Conflict of Interests

The coastal town of Steelmare was standing still in the night, quietly waiting, hoping its sleep would not be disturbed. The lights were all out, and the clouded sky offered no moon for the brave soldiers standing guard at the different outposts scattered throughout the city. They had managed to get a whole 2 days without any attack now, but as much as it was a relief, everypony knew this only meant the next one would be more brutal.

In the war-torn land of Cydonia, culture was different. War was the way of life of most of the ponies living there. Thousands of years of conflicts had scarred the land and its inhabitants, and nopony could even remember days of lasting peace. Even books couldn't go further back than the First Great War, where the alicorns – immortal gods basically – left all of Cydonia to the mercy of the then surviving and power hungry royal families.

In a command bunker, buried under the town hall of Steelmare, First lieutenant Silverwing was sleeping lightly, surrounded by his cadets. The aces of the 7th Cydonian air division had already seen the brunt of the battle that left Steelmare as the burning ghost town it was today, but being stretched thin, the air force could simply not offer them leave for their service. Not that they complained though, fighting was in their blood. Every last one of these pegasi were highly trained fliers and decorates from flight school, there were no better unit than those brave stallions and mare when it came to taking on the skies.

A loud buzz suddenly ripped the silent town apart, hastily awaking every last one of its inhabitants.

Steelmare was under attack.

Silverwing quickly opened his crimson eyes and rolled out of his bunk, shaking off his sleep and deep black mane with a quick nod. All of the cadets around him scrambled, quickly putting their flight armors on and forming ranks. Under a whole 2 minutes, every last one of them was fully awake and awaiting for orders. Silverwing directed his sergeants to prepare the ranks for take off in the main hangar and await orders then headed to the control room through corridors that were getting more and more crowded by the second.

The control room was dimly lit, but Silverwing could recognize his Colonel and the unicorn Captain talking over the map of the town. Pegasi scouts were flashing by through reserved tunnels, dropping envelopes of intel in a box as the other lieutenants were sorting the incoming information.

Silverwing dropped in on his superiors, quickly saluting.

''First Lieutenant Silverwing, reporting in''

''Glad to see you Silverwing, we got what seems like a very dire situation at the south gates. The first wave of scouts supposed to sound the alarm were intercepted as something hit Delta camp. We only now had the survivors of the second wave bring the signal to sound the alarm. They were sent in urgency, so they didn't carry any intel.'' The Colonel spoke quickly but in a calm tone. Eveypony reaching such an high rank knew that panic was costly during war.

Silverwing glanced at the intel envelopes periodically dropping in, seemingly dropped by flying blurs. Those scouts were not the most remembered by the people, but in his eyes, they were the most important elements of this army.

''What about the intel dropping in ? Anything we can use ?'' The gray pegasus enquired.

Its the unicorn Captain that spoke.

''Its mostly loss reports, the scouts don't take much time to write anything detailed, the one that we asked to never came back. As of now, the only thing we know is that whatever is attacking is gravely overwhelming every defenses we have'' Her tone was emotionless.

''What are our orders then Colonel ?'' The pegasus asked.

''I don't like this, but seeing the rate at which we are loosing troops, we must form a strong inner defense. We can't afford loosing more troops by sending waves, and its too dark because of the clouds, we can't get any kind of visual from afar''

Silverwing nodded.

''I need your division to form light cruisers, two pegasi and one unicorn per team, you shield the vessels, get close and try to get us information on what is attacking, you have 15 minutes, after that we'll have to prepare to fight blind''

Silverwing frowned, he didn't like the idea of cruisers. They were some kinds of armored chariot that pegasi could drag quickly around the battlefield, having a passenger fire lightning bolts or in this case, a unicorn forming a shield. Still, cruisers were significantly slower than a lone scout, thus more vulnerable. But he knew better than to question his Colonel, especially in a time sensitive situation like this.

''I'll provide my best sergeants to manage the shields and write the intel, you just get us in and out'' the unicorn added.

Silverwing acknowledged, saluted his Colonel and headed into the hangar followed by the unicorn.

''I'm Amethyst, 4th magical ground division, by the way'' the unicorn said while trotting quickly through the crowded hallways, trying to follow Silverwing's pace.

''First lieutenant Silverwing, 7th air division'' he muttered.

Amethyst gasped lightly.

''You are the First Lieutenant from the 7th ? The one that d-''

''Yes, that would be me'' Silverwing dryly cut off. He abruptly stopped and turned towards Amethyst.

''Now, I know what you are thinking right now, and I can assure you its all wrong. I'll be harnessing the cruisers. Have your troops ready and in the hangar under 2 mikes.''

Silverwing clenched his teeth and turned away, not even waiting for an answer. He knew what he had done in the past, and he could understand the concern, but now was not the time to argue. They had 15 minutes to potentially save this whole section, he wouldn't lose a single second of it.

The gray pegasus stormed in the hangar where his troops were waiting standing in clean ranks, visibly worried and exhausted, but ready for action. Those in front of him were the remnants of a unit once two time bigger, they were survivors, they knew the cost of mistakes. That's why Silverwing was proud of leading them. He stopped in front of the ranks and looked every last one of his unit in the eyes before speaking up.

''Alright everypony, we'll be flying in unicorn-shielded cruisers in order to get intel on what got our south gates overwhelmed in such short notice. Now, I know what you are thinking and I assure you I don't like it either, but we have no other choice. The losses are extreme, and the Colonel needs to know what we are fighting to stand a chance at defending the inner city. We have less than 15 minutes left to make this happen so move those flanks''

The cadets quickly saluted and scrambled, forming flaying pairs and harnessing all the available cruisers chariots. A sergeant detached from the preparations and headed towards Silverwing, which was preparing his own cruiser.

''So, we're doing scouting in cruisers now ?''

Silverwing sighted and turned to his sergeant.

''Like I said, I don't like it either Swift, but we cannot afford to fight such a big threat blind''

''So you mean that out of the 4 scouting parties and the multiple couriers they still don't have even any remote ideas of what we are fighting ?''

''Guess not'' Silverwing was growing impatient.

''Lieutenant'' a mare's voice echoed from further in the hangar.

Silverwing turned to the source of the shout. It was Amethyst leading half a dozen unicorns into the hangar. Great, he though.

''You have any specific preferences for team pairings ?'' the unicorn enquired, stopping near Silverwing, slightly panting.

''Stronger shields with lower speeds, performances marks are printed on my guy's helmets, good job getting your troops ready that fast.'' His tone was neutral, but his congratulations were genuine.

The unicorn saluted and directed her troops. Silverwing finished harnessing his own cruiser with Swift's help. He was by far the strongest flier of the bunch – hence his high rank – so he could manage solo pulling a chariot. It had the advantage of being more maneuverable. The lieutenant then joined his troops who were finishing up preparations and last second corrections.

''Okay listen up 4th magical. My boys will do their jobs but I need you to cooperate. As soon as you get a visual you start noting. Assuming that they are ponies ; numbers, weaponry, formations, anything of interest. In the wild chance that they aren't ponies, like we had in Fillystine a few weeks ago, you note absolutely everything. I want hard and smart shields, no permanent projectile shields, understood ?''

The unicorns all echoed a ''Yes sir.''

''And you 7th air, you take our guests in low and fast, don't use normal vectors for nothing we got 10 minutes of clear sky, use them. I want clean curves, plan your turns ahead, no quickly changing direction, those cruisers have way more inertia than your fat flanks, keep it in mind. Low light also means to stay focused, the glare from the shields will likely be a vision hindrance, but I trust you to deal with it.''

Silverwing quickly scanned the troops one last time and signaled Amethyst to hop on his own cruiser.

''Alright everypony move out !''

***

Silverwing was flying at a medium speed, ensuring all of his unit could follow. The air was still filled with the scent of the sea, it meant the fires hadn't started yet, good thing, he though.

The night was extremely dark and the formation had to fly a bit higher than the roofs to avoid unexpected obstacles ; sole fliers could easily recuperate from a collision, not so much whole cruisers, another hindrance. After a couple of minutes of flight, the south gates' fires became visible in the distance, Silverwing slowed down, trying to spot anything of interest. He quickly whistled an order and the whole formation changed shape to expand, each cruiser approaching the gates at a different angle.

''It's mightily calm for an overwhelming onslaught...'' Amethyst whispered.

''Agreed, we need to be careful'' Silverwing replied.

The lieutenant signaled his immediate wingmen to take a bit of altitude and try to get an overview, but without any lights, they couldn't even discern the street layout. The south gate was getting near, and they still hadn't encountered even a single sound, let alone an hostile army. Silverwing was about to call  a wider formation when he heard a loud screech followed by a flash and some kind of deep reverberation. It was coming from one of the low fliers on his left. Silverwing quickly looked at his cadets, still flying the cruiser. Whatever it was, the unicorn reacted well and apparently shielded on time. The gray pegasus steered his own chariot towards his cadets, one of them – Sunray – was obviously panicked, but his companion was trying to keep him calm.

''What happened cadet ?'' Silverwing asked.

''Something jumped on us from the roofs, the unicorn saw it before us and shielded but I think it managed to wound Sunray'' the other pegasus calmly stated.

''How bad is it Sunray ? You can still fly ok ?'' Silverwing addressed the other pegasus, he could see the wound on the cadet's tan coat.

''Yeah.. I-I think it's just a scratch bu- but I don't know. Whatever it was but it was not a pony, this thing had cla-''

The cadet was abruptly cut off by another loud screech, Amethyst instantly put up her shield as a black furry mass bounced off the magical barrier, the shock of magic against flesh echoed deeply in Silverwing's head. As soon as the lieutenant realized what just happened, more screeches got heard and multiple flashes spotted the sky as his troops were getting attacked. Silverwing quickly reacted and shouted his next orders on the top of his lungs.

''Everypony take altitude now !''

The troops in his voice range immediately obeyed as the attacks became exponentially more frequent. Silverwing hastily followed his own order and flew up in a flash, followed by Sunray's cruiser. The lieutenant tried to get a visual and track most of his unit, the situation was not at their advantage. Another beast leaped towards Silverwing's chariot from a roof but a blinding magic bolt hit it just as it was spreading wings to cover the missing distance from its already humongous leap. The gray pegasus quickly shook off the fear and addressed his wingmate.

''Cadets you note what you just saw and get that intel back to base ASAP'' I'll try to pull everypony out, move !''

Sunray and his partner immediately nodded and took a sharp turn to head back. At least the HQ will have some information on the menace, Silverwing though. He immediately scanned again to spot his troops, the formation was still more or less intact as the cruisers were repelling off the attacks, but he could see at least one chariot missing. The pegasus took a wide turn trying to gather as much speed as possible while heading towards his formation.

''Amethyst, global light, now !'' He shouted.

The unicorn immediately obeyed and a huge sphere of light emanated from the mare's body, filling the immediate area in blinding light that quickly expanded towards the ground, revealing dozens of crawling beasts on the roofs and streets. They looked like a mix between an oversized pegasus and a lion, except with disturbingly large grins and claws. The lieutenant looked in shock.

''Take a look and fall back !'' Silverwing shouted almost absently, his stare fixed on the monstrosities.

The pegasi quickly relayed the order and curved in a way to get a glimpse of the lighted area while gathering speed for their escape, Silverwing did the same, hoping his boys could all distance the beasts in time and headed towards the HQ. The shields quickly got replaced by magic bolts, as the attacks were getting more and more intense from the virtually invisible beasts, another cruiser fell to one of them, but Silverwing knew he hadn't the luxury to try and help them.

The situation took a turn for the worse when whole groups of the beasts started joining the pegasi in the sky, not only leaping, but fully flying as well. The 7th air got gravely outnumbered in and instant and  Silverwing could only watch as his cruisers were getting picked down one after the other by the beasts. After what seemed like only a handful of seconds, Silverwing was the only pegasus still fighting. Amethyst tried to speak out between casting magic bolts.

''If you take us back closer I can try to mass teleport everyone out !'' she shouted

''What ? You can't seek out and teleport everyone selectively in these conditions, that's impossible !''

''I could mass teleport the troops, but you need to take me back closer !''

She seemed overconfident.

Silverwing quickly got overwhelmed with doubt. He surely did not want to leave his men for anything in the world, but his intel and the survival of two officers were also valuable assets. The whole battle in the pagasus' mind took only a painfully long split second, but the choice was obvious. He nodded negatively.

''We can't risk it, HQ needs that intel and us'' His tone was dark and decided.

Silverwing knew his emotions would eventually make him regret this decision – sacrificing troops for intel - but right now, he had little choices. Amethyst was obviously not agreeing with him.

''With all due respect officer, buck you, it may not be your style but I'm saving  my troops''

Silverwing was about to angrily call her off for coming back to that again when he realized she had already jumped off the speeding cruiser, teleporting herself to a nearby roof. The pegasus tried to turn back but without the unicorn's help, he was vulnerable to attack, and these harness couldn't unlock in flight.

''Oh for damn Luna's sake !'' he outraged, quickly changing his trajectory to try and go pick up the unicorn before he got mauled by one of those beast for lacking a shield. But the harm had already been done. As soon as he tried to curve back towards Amethyst he felt a deep wound tear through his harness and armor, hurting his left wing and hind leg with what seemed a white hot iron. Next thing he saw through his pain-clouded vision was an immense burst of white followed by an endless void.

For a moment, Silverwing could only sense pain, all of his other senses dulled beyond useability. After what seemed like an eternity, slowly, he started to smell the scent of his own sweat and hear the ringing in his head. He was not flying anymore, he was lying on the ground somewhere. He tried to open his eyes, but realized he was blind.

Images formed in his brain ; colors, sounds, Silverwing could feel his memory slip away, slowly replaced by a strange and peaceful emptiness. He closed his eyes, both physically and psychologically, and let himself fall into the void.