Chapter 4
Yelsen woke up to something licking his face. He looked up to find Kobel staring him down. He laughed as he reached up and scratched Kobel behind the ear. "Heh, good morning Kobel." Kobel sat down and wagged his tail. "I agree, it is time to get up and have breakfast." Eric sat up when he heard Yelsen talking to his dog.
Eric rubbed his eyes and looked at the two, "My god Yelsen, how do you understand Kobel so fuckin' well?"
"I don't know, it just comes naturally." Yelsen replied, petting Kobel.
"You're a natural dog whisperer, you should host a TV show."
Yelsen smiled back at Eric, "Dog whisperer? Heh, maybe you should host a cooking show."
Eric chuckled, "All I learned from Aunt Maurry other than that vegetable soup is how to overcook a can of soda."
"You're being pessimistic."
"You're being optimistic"
"Rabbit season!"
Eric broke out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Yelsen asked.
"I grew up on looney tunes."
"Alright duck dodgers, time to get going. We've both got things to do."
"Talk to you later, Marvin."
Yelsen got up out of his shelter, The Earth could be seen just barely peeking above the treeline. Yelsen started to fry up some eggs as he watched the tiny blue marble sit in the sky. He wondered when the rescue plane would come. they had told him that it was a modified AC-130, but nothing of when to expect it. He shoved those thoughts out of his mind as he began his hike to town.
Michael fired off a few more rounds into the target. He put the safety on and disengaged the bolt as he walked to the tree he was practicing on. Another five bulls-eyes out of eight rounds, perfect. He began to walk back into the Air base feeling satisfied with his accuracy. He walked back into his bunk to find Ralph and Rivers sitting around a laptop. Ralph looked up from the screen and beckoned for Michael to come look.
Ralph pointed to the screen, "Dude, Michael, fucking look."
Michael looked to see a news article headlined "Science community baffled as new tests show the possibility of a geocentric solar system." Michael looked closer and read the rest of the article.
New studies around the world have led to one theory, the geocentric theory that the solar system revolves around Equestria. Scientist Jeremy Rickers had this to say, "We are not fully sure what is causing a white dwarf to revolve around this planet no bigger than our own. We suspect that it may have something to do with a new type of radiation we have recently discovered. We do not know exactly what causes it or what it does, but it surrounds the sun, the moon, and our planet. We have detected the largest concentration of this new radiation on Equestria, we hope to ask Princess Celestia for any possible knowledge of this radiation and hope to find a solution soon." Jeremy says that this new radiation has no obvious harmful effects and that people should not be concerned.
Ralph pointed at the screen, "look, they even have a picture of our orbit." Michael looked at the picture. It showed four orbs representing the Earth, the sun, the moon, and Equestria. Equestria sat in the center of the drawing and the moon sat in between Equestria and the Earth. Ralph read aloud from the article, "Due to the new orbit Earth is in, night and day are both an hour shorter. We are looking into possible eclipses but have not found any that are likely to happen within the next year."
"So it's true!" Ralph said excitedly, "Celestia really does raise the sun everyday."
"Yeah but it says that she does in the show." Rivers said, raising an eyebrow.
"That's true, but the show never has Earth in it's orbit so."
Ralph began to argue but quickly quieted down and continued reading the article. Michael had just finished reading the article when Ralph brought up another point.
"So if that radiation is magic, then wouldn't that mean that one of the Princesses is raising the Earth."
"Oh yeah, that does make sense. Which one would it be though?" Rivers replied
"I think it would probably be Celestia."
"Nah, Luna for sure."
"But wouldn't it make more sense if," Ralph was about respond but Michael cut him off.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to ask them when we land there?"
Ralph opened his mouth to protest but simply settled back down. The three rangers continued to read articles as the AC-130 warmed up it's engines for it's first test flight.
Yelsen walked happily down the road to Ponyville, Kobel following close behind. He had just gotten past the apple orchard when Rainbow Dash landed in front of him. It took a second for him to remember her, they had not met since their first encounter. He quickly realized who it was and raised his hand in a wave.
"Good morning Rainbow Dash." He said with a smile.
"Hi. I wanted to ask you if maybe we could try flying sometime."
"I suppose, why do want to?"
"I've only ever seen you flying when you first passed our town and I wanted to see just how well you can fly."
Yelsen scratched the back of his head "Alright, sounds good. I'll see what I can do, I might not be able to though."
"Why not?"
"The jets, they aren't meant to take off from grassy areas. I would only be able to if I could find a runway."
"Oh," She sounded disappointed, "what would you need for a runway?"
"just a long flat stretch of road or pavement."
"I could find one of those for you."
"I'm sure you could, but how would I get the jet over there."
"Twilight could probably lift it with her magic."
"Okay, I'll tell you what. Get my jet onto a runway and I'll go flying with you whenever I can."
"Sweet."
She flew off in search of a runway. Yelsen watched as the cyan pony flew off into the distance, turning into a little blue dot before disappearing from sight. He continued walking into town, heading for Rarity's house.
Michael, Rivers, and Ralph were all sitting at the side of the runway as the AC-130 began to gain speed. The wind kicked up around them as the beast glided past them and clumb into the sky. They could hear the scientists inside through the headsets they had been issued.
The pilot began to go through the neccesary announcements, "Wing stability achieved, all systems are go. Wind speed is 2 knots, weather is sunny, awaiting confirmation to begin test route."
"Roger that, you are clear for the test route." The flight controller responded.
The radio chatter continued on for several minutes as the shuttle clumb higher into the atmosphere. Everything was going surprisingly well, there weren't any flight issues and the radio chatter continued at a calm pace.
"We have reached 30,000 feet, engaging rockets."
There was a small line of smoke suddenly visible in the sky. It streaked through the sky leaving a massive trail of smoke and steam. After half an hour the smoke stopped and the radio chatter continued at a casual pace.
"First set of thrusters have burnt out, beginning orbit around the earth."
"Copy that, we will continue to track you on the radar."
Ralph stood up, "Come on guys," he said stretching his arms, "this stage of the test lasts for about 38 hours, lets go find something to do while the scientists do their stuff."
They all got up and returned to their bunks. Rivers and Ralph wandered off to do something but Michael sat and watched the season premiere of season 3. He smiled at the irony of him watching another episode only days before going to Equestria.
Yelsen knocked on Rarity's door, after only a couple of seconds the white unicorn opened the door. Yelsen took a step back, "That was fast."
Rarity raised an eyebrow for a second, "What? Oh, yes, I was just on my way out."
"Oh, I came here to see how the hat was doing."
"Almost done darling, I was actually just getting the last thing for it."
"What is it?"
"Well let's just say I did a bit of research into your hat before I started making."
"Research? How could you ponies possibly know anything about Russia?"
"Now I never said Russia now did I?"
Yelsen sighed as Rarity walked past him. He looked at Kobel, who was staring back up at him.
"I don't suppose you would know what she's getting." Yelsen said rhetorically
Kobel shook his head.
"I suppose that I should find something else to do now." Yelsen sat down on the curb and scratched his chin. Kobel looked at Yelsen for a second before running off around a corner. Yelsen started to get up to go after him, but he sat back down after realizing that Kobel wasn't running away. He wondered were Kobel went and after a few minutes he returned with a stick. He dropped the stick in front of Yelsen and wagged his tail. "Kobel, the only dog I've ever seen that's clever, sarcastic, and likes to play fetch the stick." Yelsen said as he stood up. He picked up the stick and walked out to the nearest field. He tossed it out a few times before Rainbow Dash landed next to him.
"What's new?" Yelsen asked.
"I found a runway and Twilight agreed to move your jet over there."
"Fantastic, where is it?"
"It's right this way c'mon."
Rainbow Dash began to fly off, calling for Yelsen to hurry up. Kobel dropped the stick and looked up at Yelsen.
"I'm sorry Kobel, we'll finish up later."
Kobel, satisfied with this, hurried after Yelsen and Rainbow Dash.
Ron stared at the TV screen placed in front of him. The screen was divided into four sections showing different camera views aboard the shuttle. It continued to fly through space in orbit of the Earth. Equestria could be seen out of one camera and California could be seen through another. His phone began to ring.
"The president's office." He answered
"Hello, Good evening. We have found some groundbreaking new statistics."
"What's so important?"
"We found that the Earth is rotating at the same exact rate it did normally. what's more is that our position relative to the sun never changes."
"In English."
"With the way we are orbiting, we will never eclipse with the new planet and our days are only marginally shortened. This is an amazing coincidence."
"Coincidences this big don't happen. What else do you have?"
"Also due to the way we are orbiting, we won't have anymore seasons."
"What?"
"We may rotate at the same rate but our tilt has changed. With the current tilt that the Earth is at, we will be stuck in a perpetual summer. What's more is that even if our tilt was the same, the sun makes one full revolution around Equestria every 24 hours."
"What are the expected damages?"
"Many parts of the southwest U.S could start experiencing a permanent drought, the Sahara could turn into an oven, and Death Valley would bake people out of their cars."
"Is there any chance to fix this?"
"Nothing that isn't science fiction."
Ron sighed, "Damnit, how long do we have until these effects start to kick in."
"All of these will only begin to show next year, as of right now summer is still perfectly on time. These are all long term effects that could potentially be devastating."
"All right, thank you for bringing this to my attention."
"Good night sir."
Ron hung up the phone. He took out a piece of scratch paper and wrote all of this down. He posted it up on his problem board. Among the war in the middle east and several national security issues sat problems involving Equestria. A small little corner dealing with diplomacy, space travel and the seasons. He stared at his board rubbing his chin, unlike all of the other problems, that little corner could almost completely be solved by one Princess, if only he had a way to contact her.
Yelsen finally arrived at the runway, it was sitting in the middle of what looked like an abandoned town. He leaned down and ran his hand over the pavement, it seemed smooth enough to take off from. Rainbow Dash sat at the side of the runway with Kobel as Yelsen walked up and down the runway looking for debris. Yelsen was surprised at how perfect of a runway that this was. It was long, straight, and wide. He walked back to Rainbow Dash and sat down next to her.
"Wow," he said, "this is perfect, how did you find this."
"A couple years ago some ponies tried to make planes so that earth ponies could fly. They never got very far and I guess they just ran out of money. All of the ponies that worked here just started leaving and now this is all that they left behind."
"Well it's absolutely perfect either way."
"So... it's a deal then?"
"Absolutely! Now that I think of it." Yelsen looked back at all the buildings. "If those buildings are all abandoned then we could probably move everybody else and their jets over here too. We could start up the first human town on Equestria."
"That would be a good idea but,"
"But what?"
"Twilight only agreed to bring one of your jets, it would take a lot to convince her to take all of them."
"She could do it, couldn't she?"
"She absolutely could, she just might not want to."
"I'll take it up with her, if she says no then that's too bad."
"Okay."
Yelsen stood up and began to walk back to town. Kobel looked up at Rainbow Dash for a second before running after him. Rainbow Dash soared past them on her way to Twilight's house causing Kobel to run off barking after her. Yelsen smiled as he saw Kobel jump and disappear into a bush. Kobel seemed to like her, he wondered why Kobel never became her pet as he started to run after the two. After only a few minutes, he had caught up with Rainbow Dash back at Twilight's house. Kobel sat attentively as the two talked to eachother.
"Just wait a second, I'll help you but I have to finish some things before I do." Twilight said.
"Okay, I'll wait out here." Rainbow Dash turned around and saw Yelsen. Yelsen sat down on a rock as she walked up to him.
"So what's the verdict?" Yelsen asked.
"She agreed to help, but in a little bit."
"That's quite alright, I have some things to do as well."
"I'll see you in a little bit then."
"Yes, I will come back in about ten or fifteen minutes."
Yelsen got up and headed back to Rarity's house. He felt like he forgot something before realizing that Kobel had stayed behind with Rainbow Dash. He made it to Rarity's house and knocked on her door. After a couple of minutes it opened.
"Ah, I was wondering when you would show up." Rarity said, turning back into her house. "I just finished the hat and I think that you will just adore it."
Yelsen followed her into her boutique. He looked around at all the mannequins holding all sorts of dresses and gowns. There was cloth and sewing tools strewn about and the walls were covered with drawings of clothes. Rarity pulled a hat off the wall and handed it to him. It was, by all means, the usual russian hat. It was dyed brown, it had ear flaps, and the fur parts were substituted with very soft tufts of wool. On the front was a small badge. The badge was a red soviet star inside of a gold circle. There was an inscription along the bottom edge of the badge that said "Stalliongrad" Yelsen laughed for a second as he began to realize just how unlikely this was.
"You're serious?" he asked.
"Yes. Why? Is something wrong with it."
"No, it's just that this is a soviet star, and on Earth there is a city named Stalingrad."
"Oh." Now Rarity was confused, "I just assumed that you had heard of Stalliongrad somewhere and put the badge on there."
"I like it, I just find it to be... odd."
"Yes very odd."
"Heh, it's like this was destined to happen."
"What do you mean?"
"We speak different languages that sound the same, we have many of the same technology and architecture, and we have almost exactly the same plants and animals. I could go on and on. Either way, our worlds are almost exactly the same and yet completely different. It's fascinating."
"Now that you mention it, it does seem rather strange."
"It does, I will talk to you later, have a good day Rarity."
"Goodbye."
Yelsen walked out of the store wearing his new hat. His hat felt ridiculous to wear in combination of his dirty flight suit. He folded it under his arm as he walked to Rainbow Dash, who was still waiting for Twilight to be finished. He reached down to pet Kobel and sat down once more on his rock.
"What'd you do?" She asked.
"I got a hat from Rarity." He replied, showing her his new hat.
"Stalliongrad? Have you even heard of that city."
"Have you ever heard of Stalingrad?"
"No, but."
"Well, lets just say that it's ironic that we both have two versions of the same city."
"Oh, what other cities are there on Earth?"
"There's many of them."
"What are the biggest."
"Biggest? New York is the biggest one I know of."
"Ever been there?"
"Yes, went there one time. Got a Manhattan T-shirt."
"There's a Manehattan on Earth?"
Yelsen almost broke out laughing, "Manehattan? Two planets that are almost exactly the same coming together, what are the odds."
"Pretty high, apparently."
Twilight opened up her door finally. She looked up at Yelsen then to Rainbow Dash.
"I'm ready, let's get this over with."
Twilight Sparkle had little problems with the jet. Although it weighed thousands of pounds, she had faced worse with the Ursa Minor. She placed the jet snugly down onto the ran his hand along the sleek exterior and smiled at the old bird. It hadn't been flown in well over a month and he could only hope that some mechanical problem hadn't sprung up. He looked at the long runway ahead of the jet in attempt to evaluate if it will really be long enough.
"This is good," he said, "I should be able to work with this."
"How long will it take?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"give me half an hour."
"Okay."
Rainbow Dash sat at the side as Yelsen began to examine his plane. He looked at the engines, they appeared to be rust free and only had a little bit of dirt. Fortunately, it had not rained since they had arrived so there wasn't any rust. Even the landing gears hadn't built up any mud that might cause problems . Yelsen flipped on the engines and electronics. The turbines roared to life and several display panels lit up around his cockpit. He did the usual pre flight check list ten times before finally feeling confident that everything was fine. He had enough fuel to fly for ten hours and leave an hour for landing. He leaned out of the cockpit and yelled across at Rainbow Dash, "Eveything is good, I'm good to fly." He sat back into the cockpit and put on his flight helmet. Rainbow Dash flew into the air, anticipating Yelsen's flight. Yelsen took one last look at every panel before increasing the throttle to take off. He got halfway across the runway before lifting up and taking off. He could see the excited blue pegasus flying just to the right of him. He looked up and out at her, even though he was going hundreds of kilometers an hour, she didn't even look strained. He wished he could say something to her. He would have to land and get a radio just for her, and that might cost him today's flight time. Yelsen thought about what he could do without having contact with her. He decided to run through some stunts to make sure all systems were running at full and pulled up sharply. Rainbow Dash blinked out of his sight for a few seconds before catching back up with him. Yelsen smiled underneath his helmet, today's flight check was going to be a whole lot more fun.
Ron smiled at the massive rocket ship in front of him. He was surprised that NASA had put together a satellite launch in just one month, but he was also relieved that every system dependent on the satellite network would start to work. It certainly wouldn't be as effective as the network once was, but it was a start. Yet another man with a clipboard greeted him.
"Good evening ." He said, extending a hand.
"Good evening. This missile launch of yours, how are you sure it wont just crash into Equestria?"
"We did the math, and the satellite will orbit close enough to earth so that the Equestrian gravity doesn't affect it. We are in a very strange spot in our orbit of the planet, we should be crashing into it right now, but we seem to be staying exactly the same distance from it. All we need to do for our satellites is to keep the orbit close enough to earth so that their gravity doesn't affect them."
"Very well, carry on."
The man nodded and walked away. Ron felt like he was missing something, something important. He shrugged it off as he sat in his limo and drove off.
Yelsen began the descent to land on the runway. As he approached the runway he noticed several pegasi flying towards his jet. It wasnt entirely unexpected, his jet was probably the loudest damn thing for miles. Yelsen finally made touchdown and turned off the engines, he rolled to a halt and opened up his cockpit. A small group of ponies, presumably from Ponyville, had gathered around the jet. They all looked at him with the same expression of curiosity and amazement as he took off his flight helmet. Yelsen raised a hand in greeting. Rainbow Dash flew in and landed next to him.
"Didn't even break a sweat." She boasted.
"I see. I need to get you a radio so that we can actually talk to eachother." Yelsen responded.
"I could barely hear myself over that thing's noise."
Yelsen turned to the group of ponies, "Hello, just test flying the jet with Rainbow Dash over here. Nothing all that interesting going on."
One of the ponies chimed in, "Could we test fly?"
"Wha- I- I guess, Not right now but... why would you want to? Its just a jet."
"Okay." The pony that had asked started to leave. Yelsen realized that the pony asking didn't have any wings.
"Alright," Yelsen continued, "I can't have any of you fly the jet, but any pegasi could fly with my jet."
Yelsen began to walk back to camp. Most of the ponies followed him all the way back to his camp after realizing that he wasn't headed to town. He walked down into the camp and was greeted by some of the men. He suddenly found himself surrounded by two crowds. His fellow pilots were bombarding him with questions about his flight and the ponies were bombarding him with questions about the pilots. Everybody blended into one noise shouting questions at him.
Yelsen shouted out at the crowd, "SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND!"
everybody fell silent. "sorry commander." one of the pilots said.
"okay," Yelsen began, "One question at a time."
One of the pilots called out quickly, "Where did you take off?"
"There's an abandoned airfield nearby." Yelsen replied calmly
"An airfield?"
"Yes, the ponies here tried to make planes of their own a while back."
"how big is it? Could we move the rest of our planes there?"
"probably, but that would take time. Anyone else?"
A pony shouted out, "Why don't you try moving into town?"
"Do you have a hangar to hold all these planes?"
"No..."
"Alright. Any other burning questions?"
The men shook their heads and the ponies stayed quiet.
"Okay. Ponies, go back to town, there isn't much to see here. Men, we will discuss this tonight. Am I clear?"
The ponies nodded then began to leave. The men gave a collective "yes sir" before carrying on with their days. Kobel joined Yelsen as he walked back to town for lunch. He went to the usual restaurant was prepared to have the rest of the day go normally. Right before taking a bite he noticed a man walking down the street in a uniform he didn't recognize. The man appeared to be talking to ponies and handing out fliers. One of the pilots walked up to him and spoke to him briefly. The man did not give him a flier. Yelsen beckoned the pilot to come over to him. He took a seat across from Yelsen.
"Who is that man?" Yelsen asked
"He says he's an ambassador."
"An ambassador for who?"
"The Equestrian freedom society."
"What the hell is that?"
"I don't know."
"Who's even in that society?"
"He wouldn't say, must be a world power to have landed someone here."
"Doesn't Celestia have a seat at the UN? Why would there be a need for a peace society?"
"I don't know, I don't like it."
"I agree, somethings up. Keep an eye out and pass the word onto the rest of the pilots. I want everyone to keep an eye on this."
"Got it, I'll try to find out what this is all about."
The pilot got up and left. Yelsen didn't like the sound of this society. Something was up and he needed to find out what it was quickly. He leaned down to Kobel. Kobel lifted up an ear as Yelsen whispered in his ear.
"Kobel, I want you to get one of those fliers and bring it to me."
Kobel nodded and ran to the man handing out fliers. He tugged on the man's pant leg. The man looked down at him in confusion. Kobel pointed at the flier he was carrying. The man handed him one and Kobel ran back to Yelsen. Yelsen grabbed the flier and began to read it. It was written in Equestrian and had a picture of a globe. There was a man on one side of the globe and a pony stood at the other.
Attention citizens of Equestria! The so called pilots that have arrived are here to enslave you and destroy your town. They are not to be trusted. We here at the Equestrian Peace Society are trying to drive them from our town and liberate you from the vile men who threaten you. Stay calm, stay alert, we will save you from disaster.
Yelsen was surprised and frightened to see this. He got up and walked up to a pony that was reading one of the fliers. The pony looked up from it at him.
"Hello there... pilot." The pony said
"Hello," Yelsen held up the flier, "do you actually believe any of this?"
The pony's eyes widened, "Oh no... of course not... I should be on my way."
The pony started to walk away at a worried pace. Yelsen was starting to get concerned by these posters. He walked to the man who was stopped handing out fliers upon seeing Yelsen. He turned away from the group of ponies he was talking to and stared intently at Yelsen. Yelsen held up the flier in his hand and shouted out at the man.
"What the hell is this so called peace society? Celestia has a seat at the UN, any operations involving Equestria have to be approved by her. Why are you coming in here and spreading fear?"
The man's eyes widened, he reached for his hip. Yelsen saw a small pistol on his hip and began to reach for his own pistol. Yelsen drew first and aimed at the man.
"Drop it!" He shouted, the man started to raise his pistol at Yelsen. Yelsen aimed up a shot and fired. He managed to land his shot perfectly on the man's arm, causing him to drop his pistol. Everypony in the street stopped at the sound of the gunshot. A few nearby pilots drew their weapons and started to run to Yelsen. Yelsen ran at the man and tackled him to the ground. He pinned him down and aimed his gun directly at him.
"Alright," Yelsen said angrily, "What the hell is this Equestrian Peace Society?"
"It's an organization to save Equestria from tyranny." He replied calmly
"Do you see tyranny in Equestria? Who's funding this?"
"This operation is being launched and coordinated by the true friends of Equestria."
"Who are they?"
"It is an alliance to save Eque-"
Yelsen punched him, "What countries are in it?"
"China, India, and many other countries."
Yelsen realized what this meant, "China?"
"Yes."
Yelsen looked up at one of the pilots that had ran over to him.
"Take this man back to base, I need to ask him a few more questions." Yelsen commanded. He stood up and two of the pilots took the man out of town. Three more pilots approached Yelsen. He had six men with him. Every single pony was now staring at Yelsen in complete silence.
"What the fuck happened?" one of them asked.
Yelsen replied, "It seems that some very powerful countries are trying to get control of Equestria. I want all of you to stay on high alert, don't go anywhere without your weapons. We need to form squads, things are getting dangerous. I want all of you to come with me, we must alert the rest of the men."
They began to march around town. By the time they got halfway through the town they had a group of twelve pilots. They reached the town hall and saw five men wearing military uniforms standing over eleven of the pilots. The pilots had their hands over their heads and were standing on their knees. A huge crowd of ponies were watching in horror at the scene. One of the military men was carrying a mega phone.
"Citizens of Equestria!" he yelled, "these men are here to destroy you all. We come from the Equestrian Peace Society and are here to liberate you of these hidden enemies."
Yelsen turned to his men and began to think of a plan, "Okay, the town hall is round, you, you, you, and you go around the right side and flank behind them. The rest of you, flank around the left side. I will signal for both of you to attack when you are both ready. Turn your radios on."
The men reached onto their flight suits and turned on their built in radios. The two groups ran off and out of sight. Yelsen watched nervously as the man ranted on about how they were freeing Equestria. He saw Rainbow Dash fly up from nowhere and shout at the men. "They aren't our enemies." She defended
"And why are you so sure of this?"
"I went flying with one of them today. Besides, they've been around here for awhile."
"All the better to trick you into thinking they are friendly. The peace society is the only true friends to Equestria. You must open your eyes to the dangers that surround you."
"My eyes are already wide open. I'm friends with one of the pilots, they aren't doing anything bad here, they're actually really cool."
One of the military men started to aim his rifle at her.
"This pegasus is obviously working in conjunction with the pilots to bring doom to this town. She is a traitor to all of you."
Yelsen's heart sank as he realized that Rainbow Dash didn't know what a gun was. Yelsen aimed his pistol and fired at the man aiming at Rainbow Dash. The man was hit in the chest and fell to the ground instantly. Four of the pilots charged from around the corner, shooting the rest of the military men before they could shoot at Yelsen. The crowd was completely silent. Rainbow Dash looked at Yelsen in horror. He felt bad for having this scene unfold in front of half the town. He walked onto the stage and looked out to the crowd.
He began to address them, "I am terribly sorry that all of you had to see this. I do not know much of Equestria, but I do know that it is far more peaceful then on Earth. These men are trying to kill us. I do not know why, but I will try to find out. In the meantime, do not trust these men. We will try to defend you, but I have no idea how many more there are."
One of the ponies yelled at Yelsen, "How can we trust you? They were telling you're the enemy and now you're telling us that they are the enemy."
"I understand it may be hard to trust us right now. But try to remember that we aren't the ones hosting public executions. We aren't the ones who just tried to shoot Rainbow Dash. We didn't shoot first, nor did we ever want to shoot in the first place. We are simply trying to defend what we have."
"And just what do you have? You pilots are killing eachother."
"These aren't pilots, I have no idea who they are. But as far as what we have, we have a mostly peaceful life. Many of the pilots have jobs, and I have recently seen a few that have made friends with the ponies here. This town is a haven, and we will fight to keep it that way. I do not ask that you trust us, just as long as you don't trust them."
"how can we tell the difference?"
"Like I said, we aren't the ones hosting public executions."
Yelsen turned around to debrief the men. "clean this up, return to base."
"What about the bodies?" one of the pilots asked
"bury them somewhere, somewhere far away from any ponies."
The men began to do as Yelsen said. When they all returned to base, not a single man laughed or joked. The men were assigned into four six man squads. The camp was quiet as Yelsen began to wait for the Earth to come within range of the radio.
Michael sat at the side of the runway. He had gone through his daily training and it was only ten minutes away from the shuttle landing back at the base. He listened to the radio chatter as the AC-130 slowly came into view. It roared in, tearing across the runway before finally grinding to a halt. Michael picked himself up and began to walk to the massive plane. It turned into the hangar and disappeared behind its doors. Michael walked into the hangar. The pilots were getting out and the crews had begun to refuel the plane. The operations director walked up to Michael.
"Ah, good to see you." He said, "We're going to be having an official launch in two days. Tell the rest of the rangers, and please do get some extra rest tomorrow."
Michael walked into the barracks and saw Ralph and Rivers sitting around in their bunks. Michael laid down in his bunk.
"So how was the landing?" Ralph asked
"It went well. We're shipping out in two days."
"We are?"
"yeah, check your gear tomorrow. Clean everything out twice. Once we land, it'll be awhile before we receive any supplies."
Rivers piped in, "Why would we need supplies? Its Equestria after all. I doubt we even need our guns."
"I don't know. Just make sure everything is running at full in case something goes wrong."
"Alright." Rivers laid down.
Ron waited for the phone call. The pilots had some very important news and he needed to know what it was. He picked the phone up the second it rang.
"The president, whats wrong up there?" Ron asked
"It's the Chinese, they've gathered some allies and have started something called the Equestrian Peace Society." Yelsen's voice had a faint static.
"The Chinese? Your sure?"
"No doubt about it."
"Whats the catch? You called me up for a reason."
"Yes, they attempted to kill us and cause the ponies to distrust us."
"What did they exactly?"
"They passed out fliers saying that we were here to enslave them and they held a public execution of about half of our pilots."
"Jesus, how many men do you have left."
"We managed to rescue them, we're still at full strength."
"You saved them? Don't tell me there was a shootout"
"I'm afraid so. I've organized the men into squads in case more show up."
"Thank you for telling me this."
"There's one more thing. We found an abandoned airfield. You could probably land the shuttle on it."
"An airfield?"
"Yes, the ponies attempted to develop planes. They failed but the airfield remains. I was able to take off and land on it with my Phantom." Yelsen's voice was becoming less clear.
"good, that means that we can put something other than construction materials on the shuttle. What do you need?"
"We need some heavy defense. I don't know how long we can hold out if too many of that society's troops show up."
"I'll see what I can do. Just hold tight out there."
"Alright, when can I expect the shuttle?"
"In two or three days."
"Good." The signal faded out. Ron hung up the phone and popped a CD out of the machine. He had recorded the entire conversation, and the next UN conference would be a difficult one. He took out a paper and drafted a request to send an APC to Equestria. It would have to be approved by Celestia, but he had a feeling that they would see eye to eye.
Yelsen turned off the radio. He looked up into the sky and saw the Earth, a small blue marble in the sky. A few bright streaks were stretching across the sky. He climbed out his jet and started to walk to his shelter. He noticed something blue in the corner of his eye. He turned to see Rainbow Dash, standing a few feet away from him.
"What are you doing up so late?" He asked
"I can't sleep."
"And why not?"
"I- I could have died right there. I didn't even realize what they were pointing at me."
"I see..." Yelsen could understand what she was feeling. After having shot two people today, Yelsen was feeling like shit himself. He could only imagine what it would be like for something that had never seen any sort of war.
"Who were those people? Why did they try to kill me?"
"They tried to kill you because you were questioning them. I myself am not entirely sure who they are, but I am sure that they aren't here to help."
Rainbow Dash was quiet.
"Listen, it's late, We're tired, why don't you go home and try to get some sleep."
She didn't budge.
"Okay, if it makes you feel better, you can hang around the camp."
"Thank you."
Yelsen went to his shelter and hunkered down for the night. Kobel found his way in shortly after. Yelsen thought back on the day. He flew with Rainbow Dash and saved her life in the same day. He wasn't sure what the purpose of the peace society was, but he had a bad feeling about it. He prayed that it would be figured out diplomatically, and feared what might happen if it wasn't. And all across Equestria, the peace society was brushing off a hard landing, and beginning Operation Exodus.
Author's notes
I'M BACK! Yup, I haven't died and neither has this story. I just went into a bit of a coma as far as ideas and motivation for my stories goes. But, I've gotten past it and now I should be updating atleast a little bit more often. This goes for my other story, which I had temporarily run completely out of ideas for. Sorry to keep you all waiting, thanks for reading.