The Conversion Bureau: To Fail When You Succeedby MichaelTheBossChaptersPrologueHidden ResistanceReminiscingGoddamnitHubris?ITS (not) A TRAPCo-Commander Jack Stewart PritchardCaptain Silver SnowChapter FridgePrologueSteven ran. This was it, his years of hiding all leading up to this inevitable end. “You don't have to be afraid!” Princess Celestia, the Sun Tyrant, The Great Dictator, The Solar Demon, just a few of the names she had gained during her crusade of Earth, yelled after him, “It’ll all be better as a pony! Ask anyone!” Twilight Sparkle, The Purple Menace called, holding a Potion Dart Gun in her magic, she almost had Steven in her range. Steven was panting for breath as he turned another corner of the road he was running on and was met with a high wall. Dead end. “No escape, human,” Celestia said to him, “congratulations, you are officially the last human on Earth!” “No, that’s not true!” Steven exclaimed, “that’s impossible!” “It’s a great honour,” Celestia said, Potion in her magical grasp, “think of all the stories you can tell your future foals!” “Join us!” A Newfoal walked out of the shadows holding a Potion Dart Gun. It’s eyes were glazed over and it's grin was wide. It stared right at Steven, as if looking into his soul with its lifeless eyes. “Oh Jesus!” Steven jumped in shock, the Newfoal took him by surprise. “If I get ponified, I’ll end up like him, won't I?” Steven said, gesturing to the Newfoal. “Not quite,” Celestia admitted, “a harmonious being yes, the filthy human nature completely eradicated, but not brainless. You will be left as a pony, but not just a brainwashed husk. You will be able to think for yourself.” “Bullocks!” Steven cried out, “all Newfoals are brainwashed slaves to you,” “They are free ponies,” Twilight objected. More armed Newfoals emerged, all had there weapons pointed at Steven, all with the glassy eyes and crazy smiles, all saying things like, “Join us!” or: “Humans are filthy, the Potion will set you free!” or even: “Worship Princess Celestia!” Steven had heard enough. If he was going down now, he was going down like a badass. It’s what humanity deserved from its last human, a final show of badassery. One final salute to mankind. Steven, surprising everyone there, charged Celestia. Yelling a war cry for effect he tackled her to the ground but was soon thrown off of her via magic. “YOU DO NOT ACCEPT MY KINDNESS WILLINGLY, HUMAN? FINE! I’LL SHOW YOU THE HARD WAY! SUN’S FLAMES!” Celestia yelled out a spell in a fit of rage. A glare of heat fell down from the sun around Steven and the ground around him was reduced to a flaming heap of lava. Steven hugged the wall, backing away from the inferno as Celestia walked closer to him, a crazed look in her eyes. Not affected by the fire. “Goodbye, human.” She whispered to him, pouring the Potion over his head. ,.,., Commander Alex Pritchard. That’s me. Leader of the EURF – European United Resistance Fighters. Quite possibly the last resistance group on this planet. Who are we resisting? The ponies. The ponies that came to this world under a flag of peace, then three years later declared war. They, in the years that they were ‘at peace’ with us, built Conversion Bureaus. Giant buildings where you could swallow some Potion and get yourself ponified. Whoopie! Yeah, people actually did that, got themselves ponified. There was also the fact that it could cure any disease. That was a major pro about it. You have a terminal illness? No problem, just hop down to your nearest Bureau and get yourself ponified for the small price of becoming a pony. All the money people spent trying to find a cure for cancer and the ones to finally do it were pastel coloured horses. That was a slight kick in the arse. The ponies had a ruler, almost a dictator in some of our eyes, Princess Celestia. She always had this amused look in her eye whenever she was around humans, as if she viewed us all as some mere joke compared to her. She claimed to be a goddess and you can imagine that humanity called bullshit on that one. We’re hiding in the French Alps. Les Menuires to be precise. The rocky terrain and bad weather convinced the ponies that not many humans would seek shelter here. Which is why it makes a perfect base. There’s about 10,000 of us from all over the place. British, French, German, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Swiss, a few Americans. Anyone who was able to make it here came here. The pressure is on me to lead us, well, not all on me. My brother, Commander Jack Pritchard co-leads with me. We’re the ones these people look to for strength, and we have to respond with power, with authority. We have to survive. ,.,., “Bring back humans!” We protested. “Humanity is good! Don't listen to Celestia’s lies!” We were so naïve, thinking protesting to a crowd of mainly ponies brainwashed into hating humanity by Celestia herself was a good thing. Sigh, We’re being hunted, us, the BBHS – Bring Back Humans Society. It’s no use trying to convince any ponies to join us. They never listen, they all think humanity was a race bent purely on destruction, thinking that Celestia’s crusade of Earth was a good thing. The common ponies all believe that we are the problem, we are the evil ones, we need to be destroyed. I always wanted to find a pocket of humans, ones to side with, ones with a fighting chance. The opportunity never came. Celestia swept through Earth like a hurricane, checking everywhere. She believes she has got them all, last news she released was that she was on the trail of the last human ever. Now she’s set her eyes on us, the ‘traitors’ to ponykind. She wants us locked up, our organisation destroyed. Our members secured in the dungeons, not to be released until she was convinced that we would never ‘betray’ her again My name is Lyra Heartstrings, I cannot allow Celestia to find us, I have to protect the members of the BBHS. I will do what I must to end this. I will not fail. Hidden Resistance“Ze food supplies are high enough to last a few more months," Captain Heinrich Wolf informed us in his heavy German accent, “That's good news. Have the ponies located us yet?” Co-Commander Jack, my brother, asked him, “Nein, as far as ve can tell,” Heinrich said, “Our inside agent has reported vat Ze Sun Tyrant thinks she has got all of the humans,” “C’est super!” Captain Anne Laurent, our second Captain said, “We will be able to survive. Plenty of water and food,” “Winter’s coming up soon,” I commented, “it's going to get a lot colder before it gets warmer,” “We’ll make it through, we’ve pulled through for two others,” Jack said, “But we’ve never done it without losing anyone, and now if someone dies, there’s no one else to come up and take their place,” I replied. “Vat about ze HLF?” Heinrich asked, “Massacred,” Anne stated, “As far as we know, they put up a fight, but they were destroyed,” Jack said, “the last radio transmission they sent was something about a powerful spell The Sun Tyrant used against them, Sun’s Fire or something like that,” “Should we be worried?” I asked, “No more then ve are already,” Heinrich reassured me, “if ze ponies think vat they have got everyone, then they won't be looking anymore,” “We should expect that they will do a few more checks,” Anne said, her English surprisingly good, “Ze ponies don't think that there’s anyone up here,” Heinrich plainly stated, “it's why ve haven't had to deal with them since last year, and zat was just a small squad of pegasi,” “We need to be cautious,” Jack said, “ we’ll keep all snipers on alert,” We wouldn't call ourselves Commanders if we didn't have a force behind us, out of the 10,000 of us, 9100 are trained in using weaponry. The rest our either old, children or sick. “Remember the sentries,” Anne said, “keep a 24 hour watch,” “Good call,” I said, “I trust that you two can see to it. Meeting over.” Heinrich and Anne left the room. I sighed heavily and sat down, “What are we going to do?” I asked Jack, “Survive,” he replied bluntly, “I wish mum and dad were still with us, I wish anyone we knew was still with us.” I replied, “Yeah, damn Celestia!” Jack replied, “it's not our fault. Mum was ponified before we even knew the ponies were there and Dad was caught getting us into France. He almost made it as well,” “I know,” I said, “the best we can do is avenge them. I’ve noticed something about the Newfoals,” “What?” Jack asked, “Well you have the typical glassy eyed, brain dead ones. But you also have the more intelligent ones, the ones that can think for themselves. I think Celestia uses the first type as ground troops and the others are more high up, officers and that,” “So what?” Jack asked, “Just saying,” I replied, “we need all the information we can get.” ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., “We should stay in the move,” Bon Bon suggested, “with so few of us left, it's best that we keep out of Celestia’s reach.” “I know, but I’ve picked up traces of humans, in the Alps, of all places, the Alps!” I argued, “What proof do you have?” Shockwave Spark, one of the first members of the BBHS asked me, “I managed to hack into camera systems across that area,” I explained, “I had all cameras there take a picture and to send them back to the computer,” My computer, the last working computer ever. “and what proves anything?” Limeheart Spark, Shockwave’s wife asked me, “Look,” I said, spreading the pictures over the table. I pointed to one of them, “see that?” “What?” Bon Bon asked, “That, the trash can there,” I said, “What about it?” Limeheart asked, “We'll take a look at this, one day later and it has moved at least five meters away with no visible marks or anything,” I stated, “That doesn't mean humans are there,” Shockwave protested, “It's worth looking into,” I replied, “we are the Bring Back Humans Society, this is a major clue,” “But it could all be for nothing,” Shockwave protested, “we can't all trek up the Alps just to find out it was a gust of wind. There’s at least 100 of us. That's a lot of ponies,” “Then, we’ll get a Pegasus up there to have a search for any more signs of humans,” I said, “if they find nothing, we won't head there, but if they do, we’re going up to find them.” Shockwave sighed, “fair enough,” he said, “I assume we are staying here in the meantime?” “Yep,” I replied, “any news on Celestia?” I asked Bon Bon, “Not that we know of,” she replied, “she’s just been making speeches about catching all the humans and such. “Good, we have time then,” I said, “meeting adjourned.” The others slowly filed out of the room. We are in Paris, Celestia is in America. She had a particular fancy for America, she converted the White House into her castle, resembling Canterlot Castle. She would send out squads of ponies to look for us though, usually five or six brain dead Newfoals and an officer to lead them. It took a lot of work to get into those cameras, my computer is nearly dead because of it. Once it dies, we’re on our own, unless there are humans up there and we can join up with them. It's lonely, Celestia is waiting a few weeks before she is going to allow start terraforming Earth into a less polluted place. Her magic has already cleared a lot of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and repaired the ozone layer. She’s powerful, but not invincible. I sat down, my head in my hoofs and started to have a proper long think over our situation. Are we helping in the long run? Are we making a difference? Should we just turn ourselves in? To many questions and not enough answers. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., I’ve done it! I’ve finally done it! This planet has finally been cleansed of human filth. After four long years of war with the HLF and other resistance groups, I’ve finally tracked down the last human and ponified him. Now I can relax, finally I can take time to sit back and take a rest. I’ve earned it. Tomorrow we can start on the Bring Back Humans Society. Their troublesome ways need to be stopped, but for now I’m not going to worry. I’m going to have peace and quiet. 1… 2… 3… A pony barged in, startling me. “Your Highness!” He called out, “requesting permission to do one last check of Earth, to make sure we have got all the humans,” “Permission granted,” I said, “and try not to interrupt me again, I’m trying to relax.” “Yes Your Highness,” he said, “sorry Your Highness.” I settled down again. With that minor issue dealt with, peace at last. ReminiscingI was really tempted to just cut off my hair. Strange thought, I know. But it's a greasy dark brown mess. I trim it occasionally, but it would be a lot more handy to cut it off. The only thing stopping me is my vanity. I always had a rough shave though, I hate growing a beard. Unlike my brother, who is unshaven and his black locks are a lot longer then mine. Heinrich has light brown hair, rather short, he cuts it regularly. He’s a little shorter then me, and I’m about 6”3. Jack, being the younger brother by two years, is 6” last time we checked. Anne is shorter, at around 5”8. Her hair is blonde and at a medium length. Her shockingly blue eyes pierce when she is angry. That night, I had the same nightmare that I’ve been having recurring since Dad was caught: "C’mon Dad! We need to go!” I yelled at him, my rifle slung behind my back as we ran for the chopper. We could just make the last flight to France if we were quick, “I’m coming as fast as possible, they’re right behind us!” Dad replied. He was right. We were being heavily pursued by the same squad that got my mother. Now, Jack and I would not have been Commanders of the EURF if we didn't have military experience behind us. I was an officer in the New British Armed Forces, Jack was with the UN forces, well, before they were wiped out. Pretty high up, too. We reached the take off sight, ponies hot on our tail. “Go!” Dad yelled, “get to France, I’ll hold them!” Dad pulled out his pistol that he carried with him, he looted it from a dead body. Suicide, we think. He shot at the approaching ponies whilst jogging backwards towards the helicopter. Almost there. Jack and I leapt onto it, I outstretched my arm, wanting Dad to grab it. He stopped firing and was about to jump on but suddenly a pony fired a dart. Dad cried out as the dart hit the bare skin on his leg, releasing the Potion into his bloodstream. “NO!” I cried out in despair as my Dad fell to the floor. All the times we had spent together, all the arguments and the hugs and the conversations all taken away by those motherfucking horses! “Boys, I love you. Don't you ever forget that.” His last words before he started spasming and twitching, the Potion taking hold on his body and soon his mind. “I love you too, Dad,” I replied, my voice cracking up. I turned away and sobbed, bawled my eyes out. Jack did the same. We were comforted by the few other people on board, but nothing helped. I think I cried out all of my tears then, because I haven't cried since. Someone’s voice hollering out one word jarred me out of my sleep. One word that chilled me to the bone. One word that made me feel sick in my stomach. “PEGASI!” ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., I kept looking through the pictures, desperately searching for any more clues. Celestia was doing one last major search, looking everywhere, and I mean everywhere. She’s leaving no hiding place of the Earth unchecked. She’s determined to get everyone. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in the human’s scenario. Being the very last of your race, faced with extinction and being hunted down. It must be terrifying, beyond terrifying even. I don't know how they haven't just given up, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this whole war, it's that humans have a will as strong as diamond. Shockwave came in, his brown hair dishevelled and his royal blue fur was a mess. “What happened?” I asked him, “Couldn't get any sleep.” He simply replied, “kept rolling over but couldn't get comfortable, plus there was too much to think about. Limeheart, who, as her name suggests, has a lime and darker green coloured mane and pure white fur. She trotted in with Bon Bon, who dumped today’s meal on the table, “Potatoes, carrots, peas,” she muttered, “the usual.” “Whoopie!” Shockwave replied, the sarcasm evident in his voice, “I still think your search is a wild goose chase,” he said to me, “Leave her alone!” Bon Bon stood up for me, “she’s trying her best to lead us. And besides, it's the best lead we’ve had for ages.” “Maybe Celestia’s right,” Shockwave argued, “maybe she has got all of the humans. This whole thing could be a complete waste of time,” “You sound like you support her,” I commented, “I don't!” He snapped, “I’ve stayed by your side for years now. But I can't deny that it's a very loose thread you’re gripping to.” “At least she is holding onto something, unlike you.” Bon Bon said. Shockwave stormed out, angry. “I’ll go calm him down,” Limeheart excused and slipped out after him. “Honestly, he drives me insane sometimes!” Bon Bon commented, “I don't know how Limeheart puts up with him,” “He has good intentions,” I replied, “he can be annoying, but he’s only thinking about all possible outcomes.” “I don't predict the future and I don't care about the past,” Bon Bon said. “What’s that quoted from?” I asked her, “Can't I just have made it up myself?” She asked me, “I know you, Bon Bon, maybe our relationship isn't as stable as it once was but I blame the war,” I said, “Fine, it's from a human song, The State of Massachusetts. Irish rock,” she said, embarrassed at her unique tastes. “Nothing to be ashamed of,” I said, “not that it matters anymore anyway.” “You’re right.” She replied, “we’ve lost some followers, by the way,” “Not a surprise,” I commented, “we’ve been loosing followers ever since the damn HLF went down. Celestia and her bucking Sun’s Flames.” “That and the Potion,” Shockwave said, walking in, “sorry about earlier, I was being a twat,” “Apology accepted,” Bon Bon said grudgingly. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “Humans are finally no more,” I said in my speech toward the billions. Newfoals and Equestrians both, “The last human barely even put up a fight. The war is officially over. We have pulled through against all odds. We survived the HLF, we survived the bombing and the shooting, we survived the Bureau Massacre. To all the Newfoals, we welcome you with open hooves. Your part in this war was more then you think, and you played it brilliantly. To my own ponies, your food kept our armies sustained, you kept the morale up when times were low. You each contributed to the war effort, even without realising it. We thank you. And to my own student, Twilight Sparkle. You ran the Bureaus. You played a major role in purifying humanity. You played one of the biggest parts in this war. Without the dart guns, we would've lost, all thanks to your genius we didn't. My sister and I will cleanse the pollution of this planet and begin rebuilding it into a better Equestria in a month’s time. Pegasus scouts are checking every corner of the Earth to make sure there is no human dirt hiding out. To a better Earth, for a better Equestria.” I finished. The ponies cheered, clapped, stomped their hoofs, whooped. They went wild. The brain dead Newfoals were reserved for the expendable soldiers, society has accepted them. The other Newfoals are the ones that can think. They can make decisions for themselves and think freely. They are all still loyal to me, they all still sing my praises. They just have an IQ. It's better that way. No one cares if any of the brain dead are killed, they are pretty much dead anyway. It's just how society works now. GoddamnitOh fuck, oh fuck fuck fuck! I thought, jumping out of bed and grabbing my rifle. I ran down the stairs of the hotel I used as a command center, Jack was already down, “How far away and how many?” I said, entering the room with our officers, “Seven, approaching from sept o’ clock. We’re luck that we detected them coming from behind La Masse. We received a radio transmission from a team hunting there. Will be in range soon,” Anne said, “Get the snipers ready,” I commanded. “Boss,” Heinrich said, “What?” I snapped, “Well, if ze snipers cannot get them all, we will expose ourselves to ze enemies. We won't be safe,” Heinrich stated, “Shit, you’re right.” I realised, “Well, we have to hope we get them all,” “You are crazy, crazy man,” Heinrich said, “ze ponies have ze Potion, ve will be destroyed,” “Faith,” I said to Heinrich, “it's more powerful then you think, and I have faith that our snipers can do it,” I was also a Christian, yes I know it's odd, “where is God now?” An atheist would question. I just hope that what goes on is all in God’s plan for us, and even if people die, something will happen to make it seem respectful to them in the end. “Aim,” Anne said into the radio to the snipers. The pegasi came into view, “Fire!” She said, Seven shots rang out, five ponies fell out of the sky, blood dripping from their wounds. One was hit in the leg, a not fatal area but was knocked out of the sky, body smashing on the rocks below it. The last pony was missed completely, the shot flying way off target. It looked horrified, it had a rainbow mane and tail and light blue fur, “Rainbow Dash,” I uttered, “Sheiße,” Heinrich said, “Bullocks,” Jack echoed. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, we could see because we’d rigged up the security footage but had the cameras pointing and a 360 degree view of the command center, a hotel called L’ours Noir. Our hotel. She sped off, a shot erupting behind her and hit her leg, but she was stronger then the other one that was hit there, she stayed in flight, slowing down but now out of range. “Goddamnit!” One of the other officers in the room yelled out and slammed his fist onto the table. I had to agree with him. The security of the base was definitely compromised, or Rainbow Dash would bleed out before she got back to America. Not likely. It's time, I had to talk it through with all the people who live here. I needed to show my face for the first time in a long time. “Heinrich, Jack, come with me. Anne, sound the megaphones with the meeting tone, we need to warn everyone,” I commanded. The megaphones rang out a series of short blasts, signifying a meeting would be taking place now. One for everyone to attend. It's time they saw their commander again. ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., More proof, definite proof this time. “I believe you now,” Shockwave stated as he heard the news. What was the news? Squads of pegasi went to search everywhere for humans. A group that was sent to scan over the Alps was massacred, Rainbow Dash being the only survivor with a wound to her right foreleg. She would never be able to use it again. A bullet wound. She claims her squad was shot down before she had time to notice anything, before she knew it, she was the last survivor and tried to fly off, but copped a bullet to the leg as she did. Celestia has responded by say thing that the humans up there had crossed a line by maiming an element of harmony and she would send 5 Potion squads to deal with them, each squad containing 6 ponies, so 30 total. If there are only a small amount of humans, they’ll be ponified without much trouble, however if it's a large group, it's the ponies who are in trouble. With human weapons and numbers they should be able to destroy the ponies with ease, but that will only make Celestia send a bigger squadron, or army against them. Then, they'd be wiped out for sure. There’s no way they could hold out of the HLF couldn't, and they had huge numbers, in the 100,000s. The HLF made their last stand at the Washington DC Bureau. It's now known as the Bureau massacre. It was originally meant to be a small assault of a few humans to infiltrate the Bureau and blow it up. The humans got in but were caught, then the HLF made a daring rescue for them, blowing a hole in the side of the Bureau and freeing all the humans inside. It looked like to operation was successful, but then pony reinforcements came. One by one the humans were ponified and took up the enemy ranks. At the start the odds were in their favour, for every 10 ponies killed 1 human was ponified, but when the reinforcements came it slipped to for every 5 ponies killed 3 humans were ponified, and when eventually Celestia showed up and used her Sun’s Flames, the ratio was too low to imagine, hence the name ‘The Bureau Massacre.’ The Potion has a strange affect on those who are hit by it. It sends an initial wave of mind strain, which if unprepared, is what turns you into the mindless zombie. If you keep your mental blocks up then the Potion will, once converted you body, subtly influence your mind with pony thoughts and instincts, which increase over time as you do your things as a pony until you are a fully blown, brainwashed but not brain dead, Celestia supporting pony. We have to get to the humans first. We’re setting off immediately. We have to warn them of the danger coming their way. The danger of Celestia’s army. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “WHAT?” I roared, “It's undeniably a bullet wound,” the doctor said to me, “there must be humans still out there, in the Alps,” “How?” I wondered, “how did they survive the weather and terrain?” “It's not my area of expertise,” the doctor said, “but my guess is that they stay in abandoned hotels and chalets, lighting fires to keep warm and hunting mountain goats,” “Make sure she is treated,” I said, “we can't afford to lose an Element of Harmony,” “Yes, Your Highness,” the doctor obeyed. Impossible. Why is it that every time I finally think I’ve won a new problem arises? I’ll keep this incident away from the public, they’re all celebrating the end of the war, the last thing they’ll want to hear is about another human resistance group, especially one that has harmed an Element. I’ll send 5 Potion squads after them. There can't be that many, so 30 ponies should be enough to ponify them all. It won't turn into another Bureau Massacre incident, I’m sure, then again we won that battle so what would it matter anyway? They will not survive with their humanity intact. Hubris?“Heinrich, I want you to make sure all the sick and elderly here my message,” I commanded, getting the feel for it again, “Jack, you’re with me.” “Yes boss,” Heinrich said and ran off. Jack and I walked round the back way to our meeting area, which was just the bottom of the resort, the old ski lifts rusting above us, the power long since dead in them. We had a raised platform where everyone could see us, a few translators for the ones who didn't speak English. Off the top of my head I knew there was definitely French and Swiss here, a few Germans, a handful of Belgians, an American family or two, some Indians and some Pols. A translator was already up there, waiting for my arrival. The crowd of survivors was busy flooding in, in the early days, we’d taken down all of the chairlifts and used them as seating for meetings like these. This would be our 5th one. Commander Jack and I walked up on stage. The huge crowd cheered, if there were still people there, I should have thought they would have heard us in Meribel, a resort a whole valley away. I held up my hand for silence. I spoke into my megaphone, which had been modified for its sound to be amplified through speakers all around the resort. “Greetings everyone!” I called out, “as you are probably aware, we were recently spotted by Pegasi. We managed to shoot down 6 of the squad of 7 and injure the 7th with a bullet wound to her leg, but the injured pony was Rainbow Dash, one of The Great Dictators most valued soldiers.” I paused as the translators did their thing. “If this had happened earlier in the war, I would've simply relocated us to Val Thorens or Saint Martin De Belleville, but there are now over ten thousand of us and I fear we would be attacked before we made it up there. We’re staying here, we’ll fortify the resort, snipers on ski lift pylons, with the Winter coming, we’ll have weather to defend us as well.” More translating. “As Winston Churchill once said, ‘we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.’ Not that I’m equalising myself to Winston Churchill as that would be hubris but my point is no matter how hard they fight, we’ll fight harder, no matter how many of us they kill, we’ll kill more of them. We will push through and win. ‘Or am I kinda like Winston, I’m leading the remnants of humanity into a battle against an almost unbeatable foe. God I hope we win now, I’ll be the most well known man in history!’ I thought as I said my speech. Captain Heinrich Wolf, Captain Anne Laurent, Co-Commander Jack Pritchard and myself will lead you to victory. We are humans, we always will be and that will never change. We will end up as the superior race. We will survive.” I finished my speech and bowed. The translators finished translating it into many different languages. The crowds of people went wild, but it was slightly darker, as we all knew our inevitable death could be right round the corner. ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., We left to start the treacherous journey. With no law or government, there were no speed limits, we only had to slow down to get past obstacles like fallen trees and cars that had been abandoned on the road as people fled. One of our followers led the convoy of cars that we had trekking slowly towards Les Menuires, only stopping for more petrol and diesel. The long journey gave me plenty of time to think, so that's what I did. Sat there is silence and started to reminisce. ‘We have been watching a small platoon of HLF for a while now, too afraid to make contact but too curious to simply leave them. They, as far as we could gather, had been scavenging through houses looking for non-perishable food to bring back to their base but now they had been spotted by a ponification squad. “Shit! Run” one of the humans yelled out as they ran towards a small Primary School where they kept all their supplies. “Please, join us!” A Newfoal cried out, “we love new friends!” “Piss off!” One of the humans cried back and starting shooting. They were overwhelmed, the one who shouted ‘piss off’ was the first to go down. We walked away, disheartened by the fate of those poor humans, now ponies wanting to betray their own true race.’ “Lyra!” Shockwave was shaking me, “What?” I said, startled, “We’re stopping to eat and fill up the tank, go to the toilet and all that,” he said, “Oh, okay,” I said, getting out of the car and entered the abandoned service station. It was looted a lot, the only thing of any worth was the toilets, even though they do not even work any more. The smell was terrible, some animals must have died, maybe a few rats in the walls or something. After relieving ourselves and filling up with the remaining petrol, we all ate in this post-apocalyptic world and got back on the road in our convoy of cars and trucks. As for weapons we carried, we had a few human guns and some combat knives shared between the Pegasi and Earth Ponies, us Unicorns taught each other combat spells. The car we were in rumbled ahead of the others. We were in Troyes, our next stop being Dijon, then Lyon, and then up into the Alps and into Les Menuires. We have to get there within a few days, or Celestia’s forces will beat us there and ponified all the humans before we even arrive there and we will have failed again. I cannot let that happen. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “I want all mountain ranges checked and double checked, I want all deserts and rainforests completely explored. If there are humans there, we will root them out. As for these ones in the Alps, if our squads fail, I will lead an army to deal with them personally. If they are HLF then they will face my wrath.” I commanded my Generals. “Yes Your Highness,” They said and left the planning room. It will be hard to hide this military operation from the public, but I will deny all allegations of it. Once I was on my own, my sister, Princess Luna walked into the room. “Aah Lulu,” I sighed, “just as I think I get all the humans, a group comes up and shoots down six of my subjects and injures Rainbow Dash. Why does this stuff happen?” “Tia, I’ve been thinking, why did we ponify the humans?” My sister asked me, “You know why,” I said, eyes slightly narrowing. Could my sister be having second thoughts? “You know humanity’s history, Gladiators, Barbarians, World War 1, World War Two, the Holocaust, the Atom Bomb, Terrorism, Radicalisation. Just a few of the things that show the discorded nature of humans,” “But, that is history, perhaps we were the fools to ponify a race that could’ve redeemed itself,” Lulu argued, I chuckled, “Lulu, history has a funny way of repeating itself, going in circles. The HLF for example, all those stabbings.” My own sister was displaying treacherous behaviour, I’m going to have to start keeping tabs on ponies. Things are definitely going wrong. ITS (not) A TRAPWe're fucked. That's a good way to describe it. Fucked. Okay, calm. Deep breathes. The Great Dictator is going to want to test our strength before mounting a full scale assault. Maybe if we play dead… Not its too late for that, we already gunned down some Pegasi and didn't wipe them all out. Goddamn Rainbow Dash… “Boss,” A man knocked on the door to my private room and yelled, “Boss, you there?” “I'm coming,” I grumbled, “hold your bloody horses.” I opened the door to reveal a ginger British bloke with blue eyes and a freckled face, eyes glinting at me in the dim light. “What?” I asked, my hair a disheveled mess. “Boss, we’ve detected a small squad of about 30 ponies, armed with typical Potion weaponry, we need to start evacuating now,” He said, “Shit, thought we’d have more time. Get all my officers in the planning room, Mr, err…” “George King, Boss,” George replied, “Got it, hurry,” I said, taking up my rifle and running towards the planning room where all my officers were ready. “Alright, there’s only 30 of them approaching from 3 o’ clock, this should be easy. Focus squads 1 to 4 or defending that area, squads 5 to 9 will be covering all over entrances in case of sneak attacks. I’ll be on the front lines, I want vengeance, personally, Captain George King,” I promoted the guy who came to me for no reason, “you’re with me. Squads 10 and 16 will help evacuate and 11 to 15 will cover them. Rendezvous by the Roc Des 3 Marches bubble-lift.” I commanded, getting the feel of things again. I walked out of the room and out of the hotel, down into the resort. Our men were assembling at the bottom of the resort, where we just had the meeting and my little speech. Most were already in position. I joined with my handpicked squad. Squad 1, full of our best fighters. Commander Jack was with Squads 10 and 16, evacuating every hotel whilst we draw their fire. Our squads and snipers were in position, we were ready. “HERE THEY COME!” Someone yelled. A row of six ponies burst over the ski slope to get to La Masse to be greeted by 1000 humans with guns pointed at them. 5 more rows joined them. “Humans, we’re on your side,” Their leader yelled, using a voice amplifying spell, “if you convert you’ll know the truth!” A shot cracked through the air, a sniper from a gondolier taking the opening shot. Their leader fell down dead. All hell broke loose. Potion was being launched at us, but not enough to have an affect on our numbers. The ponies went down very quickly, as far as I saw only seven of us were hit, but they had to be... put down. I fired away at the ponies, their ranks breaking and they scattered, but our snipers picked them all off. One of them dropped a radio and I picked it up, avoiding the few splatters of Potion on the ground. “Hello,” I said over it, not waiting for a response, “I am Commander Alex Pritchard of the EURF. Your puny strike team failed, and now they are all dead. Don't try it again.” I put a bullet through the radio, ending the transmission. I doubt Jack had bothered with evac when he saw how small in numbers the attackers were. “Boss!” Heinrich ran over, “there are more ponies, no Potion weaponry and carrying white flags,” What? Is it a trap? “Let them come, but keep everyone on high alert,” I commanded and Co-Commander Jack returned from one of the hotel buildings. “What did I miss?” He asked. ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., We’d made it. Les Menuires. And there are thousands of humans here. We were being yelled at, cursed by most but some stood curious. The crowd parted and two humans passed through, both armed and aiming at us. “Who the fuck are you?” The one with the beard asked, “Umm… Greeting humans. My name is Lyra Heartstrings from the Bring Back Humans Society, we’re here to join with you!” I exclaimed. The crowd of humans fell silent. “We were just attacked. How can we trust you?” The non-bearded one asked. “We have no Potion weapons, we came here under a flag of peace. If we came for that whorse Celestia, we would've tried to Potion you by now,” Shockwave explained, “I'm Shockwave Spark, by the way.” “Commander Alex Pritchard. This is my brother, Co-Commander Jack Pritchard. Make one hint as to being one of the Great Dictator’s and I will kill you personally,” Non-beard said. “These people seem pleasant,” Bon Bon whispered in my ear, “Come to our command room, we have a day or so until The Dictator sends reinforcements,” Co-Commander Jack said, “The Dictator… You mean Celestia?” I asked. Commander Alex nodded, “follow me,””he started to yell, “I WANT THE BODIES BURNT AND THIS WHOLE PLACE CLEANED. SET UP MORE DEFENCES!” The crowd started to stir and left us room to trudge to the hotel. “How did you survive?” Limeheart asked Commander Alex, “Hiding. We’re cowards. We could've helped save humanity but we stayed up here and hid,” Commander Alex choked out, “these people, they need me. I'm the one who is meant to be the light of hope in a world of darkness but the truth is I’m just a guy who was in the New British Armed Forces and defected orders to fight. I'm the biggest coward there is,” “I heard what happened to England, you would be a slave to Celestia if you stayed,” I tried the reassure him. The ponies had airships, it's why they had such a tight control over the airspace. The biggest airship, the A.S Divine Authority, had been the most feared the weapon in the war for its ability to spew out Potion Gas by the gallon every second. Enchanted to be able to take heavy punishment from weapons, it terrorised England in the first few months of the war, smothering entire cities with Potion Gas. It was destroyed by, out off all countries, North Korea. North Korea had closed all few borders it had open and had not allowed any pony into their territory throughout the whole time ponies were on Earth. They would massacre anypony that tried to get in. After what was left of the UN pleaded with Kim Jong Un to help the war effort, they launched rocket after rocket at the Divine Authority, but what broke through it's shield was its one of a kind missile. Rumours had it that the North was kidnapping Unicorns and experimenting on them, and turns out they had made a missile which was immune to magic. One of a kind. It destroyed the Divine Authority over London, just before it was going to release Potion Gas over the capital of England. Stolen plans had said that the airship would be moving on to the USA next, so the President of America, the Prime Minister and King Charles owed the North an awkward thank you. In their planning room there were screens that I guess we're the security footage but cameras were pointed to have a 360 degree view of the resort. There was a large table wi a few maps and red pen scrawled on them. There was a radio, some guns stashed in the corner and some miscellaneous bits of human weaponry and a scrapped Potion Launcher. Co-Commander Jack absently picked up the radio and turned it on, spinning the dial as Commander Alex said, “So how did you find out we were here?” “Well I-” I started to say but I was cut off by a voice coming from the radio. We were not alone. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “Your Highness, I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but we’ve found humans in the Rockies and the Amazon Rainforest, the humans in the Alps sent you a message,” said one of my generals, “What?” I asked, “well, here is the recording,” he stammered and played a recording of the message via magic. Hello I am Commander Alex Pritchard of the EURF. Your puny strike team failed, and now they are all dead. Don't try it again. I was angry, no, buck that, I was furious. “Prepare me an army!” I yelled, “I will deal with these nuisances myself!” “Yes your Highness. Right away.” Co-Commander Jack Stewart PritchardTORNADO POV The magically enhanced DSR-50 glowed as I held it in my hands, ready to take the shot. The Potioneer Ship was getting closer, flying through the valley, the very look of it making it feel like the promise of death; the rape of innocence. Hell, was anyone innocent any more? Aiming for the propellers seems like the best idea, if I can hit the main one, the whole ship should go crashing down to the bottom of the valley, destroying it. I just hope that this rifle’s bullets are strong enough for it. “Now!” Commander Alex Pritchard’s voice spoke through my earpiece. I lined up the shot a bit in front of the propeller so the bullet will hit the target exactly on. I pulled the trigger, the DSR-50 letting out a small explosion as the bullet flew through the air, I saw the Potioneer Ship’s magic shield light up as the bullet impacted it but then it cracked and shattered as the bullet passed through. Through the scope I saw the wood of the pole holding the propeller shatter and splinter, but not snapping, the bullet staying lodged inside. It was enough though. The impact had stopped the propeller from magically spinning, producing the power that was keeping them up in the air, the ship tilting dangerously to the side before colliding with the mountain to its right. Ponies came off of it in droves, and through the scope, I saw the Sun Tyrant herself. Oh boy was she pissed. She turned her head and was staring right at me. I froze under her fiery glare, I was paralysed with fear. She smirked and sent a huge ray of yellow magic right for me, there was no escaping that. I would die in a matter of seconds. As the magic burnt me to a crisp, I knew I had done my part. It was all up to them now. ,.,., COMMANDER ALEX PRITCHARD POV ,.,., I peered out of the window at the Potioneer Ship, I saw its magic shield crack and break and then it crashed into the mountainside, so I guess the rifle worked and Tornado had sot out the propeller. I didn't expect what happened next. A huge blast of magic was heading right for Tornado, there was nothing I could do, nothing anyone could do. The magic incinerated him, and the DSR-50 most likely too, in a matter of seconds. Only one pony was capable of doing something like that. Celestia. She definitely was ballsy, appearing on the front lines, but now our magic defying sniper and its owner are gone. Dead. “Sheiße,” I heard Heinrich say about the huge magical death ray. There was no chance in hell Tornado could’ve survived something like that. No way. “Snipers, now!” George said through his radio and I saw Pegasi drop from the sky, not enough though. If we didn't pull something out of the hat soon, we’ll be wiped out in one go. “We should activate Big Betsy,” An officer suggested. Big Betsy was our tank. We’d modified it to have increased stopping power and now could be the only time to use it. “Very well,” I said, “go and get it, shoot down the big groups of Pegasi,” “Yes sir.” The Pegasi we at the front lines now, Heinrich and Anne were busy listening and commanding desperately into their comms. I really hoped Jack was safe. I picked up my Walkie-talkie. "Jack! How's the evac going?" I yelled into my walkie-talkie as I stared from the command center at the battleground below, "Okay," I heard him reply, "just one more hotel to clear!" "Which one?" I asked, "Les Bruyères," came his reply. I looked out the large window to see a Pegasus squad land on the roof of Les Bruyères and start to get in. "No don't! Pegasi have entered the hotel!" I yelled, "I have to, the people need me!" Jack yelled back, "No, I forbi-" Jack cut the connection. I sighed in annoyance and slight fear and grabbed my rifle to follow him in. "Heinrich, you're in charge until I return!" I yelled and ran out the hotel, starting down the road. A bit down the road a Pegasus landed in front of me, brandishing a Potion Launcher, "Hello!" She said cheerfully. She was a Newfoal, eyes glassy and grin wide, but I could tell that she was one of the more intelligent ones. "Um, hi?" I replied, "You've been a naughty human, killing my friends," her cheerful smile darkened as she approached me. Or perhaps it was always that dark. As soon as that Potion touched her and raped her mind into this twisted abomination against nature. "Sorry?" I said, trying to buy time as I fumbled for a weapon, my rifle was slung over my shoulder, not much chance of getting that without her firing at me. "You're lucky I'm forgiving and generous. Accept Princess Celestia's gift!" She aimed at me and I jumped to the side, Potion appearing where I was standing a second ago. "Son of a bitch," I cursed, "Language!" She giggled and fired again, I just managed to roll out of the way and stood up, firing my rifle and watching the bullets miss their mark. "You know, you're not very accurate," She fired again and I sidestepped, now I was more focussed and not panicking so my aim had vastly improved. "Give up!" The Newfoal said in a sing-song voice just before I fired a few more rounds and saw the bullets fly into the pony's body, who fell backwards, dead. "How's that for not accurate?" I spat on her carcass. It was for the greater good, she had died when she was ponified, I merely put down a walking sick mockery of a life form. I continued on to Les Bruyères. From what I could see Jack had entered a few seconds earlier and I could hear him shouting as I stepped in. "Alright everyone, follow me, we're getting out of here!" "Help!" I heard someone yell in a heavily accented voice, "we're stuck! Second floor room 209!" "Accept Celestia's gift!" A pony shouted, "trust me when I say it'll all be better and you'll understand once you take it!" "Fuck off!" Came the reply followed by a burst of gunfire. Jack dashed up the stairs and I followed. He got up there before me and dashed round the corner, gun cocked and loaded. "Ah!" He cried out and I heard glass shatter. Rounding the corner myself, I immediately starting firing at the blasted horses. I recognised one of them. The Purple Menace, Twilight Sparkle. The Menace put up a shield around herself and the Newfoals with her before my barrage of human created death hit her. She smirked and pointed to the floor. I followed her prompt and looked down. There was Jack, awkwardly laying in a puddle of Potion. There was my final relative, dying before my eyes, changing into one of those sick fucks. "No! Jack!" I cried out. The last of my family. "Alex," Jack choked back, "I'm sorry," "Don't be, it's not your fault, I love you." I sobbed, "Listen, when I become one of them, don't hesitate. Kill me straight away. It may talk with my voice and try to convince you its me, but it's not. Kill me, promise me you will." He started to wince as the Potion took hold. "I promise," I said, a tear rolling down me cheek and splashing onto this chest. "I'm scared..." He trailed off and writhed in the puddle of Potion as he changed into a pony. Before I could give him one last act of mercy and put him out of his misery, I remembered about the Purple Menace. She helped the horse that was once my brother to his hooves and before I could shoot any more, she teleported away with him. I couldn't even fulfil his final wish. "I'LL MURDER YOU ALL, YOU HEAR ME CELESTIA? I'LL RIP YOUR HORN FROM YOUR HEAD AND IMPALE YOU ON IT!" I screamed in rage, "I'LL BUTCHER YOU LIKE THE COW THAT YOU ARE AND EAT YOU FOR MY SUNDAY LUNCH ROAST! YOU WILL PAY!" I stomped out the building and down into the front lines. Seeing me fighting on the front lines boosted the morale. Seeing me, storming out the building, rifle set to automatic and dropping Ponies everywhere whipped up the men into a frenzy. I saw Big Betsy roll out from L’Ours Noir and it immediately blasted a rocket into the sky, exploding a large group of Pegasi. Dismembered body parts rained down onto the Newfoal ranks. Big Betsy’s barrel turned and fired again at the swarms of Pegasi, creating huge holes in the Pegasi infested sky. Any pony that tried to land on the front line was torn to pieces by machine-gunfire and the snipers were dropping important targets area. “Zis looks exactly like ze Bureau massacre,” I heard Heinrich whisper down the comms. He was right. We were going to be overwhelmed. The army landed on the slope below us and were no doubt setting up Potion Mortars. If they did, then we were all in danger. “Big Betsy!” Heinrich yelled out and I turned to see the tank take huge hits of magic and Newfoals rushed towards it, undoing the hatch and getting inside. “Fuck me sideways and upwards and downwards,” I muttered. It seemed like the end of the line. Three loud booms rang out, almost shattering my eardrums and the side of the mountain seemed to explode. Huge chunks of rock raining down onto the ponies below us. A similar thing happened on the other side of the mountain. Of course, the Avalanche bomb traps! The army had seemed to have disappeared, but it too had taken a fair chunk of our soldiers with them, teleporting them away to be ponified no doubt. Like my brother. Like Jack. From the rubble, the Great Dictator herself emerged, hovering in the air. “Sweet Jesus and mother Mary,” Anne murmured. ”HUMANS!” she yelled at us, “CAN’T YOU SEE WE ARE HELPING YOU?, ASK ANY NEWFOAL, ASK YOUR OLD COMMANDER, HE KNOWS OF OUR SALVATION AND EVEN HE, ONE WHO GREATLY OPPOSED ME, WANTS TO HELP YOU ALL SEE LIKE HE HAS, EVEN ASK HIM RIGHT NOW!” “Oh no,” Heinrich murmured into my ear. The Solar Fuck levitated a male unicorn to her side, he was wearing pony armour and carrying a Potion dart gun. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was my brother. I knew it was Jack. “Keep it together,” Heinrich muttered to me. “EURF!” The Newfoal addressed us in Jack’s voice, “DO YOU NOT SEE HOW FUTILE THIS ALL IS, ALLOW PRINCESS CELESTIA TO SAVE YOU FROM YOURSELVES, PLEASE. AND ALEX!” The Newfoal turned to face me. I was so shattered, my mind was still dealing with that here Jack was, now my enemy. “ALEX PLEASE, END THIS MADNESS. THEY’LL LISTEN TO YOU. I’M YOUR BROTHER, ALEX, WE CAN FIND MUM AND DAD AND BE A FAMILY AGAIN! JUST ORDER YOUR MEN TO STAND DOWN!” Heinrich was yelling something in my ear but I wasn't paying attention to him. It was as if Satan himself was standing in front of me, ready to make a deal. Maybe it would be better if I drank it, maybe this whole time I was wrong and Celestia was right. Maybe I should just give in, doing that would end this war, save so many lives. Everything I wanted was contained in that vial of sparkly purple liquid. All I want in life for the price of my soul… My thoughts turned to Jack, he was smiling at me, holding a vial of Potion and making promises that everything would be perfect as soon as I took the Potion. I remembered Jack’s last words: Kill me straight away. It may talk with my voice and try to convince you its me, but it's not. Kill me, promise me you will. I saw through the lies, the Newfoal that was Jack, his smile, it had the same unnerving wideness like every other Newfoal, his eyes were less glassy but you could see that his left eye was slightly twitching against his will. I ripped out my earpiece and Jack’s smile widened. Celestia looked at me, smiling motherly, levitating a vial of Potion into my hand. “JACK!” I called to him, “THANK YOU FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY, I KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW, I COULDN’T HAVE FIGURED IT OUT WITHOUT YOU, THANK YOU!” “YOU’RE WELCOME, NOW DRINK ALEX, DRINK AND WE CAN BE A FAMILY AGAIN!” He yelled back. That was all the confirmation I needed. This was not Jack, not even a hint of Jack remained. I looked into a gondolier where I saw a sniper was, looking at me in betrayal. I winked at him and he took up his rifle again. I raised the vial to my lips and Celestia grinned in victory. Which soon broke when I dropped the vial and it smashed on the rocks below. “NOW!” I yelled and the sniper shot at Jack. Celestia threw up a shield around him, protecting him, but it got my point across. No, I will keep on fighting you. Mum and Dad would want me to, Jack would want me to. I will never submit. Captain Silver Snow“Boss, boss are you okay?” Heinrich wouldn't leave me alone. Couldn't he see that I didn't want any company? I should've thought that me barring up the door to my quarters was close enough evidence for him to get. I didn't answer him. It's been three days since Jack… since they got Jack, and Celestia’s been parading him around, showing every human via magic that how even one of our commanders, one of our very leaders now was a pony and Jack himself has been spouting propaganda everywhere. I've spent three days locked in my room mourning. Can you blame me? My brother, the last member of my family, has just been brainwashed into my enemy. I know it sounds stupid but I always believed that we’d go down together in some heroic act of bravery. “Boss, ze Chief Simon McLoud ist wanting to speak with du,” Heinrich said again, “Tell him I'm busy,” I merely grunted. Our forces had suffered a very de-moralising blow. With at least 760 men either killed or ponified, and no word from the evacuees that Jack was in charge of. Last time I knew where they were going, they were in Saint Martin De Belleville, and if they’re still there, they haven't returned. “Boss, Alex, du cannot stay in zere forever, Jack would vant du to fight for him,” Heinrich tried to convince me to leave. “Well he’s dead now so what does it matter?” I yelled at him through the door. Poor Jack. My brother… Kill me straight away. It may talk with my voice and try to convince you its me, but it's not. Kill me, promise me you will. Those words echoed through my head. His death wish. The one that I couldn't fulfil. I promised him I would and now I can't. To think that I was seriously considering drinking that Potion that Jack gave me. At least I’d be with him again. “Boss, do you want me to take charge?” Heinrich suggested, “after the stunt you pulled, people don't trust you as much, especially since you still haven't held a meeting addressing the attack,” “MY BROTHER IS DEAD!” I roared, “IF THEY WANT A DAMN MEETING THEY CAN DAMN WELL WAIT!” I could hear Heinrich sigh, “Fine, I vill tell zem to vait, but please, talk to Simon McLoud. He deserves an explanation,” “Fine, pass us the radio,” I grumbled and opened the door. Heinrich took a step back at my appearance, my eyes were bloodshot and I was unshaven, my hair a dishevelled mess. I probably looked like a hardcore druggy. Heinrich gave me the radio and then muttered something about being needed elsewhere. I sent out a call into the station that was used to contact this other group in the Amazon. “Hello? Anyone?” “Receiving you, this is Chief Simon McLoud, who is this?” Came the reply almost immediately. “Commander Alex Pritchard.” I replied, “I am so sorry about what happened to you brother,” he said, “Celestia’s been making sure everyone hears what the Newfoal he is now is saying. She even made him one of her military higher-ups.” “I know,” I choked out, “I- he almost convinced me to take the Potion. If it wasn't for his last words…” “Look, I know this is a bad time for you, but we really need to join forces if we want to have a hope to survive this,” he said “We have no transport,” I pointed out the obvious. “Okay, I many have told a little lie when I said that. I needed to know if you were really human or just faking it to fool us and give us false hope.” He admitted, “What do you have?” I asked, “you're not going to be able to get from the Amazon to the Alps in a car or two.” “Try a helicopter or two.” Came his reply. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., I wouldn't class that first assault as a victory. They took down the Her Benevolence, they killed a lot of my Pegasi fleet with that tank and their automatic weapons. However, it was definitely not a defeat. Co-Commander Jack Pritchard, younger brother to Commander Alex Pritchard, was ponified by none other then my very own student herself. He now calls himself Silver Snow. Captain Silver Snow, that is. There is nothing more disheartening then to save one of their own leaders and use them as your own leader. I really thought that he’d be able to convince Commander Alex Pritchard to join us, he almost had. I saw the indecision on his face myself. Maybe I should try using the Elements on them, perhaps something interesting will happen. As for the humans in the Amazon and Rockies, we’re keeping a very close eye on them. The BBHS aren't much of a threat though, they may have disappeared, but that doesn't matter. I have bigger problems. “Princess Celestia!” Came the voice of Captain Silver Snow. My ultimate weapon against Commander Alex Pritchard, “What is it, my little pony?” I asked him, smiling in my motherly way. “Your Highness, I know my brother is misguided and brainwashed to think that all ponies are evil, but please Your Highness, let me try and convince him otherwise. He’ll linen to me. He’ll have to,” Silver Snow asked. It appeared he still harboured strong feelings for his brother, I can play that to my advantage. “Of course, Captain,” I said, “but remember, he will try to kill you. He may be your brother, but he thinks you’re his enemy. You're not. Show him the way,” “Thank you, Your Highness,” Silver Snow smiled at me and trotted out of the room. He is my greatest achievement of this war-time. He is my knife, as long as I have him, Commander Alex Pritchard will never be able to forgive himself. His precious EURF have been demoralised and I have upped the morale of my ponies. Things are definitely looking up for me in this war. Chapter Fridge“Hello? Hello? Anyone left out there? Over,” the radio said. We were all astounded, we thought no one else made it but us. The BBHS leaders, Lyra and Bon Bon were wide eyed. Jack was quick to respond, “Yes, receiving you, over!” He called into it. An excited laughter came from the radio, “Thank God, where are you? How many of you are there? Are you armed? Over,” “So many questions!” Lyra muttered. “Gimme that,” I said, taking the radio, “We’re in the Alps, we call ourselves the European Unified Resistance Fighters, there's about 10000 of us. Plenty of guns, and yourself?” “We’re in the Amazon Rainforest, last time we counted there was 4700 of us. We don't have as much guns but we have more then enough to hold our own. Have you been discovered?” The person asked us, “Yes, unfortunately, and we have no doubt that they're coming soon to potion us. However we have come into contact with a group of pony allies,” I replied, “What? Please confirm, did you say you have pony allies?” The voice was startled, “Yes,” I confirmed, “Don't trust them,” He was talking in a hushed tone, “Celestia’s tactics, she would send native Equestrians to our camps and they claimed they were our friends, then they would get our leaders completely off-guard and destroy the camp. Don't trust them.” I gave a glance over to Lyra and Bon Bon, slightly expecting them to whip out Potion Launchers and ponify all my command and I. “Have you been discovered?” I asked our newfound friend, “As far as we can tell, yes. Pegasi flyover caught us completely unaware, do you have any transportation means?” He asked, “No, why?” I asked, confused, “Damn, if we could meet…” he trailed off, “my name’s Chief Simon McLoud, I’ll be on the radio this time every day,” “Commander Alex Pritchard, good to know we’re not alone. Out.” I dropped the radio and turned to everyone in the room. Jack and I exchanged glances with each other but now we had something else to deal with. The BBHS. “Listen, Lyra, Bon Bon, I'm still not sure we can trust you but I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt,” I said, “you're probably going to run into some abuse if you show your faces and you may even be mistaken for the enemy and killed so I’d prefer it if you stayed in this hotel. The 5th and 4th floors are free to use, should be enough for the lot of ya. Stay out of trouble, okay?” “Okay, we’re rapt to find you, we haven't seen human's in ages,” Lyra said and her group of ponies trotted out of the room. “Jack, I want to start evacuating now. Take the non-fighters down to Saint Martin de Belleville, then come back up by yourself, got it?” I asked, “Yes, but why now?” He questioned, “I have no doubt an army is coming for us, get the sick, children and elderly away from the warzone,” I commanded, “Got it,” he confirmed and ran out the room. “Heinrich, you and Anne will be in charge of the bulk of our men on the front lines, George King, you're in charge of the snipers. You, you, and you,” I pointed to more officers, “go help Jack with evacuating. I’ll be in my room if there’s any trouble,” I left the room and walked down the hall, opening the door to my room and collapsing onto the bed. I forgot how stressful this job was, I quickly fell into the embrace of sleep. We were staying at home, I’d guess we’d be court marshalled if the army actually had time for it, but no. With Celestia’s forces constantly terrorising us and the Divine Authority destroying cities like Leeds and Birmingham in mere minutes many of us had abandoned the military to spend time with our families. My brother, Jack, had also deserted. I still had pall my gear: my rifle, handgun, grenades and all that. There was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” my mother called and I heard the ding sound as the door opened. Then there was a scream and the sound of glass shattering. Robbers? Raiders? Jackers? I grabbed my rifle and ran downstairs, Jack close behind and Dad following up at the rear. It was a ponification squad, helping a Newfoal to her hooves. The Newfoal looked up and saw us, “there they are!” The Newfoal said happily, pointing to us, “show them the way like you showed me!” It spoke in my mother’s voice. “No…” I heard Dad whisper and before the ponies could get us, I smashed the nearest window with the butt of my rifle and jumped out, not caring for the cuts and scratches I had. “GET IN THE CAR!” Jack yelled, “WHAT ABOUT THE KEYS?” I shouted back, “I GOT THEM, JUST GO BOYS, GO!” That was Dad. I ran across the stoned driveway to our Renault Clio. I hopped into the shotgun seat and Dad got into the drivers seat, Jack sitting in the back. The ponies were following, one unicorn even tried to keep the wheels from spinning by magic but human technology declared itself superior and the car shot out of the driveway and down the road. “BOSS!” Heinrich yelled, snapping me out of my sleep and I made my way into the planning room. “What?” I grunted, “A Potioneer ship has appeared on ze horizon. Zis may be ze end for us,” Heinrich said, “Don't worry, I have a plan.” I replied, “but I’ll need to speak to Lyra and Bon Bon first.” ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., “You want what?” I asked for conformation, “I want a unicorn to take this DSR-50 sniper rifle and enchant it so it can shoot through magic shields, don't tell me it's impossible because I know the HLF used captured unicorns to do it,” Alex demanded, “You’re crazy if you think that’ll shoot through one of Celestia’s shield spells,” Bon Bon scoffed, “I don't need it for one of her spells. There is a Potioneer ship on the horizon, approaching us right now, do it, or I'm sure I could hand you over to Celestia and earn us a bit of freedom,” Alex threatened, “You wouldn't,” Shockwave glared at him, “Try me, humans are evil, liars, and make war, do they not?” Alex quoted Celestia, “Fine, I’ll do it. But don't expect it to work well,” I said, “I haven't used this magic in a long time,” “Do you want to help or no?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow, “Can it, I'm concentrating,” I said, closing my eyes and feeling the magic run through me and into my horn,” “That's some weird voodoo shit,” I heard Commander Alex mutter as I cast the enchantment onto the rifle, “Not voodoo,” I murmured, “magic,” I finished the spell and felt significantly drained. The DDR-50 or whatever it was called was glowing with thaumatic energy, the human sciencey term for magic. “Thanks,” Alex replied and picked up the rifle, “I gotta get this to Tornado, stay put in here, got it” “Got it.” I confirmed, “good luck,” “I don't believe in luck,” Commander Alex said and shut the door behind him. ,.,., COMMANDER ALEX PRITCHARD POV ,.,., I was panting for breath as I dashed out of the hotel and along the road down to where I had stationed Tornado, our best sniper, who got his name for managing to kill several ponies with his rifle in a snowstorm and remain undetected. The Potioneer Ship was lazily approaching and I could just make out hordes of Pegasi spelling out of it, passing through its magic shielding. “TORNADO!” I yelled, he emerged from his hiding spot, “Commander, what is it?” He asked, “Tornado, this sniper’s been modified to shoot through magic shields. Aim for the propellers of the airship and take them out. The ship’ll crash into the mountain and we’ll just have to focus on the Pegasi,” I commanded, “Yes sir, easy pickings,” he grinned and slid back into cover, “Jack, you might want to hurry with that evacuation,” I said into my radio. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., It's bucking freezing up here. That was my main thought as the airship Her Benevolence, sister ship to the Divine Authority crawled through the air to Les Menuires, the location this EURF are camped out at. Probably just another HLF breakaway that managed to hide successfully. This group is the largest, the ones in the Amazon and the Rockies not nearly being as big. “Your Majesty, should we begin sending out the Pegasi?” Captain Thorn asked me, he had replaced Shining Armour when I found out Shining Armour was secretly feeding information to HLF camps. “Yes, begin the assault,” I declared and hundreds of my airborne subjects, armed with Potion, took to the skies over the Alps. This ship would be the safest place, it's magic shielding being in the same level as the Divine Authority, no human weapon not enhanced by magic will be able to break its shields. Another disturbing thing is the disappearance of the BBHS, they slipped off of our notice when we found the humans. At least humans can't help being human, they deserve salvation and perfection, the BBHS are just misfits, traitors, they don't deserve anything. They will burn in my wrath.
PrologueSteven ran. This was it, his years of hiding all leading up to this inevitable end. “You don't have to be afraid!” Princess Celestia, the Sun Tyrant, The Great Dictator, The Solar Demon, just a few of the names she had gained during her crusade of Earth, yelled after him, “It’ll all be better as a pony! Ask anyone!” Twilight Sparkle, The Purple Menace called, holding a Potion Dart Gun in her magic, she almost had Steven in her range. Steven was panting for breath as he turned another corner of the road he was running on and was met with a high wall. Dead end. “No escape, human,” Celestia said to him, “congratulations, you are officially the last human on Earth!” “No, that’s not true!” Steven exclaimed, “that’s impossible!” “It’s a great honour,” Celestia said, Potion in her magical grasp, “think of all the stories you can tell your future foals!” “Join us!” A Newfoal walked out of the shadows holding a Potion Dart Gun. It’s eyes were glazed over and it's grin was wide. It stared right at Steven, as if looking into his soul with its lifeless eyes. “Oh Jesus!” Steven jumped in shock, the Newfoal took him by surprise. “If I get ponified, I’ll end up like him, won't I?” Steven said, gesturing to the Newfoal. “Not quite,” Celestia admitted, “a harmonious being yes, the filthy human nature completely eradicated, but not brainless. You will be left as a pony, but not just a brainwashed husk. You will be able to think for yourself.” “Bullocks!” Steven cried out, “all Newfoals are brainwashed slaves to you,” “They are free ponies,” Twilight objected. More armed Newfoals emerged, all had there weapons pointed at Steven, all with the glassy eyes and crazy smiles, all saying things like, “Join us!” or: “Humans are filthy, the Potion will set you free!” or even: “Worship Princess Celestia!” Steven had heard enough. If he was going down now, he was going down like a badass. It’s what humanity deserved from its last human, a final show of badassery. One final salute to mankind. Steven, surprising everyone there, charged Celestia. Yelling a war cry for effect he tackled her to the ground but was soon thrown off of her via magic. “YOU DO NOT ACCEPT MY KINDNESS WILLINGLY, HUMAN? FINE! I’LL SHOW YOU THE HARD WAY! SUN’S FLAMES!” Celestia yelled out a spell in a fit of rage. A glare of heat fell down from the sun around Steven and the ground around him was reduced to a flaming heap of lava. Steven hugged the wall, backing away from the inferno as Celestia walked closer to him, a crazed look in her eyes. Not affected by the fire. “Goodbye, human.” She whispered to him, pouring the Potion over his head. ,.,., Commander Alex Pritchard. That’s me. Leader of the EURF – European United Resistance Fighters. Quite possibly the last resistance group on this planet. Who are we resisting? The ponies. The ponies that came to this world under a flag of peace, then three years later declared war. They, in the years that they were ‘at peace’ with us, built Conversion Bureaus. Giant buildings where you could swallow some Potion and get yourself ponified. Whoopie! Yeah, people actually did that, got themselves ponified. There was also the fact that it could cure any disease. That was a major pro about it. You have a terminal illness? No problem, just hop down to your nearest Bureau and get yourself ponified for the small price of becoming a pony. All the money people spent trying to find a cure for cancer and the ones to finally do it were pastel coloured horses. That was a slight kick in the arse. The ponies had a ruler, almost a dictator in some of our eyes, Princess Celestia. She always had this amused look in her eye whenever she was around humans, as if she viewed us all as some mere joke compared to her. She claimed to be a goddess and you can imagine that humanity called bullshit on that one. We’re hiding in the French Alps. Les Menuires to be precise. The rocky terrain and bad weather convinced the ponies that not many humans would seek shelter here. Which is why it makes a perfect base. There’s about 10,000 of us from all over the place. British, French, German, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Swiss, a few Americans. Anyone who was able to make it here came here. The pressure is on me to lead us, well, not all on me. My brother, Commander Jack Pritchard co-leads with me. We’re the ones these people look to for strength, and we have to respond with power, with authority. We have to survive. ,.,., “Bring back humans!” We protested. “Humanity is good! Don't listen to Celestia’s lies!” We were so naïve, thinking protesting to a crowd of mainly ponies brainwashed into hating humanity by Celestia herself was a good thing. Sigh, We’re being hunted, us, the BBHS – Bring Back Humans Society. It’s no use trying to convince any ponies to join us. They never listen, they all think humanity was a race bent purely on destruction, thinking that Celestia’s crusade of Earth was a good thing. The common ponies all believe that we are the problem, we are the evil ones, we need to be destroyed. I always wanted to find a pocket of humans, ones to side with, ones with a fighting chance. The opportunity never came. Celestia swept through Earth like a hurricane, checking everywhere. She believes she has got them all, last news she released was that she was on the trail of the last human ever. Now she’s set her eyes on us, the ‘traitors’ to ponykind. She wants us locked up, our organisation destroyed. Our members secured in the dungeons, not to be released until she was convinced that we would never ‘betray’ her again My name is Lyra Heartstrings, I cannot allow Celestia to find us, I have to protect the members of the BBHS. I will do what I must to end this. I will not fail.
Hidden Resistance“Ze food supplies are high enough to last a few more months," Captain Heinrich Wolf informed us in his heavy German accent, “That's good news. Have the ponies located us yet?” Co-Commander Jack, my brother, asked him, “Nein, as far as ve can tell,” Heinrich said, “Our inside agent has reported vat Ze Sun Tyrant thinks she has got all of the humans,” “C’est super!” Captain Anne Laurent, our second Captain said, “We will be able to survive. Plenty of water and food,” “Winter’s coming up soon,” I commented, “it's going to get a lot colder before it gets warmer,” “We’ll make it through, we’ve pulled through for two others,” Jack said, “But we’ve never done it without losing anyone, and now if someone dies, there’s no one else to come up and take their place,” I replied. “Vat about ze HLF?” Heinrich asked, “Massacred,” Anne stated, “As far as we know, they put up a fight, but they were destroyed,” Jack said, “the last radio transmission they sent was something about a powerful spell The Sun Tyrant used against them, Sun’s Fire or something like that,” “Should we be worried?” I asked, “No more then ve are already,” Heinrich reassured me, “if ze ponies think vat they have got everyone, then they won't be looking anymore,” “We should expect that they will do a few more checks,” Anne said, her English surprisingly good, “Ze ponies don't think that there’s anyone up here,” Heinrich plainly stated, “it's why ve haven't had to deal with them since last year, and zat was just a small squad of pegasi,” “We need to be cautious,” Jack said, “ we’ll keep all snipers on alert,” We wouldn't call ourselves Commanders if we didn't have a force behind us, out of the 10,000 of us, 9100 are trained in using weaponry. The rest our either old, children or sick. “Remember the sentries,” Anne said, “keep a 24 hour watch,” “Good call,” I said, “I trust that you two can see to it. Meeting over.” Heinrich and Anne left the room. I sighed heavily and sat down, “What are we going to do?” I asked Jack, “Survive,” he replied bluntly, “I wish mum and dad were still with us, I wish anyone we knew was still with us.” I replied, “Yeah, damn Celestia!” Jack replied, “it's not our fault. Mum was ponified before we even knew the ponies were there and Dad was caught getting us into France. He almost made it as well,” “I know,” I said, “the best we can do is avenge them. I’ve noticed something about the Newfoals,” “What?” Jack asked, “Well you have the typical glassy eyed, brain dead ones. But you also have the more intelligent ones, the ones that can think for themselves. I think Celestia uses the first type as ground troops and the others are more high up, officers and that,” “So what?” Jack asked, “Just saying,” I replied, “we need all the information we can get.” ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., “We should stay in the move,” Bon Bon suggested, “with so few of us left, it's best that we keep out of Celestia’s reach.” “I know, but I’ve picked up traces of humans, in the Alps, of all places, the Alps!” I argued, “What proof do you have?” Shockwave Spark, one of the first members of the BBHS asked me, “I managed to hack into camera systems across that area,” I explained, “I had all cameras there take a picture and to send them back to the computer,” My computer, the last working computer ever. “and what proves anything?” Limeheart Spark, Shockwave’s wife asked me, “Look,” I said, spreading the pictures over the table. I pointed to one of them, “see that?” “What?” Bon Bon asked, “That, the trash can there,” I said, “What about it?” Limeheart asked, “We'll take a look at this, one day later and it has moved at least five meters away with no visible marks or anything,” I stated, “That doesn't mean humans are there,” Shockwave protested, “It's worth looking into,” I replied, “we are the Bring Back Humans Society, this is a major clue,” “But it could all be for nothing,” Shockwave protested, “we can't all trek up the Alps just to find out it was a gust of wind. There’s at least 100 of us. That's a lot of ponies,” “Then, we’ll get a Pegasus up there to have a search for any more signs of humans,” I said, “if they find nothing, we won't head there, but if they do, we’re going up to find them.” Shockwave sighed, “fair enough,” he said, “I assume we are staying here in the meantime?” “Yep,” I replied, “any news on Celestia?” I asked Bon Bon, “Not that we know of,” she replied, “she’s just been making speeches about catching all the humans and such. “Good, we have time then,” I said, “meeting adjourned.” The others slowly filed out of the room. We are in Paris, Celestia is in America. She had a particular fancy for America, she converted the White House into her castle, resembling Canterlot Castle. She would send out squads of ponies to look for us though, usually five or six brain dead Newfoals and an officer to lead them. It took a lot of work to get into those cameras, my computer is nearly dead because of it. Once it dies, we’re on our own, unless there are humans up there and we can join up with them. It's lonely, Celestia is waiting a few weeks before she is going to allow start terraforming Earth into a less polluted place. Her magic has already cleared a lot of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and repaired the ozone layer. She’s powerful, but not invincible. I sat down, my head in my hoofs and started to have a proper long think over our situation. Are we helping in the long run? Are we making a difference? Should we just turn ourselves in? To many questions and not enough answers. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., I’ve done it! I’ve finally done it! This planet has finally been cleansed of human filth. After four long years of war with the HLF and other resistance groups, I’ve finally tracked down the last human and ponified him. Now I can relax, finally I can take time to sit back and take a rest. I’ve earned it. Tomorrow we can start on the Bring Back Humans Society. Their troublesome ways need to be stopped, but for now I’m not going to worry. I’m going to have peace and quiet. 1… 2… 3… A pony barged in, startling me. “Your Highness!” He called out, “requesting permission to do one last check of Earth, to make sure we have got all the humans,” “Permission granted,” I said, “and try not to interrupt me again, I’m trying to relax.” “Yes Your Highness,” he said, “sorry Your Highness.” I settled down again. With that minor issue dealt with, peace at last.
ReminiscingI was really tempted to just cut off my hair. Strange thought, I know. But it's a greasy dark brown mess. I trim it occasionally, but it would be a lot more handy to cut it off. The only thing stopping me is my vanity. I always had a rough shave though, I hate growing a beard. Unlike my brother, who is unshaven and his black locks are a lot longer then mine. Heinrich has light brown hair, rather short, he cuts it regularly. He’s a little shorter then me, and I’m about 6”3. Jack, being the younger brother by two years, is 6” last time we checked. Anne is shorter, at around 5”8. Her hair is blonde and at a medium length. Her shockingly blue eyes pierce when she is angry. That night, I had the same nightmare that I’ve been having recurring since Dad was caught: "C’mon Dad! We need to go!” I yelled at him, my rifle slung behind my back as we ran for the chopper. We could just make the last flight to France if we were quick, “I’m coming as fast as possible, they’re right behind us!” Dad replied. He was right. We were being heavily pursued by the same squad that got my mother. Now, Jack and I would not have been Commanders of the EURF if we didn't have military experience behind us. I was an officer in the New British Armed Forces, Jack was with the UN forces, well, before they were wiped out. Pretty high up, too. We reached the take off sight, ponies hot on our tail. “Go!” Dad yelled, “get to France, I’ll hold them!” Dad pulled out his pistol that he carried with him, he looted it from a dead body. Suicide, we think. He shot at the approaching ponies whilst jogging backwards towards the helicopter. Almost there. Jack and I leapt onto it, I outstretched my arm, wanting Dad to grab it. He stopped firing and was about to jump on but suddenly a pony fired a dart. Dad cried out as the dart hit the bare skin on his leg, releasing the Potion into his bloodstream. “NO!” I cried out in despair as my Dad fell to the floor. All the times we had spent together, all the arguments and the hugs and the conversations all taken away by those motherfucking horses! “Boys, I love you. Don't you ever forget that.” His last words before he started spasming and twitching, the Potion taking hold on his body and soon his mind. “I love you too, Dad,” I replied, my voice cracking up. I turned away and sobbed, bawled my eyes out. Jack did the same. We were comforted by the few other people on board, but nothing helped. I think I cried out all of my tears then, because I haven't cried since. Someone’s voice hollering out one word jarred me out of my sleep. One word that chilled me to the bone. One word that made me feel sick in my stomach. “PEGASI!” ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., I kept looking through the pictures, desperately searching for any more clues. Celestia was doing one last major search, looking everywhere, and I mean everywhere. She’s leaving no hiding place of the Earth unchecked. She’s determined to get everyone. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in the human’s scenario. Being the very last of your race, faced with extinction and being hunted down. It must be terrifying, beyond terrifying even. I don't know how they haven't just given up, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this whole war, it's that humans have a will as strong as diamond. Shockwave came in, his brown hair dishevelled and his royal blue fur was a mess. “What happened?” I asked him, “Couldn't get any sleep.” He simply replied, “kept rolling over but couldn't get comfortable, plus there was too much to think about. Limeheart, who, as her name suggests, has a lime and darker green coloured mane and pure white fur. She trotted in with Bon Bon, who dumped today’s meal on the table, “Potatoes, carrots, peas,” she muttered, “the usual.” “Whoopie!” Shockwave replied, the sarcasm evident in his voice, “I still think your search is a wild goose chase,” he said to me, “Leave her alone!” Bon Bon stood up for me, “she’s trying her best to lead us. And besides, it's the best lead we’ve had for ages.” “Maybe Celestia’s right,” Shockwave argued, “maybe she has got all of the humans. This whole thing could be a complete waste of time,” “You sound like you support her,” I commented, “I don't!” He snapped, “I’ve stayed by your side for years now. But I can't deny that it's a very loose thread you’re gripping to.” “At least she is holding onto something, unlike you.” Bon Bon said. Shockwave stormed out, angry. “I’ll go calm him down,” Limeheart excused and slipped out after him. “Honestly, he drives me insane sometimes!” Bon Bon commented, “I don't know how Limeheart puts up with him,” “He has good intentions,” I replied, “he can be annoying, but he’s only thinking about all possible outcomes.” “I don't predict the future and I don't care about the past,” Bon Bon said. “What’s that quoted from?” I asked her, “Can't I just have made it up myself?” She asked me, “I know you, Bon Bon, maybe our relationship isn't as stable as it once was but I blame the war,” I said, “Fine, it's from a human song, The State of Massachusetts. Irish rock,” she said, embarrassed at her unique tastes. “Nothing to be ashamed of,” I said, “not that it matters anymore anyway.” “You’re right.” She replied, “we’ve lost some followers, by the way,” “Not a surprise,” I commented, “we’ve been loosing followers ever since the damn HLF went down. Celestia and her bucking Sun’s Flames.” “That and the Potion,” Shockwave said, walking in, “sorry about earlier, I was being a twat,” “Apology accepted,” Bon Bon said grudgingly. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “Humans are finally no more,” I said in my speech toward the billions. Newfoals and Equestrians both, “The last human barely even put up a fight. The war is officially over. We have pulled through against all odds. We survived the HLF, we survived the bombing and the shooting, we survived the Bureau Massacre. To all the Newfoals, we welcome you with open hooves. Your part in this war was more then you think, and you played it brilliantly. To my own ponies, your food kept our armies sustained, you kept the morale up when times were low. You each contributed to the war effort, even without realising it. We thank you. And to my own student, Twilight Sparkle. You ran the Bureaus. You played a major role in purifying humanity. You played one of the biggest parts in this war. Without the dart guns, we would've lost, all thanks to your genius we didn't. My sister and I will cleanse the pollution of this planet and begin rebuilding it into a better Equestria in a month’s time. Pegasus scouts are checking every corner of the Earth to make sure there is no human dirt hiding out. To a better Earth, for a better Equestria.” I finished. The ponies cheered, clapped, stomped their hoofs, whooped. They went wild. The brain dead Newfoals were reserved for the expendable soldiers, society has accepted them. The other Newfoals are the ones that can think. They can make decisions for themselves and think freely. They are all still loyal to me, they all still sing my praises. They just have an IQ. It's better that way. No one cares if any of the brain dead are killed, they are pretty much dead anyway. It's just how society works now.
GoddamnitOh fuck, oh fuck fuck fuck! I thought, jumping out of bed and grabbing my rifle. I ran down the stairs of the hotel I used as a command center, Jack was already down, “How far away and how many?” I said, entering the room with our officers, “Seven, approaching from sept o’ clock. We’re luck that we detected them coming from behind La Masse. We received a radio transmission from a team hunting there. Will be in range soon,” Anne said, “Get the snipers ready,” I commanded. “Boss,” Heinrich said, “What?” I snapped, “Well, if ze snipers cannot get them all, we will expose ourselves to ze enemies. We won't be safe,” Heinrich stated, “Shit, you’re right.” I realised, “Well, we have to hope we get them all,” “You are crazy, crazy man,” Heinrich said, “ze ponies have ze Potion, ve will be destroyed,” “Faith,” I said to Heinrich, “it's more powerful then you think, and I have faith that our snipers can do it,” I was also a Christian, yes I know it's odd, “where is God now?” An atheist would question. I just hope that what goes on is all in God’s plan for us, and even if people die, something will happen to make it seem respectful to them in the end. “Aim,” Anne said into the radio to the snipers. The pegasi came into view, “Fire!” She said, Seven shots rang out, five ponies fell out of the sky, blood dripping from their wounds. One was hit in the leg, a not fatal area but was knocked out of the sky, body smashing on the rocks below it. The last pony was missed completely, the shot flying way off target. It looked horrified, it had a rainbow mane and tail and light blue fur, “Rainbow Dash,” I uttered, “Sheiße,” Heinrich said, “Bullocks,” Jack echoed. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened, we could see because we’d rigged up the security footage but had the cameras pointing and a 360 degree view of the command center, a hotel called L’ours Noir. Our hotel. She sped off, a shot erupting behind her and hit her leg, but she was stronger then the other one that was hit there, she stayed in flight, slowing down but now out of range. “Goddamnit!” One of the other officers in the room yelled out and slammed his fist onto the table. I had to agree with him. The security of the base was definitely compromised, or Rainbow Dash would bleed out before she got back to America. Not likely. It's time, I had to talk it through with all the people who live here. I needed to show my face for the first time in a long time. “Heinrich, Jack, come with me. Anne, sound the megaphones with the meeting tone, we need to warn everyone,” I commanded. The megaphones rang out a series of short blasts, signifying a meeting would be taking place now. One for everyone to attend. It's time they saw their commander again. ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., More proof, definite proof this time. “I believe you now,” Shockwave stated as he heard the news. What was the news? Squads of pegasi went to search everywhere for humans. A group that was sent to scan over the Alps was massacred, Rainbow Dash being the only survivor with a wound to her right foreleg. She would never be able to use it again. A bullet wound. She claims her squad was shot down before she had time to notice anything, before she knew it, she was the last survivor and tried to fly off, but copped a bullet to the leg as she did. Celestia has responded by say thing that the humans up there had crossed a line by maiming an element of harmony and she would send 5 Potion squads to deal with them, each squad containing 6 ponies, so 30 total. If there are only a small amount of humans, they’ll be ponified without much trouble, however if it's a large group, it's the ponies who are in trouble. With human weapons and numbers they should be able to destroy the ponies with ease, but that will only make Celestia send a bigger squadron, or army against them. Then, they'd be wiped out for sure. There’s no way they could hold out of the HLF couldn't, and they had huge numbers, in the 100,000s. The HLF made their last stand at the Washington DC Bureau. It's now known as the Bureau massacre. It was originally meant to be a small assault of a few humans to infiltrate the Bureau and blow it up. The humans got in but were caught, then the HLF made a daring rescue for them, blowing a hole in the side of the Bureau and freeing all the humans inside. It looked like to operation was successful, but then pony reinforcements came. One by one the humans were ponified and took up the enemy ranks. At the start the odds were in their favour, for every 10 ponies killed 1 human was ponified, but when the reinforcements came it slipped to for every 5 ponies killed 3 humans were ponified, and when eventually Celestia showed up and used her Sun’s Flames, the ratio was too low to imagine, hence the name ‘The Bureau Massacre.’ The Potion has a strange affect on those who are hit by it. It sends an initial wave of mind strain, which if unprepared, is what turns you into the mindless zombie. If you keep your mental blocks up then the Potion will, once converted you body, subtly influence your mind with pony thoughts and instincts, which increase over time as you do your things as a pony until you are a fully blown, brainwashed but not brain dead, Celestia supporting pony. We have to get to the humans first. We’re setting off immediately. We have to warn them of the danger coming their way. The danger of Celestia’s army. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “WHAT?” I roared, “It's undeniably a bullet wound,” the doctor said to me, “there must be humans still out there, in the Alps,” “How?” I wondered, “how did they survive the weather and terrain?” “It's not my area of expertise,” the doctor said, “but my guess is that they stay in abandoned hotels and chalets, lighting fires to keep warm and hunting mountain goats,” “Make sure she is treated,” I said, “we can't afford to lose an Element of Harmony,” “Yes, Your Highness,” the doctor obeyed. Impossible. Why is it that every time I finally think I’ve won a new problem arises? I’ll keep this incident away from the public, they’re all celebrating the end of the war, the last thing they’ll want to hear is about another human resistance group, especially one that has harmed an Element. I’ll send 5 Potion squads after them. There can't be that many, so 30 ponies should be enough to ponify them all. It won't turn into another Bureau Massacre incident, I’m sure, then again we won that battle so what would it matter anyway? They will not survive with their humanity intact.
Hubris?“Heinrich, I want you to make sure all the sick and elderly here my message,” I commanded, getting the feel for it again, “Jack, you’re with me.” “Yes boss,” Heinrich said and ran off. Jack and I walked round the back way to our meeting area, which was just the bottom of the resort, the old ski lifts rusting above us, the power long since dead in them. We had a raised platform where everyone could see us, a few translators for the ones who didn't speak English. Off the top of my head I knew there was definitely French and Swiss here, a few Germans, a handful of Belgians, an American family or two, some Indians and some Pols. A translator was already up there, waiting for my arrival. The crowd of survivors was busy flooding in, in the early days, we’d taken down all of the chairlifts and used them as seating for meetings like these. This would be our 5th one. Commander Jack and I walked up on stage. The huge crowd cheered, if there were still people there, I should have thought they would have heard us in Meribel, a resort a whole valley away. I held up my hand for silence. I spoke into my megaphone, which had been modified for its sound to be amplified through speakers all around the resort. “Greetings everyone!” I called out, “as you are probably aware, we were recently spotted by Pegasi. We managed to shoot down 6 of the squad of 7 and injure the 7th with a bullet wound to her leg, but the injured pony was Rainbow Dash, one of The Great Dictators most valued soldiers.” I paused as the translators did their thing. “If this had happened earlier in the war, I would've simply relocated us to Val Thorens or Saint Martin De Belleville, but there are now over ten thousand of us and I fear we would be attacked before we made it up there. We’re staying here, we’ll fortify the resort, snipers on ski lift pylons, with the Winter coming, we’ll have weather to defend us as well.” More translating. “As Winston Churchill once said, ‘we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.’ Not that I’m equalising myself to Winston Churchill as that would be hubris but my point is no matter how hard they fight, we’ll fight harder, no matter how many of us they kill, we’ll kill more of them. We will push through and win. ‘Or am I kinda like Winston, I’m leading the remnants of humanity into a battle against an almost unbeatable foe. God I hope we win now, I’ll be the most well known man in history!’ I thought as I said my speech. Captain Heinrich Wolf, Captain Anne Laurent, Co-Commander Jack Pritchard and myself will lead you to victory. We are humans, we always will be and that will never change. We will end up as the superior race. We will survive.” I finished my speech and bowed. The translators finished translating it into many different languages. The crowds of people went wild, but it was slightly darker, as we all knew our inevitable death could be right round the corner. ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., We left to start the treacherous journey. With no law or government, there were no speed limits, we only had to slow down to get past obstacles like fallen trees and cars that had been abandoned on the road as people fled. One of our followers led the convoy of cars that we had trekking slowly towards Les Menuires, only stopping for more petrol and diesel. The long journey gave me plenty of time to think, so that's what I did. Sat there is silence and started to reminisce. ‘We have been watching a small platoon of HLF for a while now, too afraid to make contact but too curious to simply leave them. They, as far as we could gather, had been scavenging through houses looking for non-perishable food to bring back to their base but now they had been spotted by a ponification squad. “Shit! Run” one of the humans yelled out as they ran towards a small Primary School where they kept all their supplies. “Please, join us!” A Newfoal cried out, “we love new friends!” “Piss off!” One of the humans cried back and starting shooting. They were overwhelmed, the one who shouted ‘piss off’ was the first to go down. We walked away, disheartened by the fate of those poor humans, now ponies wanting to betray their own true race.’ “Lyra!” Shockwave was shaking me, “What?” I said, startled, “We’re stopping to eat and fill up the tank, go to the toilet and all that,” he said, “Oh, okay,” I said, getting out of the car and entered the abandoned service station. It was looted a lot, the only thing of any worth was the toilets, even though they do not even work any more. The smell was terrible, some animals must have died, maybe a few rats in the walls or something. After relieving ourselves and filling up with the remaining petrol, we all ate in this post-apocalyptic world and got back on the road in our convoy of cars and trucks. As for weapons we carried, we had a few human guns and some combat knives shared between the Pegasi and Earth Ponies, us Unicorns taught each other combat spells. The car we were in rumbled ahead of the others. We were in Troyes, our next stop being Dijon, then Lyon, and then up into the Alps and into Les Menuires. We have to get there within a few days, or Celestia’s forces will beat us there and ponified all the humans before we even arrive there and we will have failed again. I cannot let that happen. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “I want all mountain ranges checked and double checked, I want all deserts and rainforests completely explored. If there are humans there, we will root them out. As for these ones in the Alps, if our squads fail, I will lead an army to deal with them personally. If they are HLF then they will face my wrath.” I commanded my Generals. “Yes Your Highness,” They said and left the planning room. It will be hard to hide this military operation from the public, but I will deny all allegations of it. Once I was on my own, my sister, Princess Luna walked into the room. “Aah Lulu,” I sighed, “just as I think I get all the humans, a group comes up and shoots down six of my subjects and injures Rainbow Dash. Why does this stuff happen?” “Tia, I’ve been thinking, why did we ponify the humans?” My sister asked me, “You know why,” I said, eyes slightly narrowing. Could my sister be having second thoughts? “You know humanity’s history, Gladiators, Barbarians, World War 1, World War Two, the Holocaust, the Atom Bomb, Terrorism, Radicalisation. Just a few of the things that show the discorded nature of humans,” “But, that is history, perhaps we were the fools to ponify a race that could’ve redeemed itself,” Lulu argued, I chuckled, “Lulu, history has a funny way of repeating itself, going in circles. The HLF for example, all those stabbings.” My own sister was displaying treacherous behaviour, I’m going to have to start keeping tabs on ponies. Things are definitely going wrong.
ITS (not) A TRAPWe're fucked. That's a good way to describe it. Fucked. Okay, calm. Deep breathes. The Great Dictator is going to want to test our strength before mounting a full scale assault. Maybe if we play dead… Not its too late for that, we already gunned down some Pegasi and didn't wipe them all out. Goddamn Rainbow Dash… “Boss,” A man knocked on the door to my private room and yelled, “Boss, you there?” “I'm coming,” I grumbled, “hold your bloody horses.” I opened the door to reveal a ginger British bloke with blue eyes and a freckled face, eyes glinting at me in the dim light. “What?” I asked, my hair a disheveled mess. “Boss, we’ve detected a small squad of about 30 ponies, armed with typical Potion weaponry, we need to start evacuating now,” He said, “Shit, thought we’d have more time. Get all my officers in the planning room, Mr, err…” “George King, Boss,” George replied, “Got it, hurry,” I said, taking up my rifle and running towards the planning room where all my officers were ready. “Alright, there’s only 30 of them approaching from 3 o’ clock, this should be easy. Focus squads 1 to 4 or defending that area, squads 5 to 9 will be covering all over entrances in case of sneak attacks. I’ll be on the front lines, I want vengeance, personally, Captain George King,” I promoted the guy who came to me for no reason, “you’re with me. Squads 10 and 16 will help evacuate and 11 to 15 will cover them. Rendezvous by the Roc Des 3 Marches bubble-lift.” I commanded, getting the feel of things again. I walked out of the room and out of the hotel, down into the resort. Our men were assembling at the bottom of the resort, where we just had the meeting and my little speech. Most were already in position. I joined with my handpicked squad. Squad 1, full of our best fighters. Commander Jack was with Squads 10 and 16, evacuating every hotel whilst we draw their fire. Our squads and snipers were in position, we were ready. “HERE THEY COME!” Someone yelled. A row of six ponies burst over the ski slope to get to La Masse to be greeted by 1000 humans with guns pointed at them. 5 more rows joined them. “Humans, we’re on your side,” Their leader yelled, using a voice amplifying spell, “if you convert you’ll know the truth!” A shot cracked through the air, a sniper from a gondolier taking the opening shot. Their leader fell down dead. All hell broke loose. Potion was being launched at us, but not enough to have an affect on our numbers. The ponies went down very quickly, as far as I saw only seven of us were hit, but they had to be... put down. I fired away at the ponies, their ranks breaking and they scattered, but our snipers picked them all off. One of them dropped a radio and I picked it up, avoiding the few splatters of Potion on the ground. “Hello,” I said over it, not waiting for a response, “I am Commander Alex Pritchard of the EURF. Your puny strike team failed, and now they are all dead. Don't try it again.” I put a bullet through the radio, ending the transmission. I doubt Jack had bothered with evac when he saw how small in numbers the attackers were. “Boss!” Heinrich ran over, “there are more ponies, no Potion weaponry and carrying white flags,” What? Is it a trap? “Let them come, but keep everyone on high alert,” I commanded and Co-Commander Jack returned from one of the hotel buildings. “What did I miss?” He asked. ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., We’d made it. Les Menuires. And there are thousands of humans here. We were being yelled at, cursed by most but some stood curious. The crowd parted and two humans passed through, both armed and aiming at us. “Who the fuck are you?” The one with the beard asked, “Umm… Greeting humans. My name is Lyra Heartstrings from the Bring Back Humans Society, we’re here to join with you!” I exclaimed. The crowd of humans fell silent. “We were just attacked. How can we trust you?” The non-bearded one asked. “We have no Potion weapons, we came here under a flag of peace. If we came for that whorse Celestia, we would've tried to Potion you by now,” Shockwave explained, “I'm Shockwave Spark, by the way.” “Commander Alex Pritchard. This is my brother, Co-Commander Jack Pritchard. Make one hint as to being one of the Great Dictator’s and I will kill you personally,” Non-beard said. “These people seem pleasant,” Bon Bon whispered in my ear, “Come to our command room, we have a day or so until The Dictator sends reinforcements,” Co-Commander Jack said, “The Dictator… You mean Celestia?” I asked. Commander Alex nodded, “follow me,””he started to yell, “I WANT THE BODIES BURNT AND THIS WHOLE PLACE CLEANED. SET UP MORE DEFENCES!” The crowd started to stir and left us room to trudge to the hotel. “How did you survive?” Limeheart asked Commander Alex, “Hiding. We’re cowards. We could've helped save humanity but we stayed up here and hid,” Commander Alex choked out, “these people, they need me. I'm the one who is meant to be the light of hope in a world of darkness but the truth is I’m just a guy who was in the New British Armed Forces and defected orders to fight. I'm the biggest coward there is,” “I heard what happened to England, you would be a slave to Celestia if you stayed,” I tried the reassure him. The ponies had airships, it's why they had such a tight control over the airspace. The biggest airship, the A.S Divine Authority, had been the most feared the weapon in the war for its ability to spew out Potion Gas by the gallon every second. Enchanted to be able to take heavy punishment from weapons, it terrorised England in the first few months of the war, smothering entire cities with Potion Gas. It was destroyed by, out off all countries, North Korea. North Korea had closed all few borders it had open and had not allowed any pony into their territory throughout the whole time ponies were on Earth. They would massacre anypony that tried to get in. After what was left of the UN pleaded with Kim Jong Un to help the war effort, they launched rocket after rocket at the Divine Authority, but what broke through it's shield was its one of a kind missile. Rumours had it that the North was kidnapping Unicorns and experimenting on them, and turns out they had made a missile which was immune to magic. One of a kind. It destroyed the Divine Authority over London, just before it was going to release Potion Gas over the capital of England. Stolen plans had said that the airship would be moving on to the USA next, so the President of America, the Prime Minister and King Charles owed the North an awkward thank you. In their planning room there were screens that I guess we're the security footage but cameras were pointed to have a 360 degree view of the resort. There was a large table wi a few maps and red pen scrawled on them. There was a radio, some guns stashed in the corner and some miscellaneous bits of human weaponry and a scrapped Potion Launcher. Co-Commander Jack absently picked up the radio and turned it on, spinning the dial as Commander Alex said, “So how did you find out we were here?” “Well I-” I started to say but I was cut off by a voice coming from the radio. We were not alone. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., “Your Highness, I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but we’ve found humans in the Rockies and the Amazon Rainforest, the humans in the Alps sent you a message,” said one of my generals, “What?” I asked, “well, here is the recording,” he stammered and played a recording of the message via magic. Hello I am Commander Alex Pritchard of the EURF. Your puny strike team failed, and now they are all dead. Don't try it again. I was angry, no, buck that, I was furious. “Prepare me an army!” I yelled, “I will deal with these nuisances myself!” “Yes your Highness. Right away.”
Co-Commander Jack Stewart PritchardTORNADO POV The magically enhanced DSR-50 glowed as I held it in my hands, ready to take the shot. The Potioneer Ship was getting closer, flying through the valley, the very look of it making it feel like the promise of death; the rape of innocence. Hell, was anyone innocent any more? Aiming for the propellers seems like the best idea, if I can hit the main one, the whole ship should go crashing down to the bottom of the valley, destroying it. I just hope that this rifle’s bullets are strong enough for it. “Now!” Commander Alex Pritchard’s voice spoke through my earpiece. I lined up the shot a bit in front of the propeller so the bullet will hit the target exactly on. I pulled the trigger, the DSR-50 letting out a small explosion as the bullet flew through the air, I saw the Potioneer Ship’s magic shield light up as the bullet impacted it but then it cracked and shattered as the bullet passed through. Through the scope I saw the wood of the pole holding the propeller shatter and splinter, but not snapping, the bullet staying lodged inside. It was enough though. The impact had stopped the propeller from magically spinning, producing the power that was keeping them up in the air, the ship tilting dangerously to the side before colliding with the mountain to its right. Ponies came off of it in droves, and through the scope, I saw the Sun Tyrant herself. Oh boy was she pissed. She turned her head and was staring right at me. I froze under her fiery glare, I was paralysed with fear. She smirked and sent a huge ray of yellow magic right for me, there was no escaping that. I would die in a matter of seconds. As the magic burnt me to a crisp, I knew I had done my part. It was all up to them now. ,.,., COMMANDER ALEX PRITCHARD POV ,.,., I peered out of the window at the Potioneer Ship, I saw its magic shield crack and break and then it crashed into the mountainside, so I guess the rifle worked and Tornado had sot out the propeller. I didn't expect what happened next. A huge blast of magic was heading right for Tornado, there was nothing I could do, nothing anyone could do. The magic incinerated him, and the DSR-50 most likely too, in a matter of seconds. Only one pony was capable of doing something like that. Celestia. She definitely was ballsy, appearing on the front lines, but now our magic defying sniper and its owner are gone. Dead. “Sheiße,” I heard Heinrich say about the huge magical death ray. There was no chance in hell Tornado could’ve survived something like that. No way. “Snipers, now!” George said through his radio and I saw Pegasi drop from the sky, not enough though. If we didn't pull something out of the hat soon, we’ll be wiped out in one go. “We should activate Big Betsy,” An officer suggested. Big Betsy was our tank. We’d modified it to have increased stopping power and now could be the only time to use it. “Very well,” I said, “go and get it, shoot down the big groups of Pegasi,” “Yes sir.” The Pegasi we at the front lines now, Heinrich and Anne were busy listening and commanding desperately into their comms. I really hoped Jack was safe. I picked up my Walkie-talkie. "Jack! How's the evac going?" I yelled into my walkie-talkie as I stared from the command center at the battleground below, "Okay," I heard him reply, "just one more hotel to clear!" "Which one?" I asked, "Les Bruyères," came his reply. I looked out the large window to see a Pegasus squad land on the roof of Les Bruyères and start to get in. "No don't! Pegasi have entered the hotel!" I yelled, "I have to, the people need me!" Jack yelled back, "No, I forbi-" Jack cut the connection. I sighed in annoyance and slight fear and grabbed my rifle to follow him in. "Heinrich, you're in charge until I return!" I yelled and ran out the hotel, starting down the road. A bit down the road a Pegasus landed in front of me, brandishing a Potion Launcher, "Hello!" She said cheerfully. She was a Newfoal, eyes glassy and grin wide, but I could tell that she was one of the more intelligent ones. "Um, hi?" I replied, "You've been a naughty human, killing my friends," her cheerful smile darkened as she approached me. Or perhaps it was always that dark. As soon as that Potion touched her and raped her mind into this twisted abomination against nature. "Sorry?" I said, trying to buy time as I fumbled for a weapon, my rifle was slung over my shoulder, not much chance of getting that without her firing at me. "You're lucky I'm forgiving and generous. Accept Princess Celestia's gift!" She aimed at me and I jumped to the side, Potion appearing where I was standing a second ago. "Son of a bitch," I cursed, "Language!" She giggled and fired again, I just managed to roll out of the way and stood up, firing my rifle and watching the bullets miss their mark. "You know, you're not very accurate," She fired again and I sidestepped, now I was more focussed and not panicking so my aim had vastly improved. "Give up!" The Newfoal said in a sing-song voice just before I fired a few more rounds and saw the bullets fly into the pony's body, who fell backwards, dead. "How's that for not accurate?" I spat on her carcass. It was for the greater good, she had died when she was ponified, I merely put down a walking sick mockery of a life form. I continued on to Les Bruyères. From what I could see Jack had entered a few seconds earlier and I could hear him shouting as I stepped in. "Alright everyone, follow me, we're getting out of here!" "Help!" I heard someone yell in a heavily accented voice, "we're stuck! Second floor room 209!" "Accept Celestia's gift!" A pony shouted, "trust me when I say it'll all be better and you'll understand once you take it!" "Fuck off!" Came the reply followed by a burst of gunfire. Jack dashed up the stairs and I followed. He got up there before me and dashed round the corner, gun cocked and loaded. "Ah!" He cried out and I heard glass shatter. Rounding the corner myself, I immediately starting firing at the blasted horses. I recognised one of them. The Purple Menace, Twilight Sparkle. The Menace put up a shield around herself and the Newfoals with her before my barrage of human created death hit her. She smirked and pointed to the floor. I followed her prompt and looked down. There was Jack, awkwardly laying in a puddle of Potion. There was my final relative, dying before my eyes, changing into one of those sick fucks. "No! Jack!" I cried out. The last of my family. "Alex," Jack choked back, "I'm sorry," "Don't be, it's not your fault, I love you." I sobbed, "Listen, when I become one of them, don't hesitate. Kill me straight away. It may talk with my voice and try to convince you its me, but it's not. Kill me, promise me you will." He started to wince as the Potion took hold. "I promise," I said, a tear rolling down me cheek and splashing onto this chest. "I'm scared..." He trailed off and writhed in the puddle of Potion as he changed into a pony. Before I could give him one last act of mercy and put him out of his misery, I remembered about the Purple Menace. She helped the horse that was once my brother to his hooves and before I could shoot any more, she teleported away with him. I couldn't even fulfil his final wish. "I'LL MURDER YOU ALL, YOU HEAR ME CELESTIA? I'LL RIP YOUR HORN FROM YOUR HEAD AND IMPALE YOU ON IT!" I screamed in rage, "I'LL BUTCHER YOU LIKE THE COW THAT YOU ARE AND EAT YOU FOR MY SUNDAY LUNCH ROAST! YOU WILL PAY!" I stomped out the building and down into the front lines. Seeing me fighting on the front lines boosted the morale. Seeing me, storming out the building, rifle set to automatic and dropping Ponies everywhere whipped up the men into a frenzy. I saw Big Betsy roll out from L’Ours Noir and it immediately blasted a rocket into the sky, exploding a large group of Pegasi. Dismembered body parts rained down onto the Newfoal ranks. Big Betsy’s barrel turned and fired again at the swarms of Pegasi, creating huge holes in the Pegasi infested sky. Any pony that tried to land on the front line was torn to pieces by machine-gunfire and the snipers were dropping important targets area. “Zis looks exactly like ze Bureau massacre,” I heard Heinrich whisper down the comms. He was right. We were going to be overwhelmed. The army landed on the slope below us and were no doubt setting up Potion Mortars. If they did, then we were all in danger. “Big Betsy!” Heinrich yelled out and I turned to see the tank take huge hits of magic and Newfoals rushed towards it, undoing the hatch and getting inside. “Fuck me sideways and upwards and downwards,” I muttered. It seemed like the end of the line. Three loud booms rang out, almost shattering my eardrums and the side of the mountain seemed to explode. Huge chunks of rock raining down onto the ponies below us. A similar thing happened on the other side of the mountain. Of course, the Avalanche bomb traps! The army had seemed to have disappeared, but it too had taken a fair chunk of our soldiers with them, teleporting them away to be ponified no doubt. Like my brother. Like Jack. From the rubble, the Great Dictator herself emerged, hovering in the air. “Sweet Jesus and mother Mary,” Anne murmured. ”HUMANS!” she yelled at us, “CAN’T YOU SEE WE ARE HELPING YOU?, ASK ANY NEWFOAL, ASK YOUR OLD COMMANDER, HE KNOWS OF OUR SALVATION AND EVEN HE, ONE WHO GREATLY OPPOSED ME, WANTS TO HELP YOU ALL SEE LIKE HE HAS, EVEN ASK HIM RIGHT NOW!” “Oh no,” Heinrich murmured into my ear. The Solar Fuck levitated a male unicorn to her side, he was wearing pony armour and carrying a Potion dart gun. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was my brother. I knew it was Jack. “Keep it together,” Heinrich muttered to me. “EURF!” The Newfoal addressed us in Jack’s voice, “DO YOU NOT SEE HOW FUTILE THIS ALL IS, ALLOW PRINCESS CELESTIA TO SAVE YOU FROM YOURSELVES, PLEASE. AND ALEX!” The Newfoal turned to face me. I was so shattered, my mind was still dealing with that here Jack was, now my enemy. “ALEX PLEASE, END THIS MADNESS. THEY’LL LISTEN TO YOU. I’M YOUR BROTHER, ALEX, WE CAN FIND MUM AND DAD AND BE A FAMILY AGAIN! JUST ORDER YOUR MEN TO STAND DOWN!” Heinrich was yelling something in my ear but I wasn't paying attention to him. It was as if Satan himself was standing in front of me, ready to make a deal. Maybe it would be better if I drank it, maybe this whole time I was wrong and Celestia was right. Maybe I should just give in, doing that would end this war, save so many lives. Everything I wanted was contained in that vial of sparkly purple liquid. All I want in life for the price of my soul… My thoughts turned to Jack, he was smiling at me, holding a vial of Potion and making promises that everything would be perfect as soon as I took the Potion. I remembered Jack’s last words: Kill me straight away. It may talk with my voice and try to convince you its me, but it's not. Kill me, promise me you will. I saw through the lies, the Newfoal that was Jack, his smile, it had the same unnerving wideness like every other Newfoal, his eyes were less glassy but you could see that his left eye was slightly twitching against his will. I ripped out my earpiece and Jack’s smile widened. Celestia looked at me, smiling motherly, levitating a vial of Potion into my hand. “JACK!” I called to him, “THANK YOU FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY, I KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW, I COULDN’T HAVE FIGURED IT OUT WITHOUT YOU, THANK YOU!” “YOU’RE WELCOME, NOW DRINK ALEX, DRINK AND WE CAN BE A FAMILY AGAIN!” He yelled back. That was all the confirmation I needed. This was not Jack, not even a hint of Jack remained. I looked into a gondolier where I saw a sniper was, looking at me in betrayal. I winked at him and he took up his rifle again. I raised the vial to my lips and Celestia grinned in victory. Which soon broke when I dropped the vial and it smashed on the rocks below. “NOW!” I yelled and the sniper shot at Jack. Celestia threw up a shield around him, protecting him, but it got my point across. No, I will keep on fighting you. Mum and Dad would want me to, Jack would want me to. I will never submit.
Captain Silver Snow“Boss, boss are you okay?” Heinrich wouldn't leave me alone. Couldn't he see that I didn't want any company? I should've thought that me barring up the door to my quarters was close enough evidence for him to get. I didn't answer him. It's been three days since Jack… since they got Jack, and Celestia’s been parading him around, showing every human via magic that how even one of our commanders, one of our very leaders now was a pony and Jack himself has been spouting propaganda everywhere. I've spent three days locked in my room mourning. Can you blame me? My brother, the last member of my family, has just been brainwashed into my enemy. I know it sounds stupid but I always believed that we’d go down together in some heroic act of bravery. “Boss, ze Chief Simon McLoud ist wanting to speak with du,” Heinrich said again, “Tell him I'm busy,” I merely grunted. Our forces had suffered a very de-moralising blow. With at least 760 men either killed or ponified, and no word from the evacuees that Jack was in charge of. Last time I knew where they were going, they were in Saint Martin De Belleville, and if they’re still there, they haven't returned. “Boss, Alex, du cannot stay in zere forever, Jack would vant du to fight for him,” Heinrich tried to convince me to leave. “Well he’s dead now so what does it matter?” I yelled at him through the door. Poor Jack. My brother… Kill me straight away. It may talk with my voice and try to convince you its me, but it's not. Kill me, promise me you will. Those words echoed through my head. His death wish. The one that I couldn't fulfil. I promised him I would and now I can't. To think that I was seriously considering drinking that Potion that Jack gave me. At least I’d be with him again. “Boss, do you want me to take charge?” Heinrich suggested, “after the stunt you pulled, people don't trust you as much, especially since you still haven't held a meeting addressing the attack,” “MY BROTHER IS DEAD!” I roared, “IF THEY WANT A DAMN MEETING THEY CAN DAMN WELL WAIT!” I could hear Heinrich sigh, “Fine, I vill tell zem to vait, but please, talk to Simon McLoud. He deserves an explanation,” “Fine, pass us the radio,” I grumbled and opened the door. Heinrich took a step back at my appearance, my eyes were bloodshot and I was unshaven, my hair a dishevelled mess. I probably looked like a hardcore druggy. Heinrich gave me the radio and then muttered something about being needed elsewhere. I sent out a call into the station that was used to contact this other group in the Amazon. “Hello? Anyone?” “Receiving you, this is Chief Simon McLoud, who is this?” Came the reply almost immediately. “Commander Alex Pritchard.” I replied, “I am so sorry about what happened to you brother,” he said, “Celestia’s been making sure everyone hears what the Newfoal he is now is saying. She even made him one of her military higher-ups.” “I know,” I choked out, “I- he almost convinced me to take the Potion. If it wasn't for his last words…” “Look, I know this is a bad time for you, but we really need to join forces if we want to have a hope to survive this,” he said “We have no transport,” I pointed out the obvious. “Okay, I many have told a little lie when I said that. I needed to know if you were really human or just faking it to fool us and give us false hope.” He admitted, “What do you have?” I asked, “you're not going to be able to get from the Amazon to the Alps in a car or two.” “Try a helicopter or two.” Came his reply. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., I wouldn't class that first assault as a victory. They took down the Her Benevolence, they killed a lot of my Pegasi fleet with that tank and their automatic weapons. However, it was definitely not a defeat. Co-Commander Jack Pritchard, younger brother to Commander Alex Pritchard, was ponified by none other then my very own student herself. He now calls himself Silver Snow. Captain Silver Snow, that is. There is nothing more disheartening then to save one of their own leaders and use them as your own leader. I really thought that he’d be able to convince Commander Alex Pritchard to join us, he almost had. I saw the indecision on his face myself. Maybe I should try using the Elements on them, perhaps something interesting will happen. As for the humans in the Amazon and Rockies, we’re keeping a very close eye on them. The BBHS aren't much of a threat though, they may have disappeared, but that doesn't matter. I have bigger problems. “Princess Celestia!” Came the voice of Captain Silver Snow. My ultimate weapon against Commander Alex Pritchard, “What is it, my little pony?” I asked him, smiling in my motherly way. “Your Highness, I know my brother is misguided and brainwashed to think that all ponies are evil, but please Your Highness, let me try and convince him otherwise. He’ll linen to me. He’ll have to,” Silver Snow asked. It appeared he still harboured strong feelings for his brother, I can play that to my advantage. “Of course, Captain,” I said, “but remember, he will try to kill you. He may be your brother, but he thinks you’re his enemy. You're not. Show him the way,” “Thank you, Your Highness,” Silver Snow smiled at me and trotted out of the room. He is my greatest achievement of this war-time. He is my knife, as long as I have him, Commander Alex Pritchard will never be able to forgive himself. His precious EURF have been demoralised and I have upped the morale of my ponies. Things are definitely looking up for me in this war.
Chapter Fridge“Hello? Hello? Anyone left out there? Over,” the radio said. We were all astounded, we thought no one else made it but us. The BBHS leaders, Lyra and Bon Bon were wide eyed. Jack was quick to respond, “Yes, receiving you, over!” He called into it. An excited laughter came from the radio, “Thank God, where are you? How many of you are there? Are you armed? Over,” “So many questions!” Lyra muttered. “Gimme that,” I said, taking the radio, “We’re in the Alps, we call ourselves the European Unified Resistance Fighters, there's about 10000 of us. Plenty of guns, and yourself?” “We’re in the Amazon Rainforest, last time we counted there was 4700 of us. We don't have as much guns but we have more then enough to hold our own. Have you been discovered?” The person asked us, “Yes, unfortunately, and we have no doubt that they're coming soon to potion us. However we have come into contact with a group of pony allies,” I replied, “What? Please confirm, did you say you have pony allies?” The voice was startled, “Yes,” I confirmed, “Don't trust them,” He was talking in a hushed tone, “Celestia’s tactics, she would send native Equestrians to our camps and they claimed they were our friends, then they would get our leaders completely off-guard and destroy the camp. Don't trust them.” I gave a glance over to Lyra and Bon Bon, slightly expecting them to whip out Potion Launchers and ponify all my command and I. “Have you been discovered?” I asked our newfound friend, “As far as we can tell, yes. Pegasi flyover caught us completely unaware, do you have any transportation means?” He asked, “No, why?” I asked, confused, “Damn, if we could meet…” he trailed off, “my name’s Chief Simon McLoud, I’ll be on the radio this time every day,” “Commander Alex Pritchard, good to know we’re not alone. Out.” I dropped the radio and turned to everyone in the room. Jack and I exchanged glances with each other but now we had something else to deal with. The BBHS. “Listen, Lyra, Bon Bon, I'm still not sure we can trust you but I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt,” I said, “you're probably going to run into some abuse if you show your faces and you may even be mistaken for the enemy and killed so I’d prefer it if you stayed in this hotel. The 5th and 4th floors are free to use, should be enough for the lot of ya. Stay out of trouble, okay?” “Okay, we’re rapt to find you, we haven't seen human's in ages,” Lyra said and her group of ponies trotted out of the room. “Jack, I want to start evacuating now. Take the non-fighters down to Saint Martin de Belleville, then come back up by yourself, got it?” I asked, “Yes, but why now?” He questioned, “I have no doubt an army is coming for us, get the sick, children and elderly away from the warzone,” I commanded, “Got it,” he confirmed and ran out the room. “Heinrich, you and Anne will be in charge of the bulk of our men on the front lines, George King, you're in charge of the snipers. You, you, and you,” I pointed to more officers, “go help Jack with evacuating. I’ll be in my room if there’s any trouble,” I left the room and walked down the hall, opening the door to my room and collapsing onto the bed. I forgot how stressful this job was, I quickly fell into the embrace of sleep. We were staying at home, I’d guess we’d be court marshalled if the army actually had time for it, but no. With Celestia’s forces constantly terrorising us and the Divine Authority destroying cities like Leeds and Birmingham in mere minutes many of us had abandoned the military to spend time with our families. My brother, Jack, had also deserted. I still had pall my gear: my rifle, handgun, grenades and all that. There was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” my mother called and I heard the ding sound as the door opened. Then there was a scream and the sound of glass shattering. Robbers? Raiders? Jackers? I grabbed my rifle and ran downstairs, Jack close behind and Dad following up at the rear. It was a ponification squad, helping a Newfoal to her hooves. The Newfoal looked up and saw us, “there they are!” The Newfoal said happily, pointing to us, “show them the way like you showed me!” It spoke in my mother’s voice. “No…” I heard Dad whisper and before the ponies could get us, I smashed the nearest window with the butt of my rifle and jumped out, not caring for the cuts and scratches I had. “GET IN THE CAR!” Jack yelled, “WHAT ABOUT THE KEYS?” I shouted back, “I GOT THEM, JUST GO BOYS, GO!” That was Dad. I ran across the stoned driveway to our Renault Clio. I hopped into the shotgun seat and Dad got into the drivers seat, Jack sitting in the back. The ponies were following, one unicorn even tried to keep the wheels from spinning by magic but human technology declared itself superior and the car shot out of the driveway and down the road. “BOSS!” Heinrich yelled, snapping me out of my sleep and I made my way into the planning room. “What?” I grunted, “A Potioneer ship has appeared on ze horizon. Zis may be ze end for us,” Heinrich said, “Don't worry, I have a plan.” I replied, “but I’ll need to speak to Lyra and Bon Bon first.” ,.,., LYRA HEARTSTRINGS POV ,.,., “You want what?” I asked for conformation, “I want a unicorn to take this DSR-50 sniper rifle and enchant it so it can shoot through magic shields, don't tell me it's impossible because I know the HLF used captured unicorns to do it,” Alex demanded, “You’re crazy if you think that’ll shoot through one of Celestia’s shield spells,” Bon Bon scoffed, “I don't need it for one of her spells. There is a Potioneer ship on the horizon, approaching us right now, do it, or I'm sure I could hand you over to Celestia and earn us a bit of freedom,” Alex threatened, “You wouldn't,” Shockwave glared at him, “Try me, humans are evil, liars, and make war, do they not?” Alex quoted Celestia, “Fine, I’ll do it. But don't expect it to work well,” I said, “I haven't used this magic in a long time,” “Do you want to help or no?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow, “Can it, I'm concentrating,” I said, closing my eyes and feeling the magic run through me and into my horn,” “That's some weird voodoo shit,” I heard Commander Alex mutter as I cast the enchantment onto the rifle, “Not voodoo,” I murmured, “magic,” I finished the spell and felt significantly drained. The DDR-50 or whatever it was called was glowing with thaumatic energy, the human sciencey term for magic. “Thanks,” Alex replied and picked up the rifle, “I gotta get this to Tornado, stay put in here, got it” “Got it.” I confirmed, “good luck,” “I don't believe in luck,” Commander Alex said and shut the door behind him. ,.,., COMMANDER ALEX PRITCHARD POV ,.,., I was panting for breath as I dashed out of the hotel and along the road down to where I had stationed Tornado, our best sniper, who got his name for managing to kill several ponies with his rifle in a snowstorm and remain undetected. The Potioneer Ship was lazily approaching and I could just make out hordes of Pegasi spelling out of it, passing through its magic shielding. “TORNADO!” I yelled, he emerged from his hiding spot, “Commander, what is it?” He asked, “Tornado, this sniper’s been modified to shoot through magic shields. Aim for the propellers of the airship and take them out. The ship’ll crash into the mountain and we’ll just have to focus on the Pegasi,” I commanded, “Yes sir, easy pickings,” he grinned and slid back into cover, “Jack, you might want to hurry with that evacuation,” I said into my radio. ,.,., PRINCESS CELESTIA POV ,.,., It's bucking freezing up here. That was my main thought as the airship Her Benevolence, sister ship to the Divine Authority crawled through the air to Les Menuires, the location this EURF are camped out at. Probably just another HLF breakaway that managed to hide successfully. This group is the largest, the ones in the Amazon and the Rockies not nearly being as big. “Your Majesty, should we begin sending out the Pegasi?” Captain Thorn asked me, he had replaced Shining Armour when I found out Shining Armour was secretly feeding information to HLF camps. “Yes, begin the assault,” I declared and hundreds of my airborne subjects, armed with Potion, took to the skies over the Alps. This ship would be the safest place, it's magic shielding being in the same level as the Divine Authority, no human weapon not enhanced by magic will be able to break its shields. Another disturbing thing is the disappearance of the BBHS, they slipped off of our notice when we found the humans. At least humans can't help being human, they deserve salvation and perfection, the BBHS are just misfits, traitors, they don't deserve anything. They will burn in my wrath.
