In a dark room, two alicorn Princesses and a human Colonel gathered around a view screen to watch as a pair of starships rolled into view. All manner of technology adorned the Control room, but all of it was ignored by the three figures. The alicorns’ faces were contorted in a mixture of fear and anger at the invading androids. They did not know how they could fight the two ships from the ground, although the human did not seem worried.

On table next to the three, a radio buzzed to life, “This is Reaper One, do you see it Command?”

“We are receiving your feed, Reaper One.” the Colonel said tiredly, “That looks like two Cye heavy cruisers.”

“What are your orders, sir? Shall we attempt to hold them in orbit?”

“Negative, pull back into the atmosphere; I repeat, pull back. I won’t let you guys get burned out of the air trying to stop the inevitable.”

“Yes sir; damn, I was itching for a fight.”

“You’ll get one soon enough. What is the enemy’s ETA?”

“At present speed, I would guesstimate forty-five minutes. This is Reaper One, out.”

“Forty-five minutes?” The Solar Princess said worriedly, “That is not much time.”

“That’s more time than we usually get.” The human rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “The Cye usually try to go in for a lightning quick strike, that way the Marines have no time to organize a defense. Why would they change now?”

“Fear.” Luna said simply.

“What do you mean by ‘fear’, Princess?”

“I mean that the Cye know that you already have defenses in place. So my guess is that they may be trying to cause a panic by letting you know that they are coming, making you disorganized and make mistakes.”

“Or maybe they have some huge gun pointed at us and don’t want to be too close when it goes off.”

“See? It’s working already.” Luna asserted.

“I see your point, but why change their entire strategy now? In six years they have used the same tactics against us.”

“Perhaps Carn is trying to gall you specifically.” Celestia interjected, “He may be showing you just how little respect he has for the human Marines.”

“What do you propose we do, Colonel?” Luna asked, a glare of fierce determination overtaking her features.

“We do the only thing we can.” Jaze threw a confidant grin to the Princesses as he moved to an intercom station, “We give the bastards a warm reception, StarSide Marines style!”

A siren went off in the heart of the camp, startling a certain golden pegasus into falling to the ground and making the four other ponies jump. The horn continued to blow for several minutes, until Jaze’s voice boomed across the camp. “All combat personnel, report to your defense stations. We are at level alpha alert, the Cye have been spotted in system and are expected to arrive within the hour. Repeat, the Cye are on their way. This is not a drill; all combat teams prepare for imminent attack.”

The next sound that ponies heard was soldiers running hither and yon, looking for all the world like an over turned anthill. Dash and Applejack tried to pull their terrified friend to her feet, Pinkie began to imitate the siren, its significance lost on her, and Twilight watched the commotion with a knot in her gut. It was not long before they were approached by two armed and fully-armored soldiers.

“Ladies,” one said as he stopped before the worried ponies, “I am afraid that you will have to leave the camp.”

“Why?” Dash grunted as she heaved on her fallen friend.

“You heard the Colonel, the Cye are on their way. All the civilians are being escorted off base. It’s going to be, too dangerous here for you to stay.”

“We ain’t leavin’ yet misters.” Applejack said forcefully, “We got friends in this here camp, and ya can’t make us leave.”

“Ma’am,” the soldier said coldly, “if you refuse to leave you will be considered an enemy and be dealt with.” He then caught sight of Twilight, “What are you doing here? You should be getting to your post.”

“What? What do you mean?” the confused unicorn asked.

“We are about to be attacked recruit, why are you lollygagging around?”

“But, I’m not a soldier!”

“You have been training for the last few days, you’ve been issued kit, and you are apparently a crack shot. That makes you a soldier in my book. Now report to your defense post!”

“Is there a problem?” a certain assassin’s voice rang out. He had a TAR slung across his back, a new suit of matte black combat armor, and a helmet the covered all of his head except for his face clipped to his belt.

“Sir, these civilians refuse to leave the base and Private Sparkle will not report to her post, sir!” the soldier said stiffly, snapping a salute.

“First off, these civilians are my friends and have gone through far worse things than a little skirmish with a few moronic androids.”

“Really?” The soldier pointed to Fluttershy, who had just regained her feet, “That one looks like she couldn’t stand up to a cold breeze, much less a Cye trooper.”

“Tell me, have you ever seen a dragon?”

“What?” the soldier scoffed, “They don’t exist.”

“On this world they do; Private Sparkle’s assistant at the library is a dragon. And Fluttershy there stared a dragon down and made him do as she wanted.”

“Oh, really… I didn’t do…” the yellow pegasus tried to hide behind her mane from the stares of admiration pointed towards her.

“And Dash here,” Jaze stood beside the cyan pegasus and placed his hand on her shoulder, “can fly at speeds exceeding Mach One. That makes her faster than any living thing else in the whole galaxy.”

“I’ve seen Applejack stop a speeding cart with a single kick!” Dash added.

“Well, Twi’s been known to cook up a brilliant spell storm or two.” Applejack tossed out.

“And you haven’t met her, but Rarity has made nasty creatures bend to her will with ease.” Twilight mentioned.

“That reminds me,” the Colonel wondered as he cast his gaze around, “where is Rarity?”

“She said sumthin’ ‘bout havin’ sumthin’ to do fer the Princesses.” Applejack explained thoughtfully, “Ah ain’t seen her since.”

“I see sir,” the soldier held his hands up, then pointed to Pinkie “But someone suffering from seizures has no place in a warzone.” Jaze twisted around to see Pinkie having a full body spasm.

“Pinkie Sense?” he asked tiredly.

“Yessire,” the party pony responded, still bubbly with enthusiasm despite the impending attack.

“Any ideas?”

“Nope!”

“Well that’s swell. Like I need more on my mind.”

“Sir,” the soldier asked confusedly, “what in the name of the galaxy is ‘Pinkie Sense’?”

“Just roll with it.” Shelby, who had just joined the group, said as she turned to the assassin, “Jaze, Reaper flight just made it back, but the Cye cruisers have picked up speed and are expected to arrive within a few minutes.”

“Why do they have to speed up?” A grin graced the Colonel’s face as he shoved a clip into his rifle and racked a round into the chamber, “Let’s do this people, the Cye aren’t going to defeat themselves!

“What do you want me to do, Jaze?” Twilight asked when the two soldiers and Shelby had left.

“What do you want to do?” he shot back.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re about to pick a path, and there can be no turning back. Are you ready to fight?”

The unicorn’s gaze rested on each of her friends in turn. Fluttershy was still hiding behind her mane, but managed to give her friend an encouraging smile. Applejack gave a grim nod, while Dash just threw her a worried shrug. Pinkie promised her a huge party after everything was over. The unicorn took a deep breath to steady herself, “I’ll do it, Jaze; I will fight.”

“From now on, you are a soldier in the Marines. Can handle that?”

“Yes I can.”

“From what I heard, you are a great shot. So I think that you should be with the marksmen. For now, you will just be spotting and covering but we may end up giving you a sniper’s rifle before the end of this.”

“Yes sir.”

“Fine then, report to the armory and get your rifle. They’ll tell you where to go.”

“Yes sir!” The two set off to their respective destinations, Jaze pulling on his helmet as he went. The ponies left behind looked at each other in confusion, wondering what they should do.

“Ah don’t know ‘bout ya’ll, but Ah’m stayin’.” Applejack told the others, the determination to help blazing in her eyes.

“What else am I going to do?” Dash mocked, “Read while everypony else is in trouble? Heck no, I am here to help.”

“I’m…” Fluttershy hesitated, “I’ll help.”

“What do you plan to do, sugarcube?”

“I… don’t know.”

“Maybe you can help with the docs.” The weather pony interjected, “You’re so good with animals that humans can’t be too hard, right?”

“I… guess so.”

“How’re ya gonna help Dash?” The farmpony smiled, “Ya gonna flap the Cye t’ death?”

“No!” the cyan pegasus retorted, “I’m going to try and do… something. I don’t know what.”

“Ah don’t either RD, but we’re gonna do sumthin’.”

Jaze stood on a small rise left over from digging the trenches, staring through his binoculars and trying to find evidence of an impending attack. The soldiers had been in the trenches for just over an hour, the Cye on the planet for almost as long, and their robotic foe had yet to launch any offensive. He had seen a number of Cye dropships landing beyond a small hill, but he could not see what they were doing.

“Any new developments?” a royal voice to his side asked.

He turned to briefly look at the Solar Princess, then went back to scanning the area in front of him, “Nothing new, and I am beginning to wonder what is going on.”

“Is this not how these fights always are?”

“Not by a long shot, by now we should have been chewing on enemy fire. Or at least seen an aircraft do a flyby. But nothing is happening!” The frustrated solider threw his binoculars away and began to pace, glaring angrily towards the hill the Cye had claimed.

“Are they making a base?” the Princess offered.

“They could be,” the Colonel shook his head, “Or Carn could be planning to march over here and demand that I surrender.”

“That does not make sense, why would he do that?” Jaze suddenly started laughing, catching the Princess by surprise. “What is so funny?”

“I have been living with quadruped aliens that look a lot like a type of animal from the birth place of my race.” He floated a stick up to eye level, “Magic is real and I find that I can use it, albeit very weakly. You move a star around in space to cause night and day. All sorts of mythical creatures that humans long ago stopped believing in can be found here, and we are supposed to protect all this from a group of homicidal androids led by an insane human that thinks he is a god.” He raised an eyebrow as he smiled at the Princess, “And you think that qualifies as nonsensical. I think we crossed that line months ago, my fair lady.”

Celestia chuckled deep in her throat, “I suppose that you have a point there, Colonel.”

“Still leaves me wondering: what are you up to you crafty devil?”

“Are you sure that Carn is actually here?” Celestia’s voice was low, making sure that it did not carry on the wind.

“Yeah, I can smell that rat.” Jaze affirmed, “He’s here, and I think that he is just yanking our collective chain to watch us dance.”

“He is a sick, sadistic…”

“Please, Celestia. Don’t let hate color your heart as well. Stay pure, for Equestria’s sake.”

“I feel that is no longer possible.” Her eyes clouded over with a mixture of fear, anger, and sadness, “This man has brought war to my home. He has already caused pain for my ponies, and my friends.”

Jaze turned his head away in shame, “You shouldn’t let anger cloud your vision. If had not come here…”

“That was outside your control.” Celestia interrupted

“I could have left, the chances that the Cye would have been watching for a signal like that were microscopic, not to mention that they would had to have known almost exactly where to look. I could have slipped away before they ever knew that I was here. I could have avoided this whole mess.”

“But there was a chance they could find the signal, and you did not make the decision; I did.”

“But I still could have left. I had no reason to follow your command other than you having saved me.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Because of a selfish desire to not have to fight again.” The soldier sighed, “I’m tired of war, Princess. All my life has been about the fight, and I am sick of it.”

“That is not selfish. Nopony pure wants to fight, they do so for a reason.”

“And it was selfish of me to stop fighting for those who needed me.”

“You know Jaze,” Celestia said with a crafty smile, “a human I know once said that everypony makes mistakes, and that learning was finding out how to avoid the same mistakes. Do you remember who said that?”

He could not help but smile, “I think it was some fool glad to be alive,” He stretched his arms above his head before letting them fall back to his side, “You’re right, the past is the past. Time to go forward, no more regrets!”

“Glad to see that you can still listen.”

“Thank you very much Celestia. The waiting is beginning to get to me.”

“Do you think that we should tell the Marines to stand down?”

Jaze shook his head, “Not all of them, but we can have them fall out in groups to get some rest. That way we are still ready for the attack, when it comes.” He cast around for a topic, trying to keep the friendly conversation alive, “So how is Luna?”

“She is trying to learn as much as she can about the workings of an army. Given her past, I think that she is well suited for it. She has already begun to try and teach her Guards to be a fighting force. Which reminds me, I believe that I have not gotten an answer from you yet.”

“About…?” The Princess stared at him until he remembered, “Oh… right, the Royal Guard thing.” He turned his eyes to the sky, “I don’t know Princess. I feel myself being pulled in every direction; I know that your Guards could help, but being a Guard would put me directly under your control.”

“And you are afraid of that, yes?” the Solar Princess asked quietly

“Not so much afraid as trying to see how it would affect everything. A few of the soldiers fail to respect you because you don’t seem to have any way to fight. I can’t lose their trust; we’ll need it to win this war.”

“But you would gain the trust of everypony as one of my vassals.”

“I know, I just wish that there was an easy answer sometimes.”

“Easy answers are usually wrong.”

“That would be why I am taking my time with this.” The pair lapsed into silence as the assassin pondered the offer. He turned and twisted it every way he could, but the one thing that kept coming back to him was: what would Celestia get out of it? He did not believe that she was doing this for no reason; he just had to find out what that reason was. But no matter how he looked at it, all he could see was her having control of the human and pony forces. He knew that she would not abuse her new-found control, but something still galled him about the whole mess. They would have continued to sit in silence, had Celestia not pointed with her horn to something flying through the air.

“Something is coming.” Her voice was tight with tension as Jaze retrieved his binoculars and pressed them to his eyes, “What do you see?” Without a word, he passed her the binoculars. Peering through them, the Princess of the Day could see a pink-tinged pegasus pony flying as fast as she could; making a beeline for the bright spot of white that was Celestia. The pony’s wing-beats seemed labored, as though she were hurt.

“What do you figure?” the human asked while Celestia continued to track the pony.

“She is in trouble.” was the Princess’s response when she handed the binoculars back.

“What do you think happened?”

“It must have been bad.” The pony’s struggles became weaker and weaker the closer she got to the pair. Until, at last, she could fly no more and began to fall from the air. Jaze rushed to catch her before she hit the ground, Celestia used her magic to halt the pony’s fall and lower her gently into the human’s waiting hands. The Colonel gently set her on the ground, his hands came away red with blood from her many wounds. He called for a medic over his radio before looking to Celestia with a somber shake of his head; the pony had lost too much blood and was not long for the land of the living.

“Please…” the pony managed, “Princess… here… listen…”

“I’m here, dear one.” Celestia knelt next to the stricken pony, “What happened to you?”

“Can’t… speak… dark… hurts…” the pony whined pitifully.

“Somepony is coming to help you, but you need to tell us what happened.”

“Closer…” The strain was evident in her voice as Jaze and Celestia leaned in close to hear what the pegasus had died to deliver. Shock and horror were plastered on their faces as the brave pegasus finally shut her eyes for the final time.

“Celestia,” Jaze said as he stood, “you need to get back to Canterlot and raise a general alarm. I’m going to rally some men and get over there as quickly as possible.”

The Princess looked up at him, tears shining in her eyes, “Jaze this is…”

“There isn’t time for that now. You need to get going.”

Her eye slid shut, trying to block the image of the fallen pony from her mind, “I know but… gods, why?” The Princess broke down for the first time in over a thousand years, since she had been forced to banish her only sister to the moon. She was surprised to find herself wrapped caringly in a pair of arms, a gesture that had never been extended to her before.

“I know it hurts, but right now we have to focus on saving those we can. We can cry later.”

“I have never felt true hatred before now,” Celestia pulled away and looked at Jaze with eyes burning with pure loathing, though her voice still carried a weight of sadness “I feel sick with the desire to hurt him.”

“I know, I know,” he whispered, “but you have to bury that for now. We have to move. More lives a still depending on us.”

“I know.” The Princess of the Day spread her wings wide in preparation for takeoff, “Please hurry, my little ponies need help.”

“Already on it.” the assassin replied, taking off at a dead sprint down the line of trenches, issuing orders into his comm as he ran.

Twilight stood peering over the trench’s lip, waiting for the fight to start. She shifted in her newly tailored set of Marine armor, trying to get the seams to sit more or less comfortably. Sis and Stacks were on her left, while the last member of the fireteam, a larger, older man with a peppered head of hair and eyes that he had hidden behind sports shades that the twins had called Doc, was reclining in the bottom of the trench. The three had their helmets off and had tossed them to roll around in the trench. The twins were passing time by playing cards, which made Twilight cringe.

“You want in?” Sis asked for the third time since she had broken out the deck.

“No,” the unicorn replied hotly, “and I don’t see how you can be playing a game when we could be attacked at any moment!”

“Damn,” Stacks laughed, “didn’t know that you were gonna be so preachy Twi’.”

“Tha’s just how she’s copin’.” Doc said sagely, “Better’n you Stacks, tryin’ t’ bed every woman willin’.”

“And what’s yours, old man?” the burnt soldier asked, “Sleeping?”

“Can’t ever have too much sleep, you know. But one day something’s gonna happen that you regret.”

“Ah, you’re just jealous ‘cause the ladies like me.”

“I don’t see why,” Sis poked her brother in the ribs, “You is an ugly little monster.”

“Must be my per-son-nality.” he responded with a smirk.

“Why are you also calm?” the exasperated unicorn asked.

“Cause we know that those robots aren’t attacking yet.” Sis explained.

“But they could at any moment!”

“Yeah,” Stacks said as he began dealing the cards again, “and we’ll know when they decided to pull their head out and come at us. You can hear those metal feet miles away.”

“I still feel that I should be doing something constructive.” Twilight said nervously.

“You will be, it’s called staying calm.” Sis said as she patted the unicorn on the head. “Get too wound up and you will go crazy before the spit hits the air circulator.”

“Yes but…”

“Hey,” Stacks interrupted the unicorn, “is that Colonel Armand? Why’s he in such a big hurry?”

Twilight spun to see that he was right; Jaze was running down the line of the trench, peering in at each knot of soldiers he passed. Their eyes locked and the scarred soldier ran even faster, trying to reach her. Twilight was worried that she had done something wrong and began racking her brain to try and find the error. The Colonel slid to a panting stop before the group and jumped into the trench.

“Twilight…” he said between gulps of air, “need… cloud-walking… spell… bad things…”

“Here sir,” Doc said, offering a canteen to the tired man, “take a drink.”

“Thanks,” Jaze grabbed the proffered canteen and drained its contents; the cool water soothing his throat, raw from his headlong dash.

“What’s going on Jaze?” Twilight asked as the assassin wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

“I remember that Trixie told me you knew a spell to allow earth-bound creatures to walk on clouds, like the pegasi. Do you still remember it?”

“Yes of course, why?”

“I need you to come with me and cast that spell on some troops and myself.”

“Why, what happened sir?” Stacks asked quickly.

“We just received word that Cloudsdale, a city of clouds and home to the pegasi, is under heavy Cye attack.”

[A/N] I just wanted to warn you all that my fic will be upgraded from a T to an M rating. I can’t keep the following chapters in a T rating without lying. You have been warned.