"They've forced our hoof!" Luna's voice was close to breaking into Royal Canterlot territory, "we cannot stand for this!"

"And we will not, dear sister." Celestia replied, "But first we need to make a statement. We must make this state of war between us official, as they have not given us that courtesy."

Twilight glanced at Fluttershy, who seemed more relaxed, more confident than she normally was. She no longer seemed to be afraid of General Winterheart.

"Indeed, Princess." Winterheart nodded, "An invasion of the mainland is on the horizon and we must do all that we can to prepare. If you will, I have already drafted letters of request from our allies. I just need your command to send them."

"I have to object to this." Rock hissed, "This is our fight and we will fight it alone!"

"And how do you intend to do that, Rock?" Hunter sneered, "With sticks and stones and swarm tactics? We lack in numbers and training, my dear thick headed stallion. All we can leverage is our technological advantage." He threw a glance at Twilight, "How is the Manehattan Project going on, Your Highness?"

"I was going to check on that when the meeting was called, Admiral." Twilight fought to keep the dread at bay, "So I do not know it's status now. However, it was well underway the last time I was in contact with Radiance.

"She and her team are making good progress, by the way. She told me all sorts of -- "

Celestia coughed to get everypony's attention, "Twilight, do all that you can to maintain that advantage. We will need it in the coming months."

Two Days Later

Princess Celestia stood radiant on the stage, her ethereal mane flowing in an invisible current. Dozens of spellwards crackled and spun around her in a buzzing protective honeycomb. The reporters, capitalizing on this development, asked her if this meant that she was expecting trouble of any sort. Celestia gave them a look that said it was a stupid question.

It was a live broadcast as well. Local and foreign news agencies already had their equipment set up and transmitting to millions of viewers and listeners all over the globe. Hundreds ponies filled the square, all of them whispering and theorizing amongst themselves. She hated to break their hearts like this, but it must be done.

She stepped up to the microphone and cleared her throat.

"Fillies and gentlecolts. I bear a grievous announcement. The thousand year peace has come to an end. I say this to you in this solemn hour -- as sovereign ruler -- in the life of our country, of our empire, of our allies, and above all, the cause of Harmony, that we are in a state of war.

"Last night, the Commonwealth of Saddle Arabia was attacked by the forces of a Warlord known only as Ravenous. Last night, nearly five hundred ponies died. Last night, the Commonwealth surrendered after its leadership was slaughtered to a mare. Last night was the end of an era.

"Saddle Arabia is now under griffon control and is being exploited for its labor and its oil. Its citizens suffer under an iron yoke, toiling in the desert sun under a warlord who will stop at nothing to see our country in ruins."

The crowd whispered among themselves, stunned at the declaration. Many of the ponies bore expressions of horror, some anger, mostly sadness. But there lay an undercurrent of determination.

"We will not let this transgression stand.

"The Royal Principality of Equestria formally declares war on Warlord Ravenous in response to the unprecedented attack on the Commonwealth of Saddle Arabia. We have failed through diplomacy. It is now time for force. Let it be known that we will not relent until he is brought to justice!"

Thunderous applause shook the city square.

Two Weeks Later

It was time to make good Celestia's promise. And what was a better way to show that the Realm would not sit idly by than to launch the Air Force flagship in front of a massive crowd, transmitted to the television and computer screens of millions? The Cumuloseum was as good a place as any.

Twilight watched as the the work crews knocked away the chocks that held the Prince of Steel in place. A low hum filled the air, no doubt the massive airship's powerful engines, as the warship began to move. The gleaming hull reflected the sun's rays as the Equestrian colors flapped in the Cloudsdale wind.

This was Equestria's proud flagship, an old hull bought from the griffons before their Empire collapsed. It had taken five years to refit everything for ponies and to modernize and replace incompatible systems. And everypony thought it was the pinnacle of Equestrian military technology, almost everypony.

Almost everything had been replaced. An Etheric reactor now powered the warship's powerful jets. Improvements in detection and electronic countermeasure systems meant that that the sensors suites had to be replaced. The griffons no longer made ammunition for the guns, so they had to make do with 155 millimeter guns modified from ground-based Shatterer artillery. A smattering of air defenses and light weapons completed the mix. There was talk of outfitting the Prince with VLS cells, but the project had been scrapped due to a lack of funds.

There was no doubt that Ravenous didn't have to work around that limitation.

The hum built up to a loud roar and bright pillars of Etheric flame shot from the airship's belly thrusters. The crowd erupted into wild cheering as the warship ascended, breaking free from the slips to join its cousins, Eclipse and Dawn, Equestria's only carriers.

The Prince took the lead, its massive turrets slewing around until they were perpendicular to the ship's axis. A series of thunderous booms sounded over the cheering as smoke and flames burst out of the gun barrels by way of salute.

Seven blurs shot out of a hangar. Six of them trailed dark stormclouds interlaced with flashes of lighting. The seventh, in the center of the v-formation trailed a band of rainbow. The fliers moved with exacting precision and unmatched elegance in the air, looping, rolling, weaving as they dropped off from the formation in pairs until only the rainbow trail remained. It leveled with the Prince, accelerating. A shock cone formed ahead of the pegasus, bleeding Etheric energy in prismatic waves.

Suddenly, silence.

Boom. Boom. Boom!

Three rings of rainbow-hued energy expanded along the rainbow trail as the flier slowed, allowing its her wing-mates to fall into formation.

Twilight smiled, pride welling up in her heart as surely as the tears in her eyes. Rainbow had worked for months to perfect that stunt.

"You cryin', Twi?"

"Nope, it's liquid pride. Totally different thing."

"I kin agree with ya on that."

Twilight watched the rest of the ceremony with little interest. The crowd and the camera crews had already pulled out, but some of the photographers had stayed to gather more shots. Hopefully

Mothballed airships were being pulled out of the yards, refitted, and pressed into service as soon as the upgrades could be finished. On the other hand, weapons and vehicles designed and developed only to appease the brass's concerns were being put into mass production at Royal Armories and Foundries plants all over the country. Even the designs that didn't look so good on paper were being put through another round of development, a second lease at life so to speak.

One of the airships being rolled out was an old Meteor-class, refitted from the griffon Wingblade. It looked decidedly non-aerodynamic with its blocky superstructure and blunt nose. A failure in one of its burners as it cleared the slips resulted in it rolling over and nose-diving into the clouds. Thankfully nopony was hurt. The warship, however, was a write off. Twilight decided to bump up the contract for new Vindicators by five as work crews levitated the wreck to the repair yards.

A batch of F.4 fighter exoskeletons turned out defective and were returned to the Foundries for replacement. Thankfully, new units were being sent over from Neighpon, Stalliongrad, and Stirrup. Germaneigh was also sending old bomber exoskeletons. Flockheed-Maretin and Northclop-Grucolt had been contracted to take up the slack, and were due to deliver their first batch of F.16 Dart and F.14 Mustang exos in the next week. All that was needed were the ponies to pilot them.

Rainbow Dash spent a couple of hours sizing up the new recruits and ten minutes yelling at them for making a remark about her flank. Twilight didn't know whether to be amused or insulted, so she decided to be both.

They'd gone down to Ponyville for lunch and reviewed the Royal Air Militia's equipment. A quarter of the armor units were in sub-optimal condition, some of them almost laughably so. There weren't enough combat harnesses and machine guns to go around as well, since most of them were handed over to the army and militia. Hamstring & Kolt had promised to make up for the deficiency, but an industrial accident and the resulting fire delayed the schedule.

Twilight gritted her teeth and canceled the contract as soon as she got into her study. There were dozens of guards now. They wore full combat armor instead of the traditional ceremonial gear, almost making them look like the museum displays downstairs.

However, appearance was as far as the similarities went. The armor, despite being a ten year old design, was still capable of stopping a 7.62 mm sniper round, light enough to prevent fatigue, and even assisted the wearer in carrying itself and other loads. The helmet was packed with electronics, cramming a sophisticated augmented reality display, sensors, and communication gear into a fully-enclosed, lightweight package designed to fit comfortably on a pony's head regardless of the horn.

She couldn't help but admire the sophistication and hard work that had gone into engineering this protective marvel.

Strangely enough, the Democratic Front had gone quiet despite the build-up. This was the perfect excuse for them to increase their activity, so why were they just laying low?

Twilight decided she wouldn't like the answer.

"All elements in position, starting mission clock. Oracle One, fire when ready."

Stormbearer surveyed the compound through her scope, safely tucked away inside a cumulus. The optics highlighted the targets, placing red diamonds over their figures as additional equipment transmitted their positions to her teammates. There, on the western side was Strike Two, composed of an earth pony and a unicorn, Adamant and Midnight Glimmer respectively. On the eastern side was Strike One, a pegasus and a unicorn, Thunderclap and Magic Bullet. Oracle Two was nestled in his nest on the mountain due north.

[MISSION CLOCK: 0:00:05.2]

Stormbearer sighted one of the compound's sentries, a minotaur reading a magazine as he sat in his watchtower. She started her breathing, visualizing the trajectory of the bullet as it made its way into the minotaur's body. She exhaled, squeezing the trigger.

The firing pin moved forward, igniting the primer charge which in turn ignited the propellant, driving out a 45 gram Tungsten-carbide slug at roughly nine-hundred meters per second, delivering around nineteen-thousand Moules of kinetic energy to the target. The minotaur's torso ceased to exist in the time it took for the blowback to work the reloading mechanism, readying a similar round for firing. Overkill? Yes. Satisfying? Buck yeah!

The cloud had an added bonus of nullifying the noise her rifle made, keeping her safe from detection for the while.

[MISSION CLOCK: 0:00:06.25]

She and partner picked off targets of opportunity with contemptuous ease, reducing the compound's exterior patrols from ten to zero in roughly the number of bodies they had created.

"Go, go, go!" She whispered.

"Go, go, go!" Stormbearer's voice filtered over the headset.

Midnight Glimmer responded by teleporting himself and Adamant over to the compound gates. Adamant plastered the breaching charge onto the sheet-metal and nodded to him. He tossed a couple of flashbangs over wall and heard cries of surprise. Bang! Bang! Pained cries. Adamant detonated the charge and they rushed in, dispatching the stunned minotaur and griffon guards with deadly efficiency.

A griffon tried to leap into the air, but a burst of rounds perforated her wings, and ultimately her head. Blood and guts sprayed from a minotaur's torso like red confetti as he raised his rifle. The minotaur collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

It was over in seconds.

[MISSION CLOCK: 0:00:15.7]

It was a shame that the minotaurs had to be roped into this. But that was the consequence of sharing borders and allegiances with the griffons. Many were deeply patriotic towards the old griffon-minotaur Empire and saw Ravenous as a way to bring the times of glory back.

Midnight scanned the area. To the left, south, was a barracks and a motor pool. To the north was the mess and the command building judging from the numerous antennas poking from its roof. A griffon wearing an ornate uniform blearily stumbled out of the command building. Their eyes locked for a moment, surprise being the dominant expression on the griffon commander's face, and then his head exploded as a 1.27 centimeter round passed through the skull.

A mixture of griffons and minotaurs burst from the barracks, some of them quite literally, and fired wildly in their direction. He threw up a barrier as they retreated behind cover. Adamant reared up behind the shipping containers, hefting Bertha -- his heavy machine gun -- into a firing position. He pulled the trigger. Brass casings littered the sand as the 1.27 centimeter slugs reduced bodies to mincemeat, forcing the tangoes to find their own cover.

Midnight saw a grenade sail towards them and swatted it back with his telekinesis, only to watch in surprise as the magic slipped off the explosive. Adamant dragged his sorry ass into cover just as the grenade exploded. A fragment clipped off the top of his left ear and he screamed, throwing a bunch of grenades over in retaliation.

The explosions sent dirt and guts showering over them. And suddenly everything was silent.

“Strike Two clear."

The griffon went down as magically accelerated projectiles pierced into his brain. Magic Bullet pulled the Neighponese throwing knives out, cleaned them on the sand and held them ready to strike as they rounded the corner. The gunfire from Two meant that all of the attention was directed away from One, allowing them to sneak around and compromise the situation from behind. But it didn't hurt to be prepared.

"Strike Two clear."

Thunderclap grinned as Midnight's voice filtered over the comms, partly because his friend was still alive, and partly because he sounded like he'd been caught on the wrong end of a wyvern. They linked up at the command post, checking every room for a sign of the pink mare they were looking for. An hour passed with the mare still missing and Thunderclap was considering terminating the mission when Magic tripped over a rug, exposing a trap door.

"Of course." Thunder rolled his eyes. "There always has to be a cellar."

Midnight and Magic pried open the door and dropped a magelight in, illuminating a small space. Thunder took point, flicking the light switch as he descended. The room was clean for one, none of the blood and shit that could normally be found in a captive's cell. Second, there was a pink cake, a couple barrels of cider, and a bunch of balloons. Thunder blinked.

"What -- "

A pink blur suddenly appeared in front of him, making him rear up and let out a surprised whinny "Hi! I'm Pinkie!" It said.

Twilight jolted awake as the explosion shattered the midnight silence. Lights all over the city flickered on. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the balcony, where she saw the plume of black smoke rising out of the commercial district, backlit by a blazing inferno. The guards burst into the room and swept it for threats. Once confirming that she was safe, they moved to take her to the safehouse.

"What is the meaning of this? What happened?" She asked.

"Somepony set off a bomb in Commercial, in front of the Carousel Boutique I think."

"What?" Twilight's heart leapt into her throat, "No! Get me an escort! I'm going."

"Your Highness, I don't think th -- "

"I don't care! Just do it!"

"Right away!" The guard galloped off as Twilight put on the protective vest she'd been given.

The vest could stop even large-caliber rounds, provided they got past the barrier enchantments and spell-wards first. The small battery built into the garment could be recharged and supplemented by the wearer's reserve, providing additional protective capability for as long as the wearer could hold out.

Twilight packed her combat magic books into the safe and closed it, placing an additional layer of security with a quick flurry of spells. If anypony tried to open it without her permission, she would be alerted and they would be knocked unconscious until she cast the counter.

A phalanx of pegasus guards took formation on the balcony.

"Your Highness."

Twilight flapped her wings and launched into the air, "Let's go."

The storefront across Carousel Boutique was in ruins. Fire ponies were already hard at work dousing the flames while forensics and explosives disposal teams moved around the crime scene. An ambulance sat by the corner, its lights flashing as a bunch of first response ponies treated whoever happened to need it. She landed beside the ambulance and nodded to a paramedic, and then began her search for Rarity.

Twilight found the marshmallow-colored mare sitting at the back as she was treated for a wound on her foreleg. There was a faraway look in her eyes.

“Rarity!” She rushed over, “Are you alright?”

The mare in question shook her head, her eyes focusing on Twilight. She was silent, and then tears welled up in her eyes as she sobbed. “Twilight! It-it was horrible!”

The paramedic nodded as he finished bandaging her up and stepped aside, letting Twilight comfort her friend. She reared up and wrapped her forearms around Rarity’s neck and gently ran a hoof through her mane. The white mare’s tears soaked into her coat and mane as muffled sobs racked her body.

“Th-there was a stallion!” She managed to choke out between sobs, “He just-just blew himself up! He was yelling horrible things about us, and you, and the princesses!”

Twilight blinked. The calculating, strategic part of her mind branched off even as she soothed her friend. Terrorism of that sort meant undying devotion to a cause. The cause in question was obvious, going by the information Rarity gave her, but for there to be a sudden escalation in the level of violence, either a massive change in mentality or a division in the ranks had to occur. Either way, more data was required before she could come to a conclusion. Either way, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Rarity had fallen asleep in her legs. Twilight motioned to a paramedic and asked her to be brought to a hospital as she gently laid her down on the floor. She fought to keep herself from crying in front of her subjects.

“Captain Watch,” She barked. Now wasn’t the time for tears, “send for a detachment of Sentinels to escort the Element of Generosity.”

“Your Highness!” The guard captain saluted and relayed the orders into his headset.

Twilight turned to inspect the scene of the crime. A blackened crater marked the site of the explosion, and judging by the damage inflicted it was a small explosive. Whoever wanted Rarity dead would have used much more explosive than that, so something might have gone wrong with the explosive. Her assumption was proven correct when a unicorn in a bombproof suit levitated a piece of tattered cloth – part of a vest – with gray blocks plastered all over it.

A team of specialists worked to disassemble the bomb and neutralize the explosive. To do that, they had to detonate it. The unicorns in the team placed the explosives inside a container and cast an inverse shield dome around it. Twilight peeked into the Ether and copied the spell matrix before decompiling it, saving the results in her mental library. She already knew thousands of spells, including ones that were either currently too difficult for her or illegal for civilians to cast, one more was just a drop in a bucket.

A loud THUD emanated from the box and the unicorns sat down, panting. One of their team members passed around bottles of water and unsealed the box. Smoke poured from the open lid as another set of unicorns upended it, shaking out the particulates inside into an evidence bag before returning the box to the truck it came out of.

The ambulance turned on its sirens and sped away, carrying the wounded to Ponyville Medical for further treatment, leaving her in its wake.

A feeling pricked the back of her mind. She was being watched. Twilight didn’t bother to look around as she ran a scanning spell, finding the stalker hiding in a back alley. She sighed, put on her best threat look, and pulled the pony out of the alley with her telekinesis. It was a lanky pegasus stallion with brown hair, a cream-colored coat, and a camera around his neck.

Twilight sighed again, “Featherweight. Those pictures are government evidence.” She said evenly, feeling a pang of sympathy as he shuddered, sniveling at her hooves, “If you surrender them now, I’ll let you go.”

Featherweight took out the camera’s memory card and hoofed it to her with a sheepish but thankful smile. A red tint crept onto his face as their hooves touched for but a moment. If Twilight had a reaction, she didn't let it show.

“Is that everything?” Twilight wasn’t taking any chances with the media, not after a certain cake incident.

The stallion gulped and removed two more memory cards from his camera bag and gave them to her.

“Thank you for your service.” Twilight bowed, levitating the crystalline devices over to a forensics pony, who placed them in an evidence bag.

Twilight decided she needed a good, hard drink while she mulled this over. Time to call Applejack and the rest of the girls.

“Strike, be advised. You have inbound hostiles on your position. Suggest you finish whatever you’re doing there and exfil. Will meet up at designated EZ.”

Midnight swore, choking on the cupcake he was currently in the middle of inhaling. He initially didn’t want to eat, but the pink pony had insisted so profusely that it was the only way to get her to move out that he gave in. The fact that they were so damn good didn’t help at all, and one cupcake led to another, leading him to the current situation.

He cleared his throat, “Copy, Oracle. What is force makeup?”

“Five trucks, four Mikes each minus driver and shotgun, some with heavy weapons. Five Golfs flying overwatch. LAV convoy lead, looks like HMG kit.”

He turned to Pinkie, who was twitching all over. Adamant and Magic were panicking like a pair of recruits at the spectacle. Midnight found it hard not to slap them. Thunder facehoofed.

“Why did I sign up for this?” Thunder sighed as he finished the last slice of pie, a contemplative look on his face, “Quite good though.”

“Oh boy! It’s a doozy!” Pinkie stopped twitching, “It’s an excessively-explosively-ebullient-echelon-of-enemies-coming-from-the-east kind of doozy!”

“What.” Midnight shook his head, “Let's, pony up! Let’s go go go!”

Pinkie saluted, “Okie-dokie-lokie sir!” She hopped upstairs.

“Adamant! Magic! Stop horsing around; get us a ride out of here!”

The four of them followed their objective into the motor pool, where Midnight saw a pink blur disappear into a Swiftwind Infantry Fighting Vehicle’s command hatch. He was about to drag her out when he saw her operating various levers and buttons on the control panel from her seat at a breakneck pace as the beast rumbled to life.

“Works for me.” Thunder shrugged as he manned the gunner’s station, loading a fresh belt into the 50. caliber machine gun.

Midnight put away his reservations on how this civilian knew how to start up a military vehicle, let alone one that belonged to the enemy. The time for questions would come later, now was the time to survive.

Magic and Adamant clambered into the rear compartment and strapped themselves in while Midnight squeezed into the modular weapons station underneath Thunder and did a quick once over of the controls. They were similar enough to that of the Chariot’s and seemed to be intuitive enough for him to work out the differences where they differed.

“Everypony strapped in?” Pinkie called out, “This is gonna be a wild ride!”

“Tell me about it.”

Pinkie cheered as the war machine barreled out of the garage, crushing a jeep underneath its oversized wheels as it turned onto the road.

“Incoming!”

The minotaur manning the Light armored Vehicle's gun mount threw away the disposable launcher as the rocket barreled towards the commandeered Swiftwind. Normally, either Magic or Midnight would have deflected the projectile, but their frantic screaming about how their magic wasn’t working told lots about why they didn’t.

“Hold on!” Pinkie cried, turning the IFV into a six-wheeled drift.

Thunder screamed as he was pressed against the side of the station. So did the two other passengers. Midnight’s head slammed against the wall, causing stars to burst out across his vision as the rocket flashed past with mere centimeters to spare! The crazy civilian driver righted the vehicle with a whoop.

“Buck me.” Magic groaned.

Midnight swiveled the turret around and let loose a burst from the 2cm autocannon. The heavy rounds punched right through the LAV’s armor in showers of sparks. The vehicle stayed steady, then swerved, and finally crashed into a convenient rock outcrop that resulted in a thunderous shower of smoke and flame. Debris rained down all around them.

Thunder ducked as a barrage of rounds cracked overhead, and then retaliated with a stream of fire that sent a couple of minotaurs tumbling off their open tops. The IFV hit a bump, nearly throwing him out of the turret. Midnight shoved him back in with his telekinesis, confirming his theory that only the RPGs were now somehow immune to magic, and that his horn wasn't broken.

He filed that away and blasted a truck with 2cm rounds, wrecking its front and sending it barreling end over end into a fiery conflagration.

The hay is going on with all these explosions? He thought.

Somehow, the wreckage caused a pileup of explosions, leaving them with only one pursuer. The vehicle then proceeded to suddenly and inexplicably blow itself up slow motion as the gunners unloaded a burst of fire into its engine compartment, leaving the ponies to ponder just what was inside their bullets as they rode into the sunrise.

Author's Note

Thanks to Jioplip and Migs for going over this and pointing out my atrocities!