“Control, roll out the welcome mat!”

The young woman working Control started at the sudden command. The fight was progressing far faster than he had anticipated if the Colonel was already issuing that order. The soldier looked at the plastic covered button and wondered what she should say. I mean, went her confused thoughts, they always say something in the movies, right? She stared at the button for a second longer before saying, “Screw it, someone’s going to have to push it,” flipping the cover and jamming her thumb to the black button.

Underneath the battlefield, a linked network of high explosive, shaped charges received the order to detonate, and each one exploded starting from just in front of the final line and spreading outward to encompass the entire field. Each charge was shaped to send all the shrapnel away from the defenders, though being buried meant the bombs sent up a huge cloud of dust when they unleashed their fury. And their fury obliterated everything in front of the defenders; not a single android was left until well past where the first trench had been lost.

At the final line, a very shocked and confused Royal Guard Captain stared up while on his back at the bottom of the trench at a madly cackling human dressed in black and gold armor. Several times the unicorn tried to open his mouth to say something, but was unable to find his voice. And neither could the Colonel stop laughing long enough to offer any words of his own. Instead, he merely held out a hand, still shaking from his laughter, and more or less silently offered the pony a hand up.

Shining Armor finally found his voice, though it was a little shakier than normal, “What the hoof was that?!”

Jaze covered his mouth with a hand, tears of mirth flowing from his eyes, “I warned you to get down. Maybe you should have listened.”

The Guardspony took the offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet, “I will ask again, what was that?”

“That,” the human grinned, “was the plan that little pink ball of energy sparked in your sister’s head.”

“What? Twilee did this?” The Captain stared out across the ruined field, amazed that his little sister had planned so much destruction.

“Yeah,” the assassin nodded, “it surprised me too. But Pinkie mentioned giving the Cye a firework show and Twilight came up with the idea.” He gestured towards the devastated landscape, “It worked beautifully.”

The pony shook his blue-maned head sadly, “I don’t know what you did to my sister, but this isn’t her.”

The human placed a friendly hand on the stricken Guardspony’s shoulder, “Hey, she is still the same Twilight. She’s now just…”

The Captain shrugged the hand away, “Stop, just stop.” The unicorn let out a weary sigh, “I just don’t want Twilee to change; she was perfect before.”

“She had to change, or this would have killed her.”

The stallion spun and jammed his hoof into the dark-haired human’s chest, “And she would not had to have changed if you had not brought this cursed war here.”

Without a word, Jaze tore the gauntlet from his hand and removed the black glove hiding his false hand from view. He slowly turned it before the angry stallion’s eyes, letting the sunlight catch on its metal surface.

“I had no choice.” the Colonel stated, “I was shot down and crashed on this planet. The Cye were here before humans, and they would have utterly destroyed your forces in a matter of minutes.” The metal hand clenched into a tight fist, “I have given up more than you know to this war.”

“So you lost a hand, what do you have that can compare to what happened to my sister?” asked the proud Captain venomously.

The human’s natural hand suddenly flew around the pony’s throat and lifted his front legs of the ground, “How about the death of the one I loved?! What happened to Twilight is tragic, but have you had to watch the one you loved die?” Jaze let his hand drop from the Guardspony’s throat and turned his back on the Captain, a small tear rolling down the human’s face.

“I’m… I’m sorry…” Shining Armor moved up behind the human commander, “I, I didn’t know…”

“Yeah, and the worst part is that my story is not even the most terrible. At least I still have my friends; there are people who have lost their whole families and everyone they know. Sometimes entire planets are destroyed before we can do anything.” He suddenly spun back towards the pony, “I am truly sorry about what happened to Twilight, but at least she can heal. Before this started, the human population was at nearly forty billion; do you know what it is now?”

“No…” Shining feared to know the answer, but he knew that he needed to know.

“It is just less than ten billion.” The unicorn’s jaw dropped from the sheer number of casualties, “Only one in four humans have survived the last six years; so don’t talk to me about suffering. You have a long way to go before you can know what humanity has gone through.”

“I, I can’t,” the stallion stammered, “I don’t know what to say.”

The Colonel held out his hand, his face set in a blank mask, “Just say that you will fight. I don’t need you to like me, or even respect me. All I need is for you to trust me, and to believe that I am trying to do the right thing.”

The Captain placed his hoof in the outstretched hand, a slight grin touching his lips, “Alright, I will. If you will trust me, and believe that I only want what is best, for everypony.”

“Deal.” Jaze shook the pony’s hoof and let a smile play across his face, “Well, I think we don’t have time to waste gabbing. Let’s show these metal freaks who they are messing with.”

“I believe you are right.”

The human took up his rifle once more and stepped to the lip of the trench, unicorn at his side, and waited for the dust to settle. He strained his hearing to the limit, trying to get as early a warning as possible of incoming enemies. But there was nothing, the entire field was silent save for the sounds of the defenders.

As the seconds ticked by, the pair of Guards got more and more anxious. Shining Armor began tapping his hoof against the side of the protective ditch while Jaze scanned the field with a furrowed brow.

After a few minutes when the dust had finally begun to settle, the Captain turned with a confused look, “What’s going on? Did you take them all out?”

“Not a chance, Dash said that they…” The assassin paused and put a finger to his ear, the look of confusion slowly becoming more pronounced. “What? That can’t be. Are you sure?” He paused while the person on the other end of the line spoke, “This isn’t right, they’re up to something. Thanks for the heads up Dash. Keep a watch out, I want to know what they are planning. Armand out.”

“What is the problem, Knight-General?” asked the purple armored stallion when Jaze took his finger away from his ear.

“It’s the Cye,” the assassin explained slowly, “They’re pulling back.”

“Did your trick scare them away?”

The Colonel gave his head a little shake, “I don’t see why it would.” He started to climb out of the trench, “Come on, I think we need to talk to Celestia and Luna about this.”

Shining Armor slapped a hoof to his forehead in frustration, “Oh yeah, that’s right! I got so distracted that I forgot to tell you! Maybe you can talk some sense into them.” The purple armored unicorn started running down the line of the trench, a very confused human following behind him.

“What the HELL do you think you two are doing here?!” Jaze yelled when he finally was able to speak. Before him, dressed in sets of matching gold and black armor, stood Princesses Celestia and Luna; looking at the agitated human and hoping for him to calm down.

“We are here to take part in the defense of our homeland.” stated the princess of the night as if there were no more natural a thing in the world.

The Colonel rounded on the lunar alicorn, “Like hell you are!”

“I feel compelled to agree with the Knight-General in this case, Your Majesties.” Shining Armor spoke up from beside the furious human, “This is far too dangerous to allow. You may both get hurt, or worse.”

“We are more than capable of handling ourselves, Captain.” Celestia assured calmly.

Jaze turned back to the solar princess, “That doesn’t matter Princess! What matters is that you are in too much danger on the front!”

“And what would you have us do Knight-General?” asked the white unicorn with narrowed eyes, “Hide while others fought for us?”

“Well, yes!”

“Jaze,” Luna kept her voice friendly, “we could not stand to sit back with the knowledge that we are letting somepony else do our fighting for us.”

“But you two are far too valuable to lose!” the human explained, “I won’t risk that.”

“What about you?” Celestia retorted, “You have been fighting on the front lines right beside your troops from the beginning.”

“Maybe so, but I am expendable. If I died, command would move to the one most qualified to handle it and the Marines would fight on.”

“Yes” Shining Armor jumped in, “it is the same for me and the Royal Guards. But if you were to die, the Guard would crumble.”

Black wings spread angrily as Luna dropped her voice into a dangerous tone, “You are both Guards, you have been sworn to obey the commands of your Princesses.”

“Yes,” interrupted the Colonel, “and we are also sworn to protect you. We cannot do that if you insist on putting yourselves in danger! Furthermore, you promised that you would follow my lead in matters of war.”

“Colonel,” Celestia held her regal head high and looked down to the human, “these creatures have invaded our home, destroyed one of our most important cities, and slaughtered defenseless ponies. Luna and I merely wish to strike back at these fiends for causing so much pain.”

“But…” the assassin started.

“Besides,” the smaller alicorn smirked, “We wager that you will be surprised at what my sister and I can do.”

“Yes, Luna and I shall partake in this battle. Whether or not you wish it, Knight-General.”

Jaze took a deep, steadying breath, “Fine, if you wish to enter the fray, I have no power to stop you.”

“Knight-General, I believe there was something you wished to tell the Princesses.” reminded the white stallion quietly.

“Oh, right. Seems like the Cye are falling back.” the human said offhandedly, his mind still stuck on the Princesses choice.

“Is this not a good thing?” asked Luna, “It means that you have scared them away and have won the battle.”

“There is something you all don’t seem to get about the Cye.” The human began to pace, “The Cye don’t feel fear, they don’t feel anger or sadness or pain. They don’t feel at all. They may think on some level, but they have no emotions.” He stared toward where his enemies had retreated, “They aren’t running away, they are planning something. And I don’t like it.”

Whether it was the smell of death in the air or if the human’s paranoia was catching on, the three ponies suddenly felt almost as nervous. They watched the battlefield and waited for something to confirm their fears.

“Maybe, they realized they couldn’t take this line and want to wait for some more troops.” offered the Guard Captain hopefully.

“That seems possible, maybe.” the Colonel agreed, “But it still feels off.” He let out short huff through his nose, “I think the best thing we can do is take advantage of this break and start tending to the wounded. Maybe move them back to Ponyville for treatment.”

“That may be a wise decision,” Celestia agreed, “Let us try and save some lives before we lose anymore.”

The groans of the wounded and dying filled the medical tents and created a backdrop for the human medics and pony physicians working to heal the afflicted. There seemed to be no end to the amounts of wounded, and almost every bed had a human or equine occupant. Humans dressed in stark white coats moved from bed to bed to see what could be done while ponies moved through and tried to help where they could.

Among these doctors moved one azure unicorn. Even though she was not trained in any form of medicine, she had picked up a few tricks and helped with the less involved tasks, such as putting pressure on wounds to stop the bleeding and fetching supplies for the doctors or anything else they needed from her.

One task the unicorn had that she loathed was comforting those that could not be saved. She could see in their eyes that they knew they were beyond help, and each and every one wore the same look of terror and confusion. Several times the young mare had nearly ran screaming from some poor soul has they let out their last breath. But no matter what she felt inside, the azure pony always kept a smile on her face and let only kind words escape her lips.

Now she was helping a human doctor tend to an older Marine with a severe wound on his side. The unicorn was pressing her hooves into the soldier’s side to stem the flow of blood while the doctor worked, and she could see every gory detail of the effects of war on the poor human on the table. She tried to avert her purple eyes from the ugly wound, but every time she looked away she was inevitably drawn back to peer at the soldier’s bloody side until she finally just shut her eyes entirely.

This soldier was one of the lucky ones, he would probably live. The azure mare spared a brief glance to the back of the tents, where stood a long, tall stack of long black bags. Each nondescript bag held the body of another brave soul that had fallen in the battle raging for the unicorn’s homeland. If I could have one wish, the mare thought tiredly, it would be that these stallions and mares didn’t have to die.

“Hm, looks like something happened.” The doctor pointed with one gloved hand towards the door and the unicorn turned to see Jaze, looking battered and covered in filth, walk in helping someone else carry in a stretcher with another wounded human. She turned back to the physician with a slightly pleading look in her eyes. He let smile touch his lips, “You go to your friend, I think that we can handle things without you for awhile.”

The azure mare nodded enthusiastically and made a beeline for the human commander, pausing only to grab a wash basin and rag. The Colonel glanced up to see the beaming unicorn and passed his burden on to a pony nurse. The pair left the tents and made for the command center. They passed through quickly and went into the commander’s office, making sure to close the door securely behind them. Neither bothered with a chair, preferring to just sit against a wall.

Trixie took the rag from basin of water and used it to gently wash the blood and muck from the human’s face. He simply closed his eyes and let the unicorn work, still as stone. Water rolled down his neck onto his armor, just as muddy as his face. The blood from the assassin’s fellow soldiers failed to add any color to the browning water in the basin.

When the soldier was finally clean, the mare tossed the rag back into the water and tucked her legs beneath her, settling against the human’s side. She felt a heavy arm slip around her, and she wished that he was not wearing his armor. The hard metal plate was uncomfortable, but she did not want to be anywhere else at that moment. She felt him shift a little and could feel silver eyes looking at her.

“Where’s Zephyr?” asked the human quietly.

“She is safe, in Ponyville,” the mare replied, whispering as well.

“I saw you working with the wounded, are you okay?”

“Yes,” she tried to push herself closer to his side, “I am now that I know you are safe.”

His arm pulled her in a little tighter, “I told you, I will be immortal. Nothing can touch me. But I’m worried; we only have about six hundred combat ready Marines left.”

“You should not worry so much. You do still have the Royal Guards, they will help. You will see.”

“Maybe. But will it be enough?”

“If nothing else, you will have me.” Trixie turned her head up to meet his gaze, and she saw that he was wearing a soft smile. His other hand came around his body to brush a stray strand from her mane back into place. He gently ran his hand through the soft locks, enjoying the simple act of touching her. A single azure hoof came up to follow the line of the human’s jaw, stopping just under his chin. The hand running through her mane stopped at the base of her head and a he gently pulled her head closer. She let her eyes close and continued to lean towards the human, reaching up to met him.

They were so close Trixie could hear the comm in his ear begin buzzing, “Hey Jaze, can you hear me?” She stopped and opened her eyes; the Colonel looked for a moment like he was going to ignore the voice in his ear.

But with a glare, he put his finger to his ear and answered, “Yes Dash, I can hear you. What is happening?”

“The Cye are coming back.” the speedster responded quickly, “Whatever they were doing, they’re done now.”

“Dammit,” the assassin sighed, “Alright, I’ll have everyone get back to the front. Armand out.” He quickly stood and helped the unicorn to her feet, “I wish I could stay, but I have to go.”

“I understand.” The unicorn brought a hoof to her forehead in a quick salute, “Go get ‘em soldier boy.”

The small act brought a smile to his face, “I will, and I will be back soon.” The human swiftly left the room, afraid that if he delayed any longer he would never leave.

As the door closed, a few tears rolled down the unicorn’s cheeks, “When will this be over and we can have a moment together in peace?”

Jaze stood in the trench with the unicorn Captain standing beside him. The pair watched the metal tide sweep towards them, though the human kept glancing to a small stack of spears next to him. He had noticed piles of the ancient weapons next to every group of Guardsponies and wondered what they were for. But when he had asked Shining Armor, the stallion had merely smiled and said, “You’ll see.” Resigned to waiting to see what the ponies had up their sleeves, the Colonel continued to wait for them enemy to get a little closer.

The human heard the spears shift and glanced over to see that the unicorn was levitating one in a magical field. With a confident smirk, the Captain magically cast the spear towards the advancing androids. The missile flew as accurately as any rifle, and struck one of the Cye troopers square in the chest, and kept going. Though the human soon lost sight of the spear, but he was sure it continued to punch through the machines for a good while.

Having seen the first spear thrown, soon all the unicorn Guardsponies were casting their missiles at the enemy, each one as deadly as the first. The machines were falling by the hundreds to the magically thrown lances, though the ponies were going to run out soon.

“For Cloudsdale!” screamed the Captain as he threw another spear.

“That’s a neat trick,” The human leader smirked, “Now here’s mine.” He spoke clearly into his comm, “Marines, open up on them, let them have it!” As one, every assault rifle and machine gun began spitting lead at the metal horde. Scores of the robots fell in the first seconds of fire, and as the lead wind continued to blow the front rows of machines ceased to be and built a small wall for their fellows to cross.

Jaze paused to put a fresh magazine into his rifle and felt something nudging his elbow. When he looked, he saw that the last spear in Shining Armor’s little stack was floating next to him. The unicorn smiled and yelled over the guns, “I heard that you can use magic, want to give it a try?”

The human set down his rifle and took the offered weapon. It was much heavier than he had expected, though he guessed it needed to be in order to be so lethal. The human’s hand glowed with a silver aura and the wood and metal spear floated next to him. He tried to cast it at the enemy, and watched as it arced into the ground well in front of the android army.

“Hah!” guffawed the white stallion, “A novice could have thrown better!”

“Well,” muttered the bright red human as he watched the unicorn’s horn glow and the spear return to them, “I never said I was good with magic.”

“All you have to do,” lectured the pony, “is think of your magic like a bow. You’re not throwing the spear, you’re using magic to push the spear ahead of you.” He quickly cast the spear at the enemy with no apparent effort, “See?”

“Yeah, well you wouldn’t be so good if someone else just gave you a weapon and said ‘do it’.” The human held out his rifle, “Try hitting something with this!”

“If a monkey can do it…” Shining Armor gingerly took the weapon in a magical grasp and pointed it towards the enemy. He had seen how the Colonel was moving the small piece of metal on the bottom of the gun and used his magic to push it to the back of the weapon. The recoil of the rifle soon had it firing wildly into the air while the unicorn fought to control the wily firearm. When he finally got the gun to stop shooting and settle down, he looked to see the human holding his sides and laughing.

“Your sister did better!” the assassin chuckled, “You couldn’t even keep the gun pointed at them!”

It was the stallion’s turn to blush, “Well, I didn’t know it would kick like an apple-bucker!”

“How about this,” Jaze took the rifle, “I stick to what I know and you stick to your weapons.” He cast a quick glance around to see that the pony had no more spears anywhere close, “Of course, it looks like you are out.”

A smile touched white lips, “Don’t be so sure.” His horn glowed again, and the spent shell casings from the human’s assault rifle floated in a cloud around him, “I can use these just like the spears, just not quite as effective. And if I must, I could just make a solid beam of magic. That takes a lot of effort though, so I want to avoid it.”

From a little way down the line, a golden stream shot from the human lines and neatly bisected scores of the androids. The dark-haired assassin followed the beam back to its source and saw none other than Princess Celestia, her horn beginning to glow for another attack.

“You can do that?” the stunned human cried, “Why are you wasting time with spears and shell casings?”

Shining Armor laughed while he sent casing flying into the enemy, “Oh that is well beyond my range. Best I can do is take one or if I’m lucky two out.”

Suddenly, several blurs detached from the now stalled Cye lines and came rocketing towards the defenders with unnatural speed. Though he could not tell what they were, the Colonel felt uneasy about them. He pointed out the speedy objects to the stallion next to him and they concentrated on taking one out. No matter how hard they tried, the thing just dodged everything thrown at it and made a beeline for the pair.

When it reached the line a metal arm shot out and caught Jaze on the chin, stunning him and sending him to the ground. Then it turned and grabbed Shining Armor by the throat and lifted the struggling pony into the air with ease. Now that it had stopped moving the pair could finally get a good look at it. The thing was a machine that looked somewhat like a stretched human. Its arms were much longer, as were its reverse-jointed legs ending in a three toed “foot”.

From the thing’s head stared lighted, red eyes, emotionlessly regarding the pony suffocating in its strong grip. The other metal arm came up and a blade several feet long extended from the wrist. The slender machine drew its arm back and prepared to plunge the attached blade into the Captain’s chest.

A gleaming streak flew towards the thing’s side only to be blocked when the thing dropped its forearm down and caught the sword with its wrist blade. Jaze gritted his teeth and brought his katana back to his hip to launch another powerful strike, but the thing quickly turned and threw Shining Armor bodily into the human and sent them both rolling to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.

The swordsman looked up to see the android standing over them with its blade held high to deliver a killing blow. With a quick shove, the human threw the Guardspony off of him and rolled backwards to his feet to avoid the plunging strike. The sharp metal sank into the ground and stuck; the human’s sword came down in a quick, two-handed, powerful strike towards its long head only to have the blow stopped by another blade that erupted from the thing’s free hand.

It suddenly pulled the buried blade free in a spray of earth and swung for the soldier’s unprotected side. Without thinking, the assassin let go of his sword with his left and dropped down to catch the blade. With a bright ring of metal on metal, the prosthetic hand enfolded the blade in a vice grip and locked it in place. The victory was short lived, for the metallic foe planted both its feet in the human’s chest and kicked him away, wrenching the blade free from his grasp.

When the slender machine made to follow the human to finish him, it was tackled by a white unicorn from behind. Shining Armor had circled around it and now had both his hooves planted on the things back. Horn glowing, the stallion prepared to deliver a final, magical attack, but was interrupted by a metal elbow crashing into the side of his head. The machine rolled over on top of the thrashing Captain and pinned the pony to the ground with a heavy metal foot. Wide blue eyes looked up to see one of the wrist blades held high for the final strike.

Just as the blade started to come down, a flash of steel passed through the thing’s elbow and the wrist blade with the arm attached fell to the ground. Before it could turn to face the new threat a foot of sharp, curved steel erupted from its chest, stopping a mere inch before hitting the pinned stallion. The blade was quickly wrenched free to allow the machine to fall forward, its eyes now black and dead.

Shining Armor shoved the dead, if it could be called that, machine off and climbed to his feet, “What the hoof was that Knight-General?”

Jaze spun his sword around and quickly sheathed it, “I don’t know, never seen a Cye like that before.” The human kicked the fallen machine over to look at its face, “But if I had to guess, I would say it is an assassin or something like that.”

“An assassin?” the unicorn replied thoughtfully, “Does that mean that it and the rest were sent to kill us?”

“Probably, and more than likely anyone else that would sow confusion.”

“Jaze! That means…”

Sudden understanding lit the human’s eyes, “The Princesses!”

Celestia’s glowed as she prepared to let loose another magical blast, but stopped when she saw the several blurs leave the Cye lines and made a run for the defenders. The tall alicorn turned to one of the Marines that had been tasked to keep her safe and pointed to one of the speedy blurs, “Soldier, what is that?”

“Trouble, if I had to guess.” the Marine replied quickly and ordered his squad to take the blurs down. The humans sent lead screaming towards the blurs, only to watch in confusion as they dodged the bursts. One that was ahead of the others managed to make it into the trench, about where the soldiers guessed the Colonel the pony Captain were trying to destroy the blurs.

“Allow me,” Luna said from beside her sister. Her horn glowed a deep blue and a beam much like the white alicorn’s shot out and caught two of the speedy objects in its path. The rest of the objects turned towards the pair of sisters and moved even faster, trying to make it to the trench. The sisters and their Marine and Royal Guard escorts worked to take down the things speeding towards them, but one still managed to jump into the trench before it could be killed.

The slender machine extended two blades from its wrists and moved to attack the Lunar Princess, only to be blocked by a Marine and a Guardspony. The machine lashed out with one of its blades and slashed the human soldier across the chest before. The grizzled Guardspony stepped over the fallen Marine and his horn began to glow with an attack he would never launch. The mechanical beast quickly stabbed the pony in his chest, and the Guard felt his hooves leave the ground as the mechanical demon lifted him into the air. The gray stallion stared into cold, red eyes; the thing cocked its head quizzically at the dying Guard, as if confused at how easily the pony had fallen. With one quick stroke, the machine’s wrist blade removed the soldier’s head and tossed the limp body away.

Luna backed away as the thing turned back to her and slowly started moving towards her. Its red eyes fixed on the black alicorn, and it raised its arms in preparation to strike. The lunar princess kept backing away from the metal fiend, stunned by the ferocity it had shown. When the thing lunged at her, she fell in heap and closed her eyes, waiting for the pain from the machine’s blades. But the pain never arrived, and Luna slowly opened her eyes to see it floating in front of her encased in a field of golden magic.

Celestia glared at the struggling machine suspended in her magical grip, “Nopony touches my sister.” The magic surrounding it slowly constricted around the thing, crushing it. It fought to free itself from the crushing force, but its struggles became weaker and weaker as the magic closed tighter and tighter. With one last kick, the android became still and the solar princess tossed it away.

“Princess!” a voice called out in near panic. Luna and Celestia turned to see Jaze and Shining Armor running down the trench towards them. They arrived, panting, and saw the slain human and pony as well as their killer, “Are you both alright?”

“We are fine, Colonel.” assured Luna, “Do you know what these, things are?”

“We believe that they are assassins” explained the purple armored unicorn, “Furthermore, they were sent here to destroy our will to fight.”

“Why didn’t you respond when I called to you on the radio?” asked an angry Colonel of the white alicorn.

“I never heard you,” Celestia replied, “I believe your communication gadget is broken.”

“Let me see it.” The tall pony dipped her head forward and allowed the human to remove the small device from her ear. He took a quick look at, turning it over in his hands, before his face contorted and he whispered something lost to the gunfire.

“What did you say?” the solar princess yelled.

“I said that you didn’t turn it on.”

The group fell quiet. Luna slowly started began laughing, a small giggle that turned into great belly guffaws that shook her frame. Celestia’s face slowly turned a bright crimson when she realized her mistake. Both Shining and Jaze tried and failed to keep smiles of mirth from their faces, though they did manage to stay more in control than the princess of the night.

“I… Uh… confound you humans and you technology!” the white alicorn exclaimed, “How was I supposed to know that it needed turned on?”

“Here,” The human gave the Princess back the comm, still trying to hold back a laugh, “it should be on now, all you have to do is talk into it and I can hear you.”

“Thank you, Knight-General.” The white alicorn was still blushing deeply, “Now we will not need run for each other.”

“Yes that will help…” Jaze started to speak, but was interrupted by a voice in his ear.

“Colonel, this is Control, and we have a problem sir.”

The human leader put a finger to the comm, “What is it?”

“First things first, we have another ship inbound to this system; we can’t tell what it is but it will be here in an hour or so. Secondly, the two ships already in orbit have launched a wave of fighters. They are moving quickly and appear to be heading right for us.”

“Damn,” the gold and black armored soldier muttered before speaking clearly, “Have the Thundercats get ready to take off, we can’t let the enemy fighters get close.”