We waited three days for the Hornet to arrive. We kept resource use to a minimum while we waited, and at some point the dogs gave up trying to get inside. They were still out there though, and we couldn't risk trying to escape on our own. and we were all very glad to see the black and yellow ship zooming towards us on the horizon. It slowed slightly as it made it's approach, then took up a position on the far side of a ridge to get proper aim...

BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...BOOM

With a quick volley of shots, the harpoon guns holding the ship down were obliterated, and we began to rise while the Hornet circled around, looking for hostiles. One of the communication specialists on board received a letter, stating that they were going to attach tow cables to us and pull us to Equestria for repairs. We quickly sent a reply, and our thanks. Some crew left the Hornet to attach the cables, but then the oddest thing happened. They vanished.

"What the heck? Hey... anybody else see that?" Most missed it, but being a griffin, I have sharp eyes. On the top of the ship, near the engines, the sunlight was glinting off something that wasn't the hull. I gasped when I realized exactly what it was, but I was too late to warn the other ship as their engines were jammed by an enemy using an invisibility spell... our invisibility spell. Since the Hornet was a propeller powered hover unit and did not have a balloon, it began spiraling out of control and slammed into the ground. It wasn't very high up, but the impact was enough to tear holes in the hull, ripping off the fins. Suddenly around two dozen armed Diamond Dogs appeared as their spells wore off and piled into the ship through the gashes in it's shell. Another several dozen popped up from underground and rushed the downed vessel as well.

"Steelhorn! Can we lower the deck? We need to help the Hornet."

"Aye lass, but ain't ya forgettin somethin?" The wise old bull quipped. I let out a sigh.

"That's what they want us to do... but we can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"What would ya have us do?! Either we let the dogs take em, or we go out, try and save em, and let them take us too!" He growled.

"I... I don't know! I don't know what to do... I... don't know..."

So, we sat there and watched as they dragged the survivors of the crash out of the ship, and one by one, using laser rifles Griffin designed, executed them. Then, they lined all the corpses up, both those who died in the crash, and the ones they killed, and laid them face down on the dirt.

"I don't see Growl or Shimmer in there. You think maybe they escaped? Dug underground?"

"Aye, I hope so lass... though I hope they weren't taken." Steelhorn, being the young dragon's father figure, was visibly relieved that she wasn't among the bodies, though not much relief could be had, given our rescue had just been killed. Just as we were starting to get some real altitude, six airships flew in, tied ropes around us, and dragged us back down again.

"And zere goes zat noble sacrifice."

"Geirmund..."

"Listen, Trixie Starlight und I have come up vith a plan to escape zis fiasco."

"Let's hear it."

"The first phase of the plan is an attack of our own. I'll cast a wide range rage spell to make them fight each other, which will disorganize them and make them unable to respond to our movements."

"Phase two of ze plan is I vill destroy ze airships vith my enhancements." Geirmund flexed his mechanical wings, which made a pair of laser guns align, before folding them back up. "Vith zem broken, zere vill be nothing holding us down, und we can escape."

"What about the airborne troops? They're still flying around out there."

"Once we're in the air, we can open the cannon ports and fire our rifles at them." Starlight added.

"Okay... let's try it."

Trixie stood at one of the open cannon ports, looking out at the army camped around the ship. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her horn flaring up and drawing the attention of the crowd below.

"Furia!" Just as quickly as she cast the spell, she shut the hatch as the army below... did absolutely nothing. She opened it once more and cast the spell again, only to meet the same outcome.

"What the heck Trixie, why isn't it working?" I asked the distraught unicorn.

"Protect spells Gilda. They're using protect spells. It's shielding them from my mental magic."

I sighed. "That's it then. We're trapped here. We can't kill them, we can't make them kill each other, we can't run away. They must have gotten the rifles and spells from somewhere. Probably a pony in Canterlot who deals in slave trade. I don't know how to get us out of this. I... I don't know what to do...That's it. I'm sending a letter to Griffin."

So, I wrote the letter. I guess I kinda broke down when I did. It's just been so long since I've seen him, that combined with the fact that we were trapped here, and maybe a little bit of my hormones making me moody because I'm pregnant, but I couldn't take it anymore. I just want him to come here and make it all go away.

"You know he won't make it here in time, don't cha?" Steelhorn huffed as the letter went out to Spike, since Griffin couldn't receive them personally anymore. "Even with an airship, it's two weeks away. With our supplies, we've only got one. We passed over this place before, and they never attacked. They waited for us to be running low before they caught us."

"Yeah... which means they want us to surrender."

"Yer not really thinkin about doin it, are ya?" The old bull asked.

"I'm not seeing much of a choice Steel. We'll hold out as long as we can with the supplies we have, rationing it out as much as possible and hoping Grif gets here in time with reinforcements, but when we run out, I'm not just gonna die here starving to death. If... if it comes to that... I... we might have to give ourselves up. I mean, they knew EXACTLY what they were doing the entire time. They knew how to bring down the ship, they knew how to deal with the Hornet when it showed up, they waited for it to be slow enough to catch by standing on our hull, they know how to protect themselves from our mental spells, and they've got way too many that are too well armed for us to win in a stand and fight situation. It's their turf, so they have nearly unlimited supplies, while we're running low. They outsmarted us on every point Steel. Really, the only thing we can do now is hope help arrives in time. If it doesn't... if it doesn't... I'm..."

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. When I opened them, they were clouded by tears. "If help doesn't arrive in time, if we run out of supplies... I'm calling it. People's lives come first. We might be slaves, but we'll be alive. A lot of the crew members were slaves until they were rescued by Griffin. We have to hope he'll save us again. If I know him, he'll be headed straight for Canterlot to ask for an army to come and save us."

Author's Notes:

I had to rewrite this chapter. Originally, I was gonna have Trixie reanimate the dead into zombies and have them slaughter everything, but there were several glaring problems with that strategy, so I nixed it, and went the emotional route instead.