The moon was just starting to go down in the southern plains of Equestria, the fields were being sewn by their farmers while foals were boarding the busses to take them to school. One farmer, an earth pony by the name of Fresh Cut, was riding along on his tractor out in his field. He had headphones on, allowing him to listen to the radio. The news was discussing the other world and how everyone would need to do their part if they were going to win against the Imperialists. Fresh Cut was certainly doing his part, not just because he cared about his country, but also because the government had paid him quite the fortune to help supply food to the troops when they eventually invaded the other world to liberate it.

The stallion’s fingers gripped the steering wheel lazily, it wasn’t like he had to worry about hitting anything out in his field. Meanwhile the cart behind him was busy dispersing corn seeds equally among the dirt. Ever since the human had come to Equestria there had been so many technological advancements it was crazy, ideas no one had ever thought of, and he was just giving them away instead of selling them for himself. That was what had endeared King Steven in the eyes of the people under his rule. That rule was what Fresh Cut was trying to help spread, with his food and with his work, he hoped to help his fellow Equestrians show the people of the other world the good that could come from rule under a King and Queen.

He wiped his forehead and looked up towards the sky, expecting to see the mail pony flying towards him. What he saw instead was that all the clouds were starting to evaporate, orb after orb of light began to appear in the sky, like dozens of stars. Soon there became too many for Fresh Cut to even count. All at once they became brighter than the sun, forcing him to look down as a tremendous boom echoed for miles and miles. The drone of engines replaced the peaceful chirping of birds, slowly Fresh Cut looked up once again, expecting to see clear sky… But the sky was barely visible.

There were metal ships in the sky, so many that the stallion couldn’t count them all. They blotted out the sun, their engines belching black exhaust, all of them flying a fearsome blue banner from the bows and sterns. Their bottoms were dotted with dozens of turrets, some had large bomb bay doors. These weren’t Equestrian ships, they looked more like griffon vessels, but what was most troubling was the fact that they were all turning towards Canterlot. At that moment, Fresh Cut’s neighbor landed next to him. His neighbor was a pegasus by the name of Dawn Cloud, he wore overalls that were almost identical to Fresh Cut.

“W-Where do you reckon’ they’s from?” Fresh Cut asked in a shaking voice.

“I dunno… B-But I don’t plan on askin’ ‘em….” Dawn Cloud replied. “T-Think I’ll walk on home…”

“Likewise.” Fresh Cut said.

”Aufmerksamkeit alle Schiffe ... Es ist Zeit, den Luftschiff-Blitzkrieg zu beginnen!” A raspy voice echoed from above through what sounded like a PA system, it was followed by a rather heart wrenching laugh. Many of the ships began to descend to the ground, blocking any route of escape for the farmers, while the faster looking vessels began to fly off towards Canterlot.

Altair leaned in the jump door aboard the airship as they left the rest of the fleet behind, most of the ships would be there to defend the engineers as they set up the Onorussian base of operations right in the heart of Equestria. There weren’t many ways for the Equestrians to get reinforcements to this part of their country, giving the Onorussians more time to set up a foothold. Altair, meanwhile, would go with the faster ships to begin his mission into the heart of the enemy nation. At their current speed they would be at the drop zone within the hour, they would meet another fleet of airships when they arrived. The ships they’d left behind were older models from the age of the Griffon Kingdom, while the ones they would meet were the true heavy hitters of the Onorussian Airship fleet.

Altair wore his father’s jacket as he stood in his jump equipment, he was willing to stand in that doorway until it was time for the jump. He watched the ground below him, so familiar, and yet so alien… It was all so surreal, as if he was going to invade his own country, and yet he knew that that was far from the case. Truth be told, Altair couldn’t wait to get some action. He would aid in the initial assault, but after that he and his squad would be on their own, making their way to Canterlot by foot and wreaking havoc along the way. As time went by, Rook eventually made his way into the jump chamber.

“Sarge.” He said as he approached his commander, Altair turned and nodded to him. “Mind if I ask y’all a question?”

“Go ahead.” Altair replied with a shrug while adjusting the strap on his rifle.

“Well, sir, we’re all just a little surprised who you are… We’re wondering why you didn’t mention that the Imperator was your old man.” Rook said simply, Altair hummed for a moment and leaned against the doorway.

“I wanted to earn your respect myself, not have you respect me out of respect for him.” Altair replied just as simply. “That’s just how we do things in my family, I guess.” Rook nodded quitely and walked to the doorway to look down.

“Hooboy, I didn’t know better I’d say we were just shy of Ponyville.” Rook said, then paused. “Or, that is to say, Our Ponyville.” He looked over at Altair. “Say, ain’t that gonna get confusin’?”

“Oh, I have no doubt.” Altair replied as he crossed his arms over his chest, the others began to filter in as more time went by. “Hey, look, sweet apple acres is even bigger here than it is back home.” The Sergeant pointed to the apple orchard that they were approaching, then looked at his squad. “Alright, who’s jumping alone and who’s strapping in with me and Corporal Finn?”

“I’ll jump alone, sarge. Always wanted to try that anyhow!” Rook said enthusiastically as he picked up the extra parachute that was resting on a nearby wooden bench. Finn began walking him through how to use it while Private Reese waited next to them. Private Patterson walked up to Altair and adjusted her helmet.

“Finn said I should jump with you, Sergeant!” She said in an excited tone, Altair nodded and helped strap her into his harness for the tandem jump. Eventually all of them were ready, and just in time, as the red ready light blinked on.

“Alright, hook up!” Altair ordered, the three jumpers hooked up while their two passengers readied themselves for what could be the scariest part of their life. “Equipment check!”

“Three okay!” Reese shouted before patting Finn on the shoulder.

“Two okay!” Finn shouted, then patted Altair.

“One okay!” Altair shouted before he walked closer to the door with Patterson, the others followed close behind him. He leaned in the doorway and looked down at the ground, there were more buildings now than before, mostly farms. He could also see more fallschirmjager getting ready in the other ships, this was it, the counter attack would begin as soon as that light turned green. Outside he saw flashes of light as more airships jumped from Altair’s world to this one, large battleships and cruisers, including the ONV Exterminatus, the largest, most heavily armed and armored airship in the fleet. “Get ready!”

“Feet first into hell!” Finn shouted as he gripped the harness, the light flashed green and all hell broke loose. The battleships began firing at something unseen, while Altair gave the order to jump. He watched Finn jump without a problem, but Rook stopped at the door. Not one to wait, Altair gave the man a hard shove, then jumped after him. Altair’s chute opened without a hitch, and he saw clean chutes from Rook and Finn below him while the airships continued sailing overhead. More and more parachutes opened as they went along, hundreds of paratroopers were dropping behind enemy lines with the intention of holding another foothold until tanks could be brought up from the staging area to the south. There were dozens of bangs as portals opened, allowing Onorussian fighter planes to come in, which only added to the terrifying amount of vessels approaching Ponyville.

Onorus was all about quick victories, if they could take Ponyville or at least get close to taking it, it would be like severing the jugular on the entire enemy war machine. For all Altair knew, perhaps his mission would stop before it began. He could see massive shells from the guns streaking overhead as he continued floating towards the ground, they would impact the city of Ponyville in the distance. High rises were being blown apart, houses and storefronts reduced to rubble by the cruel and unfeeling might of the Onorussian war machine.

Altair grunted as he landed, quickly he undid his harness and began running towards Finn and the others with Patterson struggling to keep up behind him. There was no use hiding their chutes in broad daylight, so they were simply left out in the open. The sound of gunfire began to ring out in the distance as the first defenders met the Paratroopers that had already landed.

“Come on, let’s move. They’ll have seen us by now.” Altair ordered as the others got onto their feet, Finn readied his weapon while Patterson caught her breath. The gunshots were getting closer, which likely meant so were the enemy soldiers. The area they had landed in was an open field, good for landing in, bad for fighting in. There was little cover, no grass to hide in that was tall enough, and the only decent cover was fifty yards away at the edge of a road. The squad silently began running towards that road, and more importantly, the trees lined up next to it. Altair’s heart pounded in his chest as he got closer to the trees, he could see enemy troops moving down the road in half tracks. “Cover!” He dropped to the dirt, as did the others, and prayed they hadn’t been spotted by the enemy forces. He let out a sigh of relief as the half tracks rolled by without so much as slowing down for a look, only after they were gone did he stand up and begin moving again.

[♠]

Steven watched in horror as smoke billowed from Ponyville, shelling and bombing had commenced almost as soon as the city had come into range of the enemy ships guns. Paratroopers had landed and were fighting with local guards and even farmers, and most frightening of all were the reports of tanks and other military equipment being landed further to the south. Apparently the enemy called this type of warfare Luftschiff-Blitzkrieg. The thing that scared Steven most was that if the enemy managed to take Ponyville, or encircle it, the main trading and transportation hub in Equestria would be blocked off.

A large vessel was in the distance, larger than all the other ships and painted a heavy black, it’s guns weren’t directed at Ponyville however. This large vessel was slowly turning its broadest side towards Canterlot, the massive tree trunk like cannons were being spun around on their turrets. Steven was currently between the two cities, riding in a truck towards the impromptu command center that had been set up. When the ship was in broadside orientation the guns went loud, massive explosions echoed from high above and Steven could see massive shells streaking towards Canterlot.

The explosions from the shells were almost as loud as those that had launched them, they blew apart several buildings while one landed just short of the gate to the castle. The crater it left was massive, and the explosion blew open a water main which began to flood the surrounding streets and stores. That was only the first volley, Steven was forced to watch as the massive ship fired yet again. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw a golden shield appear over the city, but that relief turned to shock as the shells shattered the shield and struck the city once again. Now that Steven was closer, he could make out the name on the hull of the vessel… ‘Gottestöter’. Followed by the number five. To think there were four more of those monsters out there…

Celestia gritted her teeth as she saw more of the shells landing among her city, blowing Canterlot’s buildings apart and negating her shield somehow. If she couldn’t stop the ship with a shield, she would stop it with her horn. The mare’s wings snapped open on her back as she took flight, her eyes narrowed as she propelled herself along with her magic, zooming towards the enemy airship like a missile. She was so much like a missile, in fact, that the ship’s Phalanx gatling guns targeted her and began firing.

By the skin of her teeth she managed to dodge the first volley, and the second, but the third managed to catch her in the lower leg. She gasped and looked down to see she was bleeding… She had never seen herself bleed before. The mare gritted her teeth as she got even closer, her horn glowing brightly. She was going to put all she could into her attack before whatever weapon that was could harm her further. The spell grew brighter and brighter, she poured more and more of her energy into the attack, more than she had used in the fight against her sister thousands of years ago, more than anything she had used before. It was so bright that she could see the enemy sailors covering their eyes as she got even closer.

When it began to hurt, the mare let the spell fly. She sent it hurtling towards the middle of the ship, the ball of swirling ball of energy slammed into the ship and knocked it sideways in the sky. The spell then exploded, melting through the steel of the ship’s hull. IT recieved quite a bit of resistance from the armor and special paint that were made with Terran Materials and thus helped nullify magic. Even with such heavy armor, the hull was blown inwards on one side and outwards on the outside. Anyone near that part of the ship was vaporized.

Celestia panted as she watched the smoldering vessel begin falling from the sky, she brought a hand to her mouth as she realized the ship was falling over a group of houses. Before she could do anything else, the vessel slammed down in a massive crash, crushing the houses and creating a massive crater. The ground trembled, and moments later there was an earth shattering explosion as the powder magazine of the massive warship ignited. This powder wasn’t gunpowder though, no, it was arcane in nature. In such quantities, it burned as hot as thermite and as fast as C4. Shards of metal shrapnel and burning arcane powder scattered over the surrounding area, igniting trees, grass, and other houses that had survived the initial impact.

Celestia didn’t have much time to dwell on that, however, as she saw there were dozens of other ships firing on Ponyville. Factories were being blown to pieces, schools and other public services were crumbling under the withering fire, and all the while there seemed to be nothing to be done, for if they shot down one of the enemy ships it would come crashing atop hundreds if not thousands of civilians.

“Sister!” A voice called from Celestia’s right, the mare turned to see her sister Luna approaching with a contingent of her lunar guards. “We came as soon as we heard, what may we do to help?”

“These ships, they’re resistant to magic, and they’re weapons are powerful. It will take all my strength to push them away from the populace, but you will need to be the one getting rid of them.” Celestia said urgently, Luna paused and looked uncertain.

“Thou knows we hath given up violence…” Luna said quietly, Celestia frowned and looked down.

“Yes, sister… But our subjects are in danger.” Celestia replied, Luna bit her lip and looked at her guards. With a wave of her hand they began flying away, towards the battle to help in the fight. Luna’s horn glowed softly as she was encased in blue light, seconds later the light faded and she was covered from head to hoof in armor.

“For our subjects…” She said simply before Celestia began flying towards one of the enemy airships.

Steven looked up as his wife and her sister charged towards the airships, their wings beating powerfully as their horns glowed. Celestia’s magic began pushing two of the ships away from the city, while Luna’s horn glowed brightly. She was far more adept at combat magic than Celestia, when her spell lanced forward it cut through the hulls of the two airships like a knife through butter. The ships were cleaved in twine, sending their respective pieces hurtling towards the ground. The metal that had been hit by the the spells glowed hot, while screaming airshipmen were flung from their vessels like ragdolls.

This carried on for some time, the airships began focusing more and more on defeating the two alicorns and less on destroying ground forces. Luna grunted as a shell exploded in front of her, flinging her backwards as she felt her armor be pelted by fragments of metal. She hissed in pain as some of the fragments pierced her skin, something she had never had happen to her before. She responded by firing off two spells towards the enemy vessel, a cruiser by the looks of it, they struck the bow and caused one of the turrets to explode, sending the metal hulk flying off the deck and towards the ground below. The remaining six airships began to turn south at high speed, it seemed that they were withdrawing from the air. That still left the dozen or so fighter planes that continued to buzz around overhead, but they were being engaged by the Equestrian’s own Air Force.

[♠]

Altair and the others watched from the cover of some bushes as the remaining airships fled the airspace, it had been one of the most devastating defeats that the Onorussian military had ever faced before, and all because of two alicorns. The gunshots on the ground were still loud and violent, paratroopers were still out there fighting it out, even though they had lost all hope of taking their original objectives with the destruction of the fleet. Altair quietly stood up from the bushes and removed his helmet as he watched the flames burning through a hole in the hull of one of the crashed cruisers.

“Fifteen ships…” Altair heard Finn whisper. “We lost fifteen ships…”

“Almost an entire fleet… Fifteen brave crews…” Altair said as he clenched and unclenched his fist, the man bowed his head quietly and said a prayer to himself. “By my Mother’s stars… We shall avenge them.” The man put his helmet back on and gripped his rifle tighter. “Let’s move. It won’t belong they send someone to put out the fires…” Altair and the others dropped down into the bushes and began moving along the road that they had been following for some time, the smell of burning fuel and flesh filled the air with its odor. Dead bodies were scattered about in trees and among the ground, some intact, some not so much… A fall from such heights usually didn’t end in an open casket funeral.

The sound of sirens became clear on the road, half a dozen emergency vehicles drove past without so much as a glance at the rustling bushes. They were more focussed on putting out the fire before it spread into some sort of massive inferno. They were accompanied by two trucks of soldiers, who also seemed more interested in the burning ship than the possibility of there being troops in the bushes. Altair let them pass without incident, they were accompanying civilians after all. They moved in silence for what felt like an hour before finding themselves coming up on a crossroads, Altair signaled his squad to stay low as they got closer. As he expected there were enemy soldiers guarding it, as well as a half track with a fifty cal mounted to it.

“Reese.” Altair said in a hushed voice, the private moved closer. “Got anything in your bag of tricks we can use to take out that half track?”

“I got a couple things that could turn it into a twenty ton paperweight, sir.” Reese replied, almost sounding giddy at the prospect. “You want high explosive or something simpler?” Altair paused for a moment before he looked over at his subordinate.

“I think it’s cocktail hour…” He said simply, it took Reese a second before his eyes went wide and a big grin crossed his face. Reese slipped his bag off his back and opened it, from within he pulled a large glass bottle with a rag stuffed in the top. The bottle was filled with grease, oil, ethanol, and sugar. It was well made, and had a stick taped to the side to make it easier to throw long distances. Altair took his lighter from his pocket and lit the rag, then signaled Reese to throw the bottle. With the stick, the bottle sailed through the air and landed on the front of the halftrack, it shattered and ignited the rest of the liquid inside. Fire billowed up and forced the gunner to turn away.

Altair and the others stepped out of the bushes, firing off their weapons at the other soldiers. Shell casings clattered to the ground as the Equestrians were caught mid surprise, the five enemy troops went down without much of a fight while the gunner on the fifty cal began running away. Rook raised his sniper rifle as the Equestrian sprinted along the road.

“Nein!” Altair ordered, prompting the sniper to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “We don’t shoot unarmed combatants in the back, we aren’t animals.” Rook nodded and lowered his weapon while flames continued to lick at the half track. Altair gestured for the squad to keep moving, they made their way back into the bushes, it was only the first day, they would need to set up a base of operations before too long, then they could really get to work. The stallion they had spared would later go on to speak of a scar faced soldier, who carried a sword and commanded a team that moved like ghosts… A crescent moon pinned to his helmet. With those few details, the legends of the ‘Lunar Wraiths’ were set into motion.

Meanwhile, back in Onorus, news of the attack’s failure was already starting to spread. The optimism that the war would be a quick one vanished, like the lives of so many men that had died. However, the optimism was not completely replaced by despair. Many people only became more determined to win the war, recruitment was on the rise, war bonds were selling like hot cakes. The Crystal Empire had widely backed down, now seeing just how serious the Onorussians were about protecting themselves. The Republic had never been so united, the war had cooled some of the oldest hatreds in the country. Companies that had fiercely competed before were now offering deals of collaboration to make better guns, tanks, and bombs. So, in spite of the defeat, the world was confident that Onorus would prevail. Onorussian flags still flew high, Onorussian hearts continued to beat, and Onorussian soldiers would continue to fight.

Author's Note

Well, here's another chapter for you lovely dovelies, I hope you all enjoy a bit more action. I've written so much character driven stuff in the past that it's a nice change to have a full on war. Don't worry though, there's bound to be plenty of other opportunities for intense character development. Now, as I've said in the past, I have a patreon. My family is encouraging me to try and make writing into a career, so if any of you folks feel like contributing monthly I would very much appreciate it. At this point, writing is the only source of income I have write now, so anything helps.

Anyway, enough self advertising. Here's your clip of the day, it's more than a song this time! It's a song and a cool video! Yay!