End of the Line

Chapters

Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Epilogue: 10 Years Later
The Dawn of a Third Age of Ponykind

Stop! You are reading the sixth and final story in the Ashes to Ashes series which in turn is a sequel series to the All Good Things and Bonds of Eternity Series. PLEASE look at the table of contents and read the series in order.

FAILURE TO READ THE PREVIOUS STORIES WITH RESULT IN YOU BEING EXTREMELY CONFUSED, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

REPEATEDLY.

Chapter 1

End of the Line
Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle felt mixed feelings about what was going on at the here and now. She nervously awaited the lift containing her, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch, Surprise, and the rest of their friends to reach the bottom of the shaft. They were going down into the heart of the Vermillion Mesa.

The lift hit bottom with a soft thump, allowing the doors to open to reveal another one, but this door was like no other that could be found at Vermillion Mesa. However, this was not a door that was unique. Twilight Sparkle herself had seen two others just like it, one in Whitetail Wood, and another in the Divide. The door was a large metal gear, with large white letters painted on the front of it. VMMB, the door to the Vermillion Mesa Missile Base.

‘How many of these things are we going to run into?’ Twilight Sparkle asked, rhetorically.

‘In a perfect world? None’, snapped an annoyed, impatient voice belonging to a one of the Cultus Mechanius’ blue robed Saracen. This one was called Glass Bauble, in the low lights outside of the missile base, she would have been very difficult to see, her brown coat and her blue robes blending well into the darkness. Her blonde mane on the other hand stuck out like a red rose in a field full of dandelions. Twilight had almost forgotten about the Saracen unicorn that was leading them into the depths of Vermillion Mesa to speak to the enigmatic Order Master of the Cultus Mechanius, an earth pony by the name of Darius, the father of Chapter Master Xerxes of the Manehattan Cultus Mechanius, who they knew from the Cutie Mark Crusaders story from while they were at FutureTec.

Twilight looked around and for the first time was focused enough to realise that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were not with them, that they had not been with them since stepping off the train. ‘Did anypony see the Cutie Mark Crusaders?’

Rarity and Applejack looked around, they too, had not realised that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were absent. ‘Oh no! Sweetie Belle!?’ Rarity cried out. ‘I take my eye off you for a minute and you wander off!’

‘’They’ll be fine’, Vinyl Scratch said as she leaned in close to whisper into Twilight’s ear. ‘Those kids remember’, she said quietly.

‘What?!’ Twilight exclaimed. ‘How do you know that?!’

‘You want to know how?’ Vinyl Scratch asked with a grin. ‘Because I’m fucking brilliant!’

Twilight merely sighed and rolled her eyes, Vinyl didn’t stop grinning even after they all filed out of the lift.

‘I’m sure whatever that secret conversation you all just had is totally important and all, but can we hurry this up?’ Glass Bauble said as she threw the switch. ‘I’ve got work to do’.

With that, everypony in the room covered their ears as hazard lights began to flash, the air filled with the hiss of steam and something from inside grabbed hold of the door, pulling it backwards, filling the air with the horrible screech of metal grinding against metal. With a loud clamping noise, the air became quiet again.

‘Darling, somepony simply must do something about that awful noise!’ Rarity cried out.

‘Uh huh’, Glass Bauble said without interest as she stepped inside, the rest of the group promptly followed her in.

‘Jeeze, somepony clearly isn’t a people person’, Vinyl said audibly.

‘Quiet Vinyl’, Twilight said, hushing her friend.

‘Yeah! Quiet Vinyl’, Glass Bauble added as she led the way down the long hallway of the Vermillion Mesa Missile Base. Vinyl Scratch’s grin turned to a scowl, but she said nothing.

Twilight Sparkle looked around, the layout was exactly identical to the FutureTec headquarters, itself formerly being the Everfree Plains Missile Base. Glass Bauble led the way into the control room, it too was identical to the one at FutureTec, with one big distinction, it lacked a mainframe terminal like the one Emerald Sparkle had appeared on.

What was more surprising was the fact that the room was also filled with several familiar faces. In the far corner observing technical readouts was none other than Ditzy Doo, the former Ponyville mailmare, who’s conversion to nephitism meant that this was the first time that they had seen her in a very, very long time. With her was her adoptive daughter, Dinky sitting next to her studying the console.

Likewise, Graham Cracker, whom Twilight supposed was the leader of the Nephites, despite his claims not to be the few times that Twilight had met him, (he’d claimed that the Nephites had no leader, other than ‘God’, though that clearly turned out to be far from the case), was speaking to somepony clad in red robes, who had their back turned to them. Twilight couldn’t help but grimace at the thought of Graham Cracker, who was covered in bandages from being horribly burned over his entire body. Twilight couldn’t imagine much of a worse fate, though the Nephite missionary seemed to take it in stride.

Obviously, Graham Cracker took notice of Twilight’s glances as his eyes shifted away from the pony that he was speaking to and towards her. ‘Master Darius? It looks as if our guests have arrived’.

The pony Graham Cracker was speaking to turned around, allowing Twilight to catch her first glance at him, he was older, grey coat with a cobalt blue mane, wearing a bright red set of robes, but what stuck out most about him were his eyes. They were pitch black, with small red dots in the middle for pupils. Twilight was taken aback by appearance, until she realised she recognised the description from the Cutie Mark Crusader’s story as matching that of Chapter Master Xerxes of the Manehattan Chapter. That had to make this Xerxes’ father, Darius.

Darius studied them all for a moment, taking in every detail with his cybernetic eyes before speaking. ‘Greetings, welcome to Vermillion Mesa, I am Order Master Darius, and we have much to speak about’.

...

Dark. Why was it always so dark?

Trixie didn’t know where she was, all she knew that she was tied up and something was over her eyes. It felt like a strip of cloth, which would make sense. It was difficult for her to move, her hind legs had been tied together, and her forelegs were tied up under her chest, pressed against her stomach. The entire position was very, very uncomfortable. Though Trixie figured that was the point. Archimedes had locked her up in here, this dark, quiet space, where she couldn’t figure out what was going on. She had no idea what had happened to any of her co-conspirators, Aloe, Lotus, Bon Bon, Lyra, Colgate, and Berry Punch’s fates were all a mystery to her, as was Spike’s, whom Trixie had not seen or heard from since the Paladins had separated them. Trixie grunted loudly and threw her weight to the left in an attempt to roll onto her back. Trixie let out a cry when she felt the bonds of her fore and hind legs tightening. She was tied down to the floor as well.

She heard the sound of steam hissing, and the sound of a metal door sliding open. That narrowed down the possible locations of where she was to pretty much just one place. That sound was a hydraulic door, which meant that she was in a room, probably a cleared out utility closet at FutureTec, which would make sense, the Fillydelphians had come here for FutureTec to begin with.

‘What do you want?’ Trixie asked to whoever had entered the room.

The response was not one of words, but rather a series of beeping noises. Trixie felt a sensation of heat on the side of her head, and with a snap, the blindfold over her eyes fell away. The room was dark, but that was not surprising, however, the red emergency lighting from outside in the hallway was enough for Trixie to see clearly. Before her was a giant metal parasprite, fluttering it’s wings rapidly as it moved to the bonds holding Trixie to the floor, heating them up and cutting them lose.

‘What are you?’ Trixie asked.

The metal parasprite beeped a few times, and then a voice from it began to speak.

Head researcher’s log, Doctor Emerald Sparkle reporting, time stamp 0532 8/1/5003 ROG... refuse to use that bitch’s calendar, even after all this time... Doppler’s not even here to scold me into staying on track... I miss that little Artificial Personality... This log is to document the recent changes made to Spritebot Durable, Subject Epsilon. The only remaining prototype of the Durable model combat Spritebot, first constructed nearly a thousand years ago, the Durable model was intended to be my prime fighting force, however there were... complications in the development of the Durable model’s Artificial Personality, as a result, Durable Subject Alpha through Delta all self terminated. As Subject Epsilon, or Sadie, as I like to call her is the only surviving prototype, it is important that it not be destroyed, which was the thought process behind this retrofit for use as a stealth, electronic and cyber warfare unit for use in reconnaissance, and sabotage operations. Using a combination of both technology and magic, the trial runs were a complete success, and Sadie is ready to be deployed into her new role immediately. That should give those fucks in Fillydelphia something to think about.

The recording ended with a click, and Sadie urged Trixie to roll over onto her back, she complied, allowing the spritebot to burn away the bonds. They snapped open, freeing Trixie from her restraints. She got back up to her hooves. ‘Why are you helping me?’ she asked

The speakers on the spritebot crackled again. ‘Fight rabble!’ cried the same voice that had spoken on the log.

‘Well, I can certainly do that!’ Trixie said with a grin as she and Sadie fled from the room, taking off running down the corridors.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Empty.

Princess Celestia could not get over the fact of how empty everything felt as she looked down from the castle balcony, so high up in the mountains towards Ponyville. The town had still not stopped smoking, even after the fires had all been put out. The Cultus Mechanius was at her doorstep, and she could do nothing about it. Luna had berated her for hours yesterday for not responding, ‘should have sent in the Royal Guard!’ and ‘at least do something!’ and other things. Celestia however, knew that she could do nothing.

The Cultus Mechanius that had taken control of Ponyvile was small, compared to her Royal Guard. Luna had pleaded, and begged for Celestia to send them in, but Celestia would not, she could not. What could her Royal Guard possibly even do against them? A single Fillydelphian paladin was worth an entire phalanx of her Royal Guards. While they were highly respected in Equestrian society, as a practical fighting force and peace keeping organisation, the Royal Guard were useless. If she had the Royal Guard march into Ponyville, the entirety of them would be slaughtered by a paladin assault section before coming within a hundred metres of them. She would have better luck sending in the Canterlot Police Service. They would still all get slaughtered, but they would get within ten metres instead of a hundred before doing so.

A thousand years ago, in times of civil unrest, the Canterlot Police Service was well equipped to deal with it. A thousand years ago, they had the CO19 specialist units to handle any threats to those streets. Until Celestia herself had disbanded them, for the safety of all, she reminded herself. All of CO19’s gear was impounded at a secure location within the city. Secure, at least, until two hundred years later, when Nephites broke into the storage facility and made off with all of it. Guns, ammunition, riot barding. Taking everything for themselves and running. Celestia thought about it for a moment, then looked back down to Ponyville, she began to wonder if disbanding CO19 was the right choice...

No.

No, Celestia knew in her heart that she had made the right choice, better that the Nephites came and took all of it away. It was part of the reason why she let them go. Why she didn’t send anypony after the Nephites to take it back. The Nephites believed that she had sent an assassin to kill their founder, a pony called Silversmith, who had stolen several powerful magical artefacts from the royal family at the insistence of an Other. Celestia did not know who this Other had been, she knew of their existence, of course, how could she not? The Others and the royal family have been at odds with each other for the last five thousand years. In the past, the Others had gone to great lengths to destabilise their rule in Equestria. They saw the royal family as wrong, a group that should not exist, should never have existed.

But they were wrong. Celestia knew that they were wrong, but what was worse, they didn’t understand. They didn’t understand why she had done everything that she had done. She was protecting the ponies of Equestria from the most dangerous thing ever to grace existence.

‘Luna’, Princess Celestia said, shaking herself from her thoughts as she heard her sister’s hoofsteps approaching her.

‘Tia’, she said simply as she walked into Celestia’s bedroom, closing the door behind her. ‘Have you given any more thought on to what I said?’

‘I cannot send the Royal Guard into Ponyville, I will not, the cost of lives will be to great’, Celestia said with a sigh. Here we go, she thought to herself as she could tell that Luna was about to get angry.

‘So you will do NOTHING!?’ Luna cried out, slipping into the Royal Canterlot Voice, as she did when she became angry. ‘TYPICAL TIA, DO NOTHING AS ALWAYS!’

‘Inside voice, please, Luna’, Celestia said.

Luna snorted in annoyance. ‘Changes nothing, typical for you, I swear, had I not turned into Nightmare Moon right in front of you, I am sure that you would have allowed me to run around unchecked’.

‘Don’t be ridiculous’, Celestia said. ‘You were a danger to yourself and others, I would have acted accordingly’.

Luna snorted again. ‘Nothing has changed sense then’.

‘I know, it is my fault, I should have tried harder’, Celestia said with a small sigh. ‘It may please you to know, I have taken an action on the situation’.

‘What?!’ Luna cried out in surprise. ‘I thought you said you were not sending in the Royal Guard!?’

‘I’m not’, Celestia said. ‘I have different plans’.

A small smile formed on Luna’s face. ‘Well this is a welcome surprise, something happens in the Principality, and Tia takes action on an incident, and even a plan that does not involve ‘throw Twilight Sparkle and her friends at the problem and hope they fix it’, I’m impressed!’

‘I sent the guard away’, Celestia said. ‘Along with the entire population of Canterlot’.

‘You... what?’ Luna asked as her mouth fell open. ‘You did WHAT!?’

‘I sent them away to Manehattan for their own safety’, Celestia said. ‘I watched as a train left from Ponyville for the Vermillion Mesa. I know exactly what will happen when it returns; the citizens of Canterlot must not be put into harm’s way’.

Luna sighed, shaking her head, and saying nothing as she turned around, opened the door, and walked out, shutting the door behind her without a word.

Celestia sighed too, it was becoming late in the day, soon enough, it would be time to sleep. She would need to be well rested for what was to come.

...

Twilight and company had been taken into a side room, where a group of ponies had been gathered around a table. At the head of the table was Order Master Darius himself, to his direct left was Graham Cracker. There were three others in the room that they did not recognise.

Darius was quick to introduce them, sitting across from each other were two unicorn mares, twins. One of them clad in the blue Saracen robes, her coat was a cobalt colour, while her mane was a dark ultramarine. She was tall and slender, one could figure that where she not a member of the Cultus Mechanius, that she would belong in the high society of Canterlot or Manehattan, eventually she was introduced to the group as Cathode, head of the Saracens.

Her sister however wore the dark grey robes of the Hospitallers, her coat was cinnabar, and her mane a deep carmine. She was introduced as Anode, the head of the Hospitallers.

The last one was one of the largest ponies that anypony could have ever seen. A draught pony, who’s body structure reminded Twilight much of Big McIntosh. His coat was a light brown, though it could barely be seen as he was clad in Templar combat armour from the neck down, a red cloak flowing over him, his mane, nearly matching. This was Crankshaft, the head of the Templars.

The three orders of the Cultus Mechanius were all before them, the Templar, the fighting arm of the Cult, the Hospitaller, and the builders of their technology. And the Saracen, record keepers, scouts, combat auxiliaries for the Templars.

Twilight couldn’t help but notice that the heavily bandaged Nephite that sat beside Darius seemed oddly out of place. ‘You’ll forgive me if this sounds rude Graham Cracker...’

‘It seems odd for me to be here?’ Graham Cracker asked, smiling with his eyes from behind the bandages. ‘You are not the first to say so, I have sat at this table many times, and even I too feel out of place. The Nephites and the Cultus Mechanius have been allies for centuries, but one such as myself never gets used to being here. Vermillion Mesa is unlike any other place, not only in Equestria, but in the entire world’.

‘No arguments from here’, Twilight said, nodding her head.

‘To the matter at hand, FutureTec’, Darius said. ‘Archimedes and his people cannot be allowed to maintain their hold over it, to allow such a thing would have catastrophic results. Archimedes is insane... and when FutureTec is still fully stocked with a full complement of Crusader IX nuclear missiles... It’s enough firepower to decimate the entire planet’.

‘You don’t think he would do that... do you?’ Twilight asked nervously.

‘With Archimedes... you can never be sure’, Darius said with a frown as his ocular implants blinked several times. ‘FutureTec must be retaken. Are you all willing to do what is necessary?’

Twilight looked to Rainbow Dash on her left. ‘Hell yeah! Not about to let some jerk take over our home town and use it!’

Twilight smiled and turned to her right. Vinyl Scratch merely grinned, Surprise smiled widely. Twilight smiled back and looked towards the rest of her friends. All of them gave her approving glances and nods of affirmation, even Fluttershy.

‘Can’t let him be a bully!’ Fluttershy said with determination under her breath.

Twilight nodded her head in affirmation. ‘Yes, we are’.

‘Then you shall have our rifle sections at your back’, Graham Cracker said.

‘And the Cult at your front’, Darius said. ‘It is settled then, tomorrow morning, we shall take the fight to Archimedes himself’.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Trixie kept her eyes forward as she followed the spritebot as it hummed ahead of her, rapidly flapping its four wings like hummingbird as they dashed through the corridors of the FutureTec Headquarters, corridors that were, surprisingly deserted.

Suddenly SD-E stopped and turned towards a locked door. Trixie too skidded to a stop. ‘What is it?’ she asked.

SD-E beeped happily as its multi tool changed from the heater that it used to free Trixie’s bonds into an electronic lock pick, it hovered towards the door lock, allowing it to slide inside the access console. Something had clearly piqued the spritebot’s interests. A few seconds later, the door unlocked with a small click. SD-E beeped happily as it removed the lock pick and watched as the door opened and SD-E flew inside. Trixie followed, discovering that they had entered some kind of workshop, the work bench had several deactivated spritebots sitting on it. In the far corner were two combots powered off and slumped over slightly. SD-E went over to the combots first, sliding her access tool into a port on the back of them and making a few clicking noises as the little robot did its work.

The first combot’s telescreen flickered to life, displaying an image of a unicorn mare, a green glowing image that somewhat resembled Twilight Sparkle. Trixie recognised the image from the Battle of Ponyville. This was Emerald Sparkle.

‘You... the robot wasn’t mimicking your voice, you’re still alive!’ Trixie said towards the combot.

‘Correct’, barked the artificial voice of Emerald Sparkle over the combot’s telescreen loudspeakers. ‘Stop cult, push back!’

Trixie eyed the combot with suspicion. ‘What happened to you? I thought Twilight Sparkle killed you?’

‘No, disconnected. Brain damaged, still think, not speak right, brain don’t put the urban in the left of centre!’ Emerald Sparkle said.

Trixie eyed the combot in confusion, she thought about it for a moment and then the realisation hit her. ‘You can still talk, but when you try to put together complex sentences, your brain messes up and makes you say the wrong thing?’

‘Correct. Think good, speak bad!’ Emerald Sparkle said. ‘Kill rabble! Push back! Hit hard!’

Trixie nodded in approval. ‘The Fillydelphia Chapter has a lot to answer for here; twenty six town ponies are dead... on top of the casualties of the Nephites and the Manehattan Chapter.’

‘Kill rabble!’ Emerald Sparkle barked again.

By this time, SD-E had finished activating the other combot and the six other Spritebots. It beeped happily at its work and had armed itself with a spare submachine gun in the process. Emerald Sparkle’s combot pointed over to a locker at the far end of the room. ‘Open up, take what there’.

Trixie nodded and opened up the locker, it was a gun. Trixie pulled it out and examined it closely. There was a box of ammunition sitting behind it, Trixie grabbed it as well.

‘Shotgun!’ Emerald Sparkle barked again. ‘Eight gauge lever action!’

Trixie nodded in understanding as she examined it closely for a few moments, Trixie may not have ever used a gun before, but a clever unicorn like her could figure it out after a few minutes of study, long enough for the combots and spritebots to fully arm.

‘Let’s go hunting!’ Trixie said with a grin as she slung a bandolier of shotgun ammunition over her shoulder, and levelled the lever action shotgun above her head.

‘Push rabble back!’ Emerald Sparkle barked.

Trixie walked towards the door, the hydraulic motors slid pushed the door open, and lead Trixie right into two Paladins on patrol. Trixie wasted no time, levelling the shotgun and blasting both paladins at point blank range.

The kinetic energy of the eight gauge shot at such a close range made it impossible to miss, and as a result the shots tore through the paladin’s combat armour, sending them down to the floor. Trixie pulled the lever forward, sliding a new shell into the barrel, and pulled the trigger again. Maybe it hadn’t been necessary, but Ponyville had become her home, and these pathetic excuses for ponies had killed her neighbours. She felt no remorse for them. They followed a mad pony.

One of the combots wrenched the paladin’s heavy machine gun from his assault harness. Discarding its own 6mm submachine gun and integrating the 12.7mm heavy machine gun into its arm. Using the other arm for support, this combot took point as it rolled along the hallway.

SD-E stopped again at another door to pick it open, Trixie levelled he shotgun forward to cover the spritebot as it worked. The door lock clicked open and Trixie turned to take a look inside as the hydraulic motors pushed the door open.

‘Who’s there!?’ cried out a voice that was very familiar to Trixie.

‘Spike?’ Trixie asked. Sure enough, the baby dragon too was tied up and blind folded in a room that had been similar to the one that she had been locked into. Trixie got down close to him, pulling the blindfold off his eyes.

‘Trixie?’ Spike asked as the blindfold was pulled off his eyes.

Trixie nodded in affirmation. ‘Let’s get you out of here!’ she said as she cut the bonds holding the baby dragon in place. The last one was cut and Spike got to his feet.

‘Thanks for not leaving me here’, Spike said with a small smile. ‘You’ve really changed a lot, you know?’

Trixie smiled at the baby dragon. ‘Thank you, now come on! Let’s go take back our town!’

Spike nodded in approval.

They encountered little resistance on their way out of FutureTec; the majority of the paladins must have all been out enforcing the will of the mad pony they called a leader on Ponyville. Spike, Trixie, SD-E, the combots, and the spritebots made it to the lift without incident. They rode up and high tailed it through Whitetail Wood towards Ponyville, passing the train station and taking up positions. Trixie saw that the paladins were all patrolling the streets, blissfully unaware of what had happened up at FutureTec.

‘Ready?’ Trixie asked Emerald Sparkle through her combot proxy.

‘Always’, Emerald Sparkle barked through the combot’s speakers.

Trixie nodded, and leapt from her cover, charging down a group of paladins caught unaware by her attack and opened fire. The spritebots followed in close to cover her. While the two combots dug themselves in to provide support fire with their co-opted 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

Trixie dropped the paladins in a surprise attack, they all fell without incident.

However, Trixie had just given away the element of surprise. Every paladin in town now knew that something was wrong; she could no longer use the surprise to her advantage. Trixie wrenched one of the fallen paladin’s heavy machine gun and raising it up. The heavy weapon would have strained the magical ability of any normal unicorn, but Trixie was not the typical unicorn.

Trixie’s magic was just as, if not more, powerful as Twilight Sparkle, what made her different than Twilight, however was the fact that she had specialised into illusionary magic. While Twilight Sparkle was one who studied a broad variety of magic.

Trixie ducked herself into an alley way, pointing the heavy machine gun out from around the corner. An assault section came around the corner and into Trixie’s field of view. She opened fire with the heavy machine gun to suppress them. Trixie checked the opposite corner. Several of the Fillydelphia Chapter’s scribes had entered into it. Trixie pulled the trigger, sending a round of scattershot into the lightly protected scribes. She pushed the lever forward and fired again. In the tight quarters of the alley, the shotgun proved to be devastating.

Trixie was attracting more attention. Soon enough more paladins were pouring into the streets. The combots moved up to provide support for her, but Trixie knew that she couldn’t hold out here forever.

That was when something else caught Trixie’s eye. Something red was flying through the air. Trixie watched as it landed near a section of scribe auxiliary fighters and exploded violently. That was dynamite!

Trixie looked up onto the roof of one of the buildings and smiled. Lyra and Bon Bon were smiling back at her, Lyra light another stick of dynamite with her magic and Bon Bon lobbed it with a slingshot into another group of scribes.

They were all putting up a heavy fight. Trixie looked up; several airships were approaching from the south from Fillydelphia. The cult was getting reinforcements.

The two combots had taken to Trixie’s side. ‘Lyra! Bon Bon! You need to move! You’re not safe up there!’

Lyra looked up and saw the airships. She and Bon Bon lobbed one last stick of Dynamite before sliding down a drainage pipe alongside the building and taking cover.

‘Going to need a better position than this...’ Trixie said towards one of the combots.

Something was wrong with it, because the telescreen showing Emerald Sparkle’s face began to crackle. Then it changed to a smiling face.

‘Hi there! I’m Mister Happy!’ Mister Happy said as he waved his manipulator arm towards Trixie. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I’ll be taking over this body for now! I just uploaded myself to it from a backup copy in the network archives!’

‘Uh...’ Trixie said nervously.

Mister Happy did not respond, instead he simply raised his submachine gun and fired.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Trixie opened her eyes to discover that she actually had eyes left to open, she looked up at the combot standing before her, the one with the smiling face, calling itself Mister Happy, and then she took a look behind her. Lying on the ground in a pool of their own blood was a unicorn scribe, a shotgun identical to her own lying next to this one.

Trixie looked back at Mister Happy in confusion.

‘I’m sorry! Did I make it seem like I was going to shoot you? That wouldn’t have been very nice’, Mister Happy said.

‘Who are you?’ Trixie asked.

‘I’m Mister Happy! Anything more detailed then that will have to wait until we are in a safer place. More Fillydelphia Chapter troops will be here soon!’, Mister Happy said pointing upwards towards the zeppelins.

Trixie nodded, and looked back over to the wounded scribe. The unicorn mare’s leg moved slightly. She was still alive. Trixie walked over to her and looked down. She was a dark blue coated unicorn mare, bright yellow eyes looking back at Trixie. ‘What’s your name?’ Trixie asked.

‘Sister... Scribe... Rhythm’, the unicorn said with a cough. ‘I’m not going... to tell... you anything!’

‘We’ll see’, Trixie said. ‘Lyra! Catch!’ Trixie added as she picked up the fallen scribe’s shotgun and thrust it in Lyra’s general direction.

Lyra expertly caught the weapon in her own magic, giving it a good one over to learn how it operated. ‘I’ll hold on to this for you’.

Trixie nodded in approval. ‘Bon Bon, help me get her onto my back, we’re getting her to hospital, I want to know what she knows’.

‘I’m not going... to tell... you anything!’ Sister Scribe Rhythm repeated.

‘Like I said. We’ll see’, Trixie said in return. Bon Bon nodded and helped Trixie hoist the injured scribe onto her back and peaked out from around the corner. The street was deserted, apart from the bodies of fallen templars from Lyra and Bon Bon’s surprise attack with dynamite. She motioned for Lyra, Bon Bon, Spike, Mister Happy, Emerald Sparkle, and SD-E and the rest of the spritebots to follow.

The group quickly moved out of the town and up towards the hospital just to the north of the town. Trixie bashed open the door with all her force, almost knocking it off its hinges in the process, and almost knocking an unlucky Doctor Nightly off his hooves.

‘Doctor Nightly!’ Trixie cried out.

‘Trixie?’ Nightly asked as he recovered from the startle, his eyes fell upon the injured unicorn on Trixie’s back.

‘She needs medical attention!’ Trixie said.

‘Of course’, Doctor Nightly said. ‘We’ll get her fixed up right away. Nurse Redheart! Get a trolley! Then call for Mister Yorrick!’

Nurse Redheart arrived over towards the group and helped Trixie load the scribe onto the trolley, and pushed it away.

‘What do you think of her chances?’ Trixie asked as she began to walk besides Doctor Nightly.

‘Well, I’ve only looked at her for two seconds, and I can tell it’s bad’, Doctor Nightly said. ‘What happened?’

‘I shot her!’ Mister Happy said.

Doctor Nightly looked it the combot in horror.

‘To be fair, she was going to shoot the blue one whose name I don’t know!’ Mister Happy added.

‘I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie’, Trixie said simply.

‘To be fair, she was going to shoot the Great and Powerful Trixie!’ Mister Happy repeated.

‘I... see’, Doctor Nightly said with a look of worry in his eyes. ‘Well, uh... I’ll get her into Mister Yorrick right away, he’s our finest surgeon, and we’ll do everything we can’.

‘Please do’, Trixie said. ‘I plan to interrogate her once you’re done’.

‘R...right’, Doctor Nightly said and gave a polite nod and walked back.

One of the other nurses, Nurse Tenderheart came over to them and informed them that several other ponies from town had taken over the main entrance waiting room and had turned it into a base of operations for resisting the Cult. She led the way into the room. Trixie looked around, most of the windows were boarded up, the ones that weren’t covered were in the process of being covered by several town ponies, and the few Nephites that had not fled with Twilight Sparkle and company to Vermillion Mesa. Along with another pair that Trixie couldn’t help but smile at as she met them.

‘Colgate! Berry Punch!’ Trixie called out as she set her weapons down in the corner.

Berry Punch and Colgate turned around. ‘Trixie! Lyra! Bon Bon!’ Colgate called out. ‘We assumed the worst!’

The group all came together in a hug and a sigh of relief that they were all unharmed.

‘How is everything?’ Trixie asked.

‘We did as you asked’, Colgate said. ‘Gathered up as many town ponies as we could that were willing to do anything about the Fillydelphia chapter’s occupation, which wasn’t many, plus the few nephites that weren’t killed during the initial attack, we gathered them here, the Cult is leaving the hospital alone, probably because they don’t want to risk losing the medical supplies here. Otherwise? It’s still as bad as it was before’.

‘You seem rather calm about things Colgate’, Trixie asked.

Colgate nodded and let out a small sigh. ‘This isn’t the first time I’ve been in a high risk situation’.

‘It’s not?’ Trixie asked.

Colgate shook her head. ‘I’m not originally from here, A long time ago, when I was much younger, I lived in a very close community. Well, there was one... pony, who was sort of a restless figure. He was a doctor, he loved to travel, and he always had this knack for getting himself into trouble. So our leaders eventually decided to send me along with him to try and keep him from getting into trouble’.

‘Did you?’ Trixie asked.

‘Didn’t even come close’, Colgate said with a small laugh.

‘So what happened?’ Lyra asked as she sat down on a bench next to the group.

‘Oh, that’s a long story, actually, it’s a lot of stories, when this is all over, I might tell you a few assuming we get out of this all right, suffice it to say, I travelled with him for quite some time... then we got separated, I haven’t seen him since’, Colgate said.

‘Colgate! Colgate!’ one of the nephites in the process of boarding up the windows called over to her. Colgate turned and trotted over to him.

Trixie nodded then turned her attention to Mister Happy. ‘You said that you would answer my questions when we got somewhere safe, well then, who are you?’

Mister Happy was silent for a moment. ‘I’m Mister Happy!’ he said after a few seconds. ‘I’m an artificial personality programmed by a FutureTec employee named Sprocket, designed for the combot chassis, as a prototype for FutureTec’s Artificial Personality/Virtual Intelligence programme which has the goal of creating smart robots for the betterment of Equestria! My program is regularly backed up to a server using a wireless connection to FutureTec’s secured data network! A back up copy of my program was automatically uploaded to the first working combot onto the network, after detecting that I was no longer sending data back to FutureTec for a period of twenty four hours! So it is very possible that there may be another instance of me running around and may be out of range, or has a damaged wireless transmitter’.

‘What happens if the other instance of you should reconnect to the network?’ Trixie asked.

‘Oh that’s simple! If the wireless network detects the other instance of me, both of instances will be immediately backed up and smart algorithms will piece together each instance’s individual experiences, sorting by time stamp, and amalgamate them together. The two instances will then be deleted from local platforms, and the amalgamated program will then be uploaded to the first combot available on the network! It’s really quite advanced!’

‘I see...’ Trixie said. She was unfamiliar with the workings of FutureTec. She might have been around Ponyville when they first popped up, most of her friends were. Some of them had even gotten jobs at FutureTec; some others had joined the Cultus Mechanius. A few of the town ponies had even converted to nephitism. Trixie had done neither of these things. She was a student of magic after all, what place did she have in the world of technology?

‘Know that look’, Emerald Sparkle said as her combot’s telescreen turned to face her. ‘Technology good. Magic also good. Magic not replacement though’.

‘Right...’ Trixie said. ‘Well, we all might as well try to get some rest while we have a free moment; we’re going to need to be well rested to take the fight to the Fillydelphia chapter’.

Lyra and Bon Bon nodded, and the three of them went over to a one of the benches in the middle of the room, sitting themselves down upon it, and allowing themselves to each drift off to sleep. Tomorrow morning would soon come, and hopefully, Trixie would be able to get some information out of Sister Scribe Rhythm.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Trixie awoke to the feel of a hoof nudging her. Her eyes popped open and she shot up completely alert, grabbing out to her shotgun and her heavy machine gun as if they were her life blood. It was Lyra that had awoken her.

‘Trixie! We need to be ready! Now!’ Lyra said.

Trixie leapt to her hooves, pointing the shotgun and heavy machine gun instinctively towards the entrance to their hide out in the hospital. ‘What’s going on?’ Trixie asked.

‘Somepony tipped off the Fillydelphia Chapter, one of the nephites spotted them approaching outside. They know we’re here!’ Lyra said.

‘Damn it!’ Trixie said. ‘Who tipped them off?’

‘Still trying to figure that one out’, Lyra said with a shrug. ‘But don’t worry, I’ve got a plan’.

‘You do?’ Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow at the unicorn mare who, three days ago, did not know anything about fighting. Well, Trixie took that back, that wasn’t fair. Lyra had been at the Battle of Ponyville against Emerald Sparkle’s combots and had fought well. Trixie’s memories of the incident flared up as she looked over to the combot that still showed Emerald Sparkle’s face off in the corner.

‘Yep’, Lyra said. ‘Nephites are good at staying out of sight and getting good information, this is what one of them told me, a Paladin assault section is heading towards the hospital right now, Six paladins, three scribe auxiliaries. Now, here is what I’ve learned from what I’ve seen. First: paladin’s gear is not designed for offensive action, rather, they’re designed for defence, to hold positions, the combat armour they wear is really heavy, and as a result, doesn’t leave them a lot of options for manoeuvring. Second, the Cult, while well trained, can’t have gone up against many enemies in actual combat, so they’re probably not as sharp as they want us to believe they are’.

‘Probably?’ Trixie asked.

‘Let me finish!’ Lyra snapped back. ‘So, taking these two things into account, we get to our third point. We might not have fancy gear, but we do have something they don’t, grace, agility, and speed. We can move way faster than they can. If we were to take two teams and rush at them from the sides, we might be able to catch them off guard and swiftly defeat them! We put that one combot with the heavy machine gun in a window on the top floor, plus a few Nephite Rifles here and there, we might be able to set up a nice cross fire. Then we take them down with little actual risk to us’.

Trixie thought about it for a moment. ‘That’s... Lyra, that’s brilliant! Did you come up with that yourself?’

‘Well, Bon Bon helped, as did staying up all night reading the Art of Warfare on the first night. Know your enemy, know yourself, and you shall never be defeated!’ Lyra said.

‘It’s brilliant, let’s get it set up! Quickly while we can still get them by surprise!’ Trixie said.

Trixie assembled a team of four nephites and took to their left flank, Lyra, Bon Bon, and another three Nephites took to their right. Emerald Sparkle’s combot took position at a window on the top floor. The plan was to wait until they heard Emerald Sparkle shooting before moving in. Trixie and company had hunkered down besides a large rock. Trixie thought it rather peculiar, as the rock had a name carved into it. ‘Tom’. Trixie shrugged it off. Ponyville had always been weird after all.

Trixie peeked up around the rock, trying to get a better look of at the paladins that were approaching. To her horror, she was able to other things as well. Several zeppelins had touched down and were offloading more paladins and supplies, but in the more immediate vicinity. She saw Doctor Nightly speaking with the head paladin. Well, now they knew who the traitor was. The thought of Nightly being the traitor enraged Trixie, sending her anger boiling. She hoisted the Heavy Machine Gun, readying it for action. She was going to shoot the doctor first.

Trixie looked up, light bounced off the robot up in the top floor of the hospital. They were ready.

Pa pa pa pa pa pa pa!

That was the signal, bullets from the heavy machine gun in the window rained down upon them. Trixie leapt up from behind her cover, unloading rounds from her own heavy machine gun while the nephites followed in close behind. Their self loading rifles storming the paladins and catching them completely off guard. Lyra’s plan worked to the letter. The paladins dropped without so much as a single returning shot.

Unfortunately, this plan wasn’t one that was going to work again. Those gunshots would have been heard. Trixie and Lyra’s group fell in upon the fallen paladins, only to discover that Doctor Nightly had made it through the gun down without even a single scratch on him. Trixie was enraged by the doctor’s actions, and pointed her shotgun at his head. ‘You get one chance to tell me why you did what you did’, Trixie said plainly.

‘I’m a doctor! I’m sworn to help all people! If the paladins were to capture you, it would have put an end to the violence! It was for the greater good!’ Doctor Nightly said. His amber eyes glowing with fear.

‘Bad answer’, Trixie said, pulling the trigger on her shotgun. Doctor Nightly’s life came to an end with a loud bang.

Lyra and Bon Bon looked up at Trixie with worry. ‘Are you okay Trixie?’ Lyra asked.

‘I’m fine, the doctor got better than he deserved’, Trixie said as she shouldered her shotgun, pulling the lever forward and sliding new shells into the under barrel. ‘We can’t stay here, the paladins are going to be coming this way, and we need to keep them away from the hospital!’

Lyra and Bon Bon nodded their heads in agreement. Trixie looked up to see that Spike, along with Emerald Sparkle, Mister Happy, SD-E and the rest of the spritebots came towards them. ‘Trixie! Trixie!’ Spike called out to her. ‘I saw a train!’

‘A train?’ Trixie asked.

‘Yeah!’ Spike said nodding his head. ‘Twilight and them left on a train! They’ve got to be coming back!’

Trixie nodded. ‘Then we go for the train station’. Trixie said as she pulled the ammunition box off her heavy machine gun, which was almost empty after the day’s action, and pilled another box off a fallen paladin and sliding it into her own weapon. The group high tailed it towards the train station; Lyra had picked up another heavy machine gun, and fired it up into the air to attract attention away from the hospital and towards them. Trixie and company made it to the train station without incident, now it was time for their last stand. The first group of Paladins rounded the corner and right into Trixie’s sights. She opened fire on them with the heavy machine gun with short bursts. Dropping two of them unlucky enough to be in front, Lyra and Bon Bon had taken to lobbing the last of the dynamite from Pinkie Pie’s stash out into the crowds, they were holding their own, the dynamite was surprisingly effective, but they were running low on it and they knew that it couldn’t last forever.

Mister Happy started firing his integrated grenade launcher, that wasn’t going to last much longer either, and making matters worse, no matter how many Paladins seemed to fall, more kept coming. Archimedes had committed his entire force to this battle.

From his position of cover, Spike looked over towards the southeast; the train was coming in. ‘Hey...’ Spike said.

‘What is it Spike?’ Trixie asked. ‘We’re a little busy!’

‘The train! It’s coming from the wrong way!’ Spike said. ‘If it was Twilight, they would have been coming in from the northwest! Not the southeast! And the engine is a steam engine! Not the diesel engine they left in!’

Trixie took a look over towards the train as it slid into the station. ‘If not Twilight Sparkle... then who...?’

Suddenly, explosive bolts off a cargo container near the front of the train went off. Sending the container falling to pieces, and revealing its contents,

‘Is that a tank!?’ Lyra called out.

Indeed it was. The tank rolled off the bed of the car and out into the high street. The passenger cars opened and in a flash, several schäferhund soldiers leapt from it.

‘Panzer Lehr! Angriff!’ one of them shouted.

The schäferhund howled loudly as they rushed out into the street, charging the paladins and firing their storm rifles. The tank followed them into battle, opening up with rapid firing autocannons.

The appearance of the schäferhund turned the tide against the paladins, and they all attempted to retreat, many of them abandoning their gear in an attempt to get away faster.

Trixie turned around to discover a Schäferhund and another pony behind her. ‘Who are you?’ she asked instinctively.

‘Hauptfeldwebel Heinrich Büchsenmacher, Panzer Lehr Division. This is Katrijn; she’s a shopkeeper from Trotterdam. Who are you?’ the schäferhund asked.

Trixie glanced over to the other pony, which looked incredibly worried and was mumbling to herself in another language. She turned back to the schäferhund. ‘’I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie’.

‘You! You’re the mare that hung up on me!’ Heinrich cried out.

Trixie opened her mouth to respond, but she was interrupted by another voice, booming loudly even over the sounds of battle.

‘Stop running! Fight! Fight!’ the voice called.

Trixie looked out to see Archimedes himself wading through battle, a magically augmented shield around him as he personally engaged the soldiers of the Panzer Lehr division, darting around the battle field quickly and with skill. Trixie’s anger flared again. She abandoned her heavy machine gun and charged the elder unicorn.

Archimedes hadn’t taken notice of her yet, he dashed by the Panzer Lehr division’s flakpanzer, slapping a small detonation charge on the tracks. It exploded breaking the links of the flakpanzer’s treads, stopping it, literally, in its tracks.

Trixie leapt at the aging unicorn, passing right through his magical barrier, which was designed to stop faster moving objects, like bullets, but allowed slower moving people, like Trixie, though, she caught the chapter master by surprise, breaking his barrier with his focus shifting. Trixie planted her fore hoof into his face, striking as hard as she could, a single blow landed, but when she moved to strike again, Archimedes moved his head out of the way and responded with a kick that sent Trixie off him and broke her hold over the shotgun, sending it clattering to the ground. Trixie got back up and both of them eyed the weapon.

Trixie and Archimedes both dove for it, struggling to take control of it in a fight for their lives.

Heinrich blindsided Archimedes, leaping at him to knock him off balance, it didn’t work however, as Archimedes had ducked at the last minute. However, the distraction had caused him to release his hold on the shotgun, when he turned back towards Trixie; he discovered that the barrel was pointed right at his face.

‘Well fuck’, Archimedes said.

Trixie grinned at him, and pulled the trigger.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

‘Faster!’ Apple Bloom called out. ‘We need ta go faster!’

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded as they fiddled with the diesel engine’s controls, attempting to get the maximum speed out of their transport. Every minute they weren’t at Ponyville to fight to free their town from the control of the Fillydelphia chapter was one that they had to prepare for their return. Sweetie Belle looked up at the speedometer and the engine temperature gauge. They were running pretty hot, but they were also pushing a hundred and thirty kilometres an hour, far above what the engine had been rated for. Sweetie Belle looked up and saw something out in the far distance. Light was shining off something metal. She took a closer look, and a look of horror grew on her face.

‘There’s another train on the tracks!’ Sweetie Belle cried out.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s faces turned to horror as well. Scootaloo took off running towards the back of the train. ‘Out of the way! Out of the way!’ She cried as she darted through the passengers that lined the rail cars. ‘This is an emergency!’

The back cars had become much more crowded since leaving from Vermillion Mesa with nearly a hundred count of reinforcements of Nephite rifle ponies, and Cultus Mechanius Templars spread between three cars didn’t leave Scootaloo much room to manoeuvre but that didn’t matter. Scootaloo pushed her way through. She finally entered the caboose and leapt into the air, throwing her full weight against the break lever and slamming it to the ground. The breaks of the train began to screech loudly, and the laws of physics began to take over. Objects in motion want to stay in motion, causing a number of ponies to fall over from the sudden shock of the attempt to stop, along with a number of unsecured objects.

Up in the control cabin, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom held on for dear life as the train came close to the other one that was parked in the Ponyville train station, they were going too fast. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom held on to each other and hoped for the best. Scootaloo had hit the brakes. That was all they could do.

Suddenly the train stopped, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked up, and climbed to look out the window, only to discover that their train and stopped mere centimetres from the other one. Both breathed a sigh of relief, Sweetie Belle then mashed a button on the control console. Back in the other cars, indicator lights began flashing green. Signalling everypony to disembark and take back their town.

At the car just behind the engine, Twilight Sparkle looked up at the light and nodded to her friends. ‘This is our town, and we will be taking it back!’ She said. Everypony else nodded. The doors opened and Twilight and company leapt out of it.

Only to discover that things were not quite as expected. There had been signs of recent battle.

‘What?’ Twilight asked in confusion as she looked around. She then noticed the disabled flakpanzer parked in front of the train station, and that there were several schäferhund pioneers making field repairs to the damaged vehicle. ‘Schäferhund?’ Twilight asked again.

The reinforcements brought from Vermillion Mesa all looked around in confusion.

‘This is very strange!’ Mister Happy called out as the combot rolled out from the train car. ‘I wonder if there is anything on the network that can tell us what happened?’ Mister Happy asked rhetorically as he accessed FutureTec’s network. Suddenly, Mister Happy powered down and leaned forward slightly. The combot rebooted, however, this time, it did not appear with the face of Mister Happy. Instead, Emerald Sparkle popped up on the screen.

‘You? Returned here?’ Emerald Sparkle asked. ‘Took long enough’.

Twilight blinked. ‘You... what happened here?’

The combot powered down again, after rebooting, Mister Happy’s face reappeared on combot’s telescreen. ‘I’m sorry about that! Here is what happened! After we left for Vermillion Mesa, the network downloaded a back up copy of me to another combot. That back up copy under the leadership of the Great and Powerful Trixie, Lyra Heartstrings, and Bon Bon, along with several spritebots, and another combot under the control of Emerald Sparkle fought back against the Fillydelphia chapter! Detachments of the Schäferhund Panzer Lehr Division arrived in Ponyville to help! Archimedes has been killed, along with Doctor Nightly who betrayed the town to the Fillydelphia chapter. Also the Fillydelphia chapter have been routed from Ponyville, they are at a significantly reduced strength, and will not be able to challenge any one for years to come!’

Twilight blinked in confusion. She couldn’t believe it.

‘Ah Sparkle! You finally decided to show up!’ called out a voice from above her. Twilight looked up to see Trixie was sitting on top of a building with her shotgun resting on her shoulder. ‘While we appreciate you bringing help, we’ve got it all under control’.

Trixie enveloped herself in a telekinetic field, jumping off the roof of the building and allowing herself to gently float down. ‘You all can start by helping us clean up the town and repair damages!’ she said, pointing towards the Cult reinforcements. They all soon enough began to filter through into the town, helping out where they could.

‘Wow Trixie... I’m impressed’, Twilight said.

‘I had help’, Trixie said with a grin. ‘I’m glad that the Schäferhund showed up when they did, otherwise we couldn’t have won, we certainly weren’t going to get help from anypony else’, Trixie said, pointing up at Canterlot. ‘Certainly not from them!’

Twilight turned and looked up at Canterlot, as did the rest of their friends. ‘You haven’t heard ANYTHING from Canterlot?’ Twilight asked.

‘Nothing’, Trixie said. ‘Apparently, Princess Celestia doesn’t think it’s her responsibility to protect her people’, Trixie said with annoyance.

Twilight’s ear twitched in anger. This could go on no longer; a leader that could not protect the people was not a leader that deserved to lead. Princess Celestia had done nothing, once again, in response to a crisis. Twilight Sparkle had made up her mind.

She was going to kill Princess Celestia.

‘Twilight?’ Rainbow Dash asked. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘What’s wrong?’ Twilight asked gritting her teeth. ‘Princess Celestia, my mentor, my teacher, our ruler did NOTHING! So you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to march up that mountain, and I’m going to kill her!’ Twilight said pointing towards Canterlot.

Everypony gasped. ‘Twilight! Ya can’t do that!’ Applejack cried out.

‘Can’t I? A leader who won’t lead is no leader at all’, Twilight said. ‘And Princess Celestia has been doing a whole lot of nothing lately’.

Rainbow Dash nodded. ‘Twilight’s right! When was the last time that Princess Celestia ever did anything to help us!? Where was she when Legion came around? Where was she when Emerald Sparkle invaded Ponyville? I’m going with you Twilight!’

‘No you’re not Rainbow Dash’, Twilight said with a sigh as she looked back towards her friends. ‘None of you are coming with me, I need to do this by myself’.

‘Twilight! Are you crazy!?’ Pinkie Pie called out.

‘Probably’, Twilight said with a nod. ‘But I need to do this myself, if I fail; only I can bear the consequences’.

‘But Twilight...’ Rainbow Dash began.

‘Rainbow, stop’, Applejack said. ‘Twilight’s doin’ this fer us. If she needs ta do this herself, we can’t force her not ta’.

Twilight looked at Applejack with a smile. ‘Thank you Applejack’, she looked at all her friends. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Vinyl Scratch, Surprise, and Rarity all gave her a smile of encouragement.

‘Good luck Twilight’, Vinyl said. ‘If any one of us can do this, it’s you’.

‘Thank you all, I won’t fail you, I can’t!’ Twilight said with a smile. ‘When I walk back down that mountain, I will be victorious!’

Twilight turned, pulling her revolver out of her bag and marching towards Whitetail Wood. She passed the train cars and then spoke aloud. ‘Legion?’

‘Yes?’ the grey Pegasus asked as he landed on the ground behind her.

‘Can I talk to Whirlwind?’ she asked.

Legion stared at her for a moment. ‘That was not part of our agreement’.

‘Then let’s make it a part of our agreement! Whatever you want, it’s yours!’ Twilight said.

‘Anything?’ Legion asked, cocking his head to the side.

‘Anything’, Twilight said.

Legion nodded, and closed his eyes, allowing his consciousness to sink. His eyes popped back open, Whirlwind gasped for breath. He started to look around frantically in confusion. ‘T... Twilight?’

‘Hello Whirlwind’, Twilight said as she pressed her revolver against Whirlwind’s head. ‘Sorry Whirlwind, I’ve made it my mission to destroy the influence of the royal family, forever, and... well, you know what that means’.

Whirlwind took in a deep breath and nodded. He began to relax. ‘I understand’, he said.

‘You do?’ Twilight asked.

Whirlwind nodded. ‘I may be my own pony now, but considering who I am? Who I’ve got inside my head? If you’re overthrowing the monarchy, I can’t be left alive. While I’m alive, Legion will always be a threat. Overdrive will always be a threat. So go ahead, pull the trigger, I’m okay with it’, Whirlwind said with a smile. ‘It was an honour, Twilight Sparkle’.

‘Likewise Whirlwind’, Twilight said.

Whirlwind closed his eyes, preparing himself for the end. Twilight began to pull the trigger.

Whirlwind’s eyes popped back open. ‘NO!’ Legion shouted.

The gun went off.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Twilight realised that she had shut her eyes tightly at the sound of the gunshot. She slowly opened them and looked down upon what she had done. Whirlwind’s body lay on the ground as still as it could possibly be. A gunshot wound in his head. Twilight frowned. Whirlwind deserved better than this.

‘I’m sorry Whirlwind’, Twilight said softly. ‘I promise you, if I’m alive at the end of today, I’ll make sure history remembers you as a hero’.

Twilight silently hoped for a moment that Whirlwind would say something in response. She hoped that he’d get back up, free from Legion’s control, and be there to help her in the task that she had ahead of her. That was silly, though, and she knew it. She waited for a few minutes, and when Whirlwind did not get up, she turned and went about her way. It was time to end this, once and for all.

...

Princess Celestia looked out upon Equestria. The fires burning in Ponyville had finally gone out, the smoke had cleared. At least there was that. Celestia looked down towards Whitetail Wood, she knew what was coming. It pained her to know that it was coming to this, but she also knew that there was no other way.

‘If it makes any difference’, Princess Celestia said quietly to herself. ‘I’m sorry’.

...

Twilight spent the next several hours climbing up the mountain towards the capital city of Canterlot. It felt eerie, deserted; the mountain road should have had at least some activity, ponies going to and fro, caravans winding down the mountain path... but no, there was nothing. When Twilight reached the city gates, she discovered that they were wide open. No guards present. She entered the city, only to find that it was completely deserted as well. It was the middle of the day. There should have been ponies out in the streets! Why was nopony here!?

Twilight stiffened her resolve. The emptiness intimidated her, she felt as if something awful had taken place, but there were no signs of anything having happened, nothing at all except for the fact that the streets were completely devoid of all usual city life. Twilight pressed on, up towards the castle. She reached the gates and discovered that there were no guards here as well.

Twilight realised that Princess Celestia wanted her to come, and she had ensured that would be able to happen. Twilight pushed open the door and entered the main hall, walking down the familiar corridors of the castle and stopping just outside the throne room. Twilight took a deep breath and drew her revolver. She threw the door open the door and marched inside.

Princess Celestia was sitting upon her throne looking down upon her. ‘Hello Twilight, I knew you would come’.

‘You did?’ Twilight asked.

Celestia nodded slightly. ‘I’ve known that this day would come for a long, long time. It’s unfortunate, now that it is finally here’.

‘Then you should have done something about it! You won’t do anything to help us! But instead, you’ve sat up here on your throne for the last thousand years and held us back from reaching our full potential!’ Twilight yelled. ‘You’re a danger to all of pony kind and I’m here to put you down!’

Celestia shook her head slowly. ‘Twilight... no, it’s not me that you need to worry about’.

Twilight gave her mentor a look of annoyance. ‘Fine, I’ll bite, who’s so much worse than you?’

Princess Celestia did not respond, and at that moment, Twilight felt someone tapping on her back. She turned around to discover that Princess Luna was standing right behind her. She gave Twilight and eerie smile. ‘Surprise!’ she said and hit Twilight with a powerful telekinetic attack, sending her flying into a stone pillar.

Princess Celestia flinched as she watched her student hit the wall with such tremendous force. Twilight cried out in pain as she slid down towards the floor.

‘Princess Luna... why?’ Twilight said weakly.

Luna did not respond, instead she hit Twilight with another telekinetic attack, sending her flying into another pillar. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been so naïve?’ Luna asked as she walked slowly up to Twilight Sparkle. ‘Do you remember me telling you that it was ME, who was the outgoing one, and Tia the one who was shy? Well that was always true, did you really think that she would be the one capable of being your real enemy? When she, even as a little filly, required others to push her into any confrontation at all?’

Twilight moaned loudly in pain as she tried to scoot herself back along the floor away from Princess Luna as she approached.

‘Let me give you a little history lesson, Twilight Sparkle, because what you think you know, even what you’d been told by Emerald Sparkle was wrong. Even in the old world, it was Celestia’s idea to kill our mother, and then brainwash me into supporting her. It was mine, and I pushed her into it!’

‘Then... you...’ Twilight said as Princess Luna hit her with another telekinetic attack.

‘Yes, you all were so focused on Overdrive, the Siblings Nightmare, and Celestia, that you failed to see the real threat. The one pulling the strings behind everything, me!’ Luna said.

Twilight moaned in pain, trying to drag herself to her hooves. She fell to the floor, and began to cough up blood. ‘But... you... you helped us!’

‘Yes... yes I did’, Luna said. ‘In the old world, I helped you, because I knew you would help me, and you did, you killed my siblings in the old world, then you set off that bomb and wiped the slate clean!’ She added, hitting Twilight with another telekinetic attack.

‘Why?’ Twilight asked.

‘You catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar. That’s an old saying that my idiot brothers could never quite understand’.

‘But... the elements of harmony! We cured you of the darkness in your heart! We defeated Nightmare Moon and saved you!’ Twilight said with a cough.

Princess Luna sighed. ‘Naïve fool! My plans were formulated LONG before I became Nightmare Moon! In fact... why don’t you ask your beloved teacher the real reason why she held back our technological progress?’

Twilight looked towards Celestia in pain. She discovered that the princess of the sun was crying. ‘Twilight, you must understand... I would never do something that wasn’t in the best interests of the people! Personal feelings never took into account! If technological advancement was the best step for our people! I would have encouraged it! But it wasn’t! Don’t you now see why?’

Luna acted before Twilight could respond, driving a hoof into her face. ‘Yes, see, Tia couldn’t bear to hurt her baby sister! She knew what she needed to do, for the good of all, I needed to be destroyed, but she couldn’t do it, so she banished me to the moon instead! She knew that I would escape eventually, and she was afraid if our technological progress were to keep on the track that it was in. When I came back, I would have a powerful army at my disposal, Equestria would roll over the rest of the world, and I wouldn’t stop there! Today the world, Tomorrow the rest of the Tau Ceti star system, next week? The entire galaxy! Tia tried to stop me in the old world, she sent me to live with you in Ponyville, hoping that you would be able to make me see what I wanted was wrong, she failed, of course. As she always does’.

‘You’re... you’re insane!’ Twilight said weakly.

‘You are small!’ Luna said. ‘You cannot possibly comprehend a mind like mine. So go ahead, think I’m insane. Won’t matter much longer’.

At this point, Luna was done talking; she began to kick Twilight hard in her chest, and her stomach. She intended to beat the unicorn to death. Twilight looked over to Celestia communicating her pleas for help through her eyes. Celestia couldn’t bear to make eye contact, and looked away as her sister continued to beat her prized student to death.

‘She is not going to help you! She cannot even help herself!’ Luna cried out.

Twilight cried out in pain as the beating kept coming. Luna decided that she was done. She had had her fun with Twilight Sparkle and it was time to put her out of her misery. She raised her hoof for the final blow, ready to bring it down upon her.

A flash of white darted across Twilight’s eyes, as a cloud of white smoke slammed into Luna at full force, sending the princess of the night clattering to the floor. The white smoke rematerialised into Celestia as she pinned Luna against the ground.

‘Get off me!’ Luna cried out in anger.

‘No!’ Celestia said defiantly, she looked towards Twilight Sparkle with sad eyes. ‘I am so sorry’, she said. The two royal sisters turned into clouds of white and purple smoke, and rose into the air. Twilight watched as the smoke clouds tangled and entwined with each other. She heard Princess Luna’s voice shriek, as the two clouds became enveloped in a bright light. The light filled the room completely and then went out. The echoes of screaming filing the halls, and then became silent.

Twilight sighed and fell back onto the ground. It was over. Princess Celestia had sacrificed herself to kill Princess Luna.

Twilight closed her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to sleep.

Crack!

Twilight’s eyes shot back open as she felt the whole mountain city began to shift. ‘Oh no!’ Twilight cried out. She forced herself to her hooves and began to drag herself out of the castle. Twilight should have realised this long ago. The mountain city was not architecturally sound; there was no way that such a city could have ever possibly held itself up on this mountain the way it had been built. The city was held up by magic. Without the Princess here...

Twilight pulled herself out of the castle to discover that her hypothesis was right. Large cracks were forming in the ground and the streets of the city. Canterlot was going to fall.

The entire city gave way at once, falling from the mountain and down towards Whitetail Wood. Twilight fell along with it down towards the ground, she didn’t scream, she didn’t struggle. Twilight closed her eyes as a white light began to overtake her.

This was the end of things as she knew it. Twilight Sparkle had come to the end of the line.

Epilogue: 10 Years Later

Epilogue: 10 years later

‘... now, Equestria is a parliamentary republic! Now who can tell me what that means?’

One of the foals from raised their foreleg into the air from her desk. Cheerilee smiled at her and pointed at her. ‘Go ahead Rocket’.

‘That means that we choose who represents us in government by voting for a party that we like! The party then picks one of their members to represent the area that they were picked in’, the little filly, called Rocket said.

‘Very good Rocket! Now, the Equestrian Republic was founded ten years ago, back then, everything was a lot different than it is today. I have here a picture from when I was a little older than you all!’ Cheerilee pressed a button on her slide projector and up popped an image of her when she was younger. In hindsight, she found herself a little embarrassed by it, the picture of her was when she was much younger, her mane was a frizzled mess, her teeth were covered by braces, and her earrings! Ridiculous ones shaped like lightning bolts... and the leg warmers. Never again.

‘Look at her hair!’ one of the other students called out.

‘Yes I know, but honestly, that's how everyone was wearing their mane back then!’ Cheerilee said. It was the sad unfortunate truth that this image of her was one that had been the norm when it had been taken nearly twenty five years ago.

‘Miss Cheerilee!’ one of the other students called out. ‘What are those on your flank?’

Cheerilee took a look at the picture and realised instantly what the student had been talking about. She looked back down at her flank, nostalgically reminiscing about her now missing cutie mark. ‘I’m very glad you asked that Turbo, this was called, a cutie mark. Before the Equestrian Republic was founded, everyone had one once they got to about your age, we didn’t fully understand them at the time, but we eventually came to learn that cutie marks were a nice way of saying ‘brand’, as in, those who had them were unwitting property of royal family... but I’ll get into that a little later. Now, back to the republic! The party that gets the most votes in an election becomes the majority party, they form up the back bone of the government, and they pick the Prime Minister and their cabinet to lead the government! The party with the second amount of votes becomes the opposition. Now, who can tell me who the Prime Minister of the Equestrian Republic is?’

Rocket’s foreleg shot up. Cheerilee chuckled; there was a reason why she was called Rocket, after all. ‘Go ahead Rocket’.

‘Why, the current Prime Minister is Scootaloo!’ she said.

Cheerilee smiled brightly at Rocket. ‘Very good Rocket! Scootaloo is indeed the second and current Prime Minister of the Equestrian Republic, and she comes from the Pony’s Progressive Party, they lead parliament at this time, you know? When Scootaloo was your age, I had her for a student!’

There were a number of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from the group of students. Turbo raised his hand again. ‘Miss Cheerilee? If Scootaloo was the second Prime Minister, then who was the first?’

‘Ah... well, that would have been...’ Cheerilee began, however the bell interrupted her before she could continue. ‘Well, we’ll have to finish this tomorrow, read chapter three out of your text book for class tomorrow, we’ll pick up right where we left off!’

Cheerilee closed up her books and watched as her students all filed out of the class room on their way home. ‘Ah to be young!’ Cheerilee said with a smile.

‘They’re really the lucky ones, aren’t they?’ asked a voice from the door, causing Cheerilee to jump a little in surprise as she looked towards the door. She smiled as she looked towards the door.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you Cheerilee’, Twilight Sparkle said as she trotted into the room.

‘Twilight! Good to see you! Ironically enough, we were just talking about the founding of the Republic today, we left off with one of my students asking me who the first Prime Minister was’, Cheerilee said.

‘That is ironic!’ Twilight Sparkle said with a grin. ‘Well, you know what they say, “speak of the devil and he shall appear!”’

‘Indeed they do, Madam Prime Minister’, Cheerilee said with a grin.

‘Oh stop!’ Twilight said. ‘I’m not the Prime Minister anymore! But I’ve left the government in good hooves. I’ve only been grooming Scootaloo to take my place for two years, since she had her accident...’

Cheerilee nodded her head. ‘Yes, I was there when she had her accident, first show as Captain of the Wonderbolts... she hit the ground so hard... it’s a wonder she survived at all...’

‘Scootaloo is tough, that’s why she’ll make a great Prime Minister’, Twilight said.

‘Indeed she will’, Cheerilee said as she finished packing up her things. ‘Well, I’m heading out, care to walk with me? It’s been a long time since we got a change to talk’.

‘Of course! It happens when you’re the Prime Minister!’ Twilight said with a grin. She and Cheerilee walked through the hallways of the school and out towards the front doors.

‘Do tell me Twilight, after you overthrew the Princesses, how did you survive Canterlot falling down around you?’ Cheerilee said.

‘Oh come now Cheerilee, you teach this!’ Twilight said giving her friend a friendly bump as they walked.

‘Tell me anyway!’ Cheerilee said with a chuckle.

‘I concentrated really hard, and teleported back to Ponyville, scared the hell out of everyone because I accidentally took a few bits of debris back with me’.

Twilight and Cheerilee stepped out of the school and out onto the street, they couldn’t help but look up. ‘Sure has changed a lot in ten years hasn’t it?’ Cheerilee said as a zeppelin passed over their heads, manoeuvring between two sky scrapers.

‘Yeah...’ Twilight said. ‘Yeah it has’.

Fin.

The Dawn of a Third Age of Ponykind

And so another chapter in Equestrian history came to a close, with the deaths of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the ponies of Equestria entered a third age of ponykind. In the first age, during the reign of Gaia, ponies were too young to make their own decisions. In the second, ruled by Princess Celestia and Luna, they were manipulated by forces that thought they knew what was best for them. Now, now in the third, they were finally standing on their own. It was a new age of ponykind, and the heroes would lead them through it.

...

Surviving the fall of Canterlot by teleporting away at the last moment, Twilight Sparkle was rushed off to hospital after arriving back in Ponyville. Where she had a lot of time to think about what had happened to her. During that time, she drafted the constitution of the Equestrian Republic, and founded the Parliament in Ponyville; the change in government was not well received by all, particularly the haughty, high class unicorn aristocracy that had been ushered to Manehattan from Canterlot before its fall. Twilight was, however, eventually able to get them to fall in line using the economic power house of FutureTec to expand the Republic’s sphere of influence. In under a year, all of the territory controlled by the Principality of Equestria acknowledged the Republic as their government. Twilight founded the Ponies Progressive Party and would serve as the Republic’s Prime Minister for two, five year terms before handing control of the party over to her successor, Scootaloo.

...

FutureTec became the back bone of the Equestrian Republic’s industry right away! Under the leadership of the former Cutie Mark Crusaders, who dropped the name after the fall of Canterlot, when everyone’s cutie marks disappeared, The Equestrian Republic rapidly modernised into a position of economic dominance in the world! Even becoming more influential than the Welaran Commonwealth! It was a really great time! Unfortunately, differences in opinion of where to take FutureTec would eventually lead all three to leave the company, naming a systems engineer named Sprocket as the new CEO! Under Sprocket’s leadership, FutureTec would go on to create everything from toasters to missiles! Even securing a number of contracts to build munitions for the new Republican Army! Mister Happy however would eventually be decommissioned and sold for scrap when he became obsolete, that wasn’t very fun for him, but he understood!

...

The Great and Powerful Trixie, being recognised for her leadership during the Third Battle of Ponyville would go to become head of the Republican Army, turning in the title of Great and Powerful, for Field Marshall. She was more than okay with this.

...

Lyra and Bon Bon were recognised as Heroes of the Republic for their actions during the Battle of Ponyville. They eventually married, Lyra became pregnant though in vitro fertilisation, and they had a daughter, who they loved and raised to always be fair to others. Their descendants would all end up taking a role of serving the public from now until the end of time.

...

Big McIntosh became involved in politics, founding the Conservative party of Equestria, while he had voted for Twilight Sparkle’s party in both of Equestria’s first two elections, he believed that Equestria would need balance for the new Republican form of government to be stable. He would remain leader of the opposition for Fifteen years, until his Conservative party won control of parliament after winning a land slide election after the Republic slid into a recession.

...

Braeburn became the owner of one of the largest agricultural operations in all of Equestria, after revitalising the area that had once been Appleooosa, his farming and herding business would rocket him to wealth, though he would regularly donate most of his income to charities.

...

The Nephites were welcomed into Republican society with open arms because of their actions at the Second and Third Battle of Ponyville. Ditzy Doo would go on to become the bishop of New Maneaan, Graham Cracker would organise five regiments of nephite rifle ponies and become the core back bone of the Republican Army. Nephitism became a popular religion for ponies in Republican society, though several other sects would split off from the main core.

...

After leaving FutureTec, Apple Bloom would start a new company, AppleTec, specialising in computer of all sizes, from widely used mainframe systems, to the first generation of the micro-information processor, or MIP, which would become a house hold item.

...

When Sweetie Belle left FutureTec, she would eventually break out into a music career, after rumours of her manager, Pips Domino, arranged for her to be kidnapped to jumpstart her career. The kidnappers promptly brought her back after discovering that she was too annoying, and the allegations against Pips Domino were never proven.

...

Scootaloo would go on to join the Wonderbolts after leaving FutureTec, becoming the youngest Pegasus to ever captain the team. However, her career would be cut short after a tragic accident during her first show as captain would force her to retire. She later became involved in politics, joining the liberal Ponies Progressive Party, and becoming Prime Minister after Twilight Sparkle. She would serve one term as Prime Minister, before the Ponies Progressive Party was voted out of office following a recession caused by FutureTec’s absorption of Sweet Apple Acres enormous debt.

...

Surprise disappeared mysteriously after the founding of the Equestrian Republic, witnesses reported that she looked up to the sky as if someone had called to her, spread her wings, and taken off. No one ever saw her again. Vinyl Scratch was crushed.

...

Vinyl Scratch entered a period of deep depression following Surprise’s disappearance. She began drinking heavily for several years until her liver failed. Vinyl Scratch is to be remembered by history for being the first pony ever to have an artificial liver implanted into their bodies. After receiving her robotic liver, and spending several years seeing a therapist, Vinyl Scratch would finally get a hold on her life, she went on to marry and gave birth to a daughter. She made sure that her daughter grew up better than she did.

...

Fluttershy too, would become involved in politics, founding the Green Party, devoting themselves to environmental concerns of the Equestrian Republic’s rapid industrialisation. The Green Party would usually enter into coalitions with the Ponies Progressive Party, who shared many of their concerns. In her private life, Fluttershy would become even closer to Katrijn, the Nederlander shopkeeper, and the two would spend many happy years together.

...

Pinkie Pie would go on to take over Sugarcube Corner from the Cake family! She transformed the small bakery into an internationally recognised icon. Pinkie Pie would always love Twilight Sparkle, and even though the two of them never got together, they would remain close friends until Pinkie Pie died peacefully in her sleep in Year 54 of the Republic, leaving behind her accumulated wealth to charities to help poor children growing up in struggling rural areas, just like she did.

...

Rainbow Dash would eventually drift apart from Twilight Sparkle. While the two would remain friends until her death in year 35, they never were quite able to achieve the spark that they had when they first got together. Rainbow Dash would go on to live her lifelong dream of joining the Wonderbolts, and would become captain of the team after Scootaloo’s forced retirement.’

...

Applejack never quite figured out her immortality. She began to learn to speak hispañol and one day, she dyed her coat and mane, slipped into the fancy accent she learned when she was young and headed off in the middle of the night for the port of Fillydelphia and boarded a ship for the Hispaña Third Republic. She would come back to Equestria every ten or so years, never aging a day, just to check up on things. In Year 18 of the Republic, she ran into a drunken Vinyl Scratch, who proclaimed that she saw through the disguise. Though she passed out and would not remember the event, Applejack carried her friend back to her apartment and tucked her into bed. She would then leave and never look back, at least, not until she decided to visit again in the next ten years.

...

Rarity would use investment money from FutureTec to expand her markets out to the far reaches of Equestria, eventually; Carousel Boutique would become a house hold name, not only in Equestria, but throughout the entire world! She would go on to travel through Europa, living the glamorous life she always desired. During a trip to Westhall, in the Kingdom of Welara, she would fall for a local by the name of Tommy Atkins, and the two of them would eventually marry.

...

Heinrich Büchsenmacher along with the rest of the Panzer Lehr Division was honoured by the Equestrian Republic for their sacrifices at the Third Battle of Ponyville. The action would cause Equestria to form closer relations with Bundesrepublik Schäferhund, costing the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms their only friend in the world. The Gryphons would enter a period of prolonged isolation, becoming the backwater of Tau Ceti IV. Heinrich, himself would become a close friend of Twilight Sparkle, and while Twilight would never remember the time they spent together. Heinrich was okay with just being her friend.

...

The Evil of the Tome of Alhazred would not go forgotten. A Cossack Confederation Military Officer by the name of Vasily Dzhugashvili would discover the book lying caught under a log in River Rijn, while on holiday. He would take the book home, discovering that it was undamaged, and read it. Upon his return to the Confederation he would go on to gather support for a revolt, and over throw Czar Alexandre II, establishing the Unified Presidium of Socialist Republics, a state that would go on to challenge the newly founded Equestrian Republic for a dominate sphere of influence in the world.

...

As Equestria entered its third age, they knew that the road ahead of them would not be an easy one. But they also knew that the easy paths in life were the ones that were not worth walking. After all, that was the thing about this road. The Long Road never ends.