//------------------------------//
// Shouldn't have attacked humanity (part 3) 
// Story: Shouldn't have enslaved humanity [OLD VERSION] 
// by NoobMaster69 
//------------------------------//

"Attention all Apex drone pilots, on ground based targets. Your missiles will fare better on clumped up grounded targets than they would against aerial targets. Swarm drone pilots, focus on aerial targets, your bullets will do very well in bringing down the winged ones," General Holden ordered through the intercom, allowing every Utopian drone pilot to hear him, "And don't attack their leaders. There are already some pilots with designated incapacitator drones after them. Oh, and also, drone fleets one to ten intercept the group flanking at nine o clock, and fleets ten to twenty intercept the flanking group at three o clock. Good luck."





"Sister, what do we do?!" Luna asked worriedly.

"We have to retreat, we have no choice," said Celestia as the oncoming swarm came closer and closer.

"We can't just retreat! There are more of us than there are of them! We can defeat them and get the element bearers back!" Ember tried to convince them.

"I think the princesses are right," said Cadence. "We don't know what these things can d- " she was cut off as the sound of gunfire began to permeate the battlefield.

"We have to go, now!" Celestia said, with fear clearly in her voice.

"Don't worry, we can still - " Ember was cut off this time, as one of her escorts began to come under fire. Due to the dragon's thick skin, he was able to resist the gunfire for a while, but the fact that it was a minigun shooting at him killed him in about three seconds. "Firebreather!" Ember called after him as he began plummeting to the ground.

"We have to go now!" Luna said, grabbing Ember's hand with her hoof. In a quick flash of light, all three princesses along with one dragon teleported back to the ground, far away from the drones just as they came into direct contact with the rest of the army.

They teleported straight to the ground, right below where the aerial dogfight was occurring. The three of them then looked up, just as the drones began fighting with the rest of the pegasi.

"Attack!" One of the pegasi called out, with the rest of them letting out a war cry and charging for the drones. The last thing they would ever do.

The drones themselves continued flying towards them, undeterred by their 'ferocity'. And before the pegasi could even come close to the drones, the sound of gunfire rang throughout the battlefield once again. The screams of the pegasi as they were shot down were nothing short of horrible. They were falling like wheat before a sickle, and more and more of them were killed as the drones advanced.





Colonel Sweeper charged forward alongside his fellow pegasi, expecting a regular, physical fight against their enemies. Oh boy was he wrong. The soldiers at the very front of the army were the first to fall. They got within about three hundred meters of their target, the roaring sound of minigun fire began.

"What is that infernal sound they're making?!" Colonel Sweeper asked. Then the screaming began. Colonel Sweeper watched as one by one, his soldiers started plummeting to the ground. By that point, the bodies of the falling ponies were so deformed and mutilated by the intense bursts of minigun fire, that the falling bodies were barely recognisable. They had holes in them, missing libs, were covered in blood, and barely even looked like ponies anymore. To the soldiers who were closer to the action, they looked more like pony shaped chunks of flesh rather than actual ponies. To the princesses observing on the ground, it was like the sky was raining flesh, blood, and gore. Fortunately for the colonel, he hadn't witnessed the bloodbath firsthand yet, since he was commanding the army from slightly further back, behind the frontlines. "What's happening?! Why are they falling?!" He asked no one in particular.

"I think it's the flying things sir, they're doing something!" One of his subordinates, a lieutenant, flew beside him and told him.

"There's no spell that can just make pegasi fall. What in Celestia's name is going ok?!" He asked, both confused and afraid.

"I don't know what's happening sir! It looks like they're jus - " there was a loud whirring noise, and the lieutenant then fell to a barrage of bullets. The colonel watched in horror as the bullets hit him right in the face, killing him instantly. The bullets cut straight through him, and came out the other side of his body, causing him to instantly 'explode' into a mess of flesh, blood and guts. In less than a second, all that was left was an unrecognizable pulp, along with some red mist which lingered in the air for a few moments before dissipating.

The colonel let out a loud, fearful scream. The sight was so violent and gory, that it made him completely freeze up in fear. He wasn't even able to concentrate on flying; his sudden shock had caused even his wings to stiffen up, causing him to plummet. He was fortunately able to regain his senses after falling for a few seconds, his survival instincts kicking in. But he was still unable to focus on anything other than flying for a few more moments.

"Colonel! Colonel!" A group of eight soldiers came flying down towards him. "They're killing us! We can't fight back against them! We can't even touch th - " the whirring noise then came back. "Run! That means you too colon - " the soldier who was talking to him was then reduced to a mush of flesh and red mist, with blood once again spraying everywhere, causing the colonel to need to shut his eyes. Upon opening his eyes, he watched in horror as the drone flew after the remaining members of the group, slaughtering them all in another quick hail of bullets.

Colonel Sweeper gasped at the brutality of the attack. A single one of those flying objects just offed eight of his soldiers. He decided to fly upwards once more, going back to the battle, if only to order a retreat. That got him thinking about why they hadn't begun retreating yet. Anypony with half a brain could easily tell they were drastically outmatched. He looked around, only to find something that had terrified him even more. The majority of the drones were in a circle surrounding them, thinning the herd from the outside, and the circle was getting smaller as more and more pegasi were killed. Anypony who tried retreating were immediately pulverized by their invisible spells, while anypony who didn't try retreating were being chased down by the other half of the drones. There was no escape. Unless of course, he could get all his soldiers together and all of them could attack a single point and overwhelm the drones in that area.

He charged back into the fray of battle, trying to remain as unnoticed as possible, trying not to stand out by not making any quick and sudden movements. He wanted to look as uninteresting as possible, so he wouldn't be targeted before he could rally his troops. The pegasi that tried running, attacking, or just flew about frantically were the ones who were being chased down, while the ones who were just hovering in place or making slow movements were being targeted much less. So, he slowly flew back into battle, and as he was flying, he passed by several pegasi, mostly with drones chasing them.

"HEL- ARGGHHH!" One of his soldiers flew a few feet in front of him, trying to outrun a drone, but was disintegrated right in front of him, causing him to quickly recoil and begin heading the other direction before the drone could pick him as its next target.

While he was flying the other way, he saw something unexpected. A group of pegasi were latched onto one of the flying things, some trying to tear it apart, while others tried to cut at it with their weapons as they tried their next to hold it in place. Rather than ask them to run, he decided to hover and observe for a moment. 

It had two circles by its sides, with rotating blades on them which probably allowed it to fly. It had a large light on its 'head' that probably functioned as its eye. And lastly, its weapon was underneath it, and it couldn't get the ponies off because they were on its back. That gave the colonel two ideas on how he might possibly be able to defeat this thing. It was clear it probably couldn't see without its eye, and probably couldn't fly without the fans spinning. The colonel flew up to the group, ready to test his theory.





"Yes, good work soldier. Just make it look like you're tryna shake them off. Lure them in, it'll make things much easier for us," General Holden ordered.





"Colonel?" One of them asked, "What should we do? We can't hold it much longer!"

The colonel unsheathed his metal sword, followed by ramming it into one of the propellers. Unfortunately, that didn't do anything as the sword was bounced around a bit, before falling through to the other end, doing very little damage. So the colonel decided to try his second idea. He asked one of the soldiers for his sword, then used the sharp part to try destroying the creature's 'eye'. He let out a war cry as he hit it again and again, but even after over a dozen attempts at cutting the eye out, all that he managed to do was scratch the glass and crack it slightly. 

"Die! Die! Die!" The colonel shouted with hatred as he slashed and stabbed at the glass with the ferocity of a lion. What he didn't notice was that while he was trying to damage the drone, several others began surrounding him and observing as he failed spectacularly.

"Umm… sir?" One of the soldiers tried getting his attention, still trying his hardest to hold the drone in place despite the fact that they were surrounded.

"What?! Can't you see I'm trying to kill the beast?!" He said as he never ceased his relentless assault.

"Sir, we're surrounded!" One of the soldiers shouted at him, getting his attention.

"Wha - " as he looked up, he saw that he was in fact surrounded by hundreds of the flying machines. He looked around to see why the machines were surrounding them and not attacking anypony else. He once again froze up as he realised the reason nopony else was being attacked. They were the only ones left. He closed his eyes as the whirring noise began once again.





"Sir, we've gotten everypony to halt their advance. But the pegasi need our support! They're dropping like flies!" One of the lieutenants went up to the colonel leading the assault; a middle earth pony stallion named Shimmering Shield.

"We need a way to bypass this accursed fence first! Have some of the unicorns teleport through to assist the pegasi immediately, and have some of them stay and help levitate the earth ponies past the fence. Relay the message to the other lieutenants as well," Colonel Shield ordered.

"Sir, yes sir!" The lieutenant answered, before heading off to relay the colonel's orders.

Colonel Shield looked up. He tried to make out what was happening, but couldn't since the battle was happening so far away. What he could make out however, was that the pegasi were dropping from the skies left, right and center. The other… objects seemed to be winning the fight, evident by the fact that there were several retreating pegasi. Their chance to run would soon be over however, as the colonel observed the objects gradually begin to surround them. Hopefully the pegasi's highest ranking CO would be competent enough to realise that the enemy was trying to box them in.

That's when he spotted them. A group of bigger flying objects, numbering well over a hundred, headed straight towards them. He knew they were headed towards them specifically because they completely ignored the raging battle, choosing to fly above it.

"Sir!" The same lieutenant came back, "There are several targets headed straight for us at high speed! What should we do?!"

"Have the troops get their bows ready and take aim. Prepare to fire on my command," another voice spoke up. The colonel looked around to see who would dare try to order his troops while he was standing right there. To his surprise, it was Shining Armour along with the minotaur king and his escort, who had been standing behind him.

"P- Prince Shining Armour?" The colonel asked.

"Yes, and because of the dire situation, I am now assuming command as the most experienced highest ranking military officer. Now, go relay my orders to the rest of the troops," Shining Ordered.

The colonel knew that Shining Armour technically no longer had any authority over the Equestrian military, but he wasn't about to question royalty, especially if that royalty was indeed more experienced than him in the field of battle. So he decided to listen to Shining Armour rather than piss him off and create a problem. He was going to order them to do the exact same thing anyway.

"Well you heard the prince. Order the troops to - " he was cut off as a sudden, loud explosion rang throughout the battlefield. 

Shining Armour turned towards the source of the loud boom, only to see smoke rising in the distance somewhere around the frontlines. "What in Equestria was that?! Did someone accidentally light up some of the gunp - " he was cut off as another boom echoed, rocking the very ground beneath his feet. This time, he saw the flames of the explosion as it completely annihilated a group of over a hundred ponies. Explosions then began ringing throughout the battlefield. The sources of said explosions were immediately obvious: the flying objects that were shooting fast moving projectiles at them.

"Everypony get into position! We're under attack! Prepare to return fire on my command!" The colonel ordered, but the ponies could not hear nor respond to the order. The entire pony army was now in chaos, with several thousand ponies having already been wiped out. 

"What are those things?!" King Steel Horn asked, "The First Humans don't have the power to cause this much destruction!" The entire frontline was now reduced to nothing. Corpses littered the ground, most of their bodies were charred and burnt, completely unrecognisable. Those were the lucky ones; the unlucky ones no longer had any bodies at all, being completely disintegrated from the heat of the blast. Several wounded ponies were being pulled to the backlines, most of them having charred skin from the heat of the blast or broken bones from the impact of the shockwaves.

"They're still coming!" The lieutenant reminded as he remembered what the source of all this destruction was.

"Get into defensive formations! Prepare to strike back at the - " King Steel Horn tried to command the ponies despite him having no authority over them, but was cut off as a second wave of explosions began, this time much closer to the group.

No more than thirty yards ahead of them, a missile landed. The moment it did, a large explosion, louder than the ones before, boomed out. The ground exploded in a hail of smoke and flame, with the explosion destroying everything within its twenty meter radius. The resulting shockwave was strong enough to throw Shining Armour, the colonel and the lieutenant back a few feet, while the minotaurs simply fell over, dazed. Steel Horn looked back towards where the explosion had occurred, to find several trees uprooted and several more burning. The ground was completely scorched, and the grass surrounding the area of the blast had caught on fire. That wasn't the end of it however, as there were several more explosions as the drones continued to bombard the next line of soldiers .

Steel Horn watched as everything in his direct line of sight was decimated by hundreds of explosions, leaving behind only the scorching, heated ground. He shifted his attention back towards the drones. They were almost upon them now, and with the roar of a dragon, they soared overhead, passing by the army. Steel Horn followed them with his vision, and they looked to be going further and further away, causing a sudden feeling of relief to wash over him.

That feeling of relief quickly changed to a feeling of sadness and pity as he once again focused back on the army. He watched, horrified, as a wounded mare was carried past her on a stallion's back. She was missing a right back leg which looked like it had been blown off, with the stump having been slightly cauterised, which was the only reason she hadn't passed out from blood loss. The fact that she hadn't passed out made it all the more painful however, as she cried and screamed in pain as she was carried away.

He shifted his sight away from the mare, being unable to stand looking at her anymore. He turned around to find something much worse. A stallion who was almost completely covered in third degree burns was being levitated by a unicorn, also crying in pain as he was moved away. Most of his fur had been burnt off, leaving charred, blacked skin, even some parts of his bones were visible. There was no way he would survive long.

Screams and cries of agony permeated the battlefield. Everywhere he looked, dead or injured soldiers were being carried further into the back lines for their medics to treat them. Steel Horn actually coughed a little from the smoke. The whole battlefield was covered in it, tinting everything gray, which only made everything look even more gloomy and depressing. As the smoke cleared away from the recently bombarded areas, Steel Horn gagged at the sight. Thousands of charred corpses littered the battlefield, as far as the eye could see, with the occasional twitch coming from those who were still barely clinging into life.

"How could this happen…" he whispered. Even though they weren't his people, he was still horrified at the atrocity. He looked up to try and figure out why the pegasi weren't coming for backup, and as he did, he saw that the drones were now just mopping up the battlefield, killing the last few pegasi that were still in the air.

"What did we do to deserve this…" the colonel next to him asked no one in particular.

That's when Shining Armour finally spoke up. He was the only one of the group who had noticed. "They're… coming… back…" he said, his voice both defeated and quivering with fear.

"What?" The colonel asked, then looked to where Shining Armour was looking. King Steel Horn and the lieutenant followed suit. Their eyes widened as they saw exactly what was coming back… the drones.

"Run! Everypony run!" The colonel ordered.

"No!" Shining Armour immediately overruled the previous order. "Everypony gather round! I'll use a barrier spell to protect us!" Shining Armour then immediately cast a shield spell, engulfing as much of the battlefield and as many ponies as he could. The other soldiers immediately flocked towards him, wanting to come under the protection of the powerful barrier. 

The drones began releasing their payloads for another set of bombardment. The ponies watched the missiles as they headed towards them. The ponies nearest to the drones, the ones in the back lines, were the first to fall as the missiles once again blew them to pieces.

"No!" Shining Armour yelled, heartbroken by even more deaths. But he couldn't let his sorrow get the better of him, he needed to concentrate on the barrier. And so he did, using so much raw magical power that he began to feel his body burn from the strain it caused him.

The drones were now upon them, ready to rain down another set of hellfire. Fortunately, everypony was now safely within the barrier… at least, that's what they thought. Despite there clearly being a powerful magical barrier powerful the ponies from the drones, the drones showed no sign of hesitation as they flew towards the ponies, followed by releasing their payloads. They all watched as hundreds of missiles headed towards them, with Shining Armour hoping to God, or rather Celestia, that his barrier would be powerful enough to protect them.

Unfortunately for them, the barrier did nothing to thwart their impending doom. They all watched in shock and fear as the missiles passed through the barrier, completely ignoring it as if it wasn't even there. At that point, they all knew they had completely no chance of survival. They were all crowded together, and nopony would survive the barrage.

King Steel Horn and the rest of the group closed their eyes, awaiting their impending doom as the once mighty army was completely destroyed. The screams and cries of the ponies would have been enough to give Nightmare Moon nightmares. Ponies were being thrown about by the shockwaves of the blasts, blown to bits, and burned alive. There were even a few ponies emerging from the smoke, running while still on fire. But Steel Horn and his escort, Shining Armour, along with several hundred more soldiers were still left standing, completely untouched by the blast. 

It clearly wasn't luck, the fact that the national leaders survived the blast was too much of a coincidence for it to have just been chance. They looked around as the smoke cleared, with one of the few remaining soldiers even vomiting at the sight.

"Oh my Celestia…" Shining could hardly believe his eyes, "How could they do this…"

"Sir…" the lieutenant said shakily, getting Shining's attention, along with the rest of the group's.

"I know this is hard to look at, but as members of the royal guard, we have to stay str - " the lieutenant cut him off.

"No, sir… look b- behind you," he said, and the whole group turned around. Thousands of Swarm drones were headed towards them, along with several incapacitator drones which were indistinguishable from the rest.

"We should run," the colonel suggested.

"No, we can't outrun them. Unless we have any other way to escape, well... " King Steel Horn trailed off, "I don't think I need to finish that sentence."

"Well, if this is the end, I'm gonna go down fighting," said Shining, charging his horn and picking up a few pieces of broken, charred wood that had been thrown their way.

"Minotaurs, prepare for battle!" Steel Horn commanded his escort, and they all took aim with their bows.

The colonel looked to his army. "Soldiers!" He called out to them, "Let's show these things what the Equestrian Royal Guard is made of! If this is going to be our last stand, let's not make it easy for them!" He tried to motivate his troops, but did not receive a war cry like he was expecting. Most of them had already given up.

The group let out a war cry, but before they could begin running towards their deaths, something unexpected happened. Two bright lights, one white and one blue, suddenly flashed right in the middle of the group. This was followed by a second flash in quick succession. The flashes blinded the nearby soldiers, but when they looked back at the source of the flashes, they found that both Steel Horn and Shining Armour were no longer there.