My Little Pony: Equestria Warriors

I flipped to the final page in the book, still in complete shock. A small black and white photo fell out. I quickly put my hoof on it so the breeze wouldn't blow it away. I smiled.

The picture was of all six of my grandfather's squadron. My grandfather and his wingman were the only ones looking at the camera. The other four were laughing too hard. The implied camaraderie reminded me of my squadron, and I wondered what had made what was left of the Canadian military command put us all together. I put that thought away and turned the picture over. 'The War Eagles, 1947, Canterlot' was written on the back in cursive. I tucked the photo back into the book and closed it. Taking in the morning for the final time, I walked back inside. As I walked into my room I could still hear Dash snoring, so I slipped into the bed and fell asleep beside her.

About an hour later, I woke up again. Dash was still snoring, so I slipped out of the bed and freshened up in the bathroom. With the last remnants of sleep gone, I walked to the cafeteria. Fareye and Fluttershy were there already, along with Princess Luna and Rarity.

"Morning!" Luna called.

"Morning." I answered back, grabbing a mug of something and an apple strudel and sat.

"Sleep well?" Luna asked.

"Yeah. Had a wacky dream though. Do you know anything about the Battle of Berlin?" A flash of something crossed her face.

"Yes, I believe I do." She stood. "Follow me, please." She walked out of the caf. I blinked in surprise at her icy tone. She was waiting by the stairs.

"Where did you learn about that?" Her gaze was full of fury and hurt.

"About what? The Battle of Berlin?"

"No! The code! That you had a dream about a certain subject!"

"I didn't know. I still don't."

"Then how did you-" She stopped. "You read the book, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"So you know who the original Element of Leadership is?"

"Yeah. Who could've guessed that my grandfather could have saved all of Equestria?" To my surprise, small tears welled up in Luna's eyes before she quickly looked away.

"In the book it said to ask you about the Battle of Berlin, and that you would know what to do." I felt terrible for her. "Maybe... maybe anothe-"

"No." Her voice wavered slightly, but held with steel. "Take Tes and Fareye. Mr. Griz, Mr. Blastburn, and Mr. Gunner are safe for now." She smiled. "They sure can drink."

"Yes they can." I smiled back.

Exactly 15 minutes later our small group, along with Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight, were on the 8:30 to Ponyville. I tried to pry any details of where we were going from Luna, but she remained tight lipped. Tes spent the trip explaining the basic fighter pilot skills to Twilight and the rest.

"You want to come out of the sun, so they can't see you."

"Why?" Rainbow asked. "Why not just stay in the clouds?"

"If the enemy is using radar and spots you in the clouds, he can fire a heat-seeker or just get on your tail. If you come out of the sun, they'll
see the contact, and look for it... directly into the sun. Also, any heat-seekers would just follow the heat of the sun."

"And you want to position yourself above and behind the enemy."

"Why?" Twilight asked.

"So they're trapped between you and the ground. If you're below them, they can fly in almost any direction in any altitude. If they're below you, they can only go down." I grinned. "Pop quiz, girls! What's more dangerous: a heat-seeker or a radar-seeker?"

"Ooh!" Twilight's hoof shot up. "The radar!"

"Why?" Tes leaned forwards.

"The radar-seeker has a longer range and can't be distracted by the sun or other friendly planes."

"But it gives off an alert to the enemy pilots." Rainbow jumped in. "The heat-seeker can be fired close in, so hopefully no friendly planes can get in the way. Plus, if it misses, you can always use your cannons!"

"Now who's the egghead?" I teased. Rainbow blushed as the train began to slow down and enter Ponyville Station. To our surprise it was deserted.

"Didn't you tell Spike to meet us here?" Tes asked.

"Yes, but he must have gotten busy reorganizing the books in the library and just forgot..." Twilight's voice trailed off as she saw three unicorn
stallions on the platform. "What are they holding?" I looked over to see the trio raise what appeared to be muskets towards us.

"Get down!" I screamed, shoving Rainbow and Rarity down into cover. A second later, the train car rocked with impacts. Instantly, I shoved my Colt over the railing and fired three quick shots before ducking back down. The unicorns fired again, and Rarity screamed.

"Fareye, get them to the next car!" I looked at Luna. "Just get the hell out of here!"
Tes popped up and fired his AA-12s.

"No need." He said grimly. "Got 'em." I looked up gingerly to see all three completely shredded, sickly looking green blood pooling around them.

"Hey, Twi, is your blood red or green?"

"Wha- Red!" Tes turned back to the 'unicorns', and before our very eyes, they transformed into Changelings.

"Changeling soldiers?" Luna muttered. "This is new."

"Let's get out of here." I said, walking out of the train car and motioning the girls to follow, thus keeping them from seeing what dual AA-12s could do. They were shaken up quite badly. Luna stepped out behind me and whispered that she would keep the girls occupied. I nodded and went back into the train. Tes and Fareye had already leapt from the train and were inspecting the Changeling guns.

"Bolt action." Tes said as I walked up. "Big, slow bullets." He pointed to the cluster of shells on the ground. "They each fired twice, but there's more shells over here." We went over to them.

"Look." Fareye pointed to three shapes laying on the ground far ahead of us. "Those look like the unicorns that attacked us." My eyes tracked the hoofprints in the ground. They led to a door built into the side of the station. That door was open, with scorch marks on and around the lock.

"Seems as though they locked up these three, and they escaped. The Changelings shut them down." I wondered about the burns on the door.

"I think Spike was in there too. He might have gotten away. We'll have to ask Twilight about it." Tes nodded, and pulled the station's cloth awning down, ripped it in half, and floated each half over to the bodies. When the Changelings and the unicorns were hidden, I called to Luna to bring the group around. When they saw the tarps, they all gasped.

"Are they..." Luna's face was a sickly shade of blue. I nodded.

"They were locked up in the station. Twilight, do you think Spike could have burned through this lock?" I pointed to the door. Twilight swallowed hard and nodded.

"I-is he..?" She couldn't finish her sentence.

"We've found no evidence suggesting that he is." Fareye said, his eyes focused on Fluttershy, who was crying softly into her hair. "When we find him, maybe he can answer how Changelings got this far into Ponyville without us being alerted."

"Changelings can shape shift into any form." Twilight said weakly. "They must have snuck in somewhere."

"Then we need to find that hole and plug it." Tes's eyes burned with barely restrained fury.

"For right now, it will have to wait." Luna said, still shaken. "I'll get my royal guards to... deal with the remains."

About half an hour later we were sitting in the Twilight's library. Spike was shivering in his bed. He explained that the Changelings had locked him and the three other unicorns into the station, and put some sort of spell on the unicorns preventing them from using magic. He had melted the lock, but when they tried to escape the Changelings shot and killed his three companions. The only reason he escaped was because he was short enough that the bodies blocked the bullets. I could almost see the incident replaying in his eyes.

"Survivor's guilt." Tes said suddenly. "I've seen this before." He knelt down next to Spike. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was!" Spike screamed. "It was because I let them out! The Changelings said they would let us go, they just wanted to see you in!"

"The Changelings would have killed you anyways. You gave them more of a chance." Tes said.

"They're still dead." Spike sniffed, then turned to face the wall. Tes stood.

"There's nothing more I can do." He said in a quiet voice to Twilight. "He'll either snap out of it, or he won't. Don't try to baby him that much. Try to get him doing what he normally does." Tes gave a sad smile, and to everyone's surprise Twilight gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you." She said quietly.
Luna quickly cleared her throat.

"Let's get back to our mission. Valton?"

"Yeah. Let's go, guys." Me, Tes and Fareye walked to the door, Luna already waiting, when Rainbow quickly flew over to us.

"I'm coming too!" She said adamantly.

"Okay." Luna said, smiling.

Half an hour later we stood at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Rainbow looked wary.

"This place isn't natural..." She mumbled. Luna pushed on anyways. After ten minutes, she stopped abruptly at a trapdoor built into the ground.

"This is it!" She exclaimed. "This hasn't been opened since the end of the Changeling War." The door glowed slightly as Luna levitated it open.
"It was intended to be a secondary base of operation." A dank, musty smell wafted out. I stepping into the hole and found stone steps leading straight down.

"Watch your necks!" I said, cautiously making my way down. The stairs suddenly turned ninety degrees, and I soon lost any light I had coming in through the open hatch. I was about to turn back when a small, dangling chain tapped my forehead. I pulled it, and dim lights began to glow on the walls beside each stair. I kept going down. Eventually, after three more ninety degree turns, I found a door. Tes and Fareye were right behind me.

"Tes, if you'd do the honours." I stepped aside as Tes concentrated his limited magical powers on the door, allowing to open just enough so we could squeeze through, and we stopped cold.
In front of us was a tall corkboard, nailed to a table. On the table was a giant, dust covered book with a quill sitting in a dried up ink pot. The board was covered in photographs of men, not ponies.

"Are they..." Tes' voice trailed off.

"They're all pilots." Fareye finished. He'd already scanned the whole board. "Looks like from all over the place."
I saw what he meant. I saw two guys sitting and grinning at the camera in front of a couple of Hurricane fighters, the photo black and white. Another was from what looked like the Korean War, with a man flipping the cameraman off as he climbed into his F-86 Sabre. Another looked like WWI, a German plane and it's pilot shown taking off. I also saw the small letters tacked onto the board beside the pictures. I walked over to one and read it. It looked like what a pilot would have written to a loved one in the event that he'd been shot down.

"They've all got letters beside their names." I said.

"Check out the book!" Tes hissed. The large novel had letters embossed in gold, but the dust was too thick for us to see what it said. Tes blew it off.

"The Equestrian Guest Book." I murmured. Tes opened the giant cover to reveal an introduction. Tes read it aloud.

"Welcome to Equestria, pilots! No matter what time, or war, you are from, you are always welcome here! As of right now, we are involved in a terrible fight with the Changeling Army. Just imagine Nazi chameleons.

"However, some of you may decide to not participate in our war. That's fine. You've probably been through a lot, and wish to remain out of it. We can always make use of your aircraft, if you're willing to give it up, of course.

"But for those interested, the Princess's throne room is directly ahead of you. Welcome to Canterlot, and the Royal Equestrian Air Force." Tes looked up confused. "Canterlot? We're in Ponyville."

"I think it was moved." Fareye said. "Most of these guys would've been taken in front of the princesses to be transformed, anyway." Tes nodded in agreement and continued reading.

"All of you must choose a new name. Most find it best to just to use your callsign. All the best, Firebird. Oh yeah, please sign your name into the guestbook, along with your squadron, and the date you arrived." Tes flipped the page. "What the... All of these are messed up!" I looked over his shoulder.

"What?" The dates were all over the place, just like the board. "How in hell can someone from 1968 come here before someone in 1943?"

"Look at the months! They're all in order!" Fareye said.

"Yes." Luna's voice cause all of us to turn. "When Equestria senses that it is danger, it sends out a signal to neighbouring dimensions. Which world called depends on the problem. Years didn't matter, only the moons." She smiled. "Those were the days. The glorious machines taking off daily. The Changelings couldn't get close. Y- Firebird and his squadron kept them at bay." Her smile became brittle.

"Come." She said huskily. "The other rooms are far superior." I caught the slight catch in her throat.

Rainbow paced in front of the pit. She had been told, by a princess, to stay outside until they came out. It was getting dark, and she was getting slightly scared, not that she dared say that in front of Valton or the princess. All Dash wanted to do was to flap her wings and head for home, but she was curious to see what was in the pit.
A growl behind her stopped her pacing. She turned to see gaping jaws and smelled rotting flesh.

The door was just creaking open when I heard Dash scream.

"Oh no." Luna looked horrified. "She's still outside!"
Immediately I drew my Colt and sprinted up the stairs. I saw the blue-black hole that was the door to the pit and exploded out. I quickly saw Dash, laying next to a tree, cowering in fear. Then I realized that the tree was moving. Drool dripped from it's jaws. I fired, the modified Colt's bigger bullets taking chunks of bark off of the thing, which I realized was made of trees. The thing turned, and I smelled something awful wafting out of it's jaws. I kept firing. I must have hit it's eye or something because green goo exploded out of it's head. It howled and charged at me. I dodged and it thundered past me and the pit. Tes vaulted out, and sprinted for me as I sprinted for Dash.

"Dash!" I skidded to a halt next to her. "Are you OK?" She whimpered, and her right wing shuddered. I saw that her left wing looked like it had been through a meat grinder.

"Jesus!" Tes yelled. His AA-12s boomed painfully close to my ears.

"Fuck! What is it?" I screamed.

"More of them! Three...five...GET BACK TO THE PIT!" He screamed back.

"Dash! Can you move?" I yelled, trying to get Dash back on her hooves. She started sobbing quietly and managed a sort of half-jogging limp. Every step brought fresh tears from her eyes. It was killing me to do it, but it kept her alive.

"Look away! I'm throwing a flash!" God knows where Fareye got a flash grenade, but I yelled at Dash to close her eyes and open her mouth. There was no way for her to cover her ears, so this would have to do.
Fareye slung his head sideways, the flash's pin between his teeth. I watched the small cylinder fly through the air, then turned my head and closed my eyes.

The flashbang exploded. Bright strobes of light burst against my closed eyes, and a painful ringing started to chime in my head. I put my head up to get my bearings, then pushed Dash as hard as I dared. We were at the edge of the pit when I saw one of the tree beasts step in front of us. My Colt was up, firing silent shots after silent shots. The bullets ripped through it's gaping jaws, but it didn't slow. I shoved Dash sideways and charged the beast. At the last second, I faked left, then jumped right on too of it's neck. It shook, trying to reach it's head around to snap at me, but I jammed the muzzle of the Colt into it's eye and blasted away. Green goo exploded out of it's eye, and it collapsed. I jumped off, and rolled away as the beast slammed into the ground. I looked up in time to see Dash being pulled into the pit by Luna, and Tes and Fareye falling back towards the pit. I sprinted in as Tes and Fareye slid under a swiping claw and slammed into me. We tumbled down the stairs, some miracle that no one broke anything, and slammed to a halt at the bottom.

"What...the fuck... were they?" Fareye gasped. His voice sounded as if he had a pillow over his mouth. My hearing was coming back.

"I don't know." I said slowly. "Maybe-"

"THOSE WERE TIMBERWOLVES!" Luna shouted. "I CANNOT HEAR VERY WELL."
I shook my head. The ringing in my ears had stopped completely. I looked at Fareye, who was inspecting his other flash.
"It shouldn't be wearing off right now. We shouldn't be able to hear for at least another couple hours, and even then our hearing shouldn't be one hundred percent for a week."

"That doesn't matter. Tes!" I yelled, carefully rolling Dash over so her injured side was visible. I grimaced.
The swipe she took tore her flesh, and blood was slowly oozing from the wound. I could see the muscles contracting as she breathed. Her wing, which seemed to have caught the brunt of the impact, was crumpled. Tes scrambled over.

"Princess, get some bedding! Valton, grab a kit off my pack and open it!" I did as he said, and he quickly unravelled string and a needle. He also pulled out a small shot of morphine. As Luna came back with a couple mattresses, he gave Dash the shot. It didn't seem to do anything.

"Crap! I think it's too small a dose for ponies! That's the one that was in my Raptor's medkit, I didn't see any other painkillers in these!" Tes gritted his teeth. "Dash, this might hurt. A lot." Luna lifted her onto the mattresses, and Tes went to work.
He first straightened her wing, making a splint out of the materials in his kit. Then he cleaned and stitched the gash in her side.

"That's all I can do. She needs some proper medical attention, a lot more than what I can do. I think those Timber-dog's claws may have infected the wound. Her temperatures going up as we speak." Tes looked grim. "We need to go. Now."

"Those... things are still out there. They won't leave until our scent is gone in what, a couple days?"

"We don't have that long." Tes sighed.

It was silent in the bunker, save for the scratching we heard from the timberwolves as they tried to get in. I stayed mostly with Dash. Tes had his AA's trained on the stairs the whole time while Fareye explored the area with Luna. The scratching was constant.

"How's she doing?" Tes asked quietly.

"She's running hotter than before, but still sleeping." We'd found some sleeping pills, and slipped them into Dash's water, since the morphine wasn't working. We'd also given her an antiseptic shot, but it didn't seem to help.

"They need to come back soon." As if on cue, Luna burst through the door.

"Come! We have found our escape route!" With that, she levitated Dash's bedding and Dash and bolted back through the into the dark hallway. Tes and I jumped up and sprinted eagerly after.

"You found another way out?"

"No. A helicopter!" We slowed slightly.

"A heli?" Tes looked confused. "How?"

"No time!" Luna turned left, Dash floating behind her. We turned to see an honest-to-God Huey sitting on a helicopter pad. Without hesitation, me and Tes vaulted into the cab. Dash was placed, very carefully, onto the floor of the cab, with Luna and Fareye in the cockpit. I carefully put a helmet on Dash, and put my own on just in time to hear Fareye say "-et on those M-60s! Those tree things'll be all over us!"

"No need." Luna's voice came through the radio, but slightly muffled. "You'll see what I mean."
I felt the rotors start to spin, and crouched beside Dash, to make sure that she wasn't shaken up too bad during takeoff. Tes was standing on his M-60. The Huey was now hovering, it's engine echoing inside the concrete basin. Over the roar, I heard something else. A rising howl that seemed to cone from the roof of the basin.

"The roof's opening!" Tes called. Fareye grunted. Holding the heli steady was taking almost all of his effort, it seemed.
Suddenly we were clear of the basin, and burst through the forest.

"No sign of the tree-wolves!" Tes yelled. Then he started shooting, his gun at an extreme upward angle. "CHANGELINGS!"
I hopped onto the other M-60, which had been configured for hooves, and fired short bursts at the two Changeling jets that hurried past.

"Missile! Shit!" Flares burst out of the sides of the Huey, and chaff fluttered slowly downwards. The missile decided that the burning phosphorus flare was more of an attractive target then we were, and exploded. But a near-hit was almost as lethal.
The Huey spun violently for several seconds. I braced myself around my door and made sure Dash wasn't going to fly out the side.

"They're coming back around!" Fareye straightened the helicopter and dove low. I closed my eyes as an explosion rocked the heli. Then Tes whooped.

"F-4s! I don't believe it! Phantoms!" Sure enough, two F-4 Phantoms roared past us, finishing off the other Changeling. Both looked a bit tattered, one seemingly barely able to remain in formation.

"Helo pilot! This is Red Ryder flight! Please respond!"

"We copy Red Ryder! This is... the Moonlight Express!" Luna smiled. "Thanks for the assist! We're on a Medevac call, would you mind giving us some cover on the way?"

"Negative, negative. Red Ryder Two-One is nearly bingo, and we've sustained some heavy damage."

"Our base isn't that far, Red Ryder. We can patch you up there."

"... Red Ryder copies."
I nodded. Fareye had gotten the two Phantoms to follow us to the Ponyville runway.

"Fareye, step on it." Tes called. "I don't think we have much time."