Upon further study at the library, Fire was about to identify the creature as a 'Smoke Spirit.' In the book, it was called a myth to scare kids, but He knew the thing was real. Fire read that the creature would drive ponies insane with its constant laughter, and when the victim was weak minded, it would kill them with no problem. The story freaked Breeze out a lot, but he only had the one incounter, he was probably safe.
Ashes was walking slowly in the forest, aware of any sound, his piercing eyes gazing at the shadows. He felt something near, like earlier, but weaker. As he arrived to a small clearing, he saw a torn map on a tree. It was a map of the forest, and there was a road high-lined. As a tittle, 9:05. Ashes looked at the map and tried to remember the informations on it. It was old, and only the cover of the trees protected the little map from the sun and the rain. Once he had memorized it, he continued his way to the deepest parts of the forest.
In the past few hours, the battle still remained indecisive, the skies were filled with fighting craft, from jets to hovercraft to bombers, on the ground, tanks and other armored vehicles remained locked in a massive engagement while the infantry did their best to survive. Dark peeked over her foxhole and saw an oppurtinity, "Follow me!" she yelled, and her company scrambled out of the small trench they had dug. Dark flipped her gun quickly to full power and fired a massive energy shot at an enemy ATC(armored troop carrier for those less militarily inclined), disableing it immediately. As troops tried to get out of it, Dark's company mowed them down. They then took cover behind it as as many as possible squeezed inside. Dark got onto the weapons control and the thing slowly rumbled to life as the energy frying wore off and they turned the thing to face the enemy. "Let's do this!" Dark yelled in excitement as the thing charged the enemy, guns blazing.
After a long walk in the forest, Ashes lost hope in his researches. He didn't knew if it still was daytime or not, and he was tired. He remembered another spot on the map earlier, and he tought he was near it. Maybe it was a camp, or at least something usefull waiting for him. As he approached, he heard some noise around him. He did heard noise some times earlier, but this time, the sound's source was close. Ashes silently turned to... See nothing. It was way to dark to see if he was followed by beasts: he could only try to react at the last moment, when the creature would've jumped on him. Ashes used his power to create a small knife, and he used his magic to make it float in front of him.
Fire walked outside to slight panic as he saw the smoke spirit ontop of town hall. The ponies of the village looked up at it in fear. All that was heard was a constant echo of, "insanity, death, anarchy" that seemed to ring all over Equestria. Many ponies frantically used their wrist communicators to call for help, but Firebreeze was not one of them. He flew as fast as he could to the top of town hall. He looked the Spirt in the eye and said, "Get the buck out!" Fire managed to buck the spirit in the face and knock it back a bit. The monster then began to charge. It launched out a smoke tenticle that hit Firebreeze with an uppercut. Fire was launched into the air and soon landed back on the roof of the tower. The spirit laughed and went for one more attack. It launched multiple tenticles at Fire, who stood up, mane and tail burning brightly. Fire yelled out "NO!" This yelling fired a giant pulse of fire, which burned the tenticles and launched the villan back and onto the ground. It looked up at the victorious Firebreeze and said in a weak and harsh voice, "This isn't over... My people will not rest intill you and your petty race are DEAD!" The spirit disappeared, it's words still lingering in Fire's mind.
Dark for up painfully, her vision was blurry and her ears were ringing something awful. Time seemed to be in slow motion as she looked towards the ATC that was now a burning ruin, her vision was back mostly, but not her hearing. An enemy soldier suddenly ran up to her and pointed a gun directly at her face. Right as he was pulling the trigger, he's head exploded in a blast of red blood and brains. Dark worked her way to her hooves and was tossed a rifle. She started firing as fast as possible into the advancing enemy, a wall in the face of the tide. Craft and bombs rained from the sky as the battle dragged on, how am I going to survive this, Dark thought.
Ashes managed to find his way in the darkness, and saw some light at the end of the forest. Was it possible? To cross the forest? He ran to the source of light, to discover some ruins of an ancient solar temple. As he approached, an arrow passed right in front of his eyes. Traps. He slowly turned his head to his left, from where the arrow came from. A hole in the tree comfirmed his toughts: The temple was trapped. But why should a temple in the deepest part of the forest be trapped? He turned in ashes and float to the entrance, regardless of the arrows passing through him. He arrived at the door, and pushed it. They were torches inside, and their light shown stairs going down. If he would've some technological things like the other ponies, he would've called for help and investigate the temple. But, since he was alone, and maybe followed by beasts, he went in the sky, and let the wind take him back to ponyville, promising itself to explore the ruins later. It was too dangerous: Even if he could turn in ashes, it didn't meant nothing could harm him. He needed wind along ashes to control his ability, yet another reason not to go in those ruins without assistance.
The fighters swooped in low, strafing the massive advancing army, cutting them to piecemeal. The skies had finally been one, and everywhere across the field, they were advancing. Soon, the enemy was in full retreat and by dusk, the battle had been won, adding more territory to Equestria for the first time since the Early Expansion Period, in which Celestia charged across the lands, conquering most of what is now Equestria. A hovercraft landed in front of Dark and the remains of her company, once onboard, she took a headcount. Of the fifty that went into the battle, only 20 remained. The ride home was very gloomy. They arrive in Canterlot to massive celebrations, in the one battle, they had crushed the rising nations, added nearly 200,000 square miles (or about 517,998 square kilometers) in territory to Equestria and created a buffer zone around Equestria. They were forced to take part in the victory parade and they were given 'the place of honor' for being the unit with the highest casualty rate. "Some show." a soldier next to Dark whispered, "Yea, it was probably planned out before the battle anyways, just smile and wave, we will get to go home soon." she whispered back
Ashes arrived to ponyville nearly two hours after he quit the ruins. He was tired to use his magic and he almost crashed in some trees. He had to make an emergency landing, his ashed taking their pony form while he was still in the air. After taking a little minute to breathe and chase his headache, he trotted to his fortune shelter near fluttershy's cottage. He had to take a moment to breathe, and a map to draw before he forgets the roads high-lined. It was the first time he used his power for this long, and he didn't realised how much concentration it needed. He lyed on his 'bed', cooled down, and sighed. The paper and the quill were magically floating, and the map started to look exactly like the arifact one on the tree. He couldn't stop to think about the ruins and the beast following him. He could still feel it a few meters behind, hidden in shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to jump on Ashes and kill him with his razor-sharp claws.
A crowd of citizens stood outside of the towering Town Hall, yelling out for the mayor to adress the issue. But the mayor had nothing to say, she was just as afraid as another pony. The citizens continued their panicking as Fire decided that the issue should be taken up with the princesses. He darted off towards Canterlot.
"Woah, what's all this?" Ecliptic said as he stepped over to his computer. A warning light was flashing and there were dozens of new messages. The warning flashed and brought up a message saying something about an attack in town. Ecliptic closed the warning and read some of the new messages. Most were forwarded requests for publicly available military-grade augmentations. They were all fairly recent, probably just after the attack. "Wow, that attack must have terrified them to ask for these," Ecliptic thought, "Do they realize that are essentially weapons built into their bodies?" He pushed the thought aside, opened his personal log and began to write. 'I've hit a bit of a speed bump with next-gen artificial intelligence. All of our best AI are still classified as "dumb"-they are limited to one topic or field of expertise. This is not to say that they are bad, just limited. The problem is the rising ethical disputes about how we are trying to create a "smart" construct. Basically, the process involves taking a pony's brain, (from a deceased donor, of course) firing electric signals along the neural pathways, and replicating them in a superconducting nano-assemblage. Simple. Unfortunately, this destroys the organic tissue and many view this as a violation of the donors body (let's face it, they have a point). Also, with modern technology, we live longer and it takes more and more to kill us. A terrible thing to say, but the truth. Lastly, with respect for the dead, their brains just aren't good enough. We just need better stuff to make an AI that can think, learn and adapt to any situation or event-ultimately, the computerized mind of a pony, unhindered by the task of keeping a body alive. Pure knowledge.' Ecliptic closed his journal.
Ashes arrived near the town hall, and saw the panic. Ponies werer running, crying, well, in a complete state of panic. He saw another one, flying at high-speed, and decided to follow him. He looked like he knew something, and a running pony is a pony who has something urgent to do, or something to hide. Ashes turned in ashes, and followed the other pony, hiding behind clouds.
Firebreeze landed in Canterlot and began to run towards the castle, pushing his way past other ponies, who gave him dirty looks.
Dark Bowes her head before Princess Celestia as she handed medals. Celestia hung an intricate, golden medal onto her neck. Dark took a better look at the medal, it was the Royal Valor Cross, the highest award possible. Dark stared at it in amazement, the Valor Cross, a great reward, just for leading her unit as others fell apart. She was in euphoria.
Fire made his way through the castle and to the throne room of Celestia herself. He ran in to see what looked like the princess giving medals to guards. "Princess Celestia." Fire said, "We have a problem. A problem worse than any problem I've ever encountered."
Ashes had followed the green pony to the throne room, but stayed outside. He entered in the cracks of the walls to 'hear' what was said in the room. He couldn't understand very well, but he heard enough to understand that something wrong was going on.
Dark turned to see Firebreeze, "Firebreeze! What are you doing here!" she said, taken by surprise from his sudden appearance.
"I don't know if these means anything to anypony here," he began, "But, we've got Smoke Spirits, and these buckers are tough!"
