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.