//Begin Personal Log
//
//July 12th, 2559
//
//10:31 Local Time
Not much time to write this. We’ll be arriving in the Crystal Empire in twenty minutes. The whole damn place came under siege this morning. Thankfully we were able to get word to the empire a few days ago, allowing them time to evacuate. Now we just need to pick up the Crystal Heart, along with Cadance and Shining Armor.
I’ve also been informed that the seventh fleet went into slipspace this morning, making their arrival time in about two hours for the bigger ships. Finally, the end of this pointless conflict is in sight.
Luna was not happy about us flying off to the Crystal Empire, but settled on making me do a Pinkie Promise that we would return. She knows that we are the only vessel capable of reaching the Crystal Empire in any sort of timely fashion
In other news, the cities of Vanhoover and Trotterdam surrendered quietly to the gryphons. Fillydelphia, however, has been putting up one hell of a fight. Seems there are still those who won’t give up so easily.
Anyway, the refugee tent cities have been growing as more and more ponies flood into the camps. The one to the south east of Canterlot is by far the largest, with something like 1.6 million refugees. That will be an issue for after we win.
>>...
>>...
>>DATA FRAGMENTED
//End Log
It was a fairly sleepless night for Daniel. A lot of it had been spent making final preparations with the Director and Admiral Reynolds. The final troop count was going to be a bit less than originally thought, now closer to a hundred and fifty thousand troops as opposed to the quarter of a million originally planned. Still, it would be plenty big enough to deal with the gryphons.
Around six in the morning, the Captain was interrupted by Captain Silverlight banging on his door.
“Enter,” the Captain called out.
The unicorn had a panicked look on his face as he levitated a scroll to Daniel. “We just received this from the Crystal Empire. Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor stayed behind to make sure all the civilians escaped. They are now trapped with the Crystal Heart.”
“Damn it! Why didn’t they evacuate when we said so?” Daniel cursed.
“Princess Cadance said she wouldn’t abandon the crystal ponies, and Prince Armor seemed to believe that their army could hold the gryphons off,” Silverlight replied.
“Does Luna know this?”
Silverlight nodded. “She sent me to tell you and ask if you might have a solution.”
Daniel leaned back in his chair as he looked at the scroll. “Well, it’s too far away for conventional airships to reach. Our only option, it seems, is for the Tuscany to fly there and pick them up.”
“I’ll inform the Princess. When do you plan on leaving?”
“Three hours. I’ll need time to prep the ship,” the Captain said as he stood up and grabbed his hat.
Silverlight nodded and quickly made his way off the ship. Daniel sighed as he quickly strode down the passageway heading to the bridge.
~~~
“I got the message off to Cadance and Shining. They should be ready for you by the time you arrive,” Luna said as she walked beside Daniel.
“Great, then the pickup should be easy,” the human replied as he made his way toward the waiting Prowler.
“Daniel, promise me one thing. Okay?” The lunar Princess said as she placed a wingtip on Daniel’s shoulder.
“That depends.”
“I want you to Pinkie Promise me you will come back,” Luna said in a commanding tone.
The Captain sighed and shook his head. “I’m not sure I can guarantee that. Every time I step out there there’s a chance I might not come back.”
“That’s too bad, because you’re not leaving until you Pinkie Promise me.”
Daniel shook his head in defeat. “Alright, what do I have to do?”
“Repeat after me. Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye,” Luna said as she made a series of gestures to go along with the rhyme.
“Seriously?” Daniel deadpanned.
“Seriously. No one can break a Pinkie Pie Promise... or so Twilight says,” the Princess replied.
Captain Ryan let out a small groan as he began. “Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye. Happy?”
“A bit. Now go save the world,” Luna said as she nodded toward the ship.
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
Thirty minutes after the Tuscany took off for the Crystal Empire, Luna found herself on the ramparts surrounding the castle. A large force of gryphons had made its way through the valley and was preparing to strike at Canterlot.
Now though, the Princess was standing next to her remaining soldiers, preparing to fight off the coming horde. A number of airships had already begun their ascent up the mountain, followed closely by thousands of gryphon infantry.
Luna looked to her soldiers one last time. Each of them was carrying the new spellgun developed by Andrew Traxus and Quicksilver. As the airships rose higher, the infantry stopped to hover just beyond the range of the ponies weapons.
All at once, the gryphons charged. The ponies responded by firing into the charging horde, dropping a gryphon with each shot fired. Even Luna was throwing offensive spells at the charging soldiers, taking down large groups with every spell.
That’s when the airships began to fire. The Princess winced as a piece of wall was shattered, killing the ponies behind it. The gryphons quickly pulled up and began to dive over the main wall. The ponies tried to follow them, taking shots at any gryphon they could find, but numbers were just not on their side.
Captain Silverlight had just blasted a gryphon in the side of the head when he was tackled by a charging gryphon. The guard captain yelled as the gryphon dug its claws into his shoulders. Just as the gryphon was about to finish off the guard captain, his head began to shake before it imploded in a flash of dark blue light.
The stunned guard captain looked around in stunned awe before noticing Princess Luna standing beside him. Her horn then ignited once more as Silverlight was flipped back onto his hooves.
“Are you okay, Captain?” Luna asked as the stallion dusted himself off.
Silverlight nodded. “I’ll live.”
Luna looked to the north and sighed. She hoped Daniel was having an easier time.
~~~
“Sir, port side, top of the tower!” Vezina shouted as he pointed to the small group of ponies standing on the uppermost level of the massive central castle.
“Copy that. Tommy, disengage cloak, then drop the ramp and get us close,” the Captain ordered.
“Sir, gryphon airships are closing in on us. Point defence is engaging,” Tommy announced as every turret began firing.
“Dior, we have every eye in the Empire on us. We kinda need to make this quick.” Daniel asked over the radio.
“Just about done! We need another twenty seconds!” The SPARTAN shouted back over the sounds of small arms fire.
Daniel nodded as he looked back to the pilot. “You heard her. Twenty seconds and pull away. Go to heading two-one-seven and stand by for orbital insertion.”
“Aye, sir,” the pilot replied.
“Sir, a storm is moving in from the south, recommend using it to cover our escape,” the AI stated.
“How big is the storm?” The Captain asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Sensors show that it extends all the way to the Equestrian border,” Tommy replied.
“Good to know,” Daniel mused as he reached for his radio. “Dior?”
“Take off!”
“Vezina, heading two-one-seven, ahead full. Bring cloak online,” the Captain commanded.
The entire ship leaned to the left and quickly began to pick up speed. After a short time, the Crystal Empire faded into the distance. It was unclear if the attacking force realized that their prize had just flown over their heads.
“Sir, storm front approaching. Five miles to intersect,” Tommy announced.
“Copy that. Get under the storm and then get us into orbit. I wanna use the clouds to mask our ascent,” Daniel ordered.
The ship continued to fly under the clouds for another five minutes before finally pulling up. As soon as the spacecraft touched the clouds, an explosion tore through the upper hull, shaking the ship violently enough to throw some people from their seats.
“Tommy, report!” Daniel shouted as crew members picked themselves off thed deck.
“Unknown. LiDAR is only showing the storm, no ships in the vicinity,” the AI replied in a puzzled tone.
“Vezina, get us above the storm,” the Captain ordered.
Once again, the pilot pulled up on the yoke, only for the ship to once again shake violently as alarms began to sound.
“Sir, hull breach on deck eight. Fire suppression systems engaged,” the AI reported.
Daniel looked at the sky in confusion. “Go to heading two two nine and increase altitude to five thousand feet.”
“Aye, sir,” Vezina answered as he turned the ship on its new heading.
As soon as the ship tried to pass above the cloud cover, another explosion tore through the already damaged section of the ship.
“Warning, hull breach, decks seven and eight. Multiple fires detected. Engine capacity down to seventy three percent, optical cloak offline,” Tommy stated as he announced the damage report.
“What the fuck is going on?” Daniel nearly shouted as he continued to scan the sky above.
“Sir, it only happens when we try to ascend above three thousand feet,” Zerom announced as he continued to glance at various monitors.
“Noted. Let’s just keep stay below the clouds for as long as possible. I can’t imagine we would keep running into this problem all the way to Equestria,” Daniel said as he sat back in his seat.
“Sir, what’s going on? Are we under attack?” Dior asked over the radio.
“Negative. We’re not really sure what happened, but we haven’t been pursued,” the Captain replied calmly.
“Alright. Passengers are secured in the conference room,” the SPARTAN stated.
“Good to know, we’ll be in Equestrian airspace in about thirty minutes, and then in Canterlot in about an hour.”
“Copy that, I’ll pass along the message,” Dior said as the transmission ended.
For the next twenty minutes, the flight went fairly undisturbed. The fires had been extinguished, and the affected areas had been patched with temporary plating. Cadance, Shining, and Dior had since joined the Captain on the bridge as they crossed into Equestrian airspace.
“Sir, LiDAR is showing multiple airships ahead. Recommend course correction,” Tommy warned.
“Hostiles?” The Captain asked.
“They appear to be sieging the city, so I would say so,” the AI replied.
Daniel grumbled as he looked at the sensor readings. “Vezina, think you can get us above the clouds?”
“Yes, sir. There’s a thunderhead coming up that we could easily slip into and hide in,” the pilot announced as he began to turn the ship.
“Alright. Make it happen,” the Captain said as he looked to the sky.
Vezina let out a nervous sigh as he pulled up on the yoke. For a moment, the ship pierced the clouds without any reaction. A second later, the ship was rocked by another explosion.
“Warning, hull breach, hangar deck. Engine capacity down to forty percent.” the AI announced.
“Get us higher!” Daniel shouted.
“Sir, we’re between cloud layers,” Zerom said as he gestured outside.
Sure enough, the Tuscany found itself in between two massive cloud layers that seemed to be supported by pillars of cloud randomly inside.
“Have you seen anything like this before?” Daniel muttered as he gazed out at the massive storm structure in front of the ship.
“It’s a common storm structure used by pegasi,” Princess Cadance commented.
Again, the ship shook as a thunderous boom echoed. “Warning, hull breach, deck six. Starboard stabilizers offline, class D fires detected.”
The ship then flew through another pillar, causing an explosion to tear through the already wounded ship. “Warning, hull breach, automated point defence systems offline. Class D fires detected across multiple decks, fire suppression systems are engaged across all decks.”
“Avoid the pillars!” Daniel shouted as Vezina tried to fly around the oncoming pillar, only to fly straight through it.
There was a flash of red light and a thunderous roar. “Mass drivers offline, LiDAR offline, primary communications array offline. Class D fires burning across multiple decks. Casualties are being reported across all decks. Multiple fatalities,” Tommy announced.
“Sir, we’re twenty minutes from Canterlot. We need to get out of here if we’re going to survive,” Zerom said worriedly.
“Can we ascend through the cloud cover?”
“I would not advise it. Upper cloud cover is almost three kilometers thick,” Chief Ellis replied.
“Damn it, alright. Drop us below the storm. I’d rather take my chances with the gryphons,” the Captain commanded.
Vezina took a moment to find an open patch of air before sharply angling the ship downward. As expected, there were multiple explosion as the ship pressed through the clouds.
“Warning, hull breaches detected across all decks, class D fires burning on all decks. Fire suppression systems are being overwhelmed. Engines down to thirty percent. Reactor housing has been damaged, power output reduced to eighty percent,” Tommy warned.
“Son of a bitch...” Daniel muttered as he looked at the damage report.
With the current state his ship was in, combined with the virtual wall of gryphon airships ahead of him, the prospect for survival was beginning to dwindle. To his horror, many of the airships around Canterlot began to turn toward him.
“Sir?” Vezina asked as he looked over his shoulder in concern.
The Captain sighed as he looked at the approaching fleet.
“Sir, we don’t have weapons capable of fighting them off,” Tommy stated.
Daniel looked over at Cadance and Shining Armor. The pink alicorn held a look of fear as she clutched the Crystal Heart, while Shining sat with a protective hoof over her shoulder. There were two options for the Captain: he could try to run the blockade and possibly kill everyone on board, or he could give a single order to possibly save everyone.
“Tommy, sound evacuation. Abandon ship,” Daniel ordered as he stood up and picked up his ODST helmet.
Everyone looked at the Captain in shock before Zerom spoke. “You heard him. Everyone out.”
“Sir, auto navigation is offline. I will be unable to hold this course without active input,” the AI announced.
“Understood,” Daniel replied as he slipped on his helmet and took a seat at the helm. “Commander, make sure everyone evacuates. The Crystal Heart needs to make it off this ship.”
“Sir, what about the small fleet standing between us and the city?” The SPARTAN asked.
“Don’t worry. They’ll be more interested in bringing me down than chasing a few lifeboats,” Daniel said as he picked up the yoke. “Tommy, download yourself to the Commander’s armor. Get those two out of here, you’re in charge now, Dior.”
The SPARTAN snapped a salute. “Aye, sir. It’s been an honor, sir.”
“Likewise, SPARTAN. Now take Tommy and get the hell off my boat,” Daniel replied with a chuckle.
As everyone on the bridge quickly walked off, Daniel tapped a few buttons on his wrist computer, causing him to broadcast the song over his radio.
“Twenty minutes? Easy,” the Captain smirked to himself.
~~~
The ship began to shake and rock as the gryphon airships began to bombard the dying spacecraft. Luckily, Kelly, Ahmad, the other SPARTANs, and the surviving ponies were already waiting for them outside the bridge.
“All of you, with me,” Dior ordered.
Cadance stuck close behind the SPARTAN as they moved through the ship, having to take detours as they ran into collapsed sections. The Princesses breath would catch in her throat every time they passed a dead crew member. The farther they went into the ship, the worse the damage got.
As they made their way toward the nearest life boats, dull thuds and small explosions could be heard, followed by the shouts and screams of the dead and dying. Fire sprinklers were often rendered useless, allowing fires to ravage entire sections of the once proud ship.
Continuing through the ship revealed a few crew members who were trapped under and behind debris. With a quick levitation spell, Cadance lifted the burning debris, allowing the injured crewmembers to be pulled out. The others trapped behind were also able to duck through the small opening. Among the survivors were the armory chief and Chef.
The now much larger group, continued to move toward the lifeboats. Cadance looked around and noticed that each human never said a word. It was a bit unsettling, but she could understand why they were like this. In these corridors, the pink alicorn had seen more death than her entire life. Even as she escaped the Crystal Empire, she hadn’t seen any actual dead bodies.
Suddenly, an explosion tore through the section they were in. Kelly rushed forward and tackled the pink alicorn to the deck, shielding her from the now torn open hull. Two unlucky unicorns screamed as they were sucked out of the ship.
“Kelly!” Ahmad shouted as he crouched next to his friend. As Cadance went to offer her thanks to the ODST, Ahmad rolled Kelly off her. Embedded in her back was a large piece of shrapnel. Ahmad placed a hand on the side of her neck, feeling for a pulse. The ODST was visibly shaking as he removed his friend’s ID tags.
Cadance couldn’t believe that this human had just died to save her life. Commander Dior quickly helped the alicorn to her hooves and motioned for the others to follow. The rest of the group continued to move along the outer passageways until they came to a number of circular doors with flashing red lights around their perimeter.
The SPARTAN pulled a lever in the hull, causing the doors to quickly slide open.
“Everyone in! Now!” The SPARTAN commanded.
Quickly, ponies and surviving humans piled into all four lifeboats. As they all sat down, the restraints slid down over their heads and the doors slammed shut. After a few seconds, the escape engines on each lifeboat exploded to life, jettisoning each pod from the dying ship.
~~~
Wing Commander Archilies watched the burning human ship as it continued to fall. Curiously, parts of the hull plating split and slid upward, exposing four cylindrical objects. The gryphon’s curiosity was compounded as all four objects were quickly shot from the hull. Part of the commander wanted to chase after the objects, but he was far more interested in the larger target.
“Sir, what of those four objects?” One of his subordinates asked.
“Ignore them. Our prize is still the big one,” the wing commander said with a grin as he pointed at the dying starship.
~~~
Daniel could hear the popping sound as each lifeboat ejected from the hull of his dying ship. Surprisingly, the door to the bridge opened, causing the Captain to look at who had defied his order to abandon ship. Taking the co-pilot seat was Commander Zerom in a set of ODST armor.
“Zerom, what the fuck are you doing? I said to abandon ship!”
“I’m telling you to go fuck yourself. Friends don’t let friends do stupid things alone,” the Commander chuckled as he set his newly acquired helmet on the console in front of him.
“Okay, but why the armor?” Daniel asked with a sigh.
“Well, I’ve always wondered how comfy this stuff was. Suffice to say, I’m impressed,” Zerom replied.
“Yeah, well, engine capacity is down to five percent, leaving us on a crash course to the valley below Canterlot,” Daniel replied as he focused on flying.
“Are the gryphons still chasing us?” Zerom asked as he tapped on the console in front of him.
Daniel nodded as Zerom slipped his helmet on. “Yeah. Looks like they either don’t care about the escape pods, or they didn’t notice.”
“Yup, I’m tracking the lifeboats now. Looks like they will be touching down in Ponyville in two minutes.”
The Captain let out a sigh of relief. “Good. So the Crystal Heart is safe.”
The two men sat in silence as their ship was continuously rocked by enemy cannon fire. Fires were burning out of control on every deck, and almost every major system was offline.
“Stand by to eject FTL drive and main reactor,” Daniel ordered.
Zerom began tapping on his console before nodding. “Ready.”
“Eject them now.”
There were two loud bangs as both the slipspace drive and main reactor were swiftly ejected from the ship. Zerom let out a small cheer as both of their recovery beacons and parachutes activated.
“One minute to impact. Still mad I came along?” Zerom asked as the ground grew closer.
“Shit, Zerom, you’re practically my brother. I couldn’t really be mad at you if I tried.” Daniel replied with a chuckle.
“Looks like the song is about to end. Perfect timing. Got anything you wanna say before we hit the ground?”
Daniel paused for a moment as the song reached its climax before singing over the radio.
“Go and tell the world,
My story!
Tell them of my brother,
Tell them about me!
The Count of Tuscany!
Yeaaaah!”
The entire ship shook violently one last time just seconds before slamming into the ground, gouging a massive scar into the ground as the ship slid to a halt.
~~~
Luna was tired and quite injured. She was covered in small gashes and bruises. The Princess was also fairly certain she had a few broken bones. But all that paled in comparison to what her ponies were going through. Unfortunately, her magic reserves were running dangerously low. If the fighting kept up for much longer, she would be unable to move the sun at the end of the day.
“Princess! It’s the Tuscany!” One of her troops shouted.
With renewed hope, Luna galloped along the upper wall until she had a clear view of the valley. Though her hope was soon shattered as she spotted the starship. Instead of the magnificent dark grey hull, flames bellowed out of massive holes as long trails of black smoke leaked from the ship. Even worse, was that the Princess noticed the ship was slowly falling.
Luna cried out in fear as the Tuscany continued to drift closer and closer to the ground. This fear was amplified by what she had just heard from Daniel’s radio. Even in her exhausted and wounded state, she had to do something.
Gathering up all the energy she had left, she cast a single spell on the dying ship. As the spell resolved, she watched the proud ship, the place she called home for the past two months, slam into the ground, kicking up a massive wave of dirt and debris. It was the last thing she saw before falling unconscious.
~~~
High in orbit, Admiral Reynolds stood on the bridge of the Infinity as he listened to the Tuscany broadcast her final words, before finally crashing into the ground. Orbital images showed the scar she left behind, as well as the trail of flaming debris. With a steady hand, he reached for the fleet wide intercom.
“All ships, this is the Admiral. We’ve just lost the Tuscany. Battlegroup Zeus, you are clear to begin orbital bombing. Three salvos of MAC rounds, followed by Archer missiles, just like we rehearsed,” the Admiral ordered as he continued to look at the wreckage of the Prowler.
With a neutral expression, he watched as the ships of Battlegroup Zeus aimed their bows toward the planet surface. When all at once, they fired their powerful MAC rounds into the ranks of gryphons far below.
“Alert all troops. Prepare for ground assault.”
~~~
King Varen watched from his command tent as the once mighty human warship crashed into the ground. His troops all cheered as if they had just slain a mighty beast. The King himself couldn’t help but smile at the burning wreckage. He wanted to personally oversee the sacking of Canterlot, and the capture of Princess Luna. However, getting to see the human ship crash was just icing on the cake.
In a split second, everything changed. Three blurs fell from the sky and blasted massive craters in the ground, vaporizing every soldier in their radius. Six more of these objects slammed into the ground over the course of a minute. Just when he thought it was over, hundreds of streaks of light fell from the sky.
The King was forced to watch as his mighty army was enveloped in balls of fire as the streaks slammed into the ground. There was nowhere to run while fire continued to rain down from the heavens. Varen slowly looked to the burning starship wreckage and came to a startling conclusion. Perhaps he had just pissed off a sleeping leviathan.
~~~
Celestia sat in her hospital room, happily reading a book on her datapad. Neume was laying on the nearby couch with her own datapad. Both mares were drawn from their reading by a knock on the door. Neume looked to Celestia who only nodded.
“Yes?” Neume called out.
The door swung open as Director Burr walked in, carrying his long coat.
“Hello, Princess. Doctor Optikanner says you have been doing quite well in your physical therapy,” the Director said as he hung his coat on the back of the door.
Celestia jotted down a quick message and levitated it to the Director. To his surprise, it was written in english. While it wasn’t perfect, it was still understandable.
“It is good to getting out of a bed.”
The Director chuckled as he pulled up a chair. “That’s good to hear. Though I am here for something else. The gryphons have pushed up and captured two more cities. Reports are coming in now that they are attacking Canterlot.”
Celestia’s face dropped as she processed the news.
“However,” the Princess perked up as the Director grinned, “the UNSC seventh fleet has just arrived in low orbit. They have begun orbital bombardment and will soon launch ground troops.”
Celestia scribbled out a quick message and handed it to Neume.
“That’s great. Is my sister alright?” Neume read out.
“I’m not sure yet,” the Director said with a shake of his head.
Celestia eyed the human curiously as she took the pad back from Neuma and wrote another message.
“Something else has you troubled,” the changeling said.
Director Burr nodded. “We lost the Tuscany. She was shot down after returning from the Crystal Empire. Only four lifeboats were recovered.”
The room sat in silence for a few moments. Celestia then wrote down another message.
“How many survived?” Neume asked.
“I’m not sure. Each lifeboat can hold ten. If each lifeboat was full when it landed, then forty. We’re not sure if anyone survived on the ship,” the Director said as he bowed his head. “If you would like, I can get you the live feed from the UNSC Infinity. That way you can watch and listen to what is happening.”
The Princess nodded and handed the Director her datapad. The human tapped a few buttons and handed it back to the alicorn.
“Just tap the camera icon in the upper left. It will automatically connect to the Infinity,” Director Burr said as he stood up.
“Thank you,” Celestia said in an incredibly pained and hoarse whisper.
The Director cracked a small smile as he grabbed his coat and walked through the door.