Cosmic Rifts

Chapters

Chapter I: Portal
Chapter II: Volunteers
Chapter III: Solar Glory
Chapter IV: Battle
Chapter V: Tank
Chapter VI: Pink
Chapter VII: Drop
Chapter VIII: Bombs
Chapter IX: Present
Chapter X: Aid
Chapter XI: Dragons
Chapter XII: Flare
Chapter XIV: Charge
Chapter XV: Resolute
Chapter XVI: Heat
Chapter XIII: Practice

Chapter I: Portal

"Do you think we're ready, Aether?"

"Hardly, no one can ever be truly ready for war, Starlight," I answered, as I watched troops marching through the portal to Selene, as Starlight and I stood off at a distance. After my meeting with the princesses, I returned to Ponyville with Twilight to say goodbye to my friends and Pinkie. It was a somber affair, especially since Pinkie had me in one of her hugs of death while she bawled her eyes out at the news. Rainbow also wanted to go to war, as a Wonderbolt, but I dissuaded her by pointing out how Pinkie would feel if one of her closest friends also went to war. It took a day before I could go to the base, mostly due to Pinkie throwing me a 'farewell and stay safe' party. Odd that even with such a somber issue hanging in the air, Pinkie could still find a way to put everyone in a good mood.

"True, though I can't handle the thought that I would be sending ponies to battles where it could end in their death," Starlight said with a shudder.

Shrugging, I replied, "Better get used to it, you'll be working closely with Shining Armor and commanding officers of the royal guard and the E.U.P."

"Wait, aren't you going to be commanding troops too?" Starlight asked, puzzled by my statement.

"Somewhat, but like Luna, I'll be on the front lines more often than not."

"But you're the captain of the Aegis Guard. Shouldn't you be directing your troops like the other captains?" Starlight asked, causing me to raise an eyebrow at her.

"On paper, yes. But I'm more comfortable fighting for my life than most people are. The troops need examples to follow, so by fighting alongside my forces, I'll be raising morale. Besides, the Xartik are constantly modifying their machines, so by being on the front lines, I have a better chance of predicting what units and tactics they’re likely to throw at us," I answered, only for Starlight to give me a skeptical look.

"You spent years complaining about training ponies for this war, and you always had dreams of retiring and living a quiet life. This is far from that," Starlight declared while poking my chest with a hoof.

"Yeah, I can be a whiner, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do my part. I would rather do all I can to make sure war never comes home, instead of just cowering behind a desk while sending ponies to die in my stead," I explained, causing Starlight to tilt her head at me.

"Oh... wait, are you calling me a coward?" Starlight exclaimed as her head shot up into the air in shock.

"What? No, of course not. You're just taking care of whatever slack I leave behind by being on the front lines. There is a reason why I wanted a second-in-command so early in my career," I replied, while giving Starlight a somewhat manic grin. "Besides, if I were to fall in the line of battle, you'd be my successor."

Whatever retort Starlight had for me died on her lips as she gaped for a moment, before regaining her composure. "You think you might... die in battle?"

"It's certainly a possibility that I'm going to get hurt in the upcoming battles. There’s no way I'm coming out of this without at least a couple scars," I said in a matter–of–fact tone similar to Twilight's, which greatly unnerved Starlight.

"If you weren't originally an alien, I would think there’s something seriously wrong with you for bringing that up," Starlight replied, to which I just shrugged to.

"You may say that now, but after this is over, odds are others may start adopting that viewpoint. Equestria has seen too much peace, so the realities of war are going to be a shock for everyone. Anyways, Starlight, it’s time for me to head out. I have no idea when the Xartik will start their invasion, but I want to be ready at a moment’s notice, as soon as I possibly can," I explained. As Starlight gave me a nod and a wave, I waved back before I headed towards the portal, where the troops stopped to allow me to step through the portal.

On the other side, Luna was already waiting for me, suited in her own armor, which thankfully was for functionality over appearances. It was mostly composed of a protective suit, covered with rune-inscribed plates and with gems socketed into them. As powerful as the princess may be, once the Xartic learn their importance, they won’t show any mercy in their attempts kill them, meaning they both agreed to getting the best protection possible.

"Greetings Captain Aura, it is pleasure to finally see you on Selene," Luna said as she came to my side.

Giving her a quick bow, I replied, "It is a pleasure to see you on the ready here too, Princess Luna. Has any developments occurred after your arrival?"

"Fortunately, no intrusions have occurred. However, I have placed all outposts and bases on high alert, while dispatching troops and supplies as needed," Luna answered as she started to walk, presumably towards the base's headquarters as I tagged along on her right side.

"I see, how many soldiers have arrived?"

"Currently, only about two thousand, three hundred of your Aegis Guard have arrived, with two hundred of my Lunar Guard. The E.U.P. forces will take about a week to mobilize before they are ready to arrive, however more of the three Guards will come in during the meantime."

"I see. Hopefully, the armies of the other nations will arrive before the Xartik do. Otherwise, we don't have a chance in Tartarus keeping them from gaining a strong enough foothold on Selene, one which they would use to set up a base. I’d rather not have to dig them out, it tends to be a bloody affair," I replied. As much training as I could give to my Aegis Guard and the information on standard firefights, I couldn't prepare them on how storm or destroy the any fortifications an invasion force establishes, which could end up costing hundreds—or even thousands—of lives to remove them. Hence I placed an emphasis on making sure to repel any intrusions as fast as possible. "How's your control over Selene's moons, Princess?"

Shortly after setting the first military base on Selene, we explored the possibility of Luna being able to move Selene's moons as she does with Equus's moon, on the idea that they could be used against any alien spacecraft that may arrived during the war. It turned out she could, although she expends a greater amount of magic, along with the fact that since Selene's moons have their own orbit, Luna had to put extra effort in returning them to their proper orbit. However, regardless of the consequences of the moons moving about on the world, they were our only means of combating any large scale capital ships the Xartik could bring in. Hopefully they would only bring in a few at the beginning before abandoning that tactic, since there isn't much one can do to stop a planetary body from crashing into your fleet. "My limit on my ability to use them has improved, however it is still taxing on my magic, hence I have ordered multiple magical batteries placed at our most secured bases, as you recommended," Luna said as we reached the headquarters, opening it to reveal Golden Sword with several other Aegis officers, along with a couple of Lunar officers, all of whom were overlooking a projection of Selene as they discuss troop movements.

"That's good to hear, hopefully you don't have to do much, but better to err on the side of caution. We have no idea just how much resources the Xartik would employ to win this upcoming war," I replied, before I heard one of Luna's officers clearing his throat out. "What is it, Lieutenant Crescent?"

"Captain, I mean no disrespect, but how are you certain that the Xartik will so casually enter a full-blown war with us? It seems unlikely that an alien race would start a large-scale war with a new species if the said species demonstrates the capability of fending them off?" Crescent asked.

"It's a bit complicated, but in this matter, it all depends on whether or not the end results outweighs the costs. The Xartik rely on a massive robotic force that is lead by a few of true Xartiks, who normally direct from safety on their private warships. In truth, or at least what most folk believe, the real Xartiks are a weak-bodied species that control their forces like some kind of grand corporation. So, those on top simple direct their forces at whatever interests them or benefits them. Since we belong to a species that probably wields a power never seen before in the interdimensional community, odds are they’ll either want to enslave us to study and make use of our magic, or wipe us out so we can't pose a threat to them. Perhaps both," I answered, as I idly poked the projection.

"What expectations do you have once they begin to invade?" Luna asked.

"I can't be certain, but since that probe crash, odds are they won't risk their large deployments until they have a stable means of reaching Selene. So odds are we'll be dealing with a series of expedition forces, with some possible aerial support. Though the moment we start seeing warships coming in, we have to assume they either figured out a way to create stable transit, or have set up a base that acts as a inception point for their forces. Though, we shouldn't go on any assumptions beyond accepting that anything could happen. No one knows for certain just what secret weapons the Xartik may possess," I replied, as I rubbed my chin in thought before shooting a glance at Luna. "Just how long before your sister arrives, Princess?"

"It may take a few days, for she has to inform all of the other nations of the intrusion, as well as aid them in mustering their forces."

"Darn it, I rather have as many heavy hitters here right now that we can spare," I muttered out.

"I'm certain that both you and I will be enough to suffice for the time being," Luna declared, causing me to cock an eyebrow at her.

"What do you mean by 'you and I' being enough? Specifically, the 'you' part," I questioned.

Giving me a look of mild surprise, Luna responded, "You don't consider yourself an important asset on the battlefield?"

"I'm just a pony Luna, abet one of alien origin, but just a pony nevertheless," I countered, only to receive a mischievous laugh in return.

"Captain Aura, you shouldn't belittle yourself in your own capabilities. You're a unicorn that possesses much knowledge in combat magic, but also possesses the instincts for battle that many ponies lack. While your desire to be on the battlefield is for morale and response purposes, I believe your presence may be enough to ensure victory in some battles," Luna explained, though I still gave her a skeptical look. Rolling her eyes, Luna continued, "Regardless of what you think of your skills, it is time for you to form a personal squad for you to follow."

"Wait wait, what?" I dumbly replied. This wasn't something that I never discussed with anyone, due to my belief that I was simply going to wherever I was needed to help hold the front line. "What are you talking about? Why would I need such a thing?"

"You would need a team that can support you on any occasion, knowing that you may just take unorthodox tactics to get an objective done. One pony can't do everything by themselves, as you once stated yourself. My sister and I can't hope to wage a war against enemies like that Xartik, despite the power we wield. Hence, you will form a team, one that you will lead, even if I have to order you to," Luna said, causing my eye to twitch. While Luna was the one telling me this piece of news, I had a feeling that Celestia had a hoof behind all this.

"Fine, then do you have any recommendations on who should be on my team?" I asked as I glared at Luna in annoyance.

"Indeed I do, though this is one more from Queen Chrysalis as a symbol of our alliance with the changeling race," Luna answered, causing me to blink in surprise.

"Who di—" I started to say, before a familiar voice from behind me interrupted me.

"Hey Baroness Aether, long time no see!" cried the newcomer, while I clenched my jaw shut as I turned my head around to see the owner of the voice.

"...What are you doing here Windbag?" I said through my teeth, while he was giving me a mocking smile.

"Didn't you hear? I'm the one that Chrysalis wanted on your team, since there is no better changeling out there to help you than one from your first batch of recruits!" Windbag exclaimed, his grin still on his face since he knew that what was occurring was only ticking me off. This caused me to turn around, give the rest of the ponies in this room a short glare, before slamming my head onto the table.

"Grand... just grand," I grumbled out, knowing regardless of whether the Xartik show up or not, the next few days were going to be a pain in my plot.

Chapter II: Volunteers

"Is something the matter, Captain?"

"Yes, you're within ten feet of me."

"Well, I'm part of your squad Captain, that means I have to stick to you until you give me orders."

"Then how abo—"

"I'll buy a set of harmonicas and play them every time I can around you if you use your rank to send me away," Windbag interjected, causing me to groan in irritation. While Windbag was part of my first batch of recruits, all the training in the world had done nothing to cure his annoying personality. If he isn’t complaining about something to me, he’s rambling on about some long-winded story that turned out to just be a trip to a grocery store. The only bright side is that he knows when to keep his trap shut when it truly matters.

"Why did Chrysalis have to choose you of all changelings?" I complained as we followed Luna to another room. Since we don’t know how much time we have before the Xartik arrive, Luna thought it would be best that I get started on forming my team. So, before my arrival, Luna had word passed around that I needed volunteers for a personal squad, with the rest of the volunteers waiting for us further ahead.

"Now Captain Aura, I believe Queen Chrysalis has her reasons for wanting Windbag at your side, but you must regain your composure, for we have arrived," Luna declared, opening the door to reveal less than dozen fellows milling about. "What... but there are thousands of guards on the base, and this is all we get?"

Cocking an eyebrow, I said, "Luna, have you forgotten my abrasive personality? The stories I’ve told about my past missions? Or the fact that I might have slightly traumatized some of my recruits in the Aegis Guard when I was training them? Or the rumor that I'm some kind of sadist? Which I'm not," before pressing my muzzle against Windbag's for a second as I glared at him, to which he just averted his eyes, before returning my attention to Luna.

"But what of your plans to be an example to your troops for morale?"

"I think there is a difference on seeing me fighting on the front lines to protect Selene, and fighting alongside the 'psychopath' throughout the war," I countered.

"Wow, and here I thought that I would be the only one demeaning you, but you're doing my job for me," Windbag commented, causing me to glower at him.

"Captain Aura, I highly doubt that you're seen as what you have describe. It’s more likely there wasn't enough time for ponies to come to a decision, or th—" Luna started to say before I stepped into the room and pointed a hoof at a random soldier.

"You, why are there less than half a dozen volunteers here? And be honest or you'll regret lying to me!" I commanded, causing the unfortunate stallion to gulp.

"C-cause most p-ponies say you're c-crazy?" the stallion whimpered out, before stepping back in fear. What made it worse was the fact that he had on the grey uniform of the Aegis Guard, even though odds are that he wasn't personally trained by me.

"Thank you for the honest answer, if you wish to leave, you may," I calmly replied, to which the stallion fled the room as the rest of the volunteers just stared at me wide-eyed while Windbag snickered behind me. "Anyone else that have second thoughts about this may leave as well. Just to further help you come to a decision, being part of my squad will not be a glorious job. If some of you think that I'm some kind of powerful and skilled warrior that can protect all those by my side, think again. If anything, being by my side will be far more dangerous. This war isn't going to be anything you read in the story books. It's going to be bloody and horrible, and the work I will end up doing will be the same. So if you don't have the guts to do what must be done, I suggest you leave."

With my words hanging in the air, the volunteers just glanced at one another before they filed up to leave the room, with the exception of a crystal unicorn and a thestral that had the garb of the Lunar Guard. Raising an eyebrow, I turned to look at Luna, who knew what I was going to say when she gave me a grumpy look while saying, "No, I didn't send her here."

Looking at the pair again, I asked, "So tell me, who are you two and why are you here?"

Giving me a salute, the off-white coated unicorn stallion with a light blue mane answered, "Captain, Sergeant Agate Spear reporting for duty. I'm here because I want to do the best I can for the defense of Equus."

Grunting, I turned my attention to the dark grey coated purple maned threstal mare, who gave me an awkward smile as she said, "I'm Corporal Night Shade, and I just thought that maybe I could help Equestria and my fellow ponies better if I was at your side. I also... wanted to see how you operated madam. Based on the stories on how you wanted the Aegis Guard to be trained, some of us in the other guard were curious on how you would lead ponies in battle."

Grunting, I simply replied, "Alright, you two know that being part of my squad, we're either going to be fighting in battles where we're going to be high-value targets for the enemy, or doing high-risk missions where we're likely going to be on our own for several days, were if you die, we're probably going to have leave your corpse behind. That is if you're not captured by the enemy to be experimented on or dissected." Getting only a blink from Agate but a nervous look from Night, they only responded by giving me a nod. Shrugging, I said, "Then you two should gear up and meet me in the hanger," before walking out, with Luna and Windbag following in confusion.

"Why are you heading to the hanger?" Luna asked.

"Simply put, since I'm not one for troop logistics, I think it would be best for me to be on the ready. I want to be able to get to the first incursion point as soon as possible. Hopefully we have some of our airships airborne, do we?"

"The Lunar Shield, Solar Glory and the Aurora have been in the air after your encounter with the Xartik."

"Good to hear. So unless you have further need of me, I would like to be able to begin my own preparations," I said.

This caused Luna to stare at me while her mind was lost in thought, before answering, "Since Starlight Glimmer will be arriving soon, I suppose she can take your place in overseeing military operations in your stead. However, what about the matter of your squad? I highly doubt you'll be able to operate with just three soldiers under your command."

"I'll just recruit on the field, might spot some potential folk that may join my command. Though, if you spot anyone that you think may be fit underneath my command, send them my way if you can, but please make sure they know all the cons that come with joining me."

Tilting her head a bit, Luna asked, "What about the pros?"

Letting out a chuckle, I answered, "There are no pros. They're going to hate the job, and odds are they're not going to like me either. I'm not exactly a popular captain."

"You can say that again," Windbag muttered, causing me to glare at him.

Rolling her eyes, Luna drew my attention when she said, "Before you leave, there is one more matter for you to attend."

"What is it?"

"It is something that I believe you would like, please follow me."

After sending Windbag to make his own preparations, Luna took to me a room where a pair of ponies were opening a crate. Cocking an eyebrow at Luna, who gave me a mischievous smile, I simply chose to wait it out in silence. Unlike Celestia, who was occasionally a pain in my plot with her scheming, Luna knew better than to mess with me. It wasn't long before the crate was open to reveal a suit of armor, colored in the Aegis Guard's colors but not matching the standard equipment available.

"While you're prone to wanting to take as many precautions to protect Equus, both my sister and I have notice that you didn't use your position to start up any personal projects for yourself. We judged that if war did come to us, that you wouldn't have anything beyond the gear meant for your own troops, even if you were using the latest versions. So we saw to it that you had own suit of armor commissioned, one which I spent some time enchanting myself," Luna explained as I came up to the armor to give it a closer inspection.

"That’s a good call you two made, I wasn't keen on diverting resources for my own protection. I thought it would alienate some of my troops if they learned I used my rank to get the best equipment. But since you provided it, I guess they might not judge me for it. So, how strong are the shields? Can it handle an explosion?" I asked, causing Luna to give me a flabbergasted look.

"Explosions? Why would you need to be concern with that? And while would you even be involved in an explosion close enough to warrant such a question?"

"Well, if the shielding could handle it, if there were missiles heading towards us, it would be best for me to take the hit rather than have the squad decimated. Also, there are various situations where I could be caught up in an explosion, like for instance in an enemy base that I infiltrated in order to sabotage it. This is an interdimensional war we're talking about, all sorts of things could happen," I answered with a shrug, causing Luna to let out a groan as she rubbed her forehead with a hoof while the two workers just looked at me like I grew a second head.

"It's times like these that makes me wonder if our therapy sessions have an effect on you."

"Hey, it did work. Remember that I stop having urges to buck some of the more idiotic members of nobility out the window eight years ago?" I countered, causing Luna to just sigh in response. "But seriously, information like that would matter in life-or-death situations."

"It is... sufficient to say the least, since its shielding is comparable to my own armor. However, it has a larger draw on your power supply, so you must keep vigilant in keeping your armor charged prior to use," Luna answered. I was about to ask another question, but Luna went on to say, "I know what you're going to ask, but no, your armor has no weapon attachments."

"Darn, guess I have to make due with whatever the Xartik will be bringing over," I replied. "Let's just hope they skip on taking measures on keeping us from using their weaponry."

"Wouldn't it be logical for them to take such measures?"

"Not likely at first at least, since they’re expensive and can reduce the weapons’ effectiveness, which means we can stockpile on so many goodies, like plasma rifles or railguns," I answered, as I stop to fantasize about building a collection of alien weaponry while Luna just gave me a half-lidded stare before running a hoof down her face as she groaned at my antics.

Chapter III: Solar Glory

"Are you sure that Luna didn't give you a customized suit because you're representing her personal guard in my team?" I asked as I looked at Night’s armor. While the entire Royal Guard branches have been updating their armor to standards of the Aegis Guard, Night's armor bore some differences compared to the standard Lunar Guard armor. The armor's color scheme was of black and dark blue with silver trim, a mix of plates over enchanted linen with gems socketed into the armor.

"This is just the newest model, Captain," Night meekly replied, to which I just raised an eyebrow at first.

"You're telling me that it's the newest model of armor, and based on that, the rest of the Night Guard Princess Luna brought with her are still wearing an older model?"

"Umm... okay... maybe the Princess requisitioned the first of the new models for me since I'm on your team..." Night answered, giving me an awkward smile while I just rolled my eyes at her.

"Figures as much, just get on board on the copter," I ordered, causing the mare to nod before flying over to said copter, with Windbag and Agate following behind her. The plan was for us to be dropped off on the Solar Glory, where we would be coordinating with the airship's commander. The moment an intrusion was detected, it was planned for the closest capital airship to send all available air forces to converge on the site, while the airship would be following as fast as it can. Of course any nearby base personal and lesser airships would make for the location, but the other two capital airships would remain in position to engage any other intrusions that may occur.

As we took to the air, with Windbag humming annoyingly, I simply stared out one of the view-ports on the side of the transport helicopter. It was a magic-powered, lengthened version of the helicopters I seen some civilians used, able to hold six passengers along with the pilot. It wasn't a smooth ride compared to a chariot, due to the copters being designed for military use, prioritizing capacity, speed, and durability over comfort.

"Captain?" Agate said, drawing my attention towards him. "If you don't mind me asking, just what should we expect from the Xartik?"

"Anything to be honest, but I can't much for certain beyond just mass-produced robot warriors," I answered. While I trained my troops in all the tactics I know, I couldn't really give them much about potential enemy forces beyond common knowledge. "Just suspect anything, even if they appeared unarmed. Some could even be walking bombs for all we know."

"Wait, what‽ Walking bombs!" Night cried out, as the other two stared at me in shock.

"Yeah, just suspect anything, and if you hear a beeping noise, you better tell everyone to run for their lives," I calmly replied. "Just assume the worst, and you'll do fine."

"If by fine, you mean a roasted carcass," Windbag muttered, causing me to smack the back of his head. "Hey! Just saying since you're always going on about all the stuff you seen on your 'travels'."

"Just shut your trap already," I snapped back, to which Windbag only grumbled to himself in response, as I returned my attention to the passing scenery.

It took a few hours before we arrived on the Solar Glory, an airship that was nine hundred feet long and a hundred and fifty feet wide. It was a massive beast of an airship. Armed with several artillery turrets, a powerful magic reactor, and heavy shielding, the Solar Glory was meant to serve as a flying fortress. The only drawback was the airship was slow and relied on eight thrust engines that were rather large, which would be easy targets should the shield ever go down. As my squad and I were disembarking our transport, the commander of the ship and an earth pony stallion with a uniform belonging to the E.U.P. were there to greet me.

"Greeting Captain Aura, glad to have you on-board my ship. Major Gregory, at your service," the griffin said as he gave me a salute.

"Captain Stone, it is good to have your presence with us, Captain," the earth pony added in while joining Gregory in the salute. One weird thing about Equestrian military was that there were two different kinds of captains. The first was just a regular officer rank, but the second is more of a title for the commander of one of the guard divisions, who normally hold authority on par with a general. I guess it was that sounded better for a 'captain' to be in charge of protecting the princesses instead of a general. At least since there was only three guards divisions and hence, three captains.

Sighing at the formality, I replied, "Nice to meet you two, but we have some things we need to deal with. I want at least four transport copters with escorts on standby. We might be in the clear for now, but that doesn't mean we can relax anytime soon."

"As your procedures dictate, all Aegis Guard personnel are on high alert and ready to respond at a moment's notice. Captain Stone also has the available E.U.P. forces on the ready as well," Gregory responded, with Stone simply nodding his confirmation. "However... if you wanted to relax, we have a room in the officer's quarters open for you, Captain."

Cocking an eyebrow, I simply rolled my eyes as I made my way inside the airship, with everyone else following. Even though it is well-known that I have a dislike for luxuries in regards to military purposes, it didn't prevent the inclusion of officer quarters for military bases and airships like the Solar Glory. It was a waste of resources and space in my point of view, but apparently some of the officers need to have soft beds to be able to sleep at night. "Had there been any new developments while I was on transit?"

"None, madam, none of the monitoring stations have any disturbances yet," Gregory answered as he followed me from my right side.

"I see," I replied in a neutral tone, causing Stone to blink in a bit.

"Isn't that a good thing, Captain? It does give us more time to prepare in case they do arrive," Stone said, to which I shook my head to.

"It may or may not be a good thing. Due to the sinkhole effect Selene has, it may trap or delay any messages sent across dimensions, or it may not have an effect at all. If the latter case, then I wonder why they haven't attacked already, unless they're planning something."

"I say you're just being paranoid, but you're always paranoid. Hence, you're just being more paranoid than normal," Windbag commented, drawing an annoyed look from all of us.

"I swear, if you weren't useful, I would glue your wings to your back and toss you off the side of this ship," I grumbled, before returning my attention back to Gregory and Stone, where the latter was raising an eyebrow at me.

"Captain, forgive my words, but I find it odd that you have one of your subordinates talking to you in such a fashion," Stone commented, to which I just rolled my eyes to.

"As annoying as Windbag is, I value competence over maturity so I tolerate him."

"Now if only Stalwart was here, he and I would make a good duo!" Windbag added in, causing me to glare at him in return till Stone cleared his throat to get my attention.

"As informal as the Aegis Guard can be, I suggest we return our attention to the matter on hoof. Is there anything in particular we should be on the lookout for with our scanners?" Stone asked.

"I'm not sure, consi—" I started to answer, before being interrupted by feeling a pressure building up in my horn. "Fuck! Gregory, get everypony to get their battle stations! Send a message to all forces that a portal is opening!"

My sudden outburst initially confused everyone, but Gregory quickly shook it off before shouting out orders as Stone asked, "What's going on Captain? How do you know a portal is about to be open?"

"Long story short, my horn is sensitive to any sort of interdimensional activity, namely when portals open up or are about to be opened, and right now I just felt something!" I shouted as I started to gallop back to the landing bay, with my squad and Stone following behind me.

"Understood Captain, I'll head to my post then," Stone replied before veering off in his own direction. As we made our way to the landing pad, I could see troops scrambling all around us to get into their positions. It only took a couple minutes before my squad and I reached our the landing bay, where we hopped onto the closest empty transport copter.

The copter's pilot turned to look at me, asking, "Captain Aether? What is going on?"

"Either Selene's about to get invaded, someone goofed with the portal, or my horn is on the fritz. Regardless, just be on the ready till we figure out what is going on and see where we need to go from there," I answered by as I strapped myself into my harness.

It wasn't long before all the copters were loaded, with a few soldiers joining the one my team was on, as we waited for news of a possible intrusion. Minutes passed by as we all just eyed one another inside, until Gregory's voice rang out on the copter's speakers. "Dimensional anomaly detected! General location is sixty miles south-southwest of our location! All aerial units, take off and head to the location stat!"

On cue, our copter lifted off, with me seeing the others doing the same before I turn my attention to the pilot. "How long before we arrive at the incursion point?"

"I say about thirty minutes, Captain," the pilot answered.

Turning back to look at the troops in the copter, I simply said, "Well, you lot have thirty or so minutes to make peace with yourselves before we meet the enemy," causing a couple of the troops to gulp at the thought of the upcoming battle we might have to face.

"There doesn't seem to be anything in the skies, nor anything from the ground, Captain," the pilot said as we arrived at the site, which is a forested area.

"Then that's a good sign, maybe," I simply responded. "Take us down to a clearing, but keep an eye out for any incoming fire. We're not in the clear yet."

"A good sign? What do you mean?" Night asked.

"Well, if they brought any spacecraft with them, we should've been able to see it either in the air or crashed on the ground. So that means we're only dea—" I replied before an explosion interrupted me, causing everyone to look around in alarm.

Shortly after the explosion, a voice called out on the radio. "We've been hit, but the shield held!"

"Welp, we're definitely at war. Get us on the ground, now!"

Chapter IV: Battle

"What do we do when we're on the ground, Captain?" Agate asked, while I was bracing myself in case the copter was next to be hit.

"Survey the area for a few seconds, then either follow my lead or figure out where the enemy is and engaged them," I shot back, rolling my eyes at how simple ponies can be, before stopping as I heard another explosion going off.

"Wait, that sounds like you plan to abandon us?" Night asked, only for Windbag to give a huff.

"No, she said that in case she's taken out the moment we touched ground," Windbag explained, to which I gave a short nod to.

"Touching down in five!" the pilot yelled to us, causing us to steady the grip on our weapons as we braced ourselves for whatever we were going to face. "Bay door opening!" the pilot announced as the back door to the copter opened up, allowing us to rush out of the copter to catch the sight of enemy anti-aircraft fire, taking the form of green shots of pure energy, pouring across the sky as we landed in some grassy region with patches of trees about us.

Landing on the ground, I scanned the area to find that the fire was coming from a localized area, specifically a forested region where some smoke is coming from. "All air transport units, return to the Solar Glory. Air support, keep a safe distance until we find some suitable targets for you. Now, squad commanders, call yourselves out to me now," I ordered, while ducking behind a rock as the rest of my squad found their own cover. After receiving a series of names, I called out, "Sergeant Spear and Staff Sergeant Peaches, have your squads guard the landing area in case we need to pull back. Everyone else, approach the point of origin of the enemy fire, but keep an eye out for any traps or possible ambushes."

Looking behind me, I ordered, "Windbag, you got my left. Agate, my right. Night, you take up the rear, now let’s move!" before heading towards the forest, darting from cover to cover.

"Umm... Captain, why are we mov—" Agate tried to ask while ducking behind a fallen log, only to be interrupted by the whizz of a high-powered laser gun firing off.

"Sniper!" shouted someone into the radio, as we lowered ourselves to the ground.

"You were saying, Sergeant?" I said, only for Agate to give me an apologetic look in return. Rolling my eyes, I called into the radio, "All unicorns, fire off flash spells towards the target area in ten seconds, then be ready to advance on my call. Otherwise, all units remain in cover."

At my announcement, my squad looked at me in confusion as Night asked, "Captain, what are you pla—"

"Just follow my lead!" I shouted, before I saw the distinct flash of flare spells going off in the forest, brightening the area in blinding light as the flares slowly descended from above, to which I reacted by jumping over my cover. "Charge!"

"What‽" Night cried out in shock, before my squad got over their hesitation before they following me towards the woods. It was only a few seconds before I caught the sight of some sniper fire coming towards my troops, probably to suppress them in order to prevent another flash. This allowed me and my troops to finally reach the tree line, to which I got behind a tree, with my troops getting behind cover.

"I can't believe that worked, and I thought robots were suppose to be high-tech," Windbag said.

"Their basic soldiers aren't going to get anything special beyond standard optics. While a flash won't temporary blind them beyond the flash itself, it still can buy us a few seconds," I answered while peeking past my tree, to which I finally caught a glimpse of the enemy. Not far from us, about fifty or so yards, was eight Xartik soldiers, with two of them wielding their brand of a sniper rifle, based on the gun’s longer length and the larger capacitor compared to the ones wielded by the other soldiers . Shifting my radio to a short range frequency, I muttered, "Okay, I spotted eight enemy combatants, with a pair of snipers in it. Odds are once we engage them, the rest of them will be alerted to our presence and try to either pin us down or take us out."

"Do we really need to engage the enemy if they outnumbered us?" Windbag asked.

"Oh shut it, and everyone take aim at their snipers. They're fifty yards northeast of our position. We don't have long before one of them spots us," I ordered as I shifted the radio by to the long range frequency before taking aim. "All squads, attack!" I ordered into the radio as I opened fire at the snipers. Thanks to the combined firepower of my squad, I saw the two sniper's shields go down fast, allowing them to be taken out. However, that left the rest of robots to return fire, forcing us to take cover.

"Oh Sweet Celestia!" Agate said from behind his rock, as projectiles fly by it.

"Everyone, stay do—" I said before even more fire came at us, including a couple sniper rounds. Damn, we really stirred the hornet's nest! I thought to myself as I looked my troops cower behind their cover.

"Captain, what should we do now?!" Windbag cried out before ducking his head lower behind the log he was using for cover as a chunk of it was blasted off by sniper fire.

"Luna damn it, you three just stay down until the rest of the forces arrive!" I ordered as I looked to my left while lighting up my horn.

"Captain, what are yo—" Windbag tried to say before I cast a teleport spell, arriving at a spot thirty yards away from our original position. Taking off a pair of grenades, I searched for the original group we were engaging to find them behind their own cover, then used my magic to levitate the grenades over to the enemy before pulling the pins. Turning my head after the grenades went off, I scan the area before I felt a shot going right past my head, causing me to duck. "Fuck that was close," I muttered to myself before saying into the radio, "Okay, you three, I want two of you to provide cover fire while the other moves to a new position. I'll be doing my best to attract their attention to get some fire off you guys."

Looking off at the distance again, I found a large rock that was suitable for my next position. Casting another teleport, I peeked my head past the rock to view the area once more, watching the fire that was coming at my old position and my troops to determine where the enemy was. Off in the distance, I could see various Xartik troops roaming about, using the forest for cover as they were closing in on our position. I bit my lip as I thought about how we would hold out before I saw my troops rushing into the forest as they open fire. Hmm... doesn't looks like the Xartik are taking us seriously yet, or their officers didn't make it through, I thought to myself before taking a few shots at the enemy before a griffon came to my spot.

"Captain Aether, Lieutenant Gervas reporting in," the griffon said, before taking a pot shot at the enemy.

"Yeah, just keep things sweet and to the point, have we sustained any casualties?” I asked while shooting the head off a Xartik soldier. With the reinforcements, the tables have turned with the Xartik being pinned down. With no apparent response to this attack, it really seemed like they were sent here with simplistic orders on how to engage us, thinking we may be easy pickings.

"No captain, only a couple of the troops were hit but their shields withstood the shots."

"Good, now pull a couple of squads and send to in a flanking maneuver. The enemy isn't responding to our attack properly, which means they currently lack a command structure, or they're up to something."

"Understood captain," Gervas answered before pass on my orders while I chosen to observe the battle unfolding around me. My squad had finally manage to gather around me, while various squads were pushing forward towards the enemy front lines, while peppering at their cover. So far, it appears that we outnumber the enemy three to one, but oddly enough the enemy weren't using any kind of explosives. This caused me to bite my lip a bit before forcing me to turn my radio on.

"All troops, avoid clumping together in groups. The enemy isn't using explosives, so they may have mined the field. Is there anyone trained in mine detection?" Getting a couple of response, I continued, "Okay, scan the field before our approach for any signs of explosives. I also want a couple of soldiers covering them while they do this."

"So, I take it that battles won't be like this in future battles?" Gervas asked me, causing me to turn my head towards him while narrowing my eyes at that remark.

"What was one of the first rules of engagement the Aegis Guard have to observe, Lieutenant Gervas?" I asked, causing him to gulp.

"To be able to adapt to any situation, Captain."

"Yes Captain, for anything could happen, even an attack from a fifty-feet tall monster. So never get comfortable with the idea of the enemy being predictable, cause odds are it is just a ploy to get us to drop our guard," I replied, before returning my attention to the battle.

"Sorry Captain, I will take this lesson to heart," Grevas vowed as he placed a claw over his heart.

"Oh stop being a kiss ass and get back to shooting Lieutenant!" I yelled before noticing something off in the distance. "Shit! Get down!" I cried out as I tackled Grevas to the ground, pushing him out of the path of an explosive projectile that hit a nearby tree instead, blowing apart its trunk. Looking up, I saw the tree coming down at us, causing me to throw Gervas away before teleporting to a new spot.

"Gervas, alert the troops that the enemy may be getting reinforcements!" I ordered as I charged my horn.

"But why do—" Gervas tried to say before I finished casting my spell, teleporting me right in front of the Xartik soldier that fired at us. While Xartik robots weren't capable of making any kind of expressions, I was certain this one was surprised of my sudden appearance, right before I jam the barrel of my gun into its head before pulling the trigger. As the robot's head shattered into scrap, I quickly viewed its surrounds to see that I was in the middle of an enemy squad, with a couple of them baring their own rocket launchers. Thankfully, my surprise teleport was still affecting them as I charged my horn for a third time while I grabbed onto the fallen Xartik's own weapon before teleporting back to Gervas.

"Captain, what were yo—is that one of the enemy's weapons?" Gervas asked in confusion, as I pulled out a trigger attachment from one of pouches on my armor before attaching it to the weapon's trigger.

"Yeah, but deliver the order Gervas before they blow us out of the fo—" I shouted before the sound of a cannon went off, followed by an explosion and screams of terror.

"Sweet Celestia, what was that‽" Agate cried out, as I threw a shocked Gervas behind the fallen tree before giving him an answer.

"Damn it all, they brought a fucken tank!"

Chapter V: Tank

When the Project Sinkhole became active, my hopes were that, when Equus was attacked, the forced ejection on Selene would leave the invading forces in ruin. If things went as I hoped, then we would have salvaged the remains of the enemy equipment to develop some kind of understanding of how they worked. Sadly, the reality we faced was one far from that; one that was sending those from the other guard divisions into a panic.

"All Aegis Guard units, get into cover!" I ordered through the radio, before scanning the direction from where the tank round came from. It didn't take long to spot the tank; a four-legged walker tank, with one cannon barrel on the right side of the turret on top, and two barrels on its left side that looked like anti-infantry guns. Seeing that it was directing its weaponry towards my squad's position, I shouted, "Everyone, stay behind cover, Gervas, call in air support to help take that tank down," before teleporting to a position away from my squad.

As my squad scrambled for better cover, the tank fired off another round from its cannon, taking down a tree that almost crushed Agate. Checking the rocket launcher I had, I saw that its readings were set to what I assumed to be the Xartik language, which I don't know how to read. I hope that soldier reloaded this thing before I blew his head off... I thought to myself as I aimed the launcher at the tank before pulling the trigger. Thankfully, it fired, a rocket shooting out that reached the tank… only to explode harmlessly on its shields. Regardless of the failure, I seemed to attract its attention as it turned its guns towards me, forcing me to dash to some cover, which took the form of a large rock. As I saw the green anti-infantry rounds whizzing by me, punching holes through any foliage in their path, I began to wonder what was taking so long the air support I asked for to show up.

"Gervas, where is th—" I started to say, until my cover was annihilated by what must’ve been a round from the tank's cannon. The resulting explosion sent me flying into a tree with enough force that I actually was sent through it, breaking it in two as I crashed onto the ground. After coming to a stop, I blinked for a bit, my ears still ringing from the explosion, and wondered how I wasn’t torn to bits, before shaking my head clear and ducking into cover again, this time the stump of tree I went through. Thank Luna that she and Celestia went through the trouble of getting this armor, I thought to myself as poked my head around the tree, only to be greeted with the walker’s guns, forcing me to dive back behind it as the gun’s rounds splintered the edge.

Crawling into the dense foliage left of the stump, I yelled again into my radio, "Gervas, where the fuck is my air support‽"

"They're coming Captain! They just had to keep their dista—" Gervas started explaining before I decided to interrupt him.

"Just get them here! I don't want to be sent through another tree again!" I yelled, before I heard another explosion, right behind me. Stealing a glance behind me, I could see that the hole-ridden stump was now just a smoking stain on the ground. Grunting at the fact that if I didn't keep the tank distracted, it would lay waste to the entire force, I pulled a grenade off my belt before tossing it in the direction of the tank.

"Sent through a tree? Again?" Gervas parroted, causing me to groan as my grenade exploded.

"That's what happens when you're sent flying by an exploding tank shell!" I yelled, as the tank fired its secondary gun all over the area. Knowing its main cannon would fire again soon, I dashed forward from my spot as more shots whizzed by my head. Looking in its direction, I saw that some soldiers have gathered around the tank as they fired at me as well. Knowing that without any heavy support, taking down that tank wouldn't be feasible without taking losses, nor would my shielding last long enough for someone to pull off an attack.

Thankfully, things start to turn around as I heard a pony calling out on my radio, "This is Delta Seven, I'm approaching the area with Delta Two and Delta Nine in tow, and I spotted the tank. Is there anypony in close engagement with it?"

"Delta Seven, this is Captain Aura. No friendlies are near the tank, so fire a salvo then back off for safety before doing another run on it if it survived the first one. There may be anti-air support nearby, so keep on moving and don't stay in one place for long. Once the tank is down, retreat back to a safe distance," I ordered as I started to put some more distance between the tank and me.

"Roger Captain, engaging target now," the pilot said, which was shortly followed by the sound of rockets being fired overhead. Taking a look at the tank, I watched as most of the rockets impact the tank, a few hitting the area around it, sending the soldiers flying like I was earlier.

After the smoke cleared, I saw that, while the tank was still standing, though its shield clearly failed based on the mangled metal that was the cannon. However, it was still active enough to turn its turret towards me, where it opened fire with the guns again, causing me to run for my life, only to be hit by two of the rounds, the rest spraying the round behind me. Once again, the shield saved me from taking any serious damage, but the impact of the round sent me flying off my hooves.

Hitting the ground hard a few meters away and tumbling across it, the tank loosed another burst of fire at me. One of those hit me, sending me sprawling into a ditch in a daze , with my shield thankfully holding. It was short moment later later when I hear another salvo coming from the attack copters, accompanied by a rather loud explosion that told me that the tank finally succumbed to the assault. Dragging myself out of cover and looking towards where it was, I took a moment to enjoy the sight of its smoldering remains... until I felt something yank me back by the neck.

"Gyak!" I croaked out, turning my head around to lay eyes on a Xartik robot, a type I hadn’t seen yet, it’s hand still clamped around my neck. Though my shields and armor kept it from being able to choke me, I saw it reach behind its back, pulling out what looked like a flat rod until I saw energy pulse out of it to form a blade. Not wanting to chance my shield against that, I lit my horn with my magic, distracting the robot, giving me enough time to teleport out of its grip. Appearing right behind it, I pulled out my rifle and opened fire, only for it to turn around and block it with a shield. That was when I fully saw how it was a different design from the regular soldiers; it bore heavier armor from the rest, with dark red lines running down its armor to differentiate it from the common grunts. What the significance of it was, I couldn't tell, and it wasn't going to give me a chance to find out as it charged at me.

I fired a few shots before rolling to my left before the Xartik could swing its blade at me. However, before I could aim my rifle at the robot, it was able to turn around and swing its blade back at me, forcing me to block with my rifle, which was cut in half as a result as I was forced back. "Just grand," I muttered to myself as I hopped back to get a bit of distance from my foe before placing my left hoof on my right foreleg armor. Flipping a switch, a blade came out of the armor, etched in runes and pulsing with magic as I held it in a defensive posture.

Seeing that I was actually equipped for melee combat, the robot took up its own stance, telling me that its programming included situations like this, causing me to lean towards it being a specialist after all. It circled around me, leaving me a moment to wonder why none of other Xartik were taking potshots at me, till it charged at me, only for something to crash onto it, crushing it upon impact and sending its blade flying into a tree.

"Fear not, guards, for the Princess of the Night has arrived!" declared the interloper that was known as Luna, her right hoof in the air as she pointed towards the sky. Lowering my right foreleg as I looked at her with a confused expression, Luna continued, "Ah, there you are Captain Aura. How goes the battle?"

Looking around for a bit, I saw that fresh troops from the Lunar Guard were landing, presumably following their princess, as I responded, "Can't say for certain, but they may have some tanks on the field. Already engaged one, so be ready for some more and possibly some other vehicle support. Furthermore, they're using rockets against our air forces, so we can't bring in air support except for quick runs, and only if we really need them."

Nodding, Luna replied, "Very well, my guard and I will handle it from here. This would be a good experience for me, since I will see how my magic will fare against their initi—" before the crushed robot moved a bit, promting Luna to smash her hoof into its broken head, silencing it, "—initial forces. Furthermore, it would be good to personally see how my guard compares to yours on the battlefield."

Pulling out the embedded blade from the tree, I held it next to my own blade as I said, "Very well, though please don't destroy their weaponry if you can. We need to salvage what we can, so we can send it to the Aegis scientists to analyze it," before clashing the two blades against one another. Withdrawing the Xartik blade, I noted that, while my blade was still intact, there was a notch where it was struck. "Even with magic giving us an edge, we still have a ways to go, and little time to make it up before the Xartik decide to bring everything they have against us."

Eyeing the notch as well, Luna commented, "You raise a good point. I will do my best to disarm the enemy before vanquishing them," before she raised her wings to take off, pausing when she saw me raising a hoof to stop her. "What is it Captain?"

"You're approaching this battle with a bit of flair judging by your 'entrance' and your choice of words. I advise you abandon that flair, cause we're going to be fighting a dirty war, where honor is a thing of the past, especially against the Xartik," I explained, causing Luna to frown at me before giving me another nod.

"Shame that was the fate that war came to have," Luna commented before taking off, as my ears perked at the sound of someone coming to me, causing me to turn my head around to see my squad and Gervas coming to my side.

"Captain, what are your orders?" Grevas asked while saluting me.

Giving him a flat stare, I answered, "You're going to follow Luna and coordinate our forces with her forces for the rest of the battle."

After giving me a second salute, Gervas flew off, allowing me to look at my squad where Agate questioned, "Why aren't we aiding Princess Luna?"

Sighing, I replied, "It's best if she handles this on her own, she might even figure out some things that I wouldn't be able to due to my background. Besides, we're going to try to drag as much weaponry off the field in case the enemy pushes us back. Now get to it, before another tank decides to send me through a tree—I’d rather keep it down to once a day at most."

Chapter VI: Pink

"When I joined the Lunar Guard, I never quite imagined myself doing this...," Night Shade said as she lugged the broken remains of a fallen Xartik soldier onto the ramp of a transport chopper.

"I did clearly say that it wouldn't be glorious to be part of my squad," I replied as I pulled out the energy cartridge from a Xartik pistol before tossing them into storage crates.

"Captain, shouldn't you be more careful with that?" Agate asked as he carried over several rifles, before putting them down on the ground

"Naw, these are just cheap guns that the Xartik produce, so there's plenty more where they came from," I answered before disarming another rifle. Shortly after Luna's arrival, the Xartik quickly started to crumple before our forces, or to be more accurate, before Luna. She was having a field day by the sounds the battle—now far off—based on her screaming of patriotic phases and the occasional explosion. Sadly, though, our forces did sustain some casualties, with three wounded and one dead, due in part of the tank's assault. Well, sadly in terms for everyone else, I was expecting to lose as much a fourth of our forces or more, so to me, it was a grand accomplishment in our training and scientific development, exceeding my wildest dreams. Or we were just really damn lucky.

"Well, good thing these alien robots are so easy to beat, with that sole exception of that tank. Guess Equus is ready for war after all," Windbag commented, causing me to throw a rifle at him. "Hey! What was that for?"

"That's for being an idiot, or not paying attention to my... 'lectures' on possible alien organizations that we may go to war with," I shot back. "This is just pure cannon fodder troops, drones they toss in first to either wipe out all primitive resistance or to assess the combat efficiency of the world's natives."

Paling, Night said, "You mean... this battle... is just an easy one?"

Shrugging, I answered, "If you want to put it that way, sure. Thankfully, as long as they don't find the means to counter our magic, the princess and Discord would be our thump cards in this war, for now."

"Did someone mention my name?" said Discord as he appeared with his tell-tale pop, causing Agate and Night to jump back in shock.

"About time you showed up Discord, what took you so long?" I asked with a scowl.

"What do you mean? Did I missed some kind of appointment?" Discord replied as he looked at his wrist, though there wasn't a watch on it.

"Discord... if you somehow didn't notice, we're at war right now," I explained as waved a hoof towards the smoldering remains of the Xartik tank.

"Oh... that dreadful business," Discord commented as his jolly expression turned into a somber one. "How did the battle go?"

"It's still ongoing, but decisively in our favor thanks to Luna's presence. We only took four casualties, three wounded, one dead," I responded, watching as Discord's frown deepened at the news.

"War is never an enjoyable affair… not counting that private one I had with Celestia and Luna. But since I'm here, I might as well do my part," Discord declared as he twisted his limbs in a natural way, accompanied by the sound of bones popping.

Narrowing my eyes, I asked, "So I take it you finally have a plan in mind?" as I recalled the discussion the princesses and I had with Discord about what role he would play when war came to us. While he wasn't too keen on actually participating in any battles, he did promise to lend a 'claw' to help keep the war in our favor.

"Oh ye of little faith, so you shouldn't be so doubtful of the great and powerful Discord!" Discord replied, causing me to groan in annoyance.

"Please don't imitate Trixie, that mare's insistence on using the third person really annoys me," I complained, causing Discord to let out a huff.

"Well, excuse me for a bit of showboating, but fine. I'll cut to the chase since there is a war going on," Discord responded before snapping his fingers, causing a miniature representation of what I assume to be the planet to appear right before us. "From what I heard, you're worried of what will happen if the aliens ever figure a way to get their space armadas to the front lines safely. Well, worry no more, for I have a plan that will keep them from raining down on our parade!"

Looking at the illusion, I asked, "You planned to send them to the center of the planet to be crushed or melted?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Discord replied, "No, why would you think of that?"

"Well, you have that illusion before us, so I just thought of the most damaging thing that could be related to it," I answered with a shrug. "You do plan to send their ships to some place that would result in their destruction, right?"

Frowning, Discord responded, "Sadly, even as powerful as a spirit of disharmony can be, I do have limits, especially on other worlds. However, I do plan to blanket the world with a little trick that would give these aliens a 'fantastic landing'," as he waved his lion paw over the globe, a multi-color mess of a barrier appearing over the world. "However, to do this trick, I won't be able to participate in this war for quite a while."

Looking at the shield covering the projection, I asked, "Do you have any plans on what to do after the enemy figures out a way to circumvent this?"

"Oh, don't worry your wee little rage-filled head," Discord answered, patting my head for a second before teleporting a short distance away, causing me to growl at him. "I always have some machinations in play whenever they're needed. Though, who knows what will happen in the future, so let's just wait and see. However, you on the other hand, have something else to worry about."

Narrowing my eyes, I replied, "What do you mean?"

"Why not turn your head that way," Discord said as he pointed to something off to my side, before giving me a wave with his free paw. Before I could say a thing, he said, "Arrivederci," as he vanished with a pop.

Scowling once more, I turned my head in the direction of that Discord pointed to, only seeing a few soldiers still lugging Xartik equipment about. "Just what was he... talking.... about..." I started to mutter to myself before noticing that one of them looked familiar to me. Squinting at the soldier, who was a mare with a pink coat and a short, curly violet mane. Suddenly, something clicked in my head as I trotted over to the mare as my troops looked at themselves in confusion before following me. "You there, corporal, what's your name."

Looking at me with confusion-filled light blue eyes that only reinforced my sense of familiarity, the mare answered, "Me? My name is Cherry Soriee or you can call me Corporal Cherry, Captain," in a highly recognizable voice.

"I see... Corporal, I have something very important to show you," I stated as I took off my helmet before putting my hoof into my mane as I dug around for something.

"What is it, Captain?" Cherry asked while eyeing my mane.

Finding what I was looking for, I pulled out a photo, showing to Cherry as I replied, "Does this photograph mean anything to you?"

As Cherry's pupils began to shrink, Night looked over Cherry's shoulder before saying, "Hey, isn't that a picture of you and your mother?"

"Awww... how sweet of you," Windbag commented before breaking out in laughter.

Ignoring Windbag's taunt, I kept my attention on Cherry, who was starting to sweat as I said, "Well, soldier, does this picture mean anything to you?"

"Ahh... it's a sign of how caring you are towards your mother?" Cherry replied with a forced smile.

"Is that the only response you have?" I questioned as I took on a suspicious expression, making it apparent to 'Cherry' that I wasn't going to be fooled by that statement.

"I.... umm... I need to report back to my squad leader now Captain, so got to go!" Cherry responded as she turned around and tried to gallop off, only to be caught in my magic as I levitated her back to her original spot.

"Now, Corporal Cherry, I'm certain that your squad leader wouldn't mind you spending some time with me of all ponies," I said as I took on a rather wide grin, that caused Agate and Night to back off a bit.

"Pfft, ponies," Windbag commented as he rolled his eyes at two.

"So, Cherry, please tell me what you truly feel about this picture, and please be honest. Lying to me typically only ticks me off, which normally results in broken bones for someone. So..." I declared before pulling ‘Cherry’ to me, where I pressed my nose against hers before continuing, "tell me what is going on in your mind."

"I... I have no idea what you're talking about, Captain," Cherry replied with a frighten look plastered on her face.

"Hmm... how about I tell you a short story then," I stated as I pulled Cherry away from my face. "One time, my mother wanted to be able to have fun with all her friends, so she used a magical pool to make copies of herself so she can achieve that goal, only for them to go rampant when the original one learned to use the pool to make more copies. Eventually, my mother's friends took action, getting rid of all the copies.

Now, the reason I told this story is due to the fact that I just found a mare that looked eerily similar to my mother, with a voice that is an exact match of hers, with the only different is her mane and tail being of a different color and style. However, that can be easily changed, and the fact that I know for certain that my mother knows better than try to enlist in the Aegis Guard to protect me from any affairs, then that means only one thing."

Floating a now terrified Cherry up into the air, I continued in a cold tone, "Now, please be honest with me, 'Cherry', otherwise things won't end well for one of us."

Teeth chattering, Cherry shrieked out, "Ok-kay, you got me, I'm a m-mirror p-p-pool clone! P-please don't hurt m-me!" before hiding her face behind her forelegs, as my squad, with the exception of Windbag, just stared at me in horror of my actions.

Grunting, I asked, "Is this some elaborate plot to get to Pinkie Pie and replace her?"

"N-n-no."

"Are there other clones out there still? And if there are, are any of them planning on getting rid of the original?"

"Y-yes... b-but none of us would d-dare to hurt an innoc-cent! T-that is j-just evil!" Cherry replied.

Humming to myself, I responded, "Okay then. Thank you for being honest about that," before letting go of Cherry, who promptly fell on her butt.

Chattering for a bit, Cherry peeked from behind her hooves as she asked, "You're not going to hurt me? Or send me back to the pool like the others?"

Shrugging, I answered, "Nah, you finally revealed the truth and you're not planning on hurting my mother, so there are no issues between us."

Tilting his head in confusion, Windbag interjected, "Seriously? You actually trust what she said? Just like that?"

"Well, since she is a copy of my mother—who has some tics that show when she's telling a flat-out lie—I would know whether or not Cherry is lying to me."

Looking at me in utter befuddlement, Cherry asked, "You mean I'm free to go?" only to fold her ears as I laughed at her.

"Of course not, you're a copy of my mother. I'm keeping an eye on you and pressing you into my squad. Welcome to our merry band," I answered as I sat down right next to her to wrap a hoof around her shoulders, bring her in close to me. "Besides, I have so many questions to ask you since you're a clone of my mother after all."

With a nervous expression, Cherry looked at my squad, only for Windbag to say, "Welcome to the team, Cherry. I hope you enjoy having a life of utter misery along with the rest of us, cause that is all you're going to have when you're underneath Aether's oppressive hooves."

"Oh shut your trap, Windbag."

Chapter VII: Drop

"B-but, Captain, I have a squad that I bel—" Cherry started to say before I pressed a hoof against her lips.

"Shush, your squad will be fine, they're part of the Aegis Guard after all. If they couldn't adapt to losing you to my team, then they wouldn't have made it onto the field in the first place," I stated, before taking my foreleg off her shoulders as I stood up. "Besides, if you're even half the... 'oddity' that my mother is, you'll be an asset to the team."

"Why would we need an oddity when we have you? You're odd enough to fulfill an entire city's oddness quota," Windbag said, causing me to glare at him.

"You think I'm odd? How about I show you odd by shoving your muzzle into yo—" I yelled until I was interrupted by the noise that sounded similar to when Rainbow was pulling off a Sonic Rainboom. Turning my head toward the origin of the noise, which was from the sky, I saw an alien ship had appeared in the sky, quite some distance away from us above another part of the forest, but still easily viewable.

"Fuck! Enemy reinforcements!" I exclaimed in surprise before grabbing my radio, shouting, "All air units, get airborne now! Transport units, get out of the combat zone!" as I kept an eye on the ship in the sky, where I could see some specks coming down from the bottom of the ship.

"Hey Captain, looks like the aliens' ship is falling ap—" Windbag started to say until I slapped the back of his head. "Ow! Wha—"

"Shut up you dumbass! They're dropping off troop pods!" I shouted at Windbag before returning my attention to my radio. "All troops, move towa—" I started to say until I saw the front end of the ship started to twist clockwise while the end twisted counterclockwise as the center looked to be pulled into some kind of gravitational anomaly.

"Captain, what is going on?" Agate asked as I blinked in surprise before realizing what was going on.

"Discord, this is what he's doing," I answered before my radio flared as Luna yelled into it.

"Captain Aura, have you seen the pods dropping from the ship before it became distorted? Do you have any insight into what it may be?" Luna asked.

"Drop pods of some sort, with at least half of them carrying troops," I explained as I started to yell at the wide-eyed ponies that were watching the sight of the ship twisting about until it finally gave to the twisting as it split in two. "Stop staring and get ready to reengage with the enemy!"

"I see, but why haven't I seen any of these 'pods' on the current battlefield?" Luna asked as my troops started to move in the direction of the enemy drop site.

"Probably due to the first ship not being ready to be torn in two like this one, but its survivors probably were able to relay what happened to the rest of the—" I started to explain until I heard the sound of another ship appearing in the sky. "Fuck, they're going all out with this one!"

"Do not fret captain, I will clean up with the remaining enemy forces here and mobilize our fo—" Luna started to reply until the distant sounds of explosions going off in mass can be heard. "What was that?"

As my ears shriveled about as I kept up the march, Windbag commented, "Wait... that sounded familiar..." causing me to rack my brain on how he would kn—Oh shit!

"Incoming artillery fire! Everyone find some cover!" I yelled into the radio as I briefly scanned the region until I found a chunk of the ground that was lifted above the rest, like some kind of small cliffside. "Get over there, now!" I ordered as I pointed at the rock face before I began to hear the sound of something sizzling, causing me to immediately rushed it as my troops started to follow behind me.

"Commander, how wou—" Agate started to asked as he ran beside me until the sound of an explosion going off interrupted him, causing him to shut his mouth in shock as he ran even faster to the small cliff as more explosions went off all around us. Looking around, I could see Windbag and Night flying ahead of us with Cherry right behind them before I saw what looked like a glob of green light coming down from the sky a mere forty feet to their left, whereupon impact with the ground, the glob exploded in a flash of green light, sending chunks of dirt, rock, and wood flying all over the place. Thankfully, our shields protected us from the debris as it bounced off it as we made it to the cliff, pressing our bodies against it as more artillery fire rain down around us.

Moving my head over to Agate, I yelled, "What were you trying to say, Agate?"

"I was asking on how the enemy would know where to target us, madam!" Agate yelled over the explosions. However, before I could answer, we started to hear someone screaming horribly, indicating that they got hit, which caused Agate's face to pale at the implications. "Oh sweet Cadance... please let me live..."

Slapping Agate's face with my left forehoof, I yelled, "Don't break on me now, Agate, we got a job to do still," to which he dumbfoundedly nodded in response. It wasn't long before the artillery fire ended, lasting about ten seconds when I shouted into the radio, "Every, resume your charge but spread out until we close in on the enemy. Those with wounded, take them to a safe zone away from the landing zone!" before I ran around the cliff, charging towards the enemy as the sound of a third ship entering the sky can be heard, shortly followed by a fourth. However, the arrival of the fourth one was what made me pause, because the direction of the sound of its jump caused me to look up into the sky, where I could see the ship flying overhead.

"You got to be fucken kidding me," Windbag said as he looked up into the sky before I smacked the back of his head before turning on my radio yet again.

"Everyone, dig in and watch out for enemy drop pods! Anyone equipped with heavy ordnance, save it for the enemy vehicles. Those with gatling guns, remember to open fire when the pod opens up! If I catch word of anyone just shooting into a pod's door, I'm going to tear them a new one!" I screamed before finding an old log that I used as cover as my squad took various positions around me.

As I started to take my rifle off my back, about thirty feet to my left, a large, grey round drop pod crashed into the ground, shaking the ground as I realized that my current cover was flanked by the pod's position. "Fucken Tartarus!" I cursed to myself as I lit my horn up, picking up the log as the pod fired off three doors from itself, to which I then tossed the log at the group of Xartik coming out of the closest side before taking aim. Firing some rounds into the enemy troops before teleporting to a tree, I kept firing at them as they started to get into formation, despite the fact that my squad was taking down some of their numbers. It didn't took long to figure out what they were doing as I saw the ones in the front brought out arm mounted shield devices, turning them on to create an energy shielded wall.

"You got to be kidding me... grenade out!" I shouted before pulling the pin on one of my grenades before teleporting it right into the middle of the group, whereupon detonating it sent the Xartik troops flying in all directions.

"Captain Aura! Why are the enemy sending so many ships only for them to be torn apart?" Luna suddenly asked over the radio while I was picking off the fallen Xartik that survived the blast.

Ducking behind my cover, I replied, "By the look of things, and the sheer amount of drop pods coming down, odds are they're planning on sending a mass of troop ships to drop enough of their robots to establish a foothold on the planet. If they can pull that off, then they would be able to construct a portal site at which would allow them to more effectively find the means to establish a stable portal," before I flinched at hearing a fifth ship arriving.

"I see, then I will attend to the matter of the Xartik reinforcements," Luna declared, which almost caused me to demand an explanation when I felt a massive pulse of magic going off, before seeing a blue barrier of magic form right over our heads. As I saw the fifth ship dropping off pods before it too got twisted apart, only for them to explode on impact with the barrier, Luna continued, "Captain, while I hold the enemy off, you have to lead the troops in my stead. I will not be able to both focus on the barrier and fight at the same time, especially whe—" before she paused to let out a grunt as the remains of the fifth ship collided with the barrier, causing it to cave in a bit before reassuming its original shape as the ship broke apart into small pieces as it slid down the barrier. "As I was saying until the enemy has seen the futility of sending any more reinforcements, I will not be able to aid our troops in battle."

"Understood, but do try to get a message to your sister to join us, we could really use some more firepower now rather than later. I don't think we're going to have the luxury of holding our trump cards close to our chests if the Xartik are willing to throw their troops like this," I stated as a sixth ship came in for emphasis as Agate suddenly came to my side.

"Captain, we've taken out this pod's forces, what are your orders?" Agate asked as the rest of my squad took up positions near him.

"Give me a sec," I answered before I returned my attention to the radio. "Squad leaders, report in your squads' current status."

"Delta Three here, we're engaged with four drop pods, but they clumped together so we were able to scatter them with a few grenades."

"Delta Six here, we a—"

"Delta Five here Captain! We're engaged with enemy armor, we need reinforcements, now!"

As I mentally berate myself for whining about facing off one tank earlier, I looked at my left foreleg, flipping up a switch on it to turn on a hologram map where I searched for Delta Five's location, spotting them to be a mile northeast of my team's current position, a bit further ahead of the nearest two squads. "Delta Four, Gamma Three, if your teams are clear, go assist Delta Five. Delta Five, tell me just what you're up against," I ordered as I started to head to their location, my team following behind me as we kept an eye out for any enemy forces.

"We're facing off against what looked to be three of those tanks you faced off earlier Captain, and two other walker tanks that are actually going off, they might be artillery tanks since they're not firing on us yet. But we ca—" the squad leader said until an explosion cut him out briefly before he continued, "Captain, we need help now! We already lost someone and three more are wounded, we're not going to last!"

"Fuck, fine, just get some unicorn if you got one to give off as much magic as they can and I'll teleport to your location," I stated as stopped, indicating to the others to grab onto me. Looking in the general direction, where I saw a sudden glow of orange light, I lit up my horn as I said, "Get ready everyone, this is going to suck."

"Everything sucks when you're involved, Captain."

"Shut the Tartarus up, Windbag."

Chapter VIII: Bombs

With the distinctive pop sound of my teleport spell going off, I quickly looked around to gauge my surroundings, only to see that we were in the open, where off to the side I could see some of my troops taking cover behind some large rocks, with one of them having its top blown off. Left of their position, at a mere sixty feet or so, where three Xartik tanks of the same model as the one I fought earlier, closing in on the pin-down squad's position with Xartik infantry following right behind them. Sadly, we were apparently spotted based on how the closest tank to us was turning its turret towards us as some of the soldiers split off to march towards us in the shield wall formation.

"Alright, Windbag, get into the air and give us some covering fire. Agate, Night, go reinforce Delta Five's position, Cherry, you'll be engaging the enemy infantry while I keep the enemy armor occupied," I barked out as my horn lit up for another teleport spell, my squad simply dispersing right just as the enemy tank got its weapons aimed at our spot. Releasing my teleport spell at the moment the tank opened fire, I disappeared as my original spot was hit with an explosive round, dirt and plant matter flying all over the place as I reappeared beneath the tank as I reached to my sides. Thankfully, instead of relying on enemy ordinance or a three hundred... four hundred... or whatever Luna weighs, pound alicorn to come slamming down on the tank, I had ordered one of the transport copters to bring some anti-vehicle explosives, which I happened to have in the armored pouches on the sides of my armor.

Pulling out two of the bombs, I carefully attached them to the underside of the tank, and as I ran to the next one, I was thankful that the Xartik went the cheap route in regards to the tank's shielding. However, after getting the second pair of bombs onto the tank, some of the enemy soldiers started to open fire upon me, which forced me to conjure a shield due to wanting to save energy for my armor's shields for the time I would need them the most. Though, when they saw that their shots were bouncing off my shield, they decided to simply rush me while I was attaching the third set of bombs, and were nearly upon me as they pulled out their melee weapons when I let off another teleport spell. As I popped behind a tree off to the other side of the enemy force, I took out the trigger with my magic and flipped the switch, where I received the sight of the trio of tanks blowing up apart while taking out any Xartik troops near them. That would have put a smile on my face, if a plasma shot didn't whiz right past it, causing me to duck behind the tree some more as I spotted a clump of Xartik soldiers in the shield formation.

They're still doing that? What, is their communications hampered in some fashion? I thought to myself before pulled a pin out of one of my grenades before teleporting it to the group. After waiting till the telltale sign of the explosion and chunks of robots flying past me, allowing me a chance at seeing where the rest of the enemy were, but I resisted the urge to dropped my jaw after seeing Xartik forces being in disarray. As much of an asset I thought Cherry was going to be, the sight of her popping in and out of the midst of the troops, causing them to shoot at her automatically only for her to quickly disappear, resulting in them shooting each other.

Shaking my head at the sight, I was about to pop a few shots at the ones on the edges until I heard the sound of artillery going off nearby, causing me to jerk my head to the right where the sound came from, where I received the sight of glowing artillery fire coming straight at me. With not enough time to pull off a teleport spell, I conjured a hardened version of the shield spell, grimacing as I felt the strain of the shots exploding upon impact on my shield. The shield even started to crack under the strain, until after the barrage came to an end, allowing me to drop the shield before running through the smoke generated by the explosions, whereupon coming through it, I spotted the sight of another walker mech, but instead of cannons or guns on the sides of its turret, there was a pair of six-barreled artillery attachments.

"Well, that explains how they got their artillery up and running so fast," I commented to myself as I teleported to the underside of the mech, where I was about to pull out my bombs when its bottom suddenly came down at me, forcing me to roll to the side as the entire mech came fell to the ground in an attempt to crush me. Shaking myself the thought of being turned into a pancake, I quickly pulled out the bombs and slapped them onto the side of the mech before teleporting away before it could get up, pressing my trigger to receive the sight of the mech blowing apart.

"One artillery mech down, Luna knows how ma—" I started to saw as I was turning around until a whip made out of energy wrapped around my throat, which yanked me off my hooves and onto my back, where I saw what looked to be a Xartik Hunter, excepted it looked to have been upgraded based on the various attachments on it.

"{Submit, or be mutilated,}" the hunter stated as I flicked the switch on my right hoof to get its blade out, only to the hunter to electrify the whip, shocking me to the point that I was partly stunned by it as the robot started dragging me towards it. I tried to raise my right hoof to the whip, only for a second whip to suddenly wrapped around it, forcing it away as more electricity flowed through it and into me, nearly causing me to cry out in pain. I tried to dig in my rear hooves as I fumbled my left hoof around my belt to grab onto something, but I paused when magical bolts strike the hunter's head, forcing it to lose some of its grip while its shields deflected the attack.

This gave me the moment I needed to bring my blade up to the whip, but the hunter spotted that and just swung me into a tree, knocking the wind out of me before it ducked behind a tree for cover. As I was trying to catch my breath, I noticed that the sky had returned to its original color, causing me to blink before I felt the whip being pulled again, my body sliding off the tree as the hunter swung me into a rock this time, probably in an attempt to knock me out before engaging Windbag. However, just as the whip was starting to tighten again, a beam of blue light cut the whip in two, causing me to jerk my head towards the obvious source, which was Luna who was flying through the forest, crying, "Hath at thee, foul machine!"

"Luna, be careful, th—" I started to say, trying to warn Luna only for me to stop from shock as a larger Xartik unit suddenly dropped down on Luna, forcing her to crash into the ground. As I started to get onto my hooves as the whip around my neck dissipated, I heard Windbag letting out a yelp, causing me to glance at him where I saw that he had a whip around his throat as he was being pulled down towards the ground by a second hunter. Fuck, did they used me as bait? I thought to myself as I lit my horn up, before casting a spell that let out a force pulse from my horn that caused the Xartik hunters and the one on Luna to be knocked off balance. This let Windbag the chance to slip out of the whip while Luna grabbed onto her opponent, tossing it at a rock as she said, "Thou shall pay for thy transgression!" before she fired a massive laser at the robot, engulfing it as the rock shattered from that attack.

Based on the display of the attack, the hunters decided it was a good time to retreat as they started to run off, but not before throwing a bunch of small spheres at us, prompting me to bring up my shield to deflect the attack as the spheres exploded on impact, draining me further of my magical reserves. However, before the hunters could get far, Luna was finished with her opponent, which was a standing mess of molten metal before it collapsed onto the ground. Luna glanced at me, then at the fleeing robots, and finally at Delta Five's position, before taking into the air, exclaiming, "Enough!" before her horn lit up with so much magic, I was tempted to flinch from the sheer feel of the raw power Luna was calling forth before she fired a barrage of magical beams, striking at all the Xartik forces in view, piercing right through their shields and armor with ease.

"Phew, so this is the power of an alicorn, maybe you should ask Princess Cadance if her daughter can join the Aegis Guard, if the stories about her and lasers are true," Windbag commented before dropping down right next to me.

"How about you go ask her if her daughter can go to war," I countered as I looked around for any hostiles. "And keep your guard up, unless you won't miss having a head."

"Oh relax, the princess is here, and she's already tearing through the troops. If anyone was going to be a target, it would be her," Windbag said with a wave of his hoof, until I slammed a hoof on it. "Ow! What was that for?"

"If she's going to be the biggest job, then it is your job to cover! Now get going!" I shouted before grabbing him by his back and throwing him into the air, where he stopped after flying a few feet, hovering in the air as he gave me a glare.

I was about to say something else, when I was interrupted by my radio when I heard the familiar voice of Captain Stone as he said, "Captain Aura, this is the Solar Glory, we have finally arrived and are awaiting your orders."

About damn time, I thought to myself as I replied, "Solar Glory, contact the troops on the field, and provide support with your short range armaments when requested. Meanwhile, locate the remnants of the enemy ships and hit them with your long range cannons, we need to soften whatever forces they may have there as well as keep them from getting any foothold."

"Understood Captain," Stone replied, as I started to hear the sound of the Solar Glory's turbines as it faintly appeared in the distance behind the treeline, where I could see its guns opening fire.

Meanwhile, Princess Luna landed near me looking at the sight alongside me, asking, "Captain Aura, do you think this is the battle is finally won?"

"Not a chance, not until we wipe out every last Xartik machine on the battlefield. Until then, we ha—" I started to answer until the side of Luna's head flashed, indicating that her shield was deflecting a hit, as I saw my shield flaring up before fading away as I felt an impact on my right side, sending me to the ground as I felt a sharp pain in my gut as Luna's eyes widen in shock.

"Sniper! There is an enemy sniper! Everyone get down!" Windbag shouted into the radio as Luna raised a barrier around us.

"Captain Aura! Are you hurt?" Luna cried out as she rushed to my side as I placed a hoof at what I believe to be the impact point, where I felt a hole in my armor and the presence of blood.

Lifting up my hoof to see the blood on it, I simply stated, "Yeah... I'm hurt... and I might need surgery... Fuck, I fucken hate interdimensional traveling... and can someone get me a medic before I take the risk of bleeding out?"

Chapter IX: Present

"Now, Captain, hold still and rema—"

"I am calm, but I won't be if you take your bloody time getting this bullet out of me! Take any longer and I'll just use a knife to get it out myself!"

Sighing, the medic replied, "Fine Captain, just give me a moment," before he lit his horn as I felt the bullet moving around in my side before it came out of the hole that the bullet gave me. I was behind some cover with my chest armor taken off while Agate kept a shield up.Luna went off to find the sniper after a few medics arrived with reinforcements, and judging by the rather big explosion that had a blue hue to it, I guess she found it.

"Considering that you're not showing a single sign of pain, I wonder if you actually enjoy having a piece of metal in you," Windbag joked, causing me to glare at him. Before I could make a retort, I felt the medic applying a cleansing potion to my side, which naturally gave it a burning sensation due to the fact that since we're facing an enemy that had unknown metal compounds and chemical weapons at their disposal, it was standard issue to cleanse any wounds that were hit by any non-energy weapons. Looking at the medic after I felt him patching my side up, I watched as he deposited the blood-soaked bullet into a storage container, another standard issue so we can get any insight on what kind of physical ammunition the enemy was using.

"Alright Captain, the bullet is out, and the wound wasn't deep nor did any of your organs get hit, but I recommend that you don't go back into battle still," the medic said, which I responded by rolling my eyes at him.

"Like I'm going to sit back and relax while others are still fighting," I stated as I got up, holding back a wince as my side stung me for the effort while the medic just sighed before moving to help his fellow medics with Delta Five's wounded. As I checked my shields while lighting my horn up to recharge their battery, I turned on my radio as I said, "All units, report your progress." After receiving the reports that none of the other squads faced any trouble beyond the simple shield formations, I ordered, "Alright, everyone, continue your approach towards the enemy, but keep an eye out for snipers. Keep your shields charged, but if any squads are unable to do so, fall back and wait for reinforcements. We can't take any more risks for the time being. If you spot any heavily entrenched forces or enemy armor, just report their locations to the Solar Glory so they can blow them to Tartarus." Turning off my radio, I looked around to notice that Cherry and Night were missing, causing me to look at the rest of my squad as I asked, "Where the fuck are Cherry and Night?"

"They followed Luna in order to provide her support. They figured that you rather have them pushing forward instead of staying here until you were treated," Agate answered, causing me to roll my shoulders as I cracked my neck.

"Alright then, time to get ba—" I started to say until Windbag held his foreleg out in front of me, causing me to glare at him as I said, "What the fuck are you doing, Windbag?"

"Princess Luna has given me orders to ensure that you don't rejoin the fight," Windbag stated with a smug grin.

"Windbag, you got to the count of three to get your foreleg out of my fa—" I started to say until Agate stuck his foreleg in front of me as well. "Oh come on!"

"Princess Luna has ordered me as well, Captain," Agate stated, trying to take on a serious expression, which faltered under my withering glare. "She doesn't want you getting injured again, and that it wouldn't due for you to suffer magical exhaustion." As I was about to open my mouth to holler at the two, Agate added, "Though, I have a recommendation at what you could be doing to aid the troops, Captain."

Giving him the stink eye, I replied, "It better be good, Agate, or you'll find yourself cleaning the toilets with just your tongue."

Blinking in surprise, Agate glanced at Windbag, who simply commented, "She's not kidding, she will make you do that if you can't satisfy her demands."

Gulping at the threat hanging over his head, Agate said, "Princess Luna had proposed that you instead return to the Solar Glory to take command of the long-range artillery guns. She mentioned that you might find amusement peppering where you think the Xartik may be entrenched."

Giving him a long hard look for a moment, I let out a sigh as I replied, "She's right, I would like to rain down destruction on the enemy. Time to see if robots could understand the concept of shock and awe," as Agate let out a sigh of relief. "Now let's get moving so I can start blowing things up."

"And this is the holomap designed by Twilight Sparkle herself, using the Cutie Map at her castle as a form of inspiration," Captain Stone explained with Gregory at his side. We were gathered at the Solar Glory's command deck, which was staffed with species of all kinds and the holomap that Stone was talking about dominating the center, looking like a light blue projection of the battlefield with various green and red dots on it. The deck was at an elevated position above the rest of the ship, but was given a secondary shield since its position would make it a prime target for enemy fire. I was on the side with the windows closest to the battlefield, where I could see the constant bombardment by the ship's cannons on enemy positions, as well as the sight of one of the fallen alien ships being peppered with the long range guns.

"Nice design we got here, I assume these windows aren't just for our viewing pleasure?" I asked as I lifted a pair of binoculars to get a view of the rest of the forest.

"Of course not, Captain. These windows are reinforced glass enchanted with magic to make them even further stronger. Even a sniper round would have a hard time penetrating them," Gregory said, causing me to nod in approval as I spotted signs of another crashed ship’s remains.

"Good to see that whoever designed the ship made certain to cover any potential weakness as best as they can. Also, Stone, shift the long range cannons over to that position to the left of their current target," I ordered, causing Stone to come to my side with his own binoculars, taking a moment to see what I saw.

"Impressive Captain, you have a good eye on you," Stone said before looking at one of the officers on deck as he passed on the orders.

"Eh, it's something I developed in my younger years. Hard to survive if you don't spot the things that want to make you their next dinner," I idly replied as I watch the new target get peppered before turning my attention to Gregory. "I want you to start scanning the area for more alien crash sites, that way we can beat them to Tartarus before our troops move in for the kill."

"Yes Captain," Gregory said as I held my binoculars to him, which he grabbed as he made his way to the window, allowing me to walk over to the holomap to give it my full attention.

"We really need to make some name differences," I muttered to myself as I gave the battlefield a better view, seeing that not only was the holomap projecting the battlefield, but I could see tiny floating signs over the various units we have on the field, as well as indicators for various battlefield locations, marking potential crash sites or enemy ambushes. It was then that a claw came down from above me to poke my nose, cause me to scrunch it as I looked up to see Discord floating above me. "What are you up to now, Discord?" I asked as I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Why, just checking on my work, ain't it wonderful?" Discord said as he started poking various spots on the map, some of them being spots where there was marked alien ship remains, others unmarked spots, causing me to narrow my eyes at them.

"Captain Stone, mark those locations for bombardment immediately. Gregory, keep viewing the forest for anything suspicious, I don't want a wave of tanks coming down on a vulnerable squad or something like that," I ordered before turning my attention back to Discord, who was still floating around leisurely. "Thanks for the assist, and your little trick on the Xartik ships."

"My pleasure, even if this is all dreadful business, in my opinion. But alas, with such cruel monsters going after us, we have no choice but to fight for our survival. Hopefully my present will deter them from their desires to take over Equus," Discord stated as he filed his claws.

Looking at the remains of the enemy ships, I said, "I don't know, despite losing ships on arrival, they kept sending in some more, so I don't think that hurt them too much."

"I was talking about a different present, my silly filly," Discord replied with a chuckle, causing me to tilt my head at that.

"Huh? Then what did you gave them?" I asked, tilting my head as I ran my mind on what Discord could possibly do to them, before shaking my head at the futility of it.

"Oh, just something to mess with their center of gravity, so to speak," Discord simply answered as he gave me a smirk.

"This anomaly... to have such a capability, Species 3249 has much potential for not only scientific study but military capacities as well. Acquiring this species would grant us a new military edge over our competitors."

"Interesting proposal, Executive 423. Perhaps we will devote resources to this pursuit in order to further our corporation's goals. It appears that Executive 517 and 498 seemed interested in partaking in this particular endeavor."

"Their forces and assets would be mo—"

"Alert. Alert. Unknown anomaly detected at Mustering Station 4."

"What in limbo... Is that some sort of box? Command Unit 924, send a drone to investigate it."

"Orders received. Unit TW8923924 has arrived at the anomaly, inves— error, error, gravitational distortion detected."

"Gravitational distortion? Command Unit 924, what is going on? Report!"

"Report: Gravitational distortion detected, strong gravitational pull detected at the origin point of the anomaly. Nearby drone units are being drawn towards the origin point, losing connection to drones."

"By the founder, commence evacuation of the immediate area of all mobile assets!"

"Orders received, remaining drone personal and transport ships moving from vin—alert. Alert. Gravitational pull growing in strength, drone personal are immediately being drawn into it, transport ships report pull into the anomaly."

"My ships‽ Put their engines at full power! Jump to another dimension, even if its a random jump!"

"Orders received, engines at maximum thrust, gravitational pull has increased in response. Opening dimens—alert. Alert. All transport ships staffed at Mustering Station 4 and the station itself has ceased connection."

"..."

"Sounds like this species has more tricks up its sleeves than we thought. But do not worry Executive 423. You may have taken quite the loss there, but this event has perked my interest. Any species capable of manipulating gravity in such a fashion is most certainly something one must not pass up on investigating."

"I, on the other hand, will not participate in this matter. May you both profit from this 'venture' of yours, Executive 192, 423."

"...Command Unit 924. Muster all military assets at Mustering Station 3 and 5. Have all ground forces board the transports, and scatter them into space. I don't want any group of ships together, they should all be isolated from one another. This species is going to pay for destroying my property."

Chapter X: Aid

"I say if that doesn't convince them to give up, then nothing will."

"Then I hope you're wrong, cause what you did is only going to perk up more interest in our species... as well as piss off the guy that owns that fleet."

"What... are you kidding me? I just turned all those ships and that dock into a giant metal ball!" Discord exclaimed, looking surprised after showing me a magical recording of the Xartik receiving his gift. We were in the command quarters of the Solar Glory, where Discord and I were watching the results of the battle as Luna continued to lead our forces on the ground. After getting proper treatment for the hole in my chest, I was back in my armor despite the protests of my subordinates, though I quelled their yelling by saying that it was in case the enemy found the means to board their ship. Everypony should know that I'd rather not be sitting around defense when a battle is happening right next to me.

"Yeah, but that is only costing probably one organic member of their species, up to at most three of them. Equus is still small fries compared to the interdimensional empires out there. If anything, it could even make them want to get their hands on us even more. The Xartik won’t stop until they foresee the costs of this war to be far greater than their potential gains. That little stunt of yours could be seen as a superweapon of sorts that they would employ on their enemy; hence we might have become an even higher value target if they see this as the means to conquer their rivals," I said with a roll of my eyes as I saw something blow up in the distance. "Luna must be having the time of her life there."

"You and your inclination towards violence,” Discord replied with a shake of his head before snapping his fingers, causing a notepad and a pen to appear in his claws. “So I take it that you want me to use less destructive means to deter these Xartiks?”

“Oh no, I don’t disapprove your methods, not the slightest bit,” I answered as I turned my attention towards him, where I saw him cocking an eyebrow at me. “I’m just telling you that your methods won’t get us immediate results. But if you can do as much damage to them without them capturing you by some means, then eventually they may consider what they would view as a venture to be too costly to continue investing in.”

Throwing the notepad and pen behind him where they exploded into confetti, Discord cracked his claws as he said, “Then I’ll just show these Xartik what true chaos looks like. Any suggestions you would like to pitch in? I know you would love to satisfy your vicious streak,” before he curled around me with his face right before my own.

Rolling my eyes at him, I placed a hoof on Discord’s face to push it back for some breathing room as I replied, “I’m fairly certain that unless it involves chain explosions that causes utter hysteria among the enemy, my ideas would be rather bland compared to your own. I do have a warning to give you.” As Discord opened his mouth to protest, I stuck my hoof into it as I continued, “I know what you’re going to say, but remember my warning long ago about there because of things that can kill you out there in the cosmos. The Xartik have encountered many things in their pursuit of profit, and that includes beings with immense power. So they might be able to figure a way to capture you or at least hurt you, so don’t be reckless with our enemy. I know it isn’t something you would do, but please approach this with some level of caution.”

Frowning at me, Discord replied, “Normally I would dismiss such advice, but you haven’t given me any advice besides that one time. So I will heed your warning, any other orders you want to give me?” before Discord snapped his fingers.

Rolling my eyes at his appearance as some kind of waitress, complete with a wig, makeup, and skates for some reason, I answered, “Beyond what I just said, just do what you do best.”

Flashing again as he appeared in the uniform of my troops, albeit with badges that looked like the kind of stuff you give to a five-year-old. Giving me a mock salute, Discord stated, “As you command, Captain Aura. Or should I call you General Aura since you’re the captain of the Aegis Guard and not just a regular captain?”

Staring at Discord as he smirked at me, I started to rub the sides of my head with my hooves as I said, “I’m so going to talk to the princesses about this.” In response, Discord just laughed at me before disappearing with a snap of his fingers. Shaking my head, I return my attention to the battlefield until I heard the doors to the room slid open.

Turning around, I saw Agate with the rest of my squad behind him, with the exception for Windbag, they were saluting me as Agate said, “Captain, Celestia requests your presence at the gateway!”

Cocking an eyebrow, I asked, “And just why does she want me there of all places?”

“Ma’am, it turns out that she wants you to meet the leaders of the dragon and griffon kingdoms in regards to how they will contribute to the war effort!” Agate answered, still saluting me despite being the only one doing it.

“Well, that certainly is a good reason to draw me from the front lines,” I replied as I started to make my way to the door before stopping right in front of Agate. “You do know. that you only have to salute me for a second, right?”

Finally lowering a hoof, Agate stated, “Just giving you the respect you deserve, Captain. The princess' had chosen wisely when they selected you. To see you charging into the front lines and even shrugging off a bullet, you’re an inspiration to us all, ma’am.”

Staring at Agate for a moment while Windbag was keeping his laughter back by stuffing a hoof into his mouth, I merely responded, “Right... how about we just go onto whatever transport copter they have ready for me.”

“So, just what kind of being is this King Gregory? You think he’ll lend us some military forces or does he expect us to do all the dirty work for him?” I asked as I was in my standard uniform to allow for some repeats to my armor.

“I highly doubt that he wouldn’t aid us since this war is for the defense of Equus, and with the fact that we allowed his people the chance for expansion into a new world. I think he would love for a chance to repay us, or else risk losing favor with his colonies,” Celestia states, who was still in her armor except for her helmet. The two of us were waiting in the command room of Alpha Central, the primary portal sight on the planet, due to the room’s ability to not only display a global map of the world from a table in the center of the room, but access the visual reports from any of the warships we have on the field. “You should have more faith in our allies, Aether,” Celestia stated as she was watching her sister surveying the fallen Xartik warships for any remaining troops, leading to the rare sight of part of the ship blowing up.

“I only have faith in the fact that the Xartik is going to make this war rough for us,” I countered with a roll of my eyes while I was seated next to the monitor table. “Also I would request a bit of a title change in regards to the Captain of the Guard."

Cocking an eyebrow, Celestia replied, "Normally, I would humor such a request. But since this is you, I think you actually have a valid reason for this. Explain."

"Basically, since we also have the rank of captain, it would be rather troublesome for some soldiers when they hear me simply called 'Captain' on the field. I would hope that you would have a solution to that title issue we have," I explained while spinning a hoof around in the air.

Nodding, Celestia replied, "Ah, I understand. I believe we can use a term that was used a few times in the past of Equus. While we will keep the title of Captain of the Guard, during wartime, it can just be called Captain-General, with the full title being used when another general is on the field. Otherwise, you can be referred to as general just for saving time."

Shrugging, I responded, "Very well, that's better than nothing, even if it means I might hear Agate calling me Captain General all the time now," before I heard the doors to the room opening. Looking to the side, I saw who I assumed to be King Gregory, considering that it was an eagle-headed griffon that had a rather flashy crown with a red cape on, flanked by two griffons that were wearing the now-defunct plate armor.

"Ah, so this is the pony known as Aether Aura, it is a pleasure to meet you," Gregory stated as he stepped before with a smile on his face. "It is rather nice to meet a pony that has an aggressive view on the matters of warfare, or so I heard.”

Frowning, I said, “I won’t say that I have such a stance on things, but I will say that I would like as many ponies to come out of this alive. But knowing the nature of the Xartik, we will have to bleed them if we wish to win.”

“And that is something I don’t expect a pony to say. Forgive me Princess Celestia, but on the norm, your ponies are far too peace-loving and too meek in regards to the idea of war. If what this Captain Aura has shown me is the indication of the kind of mare she is, then the griffons that join her guard are in good talons, or hooves in your case,” Gregory stated as he approached the monitor table. Looking at the sight of a smoking shop, Gregory commented, “So this is one of our enemy’s ships? It seems like your forces made quick work of it.”

“Not really, it just was befouled by Discord’s magic, but the ships after the first one quickly observed it and made an effort to drop as many troops as possible before they were torn apart as well. It’s a typical sign of what they normally do when invading newly discovered worlds. We’re just dealing with a probing force, the real army won’t come in until they developed a solid plan of attack,” I stated with a wave of my hoof at the projection.

“I see... do you think you’ll need my kingdom’s army to help you in this war against these machines? I’m rather leery of leaving my lands unprotected for others to take advantage of if I were to lend some aid to you,” Gregory stated while stepping the bottom of his beak in thought.

“I doubt that any nation would seek to take advantage of such a situation when our very way of life is being threatened, King Gregory. Already Queen Chrysalis, who if you remember did attempt to take over Canterlot a few decades ago, is mobilizing her forces to join us here on Selene. Furthermore, I doubt that the other nations would tolerate one nation going rogue to take advantage of our forces protecting them from external threats," Celestia replied. "We even may have aid from the dragon kingdom as well, so with three nations uniting to support the Aegis Guard, others might decide to join as well, or at least provide some support."

"Though, I'll be surprised that the Dragon Lord would leave us high and dry in this war," I stated with a shrug, drawing Gregory's attention towards me.

"Oh? And how can you be so confident about that?" Gregory asked in a skeptical tone.

"Well, since dragons have been friends with ponykind for a couple decades now, some of them have some pent up aggression that would normally be placed on us, but now has no place to go. That and the Dragon Lord is good friends with the dragon assistant to the Princess of Friendship, so that has to count for something as well," I stated with a shrug of my shoulders, before giving Gregory a smirk. "Besides, do you really think that dragons would hide behind ponies in a war that threatens even them?"

Chapter XI: Dragons

“Well, That went better than I expected.”

“Oh what did you expected from this meeting, Captain Aura?” asked Gregory while everyone was still waiting for the dragon lord to show up.

“I tend to get on the nerves of nobility and royalty more often than not, so I thought we were going to butt heads at some point,” I nonchalantly replied with a shrug.

“Ah, I have heard rumors about both the conflicts you have with the nobility of Canterlot along with rumors about them as well. I assure you that I do what I believe is best for my people, and for our world,” Gregory stated as I nodded at his words. Either he is a griffin of his word, or he just knows how to sugarcoat his words just the right way, I thought to myself before hearing the doors sliding open.

Stepping into the room was a seven foot tall, cyan scaled female dragon with a lithe figure but still showing some muscle, dressed in golden armor that looked quite ornamental like Gregory's guards, but I could see the purple runes glowing softly on the armor's pauldrons. The dragoness briefly scanned the room before saying, "So, this is your war room? Doesn't look too impressive... or war-like." Right behind her, was two masked dragons, bulkier and taller than their leader, but remaining silent as they stood directly behind her.

"It's more of a monitoring room, good for simple viewing of the battlefield, but not for leading armies. Our warships have far better war rooms than this one, Dragon Lord Ember," I explained with a shrug as I spot Gregory walking up to Ember.

"Ah, a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Dragon Lord Ember. The words of your diplomat on how your appearance doesn't do you any justice," Gregory stated, holding out a claw for a shake that Ember stared at for a brief moment before gingerly taking it.

Shaking Gregory's claw, Ember said, "Can we just cut back on the formalities? We're at war, and I rather keep this business short. I got some dragons that are rearing up for a fight, and I don't want a brawl breaking between them because of boredom."

"There is no current rush, for the first battle is coming to a close," Celestia stated, only to look at me when I let out a snort.

"Just cause Luna is mopping up the rest of the Xartik doesn't mean we have some breathing room. We don't know if they have a second wave ready and just waiting for our troops to wear themselves out with clean-up duty. It's best to assume that we can be attacked at any time, or even multiple attacks at once. We might have magic and Discord doing his best to break up their operations, but they have sheer numbers on their side," I explained, causing Ember and Gregory to glance at one another.

"Wouldn't they care about causalities? That is bound to demoralize their men and possibly deserters?" Gregory asked, causing me to shake my head.

"The enemy we are facing are machines, cold, emotionless machines. So enemy troop morale isn't a fact as we face the Xartik. They’re just going to treat this war as an investment, so it’s our job to make the costs greater than what they think the reward of winning the war would give them,” I answered.

“Augh, does this really have to be something about business? Why can’t it just be a simple war like in the history books?” Ember complained as she sat down, propping an elbow on the table so she could rest her head on her claw.

“That’s the price of dealing with inter-dimensional forces, it is never simple no matter which way you cut it. Regardless, I am glad that the both of you are willing to have your nations participate in this war directly, is there any questions you two may have?” I asked as I cast my gaze over the two.

“There is one question I’m wondering about since you said this wouldn’t be some war with simple expectations. What would happen to our world if we win this war?” Ember asked, drawing Gregory’s and even Celestia’s attention upon me.

“Hard to say, since our world is the only one that has magic, at least according to my knowledge. We could be grouped with some of the more mysterious nations that tend to have odd abilities to them that make other nations wary of them. we could become acknowledge as another inter-dimensional nation and be forced to compete with the others just to survive or have all the other factions decide that we’re too dangerous to exist and band together to wipe us out. There are multiple scenarios in how this will all go down and if we win, and most of them aren’t good,” I explained with a shrug, causing the three rulers to look at each other with concern clear on their faces. “But that is something we can worry about later since we have a war to win first.”

“You are correct about our need to focus on one problem at a time, Captain Aura. While we may need to consider the future at some point, our enemy will not let us be idle,” Celestia stated before Ember stepped forward with a somber expression.

“You said that these... Xartik, view this as some kind of business venture?” Ember asked, to which I gave her a quick nod in reply. “Then would there be any possibility for us to target their leadership? If there is no one to invest in a war, then there is no war based on what you said.”

Shaking my head, I replied, “The odds of us actually meeting a live Xartik instead of one of their drones is highly unlikely, and there is no way we could mass an offensive on their homeworld, much less find their homeworld in respect to our method of inter-dimensional travel. Maybe Discord could locate them and reach them, but that would put him in danger and we can’t risk his capture. We might have some options in the future, but for now, there isn’t much we can do but play defense.”

“That just sounds like we’ll just sitting around with our thumbs up our asses till the enemy comes a’ knockin’! We can’t just stay on the defensive throughout the war!” Ember shouted in frustration as she slammed a flawed fist onto the monitor table, causing the holograms to flicker for a second.

“For now, we don’t have a choice. And an attack on their territory would just be a slaughter, as well as give them bodies to study which would just allow them to find our weakness. The only way any offensive off planet would be worthwhile is if Discord finds the home of the Xartik in charge of the attack, which is unlikely to occur since it could be anywhere since having the home being mobile makes it easier to position whenever needed,” I countered with an annoyed glare.

Glaring back at me for a moment, Ember threw her claws into the air as she said, “Fine! But if you ever got a chance to take one of them out, I want to hear the whole story. Until then, you have twenty thousand dragons ready to join the front lines for the time being.”

“And fifteen thousand griffons will be joining, with more on there way if recruitment goes well. It might not be much, but I would need to see more of the results of this war before I could consider a draft without risking angering my people,” Gregory stated.

Grunting, I replied, “Better something than nothing, but we better hope that they don’t figure a workaround for Discord’s defense.”

Nodding, Gregory scratched his chin as he asked, “I’m curious about something in regards to you, Captain Aura. It’s no secret that you were an alien that was just turned into a pony thanks to wild magic, but how do you know this much about enemy tactics?”

Shrugging, I answered, “Back when I was just some poor sod, I heard all about how the Xartik’s methods of conquest over ‘primitive’ worlds, along with other factions who do the same thing. As long as they don’t wipe out the entire population on a planet, there will be survivors with stories about what happened.”

Shivering at what I assumed to be the thoughts of worlds being devastated by aliens, Gregory stated, “I think my curiosity on this matter has been satisfied. Now if you excuse me, I’ll be taking my leave. A pleasure to meet you, Dragon Lord Ember. And I wish you good luck with the war effort Princess Celestia, Captain Aura." Giving us a short bow, Gregory stepped out of the room with his guards following behind him.

"Well, since the griffon king had left the room, I guess I'll just go as well. I have some older dragons to stir up in order to get them on the field as well. Do you think that the enemy would be interested in gold and gems?" Ember asked as her guards shared a glance with one another.

"Pretty much, if we lose the war to the Xartik, you can be certain that they'll loot the world of all its resources, and your treasure hoards would be considered a resource. So bye-bye hoarding treasure or eating gems, and say hello to a life of horrible tasting paste tubes and possible being dissected on some operation table," I answered bluntly, causing Ember to scratch at the side of her face. "But bear in mind one thing, since they're so big, they're basically giant targets for enemy cannons or fighters. I don't know if they would be effective unless we turn them into literal walking and flying fortresses, which is something that they might not be keen on doing."

"Well, if the older dragons would believe that statement, then I might have an easier time stirring them up for your cause in some fashion. Even if they can't fight, maybe I can get them to help you in weapon forging or anything else they can lend a claw in. I'm pretty certain some pony will figure out something for us," Ember stated before walking out, her guards following behind her as Celestia and I just stared at their departure for a moment.

"...Do you think she has forgotten that it is polite to give someone a farewell?" I asked Celestia as I turned my head towards her.

"Well, dragons do have their own way of doing things," Celestia mused aloud, before diverting her attention towards me. "Since the matter of reinforcements has been taken care of for the time being, do you have any predictions on how the Xartik would react to their first loss?"

Folding my hooves over my chest, I replied, "Well, it's hard to say since I don't know just how much those transport ships cost them. If they were planned for the scrapheap from the start, and if they have more in stock to throw at us, they're probably just going to send them in mass to overwhelm our forces. But if they don't, they may look for another means to directly transport troops onto the planet's surface and for the time being give up the possibility of controlling the space around Selene. Regardless of what route they take, Discord's destruction of their first gathering point would be what makes them more cautious as a result. They will have to change things so that they can launch attacks without fear of retaliation."

"And that would certainly delay them for us to prepare our defenses, how much time do you think that bought us?" Celestia asked as she turned her attention to the hologram, which drew mine as well as we saw Luna standing triumphantly over the remains of one of Xartik warships as she planted the Equestrian flag on it.

"A day, if we're lucky. The most we can best hope for is a week, but that entails the possibility of a large-scale assault. So, in the end, whatever time we have to recover would just be spent with us getting more paranoid in the end," I explained with a sigh. Leaning closer towards the hologram, I added, "But... this does give us time to get those ships disassembled and transported over to Equus after we make certain that there are no trackers on them. If our scientists could reverse engineer them, we might be able to claim space dominance before the Xartik figure out a way to circumvent Discord's traps."

Nodding in agreement, Celestia stated, "I'll have the Solar Glory oversee salvaging operations, though, if we do have to develop our own spacecraft, I'm assuming that you would like one under your direct command?"

"Fuck yeah I would, I always wanted a chance to call down an orbital bombardment upon my foes!" I stated as I pointed a hoof at the ceiling, causing Celestia to roll her eyes at me.

Chapter XII: Flare

"So... do we have anything that would aid us to take out any enemy armor units like that walker tank from the first battle? Without needing one of our airships to provide bombardment or an alicorn dive bombing them?” I asked as I stared at the remnants of what looked like some kind of Xartik transport ship engine. Or maybe it was some kind of recharge pod for Xartik drones since I have no idea how they spaceships looked on the inside. It was the second day after the battle ended which was shortly after my meeting was with Ember and Gregory, where we had the Solar Glory pick up as much of the remnants of the enemy ship and vehicles that they had on board before transporting to one of the bases that lacked a portal. This was due to avoiding the possibility of any hidden drones that could detect an open portal or the risk of an accidental detonation that could threaten a portal site.

“Well, we do have some tank prototypes, though our transport ships lack the strength to deploy them to the battlefield in time, Captain Aura,” Light Pulse answered as he and a pair of assistants were disassembling the engine or recharge pod as I watched. “Though, since we did recover what we assume to be enemy aerial transport ships, we might be able to reverse engineer them to improve our own transports.

“I see, so how long before you figure out how this engine works?” I asked as I pointed at said object, only to get an odd look from Light. "What... this is something else entirely, right?"

"Yes Captain, but your line of thinking wasn't too far off. We believe that this is an anti-gravity device, based on how another machine just like this one reacted during salvaging operations. It had to be disabled by force, but we were lucky to find a couple more of them that was largely intact from the damaged remnants of the enemy ships' hangers. Though, once we understand how the device works and find out how to duplicate its features with our own tech, we could figure out how to employ that on our own aerial vehicles,” Light explained while examining the device.

“I know I might be asking a bit of a stupid question, but why haven’t we built our own anti-gravity generators?” I asked as I ran a few potential reasons through my head.

“The reason is that while we have the spells for anti-gravity, the spell itself drains too much energy and would require a large scale generator that would take too much room on the copters. Currently, our airships are the only option for that, but the power draw is too great thus we have to rely on our thrust engines for the time being. Hence why we need to study these generators as you call them so we can overcome those two problems,” Light explained as the assistants were carefully moving one of the generators components to the side.

“Well, continue the good work, and let’s hope there’s no hidden explosives in some of their gear,” I commented as I started to turn around, only for me to stop when I noticed the flat stares Light and his assistants were shooting at me. “Hey, That is a legitimate deal, not some kind of sick joke. We’re dealing with robot aliens for crying out loud,” I stated with a roll of my eyes before stepping out of the room as I was turning my head around, only to walk face first into someone. “Who the fuck thinks it’s a good idea to stand in front of a fucken door?” I growled out as I took a step back to see the fool, only to raise an eyebrow at what I saw.

“Someone that finds you rather short,” said an orange dragon with a pair of yellow horns pointing straight out of the back of its head. “I thought the ‘vicious’ Captain of the Aegis Guard would be someone of stature, not some short unicorn,” the dragon stated in a feminine voice, as I began to notice the lithe yet still muscular figure she possessed, as she stood at about six and a half feet tall.

Keeping my eyebrow cocked, I asked, “I take it you’re part of the dragon reinforcements sent by Dragon Lord Ember?” as I took stock of the dragon's clothing. She was dressed in a teal uniform that was just a military dress shirt.

Smirking, the dragoness beat her chest with her fist as she declared, “Sergeant Flare, here to help pull your guard out of this mess that you call war.”

Giving Flare a flat stare in return, I simply replied, “Sergeant Flare... are you saying that you judge others by appearances?” as I resisted the urge to just teleport her into the nearest toilet. Even if she’ll just end up breaking it apart upon arrival.

“Well, I’m not going to put stock in what others say, so I need to see something to believe it. So to me, you're just some smaller than average unicorn that became an officer by looking angry all the time," Flare stated, causing my left eye to twitch in response.

"Alright, so I take it you need me to prove my worth to you?" I simply asked as I glared at the young dragoness while bracing my rear legs.

"Didn't I made that ap—" Flare started to say until I jumped straight at her, headbutting her in the stomach. Due to my sudden attack, Flare was just sent backwards with a cry of surprise untill she hit the hallway wall. where I then planted my rear hooves onto her knees before I push off them to get to her neck, my forelegs wrapping around them into a choke hold as I use my momentum to swing the rest of my body around her neck so that it was behind her as I tried to strangle the dragoness.

“What... the fuck are you... doing‽” Flare squeezed out of her jaws as her hands went up to my hooves in a vain attempt to pry them off.

“Showing you that I’m not one to be taken lightly,” I answered as I tighten my hold, causing whatever words Flare was about to say to be silenced as a result. Flare then swung her body around in a futile effort to shake me off, before opting just to smash her back, and thus me, into the walls. Gritting my teeth, I simply commented, “You’re going to lose consciousness first before you could even hope to wear me out this way,” as I ignored the pain from another back slam.

Growing annoyed Flare’s stubbornness, I lit my horn up as I pulled out my taser from my mane, and proceeded to tase Flare by zapping her side. As she started to convulse a bit from the tasing, I stated, “Tap the wall or the floor five times to indicate that you give up. Otherwise, I’ll keep on tasing you without any respite.” Flare continued to struggle, as expected, as she even tried to swipe the taser from me only for me to teleport it to her belly and then onto one of her sides whenever one of her claws got near it. Eventually, she fell to her knees as the scales on her face were turning into a shade of purple as she rapidly tapped the wall. “I said five times, remember?” I said as I kept up my antics, causing her to let out a strangled growl as she tapped the wall five times.

As I finally let go of her neck, Flare fell onto her left claw as her right one was on her neck while she was gasping for air. After a few breathes, Flare turned her head to glare at me as she shouted, “What the fuck is wrong with you‽”

“You weren’t impressed, or more importantly intimidated, by my appearance. And since you mentioned that you rather see things yourself instead of listening to others, I decided a hooves-on demonstration was needed. Or maybe it is still needed, if you need to see more of myself in action,” I explained as I leaned my head towards Flare, keeping on a neutral look like this was a daily occurrence for me.

Jerking her head back when my had gotten closer, Flare replied, “No, I’ve already seen enough to know you’re a psycho! It’s one thing to attack your own ponies to discipline them, but attacking other soldiers is just crazy‽”

Cocking an eyebrow, I countered, “Well, I think your dragon lord would overlook this transgression since she knows quite a bit about the kind of pony I am. I’m now wondering about something. Did you just came to me to see what kind of pony I am, or was there something else as well?”

Gritting her teeth as she looked at me in anger, Flare replied, "Originally, I heard that the Aegis Guard Captain was forming her own personal strike team, and if it supposed to be the elite of the elite, then I would have joined it. But after se—"

"Very well then, you're now a part of my personal team. Let's hope you'll survive the next five battles," I just replied, causing Flare to blink dumbly at me as I wished that I had a camera on me.

"What the fuck! Do you think you can just sa—what do you mean, 'survive the next five battles'?" Flare asked, where she was at first furious until she fully registered what I said.

Shooting her a mocking smirk, I replied, "Don't you know? This isn't some kind of job for glory hunters. My team is meant to do the most dangerous work, so the chance of dying on the field is higher than with other squads or forces. We could even end up deep behind enemy lines depending on how future battles would go. I may be the Captain of the Aegis Guard, but unlike the other Guard Captains, I'm going to be in the front lines of every battle that I can get myself into. In fact, only two ponies have volunteered for my squad, the rest of the team is another pony that I pressed into my team and a changeling assigned by Chrysalis herself. But I'm so glad that you volunteered for my team, could use someone who has claws to use enemy weaponry."

As Flare blinked in a dumbfounded state, I simply walked up to her before slapping jumping up to slap her in the face, eliciting her to say, "What the fuck did you do that for‽"

Giving her a deadpan stare, I replied, "Cause you were stunned by something that I said. Being stunned by anything during a firefight would just result in your brains being blown out by the enemy. We're fighting a robot army made by an alien race, so odds are we're always going to be encountering new and wild things once the Xartik decide to get serious with us. So if you're thinking you're some kind of hot stuff from the dragon army, then prove it to me instead of acting like some kind of dumbass that has overestimated their own skills."

Folding her arms over her chest as she glared at me with what might just be outright hatred, Flare stated, "You're talking a lot of bul—" until I interrupted her when I used my magic to clamp her jaws shunt as I forced her head into eye level with me.

"Just how bloody stubborn are you? And just how stupid are you? Talk to the survivors of the first major battle, some of them actually saw that I got hit by a walker tank round. And if you don't know what a tank is, just think of a heavily armored cannon that can walk over any obstacles," I declared in an annoyed tone before letting go of Flare's snout. Walking past her, I continued on when I said, "Word of advice, you fool. Swallow your pride and realize what is going on. Almost everyone on this planet is just small fry compared to the Xartik's elite forces. This isn't going to be a war like those you read in history books. This war will be just like staring into the Gates of Tartarus and then jumping into it. More so with my squad than with any other." Pausing at the end of the hallway, I turned to look at Flare, who was just staring at me with an expression that was a mix of anger and thoughtfulness. This prompted me to state, "But, I do hope you live up to your attitude, cause if you're as good as the way you act to me today then maybe you'll do something to get yourself in the history books. If we win this war that is," before I turn around to leave Flare to think about what just transpired. Though I really do hope that her stubbornness shows through in the battlefield, I really don't want to be the one spearheading charges when the time calls for it. Taking a tank shell to the face really sucks after all.

Chapter XIV: Charge

"So, do we have any details on what the Xartik are throwing at us this time?" I asked as I stared at a monitor near the pilot's side of the dropship. Immediately after getting the news of another intrusion from the Xartik, I grabbed my armor, which thankfully was repaired, and boarded the first dropship that was ready to go.

"The enemy seemed to have changed their tactics after losing so many ships during the first invasion attempt, Captain," said Major Shadow Wing, a deep blue coated thestral mare with green eyes and a black mane through the monitor. "While we have detected a dimensional rift, our scanners have picked up multiple small objects coming out of it. Could the Xartik be able to send drop pods through the rift, Captain?"

Grunting in annoyance, I answered, "Probably, since they're just sending robots that can handle a trip through a rift far better than most organic lifeforms. Hopefully, Discord catches onto what they're doing and comes up with some trick to prevent them from continuing this. Though... is there any variance to the sizes of the objects they're sending through the rift, Shadow?"

Nodding, Shadow replied, "There is Captain, we're detecting that while most of the objects coming through are of a similar size, a hooffull of them are larger than the others."

"Damn it, that means they're either dropping off equipment to set a ground side rift, or vehicles to support them on the ground. Though most likely it's both. How far is your ship from the enemy rift, Major?" I asked while privately cursing to myself. I hope there are no nearby caves or caverns nearby, or we're fucked!

"About five miles currently, we'll be there and ready to pepper their landing site with artillery fire, Captain," Shadow stated with a salute.

Nodding, I replied, “Good, but do scan the region for any spaces underground. If you do detect them, do what you can to collapse them, while keeping tracks of the ones you can’t blow up. Also, inform all air support to be ready for the possibility of heavy anti-air fire. Do you have any troops on the ground?”

Lowering her hoof, Shadow answered, “Majority of the Aurora’s ground forces have already landed and are preparing a landing zone for your forces. There have been a few firefights, but we lack the marepower to mount an offensive without artillery support, so all they can hold them off until the Aurora is in position.”

“Very well, but once you started your bombardment, order your ground forces to send scouting units around the enemy. I want to keep track of as many of them as we can since I doubt our scanners will be able to do it on their own. Until something else comes up, you’re dismissed major,” I ordered, getting another salute in return.

“Roger Captain, Major Shadow out,” Shadow replied before the monitor went out, at which Flare let out a snort that drew our attention to her.

“I can’t believe this, my first engagement will be clean up duty,” Flare complained with a roll of her eyes.

Scowling at her, I countered, “Do you really think things would be easy with the Aurora providing support? We’re fighting alien robots you idiot, they’re not going just keel over and die when the Aurora open fire with its cannons,” before I took in a breath to calm myself down a bit. “Here’s a piece of advice when dealing with interdimensional matters, be it combat with alien robots or something else entirely: Always assume the worst possible outcome.”

“Like a bullet bouncing off Princess Luna’s shield only to pierce Aether’s armor!” Windbag declared with a wide grin, that only momentarily faltered when I shot a murderous look at him in response.

“Moving on... don’t assume that you’re the toughest being on the field, Flare. The Xartik are capable of bringing in robots the size of the father of the dragon lord, which could probably squish you underfoot as it runs through our lines on a whim,” I stated, causing Night to gulp at what I said.

Snorting out some fire from her nostrils, Flare stated, "If we weren't in a flying metal box going towards a battle with robots, I would've called bullshit on what you just said. So, instead, I'll just humor you and n—"

"Continue on with that statement, and I will have you fired out of one of the Aurora’s cannons,” I declared, causing Flare to shut her jaws before giving Windbag a questioning look.

“She will do it, all those who trained directly underneath her know of her twisted way of punishing others, along with her short fuse,” Windbag explained, smirking a bit when I frowned at him.

“Enough chatter, just prep yourselves for the battle ahead,” I ordered, causing my squad to recheck their gear and weapons, leaving me to think to myself. This isn’t going to end as well as the last one... and the Xartik got to have something planned. They’re not just going to drop troops without some scheme after what Discord did to them.

“Captain, we’re approaching the landing zone, but there is s bunch of enemy fire flying overhead!”

“Just bring us down to ground level, the squad and I will disembark as you’re coasting over the ground, but don’t go too fast for us so we can get off safely,” I ordered, getting off my seat to face the copter's rear door.

"Understood, captain," the pilot said, shifting the movement of the copter that most of us braced against, with the exception of Flare who slammed her snort against a seat harness.

"Fuck, did the pilot had to do that?" Flare complained as she glared towards the pilot seat, causing me to roll my eyes at her.

"Quit your whining, Flare," I ordered, causing Flare to shift her glare towards me. Sighing, I continued, "You need to learn to adapt to changing situations, even the shifting of a copter. You might even need to learn to deal with getting off one while it is crash landing."

Letting out a chuckle, Windbag commented, "And be happy that you weren't stuffed into a tight metal box before it was pushed down a bumpy hill. But I guess that training was valid after all."

"Enough talk, the door is going to o—" I started to say until the rear doors started to lower. "Alright everyone, move move move!" I shouted before jumping out of the copter, the others following right behind me. Rolling across the ground, with the sounds of gunfire going all around me, I pulled out my rifle before surveying the land. Unlike the battle in the forest, we were in a rocky landscape, with the rocks being large enough to provide cover, which I took advantage of immediately by running towards a few free boulders, my troops following right behind me.

Activating the radio, I said, "This is Captain General Aura, who is the commanding officer here?"

A feminine voice replied, "Captain Aura, Colonel Crystal Lance of the Aegis Guard reporting."

"Colonel Lance, report the situation we're in. Who's on the offensive?" I asked as Flare kept her head low while Windbag was occasionally firing a few shots back at the enemy.

“We were until ten minutes ago. The Xartik originally only had infantry on the field, allowing us the chance to push forward, only for their walking tanks to push us back. We called in some bombardments whenever we can. But there is still enough tanks roaming about in an erratic pattern, preventing the Aurora’s cannons from locking in on their positions,” Lance reported.

“And it’s safe to assume that the enemy troops are too spread out for artillery strike to be effective?” I asked, grunting in frustration. Celestia was the only alicorn available at the moment since Luna was resting, but she was held up by diplomatic talks, and wouldn’t be here for at least ten minutes.

“Correct madam, so we’re at a stalemate,” Lance reported, causing me to let out a snort before turning to look at Cherry.

“Cherry, do you have the bombs that I told you to bring?” I asked, causing everyone but Flare to take a step away from the mirror clone.

“Wait, bombs?!” Flare exclaimed as she stared at Cherry in shock.

Nodding, Cherry meekly replied, “Yeah, all those attachable high yield explosives... I do have them in my mane...” which caused her fellow squad mates to back away from her.

Except for Flare, who said, “You have... explosives... in your mane?!” as she stood up fully in surprise, only to immediately duck back down as a shot strayed right past her head.

Knowing that Cherry might be thinking that I'm secretly planning to blow her up, I rolled my eyes as I ordered, "Flare, be quiet. Cherry, I know you're quick and agile enough to slip through the enemy fire and plant those explosives on their walkers. Report in when you got them all or run out of explosive charges, that would be when I'll give the orders to push the enemy back."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Cherry saluted me as she exclaimed, "Orders received, Captain!" before disappearing out of our sight, which confused my entire squad with the exception of Windbag.

“Umm... how did she do that?” Agate asked before I gave my squad as a telekinetic slap to the back of their heads.

"Stop focusing on the impossibility and instead pay attention to the fucken alien robots that are still firing at us!" I shouted at my squad before my ears flicked at the sound of an explosion in the direction of the enemy. "Seems like Cherry had found her first target."

It only took half a minute as more explosions went off, when Cherry appeared by my side, startling most of my squad again as she gave me another salute. "Captain, all enemy tanks have been neutralized, as ordered."

Shaking off the urge to be disturbed by the clone, I activated my radio as I said, "All units, the enemy vehicles have been taken care of, it's time to push back the enemy!" before I took my hoof off it and lit my horn up as I glanced past the cover we were using. "Night, Cherry, Agate, you three head left while Windbag and Flare will go right."

"Wait, what are you going to be doing?" Flare asked as the rest of the squad was forming up.

"Making myself a target... again," I stated as I spotted a couple of Xartik firing towards our position. "On the count of three, we'll charge. Three!" I shouted before letting off my teleportation spell, appearing right behind the two Xartik drones. Noticing that they seemed to be of the same model as the ones used in the previous engagement, I let out a minor sigh of relief as I began blowing their heads off as I fired my rifle at them. Seeing the rest of my squad charging forward as ordered, with Flare lagging a bit behind Windbag, I spun about to get my bearings as a shot whizzed past my head, causing me to notice some more Xartik fighting behind a rather sizable boulder. Grunting in annoyance, pulled a grenade off my belt before I teleported to the top of the boulder, where I threw the explosive at the midst of five Xartik that I assume surprised by my sudden appearance. Glancing about, I saw that my squad were taken down two enemy positions on their own, which encouraged me to press on forward.

That is, until I heard a rather loud boom going off from the enemy lines, and the boulder I was next two splitting in half as it sent me tumbling a few feet before I brought myself to a stop. Turning around, I saw, much to my surprise and horror, that a rather heavily armored Xartik drone, with four mechanical eyes staring at me as it brought its right arm up, where I saw that it was rather broad and roundish compared to the other Xartik arms were. But that was probably due to the fact that there was a nozzle on it that made me thought, Fuck, we just played into their fucken claws! As the nozzle suddenly spew hot blue flames in my direction.

Chapter XV: Resolute

One thing about personal shielding is that you must be sure about the kind of personal shielding you have. There are some that stops fire from ballistic weapons or energy based ones. Some shields just generally protect the user from all incoming harm. Mine was the last one, but one thing it didn’t protect me from the intense heat of the flamethrower the Xartik used on me.

“Fuck!” I shouted to myself as my shield blocked the flames, but I could feel my armor heating up still. Teleporting away from the Xartik, I activated my radio as I shout, “All units, the enemy has flamethrower units! Do not engage close quarters comb—what the fuck are you doing Flare‽”

“Taking this stupid fire spitting robot, unlike you pansies,” Flare stated as she rushed towards the Xartik, firing wildly at it. This caused it to turn around and let out a stream of fire at Flare, who merely kept on charging before letting out a roar as she tried to tackle it, only to experience what Rainbow experiences when she crashes into a wall. That was when I noticed that its left arm was different in appearance from its right counterpart, though I could figure out why when the robot swung its fist at Flare, producing an audible thump as Flare was sent flying.

“How that idiot became a soldier is beyond me,” I muttered to myself before reactivating my radio. “All dragons on the field, the flamethrower Xartik may have an impact weapon built into its other arm, so don’t engage thinking you’re safe from harm,” I said to the radio before turning it off as I leveled my rifle’s sights on the Xartik’s head as it was distracted by Agate and Night as they were firing at it from behind some cover. Firing a few shots, I saw that its shield deflected them with ease, though it did turn its attention towards me as a result. Why must I be a better shot than most of my troops? I thought as it charged towards me.

Pulling out my energy sword from my right foreleg, I drew upon another feature built into my armor courtesy of the princesses. A round plate on my left foreleg's bracer pushed outward before its edges extended outward in an x-shaped fashion before generating a shield made out of energy that was just barely large enough for me to hide behind if I compressed my body as much as I can. Unlike my general energy shield, this one was designed to be more robust and resilient to other forms of attack, including fire-based ones. Shame that it wasn't strong enough to fend off tank rounds.

Spewing a plume of flame at me, which I angled my shield to deflect it to the side, the Xartik continued on with its charge, swinging its left arm at me. Thankful that Flare proved useful enough to expose that ability, I lowered my shield, leaning back so that the robot's fist just went by my chest by a few mere inches, before I thrust my sword into one of its left arm's elbow joint. Thankfully, despite the Xartik being heavily armored, its shield wasn’t strong enough to repel my blade as it tore into the joint. Bracing my rear hooves against the ground, I pulled the sword upwards, causing it to cut through half of the joint before pulling free. Teleporting away from the flamethrower drone, I could see that its left arm is mostly disabled, still hanging on but hanging uselessly off the elbow point.

Raising my shield again to block another surge of fire, I activated my radio as I said, “All units, the flamethrower Xartik drones lack a strong enough shield for melee combat, and rely on heavy armor to defend themselves after their shields have failed. Try taking out the arm that unleashes their impact weapon so our dragon soldiers can safely engage them in close combat.”

Finished with my message, I peeked pastmy shield to see the drone still shooting out its flames, keeping a safe distance away from me. Judging that it was probably trying to wear my shields out so it could fry me alive, I readied a teleport spell only to spot something coming down in its head. The sudden weight threw the Xartik's aim off, lighting the ground on fire before it turned off its flamethrower so it can reach its attacker, which was a pegasus of the Aegis Guard, said pegasus pulled out a sword before shoving it into the robot’s eye socket. Instantly the robot began to spasm as the pegasus was digging around in its head with the sword before the Xartik finally ceased its movements before falling over.

Jumping off the falling Xartik, the pegasus landed in front of me before giving me a salute, allowing me to see that it was a blue coated, dirty blond-maned stallion as he said, “Captain General Aura, Sergeant Resolute Sky, reporting for duty!"

Raising an eyebrow, I replied, "Resolute Sky... that name sounded familiar... oh, you were among the top five cadets of the Manehatten Academy's fourth year of recruits if I recalled that correctly.” I made a note of any particular recruits that did well against my assigned obstacle courses. If we were lucky, the cream of the crop would be the ones to prove pivotal in this war, since I doubt my sheer dumb luck would be enough to make a difference.

Puffing his chest out in pride, Resolute said, “It makes me glad to hear you say so, Captain. Shall we press on with the assault? My unit will be arriving shortly, and we will be glad to support your team.”

Looking around, I could see that the Xartik were being pushed back, as our forces seemed to be making headway after taking out the flamethrower units. “No, take me to the command post on the ground. The Xartik are already stepping up their game, so it’s time to take a few more precautions before pressing on with the forces.” Turning to look at Windbag as he was approaching, I ordered, “Go see if Flare survives that stupid stunt of hers and bring her back. Hopefully, she doesn’t need to go to the medic so we can use her for something.”

The forward command post wasn’t much of a command station, but more of A few tents with shielding placed over them. One tent was devoted to ground side command officers that were overseeing the battle, another serving as a medical tent, and the other a small supply stash in case the post comes under attack. Around the trio of tents were some hastily built fortifications, mostly either ditches with shields placed on top or stone cover, with ponies in position on full alert.

In the central tent was a portable minimal, which I stood behind with my team and several other officers around it. Off to the side was a few monitors, most of them dark except for the one that had Shadow’s face on it as he said, “So far after your explosive expert took out the enemy armor and adapting to the inclusion of flamethrower Xartik into the enemy forces, our forces are once again pushing into enemy territory with only moderate difficulty, Captain.”

Grunting, I had my forehooves on the display table as I said, “Best to assume that we won’t be able to keep that push up for long. There may have other surprises the Xartik have brought along with them, so it’s best that no one gets too far ahead that they could be isolated and cut off. No signs of any flanking forces?”

A teal unicorn mare with a blue and white toned mane answered, “We have scouting forces positioned at both sides of the main force reporting at regular intervals, so no signs of the enemy. We even have patrols at our rear as required, Captain.”

Nodding, and answered, “Good, then we might be fine for the moment. If we’re really lucky, the Aurora has softened them up enough that they don’t have any fortified positions, along with no underground shelters were they might be setting up shop. Do we have any of our tanks on the ground yet... um...”

“Colonel Flash Bang, Captain, and we have some on the field with the left flank, the ground is too uneven for them to be placed anywhere else for the moment. But we did have more infantry with the core and right flank of our forces to compensate for the lack of tanks,” the teal unicorn answered.

Rubbing my chin at that info, I replied, “Hmm... odds are that while they may not have set up a ground side portal, they may still be transmitting data back to their masters. So odds are that the might be going to test our tanks soon, but gray might leave their forces in the other parts with fewer troops. Colonel Bang, I want you to send some more infantry support to the tanks. Captain Shadow, soften up the sides of the army so that the left can hold its position while the right may get a chance to push forward so they can hopefully flank the enemy. Celestia should be here soon, so let her know what I recommended for her to support the tank division. If they throw something big at our tanks, then she’ll be able to repel them with ease. In the meantime, my squad and I will lead the center, and hopefully, I’ll draw their attention onto me to relieve pressure off the rest.”

Flare raised up an arm with one claw pointing upwards as she said, “Wait, are you literally making us a giant target?”

Snorting, Windbag said, “One of the cons with being in the captain’s squad is that we might get some suicidal missions. Or so she says, cause I bet all of our missions would be suicidal in nature.”

Turning my head towards Windbag, I countered, “Windbag, shut up, or I will have you test the effectiveness of our drop pod system, without you having a drop pod.”

“Captain, forgive my choice of words, but are you really making us a giant target?” Night asked as we were trotting at a fast pace to the front lines.

“Somewhat, but it’s more of me trying to be the most aggressive target, with the rest of you doing something to take out the target,” I answered as I could hear the sounds of gunfire and explosions getting louder as we neared the battleground.

“Wait, what do you mean by something, Captain?” Agate asked, causing me to turn my head back towards him where I saw a confused expression plastered on his face, with the rest of my squad right behind him.

“I mean something cause if whatever the Xartik throws at us is something new, then we have no idea what we need to do to counter it,” I explained before returning my attention to the front of me, where I saw Resolute and his team which consisted of a diamond dog, two griffons, a unicorn, and a zebra.

“You’re sure we should just teleport our entire team over the enemy, Captain? It would give us a chance at a surprise attack,” Resolute proposed, causing me to shake my head at him.

“No, cause we need to save something like that for emergencies like a sudden infiltration into enemy territory. They may have seen some unicorns teleporting on their own, so there is a possibility that they might assume we can only teleport one at a time. So best to save that as an ace in the hole,” I answered while shaking my head before we finally came onto the battlefield. Pulling my rifle off my back, I could see that our forces where spread out, engaging the Xartik who were behind their own kind of energy shield barriers, rectangular in nature as the form up natural walls that were made up of three connected shields, the third one angled to prevent grenades from landing right behind the shields. With the wall being ten feet tall, I wondered if the commanders on the field were setting up a mortar line before an explosion went off near some of my troops. “Incoming mortar fire!” someone shouted into the radio as more explosions went off, forcing me to glance over the field before noticing an outcropping of rocks.

“Get to that cover!” I shouted as I ran for it, the rest of my troops following suit. Soaking my back to it, I took a breather as I felt the ground shaking with each explosion.

“Captain, do you have a plan,” Resolute asked after coming to my right side. “Should we request air support?”

Shaking my head, I replied, “No, they’re entrenched for the moment, and I don’t want to see if they brought some anti-air guns to test against our copters. Besides, we need to learn how to break their lines now on our own instead of further down the line when they have better robots against us.” Looking at Cherry, I sighed as I said, "Cherry, hoof over some of your spare explosives."

"Yes Captain, are you planning on teleporting some 'gifts' to the enemy?" Cherry asked as she pulled some of her explosive charges out of her mane as I raised an eyebrow at the nature of her question.

Grabbing the charges, I answered, “No, I’m just going to teleport behind enemy lines and blow a hole in their wall of theirs. Then you lot will charge, which may encourage those that aren't pinned down to follow suit. Then we can smash a hole their line and hopefully break up."

"But what about you, Captain? Wouldn't you be exposed behind enemy lines while you're taking down their shield wall?" Resolute asked, which a couple of his troops along with Night nodded to.

"It's a risk I have to take, and it would distract some of their numbers for a time, which would make the charge a bit easier if things go according to plan. Now make sure your rifles are load, cause break time is over!" I declared as I lit my horn up as I turned on the explosive charges, much to the dismay of my troops.

Letting loose my teleport spell as I pulled my forelegs back, I saw the world around me flash briefly before I saw the back side of the Xartik wall, scores of Xartik behind it as they were firing past small slots in the shield while a few were setting up some kind of equipment. Throwing the charges at two different parts of the wall, I turned around and some more rocky outcroppings. Teleporting to the rocks, I took cover before witnessing the charges going off, blowing two large holes into the Xartik line as I watch pieces of the drones near the explosions flew all over the area. All the while, my ears shifted toward the sounds of my troops yelling as they charged, probably to encourage others to charge with them.

Readying my rifle, I was about to open fire at another part of the enemy line when a boulder next to me suddenly exploded, causing me to be sent flying ten feet before I crashed into the ground as the shattered remains of the boulder rained down all around me. Lying on my back still, I shifted my rifle to aim at the source of the explosion, only to gasp at the sight of the assailant. Standing over the remains of my cover, stood a six-legged Xartik robot, it’s sleek form seeming to be of a feline nature, its legs ending in claws that looked sharp enough to cut through metal. Its armor was black as night, with its size easily being three times longer than Celestia herself as well as a head taller, as it stared at me with the five glowing eyes on its narrow head.

Off the bat, I knew that this Xartik robot was of a much higher caliber than the other ones sent against us so far. Hence, it prompted me to say the one thing that came to my mind. "Fuck."

Chapter XVI: Heat

"Shit shit shit!" I cried out as the new Xartik robot leaped towards me as I lit up my horn, barely letting loose a teleport spell right before it pounced on me. Since I cast it at random, I was only a dozen feet away from the robot, but it gave me some distance and confused the robot long enough for me to get back on my hooves. Activating my radio, I shouted into it, "All units, a new Xartik robot is on the field near the breach. Do not engage until more intel has been gathered!" It was then that I heard the sound of something launching itself off the ground, causing me to jump to the side just as the Xartik crashed into the ground, right where I would have been if I just kept running.

“Aether? Are you alright?” Celestia asked on the radio as the Xartik turned its head towards me.

“Can’t say yet, but I’ll find out when this new Xartik scores a hit on me,” I replied as I tried to put some distance between me and the new bot. “Though, for the sake of being cautious, I suggest that you hightail over here as fast as you can,” I added, only to hear the Xartik’s loud stomping as it was rushing towards me.

"For Equus!" shouted Resolute, causing me to look up in surprise as I saw him trying to divebomb at the new Xartik, an energy sword in his forehooves.

"Resolute you dipshit! Fall back!" I shouted as I turned around, releasing my own sword from my foreleg as I saw the Xartik trying to pounce at me again. Ducking beneath it, I swung my blade at one of its legs, only for the shielding to hold up against the strike. At the same time, I could hear Resolute's blade banging off the Xartik's shield as well as I noticed one of its inner legs reaching out in an attempt to grab me. This prompted me to roll forward, with my shield flaring when the boys claw scraped against my backside.

As I rolled back into my hooves after the Xartik passed over me, I saw Resolute dodging a swiping claw as he shouted, “You will not lay a claw on our Captain!”

“Resolute, get away from that Xartik, you dumbass!” I yelled as I took my rifle as started to open fire at the bot. Off to the side of my vision, I could see my squad alongside Resolute’s team rushing towards us as they were taking shots at any Xartik drones in their way.

“Captain! I can handle this as long as I st-“ Resolute started to say as he was darting left to right to dodge the swipes from the Xartik’s claws as he swung his sword at them in retaliation, only for its rear end to suddenly rise up as the rear legs darted to Resolute. The left leg grabbed onto his head while the right latched onto his rear legs, causing him to let out a yelp before crying out in pain as the Xartik's legs pulled at him while I was firing my rifle at one of its limbs. Sadly, I couldn't break through its shield as I watched in horror as the Xartik pulled Resolute apart before tossing his halves aside like he was some discarded toy.

“Shit...” I muttered to myself, making note that close range combat was a terrible method of attack if the Xartik was just going to pull us apart. As the Xartik returned its attention towards me, I looked back at my squad and Resolute's. Seeing the looks of horror on their faces along with a few of them looking more green, I shouted, "Get back! Don't engage in close-quarters combat, and don't clump together!"

Hearing the Xartik launching off the ground in another attempt to pounce on me, I let off a teleport spell, appearing about thirty feet away from it and closer to the frontlines. However, before I could turn around to run to safety, I felt a sudden surge of magical energy as I saw a beam of yellowish-orange light surge down at the Xartik. Looking up at the sky, I saw Celestia, decked out in golden armor, with a fierce yet determined expression on her face.

“Wow, the princess looks amazing in armor,” Agate commented as he and a few of the others stared at the sight until I fired a round into the air.

“Get your act together before the Xartik fires a shot up your asses!” I shouted, as I scanned our surroundings, where I saw Xartik soldiers scrambling to reform a new defensive line. “Take those bots down before they get reorganized!” I ordered before rushing towards some cover, only to pause as I heard Celestia landing beside me.

Looking up at her, I could see through her protective visor that she was angry, probably due to what happened to Resolute. Putting a hoof up to her own radio, Celestia ordered, “All forces in the central battleground, pull away from close quarters combat,” as she turned to look at the sun in the sky.

"What do the fu—“ I started to say before Celestia lit her horn up brighter as two beams of energy surge from the sun as the one that hit the new Xartik drone faded away, leaving a smoking molten crater as the two new beams crashed into the two broken ends of the Xartik line. “Sweet Luna,” I croaked out as Celestia directed the beams into the rest of the Xartik, leaving behind the molten remains.

“Maybe this will convince the Xartik to leave us alone,” Agate commented, only for me to slap the back of his head.

“This is nothing more than a nuisance to them. We only have two alicorns available, which only gives us around the firepower of a capital spaceship space. I don’t know if I’m low balling it or overestimating them, but we only have a shot at winning these ground battles due to Dis-“ I said until a giant metal claw burst out of the ground, wrapping its talons around me. I could feel the heat radiating off the claws, alerting me to the fact that the six-legged Xartik survived Celestia’s attack by simply burrowing beneath the ground.

“Captain!” Agate and Night cried out in shock, though Cherry and Windbag rushed to the claws. Cherry grabbed onto one claw with her forehooves, bracing her rear ones against the ground as she tried to pull it up. Meanwhile, Windbag took a metal handle from his side, activating it to create an energy ax that he would promptly start chopping at one of the other claw's joints.

"Fuck this thing to all corners of Tartarus!" I shouted as I tried to move my hoof to my sword, only to notice that a golden glow had surrounded the claw, prying it wide open. Jumping out of the claw as Windbag and Cherry backed away, I looked up to catch the sight of Celestia looking down at the Xartik while still releasing what I would feel as her ‘solar death rays.’ “Seems like she’s decent in multitasking during a battle,” I commented before as I pulled out my sword, only to witness Celestia pulling the Xartik out of the ground before using her magic to slowly crush the robot into a chunk of scrap.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Windbag commented, causing me to smack the back of his head. “Hey, What was that for?”

“Instead of acting like this is some show, get back to picking off any stragglers or search for any Xartik that might be waiting to ambush!” I roared, as I saw our troops through the cooling remnants of the Xartik Celestia fried. Checking myself to make certain that no molten pieces of the new Xartik unit were jammed onto my armor before I charged forward, my squad following directly behind me.

“All that talk and the Xartik quickly folded before the princess and our forces.”

“Windbag, I swear by Luna’s starry mane, if you don’t stop complaining, I’m putting you on latrine duty!”

“But there are no latrines when we can get back to base where we have working toilets.”

“Then I’ll have you dig us a dozen of them and have some troops use them as a training exercise for long term deployment in the woods!” I hollered as we were inspecting the battlefield. Celestia’s magic was more than enough to break through enemy lines, though it did leave large portions of the enemy army as molten slag. As Celestia was surveying the rest of the forest for any signs of the enemy, the rest of the army was back to salvaging the enemy remains.

“Isn’t this... gruesome for us to simply haul off the enemy like they’re loot?” Flare asked as she was lugging a half-molten Xartik unto a waiting transport chopper.

“They're simply machines, Flare. If the enemy won and had a foothold, they would simply recycle the fallen to make new robots out of them. Not to mention, they would have dragged our fallen's corpses to some laboratory for dissection or even worse," I answered as I watched as a copter was hovering above the remains of the six-legged Xartik drone.

“Is that something most alien empires would do?” Night asked as she picked up one of the few alien firearms that survived Celestia’s onslaught.

"Oh no, some of them might just enslave us, and if they're one of the more predatorial species, they may simply have us be livestock for them," I calmly answered as I picked up a Xartik rifle and looked down its scope.

Agate then turned to look at me with an aghast look, as he asked, "Please tell me that you're joking, captain."

Raising an eyebrow at Agate, I replied, "Considering that these empires have resulted in displaced populations that slowly approach extinction due to economic circumstances, it shouldn't be that surprising that some empires would do that instead. While there are conditions and rules that the various factions agree on in regards to worlds that are shared between them, on their own private turf, who knows what they could be up to."

"So based on what you're saying, there could be a ruler that enslaves creatures to make them act out some kind of story just for the ruler's amusement?" Night asked, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Night, there is someone out there that has creatures doing all sorts of things, some that I won't mention cause I don't want to break your minds, when I need you lot focused on blowing holes in the enemy's heads," I answered with a snort before spotting a pegasus mare who was poking at one of the Xartik rifles with one of her wing feathers. "Stop poking it before you accidentally fire it and blow one of your squadmate's heads off! Just pick it up already and stow it with the rest!"

As the pony was scrambling to pick up the gun, I heard a voice behind me saying, "Do you really need to yell at her for approaching that rifle with caution?” As my troops and I jumped back from the voice in shock, I drew my rifle as I turned around to point at the speaker. I lowered however when I saw that the speaker was Celestia, who was standing there with a bemused expression.

“Where the buck you come from? I didn’t feel nor hear you use a teleportation spell,” I asked as I bolstered my rifle as the others were doing the same. With Celestia’s armor being gold plated, I was wondering how I couldn’t notice her approach without spotting her from a mile away.

Smiling still, Celestia replied, “I do recall how you always said that the Solar Guard’s armor makes them easy targets for the enemy, so I worked on a spell that could blend the light around me to render me invisible whenever I pleased.”

Rubbing my chin with a hoof, I stated, “That’s a rather useful spell... if we weren’t facing the Xartik. They probably have some sort of thermal vision installed or some other kind of detection that we can’t cover right now.”

“A shame that isn’t an option for reconnaissance operations,” Celestia replied as she turned her head to look over the battlefield with a sorrowful expression. “Aether, was... Resolute’s death something that will be commonplace as we continue to fight the Xartik?”

Letting out a sigh, I answered, “No...” causing Celestia to look at me with a surprised look plastered on her face. A look that faded away as she saw the solemn expression on my face as I continued, “Cause the Xartik will use far worse means to kill us when they’re done tossing cannon fodder at us.”

Chapter XIII: Practice

“You got some kind of problem bug?”

“Flare, no specist comments in my presence unless you want me to plow your head through a wall with my bare hooves.”

Knocking on the wall, producing a metallic clang, Flare raised an eyebrow as she replied, “I doubt you can do that through a metal wall unless you use magic.”

Then you haven’t seen here when she’s furious, and I was just staring at you cause I feel like it,” Windbag said, as my squad and I were in a room that was put aside for our needs. The room held some lockers on one wall, while at the wall opposite to it, there were tables with six chairs for each of them. Another wall had monitors on them, but they were off for the moment.

Cocking an eyeridge, Flare turned to look at me, causing me to raise a hoof as I pointed it at the wall before commenting, “I’ll do it, but you’ll be paying for the damages.”

Looking a bit alarmed after hearing that she would pay for any holes I punched into a wall, Flare replied, “I rather not take the risk of dipping into my treasure horde in case you do punch a hole in the wall. But, this is your team, really?"

Glancing at my troops, who were staring at Flare with annoyance, except for Cherry who was looking at anything else besides one of us, I asked, "You're assuming that I would have the cream of the crop for my crew, correct?" Receiving a nod from Flare, I laughed before continuing, "You idiot, this team is for those that are fine with having high expectations of dying during battles. We're the front-liners, the ones that go into the fire when the shit hits the fan. I wouldn’t be surprised if we all die in the next battle. Hence, the ones here are simply the volunteers that are ready to accept this fact of life.”

After staring at me for a moment, which made me wonder if she was a little slow on the uptake, Flare finally said, "Alright, it might not be the glorious team I was expecting to join, but at least it'll be the bravest. So I'm in still since I doubt anything will be able to penetrate my tough dragon hide," before slamming a clawed fist into her other hand.

As I resisted to smash my hoof into my face, Windbag laughed as he commented, "Shall I draw up a list for you? With a furious, energy blade-wielding captain on top of the list?"

"Watch what you say, bug, or I'll cook you and see what a roasted overgrown cockroach tastes like," Flare declared as she spat out a few embers.

“Ha, yeah right. I’ll be hovering around you while you flail around like the clumsy fool you are,” Windbag countered with a smirk, causing Flare to growl at him as she started to approach him. Only for me to teleport them to me as I grabbed their heads to smack them into each other.

As the pair let out cries of pain before rubbing the top of their heads, I said, “No fighting each other, you two. I don’t have the time for you two to be in the hospital after you tear each other apart. Nor do I have time to beat you two until you’re past this stupid thing. We're a team, so either act like one or I'm trapping you in a locker to get you two past your love-hate standoff!"

After staring at me in unison for a minute, Windbag and Flare then grew furious as they both yelled, "What the fuck is this about love?"

Pointing at Windbag, Flare said, "What in Tartarus would make you think I would even have an attraction to this slimy bug!"

Pointing back at Flare, Windbag said in the same time, "By Queen Chrysalis's crown, what possesses you to believe that I would even want a thing with this sad sack of scales?"

Looking back and forth between the two of them, I shrugged as I said, "You two are at each other's throats the moment you saw one another. So either you two just naturally hate each other, something that I doubt happening due to the nature of our world, or this is your own way of expressing your attraction to each other. Either way, stuff it when you're both on the job, or else."

"Or else what?" Flare countered as Windbag looked at her in horror, moving his forelegs in a waving fashion as he mouthed out 'no’.

Smirking, I answered, "Or else I'll just order the base to prepare a romantic dinner for the both of you, with the majority of the non-essential staff watching, as you two have no choice to but commence with the date." My grin then grew broader as the pair just looked at me with their mouths gaping in horror.

"Umm... isn't that unethical? I doubt that you can have a valid reason for them to do such a thing," Agate stated, causing the duo to look at him with hopeful expressions.

Waving a hoof at Agate, I said, "Bah, I'll just use the excuse of this being a team building exercise, with the intention of getting these two to learn to tolerate each other in some fashion, so there aren't any issues on the battlefield cropping up between the two."

As horror retook their expressions, Flare looked at Windbag as she asked, "Truce?"

Looking back at Flare, Windbag held a hoof out as he answered, "Truce." Flare grabbed the hoof before the two looked at me, smiles forced onto their faces as they shook their agreement.

Turning towards Agate, I stated, "See, it all worked out in the end. No more team infighting, so we can move onto the next stage of getting ready for the next battle," causing the group to do a double take on me.

"Next stage? What do you mean by “the next stage?” Night asked in confusion plastered on her face as she and the others looked at each other with similar expressions.

"Well, stage one is getting a team. Stage two is putting you all through some on-hooves training with one another to foster teamwork! And what better way to do that than a few training sessions while we have time?" I stated with a smirk on my muzzle.

"Our united hatred for you?" Windbag proposed, causing me to snap my head towards him while maintaining my smile.

"I know you would say something like that, and hence I have a special treat to give to you, Windbag," I said with a smile, causing Windbag to gulp in response.

"No... no... no wonder my mother told me to just go to the Solar Guard instead of signing up for the Aegis Guard... this training is crazy..." Agate croaked while using a training rifle to prop himself into a semi-standing position, until the gun slipped out of his hooves, leading to him crashing onto the ground with a grunt. He and his fellow squad mates were taking a break as the rest of the base staff were moving the damage obstacles off a grassy field that I used as an impromptu training field.

"Could be worse, at least you weren't muzzled..." Cherry stated as she laid down on her back, panting as she pointed a hoof towards Windbag who had a muzzle that preventing him from speaking properly, yet still allowing him to use his mouth to breath as he had his legs spread upon the ground.

Sitting down on the ground with one of her wings fanning herself, Flare commented, "Alright... that mare is crazy... does she torture all her recruits like this every day?"

"You know I can still hear you," I stated with a raised eyebrow.

"Like I care..." Flare countered as I looked at Night to see her laying on her side with her tongue rolled out of her mouth like a dog.

"I think you would if I decide to give you ten more laps on the next obstacle course," I countered, causing Flare to shift her head towards with a bit of anger showing in her eyes.

"...You're so lucky that you're my boss right now," Flare growled out, causing me to snort and roll my eyes at her.

"Alright, the physical testing part of this training is over, now it is time to see how you five can work together as a group, so you got ten minutes to rest before you have to report to the firing range," I ordered before turning around as I heard the group groan in unison. “Quit your whining, you miserable excuses for soldiers.”

“Why can’t you have the rest of the training before the obstacle course so that we’re not dead on our feet?” Flare complained, causing me to glance at her.

“Do you think the enemy is going to give you a break whenever you get tired? Or expect them to halt their fire when you call for a time out?” I countered with a flat stare. “No, they won’t. So expect the possibility of being in a prolonged firefight that could last days, if not weeks. Also, Windbag, Cherry, enough playing games already. I know that for the both of you, this exercise was just another regular training day for you.”

Springing up onto her forehooves, Cherry said, "But it was fun to play the tired game with everypony else."

Windbag, on the other hoof, groaned as he too got onto his hooves while pulling off the muzzle, saying, "Hey, if the others were tuckered out, I wanted to play along in case you actually let us have a break. Though, since you're you, I shouldn't have let my hopes get up that high."

As the rest of my squad looked at Windbag and Cherry in surprise, I smirked a bit as I said, "There is a benefit to my training, as it tends to make my troops have much more endurance compared to their fellow guards from other divisions. Now let's get going, we're burning daylight here," before I turned away to continue on my way towards the firing range, hearing the groans of the other three getting up.

Flare, however, had one last thing to say as she looked at Windbag, asking, “Wait, you could have taken that off anytime you want?” Receiving a smug nod from Windbag, Flare continued, “Why did you leave it on for so long?"

"Isn't it obvious? The moment I take off the muzzle, she'll just zap it back on. So it was better to give her a break before she cast some super glue spell on the muzzle before slapping it on," Windbag answered as he walked off to follow me while Flare rolled her eyes at his answer before following the rest off the group.

"Here comes the next round, get ready to fire on my mark," I ordered as I was altering the settings of the firing range. Unlike the obstacle field, the firing range had a room prepared for it, though it was mostly intended for testing alien weaponry that was recovered from battles with them. However, we were using it to see how fast my team can interpret targeting orders from me, with Cherry and Windbag being the fastest in proper reactions while Flare obviously was the slowest.

"Hold your fire un—" I started to say until the base alarms went off, causing me to let out a string of curses. As the rest of my squad started to scramble, Flare looked around in confusion as she said, "Hey, what is going on? What's that alarm for?"

"That is the alarm for the detection of a dimensional rift. And before you ask, it means that we're going to have another incursion by the Xartik," I shouted as we started to rush down the corridor to the command center.

Running at the rear of the group, Flare asked, "Finally, some act—"

"Oh shut your mouth! This isn't some game, you fool! We're dealing with a second invasion attempt by the Xartik, and odds are they might have found a way to get more troops on the planet instead of sacrificing transport ships. So everyone, prepare for a tougher battle than the last one," I roared, while inwardly hoping that I was wrong. Personally, I was hoping for some more time to get the reinforcements integrated with the current standing forces, but if the Xartik are trying a second attempt so soon, I knew that they were much more keen on taking over than they usually would. Which meant that this might be a more protracted war than I expected it to be.