The human Marines rushed to launch their fighter craft from their landing area, and every pilot waited with nervous anticipation for authorization to launch. The group of aircraft slowly made its way into the air to meet the incoming enemy craft. The fighters already in the air hovered a safe distance away from the launch site to wait for the rest of the craft to follow them into the air.

Jaze and the rest of the Angel squad came running through the camp, making a dead sprint for their respective aircraft. Their planes were sitting near the edge of the formation still on the ground, and the Colonel was grateful to see that they looked ready to launch at a moment’s notice. All the four pilots had to do was get behind the controls and fly. The friends made a beeline for their grounded craft, but a figure detached itself from the chaos of the launches and made a run for the group. As she neared, the assassin could see that she was wearing the uniform of a maintenance tech and had a look of a person ready to face down a ferocious animal.

“Uh, Colonel, sir?” the tech called when she drew level with Jaze and his friends, “Before you see your fighter, I just wanted to say that it was a joke the other pilots played. We never intended to leave it there, but then we got attacked and…”

The silver-eyed human’s face set in a frown, “We don’t have time for this soldier, what happened? Can our fighters still fly?”

“Yes sir! They will fly just fine, but…”

“Then what is the problem?” Sands asked irritably.

“You’ll just have to look for yourself.” the flustered tech answered quickly.

Jaze took a deep breath and climbed the ladder to see what damage had been done to his precious machine. The cockpit looked fine, just as he had left it last time he had flown it, and all the indicators shone a bright, reassuring green. Try as he might, he could not find what had the tech below him so worried, until he looked up at the canopy and saw a reflection of a drawing on the wing of his craft.

The Colonel hung his head out of the cockpit to get a clear view of the design carefully painted onto his fighter. On each wing someone had drawn a stylized white angel wing that stretched from the wingtip to where it connected to the fuselage, each and every pearl-white feather carefully crafted with unerring precision. The white paint stood out nicely from the gunmetal gray of the aircraft, and the dark-haired pilot had to admit that he liked the way it looked. He glanced around to see that each of his friends had the wings painted on their fighters as well, and each looked to have been drawn with the utmost care and attention to detail.

“The men were asking,” the tech called from below, “what kind of angel doesn’t have beautiful wings?”

“They may not be regulation,” Jaze grinned, “but I happen to know the local commander, so I think they can stay.”

“C’mon Jaze!” Shelby yelled, “I want to go play with those Cye fly-boys!”

“Right,” the assassin dropped back into his seat and quickly donned his flight harness, “let’s get up there. We need to keep the Cye air support well away from our troops on the ground.”

Jaze jammed a small black button on the side of the cockpit and the canopy dropped down on the fighter to seal with a hiss. The experienced pilot’s hands flew across the console before him and quickly brought the aircraft to life; the whole vessel hummed with power, and it rose into the air, closely followed by three more of the sleek fighters. They turned the noses of the Thundercats in the direction of the battlefield and pushed the craft to maximum speed; each of the forty pilots rocketed towards where the enemy would break into the atmosphere, several of them whispering silent prayers for victory.

The Cye and human fighters finally came into view of each other, and Jaze could feel his stomach knotting with anticipation of the chaotic battle that was about to ensue. He was at the front of a diamond composed of his fighter; Shelby’s and Vincent’s to his left and right, with Dmitri bring up the rear. The rest of the human craft followed a similar pattern and the whole group composed one giant diamond, with the Angels group leading the attack.

The Colonel looked to the enemy aircraft, noticing that they were not arranged nearly as neatly, preferring instead to be spread loosely across the sky and have more room to maneuver their relatively unwieldy fighters. He knew the android pilots had the ability to communicate at the speed of light with one another which made for almost instantaneous sharing of information, a distinct advantage against an opponent that had to rely on the much slower spoken word.

The human commander pushed those thoughts from his mind and sealed the helmet of his new armor before addressing the assembled Marine pilots, “This is Angel Lead to all fighter flights, break formation and move to engage the enemy at twelve o’clock. Good luck and Godspeed, Angel Lead out.”

“Hey Jaze,” Shelby’s voice came over the assassin’s comm, “Wanna make another bet of it?”

“Sure, why not?” he called back, “What did you have in mind?”

“Lowest bandits splashed buys all the booze we can drink at the celebration party. You in?”

“I can go in for that, what about you Vincent?” Jaze asked the large pilot.

“Sure, why not?” His tone took on a sarcastic air, “I can’t lose twice, can I?”

“Do I still have to pay if I lose?” Sands asked hopefully, “Seeing as how I am the new guy and all?”

“Yes, and you have no right not to participate!” Shelby cried happily while her fighter accelerated, “I’m gonna get first kill!”

“Like hell you are!” Vincent yelled as he followed close behind his eager fiancée, Sands moving after the pair.

For a moment, Jaze hovered back away from the fray and watched as the human pilots engaged the invading androids. He began noticing that there were a few fighters that had strangely grouped closely together, as if they were protecting something, or someone. As the soldier studied the clumps of android fighters, he noticed that at the heart of each was a single aircraft.

The fighters in the center of the groups seemed like every other craft, except that they were being treated as if they were hiding something precious. The human commander pushed his jet towards the nearest clump of the androids air force, dodging between the many dog fights that were breaking out to close in on his chosen target. As his plane edged closer to the formation, he saw the enemy alter its path and begin flying away from the human, but they were moving far slower than they could and the RX-80 was easily gaining on the retreating formation.

Just as the human pilot’s craft closed in on the Cye fighters, they broke formation and began to try and harry the assassin’s plane towards the ground. A grim look took hold of his face as he blasted out of the trap he suddenly found himself in, the planet’s atmosphere dragging at the plane as the pilot banked away and made it feel sluggish compared to the fight in space. Fortunately, the enemy were under the same constraints and the dark-haired human was able to circle around to come in behind one of the enemy fighters.

The clumsy android pilot’s craft was torn out from under him when Jaze triggered the Thundercat’s machinegun and poured lead into the enemy fighter, the cannon’s roar dampened only slightly by the cockpit’s walls. The human watched his foe turn into a flaming smear of wreckage before he turned to engage the rest of the group. There were about six enemy flyers left now, including the one that had been guarded which seemed to be letting its escorts handle the fight and as hovering well away from the pitched battle. The assassin tried to keep that one in the corner of his eye, but the rest of the group was making it impossible.

Jaze turned his full attention to the fight at hand in time to hear a warning sound from the console behind him, one of the androids had sent a missile his way. The human craft rolled upside down and flew through a tight flip before ending up behind an enemy pilot trying to take advantage of the human’s distraction to finish him off. The assassin rewarded the eager pilot by sending a pair of missiles to remove the back end of its plane and sending it spiraling to the ground, trailing smoke. A blur of motion caught the human’s eye, and he turned his head to see another fighter had closed in behind him.

“Alright,” he growled, “you want it, you got it!” He yanked back on the stick to send his fighter into a steep climb and saw his foe follow. He climbed several hundred feet before he rolled his plane to the right and let its speed drop off to get behind the Cye aircraft and pepper it with machinegun fire. The rounds must have hit something vital, because the smoking craft lost power and began falling towards the amassed android army below.

The Colonel looked up to see two more enemy flyers closing in from the front. They each fired several missiles, and the human was forced to dive towards the ground a let some flares loose to avoid the volley. His heart pounded in his throat as the two androids slotted in behind him, one above and one below, and he pushed the RX-80 as fast as it would go while turning to try and break away from the pursuing robots. The enemy flyers refused to give up and stuck right on his tail.

Another fighter banked around until it was pointed directly at the nose of the Colonel’s craft, and it gave the human an idea. He squeezed every ounce of speed he could from the Thundercat and shot toward the android powering for his nose. Now that he was not turning at every moment, the pursuers were gaining on him, and the soldier silently egged them on. The assassin watched and held his breath while the four aircraft slowly converged.

Just as the fighter in front was about to hit, the human quickly rolled his craft over and pulled back on the stick, hoping that to the Cye he had seemed to vanish. The ploy worked better than he could have hoped; two enemy fighter-craft became smoky smears across the sky when they slammed into one another and tore themselves apart, though the third escaped no worse for wear. The Colonel circled back until he was underneath the now retreating android and destroyed the craft with a missile and a sustained burst from his rotary cannon, passing through the debris to look for another target.

The last two fighters from the formation decided to attack as one and flew in from either side. Jaze was forced to push the accelerator to the maximum to avoid the androids’ assault, and they were behind him before he could do anything. They followed close behind and raked his plane with their machineguns, peppering the hull with several small holes.

The pilot cursed and twisted his fighter away, only to find himself face to face with a missile. He yelped in terror and pulled hard on the stick to rocket his plane higher into the air and out of the path of the rocket, merely to be forced to roll to the side to avoid another burst from one of the Cye planes’ machineguns. The enemy craft were forcing the assassin to stay in turn almost constantly to avoid hails of bullets and swarms of missiles, and he was unable to get off a shot in retaliation. It was only a matter of time before one of them made a clean hit and sent him toward the ground in a flaming wreck. From above, the Colonel caught a flash of fire and looked up to see one of the robot’s craft burning and falling from the sky.

His savior flew next to him and triggered her comm, “This is callsign Banshee Four, Airman Marin, at your service sir. One of your friends saw you was in a bit of trouble, asked me to come bail you out.”

Jaze breathed a short sigh of relief before responding, “Thanks for that. You want to help me take out the last couple of fighters?”

“Sure, let’s toast us some robo-freaks!”

The pair of pilots turned towards the last pursing fighter, the Colonel’s aircraft coming in from below while Marin drove the android downwards with bursts from her machinegun, herding the robot into the assassin’s sights. The silver-eyed man waited for the enemy flyer to drop neatly into range, and his thumb hovered over the missile’s launch button as the RX-80’s computer locked on to the enemy’s craft. When the console gave a loud beep to indicate a solid lock, he sent the rocket screaming towards his target and turned the enemy fighter into a greasy smear across the sky.

The assassin’s face broke into a smirk with the thrill of combat pounding through him. He fell in behind Airman Marin and triggered his comm, “Thanks again for the assistance, let’s get that last one and get back to that furball.” The pair circled around until they were lined up with the still unmoving craft that had been in the center of the formation a few minutes ago.

“Don’t you even worry about that one Colonel, sir.” The cocky pilot replied, “He ain’t even moving, I can take that one by myself.”

“Wait, don’t…!” the human commander started, but it was too late. The confident Airman tore towards the stationary fighter and sent several missiles toward it followed by a burst from her rotary cannon. To the Colonel’s eye, it looked like he was worried for nothing, and that the enemy plane was just going to sit there and be destroyed. Until it suddenly danced away from the death flung at it, and slotted in behind Marin as she blew through where the enemy fighter had been before.

“What the fu…” the unlucky Airman started, but she never got the chance to finish, and her plane was torn asunder from the combined effects of a small volley of missiles and a sustained burst from a machinegun. The assassin prayed to see a stark white splash through the smoke of her Thundercat, but his hopes were dashed as the fighter slowly arced towards the ground below to plow a small trench into the dirt below.

Jaze closed his eyes briefly and spat into his comm, “Control, Banshee Four is down; repeat, Banshee Four is down.” He paused before saying quietly, “No chute.”

“Thank you sir,” a man’s voice replied, “we’ll send S and R as soon as we can.”

The Colonel dropped lower to stare at the smoking wreckage before answering, “I don’t think it’s necessary. Armand out.” He switched comm channels and growled, “All pilots listen up! The groups of fighters have an ace in the middle, take him out first. How copy?”

After the dark-haired human received confirmation of his orders from every pilot still in the air, he began searching the skies for Airman Marin’s killer. He soon found the enemy circling high above his kill, awaiting the next challenge, and Jaze was more than happy to oblige. He put the RX-80 into a steep climb and pushed the throttle to the max, becoming a streak trailing long, white contrails as he powered toward the ace. The enemy fighter must have seen him, because it dipped its nose and began flying straight at him.

The assassin and the enemy ace tore through the sky at one another, and the Colonel’s hand hovered over the air brake. He saw his foe edging to one side to shoot past him and watched the enemy fighter roll over so that its wing was pointed at the ground. The human commander copied the maneuver so the two aircraft could brush past each other. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for the assassin as the planes passed mere inches from crashing, and he looked through the cockpit’s canopy to see his foe.

Jaze’s face went slack with shock as he looked at a blank faced cyborg at the helm of the fighter. Most of the right side of the ace’s face had been replaced with a bare-metal cybernetic replacement, enough that it was impossible to tell if the cyborg was male or female. Its hair was completely gone, and any other discerning features were hidden beneath the cyborg’s flight suit. The Colonel looked into his foe’s eyes, one an unnatural completely black replacement and the other the cyborg’s natural brown.

The enemy ace shot past the assassin’s aircraft and pulled out of its dive to aim for a large storm cloud. The human shook away his shock and yanked on the air brake to set his fighter after the cyborg’s and follow it up into the cloud bank. Condensation and small droplets of rain smeared the cockpit’s canopy and the light from the sun dimmed. Sight was nearly useless as he could only see a few feet before everything was obscured by the rolling gray mass. Something about the dark cloud he was in set off alarm bells in the silver-eyed man’s head, and it took several minutes for him to realize why.

The human commander thought out loud while trying to peer through the thick vapors filling the air, “This cloud is moving against the wind, how?” He was flying blind, and could not see or hear anything that hinted at his elusive foe. The assassin backed off on his craft’s speed and kept scanning around him for the enemy ace. In front of and above him, the cloud was beginning to thin and he could just make out a shape through the wet air. Jaze hit the thrusters on the plane and jumped toward the shape to burst out from the cloud in bright sunlight with the star behind him. The shape suddenly became clear as he shot out of the cloud and saw he was barreling down on a surprised, light gray pegasus mare.

Jaze let out a loud grunt of surprise and yanked on the flight stick to jerk his plane away before he ran over the startled pony. He looked back to see her shaking a hoof at him before she went back to pushing the cloud along. As the human scanned the large storm front, he began to pick out more and more pegasi straining their wings to move the lumbering mass of vapor into place.

What the hell are they doing with a rain cloud? The Colonel thought as he flew over the heads of the laboring ponies before a thought struck him, Wait, rain cloud? Rain cloud! A grin of amusement slowly spread across the assassin’s face and he silently began rooting the pegasi on, You guys are brilliant, the rain will… The silver-eyed human would not get to finish his thought, as a dark shadow suddenly fell across the cock pit of his fighter. He looked up to see the cyborg ace had finally risen above the clouds and was directly behind, and all the Colonel had time for was one brief curse before the enemy craft let loose a barrage of missiles.

In the trenches, Shining Armor stood to Celestia’s right and cast the spent casings from the rifle of the Marine standing next to him into the hordes of androids. This marked the first time he had ever disobeyed a command from his Princess, as she had long since ordered him to leave her side and move to another spot. The purple armored unicorn could feel the Princess’ anger fuming next to him, but he refused to allow another of those robotic assassins a chance to get close. From what he had gathered, a small number of the fiends had made it into the trenches and killed over a hundred people and ponies before being taken down by the beleaguered defenders.

Even as he thought of the metal monstrosities, the unicorn watched another one break from the Cye line and dart towards the trench, bent over double and moving quickly. It seemed to be heading straight at the Guard Captain, zigzagging to avoid the deadly rain of gunfire directed from the Marine assault rifles as well as numerous magically guided projectiles from the unicorns manning the line. The android assassin dodged everything thrown at it and raced towards the purple armored Captain, who placed his hooves on the lip of the trench and let out a short huff. His back legs coiled under him, and he readied to spring from the trench into the beast’s path.

A mere second before Shining Armor jumped into the android’s path, it jerked from a bullet slamming dead center into its chest, a large hole forming where the bullet hit. The impact made it stand straight up, though it kept going forward, and the shooter took the chance to put two more rounds into the thing for good measure. The android fell into the trench next to Shining Armor and he cast his eyes around for its killer. The unicorn turned and looked behind him, where he could just see the glint from some lens sparkling in the sun on top of a hill of excess dirt from the building of the trenches. A purple hoof and a hand waved at him from the hilltop, and a bemused grin fell on the Captain’s face.

“Even now you’re watching out for me Twilee. Thanks.” The unicorn turned back to the fight and picked up the fallen robot and yelled, “I think you dropped this!” before throwing the thing with all the magical force he could muster at the mass of metal enemies before him.

The sound of whimpering cut through the din of gunfire, and the stallion looked down the trench to see a dark gray unicorn stallion in the black armor of the Night Guard lying on the floor of the ditch with his hooves over his head. His eyes were tightly clenched, and he seemed to be muttering under his breath. The Captain moved closer to make out what the pony was saying.

“Why?” the terrified pony muttered, “I didn’t sign up for this! Never told me that I would be fighting metal demons straight from the maw of Tartarus!” A Marine standing next to the stallion suddenly fell to the ground, screaming and holding the hand that was now missing several fingers.

The gray unicorn took one look at the screaming human and bolted upright, “Forget this, I’m outta here!” The terrified stallion made to jump from the trench, only to be tackled by a purple armored blur of fur and fury. The Night Guard stared up at the scowl of his Captain, and a knot that had formed in his stomach suddenly gained a ton of weight.

“Where did you think you were going?” Shining Armor asked with cold anger filling his eyes and voice.

“I, I can’t do this Captain,” the pinned stallion screamed, “let me go, please! I have a wife!” He tried to shove the stronger stallion away, only to have a hoof shoved into his black armored chest and be forced to the ground again.

“What’s your name?” asked the white stallion in a calm voice.

“Gr-Graphite sir!” the unicorn yelled.

“Well Graphite, if you want to live you stay right here.” explained the Captain, “You can leave this trench if you really want,” he removed his hoof from the fallen stallion and stepped away, “but if you leave they will tear you apart.”

Graphite stared up at the white stallion with fear filled eyes, “We’re all gonna die here, aren’t we Captain?”

“Not if you get your rump to that line and do your duty.” Shining Armor pointed down the line to where Celestia and Luna were firing powerful magical blasts into the stalled army of androids, “You took an oath to protect your Princesses, your people, and your home. All of that is in danger now. This is what you signed up for; this is what the Guards are sworn to fight. Now are you going to do your duty?”

“Y-yessir!” The unicorn rolled to his feet and moved towards trench wall and began casting casings, rocks, and anything else in his reach at the Cye troops once more.

Shining Armor grinned at the soldier and moved to take his place back among the line. Suddenly, a dark shadow passed over the trenches. The unicorn looked up to see a dark storm cloud passing over the sun, and watched two fighter craft disappear into the mass of vapor from below. The cloud flew quickly towards the clashing armies, seemingly changing directions to position itself over the Cye army. The Captain noticed several shapes darting out from the cloud before shooting back up above the vapor.

The stallion heard Celestia take a breath from next to him, “Captain, is that what I think it is?” She pointed with a hoof towards a group of enemy fighter craft moving slowly towards the line.

“I think so Your Majesty.” Shining Armor looked up toward the alicorn with a worried look, “I think you should call the Knight-General.”

“Dammit all to hell!” Jaze screamed and he yanked on the flight stick to pull away from the cyborg’s attack. The most of the missiles shot past him harmlessly, but one got close enough to donate, the blast rocking the Colonel’s plane and sending it spiraling towards the ground far below.

Warning sirens shrieked and panels turned red to tell the human what he already knew, he was going down. The plane twisted through the air and fell into the cloud below, and the assassin tried in vain to get the fighter steady, but a light on the console next to him warned him that the craft had lost power. The human’s heart was pounding as he reset the system, his finger hovering over the start switch a moment before he flicked it down and back up.

Nothing, the engine seemed completely gone. He let out a curse and flicked the switch again. Again, he failed to hear the reassuring sound of the gentle hum from the engine. “Come on baby,” the Colonel whispered lovingly to the craft, “third time’s the charm…” He flipped the switch again and was greeted by silence. He had fallen beneath the cloud and into the darkness below, and the ground suddenly looked a lot closer whenever his plane turned over and showed terra firma below.

Vincent’s voice suddenly came over the assassin’s comm, “Jaze, she’s gone! Time to eject!”

“No,” the silver-eyed man replied far more coolly than he felt, “if I do now I might get trapped under the fighter. I can still save her.” He flicked the switch down, waited a second, and flipped it again. Still nothing. The panicking human slammed his fist into the console before him and screamed, “Work damn you!” before he flicked the switch one more time.

Finally, the sweet sound of the reactor happily humming away filled the cockpit, and the human commander let out a sigh of relief. But he was not safe yet, as he was still spiraling out of control to a sudden stop. I crashed a plane here once, I’m not doing it again. Jaze thought and he fought with the flight stick to level the plane out before he smashed into the ground below.

The silver-eyed man gritted his teeth and wrestled with the fighter to level it out and begin climbing back into the sky. The Colonel glanced at his altimeter and suddenly felt sick, he managed to level his plane a mere five hundred feet from the hard earth below. He was looking down at the army of androids below, stalled before the ragged defenders. As he flew over the Cye troopers, he began to notice small gaps in the previously impenetrable wall of metal they had been before. The assassin glanced towards the forest and noticed that the flood of Cye seemed to be slowing to the point of stopping.

The comm in his ear buzzed and Celestia voice came through, “Colonel, we have a problem. Some of the flying machines seem to be getting very close to the soldiers in this ditch, and we would very much like you to send some of your flyers to remove them.”

“Not a problem Princess,” Jaze called enthusiastically, “I can send a couple fighters to wipe them out immediately.”

The Solar Princess’s sigh of relief came through as a rush of static, “Thank you. Is your own aircraft still functional?”

The Colonel cast his eyes around the cockpit, checking various readouts from and looking out of the canopy to see how the fighter seemed to be holding up from the rough ride, “Got a little smoke, but I doubt that is anything to worry about. Lost a hint of power, but I can adjust for that.”

“Good, I would hate to lose a…” she paused before finishing lamely, “a, uh, capable soldier.”

“Trust me, I would hate to be lost.” The dark-haired soldier put his craft into a steep climb and powered toward the cloud bank once more, “Hey, got some good news for you folks on the ground. I can see what looks like the end of their troops; this is almost over, just hang on for a little longer.”

“This, this is wonderful news!” Celestia crowed excitedly. Realizing how relieved she sounded, the Princess buried her happiness and continued, “I shall start spreading the news, this will be a huge boost for the troops.”

“Yeah,” Jaze agreed, “and now we have a secret weapon. Armand out.” He switched comm channels and spoke quickly, “Dash, you still there?”

“Yeah Jaze,” the rainbow-maned pegasus replied immediately, “what’s up?”

“That big rain cloud that is moving over us is being guided by pegasi,” explained the assassin, “probably from Cloudsdale. I want you to send some pegasi from the Guard and Wonderbolts to help them move it faster, but you and some of the Guards need to stay behind to keep watch, that clear?”

“Rodger that chief, I’m on it.” The speedster cackled and said proudly, “Time for some payback, you metal morons!”

The Colonel smiled and switched channels once more, “To all fighters, is there any one not engaged with the enemy right now?”

“This is Banshee One; me and Banshee Three are clear.” a gruff male voice answered, “What ya need?”

“Got a group of bandits closing in on the front, more than likely setting up for a bombing run. I want you to provide support and draw off those fighters. Remember, there is an ace in the center, take that one out first. Everyone else, as soon as you take down your targets I want you on top of that cloud providing cover for the pegasi moving it. That goes for you too, Banshee One.”

“Yes sir, will do. Banshee One moving to engage, out.”

The Colonel watched as the two aircraft flew towards the enemy formation, and saw a RX-80 with angel wings sidle up next to him and Vincent’s worried voice come over the comm, “Jaze, I got a bad feeling about those bandits.”

“Think I should send more to deal with them?” the assassin asked quickly.

“Naw, I think they will be fine.” The large Angel paused, “I think.”

“They are trained pilots, they can handle themselves.”

Jaze and Vincent flew quickly through the cloud to emerge into the sunlight beyond. They were just in time to see an enemy fighter line up on one of the pegasi furiously beating her wings to push the cloud along. Seeing the enemy’s plan, along with a few pegasi already laying, bleeding, among the dark gray vapors, the assassin sent a burst after the enemy flyer to force it off the attack.

“Ya want me to handle this one Jaze?” Vincent asked.

“No, that one is mine. He’s the one that just tried to kill me.” the Colonel growled viscously, “You make sure no more pegasi are killed.”

“Rodger that, I’ll let you take him.” The large soldier peeled off to fly over the heads of the other ponies, waiting for another enemy to contest his position.

Jaze smiled at the eager pilot, a brief flash of teeth before scowled at the enemy fighter, “Okay you, time for a little payback.” He quickly came up behind the cyborg’s craft and fired another burst from his rotary cannon. “That’s right, I’m back. And I think that I have something to give you.”

The Colonel released a barrage of missiles at the cyborg ace, only to curse when it dodged them with ease. The enemy flyer banked hard to try and shake the human, but the RX-80 showed its maneuverability and he was able to close the gap between them by a few more precious feet. The assassin opened up with his machinegun, pouring fire into the fighter in front of him, scoring a few hits along the fuselage but nothing vital. The assassin’s foe suddenly killed his speed and went over the human’s head to get behind him.

“Two can play that game friend. You can’t take the sky from me!” Jaze shouted and threw the fighter’s throttle to full, shooting well ahead of the enemy and banking around to face his startled opponent. The Colonel sent several missiles at the cyborg, forcing it to turn sharply and allow the human to get back on his tail. The traitor tried to weave around and trick the assassin into shooting past him, but the Thundercat stayed locked onto its prey, the pilot waiting for his computer to have a lock.

As soon as he heard a beep, the assassin grinned and thumbed the missile release. The cyborg tried to turn away, but the missile arced perfectly into its tail and removed the back half of its plane.

The Colonel watched as his foe went into a death spiral towards the ground far below, and gave a one fingered salute, “You were one tough SOB. Rest in peace.” He circled once above his kill before turning to take down another fighter as it came over the top of the clouds, “I guess you want some too; well come on then, show me what you got!”

Twilight stared through a pair of binoculars at the front line, calling out targets to Stacks laying next her with the long rifle. They had been trading off shooting and spotting since they had taken up this position and the purple unicorn was glad for the break; her shoulder was aching from the rifle’s recoil.

The librarian carefully watched the Cye ranks for any more of the vicious assassin types that had nearly destroyed the defenders before, but they seemed to have disappeared for the time being. So they were focusing on taking down as many human traitors and any Cye troopers they could before they made it to the line. And anyone with a weapon different than the rest of the group. Despite the seriousness of her task, the young mare could not help but keep flicking glances to the incoming enemy flyers. Seeing the air forces sent a shiver down her back and set her on edge, but Celestia had just said that the end was near, that the androids were running out of troops. So the purple pony gritted her teeth and tried to focus on her task, even though she continued to look toward the enemy aircraft every few minutes.

The Lance Corporal dispatched all of his marks with silent efficiency. Gone was the joking, loud mouthed, young letch, and in his place was a quite killer. He had not missed a single shot, and many of his rounds passed through the first target and took down another. The sniper dropped the magazine from the long rifle and continued plugging away, waiting for the unicorn next to him to bring a worthy target under his scope. Twilight was simply amazed at the scarred young man’s skill, and was glad that she was working with him.

The unicorn turned her attention back to the front line, and a purple armored pony jumped out of the crowd for her. Seeing her brother, the pony she loved more than almost any other, fighting and killing made everything seem surreal. He was usually so kind and gentle, but now Shining Armor had become a death slinging machine; every time his horn glowed a slight purplish-pink another android fell dead with something lodged in its chest. Come to think of it, the horrified pony suddenly thought, how is he, or I, any different than them?

Once more, the sights beneath the shattered city of Cloudsdale came to mind. Ponies, from the very old to the very young, had been spread across the ground, and every now and then the search party would pull a broken human body from the rain muddied ground. Whenever a particularly strong wind blew the party would get the stench of death filling their nostrils, and more than a few people and ponies making up the search party would suddenly find their stomach in their mouth. By some stroke of luck, they would find a few ponies who managed to survive their trip to the ground; discoveries that only drove the team to keep looking, and hoping.

Twilight began to shiver again, and the memories were flooding into her mind no matter how hard she tried to force them back into a deep part of her mind. She felt the memories beginning to take on a life of their own, consuming her and pulling her in. The young bookworm wanted to scream, but her jaw was locked tight. Her eyes glazed over and she felt her legs crumple beneath her, the memories over powering her.

She was once more stepping over the broken bodies of her friends, but now she was alone. Alone with the smell of death all around her. Nopony was nearby, nopony alive at any rate. There seemed to be more bodies than there were ponies in Cloudsdale, but what did she know; how could she argue with what was right in front of her?

The purple mare stepped over the body of yet another pegasus, this one a young mare, with a bright pink coat and a yellow mane, still clutching her child. She stopped to look at the mother, the look of anguish frozen on the pony’s face drawing her took closer. She wished she could have saved the pair, or at least the child. Tears began to spill from the unicorn’s eyes and she started to leave, but then the fallen pegasus moved. Her eyes, glazed and white from death, fluttered open to stare and her head twisted up to look at the terrified mare.

“Why couldn’t it be you?” the pink mare accused, “Why did my baby die and you live?”

Twilight backed away from the specter, her eyes wide with fright and her mouth suddenly dry, “I… I don’t, we couldn’t…”

The dead mare stood up, revealing ghastly wounds on her chest. “You didn’t try to save us!” she screamed, “You didn’t try to save my baby!”

“I tried, I really did.” the librarian cried, “I wish you were still alive, I do!”

“It’s all you fault! It’s your fault we died, you killed us!” The pegasus mare jumped and grabbed the crying unicorn in a powerful hold, “Now you will stay with us forever!”

“NOOOOOOO!” Twilight screamed. She gave a powerful kick to dislodge the vengeful pony and bolted away, jumping over the bodies of the dead to get away. Another body suddenly jumped up, this one a human Marine missing part of her face, and grabbed her ankles, pulling her down to the blood and rain soaked earth.

“I died, why didn’t you?” the Marine begged, “Why did I have to die? It hurt so bad, let me share…”

“Let me go, get away!” the mare screamed over and over, kicking with her hind legs to free them from the things grip. Its hold finally broke, and she jumped to her hooves to find herself surrounded by the walking dead each one reaching out to her with hands and accusations.

The rain suddenly became much warmer; Twilight was horrified to see it had become blood, and the clouds above had all taken on a scarlet hue. The pony’s legs would no longer support her, and she fell to the ground. Soon, the dead began piling in on top of her, suffocating her, crushing her and begging her to join them. The unicorn tried to push them away, but there were too many, and the beings were too strong.

“Join us, join us, join us.” The chant pushed at her ears, and her struggles became weaker and weaker, “Join us, join us, join us join us join us JOIN US!”

Sis grabbed the screaming unicorn and dragged her off the hilltop and shouted to her brother, “Keep ‘em busy bro, I’ma try and get this poor girl back!”

“Do it,” the sniper responded quietly, “I don’t need a spotter anymore.”

The female Marine nodded and turned her attention to the shaking pony. “Hey Twi? Can you hear me girl? Don’t shut down on me now, we have a problem. C’mon wake up!”

“No,” the mare whimpered, her eyes tightly closed, “go away, I did what I could. Leave me alone!”

“Twilight, I know they look real. But they aren’t, you just gotta see that.” The blonde haired soldier hugged the stricken pony tight, “C’mon, you can do it. Just come back, c’mon kid.”

“Sis,” the Lance Corporal yelled, “I’m running low on ammo here. We have to move, get her up!”

“I’m trying!” she yelled back before returning her attention to Twilight, “Kid, I really didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice.” The woman raised her hand and delivered a hard slap on the pony’s face. As she hoped, the unicorn suddenly opened her eyes and focused them on the human holding her.

Purple eyes filled with tears, and the bookworm buried her face in the Marine’s chest, “I… I can’t do this…”

“Do you need another slap?” the woman growled, surprising the young mare enough that she pulled away, “Because I know you are tougher than that! You didn’t even bat an eye when I pegged you with a rubber round during your training! Now you’re gonna let some stupid thought slow you down?”

“I… I don’t…” Twilight swallowed and set her face in a determined grimace, “No, I won’t!”

“Damn right you won’t!” Sis stood the pony on her feet, “Now we gotta move.”

The unicorn nodded and looked out over the battlefield and noticed something strange, “Where are the enemy flyers and what in the hoof is that?” She pointed with a hoof towards a small aircraft hovering over the Cye lines that looked like a squat pyramid turned upside down with another, small pyramid on top.

“It’s a collection unit.” Stacks grunted. On the ship’s side two ports opened briefly to let out a few floating drones that looked like a cross between a flying spider and a basket, but nearly eight feet across. The drones began grabbing fallen androids and tossing them into the basket at its center, completely ignoring the rounds that pinged off its armor.

“What’s it doing here?” Twilight breathed, almost afraid it could hear her. “Where did it come from?”

“Those drones pick up the dead Cye and put them in that ship, which takes them back to one of the ships in orbit to be repaired or recycled. Then dropships will bring them back to keep fighting.” the sniper explained, “And those fighters we saw before were a complex hologram, just so it could sneak close and start its job. Those two poor Thundercats pilots didn’t know and accidently rammed into it.”

“Can’t we stop it?”

“No,” Sis said bitterly, “its armor is way too thick. It would take a railgun to get through it, and guess what we don’t have. They’re slow, but almost impossible to kill.”

“Is there no other way?” the purple mare asked. She grabbed the binoculars from where she had dropped them and pressed them to her face, studying the craft for anything to bring it down.

“Not that we know of,” the Lance Corporal assured as he stood, “It is not like those heavies.”

“Uh, huh.” Twilight responded thoughtfully. She watched a drone disappear quickly into the port that flashed open and closed in an instant, and again when the drone left. An idea started to form in her head. “Stacks, I think I know how we can take it down.”

“Wha…?” the startled sniper asked, “How?

“I think if you could get a round in one of the ports as it opened, you can hit it where it doesn’t have any armor: on the inside. All you need to do is wait for one of the drones to go in.”

“Twilight, that’s…” Sis started.

“That’s bloody brilliant!” Stacks finished, “I think I can put the round in there, you just have to tell me when one of drone is coming in for docking.” The sniper went prone again and stared through his scope at the biggest target in his life, “Not got enough ammo for much, this is my last mag. Ten shots, that’s it and we’re done.”

“Okay, group of drones coming in.”

The dirty blonde woman laughed and stared at her brother and the unicorn, “You two are crazy!”

“No, it’ll work.” the Lance Corporal assured, “It’s all about timing.” He saw the drones enter the side of his scope, and he took a breath to steady himself. When the port flashed open, he fired a single round, only to have it slam uselessly against the armored door when it slammed shut.

“You need to shoot just before it opens, but that was close.” Twilight lectured.

The ship was moving now, as if the sniper needed the shot to be any more impossible. He steady himself and tracked the craft, waiting for the next drone to get close. When he guessed everything was right, he fired a trio of shots.

“Darn,” the unicorn spotter cursed, “those shots caught the lip of the door as it opened.”

“Alright then.” Stacks laughed, “I guess it is time to use the shotgun method.”

When the third drone in line moved toward the door, the sniper squeezed of the last six rounds as fast as the weapon would cycle them. Time slowed as unicorn and human alike watched with bated breath for the rounds to find their target. As the bullets reached the door, it flickered open to admit the deadly projectiles. Two of the rounds hit the rim of the door, but the rest of the rounds passed through to hit in the unprotected guts of the ship.

“Come on babies,” the sniper cooed lovingly, “hit something important, make daddy proud.” At first, it seemed like it had all been wasted effort, until the aircraft started to list. The ship slowly turned over and plowed into the ground, crushing a huge chunk of the androids below as it dug a shallow grave for itself.

“It, it worked.” Sis stated in wide eyed shock, “I can’t believe that worked.”

“Damn right it did!” the Lance Corporal crowed happily. He grabbed Twilight in a sudden hug and planted an unexpected kiss on her check before smiling, “You’re a beautiful person, pony, thing, whatever!” The mad sniper jumped up and started dancing and singing, “We killed it, we killed it, it’s dead and we killed it!”

To put an exclamation point on their victory, the cloud had finally gotten settled over the Cye army. After a short pause, rain began to fall on the unprotected androids below. The effects were not immediate, but as the water worked through their bodies the robot began falling over in groups; their bodies twitching as their programming pushed them to get back up. Twilight thought it was at once beautiful and terrible to watch the robots die, because it meant this fight was finally over.

The few human traitors left among the Cye ranks either threw down their weapons in surrender or turned to run, only to be shot from behind by the now victorious defenders. Cries of elation came from the trench, and many of the Marines and Guards started dancing in the rain.

Tears filled Twilight’s eyes as the realization hit her. “That’s it.” she whispered, “It’s over. It’s all over.”

“No kid, not quite.” Stacks whispered back.

“Why not?” the distraught unicorn asked.

“There are still two ships in orbit above the planet, we gotta get them down.” Sis jumped in, “But that can wait for a little while. We still kicked some android ass here, and we can take a breather.” A mad grin lit the woman’s face, “Then we get to finish the fight for this planet for good.”

“I’m glad that at least we are done for now.” A sudden grin flew across the young mare’s face, “I can’t wait to tell Shining Armor what we did!”

Rainbow Dash had been watching the battle for her home unfold from a cloud above and behind the trench line, and her thoughts were torn between joy and disappointment. Joy that the fighting was over, but disappointment that she had not had a chance to do anything other than watch. Even so, the speedster knew her job was important.

“At least some pegasi got to help.” she reassured herself, “That one’s for Cloudsdale.” She decided that she would have her small team of pegasi check in one more time before she left to find her friends, so she called into her comm, “Hey everypony, what’s goin’ on around here. Anything that seems weird?”

All of the assembled Royal Guard pegasi responded with a negative over comm, all but one; the one that was stationed on the far side of Ponyville. The rainbow-maned athlete growled, of course somepony would not respond for the last call. She swore that if the pony in question had lost his comm, she was going to play soccer with his head. So she left her cloud and stretched out her wings, making a beeline for the other Guard’s roost.

As the cyan pony neared another puff of cloud, she caught sight of a dark green hoof sticking out from one side. Of course, Dash thought venomously, he fell asleep! And the lazy soldier was about to get a very rude awakening, from a very annoyed mare.

“Hey Helios!” the pony yelled, “Wake up you idiot! We just won, and you are sleepin?” When the hoof failed to move or its owner to respond, the mare flew a little closer, “Hey, you okay?”

She landed on the cloud and looked at the sleeping stallion. Except that the two holes in his neck meant he was not asleep, but dead. His eyes bulged with anger and pain, and one hoof was frozen next the comm in his ear, a vain attempt to warn the rest of the lookout group.

Dash dropped to hug the cloud with her belly and began scanning for what could have killed the pegasus. “It couldn’t be an airplane, we would have seen that. But what else could it have been?” The speedy pony looked down and realized she was very close to the ground, an easy shot for a skilled marksman.

“Could it have…” she wondered aloud before searching the ground and town below. Next to Ponyville Town Hall, she saw several humans holding weapons that did not look like Marine assault rifles on a large group ponies consisting mostly of fillies and colts with a few older ponies mixed in. The humans were gesturing with their rifles and separating the young from their chaperones. When one pony moved to stop them, a human viciously clubbed the pony to the ground, adding a kick to make sure the point was made.

The humans took their prize of fillies and colts and led them away from the town, skirting the human camp and trench by a wide margin. They were headed for the forest from where the androids had been pouring from for the last few hours. Dash had seen more than enough, and she fumbled with the comm to make it connect, “Jaze, we need help! There are some bad lookin guys stealin kids from town and takin to the forest! We gotta stop ‘em!”

Silence for a moment, and then the assassin’s angered voice came back over the earpiece, “Dammit all! We’ve been played! I’ll have a group of Marines and Guards go save them. You sit tight Dash. Don’t do anything, copy?”

The cyan pegasus gritted her teeth and stared at the quickly moving humans. She did a quick count, there was only eight of them and she had the element of surprise. She glanced to the sword at her hip, and the gauntlet on her hoof, “I’m sorry Jaze, I can’t wait. Those poor kids are gonna get hurt if I don’t do sumthin’ now!”

“Dash, don’t do anything!” Jaze yelled in fear, his voice showing that he knew it was futile, “You can’t help them, you’ll just get hurt. Stay there, we’re coming!”

“Sorry, but I just can’t sit here.” The rainbow mare shoved aside the human’s angry curses and stretched her wings. With a quick snort, the pegasus dove from the cloud, tucking her wings and hooves as close to her body as she could. Like a cyan missile from on high, she became a deadly blur aimed at the traitorous humans’ backs.

A small scowl split her face as she closed in, now she could begin to pick out individuals from the mass of fur that was the stolen children. She saw several fillies and colts, including Scootaloo and her friends, along with several others. And there, near the back of the back, was Zephyr. Seeing the small filly drove a roar of rage from the speedster’s lips, the little pegasus was the only thing left of one of her friends and the last piece of innocence from Cloudsdale.

Unfortunately, someone below must have heard her yell because the humans stopped and drew a bead on the charging pegasus. It was far too late to back out now, and Dash’s wings flared open to push herself faster towards the humans. She dropped her right hoof down and locked the sword’s blade into the gauntlet and drew the weapon, planning to take down as many as she could in one pass. But her foes had other plans, and one fired a few quick bursts from his weapon at her.

The cyan mare tried to pull up and away, but only managed to give them a bigger target and she felt a few rounds hit her chest, knocking the air from her lungs and wings and sending her crashing to the ground below.

She heaved at the air, trying to coax some back into her lungs while she tried to stand. A sudden kick to the side of her head sent the pony back down to the ground and made black spots swim before her vision. She tried to claw her way back to her hooves, but the muzzle of a rifle halted her progress. She followed the gun up to its owner’s leering face and decided that she would at least take that one with her.

A hand appeared on the human’s shoulder and a calm female voice spoke up, “Hang on, that one’s a friend of the Colonel. We should take her with us.”

The man with a gun to Dash’s head nodded and offered a wicked grin to the kneeling pony, “Good night then sweetie.” The butt of his rifle snapped into the side of her head and bounced it off the ground.

Blackness ate at the pegasus’s vision, and she finally focused on Jaze’s voice for the first time since she started her ill-fated dive, “Dash, what’s going on? Talk to me. Dash? Dash? Daaaaaassssh?!” She tried to respond, but all she could do was fall over and let the darkness claim her.