It was like something out of a science fiction movie as the small fleet of lobster ships descended. They burned through the atmosphere, their thick hulls protecting the crew from the intense heat. Gorlok 12, Kevin, Hank, Arnold, Kyle, and Tommy stood ready in the bridge, each wearing their metallic battle armor. Twilight Sparkle stood nearby admiring the view out the windows as they rapidly neared Equestria. She also couldn't help but sneak a few peaks Gorlok 12's way. His armor made him look like a dashing knight, ready to sweep a damsel in distress off their feet, or in this case hooves. It turned her on more than anything else.

After piercing through the cloud layer, the ships leveled out and slowed to a manageable speed, now flying above a forest that spread for miles in all directions. First off, they needed a place to land. It would be easier to track Paul on foot at this point, and they also had to drop Twilight off.

Gorlok 12 decided to consult their sexy unicorn Equestria expert. "Where can we land?"

"Anywhere really." She answered back. "If we can find a town or landmark I'll be able to point us towards-"

She was promptly cut off as one of the lobster men at a terminal needed to relay some important information. "Gorlok 12, sir. The scanners are picking up class 5 distress signals, and a lot of them!"

"Class five?! That's almost as bad as class six!" Gorlok 12 shouted.

"And even worse than class four." Confirmed the other lobster man with a nod. "Our scanners are also picking up a huge influx of adorableness from the same area. Whatever is distressed, it's cuteness levels match that of Ms. Sparkle."

Gorlok 12 rubbed his chin for a moment as he processed this new information. Whatever was going on, there was something adorable, and it needed help. He couldn't just stand here and do nothing.

"Sir! Our sensors are now picking up minor traces of economic energon from the same area! It could be Paul."

"Do we have scanners for everything?" Asked Gorlok, but he already knew the answer to that.

"Just about, sir."

"Alright. Head towards the source. From the looks of it, the locals are in trouble, and I'd wager Pauls to blame." The six lobster ships instantly turned slightly to the right and flew off at well over a thousand miles per hour. At those speeds, it's no wonder they arrived at their destination within a matter of minutes. They slowed down once they neared a mountain, on the side of which was built a city.

It instantly became clear that something was going on, as the city was almost entirely on fire. None of the lobster men were particularly phased as they were all used to war, but Twilight was practically speechless. All she was able to do was stare open mouthed at what used to be a majestic city as tears began streaming down her face. Gorlok 12 instantly took notice and moved in to comfort her.

He stroked her mane with one claw while 'shhh'ing in her ear. "It'll be alright." He coo'd.

"Sir, our scanners are picking up a lot of activity from the city. We've detected several thousand life forms with a similar magical and cuteness structure to Ms. Sparkle holed up in a few separate areas. We're also detecting thousands of others spread throughout the city. They seem to be accompanied by robots. We've also managed to triangulate the approximate position of the economic energon fluctuation inside the city." Gorlok 12 was momentarily impressed. Scanning technology had really come a long way... He couldn't even begin to imagine how they managed to scan half this stuff.

"Ignore Paul for now, we'll deal with whatever seems to be attacking the city first."

"Sir!" Shouted out another nameless lobster man. "We're detecting multiple lock-ons. We're about to come under some heavy fire."

"Move in to engage! For the Emperor!" Gorlok 12 shouted, giving praise to the God Emperor of the Imperium of lobsters. The other lobster men did likewise before rushing to their respective battle stations.

--

"Goddamn it!" I yelled, seeing the six lobster ships flying up to the city. Really? Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, the lobster men show up?

"I remember you saying something about how 'armies don't just fall from the sky'." Said Steve in his dumb voice.

"Technically, they're flying. And now is not the time for mockery, now is the time for srs biznich."

"Are they really that bad? I mean, those ships are literally giant lobsters... From my time as a fish, I remember lobsters being big pussies."

"If they were pussies I assure you, they were not like these lobsters. And nothing, NOTHING, like the lobster man on that ship."

"What are you, president of his fan club?" He asked, eliciting a glare from me.

"No. I'm just not stupid. There are a bunch of them. Maybe I can defeat them, but at the same time I might not be able to. Quite frankly, I don't like that uncertainty."

"Alright then, what's the plan?"

I was about to answer, when the real fighting started. The tentacle pony army, previously unapposed, had opened fire on the lobster ships. Hundreds of small ground-to-air missiles along with AA fire from the robots was simultaneously shot at the lobster ships. They instantly swerved around with grace that didn't seem possible for such large vehicles, dodging many of the projectiles. The rest simply collided with force fields around the ships, no doubt powered by the lobster mens' loosely described mind powers.

The lobster ships wasted no time before returning fire. The main guns that replaced the giant lobsters' claws turned and bombarded the enemy with devastating explosive shells that were targeted primarily at the huge robots, while smaller turrets along the ships' sides let out streams of laser-guided missiles and bursts of high-caliber machine gun fire. This was followed by a barrage of various mind attacks from the lobsters inside.

They continued to fire wave after wave of attacks at each other, but it was clear that the lobsters had both superior accuracy and firepower. Within a matter of minutes, most of the tentacle pony forces had been reduced to metal scraps and smoldering chunks of meat while the lobster ships had barely been scratched. It was clear who won.

The few of the fish ponies' airships that remained intact after their brief battle with the tentacle ponies quickly decided that a tactical retreat was necessary after watching their previous enemies get brutally slaughtered like they were nothing. They flew off, leaving the skies clear of all enemy forces save for the lobster ships that now hovered about the ruined city. That and the huge cloud of smoke that engulfed the sky.

For the first time in hours, the city was silent. The few survivors of the massive free-for-all battle dared not go out in the open as the massive lobster ships silently loomed high above the city.

Steve was pretty shocked after the display. Clearly, he wasn't expecting the lobsters to be that powerful. "Now the lobster men are here to fuck us..." I told him, letting it sink in just how screwed we probably were at the moment.

--

"That was easy." Said Gorlok 12 over the ship's microphone. He expected the enemy to at least put up a little bit of a fight, but instead they simply got slaughtered. Then again, few things could stand up to the might of even one lobster man. Sexraptors being among those, which reminded him of why they were there in the first place. "Let's drop off the landing team here. Hopefully we'll be able to get Paul before he gets the chance to escape out of the city." He then turned to Twilight. "You'll be with me, hopefully we'll be able to find your leaders or something."

Twilight nodded, still pretty shaken up at the sight of Canterlot in such a horrible state, but she followed anyway. The two of them moved to the belly of the ship where they met with the rest of the crew that was going ashore. Basically, every lobster man that wasn't busy driving the ships. Gorlok 12 picked Twilight up, momentarily confusing her before the floor opened up beneath them, dropping them a short way to the city.

Thankfully, through the use of mind powers, their fall was slowed to a manageable rate, and their legs didn't snap in half like hardened spaghetti noodles. They touched down in the mostly destroyed street to find that it was littered in a variety of corpses. Twilight hid her face in Gorlok's chest, not wanting to look at the horrible sight. Gorlok 12 just hugged her close as he looked around for any signs of trouble. Around him, at least fifty other lobster men were doing the same.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through Gorlok 12's head as one of the pilots contacted him telepathically. "We're picking up a group of life forms similar to Ms. Sparkle close to your position. I'll mark them on your map." Gorlok 12 pulled up his built in HUD and looked down at the minimap in the corner. Sure enough, no more than a block and a half away was a red marker showing him where to go.

He turned to the rest of the group. "Kyle, you'll be my second on this one. I want you and the rest of the group to go after Paul before he gets the chance to leave the city. The ships will be able to give you his approximate position. You and you," He pointed to two random, nameless lobster men. "Will accompany me as I meet with the locals. Hopefully we won't run into any trouble, but if we do, don't attack unless I give the signal. The last thing I need is dead adorable ponies. Well, more of those, anyway..." He trailed off, taking note of multiple dead ponies and pony-like creatures in the area.

Kyle saluted before moving off in the opposite direction while Gorlok 12 headed towards the red marker. One of his escorts ran ahead to scout as he walked along, having to walk around disemboweled corpses and rubble everywhere. It didn't take long before he got to his destination. It was a huge, half destroyed building. It was likely a beautiful mansion before this, but now the upper floor was completely collapsed and it was riddled with holes.

He didn't see anyone outside, so he stepped up to the door, seeing a doorbell to its right. Thinking that it would be rude to just barge in, he rung the bell, waiting patiently for an answer. Eventually, after about thirty seconds, the door opened a crack to reveal a gray pony wearing charred golden armor and holding a spear in one hoof. His eyes instantly widened as he took stock of the lobster man standing just outside.

Gorlok 12 cleared his throat before speaking. "Yo yo yo Mr. Pony. I got this here purple pony by the name of 'Twilight Sparkle' all up in here." He told him, sure to use his best grammar and politeness so as not to piss the local off.

"Twilight Sparkle?!" Yelled a voice from inside before the door was jerked open by a golden aura. There stood a tall, white pony whose eyes instantly locked onto the purple pony in his arms. Twilight perked up at hearing her mentor's voice and turned to see her.

She smiled widely, forgetting the horrible sights of the city as she jumped out of Gorlok 12's arms to nuzzle Celestia's neck. "Celestia! I missed you so much! What happened? Where are my friends?!" She had a thousand more questions, but she was shushed by a light hoof against her mouth.

"I'm happy to see you too Twilight, but we have a lot of questions too. Perhaps we can fill each other in, starting with who our guest is." She finished, looking at Gorlok 12.

He sighed inwardly, knowing that there was going to be a lot of explaining in the near future.

--

"So, what's the plan?" Asked Steve for the second time. As if the plan isn't completely obvious.

"We're going to go out there and kill the lobster men. What else?"

He stared at me like I was crazy for a few moments. I likely am crazy, but that's not important. "But you were just telling me how powerful they were! Not to mention they leveled the entire tentacle pony army in minutes."

"Yeah yeah yeah." I waved his worries away with a flick of the wrist. "I've been fighting lobster men for millions of years, I know what I'm doing. They're pretty tuff, but if you know what's what, and you have as much swag as me, they're not a problem."

I was faintly aware of him saying something after that, but my mind suddenly went all wooshy. At least that's the best way I could describe it. Suddenly, I felt as though I was traveling really fast. This sensation only lasted a moment before my mind became clear again. I instantly knew where I was as the same thing had happened countless times in the past.

I was now in subspace, home of the economy, or at least my consciousness was. Although I couldn't technically see anything, I could visualize it with my mind. All around me was simply empty, black space, without even distant stars to provide light. The only notable thing was a massive blue circle in front of me. Perhaps 'massive' isn't the correct word as the thing stretched on further than I can even fathom, and glowed so bright it hurt my mind a bit just thinking about it. Thankfully, I was so amazingly far from it that I was able to visualize it as a simple blue circle. This was the economy in all its economic glory.

I chuckled nervously as I felt it probing my mind. "Hey hey."

Don't 'hey' me! Its voice thundered in my mind. You've been prancing around pony land for weeks and not once did you even think to talk to me? You didn't think I'd like to know about cute little ponies too? And what's more, you've hardly even been using the economic powers I bestowed upon you. Are you ashamed of being the champion of the economy?

"No, no! Nothing like that!" I assured it. "It's just that-"

What?

"Well, most of the stuff I've fought hasn't been all that bad. You know, compared to the shit I normally have to deal with. I didn't think any of it was even worthy of being smote by your amazing power."

Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I honestly don't care what you do, I'm just bored and slightly disappointed that you hardly talk to me anymore. Subspace is really boring.

I couldn't help but agree. This place is really lame. "Perhaps you should decorate the place a bit. I could see maybe adding a couch or something over here."

Maybe. But that's not why I brought you here. I sense that Gorlok 12 is close to you.

"Yeah, I guess he followed me."

Of course he did. And now he's going to kill you. He's going to try to, anyway. You may be a real big dick who ignores me most of the time, but you're still my champion damn it. With that said, you had better kick their asses in my name. I bestow upon you the full might of my economy-ness. Let our enemies tremble and despair. Suffer not the lobsters to live.

"Really? Shit, son. Now there's no way I can lose."

Don't get a victory boner just yet, Gorlok 12 has grown even more powerful as of late. I wouldn't bestow such amazing power upon you without reason. His mind powers have grown two-fold since the last time the two of you faced off. I fear even the energon I provide will not be enough given how little I can channel to you at the moment.

"What do you mean? The link to subspace was fine here last time I checked."

Then you don't check very often. The city, Canterlot, in which you, and the others, besieged was the most influential trade city in the whole country, and by extension, the whole planet. Because of your actions the economy has taken a significant blow which in turn weakens the connection between it and subspace. Do I need to go on or does your stupid brain understand?

"Hey, my brain isn't THAT stupid. Sorry, I made a mistake. I didn't know Canterlot was so important for trade."

Sometimes I wonder why you're even my champion... No matter, that's not important at the moment. What is important is defeating Gorlok 12 and the rest of the lobster men. Now go, you know what to do.

I didn't have time to respond as I felt my consciousness slipping back to my body. I was suddenly aware that I was laying on the ground, face-first, as Steve poked me with a metallic hoof.

"Hey. Hey. Hey." He said very annoyingly as he continued to poke me. After a moment I swatted his appendage away before standing back up. "You blanked out there for a second there. I thought you had a heart attack or something from being so scared of the lobster men."

"Naw, man. I was just communin' with the economy."

He gave me a blank stare before responding. "What did it say?"

"That's not important. What is important is that the lobster men are nearby." I could easily smell their thick scent in the air. A scent I was grossly familiar with.

"What are we going to do?"

I gave him a devilish grin, my eyes glowing a light blue as I felt economic energon flowing freely through me. "We're gonna make us some lobster bisque.