War, Friendship, and Crisis: The Tale of a Torn World

Act IV: The Banes of Humanity

It has been three months ever since an attack on Equestria. During this time, the populace of the entire planet resumed to their usual duties. Any humans that chose to stay in Equestria mainly kept to themselves in either the ED space station or the field base on the planet. GEST Corp. then asked permission from Princess Celestia to build two human settlements on Equestria for defensive and possibly financial purposes.

One of the settlements, which was located west of the Everfree Forest and north of Ghastly Gorge, was known as Havenblock, a city built mainly for war and defensive strategies. It contained a metal wall with an electromagnetic field around it and the city itself. Several turrets and watchtowers lined the walls and outer limits of the city to fend off any future invaders. The city itself contained a main hub area for traveling troops, landing pads for vehicles, research and control centers, a barracks for human and pony soldiers, a residential area for citizens, a mining center for collecting metals, and a power grid that collected several forms of energy. This city was truly built to last.

The other city, which was less secure and solely based on colonization, was Jersoven. It was located between the Frozen North and Cloudsdale. Unlike the fortified Havenblock, Jersoven only used a metal wall and some soldiers, turrets, and watchtowers. It had a control center, landing pads, a mining center, a research center, and a barracks, but they were all considerably smaller to Havenblock. This city contained more shops and houses to draw in more residents. Since this city was more open to ponyfolk, some of the ponies near it moved in after only a week or two of its completion. Jersoven was soon a melting pot of both pony and human cultures and ideas as the two species conversed with each other.

However, something has happened over in this city. Communications with GEST Corp. in Jersoven blacked out five days after Discord's release. No one knows what caused it yet, but six ponies were about to discover the reason for its inactivity.

•—————•

Inside of a realm of complete madness, a swirling portal of blue light ripped through the air. Four demons immediately spewed out of this portal as it closed back into nothingness. One of the demons was Lord Zedin himself, and two others were knightmare demons. The remaining demon was considered Zedin's right hand man. His name was General Deronno, commander of his own army that stood separate to Zedin's main forces. He wore shrouds of dark material around his body. The armor he wore was indistinguishable from the pure darkness emanating from his body. He wielded two weapons. The first, which was held in his left hand, was a gun. It was an automatic rifle with four barrels that had four different elemental effects each. One used fire; another, lightning; another, acid; and the last, darkness. The other weapon was a long blade with hooked teeth in one of its edges. These teeth created small spaces that allowed other blades to get stuck in his sword. Also, the same shroud of darkness that surrounded his body also encased and dripped off his blade.

Zedin examined the realm around him. The entire realm was full of oddities not present in regular dimensions. Islands floated around, sometimes upside down or on their sides. Random soccer balls and golf balls tossed around each other with their own clubs and feet as they hopped from island to island. The sky itself was full of a strange setup of swirls, rivers, and threads with mainly blue and purple hues. In some areas of the realm, gravity fell apart and did whatever it wanted. The foliage was strange too, as odd and random shrubbery and trees grew on some of the islands. Even the grass was multicolored sometimes. Plus, there were random train tracks dotting the entire realm. Sometimes, Zedin thought that the sky was tugging on him with giants hands from nowhere.

What the hell is happening here? Zedin thought in complete bafflement as he examined this dimension of concentrated madness. He never saw the law of physics commit suicide so badly.

One of the knightmare demons smacked a soccer ball that suddenly grew sharp fangs and claws. The soccer ball immediately dissipated into a column of cards.

The demons hopped across the islands and unstable floors until they reached an awkward home. Compared to the rest of the realm, it was completely normal. Surprisingly, it was vacant. This slightly irritated Zedin. This slightly irritated Zedin destroyed an entire island from one blast of his elemental power.

"I thought he was here," he grumbled with imprisoned rage behind his words. "He cannot be absent at this time. I know that for a fact."

"Sire, isn't that him above that slice of the sky?" A knightmare demon pointed his gun up to the floating swirl of dark blue above them.

"Oh, you've caught me!" The voice originated from the top of the swirl. The swirl then discarded itself into a trash can as a figure appeared behind Zedin. This figure was Discord himself in all of his chaotic glory. "I've expected someone like you to show up sooner or later."

Zedin was obviously growing impatient with Discord's antics. "Enough games, Discord. I propose a deal to you. It is best that you accept it."

"You almost sound like Celestia with your demanding tone." Discord disappeared and reappeared in front of Zedin. "But go ahead anyway. I'm curious about what you have to say."

"If you have not noticed, this world has been inflicted by my presence. I have already damaged a few cities here and there, but I need assistance."

Discord's face drooped to slight disappointment. "If you do not know, I already swore not to cause something like that."

"Damn it, you have already made amends with the six ponies?" Zedin smacked a floating island with a gargantuan claw of darkness in frustration. It flipped back to its original upside down position in seconds.

"Well, of course I did. Who wouldn't take a chance to make friends?" He said this with a smirk towards Zedin.

Zedin almost screamed at Discord, but he quickly calmed himself back to a calm state. "As I was saying, you are technically chaos, right?"

"That is what defines me. Why do you ask?"

"What if I told you that I could give this entire world back to you? I am a deity after all."

"I don't know," Discord mused. "I think it is rather nice having friends, don't you think." He swiftly manifested a hand of cards in his lion paw. He then blew the six cards, all of them containing at least one of the Mane Six, at Zedin's face. "Plus, I know for a fact that you cannot face those six. If I couldn't, you can't either!"

Zedin nodded to Deronno. Deronno showed his fanged teeth in a wide grin as he threw the head of Tirek onto the ground. His voice was as cold as the underworld itself. "Say what you want, but we are not weak like you. This is only one of the villains of this world that we killed."

Deronno then tossed a unicorn horn at Discord and a pair of changeling wings. Discord looked down at him in slight interest. "Where did these come from?"

Zedin decided that he would be the one to explain. "Well, Discord, I discovered a few secrets about this world, and I decided that they should be exploited. What you see in front of you are the trophies of Queen Chrysalis and Starlight Glimmer. Death also befell upon the remnants of King Sombra's soul, but he was incorporeal. You should see now that we are quite formidable foes."

"So, you killed the queen of the changelings and a single unicorn." Discord created a ribbon and placed it on Zedin's chest. It read 'beginner' on it. "If that is what you're supposed to be good at, then your accomplishment is laughable. I think I could have completed those kills!"

"You do not understand this. Queen Chrysalis had the potential to ruin my future plans, and so did Tirek. Starlight Glimmer would have completely ruined causality if I did not mutilate her before she began her time jumping."

Discord popped a hammock, sunglasses, and a smoothie with a parasol into existence and rested on the hammock. "You really think that simple deaths like that are enough to defeat me? Your attempts at blackmailing me are pathetic!"

Zedin struggled to keep his temper under control as he puffed through his words. "If you perceive me as futile, then maybe this will change your mind!"

Zedin conjured four gigantic claws and ripped through the terrain of the realm. Several islands and fake skies fell apart as he crushed them under his raw power. He then encased Discord in a ball of pure darkness that covered his entire body. "Having fun now, Discord?"

Zedin erased his darkness and claws as Discord fell down to the ground. For a second, it looked like he was gasping for air from his pain. Instead, he burst in laughter at Zedin's little outburst. He laughed through his words. "You, really tried to hurt me like that? That was just sad!"

Discord rolled on the floor in more spouts of laughter as Zedin slowly regained his lost rage. "May we please go back to the deal, now? At this point, I see that you are only able to be suggested to accept, not forced."

Discord got back on his feet and faced Zedin again. "Sure, sure. Alright, go on with your deal."

"Well, I can give you the entire planet back with my forces. I can easily overcome this world and its invading humans with my army."

"Oh, right." Discord remembered the news he heard about Havenblock and Jersoven. "Those things are still around? I thought that they were temporary."

"Not at all. They will linger until I eliminate their prime force, GEST Corp. I can handle them easily, but it is these wretched ponies that are creating trouble."

"You want me to turn their world upside down?" Discord gave an example by flipping a nearby island right side up.

"No, Discord. I want you to kill Twilight Sparkle."

•—————•

It was a bright day in Ponyville once again. The demons were completely inactive, GEST Corp. was back and ready, and the six heroes of Equestria were about to embark on another journey. Several skeleton and human soldiers marched across the town and to their posts. A few new durnoki soldiers, which were obtained by a peace treaty between GEST Corp. and the Oligarchy of the Durnoki Dream, disguised themselves as simple trees or rocks and waited for danger.

General Solk stood in front of the Mane Six. All of them were wearing their new suits. These ones were more durable and completely bulletproof. They also had helmets too, which replaced their communications chips and provided a visor that told them how healthy they were, how much power or ammo their weapons have, and what status effects are plaguing their bodies at any given moment. Every helmet gave the ponies a little definition in who they were by poking the ponies's manes out of the helmets' tops. Pinkie Pie's mane acted as if there was no helmet on her head and almost concealed it entirely.

Rainbow Dash's suit was generally an improvement over her original. She still had the guns on her sides, but she also had a missile launcher to boot. This launcher can be switched from free fire to heat seeking at any moment. All she had to do was think about it. The thrusters on her sides also gave her more speed and maneuverability. She even had a power pack on her back that enhanced her powers over clouds and lightning. Where did GEST Corp. acquire all of these new ideas for her armor? Travis and Twilight Sparkle provided the ideas through their observation on her suit inside of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory.

Twilight, now filled with determination and interest in this mission, politely asked General Solk a question. Travis was already linked to the ponies' comm links. "What will we be exactly doing on this mission?"

"You six will investigate Jersoven further north," Solk replied with a slight smile on his face. "Something happened over there that knocked out communications to its control center. We have too many kavarian ships gathering around the planet's orbit, so you six will need to investigate it."

Rainbow Dash held up a hoof and shook her head in surprise. "Wait a minute, these kavarians are already attacking Equestria?"

"They've been pushing further and further into this dimension for a while now. Ever since they won back most of their mining planets, they have been gathering soldiers around this solar system. We kept that information only to the princesses just in case things get out of hand. I think we can handle their dreadnoughts though."

"I don't think these things will be up there for any longer," Applejack predicted. "They might come down and attack soon if they're gathering."

Solk heard a beep in his communications chip and heard the loud, muffled words. His face soon contorted to slight panic. "Damn, I need to get up there now! You six need to use the drop ship behind me. I'll see you six later."

The ponies quickly galloped to the drop ship and took their seats. To their surprise, five GEST Corp. soldiers, three humans and two unicorns, were already inside.

Fluttershy looked up at the human with a large minigun and the words 'I eat punks for breakfast' on his chest. She was quite amazed at him, but she was still intimidated by his size and scary fashion. "Hi there, what's your name?"

"Call me Max," he said with a slight Australian drawl. "If you wanna be fancy, go with Maxwell Kent."

"Well, hi, Max. What do those words mean on your armor?"

He looked down at his chest. "Oh, that? Just a little threat to the guys we're gonna bash. Don't worry, lady, I'm not one to hurt innocents."

"Ooh, that is rather gentlemanly of you," Rarity admired.

"You'll be thinkin' twice about that when you see him in battle," another human with a modified pair of revolvers added with a southern accent. "He'll shred the place up in seconds. Trust me, he took out an entire squad of demons in five seconds."

"Wow, that's pretty awesome." Rainbow Dash looked over to Max and smiled with the same admiration. "I bet you'll be a great help."

"Hang on, boys and girls. We're about to depart shortly," the pilot announced as he turned on the thrusters. The ship soon closed its ramp door and ascended into the air. It then faced north and flew above Ponyville, ready to deploy eleven experienced soldiers whenever needed.

•—————•

As the ship slowed to a stop and landed on the grass once more, the abandoned city, Jersoven, awaited them. The city was considerably large, about twice the size of Ponyville with various buildings stretching up to the sky. The entire city wielded a large ring of metal that encased it in a protective layer. Only one ginormous gate at the wall's front, which could fit at least three tanks huddled next together, allowed any entry.

The soldiers and ponies hopped out of the ship and examined the entire area. That gate was definitely the only way inside, but it also had a small booth at its right side. The group of eleven walked up to the booth and looked inside. Only blood splatters and a handbag were left inside the booth. Twilight picked it up with her magic and rummaged through its contents. She found a keycard that fit into the same slot inside of the booth. She inserted the card into the small machine and heard a pleasant beep. The gate then sank into the ground, creating a straight path into the city.

What was revealed was several piled vehicles and downed buildings in gentle fire. The overall damage was moderate, big enough to cause disruptions in exploring Jersoven yet small enough to not destroy everything in sight. Compared to Sacramino, this was nothing.

"Alright, I think it's appropriate that we split up here," one of the armored unicorns ordered to his squadron. "My squad will search the east side of the city. Twilight, you and your friends should search the west side."

Twilight agreed and prodded her friends leftward. They traversed through some of the abandoned city, searching for trinkets and avoiding the small gouts of fire on various pieces of debris. Whenever they came across a building, they opened its front door and explored the inside of it. The first one they explored was a simple office building. The first three floors were untouched, but the other four floors were covered in black ooze and several blood splatters. A couple human hands or feet were scattered here and there, but that was really the only parts of people that they could find. Several cubicles had knocked over computers or filing cabinets and more touches of crimson.

It was when they entered the seventh floor that they lost some of their sight. All of the power on this floor was nonexistent, restraining the ponies to only natural light from the sun. More splatters of blood and black littered the floor and walls, but something else was present now. Pinkie was the first to hear a quiet, wet sound in the room. It only increased in volume as the ponies quietly stepped close and closer to its origin. Suddenly, a crack and several more shot at their ears. After that, the wet din re-emerged.

Twilight, who was in the front of her group, peered around a cubicle. Her face gaped in horror and disgust from what she saw. Only half of a mutilated man's body was left, and the intestines and bodily fluids of the person poured out of the gigantic hole revealing his innards. A strange creature with an abnormally large human head and two arms with claws that sprouted out of its neck hole gnawed and bit at the flesh and bone of the dead body. Its two eyes glowed an unnatural yellow. It already cracked a humerus and devoured most of the remaining bone and flesh in that area. It was now finishing the arm by cracking the radius and ulna and slurping up the still attached muscle and tendon around the bones.

The creature simply glared back at Twilight with a strip of flesh hanging out of its mouth. It chewed up that strip and narrowed its beady, glowing yellow eyes. It then screamed a mighty shrill, revealing its jagged and bloodstained teeth from its open mouth. The ponies could only stagger back from the painful scream as more of the same creatures scuttled and yipped across the floor and ceilings. The ponies were soon surrounded by fourteen of these, things.

Rainbow Dash immediately fired at three of the creatures. They winced and hopped backwards onto the ground, exploding in a mess of viscera and yellow blood. Twilight fired several magic blasts at the leaping creatures while Pinkie and Applejack kicked and punched them back. Rarity stabbed a few of the ones in the back with her gemstones, killing them nearly instantly from their explosions. Fluttershy dodged and avoided the creatures while they leaped and clawed at her. They caused a few cuts and scrapes from their sharp claws, but that was nothing compared to what they wanted to do.

Twilight then activated a ring of magic that blew all of the creatures into the walls and ceiling. They all exploded from the pure force, leaving the room empty once more. The ponies' eyes were wide in fear and pure terror. Even Pinkie, the one pony who was humming her own happy tunes to herself during the small detour, was now hyperventilating from the encounter.

"That was quite a wake-up call!" Rainbow Dash announced as she darted her eyes around the room.

Twilight examined the yellow and black chunks of blood as she screamed her twitching words. "What were those things?"

Travis was shaking his head in denial as he was recalling the recent attack. "Oh god, those things were ruptches."

"What the hay is a ruptch?" Applejack asked, her words also dripping in fear.

"A ruptch is the second stage of the Ruptured's life cycle. They start out as eggs that hatch into those things. Then, they grow into full-sized Ruptured with legs, a torso, everything they need to move around and kill. Ruptches never fight by themselves, so there's bound to be stronger Ruptured around here."

"Wait a second," Fluttershy mumbled as she remembered an attack from months ago, "there were two humans like that that attacked our truck."

"And there were monsters like this inside of the demons' ship too!" Pinkie added in her shaky blend of fright and happiness.

"Whatever the Ruptured is doing on Equestria, it must be very, very big," Travis gravely stated. "If we don't fix this mess soon, the entire planet will be a barren wasteland. Trust me, that's already happened to an entire galaxy."

The ponies, now frightened and motivated by these creatures, left the building and examined the area. That was when they heard screaming on their comm link.

"They killed him!" a distraught voice screamed. It sounded awfully close to the unicorn from earlier. "They killed my brother! How could they!" Fluttershy only raised a hoof to her mouth in shock from his words.

Another voice in a calm manner spoke to him. It was the same Australian voice that spoke to Fluttershy about half an hour ago. "Don't worry. We'll give these things what they rightfully deserve."

"It's just, he gone." Slight sobbing became audible. "They took him so fast. What even were they?"

"The same bastards that destroyed Earth. Now, come on. It's best that we should get going. These things won't stay here for very long."

The ponies then moved on and searched the area for any Ruptured. When they noticed that none were around them, they continued onward. They eventually reached the research center of the city. They then heard a sudden shriek emanating from the center. Only seconds later, a human Ruptured crashed through one of the building's windows and landed on the ground. It immediately turned its head to the ponies and aimed its semi-automatic laser rifle at them. The gun was oddly molded into the creature's arm and hand, keeping the gun immovable yet still usable.

The Ruptured dodge rolled to its left and fired several lasers at the ponies. Twilight blocked them with her magic, and Rarity and Rainbow Dash penetrated its body with lasers and gems. It soon collapsed onto the ground with a cry and exploded into a mess of yellow blood and gore.

The fight was far from over, as five ruptches and three more human Ruptured with the same rifles slammed open the center's door. The ruptches scrambled around the area and leaped at the ponies. They were annihilated quickly from several kicks and magic blasts. The three Ruptured strafed around the area and fired more laser blasts. Pinkie hopped over to one of them and slammed her front hooves into their face. The Ruptured screamed and staggered back, but it was still intact. It then evaded from side to side before hopping into the air and grabbing Pinkie. She kicked it hard enough to rip its grabbing arm off, severely damaging the creature itself. It patched the new hole with a new flab of skin and resumed its shooting. The arm that was holding Pinkie fell off and created a small explosion.

Travis gave a quick reminder to the ponies. "Whatever you do, do not let their blood get on your body! It's highly contagious and will convert you into a Ruptured!"

Twilight destroyed that Ruptured with a magic blast while the other two fought against Rainbow Dash and Rarity. They were dangerously close to Fluttershy and were damaging the other two ponies with their laser rifles. Rainbow could not fire any more lasers before a single rifle struck her legs and her right wing. Rarity had to dodge projectiles rather than throw them. Fluttershy continued to back away until she bumped into a building. One of the Ruptured, which had more bubbly skin than any of the other ones, held up a claw and growled like a savage beast. She cried and covered her face, frightened of what was about to inflict on her body.

Applejack kicked two metal balls into the Ruptured. They turned around and noticed a purple glow that surrounded their bodies. They were then lifted up into the air and slammed into a building. Both of them exploded into blood and viscera from the impact.

Travis spoke to them again. "Hold up a second. I'm going to activate anti-Ruptured mode for your suits. It should protect you from contact with their blood."

All of the ponies' suits whirred as metal coverings locked in place across their faces and visors. Thin coverings of plastic covered their manes, tails, wings, and horns, completely shielding them from any contaminants. Twilight did not know if the other ponies could hear her, so she tested it for a second. "Can anypony hear me? I don't know if this metal is muffling my voice or not."

Pinkie immediately replied back through the comm link. Her voice was slightly digital from traveling through the link. "We can hear you fine, Twily!"

"Loud and clear!" replied Rainbow Dash.

"Good," sighed Twilight with a small amount of relief. "We should check this building for any information on what happened here. Hopefully, it could also tell us what to do to stop these things."

The rest of the ponies agreed and followed her lead. They walked into the building and examined its metal interior. Several machines and offices littered its inside. Several dead bodies, some devoured and some not, dotted the floor with crimson and white. It sickened the ponies that some of them were ponies. One of the bodies even looked like a little filly.

Sadly, they found no information in the center. They walked out of the building and back onto the street. Apparently, several more human Ruptured discovered where they were and gathered in a fighting formation. There were four ruptches, two Ruptured with laser rifles, three without any weapons, and a rupturen, a special type of Ruptured with abnormally long arms that acted like tentacles with the fingers on each hand painfully snapped backwards. A visible hole was in each palm of the rupturen's body, and three sharp ends surrounding the hole also protruded outwards.

The ruptches died first as the ponies filled them with gems, magic blasts, and lasers. The armed Ruptured moved back and fired several lasers at the ponies. The unarmed Ruptured dodged from left to right as they got closer and closer to the ponies. The rupturen slowly walked toward the ponies with its arms high in the air but still pointed at them. Twilight fired multiple magic blasts into the Ruptured in the back, and Rainbow mowed down the ones hopping dangerously close to the group. Rarity dealt with the rupturen, stabbing its body countless times with her gems, and Pinkie hopped over to one of the unarmed Ruptured and pummeled their body. She eventually caved their skull in after the two armed Ruptured died and exploded. Rainbow killed two unarmed Ruptured, and Pinkie obviously killed hers. However, the rupturen was still alive despite the dozen of gems lodged in its flesh. Its body illuminated a little as it walked faster and shook its arms. Twilight fired a magic blast at it, but it only broke into a run and screamed mightily. It approached Applejack and swung its arms down on her. She kicked the rupturen away before it stabbed through her armor and infected her. Twilight fired at it one more time, killing it in the process. Its explosion was a tad bit more violent than the other Ruptured, but it wasn't too destructive.

The ponies realized the growing danger in the city and galloped to their next destination. They fought more Ruptured along their way, but none of the ponies suffered badly from the battles. When they eventually reached the mining center, they discovered a new type of Ruptured that almost made Rarity and Fluttershy faint in horror.

There were three earth ponies with yellow coats of slight accents of other colors. Their manes and tails acted the same way as well. Their eyes were purely yellow like all of the other Ruptured. The herbivore teeth each one of them were supposed to possess were replaced with several fangs that were sharp enough to easily rip through even the toughest of steaks. Despite all of those changes, the cutie marks that were oddly misshapen and faded definitely bashed the group's spirits. One looked like it could have been a whisk for cooking, but the other two were too distorted to tell what they used to be. These three ponies stood together in a circular hole in the ground filled with mine carts, various entrances to mine shafts, and two sets of metal stairs.

The ponies glared up at the Mane Six and growled and shouted like wild animals. They galloped up the metal stairs next to them and to the group's front. They snarled and scraped at the ground as they studied Twilight's growing magic and Rarity's hovering gems. When the magic and gems immediately headed towards them, they simply dodged left in unison. They then dodged right to avoid a barrage of lasers and then scattered around the group. One pony leaped onto Rarity and pinned her down, and another did the same to Pinkie, except this time with claws that suddenly sprouted out of its front hooves. The last pony engaged in hoof to hoof combat with Applejack.

Applejack dodged the kicks and punches that the pony threw at her, and she kicked back whenever she had the opportunity. Apparently, her adversary was not stupid, as it knew exactly how to dodge a strike properly. It was only when Rainbow Dash ruined its dodge with a line of lasers did it finally lose control of the fight. One swift buck to the pony's face cracked and fragmented its skull, killing the Ruptured creature by destruction of the brain. Applejack got blood and meat on her body, but at least she was not infected from her suit's lockdown.

Pinkie was struggling to pull the earth pony Ruptured off her body. It kept her in place as its claws dug deeper and deeper into the metal. Soon, they would break through it and pierce her body, opening several holes for infections of all kinds. As Pinkie struggled more and more and felt the pressure on her legs increase, Fluttershy shoved the Ruptured off of Pinkie and kicked it back. The Ruptured howled angrily and slashed its claws at Fluttershy, scraping some of her metal armor in the process. She then punched back with enough force to break the Ruptured's jaw. Pinkie got back up and finished it off with a swift kick in the right temple. The headless Ruptured fell to the ground and exploded its contents all over the two mares.

The last Ruptured was struggling to keep Rarity in place. She already stabbed both of its eyes and crippled its left hind leg. Rarity stabbed it again, this time in the back of the head, and shoved it off her. She got up and backed away from the recovering Ruptured. It gnashed its razor teeth and leaped towards Rarity again. It shoved its face up to her visor and scratched the glass with its teeth. Twilight fired a few magic blasts in its back, but it ignored that pain and continued scratching. It then stomped on Rarity's body and legs several times, bruising her and drawing some not currently visible blood. Twilight fired a fire blast at the Ruptured pony. This finally got its attention as its infected flesh was set ablaze. It screamed and kicked as its body cooked to a black sludge. Rarity got back up and escaped the hungry flames of the pony.

This Ruptured didn't explode. It instead melted in several parts of the body as the flesh blackened and the bones charred. The infectious blood of the pony dripped and cracked into a black, oily substance. What was left was the still burning corpse of a severely mutilated pony.

"So," Twilight started with slight disgust, "these things are weak to fire. That's good to know."

"Pretty much anything that destroys several cells in their bodies is their weakness," Travis added. "They rely on regeneration through constant cell division. No undamaged cells means no regeneration, so they die in only seconds."

Rarity was wiping off the black substance off of her suit. "Yes, fire kills them rather quickly, but it also makes them smell so foul. I can still smell its disgusting body as if it was literally on my face!"

Applejack turned her head to Rarity. "Well, Rarity, would you rather get some ick on your body or die in possibly the most horrifying way possible?"

"When you put it that way, the former sounds nice. Kind of."

"Nopony's going to question what the hay we just fought?" Rainbow Dash looked around the group for a volunteer.

"Travis, what exactly happened to those ponies?" Twilight asked with half of the answer already in her mind.

Travis prepared his answer. "Long story short, they were infected by Ruptured blood and mutated into those forms. That's why they had claws and sharp teeth. Now, you six need to get going. Every second you spend sitting in this city is another Ruptured being born."

"Well, let's get going then!" Pinkie hopped to the front of the group and pointed a hoof left. "Everypony, this way!"

Twilight and company traveled through more of the city and fought off even more Ruptured. They encountered Ruptured pegasi and unicorns. The pegasi flew and were not as sturdy, and the unicorns used simple magic blasts and barriers to aid themselves and other Ruptured in the area. It was when they were almost to the control center did the Ruptured truly become dangerous.

Oddly, the last road to the control center was nearly vacant. Nothing alive was around the ponies, but this was not an excuse for them to let their guard down. When they were only ten yards to the front door, their comm link became busy again.

"Attention, can any of you hear me?" asked the unicorn's voice over the link. He heard several yesses in response.

Another voice, presumably from the third human soldier, spoke up. His voice was deep and rough like rocks. "We're almost to the control center. We found some big ass Ruptured that just hid in a nearby building. We'll investigate it before we get to you six, alright?"

"Don't worry, mister, we can handle it!" Pinkie exclaimed through the link.

She would regret those words only seconds later.

A loud, audible crack shot into the air as the ground rumbled. The road split in half as pieces of it caved into a hole. Then, all of a sudden, an extremely large tentacle shot out of the hole and into the sky. It was two stories tall, was dotted with several bulbous sacs along its sides, and ended in a claw mouth with four flaps of eight rows of fangs. The entire tentacle was hollow and not made out of any bone. It was all muscle and skin.

One of the sacs violently exploded, expelling a young and fresh rupturen. Two more sacs exploded and expelled two unarmed human Ruptured. Finally, a fourth sac exploded to expel yet another human Ruptured. However, this one was different. Its head was larger than normal, and the head itself was awfully squishy. The claws on it were twice as long, and its chest bulged outwards a little more than usual.

Travis realized the incident as five armed human Ruptured showed themselves in one of the nearby buildings. "It's an ambush! Take cover!"

The ponies immediately sprang to their fighting positions and engaged the various Ruptured on the battlefield. Rainbow Dash flew up to the armed Ruptured and rained laser death upon them. They hid behind the metal walls and took next to no damage from the barrage. Rainbow then primed her missiles and aimed them at the building. The entire wall that those Ruptured were hiding behind collapsed and killed one of them. Several more missiles struck the Ruptured and killed them instantly.

The two unarmed Ruptured on the ground were toying with Pinkie Pie. They circled around her countless times while they swiped at her body. They didn't hit her, but they definitely did encase her. It was then that the rupturen hopped into the circle and approached her. She pulled out her party cannon in haste and shredded the rupturen into nothing but bits. The two Ruptured stopped circling her and attempted to confiscate her party cannon, but all they received was more shards of razor-sharp confetti into their bodies. They died nearly instantly from the blasts.

The last Ruptured was sprinting toward Applejack with a wide smile on its face. It stopped, dodged her buck, and stopped smiling. Its head grew and eventually blasted her with a plethora of blood. The glass on her visor also cracked from the impact too. Despite losing its head, the Ruptured aimlessly walked towards Applejack and swiped its claws at her. Twilight and Rarity pelted it with several gemstones and magic blasts, killing it and exploding the rest of its body. Applejack wiped off the excess blood from her visor to get a good view on the tentacle.

It still had about nine sacs on it, and it was becoming more and more active with every passing second. Twilight knew exactly what needed to be done.

She channeled her magic and fired a gigantic fireball at the tentacle. It soon burst into flames and flailed with horror. It retreated back into the hole it created.

Travis knew exactly what was happening, again. "Well, Equestria is now days from destruction."

The Mane Six staggered and frowned with gaping terror from his words. "What do you mean by that?" Twilight asked shakily.

"That was a mastermind tentacle. It could be a replicator tentacle from its small size, but either way, this world is nearly doomed. That means that we need to track and kill this replicator or mastermind before it is too late. Luckily, it shouldn't be far from here. Check the area for any openings into the ground."

"Why don't we use the hole it created to find it?" asked a confused Rainbow Dash.

"It will kill you if you enter that hole. That tentacle can easily travel through that hole and eat you alive if you do that. That's why we do not go down those holes."

The side of a building exploded as a giant Ruptured with two abnormally large arms and an exposed spine where its legs should be smashed right through a wall. The Ruptured groaned and exploded violently, collapsing nearly all of the building with it. Four out of the five soldiers from earlier rushed out of the building and to Twilight and company before they were encased in the rubble.

Max was huffing as he bent to the ground to catch his breath. "That thing was a nightmare to fight. It nearly killed me off when it punched me into a wall."

"The bad thing about this trip is that we're seein' Ruptured that never existed before," the southern soldier stated. He then examined the hole that the tentacle created. "And I bet we'll be facin' a big ol' one of them soon enough."

The unicorn, still distraught from losing his only brother, looked up at the control center. "We need to check this building first. If something came from that hole, it shouldn't be too far."

Since the ponies were right next to the door, they were the first to enter the control center. The first room was an abandoned lobby with a reception desk. The set of double doors led to a control room. Specifically, the room held controls for the turrets on the wall and operating systems for the front gate of Jersoven. Several dead bodies, most of them mutilated and human, rested lifeless on the ground.

Pinkie strayed a little from the group to investigate the most likely cleaned out building. She eventually found an unusually large hole in a unisex bathroom. It dug diagonally into the ground like a tunnel to somewhere. "Girls, I think I found something!"

The other nine members of the small group rushed to her location and examined the room. They saw the exact same hole that Pinkie discovered.

"Well, that's where we need to go," assumed the southern soldier. "This time, I think all of us should go together. It's best we don't lose anymore soldiers."

Twilight and company, along with the small GEST Corp. squadron, climbed down the hole and into the depths of Equestria. Whatever awaited them would definitely not be pleasant. Only time can tell.

•—————•

Hannibal was definitely a lucky demon. He not only survived heresy against his ruler, he also survived after five gruesome battles with the Kavarian Assimilation Troop. In every battle, his squadron was picked clean due to their low skills in combat. Since he was a demon, it was natural for GEST Corp. to give him demon infantry. Apparently, Hannibal was one of the only demons with excellent experience. Most of his comrades were novice demons with little to no understanding in simple defensive and offensive procedures.

Eventually, Hannibal was enrolled into an elite squadron due to his physical capabilities and intelligence in warfare. His first mission in this squad was simple. He was ordered to invade and destroy a Kavarian Conversion Space Station, or a KCSS, that was recently placed in the Equestrian Dimension planet's orbit. GEST Corp. thought that this would be a relatively easy task due to the usual setup of these KCSS's.

They thought wrong.

The kavarians thought thrice about their invasion of Equestria. This space station was dire to the plan, so they had to protect it at all costs.

Usually, KCSS's have only one flagship, five dreadnoughts, five thousand assault ships, and five hundred thousand drop ships in their disposal. This one had three flagships, twelve dreadnoughts, one hundred thousand assault ships, and three million drop ships.

To make matters worse, the KCSS orbiting the planet was highly defended. A three-layer electromagnetic shield, several colossal railguns, and a force of about twenty million deployed infantry units protected it from the inside. GEST Corp. needed a lot of ships and soldiers to complete their mission.

Luckily, GEST Corp. was able to deactivate the shield and destroy one flagship. When the kavarians were distracted from the invasions on their flagships, a few GEST Corp. dropships containing elite squadrons landed in one of the hangar bays. Hannibal and his squadron were on one of these drop ships.

These elite soldiers fought their way through the KCSS and reached one of the four power supply sectors. It was there where they truly felt the difficulty of this mission.

Hannibal and the rest of the soldiers were still finding out how to open the sliding double doors leading to the sector. There were no keypads, buttons, or levers nearby, and they couldn't go back due to a little collapse from a destroyed railgun. If they couldn't get in the sector, they would be sitting ducks waiting for death.

"Frederick, do you have any leads on where to go?" Hannibal asked to the technician of the group. Hannibal was wearing the usual GEST Corp. suit, but it was a shade of grey to indicate his veteran status.

"No, sir," answered Frederick, a GEST Corp. engineer with only two laser submachine guns for weaponry. "All other ways to the sector are locked tight. We'd have to blow up one of these doors with a tank to get through."

One of the veteran classed soldiers shouted in frustration. "Damnit, Leeroy, I knew that you shouldn't have trashed that depot!"

One of the larger set of double doors nearby the group slowly slid open. A low growl that was followed by a gruff voice introduced yet another battle to the soldiers. "Kill them, kill them all!"

The double doors released a variety of troops. One annihilator-class tank, a hulking yet slick machine with three tank barrels and four machine guns, four kavarian gun soldiers that towered at ten feet and carried power packs on their backs, two kavarian commanders with two laser submachine guns each, and dozens of basic kavarian soldiers with laser rifles stormed into the battlefield. Even more kavarian soldiers and snipers rushed to the tall structures around the group.

Hannibal immediately readied his gun and ordered his fellow troops. "It's an ambush! Everyone, to cover!"

The twenty GEST Corp. soldiers took cover behind various barricades and structures around the area. Hannibal threw a grenade at a cluster of kavarian soldiers. They were were all electrified to death from the blast, thinning the numbers out a little. Frederick fired at three soldiers that rushed up to his barricade. One of them shot his leg three times before they died from several headshots. Three veteran class soldiers shot three snipers in their heads, killing them nearly instantly. When one of the gun soldiers revved their laser machine gun and got too close to two of the GEST Corp. soldiers, he was met with two stabs into his torso from two plasma swords. The gun soldier smashed his gun onto one of the soldiers and kicked the other. Both of them died when one was crushed into a mess of organs and blood and the other's head splattered and cracked from the force of the kick.

Hannibal shot at the gun soldier and killed him and a few nearby soldiers with another grenade. One of the commanders' necks was slit open when they rushed up to a veteran soldier and attempted to slice them apart. A few GEST Corp. soldiers, including Leeroy, exploded into viscera when the tank shot three shells at them. Luckily, one of the shells blew open the locked double doors to the sector.

Hannibal noticed this and ordered his troops over the gunfire and growls of war. "Retreat into the sector! I said retreat!"

All of the surviving soldiers except one rushed through the door. That one soldier was in the middle of losing his arm from a gun soldier's pure might. He died from a boot to his skull from another gun soldier standing right over his body. The surviving soldiers ran through the rooms of the power supply sector to escape the kavarians right behind them. When compared to the demons forces' approaches and the psychopaths' brutality, these loyal kavarian soldiers outmatched them by an astronomical amount. These creatures were truly the harbingers of war.

•—————•

The Mane Six and the four GEST Corp. soldiers have already traveled through several tunnels and dead ends. Throughout their journey into who knows where, they encountered Ruptured sacs planted on walls, ceilings, and floors and more pony and human Ruptured that looked slightly different from the ones on the surface. The first dead giveaway was the humans' lack of hair or clothes and the ponies' absence of any color other than yellow on their coat and the lack of a mane or tail. The humans were also genderless due to their nonexistent reproductive organs, but they mainly resembled masculine figures. The ponies looked paler, had no evidence of any cutie marks, and looked awfully identical to one another. Even the human Ruptured looked identical!

Max, one of the soldiers in his band of four, knew quite a lot about the Ruptured. He fought against them before on their home planet, Ruptura. Ever since then, he snatched every bit of information he could find on the Ruptured. He read about their homes, habits, preferences on what to infect, and the many creatures they have infected and absorbed into their mass of contaminated monsters.

When he noticed the increase in sacs and small tendrils along the walls, he immediately mumbled his ideas to the rest of the group. "We should be getting close. Keep an eye out for any moving sacs."

The group closely examined the sacs for any movement, but nothing happened. They continued on until they encountered a sudden drop. Applejack almost fell off the ledge while she examined one of the more transparent sacs. She quickly regained her footing and backed away from the edge. Twilight peeked down the hole to find a few throbbing tendrils creeping down the hole. A faint glow of yellow crept from the bottom and faded as it climbed up the hole. That was definitely the right way to go, but how were they supposed to go down there?

Twilight proposed an idea. "This hole looks big enough for all of us to go down at once. I'll create a platform for us to go down safely. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, you two can just fly down. As for you-" she turned to the unicorn GEST Corp. soldier. "-do you know a teleportation spell?"

"Yes, but I can only use it for small objects or myself," he answered with slight disappointment. "I'm not a strong magic user."

"That's good enough. You can teleport down that hole after we travel down it. That should leave us at only seven ponies and humans on one platform." She gestured the others to back away and readied herself with a casting stance. "Is everypony ready?"

The group replied with nods, yesses, and yeps. Twilight's horn shimmered with a purple glow as a rectangular platform manifested from thin air. It was transparent and stained like glass, but that was enough for the group to travel down the hole. Twilight walked onto the platform. Shortly after that, the three humans, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack also walked onto the platform. When everyone was on the platform, she slowly lowered it down the hole. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy hovered above the group, and the one unicorn soldier waited until they all descended to the bottom. When the group finally made it down the hole, he teleported himself down there with them. Everyone was still safe and sound.

For now.

The group traveled down the tunnel until they reached a huge room. It was almost as massive as a coliseum battlefield. Giant throbbing and shuddering tentacles and tendrils lined the ceiling and walls of the room. Several sacs of various sizes littered the walls and ceiling as well, stabbing fear right into the group's hearts. The entire floor was basically a ring with a depressed center. In that center was a giant pool of what the humans knew well as Ruptured blood. There was lots of it. To the Ruptured, that pool was life. Anything the Ruptured wanted could be created from just the blood itself. Anything.

However, the most noticeable feature was the gargantuan Ruptured in the pool of blood. It was at least seven stories tall, which was about half of the cavern's height. Several tentacles sprouted from its sides and back, and some of the tentacles shot straight up into the ceiling. The other tentacles swayed around the mass of flesh passively. The head of this thing had nine misshapen and misplaced eyes and a gaping mouth with hundreds of fangs. It had a large, forked tongue that dangled from its slightly open mouth. Two visible nostrils were right above its snoutlike mouth. Its body kept itself mainly solid around its chest and neck, but the entire body soon branched off into multiple towers and beams of flesh that dug into the blood. Was this thing made out of the blood? Was it bathing in it? Was the blood its life source? These questions rammed into the ponies' minds like speeding freight trains.

The monster, or what the humans knew it as a replicator, turned its head towards the ponies and seemed to talk to them. No, it did not talk, but it was still speaking to them. Whatever it was saying, it said it with a deep, demonic growl of mist and rock.

You have finally come. We were waiting for your arrival.

Fluttershy was automatically frightened from the strange voice and hid behind Max for safety. Rainbow Dash's smirk dropped to a dead frown as the voice echoed in her mind and struck her with a strange feeling of anxiety.

Many have endured us, many have not. Many have fought us, and many shall not. We are well aware that this is true and, without a doubt, prophetical statement.

Pinkie drowned out the voice with fearful humming, but it was too thick and powerful to shut out. It sounded like it was speaking to the ponies from everywhere. Twilight heard it from above, below, behind, ahead, and the sides. She even heard it in her own thoughts. That, however, was where it was the most intense.

This world is rather fruitful in flesh. We could almost call it, a second Earth. Ah, Earth. It was a bountiful harvest of organisms to feed upon. However, when it was taken from us by these ignorant humans, we simply frowned and searched for another. Have you, Twilight Sparkle, leader of the Elements of Harmony, ever felt the pain of losing a treasure?

Before she could even answer that question, the replicator interrupted her.

No, you have not. Simple losses like appliances and friends are far lower than a world. A world is precious. It is a harbinger. It is a nursery. It is rolling feeding grounds. It is even a plague.

Twilight was more stunned that the replicator knew her name and affiliation with the Elements of Harmony. It even felt like it knew everything else about her. Everything she thought about in her mind felt heavy all of a sudden. Every recalled memory soon felt unbearable to remember from the sudden fatigue, and she couldn't explain it.

Twilight, we can see why you are such a necessity to everything. You are a tool of destruction. Have you not wondered what happened to the Psychopaths? They were destroyed, extinct, by your invasion. You paved the path for the humans, and they decorated it with the blood of the Psychopaths. That is why you are ours now, Twilight Sparkle. Your power is chaotic, young, persuadable, manipulable. It is why you joined the humans. You are not their friend, Twilight. They have only ensnared you with words and guns, brutal, barbaric guns.

"Oh my god," Max verbally announced in horror. "The Hive Mind is so sophisticated now. What happened?"

He happened, Maxwell Kent. He brought us intelligence, leadership, civilization, morality. We are not savages, Maxwell. We are creatures longing for the civilization and development of our culture. He delivered this to us. Now, we will take what must be collected. Do not fight back, or you will surely be destroyed in your own, naïveté.

The replicator shifted its body backwards as the pool of blood bubbled and rippled. The first thing that rose out of the blood was a giant head ten times bigger than a human head. It had two big, bulging eyes with smaller misplaced ones around its cheeks, scalp, chin, and forehead. Pinkie swore that she could see warped faces of both human and pony origin on the creature's skin. It had a mouth of thousands of misaligned fangs that backed into its own head a little. A similar forked tongue kept itself curled up in its mouth, visible but not important yet.

Next, the head was followed with a long neck that stuck out from the back of the head. It was thick, long, and snakelike with a few eyeballs, faces, rib cages, and limbs sticking out of its body. Several sharp quills stuck out of the back of the neck with a similar build to hedgehogs or porcupines. Two slender tentacles dangled from its sides with the same eyeballs and faces found on its head and neck.

As the creature rose from the blood even more, the neck visibly curved forward to the creature's head like a living question mark. The neck became thicker and thicker until it eventually split into four ends, all of them with more leftover pieces from other ponies and humans. These four thick legs curved like the tops of canes and ended in four black plates of some hard material in a cylindrical shape. The only thing that the group could propose they were was multiple hooves similar to a pony.

This monstrous creature soon walked out of the pool of blood and onto the land in front of the group. It was at least two stories tall from its ridiculous size and endless collection of bodies. All that the group could think about was that this could not end well.

A challenger approaches: Equestrian Rupturian, a hulking mass of several minds and bodies

Max knew exactly how to fight this creature. "Run!"

The group scrambled around the battlefield and avoided the Equestrian Rupturian at all costs. Rainbow Dash fired a few laser blasts into its body from time to time, poking a few holes in it but not really injuring it severely. Every time anyone tried to hurt the replicator, the rupturian was always there to block the blows, and it didn't help that the replicator could heal itself from the massive pool of blood. Twilight fired some magic blasts at the rupturian while she galloped away from it, but it didn't flinch nor show any injuries. It continued its trample along the ring and fired several quills at the humans and ponies. Luckily, they dodged these quills easily. However, the rupturian also had another trick up its sleeve.

Applejack approached the monster and kicked a few metal balls into its face. For some reason, the balls didn't fall off its face or really dent it. Instead, they stopped and slowly sank into its flesh. Only seconds later, plates of metal bubbled up to the skin on its face and replaced it entirely. Half of its face was now coated in thick metal.

"Don't use anything like that on that thing!" Max warned as he fired at the creature with his laser minigun. Several holes developed around the creature's neck and torso. Max couldn't tell which was which though, as the creature's body looked like a head with a long and thick neck ending at four legs. The rupturian ignored the hits and fired more quills as it stomped its way to him.

Twilight suddenly remembered a Ruptured's worst nightmare. She fired a fire blast at the rupturian and dealt quite a lot of damage. One of its tentacles burnt to a black glop while the creature wailed in pain. It glared directly at her and walked towards her at a faster pace.

Pinkie kept to herself throughout the fight after she heard Max's warning. She immediately speculated after seeing that thing absorb the metal balls and use them as armor. I think that thing does that with everything, she thought to herself. Maybe it'll get hurt from a bomb.

Pinkie took out one of her pink bombs and hurled it at the rupturian. It absorbed it into its front left leg and attempted to break it down into material. However, it exploded inside of the rupturian and blew apart that same leg. This severely crippled the creature and almost killed it from the shock and loss of mass. It immediately scrambled away from the group and back into the pool of blood.

Twilight thought that this was the end of the battle. She cheered happily and fired another blast at it for assurance of death. "I think we won! We won!"

"No, we haven't yet," the southern soldier gravely mumbled as the creature sat in the pool of blood.

The blood seeped into its body and rejuvenated the entire creature. Its missing leg grew back and looked a little more muscular. The entire creature sprouted several tentacles on its sides and ripped its claws out of its hooves. Another mouth, this one being vertical, opened up in its chest. Several sharpened teeth and another forked tongue were revealed from this opening. Also, this mouth was glowing brighter than its original one.

!WARNING!: Equestrian Rupturian has been upgraded to Enraged status!

"That can't be good," said Rainbow Dash as she prepared to dodge whatever the creature might do.

"We can't fight it like this!" shouted the unicorn soldier. "We need to stop that thing from getting in that blood!"

"But how? It'll just stay near that thing forever!"

The unicorn soldier came up with a brilliant idea. "Alright, Twilight, you and your friends need to get out of here!"

The rupturian walked back onto the ring and opened its second mouth. The mouth spat out three globs of infected blood and flesh at Rarity and Fluttershy. Both ponies dodged the globs successfully.

"What about you four?" Twilight shouted with worry in her voice.

"Don't worry 'bout us!" replied the southern soldier. "We can handle this!"

Twilight teleported herself over to the hole the group entered. "Girls, come over here!"

Rainbow Dash zipped to her first, Fluttershy also flew over to her quickly due to panic, and Pinkie galloped fast enough to outrun one of the rupturian's tentacles. Rarity and Applejack were still in the ring with the rupturian. There was no way around it except for running around around the entire ring.

"We'll have to take the long way, Rarity." Applejack suggested as she turned around and began her run to the other side. Rarity started hers shortly after five quills were launched at her head. She immediately panicked and caught up to Applejack. Both of them eventually made it to the other four ponies, leaving only the four GEST Corp. soldiers with that thing. The rupturian turned to them for a second with its quills and flesh balls primed.

They are not important. Follow Twilight Sparkle and the others instead.

The rupturian ignored the soldiers and faced Twilight and company instead. Twilight already had the platform ready and was ascending herself and three of her friends. When they all made it to the top of the hole, the rupturian made it to the bottom of the hole. It then pressed its tentacles into the walls and placed its feet on one side of the hole. It slowly climbed up to the ponies, slightly frightening them from its ability to climb like that. It eventually reached the top and glared right at the ponies. Specifically, it glared at Twilight Sparkle.

Cowardice is the tool of the feeble. Ignorance is the tool of the suicidal. Apparently, Twilight, you use both.

The Equestrian Rupturian howled at the ponies with a mighty scream louder than a sold out death metal concert. Some of the sacs on the walls and ceiling of the tunnel burst apart and released multiple Ruptured onto the field. Eighteen ruptches, nine unarmed Ruptured, six pony Ruptured, three pegasi and three unicorns, and three rupturens joined the battle. All of them faced the ponies and completely surrounded them. They growled and fidgeted sporadically as they walked toward the ponies. Rainbow Dash readied her missiles and lasers, Rarity conjured dozens of gemstones, Applejack prepared herself for bucking, Pinkie cloaked herself with invisibility, Fluttershy held up her hooves in a swirl of fear and anger, and Twilight channeled her magic.

The first move was by Twilight. She created a barrier around the group that halted the Ruptured's assault. Rainbow Dash and Rarity were a little reluctant to fire from the barrier.

"Go ahead," Twilight demanded. "This is a one-way barrier."

Rainbow Dash fired into the crowd of Ruptured, killing several of them and bursting some of the intact sacs. Rarity stabbed several ruptches and human Ruptured with her gems, killing them nearly instantly from the pure force. Her gems at this point were almost like sharpened bullets from the training she had with throwing them. The three Ruptured unicorns outside of the barrier attempted to drain the magic of the barrier, but it was to no avail. Eventually, the numbers were thinned out to only about four. Pinkie was busy clobbering these remaining Ruptured with just her brute force.

When battling a crowd controlling force, one must become impervious to its tactics. Several minions are illogical to use. One brute is crucial for success.

The rest of the intact sacs burst apart, releasing another wave of Ruptured. However, instead of surrounding the ponies again, these Ruptured dived right into the rupturian's body. Every body that touched the rupturian melted into its flesh like molding clay. The rupturian eventually mutated again. This time, more quills shot out of its back, a few more tentacles sprouted out of its body, and its muscles grew in power. One addition that was the most striking was the unicorn horn that sprouted out of the Equestrian Rupturian's massive head. It roared again, this time with a surge of magic pulsing through its veins.

!WARNING!: Equestrian Rupturian has been upgraded to Elite status!

"Oh dear," Rarity whimpered in fear as the hulking amalgamation grinned through its wretched teeth.

The rupturian blasted the barrier with a beam of pure magic. Twilight fell backwards and tumbled onto the dirt ground from the sudden addition of hostile magic. She felt nearly drained from the blast. When she attempted to conjure a fire blast, all that manifested was a small flame on the tip of her horn that quickly died out. Rainbow Dash punished the rupturian with a hailstorm of lasers, but it was not very effective. Apparently, the rupturian was too badass for petty attacks like that. Rarity stabbed it with a gemstone in the eye, forgetting the warning Max told her. The eye was definitely destroyed, but the gem was soon absorbed into the rupturian. A crystal jewel then formed where its damaged eye used to be.

Rainbow Dash tried another tactic while the rupturian fired quill after quill at her. She fired a few missiles at the rupturian. Last time, it absorbed Pinkie's bomb and nearly died from it. Will it absorb this?

When the missile struck the rupturian, it exploded at the surface of the body. Some of the flesh where it struck was destroyed, but it was only about one-sixteenth of what Pinkie's bomb did. The rupturian flinched, but it still continued fighting like nothing happened. Rainbow fired more missiles, this time aiming for the head. Several missiles struck its head and exploded, but only half of them did anything. The ones that hit the rupturian's armored skin did nothing. The other missiles destroyed a fourth of its face. It was still intact though.

The rupturian stomped towards Rainbow Dash and created a golden glow around its horn. This same glow wrapped around Rainbow's body and pulled her toward the rupturian. Pinkie panicked, deactivated her cloak, and pulled out her party cannon. A giant plume of blue and purple dragon's fire smothered the rupturian and burnt several parts of its body. It was now half dead or half alive.

It quickly destroyed the flames with a wave of magic as it dropped Rainbow Dash. It backed away and swiped a few tentacles at Pinkie. She dodged backwards, successfully avoiding absorption into the rupturian. Fluttershy decided that cheering for her friends was the best option now. She started with Rainbow Dash, the one mare that had several explosives right on her back. Rainbow heard the cheer, sprung into action, and fired a dozen missiles at its scorched body. Several pieces of flesh fell off as it bellowed in irritation and pain. Twilight helped her by firing several magic blasts at the ruined sections of its body. She was still weak from the barrier incident, but she had to do something. Applejack and Rarity joined in on Fluttershy's cheer and gave Rainbow Dash several shouts of determination.

"You can do it!" exclaimed Fluttershy happily.

"You're almost done! Just fight a little more!" shouted Applejack.

"Teach that freak a lesson for ruining my precious gem!" angrily spat Rarity.

Rainbow Dash aimed for the rupturian's tentacles and blew them off its body. Pinkie threw a few more bombs that exploded on its surface, splattering more flesh from its body. As its bones finally became visible, it fired more quills and magic blasts at the ponies. Pinkie thought of a clever trick and took out a wrapped present. She tossed it at the rupturian's severely mangled head. At first, it was reluctant to absorb it. When it found out that it was safe, it absorbed it into its body.

Suddenly, the entire head exploded into bits of viscera and metal as a hidden pink bomb detonated inside of it. The rest of the body tumbled to the ground and bubbled violently. The ponies remembered a quick fact about the Ruptured at that moment.

They rupture.

They sprinted as fast as they could out of the caves. The entire body of the rupturian exploded extremely violently, causing a destructive cave-in. All the ponies knew at this point was that they defeated the monster and escaped its horrific lair.

Elite Equestrian Rupturian has been defeated!

•—————•

"It's almost dead!" shouted Max through the gunfire and screaming. "Just a little more should do it!"

The four soldiers were in a bloodbath of Ruptured. They have already killed several Ruptured lackeys from the sacs, and they have already destroyed most of the replicator. The last thing left to do is blow it up sky high.

The replicator spasmed one last time after its brain splattered into pieces. Its entire body bubbled and bloated a little from the sudden lack of life.

The southern soldier was deeply worried of what was about to happen. He turned to the unicorn soldier in hopes of something that can save their lives. "Uh, buddy, I think you might wanna test out teleportin' all of us outta here."

"I think so too!" Max shouted as he gunned down two rupturens. "That thing's about to blow!"

"Do you know anywhere that you can teleport us?"

"Canterlot!" the unicorn soldier yelled through the noise. "Hopefully, we're going to Canterlot!"

The unicorn's thoughts were frantic and panicky. Please work! Please work for just once!

An orange glow surrounded the four soldiers as the entire cavern rumbled and cracked apart. Right when they flashed into nothingness, the replicator exploded, destroying everything around it.

•—————•

The Mane Six finally left the underground network of caves and emerged to the surface once more. They heard a loud explosion come from the direction of the mining center. They decided to check it to see what happened.

All that was as left there was a ginormous crater full of black and yellow residue. Whatever was there must have been huge.

"So, that was where that thing was the entire time," Twilight mused. "Those caves made it feel like we walked forever."

"Wait a minute, we could've crushed that thing from here?" Rainbow Dash was obviously agitated by the useless walking and possible sacrifice of four soldiers. "Why didn't we just enter from here?"

"Dashie, we didn't know what was down there!" Pinkie responded to Rainbow's anger. "Second, it was a mine. I bet something called a control center would be a lot more appealing than just a simple mine."

"Hey, uh, there's something glowing in the sky," Applejack warned as she peered up into the mix of creamy blue and fluffy white.

She was right. Something was glowing. After about five seconds of staring at the glowing light, it suddenly shot downwards into the planet. The entire beam it created was immensely huge and powerful. Despite it looking like it was about to crash into the ground, it instead spread across the sky like a blanket of glowing blue. The entire sun and beyond was cut off from the ponies' view as the sky shifted in seconds. Clouds dissipated and expanded, and frigid winds drifted across the landscape. When the layer of blue finally disappeared, the sky shifted from partly cloudy to mostly cloudy. The air was now as cold as winter, and the wind was now rather gusty. Only about half a minute later, snowflakes began to fall from the sky. They slowly but surely blanketed the entire world with a glistening white.

Pinkie bounced up to a few floating flakes and eyed them carefully. It definitely looked like snow alright. She then hopped around in excitement and joy while she eyed the other flakes. "It's snowing! It's snowing!"

Rainbow Dash went slack-jawed as she darted her eyes from cloud to cloud. "It's, snowing." Her voice was quivery and uncertain as surprise and fear latched onto her face. "It's, snowing?"

"I don't understand," Twilight quietly spoke to herself in confusion. "It's not supposed to be winter until a month from now. How can there already be snow?"

"Is someone playing games with us, or did we cause the windigoes to come back somehow? I can't tell anymore."

A small buzz in the ponies' ears slowly increased in volume. It then clicked into a familiar voice. It was unusually somber and grave with its tone. "Attention all members of GEST Corp., General Solk here to give you terrible news. Operation Solar Strike has failed. Kavarian forces on the KCSS orbiting Equestria wiped out nearly all of our veteran squadrons that were deployed onto the field and caused significant damage to our fleet. As we speak, the space station is repairing itself for another assault the kavarians believe we will attempt. However, we have bigger matters to attend to. The KCSS was able to successfully alter the planet's climate and behavior to what has been seen on Andromeda and Earth. Further reports of the change in weather and flora and fauna behavior will be published after various tests are performed. For now, we need to worry about a grand invasion that the kavarians are planning. We have reports from spies that they are attacking tomorrow shortly after noontime. Preparations will be made to defend against this invasion. For now, return back to headquarters so that we may begin our mission briefing."

As Solk's voice ended in another click, Travis talked to the ponies once again. "It's best you six go back to Ponyville. Solk will be meeting all of you soon."

"We, lost?" Fluttershy asked in a wave of sadness.

"We didn't lose," Rarity replied to comfort Fluttershy, "the humans did. What we did here today possibly saved all of Equestria from, whatever those savages were."

"Well, we need to get going," Twilight softly ordered. "It's getting a little chilly now."

The ponies walked back to the front gate of Jersoven. It was odd to see the entire place in a blanket of snow. The ground before them was slightly covered, but a few more hours would have made them completely covered. The drop ship was waiting at the front gate as always. Twilight and company took their seats and waited until they got back to Ponyville. Today was a victory for the ponies, yet it was a major loss for all of Equestria.