Broken Skies

Pinkie and the other elements danced happily, while thinking that it was about an hour long, while in reality, it was just over thirty minutes.

"Hoo-ee, that was tirin'." calmly said a pumped up Applejack.

"It sure was fun!" bubbled a happy Pinkie Pie.

The celebration was wonderful, loud music held everyone upbeat, all three teams that took part in the town's liberation were there, and Jarvis along with his friend Kenton. Celestia and Luna also had joined in, deciding to pass on their current duties. Other royalty had decided to hop in as well, such as Blueblood, Cadance, Shining Armor, and with some hesitation, leaders of other independent countries from across the globe, FIM-Delta's at least.

"Auntie, who are those large apes? We didn't invite them did we?" questioned Blueblood.

"No, no, those are humans. They were willing to help us in our time of need." replied Celestia.

"Bah, they look ridiculous! They look like they fight with clubs with odd ends! I bet their armor isn't any stronger than paper!" boasted the prince.

"Oh, how you would be surprised. They come from a space exploring race, they managed to get past their own planet and stars, form cities on other worlds, and you still believe that they are weaker than us?" chuckled the Princess of the Sun.

"Well, they still use blunt weaponry! Not the finesse of a sword, the strength of a mace, or the aim of a crossbow?" added the prince.

"Those? Those aren't clubs." replied the princess.

"Oh really? What are they, some magical weapon with the strength of our experimental fire sand?" said Blueblood.

Celestia then gave the boastful prince a bland stare.

"Are-are you kidding me?" stated the baffled prince.

Vinyl/DJ-PON3 blared her electronic music, which just so happened to sound a lot like the musical duo Daft Punk, and couldn't help but join in, bobbing her head to the music. Twilight however, couldn't help but walk over to Screech, and ask why his armor looked so much different than the others, including the Bullfrogs. A brief filter through the large crowd while trying her best to ignore the bowing of the royalty,regular citizens, and visitors, she managed to get through to the center of attention; the bar where the humans were sitting at.

"Mister, mister!" shouted a journalist.

"Hey, over here!" said another.

The heavy flashing of cameras had blocked her entrance to where the human was, and definitely seemed to irritate him greatly.

"As if I don't get enough of this already at home..." muttered Screech under his breath.

Twilight had to gently push her way through the ever growing mob of reporters, finally managing to make it over to Screech, who had been lounging at the bar for the bulk of the celebration.

"So, uh, how are you?" queried Twilight.

"Peachy." replied Screech.

"Is it alright if I can ask you a few questions? I want to know a few things on your people!" asked, yet again, Twilight.

"Sure, shoot." replied the soldier. "Beats getting snapped at by cameras."

"Pardon if this is a bother, but this is a very odd place to take some notes on this. Is it alright if we move to somewhere.. a little more... private?" questioned Twilight.

"As I said, beats getting snapped at by cameras." said the Spec-Ops.

As the two slipped from the cracks in the crowd, the other elements and a particularly blue princess couldn't help but assume something else was up.

"Oh, has Twilight finally found somepony?" bounced Rarity.

"Ah think so! Mah, oh mah, she finally got it." stated Applejack.

"Why with one of the humans though?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Curiosity perhaps?" added Luna.

"We should follow, just in case. I still don't trust these alien guys." said Rainbow dash.

Finding a decent spot to sit down and have a chat, the soldier and pony plopped down onto a soft couch in the courtyard of the castle.

"So, first things first, why is your armor different from your colleagues?" asked Twilight.

"Well, we come from different regiments. I, just so happen to be in the 502nd Bullfrogs, nicknamed the "Helljumpers" due to our jump packs. Seriously, these things just HAVE to send me and the other guys into the most unhelpful of places." calmly stated the soldier.

"L-Like what?" cautiously wondered Twilight.

"You sure? Well alright, we once got dropped into the middle of a battle between a few platoons of grunts fighting off a reasonably large amount of hostile aliens, I won't go into detail about their names right now, and I, along with a few other Jumpers, landed right there, in the middle of the fight." said Screech.

"I-I have nothing to say." stated Twilight.

"Oh, by the way, my thermal visors can see yo-"  said the soldier, only to be interrupted by a intrusive pegasus.

"Just kiss already!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow!" scolded Rarity.

Twilight blushed and Screech could give less of a fuck, so he walked over to the spying group of ponies, who he towered over like a massive palisade.

"Ah, you remind me of my younger years." calmly said Screech.

"Wha-what?" questioned Rainbow. "You aren't mad or anything about the fact that I just ruined a moment between you two?"

"Nope. I'm married, wouldn't make sense to cheat on her." replied Screech.

"Well then, why did you go back here with Twilight?" interrogated Rainbow Dash.

"She was curious on why my suit of armor was different to my squadmates." said Screech.

"That still sounds pretty fishy to me!" said Rainbow Dash.

The brief interruption ended, and Twilight managed to get a few notes out of it as well. Fun times were had, and wonderful music boomed as the group returned to the party. Under the castle however, inside of the old, crystalline mines of old...

"Alright young fledglings, today, we begin OUR first acts of retaliation. Our king managed to get a ride back to the Empire, and we got a window to sneak into the Canterlot party. So, heres our plan..." said an unknown Griffon Infiltrator, pulling out a slip of paper that held the details on what to do upon reaching the castle.

"When do we get to bestow glory on our warband?" queried a trainee.

"Not yet young one, our mission has just started. The Demons have finally come to bestow vengeance upon our brothers, and we must stop them from killing everything else in their path. Their magic may be strong, but our metals shall break their shields! The enemy ship is high, and regular airships may be too frail to get that high, but recent capturing of unicorns to enchant our specialised one, just may be able to get us up to the demon's airboat! So, are you ready to protect our world?" said the veteran Infiltrator.

A resounding agreement later, and the plan was set in stone. The small group of seven just might have a chance to halt an impending invasion.