Instinctively from the sound of the explosion, I shot up and grabbed my pistol from my bag, it was buried deep, next to my smart rifle. I tucked the pistol into the waistband of my jeans and let my white tank top fall over top of it.

"What the hell was that?" I asked as I stepped out into the hallway almost running into rarity, who was now wearing a pink button up and black slacks, standing on a pair of glossy red high heels.

"I don't have any idea, but it is making quite a raucous, and I was just about to start working!" She whined, closing the door opposite mine.

"Get the T.V. I'm going to step out and see if I can see anything." I order as I step out of the doorframe and lead the way into the living room. She followed and sat down on the couch getting the remote, I stepped out the door, the neighbors on both sides were doing the same thing. There was a plume of smoke rising from the middle of town, in the background I heard the television click on and rarity scream. Leaving the door ajar I spun in place and ran back in, rarity was visibly shaken.

"The explosion happened in town square, a small bakery which was called sugarcube corner." The announcer said staring towards the camera then signing off for the day.

"My friend Pinkie Pie lives and works there." She said in a state of blatant horror, she was staring down at her phone.

"Try to reach her I'll take my bike and head down there." I stated before heading out into the garage, my bike was standing where I left it and I climbed on. The garage door open and I pedaled hard heading directly towards the giant plume of smoke, which was black with streaks of dark grey. I rolled into the square dodging cars left and right, rolling directly towards the burning building, I thought I heard a scream from inside but I dismissed it.

"Pinkie! Is there someone here named Pinkie Pie?" I yelled letting my bike fall to the ground as I dismounted it.

"That's me! Wait that's not me, I mean who's asking?" I heard a loud upbeat voice yell, quickly changing tones, I looked around for the source of the voice but I couldn't find the yelling pony.

"A friend of rarity's, she is worried about you." I yelled my hands cupped together around my mouth, hoping she could hear me over the uproarious chatter of the crowd.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! You're cute, mind letting me borrow your phone so I can call Rarity." The bright pink pony asked as she bounced up and down beside me.

"Um yeah sure." I said and handed the phone to her after I recovered from the shock at what she had said, that being something I hadn't expected. She took the phone and swiftly walked through the crowd out and away from it to hear better as the crowd was quite loud, trying to get the attention of the media.

"Look officer, I'm telling you, I saw a plane flying away! It wasn't no gas explosion." A frantic brown haired pony shouted at a police officer, who just turned his back.

"Officer I have a picture just look!" The man spoke louder flailing his arms, which caused the police officer to turn around.

"Look! I don't have the time for this! I'm trying to get on the line with the freaking fire department leave me alone!" The officer snapped before stalking away from the man.

"There was a plane? And you got a picture of it?" I asked rushing towards him.

"Yeah on my phone take a look." The man presented a picture which had a hazy plane flying away from the cloud of smoke, I could partially make out what appeared to be a Kaikrussia flag.

"Mind if I borrow this to make a quick phone call?" I ask gesturing to the phone and he nods. I dialed a number that I had frequent contact with in the old country, an ally to Ludesma.

"Hello, is this Luna?" I asked into the phone not caring about formalities, I had important information to tell her and her sister.

" yes who is this and how did you receive my number?" Luna snapped from the other end of the phone, clearly in a state of dismay.

"Its ember, I'm sure you have heard of the explosion? It wasn't a gas explosion. A pony here has a picture of a plane leaving the scene." I said trying to reassure her at the same time as giving her necessary information.

"You're in ponyville? why don't you fly on over?" she asked with a bit of confusion.

"Shot in the wings, I cant fly, got any helicopters you can send my way?" I asked pacing in a circle with the phone pressed against my ear. She confirmed and then hung up the phone.

"Can I come with you? " the pink pony asked as soon as I had hung up the phone, she gave me puppy dog eyes.

"We'll see, depends on the helicopter they send." I didn't know why but I felt strangely compelled to get this girl out of here, maybe its how she had just gone through so much, I don't know, but I didn't want to leave her here.

About fifteen minutes later a simple black chopper landed about fifteen feet away, an armed guard shouldered through the crowd, clearing a gap for me.

"Ember? Its good to see you man." The guard spoke, it was Ryan, I worked with him during a small militia attack.

-Two Years earlier-

"Good to meet you Sparks, I assume you have been briefed?" Ryan shouted over the sound of the helicopter, my two other men got off with me and stayed close behind.

"Protect the princesses at any cost!" I shouted back, cocking my smart rifle, it began to glow a bright orange. The glow slightly illuminated my face, even though it was raining. Ryan led me and my two boys up to the ramparts of the castle, the militia stood just out of eyesight, we had orders not to fire until fired upon, luckily we wouldn't have to wait for very long.

"We got gunshots!" One of my men yelled shouldering his rifle, returning fire, the militia stayed just out of sight. I saw the red dot as I heard the gun fire in the distance, the dot was on Ryan's forehead.

"Ryan get down!" I yelled throwing my body against his, knocking him off balance, knocking him out of the bullets path.

"What the hell kind of a name is Ryan anyway?" I say after we hit the ground, as I rolled to my feet, leaving him sprawled across the stone.

"My writer isn't the most creative." He said looking towards the sky, I didn't understand what he said and gave him a puzzled look but he just dismissed it with a wave. I unhooked a grenade from my belt and chucked it over the wall, listening carefully to the explosion, four died, two injured. There was probably only sixty ponies, but that was a rough estimate, no way for me to be completely sure.

I surveyed the area and noticed a large SAM turret pointed towards the sky, it gave me an idea. I slung my rifle over my back and launched into the air, staying below the SAM turret, it was obviously on and I didn't want those missiles being fired at me.

No one was at the site which seemed odd to me, but made it a bit easier, I landed next to the control panel, opening it and shutting down the auto-fire sequence.

"Surface to air missiles just became surface to ground." I say climbing into the control bubble. I had to change a few controls around, mainly so that the missiles would explode on contact with the ground.

"Ryan, you and the boys may want to duck. " I say into the radio waiting for them to be clear before firing, at this, Ryan motioned and the three of them ducked, and I flipped the switch releasing all of the eight missiles.

It left one hell of a crater.

-Present day-

We flew past the crater, landing upon the roof, the princesses, I assumed, were waiting in the large room beneath us. Ryan led us down, bowing to the princesses before stepping out onto the roof and shutting the door behind him, Luna broke from her formal stance and ran to embrace me.

"Its been too long. " She said a tear in her eye as she hugged me tightly.

"Did Ember and Luna have a thing?" The pink pony said to princess Celestia, I forgot we got our formalities out of the way while waiting on the helicopter.

"Yes about three years ago." Celestia replied, looking at Luna as she stepped away from me, she turned to pinkie at what she said next.

"How did he see her on the moon?" Pinkie asked her eyes full of curiosity, looking at me as if I had super powers, or some other nonsensical thing.

"I never went to the moon, that was all a big show to get twilight to stop being such a shut in. It worked very well might I add, but you can never tell her. It would shatter her self esteem." Luna said, her arm still half wrapped around me. Pinkie seemed taken aback by this and half walked, half bounced to me, attempting to plant a kiss on my lips, Luna quickly pushed her aside and stood between us.

"Pinkie It might be best if you waited outside." Celestia said motioning towards the door, Pinkie left glancing over her shoulder at me before shutting the door. Celestia then mentioned the phone and I produced the phone, she plugged it into a computer, enlarged and, enhaced the photo.

"That's Kaikrussian alright, I don't know why but it looks like they are trying to bring Equestria into the war." I said looking out the window to the slight sound of air being chopped.

"Well If its a fight they want, its a fight they've got." Celestia replied slamming her fists against the table. The sound got louder.

"Pricesses I believe its time to go." I said calmly not to arise any panic.

"Why?" Luna asked clinging to my arm, at this point the helicopter bearing the Kaikrussian air defense symbol had appeared in the large glass window.

"Princesses we need to go right..." I didn't even finish my sentence when the missile hit the window tossing me against the wall like a rag doll.

The walls and space around me appeared to be turning black and white, the last thing I saw before I blacked out was the princesses being thrown into the helicopter, their eyes pleading for me to get up and save them.

Author's Note

Ryan is a buddy o mines oc.