The tunnels leading out of the bunker-cities were almost pitch black. You needed a torch, or a unicorn that knew a candle spell, one of the simplest spells available. The caverns were eerily quiet, but there weren't any rats or animals to give us the creeps. No pony really spoke, not until we reached our exit.

"Alright… up we go," Rainbow sighed, standing beneath the stone entrance.

Fluttershy flew up first, and Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, and I climbed up onto Rainbow to grasp the ladder with our hooves. We waited for Fluttershy to return, and she did so after a few minutes. We climbed up one by one, glancing in almost every direction until we were completely sure that there weren't any scouts around. But it also reminded me what our country looked like now.

After ten years, with the help of massive factories and airships, the sky always had a thick smog blocking out rays of the sun, almost like dark clouds. I looked over to Canterlot, where dozens of enormous ships were hovering about, some disappearing as they left the atmosphere. Reaching into my saddlebag, I pulled out the map once more, then looked just northwest.

"The river should be further into those woods," I told them. "We have to hurry back onto the path if we're going to make it."

"And what if there are any scouts?" Fluttershy questioned, squinting her eyes in the direction of Canterlot.

Rainbow raised her short-sword, glaring almost. "We remind them we're still here."

I lowered her hoof quickly. "We'll try to sneak around them," I said, punctuating it with a sharp attitude towards our brash friend. "They don't need a reason to follow us."

"When do they ever?" Applejack questioned. "They just listen to their stomachs. Pretty simple, if ya ask me."

I sighed, shaking my head softly. "Look, let's just get to the river before sunset. The hike to Canterlot will be a couple of hours anyways," I said. The girls glanced at one another, and they nodded to me.

I forgot how it felt to be in charge… sort of. Being the mare that led the Elements used to be important. I wonder if they ever asked to hang onto them.

So, we all broke into a gallop, Rainbow and Fluttershy keeping on their hooves so as to not be seen. I ran at the front, Rarity hung behind us, Applejack and Pinkie kept close to me, and Rainbow ran in front of our unicorn friend. The run was tiring, but I was sure we hadn't been seen. It was another hour of running and walking before we reached the rim of the forest. The anxiety in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. But we stepped in, reluctantly, and made sure to ready our weapons. Most of us, aside from Rainbow and Applejack, had daggers. Fluttershy didn't have anything, and our farm mare held a short-handled mace. As we pushed on, we noticed the unrelenting quiet of the forest. Fluttershy looked around frantically, looking for any sign of animals. She let out some animal calls that were strangely accurate, but she never got a response. I couldn't believe she actually swore under her breath, but I'm sure she let a tear fall.

"What's that?" I glanced over to where Pinkie was pointing, and we veered off to go look.

At first I didn't notice anything, but there was a distinct trail of smoke of a burnt out fire. The clearing ahead was cut off by a wall of trunks sharpened at the top and planted into the ground. It was a… decent effort at defense, but wood was nothing compared to the beams or the bigger ones. I wondered why there weren't any archers or posted ponies, and so I decided we try to find the entrance. Just as we rounded the first corner, my hoof bumped into something.

A body.

A young colt no more than sixteen or fifteen. His hind left leg was missing, and his throat was torn open… and his belly was gored beyond belief. The pool of blood looked as though it had been lapped at. We didn't bother guessing what we would find, but we still went inside. The gates were blasted open, and charred bodies of ponies laid around the entrance. The camp was littered with limbs, splatters of red blood and some black blood here and there. But there were a lot of half eaten corpses.

"Shit," Applejack sighed, glancing down to a filly's body placed on a stone slab, her chest collapsing into itself.

Rainbow went up to the guard tower to look over the weapons, Fluttershy and Pinkie went around looking for supplies, and Rarity and I split up with either. Fluttershy was looking for something, anything, that would move. She checked ponies' vitals, called for animals… but she got nothing in response. I left her to look around myself, and I was ultimately drawn to the largest tent. It wasn't like the rest, all bloodied and charred. The fabrics were still clean, there was nothing odd or strange about it, but that fact made it all the more queer. It was a risky decision, but I ventured inside.

The tent was actually pinned against the southern wall, making the back a solid wooden wall. Hung up was a skeleton of a scout, and below it was a sword. I looked down when my hoof bumped into another body, which was a scout's deceased corpse. The fact that it wasn't bloody meant it had died from a precision shot. And when I checked the eyes, I was proven right, as they bore bloody holes. I stepped over it and browsed the racks built into the ground. Jars of organs and eyes of the monsters were on display like some sort of trophy. But the true prize of the collection… was the large skeleton beside the bed.

It was three to four meters, easy. Maybe even five. It had a similar skull to a scout, but it was a bit more compressed and the rest of the body was built for a bipedal creature. The legs curved inward slightly, meaning this thing could stand on two legs as well as four. It was another one of the abominations that forced us underground. And only one question crossed my mind.

How the fuck did they kill a soldier?

They were common, and bigger in numbers than the scouts. I've never seen a living one, but I've heard reports of them around the mess hall. They were smarter than the scouts, as they carried weapons, armor, and those beam blasters. We think they were the ones who directed the invasion, but they still acted on instinct and fought with one another occasionally. There was no doubt they could fight, however. Ponies who survived encounters recall seeing them ball their claws up and roll out of the way of mana beams.

But to see a skeleton meant seeing a dead soldier. The more I looked at it, the more I could imagine it snarling in front of me. I moved on, right past the bed and to the sword sitting on a rack. It was bright blue, amazingly so, and it was finely made. The point looked sharp enough to break through skin with a tap, and the four serrations made the edge look as though it was meant to saw through flesh. The handle was… amazingly made, almost as if it belonged to some sort of master. The black scabbard with a ruby tipped end matched the golden handle beautifully. What struck me the most was the strange symbols carved onto the side of it.

Groooooooo.

I gasped softly, spinning around and seeing a bloodied scout entering the tent. All at once, thoughts of my friends being eaten alive flashed through my mind, but I would still hear their screams. The scout stepped over the body, and slowly came closer. My dagger was poised for an attack, but I would need something bigger to kill it in one shot.

Something like a five foot sword behind me.

It pounced just as my horn flashed brightly, a yelp reaching my ears as I tumbled out of the way. The skeleton of the scout dropped onto the living thing, and I quickly focused my magic into lifting the sword. Celestia's sun, was it heavy! But I forced it to jerk up by the blade then by the handle, so it could fall tip first into the scout's throat. The flaps to the ten opened up, and the girls all gasped as they watched the scout growl, whimper, and thrash with the blade in its throat. Those all turned to silence as it lost its life, and I lugged the sword off.

"We heard the concussion," Fluttershy said quickly, coming over and checking me. "Were you hurt?"

"I'm fine, Fluttershy," I told her, looking down to the scout. "But where was it hiding?"

"Ah think we oughta move," Applejack said, glancing to the dead scout bodies. "They might send more."

"Right," I nodded. "Applejack, do you think you could carry this?"

She rose a brow as she looked at the blade. "Why? Where'd ya find it?" Applejack questioned.

"On the rack over there, but that isn't important," I said dismissively. "We could study it and probably used the metals for something else. Maybe some more daggers or shorter blades."

She weighed it in her hooves, then slung it over her back. "Alright, come on," Pinkie whispered, motioning with a hoof. "We're wasting time."

We made for the entrance, but I stopped as I noticed a small… shrine? A soldier's skull was sitting atop a stone altar, and below it was an assortment of flowers and skulls of animals. The stone had symbols carved into it… symbols that matched that of the sword.

They're… worshipping them?

The idea that these ponies, ponies driven to extinction by these monstrosities, were revering them as gods. The filly deceased on the stone slab… she was a… a sacrifice. Barely old enough to know that these ponies, her own parents probably, meant to kill her in whatever means of worship to our enemy. I smashed the altar apart, then joined the girls as we trotted out of there.

Diving into the river was quick, and so we made a sharp turn for the mountain, glad to be out of those woods. I felt that they were lucky they hadn't seen what I did. It sickened me and just urged me to kill one of those ponies from that settlement. But they were all dead, so they've paid enough. The summer air, and the pollution of the factories, kept us warm even though we were soaked. We were seeing a lot more activity, as many fighter ships were disbanding and flying over our heads, forcing us to drop into the tall grass. We would crawl until the hum of the fighters died off, then trot our way over. It made getting there slow, but it was better than getting disintegrated.

The sun was getting lower and lower in the sky, casting a vast shadow of the mountain over the land. It kept us that much more camouflaged, thankfully. The ruins beneath the city was the half that had been destroyed on the day of first contact. We scaled over some chunks, using the homes and shops for cover as we made our way to the checkpoint. Just a few yards away, I raised a hoof up, signaling the others to halt. I carefully made my way closer, checking in every direction for scouts or soldiers. A faint glimmer blinded me, and only then did I realize that a burn mark across the street had several outlines.

"Clear," I called. The bat guards stepped away from the charred wall, their armors keeping their coats black as they approached. "Where's—"

"I am here, Twilight," Luna's voice called, a mist of ethereal blue coming out from under a broken vase. Her body reshaped and solidified, revealing our other princess in black armor. "Right on time."

"So, we're heading up here?" Rainbow called looking up.

"Yes. But first," Luna said, her horn glowing brightly, "you'll need this."

A bright flash encompassed our group, and when I could see again, I was alone. Or so I thought. Several pairs of goggles were dropped in a pile.

"These are enchanted to let us see each other," Luna explained. "The borders themselves are enchanted to allow your peripheral vision to be useful."

"So we can see each other, but they can't," I heard Pinkie giggle half-heatedly, also grimly. "Perfect."

"You'll need to—"

"We rushed through a river on the way here," I interrupted. "Let's head up. Rainbow, Fluttershy, take Applejack and Pinkie."

They nodded and grabbed a hold of their partners, flapping their wings and heading up. Luna's bat guards grabbed onto us and carried us up, the princess flying solo as she took a look around the area. Canterlot was higher than I remembered, and I refrained from looking down in fear of realizing just how far we were. But that was pushed aside as we reached the side of it, then ultimately reached the castle courtyard. I was never this close to an enemy base before, but I never could have expected this.

It looked the same as the day we left.

The only visible differences were that the factories were billowing toxic fumes, the castle had hundreds of soldiers and scouts entering and exiting, and there was an enormous structure near the center of the city. The center of what was left, albeit. Above us, hundreds of ships floated idly while some touched down for whatever reasons. The girls didn't move an inch, and neither could I. A soldier was walking right in front of us. It growled at another near the entrance to the castle, and it went inside. If it weren't for the spells, we'd be their food right about now. But thankfully, it kept moving, having been called to by a roar. Luna touched down beside us, causing me to flinch when I felt the miniature gust blow against my coat.

"Don't worry, Twilight. These spells can last as long as I can," she reassured me, glancing over to the dome. "The castle is overrun, so it will be impossible to survey that area. We should head for the building they've created. There aren't as many soldiers posted."

"That's on the other side of Canterlot," Fluttershy said softly, as we all knew the spell didn't mute us. "Could we make it?"

"If we fly, it'll be much easier," I whispered, glancing over to a scout slinking along. An involuntary shiver ran through me as it kept on, dangerously close to us. "Come on. If we stay here something's gonna bump into us."

They nodded, and we took flight again, same partners carrying us. The fighters flying around us forced the pegasi of the group to disperse and fly low, pushing the fumes into their lungs. I can imagine it was rough, but we only concerned ourselves with getting to the building. As we got closer, I could feel myself getting weaker. Not physically, but my mana felt as thought it was being drained from me.

"Everypony, land immediately," Luna called, definitely feeling the same.

We touched down jerkily, some of the bat guards tumbling to a stop. "What's making us feel this?" Rainbow grunted, uncomfortably shifting in place.

"It's something inside there," I said. "Something's draining the mana out of the air."

"But the question is: Why?" Luna sighed, looking to each of us with a solemn expression. "If we go back now, we'll have come for nothing. This is not for me to ask, but will you accompany me in?"

Silence loomed over the six of us. Her Lunar guards were much more loyal than the Solars, so there was no question that they would follow her. But five ponies affected by magic depletion wouldn't survive this, especially if the spells wore off. Eleven of us… have a higher chance.

"I'm in." Rainbow stepped forward and smirked. "Can't go back empty-hoofed."

"Count me in, too," Pinkie nodded.

"Sure," Applejack chuckled softly.

"Sticking together would be best," Rarity sighed, soon joined by Fluttershy, who thought the same.

I smiled faintly, remembering that none of us would ever abandon each other. Unless worse came to worse, at least. "Can't leave you girls alone, now can I?"

We all nodded, then turned to the entrance. The Lunar guards got to either side of the lone scout standing at the nearest entrance, then pounced with daggers in each hoof. Two sunk into its skull, and another two tore its throat out, keeping it from roaring or yelping. It dropped without a sound, and the guards dragged it to a sewer entrance, dropping in and closing the lid. We galloped in quickly… and the farther we went, the darker it got.

"Anypony see any light?" Pinkie whispered.

We all responded with negative answers, as it was pitch black in every direction. Keeping close to the left, we squinted and kept behind the Lunar guards, who could see through the darkness.

"Princess," one of them whispered. "To the right. There's an entrance."

We followed the noise of hoofsteps, and we gradually picked up the faint bit of light near the floor. It was brighter than a usual torch or light, and we readied our weapons before entering. The sudden shift in light forced us to cover our eyes, and what we saw next made everything much more awkward and terrifying.

It was an entrance to a sort of penthouse… and below us was a breeding facility. To the right, six female soldiers were giving birth rapidly, almost spilling out baby soldiers. Fully grown ones carried them out, taking them somewhere else in the facility. And to the left, soldiers were in the process of impregnating the females, eagerly, I might add. One of them started howling in orgasmic bliss, which was hard to drown out.

"How can they breed so many at once?" Fluttershy gasped, ignoring the scene to the left. "It… it's impossible."

The door behind us slid open, and a… creature, walked in. It looked like a soldier, only bigger and deformed in many ways, especially its torso. There were scars on it, scars that stretched all along its body. We parted to let it walk between us, and watched as it stood behind the glass. It started chuckling softly, then pressed a button on a console near the glass. It let loose a deafening roar, one that made us all cover our ears. The intercoms came alive with roaring and growls, some kind of communication array that they used. A few lower pitched growls caused silence, and it turned and ran out of the room. I sighed quietly, gesturing for the others to move to the door at the left of the room. We went through, away from the soldiers coming in and going right, and found another dark hallway. It hit me now that they used scent to see, practically, and that we should have casted night-vision spells… or brought some of Pinkie's.

"Ugh, what is that smell?" Rarity murmured. I took a few whiffs, and grimaced as some foul scent forced a gag from me.

We each had similar reactions, dreading what we would find. "Slink, Jumper, move up," Luna ordered quietly. The two nodded and sped ahead, their hoofsteps fading until they fell silent.

We caught up soon, the Lunar guards standing behind another door. "Listen." The sound of clattering cages reached us, the smell becoming a hundred times worse, and
growls and barks as well.

Luna nodded, and Jumper pushed the door open. Surrounding us entirely, were scouts. There had to be thousands of them, each grouped together with five of their kind, all in one room. They paced around their cages, most fighting each other while some ate the corpses of their dead. It smelled, for lack of a better term, like complete shit. There were rotting remains, excrements that had been pushed out of the cage and on the floor. It was terrifying to be near them, and so many at once, but it rose the question: Were they really working together? I dismissed it quickly, knowing that they enjoyed our meat more than their own.

We halted as a soldier came into the room and pulled down one of the cages. It had brought a metal container with it, and it threw the scouts into it, no matter how much they thrashed. The container looked familiar, annoyingly so, but I couldn't remember at the moment.

"Twilight," Pinkie whispered, pointing to the far left. "Door."

I was able to make out the outline of another entrance after looking past the fighting scouts. "We'll move through there, but we have to go back after this," I warned Luna.

"If I have enough mana left, we should try another." I saved that conversation for a later time, deciding it would be best to go deeper.

Jumper and Slink took point once more, Applejack and Rainbow sticking right behind them. We left the scout cages and entered another dark hall. But a couple of steps in…

"Ngh." I stopped abruptly, causing Rarity and Fluttershy to bump into me.

"Stop," I called to the others. "Luna, what's wrong?"

To my surprise, and shock, Luna lit up her horn. "Take off your goggles, Twilight," she said. I did it hesitantly, but I gasped when I saw her…

…because I wasn't supposed to be able to.

"Did it—"

"My magic's been drained," Luna grunted, placing a hoof on her horn. "We're… we must be close to the source of all this."

"If there's anything inside, it'll see us," the unnamed Lunar guard spoke. "Princess… if we turn back now we'll only need to pass through the cages. A soldier won't see us."

"But we'll never know what's ahead," I argued silently.

"And we'll never live to see the city again," he retorted, something I wasn't used to. I expected the Princess' guard to wait for her reply.

Instead, she placed a hoof on his shoulder and shook her head. "General, if we stop now, your foal might never live to know who you are," she said softly, easing him as he thought about it.

And the name. General… Shadow Lancer. The only general-rank pony in the Lunar Guard. I now understood why he sneered, since he's been doing it most of his career.

"We move on. At the first sign of trouble we retreat, clear?" Luna asked.

"Clear." We trotted forward, deciding it to be best if we hurry along.

The next door was… white. Out of all the doors in this place, why was this one the only thing white? The others must have had similar curiosities, and Slink looked to Luna before pushing open the door, per her request.

The room was completely white.

What in Tartarus is going on?

"Look," Applejack called, stepping towards a black pillar at the center of the room.

"This? This is it? A black boulder that can drain magic?" I scoffed disbelievingly. Upon further inspection, I realized there was a sort of glimmer of reflection coming from it, meaning it was supposed to be crystalline.

A second door on the far side of the room hissed as it opened, and in that moment, we all panicked. Whatever was there would surely find us, since there weren't any places to hide. But I felt myself being pulled forcefully and thrown over a small console, which had blended in as well as the door. Rainbow gave me an irritated and ‘are you serious?’ glare, but we held our breaths as a claw reached from the other side and clicked a button. A loud groan of metal sounded, prompting me to chance a glance over the console. I quickly sucked down, realizing there was four soldiers with the deformed one. We readied our weapons, those of us who had them, and waited. And waited. And waited.

What could they be doing?

It was painful to not look and see what they were doing, millions of thoughts playing through my mind and teasing my knowledgeable mind. "Hamek urukyo, dro?"

Each of us started looking at each other frantically. None of us knew that they could actually talk. Could the scouts talk as well? Maybe their growls were misinterpreted?

"Noko yursk novad oklo."

"Heaf ucalck!" One roared, the sound of a blow landing, followed by a yelp. A claw reached over to the console and angrily pressed the button below the first pressed, some claw marks splitting the metal below it.

"Trus! Jok ork jro!" There were a few growls exchanged, and the door on the far side of the room slammed shut.

After a moment of quiet, and our anxiety fabricating mid-air, Rainbow chanced to peak over the console. "They're gone."

We all exhaled loudly, and then stood back up and approached the block. "What were they doing?" I wondered aloud.

"They were here for a while," Fluttershy reminded me. "Maybe if we press the button they did, we can see what happens."

"What if we get poisoned or something?" Rainbow asked.

"Wouldn't they have been poisoned as well?" Rarity huffed, but rethought her position. "Then again… it could only affect other species."

"They were… talking," Luna reminded us. "They were speaking, but almost as if they were arguing."

Which is what brought us to our next question. "Then why won't they speak to us?" Pinkie asked. "They just blew up Canterlot for no reason, and we hadn't even met."

"They're doing this for a reason, and they can't even negotiate? What kind of shit is that?!" Shadow exclaimed.

We understood now. This wasn't out of instinct, or their drive. They were doing this of their own accord; this was their choice. But why destroy a planet's life? They don't harvest ANYTHING! They just kill and kill and eat as if they have nothing better to do.

…

…

Why?

…

Just kill us? Just for fun?

Tears started forming the harder I thought, and my face contorted into a seething mess. I stomped over to the console, practically punching the button into its slot.

"Twi, what are you—"

"I want to know why!" I shouted, louder than I would usually dare. "This is a game to them! Like we're not even alive! I'm not going to stand here and watch everypony die for fun!"

I turned away from them, watching as the black crystal parted along several lines, and a metallic scratching resounded as they were pulled behind it. The magic felt like it was sucked out of the air the moment it did, and that's when we got a good look at what they were looking at.

That's when we got a good look at it.

That was the day… I met him.

Author's Note

Next chap! Don't know if it'll be a shipfic or not, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. So, as always, like, fav, comment, and have an awesome day or night. Peaces!