The craft nosed downward into the dirt, digging a long furrow as it ground to a stop. A few, small grass fires started in its wake, though most quickly burned out as the green vegetation cooled the flames. The pilot had steered them toward one of the few, flat fields within their limited range. Already, several androids began closing in on the downed craft, their rifles barking as more dropships screamed by overhead. Bullets pinged off the heavy armor of the craft, protecting the soldiers inside.

Twilight's hooves scraped at the straps holding her into the seat. Her magic yanked her weapon from its clamps as she unhooked her harness. Her heart thumped painfully in her throat. A coppery taste coated her tongue as she telekineticly hefted her rifle. Despite the pilot's efforts, the dropship had still slammed into the ground hard enough to make pain shoot through every joint in her body. Her head still spun as she crawled to her hooves. Around her, Marines stirred from their seats, shaking heads and gathering weapons after the crash. Groans filtered through the air as they stood. The old Sergeant was already out of his seat, peering out the viewport.

“Dammit,” he growled, “bastards have us surrounded, and when we open the damn door we're going to get massacred.”

“Um... sir?” Twilight asked as she crawled from her seat, “Is there anything somepony could use as cover nearby?”

“Hell's it matter?!” shouted Sergeant Williams, “We ain't getting out of here to get to anything! Damned pilot, why'd you set us down here?!”

The pilot in question stumbled out of the cockpit of the craft, bleeding heavily from a gash in her forehead. “I did the best I could jackass. It was either set down here, or risk getting hit by more AA.”

The grizzled soldier's features softened slightly, “That's a nasty scrape there kid, ya gonna be okay?”

“Not if we're stuck in this corpse.”

“Excuse me, sir?” Twilight again spoke up, “If there's something I could keep between me and bullets nearby, I think I can help.”

Rolling his eyes, Williams answered, “There's some kinda stone wall, about twenty yards north through the thickest buncha hostiles. Ain't no way you're running through that.”

“Whoever said a thing about running?”

She turned to Vincent, who was standing at her shoulder now. “Mister Vincent, can I count on you, Shelby, and Dmitri?”

“Of course.” The large human replied with a frown, “But what're you...”

“Everypony, please. Get close to me.”

Her newest friends drew close, each frowning. Her horn began to glow, and power practically vibrated the ship. A deep violet haze appeared, surrounding them. Gritting her teeth, the young mare let her eyes slid shut. She had to concentrate; everything thing had to be perfect. Or, nearly so. She had to guess their combined weight, and didn't know exactly how far she needed to move. The formulas were at least a little forgiving on that front. She took a deep breath; she could do this. There was no other choice.

Her hooves lifted off the metal deck, and she heard a few low curses rise from the humans around her. Everything seemed to slow to a crawl as magic danced through her. The sounds of bullets pounding into the hull faded. The formulas and words of the spell echoed through her mind. With a final, glaring flash and a muted pop, the unicorn and her three human friends vanished.

Twilight floated encased in a bright, lavender light. Heat and cold assaulted her from all sides. Squeezing her eyes shut did little to drown out the brilliant luminescence. A sound akin to howling wind shrieked all around. A steady tug around her midsection pulled her through the light. She couldn't see but could feel the humans she had pulled along with her floating nearby.

The heat and cold surges settled to a temperate, comfortable range. The strange wailing ceased. As the light began to fade, she could pick out the shapes of her human friends beside her. Her hooves felt soft grass beneath them as she settled onto the ground. A loud pop and bright flash of brilliant brought the world back into existence around her. A slight ring took hold of her hearing as she glanced around. The first thing she noticed was the acrid tang of smoke mixed gunpowder assaulting her nostrils. She blinked to clear clear her vision. The cracks of rifles began to overtake the ringing, and the washed-out picture from her eyes slowly began to make sense.

A hot wind brushed past her face. She heard the air being shredded. Before she could flinch, a hand shoved her down as a feminine voice screamed, “The hell just happened?”

Shelby's hand kept the young unicorn pinned to the ground as the human woman untangled her rifle's sling from a shoulder. Looking around, the mare noticed the other two humans were still groggy and slow. Rounds danced along the thick stone wall. Chips of masonry flung over the top of the protective barrier rained down on the four.

Twilight felt a shiver roll through her, but managed to bite back her scream long enough to answer, “A simple instantaneous travel spell. Well, simple in theory but it was made more complex by having to move so much matter with such accuracy and...”

The high-pitched ring of a bullet bouncing off the top of the wall made her close her mouth, and prompted Vincent to yell, “Got it, ya teleported us. Great, just next time give us a bit of goddamned warning!”

“Well not really, as teleportation involves de- and re-materialization whereas all I did was...”

“Better times horn-head!” Shelby yelled.

“Oh, right!”

The young mare's horn flashed brightly, lifting her rifle in a lavender field of energy. Slowly her head peeked over-top the low wall where her companions had crouched. From here, she could easily see twelve of the Cye warriors firing wildly at their position. A round ricocheted off the stone near her, peppering her with shrapnel.

Unable to hold back a shriek, Twilight flinched away from the impact. Her heart hammered as her gun rose in its energy field. A magical squeeze of the trigger sent a wild sweep of gunfire across the field. Rounds stitched a line across one of the metal monster's chest. A lucky hit that sent the thing sprawling to the ground. But as it fell, it's companions' rifles barked and spat death in her direction.

The slugs pounded into the wall. She could hear the stone cracking beneath the impact. Sweat poured down her brow, stinging as it entered her eyes. From beside her, the steady rattle of bursts from Shelby's assault rifle kept a perfect rhythm. Glancing left, she noticed Vincent and Dmitri taking turns firing over the wall.

Taking a deep breath, the unicorn mare stood on her hindlegs, bracing herself against the wall with her forehooves for steadiness. Her gaze flicked to the nearest android still on its feet. Rifle followed eyes, and trained squarely on its chest. This time, she gently squeeze the trigger. A trio of rounds spat out as the metal humanoid turned, tearing through the metal chassis and sending the creature to the ground. Twilight released her breath.

Something tickled her cheek as she dropped back down below the safety of the wall. Absently, her hoof wiped it away. She dropped the nearly empty magazine from her rifle and slapped in a fresh one. Again she stood, noticing that there seemed to be more of the robots on the ground than still standing. She aligned the rifle's sights with one who had just charged from around the drop-jet, sending a sustained burst into it before it fell. Another began to crawl towards her, it's rifle held in one had as it pulled itself along with the other. A single round into its upturned face made it collapse.

“That's right, you maniacal mechanical bastards!” screamed Vincent, “Get the hell off this planet.” Twilight turned as she fell back behind the wall, and watched as the large human sprayed every round he could across the enemy line. Two more of the androids fell, even as a few more ran from around the fallen craft. She could just see the beginnings of what may have been a smile on his lips. But for now, it looked more like the ferocious snarl she had seen on the faces of the wild animals of the Everfree.

Standing once more, she watched as the dropship's ramp fell, and Marines poured out. The Cye turned to face the new threat, but were quickly cut down in the crossfire. The human soldiers fanned outward from the crash site, stopping to kick each of the fallen androids as the went. Only a few moved, gaining them a round from a Marine's sidearm before they moved on. And just like that, the fight was over.

Twilight stood up from behind the low wall. Her legs quaked under her, only just able to support her weight. The crumbling stone shared her readiness to fall over. She noticed the multitudes of spider-webbing cracks that had spread across it. Stepping away from the collapsing wall, she looked toward Shelby standing nearby and received a small smile and a nod. Twilight couldn't help but feel a smile trace across her lips.

A low curse worming through the air made her turn back toward the fallen craft. Her wizened commanding officer looked around as he stepped out, his face turning beet red and a dark grimace settling over him as he surveyed the carnage. His gaze locked to hers, and Twilight felt a shiver steal over her. The older man's steady, quick gait carried him across the battlefield, not even bothering to step around the crumpled androids.

As he neared, she could feel the rage seething off of him. Before she could open her mouth, the older human screeched, “Just what the actual hell was that?!”

“Well, uh sir that was uh...” stammered the unicorn.

“That was you nearly getting your sorry ass killed is what that was!” Sergeant Williams crossed his arms as he paced in a tight pattern. His voice was low and terse, and his eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “That was stupid and reckless, Private. Not only did you drag your team out where they could get hurt, but then your damned equine friends all decided that they needed to follow you out immediately. They would have been slaughtered. You're damned lucky.”

“Oh, lighten up Sarge!” called out a male Marine from nearby, “If she hadn't did that, we'd be stuck in that damned bird til they cracked it open.”

“Regardless,” growled the Sergeant, “you better not pull some bull like that again. Next time, you may not walk...” A tiny smirk flickered across his features, “trot away with just a scratch.”

A sudden throb of white hot pain lit up the side of her face. Her hoof again came up to her face as the tickle she had felt sprang to mind. A quick swipe over the smarting area, and she could feel the wetness. Her hoof came away dotted by little smears of blood.

“It... It must've... happened wh-when... when they shot the wall...” stammered Twilight as she stared down at the crimson over-top the lavender coloring of her hoof. Her stomach roiled. She'd been that close. Another, scant inch and she would've...

A sigh brought her head back up. Sergeant Williams had lowered his gaze for the first time since he'd arrived, his head slowly shaking as he muttered, “It's just a scratch kid. You're really lucky. And, I guess...” He looked up, and gave an odd sort of grimace that Twilight could only just recognize as a smile, “Ya did pretty well. We could have all been dead if you hadn't done what ya done.”

“I... thank you sir.”

The grimace-smile became a little more pronounced, “Jus' don't let it happen again, Private Sparkle.” The elder human clapped his hand against her shoulder, and added. “You seem to have a good head on your shoulders; I aim to see it stay there.”

Williams turned and walked away, hollering as he went, “Hey, pilot! Can you get the ground-to-orbit comm up? We should prolly let someone know we didn't all go out in a blaze of... well it ain't glory but somethin' like that.”

The muffled voice of their pilot yelled back from the depths of the dropship, “About that, yer gonna want to come here sir.”

A tap on the back of her head made her turn around to face a frowning Vincent. His eyes darted about, before he twitched his head to where the both Dmitri and Shelby stood watching. Both the humans' eyes continuously darted about, and each had their rifles held in a loose but ready grip. The frown on Vincent's feature's transferred to hers; what had happened?

The large man strode toward his friends, and Twilight fell in half a step behind him. Her cheek still throbbed, though it seemed to have stopped bleeding at least. Now she kept scanning around for what had everypony so nervous. Besides the Marines securing the crash site, nothing moved. The surrounding area offered no hint. If anything, it was a rather pleasant day, except for the odors of smoke and spent gunpowder tainting the air.

As they approached, Shelby looked at Vincent with narrowed eyes and growled, “I don't like this.”

“You and me both.” Vincent snorted.

Twilight looked between the pair of scowling humans, and asked, “What, what's wrong?”

Both humans jumped, before Shelby turned and answered with a whisper, “They used AA. They've never done it before. At least, not as wide-spread as that. Generally, they'd only use it near one of their planetside factories, if at all.”

“Not to mention,” Dmitri jumped in, “they seem to have patrols going out.”

Twilight looked between the three humans again as her brows knitted in confusion. “That sounds like something somepony should do in a potentially hostile area, right? It would be the best way to stay safe, or at least safer”

“Damn straight kid.” Shelby grunted, “That's the weird part. They never did. They were always reactionary, not proactive. You could sneak right up to one of their bases and plant bombs.” Her head flicked toward Vincent. “We've been part of raids like that before. They swarm like a beehive afterward, but never before.”

The large man glared at the nearest, fallen android as he snarled, “Thing is Twi, the Cye seem to be getting smarter.”

“So what changed?” mused Dmitri. “You'd think that after that control station over Gaia was destroyed...”

“Hey!” Screamed Sergeant Williams. Twilight turned toward the dropship, seeing the elder Marine hanging his head out of the ramp, “Everyone get your sorry carcasses back in here!”

Vincent squinted at their commanding officer, and muttered, “We'll talk more later.”

He strode toward the fallen craft, Dmitri and Shelby following close behind. Twilight slowly looked around the strangely pristine landscape. Minus the sudden appearance of their doomed starship, it hardly seemed like a war had happened on this planet. She couldn't even see any kind of base or anywhere that the Cye could have come from. It looked just like any of the lush meadows that surrounded Ponyville.

Still, she squinted around at the field. Something felt... wrong. A queasy roil overtook her stomach as she stared around her. The bright sun shone down, casting it's comforting warmth. A nice, gentle breeze swept across the vibrant, green grass; causing it to sway. The wind pulled away the smells of fire and battle, letting her catch a whiff of the sweet smells of flowers and soft earth. Everything seemed safe and homey. Nothing seemed out of place. And yet, she still felt a tingle of unease. Finally, it struck her. She looked at the grass around her hooves. Scanned the sky. Everywhere she looked, it became more and more alarming.

Throughout this entire, welcoming landscape, not a single living creature could be seen.