"I'm sorry, but you do not have permission to leave the barricade. It is currently under lock down, we got intruders earlier, and so-" the guard started, but Neon snapped his neck before he could finish.

"Just get to the ship." she said, marching towards the drop ship. "Spitfire, we might need some reinforcements to cover our escape."

"Gotcha." Spitfire said, and waved a hoof behind her. "Dispatch a squad of Strikers. Go on. Send in the ILLUSION, I want to give them a bit more than just a squad. Neon, fly straight aboard the ILLUSION. I think I want to keep my cover for just a wee bit longer."

"Copy that. You lot! Cadets- get aboard now!" Neon yelled, waving them towards the ship.

"STOP!!" somepony yelled, coming out from one of the sliding doors in the barricade.

"Shuck. They're onto us!" Asty yelled, pulling out her pistol and firing a laser bolt into the guard's chest. He went flying back with a burst of sparks, and shouts came out of the door.

"Pilot. Take us away." Neon said, hopping in.

"Don't have to tell me twice." the pilot sighed, and the drop ship started lifting off the ground.

"STOP THEM!!" the guards yelled, and started shooting lasers at them.

"Return fire." Neon said, then walked into the cockpit. She flicked off some safety switches, and fired two missiles into the gates keeping them in.

The gates blew apart, and instantly everything inside was sucked out into the vacuum of space.

Chunks of metal, repair tools, stands, guards, and whatever else was in the docking gate came flying with a small explosion, out into the vast emptiness of space. The ship came tumbling out, and everyone on board struggled to hold on. Obviously except for Neon.

"Take us away pilot. But stay close to the barricade until everything goes off- we'll need the cover from the cruisers in the mean time." Neon said, walking back into the passenger's compartment. She reached up, and pulled down two manual turrets on either side. "Mare the turrets. We need as much defense as possible. I'll be in the cockpit, call me if you need help."

"Yes ma'am!" the cadets saluted.

"Drop the ma'am. I don't even have a proper rank." Neon said, taking the co-pilot seat.

"Strikers being deployed across the barricade." the pilot said, pointing at about ten red dots that suddenly appeared on their radar. He pushed the lever forward, and the ship's engines flared as they boosted forward.

The Strikers followed them, engines blazing.

"Weave through and try to lose them in the barricade. Fly close." Neon said.

"Gotcha." the pilot said, bringing the drop ship down and flying next to the barricade. Rows and rows of turrets flew by them on the side, glowing windows becoming streaks of light with their speed.

"Watch it. Here they come." Rig said, pointing his rifle in the direction of the Strikers.

"Contact ahead!" Neon yelled, a separate group of Strikers flying in from a different section of the barricade.

"Nice little sandwich we got here." Asty muttered, turning the turret.

Neon flicked a few switches, launching missiles into the group ahead of them. They exploded with bright puffs of flames, flying out of the smoke clouds in pieces. Some still made it though, and weaved through the line of missiles. They fired their own, but Asty and Inkie shot them down with the turrets before they could hit.

"Change sides." Neon said, tapping the window on the right.

"Moving." the pilot said, sending the ship into a low dip. It dropped down below the barricade, then moved right across. It flew back up again, along the other side of the arm.

The Strikers followed, arching high over the barricade and flipping back down again, smoky white trails following their blazing engines. They weren't in the dark confinements of space anymore- there were in the atmosphere. Above them was the darkness of infinite space, and below them were the faded blue skies of the Equestrian wastelands.

Bullets whizzed past the ship- the Strikers were open firing.

"We're not going to make it far like this!" Asty warned, sending streams of glowing bullets back at their enemies.

"Change arms." Neon said, and the pilot turned the ship slightly to the right. They flew past a blazing barricade engine, and proceeded to fly along a different length.

Suddenly a separate stream of bullets came down from above, and ripped right down the center of a Striker. It caught fire, and tumbled down to the surface with pieces still coming off. Then it blew apart into several bits, falling down to the abyss below.

"What the hay..?" Asty looked up.

"Hold your fire! What's gotten into you!?" one of the Striker pilots yelled.

"Sorry mate, but this is a conspiracy." Cloudchaser yawned, leading her squad of Apollos down behind the other group. "Nothing personal here."

The magic faction didn't have any Strikers. They all had Apollos, however painted to look like Strikers as to avoid suspicion. Only upon closer inspection can the difference be told- but to prevent friendly fire, all M.F. Units would be highlighted green on each other's HUDs.

The leading Striker suddenly turned around and flew backwards, then sent a missile into the nose of an Apollo. It was torn down the center, the front caved it. Then the missile blew apart, taking the Apollo with it.

"Alright. NOW it's personal." Cloudchasee muttered, rolling out of the way of another missile. She sent streaks of bullets tearing through the Striker's left engine, destabilizing it. It started tumbling uncontrollably, then abruptly curved to the right and slammed into another Striker. Both went down in pieces.

"To the right." Neon pointed.

The pilot made the ship arch right, swinging around an engine and continuing on next to a different length.

"We shouldn't be too far away." the pilot said, checking the radar. The ILLUSION should be the cruiser to pick them up, and it was nearby.

"Stay in one piece until then." Neon said. "Oh yes, pilot. Didn't quite catch your name?"
"Thunderlane, ma'am."

"Good to have you as our pilot, Thunderlane." Neon said, patting him on the back.

"Ooh, close one." Cloudchaser muttered as a missile grazed her left engines, drawing sparks but failing to detonate. "Incoming missile!"

"Noted." Thunderlane saw the flashing red indicator on his HUD. "Everypony in the back, stay down!"

"Wait, what?" Asty raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly Thunderlane turned the ship sideways, and the cadets almost tumbled off the side. The missile came flying towards them, a glowing bright dot quickly approaching with a smoke trail behind it. It flew into the ship passenger compartment, and the cadets felt the air pressure change.

Asty was in the way, and Inkie quickly swiped her hooves out from underneath her. She fell backwards, the missile grazing her nose as she fell. Then the missile exited through the other side, leaving the cadets to wave off the smoke.

"HOLY CRAP!!" Asty exclaimed, getting back to her hooves.

Suddenly the Strikers deployed their breaks, almost stopping completely in mid air. They slipped past and behind the Apollos, and started open firing again.

"Asty! How long till detonation?" Rig asked.

"About.... Oh shuck. TWELVE SECONDS!!" Asty screamed.

"Well. You know what to do Thunderlane." Neon sighed. "All Magic Faction units, retreat from the barricade. Demolition imminent- begin count down. Ten seconds!"

"Damn, my hooves are sweating." Thunderlane rubbed his hooves together, trying to clear off the water.

"Copy." Cloudchaser said, weaving through lines of bullets. There was a Striker on her tail, and was getting quite irritating.

She back-flipped, and at the half way point squeezed the trigger. A prism beam ripped right down the center of the Striker, just behind the cockpit. The intense heat from the beam instantly set the metal on fire, and melted the parts that came in direct contact almost immediately.

A small spot popped out of the cockpit- an ejector seat.

"Oh no you don't..." Cloudchaser muttered, swinging the plane around in an arch, the engines screaming with effort. She sent a prism beam straight through the pilot- probably vaporized him. Quite painless, not very punishing. But brutal, yes. "That's for all the pain you've caused us over the years."

She brought the Apollo back around, and shot forwards as a loud bang echoed off into space from the engines.

"Follow tight Apollos. About to get bumpy." she said, the count down ticking to three.

"Pull away from the barricade!" Rig warned as Asty tore off a Striker's right engine with a line of bullets from the turret.

"Doing my best. Come on, old bucket." Thunderlane slammed a hoof on the ship.

They were flying alongside one of its arms, gaining altitude fast as they aimed for space.

"Ooh, pressure change." Asty muttered as her skin tingled beneath her suit and helmet.

They left the atmosphere, traveling away from the barricade. It shimmered in the darkness below them, still as ever as the lock down was still in place.

It was like a huge net cast over Earth, there to restrain and organize in its own way. A tyrant, a symbol of power. An oppressing power, restraining and enslaving all below it. And now... Rig counted the seconds down to its destruction.

"Two... One." he breathed, looking out the side of the ship and watching the barricade.

At first there was nothing, but then one of its arms blew apart, followed by many more. The cubic-kilometer sized chunks floated out to space, flaming and still having explosions ripping and tearing through them. Then another arm, an engine, another arm... Slowly, the barricade began ripping itself apart.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of years of tyranny, of rule- a symbol of power, a constant reminder of the power of Science, slowly tearing itself into pieces and floating out into the infinite abyss.

One of its fireballs reached out to the ship, but fell short. The ship was well clear of the explosions.

It looked like the entire earth was set on fire. Blowing up in flames. There would be one of particular large size every time the explosions reached an engine, going up in a fiery bright yellow flash. From this distance, they could even see the shockwaves sweeping across the mechanical monstrosity in the form of pulverized dust and debris.

"WOOOHOOO!! THAT'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!" Rig screamed, punching the air. Everypony on board felt the same way. Asty was laughing, Thunderlane clapping his hooves loudly with a huge grin on his face. Inkie and Blinkie at least had smiles on their faces as they watched revenge burn their enemies into oblivion.

And Neon was just Neon.

"Those Strikers and our Apollos also made it. Careful- we're not completely out of danger yet."

"Really? No congratulations?" Rig asked.

"Congratulations." Neon said.

"GOOD WORK!!" Cloudchaser yelled. "SHOW THOSE MOTHER BUCKERS!!!"
She weaved through the Strikers, beating them down with prism beams and hammering them with missiles.

"This is the M.F. ILLUSION. Proceed to gate 45." a voice said through the mic.

"Copy. Negative on visual contact." Thunderlane said, flicking a few switches and heading to the marked location- but it was empty space.

"Good." the voice said, and he frowned.

Neon nodded some confidence into him, and pointed to the marked location. He shrugged, and proceeded.

"PROTECT THE SHIP AT ALL COSTS!!" Cloudchaser yelled, flying backwards right next to the ship and fending off the Strikers, the rest of her squad moving in from the sides.

"Reinforcements! Two squadrons!" Thunderlane announced, checking his radar.

Then suddenly a huge prism cannon beam tore through the Strikers, instantly reducing their numbers by forty percent.

"M.F. ILLUSION, proceed to dock." the voice said again, and suddenly the empty space in front of them rippled.

Huge waves of matter formed a huge disc, wavering gently and rippling through space. Then a huge cruiser emerged, all guns blazing at the Strikers.

"Ooh, I see." Thunderlane said with a laugh. "A camouflaged cruiser, eh..."

"First one ever made. Welcome aboard." the voice said, and he proceeded to the dock.

"Come on Apollos! Let's finish these bastards off and refuel!" Cloudchaser yelled and swung the plane back around.

Some of them tried to retreat, but failed to escape the huge prism cannons of the ILLUSION. Even the explosions they caused seemed insignificant compared to the multi-colored beams.

"Apollos, retreat. Level ten debris alert right there." the ILLUSION's commander said- and he was right. The flaming debris of the barricade was drifting out of the atmosphere from the blasts as predicted, but now created a highly hazardous and expanding debris field around the Earth's orbit.

"All units! Retreat from orbit. It's too dangerous." Cloudchaser said, pulling the Apollo back around and boosting towards the ILLUSION.

"Going back to cloak in ten minutes." the commander said. "Hurry!"

*

Scootaloo saw something out of the corner of her eye, and yanked on the scooter. Gravity generators kicked in as the breaks stopped the wheels. She held onto her scooter, still a few hundred meters above ground level and standing almost horizontally. She turned around and looked out to the sky- and saw something she thought might as well would've been a dream.

The barricade shimmered in the distance, explosions sparkling across its dark metal mass.

Her mouth lay slightly agape as she stared with dreamy eyes. It was like defying the laws of physics to her. It was impossible. She grew up in this reality, knowing the barricade would be there forever. Would be a force that would forever oppress everyone beneath it forever. She learned to avoid it, to keep away. And now- it was gone, blown to pieces and drifting away into space.

She could feel the silence as Haven came to a stand still, the ponies all coming out to watch as the barricade was finally removed after over a thousand years.

Then cheering came, from one loud whistle that echoed across the city to an entire celebration. Ponies cheered, screamed, punched at the air; knowing they were one big step closer to freedom. It has been a long fight, and the greatest super power of their enemies has just been destroyed.

Scootaloo could feel the earth shake with the joyous pounding of hooves. Then the shockwaves came down, cold shivers of disrupted air that added to the excitement.

She smiled. How very unexpected. In many ways, it was still unreal; even if it were happening right before her eyes. It was quite the sight.

*

"What's with all the ruckus?" Applebloom asked, standing up from her office chair and turning around to face the glass wall. What she saw was not what she expected.

"It would seem that the barricade has just been... Destroyed." her AI said.

She chuckled, looking down at mane street Haven. It was crowded with ponies, all cheering and almost screaming.

"Funny how things turn out, right?" she said with a smile. "Oh, how very tricky we are."
"Correct. Not only have we proven ourselves a worthy enemy, but a very powerful one too." the AI said.

"Correct you are, my dear." Applebloom said with a grin, turning away from the window. She was about to open the fridge, when she realized it was one of those bio-fridges she designed. Even she needed getting used to. "And you know what? Since everypony else is celebrating- why don't I as well? Time to open that old bottle of apple cider I always wanted to open." she laughed, pulling out an eighty year old bottle.

"After a quick Internet search, it would seem age old alcoholic beverages are much 'better' than old ones. I cannot define 'better' in this context."

"Well, you need a software update." Applebloom said, taking a sip and savoring it. Oh, how she missed that taste. "Also, start giving out confetti cannons to the citizens."

*

The silver-maned earth pony dug her hooves into an open window's frame and hung there, on the side of the CMC HQ building. She could see that Scootaloo had stopped too, and looked up.

The normally blue skies had been lit completely orange- the sky was on fire. She took a closer look- it was the barricade, burning away and blowing into pieces.

"Katana- you seeing this?" Applebloom called.

"Yeah. Quite wonderful." she replied, looking out to the horizon.

"Get Scoots and come to my office. Got some celebratory drinks to open."

"I'll be on my way." Katana said, but still stayed there for a moment. This was quite a situation to be in- our freedom, and their deaths. Who knows how many were up there? Thousands, maybe even millions of lives- built up over tens of years, coming down in flames in under half an hour. Quite sad now that she came to think about it that way- but no one saw the barricade that way. Everyone saw it as a menacing electric net, and once you touch it you cease to exist. Although in Magic's defense, Science has killed far too many of ours too. Way too many.

Nightshade once said that war was just a long game of survival. She found that true in many ways- day by day you'll never know when you might die. Maybe you think you're safely aboard a starship that was the largest ever created, with fully functional weaponry and state-of-the-art equipment- but then, in just a few minutes.... All goes to trash.

*

Vinyl looked up as she felt a cold gust of wind sweep over her, followed by distant and echoing bangs and booms. She stared at the sky for she didn't know how long- it happened so suddenly. She barely believed her own eyes.

The barricade was being taken down, defeated.

"This is quite remarkable." Frostbite said.

"I should say so myself." Vinyl looked down again, because her neck was starting to hurt. "And glad I'm not hallucinating."

"Of course not. It would seem the operation is successful- we better get on with ours. War is starting, and best if we get back to Haven as soon as possible." Frostbite said, and Vinyl heard him slowly walk away and towards Fillydelphia.

She let out a sigh. Griffons.

"Coming." she said, and followed.

*

There was a loud crash as Val sent Blithy through some crates.

"Dear oh dear, am I getting old." Val muttered, hammering her leg back into the hip joint. She may have kicked Blithy a bit too hard, that it caused some excess damage. But instead of finding Blithy in pain, she saw that hint of a smile on her face mixed with severe pain as she tried to get up.

"Ouch." she said finally, and burst out laughing.

"This is a nice change." Val tilted her head to one side. Usually she was the one with the psychotic laughter. "So. What's so funny?"

"Oh, it won't be funny for you." Blithy said, and laughed even harder. "Oh my dear evil self- why did you have to come down here and fight me?"

Slowly a frown crept onto her face.

"Here, take a look at this." Blithy said, her wounds healing. Her robotic eye glowed, and cast up a projection image.

Val froze when she noticed what all the jumbled pixels were conveying. Slowly her eyes adjusted to the image, and she saw the barricade in flames.

"I can't believe it!" Blithy laughed. "You were gone for just a moment! And then... And then... BAHAHA!!" she retracted the image.

Val didn't speak. Her eyes were hidden in the shadow of her mane.

Ooh, boy was this bad- Blithy thought. Val was a very formidable opponent and quite destructive when she was cheerful- like a few minutes ago. But now that she was angry- and very much so at that- she did not want to find out what she would be like.

"You know, I could almost see the fury burning off of you." she said. Because, she was probably gonna unleash her wrath on her anyway; so why not add a bit of extra taunting?

"Damn you, Spitfire... Striking when I'm away." Val muttered, cracking her fist loudly as she stormed towards Blithy. "Sneaky bastard. But I'll be back in the command center soon- and all of you will pay."

"We'll see about that-" Blithy said, swinging a punch at Val's face.

Val didn't even block it. She kind of did, but with a bone-splintering fist. Their metal knuckles met, and the heavy shock traveled all the way into the ground and even cracked the concrete. Val stood where she was, back hooves digging into the ground while Blithy went flying across the storage room.

A loud crash echoed off the walls as she went straight through the corrugated iron wall of a cargo container like it was paper.

"AAAAH, my back." she muttered, grinding her teeth and snapping her spine back to the right position.

Then suddenly the entire city shook. The two mares looked out the big glass walls, and saw a huge dark mass with bright lights on it coming down on the city.

"Are those.... Cruisers...?" Val raised an eyebrow. "My bucking idiot little minions. Can't do anything right." she muttered, her mood worse than ever.

The city shook again, quite violently. Both of them toppled over and fell on the ground as the cruisers hit ATLANTIS, crushing the city under the immense weight. Val and Blithy were on the far east wing, and besides- only a quarter of the city was being crushed. The civilians were probably out of that sector by now. Although, it would affect the systems.

"We've lost contact with the gamma sector!!" the radio operator yelled.

"Shuck. The power generators!" Blithy exclaimed.

There was a loud boom, and the ground shook so violently that it literally threw them into the air. The dark depths of the Atlantic were instantly lit up as the super generators that were powering the entire city were crushed under mega-tons of metal. Then the electric shock from the impact changed the bright orange to a frightening blue, then back to orange again as the sparks lit the fuel reserves of the cruisers. Thousands and thousands of tons of fuel, lit up in an instant in a confined environment.

The resulting explosion split the city in half, ripping the sea bed. Then the shockwave reached Blithy and Val, tearing through the walls and ripping the containers inside open. They both fell back, and tumbled several meters before resting against the far wall.

The bright lights that once lit up the city shut off, the city plunging into darkness. Then red emergency evacuation lights turned on, much dimmer and making things harder to see. They ran on reserve power, which means the doors should still be functional. The place was filling up with water too, and was quickly becoming a watery grave.

"Let's get this over and done with." Val said, making loud splashes as she stormed through the ankle-deep water.

Blithy stood up, sea water soaking her mane and dripping off her arms.

"Ma'am! City wide evacuation is COMPLETE!!" somepony yelled as the emergency doors slid open, and a squad of troopers walked in.

"I thought I told you no reinforcements!!" Blithy yelled.

"The evac is complete ma'am." the trooper repeated. "We're staying to fight. We need to see the commander out of this."

"She'll be leaving here with me." Val said, flicking her wrist. A knife popped out, and she grabbed it.

"We won't let you." the squad ran forward, surrounding Blithy and protecting her.

"Listen trooper- none of you stand a chance against her!" Blithy yelled. "Retreat immediately! That's an order!"

"Denied, commander." the trooper said.

"Damnit- you idiots! She's ME! Only I can defeat ME!"

"We would never associate you with scum of such, commander." the trooper said, narrowing his eyes. "And neither should you."

That shut Blithy up. She didn't know how to respond to that. Even worse, she had no idea how to win. But she will be fighting until she goes down, and everyone else was thinking the same.

"I wonder where MY loyal subordinate is." Val muttered, then a sliding door hissed open behind her. "Ah, there you are. Is it done?"

"Yes." Eclipse said, walking into the room and throwing a soldier's dead body aside. She walked up beside Val, looking at Blithy and the troopers with bored but cold eyes. "So is this your alternate self? Doesn't seem all that... Intimidating."

Blithy flinched a little at the light coming from the pair's eyes. They looked like they were looking down on her and her troops, like nothing but looking down on an earth worm. Just an insect to be flicked off out of annoyance. Sometimes she wonders what would ever stop them.

She flicked her right wrist, a knife popping out. There was a click as two muzzles emerged from her left palm. Clicks echoed all around her as the squadron readied their rifles and secondary weapons.

Val cracked her wrists loudly, her expression without any of that playfulness that was there earlier. Cold, merciless eyes that centered down on her target glimmered in the dim light.

Eclipse brought a hoof up, a large glowing orange knife appearing out of thin air and attaching itself to her hoof.

In the background they could hear the sea water pouring in through gaps in the walls, the water dark at their hooves.

"I'm going after Blithy. Deal with the troopers. Take them out however you want- efficiency isn't a key here." Val said, bringing her knife up and ready for battle. "The commander is MINE."