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.