Where the moon becomes brighter

Chapter 16: Falling Stars

"On the north-western sector, mostly." Chaser spoke through the radio with Charon about the attack. "They pushed us back considerably, but the surprise factor was the only thing helping them, we're holding back with great effort. Don't get me wrong, sooner or later we'll fall, and I guess it'll be sooner rather than later, I'd suggest evacuating and holding on a more... Favorable position."

"We've got two choices, either the Imperium or Executor's Empire, what do you suggest?"

"The imperium. Executor's Empire has been weakened by the rebellion and will not stand against the swarm."

All of a sudden static and fighting could be heard from another radio, as if something weakened the signal such as damage on the other side of the talking. "Charon! Chaser!! You read me?! This is Executor, things are already going to Hell over here, we'll die in a matter of hours!! Those damned things... Me and my forces are fighting in the capital, you hear?! The middle of the continent, they pushed us here faster than we could back off! Place looks like Stalingrad after being bombarded for months by the Nazis and we've been barely fighting for minutes!!" Executor began speaking away from the radio, seeing as he also was part of the conflict and was obviously busy with other matters, then returning to the radio again. "Alright, that's it, we're leaving!! This place is done for!!"

"Aren't the guns designed to hold against them?" Asked Chaser. "How could they beat them back so fast?"

"Because those bastards kept sending new stuff!! Now they keep sending things that tunnel below our feet, others that explode on our faces-- SHI--" The radio became static following a loud explosion, but the signal was succesfully recovered afterwards with the sound of several hooves slamming on the ground, running away. "Anything on your minds!?"

"The Imperium it is then." Charon decided. "Executor, Chaser, this is the plan, gather every pony left and evacuate to the Imperium, we'll make a stand there and wait for an opening, anything you need?"

"We're fine by now, somehow." Chaser answered.

"Well appart from a damn miracle we need the seas clean, those marine changelings are enough trouble as they are now and my navy can't hold them off, it's too big of an area to cover." Answered Executor.

"Atticus, how goes the situation?" Asked Charon.

"For now the Imperium's borders are safe, no attacks reported at all."

"Order Shining Armor to use the navy to support Executor's evacuation."

"Immediately."

"Concord, I need you to go and ask Discord about Chrysalis and her whereabouts. Chaser, prioritize the Landkreuzers in the evacuation, we can't afford to lose them."

"You got it." Answered Concord before turning into smoke and leaving.

"Understood, what about the supplies still in my lands?" Chaser asked.

"Bring them here, we'll find a way to store them. Stallinox is big enough to act as a fortress warehouse at least."

Concord arrived to Canterlot's garden in a cloud of smoke, trying to dissipate it by waving his arm around and then looking for Discord. He found him with only his head not petrified, apparently sleeping.

"Everypony is dying and you're here taking a nap?" He ranted, walking up to Discord.

"Uhh-- Wha..." Discord muttered as he woke up. "I assume by that reaction Chrysalis already made her move. Alright, this won't take long..." He said as he raised his head and focused, but after long his face changed from focus to confusion.

"Well? What is it? Where is she?"

"She's..."

"She's...?"

"Still... dormant...?"

"What?"

"Still dormant, I can't find her, I can't feel her power."

"What?! How is she still dormant?! She's commanding the entire swarm and you tell me that she's still dormant?!"

"Ranting will take you nowhere. She's still not active, which wouldn't make sense unless... Tell me, have you seen a changeling different from the others?"

"Different... Different as in how?"

"Different completely, I don't know how."

"Well there was this changeling that impersonated Executor, and we didn't see him since then..."

"He could be leading the swarm, not Chrysalis."

"But then wouldn't it mean I would be able to sense him too like I did the first time he appeared before we even knew about the other Terrans?"

"There's the possibility that power could have only been felt when it changed into its Terran form. It'd also mean you were used as a bait to find Executor's Empire by Chrysalis."

"It'd make sense..." Concord sighed, irritated by being used so much and against those he cared about. "So, what now..?"

"Stick to whatever plan you have and wait, chances are Chrysalis will get uppity and reveal herself to taunt, it'd not be like her to pass the chance."

"But what if she doesn't show up?"

"Can you really afford to think that?"

Concord sighed again, he felt like a lab rat with no way out.

Executor stood on top of a tank with three other ponies as it drove through the hellish streets full speed, escaping from the innummerable horde of changelings that pursued them. Executor, with the rest of the ponies, wore the power armor that Kaiserreich designed for them, Executor wearing a slightly different variant due to having an anatomy different than the ponies: His entire body was covered in thick plates of steel; his gauntlets and legs adorned with spikes not for looks but for better grip; a dark blue cape with his Empire's insignia on its center clinging from the back of his pauldrons, and a helmet with two triangular eyes, as if the expression it made was frowning, but it had no other characteristics of a face, no nose, no mouth, no ears, just the nightmarish eyes that would strike fear into anyone who was up against him, but unfortunately the changelings were unable to feel fear at all. Executor and the three ponies kept on shooting with their guns at the changelings that chased after them, hordes and hordes that covered the entire street, while the tank dodged debris of the fighting such as rubble, destroyed cars and changeling corpses.

The convoy, with the tank Executor and his 3 ponies were on being the last of the line, turned a corner with great speed, their objective was a port that'd allow them to leave the continent. This was the last convoy that carried survivors, the evacuation progressed well.

"Exploding changelings!! Top of the buildings!!" The radio yelled, not a second later the entire convoy line was desperately dodging the bombs that rained upon them, Executor almost losing balance and falling off. But, just as they thought they were going to pull through, an armored changeling with a great turtle shell appeared from the ground, digging its way out and making the tank impact against it, stopping it. The changeling, being the same size as the tank, tried to grab its crew with its blades, but the tank with a swift movement moved its turret to the changeling's mouth and fired, making it drop dead without delay. It wasn't over, though, the tank was stuck and the changeling hordes kept on advancing, the convoy not being able to afford delay had left without them, but even if they didn't Executor would have ordered them to leave anyways.

"Get down, move this damn thing!!" Yelled Executor, jumping down from the tank with the other 3 ponies while it moved its turret and aimed at the hordes, unleashing a wall of fire from its flamethrower. The ponies and the Terran grunted as they desperately tried to move the enormous corpse from the way, its great weight making it incredibly difficult but managing to drag the carcass through the asphalt until it was completely out of the way. The vehicle gathered speed and moved forward, Executor and his ponies jumping aboard as it moved, and pushed forward through the destroyed remains of the streets until it managed to catch up with the rest of the convoy. The port was already in sight and the battleships and transports that waited there made the ponies let out a sigh of relief, drowned by the sound of the batteries firing and blocking the way of the hordes with destroyed buildings, debris and fire.

The convoy began to be loaded to the transports, those who survived happy that they get to see another day boarding the mighty ships of Executor's and the Imperial navy that not long ago were fighting against each other. "This is too much action for a man on his 50's..." Sighed Executor, who had already boarded the ship and reached the bridge with a clear view of the scenery. "Nothing left now, right?" He asked to the pony next to him.

"No, just sailing to the Imperium."

"Thank God... What..." He questioned as he calibrated his helmet which coincidentially had a binocular function too. He focused his sight to the smoke in the distance on top of a building, trying to decipher what was there as it contrasted to what was actually smoke. He saw a strange figure, not unlike a Terran, standing tall behind the smoke, not moving, just staring at the convoy that was being loaded, menacingly. He tinkered with his helmet, passing through the different types of visions, until he could see perfectly the figure of the Terran: Executor, or technically an almost perfect clone of him if it wasn't for the green eyes. He just stood there, smiling and waving his arm, they both knew they were staring at eachother. "How..." He questioned dumbfounded.

The changeling Executor's steps over the floor of ashes and charcoal in the volcanic wasteland could very well be heard, the grim silence being the only other thing present as he walked until he reached Chrysalis, who was next to the edge of a cliff overlooking an ocean of lava. "Kaiserreich and that other continent are done for. What's the next course of action?" He asked in a voice which suggested boredom and irritation.

"We'll leave them alone for a while." Chrysalis quietly answered with a smile.

"What?!" He ranted, lifting his arms. "We could end this for good and we're leaving them as they are?! They'll have the chance to prepare, you know."

"Isn't that the point...?"

"Uhhh... Explain."

"Silly, silly changeling... Think. Once this ends, what will there be left to do? Nothing. Just a changeling world with no one to entertain us, but right now we have a source of entertainment, and it's not like they can beat us, right? Fear and paranoia will rise among them as each day passes, eating them inside out..."

"Well, it's just entertainment, I'd rather get this done sooner than later."

"And once this ends, what will you do?"

"..."

"See?"

"Fine, you've got a point, what are we going to do then?"

"We'll wait, and after a month of two I'll do something big enough to get their attention. The Terrans will try to attack me to save their lives, but by doing so they'll split their forces into two: Those who attack me, and those who defend the refugees. After they begin their attack, you'll lead part of the swarm to the refugees and kill them all. Then we'll give the news to those who were invading us... Just imagine their reaction when those who they were trying to defend ended up being the first to die."

"How sadistic... What if something goes wrong?"

"We just unleash the swarm on anything that moves. Our numbers are infinite and the ponies already lost half their entire population. So, I'm going to need a crazy place for my power to be shown..."

"Crazy place? Well, the north pole's always available."

"I already used that for Shining Armor, Executor and Atticus. I need another place."

"The south pole?"

"Perfect..."

"Say..." Celestia and Executor talking on a bench outside Canterlot. "You are Charon's father, yet you both act as if you were just friends."

"I'm only his father in blood, nothing else. We made a deal to ignore this fact and carry on with life since... We're not proud of our past..."

"How did that exactly happen?"

"I'm not going to talk about it, sorry. I'd rather just forget about it. You'll have to ask someone else, maybe Concord will tell you."

"I understand... Chaser and Charon told me Terra was a nightmare, is it really as bad as they say?"

"No one dies in peace. To give a comparison, when I first arrived into this world I thought I had died and was in heaven, this was paradise... No corruption, no greed, no sorrow, you could trust anyone... But then Chrysalis revealed her plans..."

"Compared to the alternate timeline, we still have hope of fixing things."

"Hope, maybe nothing else."

Both became silent upon hearing the steps of the Draconequus walking towards them, they both watched as he stepped in front of them and extended his hands as if asking them to hold them. "We need to go to Stallinox, now."

"What is it?" Asked Executor.

"You'll know."

Celestia and Executor held Concord's hands, soon enough disappearing in a cloud of smoke with him and arriving to Stallinox's castle where many ponies and important figures such as Atticus, Shining Armor and Chaser waited. Charon was also there, but exhausted and panting, sitting on a chair in a corner.

"What happened with him?" Asked Celestia.

"Well," Chaser began explaining. "His nightmares were getting progressively worse until they became hallucinations. He just had one a few minutes ago."

Just as Chaser finished explaining, Discord himself showed up and walked to the middle of the room, everypony else gathering around him and paying close attention to what he was about to say, both Executor and Celestia were about to find out why they were brought there.

"As you might all know," Discord began talking. "You've been all brought here for a reason. That reason is obvious, Chrysalis has become active not hours ago."

"Now we have a lead, where is she?" Asked Concord.

"Well, that's a rather... Funny detail, to be honest. She's..."

"Where?"

"In the South Pole."

The room became silent for a few minutes, not because of the ridiculousness of the situation, but because of something Atticus was about to state.

"That's actually... Believable." Atticus mentioned. "Didn't she imprison Shining Armor, Executor and me in the North Pole once?"

"That's true..." Shining Armor stated.

"So," Chaser began asking. "She's waiting on the South Pole for a duel or something?"

"No." Discord Answered. "This power I feel is more like an exhaust, power escaping there, but not originating from the South Pole itself. I'd assume its a portal of sorts, where it leads is beyond me but we can assume Chrysalis is there."

"Alright." Charon stood up with effort and stepped forward. "We know where she is, we just need to set a foothold in the south pole, get as many soldiers there, kill Chrysalis and rescue Luna, and then deal with what's left."

"This is totally not a trap, Charon." Chaser remarked with a great deal of sarcasm.

"It's Chrysalis, the most powerful being in the world, you really think she's not immortal too?" Questioned Discord.

"Well do we have another option?!" Ranted Charon.

"And how would stopping Chrysalis help against her entire swarm? Her entire horde might be just as powerful if not more." Questioned Executor.

At these questions the entire room started arguing over what could be the next course of action against this threat, getting more and more violent by the second until Shining Armor stepped forward.

"Alright, everypony stop fighting this instant. We'll not get anywhere by fighting, all the contrary, I bet Chrysalis is laughing at us right now. There's no other way to do things, we're stuck here until we take actions against her!! Thanks to the evacuation we now have 50 billion able ponies in this continent, right? With even less than half that amount of manpower we can do anything in a short amount of time. This is the plan, we'll build up defences all over the continent in case we're attacked and shape them to be manned by a small garrison; we'll arm every able pony and organize them into the military to prepare for the south pole invasion; we'll round up the refugees in the central cities of the Imperium like Stallinox, Hestjord, Canterlot and the like, and once everything's finished we sail to the south pole with the remaining navy we have. It's crazy, I know, and maybe it won't even work, but all things considered it's still better than standing here arguing while those things tear our doors down!! This is not about a simple war, this is about the survival of our entire species!! Some ponies may say they'll defend what they care about or die trying... I say, death is not even an excuse for not getting the job done!! Who's with me?!!"

At this speech the entire room became silent, but slowly and steadily cheers and yells of joy started being heard until it escalated enough to become the only thing heard for the time being.

"Heh, taught you well about these things, Shining." Charon patted Shining Armor's back as he chuckled.

"I heard many things about Terrans by Concord, that they were crazy bastards with no regard for even their own safety... Glad I could experience that crazyness myself this moment."

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet, just wait till we're up against Chrysalis face to face..." He turned over to those who were in the room. "You've heard Shining. Atticus, you'll be in charge of the defences of the Imperium; Concord, Shining, Chaser and Executor, you'll help me muster the forces. Everypony else, rest and eat well, we're in for a wild future."

The ponies scrambled and walked away, the Terrans gathered up and began discussing, Atticus left the room and Concord would soon follow, but him seeing Celestia following him made him stop in his tracks. "Woah there, you're not thinking of joining our crazy attack, right?"

"You need every bit of help you can get."

"What we're going to do is meet Chrysalis directly face to face and throw everything we have left at her, and we don't even know if it'll work out, I can't let you go. Listen, Atticus needs help here too, you'll help him, alright?"

"But--"

Concord silenced her with a hug before she could keep speaking. "I don't want harm coming to you... I beg you, stay here where you're safe, do this for me at least."

"...Alright..."

20 days later...

"How many are ready?" Asked Charon, who was in a room with Shining Armor, Concord, Chaser and Executor.

"20 billion ponies ready for anything." Answered Shining Armor.

"Big numbers..."

"30 billion left as garrisons and refugees."

"The remaining navies are gathering in Kunatanah, soldiers and supplies being loaded as we speak." Stated Chaser.

"How long until it's completed?" Asked Charon.

"If we were to leave for Kunatanah now on foot, we'd arrive as they finish. Needless to say, it's impossible to send a million soldiers to the south pole in a single boat trip, let alone 20 billion. What are we going to do about this detail?"

"That thing at the South Pole is a portal, right?" Executor spoke with an idea. "We could make a base there, gather forces and once we have most of the soldiers there begin the assault, with reinforcements sent as they arrive."

"Good enough. I can teleport you to Kunatanah so we still have time to plan ahead." Stated Concord.

"Teleport..." Began thinking Shining Armor. "Can't you teleport the soldiers to the south pole instead? Could save us a lot of logistic headaches."

"I can't teleport that many in so little time. I could barely teleport around 20 ponies, Executor and Atticus back when they were in the north pole captured. Chaser, didn't you say you'd think of a solution?"

"I already did time ago, never had the opportunity to explain it in detail. This is how it'd go: We set a foothold in the south pole and set up portals of our own with unicorn magic, which would act as gates between the Imperium and the south pole. This'll only make a single boat trip required, then we'll just need to keep the portals we set up running for forces to arrive."

Charon sighed with relief, and at the same time exhaustion. "So everything's ready, we only need to wait now... Well, you all should spend time doing the things you enjoy, after this we'll be stuck fighting for our lives. Concord, Shining, you all have someone you care for, go make them happy while you can."

All of those in the room stared at Charon who had been spacing out recently, but shrugged it off seeing as what he was saying was the truth. They stood up from where they sat and one by one left the room, until Charon was all alone by himself. Himself, and an hallucination of Luna he was seeing for the entire meeting, just staring at him with a smile and her closed eyes, contrasting the violent nightmares he had before. He stood up and slowly walked towards Luna, raised his hand and tried to grasp her cheek with care, but couldn't before she disappeared in an instant, not to return. He cleaned the tear on his own cheeck with his hand, and sighed deeply.

"I know where you are now..." He talked to himself in the lone room. "I don't need to find you anymore... I just need to get to you..."

"The mightiest fleet to have ever been assembled..." Chaser mentioned, standing next to Charon and Shining Armor on the bridge of one of the ships in Kunatanah with his arms on his back. "Not even the Kaiser-Imperial war would compare to this level of armament." He had his own variant of power armor on, just like Executor's but instead of triangular red eyes he had spherical grey eyes, and his cape was dark grey with Kaiserreich's insignia on the center.

Concord arrived with Executor, clad in his power armor too, engulfed on a cloud of smoke. Executor began coughing and tried to clear the smoke with his arm. "Rough ride."

"Are we late?" Questioned Concord, seeing as some ships were already on the sea instead of docked on the port.

"No," Shining Armor answered. "The problem is there are so many ships here there isn't enough space on the port for each one. Ours is about to sail, so you're just in time."

Not a few minutes after Shining Armor answered, the ship began moving forwards to the sea. They all stared at the scenery, but Shining Armor had another idea, signalling Chaser with his head.

"Charon, there's something for you." Stated Chaser. "Just follow me, it's on the lower parts of the ship."

Charon complied and followed Chaser who left the room first, the others staying. They both walked down many stairs and walked through many corridors, hearing the steam rushing through the pipes of the walls as they descended until they reached a room with a few number of ponies enjoying a drink, who stood up and cleared the way once they saw them. It was clear they were waiting for them.

"Get the armor." Chaser ordered. The ponies scrambled and brought a rather large cabinet-looking object, placing it on the floor in front of Charon with great effort. They opened it, revealing a large set of steel parts that looked nothing like armor, but that was to be expected since it had to be arranged on the wearer itself. "You've seen me and Executor with this kind of stuff, even the ponies who fought the changelings in the frontline. Now it's your turn to join us in the fight." At these words, the ponies moved once again and began taking out the pieces of armor out of the cabinet, taking off Charon's longcoat and welding the plates together on him. First the pauldrons, then the breastplate, later the legs, boots, arms, gauntlets and finally the helmet, who had a metallic hat of its own just like his last one, a wide-brimmed hat with a plain top, which covered his eyes with a shadow. Another pony arrived with a long red cloth and walked up to Charon's back, and began tinkering with the pauldrons; it was the armor's cape, a blood-red cape with the Imperium's insignia on it, the one who the entire pony species now followed to their last breath, now used by the one who built it all from nothing with fire and blood. As the ponies finished welding the armor together and the cape was set in place, they backed off a few steps and waited for it to activate; Chaser, who was the mind behind the armor, knew that anything the Discordian Immortals used would repair itself to its best state no matter the kind of damage, and now that the armor was being used by the Terrans it'd keep itself in its best state perpetually, there was no fear in actually welding the armor together. The molten steel plates began changing colour and even turning into ashes a bit, changing form until it reached what the armor was supposed to look like, the pinnacle of Pony and Terran technology. Charon's armor's eyes finally lit up, shaped as horizontal rectangles, with red light emanating from them, signalling that the equipment was fully functional at last. As Charon looked at himself with his new outfit, Chaser began explaining several traits the armor had.

"Not everything is as it looks. This might be like the other armors the ponies used, but theres a difference. Those plates, if it wasn't for unicorn magic, would be more than five times bigger."

"Bigger? So you shrunk them?"

"Exactly, and with the lightweight steel that I used with the landkreuzer it retains the same weight, but its density makes it incredibly stronger. Couple that with the regenerative capacity of a Discordian Immortal, and you're a living tank. Fitting, since we're using the kind of metal that's supposed to be reserved for tanks."

"The four of us will be using this, then?"

"Four?"

"Concord..."

"No, he won't need the armor, he's a God in his own right. It'd only serve to limit his mobility. Only we three Terrans will be using it."

"I see... Why didn't you use this kind of technology for the ponies' armor then? Could have helped a lot with the added protection."

"Because the exoskeleton can only add so much strength, Terrans are stronger than ponies and Terran anatomy allowed the exoskeleton to be fitted with more strength-enhacing mechanisms."

"Alright, makes sense, but wouldn't it be overkill for us? We're immortals after all, we don't need that much protection."

"That's exactly why we need it. We're the ones who can change the tide of the war on the frontlines, we're the ones who can stand up against Chrysalis, a pony wouldn't even dream of it. We can be sure we'll be the ones who'll be targeted all along, we can't take the luxury of falling even for an instant. I fear this won't even be enough to keep us safe, so the four of us will have to stick together and fight Chrysalis at the same time if we find her."

Charon decided to pick up the rapier he left on the floor when he was getting his armor put on, but realized it was considerably heavier, heavy enough to make the exoskeleton struggle for a second. "What...?"

"What is it?"

"The rapier, it's heavier than before."

"Is that so...?" He questioned confused. "You can still hold it, though. Maybe it adapts to your strength."

"Could be..." He remarked confused as he placed it on his armor's belt.

Chaser left the room, Charon soon following his steps, until they both reached the bridge of the ship where the other waited.

"Fancy armor." Concord stated. "That reminds me... Chaser, here." He got Chaser's attention as he unstrapped Celestia's rapier from his belt and gave it to him. "You'll need it more than I do, take care of it."

"Understood..."

"I want a rapier too, guys..." Ranted Executor.

The three Terrans' metallic boots dug deep into the snow of the South pole as they jumped down the ship they were on. Thousands and thousands of ponies descended too, stepping into the cold lands of the south where a blizzard blinded everything but that which was immediately in front of them. The three Terrans advanced, soon enough Concord and Shining Armor catching their pace, until they saw the encampment created by the ponies that arrived before them. They also saw how several groups of unicorns gathered around specific places with a circular drawings on the floor, focusing their power onto it and causing a portal to appear; the scenery at the other side of the portal contrasted with this one: At this side, just clear white coldness that could freeze anything but the sturdiest of elements, and on the other side, a not-so-warm place where the sun shined and grass grew, with snow slowly falling and being deposited onto the ground. It wasn't the only portal, many more were being activated all over the place, and some were already set up with ponies, tanks and vehicles coming through them, their weight digging into the snow but marching forward with haste.

"You," Asked Shining Armor to one of the ponies that was walking around. "Where's the main tent?"

"That way, keep going straight and you'll find it." The pony answered before walking away.

The five kept walking until they reached the tent the pony told them, moved the cloth at the front and one by one entered. They were greeted by those who were already inside, waiting for them.

"How goes the plan?" Shining Armor asked as he neared the table at the center of the tent and laid his hooves on it.

"We met no resistance in the landings," An officer answered as he too neared the table. "No changelings were sighted by our scouts, but neither has the portal Discord spoke of. We are starting to fear this was just a distraction."

"It's not." Interrupted Concord. "I can feel the portal now, guess I just needed to get close."

"Give me 20 ponies, we'll scout for it." Demanded Charon.

Shining Armor sighed and rubbed his eyes, not in irritation, but in anticipation. "I'll take over now, just wait outside and I'll send them as soon as I can. Who else is going to be with you?"

Charon looked around and stared at Chaser and Executor, and seeing as they didn't object he decided to include them in the group. "Chaser and Executor will follow me."

"Got it."

Chaser, Charon, Executor and Concord left the tent and stepped into the blizzard outside while Shining Armor stayed inside. They waited and waited, the only thing they saw was a pony coming out of the tent and going away to the center of the encampent, but for another few moments nothing else happened. Then, 20 ponies covered in steel with their guns ready arrived marching towards the three Terrans and the Draconequus.

"Twenty ready for service, sir." One of the ponies greeted him with irritation in his voice, but it was to be expected, literally nopony in the world had stepped into such harsh lands before, even less so after being used to the warmth of their homelands.

"Concord, you know where the portal is?" Asked Charon.

"Not exactly, but I can feel the direction, mostly."

"'Mostly'?"

"Hey, something's something."

Charon sighed and lowered his vision, before raising it again and speaking. "Fine, lead the way."

"Isn't this blizzard a bit too much?!" Complained Executor as he cleared the snow that slowly piled up on his helmet.

"By Terran standards, yes, only rarely you get something like this in the south pole. Well, maybe, I've never been to the south pole anyways." Explained Chaser. "But we're not in Terra, there's no way to tell if this is 'normal' here."

"If it is, then I'll be damned. But what if this is related to that ice age Concord brought back with him with that time travel spell?"

"There's no way to prove it one way or the other, it'll remain in doubt, and we have more important things to care about." They would have kept on walking, had they not realized that everypony else stopped at the sight of Concord extending his arm as if telling everyone to stand where they were.

"We're close..." Concord muttered, slowly walking forwards a few steps, then circling a small spot on the ground. Upon closer inspection, the air was slightly distorted where he stared, as if gas escaped from the ground. Concord kept on circling it, with his eyes narrowed staring into the distortion, until he stopped on his steps and extended his hand towards it. He made a simple spark of electricity come out of his fingers, which then engulfed the scenery in a harmless storm of static that managed to spread even further than sight allowed.

"That's the portal? For it to lead to Chrysalis, it's pretty small." Charon asked.

"This... The portal is bigger..."

"How bigger?"

"...We stepped into the portal already before even realizing, it's as big as a house." As Concord talked, a few ponies took out a metallic box out of one of their backpacks and placed it on the floor, raising an antenna, as if it was some sort of radar.

"Then why didn't we get teleported?"

"Because it's not activated, it's dormant... Purposefully so. It lets energy escape for me and Discord to notice, but doesn't allow teleportation yet. I could activate it right now, but it'd be better if we gathered--" He was interrupted by the sound of Chrysalis laughing to herself, sending shivers down everyone's spines, the sound coming from inside their minds.

"Fools..." Chrysalis mocked. "You still have hopes of winning...? Tell me, do you really think death is the worst thing that will happen to you?"

The scenery became silent, the only thing heard being the blizzard that raged on, but the silence was broken as bullets whistled in the storm, impacting with the ponies' and the Terrans' armor creating a loud and brutal 'clank' as they dropped like flies. Only Concord reacted in time to realize what was going on, desperately using his magic to dig a primitive trench and pull everypony inside.

"What's going on?!" Executor desperately asked as he took cover in the trench, the bullets impacting on the ground and sending snow and dust flying at him and the others.

"Bullets!! They're using bullets!! They can use our technology!!" Chaser yelled.

"Shut up and fire back!" Charon demanded, taking out his gun and firing at the strange silhouettes in the distance, ignoring the fact that he was being shot in the arms, head and torso, but the thickness of the armor and regenerative capability allowed him to keep fighting. Not after long all the shots were focused on him, allowing the remaining ponies to fire back from the trench and quickly dispatch of the silhouettes, far faster than expected. "It's... Over?" He questioned.

"Looks like it is. Let's go fast and check on what those things are, if they can use our technology it'll mean we'll have to change our entire strategy against them." Concord suggested as he climbed up the trench and then helping the others out. Unfortunately, out of the 20 ponies only 4 managed to stay alive, that surprise attack was devastating, but they had to keep their priorities in place.

They climbed up the trench and marched to where the shots came from, seeing the shape of the silhouettes on the ground becoming more and more detailed as they got closer, until they could see how they resembled the changelings before their anatomical change, but the group's expression changed from curiousity to confusion as they saw the silhouettes were not changelings, but pony soldiers in their armor, and as they got even closer they saw how they had insectoid wings coming out of their backs as if they broke out, with one of the corpses having skeleton wings mixed with insectoid.

"What..." Executor could barely mutter, confused beyond belief.

"Three corpses, the ones who were shooting us. They're not changelings, but those wings don't make them ponies either..." Chaser wondered. "Unless Chrysalis managed to get the changelings to use our armor..."

Charon got even closer to the three corpses, reaching one and crouching next to it. He carefully tinkered with the helmet of the corpse and began taking it off, but as he looked at the strange being's face he became horrified, he could see a pony, but with dark skin and holes on his face, bleeding from his mouth. It raised its gauntlet to Charon's chest all of a sudden and grabbed him, petrifying him on his place, and muttering only one thing from its dying mouth.

"K-Kill... M-me..."

The pony changeling was put out of its misery by Chaser with a shot to the heart before anyone could do anything, everyone was horrified, petrified, and afraid of what just happened.

"Th...Than..." The pony changeling could not even thank Chaser before closing its eyes. The silence that ensued was nightmarish, only to be broken again by Chrysalis herself.

"This is what's coming to all of you, and don't think there are exceptions, no one is immune to that... Not you, Concord, with your godlike powers, not Celestia, not Discord... and most importantly, not even Luna."

Upon hearing what Chrysalis said about Luna, Charon almost snapped, he stood up and yelled at the sky. "What did you do to her?!"

"Oh, don't worry, I didn't do anything to her yet. Where would be the fun in not making you witness her 'transformation' with your own eyes?"

Charon began angering more and more. "Get that portal working, Concord."

"What?! That's nuts!!"

"You heard me!!"

"I'm not going to activate it, you'll get the entire pony race killed and us immortals captured!! That'll mean Luna will suffer what you're trying to prevent, you retard!!"

Charon fell silent, he realized he was letting his fury get the best of him, that Chrysalis was digging into his mind without him knowing. He sighed, lowering his vision, and walked up to the metallic box that was set up in the beginning and survived the firefight. "This thing is supposed to give the others the location of the portal, right...?"

"Yes."

"Then we're not needed anymore for now, let's go..." He ordered as he walked away.

"Uhh... Concord..." Executor whispered next to him.

"Yes?"

"Is that... Supposed to happen?" He asked as he pointed at Charon's steps. The snow where he stepped changed to a slightly darker shade and began melting, leaving a trail of smoke that would not be noticed in the blizzard.

Concord sighed. "Berserk..."

Shining Armor just stared into the void in his tent, with the other officers sharing his expression of shock. He stood there, doing nothing, until Concord and the others finally arrived.

"Shining, it'd be wise not to talk with Charon from now on, I fear he's letting his anger get the best of him. Did... Something happen?"

"Chrysalis... She..."

"You saw it?"

"We all did, she wanted us all to know... We saw and heard everything through our minds... Were those things, the changeling ponies... Real?"

"...Unfortunately, yes... I thought I've seen the worst Chrysalis had to offer. Apparently Chrysalis can turn ponies into changelings now and use them against us, horrible, but what's worse is that if we fail here a fate worse than death awaits us."

"Of all the nightmares there are this is the one we choose for ourselves. We showed no fear before, this won't be an exception."

Concord sighed and decided to sit down on a chair lying around. "You ponies sure are determined. Not a century ago you were all happy with life and now you're going to fight against a Goddess out of sheer will alone. Anyways, the portal isn't active, nothing can go in nor come out of it yet. Anything on your mind?"

"We wait for more forces to arrive, we set up around that portal, and when the time arrives, we strike. Not that there's any other option right now."

"And the Landkreuzers?"

"There's only one, and it's too big for the portals we created for it to fit."

"One? Was the other lost in the evacuation?"

"No," Chaser answered as he entered the tent. "I scrapped the Monster to strengthen the Ratte, but since the problem Shining Armor mentioned appeared it was decided to leave it in the Imperium so as to help with the defence. It was modified to fire that stuff you used against Stallinox in the first war, that exploding material that tore down the walls, the scientists joked about calling it Explodium since it had no name yet."

"How did you get that stuff? I thought only I knew how to make it."

"Charon gave me the schematics of the grenades you gave him since he didn't really need it, the engineers reverse engineered it, and then used them on the tank."

"Ah, makes sense..."

"You guys sure Chrysalis won't attack us while we're here?" Asked Executor, entering the tent last.

"I don't think she'll pass the chance to fight us with our full strength just for entertainment." Shining Armor answered.

Weeks later...

Charon himself stood in front of the yet unactive portal in the middle of the blizzard, his hands in front of him on top of his rapier's hilt, which blade was on the snow.

"This will decide the fate of ponykind." Concord remarked, stepping forward right next to Charon, readying his old gun. "How are you feeling?"

"Impatient."

"This is the first time the result relies entirely upon us, no Gods, no masters, just us ponies and Terrans." Executor mentioned, stepping forward while throwing a grenade up and down with his hand.

"Long ago, we three Terrans were decided to kill eachother. Now, we fight back to back aginst a Goddess. Isn't fate funny?" Chaser muttered, walking forward next to the others.

"Might as well take revenge for what she has done," Shining Armor added. "Every soul in this plane of existence holds a grudge against her, and with good reason." The ground began shaking and noise started generating; soldiers, vehicles and tanks gathered around the portal ready for the end. "They are growing impatient, Concord. Do the honors."

"Gladly..." He smiled, stepping forward to the portal and raising his arms in front. He focused, closing his eyes, and opening his hands while lowering his sight. Slowly, sparks of electricity appeared all over the place, the clouds up above started being rearranged in a spiral over the portal, and the sky started turning into a darker shade of red as time passed.

"Wish this damn thing came with an instruction manual... For all we know we might be upsetting the entire space-time continuum..." Executor whispered to Chaser, who just shrugged it off.

The sparks intensified, until it reached a point where it was an entire storm around the portal, almost blinding everyone present, until a deafening explosion and a great shockwave forced everyone to cover their head with their arms. Once they recovered, they all saw in front of them a giant, rectangular shaped portal, with no image but a texture not unlike a puddle of blood.

"It's done." Muttered Concord to himself. He turned around and spoke loudly, "This is how it begins!!"

"Let's go get the bastards!!" Yelled a random pony through the radio before a lone truck strapped with machineguns drove full speed towards the portal. Soon enough more and more ponies and vehicles joined the charge, until the entire army was creating an earthquake by sheer force of hooves and wheels running at their fate, only Charon, Executor, Concord, Shining Armor and Chaser were the ones not joining.

"Make peace with your Gods." Muttered Charon, taking out his rapier from the ground and gripping it tight, then began walking forwards towards the portal. "All, or nothing."

The five present began walking towards the portal, contrasting with the rest of the ponies who were impatiently throwing themselves at the unknown, until they crossed the gateway that stood in front of them. Once on the other side, what sight wasn't blocked by ponies and vehicles revealed the place had volcanic floor and completely red sky, but there was no noise of fighting, no shots, no screams, nothing, as if there was no opposition there, only the sound of the ponies questioning where they were and what was going on could be heard.

"Move it, move it." Charon demanded as he walked to the front of the forces, almost drowned in soldiers, trying to figure out what was going on with Chaser, Executor and Concord following. Shining Armor had stayed behind to deal with the chain of command. Once he arrived to the front, he could see all around him a familiar, unnerving place: Volcanos, rivers and oceans of lava, ash floor, he knew this place too well already. "This... Is the place of my nightmares..." He could barely mutter.

"Well that took you long enough." Echoed the voice of a familiar woman inside everyone's minds.

"Chrysalis!! Where are you?!!" Yelled Charon.

"You want to see me so bad? Hmph, so be it." The voice muttered before revealing itself in a spiral of green flares in front of Charon and the ponies. "Well? What does the little emperor have to say now?" She laughed to herself with one hand on her waist and the index finger of her other hand below Charon's chin, to which he knocked it off with the movement of his arm.

"You... This place..." He could barely hold off his anger.

"You seem to know me too well, Charon. I welcome you... To Hell. Literally. We're in another plane of existence now, a separate dimension where the is no life except us, planets of ashes and lava, this dimension is called Hell, and the lands of this planet, Tartarus..."

"Your homeworld...?"

"Of course not, we all lived in Equestria once, but found this place by sheer accident one day, and since the only thing we changelings needed to live is love we could migrate here while gathering such love from the ponies... Tell me, how much has it been? Years? We should have met eachother more frequently..."

"Worst curse there is is seeing you again..."

"Aww, don't be so mean, after all you're going to be my slave soon. You, and everypony else, my slaves for eternity..."

"As if I'd let that happen."

"It's not up to you, and if it were, you'd be done for already, my dear little dumb friend." She remarked as she laughed to herself. "You really think I didn't see through all of your tricks...? Hah, you're as idiotic as I first thought when I brought you to this world to begin with." With a swift movement, she slapped Charon with the back of her hand, making him almost lose balance, and disappearing before he could deliver a counter filled with fury and revenge.

"Come out wherever you are and fight!!" He yelled to the sky.

"So impatient? Well, it's to be expected from Terrans..." She began laughing to herself, but this time with a creepier tone that sent shivers down everyone's spines. "Old sons of old Gods... *Die!!***"

The earth suddenly began shaking, but there was nothing around to cause such thing, everyone began worrying and getting confused by such event.

"What's going on now?" Muttered Concord, he knew nothing well would come out of this.

"As if I'd know." Answered Chaser.

"Uhhh... Guys..." Tried talking Executor as he pointed to the horizon.

"Yes?" Asked Concord.

"...The natives are getting restless..."

Everyone turned their sight towards the horizon where Executor had been pointing at, seeing a small dot on the distance which became bigger and bigger as seconds passed, and after time they realized that the dot was actually a group of millions and millions of changelings that were charging at them from a tremendous distance. The numbers grew until they were all over the horizon and became the only thing that could be seen, billions, maybe trillions of black creatures running and flying towards them. But before they could properly react, bullets started whistling at them, shooting down the ponies without previous warning, until they reacted by the tanks moving forward and using themselves as cover for the ponies, the changelings had brought changeling ponies with them. The entire pony army, at this sight, began shooting at everything that moved in front of them, deafening sounds of gunshots and artillery raining, the entire strength of the ponies against the changeling swarm.

"I'm tired of running around!!" Charon yelled with fury as he unloaded his gun to the changeling hordes. "We've spent our lives as pawns of her, but now we have the chance to bring the fight to her doorstep!! You heard her, we invaded *Hell itself** to get her, I want her head on a silver plate, I don't care what it takes!!*" He threw his gun away, took out his rapier, yelled as he raised it and ran forward, the changelings were already close enough to be fought in close combat. Everypony followed suit; tanks, vehicles, infantry, everything not bolted to the ground moved forward with Charon in the battle that'd decide the future of ponykind.

"I see... Alright." Atticus spoke with a pony over the radio in Canterlot. "Yes, I understand. I'll make sure to give everypony the news. Thanks for keeping us informed." He cut the radio and put it down, his expression was the same as always, anxiety, but this time mixed with relief at least. He stood up and walked over to Celestia, who was with another radio, and began talking to her. "Celestia, the attack begun, they say Chrysalis herself is there, now we just need to wait. ...Celestia?" He questioned, seeing as he received no response. "Is something wrong?"

"There is..." She spoke as she lowered her radio, seeing as she was recently talking with another pony. "We..."

"Yes?"

"Sigh... The Imprium's being attacked already..."

"...How?! Wasn't the south pole the only way those changelings could get out?"

"You don't realize, do you...? They can come out from anywhere, they just toyed with us with that South Pole thing. It was just a distraction to get us... We're going to--"

"Celestia!!" A pony through the radio yelled, almost drowned by the sound of gunshots and explosions.

"Yes?"

"We observed the attack as you requested, there seems to be a strange being leading the changelings!! Its anatomy looks like a Terran--"

"It's a damned Demon!!!" Another pony interrupted through the radio.

"Cut it, I'm trying to talk over here!! Anyways, that thing is ridiculously armored, looks like it's using some sort of red and black medieval armor design but no matter what we throw at him he doesn't fall, from what I can see he's taller than the Terrans, the armor makes it look huge in comparison, we should--"

"INCOMING--" The radio was cut dead by the sound of an explosion followed by static.

Celestia, knowing there was nothing else to do, cut the radio and lowered it, then just stared at Atticus with an expression of sorrow before asking a question. "Do you think the Terrans will get Chrysalis in time...?"

"It's the only option we have..."

"Like cattle to the slaughter." The armored Terran-like figure meditated as he stared at the battlefield in the coast, his battleaxe in front of him and his hands on its hilt. It was none other than the impostor changeling Executor, now leading part of the swarm. "Can't believe they were stupid enough to fall for--"

'We can dance if we want to / we can leave our friends behind / 'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance / Well they're no friends of mine--'

"Yes, hello?" Executor picked up his cellphone, or to be technical a random changeling transformed into a device that allowed communication.

"How long will it take for the refugees to be taken care of?"

"No idea, at this pace-- Hold up." Executor lowered his cellphone and rose his arm as an artillery shell travelled at a tremendous speed towards him, catching it mid-air with his changeling magic. Then, he spun it in the air and returned the shell to where it was fired from, resulting in an explosion on the distance overshadowed by the entire conflict that took place around him. "Sorry, you were saying?"

"Hurry up, I'm getting bored already."

"Alright, alright... Impatient, are we?" He sighed as he strapped his battleaxe to his back and took out a gun like the ones the Imperium used, starting to march forward and beginning to push the attack with fury.

"And now..." The voice of Chrysalis echoed in everypony's minds. "We play the waiting game..."

Atticus and Celestia stared at the horizon from one of the towers of Canterlot Castle.

"Three hours... Three, damned, hours..." Atticus could barely mutter, in the horizon the changeling hordes could be seen pushing back the imperial army with great speed and strength. "Half a continent... And it only took him three hours..." He cleaned the sweat off his mouth and narrowed his eyes before walking off, with Celestia following him and several soldiers entering to take positions in the tower.

"What are we going to do now?" Asked Celestia.

"The first thing we were taught in our lives, hold the line. Apparently those things only attacked in a line, trying to get here while ignoring everything else, now I'm not surprised they got here so fast... They don't even need supply lines." He ranted, walking past the portals with ponies swarming in inside the main hall of the castle. "We protect the refugees, that's what we need to do for now, and that's the only thing the changelings want to kill, too. The good news is that since they ignored the entire continent to get to this place, we can rally everypony and hold the line here..."

"What about the ponies that were to be sent to the South Pole to aid the invasion?"

"They're still being sent, damned if I knew why the changelings didn't attack the encampment first, I'd have thought they knew about it. The Terrans have been fighting without rest for three hours now, there's no telling when they'll get Chrysalis, we need to give them time." As he finished talking, he reached for a chest that was placed at the edge of the main hall of the castle, a chest decorated with a white star on top. He opened it and took out an exoskeleton, putting on piece by piece until he was armored like any other pony soldier. Then, he took out a red cape with the Imperium's insignia on it and put it on his back. Finally, he took out a steel longsword, forged to be used by the armor with the added weight and size. "Is everypony safe in the underground complex?"

"All the refugees are there, nopony's left."

"Good, let's go." He ordered, walking outside with the rest of the ponies that still swarmed the scenery, until he stepped outside and saw the conflict that escalated with every minute that passed. Then, all of a sudden, a giant machine which size was comparable to a building moved into sight next to Atticus.

"Ratte in position, cover your ears." A pony said through the radio before the giant machine, the Landkreuzer, fired its first shot, causing enough shockwave to make Atticus' cape and Celestia's hair to flow in the wind. In the distance, an enormous white explosion was seen, creating a crater right in the middle of the changeling horde, which was then filled with even more changelings as the battle progressed, but what remained intact was one thing, the changeling Executor which kept on advancing despite receiving the shot. "That thing's still moving! Shot was ineffective!!"

"But it slowed him down!! Keep shooting!!!" Atticus yelled.

The battle intensified, ponies pouring from the castle and everywhere around the region from the portals, and the changelings on the horizon without limit advancing through the formations. The landkreuzer firing, turning everypony deaf for moments, but still unable to do anything to Executor. Celestia and Atticus could do nothing but watch the carnage, their hopes slowly being drained and lost, the fact that the changelings kept advancing meant that Chrysalis was still free and the Terrans still trying to end her reign of terror.

"Uhh..." One of the ponies from the Ratte talked through the radio. "Shot was... Effective I think?"

"What? Explain." Atticus questioned.

"Executor is nowhere to be seen after the 5th shot... Must've evaporated with the blast or something."

"Evaporated!? That's nuts, do you see him somewhere else!?"

"No sir, no signs of him anywhere, looks like he was the only thing that allowed the changelings to advance too, we're holding them off now."

"That was... Convenient, then... Keep holding the line, the Terrans need time--!" He was interrupted by a small earthquake near his feet, a strange feeling which almost made him lose balance.

"Atticus..." Started asking Celestia with worry. "Didn't Executor say something about... Tunneling changelings...?"

"Yes, he did... SHI--" He could barely yell as a heavily armored Terran figure jumped out of the ground in front of him and rose into the air.

"Here's Patriarch!!" The armored changeling that now named itself Patriarch yelled, landing on his feet and trying to cut Atticus in half with his battleaxe, but Atticus parried his strike and threw himself to the side, avoiding death by mere centimetres.

"What!?" Atticus exclaimed, dumbfounded. He also saw how thousands and thousands of changelings also came out from underground all over the place, surprising the imperial forces and slaughtering their way forwards. "Fall back to the castle!!" He desperately tried ordering, but it was for naught, for nopony could hear him.

"You lost!! It's all over, toymaker!!" Patriarch yelled, slowly marching towards Atticus who was slowly backing off.

"It's not over until the last pony falls!!"

"I'll personally make sure of that, then... Have at you!!" He swung his battle axe at Atticus, but was blocked by his steel longsword and the strength of his armor, both now staring at eachother through the deadlock of their weapons.

"As if that'd happen... The three Terrans are already hunting Chrysalis down in Tartarus, it's only a matter of time before you run out of changelings and Chrysalis is left defenceless, and you've wasted enough in this attack already."

Patriarch entered a burst of laughter before being able to contain himself. "You don't understand how changelings work... Do you? Fool, our numbers are without end, literally so! We feed on love and are made of the same material, but not only lover's love... Respect, loyalty, friendship... Everything!! In this war everypony is willing to sacrifice anything for survival, and Charon is the Messiah they all love and follow... And thanks to that love, our numbers are without limit!! You lost before even startingl!!"

"I don't have to listen to the toy of that flying turd!!" Atticus yelled with anger and fury in his heart, knowing very well it'd most likely mean his death.

Patriarch became silent, but seconds later kicked Atticus in the stomach hard enough to make him fall backwards and lose grasp of his longsword. "I won't even give you the chance to regret that!!" He screamed, trying to hit Atticus with his battleaxe, but failing as he rolled to the side, making him drive it to the ground, but took it out and once again tried attacking Atticus who was cornered by the debris without chance of escape, only to be blocked by Celestia who now held the longsword.

"As long as there's a living Equestrian soul willing to fight... We'll never give up." She said with determination. "And you've got 6 Immortals to deal with... The three Terrans, the Draconequus, Luna, and me."

"Hmph, to fight against an immortal..." Patriarch meditated with a smile behind his helmet. "It's only a matter of time before the six of you become changelings and serve Chrysalis eternally..."

'Macho macho man / I want to be / A macho man!' Patriach's cellphone started ringing again, leaving only a face of dumbfoundness among himself, Atticus, and Celestia. Patriarch broke the deadlock with a swing of his battleaxe, and backed off to try to pick up his cellphone. He failed, as his fingers were too big, the ringtone still blasting full volume, until he began smashing the phone with enough strength to cause a spark to appear.

'It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A--' The ringotne changed, Patriarch becoming more and more frustrated, until he managed to finally pick up.

"Who's it?" He asked, irritated.

"Enough games, get over here now and help me finish off the Terrans and the Draconequus." The voice of Chrysalis was heard through the other side.

"What? Can't you do that alone?!"

"Yes, of course I can, but wouldn't you rather fight against the so-called Gods of this world?"

"I'd rather just kill the ponies, to be honest. I'd have killed Atticus already, had you not called."

"Sigh... Fine, let's put it this way: The Terrans and the Draconequus defeated are turned into changelings, then, as my slaves, I send them to kill the rest of the ponies. Imagine the face of those who put their last hopes and dreams into the ones who are now trying to kill them..."

Patriarch smiled behind his helmet, both Atticus and Celestia could also hear the conversation, their expressions were only of shock and fear.

"I'll be right there..." Patriarch said before lowering the cellphone and staring at Atticus and Celestia with the red eyes of his helmet. Then, he began walking away.

"Don't let him get away!!" Desperately tried ordering Atticus, still on the floor, but was interrupted by Patriarch before anypony could hear him.

"Atticus... You're a wise pony, I tell you that, but you should think twice before giving that order... I am dangerously close to the refugees, and there's nothing stopping me from killing them all before leaving to fight the Terrans... I am also literally steps away from the underground complex, let's remember there are stallions, fillies and mares fearing for their lives there... You will be indirectly killing them, Atticus."

Atticus was stunned, to say the least, he could only stare in shock at Patriarch, unable to do anything to stop him as he returned to the hole he came from, soon enough the entire changeling army burrowing in their place and disappearing, leaving the survivors of the Imperial army to catch their breaths. Celestia, who was in front of Atticus, just fell to her knees with a tear running down her cheek, the sword bouncing off the floor making a loud 'clank', and just staring at the sky.

"We lost..." She muttered, her dreams shattered. "We... Lost... All we did, all we suffered, and still in vain... It was not enough, our best..."

Atticus stood up and ran up to her, trying to cheer her up as best as he could. "The.... Uhh... The Terrans! They're still fighting Chrysalis, all is not lost!! Listen, they can still beat her and this'll all be over, have hope!! The entire pony species is backing them up!!"

"We lost here... What difference would it make...?"

"...Charon! And the others too! They can become berserk, and remember that he didn't even become one when he fought Discord! Three are more than enough!!"

"Chrysalis is powerful enough to be a match against them on her own... She has the power to control an endless horde of changelings, to command them with just her mind, to create that thing that almost killed you... To turn normal ponies into those abominations... To deceive Gods... And even if the berserkers win, we'd be stuck with three rampaging monsters out to kill us all like Discord said, and we'd be too weak to defend ourselves... Either way, winning or losing, we're all dead..."

Atticus sighed, and stared blindly into the void as thoughts crossed his mind. There was no way to cheer Celestia up now, only actually winning would show her the light. 'Think, Atticus... If Chrysalis ends up losing, she'll kill us all first to lower the Terrans' morale... Now that I realize, we were to spread out in the defence... We needed to focus on the refugees, not the continent!! Dammit, this is all my fault!! Sigh... Nothing I can do about it now, better learn from my mistakes...'

"Nice show happened here..." Daylight sighed as he walked up to Atticus. "That was too close for comfort, I was ordered to tell you we're all low on supply already and lacking manpower, what do we do?"

"Stallinox. It acts as a city-big warehouse for the stuff Chaser invented... We'd have to arm the refugees if we want to survive another wave..."

"Arm the refugees? You sure about this? They barely know what a gun is."

"I speak for everypony when I say I'd rather die standing. There is no hope of escape, they'll find us sooner or later. Only thing that'll keep us alive is force of arms and the spirit that remains, we don't have any other choice."

"Alright, I'll round up the ponies to head for Stallinox then. You really are stubborn with hope... Stubborn like the Terrans."

"You really think I have any hopes left? I'm surprised I survived against Patriarch, to be honest. It'd have given me a rest..."

"You sure don't look like Celestia over there." Daylight pointed at Celestia, who was in the main hall of the castle sitting on a chair, staring into the void with eyes lacking life. She had no expression whatsoever, and tears were falling down her cheeks.

"I might not have any more hopes, I might have accepted my fate already, but there are still souls out there that wish to fight, to stand up for their beliefs and dreams. I'm not fighting for myself here, I'm fighting for them, because I have the means and they have the needs. If I just threw it all away, I'd be preventing them from carrying on what would be their last wishes. Many died already... But since there are still ponies alive, still wanting to pull through..." He sighed, then stared at the sky. "I'd say it was a sacrifice willingly paid..."

"Come on!!" Charon yelled to the top of his lungs, his voice cracking as he held the circular blades of an armored changeling with his hands, both pushing at eachother. With rage, he lifted his leg and smashed the changeling's face, then used the opportunity to climb on its back, ripping apart one of the blades and stabbing the shell with it. Then, he readied his rapier and drove it deep into its skull, killing the changeling with ease. "Chrysalis!! You cannot run forever!! You have nowhere to hide!!"

"Oh please, I don't need to run... I'm just waiting..."

"Come out wherever you're hiding!! I said I'd invade Hell if I had to, here I am!!"

"I'd rather just sit back and watch the spectacle, alas, I thought it'd be more entertaining..." Her voice echoed, before appearing in front of Charon with her arms spread wide, as if taunting him to charge at her, to which with great fury he did. He tried to stab her with his rapier, but was deflected by her palm and received a solid punch in the stomach as punishment, denting the armor. Then he received an uppercut, making him stumble backwards almost losing balance, but managed to parry the next punch he'd receive. He gripped Chrysalis' arm and tried returning the punch, but she turned into smoke in an instant and appeared behind Charon to kick him in the back and make him fall to the ground.

Not a second later, Concord arrived and teleported Charon a few metres away, allowing Executor to use the flamethrower installed on his arm against Chrysalis, lighting up most of the scenery, but once the flames died down Chrysalis was nowhere to be found.

"Shining, this is Chaser," Chaser spoke through the radio as he walked up to the Terrans and the Draconequus, "Chrysalis just appeared, I need you to have the army take care of the changelings, we'll--"

"The entire camp on the south pole was wiped out!!" Shining Armor interrupted. "We're stuck with what we have here-- The changelings are coming out of the portal!! Concord, how do we close this damned thing?! They'll overrun us!!"

"I'm on it." Concord stated before turning into smoke.

"Wouldn't we be stuck here with no way out without the portal?" Questioned Executor.

"You really expected this plan to go smoothly?" Answered Chaser with yet another question.

Chrysalis appeared again in front of the Terrans, laughing to herself and immediately blocking the rapier Charon tried striking at her with with just her fingers. Chaser and Executor aimed their guns at her. "The moment draws near..." She said with a smile as she looked at her other hand's nails. "Any second now..."

"Bad news--" Concord arrived in a cloud of smoke, interrupted by the sight of Chrysalis.

"Go ahead, tell them..." Chrysalis ordered.

"...I couldn't close the portal, there were just too many changelings, we were pushed back and surrounded... It gets worse, the changeling that impersonated Executor, Patriarch it calls itself, is here... I couldn't stop him either, we're on our own now..."

Chrysalis just smiled.

"Patriarch is ignoring everything we throw at him!!" Shining Armor yelled through the radio. "It's heading in your direction, we'll try holding off the changelings, but that's all we can do!! You need to stop Chrysalis before-- They're coming from the ground!!--" The radio became static at this point.

The three Terrans and the Draconequus stood silent, petrified, everything they planned was being turned against them in a matter of seconds but they knew there was one thing left to do if they wanted to get out alive. Charon managed to break Chrysalis' grip of his rapier and quickly backed off, to which Executor saw as an opportunity and began shooting at her, failing once she teleported out of harm's way right next to him.

"Starting the fight already?" She muttered before kicking Executor's knee and pulling his head to the ground, making him fall in a rather painful way. Chaser too began shooting, ending up failing like Executor as Chrysalis teleported next to him too and tried to grab his neck, but Charon blocked her attempt. Irritated, Chrysalis quickly punched Charon in the chest hard enough to leave a dent, then punched him on the stomach; Chaser desperately unsheathed Celestia's rapier, but Crysalis could see him and so grabbed Charon by the neck and threw him against Chaser, all the while Concord helped Executor up. She stood still, the Terrans and the Draconequus recovering and the surrounding her with their weapons ready, but her expression wasn't of worry, it was more of boredom. "I thought the four of you would be more of a challenge... Shame, you're not entertaining anymore..." She turned her head to Chaser and gave a creepy smile before laughing to herself, raising her hand and making it flare green. "Maybe it's time to end things already..."

Chrysalis teleported next to Executor again in a cloud of green smoke and tried striking him down, but failed as he dodged the blow and grabbed her by the neck with his gauntlet. Concord saw the opportunity and rushed forward, trying to punch her while she was immobilized, but Chrysalis teleporting away resulted in him accidentally knocking out Executor instead. "Who would have thought the so-called 'God of Order' would be so moronic?" She taunted him, angering him enough to charge again against her with his fist ready, but before he could reach her she teleported a few steps away, the last thing Concord saw before being knocked out was Charon also rushing at where Chrysalis was with fury, they both were trying to deal with Chrysalis but ended up accidentally knocking eachother out instead. Chaser tried cutting Chrysalis in half from behind with his rapier, thinking she had not seen him, but his strike was deflected by her palm. He kept on trying to kill her, but she effortlessly kept on deflecting his blows, until she decided to punch him in the face and almost throw him off balance, but he used the momentum created to execute a roundhouse kick on her, to which she backed off. Chaser took out his sidearm and began shooting at her from a distance, but she quickly dodged the shots and stepped closer and closer until she swiftly grabbed him by the neck, then placed her hand on his helmet's forehead and lit it up with a green light.

Chaser appeared in an empty place identical to that which he was fighting on seconds ago, but without changelings, without ponies, without a war, only the volcanic scenery that was in front of him. "What..." He muttered, he did not understand what just happened, but his sight caught something around him, Chrysalis, who was just standing there smiling at him. He tried taking out his gun or his rapier, but realized he had none, he was completely unarmed.

"Don't even bother, we're not in a physical plane of existence anymore. You could say I forced our minds to unite for the time being."

"How the-- Why?"

"Hmmm, I wonder... Maybe to make you witness your sins? How you brought suffering to the entire pony species..."

"Says the one who wants us all dead."

"Painless death, that is..." She stated, whereas her intentions were actually to turn all ponies into changelings, lying for the sake of an argument. "You know very well I want to conquer this world, I'm just following the most efficient methods."

"Nuts, you toyed with us all the time since the beginning."

"Lowering morale, not letting them gather hope, I needed to show a fraction of my abilities if I wanted to strike fear..."

"The only thing you did was giving us a reason to fight."

"To build courage... And invade Tartarus while leaving your homes undefended, ready for me to strike."

Chaser narrowed his eyes behind his helmet.

"I was forced to do that, it's not like there was a faster way to finish what began long ago. Isn't that right, Chaser?"

"You just wanted entertainment... You laughed at us while we suffered because of you, you're nothing more than a sadist... You even showed off those abominations in the South Pole as if they were trophies..."

"That was your fault entirely."

"...What?" Chaser asked, dumbfounded.

"I created the different strains of changelings because you all were growing too powerful with that technology you came up with. Unfortunately, the war proceeded too slowly, then I found the problem: The ponies could kill my minions from afar, before the true fight started, so I turned your soldiers into changelings to fight for me, which is the reason you're losing now. So, those abominations are your fault."

Chaser just remained silent.

"Before the time travelling of yours, the ponies died out in the blink of an eye, painlessly, they didn't even see the end coming so they had no fear of what was going to happen. But now? Everypony knows what's coming to them, those who didn't die or get turned into changelings are fighting a losing war for their lives, or out there in a trench saying their last prayers. Thanks to you, they saw their loved ones die in battle in front of them... Thanks to you, they'll see their brothers and sisters return as changelings and try to kill them... Thanks to you, they'll be forced to kill those they once loved..."

Chaser kept silent as thoughts rushed into his mind, immobile, staring into the void. Chrysalis' words had struck him speechless.

'And... Done...' Chrysalis thought to herself back in the battle of Tartarus, barely fractions of a second passed. She was holding Chaser by the neck, who was now without strength, without hope, just staring at Chrysalis waiting for his doom. 'The first Terran changeling...' She muttered in her mind as she lit his hand green and placed it once again on his forehead. Chaser began screaming of pain, his agony loud enough for the others to wake up.

"Gah..." Concord ranted, trying to stand up with a headache. "W-wha-- Chaser!!" He could barely speak coherently once he found out the source of the screams. Both Charon and Executor woke up too knowing what was now happening, and decided to rush towards Chrysalis and try to save Chaser from her torture, but Charon and Concord were stopped by Patriarch jumping out of the ground below them, grabbing their heads, and using the momentum of the jump to smash them against the ground. Executor stopped on his tracks by the sudden fright, not understanding what was happening until Patriarch changed objectives and charged at him, trying to hit him but missed as Executor narrowly dodged the charge. He took out his dagger and tried stabbing Patriarch in the back, but it bounced off the armor with a loud 'clank', and not a second later Patriarch struck him with his elbow, making him lose balance. Patriarch grabbed him by the leg, spun him around, and threw him a considerable distance until he fell to the ground face-first, the last thing he saw was Chrysalis extending her hand to his helmet's forehead with a creepy smile while he was on the floor, his eyes wide with terror.

"Agh..." Executor muttered, holding his head in pain as he stood up in an empty volcanic scenery. Once he stood up, he checked himself, finding no scratches nor injuries, yet no weapons either, he was unarmed. He looked around, and found Chrysalis walking with her hands on her back. "What did you do?!"

"I should be asking you the same, Executor."

"What?"

"What have you been doing the entire time you were in this world? Helping ponies? Fighting for a better world?"

"Get to the point."

"Why the hurry? There's much time."

Executor just tilted his head in annoyance.

"Why do you fight? Survival? Because Chaser and Charon fight too? Because Charon saved you from that cell and you owe him? Because of what you promised Charon's father?"

"Because of people like you, who care for nothing but themselves, who want everything they can get ignoring the pain they'd cause."

"Ironic how that description also fits you too.

"...What?"

"'He who fights with monsters might take care, lest he thereby become a monster'. You see us changelings as senseless killing machines, yet you Terrans turned ponies into the same things... Not long ago the worst thing ponies would dare to think of was a simple insult, but when the Terrans arrived the ponies slowly turned from peaceful creatures to the bloodthirsty warriors that fight in this day..."

"You forced us!"

"Forced you? I didn't, that's the problem. You could've stopped me in so many ways... But going straight to war was the first thing you had chosen every single time, ignoring the fact that ponies didn't even know how to fight."

"That... That was the best course of action we could think of!!"

"That you thought of. That shows many things... That Terrans are nothing but warmongers and that they were too full of themselves to learn the way of the ponies... Or even ask them for simple advice.

Executor lowered his head, all he heard so far was the painful truth.

"You Terrans say that you fight for survival, but ignore everything else, even the pain you have caused to your own subjects, and even before this war the three of you carried out your actions as if it was the most natural thing there was. You arrived and changed everything as you, not the ponies, saw fit. This isn't Terra, for your kind this was paradise, and you tainted it with your Terran hands..."

Executor fell to his knees. "No... That's not... True..." He could barely whisper. Chrysalis then changed the scenery to a simple town before the arrival of the Terrans, ponies walking all around minding their bussiness, laugher could be heard and smiles be seen.

"This is what Equestria was before your 'intervention', Executor. Peace, love, tolerance... But after you tainted it..." She then changed the scenery to a trench in Canterlot after Patriarch's attack, where ponies could be seen lamenting their loses, dead being carried from one place to the other, more trenches being dug, and a sorrowful rain drenching everypony. A depressing sight. "...This is what it became. 'Who care for nothing but themselves, who want everything they can get ignoring the pain they'd cause'...?"

Executor was silent, and Chrysalis knew that, behind his helmet, he was already crying.

"My... Head..." Charon grunted, trying to stand up with Concord helping him up. They could hear Executor's cries of agony as Chrysalis was torturing him, but they could do nothing to save him, an unfortunate turn of events, but what was even more horrifying was how Executor's screams abruptly ended.

'Chaser... And Executor... Are dead...' Concord could barely keep his thoughts in shape. 'Two of the three Terrans... Gone... I had planned for the three of them to turn berserk... Charon needs to turn berserk, or we'll all die...'

"You really thought you could win?" Chrysalis laughed to herself as she stepped closer and closer to Charon and Concord, who were already backing off. Patriarch soon stepped next to Chrysalis as they advanced. "Look around, you're stuck in a graveyard fighting the Grim Reaper itself... You lost before even starting..."

"..."

"Not the talking type, are we? I should just get to the point then..." She stopped walking, yet Patriarch kept on advancing towards them. Charon gripped his rapier tighter, and Concord narrowed his eyes trying to figure out how to fight against such foe. "Stop." Chrysalis ordered, making Patriarch cease moving. "Do you really think I'd pass the opportunity to use our new friends...?"

Both Concord and Charon remained confused, they thought they had seen all Chrysalis had to offer, but their sight shifted to Chaser's and Executor's bodies that laid on the ground, slowly rising, their appearance slightly different than before. From their backs and through their capes, four insectoid wings could be seen as if they broke through their armor intact; their armor, covered in rust with a dark green tone, unpleasant to the eyes of anyone who saw them; their hands with claws that broke through the gauntlets, dark green too, the claws now replacing their fingers, the same happening for their feet; and the eyes of their helmets, now with a bright green light emanating from them.

"Wha..." Concord barely spoke, stunned by the sight.

"You son of a flying..." Charon muttered, furious.

"It's a real tragedy that I couldn't see the three Terrans turning berserk... Well, guess I'll have to do with turning you into changelings..." She said as she laughed to herself, a smile never erasing from her expression.

Chaser and Executor, now changelings, dashed forward towards Charon and Concord, their speed increased with the help of their insectoid wings. They both spread out halfway, Chaser deciding to take on Charon and Executor heading towards Concord. Chaser's and Charon's rapiers clashed, the power of the rapiers generating sparks once struck together, leaving both Terrans in a deadlock. "Chaser, what the hell are you doing?!!" Charon questioned.

"Chrysalis broke their minds!!" Concord yelled, fighting Executor with his fists, both were unarmed. "They won't listen!!"

"So we have to beat some sense into them!?"

"As if we have any other option!!" He kept on yelling, avoiding Executor's strike against his jaw, then kicking him on the knee, making him fall to the ground for a moment, and before he could recover he swiftly moved behind him, grabbed him by the stomach with all his might and threw him backwards in a german suplex.

Charon broke the deadlock with Chaser by kicking him in the stomach, making Chaser back off. He tried swinging Luna's rapier against him, but Chaser dodged the first strike, then the second, and the third. Charon received an uppercut to the jaw, Chaser using the brief stun to try and stab him, but Charon stopped the blade by gripping it with his hand; the strength of the blade, the force of the power armor and the help of the changeling powers were enough to make it cut through the gauntlet, Charon's hand was bleeding deeply, but he kept on struggling. "You're not Chaser anymore..." He muttered, staring directly at his eyes. "Whatever you are now... You're not going to stop me... Not you, not Executor, not Patriarch... Not a Goddess!!" With the hilt of Luna's rapier, he struck Chaser's head with enough force to almost make it shatter; Charon's eyes were bright red already, and behind his armor, his skin was darkening beyond the levels reached in the fight against Discord. "Let the world send its greatest horror at me!!" He yelled with fury, swinging his rapier at Chaser who could barely block his strikes after the concussion caused by the blow.

"If you say so..." Chrysalis whispered to Charon's ear, having snuck up behind him without him noticing. She swiftly grabbed him by the head and made her hand light up with a green glow. Charon, despite almost turning berserk, could do nothing but stare.

"Shi--" His words barely escaped.

"CHARON!!" Concord screamed as he struggled with Executor, his only remaining hope being on the brink of a fate worse than death.

"What... Where?! Where am I?!" Charon questioned, appearing in the same empty place Chaser and Excutor were forced to go thanks to Chrysalis, unarmed. He looked around, only to find Chrysalis only smiling at him, nothing else. Behind his helmet, his expression showed fury and rage, he ran forwards and tried striking Chrysalis with his fist, but failed as the blow went right past through her, as if she was not even there.

"We're in a place where you can do nothing to me... Yet, I can't do anything to you either."

Charon just ignored her words, searching around for some sort of solution, until he found a rock lying on the ground. He quickly picked it up and threw it against Chrysalis, the rock still getting through without even scratching her.

"Stubborn as a Terran."

"What do you want?! Why did you bring me to this place!?"

"What do you want? For this world to become a wasteland, you must have good reasons."

"What are you talking about?!"

"Answer me."

"...To let the ponies live to see another day."

"Really? You killed enough ponies yourself..."

"I did what I had to do."

"You are saying it so naturally... As if you didn't care at all..."

"If I hesitated, that'd have been the ruin of my people."

"You've been Machiavellian in your ways ever since you started your new life here... In the eyes of a pony, that'd be enough to become a monster, don't you think...?"

"I'll become a monster if I have to prevent what I created from crumbling, I don't care what I have to do if it meant keeping what I made through blood and sweat!!"

"Hmm... I wonder what Luna would say if she heard this..."

Charon became silent for a few seconds. "...Keep her out of this!"

"She fell in love with you because you rescued her, a saviour... How would she react if she heard her love saying he'd become a monster just to keep his Empire under his control...?"

Charon smiled behind his helmet, thinking he already saw through her tricks. "Well, only time will tell."

"Time...?"

"Once this war ends and you're done for I'll ask her myself."

"I'm afraid that's not possible."

"Winning here is not an impossibility."

Chrysalis laughed to herself for a moment. "You don't understand, do you...?" She began walking closer and closer towards Charon, until they were face to face. "Luna... is DEAD."

Charon was stunned by Chrysalis' words. "That's... That's a lie!!"

"Prove me wrong."

"...The nightmares!! The hallucinations!! She talked to me through them!!"

"Hmm... Must've been delayed action..." She thought loud enough for Charon to hear. "Remember all of them, wouldn't it make sense if those were her desperate cries for help before her death?"

"...No... No!! She's still alive!! I know she's still alive!!" She said to himself. Then he began remembering the last hallucination he had, that of Luna smiling at him, nothing else. Chrysalis' words began making sense to him now, he thought how Luna smiling was of her accepting her fate, but he still didn't want to believe it. "That's not true... She's still alive... She's... Alive..." He fell to his knees, crying behind his helmet. "You're... Lying..." He already began accepting her words, despite trying to convince himself otherwise.

'Hmph... Talk about a self-destructive love... Guess Luna truly was the only reason he kept on fighting.' She thought to herself before getting out of Charon's mind.

Charon fell to his knees after Chrysalis let go of him, now staring into the void ignoring all that happened around him.

"I won't turn you into a changeling yet, Charon... I'd rather have you see the fall of your Empire first, then turn you into my slave..." She laughed to herself, turning her sight towards Concord who was completely shocked by seeing Charon fall so easily. "Only one left..."

Concord frowned and teleported right next to Chrysalis, picking up Luna's rapier and trying to finish her with it, only for Patriarch to stand between them and block the blow with his arm, then grabbing his neck.

"How stubborn can you be..." Chrysalis questioned. "You've seen the three Terrans fall one by one, yet you keep fighting..."

"If you fall... The swarm will follow..." He barely said, already choking by Patriarch's grip.

"What a desperate and pathetic attempt to save your world... I could turn you into a changeling right now, but... I won't grant you that mercy. Patriarch, have fun with him."

"Of course..." Patriarch answered, throwing Concord at Chaser's and Executor's feet. Chaser tried stomping him, but Concord rolled to the side, stood up, struck Chaser's knee with Luna's rapier making him fall in pain, and teleported out the way of Executor's flamethrower, only for Patriarch to catch him again and drive his head to the ground.

Chaser, inside his mind, intact without the changeling transformation, sat next to a boulder silent, drawing a crude sketch of Chrysalis with a small stone. His actions showed he was already depressed. Not after long, a strange, tall silhouette slowly walked towards him, until it was right behind him. Chaser noticed he was not alone, but he didn't even have the will to care, he was focused on the drawing.

"What are you doing?" The silhouette softly asked, the voice of a woman heard. Chaser, however, did not bother to answer. "It's Chrysalis, isn't it?" Upon hearing this Chaser stopped drawing for a second, but then resumed, as if he shifted focus from the drawing to the silhouette for a moment. "Has she done anything to you?" Chaser just slowly shook his head. "Something you did?"

"Suffering... Brough suffering..." He muttered.

"How so?"

"War... Pain... Death..."

"How is it different from what Chrysalis did?"

"Painless... Instant..."

"Is that so...? Tell me, what do you think happened before? Before you and the others used the time travel spell, I mean."

"All dead..."

"How are you so sure?"

Chaser ceased to draw completely.

"I've been there, Chaser... I know what she did..." The silhouette began talking, sitting down next to Chaser, yet he didn't look at the silhouette back. "Changelings. They feed on love, and the dead cannot love... Chrysalis said the changeling ponies were your fault, that's a lie. She already planned to turn everypony into changelings from the start... When the pony species became extinct, the ponies didn't die, Chrysalis turned them all into changelings, into slaves without free will... A hundred billion ponies who couldn't fight back, condemned to suffer for eternity... She said thanks to you the ponies live enough to see the world around them crumble, that they live in fear and are forced to fight against those who are turned into changelings... The truth is, they were given the means to defend themselves, to stand up for their kind. War brings many horrors with it, but not being able to do anything while the world burns is something worse entirely. The ponies knew what awaited them, but they gladly accepted it in order to be what they are now, they escaped from their fate of being a tool for the powerful, and who gave them the possibility of going up against the Queen of the Changelings herself? The three Terrans... You... The three of you are their saviours. Brought here by Chrysalis only for her plans, you broke free and made your own decisions. Now, it's the turn of the ponies. What do you say?"

Chaser was silent, thinking, immobile. Then, he began talking. "What do I have to do now?"

"You know what to do."

Chaser's eyes began turned red, his skin behind his armor darknening. He stared at the drawing he made, lost in his thoughts, until he raised his arm and struck it hard enough to break the boulder.

Executor laid on the ground inside his mind, without the changeling appearance, all alone staring at the sky, until a silhouette walked close enough for him to notice, though he couldn't see much due to the crimson sun darkening the silhouette. "Who is it..." He questioned irritated.

"..." The silhouette kept silent. "It isn't like you to be this way."

"Leave me alone..."

"Why?"

"You really want to be around a warmonging monster...?"

"A warmonging monster..."

"..."

"What makes you think you're that?"

"Isn't it obvious?! I chose war as first resort every single time... I made this world what it is now..."

"Why as first resort?"

"I don't know. It was natural to me... And that just makes it worse..."

"Maybe it was for the best."

"How?! I turned peaceful beings into killing machines without even hesitating!! I turned this paradise into a graveyard!!"

"They say that to fight a monster, you must become one yourself."

"..."

"The three Terrans arrived and slowly 'Militarized' this world as you said... But what if they didn't? Chrysalis managed to make the pony race go extinct in a matter of hours, even though they had the technolgy of Terra's World War 1. She could have done anything with impunity, I don't want to think of the horrors that would have happened... If it wasn't for the three of you, nopony would be alive and free. You call yourself a 'Monster', but the three of you are the ones responsible for the ponies' survival. Even then, that 'Warmonging' was entirely justified: Long time ago, Charon decided to use force of arms against the corrupted Celestia because the world was at risk of corruption. You went at war with Charon because you both thought the other would sink the world into a nightmare if left unchecked. Charon and Chaser fought against eachother to decide who'd be the best leader, not because of greed, but because they learned of what happened between Celestia and Luna in the Nightmare Moon incident. In every scenario, the Terrans genuinely cared for their subjects and even those who were not. They chose war because that's the best they were at, they didn't want to take risks. Now tell me, what were the reasons behind most wars in Terra?"

"Greed..."

"Compare then, would you call yourself a 'Warmonging Monster'?"

"..."

"There is still a monster out there, the monster who called you such thing, are you going to prove her wrong?"

"...Of course I am..." He said with fury, his eyes turning red, his skin darkening, and gripping the earth hard enough to leave markings as he stood up.

The silhouette, once again, walked through a desolate place like Chaser's and Executor's minds, this time the scenery being slightly different. Boulders and geysers of scorching steam were everywhere as far as the eye could see, but still, the silhouette kept walking around them looking for one thing of particular, and not after long could see it in the distance: Charon, who was muttering words to himself next to a boulder, and who, after spotting the silhouette, began running away and hiding. The silhouette walked closer to the boulder, and once next to it saw a drawing of someone: Luna, smiling, like the last hallucinations he had; the drawing showed great dedication and effort, as if every line was previously planned, but it was still a crude sketch nonetheless. The silhouette looked down below to the floor, finding a sharp rock which Charon was drawing with, and next to it, his tears on the floor. Looking around, the silhouette managed to spot Charon who was looking at it from a distance behind a boulder, and once he realized he was spotted he gasped and hid again. Once the silhouette walked up to the boulder and circled it expecting to see Charon behind it, it found with surprise that he was not there, but instead there was a hole on the ground, as if Charon dug it to escape; normally this'd take hours and hours, not seconds, but since this was Charon's mind, there really was no reason for it not to be possible. The noise of stone and dirt breaking and being moved alerted the silhouette, which turned its head to the source of the sound in the distance; it was Charon who desperately dug himself out of the ground with another sharp stone, his armor dirty and cape ragged, crawling out of the hole while breathing heavily due to exhaustion.

"Who are you?! What do you want from me?!" Charon screamed out, running away. Not after long he tripped on his own feet, and while he was on the ground he stared back only to see the silhouette following him walking. With haste, he stood up and began running away again, jumping on top on a boulder and landing on the other side, hiding. He held his chest, panting, his breath drained.

"Why are you running away?" He could hear the silhouette asking from a distance.

'Don't listen to it...' Charon thought to himself. 'It wants to turn me into a changeling... Like Chaser and Executor...' He moved to the side and peeked out of the boulder, seeing the dark silhouette directly in front of him face to face, barely a few centimetres away. "GAAH!!" He screamed surprised, throwing himself back in the fright.

"I'm not here to harm you." The silhouette reasured Charon.

"Lies!!" He screamed. "Everyone I cared about is dead, Chrysalis' slave or about to become one!! All the stars in the universe will want me dead after this!!" He desperately stood up and climbed the boulder next to him.

"What about those who are still on your side?" The silhouette asked, seeing Charon now standing up on the boulder.

"What about them?! No one is safe from the end!! Chaser and Executor, two immortal Terrans became Chrysalis' slaves in the blink of an eye, not being able to do anything to defend themselves!! We armed a hundred billion hooves only to die slower, we didn't change anything!! Luna... The woman I loved... Is dead!! The princess of the night, dead without me able to save her... Without me able to realize!! We marched to our graves to fight death itself!! There is no hope!! No escape!! We are all living on borrowed time!!"

"There is still hope, you just don't know where to look for it..."

"Where to look?! Everything's a graveyard!! Everywhere I look at are the dead bodies of those who believed in me, and I failed them!! We. Are going. To die!!"

"Luna is still alive."

Charon became silent, but after a moment snapped, his mind was beyond broken already. "Shut up!! You know nothing about her!! I had the nightmares and the hallucinations of her, of how she begged for my help and I couldn't do anything for her!! Then, the last hallucination I had kicked in, it was just her smiling there as if she didn't suffer anymore... You know what that meant?!!?"

"That she knew you'd come for her."

"You don't even know her!!" He screamed, jumping off the boulder at the silhouette with a sharp rock in hand. The silhouette managed to dodge the strike and saw his red eyes with a mixture of gray. It kept dodging Charon's attacks, until it decided out of the blue to hug him, such sudden action was enough to stun Charon on his place, but what struck him the most was that, upon seeing the silhouette so close and still, he realized who it actually was.

"Lu...Na...?" He could barely speak.

"I never died... Chrysalis toyed with your mind, just like with Chaser and Executor... There's no time to speak, ponies are fighting and losing, they need as much help as they can get... Or they'll not make it..."

"Hope... There's no hope..."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Chrysalis planned it all... She knows what we do, how we do it, and when we do it... There's no way to stop her..."

"Why do you think that? You've never fought against her directly."

"Everything that happened was because of her... We Terrans arriving, the three wars, how we acted... We were puppets, and still are..."

"That's not true."

"How...?"

"She's not as smart as she says, she just shows off to cause fear. Chrysalis brought the three of you into this world, but after that he didn't really plan for anything, she only sat back and watched. At that point she couldn't even think of you surviving after a week or two, let alone lead the entire pony species into a war that'd give them death, or give them freedom... Everything you did, everything Chaser and Executor did, was because of your own strength and will, not because of Chrysalis, she just did what she could to change the course of history to her favour, and now here we are in the most important moment of our existence, and maybe our last."

"...You don't need me for this, my time is over already..."

"You think so?" She let go of Charon, then passed her hand over the giant boulder they were next to, making a scenery appear on it. The scenery was horrifying, Concord bleeding from his mouth and eyes, being held by the neck by Patriarch himself.

"You keep fighting," Patriarch talked. "Even though you know this is a lost cause. Once you're done for, only those in the Imperium will remain, and then the world will belong to the changelings..."

"As long as there's a pony alive..." Concord talked with fury, being choked by Patriarch. "I will fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked.."

"Excellent suggestion." Patriarch threw Concord to the ground, taking out his battleaxe ready to mutilate him.

"Smoke!!" The voice of Shining Armor could be heard, right before a smoke grenade struck Patriarch in the head, making him effectively blind for a moment and forcing him to back off. Then, three tanks and more than 20 ponies clad in steel advanced, making sure to keep Patriarch distracted by throwing everything they had at him while Shining Armor and two other ponies carried Concord to safety. "You cannot fall! You're our only remaining chance!!"

"What... What about the others..." The severe concussions rendering him slightly amnesiac.

"They're done for, don't you remember?!"

On the scenery, Chaser and Executor, who were changelings and now Chrysalis' servants, could be seen advancing towards them from behind where they couldn't be seen while Patriarch moved forward despite the smoke and explosions. It abruptly ended as Luna passed her hand over the scenery again, making it blur away.

"They're not gonna make it... Will they?" Charon asked.

"Not alone..."

"I can't do anything... I'm just a sack of bones that cannot die, he's the God of Order... If he falls, what chance do I hold?"

"There is still a way, but you'd have to trust me for it to work..."

"How?"

Luna smiled. "'You just need to know what to look for...'" She said, almost quoting what she said to him before he knew she was Luna, as she started turning into ashes while the wind blowed.

"Wait... Wait, no!! Don't leave me!!"

At this point, Luna turned completely into ashes, the only remaining thing being a pile of it on the ground where she stood seconds ago. Charon fell to his knees and dug his hands on the ashes, desperately trying to find a way to bring her back. "What do I do? What do I do?!! Tell me, what..." He began whispering as tears ran down his cheek. "I haven't seen you in almost a decade... I haven't heard your voice outside the nightmares... Don't leave me alone again..."

'My plans, my dear fool...' He began having a flashback of when he first met Chrysalis. 'To sum everything up, my subjects need a place to stay in and creatures full of love to feed on.'

"Chrysalis..." His tone changed from sorrow to fury, his voice almost cracking as he spoke to himself, his eyes turning from a grayish tone to completely red and his tears becoming tears of blood. "You... What we all suffered because of you..." He muttered to himself, his skin now slowly turning into ashes too as his tears of blood fell on the pile of ashes in front of him.

"Patriarch's advancing!!" Yelled a soldier.

"Keep throwing smoke!!" Shining Armor yelled, struggling to carry Concord to safety, not noticing Chaser had snuck up behind him ready to kill him with Celestia's rapier, but Concord pushed him out of the way with his remaining strength and grabbed the rapier's blade with his hand, making it bleed deeply, but before anypony could do anything Patriarch charged through the smoke towards Concord, sending anypony on his path flying until he finally impacted against Concord, carrying him in the air until they both hit a tank, denting it. Concord's screams of pain could be heard everywhere as he spat blood on Patriarch's armor.

"Don't think you can escape so easily, Draconequus..." Patriarch told Concord as he smiled behind his helmet. "I still can't believe I'm about to kill a God..." He mentioned as he lifted his battleaxe.

Celestia stared at the ceiling, drowning her sorrows on a bottle of wine as she sat on the main table of her castle, already giving up on everything.

'Celestia?' A voice scared her to the point of accidentally dropping the bottle, breaking on the floor. What scared her the most was that the voice was of Luna, but after looking around she found no one. 'Celestia, listen carefully, I need the help of the ponies here to fight or else it's all over!' She kept hearing the voice of Luna, but decided to ignore it, still confused, seeing as she realized she was half drunk. 'Chaser and Executor were turned into Changelings, Concord is on the verge of death, you must hear me!!'

"What?!" What Luna said had frightened her into sobriety.

'There's a way, a spell, to send the remaining ponies to fight, I need you to get everypony ready as fast as possible.'

"...They are all ready already, Atticus armed the refugees thinking the attack would fail..."

'Really...'

"...But what spell? I'm powerless without my rapier..."

'Your power was locked, not stolen. The rapier may have most of your power, but you still retain part of it, and that's enough for what I'm planning, you just need to believe and it'll return.'

"...What do I do?"

'Go outside, raise your arms, and focus.'

"That's all? Even with the rapier I'd not be able to do it, we're talking about more than 30 billion ponies here, and even then it'd be sending everypony to that place without even knowing..."

'They'll know, part of the spell is sharing the thoughts of the ponies, the other is gathering them for the last chance we have.'

"So... All I need is to focus?"

'Yes, I'll do the rest, now go, there's not much time left!' Once hearing this, Celestia stood up and rushed outside, seeing Atticus on the door with a confused face.

"Celestia? Who were you talking with? What happened?"

"...Luna."

"Luna?!!?"

"Hurry up, Patriarch... I don't have all day..." Ordered Chrysalis with irritation on her voice.

"Don't rush me, Queen..." Patriarch retorted, turning to Chrysalis and ignoring Concord dying in front of him. "Can't a man take some pleasure in his work?!"

"You've caused enough chaos to last three lifetimes already, and remember that you're still my slave in the end."

Patriarch let out a loud sigh. "Fine... Let me just--...What the Hell is that thing?" He pointed behind Chrysalis.

"What is wha...--" Chrysalis questioned, turning around until a loud gasp escaped her mouth once she saw the source of Patriarch's confusion: Charon, who was slowly walking up to Chrysalis in his armor which didn't have a helmet anymore until he was right next to her, but out of his mouth the voice of Luna could be heard singing.

"Falling stars drain every night~... Falling stars drain every night~..." He sang, until he raised his head towards Chrysalis, letting her see that his eyes were now of a dark blue colour. "Hello Chrysalis, long time no see..." He spoke, still with the voice of Luna.

Chrysalis, petrified, began looking around thinking this was just a trick, but realized he truly was Charon himself once she noticed his unconscious body was nowhere to be seen. "How did you... Both of you...?!!?"

Charon just smiled.

"Who cares," Patriarch spoke as he walked towards Charon with his battleaxe ready. "They both fell once, they'll fall twice-- SHI--" He yelled as he fell to the ground, tripping on his feet. On the ground, he looked back and saw Concord with his hand extended as he coughed blood, he managed to cause Patriarch to trip on his feet by grabbing them with his remaining magic from a distance. Patriarch stood up, and with irritation began walking towards Concord. "Poor thing... Let me put you out of your misery..." But before he could even walk half the distance towards Concord, a nightmarish screech could be heard all over the place, becoming louder and louder by the second until Patriarch discovered the source of the sound: An armored Terran without a helmet, which allowed Patriarch to see that his face was actually a clean skull with red orbs instead of eyes, with skeleton wings instead of insectoid, and an expression that showed nothing but rage. He swung his battleaxe at the skeleton once it almost reached him, the impact causing his weapon to be sent flying, then he managed to grab the skeleton by the neck with both his hands as it tried to escape. "What the Hell is this thing?! Gah!! It's melting my hands off!!" He screamed as the skeleton grabbed his hands, smoke already coming out of the point of contact. Patriarch desperately threw the skeleton away into the distance, but before being able to react he heard yet another nightmarish screech behind him, and, before being able to turn to the source of the sound, yet another skeleton with a recognizable armor with red bright eyes grabbed his face, smoke beggining to be generated and armor being molten. "My face!! Not my face!!" Patriarch screamed, trying to get the skeleton off him by any means.

"W-...Wha..." Chrysalis could barely ask dumbfounded.

"I see Chaser and Executor have turned Berserk already..." Charon remarked with the voice of Luna as he picked up his rapier that laid on the ground. By this point it was clear it was actually Luna who was using Charon's body.

"W-What did you do?! They were supposed to be my slaves!!"

"You shouldn't be worried about that..." Charon's skin began darkening, slowly turning into ashes and being blown in the distance until only his skeleton and his armor remained; his eyes, now gone, were replaced with two red orbs which now stared at Chrysalis; his voice now turning into a deep, echoing version of Charon's. "You should be worried about your time coming to an *end***..." His eyes now changed into violet: A mixture between Charon's red, and Luna's blue; his voice changed too, now echoing both their voices at once; he raised his hand a bit, which sparkled of something only able to be described as smoke shaped as electricity, of a red and blue colour.

"What are you trying to do...?"

Charon only stared. Ponies and vehicles began to be teleported into Tartarus as he stared, Chrysalis then realized he was trying to bring the remaining ponies into the fight with a spell.

"...I'll just kill them as they appear!! My numbers are infinite while yours lower by the second!!"

"Hmph." The voice of Charon and Luna muttered at the same time, raising his hand even higher and sparking with more intensity. "We 'pawns' of yours have been rats in your plans for too long. We've learned of what you used to control and manipulate us, to think before acting, to prepare for the storm... All while you sat back and watched from a safe distance. But, that was long ago, when the world was divided and confused. Over the years we became wiser, uniting under a single banner to stand up against those who saught our destruction, or something worse... From a bunch of disorganized cities and states we grew, we fought on the streets, we fought on the fields, we fought in the skies and underground... We fought on the beaches, on the hills, and entirely different dimensions for our cause, we've fought everywhere, seeing stallions, mares and fillies dying side by side, but ask anypony you see, and he'll tell you it was a sacrifice willingly paid... But now, the time has arrived, our final hour, when we must bring our best and our worst in one place, to face the Grim Reaper in the lands of Hell itself... Ponies, griffons, Terrans and Immortals, Gods and Devils and every single being with the will to fight, we call for you one last time! To fight with your brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, not as soldiers, not as ponies, griffons, or any category, but as Equestrians!! This is our finest moment, where we unite against extinction, and as long as there's a free living soul, the fight will never be lost!!"

At this point, soldiers, tanks, vehicles, militia, every single thing the pony species had to offer began appearing all over the planet in a quick succession, filling the land and the skies with souls willing to stand for one last fight. Not a single soul was not called for this, the entire pony species now fought their last battle here, more than 50 billion hooves in Tartarus that'd mark the greatest moment in pony history. An earthquake began making the scenery shake with fury, until right behind Charon a giant steel machine of untold size appeared engulfed in smoke, advancing right over Charon and Chrysalis, creating a deafening sound as it fired its cannon towards the infinite number of changelings that still charged at the ponies. The Landkreuzer had entered the fight.

"...Kill them all!" Chrysalis screamed. "I don't care about turning them into changelings!! I want them all DEAD!!"

Charon, who still had his violet eyes, rushed forwards at Chrysalis and swung his rapier at her, only to be blocked by her crooked black sword which had never been unsheathed until this moment. "We still have a score to settle... Queen..."

Chrysalis broke the deadlock once an armored changeling dug out of the ground right beneath Charon's feet, forcing him to back off too. With a swift movement the changeling was effortlessly killed, but Chrysalis had managed to use it as a distraction to escape. Looking around trying to find Chrysalis, Charon spotted 3 flying changelings charging at him, only to be shot down before they even got close.

"Don't bother with the changelings," Atticus spoke through the radio. "The ponies will deal with them, Chaser and Executor are already fighting Patriarch, you need to get Chrysalis, once she falls the swarm will follow!!"

'Where is she...' Charon and Luna questioned, until they saw a tall figure among the masses of changelings trying to run away. Figuring it was Chrysalis, he charged forwards through the mass of changelings, sending them flying and crushing those directly in front, until he was close enough to throw himself against Chrysalis, tackling her and shoving her to the ground. Both armies, changelings and ponies, were duking it out with everything they had, be it artillery, guns, claws or hooves, explosions and acid rained the sky, planes, tanks, flying and armored changelings made the scenery an ocean of chaos. "Ready to meet your creator?!" Charon screamed on top of Chrysalis, trying to stab her with his rapier only to be deflected by her sword, then headbutted and kicked out of the way.

"You idiot... I'm a Goddess, you're just a sack of bones that cannot die!! You can't win here!! Even with 50 billion ponies you have no chance of winning!!"

"You are testing my ignorance skills!!" He yelled, standing back on his feet and swinging his rapier again at Chrysalis, who deflected it again. He took the opportunity while she was parrying the blow to kick her in the stomach and punch her in the jaw, making her back off in pain. She used her magic to immobilize one of his arms and tried attacking again, only for him to kick dust into her eyes, but was unable to do much due to several changelings now swarming him. Soon enough ponies and militia joined him in the fight, shooting both changelings and Chrysalis, at this point it looked like the fighting became more and more fierce in this place instead of everywhere else. Charon moved forwards and swung his rapier again, this time as a decoy for Chrysalis to deflect, which she predictably did; he grabbed the sword with his gauntlet and struck her with the hilt of his rapier, and seeing as she didn't let go of the sword he kicked her in the jaw and then on the chest, making her fall backwards, he now held both his rapier and Chrysalis' sword, but it turned into dust before long, he just stared dumbfounded as the dust shaped into the sword in Chrysalis' hand again as she stood up.

"You..." She muttered, cleaning the blood off her mouth. "What kind of abomination are you... Charon and Luna in a single body... Hah, I know what to do... Your minds might have united, but your bodies are still separated... I just need to deal with Luna's body and it'll all be over..." She then tried to teleport, failing as if she didn't have the ability to do so. Then she realized, the first blow Charon gave her with the help of Luna locked part of her power, teleportation included; she was stuck here, and she knew it. Charon began advancing towards her, Chrysalis now despairing until she tried flying away, only to receive a direct hit by the Landkreuzer itself, sending her to the ground and digging a trench by the impact. Charon began running at where she fell through the innumerable amount of changelings, helped to cut through their lines by the ponies, only to be intercepted by Patriarch, whose face was horrifyingly deformed by the molten metal and revealed skin.

"As if I'm going to let you!!" He screamed as he grabbed Charon by the shoulders, only to stare dumbfounded for the following moments. He looked below, only to see Celestia's rapier sticking out of his chest, then slowly falling down to the ground losing consciousness. Behind him as he fell, Celestia appeared, but sporting golden armor and eyes not unlike a reptile, she now was in a form that could be described Luna's Nightmare Moon, but for Celestia.

"This is for what you did to Concord..." She said with fury on her voice as she stared at Patriarch dying on the ground. Both Chaser and Executor, now berserkers, arrived to the scenery too, seeing as Patriarch was their objective to begin with, now dead on the ground.

"Chrysalis is running towards some kind of tower a few kilometres away." Shining Armor stated through the radio.

"A tower...? Really...?" Atticus questioned through the same frequency.

"Hey, those flying changelings blotted out the sun, now that we hold air superiority we can see it, how did you expect me to realize there was a tower before?!"

"Fine, fine!! Sigh..."

"You heard them!!" Charon yelled to the top of his lungs. "Push forward!! Not a single step back!!"

"Uraa!!" The sound of more than 50 billion warcries echoed in Tartarus, lifting the spirits of anypony that took part in the invasion.

Chrysalis ran through the battlefield towards a tower in the distance, changelings and pony changelings running to the opposite direction to the frontline, shells thrown by the artillery and bombers landing everywhere, almost hitting her once. Not after long, she reached the tower, opening the giant doors and rushing inside, she then began flying towards the top of the tower, the only thing seen for the trip being staircases. She could hear how the explosions and the fighting began to get closer and closer, she knew she was running out of time.

'Think, Chrysalis... Think!! How do I stop Luna?! Maybe turning her into a changeling... No, that's impossible, her mind is too strong, I can't send her into depression by my own means... Killing her? I don't know how to kill an immortal!! What do I do?!' She desperately thought as she arrived to the last floor of the tower, opening the door of a room and rushing inside, now seeing the unconscious body of Luna on the floor with Charon's scarf around her neck. She suddenly heard the front door of the tower breaking, and Charon yelling at her, her time ran short already. '...Enough pain to prevent focus...' She realized as she smiled.

"Chrysalis!!" Charon yelled upon breaking the doors of the tower with a kick and storming in, seeing nothing inside but staircases that led to the top. "It's all over now!!" He screamed as he climbed the staircases with feverish haste.

Once on the top, he kicked open the door of a room and stormed inside, only to see Chrysalis next to a window holding Luna's unconscious body by the neck. Luna, who was in Charon's mind, snapped by the fright and unwillingly returned to her body, waking up and seeing below her a sea of lava. Charon tried to rush forward, but Chrysalis stopped him in his tracks.

"One more step and she'll... Well... I think you already know what'll happen..." Chrysalis said with a smile. "We're above a sea of lava, Charon... If she falls, she'll be trapped there forever, and you don't want that..."

Charon only stared, unable to do anything, desperately to come up with a solution but failing to do so.

"Oh... My strength is failing me..." She shook Luna a bit, making her scream of fright and angering Charon even further. "You can't do anything... Just like a dog... I'm enjoying this too much after what you've done..."

"You wouldn't dare..." He muttered.

"Oh? Why not? What's more, the current situation actually forces me to..."

"Forces... Let her go!!"

"Or else?"

"..."

"Exactly... You can't do anything..." She laughed to herself before letting go of Luna, who screamed as she fell.

"Luna!!" He screamed to the top of his lungs, enough to make his voice crack. "You... I'll kill you for this!!" He yelled, his voice now turning into a horrifying screech that'd send any lesser man insane in fear, both him and Chrysalis running at each other and meeting with their swords, sparks generating as they struck eachother.

"Looks like you loved her..." She laughed.

Charon, enraged, broke the deadlock and tried grabbing her neck, only to be dodged by a swift movement and ironically grabbed by the neck, then thrown to a wall with enough force to break through and land in the other room.

"You're weaker than I thought, berserker. I don't know how Patriarch fell to your kind." She muttered, walking through the hole in the wall. "Still, I could use this occasion to find out how to actually kill a Discordian Immortal..."

"Be my guest..." He talked between his teeth as he threw a rock at her, forcing her to block and lose vision of him, granting him the opportunity to rush forward and try to land a blow against her, only to be swiftly blocked by her sword and then kicked back right into a bookshelf, his rapier being sent flying through the hole in the wall, now out of his reach.

From the tower's window where Luna recently fell, a strange armored figure flew in with his skeleton wings, stepping into the tower with someone on his arms. The figure, who was Chaser, left the silhouette who wore a familiar gray scarf safely on the floor resting against a wall, unconscious. Another skeletic Terran, Executor, walked around until he found Luna's rapier on the floor, picking it up and carrying it to where the unconscious Luna laid. Chaser gently tapped her cheeks with his skeletical changeling hands until she woke up, slightly frightened by the sight of a berserker so close at first, but glad afterwards.

"...Thanks..." She whispered, glad of not falling to the lava and knowing that the berserker in front of her had saved her. Her attention turned to Executor as he held her rapier's hilt out towards her. After she grabbed it, he helped her up and pointed her to the hole in the wall, where Charon and Chrysalis were fighting eachother yet out of sight, the noise of the fighting could be clearly heard, Charon obviously losing against her. Luna nodded towards Executor, who then began walking to the window and throwing himself off it. Chaser soon followed suit, leaving Luna on her own, but she knew what she had to do now.

Charon desperately held Chrysalis' sword's blade with both his hands, pinned down to a corner unable to do anything but resist, Chrysalis having a smile that would send scare anypony not used to it.

"What did you say, Charon? You were going to kill me?! HAHAHAH, look who's about to die now!!"

Charon remained silent, focusing his entire strength on stopping Chrysalis' sword from reaching him.

"Not the talking type?! Oh, it doesn't matter, the dead cannot speak anyways!! I'd rather see your death than you becoming my slave now!!" She kept taunting him, not realizing a strange silhouette with a gray scarf and a rapier slowly snuck up behind her, until it decided to grab her shoulder, place her face near her, and speak.

"...The fun has been doubled!" Luna yelled with a smile and her eyes wide open, now turning into something like a reptile's. Chrysalis was struck silent and petrified as she saw Luna right next to her, thinking she was trapped in the sea of lava, now turning into Nightmare Moon. She struck Chrysalis' face with her elbow hard enough for her to fall back, losing grip of her sword and saving Charon from her; then, she quickly helped Charon up, who was desperately gasping for breath but still willing to fight.

"You were supposed to be trapped in that sea of lava!! And you were supposed to die by my hand!! I was supposed to conquer Equestria and kill you all!!"

"Isn't fate funny...?" Luna remarked before rushing forwards and swung her rapier at her, only to be blocked, but not realizing that Charon had snuck up behind her and slammed her to the ground by the neck.

Charon tried stomping her, only for her to roll to the side and dodge the blow, standing up and slashing his leg with enough force to cut through the armor and chip the bone, even though it was supposedly indestructible as Discord said back then. She then swung her sword at his face, cracking the side of the skull near the eyes, making him fall to the floor, only for Luna to kick her and stab her in the foot, not being enough to make her fall but causing considerable pain nevertheless. Chrysalis used her magic to heal herself, then to immobilize luna in place, but not being able to stop Charon who used a rock to hit her in the head, causing a concussion that left her barely conscious for a few seconds before recovering and dogding yet another blow.

"You both are strong..." Chrysalis panted, gripping her sword tightly once thoughts of defeat rushed into her mind.

Luna, ignoring her statement, used her magic to try and immobilize her, but failed as she quickly rushed forwards and attempted to stab her, only for Charon to intervene, grip the sword with his gauntlet, and lock her neck with his arm. Chrysalis, only having her arm free, desperately tried burning through Charon's armor to free herself, but it wasn't fast enough before Luna took the opportunity, raised her hands which glew with a blue colour, and placed them on her forehead, Chrysalis' eyes were wide with terror.

"The nightmares you've caused... You'll never be able to even dream of them again..." Luna whispered, casting the spell on Chrysalis. Then, after a few seconds, Chrysalis fell unconscious to the ground. Charon, losing consciousness, began falling too, only for Luna to catch him resulting in both of them falling, Charon's head now resting on her lap.

"It's... Over...?" Charon could barely speak, the light in his eyes beginning to darken.

"It's over... It's all over now..."

"So much time passed since I last saw you... I need to ask you something..."

"Don't, I already know..." She answered, thinking he wanted to tell her he loved her.

"It's not that..." He replied, laughing to himself.

"...What is it?"

"After we return home... Will you marry me?"

Luna's eyes began tearing up, tears falling down to Charon's cheeks, until she hugged him with all her strength. "Yes... I will..." She answered, before Charon's eyes lost light completely and fell unconscious. But at that point, cheers of the remaining ponies in Tartarus could be heard, the entire planet cheering for what they've accomplished this day, and barely a few seconds later the Landkreuzer's cannon broke into the tower, unexpected as it was.

"Watch it!!" Atticus yelled.

"This is crazy!!" Shining Armor screamed, almost falling, as both him and Atticus climbed the cannon and entered the tower, until they met with Luna and the unconscious Charon.

"Is Charon..." Atticus began asking, fearing the worst.

"Exhausted, asleep..." She answered, caressing his skull. "It's all over..."

Atticus' eyes sparked open as he realized something. "Then Chaser and Executor must've been exhausted too... They fell just as the fighting finished..."

"The changelings turned into smoke all of a sudden," Shining Armor spoke. "And the changeling ponies recovered their free will. They're still changelings, but according to them it isn't half bad."

"This day will be remembered for countless millennia..." Atticus stated.

Luna looked below, staring at Charon who laid on her lap unconscious, then raised her sight to the two ponies. "Let's go home..."