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.”