Equestia: Ballad of a fallen world

2098 - Mars

"How much longer are we going to be here Sasha? Earth reassured me."

"I'm sorry darling but just a little longer. I have to help my mum with the calibration."

I said to my girlfriend, who is impatient with my science stuff. Of course. She is a Thalven. Her race is divided into warriors and scientists and there's nothing in between and she's a warrior and we're at the Martian base to calibrate the plasma cannons to defend us from the Shadows who are getting closer to earth if we need to. We don't have much time so we're in a hurry. Zeira was so lucky to escape instead of fighting even though it was a lack of honour for her. She preferred to be by my side and help fight than to die alone. Now she has post-traumatic stress syndrome because of it. Earth helped her because it is similar to her planet and the sight of green always calmed her down and Mars.... even though it went through terraforming it's not like earth. It doesn't look or feel like it. Even indoors.

"I understand but I'm just stressed. This whole situation is highly stressful."

"Hm. Maybe you want a little stress relief?" Her facial expression momentarily changed. She went from terrified to curious but quickly returned to stressed. I had learned that Thalveni de-stress most through intimate moments with loved ones. Therefore, I walked away from the console and approached her and started kissing her neck.

"Sasha what are you... mmmm.... I think you need to calibrate something." Clearly she liked it. Long workout. I can't be sexy or intimate. Sex has never interested me but I think I've succeeded.'

"ZEUS finish please."

"Of course. Serve me while you deal with primal instincts. Monkey."

"That's what you're a hologram for."

"I know but I can complain too."

I snorted at that and started kissing Zeire quietly on the lips. She enjoyed it judging by the calmly dangling tail. This one with her extra hands grabbed my buttocks and lay on the ground with me. Amazing how horny her race is. She had been asking me for a long time if I wanted to approach her but I wasn't ready but now.... when we have the time and space I'm eager to see what it's like. She looked at me with one eye and I stopped.

"Are you sure you're ready? I know you're doing this so I can calm down."

"You have to try it sometime."

We went back to kissing while she put her extra hands in my trousers and slowly started rubbing my penis. Wow. That's really pleasurable. I in return started kissing her neck and put my hand first into my mouth and then into her trousers to slowly and lightly rub her vagina. These two things led her to moan slightly. Amazingly, being a great warrior whose voice is downright bass in tender moments, she became docile and lovely. Her faster breaths caused her moans to turn into squeaks. Especially as I put my fingers inside her. She in retaliation grabbed my testicles and massaged them. Finally I took her in for a very long kiss which resulted after separating a small strand of saliva between us. I wanted to continue this and was almost pulling her shirt off when suddenly ZEUS stopped us.

"Your mother is running here Sasha. I don't advise doing that in front of her."

We looked at each other in shock and quickly got up. We kissed some more and I went back to calibrating and Zeira just sat at the table. Eventually my mother entered the room. She looked terribly panicked. She immediately ran for her gun, which she armed.

"ZEUS. Activate our fighter, activate all guard cannons. Start surrounding the lands with Athena's shield." She said in a very serious tone as she began transferring files from the computer to the ground while deleting everything else.

"Mum what's going on?

"They are already here. We need to get to earth as soon as possible. Otherwise we'll be stuck here."

"What do you mean so fast? After all, it was supposed to be longer..."

"Apparently we've become a prime target for them. Here." She tossed me a gun. "Thanks to the technology of the Zeira race, we can kill them. They're already on the surface and have made their way to the base. We need to get to the fighters. Do you have anything?" My girlfriend summoned a spear. "Good. We stay together, away from the windows, ZEUS will give us the fastest route and Kit from Earth will try to hold the shield so we can still fly through it." We heard a mighty roar and a sudden explosion through which some fighter from above fell to the ground causing explosions. "Listen. I'm not a worrior but I'll do my best to make it. Let's go.'

We simply nodded our heads. I unlocked the gun and Mum was the first to go through the dark corridor, which lit up red every now and then. Gosh. I didn't think the Shadows would get to us so quickly. We thought it would still take them at least a month and not already. I honestly started to get scared. I was shaking all over. That's why Zeira took my hand and we ran together. She is more determined. You can see she's vindictive and you could see it when she threw her spear into the dark corridor nailing one of the monsters with it. She summoned it and we ran in another direction. ZEUS closed that door behind us.

Mum runs from memory. You can see that she knows where she's running but it's still hard for her, especially as there could be danger around every corner. She's already shot off a few of them. I managed one when he dashed at us. The alarms even went off and after just a minute you could hear shots all over the base, which does little to them. It's plasma bullets and not the kind that will kill them. Eh. What now. Oh. There's a light. There's nothing there and you can already see the landing pad. We're saved!

"Almost there!" ZEUS closed the door centrally behind us. "ZEUS?"

"There's a whole horde of them running around here. I'm afraid the door won't hold but I'll try to stop them with everything available."

My mother's eyes momentarily widened in fear. She also looked at the situation outside. The Shadow Air Force is occupied by our troops but the ones that are running here also have wings. And they didn't go through this door just because there's a hologram of a blank wall. Oh dear. The horde has already hit the door and is slowly breaking it down even despite the constant gunfire. We finally got out though and me and Zeira entered the fighter but then we heard a bang and a roar. Shadows tore through and ran at us. I got at the controls and told my mother to go to the cannons but she only looked down the corridor from where it was only louder.

"Zeira. You have a good eye. Go to the plots." She finally replied when she looked back at another fighter.

"What do you want me to do? Please don't do anything stupid."

"I'll pull them away. You guys fly to Earth before it's too late."

"I'm flying with you." I said almost immediately.

"No. You need to fly there and help with security. It's a priority now. Here." She handed me a memory stick. "Here are the final plans for Operation Ragnarok. We don't have a lot of time so you need to finish it as soon as possible. I need you to deliver it to them, help them and not let the Shadows ever find out about it. Can I rely on you?'

I took the flash drive and looked at her with tears in my eyes. I simply nodded to her but couldn't help but ask one question. "Will I see you again?"

"I'll do what I can. Now fly. Don't stop."

The engines took off as my mother fired some kind of explosive shell at the base, whose corridor exploded scattering Shadow bodies everywhere. I started to fly upwards as she looked at me and got into the fighter. She activated it, fired her cannons at them a few times and flew into another as they rushed after her. I lost sight of her as we entered the atmosphere and saw that there was fighting in orbit and almost throughout the system. Zeira was firing at the nearest Shadow ships but there were still too many of them. I at top speed, started flying towards Earth.

"You can't go fast with that?!" My girlfriend shouted. "There's a lot flying behind us!"

"I'm trying but higher is only the speed of the overlight and that could kill us!"

"They're about to kill us! No matter how you fly or what tricks you do! Something we have to do!"

I glanced at the handle that activates the highest speed possibility. We'll get to the planet in a few seconds in that case and if I get out of that speed too late we'll die. We will shatter, however, if I don't do something now we will be shot. I hate making decisions but I don't think I have a choice.

"I love you Zeira."

I heard her want to reply but I turned on that speed. In one second we were literally sucked into a tunnel so dark that the only thing illuminating us were the lights of the ship. Yes. We are faster than light. That's why the light doesn't reach us. However, we could only be here for a few seconds. That's why I turned it off after just a moment. Unfortunately, due to this speed and the small amount of time spent in the tunnel, the engine was damaged and we flew inertly straight to the ground. At full speed we slammed into the atmosphere. Zeira barely reached me to help stabilise the flight which was successful but unfortunately the landing would still be hard. Fortunately we are where we were meant to be so we land hard at the airport.

"Sasha?" Kit spoke up. "Is that your signal? You're flying too fast. You're going to crash."

"We're trying to even out the flight somehow. If you can give us some decelerators! The engines have been damaged!"

"Ok. Try to stabilise as much as possible and then try for the longest runway!"

Gravity pullers emerged on the longest lane. I don't know if that will help us but let's hope at least in a small way. Ok. We're close to the ground now. If nothing bad happens then.... THE FUCKING BACK OF THE FIGHTER FLEW OFF! I think it was the turnbuckles. Well the landing was hard too but the main thing is that it didn't explode and we are slowly being slowed down. We also try to help with our braking but most of the brakes were in the back of the ship. It's shaking terribly but there's a bit more to come.... Just a little more... AGH! We hit the wall of the observation tower.... But we're alive. We're alive! We made it!

"We're alive!" I shouted.

"I'm never flying anywhere with you again while you're at the helm. Never."

"It wasn't that bad."

"I defeated one of the strongest monsters on my planet without fear at the age of nine and now I can barely walk with fear."

"Sasha. Sasha can you hear me?" I heard Kit's voice from the communicator.

"Yes? We're alive!"

For a brief moment all we could hear was silence, which was only drowned out by the loud heartbeat of my girlfriend.... And she threw up. "It's an achievement." My friend replied. "Listen. The shadows are approaching the ground. The military is already flying in to stop them but we need you here to activate the Nanoguards."

"We'll be right there... and what's the catch?"

"Part of it has landed on the ground. The guard robots will rough you up but I don't know how long they can withstand their attack."

"We'll try." I unlocked my weapon and looked at Zeire with my spear, who nodded. "We'll be there in a while. Over and out." I hung up and we looked outside where the mass of these monsters were already swarming and the tower where Kit is is at the other end of the landing site. It was fortunate that there was a mass of smaller buildings. "Ready?"

"I won't be more ready." She picked up a small blaster. "Here we go, then. Just like we trained. You cover me and I get rid of the ones in front."

My weapon is a sniper rifle not because I can't fight. No. I have a sniper rifle because as soon as I turned five we discovered I had amazing aim. I first trained with the bow and then with this weapon. It's reliable even though I don't like to fight but when I have to I have to. I also have an exoskeleton in me that increases my strength but unfortunately it is not permanent. Ok about that later.

Zeria came out first. I looked around for a while and when I thought it was safe I ran after her to the nearest building. There she surprised the first one by jumping on him. She drove a spear into someone's neck and broke it. I shot off the snout of another who wanted to jump on us. My girlfriend told me to run after her so we ran to another tower and on the way I shot off two on the run and she pierced one. She blew the door open. I ran in killing one behind us. We ran upstairs where there was no one but quite high up so Zeira told me to shoot the monsters while she was preparing something. I did as she instructed so I set up and from the window I shot mostly at ones that were about to kill someone else. That's how I rescued the Greyhound and Tigerd and the Kautchia kid that the man took into the room. I'm lucky they're plasma missiles and don't need physical ammunition but still too much of that.

"How much more Zeira? What are you planning?"

"Something stupid."

"It's taking you this long to think about it?"

"Of course it doesn't. We just have one chance. That's why I'm trying to make it perfect."

"And could you think about it?"

"No time." She walked over to me and started measuring something. "Get ready."

"But for what?" I was already slightly annoyed by this when I shot off the head of another one of them as she went for something.

"For this!"

She shouted as she grabbed me and jumped up piercing the window. I shouted the whole time as she threw a spear with a rope tied to it straight into the back of a flying shadow that roared. When this happened she grabbed the rope and pulled herself towards it so that we landed on top of it and it was as if with this rope she started to steer it and fly straight towards the tower where Kit was.

"That was your plan?!" I shouted.

"Yes. And we're alive.... somehow. Now shoot the ones flying towards us because my hands are busy.... oh shit!"

She had to turn right because one of them appeared in our path. He started flying after us and I aimed at them. Jeez. I didn't think I'd ever fly on the back of a Shadow and shoot other Shadows in the process albeit that was my bingo for this year. It was a joke and yet it wasn't. And there you have it! One went. Damn. Zeira got him up to speed pretty good and he's doing some good acrobatics. And by stunts I mean my crotch and ass hurt from the constant bouncing. Eh. The most important thing is that at that time I killed another two. The last one left, who realised that a good sniper was shooting at them. He started to dodge my shots better. I looked up looking for an idea and I think I found one.

"Zeira. Fly in that direction. That way we'd fly under that supply ship."

"If you say so. Go!"

She drove the spears deeper making Shadow fly even faster. This startled the one behind us and he tried to catch up with us and luckily he didn't notice that I was aiming in a completely different direction and fired. We heard a bang and just as he was about to catch up with us, a supply ship fell centrally on him causing an explosion.

"Good. We don't have a tail!"

"I don't know how You did it but you'll have to teach me that."

Zeira drove the spears deeper so as to kill our already dead aircraft. It fell a dozen metres from the entrance. Perfect. We started to run there while shooting at the Shadows and we were almost inside when a huge individual appeared in front of us from above. According to the Thalven classification, a higher alpha. I don't know why exactly on us, but he started to get purple in the mouth which means that he has discharged a plasma shot. Oh boy. We have no way to escape because he's going to hit us anyway. I tried shooting at him but it didn't do anything. I thought of any way to escape but failed. Other smaller ones started encircling us. How do we escape... how... do I hear any whistling? I guess I wasn't the only one because the alpha also started looking around until something flew into it and exploded. Zeria quickly picked up a piece of metal and covered us from it. When it was over we looked at what had happened and when the figure started coming out of the fire I couldn't believe it. Especially as she hit right back with the weapon of one of the Shadows.

"She's alive!"

"I don't believe..."

"Then believe it. And I have support."

It was my mother. She's wearing damage-reducing armour. It was only supposed to be a prototype and yet it works. Suddenly, too, a huge ball of weapons came out of the door at full speed and when it unfolded it turned out to be one of the Goliaths. He started shooting at them slowly killing everyone. Mum ran up to us and took us to the tower where a titanium shield appeared instead of a door. I only had my jaw open and the whole tower to us started running.

"Mrs Shimmer... how?"

"Apes together strong. What's wrong son?"

"You're alive." It was all I could say before I ran into her to hug her.

"Of course. I said I'd try. Now come on. We have to defend Earth."

I nodded to her and together we walked to the main room where we sent the final instructions to the greatest desperation in human history. I don't know if we'll succeed but if we do, we must do everything we can to make this plan work....