It was time to go. The vehicle's transmission shifted into gear and we began to accelerate. Through the tiny windows, filled with thick bullet-proof glass, I could see the staging ground fall away. We were just behind the lines, at the outskirts of the docks, right beside the ocean. In front of us were the Ursas, their cannons already pointed at whatever positions the enemy had in place before them.

I knew all of this. The ponies in the troop compartment did too. My old recovered armour shifted uncomfortably as I turned to look at the rest of them. They were desert rangers, or some of the few non-support Steel Rangers that didn’t use powered armour. The nearest pony to me pulled a cigarette out of a breast pocket with a tinge of pink magic. It matched her pink coat, even if the bulky combat uniform did not.

“Aw fuck, does anypony have a light?” She asked with annoyance. The rest of the ponies either shook their heads or stared forward impassively. I let out a deep breath and focused on the tip of the tube. A moment later the smell of burning tobacco filled the back of the vehicle. She looked over at me, and saw my horn cease to glow.

“That’s a neat trick stranger,” she said with surprise, and maybe a hint of admiration.

“I’ve been working on it. For a long time I couldn’t confine the current in a small enough area, at least not enough current to cause combustion. But, as they say, practice makes better,” I said this to the surprise of the other ponies in the back. The faint whiff of ozone tingled my nose, and probably the rest of theirs as well.

“You’re one of those turncoats, aren’t you?” She asked, curious and suspicious in equal measure.

“I was the first turncoat, and I helped convince the others when we captured them,” I replied softly. I levitated my own cigarette from a crumpled pack on my foreleg. “I did the right thing, eventually.” I lit my own with a moment of concentration. I took a deep breath and sucked down some of the lovely smoke.

“Ah,” she replied, her curiosity sated. I was just a pony. A pony isn’t that interesting, especially when you were contemplating your own possible death.

And so, for the next few minutes we just drove forwards, and awaited the first contact. When I closed my eyes, I could feel the heartbeats around me. My vision without sight; my window into the world as electricity, had grown so much since it’s first discovery. I had changed a great deal. As I snuffed out the remains of the cigarette into the grated metal floor, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure if it was war and death following me, or if I was following war and death.

My pulse pounded in my skull, the first touches of adrenaline starting to course through me. The weight of the armour, and the weapons carried by me were familiar. It was all familiar. They were no comfort, they were a means to an end. The harsh bark of a cannon and a pattering of machine guns told me that it was time to head into the breach once more.

---===*===---

I ran from one piece of shattered building to another, rifle hanging in my magic ahead of me. The heavy crack of a rifle nearby followed by a piece of my concrete cover being struck told me all that I needed to know. I continued my mad dash, while lowering my head. The pony following me, that unicorn mare with the pink coat, poked her head up above the concrete to belt out a rapid clattering of suppressive fire. I came around the upturned concrete pillar and whipped my gun towards the firing Imperial. They had expected more shots from the top of the pillar. I had flanked them, and they were finished.

My shots went through them, barely slowed down by their body. I sprinted towards their position, breathing hard. I stopped to halt as I felt a twinge of heartbeat from behind another ruined building. Keeping my gun aimed at the corner, I pulled a grenade out, armed it, and tossed it around the corner with another tendril of telekinesis.

They had a few seconds to realize what had just been thrown in front of them. The shrapnel and concussion brought those thoughts to an end. The rest of the fire at the perimeter had ended. We had broken their position, and they had no runners to report that it had happened. I sent a preprogrammed signal through the command network.

I let out a deep breath as I made my way back to the personnel carrier. Out of the ten ponies we had started with, eight still remained. Pink coat nodded at me as I took my seat, sealing the door behind me.

“Good work out there,” she said to me as I sat down heavily. Pulling a canteen from my belt, I sucked down the contents in a single gulp.

“I’ve had practice,” I said. “What’s your name?”

“Cotton Candy,” she said with a sigh. The electric blue mane atop her head seemed to fit the name.

“It’s nice to make your acquaintance, despite the circumstances,” I said before putting the canteen back in place.

“You mean the unprovoked invasion of my home? Yeah it kinda sucks. Being exposed to the world, and getting the shit kicked out of us by everyone has been pretty shit in general,” Cotton said dully.

“It had to happen eventually. And this is the beginning of something new, something better than isolated communities scraping by believing they were the last pockets of civilization. No-one can believe that now. The question is, what happens next?” I finished, feeling strange about my words. I didn’t think I was wrong exactly, but it felt odd to see things as positive. To try and mollify someone’s worries, and drive them to action.

“Maybe, I keep wondering if it’ll just be a pyrrhic victory. If we push them out, and someone just swoops in afterwards,” she confided darkly. “Or we could become like them. A military state, devoted to defense and absolute power to our leaders. Sometimes it feels like that’s what the world requires.”

“Icepick would disagree with you. That kind of society is hard, but brittle. It doesn’t take much to shatter it. It requires the illusion of infallibility, and of enemies at the gates, real or imagined. When the necessity of such a system comes apart, then you get what happened to the Steel Rangers. They’re a problem, but their weaknesses are out in plain sight,” I said before pulling out another cigarette. “The Empire is the same, deep down. A power structure always forced to justify its own existence, and weak in all the ways that matter.”

“Not weak on the battlefield, even if I wish it was,” she replied.

“Force of arms is a good crutch for a power, but it can’t solve every problem. It’s that mindset that burned this world, and is set to burn mine. If you want peace, if you want the values of your city to survive, you need to hold onto them with everything you have. And you need to find allies. You already have some, our little army, and Safe Harbour. There will be others,” I saw the eyes of the other ponies in the vehicle staring at me.

“Do you really believe that?” She asked harshly. The eyes of the other’s reflected the same question. It was a good one. I had been the dour one, the pessimist with a conscience for so long-

“You were worrying about the future. I’m thinking about what it will take for us to get a bright future. Better futures are earned, you don’t just stumble into them. Your ancestors earned a better future, through hard work and ingenuity. They worked together to solve their problems, instead of fighting each other for the scraps. You’re going to have to do the same thing, even if it scares you, even if it hurts sometimes,” I looked away and took a drag off of my almost forgotten cigarette. “That’s the pursuit of a better world. A world worth all this blood, blood you didn’t choose to shed.”

“I can see why you switched sides,” Cotton Candy mused, smiling slightly. I had won some ponies over with that.

“I didn’t realize all that by myself. It took someone else for me to see it, and it took me for her to see it. We both switched sides, we both began to believe in a bright future-”

The sound of gunfire outside the truck, some of it impacting the outside cut my words off. A machine gun belted out fire, probably one of their Ursas laying it down. A boom of a cannon firing passed through us.

Outer edge of their flanks reached, everything south has been abandoned or pocketed. Send significant infantry and armour to push them back into the city.

I received the same command circuit message as the ponies in charge of this thrust. Soon after, I could hear muffled commands being sent to the drivers of the truck. We didn’t turn and join the fight to pin the Imperials in place. We had another job.

The truck picked up speed as it blasted along the city's right edge. Through the firing port windows, I could see flashes of gunfire, and units breaking off from our columns, getting into position to box them in.

That wasn’t our destination, our destination was a classic military target. We were going after their baggage train, to really box them in, to force them to give up their arms- To save as many lives as we could. As many as I could. That had always been my mission, it had been my reason for coming here. It was always a noble intention, in my head. Only this time, I knew I wasn’t tempting damnation with the means.

Or so I hoped.

---===*===---

It went perfectly, sliding around the edge of the city and sending parts of our column to complete the encirclement, until it didn’t. The diminished third of our force came to the same defensive trenches that we had built to use against them. They had taken them, and were using them against us. One of their anti-aircraft cannons had taken aim at our front Ursa. It had blown right through the armour, before exploding inside the cabin. There were more than a few of those guns. The column kept moving, and three Ursa main guns answered the emplaced gun. It shattered when one of the shells slammed into it.

We weren’t going to shatter that line directly. These crews had never fought an entrenched position before, especially one with teeth. I heard confusion over my receiver. The worried expressions of the ponies in the truck seemed to be the mood of the whole column, as the whole column began to slow down. Waiting for the Ursas to deal with the opposition. Another huge round of cannon fire followed, and then a reply. Another explosion, and the sound of fuel being set ablaze. I pushed my way to the front of the cabin, telekinetically shoving the backup driver away from the radio set.

“Armoured Column B, disperse and pivot fifty degrees to the right. Accelerate to top speed, and keep heading that way until I rescind the order,” I sent over the unit radio band. Thinking for a moment, I remembered the frequency for our artillery command. I tuned the dial to it, while looking apologetically at the stallion I had basically stolen the radio from. My horn was still glowing, pressing him against the door of the cabin. He wasn’t pleased.

I ordered a confused artillery officer to hit the repurposed defensive line, and the general area of the anti-aircraft guns. When they asked me who I was, I said that I was the acting commander of the Ursa unit. I felt the shift in direction as our truck pivoted, and the sluggish acceleration of the heavy vehicle. Through the much bigger windows of the cabin, I saw the rest of the unit doing the same. Their main guns were still throwing ammunition at the imperial positions, but the gunnery while moving was more suppressive than pinpoint.

I leaned away from the radio console, standing awkwardly between the seats of the driver and official radio operator.

“Sorry about that,” I said apologetically after a moment to breathe. The stallion just stared at me, and my horn sourly. The next volley from their anti-aircraft guns were thorough misses. Apparently keeping our speed high, and our vector askew was a good defensive measure.

The radio barked again, after a crackle of static. “Who is ordering artillery fire without proper identification?” It was Phalanx.

“That would be me, I took command after the lead Ursa was destroyed. I would appreciate it if you conveyed a change in orders to Armoured Unit A. I need them to not charge head on through our first defensive line. You need to send them wide, bypassing it,” I finished speaking with a similar look to the radio operator. I had gotten into his personal space again. When I pulled away, he just got out of his seat and squeezed past me, heading into the rear. I took his chair as I waited. The old line only extended around the outskirts of the city slightly. We had already gotten a fair distance from its bounds. Another set of cannon shots were hurled at us, this time, striking one of the trucks. It went through the vehicle like it was made of tissue paper. I winced in sympathy.

“Permittivity, I almost forgot you were among that contingent. I’ll trust your judgement, orders sent to your opposites. The bombardment is being aimed as we speak. Goddess-Speed,” he finished with one of his flourishes. There were many ways to take power, and to hold it. His was one of the less harmful, but most annoying.

I shook my head and stared to the left, towards their position. If they were sticking with textbook positioning- I could barely make out the group of tents and carriages that would be the command area. That was where the commander of this expedition would be, along with their staff, and all the perks of leadership.

“Change direction, the rear half should turn back towards the line, but cautiously attack and pin their rear guard in place. The forward half should aim towards those concealed tents and trenches,” I was among the forward half. I wanted to be there as we took it.

The discordant, unnatural sound of artillery falling on the enemy positions was familiar. It was a turn about that they had deserved, something that they had received so many times in living memory. I knew that they would weather it better than most, we had gotten good at ducking down in holes. Their guns didn’t have those reflexes, or that ability though. The sooner we could neutralize their artillery, the sooner we could force them to surrender.

The command area loomed ahead of me now, the reduced force barrelling towards it unabated. Until that was, the furthest ahead Ursa was damaged by a mine. I screamed into the radio, ordering a slowing and a dispersal. Up ahead there were who knows how many mines. The crew of the damaged Ursa reported back, with no serious injuries, but a track that would need hours to fix under ideal conditions.

“Stay at range from the complex, but surround it, and fire at it. Conserve ammunition, but blow away any machine gun emplacements,” I said to the unit. They complied, with the Ursa’s forming a semi circle around the complex, which hadn’t done anything hostile at that point. I could feel movement inside the temporary buildings, and underground annexes. “All infantry, prepare to move forward, under cover.”

The five Ursa’s still in position to support the infantry were given an order they hadn’t expected. “Using high explosives, pound a path for the Infantry to advance.”

The sounds of cannons and almost instantaneous detonations shook the cabin, sand and dirt being thrown into the air by the cannon blasts. Every couple of shots were followed by the detonation of a mine. Maybe halfway through the path being created, I ordered all of us out, staying behind the vehicles. I couldn’t even imagine a troop transport with front facing doors.

The dust in the air, combined with a screen of smoke grenades, would give us a decent run at them. It would be a run, the kind of assault that powered armour was built for. All of ours was left back in the city, fighting hard, and dying to give us this chance.

I took a moment to close my eyes and calm my frantic thoughts and adrenaline mad heart. I tried to feel anything ferrous in the earth, creating wide, low powered electric fields- After travelling up the path, I came across one, then several more mines. I radioed one of the Ursa’s, and tried to tell them where they were.

A final series of cannon shots fell upon my ears, the end of a deadly symphony.

“We’re going,” I yelled at the groups of ponies hunkered behind the armoured bulk of the transports. “We’re here to capture them, to make their commanders surrender. If they choose to fight to the death, that’s on them,” I finished before letting out a deep breathe, and leaning around the side of the transport. I gave the order for the smoke to be used, fired from launchers built into the trucks. When it had spread from it’s canisters, I levitated my rifle and steeled myself for what was to come.

The assault couldn’t move in a broad wave, because of the mines, but the distance from our transports, and the end of the mine field was only a few hundred meters. And we had cover from the Ursas.

I fell into the middle of the staggered charge, the acrid smoke burning my lungs, the descending sun still baking my body, and the fear driving itself through every part of me with each heartbeat. A scattering of poorly aimed shots began to issue from the surrounding trenches. There was a scream as one of the Rangers took a shot. I kept my head low, and fired a magazine as I ran. The machine guns on the Ursa’s to our flanks were much better at that. Their storm of lead was enough to turn any serious attempt at slaughtering us to a slaughter for them.

If they had had a hardened position, with concrete and heavy weapons, it wouldn’t have worked. Luck was on our side at that moment, along with Phobos, we had fear on our side-

There was another desperate cry as a pony just ahead and to the right of me was dropped into the churned sand, already colouring the earth beneath her with blood. My heart thudded in my chest, as I cleared the minefield, as the smoke began to thin out. Their tents loomed ahead of me, finely crafted, holding the upper crust of my old home.

I didn’t stop, I angled myself towards a low lying trench, before diving into it, rifle and pistol at the ready, aimed in different directions. I saw no enemy combatants left alive. There were dead and dying ponies, laying where they had fallen. My mind shook, they looked just as my friends and comrades had, worlds away. They were my comrades, in a perverse mirror. A blazing sun, hot windswept fields of death, and I was trodding through them. Killing them-

More ponies filled the forward trenches, still keeping their heads low, breathing hard after their dead sprint. It soon became apparent that there was only a skeleton force left there, as the rest of our force moved forward cautiously, taking the surface of the encampment with no resistance

I was with them, as we stepped into one of the personal tents. For the most part, it looked empty. A field cot stretched out, stripped of all fabric. Some personal possessions, a desk, some pens. I let out a sigh, at least the tent overhead blocked the sun.

“The fuck is that?” she asked. I looked at her, eyes flashing uncertainty. Cotton Candy held her rifle towards a gaping maw to our right. In the farthest corner of the tent sat an unlit tunnel, stretching down into the earth. I gazed into it, feeling a threat emanating from it. It reminded me of him.

“A lair, a deathtrap for whoever tries to enter,” I said a few moments later. I was the only one to step forward, towards the gleaming walls, sparkling with the afternoon sunlight.

It was fused sand, the whole many pony-sized tunnel was made of the stuff. I shuddered to imagine the power required for it, even with the right spell, the right caster. When I attempted to feel through it, to sense the potential ahead, it was like I hit a wall of darkness. My eyes snapped open, and I felt a tugging towards the tunnel. There was something, someone down there. They wanted me to follow, they knew me. I winced and grasped my torch, flicking it on as I started towards the maw, and whatever awaited me.

I felt a hoof on my shoulder. “And you’re just going to trot into it?” Cotton Candy accused. I shifted to look at her, at the rest of the hardened soldiers.

“I’m going down there to kill it,” my words were neutral, like I was discussing the weather. The strap holding my knife seemed to unbutton on their own, the fresh magazine in my rifle wanted to be used, and my horn seemed to be pulsing with energy, sparks lighting off into the air around me.

“Alone?”

“Not by choice,” I replied. I wanted others with me, I wanted Icepick beside me. She had been my talisman, more than his talisman had ever been. I couldn’t rely on her, I didn’t even know if she still drew breath. But somehow I knew that she did. The bond between our souls had deepened, it seemed. It gave me strength.

“Somepony get to a radio, and tell them that the command encampment has been taken,” Cotton Candy yelled out. “I’m not much of a wizard, and I don’t put much stock in that spiritual shit, but that’s a dark hole you’re walking into. I’m not letting anyone walk into there alone.”

“Thank you,” I said as I stepped forward, as I walked into the darkness of the tunnel, only my horn and a sputtering torch as my guide. “Not much of a wizard, what does that mean?” She followed me in, her own weapon floating beside her. The passage was just wide enough for two ponies, and my horn was only a few centimeters from the low ceiling.

“I know a few spells, but I haven’t learned anything more effective than a good rifle,” she said. “Why? Are you worried we need one?”

“I have a feeling that the thing down there is stronger than me,” I admitted. “I’m only effective with a few spells myself. I was only given a few lessons on magic by unicorns, everything else is self-taught.” That wasn’t quite true. I had learned more about magic from Zenji, and the great masters of the path. They weren’t unicorns though, and knew nothing about the specifics of unicorn magic.

“The bombs killed magic kindergarten here too, it takes a skilled unicorn to teach magic, just like it takes a skilled pony to teach foals to read. My aunt was the only unicorn in the family, other than me, and she taught me what she knew. That’s the reason I know what I know,” she finished with a sigh. Memories of a past were bittersweet, even memories of loved ones past. Her horn flared, a pale amber, just like her eyes. I had my own flash of recognition.

“I had someone like that, but she wasn’t family, my family was all earth ponies, most of my home was too. I was the fluke, the aberration, but she never saw me that way,” I finished speaking. The sensitive, motherly unicorn who had given me the first real lessons I had ever received. The one who had seen me for what I could be- My eyes opened, and I glanced at her coat, then her magic.

“What? Did I just grow another horn or something?” She asked, humor covering her nervousness. She could feel the dark magic she was walking into with each step. So could I.

“What are your spells?” I asked bluntly, hoping against hope that she could compliment my own.

“I can create bubbles of energy, small ones that are strong enough to stop a few bullets, or bigger ones that can keep small things out, like air and sand. I can make them stick to things, or repel them. I can make really small ones, and give them a bit of speed, enough to knock a pony down,” She explained. I wasn’t sure how that would compliment my own odd spells. Or spell used in a bunch of different ways. I shook my head, and looked down the passageway, the air dry, but cooling the further down we went.

“Be ready for anything,” I said quietly to her. Her ear twitched from the noise, and perhaps my proximity.

“Sure thing,” she replied in a similar whisper. Our horns had grown softer, our eyes adjusting to the darkness. A minute or so passed, before we could hear the sounds of someone coughing. It was a raspy noise, almost a death rattle.

“Of course, it was always going to be you,” the voice said with a bitter humour to it. It carried through the walls, seeming to travel up our hooves, more than through the air. “The broken one. The spark to light this world ablaze. I am surprised that you are here without her. My master thought you were attached at the hips.”

“Your master can burn in Tartarus,” I yelled back down the tunnel in spite of myself, the grip around my weapons tightened, compressing the sturdy weapons, my horn sparking with energy.

“Oh yes, there’s the rekindled, righteous fury,” the voice rumbled back, sounding more amused than before. “You’re still just a tool. A wind-up toy set against the enemies of your master. Instead of a knight of your homeland, set on a righteous, necessary crusade-”

“He’s with us, and he fights with us. You manipulative fuck!” Cotton Candy belted out, her voice surprising me and her in equal measure.

“You’re correct on both counts, young one. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. He’s been manipulated, violated by those he trusts, and he has inklings of it. There are lacunae in his memory, torn from it to make him a better toy soldier. That isn’t to speak of the other forces bending him to his new course.” I bit my lip until the skin broke, muscles tensing. “He knows the truth of my words in his bones.”

The furthest of my light no longer reflected on the walls ahead. The rumbling, diseased voice was clearer now. Her and I stepped into a room, dark, and cold. Our horns shined like flares, their light reaching the end of the chamber. Several things happened then, as soon as we saw him, we unloaded shots at him, then we were thrown back by a wave of telekinetic pressure. I steadied myself on my hooves, my tail pressed against the jagged wall.

Our bullets had struck against a magic barrier, cast for a moment ahead of him. His horn was crooked, and his eyes seemed to absorb every quanta of light that fell upon them, dark pools that saw nothing, and everything all at once. Cotton Candy hadn’t recovered as gracefully. I grabbed several objects in my own magic, bolts, a grenade, and several spare magazines. In the process I remembered I had left a gas mask in there.

I tilted to the left, running as I unloaded the rest of the magazine at him- it. The shield popped into existence again, blocking the shots, leaving crumpled bullets in front of him.

“You were supposed to be something other than rabble, a pony with potential!” The voice echoed off the walls, slamming into my ears as heavily as the gunshots had. With my magic, I fired the pistol at him, while releasing the pin on my grenade. When I reached the wall, I kicked off of it, while hurling my bolts at him, the grenade I held for the second it took for the bolts to reach him.

In that moment, I released a pattern of potential between myself, and each bolt as they flew at him at different angles and velocities. The electricity arced through the air, just a bit slower than lightspeed, going from one bolt to another, before traveling through the final bolt, now a meter off from the right of him. It plowed through the air at him-

A crack of shots happened just as the energy struck his flank. The barrier he had intended to place between the electricity and himself had to flick right to block Cotton’s fusilade. I hurled the grenade on a low arc, planning on bouncing it up and into his face. His shield tilted enough to catch it, but it wavered as the shrapnel slammed into it. It glowed brightly, as the explosion reverberated through the chamber. For a moment, everything was quiet. My magazine shifted into my rifle, as my magic slammed the bolt back on instinct.

“That’s much better! You even burned me,” my eyes narrowed as my nose picked up on the smell of burnt flesh, vaporized hair, and ozone. His side was blackened, flesh cracked and smoldering. There was blood pooling at his hooves, a fragment of shrapnel having dug itself into his foreleg. That shield had failed, just enough to let metal pass through him. “Now let me show you what a true wizard can do!” I canted to the side as he cast a ball of necromantic magic at me. It struck the wall behind me, shattering its surface. I unloaded a burst at him, as I frantically thought about what I could do against him-

“Your power comes from him, I fight using my own magic! ” I screamed back. As those black pools gazed back a spark of magic flowed from Cotton Candy, a ball of magic thrown at him as fast as a rifle shot. The bolt struck his shield, but it didn’t deflect, it stuck to the shield. She hurled another at him, as I arced electricity in the air around him. Another weaker shield popped up, blocking the flurry of weaker arcs. He launched another bolt, this time at Cotton. It struck the third of hers. They collapsed into nothing, creating a bright flash. I fired both of my weapons at him, slamming into the wavering shield.

“Through him, I become more than mere flesh and bone, I become one with god!” The creature’s horn glowed redoubled, an overglow pouring from it as his shield strengthened, even with two magic membranes sticking through it. She rolled to her hooves and added her own fire against it. Another shot building in front of her horn.

I arced again, using the fallen bolts to chain a stream of electricity into the shield. It held, with another layer of light adding to the fluorescence of his horn. I felt the waves of exhaustion, the friction of channeling magic through my horn. Even if the two of us could keep this thing busy, he would wear us down. We were just unicorns, not devotees of a dark god. But he was still mortal, and we were in an enclosed space. My eyes were already burning from the new gas floating in ever greater quantities in the chamber.

My horn took on an over glow as I tore the air around him into something different. I ducked as another blast of necromantic magic travelled over my prone body. I rolled to the side, watching as another one of his slower bolts struck Cotton’s sticky membranes. Again, the opposed magic annihilated, blinding me again.

“Run,” I yelled in the short time. My magic pulling the trigger and emptying my magazines at him. The shield seemed stronger than it had been at the start, his true power showing itself. Cotton gave me a terrified look as she ran through the chamber. I grasped my salvation in my weakening magic, pulling it to my face, and sealing the claustrophobic mask over my muzzle just in time to catch a bemused glance from my opponent.

“I wouldn’t debase myself by using poison gas,” he spoke in those same rumbling tones, that sardonic tone reaffixing itself as he thought he had defeated me. I pulled myself back to my hooves with effort. My horn seemed to go dark compared to his.

“I would,” I yelled, my own lips twisting into a grin as I charged the whole room, sweeping up everything in it with an electrical charge. Then I started running at an angle, as I concentrated the field and pushed it right down his muzzle. He looked surprised as the ozone was forced into his lungs. I kept my horn at it’s intensity, keeping the air near him full of the toxic gas. There was an attempt to cast another shot of magic at me, but I switched directions and the weak magic just turned the wall behind where I had been to hot sand. Those eyes gleamed, turning bloodshot, his intake of breath laboured, and his exhales bloody. It was his last spell, his horn growing dark, as I ran at him. My pistol barked, reloaded, sending a magazine's worth of shots into his body, blood and flesh exploding from the impacts. He dropped to the floor, a single gasping breath being forced from into his destroyed lungs.

Finally I stood above him, my own lungs protected by the mask. I stared into those black pools, seeing someone like I had been, dying like I should have many times before. My knife sliced into his throat, severing half of it. For another moment those eyes stared into mine. And then, it was over, only blood seeping into the warped sand beneath us. That and the ozone that flowed out of his dying body.

Before I left, I felt something calling towards me. A piece of darkest obsidian, something that made this creature’s pale imitations look all the more pitiful. I had cut the cord with my knife, not even feeling the object's presence until its owner's heart had stopped beating. I kicked it away from him, until it struck the wall a half dozen meters away. Then, I drew in the deepest breath I could through the mask. My horn glowed brightly, as it collected charge around it like a capacitor bank. I had learned something from Cotton and this poor soul. Unicorns didn’t have to cast a spell instantly. They could build a spell, build energy within themselves, before pushing it out with every bit of control they could muster.

When my bolt sailed down from my blindingly bright horn, it snapped the molecules of the air, shattering them as it bore into the obsidian. For the half second my bolt shot into the talisman, it seemed to gulp it down, like those eyes sucking down light-

A crack sounded from the talisman, as it shattered into pieces, the pieces melting into the melted sand they sat above. Magic blasted out from the cursed object, magic that carried through me, making my soul ring like a struck bell.

And then it was over, my head felt like it had been stepped on by an elephant, as well as being compressed by pressure waves from the battle. My horn flickered and sparked as the last of the energy flowed back into the aether from which it had been drawn.

I breathed heavily, before forcing my battered, flickering magic to strap my weapons back in place. The path back was dark, only my torch lighting the path ahead. My mind reeled, that creature's words echoing through my head. When I stepped back into the light of the sun, I had buried my questions for later. I had where those Lacunae had come from, and who had taken them.

“You’re alive!” Cotton Candy said to me as I stepped back into the tent. The other ponies still around looked at me with something approaching awe. I tore the mask from my face, the action sending waves of nausea and pain through my head.

“Can someone give me a light?” I asked after taking a fresh breath of air.

---===*===---

The sun was setting when I rode the truck back into the shattered outskirts of Paradise. My heart felt weary as I looked upon another city laid to waste by war. Cotton Candy drove this time, as I sat in the passenger seat, watching the dark blues of night fill the sky from the east.

“I don’t understand you, when we were fighting for this victory, you were bright, telling us about that future you believe in,” Cotton asked me, my dour mood radiating off of me like heat from molten slag.

“Does this look like victory?” I asked.

“It’s a start,” she replied softly. “We won the battle, you slayed the monster.”

“I could have been one of those monsters,” I said darkly. “I could’ve been so much worse.”

“But you aren’t. I meant what I said. You fought a battle for a home that isn’t yours, against your own people. That thing was a monster, a mouthpiece for something that shouldn’t be,” Cotton replied, before pulling a lighter from her jacket with a tendril of amber magic. I nodded at her, as she lit a cigarette for me, and for her. “Listen, I don’t know you. I don’t know what you’ve been through. I can only tell you what I’ve seen. I see a stallion who’s always ready to fight on, even if you hate fighting.”

“I do what must be done,” I said quietly, feeling those words ring through my mind. I had thought them so many times before, given up parts of myself in the name of those words. “I always have.” A memory flashed back into my mind. One of those times had been a suicide attempt, flooding my lungs with poison gas. I had thought it needed to be done. The memory stung, I had been saved by a creature like the one in the lair. What needed to be done shifted once again. Being that spark to burn a world once more-

The bleating of the vehicle’s horn brought me back to the present. There wasn’t anything in front of us, just a relatively undamaged road, cutting between broken buildings.

“I know that look, I’ve seen it on ponies, and I’ve seen it in the mirror,” Cotton Candy said after her own heavy exhale. “I don’t know what that thing shook loose in your head, but don’t let it break you. We need good ponies if we’re going to get that bright future.”

“I think I was broken a long time ago,” I said. “I know why I needed to be fixed, but it makes me furious, that which he cut out of me… I don’t even know what all he took from me.”

“Who?” Cotton blurted out, her horn lighting up, crackling with energy as her heart rate shot up.

“It’s not your burden,” I barked back. My mind screaming at the violation, at the empty spaces in itself, now laid bare. For a tense minute nothing more was said. I gazed out the window, watching weary Imperials being disarmed and marched away. “I don’t know all the details, and I’m not sure what I’ll do. I just know, it has to be my own choice, my own act.”

“I saw you choose to go down there, I saw how scared you were. That was your choice,” the unicorn mare said, before putting a hoof on my shoulder. It was a comfort. A comfort I needed. The rest of the journey was silent, just two weary ponies travelling through a ruined city, headlights on.

---===*===---

I stepped into the tent, the smell of wounded and dying ponies suffocating in its intensity. I had seen this scene so many times, I had been here more times than I wanted to remember- if I could even remember all of those times. My old wounds seemed to ache in remembrance of those times. I blinked and stepped through the cots and less wounded ponies. My eyes laid upon someone who had saved my life once. His eyes were flushed and red, his movements slow. He stood above a mare who had been shot twice in the withers, now wrapped in bandages and blue from blood loss that she might or might not survive-

Before I could get any closer, a blur of grey and blonde nearly knocked me off my hooves. I barely managed to stay upright, and was blindsided by the kiss that Icepick forced upon me. I grabbed her with my hooves, holding her tightly, but resisting the kiss.

“What’s up with you?” She asked me as soon as the kiss broke. My face was stuck in a rigid frown, even as my eyes bored into hers, searchingly.

“We’re in a hospital,” I stated flatly.

“Yeah, but this whole city is a charnel house,” she said defensively. “And that’s a deflection, there’s something up with you.” I exhaled deeply, before glancing at the nearest exit. I let go of her, and started towards it, trying to keep myself under control. Even then, I cast an acid glance at Rosetta, who had moved onto the next pony that needed a dose of healing magic.

When I had pushed through the tent flaps, I used my aching magic to grab a cigarette, and light it with a brief immolation of the tip. Icepick followed me out, right on my heels, eyes wide.

“I fought one of Sombra’s avatars,” I nearly spit out as I exhaled a deep drag of smoke. “I killed it, a magical wastrel, aided by a talisman.”

“That’s good, you slayed a monster-” she started to say before I stomped a hoof into the intact asphalt beneath me.

“He-it told me things, it told me what he had done to me,” I replied sharply. She looked away, deflating before me. She had known. Of course she had known. “So it’s true. I had a feeling before, a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Memories seeming to lead to nowhere, like I had lost something.”

“We had to be sure-” Icepick started to say.

“I was with you, I was going to stop you from triggering the missile, but even after that,” I forced myself to stop from screaming. “You let him play doctor in my brain, then let him play doctor with you.” I had lost the battle. My voice echoed off the walls, hoarse with anger, filled with the deepest anger. “What did he take from me? He didn’t take the pain away, I still remember the fields of death, I still remember losing those that I had loved!”

“Y-your parents, your lovers, the things that broke you,” she said after a moment’s reflection. Her eyes were meeting mine again. Sorrow and remorse filled them, as tears began to form in the corner of her eyes.

“So you thought it was your right to maim my memory? To make me into your toy soldier?” I screamed at her, my heart shattering before her. “Well, you won your battle, you won your allies.”

“I-I,” she started to say something but stopped herself. Her tear filled gaze falling upon mine. A tinge of pain filled me, for hurting her. That just made me more resolute.

“I always had my doubts, I’m not a pony who believes in prophecy. But now I know something else,” I said, my anger having boiled away the volume, leaving only the venom. “Goodnight, destroyer.”

I started walking, feeling glances all over me. I didn’t care.

“I’m sorry,” she said meekly, her voice nasal from the tears.

“I’m sure you are,” I replied softly.

---===*===---

I found her sitting by herself, nursing a bottle with a price sticker still on it. I cleared my throat before walking towards her. An empty steel drum filled with broken furniture sat blazing away in front of Crescent Moon. We were at the outskirts of the docks. Only a few meters from the ocean. It’s rolling blackness was comforting. The moon was a crescent sitting above us, bouncing a little light onto us little ponies. The stars, which had been outshone by the city lights, were now twinkling above, oblivious to the plight of mere ponies.

“I don’t know if I can go any further, if I can keep killing in anyone’s name,” I said after she had turned to look at me. I sat down on the ground beside her heavily, like a tree worn with illness, finally collapsing under its own weight.

“I know how you feel, after seeing so many die,” she said before taking another gulp of liquor down her throat.

“They violated me… I can’t remember my own parent’s death. I can’t remember the ponies I loved before coming here,” I said in a muted tone. The anger had washed over me in the time it had taken to get here. Only a void remained. An emptiness I thought I had cast out of myself.

“I’m so sorry,” Crescent said after a long, painful pause. Her words were slightly slurred, her sorrow was reaching out across the space between us. “I don’t even know what to say. I’ve lost so many ponies, lost my home.”

“You did your part, you did the right things, but it can turn to ashes in your mouth so easily,” I said before grabbing the bottle in my magic, roughly, horn sparking, crackling with the energy of my emotions. “Maybe it always does.”

“Traditionally, it’s sand in your mouth here,” she said with the ghost of a smile on her muzzle. “But I get your point. Even if we win, it always seems bitter. But we still need to win, we still need to try for that better world. You helped those ponies in Safe Harbour. You didn’t ask for anything in exchange. That was a good work, something you wanted to do for them, just because you could, and it was right to do.” She looked at me, pressing a hoof to my chest. It was warm against me. She was warmth at the moment when I needed it the most. “You give me hope. I try to be a better person, even if it’s cost me everything.” She stopped for a moment before looking me dead in the eyes. “Maybe that’s the price of admission.”

“What is a hero without sacrifice? If the right thing, and the easiest thing were the same-” I started to say, feeling the salty air from the sea wash over me. I felt tears welling up as another fragment of the past came back to me. Like a levee whose height had been reached by the water it was meant to keep out, those hidden memories lapped over me in waves.

“So you think you’re a hero?” She asked, her eyes focusing on mine. “I do too. You inspired me, you led me onto this path. That makes you a hero to me.”

“But-” I started to object, but she pressed on.

“When you act on your own, when you do what you think is right, you’re as heroic as they come. So, just ask yourself, what do you think is right?” She finished before pulling her bottle nearer.

“I need to finish what we’ve started. What I began, before I was changed against my will,” I shut my eyes and winced at that realization. They might not have trusted me, they might have violated me, but I had found the right path. Their trespasses wouldn’t be forgotten, but I had made tresspasses of my own. My eyes opened once more. “After that, I don’t know.”

“No-one does,” Crescent replied with a bitter laugh of her own. She was one of us, a pony without a home, scarred by her own acts, and those of others. I shifted to be closer, before wrapping my forelegs around her. “Those who think they know are fools, delusional fools. But you aren’t a fool. I know you want something better for this place, and I know you’ll fight to your last spark for it.”

For some time, I just held her, watching the waves lap at the decaying piers. When I closed my eyes, and focused on my heartbeat, I felt the solace of her words. My sight without sight shifted outwards, first feeling the ripples of current flowing through Crescent Moon, then further. The presences in the twice broken city blinking through my mind in a flash. All of them felt the same, all of their differences stripped away, just living creatures living through folly and pain.

I wasn’t alone. I had ponies to protect. I still had work to do.

Author's Note

Another chapter out, and quickly! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. It's a shift in perspective in more ways than one.

The next chapter is already partly written. I feel like the steam for the end of the story is picking up. For better or for worse.