The Dark Side of Friendship

[Authors Note - My apologies for the extremely short chapter. I have been suffering from severe writers block, and I decided that I was at a good stopping point. I'll have a bigger chapter next time.]

"Twiley!" Shining Armor exclaimed as he galloped up to where Twilight was sitting, sporting a smile that hadn't been since the day the droids invaded, "is it true? Has help arrived?"

Twilight nodded and motioned to her telescope. Taking the hint, Shining Armor trotted over to it and peered down the lens. As promised, there was thirteen triangle shaped objects hovering in orbit above the planet.

"What are they?" Shining Armor inquired.

"To be honest, I don't know. But they did appear similarly to the things that were transporting the droids." Twilight responded, looking up at the sky above them.

"I'm worried Twilight. What if this isn't help? What if these are droid reinforcements, or another invading alien species. Our forces wouldn't be able to take on that much. Hell, we're barely pulling through as it is!" Shining Armor exclaimed, motioning his hoof at the practically overflowing medical tents that were set up barely two hundred feet away from Twilight's position. "Every time we go out, we take casualties. Dozens of ponies lost or wounded."

"Don't you think I know that?!" Twilight demanded angrily, glaring at her older brother. Shining Armor was taken a back by Twilight's sudden outburst. Twilight herself was shocked by it as well.

"Listen, Twi, I think the stress is starting to get to the both of us. Maybe we should take a bit of a breather, so we-"

Before Shining Armor could finish his sentence, Twilight pushed her older brother into a nearby ditch and covered them with a small force field, just seconds before the entire camp was engulfed in flames.

Roughly thirty kilometers away from the camp, and about eight kilometers above, five LAAT/i Republic Gunships were rapidly descended towards the planet. Inside of these gunships was the members of the 2nd Airborne Company, an elite group of clone troopers assigned to the 212th Attack Battalion who specialized in airborne deployments. Leading them were Commander Cody and General Obi-Wan Kenobi, who jointly led the 7th Sky Corps.

"General," Cody began, "the pilot is reporting he has sighted several explosions of in the distance. It may be a battle between this planets inhabitants and the droids. Is that where we should be heading?"

After a few seconds of contemplation, Obi-Wan came to a decision. "Might as well. It would be wise to get help from the locals. This is their home, after all."

"You heard the General. Lock and load, men!" Cody ordered, as he slammed a charge pack into his DC-15A blaster rifle.

As she came to, all Twilight could hear was a steady ringing in her ears and her own thunderous heartbeat. Her head was pounding, and her entire body ached with pain. Slowly, Twilight's eyes fluttered open. As her vision cleared, she noticed her brother standing over her, shouting something that she couldn't hear through her ringing ears.

"Twilight, get up!" Twilight heard her brother urge as the ringing started to fade. Too weak to get up on her own, Shining Armor rolled his eyes and helped Twilight to her hooves.

"What happened?!" she demanded.

"Droid fighters came out of no where and strafed us. The camp is being overrun as we speak. We're abandoning our post." Shining Armor responded, lifting his pillaged E-5 blaster rifle from its makeshift holster using his telekinesis. After he inspecting it to make sure it was working order, he loaded a charge pack into his rifle.

"What about my friends?" Twilight asked.

Shining Armor frowned and glanced down at the ground. "They... I don't think they made it."

"That's impossible!" Twilight screeched at the top of her lungs, "We have to go back and get them!"

"Twiley, we have no time!" Shining Armor shouted back, loud enough to effectively shut his younger sisters trap, "Twilight, you're not the only one who lost somepony because of those droids. Must I remind you about Cadence? About our foal? About the hundreds of troops I have lost trying to defend this planet? I can't lose any more ponies. Especially not you..."

"...I'm sorry..." Twilight muttered as her head dropped in shame, tears forming in her eyes. To her surprise, she found her herself being picked up and pulled into a tight embrace by her older brother, who was barely holding back his tears.

Before either of them could say anything more, Twilight's ears perked up.

"Droids..." she whispered.

"I know. I can hear them too." Shining Armor stated, releasing Twilight and readying his blaster rifle once more. Twilight's horn glowed a faint purple aura as she pulled her lightsaber out of her saddlebag. With the press of a button, a bright blue blade of energy extended out of it, ready to cut down anything in its path.

"Let's go. The survivors are about a mile away." Shining Armor urged.

"Yeah... let's go." Twilight said, watching as the shadows of several hundred battledroids marched their way.