Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy slyly hid behind a supply crate, with the symbol of Doctor Been, a rectangle containing a smaller, blue square with stars in it, while the ambiance of the bigger rectangle was striped with red and white. Pinkie realized the danger of leaving Twilight behind: the only weapon between the two ponies was Pinkies party cannon, and it wasn’t lethal; it would only incapacitate some people, but that’s with a small amount of luck. They were in a large building, which they both assumed to be their boat workshop, but the only boat there was partially sunken. The room was filled with armed guards, these ones not afraid to shoot on sight. Pinkie was still at a loss for a plan to get out, but the exit, a huge open door into the Ponyville River, seemed to taunt them with every failed idea of escape. They had no choice but to run out the clock, and wait until the entire Human army was on top of Ponyville, but the attack seemed to have been delayed with the recent developments.
Pinkie was right in the middle of thinking out a plan, when something caught her eye. How could she be so naive? The boat! She saw some troopers entering through a hatch on top. Pinkie looked inside the open crate in front of her, and saw another strange-looking gun. She picked it up, and fired at the large group of soldiers. The gun sent out an ion wave across the entire room, and the soldiers’ battle-suits began spouting electricity. Pinkie and Fluttershy galloped to the sunken ship, opened the hatch, and found that the inside was covered with metal and high-tech computers, including radar, something called an altitude gauge, and a periscope. Pinkie fired the ion gun again, and the humans inside the vessel spouted electricity, and fell onto the ground. Fluttershy assumed herself at the helm, being the only pony who knew how to pilot a ship, and Pinkie took charge of the segment labeled: submerging.
Soon, they began to move, and they could only assume that the preset destination was the Ponyville dry-docks. However, halfway through their voyage, a human stepped out of the back room, where he would have been Impervious to Pinkie’s ion gun. He pulled out his standard-issue plasma pistol, and pointed it squarely at the back of Fluttershy’s head. Pinkie caught sight of the shooter out of the corner of her eye, and yelled, “Fluttershy!”
The Yellow Pegasus turned around to Pinkie and said, “Yes, Pinkie?” the Human fired his gun, and there was an explosion of sparks right next to Fluttershy. Pinkie vaulted at the enemy, and tackled him to the ground, but the monster pulled out a small container with two spikes jutting out of it, and dug it into Pinkie Pie’s ribcage. Instantly, a current of over 10,000 volts ran through her body, and she fell over, locked up. Fluttershy managed to get the ion gun during all of this, and fired it on the man. He locked up like Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy was left to care for the wounded pony.
* * *
Applejack led the caravan down the beaten railroad tracks into Ponyville, and when she arrived she heard an odd clanging and exhaust sounds. She looked over to the town square, where she saw a huge machine being guarded by two ponies. The ponies were related, each a tall, pale stallion unicorn. Applejack recognized them immediately as the two swindlers who tried to take sweet apple acres from the apple family: the Flim Flam brothers. They guarded their invention, which appeared more advanced than the one Applejack saw originally, the Flim Flam Brothers Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 6000, and she assumed that it was one of their later models. The entire caravan rushed to meet these new ponies, whereas Flim and Flam regarded them as intruders, and said that they would, “Protect their Flim Flam Brothers Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 9000 from any wanderers.”
Applejack insisted that the caravan was not of wanderers, rather refugees that made it out of Ponyville and survived the Train crash. Flim and Flam still needed convincing, but before an argument ensued, a Zebra airship appeared overhead.
“Flim?” asked Flam.
“Flam?” asked Flim.
“I think it’s time to activate Stronghold mode. Don’t you?”
“You bet I do, brother of mine.”
Flam pressed a button, and the Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 9000 turned into a fortress surrounding the ponies in a magical barrier, while creating powerful cannons to shoot up at the zebras. A hostile attack party dropped to the ground, only to be shot down by the caravan. And so another battle ensued, with the Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 9000 firing massive shots into the purple airship above, while refugees shot down the zebra ground parties. Not one dared to leave the Barrier, for they knew it would mean utmost certain death. Instead they fired out of the shield, at the zebras. However, this luxury was not long lived. The Zebra airship was shot down, and as everypony, even the zebras, turned to see the shooter responsible, they witnessed the Griffon battleship, ‘Endeavor’ leading a huge group of smaller airships. Applejack could see Gilda standing on the helm of the ‘Endeavor’, and recognized it as the head ship. The zebra warship above them came crashing down, so hard that, after shattering against it, it destroyed the Magic barrier. “Flam? I think it’s time we convert to ‘offensive’ mode.”
“Agreed, brother.” Flam pressed a second button, and the machine became a moveable wall, with 15 small cannons jutting out. The brothers got behind the wall, along with the caravan, where they made their last stand. The massive line of cannons fired at the griffons over and over, grounding many airships, and causing quite a bit of damage to the ‘Endeavor’. Applejack thought the Caravan was doomed, until the submarine came down the river. The top hatch opened, and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie jumped out. Fluttershy was infuriated, and wanted to cause death to the Griffons. She pulled out a Grenade launcher, shotgun, and two revolvers from the sub, and Pinkie with a semi-automatic sniper rifle. Fluttershy fired grenade after grenade onto the ‘Endeavor’ while Pinkie shot down the Griffons who decided to come down onto the ground. This battle continued for a while, until the Zebra air force arrived, and caught the Griffon’s attention. The caravan and Flim and Flam decided to make an escape, and converted the Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 9000 into a huge unmanned cart, capable of transporting everypony. Applejack, Breaburn, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Flam were chosen to be the generals of their force, which they nicknamed, the ‘New Equestrian Alliance’, and Gave the Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 9000 a new name: the ‘New Equestrian Caravan’, or the NEC. The NEA moved out of Ponyville and onto the road to Canterlot.
Applejack began the discussion with Pinkie and Fluttershy, “So, where’s Twilight?”
Pinkie spoke up, “She was captured by these weird monsters called humans! What about Rainbow Dash and Rarity?”
Applejack hesitated, “We haven’t heard from Rainbow, and Rarity,” a small tear ran down Applejack’s face, “Rarity didn’t make it.”
Suddenly, Gilda entered the NEC, and was faced with the five Generals. Gilda broke Breaburn’s leg and Flams ribs without effort, and Pinkie and Applejack stood back, to let Fluttershy take care of Gilda. Gilda pulled out King Protor’s pistol, and Fluttershy pulled out two revolvers. Gilda fired the first shot, and Fluttershy stumbled back. That was the last straw. “You…” she said, “Do… NOT … Hurt … My … FRIENDS!” she screamed as she riddled Gilda’s body with revolver bullets. The other four ponies stared wide-eyed as Fluttershy brutally murdered the Griffon queen. Once she had run out her bullets, she bucked Gilda hard enough to throw her out the open door, and into the street in front of them. All anypony heard of Gilda ever again was the crunching of her bones as the New Equestrian Caravan flattened her into a pulp…