Jaze unrolled a map that had been drawn detailing the humans’ defenses. He was standing in the command center with Celestia, Luna, and the various men and women running control for the troops in the field. The Colonel anxiously studied the paper before him while he waited for two more late arrivals. The map showed the trenches and the various defenses placed along the three ditches; each trench was represented by a different color, red, green, and blue.

It was not long before the assassin heard the door open and looked up to see Rainbow Dash and Applejack entering the command center. Both of them were wearing a suit of standard Guard’s armor, their swords carefully strapped to their sides. Dash had chosen to forego the helm, hoping to save a little on the weight of the armor, Even still, she seemed to be uncomfortable with all the extra weight and was constantly rotating her wings to try and make the metal lie more naturally. Applejack seemed much more at home in the metal plate; it was not much heavier than a basket full of apples.

The pegasus’ armor was far lighter than the earth pony equivalent already, and Applejack seemed to have gone for an even heavier version than normal. Her armor had far thicker plates than even the Colonel’s own and covered her chest, back, sides, legs, and head in its protective embrace. Dash’s armor merely covered her chest and sides, trusting the speed and maneuverability of the pegasi to keep them safe.

Jaze gave a quick nod of greeting to the two ponies before addressing everyone in the room, “Alright, I am going to go over the battle plan as quickly as I can.” He placed a finger on the trench furthest from the camp, “This is our first line of defense. This trench, and the next one, I expect the enemy to take within a few hours of fighting.”

“What would ya wanna do that fer?” Applejack puzzled, “Seems like ya wasted a lot a time diggin’ those if ya let the enemy have ‘em.”

“Yeah,” Dash was quick to agree, “you should hold onto them. If we do that, we win. Right?”

“I would absolutely love to keep those trenches.” the Colonel stated, “But I had hoped to have three thousand troops, not seventeen hundred including the Guards. We don’t have the manpower to hold such a large area.” He slowly moved his finger from trench to trench, “See how each trench gets shorter as we fall back? That will make holding each one that much easier. And the Cye will have no real cover to hide behind while we will be almost safe in our little ditches. So we can mow them down in droves with the heavy machine guns placed on the final line.”

“But won’t they have your own trenches?” Luna pointed out.

Jaze’s face split in a confident smirk, “Somepony you all know gave me an idea for that.”

When the human failed to elaborate any further Dash asked, “Well, what is it?”

“I’m not telling.” His grin grew just a hair wider, “Just know that when I say to get down, you need to get down, fast.”

“So why did ya call us here, sugarcube?” asked a confused farmpony.

“I called you two to give you your assignments.” The human pointed to the cyan mare, “You will be leading the pegasi Guards and the Wonderbolts as scouts. I want your eyes in the sky telling me if the Cye decide to deviate from their usual plans. Just let me know if you or one of the others sees something strange, and stay up high; I don’t want you to lose everypony to their guns.”

“You can count on me!” the sportspony said with a quick salute.

“And what’ll Ah do?” asked Applejack.

“You will be in charge of the hundred and fifty earth pony Guard that will be running supplies for the troops fighting.”

“What?!” The earth mare‘s eyes lit up with anger, “But Ah want t’ help! Not jus’ move stuff around!”

“And you will do more good by supplying the troops with ammo than you would be if you tried to fight.”

“But Ah…”

“Applejack,” Celestia’s calm voice drew the angry mare’s eyes towards the tall alicorn, “I think that you are letting your emotions get the better of you. You are stronger than most humans, so you can move more. But the humans have hands and can wield guns, where as you cannot. Do not let your emotions cloud your judgments.”

“Ah know,” the orange pony growled, “it just burns me up tha’ Ah can’t do anythin’.”

“But you will be helping.” Luna assured the flustered mare, “You will be helping to keep a lot of people and ponies alive. We cannot think of a more noble cause.”

“Ah get that, Ah really do. It still makes me feel like Ah am takin’ the easy way out.”

“I don’t like that you’re giving these two control over my guards.” a voice said from the door way. Jaze looked over to see a tall unicorn stallion with a white coat and a blue mane. He was wearing purple armor, much like the assassin’s in basic style. The stallion’s face was set in a scowl of determination, “Those two have not been trained as Guardsponies. Why do you think they can lead?”

The Colonel stood straight and glared down at the unicorn, “These two have proven themselves time and again in service to Equestria. And who, might I ask, are you?”

“I am Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard.” The stallion took a few steps closer, “And I believe that there are several Lieutenants already in place to lead the Guards. If they should be involved in this fight at all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jaze’s voice was layered with confusion and his rising ire.

“I mean that you brought this fight here. Why should my Guards have to fight in a war they have no stake in?” Shocked silence reigned in the room as every eye slowly passed between the irate Captain and the silently fuming assassin.

“Did you happen to miss the part where the Cye destroyed Cloudsdale?” the human yelled, “There’s your stake! How many ponies were lost there? Seven hundred? Even more?”

“And if you had not come here these Cye would never been here either!” the Guard Captain yelled back, “You are the reason Cloudsdale is dead. You are the reason every one of those ponies died! It all comes back on you!”

“You think I don’t know that?” Jaze’s yelled and took a step towards the Guardspony, his hands balled into fists, “I thought about it every single day that I was here! I’d like to see you do better!” He felt a pair of hooves in his stomach and looked down to see Applejack was pushing him back.

“Jaze, don’t do sumthin’ yer gonna regret.” she pleaded.

“And why would I regret clocking that smug…”

“He’s Twi’s brother!” This brought the irate assassin to a standstill. He looked from the earth pony to Shining Armor and noticed for the first time how much fear and sadness was hiding behind the anger.

“That’s what upsets you isn’t it?” Jaze whispered regretfully, “It’s not that I brought war here, it’s that Twilight got hurt that has you so angry.”

“That’s my little sister!” the Guard hissed, tears slowly starting to form, “And now, thanks to you, she’s sick. She’s sick and I can’t help her!” His voice had become more bitter than angry, “Why did she have to get hurt? What has she ever done to deserve this?”

“What does anyone ever do to deserve something like that?” The human’s head fell in shame, “For what it’s worth, I’m…”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry.” Shining Armor nearly growled, “I don’t want your pity or sorrow. I just want you to leave Equestria, and to take this war with you!”

“I would love to take this war far away from here, but I can’t.” The Colonel let out a heavy sigh, “The best I can do is to try and keep everypony safe as best I can.”

“A task you have failed at spectacularly.” The unicorn brought his head up tall, tears banished from his eyes, “Since it seems you are now my commander, for better or worse, what orders do you have for me?”

“I want you to take command of the unicorn Guards that will be manning the final trench. You and those unicorns will be joining the final battle. Is that acceptable Captain?”

“I suppose so. If there must be war fought, let’s just make sure to win it.” The Captain fixed Jaze with a stern glare, “And then I want you to leave; I never want to see you again after this is over.” The purple armored unicorn left the building, his gait hiding the burden that had fallen on him.

“Jaze?” Celestia spoke softly, “Don’t listen to him; nopony blames you for what has happened.”

“I bet plenty do.” The soldier turned away from everyone in the room, his face set in a pained grimace, “I am to blame for all this…”

Applejack moved to where she could see the human’s tortured face, “Now that ain’t true! Yer not t’ blame fer this, Carn and them Cye fellers are!”

“Applejack’s right,” Dash nodded, “you didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Yes, Knight-General,” Luna nodded, “it was not your decision alone to stay here. We are as much at fault.”

“Shining Armor is just afraid of a foe he is unprepared to face.” Celestia added, “I doubt he really wants you to leave. Especially since he knows you are a friend of his sister’s.”

“Colonel,” a forgotten aid suddenly spoke up, “the Cye are almost here. If you want to get to the front before them, you better leave.”

The assassin picked up his assault rifle and racked the charging lever, a feral snarl on his face “Alright, I think it’s time to wipe these bastards off the planet!”

The human defenders crouched in their trenches and watched with determination in their eyes as the metal wave swept towards them. A mere thousand against an untold number and each and every soldier in the line wore a grim smile. They had been here before, and welcomed the chance to finally strike back at the hordes of metal monstrosities. Each of them had heard of the unprovoked attack on the floating city of Cloudsdale and were ready for some pay back. All along the line, every eye was turned to the gold and black armored human standing at the dead center of the line.

“Hold your fire” crackled the Colonel’s voice over the command line, “wait for them to get just a little closer…” The Marines waited with bated breath for the metal tide to sweep closer, fingers straying ever closer to unleashing a storm of lead fury on the invaders. “Alright people, safeties off!” The Colonel’s voice was met with silenced snickers, as if they had not had their guns ready since the moment the Cye had come into view. Now every finger was putting light pressure on their triggers, breaths collectively held while they waited, and kept waiting.

From the Cye line, the crack of a rifle was heard. The bullet screamed across the distance between attacker and defender to bury itself in the ground in front of the gold armored assassin. Close enough, he thought grimly before spitting a command into his mike, “Fire!”

Twilight was hunkered down on a hastily constructed rise with Stacks, Sis, and Doc just behind the second line. Stacks was cooing to a long rifle with telescopic sights he was cradling lovingly in his arms while the unicorn scanned the front through a pair of electronic binoculars. The field glasses took in the raw images and gave back various, useful information, such as distance and even wind speed. She jumped when all of the Marine defenders’ rifles began screaming at once; she pressed the glasses to her eyes to watch with a strange satisfaction as the lead androids seemed to crumble and fall apart under the withering hail of lead being flung at them. But there were many more, so many that they kicked up a sizeable cloud of dust from their march.

Sis reached forward and smacked her brother on the back of the head, “Hey moron, stop making love to your damn rifle and start fighting!”

“Don’t talk about Artemis like that.” the sniper growled when he laid flat on his stomach and sighted down his scope, “She deserves better than that!”

“It’s just a gun, kid.” Doc replied in a nearly bored voice, “Don’t hafta get all misty eyed over a piece of hardware.” He hefted what looked like a bulkier assault rifle, “Even this thing is expendable.”

“You’re gonna hurt her feelings!”

“Boy,” the heavy weapons specialist admonished, “it don’t have no feelings.”

“Overwatch!” called Jaze’s voice over their comms, “Where is that cover?”

“Coming right up, Top.” Stacks called happily, “We are setting up shop now, and business looks like it’s gonna be good!”

“Yeah, too good, Armand out.”

Twilight looked away from the battle to the man lying down next to her, “What exactly are we doing?”

Sis answered first, “The Colonel wants us to pick off any humans in the Cye ranks. They don’t want the defenders to see the traitors and get discouraged.”

The unicorn forced herself to swallow the bile that a forced itself into her throat, “Oh.”

“And I,” Stacks added, “am making it my mission to get rid of any Cye with heavy weapons. Now,” A charming smile at odds with the grim task at hand graced the sniper’s face, “let’s play. Wanna be my spotter Twi?”

“What’s that?” the unicorn asked, her natural curiosity getting the better of her.

“Spotters point out where the targets are,” explained Stacks, “and help the shooter, which would be me, to adjust their aim if they miss. Things like that. In a frenzy like this, you are mostly just another set of eyes.”

“I can try.” the librarian turned soldier responded hesitantly.

“There’s no ‘try’, kid.” Doc mused, “There’s only ‘do’ and ‘do not’.”

“Oh stop with the sage advice, old man.” retorted the sniper before he tossed a soft smile to Twilight, “Just do your best.”

“Okay,” The unicorn began scanning the mass of metal before her looking for any signs of organic life amongst the enemy troops. A minute passed, then two, and still she couldn’t pick out any humans amid the androids.

From next to her, a shot rang out, quickly followed by two more. She looked down to see the Lance Corporal staring up at her with a pained smile on his face, “Maybe spotting isn’t your thing.”

“Oh, I’m sorry…” The librarian hung her head dejectedly and held the glasses out for someone else to take.

“Maybe,” Stacks said thoughtfully, “spotting isn’t your thing. But maybe shooting is; here, take Artemis and I’ll take the peepers.” The Corporal held out his rifle, nudging her with the stock to take it.

“But I haven’t shot something like this before!” she protested.

“Ain’t that hard,” Doc shot back, “that idiot does it.”

“O-okay…” The unicorn gently encased the weapon in a field of magic and lay down next to Stacks, “What do I do?”

“First, your gonna wanna look through the scope. See the two lines?”

Twilight put her eye to the rifle’s sight, “Yes,”

“Where they cross is where your bullet is gonna hit. Or close to it at any rate. Now let’s find you a target.” The sniper quickly scanned the enemy lines looking for a soft target, “Okay, got one. See where the Colonel is? Look about five meters to the left and back a few rows. There’s a traitor for you.”

Twilight spent a few seconds searching the general area the sniper had designated before she finally got the human in her sights. He was using his allies as cover and taking potshots at the human defenders who stuck their heads up to take a shot at him.

“Now, I want you to take the shot.” The unicorn threw an uneasy glance towards her teacher, “I know, it’s hard. But you gotta do it; a lot of people are counting on you. Just center the crosshairs on his chest and squeeze the trigger. Treat the trigger like it is made of glass; don’t jerk it or you will miss. Now take the shot.”

She did as she was told and placed the crosshairs on the human’s chest. She could clearly see every detail of her target’s features; the way his dark hair fell more to the left of his round face than to the right, the fact that his armor seemed to be mismatched pieces from various sets, and the vicious snarl he wore as he fought for his life. She was ready to throw down the rifle and run as far from the battle as she could, when the sights from Cloudsdale entered her mind.

First the fight in the clouds, watching ponies running in terror just to be gunned down mercilessly, and then the cleanup efforts. Gingerly moving the bodies of the slain through the rain and placing them in mass graves, the sheer numbers preventing individual graves. And finally, her discovery of the traitorous humans and pulling one of their bodies from a wrecked fighter.

The realization that the man in her sights, and many more like him, were so willing to kill helpless victims coupled with the memories from the ruined city made the young mare begin to shake again. She bit her lip and tried to force the memories back behind the wall she had built, but they refused to go quietly. The smell of death and rain, the sight of hundreds of broken bodies, and the tears of one of her best friends as Dash pulled the citizens of her beloved home from the mud, gently whispering to all the ones she knew. For every single one of the slain pegasi, the message was the same.

Now, Twilight whispered those same words to herself, “I’ll get ‘em, I’ll get ‘em for you.” Without another thought, she gave the trigger a magical squeeze.

“Nice shot!” Stacks exclaimed, “A little high, but it got the job done.” He turned to smile at his sniper student to see that tears slowly streaming down her face, “Hey kid, you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” the purple unicorn sniffed.

“Good, cause I got some more targets for you.”

Jaze thumbed the magazine release to drop the empty magazine from his weapon and slam a fresh one home. He looked to the piled up bodies of the Cye with a slight smirk of satisfaction. He had had every Marine load their assault weapons with the armor piercing rounds and fire a full-auto fusillade into the enemy with terrifying results. The first few waves of the robots had quickly fallen beneath the hail of gunfire, and now the defenders were taking their time and picking their targets carefully. Several of the soldiers had stayed with the AP rounds and were taking the time to line up several of the metal troopers before taking them down with a quick burst.

The assassin brought his rifle to his shoulder and began firing bursts into the horde in front of him. He was less selective of his targets, preferring to let his bullets find their own targets. There was certainly no lack of enemies, and the few heavy machine guns place on this line were taking advantage of the density and were spraying bullets into the Cye ranks.

“Come on you metal bastards!” Vincent hollered from the Colonel’s left, “I have a nice, big stack of ammo for you!”

“Oh yeah!” Shelby answered from Vincent’s other side, “Take it all! It’s free today!”

The assassin felt an elbow nudge his ribs and turned to see Dmitri watching the pair of Angels nervously, “Are they always like that?”

A laugh forced itself past Jaze’s lips, “More or less. Don’t worry, you get used to it. And they are actually quite lovable outside of a fight.”

“Maybe like a pair of badgers.” the young pilot muttered before returning his attention to the advancing Cye.

Jaze reached for a fresh magazine to find that his belt was empty. “Ammo!” he called, and saw Applejack come running down the trench, several bulging packs hanging from her frame.

“Here ya go,” The farm pony nosed open one of the packs, grabbed some ammunition in her mouth, and tossed the magazines to the Colonel.

The grateful human slapped one into his rifle and gave the armored mare a nod of thanks before she was soon called away. He took a moment to look up and down the defense line. Although the fight was going far better than he had hoped, it was far from one-sided. The Cye were firing back in earnest now, and the humans were taking loses. Any time a soldier fell, he was quickly pulled away by a medic to be taken to the triage stations. A few with minor injuries were sent back almost immediately, bandages protecting the fresh wounds. Other were not seen again, as the medics worked to spare him. A few were left were they had fallen, already beyond the help of all the human technology and pony magic.

Every now and then, Jaze caught sight of a yellow flank here, a pink tail there, a splotch of color against an otherwise dark sight. Fluttershy was moving down the line, handing out water to those that seemed like they needed it. Her presence brought a slight smile to the face every soldier she neared, and the way she started every time shots slammed into the trench above her had several Marines laughing silently as they returned the shots in kind. The quiet pony was a moving morale boost, but the Colonel was loath to allow her to stay so near the fighting. He did not want the sensitive pony to be exposed to the massive amounts of death.

The assassin’s thoughts were brought back to the battle when a bullet smacked into the trench next to his head. His helmeted head turned to see that the Cye looked oddly thinned out. Not the impenetrable wall of cybernetics that it had been, but with large gaps between each android. The gun in his hand began to roar with its brethren once more while its owner pondered what was happening. No way is this it, he thought disquietly, they haven’t put up near enough of a fight...

But the evidence of the battle’s end was becoming plainer to see. There were now more smoking wrecks than robots, and for some reason this discovery made a feeling of dread sweep through the human commander. What the hell? Jaze searched for some sign to dispel his discomfort, Why are they giving up?

When the last of the androids fell and the dust began to settle, confused Marines looked to him for an answer to their unasked question. A few short lived cheers went up from some of the defenders before Jaze finally switched his mike channel to the pegasi’s above him, “Dash, what’s going on? Is that all of them?”

“No…” replied a stunned voice, “It’s not…” As if on cue, a gust of wind blew the last remaining vestiges of the dust cloud and smoke from in front of the humans and gave them an unobstructed view of what lay ahead of them.

“Oh god…” a Marine yelled in near panic, “There must be millions of them!” The Colonel had to admit that guess might not have been far off. He could not begin to count just how many Cye troopers were boiling towards him, a metal wind that would sweep aside all before it.

For the first time in years, Jaze felt well and truly outmatched as he yelled into his mike over the command channel, “Alright then people, lock and load. It’s time for round two…”