My eyes hung frozen up at the sky as I watched the massive mechanical beasts flying in, the loud, piercing whistle blowing another long blast. The sharp rattling of... some sort of machine gun, I think, came afterwards quickly, as that familiar metal screech echoed through the air. The swift motion of three large metallic dragons sweeping across the sky overhead caught our attention, bright green tracers flying from the top of Rheinmetall's tank as he kept fire upon the beasts, most of the rounds just pinging harmlessly off. Oh shit, this is definitely not good... The massive robots swung out wide, before heading back in towards us, the flickering of charging plasma and lit pilot lights clear inside their mouths.

Hurrying back towards the less-exposed safety of the tank garage, I stopped just short as a wall of flame blasted down in front of me, the heat making my eyes water. The snow nearby quickly melted, leaving a trail of slush as the flame continued along, carving its way across the muddied ground. I jumped over the smoldering grass, bursting into the garage to find a greasy-coated unicorn rushing past me with a pair of really large machine guns. The stallion quickly passed the pair of guns up to where Caution Tape sat, the zebra quick to fasten them to the top of his tank and begin firing at the dragons, more plasma raining n from overhead. Night Strike soon joined me inside, as did Aerith, the both of them hurrying out of the way as Sensha's tank pushed on through to enter the garage as well, only just missing scraping against the still-opened doors.

Crash Dive and Scouring were helping with distracting the dragons for the others to shoot at them, at least, Rangefinder's tank's top machine gun opening up and joining the cacaphony as well. “What’re they attacking here for?! How did they even know we were here!?” Night Strike asked in a panic, looking over to me. I gave her a bit of a look and she rolled her eyes, giving an exasperated sigh. “Okay, fine, we aren’t moving covertly, but still!” She shook her head, glancing over to see Aerith rushing after Deathtrap with Peridot in her grasp. “Well, whatever, we need to get to the Valkyrie now! Those dragons are going to be nearly impossible to shoot down with the tanks, even with the 88mm flak shells.” She hurried back towards the door, myself hanging back for just a moment as I watched her. She paused and turned around, staring back at me, another jet of flames lighting up the side of Deathtrap and forcing Caution Tape to duck, the offending dragon swooping by low overhead. Well, forgive me for not exactly wanting to run right into the middle of a warzone that much! Giving my head a shake, I brought myself back to my hooves, catching up to her and following closely behind.

Occasional loud explosions rang through the air as Rheinmetall's tank fired off shots towards the sky, the turret constantly turning to try and track the robo-dragons while the unicorn tanker kept peppering them with his machine gun. The shells burst in the air, kicking up snow and showering the ground with shrapnel, the dragons deftly avoiding the brunt of the explosions, wings shielding them from the pieces of metal. Crowds of ponies screamed out loud from the town as they sought cover, many making their way towards the roundhouse in the center of town, large lengths of cars moving in a panic to get away from the dragon fight. Night Strike and I hurried down the rows of trains, looking about for more of the massive robots frantically, the new sound of a bunch of rapid-fire cannons lighting up the sky from somewhere in the train yard. Huh... doesn't sound like anything we sold.

Sprinting further through the town to the firing range, I heard several more shots fire off, jets of flame raining down from the sky as the dragons spun through the air. Suddenly there was a flash of silver, and before I could react, a dragon dropped out of the sky, landing on top of one of the nearby train cars. Its metal claws tore holes into the sheet metal of the car, Night Strike skidding to a halt in mid-air. The dragon’s jaws opened wide, the back of its throat glowing a brighter and brighter green as it charged up its plasma cannon. As it reared back to fire, though, a beam of emerald shot through the air, smashing through the lower jaw of the dragon. Its head jerked to the side from the force of the blast, sending the ball of plasma onto an empty set of train tracks, causing a large crater and making the metal melt quickly away, the ties catching aflame in the gravel quickly.

I stumbled past the smoldering dent in the ground, looking up to see another beam slice its way through one of the wings. The dragon scanned about to find the source of the beams, its jaw hanging on barely by a few inches of metal, eventually settling its head in one direction. As I followed its gaze, Royce was hovering in mid-air, aiming her beacon rifle towards the mechanical beast. One final beam of plasma cracked loudly from the barrel, punching a hole clean through the robot's metallic skull. The dragon was frozen for a moment before its servos finally gave out, falling onto the boxcar before rolling to the side and crashing to the ground. Royce hovered over, landing on top of the railcar and looking down at the sparking corpse. She pressed a button on her gun, the cylinder sliding open to let her slip a few more cartridges into the slots. “The fuck are you still standing here for? Get that plane and blow these fucking things up before I have to shoot them all down for you!” She rechambered her rifle, muttering an insult under her breath before taking back to the air.

I shook my head, coming back to my senses to jump over the body of the robot before rushing forward once again. Another dragon dropped down onto a boxcar several rows away, spitting up another burst of flame that engulfed another cart ahead of both of us. Screeching metal echoed around as we managed to find our way past the lines of railcars, a couple dragons rushing in towards us, or heading back to assault the tanks again. Night Strike and I could now see the Valkyrie at the edge of town, my breath becoming ragged, a stich forming in my side. Night Strike let out a grunt of frustration as she began to pump her wings faster. She dropped next to the doorway, dashing up into the cockpit with me running up after her.

Night Strike was already working the controls in a flurry, the cockpit door closing as the engines roared to life, myself landing in my seat behind her. As we began to hover up into the air, however, the sound of shattering glass broke out, shards raining down on us as a robotic claw forced its way through the cockpit. I let out a terrified scream, Night Strike rolling over the side of her seat and whipping out War Crime from her duffel bag. She fired a burst of the massive bullets at the claws, tearing through the thinner metal of the pipe-like forearm and causing wires and hydraulic oil to drop to the floor. The dragon pulled its nonfunctional claw out of the hole, only to place its maw in the opening. The cockpit began to grow warm as it prepared to fire a jet of flame into the enclosed space.

In a panic, I grabbed my umbrella and jumped onto the back of my seat. Jamming the tip up into the mouth of the dragon, I suddenly felt a surge of electricity run through me, the dragon seizing up as its electronics received a jolt of power. A moment later my muscles stopped their forced contractions and I crumpled to the floor of the cockpit, letting out a cough as the dragon peeled off the cockpit, making the plane list slightly before it fell and letting out several high-pitched beeps as it attempted to reboot. I took a deep breath, feeling my heart thudding in my chest as I crawled back into the seat behind Night Strike's, the pegasus getting us steady in the air again. “Holy shit, are you alright?” She asked, watching as I looked down at my own controls.

“Y-yeah I’m -grrgk-, I’m alright. I’ll just have a few heart palpitations for a week, or something. Come on, we need to get up in the air before that thing reboots! Should’ve known they’d install surge protectors in their robots…” I pressed a few buttons, taking control of the tesla cannons under the plane, bringing the turret around to aim towards the tanks, and other robo-dragons. Night Strike nodded, turning back around to her own console and regaining her composure. The Valkyrie rose, air whipping through the hole in the glass above us. Easing the nose about, Night Strike began to fly us away from the town to give enough room to get clear shots. I looked through the screen of the console, aiming the cannons. It was almost impossible to make sense of the blur of images rushing past, the land surrounding the town turning into a mess of monochromatic dirty shades through the viewfinder. There was a sudden flash of silver, and I took a shot, thunder cracking as a bolt of lightning hit the tail of one of the dragons. The dragon wobbled in the air before losing its balance, careening towards the roundhouse. Before it could connect, however, Rangefinder fired off a blast from her tank's main gun, hitting the dragon dead center.

Robotic parts flew in all directions, dropping onto railcars and hissing as they fell into the snow, flaming. The Roundhouse was still mercifully intact, however, save for the sign that had been hanging on the front and was now lying shattered on the ground. “Okay, that’s another down, where are the others?” I asked, trying to spot more. The one that had been stunned by the umbrella overloading its system was attempting to roll back to its claws and stand up again, but it suddenly received a barrage of rockets from Scouring Charge and hail of cannon fire from Hispano, destroying it quickly. Night Strike spun us around in the air, my vision turning a little hazy from the forces before she straightened us out.

“Right, I think I see three more, let’s just hope more aren’t on their way...” Night Strike responded. I nodded, looking back down at the controls for another shot. A shell detonated below us, rocking the Valkyrie around as the tanks continued to fire at the dragons. “Gah, damnit, thought we were further away, we’d like to not be blown up, guys!” Another dragon soared by, one of Deathtrap’s machine gun turrets clutched in its talons while its rear legs were little more than scrap. It flung the gun at a stallion that had been attempting to scramble behind of the box cars. A sickening snap was heard as the turret just barely connected with the pony, sending him sprawling to the ground, pinned under the heavy armored turret. I fired several shots at the dragon, a few flying low, but one managing to connect with one of its wings. The dragon careened to the ground, where it was swiftly destroyed by several shots from Deathtrap’s other guns.

The remaining pair of dragons were circling overhead, taking potshots with their plasma breath as they spun and swerved through the air to avoid the shells exploding below and blasts of tracer fire filling the sky otherwise. Night Strike punched the throttle forwards and we accelerated, pulling back on the controls to raise us higher into the air and out of hover mode. One of the dragons spotted us and turned about, firing several shots of plasma in our direction. They landed on the wings, the glancing shots only melting away part of the exterior metal, miraculously enough. Night Strike wrestled with the controls, trying to keep us steady as I switched to the top turret, trying to find a clear shot. I fired several more blasts from the automatic lightning guns haphazardly, all the bolts missing and instead flying off into the sky.

The dragon that clung to us raked its razor-like tail across the hull, the screech of metal causing me to wince as I waited for the cannons to cool off and allow for another barrage, cursing myself for going with the overcharge setting rather than normal fire. Twisting on the controls, Night Strike leaned hard to the right, sending us spinning around to try and avoid more shots from the dragons, a rending of metal hopefully signifying that one had been shaken off. I took another shot from the bottom turret, squinting to try and make sense of the blurs being displayed by the viewfinder. A bolt of lightning struck one of the dragons behind us, putting a hole through its belly and frying its circuits, sending it plummeting down to the earth. The other, however, had managed to dig its metallic claws into the back of the Valkyrie to stick, and as I switched back to the top turret to find it... well, looking up through the canopy did that job just fine. Snapping its jaws at the glass, it fired several small shots of plasma at the weakened material, quickly melting away a hole in it.

“Fuckfuckfuck, do something!” I screamed, looking up at the dragon’s razor sharp maw. I tried to reach for my umbrella again, but the dragon fired a small shot of plasma, searing the flesh on my leg and sending the umbrella spinning away. I clutched at my foreleg, tears streaming down my face as Night Strike yanked Thumper from her bag and stood up in her seat. I had just enough time to register the snap of the breech closing, Night Strike taking aim at the head of the dragon and the slight motion of her pulling the trigger before I suddenly realized the mistake. The sizzling explosion blew apart the glass, the dragon’s head exploding in a shower of sparks as the wind whipped out all around, the cockpit air becoming acrid and unbreathable for a few scant seconds before the wind replaced it.

“SHIIIIIIIIIT!!” Night Strike screamed, spreading her wings as she was flung out of the cockpit, leaving me stuck strapped to my seat as the Valkyrie raced across the sky. Still clutching my foreleg, I could just barely hear the thud of the dragon hitting the ground, only for a moment later the blood rushing to my head to finally overtake me, and cause me to black out.

---

I let out a groan, my body aching all over as I slowly came to. The smell of severely burnt metal and several flashing lights immediately assaulted my senses. I let out several coughs, blinking as my vision slowly came back into focus. Fumbling with my restraints, I eventually found the seatbelt’s release, pushing it and promptly rolling out of the seat. My shoulders were tender from the belt having dug deeply into them, stomach feeling quite a bit like somepony had just kicked me like they were trying to shake an apple off of me... or threw me into a tree. My hooves wobbled as I stood back up, trying to regain my senses as I wandered over to the side of the cockpit. The soft hum of magic could still be heard as the Valkyrie attempted to patch up the damage that it had suffered during the battle, the glass canopy reshaping extremely slowly into a new windshield. Guh, what the hell was Night Strike thinking with that grenade?...

Climbing over to the cockpit door, I pressed a button to release it, only for the Valkyrie to beep and refuse to open up. Ugh, should’ve known it’d be damaged, or blocked or something. Trotting forwards to the nose end, I headed over to a relatively shard-free hole in the cockpit, placing my hooves on the outer rim and hoisting myself up out of the Valkyrie. My legs stung as bits of glass dug into me, the burn from the plasma still punctuating each little movement. With a grunt, I rolled down the front, landing in the mound of dirt that had been torn up by the Valkyrie’s crash. Looking around, I found myself lying in a snowy field, the large rectangle that was the Starlite drive-in screen visible not too far in the distance. Well, I suppose I’m at least lucky I didn’t crash too far from Maple Station.

I stood back up, looking over the exterior damages to the Valkyrie. Surprisingly, while the canopy was shattered and the claw marks from the dragons were still visible in the exterior, along with a massive gash that ran from the tail to the top turret over the bomb bay, no major damage seemed to have been done. At least, nothing the auto-repair system shouldn’t be able to handle with enough time. As I examined the Valkyrie, there was a hint of movement in the distance, and I instinctively dropped down low to the ground behind the crashed bomber. Peering around the side of the Valkyrie, I spotted two figures trotting towards me from the drive-in's projection booth. They were both rather burly, their hooves stomping loudly through the snow as they approached the Valkyrie. “What the flying fuck is this thing?” I heard one of them say.

“Fuck if I know, I ain’t an astronomer, or whatever. You don’t think it’s a UFO, do you?” The other one responded. The two were now standing on the opposite side of the Valkyrie from me, one tapping a hoof against the side of the vehicle. “Oi, aliens? You got a lotta nerve interruptin’ our movie, you know! We were just getting to the good part, that Termineightor thing was gonna slice up some kid-“ There was the sound of a punch and the stallion that had been talking let out a gasp of air. “Gah, the fuck was that for?”

“Don’t spoil it, dumbass, what if they hasn’t seen the movie either? You wanna start an intergalactic war just cuz someone prolly hasn’t seen the film yet?” I placed my head in my hooves, resisting with all my might to let out a groan of annoyance. Of course, it’s some drugged up morons coming to investigate. Why couldn’t it have been B Company? Or Pearl? Tartarus, even Extra Edition would probably be better… well, okay, maybe not her. The ponies began to walk around to the front of the Valkyrie, forcing me to move to avoid being spotted by them.

“You sure there’s even aliens on this thing? Looks like whatever was inside got hurt pretty bad, see there?" The stallion pointed out streaks of blood on the front near the cockpit, and I went white. Looking down at my foreleg, I realized the wound had been oozing a steady stream of blood for a while, which was now partially caked by snow and dirt. The sound of the two ponies working their way around to my side snapped me back to attention, and I got to my hooves, trying to hurry to find somewhere to hide. Unfortunately, the Valkyrie was horribly exposed, and my blood would only lead them towards wherever I ran.

Glancing around, I tried to find someplace to run to, only to freeze as I heard one of the stallions behind me. “Hey! You ain't an alien, what the hell’re you doing?” In a panic, I hefted myself onto the wing and over the plane, beginning to sprint towards the projection booth, the ponies racing after me. I tried to ignore the pain shooting through my leg as I ran onto the field, the projector displaying the image of a robotic pony clinging to the back of a cart onto the screen. As I attempted to reach the main building and bar myself in, I suddenly tripped, skidding painfully on the ground. Gwuugh, stupid thin snow layer... The stallions quickly reached me, one landing on top of me to keep me pinned. The other stood over me, his horn lighting up to illuminate my face. His expression changed as he saw me, first turning surprised before a look of malevolent glee crossed it.

“Well, lookie who it is! That pony that blew up our old camp! You killed a lot of my pals, you know, not to mention all that sweet ass you let run free. Oh, I think I know just what to do with you.” He snickered, pulling out a rope and tying my hooves up. I panted, my mind racing with images of depravity and horror.

Fuck.

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Apologies for the delay on this page, with finals and moving back home for the summer things were a bit more hectic than normal. Now that summer vacation's here, things should move more smoothly.