Where the moon becomes brighter

Chapter 15: Nightmare.

Charon walked through the pitch-black corridors of an underground place, as if it was Canterlot's underground complex but strangely different. He could see nothing, not even the palm of his hands, but a flashlight that he carried slightly helped him continue walking through the dark hallway without clear objective. He continued walking and staring around him, trying to find something of interest until he arrived to a door at the side of the hallway. He opened it carefully, not knowing what to expect, but before he could react a changeling charged through and jumped on him. He could barely kick it out of the way and desperately neutralized it, not knowing what he was doing due to the lack of light and the fact that the changeling managed to throw his flashlight away in the fright. He stood up after killing the changeling any way he could and picked up the flashlight, illuminating the interior of the room; not finding anything threatening, he entered and found out the room had a desk and a pile of papers on top of it, but as he stared back at where the changeling was killed he noticed how it didn't turn into smoke, it just laid there in a pool of green blood.

He shrugged it off, he knew he'd decipher nothing by just staring at it and began focusing on the papers on top of the desk. One by one he picked them up and found a pattern, they all had crude sketches of a dark-red place, filled with fire and volcanic floor. He walked out of the room confused and started walking through the hallway again, but before he could walk a few meters he could feel how the entire structure shook slowly. Not knowing what was going on he slowly unsheathed the rapier he was holding and kept on walking at a steady pace, the reach of the flashlight was too short for him to see anything near the source of the shaking. The mini earthquake kept on increasing, until it was clear he was being followed; he turned back and aimed his flashlight the way he came from and saw shadows moving and running at him: Changelings by the hundreds. He quickly turned around again and started running away, but as he ran and ran the changelings were faster, they were going to reach him any moment soon. Charon steadied his hand and aimed the flashlight at every corner, looking for a way to escape, until in the distance he saw a wide open door as if it was waiting for him. Having no more options he ran at it, crossed the door and closed it behind him, the shaking suddenly stopped as he pushed himself at the door trying to keep it closed, not even noise could be heard, as if there was nothing there to begin with.

He opened the door he just closed behind him and stared at where the changelings were chasing him, but found nothing, they had all disappeared. He narrowed his eyes, turned around and illuminated the room he just entered and saw nothing out of the ordinary: just a desk, blank papers stacked and a chair. He moved the flashlight until the beam of light reached the walls, to which he widened his eyes in surprise: He saw words written all over the walls as if they were burned into them, he could smell the burning and the ash, but what creeped him out the most was that those words were more like cries of help. 'Help me', 'It hurts to keep going', 'Don't leave me alone', 'I need you', 'I want to go home', the kind of words that someone in deep fear would write. He realized those words weren't written by anypony, but those were what he was hearing in his nightmares where Luna appeared.

Before he could focus better on the words and their meanings, he could hear a thud not far away. He steadied his flashlight and gripped his rapier tighter, until he found out the source of the thuds: a small closet door just in front of him, next to the desk. Fearing it was another changeling he silently walked towards it and placed himself to the right, so as to open the closet door and use it as a shield should something try to jump at him. He pushed himself to the wall, grabbed the closet knob with his left hand and opened it with a swift movement. He could see nothing coming out, and the noise had finished in an instant. Thinking it was only his mind playing tricks on him he slowly walked around the closet door with his rapier and flashlight ready, he tried illuminating the interior of the closet but before he could look inside the flashlight ran out of battery and left everything pitch black, just as he stood in front of the wide-open closet.

His heart skipped a beat once he felt something gripping his torso with incredible strength, almost asphyxiating him, but realized this sort of gripping was not characteristic of a changeling nor of a pony, the figure gripping him was too tall and its anatomy was too different from equestrian lifeforms. He could do nothing but stand in shock, breathing deeply as it took him by surprise, but came to his senses once he saw that the flashlight began working again as he held it pointing at the floor. He slowly raised it, first being able to look at the strange being's legs and noticing they were a mixture between red and blue with ragged clothes, as if was wounded. He kept raising the flashlight until he saw the same with its torso, and when he raised it even higher he saw how the strange being had long, dark hair drenched with blood, hiding its face. The creature lifted its head, enabling Charon to see clearly who it was: Luna, who was crying and her face covered in blood.

"Make it stop...!" She whispered, her voice was almost drowned by her crying and pain.

"Luna-- Aw fu--!" Charon screamed as he fell from the chair he was taking a nap on, falling down to the floor. He sat again on the chair and rubbed his head, the nightmares became more and more violent each night, he was afraid to know what they'd become if things kept going at this pace. "Come in..." He answered once he heard somepony knocking on his room door.

"I see you're awake." Greeted Atticus, who already knew of Charon's nightmares. "Urgent news, Chaser wants to discuss with you in Kaiserreich, he says this cannot wait any further. He already sent an escort to Kunatanah's port and they'll arrive in a few weeks."

"Urgent? What does he want?"

"That is beyond me."

"Fine... You'll take over while I'm gone, alright?"

"Understood." Atticus answered as he left the room while Charon got ready to leave. Atticus walked through Stallinox's castle hallways until he reached the throne room, to which he sat down on the throne and asked for the assistant's attention. "Get me the documents concerning Chrysalis..."

"At once." The assistant answered. After a few minutes the assistant arrived and handed the documents to Atticus, a few papers covered in a thick beige container with the words 'Classified' on top of it. Atticus opened it and began reading, first seeing a crude sketch of Chrysalis in her Terran form.

Subject name: Chrysalis.

Specific trait: Queen of the Changelings.

Age: Unknown, suspected to be older than Discord's first arrival due to her knowing his powers and using them accordingly through deception.

Managed to cause planetary extinction in a matter of hours without difficulty according to Charon. The three Terrans were powerless to stop her. Concord, with the help of Discord, executed a time-travel spell to escape from exctinction and bring another chance to the pony race.

Has enough power to bring three Terrans from another plane of existence entirely into this one, capable of shape-shifting and strength surpasses Charon's after being enraged. Total strength is incalculable thus far, being the strongest being in this world is a plausible possibility.

He closed the short document; since Chrysalis was a rather new event in these times there wasn't much known about her. He turned to the assistant and asked a question. "Has Charon left already?"

"No sir, he's still in his room. Want me to call for him?"

"Go ahead."

The assistant left, and moments later arrived with Charon who was ready to leave already.

"You called Atticus?"

"Yes. Tell me, how did you become immortal to begin with? I don't remember you telling me that, I thought Terrans were immortal at first."

Charon crossed his arms and raised his right hand to his chin. "As far as I can remember, Discord turned me immortal two years before being Stallinox's governor. I drank some sort of purple liquid from a fountain that fell on top of a spider twice my size in a forest."

"...What?" Atticus asked dumbfounded. That explanation made no sense whatsoever.

"Discord." Charon shrugged.

"Alright, alright." Atticus changed topics so as to avoid a headache. "How long do Terrans live?"

"I've heard about Terrans living past a hundred years old, but with my past country's standard of living... I'd have been surprised if someone survived past 60."

"60 years old... And how old were you when you arrived?"

Charon scratched his beard, he couldn't remember perfectly. "Well when Chrysalis brought Executor, Chaser and me into this world I was around 19 and a half. Two years later I remember suggesting you new laws in Stallinox, then after three more years I became immortal. Discord said I'd not age any further so I'm stuck in the body of a 24 year old Terran from then on."

"I see... Wait, what the hell?!"

"What?"

"19 years old and you were already in a suicide campaign in Terra?! That's barely past adulthood if Terrans live that long!! For how long were you fighting in Terra!?"

"Well it reached the point where I was slowly forgetting my past life... Not that there was anything worthy to remember anyways, most of it were lies. I guess I snapped when I was 16, three years to start forgetting wouldn't be so strange."

Atticus just stared at him with his jaw wide open, surprised as if he just saw a ghost.

"Hey, Terra, remember?" Charon shrugged as he turned away ready to leave.

'Damn, living in Terra seems to be worse than being replaced by Chrysalis...' He thought as he rubbed his forehead. 'I should probably remember not to piss him off...'

The giant metallic doors of a laboratory opened with a light that twitched red and white showering the two Terrans present: Chaser and Charon who waited until they were completely open.

"So, you called me for this big... Laboratory thing that I probably wouldn't understand anyways?"

"Yes." Chaser affirmed, walking forwards inside the laboratory where hundreds and hundreds of ponies in white coats were working and studying. Charon shook himself into reality again and run up to Chaser, catching his speed.

"Fancy place, I'll tell you that." He said, staring everywhere since he was new to this place, the ceiling had almost no end and the chattering of the ponies echoed inside the structure. "What should I be seeing now?"

"You'll know in due time." Chaser answered, refusing to speak anymore until they reached a pony in front of some sort of cylindrical giant object covered in cloth. Once the pony spotted them, he turned around and greeted Chaser and gave a handshake to Charon. "Tell him what you told me." Chaser ordered.

"Yes, of course. Hey, somepony help me with this thing!" The pony turned around asking for help. Soon enough three more ponies and a griffon arrived and helped him remove the cloth that covered the cylindrical object, revealing it was actually a tank with a strange creature inside unconscious. "Long ago we were certain the changelings could only change forms and personalities, but after a while some patrols found certain... 'Strains' of changelings with a different anatomy altogether. The changeling in this tank, as you can see, has not a pair of wings, but two instead, and those wings are far stronger than the common insectoid ones sported by the old changelings. Its skeleton is also more frail but it has bigger claws, all that I can think about is that they use the speed they build up to attack and run, in a prolonged melee they'd die too easily. You'd not believe the reaction of the patrol that found it when they saw a changeling flying three times as fast as the fastest they'd seen."

"Wait, you're telling me that those things changed this much in so little time?" Charon asked, he didn't know much about genetics but he knew this was insane.

"We don't know a lot about changelings, the fact that this is happening is something that worries us all." He began walking away to another tank, signalling the two Terrans to follow him since he was not done yet. He, with the help of his assistants, removed the cloth of yet another tank revealing a changeling that was completely different from the one with four wings. "This changeling's wings have disappeared, but they were replaced by gills and fins, Executor's navy found this... Thing in one of the naval battles against the shapeshifters and loyalists, I am thankful that they decided to send it here for studying." The pony started walking away again, reaching for a third tank that was out of sight. "This 3rd strain of changelings is also the weirdest and most dangerous we've encountered thus far, you'll have to see it for yourselves to believ--" His explanation was cut short by the sound of glass breaking and screams echoing in the distance.

"The hell?!" Questioned Charon, not knowing what was happening until he saw what appeared to be a strange silhouette of a turtle twice as big as him, with two semi-circular blades coming out of its mouth and claws as big as its legs. Its back was completely covered in what appeared to be a dark-green natural armor and spikes. "That's the changeling you were talking about?!"

"Sadly, yes!" The pony answered as he grabbed the radio he had strapped to his belt. "Subject 3-0-2 has escaped, send in the three prototypes!!"

"What prototypes?! Chaser, what's going on?!"

Chaser did not answer, he just calmly walked away from the turtle that apparently didn't even spot him due to being so far away. Charon tried unsheathing his rapier ready to fight the creature, but Chaser stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. "This isn't your fight." He mentioned as three ponies in exoskeletons ran past them covered in dark grey steel, their height reaching a tall Terran due to running on their hind legs with their guns. Charon was surprised to say the least, he was used to ponies being half his size, but once he saw them of same height he just stared with awe.

"Alpha-1 taking lead, Alpha 2-flank left, Alpha-3 to the right, double time." The voice of one of the steel covered ponies running at the giant changeling ponies was heard talking through the radio calmly, even though they'd be fighting something twice as big as them in a few seconds.

"Alpha-2 requesting permission to engage, clear firing range reached."

"Permission granted, fire at will."

The sound of a pony firing the gun was nightmarish with the screams of the other ponies trapped in the fight running for their lives, the ridiculous rate of fire that was double the infamous MG-42 of Terra and the 15.27mm calibre of the gun made this firefight uncomfortably loud and flashy. The armoured changeling, once shot, began charging at the pony that was shooting; it wasn't affected in the slightest by the pain inflicted, it even managed to close in and grab the pony with both its blades before its leg was blown open, forcing it to fall. The changeling lifted the pony high and tried to slice it in half with the rest of its strength, but was stopped once the other two ponies arrived and grabbed it by its blades, ripping them out and stabbing the creature in the skull with its own weapons. The changeling gave a loud cry before falling to its feet, now lifeless on the floor.

"So this is that 'exoskeleton project' I've been hearing lately..." Charon asked, closing in to the result of the fight.

"Looks like we're not the only ones preparing for the fight, those things appeared just now in this world, I assume its Chrysalis' doing." Answered Chaser, helping up the pony who was almost sliced in half. Its armour was destroyed in the waist.

"Uh boss, we might have a problem." Another pony in exoskeleton stated worryingly as he walked closer to Chaser with one of the changeling's blade. "Isn't steel supposed to be... Strong?" He asked as he softly scratched his armour with the blade, slicing it open like paper.

"How the..." The third pony in exoskeleton exclaimed, running at him and inspecting the part of the armour he damaged. He then grabbed the blade and stared at it, then he scratched the floor, to which the blade made an annoying sound not unlike fingernails scratching a chalkboard but with a more rusty and metallic feel to it. "Hey, where's that scientist from seconds ago? There he is, hey think fast!" He yelled as he threw the blade to the scientist, who desperately dodged it by throwing himself to the side.

"The hell is your problem?!" The scientist complained.

"...Whoops?"

"Sigh... Just let me take a look at this for a few days, I might come up with something... Don't expect any miracles, though." He ranted as he walked away with the blade.

"So, Charon, what do you think of what... Happened... What are you doing now?" Chaser asked with confusion seeing Charon too far away from him to hear, crouching next to the dead changeling that caused so much trouble. He saw how he stood up and pointed at the gun that the pony in exoskeleton had in its arms. The pony, confused, looked at his comrade shrugging, to which he decided to give the gun to Charon since he was asking for it. "Uhh you might want to wait until you get your own exoskeleton..." Chaser tried explaining as he got closer, but it was still too far away for him to be heard.

"So how am I supposed to hold this thing?" Charon asked one of the ponies covered in steel.

"That thing doesn't have a stock, mind you." The pony that gave him the gun stated.

"Alright... So it's putting my hand here..." He quietly said as he gripped the rifle. "Aiming..." He turned the gun to the dead changeling that was on the floor next to him. "And... Firing..."

"Charon, stop dammi--" Chaser's yelling was not heard until it was too late: Charon fired the gun, but the recoil was so intense and the rate of fire ridiculously high he managed to disfigure his arm completely. Specifically, his Ulna was broken in half, his Radius perforated his skin and was half outside, his Humerus was dislocated beyond imagination, and to put insult to the injury, the recoil of the gun managed to make it rise high enough for him to accidentally shoot one of the lights above, resulting in it falling on top of his head and look like a chinese hat. Everypony just stared in shock at Charon, not even wanting to think of the pain he'd be enduring in this moment.

"It's ok! I'm alright!" Charon explained as he raised the only arm he had intact. "I've got something to ask of you all! Please cover your ears, I'm about to start screaming like a 4 year old girl for the next three hours, understood?!"

At this short speech, everypony began taking off everything they had in their heads, be it helmets, headsets, hats, everything with the most feverish haste and covered their ears as fast as they could.

"Your attempts at survival are entertaining at best..." A dark, female voice echoed. "Why do you keep fighting? The only thing you're prologuing is your suffering... Haven't you all learned already? You are not supposed to win, you didn't get here because of an accident, you're all part of my plan whether you like it or not. Such fool creatures, trying to deceive me with that 'Time travel' shenanigans, my eyes are everywhere, nothing can escape me... Chaser, Charon, Executor, Concord... Celestia, Discord, Shining Armor, Atticus... Luna... None of you could stop me before, your pathetic tries become more and more annoying as time passes, but do you give up? You've all experienced the extinction of the entire pony race, you've all witnessed a simple fraction of my power, yet you throw yourselves against me yet again as if hope existed in your hearts. Why is that? Is it you, wanting to create the world anew as an utopia, seeing everypony living in harmony? Or have you all died inside already and are just fighting because there's nothing else you can do? Terrans are not scary in the slightest like most of you have been saying, they're just pathetic excuses of determination, that's what makes them so predictable. Present one with a challenge and they'll try to overcome it, even if it meant harming every living thing around them. They'll pass the challenge, but they'll refuse to look back at what they've done, they'll never accept what they've become..."

"My queen, everything is going as you have desired." The voice of Executor echoed in the darkness, but its voice was disfigured beyond humanity, it was more like a changeling speaking to itself several times over.

"Good..." Chrysalis answered. The voice she just heard was actually her own creation, it was the impostor Executor that was leading the loyalists against the real one, the first true changeling with a mindset of its own. "I assume you're still putting up an entertaining fight against Executor? We don't want to make things too easy for them..."

"Your wishes are my will to live. My soldiers would never back off from any fight unless you so wished them to."

"And how is their inquisition going?"

"There is no way to infiltrate their ranks without being discovered at this point."

"Hmmm..." Chrysalis meditated her next course of action, her voice clearly presented boredom and anticipation. "I wonder... What would happen if the three Terrans turned Berserk at once? Maybe they'll fight among themselves in the blinding rage they'll be sucked into..." She laughed to herself. "Isn't that right, Luna? Wouldn't Charon be able to end everything like I did before Concord used that time travel spell?" She asked the unconscious Luna that was near her, her clothes were worn out but what contrasted the most was that she still held Charon's scarf back when she thought Charon had 'died' in Stallinox. "The all think they are outsmarting me, the idiots... Alas, guess it's time to prepare for the main event..." She thought to herself before smiling as billions and billions of changelings, all of different sizes and speed began walking through a devastated wasteland showered in red, with rivers of lava, innumerable volcanoes and a red sky that was present in many of Charon's nightmares.

Executor rubbed his eyes and let out a loud sigh, a cigar in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. He was tired, to say the least, the continuous fighting against his own forces was far more stressful than fighting against another nation entirely.

"You've seen better days, partner." A deep voice greeted Executor as it walked through the door into the bar where he sat. "Let's see, you just got a hold of the entire capital and you're sitting here in this rotten hellhole? Damn, son, you need to set your priorities straight." The pony that was talking giggled as he moved a chair and sat next to Executor, waving the bartender for a drink.

"Cut it, Daylight, I'm not a man of fancy stuff." He ranted with a smile. Daylight was the first pony Executor met in his life after the Chrysalis incident with the three Terrans, much like Charon with Atticus, but Daylight had a more cynical look on life.

"So if you had the entire world at your disposal you'd be with little kids reading bedtime stories? Hah. I bet that Charon man is the same as you..."

"You'd be surprised, have I told you everything that happened in Terra already?"

"I memorized that tale enough times already. But one thing has been giving me a headache lately, you say Charon almost killed Discord in the end of the first war, right?"

"Discord's immortal, he cannot be killed but I guess that's as close as its gonna get."

"So Charon, judging by that 'fight' is stronger than Discord."

"Let's not think of that, remember Chrysalis had something to do with it and Discord gave him that thing that turned him semi-berserk."

"Alright... Let's put it this way then: Charon is stronger than Discord in the berserk state, is that the truth?"

"Let's say that's the truth, what's your point?"

"The corrupted... How was she called in that state...? Right, the corrupted Nightmare Moon stomped Charon like a roach in the moon. That'd mean Nightmare Moon is far more powerful than Charon."

"Well, dark side of the moon... She gathers her power from darkness..." He shrugged.

"How did Chrysalis get Luna so easily then? One moment she's one of the most powerful beings in the world and boom, gone in a heartbeat. That makes no sense at all, I tell you."

"If you're going with that logic then it doesn't. I can guess Charon and Luna fell in love with each other, but when Chaser managed to 'kill' Charon in the alternate timeline Luna was shocked by that event. When you believe one thing and then you're presented with the contrary your mind is... Altered, like a trauma."

"So Luna became depressed."

"Exactly, and you know how depression makes people weaker and void of life. I'm guessing Luna still doesn't know Charon's alive if she didn't reappear with the rage of a thousand suns to take revenge on Chrysalis. That, or something... Worse happened."

"Such as?"

"Damned if I knew."

"Fine, so what's your son planning now? Going full frontal assault against the changelings? You told me those things managed to kill off everypony in the planet in a matter of hours."

"You've never witnessed a war between Terrans in my world, some people are so crazy it looks like they pull solutions out of their rears." He took a sip of his wine and sighed. "I'm stuck here with this rebellion, I don't know the details, what I'm guessing is that he'll try to find Luna and 're-awaken' her."

"And if that don't work?"

"Charon will go berserk at the sight of everything and everypony crumbling before him. Chances are both Chaser and I will turn berserk too, if Discord's words are to be trusted."

"I ain't afraid of three rampaging berserks nowadays, you've seen those changelings up-close, ugly stuff can't be compared to anything."

"You should, Daylight... You should... Quoting Discord, a single berserk is capable of defeating a dozen corrupted Nightmare Moons without dropping a sweat. Imagine three. Let's change topics, enough drama for today. Anything new from outside?"

"Well... Let me remember... Ah yes, this 'Shining Armor' pal that follows Charon around is planning to get married to a pink alicorn after all of this blows over."

"I don't know how that'll be useful to kno--... Wait, another alicorn? Weren't Celestia and Luna supposed to be the only alicorns in existence?"

"Hey, hey, don't ask me that kind of question, I'm as surprised as you are!" He yelled as he lifted his arms in the air. "I don't know nothing about no alicorns!"

"Maybe that alicorn can help us?"

"You sure? I heard that alicorn was Twilight-whatever-she's-called's foal-sitter. I'm not too sure about sending that kind of thing to its death when it has no experience whatsoever."

"You're always shooting down my ideas, Daylight. So, in other news?"

"In other news... Uhhh..." Daylight tried to remember, scratching his cheek with his gauntlet, until he almost choked on his own breath by laughing so heavily and slamming the table.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh man, you'd not believe what happened with Charon in Kaiserreich. I heard some sort of 'testing' went awfully wrong with him and ended up like a scarecrow with calcium deficiency!! He ended up crying like a girl for hours before he was put down and sent to the hospital!!"

"...What?"

"Alright, alright, heard about those prototype guns that put ours to shame? Huge caliber, rate of fire, bulky as hell?"

"Yes...?"

"Charon tried to shoot one, but managed to break his arm entirely and a light fell on top of his head!" He could barely contain his laughter. Executor soon enough joined him in laughing. "Ahhh... Anyways, before that accident with the gun..." Daylight snorted and tried to regain his composure. "There were different changelings I heard, and I mean different entirely, not just in shape. Changelings that had more wings, others that had gills and could swim as fast as them fliers, and one elephant-sized turtle that needed an entire magazine of those guns I mentioned to be put down. Scary stuff, I tell you."

"Chaser didn't say anything else about this?"

"Nah, I'm guessing it's to avoid mass panic. When everything you know about changelings is that they're small flies and suddenly an oversized turtle appears and all that stuff, ponies will get scared out of their minds. So, do you three Terrans even have the slightest idea of where Chrysalis is?"

"Nope."

"We're all going to die." Daylight sighed as he placed his gauntlet's palm on his head.

Concord and Celestia sat in a table in the same room in Canterlot castle, drinking their hearts out as there was nothing they were needed for for the time being.

"...And then I told Charon: 'Terran, not only have you taken an army to my lands, but also started a battle without my permission. This is a warning, leave at once and never return, or this is war.' Imagine his surprise when he found out I was corrupted." Celestia said in a deep tone and giggling. Concord soon enough started laughing with her. In normal circumstances they'd not be joking about matters that directly influenced the world as it was right now, but not having a simple laugh about it would mean things would get too depressing.

"That must have hit him like a train."

"Indeed it did. Later, near the end of the war Twilight suggested going to the moon of all places to get my sister back from Discord, no windows survived his fit of rage that day."

It was obvious that they were slightly drunk.

"You think that was hilarious? Picture this: Me and Charon on the moon hunting Nightmare Moon, then all of a sudden an army that covered the entire moon appears in front of our faces. I tell you, Charon has seen his share of terrors enough already!"

"Charon this, Charon that... Start telling me about yourself now..." She suggested looking at him.

"Well... Discord himself told me I was the 'God of Order'..." He smiled as he turned down the lights with a flickering of his fingers and lighting the candles on the center of the table. "And when I saw you for the first time... That hair got me hypnotized..."

"Don't make me blush... You've done great things in this world, if it wasn't for your help chances would be we'd all be in a worse place. Say..."

"Yes...?"

"How about..." She softly spoke as she closed her lips to Concord's. "We..."

All of a sudden, images of a dark place sparkled in each-other's minds which would traumatize a lesser being. Horrible visions of a world in ruins, smoking wastelands, corpses beyond sight, all flashing in a split second. They both knew perfectly what it meant, but didn't know that the person in front of them could also see them too, Celestia backed off to her seat and rubbed her eyes.

"You... You saw that..." Muttered Concord, slightly afraid.

"N-no, what are you saying? Must be the wine, I bet it's off already-- There's no use lying, right? You could see that too..."

"I thought only me and Charon could. You know of this?"

"It's not that simple... It's Luna, she's suffering. Me and Luna are sisters, but we're also connected, so to speak, with our minds. We can share each-other's pain and happiness, but now that she's somewhere trapped, locked out the world... She's crying. Every single day I feel her screams of help not being able to do anything about it, it's starting to dig into my chest, killing me... She was called Nightmare Moon for a reason, she can communicate through nightmares, but that's more like trying to send out a message instead of properly talking..."

"That means this happened before?"

"Twice, first when she became Nightmare Moon for the first time, then when the First Great Pony War corrupted her. The nightmares weren't so intense back then because she knew someone would save her, and that was Charon with your help. But now, those nightmares are incomparable, Luna's scared out of her mind, the nightmares don't even make sense anymore past bloodshed, I can't feel anything apart from pain..."

"Those nightmares, I've been having them too, even Charon! Wouldn't that mean Luna knows Charon is alive?! There's still hope for her!!"

"Are you sure she knows he's alive, or is it just a message sent anywhere and reaching him out of coincidence...? Chrysalis captured her before she could find out he was alive..." A tear started falling down her cheek, to which Concord desperately stood up and got closer to her.

"Celestia, why haven't you told be about this?!" He asked with worry, he'd have never wanted her to hide her pain from him.

"The pain... It's not physical pain... It's psychological torture... It's ripping my soul apart..."

A loud knock was heard from the door. "Concord, Celestia, it's me Atticus!" He yelled impatiently. Concord ran to the door and opened it, seeing Atticus sporting a face of anxiousness and confusion. Atticus could also see how Concord was sorrowful over what was happening to Celestia. "Listen, I'm sorry for eavesdropping and barging in so violently, but I guess that since this is happening now it's important to be quick."

"Alright, what do you need?"

"Charon sent me to talk with Discord, he might have found a solution for this Chrysalis matter."

"...Fine, I'll be in the garden in a minute, go!"

Atticus rapidly walked away, Concord however stood his ground. He then turned to Celestia who had her face between her hands filled with sorrow and pain. "So..."

"Don't worry about me for now, I'll be fine..."

"Are you sure? I don't want to leave you alone like this..."

"The more time you spend here the less time Atticus has to find out what he wants."

"Alright... I'll be back shortly then." Concord sorrowfully left the room leaving Celestia alone, with the candles illuminating only the table.

"Were we just born to suffer...?" She sighed.

"Alright, I'm here. You sure about this?" Concord greeted Atticus as he arrived to the garden in front of Discord's statue.

"Doesn't look like we have many options."

Concord raised his hand to Discord's petrified statue, then turned its head back to normal with a swift spell.

"Ahhh, fresh air after the apocalypse of that time-travel thing. How are we all doing in this fine day?" Discord greeted with a snarky smile, he knew too well that he'd not be visited without a serious reason.

"Starting from the basics," Atticus began questioning. "You said you could feel the three Terran's presence when they arrived into this world, is what I said the truth?"

"Yes."

"Can you feel other presences apart from Terrans? Such as Celestia, Concord, Luna, and other powerful beings?"

"Yes and no. I can only feel those who are 'Active', so to speak."

"Explain."

"I could feel Chaser's, Executor's and Charon's presence because they were not dormant, they were focused on something and that'd have been managing their lands. In simpler terms, if a powerful being is asleep, or not doing anything at all, I cannot feel it."

"That'd mean you cannot know where Luna is right now?"

"Exactly."

"I'm not surprised, to be honest. What about Chrysalis? She's the queen of the Changelings, surely she's powerful enough for you to notice her whereabouts?"

"No, she's dormant too. She's purposefully not making much effort at all so as not to reveal her location, I assume Luna is where she is too."

"What would cause her to reveal herself?"

"Either she goes uppity and says 'Here I am, come at me' or she does something powerful enough for me to notice."

"And that powerful thing is...?"

"Commanding her entire changeling swarm. You don't have many options at this point."

"Woah woah woah," Concord interrupted. "You're saying the only way to find out where she is is to be in the face of extinction?!"

"You're saying that as if it was my fault."

"Dammit!! Ok, let's see, she reveals herself one way or the other, then what? We die?"

"Maybe yes, maybe no, I don't really know if she has the power to literally kill an immortal, unless of course you were figuratively speaking. It'll take time for her to mobilize her entire swarm to attack this world, it's clear that she's not hiding somewhere that'd allow her to move freely such a big army. A suggestion would be monitoring her power and when she's revealed go all-out on her. Who knows, maybe you somehow find a choke-point to defend and hold her off, but then again you might all painfully die in the slowest of ways."

"We don't even know where the attack will come from, nor if there will be more than one source of it..." Concord meditated, walking around. "This is bad..."

"We don't have any more options." Atticus sighed. "Let's leave Discord unpetrified and plant a guard here to alert us if he feels something. Hey Concord, has Chaser already mass produced those things he said he'd develop?"

"He can arm the entire world three times over with what he has now."

"Damn, he's fast."

"You'd be surprised to know what an entire species is capable of doing in the brink of annihilation."

3 weeks later...

"Concord, you copy?"

"Loud and clear, Executor, how's it going?" Concord talked with Executor through the radio.

"The rebellion progresses... Well... More like it's about clearing than fighting."

"What do you mean?"

"The changelings, they don't fight at all, they go on the defensive all the time and don't even bother recapturing territory."

"They have no use for conventional strategy, chances are they aren't even bothering anymore. Heard anything about them outside the rebellion?"

"Nothing, as if they didn't exist at all. Is this plan even working?"

"We don't have a plan b, might as well stick with this one till the end."

"True... How's Celestia? Heard some bad stuff happened to her."

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Understandable... Anyways, if this keeps up I'm guessing it'll take around five weeks to completely erase changeling activity in this continent."

"..."

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing, that's the problem. We're up against Chrysalis as I said a thousand times already, I didn't really expect her to sit idly for all this time."

"Well alright, talk to you another day if something comes up over here."

"Later." He said before turning off the radio and throwing it off to the side. 'Why didn't she just kill us all instead of making us suffer like this to begin with?!' He rubbed his eyes in annoyance, but the sound of a pony running and panting caught his attention. He turned around to the source of the sound and noticed the pony running at him desperately.

"Dire news, sir!!"

"What?! What is it!?" Concord was shocked out of his mind by this simple scenery, he was paranoid enough already.

"I don't have the details, Atticus just called for every single capable pony in the region to arms!! I was sent to tell you to meet him in Stallinox ASAP!!"

"He didn't tell you anything else?!"

"No, he wanted me to warn you without delay, I know nothing as of yet!"

'Has it come to this already...?' He closed his eyes and focused, not a second later he dissipated into smoke.

He teleportated to Stallinox's castle, almost tripping on a pony he teleported too close too, the entire place was overwhelmed with hundreds of ponies and equipment, even the noise was barely audible due to so many sources, but what caught Concord's attention before he could even react was a random pony saying 'Kaiserreich received the first attack, 1/7 of the entire continental population annihilated in the engagement, still holding'.

"The hell?!" Concord yelled as he cleared the smoke he accidentally created by teleporting. "Atticus, what's going o--"

"Talk with Charon, I'm too damn busy over here!"

"Dammit, Charon where the hell are you?!" He asked running around the room, until he found him focusing on a map with dozens of ponies in high ranking uniforms around him. "What's going on?!!"

He spoke in a deep tone. "So it begins..."