Where the moon becomes brighter

Chapter 13: True path

Charon opened the giant doors of Stallinox's castle, walking through with Shining Armor behind him. Soon enough, Atticus spotted him, ran up to him and followed his steps.

"Welcome back, Emperor." Atticus greeted. "The situation is dire as you might know, Executor is pushing us back into the mainland at an alarming rate. I'd suggest contacting the rest of the nations in this continent and seek an union, the Terran Empire alone can not win this conflict. After that, your presence in the frontline would be most advantageous."

Charon almost snapped, knowing that the Atticus in front of his eyes was an impostor, a changeling, but kept his composure knowing that if he acted too fast Chrysalis would realize she was deceived. After all, if she didn't send her endless hordes to invade the world already, the possibility of her being deceived was still plausible. "Change of plans, Shining Armor will be the new commanding general of the army, I'll stay here at all times to manage the Empire."

Atticus was surprised to say the least. "...But we barely know Shining Armor, how can we know he'll do a proper job? And even then, your strength in the battlefield is required for us to have an advantage--"

"My orders stand."

"But still, Shining Armor is--"

Charon stopped and turned to Atticus, looking at him with his red eyes. Both Atticus and Shining Armor also stopped in their places. "I'm surprised, Atticus... You were very loyal to me before, I guess the First Great Pony War left you... Stranger..." Atticus was nervous, but Charon smiled before continuing. "Oh well, you're still one of my most loyal subjects, there's no way you could be some sort of spy sent against me, right? Hah." Atticus became more and more nervous, sweat started dripping from his face.

"Of course not." Added Shining Armor. "Nopony could ever be like Atticus, let alone impersonate him. I've heard much about him. But still, I have one special spell for this ocassion."

"And that's...?" Asked Charon, still smiling with Shining Armor.

"Well, to put it in simple terms it destroys any disguise the target may be using. Knowing Atticus, he should not be worried, he's not an impostor."

"Well we could put that spell to the test right now."

"Uhh... " Began speaking Atticus in a worried tone. "That spell might be dangerous, I'd rather not be the target, something may go wrong..." He desperately tried to come up with any excuse to avoid the spell.

"Oh please, Shining Armor is one of the most powerful unicorns in this world, he's even Twilight Sparkle's brother. You have my word that nothing will go wrong..." Mentioned Charon in a rather creepy voice.

Shining Armor's horn started glowing and stepped closer to Atticus, who backed off at the same speed until he was cornered by a wall. He began despairing, trying to find any way to escape the situation, but there was none. Atticus snapped and flared green, blinding everypony in sight and turning into a dark creature with blue eyes and insectoid wings, a changeling. The changeling charged forwards but was stopped by the red-eyed Emperor that stepped forward and grabbed it by the neck. Charon raised the creature up and threw it to the ground while the guards surrounded them with their spears pointing at the dark creature. "I knew it! Atticus would never question my orders, no matter how insane!! I don't know what the hell you are, but to impersonate my most loyal pony you've made a grave mistake..." Charon somehow managed to create a plausible lie despite being halfway to berserk state to deceive everyone into thinking he had not known of this before.

"I've heard about these creatures." Began speaking Shining Armor. "Those things are called Changelings, and they can copy the appearance of anything and anypony. Normally they come by the billions and they're never alone, if there's one here the entire Empire must be infested..."

"Use that spell on everypony in the castle then!" Charon ordered.

Shining Armor backed off and casted the spell on everypony in the castle one by one, luckily they were all gathered by the entrace, attracted by the event. Surprisingly enough, nopony else was revealed to be a changeling.

Concord arrived running through the main door of the castle. "Sorry for being late, did I miss something?" He asked panting.

"Changelings..." Charon answered while knocking out the changeling that impersonated Atticus. He stood up and pointed at the group of soldiers that were around him. "All of you, you're now assigned as Shining Armor's bodyguards, protect him at all cost. Escort him to the army HQ and make sure nopony gets near him until it's confirmed that it's not a changeling."

"Yes, Emperor." The ponies formed up and moved in formation to the door, where they waited for Shining Armor.

"Farewell, Charon. Don't worry about the military, I'll take care of it, just make sure to fix anything those changelings might have messed up in the Empire." Shining Armor said before walking to the group of soldiers, who then guided him to his destination.

"Damned things... Concord, I've got another task for you. You're the God of Order, as Discord said, so I assume you also have some sort of spell to reveal the changelings, right?"

"I could twist the entire space-time continuum to my will, this shouldn't be hard."

"Go to the college of unicorns, gather the best of the best and then sweep the entire city for changelings with them. Then you'll start an inquisition with more unicorns you find with the skills and wipe out the changelings of this Empire, but finding Atticus is top priority after Stallinox is clean, he's the one who holds the greatest administrative skill apart from me."

"Got it, anything else?"

"...Actually, yes. Send a letter to Chaser and tell him to take care of technological advancement since I assume he doesn't have this changeling infestation yet, tell him not to declare war at all, I'll deal with Executor myself."

"Right away." Concord said before turning into smoke and disappearing.

Charon slowly walked towards the throne in the castle and then sat on it, he crossed his legs and brought his hand to his cheek. 'If Luna was Chrysalis in disguise...Then the one I kissed back in the ancient castle...Gah!' He rubbed his eyes in anger, his teeth showing. 'Luna...I'm going to find you even if I have to invade Hell...' "Somepony get me the population documents, and some tea too, I'm dying of thirst..."

A few minutes passed until a pony with eyeglasses arrived with the documents on his hoof and a glass of tea on the other. Charon took them and began looking through the wall of text the documents contained while drinking.

'Let's see here...Where is the total number of ponies in this continent...? Here it is. Total population: 40 billio--' His thought were interrupted as he choked on the tea he drank, coughing violently but thankfully he blocked the tea he spat with his arm. 'What the hell?!'

"Is something wrong, my emperor?" Questioned the assistant.

"How can there be 40 billion ponies in this continent?! In Terra there are barely 7 billion Terrans in the entire world!"

"...I don't understand how you are so surprised about this number, it happens naturally. Maybe it has something to do with your world being perpetually at war and many dying before even having offspring."

'Now that I think of it...It's quite plausible...Terra has been at war for eternity, that'd mean several Terrans would die before having kids...This world didn't have many wars before, maybe not even one, that'd mean the population could grow exponentially until it reached this number without fighting decreasing it...' "How come there are so many ponies yet I've not seen so many in Stallinox to reflect it?"

"Sky cities like Cloudsdale exist everywhere in this world, most pegasi live there, not on ground. There are also cities specialized for housing with buildings that reach the sky in height, so such density in population isn't present in most cities like Stallinox."

"Why haven't I heard of this before?"

"You were in the frontline most of the time, I assume it's one of the main reasons."

"Makes sense..." He continued looking over the documents, until he deciphered some of the main problems caused by the changelings: Starvation, homelessness, unemployment, corruption and organized mafias in many cities among others. 'And the WW1 era is coming too...' "Paper and quill." He demanded, until the same assistant provided him with them. He handed the documents to the assistant and began writting.

To be sent to the Head assembly of economy and interior.

It is urgent to divide the Empire in three sectors. South-western sector consisting of 20% of the continent's land shall be reserved for crops and food production, this sector is considered highest priority due to the starvation that plagues the population. Eastern sector consisting of 30% of the land will be used for industrial purposes, I will personally explain the details in another occasion. The remaining space is to be used for everything else, housing being the most important. Taxation should be raised accordingly to fulfill the new infrastructure cost.

"Another paper." After saying that, he was provided with yet another piece of paper.

To be sent to Head assembly of security.

It is imperative to tighten security in all cities, it goes without saying that those with organized mafias are prioritized. New procedures are to capture the responsibles and present them against the inquisition. Should they be changelings they are to be taken care of immediately. If not, properly judged and punished accordingly. Take caution that many of these 'Criminals' might have been deceived to carry out such actions by the changlings, their deceptive capabilities are not to be underestimated.

Charon shook his hand in the air, aching for not being used to writing. "Another one."

To be sent to the Head assembly of trade and foreign relations.

The nation called 'Kaiserreich' is to be treated with open arms. Allow trade and technology to be traded between us. Nopony has the authority to remove this order, should somepony try to do so present them to the inquisition without delay.

"Thank the Great Ones this Empire is as centralized as it can get..." He sighed as he took a sip of his cold tea. "Those letters must be sent to their destination once Concord himself reports them as purged, not earlier, understood?"

"Understood, sir."

A pony arrived to the castle, opening the giant doors and walking through the empty corridor to the throne. Once there he handed Charon a letter which held the seal of the nation of Equestria and then left. Charon opened the letter and looked at it, and after a while he smiled.

'Hah, Celestia...You sure know how to handle diplomacy. Already convinced every nation in this continent for an union with us? I'm impressed.'

"Ah, welcome new general." A soldier greeted Shining Armor with his bodyguard unit  inside the HQ tent. "The last general ran away, it seems. Did something happen?"

Shining Armor ignored the question and casted the disguise-breaking spell on him to see if it's truly a pony and not a changeling. The soldier flared green and turned into a changeling with a surprised face, in the desperation of the situation he charged forwards but was greeted by the bodyguards' steel shields. This scenery surprised the rest of the officers in the tent enough to make them back off.

'This place must be infested...' Shining Armor thought.

"2nd Inquisition group reporting, sir. Concord himself sent us to be under your command." A unicorn in a dark red cloak greeted, with a long-brimmed hat covering his eyes. About a dozen of unicorns followed behind it with the same outfit, but with a hood instead.

"Perfect timing, purge the tent first, then the army in this place. When's the next group arriving?"

The red-hooded unicorns advanced and made the tent light up with magic, with three changelings trying to escape but ultimately failing. "No more groups were sent, there isn't enough manpower for more. I've been instructed to give you this letter." The pony with the red hat answered, giving the letter to Shining Armor who opened it and started reading while they both walked outside the tent.

Shining, this is Concord, I've sent all the unicorns I could to help you though I won't be able to send more for a while. I'll recruit more inquisitors from the various colleges I find in the Empire so don't go purging the entire army yet, it'll be useless since more changelings will arrive. Also, try to interrogate the changelings from now on when the opportunity arises, I still need to find out where Atticus is, and maybe we'll find Chrysalis' whereabouts.

'How do you expect me to know how to interrogate those things?! Well...The inquisitors must know...'

"So these changelings are spies..." Talked an officer that came out of the tent where an inquisition took place. "Anyways, since you're a general I guess I need to fill you in on what's going on, I'll be your lieutenant from now on. The defence is horrible, at first I thought Executor's soldiers were too strong for us but now that this changeling matter popped up and began disrupting our chain of command we still hold a chance. Another thing, we received two things: A letter from the navy commander and some sort of stick that throws stuff at a ridiculous speed." The lieutenant turned to the tent and began yelling an order. "Jenkins, get those things here!!"

"Aye aye cap'." A voice answered from inside the tent. After a few seconds a pony came out with a letter on his hoof and a thin, long box on his back. He walked up to Shining Armor and placed the box next to his hooves. Upon opening it, a cilindrical metallic object with a wooden grip was revealed, it was what Terrans call an arquebus, though its trigger was awkwardly modified to be able to used by a hoof.

'This looks like those things the ponies used in Canterlot before the time travel spell...' He thought as he picked it up and examined it.

"Letter for you." Said Jenkins as he handed the letter to him. He opened it and began reading.

'This is the navy commander David John writing. My ponies have engaged a strange ship not seen ever before. The battle was fierce and we took several casualties but we managed to be victorious and capture the unknown ship. Upong closer inspection it was written 'E.N. Ironclad I' on its hull. I assume E.N. stands for Executor's Navy, quite an original name I must say. The ship has been stationed in Kunatanah's shipyard without major damage, its steel hull managed to make the cannonballs bounce off and it used a steam engine to advance without the help of wind. Charon's presence is requested to take a look at it immediately, this is most likely a Terran design.'

"So, what's our next course of action, sir?" Asked the lieutenant.

"Send the letter and the object to Charon himself. Inquisitor, your ponies will purge the chain of command here and notify me when more inquisitors arrive. Move it." He ordered while walking towards the tent again to fulfill his new duties.

"My Kaiser, the projects are going according to plan and will be completed in a few years at least. We still need some materials but the Imperium of Patria are sure to provide them with our new trade agreement." Spoke a scientist who walked through a dark hallway with another few scientists and a Terran following.

"Anything else I should know?"

"You'll see for yourself." The scientist stopped in front of a glass window, pitch black on the other side, and reached for a switch. Once he pulled it several light were turned on and began illuminating two giant steel machines that overshadowed every other machinery in the hangar.

"They have too few machine-gun emplacements and AA guns. They also need another layer of steel for protection. Replace the dual-cannon of the Ratte and put a large caliber cannon there, use the remaining space for defences. Their tracks are exposed too, make sure to cover it with a layer of steel to avoid the tracks being damaged."

"With all due respect, sir, isn't it a bit overkill? With the modifications you mentioned these machines would win an entire war by themselves..."

"Trust me, even what I ordered isn't enough to be a match against what we'll fight against soon. Anyways, let's move on."

"Of course." The scientist kept moving through the hallway until he reached yet another glass window, but this time there was a pony covered with wires and steel pipes instead, with another pony in a white coat helping him with the wires. "Next goes our exoskeleton project. Designed for long-term fighting this model uses solar energy as its main fuel source. It is incomplete as it is, we still need to find a way to encase the soldier in steel plates to fully protect him against most kinds of weaponry, of course this steel will be replaced if we ever find a stronger material." The scientist walked over to an intercom that was on the wall and pressed a button to talk through it. "Begin protocol 5."

The pony with the white coat at the other side raised his hoof and connected a wire on the other pony's exoskeleton, then backed off. The exoskeleton-wearing pony stood up and walked up to a truck nearby and placed himself behind it. He began pushing the truck and moved it at a speed not even five of the strongest Terrans could achieve.

"Proceed with the next one." The scientist talked through the intercom.

The pony walked over the side of the truck and positioned itself on its hind legs, keeping the balance thanks to one of the exoskeleton's functions. He raised his hoof and punched the truck hard enough to leave a huge dent and shatter the glass windows of the truck, it even moved a bit from its place.

"Splendid. Bring the Hades-9 prototype."

A group of scienist arrived bringing a heavy gun, so heavy that it had to be carried by three ponies, no less, but the pony with the exoskeleton picked it up as if it was just another random object. The gun looked more like a long black rectangular box with a grip at the end, it had no stock since the exoskeleton would receive the recoil just fine. The pony walked over to a target range and aimed the gun at a mannequin at the end of the range. He fired the gun, which made a sound not distinctive to a gun firing, it was more like a continuous sound instead with no telling when a bullet was firing.

"The Hades-5 prototype is ugly, there's no denying it, but there are several special things about it. First, it has a rate of fire of 40 rounds per second, and before you call me and my workforce gun nuts we've thought about this thoroughly. The gun uses unicorn power to 'shrink' the bullets enough for a magazine to hold 480 rounds for a total of 12 seconds of continuous fire before reloading, the bullet of course 'grows back' inside the gun chamber and its fired at its normal size, and to avoid the inconveniences of being showered in bullet casings the empty case is automatically destroyed and dissipates in the air with no pollution whatsoever. The caliber of this gun was incremented to achieve a number unheard of before, no less than 15,24 millimeters; the exoskeleton's strength can more than cope with this kind of test. And the icing on the cake: Unicorn magic renders the bullet immune to gravity, it's effective range is...Well, I can't count that high. I still think its overkill but Chaser has the final word in everything, and who am I to question someone who brought this nation to what it is now? Anyways, if you wish to know more about this gun's potential just look at the wall behind the mannequin the test subject was firing at."

Chaser took out a pair of binoculars and looked at the wall. He was surprised to see that it was deformed beyond imagination, the mannequin had ceased to exist by this point.

3 weeks later, the WW1 era had begun in the world. The entire Imperium of Patria was purged of changelings and were pushing Executor's army out of the continent. Concord and his inquisition, after interrogating every changeling they found, managed to narrow the places where Atticus may be to one single region.

Concord sneezed, covered in a blanket due to extremely cold climate. He, with several ponies dressed and armed with WW1 period equipment, were inside an Ironclad travelling to their destination, the sound and vibration of the ironclad breaking through the ice could be heard and felt. "That damned Chrysalis...Really? The North Pole? Why the hell would she want to keep Atticus imprisoned in the North Pole?! I Can't believe Shining Armor was also in such a place!" He complained. He was shaking and there were fragments of ice and snow covering his face and his body. He didn't have his ushanka either, instead he had his white-yellowish hair frozen solid in place. "I'm gonna miss that ushanka... Damned changeling ripped it apart..." The sound of static coming from the radio aboard caught his attention, he turned his head towards it and listened carefully.

"This is the captain speaking, we've reached part of the ice that cannot be broken, we're stuck here and cannot advance further. All inquisition members and supporting soldiers are to disembark the ship and continue on foot. Be advised, the climate outside is colder than anything we've ever experienced, this ice age caused the temperature to descend dramatically even in these lands. To give a rough estimation of the temperature here I'll say this: I'd rather be set on fire than go out there."

Concord ranted and stood up, he discarded the blanket and created fire out of his hands to keep him warm. "At least my trench coat is intact..." He shook his head, causing the ice fragments that covered him to be shot out, but as he finished he felt something clinging from his hair. He grabbed it and ripped it out, only to realize it was a fragment of his hair that froze and became as strong as bronze. "Gah...This will take months to regrow..." He threw it away and began walking upstairs to the main deck of the ship, where the winds were strong enough to steal anything not bolted to the floor. He saw how the ponies of the inquisition and those of the army jumped down of the deck, and deciding not to waste anymore time he jumped down himself. He didn't expect one little detail, however, he was so big the wind had more area to push, thus making him almost land head-first on the snow. He stood up and spat the snow he accidentally ate, the extreme temperature almost freezing his tongue.

"How far is it to the objective?" Concord heard how the soldier commander asked the inquisition commander, a unicorn with a red hat.

"I don't hold that knowledge." The unicorn with the red hat answered. "However, these lands hold little to no elevation. It'd be easy to find some sort of landmark to aid us here."

"How so? The target could be anywhere."

"There must be an entrace somewhere, just by looking at the horizon and focusing some sort of entrace can be found."

"Makes sense." The soldier commander took out his binoculars and stared at the horizon just as the inquisitor suggested. Concord walked up to both of them and waited for the commander to find something, to which he did. "There's a mountain over there, can't find anything else though, the blizzard's too thick to see through."

"That mountain could have a cave or something, let's go." Ordered Concord. All of the ponies that were assigned for this mission gathered up and began marching to the mountain, leaving the Ironclad and its crew behind as a mean of returning to the mainland.

"I bet those bastards at the ship are enjoying a warm cup of coffee while we're here freezing our flanks..." A random pony ranted.

"I heard that!" The loudspeaker of the Ironclad echoed.

After a while of walking, one of the soldiers walked over to Concord and asked him a question. "Why can't you teleport us over there?" The look on everypony's face meant that no one knew the reason behind it.

"I don't know the region enough, I can only teleport to places I know."

The pony remained silent as they walked, everypony also kept silent for the rest of the trip to the mountain, they were more focused on the cold climate than on questions.

They arrived to a cave entrace they spotted as they walked, right on the foot of the mountain. Concord entered and stared inside with a few soldiers who readied their guns, expecting anything.

"Are there any other landmarks around?" Concord asked, wanting to be sure.

"Either there aren't, or they are too far for us to see." Answered an inquisitor.

Concord sighed and rubbed his eyes. Seeing as there was no other option, he decided to explore this cave. "Everypony gather up, we're going inside. Soldiers first, prepare for anything, inquisitors illuminate the way." He ordered.

As requested, the soldiers marched with their guns high into the cave while the inquisitors focused their energy on brightening up the scenery. They marched and marched, nothing in sight for a long time until crystals growing from the ground were spotted, becoming more and more frequent as they advanced. This sight reminded Concord of the cave where they found Shining Armor and Atticus' skeleton. 'This might be the cave...' He tought. They walked even further until they arrived to a giant part of the cave, where there were two possible paths to the left and to the right.

"Well talk about dilemma." Sighed the soldier commander, sitting down on the floor seeing as they were going to stay here for a while trying to decipher which way to go.

Concord stepped forward from the group and inspected the scenery, suspicious that he might have seen this before. Then, the revelation hit him, this was the part of the cave where he travelled with Charon, Chaser and Shining Armor to get out. Knowing what to do, he walked from one place to the other trying to find a landmark that he remembered to see which way went where. 'This way we headed to get out of the cave...' He thought as he looked further into one of the paths. 'Then the other...That's it.' "Form up, we're going to the left." He ordered.

"You sure about this? Looks like you left it for luck to guide us." Asked the commander that was still sitting on the floor.

"Trust me on this one, and stand up already."

"As you wish, if I end up dying at least I can blame it on you." He sighed as he stood up. Concord did nothing but stare, and once they were all ready they began walking further into the cave.

They kept on walking, Concord unstrapped his AK-54r he had since the end of the First World Pony War and kept his finger near the trigger, the scenery contained far more crystals than before and the walls slowly turned from stone to almost completely reflective crystal. But before long they all reached a dead end.

"Tough luck, we're heading back and taking the other!" The inquisitor commander tried to order, but was stopped by Concord grabbing his shoulder while staring at the dead end.

"Blow it up."

"...What?" Questioned the soldier commander, failing to see the logic behind such order.

"This might look like a dead end but those walls are hollow. Plant explosives and blow it up, I said."

The soldiers shrugged and took out the entire arsenal of explosives they had from their backpacks. One by one they headed to the end of the dead end and left what they had, creating a pile of explosives. After a while, seeing as no pony else had anything left, they decided to back off and prepare for detonation. Concord took out the last grenade the group had and pulled out the pin and handle, then threw it to the pile. The group ran away as fast as they could before the pile exploded behind them, creating a cloud of smoke and debris that slowly cleared off revealing a destroyed section of the wall with two rooms behind. Concord ran forwards to one of the two, but once he arrived he noticed it was empty, he also realized it was Shining Armor's cell.

'Way to avoid a time paradox...' He thought. Since Shining Armor was unaffected by the time travel spell he was not present in the cell as he was before.

He walked over to the other one, dust had not cleared entirely but through the clouds of dirt he could see the silhouette of a starving pony, still breathing. He ran through the clouds and took a better look at the pony, it was none other than Atticus himself. "Atticus!! Ha ha, I knew you'd be here!!" He cheered, before turning to the ponies under his command. "Get water and food over here! I'm surprised he didn't die of starvation already!!"

All of the ponies moved forwards and gathered around Atticus' barely conscious self, muttering cheers and talking among themselves. Concord handed him a bottle of water he had received and helped him drink.

"Uhhh...You all might want to take a look at this..." An inquisition member spoke from outside of the cell, staring at a part of the wall.

"What is it?" Asked the inquisiton commander.

"Apparently this section of the wall is also hollow."

"Hmm...Hey Concord, we found another hollow wall, what do we do?"

"Kick it down if you can, we already completed our objective."

The inquisition commander shrugged and gathered everypony that he could. He told them to position in such a way to kick the wall down at the same time. Once they were all ready, they kicked it, making it crumble down and fill the air with dust, as if this part of the cave was left ages ago.

"Terran!! We found a Terran!!" Concord could hear the yelling of the inquisitor commander, also the muttering of those around him.

"What?!" He asked, dumbfounded. "You, take care of Atticus!" He ordered to an inquisitor next to him, standing up and running to the cell that was recently kicked open. He walked through the cloud of dust, coughing violently, until he arrived to the cell itself. "Gah...Another Terra--?" He tried asking, but he was left without words as he saw Executor's unconscious body on the brink of death due to starvation, he could see his bones through the clothes, and the skin of his face was already decaying. A man of such age would not be able to take much longer. "...Executor?! Wasn't he in the capital of his continent!?"

"Forget about Executor! We got uninvited guests in this party!!" The soldier commander yelled. "Shoot! Shoot dammit!!" The sound of gunshots echoing through the cave could be heard, deafening everypony present. Concord could see how the soldier commander walked through the cloud of dust towards him. "Changelings! By the thousands!! The hell do we do?! We're cornered!!"

"Teleport us outta here!!" Screamed the inquisiton commander. Everypony but the two commanders and Concord scrambled to fight off the changelings.

"I can't!! Those damned crystals prevent my magic from working!!"

"We're done for then?!"

"Like Hell we are!!" Screamed the soldier commander. "We may not have explosives, but nothing beats gratuitous amounts of lead! Inquisitor, tell your ponies to hold those changelings off, my ponies will take care of the crystals!"

"You got it! Inquisitors, focus on the changelings!!"

"Soldiers, shoot the crystals, ignore the changelings, the inquisitors will take care of them!!"

"Shoot the crystals?! Are you nuts?!" A random soldier yelled.

"Did I stutter?! Shoot them before I kick you at the changelings for insubordination!!"

Concord ran off to Atticus, then he picked him up, carried him and placed him next to Executor. He sat down and waited for the best.

The gunshots deafened everypony, the lights of the magic and gunshots almost threw one of them into an epileptic fit, but they kept on fighting despite impossible odds. The changelings kept on charging, their numbers did not end and they gained more and more ground, the Imperial forces slowly backing off to the dead end.

"How long till those crystals are done for?!" Asked Concord.

"Almost!! A few left!!" Yelled the soldier commander. "Alright, none left!! Get us out of here!!"

Concord closed his eyes, placed his hands together, and began focusing despite the brutal gunfight next to him, but not after long the Imperial forces turned into smoke. None were left behind, not even Executor.

"...They sure are smart..." A female voice from the shadows spoke. "I wonder what will happen now that I allowed them to find Executor..." The shadow stepped forward among the changelings quietly laughing to herself, she was Chrysalis in her pony form, looking at the result of the skirmish in front of her.

"I need a break from all of this..." Charon sighed as he drank from a bottle of whiskey, sitting on the throne, but before he could swallow a pony stormed inside the castle panting.

"Sir, an Ironclad has been spotted flying right into the plaza!!"

Charon violently spat the whiskey he was drinking.