The metallic floor felt cold under her hooves, even when they were armored, as was the rest of her body. Her suit of armor was up to standard: golden, just as the rest of her squadron, and with a shoulder-mounted lance. Her breathing was shaky, her maroon coat sweaty as well as her orange mane, hidden under her golden helm. The set of wings on her back pressed tightly against her ribcage.

“Nervous, Red?” asked another armored pony sitting beside her. She glanced over to her, then back at the human females sitting on the other side of the dropship’s troop bay, their expressions hidden by their feature-less helmets.

“I-I’m fine...” Red Line muttered. A lie, of course. Nopony had trained her for such a thing. As far as she was concerned, war was a game of calculated strategies one was to play out to the letter, usually involving an open field and two sides facing each other in ordered formations. She was prepared for that, and only that. Not flying at subsonic speeds in a metallic machine and literally dropping into the face of the enemy.

She looked up and down at one of the women. Their incredibly tall and well-defined physique was definitely something to behold. Much taller than Celestia herself, and even then they were the shortest humans. The metallic wings on their backs seemed as though they could slice cleanly through almost anything. She looked around the dropship, keeping her eyes locked on a few window-like devices that displayed moving images.

“Raiders,” she whispered. It was the name they used to refer to themselves, and they seemed to take a large amount of pride in it.

The door to the pilot’s cabin opened with a loud hiss, followed by another Raider walking into the troop bay, her shoulder pads blue, a sign of rank. The other women and ponies turned to her as she cracked her knuckles.

“Alright!” she exclaimed. “Our orders are to engage the Gryphon forces on the outskirts of the city while the rest of our forces clean it up! ETA is ten minutes!”

“Pegasi, line up!” a pony, Sergeant Wingy, yelled as she stood up. Red Line and the other pegasus ponies formed a single line, adopting a militant stance and watching as the Sergeant paced around in front of them.

“This, is the night!” Wingy shouted. “The night in which we turn the tides of this war, and free Trottingham once and for all!

“We have trained hard for this moment, and I’ll be damned if that goes to waste! We have been given a chance that ponykind has never been able to take before!

“With our newfound allies, the people of the stars, we shall bring an end to this conflict, and push the Gryphons back to the filthy mountains they crawled out of! The humans, the raiders, they have vowed to fight with us! For us!

“But they shall not fight alone! This night, we fight together, as a whole! We will stick, shoulder to shoulder, and walk through hell and back! We will be the terror of the skies! We will win this battle, together!” Wingy froze in place for a moment, then slowly turned to the line of Equestrian soldiers. “AM I RIGHT, PONIES!?”

“SIR YES SIR!” they each shouted in unison.

The inside of the dropship fell silent for a few moments, no one daring to make a move. A single drop of sweat crawled down Red Line’s cheek.

Slowly, the raiders began applauding, starting by one, then two, progressing until the entire regiment was clapping their hands together. Their leader chuckled and walked over to Sergeant Wingy, crouching. “You’ve got the heart of a raider, I can tell that much.”

“We’re approaching the LZ!” an anonymous voice called out over the ship’s loudspeakers. “Multiple hostiles in disarray! Opening up!”

The ramp of the troop vessel began to lower itself, exposing the whooshing sound of the wind as the dropship sliced through it.

“Come on!” the commanding raider shouted. “Raiders lead the way!”

Without much of a warning, the humans ran up to the ramp and leapt off of the ship, spreading their wings and activating their booster packs.

“Go, go, go!” Sergeant Wingy yelled, motioning for the ponies to jump out. Red Line gritted her teeth together and closed her eyes, taking a running jump off of the ship.

The wind rushed past her as she fell freely. She could see a massive battle taking place way down, guttural screams reaching her ears. She tried to open her wings, but they were locked in place. Her breaths quickened, uncertain as to what to do.

A single Gryphon crashed into her, one of his wings missing. This caused her to instinctively spread her wings, slowing down her fall. She watched with wide eyes as the Gryphon continued falling, screaming for help, only to fall into the midst of the main battle.

With a few flaps of her wings, she began to speed up. Everything was in disarray, Gryphons flying in practically every direction and releasing desperate cries for help. She saw one of them nearby, hovering in a stationary position.

Her brow furrowed, her muscles tensed, and she bore down on her target. The Gryphon remained unaware of Red Line until it was too late. They both closed their eyes, and a loud click signaled the release of her lance.

Time slowed down; it felt like minutes had already passed in the course of milliseconds. Red Line opened her eyes, seeing the bloodshot eyes of the Gryphon looking back at her, blood seeping out of his beak. She tried to retract her lance off of him, but...

“No... Nonono!”

It was stuck, either by a malfunction or because the Gryphon still possessed enough strength to hold it fast. They both began freefalling into the battlefield, with Red trying desperately to unhook the lance off of her armor and the Gryphon holding it tightly.

In a last attempt, she began to flap her wings frantically. Every ounce of her strength was sent to her wings, for she needed to survive. The chaos of the battle on the surface got louder and louder as she and the dying Gryphon fell.

She closed her eyes and tried to fly with all her might. Everything seemed to get quiet for a moment, leaving her alone with her thoughts. “Is this it? Am I going to die?”

There was a loud thud, the fleshy sound of the lance piercing the rest of the Gryphon, and a crack as the lance split in two pieces.

Muffled war cries reached her ears, but these were guttural and distorted. She slowly opened her eyes, watching the carnage that was taking place all around her. Ponies and humans fighting wave after wave of Gryphon forces, yet she lay there, her body refusing to move. Nearby was the body of a Gryphon... the Gryphon she had killed.

She rose shakily to her hooves again, completely dazed after the fall. Destruction, guttural cries, death, it all surrounded her, encasing her. She lacked a weapon, she was defenseless...

“Hey...”

Something stood into her field of view, then knelt down. It was a raider with orange shoulder pads, looking at her. She looked around frantically and shook the pony’s shoulder. “Hey!”

She could hear a high-pitched noise building up, getting stronger and stronger. Her vision began to obscure, and she fell to her knees. Was this the sweet embrace of death?

“Wake up!”

She gasped, her eyes opening wide. The sounds of the battle returned to her in force. The blasts of the humans’ weapons and the clashing of swords and shields. She could feel her legs once again, so she stood up, looking at Trottingham. Smoke rose up from the city, and Gryphons could be seen flying away from it in every direction.

Slowly, she turned back to the battle, or what remained of it. The Gryphons were retreating in mass, leaving behind the corpses of their fallen. There was not a single body of any pony lying on the battlefield, only Gryphons.

She took her eyes away from the corpses and looked back at where the battle had taken place. Only ponies and humans were left standing, not a single living Gryphon to be seen.

The battle was won in mere minutes.

“Raiders lead the way...”