-"Sea of Clouds"-
8:44 AM
Tempest Shadow stood at the bow of the large skiff she was on, Grubber at her side as they both watched the airship sail through the stormy skies to Mount Aris. The Storm King had recently welcomed her among the ranks of his servants, and her first mission was to infiltrate the Hippogriff Kingdom and steal a magic pearl. All they had to do for the moment was to navigate the storm and when they arrived Tempest and Grubber would sneak in and fulfill the King's orders.
Curious of how much longer it would take for them to arrive at Hippogriffia, Tempest turned to Grubber and spoke down to him. "Grubber, get me an estimate on the time we have until we arrive at Mount Aris."
"You got it, boss." The small hedgehog replied before walking over to a large hatch on the floor, opening it and making his way into the ship's interior. As he stepped inside, another being came out, a tall, light gray-haired creature with black armor, two blue bolts engraved on the chest piece.
As the Storm King walked up beside Tempest, he spoke to her. "Well, you seem to take a liking to this storm of mine."
Tempest chuckled lightly before replying. "Yes, it makes me feel... stronger."
The tall conqueror laughed aloud before steadying himself. "Yeah, that's about how I feel all the time." He then looked to the storm. "Then again, I'm almost always around storm clouds so... yeah."
The hatch to the interior opened up again as Grubber stepped back out onto the exterior. Walking over to Tempest, he spoke to her. "We'll be reaching the mountain in about an hour."
"Excellent..." Tempest said with a grin, but her contained excitement dissipated after hearing a low howl, one that she had never heard before in her life.
The Storm King and Grubber seemed to share the same confusion for a moment. Then the small hedgehog broke the brief silence. "Uhh... what was that?"
Tempest raised an eyebrow at the Storm King, expecting an answer.
"Yeah.... I don't recall these storms ever making a noise like that." The King's thoughts were cut off as they noticed one of the clouds to their starboard side.
"Everyone hold on!" Tempest alerted the crew, all of them bracing themselves as the storm cloud hit. As the ship entered the cloud, a faint orange glow emitted from the starboard side, drawing the attention of the whole skiff.
"I... don't recall that happening, either." The Storm King defended himself once more as the source of the orange glow became more visible. What Tempest and the others saw was nothing they had experienced in their lives. At the starboard side of the ship, a large, fiery cloud was pushing the storm back... and was heading right for the skiff.
The ship crew went into a panic, many of the storm warriors jumping overboard or trying to divert the airship away from the fire cloud as fast as possible. Looking to the Storm King, Tempest and Grubber awaited his swift reply.
"Well, since everyone else is doing it," Upon uttering those words, the Storm King ran to the port side, screaming one last phrase as he jumped overboard. "ABANDON SHIP!!!"
Tempest and Grubber ran for the port side as well, the cloud mere seconds away from impact as they both jumped, falling into the clouds as they heard an explosion above them. Debris shot past the two storm servants as they fell through the storm, seeing only clouds for several seconds before they saw the ground they were about to land on. Positioning herself to free-fall closer to Grubber, Tempest came closer to him before grabbing him in her hooves.
"Hold on!" Tempest yelled to her hedgehog friend through the wind as the two hit the water, both feeling stunned from the impact, but knowing that they would drown if they didn't act, the two of them swam to the surface. When she got her head above the water, Tempest gasped for breath as she saw Grubber trying to swim. Seeing as the little hedgehog wasn't going to be able to get himself to safety alone, Tempest swam to him before saying, "Get on my back!" Grubber did so and as soon as Grubber was on her, she looked for the nearest shore in the area. Finding a small hill at the edge of one of the tall mountains, Tempest swam as fast as she could to the shore, not bothering to check if the Storm King and the surviving storm guards were following her.
It took a long moment, but after a few minutes the two storm commanders rested themselves onto the sandy shore. As Tempest took a moment to breath, she heard several grunts behind her. Forcing her head up a little, she could see about seven of the surviving storm guards and the Storm King himself nearing the shore. Once they had reached the sandy refuge, they all took a breath, Tempest let her head rest while staring at the fiery cloud above them.
As he used his staff to stand up, the Storm King spoke up. "What in the world did we just run into?!"
"You tell me, your excellency." Tempest replied as she stood up, Grubber doing the same as they awaited the King's reply.
"Well, since our ship is gone..." He took a moment to examine where they were. After scanning the other mountains, he couldn't see any kind of civilization or facility they could use.
After taking a deep breath, the Storm King spoke up again. "Okay... we're stranded."
"So much for the miss-" Tempest started to say, but stopped as she and the others heard a noise, a low screech that resembled a windigo. Looking up, they saw a strange aircraft descend down to them. It was nothing Tempest had seen before. The ship consisted of a long, smooth section with a bulky fin underneath.
As the ship landed in front of them, the bottom section opened up, emitting a near blinding blue-greenish light from the inside. Not a second later did two bolts of energy shoot out from the ship, striking two of the storm guards. Tempest, alerted by her crewmates' injury, charged at the alien ship, hoping to strike at whatever was shooting at them. Another shot came out, this time striking the Storm King's hand, the Staff of Sacanas falling to the ground as he yelped.
Tempest let out a battle cry as she jumped up to the light, readying her horn and hooves for a pouncing attack. As she flew in the air, she struck down one of the attackers. As one of the other attackers prepared to shoot at her, she ignited her horn and struck down the second one, unaware of what her first target was about to do.
Without warning, the alien grabbed Tempest by the neck, slowly getting up as its prey tried to breathe.
As she started to lose control of her body, Tempest got a good look at the attacker. It was a tall, ugly alien, with seemingly fake eyes and several tentacles on its back.
"Re...lease... m...." Was the last thing that came out of her mouth before she saw black.
-Canterlot-
9:18 AM
The train slowed to a stop as it arrived at Canterlot. As the doors opened, loads of ponies were crowding the train's entrance, forcing Twilight and her friends to slip themselves through the crowd until nopony else was in their way. As they all gathered back together, they all raced through the city, passing by many panicking ponies for several minutes until they finally reached the royal palace.
Upon reaching its doors, Twilight and her friends were greeted by one of the guards outside the door. "Good to see you here, Princess. The Royal Sisters are expecting you all."
"Thank you." Twilight replied as she and the others stepped inside, the two sisters standing nearby as they trotted in.
"It's good to see you here, Twilight, the city has broken into a panic since that ship arrived." Celestia said as her former student smiled up at her.
"No wonder, Princess. Ponyville's been going through similar trouble." Twilight replied as they joined the princesses in their trot to the conference room. Looking up to Celestia, Twilight continued. "I brought some supplies and research with me to help us devise our next move, hopefully with what's happening, we can finally figure out what these ships are doing here."
"Indeed, and speaking of such matters," Luna said as she opened the doors to the conference room, allowing the others to enter before stepping in herself. Shutting the doors, she continued. "We've got something you may want to hear."
"Oh?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow as the Princess of the Night levitated a small radio to the table with her magic.
Luna's face became stern as she continued. "We've recently started hearing news reports about the matter, it seems that Canterlot is not the only one underneath these ships." Upon finishing, she turned on the radio with her magic, static playing for a short second before a mare's voice spoke from the small device.
"..And this just in, we've been getting reports from several cities and citizens about these large saucers in the sky. From what they told, they first appeared as some kind of fiery cloud. Some even mistook it for a dragon-filled storm. But shortly after a large, circular 'spaceship' came out of them and hovered towards the center of their city." As the mare finished, a stallion's voice spoke up.
"Yes, and according to royal scouting parties, we've spotted several of them over countless cities and populated areas, including Canterlot, Fillydelphia, the Crystal Empire, the Changeling Hive, and even over the distant Mount Aris!" Twilight let out a low gasp upon hearing the news, as did her friends.
"Coco Pommel's in Manehattan, last I heard." Rarity whispered to her friends, a fearful expression on her face. The stallion on the radio continued.
"At the moment, we haven't received word from the Royal Sisters on the matter, but when we do, we'll inform you all as soon as possible!" The mare on the radio then began to speak about another news topic, but Luna cut it short.
"Coming up, a tragic cra-" Were the last words to udder out of the device before it finally shut off.
As she levitated the radio back to it's original spot, Luna spoke again. "So what have you gathered, Twilight?"
Twilight trotted over to the table, Spike hopping off her back as she dismounted her saddlebags. "Well, just before dawn today, I decided to take another look at the moon and the shadow. At first, nothing new came of it, but after looking around other parts of the moon, I noticed more odd shapes on the opposite side." As Twilight continued, she pulled out a drawing she had made during her trip to the station. While crude, the details the alicorn had drawn were understandable enough to see. "Upon closer examination, I saw one of them was similar to those circular ships I first saw last night. However, the other ones looked like nothing I'd seen from the mothership."
Celestia and Luna both raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Do you think they're another group of aliens?" The Princess of the Sun asked her former student.
"That sounds likely, I mean, if they're from that mothership, why send them around our moon?" Twilight replied.
"Maybe they're trying to... I don't know, take the moon?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Pinkie laughed before answering Rainbow's idea. "Well, if that were the case, then why did they send down over 30 ships to our cities? They think each of us owns parts of it or something?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes at Pinkie's joke before a royal guard came in through the door to the left of the room, fear in his expression as he spoke. "Princess! Several small ships are heading towards Cloudsdale!"
The regal sisters and Twilight's group grew worried upon hearing the guard's words. Motioning for the others to follow, Celestia galloped out the left door, her sister and friends following behind.
Climbing up the stairs to the observation room, Celestia and the others trotted upwards for several moments before finally reaching the door. Upon opening it and stepping out, the group entered the large, windowed room to see the far away city of Cloudsdale, seemingly normal. However, as Twilight got a closer look at the view she had, she looked up to see a swarm of small ships flying directly towards the city.
Rainbow Dash's face was one of horror as she stared at the frightening sight, worried about what the swarm of aliens would do to the city...
-Cloudsdale-
9:33 AM
The siren was starting to become a slight nuisance as Soarin' put on his goggles, Spitfire inspecting her flyers as they prepared to defend their home from the invading swarm.
"Alright, now I'm going to make this short. The large ship above us has launched a swarm of what we're assuming are fighters at us. As Cloudsdale evacuates, we're going to hold them off as best we can, understood?"
"YES MA'AM!" Soarin' and the other 23 Wonderbolts said in unison, saluting their Captain before she turned towards the edge of the runway.
"Alright, let's show these aliens who's boss!" As Spitfire finished, she and the other Wonderbolts took flight, flying over the runway and into the sky. Upon seeing the alien swarm to their right, the squadron of pegasi turned towards them, getting ready to evade the initial attack. As they got closer to the swarm, Soarin' got a good look at the alien fighters, two mandibles stuck out in between the wings, as well as several cannons boasting off of them and in front of the cockpit.
As the Wonderbolts charged at the alien fighters, they fired a flurry of green bolts of energy. Fortunately, all of them missed as Soarin' and his wingponies split up and individually engaged the fighters one-on-one. Soarin's target made a u-turn for him as he started to spin. "Misty!" He called out to one of his friends, who heard him in time as he gave an order. "Thundercloud!"
The mare did so as she sped around, grabbed a cloud, and waited for Soarin's cue, hitting the cloud to ignite its lightning. As Soarin' let the fighter come close to him, he sped around the fighter, catching it in a small tornado before stopping and looking to Misty. "NOW!" As expected, Misty threw the cloud into the presumed path of the alien ship, which flew right towards it. As it was hit by the thunder, a bluish-green energy field flashed from the impact before fading away.
Soarin' and Misty gave a look of dismay as the former spoke up. "They've got some kind of shield on them! We've gotta try something else!" As the two flyers evaded incoming laser fire from other fighters, Soarin' heard a scream from above. Looking up, he saw his wingpony Fire Streak, a dark burn visible on his chest as he fell to the ground far below them.
"Fire Streak's down!" Misty Fly cried aloud as she and Soarin' flew towards another fighter, the first one catching up with them.
As the two dodged the lasers from their pursuer, Soarin' spoke to Misty. "Let's try and get them to crash into each other!" Misty nodded as they split up, the pursuing fighter chasing after Soarin' as Misty got the attention of the second one. The stallion continued to evade incoming fire from his pursuer as he looped around back to Misty, both of them stopping near each other as the two fighters came towards them.
As Soarin' nodded to Misty, the two sped towards their attackers, then flying around them to catch them in another vortex. As the ships began to spin, the two Wonderbolts got away from their tornadoes before they dissipated, the two fighters flying too fast to avoid collision and crashing into each other in a brilliant explosion.
The two didn't celebrate for long as another fighter came at them, both flyers breaking up as the fighter charged for Soarin'. The two combatants flew for a while, Soarin' dodging and barrel rolling around the lasers as he came closer to a nearby Cloudsdale building. Taking the chance he had, Soarin did another tornado spin around his pursuer, spinning for several seconds before letting the fighter fly uncontrollably towards the building, exploding in a bright, fiery orange.
"Ha! Eat that! Space freak!" Soarin' taunted his victim before hearing two more screams. Looking up, he saw who must have been Fleetfoot and Wave Chill, both with burns on their bodies as they fell through the sky to the ground. Soarin looked up to see Spitfire holding off two of the fighters, flying upwards as the two ships flew past each other. Soarin' sped up towards her, but couldn't get close enough to talk to her as more fighters sped towards the Wonderbolt. Despite being so far away, he could hear her speak.
"There's too many of them!" The Wonderbolt captain said as Soarin dodged more incoming fighters.
Hearing another scream, Soarin' took a brief moment to see another flyer, Surprise, falling to the surface before continuing on towards Spitfire. "We're losing flyers left and right!" Soarin' cried out as he flew.
"Everyone fall back, fall back!" Spitfire said as she dodged more laser bolts, but her efforts were stopped as one shot got her clean in the back. The young Wonderbolt captain didn't scream or yelp, she just began to fall towards the ground like her fellow teammates as Soarin' watched in horror.
"SPITFIRE!" The stallion screamed, but he had no time to watch his close friend and leader fall to the ground as another fighter flew towards him. Diving downwards, he sped down to catch Spitfire, barely grabbing her in his hooves before flying back up to the battle above.
The stallion soon came to a stop as another fighter was coming after him, the glow of the ship's guns glowing a faint green as Soarin' waited for death. But the shots didn't come. As the fighter came at him, it exploded in an orange blaze as another ship flew through the fire. Soarin's eyes went wide as he watched the fighter attack his pursuer. This new arrival looked different, it had a pointy fuselage with two large wings, two strange sections underneath them, and two fins folding inwards.
As the pegasus took in the sight of this new ship, he heard more laser fire from above. Looking up, he saw the alien fighters engaging several other ships that he could barely make out. But after a moment, he could see that they looked similar to the one that had saved him.
As he began to fly back up to the battle, his remaining teammates flew to him, all of them stopping together as they looked at their injured leader.
"Is she..." Blaze said fearfully, but let the held-back air out as they heard a faint moan from Spitfire.
"Thank Celestia, we need to get her to a hospital immediately!" The other Wonderbolts nodded as they began to fly towards the city, but stopped as one of the new fighters came down towards them, stopping as it hovered in front of them. As Soarin' hovered near the cockpit, he got a good look at the pilot of the ship. He had no fur, but instead hair on his head, and hands that were holding onto the controls. His skin was also a dark brown. On the pilot's mouth was a mask that permitted the pilot to breath during flight.
The pilot tapped a button on the controls before the front of the window opened, allowing him to hear the voice of the pilot. "Sorry if we didn't arrive sooner, those bastards must've been tough."
"Who are you guys?" Soarin' asked the furless flyer.
"Name's Dylan Hiller, Captain of Legacy Squadron." As he removed his breathing mask, he continued. "I'm from the Resistance."
Soarin' gave a hopefull smile at the introduction, sticking his hoof out to shake Dylan's hand, he did the same as his savior. "I'm Soarin', ace flyer among the Wonderbolts. I take it you're here to help us?"
Dylan nodded as he replied. "You can count on that. Unfortunately, we don't have much time." He looked up to the large vessel above him, which hovered ominously over Canterlot as he continued. "In a few hours, that ship is going to destroy the city, so we have to evacuate it as soon as possible."
The surviving Wonderbolts gasped in horror as they listened to the explanation. "It's just like we feared." High Winds said shakily.
"For now, my boys and I will hold off the threat up there, so I'd suggest you get your friend there to safety." Dylan said before putting his mask back on, preparing to close the window before Soarin' spoke up.
"Dylan," The pilot turned to him once more. "Be careful up there."
"Same to you." With that, he tapped a button that began shutting the cockpit window, the fighter starting to fly upwards as it rejoined the battle.
The pegasi hovered in the air for a moment before Soarin' spoke up. "Well, you heard him. To Canterlot!"
At that order, the surviving Wonderbolts sped towards Canterlot, hoping to alert the Princesses before it was too late.