Where the moon becomes brighter

Chapter 12: Here we go again.

"This is bad...What's going on!?" Celestia desperately asked, staring out the window of Canterlot Castle, there was a countless number of changelings swarming the scenery. Behind her, Chaser, Charon, Concord and the white pony over Chaser's shoulders appeared in a cloud of smoke, gaining her attention. "Charon?! Concord?! What are you doing here, what's going on?! Is that...Chaser?!" Her desperation made her accidentally not notice the pony Chaser was carrying.

"This pony is dying, I'll get medical attention." Chaser stated before walking away with the pony over his shoulders. Charon had also walked away but in a different direction, not stating his intentions.

"You know what's happening? Wait, where's Luna and the rest?!" Asked Celestia.

"It was all a lie. The Luna Charon met in the ancient castle after his supposed death was actually Chrysalis in disguise, we don't know what happened to the real Luna. The army we had with us were changelings too, those things can change form at will, and Chrysalis is their Queen." Answered Concord.

"Luna..."

"It gets worse, Discord told me that Chaser and Charon are in fact walking nukes and if something could send them berserk they'd end all life in this world, whether they liked it or not. Charon's eyes are red already and maybe Chaser's too, I fear the worst. Atticus is an impostor, the real Atticus was captured when Discord was defeated and we found his sk...He passed away. We were all manipulated to cause this chain of events ever since the three Terran's arrival and now Chrysalis is taking over the world, we were all unwitting pawns of this plan of hers...But, we found a pony, he was the only prisoner apart from Atticus and was captured around the same time, maybe he holds importance to her plans."

Celestia was sorrowful that everything they had fought for was a lie. "The pony...What does he look like?"

"White skin, blue mane, light blue eyes, unicorn," Celestia's eyes began widening, there was somepony she knew that fitted the description. "Blue shield with purple star and three light blue stars above as his cutie mark. You know him?"

"That's...That's Twilight Sparkle's brother!!"

"...What?"

"That's Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle's brother and one of the most powerful unicorns known!"

"So that's why he was captured...Maybe he can help us!"

"I don't think so...I heard that Kaiserreich was completely wiped out and Executor's continent swarmed by the changelings, I didn't hear anything from the western part of this continent either..."

"What? That happened while we were...'Gone'!?"

"It was horrible..." She lowered her vision in both depression and fear. "Those things came out of nowhere by the millions, they destroyed everything in sight in the blink of an eye, three entire continents were wiped out by them, this castle might be the only thing left standing..." She closed her eyes and hugged Concord with all her strength, she was already crying, seeing as everything she had known had ceased to exist in a split second without being able to do anything to stop it. "I'm scared, Concord...I'm...Scared of what will happen now..."

Concord returned the hug and tried to comfort her with silence, anything he'd say would serve of no purpose, seeing as even saying 'Everything will be fine.' would be moronic.

"A hundred billion ponies, all gone in a second, even the dragons... I'm starting to think we're up against some kind of literal God now." Chaser spoke as he walked inside the main hall of the castle again. "Chrysalis and her minions can also change forms, that will cause a great amount of paranoia from now on..."

"How is the pony?" Asked Concord, who was still hugging Celestia.

"Recovering fast, faster than anypony might have expected. ...Did I miss something?"

Celestia let go of Concord and wiped her tears. "That pony is Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle's brother. His magic might have helped in his recovery." She answered.

"Lately I've been seeing far more powerful beings, and even more powerful malign creatures. I thought this world was peaceful, guess there are many horrors hidden--" His talking was interrupted by Charon kicking open the castle's doors from outside.

Charon walked inside the castle, gripping a strange creature by its neck as it tried to break free but ultimately failing. He closed the door with another kick and kept walking towards the large table, where he smashed the creature against it. Seeing as the strange being was still desperately trying to break free from his grip, he punched it in the head hard enough to knock it out. Upon closer inspection, it was one of the dark minions of Chrysalis: A changeling in its original form. He kept looking at it and inspecting his wings and skin, trying to decipher what kind of thing it is. None have ever seen a changeling in their lives, and so everypony in the room and the royal guard of the castle gathered around the table.

"They somehow change forms, if we can find a way to prevent them from doing so it will help greatly in lowering the paranoia among the ponies." Chaser suggested.

Shining Armor walked into the room covered in bandages, the last 'cart trip' in the cave they were sent to by Chrysalis had left him severely injured; everypony stared at him in surprise, they thought his recovery would take hours, not minutes. "Those things can be dealt with a spell I accidentally discovered, it reveals them from their disguise and prevents them from using that ability for a great amount of time. I'm guessing that's the reason I was captured to begin with, I wonder what my 'Changeling counterpart' did while I was gone..."

"He didn't do anything, surprisingly. But once you were found it disappeared." Stated Celestia. "I should have known this from the start..."

"The spell might prove to be useless." Interfered Concord. "Those changelings outnumber us maybe a trillion to one, even in their original form they can massacre us by sheer power of numbers."

The castle shook, dust fell from the ceiling and snow kept falling. "The swarm's getting bigger and bigger." Stated Chaser, looking out the window.

"There is a spell that can cover Canterlot in a shield, preventing the changelings from entering. Sadly, I hold no more power and Shining Armor is too weak to do it alone, but those rapiers hold the power of two Goddesses, Shining Armor can use them to cast the spell." Suggested Celestia as she pointed to the rapiers Charon and Concord had strapped to their belts.

"What do we have to do?" Asked Concord.

"We need to get to the garden first for the ray to reach the sky, then the shield will protect us. The rapiers need to be in proximity of Shining's horn for the power to be transferred, nothing else."

"Alright, let's do this." Spoke Shining Armor as he walked outside.

Once outside, in front of the several statues and decorations of the garden, Charon, Concord and Shining Armor positioned themselves in a triangle. Charon and Concord drove their rapiers into the ground in front of Shining Armor's horn, who closed his eyes and began concentrating.

"Those things aren't attacking us, yet they have every opportunity in the world to do so..." Spoke Charon.

"They are mocking us, laughing at us..." Answered Chaser.

Shining Armor's horn glew a bright purple colour, but it was too weak to cast even the weakest spell. But, the two rapiers began glowing brighter and brighter where they were crossed, a small ray of light was shot towards Shining Armor's horn, which glew even brighter until it began shaking. Shining Armor backed off and raised his head, shooting the energy that was caught in his horn to the sky, where a purple ray left its trace until it lost speed and stayed in its place above Canterlot. The small sphere of energy began taking form and engulfed Canterlot in an impenetrable shield, the rapiers still glowing bright holding the shield in place.

"Somewhere in Terra...Sigmund Freud is laughing in his grave..." Said Charon, who had seen the 'Spectacle' uncomfortably close.

"The shield's up and running, those things are trying to break in now." Spoke Chaser, staring above.

"How long will the shield last?" Asked Charon.

"Those rapiers held the power of two Goddesses as I said. It can hold out for decades." Answered Celestia.

"We'll starve out by then..." He stated in a depressed tone, walking back to the main hall.

The scenery was rather depressing in the darkness of the night, several of the royal guard ponies brought rocks from whatever they could find with a wheelbarrow and threw them over the table. Concord, who was with Chaser sitting next to the same table, transformed the rocks into ammunition, then he handed them to Chaser to arrange them into magazines and clips. Celestia was in a corner reading Twilight's letters, sad that Twilight, the mane 6, and everypony else that was outside the castle shared the same fate. Charon tried without success getting through the radio to anypony who might be outside. Shining Armor was also present, trying out one of the gauntlets that were invented after he was captured, he was fascinated by such object. It was disturbing the thought that out of a hundred billion ponies, only the few dozens that were present in the castle were the last ones. Charon gave up and stood up with a bit of effort before turning to the others present.

"Anypony has a plan?" He asked. Everypony kept silent, knowing that whatever they did would result in failure against such great numbers. Chrysalis now had the entire world at her disposal, while the remaining survivors had a simple crumbling castle and a few weeks of food left. He sighed and began walking away. "I'm going to sleep..."

The night was long and cold, the only thing heard for hours was the sound of rocks moving and bullets arranged, until Chaser let his arms rest and began speaking. "Is it over?" The end of their days was nearing.

Concord only sighed, but that was enough to give an answer to Chaser.

Chaser shook his head. "We should have realized this before when we had the opportunity. Time is a harsh mistress, isn't it?" He stood up, moving his chair aside, and turned to Concord who stared at him. "I'm going to the kitchen for a drink, want one?"

"I'm good."

"Your choice." Chaser stated while walking away to the kitchen.

'First we fight three world wars, then Chrysalis shows up, then turns out it was all a lie, and now I've got to watch out for two walking nukes...Chaser is behaving better than expected, though, but then again he might not be the kind of person that shows his emotions that much, and the fact that he uses a gasmask doesn't let me see if his eyes are red...' He rubbed his eyes, which were dry for being awake for so long. 'I wonder what Chaser is capable of, he keeps calm in most situations, doesn't lose his composure even in the face of extinction, I don't know what to expect...'Time is a harsh mistress.'...' He began thinking again. 'What if...No, I'm going insane, this kind of situation and lack of sleep is taking it's toll already...But...' He stood up, leaving the rocks and bullets in place, and walked outside the castle to the garden. He walked through the dark corners of the garden, passing the bushes and statues through the stone road until he arrived to one particular statue he was looking for, none other than Discord's. He stretched his hand and reached for Discord's petrified forehead, making his head once again return back to normal.

"What now...--Well I'll be damned! What's going on now?" Discord asked, staring around seeing a giant purple shield engulfing Canterlot, preventing the changelings from entering. He turned his sight to Concord, who was rather depressed and tired already. "What's happening?" He asked in a worried tone, he had never seen Concord in such state, nor was he expecting him to be.

"We're all going to die. Chrysalis, the queen of those things up there called changelings wiped out all life in this world, Canterlot is the only thing left standing with the few lucky ponies that were inside here at the moment. Everything, a hundred billion ponies, gone in a second..."

"Chrysalis...I think I heard that name somewhere..."

"It'd be easier if I transferred the knowledge." He reached his hand to Discord's forehead again, but this time he gave Discord the knowledge of everything that had happened ever since he was defeated, and most importantly, what Chrysalis had revealed them before taking over the world.

"So...She managed to manipulate us all into this plan...I'm surprised that she managed to pull it off with such skill..." He said in an annoyed tone; like everyone else he too was rather annoyed by being used. "And this is what might be described as the end of the world as we know it..."

"Though, as ridiculous as it sounds, there might be one way to survive."

"I'm listening..."

"Is time travel accomplishable?" Silence engulfed the two of them as they stared at each other for a few minutes. "It isn't...Right...?"

"Actually, it is. I'm just surprised you didn't realize earlier."

"Wait, it is?!"

"Why did you come here if you expected time travel not to work...?" He asked in a snarky but happy tone, with a smile in his face. Concord was happy that there was a slight chance of fixing things up. "Go ahead, bring your friends here, we'll discuss then."

Concord nodded and ran off to the castle as fast as he could, the solution he looked for was found already.

A few minutes passed, Discord was still staring above seeing the changelings that desperately tried to break into Canterlot, until Concord arrived with Celestia, Shining Armor, Chaser, Charon who just woke up from his sleep, and every single pony of the royal guard stationed in the castle. They all gathered up in front of Discord and Concord, who was already beginning to explain his idea.

"Gentlecolts, it is true that there is nothing we can do now to stop this madness that brought Chrysalis, it is too late now, but we can go back through time and revert things!! We can make a stand in the past, and with the knowledge that Chrysalis was the one who planned it all we can prepare accordingly and bring the fight to her!! I know Discord has made our lives difficult in the past, but we're now fighting against a common enemy, he too was deceived. With his power, he can send us back in time to--"

"I'm not going to do it." Interrupted Discord.

"...What?" Asked Concord, completely confused. Everypony started muttering words that couldn't be heard.

"You heard me right, I'm not going to send you all back in time."

"But...I thought you were going to help us!!"

Discord smiled, and began explaining what he had in mind. "Concord, Concord, Concord...I created you myself with my own hands, with my power and in my image...You hold incredible power, yet you don't realize your full potential. I am the God of Chaos, but you, my son...You are now the God of Order. You hold as much power as I do, maybe even more now that you experienced the different kinds of war. You are of my blood, Concord, you are my own son...And you are the one who will send them back through time, not me. My time has ended, now it is your turn."

Concord smiled at what his father said, he wasn't prepared for he said, and almost shed a tear. "What do I do then?" He asked, ready for anything.

"The act of time travel is a simple concept, yet difficult to execute. It's like teleportation, but this time you'd have to focus on both the location and the time period. There is an exception to this spell, though: The great powers in this world will not be affected by this spell, and so will follow you through the time-travel trip."

"Hold up." Questioned Chaser. "If they are not affected then why do they follow us?"

"Because this spell isn't one of those stereotypical 'Sends the spellcaster to a previews period'. The entire space-time continuum is twisted and forced to go back in time, everything is modified into a previews state while the spellcaster and his group are the ones who 'stay the same', but since the great powers in this world like Chrysalis, Luna and Celestia are immune to the spell, they are not affected by the change into a preview time period. Shining Armor's magical power renders him immune too."

Charon stepped forward from the crowd and asked Discord a question. "So we are left with having to deceive Chrysalis once we go back?"

"Yes."

"How ironic..."

"Might I suggest preparing a scenario to make Chrysalis think this was all a dream?"

Celestia stepped forward with an idea. "We can prepare a room, lock it down with the excuse that Luna is resting there and break a window inside to make it look like she was already kidnapped and we didn't know."

"Wouldn't that scenario leave us with the end of the First Great Pony War as the only option? We could use the excuse that Luna was knocked out after being returned back to normal, but we'd have to fight against Executor again." Questioned Charon.

"But now that we know the changelings were responsible for the weakening of the army," Concord explained, "We can find them, get rid of them and fight against Executor with far better chances. But to make sure of that, both Charon and Chaser would have to be in the throne to manage the Empires, not in the frontline."

"I can be the commanding general of the Terran Empire. I'm a veteran of the First Great Pony War and I can learn the new strategies fast enough." Exclaimed Shining Armor.

"Fine, you'll command my armies and get rid of any changelings in the military while you're at it. I'd not be surprised if my last commanding general was a changeling anyways. Also, the Terran Empire's name changed to Imperium of Patria after this entire continent united under my banner." Answered Charon.

"Once we get back I'll declare war on Executor immediately to help you." Suggested Chaser.

"No, if we progress too well in the war that would mean she would send changelings to your Empire to disrupt your efforts, and you don't have anything to detect those changelings yet. Once Executor is defeated our Empires will unite and we'll take care of Chrysalis and find Luna once and for all."

"I will be in charge of the inquisition that will find the changelings in the Imperium." Stated Concord.

"I will help him." Added Celestia.

"One more thing." Began speaking Discord. "Both Charon and Chaser don't have enough power to remain unaffected by the spell, but once they hold the rapiers the problem will be solved."

"Don't those rapiers hold the shield in place?" Asked one of the soldiers of the royal guard. At this question, everypony began muttering, if the shield was gone those things would swarm in and massacre everypony in the blink of an eye.

"The spell would also take a lot of time..." Added Concord.

Charon slowly walked forward while everypony else was busy muttering unheard words, worried about this decision, until Charon silenced them all by just staring at them. "What, you are all worried about this? It's either this or slowly and painfully starving to death. With the later we have no choice but death, but with this one we hold a chance, no matter how small, and even if we fail we still have the luxury of taking as many of those bastards to Hell with us!!" The crowd slowly began cheering at Charon's words. "You're all afraid of the consequences, but if I don't fear for a fate worse than death then neither should you!! I am ready to do whatever it takes to make sure we all have a chance of survival. We have all gone through several horrors, no less than three world wars. Are we going to let it end just by a flying rotten Swiss cheese with wings deceiving us?!" The crowd cheered even louder and louder. "We need to defend Concord with all our strength, he is the one who is important in this matter, but we all have the luxury of fighting without fear, we have the luxury of fighting against those things, to do anything without feeling guilt!! Once the shield was set up, those things desperately tried to break in. Want to know why? They fear us. They fear what we might be capable of doing!! Why else would more than a trillion of those things come here just for a few dozens of ponies?! We will stand our ground and defend Concord to our last breath, who's with me?!" He yelled, throwing his fist to the air. The crowd gave a loud warcry and threw their hooves in the air, even Celestia, Concord, Shining Armor and Chaser joined the crowd. "Gather up inside the castle, Concord begin the spell, Chaser stay with me, everypony else set up the defenses inside. Chaser, once we take out the rapiers we'll run back inside the castle and stand our ground, everypony move!!" Every single living being in Canterlot scrambled to their positions and grabbed every gun found, moved rocks to make several barricades and cheered even in the face of impossible odds. Charon stood his ground in front of Discord and next to Chaser, he turned to Discord and asked a single question. "Why are you helping us?"

"I enjoy Chaos, but I'll be the one to bring it forth, not that useless 'Chrysalis'..."

Charon and Chaser just stood silent.

"Hah, don't worry I'm messing with you. I too hate being used by Chrysalis, and when Concord came to me I saw him depressed and afraid, I have never seen him like that before. It might not look like it, but I care for my son, even if it means he'd go against me..." He explained before petrifying himself. Charon and Chaser smiled, then walked towards the two rapiers stuck in the ground. Everypony in the castle was prepared already for the Hell that would break loose in a few moments.

Charon gripped Luna's rapier and stared at it. 'Wherever you are, I'll find you, Luna...' He nodded towards Chaser, and at his signal they both took out the rapiers in the ground, thus destroying the shield that engulfed the castle.

"Run." Yelled Chaser, they both ran as fast as they could towards the castle where a single tiny opening waited between the barricades. The changelings stormed towards them by the millions, one almost reaching Charon but turned into smoke when he swung the rapier at him while running. They jumped through a tiny hole in the barricade, once they both got through it was closed with several rocks, stopping the changeling charge for a few moments but denting the barricade, it wouldn't hold out for long.

"Everything's barricaded, right? The doors, windows, even the broken ceiling?" Asked Charon.

"They are, if we barricaded them further we'd die of asphyxiation." Stated Celestia, who had Chaser's G36C in her hands.

"How long until they fall?"

"Three minutes at most, I don't--" Her talking was interrupted by the sound of rock being pulverized and thrown away, the changelings had broken through the main door.

"Where's Concord?!"

"In the kitchen casting the spell, somehow those things made the underground complex collapse and we cannot use it!!" She yelled, shooting Chaser's gun at the incoming hordes with the rest of the royal guards, but they were too much and advanced without problem at all.

'Dammit...At this pace we're all going to die...Just how long does that spell take to cast?!' "Fall back, there are too many!! Use the kitchen doors as a choke point!!" He yelled, the ponies began mobilizing but Chaser and him stood their ground, looking at the masses of changelings advancing. Charon narrowed his dark red eyes and gripped his rapier tighter.

"Let's go." Said Chaser. They both picked up speed and ran to the kitchen, but as they ran they could feel how the castle was shaking even more violently than before.

"Looks like the Concord's spell is finally taking effect." Stated Shining Armor. The shaking became more and more violent as minutes passed.

"Sir, the changelings are turn-- ashe--" A random soldier was saying, but his speech, with the scenery, became distorted like a bad TV signal back in Terra, then everypony in the room and every changeling in sight suddenly turned into ashes, the exceptions were Charon, Chaser, Celestia, Shining Armor and Concord who was still casting the spell, this was enough to strike fear into their hearts.

"What's going on now?!!" Questioned Charon. The Castle's structure began collapsing, but not to the floor, instead it all slowly flied to the sky and into a spiral. The rocks, the ashes, even the furniture, everything that wasn't fixed to the floor was flying in a spiral; the sky was dark red with clouds circling on top of the place where Concord sat.

"Is this supposed to happen?!" Asked Chaser, no one answered since they had no idea. There wasn't a structure left standing, what was left was only the grass and the tiles of the floor of the castle. But not after long the earth in the distance began fragmenting and joining the spiral in the sky, it continued until they were forced to move to where the garden was, the only thing left standing in the scenery was a tiny fraction of land floating over the endless, dark red void. This was something only seen in nightmares.

"What is this place...?" Asked Shining Armor, looking at the endless void below from the edge of the fragmented land.

Rocks, earth and fire started falling from the spiral in the sky, scaring the five present, but before they could see what was going on they were all struck by a unknown force, knocking them out in an instant.

"Woah nelly, this guy sure sleeps in the strangest of places." Charon could faintly hear the voice of Applejack. He could also feel a strange coldness and weight over his body.

"And his clothes are all dirty and worn out...Ugh..." Complained Rarity.

"Oh come on, cut him some slack, he barely escaped from Executor's Empire anyways." Mentioned Shining Armor. "Look, he's waking up."

"Uhhhg..." Charon made an effort to open his eyes. What he saw was Celestia, Shining Armor and the mane 6 staring at him, and also snow falling from the sky. "How...What is..."

"Still tired? Well that isn't surprising." Celestia commented, helping Charon to his feet. She took the opportunity to close her mouth to his ear and whisper to him low enough for nopony else to hear. "The room's been prepared, Chaser snuck out and is on his way to Kaiserreich. Bad news though, it seems we brought the Ice Age with us...Go with the flow, I'll explain another day..."

"Why are his eyes red?" Asked Pinkie Pie, but nopony answered.

"How long was I asleep...?"

"Three hours, no less. Considering that you managed to hijack a boat back then in Executor's Empire I'm not surprised, you didn't even rest." Shining Armor explained, winking at Charon without anyone knowing. Charon smiled.

"Three hours...Well I should get back to Stallinox now, where's Concord?"

"Right behind you, you were asleep next to a tree."

"Yo." Greeted Concord.

"I see...Mind getting me a transport, Celestia?"

"Hah, beat you to the idea, there's one outside the castle in the main road."

"Thanks, I'll be going now. Later everypony."

"I'm going too, wait for me Charon." Said Shining Armor.

"Later." Everypony bid them farewell as they walked through the door that connected the crumbling castle to the garden.

"Girls, we'll be late for the dragon migration!!" Exclaimed Twilight, gathering everypony up and running off. "Sorry Celestia we have to go now!!"

"See you all soon, girls."

"How could the Ice Age be transferred to this time...?" Began questioning Concord, right now the only ones present in the garden were him and Celestia. "Maybe I went wrong somewhere...Or it's a consequence..."

"Concord..." She asked for his attention softly.

"...Yes?"

Celestia quickly moved towards Concord and kissed him, stunning him due to this unexpected event. At first he was unable to do anything, but he returned the kiss. "Thank you, Concord..." She spoke, she was crying already but this time of joy. "Thank you for giving us all a second chance, and for returning those who fell..."

"We're not done yet, but don't be afraid, I'll always be here..."