Chapter Twelve (A): The Battle for Los Pegasus, Scotty's POV

Scotty knew he shouldn't be flying, the damage he had already done to his wing was substantial and he was risking losing the ability to be able to fly again by charging down into battle like this but he knew that Equestria's best hope was resting in an ESS safe house on the far side of the city. He heard a rush of wind come up behind him and turned his head, Jocky was flying behind him and to his left and on his right was Ratty trying hard to concentrate on keeping himself steady on his jet boots. Further behind them was a squadron of black armoured griffins, Scotty looked at his fellow agents. "Keep them off me until I reach the safe house!" He yelled. The pair nodded and dropped back out of sight. Scotty flew on and was only a moment away from the safe house when a griffin slammed into his side. If he had been in his armour the blow would have barely scratched him, but as it was he was wearing a thin business suit which offered minimal protection. He crashed through the roof of a nearby building, scaring an old mare witless in the process, and slid to a stop against a wall. He picked himself up and made sure nothing was broken then he turned to face his attacker, the griffin was hovering above the hole Scotty had made, waiting. He beat his wings and darted upwards. He slammed his full weight into the griffin, forcing her upwards, away from the innocent ponies below. The pair rose high above the city and Scotty glimpsed a dragon climbing the skyscraper where they had left the unconscious White Stripe. Then the griffin hit him again, her eagle like claws raking deep cuts into his cheek, and he fell. Fast. He spread his wings and came to a stop inches from the pavement, a fall which would have killed him had he slowed himself a second later. His mind raced, the griffin was too good an aerial combatant and he couldn't beat her in the air, he needed to get her on the ground. He let himself drop gently and started to run towards the safe house. There was a rush of air behind him and he dropped to the ground as the griffin shot overhead. He stood up quickly and braced himself as she spun around and shot back towards him. He took aim and let a powerful stun bolt loose from his necklace, the shot hit her square in the chest and she dropped to the ground and slid to Scotty's hooves. He rolled her onto her back and stood on her wings, looking down into her eyes beneath her helmet. "Wrong pony to play with." He told her and slammed his forehooves into her face knocking her out cold. He spun and tasted copper; he spat out blood and carried on to the safe house. He knocked on the door in a quick three beat rhythm. The door swung open and revealed the magical glow of three unicorn horns; Fii, Rarity and Twilight. He breathed a loud sigh of relief at the sight of the three of them before realising that they hadn't lowered their magic. "If I were y'all, I'd be gettin' out of tha way real fast." Came Applejack's voice from the shadows. Scotty nodded and dived to the left as three powerful stun spells shot from the doorway hitting the zebra that had been standing behind him full in the chest and throwing him across the street and into the wall of another building which he slid down slowly. Scotty looked at him for a moment before turning back to the door. Fii was stood in the doorway, clad in her silver armour, her face grim. "Get the girls ready to move." Scotty told her as she let him pass into the building. "Do you know where Celestia is?" She asked him. "Yeah, we do and we have a long way to go yet." He replied as he opened one of the saddle bags sat on his bed and grabbed the silver armour that fell out of it. Fii nodded and moved off to find the girls while Scotty shrugged off the torn suit and pulled his armour on.

He had just placed his helmet on when there came a second knock at the door. Preparing himself for an ambush Scotty pushed open the door revealing Jocky standing on the step. Scotty ushered his friend inside and closed the door. "Where's Ratty?" He asked the orange pegasus. "The lad's with the ground resistance, trying to clear a path out of the city." Replied Jocky as he pulled his own armour out of a wardrobe. "White Stripe's escaped on a dragon, but we're putting up a good fight for the air as well." "Who's leading the air resistance?" Asked Scotty. "Spitfire and her Wonderbolts." Answered Jocky, which took Scotty aback. "Shadow left them alone?" He asked but Jocky shook his head. "He tried to capture them but they escaped and dropped off the map, until now anyway." Scotty nodded before he looked around, the six girls and Fii were stood behind him, waiting to be told what they needed to do. "Ok, the roads are crawling with zebras and the air is flooded with griffins but I think that flying is our quickest and safest way out of this city, use your boots and spell necklaces, if we get separated meet up at white tail woods north of the city." He looked about the six scared faces before him. "We'll be fine, stick together and good luck." They stepped out into the street and took off flying northward in a tight triangle formation.

They had travelled for about two minutes when they encountered combat. A squadron of griffins were flying around a single target; Fleetfoot the Wonderbolt. There was a cry from within their group as Rainbow Dash spotted her hero under attack and a rainbow streak shot past Scotty and slammed into one of the griffins. He cursed and fired a bolt of magic at another griffin who tumbled out of the air. One by one the griffins fell, leaving the group and Fleetfoot hovering above the streets looking down. "Fleetfoot, you alright?" Asked Scotty quickly, the dazed Wonderbolt nodded. "Where are Spitfire and Soarin?" Asked Fii. Fleetfoot turned to her. "They're with Ratty, fighting around the bottom of that Skyscraper." "Do you know who's leading the attack?" Scotty pressed and Fleetfoot nodded. "Dark Spark's in charge now." Scotty nodded grimly. "I thought so." "I need to get back there and help them out." Fleetfoot said preparing to fly away. "I'm going with you." Said Rainbow Dash. "What?" asked Twilight and her friends loudly. "There are ponies here that need help," Dash explained. "If I can help them I will." Scotty nodded before saying. "Only if Jocky goes with you." The rainbow pegasus nodded and the trio set off towards the skyscraper.

The remaining ponies carried on until they were over the fields outside the city when a spell shot from behind them, catching one of Twilight's flight boots and sending her tumbling down onto the grass below. She had barely landed when zebras surrounded her. Scotty turned back towards her when there was an ear-splitting roar; a dragon. At the sound Fluttershy's wings locked fast to her sides and she too dropped from the sky into the hooves of the waiting zebras. Fii slammed into Scotty's side, driving him away from Twilight, back into the air. "What are you doing?!" He yelled at her twisting out of her grasp. "You going down there now would be suicide, what good would getting yourself killed do for her?" Scotty looked at Twilight once more and saw a dark green unicorn smiling up at him and next to him; a rainbow maned pegasus, a blue unicorn, an orange pegasus and the three Wonderbolts. Zebra soldiers brought Fluttershy and Twilight to Dark Spark's hooves and chained them to the others. Scotty sighed. "Ok, yeah, you're right, we can't help them here. We need to keep going." The other three girls protested but there was something in Scotty's voice that made it final and they relented and flew northward. Scotty risked one final look at the city as the great skyscraper collapsed burying it under a layer of rubble. Los Pegasus was lost.

Chapter Twelve (B): The Battle for Los Pegasus, Ratty's POV

"Keep them off me until I reach the safe house!" Scotty called back to Ratty and Jocky who nodded. Ratty fired his boosters launching himself backwards towards the griffins. He looked at Jocky. "You think we can pull off a Baltimare manoeuvre on these guys." "Aye, I was just about tae say that lad!" Nodded the pegasus and he beat his wings and glided over the three griffins who all turned to meet him forgetting momentarily about the unicorn. By the time they remembered Ratty had slammed his full weight into them sending one spinning wildly into a building with a loud crack, the griffin remained stuck to the wall. Jocky tackled another one and slammed him into the ground, knocking him out cold. The last griffin faced the two agents at once and they hit her as one sending her sprawling. A sound like the ground was splitting open hit the pair as they stood catching their breath and they turned to see a huge dragon begin to claw its way up the skyscraper. "I'm going tae go out on a limb and say that that's White Stripe's way out of the city." Said Jocky spreading his wings. Ratty nodded and tapped his hoof on the ground three times, firing off his boots. "Then let's go bag us a dragon."

They spent almost five minutes flying around the dragon attempting to slow it down but really they were nothing but pesky flies. As White Stripe picked himself up and climbed onto the dragon's back another group of griffins attacked the agents, forcing them back. Then three black cloud contrails, highlighted with lightning bolts slammed into the griffins and knocked them out cold. Spitfire swung around to a stop in front of them. "Ratty, Jocky, long time no see!" She smiled and Ratty grinned back at her. "You got here just in time." "White Stripe got away." Pointed out Jocky. "Don't worry, we'll get another shot at him." Replied Ratty, before turning to him. "I'm going to go down there and help clear a path out of the city, I need you to go to the safe house and make sure everything is Ok there." Jocky nodded and took off across the city while Ratty turned to Spitfire. "I need you three to gather pegasus troops to you, we need to gain air superiority if we're going to win this thing." "Ok, good luck Ratty." Said Spitfire and with that the three Wonderbolts sped off across the city. Ratty descended to the street and landed gracefully before moving to the nearest fight. It was going to be a long day.

For about ten minutes it looked like the ponies were going to be able to beat back the attack but then Dark Spark showed up on his blasted dragon and then Spitfire and Soarin had come back without Fleetfoot after being ambushed by a squadron of griffins. The pony resistance had been pushed back to the huge courtyard that surrounded the skyscraper, which, after the damage done to it by the dragon, looked ready to collapse. So, needless to say Ratty was more than relived when Jocky arrived with Rainbow Dash and Fleetfoot in tow. "How's it going lad?" Called down Jocky as he fired a spell from his necklace that dropped a griffin from the air. "Oh, just swimmingly!" Ratty called back, spin kicking a zebra in the face. At that point one of the barricades the ponies had built fell and the courtyard was flooded with zebra soldiers. Ratty cursed loudly and the group dived into the fray, kicking and firing spells in all directions. The fighting lasted for about a minute before the ponies were beaten back and surrounded. Ratty would have kept fighting if it wasn't for the fact that Dark Spark was stood before them holding Rainbow Dash in a paralysing spell in front of his dragon's jaws. "Surrender!" The dark green unicorn ordered. "Don't do it!" Rainbow told Ratty causing Dark Spark to flick his head and move her closer to the dragon's mouth which snapped loudly making her yelp in fear. Ratty stood defiantly facing down Dark Spark for a moment before Jocky placed a hoof on his shoulder. "You know we can't sacrifice her, she's a wielder of an element of harmony, she's too important." Ratty sighed and nodded. "Ok Dark Spark, we'll do this your way." The dark unicorn smiled and turned to a group of zebras that stood nearby. "Put them in shackles and take them to the chill." He grinned menacingly and Ratty's heart sank. "And then collapse the skyscraper on this pitiful place."