Pony POV Series
Shining Armor Arc
Chapter 15 Part 2
ouY slliK tahT llaF ehT toN-Not The Fall That Kills You
By LZ and Kendell2
Edited by Alex Warlorn and Louis.
We could hear the rumble of engines a mile off. We had positioned guns and snipers along the north approach. My shield still covered the village, but Natasha and Chitzkoi had bolted through our lines a few moments before. Our Pegasi had hurled bolts down at the enemy, but the return fire prevented them getting too close, so I withdrew them, buying us a minute at most.
"I killed at least twelve of them, forced the vehicles to button up and the troops to go slow. The good news is I also hit a fair few periscopes on the vehicles, and I think I got a few of their night-vision scopes too," She reported.
A few of my troopers were unnerved. I didn't blame them. A few of them were probably Black Thistle, but I couldn't expect the untrained ones to not bat an eye at hearing someone casually discuss sniper kills. I was honestly a bit unnerved myself, but Natasha was either a former Hooviet who'd realized her government had lied to her for her entire life or a rebel who'd spent her entire life fighting. Really, I was more sorry for her than afraid of her.
"Good work, Natasha. Stay on the north with Oleg's snipers, we need them to think we don't want them coming that way..." Dima noted.
"Woof!"
"...And please stop letting Chitzkoi answer your radio," he sighed as I almost jumped out of my skin.
"We've got most of the obvious guns perched there too... Ready to be pulled back to the central redoubt... If they get close we'll need to. They'll get through my shield easier and we need to abandon that area or lose it all," I recovered.
"Ah hope the plan works, Sir," Ellis noted.
The Deer had also brought a few cavalry anti-armor rocket launchers (which Zangief seemed quite fond of). Someone had to explain to Cadence that for us, RPG didn't stand for role-playing game, while Natasha indicated that the tanks were Rhinos, Draco-Hooviet war-era monstrosities toting two cannons each, updated with more modern engines and possibly improved weapons. Some dragons came to respect how tough they were back then, so they would be a tall order even for the anti-armor rockets to overcome. We were thankful at least they weren't Mammoth Tanks.
Some dragons had learned to fear the tanks' predecessors; the Behemoth-Class Land Cruisers. They'd been one thousand metric ton mobile fortresses armed with four massive eight-inch cannons as their main weapon, plus whole batteries of smaller guns. True, all the examples were lost in the war or scrapped soon after it... but when they debuted, they were a terror. They'd dismissed ground troops as a serious threat by that point, and the Land Cruiser had been brand-new, originally intended just to fight enemy airships and forts, but quickly re-armed (very quickly - the whole fleet of twelve had been re-armed by the third day of the war) to fight dragons better. Until the younger dragons had learned out where to aim to take them out, Bahamut had had to step in to destroy the first three (like Tiamat, he'd spent much of the war out of the fighting, but was more active than his bride).
The main problem with the Behemoths had been they were exellent against dragons...but not so good against anything else. They were heavily armed and armored, but painfully slow, which is why ironically younger dragons had been the ones to take out most of them instead of the slower but stronger older dragons. Since their guns were designed to hit slower moving, gigantic dragons, they weren't even able to hit their own helicopters reliably let alone agile pegasi or griffins...However, after the war, the Hooviets had gone back to the drawing board and created the Mammoths.
Where the Behemoths had been quickly re-fitted specifically to fight Dragons, the Mammoths were specifically designed to fight everything, including dragons, with a lot more time put into designing them. And boy, had the Hooviets made sure the world knew it, proudly noting they had a Mammoth for every eight Rhinos - In other words, twelve hundred Mammoths instead of just twelve Behemoths. I think the world knows more about the Mammoth than most actual Hooviets do, and feared them for it. And I for one never want to have to fight a Mammoth...EVER.
"Gunnery crews, you have permission to fire when enemy are in range," I stated.
"My rocket teams will wait until they're close. An RPG is only good against the side, the rear, the tracks, or very well aimed at the front," Dima warned.
Cadence was singing to try keep morale up, though I could tell she was nervous herself. She sang amazingly, though, not skipping a note, keeping perfect harmony... Not such a big shock, I guess, all things considered.
"Overwatch to ground, we've got enemy wings heading up here..." Ranger reported.
"...Give them all the thunder you have left, then dive down here when you're out or they start shooting close to you," I ordered.
Above us, the bolts began arcing down, keeping enemy fliers dodging. The enemy would probably not risk firing up, and if they did, my guys would retreat... and my guns would have their own visuals for range. That's one advantage of making a large thunderbank like this, the attackers couldn't easily trace the bolts back to the one that fired them since the entire bank was the weapon.
To my horror though, one rocket roared into the air... and kept going... Even though there were Hooviet-friendly fliers up there too...
"Air units, dive, there's an anti-air rocket going up!"
My troops didn't need to be told twice. Any faster, they'd have caused a Sonic Rainboom, but there was one not coming yet...
"Thunderchild! Get down here now, you fool, you can't..."
"Sir, please trust me, I know what I'm doing..."
One last bolt ripped out... and arced right into the flare of the ascending rocket. In a flash it detonated, spilling the hail of blazing white phosphorus I'd expected, the mercenaries now lit up by the falling flames as they tried to dodge. It seemed they mostly got out of the way without any lethal injury, having been far below where the medusa rocket had been detonated. Better still, I thought, they apparently they'd missed all our troopers retreating, or the lightning had blinded them slightly, because as they regrouped they kept flying up. And that's when I realized...
"The mercs were in the way..."
The mercs had been WAITING for my men to come down. If Thunderchild hadn't set off that lightning, my troopers would have been stuck between running into the mercs and being hit with the missile...
That was the good news. The bad? The mercs wound up flying into the thunderbank...
...And then directed it right back at us. Horseapples.
Luckily, I had trained with Thunderchild. Even with my shield stretched, even though I was starting to feel the strain a little again, the remaining lightning was barely anything as poorly directed as it was by the mercenaries. My Sergeant's talents made his hit home with enough power to burst Makarov's dome, after all... And they evidently didn't have any weather specialists up there. In fact, I'm pretty sure a few of them didn't even have basic skills at it and ended up electrocuting themselves. Mercenaries came in two types; skilled professional soldiers, and the desperate ones who couldn't find any other work. The former were preferred, but I'm assuming Makarov's habit of killing off witnesses made it hard to find any of the former to work for him.
A loud set of roars came from the north. Our guns had fired... and a mushroom of fire was kicked up beyond the shield.
"I think we got that anti-air weapon there, Sir. We aimed at the base of the smoke..."
"...Good shot," I replied, feeling a bit dismayed all the same. More Equestrians had been forced to take enemy lives at my orders.
"But there are certainly more to come." Mother Deer whispered next to me, "You can't stop these attackers and tanks with stun spells...In nature, sometimes, little pony, you had to kill. It is natural ponies seek not to kill. You're not hunters. My deer are supposed to be similar. But in defence of your herd, even you can be pushed to it, to scare off a threat."
The enemy decided to try and return fire. Shells aimed too high slammed off the top of my shield dome, and to my surprise I felt them almost break it...
"...Dima, what sort of shells can we expect from those tanks?"
"...Spring shedding, I should have realized. They'll be loaded with Bastic-tipped rounds...."
"Bastic? What's that?" A trooper wondered.
"Bastium is a magic metal that absorbs sunlight... then releases all the energy if it hits something. It's known from the war to able to punch through mature dragon skin, or seriously weaken shield magic with enough shots..."
I'd been right to worry about the tanks.
There was another exchange of shots, but the punishing hits from the tanks were getting to be too much. Direct blows felt like a hammer pounding at the base of my horn....
"A-All units, all units, fall back to secondary positions... " I radioed out.
"Captain, the enemy tanks are both heading this way..." Audience reported. That route was the widest avenue in the village.
"...Alright. We need to focus on them..." I claimed.
Of course... some of the Deer were not falling back. Some of them were hiding...
The retreat soon concluded, the eastern lines then telling that they may have seen something trying to circle around. It may have been they hoped the shield would be cracked by the tanks, and then they'd roll in on either side...
"The tanks are... Sir, they're coming right down the main road!"
"Roger that, I... GHAA!"
The tanks had fired... my shield was down...
...I winked at Audience, standing right beside me. My outer shield was down. I'd left a weaker one in place when everyone retreated.
"Sir?! Sir!"
"The Captain... He's hurt bad, that shield overloaded, we need a medic..."
Two other actors played their part. Makarov had to be hearing our comms himself.
Dima smirked.
"...Solomon sounds happy. He's ordering everyone to charge without delay."
"Wonder how annoyed this is gonna make him?" I mused.
"Tanks moving down the street... They're right... on the trap," A deer gleefully said, first acting fearful... then sounding a little too malicious for my liking.
With a dull crump, the lead tank was shocked to find the ground below it give way, and it fall in. The Moose and Earth Ponies, with the help of some Zebra, had dug a pit of sorts below the main street, loosening up the soil, just big enough to make the tank fall in when the explosion made it collapse. A warning shot ricocheted off the top, letting its crew know they were pinned down. And right behind them, at the entrance to town, another loose pitfall, cutting the second tank off, letting the rocket launchers pop out and fire. There was a fwoosh from the north, the rockets firing...
...To my shock, there was a huge fireball, and the turret of the tank flew up and slammed down just short of where my shields had been retreated to. Other shards of metal pinged off the actual shield.
We Equestrians were gobsmacked. The Deer however almost all cheered, except for Mother Deer, who naturally looked conflicted and dismayed.
Dima chuckled. "On a scale of one to ten, I'd say he will be a...nine..."
I took a few moments to regain my composure. I got it, the tank in the center of town could be captured (and effectively had been), the one outside of town? It's crew could get out and start shooting, or worse, could have turned and started blasting through buildings to get out. But that didn't make it easier to handle seeing this.
"...What about those flank attacks?" I wondered. Now we had no tanks to worry about we could fight them off...
"Sir, this is East Barrier... One of the..." Audience told me
My eyes widened in shock the minute it happened. One of the Hooviet BTRs had roared at full speed down a street, a Commissar sitting out of the top hatch bellowing orders... and crashed into the shield. The one right behind it didn't have time to stop. It slammed into the back of the other one, causing a nasty pile-up. Armored or not, the kind of impact they'd just had was not good for the one that had just become a Squished Bronetransporter Sandwich...
"Um... Yeah, they just crashed."
"And now, Solomon is probably at ten."
With that, they retreated. In the western area, they'd stopped in time and pulled back, the damaged BTR evacuated. Ranger had slipped back up to check where the enemy were, and everything was falling back to regroup. The Thunderbank had been exhausted.
We had rushed out, quickly managing to pull the damaged BTR into our lines, and we even managed to recover the stricken tank. The crew had been tied up... and met their Goddess face to face. The five of them had been untied... and were back in the tank, on our side.
...I'll admit, even though one of our Princesses was the ancient boogiemare we told our kids about so they stayed inside at night until my little sister and my friends converted her back to good...I did not see that coming...
"Hey, know what that reminds me of?" Cadence then said.
"...I think so," I agreed.
"Yep! Wololo! Wololo!"
"...What?"
"Um, Era of Empires, the strategy game? The Priestpony, she converts units to your side... She makes that noise and... You were thinking of something else weren't you..."
"...I was but you've got a point."
Natasha gave a chuckle.
"Surprised? Nothing hurts more than finding out you were a bad guy, or makes you more...how do you say? 'Clopped off' than finding out you're a bad guy because of a lie. They just found out from the mouth of a Goddess the Hooviets say doesn't exist without Makarov's little voice in their heads but we can all feel in our hearts. A lot of us were the same way."
As for the pilots of the helicopter we'd captured, they were mercs, so all seeing Mother Deer did was tell them 'the Hooviets were idiots.' However, Dima seemed to have his own way to speak their language.
"I recommend you join us."
"And why would we do that?"
"Why is Solomon trying to destroy this village?"
"To shut up some witnesses."
"And what are you?"
"...Good point..."
"Shining here saw it first hand how Solomon repays his mercenaries."
"I saw him wipe out an entire pack of Diamond Dogs because some of them worked for him and knew too much. Don't believe me? I've got an entire squad that was there."
The Griffin gulped at that.
"You fight on Solomon's side, he will kill you, you fight on our side, maybe you die, but you still have a chance of living till tomorrow."
And that's how we got a few mercs on our team. Well, that, and Mother Deer telling them where to find a nice mine in the area. Self preservation and a bigger paycheck mean a lot to that sort of mercenary.
All in all, it was refreshing to see some enemies join our side after all the killing.
Ellis and some Moose had actually repaired the BTR in less than half an hour. We'd pinched all the ammo from it, including a few stray guns... the so-called Avtomat Pistolet-Pulemyot Makarova 41/47's. Automatic Machine Pistol of Makarov. The 41/47 seemed to be utterly meaningless as the bullets seemed to be 7.62 millimeters in caliber.
(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Makarov has a gun named after him?)
Yeah. One that deer have trouble even using due to the recoil (remember what I said happened when Audience tried to shoot a non-auto gun?). And it seemed he'd equipped them all with seventy-five round drum magazines. While admittedly it looked cool and had about twice the capacity of the 'banana' magazines, they kept jamming, changed the center of gravity (quite important when you're using magic to operate it), they took up as much weight as four thirty-round magazines and... Overall, were somewhat awesome but impractical for general issue without extensive training (conscripts got about five minutes)...
Says a lot about Makarov, doesn't it?
As for me, well, I'm afraid I'd just sat and tried to rest a bit. Cadence had heard of a spell to ease a headache, but at Garnet's advice, had refrained from trying anything. She hadn't learned it properly, after all, so it could have just made it worse. Instead I just had some tea. I'd weakened the shield for now so that let me feel the pressure lift too...
"Sir, I've got Helicopters... Looks like nine of the ones from before and two bigger ones...They're regrouped on the ground too. I count nine eight-wheel BTRs but it looks like they're bringing up five other smaller vehicles. No tanks, though... I think they're making a push, they must know they're running out of time. Ten minutes to they arrive, I think," Ranger reported, putting it right back on.
"Thanks for the heads up. Alright, everyone, they're coming again, this time with helicopters," I said into the radios, trying not to curse as I stood back up.
"Why is he putting THIS much effort into destroying this village?" Cadence asked. "It seems like a waste..."
"Because Solomon is petty," Dima answered. I seconded him.
On cue, they came. We'd moved to positions, we'd put the civilians safe and Cadence was singing to boost morale. Mother Deer seemed to be doing something which mostly seemed for the benefit of the deer.
The drone of the helicopter rotors came from the north. Ranger had dropped back down, and we had been told they were going to hit us focused on one spot. The helicopters fired rockets and guns as they neared, probing to try and find our shields' weakpoints...
...but aiming downwards at our ground troops. Cadence's singing had been doing something else: Helping hide the P-10's coming from above from any enemy scans.
Our airships fired rocket torpedoes from maximum ranges, the heavy rockets built to damage full-blown warships roaring down. Our ground weapons opened fire, our operational heavy machine guns reaching out into the skies where the helicopters flew. The tank joined in the machine guns and even the main guns firing off (I heard a bit of deer cussing over the radio at the realization their own tank was now firing at them). Our Unicorns took some pot shots as well, all in all making the sky a very unpleasant place for the horde of helicopters. The nine hounds seemed to be giving cover to the larger ones.
One of them lost all power and spun into the ground. Another set off a torpedo with the rotors, causing that helicopter to spiral out of control and slam into a tree in a ball of flame, but they just kept coming, firing all they had at the shields - and some of them now carried tesla coils, arcing lightning out almost as powerful as Thunderchild could make it. I groaned with all the firepower hitting my shield, feeling like it was right down my horn, but... Cadence, not breaking her singing, placed a hoof on my back. It was reassuring...
And then the two slightly bigger helicopters began to hover at the edge of town, dropping ropes from the rear doors.
"...Spetsnaz transport helicopters. The Columbians call them Hips. Solomon must have something special planned," Dima growled.
Deer began to descend, clinging to the ropes with their magic to slow their falls; nearly a whole platoon of Spetsnaz dropping before us. Our guns began to try and sweep down onto the hovering copters but their attendant Hounds moved to absorb the fire. One exploded, but the casualties meant nothing as a barrage of grenades and bullets pounded the shield... including many smoke grenades. At the edges, from within cover, some of our troops fired back out: one unicorn was dismayed to see his stun bolts bounce off the armored deer advancing; and it seemed the bullets and bows weren't really phasing them all that much. Only a couple of the Hooviet Special Forces fell, their advance making use of what cover they could and the smoke obscuring what vision we had.They ran up to the edge, threw little bags down before dashing away, and I braced for another headache.
The satchel charges stung badly. They'd also kicked up so much dust and dirt outside the shield it threw up a massive smokescreen. The P-10s above now couldn't see properly,and didn't dare fire in case they hit my shield.
The dust settled soon enough... and to our confusion, roaring down the main street was an artillery rocket launcher vehicle, with two four-wheel BTRs giving it covering fire: apparently those were used to carry spare rockets for the vehicles. The BTRs were mostly parking at the edge, their troops jumping out and firing rockets, grenades, and guns at us. Conscripts and mercenaries seemed to make up the bulk of the Hooviet force, about half of them non-Deer. The transports fired their big guns too, but I noticed the mercenaries seemed to all be in the middle, where cover was sparse and our firepower could concentrate. It would appear Makarov would rather save money on the paychecks than waste even conscripts.
"I thought the artillery crews were out of ammo?" Dima wondered, a note of worry in his voice.
And then the rocket launcher vehicle fell in the hole... becoming a bridge. Another drove over it a second later, slowing a little. The tank turned, fired... but the powerful anti-dragon rounds just tore through the metal, hitting nothing important, and kept going. Still, that one was going to be a weaker bridge to drive over, maybe... but it could still let them drive over.
The P-10s were now circling and firing on the assembling mass of enemies beyond town, and they just kept hitting my shield with everything even as we shot back. Soon, the P-10s were out of ammo and had to come in to land beside us: we quickly moved some civilians in them, since they were well armored. During this, the Hooviets began to pull back, away from our fire: half their BTRs were ablaze. They seemed to realize they could just hang back and pelt the shield with grenades and wild shots from a distance.
Even the Mercenaries had drawn back, after efforts by a group of zebra mercenaries to try lobbing some kind of potions at my shield went wrong. The potions had clearly meant to be some kind of noxious fumes given they all had their faces covered with masks, and it seemed a couple of Griffins with them had hoped to blow it through the shield. Fat chance. I was holding out that as well, making it all just dissipate at the edges harmlessly.
But there was one last surprise in store. Down the main road, now bridged by the two deliberately-crashed rocket launcher vehicles, a single BTR came, the four-wheeler type. The tank had been firing high explosive at the enemy troops, so the guns were slow to turn and fire again. It was coming full speed... and I knew what it was. Since it had been carrying rockets for the artillery launchers, it couldn't be full of troops, they had to have filled it with explosives. A whole transport...
"Take that BTR out!" I shouted.
The tank gun spun slowly, the BTR seemed to move immensely fast, nearing the first bridge....
And then Dima raised his horncannon at the approaching vehicle and fired. A laser. The red beam shot out the distance in an instant, hitting the BTR, making it explode a good thirty meters from the edge.
As I'd guessed, it was full of explosives, must have been another couple of tons. Even at thirty meters it was still throwing a huge amount of punishment into my shield. Given what was left of the village on that side was levelled, if it had hit head on, we'd all have...
It hurt like my head had been crushed to the size of a walnut. I might have yelled in pain, I'm not sure, but I was seeing black spots and stars, and my efforts to mute the noise of the blast failed. But it had been closer to the Hooviets than they'd planned, so they were probably worse off than me...
...Or so I think. All I was aware of for a bit was the stink of gunpowder and smoke heavy in the air. By the time I could see and hear again, I was aware only of worried looks, Garnet examining me, and the feeling of my shields so weak.
"...-aptain, are you okay? Can you hear me?"
"Y-yeah... What happened?"
"The bomb went off... It's flattened the other side of town. The Hooviets... what's left of them... they pulled back. But you're not doing well..."
I could taste copper and iron...
"...Is something coming out of my nose?"
"Yes, sir, blood. You've got a severe nosebleed, and other symptoms of magic overload..."
"Is he all right?" Cadence asked.
"The Hooviets fell back?"
"Yes."
"...Your gun shoots lasers, Dima?"
"Yes, it does."
"...Can I have one?"
"No. You're a poor enough shot with a crossbow."
"Darn it...Nopony on this side hurt?"
"...No one other than you, Sir," Garnet reminded me.
"The Princess is okay?"
"I'm fine, but..."
"...Then I'm all right," I tried to give a fake laugh... but even that hurt.
"Oh, this is gonna hurt in the morning... Hurts now, actually, ha... ugh..."
...So this is how Gag felt when he told a joke...
"Just rest, Sir, not long 'til we're relieved, we're in contact with the Falcon and Mother Deer's ship is coming too... Where did you say the Svobada was? And am I saying that right..." Thunderchild said.
"The Svoboda is actually twenty minutes away... She is only forty miles out. Your Falcon is seventy, however, she should arrive to provide cover as we finish loading."
"...How'd we get in touch with them at that kind of range?" I wondered.
"Me, I, er.. I was singing and I think I woke up every songbird in the hemisphere. A lot of them went to pass on the message..." Cadence said, almost embarrassed. I didn't bother asking how they'd pass it on...
"...What about that warbler of yours?"
"Cheep!"
"...Oh, hi. Didn't see you there..."
"Shining? Look, I... I want to apologize again, for sneaking along with you... I shouldn't have went behind your back like tha-"
"Princess... It's okay. You already said sorry."
And besides... without her, we'd never have stood a chance. A couple of the Rebels seemed to chuckle at us in a fashion that reminded me a bit too much of the Hoofmaidens.
The airship had arrived. The Svoboda was a little smaller than one of our Corvettes, but it wasn't as heavily armed. It was basically a civilian ship with a small gun deck, suspended from a helium balloon. They had regular engines fitted though so in an emergency it'd stay up without it.
We'd pulled out of the town center to the fields, so the airship had more space to land and let everyone on. The civilians were almost all on board, they'd began loading all the vehicles but the BTRs with the most ammo left and their shiny new tank, Falcon would be here in ten minutes. And maybe then I could get some proper rest, instead of just sitting down in the dirt.
...I was sure Falcon should have arrived by now, though!
"...Dima, we may have a problem," One of the Deer shouted a few minutes later.
"...I heard it too... Check to see if any radios are working..."
"What's wrong?" Cadence wondered.
"It seems our radios are giving off a signal we've heard before... it's a sound that sometimes..."
"We're being jammed now, Dima!"
"...Sometimes comes before we get jammed. They're coming again!"
I tried not to groan as I stood, and put some more power into my shield again.
"Captain, don't overstretch yourself, you..." Garnet began.
"My shield is the only thing stopping them getting in here and starting to kill us," I snapped a little too harshly.
"...Yes, Sir. But... Be careful with your magic, Sir."
However, instead of vehicles nearing, there was a flash of light in the middle of the town, outside my shield. We saw four black shapes. With a pair of borrowed night vision goggles (I was spreading my magic thin as is) I recognized them as like the black being I'd seen with Makarov back in Columbia the night we first ran into him.
"...Those are unnatural creations," Mother Deer hissed on seeing them.
They made a clanking, whirring noise as they neared.
"What the heck are they?" Thunderchild wondered.
Chitzkoi growled at them, standing by his mistress, who was raising her rifle. Natasha took a shot at one. Sparks flew from the head she hit, but it seemed unfazed. A few other bursts of fire did nothing at first, and then the creatures began to charge at immense speed.
"They're creations of Solomon... He took Earth Ponies and... he claims to have enhanced them... but in truth, he merged them with twisted technology. The ponies were used to enhance the machine that he built," Dima said, aiming his horncannon at one.
"...Cyborgs?!" Gag said. Normally I'd tell him to stop talking science fiction, but given the day we'd had...
"Made from... ponies?" Somepony else said, sounding as revolted as we all were.
Dima did not answer, but instead fired another red beam... and we saw clearly, each of the shapes had an energy shield of some kind. And there was a fifth shape behind them, tall with a unicorn horn... and wings.
"...An alicorn?! But that..." Cadence half-shouted, until we realized...
The wings looked mechanical. The eyes glowed red. The whole 'alicorn' seemed to be partly machine in nature. Even the horn was a golden metal, standing out against the dull gray steel body that was built like barding. It was another android.
(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Uh, the proper term is cybor-)
"Is there nothing he will not pervert the image of for his sick games?" Natasha snarled.
How did Makarov even MAKE these things? Tartarus, if ponies could make prosthetic wings like that, we probably would have for the ponies whose wings had been crippled in a crash! Or for unicorns who'd cracked horns from magic backlash or the like! It...it just wasn't possible, how was...oh yeah, Imagination Demon...and I'm a weirdness magnet...
Zangief took the last rocket launcher on hoof and fired at them, but they effortlessly dodged it and kept going.
The four Earth Ponydroids were now upon us, and slammed into my shield. Their hooves began battering it, slamming down... and then they simply held. They began unleashing Earth Pony seismic magic right into my shield, trying to cause it to tremble and shatter like the soil during an earthquake. The ground shook... but I had to hold firm... if I didn't shield the area, they could just rush onto the ship, or that fake alicorn could unleash whatever Tartarus Makarov had given it.
I felt my nose begin bleeding again, and then one of the Ponydroids burst into flames.
"They're... They're overloading..." Cadence said. I realized she had wrapped a wing around me.
Everypony else had actually been stumbling off their hooves. The only reason I'd only not fallen was because she'd moved to steady me. Moose and Earth Ponies, plus Mother Deer, were helping everyone else get onto the ship where the vibrations weren't a problem: after all, it was floating a few feet off the ground,and as earth-magic users they were able to resist better...
"Captain, Princess, just run onto the ship, we have a shield generator here, it isn't powerful enough to protect much more than the ship, but it should hold them off until the other ship arrives!" Mother Deer yelled.
A second, and a third, of the 'droids were on fire now. The first was sparking, falling apart (I saw what looked like burning fur underneath the armor, and quickly averted my eyes), and the tremors were weakening...
"I can hold it... They're shaking themselves apart... We need to keep that fake Alicorn out..." It hadn't made a move yet. It was waiting for its grunts to do the dirty work.
"Shining... I agree, but... I don't like seeing you hurt yourself like this," Cadence said softly to me.
"...No choice..."
The other two exploded at that, and I wanted to cheer as it seemed to bounce feedback into the last of them, making it burst into flames...
And then it unleashed so much energy as it exploded I fell, and so did my shield. The ground shook so violently we were tossed upwards a few feet, even the Earth Ponies, Moose, and Cadence. I groaned in pain as I hit, heard Cadence issue her own protest as she seemed to stumble on landing... and then I saw the Alicorn-Android charging right at us, horn glowing...
I threw up another shield, just it time. It unleashed a blast...it had been aimed at me and Cadence. Now that I only had two ponies to shield, it was certainly a little easier than a whole ship or the entire town.
The robot slammed into us, screeching in rage, not expecting to meet resistance. It must have been planning to just keep charging. Then, it just stood there, horn glowing and aimed skywards.
"What the hay is it doing?" Cadence wondered.
The answer came, and it wasn't welcome. It had been acting as a beacon.
Makarov teleported in, right in front of us. No, sorry, teleporting would be what a normal pony would to. In this case it was more like a rift in the sky had opened and a red-colored meteor slammed down in a series of large explosions. We all saw him standing there as the dust cleared. And I think the Alicorn Android started playing music befitting of a Con Mane villain.
Natasha, ace sniper she was, instantly made a shot at Makarov's head...which he dodged by simply tilting his head to the side. At that point, I noticed Thunderchild had disappeared again. A couple seconds later, a lightning bolt crashing down directly at Makarov alerted me to his actual position...
Makarov chuckled, and turned his head so the lightning struck his horns before throwing his head in Natasha's direction. Natasha just barely jumped in time to avoid the redirected lightning bolt, blowing up the cover she'd hidden behind.
"Tisk, tisk, did you really expect that to work twice?" Makarov asked casually, pulling a huge, gold plated horncannon from nowhere and aiming it without even looking. Thunderchild thankfully evaded, but the cloud exploded.
(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): But that's scientifically impossible!)
Tell him that!
Makarov's horns glowed and he proceeded to surround every cloud in sight in a red barrier. Not one single shield, mind you, but DOZENS of small shields! The Pegasi and Griffins who touched them were forced to glide to the ground, their magic shorted out.
"Now that that's out of the way," he stated, finally looking towards us.
"Princess! Captain! What a surprise to see you here!"
"I..."
"I could say the same to you, General-Admiral," Cadence cut me off.
The Cervicorn smirked. He wasn't even bothering with that fake charisma trick of his yet.
"And it would appear that the kitty-kat Princess has grown claws! I find it strange you should be so... defiant at this time. I have won, and I am just waiting to savor the true moment of..."
"We kicked your flank so hard I'm surprised that vomit-stain you call a cutie mark hasn't fallen off!" Cadence shot back. She'd had that glazed over look in her eye for just a moment, but it then shattered into anger.
His eyes narrowed. I noticed the 'vomit-stain' had a few new additions, including a lightning bolt of some kind...
"...And I suppose yours is much better, a worthless rock in the shape of an icon of a meaningless emotion? You aren't even supposed to exist, you know! You're nothing but a meaningless concept, at least the Sun and Moon serve a purpose. Harmony? Peace? What rot! There can only be order, not harmony! Order enforced by fear and power, not foolish notions of peace and love peddled by a winged whore!"
"Hey, watch it..." I tried to say, but Makarov was now back to full smugness.
"Yes, nothing but a worthless little whore... And a powerless one, to boot! But I can give you worth AND power! You can become my concubine..."
"...You haven't even bought me dinner first, you odious little pile of dragon fewmets."
Makarov snarled and seemed to put all his focus on Cadence. "Don't defy me you worthless doll! That's all you are! A doll-"
Cadence shook her head, I think throwing off Makarov's attempt to get in her head. "You think I'm powerless?" she said, looking uncertain for a moment. Then her gaze fell on all the destruction and death surrounding us and she got the most serious look I'd ever seen her have. "...Everyone...Concentrate on each other, on your bonds with each other."
"Princ-"
"On each other! Trust me!"
I sighed and focused. I concentrated on Thunderchild, Garnet, Gag, Ellis, and Audience. And on Cadence to. On how much they meant to me. What they meant to me. We might have been troopers, but...I know this will sound corny, but we're a family. We'd die for one another.
"Like that's going to do anything!" Makarov yelled.
At that point, Cadence began to glow the same color as the gem in her Cutie Mark, seeming to draw a similar colored light from all of us, including the rebels. Yeah, Makarov was wrong for once.
Cadence then rose into the air, her mane and tail becoming translucent energy that seemed to trace invisible lines between everything as it moved. And her eyes were also glowing...look, I'm not a poet, all I know is the Princess I was supposed to be guarding just got a power up from the combined bonds of the entire group and it was badflank.
Makarov didn't seem impressed, in fact he seemed excited by the challenge.
"Ha! You believe this impresses me! I am stronger than the pathetic bonds between these peons!"
Cadence didn't even flinch. "No. You. Are. Not!"
Makarov blinked in confusion. "You might as well just give up! You are no match for me and my cyborg! What are you going to do? Bleed on me? Sing a song?"
Cadence seemed to glare a hole through Makarov. "Maybe I will sing."
I don't know where the musical accompaniment came from (goddess of music after all), but Cadence began to do just that.
"You claim that peace and love are worthless things.
But you shall not harm another here today.
I will not allow evil to have its way!
You will not harm any underneath my wings!"
As she sung, the soundwaves were actually visible. And honestly looked like they freaking hurt when Makarov got hit with them and was sent back a few feet. The Alicorn Android made an attempt to interfere, but Cadence restrained it with a magically generated music staff before it could react.
"Allow me to show you the power harmony does possess.
A heart as black as night cannot see
The strength that now flows through me!
And that is why on this day you shall not know success."
Makarov was ripped off his hooves and sent flying rather hard to the ground. He snarled, got back to his feet, and began charging up that spell he'd blasted me off the roof with, but seemed to have trouble even forming it.
Cadence replied by creating a spell seal in front of her I'd never seen before. It was a rainbow of colors with the seal from the Elements of Harmony at its center, a music staff in place of runes. Makarov's attack seemed to BURN away on contact.
"You who are made from the stolen hearts of beings
Have no right to declare what should not be
In your place a shadow is all I see.
AND YOU WILL NOT HARM ANY UNDER MY WINGS!"
The last verse was accompanied by the tempo picking up, along with the sound waves that beat away at Makarov, Cadence using the Royal Canterlot Voice to boost the final line and give it enough force to dig a respectable trench in the ground with Makarov's face.
To say everyone was in awe was an understatement. There was applause in response as Cadence floated back down to the ground and reverted back to her normal appearance.
"Princess... I'm in awe..."
...But it was about all I could manage. I was pretty tired.
"T-thanks... but I'm not even sure where that really came from...especially that bit where I started singing about 'shadows' and 'stolen hearts?'"
Makarov began to pick himself up, only for one of the Deer to have walked around us. The General-Admiral looked up.
Dima looked back down, horncannon aimed.
"You!"
"Me."
I swear it was blood when Dima fired first fired... it was red. But the fluid that sprayed from Makarov's neck when "his" head came off was now black, like oil, and there were sparks spraying...
"Another robot?!" Cadence gasped.
Dima now aimed his gun at the alicorn, but it let out a horrendous mechanical screech, and with a burst of energy, it activated a shield, casting off Cadence's binds. It was identical to Makarov's death-dome, but it hurled Dima away... and trapped me and Cadence. She cried out as the spell seemed to disrupt whatever power she'd been drawing on, and the fake-Alicorn levelled its horn and charged right at Cadence...
...Not on my watch.
I rammed into the charging beast, rolling head over hooves as I threw it back. Magic wasn't going to work, but this thing seemed to want to try and charge Cadence.
"Cadence, are you okay?!"
"...It feels like all my magic is being drained..." She groaned, as the Cybercorn stood again.
"Hey, focus on me, rustbucket!" I kicked it in the side, throwing it against the wall of the dome.
Now it turned towards me, and spread its wings... very sharp wings.
"...Ah. That could be a problem."
"Captain! My weapon!" Dima shouted at the edge of the dome. He'd dropped his gun and it was in here with us.
I blinked, looking over to see his horncannon laying on the ground from when he'd been thrown away. I picked it up in my mouth. Firing a gun with your mouth is NOT easy...firing it in an energy absorbing dome is pointless. "Not working!"
"Pivot the handle!" he shouted, as Cadence still struggled to try and stand.
I had to duck under the Cybercorn's literal blade-wing swings before doing as he said...and finding the gun turning into a red bladed sword. "It turns into a sword?!"
"Look out!"
I just managed to use the sword to parry a wing-swing that could have given me a very close shave. The creature span and I kicked out at it again, but it swung a wing down and slashed a gash across my rear flank armor. It was a glancing blow that didn't cut me, but it seemed to ignore the armor like it was made of paper.
I tried to swing the blade, fighting the fact my own fatigue had started to remind me it was there, and struggling against the rather unpleasant fact my nose had burst again, so holding the sword was getting a bit harder. The wings came up to parry, but I noticed there seemed to be a line, a connection to the body or something, at the base of the wings. I decided that it was worth a try.
Jumping back, I let the alicorn charge, taking a swing. I ducked under, swung the blade, and with a shower of sparks and oil, took it off. The creature screeched in fury, the removed wing spewing out a strange blue, glowing fluid. It must have been some kind of mana-paste that allowed the metal wing to be moved without any pistons, servos, or muscles.
My victory was short-lived. It span and kicked me in the side, hurling me into Cadence. It was lucky she was presently wearing barding herself, because having a fully-armored stallion bounce off you would be considerably more painful otherwise.
"Gha!"
"S-sorry about that, Cadence..." I apologized as I tried to stand. I'd dropped the sword, and the alicorn... now seemed focused on Cadence, even more dazed since I'd accidentally squashed her.
The horn levelled again, and it began running. I jumped in front of it, ignoring the pain I had pretty much everywhere. I managed to hit the wingless side using the sword with my counter-charge, and it now span around, trying to get its wing around... but I saw the base of the horn seemed to have the same line as the wing, a faint blue glow there.
I rammed it, forcing it to leap back. It levelled the horn at me now, and charged.
Time seemed to slow then. For some reason, in my head... that dream of the broken doll...
...The horn. Maybe the horn could come off.
As it charged I span around, and kicked with every scrap of strength I could muster, hitting the robot's obscene false horn. With a clang and a ping, the horn snapped off, the dome faded, and it fell... the mechanical screams began to distort, and real screams were there as well, the robot thrashing so much that it began cracking and popping. Vents of oil and blood shot out, and I could hear it literally break its own back as it thrashed.
And then it stopped. Practically folded in half... And it let out a sob...It wasn't just some robot like I'd seen it as, it was a pony...
I looked around at the remains of the Earth Pony Borgs and saw the bits of bone and fur remaining. Even with pony biology, it was nigh impossible not to vomit at this sight, but somehow I managed not to.
No... she let out a sob. The pony that Makarov had did this to, was back... and now dying.
"Vaty... Where is Vaty... My sister, where did they take her..."
She wanted her sister...
Mother Deer neared, placing a hoof on the head of the former cyborg, stroking it gently. The robotic eyes flickered on and off... the red glow looking like it was blinking. Dima had picked up his sword again, and was looking down with a strangely blank expression contrasting to Mother Deer's sadness.
"Yablokovodka.... Child, I am sorry. I am so sorry for what has happened to you. I wish I could undo it all and tell you your sister would be safe... but it is beyond my power. But your suffering is at an end. You are free... and a better life awaits on the other side..."
"...Mother... Mother Deer? You are... You are real?"
"Yes, child. I am here. As is your own mother. She and your father are waiting."
"Mother... Father... But the General... He killed them... Where is Vaty?"
"She cannot be with you yet. We will free your twin. You will be reunited. But for now, child... rest..."
The eyes blinked, and there was a small sound, barely audible, but there, as the pony, Yablokovodka, left this world.
"...I..." I began. I felt horrible, not just because of the pain all across my body from the physical and magical exertions... but because for a second or two after the horn had come off I'd felt good... about killing something...
"You did not kill her, Shining. You freed her. Makarov had killed her, trapped her soul in her body and used it as a weapon. According to our spies, he has done this three more times. He searched the empire for ponies that met his needs, powerful ponies. The strongest unicorn, the strongest pegasus, and the strongest earth pony... but the Earth Ponies, were twins, both with even potential and strength. Yablokovodka and Saharnoj Vaty...."
"What did their names mean?" Cadence wondered.
"Apple Vodka and Cotton Candy..." I answered.
I looked at the body before us. A poor mare whose life was stolen from her. Who'd been made into a weapon...it made me sick.
"Somewhat correct. Your translation of Yablokovodka is literal... the nearest Equestrian equivalent would actually be something like Applejack, I believe."
The image of the orange earth pony, Ellis's cousin, Twilight's friend...
...The body before us had green fur visible through the shattered armor. Ellis gave a sigh of relief. That brief moment of horror was gone as soon as it had came.
Then another came. Cadence thought it too.
"...He looked for the strongest ponies in the Empire... If he'd looked beyond the empire, then..."
I think me and Ellis had the same look of horror on our faces at the implication.
"He did not seek only power though. I feel he chose his victims more for their names and the irony connected to them. The unicorn victim he found was a poor soul named Lunabaleta... Moon Ballet literally, but again, the closest Equestrian name would be Moondancer. And his Pegasus was Puzyri, or Bubbles. Once upon a time, many eons ago... four poor souls with the same names were victims of one like him. But they were saved from their transformation. The Shadow of Chernobull...Makarov did not have the mercy to even allow such a possibility. We can only free them."
"Their NAMES?" Cadence gasped in horror as realization hit her, "He chose what ponies to... to, to, make monsters out of based on their NAMES?! Like they were... like they were... like they were dolls."
Mother Deer nodded grimly. "That's all anyone is to Makarov. To him, all things are toys for him to play with...or food for his insatiable hunger."
I snorted hot air out my nose (and probably a bit of blood as well given how many times it had been bleeding all night).
"Well...I'm out of mercy for him," I stated, looking around the village...all the destruction, all the death, all the pain, Tartarus, he'd even put his own troops in harms way again and again, and didn't care. "...I will never forgive him for this."
The rest of my troops and Cadence looked a bit surprised...but gradually seconded my statement with a dead serious nod. The Deer seemed confused at how serious a reaction that garnered. To a deer I admit, it probably sounded strange, but to an Equestrian or Neighponese pony? Forgiveness was a virtue to us, it was something ingrained into our culture. Even if we didn't forget, we valued the ability to forgive. I'd forgiven the tank drivers, as a country we'd forgiven Princess Luna, and I'd forgiven Dima for threatening my little sister. But we would never forgive Makarov for what he'd done that day. And when an Equestrian or Neighponese says that, we mean it.
"Mercy is for the weak." Another mechanical voice sounded out.
"...Solomon. I shouldn't be surprised..." Dima sighed, in the middle of pouring a water bottle onto his sword to clean it up.
"What the... Where is he?!"
"His copy is talking. That robot... I imagine he has a surprise for us..."
"Well, how about no? Kind of done with surprises..." I said, trying not to sound too whiny.
"You get no choice, dog."
(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Hey! That's racist to Diamond Dogs!)
I don't think he cares.
"No choice but surrender. I have ordered my final reserves to move into place, and I am watching from afar! Surrender to my Typhoon Attack Ships and my Akula Corvette, or they will destroy you utterly! It would be a shame to spill the blood of such a... powerful and useful pair of potential allies..."
"Surrender?!" Cadence snarled. I noticed she was drawing in some more energy to recharge, probably not a bad idea, I would've done the same thing if my magic ran on Bonds, Harmony, and Music. Lucky Alicorns.
"Yes, Surrender! You can be by my side still, Princess... We can even keep your little toy-doll. After all, I will be busy, you will need something to entertain you when I am away... It is either you surrender, or the ships destroy you as you lie wounded from the explosion that is about to happen..."
I was readying a shield, realising what he was saying the body was about to do, but Cadence got there first.
"Surrender and explode this, you perverted psycho!"
And she simply lifted the smoking Makarov-Copy and hurled it out of the village. It slammed down, almost half a mile away.
A few seconds of silence until Dima spoke.
"...I kind of expected it to..."
Then it exploded. Honestly I'd expected a bigger boom considering how big they'd gotten today...
"There we go. Solomon was never a good comedian, no sense of timing."
"Is there some sort of military book of quips? The Art of One-Liners?" Cadence sighed.
"The Snark of War, actually..." I managed to offer. "Someone named 'Sunny Days' wrote it."
"Ok...what about that mana surge thing?"
"He needed his cyborg Alicorn to create it, with her...defeated, he can't perform it," Kamarov said, looking over the corpse and producing the device in question. "And besides, he's out of time to complete his chain of disruptions."
"Of course, he was probably bluffing about the ships, I mean, surely we'd have detected them..." Cadence said. She seemed to be getting tired, guess what she just did was a bit much for a young Alicorn. She also seemed a bit more shaken than I expected...
"...Er, no one's been scanning for the past half hour, Princess. But I'll try speak to the bridge of the ship and... Shit!, we're still being jammed, of course! They've been jamming the radio detection too..."
Cadence blinked.
"Falcon is being jammed as well. The songbirds there say it's close though, and... Uh oh. Those hooviet ships are..."
She glanced north. The moonlight shone down, and across the sky, four shapes. About ten miles off...
"...Very close."
"Mother Deer! Please board the ship, we see ships approaching from both sides!" A deer running towards us screamed.
"Both sides?!"
I looked into the sky behind us, pulling on the borrowed night vision goggles... and I saw three more looming shapes coming from the south. Smaller shapes in front of them...
"Wait... Shining, those shapes, look!"
"...That's not possible though."
Two of the smaller shapes were almost upon us, and tore overhead. Up this close, I could see them clearly.
Small, boxy little things, with protruding wings. Smaller than most light airships. SF-1 Ordnance Carriers. Ace and The Lord Flashheart.
They drew closer to the enemy ships still bearing down on us, closing the distance in under thirty seconds, and began firing from a mile away. Hails of rockets zoomed out, aiming at the largest ship, and with a blossom of flame, our radios then gave a dull buzz, and sprang back to life.
"Sorry we're late, Princess, Captain, but Falcon met some friends on the way here..." Ace said.
The Hooviet ships had halted in disarray now, the jamming gone. The smaller ones, still many times larger than even our patrol craft, were buzzing to try and chase down the two SF-1 Orcas, two P-10s swept in. The ones we'd brought had been around the other side of the ship, waiting to go back onto Falcon.
Now the four Equestrian light airships were concentrating on one small ship at a time, the Typhoons. They would cause a few hits, evade return fire, and then keep harassing. But the Akula was launching two helicopters while our Airships had been distracted by one Typhoon deploying the emergency balloon and starting to drift down to earth.
The SF-1s moved to engage... and showed just how effective they were against the less nimble Hooviet aircraft by blowing the rotors off one, making it simply fall back onto the deck of the Akula. The other of the two helicopters soon found out the hard way another reason their type of aircraft was considered dangerous to use as several bolts of lightning from our Cavalry struck their metal tail rotors. The result was said helicopters spinning out of control when those tail-rotors became damaged.
"Permission to take-off is denied, chaps!" The Lord Flashheart taunted.
The support Hooviet Cavalry quickly discovered low quality mercenaries generally were no match for trained Pegasus and Griffin troopers in a dogfight. The few that even had tried to emerge from the four Hooviet ships soon found themselves being hit from all sides by Equestrians, their own airships too slow to properly engage our troopers.
A couple of the mercenaries made a go at us while the fights were going on. Deer couldn't fly, but they could certainly jump. Which Nikolai quickly did once they got close enough, leaping up and tackling one of the Griffins out of the air, knocking their gun clear. Said Griffin pulled out some daggers. Nikolai gave a smirk and produced his swords in his telekinesis. What followed next was a bit too hard for my eye to follow, but there was a flurry of blades (Nikolai also making use of his antlers) ending with the Griffin's daggers in a blade lock and knocked out cold with a headbutt.
One of the other mercs made it through our fire, but Zangief managed to smash his gun away with his antlers. The merc responded by punching Zangief in the face. Said Griffin apparently did not know that Moose had incredibly tough skulls with thick skin covering it. While he was busy cradling his now broken claw, Zangief didn't even flinch, in fact he just looked puzzled...and then sent his attacker flying a good 10 feet into the side of the ship with his antlers.
I hadn't believed it seeing the three shapes. We'd expected Falcon.
But we had not expected Invincible and Dreadnought to be there too. Floating five hundred meters above Svoboda, Commander Shepard's ship turned a broadside towards the Hooviets.
I never thought I'd say it, but thank the Princesses I attract improbable situations!
"Unknown hostile airships, this is Commander Shepard of the Equestrian Royal Guard Air Navy. You are conducting acts of violence and piracy against peaceful innocents. Under the terms of international law and the rights of self-defence, I am authorized to use any force required to halt your criminal acts. You have thirty seconds to turn your ships around."
The Hooviets, regrouping from their failed efforts to defend against the now-retreating Light Airships and Air Cavalry, did not seem inclined. If anything, they seemed to want to charge in...
"Ten seconds"
They were now picking up speed again. The two corvettes faced directly towards the enemy, rocket torpedo bays aimed.
"So be it. All ships, fire."
With a tremendous roar, full volleys ripped out. Streaks of rockets and shells flew into the three Hooviet Ships. One Typhoon simply seemed to vanish. The other deployed the balloon, and the Akula just seemed to shudder... but as it began to deploy the balloon, it had also fired six rocket torpedoes forward, aimed at Invincible...
Or so they must have hoped, but the balloon threw their aim off. They fired into the ground, which I suppose at least got rid of some of the trees they were about to land on.
"...I think it's time we all got out of here," I noted.