With the defenses of the bulls crushed, Star Swirl had been sent home. That suited him just as well. He still had an updated pony civilization to catch up with, as fascinating as it was. He walked down the road of Fillydelphia, taking a soft breath of exotic local smells as he went. Perhaps he'd get one of their famed cheese sandwiches? That was sounding tempting.

He stopped, an ear raised. He heard something that had become far too familiar. Someone had fired a hand cannon. There it was again, and again, short rapid series. With a sudden scowl, he moved precisely against the crowd that was starting to flee the very same source of trouble.

By all rights, he had earned a retirement, but he tossed that thought aside. The world had no room for whiners, and neither did he. What had to be done, needed doing, and he was a perfectly able pony in the right place.

His horn glowed softly, a sphere of power erupting around himself. It turned aside fleeing ponies as he marched forward, expecting it to need to handle far faster, far smaller obstacles. The noise was getting louder, and he could smell fire and burning souring the sweet scents of the city he had been enjoying.

A feline creature stepped out just in front of him, not looking at him but at something across the street. Their eyes were sweeping for something as they raised their gun up to fire on a pony that had been too slow getting away.

It glowed with Star Swirl's magic, imploding violently in the feline's hands and becoming so much scrap. "I can repeat that trick with something less metallic, if you please."

The cat was facing Star instantly, backing against a wall with fear in his eyes. "Or," proposed Star as he approached slowly. "You can leave, now."

The cat fled wildly, removed from the frey. Star smiled softly, pleased with himself. He couldn't actually have done what he threatened, but the cat didn't know that, and he felt confident the cat wouldn't test that. He peeked around the corner to see three more creatures through the smoke. They were planting something on the ground and running away.

He picked up whatever they were and tossed them after the fleeing combatants.

The building was not demolished that day, the explosives instead catching them in a great fireball that their anti-ballistic armor had little defense against.

With a great fwoosh, a beam of energy crashed against his shield, on target to run through his side, if not for his shield withstanding the test. It faded almost as quickly as it came, the gun not able to give a sustained blast. "What a pale imitation of a proper unicorn." He turned towards the bull that had fired on him. "And using magic, against a sorcerer? What folly." If it had been a physical bullet, it would have been much harder to properly stop.

He raised a hoof, hefting up the minotaur in his magic. "Learn--" He slammed the poor creature into the side of a building. "--some--" He threw him against the floor. "--manners." He tossed him aside and pulled his gun over, eyeing it. "Mmm..." It was a fine bit of machinery, but it was made to allow not-unicorns to try being one.

On the other hoof, if he... He suffused the gun with his power and trotted forward. He had other invaders to show what a proper unicorn could muster. Then a philly sandwich. He was certain he wanted one.

Sunburst perked an ear, almost falling out of bed. He heard something, a lot of somethings. There was shouting and the smell of burning electronics was just reaching his nose. Had a fire broken out? Why were the alarms not going off? He rushed from bed into the hallway just to skid and backpedal as quickly as he could.

There were several armed soldiers, and not human ones. He had seen a few teammates, but the short burst of gunfire implied they had met an unkind end. He swallowed heavily, considering his options, but there weren't as many as he would have liked.

He was no great sorcerer. He knew how magic worked, and he had learned how human engineering worked, both great magics in their own right, but neither capable of getting him out of that situation directly. He had no time to panic, which is why he was panicking, in a productive way he could only hope.

If only he was where the new toys were, surely one of those would help.

He was suddenly on fire, much of it due to the feedback of a rough teleportation, some of it quite literally, a patch of his cloak burning cheerfully. He swatted it out with a soft hiss, feeling a bit dizzy, but he could hear booted steps coming closer. He had no time!

Sunburst reached out a hoof towards the very thing he had bemoaned the existence of. He was holding in his magic the thaumic rifle. When the first creature with a gun came around the corner, he didn't have time to think about it, he just fired.

It was so quiet. That was the worst part. There was a faint tingle of gathering magic, then the a thump that shook through of something hitting something else, and they dropped, their armor shattered. A strange intense pain echoed in his twitching ears. Though it was a terrible time to be pondering things, he thought about how many sonic booms the gun would make if fired in such a way as to give the bullet a moment in the air. It would be a dizzying explosion of rainbows. They were too close.

There had been another soldier in front of the first, confused at the sudden stopping of the first. They said something, reaching for the downed combatant.

Sunburst shot him without listening or hesitating. It was so cold, so dispassionate. He hated it, but he didn't want to die either. The second soldier slammed against the back wall and slid to the floor, no longer a threat.

He could have fled then, shooting anything that dared to move around himself... But his peers could still be alive in the building. They had no one else to protect them. He could run... but he'd never run faster than his guilt.

Sunburst advanced down the hall slowly, ears straining to hear them before they heard his hooves, as quiet as he was trying to be. An approaching vibration had him raising his ears and head as an enemy soldier came rushing towards him from around a corner, gun firing wildly at something else.

Pop. He missed, he had to eventually, even if the gun had no recoil. The wall exploded next to the soldier, spraying him with debris even as Sunburst adjusted his aim a little to the left. Pop. Thud. Sunburst took a slow and shaking breath. So far... so good?

President Smith was facing a camera. There was no time to arrange a proper public address. The people needed to be spoken to immediately. "People of America, let us not mince words. This morning, we were attacked. In the grandest, most terrible terrorist strike to ever be known. This attack, I am proud to announce, has been brought to a stop."

He stood up against his podium. "Our intelligence has surmised that this was a last-ditch effort. With what we know of the populations of those involved, we just weathered the majority of what force they had left. Though we pick through the ash and debris they left behind, know that this was the dying spasm of a defeated enemy."

He reached behind himself, pointing. "We will be advancing in the North. The time for bombs is over. We will be taking the disposed Council's lands. We will take 'Commander'" He said the word with palpable disgust. "--Force prisoner, if we can, dead if not. This war is over."

Smith cleared his throat. "Putting that aside for a moment, I wish to commend the American people, you... During the chaos of the attack, many of you proved the American spirit to be true, and would not accept invasion. You fought long and hard while the reserves and local militias mobilized. Know this, no effort will be made to investigate any weapons used in the defense of America today. If you are in the possession of council weaponry, please bring them to your local police department so we can study and prepare countermeasures against them."

"To the rest of the TSDI, you are broken, shattered. Lay down your arms and surrender. You have proven to have no mercy, and none will be shown in kind. Lay down your weapons and yield. This is your last and only warning."

Swiveling between good things and bad, he came back around with a slow breath. "I wish to extend a special commendation to the town of Smithhaven, New York. Despite being unprepared, they repelled their invasion with only three losses against all odds. Today, we all survived. Tomorrow, we finish this."

He was rambling a little, and he knew it. He wasn't ready for the duty foisted on him, but he did his best. "In total damages... " He had the numbers. They were... beyond reckoning. He decided to start with the non-living. "We have suffered approximately two trillion dollars in property damage. In terms of fatalities, though the number is far from finalized, the current best estimates put it around one million."

He stopped, he had to, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking away a moment. "To those who have had friends, families, brothers, fathers, children... To those that have lost so much today, I struggle to think of what to say. This ends, Now. Nothing but complete victory will even begin to suffice. The countries of the TSDI have proven their leadership is beyond corrupt, beyond morally contempt. They will be removed."

"To our allies; intelligence is still sparse, but know that we are aware we were not alone in this attack. We will stand beside you. Marshal yourself. It is time to see this through. We may not have asked to be put on this world, but I'll be damned if we'll allow this to stand. Our flag, one of our first flags, it had a snake on it. The snake demanded to not be stepped on, its fangs bared."

"We have felt your boot, now comes the fangs. Know that even as we reel from this loss, you have murdered less than 1% of our population. Your very best effort saw more of your own population lost than ours, even as you gunned down the old and young without reservation. Even as you burned our cities and brought bridges down in screaming infernos. You hurt yourself more than the great giant you have bloodied. Surrender, now, before we arrive on your shores."

"Opinions on President Smith's speech vary wildly," reported the newscaster, gesturing towards a poll result that showed plenty of strong emotions on either side. "Some feel it was inappropriate to bring up his threats to the opposing sides while speaking of the slain, while others thought it was quite appropriate."

"A new Twitter hashtag '#Rememberthe1%' has gone viral, with posts about the fallen being posted wildly intermixed with rebuttals on President Smith's usage of the term 'less than 1%'. Many people feel those they lost deserve to be remembered as more than such a degrading figure."

"In other news, the sun rose an hour early today. Correspondence with Equestria reports that Princess Celestia is beside herself with the attack, possibly explaining the discrepancy. What a world we live in, where sunrise can be early or late." She gestured to a new window. "The Lutrai nation is reporting a devastating loss of life. Having invested most of their soldiers to the assistance of America, it could be seen as a miracle that they stopped their invasion when they did. Queen Ruddertail could not be reached for comment."

Author's Notes:

Are there places you want the personal view of on this attack? Now would be a good time to chime in before I move past it. Poor Sunburst, pushed into violence. Star Swirl takes to it far more easily.

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