October 1st
C-Day plus 212
New Liberty, Onorus
‘Broken’

Cassidy and Altair sat cuddled on the couch in the Occisor ancestral home atop the hill looking down at New Liberty, the desert stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see save for the smattering of skyscrapers in the distance. Altair’s father had given him and Cassidy this house as a gift, stating that now that they were eighteen they needed to have their own place to be adults. Altair and Cassidy had moved in not long after, and now they sat together. Cassidy was worried about Altair though, he was far from the same person he had been since he had left for the war. She had seen all the scars on his body that the Equestrians had made, but she knew that the biggest scars lay beneath the surface, in the mind.

She had been doing her best to make Altair better, but there were some things that just couldn’t be fixed. Every night she would to to bed with Altair staring up at the ceiling, and every morning she would wake to the same sight, as if he had never even blinked for the entire night. When he did sleep, it was during the day, and it was fraught with screaming and whimpering. As far as the military was concerned, Altair hadn’t broken, he hadn’t given up military secrets… As for Cassidy, the Equestrians had broken the man she loved and rearranged him into some mockery of his former self. He still loved her, she still loved him, but what they had before was gone… Replaced by something different.

Altair was sleeping on the large couch with Cassidy next to him, she had learned that just hugging him and staying close did wonders to help him sleep. Letting him know that there was someone next to him after nearly six months of isolation was all she could think to do, and it seemed to be working. She hated what the Equestrians had done to him, she hated the Equestrians in general, but most of all she hated that there wasn’t more she could do to help him. She knew that he would eventually go back to the fight, he had sworn revenge, and Cassidy knew that Altair always made good on his word.

For now though… Cassidy would spend her time healing the wounds both physical and mental, and after that she would go back to her singing… It was her only way of coping with what had been happening over those long months. As it was winter, the Onorussians had been holding their position outside of Ponyville. The city was in ruins by now, barely a shell of its former self, but that wouldn’t stop the Onorussians from taking it. That was what the newsreels had been saying so far, and she didn’t doubt that Altair would be taking part in that attack when the time was right. He had been promoted to Second Lieutenant for his fortitude and strength, even given medals, but Cassidy knew that was little in recompense for what those Monarchists had taken from him.

Cassidy felt the man shift and groan, that meant he was likely going to wake up soon. The woman sighed and stood up, intending to go to the kitchen and get dinner started. Altair was left alone, his mind racing as he felt the two comforting arms leave his side… It didn’t take long for his eyes to snap open, leaving him staring up at the ceiling. The man ran his hands down his face, feeling all the new scars that had formed, leaving him even more disfigured than before. Somehow Cassidy still managed to stomach his face, though he didn’t know how, that just made her all the more worth protecting in the man’s eyes.

Altair stood up from the couch and adjusted his t-shirt, then tucked it into his fatigue pants. The man could hear Cassidy humming in the kitchen, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he opened them again and walked to the door that lead to the garage. He stepped out into the dark workspace and closed the door behind him, the smell of musty old wood flooded his nostrils as he walked to a punching bag hanging from the rafters. The man began to beat on the bag hard, right off the bat he was pouring on the force. The bag swung back and forth with each punch he landed, his teeth were gritted as his eyes grew more and more narrow.

”You can make the pain stop! Just tell me what you know!” Shimmer’s voice echoed through his mind as he landed a particularly hard blow. ”I could do all sorts of things to you! You know? In fact, I might just do it for fun!” Another hard blow, this time accompanied by a growl. ”How about I take a hot poker and-”

“Fucking die!” Altair roared as he hit the bag so hard it snapped off the line and fell to the ground, he followed it to the ground and began pounding on it even as the fabric began to rip and his bare fists met sand. “You fucking bitch! I’ll kill you! You hear me!?” The man stopped himself, panting heavily as he straddled the punching bag, his fists bleeding from little knicks in the skin. He caught his breath, staying still until he heard the door to the garage open. Altair felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, slowly he turned to face Cassidy. “T-They did things to me, Cassidy… Things I can’t get out of my head… Things I didn’t tell the military…”

“I’m here for you, honey.” Cassidy replied as she knelt down beside him, keeping her hand on his shoulder. “Tell me what you need, tell me how I can help.” Altair brushed the sand off of his hands before he turned and hugged Cassidy tightly, burying his head in her shoulder. Then he began to do something she hadn’t ever seen him do before… He began to weep. “You let it out honey… Let it all out… Don’t let it weigh you down anymore, okay? You need every bit of strength if you’re going to get those sons of bitches.” She rubbed his back up and down as the man continued to cry.

[♠]

Steven rubbed his temples as he read over the latest casualty reports. The Onorussians had wiped out the divisions sent to defend Manehattan and Baltimare, not just defeated, wiped out. Ever since Altair Occisor had escaped custody and returned to his homeland, the Onorussians had shown no mercy in their attacks. Each one was to the death, they had stopped taking prisoners, in some cases they even hit targets with civilians working in them. Even with power armor and reverse engineered energy weapons, the Onorussians were plowing through Equestrian resistance.

What was more, there were rumors that Altair Occisor would be returning to the battlefield, and Steven could only shudder to think what horrors awaited them if that was the case. The rumors were already effective morale across the board, especially since there was a massive tank battle predicted to go down between the Onorussians and Equestrians just south of Ponyville. Once again they were going to duke it out over the jugular of Equestria, which Ponyville remained, even if it had been reduced almost entirely to rubble. The Onorussians had come close at least three times so far, but the Equestrians had always pushed them back just far enough to keep the city secure.

The other parts of the country were falling much quicker than Steven could hope to stop them, the Onorussians were making gains of hundreds of miles every day. Cities once thought untouchable were now within striking range of the fearsome Onorussian Bear. The worst part was the stalemate in Ponyville however, fighting there was so intense that both sides had sustained heavy casualties. The Onorussians hated stalemates, and Steven feared they would opt to use a different method of breaking through, a non-conventional method. There were no real ‘rules of war’ between the two countries, something both sides had been taking full advantage of.

Steven stopped his pondering, he looked around the room as he heard alarms blaring in the distance. The room was dark and lined with maps, plans, and all manner of other documents. There was a window to the outside, something Steven regretted when he heard those alarms blaring. Equestria had been the first to use chemical warfare, starting out with only Tear Gas, but the Onorussians had escalated with Mustard Gas, prompting the Equestrians to do so as well. Ever since Occisor had been freed the Onorussians would launch an occasional gas attack on Canterlot’s military district. The tell tale thuds of shells hitting the ground outside only served to make Steven more wary. The man pulled his gas mask from his desk and stood up, leaving the room to seek out more permanent shelter.

The hallways were filled with more soldiers, all wearing gas masks as they made their way to the gas shelters. It was calm and orderly, at least until a thick black fog began to seep through the ventilation system. It was heavy and moved low to the ground, this was something knew, for all they knew their gas masks were useless. Steven began to pull on his gasmask but stopped, the others couldn’t smell it, but it smelled almost like…

“Napalm!” He shouted before he started running as fast as he could away from the creeping clouds of flammable gas. The soldiers began to panic as they realized they were being surrounded by a very large bomb. No matter where they ran they encountered the thick black fog, it was permeating every part of the Castle. Steven burst through the door of Celestia’s room, she was coughing while trying to pull on her gasmask. “Forget the mask! The gas is flammable! Grab whatever you need, we have to get out of here!” As if to punctuate his point, the sound of explosions echoed in the distance. The flames had started when someone had tried to use the thermostat to clear the gas, only a tiny spark of static electricity set off the chain reaction.

Meanwhile, from a distance, platoons of Onorussian soldiers were watching through binoculars while the radio played the finale of the 1812 overture. They began cheering loudly as they caught sight of the first blast that was ripping its way through the Equestrian stronghold that was Canterlot Castle. This wasn’t so much a tactical move as it was a political one, the Imperator wanted to show just how angry he was. As if by divine providence, each explosion was timed to one in the recording of the Overture. The ancient castle was being blasted apart as its marble halls compressed the combustible gasses, flames poured out of windows, roofs and walls were blown out, and guards inside were incinerated.

Citizens of Canterlot watched in abject horror as the castle they had known since childhood was destroyed right in front of them. Onorussians on the other hand were cheering and rejoicing as they watched the enemy’s decadent palace being consumed by the intense flames of the napalm. The music continued to play, adding a fine soundtrack to the entire scene that the Onorussian troops could heartily enjoy.

Celestia panted heavily as she and Steven stood on the lawn of the castle, the heat from the fire was still so intense that she could barely take it. The mare had teleported the two of them out at the last moment, something that Steven was taking by vomiting next to his wife. Humans weren’t meant to be teleported, it had taken considerable energy to move him in time, considering his predisposition to arcane resistance. Soldiers screamed as they ran out of the building, many of them bathed in flames and trying desperately to get their clothes off.

“This can’t be happening! This… This can’t be happening!” Celestia cried out as she watched her home burning and crumbling to the ground. The mare collapsed to her knees as more shells began to fall into the blaze, releasing more napalm or simply blasting more of the castle to pieces. “Why don’t you just leave us alone! How much most you destroy!?” Celestia screamed towards the night sky as it was lit up by the fires of the burning castle. Tears streamed down Celestia’s cheeks as Steven sat beside her, watching the fire with her as everything they had ever owned went up in flames.

Steven was more concerned that every bit of intel the had had on the Onorussian’s was in the castle, as well as the royal vault, which was being used to help fund the war effort. Equestria was barely holding up under the strain of the Onorussian military as it stood, the only hope of keeping the country alive was to open up more fronts, force the enemy to fight more than one enemy. Steven would need to to call in every favor he had with the Saddle Arabians, the Crystal Empire, Yakyakistan, and Dragon Lord Ember. This war was going from an Interdimensional conflict to a global war.

[♠]

Altair and Cassidy sat close together on the couch, two empty plates resting on the coffee table while Wolfy slept on the floor. The dog was in her twilight years, and had been getting slower, despite all that she had been one of many good things for Altair. Altair bent down to rub her head, the dog yawned and rolled onto her side to open up the possibility for belly rubs. Cassidy had once been nervous around Wolfy, but now that she had been taking care of her over the past six months she had come to like not just the german shepherd but all dogs in general. She leaned down and gave Wolfy the belly rubs she so desperately deserved, both Altair and Cassidy chuckled when the dog rolled onto her back as if to demand even more.

The two of their hands touched after a couple seconds, prompting them both to pause and look at one another. Altair smiled faintly, in that moment Cassidy could see that he was still in there, even under all those scars on his face and body. She took her hand from Wolfy’s belly and put it on his cheek, caressing it for a moment. Altair did the same, putting his hand on Cassidy’s soft cheek. Wolfy sat up and walked out of the room, as if sensing the tension between the couple. Slowly the two of them leaned closer, closing their eyes as their lips finally met, the two of them began to kiss passionately. Altair’s arms slipped around Cassidy’s waist and held her closer, she put her arms around the back of his neck, holding onto him until finally their lips seperated.

“Let’s go upstairs…” Altair whispered before he kissed her neck, Cassidy gasped and leaned her head back. She felt her cheeks flush red as her body became much warmer. As his parents had pointed out a couple times prior to their moving into their new house, Altair and Cassidy were much louder and energetic than most… It had been one of the reasons they had been politely nudged to move.

Author's Note

Here we go! Right into our first real clop chapter, which actually was originally part of this one until I remembered I needed to mark it for our more squeamish viewers. I'm trying to make this story a more dark story, or at least, a less black and white one. I hope that I'm succeeding so far. I know I've spoken about needing help before, and before my only method of which was Patreon, well now I have a PayPal so you can just make one donation and not worry about a monthly charge. Look, I hate asking for money, I really do, but I'm in a position where I have to panhandle online just to get by...

Look, here's the clip of the day. The next chapter will be clop, consider it my appology for asking for help so much.