Where the moon becomes brighter

Chapter 5: The end of the beginning.

The artillery shells impacting on the ground echoed inside the dugout Luna and several ponies stayed in, dirt fell from the ceiling as they prayed it didn't fall on them.

"Where is that artillery we were promised?!" Yelled Luna through the radio to the artillery brigade several kilometres away.

"We're taking positions, we'll be ready for action in approximately three minutes."

"You better hurry up, they'll charge at us any second now!" Just as Luna finished her sentence they all noticed that artillery stopped falling upon them.

"They're charging!" A desperate voice was heard from outside.

Upon hearing this, she threw the radio on the table and ran outside the dugout into the trench. A pony gave her a rifle and ammo, she loaded it and looked above into no-pony's land. Dust, smoke and craters could be seen, but more importantly several hundred ponies in their blue uniforms came out of the smoke charging towards the Imperial forces. Luna and everypony in the trench took aim with their guns and fired at the incoming force, deafening gunshots and painful screams were the only things heard from then on; Luna fired the five rounds her rifle had and backed off to reload, but an enemy pony closed in from above and tried to jump on her, as she realized what was going on she could do nothing but stare in fear at the pony, but the bullet from a fellow Imperial pony had struck the attacker and saved Luna from a rather gruesome fight.

"You ok, Princess?" Said the pony who saved her as he helped her up.

"I've been better...Look out!" Luna screamed as she saw another pony jumping towards them from above, with a swift movement she stabbed the soldier with her bayonet but received the same kind of wound in her shoulder, her scream of pain was completely drowned in the chaos. She grabbed her shoulder as it bled, but she saw as it regenerated and the bleeding stopped completely as if she wasn't stabbed at all.

"They are in the trenches!" A desperate voice echoed through the trench, a miracle that such sound wasn't drowned by the gunshots and screams.

A pony ran out of the dugout and headed towards Luna who was fighting nearby, the pony had a single message, which he yelled at Luna. "The artillery is in position, they are firing!!"

Several whistles were heard in the skies above until the deafening explosions struck in the field against the ponies that were still charging, the trench soon enough became clear of enemies as their reinforcements were stopped where the skies rained fire. Luna and the ponies in the trenches took cover as dust fell on them, the artillery barrage pounding on the field and the enemy's trench until silence engulfed the field.

"The artillery barrage stopped, move it move it!" Screamed Luna as she climbed the trench and blew her whistle, the several hundred ponies that were garrisoned there began moving and climbed the trench, machine guns started killing them while enemy artillery started falling once again, but they kept on marching despite the nightmarish scenery. They took cover in the craters as they advanced and fired, the deafening gunshots, explosions, machine-gun fire and death did nothing to break their will until they finally saw the white of the enemy's eyes. They started cowering, backing off from the trench and routing as the Imperial army advanced until they jumped down their trench and began fighting, that single event managed to make them route en masse towards the forest behind them. "Push into the forest! Don't let them regroup!" Screamed Luna, the Imperial forces giving a war-cry before advancing, shooting those that ran away; once there was no one in sight they slowly marched further into the forest.

They looked everywhere as the several hundred ponies walked through the trees, nothing could be heard, not even the running of the enemy forces, until a deafening machine-gun and several rifles broke the silence.

"AMBUSH!" Yelled a pony. At that instant everypony dove for cover wherever they could, be it next to a tree, into a hole or behind a boulder.

Two machine-guns on top of an elevation were focused on Luna, who took cover behind a tree; the enemy knew their priorities seeing as Luna, an immortal, could turn the tide of an entire war. Upon seeing such an event, several dozen ponies a considerable distance away started firing towards the machine-guns, trying to draw their fire and succeeding in such an objective; Luna, seeing as the bullets stopped impacting, peeked out of cover and saw the machine-guns firing at somepony else, a perfect opportunity for shooting them seeing as they were completely out of cover at this angle. She aimed at them with her Mosin Nagant 1890 and, once the sights met at the pony's head, fired, making one of the two machine-guns stop firing. The second machine-gun didn't even notice the event, the deafening sound obstructing his senses. Luna aimed once again, the sights met at the pony's helmet and fired, the deafening sound of the guns manned by them stopped at last, only the Imperial machine-guns could be the ones heard now as they advanced, the ponies from Executor's Empire cowering once again. A mass rout occurred as odds turned towards the Imperials, they shot at those who ran away while sparing those who surrendered until the battle had finished; Luna ordered everypony to re-organize and to bring her a radio, once a pony arrived carrying it he handed it to Luna, who turned it on and began speaking through it.

"HQ, area secured, awaiting orders."

"There is a village nearby to the north, secure it, once done supplies and reinforcements will be sent."

"Understood." Luna said before turning the radio off and ordering the units to march.

"Looks like they are alone..." Said Luna as she looked through her binoculars on top of a cliff towards the village below, their position being concealed by the trees. "Three medium houses, a big one and seven small ones...Their reinforcements haven't arrived yet..." She lowered her binoculars and turned to her forces. "Snipers and machine-guns position here, the rest with me."

The machine-gunners started setting up their guns and the snipers calibrating their scopes in the woods while Luna and the several hundred ponies remaining marched to the side of the cliff through the trees.

Everypony was in position, Luna looked one last time through her binoculars towards the village in front of her and saw a machine-gun nest pointing at them. She took out her radio and gave an order to one of the snipers.

"I want that machine-gun taken care of."

"You got it."

A few seconds passed before a gunshot was heard and the machine-gunner in front of them dropped dead, the ponies in the village scrambled into positions while the Imperial forces charged forward, the machine-gunners on the cliffs opened fire and rained hell upon the unfortunate enemies.

"Push into the big building!" Luna yelled.

The Imperials pushed through the crossfire and reached the house while the machine-guns laid suppressive fire, but once Luna kicked the door open a desperate scream came from inside the building.

"We give up! Don't shoot!" Screamed the commanding officer with his hooves in the air, so had the rest. Luna gave the order to stop shooting through the radio, at that moment the battle had finished for both sides.

"Fortify this position, machine-guns on the top floor." Luna said before she took out her radio and turned it on. "HQ, village secured, we've got priso--"

"COUNTER-ATTACK!!" A voice screamed from the second floor as the Imperial machine-guns opened fire. Luna, after recovering from the scare, ran up to the second floor and took aim through the window, but saw another unknown army already engaging the opposition's reinforcements.

"Stop shooting, stop shooting!" She yelled, the machine-guns in the house stopped but the crossfire in the distance continued. She took out her binoculars and looked at the battle to see that the unknown army was decisively winning, a few minutes of shooting passed before the entire enemy force routed en masse. "What..." That was the only reaction she had as she saw that an officer of the unknown army had a black Iron Cross with a grey outline from Terra's Germany in his helmet; not a second later, another pony arrived and told him something, the officer took out his binoculars and stared at Luna, both Luna's and the Officer's eyes met at that moment; they lowered their binoculars and took out a radio.

"HQ...Please respond..." Started talking Luna.

"This is HQ."

"An unknown army has been spotted, by the looks of it they're enemies of Executor's Empire and neutral towards us."

"Copy that, any details?"

"One of their officers used some sort of black cross with a grey outline in his helmet, I assume that's their army's symbol."

"Understood, Charon will be informed of this."

"Dammit!" Screamed Charon in the trench for dust kept falling on him, Concord giggled at the unfortunate event and Luna checked her gun; the trench was full of Imperial soldiers taking cover from the deafening artillery that shook the earth, this wasn't a simple battle, this was the battle against the capital of Executor's Empire itself, the entire Imperial Army that invaded this continent took part in this blood bath. Charon peeked over the trench one more time, he saw that the artillery that kept falling had decreased in quantity; he climbed up the trench and sounded his whistle. "It's go time, move it!" He screamed.

Concord, Luna and the thousand ponies in the trench started climbing it, bullets flew everywhere as the Imperial forces advanced through the craters, smoke and explosions that didn't stop them a single bit. The three immortals led the charge towards the trench in front of them, the nightmarish sight of a thousand soldier behind them could scare anypony, no matter how brave he might be. An artillery blast managed to throw Charon off his feet but Concord helped him up once again without losing speed, bullets flew by the thousands; as they got closer Charon took out Luna's rapier, Concord readied Celestia's rapier and Luna, with the thousand soldiers behind her, prepared their bayonets.

They all jumped down the trench, the enemy backing off in fear as they pointed their bayonets at them, but the immortals who led the charge struck first disrupting the will to fight among them, making them rout once the rest of the Imperials enganged in combat.

"Keep pushing! Don't let them catch their breath! Into the city, everypony!" Charon screamed as he fought several ponies at once before help from the other two immortals arrived.

The Imperials, who just jumped down into the trench, kept on running to the city that was directly in front of them, the trench was dug literally next to where buildings started appearing; they began fighting on the streets, on the corners, every single meter was a fight to the bitter end.

"Concord, take your platoon and flank that machine-gun!" Said Charon as he took cover behind the buildings from the machine-gun with his forces; Concord and a platoon-sized amount of ponies began circling around the block while Luna stayed next to Charon. After a few minutes the machine-gun nest behind a pile of sand-bags was annihilated by Concord's forces, allowing the small band of Imperials to advance further into the city until they arrived to the main square, where a battallion-sized group of soldiers was pinned down by five machine-guns coming from a fortification that covered the entire street that led to the castle.

"Soldier, report!" Ordered Charon.

"That fortification is massacring us! Those five machine-guns don't even let us get close!"

"Charon, I got this for now." Started talking Concord with a smile. "Your soldiers will give us covering fire, the three of us will make a run for it and whoever arrives will take care of the barricade, their blind spot is directly in front of them!"

"You got it." Answered the commanding officer.

"Charon, this is the plan: We'll both spread out through the street and charge forwards, I'll take the left side, you'll take the centre and Luna will take the right side. Luna, are you ready for this?"

"Always ready." Luna answered with a smile.

"Move it!"

The ponies began firing everything and the kitchen sink towards the barricade while the three immortals began running through the craters that were between them and the barricade; Charon couldn't do anything, he was turned into swiss cheese just as he started running; Luna could run further before being suppressed by the heavy firepower, she took cover in a crater, unable to do anything but wait; but Concord managed to reach the barricade despite an armory worth of bullets flying next to him. He stood in front of the barricade, thinking of a way to enter as the five machine-guns kept firing on Charon turning him into a pulp, until he came up with a rather brutal way to solve things. He began firing his AK-54r towards the part of the barricade directly in front of him, reloading as necessary until it was covered in holes. He reloaded again, and once done, kicked the barricade with all his might and managed to make a Terran-sized hole; he stormed inside and began firing his gun, distracting everypony inside the barricade long enough for the entire force outside to storm inside and finish the job.

"Charon...Can you hear me?" Luna asked, she crouched next to Charon who was regenerating from such a beating.

"...I still feel alive..." He struggled to say, smiling towards Luna.

Luna grabbed Charon by the arm and his back and helped him up.

"I can see the castle, this is almost over, lets go." Luna spoke.

"Following your lead..."

"This damned door doesn't want to open." Said an officer in front of the giant, reinforced doors of the castle. The Imperial army and the three immortals stood outside trying everything to open it but failing miserably.

"I got this." Said Concord before disappearing. A few minutes passed before he returned with a mortar and set it up pointing at the door.

"At point blank?!" Yelled Charon.

"Crazy enough to work." Concord said as he saw that everypony backed off a considerable distance before firing towards the door. The metallic doors were utterly destroyed, but through the smoke and debris bullets from several machine-guns came out greeting the forces that almost charged inside.

"Well what's the next plan, mister 'Crazy enough to work'?!" Charon said as he stood next to the door with Concord, the machine-guns never stopped firing.

"Uhhh...That's it! Charon, I'll lay down suppressive fire, you set up the mortar again!"

"Where the hell do you get those plans..."

Concord started firing towards the machine-gun nest from the door, making them duck for cover while Charon set up the mortar once again, aiming towards the nest. Once set up, Charon arranged the mortar shell and aimed, the recoil blew him back as the mortar wasn't supposed to be fired at such an angle, but the shell was fired successfully, the MG nest blew up, the soldier scattered, and the bullets stopped; Everypony and the three Immortals stormed inside the castle defeating any opposition.

"Everypony secure the castle, Concord and Luna you'll help me reach Executor!"

"You got it, brother."

"Let's do this!"

Charon reached the staircase while the ponies engaged the enemies below, Concord and Luna followed as he cleared the way with his shotgun until they reached the top floor, which strangely enough had no soldiers whatsoever, just the single silhouette of a Terran looking outside through a window, Executor.

"Long time no see, Executor..." Charon said through his teeth.

"A long time indeed, Charon..." Executor began speaking as he turned his head to Charon. "Just like old times...You and me engaging in a conflict...But this time we had entire Empires at our disposal..."

"You are not fit for being an Emperor, it seems, you lost this World War even though my Empire was crippled by another one."

"Lost? Tell me...Why do you think I've lost?"

"Because I can take your life right now without hesitation."

"Is that so?" Executor said before swifly taking out a Colt M1911 and shooting Charon between the eyes before anyone could react.

Smoke came out of Executor's gun as Charon dropped to the floor, Luna brought her hands to her mouth dropping her rifle while Concord narrowed his eyes.

"You say I lost...But I just killed you..." Executor began speaking to Charon's corpse on the floor. "I was unable to kill you back in Terra, you always escaped...But now? You came to me just to be granted death..."

"You seem to forget something..." Charon said as he began standing up.

"How in the...?!!"

"I am immortal."

Executor shot him once again, but the bullet only caused Charon's figure to turn darker and darker as he advanced. He kept shooting until he ran out of bullets, at this point Charon became a completely black silhouette with bright red eyes, just like in the fight against Discord. Executor began despairing until Charon was just in front of him, he was petrified beyond recovery; Charon grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up, choking him as Executor coughed violently and tried to break free.

"I am going to claw my way down your throat and tear out your very soul..." Charon said before he rammed the thumb of his gauntlet into Executor's eye, the entire room turned pitch black before anyone could see Executor's blood pouring out.

"What's going on?!" Yelled Luna, unable to see anything.

"It's Charon! When he fought Discord he turned like this, but he holds far more grudge against Executor than he held against Discord that time!" Explained Concord.

The room lightened up, but a great formation of smoke where Charon and Executor were made it impossible to know what was going on.

"Ugh...What is that sme--Oh God..." Concord tried to ask as the smoke reached him, only to be interrupted by the answer.

Executor's completely clean skeleton laid on the floor while Charon held his skull, still completely black with red eyes; Charon threw Executor's skull to the ground, then he stomped on it shattering it completely, only then he regained his normal colours.

"...Charon?" Asked Luna worried, she had never seen him the state he was seconds ago.

"No time! Charon, you should take a look at this!" Concord yelled as he stood next to a window.

Luna handed Charon her binoculars and began staring at the scenery below, such view left him completely speechless. There was an entire army outside, their emblem was the Iron Cross Luna saw in one of her battles, but what was shocking was that a Terran stood in front of them. The Terran carried a dark grey Trench coat, gloves, trousers, boots and helmet, he even carried a gas mask of the same colour.

"Why does he look like a Nazi..." Charon began asking.

The Terran below was also staring at him with his own binoculars, but he lowered them and began writting with paper and quill provided by a pony nearby; he then handed it to the same pony who ran off towards the Imperial forces, the Terran gave a hand signal as he walked away, the entire army began retreating.

"Another Terran..." Charon remarked as he walked towards the castle exit.

Once he got out of the castle the same pony that ran off with a message arrived and handed Charon the letter. He opened it and began reading with his eyes narrowed.

'Hello, Charon. My name is Chaser, we should meet one of these days...The pony carrying a letter also has a map with everything you need on it.'

As the letter said, the pony gave Charon a map, inside it was another giant continent charted, with a grey circle marking the location that supposedly Charon should go to.

"What...How does he know my name...?"