Everfree forest
10/29/20
13:30
Dakota POV

Heat season is officially over for this year and we now get to go and return to civilization. it was an interesting 4 months in this forest to say the least. Me, Trevor, and Kendall had a contest to see wwho ad the best dually truck, we huntred packs of timber wolves, met zecora by sheer coincidance while driving through the forest, and saw an ursa major for the first time which thankfully did not see us, that thing would have destroyed the castle. We were busy getting ready to leave and finally go home, I was busy trying to line my truck up underneath my skycrane chopper so I could attach it and get out of here. Kendall, Trevor, Brian, and Manuel had already gotten hooked up and were ready for take off. Kendall and Trevor would have to have their other trucks hooked onto the pavelows to be flown back as well. I was busy getting all of the cables hooked up to my truck that I didnt even notice that one of the pavelows had started up and the blades were spinning up. I finally got everything hooked up and strapped down and entered the cockpit of my skycrane and started to go through the preflight check procedures for take off.

30 minutes later

prechecks complete, time to start this fucker up. I switched on the engine primer and fired it up. The other skycranes and pavelows did the same and soon started to rise up above the forest cannopy and join me in the sky. We ascened to an altitude of 2000 feet above the ground and proceeded to fly back north towards ponyville. we had been flying for 30 minutes now and I could finally see the edge of the forest come into view now. It was still roughly 10 miles away but once we were there, we would only have to fly for another 20 minutes or so before we would actually come into sight of ponyville and another 5 minutes from there before we would reach the airfield. About 10 minutes after we had made it past the edge of the everfree forest, I checked the insturment panels and everything seemed to be going smoothly until i checked the radar. There was multiple groups of dots on the screen pointing out unknown pegasi or aircraft and that they were now circling our location, most likely scouting us. These groups of flyers were still about 15 miles away from our own flight group, beyond our line of sight. I switched to a different frequency and attempted to contact our followers.

"Attention unknown flight groups, this is 1st Leutenant Dakota Rodriguez of the equestrian armed forces. You are exhibting very abnormal behavior and we have reason to belive you may be hostile. State your intentions immediatly or we will authorise A10 warthogs to deploy and disperse you." I said into the microphone; no response. I attempted to communicate with them again after 20 seconds; no response. I gave them one final chance to ID themselves to us since I was starting to get nervous now. "This is your final warning, state your intentions now or divert your course otherwise you will be forcefully grounded." I said. This seemed to piss them off a little bit since they were now all starting to slowly converge on our location. I switched radio frequencys again and contacted our airbase and requested A10's and F25 crusaders to be dispatched.

The crusader is an equestrian multi role fighter aircraft that was reverse engineered from the Boeing F22 raptor, and The Northrop grumman F-14 tomcat. It combined the sleek, stealthy, and advanced tech of the F22 with the swing wing design and weapons capacity of the F-14; making it a very lethal fighter capable of fufilling the the ground attack role as well just like the A10 that would join it. Although it was mostly armed with AGM-84 demolition bombs and JDAM's it always had pylons desgined specificly for the AIM-9 sidewinder missile to aid in air to air combat, and to top it all off, the GAU-8 avenger 30MM gattling gun from the A10 was also mounted into the F25. The GAU was seated in a little compartment on the left side of the aircraft that would pop out in half a second and begin to spit out 30MM HE rounds at 35 rounds per second.

These groups were getting closer and closer by the minute and it was making me uncomfortable. I told my friends and the Pavelows to keep an eye out for clusters of ponies or aircraft and to deploy evasive manuvers if they get to close. The pavelows had been armed with M134 miniguns in the gunner ports and there was also a browning M2 machine gun mounted in the hull for any crew member to use that would be fired out of the cargo ramp. I told the pavelow pilots to be on high alert and to fire warning shots only unless we are attacked. I could start to see these groups come over the horizon now. Groups of 20 of what looked to be black, blue, and yellow dots were slowly getting closer to us as they circled like sharks. Ponyville was growing closer by the minute but not fast enough. The jets were still 20 mikes out and wouldnt get here in time. Groups of ponies were now only five miles away from us and I was really starting to get nervous. Once they were within 1 mile of us, I finally got a good look at who our stalkers were and I was shocked to say the least. Wonderbolts and shadowbolts, Since when did they decide to work together? I gave one final warning to them to try and get them to back off.

"Unknown flight groups, This is 1st leutenant Dakota Rodriguez of the equestrian armed forces, this is your final warning. Break off now or we will open fire on you." No response from them. I gave the order to drop to an altitude of just 300 feet and authorized the pavelows to fire warning shots. The signature buzz of the dillon M134 minigun rang in my ears as I looked out my left window and saw a line of tracers get close to one of the groups of shadowbolts. That seemed to make them disperse but then they all started to swarm us like an angry hive of bees. Wait a minute, This isnt how they fly. Something is deffinetly off here. I had a grenade that would temporarily disable a changelings magic and reveal themselves if they were disguised, kind of like a threat grenade from call of duty advanced warfare. I opened the door and threw the grenade out and watched as it detonated and confirm my suspicions.

"CH53 pilots and gunners, You are cleared to engage any and all threats at this time. Make your shots count." I shouted into my headset. Just like that, miniguns began tearing them apart one by one. Some of them got really close to my chopper and I panicked and grabbed an MP5 out from under my seat and began firing out the door. Using one hand to fly a Helicopter while the other is holding a submachine gun that kicks a lot is harder than you think. We had to break formation so the pavelows could effectivly engage the enemy forces. As soon as I heard my MP5 click, I threw it in the co pilot seat and kept flying. One of the changelings was right above me and it looked like he was trying to put a bomb on chopper. Doing the only thing I could do, I raised the throttle to full power and quickly ascended up wards as he got chopped up in the blades. Green blood was smeared all over my windshield and I could see his head actually fall and hit my trucks lightbar on top before his head fell to the ground with whatever else was left of him.

We were now over ponyville and many of these bugs were still on us but once we made it past town hall, Our fighter support arrived. I had never been so happy to see them. F25's were letting of sidewinders while A10s did the same but relied much more on their GAU's to get things done and to avoid hitting our choppers while we are on the move. A very familier voice came through my helmet as we got closer to the airfield.

"Icarus flight group, This is gator 1-1. We got your call for help, we'll escort you back to the airfield and from there, back to canterlot where princess celestia and princess luna are waiting for you all." I gave her my response. I knew right away that it was aqua that came to help us. "Roger that. Ive never been more happy to see you again aqua. You saved our asses back there and I owe you one for it. Any later and we would have probably run out of ammo and been brought down." I said to her. "You can thank me later, for now lets focus on getting you boys on the tarmac and to safety." she said. The remaining changelings broke off and tried to flee but were torn apart by the phalanx guns on the ground. That was the last of them. We were clear to reform up and land. The aifield was now directly below us and we broke off and began to descend, being careful not to damage our vehicles when we touched the ground because I really did not want to have to rebuild a whole bunch of suspension systems and transmitions from a poor landing. I finally landed and then my friends did soon after as well. The warthogs and crusaders began landing one after the other. Soon, Aqua landed her crusader and parked up on the tarmac next to my hangar and exited her aircraft. She was wearing an Olive green flight suit just like my own but my flight suit was black since I thought it looked better. I liked the way she looked in it though, her deep blue coat and silver mane just seemed to naturally go along with it.She walked over to me and gave me a big hug that I happily returned. I still felt like an ass for leaving her during heat season but a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do.

"It's good to see you again Dakota, The past 4 months have been rather boring without you and your friends." She said. "I can imagine it was. Without my pranks, loud music, adult humor, and gambling, I can assume that it was pretty quite around here." I replied playfully. She just giggled at my response and gave me a quick peck on the lips. "Come on, lets get these trucks unhooked and loaded onto the packer and be on our way back to canterlot." I said "Sounds good to me." She replied. We began removing the straps from my truck and soon got it cleared of the chopper and loaded the first vehicle onto the packer.

2 hours later

The last vehicle was finally loaded and we were good to go. We finished tieing down Kendall's ram since He liked his ford more which I can understand since they were pretty sturdy and the fanboys of ram and chevy that say ford is a joke can go fuck themselves because no car compaines today would have existed if it wasn't for ford, but thats beside the point. I had taken off the top part of my flightsuit inside the Kenworth while Kendall's F150 was being tied down, After that, everyone proceeded to pile into the vehicles, Aqua of course naturally got in with me since we were a couple, Which reminded me since I had forgotten. I quickly pulled out the arm bands that celestia and aqua had given me so any mares that saw me out in public, knew who I belonged to, and who belonged to me. I raised the trailer legs and did a quick tug test and then departed to canterlot. Aqua had told me that ambassadors from griffonstone and zebrica had already arrived but they were still waiting for the ambassadors of the minotuars, the dragons, and the diamond dogs to arrive but she told me they would arrive at canterlot before we did.

1 hour later

We were almost back to canterlot when I saw a carriage fly over head followed by griffons. It was clear that the griffon ambassador had arrived so now we would just be waiting on the dragons and the diamond dogs. There was a checkpoint up ahead on the freeway leading into and out of canterlot because of this high priority meeting, We were automatically let through since we would be part of said meeting. There was a high police and military presence in the streets and Aqua had told me that the castle was closed tourists and nobles today because of this and all non essential palace staff were given a paid day off. There was another carriage that had pulled out in front of us and was heading towards the castle. I could only assume it was the diamond dogs since they weren't capable of flight. We followed them back to the castle since we were part of this meeting. Upon reaching the castle walls, There was a large croud of angry nobles outside demanding to be let in. The guards had forced their way into the croud to make a gap large enough for us to pass through and get inside. As soon as the last car made it through, the gate was shut as fast as possible to prevent any of them getting in. Talks of this meeting were being brodcasted all over news stations because canterlot was locked up tight and all ponies within a 1 mile radius of the castle were forced to leave their homes until it was over. The ponies forced to leave were temporairly relocated to hotels outside of the 1 mile radius. Many streets were blocked off to allow the ambassadors through and for their safety.

We had parked up next to the Diamond dogs' Ambassadors cariage just as they stepped out. I shut off the Kenworth's engine, Put my top back on, and got out. We could unload the cars later, for now, the meeting took priority. Aqua had accompanied me to the meeting room and entered with me. "Good evening everyone, I hope im not too late to the meeting. As you all know, We have called you here today discuss a wartime alliance against King Sombra since he will not stop if he conquers equestria and he will keep going until he has controll of the world. However, We cannot officialy begin these negotiations until the other two ambassadors arrive, But in the mean time, We could use this time to learn about each other and what are goals are for a succesful alliance." I said. After 20 minutes of chatting with the ambassadors, I knew a lot about them that no one else would have. Emerald staff, the Diamond dog ambassador, Had been born in equestria, but moved back to the diamond dog homelands at the age of 16 to be with his whole family and had an amazing speech ability to sway those in his favor. Fireball, The dragon ambassador, had known the dragon king personally since she had spent part of her childhood with him and were best friends, and Razor blade, The griffon ambassador, had actually told me that she had been secretly dating one of equestrias high ranking military advisors for almost 7 years now and recently made their relation public and are planning on getting married soon. At that point, The doors had swung open to reveal Celestia, luna, and the zebra and minotuar ambassadors. The meeting could now finally begin. I watched as they all took there seats and then I took mine. I pulled a 44 magnum out of my holster and placed it on the table for "Security" reasons and then the meeting finally got underway, but not before I secretly slipped Aqua a 38 caliber revolver.

Author's Note

Back from the dead motherfuckers!!