Code Geass: Lelouch of Equestriaby Dawn FlowerChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 1Chapter 1 “I destroy… the world… and create it… anew.” As Lelouch’s life began to fade away, his last sight was of his sister, Nunnally. He had finally accomplished what he had set out to do, and created a new world where his little sister could live in peace. The rest of the world was now united in their hatred of him, and resources previously directed towards war and fighting, were now being used to end world hunger and poverty. Lelouch had become the symbol of all the hate and injustice in the world, and now it would all die with him. That was the Zero Requiem. As Lelouch’s vision began to darken, the last thing he saw was the terrified look on his sister’s face. She clutched his hand in her own, and she began desperately calling out to him, begging for him not to leave her. Lelouch could feel the hurt in her voice. It was too much for him to bear. He had broken his biggest rule and made Nunnally cry. This one fact had almost made him regret his decision. Nunnally had once told him that all she needed to be happy was to be with him. Even though he knew that that would never be enough, he had only just now, in his final moments realised just how upset she would be with living without him. He knew that she would continue living and make the most out of it, but she would still feel empty and sad for the rest of her life; and he had done that to her. It was all just too much for him. As his eyes closed shut, the last of his life force faded away. Lelouch Vi Britannia was dead. However, it was not the end. All Lelouch could see was a total blackness. He couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t hear anything, and he couldn’t feel anything. “Am I dead? Is this what death is like? After everything I did, an eternity of this is nothing less than I deserve. But at least... I was finally able to end the cycle of conflict. If this is my fate, then so be it.” However, suddenly his vision began to brighten a bit. He then felt a slight pain in his eyes; like the sunlight was shining down too hard on him. He instinctively twitched his eyes, and then quickly realised that he could feel his eyes again. His eyes opened up slowly, but he quickly squinted them shut again because of the harsh sunlight. The Sun was shining high in the sky, directly above him. The sky was a bright blue, with no clouds in the sky. He had to admit that it was beautiful. His body was currently spread out on the ground. He could feel the soft grass pressing gently against his skin. He didn’t feel like he was wearing clothes, but he didn’t question it. He remembered dying, and so he thought that this must be the afterlife, so it made sense that he would not be wearing clothes anymore. He did find it strange, however, that his afterlife would be this peaceful, and prepared himself for some sort of change for the worse that was coming soon. As he lay spread out on the grass, peacefully, he tried to flex his fingers, however, his eyes suddenly shot open and he readied himself for that big change in his current situation that he had prepared for; he couldn’t feel his fingers. He could feel his arms, but not his fingers. It felt as if his arms had been cut off at the hands. Lelouch slowly raised his hand up to his face so that he could get a proper look at himself. His eyes widened even more, and he tensed up upon seeing that he didn’t have a hand anymore; he had a hoof. He was completely dumbstruck at this revelation. “What the Hell?” After his earlier relaxation, and his current freak out, Lelouch now had plenty of energy in his body. He picked himself up and stood upright; however, as soon as he was standing up straight, he almost immediately fell back down frontwards, landing on all four hooves. Lelouch had no idea what was going on. Was this supposed to be his eternal damnation? But even still, why did he appear to be a horse? When he was standing up on four hooves, he gave his new body a close examination. He now had a dark purple coat, and a black mane that matched his usual hairstyle. He also noticed that, judging by his size, he seemed small for a horse, and deduced that he was actually a pony. This deduction didn’t make his current situation any less crazy, though. As he continued examining himself, what he found most bizarre about this situation was that he had a Geass mark on his flank; a red, bird-shaped symbol. Did this mean that he still had his Geass powers? But why was it on his flank now? Lelouch raised his hoof up to his left eye, like he always did when he thought about his Geass. Still not saying anything, he tore his gaze away from his new body, and took a closer look around at where he was now. He was in a huge field, filled with luscious green grass. The Sun shining down through the cloudless, blue sky made the area look surreal. The area in front of him was a big, open space, with nothing but the field visible on the horizon. On either side, there was a small mountain range, that encircled this area, but with an opening of sorts directly ahead of him. The area looked like a mountain valley. Behind him, where the mountains on either side converged with each other, there was what looked like a small town over in the distance, with stone buildings built right into the mountainside. From where he was standing, there was a path that lead into the town. Lelouch turned around to look at the town in the distance; not an easy thing to do with only three hooves on the ground. As he turned around, he lowered his left front hoof again, and he looked down at the ground as he started thinking. “What’s going on here? Where am I? And why do I look like a pony?” He then looked back up and faced the town in front of him, still with a confused look on his face. “Is this Hell? Was I sent here when I died because of all the bad things that I did?” He then thought about the Geass mark on his flank. “And why do I still have a Geass mark? Do I still have my Geass powers, or does it mark that I used to have it? Just what does this all mean?” “Hey!” Lelouch suddenly heard a voice call out from behind him. He turned around to see who it was, and he was surprised to see a strange creature, hovering in the air just a few feet behind him. The creature looked strange, but also somehow familiar. It had an eagle’s head and a lion’s body. From what Lelouch could remember, this creature was called a griffon, and he could somehow tell that it was female. What he found most strange was that this griffon was holding a gun in its claw; and she was pointing it right at him. Lelouch didn’t blink as he stared down the barrel of the gun. After several seconds of silence, the griffon started to speak again. “Just what are you doing here, pony? Gryphallia is still a sovereign state of the Griffon Kingdom. You ponies have no place here.” The griffon then gripped her gun with her other claw and kept in pointed at Lelouch. Lelouch didn’t know what to do. If he still had his Geass, he could just order her to put the gun down, or kill herself. However, even if he did still have his Geass, he didn’t want to waste it. This griffon was clearly hostile to ponies, and there was obviously something going on between the two races; however, if she was truly tyrannical or evil, then she would have shot him by now. Since she was hesitating, he knew that she could be reasoned with. This could also be a good chance to get some information on where he is right now, and what was going on. “I’m sorry, I’m new around here.” Lelouch spoke in a kind and gentle tone of voice. “If you could tell me where I am, as well as give some information on the current situation then I would greatly appreciate it.” Lelouch gave a charismatic smile as he finished talking. The griffon snarled back at him when he was finished speaking. However, she then lowered her gun slightly and hesitated for a moment before she spoke again. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?” When Lelouch didn’t respond or make any gestures, she knew that he wasn’t kidding. The griffon looked down at the pony in front of her. He still wore that same charming smile on his face, as he patiently waited for an answer to his question. Since this pony honestly looked like it didn’t know what was going on, and since he didn’t look too intimidating, since he was just an earth pony and couldn’t hit her while she was in the air, she lowered her gun to her side, but still held it in her claw. “You really don’t know what’s going on right now?” The griffon asked in a calm and quiet tone. “That’s right.” Lelouch responded. “Then what are you doing in griffon territory?” She responded in a louder tone of voice this time. “That’s a bit of a long story.” Lelouch responded immediately. “However, if you tell me what I want to know, then I’ll tell you what you want to know. Sound fair?” The griffon simply stared back at him and folded her claws together. After a few seconds of silence between them, she then closed her eyes briefly and let out a short sigh. “Alright then.” She said as she opened her eyes, unfolded her claws, and looked down at Lelouch; the expression on her face was now slightly angry. “Six months ago, you ponies annexed the Griffon Kingdom by force. You said that you wished to improve trade and relations between our kingdoms. Princess Celestia said she wanted to create a zone in our land, just for ponies, where we could all learn to live amongst each other. It seemed like a good idea at the time, until we realised that the zone would fall under Equestrian jurisdiction and laws, and would include a military occupation. When we realised what that would mean for us, we rejected the offer.” The griffon furrowed her eyebrows. “That’s when the fighting started, and in the crossfire a griffon child died. Oh sure, you claimed that it was just an accident, but we know better now. Once the child died, we started fighting back at full force, and it looked like it was going to be an absolute massacre of you ponies. That is, if it wasn’t for the entire Canterlot military that was stationed just outside our borders. They entered the front lines within hours of the attack, and started killing every griffon involved in the fighting.” The griffon then clenched her claw into a fist at her side. “That was the Princesses plan all along. Rile us up and force us to strike first so that she would have a justified reason to move in and take our country by force. There’s no other way; it was all just too perfect.” The griffon was now really riled up, and directing her anger towards Lelouch. “We had more advanced technology and weapons, but even with that advantage, we were no match for the pony’s magic. In just four months, they took complete control of our country, and now only a few pockets of resistance remain.” As Lelouch listened to more and more of this griffon’s story, he couldn’t believe how similar it was to his own. This was Brittania invading Japan all over again. Lelouch took one step forward, and the griffon quickly drew her gun again and pointed it at him. “Hold it right there.” She then narrowed her eyes at him. “Not another step.” Lelouch looked up to look this griffon in the eye. “Listen I…” Before Lelouch could finish speaking, a small spear suddenly came out of nowhere, and knocked the gun out of the griffon’s claw and sent it hurdling towards the ground. Both Lelouch and the griffon were surprised at this, and turned around to see where the spear had come from. Several feet behind them, there were five white pegasus ponies, wearing gold armor, hovering in the air. They were all holding a spear in their front hooves, and they had several spears strapped to their backs. One of them drew another spear from the supply on his back to arm himself again. One of the pegasi then turned his attention from the griffon to Lelouch. “Are you alright, citizen? Don’t worry, we’ll save you from this terrorist Beast.” The griffon snarled at this pegasus’ words, but Lelouch just stepped forward to address them. “You don’t understand. This is all just a misunderstanding. I’m not being held captive. I just showed up here, and she was just giving me directions.” The pegasus simply harrumphed in response. “Well then, clearly you don’t understand the severity of the situation. That there is Gilda; a member of the Talons terrorist group, threatening to disrupt the peace of Equestria.” The griffon simply snarled back at them. “Bastards.” The pegasi all continued to glare back at her. Her eyes then drifted down to where her gun landed on the ground. The pegasi followed her line of sight. The next second, Gilda quickly darted towards the ground to grab her weapon; however, one of the pegasi reacted quickly and threw his spear at her. The spear found its target, and collided with the griffon’s shoulder. The attack wasn’t fatal, though it was enough to knock her to the ground and cause her to lose consciousness. As her body fell to the ground, Lelouch raced over to where she fell. “Gilda!” Lelouch stopped when he was right next to her body, standing over her. He simply stood there silently, staring down at her limp body. “Stand aside, citizen.” One of the pegasus guards called out from behind him. “We’ll finish off this terrorist and then escort you safely back to Equestria.” “Tell me.” Lelouch started. He spoke in a completely calm demeanour, and he didn’t turn around to face them. “You would attack someone who isn’t even conscious?” The guard who spoke earlier hesitated for a second, and huffed slightly before responding. “If that someone is a terrorist Beast, who threatens the lives of innocent ponies, then yes.” As Lelouch listened to this answer, his face broke out into a smile. “Alright then.” He then turned around in order to face the five pegasi in front of him. “She already told me her side of the story about what happened between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom. Now you tell me your side, if you please.” Lelouch spoke in a very smug tone of voice. The lead pegasus simply stared back at him for several seconds, eyes unblinking. This pony seemed very strange. After several seconds, he then smirked back at him, similar to how Lelouch was smirking at him. “Alright, since you apparently need a history lesson. Six months ago, the ponies of Equestria came to the Beasts with a peace treaty under orders from Princess Celestia. She had the intention of creating a zone in the country where ponies and Beasts could all live together in harmony, in order to improve our relations, which have been a bit rocky lately. However, after we arrived, these Beasts not only refused our offer, but began open firing on the soldiers that we sent in as ambassadors. When we saw that they had no intention of treating with us from the start, diplomacy was no longer an option. How could we negotiate with a race that set us up like that? We then had no other choice left but to defend ourselves; we were forced to fight them. By that point, however, we had passed into a full blown war.” Lelouch listened to the pegasus’ explanation carefully, noticing the differences and similarities to Gilda’s story. “And so you annexed their whole country by force?” He asked. The pegasus’ arrogant smile fell slightly. “Yes. We had to make an example out of these brutish Beasts. If they wouldn’t accept peace on their own terms, then we had to teach it to them by force. They are citizens of our Empire now, and they must learn to follow our rules, obey our laws, and learn to live in harmony with us. Now if only these terrorist groups could accept that, then everything would be perfect.” Lelouch suddenly started bursting out laughing after listening to this pegasus guards’ story. The other pegasi started to become annoyed at this, and inched closer to him, gripping their spears tightly. Lelouch then stopped laughing and spoke again. “Peace through war. That was the gist of your story, wasn’t it. Because that’s all I got from it.” The lead pegasus snarled angrily at him. “How dare you? You are an Equestrian citizen, aren’t you? How could you say such things?” Lelouch smirked again. “I’ve heard enough propaganda to be able to tell whose story is real, and whose is a bunch of political satire; and your little tale had government influence all over it.” The pegasi were now outright fuming. Lelouch then turned his head back around to look at Gilda, who was still lying on the ground, unconscious. “By the way, I’m pretty sure these creatures are called ‘Griffons’, not Beasts.” Suddenly, all of the pegasus guard’s eyes widened. “How dare you refer to these creatures by that name. They have lost the war, and so they have lost the right to call themselves by that name. They are simply Beasts.” The lead pegasus flew out ahead of the others, and he narrowed his eyes as he stared down at Lelouch. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were a Beast sympathiser.” Lelouch didn’t hear the second part of the pegasus’ rant. He lowered his head in thought. After hearing how they took away the griffon’s right to call themselves griffons, he saw the true state of things here. It really was just like Brittania and Japan. If he wasn’t certain before, he was now. “Well…” The pegasus guard continued. Just as he opened his mouth to continue, Lelouch suddenly cut him off. “No one has the right to take away a race of people’s identity.” He spoke calmly and quietly, but full of meaning. He then suddenly lifted his head up to look the pegasus in the eye. “These creatures are called griffons!” The lead pegasus, and the four behind him all reacted as if they had been pushed back by the force of his words. The lead pegasus’ face was blank; however, it quickly contorted to an expression of rage. “I knew it! You’re with them.” He then drew his spear and pointed it directly at Lelouch. The guards behind him quickly did the same. “Well then.” He started, his angry expression slowly turning into a wicked grin. “We can’t have ponies outright defying us. We’ll kill you here so that you don’t tarnish our country’s image. Any last words, Pony-Beast?” Lelouch stepped forward towards the pegasi, his head bowed. “Yes I do.” He then lifted his head up, and his left eye suddenly changed so that it showed the glowing Geass symbol. “My name is Lelouch Vi Britannia, and this is my first order to you: Die.” The five pegasi were all transfixed by his gaze. Their eyes then all suddenly gained a glowing red tint. After about three seconds, the lead pegasus suddenly smiled and said, “Of course, Your Highness.” All five of the pegasus guards then all gripped their spears in their hooves, held them out in front of them, and impaled themselves through the chest with them. All five of them died instantly, and fell to the ground with a thud. As their bodies hit the ground, the clean, cut grass of the pure surrounding countryside became stained with their blood. Lelouch, however, just smirked and laughed triumphantly. “So I still have my Geass. And it looks like this world needs my help to get back on the right track. This must be why I was sent here. Was I sent here to set this world free from the same cycle of conflict that persisted between Britannia and Japan? Or was I sent here as punishment, so that I would repeat the same actions forever? Whatever the reason, I already know what I’m going to do. I must end the cycle of conflict once and for all, and bring an end to all of the fighting; and together with my Geass, and whatever allies I can find, I will change this world.” He then lifted his head up and shouted to the heavens, “I will obliterate Equestria!” As he stared up at the clear, cloudless, sunny sky, with a huge grin on his face, he then looked down again and looked over at Gilda’s body, still lying there unconscious. He then walked over to her. As he gazed down at her limp body, he then turned to the right, to see the small town in the distance. He then turned back to face Gilda, knelt down beside her, and lifted her on to his back. After he had hoisted her on to his back, he then turned in the direction of the town, and slowly trudged towards it. He was never one for physical activities. As Lelouch continued making his way towards the town, Gilda began to stir on his back, and wake up. She slowly opened her eyes, still feeling weak from being attacked earlier. As she looked down, she could see that she was moving somehow. Confused, she turned her head to the side to see that Lelouch was carrying her on his back. Her eyes then widened, and she tried to push herself up on his back. “Hey, what’s going on?” “Don’t move around so much. You’re still injured.” Lelouch said to her in a calm tone of voice. He didn’t turn back to face her; he just kept walking forward. After hearing what he said, realising that she was still injured, and seeing that she was no longer in danger, she rested back down on his back again. After a moment, she suddenly noticed something and spoke up again. “Hey, what happened to the pegasus guards from earlier?” Still facing ahead of him and not looking back to face her, Lelouch just smiled and said, “They all killed themselves once they realised how pointless what they were doing was.” Gilda just looked back at him with an expression of disbelief on her face. “Yeah, right.” She said sarcastically. Lelouch just continued smiling. “If you don’t believe me, then look behind you.” Not believing him, Gilda looked behind her, and she was surprised to see the five pegasus’ dead bodies, lying down, with spears impaled through their stomachs. From the position that they were sprawled out in, it was clear that they had indeed killed themselves. Still with a look of shock on her face, Gilda turned back to face Lelouch, or more accurately, the back of his head. “Why the Hell would they kill themselves? They’ve never been known to do that before.” Lelouch simply smiled again. “People can always surprise you. Or ponies, rather.” He added. After hearing Lelouch’s answer, Gilda shifted uncomfortably on his back. After several seconds of silence, she finally asked, “Why did you save me? You’re a pony, so why would you stand against Equestria?” Lelouch’s persistent smile dropped a bit, and he looked down at the ground as he stopped walking along. “Because what they’re doing is wrong. Every nation has the right to be free; even ponies, and even griffons.” Gilda’s eyes suddenly widened and she turned to face Lelouch. “You… just referred to me as a griffon.” This made Lelouch smile again, and his eyes wandered back towards her. “Of course. That’s what you are, isn’t it?” Gilda didn’t respond to that. She just turned her head away to the side. “Listen, Gilda.” Lelouch continued. “This is a war you’re fighting; don’t forget that. But your enemy isn’t the ponies of Equestria. It’s Equestria itself.” Gilda turned back to face him at this. “The only way things are going to change is if you make it change… from the inside.” Gilda looked at him curiously. “What do you mean by that?” “I mean that just resisting, and attacking civilians isn’t going to accomplish anything. If you want to end the cycle of conflict, then you have to destroy Equestria.” Gilda’s eyes widened in surprise. “Destroy Equestria? Are you serious?” Lelouch didn’t respond, but his silence told her that he was. She then lightened up a bit before continuing. “Well, that’s all easy to say, but actually doing it is another matter altogether. Equestria is the strongest country in the world, with immortal rulers that literally have control over the Sun and Moon. It’s taking all of our strength just to hold out against them, right now. It’s impossible. The quick mention of immortality and controlling the Sun and Moon, briefly gave Lelouch a moment of pause, but not for long. “Trust me; nothing is impossible. All it takes to change the world is a small group of like-minded individuals, if they believe hard enough, and have the strength and willpower to get it done. I’ve seen it all happen before. It’s huma… I mean, pony nature.” The moment of awkwardness at the end briefly made Gilda look at him a bit strangely, but she still took in everything that he just said to her. She then tilted her head up, to think about it further. After a few seconds of silence, she turned back to face Lelouch again, and asked, “Do you really think that would work?” “Yes,” was all Lelouch said in reply. After another moment, Gilda just faced away again and said, “Whatever.” Lelouch‘s eyes drifted back to Gilda. Although she didn’t sound too enthusiastic, he knew that his words had struck home. He was just that charismatic. The idea had been planted in her mind, and in time it would grow. Soon enough, the Talons would be just like The Black Knights. He could just tell. With that exchange over with, he started walking along again, and the two of them then continued on silently, slowly making their way towards the town. To be continued… Chapter 2Chapter 2 Lelouch continued walking towards the town in front of him, with Gilda on his back. When he had almost reached the town, he was able to get a much better look at it up close. The town was actually much bigger than it looked from a distance, and was much more likely a city. The whole city was built into the side of a cliff, with the buildings carved from stone. The rock was clear cut and polished, creating the image of an ancient city, carved from the mountain itself. The city consisted of many different levels, built one on top of another, going up the side of the mountain. There looked to be at least seven levels to the city. The lowest level was surrounded by a high wall, which encircled the whole city. Lelouch entered through the main gate, and stepped into the city. Just inside the front gate was the city’s main courtyard. The courtyard split off in several different directions, into the city streets. The city streets were wide enough to fit several stalls, selling various different foods and accessories, on the sides of the streets, while the local griffons gathered in the streets to meet up and talk. The streets were very busy today, and there were many griffons inside the city, walking around in the streets. As soon as Lelouch entered through the city’s main gate, suddenly every griffon in the area stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. The entire courtyard was now deathly silent. Many of them looked at him suspiciously. Here, they saw the only pony within a hundred miles of here, simply walk into the city, carrying a wounded griffon, who they all recognised as a famous freedom fighter, on his back. Lelouch quickly grasped just how suspicious this sight looked, and smiled nervously. Suddenly, the row of griffons began to disperse, revealing a very large griffon, about twice as big as Gilda, sitting down on a stool, in the corner of the street. He looked old enough, had pitch black feathers on his torso, and white feathers on his head. He wore a set of combat barding around his body, and had an eye patch over his left eye. He then stood up from his stool, and made his way over to Lelouch. As he walked over, he drew a large assault rifle that was slung around his wings. “Well, well, well.” He spoke in a very gruff tone of voice. “What have we got here?” Before Lelouch could respond, Gilda suddenly spoke up, as she hopped off of his back. “It’s alright, Black-Hawk. He’s cool.” As she landed, she winced slightly from the pain of her injury, and placed a claw on her shoulder. Turning to face the female griffon, he quickly gave Gilda a look over. “Gilda, you’re injured. What happened?” “Had a run in with a few pegasus guards. Nothing to worry about.” Gilda responded. “Don’t worry; they’re all taken care of.” With a quick glance at Lelouch, she then turned back to Black-Hawk and leaned in close to him. She raised a claw to her mouth as she whispered something into his ear. “And between you and me, I think it might have been our new friend here who pulled it off.” After Gilda had pulled away again, Black-Hawk looked back to Lelouch and looked at him more closely. “So, pony; what’s your situation?” Lelouch recovered from his earlier embarrassment and simply smiled back at him. “My name is Lelouch Vi Britannia. I’m just an ordinary pony who hates Equestria.” Black-Hawk was legitimately surprised to hear this. “And why’s that? Equestria’s your country, isn’t it? Why would you oppose them?” Lelouch stifled a bit before responding. “Just because it’s my country, doesn’t mean that I approve of what they’re doing. It’s also not like that would make me immune to the bad things that happen because of this war.” He smiled back at him, recalling his personal experiences of the things that he had lost because of the war between Britannia and Japan, even though he was the Prince of Britannia. Black-Hawk was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with how calm Lelouch was acting. “Well, we normally don’t allow ponies in Gryphallia.” He paused for a moment before continuing, perhaps trying to instil some fear in him. “But seeing is how you saved Gilda, I guess we can give you a free pass… for now. If you really hate Equestria, then you can stay here for as long as you can.” He then holstered his rifle again and made a fist in front of Lelouch’s face. “But we’re going to be keeping an eye on you. Got it?” “Got it.” Lelouch responded immediately, in a straight and calm tone of voice. After several seconds of just standing in that pose, Black-Hawk finally lowered his fist. “Alright then.” He then turned around to address the large crowd of griffons, who had all stopped what they were doing and gathered around when they saw Lelouch. “Alright, nothing to see here. Move along.” Some citizens still stayed where they were, but one stern look from Black-Hawk was enough to send them scurrying off again. After the Black-Hawk had left, and the large crowd started to disperse, Gilda turned to face Lelouch. “Listen.” Lelouch turned to face her, but she hesitated before continuing, like it was something difficult for her to say. “Thanks for your help back there.” Lelouch just smiled back at her. “It’s no problem; really.” Gilda just huffed in response. “Whatever. Listen, I gave my okay to the griffons around here for you to stay, so my debt to you is paid; got it?” “Got it.” Lelouch responded. Gilda kept her eyes on him for a few more seconds, and then turned her head back around in front of her. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta go get this damn injury treated. So long.” Gilda then unfurled her wings and took to the sky. “Goodbye.” Lelouch responded. Then just like that, Gilda was gone. When Lelouch was on his own again, he walked straight ahead, towards the street that lead up to the upper levels of the city. When he reached the edge of the courtyard, he turned to the left and saw a griffon just leaning against the wall. As Lelouch approached him, the griffon looked up to meet his gaze. “Listen.” Lelouch said. He then activated his Geass. “I want information.” After a few hours of gathering information from several different griffons, Lelouch now had a fair understanding of this new world. Apparently, since griffons didn’t have magic like ponies do, they have instead progressed in science and technology, and have developed many different types of weapons. However, despite this advantage, they still ended up losing most of the time due to the pony’s magic. After Lelouch had gathered enough information, he went off to explore the rest of the city. He needed to be as familiar with this new world as possible, and he needed to know what resources were available to him. He started off on the first level and started working his way up through the city, taking note of the different stores and griffons that he saw. The entrance to each level had a well-fortified gate, to make defence easy, and the griffons patrolling the sky made an aerial assault difficult. The third level also had two giant AA-Cannons positioned on two high towers, big enough to attack large groups of enemies outside the city. With defences like this, it was no wonder why Equestria still hadn’t conquered it. As Lelouch made his way through the city, he also passed by many griffon soldiers. A lot of them didn’t look as intimidating or experienced as Gilda or Black-Hawk, who he deduced were the leaders, or at least high ranking members of the Talons. The soldiers wore combat barding, and wielded some form of firearm, but the civilians were as naked as he was. The soldiers also all had headsets, for keeping in radio contact with each other. He saw many different griffons in the city, putting the city’s population roughly in the thousands; but from what he gathered, the soldiers only made up a small number of the population. Gryphallia’s biggest weakness was its lack of soldiers. They had a well-fortified city, and advanced technology and weapons at their disposal, but large numbers would eventually overtake them. If the Talons were going to survive, they would need more bodies or better tactics. When Lelouch had finished examining the city for its military strengths and weaknesses, he decided to check out the city’s stores and find out what kind of technology they had here, and how similar it was to the technology on Earth. Griffons didn’t seem to have any advanced computer systems, or anything like Knightmares, but they had very advanced weapons, like firearms, and they had radio frequencies, for staying contact with each other over long distances. After Lelouch had finished researching the city, he decided to stop and take a short rest. By this point, he was currently on the city’s fourth level. Lelouch rested himself against the wall of a store to rest. However, suddenly, he felt the whole city shake. He wavered a bit, but he remained standing on four hooves. When he steadied himself, he shook his head and jolted himself awake, and looked around. There were griffons scrambling around in the streets, and others were flying overhead. “What’s going on?” Then there was another loud shake, and Lelouch stumbled a bit. He then heard panicked screams coming from all around him. He then faced forward, at where the city’s entrance would be on a lower level. “I need to get a better view of what’s happening.” He then tilted his head up and saw the highest level of the city. It jutted out at the top, giving a good view of the whole city below. With a set destination in mind, he then lowered his head again and let out a long sigh. “This is going to involve a lot of running.” Gilda had just gotten back from her treatment, and plopped herself down on her cot in the Talons barracks. She lay spread out on her cot, with her claws behind her head. She had several bandages over her shoulder, but aside from a little stinging pain, she felt fine. As she lay down, she turned her head to the side and saw Black-Hawk approach her. He then sat down on the cot opposite hers. He unslung his assault rifle from around his wing, stuck it into the floor, and rested his claws on it like a walking stick, while he sat down. “Hey, G. How are ya feelin'?” Gilda kept her eyes on his, but then she turned away from him a few seconds later. “Oh, you know; the usual. A few scrapes and scratches; nothing I can’t handle.” She spoke as sarcastically as possible, with a smug grin on her face. Black-Hawk didn’t respond in kind, and kept things as professional as possible. He moved to address her again, though his eyes seemed to wander as he spoke. “So…” He began. “What’s the deal with that pony you brought here? Did he really defeat several pegasus guards on his own? I doubt that even we could do that and not have a single scratch on us.” Gilda peaked up at him from the side. Her face was completely blank. “No. According to him, they all killed themselves.” Black-Hawk moved to speak, but Gilda cut him off. “Ridiculous, I know. But I saw the bodies, and judging from the positions they were in, it really did look like they killed themselves.” Gilda then sat up on her caught. “And it’s not like he could have moved them into that position; there wasn’t any blood near him when I woke up.” She then turned to face Black-Hawk. “Like you said, even we couldn’t do that without a scratch.” She then faced forward again. “Besides, he doesn’t look like the type that could fight them head on. He’s smart maybe, but not a warrior. He couldn’t even walk from the field into town without getting winded. He just doesn’t have it in him to do what we do.” As Gilda finished speaking, she then thought more about Lelouch. “Although, there was something about his eyes. There was something in them; like he’s killed before.” Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and the whole room shook. Black-Hawk looked up, and Gilda jolted upright on her cot. “What was that?” Black-Hawk inquired. Gilda narrowed her eyes; then jumped up out of her cot and rushed over to the window. Out the window, she could see most of the city and the surrounding field. Her eyes widened at the site in front of her. Just outside the city walls, there was an entire army of ponies, easily numbering at least six hundred. They were all lined up in huge squares of about a hundred troops each, in two long columns in the large field. There were also several large machines, which the unicorns used for augmenting their spells into powerful, long-ranged attacks. “Damn it.” Gilda did the griffon equivalent of biting her lip upon seeing this sight in front of her. “Gilda, what is it?” Black-Hawk said, standing up behind her. Gilda clenched her fist hard and turned around to face Black-Hawk. “Get ready for combat. It looks like the ponies are finally ready to make their move.” She then returned to her cot, and reached underneath to pull out a large box. She opened the box and pulled out a large machine rifle. She then slung the rifle over her wing, grabbed her pistol from the nearby cupboard and slid it into her holster. With one more quick glance at Black-Hawk, she then made her way over to the door. Back-Hawk smiled back at her and pounded his claw into his other fist. “Right.” He then picked up his assault rifle, and joined Gilda over by the door. The two of them then headed out the door and flew into the air. Lelouch had reached the sixth level of the city by the time he was starting to feel tired. Being a pony now did make it easier for him to run, but he did still tire out. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, and he placed his hoof against a wall to rest. While he was resting, he looked over to his right, and he saw a griffon soldier, cowering against a wall, as shots fired overhead. Lelouch suddenly had an idea. He quickly galloped over to where the griffon soldier was hiding. “Hey.” Lelouch called out to him. As soon as the griffon turned to look at him, Lelouch activated his Geass. “Give me your headset.” The griffon’s eyes glowed red as the Geass took effect. He then nodded his head in compliance. “Right, here you go.” He then unhooked his headset and threw it to Lelouch. Lelouch grabbed it out of the air, and quickly affixed it to his head. He then turned back the way he was facing before, and continued running up to the top level of the city. After Lelouch had left, the Geass wore off and the griffon didn’t remember anything. “Huh, what just happened?” He said, as he looked around in a confused manner. In his confusion, he placed his claw against his head, and he began panicking when he realised that he wasn’t wearing his headset anymore. “My headset!” On the outskirts of the battlefield, at the very back of the pony’s army, several officers had gathered together to coordinate their attacking forces and give orders. They were out in the open, but at this range, they couldn’t be targeted by the griffons AA-Cannons, and any griffon would be shot down before they even got close. A grey unicorn with a brown mane, wearing gold armor, with several stripes on his shoulder, stepped forward. “This is it, Commander Wedge. By tonight, we’ll have complete control of the Beast’s last holdout city, and finally put an end to this country’s little rebellion.” He turned to face a large pegasus pony next to him, who stood about one and a half times the size of the other pegasus guards. He had the same white coat, blue mane, and gold armor as the rest of the pegasus guards, but his huge size, and many medals pinned to his chest made him stand out. “Hold off on the celebrations for now, Diamond Flash.” He spoke in a cold and stern tone of voice. “We need to focus on taking the city first.” His voice and face were completely blank and devoid of all emotion as he spoke. Diamond Flash simply nodded back to him. “Yes, Sir.” Commander Wedge then stepped forward, and a small gemstone that hung around his neck started glowing. It seemed to magically amplify his voice. “All forces! Focus your attacks on the main city gate! Once that’s down, we’ll flood into the walls and take the city! Then victory shall be ours!” He then raised his hoof up in front of his face. “For Equestria!” All of the pony’s forces then all raised their hooves in unison, and shouted out, “For Equestria!” “For Equestria!” “For Equestria!” “For Equestria!” The ground forces then began advancing on the city. About ten minutes later, Lelouch reached the top level of the city. When he had reached the top, he walked over to the side so that he could get a better view of the battlefield below. From here, he could see all of the levels of the city beneath him, and the field outside the city. He quickly surveyed the situation from here. The ponies hadn’t breached the front gate yet, but there were several pegasi engaging griffon troops in the air, and some had landed inside the city, keeping the griffons distracted. Most of the griffon’s forces were holding the area behind the front gate for when the ponies broke through, while others were engaging the pegasi in the air. Meanwhile, the ground forces outside the city were trying to force open the front gate, and attacking with long-ranged spells. From here, it also looked like there was a large pink bubble covering the pony's ground forces. After thoroughly surveying the area, Lelouch reached for his headset and activated it. “Hello. Can anybody hear me on this channel?” Gilda was currently hovering about a hundred feet above the city, with her machine rifle in her claws, firing at any pegasi that got close to her. Suddenly, she received a radio transmission on her headset. “Hello. Can anybody hear me on this channel?” Gilda clicked her headset to respond. “I hear you. Who is this?” She then turned back down and continued sweeping for enemies. Lelouch hesitated for a moment, trying to decide how he should answer. It then occurred to him. “For now, you can call me Zero. I'm here to coordinate our forces and lead us to victory.” Gilda lowered her rifle and turned her full attention to her headset. “Zero? I don’t recognise that name. What division are you in?” “Look, there’s no time for that now. We need to focus. Currently, the pony’s ground forces are all huddled together in one place. Tell the turrets to focus fire on that area.” Still wondering who this griffon was, Gilda looked down at the pony’s ground forces. She let out a quick sigh before responding again. “It won’t work. Their ground forces are surrounded by a magical shield. Even our biggest cannons won’t be able to get through.” “What?" Lelouch thought. He then turned his attention away from the headset, and looked out over the battlefield again. That pink bubble around the pony’s ground forces must be the shield. “This is bad. They have magic, and I don’t know enough about it to know how to fight it.” He gritted his teeth in annoyance. “Even still… if they have magic, it must be coming from somewhere. If we can get rid of that then we might have a chance.” Lelouch quickly scanned the battlefield again, and then returned his attention to the conversation on his headset. “Listen, how do ponies use their magic?” Gilda emptied another magazine out of her rifle, and was reloading when she heard Lelouch again. As she was reloading, she thought that it was a bit strange that someone wouldn’t know that, but considering the situation, she didn’t dwell on it. “Well, only unicorns are able to project their magic, and they do it with their horns.” After hearing this, Lelouch turned his attention back to the battlefield again. With this new information, he started scanning the battlefield for unicorns. He then noticed a particularly large group of unicorns huddled together, just outside of the shielded area. They seemed to be concentrating hard. Lelouch’s eyes suddenly widened in realization. He quickly touched his headset again, and started speaking into it. “AA-Cannons, focus your fire on the unicorns in Section A-17. They’re the source of the shield's power. Without them, the rest of their forces are vulnerable to attack.” A griffon stationed at one of the AA-Cannons on the third level rogered that order. “Roger.” He then gestured to the griffon on the other AA-Gun across from him, and they both turned their cannons to face the large unicorn group. They then started unloading their shells on the group. The unicorns at the front of the group were immediately blown away and scattered by the explosive ordinance. As soon as their files were disrupted, the pink shield covering most of their ground forces started dissipating. The unicorns who survived all staggered about, trying to figure out what was going on, and try to get back into position with the others. Lelouch gave a devilish smile as he saw the shield fall away and noticed the ponies act surprised. He then reached for his headset again. “Alright, we’ve got the enemy knocked off balance. All forces focus your attacks on the main force outside the gates. Hit the enemy while they’re distracted. Don’t give them the chance to recover and regroup.” “Got it.” Gilda said, tapping her headset. She then turned around and gestured to a group of griffons behind her. “Let’s move.” She then turned back around, and they all flew down towards the battlefield, hovering in the sky, between the city’s main courtyard and the main wall. The griffons now started diverting most of their forces to attack the pony forces outside the gate. Lelouch looked down at the fighting below, and tried to predict his enemy’s counter-strategy. “Alright, let’s see now. If their commander is smart, he’ll either pull his forces back, or divide his troops and spread around the city to try and box us in. Whichever plan he goes with, I’ll be ready.” Diamond Flash swallowed hard as he saw their shield disappear. “Commander Wedge; our shields are down. What should we do next?” Wedge gritted his teeth angrily. “If they think they can intimidate us that easily, then they have another thing coming!” He sounded incredibly angry and annoyed as he spoke. “If they want to fight my men up close, then that’s exactly what I’ll give them!” The gemstone around his neck started glowing, indicating that he was about to issue orders with his magically augmented voice. “All forces; divert all forces now and increase your attacks on the front gate with all of your strength! Move into the city, and kill all in your path!” With that order, the ponies focused their long-ranged, offensive spells on the front gate. With just a few direct hits, the front gate exploded inwards, creating an opening into the city. Once the way was open, pony forces started swarming into the city en masse. Lelouch started laughing when he saw the pony’s next move. “Well now; that was an even stupider plan then I was expecting.” He then raised his hoof to his headset. “All forces; spread out and attack the advancing ground forces from all directions to keep them boxed in.” He then raised his head up. “Aerial team; stay on top of the pegasi. Don’t let any of them split off or support their ground troops.” “Roger that.” Gilda tapped at her headset. She then turned around and gestured to the griffons flying behind her. “With me; let’s go.” She then turned back around and darted off towards the ground. Lelouch watched the fighting below from the top of the city. He wore a devilish grin on his face. “This is even easier than I thought.” He then turned his head to the side and saw something very interesting, which made him smile even more. He then tapped his headset again. “Hey, do you still read me?” Gilda unloaded another magazine at the scrambling ground forces. She then tapped her headset again. “Yeah, I read you. What is it?” “Turn to your right. Do you see that big stone tower there?” Gilda turned her head to the right, and she did indeed see a big stone tower. “Yeah, I see it. What of it? Lelouch smirked. “A few well-aimed shots would be enough to bring it down. We’d lose the tower, but we’d completely cut off their retreat. Get what I’m saying?” Gilda smiled devilishly in response. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying.” She then reloaded her rifle, and started shooting at the base of the stone tower. After several bullets had beaten away at the already worn down foundation, the tower started to dip and sway, and eventually fell down. The debris landed around the archway around the main gate of the city. The ponies that had fought so hard to get in, just became trapped and cut off from reinforcements. While the ponies inside the city were all reacting to being trapped and cut off, the griffons took advantage of the situation and started gunning them all down. Lelouch watched everything from his perch at the top of the city, and he grinned triumphantly. “This is great.” “This is terrible!” Wedge screamed, as he pounded his hoof against the ground, forcefully. “How are we losing?! How is this happening?! We’re getting annihilated out there!" Diamond Flash looked at his commanding officer worriedly. “Commander Wedge.” He started. “Your amulet is still on. Our forces can hear you no…” “I know they can hear me, you moron!” Wedge cut him off, and smacked him in the face, knocking him to the ground. “I’m asking them why they are losing to a bunch of Beasts! They’re pathetic!” The veins on his face were bulging from anger at this point, and his face was turning red. As Diamond Flash got back up to respond, he was suddenly gunned down from above. Several bullets riddled his body at high speeds, and he fell to the ground again, dead. Wedge looked at him in shock. He turned around to see who had done it, but before he could react at all, he felt a large claw grip him by the neck and lift him off the ground. Wedge tried to pull the claw away from his throat, but he just couldn’t. He then opened his eyes to see Black-Hawk staring back at him. “So...” Black-Hawk began. “You actually have the gall to send orders to your men, and then call them out when things don’t go the way you planned?” Black-Hawk then raised Wedge closer to his face, sneering into his eyes. “Let me tell you something, Commander. Soldiers under your command aren’t just pawns in a chess game, for you to use and discard just to further your own plans. Zero understands that much more than you, and so he deployed the right tactics against you. You were so distracted by your own mistakes, and blaming everyone else for them that you never even noticed me sneak up on you and your chain of command. What a disgrace. You’re pathetic.” Black-Hawk then pulled Wedge in closer to him. “You lost.” Wedge tried desperately to escape from Black-Hawk’s grasp, but no matter how much he struggled, he just wasn’t strong enough. “D-Damn you. You filthy Beasts.” Black-Hawk suddenly tightened his grip around Wedge’s neck, making the pegasus gasp for air. “And that’s another thing.” He then raised up his other claw. “We’re Griffons!” He then brought down his claw and stabbed Wedge through the chest with his razor-sharp talons. Black-Hawk then loosened his grip around Wedge’s throat, and his limp body fell to the ground. Lelouch continued giving orders to the Talon forces below. “Squad Three, direct your fire at Section T-17. Enemy forces are strongest in that area.” He hung up and surveyed the battlefield again. The ponies in the city were completely helpless and this point, being picked off one by one. Outside the city, the long-ranged spell mechanisms had been destroyed, and their forces were scrambling for orders. “Hey, is this Zero?” Lelouch suddenly got a message on his headset. “Yeah, it’s me. Who’s calling?” “This is Major Black-Hawk; calling to confirm that the pony commander is dead. Repeat, the pony commander is dead.” Lelouch was shocked to hear this news, but then immediately smiled devilishly. “That’s good to hear.” He then changed his frequency to talk to the other griffon forces. “Attention; the enemy commander is down, and the ponies are without leadership. Take this opportunity to strike at them while they’re weak and scattered. Attack with full force! Wipe them all out!” Lelouch heard many affirmative, ‘Yes, Sirs’ and then a hurl of gunfire. As he looked down at the battlefield again, he knew that they had already won. Lelouch’s smile grew even bigger as he continued to take in the sight below him. “That’s it; this fight is done. But this is only the first fight of many to come. If I’m going to win this war, I’m going to have to learn more about Equestria. And it will be better if I learn it right from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.” He smiled at his own unintentional pun, but then quickly lowered it again. “I’m going to have to visit Equestria myself in order to learn and obtain everything that I’ll need to win. I’ll also need to know more about the other countries that are fighting against Equestria, so I’ll to head off soon. However, if the griffons are the only ones with advanced technology, then I’ll have to prepare a few things here before I leave for Equestria.” As Lelouch finished thinking his plans ahead, he then raised his hoof to his mouth in thought. “Also, if history is any indication, then there are two things which I’ll have to do here first before I leave.” To be continued… Chapter 3Chapter 3 When the battle was over, and the griffons were recovering and cleaning up the damage done to the city, Lelouch made his way down through the lower levels of the city, to the front gate. He now had a saddlebag over his flanks, filled with important items that he had gathered. He reached the first level in just under an hour, and stepped into the courtyard. It was now late in the day, and the Sun was starting to go down. Enough rubble had been moved away from the front gate so that he would be able to walk out. When he entered the main courtyard, he turned towards a griffon that was repairing a destroyed building nearby. “Hey.” Lelouch called out to him. The griffon was able to tell that he was calling him, and turned around to face him. “I was wondering if you could tell me how far it is to Equestria from here.” The griffon gave him a strange look at first, but then he turned towards the front gate and pointed out towards the huge field beyond. “The Equestrian border is just beyond the opening between those two mountains.” He then changed his facial expression to one of anger, and clenched his fist. “But the actual Equestria is still a good bit on from there.” The griffon then turned to face Lelouch again. “All the land between there is rightfully ours and we will take it back someday.” He then grinned. “And with this victory here today, that may be sooner than you think.” When the griffon was finished speaking, Lelouch simply smiled back at him and nodded. “Right.” He then turned back around and started walking towards the gate, when suddenly he heard someone calling out to him from behind. “Hey, Lelouch.” He recognised the voice and turned around to see Gilda flying towards him, swooping down from an upper level. When she had reached ground level, she touched down and moved to address Lelouch again. “Where are you going?” “I’m heading back to Equestria for now. There are still some things that I have to do there.” Gilda didn’t know how to respond to that, and turned her head to the side in thought. She thought that it was strange that somepony like him would want to return to Equestria. She then suddenly thought of something that she had wondered about earlier. She then turned her head back around to face him. “Hey, Lelouch; I wanted to know something.” “Hmmm, what is it?” Lelouch raised his head, looking curious. Gilda hesitated for a moment, but then she finally spoke up. “Are you…” She was then suddenly cut off by an incoming message on her headset. “Huh?” Lelouch looked at her headset curiously and then smiled innocently. “Aren’t you going to get that?” Gilda quickly glanced at her headset, before briefly turning back to Lelouch. She had a quizzical look on her face. After a moment, she tapped her headset. “Who is it?” “It’s Zero.” Gilda’s eyes widened in surprise. “You did great in that battle earlier. If I need to get in contact with you later, I’ll call you on this channel. Will I be able to count on your support in the future?” Gilda kept her eyes on Lelouch while Zero was speaking to her. When he was finished speaking, it took her a moment to realise it. “Oh, uh, yeah. You can count on me.” “That’s good to hear.” Zero responded. “I’m going to need all the help I can get if we’re going to defeat Equestria. I’ll be in contact with you again soon. Until then, stay safe.” The radio transmission then cut off. When Zero was finished speaking again, Gilda turned back to face Lelouch. “Who was it?” Lelouch asked. “Is everything all right?” Gilda narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before responding. “It’s fine.” She concluded. “Well, alright then.” Lelouch then turned back around and walked away. When he reached the front gate, he had to climb over some pieces of rubble, but he eventually made it out of the city. As he left, he had a big, triumphant smile on his face. As Gilda watched Lelouch leave, she was soon joined by Black-Hawk, who swooped down next to her. When she saw him next to her, she turned her head to face him. “Hey, Black-Hawk.” Black-Hawk turned to face her. “Who do you think that ‘Zero’ guy was, anyway?” Black-Hawk focused on her face more intently. “I’m not sure exactly; but it was only because of him that we were able to win that last battle. That makes him okay in my book. And besides, his strategies and tactics will be a big help to us for fighting against Equestria in the future.” He then faced forward again and grinned. Gilda shifted her eyes away, and started thinking again. She then turned back to face Black-Hawk. “Hey, Black-Hawk.” Black-Hawk shifted his eyes towards her. “Hmmm?” “Have you by any chance had enough of just harassing small areas and defending against big attacks, like we’ve been doing?” Black-Hawk was surprised by this question, though he didn’t show it on his face. “Huh? Just what do you mean by that? What are you getting at, here?” Gilda then faced forward again, with a wicked smile on her face. “I mean, right now we’re really not doing much other than riling up the pony’s government and then defending against their retaliation. We’re not accomplishing anything with this, and we can’t keep this up forever.” She then raised her claw up into a clenched fist. “I say it’s time we started taking the fight to Equestria with full force; and show them all that we’re serious.” She then turned her head to face him. When Gilda was finished speaking, Black-Hawk simply looked back at her, and after a moment, grinned deviously. “Now you’re talking.” After Lelouch had passed through the city’s main gate, he then traversed the huge field that he had woken up in, and beyond. When he reached the gap in the mountain range, he spotted a border checkpoint up ahead. The checkpoint stretched from one edge of the mountain range to the other. There was a small area in the middle of the checkpoint where ponies could enter and exit. As Lelouch approached the checkpoint, the guard stationed there spotted him and walked over to him. The guard was a black unicorn, wearing a set of golden armor, with a blue hairstyle on his helmet. “Hold it. I need to see your passport before you can cross the border.” Lelouch simply turned to him, smiled, and activated his Geass. “You don’t need to see my passport.” The guard’s eyes glowed red as the Geass took effect. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t need to see your passport.” He then moved to the side, allowing Lelouch to continue. “Move along.” Lelouch passed by the unicorn, and continued on his way. He then passed through the checkpoint and continued on his way to Equestria. As Lelouch continued making his way along the Equestrian border; shortly afterwards, he came to an area where the surrounding landscape changed dramatically. Whereas the area in which he had been walking along previously was a bountiful grassland, this new area was an empty Badlands. There was also a large canyon nearby, just to the side of where he was walking. Lelouch guessed that this was the real border between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom. He was now in the real Equestria. After a brief pause, he continued on his way. As he continued his way along, he had to stop and take a break every so often because he was tired. He wasn’t used to walking this much. After several days of walking and resting, Lelouch eventually reached the first town that he had found since arriving in Equestria. According to the sign on the edge of town, this town was called ‘Ponyville’. He also learned that he had entered Equestria from the East, and that was the direction that the Griffon Kingdom was located in from here, for future reference. As Lelouch made his way through Ponyville, he took note of all the different ponies around him. Just like Gryphallia had only griffons, Ponyville had only ponies; unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. There were also several guards stationed around the edges of the town. Lelouch stopped in his tracks in order to properly take in his surroundings. While he silently surveyed the area, he was completely unaware of the fact that a pink earth pony was slowly rising up, behind him. She had a strong look of determination on her face. Then, she slowly opened her mouth to whisper something in his ear. She then immediately changed her expression to a happy one and said, “Hi there!” The sudden interruption startled him and made him jump. Catching his breath, he turned around to face this mysterious pony. She didn’t seem to notice how strange she was being, and still wore a big, happy smile on her face, stretched from ear-to-ear. Not knowing how else to respond, Lelouch simply asked, “Can I help you?” “I know who you are.” That was all she said. While Lelouch was inwardly worried, outside, he just shrugged it off with a warm smile. “No, you don’t.” “Oh yes I do.” She responded immediately. Lelouch was now worried, and his expression showed it. “What’s going on? Did she somehow find out that I’m Zero? But how could she possibly know that? Does she have some sort of psychic powers?” Lelouch then simply uttered, “Y-You do?” “Yeperooni.” The pink pony responded. Lelouch then activated his Geass. “You’re the new pony in town.” Lelouch suddenly turned off his Geass, and reacted in a completely real surprise. “What?” “Well you see, my name’s Pinkie Pie, and I know everypony, and mean everypony in Ponyville, and since I didn’t know you, that could only mean that you’re new in town, right?” She then leaned close to him as she finished speaking. Lelouch was now more confused than he had ever been in his life. He just reacted awkwardly, and simply responded, “Y-yes.” Pinkie closed her eyes and started trotting in place, out of sheer happiness. “Oooooooh, I knew it.” She then stopped and leaned in close to Lelouch’s face again. “Listen, since you’re new in town, that means I have to throw you a big surprise party.” She then suddenly became more serious. “I have to; that’s the way things work around here. It wouldn’t be fair if I suddenly changed the rules for you, now would it?” Lelouch felt a bit awkward with this pony invading his personal space. “Uh, okay.” That was all he could say. Pinkie then pulled her head away and smiled again. “Great; come to Sugarcube Corner at sundown. Everything should be ready by then.” “Sugarcube Corner?” Pinkie briefly looked confused, but quickly returned to her usual, upbeat self. “Oh, that’s right; you’re new around here. A-duh. Sugarcube Corner is the town’s bakery. It’s the building that looks like it’s made out of candy; you can’t miss it.” Pinkie then turned around to walk away, but then she suddenly remembered something and turned back around again. “Oh, I almost forgot; what’s your name?” “Uhhmm, it’s Lelouch.” “Lelouch, huh? Well that’s great. See you around, Lelouch.” She waved back at him, and then turned back around and hopped away. “La la la.” As Lelouch watched her leave, the only thought that came to him was, “Well, that was the weirdest moment of my life.” After he had parted ways with Pinkie, Lelouch went back to learning more about Ponyville. He eavesdropped on several conversations in order to learn about what the citizens were talking about, and other things about Equestria that he couldn’t learn about in Gryphallia. It also gave him an opportunity to see what kind of propaganda the Equestrian government used on their citizens, and how they justified and covered things up. After several hours, he noticed that nopony talked about the war or anything going on outside of Equestrian borders. He found this suspicious. By the time he was finished with this work, the Sun was going down and he suddenly remembered his conversation with Pinkie earlier, despite how much he wished that he didn’t. Remembering how weird she had acted, he didn’t want to go and see her again; however, if she really did know everypony in town, then it would look suspicious if he didn’t show up. He needed to keep a low profile right now, and not attract too much attention or do anything that made him stand out. He then made his way through Ponyville, looking for Sugarcube Corner. After a while, he just decided to ask for directions. The streets were surprisingly deserted now. Eventually, he found an earth pony stallion, with a brown coat and mane, and an hourglass cutie mark, who eventually pointed him in the right direction. With directions to where to go, he found Sugarcube Corner in no time at all. When he stood just outside the bakery, he looked up into the sky and saw the Sun setting. The Sun setting against the clouds, made the sky look a beautiful and calming orange. This made him briefly think of Jeremiah, and he snickered slightly. Since this was the time that he was told to arrive at, he then stepped forward and opened the door. He stepped inside the bakery and closed the door behind him. Inside, everything was black. Lelouch was about to look around for a light switch, when suddenly, the lights turned on and dozens of ponies jumped out and yelled, “Surprise!” Lelouch stepped back a bit in shock. Even though he had been expecting it, they had still surprised him. A familiar pink pony then appeared in front of him, and repeated, “Surprise! Were you surprised? Were you? Were you? Were you? Huh? Huh? Huh?” She drifted in closer to his face with every question. Lelouch then very politely pushed her back. “Yes, you really did.” And he meant it. “Well that’s a relief. Because this is your very own, very special, ‘Welcome to Ponyville Surprise Party’. It’s a surprise party so you have to be surprised, because without a surprise, a surprise party is just a party, and while all parties are fun, surprise parties are extra fun because they’re a surprise.” Pinkie spoke all of this in the span of a few seconds. Lelouch was normally very patient, but this pony was really starting to get to him. Pinkie then reached out a grabbed on to him with her hooves. “Come on, Lelouch. Let me introduce you to everypony.” She then pulled him away, off into the party. The rest of the party then continued on like normal. “And that’s Lyra. And that’s Bon Bon. And that’s Vinyl Scratch. And that’s Carrot Top. And that’s Daisy. And that’s Rose. And that’s Lily. And that’s Locket. And that’s Caramel. And that’s Thunderlane. And that’s Flitter. And that’s Cloudchaser.” Pinkie kept rambling on, pointing at ponies and saying their names as she led Lelouch through the party. “Pinkie…” Lelouch spoke up, but Pinkie didn’t hear him; she was too busy introducing him to everypony, and she just continued rambling. “And that’s Raindrops. And that’s Blossomforth. And that’s Candy Mane. And that’s Sparkler. And that’s Bulk Biceps. And that’s Lotus. And that’s Aloe. And that’s Dawn Flower. And that’s Lightning Flicker. And that’s Derpy. And I’m not sure what the pony’s name is; he just calls himself ‘The Doctor’.” Lelouch was now starting to feel annoyed with this pony’s constant talking. “Pinkie…” He said again to try and get her attention. However, Pinkie just continued asking Lelouch even more questions. “So did you get all that? Did you just get here? How did you get here? Do you like it here in Ponyville? How long are you going to stay? Where are you from? Lelouch is kind of a weird name, don’t you think? Do you think that the pineapple is an underrated fruit? Should I go with the name ‘Cherrychanga’ or ‘Chimicherry’?” Pinkie spoke all of these questions within seconds of each other, not even stopping to take a breath. Lelouch stopped walking ahead, looked down and placed his hoof on his head in annoyance, while Pinkie continued to bounce around him, asking all sorts of random questions. The rest of the ponies at the party just continued on normally, not noticing the two of them. Lelouch eyes started twitching from Pinkie’s annoyance. Lelouch grunted under his breath. “I can’t take it anymore.” He then quickly lowered his hoof from his face, and looked up at Pinkie, who had stopped bouncing around just long enough to look him in the eye when she saw him move. He wore a stern look on his face. He then activated his Geass. “Stop talking.” As the Geass took effect, Pinkie’s eyes glowed red, and she stopped in her tracks completely. For several seconds, she didn’t move at all; like she was in a trance. Lelouch then decided to back away, in case anyone saw him. A moment later, Pinkie came out of her trance, and Lelouch was gone. She was feeling very confused, and shook her head to regain her senses. She then briefly looked from side to side, in confusion. “What just happened? Where did Lelouch go?” “Pinkie Pie; there you are.” Pinkie turned her head in the direction of the voice, and she saw Rarity walk towards her, levitating a glass of purple punch next to her. “This party of yours is simply wonderful, darling. And the punch is delicious.” Pinkie closed her eyes briefly and smiled back at her. “Fhgfhjrketrsdgfhrdtrydg.” Her eyes then suddenly widened in shock. She tried to speak, but her words became muffled on the way out. “What’s going on?” Rarity looked at Pinkie Pie quizzically. “Pinkie Pie… are you… feeling alright? You’re acting even stranger than usual. And for you, that’s saying something.” Pinkie Pie seemed worried now. “What’s going on? Why can’t I speak?” She then tried to say something again. “Ytthghnfmjtdrdgfbngmfghfgbf.” Rarity was now just getting annoyed. “Pinkie Pie, please speak normally.” “Ytgfbnmuilythgnmjylkutreygfdgmktuyft.” Was all she could say in response. “No, Rarity; that’s not what I wanted to say.” Rarity just huffed in annoyance. “Pinkie Pie, if this is just another one of you silly pranks, then I want no part of it. Now, goodbye.” She then turned around and walked away in a huff. Pinkie held out a hoof at Rarity as she walked away. “Gfygtbnfmrtredsgnmktresytdgfbf.” As Rarity faded away into the crowd, Pinkie lowered her hoof again. “What’s going on?” After Lelouch had left Pinkie, he made his way over to the dessert table. After the past few days he’s had, he needed to relax. He had become quite adept at holding things in his hooves now, and was holding a glass of punch in his hoof, no problem. “Uhhmm, excuse me... Lelouch?” Lelouch heard a voice calling him from just next to him. He casually rolled his eyes in the direction of the voice, and his eyes immediately widened at what he saw. There; standing right in front of him was his younger sister. Lelouch turned his whole head towards her, in shock. N-Nunnally?” Nunnally suddenly looked at him in surprise. “Huh? What are you talking about?” Suddenly, the image of Nunnally disappeared in front of him, and he instead saw a butter-yellow pegasus mare, with a long, flowing, pink mane. She had a confused and worried look on her face. Lelouch quickly collected himself, placed his glass of punch back down on the table, breathed in, and then smiled warmly back at her. “Sorry about that. You just reminded me of someone, that’s all.” He then tried to look calm, and forget about what he had just seen, but he just couldn’t shake the similarity out of his head. This pegasus, still acting a bit shy, continued on with what she was saying. “Well, uhmm… my friend Pinkie Pie told me your name, and said that you were new in town, so… uhhm… I decided to introduce myself. My name’s Fluttershy.” Lelouch was completely transfixed by this pegasus. Putting on a gentle façade, he smiled warmly back at her. “It’s nice to meet you, Fluttershy. Since we haven’t formally met yet, allow to properly introduce myself. My name is Lelouch Vi Britannia.” Lelouch simply stared back at this pegasus in awe. She seemed so innocent; so pure. “Who is this pony? And why does she remind me of Nunnally?” “I’m telling you, Twilight; this war is only going to get worse.” Lelouch’s ears suddenly perked up at the conversation he overheard. He turned his head to the side, and he saw a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-coloured mane, talking to a purple alicorn. The alicorn leaned in closer, to whisper to the pegasus. Lelouch furrowed his brow and listened intently to hear what she was saying. “Rainbow, this isn’t the time or the place to talk about that.” “Why not?” The pegasus responded, in a much louder and informal tone of voice than the alicorn. “You always say that, and you always shut me up. You always tell me it’s not the right time. Well, we’re here now, so let’s talk about it.” Lelouch hadn’t heard any of the other ponies in town even mention the war, so he needed to hear this. He turned back around to face the yellow pegasus, and said very gently, “Excuse me.” He then nonchalantly inched his way over towards the pegasus and the alicorn. As he moved closer to them, he had to listen very carefully in order to hear them over the sounds of the other ponies at the party. “Look Twilight, I know that the Princess is all about the ‘Magic of Friendship’ and improving our relations with the other species; but this isn’t the way to do it. You can’t use force to try and make everyone get along. Just look at what happened with Discord, and the changelings. Peace can never be obtained through these kinds of methods.” Lelouch briefly stopped in his tracks. The other pegasus that he met reminded him of Nunnally, and now this pegasus was starting to sound like Suzaku. Twilight facehooved and sighed. “Look Rainbow; you wouldn’t understand. This whole thing is a little more political than that.” Rainbow Dash just grunted in irritation. “You and the others always treat me like I’m the stupidest one of the group, but I think I’ve proved in the past that I’m smarter than you give me credit for. I know more about actual fighting, rather than just overseeing it, than all of you put together; even Applejack. I’m also the only pony around here who really knows the griffons.” “Rainbow!” Twilight suddenly shouted out. “You know you’re not allowed to call them that. Not the… not them or us.” “I know.” Rainbow Dash sighed again. “And that’s ridiculous. Why would ponies ever come up with the lame rule that a species can’t call themselves by their own name? Where do the ‘higher ups’ get off coming up with something like that?” She looked at Twilight even harder when she mentioned the ‘higher ups’. Twilight just sneered back at Rainbow Dash in annoyance. After a moment, the cyan pegasus then let out a defeated sigh. “Look, I’m just saying that if we can just get the fighting to stop for long enough, then we can come to a peaceful conclusion.” “I agree.” Lelouch said, walking closer towards them. Twilight and Rainbow Dash both turned to face Lelouch as he approached them. “Personally, I applaud you for the fact that you’re willing to stand up for these griffons; against your own country even. And to openly refer to them as griffons.” He then smiled warmly at them. “It’s good to know that war doesn’t change everyone.” “War never changes.” Twilight muttered under her breath. Ignoring Twilight, or possibly not hearing her, Rainbow Dash focused on Lelouch. “Well, well; if it isn’t the guest of honour?” She then slung her hoof around his shoulder. Lelouch smiled and laughed a bit nervously. “Well, it’s just nice to see that there are other ponies who are willing to stick up for the griffons; and to refer to them as griffons.” “Hahaha, yeah. I’m basically an honorary griffon.” Rainbow Dash gave a light chuckle. She then turned to face Twilight, but continued talking to Lelouch. “Just be careful what you say around her, Lelouch.” She then gave Twilight a knowing look. “I’m her friend, so I get a free pass for it, but she is still a Princess of Equestria, and has to enforce the laws; so watch out.” Lelouch’s eyes suddenly widened. “A Princess?” He then turned to face Twilight, who simply smiled back at him. “If she really is a Princess of Equestria…” He then narrowed his eyes at her. “Then that makes her my enemy.” Then suddenly, the door of Sugarcube Corner slammed open. All of the ponies at the party stopped what they were doing and turned around to look at it. Two pegasus guards entered and made their way over to Twilight. In all the commotion, Rainbow Dash took her hoof away from Lelouch. “Princess Twilight.” One of the guards started. He then leaned in close to whisper into her ear. Lelouch concentrated hard so that he could hear what was being said. The complete silence around him also helped. “We have reports of a possible terrorist attack in the area. We need to get you out of here.” Lelouch's eyes widened at this news. If this was about the Talons, he was very surprised; he wasn’t expecting them to make a move this soon. When the guard was finished speaking, Twilight pulled away again and just nodded accordingly. “Alright; let’s go.” She then started walking towards the door, being escorted out by the two guards. After Twilight and the guards had left, some ponies just went back to what they were doing before, and some ponies were wondering what was going on. Lelouch used the resulting confusion to slip out the front door undetected. To be continued… Author's Note Congratulations, Pinkie! You're the new Mao. Also, since she didn't appear in this chapter, enjoy this little exchange: Applejack: Hey Lelouch. Do you like apples? Lelouch: *stifling a laugh* Actually, I prefer oranges. Chapter 4Chapter 4 Lelouch made his way through the empty streets of Ponyville. Twilight and her guards had flown away as soon as they had left Sugarcube Corner, leaving Lelouch alone in the dark, empty streets. It was now late at night, and the Sun had gone down. Lelouch staggered along through a narrow street, just adjacent to the Ponyville courtyard. He placed his hoof against the wall to rest and to gather his thoughts. “Dammit. I wasn’t prepared for this. I didn’t expect the Talons to make a move this soon.” He then turned around and started fishing in his saddlebag. A moment later, he pulled out his headset, and fit it on his head. After briefly looking from side to side, to see if anyone was nearby, he then ducked into a nearby alley. “Alright, I’ll try and see if I can pick up one of their signals again to try and figure out what’s going on.” He then started fiddling around with his headset. The pegasus guards led Twilight to a small military command centre set up on the edge of Ponyville. The door in front of them opened up, and they stepped into the main room. There were several ponies around the room; most of them military officers, discussing the current situation. In the centre of the room was a big, circular, crystal terminal, that’s been enchanted to issue orders to the soldiers out on the battlefield. As Twilight entered the room, her two guard escorts stood at either side of the door that they had just come in, and she continued on towards the terminal in the centre of the room. When she reached the terminal, she was immediately joined by a very tall pegasus stallion, standing about twice as tall as her, and almost as tall as Princess Celestia. He had a white coat and wore gold armor, just like the other pegasus guards; however, he didn’t wear any helmet, revealing his blue, coiffed mane, and he had several stripes on his shoulder and medals on his chest, signifying his high rank. “Princess Twilight,” he spoke while saluting her. “Do not worry, you’re safe now.” Twilight turned her head to face him as he approached her, and she bowed her head to him in turn. “Thank you, General Biggs.” She then brought her head back up, but she now had a worried look on her face. “But what about the rest of Ponyville?” “Don’t worry, Your Highness; we have already evacuated the town in order to minimize civilian casualties. Ponyville is now an empty battlefield.” He then turned to face a set of crystal monitors set up all over the wall at the far side of the room. The monitors seemed to be displaying feedback of areas inside Ponyville. “Our forces are already in position to put down this terrorist invasion.” When General Biggs was finished speaking, Twilight turned back to face the monitors on the wall. The biggest monitor was showing the Ponyville courtyard, with the statue of Princess Celestia at the centre, and two small armies situated at either side. Their ponies were situated to the right, while their opponents were to the left. “Who are we dealing with this time?” Twilight asked. Biggs’ eyes briefly drifted back to face Twilight before he faced forward again. He then spoke in a cold tone of voice. “The Diamond Dog Rebellion.” Lelouch continued fiddling with his headset, trying to find the Talons radio frequency, but he was growing continually irritated as he couldn’t find anything. “What’s going on? Why can’t I hear anything?” He then suddenly heard a loud noise coming from behind him, and his eyes widened in alarm. He stepped out from behind the alley slightly, and peaked around the corner. From here, he could see the whole courtyard. The courtyard was now divided. The ponies were stationed at one side of the courtyard, divided into three groups, based on their race. The unicorns were out in front, the earth ponies were hanging back, and the pegasi were hovering above them. There were around ninety ponies in total; approximately thirty of each group. Lelouch then turned to face the other side of the courtyard. Where he had been expecting to see the griffons, he instead saw a group of large, bipedal, dog-like creatures. They all wore metal armor over their torsos and a metal helmet that covered most of their heads. They had long, muscly arms that ended in sharp claws. They were all lined up in rows, and numbered about fifty in total. One of the armored dogs, not a part of the line-ups, moved over to another dog that was stationed just to the side of the group, who was dressed differently. Instead of metal armor, he wore a red, sleeveless jacket and he didn’t have any helmet. The armored dog stepped up beside him and saluted. “We’re ready to begin our attack now, Commander Rover.” He spoke in a very gruff sounding voice. Rover simply moved his head to look back at the dog that had just addressed him. Without breaking his stoic expression, he merely nodded his head back at him. “Right.” He then turned back around and took a few steps forward. The ponies on the opposite side of the courtyard all clutched their weapons tightly as soon as they saw one of the Diamond Dogs make a move, ready to strike at any time. The ponies back at the command centre, including General Biggs and Princess Twilight, all leaned forward and held their breathes as they awaited what was coming next. When Rover had walked out in front, and to the side of the Diamond Dog army, he then raised his claw up into the air to grab everydogs attention and address the group. “Dogs; it’s time to make our stand against the pony menace that have continued to oppress us. They think that they can just barge into our land, with their fancy magic, and take from us what’s rightfully ours.” He then turned his raised hand into a clenched fist. “Well now I think it’s time that we show these ponies what real strength is.” He then turned towards one of the Diamond Dog soldiers on the far side of the group and gestured to him, with a wicked grin on his face. The Diamond Dog that he gestured to acknowledged his signal. He then casually walked over to a nearby building, raised his claw and punched at the side of the building. The force of the blow completely shattered the buildings chimney, knocking it over, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud crash. The entire house then collapsed under its own foundation. After the dust from the rubble had cleared, Rover then turned back towards the ponies, with a cocky grin on his face. He then reached around his neck and grabbed a whistle, and raised it up to his lips. “It’s time to teach these ponies a lesson in what real strength is. Today, we’re taking back our land.” He then raised his clenched fist into the air again. “Today, we’re taking back our pride!” There was a huge round of roars and cheering from all of the Diamond Dogs. Rover then blew his whistle hard, signalling the start of the attack. The Diamond Dog army then all reared up in cheer, and began rushing towards the enemy on all fours. Back at the pony’s base, Twilight looked on at the ensuing battle, with a look of confusion on her face. She rested against the console in front of her, and placed her hoof to support her head. “This is so strange. Why would they just rush in like that, after all the planning that they put into this attack, without any sense of strategy or self-preservation, when they know full well what we’re capable of?” She then narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “What are they up to?” Next to her, General Biggs just smirked arrogantly and started laughing out loud. “That’s because they’re all mindless Beasts. They probably think that brute strength alone is enough to win. Well, strength isn’t what wins wars; it’s strategy.” He spoke pridefully and arrogantly. He then moved forward and placed his hoof on the terminal in front of him. “Ponies; get ready for combat. Unicorns; hold them in place while the pegasi take them out from the sky. Earth ponies remain behind for further instruction.” Biggs and Twilight, along with every other pony in the room then all looked up towards the monitor on the far wall, at the ensuing battle. Back on the battlefield, the Diamond Dogs continued rushing forwards towards their enemies, running on all fours, their eyes dead set on their targets. As the Diamond Dogs continued rushing forward, none of the pony’s forces moved an inch. The earth ponies in the back remained completely still, like they’d been ordered to, ready to move at a moment’s notice. The pegasi hovered in the air, keeping a close eye on their advancing enemies. The unicorns out in front then all lowered their heads and their horns started glowing. Suddenly, all of the Diamond Dogs in the approaching group were each enveloped in a magical aura, and stopped dead in their tracks. They were then all lifted up off the ground, with their claws bound close to their bodies. The Diamond Dogs all gritted their teeth in anger, and clenched their paws into fists. The unicorns holding them in place looked on at their fine work and just smiled at them smugly. “Too easy.” One of them blurted out. Back at the Ponyville base, the soldiers and officers all looked on in amazement, not believing that they had won so easily. General Biggs was laughing triumphantly; however, Twilight had her eyes narrowed in suspicion. In the back alley, Lelouch watched the completely one-sided battle, with a look of complete confusion on his face. “What the Hell is going on here? Who are these guys? Are they really this stupid?” He then closed his eyes and gave a sigh of derision. “Helping these guys out isn’t going to be easy if this is what they’re capable of.” Biggs looked through the crystal monitor at the Diamond Dog Commander. He didn’t seem to be worried or reacting to this new development at all. His face was completely blank. This sight annoyed Biggs and he grunted in irritation. “Alright men, move in. Let’s make an example out of these Beasts. Leave none of them alive. Kill them all!” Next to him, Twilight’s calm expression slipped a bit. The pegasi all nodded in affirmation, and proceeded to dash down towards the immobile Diamond Dogs. The ground forces then also began advancing on them. As the ponies started approaching them, Rover then gave a knowing smirk and simply said, “Do it.” At that moment, one of the Diamond Dogs being held by the unicorns grasp then grinned to himself and unclenched his fist. A small, glowing gemstone fell out of his grasp and on to the floor. It then started flashing faster and faster. Twilight’s eyes immediately widened in realization as soon as she saw what had happened. She then pushed passed General Biggs and threw herself on to the terminal in front of her. “That’s a magical pulse charge! Everypony get out of there!” Hearing their Princess’ voice over the comm link made the ponies halt for a moment. The gem then started flashing more wildly, and the next moment it released a magical pulse wave that spread outwards from the centre. The pulse wave enveloped the whole courtyard, and spread out over Ponyville. The pegasi were thrown off by the sudden blast in front of them, and halted where they were. Lelouch felt the pulse wave pass over him. He raised his hoof to his head as it passed over him, but he didn’t feel any way affected by it. After it had passed, he slowly lowered his hoof from his head again. “What was that?” Lelouch then peaked out from behind the alleyway again. Back in the courtyard, after the pulse wave had gone off, the levitation field surrounding the Diamond Dogs suddenly disappeared, dropping them all back to the ground, and the unicorns were left dazed, though the pegasi and earth ponies seemed to be relatively unaffected, if a little disoriented. Rover smirked maliciously at the apparent success of his plan, and leaned forward in delectation. “The pulse charge was a success; the pony's magic is down.” He then pointed his paw out in front of him. “Dogs; now! Charge the ponies while they’re helpless.” At this, all of the Diamond Dogs in the area grinned maliciously, and threw their paws up into the air in cheer. They then all got down on all fours and started charging towards the ponies again. Eyes still widened in worry, and in a fit of adrenaline, Twilight pushed General Biggs out of the way, and spoke into the terminal. “Please listen to me. First off, pegasi; fly down there and get the unicorns out of there until the effects of the pulse charge wears off. Try and get them to a safe spot where they attack at range, without having to worry about counterattacks. “Earth ponies; move forward and hold off their advancing ground forces until the pegasi are back. Hold your position for as long as you can. Then the pegasi; once you get the unicorns to a safe spot, swoop down and attack the Diamond Dogs from the back to keep the enemy boxed in and cut off from one another. Don’t give them the opportunity to pull back or support each other.” General Biggs stumbled back to his feet. He kept his eyes locked on Twilight. He didn’t appreciate being pushed around, literally, at his rank, but considering she was a Princess, he knew better than to complain about it. He then turned back around and directed his attention towards the crystal monitor on the opposite wall. With their new orders, and getting their second wind after hearing their Princess’ voice, the pegasi then quickly swooped down, grabbed on to the unicorn soldiers around their midsections, and flew back up into the sky as quickly as they could. With the front lines now gone, the earth pony guards stepped forward and prepared for combat. They got into battle position; spread out on all fours, and prepared for the Diamond Dogs strike. The Diamond Dogs continued charging towards the ponies remaining ground forces, knocking over the statue of Princess Celestia in the middle of the courtyard, and crushing it beneath their stampeding paws. That would surely serve as a blow to the pony’s morale. As they approached the earth pony platoon, the Diamond Dogs leapt into the air and prepared to pounce. Seeing the approaching Diamond Dogs getting ready to pounce, Twilight touched the terminal in front of her again. “Earth ponies; split into two groups around the incoming Diamond Dogs to hit them from both sides and keep them off balance.” As the Diamond Dogs were coming down on them, the earth pony soldiers quickly leapt to the side at the last moment to avoid the attack. Their forces then quickly split in two, half of them leaping to the left, half of them leaping to the right, to try and encircle the group of Diamond Dogs and cut off their escape. The Diamond Dogs caught on to their plan, and some of them then started quickly tunnelling into the ground to get around the ponies from underneath. While half of their group set about tunnelling underground, the other half went on the offensive and moved to attack the nearby earth ponies, splitting off to attack the ponies on both sides. The Diamond Dogs brought their huge, hulking, razor-sharp claws down on their enemies. The earth ponies used their smaller size and increased agility to avoid the incoming attacks, and then respond with one of their own in the form of a hard buck to the stomach. Some found their marks, while others missed, just like their opponents did. The battle continued on between just the Diamond Dogs and the earth ponies for a while. The ponies scored more successful hits than the Diamond Dogs; however, the Diamond Dog’s bigger size meant they needed more hits to be brought down. They moved around more to keep their enemies off balance, using hit and run tactics to fight. Multiple ponies focused on a single Diamond dog at a time, using their superior numbers to their advantage. The Diamond Dog’s better strength and bigger size almost guaranteed an instant kill when they scored a hit. Though their hits were less frequent than the pony’s, they were deadlier when they landed. They also used their tunnelling abilities to quickly move around under the pony’s hooves to keep up with their fast movements, striking from underground, catching the ponies off guard whilst they were dealing with other dogs. As the fighting went on, both sides were starting to wear down the other side’s numbers. However, once the pegasi had gotten the unicorns to safe positions up high, they returned to the battlefield to aid their comrades. With the pegasi attacking from the air, the unicorns attacking from up high, and the Diamond Dogs having no way to combat them in the sky, they kept them off guard long enough for the earth ponies to regain the advantage in this fight. While the fighting continued in the courtyard, Lelouch continued observing the battle from the alley, out of sight of the soldiers fighting and the ponies back at the base. While watching the ensuing conflict, he narrowed his eyes in thought, and he started analysing what he had seen so far. “So, these Dogs can nullify the pony’s magic, but have no way of fighting against their aerial attackers. And the griffons can handle the aerial attacks no problem, but struggle against the pony’s magic.” Lelouch then brought his hoof up to his mouth as he began formulating a plan about what his next move would be and how he would implement it. As he finished with his thoughts, he began grinning devilishly as thoughts started coming to mind. “Yes. I think I now know exactly what to do.” He then turned back around and started searching through his saddlebag for something important. As the fighting continued, the Diamond Dog commander in the red jacket continued observing the fighting. There were several other Diamond Dogs that held back with him, but they were all armored soldiers, that served as his bodyguards. As he observed the fighting, things were not looking good for them. They had the earth ponies attacking from all sides, the pegasi attacking from the sky, and the unicorns pinning them down from above, boxing them in, and the pony’s superior numbers put them at a further disadvantage as they gradually started losing their own soldiers. As he continued watching the battle from the side lines, Rover started gritting his teeth and clenching his fist in annoyance. Things were not going the way that they had originally planned. He assumed that since the pony’s major advantage was their magic, that if they nullified that, then their superior strength could defeat the ponies easily. It seems like these ponies have more fortitude than he thought. He had already made that mistake once before and he did not need reminding of it. As the effects of the pulse charge was beginning to wear off, one of the Diamond Dog soldiers in the field took out another pulse charge from underneath his armor, and threw it up into the air. The pulse charge exploded in mid-air, releasing another wave of magical energy that spread throughout the area. It served to stop the unicorns from attacking with magic or supporting their comrades with magical attacks and shields, but aside from that, the pulse charges weren’t as much of an advantage in this fight as they had anticipated. The ponies were still well equipped to fight them, even without their magic, and they still had the advantage of numbers and fighting on their home turf. Despite the Diamond Dog’s strength and their new weapons, they were losing this fight. Rover fell down on to his hands and knees, and looked out at the resounding blood bash. They were still holding strong, but at this rate, they wouldn’t last much longer. The boss sneered at the ponies on the battlefield, and the ones that he knew were watching him from the safety of their base. He then yelled out, “Dogs; keep going! Take down as many as these ponies as you can! Even at the cost of your lives!” “I wouldn’t advise that if I were you.” Upon hearing this mysterious voice, Rover’s eyes widened and his ears twitched, and he turned in the direction that he had heard the voice coming from. Turning to face it, out of the shadows of the back-alley, he saw a mysterious figure slowly approach him. They were wearing a purple cloak and mask combo that covered their body completely. This made it impossible to tell what the figure beneath looked like, or whether it was a pony or a griffon or even a changeling. On the other side of the monitor, the ponies back at the base watched as a mysterious figure emerged from the shadows, towards the back of the battlefield, and approached the leader of the Diamond Dog Rebellion. Twilight looked at this new figure suspiciously. “Who is that?” She whispered to herself, so quietly that only she could hear. As the Rover remained spread out on his knees, he watched as the mysterious figure walked closer to him. One of his guards moved to intercept him, but the boss just raised his paw to stop him. “Hold on a second.” He said to the Diamond Dog, but kept his eyes on the mysterious figure in front of him. “I want to see what this is all about.” He spoke calmly. As the mysterious figure approached them, he stopped inches away from Rover, and moved to address them again. “Listen, as much as it may pain yourselves to admit it, you’ve lost.” His voice sounded slightly muffled behind his mask. He spoke calmly and contently. “You need to pull your forces into a retreat.” The red-vested Diamond Dog stood back up on two feet again, not taking his eyes off of this mysterious entity. “And just who the Hell do you think you are?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at him. The mysterious stranger responded immediately, in a slightly raised tone. “I am Zero, and know that I am your ally; a fellow enemy of Equestria. It was I that led the griffons to victory at Gryphallia last week.” Rover’s eyes immediately widened when he heard this, and he took a step back in surprise. “What?” After a brief moment of silence, he regained himself and stepped forward again. “That was you?” “Yes, that was me.” Zero responded. “And know that I am on your side. I want to help lead you to victory, but for now you have to retreat. Retreat now and live to fight another day.” After a brief glance at the battlefield, the leader turned back to face Zero. “And I suppose you have a way to get us all out of this battle alive, huh?” “Yes, I’m sure of it, but I’ll need your help to do it.” After Rover looked at him a bit suspiciously, Zero continued speaking. “First off, how many pulse charges do you have left?” After looking him over again, and mentally reviewing how many pulse charges they had brought with them, how many they had used, how many they had left, and who had what, he responded. “About five.” “Alright.” Zero began. “On my signal, have your forces when use three pulse charges at the three main sides of the combat. That should keep the pony’s forces stunned long enough for you to tunnel out and make your escape. Then right when you’re about to leave, toss out one more for good measure. Do this and I can guarantee your safety. All I ask is that you take me with you.” The leader immediately stiffened his upper lip upon hearing that last part. “And just why should I take you with us when I don’t even know who you are?” He then thrust his index finger out at him. “For all we know, you could be a pony trying to trick us.” Lelouch instinctively took a step back at the Diamond Dog’s hostility. Rover was pointing at him threateningly, with a scowl on his face. Lelouch inwardly cursed at his stubbornness before responding. “Look, we don’t have time for this right now!” He shouted out. “Let’s focus on getting all of your men out of here safely for now, and then I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” At the moment, time was of the essence, so Lelouch needed to tell this guy whatever he wanted to hear in order to move quickly. However, Rover didn’t let up. “Forget it! You’re gonna answer all of my questions now before we go anywhere!” He yelled. “And let your own soldiers die!” Lelouch countered. Rover took a step back and righted himself up, pridefully. “We Dogs would rather die in glorious battle than in our homes after being betrayed.” He then folded his arms together. “Now give me a reason to trust you and show me who you are.” Sweat started to form on Lelouch’s forehead, inside his helmet. “I can’t let them know that I’m a pony. Not now; they’d never trust me this soon.” He halted for a moment and looked down at the ground. “Dammit, I’m gonna have to do it.” He looked up again to look Rover in the eyes, and then a small compartment in his mask opened up, revealing a single eye with a Geass symbol. “Obey my orders!” Rover simply stood there, transfixed as the Geass took effect. One of his bodyguards briefly looked towards his Commander, and then took a step towards Zero. However, Rover held a paw out to his side him to stop him. Without taking his gaze off of Zero, he then nodded in affirmation. “Right, understood.” He said, his eyes now with a red tint. “Good,” Lelouch said as his mask closed up again. “Now, order the retreat.” “Right,” Rover said absently. Rover then turned back around to face the battlefield and relayed the order that Zero had given him, to the Diamond Dogs still fighting. The Diamond Dogs on the battlefield heard this order, and turned their heads to the side and nodded. Three of them then reached into their armor, pulled out a magical pulse charge, and threw them up into the air, aiming them so that the combined blast waves would affect everypony in the area. The resounding blasts produced three big shockwaves in all directions, encompassing the whole of the courtyard, stunning all of the ponies in the area, blinding them for several seconds. The Diamond Dogs took advantage of this distraction and quickly started tunnelling into the ground to escape. Their sharp claws tore into the earth like scissors through paper, allowing them to disappear into the ground in seconds. When all of the remaining Diamond Dogs had evacuated the area, Rover turned to both of his bodyguards. “Alright, let’s go.” The two bodyguards then started digging into the ground rapidly, creating tunnels large enough to squeeze through in a matter of seconds. While his bodyguards were digging their escape route, he turned to face Zero, his eyes still glowing red. “We’re getting out of here. Let’s go.” “Right.” Lelouch responded. The four of them then entered the escape tunnels, abandoning the fight to the ponies completely. Right as they were leaving, Rover quickly threw one more into the air, over his shoulder, for good measure, just as Zero had ordered him to, ensuring enough time for them to make their escape. When the effects of the blast had faded, the Diamond Dogs and Zero were gone. On the outskirts of Ponyville, the ponies had prepared a small refugee camp to safely care for the Ponyville citizens, in case of a terrorist attack. It was set up inside a big building that was comprised of one big room. There were rows of cots set up in several lines all over the room. There were a few hundred ponies squeezed into the big building, all huddled close together, afraid of what was going on right now, just a few miles from where they were. “I can’t take it anymore!” A certain cyan pegasus screamed out, hovering in the air. “I feel so useless. I should be out there right now, helping.” “Simmer down now, Rainbow,” Applejack said, getting up off her cot and looking up at Rainbow Dash. “The army’s got everything under control. Everything will be fine. Besides, you’re too young to be out there, fightin’. Those are the rules.” Rainbow Dash gazed down at Applejack while she was talking. “Twilight’s out there helping and she’s our age.” Rainbow countered. Applejack just hardened her glare at her pegasus friend. “She’s a Princess. She needs more protection than the rest of us, and it’s part o’ her duty to help ‘her subjects’.” “Exactly, she’s a Princess, and we’re friends.” Rainbow Dash responded. “She should be able to pull a few strings and get me out there. With my help, I just know that we could end this whole stupid war.” Applejack closed her eyes briefly and exhaled. “Rainbow, Ah know how ya feel. Ah’d like to be out there too, helpin’ out, but this is just the way it is.” Upon hearing this, Rainbow Dash just squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her hooves tight for a moment, but then she relaxed again. “I guess you’re right. I just wanna do something.” “Well don’t worry. I’m sure that this will all be over quickly.” Rarity said, as she lay on the cot, with Fluttershy cosying up next to her, burying her head into her mane. Rainbow Dash let out another sigh as she drifted back to the ground. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But still…” Applejack could see that Rainbow had still not completely given in. However, before she could speak up again, something else came to her. “Hey, where’s Pinkie Pie?” She asked, while looking from side to side. “Oh, she’s over there,” Rarity said in a surprisingly sarcastic tone, while pointing over to the far corner with her horn. Applejack looked over into the direction that her unicorn friend had pointed, and she saw Pinkie Pie sitting by herself on a single cot, alone in the corner. Taking in this strange sight, Applejack decided to go over and talk to her. She reached Pinkie in the furthest corner of the room, which was much darker than the rest of the room. Pinkie Pie was sitting there all by herself, with an uncharacteristically sombre expression on her face, looking down. Her mane was deflated, though not completely straight. So also looked strangely… grey; almost like she had been corrupted by Discord again. Seeing her friend look like this, Applejack decided to speak up. “Hey there, Pinkie, what are y’all doin’ over here all by your lonesome?” Applejack asked. Pinkie raised her head to look Applejack in the eye. She just stared back at her for several seconds in utter silence, with an almost pained look in her eyes, and then looked away again, looking like she was about to tear up. Applejack looked back at her friend, now very worried. “Listen, Pinkie Pie. If something’s wrong, then you can tell me.” She said as she took another step closer to her. “What is it?” Pinkie slowly rolled her eyes back towards the apple farmer, before turning back around completely. After another moment of hesitation, she opened her mouth to speak. “Dgjfkdtydghjtdrdghjgdgx.” Upon hearing the sounds coming out of Pinkie’s mouth, Applejack immediately let out an annoyed huff and facehooved. “Oh Celestia, not this again.” She then lowered her hoof again before continuing. “Pinkie Pie, if this is another one of your practical jokes, then you can skip it.” She then looked at her again with a more worried expression. “Just tell me what’s wrong, Sugarcube.” Pinkie leaned forward again, now looking even more worried. “Dfdgnfkhmjdhbnmfjdhgxb.” Once again, Applejack let out another aggravated huff. “Fine, don’t tell me.” She then turned back around and started walking away. “Let me know when y’all are ready to start acting serious!” She shouted at Pinkie, over her shoulder. She then whispered under breath, “That would certainly be a first.” Pinkie Pie held out her hoof towards her friend as she walked away. “Hgfgbnfhmkdgbnmgfdgszxbgnfjdhgsf!” When Applejack had ignored her plea and walked out of sight, Pinkie lowered her hoof again. She then lowered her head as well, and screamed as loudly as she could in her mind. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” To be continued… Author's Note I'm really sorry about the long wait, and I'm really sorry about the poor quality of this chapter. The story's quality has really gone down since Chapter 1, but I really am trying (unsuccessfully) to make it better. I completely understand if you want to stop reading (if you haven't already). Chapter 5Chapter 5 After the battle of Ponyville had ended and the Diamond Dogs had retreated, the royal guards had seen to cleaning up the mess left behind by the battle before leading the citizens back to their homes. Twilight had also volunteered to help them clean things up. Many of the guards protested this action, mostly the higher ups, saying that her safety was a top priority and that they should get her out of the area just in case there were any stragglers left behind, planning an ambush. The arguing kept going back and forth between Princess Twilight and General Wedge, with the alicorn becoming increasingly annoyed with the General’s stubbornness, which rivalled that of an earth pony. After several minutes of back and forth, she finally decided to just end the discussion with a Princess’ Order. And that was it. As much as the General didn’t like so easily being beaten down by the purple pony, his hooves were tied; and besides, he certainly wasn’t going to publically argue with a Princess, so he relented. With an annoyed look on his face, which he expertly managed to hide in the alicorn’s presence, using his years of experience in the royal guard for maintaining a stoic expression, General Wedge simply turned back around and continued tending to the needs of the town and his soldiers. With the argument finally over, Twilight couldn’t help but smile in triumph for her little victory. Sure, she did kind of cheat by using royal authority to overrule a high ranking military leader, but a win was still a win. Of course, the mere thought of the word ‘victory’ brought her mind back to the battle that they had just fought, and her subsequent thoughts and feelings on the matter. As she continued doing her best to restore any damage done to her home town, her triumphant smile started to fade as she thought back to the battle, specifically the end of the battle and that mysterious entity in the mask and cloak. Based on his size and build, he obviously wasn’t a Diamond Dog. She found this strange, since so far, in any of the rebellions that had popped up, the different species had kept to themselves and worried only for their own interests, not even sparring thoughts about the other races well-being. Twilight suspected this was because the other races didn’t actually trust each other enough to work together. This had worked to the ponies advantage during the battles, since they had the magic of friendship, and every other species was fighting alone, and she knew from her own experiences – with her and her friends working together, as well as when Discord and Tirek teamed up – that that advantage always lead to victory. Of course, this was perhaps why the Princesses had decided on their course of action that led into the battles in the first place. Celestia had seen how much the other races were greedy and only cared for themselves, and sought to help improve relations between everyone, uniting them all together. Twilight didn’t really like the idea of fighting a war, as she had always tried to use diplomacy to sort out issues, and the amount that they had to fight back against them did worry her, not to mention that fighting a war to bring unity and peace did seem counterproductive, but if Celestia thought that this was the right course of action, then she did too. After all, the Princess always knew the best course of action to take. That, and she would never dare speak out against her former teacher – her outburst over her first bringing Discord’s statue to Ponyville prior to his reformation not withstanding – though the thoughts did linger in the back of her mind. Shrugging it off for now, Twilight returned her focus to repairing the town. After the battle had ended, Lelouch had retreated with the Diamond Dog’s to their base of operations: a series of underground tunnels, which lay just outside of Equestrian territory. The area hadn’t been annexed into the country yet, so they were managing to hold out for now, though that was only because the Equestrian forces were more focused with other territories at the moment. As soon as they were finished there, and they came for them, the way they are now, they didn’t stand much of a chance of successfully fighting them off. Lelouch’s identity was still hidden behind his mask and cape. Standing before him right now were three Diamond Dogs. Rover was in the middle, to his left was a tall Diamond Dog with blue fur and abnormally long arms, and to his right, in contrast to the one on the left, was a short diamond dog, with brown fur, who only came up to the former human’s chin. He had learned upon arriving that these three were the Diamond Dog’s commanders. Once they were all gathered, Rover was the first one to speak up. “Alright Zero,” he began, addressing Lelouch, with a slight snarl in his voice, showing his disdain. “We did as you said and pulled our forces back.” He then crossed his arms and glared down at him. “And now the invasion that we’ve been planning for months has all been for nothing.” He hardened his glare. “So, was it worth it?” “Of course it was.” Lelouch responded immediately, in a completely calm tone of voice. “Had you stayed and fought, you would have been overwhelmed. You placed too much faith in your magical pulse bombs, and once your enemies worked around that, you quickly fell to the superior numbers and tactics. You can’t just put all your hopes on one saving grace, or else you’ll have nothing left when the enemy finds a way around it. Case in point: what happened tonight.” “We still could have won.” The tall Diamond Dog interjected. “And gotten yourselves killed in the process.” Lelouch retorted. “What’s the point of fighting back if you die doing it. Choosing to die is something only an idiot does.” This made the tall Diamond Dog step back. “Calm down, Fido,” Rover said to the Diamond dog at his side, though still with his arms crossed and his gaze locked on the masked figure in front of him. Lelouch took a moment to compose himself before speaking again. “As I said before, my name is Zero. I am working to bring down Equestria and restore the lands of everybody that was taken. To accomplish this, everyone will need to stand together and fight back against a common enemy. If you remain divided, you’ll only make it easier for the ponies to pick you all off one by one. I can help you with that.” “And how do we know we can trust you?!” Rover barked back at him. “You’re obviously not a Diamond Dog. For all we know, you could be a pony trying to deceive us. Before we proceed, how about you give us a reason to trust you.” “Very well, I shall.” Lelouch responded immediately, with a wave of his hoof, really hamming it up. “However, instead of showing you my identity, instead bear witness to my power. I will successfully capture Ponyville for you.” With that, he then turned around and started walking out of the room. Seeing him leave, Fido straightened up in his stance. While he did find it a bit arrogant for him to just turn around on them like that, instead of reacting to that, he instead inquired about the last thing that the masked figure said. “And just how are you going to do that?” He wondered, with an eyebrow raised. As Lelouch was walking along, he suddenly stopped when he heard their question. “Simple,” he started. “I’m going to give you the one thing that you desperately need right now.” He then turned his head to the side so that he was facing them. “Friends.” With that final word, he turned back around again and walked away. As Lelouch left, he grinned devilishly to himself beneath his helmet. “Let’s just see how these ponies react when the Magic of Friendship is used against them.” He then turned a corner up ahead, leading out of the room, into an adjacent tunnel. Once Lelouch had turned the corner of the vast underground base, had walked far enough away from the main chamber, and was confident that there was no one else around, he lifted his hoof up to his face, touching his mask as the piece of headgear disengaged, pulling it off. Placing his helmet down on the ground, he then reach back under his cloak and pulled out the headset that he got from Gryphallia. Putting the headset around his head, he then started twisting the controls, trying to find the griffon’s radio frequency. As he was turning the dials on the side of his headset, he suddenly heard a whirring sound, signalling that he had found the right frequency. Putting a strong expression on his face, Lelouch then got ready to speak. “Hey, Gilda,” he started, in a quiet tone of voice. “It’s Zero. Are you there?” When he had stopped speaking, he didn’t hear a reply right away, and the underground tunnels were completely silent. Several seconds ticked on, but to Lelouch, they seemed like hours. After what was only ten seconds, his expression started to dip. “I’m here.” He suddenly heard a response from a familiar voice. Gilda then seemed to stop for a moment to think about something. “Are you in Equestria, right now?” She asked. Lelouch guessed that Gilda still suspected that the pony she met might be Zero. Lelouch, however, just smirked to himself because he could now throw her off his tail even more. “No, I’m not. I’m with the Diamond Dogs right now.” There was another pause from Gilda’s end, though this one was clearly from surprise, rather than mistrust. After a moment, he continued speaking. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. First off, how are things going on your end to convince the other griffons to fight back openly against Equestria?” Lelouch could practically hear the grin form on her face as she spoke. “Well, Black Hawk is all for it and he’s got a lot of pull with the rest of the Talons. Between the two of us, we’ve got almost all of the Talons on board, and with our latest victory, we’ve even got more griffons signing up with us.” There was again another short pause before the griffon continued. “Why do you ask? What are you planning?” Lelouch grinned before responding. “I’ve already got a new plan in the making. If it works, we’ll not only show these ponies that we mean business, but we’ll also be able to capture land inside of Equestria.” “Wh-what?” Gilda stuttered, barely believing what he said. “Zero, I know that I said I was on board and all, and that last victory was pretty sweet, but we’re still only holding out and barely at that. Capturing land inside Equestria seems a little too hopeful right now, don’t you think?” “Not at all,” Lelouch replied without missing a beat. “With my plan, it should be simple once you have just one thing.” “…and what’s that?” Lelouch grinned. “Friends.” Hours later in Ponyville, after the guards had cleaned up the town – at least removing enough of the rubble to prevent any accidents to its inhabitants – the citizens of Ponyville were lead back to their homes. After an eventful day like this, everypony just wanted to go to bed and forget what happened and relax. Everypony that is… except for one. It was the middle of the night, and the Moon shone high in the sky, the light shining from it poured down on the sleeping town below. Due to the news of the battle in Ponyville, and all of the damage caused, Princess Luna had been too busy dealing with any nightmares that the ponies had after that last attack to bring out the stars that night. However, the full moon still provided more than enough light to illuminate the night sky. Streaks of moonlight passed through the window pane of the Sugarcube Corner lobby. There, Pinkie Pie sat on a stool beside the counter, facing outwards, towards the main area of the lobby. The light from the moon, passing through and distorted slightly by the window ended right in front of her. The pink party pony sat in darkness, with a sorrowful look on her face, and in complete silence. As Pinkie sat on the stool, staring at the beams of light on the floor in front of here, she suddenly put on a stronger expression and lifted her head up. “I can do this.” She thought to herself. She then opened her mouth to speak. “My name is Pinkie.” “Fydhfjkmtreydshfjfkryetursydfhgjreurd.” Pulling her head back, looking sad for a moment, she then put on her strong expression again, though it was obvious that she was struggling to do so. “I can do this. My name is Pinkie.” She then opened her mouth to speak again. “Vjkhjhfvjmdfdnmgtfrdsgxhdngx.” She was now starting to get upset, and despair was beginning to seep in. Somehow she couldn’t talk anymore, all of her friends thought that it was just a prank, and she was unable to tell them the truth. She was now losing her friends and she couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t even giggle at the ‘cursie’ to make it go away. Getting angry at this thought, Pinkie Pie furrowed her eyebrows, puffed up her face, and resolved to just try harder to try and beat whatever happened to her. “My name is Pinkie!” She thought hard in her mind. “Hkjdfjdsfghdjsdxhndfhdjfdkjsxhfd.” Not letting her failure get to her, she just continued. “My name is Pinkie.” “Cfkhjchnmvgkfdsgxcvnfmjdsxgcvnf.” “My name is Pinkie.” “Uyturydgfxhnfkjresydfhjfkridsyxfh.” She was now getting more irritated. “My name is Pinkie!” “Hjdfhgfngtkfdgszcxbvnmghfkdsgzxc!” She then squeezed her eyes shut tightly, faced her head down at the ground and screamed as loud as she could, forgetting about the Cake’s, who were asleep upstairs. “Tydtsfdgfnktjdrsdtgxhfjrsdgfxjusdtg!” “Jkhuydgsbfngmkhtydfgxfjrdf!” A few seconds later, after her anger had subsided a little, now all that was left was despair. She was now panting hard, having run out of breath after all her shouting, and with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Being out of ideas of what she could do, she simply hung her head low, squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and cried freely. “I can sense the residual energy from this place.” Pinkie’s eyes suddenly widened and her head shot up in surprise as she heard a voice from nearby. With a look of confusion on her face, and her tears having stopped from the surprise, she turned her head to the side, and she was able to spot another pony in the room with here, in the corner, half visible, half concealed by the shadows. The light pouring into the room only showed half of their body, revealing their features. It was a mare, around her own size, with a pure white coat, and a long, silky, lime green mane. Her cutie mark Pinkie found confusing, but also familiar. It was a red, bird-shaped symbol, which she recognised as the one that also belonged to that ‘Lelouch’ pony she met earlier. However, unlike the male earth pony, this female pony had two of the symbols on either side of her flank, overlapping each other. Another thing Pinkie found strange was that this pony was also an alicorn; however, the thing which Pinkie found most confusing was that she was somepony that she had never met before and failed to notice that she was there. The first thought that came to her was, “I really have lost my touch.” She slumped slightly at this thought, however, she then quickly returned her attention to the alicorn in the room with her. “The Geass has been used here,” the alicorn mare finished as she stepped out of the shadows, towards the pink earth pony, revealing herself completely. She spoke in a monotone, almost emotionless tone of voice, with a matching expression on her face. As the strange alicorn continued to approach the pink party pony, she then stopped a few feet in front of her. Neither pony said anything for several seconds as they both simply stared back at each other. The alicorn was waiting for some – any – response from this pony, while Pinkie Pie was still confused as to who exactly this pony was and what was going on. As the two mares continued to simply stare back at each other in silence, the alicorn suddenly shifted her expression slightly, showing that she was running out of patience. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything? I can’t imagine that someone suddenly appearing in their home is normal in any world.” Pinkie’s eyes widened just a little bit for just a second at that remark. She then looked down at the ground again, dejected. The alicorn tilted her head to the side a bit and raised her eyebrow in response to this. After another moment of silence, Pinkie slowly raised her head again and gently said, “Hgfgnmgkfdghgmhdfgxcfgcxcvg,” with a solemn look on her face. She then looked away again. The alicorn’s expression suddenly shifted to real surprise when she heard the sound Pinkie made when she tried to speak, as if it was familiar to her. Pinkie noticed this and looked up at her again, but the alicorn simply turned to the side and raised her hoof up to her mouth in thought. “Hmmm, I didn’t think he’d use that one again.” She then turned her head back towards Pinkie Pie and smiled strangely at her. “You must have really annoyed him to make him go that far,” she added, with a slight smirk. Pinkie Pie didn’t know how to respond to that statement, but she certainly felt angry, and she glared back at the alicorn in response. Either not noticing or not caring about the look that the pink pony was shooting her, the alicorn mare continued. “Listen, I’ll just get right to it; I need your help. You see, I’m trying to find someone. I was able to track him to this world, but somehow, I am unable to pinpoint his exact location. I cannot find him on my own, but if you help me, then I can help you as well.” Pinkie gave the alicorn a strange look, not understanding what she was talking about, the irony lost on her. “Hjfgkfghngjedsgbnbjfdxjgfgdh.” She said, but quickly shut her mouth again. Realising quickly that she wouldn’t be able to understand anything that she said, Pinkie instead simply gave her a look as if to say, ‘What do you mean?’ Seeing this look and guessing what she meant by it, she elaborated. “Let’s just say that I had a contract with him, and now that’s over, it’s time that he returned what I gave him.” Their contract was only supposed to last until one of them died. Since Lelouch had died, yet somehow come to another world, it was only right that she take back the power she gave him. She had already seen what happened when she just forgot about those whom she had given Geass powers to. Ironic, that Lelouch was the one who had pointed that out to her. Turning back towards Pinkie again, she then held her hoof out towards her. “Will you accept my contract?” Staring back at the alicorn’s outstretched hoof, thinking over everything that she had said to her, there was still a lot about it that she didn’t understand. However, she also said that she could help her with her speech problems. Pinkie had never heard of this pony, but if she was an alicorn like Twilight, then she must be really powerful, and when she spoke, she sounded so certain that she could help her. Right now, Pinkie was going through one of the roughest moments of her life, and if this pony really could help her, then she would take it. Besides, Pinkie always saw the good in everypony, and if she didn’t now, then she really would be losing herself. Righting herself into a strong look of determination, she held out her own hoof to meet the alicorns. As soon as she did and grabbed hold of her, she suddenly felt as if a powerful force was rushing from her hoof all throughout her body. The feeling wasn’t so much painful as unexpected, which made Pinkie shut her eyes tightly in response. A moment later, she opened her eyes again, and when she did, she noticed a strange moving symbol taking up most of her vision. For Pinkie Pie, there was only one response to something like this. “Haha, look at the birdie.” She thought as the bird-shaped Geass symbol flashed in her right eye briefly before disappearing, her eye returning to normal. She then smiled her first real smile ever since Lelouch had used his Geass on her. “This power will allow you to speak telepathically with those around you,” the alicorn spoke up again. “It will also allow to whisper thoughts into their subconscious to discreetly edge them towards doing what you want. Of course, the latter won’t work on me, but it will allow us to communicate more effectively. Your range is five hundred metres.” She finished explaining. Turning back to face the alicorn again, now with a happy smile on her face, her right eye then suddenly flashed with the Geass symbol again. “Can you hear me now?” She thought at the alicorn. “Yes, I can,” the white alicorn responded, nodding her head in affirmation. Pinkie then closed her eyes and beamed. “Oh, this is so cool!” She mentally squeed. Opening her eyes again, she then thought, “Hey, what number am I thinking of?” The alicorn mare didn’t say anything in response this time; she simply stood there in silence. After a moment, Pinkie then dropped her smile and looked confused again. “What’s wrong?” She thought at her. After another five seconds of awkward silence, the alicorn suddenly spoke up again, to clarify something. “If you wish to speak with me, you have to activate your Geass every time.” She said, while pointing to her eye. Lowering her hoof again, she then added, “And make sure to turn it off when you’re not using it and only use when you have to. If you overuse your Geass…” She paused, as if she were thinking something over. “Well, let’s just say that that would be bad.” Pinkie’s eyes widened at this revelation. She then mentally made a note to only use her Geass when she absolutely had to. Then she double checked that she hadn’t had her Geass active when she thought that. She slumped a little when she realised that this meant that she wouldn’t be able to use her power to speak to her friends whenever she wanted to, but she then perked up again. She was still grateful towards this alicorn mare for the gift, and was happy that she would be able to help her new friend. She then suddenly thought of something. Activating her Geass, she looked at the alicorn mare again and thought, “That reminds me, what’s your name?” “My name is C.C.” She responded simply. Pinkie Pie thought for a moment about how strange that name sounded, making sure that her Geass was off when she did. She then quickly brushed it off when she realised that she was from another world, and that in her world, Pinkie Pie would probably be a strange name. Returning her attention to C.C., smiling as she did, she activated her Geass again, deciding that this was important enough. “So, now that we’re friends, can I throw you a welcoming party before we go look for your other friend?” “No.” C.C. said immediately, raising her hoof up to stop her from continuing. “I need to make sure not to bring any unnecessary attention to myself while I’m here. I have you to help me. That will be enough.” After a moment of silence, but before Pinkie could interject, C.C. then added, “Also, don’t tell anyone else about your Geass. The less who know about it, the better.” She then turned her head to the side. “I’ve seen the kind of harm it can do in the long run, so I need to keep it contained as much as possible from now on.” She then thought to herself about how she may have to either kill Pinkie or take her power back after all this is over. Turning back to face the pink pony again, she saw that she had an understanding smile on her face, and nodded in affirmation. Seeing this, caused the witch-turned-pony to smile as well, slightly. After yet another moment of silence, but not an awkward one this time, Pinkie activated her Geass and asked, “So, you said that you need my help to find somepony. What’s his name?” With a straight look on her face, C.C. simply responded with, “Lelouch Vi Britannia.” Pinkie’s eyes widened immediately. To be continued…
Chapter 1Chapter 1 “I destroy… the world… and create it… anew.” As Lelouch’s life began to fade away, his last sight was of his sister, Nunnally. He had finally accomplished what he had set out to do, and created a new world where his little sister could live in peace. The rest of the world was now united in their hatred of him, and resources previously directed towards war and fighting, were now being used to end world hunger and poverty. Lelouch had become the symbol of all the hate and injustice in the world, and now it would all die with him. That was the Zero Requiem. As Lelouch’s vision began to darken, the last thing he saw was the terrified look on his sister’s face. She clutched his hand in her own, and she began desperately calling out to him, begging for him not to leave her. Lelouch could feel the hurt in her voice. It was too much for him to bear. He had broken his biggest rule and made Nunnally cry. This one fact had almost made him regret his decision. Nunnally had once told him that all she needed to be happy was to be with him. Even though he knew that that would never be enough, he had only just now, in his final moments realised just how upset she would be with living without him. He knew that she would continue living and make the most out of it, but she would still feel empty and sad for the rest of her life; and he had done that to her. It was all just too much for him. As his eyes closed shut, the last of his life force faded away. Lelouch Vi Britannia was dead. However, it was not the end. All Lelouch could see was a total blackness. He couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t hear anything, and he couldn’t feel anything. “Am I dead? Is this what death is like? After everything I did, an eternity of this is nothing less than I deserve. But at least... I was finally able to end the cycle of conflict. If this is my fate, then so be it.” However, suddenly his vision began to brighten a bit. He then felt a slight pain in his eyes; like the sunlight was shining down too hard on him. He instinctively twitched his eyes, and then quickly realised that he could feel his eyes again. His eyes opened up slowly, but he quickly squinted them shut again because of the harsh sunlight. The Sun was shining high in the sky, directly above him. The sky was a bright blue, with no clouds in the sky. He had to admit that it was beautiful. His body was currently spread out on the ground. He could feel the soft grass pressing gently against his skin. He didn’t feel like he was wearing clothes, but he didn’t question it. He remembered dying, and so he thought that this must be the afterlife, so it made sense that he would not be wearing clothes anymore. He did find it strange, however, that his afterlife would be this peaceful, and prepared himself for some sort of change for the worse that was coming soon. As he lay spread out on the grass, peacefully, he tried to flex his fingers, however, his eyes suddenly shot open and he readied himself for that big change in his current situation that he had prepared for; he couldn’t feel his fingers. He could feel his arms, but not his fingers. It felt as if his arms had been cut off at the hands. Lelouch slowly raised his hand up to his face so that he could get a proper look at himself. His eyes widened even more, and he tensed up upon seeing that he didn’t have a hand anymore; he had a hoof. He was completely dumbstruck at this revelation. “What the Hell?” After his earlier relaxation, and his current freak out, Lelouch now had plenty of energy in his body. He picked himself up and stood upright; however, as soon as he was standing up straight, he almost immediately fell back down frontwards, landing on all four hooves. Lelouch had no idea what was going on. Was this supposed to be his eternal damnation? But even still, why did he appear to be a horse? When he was standing up on four hooves, he gave his new body a close examination. He now had a dark purple coat, and a black mane that matched his usual hairstyle. He also noticed that, judging by his size, he seemed small for a horse, and deduced that he was actually a pony. This deduction didn’t make his current situation any less crazy, though. As he continued examining himself, what he found most bizarre about this situation was that he had a Geass mark on his flank; a red, bird-shaped symbol. Did this mean that he still had his Geass powers? But why was it on his flank now? Lelouch raised his hoof up to his left eye, like he always did when he thought about his Geass. Still not saying anything, he tore his gaze away from his new body, and took a closer look around at where he was now. He was in a huge field, filled with luscious green grass. The Sun shining down through the cloudless, blue sky made the area look surreal. The area in front of him was a big, open space, with nothing but the field visible on the horizon. On either side, there was a small mountain range, that encircled this area, but with an opening of sorts directly ahead of him. The area looked like a mountain valley. Behind him, where the mountains on either side converged with each other, there was what looked like a small town over in the distance, with stone buildings built right into the mountainside. From where he was standing, there was a path that lead into the town. Lelouch turned around to look at the town in the distance; not an easy thing to do with only three hooves on the ground. As he turned around, he lowered his left front hoof again, and he looked down at the ground as he started thinking. “What’s going on here? Where am I? And why do I look like a pony?” He then looked back up and faced the town in front of him, still with a confused look on his face. “Is this Hell? Was I sent here when I died because of all the bad things that I did?” He then thought about the Geass mark on his flank. “And why do I still have a Geass mark? Do I still have my Geass powers, or does it mark that I used to have it? Just what does this all mean?” “Hey!” Lelouch suddenly heard a voice call out from behind him. He turned around to see who it was, and he was surprised to see a strange creature, hovering in the air just a few feet behind him. The creature looked strange, but also somehow familiar. It had an eagle’s head and a lion’s body. From what Lelouch could remember, this creature was called a griffon, and he could somehow tell that it was female. What he found most strange was that this griffon was holding a gun in its claw; and she was pointing it right at him. Lelouch didn’t blink as he stared down the barrel of the gun. After several seconds of silence, the griffon started to speak again. “Just what are you doing here, pony? Gryphallia is still a sovereign state of the Griffon Kingdom. You ponies have no place here.” The griffon then gripped her gun with her other claw and kept in pointed at Lelouch. Lelouch didn’t know what to do. If he still had his Geass, he could just order her to put the gun down, or kill herself. However, even if he did still have his Geass, he didn’t want to waste it. This griffon was clearly hostile to ponies, and there was obviously something going on between the two races; however, if she was truly tyrannical or evil, then she would have shot him by now. Since she was hesitating, he knew that she could be reasoned with. This could also be a good chance to get some information on where he is right now, and what was going on. “I’m sorry, I’m new around here.” Lelouch spoke in a kind and gentle tone of voice. “If you could tell me where I am, as well as give some information on the current situation then I would greatly appreciate it.” Lelouch gave a charismatic smile as he finished talking. The griffon snarled back at him when he was finished speaking. However, she then lowered her gun slightly and hesitated for a moment before she spoke again. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?” When Lelouch didn’t respond or make any gestures, she knew that he wasn’t kidding. The griffon looked down at the pony in front of her. He still wore that same charming smile on his face, as he patiently waited for an answer to his question. Since this pony honestly looked like it didn’t know what was going on, and since he didn’t look too intimidating, since he was just an earth pony and couldn’t hit her while she was in the air, she lowered her gun to her side, but still held it in her claw. “You really don’t know what’s going on right now?” The griffon asked in a calm and quiet tone. “That’s right.” Lelouch responded. “Then what are you doing in griffon territory?” She responded in a louder tone of voice this time. “That’s a bit of a long story.” Lelouch responded immediately. “However, if you tell me what I want to know, then I’ll tell you what you want to know. Sound fair?” The griffon simply stared back at him and folded her claws together. After a few seconds of silence between them, she then closed her eyes briefly and let out a short sigh. “Alright then.” She said as she opened her eyes, unfolded her claws, and looked down at Lelouch; the expression on her face was now slightly angry. “Six months ago, you ponies annexed the Griffon Kingdom by force. You said that you wished to improve trade and relations between our kingdoms. Princess Celestia said she wanted to create a zone in our land, just for ponies, where we could all learn to live amongst each other. It seemed like a good idea at the time, until we realised that the zone would fall under Equestrian jurisdiction and laws, and would include a military occupation. When we realised what that would mean for us, we rejected the offer.” The griffon furrowed her eyebrows. “That’s when the fighting started, and in the crossfire a griffon child died. Oh sure, you claimed that it was just an accident, but we know better now. Once the child died, we started fighting back at full force, and it looked like it was going to be an absolute massacre of you ponies. That is, if it wasn’t for the entire Canterlot military that was stationed just outside our borders. They entered the front lines within hours of the attack, and started killing every griffon involved in the fighting.” The griffon then clenched her claw into a fist at her side. “That was the Princesses plan all along. Rile us up and force us to strike first so that she would have a justified reason to move in and take our country by force. There’s no other way; it was all just too perfect.” The griffon was now really riled up, and directing her anger towards Lelouch. “We had more advanced technology and weapons, but even with that advantage, we were no match for the pony’s magic. In just four months, they took complete control of our country, and now only a few pockets of resistance remain.” As Lelouch listened to more and more of this griffon’s story, he couldn’t believe how similar it was to his own. This was Brittania invading Japan all over again. Lelouch took one step forward, and the griffon quickly drew her gun again and pointed it at him. “Hold it right there.” She then narrowed her eyes at him. “Not another step.” Lelouch looked up to look this griffon in the eye. “Listen I…” Before Lelouch could finish speaking, a small spear suddenly came out of nowhere, and knocked the gun out of the griffon’s claw and sent it hurdling towards the ground. Both Lelouch and the griffon were surprised at this, and turned around to see where the spear had come from. Several feet behind them, there were five white pegasus ponies, wearing gold armor, hovering in the air. They were all holding a spear in their front hooves, and they had several spears strapped to their backs. One of them drew another spear from the supply on his back to arm himself again. One of the pegasi then turned his attention from the griffon to Lelouch. “Are you alright, citizen? Don’t worry, we’ll save you from this terrorist Beast.” The griffon snarled at this pegasus’ words, but Lelouch just stepped forward to address them. “You don’t understand. This is all just a misunderstanding. I’m not being held captive. I just showed up here, and she was just giving me directions.” The pegasus simply harrumphed in response. “Well then, clearly you don’t understand the severity of the situation. That there is Gilda; a member of the Talons terrorist group, threatening to disrupt the peace of Equestria.” The griffon simply snarled back at them. “Bastards.” The pegasi all continued to glare back at her. Her eyes then drifted down to where her gun landed on the ground. The pegasi followed her line of sight. The next second, Gilda quickly darted towards the ground to grab her weapon; however, one of the pegasi reacted quickly and threw his spear at her. The spear found its target, and collided with the griffon’s shoulder. The attack wasn’t fatal, though it was enough to knock her to the ground and cause her to lose consciousness. As her body fell to the ground, Lelouch raced over to where she fell. “Gilda!” Lelouch stopped when he was right next to her body, standing over her. He simply stood there silently, staring down at her limp body. “Stand aside, citizen.” One of the pegasus guards called out from behind him. “We’ll finish off this terrorist and then escort you safely back to Equestria.” “Tell me.” Lelouch started. He spoke in a completely calm demeanour, and he didn’t turn around to face them. “You would attack someone who isn’t even conscious?” The guard who spoke earlier hesitated for a second, and huffed slightly before responding. “If that someone is a terrorist Beast, who threatens the lives of innocent ponies, then yes.” As Lelouch listened to this answer, his face broke out into a smile. “Alright then.” He then turned around in order to face the five pegasi in front of him. “She already told me her side of the story about what happened between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom. Now you tell me your side, if you please.” Lelouch spoke in a very smug tone of voice. The lead pegasus simply stared back at him for several seconds, eyes unblinking. This pony seemed very strange. After several seconds, he then smirked back at him, similar to how Lelouch was smirking at him. “Alright, since you apparently need a history lesson. Six months ago, the ponies of Equestria came to the Beasts with a peace treaty under orders from Princess Celestia. She had the intention of creating a zone in the country where ponies and Beasts could all live together in harmony, in order to improve our relations, which have been a bit rocky lately. However, after we arrived, these Beasts not only refused our offer, but began open firing on the soldiers that we sent in as ambassadors. When we saw that they had no intention of treating with us from the start, diplomacy was no longer an option. How could we negotiate with a race that set us up like that? We then had no other choice left but to defend ourselves; we were forced to fight them. By that point, however, we had passed into a full blown war.” Lelouch listened to the pegasus’ explanation carefully, noticing the differences and similarities to Gilda’s story. “And so you annexed their whole country by force?” He asked. The pegasus’ arrogant smile fell slightly. “Yes. We had to make an example out of these brutish Beasts. If they wouldn’t accept peace on their own terms, then we had to teach it to them by force. They are citizens of our Empire now, and they must learn to follow our rules, obey our laws, and learn to live in harmony with us. Now if only these terrorist groups could accept that, then everything would be perfect.” Lelouch suddenly started bursting out laughing after listening to this pegasus guards’ story. The other pegasi started to become annoyed at this, and inched closer to him, gripping their spears tightly. Lelouch then stopped laughing and spoke again. “Peace through war. That was the gist of your story, wasn’t it. Because that’s all I got from it.” The lead pegasus snarled angrily at him. “How dare you? You are an Equestrian citizen, aren’t you? How could you say such things?” Lelouch smirked again. “I’ve heard enough propaganda to be able to tell whose story is real, and whose is a bunch of political satire; and your little tale had government influence all over it.” The pegasi were now outright fuming. Lelouch then turned his head back around to look at Gilda, who was still lying on the ground, unconscious. “By the way, I’m pretty sure these creatures are called ‘Griffons’, not Beasts.” Suddenly, all of the pegasus guard’s eyes widened. “How dare you refer to these creatures by that name. They have lost the war, and so they have lost the right to call themselves by that name. They are simply Beasts.” The lead pegasus flew out ahead of the others, and he narrowed his eyes as he stared down at Lelouch. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were a Beast sympathiser.” Lelouch didn’t hear the second part of the pegasus’ rant. He lowered his head in thought. After hearing how they took away the griffon’s right to call themselves griffons, he saw the true state of things here. It really was just like Brittania and Japan. If he wasn’t certain before, he was now. “Well…” The pegasus guard continued. Just as he opened his mouth to continue, Lelouch suddenly cut him off. “No one has the right to take away a race of people’s identity.” He spoke calmly and quietly, but full of meaning. He then suddenly lifted his head up to look the pegasus in the eye. “These creatures are called griffons!” The lead pegasus, and the four behind him all reacted as if they had been pushed back by the force of his words. The lead pegasus’ face was blank; however, it quickly contorted to an expression of rage. “I knew it! You’re with them.” He then drew his spear and pointed it directly at Lelouch. The guards behind him quickly did the same. “Well then.” He started, his angry expression slowly turning into a wicked grin. “We can’t have ponies outright defying us. We’ll kill you here so that you don’t tarnish our country’s image. Any last words, Pony-Beast?” Lelouch stepped forward towards the pegasi, his head bowed. “Yes I do.” He then lifted his head up, and his left eye suddenly changed so that it showed the glowing Geass symbol. “My name is Lelouch Vi Britannia, and this is my first order to you: Die.” The five pegasi were all transfixed by his gaze. Their eyes then all suddenly gained a glowing red tint. After about three seconds, the lead pegasus suddenly smiled and said, “Of course, Your Highness.” All five of the pegasus guards then all gripped their spears in their hooves, held them out in front of them, and impaled themselves through the chest with them. All five of them died instantly, and fell to the ground with a thud. As their bodies hit the ground, the clean, cut grass of the pure surrounding countryside became stained with their blood. Lelouch, however, just smirked and laughed triumphantly. “So I still have my Geass. And it looks like this world needs my help to get back on the right track. This must be why I was sent here. Was I sent here to set this world free from the same cycle of conflict that persisted between Britannia and Japan? Or was I sent here as punishment, so that I would repeat the same actions forever? Whatever the reason, I already know what I’m going to do. I must end the cycle of conflict once and for all, and bring an end to all of the fighting; and together with my Geass, and whatever allies I can find, I will change this world.” He then lifted his head up and shouted to the heavens, “I will obliterate Equestria!” As he stared up at the clear, cloudless, sunny sky, with a huge grin on his face, he then looked down again and looked over at Gilda’s body, still lying there unconscious. He then walked over to her. As he gazed down at her limp body, he then turned to the right, to see the small town in the distance. He then turned back to face Gilda, knelt down beside her, and lifted her on to his back. After he had hoisted her on to his back, he then turned in the direction of the town, and slowly trudged towards it. He was never one for physical activities. As Lelouch continued making his way towards the town, Gilda began to stir on his back, and wake up. She slowly opened her eyes, still feeling weak from being attacked earlier. As she looked down, she could see that she was moving somehow. Confused, she turned her head to the side to see that Lelouch was carrying her on his back. Her eyes then widened, and she tried to push herself up on his back. “Hey, what’s going on?” “Don’t move around so much. You’re still injured.” Lelouch said to her in a calm tone of voice. He didn’t turn back to face her; he just kept walking forward. After hearing what he said, realising that she was still injured, and seeing that she was no longer in danger, she rested back down on his back again. After a moment, she suddenly noticed something and spoke up again. “Hey, what happened to the pegasus guards from earlier?” Still facing ahead of him and not looking back to face her, Lelouch just smiled and said, “They all killed themselves once they realised how pointless what they were doing was.” Gilda just looked back at him with an expression of disbelief on her face. “Yeah, right.” She said sarcastically. Lelouch just continued smiling. “If you don’t believe me, then look behind you.” Not believing him, Gilda looked behind her, and she was surprised to see the five pegasus’ dead bodies, lying down, with spears impaled through their stomachs. From the position that they were sprawled out in, it was clear that they had indeed killed themselves. Still with a look of shock on her face, Gilda turned back to face Lelouch, or more accurately, the back of his head. “Why the Hell would they kill themselves? They’ve never been known to do that before.” Lelouch simply smiled again. “People can always surprise you. Or ponies, rather.” He added. After hearing Lelouch’s answer, Gilda shifted uncomfortably on his back. After several seconds of silence, she finally asked, “Why did you save me? You’re a pony, so why would you stand against Equestria?” Lelouch’s persistent smile dropped a bit, and he looked down at the ground as he stopped walking along. “Because what they’re doing is wrong. Every nation has the right to be free; even ponies, and even griffons.” Gilda’s eyes suddenly widened and she turned to face Lelouch. “You… just referred to me as a griffon.” This made Lelouch smile again, and his eyes wandered back towards her. “Of course. That’s what you are, isn’t it?” Gilda didn’t respond to that. She just turned her head away to the side. “Listen, Gilda.” Lelouch continued. “This is a war you’re fighting; don’t forget that. But your enemy isn’t the ponies of Equestria. It’s Equestria itself.” Gilda turned back to face him at this. “The only way things are going to change is if you make it change… from the inside.” Gilda looked at him curiously. “What do you mean by that?” “I mean that just resisting, and attacking civilians isn’t going to accomplish anything. If you want to end the cycle of conflict, then you have to destroy Equestria.” Gilda’s eyes widened in surprise. “Destroy Equestria? Are you serious?” Lelouch didn’t respond, but his silence told her that he was. She then lightened up a bit before continuing. “Well, that’s all easy to say, but actually doing it is another matter altogether. Equestria is the strongest country in the world, with immortal rulers that literally have control over the Sun and Moon. It’s taking all of our strength just to hold out against them, right now. It’s impossible. The quick mention of immortality and controlling the Sun and Moon, briefly gave Lelouch a moment of pause, but not for long. “Trust me; nothing is impossible. All it takes to change the world is a small group of like-minded individuals, if they believe hard enough, and have the strength and willpower to get it done. I’ve seen it all happen before. It’s huma… I mean, pony nature.” The moment of awkwardness at the end briefly made Gilda look at him a bit strangely, but she still took in everything that he just said to her. She then tilted her head up, to think about it further. After a few seconds of silence, she turned back to face Lelouch again, and asked, “Do you really think that would work?” “Yes,” was all Lelouch said in reply. After another moment, Gilda just faced away again and said, “Whatever.” Lelouch‘s eyes drifted back to Gilda. Although she didn’t sound too enthusiastic, he knew that his words had struck home. He was just that charismatic. The idea had been planted in her mind, and in time it would grow. Soon enough, the Talons would be just like The Black Knights. He could just tell. With that exchange over with, he started walking along again, and the two of them then continued on silently, slowly making their way towards the town. To be continued…
Chapter 2Chapter 2 Lelouch continued walking towards the town in front of him, with Gilda on his back. When he had almost reached the town, he was able to get a much better look at it up close. The town was actually much bigger than it looked from a distance, and was much more likely a city. The whole city was built into the side of a cliff, with the buildings carved from stone. The rock was clear cut and polished, creating the image of an ancient city, carved from the mountain itself. The city consisted of many different levels, built one on top of another, going up the side of the mountain. There looked to be at least seven levels to the city. The lowest level was surrounded by a high wall, which encircled the whole city. Lelouch entered through the main gate, and stepped into the city. Just inside the front gate was the city’s main courtyard. The courtyard split off in several different directions, into the city streets. The city streets were wide enough to fit several stalls, selling various different foods and accessories, on the sides of the streets, while the local griffons gathered in the streets to meet up and talk. The streets were very busy today, and there were many griffons inside the city, walking around in the streets. As soon as Lelouch entered through the city’s main gate, suddenly every griffon in the area stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. The entire courtyard was now deathly silent. Many of them looked at him suspiciously. Here, they saw the only pony within a hundred miles of here, simply walk into the city, carrying a wounded griffon, who they all recognised as a famous freedom fighter, on his back. Lelouch quickly grasped just how suspicious this sight looked, and smiled nervously. Suddenly, the row of griffons began to disperse, revealing a very large griffon, about twice as big as Gilda, sitting down on a stool, in the corner of the street. He looked old enough, had pitch black feathers on his torso, and white feathers on his head. He wore a set of combat barding around his body, and had an eye patch over his left eye. He then stood up from his stool, and made his way over to Lelouch. As he walked over, he drew a large assault rifle that was slung around his wings. “Well, well, well.” He spoke in a very gruff tone of voice. “What have we got here?” Before Lelouch could respond, Gilda suddenly spoke up, as she hopped off of his back. “It’s alright, Black-Hawk. He’s cool.” As she landed, she winced slightly from the pain of her injury, and placed a claw on her shoulder. Turning to face the female griffon, he quickly gave Gilda a look over. “Gilda, you’re injured. What happened?” “Had a run in with a few pegasus guards. Nothing to worry about.” Gilda responded. “Don’t worry; they’re all taken care of.” With a quick glance at Lelouch, she then turned back to Black-Hawk and leaned in close to him. She raised a claw to her mouth as she whispered something into his ear. “And between you and me, I think it might have been our new friend here who pulled it off.” After Gilda had pulled away again, Black-Hawk looked back to Lelouch and looked at him more closely. “So, pony; what’s your situation?” Lelouch recovered from his earlier embarrassment and simply smiled back at him. “My name is Lelouch Vi Britannia. I’m just an ordinary pony who hates Equestria.” Black-Hawk was legitimately surprised to hear this. “And why’s that? Equestria’s your country, isn’t it? Why would you oppose them?” Lelouch stifled a bit before responding. “Just because it’s my country, doesn’t mean that I approve of what they’re doing. It’s also not like that would make me immune to the bad things that happen because of this war.” He smiled back at him, recalling his personal experiences of the things that he had lost because of the war between Britannia and Japan, even though he was the Prince of Britannia. Black-Hawk was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with how calm Lelouch was acting. “Well, we normally don’t allow ponies in Gryphallia.” He paused for a moment before continuing, perhaps trying to instil some fear in him. “But seeing is how you saved Gilda, I guess we can give you a free pass… for now. If you really hate Equestria, then you can stay here for as long as you can.” He then holstered his rifle again and made a fist in front of Lelouch’s face. “But we’re going to be keeping an eye on you. Got it?” “Got it.” Lelouch responded immediately, in a straight and calm tone of voice. After several seconds of just standing in that pose, Black-Hawk finally lowered his fist. “Alright then.” He then turned around to address the large crowd of griffons, who had all stopped what they were doing and gathered around when they saw Lelouch. “Alright, nothing to see here. Move along.” Some citizens still stayed where they were, but one stern look from Black-Hawk was enough to send them scurrying off again. After the Black-Hawk had left, and the large crowd started to disperse, Gilda turned to face Lelouch. “Listen.” Lelouch turned to face her, but she hesitated before continuing, like it was something difficult for her to say. “Thanks for your help back there.” Lelouch just smiled back at her. “It’s no problem; really.” Gilda just huffed in response. “Whatever. Listen, I gave my okay to the griffons around here for you to stay, so my debt to you is paid; got it?” “Got it.” Lelouch responded. Gilda kept her eyes on him for a few more seconds, and then turned her head back around in front of her. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta go get this damn injury treated. So long.” Gilda then unfurled her wings and took to the sky. “Goodbye.” Lelouch responded. Then just like that, Gilda was gone. When Lelouch was on his own again, he walked straight ahead, towards the street that lead up to the upper levels of the city. When he reached the edge of the courtyard, he turned to the left and saw a griffon just leaning against the wall. As Lelouch approached him, the griffon looked up to meet his gaze. “Listen.” Lelouch said. He then activated his Geass. “I want information.” After a few hours of gathering information from several different griffons, Lelouch now had a fair understanding of this new world. Apparently, since griffons didn’t have magic like ponies do, they have instead progressed in science and technology, and have developed many different types of weapons. However, despite this advantage, they still ended up losing most of the time due to the pony’s magic. After Lelouch had gathered enough information, he went off to explore the rest of the city. He needed to be as familiar with this new world as possible, and he needed to know what resources were available to him. He started off on the first level and started working his way up through the city, taking note of the different stores and griffons that he saw. The entrance to each level had a well-fortified gate, to make defence easy, and the griffons patrolling the sky made an aerial assault difficult. The third level also had two giant AA-Cannons positioned on two high towers, big enough to attack large groups of enemies outside the city. With defences like this, it was no wonder why Equestria still hadn’t conquered it. As Lelouch made his way through the city, he also passed by many griffon soldiers. A lot of them didn’t look as intimidating or experienced as Gilda or Black-Hawk, who he deduced were the leaders, or at least high ranking members of the Talons. The soldiers wore combat barding, and wielded some form of firearm, but the civilians were as naked as he was. The soldiers also all had headsets, for keeping in radio contact with each other. He saw many different griffons in the city, putting the city’s population roughly in the thousands; but from what he gathered, the soldiers only made up a small number of the population. Gryphallia’s biggest weakness was its lack of soldiers. They had a well-fortified city, and advanced technology and weapons at their disposal, but large numbers would eventually overtake them. If the Talons were going to survive, they would need more bodies or better tactics. When Lelouch had finished examining the city for its military strengths and weaknesses, he decided to check out the city’s stores and find out what kind of technology they had here, and how similar it was to the technology on Earth. Griffons didn’t seem to have any advanced computer systems, or anything like Knightmares, but they had very advanced weapons, like firearms, and they had radio frequencies, for staying contact with each other over long distances. After Lelouch had finished researching the city, he decided to stop and take a short rest. By this point, he was currently on the city’s fourth level. Lelouch rested himself against the wall of a store to rest. However, suddenly, he felt the whole city shake. He wavered a bit, but he remained standing on four hooves. When he steadied himself, he shook his head and jolted himself awake, and looked around. There were griffons scrambling around in the streets, and others were flying overhead. “What’s going on?” Then there was another loud shake, and Lelouch stumbled a bit. He then heard panicked screams coming from all around him. He then faced forward, at where the city’s entrance would be on a lower level. “I need to get a better view of what’s happening.” He then tilted his head up and saw the highest level of the city. It jutted out at the top, giving a good view of the whole city below. With a set destination in mind, he then lowered his head again and let out a long sigh. “This is going to involve a lot of running.” Gilda had just gotten back from her treatment, and plopped herself down on her cot in the Talons barracks. She lay spread out on her cot, with her claws behind her head. She had several bandages over her shoulder, but aside from a little stinging pain, she felt fine. As she lay down, she turned her head to the side and saw Black-Hawk approach her. He then sat down on the cot opposite hers. He unslung his assault rifle from around his wing, stuck it into the floor, and rested his claws on it like a walking stick, while he sat down. “Hey, G. How are ya feelin'?” Gilda kept her eyes on his, but then she turned away from him a few seconds later. “Oh, you know; the usual. A few scrapes and scratches; nothing I can’t handle.” She spoke as sarcastically as possible, with a smug grin on her face. Black-Hawk didn’t respond in kind, and kept things as professional as possible. He moved to address her again, though his eyes seemed to wander as he spoke. “So…” He began. “What’s the deal with that pony you brought here? Did he really defeat several pegasus guards on his own? I doubt that even we could do that and not have a single scratch on us.” Gilda peaked up at him from the side. Her face was completely blank. “No. According to him, they all killed themselves.” Black-Hawk moved to speak, but Gilda cut him off. “Ridiculous, I know. But I saw the bodies, and judging from the positions they were in, it really did look like they killed themselves.” Gilda then sat up on her caught. “And it’s not like he could have moved them into that position; there wasn’t any blood near him when I woke up.” She then turned to face Black-Hawk. “Like you said, even we couldn’t do that without a scratch.” She then faced forward again. “Besides, he doesn’t look like the type that could fight them head on. He’s smart maybe, but not a warrior. He couldn’t even walk from the field into town without getting winded. He just doesn’t have it in him to do what we do.” As Gilda finished speaking, she then thought more about Lelouch. “Although, there was something about his eyes. There was something in them; like he’s killed before.” Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and the whole room shook. Black-Hawk looked up, and Gilda jolted upright on her cot. “What was that?” Black-Hawk inquired. Gilda narrowed her eyes; then jumped up out of her cot and rushed over to the window. Out the window, she could see most of the city and the surrounding field. Her eyes widened at the site in front of her. Just outside the city walls, there was an entire army of ponies, easily numbering at least six hundred. They were all lined up in huge squares of about a hundred troops each, in two long columns in the large field. There were also several large machines, which the unicorns used for augmenting their spells into powerful, long-ranged attacks. “Damn it.” Gilda did the griffon equivalent of biting her lip upon seeing this sight in front of her. “Gilda, what is it?” Black-Hawk said, standing up behind her. Gilda clenched her fist hard and turned around to face Black-Hawk. “Get ready for combat. It looks like the ponies are finally ready to make their move.” She then returned to her cot, and reached underneath to pull out a large box. She opened the box and pulled out a large machine rifle. She then slung the rifle over her wing, grabbed her pistol from the nearby cupboard and slid it into her holster. With one more quick glance at Black-Hawk, she then made her way over to the door. Back-Hawk smiled back at her and pounded his claw into his other fist. “Right.” He then picked up his assault rifle, and joined Gilda over by the door. The two of them then headed out the door and flew into the air. Lelouch had reached the sixth level of the city by the time he was starting to feel tired. Being a pony now did make it easier for him to run, but he did still tire out. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, and he placed his hoof against a wall to rest. While he was resting, he looked over to his right, and he saw a griffon soldier, cowering against a wall, as shots fired overhead. Lelouch suddenly had an idea. He quickly galloped over to where the griffon soldier was hiding. “Hey.” Lelouch called out to him. As soon as the griffon turned to look at him, Lelouch activated his Geass. “Give me your headset.” The griffon’s eyes glowed red as the Geass took effect. He then nodded his head in compliance. “Right, here you go.” He then unhooked his headset and threw it to Lelouch. Lelouch grabbed it out of the air, and quickly affixed it to his head. He then turned back the way he was facing before, and continued running up to the top level of the city. After Lelouch had left, the Geass wore off and the griffon didn’t remember anything. “Huh, what just happened?” He said, as he looked around in a confused manner. In his confusion, he placed his claw against his head, and he began panicking when he realised that he wasn’t wearing his headset anymore. “My headset!” On the outskirts of the battlefield, at the very back of the pony’s army, several officers had gathered together to coordinate their attacking forces and give orders. They were out in the open, but at this range, they couldn’t be targeted by the griffons AA-Cannons, and any griffon would be shot down before they even got close. A grey unicorn with a brown mane, wearing gold armor, with several stripes on his shoulder, stepped forward. “This is it, Commander Wedge. By tonight, we’ll have complete control of the Beast’s last holdout city, and finally put an end to this country’s little rebellion.” He turned to face a large pegasus pony next to him, who stood about one and a half times the size of the other pegasus guards. He had the same white coat, blue mane, and gold armor as the rest of the pegasus guards, but his huge size, and many medals pinned to his chest made him stand out. “Hold off on the celebrations for now, Diamond Flash.” He spoke in a cold and stern tone of voice. “We need to focus on taking the city first.” His voice and face were completely blank and devoid of all emotion as he spoke. Diamond Flash simply nodded back to him. “Yes, Sir.” Commander Wedge then stepped forward, and a small gemstone that hung around his neck started glowing. It seemed to magically amplify his voice. “All forces! Focus your attacks on the main city gate! Once that’s down, we’ll flood into the walls and take the city! Then victory shall be ours!” He then raised his hoof up in front of his face. “For Equestria!” All of the pony’s forces then all raised their hooves in unison, and shouted out, “For Equestria!” “For Equestria!” “For Equestria!” “For Equestria!” The ground forces then began advancing on the city. About ten minutes later, Lelouch reached the top level of the city. When he had reached the top, he walked over to the side so that he could get a better view of the battlefield below. From here, he could see all of the levels of the city beneath him, and the field outside the city. He quickly surveyed the situation from here. The ponies hadn’t breached the front gate yet, but there were several pegasi engaging griffon troops in the air, and some had landed inside the city, keeping the griffons distracted. Most of the griffon’s forces were holding the area behind the front gate for when the ponies broke through, while others were engaging the pegasi in the air. Meanwhile, the ground forces outside the city were trying to force open the front gate, and attacking with long-ranged spells. From here, it also looked like there was a large pink bubble covering the pony's ground forces. After thoroughly surveying the area, Lelouch reached for his headset and activated it. “Hello. Can anybody hear me on this channel?” Gilda was currently hovering about a hundred feet above the city, with her machine rifle in her claws, firing at any pegasi that got close to her. Suddenly, she received a radio transmission on her headset. “Hello. Can anybody hear me on this channel?” Gilda clicked her headset to respond. “I hear you. Who is this?” She then turned back down and continued sweeping for enemies. Lelouch hesitated for a moment, trying to decide how he should answer. It then occurred to him. “For now, you can call me Zero. I'm here to coordinate our forces and lead us to victory.” Gilda lowered her rifle and turned her full attention to her headset. “Zero? I don’t recognise that name. What division are you in?” “Look, there’s no time for that now. We need to focus. Currently, the pony’s ground forces are all huddled together in one place. Tell the turrets to focus fire on that area.” Still wondering who this griffon was, Gilda looked down at the pony’s ground forces. She let out a quick sigh before responding again. “It won’t work. Their ground forces are surrounded by a magical shield. Even our biggest cannons won’t be able to get through.” “What?" Lelouch thought. He then turned his attention away from the headset, and looked out over the battlefield again. That pink bubble around the pony’s ground forces must be the shield. “This is bad. They have magic, and I don’t know enough about it to know how to fight it.” He gritted his teeth in annoyance. “Even still… if they have magic, it must be coming from somewhere. If we can get rid of that then we might have a chance.” Lelouch quickly scanned the battlefield again, and then returned his attention to the conversation on his headset. “Listen, how do ponies use their magic?” Gilda emptied another magazine out of her rifle, and was reloading when she heard Lelouch again. As she was reloading, she thought that it was a bit strange that someone wouldn’t know that, but considering the situation, she didn’t dwell on it. “Well, only unicorns are able to project their magic, and they do it with their horns.” After hearing this, Lelouch turned his attention back to the battlefield again. With this new information, he started scanning the battlefield for unicorns. He then noticed a particularly large group of unicorns huddled together, just outside of the shielded area. They seemed to be concentrating hard. Lelouch’s eyes suddenly widened in realization. He quickly touched his headset again, and started speaking into it. “AA-Cannons, focus your fire on the unicorns in Section A-17. They’re the source of the shield's power. Without them, the rest of their forces are vulnerable to attack.” A griffon stationed at one of the AA-Cannons on the third level rogered that order. “Roger.” He then gestured to the griffon on the other AA-Gun across from him, and they both turned their cannons to face the large unicorn group. They then started unloading their shells on the group. The unicorns at the front of the group were immediately blown away and scattered by the explosive ordinance. As soon as their files were disrupted, the pink shield covering most of their ground forces started dissipating. The unicorns who survived all staggered about, trying to figure out what was going on, and try to get back into position with the others. Lelouch gave a devilish smile as he saw the shield fall away and noticed the ponies act surprised. He then reached for his headset again. “Alright, we’ve got the enemy knocked off balance. All forces focus your attacks on the main force outside the gates. Hit the enemy while they’re distracted. Don’t give them the chance to recover and regroup.” “Got it.” Gilda said, tapping her headset. She then turned around and gestured to a group of griffons behind her. “Let’s move.” She then turned back around, and they all flew down towards the battlefield, hovering in the sky, between the city’s main courtyard and the main wall. The griffons now started diverting most of their forces to attack the pony forces outside the gate. Lelouch looked down at the fighting below, and tried to predict his enemy’s counter-strategy. “Alright, let’s see now. If their commander is smart, he’ll either pull his forces back, or divide his troops and spread around the city to try and box us in. Whichever plan he goes with, I’ll be ready.” Diamond Flash swallowed hard as he saw their shield disappear. “Commander Wedge; our shields are down. What should we do next?” Wedge gritted his teeth angrily. “If they think they can intimidate us that easily, then they have another thing coming!” He sounded incredibly angry and annoyed as he spoke. “If they want to fight my men up close, then that’s exactly what I’ll give them!” The gemstone around his neck started glowing, indicating that he was about to issue orders with his magically augmented voice. “All forces; divert all forces now and increase your attacks on the front gate with all of your strength! Move into the city, and kill all in your path!” With that order, the ponies focused their long-ranged, offensive spells on the front gate. With just a few direct hits, the front gate exploded inwards, creating an opening into the city. Once the way was open, pony forces started swarming into the city en masse. Lelouch started laughing when he saw the pony’s next move. “Well now; that was an even stupider plan then I was expecting.” He then raised his hoof to his headset. “All forces; spread out and attack the advancing ground forces from all directions to keep them boxed in.” He then raised his head up. “Aerial team; stay on top of the pegasi. Don’t let any of them split off or support their ground troops.” “Roger that.” Gilda tapped at her headset. She then turned around and gestured to the griffons flying behind her. “With me; let’s go.” She then turned back around and darted off towards the ground. Lelouch watched the fighting below from the top of the city. He wore a devilish grin on his face. “This is even easier than I thought.” He then turned his head to the side and saw something very interesting, which made him smile even more. He then tapped his headset again. “Hey, do you still read me?” Gilda unloaded another magazine at the scrambling ground forces. She then tapped her headset again. “Yeah, I read you. What is it?” “Turn to your right. Do you see that big stone tower there?” Gilda turned her head to the right, and she did indeed see a big stone tower. “Yeah, I see it. What of it? Lelouch smirked. “A few well-aimed shots would be enough to bring it down. We’d lose the tower, but we’d completely cut off their retreat. Get what I’m saying?” Gilda smiled devilishly in response. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying.” She then reloaded her rifle, and started shooting at the base of the stone tower. After several bullets had beaten away at the already worn down foundation, the tower started to dip and sway, and eventually fell down. The debris landed around the archway around the main gate of the city. The ponies that had fought so hard to get in, just became trapped and cut off from reinforcements. While the ponies inside the city were all reacting to being trapped and cut off, the griffons took advantage of the situation and started gunning them all down. Lelouch watched everything from his perch at the top of the city, and he grinned triumphantly. “This is great.” “This is terrible!” Wedge screamed, as he pounded his hoof against the ground, forcefully. “How are we losing?! How is this happening?! We’re getting annihilated out there!" Diamond Flash looked at his commanding officer worriedly. “Commander Wedge.” He started. “Your amulet is still on. Our forces can hear you no…” “I know they can hear me, you moron!” Wedge cut him off, and smacked him in the face, knocking him to the ground. “I’m asking them why they are losing to a bunch of Beasts! They’re pathetic!” The veins on his face were bulging from anger at this point, and his face was turning red. As Diamond Flash got back up to respond, he was suddenly gunned down from above. Several bullets riddled his body at high speeds, and he fell to the ground again, dead. Wedge looked at him in shock. He turned around to see who had done it, but before he could react at all, he felt a large claw grip him by the neck and lift him off the ground. Wedge tried to pull the claw away from his throat, but he just couldn’t. He then opened his eyes to see Black-Hawk staring back at him. “So...” Black-Hawk began. “You actually have the gall to send orders to your men, and then call them out when things don’t go the way you planned?” Black-Hawk then raised Wedge closer to his face, sneering into his eyes. “Let me tell you something, Commander. Soldiers under your command aren’t just pawns in a chess game, for you to use and discard just to further your own plans. Zero understands that much more than you, and so he deployed the right tactics against you. You were so distracted by your own mistakes, and blaming everyone else for them that you never even noticed me sneak up on you and your chain of command. What a disgrace. You’re pathetic.” Black-Hawk then pulled Wedge in closer to him. “You lost.” Wedge tried desperately to escape from Black-Hawk’s grasp, but no matter how much he struggled, he just wasn’t strong enough. “D-Damn you. You filthy Beasts.” Black-Hawk suddenly tightened his grip around Wedge’s neck, making the pegasus gasp for air. “And that’s another thing.” He then raised up his other claw. “We’re Griffons!” He then brought down his claw and stabbed Wedge through the chest with his razor-sharp talons. Black-Hawk then loosened his grip around Wedge’s throat, and his limp body fell to the ground. Lelouch continued giving orders to the Talon forces below. “Squad Three, direct your fire at Section T-17. Enemy forces are strongest in that area.” He hung up and surveyed the battlefield again. The ponies in the city were completely helpless and this point, being picked off one by one. Outside the city, the long-ranged spell mechanisms had been destroyed, and their forces were scrambling for orders. “Hey, is this Zero?” Lelouch suddenly got a message on his headset. “Yeah, it’s me. Who’s calling?” “This is Major Black-Hawk; calling to confirm that the pony commander is dead. Repeat, the pony commander is dead.” Lelouch was shocked to hear this news, but then immediately smiled devilishly. “That’s good to hear.” He then changed his frequency to talk to the other griffon forces. “Attention; the enemy commander is down, and the ponies are without leadership. Take this opportunity to strike at them while they’re weak and scattered. Attack with full force! Wipe them all out!” Lelouch heard many affirmative, ‘Yes, Sirs’ and then a hurl of gunfire. As he looked down at the battlefield again, he knew that they had already won. Lelouch’s smile grew even bigger as he continued to take in the sight below him. “That’s it; this fight is done. But this is only the first fight of many to come. If I’m going to win this war, I’m going to have to learn more about Equestria. And it will be better if I learn it right from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.” He smiled at his own unintentional pun, but then quickly lowered it again. “I’m going to have to visit Equestria myself in order to learn and obtain everything that I’ll need to win. I’ll also need to know more about the other countries that are fighting against Equestria, so I’ll to head off soon. However, if the griffons are the only ones with advanced technology, then I’ll have to prepare a few things here before I leave for Equestria.” As Lelouch finished thinking his plans ahead, he then raised his hoof to his mouth in thought. “Also, if history is any indication, then there are two things which I’ll have to do here first before I leave.” To be continued…
Chapter 3Chapter 3 When the battle was over, and the griffons were recovering and cleaning up the damage done to the city, Lelouch made his way down through the lower levels of the city, to the front gate. He now had a saddlebag over his flanks, filled with important items that he had gathered. He reached the first level in just under an hour, and stepped into the courtyard. It was now late in the day, and the Sun was starting to go down. Enough rubble had been moved away from the front gate so that he would be able to walk out. When he entered the main courtyard, he turned towards a griffon that was repairing a destroyed building nearby. “Hey.” Lelouch called out to him. The griffon was able to tell that he was calling him, and turned around to face him. “I was wondering if you could tell me how far it is to Equestria from here.” The griffon gave him a strange look at first, but then he turned towards the front gate and pointed out towards the huge field beyond. “The Equestrian border is just beyond the opening between those two mountains.” He then changed his facial expression to one of anger, and clenched his fist. “But the actual Equestria is still a good bit on from there.” The griffon then turned to face Lelouch again. “All the land between there is rightfully ours and we will take it back someday.” He then grinned. “And with this victory here today, that may be sooner than you think.” When the griffon was finished speaking, Lelouch simply smiled back at him and nodded. “Right.” He then turned back around and started walking towards the gate, when suddenly he heard someone calling out to him from behind. “Hey, Lelouch.” He recognised the voice and turned around to see Gilda flying towards him, swooping down from an upper level. When she had reached ground level, she touched down and moved to address Lelouch again. “Where are you going?” “I’m heading back to Equestria for now. There are still some things that I have to do there.” Gilda didn’t know how to respond to that, and turned her head to the side in thought. She thought that it was strange that somepony like him would want to return to Equestria. She then suddenly thought of something that she had wondered about earlier. She then turned her head back around to face him. “Hey, Lelouch; I wanted to know something.” “Hmmm, what is it?” Lelouch raised his head, looking curious. Gilda hesitated for a moment, but then she finally spoke up. “Are you…” She was then suddenly cut off by an incoming message on her headset. “Huh?” Lelouch looked at her headset curiously and then smiled innocently. “Aren’t you going to get that?” Gilda quickly glanced at her headset, before briefly turning back to Lelouch. She had a quizzical look on her face. After a moment, she tapped her headset. “Who is it?” “It’s Zero.” Gilda’s eyes widened in surprise. “You did great in that battle earlier. If I need to get in contact with you later, I’ll call you on this channel. Will I be able to count on your support in the future?” Gilda kept her eyes on Lelouch while Zero was speaking to her. When he was finished speaking, it took her a moment to realise it. “Oh, uh, yeah. You can count on me.” “That’s good to hear.” Zero responded. “I’m going to need all the help I can get if we’re going to defeat Equestria. I’ll be in contact with you again soon. Until then, stay safe.” The radio transmission then cut off. When Zero was finished speaking again, Gilda turned back to face Lelouch. “Who was it?” Lelouch asked. “Is everything all right?” Gilda narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before responding. “It’s fine.” She concluded. “Well, alright then.” Lelouch then turned back around and walked away. When he reached the front gate, he had to climb over some pieces of rubble, but he eventually made it out of the city. As he left, he had a big, triumphant smile on his face. As Gilda watched Lelouch leave, she was soon joined by Black-Hawk, who swooped down next to her. When she saw him next to her, she turned her head to face him. “Hey, Black-Hawk.” Black-Hawk turned to face her. “Who do you think that ‘Zero’ guy was, anyway?” Black-Hawk focused on her face more intently. “I’m not sure exactly; but it was only because of him that we were able to win that last battle. That makes him okay in my book. And besides, his strategies and tactics will be a big help to us for fighting against Equestria in the future.” He then faced forward again and grinned. Gilda shifted her eyes away, and started thinking again. She then turned back to face Black-Hawk. “Hey, Black-Hawk.” Black-Hawk shifted his eyes towards her. “Hmmm?” “Have you by any chance had enough of just harassing small areas and defending against big attacks, like we’ve been doing?” Black-Hawk was surprised by this question, though he didn’t show it on his face. “Huh? Just what do you mean by that? What are you getting at, here?” Gilda then faced forward again, with a wicked smile on her face. “I mean, right now we’re really not doing much other than riling up the pony’s government and then defending against their retaliation. We’re not accomplishing anything with this, and we can’t keep this up forever.” She then raised her claw up into a clenched fist. “I say it’s time we started taking the fight to Equestria with full force; and show them all that we’re serious.” She then turned her head to face him. When Gilda was finished speaking, Black-Hawk simply looked back at her, and after a moment, grinned deviously. “Now you’re talking.” After Lelouch had passed through the city’s main gate, he then traversed the huge field that he had woken up in, and beyond. When he reached the gap in the mountain range, he spotted a border checkpoint up ahead. The checkpoint stretched from one edge of the mountain range to the other. There was a small area in the middle of the checkpoint where ponies could enter and exit. As Lelouch approached the checkpoint, the guard stationed there spotted him and walked over to him. The guard was a black unicorn, wearing a set of golden armor, with a blue hairstyle on his helmet. “Hold it. I need to see your passport before you can cross the border.” Lelouch simply turned to him, smiled, and activated his Geass. “You don’t need to see my passport.” The guard’s eyes glowed red as the Geass took effect. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t need to see your passport.” He then moved to the side, allowing Lelouch to continue. “Move along.” Lelouch passed by the unicorn, and continued on his way. He then passed through the checkpoint and continued on his way to Equestria. As Lelouch continued making his way along the Equestrian border; shortly afterwards, he came to an area where the surrounding landscape changed dramatically. Whereas the area in which he had been walking along previously was a bountiful grassland, this new area was an empty Badlands. There was also a large canyon nearby, just to the side of where he was walking. Lelouch guessed that this was the real border between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom. He was now in the real Equestria. After a brief pause, he continued on his way. As he continued his way along, he had to stop and take a break every so often because he was tired. He wasn’t used to walking this much. After several days of walking and resting, Lelouch eventually reached the first town that he had found since arriving in Equestria. According to the sign on the edge of town, this town was called ‘Ponyville’. He also learned that he had entered Equestria from the East, and that was the direction that the Griffon Kingdom was located in from here, for future reference. As Lelouch made his way through Ponyville, he took note of all the different ponies around him. Just like Gryphallia had only griffons, Ponyville had only ponies; unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. There were also several guards stationed around the edges of the town. Lelouch stopped in his tracks in order to properly take in his surroundings. While he silently surveyed the area, he was completely unaware of the fact that a pink earth pony was slowly rising up, behind him. She had a strong look of determination on her face. Then, she slowly opened her mouth to whisper something in his ear. She then immediately changed her expression to a happy one and said, “Hi there!” The sudden interruption startled him and made him jump. Catching his breath, he turned around to face this mysterious pony. She didn’t seem to notice how strange she was being, and still wore a big, happy smile on her face, stretched from ear-to-ear. Not knowing how else to respond, Lelouch simply asked, “Can I help you?” “I know who you are.” That was all she said. While Lelouch was inwardly worried, outside, he just shrugged it off with a warm smile. “No, you don’t.” “Oh yes I do.” She responded immediately. Lelouch was now worried, and his expression showed it. “What’s going on? Did she somehow find out that I’m Zero? But how could she possibly know that? Does she have some sort of psychic powers?” Lelouch then simply uttered, “Y-You do?” “Yeperooni.” The pink pony responded. Lelouch then activated his Geass. “You’re the new pony in town.” Lelouch suddenly turned off his Geass, and reacted in a completely real surprise. “What?” “Well you see, my name’s Pinkie Pie, and I know everypony, and mean everypony in Ponyville, and since I didn’t know you, that could only mean that you’re new in town, right?” She then leaned close to him as she finished speaking. Lelouch was now more confused than he had ever been in his life. He just reacted awkwardly, and simply responded, “Y-yes.” Pinkie closed her eyes and started trotting in place, out of sheer happiness. “Oooooooh, I knew it.” She then stopped and leaned in close to Lelouch’s face again. “Listen, since you’re new in town, that means I have to throw you a big surprise party.” She then suddenly became more serious. “I have to; that’s the way things work around here. It wouldn’t be fair if I suddenly changed the rules for you, now would it?” Lelouch felt a bit awkward with this pony invading his personal space. “Uh, okay.” That was all he could say. Pinkie then pulled her head away and smiled again. “Great; come to Sugarcube Corner at sundown. Everything should be ready by then.” “Sugarcube Corner?” Pinkie briefly looked confused, but quickly returned to her usual, upbeat self. “Oh, that’s right; you’re new around here. A-duh. Sugarcube Corner is the town’s bakery. It’s the building that looks like it’s made out of candy; you can’t miss it.” Pinkie then turned around to walk away, but then she suddenly remembered something and turned back around again. “Oh, I almost forgot; what’s your name?” “Uhhmm, it’s Lelouch.” “Lelouch, huh? Well that’s great. See you around, Lelouch.” She waved back at him, and then turned back around and hopped away. “La la la.” As Lelouch watched her leave, the only thought that came to him was, “Well, that was the weirdest moment of my life.” After he had parted ways with Pinkie, Lelouch went back to learning more about Ponyville. He eavesdropped on several conversations in order to learn about what the citizens were talking about, and other things about Equestria that he couldn’t learn about in Gryphallia. It also gave him an opportunity to see what kind of propaganda the Equestrian government used on their citizens, and how they justified and covered things up. After several hours, he noticed that nopony talked about the war or anything going on outside of Equestrian borders. He found this suspicious. By the time he was finished with this work, the Sun was going down and he suddenly remembered his conversation with Pinkie earlier, despite how much he wished that he didn’t. Remembering how weird she had acted, he didn’t want to go and see her again; however, if she really did know everypony in town, then it would look suspicious if he didn’t show up. He needed to keep a low profile right now, and not attract too much attention or do anything that made him stand out. He then made his way through Ponyville, looking for Sugarcube Corner. After a while, he just decided to ask for directions. The streets were surprisingly deserted now. Eventually, he found an earth pony stallion, with a brown coat and mane, and an hourglass cutie mark, who eventually pointed him in the right direction. With directions to where to go, he found Sugarcube Corner in no time at all. When he stood just outside the bakery, he looked up into the sky and saw the Sun setting. The Sun setting against the clouds, made the sky look a beautiful and calming orange. This made him briefly think of Jeremiah, and he snickered slightly. Since this was the time that he was told to arrive at, he then stepped forward and opened the door. He stepped inside the bakery and closed the door behind him. Inside, everything was black. Lelouch was about to look around for a light switch, when suddenly, the lights turned on and dozens of ponies jumped out and yelled, “Surprise!” Lelouch stepped back a bit in shock. Even though he had been expecting it, they had still surprised him. A familiar pink pony then appeared in front of him, and repeated, “Surprise! Were you surprised? Were you? Were you? Were you? Huh? Huh? Huh?” She drifted in closer to his face with every question. Lelouch then very politely pushed her back. “Yes, you really did.” And he meant it. “Well that’s a relief. Because this is your very own, very special, ‘Welcome to Ponyville Surprise Party’. It’s a surprise party so you have to be surprised, because without a surprise, a surprise party is just a party, and while all parties are fun, surprise parties are extra fun because they’re a surprise.” Pinkie spoke all of this in the span of a few seconds. Lelouch was normally very patient, but this pony was really starting to get to him. Pinkie then reached out a grabbed on to him with her hooves. “Come on, Lelouch. Let me introduce you to everypony.” She then pulled him away, off into the party. The rest of the party then continued on like normal. “And that’s Lyra. And that’s Bon Bon. And that’s Vinyl Scratch. And that’s Carrot Top. And that’s Daisy. And that’s Rose. And that’s Lily. And that’s Locket. And that’s Caramel. And that’s Thunderlane. And that’s Flitter. And that’s Cloudchaser.” Pinkie kept rambling on, pointing at ponies and saying their names as she led Lelouch through the party. “Pinkie…” Lelouch spoke up, but Pinkie didn’t hear him; she was too busy introducing him to everypony, and she just continued rambling. “And that’s Raindrops. And that’s Blossomforth. And that’s Candy Mane. And that’s Sparkler. And that’s Bulk Biceps. And that’s Lotus. And that’s Aloe. And that’s Dawn Flower. And that’s Lightning Flicker. And that’s Derpy. And I’m not sure what the pony’s name is; he just calls himself ‘The Doctor’.” Lelouch was now starting to feel annoyed with this pony’s constant talking. “Pinkie…” He said again to try and get her attention. However, Pinkie just continued asking Lelouch even more questions. “So did you get all that? Did you just get here? How did you get here? Do you like it here in Ponyville? How long are you going to stay? Where are you from? Lelouch is kind of a weird name, don’t you think? Do you think that the pineapple is an underrated fruit? Should I go with the name ‘Cherrychanga’ or ‘Chimicherry’?” Pinkie spoke all of these questions within seconds of each other, not even stopping to take a breath. Lelouch stopped walking ahead, looked down and placed his hoof on his head in annoyance, while Pinkie continued to bounce around him, asking all sorts of random questions. The rest of the ponies at the party just continued on normally, not noticing the two of them. Lelouch eyes started twitching from Pinkie’s annoyance. Lelouch grunted under his breath. “I can’t take it anymore.” He then quickly lowered his hoof from his face, and looked up at Pinkie, who had stopped bouncing around just long enough to look him in the eye when she saw him move. He wore a stern look on his face. He then activated his Geass. “Stop talking.” As the Geass took effect, Pinkie’s eyes glowed red, and she stopped in her tracks completely. For several seconds, she didn’t move at all; like she was in a trance. Lelouch then decided to back away, in case anyone saw him. A moment later, Pinkie came out of her trance, and Lelouch was gone. She was feeling very confused, and shook her head to regain her senses. She then briefly looked from side to side, in confusion. “What just happened? Where did Lelouch go?” “Pinkie Pie; there you are.” Pinkie turned her head in the direction of the voice, and she saw Rarity walk towards her, levitating a glass of purple punch next to her. “This party of yours is simply wonderful, darling. And the punch is delicious.” Pinkie closed her eyes briefly and smiled back at her. “Fhgfhjrketrsdgfhrdtrydg.” Her eyes then suddenly widened in shock. She tried to speak, but her words became muffled on the way out. “What’s going on?” Rarity looked at Pinkie Pie quizzically. “Pinkie Pie… are you… feeling alright? You’re acting even stranger than usual. And for you, that’s saying something.” Pinkie Pie seemed worried now. “What’s going on? Why can’t I speak?” She then tried to say something again. “Ytthghnfmjtdrdgfbngmfghfgbf.” Rarity was now just getting annoyed. “Pinkie Pie, please speak normally.” “Ytgfbnmuilythgnmjylkutreygfdgmktuyft.” Was all she could say in response. “No, Rarity; that’s not what I wanted to say.” Rarity just huffed in annoyance. “Pinkie Pie, if this is just another one of you silly pranks, then I want no part of it. Now, goodbye.” She then turned around and walked away in a huff. Pinkie held out a hoof at Rarity as she walked away. “Gfygtbnfmrtredsgnmktresytdgfbf.” As Rarity faded away into the crowd, Pinkie lowered her hoof again. “What’s going on?” After Lelouch had left Pinkie, he made his way over to the dessert table. After the past few days he’s had, he needed to relax. He had become quite adept at holding things in his hooves now, and was holding a glass of punch in his hoof, no problem. “Uhhmm, excuse me... Lelouch?” Lelouch heard a voice calling him from just next to him. He casually rolled his eyes in the direction of the voice, and his eyes immediately widened at what he saw. There; standing right in front of him was his younger sister. Lelouch turned his whole head towards her, in shock. N-Nunnally?” Nunnally suddenly looked at him in surprise. “Huh? What are you talking about?” Suddenly, the image of Nunnally disappeared in front of him, and he instead saw a butter-yellow pegasus mare, with a long, flowing, pink mane. She had a confused and worried look on her face. Lelouch quickly collected himself, placed his glass of punch back down on the table, breathed in, and then smiled warmly back at her. “Sorry about that. You just reminded me of someone, that’s all.” He then tried to look calm, and forget about what he had just seen, but he just couldn’t shake the similarity out of his head. This pegasus, still acting a bit shy, continued on with what she was saying. “Well, uhmm… my friend Pinkie Pie told me your name, and said that you were new in town, so… uhhm… I decided to introduce myself. My name’s Fluttershy.” Lelouch was completely transfixed by this pegasus. Putting on a gentle façade, he smiled warmly back at her. “It’s nice to meet you, Fluttershy. Since we haven’t formally met yet, allow to properly introduce myself. My name is Lelouch Vi Britannia.” Lelouch simply stared back at this pegasus in awe. She seemed so innocent; so pure. “Who is this pony? And why does she remind me of Nunnally?” “I’m telling you, Twilight; this war is only going to get worse.” Lelouch’s ears suddenly perked up at the conversation he overheard. He turned his head to the side, and he saw a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-coloured mane, talking to a purple alicorn. The alicorn leaned in closer, to whisper to the pegasus. Lelouch furrowed his brow and listened intently to hear what she was saying. “Rainbow, this isn’t the time or the place to talk about that.” “Why not?” The pegasus responded, in a much louder and informal tone of voice than the alicorn. “You always say that, and you always shut me up. You always tell me it’s not the right time. Well, we’re here now, so let’s talk about it.” Lelouch hadn’t heard any of the other ponies in town even mention the war, so he needed to hear this. He turned back around to face the yellow pegasus, and said very gently, “Excuse me.” He then nonchalantly inched his way over towards the pegasus and the alicorn. As he moved closer to them, he had to listen very carefully in order to hear them over the sounds of the other ponies at the party. “Look Twilight, I know that the Princess is all about the ‘Magic of Friendship’ and improving our relations with the other species; but this isn’t the way to do it. You can’t use force to try and make everyone get along. Just look at what happened with Discord, and the changelings. Peace can never be obtained through these kinds of methods.” Lelouch briefly stopped in his tracks. The other pegasus that he met reminded him of Nunnally, and now this pegasus was starting to sound like Suzaku. Twilight facehooved and sighed. “Look Rainbow; you wouldn’t understand. This whole thing is a little more political than that.” Rainbow Dash just grunted in irritation. “You and the others always treat me like I’m the stupidest one of the group, but I think I’ve proved in the past that I’m smarter than you give me credit for. I know more about actual fighting, rather than just overseeing it, than all of you put together; even Applejack. I’m also the only pony around here who really knows the griffons.” “Rainbow!” Twilight suddenly shouted out. “You know you’re not allowed to call them that. Not the… not them or us.” “I know.” Rainbow Dash sighed again. “And that’s ridiculous. Why would ponies ever come up with the lame rule that a species can’t call themselves by their own name? Where do the ‘higher ups’ get off coming up with something like that?” She looked at Twilight even harder when she mentioned the ‘higher ups’. Twilight just sneered back at Rainbow Dash in annoyance. After a moment, the cyan pegasus then let out a defeated sigh. “Look, I’m just saying that if we can just get the fighting to stop for long enough, then we can come to a peaceful conclusion.” “I agree.” Lelouch said, walking closer towards them. Twilight and Rainbow Dash both turned to face Lelouch as he approached them. “Personally, I applaud you for the fact that you’re willing to stand up for these griffons; against your own country even. And to openly refer to them as griffons.” He then smiled warmly at them. “It’s good to know that war doesn’t change everyone.” “War never changes.” Twilight muttered under her breath. Ignoring Twilight, or possibly not hearing her, Rainbow Dash focused on Lelouch. “Well, well; if it isn’t the guest of honour?” She then slung her hoof around his shoulder. Lelouch smiled and laughed a bit nervously. “Well, it’s just nice to see that there are other ponies who are willing to stick up for the griffons; and to refer to them as griffons.” “Hahaha, yeah. I’m basically an honorary griffon.” Rainbow Dash gave a light chuckle. She then turned to face Twilight, but continued talking to Lelouch. “Just be careful what you say around her, Lelouch.” She then gave Twilight a knowing look. “I’m her friend, so I get a free pass for it, but she is still a Princess of Equestria, and has to enforce the laws; so watch out.” Lelouch’s eyes suddenly widened. “A Princess?” He then turned to face Twilight, who simply smiled back at him. “If she really is a Princess of Equestria…” He then narrowed his eyes at her. “Then that makes her my enemy.” Then suddenly, the door of Sugarcube Corner slammed open. All of the ponies at the party stopped what they were doing and turned around to look at it. Two pegasus guards entered and made their way over to Twilight. In all the commotion, Rainbow Dash took her hoof away from Lelouch. “Princess Twilight.” One of the guards started. He then leaned in close to whisper into her ear. Lelouch concentrated hard so that he could hear what was being said. The complete silence around him also helped. “We have reports of a possible terrorist attack in the area. We need to get you out of here.” Lelouch's eyes widened at this news. If this was about the Talons, he was very surprised; he wasn’t expecting them to make a move this soon. When the guard was finished speaking, Twilight pulled away again and just nodded accordingly. “Alright; let’s go.” She then started walking towards the door, being escorted out by the two guards. After Twilight and the guards had left, some ponies just went back to what they were doing before, and some ponies were wondering what was going on. Lelouch used the resulting confusion to slip out the front door undetected. To be continued… Author's Note Congratulations, Pinkie! You're the new Mao. Also, since she didn't appear in this chapter, enjoy this little exchange: Applejack: Hey Lelouch. Do you like apples? Lelouch: *stifling a laugh* Actually, I prefer oranges.
Chapter 4Chapter 4 Lelouch made his way through the empty streets of Ponyville. Twilight and her guards had flown away as soon as they had left Sugarcube Corner, leaving Lelouch alone in the dark, empty streets. It was now late at night, and the Sun had gone down. Lelouch staggered along through a narrow street, just adjacent to the Ponyville courtyard. He placed his hoof against the wall to rest and to gather his thoughts. “Dammit. I wasn’t prepared for this. I didn’t expect the Talons to make a move this soon.” He then turned around and started fishing in his saddlebag. A moment later, he pulled out his headset, and fit it on his head. After briefly looking from side to side, to see if anyone was nearby, he then ducked into a nearby alley. “Alright, I’ll try and see if I can pick up one of their signals again to try and figure out what’s going on.” He then started fiddling around with his headset. The pegasus guards led Twilight to a small military command centre set up on the edge of Ponyville. The door in front of them opened up, and they stepped into the main room. There were several ponies around the room; most of them military officers, discussing the current situation. In the centre of the room was a big, circular, crystal terminal, that’s been enchanted to issue orders to the soldiers out on the battlefield. As Twilight entered the room, her two guard escorts stood at either side of the door that they had just come in, and she continued on towards the terminal in the centre of the room. When she reached the terminal, she was immediately joined by a very tall pegasus stallion, standing about twice as tall as her, and almost as tall as Princess Celestia. He had a white coat and wore gold armor, just like the other pegasus guards; however, he didn’t wear any helmet, revealing his blue, coiffed mane, and he had several stripes on his shoulder and medals on his chest, signifying his high rank. “Princess Twilight,” he spoke while saluting her. “Do not worry, you’re safe now.” Twilight turned her head to face him as he approached her, and she bowed her head to him in turn. “Thank you, General Biggs.” She then brought her head back up, but she now had a worried look on her face. “But what about the rest of Ponyville?” “Don’t worry, Your Highness; we have already evacuated the town in order to minimize civilian casualties. Ponyville is now an empty battlefield.” He then turned to face a set of crystal monitors set up all over the wall at the far side of the room. The monitors seemed to be displaying feedback of areas inside Ponyville. “Our forces are already in position to put down this terrorist invasion.” When General Biggs was finished speaking, Twilight turned back to face the monitors on the wall. The biggest monitor was showing the Ponyville courtyard, with the statue of Princess Celestia at the centre, and two small armies situated at either side. Their ponies were situated to the right, while their opponents were to the left. “Who are we dealing with this time?” Twilight asked. Biggs’ eyes briefly drifted back to face Twilight before he faced forward again. He then spoke in a cold tone of voice. “The Diamond Dog Rebellion.” Lelouch continued fiddling with his headset, trying to find the Talons radio frequency, but he was growing continually irritated as he couldn’t find anything. “What’s going on? Why can’t I hear anything?” He then suddenly heard a loud noise coming from behind him, and his eyes widened in alarm. He stepped out from behind the alley slightly, and peaked around the corner. From here, he could see the whole courtyard. The courtyard was now divided. The ponies were stationed at one side of the courtyard, divided into three groups, based on their race. The unicorns were out in front, the earth ponies were hanging back, and the pegasi were hovering above them. There were around ninety ponies in total; approximately thirty of each group. Lelouch then turned to face the other side of the courtyard. Where he had been expecting to see the griffons, he instead saw a group of large, bipedal, dog-like creatures. They all wore metal armor over their torsos and a metal helmet that covered most of their heads. They had long, muscly arms that ended in sharp claws. They were all lined up in rows, and numbered about fifty in total. One of the armored dogs, not a part of the line-ups, moved over to another dog that was stationed just to the side of the group, who was dressed differently. Instead of metal armor, he wore a red, sleeveless jacket and he didn’t have any helmet. The armored dog stepped up beside him and saluted. “We’re ready to begin our attack now, Commander Rover.” He spoke in a very gruff sounding voice. Rover simply moved his head to look back at the dog that had just addressed him. Without breaking his stoic expression, he merely nodded his head back at him. “Right.” He then turned back around and took a few steps forward. The ponies on the opposite side of the courtyard all clutched their weapons tightly as soon as they saw one of the Diamond Dogs make a move, ready to strike at any time. The ponies back at the command centre, including General Biggs and Princess Twilight, all leaned forward and held their breathes as they awaited what was coming next. When Rover had walked out in front, and to the side of the Diamond Dog army, he then raised his claw up into the air to grab everydogs attention and address the group. “Dogs; it’s time to make our stand against the pony menace that have continued to oppress us. They think that they can just barge into our land, with their fancy magic, and take from us what’s rightfully ours.” He then turned his raised hand into a clenched fist. “Well now I think it’s time that we show these ponies what real strength is.” He then turned towards one of the Diamond Dog soldiers on the far side of the group and gestured to him, with a wicked grin on his face. The Diamond Dog that he gestured to acknowledged his signal. He then casually walked over to a nearby building, raised his claw and punched at the side of the building. The force of the blow completely shattered the buildings chimney, knocking it over, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud crash. The entire house then collapsed under its own foundation. After the dust from the rubble had cleared, Rover then turned back towards the ponies, with a cocky grin on his face. He then reached around his neck and grabbed a whistle, and raised it up to his lips. “It’s time to teach these ponies a lesson in what real strength is. Today, we’re taking back our land.” He then raised his clenched fist into the air again. “Today, we’re taking back our pride!” There was a huge round of roars and cheering from all of the Diamond Dogs. Rover then blew his whistle hard, signalling the start of the attack. The Diamond Dog army then all reared up in cheer, and began rushing towards the enemy on all fours. Back at the pony’s base, Twilight looked on at the ensuing battle, with a look of confusion on her face. She rested against the console in front of her, and placed her hoof to support her head. “This is so strange. Why would they just rush in like that, after all the planning that they put into this attack, without any sense of strategy or self-preservation, when they know full well what we’re capable of?” She then narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “What are they up to?” Next to her, General Biggs just smirked arrogantly and started laughing out loud. “That’s because they’re all mindless Beasts. They probably think that brute strength alone is enough to win. Well, strength isn’t what wins wars; it’s strategy.” He spoke pridefully and arrogantly. He then moved forward and placed his hoof on the terminal in front of him. “Ponies; get ready for combat. Unicorns; hold them in place while the pegasi take them out from the sky. Earth ponies remain behind for further instruction.” Biggs and Twilight, along with every other pony in the room then all looked up towards the monitor on the far wall, at the ensuing battle. Back on the battlefield, the Diamond Dogs continued rushing forwards towards their enemies, running on all fours, their eyes dead set on their targets. As the Diamond Dogs continued rushing forward, none of the pony’s forces moved an inch. The earth ponies in the back remained completely still, like they’d been ordered to, ready to move at a moment’s notice. The pegasi hovered in the air, keeping a close eye on their advancing enemies. The unicorns out in front then all lowered their heads and their horns started glowing. Suddenly, all of the Diamond Dogs in the approaching group were each enveloped in a magical aura, and stopped dead in their tracks. They were then all lifted up off the ground, with their claws bound close to their bodies. The Diamond Dogs all gritted their teeth in anger, and clenched their paws into fists. The unicorns holding them in place looked on at their fine work and just smiled at them smugly. “Too easy.” One of them blurted out. Back at the Ponyville base, the soldiers and officers all looked on in amazement, not believing that they had won so easily. General Biggs was laughing triumphantly; however, Twilight had her eyes narrowed in suspicion. In the back alley, Lelouch watched the completely one-sided battle, with a look of complete confusion on his face. “What the Hell is going on here? Who are these guys? Are they really this stupid?” He then closed his eyes and gave a sigh of derision. “Helping these guys out isn’t going to be easy if this is what they’re capable of.” Biggs looked through the crystal monitor at the Diamond Dog Commander. He didn’t seem to be worried or reacting to this new development at all. His face was completely blank. This sight annoyed Biggs and he grunted in irritation. “Alright men, move in. Let’s make an example out of these Beasts. Leave none of them alive. Kill them all!” Next to him, Twilight’s calm expression slipped a bit. The pegasi all nodded in affirmation, and proceeded to dash down towards the immobile Diamond Dogs. The ground forces then also began advancing on them. As the ponies started approaching them, Rover then gave a knowing smirk and simply said, “Do it.” At that moment, one of the Diamond Dogs being held by the unicorns grasp then grinned to himself and unclenched his fist. A small, glowing gemstone fell out of his grasp and on to the floor. It then started flashing faster and faster. Twilight’s eyes immediately widened in realization as soon as she saw what had happened. She then pushed passed General Biggs and threw herself on to the terminal in front of her. “That’s a magical pulse charge! Everypony get out of there!” Hearing their Princess’ voice over the comm link made the ponies halt for a moment. The gem then started flashing more wildly, and the next moment it released a magical pulse wave that spread outwards from the centre. The pulse wave enveloped the whole courtyard, and spread out over Ponyville. The pegasi were thrown off by the sudden blast in front of them, and halted where they were. Lelouch felt the pulse wave pass over him. He raised his hoof to his head as it passed over him, but he didn’t feel any way affected by it. After it had passed, he slowly lowered his hoof from his head again. “What was that?” Lelouch then peaked out from behind the alleyway again. Back in the courtyard, after the pulse wave had gone off, the levitation field surrounding the Diamond Dogs suddenly disappeared, dropping them all back to the ground, and the unicorns were left dazed, though the pegasi and earth ponies seemed to be relatively unaffected, if a little disoriented. Rover smirked maliciously at the apparent success of his plan, and leaned forward in delectation. “The pulse charge was a success; the pony's magic is down.” He then pointed his paw out in front of him. “Dogs; now! Charge the ponies while they’re helpless.” At this, all of the Diamond Dogs in the area grinned maliciously, and threw their paws up into the air in cheer. They then all got down on all fours and started charging towards the ponies again. Eyes still widened in worry, and in a fit of adrenaline, Twilight pushed General Biggs out of the way, and spoke into the terminal. “Please listen to me. First off, pegasi; fly down there and get the unicorns out of there until the effects of the pulse charge wears off. Try and get them to a safe spot where they attack at range, without having to worry about counterattacks. “Earth ponies; move forward and hold off their advancing ground forces until the pegasi are back. Hold your position for as long as you can. Then the pegasi; once you get the unicorns to a safe spot, swoop down and attack the Diamond Dogs from the back to keep the enemy boxed in and cut off from one another. Don’t give them the opportunity to pull back or support each other.” General Biggs stumbled back to his feet. He kept his eyes locked on Twilight. He didn’t appreciate being pushed around, literally, at his rank, but considering she was a Princess, he knew better than to complain about it. He then turned back around and directed his attention towards the crystal monitor on the opposite wall. With their new orders, and getting their second wind after hearing their Princess’ voice, the pegasi then quickly swooped down, grabbed on to the unicorn soldiers around their midsections, and flew back up into the sky as quickly as they could. With the front lines now gone, the earth pony guards stepped forward and prepared for combat. They got into battle position; spread out on all fours, and prepared for the Diamond Dogs strike. The Diamond Dogs continued charging towards the ponies remaining ground forces, knocking over the statue of Princess Celestia in the middle of the courtyard, and crushing it beneath their stampeding paws. That would surely serve as a blow to the pony’s morale. As they approached the earth pony platoon, the Diamond Dogs leapt into the air and prepared to pounce. Seeing the approaching Diamond Dogs getting ready to pounce, Twilight touched the terminal in front of her again. “Earth ponies; split into two groups around the incoming Diamond Dogs to hit them from both sides and keep them off balance.” As the Diamond Dogs were coming down on them, the earth pony soldiers quickly leapt to the side at the last moment to avoid the attack. Their forces then quickly split in two, half of them leaping to the left, half of them leaping to the right, to try and encircle the group of Diamond Dogs and cut off their escape. The Diamond Dogs caught on to their plan, and some of them then started quickly tunnelling into the ground to get around the ponies from underneath. While half of their group set about tunnelling underground, the other half went on the offensive and moved to attack the nearby earth ponies, splitting off to attack the ponies on both sides. The Diamond Dogs brought their huge, hulking, razor-sharp claws down on their enemies. The earth ponies used their smaller size and increased agility to avoid the incoming attacks, and then respond with one of their own in the form of a hard buck to the stomach. Some found their marks, while others missed, just like their opponents did. The battle continued on between just the Diamond Dogs and the earth ponies for a while. The ponies scored more successful hits than the Diamond Dogs; however, the Diamond Dog’s bigger size meant they needed more hits to be brought down. They moved around more to keep their enemies off balance, using hit and run tactics to fight. Multiple ponies focused on a single Diamond dog at a time, using their superior numbers to their advantage. The Diamond Dog’s better strength and bigger size almost guaranteed an instant kill when they scored a hit. Though their hits were less frequent than the pony’s, they were deadlier when they landed. They also used their tunnelling abilities to quickly move around under the pony’s hooves to keep up with their fast movements, striking from underground, catching the ponies off guard whilst they were dealing with other dogs. As the fighting went on, both sides were starting to wear down the other side’s numbers. However, once the pegasi had gotten the unicorns to safe positions up high, they returned to the battlefield to aid their comrades. With the pegasi attacking from the air, the unicorns attacking from up high, and the Diamond Dogs having no way to combat them in the sky, they kept them off guard long enough for the earth ponies to regain the advantage in this fight. While the fighting continued in the courtyard, Lelouch continued observing the battle from the alley, out of sight of the soldiers fighting and the ponies back at the base. While watching the ensuing conflict, he narrowed his eyes in thought, and he started analysing what he had seen so far. “So, these Dogs can nullify the pony’s magic, but have no way of fighting against their aerial attackers. And the griffons can handle the aerial attacks no problem, but struggle against the pony’s magic.” Lelouch then brought his hoof up to his mouth as he began formulating a plan about what his next move would be and how he would implement it. As he finished with his thoughts, he began grinning devilishly as thoughts started coming to mind. “Yes. I think I now know exactly what to do.” He then turned back around and started searching through his saddlebag for something important. As the fighting continued, the Diamond Dog commander in the red jacket continued observing the fighting. There were several other Diamond Dogs that held back with him, but they were all armored soldiers, that served as his bodyguards. As he observed the fighting, things were not looking good for them. They had the earth ponies attacking from all sides, the pegasi attacking from the sky, and the unicorns pinning them down from above, boxing them in, and the pony’s superior numbers put them at a further disadvantage as they gradually started losing their own soldiers. As he continued watching the battle from the side lines, Rover started gritting his teeth and clenching his fist in annoyance. Things were not going the way that they had originally planned. He assumed that since the pony’s major advantage was their magic, that if they nullified that, then their superior strength could defeat the ponies easily. It seems like these ponies have more fortitude than he thought. He had already made that mistake once before and he did not need reminding of it. As the effects of the pulse charge was beginning to wear off, one of the Diamond Dog soldiers in the field took out another pulse charge from underneath his armor, and threw it up into the air. The pulse charge exploded in mid-air, releasing another wave of magical energy that spread throughout the area. It served to stop the unicorns from attacking with magic or supporting their comrades with magical attacks and shields, but aside from that, the pulse charges weren’t as much of an advantage in this fight as they had anticipated. The ponies were still well equipped to fight them, even without their magic, and they still had the advantage of numbers and fighting on their home turf. Despite the Diamond Dog’s strength and their new weapons, they were losing this fight. Rover fell down on to his hands and knees, and looked out at the resounding blood bash. They were still holding strong, but at this rate, they wouldn’t last much longer. The boss sneered at the ponies on the battlefield, and the ones that he knew were watching him from the safety of their base. He then yelled out, “Dogs; keep going! Take down as many as these ponies as you can! Even at the cost of your lives!” “I wouldn’t advise that if I were you.” Upon hearing this mysterious voice, Rover’s eyes widened and his ears twitched, and he turned in the direction that he had heard the voice coming from. Turning to face it, out of the shadows of the back-alley, he saw a mysterious figure slowly approach him. They were wearing a purple cloak and mask combo that covered their body completely. This made it impossible to tell what the figure beneath looked like, or whether it was a pony or a griffon or even a changeling. On the other side of the monitor, the ponies back at the base watched as a mysterious figure emerged from the shadows, towards the back of the battlefield, and approached the leader of the Diamond Dog Rebellion. Twilight looked at this new figure suspiciously. “Who is that?” She whispered to herself, so quietly that only she could hear. As the Rover remained spread out on his knees, he watched as the mysterious figure walked closer to him. One of his guards moved to intercept him, but the boss just raised his paw to stop him. “Hold on a second.” He said to the Diamond Dog, but kept his eyes on the mysterious figure in front of him. “I want to see what this is all about.” He spoke calmly. As the mysterious figure approached them, he stopped inches away from Rover, and moved to address them again. “Listen, as much as it may pain yourselves to admit it, you’ve lost.” His voice sounded slightly muffled behind his mask. He spoke calmly and contently. “You need to pull your forces into a retreat.” The red-vested Diamond Dog stood back up on two feet again, not taking his eyes off of this mysterious entity. “And just who the Hell do you think you are?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at him. The mysterious stranger responded immediately, in a slightly raised tone. “I am Zero, and know that I am your ally; a fellow enemy of Equestria. It was I that led the griffons to victory at Gryphallia last week.” Rover’s eyes immediately widened when he heard this, and he took a step back in surprise. “What?” After a brief moment of silence, he regained himself and stepped forward again. “That was you?” “Yes, that was me.” Zero responded. “And know that I am on your side. I want to help lead you to victory, but for now you have to retreat. Retreat now and live to fight another day.” After a brief glance at the battlefield, the leader turned back to face Zero. “And I suppose you have a way to get us all out of this battle alive, huh?” “Yes, I’m sure of it, but I’ll need your help to do it.” After Rover looked at him a bit suspiciously, Zero continued speaking. “First off, how many pulse charges do you have left?” After looking him over again, and mentally reviewing how many pulse charges they had brought with them, how many they had used, how many they had left, and who had what, he responded. “About five.” “Alright.” Zero began. “On my signal, have your forces when use three pulse charges at the three main sides of the combat. That should keep the pony’s forces stunned long enough for you to tunnel out and make your escape. Then right when you’re about to leave, toss out one more for good measure. Do this and I can guarantee your safety. All I ask is that you take me with you.” The leader immediately stiffened his upper lip upon hearing that last part. “And just why should I take you with us when I don’t even know who you are?” He then thrust his index finger out at him. “For all we know, you could be a pony trying to trick us.” Lelouch instinctively took a step back at the Diamond Dog’s hostility. Rover was pointing at him threateningly, with a scowl on his face. Lelouch inwardly cursed at his stubbornness before responding. “Look, we don’t have time for this right now!” He shouted out. “Let’s focus on getting all of your men out of here safely for now, and then I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” At the moment, time was of the essence, so Lelouch needed to tell this guy whatever he wanted to hear in order to move quickly. However, Rover didn’t let up. “Forget it! You’re gonna answer all of my questions now before we go anywhere!” He yelled. “And let your own soldiers die!” Lelouch countered. Rover took a step back and righted himself up, pridefully. “We Dogs would rather die in glorious battle than in our homes after being betrayed.” He then folded his arms together. “Now give me a reason to trust you and show me who you are.” Sweat started to form on Lelouch’s forehead, inside his helmet. “I can’t let them know that I’m a pony. Not now; they’d never trust me this soon.” He halted for a moment and looked down at the ground. “Dammit, I’m gonna have to do it.” He looked up again to look Rover in the eyes, and then a small compartment in his mask opened up, revealing a single eye with a Geass symbol. “Obey my orders!” Rover simply stood there, transfixed as the Geass took effect. One of his bodyguards briefly looked towards his Commander, and then took a step towards Zero. However, Rover held a paw out to his side him to stop him. Without taking his gaze off of Zero, he then nodded in affirmation. “Right, understood.” He said, his eyes now with a red tint. “Good,” Lelouch said as his mask closed up again. “Now, order the retreat.” “Right,” Rover said absently. Rover then turned back around to face the battlefield and relayed the order that Zero had given him, to the Diamond Dogs still fighting. The Diamond Dogs on the battlefield heard this order, and turned their heads to the side and nodded. Three of them then reached into their armor, pulled out a magical pulse charge, and threw them up into the air, aiming them so that the combined blast waves would affect everypony in the area. The resounding blasts produced three big shockwaves in all directions, encompassing the whole of the courtyard, stunning all of the ponies in the area, blinding them for several seconds. The Diamond Dogs took advantage of this distraction and quickly started tunnelling into the ground to escape. Their sharp claws tore into the earth like scissors through paper, allowing them to disappear into the ground in seconds. When all of the remaining Diamond Dogs had evacuated the area, Rover turned to both of his bodyguards. “Alright, let’s go.” The two bodyguards then started digging into the ground rapidly, creating tunnels large enough to squeeze through in a matter of seconds. While his bodyguards were digging their escape route, he turned to face Zero, his eyes still glowing red. “We’re getting out of here. Let’s go.” “Right.” Lelouch responded. The four of them then entered the escape tunnels, abandoning the fight to the ponies completely. Right as they were leaving, Rover quickly threw one more into the air, over his shoulder, for good measure, just as Zero had ordered him to, ensuring enough time for them to make their escape. When the effects of the blast had faded, the Diamond Dogs and Zero were gone. On the outskirts of Ponyville, the ponies had prepared a small refugee camp to safely care for the Ponyville citizens, in case of a terrorist attack. It was set up inside a big building that was comprised of one big room. There were rows of cots set up in several lines all over the room. There were a few hundred ponies squeezed into the big building, all huddled close together, afraid of what was going on right now, just a few miles from where they were. “I can’t take it anymore!” A certain cyan pegasus screamed out, hovering in the air. “I feel so useless. I should be out there right now, helping.” “Simmer down now, Rainbow,” Applejack said, getting up off her cot and looking up at Rainbow Dash. “The army’s got everything under control. Everything will be fine. Besides, you’re too young to be out there, fightin’. Those are the rules.” Rainbow Dash gazed down at Applejack while she was talking. “Twilight’s out there helping and she’s our age.” Rainbow countered. Applejack just hardened her glare at her pegasus friend. “She’s a Princess. She needs more protection than the rest of us, and it’s part o’ her duty to help ‘her subjects’.” “Exactly, she’s a Princess, and we’re friends.” Rainbow Dash responded. “She should be able to pull a few strings and get me out there. With my help, I just know that we could end this whole stupid war.” Applejack closed her eyes briefly and exhaled. “Rainbow, Ah know how ya feel. Ah’d like to be out there too, helpin’ out, but this is just the way it is.” Upon hearing this, Rainbow Dash just squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her hooves tight for a moment, but then she relaxed again. “I guess you’re right. I just wanna do something.” “Well don’t worry. I’m sure that this will all be over quickly.” Rarity said, as she lay on the cot, with Fluttershy cosying up next to her, burying her head into her mane. Rainbow Dash let out another sigh as she drifted back to the ground. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But still…” Applejack could see that Rainbow had still not completely given in. However, before she could speak up again, something else came to her. “Hey, where’s Pinkie Pie?” She asked, while looking from side to side. “Oh, she’s over there,” Rarity said in a surprisingly sarcastic tone, while pointing over to the far corner with her horn. Applejack looked over into the direction that her unicorn friend had pointed, and she saw Pinkie Pie sitting by herself on a single cot, alone in the corner. Taking in this strange sight, Applejack decided to go over and talk to her. She reached Pinkie in the furthest corner of the room, which was much darker than the rest of the room. Pinkie Pie was sitting there all by herself, with an uncharacteristically sombre expression on her face, looking down. Her mane was deflated, though not completely straight. So also looked strangely… grey; almost like she had been corrupted by Discord again. Seeing her friend look like this, Applejack decided to speak up. “Hey there, Pinkie, what are y’all doin’ over here all by your lonesome?” Applejack asked. Pinkie raised her head to look Applejack in the eye. She just stared back at her for several seconds in utter silence, with an almost pained look in her eyes, and then looked away again, looking like she was about to tear up. Applejack looked back at her friend, now very worried. “Listen, Pinkie Pie. If something’s wrong, then you can tell me.” She said as she took another step closer to her. “What is it?” Pinkie slowly rolled her eyes back towards the apple farmer, before turning back around completely. After another moment of hesitation, she opened her mouth to speak. “Dgjfkdtydghjtdrdghjgdgx.” Upon hearing the sounds coming out of Pinkie’s mouth, Applejack immediately let out an annoyed huff and facehooved. “Oh Celestia, not this again.” She then lowered her hoof again before continuing. “Pinkie Pie, if this is another one of your practical jokes, then you can skip it.” She then looked at her again with a more worried expression. “Just tell me what’s wrong, Sugarcube.” Pinkie leaned forward again, now looking even more worried. “Dfdgnfkhmjdhbnmfjdhgxb.” Once again, Applejack let out another aggravated huff. “Fine, don’t tell me.” She then turned back around and started walking away. “Let me know when y’all are ready to start acting serious!” She shouted at Pinkie, over her shoulder. She then whispered under breath, “That would certainly be a first.” Pinkie Pie held out her hoof towards her friend as she walked away. “Hgfgbnfhmkdgbnmgfdgszxbgnfjdhgsf!” When Applejack had ignored her plea and walked out of sight, Pinkie lowered her hoof again. She then lowered her head as well, and screamed as loudly as she could in her mind. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” To be continued… Author's Note I'm really sorry about the long wait, and I'm really sorry about the poor quality of this chapter. The story's quality has really gone down since Chapter 1, but I really am trying (unsuccessfully) to make it better. I completely understand if you want to stop reading (if you haven't already).
Chapter 5Chapter 5 After the battle of Ponyville had ended and the Diamond Dogs had retreated, the royal guards had seen to cleaning up the mess left behind by the battle before leading the citizens back to their homes. Twilight had also volunteered to help them clean things up. Many of the guards protested this action, mostly the higher ups, saying that her safety was a top priority and that they should get her out of the area just in case there were any stragglers left behind, planning an ambush. The arguing kept going back and forth between Princess Twilight and General Wedge, with the alicorn becoming increasingly annoyed with the General’s stubbornness, which rivalled that of an earth pony. After several minutes of back and forth, she finally decided to just end the discussion with a Princess’ Order. And that was it. As much as the General didn’t like so easily being beaten down by the purple pony, his hooves were tied; and besides, he certainly wasn’t going to publically argue with a Princess, so he relented. With an annoyed look on his face, which he expertly managed to hide in the alicorn’s presence, using his years of experience in the royal guard for maintaining a stoic expression, General Wedge simply turned back around and continued tending to the needs of the town and his soldiers. With the argument finally over, Twilight couldn’t help but smile in triumph for her little victory. Sure, she did kind of cheat by using royal authority to overrule a high ranking military leader, but a win was still a win. Of course, the mere thought of the word ‘victory’ brought her mind back to the battle that they had just fought, and her subsequent thoughts and feelings on the matter. As she continued doing her best to restore any damage done to her home town, her triumphant smile started to fade as she thought back to the battle, specifically the end of the battle and that mysterious entity in the mask and cloak. Based on his size and build, he obviously wasn’t a Diamond Dog. She found this strange, since so far, in any of the rebellions that had popped up, the different species had kept to themselves and worried only for their own interests, not even sparring thoughts about the other races well-being. Twilight suspected this was because the other races didn’t actually trust each other enough to work together. This had worked to the ponies advantage during the battles, since they had the magic of friendship, and every other species was fighting alone, and she knew from her own experiences – with her and her friends working together, as well as when Discord and Tirek teamed up – that that advantage always lead to victory. Of course, this was perhaps why the Princesses had decided on their course of action that led into the battles in the first place. Celestia had seen how much the other races were greedy and only cared for themselves, and sought to help improve relations between everyone, uniting them all together. Twilight didn’t really like the idea of fighting a war, as she had always tried to use diplomacy to sort out issues, and the amount that they had to fight back against them did worry her, not to mention that fighting a war to bring unity and peace did seem counterproductive, but if Celestia thought that this was the right course of action, then she did too. After all, the Princess always knew the best course of action to take. That, and she would never dare speak out against her former teacher – her outburst over her first bringing Discord’s statue to Ponyville prior to his reformation not withstanding – though the thoughts did linger in the back of her mind. Shrugging it off for now, Twilight returned her focus to repairing the town. After the battle had ended, Lelouch had retreated with the Diamond Dog’s to their base of operations: a series of underground tunnels, which lay just outside of Equestrian territory. The area hadn’t been annexed into the country yet, so they were managing to hold out for now, though that was only because the Equestrian forces were more focused with other territories at the moment. As soon as they were finished there, and they came for them, the way they are now, they didn’t stand much of a chance of successfully fighting them off. Lelouch’s identity was still hidden behind his mask and cape. Standing before him right now were three Diamond Dogs. Rover was in the middle, to his left was a tall Diamond Dog with blue fur and abnormally long arms, and to his right, in contrast to the one on the left, was a short diamond dog, with brown fur, who only came up to the former human’s chin. He had learned upon arriving that these three were the Diamond Dog’s commanders. Once they were all gathered, Rover was the first one to speak up. “Alright Zero,” he began, addressing Lelouch, with a slight snarl in his voice, showing his disdain. “We did as you said and pulled our forces back.” He then crossed his arms and glared down at him. “And now the invasion that we’ve been planning for months has all been for nothing.” He hardened his glare. “So, was it worth it?” “Of course it was.” Lelouch responded immediately, in a completely calm tone of voice. “Had you stayed and fought, you would have been overwhelmed. You placed too much faith in your magical pulse bombs, and once your enemies worked around that, you quickly fell to the superior numbers and tactics. You can’t just put all your hopes on one saving grace, or else you’ll have nothing left when the enemy finds a way around it. Case in point: what happened tonight.” “We still could have won.” The tall Diamond Dog interjected. “And gotten yourselves killed in the process.” Lelouch retorted. “What’s the point of fighting back if you die doing it. Choosing to die is something only an idiot does.” This made the tall Diamond Dog step back. “Calm down, Fido,” Rover said to the Diamond dog at his side, though still with his arms crossed and his gaze locked on the masked figure in front of him. Lelouch took a moment to compose himself before speaking again. “As I said before, my name is Zero. I am working to bring down Equestria and restore the lands of everybody that was taken. To accomplish this, everyone will need to stand together and fight back against a common enemy. If you remain divided, you’ll only make it easier for the ponies to pick you all off one by one. I can help you with that.” “And how do we know we can trust you?!” Rover barked back at him. “You’re obviously not a Diamond Dog. For all we know, you could be a pony trying to deceive us. Before we proceed, how about you give us a reason to trust you.” “Very well, I shall.” Lelouch responded immediately, with a wave of his hoof, really hamming it up. “However, instead of showing you my identity, instead bear witness to my power. I will successfully capture Ponyville for you.” With that, he then turned around and started walking out of the room. Seeing him leave, Fido straightened up in his stance. While he did find it a bit arrogant for him to just turn around on them like that, instead of reacting to that, he instead inquired about the last thing that the masked figure said. “And just how are you going to do that?” He wondered, with an eyebrow raised. As Lelouch was walking along, he suddenly stopped when he heard their question. “Simple,” he started. “I’m going to give you the one thing that you desperately need right now.” He then turned his head to the side so that he was facing them. “Friends.” With that final word, he turned back around again and walked away. As Lelouch left, he grinned devilishly to himself beneath his helmet. “Let’s just see how these ponies react when the Magic of Friendship is used against them.” He then turned a corner up ahead, leading out of the room, into an adjacent tunnel. Once Lelouch had turned the corner of the vast underground base, had walked far enough away from the main chamber, and was confident that there was no one else around, he lifted his hoof up to his face, touching his mask as the piece of headgear disengaged, pulling it off. Placing his helmet down on the ground, he then reach back under his cloak and pulled out the headset that he got from Gryphallia. Putting the headset around his head, he then started twisting the controls, trying to find the griffon’s radio frequency. As he was turning the dials on the side of his headset, he suddenly heard a whirring sound, signalling that he had found the right frequency. Putting a strong expression on his face, Lelouch then got ready to speak. “Hey, Gilda,” he started, in a quiet tone of voice. “It’s Zero. Are you there?” When he had stopped speaking, he didn’t hear a reply right away, and the underground tunnels were completely silent. Several seconds ticked on, but to Lelouch, they seemed like hours. After what was only ten seconds, his expression started to dip. “I’m here.” He suddenly heard a response from a familiar voice. Gilda then seemed to stop for a moment to think about something. “Are you in Equestria, right now?” She asked. Lelouch guessed that Gilda still suspected that the pony she met might be Zero. Lelouch, however, just smirked to himself because he could now throw her off his tail even more. “No, I’m not. I’m with the Diamond Dogs right now.” There was another pause from Gilda’s end, though this one was clearly from surprise, rather than mistrust. After a moment, he continued speaking. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. First off, how are things going on your end to convince the other griffons to fight back openly against Equestria?” Lelouch could practically hear the grin form on her face as she spoke. “Well, Black Hawk is all for it and he’s got a lot of pull with the rest of the Talons. Between the two of us, we’ve got almost all of the Talons on board, and with our latest victory, we’ve even got more griffons signing up with us.” There was again another short pause before the griffon continued. “Why do you ask? What are you planning?” Lelouch grinned before responding. “I’ve already got a new plan in the making. If it works, we’ll not only show these ponies that we mean business, but we’ll also be able to capture land inside of Equestria.” “Wh-what?” Gilda stuttered, barely believing what he said. “Zero, I know that I said I was on board and all, and that last victory was pretty sweet, but we’re still only holding out and barely at that. Capturing land inside Equestria seems a little too hopeful right now, don’t you think?” “Not at all,” Lelouch replied without missing a beat. “With my plan, it should be simple once you have just one thing.” “…and what’s that?” Lelouch grinned. “Friends.” Hours later in Ponyville, after the guards had cleaned up the town – at least removing enough of the rubble to prevent any accidents to its inhabitants – the citizens of Ponyville were lead back to their homes. After an eventful day like this, everypony just wanted to go to bed and forget what happened and relax. Everypony that is… except for one. It was the middle of the night, and the Moon shone high in the sky, the light shining from it poured down on the sleeping town below. Due to the news of the battle in Ponyville, and all of the damage caused, Princess Luna had been too busy dealing with any nightmares that the ponies had after that last attack to bring out the stars that night. However, the full moon still provided more than enough light to illuminate the night sky. Streaks of moonlight passed through the window pane of the Sugarcube Corner lobby. There, Pinkie Pie sat on a stool beside the counter, facing outwards, towards the main area of the lobby. The light from the moon, passing through and distorted slightly by the window ended right in front of her. The pink party pony sat in darkness, with a sorrowful look on her face, and in complete silence. As Pinkie sat on the stool, staring at the beams of light on the floor in front of here, she suddenly put on a stronger expression and lifted her head up. “I can do this.” She thought to herself. She then opened her mouth to speak. “My name is Pinkie.” “Fydhfjkmtreydshfjfkryetursydfhgjreurd.” Pulling her head back, looking sad for a moment, she then put on her strong expression again, though it was obvious that she was struggling to do so. “I can do this. My name is Pinkie.” She then opened her mouth to speak again. “Vjkhjhfvjmdfdnmgtfrdsgxhdngx.” She was now starting to get upset, and despair was beginning to seep in. Somehow she couldn’t talk anymore, all of her friends thought that it was just a prank, and she was unable to tell them the truth. She was now losing her friends and she couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t even giggle at the ‘cursie’ to make it go away. Getting angry at this thought, Pinkie Pie furrowed her eyebrows, puffed up her face, and resolved to just try harder to try and beat whatever happened to her. “My name is Pinkie!” She thought hard in her mind. “Hkjdfjdsfghdjsdxhndfhdjfdkjsxhfd.” Not letting her failure get to her, she just continued. “My name is Pinkie.” “Cfkhjchnmvgkfdsgxcvnfmjdsxgcvnf.” “My name is Pinkie.” “Uyturydgfxhnfkjresydfhjfkridsyxfh.” She was now getting more irritated. “My name is Pinkie!” “Hjdfhgfngtkfdgszcxbvnmghfkdsgzxc!” She then squeezed her eyes shut tightly, faced her head down at the ground and screamed as loud as she could, forgetting about the Cake’s, who were asleep upstairs. “Tydtsfdgfnktjdrsdtgxhfjrsdgfxjusdtg!” “Jkhuydgsbfngmkhtydfgxfjrdf!” A few seconds later, after her anger had subsided a little, now all that was left was despair. She was now panting hard, having run out of breath after all her shouting, and with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Being out of ideas of what she could do, she simply hung her head low, squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and cried freely. “I can sense the residual energy from this place.” Pinkie’s eyes suddenly widened and her head shot up in surprise as she heard a voice from nearby. With a look of confusion on her face, and her tears having stopped from the surprise, she turned her head to the side, and she was able to spot another pony in the room with here, in the corner, half visible, half concealed by the shadows. The light pouring into the room only showed half of their body, revealing their features. It was a mare, around her own size, with a pure white coat, and a long, silky, lime green mane. Her cutie mark Pinkie found confusing, but also familiar. It was a red, bird-shaped symbol, which she recognised as the one that also belonged to that ‘Lelouch’ pony she met earlier. However, unlike the male earth pony, this female pony had two of the symbols on either side of her flank, overlapping each other. Another thing Pinkie found strange was that this pony was also an alicorn; however, the thing which Pinkie found most confusing was that she was somepony that she had never met before and failed to notice that she was there. The first thought that came to her was, “I really have lost my touch.” She slumped slightly at this thought, however, she then quickly returned her attention to the alicorn in the room with her. “The Geass has been used here,” the alicorn mare finished as she stepped out of the shadows, towards the pink earth pony, revealing herself completely. She spoke in a monotone, almost emotionless tone of voice, with a matching expression on her face. As the strange alicorn continued to approach the pink party pony, she then stopped a few feet in front of her. Neither pony said anything for several seconds as they both simply stared back at each other. The alicorn was waiting for some – any – response from this pony, while Pinkie Pie was still confused as to who exactly this pony was and what was going on. As the two mares continued to simply stare back at each other in silence, the alicorn suddenly shifted her expression slightly, showing that she was running out of patience. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything? I can’t imagine that someone suddenly appearing in their home is normal in any world.” Pinkie’s eyes widened just a little bit for just a second at that remark. She then looked down at the ground again, dejected. The alicorn tilted her head to the side a bit and raised her eyebrow in response to this. After another moment of silence, Pinkie slowly raised her head again and gently said, “Hgfgnmgkfdghgmhdfgxcfgcxcvg,” with a solemn look on her face. She then looked away again. The alicorn’s expression suddenly shifted to real surprise when she heard the sound Pinkie made when she tried to speak, as if it was familiar to her. Pinkie noticed this and looked up at her again, but the alicorn simply turned to the side and raised her hoof up to her mouth in thought. “Hmmm, I didn’t think he’d use that one again.” She then turned her head back towards Pinkie Pie and smiled strangely at her. “You must have really annoyed him to make him go that far,” she added, with a slight smirk. Pinkie Pie didn’t know how to respond to that statement, but she certainly felt angry, and she glared back at the alicorn in response. Either not noticing or not caring about the look that the pink pony was shooting her, the alicorn mare continued. “Listen, I’ll just get right to it; I need your help. You see, I’m trying to find someone. I was able to track him to this world, but somehow, I am unable to pinpoint his exact location. I cannot find him on my own, but if you help me, then I can help you as well.” Pinkie gave the alicorn a strange look, not understanding what she was talking about, the irony lost on her. “Hjfgkfghngjedsgbnbjfdxjgfgdh.” She said, but quickly shut her mouth again. Realising quickly that she wouldn’t be able to understand anything that she said, Pinkie instead simply gave her a look as if to say, ‘What do you mean?’ Seeing this look and guessing what she meant by it, she elaborated. “Let’s just say that I had a contract with him, and now that’s over, it’s time that he returned what I gave him.” Their contract was only supposed to last until one of them died. Since Lelouch had died, yet somehow come to another world, it was only right that she take back the power she gave him. She had already seen what happened when she just forgot about those whom she had given Geass powers to. Ironic, that Lelouch was the one who had pointed that out to her. Turning back towards Pinkie again, she then held her hoof out towards her. “Will you accept my contract?” Staring back at the alicorn’s outstretched hoof, thinking over everything that she had said to her, there was still a lot about it that she didn’t understand. However, she also said that she could help her with her speech problems. Pinkie had never heard of this pony, but if she was an alicorn like Twilight, then she must be really powerful, and when she spoke, she sounded so certain that she could help her. Right now, Pinkie was going through one of the roughest moments of her life, and if this pony really could help her, then she would take it. Besides, Pinkie always saw the good in everypony, and if she didn’t now, then she really would be losing herself. Righting herself into a strong look of determination, she held out her own hoof to meet the alicorns. As soon as she did and grabbed hold of her, she suddenly felt as if a powerful force was rushing from her hoof all throughout her body. The feeling wasn’t so much painful as unexpected, which made Pinkie shut her eyes tightly in response. A moment later, she opened her eyes again, and when she did, she noticed a strange moving symbol taking up most of her vision. For Pinkie Pie, there was only one response to something like this. “Haha, look at the birdie.” She thought as the bird-shaped Geass symbol flashed in her right eye briefly before disappearing, her eye returning to normal. She then smiled her first real smile ever since Lelouch had used his Geass on her. “This power will allow you to speak telepathically with those around you,” the alicorn spoke up again. “It will also allow to whisper thoughts into their subconscious to discreetly edge them towards doing what you want. Of course, the latter won’t work on me, but it will allow us to communicate more effectively. Your range is five hundred metres.” She finished explaining. Turning back to face the alicorn again, now with a happy smile on her face, her right eye then suddenly flashed with the Geass symbol again. “Can you hear me now?” She thought at the alicorn. “Yes, I can,” the white alicorn responded, nodding her head in affirmation. Pinkie then closed her eyes and beamed. “Oh, this is so cool!” She mentally squeed. Opening her eyes again, she then thought, “Hey, what number am I thinking of?” The alicorn mare didn’t say anything in response this time; she simply stood there in silence. After a moment, Pinkie then dropped her smile and looked confused again. “What’s wrong?” She thought at her. After another five seconds of awkward silence, the alicorn suddenly spoke up again, to clarify something. “If you wish to speak with me, you have to activate your Geass every time.” She said, while pointing to her eye. Lowering her hoof again, she then added, “And make sure to turn it off when you’re not using it and only use when you have to. If you overuse your Geass…” She paused, as if she were thinking something over. “Well, let’s just say that that would be bad.” Pinkie’s eyes widened at this revelation. She then mentally made a note to only use her Geass when she absolutely had to. Then she double checked that she hadn’t had her Geass active when she thought that. She slumped a little when she realised that this meant that she wouldn’t be able to use her power to speak to her friends whenever she wanted to, but she then perked up again. She was still grateful towards this alicorn mare for the gift, and was happy that she would be able to help her new friend. She then suddenly thought of something. Activating her Geass, she looked at the alicorn mare again and thought, “That reminds me, what’s your name?” “My name is C.C.” She responded simply. Pinkie Pie thought for a moment about how strange that name sounded, making sure that her Geass was off when she did. She then quickly brushed it off when she realised that she was from another world, and that in her world, Pinkie Pie would probably be a strange name. Returning her attention to C.C., smiling as she did, she activated her Geass again, deciding that this was important enough. “So, now that we’re friends, can I throw you a welcoming party before we go look for your other friend?” “No.” C.C. said immediately, raising her hoof up to stop her from continuing. “I need to make sure not to bring any unnecessary attention to myself while I’m here. I have you to help me. That will be enough.” After a moment of silence, but before Pinkie could interject, C.C. then added, “Also, don’t tell anyone else about your Geass. The less who know about it, the better.” She then turned her head to the side. “I’ve seen the kind of harm it can do in the long run, so I need to keep it contained as much as possible from now on.” She then thought to herself about how she may have to either kill Pinkie or take her power back after all this is over. Turning back to face the pink pony again, she saw that she had an understanding smile on her face, and nodded in affirmation. Seeing this, caused the witch-turned-pony to smile as well, slightly. After yet another moment of silence, but not an awkward one this time, Pinkie activated her Geass and asked, “So, you said that you need my help to find somepony. What’s his name?” With a straight look on her face, C.C. simply responded with, “Lelouch Vi Britannia.” Pinkie’s eyes widened immediately. To be continued…
