> War Between Gods
>  by Verathuum
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		Some citizens of Equestria awoke during the middle of the night when the sky seemingly tore open, allowing sunlight to flood in. Those who did see this strange phenomenon simply assumed they were dreaming or hallucinating from a lack of sleep as the sky quickly closed and returned to normal. Besides, Luna could surely fix whatever was going on, even if they were really seeing daylight above the obsidian night. Few got a good enough look to see the black objects before the sky closed and they disappeared, camouflaged against the black night; those who did see them assumed they were part of the night and that the sky, or Luna, simply was going through some temporary change.
As the morning came, the entire populace of Equestria awoke to something they did not expect: an entire fleet of massive black ships silently hovering over their country. Those who just assumed they were dreaming during the night could not come to terms that the ships were real at first, but after an hour or so, most of the citizens came to accept that something was going on. Anyone with any ounce of magical capabilities, or at least knowledge of the arcane, was storming the libraries searching for whatever kind of magic was keeping those ships aloft; but alas it was not magic at play, rather science. 

“Well,” Jolterix said to Luna as they watched the sun come up over the horizon, “Do you think Discordia will want to attack after seeing a Florian fleet protecting your country?”

“I’m not sure they will try even if they got help from the Chitin Lands,” Luna replied.

“I can’t say I know the Chitin Lands,” Jolterix told her.

Luna smiled and silently relished this moment: finally, she could teach this know-it-all Florian something. “They’re a group of dependent kingdoms south of here in the deserts. They use chitin as their armor instead of metal.”

“They sound like an interesting bunch,” Jolterix said as he took his gaze from the Gluhwurmchen, the fleet’s carrier and flagship, and looked at Luna, “We should get your sister and Tenner, those Florians up there will want to speak with you.”

“Right, we should,” Luna said. She turned around and led Jolterix, who raised his helmet upon entering the castle, towards the breakfast room where she knew Celestia always is after she awakens. This time was no different, and they found Celestia munching on a pancake with Tennerac.

“Good morning, sister,” Celestia said happily as she bit into a banana. Even though it was the early morning and it was obvious both Tennerac and Celestia had just awoken, she showed no signs of it. Her hair was waving in some nonexistent breeze as it usually did; her eye liner and eye shadow were perfect as usual. It was a mystery how she was so perfect even at this hour, especially since she didn’t have her crown and she was dressed in some nightgown that should not have been as appealing on her.

Tennerac, like most males, was as he normally looked, save for his slightly stirred hair and groggy look. He wore a simple shirt and a pair of shorts for the sake of comfort despite the quickly approaching winter. He had his disc with him and operable, but it was neither activated nor on his back.

“Celestia, I trust you’ve noticed the Florian Fleet in our skies?” Luna asked her.

“Of course,” Celestia said like it was no big deal, “They’re hard to miss. When did they arrive?”

“Around midnight,” Tennerac said. “Jolterix and I summoned them here.”

Jolterix nodded at the mention of his name, and glanced at Tennerac. Although his face was hidden, everyone could tell he was glaring harshly at Tennerac for not wearing his helmet in the castle.

“Oh, please,” Celestia said knowing exactly what Jolterix was up to, “it’s not like we’ll take your identities or anything.”

“It’s not about that,” he told her and then silently thought to himself, “It’s about power and authority, though, I guess the last few days assert our power well enough.” He thought back to the flintlock pistols and how they were harmless to Tennerac and him. He let his helmet down which no one seemed to notice, exactly as Celestia probably implied; but he might have been reading too deeply into her comment.

“So what’s going to happen now?” Celestia asked.

“We keep our ships here until Discordia decides not to attack. We don’t think there will be a single shot fired, or a single swipe of a sword,” Tennerac told her.

“Oh, good,” Celestia perked up and grinned slightly at that, “I love winning with no costs. Well sit down, eat you two. I’m sure you’re starved after putting the moon down, Luna.”

“Well I guess I could eat something,” Luna said as she sat down. Jolterix sat next to her and began grabbing at some food on the table as well. He dissolved his robes and combat skin, and ultimately removed his disc to he could eat more comfortably.

They managed to get fairly far into their breakfast before a castle guard interrupted them. “Your highnesses,” he said between breaths, “Someone from the, er, ships requests your company. You Florians, as well.”

“Very well,” Celestia said, “But we must get ready first.”

“Of course,” the guard said and he left the room, taking post at the door just outside.

“Luna and I are ready,” Jolterix said, “We will wait for you two at the grand doors in the foyer.” Tennerac and Celestia nodded in agreement as they left.

Jolterix placed his disc on his back and it activated, spawning his robes over his leisure clothes, but not his combat skin; he knew there would be no fighting in his own peoples’ warships. Luna was still dressed in her military uniform as she never had the chance to change. This didn’t bother her as she liked the power and authority it let her feel when she wore it, and she thought it the best outfit to wear when meeting Florian military officials.

Several minutes later Tennerac and Celestia arrived at the foyer doors where Jolterix and Luna awaited. Celestia was back in her military uniform like Luna, but it was clear she missed having her sword at her side; she still didn’t know which Florian had cut it in half the day they met, lucky for them. As for Tennerac, he had activated his disc spawning his robes as well. Whether he wore his combat skin under it was impossible to tell. Neither Florians wore his helmet.

“Let’s go,” Celestia said as the doors opened and she walked through them with Tennerac, Luna, and Jolterix in tow. 
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Outside awaited a small helicopter like craft parked in the grass off of the main stone path. It had two light-powered engines on the edges of its stubby wings which rotated to allow vertical takeoff and landing, like an Osprey helicopter. This particular Florian craft was known as a Gauner: it had a single pilot and was primarily used to transport light cargo or small amounts of passengers. It was powered down and its pilot waited next to the doors, ready to allow the Equestrians and the Florians inside.

“Vell, Vell,” the pilot said as they got to the craft, “I hahv noht seen yu in a long time, Tenner.” Her accent was quite thick, as though she barely knew Equestrian at all; although it was unlikely she was very fluent in it anyway. She wore a combat skin like Jolterix’s or Tennerac’s, but it had red lights instead of yellow or white and she had two metal bars over each of her shoulders and a triangular piece accompanying the bars. Behind her seemed to be more metal plates, but it was hard to tell as she never turned her back to them. Her height was in between Celestia’s and Luna’s. Her hair was a blonde color with streaks of blonde. It was too far away to see her eye color, so they just looked solid blue. Her skin was white like Jolterix’s and Tennerac’s, a side-effect of her nocturnalism even though she was from the equatorial parts of Equus.

“Yeah, it’s been a while,” Tennerac agreed.

“Who’s that?” Luna asked Jolterix quietly.

“Probably one of his ex-girlfriends,” he replied, “I don’t really know.”

“So, are vee ready tu go?” she asked as she opened the door.

“Yes, Minnescence, we’re ready,” Tennerac replied.

Minnescence, the pilot, led them into the Gauner’s small passenger bay where only four seats awaited them, and then fired up its engines. Both Florians raised their helmets when the Gauner’s doors closed. The small craft soon took off and made its way to the Gluhwurmchen, which hovered about nine thousand feet above the ground.

“Who’s in charge?” Jolterix asked Minnescence over his helmet’s radio.

“Vernerasche,” she replied. 

Jolterix’s expression changed from anticipation to a mixture of dread and doubt behind his mask and he unconsciously said, “Dammit.”

“What’s wrong?” Luna asked him.

“Venerasche,” he replied, “I was hoping Dezler would be here already.”

“Why?” Luna inquired.

“He’s not one to leave his citizens fighting a war without his being there,” Tennerac told her. 

Luna nodded in acknowledgement and for the rest of the short flight, they sat in silence. Eventually the little craft reached the fleet of large ships. Even from the ground they looked big, but up close they were massive: even the smallest was about the size of Ponyville and it could probably hold its population, perhaps even more.  The carrier ship was easily the largest craft in the fleet, and probably bigger than Canterlot. It was at least longer, anyway. The Gauner flew into the Gluhwurmchen’s hangar bay and allowed its passengers to get out. The Gauner’s outlines became exposed and it disappeared into a baton. Minnescence continued on her way to some other part of the ship.

The Gluhwurmchen’s interior, like its exterior, was almost completely jet black, save for the red lights here and there. No smaller ships, like a Vogel, light sail, Gauner or anything else the Florians might have dreamed up sat in the hangar, because they were all in their baton forms elsewhere. Instead, larger crafts aligned the massive hangar bay. Large drop ships capable of carrying fifteen or twenty people sat closest to the door, but there was easily a hundred yards between them and the door. This space was most likely used for whatever crafts might leave or enter the Gluhwurmchen’s hangar bay. Their design was similar to the Gauner, although they were bigger and had more engines. Behind them sat large planes, presumably bombers or smaller cargo craft that had more agility than a massive ship like the Gluhwurmchen and were used when their nimbleness was needed.

Several Florians walked along in the hangar but they were few and far between, a fraction of what one would expect to see in such a ship, although it was not absurd for the Florians to be elsewhere in the ship, such as a dining hall or sleeping. In the far end, deepest in the ship’s belly, stood a giant humanoid thing; it was easy a hundred feet tall and made of metal. Much of it was hidden behind scaffolding, catwalks, and other parts of the ship, but it was not hard to tell it was a behemoth of a machine. The most notable part was that there were more behind it. They were most likely the reason why the hangar bay was so tall.

“What kind of war are you preparing for exactly?” Luna asked Jolterix with a hint of fear in her voice. If they wanted to, the Florians could simply take whatever they wanted and enslave whoever they wanted with little to no resistance. Even though Equestrians had magic, she didn’t know how effective it would really be against crafts made of metal and hardened light.

“The kind where we intimidate the enemy to the point where they back off,” he replied, “Don’t worry, I doubt most of this equipment will be used, anyway. It doesn’t look like too many people came, so I’m sure Dezler thought intimidation would be the best way to go.”

“This way,” Tennerac said. He began his walk somewhat towards the metal behemoths, but more to the left and ultimately towards an opened door. He led them through a maze of black walls and red lights until they arrived in front of an open elevator. He and Jolterix led the Equestrians onto it and the elevator began to move upwards where they soon emerged in the Gluhwurmchen’s bridge.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The bridge was a large room, about the size of a standard Ponyville home with about ten people in it, not counting the four new arrivals. The walls were made of several massive windows that allowed the entire bridge to see outside: both the sky and the ground clearly as well as most of the ship itself. Several desks with glowing holograms dotted the area; no doubt they were used to control the massive Gluhwurmchen. In the room’s center sat a large table with a hologram of the entirety of Equestria, Discordia, and the Crystal Empire; it had accurate topography as well as real-time weather. 
Just behind the table stood a man dressed in robes similar to Jolterix’s and Tennerac’s, only there were some extra pieces. An inch or so above his shoulders were four metal bars and a rounded triangular piece that extended just off his shoulder. All ten metal pieces hovered above his shoulders, and there was no visible thing keeping the bars in place. The man looked up at the new entities on the ship and grinned. “Hello,” he said with a moderately thick accent.

“Hello, Konkan Vernerasche,” Tennerac said.

“Selkor Tennerac, and Selkor Yolterix,” Vernerasche replied with, using their military ranks as well.

“Not anymore,” Jolterix said quickly as he approached the table, “Neither Tenner or I are in the military now, as you should know.” He was joined by Tennerac and they stood opposite of Vernerasche 

“Well, Dezler wants you both reinstated,” Vernerasche smiled deviously. He knew Jolterix especially didn’t want to be reinstated.

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Jolterix asked him with traces of distrust in his voice. It was obvious just how much he hated reinstatement.

“Because I had a note for you both,” Dezler’s voice came from a circular pad nearby. A blue hologram of Dezler appeared over it. “I’ll be on my way to the Gluhwurmchen within a day. I have several very important things that must be done here first; otherwise I’d be there now.”

“Kaiser Dezler,” Vernerasche said, “I can assure you, I’ve got everything under control here.”

“I don’t doubt your abilities, Vernerasche,” Dezler’s hologram replied, “I just that find it improper for a leader to not be present and ready to fight with his country should the need arise.”

“Good old Dezler,” Jolterix muttered with a smile.

“Anyway I have ordered your reinstatements, but I am also placing you both under my direct order since I think both of you will do better as serving as the Equestrian Princesses’ bodyguards,” Dezler told them. “I will see you both tomorrow,” and with that, the hologram went dark.

“Well you heard the man, Yolterix,” Vernerasche said as he waved two small discs in his hands. Jolterix and Tennerac both took them and placed them on their normal discs. The lights on their clothes shifted from yellow to red indicating their active service. “And don’t forget your epaulettes,” Vernerasche said as he shut the hologram off on the table and placed two boxes on it.

Jolterix took the box he was given and opened it on the table. He could feel Luna’s presence as she walked up to him, to see what was inside; he couldn’t blame her curiosity, but he hoped she was a fair distance from him. He stretched his right arm towards the box and three metal bars and a rounded triangular piece emerged from the box, floating up his arm and “locking” into place over his shoulder much like Vernerasche’s epaulettes. Jolterix did this again with his left arm and now the eight bars of metal floated above his shoulders as though they were under the influence of magic. The only problem was that Florians could not use magic like that, so it had to be technology-based. Jolterix turned around to face Luna and several plates of metal emerged from the box and found their places on his back in the shape of folded wings.
Tennerac also had eight pieces of metal over his shoulders but he had no wings. Instead he had two blade-like pieces just off his forearms, much like gauntlets and large pauldrons floating over his shoulders instead of triangular pieces. He also had pieces of plates around his torso much like armor. 

“Perhaps it was that where the metal plates were on a Florian’s body meant what he was supposed to do?” Luna thought to herself. She knew Jolterix flew crafts for a living, so wings seemed appropriate. She also hypothesized that the same science that kept the ships aloft also kept those metal plates suspended in the air.

“Well I hope you’re ready for your first assignment, Yolterix,” Vernerasche said with his devious grin. It was clear the hate between them was mutual.

“I’m under Dezler’s command, not yours,” Jolterix told him with a taunting smile.

“I’m still your superior regardless,” Vernerasche told him, “Now I need you to go fetch me my breakfast.”

“Forget it.”

“Lamera would,” Vernerasche appealed.

“Then she can do it,” Jolterix replied, “But I’ve got orders of my own.” He quickly turned around and to walk out of the room when suddenly one of the crewmembers spoke up.

“Sir, we’ve got a large fleet of unknowns,” he said looking away from his hologram.

“Send them to me,” Vernerasche said. He waved his hand over the table and the holographic map of the region came up. A large fleet of ships was over Discordia and headed towards Equestria. Several ships seemed to appear on the map, indicating that they had just taken off from the ground. Vernerasche turned around and stared out the windows as they were pointed at Discordia; either by coincidence or on purpose it didn’t matter. He raised his helmet and stared into the distance for about a minute before dropping his helmet and turning around. “Well it’s no radar glitch,” he said, 
“Better get ready. They look interesting.”

“Interesting, how?” Tennerac asked him.

“They’re not of Discorian tech and they’re certainly no airships like Equestria’s got,” Vernerasche told him.

“What does that mean?” Luna asked Jolterix next to him.

“That’s a good question,” he told her, “Just a few days ago they had muskets and now…those,” he looked at the holographic map and saw the ships looked somewhat like Florian ships, but only to the untrained eye of an Equestrian.

“Also,” Luna asked him, “Why’s everyone speaking Equestrian?”

“It’s impolite in Florian culture to speak a language not everyone in the room speaks, if it can be helped,” he told her. Each Florian in the room knew Equestrian, but the Equestrians didn’t know any Florian language so their customs dictated we speak Equestrian.

“Alright,” Luna replied. “What are you gonna do about the Discordian ships?”

“We’ll see,” Jolterix said. The map showed the ships had now crossed into Equestrian airspace and that several airships were flying towards them. After several seconds, the airships disappeared off the map and the Discordian ships continued unfazed. Seeing the Equestrian airships beaten so easily, even on radar, was enough to both the princesses. 

“Don’t worry,” Jolterix told Luna when he saw how bothered she was, “You and your people are under our care.”

After about half an hour, the gray Discordian ships were close to the Florian fleet. The Discordian ships were seemingly less advanced than the Florian fleet. Most were smaller and had massive engines on the backs supported by large beams and pillars. It was clear they did not run on light and magnets, but rather some dirty fuel, like nuclear or even fossil fuels. In the front of the ships was a large, circular canopy that held the bridge and most likely the rest of the inhabited sections. The Discordian fleet stopped and hovered before the Florian fleet. Everyone close enough to the Discordian ships could see that to achieve a hover, they needed to redirect their airflow, and the large engines on the back had rotated to point downwards.

“Well, look at this,” Tennerac said noting the huge advance Discordia had made from muskets to these ships in just a few days. “It’s like they’re challenging us. Should we comply?”

“No,” Jolterix told him, “Send them home. We don’t want bloodshed, do we?”

“You make a good point, as much as I’d hate to admit it. Though, I was already about to contact them,” Vernerasche assured him as he swiped his hand over his table until a line appeared that wavered and shook whenever he spoke. He pushed another button and everyone in the room silenced themselves. “Discordian ships in Equestrian airspace, this is the Florian fleet’s commander, Vernasche. We will give you one hour to completely leave Equestrian airspace and return home, otherwise we will take action,” he told the Discordians via the table’s radio. He then repeated what he said in Discordian so the ships would have no excuse for not complying. He turned off the radio when he was finished with his message.

“How does he know Discordian?” Luna asked Jolterix.

“Same reason I know Equestrian,” he replied.

“Because you lived here?”

“Exactly,” Jolterix said.

“Now we sit back and wait for them to clear Equestrian airspace,” Vernasche said triumphantly. “Selkor Lemera, prep our fleet to attack the Discordians if they do not comply.” The ship commander of the Gluhwurmchen nodded and she turned back to her hologram and spoke into her headset. The large windows in the front of the bridge became encased in tinted windows, no doubt much stronger than the simple glass that was already there. Energy signatures began appearing outside and soon the ship was encased in a protective shield, made completely from a magnetic field.

“So what’s next in your master plan?” Jolterix asked Vernasche.

“We wait until the hour is up. They might just tempt us to fire at them until then and then use some kind of portal to get back to Discordia,” Vernasche told him.

“What are they doing?” Celestia asked as she pointed out the window. The Discordian ships were beginning to open up sections of their undersides while still remaining in a hover mode. The table changed again to an image of a Discordian officer.

“Well, well,” he said in a taunting manner, “The Equestrians couldn’t protect themselves so they enlist the mythical Florians? Well unfortunately, we won’t allow you to be here and bully us. Instead you Florians leave and the Equestrians’ worst fate might be that of enslavement.”

“You drive a hard bagain, Discordian,” Vernasche said to the screen, “but I’m afraid our offer is the only one you’ll get. The clock is ticking.” He shut off the screen and turned his gaze outside along with everyone else in the bridge. Suddenly, the Discordian fleet began firing what looked like missiles into the ground of Equestria.

“Dammit, order a retaliation!” Jolterix yelled at Vernasche seconds after the missiles appeared.

Vernasche was already getting his radio ready and finally said, “All ships fire on the Discoridian fleet! Vaporize the flagship and target the others’ guns!” Suddenly, the Discordian ship erupted into flames and exploded. Shockwaves plowed through the air and the force fields around the Florian ships became visible as it passed over them. The Discordian ship was almost completely evaporated from the explosion and heat from the Florian weaponry, and small burning chunks of the broken ship fell to the ground. The other Discordian ships quickly turned around after realizing their weapons had been destroyed, and the Florians watched them retreat passed the border.

“We’d better get going, your country needs you two,” Tennerac said to Celestia and Luna.

“What of the third princess here?” Jolterix asked.

“Cadance?” Celestia tried to clarify, “She’s gone back to the Crystal Empire.”

“No, the other Equestrian one,” Jolterix told her.

“Twilight Sparkle will be summoned to the castle as well,” Celestia said, “I trust you two can help keep her and her friends safe as well?”

“We can try,” Jolterix said, “It’d be better than having her out in that town by herself.” He then thought to himself, 

“Twilight Sparkle. Her name is a synonym for dusk light. Just remember that and you’ll do well.”

“One last thing,” Vernasche said, “Limit your airships. We don’t want any of them above ten thousand feet. Expect to see our craft mobilize around your country; we need to keep strict patrols.”

“Very well,” Celestia said, “I’ll inform the air teams of the news.” She turned and followed the rest of her group out of the bridge.

“Oh and Yolterix,” Vernasche called, “My breakfast?”

“Your problem, not mine,” Jolterix replied as the elevator doors shut.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Well now we better get Princess Twilight here,” Tennerac said as the group made its way into Canterlot Castle.

“Would you two happen to know where she is now?” Jolterix asked Luna and Celestia.

“The town called Ponyville, most likely,” Celestia said, “Just about an hour away by airship.”

“Alright, well send someone to get her and whatever belongings she needs,” Jolterix said.

“But aren’t you gonna-” Luna began.

“We can’t. We’ve been charged with your protection and we really can’t run errands for you. Plus I’m sure there’s a train or something that can get her here?” Tennerac said.

“I’ll send her a letter,” Celestia said as she walked to her throne, “Meanwhile Luna, you can get some rest.”

“I’ll see you later then, Celestia,” Luna said as she walked off. Jolterix followed her until they passed his room.

When they had awoken, Twilight Sparkle and her entourage had arrived and were speaking with Celestia and Tennerac.

“Is this another Florian?” the one Jolterix remembered as the dress maker asked.

“Yes,” he replied as he realized he wasn’t wearing any of his Florian clothes. He had his disc with him, as it was habitual at this point in his long life, so he placed it on his back. His robes materialized over his leisure clothes as well as his epaulettes and the disconnected metal plates that formed wings on his back. He walked over the only one with a crown: easily identified as the other princess.

“Well it’s nice to meet you properly,” the princess said.

He looked at her intensely as he thought to himself, “Shoot, what’s her name. It means dusk light, and sunset happens at dusk, and light…ah, I remember now.” He extended his hand and said, “It’s nice to properly meet you as well, Princess Sunset Shimmer.” His was replied to with a hard slap to the face and no idea why it happened.

“Uhh…Sunset Shimmer is someone completely different, entirely,” the one Jolterix remembered as the apple farmer told him, “Her name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Well, sorry about that, then,” Jolterix apologized half-heartedly. “I assume you’re up to speed with the situation here?” He rubbed his face and felt the heated skin: it still stung like something bit him.

“Yes,” Twilight said, “Your friend and Celestia have said that your people are here to ‘protect us.’ Also, that you’ll be doing some kind of tests at ten thousand feet, and that your ships disabled and destroyed Discordian ships. Also, it looks like you’ve got some kind of magic with those bars above your shoulders. Can I ask what that is?”

“It’s not magic,” Jolterix told her. He glanced at Tennerac as he was leaving the room and noticed he wasn’t sporting his metal plates so they were completely new to these Equestrians. “It deals with magnets and gravity: the same sciences that keep our ships in the air. Anyway, these wings signify that I’m a pilot, armor plates and gauntlets signify ground combat, and a big fin on the back and smaller ones just off the arms signifies marine combat. They all float just above our skin.”

“So what kind of flying do you do?” Rainbow Dash asked him with a look of minimal interest. He remembered her specifically well because she was also a pilot.

“Oh, you know high G maneuvers and upper-atmosphere weather control,” Jolterix told her as he sat down with them, “We’ve already requested your airspace above ten thousand feet, so if you look closely you might get to see Florian planes buzzing around making a lot of noise.”

“So are you two really the Germanes from a few days ago?” Fluttershy asked him.

“Yes,” he said, “I’m sure Tennerac gave you the same answer?”

“I just wanted to make sure,” Fluttershy said as she tilted her head down and tried hiding behind her hair.
Jolterix could tell it took a lot of her courage to ask him that, but she still needed to know who she rented her house to nonetheless.

“So if I remember right, your name should actually be pronounced ‘Yolterix,’” Twilight said, “The way you two spoke to each other in your language sounds an awful lot like Germane and I know they would pronounce your name like that.”

“That’s quite perceptive if you,” Jolterix praised her, “But either one is fine.”

“Why does Germaney have the same language as Auflorsung?” the dressmaker, Rarity, asked.

“If I remember right it’s because a lot of Florians went there during the ancient days and assimilated with the locals and the language is similar but not the same,” he answered her.

“Whatter ya Florians really doin’ in Equestria, anyway?” the apple farmer asked him.

“No beating around the bush with you?” he asked rhetorically. “We’re just here to see that Equestria doesn’t burn in a potential war with Discordia. After what we’ve seen today…er yesterday, whatever it was to you, it’s evident you need our help.”

“Whataya mean?” she asked him.

Jolterix thought back to the event and remembered how early it was in the morning. Very few people were probably awake and Applejack was most likely not one of them. “Discordia has some fleet of ships that look similar to Florian ships-to you-but they’re definitely not Florian, and there’s no way Discordia could have built them; they were using flintlock guns just days ago,” he paused in thought, “I’m not sure what’s going on over there.”

“Don’t get used to that, girls. He almost always knows what’s going on,” a voice came. Luna emerged from the hallway with a groggy expression and just barely into her royal clothing: a long blue dress with her obsidian and diamond crown, accompanied by glass bracelets and glass shoes. Through the windows, everyone could see she had already raised the moon so she was taxed from that on top of just waking up. “You’ll soon see that the Florians are incredible people,” she yawned, “And that we’re in very good hands.” She gave Jolterix a smile that he returned.

“But why can’t Equestria just handle itself?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Along with the Crystal Empire, aren’t we strong enough? What if we persuaded Chrysalis and her armies to help us? I’m sure they would…as much as I’d hate to see her again.”

“Maybe if Discordia didn’t have those new ships,” Luna explained, “that our combined forces could defeat them, but even then we didn’t want to ask the Chitin Peoples to help us. If we allowed them in our country, they would surely take advantage of the situation and use us as their food.”

“Luna does have a point, Rainbow,” Twilight told her.

“Just how do they do that?” Jolterix asked them.

“They can change their appearance to blend in, which they would surely use to steal our energy through love until Equestria was annexed by them,” Luna told him.

“Interesting,” he mused, “Perhaps I’ll have to go meet one and see how they do that.”

“That’s a bad idea,” Luna told him, “Trust me.”

“I’m a Florian, my dear. I can handle myself pretty well, you know that.”

“Is this about the jyptolok?” Luna asked skeptically.

“That and all the other things.”

“Can you people do anything you want?” Twilight asked trying to get a better idea on their limitations. . She seemed to be the most curious, but Jolterix remembered her as a thinker.

“No. Did you think Florians were limitless people akin to gods?”

“Well…not really.”

“Alright, Twilight, Ah think you’ve pestered the boy enough,” Applejack replied.

“I’m actually over a thousand years old,” Jolterix told her.

Applejack laughed, “I know I know barely anythin’ about your people, but I know you’re not immortals.”

“Actually,” Luna butted in, “He’s a couple hundred years younger than me. Thanks to some kind of genetic thing they do, they let themselves live forever, but the cost was they can’t have kids anymore.”

“How awful,” said the barely audible voice of Fluttershy.

“Well I think it’s time you all went to bed,” Luna said, “Jolter and I have to keep the night.”

“Do you need any help, Princess Luna?” Twilight asked her.

“No. Besides you all need your rest, anyway,” Luna said.

“She’s raht, we need our sleep,” Applejack told Twilight.

“Always the boring voice of reason,” Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath.

“You should be rested,” Jolterix reinforced, “I’m not sure what will happen tomorrow and you should all be ready for anything.”

“Alright,” Twilight said, her curiosity finally being dominated by reason and caution. Her entourage and she went off to their respective rooms and soon went to bed. Luna and Jolterix guarded the night as usual: Luna took care of any nightly affairs from the throne and Jolterix kept an ear out for the Florian fleet and their activities. A smile found its way onto his face as he heard of their most recent plans.

> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next day all the diurnal citizens awoke, completely ignorant of the small craft flying around the Florian ships. Tiny black objects flew dizzying circles near the large Florian ships, trailing vapor and white clouds. Even though the crafts were at least eight or nine thousand feet above the ground, some would occasionally drop under three thousand feet and could become very loud, depending on where their engines were pointed, and if they were flying at supersonic speeds or not.

“What’s going on? Are we being attacked?” asked a panicked Twilight as she ran from her room having just noticed the unexplainable phenomenon, still in her pajamas, and found some of her friends on the balcony of the throne room watching the strange crafts.

“No, I don’t think so,” Rarity said noticing that the crafts were staying in a relatively small area, and rarely got close to the ground.

“Whatever they are…they’re awesome!” Rainbow Dash said to no one in particular. Equestrian flying machines like she was used to could never do the complex maneuvers and high speeds that the ones overhead could, and she loved watching these new things fly. Even the one she broke the sound barrier in could not measure up to what she saw above her.

“Wait, where’s Princess Celestia and her Florian friend?” Fluttershy asked barely audibly.

“Good question,” Twilight said as she noticed Celestia and Tennerac were nowhere to be found, “I’m sure they’d know what’s going on.”

“What in tarnation is goin’ on?” Applejack asked them half-panicking as she emerged onto the balcony, also still in her pajamas. Evidently, only Canterlot Castle was able to hear the Florian fighters since no one else seemed to be out and about yet.

“We don’t know, but it doesn’t look dangerous,” Rarity said.

“Well who can we talk to tuh get any infermation?” Applejack persisted.

“Celestia, Luna, or one of the Florians, but we don’t know where any of them are,” Twilight said.

“An’ why not?” Applejack asked.

“We don’t know,” Rainbow Dash told her.

“Actually…uhm Jolterix is sleeping right now, and Luna is probably as well,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Didn’t you just ask where they were?” Twilight inquired.

“Uhm…I actually just asked where uhm…Celestia and Tennerac were,” Fluttershy clarified as she tried to avoid eye contact.

“Well Luna and Jolterix are as good as Celestia and Tennerac,” Twilight said as she began walking towards Luna’s bedchamber.

“But they’re sleeping,” Flutteshy protested quietly.

“I’m sure they won’t mind,” Twilight said and she continued on her way.

After a few minutes of walking and near-silent protests from Fluttershy, they finally arrived at Celestia's bedroom since they happened to pass it before reaching Luna's. To her surprise, Twilight heard voices inside as they walked past.

“What if…Auflorsung?” one voice asked.

“…Everyone if they will…there,” the other voice replied. It was Celestia’s.

Twilight shushed her friends with a gesture and began listening intently again.

“If they have more of those ships…an entire fleet maybe then that might be what we have to do. A Mesa shell might be the only solution…people can’t be on the ground,” the other voice said. Twilight had assumed it was Tennerac’s. She backed away from the door and whispered to her friends.

“I think they’re talking about moving everyone over to Auflorsung,” she said.

“Why would they do that?” Rarity asked.

“It sounds like this…Mesa Shell is the only thing that can stop Discordia,” Twilight explained, “But I guess they need to move everyone out of Equestria to use it.”

The doors suddenly opened and Tennerac and Celestia stood in the doorway staring at them. “Yes, because the Mesa shell is so powerful it will kill anything in the air and on the ground in a certain radius,” Tennerac told her.

“What about a blockade?” Twilight asked, "Wouldn't setting up one be just as good since the Discordian ships couldn't get through it. I mean it would be better than moving everyone over the ocean to your country just so you can blow up a couple of bombs that would also blow up our countries?"

“That’s what we are going to do,” Tennerac said, “The Mesa shell is a worst-case scenario. If we have to use it, it’ll decimate Discordia but it might also destroy Equestria and the Crystal Empire.

“How does it werk?” Applejack asked him.

“It puts out a shockwave that destroys anything within range,” he explained, “It’s really cool, if you get to see it.”

“Well I hope you can keep Equestria and Celestia safe,” Twilight said and then walked off. Her entourage followed not knowing why Twilight was suddenly so against the Florians.

“Is she your little sister?” Tennerac asked Celestia when Twilight was out of earshot.

“No,” she replied.

Tennerac looked down the hall then back at Celestia. “Are you sure?”
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Note: I edited the previous chapters slightly, so you might want to go back and at least skim over them if you've already read them before this chapter was uploaded.


“Yes,” Celestia replied, “I’m sure. You know what might help her feel more at home around you two?”

“What’s that?”

“If we all went out and tried to relax for a while,” Celestia suggested, “It’ll probably do us all some good to get to know each other.”

“Should we wait for Jolterix to get back from the training run?” Tennerac offered.

“How long will he be gone?”

“Another hour or so,” Tennerac said.

“Then yes, we can wait,” Celestia said.

“Should we wake up Luna for it?” Tennerac asked.

“Yes, she should be there if Jolterix will be,” Celestia reasoned.

“Alright,” Tennerac said. With that they went back to discussing emergency plans and such.

After a while, Jolterix returned from his beloved aerial training and Tennerac caught up with him.

“Celestia thinks we should do some bonding thing by having everyone go out into Canterlot for a little while,” he said.

“Alright,” Jolterix replied, too tired to argue, “Is Luna going?”

“Yes, Celestia’s making everyone go,” Tennerac told him.

“As long as I’m not the only nocturnal one suffering,” he said. Tennerac laughed but didn’t know Jolterix was halfway serious. He hated shopping in the first place, coupling with being tired from being awake and doing intense flight training; he was in no mood for any of this. Still, he complied and decided to tag along.

After a while, everyone had appeared by the foyer and awaited Celestia’s arrival.

“I don’t believe this,” said a groggy Luna.

“I know,” Jolterix agreed. He sighed deeply and opened the door, “Well we may as well get going.” Luna walked out followed by the mane six and they climbed into a cart only to find Celestia and Tennerac already there.

“Glad you could make it,” Celestia said.

“Well it’s not like we had a choice,” Luna said halfway frustrated with her sister.

“It’ll be fun,” Celestia said, “Plus the girls need to bond more with you two if they’re going to trust you,” she said to Tennerac and Jolterix.

“You’re raising the moon tonight so I can sleep later,” Luna told her.

“Done,” Celestia said fully expecting her sister to make a bargain like that. The mane six got in the carriage as well and soon they were off into Canterlot proper. When they arrived, they immediately were met with several Solar Guards but no Lunar Guards.

“Heh…at least they get sleep,” Luna said to Jolterix who was almost entirely awake at this point. Still, he nodded in approval at her.

Firstly, the large group went into several clothing stores that Rarity suggested, which only Rarity and Pinkie Pie found interesting. After that they went to a pet store that Fluttershy suggested, and several of the animals managed to wake up Luna completely. After that the group found themselves getting lunch at a local low-key restaurant. Even so, many of the paparazzi were after the princesses and the Florians.

In the midst of all the confusion from the reporters, there was a loud boom, and half the restaurant was being consumed in fire. Pieces of shrapnel flew every which way, one lucky piece managed to land itself in Twilight’s belly. Everyone immediately sprang into action: the guards and the Florians were scanning the area for any information on what was going on, and Celestia and Luna began to immediately heal Twilight’s wound. The guards found nothing and neither did the Florians and they began gathering up everyone and getting them into the carriage as quickly as possible. They made haste back to the castle and Twilight was brought into her room and given immediate professional medical attention. After about an hour, the doctor came out and gave a debriefing on what Twilight had gone through.

“She has some puncturing in her small intestines, but most of that was cleared up thanks to your healing spells,” the doctor said, “As of now, no medical help or magic will help her. Just let her rest. Then again, perhaps the Florians can help her?”

“I don’t think the Florians are willing to protect us militaristically and provide hospitals,” Luna said, “But we will let her rest until she feels better.”

“Then that’s all she’ll need. Good day,” with that, the doctor and nurse were on their way out of the castle.

“Well,” Celestia began, “What do we do now?”

“I don’t know,” Luna said, “I guess we just wait for Twilight to heal. Apart from that, life should continue on as it normally does, and the Florians will handle Discordia. I think we have little to worry about.”

“Very well,” Celestia said, “Would you still like me to raise the moon for you tonight?”

“No,” Luna said, “I’m wide awake now, but thanks.”

“Anytime,” she smiled, “I’m going to set the sun and I’ll be off to bed.”

“Good night, then,” Luna waved.

“Keep the night safe,” Celestia called back. “Goodness knows I can’t keep the day anymore,” she muttered to herself.

> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the small attack from a Discordian bomber, most of Canterlot was still intact. The explosion was small and the amount of casualties. Even so, Twilight was harmed in the blast and was now lying on her bed in her chamber. Since it was nighttime, Jolterix was charged with keeping an eye on her, and he was accompanied by Luna.

“What was Discordia’s technology like before all of this?” Jolterix asked as the two walked calmly down the hallway to check on Twilight and her room.

“Comparable to ours, only stronger. Like it was made of better metal, but our citizens’ magic was usually stronger than theirs,” Luna replied, “We’re here now, I’ll check out how her dreams are doing. That’ll tell me just about everything.” Luna’s eyes glowed and she expected to be immersed in Twilight’s dream. She was, but there was some interference as well. Usually this only happened when someone else was dreaming in the same room as well. Luna immediately stopped her dream spell and her eyes stopped glowing. “I think something’s wrong,” she said. Her voice was half-panicky as this usually didn’t happen, but one of her friends was likely checking on her so that help Luna stay somewhat calm.

Jolterix pressed his ear against the door and listened hard. “I can’t hear anything,” he said. He grabbed the handle and turned. When Luna didn’t protest, he pushed the door open and they both looked at Twilight. The room was completely dark and it was difficult to see what was going on. The curtains were closed which was unusual, as Twilight usually liked to have them open so she could enjoy the stars if she couldn’t sleep, Luna knew this for a fact. “She’s still just resting up,” Jolterix tried to assure Luna, but she was still uneasy.

“Something doesn’t seem right,” she whispered back, “I can’t really hear her breathing.”

“You’re right,” Jolterix agreed, “Maybe she’s just a quiet sleeper?”

“Doubtful,” Luna replied. She approached the bed Twilight was sleeping in and almost screamed. Blood had been leaked out of Twilight’s stomach and was on the sheets. Twilight’s eyes were wide open and staring at the door. Jolterix followed her and he jumped when he saw the blood and Twilight’s wide eyes.

“Th-there,” she managed to mutter through her pain and fatigue. Just as Twilight pointed to the door, there was a dark figure and footsteps of someone rushing down the hallway.

Jolterix disappeared as he sprinted out the doorway. He caught the figure a dozen or so feet from the door and knocked him down when he collided with him. He was able to hold the attacker down long enough for Luna to come and help him after she was finished healing Twilight’s wounds. Even with her advanced magic, Luna could only do so much: she couldn’t replace any lost blood, but she could close the wounds and prevent any scars.

When she did get out, she noticed Jolterix had managed to get the potential killer’s mask off, revealing a Discordian soldier. He was dressed in all black, which explained why he was so well hidden in Twilight’s dark room. Her hand glowed with blue energy and she pointed it at the Discordian’s face.

“Who are you?” she asked in a firm voice.

“Shut your mouth,” he replied and he pulled a tooth out of his gum. Jolterix immediately recognized it as a type of poison and did everything he could to prevent the Discordian from swallowing it. He pulled the poison out of his mouth, but he only got about half of it. The Discordian’s mouth began to foam and he passed out. Jolterix dropped the Discordian to the ground and Luna attempted to cure whatever poisoned him. He wasn’t dead, and he could definitely provide answers to a lot of the questions that they had. Finally several guards of the castle appeared and Luna stood up.

“Take him to the dungeon,” she ordered, “Use whatever means necessary to get him to talk about Discordia and their ships.”

“That was too close,” Jolterix said, “We need to get all of you out of here to someplace safer. How are her wounds?”

“She’ll live,” Luna replied, “But she should sleep for the rest of the night. I could only do so much for her.”

“We can’t wait around for another Discordian to try to assassinate one of you,” Jolterix protested, “Besides; it would be safer to get everyone out under the cover of night. I’ll go get Tennerac and we’ll arrange a rendezvous with one of the Florian ships. You’ll all be safe there.”

“No, wait-,” Luna tried to stop him but he was already gone. “Dammit,” Luna muttered and chased after him.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Tennerac,” Jolterix’s whispering voice pierced the silence of Celestia’s bedroom, “Wake up, we need to get everyone on the Gluhwurmchen now.”

“What? Why?” Tennerac whispered back, “What’s going on?”

“Another attempted assassination, let’s go,” Jolterix pressed. They were interrupted by vast amounts of sunlight suddenly pouring into the bedroom. Jolterix and Tennerac looked at Celestia who was sound asleep with a sleeping mask on, so there was no way this was her doing; even if neither Florian actually believed she raised the sun in the mornings. He stood upright and walked over to the windows. The sky was torn open again, allowing sunlight from Auflorsung to drench Equestria in light. Tennerac sooned joined him and they stood awestruck at what was going on.

“Why are they leaving?” Tennerac asked.

“I don’t know. Get your disc, we need to talk to them,” Jolterix replied as his helmet arose.

Tennerac grabbed his disc and his hemlet arose allowing him to use his radio to communicate to the Gluhwurmchen with Jolterix. “Vernerasche,” Tennerac said in Florian Common, “What the fuck are you doing?”

After a small pause a voice came over the radio. “There’re some asteroids up in orbit. They’re gonna hit Equestria in about an hour so we’re bugging out until the shower’s over,” Vernerasche replied.	

“And what do you expect the Equestrians to do during this time?” Jolterix asked impatiently.

“Relax,” Vernerasche replied, “They’re not expected to hit any cities. As long as they stay in their homes, they’ll all be fine. We triple-checked the flight paths of the asteroids. We just don’t want to get caught way up here with no way to get repairs.”

“Fine, whatever,” Jolterix said, “Just make sure you get back as soon as the meteor shower is over with.”

“We will, don’t be a bitch about it,” Vernerasche replied. The radio ceased working as the ships went behind the portal and it closed in on itself. Nothing remained in its place, only star-filled night sky. “Well…shit, now what?”

Tennerac replied with a shrug, “Go get all of the important people and bring them to one room for the night?”

“Yeah, but do they really expect two Florians to be able to protect an entire country?” Jolterix clarified his point.

“I don’t know,” Tennerac replied, “We’ll take it up with Dezler when we see him next.”

“Alright,” Jolterix said, “I’ll go get Luna, Twilight, and whoever else I can find and bring them here.” With that, Jolterix sprinted out the door with the signature Florian silence and he soon found Luna and Twilight again. “Come on,” he said, “We need to get her to Celestia’s room, as well as her friends.”

“What? Why?” Luna asked.

“It’s a long story, but just trust me,” he said.

Luna complied since Jolterix never proved himself to be untrustworthy, and he was charged with keeping everyone safe by his supreme commander. “Very well, can you help me carry Twilight?”

“Sure,” he replied. He walked over and helped Twilight up under her left arm as Luna did her right arm. They carried her gently over to Celestia’s room, where Celestia was awake and seemingly in a panicked state.

“Good you’re here,” she said to Luna, “set Twilight on the bed and tell me you’re OK.”

“I’m fine,” Luna replied, “I’ll just get the other five up here and we can talk then.”

“Very well,” Celestia said as she examined Twilight’s wounds. Jolterix and Luna quickly left the room and got the other five from Ponyville and brought them to Celestia’s room. After a quick inspection, they were all found to be unharmed; although they were shaken, confused, and tired.

“What’s going on?” Rarity asked half-panicked.

“Yeah, why’re y’all gittin’ us outta bed in the middle of the naht?” Applejack enforced.

“There’s a meteor shower coming, and the Florian ships just went back home for a few hours until it’s over,” Tennerac explained in the most soothing voice he could muster, “Until then we just want you all in one little area so we can keep you all safe much easier.”

“Well if we’re going to be trapped here, you could have at least brought us something to sleep on besides this insufferable floor,” Rarity whined.

“Here,” Celestia laughed as she went into her closet and pulled out some sheets and several cots, “This can be just like any slumber party any of you would have had as children. You’ve got your friends, stories to share, a pretty meteor shower to look at later, and even boys to tie up and put makeup on,” she winked at them, and Pinkie Pie’s eyes lit up at the mention of “party.”

“I’ll just uh…go over here,” Jolterix whispered to Tennerac at the mention of “makeup.”

“Uhh…me too,” Tennerac followed his friend to the darker portion of the room in hopes of staying as far away from the others.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After an hour or so, the meteor shower finally began. Everyone in Celestia’s room watched in awe as ribbons of light danced through the night sky. It was clear just how close they would be if they hit the ground, but luckily it seemed most were vaporized in the heat of the atmosphere.

“They’re so pretty,” muttered Fluttershy to herself, “I wonder what the night-animals think of this?” she asked no one in particular. Just to her liking, her comment was ignored.

“Do you think any of them are gonna hit Equestria?” Twilight asked in a muffled tone. She was almost healed, but she still needed a good night’s rest which she was not getting at that moment.

“Doubtful,” Jolterix said, “They have to be pretty big to make it to the ground,” he looked at Tennerac, “How do you think Auflorsung’s doing if there are meteors here?”

“That’s a good question,” Tennerac replied, “But judging by the tone of Vernerasche’s voice and how calm he was sounding, I doubt they’re getting much of anything over there.”

“That’s odd, usually we’re the ones being obliterated,” Jolterix said, “Ah well, it’s nice to have someone else plagued for once. We should get some sleep, there’s no telling when they’ll get back so we should take advantage of everyone being awake.”

“You know Celestia said she’d put makeup on us,” Tennerac said light-heartedly.

“Oh yeah, right,” Jolterix laughed, “Like she’d do that. After the meteor shower, she’ll be right back in bed as will the others. Luna wouldn’t put makeup on us, anyway so there’s nothing to worry about. But if it makes you feel better, you can always sleep with your helmet on.”

“Ha-ha, well get ready for a long day,” Tennerac said as they lay down on their separate cots.
*			*	*

The next morning, Jolterix awoke last since he was so used to sleeping during the day. When he awoke, he noticed everyone else had left and that the Florian ships had returned. They hovered silently in the sky like they had never left. When everything seemed tinted black, he remembered he had his helmet on because he secretly thought Celestia and the others might actually try to put eyeliner or something on him. Luckily, that didn't seem to be the case when he looked in the bathroom’s mirror. Upon relaxing, and lowering his helmet again, he noticed something odd: red lines and other things painted on his face. He thought back to the incident when he dropped Luna’s helmet when he thought of it and that Luna probably did the same to him. “Dammit,” he thought, he didn’t expect them to actually go through with it.

After a while, he reached the breakfast room where everyone else was enjoying their breakfast. By the looks of things, they had only awoken up a few minutes before he had.

“Good morning,” Luna said to him as he walked through the breakfast room doorway.

“Good morning,” he replied.

“They got that spy to talk,” Celestia said.

“What’s going on, then?”

“Apparently Discordia was mining for metals and they stumbled on those ships. No one knows how they got there, but he said that Discordia tried to reverse-engineer them, which kind of explains why they have some technology we don’t, but when you Florians came over they decided to just fire up the ships and try to chase you away. But we all know how that turned out,” Celestia explained.

“Interesting,” Jolterix replied as he sat down and grabbed some food. “Did anything interesting happen with those meteors?”

“Well a few hit Manehattan and Baltimare, but they were on the outskirts and didn’t do much damage,” Luna told him, “I know what an asteroid can do,” she said referring back to the small videos Jolterix showed her about the last asteroid that struck Auflorsung.

“I’m sure you all will be fine,” Jolterix said, “But we still have to get you all up to the Gluhwurmchen as soon as possible.”

“Alright,” Luna said.

“Good, I’ll call a shuttle to get us up there after breakfast,” Jolterix said as he bit into a muffin, “You know, I think we’ve got this almost all wrapped up. Discordia seems to know they can’t win with us here, so I’m sure you’ll be back here like nothing happened.”

“Hopefully,” Celestia said.
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After breakfast, Jolterix called the Gluhwurmchen and requested a shuttle. He placed his disc on the table with Luna present so she could hear the conversation. The reply was not something he expected or one he wanted to hear.

“Sorry, Yolter,” Dezler’s voice came since he finally made it onto the ship, “I can’t really allow anyone to come aboard here right now. It seems there’s been some odd activity over in Discordia.”

“What does that mean?” Luna asked.

“We don’t know what’s going on yet,” Dezler replied over the radio, “But what I can do for you all is bring Yolter up here, give him some weapons and vehicles, then send him back. Then he can fly you all to some place safe.”

“Are you sure about that?” Jolterix asked, “I mean I really shouldn’t leave them alone like that.”

“They’ve got their own castle guard, right?” Dezler told him, “Plus Tennerac’s there so it’s not like you’re leaving them completely alone. Just come on up here, I’ll see you get a fair amount of swords or something for everyone, and then send you on your way. It’ll be less than half an hour.”

“But why just me?” Jolterix asked.

“We really can’t have any Equestrians seeing our tech, you know. They’re supposed to achieve all of this on their own, and showing them too much might be helping them,” Dezler said.

Jolterix looked at Luna, “What do you think?” he asked her.

“Wouldn’t giving us weapons be considered ‘helping?’” Luna asked.

“No, not these weapons,” Dezler said. “They’re a bit advanced for your culture, yes, but from what I’ve heard, you have seen them before.”

“Well, if we’re getting weapons and transportation,” Luna pondered, “We can defend ourselves for half an hour without you; we do have magic.”

“Right, I keep forgetting about that,” Jolterix admitted. “Very well. Dezler, just send a shuttle down for me whenever and I’ll be up there.”

“Good to hear,” Dezler said, “I’ll send one down right now. Wiedersehen.”

“Bis spӓter,” Jolterix replied and he turned off the radio. “Well, perhaps you should get some sleep?”

“I’ll be fine,” Luna said, “I should stay awake for now, anyway.”

“Alright,” he said, “care to walk with me to the front doors?”

“Sure,” Luna replied as she stood up with Jolterix. He escorted her from the breakfast room, through the opulent halls and finally into the foyer. When they reached the grand doors, Luna removed her hand from Jolterix’s arm and stood straight as he did.

“Keep an eye on your disc,” he told her as he opened the doors, “It’s a powerful tool.”

“I will,” she said. Perhaps there really was something to that disc? “As soon as you leave I’ll go get it.”

“Good,” he replied, “Oh look, they’re here.” He looked outside at the small Gauner in the yard, “You be safe.”

“We will,” she said.

Jolterix turned around and walked towards the Gauner and his helmet arose over his head. He climbed in the craft and the door closed.

Luna turned around and walked back into the castle. She walked through the halls and climbed the stairs back to her room on the top of one of the towers. When she entered her room, she immediately closed and locked the door behind her. She walked to her bedside table and opened the drawer, where she immediately began digging through the ancient papers and books. She removed the false bottom where her diary and other keepsakes lied, along with her disc. She pulled it out and looked at it. It was dormant currently and looked like a harmless metal circle.

Luna found a switch on it that she activated and the disc’s sides glowed briefly. A hologram appeared of all the information the disc had on Luna, which at present was not very much as she had only worn it once, for a few hours. Only her name, age, and other minor traits were present. She sighed and placed the metal disc on her back, not knowing why Jolterix would be so bent on her using this thing. All it did was make clothes and store near-useless information; although the combat skins they made were very strong, even if she already had her own armor. She commanded the disc to make her combat skin and to also raise her helmet over her head. The familiar sensation induced a flashback of her short time on Auflorsung, but it was short-lived and only of Jolterix’s house.

Luna snapped from her tangent and looked at her self. The black combat skin molded to her figure as it had in Auflorsung, and her helmet arose over her head as she had expected; nothing out of the ordinary or significant. She dropped her helmet and dissolved her combat skin where she removed the disc from her back. The memory of Jolterix’s house spawned another memory specifically about the disc. She made the hologram reappear and swiped her hand through it, where the image followed and a new image replaced it.

“They can do more than I thought,” she thought to herself. She sat down on her bed and patiently swiped through the disc’s menus looking specifically for anything that might be able to translate the words into Equestrian. Eventually, after a small amount of time and random swiping, she finally came across a list of languages. The only way she knew this was because “Florian” was written in Florian, “Equestrian” was written in Equestrian, and so on. She quickly touched “Equestrian,” and she swiped over a menu, happily seeing it was readable to her. She did some exploring through the disc the “correct” way and found a menu she didn’t expect: weapons.

“Extensions of the combat skin and other potential weapons,” read the top line. She knew the Florians would reserve the most powerful weapons to independent objects, such as a projectile launcher; however it may be possible she could forge a sword with the disc.

“That must be one of the things he was so concerned about,” Luna thought as she thought of all the uses this disc had. “It’s still not that great of a discovery,” she thought, “It’s not like I can’t get myself a sword at almost any time. Ah well.” She made a mental note of the weapons page and began swiping through the rest of the disc, searching for anything that might be of use that wasn’t already of access to her. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

“Coming,” she called as she hastily placed her disc underneath her pillow. She walked to the doors and opened them, seeing Jolterix just on the other side of the threshold. “I must’ve lost track of time,” she thought to herself just as she noticed the almost sad expression on Jolterix’s face. 

> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Jolterix boarded the small Gauner and looked back at Luna as the door closed. Through the window he could see her close the door and hoped she would immediately go familiarize herself with her disc. Just as he was imagining the very tool that could help save her life in a hazardous situation, he felt the jolt of the Gauner as it lifted off the ground.

“Hold on,” the pilot called to him through the radio.

“Sure thing,” he replied in Florian Common. In truth, he was strapped in to the seat and holding on to anything would simply be redundant. He kept his gaze out the window since Equestria was much more entertaining than the cabin of the Gauner, even if he couldn’t see what the citizens were up to from this high up. After some waiting, he finally reached the massive Gluhwurmchen and the Gauner parked itself on its hangar bay. After he got out, the pilot dissolved the Gauner back into its baton and told Jolterix that Dezler was on the bow waiting for him.

“Weird,” Jolterix thought, “Why wouldn’t Dezler just meet me in the bridge or someplace like that?” He stopped pondering the thought as he strode through the hangar bay. The first thing that struck his eye was that there were more Florians onboard than the last time he was here. As wise as he was, he couldn’t think of a logical answer to that other than that they were at war with a formidable force; and Discordia, even with their newfound ships, certainly were nothing a single Florian destroyer couldn’t handle. “This makes no sense,” he thought to himself as he exited the hangar bay and found himself in a hallway. After about ten minutes of actual walking, he finally reached the ship’s front. Knowing Dezler and how he enjoyed the outside, even though it was quite cool at this altitude, he would be outside.

Jolterix emerged on the Gluhwurmchen’s sky deck and immediately saw Dezler along with two high-ranking officers and personal bodyguards. Vernerasche was not in sight, oddly enough. “Hello, Kaiser Dezler,” Jolterix said.

Dezler turned around as well as the officers and soldiers and smiled. “How are you?” he asked. He wore black robes like Vernerasche as well as five metal bars on his shoulders and the triangular pieces, signifying his absolute command. His robes were thick to insulate him from the cold with red lights aligning it, and he wore thick black gloves with red lights along the backs. The other officers both had two bars on their shoulders and were in thick robes like Dezler. The two bars did not signify lower ranks than Jolterix’s three bars, but rather what they were in command of. The bodyguards were dressed in their robes as well, presumably with combat skins underneath and they carried large rifles that fired hard projectiles of light.

“Well, I’m doing alright. 

“You may want to sit down for the answer,” Dezler told him.
Jolterix looked around him and saw only the smooth deck. He chuckled inside and told Dezler he would be fine.

“We’re at war,” Dezler told him, “Well the beginnings of one.”

Jolterix gave him a confused look. “With whom?” he asked.

“We’re not sure who,” Dezler said, “just what.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We don’t know who we’re at war with.”

Jolterix laughed at that, “You’re joking,” he said with a grin.

“I’m afraid not,” Dezler said, “Those asteroids weren’t orbiting Equus, in fact they appeared just outside our atmosphere and descended in. We think they went through a portal like ours, and at first we thought maybe they were just broken off of a bigger chunk of rock out there. Then we started intercepting radio signals we can’t identify coming off of the craters the asteroids made, which most are in Discordia. We looked into Discordia and it seems most of their cities have already been destroyed or just occupied. That’s the Intel; make your own story behind it.”

“Shoot,” Jolterix mused, “So we’re at war with someone who’s not indigenous? How interesting. Wait, where’s Vernerasche? Shouldn’t he be here?” Jolterix asked.

“I already gave him the briefing,” Dezler said, “He should be commanding the fleet right now. We’re getting ready to depart and we need you and Tennerac back up here.”

“So why’d you only request me, then?” Jolterix asked. 

“Because I figure it’d be less of an alarm to the Equestrians if you two weren’t summoned back at the same time,” Dezler explained.

“So what do you have planned now?”

“Now I think you should go back down to that castle, get Tennerac, leave them with a couple of our weapons and help contain the threat so it can’t harm any other nations,” Dezler said.

“But what happens if we can’t contain it?”

“We evacuate everyone. Tell the Equestrian leaders to tell their citizens to get an evacuation route planned so we can get them easier,” Dezler told him, “That way we can get everyone behind the safety of our borders and the Mesa Gun, if it gets that bad.”

“I guess I don’t have to tell you how hard it would be to get all of those people into Florian ships and taken back to Auflorsung?”

“No, and I’ve already starting planning that part. Now go get Tennerac and I’ll meet you both in the hangar. These are the supplies for the Equestrians,” he handed Jolterix a small bag of batons, “Try to make it back in a hurry.” He gave Jolterix a Florian salute that Jolterix returned just before going back to the Gluhwurmchen’s hangar. When he reached it, he was greeted by the same Gauner pilot from earlier who pulled his baton apart and spawned the small craft. He boarded it and made his way back to the Canterlot Castle, and ultimately Luna’s bedroom.

> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Everything going on with Discordia has been sorted out,” Jolterix lied with a fake smile, “Tennerac and I will be leaving as well as those Florian ships.”

“Everything’s sorted out?” Luna asked with a hand on her doorknob, “That doesn’t make any sense…you didn’t even do anything. What about all those weapons Dezler said we would need? That we WOULD need?”

“Dezler just said that everything’s been sorted out now and that Tennerac and I are to return back to Auflorsung. It’s not like I want to go,” Jolterix told her, “Anyway the weapons are right here in this bag, most of them are swords and things you’re already used to. A few are guns like Discordia’s.”

Luna shook her head at that, “Alright…just go.”

“Remember to keep your disc activated,” Jolterix reminded her as he began walking off.

“Why do you keep going on about that thing? I looked through it, there’s nothing special,” Luna told him.

“Just trust me,” he said behind his shoulder as he walked down the hallway.

“Alright,” Luna said, “You Florians need to learn to just tell us what’s going on.” There was no answer, but she didn’t speak very loudly, so it’s not like she should have expected one anyway. She walked back into her room and sat on her bed, not knowing what to do. If Discordia was truly straightened out, then that meant no more battle planning; if the Florians were leaving, that meant no one to answer to; and if it was daytime, that meant she could sleep. The only problem was, she was in no mood to sleep, and now the only thing that was in her head was try to figure out what was up with that disc.

Luna took her disc from out of the drawer and looked through it for a little while in case she had missed something. Eventually, she placed the disc back in her side table where it had been before she looked through it, and walked out of the room towards Celestia’s room. The walk took her by Jolterix’s room, which she noticed was now empty. She decided one last look at things couldn’t hurt and she walked into the room. The drapes were still closed as Jolterix liked them to be unless it was nighttime. As she approached the windows, her foot kicked something small and metallic.

Luna looked down at the object just in time to see its blurred figure roll under the bed. She kneeled down and reached under the bed to retrieve it. After a few seconds of tapping along the floor, her hand finally ran over it, and she grabbed it and pulled it out from under the bed. In her hand was one of Jolterix’s batons, though she couldn’t tell which one it was: vehicle or weapon.

“Weird,” she thought, “I didn’t think he’d be so forgetful.” She examined the baton, but there was no way for her to tell what was inside. The only sure way to find out was to go outside into an open space and try it out.

Luna immediately changed her plans from going to see Celestia to seeing what this baton was all about. She almost ran the entire way from Jolterix’s room to the gardens in the rear of the castle. Once she was there, she made sure the area was clear of any obstructions like statues, trees, and other things, as well as people. As soon as she was finished surveying the gardens, the pulled the baton apart and ribbons of light began to appear around her. Within seconds, a light sail had been formed and was lying on the ground. Apparently it had no hovering capabilities, to Luna’s surprise.

“Capable of building anything they want with their technology, but they don’t make a flying vehicle that can hover?” Luna laughed to herself. She closed the baton knowing there was no way she could get the light sail to take off if it was lying on the ground like it was. Suddenly, an idea struck her: perhaps Jolterix purposely left this here and that was the reason why he was so concerned with her disc. She knew the disc wasn’t needed to fly a light sail, but it made the deed much easier. The very thought of Jolterix sparked a new thought: Luna wasn’t satisfied with his answer and she knew there was more to it. 

Bound and determined, Luna teleported herself back to her room to retrieve the disc; the advanced magic costing her most of her energy. She grabbed her disc and placed it on her back, making sure it was activated. Her combat skin and helmet materialized and a display appeared inside the helmet. It had an image of a light sail and all the text was still in Equestrian. Why the Florians would put those languages into these discs, she would never know; but she didn’t care why, just that it was there. The texts read “Light Sail” and other relevant things, namely that it needed to be launched from a moving position, such as running or riding another vehicle.

Luna looked at the balcony just outside of her room. “That’ll work,” she thought even though she was well aware of how dangerous it would be. Just as she was opening the door to the balcony, she realized how hasty she was being. She should at least tell someone what she was doing, and water it down a little ways.

She turned around and walked back into the castle. She made her way to the dining room where she knew Celestia would be at some point within the hour, and wrote a note explaining what she was planning on doing. Luna knew directly confronting her sister would yield a definitive “no” because it was the moral thing to do, but there was no way Celestia could protest if it was too late.

After writing the note, Luna returned to her room and ultimately her balcony. She respawned the combat skin and helmet over herself and held the baton in front of her. It was a long way down, about two hundred feet, and Luna had no idea how much time that actually was. She took one last look at the sky and the Florian fleet, which was curiously moving towards Discordia. With much hesitation, she jumped off the balcony.

> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Luna pulled the baton apart as soon as she jumped and the light sail’s ribbons began to form. It had materialized before she had even dropped fifty feet or so, and she pulled back hard on the joystick to her right. The small light sail jerked its pitch upwards extremely violently and Luna nearly threw up. A bright flashing notification appeared that said “STALL.” She ignored it since it went away quickly and tried to stabilize the craft. Now that she was in a climb at least, she tried using her brain to get the information she wanted: directions to the Gluhwurmchen and instructions on how to fly the plane. A small chevron shape appeared on her helmet’s display along with altitude, airspeed, and magnetic direction - commonly known as heading. The chevron was tilted to the right and just above the horizon. After a few seconds of Luna not doing anything to change the light sail’s flight attitude, small words appeared next to the chevron which read “flight director active.”

Luna took the hint and tried to match the light sail’s attitude with the flight director. The first thing she did was violently jerk the stick to the right where the light sail rotated itself about two hundred degrees. Upside down and tilted, Luna immediately realized that slight movements to the joystick were needed, not large ones. She barely tilted the joystick to the right and the light sail rolled back over into straight and controlled flight. She continued with the motion until the light sail was matching with the chevron. It was still above the flight director so Luna took extra care to lightly push the joystick forward and correct her flight path to what whatever the thing controlling the flight director wanted.

When the light sail seemed to be in stable and controlled flight, Luna took a few seconds to look at Equestria below her. She saw Canterlot, Manehattan, Las Pegasus, and even Ponyville; as well as landmarks like the Everfree Forest and other things. She also noticed how beautiful and peaceful things seemed. She was already higher than most Equestrian airships flew and moving much faster than any of the airships could hope to.

A smile crept its way onto Luna’s face when she remembered that a light sail could go faster than the speed of sound. A faster speed meant she could catch the fleet faster and find Jolterix, and she remembered how fun it was to fly that fast back in Auflorsung. Luna leaned down onto the light sail’s console and tried to think of whatever words the light sail might recognize as flying faster than sound.

“Super sound, uhh…break the sound barrier….um…faster than sound,” Luna thought hoping the systems would recognize what she wanted. Luckily they did.

A message appeared on her helmet display that read “Prep Light Sail or supersonic flight?”

Luna immediately thought “yes” and she felt her foot rests sliding backwards a little ways as well as seeing the wings change their shape slightly. Luna also noticed the airspeed indicator when from showing triple digits, to showing a decimal: a Mach number even though she didn’t know what it meant. 

A canopy materialized over her and another message appeared: “Light sail ready for supersonic flight.”

“Excellent,” Luna thought in anticipation. She pushed forward on the left throttle control which she remembered Jolterix did when he made his light sail fly faster than sound.

The engines revved up and became much more audible over the sound of the wind against the canopy. Mach cones began to form around the light sail and soon vapor exploded around it indicating Luna was going faster than sound. A wide smile appeared on Luna’s face as she realized this and she looked at the ground happily. She could see it moving under her at a slower pace than she would have thought, but it was still pretty fast.

The small light sail had crept up on the Gluhwurmchen and was now close to its open hangar bay. Unfortunately, one of the engines exploded and the other immediately shut down to prevent uneven thrust hazards. Light sails weren’t meant to fly supersonically for prolonged periods, or really even at all. Luna’s helmet explained this to her and she thought, “What kind of an idiot builds a machine that can’t use all of its potential?”

The helmet display quickly changed from the normal set to the emergency set. It contained the glide speed, what most likely went wrong, and other things, specifically a holographic path that guided her directly to the Gluhwurmchen’s hangar. Several other notifications appeared like what airspeed to fly at, and a checklist that was being automatically filled out. When the checklist was finished, a purple chevron appeared and another notification appeared: “Landing prepped. Follow purple FD for emergency landing.” Luna just sat there and waited for the approaching Gluhwurmchen and watched the countdown since the light sail was already in the correct flight attitude.

It struck zero and the purple chevron violently pitched upwards as the little light sail crossed the hangar’s threshold. Luna complied and pulled the joystick backwards, earning herself a very high-g turn and watched her airspeed bleed off dramatically. The light sail then stalled and collapsed on the hangar floor.

Luna looked up and noticed she was hidden behind a very large flying machine and the hangar was already very noisy so it was unlikely that anyone heard her less than graceful landing. Luna quickly stood up and collapsed the light sail back into its baton so no one would see her. She stood up and used her magic to heal her minor wounds since she was still under the influence of the Crystal Empire’s magic energy.

She stood upright and began looking around in the Gluhwurmchen’s hangar bay. The first thing she noticed was how many more Florians were around than the last time she was in there. This only fueled her curiosity since there shouldn’t be more soldiers if the problem was sorted out. The first thing Luna was sure to do was get to the side of the hangar - out of the way and out of sight. She may have had a disguise, but if anyone asked her anything her cover would be blown. 

Luna stopped glaring at open hangar bay and got back to her mission: finding Jolterix, or at least Tennerac, and getting answers. She quickly began walking deeper into the hangar and she passed many large ships, a little smaller than the Equestrian airships, but made entirely of metal. She looked deeper in and got a better view of the large metal humanoids she saw last time.

They were easily a hundred feet tall and armed with all sorts of weaponry that Luna couldn’t identify, and most of them she wasn’t even sure if they were weapons. It was moved much closer to the exit of the hangar than it was last time, as well as the others. That was enough to tell Luna the Florians were planning on using those leviathans. Another thing she noticed quickly was that parts of it were glowing, indicating it was activated. With newfound uneasiness from the metal behemoth, she quickly fled into a nearby hallway.

The first thing that happened when Luna entered the hallway was she bumped into someone. A female Florian stood in front of her giving her a quizzical look, as though she knew Luna didn’t belong.

“You know, you don’t need to wear your helmet right now,” the Florian told Luna, interestingly in Equestrian.

“But what if I get called out right away,” Luna answered, “And why are you speaking Equestrian?”

“Doubtful,” the Florian woman told her, “And because I was hoping to work on my Equestrian while we were here, but since that didn’t happen, I’ve just been speaking it on the ship.”

“Oh, well you’re doing very well,” Luna told the Florian woman.

“Thanks,” she replied and left Luna by herself.

“Everything’s really working out in my favor,” Luna thought happily, “This is too easy, something’s up.” With her new paranoia, Luna quickly found a secluded area where she could relax and collect her thoughts in. She saw a row of packs next to her which she quickly remembered as the wings that Jolterix used in Auflorsung to slow his fall. “I may need this,” she thought to herself as she pulled one off the wall and strapped it on her back. She sat down again to retry collecting her thoughts.

Just as Luna was beginning to relax, she heard a voice over the radio: “Yolterix Misekvo and Grantitha Wilim please report to the hangar,” according to her helmet’s translation anyway.

“Perfect,” Luna thought and then concluded, “This is getting too easy. I know something’s going on.” With that, she quickly stood up and made an attempt to get out of the room, but the door had locked itself. She tried looking around for another way out, and noticed two glowing squares in the ceiling. Over them appeared to be two pairs of feet. The feet became legs which became torsos, and Luna finally realized the Florians had fallen through the floor! Quickly, she found a small place to hide so the Florians wouldn’t see her and blow her cover. Through silent fidgeting, Luna positioned herself so that she was sitting on the floor with her back against a wall and facing the same way as the two Florians were in front of her in their chairs. She wondered what was going on since they were staring at just a black wall. 
The metal pieces that mimicked wings on their backs began shifting their position around the cockpit and they began glowing with images of buttons and lights when they found their spots. Other pieces became the control surfaces for the one on the left. The two Florians began working quickly and the engines powered up along with other parts of the craft.

She heard voices over her helmet and translated for her: “Glow Worm, LRB-37 tag ‘Dagger’ ready to drop.”

“Dagger, roger. Glow Worm. We’ve got, uh, three drops before you: a Type 7, and two Owls.”

“Glow Worm, we understand. Dagger on standby.”

“What does that mean?” Luna thought to herself.

> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The massive Gluhwurmchen carrier hovered silently just inside Discordia’s borders. Already it had deployed several squadrons of small attack aircraft, many ground troops, and a single air support squadron, but more was needed. On its belly sat a LRB-37, a large delta-wing bomber aircraft, awaiting departure. In front of the bomber, but still inside the hangar awaited a large humanoid robot, a Type 7, as it underwent final preparations. As of now the Gluhwurmchen was launching three VTOL troop carriers destined for the heart of Discordia, the heart of the conflict. The LRB-37 was repositioned slightly so the windshield wasn’t obstructed by the Gluhmwurmchen’s metal, and the crew could begin final checks with their vehicle as the VTOLs and Type 7 depart.

After the VTOL carriers had departed safely, a section of the Gluhwurmchen’s floor started glowing and the massive Type 7 humanoid robot fell through, and continued its long fall all the way to the ground. The Florians in the flight deck of the LRB-37 watched the massive robot make its fall. After the Type-7 was clear, the bomber’s nose began dipping towards the ground and stopped at about a thirty degree angle. The engines powered up and two electro magnets carried the large bomber off its rails and into the air where it flew away towards the battlefields. 

The LRB flew close to the ground, within five hundred feet of the rocky terrain, and leveled off. Its engines lit up as they pushed the heavy bomber to its destination, and Mach cones began appearing around the wings. Soon the LRB was traveling at supersonic speeds, using the sonic boom and its shockwaves to disrupt enemy ground troops. The pilot and bombardier immediately began coordinating with ground troops and other vehicles on where the bombs were required.

“Air support teams, this is Tango Team. Air support is needed from point Alpha 0274. They’ve got us pinned down and we can’t advance any farther.”

“Uhh…roger Tango. Dagger is about five minutes out. Sit tight, we’ll clear the carpet,” the bombardier replied.

“Don’t hesitate to throw the balls to the wall, Dagger.”

“Heading set, one five two,” the pilot said as the bombardier was flipping switches and selecting the type of bombs he wanted to use for this operation. Meanwhile the pilot had turned the LRB to the desired heading and continued smoothly.
Soon the bomber reached its destination and it had slowed to subsonic speeds.

“Shoot on the first pass,” the pilot said, “from the way they were talking we’d better clean this up fast. We haven’t got time to waste picking targets.”

“I know,” the bombardier replied, “Better keep it steady.”

“You know me,” the pilot laughed.

The LRB leveled off and climbed to about two thousand feet above the ground and its belly opened up, releasing a barrage of small, but powerful explosives. At the same time small guns pointed at certain targets on the ground and began firing at things the bombs couldn’t reach.

The bombs exploded on the ground, and everything within range of the small explosion of light was vaporized, and things beyond that were left with outlines of whatever the bombs had vaporized. As the LRB continued moving forward, its bombs swept across the ground, clearing whatever soldiers had been oppressing Tango Team.
The bombs eventually stopped falling and the LRB began preparing for another drop.

“How’s it look, Tango Team?” the bombardier asked over his radio.

“Clear,” was the reply, “A few stragglers but we can handle them.”

“Roger, good hunting,” the bombardier said and cut off his radio. “Should we check on the Type 7?”

“I think so,” the pilot said, “Goodness knows what Tenner’ll get himself into.”

“Alright. Looks like we’ll need a heading of three three two.”

“Done.” The LRB made a one-eighty and was now pointed directly at area that the Type-7 was in. It powered up its engines to almost full power and made its supersonic journey over the rocky desert. About half way, a large group of objects appeared on the radar.

“Shit,” the bombardier said, “Zulus inbound. Gotta be at least a hundred of them.”

“Meteors?”

“Yep.”

“Damn. I thought we were through with those…at least this side of the world.”

“I suggest we redirect to zero four zero to go around these things. It’ll add a few minutes but we’ll be dead otherwise.”

“Alright, right to zero four zero.” The pilot turned left until he was pointed forty degrees northeast and leveled off. “Are we clear?”

“Looks like it. I’ll let you know when we can proceed.”

“Right.” The LRB kept on its northeast path and remained patiently. A small noise in the rear of the flight deck got the attention of the crewmembers and the pilot went back to investigate. Just as he was about to check the small restroom, but the bombardier called him forward.

“Dammit, there’s more asteroids.”

“Shit,” the pilot said as he ran to the front. But it was too late; the asteroids had just begun pouring down around them. Bright balls of fire rained down, at first missing the LRB, but a stray meteor struck the left wing. The aircraft buckled and listed hard to the left throwing the pilot against the wall and he collapsed on the ground. He quickly stood up but his right arm was clearly injured badly. Still he managed to grab ahold of the joystick and correct the plane’s attitude as best as he could. Another meteor struck the center, effectively tearing the nose from the wings.

“Fuck!” was all the bombardier could say before he was already standing, and running for the hole in the rear. There wasn’t enough time for the two to open the emergency hatch, and the hole was already there. The pilot took longer to escape since he spent a good portion of his time helping the stowaway out as well. Luckily, she had her own set of wings so she wouldn’t need the pilot the entire way down. 

> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Luna found herself torn from her hiding place and now free falling, the ground rapidly approaching. She luckily remembered her wing pack and pulled the plug, slowing her fall to a safe pace. She lowered her helmet and watched intently as the nose of the craft crashed violently into the ground, and the rear winged section flew out of control with no control inputs and an out-of-balance center of gravity. In a small amount of time Luna thudded onto the ground with one of the Florian pilots nearby. The other one was nowhere to be seen. 

The Florian immediately began running towards her and didn’t stop. Instead, he just yelled “Run!” and kept going.

Luna complied and began chasing after him, sprinting as hard as she could. “How do you plan on getting out of this?” she asked him referencing the meteor shower threatening to finish the job it started with the bomber.

“Just keep running and hope you don’t get hit,” he replied.

“That’s your plan?!?” Luna screamed, “You brainy Florians can’t think of a better plan than to just run straight through a meteor shower?”

“If you have a better one, feel free to tell me,” the Florian said in a teasing manner. Luna didn’t reply because she knew her spite would chase her only hope out of this mess away. She’d teleport, but for some reason she couldn’t feel the Crystal Empire’s energy way out here.

Meteors rained down around them kicking up dust whenever they hit the ground. One landed so close in front of them that it knocked the Florian on his back, but luckily Luna was far enough away that she was only staggered by it.

“Dammit!” the Florian yelled as he was forced onto his back. “It’s almost over,” he said with relief as he pointed upwards. The last of the meteors were just below the clouds and none seemed like they would come very close to them anymore.

“What’s this thing made of?” Luna asked after the meteors stopped falling. She examined the fallen one in front of them closely and noted that its skin wasn't made of rock at all.

“I don’t know,” the Florian replied as he stood up and got a closer look at the asteroid. It was made of metal and had absolutely no traces of rock. It also seemed to have no erosion or burn scars even though it should. Most was buried in the ground so neither of them could see what the meteor’s entirety half looked like, but thanks to the Florian’s aerodynamic understanding, the round part always falls first if given enough time. Knowing that, it made sense that the other half was round as well, so the entire thing must be a giant ball.

“Is this natural?” Luna asked knowing the Florian has had some experience with asteroids already.

“No,” he replied and lowered his helmet to get a better look, “It shouldn't be a perfect circle. It also probably shouldn’t be entirely metal, but I’m not sure about that part.”

Luna smiled, “I had a feeling it was you.”

“Well no one flies quite like me,” Jolterix replied, “But why were you on my bomber?”

“I think there are more urgent matters at hand,” Luna replied.

“I don’t. What were you doing?” His voice was much more forceful and at this point.

Luna just looked at him and blasted him with a bolt of magic as soon as she felt its influence again, and he was blown back off his feet and a fair chunk of his combat suit was burned exposing his bare skin. The attack caused his helmet to go back up, and Luna looked at her hand in surprise and shock at how effective her magic was. Jolterix quickly clutched his burnt skin and glared at Luna. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she knew he was furious. “I’m sorry!” Luna said when she realized the kind of damage that she did. 

“Ach…why did you do that?” Jolterix asked angrily.

“You were being mean, Jolter.”

“Back to elementary school?” he teased her.

“I’ll blast you again.”

“I’m your only way out of here, Luna. You wouldn’t dare.”

“You know I can just teleport?”

“Do it.”

Luna attempted to teleport, but somehow she couldn’t access her magic. She kept trying and eventually tried lower skill spells, like blasting Jolterix again. In the end, it all failed. “What’s going on?” she asked panicked. 

“I don’t know, but what’s up with your hair?”

“What?” Luna asked.

“It’s all…stiff,” he replied.

“What?!?” Luna screamed as she grabbed both sides of the Florian’s head and looked at her reflection in his face mask. Indeed her hair was different: it was no longer flowing and dotted with stars, but rather it was like anyone else’s hair and a lighter shade of blue than normal.

“What? Why’s that such a big deal?” he asked.

“This is bad,” Luna muttered to herself, “This couldn’t get any worse.”

“What? What’s going on?” Jolterix asked her.

“Do you have any idea what it means if my hair goes like this?”

“Well…no.”

“It means I can’t use my magic anymore. If I can’t use my magic anymore that means that the Crystal Empire has been attacked…and probably razed.”

“So you’re telling me during our battle here, these invaders managed to sack the Crystal Empire and destroy it completely rendering your magic useless?”

“Yes, is that not clear?”

“No. Try to remember that I’m not from here.”

“Very well, how do you plan on getting us out of here?”

“Well since Tennerac’s on his way here I figured he’d be able to give me, er us, a lift.”

“And how long will that take?”

“About an hour.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Yes, I'm kidding," he laughed, "It’ll be two.”