Twilight made sure every hair was in place, magic glowing as she groomed herself.
Rainbow huffed gently at the sight. "When do we actually land?"
Twilight grinned lightly. "That is a good question." She nodded as a panel came to life. "First, I must address a matter of some delicacy." The display switched to an overhead view of the largest city on the planet, centered on a towering structure that dominated the area around it with its sheer size. "Can you see that?"
"Tower?" Rainbow looked it over. "Yeah, looks pretty tall." She folded her arms. "How does that help us land?"
"It helps us make a point. This is in China, their second most populated nation. It is thick with the problems most their nations suffer from. Ecological collapse, financial disparities, all of it. I couldn't find a nation that escaped this that was large enough to consider. Each individual human, however." She turned a hoof as the display focused on a lone man walking down the city street. "They would like a fair world."
Rainbow blinked slowly at that. "Yeah, sure they would, but what does that have to do with anything?"
Twilight held out a hoof towards the image, feeding a small pulse of magic into it. The man jerked, reaching for his pockets to search frantically and drawing out great wads of local currency as he laughed with delirious confusion. "We are going to make a few people who need it rich, so long as they think fondly of ponies. This is not a long-term strategy, but in the short term, I think it will sway things."
She rose up tall on her hind hooves, eyes narrowing as she studied the image before her. "I also suspect we can bring in some funding from other places. That said, we are here to help, but our primary focus is to find out what has led humanity down this path. That may well be a question only they can answer for themselves, but I can correct it." She fixed Rainbow with a wicked smile, floating as she was. "That money has to come from somewhere. We can't go making things from nothing."
"Whoa." Rainbow spread her hooves out. "That sounds like you're going to be stealing from someone. Can't you just like, make the materials you need?"
Twilight fell to her hooves and shrugged her wings. "The material is easy, but humans love tracking things. Every bit of that money is tracked. If we just make more, they'll notice. No, no. It has to come from somewhere. And I know a few wealthy individuals who could stand to lose some." She flicked her hoof at the display and it switched to a broad panorama of a crowded city street. "Observe."
A human walking by slowed, holding a phone up to take a picture of the floating figures on their television. Rainbow's hoof went through the screen as she attempted to tap at it. "Come on! This is cool and all, but we could be doing this down there. I'm tired of being without any Gs, Twi."
Twilight's horn glowed as she laughed in a deep rumble, drawing strange lines of magic from some of the people walking past. "The system remains broken. Those people will make their money back swiftly. I am, at best, applying bandages to a patient that remains bleeding, rapidly. Still, better than doing nothing at all."
She made a firm wave, sending the energy back, scattering money in forceful wealth distribution. "Rainbow, I don't think you understand. If I land, then they will take their frustration out on me directly. We are not as sturdy as the ship we're in, Rainbow. There are risks if we land."
Rainbow puffed her chest out at that, pounding a hoof against her chest. "But I'll be there to protect you!" She pointed at the screen again. "If I'm with you, they won't dare touch you!"
Twilight pushed off a wall, crashing into Rainbow in a firm hug. "I know you'd try your best. I'm glad you're here, but we're still far safer, up here. They can't do anything to us as long as we stay up here."
"Da. This is being only way." The overworked Russian tech hammmered at his keyboard, entering the coordinates of the alien vessel, far above the planet. "We have not long." He let out a hard breath. "Others will want to be firing on this target."
He was at the last part. The missile couldn't be fired without the firing codes, and precious few people had those. His eyes ran over the screen, barely able to make sense of the words in the low light of his room. Everything was lit with reds and yellows, alarms warning him about what he was about to do. Actually firing a nuclear weapon was not something done lightly.
Yet, it must be done. This was the final chance. This alien ship would not leave. He was sure of it. If they did not strike now, who knew what would happen? Would the aliens keep coming back with ever increasing demands? He grabbed the phone and called it in. "Firing is read. Final codes." He gripped the receiver firmly as he typed them in one last time, "Tungsten", for the largest of the missiles in their arsenal. He pressed the last buttons and slammed his fist down on the last firing button. The room roared with the sound of destiny.
It was out of his hands now, but that was fine. He stood up, arms held loosely at his side as he walked towards the nearest wall. "No matter what happens next, I did all I could."
"Twilight." Fluttershy inclined her head at a reading. "Incoming. Odds of a projectile, um, 79% Detecting propellant, likely the drive. Detecting radioactive material, hazardous. Um, what should we do?"
Twilight turned her head aside, attention drawn to the screen before her, depicting earth with its many nations and places, where humans and ponies interacted in great diversity. "They wish to have us struck from the skies, with force equal to that of stars?" She snorted softly. "Is it even a fusion weapon?"
"I don't have time to examine it, um, Twilight. What should we do?" Fluttershy trembled, but didn't sweat. Space modifications had made that much harder for them to do. They did perspire in certain conditions, but she didn't seem close to it at the moment, being perfectly composed for what was about to happen. "Please? We need to move."
Twilight locked hooves together as she studied the situation, tapping hoof to hoof as she considered her options. "If they wish to throw themselves against our door with fire, I am sure we can return the favor. What have we to lose?" She took a moment to brush her mane back, tucking the longest strands into place. "I'm leaving."
Fluttershy blinked. "Leaving?"
"Leaving." Twilight vanished with a pop. She appeared just outside the ship, holding her breath. A bubble of force glimmered around her, keeping away the solar radiation that shone upon her. She could see the missile in the distance, streaking towards them. It was quite fast, on its scale. At the distance it had to go, it was practically crawling. She extended a hoof, purple light enveloping it. She tugged it towards herself.
The missile span end over end with the sudden yank. It tried to right itself, but Twilight's grip was unyielding. "Let's take this," she thought to herself as she wrenched the warhead free of the missile and tucked it safely to the side. "And the rest of you can do as you please." She vanished back inside.
A second missile was heading towards them. Twilight wasn't there to stop it. Instead, it encountered a sudden storm in space. Rainbow Dash made sure to hoot and holler for all to hear, laughing all the while as she danced through the missile's path. It exploded brilliantly, but was nowhere near the alien vessel.
Twilight settled back in her seat. "Fluttershy, you caught all that, I presume? Send a video of it down to the humans. Let them know this was their best, last, chance. If they want to send more at us, they're welcome to waste their time. The days of assured destruction are at an end." She rubbed hoof to head as she grinned gently. "Still, let's not get cocky. We have many, many things we must still do here."
She had a hoof under her chin as she thought aloud. "What they are saying and what they are doing can be quite different. We have given ourselves quite a task."
"On it." Fluttershy was rapidly assembling the video and sending it along to any computer system waiting for it. "Should I track where the weapons were fired from?"
"It doesn't really matter." Twilight huffed gently. "The attempt was made, and they'll all see how effective it was. Hm, maybe I should have allowed one to hit, but why risk it? Their weapons are not sufficient, especially while we're up here." She looked to Rainbow Dash, just returning from her own space jaunt. "This is why we're staying up here."
Rainbow blinked and rolled a hoof in the air as she spoke. "Ah, sure. No big deal. Still think we should land, but it's your call, princess."
Twilight brought up the human leader's message again. "Fluttershy, one question; did that missile come from America?"
"It did not come from North or South America, ma'am!" Fluttershy tapped and twisted her hooves. "Asia."
Twilight blinked. "China?"
"No, north." She leaned in at a map of the planet and its many nations. "Russia."
"We haven't talked with them much. Perhaps that's why they thought they had a chance of just swatting us out of the air." Twilight folded her hooves together, humming as she pondered what to do next. "Interesting. If we want to land anywhere, we have to take care of that first."
Fluttershy inclined an ear. "Ma'am?"
"Humans must have the fight driven from them." Twilight leaned back, starting to rotate in the free-float. "Speaking of that, can you contact Applejack? We should make sure she's safe."
Down below, Applejack buzzed. Cindy raised a brow. "Um, hon?"
Applejack fanned her hoof for a moment, attempting to catch the errant sound. She gave up on it, returning to what she was doing, which was cleaning up after dinner.
Cindy elbowed at Applejack gently. "It's still going. It's from, I think." She trailed along Applejack's side towards her throat. She tapped there and a window popped open in front of Applejack.
Applejack yelped in surprise, hopping back from the image of Fluttershy. "Oh, never had a call incomin' afore. Caught me in the middle of dishes!" She turned to Cindy. "The fine mare's named Fluttershy, by the way. We've been friends fer years!"
"Sorry about that!" Fluttershy pushed her hooves together. "I wasn't expecting you to be doing something else." She chewed on her lower lip a moment, before continuing with what she was saying, "Twilight wants to know if you're safe and unharmed."
Applejack pressed hoof to forehead a moment, mussing up her mane in the process. "Relatively? Shoot, they don't let me go nowhere without guards. Gov'mint seems real set on makin' sure ah don't get hurt." She turned her head aside as Angel showed up with a small handheld television, held in hoof. "Hang on a second, there's somethin' Angel wants to show me."
She turned to smile at her child. "Whatcha got there?" She looked over the picture on the screen, taking it in at a glance. "Oh, they got some big meteors, don't they? Too bad for that rocket!"
Angel cocked his head. "Why'd they blow it up?"
Applejack quirked an ear. "Um, ain't got no idea. What is it 'xactly?"
Cindy moved in for a better view, reading the tickers running on the screen. "Look like, um, Russia went and tried to shoot at your friends, AJ. They failed, and the news is talking about how it went." She read some more. "Probably not a great sign for any other countries that might want to try it, though. Sounds like we're pretty much told we can't hit them."
"Well." Applejack stomped hoof to ground. "Why'd they go 'n do somethin' like that? Ain't like my friends are doin' anythin' bad to anyone!"
Cindy gently stroked down her partner's back. "Your friends are a big existential threat to a lot of powerful people right now. That's not even mentioning all the little people that are scared." She tapped her own head. "In here, the idea that something's looking over our shoulder is scary. There's plenty of people that think this is an alien invasion, and we're doomed to have the worst things happen to us."
"Huh." Applejack turned back to Fluttershy's image on the floating window. "Well, ya heard that, ah assume. Ah'm fine, but sounds like things'll get patchy for a while."
Fluttershy smiled at that. "Good! I'll let Twilight know. I'm glad you're safe, even if you're worried about something happening to you."
Applejack beamed. "Aw, thank ya kindly! Keep an eye out fer yourselves too."
"Oh, don't worry about us." Fluttershy twirled in her seat, unable to stay still as she chuckled into a hoof. "We have everything taken care of."
It was chaos. People already had plenty of reason to be riled, but the images of mankind's greatest weapons being reduced to nothing long before they could even threaten the aliens? It was too much, and riots were breaking out across the globe. This would not stand.
In America, nonlethal munitions and teargas filled cities as property damage rose around them. Other countries were not spared the assault as humanity, as a whole, bucked against the firm hoof pressing against its back.
The hoof held steady, despite the loud wailings of many. The smiling alien angel showed no sign of changing her mind.