Chapters Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 1: Everything all over again
Chapter 1: Everything all over again.
Charon stood in front of the ruins of Stallinox. Two years had passed since the event that changed the course of the war, but this time he didn't mourn the losses, he was supervising the reconstruction efforts to bring the city back to its former glory. It was not only the workers rebuilding this city, but most of the inhabitants volunteered to help reconstruct this place, it wasn't just their city, it was also their home. Charon took a sip of the tea he held with both his hands and looked at the half-built castle. Ponies could be seen in the walls raising them, pegasi planting the steel frames, unicorns carrying the otherwise immovable giant bricks; in order to succeed, cooperation was needed, and in here it was a way of life.
"Hello, brother." Smoke generated next to Charon, and then once dissipated Concord revealed himself.
"Long time no see. How goes the reparation of the city?"
"Steady, the inner circle has been complete and we're moving on to the remaining parts, it'll take about a year and a half more if things keep up. I see the castle is halfway done."
"Where do you want these?" Said a group of unicorns as they carrier several colored glass fragments.
"That one behind the throne, the rest on the walls." Commanded Charon as he took a sip of his tea.
"What is that?" Asked Concord.
"That? That, my dear friend, is a way to remember everything we have gone through. It's one of a series of stained glasses, the one who will be behind the throne depicts the Siege of Stallinox while the rest of our story is scattered on the hall's walls."
"Fancy."
"A letter for you, sir." Atticus arrived and informed Charon as he gave him the letter. "It's from Celestia."
"Celestia, huh...?" Charon broke the seal and started reading the letter, then he rolled it back and returned it to the pony that stood beside him. "Concord, Celestia wants us to head to Canterlot. Atticus, take over the reparation efforts while we are away."
"Yes, sir." The pony returned back to his duties.
"So...Celestia wants us to go there...And that means Luna will be there..." Concord said with a worried expression.
"I don't think she'll forgive you about stabbing her in the face."
"Wait, me?! It was you who blew it out of my hands!"
"Why didn't you grip it tighter then?!"
"How did you expect me to know Luna would arrive?!!?"
"If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! Sun Tzu said that." Charon gave a speech in front of Celestia, Luna and Concord in Canterlot's garden. Both Equestrian sisters wished to know more about the weapons the Terran and the son of the draconequus used, what they didn't expect is Charon giving an entire speech of the art of war.
"Is he...Okay?" whispered Celestia to Concord.
"Terrans..." He said as he shrugged.
Once time passed and Charon finished his speech, he took out his shotgun, loaded it and threw it to Celestia, who barely managed to catch it. "Point at something, connect the iron-sights, press the trigger. See those wooden crates over the small pillars? Those are your targets."
Celestia awkwardly aimed the gun at the crates and squeezed the trigger. The deafening sound of a gunshot and the recoil generated was enough to scare her and drop the gun.
"W-where did I go wrong?" She said with a frightened voice.
"Nowhere, you did well but you should grip it tighter so it doesn't fly off like it did recently; the sound and the recoil are completely normal, don't be scared by them. Concord, give Luna your gun."
Concord loaded the gun and handed it to Luna. "Aim for the crates." He said as he backed off.
"Uhhh...Did you remember to set it to semi-auto, Concord?" Whispered Charon in a worried tone.
"...Whoops."
Luna fired the rifle only to be pushed back enough to make her fall to the ground and send the rifle flying due to the scare.
"You're on your own, buddy!" Exclaimed Charon as he tried to run, but Concord grabbed him by his long coat's neck and stopped him.
"You stay here and die with me!"
Luna stood up and rubbed her shoulder in pain. Surprisingly, she didn't make an entire army appear to mutilate the Terran and the Draconequus, instead, she was surprised that such kind of machinery was what a billion of Terran soldiers used in a daily basis.
"How...How could you use this gun as if it was nothing, yet it threw me back?" Luna asked, still surprised.
"What you witnessed in the battle on the moon was the son of the God of Chaos, not a Terran; a Terran would be limited to shooting one at a time if accuracy was desired. I also trained myself with guns, so I know how to handle them; you didn't know what a gun was, let alone ever used something resembling it." Explained Charon as he helped Luna up.
"Terrans sure are scary..."
"Your majesty, dinner is ready." Spoke a guard as he arrived.
"You both must be hungry, how about you dine with us?" Asked Celestia as she returned the shotgun to Charon
"Hungry? My stomach is eating itself right now." Remarked Charon.
"Well? How is Equestrian cuisine?" Asked Celestia as she saw Charon eating his first dish in Canterlot.
"It's better than my mother's, that's for sure." Concord bursted out laughing at Charon's comment.
"I'll take it as a compliment. Changing topics, I'm curious about how you managed to create an Empire that surpassed mine in just a decade..."
"I come from a world more advanced technologically, militarily and economically than this one. A single Terran country could easily conquer this entire world if they wished."
"Is that so? How did your people advance so fast?"
"My world, as I said a few weeks ago, is torn by chaos and war; if one side becomes weak the other will attack and conquer it, it's a technological race to become strong enough to defend themselves, and paranoia became the perfect motivation. In this world it's not like that, it is peaceful here, almost heavenly so; you can trust each-other while in the other world it'd be surprising if you weren't stabbed in the back at least once."
"That's horrible..."
"It gets better. Remember how the Great Pony War broke out? How discord manipulated everypony and everything for his own ends? I'm pretty sure you'll remember that for the rest of your life. I was born about half a century after not one, but two world wars in my world; I don't even recall why the first one broke out, but it was one of the worst blood baths of our time, and not half a century later the second world war broke out, a man started it fueled by seeing his country be almost destroyed by the winners of the war and wanting to create some sort of master race. For you, these events might be nightmarish beyond any point, but for me...It was Tuesday."
The room kept silent, except for Charon and Concord who kept eating; Concord had already gotten used to the Terran's world ever since he read his mind when he arrived in Cabalderio a decade ago, but those who didn't know anything were petrified not only by the events that took place in Terra, but by Charon shrugging them off as an every-day thing.
"Don't be scared, everypony." Started talking Concord. "If it wasn't for that cynical attitude of his, he wouldn't have carried out the Great Pony War and this world would be far different than now."
The silence slowly stopped as everyone resumed what they were doing, remembering that Charon was the one who helped save this world. But as Concord was eating he choked on his food and violently stood up as everyone stared at him.
"What is it, Concord?" Asked Celestia.
"C...Corruption..." He could barely speak as his eyes were wide open staring into the void, his face drenched in sweat. Upon hearing what he said, Charon ran out of the room with his shotgun strapped on his back almost taking the chair with him for he hadn't even bothered to move it out of his way. Concord tried concentrating by holding his hand on his forehead. "This...This isn't like anything I've felt before..."
Charon ran back into the room, trying to catch his breath from such sprinting. "Discord's statue it still in the garden...He hasn't escaped..." He said while panting.
"What? If Discord is still imprisoned, then what is the corruption Concord is sensing?!" Asked Luna.
"I don't know...I can't even focus right, I can't hear nor see what the corrupted one can, it's not Discords corruption!!" Exclaimed Concord.
"Can you at least feel its location?" Charon asked as he returned back to the table and stood next to Concord. The draconequus nodded, and after that, Celestia signaled a guard to bring her a map of the world. Once the guard returned she placed it on top of the table.
"Point us where it comes from." Said Celestia.
Everyone stood silent around the map as Concord pointed at the location of the corruption, eyes wide as they saw that Concord wasn’t pointing at anywhere in the continent, he wasn't pointing at the sea either, instead, he was pointing at the table outside the map's limit.
"Uncharted...Lands..." Said Charon as he kept staring.
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 2: Old grievances
Chapter 2: Old grievances.
"Move the supplies to the back of the ship, leave a space open for the expeditionary forces!" Yelled Charon as the preparations to sail to the uncharted lands were taking place in the port next to the open ocean. A fleet of four ships, designed like the medieval 'Holk', waited docked as supplies were being loaded. After an hour, several hundred military soldiers have arrived. "About time, board the ships, we'll sail once everything's complete." The soldiers complied and one by one they embarked on the different ships.
"Fancy fleet you got there, brother." Said Concord as he stepped out of a cloud of smoke.
"All ready?"
"Always ready. Hold up a second, let's try something." Concord took out Luna's rapier, which he handed it to Charon. "If we're handling weapons, might as well be one we handle best." Charon, upon understanding what Concord wanted to say, took out Celestia's rapier out of its sheath and compared them both. He swung each rapier several times in the air until deciding to hand the white rapier to Concord, keeping the dark one with him. "Luna's rapier, I see."
"I'm not very skilled with swords, let alone rapiers. I don't need agility if I don't know how to take advantage of it, so I take this one since it's heavier and carries greater force. It's more like a thin longsword than a rapier...It weights double as Celestia's, I can't use it as rapiers are intended to be used..."
"Might be because Luna has been more...Uhhh...Focused on brute force than Celestia; she was Nightmare Moon for millenia, and let's not forget that the Corrupted Terranized Nightmare Moon utterly defeated you without effort in the battle of the moon, even though you uncorrupted Celestia without the Elements of Harmony."
"That's more logical than I had previously thought." He said as he arranged Luna's sheath in his belt, then sheathing the rapier. "The preparations are finished, it seems. Let's go, 3rd ship of the right is our place." Both Concord and Charon walked over to the designed ship reaching the wooden planks it was docked next to, they walked over the plank and once inside they met with the military forces, the supply crates organized at the back. The captain gave an order, two soldiers cut the rope letting the ship go from the dock, another three raised the sail, and once done the ship started sailing towards the ocean, the other 3 ships following suit after a few seconds.
"Got the map, Charon?" Asked Concord as he sat on top of a crate, arranging Celestia's rapier's sheath on his belt.
Charon took out the modified map and stared at it for a few seconds. "The point of corruption you specified...The distance between us and it would be the same as this continent from one coast to the opposite."
"Might as well make the journey enjoyable." Said the Draconequus as he opened the crate and took out a bottle of rum, he then grabbed a bottle of water and a bottle of lemon juice; he took out a cup, mixed the three ingredients and started drinking. Charon soon sat next to him and mixed another drink for himself.
"So then I said, 'First we meet a random thing named ‘Discord’ who can turn people grey and make them complete jerks, then after rescuing the Mane 6 Celestia declares war on me and World War breaks out, after that, that...THING turns Celestia into a Terran, and now that black four-legged oversized swan goes to the MOON?!!'" Every soldier in the ship started laughing at Charon's story, they had sat in a circle sharing their stories as they happily drank in the journey during the night. "And so I went to the moon thinking 'Hey, what's the worst that could happen? Corrupted Nightmare Moon being Terranized?', Well I'll be damned, she WAS Terranized! And she had a god damn army that could cover the entire moon! Imagine my surprise when I arrived with Concord..." The ponies kept laughing.
"Hey Charon, you didn't tell them how Nightmare Moon utterly defeated you without any effort!"
"God dammit Concord! At least I defeated Discord!"
The ponies kept laughing and laughing. A soldier walked into the group and called Charon, the captain wanted to meet him. Charon stood up and left the group as Concord kept talking for him, he walked over the stairs to the front of the ship where the captain stood holding a telescope.
"What is it, Captain?"
"You might want to take a look at this." The pony handed him the telescope and told him to aim it towards the land in the distance.
"Land...Is this what I needed to look at?"
"No, look to the left."
Upon inspecting the horizon he noticed that in the uncharted land there was a port and several ponies carrying on their duties outside. Whatever this uncharted land was, it was inhabited, and after further inspection several flags were seen in the buildings of the port, a white 'X' with a black background.
"Close in on the port, we'll ask for permission to dock." Said Charon as he lowered the telescope.
"HEY! CAN WE DOCK HERE?!" Yelled Charon as he leaned over the front of the ship that was close enough to let the screams be heard, not knowing how to handle such situation; his entire force shook the boat when their hooves made contact with their foreheads.
The ponies of the port scrambled as they saw a 2-legged, tall creature and gave the approbation to land, to which Charon shared the news with the captain and the three other ships. Once the ropes were tied, the ships secured and the plank laid, everypony in the dock swarmed the position in which they were supposed to come out, the only things understandable from the commotion were the words "Emperor", "Another one", and "There are more?".
"What's going on..." Said Charon as he held Luna's Rapier, prepared to unsheath it at any moment as he stood in front of the hordes on the narrow, wooden platform.
"What if this is related to the corruption I sensed?" Asked Concord as he stood next to Charon.
The horde clumsily divided in two as a white-haired pony in a suit walked forward and stopped in front of Charon and Concord. "How in the...Who are you both?!"
"My name is Charon, Emperor of the Terran Empire to the north-east. This is Concord, my soul brother."
"So there are more like him..." Said the pony as he scratched his chin with his hoof. "I am the governor of the city controlling this port, follow me and we'll talk."
The pony walked through the multitude, Charon and Concord followed suit as they still held their rapiers and looked everywhere, not knowing what was going on; the military forces started organizing as they came out of the four different ships. Both men and the stallion walked through the port and the wooden planks until they arrived to a small, yet the biggest building in sight. The governor opened the door and the three of them got inside, two chairs arranged in front of a desk with yet another one behind it; they all sat down before the governor spoke.
"You both look like our Emperor, where do you come from?"
"Wait, what? Your Emperor looks like us?" Asked Charon, surprised by the possibility of another Terran in this world.
"I asked first, you'll answer and then I'll answer."
"Fine...I come from a world called 'Terra'. If my suspicions are correct, your Emperor comes from my world too."
"There, was it that hard? Now, for your question... Our Emperor looks like both of you, that's a fact, the only things that differ are the clothes; I don't know if he said something about this 'Terra' you spoke of since I haven't talked to him personally; you might have more chances of meeting him face to face, he was the only 'Terran' in two decades, only now we get to see more of his kind."
"I see...Where is he currently located?"
The pony opened his desk, took out a map and with a pen encircled a city on it, he then drew a succession of lines from the port to the encircled city. He rolled back the map with his hooves and handed it to Charon. "I marked everything you need to know here."
Charon grabbed the roll and looked at it for a few seconds without unrolling it. "Much appreciated."
"It is hard to believe I just talked with an Emperor."
Charon and Concord stood up and left the building as the governor resumed his duties inside. Outside, the captain had finished rallying the forces and waited for the Terran and the Draconequus to return. Both of them walked over to the captain as the ponies in the port stared at them with curiosity; Charon unrolled the map and showed it him.
"The encircled city is our destination for now, whoever this 'Emperor' is will surely help us locate this corruption and deal with it. We'll follow the marked path, following the scale of this map it'll take about two weeks on foot. Unload the supplies and prepare for this journey."
"Immediately. You heard him! Unload everything!" Yelled the captain as the ponies scrambled towards the four docked ships.
Concord stood next to Charon, seeing the ponies perform their orders from the elevation of the port that gave them a rather splendid sight. "You arrived in this world around two decades ago...And so did their Emperor, the governor even said we're like him."
"Another Terran...huh? If that's true, then I'm not alone in this world. Considering most of the people I've met...Most of the people I've killed...Were greedy bastards who stopped at nothing and wanted everything they could lay their hands on...Maybe this isn't a good thing at all."
"Have hope, Charon...This Terran is the Emperor of this place, after all. The fact that it isn't in ruins might show something."
"You're right, I shouldn't be so cynical. Looks like the supplies have been unloaded and the forces organized, let's move on and meet the Emperor if we can. Let's just hope...That this Emperor..." Charon paused as he breathed deeply. "Let's hope he or she's not the source of the corruption."
In front of them was a stone road between a forest, wide enough for the expeditionary forces to travel without problems.
The soldiers and both men kept walking until they arrived to the marked place, they stood in front of the gates with guards on top of the wall; as they got closer the gates opened as if they were already expected to arrive, considering a single messenger would travel faster than 400 ponies this wasn't completely illogical. Out of the gates a single armored pony came out and walked over to Charon.
"You and your friend may pass but the forces must wait outside, the Emperor's waiting."
Charon, with a gesture of his head, signaled the captain to do as the pony said. They both walked in through the gates as they followed the pony, and once inside the gates closed. The city wasn't very different from any other settlement in Cabalderio before the Great Pony War, it was filled with ponies, each with their own duties; Charon and Concord looked around as they walked, admiring that such a place was uncharted days ago, it was hard to believe that such a place wasn't discovered in the thousand years of Celestia's rule. They kept on walking until they arrived to yet another gate, behind it could be seen a giant castle, comparable only to Stallinox's or Canterlot's castle; they passed through the gates into the frontal garden, but as they were halfway through Concord held his head with his left hand.
"What is it?" Asked Charon with worry.
"The corruption is getting closer..."
Charon narrowed his eyes as they walked through the garden, he was already expecting the Emperor, the Terran that arrived in this world to be the corruption, he was rather surprised that the guards let the both pass with their rapiers. The giant doors that led inside the castle slowly opened as they revealed a long hallway with the flags seen at the port being hung through the hallway, a white 'X' in a black background; both Charon and Concord walked through the hallway, the guard leaving as his duty was finished, until at the end of the hallway they saw the Emperor sitting on his throne, his left hand on his head and his left foot resting over his right knee; it was a fact now, the Emperor was a Terran. As they got closer Charon suddenly gripped Luna's rapier with all his might as his eyes narrowed even further than before behind his sunglasses, his teeth grinding in anger behind his scarf, Concord narrowed his eyes towards the Terran Emperor too but for a slightly different reason.
"Hello, Charon. Long time no see." Said the Terran Emperor smiling towards Charon as if he knew him already, his eyes hidden behind the fedora he was using, he also had a dark blue jacket, a white shirt and blue jeans, a gold watch also showed as he raised his fedora, revealing his blue eyes.
"Charon..." Started whispering Concord. "He...He is the source of corruption I've been sensing..."
"I'd be surprised if he wasn't..." Charon whispered back as he desperately tried not to take out his rapier and start a massacre in this place.
"So, Charon, how goes your family? I heard your friends are...'Full of life'." Joked the Terran Emperor, still sitting in his throne.
"Charon...What's going on? Do you know anything about this?" Tried asking Concord but was ignored as Charon's fury forced him to focus on the man in front of them.
"They sure are, Executor...You even met them personally once...I've come to talk about a few things, but they were answered as soon as I saw you in that throne...I'll take my leave, then..."
"Leaving so soon? You haven't even introduced me to your friend over there, I'm pretty sure we'd get along just fine..."
"What's going on?!" Asked Concord.
"I'll answer that later, let's go." Said Charon as he still held Luna's rapier's hilt with all his might.
Both men walked outside the castle, the Terran Emperor, Executor, giggled as they left.
"Charon, it's time you tell me what happened in the castle." Concord asked as they walked through the stone road that led from the port to the castle. the sound of the expeditionary force's hooves impacting against the ground echoed in the night.
"Concord...Remember when I fought against the Corrupted Terranized Celestia back in Canterlot? Remember how I said that an organization killed each and everyone of the people I knew until I was left completely alone in Terra?"
"Wait, then that means..."
"Executor was the head of the organization responsible for everything. He gave the order to kill everyone I knew, he was my target in the suicide campaign..."
"And he's the source of corruption...It's not surprising considering he's the head of that 'mafia' you spoke of. So, what happens now?"
"A complete and utter nightmare will arrive soon if my suspicions are correct. He was the head of the mafia, and now he's the one who manages an entire Empire, that's enough bad news to scare everyone. It gets worse, just like I hold a grudge, he does too. He killed everyone I knew so I decided to kill each and everyone that was related to that organization, I was almost killed in one of my efforts but the blinding light struck, saving me from imminent death. Bad enough, right? Consider this, we both are Emperors, we both manage an Empire...We both hate each other...I wouldn't declare war out of anger, the dead cannot return, but him? He just smiled at me when we were in the castle even though I pretty much killed his entire family, that alone shows that he doesn't care that much for what happens to those around him...And don't get me started on his story back in Terra..."
"And we both gave too much information to the governor back at the port..."
"Exactly, for now we must return to...I don't even know if our continent has a name...We must return and inform everyone of this, war might be imminent."
They arrived to where the ships were located, this time being six instead of four, two belonging to Executor's Empire. They walked over to the wooden planks of the port, closing in on the ships, but before they were prepared to board Charon saw a group of dark-clothed unicorns running away, as if their clothes were supposed to camouflage them in the night. Charon, paranoid, gave the order to stop; everypony stood in front of the docks until four explosions in rapid succession broke the silence, the four ships behind them were soon engulfed in fire. Arrows started flying from the forest nearby, striking the expeditionary force without mercy.
"AMBUSH! Testudo formation, dammit!" Screamed Charon as he grabbed Concord and threw him to the ground behind three soldiers with their shields raised. "They'll cover us while we take care of the archers, get shooting!" Charon fired his shotgun at the trees in a rapid succession towards the forest, he didn't care much about accuracy since he knew that at least a single pellet would hit at this range and disable the unfortunate archer for a while; Concord, however, took his time aiming the assault rifle he carried.
"Infantry coming from the road, sir!" Said a soldier that protected Charon from the hail of arrows, the entire force deflected the arrows with their shields as they were trapped in the port without way out.
"There aren't as many archers now...Captain, prepare to engage the incoming forces; Concord, help me take care of those damn archers!"
Charon stood up and helped Concord up by grabbing his jacket's neck and pulling it up, they both ran towards the archers in the forest while taking cover behind the different sheds scattered on the port; the military forces got out of their Testudo formation and quickly formed into a line ready to meet the forces closing in from the road. Gunshots were heard in the dark forest, the muzzle flash brightening up the darkness; the bullets started flying outside the forest towards the soldiers that were engaging the expeditionary force as the archers were taken care of, flanking the enemy force and utterly defeating it.
"More are coming! Fall back to the port! Concord, help me slow them down!" Charon and Concord stood their ground on the road as the force backed off; both Charon and the Draconequus opened fire, striking the enemy frontline as they advanced; a volley of arrows came flying from the sky, striking both of them but not slowing them in the slightest in their task.
"They seem to forget we're immortal...We're done here, let's meet up with the rest." Said Charon as he took out the arrows lodged in his heart. The forces were already positioned for a stand in the docks, the only thing left was fighting to the bitter end. Charon and Concord ran back to the port, passing through every shed and reaching the wooden planks; as soon as he met with his soldiers he realized that at first there were six ships, but only the Imperial ships exploded leaving two left standing. "That's it! Units, hijack that damned ship!" He commanded as he pointed towards the closest ship, time ran against them since the enemy forces kept on coming without end.
They raised a plank with whatever they could find and everypony boarded the ship while a storm of arrows kept raining on them; Charon boarded the ship carrying a wounded pony and Concord cut the rope that held the ship in place with Celestia's rapier, he built up speed and jumped towards the ship who was sailing towards the open ocean, managing to grab the side and forcing himself upwards.
"This is a declaration of war already..." Said Charon exhausted as he treated the wound of the pony he was carrying. "Executor...The fact that he's alive is bad enough...But that he's in this world and manages an entire Empire makes this a living nightmare...I'd be happier with Discord escaping once again, to be honest..."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 3: Terran war.
"This world isn't a war world like Terra, it's peaceful here so it doesn't have any advanced tactics or technology in warfare. When I came to this world the military strength of Cabalderio increased to unspoken levels, we could survive the focused attack of an entire coalition. For Executor it wasn't too different but the map the governor gave us back at the port showed us how the entire continent was under his banner, there wasn't a single nation left standing. He has the resources of a continent the combined size of Eurasia and Africa at his disposal, yet the Terran Empire is just the size of the Soviet Union before it dissolved..." He paused as he took a sip of his wooden tankard before continuing. "Is is depressing how a single Terran can change everything in this world... If it wasn't for me, Discord would have won...If it wasn't for Executor, we wouldn't be expecting something worse than Discord's chaos...Anyways, once we get back we must warn Celestia and the other nation leaders, we must create a pact to share everyone's resources and military power, act as a single entity--" His talk with Concord in the ship's main room was cut short as a desperate pony ran downstairs.
"The captain requests you presence immediately!" The panting pony said. Charon and Concord looked at each other for a second before deciding to run upstairs to the front of the ship where the captain waited.
"What is it, cap'?"
"Things are already going to hell, look at the port." The captain said as he gave the telescope to Charon.
Upon looking through it, he saw a large scale battle developing in the port; the forces clashing in the land engagement were the Imperial Army and another army which sported banners exactly like the ones used by Executor's Empire.
"Executor..." Said Charon as he lowered the telescope with his eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. "Concord, start sniping."
"You got it, brother." Concord took aim with his AK-54r and started firing towards the opposing army as the ship got closer and closer. Charon walked downstairs to where the remnants of the expeditionary force were drinking.
"Everypony, looks like my old friend Executor has paid a visit to our lands, who are we not to give him a rather warm welcome?! Our brothers are engaging his forces at the port, we're going to help them as much as we can! Who's with me?!"
Everypony raised their tankards in unison and gave a loud yell, after drinking the remaining grog they had in their tankards they scrambled towards the armory, gathered their swords and shields and ran upstairs to the front of the ship where Concord was still sniping. Charon stared at the port with the telescope for a few minutes before lowering it and giving an order to the captain.
"The port is under their control, docking is impossible...But then again, this isn't our ship to begin with! Ram it! " He said as he took out Luna's rapier and pointed to the port with his other hand.
"You heard him! Full speed towards the port!" Yelled the captain.
The sound of wood breaking was heard as the ship rammed at the port, it was incapable of sinking at this point for it was clinging with its broken nose. Charon climbed to the highest point in the front and stood facing at his troops.
"Concord, I need you to snipe the enemy officers! Everypony else, we'll fight here and stand our ground! This is a strategical point the general in charge of the Imperial Army will sure take advantage of! Everypony go, let's go!" He said as he jumped off the ship nose towards the enemy forces, his troops soon following suit. The fighting intensified below while Concord sniped above, Charon tearing apart the enemy forces as Luna's rapier carried greater force than Celestia's, the one he had been using before. After a while the enemy army started retreating, the Imperial Army deciding not to chase them by order of the general.
"Wasn't this...A bit too fast?" Asked Charon as he sheathed his rapier, surprised that the confrontation lasted far less than expected.
"Well considering that their general was my first target and then I took care of several officers..." Explained Concord as he jumped down the ship, landing next to Charon.
"Well that was a God-send...If you both hadn't arrived we'd surely be dead meat..." Said the General as he ran to Charon, breathing heavily.
"What's going on, General?" Asked Charon as he turned towards him.
"It's a continental invasion, we're being pushed back all over the south-western coast! Reports were arriving back at Stallinox of sudden attacks caused by unknown armies carrying a white X in a black background as their banners. I was dispatched to reinforce this sector but turns out they outnumbered us."
"Executor..." Charon once again spoke through his teeth.
"Incoming! Another army!" A soldier desperately screamed in the distance causing everypony too turn their heads to the incoming horde with their eyes wide open.
"Dammit! Charon, I'll stay here and hold them off! You go and meet Celestia and Luna in Canterlot!"
"You got it, brother!"
Charon ran off, Concord ran towards the Imperial forces and the General screamed orders as the Imperial Army started reorganizing.
"CELESTIA!!" Screamed Charon as he kicked Canterlot's giant doors open and rushed inside, only to be stopped by two royal guards pointing their spears at him.
"Charon?! Let him pass!" Ordered Celestia as she saw the exhausted Terran storm into the room. The two spears held at Charon's neck were lowered, allowing him to continue running towards her and grab her shoulders.
"Celestia! Things will turn into a nightmare worse than Discord's, we must unite this entire continent under a single banner if we want to have the slightest chance of survival!!"
"What are you talking about?" She said, utterly confused.
"Right...You haven't heard anything of it yet..."
"Of what?"
"Remember when we fought back then? When you were corrupted and I told you my story? Executor, the Terran who killed everyone I knew, has returned. Remember the corruption Concord sensed? It's him. He is in charge of an Empire that spreads through an entire continent...And he is invading us; we're losing ground, the Great Pony War has crippled us all and if we don't share our resources and military power as a single nation we'll all die...Concord, Luna, you and me are immortal, if we're defeated I'm sure we'll get something far worse than death..."
"Can't we defeat him if we form another coalition?" She suggested, oblivious of the most important factor.
"Heh...Celestia, how you forget past events...Cabalderio, under my rule, survived the focused attacks of a coalition of 6 different nations, right?"
"Yes...?"
"Executor has an Empire three times the size of Cabalderio...He is a Terran, just like me. Tell me, what if I controlled an Empire three times as big and declared war to every nation you knew? You'd not seek a Coalition, you'd seek to unite every nation as a single entity, for anything else would present far less chances of survival. Celestia, this isn't just a simple war, it's about fighting against someone far worse than Discord himself!!"
Charon let go of Celestia and slowly backed off a few steps, Celestia stared at the void as everything Charon told her sank in, even Luna who sat in the giant table behind her was mortified. After a few seconds Celestia took a deep breath and looked up to Charon.
"An union...I'll do as you say then, Equestria will be under your command from now on. You hold the greatest military knowledge in this world, go and command your armies in the defence, I'll tell the other nations of this."
Charon smiled behind his scarf and ran outside as Celestia and Luna watched. Celestia turned back towards the main table where a guard had already placed several blank papers and a quill, but noticed that Luna sat in another chair with a sorrowful look in her face.
"What is it, Luna?"
"If it wasn't for Charon, I'd still be Corrupted Nightmare Moon in this Terran body...right?"
"Most certainly..."
"And he was the one who carried me from the moon back here, the one who held me as I woke up...Shouldn't I help him in this war at least?"
"Are you sure about this? Even if Charon lets you, you won't be fighting against the hordes of evil, you'd be fighting against ponies just like ours, it's Executor who gives orders and they have no option but to carry them out."
"I know...But I can't just wait here while Charon fights against him...I want to help him; he saved me, this is the least I can do for him!"
Celestia held Luna's hand and looked at her with a smile. "Go and meet Concord, I'm sure he'll be able to help you with this."
Luna smiled back as she stood up and ran outside, Celestia followed her out with her eyes before deciding to start writing the letters to the other nation leaders.
Concord sat in a bench near the entrance of Stallinox's castle cleaning his AK-54r with a piece of cloth. A shadow soon darkened him as a tall figure stood in front, it was Luna herself.
"Good to see you again, Princess." Said Concord as he kept cleaning his rifle.
"Concord...I want to help in the war."
Luna's request made Concord accidentally push the trigger with the cloth, making his rifle fire and strike at an unfortunate bird that was resting in a tree nearby.
"...What?" Asked Concord, still dumbfounded.
"Charon helped me once, I want to help him back!"
"...I don't think you're ready for this, even though you're more than a thousand years old."
"I know what you're going to say, the ponies that I'd be fighting against would be the same as those that fight with us, they haven't done anything wrong to deserve such a fate...But I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help Charon in this war."
"Yes, I was going to say that too..." Concord sighed at Luna's innocence. "...But there are far more things in the art of war. It's not just giving orders and expect the best, it's knowing that you'll be the one that commands the fate of your forces, that a single mistake may cause needless deaths, war knows no mercy, and that's only in the command structure. You're a Goddess without power, the Terranization has removed them from you but you're still immortal and hold incredible strength, in battle you're a strategical unit that should always be used. You'll be in the frontline, you'll see all kinds of nightmares as ponies kill each other without mercy, using every advantage they have such as throwing dust in the enemy's eyes and stab him in the heart while he's distracted, and that's just one of the million ways to die out there. Not every Terran that goes to war and comes back alive keeps his mind intact, I don't want to know what would happen to you."
"If it means helping Charon and giving him a bigger chance to win this war then I'll endure anything that's thrown at me!"
"Sorry Luna, but I can't let you take such a risk..." He said as he placed his rifle in the bench and stood up, he then raised his hand and placed it over Luna's forehead.
"Wait! At least let me--" Luna's desperate tries to stop Concord were cut short as the Draconequus turned her into smoke, teleporting her back to Canterlot.
"Charon cares for you...Far more than you'd think..." Concord whispered to himself.
"Did something happen, Concord?" Asked Charon as he passed through the castle doors.
"Nope, need something?"
"Actually, yes. Follow me."
They both entered the castle and walked through the hallway, passing through the throne and arriving to a door that led towards the castle garden; once opened it revealed a group of ponies already waiting for them.
"Even with total continental unification, we'll need a miracle to win the war...And I'm the one to bring forth that miracle we're in need of." Charon said as they both walked towards the group of ponies. He stood next to the one waiting in the garden crossroad in front of several wooden crates on top of pillars and gave him the shotgun he had strapped on his back.
"Charon...You realize that ponies don't have fingers, right?"
"I know. Bring the gauntlet!"
"...Gauntlet?" Concord asked, only to see a wheeled table with a metallic gauntlet on top of it being pushed by two ponies from the door they came from. As it got closer he realized that the tips of the fingers were shaped like a claw.
Charon grabbed the gauntlet and gave it to the pony that held his shotgun, the pony placed it on his hoof and began to move the fingers freely as if the gauntlet was already a part of his body.
"How did you manage to create that thing?!" Asked Concord, utterly surprised.
"Magic, my friend...The most powerful unicorns enchanted that gauntlet, Twilight Sparkle herself took part in this project... Fire the shotgun when ready." He commanded to the pony in front of him.
The soldier took aim towards one of the crates with the shotgun and fired, the crate was destroyed but the pony was blown back as a result. Charon scratched his chin while another two ponies helped the poor soldier up.
"Too much power, then...Concord, turn the shotgun into a Mosin Nagant 1890."
Concord grabbed the shotgun that was lying on the floor, turned it into a shadow and transformed it into the desired gun; he then handed it to the pony that held the gauntlet. The pony fired once again, the bullet striking the crate and the soldier barely keeping balance, at this sight Charon smiled.
"Guess this will do."
"Are you sure, Charon? He almost fell back..."
"He managed to endure the recoil, that's what matters. The other soldiers will cover him while he recovers and operates the bolt of the gun and so on. We aren't done yet, though...Bring the PM M1910!"
"PM M1910...Wait, that's a..." Concord tried to decipher what thing carried that name, he realized what it was once he saw a large machine on wheels being carried by several ponies.
The artifact was set in place where the pony with the gauntlet was previously located, it was then aimed towards the place where no less than 10 crates were located; everypony covered their ears as the machine created a rapid succession of noise and destroyed the 10 crates.
"You sure like Russian technology, Charon. First the Mosin Nagant, and now this machine-gun?"
"I've been utterly fascinated by the Russians enough to study their weaponry. I know how they are made, so I decided rebuild them and test them out...Turns out they work just fine...
"And so, we're stuck with WW1 Russian technology..." Remarked Concord before being startled by an explosion in the distance, then followed a whistle and an even louder explosion. "What the hell was that?! Are we under attack?!"
Charon smiled at Concord's desperation. "9 cm Mortar Type GR. Guess who created it? That's right, the Russians..." After saying this he took out a radio and turned it on. "Artillery crew, report."
"Target destroyed, weapon fully operational, no unexpected events occurred."
"Understood, take a rest, no more testing for now..." Charon told them through the radio before turning it off and looking at Concord. "Several things have been invented now, Concord...Rifles, machine guns, grenades, radios...Tactics and strategies...Factories, new economical methods, Industry...The medieval era has finished, we're now in a new age..."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 4: Forceful approach
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."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 5: The end of the beginning
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...?"
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 6: Repercussions of hindsight
Chapter 6: Repercussions of hindsight.
Charon walked towards Chaser, who was standing on the theater balcony, leaning over the balustrade listening to a pony playing the cello below for the spectators. The theater was located in the capital of Chaser's Empire, another continent entirely; of the three Terrans that arrived to this world, the three of them were Emperors, such was the difference between both worlds that a simple Terran with a bit of economical and military knowledge could become the leader of an entire nation easily enough.
"Isn't that pony's music beautiful? Bowstring's his name, I've been listening to him for years now..." He said as he paid attention to the dark-blue unicorn with a fitting light-blue mane playing below. "It is fortunate that you were able to come, Charon." Chaser spoke without emotion at all.
"How do you know my name?" He asked as he walked next to Chaser, also leaning on the balustrade.
"Don't you remember, Charon? Tell me, don't you remember killing an entire family, but sparing the boy who cowered in a corner?"
Charon stood in silence, he had forgotten about such an event but now remembered, the boy who he spared back in Terra from the massacre, the one who witnessed the death of his entire family, stood right next to him.
"I...Do..."
"Looks like that wasn't unimportant enough to be considered just a simple Tuesday, then. You killed them...You left none alive, just me...But you didn't do anything afterwards, you didn't steal anything...You didn't destroy anything in my home...You looked at me, staring into my soul, 'You have nothing to do with this.' you said in a calm tone...Why...?" Chaser asked, the sound of the cello playing was the only thing heard for a few moments.
"They...They were mafia." Answered Charon in a quick way, he knew that the Terran next to him had seen his family massacred in front of him, the kind of anger generated by such event would ignore all reasoning.
"Mafia..." Chaser calmly spoke. "Please, do go on..."
Charon was surprised, to say the least, he had expected Chaser to ignore his explanation and demonize him, but he was actually interested in listening.
"Your family worked for a man called 'Executor', I don't know his true name, but he was the head of a mafia responsible for..." Charon rose his head and took a deep breath before continuing. "...Responsible for the destruction of...Everything..."
"Everything?"
"Everything...They killed off my friends...Every single one of them...They tried to hunt me down, so I decided to take actions against them. I couldn't win, that was a suicide campaign...But that was a sacrifice willingly paid. I spent countless nights hunting them down, your family being one of my last few targets before I was struck by some sort of blinding light from the skies. I couldn't kill Executor back in Terra, but I managed to do so in this new world..."
"That makes sense now that I've heard your story...Is this 'Executor' the one we both fought against?"
"Indeed he was. He's also the reason this world sunk into industrialization times. We were supposed to leave it like it was, now it has been tainted by Terran hands..."
"You seem to know a lot about this world." Chaser was oblivious that this world was in fact a TV show from Terra.
"I do, and let's leave it like that. But, I'm surprised you listened to me, I was almost certain you'd be angry enough to ignore me."
"Charon..." He sighed. "We are driven by vengeance, that's a fact, but we don't let that fury become something that controls every action we make, right? It's the same for you in this case, you wanted to kill the entire mafia even if it meant throwing your life away, but you spared me since I didn't have anything to do with them...I was angry at you, of course, but I searched for you wanting answers, not your death..."
"You searched for me?"
"After you killed my family and left me in confusion I began looking for you, didn't you know in the time we were in Terra?"
"I haven't heard anything about someone looking for me, maybe because I was too busy escaping death. Tell me, what did you do after that...event?"
"After that, I had nothing else in life. You were the only thing I had left, your reasons for leaving me in that state, I mean...Ironically, I became just like you since I had no money to live, and the only friends I had were those my family introduced me to, the fact that you killed them showed that they were also mafia. I slept on the streets relying on no one, hearing rumors about you and your whereabouts, I realized that you were killing mafia members back in Terra, so I decided to... Pay a visit to one of them, getting the information out of them, but that method of interrogation also made me their enemy, but I wasn't bothered in the slightest. We both fought against a common enemy for different purposes, you wanted to exterminate them all, I wanted to know where you were...But then the blinding light you spoke about struck me when I was heading for the head of the organization, 'Executor' as you call him. I was transported to this world, where ponies...Could talk and live in an organized society; I became their leader because it seemed that their knowledge was medieval, I helped them with modern ways until I created this Empire, 'Kaiserreich'...For the first few years I tried to return to Terra but gave up after the 3rd year, when I realized that there was no way to return, but a few years later I started hearing rumors...Rumors about another Terran with a longcoat and a green hat, his face covered by a scarf and sunglasses, fighting a war against some sort of 'Corruption'; I realized it was you after a while, I sent spies to know what happened there at all times, to know how you were doing. You won the war at last, but not a month later the second Great Pony War broke out for you against this 'Executor', the responsible for what happened to you, so I decided to help you by declaring war on him. One of my generals spotted another Terran commanding your forces, but I remembered that 'Discord', the one you fought against in the first Great Pony War, turned Princess Celestia and Princess Luna into Terrans...Time later you stormed the capital of Executor's Empire with your forces and killed him, then our eyes met when you saw me outside the city with an entire army. And so, event after event led us to our meeting here."
"So...We've completed the objectives that kept us alive..."
"Depressing, isn't it? At least we can still live for the millions of ponies we take care of..."
"There will finally be peace, after two Great Pony Wars."
Silence engulfed the theater, the pony below had stopped playing the cello and prepared to play once again.
"I'll declare war on you in a year."
"...What?" Charon asked in utter confusion, he had expected peace from Chaser, not war. "Wait, haven't we understood each other? Am I the reason behind this?"
Chaser slowly shook his head before speaking once again. "This isn't about vengeance, Charon...I want to unify the world under a single banner, it's not greed...It's about making sure that there aren't two sides to fight each-other anymore, I seek peace with this."
"Why can't both our nations exist? We have no reasons to fight each-other!"
"Whenever there are two or more forces, war is imminent...Remember back in Terra, Charon? Remember World War 1, World War 2, the Cold war...It goes back to ancient times too, the most prominent example being the Roman Empire...This world isn't an exception to this rule, Luna turned into Nightmare Moon to overthrow Celestia's rule millenia ago, remember? They were sisters, they grew up together, but that didn't stop them from becoming enemies. Do you understand what I'm trying to accomplish with this?"
Charon stood in silence as Chaser's words sank in, everything he had said was the undeniable truth.
"So...That may happen anywhere...Now that I think of it, it makes more sense than before..." Charon's cynicism couldn't predict this turn of events. "We'll be engulfed in a third Great Pony War now...Considering that we both hold an entire continent and half of the former Empire of Executor, this will be the worst blood bath of our time...What will happen once this is over?"
"We both are good leaders, we both care for our people, it doesn't matter who wins here...What matters is that someone must win, this world must be under a single banner to avoid further conflict, there can be only one force in this world. Listen, I'm not an evil man, you have a year to prepare before I begin; gather your forces, tell your generals and alert your people, only the best leader will win this conflict..." Chaser kept silent for a few seconds before continuing. "Enough about these depressing matters...I can guess you still have a few questions, and I'd be happy to answer them."
Charon stood in silence for a moment, trying to get the thoughts about the war out of his mind until he remembered several things he didn't know about. "Indeed I do. Why do you look like a Nazi? Uhh no offense..."
"And none taken. Why do I look like a Nazi, you say...Tell me, are you a Soviet?" Chaser answered with another question.
"Well, no but I was interested in Russian history..."
"There's your answer then, I too was interested in history, but German history, not Russian. I don't share a Nazi's ideologies, nor do I seek a 'Master race' or 'Purity', I'm just a man who seeks peace and acceptance between people through any means necessary. You have to admit, though, if it wasn't for the Nazi idea imprinted in everyone's mind, this uniform would look extremely well."
"I'd have to agree with that, but is there a reason behind your gas mask?"
"This gas mask..." Chaser slowly took off his helmet, then he began unstrapping his gas mask and carefully removed it, revealing a dark crimson red head with no facial hair whatsoever, not even eyebrows. The skin was utterly burned beyond recognition, it even had several cuts, Chaser looked at Charon with his brown eyes.
"What...What happened to you?"
"Remember how I said the mafia was also my enemy back in Terra? When I was assaulting one of their offices they closed every single exit and trapped me inside the building, then they set it on fire with me inside...My entire body was burned, there wasn't a single spot intact...I managed to escape death by jumping off a window, the cuts in my head showing it; it was a miracle it was raining outside, I found a pool of water on the street so I threw myself towards it, I escaped incineration that way."
"Those burn marks...You've been struck by the lightning more than 2 decades ago, yet it's as if those burns were barely a year ago..."
"My skin returns to such state every time I'm injured, It won't regenerate past that point. I drank from a purple liquid when I was in this state, this 'Discord' you fought against in the first Great Pony War told me that regeneration only works up to the state the one who drank from the fountain has at that point, not its maximum health capacity; strangely enough, it also affects any kind of clothes being worn..."
"Wait, you're immortal?" Charon kept silent before realizing he had a far more important question to ask. "Discord talked to you?!"
"Yes, I'm immortal, and yes, Discord talked to me. He said something about giving me immortality without any negative effects in exchange of me returning the favor by fighting for his side in a war, I assume it was the Great Pony War you fought."
"You were going to fight for him?"
"Of course, but take into consideration that I did not know of his intentions yet. The fact that he never asked me to return the favor means you and your allies have defeated him, am I correct in this theory?"
"You are. But if Discord had called for your help back then..." Charon suddenly shook his head to get the thoughts out of his mind. "Anyways, I believe you answered all my questions."
"Glad to be of help, Charon. Now go, tell your people of what's about to come..." Chaser spoke as he strapped his gas mask back and arranged his dark grey helmet.
"Hey Charon, how did the meeting go?" Asked Concord with curiosity once Charon arrived at Executor's castle again. The castle had been left as it was just after the assault, walls crumbling, the main door destroyed, the only different thing was Executor's remains that were removed.
"War will break out again." Charon answered, walking towards the radio equipment recently transported to the top floor next to the throne.
"What?! That'd be the third Great Pony War in less than ten years! Why?!"
Charon stopped before reaching the radio equipment, and began staring at the void above. "Chaser wants to unify this entire world under a single banner...And he has all the reasons in the world to do so, everything he had told me has been the undeniable truth...Listen, I'll explain the details later, we only have a single year to prepare for the third global conflict that's yet to come." He began walking once again and turned on the equipment, he then began tinkering with the controls and started testing it. "Atticus, do you copy?"
"Loud and clear, sir."
"Begin the mobilization of every single soldier in the Imperium of Patria, mobilize the reserves and begin the organization; send reinforcements to this continent and fortify the northern coast of the Imperium."
"...At once, sir." Atticus' voice showed confusion, but he obeyed the words of the Terran who spoke, experience had taught Atticus that whatever Charon says should be obeyed, for his decisions proved to be critical in past events.
"Whoever wins this war...Will rule this entire world..."
"25th and 48th infantry Divisions stand in the frontline, the artillery brigades behind them will support the defence once the attack arrives, 13th Division is being held in reserve in case of anything not going as expected. How goes the rest of the frontline?" Plannified Charon in a trench dugout, his hands were firmly placed on the map as he leaned forward.
"16th and 17th divisions to the south-west are in place, and so are the ones to the north. Everything's organized and ready, every soldier is expecting an attack." Answered his lieutenant.
"Good. Luna, you'll--" He was interrupted by a message arriving through the radio, then several more were heard.
"25th Division engaging hostiles, out."
"28th Division taking heavy casualties, we're outnumbered, requesting support, over."
"Copy that, 13th Division will be sent, out." After answering, Charon signaled his lieutenant with his head to send the troops.
"37th Division here, enemy spotted, engaging, out."
"4th Division beginning the defence, out."
"34th Division reporting, we've spotted several unknown machines moving towards our position, out."
Charon scratched his head upon hearing the last message. "34th Division, describe one of the machines, over."
"It's covered in steel and has some sort of tube sticking out of the top pointing towards us. They fired, it seems they throw some sort of explosive at an incredible speed, over."
"Copy that, out." Charon began worrying at the description.
"15th Division engaging hostiles, strange machines spotted, out."
"2nd Division here, we're being pushed back by steel machinery on tracks, out."
"7th Division retreating! They are massacring us with their machines!"
The messages that arrived became more and more desperate as minutes passed, from simple information to cries of help.
"What's going on..." Charon began asking, irritated.
"Incoming!!" A scream was heard from outside in the trench. Charon, Luna and Concord were startled by the sudden gunshots but once they recovered they ran outside.
"Unknown machines...Let's see what these things..." He said as he looked over the trench wall into no-pony's land, only to see several machines belonging to Chaser's Empire driving full speed towards them leading the charge, their figure darkened by the smoke. "...What the..." Once they drove out of the smoke Charon narrowed his eyes and stared at the machinery that charged towards the trench, his eyes widened once he found out what kind of machines they were. "P...Panzers..."
"What?" Asked Concord, he could barely hear Charon's whisper.
"Panzers VI Tiger, they were used by Germany in WW2...And we don't have any tanks...Dammit! I could have introduced tanks in the year of preparation!!" While Charon ranted a Panzer drove over the trench to the back-line, grazing his head with the bottom of the chasis; he re-arranged his hat and looked at the battlefield, noticing that there weren't as many tanks as he expected, maybe five at most. "Luna, stay with the ponies and take care of the infantry! Concord, you'll help me disable those tanks!"
"Got it!" Answered Luna.
"You want to disable a steel coffin on wheels!?" Yelled Concord as they both climbed over the trench towards the rear of the Imperial formation where the tanks broke through the lines.
Both immortals ran through the bullets that flew in the battlefield and the artillery shells that fell from the skies until they reached the first 'Tiger I', Charon took out Luna's rapier and rammed it into one of the tracks, preventing it from moving. The tank's hatch opened and a pony quickly got out to find out what happened, but Charon took the opportunity and knocked the pony unconscious and threw him out of the way, he then climbed the tank and got inside, taking care of the other 4 ponies that manned the machine.
"Concord, get inside!" Charon yelled from the hatch.
Concord jumped inside only to be greeted by four unconscious ponies and enough controls to drive anyone insane. "What do we do now?!"
"As if I'd know! Wait, didn't you say you could read minds back in Kunatanah?"
"Yes but only of the corrupted."
"Can't you steal thoughts? I thought Discord did that to find out the Mane 6's weaknesses."
"Never hurts to try..." Concord remarked as he placed his hand over one of the unconscious ponies. The hand lit up and the pony's knowledge was transferred to Concord, he now possessed the pony's knowledge. "Charon, you'll be the reloader, I'll man the main gun!"
"What?! The Hell do I do?!"
"Get these ponies out of the tank, then you'll replace the shells once I fire them!"
"Uhhh...Alright!"
The four unconscious ponies were removed from the tank, and Charon placed himself on the reloader's seat.
"Ok, I'm set!" Charon said as he held a shell in his hands.
The hijacked tank moved the turret and fired towards another of the machines wrecking havoc in the battlefield, completely destroying its main gun. Charon began reloading the main gun and Concord gave a joyful yell at the event.
"Flame 2, what the HELL are you doing?!" The commander of the tank group talked through the radio.
"Charon, looks like they still don't know we are in control of this thing."
"And the confusion shall remain... Oh hey I found a HEAT round!" Concord smiled at Charon's finding and signaled him to load it with his head.
The tank's turret moved once again and aimed towards yet another tank and fired, the round had impacted in the fuel tank of the objective and the explosive charge managed to make the tank explode.
"Another one for the Imperium! Hahaa!" Yelled Concord. The heat of battle had taken its toll on the Draconequus already, long time ago he was rather serious about pretty much everything, even the silliest of things, but now he was turning into the opposite. "Only one left!"
"Uhhh...Concord..."
"Yes?"
"We're out of shells..."
Silence engulfed the tank as they tried to come up with another way to deal with the remaining tank, until the tank they were in shook violently, they were hit by a shell coming from the remaining machine as it realized they were the enemy.
"Concord, can you transfer knowledge?!"
"I don't know!"
"Try it anyways! What's the worst that could happen, mental destabilization?!"
Concord placed his hand over Charon's hat, it lit up and the knowledge from the other ponies' minds were transferred to Charon.
"Agh! My head...I'm never studying tanks again..." Charon said as he held his head in pain.
"You alright? We still need a plan!"
"We'll ram the tank, that's the only option. I'll drive, you tell me where!"
Concord changed from the gunner's seat to the commander's and Charon changed from the loader's to the driver's, the tank began moving avoiding yet another hit from the enemy tank. They circled it avoiding the shots, until they managed to line up the tracks to the objective and began moving at full speed; they received a shot to the main turret, destroying the gun but it was for nothing, for they didn't even need it anyways. The hijacked tank rammed the other tank hard enough to push it into a trench, disabling it; at this sight the entire enemy force began retreating, seeing as their main advantage was lost.
"Get out of there already, we won." Said Luna as she opened the tank's hatch. "These things...Let me guess, they're Terran, right?"
"If it's made for war, it's Terran." Answered Charon as he got out. "We must fall back..."
"We don't have anything to fight those things." Continued Concord. "This continent is done for, it's fortunate that tanks can't swim or defeat would be imminent."
Chaser's blitzkrieg was devastating and merciless, it raged on for several years until they were pushed back to the coasts and were forced to leave this continent. Charon took notice of these events and began preparing his own plans back in Cabalderio.
Several ponies stood in the open field with Charon among them, looking at a silhouette moving in the distance. Charon took out his radio and began talking to it.
"Report."
"Engine tests successful, maximum speed attained. Prototype T-34 is ready for armament testing."
"Begin at once."
The silhouette stopped moving, and after a few seconds fired towards an area out of sight.
"Objective destroyed, optimal range reached, no unexpected events happened."
"Copy that."
Charon began staring at the silhouette and started thinking of what's yet to come. Inside his head, only his thoughts were heard. 'Chaser, you brought German tanks into the war, I was stupid not to think about introducing that kind of technology...It's time for the Red Army to bring its power to this world now, and let's not forget who won WW2...
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 7: Knowledge.
Charon and Celestia walked through the dark, untamed parts of the Everfree Forest, eyes monitoring them in the shadows as they followed the dirt road but not reacting to their presence, it could be said that the presence of two Terrans caused enough fear for the forest to remain still in the night.
"Back then we both ruled peacefully." Spoke Celestia. "I was in charge of the sun, and she of the moon. One day, though, she became Nightmare Moon and tried to take over."
"Any idea why?"
"As far as I know, she wanted to engulf the world in perpetual darkness, I don't know anything else."
"Perpetual darkness..." He repeated as he scratched his chin. "Would it be like the time of the First Great Pony War?"
"Maybe, but without the violent storms. I fought back, I tried to defeat her with all my strength but I failed, the only thing left to do was to send her to the moon." The two Terrans reached the bridge at the edge of the forest, above an almost bottomless chasm, they both took a deep breath and began to walk over it. "After a thousand years Nightmare Moon was weakened and six ponies that could use the Elements of Harmony appeared."
"Were the appearance of the mane 6 just luck?"
"No, I planned it. Considering I had a thousand years to plannify..."
"Touché."
They had finished crossing the bridge and arrived to the other side of the chasm, where mist gathered on the road in front of them. They marched forwards, Charon looking at every direction as he walked through this land unknown to him.
"What happened then?" Asked Charon.
"Nightmare Moon broke free. I was barely able to reunite the six ponies against her, but they managed to stop her before everything got worse."
"They walked the path we're walking now, right?"
"Yes."
The mist made it almost impossible to see in front of them, but after a few minutes of walking the silhouette of a destroyed castle appeared in front of them, the gates wide open.
"We're here, this is where the battle against Nightmare Moon took place, the Ancient castle of the royal pony sisters." Remarked Celestia as both of them stood in front of the crumbling structure; Charon began walking inside and Celestia soon followed.
As they entered the castle, and avoiding a piece of stone that fell from the almost non-existent ceiling, Charon laid his eyes upon a battered obelisk, placed in the center of the hall, filled with mist coming from the outside. Near the top of the structure were placed 6 stone arms pointing at opposing directions, long sheathed in moss and ivy; the Terran noticed that the end of the stone arms were empty, as if they were supposed to carry something.
"Those held the Elements of Harmony before the Mane 6 acquired them." Answered Celestia before he could even ask.
"Aren't the elements fives necklaces and a crown? I don't think they fit the shape..."
"Before Twilight and her friends managed to get a hold of the Elements, they were spherical stones."
As Charon walked around the fountain-like structure while staring at it, he spotted a statue of Nightmare Moon at the end of the hall, almost as big as the roof allowed, the dark colour decaying due to time, cracks being shown everywhere, and cobwebs covering the wings; Charon walked over towards it and stared in awe, Celestia soon walked next to Charon.
"Eternal darkness...Is that what she desired?" Asked Charon, his eyes fixated on the statue.
"That's what Nightmare Moon always spoke of, I'm not surprised since her cutie mark is the moon itself."
Charon stood in silence for a few minutes, meditating on everything he had heard about these events, then remembering about every opposition he encountered: The corrupted ponies, the armies of the corrupted Nightmare Moon, corrupted Celestia, Corrupted Nightmare Moon herself, Discord, Executor and finally Chaser. After a while he lowered his head and began speaking to himself.
"It's true...It's all true..."
"What is true, Charon?"
"Moralities do not exist, only objectives, ideologies and beliefs..."
Celestia began thinking about Charon's statement but couldn't make anything out of it. "...I don't understand."
Charon raised his head and walked towards one of the destroyed windows of the castle as he explained. "Nopony is evil, yet nopony is good either. Morality is just a concept tied to ideology...Something that seems 'evil' to you might not seem so to the one who is carrying out the action. Nightmare Moon wanted perpetual darkness but she never said 'I'm doing this because it's evil', she just followed her desire." Celestia lowered her head upon hearing Charon's explanation, thinking she did something wrong by banishing Nightmare Moon to the moon. "Don't be sad, you did the right thing, believe me; Luna herself said so after being turned to normal. There are ponies and people that follow their desires but ignore everything else, they don't care about those around them, I don't think Nightmare Moon cared either, but you followed the will of the ponies with your actions. Discord's Empire of Chaos is the same, Discord enjoyed chaos but did not care if anypony else did, thus the First Great Pony War broke out with our side victorious...Discord was not evil, but a sadist; sadism is considered evil by almost everypony due to obvious implications, but the sadist doesn't consider himself evil, he just follows his desires...Another example would be those that just want to help everypony, but with rather brutal and merciless means; their means are not evil, they just clash with everyone's visions of 'Right and Wrong', if anypony thinks there's a better way to do things then it will be classified as 'Evil'. Even Executor is included, he was greedy, but committed the atrocities that I told you and everypony else because he saw it as the fastest and most effective way, not because they were evil; both Equestrians' and some Terrans' ideologies would clash with his methods, the outcome being obvious. Executor hid his Terran ways in this world, it seems, because I cannot understand how ponies could follow him, let alone fight for him..." He sat down resting on the wall next to the window once he finished, placing his metallic hand over his hat and lowering it until it covered his face.
"What about Chaser?" Asked Celestia, seeing as he didn't speak about him in his speech.
"Chaser...I've never met anyone who shared ideologies with me, let alone understand my ways...We both behaved the same way in Terra for different reasons, we both understood what was going on in that place. We're almost the same, and we are both at war knowing this. Depressing, but necessary, if you ask me..."
"Why is it necessary? Both of you can coexist peacefully, seeing as you understand eachother."
Charon stared at the statue of Nightmare Moon from the place he was sitting and took a deep breath before continuing. "The same could have been said about you and Luna, but then Nightmare Moon appeared, am I not right?" Celestia was struck silent by such an answer; Charon stood up and arranged his hat with his hand and began walking to the castle's entrance. "We're not done yet, I still have more questions to ask, guess who are we visiting next..."
Discord's statue began turning from stone to flesh in Canterlot's garden, he shook his head as it was freed and began boasting about his escape. "Hah! I'm free at last! Now...How about we--Wait...Something's not right..." He stopped talking and looked at his body, only to find out that his head was the only thing not petrified. "How embarrassing..."
Charon thanked the Mane 6 for their cooperation in allowing Discord's head to move freely, then he turned to the God of Chaos. "Long time no see, Draconequus..."
"Long time no see, Terran. Looks like you didn't have enough with knocking me unconscious back in that place..."
"I seek answers now, and you'll help me."
"What makes you think that I'd help you?"
"Well that's a real tragedy..." Charon began speaking as he held his hands behind him and stared at the sky. "Guess we'll have to leave now..." He started to walk away, Celestia and the Mane 6 followed as they understood what he planned.
"Sure, leave. Wait...You're not going to leave me like this, right? Hello?! Hey, come back! Alright I'll answer your questions! For crying out loud..." His desperate screams were heard by Charon, turning back and walking again towards him with the rest behind him.
"Chaser said you met him, I want to know how you knew about him and if you met Executor."
"I can't believe I'm in this situation..." He sighed before beginning to explain. "Long ago I sensed three...rather disturbing things. Since I was free at the moment I decided to check them out, as you can imagine those three sensations were Executor, Chaser and you; I thought this was the only continent in this world, guess I was wrong once I decided to check for the other two Terrans. Once I saw you I knew you'd go against me, I knew about your ideologies and so I gave you immortality and left you alone; let's not forget I gave you immortality to cause everypony else to fight you out of fear, not to help you. After I left you, I headed for Executor, I don't know anything you don't know already, as soon as I read his mind...Let's just say that there were scary things going on inside his mind so I left him. Then I headed for Chaser, interesting guy to be honest, since there was no way he could discover my intentions and the other two continents in time I struck a deal with him: Immortality for his help, but you defeated me before I could call him, a rather unexpected turn of events."
"You could sense the three appearances then, did you have something to do with that blinding light that brought the three of us into this world?"
"Unfortunately not, or else things would have turned far different than now. I don't know how it happened nor the reasons behind it; it might be some sort of natural 'accident' or there's another force controlling it, the only thing that might help that dumb mind of yours would be that the three of you had a rather similar psychological state, that with losing most of the things the three of you held dear. Funny, now that I think of it: 3 random suicidal Terrans with no power whatsoever arrive into this world and change it more than I could ever hope to in less than a century."
"Yes...Really funny..." Charon spoke in a sarcastic tone, not finding Discord's sense of humor amusing in the slightest. "Enough for now." He began walking away but was interrupted by Discord once again.
"Hey, don't leave me like this!"
"Why? I don't see the difference between being a statue and not."
"At least I'm unconscious while I'm a statue, you think I want to be conscious for the rest of my immortal life?!"
"Ugh...Fine...Just shut up...Twilight, go ahead...Celestia, where's the radio?"
"Of course." Spoke Twilight.
"Over the table in the main hall." Answered Celestia.
Charon walked away, a blinding light showering the scenery behind as Discord was petrified once again. He walked through the door that led from inside to the garden and saw the radio that was placed on top of the table, with the rest of the equipment in a corner of the room. He reached for the radio and headed to the equipment, then he tinkered with the controls until he reached the frequency he wanted.
"Concord, Charon's speaking, what's the situation?"
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WA -- Oh it's you!!" Concord controlled himself as he realized it was none other that the Emperor of the Imperium speaking. "Sorry about that, it's all going to Hell here! They're about to break through our def--Buck! They broke through!" He desperately spoke, gunshots and artillery could almost drown the draconequus' voice through the radio. "Everypony, retreat! Charon, the 3rd Continental Line's broken, Cabalderio's borders were pierced!" Charon realized that soon enough they'd reach the Imperium's capital once he heard Concord's report.
"Hasn't Stallinox suffered too much already...? Concord, I'll lead Stallinox's defence, you and Luna will command two of the divisions in reserve in case things turn into a nightmare."
"You got it."
Charon cut off the radio and placed it on top of the equipment.
"Couldn't help but overhear your conversation. There's a carriage outside, if you want to get to Stallinox as fast as possible I'd suggest you to use it." Said Celestia, startling him for a second.
"Thanks, Celestia." Charon answered with a smile behind his scarf, but as he looked towards the giant doors that were held open by the guards he noticed that it was snowing, even though he hadn't seen snow in his decades of being here in the pony world. "What's going on?" he asked, still dumbfonded by the scenery.
"You don't know? Every thousand years or so there is an ice age, the climate gets far colder than any other time period and it snows almost permanently for the duration; on the last ice age Equestria was founded."
"I have...Never seen snow in my life..."
Celestia raised an eyebrow to Charon's commentary, and then giggled a little before speaking once again. "Go now, your city waits."
"Right. Thanks again." Charon spoke, running towards the door seeing as he lost enough time. Once he got outside and stepped in the layer of snow that already covered the floor, he saw a carriage with two royal pegasi in front; without hesitation he moved towards it and jumped on the seat behind.
"Stallinox?" Asked one of the pegasi in front.
"Stallinox."
The carriage lowered speed and descended once Stallinox, maybe the biggest city in this world, could be seen through the clouds. It flew over the several houses and fields of the modern city, the ponies who stood outside in the streets stared at the flying object carrying the Emperor himself, until it reached the castle at the centre of the city; a pony dressed in a high ranking military outfit and several soldiers armed with mosin nagants waited outside, staring at the carriage as it descended to the ground until Charon jumped out.
"We were expecting you, we still have to begin the preparations." Said the officer in charge of Stallinox's defence that stood ahead from the other soldiers.
"What do you mean?" Asked Charon.
"There are no defences set up, we just didn't expect the Reich to advance so fast."
Charon raised his hand and rubbed his eyes at the situation, then he started walking towards the castle while giving orders. "Set up sandbags at the city's borders and streets, reinforce the buildings and set up machine-guns, get snipers and MGs to position in the tall buildings all over the city and inside the castle, clear the streets of anything unnecessary to leave space for the tanks to manoeuvre. I'll also need someone to give me the information about the units that will take part in the defence."
"At once sir." The pony spoke as he followed the Emperor, the other soldiers scrambled with the orders in their minds.
"You got a radio?"
"Yes, of course." The pony that followed him took out his radio from his backpack, held with his metallic gauntlet, he handed it to Charon who turned it on and began to speak.
"Concord, do you copy?"
"I do, need something?"
"How long until Chaser's attack arrives?"
"A week at least if he keeps up the pace, I'd suggest getting prepared ASAP, there's no telling if he'll get there faster than expected."
"Got it. How goes the war so far?"
"As bad as it can get, for every victory we accomplish we also suffer four defeats at least. The T34 tank model gets utterly beaten up by the Panzer VI, but at least we've got the numbers on our side."
"And since this is one of the biggest cities that has ever existed we can use that advantage. Anything I should know before this?"
"Stallinox is one of the most influential cities in the world, if it's lost not only will it be a great impact to our side's morale, it's also of great strategical importance. Expect Chaser to throw everything at you in this attack, maybe he himself will take part, but those are just assumptions."
"Understood." He turned off the radio and handed it back to the officer, by this point they were already inside the castle.
"The citizens are getting restless, it seems..." The officer spoke.
"I wouldn't blame them, even the bravest soldier would get scared of what's about to come."
"It's not fear, sir...It's as if they are preparing for something..."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 8: Stallinox
Charon ran through the snowy streets located almost in the outskirts of Stallinox while explosions echoed in the city, Chaser's attack had begun. He kicked open a door of an apartment complex and ran towards the stairs that led to the depths below, the sound of the artillery muffled by the walls as he desperately ran downstairs. Once he reached the point where he couldn't go any deeper he kept a steady march towards a reinforcered metallic door, he then knocked on it three times with his metallic gauntlet, looking behind him every once in a while as he waited. The doors opened and several soldiers waited inside, riflemen checking their supplies and officers arguing about what would the next course of action be, but they all stopped as they saw the Emperor walking towards the main table at the center of the underground bunker.
"A radio, give me a radio!" He asked with irritation. After a soldier gave him a radio as fast as he could he began speaking to his second-in-command which was located several kilometres away from him inside the castle. "Report the situation!"
"Every division in the city reports being under artillery fire as we speak, we've lost contact with three of the thirty-two divisions present. The earliest report has occurred two hours and forty-seven minutes ago."
"Only artillery?"
"No divisions have reported hostiles in sight nor being engaged by anything else than artillery shells."
"Copy that, out." Charon placed the radio over the giant table, took out his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes. An officer, after looking at him, walked towards the table and asked him a question.
"What's going on?"
"They're planning to carpet bomb the entire city before advancing." He said as he put his sunglasses back and walked over to a bunch of rifles in a rack. "They want to take this city even if they remove it from the face of Cabalderio in the process." He picked up a rifle, even though he had his shotgun strapped to his back, and grabbed a pair of ammo pouches which held the bullets the mosin nagant required; he strapped it to his belt and began inspecting the rifle, only to be thrown out of his hands by a sudden shake caused by an artillery shell that almost impacted the building above them, startling the ponies and the Terran in the bunker for a second.
"What do we do now?" Asked the officer while Charon picked up the rifle he accidentally let go.
"We sit, and we wait. Going out and engaging the artillery ourselves in the open field would be suicidal."
The bunker kept silent, the only thing heard for minutes were the artillery shells that kept falling without end, until a soldier walked towards Charon who was eating out of a can and asked him a question. "Is this what it was like in Terra?" Everypony in the room began looking at both the soldier and the Terran once they heard the question, Charon placed the can of food on top of the table and laid back on the chair as he answered.
"I don't know, to be honest. I was just a civilian, not a soldier, but I learned many things about war in Terra, the one which is still stuck in my head in this situation is the battle of Stalingrad..."
"What happened in Stalingrad?"
"Nothing pretty in the slightest." The room kept silent for a few seconds before the sound of a bomber flying over the city was heard, with several explosions caused by the bombs that it dropped followed. After a while the anti-aircraft guns could be heard echoing, then the whistle of a plane falling and finally crashing silenced everypony inside the bunker once again.
A week had passed since the forces of Kaiserreich began bombing the city, trying to soften up the defenders for the imminent attack but at the same time turning most of it into rubble. Charon stood inside the bunker he had been for the entire week next to the giant table with a map of Stallinox and several officers next to him.
"7th and 4th divisions are reporting heavy casualties due to the bombings and are asking to be relieved." Said an officer, ponting at the map on the northern part of Stallinox.
"Fine, 13th and 15th will take their place." Charon ordered, the officer walked off towards the radio while the others kept discussing on the table. "How's the artillery going?"
"Intensity had decreased since two days ago but still constant, we sus--" The other officer's talking was interrupted by an explosion above that shook the room. "We suspect Kaiserreich is getting ready to attack."
"Are all the weak spots covered?"
"Yes sir, we've--" Once again he was interrupted, not by an explosion but by the officer that was in the radio seconds ago.
"Sir, 2nd and 3rd divisions are reporting hostiles in sight and are engaging as we speak."
"Already? Then--" Charon was interrupted by the radio generating static and several soldiers talking through it reporting about hostiles in sight, after the reports finished every single division in the frontline was engaging enemies already, it was a full-scale assault. The sound of a door opening and closing was heard, a soldier got inside the bunker and began speaking towards Charon after taking off his helmet.
"They're here, sir, will you participate in the defence?"
"I will, lead the way. Somepony radio my lieutenant in the castle and tell him to take over." He said as he walked towards the staircase that led to the surface, following the soldier.
Upon arriving to the snowy streets above, several tanks and soldiers were already mobilizing, moving towards the frontier that requested their assistance. Charon climbed the tank and sat next to other three soldiers, then it began moving and caught enough speed to catch up with the rest of the brigade. The scenery wasn't pretty, everything that could be seen was rubble, smoke, fog and snow falling from the skies, this was the result of no less than seven days of continuous bombing.
Gunshots began to be heard in the distance, and after a while the armored brigade began to spread out, the machine which Charon was riding stopped, aimed its turret and fired towards the soldiers in the distance sporting the distinctive uniform of Kaiserreich's army. Charon jumped down of the tank, ran towards a line of rubble and threw himself behind it taking cover with several other ponies, thus joining the firefight, the gunshots could deafen anyone as thousands and thousands of soldiers fought for this sector. Charon, who was firing his mosin nagant at the other side of the battlefield, stopped as he felt a tiny earthquake near him, only to be surprised by a Tiger I that broke through the wall of rubble in front of him and fired towards the Imperial tanks, destroying one in the process. He strapped his rifle to his belt and unsheathed his rapier, he jumped over the debris he took cover in and drove the rapier into the tank's tracks, immobilizing it; being unable to do anything else he hid behind the Tiger I from the storm of bullets sent his way until half a dozen of shells fired from the anti-tank emplacements impacted the machine, disabling it from combat and allowing the Terran to take out his rapier from the steel coffin. The fighting continued, a T-34 positioned itself next to the Tiger's carcass, and the squad that followed behind it taking cover suggested that they were trying to break through. Charon seized the opportunity and placed himself behind the Imperial T-34, but before it could move several more tanks drove full speed towards the enemy formation, utterly destroying everything in their path. The tank Charon and several ponies stood behind started moving forward, they weren't the only ones trying to push through either, after a while more and more machines advanced with soldiers behind them. The tanks at the front reached the enemy lines, drove through the rubble and pierced through their defences firing at anything that moved, then the vehicles covering the soldiers that pushed through arrived, positioned their turrets and began firing as the infantry scattered and rushed forward; bullets, artillery shells, tank and anti-tank munitions flew in Stallinox's frontline, but both sides fought fiercely for every single inch of this city. Once the infantry reached the enemy lines and began engaging them Kaiserreich's forces began a mass rout; Imperial reinforcements had also arrived from the backline ready to push forward, but Charon's orders were others.
"Do not pursue!! Reinforce this area, set up the anti-tanks ASAP!!"
Just as he finished a Tiger I fired towards him, missing but the resulting explosion threw him a few meters away, Kaiserreich had sent another wave to engage them. Charon stood up enduring the pain and bleeding and ran towards a pile of debris on the street while the anti-tank guns engaged the machine, bullets began flying once again without end as hostile infantry reached the battlefield; the Machine guns of the Red Army were already bright red as they continued firing to the endless masses that stormed the streets, but as time passed more Panzers showed up for the fight, slowly pushing forward towards the Imperial forces with their steel armor, the T-34s and anti-tank guns weren't enough to push them back. The Terran stopped firing his rifle at the incoming hordes and grabbed the shoulder of the soldier he had next to him, once the pony turned his head to listen to him he spoke.
"You got a radio?!"
"Yeah, sure!" The pony said as he took one out and handed it to Charon, then he resumed firing the Machine-gun he held; it was also of Terran design, a DP Machine-Gun used by the Soviet Union in WW2.
"Requesting artillery barrage at position CF-741 immediately!!" He screamed through the radio as the Panzers got closer and closer to them.
"Copy that, spotter rounds sent."
Charon impatiently waited for the artillery shells to impact, beginning to lose his composure once the Panzers were no less than a hundred meter in front of him, but once hope was being lost an artillery round luckily landed on top of the tank that was charging towards him, utterly disabling it. Once he returned to his senses he desperately took out the radio again and screamed at it.
"Fire for effect!!"
"You got it, firing for effect!"
The nightmarish sound of several rounds whistling through the skies was caught by everypony in the city, the mortar barrage that was fired both inspired the Red Army, and caused fear in the Kaiserreich's ranks. The ground shook as no less than twenty shells impacted upon the advancing forces, the explosions deafened the Terran and the ponies next to him for a few seconds but it was a better fate than being at the mercy of the Grey Army; the battle wasn't over, though, once the smoke cleared they could all see that the enemy forces kept on coming without end.
"Air bombardment requested at location CF-741 AT ONCE !!" He screamed once again at his radio, the sound almost drowned by the hell that broke loose again. He put the radio down and reloaded his rifle, then took aim and began firing at the forces at the other end of the street taking cover behind their Panzers and debris caused by the artillery barrage. The gunfight between several thousand ponies on the sector continued with the Imperial forces being pushed back at every corner, but Charon's forces stood their ground no matter how many casualties they sustained; as he shot his rifle he received a bullet between his eyes, making him fall backward and losing grip of his rifle, but picked up his rifle again and kept on fighting despite the incredible pain.
"Fenix-5 initiating bomb run, keep your heads down." A voice spoke through the radio Charon had strapped to his belt, then the deafening sound of a bomber flying above struck was heard, shaking the earth by its presence.
"Take cover!!" Charon screamed as he braced behind the debris for the fire that'd rain from above, everypony stopped firing for a few seconds to seek cover and the tanks backed off a considerable distance. A great amount of bombs shook the city as they struck the advancing Grey Army, devastating its tanks and infantry enough to make them change their strategy to fight defensively instead of pushing forward with the blitzkrieg. Charon rearranged his hat and peeked over his cover only to see that the fight wasn't over yet, he then turned to his forces and saw that they were almost depleted, but before he could order the retreat several T-34s were seen in the fog behind them.
"26th Armored division reporting, heard you could use some help!" The commander spoke. The reinforcements united forces with the exhausted soldiers in the frontline, their tanks positioned over the rubble in the streets and fired at the enemy formation, infantry began moving covered by machine-guns and anti-tank guns, but before they could reach them they had begun routing, the fight in this sector had finished with their side victorious. The cheering of a thousand soldiers echoed through the destroyed buildings and streets, raising their guns in the air while yelling out of joy.
The battle of Stallinox didn't progress as happily, though. In the two months that followed the Imperial forces were being defeated, pushed back from every inch of the city despite the sacrifice they made. Outiside, Charon, soldiers and tanks prepared for an assault near a factory taken by the enemy.
"A platoon will help me retake the factory, the rest will move with the tanks and press forward through the streets eliminating any opposition. Understood?"
"Got it." Answered the commander of the platoon that'd follow him.
"Alright, move." Charon ordered. The group divided, a part following the tanks that began moving and the other stuck with Charon as he kicked the side door of the factory open. They stormed inside but found no soldiers to engage, so they kept on moving through the corridor with doors the sides until the saw a drunk soldier moving from the corned in front of them, Charon held his shotgun with one hand, walked forward and knocked him out with a solid punch to the side of the head, but once he fell they all heard voices coming from a door they had passed. They all regrouped around the door, Charon kicked it open and stormed inside with the rest neutralizing the soldiers that rested behind, at the same time the fight outside began with the T-34 firing at the other end of the street, they also heard several machine-guns and anti-tanks above them, the main concentration of soldiers were in the windows on the main factory area.
"Move!" He ordered, running towards the door at the end of the corridor, shooting its hinges with his shotgun and kicking it open only to be greeted by several soldiers ready to fire at him. The gunshots pushed him back as they impacted on his chest, making him fall backwards in the corridor but the platoon that followed him opened fire neutralizing them and storming into the main area; once Charon's wounds healed and stood up he caught up with the rest.
The Imperial forces took over the giant machines spread over the giant room, being showered by a rain of bullets coming from the soldiers positioned on the catwalk above that were just firing at the forces outside through the window. They were outnumbered and outgunned by the garrison inside the factory, they began losing just as the fighting began, but before hope was lost a T-34 broke through the factory's wall from outside and began shooting at those that were without cover, breaking the enemy's concentration and drawing their fire for enough time to allow the ponies behind the machinery to slowly but steadily take care of the hostile occupation. Once they were done, the T-34 quickly turned around and drove outside to continue fighting in the streets, Charon ordered his platoon to get to the windows and support the assault.
As he ran to a broken window on the catwalk above he picked up an MG-42 and several ammo belts resting next to a corpse, and once he reached the window he positioned the bipod of the gun and began raining hell to the soldiers that the tanks and infantry were engaging below in the snowy streets. He received a shot, making him lose grip of his gun and back off, almost falling off the catwalk if it wasn't for the railing, he placed his metallic hand over his eye where he took the bullet, waited for it to regenerated and shook off the pain before manning the machine-gun again, but as he looked outside the window through the gun's ironsights he saw a Tiger I turning its turret towards him and his platoon; his eyes widened as he screamed the order to back off from the windows but before he could finish the window in front of him exploded, sending him flying through the metallic railing breaking his spine and landing on the floor below, the rest of the infantry on the catwalk scattered and began leaving the factory seeing as it was already done for.
"Charon, you ok? You and you, help me carry him!!" Screamed a soldier as he, with the help of the other two ponies carried him back outside through the corridor they came in.
"What's going on...?!" He asked, almost unconscious due to the concussion caused by falling head first to the ground.
"We are leaving, the factory has been compromised!" The soldier spoke as he placed him resting on the factory's wall outside, next to the door Charon broke.
The Terran shook his head and stood up, his spine fully healed, and began ordering. "You see that building on the other side of the plaza? I want that fully garrisoned yesterday! I'll stay with the tanks and a group of infantry to cover the soldiers as they get there! Move it!" He ran to the corner of the factory and took out his shotgun, seeing as he lost the mosin nagant and the MG-42 inside, then he began firing blindly at the incoming forces with the help of the T-34s on his side.
Minutes passed as the Imperial forces garrisoned the building, Charon, two remaining tanks and several squads stood their ground on the factory's street, but after a while the T-34 Charon took cover next to exploded after taking enough damage, sending Charon flying a few meters and burning half his clothes but regenerated quickly, he took out the radio and screamed at it.
"When's the garrisoning finished, dammit?! We're being slaughtered here!!"
"We're done, we'll cover you, get here ASAP!" Answered an officer.
Charon lowered his radio and yelled at those in the streets while bullets from the garrisoned department covered them. "We're leaving! Move it move it!!" The only T-34 that remained turned around and began accelerating while the rest of the infantry moved through the plaza, Charon with them, but before they even got halfway a Panzer VI broke through and began chasing them, they had nothing to counter it as the anti-tanks were still being set up in the department. At this sight Charon became more and more desperate as he ran and dodged a round shot at him, impacting the earth and sending dust, mud and snow flying while he screamed again through the radio. "Get this damned thing off us, dammit!"
"We can't, we have nothing yet! You can't do anything else but run!!"
"No shit sherlock! " He yelled before throwing away his radio, only for it to be crushed by the tracks of the Tiger I as it got closer and closer, but as hope seemed lost the last T-34 drove full speed ahead and rammed the tank that pursued them, immobilizing it. In a quick succession the four crewmen of the tank got out of the hatch and caught up with the rest before the tank was finally destroyed by the other Panzers that began chasing, but once they reached the carcass they were shot with several anti-tank rounds that were finally available once the guns were deployed. The infantry, once the department was reached, jumped through the windows landing safely inside, but before Charon could catch his breath the commanding officer of the garrisoning force ran towards him with a scoped Mosin nagant.
"Our sniper is dead, get to it!!" He yelled while giving him the gun before running off to another position where his soldiers required him.
Charon ran upstairs to the second floor, only to notice that it looked more like a roof than a common floor, the roof was shelled to oblivion and the walls destroyed; he met up with a group of ponies with RPG-7s and DP machine-guns firing without rest and saw a spot free; he threw himself to the ground and began aiming his rifle to see the chaos of the battlefield all around him. Having no idea of what was going on, he kept looking at the battlefield looking for targets, until he saw a group of officers discussing as one of the held a map; he steadied his aim and fired, neutralizing one of them but losing track of the rest due to the recoil shaking his aim.
"Charon, I've been sent to be your spotter." A voice spoke behind him, then a pony laid night to him with a pair of binoculars looking at him.
"Good timing, anything worth sniping?"
"Let's see..." Said the pony while staring through the binoculars. "Mortar emplacement, 12:30, Hundred and fifty meters away behind some trees."
"Gotcha." Charon began aiming through his rifle once again and spotted the crew manning the mortar. He fired, neutralizing one and making the others rout due to fear.
"Kill confirmed. New target spotted, high-ranking officer 10 o' clock, two hundred fifty meters away behind fountain."
"Gottam." He found the objective, an officer in a distinctive outfit yelling orders to a group of soldiers and a tank. He fired, making his hat fly off and the others scramble due to the shock.
"Kill comfirmed, good shot, even the hat flew off. New target..."
The battle of Stallinox continued, but Kaiserreich's efforts reached a halt at the garrisoned department that was nicknamed Zero's House, named after the commanding officer that garrisoned it by order of Charon. The fact that it overlooked an entire sector and the plaza meant that this position was of incredible strategic importance and defence, but it also meant that the Grey Army would do whatever it takes to capture it. Another two months passed at Zero's House, pushing back any attacker that dared set feet in the plaza, wave after wave they endured the hostilities, resting once the soldier retreated.
Charon opened a wooden crate of canned food with the help of his clawed gauntlet, and after throwing the piece of wood that covered the box he took a can of food, opened it with his metallic finger and ate it quickly. Then he walked off to another of the crates while a group of ponies emptied the crate of canned food and distributed them through the garrison, he prepared his gauntlet again and opened the crate that had 'Ammo' written on it. He took out several bullets and refilled his pair of ammo pouches strapped to his belt, then he grabbed the ammo belts and RPG-7 grenades and gave it to a group of soldiers. "Get them upstairs. Everypony else, get your ammo." He said as he backed off and sat down resting on a wall; a soldier arrived from outside and upon seeing him he walked closer.
"The minefield has been planted, any other orders, sir?"
"No more, get your ammo and rest for a whi--" He was cut short by a sudden explosion heard in the distance that also startled everypony in the building.
"Incoming!! They stepped on the minefield!!" A soldier screamed from above before the machine-guns began raining hell towards the other side of the white plaza.
"Positions!!" Charon yelled at the soldiers while he picked up his sniper rifle and ran to the third floor, stepping on the snow, dirt and rubble once reaching the destination. He threw himself to the ground due to the machine-guns firing at him and began sniping the officers that accompanied the German-looking forces from the other side of the plaza as the minefields went off every time they tried to advance. "Someone call an artillery strike, I'm too damn busy over here!!"
"Artillery barrage requested on position FD-784, over!" Called a soldier that heard Charon's request.
"Copy that, spotter rounds sent, out." The radio answered. The garrison stood their ground at Zero's House waiting for the rounds to arrive, only to see them land several hundred meters away from their objective.
"Spotter rounds missed, recalibrate 350 meters north-west!!" The soldier yelled.
"Copy that, spotter rounds launched, out." This time a bunch of artillery shells landed a few meters off, but it was enough, for the main barrage would contain an entire arsenal.
"Rounds accurate enough, fire for effect!"
"Understood, firing for effect!!" The artillery captain answered, once time passed, bullets flew and tanks moved through the minefield the whistle of several dozen rounds were heard in the skies until the earth shook once they struck the advancing forces, leaving a great cloud of smoke and craters on its place, until it dissipated revealing a new wave slowly advancing.
"Charon, it's for you." A soldier with a radio told the Terran that was sniping seconds ago.
"Speak." Said Charon while holding the radio.
"Order your soldiers to back off from Zero's House at once . Our scouts spotted a machine several times bigger than a tank with a cannon setting up facing your coordinates, you must retreat now !"
"What? What does the machine look like?!"
"Think you have time?! Scouts reported it setting up minutes ago and saw the words 'Landkreuzer P 1500 Monster' on its chasis, hell knows what that means, get out now!"
"...Understood. Out." Charon knew exactly what those words meant, and the fact that not only it walked these lands but that it was also used against him filled him with terror for a moment. "Everypony, we're leaving! Pack up ASAP!" He yelled as he ran downstairs.
"What? Why? We're defending this place just fine!" Asked a soldier that saw how he ran to the destroyed window on the bottom floor and picked up an MG.
"There's something they'll throw at us and I don't want to know anything else about it, we leave or we die!" He yelled, trying to avoid an explanation so as not to waste time.
"Gotcha, what's the plan?"
"A group will stay here and lay down suppressive fire while the other runs down the street." He explained as more and more soldiers arrived to the room he was in. "Then the group that ran off will lay down suppressive fire for us, all clear?"
"All clear." The voice of the hundred ponies echoed.
"Alright chums, let's do this, everypony go, let's go!" He said as he and a group of forty soldiers armed with machine-guns and rifles ran outside and began firing to the enemy formation, only to stop in defeat seeing a Terran-sized shell travel at a great speed towards him and his forces through the skies. That was the last thing he saw before losing consciousness in the resulting explosion.
"What the Hell happened in Zero's house?" Asked one of the two soldiers carrying the crippled Terran through the snowy streets of Stallinox, both oblivious that he barely regained consciousness.
"I dont know nor do I care, but that thing managed to kill everypony in that building. The only reason the Emperor's alive is because he's immortal, I mean, just look at him, he would be dead by now!!"
Charon slowly lowered his sight and looked at his stomach, only to see a piece of cloth drenched in blood covering it. He raised his gauntlet and placed it over the cloth, but it sunk a bit as if something was missing; he now realized that his stomach was blown open. He lowered his sight even further to his legs, but could see only one, the other had been ripped appart and blood was being spilled on the street, but as he stared to the trail of blood he noticed that there was another one, he followed it to the source only to find out that it originated from his left arm, that was ripped clean off; not only that, he could feel how his head weighted significantly less, but not because of the light-headedness caused by the innumerable concussion, it was because his jaw was missing, his chest was drenched in blood to confirm the painful event.
"Fine, where are we carrying him?"
"Our platoon leader, what else can we do? Oh there he is!" The soldier spoke before yelling and raising his hoof towards a group of ponies next to an officer in a distinctive outfit.
Once the officer and the ponies in the distance saw them and the crippled Terran they ran full speed towards them with shock on their faces and surrounded them, staring at Charon who could not die despite the wounds he received.
"Holy mother of...What in the name of the Emperor happened?!"
"We don't know, sir, we found him like this after Zero's house was struck by that thing, he's the only survivor of the several hundred that were garrisoned there!!"
"Dammit...You, a radio, now!!" The officer ordered a soldier. "Answer, for the love of the Great Ones, answer!! This is 7th platoon of the 25th Infantry division, my men have found the Emperor crippled beyond imagination, he's the only survivor of Zero's House!"
"What?! Get transport and send him to the field hospital at once, then report to me with the details!"
"Understood, out." He turned off the radio and turned to two of his soldiers. "Both of you, there's a truck at the other side of the street, get the Emperor to the field hospital ASAP!"
"You got it!" They answered as they ran towards Charon and carefully picked him up.
"You gonna be ok, partner...Just hang in there..." One of the ponies carrying him spoke, his words echoed inside Charon's mind before he passed out once again.
20 days later, Charon began to woke up in a white bed, holding his head while grunting to himself. He began raising from the pillow and slowly opened his eyes, seeing that he was inside a tent with several other injured ponies, all that could be heard were coughs, grunts of pain and the talking of the doctors.
"You woke up, that's good." A voice was heard near him. Charon turned his head and saw an officer sitting right next to his bed. "Hold up a second, don't move yet." The officer raised his hoof and waved it in the air in the direction of a few doctors that stood idle on the other side of the giant tent, once they noticed him and the Terran that sat on the bed they walked over to them.
Before the doctors arrived, he realized he had bandages all over his body and a medical brace on both his left arm and his right leg which regenerated with his jaw; strangely enough they were over his clothes, but could be justified since the regenerative ability of Charon's immortality also affected his current outfit. Once the doctors reached Charon's bed and began taking off the bandages and braces the officer started explaining to him what happened, seeing as he was oblivious of everything ever since he was struck by the shell fired by the great machine outside the city. "A pair of soldiers found you lying on the floor, your right leg, left arm and jaw were missing and half your clothes were burned. You were the only survivor of Zero's House, the building was blown out of existence, had you been a few steps behind where you were and we'd have had to pick you up with spoons."
"...That's nightmarish...Changing topics a bit, why the bandages and everything? I could regenerate just fine alone, even though it'd take time."
"You answered your own question, we don't have time for luxuries, you laid in that bed like a log and even with our help it took about 3 weeks for you to fully regenerate; in that time, Kaiserreich's force advanced without rest, and since you weren't in the frontline they did so with much more force. After the first week we had to transfer you from the field hospital to the north to this one, the one on the north is already enemy's land."
"What? Dammit, I must get out there then--"
"Woah there buddy, not so fast, at least let the doctors finish patching you up. Also, the lieutenant general has some plans already set in motion, you should get to him first instead of blindly rushing to the frontline."
"True, true...Is he in the castle?"
"Yes, he's with the other officers setting up the defence. If you have more questions save it for him instead. Also, sorry about your shotgun and bandolier, they were destroyed back in Zero's House"
"Gotch-AGHH!" Charon screamed as he was injected a serum in his arm. Once the injection was over and everything removed from him he stood up with the help of the doctors and began to walk towards the tent's entrace to the snowy streets outside. He kept walking towards the castle that could be seen in the distance no less than half a kilometre away, noticing that every soldier he saw on the way was either setting up defences or staring at him with a smile. Once he reached the castle and passed through the giant doors leading to the throne room he walked upstairs to the floor above, seeing the lieutenant general discussing with his officers as he reached the war room.
"Ahh, welcome back, Emperor." Charon's lieutenant greeted as he saw him walking into the room. "Come closer, I'll explain everything in due time." After saying that he lowered his vision to the map placed in the giant table and continued giving orders. "5th division is granted permission to retreat, 28th armored will take its place with 54th artillery division acting as support. 7th armored will deploy west of 34th infantry behind the frontline; once in place 34th will retreat, leading the enemy towards the main line and 7th armored will flank them." He cleaned the sweat on his forehead and looked up to Charon again. "As you could see, we're losing this fight. We've been pushed back in the central area, the right flank stood its ground successfully but the left flank was massacred, this army group will fight two fronts now. Good news and bad news, the good news are that Luna's and Concord's divisions were called and will arrive any minute now, also that machine that destroyed Zero's House is stuck out of the city, having no means to enter. The bad news, this castle and its surrounding are the frontline now, we expect an attack any minute now, there's also the matter that another great machine has been sighted by our scouts entering the city by just crushing the buildings in its path. Your condition right now isn't the best, so you'll be a sniper positioned in this castle with several other snipers and MGs instead of being in the frontline, we'll leave that job for the infantry and for the two immortals that'll arrive in due time." Once he finished, he rolled the map and walked towards the staircase with the other officers, they were going to a bunker far behind the frontline to keep commanding the defending forces and leave the castle to the ones who were going to fight, but as he passed next to Charon he took out a rapier in a sheath, it was Luna's Rapier who Charon had lost. "The soldiers found it encrusted to a wall, guess that artillery round packed enough power to rip it out your belt and send it flying." He gave it to the Terran who thanked him once he received it and left the room through the staircase.
Charon stood in the war-room alone, but just as he lost sight of the officers a rather large group of soldiers arrived with sniper rifles and MGs, a sniper who carried two scoped mosin-nagants gave one to Charon, then he gave him a pair of pouches containing the bullets he'd need. "Your place is the window overlooking the main street." He said as he pointed towards the window behind Charon.
"Got it."
The radio that was left there suddenly generated static as a soldier talked through it. "This is 4th scouts group, we see enemy movement, attack is imminent, out."
Both Charon and the sniper that gave him the rifle stood silent for a few seconds staring at the radio until they began running to a window nearby. "The window's big enough for 2, I'll be next to you, sir." The sniper informed as he calibrated his scope. Charon nodded, took out a pair of binoculars and began staring at the horizon, nothing more than rubble, smoke and destroyed buildings could be seen for a while until he spotted a few soldiers moving behind the skeleton of a department, a tank and more infantry came to sight after a few seconds, marching through the street. "Orders are not to engage until they step into the minefield. Even though nopony has authority over you, I'd advise you to follow it." He explained.
Charon lowered his binoculars and calibrated the rifle's scope to the distance he'd be firing at, he then pointed it at the incoming forces and stared through it, the scope's reticle hovering over a tank and several soldiers that led the formation until an explosion destroyed the tank's track and sent the squad flying, at this moment the entire Imperial arsenal was thrown at the advancing forces; Charon kept looking over Kaiserreich's infantry sniping the officers on the frontline while the one next to him took care of the high-ranking ones behind them. By chance he spotted three tanks modified with flails on the front pushing through the minefield; seeing as they passed with impunity he desperately left his position and ran to the radio equipment, grabbed the radio and contacted the forces below.
"Three flail tanks spotted in sector KV-571 advancing through the minefield, I need those things destroyed now!!"
"Acknowledged, refocusing fire, out."
He left the radio and ran to the same window taking out his binoculars, once the firestorm outside could be seen he stared through them and looked at the three tanks that still advanced into the exploding minefield in front of them, but with nothing done to stop them. "Come on...Come on!" He began despairing, seeing as they were two thirds through, a barrage of artillery and anti-tank rockets started raining on top of them destroying one tank, disabling another's tracks but not damaging the third enough, letting it pierce through the minefield entirely; even worse, the artillery barrage activated several mines, thus leaving a huge gap for an entire force to push through. "Dammit all to Hell!" He threw his binoculars and ran towards the radio, planning to ask where were Luna's and Concord's division that took so long to arrive, but before he reached the equipment a static could be heard, followed by a familiar voice.
"Greetings gentlecolts! Concord's division has come to save the day! We're entering the battlefield through the right flank, keep your hats on!"
"Hah!!" Charon yelled of excitement, everything wasn't as hopeless as he imagined.
"The princess of the night has arrived, fasten your seatbelts, we're about to enter the engagement!"
Charon smiled behind his scarf, the only thing to do now was to hold the castle enough for their divisions to come, but his smile was erased as the castle shook tremendously, enough to make him fall to the floor. "What the hell was--"
"Charon, get over here quick, you might not like what you're about to see..." Said the sniper that was with him minutes ago, helping him up and urging him to get to the window while giving him his binoculars. Once there he pointed at a strange object in the horizon, which Charon acknowledged and began to observe through his binoculars. The sight was enough to turn his skin pale and widen his eyes, what he was seeing was nothing else than a tank which size overshadowed the buildings next to it, the trail of destruction that left on its road was also nightmarish, everything was crushed into oblivion under the tank's weight and size; this tank was known in his world at the almost-demonic Landkreuzer P 1000 Ratte. Charon's words couldn't get out of his mouth, and they didn't need to, for Chaser began speaking through the radio at that instant.
"I assume you've already seen the power of Kaiserreich by now."
Charon walked over to the radio and picked it up with his shaking hands. "How...How did you manage to get this frequency?" His voice showed despair and fear.
"There are more pressing matters at hand, I can assure you."
"F-fine, that thing is physically impossible to be able to work, yet you not only managed to construct it but to send it through an entire ocean and half a continent here, how?!"
"I'm surprised, Charon. Knowing you, you'd have used everything you had to your advantage, yet there's something in Equestria that you have forgotten about. Remember Cloudsdale? How it's a city floating in the sky? It was constructed with pegasi engineering, I have used it to modify the Landkreuzer and make it considerably lighter. It is a shame that time has run out, I'd like to talk with you more but desperate situations call for desperate means, this war took too long and now I plan to end it with both this machine and the other Landkreuzer. Goodbye for now, Charon, I'll be sure to give you a nice room once I recover your body from the destroyed castle."
Charon stood in silence, admitting defeat already and slowly walked to the window, staring at the silhouette of the Landkreuzer that'd soon enough end this war.
"Charon, this is Concord, we see the castle, any orders?" Concord spoke through the radio, but Charon didn't even had the strength to answer. "Charon, do you copy? Charon!"
Outside, Concord kept trying to get through to Charon with his radio, taking cover behind a pile of rubble from incoming fire. "Charon, what was that explosion from before?! Charon, answer me, dammit!!" His desperate tries were cut short as another explosion destroyed most of the castle, the Landkreuzer had fired once again. Concord covered his face with his arm due to being startlet, but after realizing that the explosion also reached Charon he stood up and began ordering his division. "Change of plans, we'll get to the castle ASAP!! Everything else is secondary, do you hear me?!"
"URA!!" The division yelled in unison as they started pushing forwards, tanks leading the charge towards the destroyed castle.
"Concord, can you hear me?!" Luna talked through the radio. "I can't get through to Charon, what's going on?!"
"I don't know, listen, tell your division to push to the castle, then we'll find out!"
"Got it!"
Concord lowered his radio and changed the shape of his AK-54r into an RPG-7, he peeked out of cover and fired towards a tank in the distance, then he changed his gun back to the rifle he had seconds ago; he ran towards the front and threw himself into cover, firing at those in front of him with help of his infantry while the tanks pushed through and dealt with the armor deployed against them. After minutes of fighting part of the small force sent against them began routing, the rest soon following; Concord ordered not to pursue them, instead to keep pushing into the castle and meet up with the rest. He climbed on top of a tank and gave the order to drive full speed towards the destroyed structure in the distance.
Once Concord and his division arrived, he got off and ordered his lieutenant to help the soldiers push Kaiserreich back while he checked up on Charon. He began running through the streets, gunshots and artillery could drown his steps and heavy breathing, ponies could be seen everywhere running with equipment and supplies to the frontline, but a small group of soldiers stood outside the destroyed door of the castle as he saw it in the distance. Losing his composure he ran even faster towards the door until he stepped into the group, he began walking among the ponies outside towards the castle but once he reached the door he became petrified by the sight: The Lieutenant General stood near the entrance while another group of ten ponies desperately removed the pile of rocks that covered the entire throne reaching above the ceiling that was cracked open, Charon was buried there.
"Concord, I came as fast as I could, what's--" Luna asked as she entered, only to drop her gun and bring her hands to her mouth with a gasp by the scenery, she arrived at the time a rock was removed from the pile revealing Charon's metallic gauntlet utterly crushed, the gauntlet that was enchanted to be indestructible.
"Why did the enchantment...wear off?" Concord asked to himself, still petrified and his voice filled with worry.
As more and more rocks were removed, Charon's other destroyed hand was revealed firmly grasping Luna's rapier, as if his last action was just to hold it and give a silent prayer. By this moment, Concord realized that Charon, an immortal, might have not been entirely so. Luna had the same thought in her head, the tear that fell down her cheek showed her sorrow at such possibility.
The soldiers suddenly backed off from the pile of stone as part of Charon's gauntlet became ash and disintegrated in the air, at a steady pace his entire body was disappearing. Luna started crying and desperately ran to Charon's tomb, she climbed the stones and held what was left of his gauntlet as it turned to ashes.
"No...This isn't happening...You're immortal, you can't die!! You...You can't leave us...You can't leave me like this...Charon, I...I don't want you to leave now, I still have something to tell you!!" She desperately spoke as tears fell from her eyes. Charon's gauntlet turned entirely into ash and disintegrated, leaving Luna's hand empty; she placed her hands over the pile of stone as she whispered a few words to herself. "I...I couldn't even tell you...That I loved you...Charon, why must you leave now..." She broke down into tears, her cries echoed in the now silent castle for Kaiserreich had backed off moments ago; nothing could be heard, no bullets, no explosions, no screams of pain nor orders, only Luna's sorrowful cries.
A lone soldier slowly walked over to Luna and handed her a ripped grey cloth, it was what remained of Charon's scarf that was lying in one of the destroyed parts of the castle a few steps away. Luna held it dearly, the soldier helped her up and accompanied her to the castle's entrace.
"How could...Charon..." Concord questioned to himself, still stunned by the event, staring at the pile of rocks from the entrace.
"We're leaving Stallinox, everypony sound the retreat, we'll meet up in Canterlot." The lieutenant general spoke as he rounded up his soldiers.
"What...You're leaving this city to Kaiserreich?" Asked Concord.
"This place is done for, the castle's destroyed, the entire city is in ruins."
"And you're leaving like that? We can still defend this place."
"We can't, we're leaving."
"Charon died defending this place, the least you could do is continue what he couldn't finish!!" He became more and more angry, yelling at the general.
"Listen here." The general spoke while violently grabbing Concord's trench coat with his metallic gauntlet and placing the draconequus' face in front of his. "Charon died, that's a fact, and you want me to keep defending this place!? Sure, I'll send more ponies to their death in this wasteland instead of doing what Charon would want me to do, back off and at least have a chance of NOT DYING WITHOUT A FUCKING REASON !!" He let go of his trench coat and walked out of the castle, Concord stared at him irritated but realized he was losing his mind.
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 9: Immortals may fall...
Chapter 9: Immortals may fall...
Chaser walked through the metallic corridors of an underground bunker located in Kaiserreich's capital, the clanking of his feet echoed inside as he passed through several reinforced doors in his march until he opened one of them and walked inside, around a dozen officers that were discussing stood silent by his presence. He walked past the officers towards a table in the centre of the room, arranged the chair and sat down; an officer flipped the map that laid on the table and began talking while pointing at it.
"The assault on Stallinox was successful and we're now marching towards Equestria, Canterlot is our current priority. The regions formerly known as Cabalderio, Zemlja Konja and Kunatanah are under our control now."
"Good. Has Charon's body been transported to the room that has been prepared for him?"
"My Emperor...Charon has..." The officer stood silent, trying to force words out of his mouth, but another officer, seeing as he was failing, decided to take over for him.
"Charon's body turned into ashes after the castle crumbled on top of him...He's no longer among the living..."
The room was silent, only the breathing of the dozen ponies and of the Terran were heard for a few seconds until Chaser slowly began unstrapping his gasmask, he took it off and placed it on the table, but what was more worrying was that his hands were shaking while doing so.
"This...Is unbelievable..." Chaser spoke with his burned face entirely revealed. "Charon...Dead..." He slowly stood up, the officers could do nothing but stare. "He was immortal!" he ranted, "How could he die?! He survived two world wars and this is how it ends?! By a simple castle crumbling on him?!"
"My Emperor, there's a possibility the Landkreuzer could have--"
"It couldn't!! Didn't you hear the reports?! We dropped an artillery shell from the 'Monster' on top of him and he survived!!"
"Then it weakened him enough to--"
"Did I stutter?! In the first pony war he fought not only Corrupted Celestia, not only Corrupted Nightmare Moon but also Discord himself!! He should have died thirty times back then already!!" He smashed his fist on the table, but remained silent afterwards trying to think about something. "You, give me the report paper."
"Immediately." An officer answered while rushing out of the room. An awkward moment of silence followed for the officers while Chaser sat down once again and rubbed his eyes until the same officer that left arrived with the documents in his metallic gauntlet fitted on his hoof, rushing inside the room and leaving the door open, letting another officer close it behind him. "Here they are." The officer said as he gave it to Chaser.
"Casualty reports...City damage...Units involved..." He flipped the documents trying to find where Charon's part was written, until he found it and placed the unnecessary papers on the table. "Charon turned into ashes, castle crumbled on him, buried under pile of rocks..." His mind was lightening up once he read the last part, he knew that the immortals of this world were so thanks to their regenerative capabilities. "If he was buried... Then he couldn't regenerate due to lack of space... That means... Ugh." He gave up, throwing the paper on the table over the other documents and laid back on the chair. "It is too late to stop fighting the war now...But..." He leaned forward to the table before giving a single order to his ponies. "Give the Imperium two months of ceasefire, it's the least we can do. Things have gone to Hell now...We both could understand eachother, and now he's gone..." He lowered his vision and spoke with a depressing tone. "It's hard to believe that this is for the greater good..."
Atticus had arrived to Canterlot's Castle with a small package in his gauntlet, passing through the giant doors held open by the guards and greeting Celestia once he walked inside. "Hello, princess. I apologize for bringing up such a topic as soon as I arrived, these are dark times for the Imperium, our leader has fallen, and since Stallinox is no longer under our command this is the next place Charon would have wanted to be in." He handed Celestia the package as they walked to a wall of room; Celestia opened it and when she took out the object that was inside she noticed it was a metallic plaque: It was the insignia of the Imperium of Patria, the Empire Charon forged from scratch himself, the one he defended against any opposition, be it the corrupted hordes, Executor's soldiers or, with his last breath, Kaiserreich; below the metallic insignia there were a few words for him, 'In memory of Emperor Charon, who defended Stallinox with his life. May his soul rest within the Imperium'. She held it high and placed it on the wall that overlooked the room, both Celestia and Atticus stared at it silently, they couldn't believe that Charon, the one who had defeated two corrupted Goddesses and the God of Chaos himself could fall in such a manner. "I see Concord is lamenting this loss too." Atticus mentioned once he noticed Concord drowning his sorrow with several vodka bottles on the table.
"I was kicked out of the military until Canterlot gets attacked, they say I spent an entire week awake and only drank vodka instead of properly eating, those bastards..." Concord answered, then he continued drinking from the bottle on his hand again.
"How unfortunate...I haven't seen Luna anywhere though, is she depressed about this too?"
"She is, she's in the Ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, she has been there for days now...She doesn't want anyone near either, either you go away or if you're stubborn enough her dark ponies will send you away."
Atticus kept silent and turned his head to the plaque placed on the wall, staring at it. "I must go now, I sincerely wish I could stay here longer but Charon has appointed me as a 'Second Emperor'--" Atticus was cut short by the sound of Concord passing out and falling to the floor taking the chair with him, the alcohol had taken it's toll at last.
"Take him to the bedroom." Ordered Celestia to the guards, who complied immediately and began carrying the unconscious Draconequus through a door.
"Anyways, as I was saying my duty is never finished. Farewell, Celestia."
"Goodbye Atticus, let's hope this war ends soon, too many lives were lost already."
"If this war continues as it is, then it will be over before we know it..." He said before turning to the door and walking outside, Celestia stood in front of the plaque, staring at it and meditating on everything that had happened.
'I don't know, Celestia...What if she doesn't feel the same way?' She started remembering one of her talks with Charon.
'There's nothing to do but find out, then.'
'You're her sister, shouldn't you know more about her? That can help me a lot in this situation...'
'You shouldn't relly on me for these things, you have to do it yourself.' She giggled. 'Just walk up to her and say 'I love you'.' She smiled, knowing that Charon wouldn't do it.
'Very funny...'
Celestia let out a sigh, she turned away form the plaque on the wall and looked at the table where Concord was drowning his sorrows minutes ago, she remembered how she talked with Luna long ago about almost the same thing.
'You love him, don't you?' Celestia said with a smile.
'How-- How did you know?!' Luna questioned, her cheeks were scarlet red.
'I'm your sister, I'm more surprised you expected me not to know...'
'F-f-fine...Don't tell him, though, I want to tell him myself...'
'Oh come on, once you build up enough courage he'll be dead...' Celestia joked, believing that Charon was unkillable at that point. 'I'll run up to him and say 'Charon, Luna loves you, she's waiting for you in the bedroom~!'
'What?! No! Don't!!'
'You'll have to catch me first if you want to stop me~!' She jokingly yelled, running away.
"They both loved eachother..." She whispered to herself, lowering her sight in depression, knowing that their opportunity was lost forever.
'The goal of this war is simple,' Charon explained to Celestia, 'Whoever wins is more fit to become the leader of this world and his faction will be the one who will rule.'
'Isn't it unfair, though? Your people have fought two world wars already.'
'That's exactly why Chaser gave me a year of preparation. We were crippled, of course, but once we advanced from medieval to modern times we held the same amount of power. This is what Terrans call Darwinism, only the fittest will survive; of course the one who loses won't die, we both trust each other enough so the victor will be allowed to serve the other as a general or settle as a citizen. Many lives have been lost already, but believe me when I say this is for the greater good. What I don't understand is how he could push us back so fast...'
"Greater good...?"
Luna laid on what was left of the Ancient castle of the royal pony sister's roof, staring at the starry sky of the night with no strength left to do anything else. The traumatic sight of Charon dying revolved inside her mind, how she entered Stallinox's destroyed castle only to see the Terran buried under a pile of rocks, how she desperately held his hand not wanting to believe what was happening while it turned to ashes.
'Let me stay in this world...' Luna remembered how Charon said those words when he rescued her from the corruption with the help of Concord, how he held her in his arms smiling at her, the simple thought was enough to make a tear fall down her cheek; she rolled over to one side and stared at the dark forest that surrounded the castle until she heard a few steps that got closer and closer until the sound was right behind her.
"Go away..." She said, her voice was filled with sorrow until she heard a familiar voice calling for her.
"Luna."
Her eyes opened wide, she quickly turned her head, still on the floor, and stared at the dark figure that stood next to her, the silhouette wore a trench coat and a distinctive green hat. "C-C...Charon?!!" She couldn't believe her own eyes, the man she thought had died back in Stallinox was in front of her in this very moment. "Charon!! I thought you were dead!! How could you--" She desperately stood up and asked several questions to Charon, only for him to silence her by placing his metallic finger over her mouth.
"Shhh...You don't have to say anything..." He calmly spoke, then he hugged the stunned princess in the middle of the night, the moon illuminating this moment. "I'll never leave this world...I'll never leave your side again..." He told her, those words were enough to make Luna tear up of joy, who hugged Charon back and closed her eyes. What she didn't see, however, were Charon's grey eyes suddenly flaring green for a split second before reverting to normal.
"Alright, the troops passed, go ahead." A dark figure next to a window spoke, making several other shadows move in the dark building; this place was a tavern located near the destroyed castle in Stallinox's centre. A shadow turned on a light, revealing around a dozen ponies and three griffons inside the tavern gathering up in one of the tables, a pony took out a map of Stallinox and placed it on top of it and began speaking.
"Gentlecolts, this is the plan: We sneak past the patrols and head into the castle to find something useful, should we find anything there's a truck three blocks away prepared for us to take it out of Stallinox, then another group of ponies waiting outside in a field will take over from then on, if not, we'll return. Ura?"
"Ura!!" The room echoed with the rest of the ponies and griffons yelling in unison.
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 10: ...But demons rise again.
Chapter 10: ...But demons rise again.
"Hold...Alright, go." A shadow leading another dozen whispered in the night before beginning to move after an enemy patrol moved out of the way in Stallinox. "Stop, garrison in front." A couple of ponies in Kaiserreich's uniform stood in front of the crumbled castle sharing a cigarette, then after a few minutes they continued walking down the street away from the group hidden in the corner; the streetlights were the only thing illuminating the city, and even then only a few stood surviving after Stallinox's attack. "Move, go!" The leader of the group whispered again, running towards what remained of the castle's doors until they infiltrated inside without trouble; it seemed as if this place was left untouched as a sign of respect towards Charon, not a single soul was present inside apart from the infiltrators. "First group dig the pile, second group upstairs, third group guard the door." The group of ponies and griffons divided into three groups of four and scrambled towards their objectives.
The stress of the situation turned seconds into minutes and minutes into hours, the castle was in utter darkness while ponies and griffons both searched the castle and undug Charon's tomb, only to find nothing after several hours. The pony leader of the group let out a sigh and turned to those standing near the undug pile and ordered them to return to the tavern, but as they all walked to the door one of the griffons slipped and fell to the ground; after standing back up he looked down at the floor and noticed a white-yellowish tiny object hidden in the dust, he picked it up with his claw and examined it with his eye with confusion, he had never seen anything like that before.
"Doc, everything alright?" A pony standing in the door questioned after noticing that the griffon was the only one who wasn't walking. "Is that...A tooth?"
"It looks like one...But..." He answered, spinning the tooth-like object around, still puzzled. "It's not a pony tooth..." Once he noticed a few tiny black tendrils coming out of the strange tooth he threw it away in scare, the entire group gathered around the strange object that started growing bigger and bigger as time passed.
"What in the name of..." Asked the leader. The object kept growing and growing until it became a black mass of gel the size of a pony, but suddenly a large black arm with fingers broke out covered in tendrils and slammed to the ground, then another arm came out but instead of slamming the ground like the other it tore a hole in the strange mass of tendrils, letting a grotesque, tendril-covered skull come out while it screamed; the petrified ponies and griffons could do nothing but stare at this event. The two arms and skull pushed themselves out of the mass of tendrils until a torso was revealed, then the tendrils started forming two legs, and after a while the creature started taking a more complex texture and colour: Heavy and ragged clothes, a coat that reached his knees, a pair of boots with straps on them, dark brown gloves that looked like their colour was fading away and a black, large-brimmed hat with worn out brims; the creature also sported a grey beard and moustache, and also grey eyes. The ponies raised their heads following the towering creature as it stood up, holding its chest and with a painful look on its face; everypony was shocked by this sight: The creature in front of them, the one that regenerated out of a simple tooth, was no other than the emperor of the Imperium itself, Charon, the man who everypony thought had died here in the destroyed castle two months ago. The Terran could only walk a few steps before falling to his knees and gasping for air.
"Back off, back off, let him breathe!" The griffon that found the tooth minutes ago yelled as he flapped his wings while he walked to the Terran. With effort, he helped the Terran up and put him on his back, this wasn't time to be happy, Charon was in enemy territory now and if his existence was discovered Kaiserreich would do anything to capture him.
Two ponies suddenly closed the doors of the castle and placed themselves behind it. "They found us! They are outside, dozens of them!" Screamed one before the soldiers outside started pounding on the door.
"You've trespassed into forbidden territory, cease any resistance at once and your punishment shall not be as severe!"
"Dammit..." The pony leader ranted before turning to one of the griffons. "Got the molotovs?"
"Enough set the world on fire." The griffon answered with a smile as he opened one of the two bags strapped to his side, revealing dozens of molotovs.
"Perfect. Doc, you'll escape by flying above the walls and take Charon to the ponies in the field outside, we'll distract them."
"...Are you sure about this? You'll have no chance of escape..."
"...Ain't life a beauty." He responded before revealing the wings under his clothes and taking flight with the rest, preparing to throw the burning bottles over the castle walls. The griffon carrying the barely conscious Terran ran to the back of the room far behind the throne and also took flight, sorrowful that he'd not see his friends back after hearing fire, glass breaking and gunshots far below.
He flew over the city, the darkness hiding their presence, until they arrived to an open field outside the city, the grass was as tall as a Terran and could easily hide anything but the biggest of things. The griffon landed on the ground still with Charon on his back and began walking through the grass, after a while he stopped as he heard several hooves stepping on the ground closing towards him; a group of five ponies revealed themselves to the griffon and greeted him. "At last. I see the Emperor wasn't dead after all, we were expecting something with less importance but we're prepared for this too. Follow us." The pony leader of the group walked through the grass with the other ponies following him, then the griffon walked their steps until they spotted a small airplane hidden with a pony in the cockpit.
The pony opened the cockpit and waved at those that arrived. "Well isn't this fortunate. What do we do now?"
"Canterlot is the only place left now, it seems." One of the ponies answered.
"Fine, get him aboard, I'll drop him at Canterlot. I'd suggest to be silent about this...Revelation, though."
"Why's that?"
"If Kaiserreich discovers that Charon is alive...Well you know what would happen. But, if Charon suddenly joins the fight after everypony thought he was dead..." The pilot smiled.
"Right. Doc, carry him aboard. Everypony else, we'll keep guard here if hostiles arrive."
Everypony scrambled, 'Doc', as the ponies called the griffon, helped Charon up the airplane; he jumped on board without many problems, he had fully recovered in the flight from the castle to this field, he placed himself next to several wooden crates and waited while the plane's engine started up and shook everything, then the ponies scattered and allowed the plane to drive through an empty dirt runway gathering speed and finally lifting off to Canterlot. The sound of a loud alarm and gunshots started echoing in the sky.
"What's going on now...?" Asked Charon.
"It's an uprising, I'm guessing the entire operation managed to get everypony to fight off the invaders. Don't get any hopes up yet, even if they win Kaiserreich will occupy the city again."
Celestia stood on Canterlot Castle's balcony at the early hours of the morning overlooking the several thousand ponies that prepared a defence that even rivalled Stallinox's, the sound of hooves, engines and orders yelled drowned those of birds singing and wind blowing. She was suddenly startled when a strange creature dropped from the skies to the floor, crashing through the glass part of the ceiling; she turned her vision towards the unfortunate accident and noticed it was Charon who had parachuted from a plane that passed by without a parachute.
"...Medic..." He painfully whispered as he raised one of his arms towards Celestia, but his action was interrupted by five wooden crates falling upon him, covering him entirely.
Celestia ran towards the crates and the Terran, but before she could do anything three guards stormed into the room. "Your highness, what has happened?"
"Nopony...Must know...Of my existence...This hurts more than it looks..." Charon whispered while fighting off the pain of skin and flesh ripped off, his whisper was heard only by Celestia.
"Uhhh...I don't know, maybe a mistake in the dropzone?" She invented an excuse, trying to fool the guards.
"Understood, we'll take care of this then." They said as they closed in. Celestia, worried that they could discover Charon, tried to invent another excuse.
"I-I'll have to read the destinations first, heh...Uhhh...So I know where they were headed, then I'll call you."
"...As you order." The guards with confusion on their faces backed off and left the room, closing the door before them.
"Charon?! You're alive!?" She desperately asked as she removed the crates that were on top of him, then she extended her hand and helped him to his feet.
"Agh...I'm alive I don't know how...A part of me must have remained intact for me to regenerate...If I remember right it was one of my teeth..."
"But...Concord and Luna saw you turning into ashes!!"
"Ashes..." He questioned, he looked back at the pile of crates and noticed a tiny fraction of skin that had been accidentally ripped off in the fall turning into ashes. "So that's what the ashes meant..."
"...What?"
"To give an example, if I get cut into two, one part will regenerate and the other turns into ashes because it's useless...I think my body was destroyed completely yet my tooth remained... Anyways, what happened while I was 'dead'?"
"Things have turned into a nightmare...Luna has become depressed, Concord is now an alcoholic and even Chaser was sorrowful about this, he gave us two months of ceasefire when he found out you were gone but that ceasefire ends tonight. It gets worse, everything has been conquered, Equestria is the only region remaining and Canterlot is the next target."
"Tonight?! Dammit, I must get Luna before--" He was about to run out of the room before Celestia stopped him.
"I don't think Luna would be of much help, they still have that machine and they almost killed you, a Terran, someone who comes from a place war is never ending."
"Right..." He stood still for a minute before realizing something. "Wait, Spike's a dragon, right?"
"Well...Yes."
"That means there are other dragons, right?"
"Uhh yes."
"Where's the nearest nest?"
"Wait, you want to ask the dragons for help? That's insane, they won't help us, they see ponies as puny creatures and won't aid in a war between ponies."
"I'll talk some sense into them then, if they don't listen to a pony then they'll listen to an immortal Terran."
"You're insane...But then again, I can't do anything to stop you and it might be our only hope. Wait here." She said before heading off to a room. Charon waited and waited until Celestia showed up again with a dark rapier. "If you're going to convince the dragons to help, you're going to need this."
"Luna's rapier..." She whispered as Celestia handed him the weapon, he unsheathed it and looked at the blade, it was as clean as the time Luna used it on the moon against him; he sheathed it back again and strapped it to his belt. "So, how do I get to one of the nests?"
"I only know of one nest, and it's on the top of a volcano. Get in the crate."
"...You're kidding, right?"
"No, get in the crate, I'll then call the guards and they'll send it near the volcano, then you'll have to make your way to the dragons. You wanted your existence to remain a secret, right?"
"..." Charon opened the crate only to find that it was completely empty. He jumped inside and struggled to fit inside but finally managed to, Celestia sealed the crate and called her guards.
"Yes, your highness?"
"You can take care of the crates now. This one's special, though, it's to be sent to the base of the volcano at once, make sure you send this one first."
"Immediately."
"Why this place?" Charon heard a few ponies talking outside the crate he was transported in. "And what's inside this thing anyways?"
"Orders are orders, I don't know nor do I care, I just want to get out of here before a dragon comes and eats us alive."
"Point taken, so, nothing else to do?"
"We were told to bring this package here and...Leave it in the open...Uhhh..."
"Leave it in the open? That's it?"
"It's what it says here, there must be a mistake..."
"Who cares, if something's wrong we can't do anything about it. Let's go, I'm getting creeped out by being so close to a dragon nest..."
The sound of a truck starting up was heard until it got farther and farther away, the crate was completely alone in the open by this point. Charon broke out of the crate by smashing the wooden planks open with his hand and tearing it off from the outside; he stood up and inspected the scenery. "Well here I am with no way to return...Uhhh...So where this volcano..." His jaw dropped once he spotted the mountain he'd have to climb, in his world it was almost as big as Mt. Everest, but seeing as he could breath normally on the moon there'd be no risk apart from the cold and exhaustion. "Are you kidding me?!! I have to climb THAT thing?!!" He let out a deep sigh as he rested his face on his palm, but after removing it he spotted a mountain goat near him; he ran towards it and jumped on top. "Giddy up!!" The goat reared up like a horse and began running to the volcano; the scenery contrasted seeing as everything was snow except for the tip that was surrounded by red clouds and a rather warm atmosphere.
Charon grunted as he desperately grabbed the edge of the crater at the top of the volcano, slowly but steadily climbing until he finally rested on his chest where there was no more elevation. "That damned goat..." he barely spoke, gasping for breath, "I'll turn that damn thing into stew...Kick me out halfway to here..." He cleared the snow that piled up over his hat's brim and rubbed his eyes before staring into the deep crater crowded by dragons with a few lava pools being shown. "I have to start thinking through these plans...Let's see, how do I get their help again...? Oh hey it's getting windy...Wait what the HELL IS GOING OO--WOOOAH!!" The tiny earthquake produced by a dragon that flew by managed to send Charon crashing down to the bottom of the crater, bouncing on the berm with painful grunts until he finally reached the bottom. He rearranged his hat, stood up and shook the dirt off before deciding to walk to the centre of the crater. "May I have your attention!!" He screamed with his arms up in the air, not having the slightest clue of what he was doing at the moment. Every single dragon in the crater turned their heads to the Terran at the centre, hundreds of eyes pierced into his soul at that moment petrifying him. 'If I don't move...They won't attack... ' He thought while sweat ran down his face. A young red teenage dragon walked towards him with confusion on his face and began inspecting the Terran, first by staring at him and later even by moving his arms and head.
"Hey, anyone knows what's this?" The dragon asked as he turned away from Charon, every other dragon either shook its head or shrugged. "Well, food's food." He revealed his teeth as he tried to bite Charon but before he could do so the Terran deflected the attack with his arm and threw his fist towards the dragon's face, only to be dodged and knocked down by the dragon's tail impacting his knees; the winged creature tried to jump on the Terran but was humiliatingly thrown out of the way by a solid kick connecting on his stomach, causing him to be sent crashing to the ground. "You son of a...Agh!" The dragon yelled as he stood up with pain. "You know how to fight, that's for sure...So, tell me, what brings something like you here?"
Charon stood up and shook off the volcanic dirt on his clothes. "I want the dragons' help in this war." The scenery was completely silent as the thought sunk into the young red dragon's and everyone else's minds, but after a second every single dragon in the entire crater bursted out laughing.
"Oh god my lungs...Hah, you want our help in a pony war? As if! We're not going to bother ourselves with the worthless arguments of the ponies."
"I won't leave until you decide to help me."
"Well that's a real tragedy because I already gave my answer!!" He yelled as he ran towards Charon. The dragon threw his claw towards Charon's chest but missed when he dashed to one side and punched it in the jaw, accidentally causing the teeth to dig into his fist. He swung its tail towards the Terran's head but he caught it with his other hand, then he twisted it, took his fist out of the dragon's jaw, gripped the tail with both hands and swung him over his head to the ground before immobilizing it by placing his foot over its neck.
"Are you still certain about your decision?" Charon asked as he stared down at the dragon that not long ago was mocking him.
The ground shook and dirt scattered in the air once a giant black dragon with bright red eyes landed behind the two combatants, it was the biggest dragon in the entire crater and its simple stare could send entire armies running for their lives. Charon, unsure of what that nightmarish sound and shake was, slowly turned his head until he could see the gigantic creature staring at him, the young dragon used that opportunity to free himself and ran away in an instant.
"I apologize for this brat here causing so much trouble, he doesn't have the brightest mind among us. I've heard the dragons laughing in my flight but I have no knowledge of your intentions, explain yourself."
Charon took a deep breath before talking to the towering creature in front of him. "My empire is at war and we're losing, your help might be our only chance of turning the tide of the war." None of the dragons laughed now, seeing as the giant, black dragon wasn't reacting in a mocking manner no one else dared to even giggle.
"What do we receive in exchange by helping you?"
"If this war is won I'll command three entire continents. Anything you want, I can get it."
The silence engulfed the crater and impatience and tension grew inside Charon, this moment lasted for a minute at least while the giant dragon thought about the Terran's words.
"I decline the offer." The dragon finally answered.
"...What?"
"There is nothing you can give us that would change our minds enough to enter a conflict between empires. We're fine the way we currently are."
"Is there...Some way I can convince you to help us?"
"I'm afraid not, my answer stands. Draconian ways dictate that only the strongest's words are final but we both know how a duel between us would end."
Charon stood in silence, meditating over the dragon's words, he knew that if his side didn't get the help of the dragons the war would finish this night. Then, he made up his mind: He'll do anything to help his empire, even if that meant dying again.
"I challenge you, then."
Every dragon was shocked by this scene and started muttering among themselves, the giant dragon that stood in front of Charon slightly tilted his head to a side in confusion. "Are you sure about this decision? You understand this is suicidal and you'll achieve nothing this way, I fail to see the logic behind your words."
"You said that the strongest had the final word and after seeing what happened when you arrived you obviously are the one. If I defeat you, you'll help my side in this conflict; if I lose..." He slowly unsheated his rapier as he talked, and gripped it with both his hands staring at the dragon. "Well, let the afterlife take care of that."
"You are suicidal, my friend. I accept your challenge, though I take no responsibility for what happens to you."
The dragon quickly stepped forward and threw his mouth wide open towards the Terran with considerable speed, trying to eat him alive but missed as Charon desperately dodged by throwing himself to the side. The teeth dug into the volcanic ground temporarily immobilizing the dragon's head, Charon seized the opportunity and climbed on top of it. The dragon managed to free himself from the ground and lifted its head trying to shake off the Terran who clinged to it with no signs of wanting to let go.
"Has it come to this already?!" Charon yelled as he prepared to stab the dragon's forehead and end this already, but he was grabbed by its tail before he could do so making him lose grip of his rapier sending it flying to the group where it got stuck.
"You lasted more than I thought." The dragon told Charon while holding him right in front of his face, then he looked to one of the lava pools scattered around.
'Ahh this is bad... ' Charon thought as he too looked at the pool. 'If there's nothing left of my body...Then to regenerate... ' "AW FU--" He yelled as the dragon threw him at incredible speed, making him skip twice over the lava before finally sinking.
The giant black dragon remained silent, staring at where Charon sunk with a confused look. 'For someone to throw his life away for a simple war...Were they fighting against monsters? ' He thought, still not understanding the reasons behind the Terran's actions while examining the rapier that he picked up with his tail. He suddenly raised an eyebrow, though, once he spotted a tiny object rising from the lava and clinging to the edge as it made its way upwards revealing a dark, charred skeleton rising from the depths. 'What in the... '
The skeleton rose and stepped from the lava to open ground as every dragon looked at it in shock and fear, dragons were the only thing supposed to withstand such temperatures without being harmed. The charred remains walked over in front of the confused dragon and pointed at him with his finger bone, then he clashed both his fists together.
"You're still alive and ready to fight again...Are you one of the three outsiders we heard of? One of the two immortals?"
The skeleton nodded.
"You hold great determination, and you have my respect for that." After complimenting what remained of the Terran, he threw him the rapier with his tail landing in front of the skeleton. "If you truly wish to fight again, pick it up."
Charon stepped forward and grabbed the rapier that was in the ground, he gripped it with both hands and stared at the dragon waiting for it to make the first move. The dragon swiftly grabbed the Terran with his giant claw and gripped it tighter and tighter expecting to crush his bones, but Charon freed his arms and stabbed the claw that imprisoned him making the dragon yell in pain at the rapier driving right into his bone; he rammed the Terran against the crater wall causing dust to fly off due to the impact and breathed fire at him. The breath of fire stopped, but what remained was the skeleton in flames raising its skull towards the dragon's eyes, staring at him with the fire inside his cranium acting as eyes. Seeing as his strategy failed, the dragon threw the skeleton to the ground making it bounce and caught him with its mouth, starting to chew the skeleton hoping that the strength of his jaw would be enough but all of a sudden he let out a loud yell of pain and opened his mouth, revealing the completely regenerated Charon holding his rapier at the dragon's mouth ceiling.
"Close your mouth and it's all over!!" He yelled, exhausted by the fight and regeneration. The dragon tried expulsing him from his mouth with his tongue, but Charon reacted by driving the rapier even deeper into the mouth ceiling. "Another movement and it'll be your last!" The dragon tried muttering something but came out as incomprehensible words seeing as Charon was preventing him from moving its mouth, but apart from that he did nothing. "I'm guessing it's over already? If so, raise your claw so I can see it." As Charon said, it raised its hand. "Understood then, you might want to get me a way to get down, though." It lowered its mouth to ground level allowing Charon to jump out unharmed, it raised its head while poking its wound with its claw as it spoke.
"I wasn't expecting this fight to be so quickly and...Embarassing. But still, I keep my word and seeing as now you're the strongest, or should I say luckiest, you're now in command."
'Sweet mother of mercy, I am in command of * DRAGONS*... ' Charon thought unable to believe himself but kept his composure on the outside. 'What was I supposed to do now...Oh Hell no... ' He noticed it was already dusk and also remembered that the ceasefire between the Imperium and Kaiserreich would end in just hours, he was so focused in getting the dragon's help he didn't even notice the entire day had already passed. 'That's it! Luna! ' "I need to get to the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters ASAP, I don't know what to expect there so I'd also need a dozen dragons with me."
"Wait a second, don't tell me we're now obeying this super-developed monkey's gibberish!" Asked the young red dragon from before. Charon and the giant black dragon stared at him until he ran away in fear.
"Take it to the skies, brothers." Yelled the black dragon as he made a gesture with its head, making around a dozen dragons take flight and head to Charon's destination. "Get on." It lowered its head next to Charon, offering to transport him to the castle.
"...Gladly." The Terran answered, jumping on its neck and sitting on the back of the dragon before it took off towards the skies and caught up with the rest.
The intense winds of the winter skies above Equestria blew Charon's longcoat as he stood on the back of the dragon with his arms crossed, staring at the ground below the clouds that covered his vision. The thirteen dragons passed through countless villages, homes and roads in the dark and cold night in the altitude towards the castle where Luna was sorrowfully waiting for nothing. Charon could see a stone structure through the clouds, but that wasn't the only thing he could see, there were several sparks of light and hundreds of unrecognisable silhouettes moving, this place was supposed to be empty.
"What do your dragon eyes see?" Charon asked the greatest of dragons that flew in the formation.
"Two sides, one dark blue and the other dark grey shooting each other. There are also several machines with the dark grey forces."
Charon's eyes narrowed, it was night and the ceasefire might have finished already. "Do you see some sort of cross insignia on the grey side?"
"Now that you mention it, yes. A black cross with a grey outline."
He uncrossed him arms and walked to the side of the dragon and positioned himself ready to drop, clinging to one of the scales. "Do you see a Terran like me?"
"At the back of the Castle. It's a dark-haired, pale-skinned Terran, from what I can see she's crying."
"These are the new orders for every dragon here: Fight off the grey ponies and avoid attacking the dark blue side, don't let anypony get close to that Terran below." He ordered before letting go of the scale and diving to the castle through the sky.
'This Terran is insane... '
The ground shook inside the crumbling castle as Charon landed, creating a shockwave that sent dust flying and also tearing apart most of his skin and clothes, leaving him bleeding severely as he painfully lied on the crack he created, but strangely enough his bones were intact. He gave a loud grunt as he stood up, regenerating his wounds and the blood he left on the ground turning into ashes, but a loud sound of a door being destroyed alerted him; the dark blue ponies, seeing as he was also an intruder in these lands, broke into the castle and began shooting at him. He quickly ran towards a window and threw himself through it, breaking the glass and accidentally digging a shard into his neck, but he was safe at last outside the castle. After he took out the shard he noticed the ground shaking, the dragons had already landed and joined the fight for the castle, Charon wasted no time: he stood and began running towards the back of the castle where the black dragon had told him Luna was located, but once he turned the corner he noticed nothing was there. He kept running until he reached the exact spot where Luna was crying, then he walked to the trees behind the castle, thinking that she might have ran away but the sound of a rock falling to the ground made him turn back and see the princess of the night standing on the highest point of the castle.
'Luna... ' He stood in place as he stared at her, her hair was gracefully flowing in the wind, her arms held together and her eyes staring at the moon, he could see how a tear fell down her cheeks. He started gathering speed, running back inside through a destroyed part in the wall but being greeted by the bullets of her royal servants, Luna was depressed enough to lock herself inside her mind and ignore everything that happened around her, even Charon's arrival. Charon managed to run through the arsenal being thrown at him and reached the staircase that led up above to the upper floors, he kept running and running exhausted until he reached the remains of the roof, the wooden supports were barely the only thing that remained: To reach Luna, he had to balance himself and walk over the wooden planks. He took a deep breath and gave a step forward with his arms spread on each side for balance, he placed his other foot in front, then the other and so on slowly but steadily, staring at the battlefield inside the castle between the grey forces that advanced and the dark blue forces that stood their ground. He was thrown off balance by the shaking caused by one of the dragons breaking through a wall into a castle and spewing fire in all directions, Charon could barely catch the support in time and was left hanging. He forced his way upwards once again and walked even faster over the planks until he reached a part of the roof that wasn't destroyed, he saw Luna standing on the castle roof's edge and began walking over to her but the sound of a bullet passing near his ear alerted him, the dark blue ponies had climbed the staircase and began shooting at him. There was nothing to take cover behind, and he was only a few metres away from Luna, he had no choice in this matter. He began sprinting towards the princess who just had time to turn and stare with eyes wide open at Charon, who threw himself towards her making them both fall. Fortunately enough the black dragon himself flew right at them and managed to catch them both on his back.
"C...Charon..." Luna's words barely got out of her mouth, he was on top of Charon who lied on his back over the dragon's scales. His eyes were wide, her tears turned from sorrow to joy, and her hands were holding Charon's, the Terran who she thought was dead was in fact alive and well.
"Luna..." Charon whispered, seeing the princess he had fallen in love long ago but never told her, nor was he told about her feelings, but this was the moment that changed that.
"I love you, Charon..." Luna said as her eyes slowly closed and moved closer and closer to Charon's face. Charon too closed his eyes, both their lips connected in the starry night while they were carried by the greatest dragon in Equestria, this scene would be in a fairy tale if it wasn't for its painful and depressing past.
The dragon flapped its wings as it landed on the ground, winding off the dust and making the grass move like it was the wave of a calm sea. The castle was now silent, the forces of Kaiserreich had retreated from the area and the dark blue servants of Luna gathered around the dragon, watching the two immortals as they got down holding hands.
"I... Missed you..." Luna teared up as she hugged Charon.
"I'd not leave this place without telling you..."
"Tell me what...?"
"...I love you too, Luna. Ever since I saw you back when the first great pony war finished." He answered, closing his eyes as he hugged Luna back.
The dragon purposefully coughed, reminding Charon that there were more pressing matters at hand.
"Right. Luna, we must go to Canterlot, if we don't defend it then we'll lose this war, and knowing Concord he'll avenge my 'death' by fighting until...Anyways, we must hurry before it's too late, I bet they're already being attacked."
"I have a surprise for you." Luna giggled, signalling Charon to turn around with her hand. Once he obeyed, she covered his eyes with one hand, rendering him unable to see anything, he could only hear several deafening sounds going on behind him and the ground shaking every once in a while, until Luna finally uncovered his eyes. "Turn back and try not to drop your jaw."
He turned back, the first thing he saw was the twelve dragons on top of the castle with their jaws as open as their anatomy allowed, then he saw the black dragon himself with his jaw on the floor and his eyes wide open, almost popping his eyes out, then he found out the reason: Luna had managed to create thirteen tanks, their design was identical to the Russian T-90, great ones know how.
"What..." Charon questioned with his jaw dropped with the other thirteen dragons reflecting his awe.
Luna pointed at the sky with her finger and smiled towards Charon. "I'm the princess of the night, remember? I could cover the entire moon with an army made of out darkness back then in the first war, so why not create these things?" She giggled.
"How did you get the design...?"
"Concord had read your mind, he got the design out of your subconscious I heard, so I managed to take a look at the blueprint Concord created when he told me about this 'surprise' to turn the tide of the war. Shame they weren't completed in time."
'Note to self: Never piss off Luna, she has the potential to bring forth the apocalypse... ' Charon thought with his jaw still on the floor. "Who's going to drive these things?"
"My servants of course."
"Do they even have the knowledge of what a toaster is...?"
"I summon, they have my knowledge, remember I know the design of the tanks so I know how to make them work."
"True enough. We're wasting enough time here, get your servants in those tanks and let's drive to Canterlot."
"I might have a faster way of getting there."
"Really? How?"
"It's simple..." Smiled Luna. "We use the dragons... There's one more thing left." She walked forwards towards Charon and raised her hand to his forehead, placing it firmly. The hand glew with a dark blue tone for a few seconds before finishing, she stepped back and stared at Charon with a smile.
"What did you do?"
"You'll know when the time comes."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 11: Deception and revelations
Chapter 11: Deception and revelations.
Concord stood in front of a window inside a tower in Canterlot castle, resting his arms on it as he stared at the almost innumerable forces outside in the night, even the dreaded Landkreuzer P 1000 Ratte would take part in the assault against them. He let out a loud sigh and rubbed his eyes, he knew the Imperium's legacy was about to end.
"Will it all end now?" Asked Celestia, who was in the same room.
"Even in this situation I'm not going to give up...It's still unbelievable that the Empire and the Emperor that battled two world wars, defeated two Goddesses and the God of Chaos himself could fall in such a manner this quickly..."
A pony walked through the door inside with a radio on his metallic gauntlet and approached Concord. "It's for you, sir." He handed the radio to Concord and left the room the way he arrived.
"Concord." The voice of Chaser could be heard through the radio, but Concord did not answer at all. "Concord, talk to me." Chaser asked, but Concord still gave no answer. "I didn't want to kill Charon and you know it..."
"Yet that didn't stop you at all, it seems."
"He was as important to me as he was to you!"
"Not only you shot that THING at him back at Zero's house, you even shot him twice with that other THING you have here and dropped a CASTLE on him--"
"I didn't know he'd not regenerate!!" Silence ensued between the two immortals, Concord hated Chaser for killing Charon, and Chaser was sorrowful that he killed maybe the only person he could understand. "Give up now...You're not heading anywhere like this..."
Concord sighed once again and stared at the ceiling for a moment. "I'll give up when I turn into ashes." He answered before throwing the radio away and walking out of the room.
Celestia walked over to the radio and picked it up. "Chaser, are you there?"
"Will Concord ever give up...?"
"He's traumatized, there's nothing left to do..."
"I've heard Charon and Concord met at the end of the First Great Pony War, and even afterwards they were rather busy fighting...Isn't he overreacting?"
"It's more complicated than that, you know Concord is the son of Discord, right?"
"I heard."
"Concord was raised in a land where ponies were tortured and treated as slaves, and he hated every single moment of his life there, he wanted to stop his father but that's because he couldn't outright destroy him. After Discord was stopped for the first time by Luna and me he ran off to the north and founded Kunatanah, gathering strength and ponies, trying to make the land he dreamed of, but then Discord reappeared and we were corrupted. He sided with Discord at first or else he'd have been defeated quickly, but he planned to betray him and restore order when the time was right. That would have taken more than a thousand years but then Charon arrived and stood against Discord with his Terran Empire and his allies, he defeated my corrupted side, but was defeated by Corrupted Nightmare moon, Concord decided to fight her and send Charon to fight against Discord, and surprisingly he won. That's why Concord owes him everything, if it wasn't for him Concord would have had to live the torture and suffering of every single pony he sees for a thousand years again."
"That's rather depressing..."
"It keeps going. Once Executor appeared he thought this would be the last war in this world, Executor was the one who turned Charon suicidal to begin with, if he was taken care of harmony would return. After that, you appeared and declared war--"
"I'm starting to regret that decision..."
"Don't, remember that me and Luna were the same way and she turned into Nightmare moon. As I was saying, once you appeared and declared war he became annoyed, but was confident that this would truly be the last event since you were the last Terran in this world. But then Charon died...And his mind sunk into depression, just like Luna..."
"Luna too? Why?"
"Luna..." She hesitated a bit to let the words out. "...Luna loved Charon..." She waited for Chaser's response, but seeing as he was not going to answer anyways she cut the radio and placed it on a table nearby. At that moment, Concord arrived with a machine-gun and a backpack filled with ammo, enough to be unable to close the zipper. He walked over to the window and placed the bipod of the gun on the sill, took out a belt of bullets and loaded the gun, but as soon as he finished he heard a loud roar coming from above in the night. He peeked out of the window and looked above to see the silhouette of twelve dragons being led by another giant black dragon among the snowflakes that fell, he shrugged it off thinking it was part of the dragon migration that happens once in a while and moved his head inside the tower again.
"From a single city, to an entire Empire..." A familiar voice echoed inside the tower, originating from the radio. That voice went to every single radio in the Imperium's side, even the loudspeaker installed in the castle, everpony could hear the voice that was none other than Charon's. Concord suddenly turned his head to the radio on the table with his eyes wide open, Celestia just smiled. "I have taken care of these lands ever since I have arrived, every single challenge I have overcome through sweat and blood. I have been there when my people needed me the most: When the corruption threatened to send the world into madness, when the two Goddesses most ponies had faith on had been corrupted and controlled, when the Terran that puts Discord to shame invaded our homes...I've always been there, and now that we're at war once again with a Terran, Death smiled and stared at me, but to leave this place when I was needed? Nuts. Be it pain, fear, exhaustion or even death, I won't leave this world ever again ." Concord was still petrified, his eyes didn't even blink and his jaw was shaking.
"C-...Charon...!!! You're alive...!!" He still couldn't believe what was going on, but a loud crash outside startled him enough to break out of his shock. "What--!?" He looked again outside below at the dark and snowy field, only to see a cloud of dust that originated merely seconds ago. Out of the dust, a dark red steel war machine drove out and began firing, completely unscratched by the fall. Confused, he looked above, he saw the same thirteen dragons again but this time more of the dark red tanks fell, being dropped by the dragons to the ground, creating a cloud of dust and a crater as they fell, but moving and firing as if nothing happened at all. "What the hell is going on?!"
"Rise up, brothers and sisters!! The imperium shall not fall this day!!" The words of Charon echoed all over Canterlot.
"Well, looks like all the tanks were released." Said Luna, her and Charon were on top of the giant black dragon flying through the sky.
"True..." Charon replied before turning to the dragon. "I want the dragons to take care of the artillery surrounding the Landkre--...That big machine over there." Being technical with the dragon would be useless, he'd not know what a Landkreuzer was.
"Understood."
"Hey Charon, there's something left." She said as she walked closer and closer to Charon with a smile.
"That's...Rather creepy, Luna..."
"Boo." She pushed Charon with enough strength to make him lose balance and fall down below, then she herself jumped down.
"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!!" Charon yelled as he fell through the clouds in the night. Once he landed on the ground head-first, he realized he received no injuries, he didn't even feel the momentum suddenly stopping. He stood up and looked at his arms and legs, he didn't have a single scratch.
"Confused?" Asked Luna as she landed on her feet with the same effect.
"What just happened?"
"Remember back in the castle, when I casted a spell and refused to explain?"
"Uh-huh...?"
"It consists of the removal of almost all inertia, sadly it only works once so if you fall again like that you'll break your neck-- WATCH OUT!!" She screamed as she tackled Charon to the ground making both fall, avoiding a tank shell that flew close to them and exploded behind.
One of Luna's tanks moved forwards and placed itself in front of the two immortals, covering them from fire while returning it. Charon and Luna stood up, he quickly reached his gun only to realize that he actually didn't have one.
'It's good to see Luna happy again...Has she told Charon about her feelings already? Heh, I think she did. ' Celestia thought as she look outside the window towards the two immortals who stood behind the tank. Concord suddenly ran outside the room, his footsteps loud enough to gain Celestia's attention.
Concord rapidly descended the staircase of the tower with feverish haste, until he reached the castle's main hall. He continued running towards the main doors and crossed them, reaching the outside part of the castle where the moonlight was the only thing illuminating the scenery. In the field in front of the castle on the road the thirteen T-90's Charon brought with him rampaged mercilessly, destroying everything in their path without taking a single loss, even the dragons took part in the battle.
"The battle's in our favor! Push the attack!!" Concord yelled while climbing on top of a T-34. The engine started generating more noise and began moving with the rest of the tanks and infantry, charging to the rest of the enemy lines and the landkreuzer that towered over the horizon. Halfway through the field, Charon and a T-90 decided to join the charge, driving full speed past Concord while the Terran waved his hand at him, then the other dark red machines followed, their speed was far higher than what the WW2 model tank allowed.
Charon's leading tank received a hit, a cloud of dust followed engulfing the tank due to the explosion but the unscratched machine drove forwards out of the smoke with Charon still intact. "Concord, I want everything around the Landkreuzer neutralized!" He brought his hand to his mouth and whistled, the giant black dragon appeared and flew right next to him matching the tank's speed. "Take me to that thing's top!"
"Understood." The dragon answered, he grabbed Charon with his claw, flew a little higher and threw the Terran towards the landkreuzer's top once he was directly above it.
The resulting impact of Charon landing on the metallic surface of the Landkreuzer surrounded by Kaiserreich's ponies was enough to dent the armor a few centimenters and distract them to focus on him. That distraction worked wonders on allowing Luna and the imperial infantry to climb the tank without being turned into swiss cheese by the several machine gun emplacements on the metallic beast. Charon desperately fought and endured the bullets enough for the ponies and the princess of the night to join the fight on top of the tank.
"T-90's to the left flank, rest of you to the right flank! Surround the Landkreuzer and eliminate any opposition, double time!!" Concord yelled while firing his machine gun at the hundreds and hundreds of soldiers in front of him. Just as the main fighting began with shells and bullets flying left and right, the Landkreuzer began moving backwards and the ponies of the Grey Army began to back off.
The battle progressed rather smoothly: The strength of the T-90's, the Imperial morale rising due to Charon being still alive and Kaiserreich cowering for the same reason was enough to send them retreating with only the first charge.
"Focus fire on the Landkreuzer's tracks! Don't let it get away!" Yelled concord. Every single tank turned their turrets to the giant tracks of the dark grey machine, firing their shells in unison until the tracks finally gave in, immobilizing the Landkreuzer. This gave Charon, Luna and the forces on top of the Landkreuzer more time to break inside and capture the machine.
Time passed, the Landkreuzer was immobilized, and soon enough it ceased to move its giant turret completely. Charon, Luna and the hundred ponies that moments ago stormed inside ran out and jumped off the Landkreuzer even quicker, as if they were running away from something. The reason was understood a split second later, the giant machine exploded raining debris everywhere and pretty much signalling the defeat of Kaiserreich's assault force. Concord covered his head with his arm once he felt the explosion and lowered it in surprise.
"What happened?!" Concord asked Charon, who had landed near enough for the sound to get through.
"That thing self-destructed!! Chaser wasn't there, he must be with the forces that are running!"
"Want my unit to pursue?"
Charon silently stared at the red army mobilizing and chasing the routing units in the distance as he sat on the floor, still recovering from the explosion. "Tell everypony to capture the routers, let's both head to the castle now." He walked towards the tank Concord stood on.
"Hey Charon I forgot to tell you something."
"What is it, brother?" He asked with a silly smile on his face.
Concord suddenly jumped towards him and began strangling him with all his might, making the Terran choke on his own words. "YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!! HAHAHAAAH WHAT AN ENTRANCE YOU MADE HERE!!"
"C-Con...You're chok--choking me!! Bre--Breath!! A...Ir!!!"
"Both of you, stop it already." Luna giggled, walking up to the wrestling show.
"Glad to see you're back again too, Luna!" Concord cheered, still not letting go of Charon, who had passed out already. "You better explain yourself later, Char...I knocked him out, didn't I?"
"How many prisoners?" Asked Charon in Canterlot Castle's main hall in front of the table, several of the Imperium's reimaining officers, Celestia and Luna were there, but Concord was nowhere to be seen.
"Ten thousand approximately."
"Ponies involved and casualties?"
"Kaiserreich deployed fifteen thousand ponies, incluiding tanks, artillery and the Landkreuzer. The Imperium's last three thousand soldiers that weren't defeated already stood here. Kaiserreich lost a total of 12,400 ponies, of which 10,000 were captured and 2,400 KIA, the rest routed and the Landkreuzer destroyed. The Imperium lost only 800."
Charon raised his hand and started rubbing his bearded chin at the results. "Was Chaser present in the conflict?"
"He isn't among the prisoners, and interrogating a few revealed that he didn't leave his capital at all."
"His capital...What is it called anyways? I can't really remember."
"Marerlin, sir."
Charon raised his hand further and rubbed his nosebridge. 'So interested in German history he named his own capital a variant of Berlin...? ' "Did he name that capital himself?"
"No sir, it was named like that since before the three Terrans arrived."
'Well that's a creepy coincidence... ' Charon thought as he lowered his hand to his mouth and his eyes widened slightly. "We're going to invade Marerlin directly." The room stood silent at Charon's words, everyone thought he had gone nuts now. "What?"
"You're crazy..." Started talking an officer. "Not only is that almost impossible with our current resources, it would serve of no purpose!!"
"You want a purpose? This is a purpose: We capture Chaser, he surrenders, this war ends."
"And if we fail?!"
"It's still better than sitting on our asses expecting to turn the entire tide of the war here. Canterlot is the only Imperial territory standing, remember? Hell, Canterlot is the Imperium right now."
The officer backed off, seeing as both decisions were desperate. "Fine...How do you plan on getting to a different continent entirely?"
"I'm the lord of the dragons, well actually I just command them but the title's good too."
"Dragons?! Hah! As if!"
"You mean you haven't seen those giant things in battle a few hours ago?"
"I saw, but I'm pretty sure they'd just be taking advantage of the carnage to get food. You expect me to believe that you can tame an entire nest of creatures that are five times as big as you?"
Charon let out a loud sigh and rubbed his nosebridge, then he whistled inside the room. At first the officers didn't know what its purpose was, but once Luna covered her head with her arms they knew it wasn't just for show. A loud and deafening whistle followed by a rough noise and the castle shaking a bit was heard and felt, filling the officers with anxiety as they stared at the broken glass part of the ceiling where snow fell. The room was darkened by the giant black dragon landing on the roof, the claws of his feet looming over the ceiling, accidentally tearing off a piece of cement, making it fall and break the table, thus scaring the officers enough for them to back off considerably, one was even cowering in a corner.
"You called?" Asked the dragon.
"Yes, hold up a moment." Charon answered before turning to the officer that talked before, his eyes were wide with terror, but most importantly, awe that Charon could do something almost impossible: Take command of an entire nest of dragons. "Is this enough proof?"
The officer nodded, his words couldn't escape his mouth.
"Good. Luna, can you make more of those tanks?"
"Of course, I make them out of darkness."
"Splendid. Are there any other nests that you know of?" Charon asked the dragon.
"Of course, they don't answer to me yet but it won't be hard to...'Convince' them."
"How many exactly?"
"I hold no knowledge of that. What I know, however, is that they're enough to darken the skies. Maybe literally."
"Go and ask for their help then."
"At once."
"Fillies and gentlecolts, rest and eat well, we'll step into Hell soon." Charon told everypony in the room.
Concord stood in front of Discord's statue in Canterlot's garden, confused because of everything he had been told, it's as if he knew nothing even though he lived as long as the two princesses. After a minute of meditation, he reached his hand to Discord's forehead and tried to unpetrify it, unsure if it was in his power or not. He was slightly surprise once he succeeded.
"Ugh...This again?" Discord sighed, seeing as once again his head was the only thing not petrified. "Hello Concord, need something?" He asked in a snarky tone.
"Two months ago, Charon turned to ashes. If he didn't die, then why did that happen?"
"...What?" Discord asked, not knowing of anything that had happened.
Concord sighed and rubbed his nose bridge with his fingers. "A castle crumbled on top of him, he was crushed and buried under a pile of rocks. Then, he turned into ashes and disappeared, we thought he died back then but now he's alive and well. Why did he turn into ashes instead of regenerating like he always did?"
"Fine, fine...This kind of Immortality I granted doesn't turn the bearer into an indestructible being, so whenever the immortal is split, loses a limb, or whatever may happen, the now useless part turn into ashes and disappears while the other regenerates."
"That makes sense to an extent, but it doesn't answer why his entire body disappeared. He told me he regenerated out of a single tooth, wouldn't it have been easier to regenerate out of the parts that were unburied? Not only that, when he was thrown into lava his skeleton didn't even melt, how did he manage to achieve that and where did he get the energy to do so?"
"Too many questions, son. Give me the details, what happened exactly with that castle incident?"
"He was buried entirely by stones, the ponies unburied his hands before they turned into ashes."
"For how long was he was buried to the point his hands were revealed?"
"About 10 minutes, maybe more."
"I see...The mechanism might have been activated already then..."
"What mechanism?"
"There's a self-defence mechanism in the immortality I granted both him and Chaser, one part of their body is literally indestructible, Charon's was the tooth he talked about. After he regenerated, the indestructibleness that covered the...How do Terrans call that...? Ah yes, the calcium, his regeneration caused the invulnerability to spread out to his entire skeleton, that's why it didn't melt when he was thrown to the lava you spoke of."
"And the energy to do so? It couldn't have happened out of nothing."
"Ahhh...The power of a 'Discordian Immortal'...Such a fascinating, yet life-threatening mechanism..." Discord started to brag, Concord narrowed his eyes with confusion and worry once he heard the words 'life-threatening'. "You might not believe what I'm about to say, and I wouldn't blame you...An Immortal uses everything at his disposal. It might look as he had nothing to regenerate, as if he just 'got better' out of nothing, but in fact he uses what the naked eye can't see and it's all over the place: The atoms themselves ." Concord was surprised that Discord actually thought about such complex things, him being the God of Chaos. "The immortality both Chaser and Charon hold makes them walking Nuclear Fusion Reactors, in Terran terms..."
"Wait, what?! You mean whenever Charon turn black and his eyes red it meant he was about to explode?!!?"
"No, the dark colour is the 'waste' of the energy production mixed with his sweat. It all goes directly to the skin and dissipates in the air, thus giving him that 'dark aura'. The red eyes are because of the blood vessels being stressed so much."
"That's insane..."
"If it looks insane, but it works, then it's not insane."
"Charon and Chaser are walking nukes then?!"
"Hahah, yes and no...The process of energy gathering is automated just like the heartbeats, but should something break their limits, something that could send them berserk...Remember how Charon turned into a shadow and his eyes red when he fought against me? Remember how he also turned into that when he killed Executor? That's not even a fraction of their true power, demonic strength and determination aren't their only ability...Remember how Charon was defeated without effort by the corrupted Nightmare Moon? In the berserk state I talked about, he'd be able to defeat literally hundreds of corrupted Nightmare Moons all by himself...And nopony would be able to stop that blinding fury from destroying all life in this world..."
"Why would you give them something like that then?!!?"
"Terrans are bloodthirsty and vengeful creatures, their hatred can not be matched by anything in this world nor in the other, I thought it would be a failsafe should my plans be threatened, but I guess it wasn't enough to break him, thus I failed."
"What kind of failsafe would senging two walking nukes berserk be?!!?"
"Ever heard of the saying 'Either I rule or nopony does'?"
"You're crazy..."
"God of Chaos, remember?"
Concord quickly petrified him back, he realized Discord had planned far worse things for Equestria. Worse yet, one of his plans was still in danger of being executed: Either Chaser or Charon going berserk. He didn't know much about Chaser, but considering the things he had gone through in Terra he could do nothing but hope he wouldn't go Berserk. He shifted his priority to Charon, thinking about what could be his 'Berkserk trigger'. He was suicidal to begin with, there isn't much for him to lose, and even if he loses this war his Empire would be in good hands. The Empire was taken out of the question, but Concord suddenly realized something: Charon had only one thing left in this world, and that was Luna; should anything happen to her, Hell would break loose. He knew Luna doesn't have the same kind of Immortality Chaser or Charon have, he knew nothing of her capabilities nor limits, the only thing left would be to keep an eye on her and prevent any real threat from reaching her at all cost, it wasn't an exaggeration that the entire world might depend on her safety.
3 days later, in pitch black darkness...
Concord stood on top of a tank being carried by a dragon in the sky, being part of a group that included hundreds and hudreds of dragons and tanks, flying towards the Kaiserreich capital city of Marerlin. They traveled over land and ocean until they reached Kaiserreich's continent to the far north, which was far colder than the Imperium.
'If something happens to her... ' Concord thought, staring at Luna who sat on top of the same dragon that also carried Charon, 'How will Charon react? ' He lowered his vision to the icy lands that were present several kilometres below him. 'Has my father really given him the power to destroy everything? ' He turned his sight to Charon, who was standing with his arms crossed, his longcoat flowing with the wind. 'Even Chaser... '.
"Hey Concord, you ok?" Charon asked, seeing as he was staring at him.
"Uhhh yeah, uhh..." He desperately tried to think up of an excuse. "It's freezing here, I'm surprised the water of these parts didn't freeze, you sure this was the right choice?"
"I didn't plan an entire campaign here, just a single attack. I thought I made it clear already."
"I'm spacing out lately, can't get used to this being the last chance we have..." Charon turned his head to the front once again, Concord had managed not to get his entire attention. He didn't know how Charon would react if he was told he was a walking nuke, holding the power to destroy everything and everypony whether he liked it or not. 'Capture Chaser, the war ends...Simple enough, I hope. I don't expect him to have anything to harm Luna anyways. '
The night was illuminated by powerful lights coming from below in the city, followed by the distinctive trace of several anti-air guns. "Fly faster, dammit!! Evade!!" Charon screamed at the dragons who scattered while still pursuing their objective.
"Charon, how far till the castle?!"
"30 Kilometres at most, we--" He was interrupted by an anti-air shell hitting one of the dragons, making it fall from the skies. "Forget it, we move on land!! I want every tank dropped and the dragons supporting them!!" He yelled, at his command every tank was released and started falling. Luna, Concord and him jumped down from where they were and dove down below. Every single dragon scattered and shot themselves to the guns that rained hell.
Charon landed with his feet, destroying the skin but not the bone, but his pain was mitigated by the situation while his blood-drenched boots regenerated. "We need to capture Chaser, not the city! Rush to the castle, ignore everything else!!" He yelled as he got on top of a tank, opened the hatch and jumped inside. Concord ran up to the same tank and jumped to the machinegun installed on the outside.
"Space for one more?" Luna asked, jumping on top of yet the same tank.
"Move it fatties!! Hell waits for no one!!" Charon yelled through the radio, speeding up the tank and making the tracks almost slip on the snow and ice. The hundreds and hundreds of machines followed his lead through the city, taking damage but moving forward through hell and back in Marerlin in pursue of Chaser.
"They're everywhere!!" Concord screamed, blindly firing the MG he held, there were was so much opposition he could fire anywhere and not even miss.
"Tank traps to the front!" Yelled Luna, pointing at it.
"See if I care!!" Charon retorted, aiming the turret and firing at the tank traps destroying a few, the machine gathered far more speed than before and rammed through the remaining defences managing to break through, the tanks behind him followed lead through the gap. They had reached the main street of the city and the castle was in sight at the end, but what was also seen was almost the entire army waiting for them. "Phantom division break through the right side of the city and flank them, Revenant division push forward, Ghost division and dragons deep-strike them!!"
At his command, one third of the entire tank force split to the right side of the city while the other two thirds stood their ground. The hundred dragons arrived from the sky and picked up another third of the tanks with Charon, Luna and Concord, then the remaining forces began pushing forwards. The dragons and their machines flew higher and higher and began circling above the main formation, until they threw with all their might the tanks they were carrying.
"I hate this tactic dammit!!" Desperately screamed Concord while clinging to the tank that was thrown. It impacted the ground, sending Concord flying and the tank spinning, Luna was nowhere to be found. "Where's Luna?!" He asked, she was one of the most important factors in this battle.
"She'll be fine, get shooting!!" Charon talked through the radio, the tank positioning in front of him and absorbing the bullets, they had landed in the middle of thousands and thousands of forces anyways. Concord shook his head and stood up, he looked around to see where they were; he realized they were outside the castle, they had reached their objective.
"You live up to your title, Charon." A voice was heard through Charon's and Concord's radio, it was none other than Chaser's. "I'm surprised you decided to take the fighting to my grounds."
"Hah, friendship aside we still have a score to settle!!"
"You're crazy, and you know it. What did you want to accomplish with this?"
"Isn't it obvious? We capture you and force you to surrender, the war ends and we're all happy again."
"Just like in Terra, once again you have nothing to lose...Hmph, so be it."
The castle's walls crumbled, startling Charon and Concord who didn't expect such event. Out of the debris, several tanks with a particular design drove out, engaging the T-90's but this time causing considerable damage.
"Leopard II's!?" Charon yelled.
"Leo--what??" Concord asked, confused.
"They're on the same level as these tanks, but they are of German design instead of Russian!! That crazy bastard prepared even more surprises even though my side was done for! Dammit, tank's hit! Bail out!!"
Charon desperately jumped out of the tank with the other ponies that crewed it, but Concord's sight was fixed on another matter. In the fog, snow and dust of the night, the silhouette of a Terran walked towards them, that silhouette was Chaser who held a G36C on his hands, and strangely enough nopony was fighting him, as if it was a matter between two Emperors, not of an army.
"Is it really over almost...?" Chaser spoke. "The Third Great Pony War that would let the best rule the world...?"
"And here it is settled, in the freezing lands of the north, such a nice field for an event that'd change the world as we know it one way or the other..."
The gunshots and explosions became less and less frequent while they talked, until the battle had reached a standstill. Both sides were focused on the two Terrans at this point.
Both Terrans charged at eachother and tried to hit the other with their fist, only to be blocked. Both were blocking eachother while also trying to deal the blow.
"May the best Emperor win." Chaser said behind his gasmask.
"Indeed."
"It's going to end with you two exchanging blows?" Asked a rather strange Terran-looking figure on the top of the castle.
"...The hell is that thing?" Asked Charon looking above, both he and Chaser had stopped fighting and focused on this unknown guest.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Answered Chaser.
"Oh, you stopped fighting? What a shame..." The silhouette jumped down of the castle but its fall was slowed down by a pair of insectoid wings it sported. Upon closer look it was a female Terran of pale skin, green hair and eyes, with ragged black clothes and a crooked black sword strapped to her belt. "Well, time to present myself. My name is Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings." She explained while bowing.
'Another Terran... ' Chaser, Charon and Concord thought in unison. "Are you another Terran?" Chaser asked, confused by the fact she actually had insectoid wings.
"Hah, no. I am a Changeling, if you didn't hear well."
"Why are you here then? There's nothing of your interest in this place."
"You say that, yet you don't know of anything..."
"Explain yourself, who exactly are you and why are you here?!" Charon asked.
"Hmph." Chrysalis smiled. She lifted her hand and snapped her fingers, at this sound the entire force that Charon was commanding earlier began shooting at Chaser's side, but strangely enough they were ignoring the two Terrans, the Draconequus and the Changeling Queen.
"Hold it! Hold it!!" Charon desperately ordered, but his orders were not listened. "What did you do?!" He asked Chrysalis.
"Fire back!!" Ordered Chaser, seeing as they wouldn't stop shooting.
"I've been keeping an eye on the three of you even before you were brought to this world..." She explained. "I've engineering every single event up to this point, and the three of you didn't suspect a thing..." The red army suddenly flared with a green light, then it revealed an army of black pony-looking creatures with holes in them, piercing blue eyes and insectoid wings.
"What the hell?!" Charon asked surprised, Chaser and Concord shared his surprise.
"Let us start with the basics, because by this point there's nothing you can do to stop me. You, Executor and Chaser weren't brought into this world by sheer accident, remember that light that struck the three of you in your world? I was responsible for that."
"How did you manage to get three Terrans from another plane of existence entirely into this one?! That's impossible and you know it!!"
"I'm the Queen of the Changelings, remember? Me and my loyal subjects used our magic to bring you into this world, sadly that 'Pool of Magic' was depleted so I was stuck with the three of you. The location that you appeared in wasn't a coincidence either...The three of you were far away enough not to notice each other for a long time."
"Why did you bring us here?!"
"My plans, my dear fool...To sum everything up, my subjects need a place to stay in and creatures full of love to feed on. Thanks to the two of you and Executor, this world is weak enough for me to capture it."
"You planned everything? The three world wars?!"
"Everything to the slightest detail. You see, in the first world pony war without my meddling you'd have defeated Discord easily, I needed to weaken you enough to struggle with the rest of your story. First world war, I deceived Discord to grant the two of you immortality and avoid Executor being granted it. Of course I didn't deceive him directly, I just engineering several events for him to consider that option, and so I succeeded. Later, in the battle of Cloudsdale you remember, notice how that officer that you sent for reinforcements arrived and told you they were defeated didn't actually tell you how?"
"If he had told me I could have prepared better for the war...You managed to convince him to betray me, right?"
"Not entirely." She transformed herself into that officer from decades ago. "I was that pony." Charon, Chaser and Concord opened their eyes wide at the fact that Chrysalis could change shapes, that would mean she could have been anywhere and they wouldn't have noticed. "It wasn't the fact that you didn't prepare well enough that you almost lost, I had my subjects transform into important figures in your army and cause confusion and disorder, enough for them to lose many battles." She said as she walked around them in her Terran form again as they stared at the revelations. "You beat Celestia, go to the moon, fight Discord, ding dong the warlock is petrified but at a great cost, your forces were crippled. World war 2, you against Executor, later Chaser joined. Executor attacked you, drove deep into your territory and almost defeated you again, I had to once again disrupt order in your army and goverment to weaken you, but then you introduced these so-called 'Firearms'. By this point Chaser had also introduced them, so I told myself 'Chaser is ready already, time to finish this war.' and allowed you to fight him with all your strength. I made a mistake and made you too weak, so I shitfed priorities and caused disorder in Executor's ranks for you to defeat him easily, then you killed him and found Chaser. World War 3 Begins after a year, and even though Chaser had far better technology you still had incredible numbers. It's funny, without my interference the 'Imperium of Patria' would have won several years ago already."
Chaser and Charon looked at themselves, the answer they fought for was revealed.
"Anyways, Chaser attacks, you get pushed back and defeated until Stallinox. I had to work with two sides now, taking care that the two of you waste enough forces for me to capture this world without trouble, one day I was siding with Chaser, the other with Charon, and so on. Zero's house was a rather fun event, it was more like 'How bad can Kaiserreich fail to capture that building until the Monster arrives.', then you were hit by that Monster. Fastforwarding a few days you were fighting in the castle grounds waiting for Concord's and Luna's reinforcements, this was harder to accomplish than any other: I had to take care of three sides, to help Chaser win and destroy the castle, to slow down Concord's and Luna's divisions and to make sure Luna's arrival would be just in time for Charon's turning-into-ashes event. Remember that general in stallinox?" She shaped her form to the general that was under Charon's command. "I was him, and my subjects were the ones undigging you."
"You purposefully sent Luna into depression for your own gains...?" Charon asked with anger, his eyes were slowly turning from gray to red. Concord was despairing at this sight.
"Well, duh. I continue: 2 months of ceasefire followed, Luna was depressed in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, Concord became a drunkard and Chaser was sorrowful due to your death." She changed her form back to her Terran appearance. "Of course, I also knew you couldn't die, I sent my subjects to 'rescue' you from that pile of rocks and send you to Celestia. She told you to get the dragon's help, which you did, and when the battle commenced you arrived in full glory with the tanks and Luna to the field, destroying the Landkreuzer in the process. You had nothing else to lose, so you came up with a suicide mission to capture Chaser and end the war, and here we are now."
"You...The reason so many lives were wasted..." Charon began muttering, trying to control his fury.
"Oh, and another thing, Charon..." She smiled at him.
"What is it...?" He desperately tried not to charge towards her.
Chrysalis flared green and changed her form to another rather familiar Terran. She now had dark blue hair and pale skin. She brought a finger to her mouth and winked at Charon with a crooked smile. "You're a good kisser..." Those words were enough to reveal a horrible event: It wasn't Luna who was depressed in the ancient castle, it was Chrysalis in disguise, Luna had disappeared ever since Charon's death and he knew nothing about it.
'Oh god...Not this...Everything but this...!!! ' Concord didn't want to believe what was happening, it's what he feared the most.
Charon lost his control, the iris of his eyes turned completely red, gave a loud warcry and charged forward at Chrysalis, unfolding his rapier and trying to slice her in half, only to be stopped by her as she grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up. "Where...Is Luna..." His words barely escaped as he was choked.
"You're so predictable it's not even funny..." She changed back to her original appearance and threw him towards the other two, and before Charon could stand up she raised her hand, making it glow with a green colour as she pointed at the three. They were enclosed by a green sphere, trying to escape but being unable to do anything; the sphere dug deeper and deeper into the ground until the three disappeared completely. "Hpmh," she raised her hand, "Now to take care of the rest..." An entire swarm of changelings arrived from the horizon, swarming the skies and darkening the sun.
Charon, Chaser and Concord woke up in a pitch black place, not being able to see anything past their noses.
"Everyone okay...? Gah..." Chaser asked, painfully trying to stand up in the darkness.
"Seems so..." Concord answered, creating a sphere of light in his hand, thus illuminating the place. They were in a dark cave with walls that reflected every image, and crystals growing up from the ground. "Charon, what are you..." He tried asking.
Charon inspected a segment of the reflective wall, passing his hand over the surface. He narrowed his eyes and tried punching the wall with all his might, but it didn't even leave a dent. He punched it three more times but the only thing that changed was the blood that was splattered on the wall.
"Well isn't this a comfy place?" The reflection of Chrysalis appeared on the wall.
"Where did you send us!?!" Concord yelled, Chaser and Charon stared at Chrysalis with anger.
"That's for you discover. I sent you to one of the caves below a remote place through teleportation, and now you're trapped here...Naturally, I'd like you to witness the new way of life I'll introduce, so there is a way of out here. You might want to explore this place for a bit, maybe you find something of 'interest'...Hahahah!!" Chrysalis laughed loudly, Charon became more and more furious, punching the wall Chrysalis was reflected seconds ago with a fraction of the demonic strength Discord talked about back in Canterlot, thus destroying the wall. Behind it, there was the skeleton of a pony with a note on the side.
"What's this...?" Asked Concord, walking to the skeleton and picking up the note. Upon reading some of the words, he realized whose skeleton it was and became sorrowful that things became worse and worse. "Charon...You should read this..." He handed him the note and backed off a few steps. Charon began reading it.
'Day...I assume it's two weeks already.
Found paper and quill, I assume they were brought to me since they were in optimal conditions, and it's rather strange to find such things in this place, wherever this place is located. I have learned that writing a journal might slow down the effects of isolation, and so I write this. Food and water were also brought to me, but I've yet to see my captors, I only find a day's ration in front of me when I wake up. Scratching the wall with my hoof to count the days now, shame I didn't think of that earlier.
Day 15.
Heard something outside, the voice of a pony in pain. Judging by the voice it's a young adult. I tried yelling for his attention but it appears he didn't hear me, most likely he's unconscious. I'll try another day.
Days 1~14.
I'd better write what happened in those days too, in case anypony finds me. At first I had no hope but seeing as another pony was brought here this place must be accessible, I lose nothing either since the ink bottle I was brought gets refilled every day.
The Great Pony War against Discord had finished, I saw peace and harmony returning once again thanks to Charon and heard about a 'Draconequus' that helped him. I heard he was the son of Discord, but seeing as he helped Charon he has good intentions. A day after that I woke up here, found bruises in my back and arms as if I was carried for a long time, those bruises are long gone now. Climate compared to Cabalderio is far colder, wherever I am I fear it's too far away for somepony to arrive by just coincidence.
The first day I feared I'd die of starvation, but at the second day I found food and water when I woke up. Strangely enough only after the second week was I given paper and quill. Nothing else happened this far, I don't know why they hold me prisoner, I don't know where or how I got here, I just want to get out.
Day 18
Tried to call for the other pony every day, no response. I'm starting to believe these...Cave-looking cells are soundproof somehow. Rations are lowering and becoming less frequent, less ink for writing too.
Day 21
Have to rationalize, writing less and eating just to survive. The kind of food they give me doesn't rot, saving for hard days.
Day 34
Starving, had to use the rations I saved.
Day 172
It's the end, I can see my bones, it's of no use holding out. Whoever holds me here is planning something and they need me out of the board. This is my last will and testament for whoever finds this: Let all my possessions be granted to Charon, he'll know who needs them the most and distribute them accordingly. Tell him he was an example to follow, and that Cabalderio owes him everything and more for his services. Who knows, maybe he is another God like Celestia and Luna...I'm going insane, the isolation is taking its toll. I still feel the thuds of the other pony on the wall, he is still alive and has the energy to move every day, whoever reads this * MUST** find him and see if he is alive. Let it be known that here fell Atticus, always faithful and loyal subject of the Immortal Terran Emperor Charon. Let his strength help the Terran Empire and its surrounding states in the dark times to follow.*
~Atticus '
A tear mixed with blood fell on top of the note, his sorrow and fury made him pop a vessel in his eye while he cried.
"Charon..." Concord tried to talk.
Charon grasped the note and crushed it with his hand, more tears fell down to the floor and his teeth showed. He punched on the walls next to him with fury and sorrow, shattering it a bit. "CHRYSALIS!!!! 'I still feel the thuds of the other pony on the wall...' ' Charon thought, remembering what Atticus wrote before passing away. "The other pony's alive, check the walls!!"
"What do we do?" Chaser asked.
"He's hitting the wall, go see where the vibration is greater!!"
The three of them scrambled and began checking the walls, passing their hands over the surface and feeling the thuds, trying to discover where it came from.
"Found it!!" Concord exclaimed.
"Move aside." Charon ordered from the other side of the narrow cave. Concord moved, Charon charged towards the wall and cracked it open with his shoulder, once he got to the other side and the debris settled down he saw a pony on the ground starving, his bones could be seen over the skin. He was a white-skinned unicorn with blue mane, his eyes were light blue and he had a blue shield with a pink-purple six pointed star in the middle as his cutie mark, it also had three light blue stars above the shield.
"Back off, I know more medicine that you all." Ordered Chaser.
"You know horse anatomy...?" Asked Concord.
"I was in a farm until I turned 12, then I moved to the city. The conditions of the farm were horrible at best, so the horses my family had often got injured and we didn't have enough money to pay for vets." He explained as he checked up on the pony. "He has no external nor internal damage, he is just starving." He carefully picked up the exhausted pony and carried him over his shoulders, thankfully it was just a pony, not a full grown horse, so he could cope with the weight.
"Concord, can you get us out of here?" Asked Charon.
"This place blocks my teleportation magic, maybe it has something to do with those crystals."
"Fine...The letter said that this place was accessible, where?"
"There's only one path through the cave, let's follow it." He suggested, running over to Chaser who almost fell to his knees and helping him with the white unicorn.
The three of them walked through the cave, seeing the reflective walls all over the place and the crystals that grew from the floor, but they reached a point where the crystals looked like they were halfway extracted. After more walking they saw almost no crystals, as if it was mined out in this part.
"We're getting closer to something, it seems." Stated Chaser.
They kept on walking, the pony had already passed out, until they arrived to a railway with a cart stationed at the end. It was at the top of an elevation, being held in place by a plank that looked like it could break any moment.
"Everyone to the cart." Ordered Charon.
"Are you sure of this?" Asked Concord.
"I accept any other suggestion."
Having no other ideas, Concord shrugged and helped Chaser get the pony on the cart, then he and Chaser jumped aboard. Charon positioned himself on the front of the cart inside, gripping the plank holding it in place ready to break it.
"Everyone ready?" He asked.
"Ready." Answered Chaser.
Charon sighed. "And here we go..." He gripped and twisted the plank which didn't let go until he broke it, the sudden movement of the cart threw him back inside with the others. It moved at considerable speed through the twists and turns of the railway. Charon narrowed his eyes as he looked at the front, until he saw that one side of the railway was broken. "Railway's broken! Push left on my mark!!"
"Dammit!!" Complained Concord as he positioned himself with Chaser ready to push.
"Mark!!" At his order Chaser and Concord pushed the cart to the left, making it lean on its side and successfully pass the broken railway. "Another!! Lean right on my mark!! ...Mark!!" They shifted positions and threw themselves to the right, avoiding the broken part. "Ramp in front, no way to avoid it, brace for impact and protect the pony, we're about to go flying!!"
"Ramp?!" Concord moved to the front and stared, Chaser soon enough joining. In front of them was the broken part of the railway with the steel rails bent upwards forming a ramp directly above a chasm, with a cliff and a cave exit directly in front emanating light. Chaser gave a head gesture to head back and prepare the pony, to which Concord complied.
They neared to the ramp at considerably speed until they were sent flying by it, in the air they managed to stay in the cart with the pony, but when it landed the cart was sent spinning with the four occupants being thrown out violently and scattering in the dirt.
"No injuries?" Asked Charon, standing up and holding his head with pain.
"I don't have any." Answered Concord, cleaning the dust off his clothes.
"The pony's bleeding, but it's still alive." Stated Chaser while carrying the pony that bled from one of its legs.
Charon looked at the cave exit, he saw a blizzard far worse than what was present in Kaiserreich, this place wasn't anything they had known already, and if they got out it would severely affect the pony's injury. "Does your magic work now, Concord?"
Concord grabbed a small rock on the floor and focused on it. It suddenly turned into smoke and the same rock appeared a few feet away in a cloud of smoke. "It does." He stood up and walked closer to Chaser and Charon, he held their shoulders and closed his eyes, focusing on the spell. They turned into smoke in an instant, leaving the strange place they were located in seconds ago.
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 12: Here we go again
Chapter 12: Here we go again.
"This is bad...What's going on!?" Celestia desperately asked, staring out the window of Canterlot Castle, there was a countless number of changelings swarming the scenery. Behind her, Chaser, Charon, Concord and the white pony over Chaser's shoulders appeared in a cloud of smoke, gaining her attention. "Charon?! Concord?! What are you doing here, what's going on?! Is that...Chaser?!" Her desperation made her accidentally not notice the pony Chaser was carrying.
"This pony is dying, I'll get medical attention." Chaser stated before walking away with the pony over his shoulders. Charon had also walked away but in a different direction, not stating his intentions.
"You know what's happening? Wait, where's Luna and the rest?!" Asked Celestia.
"It was all a lie. The Luna Charon met in the ancient castle after his supposed death was actually Chrysalis in disguise, we don't know what happened to the real Luna. The army we had with us were changelings too, those things can change form at will, and Chrysalis is their Queen." Answered Concord.
"Luna..."
"It gets worse, Discord told me that Chaser and Charon are in fact walking nukes and if something could send them berserk they'd end all life in this world, whether they liked it or not. Charon's eyes are red already and maybe Chaser's too, I fear the worst. Atticus is an impostor, the real Atticus was captured when Discord was defeated and we found his sk...He passed away. We were all manipulated to cause this chain of events ever since the three Terran's arrival and now Chrysalis is taking over the world, we were all unwitting pawns of this plan of hers...But, we found a pony, he was the only prisoner apart from Atticus and was captured around the same time, maybe he holds importance to her plans."
Celestia was sorrowful that everything they had fought for was a lie. "The pony...What does he look like?"
"White skin, blue mane, light blue eyes, unicorn," Celestia's eyes began widening, there was somepony she knew that fitted the description. "Blue shield with purple star and three light blue stars above as his cutie mark. You know him?"
"That's...That's Twilight Sparkle's brother!!"
"...What?"
"That's Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle's brother and one of the most powerful unicorns known!"
"So that's why he was captured...Maybe he can help us!"
"I don't think so...I heard that Kaiserreich was completely wiped out and Executor's continent swarmed by the changelings, I didn't hear anything from the western part of this continent either..."
"What? That happened while we were...'Gone'!?"
"It was horrible..." She lowered her vision in both depression and fear. "Those things came out of nowhere by the millions, they destroyed everything in sight in the blink of an eye, three entire continents were wiped out by them, this castle might be the only thing left standing..." She closed her eyes and hugged Concord with all her strength, she was already crying, seeing as everything she had known had ceased to exist in a split second without being able to do anything to stop it. "I'm scared, Concord...I'm...Scared of what will happen now..."
Concord returned the hug and tried to comfort her with silence, anything he'd say would serve of no purpose, seeing as even saying 'Everything will be fine.' would be moronic.
"A hundred billion ponies, all gone in a second, even the dragons... I'm starting to think we're up against some kind of literal God now." Chaser spoke as he walked inside the main hall of the castle again. "Chrysalis and her minions can also change forms, that will cause a great amount of paranoia from now on..."
"How is the pony?" Asked Concord, who was still hugging Celestia.
"Recovering fast, faster than anypony might have expected. ...Did I miss something?"
Celestia let go of Concord and wiped her tears. "That pony is Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle's brother. His magic might have helped in his recovery." She answered.
"Lately I've been seeing far more powerful beings, and even more powerful malign creatures. I thought this world was peaceful, guess there are many horrors hidden--" His talking was interrupted by Charon kicking open the castle's doors from outside.
Charon walked inside the castle, gripping a strange creature by its neck as it tried to break free but ultimately failing. He closed the door with another kick and kept walking towards the large table, where he smashed the creature against it. Seeing as the strange being was still desperately trying to break free from his grip, he punched it in the head hard enough to knock it out. Upon closer inspection, it was one of the dark minions of Chrysalis: A changeling in its original form. He kept looking at it and inspecting his wings and skin, trying to decipher what kind of thing it is. None have ever seen a changeling in their lives, and so everypony in the room and the royal guard of the castle gathered around the table.
"They somehow change forms, if we can find a way to prevent them from doing so it will help greatly in lowering the paranoia among the ponies." Chaser suggested.
Shining Armor walked into the room covered in bandages, the last 'cart trip' in the cave they were sent to by Chrysalis had left him severely injured; everypony stared at him in surprise, they thought his recovery would take hours, not minutes. "Those things can be dealt with a spell I accidentally discovered, it reveals them from their disguise and prevents them from using that ability for a great amount of time. I'm guessing that's the reason I was captured to begin with, I wonder what my 'Changeling counterpart' did while I was gone..."
"He didn't do anything, surprisingly. But once you were found it disappeared." Stated Celestia. "I should have known this from the start..."
"The spell might prove to be useless." Interfered Concord. "Those changelings outnumber us maybe a trillion to one, even in their original form they can massacre us by sheer power of numbers."
The castle shook, dust fell from the ceiling and snow kept falling. "The swarm's getting bigger and bigger." Stated Chaser, looking out the window.
"There is a spell that can cover Canterlot in a shield, preventing the changelings from entering. Sadly, I hold no more power and Shining Armor is too weak to do it alone, but those rapiers hold the power of two Goddesses, Shining Armor can use them to cast the spell." Suggested Celestia as she pointed to the rapiers Charon and Concord had strapped to their belts.
"What do we have to do?" Asked Concord.
"We need to get to the garden first for the ray to reach the sky, then the shield will protect us. The rapiers need to be in proximity of Shining's horn for the power to be transferred, nothing else."
"Alright, let's do this." Spoke Shining Armor as he walked outside.
Once outside, in front of the several statues and decorations of the garden, Charon, Concord and Shining Armor positioned themselves in a triangle. Charon and Concord drove their rapiers into the ground in front of Shining Armor's horn, who closed his eyes and began concentrating.
"Those things aren't attacking us, yet they have every opportunity in the world to do so..." Spoke Charon.
"They are mocking us, laughing at us..." Answered Chaser.
Shining Armor's horn glew a bright purple colour, but it was too weak to cast even the weakest spell. But, the two rapiers began glowing brighter and brighter where they were crossed, a small ray of light was shot towards Shining Armor's horn, which glew even brighter until it began shaking. Shining Armor backed off and raised his head, shooting the energy that was caught in his horn to the sky, where a purple ray left its trace until it lost speed and stayed in its place above Canterlot. The small sphere of energy began taking form and engulfed Canterlot in an impenetrable shield, the rapiers still glowing bright holding the shield in place.
"Somewhere in Terra...Sigmund Freud is laughing in his grave..." Said Charon, who had seen the 'Spectacle' uncomfortably close.
"The shield's up and running, those things are trying to break in now." Spoke Chaser, staring above.
"How long will the shield last?" Asked Charon.
"Those rapiers held the power of two Goddesses as I said. It can hold out for decades." Answered Celestia.
"We'll starve out by then..." He stated in a depressed tone, walking back to the main hall.
The scenery was rather depressing in the darkness of the night, several of the royal guard ponies brought rocks from whatever they could find with a wheelbarrow and threw them over the table. Concord, who was with Chaser sitting next to the same table, transformed the rocks into ammunition, then he handed them to Chaser to arrange them into magazines and clips. Celestia was in a corner reading Twilight's letters, sad that Twilight, the mane 6, and everypony else that was outside the castle shared the same fate. Charon tried without success getting through the radio to anypony who might be outside. Shining Armor was also present, trying out one of the gauntlets that were invented after he was captured, he was fascinated by such object. It was disturbing the thought that out of a hundred billion ponies, only the few dozens that were present in the castle were the last ones. Charon gave up and stood up with a bit of effort before turning to the others present.
"Anypony has a plan?" He asked. Everypony kept silent, knowing that whatever they did would result in failure against such great numbers. Chrysalis now had the entire world at her disposal, while the remaining survivors had a simple crumbling castle and a few weeks of food left. He sighed and began walking away. "I'm going to sleep..."
The night was long and cold, the only thing heard for hours was the sound of rocks moving and bullets arranged, until Chaser let his arms rest and began speaking. "Is it over?" The end of their days was nearing.
Concord only sighed, but that was enough to give an answer to Chaser.
Chaser shook his head. "We should have realized this before when we had the opportunity. Time is a harsh mistress, isn't it?" He stood up, moving his chair aside, and turned to Concord who stared at him. "I'm going to the kitchen for a drink, want one?"
"I'm good."
"Your choice." Chaser stated while walking away to the kitchen.
'First we fight three world wars, then Chrysalis shows up, then turns out it was all a lie, and now I've got to watch out for two walking nukes...Chaser is behaving better than expected, though, but then again he might not be the kind of person that shows his emotions that much, and the fact that he uses a gasmask doesn't let me see if his eyes are red... ' He rubbed his eyes, which were dry for being awake for so long. 'I wonder what Chaser is capable of, he keeps calm in most situations, doesn't lose his composure even in the face of extinction, I don't know what to expect...'Time is a harsh mistress.'... ' He began thinking again. 'What if...No, I'm going insane, this kind of situation and lack of sleep is taking it's toll already...But... ' He stood up, leaving the rocks and bullets in place, and walked outside the castle to the garden. He walked through the dark corners of the garden, passing the bushes and statues through the stone road until he arrived to one particular statue he was looking for, none other than Discord's. He stretched his hand and reached for Discord's petrified forehead, making his head once again return back to normal.
"What now...--Well I'll be damned! What's going on now?" Discord asked, staring around seeing a giant purple shield engulfing Canterlot, preventing the changelings from entering. He turned his sight to Concord, who was rather depressed and tired already. "What's happening?" He asked in a worried tone, he had never seen Concord in such state, nor was he expecting him to be.
"We're all going to die. Chrysalis, the queen of those things up there called changelings wiped out all life in this world, Canterlot is the only thing left standing with the few lucky ponies that were inside here at the moment. Everything, a hundred billion ponies, gone in a second..."
"Chrysalis...I think I heard that name somewhere..."
"It'd be easier if I transferred the knowledge." He reached his hand to Discord's forehead again, but this time he gave Discord the knowledge of everything that had happened ever since he was defeated, and most importantly, what Chrysalis had revealed them before taking over the world.
"So...She managed to manipulate us all into this plan...I'm surprised that she managed to pull it off with such skill..." He said in an annoyed tone; like everyone else he too was rather annoyed by being used. "And this is what might be described as the end of the world as we know it..."
"Though, as ridiculous as it sounds, there might be one way to survive."
"I'm listening..."
"Is time travel accomplishable?" Silence engulfed the two of them as they stared at each other for a few minutes. "It isn't...Right...?"
"Actually, it is. I'm just surprised you didn't realize earlier."
"Wait, it is?!"
"Why did you come here if you expected time travel not to work...?" He asked in a snarky but happy tone, with a smile in his face. Concord was happy that there was a slight chance of fixing things up. "Go ahead, bring your friends here, we'll discuss then."
Concord nodded and ran off to the castle as fast as he could, the solution he looked for was found already.
A few minutes passed, Discord was still staring above seeing the changelings that desperately tried to break into Canterlot, until Concord arrived with Celestia, Shining Armor, Chaser, Charon who just woke up from his sleep, and every single pony of the royal guard stationed in the castle. They all gathered up in front of Discord and Concord, who was already beginning to explain his idea.
"Gentlecolts, it is true that there is nothing we can do now to stop this madness that brought Chrysalis, it is too late now, but we can go back through time and revert things!! We can make a stand in the past, and with the knowledge that Chrysalis was the one who planned it all we can prepare accordingly and bring the fight to her!! I know Discord has made our lives difficult in the past, but we're now fighting against a common enemy, he too was deceived. With his power, he can send us back in time to--"
"I'm not going to do it." Interrupted Discord.
"...What?" Asked Concord, completely confused. Everypony started muttering words that couldn't be heard.
"You heard me right, I'm not going to send you all back in time."
"But...I thought you were going to help us!!"
Discord smiled, and began explaining what he had in mind. "Concord, Concord, Concord...I created you myself with my own hands, with my power and in my image...You hold incredible power, yet you don't realize your full potential. I am the God of Chaos, but you, my son...You are now the God of Order. You hold as much power as I do, maybe even more now that you experienced the different kinds of war. You are of my blood, Concord, you are my own son...And you are the one who will send them back through time, not me. My time has ended, now it is your turn."
Concord smiled at what his father said, he wasn't prepared for he said, and almost shed a tear. "What do I do then?" He asked, ready for anything.
"The act of time travel is a simple concept, yet difficult to execute. It's like teleportation, but this time you'd have to focus on both the location and the time period. There is an exception to this spell, though: The great powers in this world will not be affected by this spell, and so will follow you through the time-travel trip."
"Hold up." Questioned Chaser. "If they are not affected then why do they follow us?"
"Because this spell isn't one of those stereotypical 'Sends the spellcaster to a previews period'. The entire space-time continuum is twisted and forced to go back in time, everything is modified into a previews state while the spellcaster and his group are the ones who 'stay the same', but since the great powers in this world like Chrysalis, Luna and Celestia are immune to the spell, they are not affected by the change into a preview time period. Shining Armor's magical power renders him immune too."
Charon stepped forward from the crowd and asked Discord a question. "So we are left with having to deceive Chrysalis once we go back?"
"Yes."
"How ironic..."
"Might I suggest preparing a scenario to make Chrysalis think this was all a dream?"
Celestia stepped forward with an idea. "We can prepare a room, lock it down with the excuse that Luna is resting there and break a window inside to make it look like she was already kidnapped and we didn't know."
"Wouldn't that scenario leave us with the end of the First Great Pony War as the only option? We could use the excuse that Luna was knocked out after being returned back to normal, but we'd have to fight against Executor again." Questioned Charon.
"But now that we know the changelings were responsible for the weakening of the army," Concord explained, "We can find them, get rid of them and fight against Executor with far better chances. But to make sure of that, both Charon and Chaser would have to be in the throne to manage the Empires, not in the frontline."
"I can be the commanding general of the Terran Empire. I'm a veteran of the First Great Pony War and I can learn the new strategies fast enough." Exclaimed Shining Armor.
"Fine, you'll command my armies and get rid of any changelings in the military while you're at it. I'd not be surprised if my last commanding general was a changeling anyways. Also, the Terran Empire's name changed to Imperium of Patria after this entire continent united under my banner." Answered Charon.
"Once we get back I'll declare war on Executor immediately to help you." Suggested Chaser.
"No, if we progress too well in the war that would mean she would send changelings to your Empire to disrupt your efforts, and you don't have anything to detect those changelings yet. Once Executor is defeated our Empires will unite and we'll take care of Chrysalis and find Luna once and for all."
"I will be in charge of the inquisition that will find the changelings in the Imperium." Stated Concord.
"I will help him." Added Celestia.
"One more thing." Began speaking Discord. "Both Charon and Chaser don't have enough power to remain unaffected by the spell, but once they hold the rapiers the problem will be solved."
"Don't those rapiers hold the shield in place?" Asked one of the soldiers of the royal guard. At this question, everypony began muttering, if the shield was gone those things would swarm in and massacre everypony in the blink of an eye.
"The spell would also take a lot of time..." Added Concord.
Charon slowly walked forward while everypony else was busy muttering unheard words, worried about this decision, until Charon silenced them all by just staring at them. "What, you are all worried about this? It's either this or slowly and painfully starving to death. With the later we have no choice but death, but with this one we hold a chance, no matter how small, and even if we fail we still have the luxury of taking as many of those bastards to Hell with us!!" The crowd slowly began cheering at Charon's words. "You're all afraid of the consequences, but if I don't fear for a fate worse than death then neither should you!! I am ready to do whatever it takes to make sure we all have a chance of survival. We have all gone through several horrors, no less than three world wars. Are we going to let it end just by a flying rotten Swiss cheese with wings deceiving us?!" The crowd cheered even louder and louder. "We need to defend Concord with all our strength, he is the one who is important in this matter, but we all have the luxury of fighting without fear, we have the luxury of fighting against those things, to do anything without feeling guilt!! Once the shield was set up, those things desperately tried to break in. Want to know why? They fear us. They fear what we might be capable of doing!! Why else would more than a trillion of those things come here just for a few dozens of ponies?! We will stand our ground and defend Concord to our last breath, who's with me?!" He yelled, throwing his fist to the air. The crowd gave a loud warcry and threw their hooves in the air, even Celestia, Concord, Shining Armor and Chaser joined the crowd. "Gather up inside the castle, Concord begin the spell, Chaser stay with me, everypony else set up the defenses inside. Chaser, once we take out the rapiers we'll run back inside the castle and stand our ground, everypony move!!" Every single living being in Canterlot scrambled to their positions and grabbed every gun found, moved rocks to make several barricades and cheered even in the face of impossible odds. Charon stood his ground in front of Discord and next to Chaser, he turned to Discord and asked a single question. "Why are you helping us?"
"I enjoy Chaos, but I'll be the one to bring it forth, not that useless 'Chrysalis'..."
Charon and Chaser just stood silent.
"Hah, don't worry I'm messing with you. I too hate being used by Chrysalis, and when Concord came to me I saw him depressed and afraid, I have never seen him like that before. It might not look like it, but I care for my son, even if it means he'd go against me..." He explained before petrifying himself. Charon and Chaser smiled, then walked towards the two rapiers stuck in the ground. Everypony in the castle was prepared already for the Hell that would break loose in a few moments.
Charon gripped Luna's rapier and stared at it. 'Wherever you are, I'll find you, Luna... ' He nodded towards Chaser, and at his signal they both took out the rapiers in the ground, thus destroying the shield that engulfed the castle.
"Run." Yelled Chaser, they both ran as fast as they could towards the castle where a single tiny opening waited between the barricades. The changelings stormed towards them by the millions, one almost reaching Charon but turned into smoke when he swung the rapier at him while running. They jumped through a tiny hole in the barricade, once they both got through it was closed with several rocks, stopping the changeling charge for a few moments but denting the barricade, it wouldn't hold out for long.
"Everything's barricaded, right? The doors, windows, even the broken ceiling?" Asked Charon.
"They are, if we barricaded them further we'd die of asphyxiation." Stated Celestia, who had Chaser's G36C in her hands.
"How long until they fall?"
"Three minutes at most, I don't--" Her talking was interrupted by the sound of rock being pulverized and thrown away, the changelings had broken through the main door.
"Where's Concord?!"
"In the kitchen casting the spell, somehow those things made the underground complex collapse and we cannot use it!!" She yelled, shooting Chaser's gun at the incoming hordes with the rest of the royal guards, but they were too much and advanced without problem at all.
'Dammit...At this pace we're all going to die...Just how long does that spell take to cast?! ' "Fall back, there are too many!! Use the kitchen doors as a choke point!!" He yelled, the ponies began mobilizing but Chaser and him stood their ground, looking at the masses of changelings advancing. Charon narrowed his dark red eyes and gripped his rapier tighter.
"Let's go." Said Chaser. They both picked up speed and ran to the kitchen, but as they ran they could feel how the castle was shaking even more violently than before.
"Looks like the Concord's spell is finally taking effect." Stated Shining Armor. The shaking became more and more violent as minutes passed.
"Sir, the changelings are turn-- ashe--" A random soldier was saying, but his speech, with the scenery, became distorted like a bad TV signal back in Terra, then everypony in the room and every changeling in sight suddenly turned into ashes, the exceptions were Charon, Chaser, Celestia, Shining Armor and Concord who was still casting the spell, this was enough to strike fear into their hearts.
"What's going on now?!!" Questioned Charon. The Castle's structure began collapsing, but not to the floor, instead it all slowly flied to the sky and into a spiral. The rocks, the ashes, even the furniture, everything that wasn't fixed to the floor was flying in a spiral; the sky was dark red with clouds circling on top of the place where Concord sat.
"Is this supposed to happen?!" Asked Chaser, no one answered since they had no idea. There wasn't a structure left standing, what was left was only the grass and the tiles of the floor of the castle. But not after long the earth in the distance began fragmenting and joining the spiral in the sky, it continued until they were forced to move to where the garden was, the only thing left standing in the scenery was a tiny fraction of land floating over the endless, dark red void. This was something only seen in nightmares.
"What is this place...?" Asked Shining Armor, looking at the endless void below from the edge of the fragmented land.
Rocks, earth and fire started falling from the spiral in the sky, scaring the five present, but before they could see what was going on they were all struck by a unknown force, knocking them out in an instant.
"Woah nelly, this guy sure sleeps in the strangest of places." Charon could faintly hear the voice of Applejack. He could also feel a strange coldness and weight over his body.
"And his clothes are all dirty and worn out...Ugh..." Complained Rarity.
"Oh come on, cut him some slack, he barely escaped from Executor's Empire anyways." Mentioned Shining Armor. "Look, he's waking up."
"Uhhhg..." Charon made an effort to open his eyes. What he saw was Celestia, Shining Armor and the mane 6 staring at him, and also snow falling from the sky. "How...What is..."
"Still tired? Well that isn't surprising." Celestia commented, helping Charon to his feet. She took the opportunity to close her mouth to his ear and whisper to him low enough for nopony else to hear. "The room's been prepared, Chaser snuck out and is on his way to Kaiserreich. Bad news though, it seems we brought the Ice Age with us...Go with the flow, I'll explain another day..."
"Why are his eyes red?" Asked Pinkie Pie, but nopony answered.
"How long was I asleep...?"
"Three hours, no less. Considering that you managed to hijack a boat back then in Executor's Empire I'm not surprised, you didn't even rest." Shining Armor explained, winking at Charon without anyone knowing. Charon smiled.
"Three hours...Well I should get back to Stallinox now, where's Concord?"
"Right behind you, you were asleep next to a tree."
"Yo." Greeted Concord.
"I see...Mind getting me a transport, Celestia?"
"Hah, beat you to the idea, there's one outside the castle in the main road."
"Thanks, I'll be going now. Later everypony."
"I'm going too, wait for me Charon." Said Shining Armor.
"Later." Everypony bid them farewell as they walked through the door that connected the crumbling castle to the garden.
"Girls, we'll be late for the dragon migration!!" Exclaimed Twilight, gathering everypony up and running off. "Sorry Celestia we have to go now!!"
"See you all soon, girls."
"How could the Ice Age be transferred to this time...?" Began questioning Concord, right now the only ones present in the garden were him and Celestia. "Maybe I went wrong somewhere...Or it's a consequence..."
"Concord..." She asked for his attention softly.
"...Yes?"
Celestia quickly moved towards Concord and kissed him, stunning him due to this unexpected event. At first he was unable to do anything, but he returned the kiss. "Thank you, Concord..." She spoke, she was crying already but this time of joy. "Thank you for giving us all a second chance, and for returning those who fell..."
"We're not done yet, but don't be afraid, I'll always be here..."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 13: True path
Charon opened the giant doors of Stallinox's castle, walking through with Shining Armor behind him. Soon enough, Atticus spotted him, ran up to him and followed his steps.
"Welcome back, Emperor." Atticus greeted. "The situation is dire as you might know, Executor is pushing us back into the mainland at an alarming rate. I'd suggest contacting the rest of the nations in this continent and seek an union, the Terran Empire alone can not win this conflict. After that, your presence in the frontline would be most advantageous."
Charon almost snapped, knowing that the Atticus in front of his eyes was an impostor, a changeling, but kept his composure knowing that if he acted too fast Chrysalis would realize she was deceived. After all, if she didn't send her endless hordes to invade the world already, the possibility of her being deceived was still plausible. "Change of plans, Shining Armor will be the new commanding general of the army, I'll stay here at all times to manage the Empire."
Atticus was surprised to say the least. "...But we barely know Shining Armor, how can we know he'll do a proper job? And even then, your strength in the battlefield is required for us to have an advantage--"
"My orders stand."
"But still, Shining Armor is--"
Charon stopped and turned to Atticus, looking at him with his red eyes. Both Atticus and Shining Armor also stopped in their places. "I'm surprised, Atticus... You were very loyal to me before, I guess the First Great Pony War left you... Stranger..." Atticus was nervous, but Charon smiled before continuing. "Oh well, you're still one of my most loyal subjects, there's no way you could be some sort of spy sent against me, right? Hah." Atticus became more and more nervous, sweat started dripping from his face.
"Of course not." Added Shining Armor. "Nopony could ever be like Atticus, let alone impersonate him. I've heard much about him. But still, I have one special spell for this ocassion."
"And that's...?" Asked Charon, still smiling with Shining Armor.
"Well, to put it in simple terms it destroys any disguise the target may be using. Knowing Atticus, he should not be worried, he's not an impostor."
"Well we could put that spell to the test right now."
"Uhh... " Began speaking Atticus in a worried tone. "That spell might be dangerous, I'd rather not be the target, something may go wrong..." He desperately tried to come up with any excuse to avoid the spell.
"Oh please, Shining Armor is one of the most powerful unicorns in this world, he's even Twilight Sparkle's brother. You have my word that nothing will go wrong..." Mentioned Charon in a rather creepy voice.
Shining Armor's horn started glowing and stepped closer to Atticus, who backed off at the same speed until he was cornered by a wall. He began despairing, trying to find any way to escape the situation, but there was none. Atticus snapped and flared green, blinding everypony in sight and turning into a dark creature with blue eyes and insectoid wings, a changeling. The changeling charged forwards but was stopped by the red-eyed Emperor that stepped forward and grabbed it by the neck. Charon raised the creature up and threw it to the ground while the guards surrounded them with their spears pointing at the dark creature. "I knew it! Atticus would never question my orders, no matter how insane!! I don't know what the hell you are, but to impersonate my most loyal pony you've made a grave mistake..." Charon somehow managed to create a plausible lie despite being halfway to berserk state to deceive everyone into thinking he had not known of this before.
"I've heard about these creatures." Began speaking Shining Armor. "Those things are called Changelings, and they can copy the appearance of anything and anypony. Normally they come by the billions and they're never alone, if there's one here the entire Empire must be infested..."
"Use that spell on everypony in the castle then!" Charon ordered.
Shining Armor backed off and casted the spell on everypony in the castle one by one, luckily they were all gathered by the entrace, attracted by the event. Surprisingly enough, nopony else was revealed to be a changeling.
Concord arrived running through the main door of the castle. "Sorry for being late, did I miss something?" He asked panting.
"Changelings..." Charon answered while knocking out the changeling that impersonated Atticus. He stood up and pointed at the group of soldiers that were around him. "All of you, you're now assigned as Shining Armor's bodyguards, protect him at all cost. Escort him to the army HQ and make sure nopony gets near him until it's confirmed that it's not a changeling."
"Yes, Emperor." The ponies formed up and moved in formation to the door, where they waited for Shining Armor.
"Farewell, Charon. Don't worry about the military, I'll take care of it, just make sure to fix anything those changelings might have messed up in the Empire." Shining Armor said before walking to the group of soldiers, who then guided him to his destination.
"Damned things... Concord, I've got another task for you. You're the God of Order, as Discord said, so I assume you also have some sort of spell to reveal the changelings, right?"
"I could twist the entire space-time continuum to my will, this shouldn't be hard."
"Go to the college of unicorns, gather the best of the best and then sweep the entire city for changelings with them. Then you'll start an inquisition with more unicorns you find with the skills and wipe out the changelings of this Empire, but finding Atticus is top priority after Stallinox is clean, he's the one who holds the greatest administrative skill apart from me."
"Got it, anything else?"
"...Actually, yes. Send a letter to Chaser and tell him to take care of technological advancement since I assume he doesn't have this changeling infestation yet, tell him not to declare war at all, I'll deal with Executor myself."
"Right away." Concord said before turning into smoke and disappearing.
Charon slowly walked towards the throne in the castle and then sat on it, he crossed his legs and brought his hand to his cheek. 'If Luna was Chrysalis in disguise...Then the one I kissed back in the ancient castle...Gah! ' He rubbed his eyes in anger, his teeth showing. 'Luna...I'm going to find you even if I have to invade Hell... ' "Somepony get me the population documents, and some tea too, I'm dying of thirst..."
A few minutes passed until a pony with eyeglasses arrived with the documents on his hoof and a glass of tea on the other. Charon took them and began looking through the wall of text the documents contained while drinking.
'Let's see here...Where is the total number of ponies in this continent...? Here it is. Total population: 40 billio-- ' His thought were interrupted as he choked on the tea he drank, coughing violently but thankfully he blocked the tea he spat with his arm. 'What the hell?! '
"Is something wrong, my emperor?" Questioned the assistant.
"How can there be 40 billion ponies in this continent?! In Terra there are barely 7 billion Terrans in the entire world!"
"...I don't understand how you are so surprised about this number, it happens naturally. Maybe it has something to do with your world being perpetually at war and many dying before even having offspring."
'Now that I think of it...It's quite plausible...Terra has been at war for eternity, that'd mean several Terrans would die before having kids...This world didn't have many wars before, maybe not even one, that'd mean the population could grow exponentially until it reached this number without fighting decreasing it... ' "How come there are so many ponies yet I've not seen so many in Stallinox to reflect it?"
"Sky cities like Cloudsdale exist everywhere in this world, most pegasi live there, not on ground. There are also cities specialized for housing with buildings that reach the sky in height, so such density in population isn't present in most cities like Stallinox."
"Why haven't I heard of this before?"
"You were in the frontline most of the time, I assume it's one of the main reasons."
"Makes sense..." He continued looking over the documents, until he deciphered some of the main problems caused by the changelings: Starvation, homelessness, unemployment, corruption and organized mafias in many cities among others. 'And the WW1 era is coming too... ' "Paper and quill." He demanded, until the same assistant provided him with them. He handed the documents to the assistant and began writting.
To be sent to the Head assembly of economy and interior.
It is urgent to divide the Empire in three sectors. South-western sector consisting of 20% of the continent's land shall be reserved for crops and food production, this sector is considered highest priority due to the starvation that plagues the population. Eastern sector consisting of 30% of the land will be used for industrial purposes, I will personally explain the details in another occasion. The remaining space is to be used for everything else, housing being the most important. Taxation should be raised accordingly to fulfill the new infrastructure cost.
"Another paper." After saying that, he was provided with yet another piece of paper.
To be sent to Head assembly of security.
It is imperative to tighten security in all cities, it goes without saying that those with organized mafias are prioritized. New procedures are to capture the responsibles and present them against the inquisition. Should they be changelings they are to be taken care of immediately. If not, properly judged and punished accordingly. Take caution that many of these 'Criminals' might have been deceived to carry out such actions by the changlings, their deceptive capabilities are not to be underestimated.
Charon shook his hand in the air, aching for not being used to writing. "Another one."
To be sent to the Head assembly of trade and foreign relations.
The nation called 'Kaiserreich' is to be treated with open arms. Allow trade and technology to be traded between us. Nopony has the authority to remove this order, should somepony try to do so present them to the inquisition without delay.
"Thank the Great Ones this Empire is as centralized as it can get..." He sighed as he took a sip of his cold tea. "Those letters must be sent to their destination once Concord himself reports them as purged, not earlier, understood?"
"Understood, sir."
A pony arrived to the castle, opening the giant doors and walking through the empty corridor to the throne. Once there he handed Charon a letter which held the seal of the nation of Equestria and then left. Charon opened the letter and looked at it, and after a while he smiled.
'Hah, Celestia...You sure know how to handle diplomacy. Already convinced every nation in this continent for an union with us? I'm impressed. '
"Ah, welcome new general." A soldier greeted Shining Armor with his bodyguard unit inside the HQ tent. "The last general ran away, it seems. Did something happen?"
Shining Armor ignored the question and casted the disguise-breaking spell on him to see if it's truly a pony and not a changeling. The soldier flared green and turned into a changeling with a surprised face, in the desperation of the situation he charged forwards but was greeted by the bodyguards' steel shields. This scenery surprised the rest of the officers in the tent enough to make them back off.
'This place must be infested... ' Shining Armor thought.
"2nd Inquisition group reporting, sir. Concord himself sent us to be under your command." A unicorn in a dark red cloak greeted, with a long-brimmed hat covering his eyes. About a dozen of unicorns followed behind it with the same outfit, but with a hood instead.
"Perfect timing, purge the tent first, then the army in this place. When's the next group arriving?"
The red-hooded unicorns advanced and made the tent light up with magic, with three changelings trying to escape but ultimately failing. "No more groups were sent, there isn't enough manpower for more. I've been instructed to give you this letter." The pony with the red hat answered, giving the letter to Shining Armor who opened it and started reading while they both walked outside the tent.
Shining, this is Concord, I've sent all the unicorns I could to help you though I won't be able to send more for a while. I'll recruit more inquisitors from the various colleges I find in the Empire so don't go purging the entire army yet, it'll be useless since more changelings will arrive. Also, try to interrogate the changelings from now on when the opportunity arises, I still need to find out where Atticus is, and maybe we'll find Chrysalis' whereabouts.
'How do you expect me to know how to interrogate those things?! Well...The inquisitors must know... '
"So these changelings are spies..." Talked an officer that came out of the tent where an inquisition took place. "Anyways, since you're a general I guess I need to fill you in on what's going on, I'll be your lieutenant from now on. The defence is horrible, at first I thought Executor's soldiers were too strong for us but now that this changeling matter popped up and began disrupting our chain of command we still hold a chance. Another thing, we received two things: A letter from the navy commander and some sort of stick that throws stuff at a ridiculous speed." The lieutenant turned to the tent and began yelling an order. "Jenkins, get those things here!!"
"Aye aye cap'." A voice answered from inside the tent. After a few seconds a pony came out with a letter on his hoof and a thin, long box on his back. He walked up to Shining Armor and placed the box next to his hooves. Upon opening it, a cilindrical metallic object with a wooden grip was revealed, it was what Terrans call an arquebus, though its trigger was awkwardly modified to be able to used by a hoof.
'This looks like those things the ponies used in Canterlot before the time travel spell... ' He thought as he picked it up and examined it.
"Letter for you." Said Jenkins as he handed the letter to him. He opened it and began reading.
'This is the navy commander David John writing. My ponies have engaged a strange ship not seen ever before. The battle was fierce and we took several casualties but we managed to be victorious and capture the unknown ship. Upong closer inspection it was written 'E.N. Ironclad I' on its hull. I assume E.N. stands for Executor's Navy, quite an original name I must say. The ship has been stationed in Kunatanah's shipyard without major damage, its steel hull managed to make the cannonballs bounce off and it used a steam engine to advance without the help of wind. Charon's presence is requested to take a look at it immediately, this is most likely a Terran design. '
"So, what's our next course of action, sir?" Asked the lieutenant.
"Send the letter and the object to Charon himself. Inquisitor, your ponies will purge the chain of command here and notify me when more inquisitors arrive. Move it." He ordered while walking towards the tent again to fulfill his new duties.
"My Kaiser, the projects are going according to plan and will be completed in a few years at least. We still need some materials but the Imperium of Patria are sure to provide them with our new trade agreement." Spoke a scientist who walked through a dark hallway with another few scientists and a Terran following.
"Anything else I should know?"
"You'll see for yourself." The scientist stopped in front of a glass window, pitch black on the other side, and reached for a switch. Once he pulled it several light were turned on and began illuminating two giant steel machines that overshadowed every other machinery in the hangar.
"They have too few machine-gun emplacements and AA guns. They also need another layer of steel for protection. Replace the dual-cannon of the Ratte and put a large caliber cannon there, use the remaining space for defences. Their tracks are exposed too, make sure to cover it with a layer of steel to avoid the tracks being damaged."
"With all due respect, sir, isn't it a bit overkill? With the modifications you mentioned these machines would win an entire war by themselves..."
"Trust me, even what I ordered isn't enough to be a match against what we'll fight against soon. Anyways, let's move on."
"Of course." The scientist kept moving through the hallway until he reached yet another glass window, but this time there was a pony covered with wires and steel pipes instead, with another pony in a white coat helping him with the wires. "Next goes our exoskeleton project. Designed for long-term fighting this model uses solar energy as its main fuel source. It is incomplete as it is, we still need to find a way to encase the soldier in steel plates to fully protect him against most kinds of weaponry, of course this steel will be replaced if we ever find a stronger material." The scientist walked over to an intercom that was on the wall and pressed a button to talk through it. "Begin protocol 5."
The pony with the white coat at the other side raised his hoof and connected a wire on the other pony's exoskeleton, then backed off. The exoskeleton-wearing pony stood up and walked up to a truck nearby and placed himself behind it. He began pushing the truck and moved it at a speed not even five of the strongest Terrans could achieve.
"Proceed with the next one." The scientist talked through the intercom.
The pony walked over the side of the truck and positioned itself on its hind legs, keeping the balance thanks to one of the exoskeleton's functions. He raised his hoof and punched the truck hard enough to leave a huge dent and shatter the glass windows of the truck, it even moved a bit from its place.
"Splendid. Bring the Hades-9 prototype."
A group of scienist arrived bringing a heavy gun, so heavy that it had to be carried by three ponies, no less, but the pony with the exoskeleton picked it up as if it was just another random object. The gun looked more like a long black rectangular box with a grip at the end, it had no stock since the exoskeleton would receive the recoil just fine. The pony walked over to a target range and aimed the gun at a mannequin at the end of the range. He fired the gun, which made a sound not distinctive to a gun firing, it was more like a continuous sound instead with no telling when a bullet was firing.
"The Hades-5 prototype is ugly, there's no denying it, but there are several special things about it. First, it has a rate of fire of 40 rounds per second, and before you call me and my workforce gun nuts we've thought about this thoroughly. The gun uses unicorn power to 'shrink' the bullets enough for a magazine to hold 480 rounds for a total of 12 seconds of continuous fire before reloading, the bullet of course 'grows back' inside the gun chamber and its fired at its normal size, and to avoid the inconveniences of being showered in bullet casings the empty case is automatically destroyed and dissipates in the air with no pollution whatsoever. The caliber of this gun was incremented to achieve a number unheard of before, no less than 15,24 millimeters; the exoskeleton's strength can more than cope with this kind of test. And the icing on the cake: Unicorn magic renders the bullet immune to gravity, it's effective range is...Well, I can't count that high. I still think its overkill but Chaser has the final word in everything, and who am I to question someone who brought this nation to what it is now? Anyways, if you wish to know more about this gun's potential just look at the wall behind the mannequin the test subject was firing at."
Chaser took out a pair of binoculars and looked at the wall. He was surprised to see that it was deformed beyond imagination, the mannequin had ceased to exist by this point.
3 weeks later, the WW1 era had begun in the world. The entire Imperium of Patria was purged of changelings and were pushing Executor's army out of the continent. Concord and his inquisition, after interrogating every changeling they found, managed to narrow the places where Atticus may be to one single region.
Concord sneezed, covered in a blanket due to extremely cold climate. He, with several ponies dressed and armed with WW1 period equipment, were inside an Ironclad travelling to their destination, the sound and vibration of the ironclad breaking through the ice could be heard and felt. "That damned Chrysalis...Really? The North Pole? Why the hell would she want to keep Atticus imprisoned in the North Pole
"This is the captain speaking, we've reached part of the ice that cannot be broken, we're stuck here and cannot advance further. All inquisition members and supporting soldiers are to disembark the ship and continue on foot. Be advised, the climate outside is colder than anything we've ever experienced, this ice age caused the temperature to descend dramatically even in these lands. To give a rough estimation of the temperature here I'll say this: I'd rather be set on fire than go out there."
Concord ranted and stood up, he discarded the blanket and created fire out of his hands to keep him warm. "At least my trench coat is intact..." He shook his head, causing the ice fragments that covered him to be shot out, but as he finished he felt something clinging from his hair. He grabbed it and ripped it out, only to realize it was a fragment of his hair that froze and became as strong as bronze. "Gah...This will take months to regrow..." He threw it away and began walking upstairs to the main deck of the ship, where the winds were strong enough to steal anything not bolted to the floor. He saw how the ponies of the inquisition and those of the army jumped down of the deck, and deciding not to waste anymore time he jumped down himself. He didn't expect one little detail, however, he was so big the wind had more area to push, thus making him almost land head-first on the snow. He stood up and spat the snow he accidentally ate, the extreme temperature almost freezing his tongue.
"How far is it to the objective?" Concord heard how the soldier commander asked the inquisition commander, a unicorn with a red hat.
"I don't hold that knowledge." The unicorn with the red hat answered. "However, these lands hold little to no elevation. It'd be easy to find some sort of landmark to aid us here."
"How so? The target could be anywhere."
"There must be an entrace somewhere, just by looking at the horizon and focusing some sort of entrace can be found."
"Makes sense." The soldier commander took out his binoculars and stared at the horizon just as the inquisitor suggested. Concord walked up to both of them and waited for the commander to find something, to which he did. "There's a mountain over there, can't find anything else though, the blizzard's too thick to see through."
"That mountain could have a cave or something, let's go." Ordered Concord. All of the ponies that were assigned for this mission gathered up and began marching to the mountain, leaving the Ironclad and its crew behind as a mean of returning to the mainland.
"I bet those bastards at the ship are enjoying a warm cup of coffee while we're here freezing our flanks..." A random pony ranted.
"I heard that!" The loudspeaker of the Ironclad echoed.
After a while of walking, one of the soldiers walked over to Concord and asked him a question. "Why can't you teleport us over there?" The look on everypony's face meant that no one knew the reason behind it.
"I don't know the region enough, I can only teleport to places I know."
The pony remained silent as they walked, everypony also kept silent for the rest of the trip to the mountain, they were more focused on the cold climate than on questions.
They arrived to a cave entrace they spotted as they walked, right on the foot of the mountain. Concord entered and stared inside with a few soldiers who readied their guns, expecting anything.
"Are there any other landmarks around?" Concord asked, wanting to be sure.
"Either there aren't, or they are too far for us to see." Answered an inquisitor.
Concord sighed and rubbed his eyes. Seeing as there was no other option, he decided to explore this cave. "Everypony gather up, we're going inside. Soldiers first, prepare for anything, inquisitors illuminate the way." He ordered.
As requested, the soldiers marched with their guns high into the cave while the inquisitors focused their energy on brightening up the scenery. They marched and marched, nothing in sight for a long time until crystals growing from the ground were spotted, becoming more and more frequent as they advanced. This sight reminded Concord of the cave where they found Shining Armor and Atticus' skeleton. 'This might be the cave... ' He tought. They walked even further until they arrived to a giant part of the cave, where there were two possible paths to the left and to the right.
"Well talk about dilemma." Sighed the soldier commander, sitting down on the floor seeing as they were going to stay here for a while trying to decipher which way to go.
Concord stepped forward from the group and inspected the scenery, suspicious that he might have seen this before. Then, the revelation hit him, this was the part of the cave where he travelled with Charon, Chaser and Shining Armor to get out. Knowing what to do, he walked from one place to the other trying to find a landmark that he remembered to see which way went where. 'This way we headed to get out of the cave... ' He thought as he looked further into one of the paths. 'Then the other...That's it. ' "Form up, we're going to the left." He ordered.
"You sure about this? Looks like you left it for luck to guide us." Asked the commander that was still sitting on the floor.
"Trust me on this one, and stand up already."
"As you wish, if I end up dying at least I can blame it on you." He sighed as he stood up. Concord did nothing but stare, and once they were all ready they began walking further into the cave.
They kept on walking, Concord unstrapped his AK-54r he had since the end of the First World Pony War and kept his finger near the trigger, the scenery contained far more crystals than before and the walls slowly turned from stone to almost completely reflective crystal. But before long they all reached a dead end.
"Tough luck, we're heading back and taking the other!" The inquisitor commander tried to order, but was stopped by Concord grabbing his shoulder while staring at the dead end.
"Blow it up."
"...What?" Questioned the soldier commander, failing to see the logic behind such order.
"This might look like a dead end but those walls are hollow. Plant explosives and blow it up, I said."
The soldiers shrugged and took out the entire arsenal of explosives they had from their backpacks. One by one they headed to the end of the dead end and left what they had, creating a pile of explosives. After a while, seeing as no pony else had anything left, they decided to back off and prepare for detonation. Concord took out the last grenade the group had and pulled out the pin and handle, then threw it to the pile. The group ran away as fast as they could before the pile exploded behind them, creating a cloud of smoke and debris that slowly cleared off revealing a destroyed section of the wall with two rooms behind. Concord ran forwards to one of the two, but once he arrived he noticed it was empty, he also realized it was Shining Armor's cell.
'Way to avoid a time paradox... ' He thought. Since Shining Armor was unaffected by the time travel spell he was not present in the cell as he was before.
He walked over to the other one, dust had not cleared entirely but through the clouds of dirt he could see the silhouette of a starving pony, still breathing. He ran through the clouds and took a better look at the pony, it was none other than Atticus himself. "Atticus!! Ha ha, I knew you'd be here!!" He cheered, before turning to the ponies under his command. "Get water and food over here! I'm surprised he didn't die of starvation already!!"
All of the ponies moved forwards and gathered around Atticus' barely conscious self, muttering cheers and talking among themselves. Concord handed him a bottle of water he had received and helped him drink.
"Uhhh...You all might want to take a look at this..." An inquisition member spoke from outside of the cell, staring at a part of the wall.
"What is it?" Asked the inquisiton commander.
"Apparently this section of the wall is also hollow."
"Hmm...Hey Concord, we found another hollow wall, what do we do?"
"Kick it down if you can, we already completed our objective."
The inquisition commander shrugged and gathered everypony that he could. He told them to position in such a way to kick the wall down at the same time. Once they were all ready, they kicked it, making it crumble down and fill the air with dust, as if this part of the cave was left ages ago.
"Terran!! We found a Terran!!" Concord could hear the yelling of the inquisitor commander, also the muttering of those around him.
"What?!" He asked, dumbfounded. "You, take care of Atticus!" He ordered to an inquisitor next to him, standing up and running to the cell that was recently kicked open. He walked through the cloud of dust, coughing violently, until he arrived to the cell itself. "Gah...Another Terra--?" He tried asking, but he was left without words as he saw Executor's unconscious body on the brink of death due to starvation, he could see his bones through the clothes, and the skin of his face was already decaying. A man of such age would not be able to take much longer. "...Executor?! Wasn't he in the capital of his continent!?"
"Forget about Executor! We got uninvited guests in this party!!" The soldier commander yelled. "Shoot! Shoot dammit!!" The sound of gunshots echoing through the cave could be heard, deafening everypony present. Concord could see how the soldier commander walked through the cloud of dust towards him. "Changelings! By the thousands!! The hell do we do?! We're cornered!!"
"Teleport us outta here!!" Screamed the inquisiton commander. Everypony but the two commanders and Concord scrambled to fight off the changelings.
"I can't!! Those damned crystals prevent my magic from working!!"
"We're done for then?!"
"Like Hell we are!!" Screamed the soldier commander. "We may not have explosives, but nothing beats gratuitous amounts of lead! Inquisitor, tell your ponies to hold those changelings off, my ponies will take care of the crystals!"
"You got it! Inquisitors, focus on the changelings!!"
"Soldiers, shoot the crystals, ignore the changelings, the inquisitors will take care of them!!"
"Shoot the crystals?! Are you nuts?!" A random soldier yelled.
"Did I stutter?! Shoot them before I kick you at the changelings for insubordination!!"
Concord ran off to Atticus, then he picked him up, carried him and placed him next to Executor. He sat down and waited for the best.
The gunshots deafened everypony, the lights of the magic and gunshots almost threw one of them into an epileptic fit, but they kept on fighting despite impossible odds. The changelings kept on charging, their numbers did not end and they gained more and more ground, the Imperial forces slowly backing off to the dead end.
"How long till those crystals are done for?!" Asked Concord.
"Almost!! A few left!!" Yelled the soldier commander. "Alright, none left!! Get us out of here!!"
Concord closed his eyes, placed his hands together, and began focusing despite the brutal gunfight next to him, but not after long the Imperial forces turned into smoke. None were left behind, not even Executor.
"...They sure are smart..." A female voice from the shadows spoke. "I wonder what will happen now that I allowed them to find Executor..." The shadow stepped forward among the changelings quietly laughing to herself, she was Chrysalis in her pony form, looking at the result of the skirmish in front of her.
"I need a break from all of this..." Charon sighed as he drank from a bottle of whiskey, sitting on the throne, but before he could swallow a pony stormed inside the castle panting.
"Sir, an Ironclad has been spotted flying right into the plaza!!"
Charon violently spat the whiskey he was drinking.
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 14: Lies divide, truth unites
Chapter 14: Lies divide, truth unites.
"Give me a reason not to kill you..." Charon asked in a deep voice filled with anger, holding Executor high with both hands by his shirt in front of the castle, several ponies surrounded them and Concord watched the show from a considerable distance, sitting on a bench.
"So this day has finally arrived, the day I die by your hand like the rest of my comrades..." He said with great effort.
"You started it!" He shook the weakened man he held high. "You killed everyone I knew! You spared no one!!"
"I did what I had to do, wether I liked it or not."
"Liked it or not?! You enjoyed it, you even insulted them when we met!!"
"The dead... Must be respected..." He gathered breath, he was already being asphyxiated. "No matter who the person is or what he or she did..."
"You're lying!! You're lying, and I've had enough of lies already!!" He yelled as he threw him to the ground. Executor gave a yell of pain but was ignored as Charon took out his rapier and tried to stab him, but Executor was saved by Concord who used his magic to force the rapier to stop a few centimetres away from his eyes. Charon stared at Concord with confusion, as if asking for the reason behind such action.
Concord walked up from the bench he was sitting to both Terrans and crouched next to Executor, who stared at him with confusion and a little bit of fear. "I remember Discord saying he didn't read his mind, I wonder..." He meditated.
"Curiousity killed the cat." Charon said.
"Thus, saving the rats." Concord stated, moving his hand to Executor's forehead who just kept on staring with his pale blue eyes. Suddenly, Concord desperately ran backwards, only to trip on his feet and fall on his back, his face was that of fear, confusion, and shock. Confusion filled everypony around as they saw how Concord breathed deeply and fast, as if he had just seen a ghost or demon.
"Concord, what's going on?" Charon asked, sheathing Luna's rapier once again.
"D-...Don't kill Executor... He...Is..."
"He is what?"
"I-- I can't say, he should tell you... It's about your past, Charon, it's everything..."
"Fine, give me the knowledge."
"You'd not be able to cope with so much at once...Your mind would break...Charon, I'm telling you, let Executor explain everything."
Executor had already passed out by this point.
"Uhhhhgg..." Executor slowly woke up, his head aching. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a white room with ponies dressed in white walking around him and discussing, but as he kept looking around he saw a Terran standing just in front of a light, rendering him unable to see anything but a silhouette. The Terran walked forwards to the bed Executor rested on, making the lightning reveal his figure who was none other than Charon himself, with his now characteristic red eyes.
"You're awake, that's good." Charon greeted.
"Why am I still alive... I thought you were going to kill me back then..."
"Concord had told me not to kill you after reading your mind, and judging by his reaction this must be serious. Can you stand up?"
Executor slowly moved towards the side of the bed and sat up, his head still aching. He pushed himself forwards to stand up and managed to keep balance, swinging one way a bit but recovering nonetheless. "I'm good...Where am I?"
"In a hospital. I wonder how you ended up in that cell Concord found you in, I'd not be surprised if your subjects got fed up with you and decided to sell you to the changelings... Anyways, follow me." He ordered as he walked to the door. Executor followed as best as he could, walking through the hallway until they reached the main door of the hospital. "Your fedora and jacket are in that cloth rack." He pointed at the corner. Executor walked up to it and put his fedora and jacket on, then returned to Charon. The red-eyed Terran grabbed the door knob and pulled it, opening the door and revealing outside snow falling, lightning striking and the dark of the night. "Follow, it'll be a long walk." Just as they got out of the building Charon stopped and started talking in a lower tone, the sound almost drowned by the thunder. "Don't even think about running away, you're a Terran in a world of ponies, it'll be painfully easy to find you again."
Executor swallowed nervously and kept on following, he could hear the warning clearly.
They walked down the street through the snow for a few minutes, the lights of the buildings illuminating the streets of Stallinox in the night. "Right now you have no choice but to tell the truth, remember that my buddy can read minds, and if I find out you lied...You know what'll happen."
"...Of course."
"Let's start with the beginning, why did you kill my friends?"
"...They attacked me first."
"Lying from the start? I expected more of you. My friends were as pacifist as they could get, they'd even run away from a rat. Now give me the true reason behind the bloodshed."
"They lied to you, they just pretended being-- ...I'd have to start with the beginning of all if I want to make sense out of this..."
"Let's say I believe you, what then?"
"There's an organization, since before you or me were born, maybe from centuries ago, I don't know the exact day of origin. They wanted to create a man of perfect mindset, a sadistic project you, me, your friends and pretty much everyone you know took part of. Your--"
"You're insane if you expect me to believe that."
"I heard your 'buddy' can read minds, ask him if you don't believe me."
"Fine, go on."
"Your life was being controlled without you knowing. Remember how your mother didn't even care for you? The organization paid her a generous amount of money in exchange of following their orders. She was slowly but surely breaking your mind for money. Remember your two depressions? And how the third one had sent you into a suicide campaign against my group?"
"I'm surprised you know about that, I thought only I knew about my depressions."
"It's because my men and I've been watching you since your birth, just like the other thousands of boys who were under the organization's influence. The reason they were unknown for so long is because they don't capture their test subjects, they controll them through deception and bribery."
"You said they controlled me since my birth, my father wouldn't have allowed that."
"He wouldn't, of course, but he had no choice in the matter. Either he agreed, or the organization killed him and you to avoid being discovered, just like they did with a few of my relatives. They make sure it appears as an accident. Continuing, they'd influence their subjects into the kind of things they want them to, that's why you hold so much knowledge about diplomacy, politics, economy, military...Things that'd be needed to control a nation, and you've put them to good use with the Terran Empire, and later the Imperium of Patria. You've even read 'The Prince' and 'The Art of War', right?"
"...That's true, and scary at the same time. How did my friends deceive me then?"
"Because they weren't your friends to begin with, they were subjects sent to develop your mind even further. The organization would subtly and efficiently introduce them to you without you knowing, as if it all happened by coincidence. They were all interested in the same thing, you're not going to tell me that was just coincidence, right? Not a single one of them was interested in something else that didn't have to do with nations."
"Right... It all starts to make sense... But why did they attack you first? Attacking a mafia would serve of no purpose, even less if they want to look like innocent people who wouldn't harm a dog."
"Because my group wasn't exactly a mafia, it just looked and gained money like one."
"Do explain."
"I said earlier that I was one of their subjects. Well I managed to find that out early enough and ran away with a few of my close friends who also knew about it. I formed this group to find and rescue the subjects, but since we had no way to generate money and needed a way to hide ourselves we decided to operate like a mafia. We could get money like that, and the corruption engulfing our country back then allowed us just to pay a small sum of money to the authorities to leave us to our bussiness. My group consisted mostly of volunteers and rescued subjects, the subjects realized their lives were a lie, and having nothing else to look forward to they decided to help me rescue those who were controlled. We were rather succesful, losing a few every now and then when we were attacked, but it all went downhill when we tried rescuing you."
"I think I know why..."
"I'd not be surprised. We tried to get to you, the organization found out, they sent your 'friends' to stop us, we had to kill them, but with that action your third depression kicked in, and you decided to hunt my group down to the last man."
"You just killed them to get rid of them?"
"Yes and no, I tried rescuing them too, they were subjects anyways, but I failed. Having them killed was the last and only option I had. Time passed, I had to send the order to kill you, you were far too dangerous for my group and trying to make you see the light had failed with disastrous results. That third depression, as I sadly found out, was actually the organization's failsafe against me and my men. You were decided to end our lives, but at the same time you hunted down every other mafias around, reaching Chaser's family. I assume you confused the mafia Chaser's family had worked for with mine, since he too was hunting me down for your whereabouts. Chaser was controlled by the organization too, no one would be safe, not even the wealthiest mafias, greed is a great weakness nowadays. It kept going downhill, most mafias were killed off and my group almost extinct, until that fateful day when the three of us were struck with that blinding light that brought us into this world. But, the great amount of deaths and bloodshed was far too much for the organization to cover up; their existance was revealed and an entire civil war sparked in our country in Terra, one side those who wished to end the organization, and the other those who were blinded by the organization's wealth and bribery."
"A civil war? Why haven't I heard of this?"
"Because you were too busy killing my men."
"Right...I'm..." He sighed. "Saying that I'm sorry in this situation would be pretty much an insult..."
"I know how you feel, you were blinded by many, you couldn't trust anyone, maybe not even yourself, you didn't have control of your actions. Don't worry, I know it wasn't your fault not knowing the truth."
"If what you say is the truth...Then my entire life was a lie..."
"All our lives are lies, whether we like it or not, what we must strive for in life is to cope with it and seek the truth."
Charon took a deep breath as they continued walking. "So, you killing my 'friends' was justified, but that renders the way you acted back then in the castle when we met illogical."
"Illogical? I acted as anyone would have, you were the one who got uppity and threatened me, I was left with no option but to declare war to defend myself."
"Don't lie, I remember just fine how you smiled at me from your throne and said 'Your friends must be full of life'. As if you were insulting them."
"As I said back then, the dead must be respected, no matter who the person is. I'd never insult a dead man, it's pretty much a capital sin for my ideology."
Charon suddenly stopped in his place, his eyes staring into the void as a revelation hit his mind. Executor stood watching him think, confused on what might be going through his mind.
"The changelings..." He whispered to himself.
"Sorry?" Asked Executor, not being able to hear.
"The changelings!! Executor, before you were thrown into that cell in the cave, have you ever seen a black pony with blue eyes and insectoid wings?"
"Yes, I shrugged it off since... Well... We're in a world of talking coloured ponies, unicorns and pegasi, so why would that be strange? I don't know how I got captured though, I just appeared in that cell. I think I was knocked out then carried there."
"Those things, Executor, can change shapes and personify anything and anyone."
"Wait, so you think those things might've personified us?"
"That's the only logical explanation. Tell me, what did 'I' do when we were in the castle in your continent?"
"Well...You arrived, saw me, insulted me as if you were furious with me, and then left with a threat saying you'd declare war as soon as you return to Stallinox. So I had to declare war first and try to capture you before you managed to get out of the continent. Obviously I failed."
"...Then that explains why I was attacked without previous warning by your forces..."
"What did 'I' do in the castle then? A changeling must've personified me."
"I arrived, you insulted my friends, I decided to return to Stallinox to prepare for anything that may happen, and got attacked while returning to the ships. At that point I thought you were a sadistic bastard, so I truly was afraid of you declaring war out of nowhere."
"Makes sense, those changelings can change into anything, right? They could be anywhere here right now then?"
"No, I've got an inquisition working on finding them out. Shining Armor, a white unicorn with blue mane, maybe you've seen him, discovered a spell to reveal them. This continent is clean. They are not to be underestimated, though, when they are not disguised they swarm by the millions."
"By the millions? How do you even know that?"
Charon looked around him to check that nopony was nearby, so as not to allow anypony else to listen. "There is an alternate timeline...Listen, Me and Chaser managed to defeat and kill you, then Chaser and I waged war to see who'd be the best leader for this world, but before it could end 'Chrysalis', the Queen of the changelings appeared and unleashed her endless hordes against the world. A hundred billion ponies were killed in a few hours, the entire pony race exctinct, the only reason we could avoid it was by going back through time to the past to the point after I escaped from your forces who attacked me at the port of your continent. To sum up, she planned everything from the start, just ask Concord when we return, he'll explain everything."
"...Damn."
"I think we should return now, there's nothing else to explain it seems." He started walking forwards, it looked like the way they originaly took leaded to Stallinox's castle. But, after much walking, Charon stopped and looked at the sky. Black clouds, lightning and snow were all that could be seen. "Say..."
"Hmm?"
"Do you... Do you know about my father?"
"A great man, there weren't many like him. It is a shame a heart attack took his life so early... But I guess he'd not have wanted to see what Terra would have devolved into."
"You've been watching me since my birth. Is he my biological father?"
"...No."
"Knew it... Guess that's the only truth I managed to find out on my own... But still, he'll always be my true father in my mind. Tell me, do you know who my biological father is?"
Executor kept silent, only the wind could be heard.
"So, you don't know either...Sorry for asking..." He lowered his sight and kept on walking.
"Charon..." Executor stopped him. Charon turned around and stared at him with eyes full of sorrow. Executor slowly took off his fedora and revealed his face at him, the similarity was uncanny. At this, Charon's eyes widened.
"No... You're not... Are you...!?"
"I wish this fact wasn't revealed in such a way...But yes. I'm not proud of how it happened either. And I still remember how I shed a tear when I gave he order to kill you..."
"How...?"
"Your mother, unsurprisingly. She somehow managed to make me fall in love with her when she was married to your father, I didn't know anything of course. A few years later she got pregnant, then I found out she only deceived me to get money out of that kid, out of you. I apologized to your father and I offered most of the money I gained to support you, I even offered to take you with me and forget this ever happened, but he refused, he decided to raise the kid as his own. Then, everything went downhill when the organization had locked their eyes on you. After he died I swore to rescue you through any means necessary, but it all backfired horribly and I was left with no more options... If it makes you feel better, though, I found your mother dead in one of the city's garbage dumps, I believe the mafia that she owed money to had decided to take matters into their own hands."
Charon silently stared at the floor, the shock of everything being revealed in such a short time span had left him speechless, his eyes were empty and unfocused, just like those of a soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Trust me... It does..." He spoke, regaining his energy to keep walking to the castle, Executor following his steps.
At the castle's entrace, the next day, Shining Armor, Celestia, Chaser, Concord and Executor were reunited.
"Charon's still locked up in his room?" Asked Chaser.
"I'm not surprised." Answered Concord. "When you spend your entire life believing something and it all breaks apart in a second, it leaves the mind broken, and it happened to Charon several times already. I'm actually surprised he didn't break before."
"I still can't believe Executor is Charon's father, though." Said Celestia. "Executor was a good guy after all then, Chrysalis is unbelievable good at deception."
"Or we all fell for a simple trick." Interrupted Shining Armor. "We never even knew about the existance of something that could change forms, without that knowledge she could deceive us without even trying."
"Still," began speaking Chaser. "Every lie is being revealed, most of what we know now is the truth one way or the other, what's left now is fighting against Chrysalis herself and put an end to all of this."
A pony arrived with a letter at that moment, reaching Concord and handing it to him. "Letter for Charon, though I'm guessing now it's for you."
"Appreciated." Concord began opening the letter as the pony walked away.
'Scout reporting, there have been sights of Executor still being in his capital even though he is also in the Imperium. I'd like to suggest a permanent vacation and therapy for myself. '
"So... The Executor from Executor's Empire is an impostor...Executor, did you really name your Empire 'Executor's Empire'?"
"I didn't, I didn't even give it a name at all, I'm guessing the ponies liked me so much they decided to name it like that. I was not aware of its name up until now, to be honest."
"I'm starting to think the ponies treat us like Gods, Concord." Spoke Chaser. "When something not ever seen before pops out of nowhere and brings a nation from medieval technology to what it was in Terra's World War 1... And even then, three of us appeared."
"And two of the three Terrans that arrived are immortal. Guess we should have seen this coming ages ago." Said Concord.
"Wait, what about the corruption Concord sensed? It wasn't the true Executor." Asked Celestia.
"Must've been the changeling. I haven't seen a changeling in Terran form yet, I'm guessing it takes a great deal of power since the only Terran changeling was Chrysalis herself. Let's remember I sensed something and thought it was corruption, I didn't know what it was exactly back then." Explained Concord.
"I've got a idea on what to do now to avoid losing ponies, since we need all we can get against Chrysalis." Started suggesting Shining Armor. "The Executor over there is an impostor, yet nopony knows yet. What if we show them the Executor here is the real one? They may change their minds and the worst that could happen is just being ignored."
"Executor should consider being turned immortal before doing anything." Spoke Celestia. "If he were to die for any reason..."
"I'd rather stay mortal, thanks for the offer. I'd like to... Meet my old friends once the time comes..."
Everyone kept silent at Executor's response, they agreed with him to an extent.
"It's not about living forever." Walked forwards Chaser as he spoke. "It's about keeping the small advantage we have. There are only three true Terrans in this world, and only two are immortal. If you were to die, we'd lose one third of the advantage Terrans could give us, and against Chrysalis every single bit helps, however small it is. Also, immortality would let you fight without fear of death and you'd keep on fighting longer, while also avoiding any accidental deaths that'd harm us all in the long run."
"I guess that's right then..." Executor sorrowfully said, staring into the void. "At least I can start all over again in this world... So... How exactly do I turn myself immortal?"
"There is someone who can turn Terrans immortal," explained Concord, "I don't know about ponies though. His name is Discord, you might've heard from him being Charon's enemy in the first great pony war, but now helps us when we ask him since he also was deceived into fighting us by Chrysalis. Just watch out for flying fountains."
"Flying fountains...?" He asked, following Concord to Canterlot.
"Do explain your plan." Asked Chaser to Shining Armor.
"Alright, now that Executor is immortal we can take him with us without fear of losing him, but instead of fighting he should just show himself. He should explain how he is the real one, how the other Executor is an impostor and how he was imprisoned. Since ponies are far more loyal than Terrans, as I heard, they should realize their mistake and help us instead. If that's not enough the impostor would get far more nervous once Executor shows up and would mess something up sooner or later."
"Plausible, but still without many chances of working. We should find another plan."
"I accept suggestions..."
Chaser kept silence for a minute, unable to come up with anything. "...Touché."
Three weeks later, Concord, Charon, Executor and Chaser stood on top of a cliff overlooking the port in Kunatanah. The ships, using technology and designs from Terra's WW1 were docked in the port by the dozens; soldiers and sailors swarmed everywhere preparing for the naval trip, carrying boxes of supplies and everything that'd be needed for such a voyage.
"Deja vu..." Charon quietly said to himself. "It's like the first time we invaded Executor's Empire..."
"The alternate timeline?" Asked Executor.
"Yes, but 18th century ships were used, not this kind..."
"...When Concord shared his knowledge with me through that... Transer of knowledge you call it, I saw a dark-blue haired woman, she was rather close to you yet I don't see her anywhere now, nor have I ever seen her in my life."
"That's Luna, one of the two Terranized Alicorns. The other would be Celestia, and Luna's her sister. She was kidnapped by Chrysalis before she revealed herself. I'd want to believe she was kidnapped and is imprisoned, since I don't know what happened to her after that and I fear what Chrysalis might've done..."
"Is she...?" Executor tried asking, purposefully not finishing the question, but Charon remained silent, not answering it. Only his breathing could be heard. "...What happened when you killed my impostor in the alternate timeline?" He decided to change topics.
Concord decided to answer that question, seeing as Charon was now staring into the void, spacing out. He got near Executor and whispered to his ear. "He turned berserk. Remember what I explained back when Discord turned you immortal? The problem is, he didn't really turn berserk, if he really turned berserk there'd have been no life left in this world."
"That's impossible."
"I'm not lying. Have you seen his red eyes? He's halfway there, but since there's the possibility of rescuing Luna, the one he loves, I believe he still manages not to turn berserk."
"Anger turns them berserk?"
"Yes, there is some sort of 'Berserker button' in each Discordian Immortal, them being you, Chaser and Charon himself. That berserker button consists of what angers them the most, I'd believe Charon cares the most for Luna, so if something... Bad enough happened to her, Charon would become berserk. Chaser and you may have better control since you've lost so many things you don't really risk anything anymore. However, Chaser was lied as much as Charon, so the possibility of still having a berserk button consisting of lies still exists, his gasmask prevents me from checking if his eyes are red or another symptom of berserk state. Chrysalis is the embodiment of deception right now, the possibility of Chaser turning berserk when the fight against Chrysalis arrives is plausible."
"When you transfered your knowledge, I saw how it all turned black for a second when my impostor was killed by him, is that supposed to happen?"
"Now that I think of it... I don't think so... When a changeling is killed or incapacitated it reverts to its original form, maybe being killed in the berserk state caused it to be stuck in the transformation, it must have something to do with that..."
"Hey, everything's done!!" Yelled a pony from below the cliff. "Shining Armor's waiting for you!!"
"About time." Charon said before sliding down the cliff. Concord, Chaser and Executor, after seeing him go first, decided to follow suit.
As they walked through the port, they could see destroyers, cruisers, battleships, everything a navy would have but slighty more numbers than a normal Terran fleet, almost double in size. Soldiers and sailors swarmed the port, the three Terrrans and the Draconequus sometimes having to push their way forwards or else they'd be stuck in place, until they finally boarded the greatest battleship in the fleet, which was also the pride of the navy, the flagship Shining Armor waited on. They walked past the deck and into the main structure, arriving to the bridge of the ship after a few corridors and stairs, seeing Shining Armor greeting them.
"Here we are, then." He greeted.
"Why so many ships? Aren't we supposed to convince, not fight?" Asked Chaser, looking at the entire fleet getting out of the port and getting into formation, the flagship had not yet left the port, though.
"I can't take risks, anything may go wrong. Even worse, we're in the ocean and there isn't any single type of ship that could dive to the bottom of the ocean without being crushed by the pressure, we can assume one of our enemies' strategy would be sinking our ships with us inside." He explained. Executor, Charon and Concord realized this could happen by mere accident too.
"Makes sense. So, why is the commanding general of the entire army in a fleet instead of, you know, commanding the entire army?"
"This is one of the most important missions there are, and maybe our only chance to restore Executor to his throne without leaving his Empire as a barren wasteland due to fighting and bombing. This requires my complete supervision." Shining Armor turned to the bridge controls and pushed a button, turns out it was a radio. "Anything else needs to be done, over?" He asked.
"No sir, we're all set and ready, over." A voice answered.
"Good, begin at once, over."
"Understood, out."
The flagship began moving, sailing to the ocean and joining formation at the center of the imperial fleet, dozens of ships sailed towards Executor's Empire, prepared for the worst and hoping for the best.
"Enemy fleet spotted, all hooves to battle stations immediately, you're not cleared to engage until said otherwise." An alarm was heard by the crew of the flagship, needless to say the rest of the fleet also heard it through their radios too. Concord, Chaser and Charon, who were drinking and talking in the quarters, stood up and ran out of the room upon hearing the alarm, heading to the bridge with a red light being the only thing illuminating the dark corridors. Once they arrived to the bridge, they found out it was night already, they had lost track of time and didn't know how long they were sailing for.
"What's the situation?" Asked Chaser.
Executor was looking outside the bridge window to the horizon trying to spot the fleet in the distance, but unable to do so. Shining Armor was looking at the radar, and began explaining. "It's an enemy fleet almost equal in size, their formation is designed to stop our advance, we have no options but to engage it seems." Shining Armor ran to the radio, while the rest ran to the radar and saw the opposing fleet and its formation. "This is the commanding general of the Imperial army, Shining armor, in charge of the 12th Imperial fleet of the navy." Shining Armor hailed the enemy fleet. "We seek no conflict, we have proof that Executor, your Emperor, is an impostor and is manipulating your side into open conflict with ours."
There was silence on both sides of the radio, anxiety filled the terrans, the draconequus and the blue-maned pony as they desperately waited for an answer.
"Go, say something to convince them." Ordered Chaser, patting Executor's shoulder. He walked over to the radio and began talking.
"...This is Executor speaking. Just before war against Charon had broken out I was captured by strange dark beings with insectoid wings. Those things can change form and appearance, and they used that advantage to impersonate me and declare war on the Terran Empire to weaken us both. Stand down, I seek to bring peace to our nations, not suffering."
There was still no response.
"Shouldn't they have answered by now?" Asked Executor.
"They should." Shining Armor answered, heading to the radio. "Find out their frequency."
The radio flickered with static and silence, frequencies were changed by the second, until they finally found one with ponies talking.
"...But still, that could be the real Executor!!" An officer exclaimed through the radio, it appeared as if he was discussing with another officer, the admiral himself.
"Our Emperor is strong enough to avoid being captured by anypony or anything, he had given our nation glory and prosperity and we shall follow his orders no matter what."
"That's the problem! We follow him with so much dedication we cannot stop to think!! He has changed a lot before the war broke out, we are following an impostor!!"
"Hey Shining, one of the ships is changing direction." Concord stated, looking at the radar.
"Please sir, stand down!!" Begged the same officer from before. "We don't know what we're fighting for anymore!! Let's consider this possibility!!" That officer was the commander of the ship that changed course, advancing ahead from the fleet and blocking their path by turning sideways.
"Traitorous swine will not be tolerated in the navy of our Emperor!! Ships, there is a traitor in front of us blocking our way and not allowing us to carry on with our orders!! Shoot the traitor at once!!"
"What..--" Executor asked, dumbfounded by the dialogue, but interrupted by Concord exclaiming a rather disturbing event.
"One of their ships in the radar is blinking!! Dammit, it's gone!!"
"Did they shoot one of their own ships?! Wait, look!! There's smoke in the horizon!!" Charon exclaimed, pointing at the sky where the dark red smoke mixed with the fire contrasted with the dark blue and starry sky of the night.
Everyone kept silent at this event, they could do nothing but stare in shock at what their enemies had done, the radar showing the carcass of a ship and an 'Opposing fleet has lost a ship' mark.
"This is heavy cruiser Kraken-1 of the glorious navy of our Emperor Executor." An officer from the enemy fleet was heard through the radio after the disturbing and unnerving silence. "We cannot follow an admiral that is willing to sink one of his own ships, we shall protect the imperial fleet, Executor would never allow such thing to happen! All ships who are with us, change course and follow us!!"
The Terrans, Draconequus and Shining Armor were still shocked at the sudden turn of events, but cracked a small smile afterwards.
"One opposing ship is changing course!! No wait, two-- four-- SEVEN of them!!" Executor exclaimed.
"Protect those brave defectors!! ID them as friendly and sink all who still oppose!!" Yelled Shining Armor to his sailors. "Executor, you should go now."
"But...--"
"Go to our loudspeaker and give us all a great speech, this will cheer our side up and help us now. You Terrans have been deceived far too many times, are you going to let this deception spread to the ponies? Go, show them the truth."
Executor cracked a smile as he slowly walked backwards, then turning around and sprinting to the loudspeaker system located a few floors below.
"Chaser, check the radar and tell me the situation." He ordered, placing his arms on the bridge board and staring at the scenery.
"We now have the numerical advantage and outgun them. The position of the defectors give us a good flanking engagement, if this keeps up we'll... Wait..."
"What?"
"A few of our ships are changing colour..."
"What do you mean--" Shining Armor was interrupted by a violent and brutal explosion near the bridge, sending Charon, Chaser, Concord and him falling to the ground. "What was that?!" He demanded to know.
"You decide to aid the same ponies who decided to invade our homes without reason whatsoever!! We will not stand for this, you are all traitors to our homeland and families!!" An officer yelled through the radio. Charon stood up while the others gathered stength, still on the floor, and pushed the button of the radio.
"You're suicidal, no side will aid you in this treachery!!" He retorted.
"We'll seek aid from Kaiserreich, they still hold their sanity unlike both of you!!"
Upon hearing this, Chaser crawled to the board and stood up with considerable effort, then began speaking. "Stand down, dammit!! Or you'll be shot down for insubordination!!"
"Damn you!! Damn you all to Hell!!" Screamed the officer, knowing that he'd not get out alive.
Outside, one of the rogue ships directly next to the flagship was readying its cannon, aiming at the bridge where the Terrans, Draconequus and unicorn stood, but just before it fired a bomber plane from the aircraft carrier managed to make its run and hit the ship with a well-placed shell. Unfortunately, the ship had managed to fire its gun and hit the side of the flagship, damaging its hull and letting water flood in, it was just a matter of time before it sank and there was nothing that could be done about it.
"We're sinking..." Shining Armor sighed, standing up with a rather bad cut in the head, his face was drenched in blood. "What's going on now?!"
"As if I'd know, the radar's destroyed." Answered Chaser. "Get a medic over here already!" He yelled through the radio.
"We should abandon the ship before we sink, Discordian Immortals have a higher mass density due to... I'll explain another day, we'll sink like a rock if we don't get out now." Concord suggested.
"There's still time, the ship isn't sinking as fast as I expected, are the guns still operational?" Chaser asked. Concord had left the room without anyone knowing.
"Four gun batteries in front, two in the back, 5 AA turrets... Yeah, those are what remains..." He managed to say. He was sitting on a corner with a handkerchief over his wound, he was exhausted and on the verge of passing out. "Chaser, you take command now, I can't even see straight..."
"Why? What happened to your lieutenant?"
"Gone with the blastwave..."
"Dammit. Alright everypony!!" He spoke through the radio. "Focus fire on the enemy flagship then on the heavy cruisers! Destroyers take both sides and start flanking while cruisers cover them!!" He shut down the radio, who sparked with elecricity until it was burnt out, and turned to those around him. "I hope I'm doing a good job now..."
"I don't know anything about naval engagements, anything you do you're currently the best now. Let's hope that 'best' actually means somewhat good, though." Answered Charon.
"Uhhh I've got bad news, guys..." Mentioned Concord who just arrived into the room. No one had noticed he was gone due to the stress of battle.
"What is it?" Asked Charon.
"The escape boats are destroyed. To get out we must first win this battle then get another ship and evacuate. Doing this in the middle of battle is far too risky."
"Well, damn. How's the battle going?"
"Well according to the smoke, I'd say we're winning. I can see the destroyers already flanking and firing." Chaser answered. The rogue ships had already been taken care of by this point. "The bad news is we've taken so many casualties it'd be better just to count the surviving ships and do the math."
Charon took out a pair of binoculars from a cabinet below the bridge board, as if no one had noticed there was one there, and looked at the horizon. "I can see... Nine- no, twelve enemy ships. Scratch that, one exploded, eleven ships. They're retreating now."
"Should we pursue?" Asked Concord.
"Nah, they'll spread the rumours themselves."
"The ships are pursuing, though."
"What? Dammit!! And the radio's gone... Hey is Executor still giving his speech?"
"Yeah, he is. Seems we can't hear him from this room."
"Go and tell him to give the order not to pursue to the ships."
"Alright." He answered, turning into smoke thus teleporting to Executor's place.
'What are the casualties...? ' Charon wondered. He looked with his binoculars at the remaining ships of the imperial fleet, but noticed only five destroyers and two cruisers remained. After seeing the fighters and bombers flying around he also remembered they had an aircraft carrier, leaving a total of eight ships remaining. He noticed there was water around his feet, the ship had almost totally sunk and saw the aircraft carrier right next to the flagship, already evacuating the survivors, he didn't even notice. "Guess it's time to leave." He said, carrying Shining Armor over his shoulders, who had already passed out far long ago. Chaser followed him outside to get aboard the aricraft carrier, which was from now on the flagship of the remaining fleet.
The cold and unnerving fog of the lifeless and abandoned city embraced Charon as he aimlessly walked through the street with his hands inside his longcoat's pockets, his breath could be seen due to the extreme cold that was almost the same as Kaiserreich during the ice age that prevailed. The fog was so thick only a half a block could be seen ahead before it was completely white. The streets were like those of Stallinox, asphalt, trees and houses, much like Terra without real difference, but no living or dead soul walked there. There were no ponies, no birds, no dogs, nothing, not even the wind blowed, and the trees had no leaves, as if they were dead.
Contrasting with the scenery, he saw a dark-blue silhouette ahead of him, too tall for a pony. He tried narrowing his eyes but the thick fog prevented him from seeing anything else than a blur of the silhouette. He tried walking towards it but as he got closer the silhouette walked away, disappearing out of sight. Seeing as it was the only different thing in this gray and dead world he decided to chase it, not to lose it. He ran as fast a he could, once again seeing the silhoutte walking but turning a corner instead. He ran forwards and turned the same corner the silhouette did but lost sight of it, but he was sure it took this way. He began to walk through the street the silhouette took, looking around trying to find something that'd help him, but as he walked through the fog he heard he voice of a woman calling for him.
'Charon...' it said in a sorrowful and painful voice, almost as if it was desperately crying for help. He was startled for a second, looking at the source of the sound only to see the same silhoutte walking away. He chased it until he arrived to a park, a park not unlike the one in Stallinox in front of what was called 'Zero's House' in the war against Kaiserreich, with shellholes and all kinds of destroyed enviroment that war brought. He walked through the craters that the bombing had left, sure that the silhouette took this way. The snow almost reaching his ankle, he kept on walking with effort, this being as tiring as running full speed through a straight street with no obstacle.
Disturbingly enough, he began seeing corpses; corpses of the soldiers that fought the different wars he encountered: The battles for the mane 6, the war against the corrupted princesses, the war against Discord, they were characteristic for the Imperial medieval uniform worn by the corpses. He kept walking through the bodies, until more kept appearing but this time with the uniforms used in the war against Executor: Red and blue uniforms worn by the corpses, the only way to differentiate them were by the colours, ponies that had no reason to fight other than being ordered to. Walking further he began seeing the corpses of the ponies who fought in the war against Kaiserreich: Red and gray uniforms, tank carcasses and abandoned artillery, all completely rusted.
He walked and walked through the seemingly endless plaza, until something far more disturbing caught his eye: The plaza was no more, instead the floor was literally covered by changelings, sometimes a few red or gray uniformed ponies appearing, but most of the corpses were changelings. The floor of the plaza could not be seen, Charon had to walk over the corpses instead of around them like he did before. The bodies and carcasses were endless, he walked maybe two more kilometres before they became less and less frequent, until the floor of the plaza could be seen, but this time it wasn't just grass and dirt, it was a volcanic floor, and the scenery had changed to what appeared to be a red sky, with volcanoes and mountains scattered around the land, this could be compared to what Terrans would call Hell. He could see the silhouette in front of him next to a small object driven to the ground, so he walked towards it like he did through the interminable dead bodies from before, but the silhouette vanished in plain sight before he could see what exactly it was.
'Charon...' The voice of a woman was heard again in the same tone as before, but this time with more fear. He walked to the object in front of him, thinking it'd be important. He grabbed the object and pulled it up, revealing Luna's rapier that had been dug into the ground almost completely. He took a look at it, remembering how he held Luna in his arms in the end of the First Great Pony War, not noticing a tear was falling down his cheek, but before he could do anything else he felt how someone hugged him from behind, the kind of hug a person in fear would do to feel safe in the arms of someone else. 'Help me... You're my only hope... Please...' The woman who hugged him said, he could feel something liquid over his shoulder, it was the woman's tears, and it wasn't any woman either, it was the Terranized Luna that Chrysalis had kidnapped.
"Enemy fleet spotted, all hooves to battle stations immediately." Charon barely heard as he woke up from his bizarre dream, his eyes being glued shut by the exhaustion and a red light showering him.
"What is... Uhhh..." He grunted, holding his head in confusion and headache. He struggled to stand up from his bed, but he finally did so with his eyes half open. Irritated by the alarm and sailors running from one side to the other, he decided to head to the aircraft carrier's bridge and find out what was going on. He travelled through corridors, up and downstairs, until he was near the bridge room and heard a few voices ranting.
"We were so close dammit!! Why did they have to find us so fast!?" A voice was heard. That voice was characteristic of Concord.
"Maybe we can beat them, who knows." The voice of Executor gave a light of hope.
"Who knows what!? They outnumber us 40 to 1! The least we can pray for is that they'll kill us without pain!! If they can even grant us that mercy, that is!! We'll sink and be trapped at the bottom of the ocean for eternity!!" Concord kept ranting.
"This is an aricraft carrier." Stated the voice of Chaser. "We can send the planes with us on a suicide run to Executor's Empire. Not that we have any other chance of survival, anyways."
"Do they even have enough fuel for that? We're barely halfway to that continent." Asked Shining Armor. "And even if they do, we'd have to be lucky enough to meet someone who'd listen, chances are the impostor already knows of this plan."
"Hey, what's going on?" Asked Charon, still half asleep as he entered the room.
"We lost. Game over." Concord ranted as he stormed out of the room.
"What's his problem?"
"There's a fleet out there that outnumbers us 40 to 1. We cannot win this with a direct engagement so we're searching for a solution. Seeing as Concord reacted that way... I don't think there even is a solution." Explained Chaser.
"Can't he use his... Magic to make us win?"
"Even if he does, the only thing our opponent needs is sink our 6 ships. They outnumber us 40 to 1, remember?"
"...Right..."
"This is Admiral Thom Kieg of the 4th royal fleet of our Emperor Executor's Navy." A voice talked through the radio.
"Well, we tried..." Shining Armor sighed. "We managed to get this far against someone who caused the entire pony race to go exctinct in a few hours... We should have expected this..."
Thom Kieg, the admiral of the other fleet continued through the radio. "Do not be alarmed for I do not seek conflict. All the contrary, I wish to defect to your side."
The ridiculously lucky event that happened struck those in the room without previous warning, petrifying them in their places not being able to react. Only an equally ridiculously loud scream of joy made by Concord in the deck outside managed to strike them back into reality.
"Do explain, over..." Shining Armor asked.
"After you defeated that fleet a few days ago the rumour of our Emperor being an impostor started to spread. Using my common sense, which sometimes is so rare it's pretty much considered a super power nowadays... I managed to conclude that our Emperor is truly an impostor. The quick change of personality before the war against Charon, the propaganda he had spread with lies when he would tell the truth no matter the consequences... Many more factors helped in my decision, this entire fleet also feels the same way. To add more wood to the fire, a civil war sparked in the Empire recently, one side the loyalists and the other side those who support the Executor you have on board, it is sad that some ponies followed Executor as a God and refused to see sense, if it wasn't like that the entire Empire would have kicked out the impostor already. "
"Treating Executor as a God...?" Charon asked, then he turned to Executor.
"Don't look at me like that, buddy, I did nothing." Executor exclaimed with his hands up.
"I'm not surprised." Chaser stated. "When some random thing that looks like nothing you've ever seen pops out of nowhere, takes over a nation and pushes it past the technological and social limits imposed by medieval standards to these times in such a short time span... I'd be far more worried if they didn't think we were Gods. The Immortality factor didn't help much either in this topic."
"True..." Said Charon.
Executor took the radio and started talking to the fleet he now owned. "You magnificent bastards! I taught you all well!! Listen, there's a civil war now right? We'll head to my lands and help our side any way we can, then reclaim my throne. Got it?"
"Gotcha."
"This keeps getting better and better, we still hold a chance."
"We should get back to our respective homes and prepare further for Chrysalis." Suggested Chaser.
"You're not going to help me?" Asked Executor.
"Buddy, you have half an empire on your side and the entire fleet in this place alone is yours to command. I think you'll be fine by yourself." He explained.
"He's right." Charon said as he rested over the bridge board and looked at the fleet outside through the window. "As we are now, Chrysalis can win without any effort at all. Even with three immortals and a God, we still stand no chance." The God he refered to, Concord, was dancing around in the deck with dozens of other sailors, celebrating that they'd survive to see another day.
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 15: Nightmare.
Charon walked through the pitch-black corridors of an underground place, as if it was Canterlot's underground complex but strangely different. He could see nothing, not even the palm of his hands, but a flashlight that he carried slightly helped him continue walking through the dark hallway without clear objective. He continued walking and staring around him, trying to find something of interest until he arrived to a door at the side of the hallway. He opened it carefully, not knowing what to expect, but before he could react a changeling charged through and jumped on him. He could barely kick it out of the way and desperately neutralized it, not knowing what he was doing due to the lack of light and the fact that the changeling managed to throw his flashlight away in the fright. He stood up after killing the changeling any way he could and picked up the flashlight, illuminating the interior of the room; not finding anything threatening, he entered and found out the room had a desk and a pile of papers on top of it, but as he stared back at where the changeling was killed he noticed how it didn't turn into smoke, it just laid there in a pool of green blood.
He shrugged it off, he knew he'd decipher nothing by just staring at it and began focusing on the papers on top of the desk. One by one he picked them up and found a pattern, they all had crude sketches of a dark-red place, filled with fire and volcanic floor. He walked out of the room confused and started walking through the hallway again, but before he could walk a few meters he could feel how the entire structure shook slowly. Not knowing what was going on he slowly unsheathed the rapier he was holding and kept on walking at a steady pace, the reach of the flashlight was too short for him to see anything near the source of the shaking. The mini earthquake kept on increasing, until it was clear he was being followed; he turned back and aimed his flashlight the way he came from and saw shadows moving and running at him: Changelings by the hundreds. He quickly turned around again and started running away, but as he ran and ran the changelings were faster, they were going to reach him any moment soon. Charon steadied his hand and aimed the flashlight at every corner, looking for a way to escape, until in the distance he saw a wide open door as if it was waiting for him. Having no more options he ran at it, crossed the door and closed it behind him, the shaking suddenly stopped as he pushed himself at the door trying to keep it closed, not even noise could be heard, as if there was nothing there to begin with.
He opened the door he just closed behind him and stared at where the changelings were chasing him, but found nothing, they had all disappeared. He narrowed his eyes, turned around and illuminated the room he just entered and saw nothing out of the ordinary: just a desk, blank papers stacked and a chair. He moved the flashlight until the beam of light reached the walls, to which he widened his eyes in surprise: He saw words written all over the walls as if they were burned into them, he could smell the burning and the ash, but what creeped him out the most was that those words were more like cries of help. 'Help me', 'It hurts to keep going', 'Don't leave me alone', 'I need you', 'I want to go home', the kind of words that someone in deep fear would write. He realized those words weren't written by anypony, but those were what he was hearing in his nightmares where Luna appeared.
Before he could focus better on the words and their meanings, he could hear a thud not far away. He steadied his flashlight and gripped his rapier tighter, until he found out the source of the thuds: a small closet door just in front of him, next to the desk. Fearing it was another changeling he silently walked towards it and placed himself to the right, so as to open the closet door and use it as a shield should something try to jump at him. He pushed himself to the wall, grabbed the closet knob with his left hand and opened it with a swift movement. He could see nothing coming out, and the noise had finished in an instant. Thinking it was only his mind playing tricks on him he slowly walked around the closet door with his rapier and flashlight ready, he tried illuminating the interior of the closet but before he could look inside the flashlight ran out of battery and left everything pitch black, just as he stood in front of the wide-open closet.
His heart skipped a beat once he felt something gripping his torso with incredible strength, almost asphyxiating him, but realized this sort of gripping was not characteristic of a changeling nor of a pony, the figure gripping him was too tall and its anatomy was too different from equestrian lifeforms. He could do nothing but stand in shock, breathing deeply as it took him by surprise, but came to his senses once he saw that the flashlight began working again as he held it pointing at the floor. He slowly raised it, first being able to look at the strange being's legs and noticing they were a mixture between red and blue with ragged clothes, as if was wounded. He kept raising the flashlight until he saw the same with its torso, and when he raised it even higher he saw how the strange being had long, dark hair drenched with blood, hiding its face. The creature lifted its head, enabling Charon to see clearly who it was: Luna, who was crying and her face covered in blood.
"Make it stop...!" She whispered, her voice was almost drowned by her crying and pain.
"Luna -- Aw fu--!" Charon screamed as he fell from the chair he was taking a nap on, falling down to the floor. He sat again on the chair and rubbed his head, the nightmares became more and more violent each night, he was afraid to know what they'd become if things kept going at this pace. "Come in..." He answered once he heard somepony knocking on his room door.
"I see you're awake." Greeted Atticus, who already knew of Charon's nightmares. "Urgent news, Chaser wants to discuss with you in Kaiserreich, he says this cannot wait any further. He already sent an escort to Kunatanah's port and they'll arrive in a few weeks."
"Urgent? What does he want?"
"That is beyond me."
"Fine... You'll take over while I'm gone, alright?"
"Understood." Atticus answered as he left the room while Charon got ready to leave. Atticus walked through Stallinox's castle hallways until he reached the throne room, to which he sat down on the throne and asked for the assistant's attention. "Get me the documents concerning Chrysalis..."
"At once." The assistant answered. After a few minutes the assistant arrived and handed the documents to Atticus, a few papers covered in a thick beige container with the words 'Classified' on top of it. Atticus opened it and began reading, first seeing a crude sketch of Chrysalis in her Terran form.
Subject name: Chrysalis.
Specific trait: Queen of the Changelings.
Age: Unknown, suspected to be older than Discord's first arrival due to her knowing his powers and using them accordingly through deception.
Managed to cause planetary extinction in a matter of hours without difficulty according to Charon. The three Terrans were powerless to stop her. Concord, with the help of Discord, executed a time-travel spell to escape from exctinction and bring another chance to the pony race.
Has enough power to bring three Terrans from another plane of existence entirely into this one, capable of shape-shifting and strength surpasses Charon's after being enraged. Total strength is incalculable thus far, being the strongest being in this world is a plausible possibility.
He closed the short document; since Chrysalis was a rather new event in these times there wasn't much known about her. He turned to the assistant and asked a question. "Has Charon left already?"
"No sir, he's still in his room. Want me to call for him?"
"Go ahead."
The assistant left, and moments later arrived with Charon who was ready to leave already.
"You called Atticus?"
"Yes. Tell me, how did you become immortal to begin with? I don't remember you telling me that, I thought Terrans were immortal at first."
Charon crossed his arms and raised his right hand to his chin. "As far as I can remember, Discord turned me immortal two years before being Stallinox's governor. I drank some sort of purple liquid from a fountain that fell on top of a spider twice my size in a forest."
"...What?" Atticus asked dumbfounded. That explanation made no sense whatsoever.
"Discord." Charon shrugged.
"Alright, alright." Atticus changed topics so as to avoid a headache. "How long do Terrans live?"
"I've heard about Terrans living past a hundred years old, but with my past country's standard of living... I'd have been surprised if someone survived past 60."
"60 years old... And how old were you when you arrived?"
Charon scratched his beard, he couldn't remember perfectly. "Well when Chrysalis brought Executor, Chaser and me into this world I was around 19 and a half. Two years later I remember suggesting you new laws in Stallinox, then after three more years I became immortal. Discord said I'd not age any further so I'm stuck in the body of a 24 year old Terran from then on."
"I see... Wait, what the hell?!"
"What?"
"19 years old and you were already in a suicide campaign in Terra?! That's barely past adulthood if Terrans live that long!! For how long were you fighting in Terra!?"
"Well it reached the point where I was slowly forgetting my past life... Not that there was anything worthy to remember anyways, most of it were lies. I guess I snapped when I was 16, three years to start forgetting wouldn't be so strange."
Atticus just stared at him with his jaw wide open, surprised as if he just saw a ghost.
"Hey, Terra, remember?" Charon shrugged as he turned away ready to leave.
'Damn, living in Terra seems to be worse than being replaced by Chrysalis...' He thought as he rubbed his forehead. 'I should probably remember not to piss him off...'
The giant metallic doors of a laboratory opened with a light that twitched red and white showering the two Terrans present: Chaser and Charon who waited until they were completely open.
"So, you called me for this big... Laboratory thing that I probably wouldn't understand anyways?"
"Yes." Chaser affirmed, walking forwards inside the laboratory where hundreds and hundreds of ponies in white coats were working and studying. Charon shook himself into reality again and run up to Chaser, catching his speed.
"Fancy place, I'll tell you that." He said, staring everywhere since he was new to this place, the ceiling had almost no end and the chattering of the ponies echoed inside the structure. "What should I be seeing now?"
"You'll know in due time." Chaser answered, refusing to speak anymore until they reached a pony in front of some sort of cylindrical giant object covered in cloth. Once the pony spotted them, he turned around and greeted Chaser and gave a handshake to Charon. "Tell him what you told me." Chaser ordered.
"Yes, of course. Hey, somepony help me with this thing!" The pony turned around asking for help. Soon enough three more ponies and a griffon arrived and helped him remove the cloth that covered the cylindrical object, revealing it was actually a tank with a strange creature inside unconscious. "Long ago we were certain the changelings could only change forms and personalities, but after a while some patrols found certain... 'Strains' of changelings with a different anatomy altogether. The changeling in this tank, as you can see, has not a pair of wings, but two instead, and those wings are far stronger than the common insectoid ones sported by the old changelings. Its skeleton is also more frail but it has bigger claws, all that I can think about is that they use the speed they build up to attack and run, in a prolonged melee they'd die too easily. You'd not believe the reaction of the patrol that found it when they saw a changeling flying three times as fast as the fastest they'd seen."
"Wait, you're telling me that those things changed this much in so little time?" Charon asked, he didn't know much about genetics but he knew this was insane.
"We don't know a lot about changelings, the fact that this is happening is something that worries us all." He began walking away to another tank, signalling the two Terrans to follow him since he was not done yet. He, with the help of his assistants, removed the cloth of yet another tank revealing a changeling that was completely different from the one with four wings. "This changeling's wings have disappeared, but they were replaced by gills and fins, Executor's navy found this... Thing in one of the naval battles against the shapeshifters and loyalists, I am thankful that they decided to send it here for studying." The pony started walking away again, reaching for a third tank that was out of sight. "This 3rd strain of changelings is also the weirdest and most dangerous we've encountered thus far, you'll have to see it for yourselves to believ--" His explanation was cut short by the sound of glass breaking and screams echoing in the distance.
"The hell?!" Questioned Charon, not knowing what was happening until he saw what appeared to be a strange silhouette of a turtle twice as big as him, with two semi-circular blades coming out of its mouth and claws as big as its legs. Its back was completely covered in what appeared to be a dark-green natural armor and spikes. "That's the changeling you were talking about?!"
"Sadly, yes!" The pony answered as he grabbed the radio he had strapped to his belt. "Subject 3-0-2 has escaped, send in the three prototypes!!"
"What prototypes?! Chaser, what's going on?!"
Chaser did not answer, he just calmly walked away from the turtle that apparently didn't even spot him due to being so far away. Charon tried unsheathing his rapier ready to fight the creature, but Chaser stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. "This isn't your fight." He mentioned as three ponies in exoskeletons ran past them covered in dark grey steel, their height reaching a tall Terran due to running on their hind legs with their guns. Charon was surprised to say the least, he was used to ponies being half his size, but once he saw them of same height he just stared with awe.
"Alpha-1 taking lead, Alpha 2-flank left, Alpha-3 to the right, double time." The voice of one of the steel covered ponies running at the giant changeling ponies was heard talking through the radio calmly, even though they'd be fighting something twice as big as them in a few seconds.
"Alpha-2 requesting permission to engage, clear firing range reached."
"Permission granted, fire at will."
The sound of a pony firing the gun was nightmarish with the screams of the other ponies trapped in the fight running for their lives, the ridiculous rate of fire that was double the infamous MG-42 of Terra and the 15.27mm calibre of the gun made this firefight uncomfortably loud and flashy. The armoured changeling, once shot, began charging at the pony that was shooting; it wasn't affected in the slightest by the pain inflicted, it even managed to close in and grab the pony with both its blades before its leg was blown open, forcing it to fall. The changeling lifted the pony high and tried to slice it in half with the rest of its strength, but was stopped once the other two ponies arrived and grabbed it by its blades, ripping them out and stabbing the creature in the skull with its own weapons. The changeling gave a loud cry before falling to its feet, now lifeless on the floor.
"So this is that 'exoskeleton project' I've been hearing lately..." Charon asked, closing in to the result of the fight.
"Looks like we're not the only ones preparing for the fight, those things appeared just now in this world, I assume its Chrysalis' doing." Answered Chaser, helping up the pony who was almost sliced in half. Its armour was destroyed in the waist.
"Uh boss, we might have a problem." Another pony in exoskeleton stated worryingly as he walked closer to Chaser with one of the changeling's blade. "Isn't steel supposed to be... Strong?" He asked as he softly scratched his armour with the blade, slicing it open like paper.
"How the..." The third pony in exoskeleton exclaimed, running at him and inspecting the part of the armour he damaged. He then grabbed the blade and stared at it, then he scratched the floor, to which the blade made an annoying sound not unlike fingernails scratching a chalkboard but with a more rusty and metallic feel to it. "Hey, where's that scientist from seconds ago? There he is, hey think fast!" He yelled as he threw the blade to the scientist, who desperately dodged it by throwing himself to the side.
"The hell is your problem?!" The scientist complained.
"...Whoops?"
"Sigh... Just let me take a look at this for a few days, I might come up with something... Don't expect any miracles, though." He ranted as he walked away with the blade.
"So, Charon, what do you think of what... Happened... What are you doing now?" Chaser asked with confusion seeing Charon too far away from him to hear, crouching next to the dead changeling that caused so much trouble. He saw how he stood up and pointed at the gun that the pony in exoskeleton had in its arms. The pony, confused, looked at his comrade shrugging, to which he decided to give the gun to Charon since he was asking for it. "Uhh you might want to wait until you get your own exoskeleton..." Chaser tried explaining as he got closer, but it was still too far away for him to be heard.
"So how am I supposed to hold this thing?" Charon asked one of the ponies covered in steel.
"That thing doesn't have a stock, mind you." The pony that gave him the gun stated.
"Alright... So it's putting my hand here..." He quietly said as he gripped the rifle. "Aiming..." He turned the gun to the dead changeling that was on the floor next to him. "And... Firing..."
"Charon, stop dammi--" Chaser's yelling was not heard until it was too late: Charon fired the gun, but the recoil was so intense and the rate of fire ridiculously high he managed to disfigure his arm completely. Specifically, his Ulna was broken in half, his Radius perforated his skin and was half outside, his Humerus was dislocated beyond imagination, and to put insult to the injury, the recoil of the gun managed to make it rise high enough for him to accidentally shoot one of the lights above, resulting in it falling on top of his head and look like a chinese hat. Everypony just stared in shock at Charon, not even wanting to think of the pain he'd be enduring in this moment.
"It's ok! I'm alright!" Charon explained as he raised the only arm he had intact. "I've got something to ask of you all! Please cover your ears, I'm about to start screaming like a 4 year old girl for the next three hours, understood?!"
At this short speech, everypony began taking off everything they had in their heads, be it helmets, headsets, hats, everything with the most feverish haste and covered their ears as fast as they could.
"Your attempts at survival are entertaining at best..." A dark, female voice echoed. "Why do you keep fighting? The only thing you're prologuing is your suffering... Haven't you all learned already? You are not supposed to win, you didn't get here because of an accident, you're all part of my plan whether you like it or not. Such fool creatures, trying to deceive me with that 'Time travel' shenanigans, my eyes are everywhere, nothing can escape me... Chaser, Charon, Executor, Concord... Celestia, Discord, Shining Armor, Atticus... Luna... None of you could stop me before, your pathetic tries become more and more annoying as time passes, but do you give up? You've all experienced the extinction of the entire pony race, you've all witnessed a simple fraction of my power, yet you throw yourselves against me yet again as if hope existed in your hearts. Why is that? Is it you, wanting to create the world anew as an utopia, seeing everypony living in harmony? Or have you all died inside already and are just fighting because there's nothing else you can do? Terrans are not scary in the slightest like most of you have been saying, they're just pathetic excuses of determination, that's what makes them so predictable. Present one with a challenge and they'll try to overcome it, even if it meant harming every living thing around them. They'll pass the challenge, but they'll refuse to look back at what they've done, they'll never accept what they've become..."
"My queen, everything is going as you have desired." The voice of Executor echoed in the darkness, but its voice was disfigured beyond humanity, it was more like a changeling speaking to itself several times over.
"Good..." Chrysalis answered. The voice she just heard was actually her own creation, it was the impostor Executor that was leading the loyalists against the real one, the first true changeling with a mindset of its own. "I assume you're still putting up an entertaining fight against Executor? We don't want to make things too easy for them..."
"Your wishes are my will to live. My soldiers would never back off from any fight unless you so wished them to."
"And how is their inquisition going?"
"There is no way to infiltrate their ranks without being discovered at this point."
"Hmmm..." Chrysalis meditated her next course of action, her voice clearly presented boredom and anticipation. "I wonder... What would happen if the three Terrans turned Berserk at once? Maybe they'll fight among themselves in the blinding rage they'll be sucked into..." She laughed to herself. "Isn't that right, Luna? Wouldn't Charon be able to end everything like I did before Concord used that time travel spell?" She asked the unconscious Luna that was near her, her clothes were worn out but what contrasted the most was that she still held Charon's scarf back when she thought Charon had 'died' in Stallinox. "The all think they are outsmarting me, the idiots... Alas, guess it's time to prepare for the main event..." She thought to herself before smiling as billions and billions of changelings, all of different sizes and speed began walking through a devastated wasteland showered in red, with rivers of lava, innumerable volcanoes and a red sky that was present in many of Charon's nightmares.
Executor rubbed his eyes and let out a loud sigh, a cigar in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. He was tired, to say the least, the continuous fighting against his own forces was far more stressful than fighting against another nation entirely.
"You've seen better days, partner." A deep voice greeted Executor as it walked through the door into the bar where he sat. "Let's see, you just got a hold of the entire capital and you're sitting here in this rotten hellhole? Damn, son, you need to set your priorities straight." The pony that was talking giggled as he moved a chair and sat next to Executor, waving the bartender for a drink.
"Cut it, Daylight, I'm not a man of fancy stuff." He ranted with a smile. Daylight was the first pony Executor met in his life after the Chrysalis incident with the three Terrans, much like Charon with Atticus, but Daylight had a more cynical look on life.
"So if you had the entire world at your disposal you'd be with little kids reading bedtime stories? Hah. I bet that Charon man is the same as you..."
"You'd be surprised, have I told you everything that happened in Terra already?"
"I memorized that tale enough times already. But one thing has been giving me a headache lately, you say Charon almost killed Discord in the end of the first war, right?"
"Discord's immortal, he cannot be killed but I guess that's as close as its gonna get."
"So Charon, judging by that 'fight' is stronger than Discord."
"Let's not think of that, remember Chrysalis had something to do with it and Discord gave him that thing that turned him semi-berserk."
"Alright... Let's put it this way then: Charon is stronger than Discord in the berserk state, is that the truth?"
"Let's say that's the truth, what's your point?"
"The corrupted... How was she called in that state...? Right, the corrupted Nightmare Moon stomped Charon like a roach in the moon. That'd mean Nightmare Moon is far more powerful than Charon."
"Well, dark side of the moon... She gathers her power from darkness..." He shrugged.
"How did Chrysalis get Luna so easily then? One moment she's one of the most powerful beings in the world and boom, gone in a heartbeat. That makes no sense at all, I tell you."
"If you're going with that logic then it doesn't. I can guess Charon and Luna fell in love with each other, but when Chaser managed to 'kill' Charon in the alternate timeline Luna was shocked by that event. When you believe one thing and then you're presented with the contrary your mind is... Altered, like a trauma."
"So Luna became depressed."
"Exactly, and you know how depression makes people weaker and void of life. I'm guessing Luna still doesn't know Charon's alive if she didn't reappear with the rage of a thousand suns to take revenge on Chrysalis. That, or something... Worse happened."
"Such as?"
"Damned if I knew."
"Fine, so what's your son planning now? Going full frontal assault against the changelings? You told me those things managed to kill off everypony in the planet in a matter of hours."
"You've never witnessed a war between Terrans in my world, some people are so crazy it looks like they pull solutions out of their rears." He took a sip of his wine and sighed. "I'm stuck here with this rebellion, I don't know the details, what I'm guessing is that he'll try to find Luna and 're-awaken' her."
"And if that don't work?"
"Charon will go berserk at the sight of everything and everypony crumbling before him. Chances are both Chaser and I will turn berserk too, if Discord's words are to be trusted."
"I ain't afraid of three rampaging berserks nowadays, you've seen those changelings up-close, ugly stuff can't be compared to anything."
"You should, Daylight... You should... Quoting Discord, a single berserk is capable of defeating a dozen corrupted Nightmare Moons without dropping a sweat. Imagine three. Let's change topics, enough drama for today. Anything new from outside?"
"Well... Let me remember... Ah yes, this 'Shining Armor' pal that follows Charon around is planning to get married to a pink alicorn after all of this blows over."
"I don't know how that'll be useful to kno--... Wait, another alicorn? Weren't Celestia and Luna supposed to be the only alicorns in existence?"
"Hey, hey, don't ask me that kind of question, I'm as surprised as you are!" He yelled as he lifted his arms in the air. "I don't know nothing about no alicorns!"
"Maybe that alicorn can help us?"
"You sure? I heard that alicorn was Twilight-whatever-she's-called's foal-sitter. I'm not too sure about sending that kind of thing to its death when it has no experience whatsoever."
"You're always shooting down my ideas, Daylight. So, in other news?"
"In other news... Uhhh..." Daylight tried to remember, scratching his cheek with his gauntlet, until he almost choked on his own breath by laughing so heavily and slamming the table.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh man, you'd not believe what happened with Charon in Kaiserreich. I heard some sort of 'testing' went awfully wrong with him and ended up like a scarecrow with calcium deficiency!! He ended up crying like a girl for hours before he was put down and sent to the hospital!!"
"...What?"
"Alright, alright, heard about those prototype guns that put ours to shame? Huge caliber, rate of fire, bulky as hell?"
"Yes...?"
"Charon tried to shoot one, but managed to break his arm entirely and a light fell on top of his head!" He could barely contain his laughter. Executor soon enough joined him in laughing. "Ahhh... Anyways, before that accident with the gun..." Daylight snorted and tried to regain his composure. "There were different changelings I heard, and I mean different entirely, not just in shape. Changelings that had more wings, others that had gills and could swim as fast as them fliers, and one elephant-sized turtle that needed an entire magazine of those guns I mentioned to be put down. Scary stuff, I tell you."
"Chaser didn't say anything else about this?"
"Nah, I'm guessing it's to avoid mass panic. When everything you know about changelings is that they're small flies and suddenly an oversized turtle appears and all that stuff, ponies will get scared out of their minds. So, do you three Terrans even have the slightest idea of where Chrysalis is?"
"Nope."
"We're all going to die." Daylight sighed as he placed his gauntlet's palm on his head.
Concord and Celestia sat in a table in the same room in Canterlot castle, drinking their hearts out as there was nothing they were needed for for the time being.
"...And then I told Charon: 'Terran, not only have you taken an army to my lands, but also started a battle without my permission. This is a warning, leave at once and never return, or this is war.' Imagine his surprise when he found out I was corrupted." Celestia said in a deep tone and giggling. Concord soon enough started laughing with her. In normal circumstances they'd not be joking about matters that directly influenced the world as it was right now, but not having a simple laugh about it would mean things would get too depressing.
"That must have hit him like a train."
"Indeed it did. Later, near the end of the war Twilight suggested going to the moon of all places to get my sister back from Discord, no windows survived his fit of rage that day."
It was obvious that they were slightly drunk.
"You think that was hilarious? Picture this: Me and Charon on the moon hunting Nightmare Moon, then all of a sudden an army that covered the entire moon appears in front of our faces. I tell you, Charon has seen his share of terrors enough already!"
"Charon this, Charon that... Start telling me about yourself now..." She suggested looking at him.
"Well... Discord himself told me I was the 'God of Order'..." He smiled as he turned down the lights with a flickering of his fingers and lighting the candles on the center of the table. "And when I saw you for the first time... That hair got me hypnotized..."
"Don't make me blush... You've done great things in this world, if it wasn't for your help chances would be we'd all be in a worse place. Say..."
"Yes...?"
"How about..." She softly spoke as she closed her lips to Concord's. "We..."
All of a sudden, images of a dark place sparkled in each-other's minds which would traumatize a lesser being. Horrible visions of a world in ruins, smoking wastelands, corpses beyond sight, all flashing in a split second. They both knew perfectly what it meant, but didn't know that the person in front of them could also see them too, Celestia backed off to her seat and rubbed her eyes.
"You... You saw that..." Muttered Concord, slightly afraid.
"N-no, what are you saying? Must be the wine, I bet it's off already-- There's no use lying, right? You could see that too..."
"I thought only me and Charon could. You know of this?"
"It's not that simple... It's Luna, she's suffering. Me and Luna are sisters, but we're also connected, so to speak, with our minds. We can share each-other's pain and happiness, but now that she's somewhere trapped, locked out the world... She's crying. Every single day I feel her screams of help not being able to do anything about it, it's starting to dig into my chest, killing me... She was called Nightmare Moon for a reason, she can communicate through nightmares, but that's more like trying to send out a message instead of properly talking..."
"That means this happened before?"
"Twice, first when she became Nightmare Moon for the first time, then when the First Great Pony War corrupted her. The nightmares weren't so intense back then because she knew someone would save her, and that was Charon with your help. But now, those nightmares are incomparable, Luna's scared out of her mind, the nightmares don't even make sense anymore past bloodshed, I can't feel anything apart from pain..."
"Those nightmares, I've been having them too, even Charon! Wouldn't that mean Luna knows Charon is alive?! There's still hope for her!!"
"Are you sure she knows he's alive, or is it just a message sent anywhere and reaching him out of coincidence...? Chrysalis captured her before she could find out he was alive..." A tear started falling down her cheek, to which Concord desperately stood up and got closer to her.
"Celestia, why haven't you told be about this?!" He asked with worry, he'd have never wanted her to hide her pain from him.
"The pain... It's not physical pain... It's psychological torture... It's ripping my soul apart..."
A loud knock was heard from the door. "Concord, Celestia, it's me Atticus!" He yelled impatiently. Concord ran to the door and opened it, seeing Atticus sporting a face of anxiousness and confusion. Atticus could also see how Concord was sorrowful over what was happening to Celestia. "Listen, I'm sorry for eavesdropping and barging in so violently, but I guess that since this is happening now it's important to be quick."
"Alright, what do you need?"
"Charon sent me to talk with Discord, he might have found a solution for this Chrysalis matter."
"...Fine, I'll be in the garden in a minute, go!"
Atticus rapidly walked away, Concord however stood his ground. He then turned to Celestia who had her face between her hands filled with sorrow and pain. "So..."
"Don't worry about me for now, I'll be fine..."
"Are you sure? I don't want to leave you alone like this..."
"The more time you spend here the less time Atticus has to find out what he wants."
"Alright... I'll be back shortly then." Concord sorrowfully left the room leaving Celestia alone, with the candles illuminating only the table.
"Were we just born to suffer...?" She sighed.
"Alright, I'm here. You sure about this?" Concord greeted Atticus as he arrived to the garden in front of Discord's statue.
"Doesn't look like we have many options."
Concord raised his hand to Discord's petrified statue, then turned its head back to normal with a swift spell.
"Ahhh, fresh air after the apocalypse of that time-travel thing. How are we all doing in this fine day?" Discord greeted with a snarky smile, he knew too well that he'd not be visited without a serious reason.
"Starting from the basics," Atticus began questioning. "You said you could feel the three Terran's presence when they arrived into this world, is what I said the truth?"
"Yes."
"Can you feel other presences apart from Terrans? Such as Celestia, Concord, Luna, and other powerful beings?"
"Yes and no. I can only feel those who are 'Active', so to speak."
"Explain."
"I could feel Chaser's, Executor's and Charon's presence because they were not dormant, they were focused on something and that'd have been managing their lands. In simpler terms, if a powerful being is asleep, or not doing anything at all, I cannot feel it."
"That'd mean you cannot know where Luna is right now?"
"Exactly."
"I'm not surprised, to be honest. What about Chrysalis? She's the queen of the Changelings, surely she's powerful enough for you to notice her whereabouts?"
"No, she's dormant too. She's purposefully not making much effort at all so as not to reveal her location, I assume Luna is where she is too."
"What would cause her to reveal herself?"
"Either she goes uppity and says 'Here I am, come at me' or she does something powerful enough for me to notice."
"And that powerful thing is...?"
"Commanding her entire changeling swarm. You don't have many options at this point."
"Woah woah woah," Concord interrupted. "You're saying the only way to find out where she is is to be in the face of extinction?!"
"You're saying that as if it was my fault."
"Dammit!! Ok, let's see, she reveals herself one way or the other, then what? We die?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no, I don't really know if she has the power to literally kill an immortal, unless of course you were figuratively speaking. It'll take time for her to mobilize her entire swarm to attack this world, it's clear that she's not hiding somewhere that'd allow her to move freely such a big army. A suggestion would be monitoring her power and when she's revealed go all-out on her. Who knows, maybe you somehow find a choke-point to defend and hold her off, but then again you might all painfully die in the slowest of ways."
"We don't even know where the attack will come from, nor if there will be more than one source of it..." Concord meditated, walking around. "This is bad..."
"We don't have any more options." Atticus sighed. "Let's leave Discord unpetrified and plant a guard here to alert us if he feels something. Hey Concord, has Chaser already mass produced those things he said he'd develop?"
"He can arm the entire world three times over with what he has now."
"Damn, he's fast."
"You'd be surprised to know what an entire species is capable of doing in the brink of annihilation."
3 weeks later...
"Concord, you copy?"
"Loud and clear, Executor, how's it going?" Concord talked with Executor through the radio.
"The rebellion progresses... Well... More like it's about clearing than fighting."
"What do you mean?"
"The changelings, they don't fight at all, they go on the defensive all the time and don't even bother recapturing territory."
"They have no use for conventional strategy, chances are they aren't even bothering anymore. Heard anything about them outside the rebellion?"
"Nothing, as if they didn't exist at all. Is this plan even working?"
"We don't have a plan b, might as well stick with this one till the end."
"True... How's Celestia? Heard some bad stuff happened to her."
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"Understandable... Anyways, if this keeps up I'm guessing it'll take around five weeks to completely erase changeling activity in this continent."
"..."
"Something wrong?"
"Nothing, that's the problem. We're up against Chrysalis as I said a thousand times already, I didn't really expect her to sit idly for all this time."
"Well alright, talk to you another day if something comes up over here."
"Later." He said before turning off the radio and throwing it off to the side. 'Why didn't she just kill us all instead of making us suffer like this to begin with?! ' He rubbed his eyes in annoyance, but the sound of a pony running and panting caught his attention. He turned around to the source of the sound and noticed the pony running at him desperately.
"Dire news, sir!!"
"What?! What is it!?" Concord was shocked out of his mind by this simple scenery, he was paranoid enough already.
"I don't have the details, Atticus just called for every single capable pony in the region to arms!! I was sent to tell you to meet him in Stallinox ASAP!!"
"He didn't tell you anything else?!"
"No, he wanted me to warn you without delay, I know nothing as of yet!"
'Has it come to this already...? ' He closed his eyes and focused, not a second later he dissipated into smoke.
He teleportated to Stallinox's castle, almost tripping on a pony he teleported too close too, the entire place was overwhelmed with hundreds of ponies and equipment, even the noise was barely audible due to so many sources, but what caught Concord's attention before he could even react was a random pony saying 'Kaiserreich received the first attack, 1/7 of the entire continental population annihilated in the engagement, still holding'.
"The hell?!" Concord yelled as he cleared the smoke he accidentally created by teleporting. "Atticus, what's going o--"
"Talk with Charon, I'm too damn busy over here!"
"Dammit, Charon where the hell are you?!" He asked running around the room, until he found him focusing on a map with dozens of ponies in high ranking uniforms around him. "What's going on?!!"
He spoke in a deep tone. "So it begins..."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Chapter 16: Falling stars
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!!
"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..."
Where the moon becomes brighter
Epilogue
Charon slowly opened his eyes, waking up in a room in Stallinox's castle after what he pulled through. Not knowing what happened, nor remembering anything, he began looking around semi conscious, until he spotted a tall figure with insectoid wings and claws inspecting a gray scarf that was on the table next to the bed. Charon's eyes opened wide at the sight of what appeared to be Chrysalis, but once he came to his senses he realized it was not Chrysalis, but Executor instead, still in his changeling form. Executor turned his head to Charon once he noticed he was waking up, and smiled.
"You're awake? That's good." Executor said.
Charon's reaction was nothing else than desperately backing off in fright, until he fell off his bed head first. He held his knee in excruciating pain and tried not to let out a yell of pain, his head also feeling the same way, both being chipped by Chrysalis' sword in the fight against her. Executor tried walking closer to him surprised, but Charon kept crawling back despite the pain until he was cornered, Executor stopping on his tracks and raising his arms as if making sure he knew he was unarmed.
"W-wait, it's me, Executor! I... Uhh... I'm still a changeling, but Chrysalis controls me no more! We won back then, there's nothing to fear. The bad thing, however, is that this changeling... Transformation... Could not be cured. Me and Chaser are stuck like this."
Charon's eyes narrowed at Executor's explanation, then became sorrowful seeing as not everyone was spared from Chrysalis' horrors. With his help, he stood up, and asked him a question. "What happened, then?"
"Berserk, the three of us, I can't remember much either. The last thing I can remember was Luna talking to me in my mind, then I blacked out and woke up in a hospital. I was told the three of us turned into Berserkers and managed to turn the tide of the entire war against Chrysalis, and that you and Luna... Became 'of one mind', they say your eyes were first blue when Luna spoke through you, then red, and finally violet, as if you two shared the same body; with that, you two defeated Chrysalis, Hell knows how, and finally the three of us fell exhausted. You and Concord were unconscious the longest, him receiving the worst wounds and punishment, and you stressing yourself past Terran limits. Chrysalis somehow managed to chip the bone in your knee and almost crack your skull open, but you recovered, I really can't even begin to imagine what you went through... Concord almost died, despite being immortal, I guess there's a threshold for everyone. He's resting in the other room. I honestly didn't think he'd pull through but, hey, this ain't Terra no more."
"Luna..." He said to himself as he held his head before turning to the Terran changeling Executor. "Where is her?"
"Waiting for you to wake up." He said as he cracked a smile. "Let's go."
The both walked out the door into the hallway, where they could hear Celestia crying already, though couldn't see why. As they walked forward into the main room, they finally saw her and realized why she was crying, she was hugging Concord who woke up before Charon, and her tears were out of joy that he avoided death by a slim margin. Charon also spotted Chaser, still a changeling too, who was enjoying a glass of alcohol sitting on a sofa, giving a thumbs up at him once he saw him.
"She's... Not here...?" Charon asked after waving at Chaser.
"She's asleep." Answered Chaser. "She's been waiting since the four of us got back from the hospital. She's in your office, the effort we had to apply to make her go to sleep and still failing..." He sighed.
Charon thanked Chaser and began walking out of the room, reaching the mail hall of the castle, with the carpet leading to the throne right in front of him. He kept walking forward heading towards the giant staircase, seeing both ponies and changeling ponies, with their free will recovered, saluting him and smiling as they saw how he was finally alright. Cracking a smile, seeing ponies care for him, he walked up the staircase and reached a hallway, from which he could see his office's door slightly open. He walked until he reached it, opening it and seeing Luna asleep on a chair with her arms and head on the table right on top of a few paper. He smiled, this being the first time he saw her without worrying about worse things, and walked closer to her, seeing her asleep without fear, without suffering.
'I shouldn't wake her up now... ' He thought, but before he could turn and walk away he could see Luna already opening her eyes, until she spotted him and stared, soon a tear following.
"C...Charon..." She could barely say, exhausted and surprised.
"Don't cry..." He said as a tear began running down his cheek too. "You'll only make me cry too..."
Luna quickly stood up, almost accidentally throwing the chair to a side, and hugged Charon before he could even react. His first reaction after that was hugging her back.
"I missed you..." She whispered.
"I said I'd find you, I said I'd free you... I said I'd do the impossible for you..." He spoke, before Luna silently kissed him in the lone room. This was their very first kiss, done without fear, without deception, without worry.
A few days later, the three changelings Chrysalis, Chaser and Executor walked on the streets of Canterlot, Chrysalis still using her Terran form.
"You fought against us ever since we arrived, and planned conquest even before then. Why would we listen to you?" Chaser questioned.
"I'd rather not end up at the bottom of the ocean as punishment. I seek redemption." Chrysalis answered.
"You killed more than two thirds of the ponies in this world, and turned into changelings countless souls. What make you think we will--"
"Hold up." Executor interrupted Chaser. "How can we trust you?"
"My powers are gone, and even then, I was defeated at my strongest point with an unlimited number of changelings against you. It's obvious what would happen if I tried again."
Chaser sighed. "We still need help rebuilding the world...Though I don't think anypony would be happy with seeing you walking around free."
"They'll have to get used to it." Executor said. "The ponies are not as vengeful as Terrans. If we can deal with Chrysalis being free, then I'm fairly certain so can they. Still, Queen of the Changelings, it'd be useful if you told us how to make use of this changeling transformation."
Chrysalis sighed and rubbed her eyes before beginning with the explanation. "Discordian Immortality made you both powerful, now with the changeling transformation that power can be used to command changelings, just like how Patriarch was powerful enough to command half the swarm to siege this place."
"That information is useless, there aren't changelings anymore."
"Not changelings in particular, but there are still changeling ponies."
"They earned their free will, why would we force them into servitude again?!"
"You have the ability to control them, it's up to you what to do with that power."
The three of them reached Canterlot Castle, and entered through the giant doors that towered at the entrace. Inside, it was crowded with ponies and changeling ponies as far as the eye could see. It was justified, however, seeing as Luna's and Charon's marriage was about to start in a few hours. Chaser held his gasmask's chin, thinking about the last thing Chrysalis said until he decided to call for a few changeling ponies, to which no less than 30 answered the call and gathered around him.
"I want to test a new ability Executor and I have, which is to say, controlling changelings and changeling ponies. Of course, first I have to ask if I have your permission to do so." Chaser stated.
The 30 changeling ponies discussed among themselves, and after a while began nodding and giving their approval.
"It is decided, then." He said as he began focusing, until his gasmask's visor lit up green. Soon enough the 30 changeling ponies' eyes lit up green too, and moved to an almost perfect square formation in the blink of an eye. Chaser and Executor were surprised by such efficiency, not even Terran soldiers trained since childhood would compare to what happened right in front of their eyes.
"...What are you planning to do?" Executor asked Chaser.
"We can surprise Charon with a sudden small performance by the changeling ponies and put these abilities to the test..." He looked around until he spotted Atticus himself among the crowd. He called for him, to which he answered by walking up to him.
"Ah, I'm glad to see you here. Glad, except for Chrysalis..." He said.
"She'll do no harm, she can't even if she wanted to. Are there still swords from the medieval era?"
"Hmmm... I remember having a problem with them a few days ago, being useless and taking up so much space... You're lucky, we started melting them, if you hurry maybe you'll find a couple thousand at best in Stallinox's warehouses."
"I see... Executor, listen, head to the balcony and once I give the signal you'll take command of the 15 changeling ponies on your side of the carpet and do as I do with them, alright?"
"...Alright."
"I'm still not sure about Chrysalis being allowed to be here..." Atticus questioned.
"She won't cause trouble. Not only she can't, if she even thought about it she'd end up wasting her only chance at redemption and end up at the bottom of the sea." Chaser reassured him. Chrysalis, who heard everything, couldn't help but narrow his eyes both in annoyance and slight fear.
"You may now kiss the bride."
Chaser was staring down below from the balcony, resting on the parapet, seeing how the marriage progressed and enjoying the sight. Charon and Luna kissed, while the crowd bursted into cheers. Seeing as the time drew near, he stood up and signalled Executor, who nodded from the other balcony in front of him. Chaser's eyes lit up green as he took command of the 15 changeling ponies on his side of the carpet, 15 dark ponies with insectoid wings who began unsheathing their swords and advanced towards the carpet in unison, surprising those who saw them as this was not planned. Soon enough, they reached the carpet and stood tall and raised their swords high, clashing with the other 15 changeling ponies under Executor's command forming an arc of swords from the carpet's beginning to end. Chaser saw how Charon and Luna were staring at him dumbfounded, still with his green eyes, until he gave a thumbs up that reassured them. Charon, with a swift movement, carried Luna on his arms to her surprise, rushing below the 15 arcs of swords that led outside where a carriage waited for them, the crowd following them as they left until the entire building was empty. Chaser stepped over the balcony's parapet and flew down below to the floor, slowly walking outside until he met with the rest of he crowd, seeing the carriage already driving away.
"Guess we'll have to call Princess Luna 'Empress Luna' from now on..." He whispered to himself, no one hearing him as he smiled behind his gasmask that hid his burnt skin from everyone. He stood silent, the only things heard being the cheers of the ponies and the changeling ponies, who cared not for their differences anymore.
"Through blood and tears..." Executor spoke as he walked next to Chaser. "...We met many horrors: Corruption, deception, misunderstandings, death... And now, after pulling through them in any way we could, we are left with this. I say we earned our damn happy ending."
"I still don't understand what this 'love' is all about." Spoke Chrysalis, walking next to Chaser.
"Live and let live." Chaser said. "It's about seeing others happy because of one's sacrifice."
"Chaser, Executor, over here!!" Atticus loudly whispered from the doors of the castle, gathering the attention of the three changlings and making them turn around. "There's something you must see!!" He kept calling for them with his hoof.
Once the three reached the doors, they peeked inside, seeing Celestia and Concord talking, as if they were waiting for the building to be empty.
"I- I don't know how to say this..." Concord awkwardly spoke with Celestia inside.
"...Concord?" Executor asked to himself, being silenced by the others so as not to risk their presence being known.
"We've known each other for so long, we've pulled through so many things... Now..." He sighed, taking out a tiny box from his pocket. "Celestia... Will you marry me?" He opened the box, revealing a gold ring with a diamond encrusted on it. At this event, Celestia was speechless, already tearing up with her hands on her mouth. The only thing she did, was stepping forward and kissing him, stunning him in his place.
"D'aww..." Executor, Chaser and Atticus said in unison at this sight.
"I don't think my old heart was prepared for this..." Atticus stated, cleaning a tear off his cheek.
Where the moon becomes brighter
Prologue
Two rapiers clashed in the gardens of Canterlot, still damaged by the siege a week ago; the ones who held the rapiers were none other than Concord and Charon.
"Getting better, partner..." Said concord with a grin as he stared through the deadlock.
"The same goes to you, even though you lived since before Equestria was founded and I barely used a rapier in my life."
Concord kicked Charon in the stomach and made him fall backwards, but before he could stab him he rolled to the side dodging the blow, stood up and hit the son of the draconequus in the back with Celestia's rapier's hilt. Concord turned around after regaining his balance and swung Luna's rapier towards Charon, who blew it out of his hands with a single movement.
"Aren't you both training a bit too mu--" Said Luna, still in her Terran form, as she passed through the garden entrance before being interrupted by a rapier to the face.
At this sight, both Concord and Charon were petrified in the positions they were. Luna took out the rapier lodged in her skull and look at both of them with a rather annoyed frown.
"Run?" Asked Charon.
"A marvelous plan, I say." Responded Concord.
They both started running away but were stopped at the sight of an entire army consisting of Luna's ponies appearing. At this moment both of them hugged each-other in sheer terror looking at Luna as she got closer and closer.
"I'll do things to you not even the Corrupted Nightmare Moon would even dare to think of..."
Charon and Concord screamed at the top of their lungs.
The Great Pony War had finished a week ago, Discord had been defeated and with that the corruption eradicated. The world had returned to its former state of peace, and everypony would live in harmony once again. But several questions remained unanswered, like the reason for the blinding light striking Charon back in Terra, or if it had affected someone else...