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

After the Mane Six came back from their small departure to Jersoven, they were immediately greeted by the one and only General Solk. He stood outside the town hall with a gun in hand and battle armor to boot. Soldiers marched around the area and assigned themselves to posts, and a few ponies watched them prepare the entire city for potential war. When Solk saw the six ponies again, his face was not of pleasure or happiness to see them. It was only relief.

"Twilight," he began his small discussion with a worried tone, "we are about to face possibly the most destructive force to ever land on this planet. We have exact timing on when these kavarian forces will attack. They are planning an assault on Canterlot tomorrow shortly after noontime. For now, you six have done everything you could. Now, go get some rest and speak to your families before tomorrow strikes. Meet me at the gates of Canterlot at around eleven o' clock. I'll tell you your job and what you must do then."

The ponies nodded and replied to Solk with valor. Rarity was the first to speak. "We will make sure these ruffians learn a lesson!"

"We'll teach these aliens a lesson about invading our turf!" ordered Applejack.

"They'll not be happy to see me on the battlefield tomorrow!" cockily predicted Rainbow Dash.

"I don't think we'll be giving them a party anytime soon," addressed Pinkie Pie.

"I really think they need to stop ruining our home," Fluttershy thought with words as she watched he still falling snow.

"We will protect Canterlot at all costs, Solk!" Twilight Sparkle spoke with pure determination. "For Equestria!"

"That's the patriotism I like to hear." Solk smirked as he examined the group once more. Hearing their voices always warmed his heart bit by bit. "Now, before you six go home, we need to clean your suits."

"So, you want them back for a little while?" Twilight predicted.

"Yes. Be careful when you take them off. The blood is still contagious."

"But what about our stuff?" Pinkie questioned as she peered in her pocket chests.

"They'll be fine," Solk assured. "You six will get them back tomorrow. Also, it's not like you need them at the very moment or later today."

The ponies took their suits off and folded them as nicely as they could. They then handed the suits to Solk. "Okay, you six may leave now. Go get some rest."

The ponies nodded and said okay at random intervals. They then broke apart and returned to their homes. Solk barely moved from his original location and pondered the war to himself. This won't be an easy fight, but I think these ponies can win. If they stopped another Ruptured Pandemic from happening, they can probably defeat the kavarians on their home turf. At least the kavarians did not declare total war yet.

•—————•

The next day was oozing with preparation and anxiety. Twilight Sparkle got up early and sped to the train station with very few supplies. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were also there, idling as they waited for the others. Applejack was galloping towards the group as Rarity gently paced herself along the way to the train's door. Fluttershy was right behind her with a small smile on her face, shivering a little from the still falling snow.

After the entire group arrived, they entered the train and took their seats. It was almost ten o' clock, and the train ride would be about an hour to Canterlot.

Rainbow felt a little worried. "So, uh, anypony else kind of wondering what we'll be fighting next?"

"Actually, yes," Twilight responded with a little worry as well. "The humans kept saying that the big laser and all of this snow was from the kavarians and their victory. If they can control the weather like that, what will they do down here?"

Fluttershy repelled a few thoughts about the terrifying gore she witnessed throughout this time of war. "Hopefully, they are not as, bloody." Her voice quivered on that last word.

"They will probably be just another batch of brutes like those demons," Rarity sourly predicted. "None of these creatures know any manners whatsoever."

"Maybe we're tougher than the humans and these creatures aren't as bad as we think," Rainbow Dash hoped. "We smashed those Psychopath punks, Ruptured, and the demons, what makes these guys any different? They're just some more soldiers that'll gun us down and stumble on their own feet."

"That happened with the demons only, Rainbow," Applejack clarified. "The Ruptured acted like complete animals, and the Psychopaths were actually pretty darn organized. Those robots we fought without you were also a little clumsy too." Applejack thought about what she faced again. "Huh, maybe what we're fighting isn't as dangerous as we thought."

"I know why we won every time we fought something!" Pinkie exclaimed. She acted out her next set of words with various movements and stances. "We're too fast, too strong, too durable, and too overpowered for them! While we've been gathering levels, they've been doing nothing!"

"I know these punks aren't the hardest things we've faced, but they don't just sit around all day," Rainbow believed through her words. "They're obviously lifting weights before they punch us."

"Do I have to remind everypony the close calls we had?" Fluttershy spoke up through the commotion. "I can't imagine how many times all of us were in very bad situations."

Rarity rubbed her chin with her hoof. "Well, when you think about that, it does say that we are all very lucky ladies."

"Or, we're foolish and lucky," Applejack added.

"I just hope everything turns out fine in the end," Twilight ultimately spoke through her lingering worry. "Nowadays, we can't be sure. One small battle could mean the destruction of Ponyville, or worse, Equestria itself!"

"Well, that is why we're riding to Canterlot," Rainbow pointed out. "To stop the end of Equestria, right?"

The train whistled as it's entire body slowly slugged across the tracks. Constant chugging sounds and motions were audible as the train slowly accelerated towards Canterlot.

After about twenty minutes of riding the train, Twilight plopped her head to the window beside her. The plains were completely covered in snow. Snowflakes still fell from a few clouds in the sky. Despite there being a shining sun and a blue sky, the air was frigid, and the ground was frozen. A few pegasi were up in the clouds, changing and destroying them, but it was to no avail. When one cloud was destroyed, two more were created in its place, prolonging the task even further than needed.

Even though it would have been nice to see the glistening white, Twilight did not want this. Ponies were sad, afraid, fearful of the future. Snow came down over and over again without an end in sight, almost repeating the harsh weather of windigo times. Plus, the cold was not the usual wintry breeze Twilight loved. The air actually felt freezing enough to cause severe shivers and frostbite, not pleasant or cool like usual. Was this punishment from the kavarians, or was it a simple game they were playing with Equestria to amuse themselves? Twilight couldn't tell, and neither could the other ponies.

•—————•

When the train finally stopped at the Canterlot train station, the six ponies left the train and examined their surroundings. Only just a few yards away was General Solk and a few ED soldiers by his side. There were four unicorns and two pegasi in the ED squadron. The pegasi had two pairs of laser machine guns that mimicked Rainbow Dash's pair, and the unicorns' armor was a strange glowing blue with several brightly glowing lines running along it. Several human, pony, skeleton, and durnoki soldiers rushed and patrolled through the snowy streets. A few locals conversed with each other or boarded up their homes. The rest were waiting at the train station for evacuation. Several royal guards were escorted either to the castle or to the train station by GEST Corp. personnel.

When General Solk noticed the six ponies, he smiled a little and walked over to them sternly. "I'm glad you six could come here. Apparently, the kavarians might be a little more prepared than we thought."

Rainbow Dash groaned angrily. "What are they doing now?"

"Word has it that they might have already invaded. Recent reports suggest that they invaded the mountain right next to us."

"What are they doing in the mountain?" Twilight asked as her eyes climbed up the mountainside.

Solk looked around the city and sighed at its architecture. "The kavarians know how easy it is to blow off a structure off a mountain, especially when it's literally hanging on its side."

"Huh, I guess this wasn't a good area to place a big city then," Applejack mused.

Solk sighed again as he massaged his forehead with his left hand. "Who in the hell ever thought that this location was even remotely smart? Anyway, the kavarians might be threatening to destroy this side of the mountain or cause a catastrophic landslide. With the weaponry they own, it should be very easy for them to do it."

Rarity quickly noticed a fault in the idea. "Wait, if these kavarians want to destroy Canterlot, and they have quite the powerful technology, then why don't they strike it from above?"

"The kavarians may be ruthless in battle, but they are master preservers of all planets. They could glass this entire planet if they wanted to, but they don't. That means they want to colonize and harvest it."

"So, they just want to live here?" Fluttershy proposed. "Why don't we let them then? There are human settlements in Equestria. We can have kavarian ones too."

"The kavarians don't want to do that. They want total control of the planet from the exosphere to the inner core. I believe they want to eradicate ponykind first and move on from there."

Pinkie Pie couldn't grasp the kavarians' desires. "Why do these guys hate us so much? It's not like we destroyed their homes or something!"

"The kavarians have a deep hatred for humanity. It's so deep that they will kill every species we befriend, including themselves." Solk kneeled down to the ponies' level and lowered his head in shame. "We pretty much left your species in the crossfire of our wars. I am terribly sorry for all of this."

A raspy and throaty voice sliced the conversation into pieces. "Oh, Solk, you don't have to express your worthless pity. I would have came here sooner if I had dimensional travel and the knowledge of this world's existence ages ago."

Solk and the ED soldiers turned around and saw a small robot with a screen that presented static and shadows. Before the soldiers could fire, Solk lowered their weapons and eyed the robot spitefully. "What are you doing here?"

The robot shifted around in midair as the screen kept its aim at Solk. "Oh, me? I'm checking your worthless group of ponies, that's all. However–" the screen tilted towards Pinkie "–she is far from worthless. Boy was she quite the specimen to experiment with. Can you imagine how much she can eat in a sitting? It's scientifically impossible to say the least!"

Pinkie tilted her head at the robot. "What are you talking about?" Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity were clenching their teeth and darting their eyes from Pinkie to the robot.

"Wait, you don't know? The cell we kept you in? The experiments involving maiming your friends and doing other supposedly insane acts? The cake we fed you that turned you into a blood hungry cannibal? How do you not know all of this?"

"Because I don't remember that," Pinkie softly spoke through her shattered voice. Tears welled up in her eyes as she sniffed and stared up at the robot. "Did you really do that to me?"

"Of course I did, and I sure as hell don't regret it one bit. The other test subjects, mainly ponies, screamed and ran away from you as you stabbed and gutted and devoured them one by one. It was definitely a sight to behold from what I originally thought would be worthless garbage!"

Pinkie completely broke into tears as Applejack and Fluttershy comforted and hugged her sobbing body. Solk couldn't take it anymore and shot his laser revolver at the robot thrice, exploding it in midair. He glared down at the crying Pinkie and her friends, unbearably hurt by the Pure One's complete disregard for trauma.

"I, I really did that?" Pinkie managed to say through her sobbing. "I tried to, to eat other ponies?"

"I'm afraid that is true, Pinkie," Twilight replied with both worry and sadness.

Rainbow Dash was completely shocked of what she heard. "Wait a second, I never knew they did that to her!"

"I've been trying to avoid letting her know that ever since we erased her memories," Solk almost whispered as he shook his head. "I guess it was completely useless to not tell her."

Rainbow Dash bashed her hooves together with a growl as if she was cracking her nonexistent knuckles. "These punks are going to pay for this! I'll wipe the floor with their faces!"

"Rainbow Dash, it's best we do not succumb to our rage," Rarity cautioned calmly. "Blind rage is never helpful."

"I don't think I can just keep it in, Rare. You don't know how much anger I'm packing in my body right now!"

"Okay, before we get off track," Solk started as he presented the ED soldiers, "you six should be on your way now. These soldiers will help you as you travel through the mountain. Just go over to the waterfall and search the cave behind it for any kavarian activity."

"Um, why can't you bring some of your soldiers down there and search it yourself?" Applejack tested with speculation.

"I already put some squadrons in that cave, but they didn't find anything yet. Plus, I need all the soldiers I can get to defend Canterlot and its three outposts. Now, go. Time is wasting away as we speak."

The Mane Six collected together with the soldiers in mere seconds. Soon afterwards, they left the preparing city with haste, hoping to not waste any time that could be valuable to the kavarians. Travis soon popped up as well, checking to see if he had a connection with all of the six ponies.

"Oh yeah, I think I should point something out," a gruff voice from one of the pegasi blurted as the group raced down the streets. His mane and tail twisted and jolted like two red and orange lightning bolts that formed waves of movement as the cold wind sailed along them."Twilight Sparkle was assigned as our commander while we fight with you six."

Twilight's eyed beamed in excitement and slight fear. "Me? I'm your commander?"

"That's what Princess Celestia and General Solk agreed on."

By the time the pegasus's sentence ended, the group arrived at the cave. Twilight's mind raced as she thought about her powers, the soldiers' powers, and several different strategies and tactics. Even though she only led six soldiers, it felt like she was leading six thousand.

The journey through the waterfall cave was surprisingly confusing. Several tunnels separated from the original entrance and twisted and turned into several other areas. Twilight had no idea where she was going the entire time, constantly guessing on where the kavarians might have went.

Sadly, the tunnels were only the least of the group's worries. The entire cave system itself lost light very swiftly, forcing the unicorns of the group to manifest small lights on the ends of their horns to simply see the floor under them. A few streams of water made the cave floor somewhat wet and grimy, and several stone stalagmites, stalactites, and columns sometimes popped out of nowhere and either startled or blocked the group.

However, the characteristic of the cave that frightened the group the most was the occasional arch or structure of grey and purple metal. These structures usually contained a few glowing lights around them that gave the group vast arrays of light. The Mane Six predicted that they were pieces of kavarian architecture. The soldiers remembered those curves and lights from the battles they fought on the kavarian mining planets.

When several structures and several bright lights entered the group's view, the soldiers primed their weapons and carefully peered around the corners. Twilight soon used her new authority and gave the troops several orders.

"You two," Twilight started as she pointed a hoof at the pegasi, "scan the higher platforms for any enemies." She moved her hoof over to the unicorns. "You four, prepare one-way barrier spells just in case we get bombarded by lasers."

The soldiers saluted to her and obeyed her commands. The rest of the ponies simply examined the architecture.

"Well, these creatures surely know what a style is," Rarity mused as she admired the twists and curves in the metal. "It is kind of odd how these wretched monsters have wonderful tastes in design. Why destroy something so beautiful?"

"Maybe because it was made by an enemy?" Rainbow Dash replied as she turned her head to an arch. "If these punks really knew how to beat us, they'd build more buildings that'd make your jaw drop."

Rarity frowned a little at Rainbow's words. "Oh, please! Of course I adore this work, but I would never give myself away for it!"

"I think you would." Rainbow's smirk grew a tiny bit from every word she said. "You'd look up at an arch, drool on the ground, and mumble to yourself, 'Pretty colors,' as they rush up and bag you."

"That will definitely never happen! Why would I even do that?"

"Because you love these pieces of metal so much."

"I was only stating how mu-mph!"

Pinkie put a hoof over Rarity's mouth and tilted an ear towards the other side of the cave. "Quiet, you're going to alert the guards!"

All of the soldiers glanced at the entrance and heard incoming footsteps. From the sounds they heard echo through the caves, they noticed that about five to eight soldiers were approaching. They soon entered their battle stances, along with the six mares with them.

Only three seconds later, seven kavarian soldiers marched out of the entrance. Six of them were basic soldiers with laser rifles, and one was a commander with two submachine guns. The soldiers stopped in their tracks and scanned the area. They were surrounded by twelve ponies with combat armor and several magic, laser, and physical weaponry.

"Well, crap," blurted one of the basic soldiers.

Lasers soared from Rainbow Dash and the pegasi, magic lashed at the commander's body, and several bucks and punches from Pinkie Pie and Applejack struck the soldier's faces and chests. The commander soon spasmed and collapsed into a contorted pretzel as the magic destroyed his vital organs, four soldiers fell on the ground as their bodies were ripped apart by the lasers, and the last two fell unconscious and soon dead after a few bucks and three missiles.

The group of ponies soon rushed through the entrance and continued along their journey. They met a few more squadrons that were blown apart in mere seconds from the overwhelming forces. The lights got brighter, the features of the original caves slowly disappeared, and the stone ground was replaced with a metal floor.

The cave itself slowly grew larger and larger until the roof was as high as Canterlot's castle's ceilings. A huge fortified wall with marching kavarian soldiers soon appeared into view. Instead of the forces being just a squadron, it looked like there were thirty soldiers instead of nine or seven.

Two snipers on the walkway of the wall noticed the group of twelve and prepared their laser sniper rifles. The fifteen basic soldiers spread around the room and took cover. The three commanders also took cover as five towering gun soldiers walked over to their posts. Five new soldiers with strange guns with cone barrels and cylindrical ammo packs also found the closest cover to them.

The first attack was by Rainbow Dash. She fired several missiles at the snipers, killing both from the explosions and the collapsing walkway. Two basic soldiers and a gun soldier also lost their heads as the massive amounts of rubble crushed and mangled their bodies and heads. Several lasers retaliated, but Twilight and the two unicorn soldiers used a combined reflection spell, killing seven basic soldiers, two more gun soldiers, and a commander. Pinkie cloaked herself and pummeled two basic soldiers to death on the right side of the area. Rarity stabbed an experimental soldier and four more basic soldiers by stabbing high speed gems through their visors, slicing the soldiers' eyes and brains into messy pieces.

One of the vengeful commanders exposed his claws and leaped at a nearby unicorn soldier. Before he could get too close, the soldier grabbed the commander's torso with his magic and ripped the trunk into two pieces, killing the commander right then and there. A gun soldier stomped towards a pegasus soldier and revved his gatling laser minigun. The pegasus revved his laser miniguns as well and blasted the gun soldier in the head with dozens of shots. Twilight fired a powerful surge of magic at another gun soldier's chest, stopping their heart and collapsing their lungs into themselves. The soldier fell down with a thud onto some nearby rubble.

Two experimental soldiers got lucky and cornered the invisible Pinkie. They knew where she was from their enhanced vision and instantly recognized her innocent yet once devilish face. One of the soldiers cackled a throaty laugh as they pulled back a handle on their gun. The cone barrel's end glowed with blue energy as three lightning arcs blasted out of it and struck Pinkie body. She fell to the ground and lost her invisibility.

"She's ours now," bellowed the other experimental soldier. "Let's take her back with us before the other ponies steal her again."

Before they could approach Pinkie's body, she convulsed and slowly rose herself back onto her hooves. Her eyes were closed shut, and her small frown twisted into a wicked grin. She then rose her head up at the soldiers and opened her wide, bloodshot eyes. She then licked her lips as she put one of her forelegs into her frizzy mane. She took out an entire chainsaw with bloodstains on it as she walked up to the soldiers. She pulled at its starter pull handle, generating a soft yet loud purr from the chainsaw's engine.

The experimental soldier responsible for causing this dropped his smile into a horrified, gaping maw. "Oh, fuck me."

Pinkie raised the chainsaw and slammed it on the soldier's left shoulder. The blade sliced through the armor first, easily shredding it into slivers of metal. The blade then touched the neck of the soldier and began its gore fest. The blade ripped through the skin, muscle, and bones noisily and messily, inducing several horror filled screams from the soldier. Blood splattered all over his suit and the other soldier, and a few drops dripped onto Pinkie's mouth. She licked up the blood and pushed down on the soldier harder, forcing the screams to get even louder. The other soldier tried to stop her with several lightning arcs, but she completely ignored them entirely and focused on her prey.

As the chainsaw ate its way through the soldier's chest, it opened up the suit and revealed a few mutilated organs, including half of a heart drowned in blood and a more than just punctured lung. The chainsaw kept eating through the body, drowning the soldier's screams with spurts of blood and viscera, and soon severed a stomach and several pieces of the soldier's intestines. When the chainsaw finally reached the right leg, Pinkie was half covered in blood, and the other traumatized soldier was about to escape from the battle.

Once the soldier's top half fell onto the ground and spilled its innards, Pinkie grabbed ahold of the other soldier and placed the chainsaw on his head. The chainsaw ripped through the helmet, skull, and brain first then proceeded with ruining the trachea and esophagus. The soldier couldn't even scream, as his throat was now incapable of making any sounds. A huge artery was also completely destroyed, spilling vast amounts of blood on Pinkie's mane and face. After the chainsaw ripped through the body, the two halves fell onto the ground. Pinkie licked up the blood on her face and hooves then shoved her face into one of the soldier's exposed livers. She ripped out several chunks of liver, muscle, and sinew, gorging on the flesh as if she was a wild Ruptured mutant devouring a human.

When Twilight finally felled an experimental soldier with an explosive magic blast, she noticed Pinkie's lust for blood. She watched as Pinkie kept pulling back at the metal suits and stripped the soldiers' bodies of their flesh. That last experimental soldier watched her acts and sprinted for the wall's gate. Thankfully, or unthankfully, the soldier avoided the lasers that flew at him. As the battlefield calmed, the soldiers and the rest of the Mane Six noticed Pinkie's ripping and tearing of her two fresh kills.

Fluttershy covered her eyes in pure terror, hating to see this Pinkie again. Applejack tried to keep her food in her stomach, and Rarity nearly fainted in pure horror. Rainbow Dash covered her eyes as well and avoided seeing any red on her body. Twilight used her magic and pulled Pinkie out of the soldier's exposed and now nearly vacant chest. She then kicked and squirmed to retreat back to her meal, but it was to no avail. Twilight's heavily trained magic from past battles was too strong for her, so she eventually gave up. After about ten more seconds, she lost consciousness and collapsed into a heap of pink fluff.

Pinkie rolled around sluggishly and moaned from her newly obtained stomach ache. She then opened her eyes and noticed what was all over her body. She stared down at the wet and partially dried up blood on her coat, mane, and tail. She quickly recoiled in disgust and stumbled backwards, but she soon bumped into the legs of what used to be an experimental soldier. She looked back and opened her eyes wide at the bloody and mangled legs. She then considered the metallic taste in her mouth as she also stared at the almost licked clean halves of the rib cage and spine of the other soldier.

Pinkie Pie's mind assumed way too much, as right when she saw the two halves of the soldier's head, she vomited her recently ingested gorge. When she finished her first wave of vomiting, she cried and shook violently from what she saw. Her vomit was a blend of a bloody red, a thick black, and several chunks of throbbing red and white. She kept vomiting until it hurt her stomach. She then crawled away from the mess of blood and gore, curled up into a small ball of pink fluff, and sobbed into her own bloodstained tail.

"Oh, sweet Celestia!" exclaimed a horrified pegasus soldier. "I never knew she was that messed up!"

"I heard rumors that she was corrupted into something like that," a unicorn soldier grimly declared, "but this, I never expected to see this. She's, so broken."

Twilight and Rainbow rushed to Pinkie urgently. Rainbow landed on the metal next to her, and Twilight sat down next to Pinkie's covered face. Pinkie kept sobbing in her own mess of dried blood and hair, wanting to just dig into a hole and never come back out.

Twilight nudged Pinkie's head with a hoof as she cooed a few smooth words to Pinkie. "Don't worry, we're here for you. You don't have to deal with this alone."

"You, you don't understand!" Pinkie blubbered through her sobbing. "I, I, I ate them! I ate them, Twilight! Why, why would I even do that?"

"I don't know why you'd do that, Pinkie, but I do perfectly understand. I've already seen you act like this before. Yes, you definitely frightened me again, but I'm not a stranger from it. We're here for you this time."

"Yeah," Rainbow started with an awkward frown and a scratch on the back of her head, "I actually never expected you to do that. I'm probably the only one of us that didn't see your freak-out."

Pinkie listened a little bit more to Twilight's words. "What, what do you mean by that?"

"All of us, except Rainbow Dash, found you in an old bundle of catacombs," Twilight calmly informed. "You acted just like what you did a couple moments ago, but at us instead of these two. If I recall correctly, you bit off a part of Applejack."

Pinkie squealed and faced her still bloodstained face at Applejack. I'm so sorry for that! I didn't mean it, I promise!"

"It wasn't your fault, Pinkie," Applejack replied with a slight growl at a nearby gun soldier body. "It was these darn monsters that caused you to do that."

Rainbow Dash slammed her hooves together as she uppercutted the air."Yeah, and I'll make sure they all pay for what they did to you!"

Pinkie's kept sobbing through the fluff of her tail as she quivered fro a couple seconds. "How, how are you all talking this so well?"

"Darling," Rarity began as she walked up to Pinkie's bloody body, "we are obviously horrified and disgusted from your, actions, but now, we are only concerned for you."

"By the way, what caused her to do this?" Twilight directed at Travis.

Travis swiftly answered that question. "Those unique kavarian soldiers were using specialized lightning weaponry. I'm not too sure on how it could cause Pinkie to do that, but I did notice a shift in Pinkie's psyche right when that happened. Her mind went from mainly happiness and slight panic from being cornered to absolute, blind rage. The only emotion she really felt then was anger. Just, pure, concentrated anger. I can still see some of that rage in the back of her mind, so that small outburst will not be the last."

"So, I could do this, again?" Pinkie squeaked through more tears.

"I believe so. However, it's best you stop crying and continue on. This sadness will be your weakness if you keep it up."

"Also, we're here for you," blurted Rainbow Dash as she curved a foreleg around Pinkie's neck. Rainbow then enclosed her in a tight hug. "We'll never leave your side, and you don't have to suffer alone."

Pinkie placed her head over Rainbow's shoulder and embraced her as well. She sniffed up her tears and smiled gently. "Thank you so much. This is exactly why you're all my bestest friends."

The red and orange maned pegasus soldier shed a tear from the kindness. "Wow, that's some easy forgiveness."

Another pegasus soldier tilted his head at Pinkie and glanced around. "What, we're to expect her to be bet-oof!" One of the unicorn soldiers stopped him from saying something stupid with a shove from a foreleg and a shake from his head.

Pinkie sniffed again as she stood back up on all fours. "I'm still very uncomfortable about that blind rage."

"I would be surprised if you weren't," Fluttershy commented as she walked up to Pinkie. "You will feel a little anxious and sad about this for a while, but over time, you'll move on and put it in the past. All that matters now is that we're all together."

Twilight got back up as well and pointed her body to the metal wall's gate. "Alright, let's continue onward."

The twelve ponies grouped back together and walked through the gate. They entered a tunnel that twisted and turned several times and was well lit compared to the earlier parts of the cave. The group encountered a few basic soldiers long the way, but they were no match for the firepower aimed right at their heads.

The kavarians finally got the upper hand once the ponies walked into another large area. This area had two walkways on the left and right walls, another gate at the end, and two cylindrical platforms with metal turrets on top of them. The turrets had tripod legs, bodies that were hollow hemispheres with two laser gatling barrels on their sides, and cylindrical energy tanks on the back of the bodies. Two kavarian gunners, hardy soldiers with big shoulder pads and three spikes protruding along the back of their heads, manned the turrets. Four gun soldiers stood beside the turrets with their miniguns up and ready for battle. Ten basic soldiers, along with two commanders, lined themselves along the cover of the area. Four snipers positioned themselves on the walkways, and one experimental soldier stood next to one of the commanders.

When the experimental soldier saw Pinkie's still bloodstained face, his legs quivered, and he let out a small whimper in pure terror. "No, not her again. I'll fight anyone but her..."

"How bad can she be?" Questioned the commander. "She's just a little earth pony."

"Yeah, that's what she looks like, until you piss her off and get a chainsaw stuck in your neck!"

The commander stared at the soldier with an incredulous look. "Really? That's very far-fetched."

"Just take a look for yourself."

Before the basic soldiers could even fire their guns, Rarity stabbed one to death by using several sharp gems flying at unreasonable speeds. As the soldier's eyes and cranial cavity filled with gems, three more fired at Rarity with several soaring lasers. Three of them accidentally hit a pegasus soldier, reducing him to a limp. Rainbow Dash fired six missiles at one of the turrets, destroying it and the gunner in an explosion of shrapnel and debris. Pinkie hopped over to two basic soldiers and clobbered both of them. Twilight fired a wave of magic at two of the ready to kill gun soldiers, knocking them down on the ground. After Pinkie killed the two soldiers, she took out three pink bombs and lobbed them at a batch of five basic soldiers and a commander. The bombs detonated right next to all of them, killing two basic soldiers from the blast and mortally wounding the rest.

Applejack galloped over to a nearby gun soldier and scanned it for any weaknesses. When she bucked the minigun out of the gun soldier's hand, two unicorn soldiers showered it with several concentrated magic blasts. The gun soldier soon tumbled onto the ground from the organ failure the magic was causing. The two pegasus soldiers hovered into the air and rained several lasers at the two downed gun soldiers and the second turret. The gun soldiers swiftly died from the holes in their heads and chests, but the turret was barely damaged. It fired its own barrage at the two pegasi, ripping one's wing in half and poking holes in the orange and red maned pegasus's right eye and right hind leg. Both pegasi fell to the ground in pain but kept their guns aimed at the turret.

Pinkie Pie was having a little duel of her own when the two of the mortally wounded basic soldiers fired several lasers at her. Travis was keeping a close eye on her emotions, wincing every time Pinkie killed a soldier. "Um, Pinkie?" Travis spoke through shaky words. "I think you might want to refrain from fighting anymore soldiers for a while."

"Now why would I do that?" Pinkie irritably argued as she attacked the remaining soldiers. She pummeled the three basic soldiers to death and blasted razor confetti into the struggling to survive commander's exposed face, ripping his skin and muscle apart as the confetti dug into his skull and jaw. Pinkie swiftly slammed both her hooves on the commander's temples, crushing his head with ease. With every passing kill, she could feel power and rage surge through her body, and it felt very good.

Travis's voice was getting more and more shaky and uncertain with every passing second. "Your rage is building up, and it's about to overwhelm you. I think it's time to stop."

"Time to stop? These meanies forced me to hurt my friends! Nopony makes me hurt my friends!" One of the snipers fired at Pinkie, striking her in her left hind leg. She winced from the pain and faced the sniper next to his buddy on the walkway. She galloped over to the walkway, hopped from beam to wall up to the walkway, and landed directly on the sniper. She smashed the sniper's skull in with one quick slam with a single hoof and faced the other sniper. He took out his laser pistol and fired at the pony, only causing a few holes in her poofy mane that easily covered themselves up. She then leaped onto the sniper and snapped his neck with a twist from two well placed hooves.

It was at that kill did she feel a massive headache wrapping around her forehead. She closed her tightly and groaned from the pain. Her groans soon shifted to screams that shifted into spouts of laughter. She opened her eyes, now bloodshot again as before, and examined the entire room. She locked her eyes on the turret and took out a curved axe from her tail. She hopped down from the walkway and bounced from left to right over to the turret. She leaped on top of it and bashed the gunner's head with her axe. The entire blade lodged into his head, making him panic and kick Pinkie off the turret.

Unexpectedly, Pinkie held a firm grip on the handle and lifted it with her enhanced strength, pulling the entire gunner out of the turret. She then placed her two hind legs on the gunner torso as she pulled out the axe. Instead of pulling it out of his head, she ripped out the head from the body with a spine still attached to the skull. Blood gushed out, bones cracked, and ligaments tore as the spine snaked out of the ripped open neck. She then kicked the split open head off the blade, ready for another kavarian to kill.

A unicorn soldier looked over to Pinkie licking from a bloody blade and frowned awkwardly. "There goes the pink one again."

While this small scenario was happening, the experimental soldier and the surviving commander were fending off a unicorn soldier that was firing several magic blasts at their cover. The experimental soldier shot several lightning arcs at him, causing a few surges of power that ruined the unicorn's HUD and regeneration systems. The commander then aided the lightning with a flurry of laser blasts. All of them struck the unicorn soldier's body, crippling him to near death. The commander then leaped over to him, ripped open the unicorn's helmet, and stabbed his claws into the soldier's neck. As the unicorn struggled to breathe with a stabbed larynx and was lifted upwards, the commander shoved his gun into the unicorn's mouth. He fired five times, destroying most of the brain.

As the commander threw the fresh corpse onto the metal floor, he heard an ungodly shriek from behind. It was, of course, the experimental soldier. "She's coming for us! Please, almighty Ancients, bless us now!"

The commander turned to the soldier with narrow eyes. "What're you talkin-"

That was when he felt a massive, sharp pain strike him in his chest. Apparently, an entire axe stabbed right into his sternum and fractured it. He then groaned from the severe pain and looked ahead to see Pinkie only about eleven yards away. She ripped out her revving chainsaw from the mangled and partially devoured corpse of a beheaded and amputated gun soldier. Part of a small intestine was sticking out of her mouth and dangling near her waist. She slurped up the intestine and walked over to the commander, holding the bloody chainsaw in her front hooves. The commander fired his gun at her, striking thrice in her chest, but she shrugged off the pain like she obtained a couple scratches. She rushed to the commander and then swiped at him, striking his waist.

The chainsaw sliced through the metal until it struck the commander's actual body. It was then that he shouted in pain and agony at the chainsaw ripped through him quite easily. More blood sprayed at Pinkie's face, giving that delectable flavor of metal she desired. The chainsaw tore through the spine and internal organs until it reached the other side of the commander's body. His upper body fell backwards onto the ground as his legs tumbled on top of him.

Pinkie climbed onto his body and took the axe out of his sternum. She then hacked at his chest until she broke it open like a chocolate covered cherry. Shen then ended the commander's life by slamming the axe right into his open mouth, severing his skull from his jaw. She then ripped out the juicy and bloody organs, devouring them as she did with her earlier kills.

At this point, the experimental soldier was already gone. He left right when Pinkie swung that axe, and the other soldiers were also planning of retreating as well. The two snipers took two more shots into the one-winged pegasus soldier. Both shots penetrated his helmet, killing him swiftly. Rainbow retaliated with a hailstorm of missiles in their direction, destroying the entire walkway and causing a massive collapse from the weakened ceiling. The two basic soldiers fired a couple more shots at Applejack and Rarity before they escaped with the experimental soldier.

Rainbow Dash turned to Pinkie's ripping and tearing with a contorted frown and unsavory taste. "Eww. It's pretty sick to see her do that, but at least she's helping a lot more now."

The red and orange maned pegasus limped towards the forming group as he kept one eye closed behind his helmet. "Well, there went Winter Strike, and I might be gone too if this regeneration doesn't hurry up."

As Pinkie's face was deep in the commander's torn open chest, she pulled out an orange and yellow cupcake from her pocket chests and tossed it to the pegasus soldier. "It'll fix your injuries," Pinkie spoke through a full mouth as she lifted her head a little.

The pegasus soldier unsnapped his visor and flicked it upwards. He then took a few bites out of the pastry, feeling his wounds fill and lose feeling with every bite. Once he ate the entire treat, he regained sight in his now perfectly fine right eye.

Rarity stared at Pinkie and walked over to Twilight. "Do you think we should just let her do this? It's just, so, horrid!"

Twilight sighed and answered as honestly as possible. "As much as I hate to see her do this, she's actually helping a lot more than before. Her new style of fighting is actually very effective, no matter how disgusting it may look." Twilight shuddered and held back her vomit as she witnessed Pinkie rip out the commander's heart and an attached artery. "I wish she would stop eating these things, though."

Fluttershy completely ignored Pinkie and the conversation. She instead focused on searching for any trapped cave bats. She found two that were stuck under a couple rocks and freed them.

Applejack kept Pinkie out of her line of sight the entire time and focused on honoring the two ponies that died in the battle. She took off her hat, placed it close to her heart, and closed her eyes. She stood there in silence as she hoped for the other soldiers to continue living.

After Pinkie chomped every piece of the commander's heart, she felt dizzy and disoriented. She soon slipped to unconsciousness and tumbled next to the corpse that was now almost a skeleton. She woke back up after ten seconds, moaning and twisting just like what she did the first time she woke up from blind rage. When she noticed the licked clean bones of the commander, she only vomited a tiny amount this time. At this point, it didn't sicken her too much to see this again. Instead, it just annoyed her.

"Ugh, I don't think I'll ever get used to this," she groaned as she stood back up with her normal, blue eyes. "It better not hurt like this next time I slip into that."

Rarity gasped as she stared at Pinkie's already accustomed behavior. "How can you be alright with doing that? Are you not disgusted from eating that, monster?"

"It's not as bad as thinking about eating ponies, and I don't think this is ever going away. I might as well get used to it than complain about eating more meat."

"You all better hurry up," Travis warned with worry. "We're getting reports of heavy seismic activity in the mountain, and the activity is right next to Canterlot too."

The ten ponies regrouped together, except for the red and orange maned pegasus. He instead walked over to the dead pegasus soldier and shed a few tears as he looked down at him. "Farewell, Winter Strike. I'll make sure you didn't die in vain."

And with that, the pegasus flew back to the group, his laser guns primed for battle.

•—————•

The entire group battled several more kavarian soldiers along the way. A few gun soldiers would suppress them for a short while in a few halls, and a commander here and there would almost take one of the ponies' lives from a surprise attack or exquisite battle skills. In another room with several basic soldiers, Pinkie killed enough of them to release her rage once again. After hell broke loose, she killed fifteen basic soldiers with either her chainsaw, axe, or her newly acquired weapon, a sharp knife long enough to stab through a thigh. Apparently, the experimental soldier and the two basic soldiers were not in that area.

It didn't take long after that big battle for the group to reach the cave systems again. As the helpful darkness and unexpected columns, stalactites, and stalagmites returned, the ponies groaned and moaned in frustration. However, the darkness did allow them to detect something other than a network of kavarian structures. What they found were several small devices on a cave wall and a huge, obnoxiously loud machine digging through the stone. Several kavarian soldiers of all of the types they fought earlier, except much more numerous, were marching along with the machine.

Afraid of having to fight possibly over a hundred soldiers, the group kept themselves hidden in the gigantic assortment of stalagmites and waited for their opportunity to strike.

As the troops marched along the cave, Twilight attempted to establish a connection with General Solk. "Solk, are you there?"

Several gunshots and explosions could be heard from the other end. "I'm here," Solk replied as a wail in pain was heard beside him. "What do you need?"

"We're inside this huge cave the kavarians are using. I think it's the source of the seismic activity Travis was talking about."

Several bouts of gunfire were audible as a gun soldier screamed a war cry in the background. "Is there a huge drilling vehicle?"

Twilight glanced at the roaring machine on her right. "I think so. Where are you?"

"Checkpoint C. The kavarians took over the first two, and they're pushing an entire array of tanks and war machines up to the gate. I'll warn the captain in Canterlot about your discovery."

Twilight ducked down a little when three soldiers, one experimental and two basic, came rushing down the cave to the end. They stopped running once they reached a kavarian soldier that was obviously taller than them. The taller soldier had two glowing purple eye-shaped visors instead of blue, and three spikes came out of the left and right sides of his head. He wore grand and flashy epaulets, and his armor was blacker than onyx. His gun was massive, as big as a gun soldier's minigun. It was a missile launcher with four primed chambers and eight laser barrels around the chambers.

The experimental soldier's words were quick and jumbled. "Major KVF, we're under attack! Several ponies have infiltrated our small mountain checkpoint, and they're tearing through our forces!"

"How so?" Major KVF's voice was deep and and hard like obsidian. "If they're ponies, they should have been killed with a snap."

"You don't understand, Major. One of them was specimen E-015, and we activated her nanochip."

"What's so bad about that? Didn't it kill the others like programmed?"

The experimental soldier nervously laughed. "Well, no, it didn't. She turned on us and ripped and tore several soldiers. She even devoured them like some sort of primal beast out for blood!"

Major KVF eyed the soldier and huffed a bit of anger at him. "You failed your only mission for the Pure One. You let our most prized possession slip out of hands, again. If we had the specimen again, we could have repurposed it for war, but you instead turned it into a unstoppable force that wants to devour everyone in its way."

"It was not my fault it happened, Major! The weapons worked perfectly! I believe someone tampered with the specimen's memories!"

The Major leaned over the soldier with two beady eyes and a lashing frown behind his helmet. "And who might be this person, hmm?"

The experimental soldier shrugged and laughed nervously. "I'm not too sure, Major. All I know is that someone might have changed her memories."

Major KVF turned from him and squinted at the drilling machine ahead. He shouted over all of the noise as he stopped in place. "This is the area! Turn left!"

The entire machine swerved to the left and slammed into the wall next to it. The machine then sped up fast enough to shred an entire hole as big as itself in only three seconds. Bright light blinded the group of ponies as the drilling machine slowed a little and rolled through the hole. Hundreds of marching soldiers sped up and ran around the machine into the light.

Twilight's face gaped, and her pupils became pinpricks. "Oh no, they're invading Canterlot right now! We have to hurry!"

The group of ten hopped out of the bundle of stalagmites and galloped towards the massive hole. Once they made it out of the mountain and back in Canterlot, they found a horrifying sight.

Several kavarians were gunning down GEST Corp. soldiers everywhere. Blood spilled onto the ground and mixed with the still present snow. A few gun soldiers killed about thirty regular soldiers, and a few basic soldiers were engaged in close quarters combat with a few more. Kavarians clawed and bashed humans, skeletons, and ponies over and over. A couple skeletons were ripped apart into small fragments from a kavarian soldier holding a tesla rocket launcher, a special weapon that fires electrified rockets that shoot lightning arcs at anything nearby it or in the explosion. A few unicorns seized a few guns from the kavarians with their magic, but other ones simply blasted them to bits. Major KVF launched several rockets into the battlefield, killing dozens of humans and ponies. Several buildings and roads were blasted apart or completely warped by the crossfire. None of the soldiers paid attention to the ten ponies and instead focused on the ones right in front of them.

Fluttershy noticed the giant cyan dome pulsating above Canterlot. The dome stopped at the mountainside and right in front of Canterlot's walls. A huge beam radiated from the dome's center, spiraling down right into the city in some specified area. Several kavarian gunships, drop ships, and assault ships hovered around the dome, waiting for the dome to come down and allow the ships' hellfire to fall. A few GEST Corp. ships were outside or inside of the dome, either fighting off kavarian ships or soldiers as they hovered along the sky.

"They're heading for that beam," pointed out Applejack as she pointed a hoof at the soldiers and the cyan beam.

"They must be after the force field's generator," presumed one of the unicorn soldiers. "If they destroy it, nothing will stop those ships from bombarding the city."

"They're not just going after the generator," Pinkie warned with worry dancing along her words. She pointed over to the swath of kavarian soldiers marching to the castle. A few were already blasting through the gates.

"Solk, you have to get over here!" Twilight screamed. "They're destroying everything!"

"I'm going there right now," Solk declared as several explosions and gunshots rang on his end. "They just destroyed checkpoint C with ten redemption walkers, and no one is staying behind to fight them."

"They're going for the castle and your generator!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "What do you want us to do?"

"Go to the castle. Save the princesses while I teach these sons of bitches a lesson."

The ten ponies galloped through the chaotic and snowy streets towards the castle. Whenever a kavarian caught sight of them, they switched their attention to them and fired sporadically. They were usually killed by one of the ponies or a random soldier that got lucky. The group kept plowing their way through the streets until they reached the castle's front gate. They entered the castle and reached the familiar T-junction hallway with stairs leading to another T-junction.

The group immediately encountered ten kavarian soldiers. Eight of them were basic soldiers, but the two closest ones were very unique. Their helmets had absolutely no visors on them and were covered in spikes from top to bottom. Several sharp shoulder, elbow, and knee pads stuck out of their armor. Their metal boots were also covered in several spikes. Their suits were somehow even blacker than Major KVF's as well. However, the most prominent feature was their staffs. They both held long staffs with three large spikes and constant flames. These royal soldiers swiftly spun their staffs and pointed them at the group in perfect unison.

"Surrender to us, or die," the royals hissed. Their voices were almost like the wind.

Rainbow Dash fired a missile at the royals, but one of them smacked the missile back at her and blasted her into a wall. The wall cracked and dented from the impact.

Twilight conjured a barrier before the royals could strike her. At the same time she activated the barrier, the royals leaped into the air and slammed their staffs down onto Twilight. They, of course, struck the barrier, but they dealt tremendous amounts of damage to it anyway. Twilight winced and struggled to keep the barrier up from the damage. When she told them to do so, the four ED soldiers raced out of the barrier to distract the royals. They succeeded, as the royals split up and left the Mane Six for the basic soldiers. The eight soldiers blasted Twilight's barrier with several lasers until she lost all of her mana and collapsed in exhaustion. What followed after was several bucks and punches for the soldiers.

Applejack bucked two of the soldiers into separate walls and began kicking several metal balls into them. Pinkie punched and kicked the other four several times. After about eleven strikes, she aimed for their joints. After a few more seconds, she broke three elbows and four knees, incapacitating all of the soldiers. She then threw several pink bombs at the soldiers, killing half of them and severely wounding the rest. The remaining three soldiers were easily dispatched by Rarity's storm of gems. Applejack finished off her soldiers with a few more metal balls and a couple bucks.

Two of the unicorn soldiers were dueling one of the royals. They had to dodge several swipes from his staff and block many more. Whenever the unicorns had the chance, they attempted to seize the staff from the royal. However, they failed every single time, as the royal's grip was rather firm and steady. The royal closed in on one of them and swung at them eleven times. The unicorn manifested small pads of magic to block every blow from the staff. The other unicorn kept firing several fire and magic blasts at the royal, only making him flinch from the magic blasts. The royal changed targets and swung at the other unicorn, allowing the first one to use his magic. Since he was an adept at using the frigid cold, he conjured and fired several ice blasts at the royal.

The royal blocked the first three with his staff until they finally broke his block and struck his body. The ice blasts snuffed the fire on the royal's Staff and did a considerable amount of damage to his body. As more ice blasts struck his body, his movements slowed down. Eventually, he was too slow to block any attacks, allowing both unicorns to kill him with their magic. He fell to the ground, lifeless, with the staff still in his hands.

The other royal eventually had to deal with two pegasi and one unicorn. The unicorn was rather physical with his magic, constantly attempting to seize the royal's staff from him. He failed every time, forcing the red and orange maned pegasus next to him to fight the royal. The pegasus fired several lasers that the royal blocked easily over and over again. As the royal slowly walked up to the pegasus and continued blocking his barrage of lasers, Rainbow Dash struck from behind with a flurry of missiles. The royal fell forward and prepared to block Rainbow's next attack, but she refused to attack. The pegasus soldier then gunned the royal down with his lasers as Rainbow Dash annoyed the royal again with another flurry of missiles. When the royal was nearly dead, Pinkie slammed into him and smacked him with his own staff. She then shoved a pink bomb on him as she stomped on his chest and ran off. Before the royal could stand up, the bomb exploded, splitting him into several pieces.

The ponies wasted no more time after that fight and continued up the stairs. When they reached one of the grand hallways, they heard a huge boom and static from behind. The static radiated around their ears for about five more seconds. Only a few more after that, one of the multicolored mosaic windows broke apart as several soldiers swung into the hall. Seven of them were basic soldiers, and one was a commander.

The soldiers opened fire, using the famous shoot first, ask questions later method. Rainbow Dash blasted three basic soldiers to bits with a few missiles, Rarity stabbed another one to death with several gemstones, Applejack bucked and lassoed another soldier and kept slamming their head until they died, and Pinkie aimed her party cannon directly at the commander. Fluttershy faced the broken window and called for help. Three snowy owls flew into the hallway and attacked the other two basic soldiers. One of the owls fell to the ground from three laser shots, but the other two were still healthy and dangerously active.

Fluttershy stared at the owl, twitched into a scowl burning with anger, and galloped towards the basic soldiers. She slammed both her front hooves on one's chest, bashing them into the commander. The commander and basic soldier fell to the ground as Pinkie blasted a metal cannonball right into them, crushing them, their armor, and their skeletons. The last soldier lost his helmet as Twilight used the small amount of magic she possessed to remove it. As the soldier's light purple face and huge, completely black eyes were revealed, the snowy owls scratched and ripped at his head. He panicked as the owls kept swooping and slicing at him, running into Rarity's field of gems and falling to the ground lifeless. The owls flew out of the broken window as Fluttershy waved them goodbye.

The group of ten kept moving along, preparing for another battle as they trekked through the castle. Pinkie gave Twilight a blue and cyan cupcake, replenishing all of the magic she lost from the royals. The group kept fighting through more groups of kavarian squadrons, and Pinkie kept collecting kills and rage under her belt until the group reached Princess Celestia's throne room. What the ponies found surprised, shocked, and angered them.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were both trapped in separate cages, each one both metallic and covered in some sort of force field. A huge, lumbering machine whirred and stomped around the ground, cracking the floor with every stomp. It had two massive legs that ended in onyx trapezoidal prisms. Its body was a perfect sphere with the bottom hemisphere being an onyx metal and the top being a glass dome. Four arms stretched out of its sides, each one with its own weapon. One arm had a gatling laser gun; another, a lightning arc cannon; another, a high-powered flamethrower; and the last, a fluoroantimonic acid cannon. The machine had three antennae sticking out of its back. The entire mecha was thirty feet tall and bustling with activity inside its metal shell.

A single kavarian not wearing any battle armor sat on a glorified throne inside of the mecha. The kavarian wore a gilded cape around his body and carried a huge, glowing staff in his left hand.

As the kavarian noticed the ten ponies, his smile grew wide with fangs. His voice was the exact same as the one from the robot. "Ah, you finally joined the party! I was just debating on whether to kill or experiment on these two alicorns. What do you think?"

"What are you doing with Princess Celestia and Luna?" Twilight demanded with a menacing scream.

The Pure One rubbed his chin with his right hand. "I don't know, you ask me, I was debating on which one to do. Now, you get to tell me which."

Pinkie quivered as she raised a hoof at the Pure One. Her voice was uneven and slightly filled with rage. "You, you were the one that caused me to eat ponies?"

The Pure One leaped out of his seat at the sight of Pinkie. "Hey, specimen E-015! Are you here to rejoin my forces? We're always willing to let in former specimens!"

"No," Pinkie grunted as her hooves trembled. "I'm going to make you pay!"

The Pure One sat in his throne once again and tapped his claws together. "Too bad, now I have to kill you. You would've been such a great soldier too, much better than all of my incompetent clones. Now, death, or experimentation?"

Pinkie's body shook in her own building rage as her teeth clenched and her voice became much more serious and uncontrollable than before. "Neither! You're never going to do to them what you did to me!"

"Okay, you're just wasting my time now. I pick experimentation. It's always intrigued me to know what's so important about horns and wings."

Pinkie sat down and clamped her hooves on her head as another massive headache crashed into her brain like a freight train. She grunted in pain until she stood back up, only on her hind legs, with two bloodshot eyes. She took a long knife from her mane, the same knife she used earlier, and gripped it with one hoof.

Her entire body trembled in insurmountable rage. "I'll rip your stomach out and gorge on your lungs!"

She then rushed up to the mecha and hopped onto its dome. She stabbed right into the dome, literally cutting right through the glass and into the cockpit. The Pure One jumped from this and pulled down a layer of metal over the dome, knocking Pinkie and her blade off the mecha. The new dome had two glowing blue eyes in the shape of long, thin, and tilted semicircles.

As the cages were enveloped in two red force fields, the entire mecha whirred and released steam. "Well, it's time to kill ten ignorant ponies."

A challenger approaches: The Pure One and his Mk III Invadotron

The massive mecha stomped towards the ten ponies and raised its gatling laser gun at them. Hundreds of lasers swept past the cracking floor, nearly striking Rainbow Dash and two of the unicorn soldiers. All of the ponies scrambled around the throne room and threw various attacks at him. Pinkie took out her chainsaw and tried to slice through the legs, but the metal was far stronger than simple kavarian battle armor. Rainbow fired several missiles that did nothing to the mecha. Twilight's magic blasts also did nothing as well, and Rarity's gems simply bounced off like pellets. Applejack didn't even try her lasso, and the soldiers' lasers and magic blasts were to no avail. The mecha kept stomping around, breaking apart the ceiling and walls of the throne room with every attack.

The mecha stopped for a second and lifted its fluoroantimonic acid cannon. When it fired the cannon, the acid flew through the air like a stream of water. Everything the acid struck corroded away nearly instantly upon impact, further destabilizing the room. Eventually, the ceiling fell apart as several basic soldiers rushed in to aid the mecha and overwhelm the ponies.

Pinkie began her ripping and tearing as she sawed through the basic soldiers. After only five kills and about two cleaned out bodies later, which was only fifteen seconds, the soldiers ran away from her and hid from her as best as they could. Twilight grabbed a few of their guns and fired at the soldiers with them, killing them quickly and efficiently. The ice mage unicorn soldier conjured and fired several ice blasts at the mecha, doing nothing as he expected. The fire mage unicorn soldier fired a few fire blasts, which he swore made the metal body a little red. The mecha fired another barrage of lasers, killing two of its own soldiers and almost hitting Fluttershy. The mecha then fired a plume of fire at Twilight, missing as the flames rolled around her magical barrier.

The fire mage unicorn soldier pelted the mecha with several more fire blasts, making its metal shell a dark hue of red, the same color as venous blood. The soldier then galloped over to Twilight as he dodged the incoming lasers from the basic soldiers and now landing gun soldiers. "Twilight, I got a plan!"

"Tell it then!" Twilight shouted through the mayhem of lasers and shouts as she deflected several lasers back at the mecha.

"Use fire on the mecha! It'll heat up and possibly overheat!"

Pinkie smiled at the unicorn for a second as she chomped out the entrails of a screaming basic soldier. "Somepony knows their weaknesses! Keep it up!" She then returned to gouging out all of the basic soldiers internal organs with her hooves and teeth.

Twilight lowered her barrier and dodged out of a gun soldier's stream of lasers. She then charged a few powerful fire blasts and fired at the mecha. It was now as red as arterial blood, and it was glowing a little too. Small packets of steam escaped from its front as it fired several lightning arcs at a unicorn soldier. The unicorn was struck by every lightning arc, killing him instantly.

The fire mage unicorn fired a flurry of fire blasts at the mecha, overheating it to an extreme. The front of the mecha opened up and released a glowing blue and metallic cylinder. Massive amounts of steam escaped from it as the mecha moved much more slowly and attacked with much less firepower than before.

Huh, if that thing is glowing blue, then I guess I shoot it, Rainbow Dash thought as she stared at the cylinder.

So, from simple shoot glowy thingy logic, Rainbow Dash fired a stream of lasers and missiles at the coolant system, damaging it significantly. Twilight quickly caught on to Rainbow's logic and fired her magic at it as well. Applejack kicked her metal balls into it, and Rarity stabbed it with her gems. The red and orange maned pegasus fired his laser guns at it, and the two unicorn soldiers fired their magic at it as well. Pinkie kept chewing up a ripped open and amputated, but still alive, gun soldier's spleen. By this point, Pinkie has already devoured the insides and tissue of ten kavarian soldiers, and she was still hungry.

After the mecha was done using its coolant system, the entire cylinder retracted and hid in the now closed panels on the mecha. The metal was onyx again, and the machine was as fast as it was in the beginning of the fight.

"Fools!" the Pure One howled with several cackles. "You've only helped me find a flaw in my mecha! Now, you'll all wash up at the shores of hell!"

The mecha strafed around the throne room and kept its guns aimed at four different ponies. The lightning arc cannon was facing the fire mage unicorn soldier, the gatling laser gun followed Rainbow Dash, the flamethrower was chasing Applejack, and the fluoroantimonic acid cannon was targeting Twilight Sparkle. The mecha fired at all of them at once while more kavarian soldiers dropped in from the open sky. At the same time, the throne room was getting awfully cold, and the floor was covering in snow rapidly.

When the lasers rolled over to Rainbow Dash, she outflew them and kept herself in one piece. Applejack dodged the roaring flames with several hops and rolls to the sides. Even though she was mainly safe from the flames, she couldn't stop them from licking at her coat and mane, so parts of her body were singed or burnt a tiny bit. The fire mage unicorn soldier had to repel the lightning arcs with his magic, as they were nearly impossible to dodge. The lightning was just too attracted to his magic to hit the ground or walls. Twilight raised a magical barrier to protect herself from the acid, but it somehow ate through the magic. She quickly dodged the flow of acid as it ate through the snowy floor too easily. She strafed around the mecha for a little while and fired a few fire blasts at it, heating it up a little with every strike.

As the lightning arcs kept striking the fire mage unicorn soldier's magic, he steadily lost his ability to fight back. He eventually lost all of his mana, letting three lightning arcs to strike him in the horn, possibly the worst area for lightning to strike. His brain was fried into mush, and he fell onto the cold snow with a brain-dead expression behind his helmet.

Twilight noticed the flames dancing around Applejack and galloped to her, leaving a trail of corroded floor wherever she walked. She grabbed ahold of the flamethrower with her magic and aimed it at the front of the mecha, heating it up by ridiculous amounts. At the same time the mecha halted Twilight's grasp with more acid, an entire kavarian gunship smashed through one of the still holding walls. The gunship blasted the entire throne room with fiery rocket blasts and hundreds of lasers, adding another level of hectic to the already unnecessarily vast amount of firepower in the area.

Pinkie hopped onto one of the gunship's wings and ran to the glass in front of the cockpit. She carved a hole with her knife and slid herself into the gunship. What followed was several blood splatters and shreds of armor as the gunship lost its stability in midair. Rainbow Dash flew in front of it, forcing the mecha to punch hundreds of holes in it. Pinkie leaped out of the hole she carved with a kavarian pilot's entire body in her mouth. It hung from its neck, the area that Pinkie's teeth were sinking into. She then laid the corpse onto the ground and dug into its chest, devouring everything edible she could find in it.

Twilight, now strafing away from the acid, fired a few more fire blasts at the mecha, overheating it again. As the machine slowed to a crawl, Rainbow Dash used this window of time to her advantage. She rocketed out of the throne room and into the open and disastrous sky, shooting and blasting through kavarian drop ships and gunships as she climbed to higher altitudes. She then slammed into a cloud and dived down to the room. She built up speed, crashing through even more ships until a sonic boom, followed by a sonic rainboom, showered from her insane increase in velocity. She then slammed both of her hooves into the exposed coolant system, literally smashing it into petty pieces right before the Pure One's very eyes. He blinked his black, enormous eyes thrice before closing the panel and starting up the combat systems again.

"Hah, you may have destroyed my coolant system, but I'll still be the first of my universe, and kind, to finally kill the ponies that plagued the rest of our universe!"

Applejack dodged a barrage of lasers as she glared at the mecha and cocked her head. "What're you talking about?"

"I've heard stories of you six, crushing entire legions with your bare, hooves!" The Pure One recoiled as he said that last word. "Zedin, Sir Mimic Man, The Craw, Dr. Scraps, Hector, several liches, and even the goddamn Psychopaths told me about your exploits! I'll be a savior to them, and then, I'll have an army by my side, ready to kil–"

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the chitchat, punk!" Rainbow Dash interrupted with a sneer. "You're already about to overheat again!"

Through that entire section of early monologuing, Twilight already fired several fire blasts at the mecha, and it was about to overheat. Before the Pure One could launch any attacks, Twilight fired a much more powerful fire blast at the mecha. This blast overheated it, but there was nothing it could do. Mechanical systems in the mecha began to fail as several parts of its machinery refused to shut down for cooling. As the mechanisms were more and more damaged, the amount of damage dealt sped up, leaving the outside to look perfectly fine except for a glow of red concealing the now jumbled mess of machinery inside.

The Pure One retracted the metal covering on the dome and lifted it upwards. Pinkie heard this and quickly scrambled to the mecha, climbing it like she was blood hungry for the Pure One's flesh.

"I will see you nuisances next time!" the Pure One hollered as he pounded his staff on the metal floor of his cockpit. "May you all burn in your afterlives for this!"

Mk III Invadotron has been defeated!

Before Pinkie could give the Pure One a fatal blow to his chest, he and his staff vanished in a flash of purple light. Pinkie glanced around frantically, but she couldn't find him. Pinkie screamed in rage and stabbed the metal with her blade. "No! I almost had him! I could've ripped him apart organ by organ and repaid him for what he done to me, but no! He had to leave right there!"

Pinkie glared at the remaining kavarian soldiers on the battlefield and licked her blood-soaked lips. She then glanced up at the familiar cyan covering in the sky. "However, I think all of these little guys could probably satisfy me until then."

"Oh, hell no!" Shouted a basic soldier as he scrambled for the not even recognizable as a doorway pair of double doors. "That freak of nature has already eaten thirty-six kavarians, and I'm not going to be the thirty-seventh!"

"Oh, yes you are," Pinkie purred as she grabbed her knife and crawled toward the soldier. He sprinted for the hallway, but he was too slow to escape Pinkie's unbelievable speed. He was quickly cut open, completely stripped of all organs and tissue that was not his bones, and became, quite literally, nothing but bones and pieces of armor.

Pinkie walked back into the throne room and faced the other remaining kavarians. "Who's next?"

Every single kavarian soldier screamed and ran for their lives. Even the gun soldiers, which dwarfed her by several feet, panicked and dashed for safety. Pinkie chased and picked them all off one by one, leaving the other seven surviving ponies to the mess in the throne room.

Rainbow Dash looked over to the still steaming and whirring mecha. "Aw, come on! Isn't this thing going to–"

The mecha exploded into a collection of soaring shrapnel and metal debris as the floor cracked even more. Rainbow simply smiled as she put on some imaginary shades over her eyes, despite already wearing a helmet.

"Well, I think we won," Rarity presumed as she examined the sky. Barely any kavarian ships were inside the cyan force field.

"Not yet." Twilight walked over to the two cages and studied the red force fields. She tinkered with the force fields until she broke the first set. After she broke the blue force fields, the two princesses simply teleported out of the cages. They both gave warm smiles to Twilight.

"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle," Princess Celestia thanked as she scanned the entire throne room. It was obviously a complete mess. "I should have expected an attack like this eventually. Maybe I cannot rely entirely on these humans to protect me."

"Hey, we still helped!" Travis snapped through the comm link.

"Princess Celestia, don't you need anything else, like a few ponies to fix this place up?" Applejack proposed as she watched a piece of architecture fall into a hole in the corroded floor.

Celestia shook her head. "I believe Solk will take care of that for me." Princess Luna looked over to Celestia and gave a small facial gesture. "Oh, that reminds me, Luna thinks she had a premonition for you, Twilight."

Twilight's eyes beamed with curiosity. "What is it?"

Celestia's smile dropped to a gravely serious frown. "Something is coming, Twilight, and it is after you, your friends, all of us. Whatever it may be, Luna is certain that it is not from our world."

"Do you mean we'll be facing a new foe in the future?"

Luna egged Celestia to continue with another gesture. "I am afraid it is far worse than that. Luna has possibly saw your death, Twilight. This creature that is coming for us will be the one to kill you. I do not know how we can stop it, but it is best we do not worry just yet. It will take a long time for it to arrive."

Twilight swallowed the fear that clung to her throat. What was this new threat? Was it something from the humans' world, or did it come from somewhere else? Sadly, only time could tell. Sweet, sweet time.

General Solk crackled in the comm link. "Twilight, you and your friends can go home now. The kavarians are retreating and at very low numbers." A distant cry in pain could be heard with gushing sounds. "Also, what the hell happened to Pinkie Pie?"

"Long story short, the kavarians made her go insane, and now she hates them," Rainbow Dash answered.

"Okay, then. If you wanted to know, she killed and ate five of them right in front of me." Another cry in pain along with more gushing sounds were audible. "Six now."

"I think she needs to stop now," Twilight declared as she walked through the throne room entrance. She then waved to the two princesses with a smile on her face. "I hope to see you two whenever we're not in a war."

Celestia smiled again. "I hope so too, Twilight. I hope so too..."

The seven ponies walked through the partially damaged castle until they made it back to the city of Canterlot. The ponies walked through the cold and fluffy snow. A few snowflakes swept the tips of their muzzles as they gently floated down to the ground. The one pegasus soldier, still sad about losing Winter Strike, trekked through the snow with a solemn expression.

Fluttershy walked over to the pegasus and looked down at the hoofprints in the snow. "So, I remember that you said bye to the other pegasus, Winter Strike, right?"

The pegasus soldier nodded slowly. "Yeah. I never knew that this would be the day he died. I thought we would be together forever."

"Who was he exactly?"

The pegasus sighed and kicked a small pebble into a now pile. "He was my cousin, and my only childhood friend. We went to flight school together, lived in the same neighborhood, hanged out all the time, and even volunteered for the war together. I, I never really left him."

Fluttershy felt sympathy for the pegasus. It was hard for her to grasp the feeling of living with a single friend forever and watch them suddenly die. It was unheard of for her. "That sounds like you two were very close."

"Yeah," the pegasus replied as he sniffed and shed a tear, "we were. Best friends to the end." The pegasus viewed the landscape of gentle snow and sunny skies throughout Equestria, attempting to avoid the destroyed buildings right next to him. "He would've loved this. He always loved winter. Honestly, I hate it."

Fluttershy's interest jumped a little from that statement. "Why? Is it too cold for you?"

"Heh, yeah. Summer is my season. I guess that's the only thing we didn't have in common really. He loved winter, the snow, the clouds, the landscapes. I enjoyed the heat."

"I never got your name. What is it?"

"Solar Flare. I'm guessing yours is Fluttershy, right?"

Fluttershy was a little surprised. "How do you know?"

"I heard about you several times in my life. I think I saw you in flight school a couple times, and I heard about you when you were at the changeling invasion. I even heard about you going off and fighting the demons." Solar Flare laughed a little. "You were the one to give me the idea of joining GEST Corp. I thought that if you were so timid and shy but became a great fighter, then maybe I should become one too. Winter Strike agreed, and that's how we got here."

Fluttershy took a few more moments to process Solar's words. "I inspired you?"

"Yeah. I didn't think a mare like you would be here. I never imagined it at all. I thought you would always be the shy one hiding behind the crowd and that."

Fluttershy blushed from his statement "Well, I'm still shy. That might never change, but I'm proud to be here, helping Equestria fight back against these things. It might be scary at times, and I might get too scared to fight, but I think I'm still helping." Fluttershy paused for a second. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"I'll probably still fight for Equestria, but, after that, I'm not sure. I guess I'll have to find myself again without my best friend."

"Well, wherever you are in the future, you'll have my support."

"Thanks. It's nice to hear that from a celebrity like you. If we ever do meet again, I hope it is soon."

"Why do you say that?"

"You're the nicest pony I know. You also kind of make me feel a little safe, like I'm invincible to everything."

Fluttershy gave Solar a warm smile. "I hope so too."

After that conversation ended, the seven ponies reached General Solk and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie looked like her normal self instead of the horrifyingly insane mare from the throne room and the mountain. All of the blood on her body and face was gone too.

Pinkie confronted Twilight first with a rapid succession of hops. "Twilight, I think I'm getting used to this blind rage thing now!"

Twilight eyed her curiously. "What do you mean by that?"

"I didn't black out this time! I remember everything that happened, even though it is kind of unsettling."

"I guess that's good? Whatever you feel about it."

As Twilight walked up to Solk, Pinkie blurted out her own thoughts. "Also, that one soldier miscounted."

Twilight turned her head at Pinkie. "Which soldier?"

"The one that said how many kavarians I ate in that room. He said thirty-six. I actually ate sixty-seven."

Twilight's jaw dropped. "You ate sixty-seven of them?"

"Yup, sixty-seven!"

"How?"

"Don't you know me, Twilight? I have a big appetite! A hundred cookies to me feels like one!"

Solk counted up the numbers in his head and thought about the volume of sixty-seven kavarians. "I'm not even going to ask how that's even physically possible. Anyway, you six can head on home. We don't have any missions for you all yet." Solk turned to the two remaining ED soldiers, Solar Flare and the ice mage unicorn soldier. "You two, you're about to be commanded by a demon."

"Wait, what?" Solar asked as he processed what a demon was.

"Don't worry, he's on our side. He's possibly the best of the best that you can get. Trust me, you two will soar with him as your commander."

Pinkie's ears perked up. "Does this demon go by the name Hannibal?"

Solk nodded.

Pinkie jumped up in joy as she hopped around the area. "Hannibal is alive! Hannibal is alive! Hannibal is alive!"

Solk smirked a little. "He definitely is. I also plan on putting him in your group on the next mission."

Pinkie nearly exploded in happiness as she leaped onto Solk and hugged him tightly. "Thank you! I missed him so much!"

"You're welcome." Solk hugged back as best as he could from his height. "Anyway, Twilight, my troops and I will fix this place up. Whenever you and your friends are ready, you can leave by drop ship or train."

Twilight looked around the group. "Is everypony ready?"

"I don't see why not," Applejack replied.

"Yup!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Rainbow looked a little impatient. "I've been ready ever since we trashed that hunk of metal."

"I'm ready to go," Fluttershy softly agreed.

"Yes, I am ready," Rarity answered.

"Then let's go." Twilight led the way to the nearest drop ship and sat down on the ship's seats. The other five ponies did so as well, ready to go back to Ponyville. The drop ship lifted its door, activated its thrusters, then ascended into the sky. It zoomed through the cyan force field and flew back to the small town.

Rainbow was a little speculative of the force field. "Hey, I thought this shield kept things out. Was it a fake?"

"No, it was real," the co-pilot answered. "It lets everything in or out. It just disintegrates all kavarian weaponry, machinery, and DNA that passes through it. Think of it like a giant, spherical material emancipation grill, but for kavarians."

Rainbow gave the co-pilot a bewildered look. "You lost me at emanci-whatever it is."

•—————•

Inside a familiar and shadowy room, Lord Zedin was examining several pieces of footage from the recent battle at Canterlot. He was especially interested in watching the footage that contained the fight between the Mane Six and the Pure One. He looked at the footage with shock and worry in his eyes, especially when he saw Pinkie literally devour the kavarian soldiers' insides.

When the doors slammed open to the room, Zedin immediately held out a hand to his right. "Do not speak. It is bad news, is it not?

The novice demon kneeled before he told his news. "Actually, sire, it is not bad news. Major Morgivon has been successfully transformed, sire. We can start the invasion."

"Not yet," Zedin declared as he eyed the coolant system extending from the Mk III Invadotron. "Now is not a good time."

"Why? Everything is set up, sire! We can't let a sitting army go to waste!"

"Discord has not done what I told him to yet."

"You mean killing Twilight Sparkle, sire?"

Zedin shook his head. "No. I asked him a different favor as well, but I did not receive it yet." Zedin stopped the footage and floated over to a table. He activated a couple holograms, one being Twilight, and other being Pinkie Pie. "Go to your post. You are not needed anymore."

"Yes, sire!" And with that, the novice demon left the room and Zedin by themselves.

Zedin mumbled to himself as he examined the holograms. "What makes that pony and her friends so special now? I killed my future nemeses, and I lent Discord a hand. There should be no other reason that these ponies are important now."

Zedin looked a little closer at Pinkie's hologram. He then opened up several panels that presented her in them. Sometimes, she was with her friends, sometimes, she was not, but she was still the spotlight in every panel. She walked, talked, bounced, laughed, giggled, cried, hugged, hopped, and galloped in every single one of them. He pushed a few panels away and enlarged a couple others that showed Pinkie's face either smiling, laughing, or crying. In that moment, Zedin felt a feeling he never believed he would: guilt. He felt guilty for fighting these ponies. He felt guilty for leading his forces upon them just to eliminate his most hated enemy, Solk and his GEST Corp. lackeys. He felt guilty for hurting Pinkie.

He cried internally since he was incapable of making tears. He simply frowned at Pinkie's laughing face and thought about the entire war altogether. Was it worth it? Was killing these ponies and their world worth it to fight the humans, a species he only had quarrels with due to him being the one to shoot first and ask questions later?

Zedin rejected his waterfall of emotions as he swiped the screens of Pinkie's many faces away. "Damn it, Zedin, you are growing weak. You have no reason to feel sorry or even guilty to these ponies. They are aiding the humans, and the humans are your sworn enemy. Remember, Zedin, a friend of the humans is another enemy in your way."

Zedin thought about Pinkie again. Would he dare to make her frown again?

He rejected the thought half-heartedly. "That is final, Zedin. The ponies are your enemies. When you are an intelligent ruler with an entire army in your hands, you do not need friends. You, do not, need, friends..."