//------------------------------//
// [CH 7]  Distant Thunder 
// Story: Armored Core:  A Nine Breaker's Ponies 
// by Xymeiu 
//------------------------------//

	The blue armored commanding griffon leading the invasion watched as the white rod of electricity shot out from one of the colossi with a thunderous roar.  It neared him and he braced for impact as the obvious imminent death neared.  The energy beam slammed into a griffon some few rows behind him and violently burst into a massive explosion that blew off the front tip of the force by a considerable amount.  The energy blast inflated with fire and with such force that griffons flew every which way from the outburst of flames except the commander, who flew just out of the range of the cannon fire.  He looked again at the destructive monsters right as the same one launched four objects glowing a fire-red into the sky.  The projectiles stopped their vertical flight and made way for his army of dispersed soldiers.  Sharp contrails followed the unknown objects.

The flying fire whined past the commander and exploded against four more units making up the invasion, obliterating them with a smaller ball of fire.  A third of his army had just been destroyed without even trying and by an alien of all things!  Only two options ran through his mind:  Fight or flight.  His horrors became worse when he saw both of them move quickly through the sky, never having a chance to choose an option as a steel grey fist the size of his body slam into his beak.  The usually sickening crunch of a severely fractured skull was dulled by the repeated jets of white flame propelling the attacker even closer to more targets.

Coral Star, being lighter than Rabbit's Foot, was making more progress and was already face to face with the opposition, slicing multiple griffons with each swing of her laser blade.  In retaliation, the feathered lions of myth attempted ramming, shooting arrows with crossbows, burning stones launched from catapults, and even scratching the pink menace, all with no significant results other than ruined paint and cracked skulls followed by a gold beam splitting them in two.  Those foolish enough to get behind the pink menace were met with the searing heat of white hot thrusters burning off their feathers even through armor.  Their now defunct wings held no lift and promptly sent the winged hybrids plummeting to their untimely doom.

The black painted Rabbit's Foot, on the other hand, was using less of the laser blade embedded in its arm and opted more more use of blunt force.  The griffons met no mercy at the hands of the hovering metal parts continuously breaking bones and sending their owners flying away as quickly as they came.  Very unlucky ones were grabbed and thrown at an ally with both meeting death upon contact, all the while being struck with the intimidation and fear that the red eye gave them as it glared down its next rag-doll for its parody of a brawl.  Some were faced with splitting by way of a blue-white laser splitting them in half in lieu of physical range.

Back at a small town commonly referred to as Ponyville, almost all of the populace watched the battle unfold from the streets of their hometown.  Worried parents shooed their children into their homes while all others murmured amongst themselves about the current situation.  A few pegasi had taken up residence atop some clouds in an attempt to get a better view while some had binoculars and telescopes, but to the naked eye the scene was a pink blur and a flailing black creature none have ever seen before.

Twilight Sparkle burst through the door to the town's tree library and caused it to stop against nothing midway with a slam.  The sudden entry startled a small purple-scaled dragon who was eating his lunch of gems for the day.  He gave a yell and flailed his arms wildly before he finally caught himself from falling over in the wooden chair.  Twilight rapidly climbed the stairs with Spike lagging behind fruitlessly trying to catch Twilight's attention.

"Twilight!" he shouted as the unicorn searched frantically through the area, "Twilight, what's with the all rush?"  The mare ignored his calls as she kept searching.  "What's going on?  Is it that thing that fell last night?"

Twilight stopped her rummaging in a chest for a moment, "Aha!  Found it!" she yelled as she pulled out a telescope and set it up at a window with a clear view of the forestry she left earlier.  Large pink and black objects in the air moved at a rapid pace with light blue and gold streaks following their movements in the distance.  Spike caught a glimpse of this and rushed to the open window's edge right as a white tube extended next to him.

"Twilight, what's going on?" he said not taking his eyes off the scene, trying to grasp the reason behind the sighting.  

"Well, if you can wait then I'll tell you," snapped the curious mare peering down the telescope at the scene she was forced to miss.  


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Author's note.  Well, this is the end.  The last fragment to this slideshow of something mashed together.  It was fun, and I enjoyed this.  As for the rest of the plot, I leave that up to you, literally.  Do what you please.
And with that, I bid farewell to this prototype.
(To the avid fans of this, I am truly sorry for getting your hopes up.)