“...So let me get this straight. Luna, returned to power, started up a science project to build technology to protect Equestria but did it in secret. She hired the best scientists and engineers to develop technology to better protect ponies from potential threats. She trusted you girls with the secret project because she could trust you and you were also the new bearers of the elements of harmony...”
“That's right” replied Twilight agreeingly
“...One of these technologies developed was space travel. Rainbow stole one of these ships, and flew to earth in self exile”
“...right”
“...A day later a royal guard of Luna found it missing. When you all saw the recording of Rainbow on your Pony-Tech Camera Surveillance System, or PTCSS as you like to call it, Luna authorised you to go after her and bring her back”
“Yes...”
“Okay, so here's a few questions for you all... Firstly, Where is Rainbow’s ship and why did she wake up in a field?”
“The UN air defence system...” Pete stated.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well if she flew over UN territory without the proper codes then she would have been shot down by the automated defenses. She probably bailed when she was shot down, most likely wounded, and landed in the field to rest. Although landed probably is the wrong word to use. More like crash”
“Okay, that explains that. A better question would be, where’s YOUR ship!” I looked at Twilight sternly.
“...on your moon” Twilight replied.
“What? What is it doing there?” I asked demandingly.
“Well our Pilot is standing by waiting to pick us up” she explained.
“So you didn’t fly it to earth?”
“Well no. Rainbow was the only one of us who learnt to fly it” Twilight answered.
“Did you not think that a ship would have been useful to us over the past few days!” a yelled angrily.
“Well if we had lost it in one of the battles then we would have no way of returning to Equestria!” Twilight retorted.
“Well you could have at least told me about it! My team was out there dieing to protect Equestria yet you don’t even trust us enough to...”
“Hay! We were out there too you know!” Interrupted Rainbow Dash.
“Funny how you all made it out fine though...” Pete said accusingly.
Rainbow walked up too Pete and raised her hoof at him threateningly, “I'm not afraid to fight you tough guy. You're starting to really get on my nerves with your constant questioning of my loyalty and capability to fight...”
“I’ve only ever questioned you twice you fu...”
“Hay! All this here arguing isn’t going to help us stop Discord” Applejack said insistingly. “...We need to overview are situation and consider our next move. But sittin’ ‘ere arguing isn’t gonna do that”
We all looked at her with guilty looks.
“Every minute ya’ll spend here arguing gives Discord another minute to hurt others. Ya’ll at each others throats blaming each other for what HE has done. I know ya’ll are upset about your friends. Ah am too. But Discord is the one ya’ll should be mad at, not each other. This is exactly what he wants. It’s the palace labyrinth all over again”
“She’s right” Twilight admitted shamefully. “...We’re sorry Applejack”
“It’s okay sugar cube. We just need to focus on Discord. Violet, ya’ll finished hacking into the UN battle net?”
“Yes Applejack. It’s a mess but I can still get through to the UN leaders”
“Okay. Courage, ya’ll talk ta the UN and get them to help us. Your gonna need everythin’ possible to stop Discord”
“You got it Applejack” I replied agreeably.
“Twilight, report to are Pilot and have him return to Equestria. Let Luna know whats happening”
“Okay...” Twilight replied, unsure of the decision.
“...we can beat Discord. As long as we work together we will find a way to beat ‘im”
“Your right Applejack. It’s good that your here” I smiled at her thankfully and she smiled back. I then walked over to Violet who was sitting with her legs hanging out the helicopter, her laptop in her lap.

A short time had passed, Twilight was talking with her own communicator to the Pilot. She was telling him to report back to Luna in Equestria. I looked at Violet waiting for her to say something. I watched her as she typed away at her laptop. Her face was full of focus and worry.
“Damn It!” she blurted out.
“What is it Violet?” I asked concernedly.
“It’s Discord! He’s taken out Paris and the UN leadership with it! The UN is in complete dis-array!” she bowed her head in despair. “...it’s over. The UN is gone. All leadership is dead for both the UN and the soviets. Both sides are annihilating each other at the same time as battling Discord’s forces. The world, it’s already over run...”
I patted her on the back, trying to comfort her. I looked round to see everyone’s shocked faces, all gaping and saddened after hearing the bad news. I couldn’t stand to see this. The human race had lost it’s leadership in a matter of hours. It was clear that in a few days earth would be completely devoid of life. I wasn’t going to give up now. I stood up and looked to the others.
“No! No no no! I’m not giving up yet. There are still millions of soldiers out there fighting each other. We can’t have that. I won’t let Discord win”
“...but what can we do?” Twilight asked, her voice filled with worry and sadness.
I looked at her, my face showed that I was very unsure. I then looked up and turned on my ear piece. “Liam! Change course to New York”
“Yes boss, but please keep in mind we DO NOT have infinite fuel for us to keep turning around and changing course. Are you absolutely sure you want to go to New York?”
“Yes, I’m sure”
----------
Over New York now, I looked out to see Russians, Americans and Discord’s forces battling it out in the streets. Discord’s ships filled the skies. We were on our way to Channel Four News HQ, the hub of the world’s news and the only world wide news channel. A couple of large space cruisers could be seen floating above the coast of New York, many smaller ships docking and departing from them. So much smoke raised from the burning, smouldering ruins of what was once a great and prosperous city.
“Courage! Ships inbound!” Liam yelled warningly.
I walked to the cock pit. Two ships were flying towards us. I sat in the co-pilot seat to man the gun.
“Liam! We’re going to need your mad skills again”
The ships fired rockets and then they both pulled away to flank either side of us. Liam popped the last of his flares and pulled up. The rockets missed and the ships turned to pursue us. They began to fire their weapons at us. I used the nose cannon to return fire. I managed to hit one but the other pulled above my field of view.
“Liam! above us!”
“Already on it”
Liam pulled to the side to dodge the ships fire. As it flew past us Liam unloaded the last of his rockets on it. The rockets locked onto the ship and destroyed it. Another ship came from the side and fired another rocket.
“Missile Inbound, Missile Inbound, Missile Inbound”
Liam proceeded to kick the dash board repetitively, “Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
The rocket hit the cockpit directly and we lost all control. Me and Liam were badly burnt and bruised but we were okay. We were now falling to the ground, spinning out of control.
“Everyone hold on!!” I yelled.
The chopper was dropping but the main rotor was still spinning and slowing our decent. We were getting closer to the ground. Liam fought with the flight stick and pressed many buttons. It was no use.
“Brace for impact!!” I yelled again.
Crash!!

I woke up to find myself being dragged from the wreckage, Bullets flying form all directions. My vision was blurry and the edges filled with a black circle. My head was throbbing and I felt really dizzy. I looked up to find the collar of my jacket in Rarity’s mouth as she pulled me across the street from the crash site. Behind her was the others in the door way of a bank providing cover fire. She managed to pull me into the bank and Fluttershy immediately rushed over to me. She gave me a shot of something and my mind became clearer. I got up and rubbed my head, running my hand from the top of my head and down the right side of my face.
“You okay Courage?” Fluttershy asked attentively
“Yeah, how far are we from the T.V station?”
Violet walked over to me with her mini-computer. “Not far. Only a few city blocks away. Russian troops occupy it though”
“Then we’ll have to fight through them. Are there any UN forces in the area?”
“Yes, They are actually trying to assault the T.V station. The Russians are using it as a command centre”
“Good. Then the Russians will be distracted. Lets go everyone! We gotta move now!”

We avoided all contact with hostilities on our way to the T.V station. We were now down the street from the T.V station now. Gun fire was exchanged between the Russians and UN. We all crouched down by some debris and watched. I rubbed by eyes with my thumb and finger. I was very tired. Looking back at the team I could see they were almost as tired as me. I had it worse since I didn’t sleep very much since I found Rainbow dash. I was feeling light headed but I continued to force my self to push on.
“C’mon guys. Not far now... We just need to reach the top floor...”

We approached the building from the side. Russians firing at UN soldiers down the road ahead of it. We moved in from the side and attacked the soldiers that guarded outside the entrance.We took a few of them down before half of them returned fire. We took cover behind cars and piles of rubble, returning fire at the Russians. We knew that they wouldn’t be able to manage fighting two enemies from two directions. It was only a matter of time till they gave up and retreated inside. As I speculated, the Russians did in fact pull inside. We moved up to the entrance, the UN down the road firing behind them, not noticing us. We moved inside and we were met with lots of gun fire. We all took cover behind the crates and desks that were scattered around the lobby. Russians were everywhere, on the upper balconies, in the door ways, across the hall. We fought for a good five minutes as we tried to safely take down the Russians.

Crash!!
One of those blasted robots came crashing through the wall behind us moved into the middle of the lobby. All the Russians focused their fire on the robot, as did we. It ripped the upper balconies apart with it’s chain gun. A few Russians came behind it and fired at it with heavy machine gun fire. The robot just turned around and picked up two of the soldiers with it’s claw. It crushed them both with so much pressure that their heads literally exploded with gore. It then threw their corpses behind it and slammed it’s chain gun down on the third soldier. The third soldier rolled to face it as he screamed with agony. It then just repetitively smashed him with it’s claw and chain gun. When it was done it just swooped his corpse away and into the far wall beside it. The rest of the Russians had fled the scene. The robot faced towards us and spoiled up it’s chain gun.
“These things are so fucking relentless!” I complained.
It began to fire at us and we all scattered around the room. It just stood in the centre firing in random directions. I walked up some stairs to the first floor balcony. I looked to see it firing in the opposite direction at someone else. I didn’t notice who but I was more focused on finding an RPG the Russians might have left behind. With luck I found one and picked it up. I aimed to fire and it did the same with me. I managed to fire first and I blew off it’s chain gun. It turned to look at it’s blown off arm then looked back to me. It then started running towards me. I just stood there gaping at it as it sprinted towards me. It jumped and swung at me. If it wasn’t for Applejack jumping and pushing me out the way I would have been minced by it’s epic claw. Applejack very quickly got off me and we both stood up. The whole balcony was about to collapse. The robot then grabbed the end of the balcony and forcefully pulled it down. The balcony tilted towards the robot and Applejack and I began to slide down towards the robot. It reached it’s arm out to grab us. Applejack tossed her lasso above and pulled on it. It had latched onto a pole and so Applejack stopped sliding. I however was still sliding towards the robot. It reached to grab me but luckily Rainbow grabbed my jacket with her mouth and stopped me sliding any further. The robot then pulled away and picked up a metal pole. I looked up at Rainbow and gave her a thankful look for saving me but suddenly the metal pole was swung and stabbed right through my chest. I eyes widened and and my mouth opened as blood seeped out. I tried to gasp for air as blood filled my lungs. The robot then pulled it out and grabbed my leg. It held me upside down by my ankle and moved me close to it’s visor.
“Luna please save me” I begged quietly in praise.

To my luck a squad of UN soldiers walked in though the entrance and started to fire at the robot. It dropped me as it moved over towards the marines but one of the marines destroyed it with a rocket launcher. Fluttershy, Rarity and Violet rushed over to my aid.
“Courage!”
Fluttershy soon started to scan me. Her facial expression showed that she was unsure of what to do. Clearly it was too serious to treat on the field. I started to lose consciousness as the pain consumed me. Rarity tried to talk to me but her voice was way too muzzled and blurry for me to understand her. My vision started going black and I could barely breath. Rarity’s horn began to glow and Fluttershy gave me and adrenalin shot. The adrenalin didn’t help very much as I was still on my way to passing out.
“Bio-foam! Bio-foam!” Fluttershy ordered, looking to spike. Fluttershy had both her hooves on my chest as she tried to stop the bleeding. Spike reached into Fluttershy’s saddle bags and pulled out a can of “Bio-regenic Foam”. He passed it to her and she squirted the contents of the can onto my wound. Rarity was laying next to me with her horn glowing bright and her face full of focus. I wondered what she was doing, I couldn’t see her glow anywhere else in the room.
“Rarity? How are you doing with mending his ribs?”
“This isn’t easy you know! Especially when I can’t even see what I’m doing. Your extra pressure isn’t helping at all”
Fluttershy finished emptying the can and tossed it away. I gasped as a fresh breath of air rushed through my wind pipes. Rarity’s glow around her horn slowly faded away as she drooped giving a sign of exhaustion.
“I managed to fix the rib that punchered his lungs but it is far to difficult to fix them all in one sitting” Rarity informed.
“Well the Bio-foam healed a lot of the tissue damage and I manged to stop the bleeding but he’s definitely going to be weak and helpless for a long time”
Fluttershy then turned to look at me and she smiled at me compassionately. “Are you okay Courage?”
I sat up gingerly and looked to Fluttershy. I smiled and hugged her tightly, “Thank you Fluttershy. Your truly an amazing doctor”
“Um... thank you” She smiled at me giving a quiet Squee.
“We need to get to the top floor. Hopefully the robot scared away all the Russians”
I tried to get up but the pain from my chest was too great. I nearly stumbled over in pain but Violet grabbed me before I fell.
“Let me walk you up Courage” offered Violet.
“Thanks Violet. Now everyone! Follow me to the roof. It’s time to send a message”

We reached the main news studio. Violet had set up her laptop to act as the control computer of the studio. Pete was holding a camera.
“Is the translator ready Violet?”
“Yes Courage. It’s all ready and set up for you. Every powered media device is hacked and ready to transmit your voice in every country in all languages. You’re free to send your message whenever”
“Okay Pete...”
“Okay. On air in Three. Two. One”
“People of earth, Americans and Russians alike. We have reached a dark part of our history. Our nations torn by years of war and now in the past few hours these new invaders have come to end us all. I know that you’re all thinking that all hope is lost, our armies destroyed and our leaders are dead. Everything we know and love is destroyed by these new invaders. It now seems the invaders have won and there is no hope of surviving. But I am here to tell you that hope is not all lost. We can still beat these invaders. We just have to fight them together. It’s time to put aside our differences and stand as one people. To stand as one big nation and work together to fight this evil. It’s time to stand together like we always should have. As a species we must fight for our survival. To fight for our rights and our freedom!”
I limped out onto the balcony over seeing the streets below.
“...They may have us out-numbered, out tech-ed and outgunned but we have our strength, our experience and most importantly, each other. We can fight side by side and show these invaders that we will not roll over and accept defeat. We MUST NOT roll over and accept our defeat. That's not what I stand for, what WE stand for. We stand for freedom and liberty! Now it’s time to complete the set and stand up for unity! Unity as a species! We can show them we are a strong and proud race. It’s time to fight back. We must all take up arms under one flag and fight together. It’s time to forget our differences and forgive one another. For us as a species we have to work together and fight against this evil! We have to show that they cannot break us. Show them we are stronger than that. Show them we will fight to the last man, No matter what the odds are!”
Below the fighting between the Russians and UN stopped.
“...and you don’t have to do it alone. My name is Courage Tyler and I want to be your leader. I want to lead you all into battle and lead you all to victory. Together we will make them hurt, together we will drive them back and together we will win this battle. As one nation! As one people! As one species! And with the help of our Equestrian Allies...”
The ponies all walked beside me on the balcony and looked down to the gathering crowd of people. All the soldiers looked up in total awe.
“...we can drive back this evil and show them to never mess with us. We can show them what we are made of. Show them our power and our pride. They can destroy our cities, our armies and our bodies but they can NEVER take our freedom. We will fight as free men and we will die as free men. Now rise up! Rise up and fight! And destroy the invaders! It’s time to send them packing!”
The crowd below began cheering! All rising up their weapons and firing upwards in celebration!
“Courage! Courage! Courage!” Most of them chanted.
One soldier climbed onto of a tank husk and started screaming into a megaphone, “He’s right! It’s time to fight for our freedom! Lets show these assholes what we are made of! Courage for leader! Courage! Courage! Courage!”
“Courage! Courage! Courage!”
I raised my fist up, “We can do this! We WILL win this war! Together!!”
“Oh-Rah! Oh-rah! Oh-rah! Oooo-rraaahhhh!!” chanted the Russian soldiers.

I stepped down from the balcony and turned around to look at the others.
“That was a good speech Comrade. You have the true heart of a Russian. You will make a great leader this day” Gavriil congratulated.
“Agreed...” said Violet. “...You did good Courage. Now go out there and lead those people. Lead us all to victory like you promised”
“That’s exactly what I plan to do”