Chapters Chapter 1
“What do you want that for” the shopkeeper asked the strange looking pony, regarding him with suspicious eyes.
The guards at the gates were a little suspicious of an earth pony wearing a dark cape pulling a large covered cart out of Equestria’s capital city. They looked inside and finally let him pass. He took the road to Ponyville but he passed through the sleepy town,towards the mountains that loomed over that part of the land, and he trudged on into the darkness.
The pony went to the top of the tallest mountain and he set up his telescope and pointed it towards the stars. He looked through it to see black. He checked the end. No cap. He looked through again. Still black. He let out an exasperated sigh. He turned the telescope to the moon. As soon as he focused it a flash of light, like a sun ray off a polished horse shoe caught his eye. He adjusted the zoom to max and saw what the light was flashing off. On the surface of the moon there was a thing. A thing built by ponies.
Many days and nights of careful cataloguing and noting, the strange pony decided that he had learned all that he could without actually going to the moon. After a few weeks he decided to send a letter to the Princess to explain his concerns and ask many of the questions running through his head. He had hoped for an answer in good time but after four months without a reply, he finally got one. He opened the letter and shook it out of the envelope onto a table. He pinned the corners down with paperweights and started reading. The letter said:
Dear Mr Crimson,
Your concerns have been put to Her Majesty Princess Celestia and she has spent many nights and days pouring over your letter. After many private meetings with her sister, her majesty has decided to meet with you at Canterlot Castle in one week’s time. You will be escorted through the castle to your room by a procession of royal guards. You must arrive in three days’ time.
Signed, Princess Celestia.
Not what he had expected. No answers, only an invitation. He decided to go and he packed all his belongings into his cart and started towards Canterlot.
He arrived at the deadline and was escorted to his room. It was magnificent: there were four rooms; a bedroom, bathroom, main living area and a kitchen. He was met by a butler at the door and his items were unpacked for him. His time went too fast for his liking but as his meeting with the Princess drew ever nearer, he grew more anxious until the day. He woke up and had his breakfast, a large bowl of oatmeal with berries, before his butler told him the meeting would be in two hours. These passed in a blur as he tried to get himself ready for royalty.
When he walked to the rooms of the Princesses, the castle was deserted without a soul around. The doors opened as Mr Crimson walked into the huge space filled with… Nothing. The room was bare except for three chairs and a table. On two of these chairs sat the Princesses of Equestria. He knelt before taking a seat. Luna looked uneasy but Celestia was fine. Celestia nodded her head and Mr crimson heard a bolt slide across the door. “We received your letter,” she said, “It intrigued us.”
Author's Note
This is my first work and so I expect this to be terrible and nobody will look at it but anyway, here we go. I don’t own My Little Pony (which is owned by Hasbro) or anything else I mention accidentally that’s a breach of copyright.
Chapter 2
“wh…wh…what?” stammered Mr crimson.
When he woke up, Mr Crimson had a splitting headache and for a few minutes he couldn’t see where he was. When his vision cleared he saw he was in a small cell made from solid stone with a small opening for him to see out and for food and air to come in. He looked out and saw rows of cells like his. It all came rushing back to him. “INMATE 73, PREPARE FOR INITIATIONS!” boomed a voice over a loud speaker. Within a minute three ponies appeared and opened his cell. They all wore brilliant white; skin tight suits, with strange looking breathing apparatus on their faces. They pulled him out and walked him down the corridor. As he neared the end, the screams began.
The door read CDFRDT. Criminal Detention Facility for Research, Development and Testing. The door slid open to expose a long corridor with intense white colouring. He was led into a room. It must have once been white. The predominant colour was now red. Blood red. The walls were white and some of the ceiling but the floor was coated in it. There was a chair with ropes around the legs and armrests. This was especially dirty. They sat him in this chair and tied him up. By this time, Mr Crimson was fully awake and he thrashed to break his bonds but they were too tight. At this precise moment, the doctor walked in with his assistants. He was an old unicorn with a light grey coat, a white mane and a scalpel cutie mark. He went over to Falfrea and said: “My name is Doctor Anton. I specialise in a very specific field. Cybernetic and organic relationships. And you, Mr… Umm… Falfrea Crimson, will be my first patient.” He then told Falfrea what procedure he was going through today. “No. You can’t do this. It’s not right,” Said Mr Crimson.
The doctor picked up the scalpel, and standing at the wall he pressed a button and Mr Crimson felt the chair lower to a lying position. It had become an operating table. “You will be a breakthrough in medical science,” He whispered, “if you survive.” And then without warning, he plunged the scalpel into Falfrea’s eye and chopped until it was totally destroyed; a mangled gloop of fluid and chunks dripped down the pony’s face and splattered onto the floor. Falfrea screamed and soon, his voice was lost amongst the agonised screeches of the enemies of his country. When the eye was finished, it was scooped out of the now red and raw socket and incinerated in the room’s furnace. By this time, Mr Crimson had passed out and he lay limp on the operating table. “Wake him up. I want to hear him scream more” said the Anton. One of his assistants injected Falfrea with shot of adrenaline. He woke up shaking. “Hello again!” said the doctor. “And now, without further ado, part two!” He shouted.
He pressed Mr Crimson to the table and started to cut around the back of the eye socket. Falfrea started to scream again as blood spurted out of his now exposed veins and arteries. He lasted longer this time, he finally passed out when the back of his eye socket was removed and his brain exposed. “Dust masks everypony” said Anton, as they started the most dangerous part of the operation, the cybernetic brain implant. “This isn’t the most precise science,” said the Doctor as he pushed the three sharp prongs deep into Falfrea’s brain. As soon as the device stopped moving, the light on the front started flashing until it had a solid red light. “Good,” said Anton, “he survived.”
After admiring his handiwork for a while, the doctor manipulated the wire on the tray and attached the end into a port in the brain implant. He then put the third item on the tray in the other end of the wire and fitted it into the empty eye socket. After another shot of adrenaline, Falfrea woke up. His eye blinked open but the one that had been replaced stayed dark. After a few seconds of frantic worry, a light began to flicker in the bulb. The red light then flashed on brightly before dimming to an ordinary light of mediocre brightness. After 15 years of life, Falfrea Crimson died.
Chapter 3
The sky was dark. Twilight Sparkle stood on her balcony and watched as the night sky was brought to life by the vibrant meteor shower. It was in the small hours of the morning and by this time, all her friends had gone home to their beds. Spike was snoring loudly in the main room. “What the hell will I do with these?” Twilight asked herself for the millionth time, whilst flapping her wings. An especially bright meteor caught her eye and as she watched, it broke through the upper atmosphere and plummeted to the ground, falling towards Sweet Apple Acres. She watched in terror as the thing fell and as it disappeared behind the hills. She waited nervously. A small explosion rocked Ponyville as the meteor impacted. Twilight fluttered to the ground and she ran towards the impact site.
When she summited the hill she surveyed the damage. There was a large crater that destroyed at least 50 apple trees, and in the centre was a smoking meteor. As Twilight ran and flew towards the crater she saw the Apples running through the orchard and shouting indistinctly to each other. Twilight reached the hole first and within seconds Applejack joined her.
Chapter 4
The ground shakes. Buildings crumble. The ticking begins…
They ran, Applejack, Twilight, Applebloom and Granny Smith, to Ponyville and found all the townsfolk standing in the streets and looking out windows. They were met by a worried looking Rarity and Rainbow Dash. “Where have you all been then, you look awfully muddy,” Said Rarity. “Don’t ask sugarcube,” replied Applejack solemnly. Rarity saw the look on Applebloom’s face and recognised it as the face of a pony that has just been scarred for life. Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock! The ground started to shake. The buildings started to break. In the rubble and dust the light of unicorn magic cast an eerie glow. Still, the ticking continued. Silhouettes appeared against the dust. The ticking intensified. Mouths lay agape as the first of the machines broke through the wall of dust. Their square chunky bodies moved with surprising speed and agility for a clockwork robot. “Rainbow Dash get spike!” yelled Twilight as the first wave of metal zombies advanced. The ponies at the front stood no chance. The robots bore down upon them killing all they could reach. They were picked up from the floor and killed in the most horrific ways. The ponies panicked. Doors and windows were bolted shut. They ran in all directions for their lives. Those that got caught were crushed and soon, blood flowed openly down the streets. The robots froze for a second as Falfrea plummeted to the ground. Fifty meters of falling to hit the ground and not breaking a bone in his (Falfrea Crimson was and still is a stallion) distorted body. He laughed. “I love hearing them scream,” he said with a smile on his face, “continue your assault.” His smile was purely for show. Falfrea Crimson felt no emotion at all towards these ponies. The robots restarted with renewed vigour, picking ponies up and pulling them limb from limb or just crushing them in their metallic fists. They were all soon blood soaked. Rainbow dash returned with spike. “We should get out of here,” she yelled.
When they regrouped at the yellow Pegasus’s house, Twilight and Rainbow Dash both had saddlebags filled with food, blankets and drinks. “We need to get to Canterlot” said Twilight to the group.
Ponyville lay in ruins, all the houses had been destroyed and blood flowed in a torrent down the streets. Falfrea gazed over the ruins. Almost exactly five years ago, he had walked through this place with a covered cart and as he surveyed his work, he felt no remorse, no regrets and no happiness. He cleaned his wings by scraping them against the floor. The bodies fell off and he went over to examine them, to see if they had any use. An elderly pony and a young colt. The youngsters frame was destroyed, now he was a shapeless form of flesh. His radar ear picked up signals from a ruined house and whilst his brain calculated the source of the noise, he approached the house. When he looked inside he saw a light brown mare with glasses, grey hair and a broken leg. He stood over her and analysed her anatomical usefulness. He gave her the positive and began the assimilation process. Soon she was standing up with a blank expression on her face. The nanomites then leaked out of her nose and formed an eye attachment and a set of body armour. “Your name is now Bio-force general 02, your previous name will be erased from your memory,” Said Falfrea. He found several more survivors and when analysed they showed no qualities of use. All the survivors that were of no use to Falfrea were killed by his own hand, their lives ended by the mistakes of a greatly loved leader, a leader with many secrets.
Chapter 6
Falfrea facehoofed. Something cracked. “I should really stop doing that with my right hoof,” he muttered to himself whilst the nanomites fixed it up. The reason why Falfrea just fractured his skull was that when he said “Kill everything in your way,” the robots took it literally. There was a group of robots with flamethrower attachments, a thing he had just invented a few hours ago using rain water’s hydrogen to eject flames, stood at the front torching all the grass and mercilessly slaughtering all the animals that even flew over on their trajectory. As he watched, one of the machines overheated and produced a large amount of steam, rustling the leaves of the tree standing above it. This sparked an interest in the organic part of Falfrea’s brain that eventually led to the theoretical development of steam power, condensed and used for a military purpose. Another idea came to life in his brain. A new design that allows for better manoeuvrability of weapons, a design that has two feet but four limbs. He had no idea what to call this design but if felt more efficient. He ran the tests for exertion of force, agility, compression, structural integrity and most importantly, usage of weapons. All these tests ran positive to his standards. He recalled all robots and began his work.
At 8AM, all six ponies were up and getting ready to not see each other. They had all their most cherished items packed for transport. They had stayed the night in any one of many hotels in Canterlot; you have no idea of the tourism in that place! It’s like Washington D.C for you Americans or London for us Britons. Anyway, back to the story, they all went to the square for 10 and as soon as the bells finished tolling, the Princesses stepped onto the balcony. “All of your forms have been evaluated and you have all been assigned stations. And without any further ado, the Research and Development section,” Celestia casted before reading out a comparatively short list of names that seemed to go on forever. Twilight and Time Turner were the two most notable of these names to the now 5 ponies in the crowd. Amongst them were many a famous philosopher and magician. The next names were basically all the Pegasi for the air-force, led by the Wonderbolts. Rainbow Dash looked proud but the 4 friends could tell she was miserable. The next list was of officers for the foot army, none of the other 4 got into this section. The next was heavy weapons workers and amongst them was Pinkie, probably something to do with the Party Cannon. The next was material extraction or mining. Rarity was called up for this job and by the look on her face she was not only sad but also disgusted by the fact she was about to become a miner. This left 2 ponies in the crowd of interest to us. The next ones called up were the medics. This was obviously Fluttershy’s field of specialty but she was nervous about leaving her friends. She eventually went up to be put at her stations. Next were the Special Forces and covert mission teams. This was quite a small proportion of the population. The leftover ponies, over three-quarters of the turnout for the distribution, were addressed by Princess Celestia “All you left over ponies have been allocated as front line infantry,” she said, “you are now soldiers of Equestria.”
When the distribution had finished, all the six friends were separated and taken to their stations, Applejack on the outer walls , Pinkie was waiting for some heavy weapons to be invented, Rainbow Dash was collecting things to drop on the incoming army (this had been spotted the day before), Rarity was being escorted to one of the mountains in Equestria, Fluttershy was waiting for the casualties to come in and Twilight was furiously inventing things like Bows and arrows, leading on to Crossbows, war hammers, battle-axes, maces, flails, tomahawks and throwing knives. Crossbows were the peak of invention at the time and so they were mass produced and distributed to all foot soldiers along with a pair of throwing knives and extras to the unicorns.
As the metal army approached the mountain, the first waves of pegusi were sent in an attempt to slow down their fateful advance, but to no avail. When the robots crested the hill, the new design had paid off; they all carried an enlarged weapon of some sort. Sword and spears were the most common with a few just holding very large rocks. By now, some heavy weapons had been invented and so the city fired off some trees in catapults. They all either missed or were blocked. “All air units launch,” shouted Spitfire, before taking off herself. It was at this point that Falfrea decided to drop from the cloud bank in which he was hiding. He fell for a while before snapping out his wings to their full extent of twelve and a half meters and gliding to meet the incoming waves of pegusi. The air was probably the safest place to be at this time if only due to the numbers of flying opponents Falfrea had even though he went through them quickly. He went for broken wings because if he could ground them, the robots would do the rest. He occasionally chopped and hacked just for fun and he enjoyed it. Before long he came across a pony that stood out from the rest, seeing as she was bright blue and had a rainbow coloured mane. He laughed, “I’m gonna chop you up.” He sped towards her and within seconds she noticed and tried to pull up, but Falfrea was upon her. They collided but no bones were broken, only speed and momentum. As they plummeted, his wing flew back to make the final blow, but it was stopped. Another Pegasus had taken the blow for her, and now she fell. “You were lucky this time,” said Falfrea before he disconnected, leaving Rainbow Dash falling. When she managed to right herself she was nearly at the ground. She snapped out her wings and braced for the pain. It came quite soon after, a sharp pain in her legs and her wings and then a numbing pain all over her body. Her wings weren’t too badly damaged but her back left leg was broken and the bone was extruding from the skin. She looked around to see who had taken her blow. It was Spitfire. Dash dragged herself over to where she lay on the floor. She regained consciousness almost as soon as the other Pegasus stood over her. She looked up and smiled, “I’ll be fine,” Before passing out again. She obviously would not be fine. One of her wings had been sheared off presumably by Falfrea’s wing and the other lay at an awkward angle underneath her. Her body was badly cut up and a deep gash now obscured her Cutie Mark. As Dash looked around a field medic came up to her and with her help, put Spitfire onto a stretcher. “Get back in the air soldier,” he said, “But don’t land too hard on that leg.” When the other pony had left, Rainbow Dash took off again and surveyed the scene. She saw where she was needed and went there. She was too late. By the time she had arrived, the gates had been breached.
Author's Note
A/N. The conclusion to this battle will be in the next chapter, after which I will do a chapter each on the lives of the Mane 6 in the war. This will take me up to 13 chapters and I intend to do something lie 18 chapters but I don’ know whether this will become a reality. What I can tell you is that this is the first “Book” in a trilogy so if you like it there’s more to come from Falfrea Crimson.
Chapter 7
The gates splintered and the bolts started flying from horns and crossbows alike at the surge of robots flowing like a river through the hole in the wall. Only about one in every two hundred projectiles did much damage to the robots and soon, they were upon the foot soldiers. They had no chance, anypony with any sense wanted to retreat up the stairs and hold them off their but the commanding officers told them to hold their ground. The first lines were killed almost mercifully quickly as they were decapitated or pierced by large weapons. Blood was tricking through the cobbles like drizzle on a wet morning, but before long, the trickle had turned to a stream that wet the hooves of all that stood. Every once in a while a robot would fall with an arrow sticking out of its eye or sizzling metal on its chest plate from a burst of magic but not many, not often.
As soon as Falfrea got bored with playing in the air by chopping ponies to pieces, ripping them limb from limb and generally causing pain, he joined the melee that was the ground assault. This cleared the skies from danger and so the air-force got to work dropping rocks and stuff on the robots heads. Falfrea had only just landed before the first volley of arrows embedded themselves in the cobbles next to him. He put his wings up to shield his body whilst the nanomites hardened his skin. A lone arrow got through his defences and hit him just above the eye and broke and pierced his brain, taking a chunk out on the other side. “Damn, that hurts!” yelled the red pony, “I hate growing back brain.” The skin and bone healed first so that the new brain wouldn’t be damaged by contact with air and then the nanomites got to work. They copied the cell nuclei from the nearby brain cells and used them to form new cells, devoid of any data, ready to be filled with new memories, thoughts and feelings. It just so happened that the part of the brain that just got shot out was the part that was partially holding back the raw insanity that Inmate 73 had become in its 5 years of imprisonment. Let me now explain the last statement in detail. When Falfrea arrived, he was put through an operation that put a small brain implant into his skull. This contained an experimental AI that allows the subject to use advanced logic and mathematics within seconds rather than having to think about it. It can do a nine piece Tower of Hanoi in 8 seconds with seven of those seconds being the movement of the pieces. This is how Falfrea can do advanced maths within seconds. This AI was an experiment though and so, as all experimental AIs do, it went insane. Its programming didn’t fail, only what it used it for changed. It killed every sentient creature on that facility. It latched onto Falfrea’s hatred for the Princesses and transferred that into a conquest. It dredged deep into Falfrea’s inner thoughts and came up with the name Inmate 73 and so it took it. This thing was now set loose on the world. Within ten seconds, it had calculated the population of Canterlot and put a counter in its head and began the slaughter. The main thing going through its core processor was “how many ponies can I kill with one movement,” and this was horribly efficient. Blood spurted from severed necks and drenched its host (that is the best word I can find to describe it) in the liquid. It was a shower, revitalising the stains of crimson the bodies coat had obtained. Inmate 73 didn’t see, it just killed. Behind it lay hundreds of bodies in various states and phases of decapitation. It’s wings had extended to about ten meters each via the leaking of nanomites from pores in its skin leaving it with very little amounts of oxygen flowing through its body. This was ridiculously tiring for it but it was horribly efficient, with a kill rate of about ten per minute. Soon, its blood spattered face came upon a catapult, firing rocks at Inmate 73’s army. This took its mind off killing for a couple of minutes whilst it reduced the catapult to shattered timber. One of these sharp edges it turned into a weapon, using it like a kebab stick and impaling at least fifteen ponies on the end before it became too heavy to handle. When it put its front hooves back down, they were lying on a pair of swords and this gave it an idea. It reared up unto its hind legs and reducing its wing length, used them as its front legs, freeing up a pair of limbs. Out of its skin flowed the nanomites, creating a hand-like extension on the bottom of its hooves. It then picked up the swords and started hacking. They weren’t as effective as the wings but they were more energy efficient, killing one to every thousand particles of oxygen rather than one to every million.
Princess Celestia watched from the balcony. It was a good thing that Inmate 73 was too engrossed in its massacre of her subjects. “We need to move to another city,” she said to her sister, “before he finds us.” Luna agreed and said she would get the carriage ready with an escort. Celestia left to catch her carriage and once inside she decreed that they needed to go to Manehatten to increase the army size and to fortify. She leaned out the window and yelled to one of her escorting guard, “Can you get back to tell them to retreat to Manehatten!” before locking the door and the heavily tinted window.
Chapter 8
Hey there sugarcubes. If you don’t know me I’m Applejack, the apple bucker at Sweet Apple Acres. Now I’m goin’ to tell y’all about some o’ my time as a foot soldier in the war.
Now, I stood there with my revolver… what was it called? Ah yes, the Nagant M1895 revolver and I was tremblin’. The barrel was pointin’ at the barricade that had been hastily built by the retreating ponies. There was noise behind it but no bangin’. We all feared for our lives as we remembered the destruction and slaughter of our homes and friends. The way the blood ran down the streets like a river and the way I almost got chopped up by a massive sword. As a said before, my aim was pretty terrible seein’ as I was a tremorin’ wreck. The noise stopped and we held our breaths, waitin’ for the barricade to crumble, and boy did it crumble! It exploded inwards, shreddin’ the first few rows of soldiers and leading through the rubble was the monster itself, the Thing that stuck the most fear into our hearts, the Thing that called itself Falfrea Crimson. It walked on its hind legs, using its wings as its front ones and in its hooves were a pair of MAC-10 machine pistols. These it held with a pair of nanomite hands, unnatural things that conveyed it’s thoughts into movements. However, behind it was what shocked me the most. Rows and rows of foot soldiers, just like us except for one difference. They were all identical, down to the last hair on their coats. They were of a grey shade, with green eyes and a pure white mane and tail. The monster took to the air but only to project its voice. “I give you a choice,” it yelled, “surrender and I only kill most of you, or fight and I kill all of you.” This was more like a broadcast than a speech, with its monotonous voice and tone. There was no reply. It nodded its head. And then it began its killin’ spree. It swooped over our ranks emptyin’ a pair of clips onto the floor as soon as they were empty. This seemed to be the signal for the soldiers to engage. Both sides charged and soon, bodies were falling and blood was spurtin’ from gunshot wounds. I think I took down one with the seven bullets in my revolver as I missed with the other six. As I reloaded the sides clashed and the fight got real. There were ponies using the butts of guns as clubs and some bucking for their lives. I dropped the bullets on the floor and as I fumbled to get them I saw a pair of grey hooves by my head and then I heard a gunshot from very close. I wondered why there was no pain until I felt a body slump against the floor. I was still reloadin’ and this surprised me. I wondered when you die you do the action you die doin’ for the rest of eternity. I was snapped back to reality by another pony standing beside me. It was a total stranger I had never met and yet he still saved my life. We nodded before partin’, goin’ our separate ways. I counted him amongst the dead for a long time after that. Anyways, we lost that battle almost as bad as we lost Canterlot and so we lost Manehatten as The Thing destroyed it.
We were then sent down to Baltimare and told to prepare for an attack that didn’t come for two or three weeks. When it did come then, we were well prepared. The survivors came in from Fillydelphia, we armed them and told them they were soldiers unless we could tell they were in a different position. We had better weaponry now, with rifles and machine guns. We won that confrontation to the joy of me and my colleagues. We used the time that our enemy needed to regroup to evacuate the city; we wouldn’t survive the next attack. But we were totally unprepared for what came next. The Thing had worked out how to turn earth ponies into pegasi. The next attack was from the air with fire bombs and normal bombs. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was the monster. It had developed what we now know of as Gatling cannons, the GAU 13/A model to be precise. It stuck with its MACs but carried more clips, about 20. The Gatling canons, for he carried a pair, weighed in at around 151kg each but fired at a rate of 2400 rounds per minute. It carried the 30x173mm cartridges in six 800 round replaceable boxes on its wings. The only downside to this was that its combined weight of all the guns and ammo and metal and flesh was 710kg. This meant that the amount of muscle in its body had to increase dramatically. And it showed. Its veins pulsed with what I assumed was blood but I couldn’t tell, it seemed as if it carried less body weight and its muscles protruded from the now enlarged skin. It was a bloodbath in the city and the same in the air. We retreated after only 15 minutes of fightin’. It was then decided that we decided to up our game significantly.
We were ambushed in the forests that surround the Hayseed Swamps on the way to Dodge Junction by a legion of enemy troops and two robots. Half of my squad was killed includin’ our commanding officer. I was shot in the haunch and needed medical attention which I got at Dodge Junction but the wound was infected so all the flesh had to be cut out, destroying the top half of my cutie mark. I was outa action for the next battle, but I think Rainbow Dash was there. She might tell y’all about it.
Chapter 9
Being in the Air-Force was AWESOME even if you got shot at every day and you had to fly away from the crazed madman with the anti-tank Gatling cannons firing at us. It was still awesome though because I got to fly with the Wonderbolts even if it was in quite strange situations. Oh yes Applejack, I was there when you were skiving. I got worse injuries that any of you did. Alright I’ll stop arguing and just write.
I think we lost Dodge Junction too if only by a little bit, and the fact that we were just developing tanks when they had just developed them wasn’t helpful. We seemed to lose most of the battles we fought. Funny that. Anyways, by this time I was armed with machine gun I think. It hung from my middle and there was a button on the top that if I pressed, it would fire. It was pretty cool. There were no robots on the battlefield anymore, The Monster had deemed them too valuable and was working on them all the time was what our intelligence said. I have to say that the skies were pretty dangerous but I made it didn’t I? Well yeah I did get my wing broken and I did almost die from blood loss but meh, I’m still alive. The war wasn’t so bad on us pegusi, they didn’t really attack our cities as much as the others because they were horribly outnumbered by us but we did suffer as many casualties as the other races. We lost Los Pegasus and Appleloosa was totally destroyed. They levelled it, razed it to the ground. I think I’ll describe that battle.
We took off as soon as the signal was given that enemies had been spotted. The first wave was simple; seeing as we were over grassland the bombs did no damage to us when they fell but when we got into the city our tactics had to change. We tried to set the bombs off that they were carrying so that very little explosive hit the ground. But some still did. And when it did it was devastating, buildings were totally destroyed; soldiers from both sides were killed by the explosions and the shrapnel. The worst were the ones that took the little bits of shrapnel that couldn’t be removed but were fatal. You would watch them suffer and try to work through it without knowing what was hurting them and then falling and dying for a reason unbeknown to them. We knew of course but we didn’t tell them because it would destroy them. They would refuse to fight and that is what war is about. Fighting and dying or fighting and watching others die. I killed like everypony else but I killed without remorse, I never thought about whether they enjoyed life before I ended theirs. They were clones though, they don’t have feelings. Do they? But our main priority was the Princesses carriage. If it ever came into sight we must defend it with our lives for the Thing will be after it like a bullet. We have to give our lives to try to stop him. There is only one way. I pulled it off once, what you have to do is shoot right at the seam between metal and flesh at its wings. This will throw it off course and might ground it if you’re a good enough shot. My dodging was pretty good; even if I did get shot in the wing and have it broken, but not once did they hit my body. It got me once but I dodged, badly, and it gave me this scar on my face that I think will never heal. It’s the way it uses its wings as weapons that scares me the most. It sheared off Spitfire’s wing if my memory serves me correctly. That may have been the only time I would get that close to my favourite flying team’s leader. But back to the point, it cut off her wing with its wing, one blow that was aimed at me. She saved my life at the cost of her career. That deserves a medal by any standards. Over Appleloosa my job was to shoot ground forces and falling bombs and I did both jobs pretty well I have to say with my aim and speed. I never tried to do a Sonic Rainboom before the final battle but that’s another story. Being in the Air-Force was probably better than any other part of the forces as you didn’t get shot at as much and didn’t get bombs dropped on your head but you did have that Thing on your tail all the time! One of those bullets would go straight through a pony without any difficulty but the two guns wouldn’t just fire one. The bodies were usually shredded by the time they hit the floor and they splatted with most of the organs falling around it. They were never honoured, only trodden into the dust by hooves from both sides. Every year there is a mass remembrance where we honour all their sacrifices…
I’m sorry but I can’t continue, I’ll remember my squad falling to the ground in pieces before I took the shot that grounded that Monstrosity for the rest of the battle. This may have been a win for us but it wasn’t for the ground forces. I killed about 500 ponies with one bullet. It hated me with a passion, and every time it saw me it went for the kill. I always survived if only by luck, speed and agility. I caused the deaths of so many ponies I cannot even go into the streets on the days upon which we remember out of shame that nopony else knows about. I think you will probably want a break from war stories so I’ll hand the pen over to Twilight. Get ready for a long bore!
Chapter 10
Hello my name is Twilight Sparkle and- I’m getting to that. Actually, screw the formalities and I’ll get on to my story. Well, actually just a day in my war job. I would always be with the Princesses, we would be talking tactics or anything else that was on our minds but my main job was Research and Development. We developed guns; we developed all the things that they were using out on the battlefield. The one concept that I developed was the shotgun, and it was my achievement that won us a battle. Ah, yes. I remember a good story.
We were in Dodge City in one of the big buildings I can’t remember what it was called when I heard and felt an explosion that seemed to be quite close to me. I ignored it as a bomb or a shell that had landed near the building. Then I heard the gunshots. They were close, in the building above us because we were in the basement. I grabbed a shotgun and ran to the stairs but not before Time Turner (you might call him Doctor Whooves) got there. He was shot four times with a submachine gun. The blood splattered against the walls of the tunnel and stairs. At this point I was raging. “DIE BITCH,” I yelled and fired an entire drum of shotgun shells up the stairs. I let 200 pellets loose in that chamber and the blood was flowing down the stairs well before I had fired 5 shells. I got them all. Five clones all armed with submachine guns. Time Turner was still alive at this point, if only just. “I can save you,” I told him, “But you will be a test subject.” He agreed for he understood what I was doing. I took the syringe and injected the entire thing into his blood stream. The bullets were pushed out and the wounds healed. I had grabbed the can of anti-virus spray and when the nanomites seeped out of his nose I sprayed them all. He had been saved by the Monster’s technology. I then did a small EMP on him to make sure that all the nanomites had been shut down so his immune system could eradicate the viruses. It was only then that I realised I had ended 5 ponies lives. I felt like I had done no evil even though I know I had. The blood stained steps were soon defended by a small turret with a motion sensor and tracker for automatic defence. When it went off we both grabbed a weapon and got ready for an attack that never came, they were all stopped by the auto turret. It was on that day that I had a revelation. One that would affect a battle in the near future and we would win that battle because of my invention. This invention allowed for earth ponies and unicorns to fly without stress on magic . This revolutionised the battle in the air and we actually retook a city with it but I’ll leave that story for Pinkie as I know that will be what she tells you about.
The part that I really wanted to tell you about was the testing areas in all the places we went and some of the crazy ideas that got tested. The craziest must have been a jet engine and although it showed some use in peace time it was totally useless in war because we already had flying weaponry in the form of pegusi. My favourite must have been a design for a cannon that would fire cannons that would fire cannonballs but seeing as this was totally crazy and stupid, it was never passed for field testing. I had no time to study so I studied the machines and how they worked. Gunpowder was probably the most used with gas coming in a close second. The most useful thing to come out of the R&D facilities was the Surface to Air missile or SAM. These totally crippled both our and our opponent’s air forces at the altitudes that they used to work at. We could now shoot them down from the ground and we did just that. Them having the exact same flying style (all pegusi fly differently) meant we could use auto turrets. We built quadruple barrelled turrets that fired at a rate of 1000 rounds per minute. I know that is quite slow for now but back then it was the fastest except for It’s guns. As developers we wanted to study It in closer detail but that was impossible seeing as It would just cut everypony we sent to try to spy on It to pieces. And then send to us the poor ponies skin. But one thing was consistent. They were all missing their cutie marks. There were many speculations to why that was; It collected them as trophies, it was a statement saying that I still owned the ponies soul. Another, less widespread theory was that the Monster had no cutie mark and was collecting to see if it could find one but the only evidence to support this was that no cutie mark was visible on the clones or on the Beast itself…
I think that I am going to hand over to Fluttershy as I need to get a letter drafted as a dry run for the one to princess Celestia. See you all in a bit.
Chapter 11
Umm… Hello? Umm… my name is Fluttershy and uh… I was in the medical teams for the majority of the war time. This meant that I didn’t see the fighting, only the results and umm… they weren’t particularly nice. I don’t think I can tell you about it so I think I’ll just put in some of my medical reports that I have taken from my files.
Name: Wisp
Name: Holly Dash
Name: Graceful Falls
Name: Ponet
Name: Chilly Puddle
Name: Brolly
Name: Charcoal Bakes
Name: Starburst
Name: Cold Front
Name: Gold Slipper
Name: Lucky Clover
Name: Jubileena
Name: John Bull
Name: Faraday and Written Script
Name: Blue Skies
Name: Tree Sap
Name: Blaze
Name: Poppycock
Name: Vance van Vendington
Name: Spectrum
Umm… I’m back just to say that umm… Pinkie wants to talk to you about some other things so I’ll err… See you later OK?
Chapter 12
Hello! I’m Pinkie Pie and I have a pretty awesome story to tell you! It’s a shame that it doesn’t have any pranks in it though… anyway, here is my story and it is about the best part of the war.
I was stationed in Los Pegasus, just outside the San Palomino desert, a group of other ponies and I had been messaged to come and meet up with some scientists in a location that we were to disclose no information about but before we could the city was attacked, just hours before the meeting so we all assumed that it was either cancelled or postponed. I took my position by the auto cannons, ready to maintain/defend them. We also were charged with loading and firing the cannons that emptied shells onto the enemy without relent. Seeing as Los Pegasus was a Pegasus city, none of us earth ponies or unicorns could stand up there; it was up to the pegusi to defend it. We were only ground support to an aerial battle. It was a long and hard clash, the casualties were countless on both sides and many of my comrades were killed that day but I forged on, hoping for a better tomorrow. Little did I know that mine would come for me in a few days. The battle was lost, due to a lack of support for the warring pegusi and an error on their part. Their over-confidence.
We left dejected our hearts and minds wanting for something better and when my group was stopped and I was given a message that the meeting was on tomorrow I was delighted. I went to the place in the desert to find that the scientist was Twilight Sparkle and the group of ponies weren’t too unfamiliar. We were in a courtyard with a hanger on one side and a building on the other that looked like a control room. Present were Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie Drops, Jim Beam and some others she didn’t know. Twilight began to speak. “You are all here today to be part of an experiment, one that could revolutionise the battlefield. If this experiment goes as I predict it will then the field test will be an attempt to retake Los Pegasus.” That statement created a ripple of whispers around the 5 ponies assembled. “I cannot however, guarantee your safety during this experiment. If any of you wish to pull out do so know. Once we get going, you can’t go back.” She paused “OK, Follow me and I will show you what might be your final resting place.” With the unnerving speech over, we were taken on a tour of the site.
What we would be testing was classified and we had to sign a form saying that if “Anything went wrong and you survive, you are to keep this a secret” and we would be “assassinated if we told anypony.” With this done our tour continued. Twilight would be in the safe building, and we would be in the unsafe courtyard. Soon after we were shown what was inside the hangar. With the push of a button, Twilight opened the roof and doors of the hangar to show a strange contraption. “Hey, that looks a little bit like the thing I made with the bicycle.” I said to the confused faces of my group. “So it does Pinkie, and it was that machine that inspired this one. Let me show you.” Twilight led them over to the machine; the main body was like a blunt cone with a flat bottom on wheels and a tail sticking out of the top of the back end. The top of the cone was dominated by a set of rotors, four to be exact, and a smaller version on the end of the tail, angled sideways. The whole thing was about 10 meters long and had a hole in the middle, cutting through the machine laterally, only blocked by a pair of seats with a mounted swivel M1919 Browning machine guns in front of them. In the nose of the craft was a pair of controls with seats behind them and a glass windscreen. Twilight told us where we were positioned. Lyra and Sweetie were in the front two seats, the mare called Raven was positioned on the seat in the middle of the craft towards the back. The chair swivelled 360 degrees but was in a fixed position, allowing easy access to the ammo hold. Jim and I were on the guns. The sitting was the hardest part to get used to as it wasn’t natural, Lyra had no problem with it but others did. Our backs had to be arched and our front hooves were to remain free. Our back hooves had to stop us from falling. We were told to put on headsets that would allow us to communicate over the engine that was powering us. The machine didn’t feel at all safe. Twilight trotted out of the hanger and galloped to the command building. We soon heard her voice over the radio. “Switch to-static-2 to-static-better sou-static,” the headsets crackled. We all switched to channel 2 and the voice that was broadcasted was loud and clear. “Right, this is Test 1 for Helicopter.” Twilight said before giving instructions to Lyra and Sweetie. “We are going to attempt to hover at an altitude of 5 meters,” Instructed Twilight over the radio. “Lyra, put your back hooves on the two pedals at the bottom of the seat, right at the back of the hole. You need to put both free hooves on the stick in front of you and you need to use your magic to hold the lever on your left. Flick the red switch above your head to start the engine.” Lyra flicked the switch.
(Cue song: Lux Aeturna, Link to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLJllk-0o6c from 0:20)
The rotors started to spin, slowly at first but soon creating a downdraft. The heli jumped marginally. The rotors were spinning slightly faster all the time and soon it jumped again but for longer. The next jump would end in 30 minutes time. They were flying. The wind was minimal in the hangar so the adjustment of the flight plane was not as necessary as it would be in the next tests. This was the first time anything powered with an engine heavier than air had ever flown and with earth ponies and unicorns piloting it. Lyra increased the throttle and the helicopter rose. It was slow but safe. If Lyra made a mistake the heli would crash into the walls of the hangar and all its occupants would die in the flames and explosions. It rose slowly to the top of the hangar and Sweetie confirmed the altitude of 5 meters. “Bring her out of the hangar Lyra, but watch out for the south-easterly wind. Angle your nose into it with the pedals and keep correcting. 20 meters is our target. Test 2 commencing. Over and out,” Said Twilight over the radio. Lyra put up the throttle and we were hit full on by the wind. She fought hard against the roll and as we spun to put our nose into the gust the throttle was hit again and we lifted higher into the skies. The roll only worked to increase my anxiety for these tests. When we reached 20 meters we received test 3. Our job was to fly around the perimeter of the test site taking as long as we needed. The angles changed and Lyra fought hard to keep the helicopter under control as she flew us around the site. Test 4 was to test the mounted guns and we were told the controls. The pedal at the base of the gun was the trigger and the two handles were to aim it. Targets had been set up in the courtyard and Lyra, Jim and I had to work together the shoot them all. I pushed the pedal and pointed the barrel down. The resulting noise was incredible and each target was destroyed, ripped to pieces by the rounds loaded into the guns. Lyra did as we instructed spinning and moving at our command and soon the targets were nothing but splinters.
(End song: Lux Aeturna)
The radio crackled and Sweeties voice could be heard across it. “We’re low on fuel, where should we land, over?” The answer was simple. “Hover just off the ground to unload all personnel, and then land back in the hangar. Don’t scratch anything and don’t crash. Over and out,” Twilight’s voice came across the radio. Lyra skilfully piloted the heli until it was almost landed and everypony could jump out onto the courtyard. When they were all clear, Lyra flew the helicopter over to the hanger and set it down in there without a problem. When we were all reunited we got the test results back. All systems worked perfectly and Lyra was an exceptional pilot (As far as they could tell seeing as they had only one pilot to take data from). Twilight came over to us. “You have just tested the latest invention that will help us win this war and you will be instrumental in the teaching of many other pilots. In two weeks’ time we will be attacking Los Pegasus. We will soon rule the skies.”
Chapter 13
It has been one week and 5 days since the tests on the helicopter and we had been teaching so many ponies. The days had been long and the work had been stressful but we had succeeded and there were now about 100 teams of 5 ponies to fly the helicopters that the factories had been turning out with all haste. There was only one problem. SAMs would take out any heli in one hit so we disabled ours but the enemy didn’t disable theirs. We had a problem, we needed anti-missile technology. Flares were good but only worked on heat seekers, the real nasty ones were the guided missiles. They needed shooting down manually and so every helicopter had a team of pegusi armed with scoped rifles to take out guided missiles and it worked most of the time; only one in ten missiles got through, but the enemy would be trying harder than us to destroy our advantage. Every pilot we talked to was scared of the same thing. The Monster was what scared us the most, It could take us down in so many different ways or kill us all whilst we were still inside the helicopters. It was not a nice though to sleep on when we would be taking off at 6 A.M. to assault Los Pegasus.
The crack strategists at the base came up with a plan to zap all the foot soldiers with magic so that they could walk on clouds and so we could stage an attack with our entire force rather than with less than a third. Each heli could take a maximum of 20 ponies standing and the team of five flying. The idea was to defend the helicopters until they could drop the troops and then the helicopters to provide close air support for the soldiers on the ground. The combatants would then in turn, destroy the SAMs and allow the pegusi teams to disperse from the helicopters and join the fight in the air. The time was 7 P.M. on the day before the attack. We had no idea whether the enemy knew about our invention or our plan and we were so nervous none of the crews could sleep.
We were woken the next morning after only 4 hours sleep at 5 A.M to prepare the helicopters and I met with the rest of my team, the test crew of Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie Drops, Jim Beam, Raven and I, running to where our heli was resting. It was the original and it had much sentimental value to us. We had also equipped it with some custom designs that had no place on the machine. We had got Jim to do some work to create a pair of “wings” on the sides under which lay 10 Air to Air missiles and a bomb hold containing 20 small bombs for ground targets. As he was an engineer, we persuaded him to learn more about the engine and when he had we upped the power on it so as to lift all the extra weight. This larger engine required a larger fuel tank and so we added one with a fuel port on the inside so that it could be refuelled from the cabin. We had to carry 4 full jerry cans to get off the ground. We checked the heli over for fuel leaks and engine damage and when we were satisfied we got some breakfast. A plate of hay and a cup of water was all we received. We killed the time by thinking up what we would do if the Thing attacked us. The alarm rang for the lift off and we jumped to our feet. We started galloping towards the helicopter and I looked around to see Lyra… Not Lyra? Her eyes were the wrong colour, a moderate cerise in oppose to her normally amber eyes. I was confused so I called to her. “LYRA!” I yelled, “ARE YOU REALLY LYRA?” she gave me a questioning look and stopped. “Why do you ask?” she inquired. And then, right in front of my eyes Lyra’s eyes changed colour from their previous cerise to their normal amber. “What?” I was shocked.
“The personal channel for your helicopter is the same as your serial number. You are the ponies that will retake the city and you are the citizen’s last hope. Our intelligence tells us that the enemy intends to level the city tomorrow morning. We need to have secured it by then. You may begin your attack. Over and out.” The message came loud and clear over channel 0. Jim flicked his headset off and turned around in his seat. He addressed the trembling soldiers standing in the middle of the heli. “YOU ALL NEED TO HOLD ON BECAUSE LYRA LIKES TO ROLL AND WE AREN’T GONNA CATCH YOU IF YOU FALL, OK!” he yelled at them. They nodded in reply. Jim Flicked his headset back on. “Let’s roll.”
(Cue song: Android Porn by Kraddy. YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoN2wYKAdpM )
The helicopters rose into the cool morning air, stirring up great dust clouds from the desert base at which they were stationed. Soon, the group of helicopters were in sight of the city and the attacks began. The M1919’s were not effective at that range but the enemy SAMs were and we were bombarded by the constant explosions of the missiles being shot out by our pegasus defenders. When the enemies came into range, the firing began. The noise was tremendous and enemy pegusi were plummeting, torn to shreds by the 30mm calibre bullets. I was screaming and shouting at them, but the real fight came when we clashed. Our M1919s were swivelling in all directions and raven had to work hard to restock us with 250 round belts every time we ran low. The muzzles of our guns flashed and jumped. The bullets flew all over the place, some hitting, some missing and some impacting on other helicopters. We broke through the ranks of the enemy before we had taken too much fire. When we were clear, we saw what we had dreaded. The Monster was coming at us because we had been the first to break through the melee that was the battle behind us. The joint on the M1919’s were just manoeuvrable enough to get an almost clear shot on It. The 30mm calibre bullets missed most of the time but we got 1 or 2 hits in, just enough to weaken it so we could pass. It missed us by 3 meters. We then set our sights on the landing area.
(End song: Android Porn by Kraddy)
We put the soldiers down and took off, covering them and taking out any snipers we saw. We came over an SAM launcher and dropped three bombs on it, totally disabling it and killing all in the vicinity. By now some of the other helicopters had dropped their soldiers off but quite a few were taken out in the combat behind us. The enemy pegusi were returning to the city, probably to defend the skies and we met them with full force. Lyra was an expert pilot, even without hands and with her expertise we took very little damage from the enemy. But we were about to face something none of us could have prepared for. We felt a jolt on the back of the heli and I looked out to see the Monster standing on the tail. “You shot me,” It said with a twisted smile on Its face, “Now I’m going kill you.” Without further ado the Thing jumped the rotors and landed on the nose of the helicopter, unbalancing it and tilting it forwards. It smashed the glass and yanked Lyra out of her seat. “I like your cutie mark, do you mind if I TAKE IT!” The nanomites flowed out of the port on Its mechanical leg and formed 5 fingered hands. Lyra looked on with shock and what o thought as a little bit of envy. It pulled a knife out from underneath its wing and started to cut, all the while the heli fell. Sweetie was trying to regain control but to no avail. Lyra screamed in pain as the knife cut through the skin and muscle on her flank. When it came free, blood flowing down Lyra’s leg, It put the piece of skin in a pouch hanging from around Its neck. “Do you mind if I take this,” It said, motioning towards Lyra. “I think I will.” It took off, carrying Lyra under a leg, further unbalancing the helicopter.
The helicopter was empty of fuel; it had all been burned off by the flames. We despaired for we knew we would probably never find Lyra without a heli. Without a heli… I had a revelation, “We need to find another teams helicopter,” I said to more confused faces, “in a landing helicopter there’s fuel. Ours still has a weapons cache does it not?”
We went in all guns blazing; the M1919’s were mowing down enemy clones right in the middle of the city as we charged towards the city hall. We landed, the machine guns still doing their job of shredding enemies and tearing through armour. When there was nothing but blood and chunks of skin and flesh lying on the floor, out team disembarked from the heli carrying our weapons. There were two pistols, a submachine gun and a shotgun. We stormed the building, we were merciless and anything or anyone in our way was killed or destroyed by our rage. It was all consuming, and burned deep within our hearts and minds. We took on floor after floor of military command centre, taking out hundreds of clones and machines. We cleared the penultimate floor and found the stairs leading up to the top floor. We hadn’t found Lyra yet so this was where we expected her to be, along with the Monster. We burst through the last set of doors to find Lyra tied to a chair in the middle of the room and nopony else around. The Monster was hanging silently and out of view in one of the corners and it closed the door behind us. “Welcome friends,” it spoke softly, “To Inmate 73’s house of FUN.”
Chapter 14
Hello dears, I am going to tell you all about what I did in the war. I was a miner due to my ability to find gems using magic. It was horribly dirty and dangerous but I hardly complained at all because I knew that I was relatively safe compared to some of my friends on the front lines. Most of my day was spent down in the mines finding gems and other things but sometimes I would be allowed to stay on the surface and operate the machinery that we used.
The mine was a shaft mine with branches off at ten different levels that had been calculated to contain the most ore and gems. We were mining in the Crystal Mountains for they had shown the most potential for rare materials such as iron or lead. Our main mining operation was for the many gems that lie in the ground underneath the green grasses of Equestria. This was because we could turn gems into a third of their weight in metal so we needed lots of gems. The mines were dark and we only had our horns to light the way as unicorns so I had no idea how earth ponies could work in the total darkness. We changed jobs often, I worked for a few days pulling carts filled with gems to the lift that carried them to the surface and I spent days at the controls of the machines that extended the tunnels into a maze that we could lose many ponies in and we did. About 100 ponies went missing in the mines, went down in the morning and didn’t come up at night. This machine was a monster, 15 meters long and weighing 2 tons it was one of the biggest things down in the mines. The front of it was totally dominated by the digging machine as the whole thing was actually 3 machines connected, a digger, a sorter and a very big engine. The digger was made up of a circular, pulsating mass of metal teeth that crushed all the rocks offered up to it by the 20 claw-like appendages that surrounded the “mouth”. It ate up the rocks and broke them into gravel and sand and passed the rubble into the sorter that picked out all the ores and gems. Most of the debris was reused in the finer workings of the mines, shaping the gems for optimum processing output and it was our mine that first used laser technology, from our gems, to mine out large portions of tunnel in small amounts of time.
The uniform for the miners was so unfashionable that I was uncomfortable wearing it but I have to give it to the designers, it was practical. Those hardhats were solid and I got hit on the head once or twice and was I grateful for them, the clothes were tough and I never got a scratch through them and the boots, dear sweet Celestia the boots were so strong that my hooves were never chipped and they were never sore from walking so many places. The mines were not only dangerous from being underground and in darkness but from the working conditions. The floors were almost always wet and slippery and tunnel that looked perfectly safe could collapse at any moment. Not only were we physically damaged, we were psychologically damaged. Knowing that any minute of any hour on any day you could be crushed or you could break your leg and be forgotten or you could reach a dead end and forget the way back but the worst part was not knowing what time it was. Our body clocks didn’t work underground and without much sunlight the ponies soon became paler and paler until we were mostly white or cream. This created confusion and so you were more likely to be left behind. When we did see the sun, it burned our skin and our eyes and we were forced to spend the days outside in caves or under trees. We were becoming more and more like animals then civilised ponies. Only the constant thought that if I wanted to be with my friends again then I would have to beat the sun so I stood in the light on the sunny days, I stood and I burned until it was natural again. I lost so much in those deep, dark places but I gained one thing, one great thing that I would never, ever forget. Never trust authority. They say that they are looking out for your best interest but sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes, all they want is power and money. The authority in the mines, all they wanted was the money that they were paid and they were paid by the weight of the metal they produced. The weight all depended on us and our working hours.
The lift was another thing that was a work of genius. The pulleys used reduced the weight to almost nothing and a single pony could lift a weight of 1 ton. The engine used however, could lift weights of 4 tons without pulleys and so it powered the entire lift system. The mine was traversed most easily via the network of rails that spanned all of the main tunnels and some of the less important ones. These were used the get all that we mined to the lifts so that they could be taken to the surface and processed. The taking of the minerals to the carts was backbreaking, carrying heavy loads in almost total darkness was a paved road for injury and so many ponies’ lives were destroyed by their broken backs and necks from carrying the substantial masses of gems and metal ores. We got paid very little to nothing at all to do hard manual labour in dangerous conditions but we did it without question because we all knew that what we did and how we died would affect the war and the survival of our royalty.
Chapter 15
The sky was darkening and the day was almost over. The silence was thunderous and it dictated the mood. It was only broken by the sound of the wind moving over the grasses of the wide, open land that passed in a flash underneath the Royal Carriage. Inside this transport resided the two ruling princesses of Equestria. Dark thoughts wandered through the twisted alleys of Celestia’s mind, growing in power until being dismissed for various reasons. Luna was worried for her elder sister and she knew a pony when they were at breaking point. Celestia was there, her mind wound up so tight that most thoughts were overridden by the war. Through her consciousness meandered tactics of a sickly and dark nature. Kill all of her soldiers and let the Monster come to take her and then let it be killed by her guards. That idea was discharged on the basis that it would lose her support from her subjects and she would lose the war. Luna said nothing; she only prayed that this war end and the right side would win. Only, she had begun to question who was on the right side.
The location of the final battle was the only city still under its pony control. Cloudsdale. The actual battle would commence in the rolling hills underneath the Pegasus city and would be fought to the death; no retreats, no surrender. It would come to the royalty committing mass suicide to prevent capture. “Luna,” Celestia said, “I have had a good idea. Recall all ponies left alive to fight for Me.”
It was two days until the final attack came and all personnel had been recalled to the facility, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were having a conversation about the rest of their friends. “I’m sure that they’re all fine,” said the Pegasus, “Twilight was possibly never in danger in the first place along with Rarity and Fluttershy but I can’t say anything about Pinkie.”
Inmate 73 paced in the temporary camp that it was staying in. Something was wrong and it could feel the… Anxiety? Excitement? The feeling of satisfaction that its crusade was almost over? It was wrong in all these cases. The place where it felt wrong was in the back streets of Falfrea Crimson’s brain. All the cogs and gears for a machine were there and assembled and all it needed was a twist to kick start it (Figuratively speaking). “Begin the attack.”
Chapter 16
The alarm rang, the klaxon booming around the solid walls of the complex that lay beneath the Pegasus city of Cloudsdale. The ponies that were lounging around in the many comfortable underground rooms jumped to their feet and their pounding hooves soon filled the corridors with noise. This was the first and earliest warning that they got and all were scared for they had been briefed on their tactics. They were to hold their ground and shoot at all running towards them. Kill and don’t stop killing until all the enemies are dead. The warning had come from a Pegasus scout who had said that he saw a massive army marching in this direction, ETA: 4 hours. All ponies were armed with varying weapons, some got the old pistols and some got the new pistols, some got assault rifles and shotguns whilst others got high powered sniper rifles. Many didn’t get a gun and were handed melee weapons; swords, maces, spears, war hammers, battle axes and various other things with spikes on them. All ponies were then marched out into the warm afternoon air and ordered to form defensive lines. All were surprised to see huge great vehicles roll out of the workshop contained in the facility; they seemed to be indestructible; their armour was very thick and a massive rotating turret on the top finished off the effect. These “tanks” were to play a crucial part in the forthcoming battle along with the helicopters.
All of the six friends had been split up again after they had taken a day to catch up on some of the things that they had done after Rarity got back. She had been supervising the movement of a huge machine that looked rather dangerous and when she was asked what it was she said that she couldn’t tell. When it was moved onto the battlefield they knew what it was instantly. It was artillery like all the other cannons lined up beside it. The differences were however that this cannon was huge and the wrong shape. When Applejack saw the inside of the massive artillery she was confused. It was blocked by the largest ruby she had ever seen. It must have been five meters across and at least that in depth. They waited for the inevitable, their deaths and the deaths of their friends and family. Unlike before though, families could die as families and friends could die in each other’s arms. The ground began to tremble. The enemy’s weapons of war became visible over the hill in front of them. The robots had gone, only to be replaced by huge hulking masses of armour and steel, bristling with guns. The top to the machines had one red photoreceptor and that lay underneath a massive turret that dominated the entire leviathan. They stopped, about 1 kilometre away and what happened next was the tensest part of the whole battle. Everything stopped. The pegusi remained motionless, no bullets flew, nopony charged. The two opposing forces lay motionless for many minutes, waiting for the other to make a move. It was Inmate 73 that made the first move; “Deploy the cannons,” It said. The order was echoed across the entire battlefield and the mechanical monsters began to move. Not forward but on the spot. The tracks that they had once been moving on were superseded by a set of metal legs that lifted them off the ground. The back legs stopped growing but the front legs kept going until they were at an angle that was appropriate. “Set the range to 1.1 kilometres.” The artillery ponies manipulated the many levers and buttons underneath the dials that informed them of the status of the machine. “Fire a warning shot,” Inmate 73 ordered, “if they don’t stand down, leave no survivors.” The shell was loaded into the middle cannon and fired. It impacted 300 meters from the front line, splashing dirt for at least 50 meters, with an accompanying fireball to finish off the display. The resulting noise could be heard in Cloudsdale, buildings were structurally damaged. “It’s a warning shot, hold your fire,” a general told the assembled ponies most of whom had jumped out of their skins. After five minutes had passed Inmate 73 became impatient, “They haven’t stood down, level the buildings and kill all that defend them.” The artillery were loaded on both sides and on the command of “FIRE.”, all hell broke loose. The battle for Equestria had begun.
Both sided charged towards the centre of the field that they were in, shells flew over their heads and bullets began flying. Inmate 73 had joined the fight in the air and was taking out pegusi with its Mac-10s. It seemed distracted by this and was looked upon to be unaware of the helicopter trying to get a shot on it but this was all part of a master plan. When the heli started firing it moved with a surprising amount of speed and landed on the nose, tipping it down. It then shot at the engine with the GAU 13s, totally destroying them. This caused the rotors to slow and eventually stop and the heli fell. It hit the ground and exploded with a lot of shrapnel. This killed a further five ponies. “Good shot.” It said to itself. It kept this up, taking out helicopters with very few bullets until it ran out of MAC-10 ammo. “Only one more thing to do,” it sad to itself and scanned the sky for helicopter 001. It was strangely hard to find seeing as the skill the pilot exerted was huge, it barrel rolled and loops and things that helicopters shouldn’t be able to do. It hovered over an artillery battery and dropped what appeared to be small bombs on it. These bombs totally destroyed the cannon, killing all in a large radius and the shell storage was engulfed in the flames. It was at this point that all of the uninformed ponies found out what the massive thing at the complex was. It was the laser mining machine. They charged it up and fired a large beam of super-heated light that melted artillery, shells, bullets and bones. This was a huge armament, possibly classified as a weapon of mass destruction. Inmate 73 turned its head away from the destruction and focused on revenge. It flew towards helicopter 001 and taunted them. Its presence agitated the pilot and she started to make mistakes. “I think it is time that I remove you all from this battle. Permanently!” it yelled to them before shooting out the swashplate and subsequently causing the main rotor to fly off the heli. As you may or may not remember, helicopter number 001 was the first helicopter ever flown and as you probably now remember this heli contained Pinkie Pie, Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie Drops, Raven and Jim Beam. All of these ponies were now plummeting to their deaths. “Jump and some pegusi will catch us!” Pinkie shouted over the howling wind. All her crewmates looked at her questioningly. “Just do it!” Pinkie jumped. As she wasn’t caught in the downward force that the helicopter was creating she fell slower because her terminal velocity was less than that of the helicopter. After seeing their crewmate fly upwards they lost their fear and jumped. They all joined Pinkie in the sky. “We’re falling slower,” commented Sweetie “But we are still falling.” Pinkie was deep in thought about how to get out of this one. There seemed to be no way out. Then she came across an idea. “LYRA, can you do levitation spells?” she asked.
The 5 friends that had stayed together had formed a sort of kill line, two at the front, one at the back and two defending each side and were taking down ponies everywhere. Rainbow Dash protected from the air, Rarity and Fluttershy from the sides and Applejack and Twilight from the front. It seemed rather strange for a princess to be on the front lines but Celestia in her current state ordered it and so it happened. Inmate 73 was observing this kill line with a strange fascination. It had never occurred to it that maybe this was the most efficient method for killing without being killed, but one aspect of the line caught its attention the most. The speed of the cyan Pegasus that it had tormented before, It had never seen anything move so fast except for itself. It was even considering that she may be faster that It previously thought, faster that It. There was only one way to find out. The many clones that stood around the kill line stopped and created a defensive circle that was almost impenetrable and stopped attacking. They just stood there. Inmate 73 called out to them. It said “I will hold off an attack on you, as I have control over my warriors, so that you will have time to restock on any ammo you can find. My only condition is that the cyan pony with the rainbow mane and tail races me. You will have the time that we create to do what you will. If any of you harm or kill any of the warriors surrounding you, your grace time will end and we will kill all of you.” This was heard over the area that it was directed to and nopony else heard. “What happens when the race is over?” Twilight shouted back.
Chapter 17
“Right then, before we start I would like to set out a few rules; Rule number one, if any of you try to escape I will kill your friend up here and then all of you down there,” Inmate 73 said in a soft voice, “Rule number two, If anypony touches any of my weapons I will kill all of you. Rule number three, No killing on both sides until the race is over. Got it?” They all nodded in agreement. Inmate 73 glided to the ground and dropped all its weapons, its GAU 13s, its MAC-10s and a pair of weapons they had never seen it use. It then dropped a load of clips and drums containing the ammo for the weapons. “Altitude 1000 meters, air temperature 20 degrees Celsius. We begin at 1000 meters from a standstill. Do you want to start from a cloud or from hovering?” Inmate 73 asked Rainbow Dash.
They both reached 100 easily and were soon cruising side by side. “How about 500?” asked Inmate 73 and in seconds, the cyan pony accelerated. Inmate 73 soon caught up though. “Speed of sound?” they both sped up until a cone of heat was forming around them. Rainbow Dash said “Sonic Rainboom time.” She looped and powered towards the ground, a thinner, tighter cone formed around her two outstretched hooves. She flew faster until… BOOM! The visible light spectrum shattered leaving a circular rainbow that expanded over the entire battlefield. This was so awesome that the fighting stopped for a few minutes to observe this phenomenon. Inmate 73 began to dive, its wing creating a backwards force that would have knocked over a building. It began to spin, and soon it did a sonic rainboom too. This one was not as beautiful as Rainbow Dashes because Inmate 73 did not have a rainbow colouring. The sky around it just shattered, all the white light became bathed in the light emitted from this fracture in the electromagnetic spectrum. It kept spinning however and it soon reached Mach 20 or 15,211 mph. this created another event. Inmate 73 broke through the ultraviolet waves. The entire battlefield was bathed in a bluey, purpley light that burned the eyes of all that looked too closely. The nature of UV light meant that the skin of all the ponies that were fighting had become darker and began to peel. Inmate 73 then brought its hooves closer to its body, creating a blunter shape and span faster. It kept spinning and pounding on the air with its wings that it reached Mach 30 or 22,816 mph. this brought around the most spectacular thing that Rainbow Dash had ever layed eyes upon. Inmate 73 broke through the X-rays, the expanding circle of light was now composed of x-rays and so she could see into the bodies of her fellow ponies and most importantly she could see into the body of Inmate 73. What she saw shocked her. It was a pony, not a machine. Only a few of its bones seemed to be missing and what else she could see confused her. She could see all of its veins and half of its brain; most of its internal organs were visible through the X-rays that it bathed in. This entire event was a crushing blow to Rainbow Dash; she was no longer the fastest flying pony in Equestria.
When both contestants had landed they returned to the starting line. The fighting was still paused until Inmate 73 gave the order. It went back, picked up its weapons and left for the other side of the battle. This was when the friends decided to begin their attack. They had found many clips and magazines on the floor and they found weapons that would be useful like maces and a spear or two. As soon as Inmate 73 had left, the firing began. The kill line had soon wiped out their captors forces, breaking free of the bonds it had put them in. This race had affected Rainbow Dash in a way she would not like to admit. She had lost and because of that a hatred burned forcefully in her heart, she killed without mercy; even when enemies were unarmed. She would shoot them, she would kick them and she even caved one’s skull in. Soon her hooves were covered in blood, all from the many she slew that day. She shot until she ran out of ammunition and she kicked until it became impractical and even after that she picked up hammer from the floor and swung with all her might. She became a killing machine, ending life after life and then standing on the remains of her fallen foes to kill more of them. She lost all sense of morality that day. It was an inevitability that she would come across her better, the pony that wasn’t a pony. Inmate 73 laughed at her, and with a quick shot ended the life of the pony he was just about the kill. It brought the two guns it was using, a pair of automatic shotguns, to the sided of her head and intended to end the persistent pony but it couldn’t. The cyan coloured pony was utterly crucial in the downfall of Inmate 73. It felt merciful towards her even though she threatened to kill it. Mercy however, was not the only emotion at work here. There was something deeper, more instinctual working in the mind of Falfrea Crimson. It left her there to ponder over why this one time it had let her survive, flying to another part of the battle. All this left Rainbow Dash to do was to find her friends, all her rage spent.
Chapter 18
The skies were darkening as the evening pulled closer. The battlefields were now almost deserted with only pockets of fighting and resistance left. The most part of the land was coated in at least one layer of the bodies of dead ponies, their blood soaking into the once fertile land. What was left of the fighting was a massacre, Inmate 73’s forces closing in on the few remaining ponies loyal to Princess Celestia. Over half of the entire population of Equestria had been mercilessly slaughtered and their bodies left to rot. The rest had ran, ran for their lives from what they thought was right. Inmate 73 was in the process of eliminating a small group of fighters. Its hooves were covered in blood for it had decided to have a bit more fun and bludgeon all the remaining ponies to death even though it still had lots of ammunition. It was rubbing its hooves together to create heat before pressing its superheated hoof to the side of a pinned pony. First, the flesh went red and then yellow and finally black, the skin bubbling and popping under the intense heat. Inmate 73 decided that this was taking too long and so it just crushed the poor stallion’s skull. A reckless mare then decided to tackle Inmate 73 to the ground and landed a few punches before being thrown off. She got up and turned around to see the muzzle of a shotgun inches from her face. This was the last this she remembered. As the lifeless body dropped to the floor, Inmate 73 turned and analysed the battlefield. Most pockets of war were in favour of it but one was way out of control, with the kill-death ratio of its warriors something around 0 to 300 (0 kills to 300 deaths). It decided to go in to the fray and win the fight.
When it flew over there to assist its forces it came across what would be its ultimate downfall, the group of six friends, holding a position and killing without mercy. The group had no air support but it seemed to be dominating the fray. They took very few hits and when Inmate 73 landed they looked over, breaking their concentration. It took this setback and used it to surround them and to pin them down, a little bit like a firing squad. It told its warriors to take aim. The look upon the faces of these six friends was not of horror or defeat, but of a knowing that they had done valiantly for themselves and others. This look into the eyes of their killer, not pleading for mercy but sneering at it, daring Inmate 73 to do the deed caused something to click in the brain of Falfrea Crimson; the metaphorical machine had got the jumpstart it needed. Inmate 73 was overpowered by the rush of life and emotion flooding from his brain. Inmate 73 was no longer in control but now Falfrea Crimson was. He looked around, his joy turning to horror and he took in what his alter-ego had done to the country he once loved. The once green grass was now mud, churned into hideous shaped by the hooves of many ponies. The mud was horribly discoloured, with red seeping into the brown and grey of the wet soil. The sky was filled with a strange red mist that seemed to be the blood of pegusi falling to the ground. Slowly, it dawned on Falfrea that he had done what he had never meant to do; he had meant to capture Canterlot and demand that Celestia would come to meet him. He had killed over ten times the estimate that he had made on his many days plotting and planning his return. The order to fire never came because it was Falfrea that fired. He pulled out the loaded MAC-10’s and opened fire on his own troops. The first line of warriors fell to the ground dead, their blood further discolouring the mud. This took them by surprise and he took this opportunity to fly over to the ponies he was saving. He emptied his machine pistols and tossed them to Rarity and Fluttershy along with a few magazines. “You’ll need these if you want to survive this,” he said to them. He pulled out both his shotguns and laid one on the ground. By this time, the now enemy forces had regained their independence and started firing again. Falfrea returned fire with his shotgun, the blasts taking out between one and four enemies. “What do you want with us?” asked Applejack anxiously.
They fought for about 2 minutes before Falfrea realised that they were getting nowhere, just defending against and ever growing army of warriors. He yelled “I’m bringin’ out the big guns!” and opened his wings to expose the GAU 13s that hung from the underside. “Say hello to James and Davis!” He let the 30mm calibre bullets tear through the ranks of the enemies, holes the size of a Satsuma were what was left of the impacting bullets tearing through flesh and bone. Within half a minute all of their opponents were torn to pieces and thrown all over the battlefield. Falfrea turned to look at the ponies he just saved again but they were looking at him with disgust and horror. “What have I done now to upset the six ponies whose help I need the most?” he asked them.
The seven ponies burst through the front blast doors with a magic blast from Twilight’s horn and they ran through the rubble that seemed to consist mostly of oranges. The next door Twilight opened from the panel next to it. “Right then, whatever I do you need to react accordingly but don’t attack me. If you want to run, run until you can hide and then wait for me. Most importantly, don’t tell anypony any informati-CAMERA!” yelled Falfrea and as they skidded to a halt he shot it out, “They know we are here.” They continued along passageways, taking out cameras and blast doors until they came to the lift that took them down to the bunkers. Four auto turrets guarded these doors so Falfrea took them out with his GAU 13’s. They all got in the lift and it was a tight fit with seven ponies. Falfrea, a stallion sandwiched between six mares (good times, good times) but this was not on his mind. That was focused on how he would get Celestia to surrender. When they reached the basement level the doors opened and they all braced for… nothing. There were no guards, no turrets and no explosives. Celestia seemed to want Falfrea to come and get her. They all stepped out. “Don’t take another step,” warned Twilight as she tentatively walked over to the control panel on the wall. She inputted a series of numbers and letters and the screen changed to one more like a control panel with levers and dials. Twilight set all the dials to 0 and pulled the lever down. An audible hissing sound escaped the entire hallway as all the doors opened and all the defence systems were deactivated. “I hope you know what you are doing,” Twilight said to Falfrea.
The door slid open and all the royal guards raised their weapons to defend the two Princesses sitting on the thrones in the centre. The hallway was empty for as far as they could see but then suddenly, from the left side, Twilight walked into view. All the guards tensed and many almost discharged their rifles. “Twilight, my faithful student, what are you doing here?” asked Celestia with worry in her voice. It was now made apparent to Twilight why the war needed to end, her teacher had dark circles under her eyes and her once white coat was stained to a dark cream. Celestia’s mane lay limp at the side of her head, a thing never seen before. Luna was looking in better shape but she looked distant as if she had removed herself from the room. Before Twilight could reply Falfrea spoke “To end this war.” The voice of Falfrea both startled and returned Celestia and Luna to their respective minds. “Falfrea! It has been a long time,” said Celestia, almost cheerily.
Falfrea had activated the dormant nanomites in Twilight’s blood when he bit off her ear, and so as she was removed they were already fixing her and stopping the bleeding. “My next pony will probably be more persuasive. Luna, could you please come down here.” Falfrea asked.
Epilogue
It had taken three times as long as Falfrea had predicted but eventually, everypony in Equestria had arrived in the fields below Cloudsdale for it was the only space big enough for the entire population. The ground had been levelled so that it could be easily walked on by the earth ponies and the unicorns. The pegusi could watch from the clouds and their home city. What they were all watching was a small stage, really just a pair of soapboxes stood next to each other. They were just there to give a speaker some elevation (These were pony soapboxes so they were elongated). The ponies waited for another ten minutes before the speakers arrived. Princess Celestia and Falfrea Crimson walked side by side, emerging from a nearby trench. Instantly, there was a division. Some of the ponies bowed their supreme ruler but some questioned her for the simple fact that the one who had killed someone in everyponies family was walking beside her without being in custody. Celestia and Falfrea got onto the soapboxes but silence still ruled over the plains. Celestia spoke first; “Loyal subjects, please rise. As you can now probably work out, the war is over (this got a few cheers but they soon died down) and I still don’t know which side won.”
The voice on the plains was Princess Cadence and she had taken it upon herself to build a case defending Celestia so that she would not suffer imprisonment or worse. The young princess understood why her ruler had done what she had done. The re-establishing Equestria took its time and when it came, Cadence gave her reasons why the Princess of the sun should not be put to death. “She did everything for us; the denizens of Equestria. She did what she did to protect us, to help us and to keep us clean from the filth that lives within all of us. She recognised that crime was bad for everypony and so she dealt with it. She may have gone about it the wrong way but her heart was in the right place. Cadence went on and on until the ponies who wanted to prosecute Celestia couldn’t because their evidence was outweighed by the simple fact that they needed her to survive. Without the sun they were nothing. Princess Cadence recognised that some of the things that Celestia had done were unredeemable and so, at the end of the day, Celestia was sentenced. She couldn’t have her power taken from her and as a result, she remained as the leader of Equestria. She would be monitored by a board to ensure that what she did was recorded and action could be taken if necessary. She had to put every decision that she made that affected Equestria to a committee so that the political system was no longer a dictatorship. Falfrea Crimson had been tried on that very same day and he sentenced himself to exile in the Everfree forest before walking out of the room only ten minutes into the hearing. He had said that he had some things to take care of beforehand that needed his undivided attention. He wandered out of the palace and into the streets of the crumbling Canterlot. Even though it had only been a week since the end of the war was confirmed, repairs had begun and the reconstruction of the capital was underway. Many residents of Ponyville had also returned to their ruined town to find that it wasn’t too ruined. Some houses were intact and the town hall was upright. If they worked hard and cooperated they could get all the houses and shops rebuilt in no time at all. Twilight and her five friends wandered the rubble. “Even though it is partially destroyed,” Twilight decided, “It’s good to be home.”
Chapter 5
The carriage wobbled as it came nearer to Canterlot. “It happens every time, bit of turbulence here, bit of turbulence there,” said Princess Celestia to the worried ponies, “when we touch down I will have to leave you to deal with this crisis.” Applebloom still hadn’t said anything since the incident with the meteor and Applejack was worried about her. “What’ll happen to my sister then” she asked, “she hasn’t spoken since you know what.” This last part was directed at Twilight.
When they touched down, Celestia departed with haste and left them without a goodbye. Granny smith left them a few minutes after. The six friends and Applebloom then milled around Canterlot, (Twilight got quite a lot of bows and attention) for a while before the mass exodus from Ponyville reached them. Only about a quarter of the population reached Canterlot and amongst these were Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, Derpy, Time Turner and various others. Soon after this event the Princesses addressed the city in a very concise manner. “We have been caught totally unprepared for this tragic and disastrous incident. We have however devised a plan for if anything like this should happen. Total militarisation of the population. You will all have to serve, without exceptions. Even the old and the young can be put to good use. In this square you will receive a form upon which you must write your specialities, your job and your age. Tomorrow you will return to this place to be divided into your specific groups. And then we can begin to combat this threat. Ten AM tomorrow morning you need to assemble here. I am sincerely sorry for those that have lost friends or family from Ponyville. And I leave you with one final thought. If this menace is to reach you family, what would you give to keep them safe.”
After the speech, the Princess messaged Twilight to bring her friends and herself to the castle where they could have a private meeting. And sure enough, Princess Celestia was there at the gates of the castle. “We can have our conversation in my room,” said the Princess. When they arrived, the Princess took a seat and seeing that there were six ponies and one other chair they all decided to stand. “Twilight Sparkle, due to your status as an alicorn, you will be protected within the walls of Canterlot. However, the rest of you cannot stay with her, most likely you will all be totally separated without any means of communication,” Said Princess Celestia, “and before you ask, the Elements of Harmony will be useless against this foe, for even my magic is not strong enough to remove the corruption embedded deep within his soul.” The looks of surprise on all the faces of the six were almost heart wrenching, but Celestia knew that she had committed to more vile and unholy thing than this. The friends then had left with the intention of spending what might be their last night together in peaceful, quiet way. The Princess mused “I knew this day would come, the time when my own creations rose up to destroy me and all those around me.”
Falfrea’s mind raced. He was calculating the usages of all the material brought before him. He then stumbled upon what was going to be instrumental in the defeat of his enemy. Sulphur and saltpetre. He knew that these would do something if added to charcoal and ignited. “Get me some charcoal,” he said to Bio-force General 01 or Big Mcintosh. When he returned with the charcoal, Falfrea mixed the three substances and ignited them with another invention from a few minutes ago, a stick with phosphorus on the end. He lit the stick by scraping it on a rock sitting next to him and then pressed it onto the new mixture of powdered charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre. The substance exploded violently, partially burning Falfrea’s skin. This explosion gave what we would call a fourth degree burn, charring his skin and reaching to his enlarged earth pony bones. This was totally painless and the nanomites soon fixed all his up. Let me now explain the nature of these nanomites because as you have probably already deduced, they are pretty powerful. They are a basic flu virus that has been genetically modified to not give the organism carrying it the flu. They are also cyborgs in such a way that they can communicate with Falfrea and his generals via electricity. This is also how they can restart a heart and a brain. They also have the ability to replicate cells and to invade other cells to reproduce. That is how they have their amazing healing abilities. They run on a hive mind, almost totally interdependent on Falfrea to control them and to dictate their movements. “Bio-force General 01, begin our assault on the capital city. Leave none alive,” Said Falfrea, moving his hoof over the burnt out powder, “and get me more of this.”
The six friends sat in the deserted room, with only each other for company. “Do you all remember my first day in Ponyville?” asked Twilight in a solemn voice.