The skies above Canterlot were ablaze. The very air hung heavy with static, and every beat of Rainbow Dash's wings crackled the air and filled her nose with ozone. There was just so much dust and smoke in the air from the ruins of Manehatten and Los Pegasus; it'd take practically a hurricane to wash it all away.

Even if Cloudsdale was still around, the young flier thought morosely, tears filling her maroon eyes.

The... the Creatures, these Seraph, had decimated Cloudsdale during the opening days of their campaign. Beams of bright blue light had rained from the skies... and fire had followed them. All Rainbow Dash could do was stare from her cloud-home in Ponyville as the seat of pegasi power and culture shattered before her eyes. Nopony knew just how bad the damage to her race was. Alot of pegasi nowadays lived outside of the ancient home... but still. To see it all... wiped away...

"Rainbow, on your right!" Spitfire's gravelly, stricken tone yelled out, shattering Rainbow's memory even as her body instinctively rolled.

Fire hissed overheard, heating up the edges of her armor, but the Pegasus paid that little mind. She looped once before whipping her body back around, a move that would shatter the spines of lesser pegasi. A Seraph, all blades and lithe form on a panther-like body, was screaming down at her at full speed, bat-like wings spread wide. They were generally naked, though this was one of their ranged fighters- two of his blade arms were replaced by odd, tube-like growths that could launch beams of fire. Seconds from Rainbow Dash, she turned sharply to the right, launching both forehooves in a vicious double uppercut. Normally, such a strike would merely stun the larger creature. But with a pair of razor-sharp blades attached to said hooves, well...

Rainbow Dash did not look back as the decapitated Seraph fell limply towards the ground. She had bigger worries. The Wonderbolts and the Wonderbolts Reserve were all that truly defended the skies between Ponyville and Canterlot; hundreds of well-trained, high-flying pegasi, armed to the teeth. Rainbow Dash herself was mailed from head to hoof, segmented armor protecting each foreleg, up to the blades. Her wings were protected by a thin layer of runed steel, and razor-sharp wire stretched over the edges. More than once, Rainbow had decapitated a Seraph just be flying past. But even with all their training, all their equipment...

Helplessly, Rainbow Dash stared down at the ground, and the technicolor bodies of her friends and battlemates that littered the crushed, burned grass amidst a field of Seraph. The enemy never seemed to end, and there were only so many ponies able to fight. Could they possibly win against such odds? Images of friends, dead among the field of blood and bodies, burned into her mind, and Rainbow Dash gave a tiny, angry sob. She wouldn't see that. She couldn't let-

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM.

Rainbow Dash's senses were set alight as the sound barrier broke over and over above her, like so many drums beating out a deep, almost tribal beat. Spreading out her wings and ears to try and triangulate the source of the barrier break (did the Seraph have more ships like the one in orbit above?), she found herself looking straight up. And watched, awe-struck, as gods dueled with fire.

************************************

President Marcus Tabor glared down through the viewport of the Yamato, struggling to hold in his temper. Equus had been beautiful, once. Had been being the key phrase of it all. Dark reds and blacks obscured large swaths of land now. Judging from maps and pictures sent in earlier Trades, the nations of Griffonia and Elkheim were utterly devoid of life, almost all of them coated in black, or still smoldering reds. In many places, even the seas were poisoned; formerly pristine waters deep, sickly greens. Equestria itself, the home of the princesses that had spearheaded the movement to communicate and trade freely with the Terran Republic, was badly damaged. Reds and blacks encompassed some areas of land, while green was getting very rare, very quickly. And Marcus was staring right at the cause of it all.

The Seraph ship rivaled the Yamato in length, and was easily twice as wide, three bulbs attached to a single, long stalk. It was a soft silver color, and was strangely beautiful to look at it. Until a beam of light sliced down from the middle bulb of the craft, a bloom of red erupting across Equus. Marcus' teeth clenched; thankfully, he managed to keep his calm, even as officers on the Yamato cursed and whispered soft prayers. His gnarled hand tightened on the shoulder of the first officer in front of him, an older British gentleman by the name of Benjamin... something. Odd that he could remember first names so easily, yet...

Marcus lightly shook the thoughts distracting him away, and gave the first officer's shoulder a squeeze.

"Send them the standard greeting we translated into Equush, and then demand that they cease fire immediately."

"Aye, aye, Mr. President. Comm officer, send-"

"Power surge along the port line, sir!" Someone shouted, voice practically a scream, "Radiation alarm!"

"Holy fuck it's firing!" Another officer, a woman, yelled over the din, "Plasma burst!"

"Shields up!" Marcus roared, stepping forward to get a better view, "All ships, SHIELDS UP!"

A beam of bright white light was coursing through the air towards the human fleet, even as more and more ships poured through the swirling portal leading back to Earth. The ship was turning; turning far faster than anything the size of a city had any right to, and right at them. When the beam crashed into the fleets' overlapping shields, it splayed across like a beautiful, swirling nebulae... and set off alarms all over the bridge.

"Fuck that was strong!"

"Shields down to sixty percent across the board."

"Two of the medical frigates have lost shields, they're falling back behind the line! Damage reports coming from the American and Canadian battlelines, two more from the Pan-Asian-"

"Enough!" Marcus barked; he had earned his voice through a lifetime of use and practice on a sales floor, and it certainly carried now.

Even as his voice echoed among the wailing klaxons, not a person on the bridge said a word. Striding forward with a firm, powerful step, Marcus Tabor, President of the Terran Republic, firmly pressed down on the switch that connected his voice to every ship of the line.

"This is the President. All ships. Open fire."

********************************************

Applejack cursed herself and her damn stubbornness (under her breath, of course), as she jinked and ducked her way through the mass of screaming, panicking ponies and roaring, blood-thirsty Seraph. The Apple family had done their damnest to organize a mass exodus from Ponyville when it became apparent that the Royal Guard could no longer hold the Seraph ground forces. For a month, they had all done their best to provide as much food for the refugees, to give everything they had so that the ponies and other races hiding in Canterlot wouldn't start. But they had waited too long, and now... now they were paying for it.

Yelling herself hoarse, Applejack tensed her hind-legs, giving all the power she could to launch herself into a flying tackle, tearing a Seraph right off a flailing, panicking Cheerilee. It was like hitting a bag of bricks, and Applejack could feel the Seraph's sharp spines digging into her skin. She would worry about that later. Spinning rapidly on her front hooves, the farmpony's hind hooves, tough as steel from a life-time of work, shot out like a pair of cannons.

Crack!

Spittle and blood spewed from the Seraph's gaping, feline maw as it flew away, landing in a heap and not even twitching. Mentally, Applejack gave her belt a notch before racing back to Cheerilee. The wine-colored mare was struggling to her hooves, which was usually a good sign, even if blood was pouring from her sides and legs.

"Git, git!" Applejack yelled hoarsely to the dazed mare, "Git behind the lines! The children'll need'ja!"

As she expected, that got through to the teacher, and Cheerilee nodded, galloping for the line of silver and gold-armored ponies many yards away. There weren't nearly as many as Applejack wished there were.

"How the hay are we gonna come back from this?" she whispered to herself, ears slowly laying back as Applejack took a good look around.

It was harvest season, after all, and they had barely managed to get down a third of this year's crop before the Seraph had come calling. Everypony in Canterlot would starve without this food. They'd-

"Applejack! APPLEJACK!"

The farmpony spun in place, quickly grabbing her father's Stetson, blood-stained as it was, before it could fly off. Pinkie Pie, looking utterly freaked out and more shaken than Applejack had ever seen, was sprinting towards at full speed. To Applejack's horror, she could see a gaping gash carved out of one of her side, and she was certain that she could see the white of bone...

"Pinkie Pie! What the hay are you doin'?!"

A frantic whimper tore out of Pinkie's mouth as she tumbled to a stop in front of a stunned Applejack, her chest rising and falling rapidly and sweaty foam coating her flanks.

"S-seraph... chasing... Crusaders and M-mac... W-whitetail Woods..."

With a shudder, Pinkie Pie passed out... and Applejack was already galloping, eyes wide and face pale, even as Roseluck and Carrot Top grabbed their friend, tossing her onto their backs, and sprinting onwards towards the line.

"N-no... not, not my family! NO!"

******************************************

"Assault ships, move in!" The President's voice barked over the comm, "Pass under the fields of fire, and get down to the Equush lines! Protect Canterlot with your lives!"

Victoria Lunding chuckled in the back of her throat as the men and women around her screamed in approval.

"Now THAT's a Commander-in-Chief!" Someone shouted, and Victoria had to give a fist pump and a Hoorah! at that, as did nearly two-thirds of the First Terran Tactical Assault Company onboard the assault frigate Radiant Thunder.

Having trained extensively aboard the craft for the past month for the Mission, and a further two years before that as a Tactical Assault Officer in the Terran Stellar Police Force, Victoria knew her way through the frigate like her own home on Terra. The thought made her chuckle quietly. The home she had sold in preparation for this trip. Upon reaching her personal drop center, Victoria slid the privacy glass shut and quickly began to strip out of her uniform. A life-time of training and service had toned all of Victoria's body in practically one pale, sleek, rippling muscle that fit snugly inside her armor. Her rainbow-colored hair, cut down into a boy's spiky cut in order to fit her helmet, was her one vanity. Victoria grinned softly as she tucked a photo of another rainbow-haired creature into the side of her helmet before slipping it on.

Connecting neural implants...

Online.

Connecting Dermal Regen System...

Online.

Power Generator...

Online.

Welcome back, Victoria.

Powered Personal Armor had became something of a fad back in 2100, but once the Stellar Police Force was formed fifty years later, the use of the armor stuck, especially among the Tactical Assault Troopers. The armor was built like the armor of ancient knights, though the helmet was sleek, with a plexiglass faceplate that could stop a rifle bullet at point blank rage. Servos whirred quietly with each movement Victoria made- back up hydraulics would allow her to keep moving if the power generator was hit, but not with as much alacrity. The HUD, something that had taken Victoria awhile to get used to, was used by eye movements and blinks, something she had long since mastered. Flexing her hands, all her armor-born weapon systems green-lighted, and Victoria bared a feral smile. This was going to be fun.

"Ten seconds to launch, ladies and gentlemen."

Closing her bright blue eyes, Victoria let out a deep breath, remembering just how this had all led up. She had grown up hearing about the portal, and had enrolled in the Pen-Pal Program at eleven. The first letter had gotten her hooked- her pen-pal was a pegasus pony, which in itself was just pure awesome. Like most kids, they had learned about the various pony types and races in school, and Victoria had known that pegasus ponies could fly, and change the weather, and just generally oozed awesome like rainbows. And this particular pony, Rainbow Dash, was the epitome of her species. Throughout their childhood, Victoria and her pen-pal, one Rainbow Dash, talked each other through school, and kept each other reassured of their goals. Victoria had always wanted to be a soldier, or a police officer, while Rainbow Dash had wanted to be a trick flier, a "Wonderbolt." Victoria definitely could not blame her there. Flying was awesome.

Opening her eyes sharply, Victoria grunted as the pod doors slammed open in front of her, exposing a rush of blue sky and white clouds before the thrusters in the pod blasted her out.

Jetpack and thrusters...

Online.

Victoria let out a scream of exhilaration as her jetpack kicked on, letting her tear through the sky like a fighter jet. In the right side of her HUD, blue dots indicated the others of her squad launching out after her. The assault frigate they had flown in was dagger-shaped, gunmetal grey like a pistol and a million-times more deadly. Not twenty seconds after the PPA squad launched, larger metallic shapes began to fall from the hull. These were vaguely humanoid in shape themselves. The Mechanized Armor section. And finally, the drop pods of the rest of the First Terran Tactical Assault Company blasted out, heading for the battlefield like the spears of the gods themselves.

Turning her attention back to the forefront, Victoria spotted a contrail mix of storm clouds and, oddly enough, a rainbow. Those must be the Wonderbolts! And the winged shapes around them, almost looking like mythical dragons...

"Seraph," Victoria hissed the word like the curse that it was, among humanity.

Seraph. The race that believed that they could steal away the race that had saved humanity from itself, its greed and need for war. The race that wanted to obliterate the hopes of millions of Program participants, like herself. The billions who wanted to thank them, as one united voice.

"Target lock. Screen, all matching Seraph body structure."

Scanning...

Targets locked.

Red-outlined cross hairs lit up over a score of the creatures, while six smaller outlines were blued out as friendlies.

"Cluster rocket, one each, fire!"

Holding out her wrists, micro-rockets, each the size of a finger but packing enough explosive power to punch through steel, ripped from their holders in a mist of fire and smoke. At the top of her hood, twenty was quickly subtracted from the several hundred micro-rockets stored in the armor's depths, and Victoria allowed herself a grim smile. The Seraph never knew what hit them. Explosions rippled across the blue sky, and Victoria pulled herself up to a stop in front of six armored, incredibly stunned ponies. But only one had Victoria's undivided attention.

She's a little smaller than I thought...

Rainbow Dash, standing on all fours, would probably come just up to her chest in height. She looked pretty damn cool covered in mail, like some kind of medieval flying horse, almost heraldic. Her maroon eyes were massive, nearly comical, but Victoria adored them, just as she had from the first day she had seen Rainbow Dash's picture. With a flick of her eyes, the plexiglass faceplate went translucent, and Rainbow let out a choked cry, then launched herself into Victoria's chest for a bone-crushing hug.

Oof! FUCK she's strong!

But Victoria didn't push her away. No, she had waited too damn long for this, and the pair shared an embrace in the war-wracked skies of Equestria...

Author's Notes:

The first part of the battle of Canterlot! Don't worry, there is a lot more coming. Let me know if you spot any glaring mistakes!