Federal Army Dispatch Order

The situation in the city of Calten is dire. Federal Army High Command will be dispatching the 105th Artillery Regiment to provide support to Federal Army soldier’s at Camp Pentcol and throughout the city.

The 105th Artillery Regiment will be on alert to provide support fire upon request from soldiers in the field.

Soldiers calling for artillery support are advised to confirm target coordinates and to ensure they are a minimum of 200 meats from target coordinates to avoid being caught in artillery bombardment.

The 105th is under strict order to only provide artillery support for no more than ten(10) minutes before they cease firing….

Twilight walked through the PFDR HQ. She was making her standard round of the base to ensure everything was working as it should and to make sure everyone had what they needed to do their jobs. She had already discreetly checked for a spy in their midst and found nothing to suggest they had one so she believed the spy was in with the Feds which only would help the PFDR as the Coalition would focus more on them and less on her forces.

As she walked her mind drifted once more to where it usually did when she made her round, home. More specifically what has happened between being forcible dragged from her home, what has happened since then and what she was going to do when she made it back. She did not have a single doubt in her mind that she would make it back, one way or the other she was going to get back to Equestria and would see her homeland safe.

She knew that one of the biggest threats to it was the Federal Army invasion do to the fact Equestria simply didn’t have the ability to fight them do to the Feds technology being so far above Equestria’s it might as well be magic. Hel she’d consider it magic if not for the fact she knew better.

She could image Royal Guard’s trying to fight Federal Army troops and tank with the tactics used to stop magic such as counter spells and such, and of course it failing miserably as counter spells only work against magic, not a solid object moving so fast you can’t see it. She had run countless simulations in her off hours and each time Equestria was over ran within a month on average with the longest being three months if it was just Fed infantry units with no special units like strike teams or Special Forces, or the dreaded Black ops.

She shuttered. Every sim she had placed even one Black ops soldier in resulted in the Processes being dead within the week and in a few cases her friends as well with ruthless efficiency. Had she not fought them personally she would have thought the sim was broken but all she had to do was think of the one soldier armed with his large curved knives and being attacked from three different side at once and still taking Twilight nearly fifteen minutes to pin him to the floor, then another five minutes to pine his other leg as she fought off the constant attacks.

Twilight was drawn back to reality as she neared the radio room and could hear frantic talking within. Pushing the door open and could clearly hear the radio chatter.

“Mayday, mayday, this is Gunship-Four-Two-Niner, we are taking enemy fire and have suffered engine failure. We are going down. I say again we are going down. “Twilight stood in the doorway as she listened. Four-Two-Niner was one of the gunships that had joined the PFDR and was running support for three squads raiding a fed compound. Though by Twilight’s calculations it should have been on its way back as it was a couple hours ago they were dispatched. “We are under fire from Coalition forces, attempting to get clear...Shit hold on!”

Twilight saw the radio operators wince as they heard an explosion over the radio. “Shit tail rotors gone, we are going down, brace for impact!” the spat forth the sound of screeching metal and shattering glass. The room was silent for a few minutes and Twilight was about to leave when a caught sounded from the radio. “Ah….shit….McAlister, you ok? Hey McAlister you still with me?” There was a pause. “Shit….” There was a sigh from the pilot. “Command do you read?”

The Radio operator leaned towards there mic. “This is command we still read you Four-Seven-Niner, what is your status?”

“Not good command, my gunner is dead, I’m in a small officer building, my bird went right through the damn roof.” The pilot said.

“Are you able to get out of there?” The radio operator asked.

There was a pause from the pilot. “Negative, enemy forces closing in to fast, I got a few seconds. “There was another pause. “Damnit, my gun is pinned, I am unarmed.”

“Stay calm Four-Seven-Niner, friendlies are in route, ETA ten minutes.” The operator said.

“I don’t think I got ten minutes Command.” The pilot said.

“Four-Seven-Niner, what is status of enemy forces?” The operator asked.

In answer the radio let forth the sound of metal being forced to move and glass breaking. “We got a live one!” Another voice said. “Hands up now! Don’t make any sudden movement or I’ll blow your goddamn head off.” The other voice barked and there was a sound of a struggle before the sound of a riffle but cracking against a skull. “Get him out of there and take him back to base.” The said voice said and there was a muffle acknowledgment before the sound of something being dragged away from the radio and then silence.

This was not good. Twilight turned on her hooves and left the room, they now had a man out there as a prisoner of the Coalition and there was no way in hell Twilight was going to leave him in that situation.

On her way to the Generals officer Twilight stopped off to check their records to get the name of the pilot in need of rescuing, One Captain Donner. Once she had his name she headed for the General’s office where she knocked.

Upon getting permission to enter she saluted before the general. “At ease Commander.” Clancy said as she laid down some paper work he had been looking over and Twilight went to rest like the humans with her arms behind her back a she was currently bipedal. “What do I owe this visit to Commander?”

“Sir, request permission to mount a rescue for gunship Four-Seven-Niner’s pilot Captain Donner, He was captured by Coalition forces about ten minutes ago.” Twilight replied and the general sat back in his chair.

“Do you know where they were taking him?” He asked.

Twilight nodded. “Based on what we heard over the radio they are taking him to their base.” Twilight said. “So we’d be raiding there.”

The general nodded.” The only issue is that their base is very well defended and so far we have only had a few skirmishes with them here and there. I’m not sure what attacking them directly will do.” He said and sighed. “As much as I don’t want to I’m going to have to deny your request.”

Twilight blinked. “But we have a man out there sir! We can’t leave him.” She said.

“I know Commander and I’d rather not but we can’t risk sending soldier into their base.” HE told her.

Twilight thought for a moment. “What if we sent in just one, they could move in quick and quiet, get out pilot and disappear.” She suggested.

The General rubbed his chin. “That could work; do you have someone in mind?”

Twilight smiled. “Me, with my magic I can get into their base and get Donner out without raising to much notice.” She said.

The General looked at her thinking for a few minutes before nodding. “Very well, request granted, try to avoid detection Commander, I don’t want to escalate things with the Coalition.”

Twilight nodded. “You can count on me General.” She said smiling before saluting and leaving the room.

Two red armored soldiers walked along a set path scanning the street outside of the factory that served as the Communist Coalitions base of operation in Calten. Neither of them noticed when a figured drop down behind them till the tip of a blade bloomed from their chests. Both soldier had a few moment to register the blade before the life left their eyes and the blade were withdrawn allowing them to fall to the ground.

A purple glow wrapped around their bodies and lifted them into the air and they were moved away from the street to an area off the patrol path where trash was piled on top of them to hide them from view.

Twilight looked over where the bodies were hidden to ensure they were well hidden before she moved towards the fence. The patrol not reporting in would cause issues later but not till after either the bodies were found or enough time of searching turned up nothing.

With luck Twilight would have Captain Donner and be long gone. Using a quick teleportation spell to get over the fence the mare sprinted silently to a small out building, her hooves wrapped in a silence spell so she made not a sound.

Once she reached the outbuilding the unicorn mare pressed her bodies to it and peeked around to make sure no one saw her, the area was clear around the building and while she could see people moving along the catwalks of the factory in the distance they were far enough away that it was unlikely they would notice her. And even if they did she was wearing the same outfit she wore when she took care of the Eastside Gunz so no one should recognize her as PFDR if they did see her, at least they’d see her as one of the civilians, at most a hired merc. Though the plan was to avoid being seen and get in and out without taking out to many guards if she could help it. Too many guards not checking in would raise the alarm.

After waiting for a few minutes to ensure no one was coming Twilight moved to a stacked crates left outside since the factory was shut down and used them to make her way closer to one of the smaller buildings of the factory complex, it would be her first target to search for the pilot or information on where he was being held.

She pressed back against the wall beside the door before trying it, both happy and mildly concerned it was unlocked while seeming to be unguarded, at least outside to door. She put a silence enchantment on the handle and carefully opened the door just a crack. Just as she thought, there was a guard on the other side of the door, though he seemed to be guarding the door from people trying to leave rather than trying to get in.

Sucks for him. She thought before she wrapped the door in a silence enchantment and bashed it open without a sound. The guard was struck in the back and sent stumbling forwards onto the floor. Before he could recover Twilight deliver two quick jabs to the back of the man’s head, knocking him out cold. While Twilight would have preferred a more permeant solution the general had asked she minimize casualties which meant she could only kill when there was no other option.

She used her magic to move the soldier’s body and stashed him in a trashcan beside the door, replacing the lid so he was more or less hidden, the lid was crooked do to the man’s head but unless someone opened it they wouldn’t find him.

Once that was taken care of Twilight dropped to all four hooves and cast her gravity spell so she could walk on the celling with gravity around her telling her body that it was the ground, she was so glad she figured this spell out as it got rid of her vertigo while also keeping her tail down as it should be.

She pressed her belly to the ground and started to crawl, making herself as small as she physically could so as to avoid detection. She explored the building and had a few close calls with some soldiers walking around, mostly due to the facts this building seemed to be acting as their barracks which meant Donner wasn’t here and that there were a lot of soldiers around both on and on duty.

Once she confirmed the buildings purpose Twilight slipped out and made her way to the next building which turned out to be their Mess Hall so she moved onto the next building and one of the larger ones in the complex.

This one she needed to slip in through a window as the doors were guarded by two soldiers on either side and she didn’t want to risk one of them radioing an alert or firing his gun before she could deal with both of them.

Once inside of the hallway she did the same as she had in the barracks and made her way onto the ceiling and began to walk around the building looking for her target or something that would tell her where he was. As she walked past an open door she saw a few soldier playing cards and they had a small stereo playing some MUSIC that seemed to echo across this entire floor do to the vents so everywhere she went she heard the music.

As she silently cracked open a door she saw it was some sort of security room with two Coalition soldiers manning the computer sitting side by side. Well this was just too easy. She dropped down behind them and went bipedal before grabbing their heads and cracking them together and letting the now unconscious soldiers to drop from their chairs.

Now that that was taken care of the mare began to search through the computers till she found where their holding area was, in the basement of this building.

Armed with a destination and the location of all the cameras so she could avoid them or use a basic illusion spell in front of them so they don’t see a thing she began to make her way for the stairs with the music from before following her.

The basement was…well…a basement. IT didn’t really have anything a normal basement of a factory wouldn’t have and Twilight made her way through the basement looking for anywhere that said holding cell, and a door with a guard in front of it certainly screamed that.

The guard was easily dealt with as Twilight just walked above him and swiped her hoof, connecting with the side of his head and he was out like a light, having metal legs was very useful.

Twilight dropped from the ceiling and used her magic to gently remove the door from its hinges and set it to the side. What she found inside as surprisingly nice for a holding cell, there was an actual mattress with blanket and pillow, a small screen for privacy for what she figured was the bathroom, a small table and chair, bolted to the floor and sitting at it with a deck of cards for entertainment was Captain donner with a bandage around his head and one on his left hand, he looked pretty bad but nothing that couldn’t be contributed to the crash.

“What the fuck?” Twilight blurted at Donner who was looking at her do to the door being torn off its hinges. “I come here to rescue your sorry ass and you are sitting here calmly playing cards in the nicest holding cell I’ve ever seen.” She said as she stormed into the room. “What the fuck gives!?”

Donner shrugged. “I woke up in here with my wounds tended too and a deck of cards on the table. After a while I was informed I was going to be ransomed back.” He said simply.

To say Twilight jaw was on the floor was an understatement, she had been expecting a situation similar to when she rescued the General from the Feds but this was far from that, the Coalition actually kept him relatively comfortable even though the two sides fought like cats and dogs.

She looked back at the unconscious guard kind of glad she hadn’t killed a bunch of them a tiny bit though she was still disappointed she didn’t have the option. “Anyways.’ She said turning back to Donner. “Get up and follow me we have to move before someone notices us.”

Donner nodded and got to his feet and followed the mare out, unfortunate Twilight never was able to get her gravity spell to work on anything besides her so the two soldiers were stuck walking along the normal floor where they could be more easily spotted.

Twilight and Donner moved as carefully and quietly as they along the halls, the unicorn trying to think of a way that would get them out without being spotted.

“Attention, Attention, we have intruders on site, Security Station twelve had been attacked, all forces mobilize, find the intruders!” And with that announcement over the PA system all thoughts of stealth went out the window.

“Running now.” She told Donner before taking off down the hall, switching to biped as she unslung her SMG and headed for the doors. If they could get outside they could teleport away. A she rounded the corner she saw the double doors open to allow in a squad of red armored soldier who raised their rifles.

“Halt or we will—“ Twilight cut them off as she opened fired on the soldiers causing them to scatter as her and Donner didn’t break stride, running pas the soldiers and out the door. Where she learned Teleporting was not an option as the area both in and outside the fence swarmed with soldiers looking for them who promptly spotted the unicorn and pilot.

Firing wilding at the soldier to make them duck into cover her and Donner ran back inside the building and past the first squad of soldier who seemed confused to see them again as Twilight reloaded her SMG and fired on them again.

The two of them ran through the building looking for another exit, Twilight dealing with any soldier they came across either by killing them or suppressing them and soon enough they found another door that lead to the outside. Though still had the issue with the entire base looking for the two of them.

“There!” Donner said pointing in the distance. Twilight looked and sat a Coalition Gunship sitting on a Heli-pad.

“Go!” She yelled as they ran for it. Luckily it was unguarded. Well the pilot and gunner were in the middle of climbing in but Twilight yanked them out and the two PFDR Soldier climbed in, Twilight taking the helicopter crew’s helmets before using a sleep spell to know them out.

Twilight was in the front bubble which was the gunner’s seat while Donner was in the pilot seat quickly going though starting the rotors. Twilight looked out the window as she put on the helmet that defiantly wasn’t designed for Unicorns and barley got a shield around them as the Coalition opened fire on the.

“Get us in the air now!” She yelled at the pilot.

“Working on it Commander, these things take a bit to get going.” He said as the top rotors started to slowly spin.

After about a minute the blades were spinning and Twilight dropped the shield as they begin to rise off the ground. “Hold on!” Donner said as he pushed the stick forward and the Gunship rushed forward over the heads of the Coalition forces, Twilight could hear their bullets bouncing off the Gunships armor as they flew away.

“Ah shit.” Donner said and Twilight looked back at him over her seat.

“What is it?” She asked.

“We got company, three gunships right behind us.” As if on que a slow beeping sounded from the console in front of the pilot that quickly turned into a solid beep followed by a very rabid beeping. “Shit miss lock, popping flares!” Donner said as he hit a button, Twilight could hear a very light thudding noise come from the bottom of their gunship and when she looked out she saw many flare dropping from the bottom of the helicopter. A moment later she saw a missile strike one of them and explode.

She was jerked away from the window as the gunship cut sharply to the left. “What are you doing?” She asked the pilot.

“Heading into the city, the building will make it hard for them to get another lock on us. You better man the cannon though as I don’t think these guys are going to let us go if we ask nicely.’ She aid and she nodded. And stared at him. “Drop the visor on your helmet and click the yellow button top left on your console, that will bring the cannon online and link it to the helmet so you can see through its camera and aim, the stick in front of you control the gun and I don’t think I need to explain how to shoot.”

Twilight nodded and did as she was told, while in the Gunship she was going to let Donner call the shots as he knew what he was doing far better than she did. After a few second of waiting her vison was filled with the underside of 30mm cannon on the nose of the gunship. He moved the stick a few times to get a feel for how the gun moved and then sat back as she started to sweep for targets.

It didn’t take long for her to spot a Coalition gunship flying alongside them a ways off and she opened fire, but the enemy helicopter dropped back before she could do any real damage. This was going to be more difficult than she was used to.

As donner weaved their gunship between the buildings Twilight would take shots at the other gunships as she saw them but the other pilots knew what they were doing just like Donner did and were for the most part matching him move for move or even getting ahead of them.

Watching Donner pilot the flying death machine between building barely wide enough for it and passing over rooftop just a few feet from touching the mare couldn’t help thinking of a dance almost as the other Gunships followed suit, except one that misjudged a building water tower and its rotors clipped it sending the Gunship spring off till it collided tail first into another building and exploded into a fire ball.

A few minutes later Twilight succeeded in shooting down another one which left just one more that they hadn’t seen for a while now. Donner continues to bob and weave between buildings till he felt they were no longer being pursued and brought the gunship to hover while he got his bearings of exactly where they were due to not really paying attention to exactly where they were going in relation to their destination.

It was then the last Gunship chose to strike, coming from below then it was just a hundred feet way when it started firing with its own cannon and a few missions that didn’t have a lock so just flew straight at them. If not for the shield Twilight was able to put up at the last second they would both be dead, evens till the impact of two air-to-air missiles mixed with the large 30mm rounds shattered the magical shield and caused her head to jerk back as if she was hit in the face.

“Hold on!” Donner yelled as they dropped like a rock, the nose of their gunship aimed nearly straight down. Twilight could only watch thought the cannon camera as the ground rushed towards them holding her breath. At the last possible second Donner pulled up and they missed the ground my a hairs breath. Flying only a few inches above the ground before they started to gain altitude as the other gunship pursued, but it had pulled up before them so now Donner and Twilight were under it and flying straight up at it. Twilight wasted no time pulling the trigger and sending 30mm death into the underside of the other gunship and was rewarded with it turning into a fireball that they had to dodge out of the way as it rained down towards the ground bellow.

With their pursuers dealt with Donner level out above the city before heading off to the PFDR helipads once he had his bearings. While Twilight deactivated the cannon and raised her helmets visor, looking forward to getting out of this helmet after they land as it was very uncomfortable. She looked back at the pilot. “That was fucking awesome! I never knew these things could move like that!” She said excitedly.

The pilot just chuckled. “Well you’ve never seen them in heavy combat commander with a good pilot behind the stick.” He said with a smirk.

“Well then I am glad you are on our side. “The mare said as she sat back in her seat looking out the widow as they flew through the air. She was going to have to build these in Equestria as they would be useful for both civilians and defense. Come to think of that she would also have tanks built as well as can’t have infantry without armor to back them up.

That meant just one thing and it brought a smile to her face. She needed to get some new books to read!

Author's Notes:

Here we go, the first normal length chapter of the Homeward Arc. that I literally
typed out just today as I wasn't able to write anymore yester day do to the last chapters emotional impact on me so I took a break from writing for a time.

I'll admit I've been having some trouble getting normal chapter lengths for this arc as I'm trying to figure out how to make the Arc not be short, though I am failing so this Arc may turn out to be similar in length to the Seeds Arc.

also to those who listen to the music I linked in this chapter, I could not resist adding that in during the stealth scenes.