*Vanhoover 7:30 AM 12/18/1596*
*General Bronzetail's last stand*

It was a new day in Vanhoover, one of the last remaining Caribou cities that hadn't fallen to complete anarchy after the return of the virus. The Caribou that lived there were focused on one thing, and one thing only. Which was breaking the borders of Equestrian territory, by going to the undiscovered west.

It was what Bronzetail, ex-general of the caribou, had gotten this city to work together towards. He had rallied over the thousands for a battleship able to carry said thousands long before the virus's return. His reasoning for it was that the virus could've had an alternate host. It had been a collective effort for each and every individual that joined him, the consequence being that the project was almost finished. The only things that were left to be done were windows and railings. From there, he knew the caribou could live a prosperous life out of sight, and hopefully reclaim the Caribou's glory.

That was the vision Bronzetail had struggled to make, ever since Dainn's death. He knew the caribou lord wouldn't approve of this idea, preferring to stay and fight. As a friend of his, he was certain.

Bronzetail had taken a break to stand on top of one of Vanhoover's skyscrapers. He looked down upon the city, bustling to get parts moving to the hidden ship, and vaguely reminisced upon all good times he had. He was a leader to these caribou, but he knew the virus is coming upon him. His military instincts told him that it'd be checking the city soon. The old griffon made a decision right then and there. He would go down to Pvt Buck, and tell the poor lad that he was to lead the people. He knew it was a wrong thing to do, forcing leadership on somebody.

But it was the way he joined the old army, and the way he figured would ensure the survival of what Dainn left behind. Just like all those years ago, he thought to himself. His mind drifted off to the past, back to the moment he was first brought in...

Bronzetail swung his sword to cleave the head off a stallion, charging him with a battleaxe. He then rolled off to the side, narrowly avoiding an arrow and ducking behind cover. He sheathed his sword, pulled out his bow, and got ready to shoot.

Canterlot was under attack from a unknown force, he could tell much of that from the noises. But he wouldn't let up his position, not until his family managed to start the train. He couldn't give up until everyone was safe.

He pulled back the string on his bow, aimed at the sky, and made quick calculations on where the arrow would land. Once finished, his mostly blind shot whizzed through the air. He quickly reloaded an arrow from the quiver and pulled the string again. He peeped out of cover to quickly headshot the archer that shot at him.

Quickly drawing his sword, he eyed the area around him carefully. There was no sign of caribou, war beasts, or lust-controlled stallions. Yet he still didn't let his guard down.

Thump

He snapped his head towards the source of the noise, hearing the concrete break under the feet.

Thump

Bronzetail didn't budge an inch, ready to face whatever came his way.

Thump

A large, three-and-a-half-stories-tall warbeast emerged from behind a building. Its maw, stained with gore, a look of bloodlust on its face as it stared him down, saliva dripping from its mouth. Bronzetail held the look of defiance on his face, slowly switching to the bow. The moment he grabbed it, the beast let out a roar of challenge, before charging forwards. Bronzetail took to the skies, quickly firing an arrow into the beast's shoulders, which barely punctured the beast. It didn't even flinch as it charged into a wall. Bronzetail quickly swapped over to the sword, skydiving towards the back of the beast.

The beast however sensed the attack, and tried to grab Bronzetail with its right arm. Instincts flaring up, Bronzetail moved to the right, knowing he couldn't slow down. He instead aimed for the beast’s elbow, causing the arm to go limp from the wound. It screeched in pain, as it spun around and slapped Bronzetail with its other arm, which sent him careening towards a building.

Bronzetail coughed up blood, struggling to get out of the hole he was put in, whilst his whole body was wracked with pain. The beast moved towards him, with the intention to make it hurt as much as possible before killing him. Adrenaline filling his veins, he pulled himself out of the crater, and rolled out just as the beast pounced on him. He quickly sliced at the beast's ankles, a mortal wound being struck. He jumped backwards to avoid a kick, and ran up the retreating leg.

He latched onto a piece of the beast's armor, it screeching in frustration as it clawed for him. He pulled out his bow, attempting to aim for the beast's temple. Much to his dismay, it then decided to ram into a building, causing him to fall off. It quickly turned around, raising a foot to stomp down on him. Bronzetail closed his eyes, his life flashing before him as he awaited death.

...Death that never came. Bronzetail looked up to see a gigantic figure holding the beast's foot. It then pushed the beast backwards, causing it to fall to the floor. He couldn't see much, but from what he could see it had some kind of horns, as it charged up a spell. A loud blast saw to the beast's end, and Bronzetail couldn't take it any more. His vision blurry, he descended into darkness, but not before hearing the figure say something.

"What strength you have, able to nearly kill the crazed creature... and yet it seems as if you don't know why I lead this campaign."

It has been a year since that day, and while he eventually came to understand Dainn's ideals. He didn't, however, condone the fact that he just let his subjects treat them like that. He knew it was wrong to treat even the most unruly of mares like that.

But maybe, just maybe, out of sight they'd grow to be a strong, more understanding civilization. More unlike the caribou of today. But it's not today they'll be given a chance here. He thought to himself. Not when the virus is on a hate-filled campaign to wipe out the caribou. He almost wanted to just talk to the virus, understand its motivations for wiping out the caribou. He knew it was reasonable, the stallions having a lesser mortality rate than caribou being proof of that.

He thought about the caribou fatalities. Perhaps it was their culture, and the perversion of Equestria's that brought its wrath? Perhaps something more... He then wondered about the virus's backstory, coming up with many dark theories about it.

None of them made a lick of sense. Then again, that's how Discord knew our next moves. He had thought bitterly. Over the course of his years, Discord was the only one able to tell his next move, sometimes words, and in turn he couldn't even predict him. Bronzetail was only able to remember how Discord did his job, something about knowing a script. Sometimes he wished he had a script to follow.

Sometimes.

He snapped himself out of his thoughts. There was work to be done, and survival wasn't going to be happen by being deep in thought. He went back inside to get in the elevator, the skyscraper still void of life. He wrote his last will to say that Private Buck was to assume leadership.

It was near the ground floor the power had ran out. Bronzetail paled, for he only knew one thing that could take down the power of the buildings. He grabbed his sword, and attempted to budge an opening in the elevator doors. He twisted the sword sideways, a decent enough gap giving enough leeway to pull open. Bronzetail pushed the elevator doors open, and moved out of the elevator. Just as he jumped out, the elevator snapped shut, crushing the sword. He grit his teeth and opened a window to jump out of.

He soared through the air, looking for the disturbance. He stopped still in his tracks when he came across a giant golem, making its way to the docks. Flashbacks of the beast went through his mind, making him cower at the sight of it. The Vanhoover guards were doing their best to slow it down, to little avail. Bronzetail dared not fight a larger, sturdier beast than the one back at Canterlot. Nothing of the virus's creations didn't just punch, and kick after all.

He instead looked for the virus, thinking his non-caribou form would help convince it to stop attacking. Countless buildings laid destroyed from the golem's wake, possibly in search of caribou to consume. The very thought made his stomach churn, giving him second thoughts he immediately pushed back. He couldn't hesitate when lives were at stake, especially when he hadn't told Buck of his promotion. How would he fare if he found he was committing regicide after all?

Amidst the ruins lay a figure sweeping the rubble. He didn't think much of it at first, but when he saw said figure sweep a stone twice its size, he swiftly flew down to investigate it. When he got close, he knew this was the host of the virus, or the leader of the side army he'd sent. For it didn't take Bronzetail a second to figure out that the virus wouldn't have sent more than a giant golem, rather take matters into his it’s own tendrils.

The figure presumably stared at him, its face quite unreadable. This has to be him, he thought to himself. He landed on the ground, the figure's gaze unmoving. What seemed like an eternity passed by before either spoke.

"Are you with the caribou?" it asked, its forehead flashing red with each word. As he had expected, it held its words with suspicion. "Because if you are, I will have to put you away. In the trash."

Bronzetail held his ground, undeterred by him. "Not when you're simply slaughtering caribou for their mere culture."

This prompted a different color on its forehead, a dark color of gray. "Oh? And what makes you think that they are worthy of mercy? For they weaken with each enslavement they make." I grit my teeth in frustration.

"These caribou can be brought sense to! Lord Dainn didn't-" He was cut off by the figure pointing it's broom at him, its surprisingly sharp bristles mere feet away from him.

"Let me get one thing straight, birdie. Your deplorable excuse of a king came into our nation, and without so much of a peep attacked, tortured, as well as brainwashing all those that didn't agree with his rule. Who's to say his citizens aren't the same?"

Bronzetail growled at the remark. "I'm an ex-soldier of Equestria! Dainn would've killed me if-"

"Dainn spared you because you had a dick. He would've just brainwashed you if he found out you disagreed with him." The figure's hand moved, and within a split second the bristles of the broom burst towards him. He barely had time to cover himself with the shield, adrenaline filling his veins.

"I'm not going to bother trying to help you," it continued as the bristles of the broom slowly regrew. "It's Aaron's job to do that, and right now? Aaron's not here. Which means I have only two options." It then put the broom under its legs, and moved at terrifyingly fast speeds towards him. He couldn't even move a inch before it rammed him into a building. Flashbacks of the beast filled his vision, and he vaguely mused the similarities of the situation.

"Kill you, or leave you at the hands of my friends." Suddenly, the bodies behind the figure began to rise, slowly trudging towards Bronzetail as they did so. "I'm not one to get blood on my hands, unless it's those who deserve it. I'm sorry, but this is the best I could do."

The hordes of the undead turned their gazes to him, their still-regenerating bodies slowly beginning to brim with the same unholy glow of red. He struggled to move his left arm to grab his bow.

But the arm didn't move. And as realization slowly closed in, he realized that his left arm was crushed under rubble. His life slowly played out before him, from when his family of Equestrian nobles adopted him; training with Shining Armor; the invasion; and the speech he made to the Caribou to leave this place before the virus found out their plans.All of this... has been in vain. Even an off-shoot army of the virus could stomp us out.

One final image played in his mind, of his family standing behind him, his mother crying happy tears, and his dad with a small, but proud smile on his face.

Then the infected shambled through the image.

And he saw red.

He grabbed a sword laying off to the right and quickly stood up, his left arm detaching from the rubble with a sickening rip, blood pouring out at a fast rate. TO HELL WITH THIS! TO HELL WITH THIS AARON! I'LL SLICE OFF EVERY LAST HEAD OF THESE SHITFACES IF IT'S THE LAST OF ME!

With that thought in mind and a loud battlecry, he sliced the infected who shambled through the image clean in two. More and more infected began picking up speed, going from shambling to a light paced jog. He didn't care for the increased danger. He uppercut another infected in the head, bursting it into spores. He ran through the spores without a second thought, slaughter the only thing on his mind as it mindlessly cut the head of another infected off.

He did not stop cutting heads, until every single one of the infected laid lifeless on the ground.

Eventually the hate-filled adrenaline faded, and he fell to the ground, darkness slowly consuming his vision. Off in the distance, he saw Private Buck rushing to his aid, shouting all the while. He mustered whatever breath he could, forcing himself not to cough up blood.

"Buck..." Bronzetail said through his hazy vision. "You're to start evacuation... and lead the civilians to a better future now. Do not question my judgement." Buck said something to him, though he couldn't make it out. He continued nonetheless. "When this is over, make friends with the Equestrians and live a happy life. Make sure to wake me up when I'm not on Equestria anymore," he said as he slowly closed my eyes, Buck frantically shaking him. "...Do you understand Buck? Wake me up when I'm not on Equestria anymore..."

*Yakyakistan Siege 12:30 PM 12/20/1596*
*Shining Armor of the rebounded horde*

Shining Armor stood on top of a hill with a horde of inactive infected, waiting for a caravan of refugees to open the enormous wooden gates of Yakyakistan, a fiery gaze in his eyes as he scanned the terrain.

He didn't mind the yaks at first, only having a understandably small hatred for the barbaric nation. But when Dainn's rule came into play, the yaks were the ones to destroy any and all remnants of old Equestrian society. Taking down various historical figureheads of Equestrian military, such as the statue of Valiant Heart (statue of victory), an earth pony who was the only pony to predict Discord, and was the pony to win a battle against a long forgotten foe of which Equestrian historians had struggled to unearth. On top of that, they were far crueler to the mares that resisted, spearheading the torture given to the resistance members.

If there was a reason to not wipe the yaks off the map after that, he wouldn't have cared, only able to see them as vermin far worse than the caribou.

Eventually a caribou refugee caravan came upon the road. Shining Armor watched as the caravan slowly but surely traveled up the long, icy road to the Yakyakistan gates. As it went, Shining Armor calculated how long it would take for the caravan to get inside, how many infected would it take to ensure an inevitable victory against the caribou, and most importantly the right time to strike. Once the calculations were completed, Shining Armor waited until roughly 3/4ths of the caravan made it inside before activating the infected.

Within just a few bare moments, the infected had risen, and began to slide down the hill to land on top of the caravan. Shining Armor however, took a 'juggernaut' approach as Aaron would call it. He first moved back a little, to have enough momentum, and then when the calculations went through, he ran and jumped off the very edge of the hill. Using his chaingun, he laid a hail of bullets upon the caribou, aiming for the gate guards first before slaughtering the caribou. As the ground drew close, Shining Armor used his left arm to soften his fall, the ground cracking beneath Shining Armor’s hand as he landed.

He wasted no time, immediately going back to slaughtering the caribou in front of him, as the infected landed on top of the caribou behind him. He shot down the horde of retreating caribou and yaks, occasionally getting an attack from a yak or two. Eventually, the horde had dispersed, leaving only a pile of holed bodies and blood. Using the powers given to him by Aaron, he dispersed a wave of nanites upon the dead, adding them to his army.

Shining Armor then began to make haste to back end of the city, not only knowing it'd be the escape route, but also would put them on the road to other yak strongholds. Even though Shining Armor placed mines there, he knew that it'd only be a matter of time before they wasted all the mines, and started running away in a last ditch effort. He would not suffer the yaks to learn of his assault until it was too late for them to do anything.

His SIVA enhanced eyes scanned the areas he went through, almost instantaneously detecting those who tried to hide, and shot them down without a shred of mercy, obtaining a total of 257 dead by the time he made it halfway through the city. Earlier than he expected, the sounds of explosions rang off in the distance, signifying that the surviving yaks and caribou had made way to the exit. Shining Armor quickened his pace, tuning down SIVA's optical enhancement for increased mobility, and leaving the hiding survivors to face the horde.

Within a few minutes of no activity, the horde had caught up with him, trailing just barely behind the speeds he was going. Various screams and sickening rips filled his ears, the infected horde ripping apart whole buildings as they went. Due to this, Shining Armor's mind began to block out the noise, shutting down into what some would call 'hollowed' mode. Though Shining Armor preferred the term robot when he heard Aaron's opinion of it. He felt as if it suited the things he did as captain during the changeling invasion.

Eventually the sounds of a stampede reached Shining Armor's ears, causing him to stop in his tracks. Almost as if second nature, Shining Armor enhanced his vision, quickly locating the yaks and caribou. Hundreds, if not thousands of yak and caribou alike charged in unison towards him. Shining Armor's plan had taken an unexpected turn, the yaks and caribou moving for a counterattack rather than running through the trapped exit. Either they figured there was no way out other than through him, or they were simply desperate.

Shining Armor didn't care either way. They were going to die, whatever the outcome of the plan was, and were to be added to his horde. Tapping into the digital connection he had to his horde, Shining Armor called forth a specific horde of infected known as Cystanals. Infected caribou or unicorns who teleported almost constantly, and had high chances of infecting their targets upon striking them. Few in the many ranks of the horde that had their minds taken, the caribou quickly grew to be terrified of these infected, as they turned any battlefield into mayhem within seconds of their arrival.

Within but a minute of Shining Armor's calling, these infected arrived, quickly taking note of the oncoming attackers and teleporting directly in the middle of their ranks, emitting high pitched screeches that causing them to disperse immediately. The horde of yaks and caribou ran about in utter chaos, attempting to chase down or attack the Cystanals, only to hit a wall or one of their own, as the dagger long claws scratched at them. Shining Armor merely fired his chaingun upon them, shooting down confused caribou and yak alike. The army of caribou and yaks fell like moths to a flame, unable to do anything other than struggle in futility upon the bloodied snow, screaming all the while in a mass panic.

With Yakyakistan laying in ruins, Shining Armor left the flaming city, not bothering to look back as he made way to reclaim the Crystal Empire.

Shining Armor has completed his mission. Rasputin announced as we camped close by the Crystal Empire, using the everlasting winter as cover.

Took him long enough! I had enough time to teach Aaron the four forms of gliding, not to mention his arc melee.

Aren't those basic abilities though?

My point is, that there's no way we could've had the spare time to learn how to thunderstrike. Hell, you almost managed a stormtrance a few days ago. That's the hardest super of the arc classes to master!

Says the lady who hadn't bothered to learn it! Seriously, you kept acting as if it'd take me until the Traveler's ancient enemy returned.

Suddenly, the SIVA my body whirred loudly, showing that Rasputin was deep in thought.

I... remember something. He said with a hint of nostalgia, taking us both by surprise.

Remember? What do you remember Rasputin?!

Like seriously dude, what do you remember? You actually displayed a emotion for once!

A warlock just like the person in the memory... he's teaching other warlocks how to blink. In the midst of the crowd are a few hunters and... titans? He seems anxious about something.

Go on.

That's the data log of the memory.

Nononono, that seriously cannot be it right? Just a memory of a warlock teaching the other classes to blink? Do you realize how shitty that stuff would be for a story?

I don't think you see the bigger picture here Aaron. This is evidence to Rasputin's life before the collapse! The golden age! Also, are you intentionally making it sound bad?

...What's blink again?

A sigh from her. It's an extremely concentrated burst of light that allows you to move at the speed of photon rays for 10 nanoseconds. Or otherwise known as a short-distance teleport.

Still a shit name though. Couldn't there be a better name for it, like shimmer or something?

Well if you got a better name, throw it at me. Otherwise, just deal with it, as we got better things to do than make names. Take my theory on Rasputin's past life for instance! He said that-

Skorri, what did your mom say of gossiping about people who are listening?

I'm a few centuries old and was without a mom to begin with.

Skorri, what did the Traveler say of gossiping about people who are listening?

Go fuck yourself Aaron.

Gladly.

Author's Note

No, the word stand in the beginning is not a "motherfucking Jojo's reference". I am also not into Jojo, this thumbnail pretty much explaining everything I can make from it.

Obvious reference to a youtuber aside, I really wanted to bring out the more human aspect of the caribou this chapter. I felt like I wasn't showing the terrified part, that even the most heinous of villains would have. So I decided to introduce Bronzetail. Yes, he's a OC (as far as I know), and not a personality I really seen around here.

I did take a few tips from Shortmane, whom is writing a severely underrated story you should definitely check out, if you like this. Here's the link.

Editor:Vutava