1602 hours
Nine (9) days after first contact
In the bay of the Equestrian city of Manehatten

First Lieutenant Grishin, captain of the Svetlyak-class patrol boat молниеносный, looked out of the bridge windows as his ship sailed into the bay of the city. Although clouds of smoke and thick rain obscured his view of the city somewhat, he was still able to make out the thin shapes of moving helicopters moving among the building.

"Russian warship, this is Overwatch." A voice said over the radio in Russian. "We need you to move into the harbor and assist units along the shoreline. We'll redirect their transmissions to you."

"Copy Overwatch." Grishin replied, not taking his eyes off of the city. After a few moments, he turned around, looking at the crew on the bridge.

"Well, what are you waiting for? A goddamned invitation?" Grishin demanded when nobody moved after several seconds. "Battlestations! Man the forward gun! Just get to your positions!"

As he felt the ship alter course slightly, an American MV-22 flashed by, only two hundred meters over the water, and heading straight towards the docks...

1610 hours
Outer areas of the Equestrian city of Manehatten

Sokolov quickly pushed the control stick on the Mi-24VM sideways, letting the large helicopter narrowly dodge a bolt of light previous heading straight towards it. Internally, the Russian cursed the 'magic' that the ponies were able to use: Flares were utterly useless against it, and it moved very, very quickly.

Above and behind him, his co-pilot and gunner pressed down on the trigger for the Yak-B 12.7mm chin gun, spraying rounds onto the rooftop the shot had come from. The houses in the outer areas of the city were only two to three stories tall, allowing him to keep a watch on them while he worked with the ground troops. It was very much unlike the center of the city, where skyscrapers rose on all sides, and dangers often came from above or to the sides.

Below him, a single American M1A2 Abrams rolled forward, the remotely-control machinegun on top firing: Several ponies down the street toppled, their hastily-assembled barricades of wooden objects unable to stop the high-velocity rounds. A rocket flashed from another Mi-24 hovering three dozen meters away, blowing a hole in the barricade and sending debris skyward.

Infantry on the streets began to move forward behind the American tank, firing at the ponies. Resistance at the end of the block crumbled rapidly, leaving them free to advance onward, until the next barricade showed up.

Sokolov checked the ammunition and fuel count, confirming that he still had plenty of both, and slowly advanced his helicopter forward-

*crack*

*boom*

Sokolov shielded his eyes as a bright flash erupted two blocks away, nearly blinding him. The roar of thunder was easily audible, even through the bulletproof glass surrounding the cockpit. With the rain still beating down in huge amounts, it was not unreasonable for lightning strikes to occur.

However, what was unexpected was the large cloud, nearly twenty meters in diameter, nearly four stories above the smoking remains of the M1A2 Abrams at the head of the advance. The entire turret was warped by the immense heat, and a column of black smoke was coming from the center of the mangled tank.

Around the edges of the cloud, bits of gold shone through the rain: The armor worn by the pony guards.

Narrowing his eyes, Sokolov increased the power, gaining in altitude as he did so. His co-pilot correctly interpreted what he was going to do, and prepared accordingly.

Four S-8KOM rockets flashed from the rocket pod mounted on the left pylon. All four HEAT rockets impacted the near-solid cloud, detonating with a loud bang. The dark cloud blew apart, throwing pegasi outward at high speeds, and sending small bolts of lightning in random directions.

"Overwatch, this is Poryv-1." Sokolov said over the radio a moment later. "We have witnessed several Pegasi harnessing the weather. They have used a cloud to launch a bolt of lightning onto the ground. We have destroyed the threat."

"Copy that, Poryv-1." The E-2D Hawkeye orbiting forty kilometers away, callsign Overwatch, responded. "We've gotten several reports similar to yours. Be on the watch for low-hanging clouds, and destroy them when possible."

"Copy. Poryv-1 out." Sokolov said, sighing after he stopped transmitting. The things he ran into simply grew stranger and stranger, and he did not know when he would finally understand all of it, or if he ever would.

Vasilyev leaned out from behind his cover: The stone doorway of a building. Taking quick aim, he fired his Steyr AUG down the street, his rounds striking the stone wall a unicorn was taking cover behind. The unicorn levitated a crossbow above the wall, aiming in Vasilyev's general direction. It missed wildly, striking off of the stone wall the Russian was hiding behind.

The Lieutenant's mind raced, searching for a way out of this situation, when it presented itself. A single BMP-3 came racing down the street from the harbor, the roar of its' engine audible over the sound of the pouring rain. It quickly dodged past the fallen concrete pillar Kozlov and Novikov were taking cover behind, slowing to a stop in front of Vasilyev's position.

The 30mm autocannon in the turret fired, pouring out rounds onto the pony positions. Vasilyev took a deep breath and ran out into the street, grasping onto the side of the armored personnel carrier and pulling himself on top. The slick surface was hard to stand on, but Vasilyev balanced himself as best as he could, and rapped on the top of the turret.

Moments later, the top opened outward, allowing a man to gesture at him to come closer. Vasilyev leaned forward, his head hovering above the entrance hatchway, while the man inside of the turret looked up at him.

"You idiot! What do you want!" The crewman yelled.

"I need you to fire on that stone wall, and the building next to it!" Vasilyev said, gesturing. "It's fucking full of them, and we can't move on until you bright some fire down on it!"

"Alright, alright!" The crewman said. "We'll fucking to it. Mark out the targets, and we'll take them."

"Right." Vasilyev replied, closing the hatch.

He looked up, using the 'Net' interface to mark the building itself, and then the positions that the Guards inside were firing crossbows and magic from. The 100mm cannon housed in the turret rose to engage the first one, firing a shell into the side of the building, and taking out a good portion of the front of the first three floors. It then hosed the rest with the 30mm autocannon, killing the survivors. The next twenty seconds was spent repeating the process, finally removing the obstacles to their advance.

Vasilyev jumped off of the top of the BMP-3, landing on the rain-soaked road, and began to advance, rifle held at the ready. behind him, the rest of his teammates followed, along with the other Russians and Americans he had received and reinforcements during his advance.

And, Vasilyev grimly thought. We are only eight blocks from the edge of the harbor. Just how long will it take us to capture the city?

1628 hours

Far above the city, circling with the fifteen survivors of the 'Manehatten Royal Guard Weather Station', Fall Wind muttered curses below his breath, enraged at the events of the past few weeks. His own sister had gone missing during the first, failed attack on the bastard creatures invading his land, and half of his unit had been slaughtered over Trottingham, with himself as one of the few survivors.

He even damaged one of their infernal machines, although what good it had done was null and void, with the invaders seemingly having an infinite supply of them.

They even had the audacity to attack his city, his own home! And he had only escaped the strange attack on the Weather Station by sheer luck: He had been tasked to oversee and manage the brewing storm, which was now raging out of control over the city.

Fall Wind scanned the city, looking for a target they could attack without being slaughtered. A bright yellow projectile zipped across the water, exploding against one of the buildings in the city. The pegasus quickly looked around for the source of the projectile, and, seeing a strange ship on the water, correctly assumed it was attempting to slaughter his comrades.

"That ship, down there!" He yelled towards his fellow guards. "It is attack our fair city! Destroy it at all costs!"

Several of the other nodded, and together they dived down, heading for the grey ship.

"Fire!"

The 76mm cannon on the forward deck fired once again, sending a shell towards the shoreline, where it exploded in the street on a target Grishin could not see.

"Target hit!" Somebody on the radio called out in Russian, with an obvious Saint Petersburg accent.. "Thank you for the assistance, comrade!"

"Copy. Let us know if you need anything." Grishin replied.

"We have a problem, Lieutenant!" One of the men on the deck called out, grabbing a rifle and pointing upwards. Grishin went to the bridge windows and looked up.

And froze.

"Shit!" Grishin yelled, running back inside the bridge and grabbing his AK-105 from the wall. The other bridge crew grabbed their weapons as well, not knowing what was going on, but expecting trouble.

As if on cue, several men on the deck began firing, filling the air with rounds. Suddenly, a dead pegasus crashed into the water on the port side of the ship, and a very much living one landed on the deck a moment later. It jumped forward, stabbing one of the crewmen with a spear, and was about to turn on another when the Sergeant on the deck fired his AK-12, killing it.

Grishin ran out of the port side bridge door, running towards the rear of the ship. He fired a burst of four rounds into a pegasus that was just landing, killing it, and was about to start moving again when something slammed him into the wall. He quickly turned with his back to the steel of the ship in time to see a pegasus thrust a spear at him.

Grishin sidestepped quickly, jumping forward and lashing out with the stock of his rifle, knocking the pegasus off of its' precarious position. It tumbled backward into the water, and Grishin moved forward and fired half of his remaining rounds in the area where it had landed.

With that, he moved to clear the rest of his ship of the boarders.

Fall Wind felt himself tumbling backwards, and he landed gracelessly in the water, where he immediately began to sink. He desperately undid the latches on his heavy armor as... Something cut through the water around him. He quickly oriented himself and started swimming upwards and away from the ship, as far as he could possibly go. His lungs started to protest as he neared the surface, so he used his wings to help propel himself upward.

The pegasus gasped for air as his head broke the surface, quickly remembering to swim away from the ship. He looked behind him to see the ship, mostly visible through the falling rain, about sixty meters behind him.

Gritting his teeth, he began to swim for the docks on the shore, hoping he could find something to help him escape. He needed to get out of the city and bring this information to Canterlot, and he had to do it quickly.

Sergeant Davit looked up at the steep mountainside. They were more than halfway there, and already it was huge. The city itself was far up it, and they needed to reach it by midnight if they were to have any success in getting inside.

Outside of the town hall of the city of Trottingham, in the alleyway across the street, a mare scanned the building, looking it over, as if evaluating it.

Evidently satisfied with something, she turned around and quickly trotted away, unnoticed by the other citizens of the city.

Edited by The Rainbow Brony and CommanderWolffe

Author's Note

Well, here's another chapter. If this gets to 150 likes, I'll be sure to jump for joy. I'm not going to promise anything, because I know that I would end up procrastinating. That being said, I'll try to finish the next chapter soon enough.

My first story sucked. A lot. I am rewriting it, so that is taking up my time.

Also, recently a friend got me Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, and I have been diving into that. Took a break from mission five to work on this, so now that this is done, I'll be going back into it.

Is it just me, or is that game too damn addicting?