We Shall go on to the End

by Wheller

Rating: teen
Tags: Rainbow Dash, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Tragedy, Twilight Sparkle, DJ P0N-3, Dark, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 12229

Driven from their home, Twilight Sparkle, her friends, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders flee west to the distant Vermillion Mesa. The headquarters of the Cultus Mechanius.

Published 2012-03-01 22:04:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-03-14 18:46:09 UTC

Table of Contents

Stop! You are reading the fifth story in the Ashes to Ashes series which in turn is a sequel series to the All Good Things and Bonds of Eternity Series. PLEASE look at the table of contents and read the series in order.

FAILURE TO READ THE PREVIOUS STORIES WITH RESULT IN YOU BEING EXTREMELY CONFUSED, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

REPEATEDLY.

Chapter 1

We Shall go on to the End
Chapter 1

Vinyl Scratch breathed deeply as she stepped outside of the Cutie Mark Crusader’s office and into the hallway outside. The hallway was deserted, which made sense, the third shift had yet to go off work yet, and as the smallest staff in FutureTec, the hallways of the former missile base were deserted. ‘It’s all clear out here’, Vinyl said as she fully left the office, keeping her revolver trained down the hallway.

The group stepped from the office and into the hallway, Twilight and Vinyl up front, Rarity, and Surprise, who had drawn her chain knife, and was holding it in her teeth. ‘You still have that?’ Vinyl questioned the Pegasus mare as she looked back at her.

‘Ihm cahse ah neef it!’ Surprise mumbled.

‘Some thing’s wrong, we’re still under emergency power, the backup geothermal plant should have kicked on by now!’ Scootaloo said.

‘Geothermal plant?’ Fluttershy asked in confusion.

‘Yeah, FutureTec HQ has three power systems, The primary nuclear fission reactor, the backup geothermal, and then the emergency power, which runs on deep cycle batteries’, Scootaloo said. ‘Should the nuclear reactor ever go offline, Emergency power kicks in for five minutes, and then is taken over by backup power’.

‘So then’, Vinyl Scratch said. ‘We can say for certain that this isn’t an accident’.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded in affirmation.

Vinyl took a step forward, when not two metres in front of her, a gigantic bulkhead door slammed shut in front of her. The hallway to their left's bulkhead door slammed shut not long afterwards. 'The doors run on emergency power?' she asked.

'The releases do', Sweetie Belle said. 'The doors themselves? No'.

'That's a stupid design', Vinyl said.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded their heads in agreement.

'Vinyl, Rarity, help me with this!' Twilight Sparkle asked as she inspected the bulkhead door before her. It was too large and too heavy for her to be able to push open with her magic on her own, but three unicorns together... that just might do it.

Vinyl and Rarity set down their guns on the floor and wrapped their magic around the bulkhead door, struggling with all of their magical might to push the door open. It refused to budge. Something had to be holding it in place.

'Well so much for that', Vinyl complained.

'Ahf gaht ift!' Surprise mumbled as she took a step towards the door, she revved her chainknife and plunged it into the door. The diamond carbide teeth of the tool ground against the metal door for a moment, Surprise however, pulled back after a couple of seconds. Inspecting her handiwork with disappointment, the door only had a few small scratches. 'Ifst tah thaick tah caht', she said, spitting out the chain-knife and repeating. 'It's too thick to cut'.

Vinyl Scratch looked in disappointment at the door, then back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. 'Is there any other way out?'

The Crusaders shook their head. 'The system is designed so that if power is cut off through unnatural means, that the control room seals it self from invasion, the only way an intruder can get in is if they turn the power back on', Scootaloo said. 'Which means then they have to deal with internal security'.

'Oh oh!' Pinkie Pie said, waving her hooves in the air. 'I've got an idea', Pinkie Pie flipped open her saddlebags and pulled out two bricks of her Composition B explosive. She pressed them against the door, and took out two wires and pushed them into the clay. She unrolled the wires and moved back into the room. Everypony got the hint and moved back into the room. Pinkie Pie pulled out her plunger detonator and wired it up. 'Everypony ready?' Pinkie Pie asked.

Everypony nodded, and Pinkie Pie threw down the plunger. They heard the explosion from the hallway, dust filled the air, obscuring their view. They waited for the dust to settle, and Pinkie Pie looked out into the hallway with glee, however her smile quickly turned to a frown. Then to an annoyed glare. 'Oh come on!' Pinkie Pie cried out in frustration.

Twilight peered out into the hallway, the door hadn't even budged. 'So I guess we're waiting', Twilight said with a frown.

The group went back into the Cutie Mark Crusaders office and sat down on the floor. They waited around for a while. Nothing happened for a while. Vinyl Scratch groaned loudly. 'WHAT is going on out there!?'

Everyone in the room jumped when the Mainframe terminal crackled to life. Everyone looked at it, watching as the image flashed and distorted several times. The eerie green glow from the mainframe to form into the image of a unicorn.

'Fuck', Vinyl Scratch said.

'Rabble!' cried Emerald Sparkle's tinny artificial voice barked over speakers from. 'Fire up the verdant squares'.

Everypony looked at the mainframe terminal in confusion. 'What?' they all asked.

'Rabble! Demand the ancillary!' Emerald Sparkle barked again. 'Think. Fine. Speech. Bad'.

'Uh...' Vinyl Scratch said. 'What is she saying?'

'She's got brain damage', Rainbow Dash said. Causing everypony to look at her in confusion. 'I listened to one of her audio logs, talking about her connection to the mainframe. Disconnection from the mainframe was going to cause her brain damage'.

'You uh... you all don't think she's still mad about the Battle of Ponyville, do you?' Pinkie Pie asked.

'Should kill, had chance, blew it', Emerald Sparkle barked again, two turrets popped out of the side of the mainframe and pointed at the group.

'Yeah... she's still mad'.

'Frog blasts the vent core!' Emerald Sparkle cried out. Her machine guns began to click, however no bullets fired from them. 'Quoi?' she cried out.

Apple Bloom looked over the mainframe terminal. 'O' course! The mainframe's gotta have its own power source... but she can't have cut the power ta the Headquarters, she needs it ta be functional!'

'Power off-line... what? Why? Eagle the marks of the system!' Emerald Sparkle cried out.

‘Can somepony turn her off?’ Applejack asked in annoyance. ‘Her funny talk ain’t doin’ us any good’.

‘Rabble for soothe, dumb hick!’ Emerald Sparkle snapped back. ‘Reroute the hydrosphere, powered the armour of the doors!’

Twilight examined the still flickering, and unstable, image of her grandmother to the fifteenth power. ‘I know we haven’t exactly been on the best of terms, Great Grandmother... but someone, or something, has it in for us, all of us, and we need your help. Can you reroute some of your power to the bulkhead doors outside?’

‘Easy’, Emerald Sparkle said. She was silent for a moment. They all heard the bulkhead doors rise up from outside, slamming into place in the ceiling. ‘Not over. Will kill you’, she added at the last minute.

‘We’ll see’, Twilight said.

Emerald Sparkle made no reply, instead, she flicked off of the screen. The Mainframe terminal's screen resuming it's standard 'Connection lost...' screen.

Twilight waved to everypony and they all galloped out of the room, they didn't get before running into a wall of ponies clad in thick armour. Apple Bloom opened her mouth to say something, but then she noticed that the insignia's on the armours did not signify that these were Templars of the Manehattan chapter of the Cultus Mechanius.

Rather, these were members of the Fillydelphia chapter. One of the Fillydelphia chapter members stepped forward. Vinyl Scratch and Surprise looked up to discover that they knew who he was. 'Archimedes', Vinyl Scratch said with a hiss.

'A fine hello to you too, Vinyl Scratch', Archimedes said with a grin as the unicorn stallion lowered his weapon towards them. Archimedes weapon was unlike any they had seen before. It was large, bulky, with a large battery attached to it and a temperature gauge on the back near the aperture sight. The weapon was roughly the size of the Welaran Commonwealth's Emerald Rifle and looked relatively heavy. Archimedes stood out among the crowd as he was clad in his deep purple chapter master robes, his coat was a light beige colour, and his mane was silver, while it hadn't been that long since Vinyl Scratch had last seen him, Archimedes looked much older than he did the last time she had seen him. The others in his group were three earth ponies, all carrying identical weapons to Archimedes' in a powered arm attachment on their backs. 'You know, I really should be thanking you', Archimedes added. 'Your antics, after all, did allow me to find this place, kind of hard to miss an invasion of robots, after all. That and the Manehattan chapter's... gracious... gift of their weapons', Archimedes said slightly lowering his weapon in admiration of it, while still keeping it pointed at the group. 'Even with their fancy particle lasers, the Manehattan Templars were still no match for my Brother Paladins'.

'Ya'll gonna keep flappin' yer gums about stuff Ah don't understand, or ya gonna say what ya want?', Applejack cried out. Stomping her hoof in annoyance.

Archimedes looked at her for a moment. 'Ah yes, down to business, thank you for getting me back on track. Brother Paladins? Kill them'.

Everypony looked at Applejack in annoyance, who gave them a nervous chuckle. The Fillydelphian Paladins all took a step forward in unison when the bulkhead door gave way, crashing down upon them and crushing them under it's huge weight.

A beam of bright light from the Paladin's weapons shot out towards the wall, filling the air with a deafening screech.A beam of bright light from the Paladin's weapons shot out towards the wall, filling the air with a deafening screech, hitting the wall and leaving dark burn marks in the metal.

'Quick! This way!' Apple Bloom called out, pointing towards the other open hallway, they all took off running for their lives.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The group took off running, galloping as fast as they could down the long metal corridors, through FutureTec Headquarters, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were out in front, leading the way out. Clearly they had a back way out, as the normal entrance was blocked off.

They rounded the corner, only to discover that there were five of the Fillydelphian Paladins blocking the way. These ones, were fortunately, not armed with the laser rifles that the ones with Archimedes were armed with. Instead, these were armed with heavy machine guns, as a prospect wasn’t much better.

‘Get them!’ One of the paladins barked.

The group wasted no time in running. The Paladins didn’t bother chasing after them; their gear was far too heavy for them to run. Instead they all opened up with their heavy machine guns.

Whirlwind glanced behind them; there was no way that this could continue. He quickly turned on his hooves and ran back towards the Paladins. Rainbow Dash glanced back to see what he was doing. ‘Whirlwind!? What are you doing!?’

‘Just keep going, I’ll keep them busy!’ Whirlwind cried out.

Rainbow Dash didn’t want to leave him behind, but when one of the heavy machine guns 12.7mm bullets flashed dangerously close to her wing.

‘GO!’ Whirlwind cried again. Forcing Rainbow Dash to fly away.

Whirlwind kept running he closed his eyes. He knew what needed to be done. He allowed himself to do what was necessary.

He opened his eyes. ‘We shall handle this’, he said as he leapt into the air, diving at the paladins.

...

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo skidded to a halt in front of a large door. They pushed it open and revealed a room filled with train tracks. Vinyl Scratch glanced into the room, not believing her own eyes, she pulled her goggles down around her neck. It was the diesel engine that she had rode to Ponyville from Fillydelphia with Monty Ulan, the one that had no breaks, and had continued on its way before crashing in Manehattan. The Cultists in Manehattan must have recovered it and brought it here.

‘We can use this to escape!’ Scootaloo said.

‘Just as long as it’s got a caboose on it’, Vinyl said.

‘Of course!’ Sweetie Belle said. ‘We’re not stupid, why would we go somewhere without the breaks?’

‘Yes, why not?’ Vinyl said to herself, rhetorically.

They all scampered to the engine, climbing on board. The Cutie Mark Crusaders taking to the controls, starting the train. Apple Bloom hit another button, but was distressed to discover that nothing happening. ‘’Tha door ain’t openin’!’ she cried out.

Scootaloo groaned loudly in frustration. ‘Hang on every pony!’ she said as she threw the train into gear. The diesel engine drove forward, ploughing through the doors and continuing on it’s way. The railroad tracks winded out of Whitetail Wood and into Ponyville proper. They all gasped when they discovered what had happened. Fire adorned many of the buildings, and smoke rose into the air. Scootaloo blew the horn loudly as they slid into the Ponyville train station. Where a coalition of Cultus Mechanius Templars and Saracens, FutureTec Combots, and Nephite Rifle ponies were making their stand, one of the templars turned around to look at the ponies as they stepped off the train.

‘Huh? Reinforcements?’ the Templar asked.

‘Afraid not’, Twilight said.

‘Huh? Twilight? What are you doing on that train?’ The Templar asked.

‘I’m sorry? Do I know you?’ Twilight asked in confusion.

‘Uh yeah... it’s... uh hold on’, The Templar said. He motioned to one of the unicorn Saracens who had taken cover behind a column, levitating a Nephite submachine gun above her head. The blue robed pony nodded in agreement, and enveloped the templar’s helmet in her magic. Lifting it off to reveal...

‘Caramel?’ Twilight asked in shock.

‘What can I say? A lot of us joined the Cultus Mechanius when they came to town. Situation isn’t good, As far as I know? We’re all that’s left of the Templar security force; those Fillydelphian Paladins caught us all by surprise’.

‘A surprise!?’ Surprise said snapping her head to attention.

‘Yeah, and certainly not a good kind’, said another pony as they walked into the room. Everyone turned to look and see who it was. It was Carrot Top, along with the Flimflam brothers Big McIntosh, and Braeburn, along with a multitude of town ponies. ‘Everypony keep calm!’ Carrot Top said as she shouted back.

‘Carrot Top!’ Caramel cried out. ‘You’re all right!’

‘You can thank Flim and Flam for that’, Carrot Top said as she trotted over and gave Caramel a tight hug. ‘They’re quite handy with a submachine gun’.

‘It’s bad out there, The Fillydelphian Paladins don’t care who they hurt, Cult, Nephite, Combot, or innocent bystander’, Flim said.

‘We got as many ponies here as we could’, Flam added. ‘When we heard the horn from the train, we knew we had a way out’.

‘Get everypony on the train as fast as possible’, Twilight said. ‘We need to get them out of here before the Fillydelphian Paladins...’

They were interrupted by loud cracks of heavy machine gun fire from outside. The diesel engine’s horn had let the Cultus Mechanius know that their escape had arrived, the same, could be said for their enemies. ‘Templars! Cover the evacuation not one Paladin gets through, understand!?’ Caramel cried out, slamming his helmet back down onto his head as the rest of the Cultus Mechanius Templars lined up in a row, facing towards the door to Ponyville’s exterior. The door flew open; however they were surprised to discover that it was not a section of Paladins, but rather combots, or, more accurately, combot.

‘Hi!’ Mister Happy called out cheerfully with a wave. ‘You’ll have to forgive me, but what’s going on out here? My internal clock has discovered a time stamp mismatch! I’ve been out of service for 15 hours!’

‘Mister Happy?’ Apple Bloom questioned as she took a few steps forward, she glanced behind the combot, only to discover that there were no less than seventeen corpses lying on the ground behind Mister Happy. All of them bore the Paladin insignia on them. ‘Did you do that?’ she asked.

‘Do what?’ Mister Happy asked cheerfully. As he rotated about his axis to take a look at what Apple Bloom was talking about. ‘Oh my. What happened over here? It looks like somebody violently murdered all of these ponies! That’s not very nice’.

‘You... didn’t see that?’ Vinyl Scratch asked suspiciously.

‘Nope! Sure didn’t!’ Mister Happy said. ‘The last thing I remember was escorting the Very Important Ponies to see the bosses. They went inside, and then... I was here! With a mismatching time stamp. That’s probably not good’, he added with a friendly chuckle.

Applejack nudged her sister lightly, ‘Apple Bloom... what’s wrong with him?’

‘That’s a good question...’ Apple Bloom said nervously.

Carrot Top trotted back out into the room. ‘We’ve gotten everypony onto the train, we should probably get out of here before more Paladins show up!’ she said.

Twilight nodded her head in agreement. ‘We can discuss this later, Ponyville isn’t safe anymore, and it’s time to leave.’

Spike gently tugged on Twilight’s tail, causing Twilight to jump slightly, she had forgotten that the baby dragon had been there at all. ‘Twilight, I’m not going with you’.

‘What? Spike are you crazy?!’ Twilight asked.

‘Probably’, he said with a shrug. ‘Still, you need somebody here to keep an eye on what’s going on; it might as well be me’.

‘Oh Spikey-wikey! How brave of you!’ Rarity cried out she trotted over to the baby dragon giving him a hug. ‘We’re all with you in spirit darling!’

‘I won’t let you down Rarity’, Spike said confidently. Rarity said nothing, instead giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Spike felt empowered, the way he felt now? He couldn’t fail.

Twilight nodded. ‘Be careful Spike’, she said simply.

‘Oh relax; they won’t even know I’m here!’ Spike said, giving Twilight a salute, and then running out of the train station and into the bushes next to the entrance.

‘All right! Let’s go!’ Twilight cried. She, along with Vinyl, Surprise, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Caramel, Carrot Top, and the rest of the Templars boarded the train. The Cutie Mark Crusaders took to the engine’s control compartment and threw the train into gear. It began to roll away from the town.

That was when they all saw the full extent of the destruction, Bodies of fallen templars and Saracens littered the streets, fires raged throughout Ponyville. Fluttershy had to cover her eyes and cower under her seat in the passenger compartment, it was just too horrible.

Twilight couldn’t blame her, but something else had caught her eye. She looked up to see a grey dart moving through the sky. ‘Rainbow... is that...?’ she began to ask, Rainbow Dash looked up and interrupted her.

‘It’s Whirlwind!’ she cried out.

Whirlwind began his descent towards the train, in a few moments he landed outside on the walkway between the cars. He pushed open the door and walked inside.

‘Whirlwind, you’re okay!’ Rainbow Dash cried out.

Whirlwind, however, did not answer; instead, he looked blankly at Rainbow Dash for a moment. ‘We used to remember Whirlwind’, he said in an unnatural voice, so unlike his own, a deep, echoey voice that carried throughout the entire passenger car. ‘He us no longer a part of us’.

Twilight and company froze. ‘No...’ she cried softly, this couldn’t be happening!

‘We are Legion’, Legion said simply as he began to step forward towards the group. ‘We have returned’.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Twilight froze with fear as Legion stared her down. She nervously pulled out her revolver and pointed it at the god like Pegasus before her, stepping in front of Rainbow Dash. Legion had said in the past that he ‘remembered’ Rainbow Dash. Clearly, he had come for her. ‘Stay... stay back! Don’t you dare touch her!’

Vinyl Scratch too, stepped in front of Surprise, brandishing her revolver as well, knowing full well that it wasn’t going to do squat against somepony as powerful as legion. Surprise couldn’t look at him, she buried her eyes into Vinyl’s flank.

Legion looked blankly at her for a moment, cocking his head slowly from side to side as he took a step forward.

‘S... stop!’ Twilight cried again weakly. ‘I... I won’t let you hurt her!’

‘We have not come to hurt them’, Legion said plainly, causing both Twilight and Vinyl to take a step back in shock.

‘You... you haven’t?’ Twilight asked in confusion.

‘No’, Legion said as he turned and looked out the window towards the smoking Ponyville as it slowly disappeared into the background as the train moved away from it. Everyone sat quietly for a few moments, waiting for Legion to continue speaking.

‘Well, what do you want then?’ Vinyl Scratch snapped at him, getting tired of waiting. ‘And what happened to Whirlwind?’

Legion’s ear twitched slightly at the mention of Whirlwind’s name. The Pegasus looked somewhat... sad for a moment, if only a moment, before his face returned to normal, and then he turned towards Vinyl Scratch. ‘During the Battle of Ponyville, Whirlwind’s consciousness was separated from the Unity, we can no longer hear him, and we are worse off for it’.

‘The fuck is the... “Unity?”’ Vinyl asked.

‘We are the Unity’, Legion responded simply, as he turned back towards the window. ‘The Unity is made up of a hundred voices, thinkers, dreamers, wanderers, artists, scientists, magi, leaders... despots. We are enriched by them all, the loss of just one of the Unity is... devastating. We ache for the loss of Whirlwind, we strive to achieve unity for all, individuality does not allow them to reach their full potential, only through the Unity can we become truly great, we join them all in this body, once all have joined the Unity, we shall transcend the plane and take our rightful place’.

‘Sounds like a pipe dream to me, you can’t possibly know how to do that even if you wanted to’, Rainbow Dash piped up, subconsciously flapping her wings and rising into the air.

‘Oh?’ Legion said. ‘We know many things, including the knowledge of a Royal AND an Other’.

‘That’s nice’, Vinyl snorted in annoyance. ‘You didn’t answer my question, what did you come here for?’

Legion turned back to face Vinyl Scratch. ‘We have come to propose an alliance’.

‘You... what?’ Twilight asked. That statement was just as, if not more shocking than Legion’s return.

‘The Māo Xióng of the Peking Republic have an old adage. ‘The enemy of our enemy is our friend’, we have an enemy, and you have the same enemy. It is the Cultus Mechanius of the Fillydelphia chapter’, Legion said.

‘What’d they do ta ya?’ Applejack asked as she poked her head up from the crowd.

‘They are an affront to the Unity! They must be destroyed!’ Legion said passionately, in what may have been the only display of emotion that they had seen from the god like Pegasus throughout his entire existence.

Twilight looked at Legion for a moment, blinking slowly, and then, a smug look formed on her face. ‘I think I see what’s going on here’.

‘Excellent, then you see wisdom in our proposal...’ Legion began.

‘I’m not finished yet’, Twilight snapped back, causing Legion to shut his mouth tightly. ‘Here is what I have deduced about you, you feel that the Unity is superior because you have the collective knowledge of multiple people making up your consciousness, and that you have the ability to unite the world under the Unity because of that knowledge, correct?’

‘Yes’, Legion said, cocking his head slightly.

‘But, you’ve come to us asking for help against the Fillydelphia chapter. Doesn’t that go against your ideology?’ Twilight asked.

Legion looked blankly at Twilight, ‘We... acknowledge that the Cultus Mechanius is a powerful foe that is of much concern to us. We are not the Alicorn Overdrive, we are not immortal, this body can still die, and should it, the Unity would go with it’.

‘So then, what you’re basically admitting to is that your ideology is wrong, that you can’t defeat the Fillydelphia chapter on your own, and you need us’, Twilight said with a triumphant smile, she had him on the ropes, and he knew it. ‘Face it Legion, you need us far more than we need you’.

‘We do not need you!’ Legion snapped back in a voice that sounded upset. ‘We can kill you all where you stand in the blink of an eye!’

Twilight’s revolver snapped back up, as did Vinyl Scratch’s. Rarity drew out her submachine gun, likewise, Caramel and three other Cultus Mechanius Templars raised their Heavy Machine Guns towards the Pegasus. ‘You’ve already admitted to us that your body is mortal, your death would be the end of the Unity. Now, we also know that your telekinetic ability is quite good, you’ve shown your ability to catch bullets with your minds is good, but... would you like to test just how good it is?’ Twilight said smugly.

‘... We take it our offer of alliance is rejected?’ Legion asked with some hesitation.

‘On the contrary’, Twilight said raising her head high with pride. ‘We accept your offer. BUT... we shall be the ones setting the terms of our alliance, NOT you’.

Legion was quiet for a moment. His eye turned up and to the right, as if he was thinking. ‘Very well’, he said eventually.

‘Excellent’, Twilight said proudly. ‘I’m glad to see that you’re a reasonable... individual... after all’, Twilight added, putting significant emphasis on the term individual, knowing that it bothered Legion to be addressed as such. If it annoyed him, he showed no signs of it. Twilight had put him on the defensive. They were in charge, not him, and he knew it.

...

Dinky Doo sat quietly on the floor of her home, her head buried deep into the Book of Nephi. She finished the page she was on, and struggled to turn the page with her magic. Dinky was still quite young, and didn’t have very good control over her magic yet. In ordinary unicorn homes in the rest of Equestria, it was the mother’s responsibility to teach her child how to use magic.

That was the problem for Dinky Doo, her biological mother never loved her. Dinky knew little about her biological mother. Her biological mother had been incredibly young when she had had her by normal standards. She had barely been considered to be a mare when she had become pregnant with her. Not even out of secondary school. Her biological mother had given her up almost straight away because she didn’t want her easy going, care free, fun loving lifestyle to be interrupted. In other words she didn’t want to take responsibility for her actions.

Whatever.

Dinky didn’t care that she had been abandoned by her biological mother. She knew she was better off without her. She had been adopted by Ponyville’s pegasi mail mare, Derpy Hooves, and she had raised her as her own. As far as Dinky Doo was concerned, she was her real mum. Mum had always been up front and honest with her about her adoption. She never once held the truth from her. Dinky loved her for that.

But, from a technical standpoint, they did not live in Equestria anymore, while she and her mum lived within Equestria’s de jure borders. New Maneaan was its own de facto state, New Maneaan, being the home of the Nephites, which her mum and she had joined several months ago. The Nephites had not always lived in New Maneaan, their old home, Ashville, had been destroyed by a ballistic missile strike before they had joined the Nephite society. The Nephites, along with their long time allies, the Cultus Mechanius, had constructed New Maneaan as a replacement home for their old residence of Ashville, in a place called the Divide.

Dinky had never been to the Divide, she knew her mum had, she had told her it was a dangerous place, rogue weather patterns popped up out of nowhere and disappeared just as fast, often times causing a lot of damage. Mum never sugarcoated things for her.

Dinky liked being part of the Nephites, though she technically wasn’t part of the community yet, as she had not been baptised, but that was okay, because the same could be said about the other children her age. The Nephites believed that a pony must choose whether they want to actually be Nephites for themselves. Most did choose to be baptised, but a fair number (relatively speaking, the Nephite population isn’t particularly large, only about two thousand) do choose not to be baptised, and leave their home for other places in Equestria, usually cities like Las Maregas or El Paso Fino.

Dinky had to wonder the population was rather small, how could the Nephite leadership allow them to leave? In fact, she had asked this of Graham Cracker, who might as well be New Maneaan’s mayor.

‘How can we make them stay?’ had been his response. Dinky had thought about it, and the more she did, the more it made sense. Forcing them to stay would leave a percentage of the nephite population unwilling to do the work that needed to be done to make New Maneaan thrive as a community. That was far more dangerous.

She turned the page of the Book of Nephi with her magic. It was a simple act that most unicorns in Equestria took for granted. For Dinky, however, it was a miracle that she was able to do it at all. Aside from her, New Maneaan had only one other unicorn resident. Moses Marening, the town gunsmith. He had taken it upon herself to tutor her in exercising her magical ability. Dinky was sure he was doing it out of a sense of obligation. After all, he was the ONLY other unicorn in town, if not him, who else?

Dinky and her mum had been incredibly grateful for Moses Marening’s help. Dinky could tell that her mum felt guilty that she couldn’t do it herself.

The door to her home opened. ‘Mum!’ Dinky called out as she looked up.

Her mum said nothing, but smiled warmly at her. Dinky got up and ran over to her, giving her a tight hug. ‘Hello little one!’ she said.

Ditzy Doo smiled at her daughter. She felt guilty that she couldn’t be at home with her, but she also knew that she had other responsibilities that needed addressing, Responsibilities that were about to take her away from New Maneaan. ‘Dinky...’

Dinky looked up at her mum in disappointment. She knew what was coming next. ‘You’re going away again, aren’t you?’

Ditzy Doo looked down at her daughter and nodded. ‘Yes, Graham Cracker wants me to accompany him to Vermillion Mesa’.

Dinky frowned. She knew her mum loved her, but that didn’t change the fact that it hurt when she left.

‘How would you like to come with me?’ Ditzy Doo asked with a smile.

Dinky looked up in surprise. ‘R... really?’ she asked.

‘Of course! I mean, you’re certainly old enough, and I think you would enjoy a trip to Vermillion Mesa. Seeing the Cultus Mechanius home is really quite a sight, I already asked Graham Cracker, it’s just a routine trip, so he said it was okay’.

‘I... I can really go with you!?’ Dinky asked, making sure this was real.

Ditzy Doo smiled brightly at her daughter. ‘Of course! Start packing little one’.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The day passed later into the night, and all of the passengers on the train retired for the evening. Even Legion, who took a car to towards the back of the train for himself. Everypony was fine with this, as they hardly wanted to share the air they breathed with him, let alone sleeping space. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Vinyl Scratch, and Surprise had taken up residence in a sleeper car near the front of the train. Most of their party had already gone to bed.

'Twilight', Vinyl Scratch said, pulling her fellow unicorn aside. 'I don't think that was very smart, with Legion I mean'.

'Huh? Vinyl, if you thought it was a bad idea, why did you back me up?' Twilight asked.

'Well, of course I backed you up! I'm the lancer! That's what I'm supposed to do!' Vinyl said with a grin.

'... What?' Twilight asked in confusion.

'Never mind...' Vinyl said with a sigh. 'The point is... be careful. You might have taken Legion down a notch today, but she's still dangerous, just, don't get to confidant, okay? Don't push him too much, you were right, he needs us more than we need him, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have his uses'.

Twilight blinked looking at Vinyl Scratch in confusion. 'Who are you and what have you done with Vinyl Scratch?'

'Oh I'm secretly a shape shifter who took the form of Vinyl Scratch and threw her off the back of the train while nopony was looking', Vinyl Scratch said with a grin. 'I know right? When did I get to be the reasonable one? I'm still trying to answer that one for myself'.

Twilight looked Vinyl Scratch over; she could tell her fellow unicorn had something on her mind. 'Vinyl? Is everything all right? We've all been so preoccupied with things lately we haven't gotten a chance to just talk...'

Vinyl gave a smile at Twilight's question. 'Well, apart from the fact that our town's been overrun by a crazed lunatic and his rogue chapter of the Cultus Mechanius, everything is just dandy'.

Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance. 'Quit using sarcasm to avoid the question! I know you, that doesn't work anymore'.

'Huh, well, I'm going to need to change my strategy for deflection then', Vinyl said with a grin, but without offering up any explanation.

'I'm not leaving until you talk', Twilight said.

Vinyl sighed. 'Fine...' She and Twilight trotted over to some of the seats near the back of the car and sat down. 'It's Surprise'.

'What happened?' Twilight asked.

'Well, we had sex', Vinyl said. 'She told me that she loved me last night and well... I'm not sure it was a good idea or not... Surprise may be the oldest out of all of our friends, but mentally, she's like four. She wanted it, but I don't know if she's really able to make that decision for herself or not'.

'You feel like you've taken advantage of her', Twilight said.

'I'll be the first to admit that I have poor self restraint', Vinyl said with a frown.

Twilight placed her foreleg around Vinyl's shoulder. 'I don't think you're giving Surprise enough credit, he's more complex than that, follow your heart, Vinyl, when has it ever steered you wrong before?'

Vinyl looked blankly at Twilight for a moment. 'Um...'

'Okay, maybe that advice doesn't fit your specific situation very well...' Twilight said. 'But you get what I'm saying right?'

Vinyl gave Twilight a small smile. ‘Yeah, Twilight, I think I do. Thanks, what would I do without you guys?’

‘Well you’d probably be lying dead in a ditch somewhere from alcohol poisoning, or an overdose, or probably both’, Twilight said as she gave Vinyl a hug.

Vinyl couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘Ain’t that the truth?’ she said as she hugged the mare back. ‘I’m going to go to bed, goodnight Twilight, go cuddle Rainbow Dash some’.

‘Oh I will’, Twilight said with a smile as the two mares rose to their hooves and turned in for the night.

...

The streets of Ponyville were deserted. The sun had gone down several hours ago, really, nopony was supposed to be out and about since the Fillydelphia chapter imposed curfew. The fighting had stopped, and cleanup crews had scoured the streets clean of combots, and the fallen dead of both sides.

Like it or not, the Fillydelphia chapter was in control of Ponyville, and they were quick to exert their will. Mandatory curfew between sunset and sunrise, gatherings larger than three were prohibited, the schoolhouse was to be shut down and the Fillydelphia chapter would be appointing a new teacher to educate the town’s foals.

Nopony liked it. Not one bit. Almost all of the town were too scared to do anything. Trixie, however, wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing.

The lights of the Ponyville spa were still on, Trixie ducked around back and gave the door a quick knock. The door opened to reveal one of the spa twins, the pink coated one, Aloe. ‘Were you followed?’ she asked.

‘No, Trixie checked’, Trixie said simply.

‘Inside! Quickly!’ Aloe hissed as she motioned Trixie inside, shutting the door up tightly and locking it behind them. She led Trixie down a hallway and into the main room. Trixie was pleased to see that she was not the only one there.

Lyra, Bon Bon, Berry Punch, Colgate and Aloe’s twin sister, Lotus were all in the main room. Each of them looking nervously at each other.

‘This is it? Just us? Where’s Carrot Top? Where’s Caramel? Braeburn? Big McIntosh?’ Trixie asked.

‘W... we don’t know’, Lyra said nervously. ‘I... I checked the list of the dead... they weren’t on it... but... By Celestia! So many names! Melliot, Pine Breeze... Drizzle! So many!’

Lyra couldn’t keep it in anymore, she broke into tears, burying herself into Bon Bon’s shoulder and crying her eyes out. Bon Bon embraced her friend, doing her best to comfort her.

‘I know’, Trixie said, nodding her head. ‘The Fillydelphia chapter slaughtered our friends and neighbours, and for what? We can’t let them get away with this, we have to fight back!’

‘With what?’ Berry Punch asked. ‘We’re seven mares in a spa, what can we possibly do?’

‘As we are now? Nothing’, Trixie said simply. ‘As what we’re about to become with this? We can win’.

Trixie levitated a book out from under her cape, placing it on a table.

‘The Art of Warfare... by Sunzi?’ Berry Punch asked as she took a look at it. ‘Who is Sunzi?’

‘Sunzi was a Māo Xióng military commander who lived nearly twenty five hundred years ago. He was well regarded for his thoughts on strategy, and is taught in many countries militaries around the world even today. I took the liberty of looting it from the Library before I came over here. We’re going to take back our home’, Trixie said.

Lyra stopped crying at this point, she stiffened her resolve. ‘We’re going to kick these arseholes all the way back to Fillydelphia’.

‘Yes, yes we are’, Trixie said as she opened the book to the first page. ‘Now, who here knows where Pinkie Pie keeps her dynamite?’

...

Ditzy Doo sat at the navigator console of the Nimbus, looking out the window as the Nephite zeppelin cruised through the air. Wondrous bit of technology, the airship was. Ditzy Doo had wondered how the Nephites had been able to build such a craft, only for her to discover that they had not built it at all. The Nimbus was nearly a thousand years old, and was formerly owned by the royal family of Equestria. According to Graham Cracker, the airship had been abandoned by Princess Celestia a thousand years ago during a state visit to the town of Hopeville in Southern Equestria. Home to the Hopeville Missile Base, there had been an ‘accidental’ launch of one of the missiles, destroying the town completely, and creating what was known today, as the Divide.

After the destruction of the Nephite’s former home of Ashville, a scout group had discovered it sitting derelict in dry dock, in almost pristine condition. Hidden away in a hermetically sealed section of the ruined Hopeville Missile Base, the airship had been well preserved, all it needed was new hydrogen to fill the zeppelin and it was good to go.

Ditzy Doo turned her head back down to the navigational console. They would soon be arriving at Vermillion Mesa. Ditzy Doo looked back up to discover dark clouds on the horizon. Lit up by flashes of lightning, Vermillion Mesa was one of the few places where weather ran on its own in Equestria and as a result found itself surrounded by perpetual lightning storms.

The Cultus Mechanius had always found that appealing, because it kept people that didn’t know the safe way through the storms away. Fortunately for them, they knew the way.

‘Radar station? We’ve just reached the perimeter of the storm, I need up to date weather charts’, Ditzy Doo called out.

‘Aye aye!’ said the Nephite manning the radar station. A stallion named Flynn. ‘Pushing the data now Navigation!’ he said.

‘Thank you Flynn... receiving it now’, Ditzy Doo said as she took a look over it. ‘Helm! Prepare to receive updated course information’.

‘Aye navigation’ called the helm officer.

Ditzy Doo took a look back at her console, analysing the weather data and charting a new heading through the rough weather. She passed it off to the helm, and watched out the window as they began their descent.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

He couldn't concentrate on his work. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't keep his mind off her. His productivity was suffering, which was unfortunate, because he had orders that he needed to fill.

Heinrich Büchsenmacher couldn't get Twilight Sparkle out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried to forget. The little pony from Equestria who had just wandered into his workshop one day had changed his life forever. Then something happened. They were attacked by that inspector from La Police Internationale, Pierre La Roche, Heinrich had been knocked unconscious. Twilight must have been as well... then what? When Heinrich came to, La Roche was gone, and Twilight didn't remember who he was.

Heinrich had become deeply depressed in the days following Twilight's departure. Twilight hadn't exactly been kind or affectionate towards him, but he still loved her. He couldn't get his mind off her. His work was suffering. He was already in danger of losing his licence from Sturm GmbH for producing storm harnesses. And he'd just gotten an angry letter from both Rijnmetall and Sauser this morning, wondering why his numbers had dropped off completely. Heinrich had ignored the letters. He knew this was a bad idea; ignoring correspondence from the companies who licensed him to produce their weapon designs outside of the Bundesrepublik was going to get his licences revoked.

But Heinrich didn't care. His heart wasn't in it any more. He looked to the picture frame on his workbench. Inside it was a photograph of Twilight Sparkle sitting on the banks of the River Rijn, looking out over the water. Heinrich had taken the photograph while Twilight wasn't looking directly at him; she'd kicked him hard in his flank after he'd done it, it had still been worth it.

This photograph was all he had left.

There was a knock at the door outside his workshop, Heinrich looked up towards it. 'Ja? Hereinkommen', he said. The door pushed open, and Heinrich looked up two other Schäferhund walked into the workshop. He recognised both of them immediately. Hauptmann Adalbert Schmidt and Feldwebel Hans Fockewulf, Heinrich had served in the Wehrmacht Heer with both of them in the Legion Adler during the Hispaña Civil War.

Heinrich's mind drifted back to those days, eight years ago, the fascist Hispañan Nationalists went to war with the Hispaña Second Republic. The Legion Adler was put together by the Bundesrepublik, staffed with volunteers from the Wehrmacht to fight against the Hispaña Second Republic, who was backed by the Cheval.

Long story short, the nationalists were close to winning, but when it became clear that they were. The Republicans asked the cheval to invade, which they did, sweeping the whole of the Hispaña Second Republic under their banner in a month. The cheval invasion had nearly sparked an international Incident. Causing a war of words between Chancellor Saul Goebbels of Bundesrepublik Schäferhund, and the Cheval Third Republic President François Lerune, which would have entered into open war had the incident not been mediated by Princess Celestia of Equestria. In order to keep open war from breaking out, the Cheval Third Republic agreed to release all foreign volunteers fighting for the Nationalists, and to allow the hispaña nationalsts to leave for the Bundesrepublik Schäferhund or the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms, in exchange, the schäferhund agreed to allow the Cheval Third Republic to annex the Hispaña Second Republic. The cheval would later go on to reorganise their country into the modern Fourth Republic.

'Heinrich? Are you all right mein freund?' Adalbert asked.

Heinrich snapped out of his daze, he shook his head and looked up at his former commanding officer. Adalbert Schmidt had been in command of Heinrich's company in the Legion Adler; Heinrich had served as his hauptfeldwebel, the equivalent of a company sergeant major in Welaran Commonwealth armies. Heinrich gave an unconvincing nod in response to the question. Hans Fockewulf walked further into the room.

Hans too, had served in the Legion Adler, as the leader of the first zug, the equivalent of a commonwealth platoon. Their kompanie had been made up of three züge, and while the first zug was supposed to be lead by an oberleutnant, their oberleutnant, whom Heinrich did not remember the name of, had been killed within ten minutes of being deployed, leaving Hans Fockewulf in charge. That Oberleutnant had never been replaced.

'Mein freund, you are not all right', Hans said. 'You've forgotten to add the bolt of the submachine gun you are working on'.

Heinrich looked down at his work. Indeed he had, In this state, he would have likely not noticed. The client he was making it for would not be happy when he went to use the the submachine gun and found it unable to fire.

Fortunately, in that case, Heinrich wouldn't get in trouble for it, because the client would likely be killed by his enemies right away. Actually, as Heinrich thought about it, he figured it would make a great gift for an idiot that he didn't like. Though, there weren't very many people that Heinrich didn't like. Except maybe Pierre La Roche, Heinrich was never going to like him.

'Indeed I have', Heinrich said as he continued to look at it. 'Forgive me meine freunde, I am distracted'.

'Ja, we can see that', Adalbert said. 'Mein freunde, what troubles you?'

Heinrich looked back down at his work.

'It is a woman', Hans said.

'It is always a woman', Adalbert said, nodding in agreement.

Hans trotted up to the work bench, where he noticed the photograph sitting on it. He stopped at took a closer look at it. 'Heinrich, mein freunde, is this the woman that troubles you?'

'Ja...' Heinrich said with a slow nod.

Hans took a closer look at it. 'I... I know this pony'.

'It is a pony?' Adalbert asked in shock. 'Heinrich? What are you thinking?'

Heinrich ignored him, but turned to Hans in bewilderment. 'You... know her? You know Twilight Sparkle?' he asked.

Adalbert couldn’t help but chuckle at the name, but he kept it quiet and to himself.

'Equestrian? Purple coated unicorn? Ja, I know her', Hans said studying her. 'My Infanteriegruppe came across her party. They were looking for one of their friends. My Infanteriegruppe found their friend, it was odd, there was a kangaroo with them, he gave my gruppe dirty looks when the Equestrians weren’t looking, not surprising with one from the Welaran Commonwealth'.

‘Ja... not surprising’, Heinrich said with a nod. ‘The Commonwealth is almost as bad as their cheval friends, trade restriction here, and warship over there. Oh? You want to expand your sphere of influence, no you can’t do that. We however can, and will’.

‘There was something else...’ Hans said as he pondered. ‘There was a local with them, a Nederlands speaker, seemed rather close with one of their party... a shop keeper... Katrijn? I believe, ah yes, the day worker of De Winkel, the high fashion store in the fashion district’.

‘A local?’ Heinrich asked. ‘Interesting... Well, enough about this, you clearly both had a reason for coming here, what can I do for you? Ammunition? I have several boxes of 9mm in the back’.

‘Ah, nothing like that mein freunde, have you forgotten what tomorrow is? The anniversary of the founding of the Legion Adler? There is going to be a party for veterans tomorrow evening, will you be in attendance?’

Heinrich kicked himself. This wasn’t something he should forget. Fighting in the Hispaña Civil War was an important experience for him. For all the Schäferhund who volunteered. Heinrich nodded. ‘Ja mein freunde, I will certainly be there’.

Adalbert smiled. ‘Excellent! You must get out of this workshop more often, spend some time with your own kind at the firing range. I would hate for your skills to become rusty, hauptfeldwebel’.

‘Of course hauptmann. I will finish this submachine gun, in the right way, and I think I shall do just that’, Heinrich said with a respectful nod.

‘Glad to hear it, we shall let you work. Auf wiedersehen mein freund’, Adalbert said with a smile as he and Hans turned and left the workship.

‘Auf wiedersehen mein hauptmann’, Heinrich said with a nod as he turned back to the work. He stripped the submachine gun back down; this was unacceptable for someone of his skill. He would have to build it back up from the start. Heinrich thought about what Hans had said about this nederlander shopkeeper. This Katrijn pony, one of the few others who knew Twilight Sparkle, Heinrich thought about it for a moment, he was desperate to speak to Twilight Sparkle again. Things had not ended well for him, he knew that he had to let her go... but he couldn’t do that just yet. He needed to speak to her one last time, then he could be at peace. Heinrich knew that was the only way to get himself back on the right path. He finished up his work on the submachine gun, and then placed his schirmmütze on his head and stepped outside. He needed to find this Katrijn pony.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The sun began to rise as the diesel engine ran through the mohoofie desert towards Appleoosa. Twilight pushed open the door to her compartment, letting out a loud yawn as she stepped out into the hallway, leaving a still asleep Rainbow Dash inside. Twilight looked out the window, expecting them to see the Appleoosan buildings. However, to her shock and dismay, the town was no longer there. Instead a number of charred ruins littered the space where the town was supposed to be.

‘What happened here?’ Twilight gasped.

‘Thar own fault’, said another voice from further down the hallway.

‘Nephites came ta town, lookin ta make nice with tha Appleoosans’, Applejack said as she trotted over to Twilight. ‘They started tha fight, and tha Nephites finished it’.

‘How do you know this Applejack?’ Twilight asked.

‘Ah was thar’, Applejack said. ‘It waddn’t pretty, but it was thar own fault. Fer a people that stress love an’ tolerance as our doctrine, we can be mighty hateful sometimes... us Equestrians’.

Twilight nodded in agreement. ‘I’ve noticed there is a lot about our society that’s rather hypocritical...’

‘Yep’, Applejack said.

‘Everything okay Applejack?’ Twilight asked.

‘Nope’, Applejack said simply.

‘Want to talk about it?’ Twilight asked.

‘More than anything’, Applejack said. ‘Twilight, here’s tha problem though, Ah ain’t smart, Ah don’t even know how ta explain what’s goin’ on ta mahself, let alone ya’ll. Ah figure it’s got somethin’ ta do with tha old world ya’ll keep talkin’ ‘bout. Ah dunno, there’s stuff ya’ll ain’t tellin’ about it. Ah know ya ain’t... Ah also know ya’ll are keepin’ it from us fer a reason. Ah don’t like it... but Ah suppose Ah can understand’.

Twilight frowned at Applejack. ‘Trust me when I say this Applejack, you’re happier not knowing’.

‘Uh huh’, Applejack said. Several of the other compartments opened up, Rarity and Fluttershy’s, and then Vinyl and Surprise’s. Pinkie Pie then stumbled out of the one she’d been sharing with Applejack with a loud yawn.

‘Good morning everypony!’ Pinkie Pie said with another yawn. ‘Rainbow Dash still sleeping?’

‘Yeah, I’m going to go wake her up, Applejack? Can you, Fluttershy, and Rarity head to the back and check on everypony? Make sure they’re all doing okay?’

Applejack nodded in agreement.

‘Vinyl, Surprise? Can you go check on the Cutie Mark Crusaders up front?’ Twilight asked.

‘Yes ma’am!’ Surprise said with a salute before grabbing Vinyl and dragging her off towards the front. Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle as the two departed. Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy too soon departed.

Twilight turned back to her compartment door, pushing it open and taking a step inside. ‘Rainbow Dash! Time to get up sleepy...’ Twilight said as she froze in place. Rainbow Dash was lying on the floor, paralysed with fear as a grey hoof was pressed against her head. Twilight looked up to see Legion looking directly at her with an emotionless glare.

‘We are altering the terms of our arrangement’, Legion said plainly. ‘Do you take issue with this?’

Twilight gaped in horror as she looked at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow looked incredibly scared. ‘Don’t do it Twilight!’ she said uneasily as Legion rocked his hoof back and forth slightly as she spoke.

‘Name your terms...’ Twilight said.

‘Excellent’, Legion said plainly. ‘We knew you would see reason’.

...

Heinrich struggled to keep himself from falling asleep as he waited in the dark alley in the high end fashion district. He was across the street from De Winkel. Nederlands for ‘The Shop’, it was aptly named, Heinrich thought. It was almost midnight, they’d be closing and this Katrijn would be coming out soon enough.

The front door opened, and a signal pony exited the store front. This had to be her. Heinrich slipped out of the alley way and began to follow her. He didn’t very far before it happened.

In hindsight, this plan wasn’t a very good one, as Heinrich came up on her; she whipped around, landing a hard kick into the schäferhund’s muzzle, sending him toppling to the ground, in a daze. ‘This was a poor idea...’ he said.

‘You are fucking right it was! Pervert!’ the pony snapped back at him.

‘What? No! No! Are you the shop keeper Katrijn?’ Heinrich asked.

‘Spying on me?’ Katrijn asked.

‘No...! No! I learned your name from a friend; you have mutual friends with him’, Heinrich said, realising that his words probably weren’t helping him out any.

‘I don’t have any dog friends’, Katrijn snapped at him.

‘These friends are not schäferhund’, Heinrich said. ‘They are Equestrian’.

Katrijn took a step back. ‘How do you know about them?’

‘I am... a friend of Twilight Sparkle’, Heinrich said.

Katrijn was taken aback, she clearly recognised that name. ‘Equestrians... have silly names; they are not easy to forget. I remember that one, Twilight Sparkle, what do you want with her?’

‘I am trying to get into contact with her, she did not speak of her home while she was in town’, Heinrich said.

‘They... were in town?’ Katrijn asked. ‘Why would Fluttershy not contact me if she were here?’

Heinrich didn’t have an answer, or really a clue of who Fluttershy was. He did not get the names of any of Twilight Sparkle’s friends while they were here. ‘I do not know, do you know how to get into contact with them?’

‘I do’, Katrijn said. ‘Come, follow me’, she said as she beckoned for the schäferhund to follow. Heinrich got to his paws and followed her down the street towards her flat. She took out a key and unlocked the door beckoning him inside. Heinrich followed her in, she pointed to the telephone. ‘Ask for an International operator to connect you to the Ponyville Post Office, Canterlot Province, Equestria’.

Heinrich nodded as he took the telephone’s headset in his teeth, draping it over his ears and pawing at the rotor, pulling the zero back all the way and releasing.

‘Operator’, said the voice over the headset.

‘International’, Heinrich said simply.

‘Ja, het ene moment’, said the voice on the other end. There was a small clicking noise and a new voice spoke on the other end.

‘International operator, how can I direct your call?’ said a voice clearly belonging to a welaran mare.

‘Connect me to the Ponyville Post Office, Canterlot Province, Equestria’, Heinrich said.

‘Putting you through’.

...

Trixie ducked into the bushes outside of the Ponyville post office as she heard the approaching hoofsteps of the armour clad Paladins. The Sun was just starting to come up, and while curfew was from sun down to sun up, Trixie wasn’t willing to take the change of being caught out in the open. Not when these jerks were trigger happy and the situation was ambiguous enough to let them get away with pretty much anything. Trixie waited until they passed before pushing leaping out of the bushes and pushing open the window to the Ponyville post office. The post office was right across the street from Sugarcube Corner, and Pinkie Pie’s hidden stash of dynamite.

Trixie shut the window behind her. Normally, the Ponyville post office would have been filled with it’s workers at this time. Raindrops, the mail carrier, Pete, the boss, and Blue Berry, the package sorter, all working hard to keep everything running smoothly and get everypony’s mail out on time.

This wouldn’t be happening as long as the Fillydelphians were here.

Trixie crossed the room to the far window, glancing out of it towards Sugarcube Corner. So close. So close to the dynamite, however, there were two paladins standing around in the middle of the street. Damn, Trixie wasn’t going out there until they were gone. The sun was already peaking over the horizon, enough that it couldn’t be argued it wasn’t yet sun up. She could walk around freely about town, but that didn’t mean that she could walk past two paladins and start digging up a box of buried dynamite without incident.

Not unless they were really fucking stupid.

Trixie’s heart leapt in her chest as she heard the telephone ring. She almost jumped into the air. She looked over to it as it continued to ring. Who in Equestria could be calling at this hour?

Trixie had to admit, she was curious, and she had a while to wait for the paladins to leave anyway. She trotted over to the telephone and picked up the receiver with her magic. ‘Hello?’ she asked.

‘Hello, I need to speak to Twilight Sparkle, who is this?’ the voice on the other end of the telephone said.

‘I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie’, Trixie said plainly. ‘That’s going to be rather difficult right now, considering that the town has been captured by a rogue chapter of the Cultus Mechanius and Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and most of the town’s population that would be able to do anything about it have fled west to Vermillion Mesa. I’m sorry; you’re going to have to call back later’.

Trixie did not wait for a response on the other end before hanging the receiver back up and going back over to the window.

...

Heinrich looked confused for a moment. ‘Hello? Hello?’ he asked. ‘She hung up on me!’ he cried out.

‘What happened?’ Katrijn asked.

‘Ponyville has been captured by a rogue chapter of the Cultus Mechanius’, Heinrich said/

‘Oh no! ... what’s the Cultus Mechanius?’ Katrijn asked.

Heinrich shrugged. ‘I don’t know... but I think I know how I can find out’.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Twilight spent the last few hours of the ride locked alone in her compartment with Rainbow Dash. Legion had since left, returning to his compartment near the rear of the train. Twilight hadn’t let Rainbow Dash go since Legion had threatened her life.

‘You shouldn’t have given in to him’, Rainbow Dash said.

‘He was going to kill you Rainbow Dash, it wouldn’t have been the first time he tried’, Twilight said as she squeezed Rainbow Dash tightly. ‘I can’t lose you, not again’.

Rainbow Dash turned her head upward towards Twilight, giving her a smile. ‘Hey, you don’t need to worry about that, I’ve taken precautions’.

‘You have?’ Twilight asked.

‘Yep, Fluttershy isn’t allowed to have sharp objects anymore’, Rainbow Dash said with a grin. ‘She was fine with that, because she doesn’t really like sharp things anyway’.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at Rainbow Dash’s joke; she planted a small kiss on Rainbow Dash’s cheek, before being jolted around by the train hitting the breaks. They were at their destination. Twilight looked up and out of the window. The lightning storm surrounding the Vermillion Mesa was much bigger looking here than it had been on their approach.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash rose to their hooves, exiting the compartment to find that their friends, along with Carrot Top and Caramel were already out in the hallway.

‘Follow my lead when we get out there, I’m the most senior Saracen that we’ve got with us’, Carrot Top said.

‘I’ve been meaning to ask’, Vinyl said. ‘What’s this about being called Saracen? I thought you blue robed ones were called scribes?’

‘That’s Fillydelphia’, Carrot Top said coldly. ‘Fillydelphia only, I wouldn’t recommend using that word around here, not unless you want to get smacked around and thrown out. There’s bad blood between Fillydelphia and the rest of the Cultus Mechanius’.

‘What happened?’ Twilight asked.

‘I don’t know all the details, suffice it to say, their chapter master died. Archimedes took over; most ponies don’t recognise him as a legitimate authority, because he was one of their scribes, while the new leader should have been their head paladin’.

‘Why are the names of their orders different?’ Vinyl asked.

‘Something about the Fillydelphia chapter having more of a public presence, Scribe, Knight, and Paladin sound a little less... abrasive than Saracen, Hospitaller, and Templar’, Carrot Top said. ‘I really don’t know all that much, you should really ask somepony else these questions’.

‘I think we will’, Vinyl said.

The group began to depart off the train, joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they climbed out of the engine. Twilight looked around, despite everyone funnelling out of the train; she did not see Legion anywhere. Though she wasn’t sure if she liked that or not.

Carrot Top walked over towards two Templar guards at the front gate of a settlement. ‘Sister Saracen Carrot Top, Manehattan Chapter, along with the refugee’s of Ponyville’, Carrot Top said.

‘Ponyville?’ One of the Templars said. ‘What happened?’

‘Fillydelphia happened’, Carrot Top said simply.

‘I see... welcome to Dustbowl!’ the Templar called over to the refugees.

‘Dustbowl?’ Twilight asked. ‘I thought this was Vermillion Mesa?’

‘Dustbowl is the name of the settlement’, Carrot Top said.

‘But... it’s a mesa’, Twilight protested.

‘We didn’t name it’, the two templar guards said in unison, and with that, Twilight dropped the subject. The group wandered into Dustbowl and they couldn’t help but gaping in awe at what they saw. The buildings were all made of concrete, each of them seemingly constructed as bunkers, despite the signs out in front of it declaring the use of each building. Tailor, maintenance, bar, et cetra.

‘Hey Carrot Top?’ Vinyl Scratch called to her. ‘We allowed to do some wandering around here?’

‘I wouldn’t recommend doing much wandering’, Carrot Top said. ‘Stick to the settlement’s public areas, anything that’s not labelled is likely somepony’s home, and don’t poke around anywhere with armed guards. I have to go give a report on the loss of FutureTec headquarters, please stay out of trouble’, Carrot Top added as she motioned to Caramel to follow.

Vinyl Scratch waited until they were out of sight before turning to the rest of the group. ‘Does she know who we are? We don’t go looking for trouble, trouble finds us!’

‘Might as well hang around the bar’, Rarity said. ‘It’s public, and it’ll give us a chance to have a decent meal’.

‘Works for me’, Vinyl said with a shrug as she led the way into the bar. She heard music coming from inside, a song.

‘That's life, that's what people say. You're riding high in April, Shot down in May. But I know I'm gonna change their tune, When I'm right back on top in June’.

Vinyl Scratch recognised this song. This was one of the songs she had sung on that street corner in Manehattan for money as a filly. As Vinyl walked in she noticed that the bar had a stage, and that there was somepony performing on it.

The pony on stage was a brown coated earth pony stallion, wearing a suit and wearing dark sunglasses.

‘That's life, funny as it seems. Some people get their kicks, Steppin' on dreams But I just can't let it get me down, Cause this big old world keeps spinnin' around’.

Vinyl Scratch’s anger surged, and before anyone knew it she was storming off heading for the stage. The pony on it seemed to take notice of her, as he stopped singing.

‘I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,... aw fuck’, Pips Domino said as Vinyl Scratch leapt up on stage, her saddle bags flashing open and in under a second, her revolver was out and pressed against the lounge singer’s forehead. ‘Heh... hello there... Vinyl Scratch’, Pips Domino added nervously.

‘Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now?’ Vinyl Scratch asked, her voice seething in anger.

‘Well... actually, I’ve got about twenty... twenty very good reasons’, Pips Domino said earlier. ‘And they’re all right behind you, and they look pretty upset’.

Vinyl Scratch raised an eyebrow and glanced backwards, only to discover that twenty or so of the Cultus Mechanius ponies in the bar were all looking right at her, pointing a wide variety of Nephite designed weapons at her. ‘Oh... hi everypony!’ Vinyl Scratch said with a nervous chuckle. ‘This is all just a terrible misunderstanding... I’m just going to put my gun away... and maybe we can all pretend this never happened?’ Vinyl said as she slipped her revolver back into her saddlebags.

‘That seems fair, I don’t want to have to file a incident report’, said a light brown unicorn with a straw yellow mane clad in Saracen robes, clearly she was the most senior of the group, as she motioned to everypony, and they all put their weapons away.

‘Well I’m glad that cooler heads prevailed...’ Pips Domino said with a grin.

‘Oh no, you are NOT off the hook! Not after what you did!’ Vinyl said, as she grabbed his collar with magic and dragged him off the stage and back towards her group. ‘You can start by answering some questions, what are you doing here?’ Vinyl asked as she plopped Pips Domino down in a chair.

‘I... uh...’ Pips Domino said with a nervous chuckle. ‘Well, after parting ways with Pinkie Pie in the desert... oh, and hello Pinkie Pie!’ he said.

‘Hi Pips! Nice to see you again!’ Pinkie Pie said with a sincere smile.

‘Likewise... anyway, after parting ways with Pinkie Pie in the mohoofie desert, I made my way to Appleoosa, didn’t stick around long, decided that I needed to find some old friends of mine... Haven’t had much luck, didn’t exactly know where to start looking, and eventually came here... didn’t find the one I was looking for specifically... did find another one, but she didn’t remember me, had planned to move on soon, but... ah, seems that somepony threw a spanner in that plan’, Pips added with a grin.

Surprise then poked her head in, examining the lounge singer. Pips Domino looked back at her and gasped loudly, falling of his chair and scurrying back along the floor. ‘No! No no no! Not you! Please! No! Anypony but you!’

Vinyl Scratch turned and looked at Surprise in confusion. ‘Surprise? Do you know him?’

Surprise looked at Pips Domino for a second. ‘Yeah! I think I do! Back when I was in the master’s service... he wanted me to keep an eye on him and his friends! Thought... I don’t think I ever actually learned any of their names’.

‘You made us set a building on fire, you monster!’ Pips Domino shouted at her.

Surprise looked down at the floor glumly. ‘Oh yeah... I remember that now...’ she said sadly.

‘Is there a problem over here?’ said a mare’s voice from behind them. Vinyl Scratch turned back around to discover the same blonde unicorn mare from before. ‘You know you’re making it really, really hard to forget that little incident from earlier’, she added.

‘Glass Bauble!’ Pips Domino cried out. ‘Oh thank goodness!’

‘Do I know you?’ the mare asked as she looked down at Pips Domino. Pips didn’t reply, instead, just mumbled something quietly.

‘In any case...’ the mare, now identified as Glass Bauble, said. ‘I’ve been instructed to bring you to Order Master Darius. Congratulations are in order Outsiders, Darius never wants to talk to anybody unless their important’.

Vinyl Scratch looked back at Pips Domino. ‘This isn’t over’.

Glass Bauble waved the group along. Surprise hung back continuing to stare at Pips Domino, she made a silly face towards him, causing the performer to flinch, and with that, she made her way to catch up with the rest of the group.

Epilogue

Epilogue

Trixie had gotten lucky, the Paladins were leaving, she was about to get her big break. She pushed open the window, and quietly climbed out, jumping into the bushes below.

'Ow! Hey!' called out another voice. Trixie froze; she was not alone in the bushes.

'Take it easy would ya?' Spike said as he rubbed the back of his head.

'Spike?' Trixie asked. 'What are you doing here in the bushes?'

'Trixie?' Spike asked as he looked up at the azure unicorn that had landed on top of him. 'I could really ask you the same question'.

'I'm resisting the occupation!' Trixie said proudly. 'Now what are you doing?'

'Spying on them', Spike said with a shrug. 'Keeping track of routines, numbers, that sort of thing, the stuff Twilight will need to know when she comes back with Cultus Mechanius reinforcements'.

'Is that where she is? We'd been wondering', Trixie mused, mostly to herself.

'Yeah, Twilight followed Carrot Top and Caramel to Vermillion Mesa with as many as they could get out, and they're going to bring back help. I stayed behind to keep an eye on things', Spike said as he took a peak out from the bushes checking if the coast was clear. It was.

'Carrot Top and Caramel are alive?' Trixie asked. 'Very good, Lyra and Bon Bon will be glad to hear that, we didn’t see them on the list of the dead, but that didn’t mean that something had not happened to them'.

‘List of the dead?’ Spike asked. ‘Uh... how many are on it?’

Trixie didn’t say anything for a moment, before looking down at the ground solemnly. ‘Twenty six’.

‘Oh...’ Spike said with a frown.

Trixie looked up at him with a smile. ‘Don’t worry; I’ve got a plan to avenge them!’

‘How can I help?!’ Spike asked.

‘Simple, we need Pinkie Pie’s buried dynamite, think you can get that?’ Trixie asked.

Spike nodded in affirmation.

‘Excellent! Let’s go’, Trixie said as she and Spike popped out of the bushes and made a dash for Sugarcube Corner.

‘The two of you! FREEZE! Put your hooves above your head, and get on the ground!’ cried out a voice from a bullhorn somewhere off in the distance.

Trixie and spike looked up and discovered that they were surrounded by Paladins, and Archimedes himself, but Trixie wasn’t interested in them. She noticed that they weren’t alone. Two earth ponies were standing behind Archimedes looking incredibly scared. ‘Lotus? Aloe!?!’ Trixie cried out.

‘We’re sorry!’ Aloe cried out.

‘They threatened us!’ Lotus said as she continued to sob.

Archimedes said nothing, the smirking unicorn approached Trixie, who had since gotten down upon the ground.

‘Fuck you’, Trixie said with a scowl.

‘Yes... fuck me’, Archimedes said as he raised a hoof and bashed Trixie in the face with it. ‘Take them all in; leave this one in a cell by herself. I have something... special for her’.

Archimedes couldn’t help but laugh.

Trixie could only wonder what she had gotten herself into.