"Shouldn't we be able to see Tartarus in the distance by now?" One of the soldiers asked.
"I would've thought so too. Where on Equs is it?" Asked another.
"Hey, quit your yapping!" Lieutenant Sharp ordered, "The enemy could be anywhere, so stay vigilant! We don't wanna miss them… or worse yet, get caught in an ambush. So keep a lookout!"
Lieutenant Sharp, a pegasus, was currently leading a squad that was mostly made up of pegasi. Most of them were flying independently, but a group of them were currently pulling a flying carriage through the air. The carriage itself carried a group of unicorns, all of which were using their magic to scan the surrounding area to see if anything felt off, or if they could detect the human presence. Normally, carriages would be detrimental for a scouting mission, however, they could scan a much larger area with the help of the unicorns' magic, and with any luck, would be able to locate the humans without even having to go near them.
"Uhh sir, we really should be seeing Tartarus by now. I don't think we're going the right way," one of the soldiers observed.
"Relax, there's no way we could mess up going in a straight line. I thought we would've seen Tartarus by now as well, but apparently not. But not to worry, there's no way a mountain could just disappear, the journey's just even farther than we expected," Lieutenant Sharp tried reassuring his men.
"What was the estimated time it would've taken us to get there again?" One soldier asked.
"Four hours if we remained at a constant speed," the lieutenant replied, "Once we pass Tartarus, we'll take a one hour break, and then head back. It's a nine hour trip."
"And we've already been at this for over an hour. I think we've veered off course, there's no way we wouldn't have seen the mountain by now," another stated.
The lieutenant already knew that was the case, however, he wasn't willing to accept it. If they really did veer that far off course, that would mean that they were lost and the higher ups would think something went wrong and assume that they were found by the humans. They would send an army in that direction, thinking that's where they went missing, only to find nothing there. When they did finally find their way back, he would no doubt look like an idiot, being unable to follow the simple instruction of flying in a straight line. No doubt he would be demoted for being such an idiot, maybe even fired. But he didn't want to believe that they had indeed veered off course, because he both didn't want to be fired, and because he didn't want to believe that he was in fact that stupid.
"If we don't see the mountain in the next… let's say thirty minutes, we'll turn back. I highly doubt that we could have failed at flying in a straight line," Lieutenant Sharp relented.
"I don't think we would've failed at that as well sir, but all evidence suggest - " the soldier cut herself off as she began to hear a strange sound.
"Private? You alright?" The lieutenant asked.
"Wait. Don't say a word. Do you hear that?" She asked.
"Hear wha - " the lieutenant cut himself off as he noticed the sound as well. What was most concerning was that the sound was coming from in front of them, and it was getting closer, and fast. The sound itself was, to a pony, an eerie noise. The lieutenant had never heard anything like it, nor could he attribute the sound to anything he knew of. The sound itself was that of a soft roar and a screech, and it was getting louder. He, of course, didn't know that it was the sound of a jet engine, or rather, a drone engine. The engine of the most advanced high altitude drone ever made, the drone itself was shaped like a jet and functioned like a jet, and had the same capabilities as a jet, only it didn't require a pilot.
Soon enough, they saw two small, white specks approaching them, the source of the strange noise. The flying objects were approaching fast, and the roaring noise it emitted was getting louder and louder. The lieutenant had no idea what those things were, and he was actually quite curious to find out.
"Uhh… sir?" One of the soldiers got his attention, "You're seeing this too, right?"
"Yes, I am. I have idea what they are, but we're about to find out," Lieutenant Sharp replied.
"It might be a bird, but considering their size, they might be dragons," one soldier suggested.
"Or they may just be other pegasi… or griffons," another offered up.
"I highly doubt birds, dragons or griffons could fly at such speeds. They're probably wonderbolts," stated another.
As the UFO's got closer, however, they were able to see it in much more detail, and it became apparent that these were no normal creatures. The objects were completely white, and their bodies were definitely not made of skin or fur or any other organic materia. They were shaped like fat arrows, and had two large fin-like wings that protruded from the middle of its body, while two smaller finds protruded from its 'tail'. On the 'head' of the object, laid a sort of flap, producing a dark shadow underneath, creating the illusion of some form of eyes. The look of the approaching objects caused all of them, including the lieutenant, to gradually slow to a full stop.
"What are those things?!" One of the soldiers worriedly asked.
"Those things definitely don't look friendly, and they're headed straight for us!" Another fearfully stated.
"What do we do?! We can't just float here, what if those things attack us?!" A soldier asked, afraid.
"Everypony relax! Did all of you forget that we have some unicorns with us as well?" Lieutenant Sharp asked rhetorically. "And besides, we don't even know what they are, they might not even be aggressive," he began to take on a more confident tone, "But if they are, we have a dozen well trained unicorns that'll turn them into paste."
"Yeah, you can count on us," one of the unicorns replied.
Everypony hovered still and grew nervous as the objects came closer. "Unicorns, only attack them if they attack us!" The lieutenant shouted back over the roaring of the objects. The objects began to slow down drastically as they neared the squad, with one of them moving towards the left of the group, and the other taking the right.
They were initially supposed to fly beside the ponies and escort them as they flew. The fact that the ponies had stopped, however, worked against the drone pilots since the drones didn't have the capability to hover in place and needed to keep moving. The pilots adapted by circling around the group of ponies, making sure to keep their distance to avoid provoking them unnecessarily. To the ponies however, they saw the drones beginning to circle around them as a rather intimidating display, as if they were eagles waiting to strike, which only served to increase their fear and anxiety about the precarious position in which they were now in.
"Steady…" the lieutenant said, "We don't know what they want. With any luck they're just observing and are just gonna pass us by." They had no such luck however, and were surprised when one of the circling objects began to speak.
"Attention ponies, this is President Felix himself and… uhh…" then the voice spoke to more voices, which all seemed to be different sounding voices coming from the same voice of the same object. "Umm… what should I say? General Holden?" The voice asked.
Then, a different voice replied. "You were the one who always said you wanted to do the 'restricted airspace thing which they always do in the movies', so I assumed you would have known what to say," the voice annoyedly replied.
"But those were just… y'know… movies. And there were many variations when it came to how they did the restricted airspace thing, and they were always escorting another plane, not circling around a bunch of flying horses," Felix replied.
"Just… wing it. It's not that hard," Holden replied, now even more annoyed. "That's what I did whenever some idiotic commercial airline fight came into military airspace," he said.
"Oh, just… just wing it? Alright, I can do that. Well, here goes," the voice said confidently. The voice then went silent for a moment. "Hey, general? Don't get mad okay, but I might have accidentally left the mic on throughout the duration of the conversion," Felix said nervously.
"Oh, for God's sake, move over. You're embarrassing yourself," the General said with irritation in his voice. The general's voice was the next one that spoke, and it was clear he wasn't having a good time. "Attention ponies, I am General Holden of the USU air force. You are currently approaching Utopian airspace. I repeat, you are approaching restricted airspace. Divert your course now or you will be fired upon," the voice said sternly.
"What are you?" The lieutenant asked.
"What?" The voice asked.
"What are you?" Lieutenant Sharp repeated.
"A middle aged man?" The general offered, not knowing how to reply to that question.
"Sir, we should turn back," one of the unicorns said nervously.
"Yeah, we don't know what these things are capable of," another soldier stated.
"Turn back?!" One of the soldiers asked in anger. "We can't turn back just because a bunch of metal creatures are threatening us with being 'fired upon'. We have a duty to Equestria, to scout out the area and locate the human base if it's in this area, and we are going to fulfill it! Equestria is counting on us, we can't give up now!" He said. The ponies were not properly briefed on the capabilities of the humans, since all of this was supposed to be top secret, and if the capabilities of the First Humans leaked, it would cause mass panic. As such, they still weren't able to make the connection; the drone was being controlled by a human.
The lieutenant saw both sides of the argument. These really were just some random metal birds that could speak. They were unusual, yes, probably a new undiscovered race. But they were threatening the Equestrian Royal Guard, completely unprovoked. If these creatures made it to Equestria, they could cause all sorts of chaos. In the end, the lieutenant determined that what was going on was probably one of two things: either these creatures were extremely territorial and aggressive, which made them a danger to anypony who would come across them, or, these things were protecting the human rebels. In both cases, the creatures would still need to be put down. The lieutenant had made his decision. A smart decision, considering he didn't know who he was messing with.
"I don't know what you creatures are, but I'm going to give you only one chance. Leave us be, let us pass and there won't be any issue. Continue to obstruct us and you will feel THE FULL MIGHT OF THE EQUESTRIAN ROYAL GUARD!" The lieutenant said confidently.
One of the creatures just repeated itself. "You are approaching a restricted airspace. Divert your course now or you will be fired upon," it said, before both creatures flew back in the direction they came from.
"Did… did we win? Did we scare them off?" A soldier asked.
"It looks like we did," the lieutenant answered. "Onward! Continue with our current course!" He ordered, and they responded by resuming their fight ahead.
They were able to fly undisturbed for around another thirty minutes, before one of the soldiers looked back by chance. The strange objects had returned, but this time, there was no roaring noise. This time, the aircrafts were travelling at supersonic speeds for the purpose of stealth; the aircraft would reach them before the sound would. The drone pilots noticed that they had been spotted, however, and reduced their speed to below supersonic levels. A few seconds after they did this, a sudden deafening boom emitted from their location; the sound of the sonic booms had caught up with them. At supersonic speeds, there is no sound heard as an object approaches an observer because the object is traveling faster than the sound it produces. Only after the object has passed will the observer be able to hear the sound waves emitted from the object.
The booms were heard before the soldier who noticed them could alert the others, and the deafening sound startled them all. Before they could react, however, the two aircraft were already flying beside them, escorting them. This time, both of the UFO’s started ‘speaking’ with the same voice, at the same time. “Attention ponies you are currently within Utopian airspace. Turn back immediately or you will be fired upon. You have thirty seconds to comply,” Both said at the same time, still flying beside the ponies.
“Lieutenant, what do we do?!” One soldier asked, with terror in his voice. The flying things were much closer to them now, and their size, looks, and the fact that they apparently constantly shot fire from behind them made them both look much more terrifying.
The lieutenant thought for a moment. He didn’t have much time to think. He didn’t know those were drones, and he definitely didn’t know what ‘Utopian airspace’ was. Due to his lack of information, he made the worst decision he would ever make in his life.
“Unicorns, target those flying objects! Attack!” He shouted, fully confident that the unicorns of the Royal Guard could dispatch some flying pieces of metal.
And they did, the unicorns began bombarding both creatures with energy blasts. They fired shot after shot after shot, peppering them with dozens of powerful energy blasts in the span of thirty seconds. The blasts did completely nothing though, there was not even a scratch on the objects. But the unicorns did not stop their bombardment, even upon realising the futility of their actions.
The objects then did something completely unexpected. They took off, zooming ahead of them at speeds that they could not match.
“W- what happened?” One of the soldiers asked, still confused as to why the flying objects just left.
“I think we scared them off,” Another suggested.
“Yeah, they seem to be retreating,” One of the unicorns suggested as she saw the UFO’s fading away into the distance.
“Of course we scared them off,” Lieutenant Sharp said confidently, “Did you really think two pieces of talking scrap metal could even hope to stand a chance against the Equestrian Royal Guard?”
As if they were waiting for that overconfident, cocky statement from the lieutenant, the objects suddenly turned around, and were now coming towards them from the front. One of the objects then started spewing out smaller objects, small yield homing missiles, each of which dropped out of an unseen compartment near the nose of the object.
Fortunately for the ponies, the small yield missiles were much slower than regular missiles. Unfortunately for them, however, these missiles would home in on them and follow them to the ends of the earth. The lieutenant didn’t know what those strange projectiles were, but he was determined to ensure their survival.
“Unicorns! Target those projectiles!” The lieutenant shouted, and the unicorns began aiming at the missiles. They got a few lucky hits in, but magic did nothing and the missiles just flew on towards their targets, completely unphased.
“Pegasi, get your weapons and form up into defensive position - “ he was cut off as the first of the pegasi blew up in a fiery explosion, charred guts flying everywhere. Most of the remaining pegasi began rushing towards the chariot, where their weapons were being held. Most of them weren’t even able to get to their weapons before blowing up, however, and most of the ones that did blew up soon after.
Lieutenant Sharp looked around, seeing all of his men being blown to bits around him by the terrifying power of those metal dragons. Some of them tried retreating, attempting to fly away from the ensuing battle. The surrenderees were shown no mercy as well, however, as the projectiles just trailed after them, almost like they had a mind of their own, and blew them up as well. Not a single one of them was able to outrun the missiles.
The two drones had finished launching their first wave of missiles. The result of the first wave was that less than half of the pegasi infantry was left alive. With the first run now over, the two drones then separated, with one drone baking left, and the other banking right. They then began to circle round in preparation for their next bombing run. Fortunately for the ponies, they were making an extremely wide turn to reposition themselves, which would've given them about half a minute of rest before they fully circled round.
The lieutenant saw an opportunity to make their retreat while the aircrafts were making their rounds. "Go back! Retreat! Retreat now!" The lieutenant ordered, though he didn't need to since they had already begun retreating before he even gave the order.
The humans couldn't allow that, however. If there was to be any hope of negotiation with their leader, it would be best that their leader didn't hear of this. The next reason is that it would've given away their capabilities. A miniscule display compared to what they were truly capable of, but the humans definitely didn't need them getting the idea of developing some sort of magical defense against explosive type weapons. To them, it wasn't evil to kill the retreating enemies, it wasn't mercilessness, it wasn't even hatred for the beings that enslaved them. It was just being thorough.
The ponies had managed to get a good distance away from the drones, but they had finished circling back. And the pegasi definitely weren't able to outrun them. Once they were in range, one of the drones began releasing more of the small missiles. On the other drone, a kind of trapdoor began opening underneath it, and as it opened, another large, blunt tipped object emerged; it was a much larger missile, and its target was the carriage that the unicorns were riding in. They had to get rid of all of the pegasi first though, so they wouldn't accidentally 'body block' the larger missile.
The smaller missiles homed in on the pegasi, and one by one, they began exploding into bits. The lieutenant took one last look at his scouting party. Seeing all of his 'good' soldiers dropping like flies, he knew all hope was lost. So he turned around and hovered, already waiting for his oncoming doom. He saw that one of the missiles was heading towards him. It was almost like it was in slow motion, the last few moments of his life.
Then, it hit him. The voices, the fact that they used weapons that he had never seen, the fact that they were talking about 'restricted airspace'... these things were golems. Or, that's what he thought they were. And they were being controlled by - SPLAT! His thoughts were interrupted by him dying.
The last of the pegasi to die were the ones who were still pulling the chariot, who exploded just like the rest. The only ponies remaining were the unicorns, who were in the carriage. Luckily for them, the carriage was still floating despite there being no pegasi pulling it. Unluckily for them, the drone pilot had already begun on getting the missile locked onto them.
"What should we do?!" One of the panicked unicorns asked.
"It can't end this way!" Another said.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!" One of them started sobbing uncontrollably.
Then, the missile launched.
Before everypony could even finish voicing their panic, it was headed towards them, about to turn them into a pile of guts, charred wood, and ash. By this point, all of them had already been resigned to their fate.
All except one, a unicorn who had just remembered she recently learnt a teleportation spell. And so, less than a second before the missile made contact, she did a short distance teleport to the forest down below, and was able to remain undetected by the drones because of all the trees.
She looked up just as the missile impacted against the back of the chariot. The explosion itself was bigger than a house. She had never before witnessed something capable of creating an explosion of this magnitude. Of course, expert mages who were at the top of their field could do such a thing, but she had never seen such destruction firsthand.
The carriage itself was blown to bits, with pieces of wood being blasted all over, and raining down on the ground. The other unicorns, most of which were her very good friends, were blasted apart as well, with charred limbs, guts, and organs raining down beside the wood and ash. Her friends were all dead, exploded before her very eyes.
She wanted to mourn. She wanted to sit there and cry. But she couldn't, not yet at least. No doubt whatever those things were would scout out the nearby area to check if they had finished the job. She wasn't safe where she was. So, she began to walk back the way that she came. She would have to tell her superiors what she had just witnessed. With any luck, they could return here to collect the bodies. A proper burial was the least they could do for these good soldiers.