//------------------------------//
// They shall Grow not Old 
// Story: The Great Extraterrestrial War, 1023-1027 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

The army was in dissaray. Soldiers were ditching equipment as they ran, weapons were falling onto the ground and other equipment was being dumped to try and speed up the retreat.

The machines were still following, large canisters flying through the air and slamming into the ground. The terrain was increasingly flooding with poison gas as the canisters began to work, and energy fire continued to streak across the terrain. The enemy were relentless in their advance, believing they had an easy victory in their grasp.

Goldie dropped down into a foxhole and glanced back, seeing a unit of troops launching a counterattack even as the hideous chemicals in the canisters rotted them from the inside. There was a thin line between bravery and stupidity, it seemed. "This plan of theres had better work," she said to herself, loading her energy cannon and preparing to make a final stand.

She got a shot off when suddenly a series of explosions echoed in the distance. It sounded like... artillery? The distant booming was relentless, which sounded almost like heavy shellfire from their own guns. But where the Tartarus had they been earlier in the battle? They could have done with that earlier in the battle.

And then a massive storm of shells slammed into the ground and exploded. The blasts were ripping the ground into fresh craters, Equestria's already tortured soil being pounded even further. Each explosion produced a strange white cloud, that floated in the air before the enemy.

Goldie retreated as the machines marched clean through it. "Whatever this idea of there's was, let's hope it worked!"

She dashed backward and found her way into a bunker, where she glanced back over her shoulder to see the bombardment still going. Batteries closer to the line were continuing to fire furiously, as if there would be no opportunity to fire tomorrow. The noise was, as ever, terrifying as it ripped up the terrain and continued to batter the landscape, scarred the fields that once were green.

Goldie saw wave after wave of alien machine pass over her, continuing to chase the army as it routed away. Some time passed, but then to her confusion she saw the offensive slow down. Several of the machines simply ground to a complete halt, and one of the Herons toppled over near her position, the cockpit slamming into the trench.

Goldie nervously got out into the cloud, and saw the cockpit fall open. A single unicorn fell out, foaming at the mouth and coughing up blood. He staggered about for a few moments, tried to speak- only for blood to continue flowing from his mouth as something tore his lungs to pieces. He staggered about a tiny bit more, but then collapsed onto the ground and died from whatever had happened.

Goldie was stunned. The chemical weapon had seemingly worked. But what was it? She stepped forward and used a bottle to collect a sample from the air. She blinked at what her readings told her. "Mayonnaise?"





Opaline looked at her display in shock as her offensive ground to a stop. "No! Why did those fools stop?"

"Turns out that having the enemy on our side allows us to counter your strategy," Sunny pointed out, over the radio. "Mayo versus unicorns usually ends badly. Face it Opaline. You've lost. Surrender now."

Opaline gritted her teeth, and snarled one word. "NEVER." She then pushed a button on her monitor.





Sunny looked in shock as the machine before her opened fire. Energy beams and lasers cascaded across the terrain as rockets and missiles screamed in from above the skies, intent on striking her own Heron. "OK, looks like we'll be doing this the hard way." She charged her own energy cannons whilst sending several Spiders forward to act as sacrificial lambs. "Armour column, can you draw the enemy's fire?"

"Understood, on our way." The Landships opened fire and began to attack Opaline's machine, hoping to draw some fire and break the shielding.

Sunny watched as the missiles began to slam into the Spiders, blowing some of them up. She levelled the energy cannons and fired, noticing the shots slam into the shield and seemingly be absorbed.

Spiders clashed in the field before her and tried to gain the advantage, but it was hopeless. As several Landships were damaged or destroyed by the intense fire they were taking from the enemy, Opaline began to close the gap. More energy, laser, and missile blasts roared between them as the large walking machines continued to churn up the soil and make navigation even more difficult than before.

Sunny then had an idea. "All units, focus fire on the shielding!" She grimaced as several volleys struck her own, spotting her shield rating drop by about 30%. "Damn, this is some heavy fire."

Opaline was oddly silent the entire time, though. Usually she'd be giving a running commentary on what she was doing in the cockpit.

The two machines continued to fight, with energy and missile fire continuing to light up the darkened skies turned black by industrial output and years of shelling. There was a familiar pop from the enemy, though, and a series of loud bangs suddenly rocked the landscape. A huge cloud of smoke quickly enveloped the landscape, consuming all that stood in its way.

"We're close!" Sunny called. "Shield blowout! The armour is vulnerable and can be damaged!"

As the smoke cleared, the enemy war machine still stood there, and readied more fire. Sunny fired off first, blowing off one of the guns and then following it up with another shot to break the leg mechanism. More fire poured in with the specific purpose to blowing this machine to pieces.

And finally, the last shot rang true, smashing into the cockpit and blowing open the screens. There was a loud scream as something cooked off, and the machine was torn apart by a series of massive explosions.

Sunny panted as the Heron powered down. She had done it. "It's over. It's finally over."





Victory over the aliens was celebrated across Equestria, as it meant that four years of war were finally at an end. But it had been a war that had been won at extremely heavy cost for all Equestrians. The pony cost was absolutely staggering. Eight million ponies were dead, and untold more were wounded or left with life changing injuries. Furthermore, much of Equestria had been ravaged by the shelling and the bombs, which had reduced much of Earth Pony and Unicorn land to an uninhabitable hellscape. The road to rebuilding would be a painful and slow one, not least the war had left them in economic ruin. Underneath all of this, however, lay the hope of a better world.





Fifty Years Later...





Queen Zephyrina coughed as she addressed the crowd. "Good morning, everypony. We are gathered here today, on the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Great Extraterrestial War, to pay tribute to those who fell in the line of duty protecting our freedoms. I would now like to invite Sunny Starscout to speak to us all. She proved instrumental in defeating the enemy all those years ago."

The Queen stepped down from the podium as a much older Sunny took the stand. The years had taken a severe toll on her. "My fellow Equestrians," she said. "Fifty years ago we were beset by a struggle for our very way of life. The enemy were expecting us to run and cower like we had before against so many threats. But we stayed and fought for our ideals. Our future. Our friendship. None of this would have been possible had we not worked together the way we did during those terrible days, and it is the duty of those of us still living to ensure they did not die in vain.

"From those darkest hours a new birth of freedom and friendship emerged. We built a better world from the horrors of war, one which has never seen a conflict again. But peace is something we must work to maintain. Our mission is to ensure that friendship and harmony never vanish from the planet." She paused. "That is all. Now, our own work stands before us."

Sunny left the podium and joined her friends, all of them older now. Hitch in a wheelchair, Izzy with a grey mane, Pipp having barely aged, but having said that Sunny hadn't aged very well. Queen Zephyrina led them in moving forward to the War Memorial, placing wreaths to the fallen of this war.

"I wish you were here, guys," Sunny said quietly. Their parents and many of the Greatest Generation were long gone now, so to see many of the veterans of the war assembled was a very moving sight.

The five moved back to a closely positioned microphone, and began to recite a poem many of them knew so very well.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We Will Remember Them."