Harmony: Equestria at War

While Bolt and Granite were figuring out how to rescue the two stallions that were imprisoned and held captive by the villain of the night, the moon never set for days. A week had passed but not a single second of sunlight had shined upon the lands of Equestria.

Temperature dropped drastically without the sunlight, and without the periodic maintenance of the weather control pegasus units for days, it started to snow. The soldiers on the field switched to their winter battle attire to keep warm from the chilling winds. They couldn’t start a fire easily under the unbalanced weather conditions, and could only hope someone fix this problem. Those who woke up found the moon still high up in the dark purple sky no matter how long they had slept.

Most of the soldiers on the field were horrified. The night had been continuous for at least an entire week. Princess Celestia did tried to raise the sun in order to restore some light and warmth to the lands, but with the moon in the way, that was the best she could do without blinding every single creature in the lands with a solar eclipse.

The Griffonstone Army was also having trouble with the cold weather even back at the Eastern Equestria region. Not only that it was just continuous darkness and night time that messed up time perception, the fact that simply losing sunlight had cause major impact on cultivation and the nature ecosystem as a lot of plants had died and withered away with the lack of nutritious sunlights for photosynthesis. Even the air they breathed were damp and dirty.

Eclipse was staring outside through an opening from the ground to his cell. It wasn’t wide enough to even fit a hoof through, but it was wide enough for him to peek outside of the eternal darkness of the castle. Eclipse could see everything clearly with his gifted powers, but Shining Armor couldn’t. He was almost completely blinded within the darkness, and he could only see so little under the dim light that passed through the gaps of the cell from the outside.

The two was locked up together in the same cell. Since Nightmare Moon’s plan was to make her sister bow before her, surrender and pass everything she own over to herself, rather than simply taking over Equestria with war, she decided to keep everything that was not involved with her sister directly one piece. Moreover, the two generals would be very valuable assets in her campaign later on.

She treated the two well enough that the two was comfy and warm in their cell. There were plenty of space to move around within the cell, and the two wasn’t tied up and therefore can move freely. They were giving thick blankets and soft mattresses, and even a phone charger for Eclipse - even though there wasn’t any mobile phone signal under the influence of the dark magic aura around them.

They had unlimited supply of food and drink, as long as they asked for it, the Guards would offer what they need to them, just as the Princess had ordered. Since her ultimate goal was to gain control without causing further destruction, so she must keep the two soldiers as comfortable as she can offer, so that eventually they might choose sides and to fight for her.

“How long have we been in this damn place? I feel like I’m rotting alive.” Shining Armor asked, as he was munching on some chocolate that he requested from the guards.

“At least a damn week by now. If I don’t look at the phone I would just guess 2 days. I can’t even determine how long has passed in this place.” Eclipse checked on his phone.

“I just hope that those changelings and dragons had breached through our defences in the South.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but they had breached through the defences there. Princess Celestia had confirmed that the South is lost and had summoned the Sentinel Task Force to assist in the war effort. I just fear that, without our commands, the Royal Guards and the Royal Air Force would stall.”

“So, how’s Sky Lannister doing in your team? He’s a brave, vigilant and smart stallion. Assigning him to guard the castle in Canterlot would be a waste for an elite soldier like him, so when he requested to be assigned to the Wonderbolts, I was quite glad to accept his request.”

“Sky Lannister, just as elite as his late brother Sky Striker. He is willing to learn, and always has an open mind. For me, being the commander of the Air Force, he reminded me of myself when I was still a lieutenant under command of Captain Windspear. I would not doubt to promote him to a lieutenant should the opportunity comes. He and me is just like how it was with me and Captain Windspear.”

“Sometimes I really wonder, why do you always wear clothes and pants? Like, we’re ponies, we don’t normal walk around wearing clothes, unless you’re those rich bastards up there in the Canterlot Commercial Area.”

“Actually, I don’t really know. I just feel better with clothes covering my body mostly. It’s not exactly useful by any mean, but it’s like a symbol.”

“What does your cutie mark even look like? I reckon no one had seen it since we met you.”

“Why do you really care about that little mark on my flank really? Just to answer you your question, none. I have no cutie mark, the end. ‘Why no cutie mark?’ you ask again? Well, how do I know? Ask my father King Sombra, he might know.”

“Really?”

“Do I really need to take of my pants just to prove this?”

“Umm, no you don’t need to…”

Shining Armor blushed upon Eclipse’s question, as he realised that that was quite an inappropriate question to ask.

“Anyways, any reinforcements coming in to rescue us?”

“I think Grand and Bolt are working on it. I suppose with the Wonderbolts and Royal Guards stalled due to our absence out there, our best bet would be the Sentinel Task Force or the Griffonstone Royal Agents, or hopefully both of them.”

“Right… Hope that really happens. I can’t bear to sit here for my entire life.”

“True warriors break out of their captive by themselves.”

“But how? The cell bars are old but tinted with dark magic, the walls behind us are too rigid to bust through with bare hooves, and moreover, there are guards here. I can’t even see a single thing in the darkness!”

“You are blinded, but I am not. I see things here as clearly just as it’s a bright sunny day at the outside. And actually, I have a trick up my sleeve that we can try.” Eclipse pulled Shining Armor over and whispered the words in his ears.

“What you planning on doing?” Shining Armor whispered back, not knowing what the stallion had in mind.

“Do you know what is the greatest weakness of a stallion?”

“Pain? Wealth?”

“Not exactly. Think as a stallion, like we are. We are Princes and Captains, we’ve been through pain, and we have wealth, which would not be a weakness of us.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Who do you miss the most now?”

“Cadence, duh.”

“Exactly. Mares. Mares are the greatest weakness of a stallion. Even the toughest stallions with the strongest will cannot withstand the attraction of lust from a mare.”

“So what are you trying to imply? How the hell are we gonna get a mare?”

“I know dark magic, remember? And as long as I remember that spell, we can use what we have here to strike their greatest weakness.”

“You mean, you’re gonna create a mare out of thin air?”

“Nah, I’m still not powerful enough to create things like how I was created. However, I can use it on myself.”

“You’re going to… become a mare?”

“Impossible? Or irresistible?”

“Whatever. As long as you don’t mess that magic with me, and it gets us out of this place, fine.”

“Alright, that’s a deal then. However, I would need your cooperation to kick this off.”

“Which is?”

“Just pretend that you are gonna to well… you know that part. Just try to blend in and cover the act. This is going to make them less vigilant. Once they got near me, take one. I will take care of the other one. Keep it silent and we’ll be out here in no time.”

Shining Armor blushed a little upon hearing Eclipse’s odd suggestion. “That’s quite wrong… and gross too… for us to, you know…”

“It is damn gross if we are both stallions because we would look like homosexuals. With me being a mare, there’s nothing wrong, just pretend I am Cadence, alright? It only takes you a minute. It’s not like it’s prostitution… Okay it kinda is… But if you wanna get out of here, just listen to me and do your part. I wouldn’t mind if you wish to stay here until the day you die.”

“Fine. Just for once.” He grunted.

Eclipse smirked upon Shining Armor’s reaction. He turned to look at the 2 guards sitting there at the opposite side of the room. The two was drinking something, whatever that is. Since the two stallions locked in the cell didn’t request anything, the guards didn’t really cared what the two were doing in the cell and just chat with his buddy.

“Ahem.” Eclipse purposely cleared his throat, just to catch the guards’ attention.

“What do you need?” A guard turned his head to look towards the cell as Eclipse stood up. They also have night vision, due to Nightmare Moon’s blessing for her subjects, so the guards can see the two stallion well in the darkness.

“Can I cast a alternation spell?” Eclipse asked.

“What kind of spell?”

“Gender bending.”

“What? Why?” He was quite confused of Eclipse’s odd request, he thought it would be some random telekinesis or equilibrium or entropy nonsense.

“You know, as the Prince of the Shadow Realm, I have control over lots of spell that mortals would never even dream of learning. Being locked up here for this long is getting quite… lonely. You see, me and my comrade just want to have a little… fun. I assume that is a valid request?”

“I’m sorry, that’s a no-“

“You can join us. I know you are rejecting in your words, but deep in your heart, you desperately wanted to… liberate your boredom and loneliness being assigned to just stare at us all day. It’s a request, as I supposed that you are supposed to grant me the request as Her Majesty had ordered you to do? You wouldn’t dare to violate her orders now, would you?”

“He’s not wrong…” The guard blushed, as Eclipse had exposed his inner voice.

“So that’s a yes, I suppose?”

“Yeah, go on. I’m pretty sure Her Majesty wouldn’t mind if we are just… fulfilling his request like we are told to do so, right?” He responded with an embarrassed ‘Hah’.

With the guard’s ‘approval’ , he casted the spell on himself. Within a second, his body glowed slightly. Since he was wearing his usual Wonderbolt’s uniform, not much change of the body could be observed by them under the clothes’ cover.

However, his face had shifted a little, with a little pointy nose and a cute appearance that would make stallions even with toughest will fall to their knees and admire the look on her face. Her mane had lengthened like a mare. With that done, she is now Nova Shade, the female form of Eclipse.

Shining Armor played his role and slowly moved his body nearer to Nova Shade, with his face awkwardly near Eclipse’s. He could only imagine how red his face was then. Eclipse could feel Shining Armor’s warm breathe gently blowing on her face, and the two looked into each other’s eye. That should be enough to fool the guards. Shining Armor tried to resist and look away from Nova Shade’s lustful eyes.

The guards stood up from their seat and set down their helmets and their swords. The two guards approached the cell and promptly opened the cell door with keys and entered the cell with a grin on their faces. The two started to undo the straps on their armour and set it down next to them.

After the two had their burden set down, with only their bare and unarmed bodies, the two slowly approached the mare lying on the ground. One kneeled down and tried to kiss the mare. Nova Shade lifted a hoof , touching his lips with a mischievous smile, stopping the stallion from moving down towards her.

She counted softly, “3, 2, 1.”

As she counted to 1, Shining Armor suddenly bashed one of the guard and knocked him onto the ground by surprise. Eclipse grabbed the stallion’s head with another hoof and smacked the stallion on the floor. She rolled over and with a powerful tug onto his neck, suffocated him and ended the stallion’s life. Shining Armor was strangling the defenceless stallion who was pinned to the floor and could barely breathe and fight back. Eclipse got back up with a roll and kicked the stallion right in the head, snapping his airway.

“Phew, that was easy.” She chuckled.

“Nice one, Eclipse.”

“Call me Nova Shade when I’m a mare.”

“Whatever, Eclipse, Nova Shade, same thing. You did this before?”

“Not really, this is actually my first time trying this spell out. I just improvised it.”

“Heh. Did you enjoy that? He seemed to be mesmerised with you.” Shining Armor teased.

“Wouldn’t lie, I kinda did, perhaps I should do this more often.” She giggled.

“Yeah, very funny. Let’s just get outta here before anyone notice what happened here. And change back to a stallion please, I can’t bare to look into your lustful eyes anymore. That was damn weird.”

“I actually wanna try to fight as a mare, but I guess you are right. I feel safer being a stallion.” He used the spell again and turned back into the Eclipse like how he used to be. He wrapped the two bodies under the blankets and locked the gate to buy themselves some time, even if someone were to come in and check the cells.

“Do you see our gear around?” Eclipse asked, as he observed around.

Shining Armor went to search around the room with his limited vision, but he ended up finding nothing but those guards’ weapons and equipments. Their gears that were stripped away from that day was gone.

“So what now?”

“Just pretend to be one of them with their gear and stay to the shadows. We can find a way to get out of here.”

“Alright. I’m not that kind of sneaky, hidden build of a soldier but I guess I have no choice either.”

The two stallions put on the armor the two guards left in the cell and hid their bodies under the blankets. With an extra layer of clothing underneath the armour, Eclipse’s armor felt quite tight, but it was still acceptable.

They picked their weapons the guards left in the room. Eclipse picked up an obsolete M1 Garand rifle and attached a combat knife on the barrel to use as a bayonet, which was held onto the gun with 2 zip ties found in the room. Shining Armor chose a spear since that was what he was most familiar with using in battle.

“If I have to guess, our stuff would be in a safe, or an armoury. There would be no reason for Nightmare Moon to keep those things near her at all times.” He suggested as the two walked out of room which they were once locked in. Eclipse checked the two sides of the the corridor from the room. The left side was where he entered the room, and the right leads to some places else within the castle. Shining Armor couldn’t see much under the dim moonlight shining inside the underground compartment, he just followed closely right behind Eclipse as he led the way.

Since they didn’t see anyone or anything from their way in, they decided to search the other way into the abandoned castle. There were more soldiers patrolling around the castle, which they didn’t see any at all at the time they came. The defence in the castle was strengthened drastically within one week.

They kept their vision straight and walked along vigilantly. Most guards didn’t cared to even look at them since they were wearing the same armour as the guards and just assumed they were just another random guards patrolling around the compound.

As they walked, they followed a guard into the armoury. It was fairly empty, with only a few melee weapons and 3 rifles on the racks. They were fortunate that they found that their stuff were just left lying on the table. Eclipse sneaked up on the guards and took him by surprise with a knife to his throat.

The guards dropped dead, and Eclipse stuffed the dead body into a chest to hide it. The two rearmed themselves with their gears that they were most familiar with. Eclipse was glad that his precious rifle is back, and now he could fight again effectively. Shining Armor got his spear and tied his sword on his waist again. He also mentally readied himself as well with a few deep breathes. The golden armour of his shined upon the white moonlight that came from the small window that allowed light to come through. It was snowing as they got out of there as white flakes slowly landed onto the ground outside.

Eclipse also found his phone, which he was able to connect to someone. He decided to call Lightningbolt, as she was in charge of the Sentinel Task Force.

“Hey, Bolt. You hear me?”

“Eclipse? You’re alive, thank Celestia. Are you alright there?”

“No time for chit chat. There is no way for me and Shining Armor to walk out of here alive without any assistance due to the heavy resistance in here. Get some troops over here and help. You stay behind, I don’t want you to get hurt by the strong dark magic here.”

“I’ll notify your brother. I’ll get some of the Sentinels and Grand to come over and help., Estimated time of arrival 10 minutes, just hang on there.”

She dropped the call to send reinforcements towards the castle. Eclipse passed the M1 Garand to Shining Armor along with all the spare ammunitions he could scavenge in the room. He also passed him a flashlight just so he could look around clearly.

“Take this. Works just like a spear, you can stab and cut with the blade, but it can also shoot bastards from far away where you can’t reach in melee range. Gonna be useful to fight our way out.”

Shining Armor took the rifle and thanked his partner. Now they waited in the room. As soon as reinforcements arrived, they will fight their way out to rendezvous with the team. The two stayed in the armoury, until they hear soldiers started to gather up and Eclipse could feel the dark magic getting tense.

“Hey, the dark magic here should be intolerable for common Equestrian ponies. How are you not sick?”

“Blessings of the Nightmare, my friend. She knew I am important to her in her endeavour of taking over Equestria, so I wasn’t sick the entire time we’re here, but I don’t know why won’t she grant me night vision as well.”

“Whatever, just get ready.”

As they waited, Eclipse could hear that the soldiers were piled up outside the door. Eclipse turned to ready his wing and placed his rifle on the wing as support, while Shining Armor took aim. The two flipped a cabinet over on the floor for extra cover, in case those bastards carried guns.

“Ready?”

“Ready when you are.”

The two nodded at each other. Eclipse tossed a frag grenade right at the door just before the enemies came in. As the soldiers busted into the room, the frags from the explosion took down quite a few of them. The two started to fire fiercely at the incoming forces. Their armour was bullet-proof, and they found themselves busy reloading their rifles since Eclipse’s rifle only holds 10 rounds per clip, and only 8 rounds for Shining Armor. And with no actual training with firearms, Shining Armor found himself missing shots more that hits, even in such close range.

Eclipse was taking his aim quite well with high accuracy to the flesh. Since they had their vital organs protected, he could only put rounds on their limbs to disable them first, and then finish them off with a fatal shot right in their faces.

“Lightningbolt to Eclipse, reinforcements have arrived, we’ll cover you! Just head out!”

After the soldiers attacking them had fallen, the two started to move out towards the outside of the castle from where they came in. As they exited the underground compound, they met a lot of enemy resistance. The two stallions fought hard to neutralise them as Eclipse sniped those who charged towards them and Shining Armor took point and battled the infantries with melee. After stepping out the indoor area of the castle, they met the Sentinels, Granite, Bolt and Shadestep who arrived to assault and support the two to break out.

Shadestep flew over and tosses the Sword of the Burnt Secrets to Eclipse.

“But wait, how did you…”

“Teleportation brother. Simple as that, now less talking, more fighting!”

Eclipse started to shoot at the waves of soldiers rushing towards them. One shot, one kill. The Luna Guards were falling one by one as the team attacked them.

“Eclipse, my darling, it’s so good to see you! I was so scared that you were dead!” Bolt approached Eclipse as she shot arrows towards the soldiers. She gave her lover a tight hug as she approached him. A drop of tear slowly slid down her face as she did so. She was at cloud nine to see her lover was alive and untouched.

“Me too, dear. I missed you. So much.” Eclipse gave the mare a gentle kiss as he continued firing at the enemies.

As they defeated the soldiers, the Nightmare appeared with a cloud of smoke and flames. Nightmare Moon slowly stepped forward the team with her wings stretched and evil laughter, with shots of lightnings shooting down to the ground as she walked to the front to face the team. Classic villain intro.

The team seized fire as Lightningbolt raised a hoof. Eclipse and Shadestep stood up and walked forward, facing against the Mare of the Nightmare and the two sides stared at each other.

“Ahh, the King and the Prince. I suppose you two can learn a thing or two about nightmares and dark magic.”

“I would surely be pleased to learn something new.” Eclipse replied.

“I told you to send my sister, where is she?”

“She sent us. If you wanna challenge her, kill us all first.”

“You two. Shame of the Darkness. How does one that possess with dark magic become slaves of my sister mindlessly under her daft ruling?”

“You do not understand Princess. Your previous evil mind had been purged and locked away, but something brings it back. It is you, that can control yourself and make use of your own power.”

“I laugh to your stupidity, Prince Eclipse. You could have used the power to take over this world, but you didn’t.”

“We own a Realm and live peacefully with Equestria. And in the civil war, we are supposed to stay strong together as a nation to defend our homeland, not to turn the other way and cause even more chaos!”

She looked really angry, and Eclipse knew he might have screwed up the negotiation, so Plan A was a failure. She flew up into the air and started to shoot magic beams towards the team on the ground, and all the teammate that had wings responded to Lightningbolt’s command and all took off immediately to counter her attack. Time for Plan B, the fight.

Eclipse ditched his M14 rifle and passed it to Shining Armor, and he switched to the Sword of the Burnt Secrets his brother gave him. He flew near her and swung his sword towards her, staggering the mare in the air. He wasn’t trying to hurt the mare, but to weaken her strength until she yields. The 2 kinds of dark magic, holy and evil, collide and sparked with burst of flame and smoke. Bolt shot her arrows at the mare’s mane, Granite sniped the mare with his magnum revolver, and the ground forces tried to shoot the mare, but mostly ceased fire to avoid friendly fire. The ponies and griffon in the air flew in a pattern as random as possible, so that the mare couldn’t attack all of them at the same time, effectively burning her energy, while wearing down her morale.

The mare was attacking furiously at first, shooting at everyone with magic beams, but her magic that was used for her protective ward aura started to fade away after absorbing so much attack, and she slowed down due to exhaustion. The team had successfully wore her energy down and disabled her. She landed on the floor and kneeled down with her front legs, panting heavily.

She fell, lying on the floor, breathing heavily. Eclipse landed on the ground with a squat and quickly stood back up. He walked up towards Nightmare Moon, and he pointed the sword at the mare. The leg he was holding the sword had a small trail of red fluid running down to his hoof and dripped onto the floor.

“Gods… never… bleed.” Nightmare Moon smirked as she got her words out with a shaky and trembling voice. She raised her head to look at Eclipse with the sword in his hoof pointing at her, and droplets of blood running down the blade from his front limb. She felt weakened and shattered, and her mind was flushed with dark magic. Eclipse could sense the mare’s dark magic force started to slowly fade away and decreased.

“If we don’t end this war…” Eclipse started.

“This war will end us…” Nightmare Moon muttered. She felt like her real sense as a loving and caring Princess of the Night had slowly restored. She lied there, staring blankly at Eclipse as her mind was running crazy fast as memories flashed.

“We all have a monster inside of us, some obvious, some not. The monster is a second power within ourselves, capable of utter destruction if we only follow our own voices. Learn to control the monster inside you is like getting an ally, utilise the power and make yourselves more powerful from your dark power.” Eclipse said to the mare, with a genuine warm and kind tone.

“We’ve been there, Princess. We have experienced this. We could make it, and so you will, as long as you try.” Shadestep also persuaded.

She cried, full of sorrow and regret. Eclipse sheathed his blade and reached his hoof out to help the mare get back up on her hooves again. Her dark magic faded completely, and returned to the Princess Luna everyone in this land love and respect.

The team assisted Luna to return to Canterlot. Meanwhile, Eclipse met a few of the Sentinels that joined the fight today. One of the team member looked familiar in Eclipse’s vision.

“Hey you! Wait you are… that Bartender in the West!” Eclipse called out to the mare.

She turned around, to see the commander standing there, calling her.

“Oh yes, I am AppleAle. So you are Eclipse, that one stallion that tried to find Colonel Lightningbolt so desperately a few weeks ago! So you really are the commander?” The mare was surprised to see a familiar face here.

“Yes he is. And now, we love each other, very much.” Lightningbolt joined the conversation.

“So you are also a Sentinel?” Eclipse asked.

“Yes, sir. I live my life as a bartender at the West and I am a Sentinel of the Task Force under Princess Celestia’s service and the command of the Colonel. My special perk is medication and I used to receive military training as a medic in the battlefield. I joined a few previous mission as a specialist medic but once I was injured pretty badly in the battlefield. I was discharged to recover from my wounds, but Her Highness recruited me to be a Sentinel due to my brilliant service record, which I was honoured to accept.”

“Nice to meet you then, AppleAle. I hope I don’t need to see you on the field being very busy, and I hope I don’t need to see you while I’m bleeding on the ground helplessly.”

All three giggled. They looked at their watches, noticed that it was already 6am. As Luna finally set down the moon, warmth and sunlight returned along with hope and faith. The team returned from this place back to Canterlot to report back to Princess Celestia and prepare for their next operation. Eclipse was the last to prepare to leave that place.

“Shade?” He called his brother, who was still staying behind with Eclipse.

“What is it?”

“Since when have you become King?”

“Umm…What?”

“Nightmare Moon said it, ‘the King and the Prince.’”

“I was never King…” He awkwardly explained.

“Come on, Shade. You know you can’t lie to me. I know you too well.”

“Oh, alright then… Since King Sombra was defeated, we are the three rightful descendants and inheritors of his power. I am the oldest and the most powerful among the three of us, so I was rightfully titled as King the moment I was summoned. I just claimed that I’m Prince, just because we three owns the Realm together.”

“Ahh I see. All hail the King of Shadow Realm!” He jokingly saluted to his brother.

“All hail the King of Shadow Realm, Your Majesty!” Lightningbolt followed, with a little giggle.

Shadestep couldn’t help but smirk as the two saluted.

“We’re still brothers, and we shall rule this land hoof in hoof.”

“What is better ? to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort ?”