Where the moon becomes brighter

Chapter 9: Immortals may fall...

Chaser walked through the metallic corridors of an underground bunker located in Kaiserreich's capital, the clanking of his feet echoed inside as he passed through several reinforced doors in his march until he opened one of them and walked inside, around a dozen officers that were discussing stood silent by his presence. He walked past the officers towards a table in the centre of the room, arranged the chair and sat down; an officer flipped the map that laid on the table and began talking while pointing at it.

"The assault on Stallinox was successful and we're now marching towards Equestria, Canterlot is our current priority. The regions formerly known as Cabalderio, Zemlja Konja and Kunatanah are under our control now."

"Good. Has Charon's body been transported to the room that has been prepared for him?"

"My Emperor...Charon has..." The officer stood silent, trying to force words out of his mouth, but another officer, seeing as he was failing, decided to take over for him.

"Charon's body turned into ashes after the castle crumbled on top of him...He's no longer among the living..."

The room was silent, only the breathing of the dozen ponies and of the Terran were heard for a few seconds until Chaser slowly began unstrapping his gasmask, he took it off and placed it on the table, but what was more worrying was that his hands were shaking while doing so.

"This...Is unbelievable..." Chaser spoke with his burned face entirely revealed. "Charon...Dead..." He slowly stood up, the officers could do nothing but stare. "He was immortal!" he ranted, "How could he die?! He survived two world wars and this is how it ends?! By a simple castle crumbling on him?!"

"My Emperor, there's a possibility the Landkreuzer could have--"

"It couldn't!! Didn't you hear the reports?! We dropped an artillery shell from the 'Monster' on top of him and he survived!!"

"Then it weakened him enough to--"

"Did I stutter?! In the first pony war he fought not only Corrupted Celestia, not only Corrupted Nightmare Moon but also Discord himself!! He should have died thirty times back then already!!" He smashed his fist on the table, but remained silent afterwards trying to think about something. "You, give me the report paper."

"Immediately." An officer answered while rushing out of the room. An awkward moment of silence followed for the officers while Chaser sat down once again and rubbed his eyes until the same officer that left arrived with the documents in his metallic gauntlet fitted on his hoof, rushing inside the room and leaving the door open, letting another officer close it behind him. "Here they are." The officer said as he gave it to Chaser.

"Casualty reports...City damage...Units involved..." He flipped the documents trying to find where Charon's part was written, until he found it and placed the unnecessary papers on the table. "Charon turned into ashes, castle crumbled on him, buried under pile of rocks..." His mind was lightening up once he read the last part, he knew that the immortals of this world were so thanks to their regenerative capabilities. "If he was buried... Then he couldn't regenerate due to lack of space... That means... Ugh." He gave up, throwing the paper on the table over the other documents and laid back on the chair. "It is too late to stop fighting the war now...But..." He leaned forward to the table before giving a single order to his ponies. "Give the Imperium two months of ceasefire, it's the least we can do. Things have gone to Hell now...We both could understand eachother, and now he's gone..." He lowered his vision and spoke with a depressing tone. "It's hard to believe that this is for the greater good..."

Atticus had arrived to Canterlot's Castle with a small package in his gauntlet, passing through the giant doors held open by the guards and greeting Celestia once he walked inside. "Hello, princess. I apologize for bringing up such a topic as soon as I arrived, these are dark times for the Imperium, our leader has fallen, and since Stallinox is no longer under our command this is the next place Charon would have wanted to be in." He handed Celestia the package as they walked to a wall of room; Celestia opened it and when she took out the object that was inside she noticed it was a metallic plaque: It was the insignia of the Imperium of Patria, the Empire Charon forged from scratch himself, the one he defended against any opposition, be it the corrupted hordes, Executor's soldiers or, with his last breath, Kaiserreich; below the metallic insignia there were a few words for him, 'In memory of Emperor Charon, who defended Stallinox with his life. May his soul rest within the Imperium'. She held it high and placed it on the wall that overlooked the room, both Celestia and Atticus stared at it silently, they couldn't believe that Charon, the one who had defeated two corrupted Goddesses and the God of Chaos himself could fall in such a manner. "I see Concord is lamenting this loss too." Atticus mentioned once he noticed Concord drowning his sorrow with several vodka bottles on the table.

"I was kicked out of the military until Canterlot gets attacked, they say I spent an entire week awake and only drank vodka instead of properly eating, those bastards..." Concord answered, then he continued drinking from the bottle on his hand again.

"How unfortunate...I haven't seen Luna anywhere though, is she depressed about this too?"

"She is, she's in the Ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, she has been there for days now...She doesn't want anyone near either, either you go away or if you're stubborn enough her dark ponies will send you away."

Atticus kept silent and turned his head to the plaque placed on the wall, staring at it. "I must go now, I sincerely wish I could stay here longer but Charon has appointed me as a 'Second Emperor'--" Atticus was cut short by the sound of Concord passing out and falling to the floor taking the chair with him, the alcohol had taken it's toll at last.

"Take him to the bedroom." Ordered Celestia to the guards, who complied immediately and began carrying the unconscious Draconequus through a door.

"Anyways, as I was saying my duty is never finished. Farewell, Celestia."

"Goodbye Atticus, let's hope this war ends soon, too many lives were lost already."

"If this war continues as it is, then it will be over before we know it..." He said before turning to the door and walking outside, Celestia stood in front of the plaque, staring at it and meditating on everything that had happened.

'I don't know, Celestia...What if she doesn't feel the same way?' She started remembering one of her talks with Charon.

'There's nothing to do but find out, then.'

'You're her sister, shouldn't you know more about her? That can help me a lot in this situation...'

'You shouldn't relly on me for these things, you have to do it yourself.' She giggled. 'Just walk up to her and say 'I love you'.' She smiled, knowing that Charon wouldn't do it.

'Very funny...'

Celestia let out a sigh, she turned away form the plaque on the wall and looked at the table where Concord was drowning his sorrows minutes ago, she remembered how she talked with Luna long ago about almost the same thing.

'You love him, don't you?' Celestia said with a smile.

'How-- How did you know?!' Luna questioned, her cheeks were scarlet red.

'I'm your sister, I'm more surprised you expected me not to know...'

'F-f-fine...Don't tell him, though, I want to tell him myself...'

'Oh come on, once you build up enough courage he'll be dead...' Celestia joked, believing that Charon was unkillable at that point. 'I'll run up to him and say 'Charon, Luna loves you, she's waiting for you in the bedroom~!'

'What?! No! Don't!!'

'You'll have to catch me first if you want to stop me~!' She jokingly yelled, running away.

"They both loved eachother..." She whispered to herself, lowering her sight in depression, knowing that their opportunity was lost forever.

'The goal of this war is simple,' Charon explained to Celestia, 'Whoever wins is more fit to become the leader of this world and his faction will be the one who will rule.'

'Isn't it unfair, though? Your people have fought two world wars already.'

'That's exactly why Chaser gave me a year of preparation. We were crippled, of course, but once we advanced from medieval to modern times we held the same amount of power. This is what Terrans call Darwinism, only the fittest will survive; of course the one who loses won't die, we both trust each other enough so the victor will be allowed to serve the other as a general or settle as a citizen. Many lives have been lost already, but believe me when I say this is for the greater good. What I don't understand is how he could push us back so fast...'

"Greater good...?"

Luna laid on what was left of the Ancient castle of the royal pony sister's roof, staring at the starry sky of the night with no strength left to do anything else. The traumatic sight of Charon dying revolved inside her mind, how she entered Stallinox's destroyed castle only to see the Terran buried under a pile of rocks, how she desperately held his hand not wanting to believe what was happening while it turned to ashes.

'Let me stay in this world...' Luna remembered how Charon said those words when he rescued her from the corruption with the help of Concord, how he held her in his arms smiling at her, the simple thought was enough to make a tear fall down her cheek; she rolled over to one side and stared at the dark forest that surrounded the castle until she heard a few steps that got closer and closer until the sound was right behind her.

"Go away..." She said, her voice was filled with sorrow until she heard a familiar voice calling for her.

"Luna."

Her eyes opened wide, she quickly turned her head, still on the floor, and stared at the dark figure that stood next to her, the silhouette wore a trench coat and a distinctive green hat. "C-C...Charon?!!" She couldn't believe her own eyes, the man she thought had died back in Stallinox was in front of her in this very moment. "Charon!! I thought you were dead!! How could you--" She desperately stood up and asked several questions to Charon, only for him to silence her by placing his metallic finger over her mouth.

"Shhh...You don't have to say anything..." He calmly spoke, then he hugged the stunned princess in the middle of the night, the moon illuminating this moment. "I'll never leave this world...I'll never leave your side again..." He told her, those words were enough to make Luna tear up of joy, who hugged Charon back and closed her eyes. What she didn't see, however, were Charon's grey eyes suddenly flaring green for a split second before reverting to normal.

"Alright, the troops passed, go ahead." A dark figure next to a window spoke, making several other shadows move in the dark building; this place was a tavern located near the destroyed castle in Stallinox's centre. A shadow turned on a light, revealing around a dozen ponies and three griffons inside the tavern gathering up in one of the tables, a pony took out a map of Stallinox and placed it on top of it and began speaking.

"Gentlecolts, this is the plan: We sneak past the patrols and head into the castle to find something useful, should we find anything there's a truck three blocks away prepared for us to take it out of Stallinox, then another group of ponies waiting outside in a field will take over from then on, if not, we'll return. Ura?"

"Ura!!" The room echoed with the rest of the ponies and griffons yelling in unison.