zeal. Twilight stood next to her with the same look.

“I know what you're thinking. And I will back you up all the way.”

“You got it boss! All soldiers mobilize! We are showing them who's boss around here! Say it with me! For Equestria!”

“FOR EQUESTRIA!” I was happy to join in the crowd as we cheered on.