A month had passed since Vinyl was taken in by the Chasers, and she hadn’t let them down since. She quickly rose to some of the highest levels of prestige, to the point where she was as widely known as a top agent as Twilight was. This also meant she had a lot of infamy with Seekers and their sympathisers, she had been shot at in the streets on more than one occasion.

In the Chaser databases she was listed as a solo agent and as a duo agent, her partner being Twilight. That’s why she was surprised one day when Luna asked her to do something she wouldn’t have expected.

“Are you asking me to take a new partner?” Vinyl asked. Luna shook her head.

“No, I’m asking you to take an apprentice. You were Twilight’s, but you’ve reached her level now so you’re partners. You will still be a solo and duo agent, but your apprentice will go with you. She will be your responsibility, in terms of instruction and safety until she can take care of herself.” Luna explained. Vinyl looked unsure.

“I’ve never really taught anybody anything, at least that I remember… Why me? I’m one of the newest agents.” Vinyl asked.

“You’re also one of my best. She recently underwent a massive amount of augmentation in order to be here, and she passed all of the preliminary tests with flying colors. She has no specific role or preference, like you, so I feel that you’re probably one of the best to teach her. Not to mention since you spend so much time with Twilight she would be able to help teach her the finer things that you still have yet to grasp. Also, she requested it.” Luna answered. The last part made Vinyl feel very apprehensive. She turned around as the door opened.

“Hello Veronica.” Emerald said. Vinyl gaped at her. She was even more augmented than Twilight, though still not even really close to Vinyl’s level of augmentation. She had a rifle on her back, what looked like a compact machine gun in a holster horizontally at the bottom of her back and a large handgun in a holster on her shoulder. At her sides were trench knives. It didn’t seem like she had any internal weaponry, like Vinyl had, but then again it is technically very illegal.

“You told me you were sick and weak, that’s why your contact with me was scattered…” Vinyl said softly, walking up to the girl and looking her over slowly.

“I was, but because of all this… I’ve been practicing with it too, with the drones at the house. Mom and Dad would only let me join if I promised to send back proof that You’re watching over me here.” Emerald explained. Vinyl smiled light and hugged the girl.

“I warned you about this, Emerald… Your life is going to become much harder now, especially since you’re my apprentice… Twilight and I take on the most dangerous of missions, missions which we’ve barely made it out in one piece.” Vinyl said in a serious tone, holding hte girl at arm’s length.

“And speaking of dangerous mission, you have an assignment.” Luna said, sending the briefing to the two of them to display on their HUDs. “Are you aware that Twilight recently went to Ponyville to assist the small cell of agents we have there?” She continued. A map of Ponyville and a series of identification files opened.

Six files opened, five girls and one boy. They all had varying levels of visible and reported augmentation. The first, a very toned girl with nothing but the HUD and strength augmentations in her arms, was named Applejack. There was one that had about every speed augment legal, and even something similar to the SPIKE systems that was reported in the file to allow her to practically fly for extended periods of time; her name was Rainbow Dash. The next one, a fairly small and frail looking girl with pink hair, was reported to have a series of medically focused augments; her name was Fluttershy. There was Pinkie Pie, who had full biometal arms and legs, and was reported to be a wild card. The last of the girls had quite a few augments in her arms and head, she was reported to be incredible and hacking through the intricate safeties and system blocks of Seeker systems. The last was a boy who was labelled as an independant drone, it seemed whoever built him gave him very draconic features; he was reported to be an expert in Cybermancy.

“The drone at the end there, his name is Spike. Twilight named the exosuit systems you two recently perfected after him. He was a Seeker project a long time ago, but Twilight found him and ‘rescued’ him and reprogrammed him to have free will without the indoctrination the Seekers were programming him with. The reason the rest of them and Twilight are there are because they finally found where he was and they want him back. They have a lot of forces dedicated to it, though, and they need some help.” Luna explained as the map changed to reveal a large complex outside of Ponyville.

“We’re hoping to capture any of them who have power and have memories we could get from them. I know you recently developed a way to interrogate on the field so I’ll leave that as a secondary objective for you. Emerald, you are a Chaser now and Vinyl is your mentor. You should know what you’ve gotten yourself into, it won’t be pretty.” Luna continued.

“I assume we have an airlift waiting for us then?” Vinyl asked.

“Of course, though you’ll be dropped off a bit of a ways outside of the city. You’ll have to break through to get inside. I’ve already sent word of your arrival so they shouldn’t shoot you.” Luna answered, the most recent report of numbers and locations popping up on their HUDs. Emerald’s eyes widened at the force, but Twilight hummed lightly.

“Alright then, we should get the Spectre then. We’ll leave immediately.” Vinyl said. Luna nodded and bade them good luck and the two left.

“Ever since I first saw yours I wanted one.” Emerald said when Vinyl mounted her Spectre, only to find that there was one next to it that Emerald mounted. It obviously didn’t have the weaponization, but it was still impressive. It was a rare machine to see in the hands of civilians.

“Nice.” Vinyl started before looking up to see a Chariot hovering above, lowering to land as it dropped the loading ramp in the hold. The Chariot was a military grade transport aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing, had a large infantry capacity and could even hold a few infantry vehicles and tanks if needed. Two Spectres, one of them little more than a smaller tank really, would easily fit inside.

“You’ll be dropping from the air so I hope those things can handle it, I’m gonna bug out as soon as you’re away. They’ve got a lot of firepower, we’ve already lost a few bats and even a Dragon in that area.” Their pilot said over the radio.

“We should be fine. I’m guessing we won’t be having any air support then, for a force this big?” Vinyl asked.

“Not from me, though one of the agents is part of a privately own squadron of pilots called the Wonderbolts. They probably can’t risk going in while their big guns are in play, but I’d talk to her about that.” The Pilot answered as they took off and shot towards Ponyville. The Chariot wasn’t slow by any means, they’d be there in around ten minutes.

“Our briefing reports armor, know anything about it?” Vinyl asked.

“Two Manticores and an Ursa weaponized to all hell. I hear your Spectre has some powerful firepower though, hopefully that’s enough.” The Pilot replied. Emerald was going to ask what Manticores and Ursa were, but Vinyl quickly sent over files on them. Manticores were large security drones, normally used by the military or particularly rich and powerful private estates. An Ursa was a massive construction drone, the kind that could raise a building as soon as level it. Even with her heavy cannons that one would be particularly difficult to deal with.

“Though that Ursa has yet to charge, they know Twilight’s there. She’s taken out more than one Urse used by the Seekers before, they probably want to wait until she’s too tired to fight against it.” The Pilot continued.

“Makes sense. Emerald, when we get there I want you to stick to me like your life is depending on it because it most certainly will. As soon as we get through I want you to get inside the city, even if I’m not in front of you. I’ll need to deal with their armored units. Find Twilight or any of the other agents and report to them until I get back.” Vinyl said to Emerald as the Pilot warned them they were almost at the drop. The loading ramp lowered and the rush of wind filled the cabin.

“What about the Seekers?” Emerald asked.

“Take out as many as you can without stopping. Unless you’re absolutely sure they can’t hit you back or you’re saving someone’s life, just keep to me or go straight for the city.” Vinyl answered as the red light above to cockpit door turned green.

“Godspeed ladies, here’s to hoping I get to fly you back.” The Pilot said. The two nodded to each other and dropped out of the thing on their vehicles. They hit the ground rolling and shot forward towards where they could see large metallic walls in the distance, as well as hear the sounds of conflict. She looked over as Emerald matched pace with her. She looked scared but determined. She patched into a radio transmission that she recognized and heard the sound of reports and orders.

“This is Chaser agent Vinyl and agent Emerald, we are en route and in sight.” She said when the chatter calmed slightly.

“Are you all the support? We have two Manticores that we can’t get through to. They’ve weaponized with long range and artillery and they’re battering our defenses.” The man in charge explained. He had a heavy accent, but his voice held authority.

“Send me their exact positions and I’ll do what I can, I have my own artillery.” Vinyl replied. He gave an affirmative and she saw her map slowly updating with live information transmitted directly from the troops in battle.

“Um… are either of you medical engineers? We’re swamped here at the hospital and even just one more pair of hands would help immensely.” A very soft voice asked.

“I have extensive medical training and augmentations, Luna said the two of you could use a medic.” Emerald said ,the second part more to Vinyl.

“Oh thank goodness. Vinyl, Twilight is currently trying to deal with those Manticore units so if you want to see her I’d recommend starting there. Emerald, was it? The sooner you get here the better.” The shy voice explained. Vinyl remembered Twilight talking about these Chasers here, they were most of her closest friends.

“Right, then you’ll report to Fluttershy when you get there. We’ll split paths here, use your map and keep your Spectre’s blast shield up.” Vinyl said as the cockpit-like extension of her vehicle went over her. Emerald nodded and did the same, hers much more aerodynamic compared to the practical patchwork of Vinyl’s.

“Hey, if you and Twi manage to take out those Manticores then I can go get the Wonderbolts that are holed up nearby and give us some air support!” A voice Vinyl guessed was Dash’s yelled over the radio as she and Emerald split up. It sounded like she was in the air, as there was a bit of static and the sound of roaring wind. “I can see you now, I’ll give you what cover I can!” The girl continued.

Vinyl put her hand up in greetings as a girl wearing full SPIKE gear matched her pace a few meters above her. She was holding an infantry grade cannon, by the look of it the thing had the caliber of around 37mm at the most as the thing was pretty massive. It wasn’t strong enough to do more than put a few dents in something like a Manticore, but Vinyl’s would probably go right through them.

“That is a sexy piece of machine you have there.” The flier said over the radio, causing Vinyl to laugh.

“I know. Could you do me a favor and look after the other agent until she gets to safety? She’s my little sister and she doesn’t have a weaponized Spectre like I do.” Vinyl asked over the radio.

“On it. Yo Scoots!” The girl exclaimed over the radio to someone else.

“On it!” A young girl called back, having heard the request.

“My little sister.” Dash explained. Any further conversation was cut off as Dash had to weave around fire and Vinyl focused on not losing control of the vehicle.

“Go for it! I’ve got you covered!” Dash called as she zoomed around Vinyl, using her cannon to obliterate any of the drones that came near Vinyl. She saw the Manticores, they were behind large blast shields they they had probably deployed. They looked like large hulking beasts, something like a lion mixed with a bear or something, and these one’s had massive artillery cannons mounted on their tails.

“Let’s do this!” Vinyl yelled, ramping off of the burning wreck of some sort of aircraft to get over the line of drones that had formed to block her from the Manticores. Her Spectre cannons were already ready to fire as she landed. She dropped her blast shield as a long blade extended from her right forearm, nearly as long as she was tall. She used it to slice the tail cannon from the first and, as it turned to face the new threat, sent two blasts of anti armor energy blasts through its chest. She ducked under a massive metallic paw of energy claws from the first one and did a quick 180 spin with the bike.

The cannons weren’t ready to fire quite yet, so she waited for the thing to lunge. When it did she used a blast of the thing’s thruster engines to blast forward, which surprised the thing. She ramped off of its face, dealing a swift decapitation with her blade. It and her arm were spattered with white drone blood as she retracted it, extended the blast shield and the mounted chainguns. She turned her attention towards the now small army of drones.

“Let’s get some real air cover now!” Dash called and shot off in a seemingly random direction with immense speed. She then became acutely aware of a series of disturbances in the mass of drone. She saw the girl named Applejack with what seemed like a huge riot shield and was literally plowing through the drones, firing what seemed to be a very high capacity automatic scattergun. There was the girl named Pinkie Pie, who had one of the happiest grins on her face as she hefted a massive autocannon of enough caliber to cut down at least half a dozen enemy drones every time the thing fired with a high fire rate. It had some sort of energy shield mounted on it protecting her from return fire.

Lastly she noticed the girl named Rarity in the ramparts of the wall surrounding the city. The girl had what looked like, with her sight enhancements and scanning augments, a high powered long range rifle capable of rapid fire. She didn’t see Twilight, though, at least not immediately. She found out why when a familiar Spectre nearly smashed into her from where it seemingly fell from the sky.

“URSA!” Twilight’s voice yelled as she charged off back towards the city. Vinyl quickly followed her, the two mowing down anything in front of them with their chainguns.

“Where in high hell were you?!” Applejack exclaimed over the radio, panting, as she took a moment of rest behind her shield to reload her scattergun.

“Trying to disable that thing before they had a chance to use it.” Twilight answered as they all, except Rarity and Dash, regrouped with the militia behind the defensive line they had set up.

“Jeez, looks like you guys had more fun than we did!” Pinkie exclaimed, looking at the black and white blood of the drones and Seeker agents still dropping from their Spectres.

“Anyone know if Emerald made it to Fluttershy?” Vinyl asked.

“Emerald?” Twilight asked. At that moment, a young girl with full SPIKE gear landed and shouldered the cannon like Dash’s she carried.

“I saw her to it.” The girl said, Vinyl remembered her being called ‘Scoots’ and assumed it was one of the young girls Twilight told her about named Scootaloo. Before any further conversation could be held, though, a lot of the Militia started yelling and going back to their places shooting out of the makeshift walls around the main walls. It was coupled with a dangerously close rumbling noise.

They all yelled and scattered when a massive energy blast hit the main wall and a chunk of it fell on where they were just a second ago.

“GO! TRY TO TAKE OUT THE LEGS!” Twilight yelled. She and Vinyl took to their Spectres and charged the cannons as they used the walls to ramp off of them. Rarity gave them sniper support and Scootaloo joined her, it would be too dangerous to fly around with the Ursa active and her cannon was accurate at long range. Pinkie and Applejack both charged out of their defensive position with yells of determination and glee, weapons blazing. The Militia with similar shields joined them while those without stuck with covering fire.

“Now Mac!” Twilight yelled over the radio when the Ursa noticed her and Vinyl as they concentrated their fire on one of the legs of the massive bear-like thing that towered over them. The wall was nearly 70 ft, and this thing could peek over the top of it if it stood on its hind legs. Their shots went through the outer plating, in which Rarity and Scootaloo immediately focused their fire to try and damage the much weaker inner plating to try and get at the joints and systems.

At Twilight’s yell, a massive volley of heavy anti armor artillery fire came from somewhere in the town and devastated the battlefield, their points of impact painted on all of their HUDs so they could avoid them. The Ursa, with a now damaged leg, staggered around as the massive artillery cannon on its back was blown off and it gained a series of dents and holes all around its body. It screeched a deafening metallic screech and charged towards the wall, though before it could reach it the damaged leg gave out and it tripped over itself.

“Good! We’re not late!” Dash’s voice came over the radio as a large aircraft, somewhat resembling the Chariot but much bigger and identical to the wreck that Vinyl ramped off of earlier, crested over the city walls. It focused its massive arsenal of weaponry on the downed thing, pummeling it into the ground, as what seemed like a swarm of birds dropped out of holes on the bottom and shot out of holes in other places.

The things looked a lot like SPIKE units, though they were fully enclosed. Unlike SPIKE systems, though, they had rigid wings and actual control surfaces like flaps and ailerons. Mounted under the wings were chainguns that seemed to be slightly weaker, but fired much faster, than the Spectre chainguns. Mounted in the nose of what could be considered the head was a pair of cannons, which looked a little more powerful than the Spectre’s.

They swarmed the Ursa immediately, the things almost too fast to follow, circling and diving on the thing in conjunction with the larger craft’s heavy firepower. Within seconds the thing was little more than a mass of biometal and white drone blood.

One of the things impacted the ground near where the four had regrouped again, the tail splitting into flexible legs and someone’s arms covered in some sort of flight suit came out of the wings. The head’s visor went up to reveal Dash’s face and multi-colored hair. Nearly half an hour had passed since their arrival and she seemed a little exhausted.

“Thanks for taking out those Manticores and distracting the Ursa so we could get in, we already lost the one Dragon. Now all of our Bats can clean up the rest of the drone forces.” She said, breathing a little heavily. Scootaloo landed next to her and the girl hopped up to high five the girl that now towered over her in the Bat exoskeleton.

“You got here just at the right time, Vinyl.” Twilight said, hugging her now that the calm had settled as the fighting calmed down to clearing out the remaining scattered drones. It had been a week since they last saw each other. “You said Emerald is here and with Fluttershy?” She asked, stepping back.

“We can talk about that later when we’re still not in danger. Dash, is it? You guys are amazing.” Vinyl said, turning to the girl in the exoskeleton.

“Yeah, you too. Not many Chasers can say they took out two Manticore units, let alone as easily as you did. I’ve gotta go and help finish cleaning up and recovering our dead. AJ, any idea how many we lost in the militia? We’ve got reports of thirteen lost fliers of the weather core and the wonderbolts combined.” Dash said, first kneeling down to bump fists with Vinyl and then turn to Applejack.

“We don’t know exacts, but looks like we only lost a dozen and a half. We’ll miss em and their families sure as hell will, but at least we know they died protecting their home. A lot more would have died if you haven’t showed up, Miss Vinyl.” Applejack explained as Dash took off again, heading towards where the large wreck of the Dragon was still burning. There were already people in SPIKE systems using large energy lances to cut through the hull of the thing and some Bats there to pry plates off or lift heavy things when needed.

“They took the most casualties, so many injured… Half of their total force was on that Dragon Carrier…” Scootaloo said softly as all of the fighting stopped. They all stayed silent for a little while, looking over the battlefield littered with drone corpses. the dead of the Militia were being carefully lined up under large blankets of fabric along the wall while the Wonderbolts and the weather core pulled dead, dying and hurt from the Dragon and the Bats that had been shot down. They were carried up to the dragon that was now entering an easily accessible distance above the city.

“Here in Ponyville we still burn our dead on a funeral pyre, one for every soul lost. I had better go and prepare for it.” Applejack said. Pinkie went with her, the previously hyperactive girl now very calm and visibly saddened by the aftermath.

“Wonderbolts take their losses out on a shuttle raft, you know; the ones that actually go on water, and line them up in their flight suits. They’re given a gun salute from Spitfire’s Dragon there, one for each life lost, and then it’s burned.” Scootaloo explained softly.

“Fitting, for ones who so resemble Valkyrie.” Vinyl said. Scootaloo said nothing for a little while before shooting off into the air to go help them.

“Thank you again for coming, we would have lost so many more lives if it weren’t for you… If I never told you, this is where I lived until I joined the chasers. This is my home, sometimes even more so than the manor back in Canterlot. And because of you, we were all able to protect it.” Twilight explained very softly, to the point where Vinyl would have had to strain to hear it if she hadn’t had enhanced hearing. She smiled and clasped the girl’s shoulder.

“You’ve told me, and I’m glad to help protect anything so important to you.” She said. Twilight smiled back before looking back towards the city.

“It’s going to be a lot of work to clear this and repair the wall. The wall the construction crews can handle, but we Chasers and the militia are tired after fighting for so long. We’re all exhausted. Now that it’s safe, we need to get a lot of hands to help. First, though, I want to go check on Fluttershy and the wounded. You said your sister was there with her?” Twilight explained. Vinyl nodded and they mounted their Spectres and turned them towards the city.

Author's Note

I'll just uh... I'll just leave this here *grins*

Pacing may or may not be an issue here, but it was meant to be a little faced paced considering she just drove headfirst into a massive battle.