Aponycalipse: Paradox

Back in the normal world an explosion caught Justin and John off guard and they look up at the sky. A bright gold glow mixed with sparks was noticed in the sky. The sparks went mad as a portal ripped out from in the sky not far from the city. The explosion sounded like a bomb went off as civilians started to panic.

"Look at the sky!" A pony screamed out as the humans and ponies ran in a panic.

"Please everyone, remain calm!" John called out. "For your own safety, return to your homes."

Some of them heard him as they started to leave while others had to be sent home by police officers. Justin was still looking to the portal with worry.

He looked to John, fixing his U.S. Marine hat and said, "We need to talk to Lance about this."

John nods and they went to the headquarters outside the base. A two-story military building next to an air base is the Alliance's HQ. Inside there were many rooms including the War Room where Justin, John, Isaac, were briefed every time just before a mission. There, Lance was watching the situation unfold from the large holographic images on the display.

"Sir!"

"I know what you are going to say." Lance stopped them as his kept his gaze on the images. "This is a first for me and I haven't seen anything like this before. By the looks of these things, they appear to be portals to another world."

"How is that possible sir?" John asks.

"I'm not sure. Some say that Snowy's followers were testing a new energy source which lead to this. For now we need to keep the citizens calm and figure out where that portal leads to. I need you two to get Isaac and check on the portal not far from the city. We'll have drones follow you and scan whatever is on the other side."

"Yes sir." John saluted along with Justin before they rushed out of the room and head to the airbase.

At a hanger, Isaac was working on his custom built Su-35 and arming the hard points with short range A-11 missiles and medium range AA-10 missiles. Over three years Isaac had trained in VR combat flight simulators to improve his skills. He even worked out modifying his fighters and improving their combat abilities and effectiveness. After attaching the missiles, checked on the flaps, then the vertical stabilizers, then the engines to see if all the parts are working properly.

"Isaac!" Justin called out. It caught Isaac’s attention and he looked towards them.

"What is it comrades?"

"We got a mission. We need to check out the portal near the edge of the city." Justin explained.

"Let’s see Snowy’s followers screw things up again." John added, growling in annoyance.

"I'll start up my fighter. And John, control your temper."

Isaac puts on his helmet as he hopped in the cockpit. He flipped a switch as the engines start up. Justin puts on a combat helmet and a combat vest as he hops on the left wing of the fighter. John remained where he was as he strapped on sword behind his back. Isaac moved to the runway as he got the command from the control tower, "You are cleared for takeoff."

Isaac pushed the throttle as the engines roared, the thrusters turning bright blue with the afterburners pushing the aircraft and takes off. Justin looks around, wondering what was taking him so long. John gallops on the runway and took off. He then landed on the right wing, his horseshoes magnetically hooked on the wing.

"Sorry, had to get my sword."

Isaac flew towards the portal as a squadron of three MQ-1C drones flew close behind. Isaac then pulled up as he flew through the portal. The gravity shifted as they entered the new world. It was a place that has withstood a long war. Suddenly they were greeted in hellfire of anti-air guns as the city ruins came alive with trenched positions fighting off some crystal structure that suddenly disappeared in a flash as the streets flashed with beams and explosions. The air is dense, filled on smoke and ionize oxygen. It was still breathable but hardly healthy.

"This place looks like a war zone." Justin said, covering his mouth.

"How can anything survive in this?" John asks.

One of the largest buildings in the area collapsed in a column of dust as a large explosion hit it. Whoever side were fighting it wasn’t a mere skirmish, it’s a war. Isaac pulls up above the clouds to avoid getting spotted. John looked down and spotted ponies fighting in the streets, but were also retreating.

"Justin, looks like they need our help." He said, looking at Justin.

"I got it!" Justin hops off as he dives down. Isaac tried to warn him but before he could say anything, the anti air guns took aim at Justin and started firing. Justin started dodging the explosive tracer rounds as he lands on the roof of a skyscraper. Some of the rounds tears through the left wing of a drone causing it to spiral out of control and crash into a building.

"Crazy kid, come on John!" Isaac yelled as he dived down into the fight. John detached from the fighter as he dives down towards the buildings. Somehow, the guns weren’t aiming at Isaac but aiming at John while the ponies on the ground were firing beam weapons at Isaac. As they dodged the gun fire, they noticed a group of armed zeppelins firing relentlessly on the ground.

Isaac got close to the building Justin is on as the pegasus hops on the fighter.

"Don’t ever fly into a fight we have nothing to do with!" Isaac yelled as he narrowed his eyes and pulls up. "Even though they took out one of our drones…"

The battle was clearly a the loss for the equines, but there were other species totally uncommon like zebras, deer, and other "evolved" hooved mammals. Lance watched from the cameras of the remaining drones, shocked to what he was seeing. From among the ponies and other animals, a bright cyan light covers them as a large ice walls shielding the troop’s retreat trying to regroup and evac.

"Looks like we know who to help. John, you are I are going to slow down the humans and Justin, try to see if you can find the leader of the fleeing party." Isaac order as he armed his machine gun. Some of the anti-air guns lowered and fire on the ice walls, shredding them quite fast as the humans advanced with some new walls being made in desperation. Isaac dives down and fires his machine gun at the humans, missing on purpose as it was a warning.

John's horn glows as he fire a wall of flame in front of the advancing human, blocking their path. The humans were caught off guard by this attack as they turned their guns to John and Isaac. Meanwhile, Justin lands on the ground as he follows the ponies. The ponies have strange weaponry as they trenched for the upcoming assault. Even if it was a losing battle they were quite organized, as zebras, deer, ponies, buffalos, unicorns and a few pegasi composed this group of what seemed an evacuation as more than half of the ponies there were civilians or wounded.

"Hey!" Justin called out as he jumped into the trench. "We’re here to help you!"

"You must be the evac team." Said a zebra carrying a strange weapon mounted on a saddle on his side.

"How are you holding up?" A deer asked to Justin. "We need to last until somepony responds to the evac. We can’t lose."

"Well we don’t have an evac team. What’s going on here?"

"The Rebels are pushing us out of the city by force." The zebra said as he went on. "They forced us out of every major battle we fought with them. Now this is what’s left of us, hoping for someone to help us."

Justin pulls out his radio and calls Isaac, "Isaac, we need covering fire. Apparently the humans here are targeting the animals and by the looks of it they are taking no prisoners."

"They fired at us so we have the right to defend ourselves. Justin, John, we’re cleared to engage."

"Guess we’ll need reinforcements." John said.

"Way ahead of you." Lance said over the radio. "I can see the fight coming from the drones. Back up will be there in a few minutes. Just slow them down for the time being!"

The rebels pass through the barriers and start to charge at the pony's positions as light vehicles, infantry, and zeppelins move towards them. Suddenly, Isaac dives down above the rebels and fires his machine gun. It caught them off guard as several junk fighters tail him. Junk fighters are mainly fighters built of scavenged parts, making them very cheap and produced in large quantities. Requiring nearly nonexistent training, but lack basic defensive measures and are relatively weak and fragile.

They took aim and fired their machine guns. Isaac turned upside down and pulled a U loop. One of the fighters tried to do the same thing but crashed into a building. Some zeppelins were packed with large amounts of machine gun nests within their structures and some larger guns like quad cannons, or rocket launchers. These are the main force for the rebels, the standard issue zeppelins.

They were built with multiple machine guns that were meant to protect the cockpit from air attacks and the cannons and rocket launchers on the side were built on it to suppress enemy ground forces and keep them down. The machine guns target Isaac right away before they start raining hot lead at him. Isaac easily dodges the rounds as he strafes the zeppelin in front of him.

"John, disable the zeppelins!" Isaac yelled over the radio as rounds as he heard rounds pound against his fighter. "Justin, take out the fighters!"

Justin flew high as he hung onto the canopy of the junk fighter. The pilot looks up, seeing Justin amd pulls out his pistol to try to shoot him. Justin jumped off and swung his bat in the mid-section of the fighter, hitting the engine. The engine caught on fire as Justin flew off to the next one, seeing the last fighter he struck explode. Meanwhile, John uses fire spells as he tries to hit the balloon on the zeppelins while dodging the gun fire that was being shot at him.

Those that got damaged regrouped to get repaired by their crew while more zeppelins took their place.

"Take one out and two more appear." John said in frustration.

It wasn’t looking good on the ground as the rebels started closing in on the fleeing ponies. They weren’t stopping even if their men fell from getting hit.

They knew they were outnumbered but they had to hold the line when suddenly a large shadow casts over the red sky. A familiar massive aircraft emerges from the portal slowly turning upright side up after adjusting from the shift in gravity. It was the Ark of the Sun, the day mission flying aircraft carrier. Zhu was holding on his captain chair as the planes and helicopters were secured with minimal damage.

"Perfect timing Zhu. Show them what happens when they mess with the Alliance!" Isaac called out.

"Will do. Just get the civilians ready for evac."

The Ark’s weapons were armed as UH-60 helicopters were getting prepped for takeoff. The ponies were surprised to see humans fight against humans as the Ark flies toward the zeppelins. Several junk fighters fly toward it when the Ark’s Type 1030 CIWSs (close in weapons system) start firing at them and destroy the fighter with ease.

"Fire at the zeppelin." Zhu ordered as the Ark’s side cannons fire a 200mm tungsten round into a zeppelin, tearing right through it and hitting a building that was under the rebel’s control. The zeppelins got into formation as they fired their machine guns and cannons at the Ark. The round bounced of the Arks tempered hull as the ark side guns and SAMs fires at the zeppelins. "Get in front of the zeppelins. We’re gonna test our new prototype."

The Ark turns slightly as it got in front of the zeppelins. A hatch below the Ark opens as it reveals a large cannon with rifle like teeth on it. Justin froze in awe when he saw it.

"Is that…A rail gun?!"

The rail gun glows with electricity as it powers up almost immediately.

"Sir, we’re locked on target." The weapons officer said to Zhu.

"Fire."

A loud boom came from the rail gun as a wave of magnetic energy shot out from the cannon as the tungsten round tore through several columns of zeppelins like it was nothing. What’s more was the after effect from the EMP burst from the rounds disabled anything electrical near the burst. Luckily Isaac was out of the range of the burst but several junk fighters weren't as they stalled in the air. Most of the remaining turrets, and zeppelins were unaffected by the EMP cause their weapons worked without any complex circuitry, except a few guided missiles systems that went offline. Still they were helpless as the slick metal beast relentlessly tore through the zeppelin fleet.

"Evac helicopters, you are cleared for takeoff." Zhu said as he helicopters take off and fly towards the ponies. The remaining zeppelins started retreating as the ponies started boarding the helicopters. A lot of them weren’t very welcoming to see humans working alongside ponies, but they calmed down when they see that some ponies with high ranks in the Alliance. The helicopters took off as they went back to the Ark.

"Justin, John, let’s head back to the Ark." Isaac said as they followed the helicopters.