//------------------------------//
// We've Failed You 
// Story: Three Guys in a Stryker Return to Equestria 
// by Citrus Solutions 
//------------------------------//

	In the bright, lovely castle of Canterlot, the residing ponies were often glad to wake to a gently rising sun. Looking forward to a day of being pompous and royal. Unless you were a servant anyway, then you were already up before the sun making breakfast or doing other morning chores. Wouldn't be bad work if they were honest, if it wasn't for high-class Canterlot nobility. Nevertheless, everypony was awake and startled by the sudden and unmistakable buffeting scream of Princess Celestia herself.

"Your ass is grass, Splash!"

Splash turned out of the Stryker with his Two-Forty Nine, facing Celestia to their rear as the flying mare chased them. The engine was roaring, and the tires skid at every narrow castle corner, the entire machine threatened to flip on its side. Roar wouldn't have it with his longtime experience in driving the vehicle. Celestia came into sight again, rounding the corner easily and gaining on them once more as they tried to escape. Splash aimed his weapon at Celestia, gave plenty of leading space, and let rip. The burst of fire went wide, ripping up a section of wall and ricocheted into an expensive chandelier instead. Still, Celestia hit the airbrakes, wanting to keep herself far away from the incoming fire.

"She's always so ladylike." Splash said aloud with a mock dreamily sound.

Shortly thereafter she resumed her chase after the still-speeding Stryker, and began engaging with her own magic. She launched a focused blast at the Stryker that would've taken off Splash's head if he hadn't ducked. The entire Stryker shook, and Roar nearly lost control. With a slew of curses, he straightened the vehicle out and pressed even harder against the gas pedal. Splash popped out of the hatch again, and looked at the dented and burned section of metal on the top of the Stryker near the driver's hatch.

"Bounced off." He reported shakily.

Ahead of the Stryker, some alert guards took action. Not hesitating to start lancing magic at the vehicle. Splash took a hit between the shoulder blades, as the hatch wasn't covering him from that direction. With a gasp of pain, he fell back into the Stryker, the hatch closing above him.

"Incoming fire!" Raptor reported, then looked back and saw his teammate's status.

"Y-yeah. I noticed." Splash cried. "G-gimme a sec."

Raptor shook his head before looking back to his console, staring ahead he saw yet another tight turn. Despite Roar's ability, he was getting sloppier with each turn, and it was getting hard to believe they could keep making these turns without hurting any civilians.

"Roar, send us through that wall up ahead." He commanded.

"Uh, that looks like a express way to death by gravity." The driver commented.

"We'll be fine."

Celestia hovered just barely above the Stryker, should she try landing on it? Maybe not. Shouldn't they be slowing down? They were coming to another turn. When the turn came down to a distance measurement she could count on her feathers she realized what was going to happen; they didn't plan on making the turn.

Another wall, really you three? She thought disdainfully.

The Stryker smashed through the marble brick wall at high speed, the impact set chunks of rock and shards of glass both inside and outside the new corridor exit, the Stryker earned a few new dents as well. Once outside they instantly began to fall, the huge machination plummeted from the high castle and down into the city streets. The vehicle crushed the brick underneath it, making a miniature crater. Inside there were no shortages of bouncing around and hitting consoles or interior sections. A startled and disoriented Grape landed on top of Splash, both began to scream.

"Holy shit, I forgot you were there!" Splash yelled.

"You ponies are crazy!" Grape yelled back.

"That's because we ain't ponies!" Roar shot, reorienting himself in his seat.

Roar looked out the driver ports frantically, considering turning out. He could hardly see the street, ponies were scattering to make way for them. He cursed and pushed the hatch open, poking his head out. The first thing he saw was a small foal, scared stiff, and right in their path. At ninety clicks an hour, Roar hastily turned to dodge the child, smashing through the corner of a furniture building. For his good deed he was rewarded by nearly getting nailed by a chair.

"Oh you three are going to get me killed." Grape groaned, covering her eyes with one hoof. The other hoof was actually death-gripping Splash.

Princess Celestia had landed and calmly trotted to the edge of the new castle exit. She admired the work of Echo, there was once a time she could simply smash through walls all she wanted. Good times. What a fantastic chase too. Convincing. She thought. With all that noise, the ponies after Echo would believe Celestia was no longer associated with the humans, and the same for that Crossroads individual. Though, she couldn't get those rude comments Splash made out of her head. She couldn't help but laugh, nopony talks to her like that. She walked back to the throne room thinking on the past ten minutes, a goofy smile on her face the whole way.

"Jesus Celestia, how do you fit those flanks through these corridors like that?" Splash had said at the beginning of their chase.

"Assmouth." Celestia snickered under her breath. She sat atop her throne, which yes, she could still fit in.


...


Roughly ten clicks away from Canterlot Mountain, Echo stopped and took a breather. Grape was the first to crawl out of the Stryker and onto the through Splash's hatch and onto the ground, more or less pressing the side of her face into it. Splash was making his way out behind her.

"Solid ground." She whispered. "I missed you."

"Drama queen." Raptor said mockingly as he stumbled out. The man made it a yard from the Stryker before emptying his stomach contents on the ground. 

From their position they were skylining on a grassy hill with a treeline behind them, Canterlot Castle still in plain view. They let themselves stay there for pleasant amount of time, recovering from the ordeal that'd just occurred. An ambitious plan had been executed within a rather small timeframe. In the early hours in the afternoon, Celestia and the Stryker crew pieced together a plan to get Crossroads away from Canterlot. That planned involved making as much noise as possible on their outbound way, leaving Canterlot altogether. Crossroads would follow, and with Grape's assistance they could beat Crossroads without endangering a soul. Hopefully at the same time such an escapade would ease the current psychotic tendencies of the noble party.

The sun had begun to set when Raptor sat up from his position in the grass. 

"Let's take off. If we make some noise while head out we can make sure we have Crossroads on a lure."

It was about thirty minutes of driving as the sun continued it's journey to the horizon, stars began to twinkle in the sky as the moon began to make it's presence known. A few shells had been fired off when they began to move earlier, Grape had been quietly looking at the autoloader since.

"Raptor." She finally broke the silence.

The sound of his voice shook the crewman awake. "Y-Yeah."

"Is this really just a machine? Does it follow your will at the pull of a lever and the turn of a valve? Or is it some twisted creature, bred to raze and kill? Because I'm... I think I'm afraid to think it's just a machine."

She took her gaze off the autoloader, and looked directly into Raptor's eyes. "I'm afraid to think that intent to raze and kill is yours."

Raptor blinked, and looked away. "We don't raze, and we don't kill without reason."

Her gaze lowered. "There's no right reason in killing. Not ever."

"It's different where we come from." Splash jutted in to help Raptor, but neither he would look at the mare that was seating right beside him, in a tight little corner the crew had cleared for her. 

"In terms of the lives you live here you could almost say our lives aren't real back in that other world. Like it was all make-believe." He tried to explain.

"No one dies forever. Permadeath is a like something out of a scary story there. Scary, but not real." Roar spoke.

"Undying... Spending your eternities engaging in constant warfare." The mare said. She looked back at the autoloader.

It was silent for a few more moments before Splash broke the silence again.

"Sure." He said. "Why not? It's what we're meant to do. The day we came to existence we knew what our job was. It's our job to occupy the enemy, keep them from going anywhere else or harming anything else. We'd foil the enemy plans at every corner, forcing them to struggle and exhaust themselves for every inch of ground they took. Sure they'll come back, sure we'll have to do it again. I'd say that's better than the other option; leaving them to their own devices."

Grape stared at the back of the man's head for the longest time, before sighing. "I guess if I was supposed to understand, I would be one of you instead."

Splash turned his head to the mare after a few seconds, when he saw her, the hairs on the back of her neck had bristled. There was some sort of discomfort in her face.

The man tried not to take offense. "I know you don't like it, but--"

"N-No, not that." The mare interrupted apologetically. "There's something else...There's something in the air. Something big, something... Wrong."

"What the hell?" Raptor suddenly burst. "She's right. Stop the vehicle."

Splash turned back to his screen, and Grape moved to look over his shoulder. Blue sparks were forming up ahead, the small bursts of energy coming from thin air. The group stared for a minute or two until it intensified, and with a sonic boom blue maelstroms erupted. Three of them in a triangle formation in the air. Only moments later odd shapes formed, and air vehicles burst from the portal. More than a normal base would field at once, each one flying in tight formation. 

Blackhawks, gunners visible on each side and infantry sitting patiently in the cabin. Chinooks, with ropes suspending the armored vehicles beneath them. Armed Littlebirds fluttered out behind them with two human shapes visible within. Then, with the roar of jet engines appeared the Warthogs and an F-35. All these vehicles speeding off in the direction the Stryker crew had originated from, passing swiftly over them with no sign of recognition. The Stryker shook intensively as all the active rotors passed overhead.

"W-What the... Your vehicles can fly too?"

Roar covered his mouth. "That's our entire air fleet. Why are they here? How are they here?" 

Raptor spoke. "They went towards Canterlot, why would they be..."

Synapses fired. The cabin suddenly felt very cold when he said, "I'm so sorry."

"W-What?" The mare leaned towards him, obviously worked up after seeing the horrifying armada pass overhead. She didn't get an answer from Raptor and turned to Splash. "Why is he sorry?"

The gunner stared at the vehicles flying away on his screen, the screen which he had enveloped in a white-knuckle grip.

"W-We gotta go back. We're going back, right?" He pointed the question to Raptor.

"Someone tell me what's happening!"

Roar took the vehicle out of park, and pressed on the gas, swinging the vehicle around. 

"All those vehicles and troops are under the command of one man." He explained. 

"... And that man is going to burn Canterlot to the ground."