Echelon: Equestria

Princess Cadance was watching the big airship penetrating the barrier. She stared wide-eyed at it.

"Sweet Celestia..." one of her guards spoke in awe. "That thing is almost as big as Canterlot! And it's flying!"

Suddenly, the doors to the throne room were burst open and seven ponies entered.

"Cady!" Shining Armor exclaimed, rushing to his wife and hugging her.

"Oh, Shiny, I'm glad you're finally here." she replied, smiling to her husband. "Did you see..."

"That big metallic airship thingie? Yeah I did." he replied.

"Just what is it? An enemy or a friend?"

"There was something like that, but smaller and faster." Shining Armor started explaining. "I was running for my life, King Sombra was after me, looming over me like a giant black mist. He..." he rubbed his horn, the tip of which had small black crystal shards in it. "Blocked my magic. Thankfully, a small and fast thing saved me. It shot some kind of magical sphere at Sombra. It distracted the king from me, and I was able to escape. And I am sure that I've heard that thing speaking to me. It was hard to hear, but I am pretty sure that it spoke our language. Whatever it is, it's our friend."

"That's good." Cadance yawned. "Oh, I'm so tired. Girls, I need you to do something for me." she spoke to the six mares. "While it will be difficult, it will sure help us..."

Fifteen minutes later.

"Foxtrot, this is Fleet Tango, report."

"This is Foxtrot, everything is calm. This barrier is some sort of illusion, I can't see that black mist through it. But I'm sure I heard banging." Jason replied, checking the perimeter. He flew at the speed of about eight hundred kilometers per hour, at the height of one hundred meters. "Whatever that is, it is trying to get into this city."

The Alpha squad, consisting of three BFF-1 Tempests, was circling around Fleet Tango and the Crystal Palace. Each one of them had a PPC, APC and two PRx8 mounted on.

Jason took a slight turn to the right, flying over a big stadium.

"This is Fleet Tango, then we need to help this city as much as we can. That threat has proven dangerous and hostile towards us. It must be eliminated asap.

"However, there is no time to contact any of local authorities. We do everything we can to help the city. If we succeed, we stay here and make contact. If we don't, we will evade further conflict with the enemy as long as possible and seek for help. It is quite certain that this city has only the barrier to protect its citizens, and our analytics are sure that it won't last long."

Jason slowly inhaled and exhaled. This was proven to be difficult mission, nothing like he has ever encountered before. The outcome of this situation couldn't be calculated by him.

Suddenly, the barrier dropped a little, exposing sickly orange skies. The barrier quickly returned to its previous state, but something seemed to be different.

"Fleet Tango, this is Alpha, I can clearly see black crystals growing near the southern gate!" commander of Alpha squad spoke.

"Destroy them immediately!" Fleet Tango replied, and all the battlefield fighters turned to the southern gate. They quickly made their way to it and unloaded their plasma rockets onto black crystals, destroying them completely.

"This is Alpha, the place is wiped clean!" the report came. The aircrafts returned to their patrol duty.

Everything was calm for a few minutes, thankfully. Alpha has restocked their ammunition, now ready to fight once again.

Then the barrier dropped for the second time, now fading completely. Black mist started seeping into the city, the skies became orange with black clouds. Dark, evil laughter echoed through the city, black crystals emerged from the ground.

"Crystal Heart..." a deep voice spoke, Sombra's head forming from the mist. The ponies started screaming in terror. Jason cursed under his breath, watching the surrealistic things happening before his very eyes. He changed the course, now flying straight to it. Alpha squad have already been unloading their plasma rockets. All of them hit Sombra's head full force, forcing him to retreat a little, grunting in pain.

"Foxtrot, this is Fleet Tango, I heard that him saying something about crystal heart! If that's what he wants, then it can be the weapon that can defeat him! Find it!"

"Roger!" Jason replied, his eyes darting around. He noticed that something was happening on the top of the Crystal Palace.

"My Crystal slaves..."

INT-2 Spirit with wolf imprints on its wings flew to the top of the Crystal Palace where Twilight Sparkle and Spike were trying to get the Crystal Heart. Unfortunately, Twilight was trapped inside a barrier of black crystals, preventing her from escaping. Fortunately, the heart was thrown outside the barrier, and Spike was able to get it.

"What is that thing doing here?" Twilight followed the aircraft with her eyes as it flew around. "Whatever, we have no time for this! Spike, take the Crystal Heart, and go, NOW!"

"Uh, commander..." Jason spoke, lots of contacts appearing on his sensor.

"Attention! Enemy contact!" his on-board computer reported.

"Foxtrot, what is happening?! We see at least fifteen velian aircrafts on our sensors!"

Jason looked at the screen of the camera and zoomed in. Lots of crystalline aircrafts looking like his were flying around. They fired something that looked like red plasma.

"Multiple interceptors!" Jason exclaimed. "They are not velian, they are all made of crystal and look like my aircraft, and they had some sort of plasma weapons which shoot red projectiles!"

"Squad Delta, Charlie, prepare to take off!" Fleet Tango spoke over the radio. "Foxtrot, you have to hold on a little more, the support is on its way! Whatever you do, just destroy the aircrafts!"

"Yes, sir!" Jason replied, locking one of enemy aircraft in his targeting system. Once he was close enough, he fired a shot of plasma, successfully hitting the target and destroying it completely.

"That's more like it!"

Cadance and Shining Armor were staring at the battle wide-eyed. Black aircrafts fought with brownish-gray ones. Last ones were winning without any loss at their side. Shots of plasma flew around, black aircrafts exploding mid-air, and new replacing their place.

Ponies down there were running around, trying to hide from the cacophony of strange sounds.

"What is happening?" Cadance spoke weakly.

"It seems Sombra considers them a bigger threat." Shining replied. "I hope they'll last until the Crystal Heart is found, or everything's lost."

"Over there!" someone yelled from the top of the Crystal Palace. The pair looked up and saw Spike, holding the Crystal Heart in his claw.

A ball of red plasma hits nearby, destroying the crystal where Spike was standing. He started falling.

The crystal of black was rising from the ground, the body of King Sombra forming on it's top. He glared at the Crystal Heart, grinning wickedly.

"That is mine!"

Spike was falling, trying to grab the Crystal Heart that was just a little further from his reach.

King Sombra licked his lips, watching the Crystal Heart fall to its doom, right in his hooves. His shadow crystal grew higher and higher.

Cadance tried to stand up, but fell, defeated by her tiredness. She could only watch helplessly.

"Jason, do something! That heart is essential!" commander's voice sounded from Jason's speakers.

"Oh, I've got a little surprise for our little unicorn king..." Jason grinned wickedly as the red circle of his GM targeting system became green completely.

"Target locked." the soft voice of his on-board computer informed him. Jason exhaled and released two deadly missiles. Somehow, his targeting system could detect King Sombra, marking him as UKn, yet making him red on the HUD.

The King's eyes widened as he saw the two missiles closing in. They hit him full-force, blowing up in his face. The big black crystal began to break under the sheer power of explosion on its top, collapsing.

The black aircrafts exploded one by one, leaving nothing in their place. Squads Delta and Charlie cheered.

Cadance's eyes widened in surprise.

Jason watched as Spike and Crystal Heart still were falling. He flew closer and closer to the two, and saw no option but to open the cockpit to let them in. With a loud thud, both landed behind Jason's seat, shaking the aircraft. He quickly closed the cockpit.

"Ugh, my head..." Spike muttered, his claw finding the heart and hugging it closely. "Mm, so warm... Wait, I need to take the heart to Cadance!"

"Listen here, buddy, you're on board of my aircraft." Jason spoke. "You tell me where you want to deliver this heart, I'll do."

"Who are you?" Spike's eyes widened.

"Oh, come on, there's no time for Q and A session!"

"Uh, fly to the base of Crystal Palace."

"That crystal tower in the center?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Suddenly, something hit the aircraft hard, making it shake violently, the right wing and engine marked yellow on the HUD.

"Damage." the computer informed as Jason cursed.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY!"

Jason looked on his outside cameras' screens and saw the angry looking Sombra, chasing the aircraft in his shadow form.

Cadance and Shining Armor were rushing to the base of Crystal Palace, the later supporting his wife.

"We... need to get to the heart..." Cadence weakly spoke.

They exited the Crystal Palace and saw it, the aircraft chased by Sombra. Jason was closing to the two ponies, his aircraft's cockpit glowing blue.

"Citizens of Crystal Empire!" Cadance started speaking, giving the last bits of her strength to her voice. "Use the love that you have inside to ensure that King Sombra does not!"

The aircraft shook violently as the heart released a wave of energy. Jason'd HUD became blue, his aircraft repaired in a second.

"What the..." he looked back and saw that the heart was glowing brighter. "Commander, something is happening! This heart seems to get more and more powerful!"

After a few moments of silence, Jason heard his commander speaking through outside speakers on the airship.

"Citizens of this city!"

All attention of ponies was turned to the airship.

"The Crystal Heart is just a heartbeat away from defeating your enemy! We try our best, but only you can make it, only you can give the heart the true power!"

Ponies cheered, the heart glowed brighter and brighter, finally releasing a large wave of blue light. It blinded everyone and went like a shockwave, destroying King Sombra completely, returning the sky its natural blue color.

The aircraft shook violently, barely holding itself in place as a source of power released new waves after waves, overpowering the energy system and engines.

Jason opened the aircraft's cockpit, and the heart flew out of it to the center of Crystal Palace's base. Jason barely evaded crashing into one of support constructions of the Palace.

A big blue barrier appeared around the Crystal Empire, now protecting it from any threat to come from outside.

"Oh wow..." Jason spoke. He saw that his craft became as if it had been polished for a month straight. "Fleet Tango, do you see it?"

"The most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life..." commander replied, struck with awe.

"Woohoo, I'm made of crystal!" Alpha spoke, cheering. Three shiny, bluish Tempests did a barrel roll.

Jason turned on the autopilot, took off his helmet and wiped off the sweat.

"Oh, what a day this was..."