Where the moon becomes brighter

Chapter 4: Forceful approach.

Two long and bloody years had passed since the Second Pony World War broke out, both Terran Emperors fueled by their past and their fury, now that conflict has started it would not end until one of them was utterly defeated. The union of every single nation in the Equestrian continent, called the Imperium of Patria under the command of the Immortal Terran Emperor Charon, was pushed back on the south-western frontier without mercy. After the pony gauntlets, weaponry and technology was mass produced and ready for deployment Charon ordered it all to be unleashed on a swift and brutal counter-attack, it was so successful they had not lost a single battle since then and recovered almost all lost territory in just months, only a single territory remained.

Charon walked crouched with his shotgun on his hands in the forest, soon several ponies armed with gauntlets that acted as fingers and Mosin Nagant 1890s followed in his steps. They stopped and looked through the trees to see an encampment created by the enemy forces, this would be the last army in Imperial territory for now; they weren't the only ones sneaking either, there was another thousand or so scattered in the forest, waiting just for the right moment. After a while, a barrage of artillery shells started raining hell upon the enemy encampment.

"Fire!" Charon's voice echoed in the forest.

The ponies beside him and all over the forest on his side opened fire towards the encampment while artillery shells fell from the sky, those ponies that tried to charge towards the gunmen met a rather gruesome fate. After a few seconds everypony in the enemy ranks started routing in the chaos.

"Send in the Pegasi! Don't let them escape and regroup!" Yelled Charon.

Several Pegasi popped out of the forest armed the same way as infantry and flew towards the routing forces, their increased speed allowed them to chase the routers through the forest, those that were caught were knocked unconscious to avoid needless deaths.

"After the Pegasi return, the entire continent will be ours once again." Said Concord as he stepped out of a cloud of smoke next to Charon."The sad thing is, in this 'land retaking' campaign the possibility of ponies escaping through the sea with our technology is almost a certainty, we can expect Executor to have the same technology once we invade his Empire."

"I already expected that to happen, we're fighting another Terran anyways. I've taught my generals with WW1 tactics already, they taught those below them in the chain of command and so on, every single soldier in the Imperium of Patria is currently training in WW1 methods as we speak, the obvious exceptions are those who are here with us now. How's the fleet construction going?"

"It's all done already, the only thing we need to do is to organize them, supply them and relocate them in the closest port towards Executor's Empire. The greatest ships in the Imperium, made by Kunatanah's best."

"That's gonna take some time then...And I've got to change my outfit anyways."

Two months later, several thousand ponies boarded the ships in the port, Charon and Concord admired the scenery from over a cliff as they saw their forces preparing for the beginning of the invasion.

"Strange, but beautiful ships...You never told me what kind of ships they were." Concord told Charon.

"Ships of the line, 18th Terran Century model. These, however, are 140-gun Ships of the line, only a single lone ship was fitted with so many guns in Terra in the 18th century, the 'Nuestra Señora de la Santisima Trinidad', and here we are building them like it was Tuesday..." He answered with his arms crossed.

Both of them talked while the preparations took place, Charon with his completely new outfit: Instead of his usual longcoat, he used a brown, fur trench coat that looked identical to those used by the soviets in World War 2 in Terra; Instead of his jeans, he used a pair of fatigues, also brown; in place of his gloves he now used a metallic gauntlet, the tips of the fingers ending in a short claw; he also had completely metallic boots instead of his usual shoes; the only things that didn't change in his appearance were his sunglasses, scarf and hat. Concord, wanting to change his appearance from a thousand years ago, decided to use the same as Charon, only with a light brown trench coat instead and an ushanka. The use of trench coats was justified, this world was far colder than Terra, but not enough to make it snow.

"So, changing topics...Why the metallic things?" Asked Concord about his gauntlets and boots.

Charon smiled at Concord's question behind his scarf and walked over to a nearby tree, he punched with all his strength and then looked at Concord.

"These gauntlets were enchanted by the best unicorns in the entire Imperium, Twilight included; these are indestructible, and so are the boots. The sad thing is I just broke my fingers and the gauntlet is now stuck in the tree..." He said as he struggled to get it out.

"And you had to make an entire presentation instead of just telling me...?"

"Where's the fun in just wor--OHGODAEGH" He said, being cut short by the gauntlet suddenly releasing the tree and making him fall back. "Ugh..." He scratched his head with his gauntlet as he stood up. "We skipped an entire age of warfare..."

"How so?"

"We were supposed to pass through the Napoleonic era before this one, bullets and gunpowder were supposed to be loaded manually instead of all being in a casing, after each shot Terrans had to reload it all again instead of just pulling a bolt."

"What about naval warfare?"

"Naval...I couldn't skip it to 20th century technology."

"Really? Why? You could skip land warfare just fine."

"Because guns are a new thing, they can learn everything from zero...But ships are not, it has to follow a certain way of evolution, skip the entire age of sail and it'll result in failure."

"Well, we can hope Executor makes that mistake then."

"No...He's too smart to fall for that...Anyways, looks like the organization has finished, let's go." Charon said before walking off, Concord silently stared at the crater that Charon's gauntlet created in the tree for a few seconds before following him to the boats.

They reached the port where several dozen warships and around a hundred wooden landing crafts were docked, they both boarded the greatest warship, it was the pride of the fleet and also the flagship itself where the Admiral waited for everything to be in place. Once they walked through the plank the Admiral yelled an order, the ponies of the port scrambled and cut the rope of every ship, they all set sail in unison towards the open ocean, towards Executor's Empire. The Second Great Pony War had just begun.

"One more drink! At the Sunk'n Norweigan! One more drink! Before we have to die!" Everypony sang in the ship's bar as they drank grog from their tankards, Charon and Concord sang as well after the fleet had traveled half the way. "One more drink! At the Sunk'n Norweigan! Raise up your tankards of ale to the sky!" They all cheered and drank happily in the journey, until a pony stormed through the door.

"Enemy fleet!" The stallion yelled, everyone in the room started yelling excited in anticipation and scrambled towards the armory.

"It's go time." Charon said towards Concord as they both stood up ran up the stairs to the front of the ship. Once arrived, the Admiral gave the telescope to Charon and started yelling orders to the ponies. "Fasten your seat-belts, gentlecolts, we're about to pass through a cannon storm." He said, staring through the telescope at the enemy fleet which proudly hung the flag of Executor's Empire. "Admiral, what's the strategy?"

"For a reason these ships were called ships of the line, comrade...Line formation! Make the troop transports withdraw!" The admiral of the fleet ordered, several ponies complied by radioing the orders to the other ships. The boats made to carry the invasion forces withdrew and the great warships lined up for battle.

As both fleets got closer to each other, the tension built up among the forces until a bullet flew directly towards Charon's face, making him fall backwards. "Am I a magnet for pain?!" Charon sighed. "We're in range! Gunmen, fire at will!" He ordered at those using the bolt-action rifles. Everypony in the flagship took cover behind anything they could find and exchanged fire with the other ship, Concord sniping with his AK-54r and Charon with a Mosin Nagant 1890 he found lying next to a corpse; using his shotgun at this range wasn't even joke-worthy.

"They are in cannon range!!" Screamed a sailor, the first ship of the enemy line already being in position to fire. The ship shook as 70 cannons fired towards them, but it shook even more as it received several cannonballs in return, wood pieces flew all over the place. The second barrage fired towards the flagship weren't simple cannonballs, they were chainshot, effectively destroying the mast; Charon let out a loud sigh as he saw the mast falling towards the main room of the ship; he covered his face with his arm when the mast impacted and pieces of wood and glass flew all over the place, he the ran towards the destroyed place to check if something important had been damaged. He kicked open the broken door and saw inside that the radio equipment used to broadcast orders was utterly destroyed, a pony barely managed to dodge the giant mast and save his life. "Wait, if the radio's gone...Then that means...SHIT." He thought as he ran outside, he ran up the stairs that led to the back of the ships while dodging flying debris and bullets, but as he arrived the saw that every ship was scattered beyond organization, the radio was the only thing keeping them in line. The ship shook once again.

"Charon, we're being boarded!" Screamed Concord from below.

"What?!" That was the only reaction Charon had before he saw that the ship was being boarded by not one but two ships at once, ponies started swarming the ship's deck and fighting the crew before Charon decided to react by taking out Luna's rapier. "Let's do this!" He screamed as he jumped below and joined the blood bath; Concord did the same with Celestia's rapier. The fighting was cruel and merciless as cannons kept firing from both enemy ships that clung to this one, but one received no less than 140 cannonballs from two Imperial ships, making it shake incredibly and opening its hull, water flooded it through the great wound making it slowly sink, it was out of the fight now. "We got 'em, we got 'em!" Charon screamed as he kicked a pony out of the way and stabbed him while he was down, he took out the rapier and blocked the blows from another 2 ponies before Concord came to his help.

"Board the other ship!" Yelled the admiral. The crew divided in 2, those who stood their ground and kept fighting and those that ran to the side of the ship and used the ropes that clung from the other ship to this one to travel from one ship to the other, Charon soon followed suit, he took one of the ropes used by the other ship to board that clung to this ship, held it tight and threw himself to the enemy's ship hull, he then started climbing the hull and met with the rest of the forces that engaged the remaining crew. He decided to fight his way below deck to disable the guns that kept firing towards the ship, the other ponies were busy enough as it was, he jumped down through a broken part of the deck and once he landed he saw the several dozens of ponies manning the cannons in the darkness. Everypony left their stations to engage the Terran but he stabbed them with the added length of the rapier before they got close and slashed his way through the remnants, soon enough the only few that remained ran away from him.

"That's right, run before I get ya! Haha-- BLARGHARGHAG" His victorious yelling was interrupted as a giant stream of water that generated when part of the hull next to him broke hit him, making him painfully fall. "Right...They were running because the ship is sinking..." He said as he noticed there was water up to his knees once he stood up. "Uhhh...These aren't Russian ships...They're Prussian so...The exit was--BLARGHAAGH" Another stream of water struck him as he walked around trying to decipher where the exit was, only to rub his eyes in disappointment as he saw the stairs that led above in a rather obvious place. Once he got above he realized that the ship was too close to sinking, and that there was no way to get back to the original ship. "Well, I'm fucked..."

"Need a ride?" Said Concord as he appeared in a cloud of smoke next to Charon.

"Nah, I'm totally cool right now."

"Okay." He said as he disappeared.

"GOD DAMMIT CONCORD!!"

Concord appeared once again laughing at Charon until he decided to grab him by the shoulder and teleport him back to the ship where everyone waited.

Concord appeared over the deck and landed safely, but Charon fell headfirst and broke through the weakened deck and landed over the rum barrels below. While the barrels flew around due to the impact a woman's scream was heard, then a dark-haired Terran with a pale skin fell on top of Charon, who was lying on the floor with his head aching; both their faces were almost touching as they stared at each other with their eyes wide open.

"...Luna?!" Yelled Charon.

"And so, you snuck into the ship..." Said Charon with his arms crossed after hearing Luna's story, the naval battle had finished with the Imperial forces victorious.

"I wanted to help you, but Concord didn't want me to..."

"I didn't want your mind to be scarred, Luna." Explained Concord.

"You didn't even tell him what I told you! You teleported me back to Canterlot without even giving me a chance!"

"That's no excuse for sneaking into a military ship!" Both Concord and Luna started arguing before Charon decided to step in.

"Both of you, shut up already! Listen, we still have the landing invasion left; Concord and I will take part in it, you can participate in the operation but you'll have to keep next to me at all times, if you don't get scared of that you'll be able to command one of my forces, what do you both say about that?"

"Agreed." Concord and Luna said in unison.

"Good. Go to the armory and meet the quartermaster, he'll give you a gun and ammo, we'll then move to the landing crafts for the beach operation, and finally we'll storm the beach. Not even the Normandy landings will compare to this operation..."

Charon, Luna, Concord and an entire company of ponies stood inside the wooden landing craft; that boat was one of the hundreds that sailed towards the fortified beach of Executor's Empire, four entire divisions were taking part in the operation, about double the forces back in 'Omaha Beach' in the Normandy landings back in Terra in WW2. After a while bullets started impacting against the wooden hull, startling the ponies and the three Immortals for a second.

"Ok, gentlecolts, this is the plan, we land, we get cover, we kill everything that moves and secure everyth--AGHH" His rather simple plan was cut short as a bullet got through the ship hull and hit his head, making him fall backwards.

"Charon...Is it supposed to go like this?" Luna asked with a worried look on her face as she helped him up.

"...Well if we're alive then it goes as planned." Charon said, the entire forces in the landing craft laughed but Luna became even more worried.

Charon stood up with the help of Luna as everything became silent except for the boat sailing and the bullets impacting, until the boat suddenly stopped and a whistle sounded, if was the time to charge into enemy fire and begin the operation.

"OK EVERYPONY GO LETS GO LEE--BLARGHEAHD" Charon tried to give a warcry once the front lowered but received a burst of machine-gun fire instead. The bullets massacred a small part of the company accompanying them before they managed to run forward, Concord was nowhere in sight as he had already moved forward too.

"You know, Charon? I'll stay here where it's totally safe and wait until you are all do--AAH!" Luna desperately tried to stay in the landing craft but Charon stood up covered in blood and forced her into the fray, an artillery shell hit the boat not a second later sending them both flying and making Charon do a front-flip in the sand, breaking his neck.

"'Tis but a scratch!" He said as he stood up and re-arranged his neck in the middle of the bullet storm. He grabbed Luna with his arms and ran towards one of the several craters created by the artillery shells that rained upon the beach. Once in safety he looked around the killzone and saw that there were several concrete towers scattered all over the beach, housing the machine guns that massacred the four divisions, they way was blocked by a sand line and barbed wire but the Imperial forces were determined to get through. Charon decided to take a quick look around once again and saw that there was a small group of ponies taking cover in a crater that was close to the barbed wire. "Luna, we're going to run towards that group, got it?"

"What? Why not stay here where the machine-gun doesn't reach?!"

"BECAUSE WE'RE BEING BOMBARDED."

"AHH!" Luna screamed as Charon lifted her up with his arms and ran towards the ponies, an artillery shell impacting where they took cover seconds ago and a machine-gun trail following their steps; once they arrived they threw themselves into cover and met the ponies there.

"What's the situation?!" Charon yelled, the gunshots of the battlefield could deafen anyone.

"We're stuck here, we can't get any closer to the wire! Those two damned towers would eat us alive while we cut it with the gauntlets!"

"Uhhh...That's it! Luna, stay here! Soldiers, I'm gonna run to the wire and cut it, tell the nearest soldiers around to charge once its cut!"

"Yes sir!" The pony said as he took out a radio.

Charon ran out of his cover and not a split second later two machine-guns tried to shoot him, without stopping he took out his rapier and cut the barbed wire with enough strength to send both sides away a considerable distance.

"That's it!" Said the pony in charge of the soldiers of that sector. "Everypony, move forward! Keep up the suppressive fire!"

A hundred ponies and Luna ran and passed through the barbed wire where they regrouped with Charon in the great elevation. They all kept running until they arrived to the metallic door of one of the concrete towers; Charon gave Luna two of the four grenades he carried. "Luna, take half of the soldiers with you and take care of the other tower!"

"What? How!?"

"...Blow up the door, storm in, kill everything, get out..."

"..."

Luna ran off with half of the group, Charon planted the grenades in front of the door and backed off a considerable distance before detonation. A deafening explosion was heard and smoke covered the doorway, Charon charged inside with his shotgun and started firing while the rest of the group stormed inside with him, bullets flew everywhere as the crew manning the machine-gun was disposed off. "We're done here." Charon said as he stared at the hundred thousand ponies storming the beach below from the tower's opening. They all walked outside through the debris created by the door's destruction and met with the rest of the forces coming from the beach through the barbed wire Charon had cut, soon enough Luna and her soldiers met up with Charon and the rest.

"Let's move on, the rest will catch up eventually." Charon ordered the thousand ponies that were with him.

They kept running on the elevation, through the bushes and the trees, but were surprised once a great trench armed with several machine guns fired at them. Out of instinct, they all threw themselves to the ground, luckily the elevation protected them from the bullets that would otherwise massacre them all.

"Sir, what do we do now?!" Yelled a pony that laid next to Charon.

"I don't know, I don't even have grenades left!"

"Aren't you immortal? You could go ahead and draw their fire while we charge." Said another pony.

"I might be immortal but I still feel pain, I'd be knocked unconscious by it before I'm halfway through."

Artillery kept falling upon them as they realized the trench in front of them was the source, they could do nothing but wait for an opportunity to present itself. A few minutes of enduring the firestorm passed before gunshots were heard on the left side of the trench, fighting had already intensified in that place as several ponies fought inside the trench. The ones who fought there were no other than Concord and his soldiers.

"What the...So THAT's where he went to!" Said Charon.

"Sir, the soldiers entrenched are moving towards Concord's side, they are weakened now." Remarked the pony next to him.

"Looks like it is...Everypony, forward!!"

Everypony stood up and ran towards the trench, taking cover in the various craters while the machine guns on the trench opened fire on the and massacred a part of the force as they charged. Crater to crater they advanced until Charon decided to take matters into his own hands by charging directly towards the trench without even taking cover, the several machine guns aimed towards him and fired several bursts but missed due to the sudden change of direction; everypony charged in unison, making the machine guns even more inaccurate than before because of the fear in the crew after seeing a thousand ponies running towards them. Charon jumped down the trench with his rapier and soon enough Luna and the thousand ponies followed with their bayonets.

Once he landed Charon managed to eliminate an unfortunate pony that controlled the machine gun, he then slashed another 2 soldiers apart as they got close, he barely blocked a third one as his bayonet dug into his stomach but another fellow Imperial soldier helped Charon by stabbing the attacker in the side; he took out the shotgun strapped to his back and began firing towards the ponies at the sides of the trenches, everypony covering him as he reloaded and vice-versa.The blood bath continued until the opposition began routing, the Imperial forces decided not to chase them since they were too tired to do so; Charon climbed the trench and helped Luna up, he cleaned the blood on her face and then began to speak.

"You have fought your first battle in this place, how do you feel after seeing such a bloodshed?"

"I...I don't..."

"The ships will return to the Imperium soon, you can go back to Canterlot if you wish."

"I don't feel anything...I've killed innocent ponies, but nothing happens to me..."

"Maybe it's because you got used to being Nightmare Moon?" Concord suggested as he climbed the trench.

"Must be like that..." Luna said as she stared into the void, but she then turned her head towards Charon. "I'm not scared to fight, let me help in this war!"

Charon smiled at her. "You've got what it takes, you just proved it here. Let's go meet the generals, then I'll give you a unit to command."

Several hours later, when the beach was secured, the generals and the three Immortals met in a tent with a map on a desk.

"We'll fortify this position and wait for reinforcements, once they arrive 2nd Army corps leadership will be transferred to Luna, the former leader will become her lieutenant. 1st, 2nd and 3rd Army corps will push through directly towards the capital while 4th corps goes north and 5th goes south protecting our flanks." Charon said as he pointed to the several drawings on the map. "4th and 5th Corps have priority for reinforcements as they protect our flanks, an artillery division will be deployed south and a brigade north, the rest will support the attack towards the west; we'll have part of our engineers repair the damage caused by the artillery to the main supply lines and another supporting the offensive."