Where the sun doesn't shine.

Chapter 11: Where the sun doesn’t shine.

A year had passed since Kunatanah’s surrender. The coalition’s counter-attack had been a success, every nation inside Celestia’s coalition had surrendered already, and the allied forces were already in Equestrian soil; only Canterlot was left standing. The remnants of the entire coalition’s counter-attacking force met in the forests outside the castle, hiding while planning a strategy; Princess Celestia was inside this castle, once she was cured only Discord would be left.

“Necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, big crown thingy…It’s all set and ready, Terran.” Said Twilight.

“Good. The generals are organizing for the attack.” The Terran said as he cleaned the excess of mud and water off his long coat. “The eight of us have the priority of finding Celestia while the main army captures Canterlot. It is strange, though…A castle not having external walls or any natural defences…just an entrance…”

“Are they like that in your world?” Asked Spike.

“My world has been engulfed in war almost forever, castles were reinforced to withstand attacks from pretty much everything. This…Castle here is just for show, compared to Terran castles.” He stood up and saw that the forces were mobilizing. “The attack’s commencing, let’s go.”

The Terran walked towards the commanding general of the forces through the scattered soldiers in the forest while the seven followed him.

“General, what is the plan?”

“There isn’t much to plan here, we don’t have many options after all. Our heavy infantry will storm the entrance once our trebuchets blast it open. After that we’ll create a safe passage for you group to reach Celestia’s location, then we’ll secure the castle.”

“What about the windows? Can’t you blow a crater in them and fly us up with pegasi?”

“I could, but then we’d risk hitting Celestia. Those windows are barred, and the only things we currently have to destroy them are trebuchets.”

“I see. When does the attack begin?”

“Now.” The general said as boulders started flying towards the castle. He walked away as he yelled orders and the forces organized. Heavy infantry waited in front for the gates to be destroyed. A boulder hit the doors, blasting them open and crushing the wall around it with the added force; they stopped firing and soldiers started to run towards the now destroyed door. They got through without any resistance at all, the army and the eight destined to face Celestia herself followed inside; they kicked open the doors and checked every room to find out that the castle was completely deserted.

“Where are they?! Did they evacuate?!” Yelled the general.

“Sir, we found…You have to look at this with your own eyes!” Mentioned a soldier before guiding him to the place. They didn’t find Celestia, but they found something else; they found out that the castle was merely an entrance to an underground fortress, big enough to hold an entire army.

“This…wasn’t here before, behind this door there was just a single bedroom!” Said Twilight as she looked through the door.

“It’s built into the mountain…They didn’t waste any time these years…” Mentioned the Terran as he walked next to the petrified general. “Everypony must be here, then.”

“Units, forward!” Yelled the general.

The main army kept advancing through the dimly lit corridors of the complex, until they arrived to what appeared to be a conical hallway that widened as they advanced. As it became wider, the army started taking formation as if they were in the open field. Not a single soul was in sight at that moment. Doors started appearing on the side of the wide corridor, but as soon as they kicked open a single door Celestia’s army started pouring out of every single one in sight.

“AMBUSH!! Light infantry, to the flanks! Heavy infantry to the centre! Archers, fire at their rear! Move dammit!” Screamed the general. “Terran, take your group and wait at the rear! Looks like we’ve got 4 armies worth of people here!”

“Well that explains why we’ve never seen any of Celestia’s soldiers when we were counter attacking the other nations!”

“Like hell it does!”

The allied army started pushing them back rather easily, even though they were heavily outnumbered. As they pushed forward they also kicked down the doors they passed through, finding absolutely nothing inside them. They kept advancing and advancing, this underground complex was almost big enough to occupy the entire mountain.

“Terran, my soldiers spotted a heavily reinforced door they can’t bring down, they suspect it leads to Celestia’s quarters, see if you can do something with your group! My soldiers will keep pushing and secure the castle!”

“You got it!” The Terran said before calling his group and leading towards the door.

The door which the ponies spotted had been reinforced with steel, not even Applejack’s kick could break it open. After examining it for a while, the Terran decided to use brute force; he took out 3 of the grenades that the man in Kunatanah taught him to make and placed them next to the door. He told his group to back off a considerable distance, and once he backed off too he took out his rifle, aimed at the grenades and fired; the explosion of the 3 grenades was enough to blow them apart, revealing a long corridor.

“Haven’t I walked enough already…” He ranted while running through the corridor with his group. Unfortunately, at the end of the corridor another reinforced gate waited. “SON OF A B…” He decided to do the same, take out 3 grenades and fire…but he only had 2. He did so anyways, but the resulting explosion only managed to break it a bit. “Applejack…Do your magic.”

“Aye aye, cap’” She walked to the door, turned around, and kicked it open with all her might.

The door broke open, and not even before it finished crumbling the Terran stormed through the debris, to find that Celestia herself was in that room.

“You!” Was the only thing she managed to say before being tackled by the Terran.

“Do it! Use those things on her now!”

“Y-yes! Let’s do this, girls!” Exclaimed Twilight. Her eyes turned white and her friends floated around her, but they lost focus as Celestia threw the Terran against them like a bowling ball.

The Terran, upon regaining his focus, saw in front of him how a shadowbolt smiled at him, their faces almost touching. After a few seconds of staring, it turned into smoke; he wasn’t the only shadowbolt either, 6 more had appeared and stole the Elements of Harmony in the confusion.

“Nightmare Moon…Isn’t it a bit too early?” Giggled Celestia.

Out of the shadows, a dark grey mare appeared, none other than Nightmare Moon herself. Everyone had been both shocked and frightened by the fact that both the Equestrian sisters had been corrupted. The Terran stood up and told the Mane 6 to go and recover the stolen Elements of Harmony while the Terran took care of this, but before Spike could join the Mane 6 in their search he barfed a letter; it was for the Terran, he gave it to him before running to the others.

‘We are under attack from an unknown force; they outnumber us 10 to 1. Celestia’s army has started to push forward, we are trapped. If you’re gonna do something DO IT NOW.’ Read the letter.

“Isn’t this beautiful…Terran?” Said a voice that echoed in the room. It was no other than Discord himself. “I’m not done yet, though. Check this out.”

Discord appeared in a blinding light and stood next to Celestia and Nightmare Moon. The Equestrian sisters’ horns started glowing while Discord raised a hand. A blinding light struck again, this time once the Terran recovered he saw that Discord and Nightmare Moon had disappeared, but Celestia remained in place; Celestia wasn’t the same as before, the Draconequus had turned her into a Terran just like him. She sported white and grey clothes, a rapier in her hand replacing her horn and a long cape replacing her wings. The god of chaos suddenly appeared behind the Terran and began to mock him.

“Again, isn’t this beautiful? All your efforts were in vain, your forces are trapped between Celestia’s and Nightmare Moon’s army, the Equestrian sisters are under my influence, the Elements of Harmony are scattered…Once I’m done with you and your allies there will be nothing stopping me; everything you have ever seen in this world will be gone to leave space for my Empire of Chaos. Go and pray to your Great Ones…Maybe they’ll listen.” He said, before disappearing laughing.

The Terran was already on his knees; corruption had engulfed him as the Draconequus’ words echoed in his mind while remembering his days on Terra. He turned completely grey, but he stood up with fury in his eyes, throwing his rifle away and marching towards the rapier-wielding Princess. The fighting had started; the Terran couldn’t manage to hit her once before being stabbed in the stomach with the rapier.

“I am confused, Terran. In all this time you could’ve looked for a way to return back to your world, but you haven’t even thought about it; you focused on your Empire and helping those who came to you, why?” Celestia questioned as she took the rapier out of the Terran’s stomach and kicked him out of the way.

“I’ve yet to meet one who’d like to return to Hell once he got out of it…” He said as he stood up, his clothes drenched in blood.

“Hell, you say…Did your relatives and friends hate you that much?” Giggled Celestia.

“The dead can not feel emotion.” The Terran charged towards the Princess once again, punching her on the face even though he was stabbed in the lung in the process.

“So they are all dead…Were you too stupid to start all over again, then?” She said while regaining her balance and cleaning the blood on her mouth.

“All over again…My father was pretty much a saint, but he died first just like all heroes do. My mother was a whore; I was born out of pure accident when she cheated on my father with another of her dozens of men.” He kicked the Princess in the stomach and executed an uppercut. “Not only that, she was crazy…crazy enough to sink me into depression 2 times…Once my father died and her men didn’t care for her she started gambling like Hell, once she had so much debt she couldn’t pay she ran away, leaving me alone.” He dodged the several strikes with the rapier until he was hit in the neck, to which he backed off and let it regenerate before continuing. “The debt kept increasing and loan sharks started coming for me, first with threats…then they killed one of my friends. That was the turning point, I learnt to fight them off with my rifle without anyone noticing, but once I sent one of them to the hospital…they sent everyone I knew to the morgue.” He then charged forward and tackled Celestia, knocking her down and throwing himself down with his elbow against her stomach. “My third depression sank in; I had lost everything and everyone. My ideologies prevented me from committing suicide, so I arranged a suicide campaign against those who took everything from me. A year had passed, stealing food and water from stores, killing and burning down the buildings of their organization…One stormy night I was being chased by them, I had no chance of escape, but then before they were able to catch me a blinding light struck me and knocked me out…I appeared in Cabalderio. Only then I could start all over again.” He desperately dodged every strike Celestia gave until he held the blade on his hand, making it bleed incredibly as she struggled to free it, and struck her with his elbow on her stomach, and then her jaw. She fell back letting go of her rapier, which was now being held by the Terran who walked slowly towards her. She stood up but couldn’t do anything before the Terran stabbed her in the stomach with all his might. “I lost everything once, even my will to live; I will now protect this world with my immortal life. It is depressing, though…That you, who cared so much for this world, are one of the main factors responsible for its end…” Those last words, 'Resposible for its end', echoed in Celestia's mind.

“Terran, we found the Ele—“ Twilight and the rest broke into the room, only to see the humanized princess desperately clinging to the grey Terran for support, he took out the rapier covered in blood as she fell unconscious to the ground. “…What…?” She could barely speak, everypony was petrified upon seeing the situation.

“Apparently, when Celestia, Nightmare Moon and Discord combine their power, they can turn a pony into a Terran…” The Terran said as he looked at the body of Celestia on the floor while cleaning the rapier.

“AND YOU KILLED HER!!” Screamed Rainbow Dash as she charged towards the Terran, only to hit the wall behind him when he dodged with a rather simple movement; he didn’t even stop cleaning the rapier.

“She’s immortal, you idiot.” He said, irritated; he then stared at the rapier he was holding. “I’ll keep this for a while…”

Celestia’s body started regaining her colour, even without the Elements of Harmony. Everypony, except for the Terran who strapped the rifle lying on the floor to his back and walked towards the fight outside the room, stared in awe at such thing. But before the Terran could walk out of the destroyed doors Spike barfed another letter.

‘Hello, Terran…Mind if we join the fray? Sincerely, Atticus.’

Several minutes earlier…

An army stood by the trees, looking at the dark forces that were flooding into the castle. This army was no ordinary army, it sported red flags with white hollow shields and a white star inside; it was the Imperial Army. After the siege of Stallinox, thousands and thousands of ponies enlisted in the army, wanting revenge and to end this once and for all. Archers, cavalry and infantry patiently waited for the right moment. Atticus walked to the front, giving a speech to his soldiers:

“Ponies of Cabalderio, I call for your strength one last time, for this battle is the one that will decide the fate of this world. Over there our Emperor and his allies wait for us, they are fighting desperately against not one, but 2 entire armies. And who are we not to support our leader in his time of need?! A day may come when Discord wins and our world spins into chaos…But it shall not be this day! Forward!”

The Imperial Army charged forward to the flood of dark ponies, making the earth shake while boulders flew towards them, thrown by the trebuchets the coalition forces left outside.

Back inside, the Terran was resting against the wall with Celestia’s rapier on his belt, deciding not to fight seeing as reinforcements had arrived; the princess had not woken up yet, still in her Terran form but her colours completely returned; all of the mane 6 were in the room with her. The princess started opening her eyes, her stomach wound completely healed; the Terran, who was still completely grey, walked over and crouched next to her.

“Are you alright?” Asked the Terran.

“What…What did Discord do to me?!”

“Less talk, more action. I need you to tell your forces to stop fighting unless you want a blood bath here.”

“Y-Yes, yes…”

Still in the floor, she tried to levitate the paper and quill on the desk nearby towards her, but failed as her horn was turned into the rapier the Terran had in his belt. Twilight ran and carried it towards her, who wrote an order and asked Spike to send it. It was an order for her army’s general to stop fighting; the Terran wrote the same order to his general and Spike sent it too. Soon enough, only the swords clashing in the distance against Nightmare Moon’s army was heard.

Hours and hours passed until the fighting finished, everyone rallied outside the underground fortress to organize once again and march home, their part was done. Celestia, the Terran and the Mane 6 were in Celestia’s throne room, discussing what to do next.

“After you were turned Terran, Discord and Nightmare Moon disappeared. To which place, I do not know.” Remarked the Terran.

“Wait…Didn’t Nightmare Moon escape from the moon once?” Twilight questioned.

“She indeed did, why do you ask?” Said Celestia.

“Wouldn’t it be possible for her to return there if she could escape?”

Silence engulfed the room for a few minutes, before the Terran violently threw his rifle to the floor, making it accidentally fire and destroy the only window not shattered by the trebuchets.

“First we meet a random thing named ‘Discord’ who can turn people grey and make them complete jerks, then after rescuing the Mane 6 Celestia declares war on me and the Great Pony War breaks out; afterwards, that THING turns Celestia into a Terran, and now that black four-legged oversized swan goes to the MOON?!!”