Twilight carefully lay on her stomach overlooking a nearby valley, Takeo lay beside her as the two of them looked down on a truly immense scene. The trees that lined the hills of the area were devoid of birds, all those creatures had flown away in fear of what marched through the valley. The Equestrians had constructed numerous towns, as such, they had many troops to contribute to their army. Perhaps over ten thousand soldiers were marching along down in the valley, each step causing the ground to shake while they seemed to stretch on forever in either direction. They had cannons, gatling guns, and all manner of other technology. They had even pulled out the stops and were moving what few ancient tanks they had along as well.

“I can only hope my father has prepared our clans for this…” Takeo said quietly as he watched the numerous soldiers below. Twilight could see why so many Onorussians feared the Equestrians to the south, they could field a massive army. However, the woman knew that numbers weren’t everything. The Onorussians made up for their lack of numbers with their tenacity and tactics, and as Twilight had realized, their technology. It had been weeks since she had left the safety of the Shogun’s camp, weeks that they had likely spent rebuilding their force with the massive underground complex she had found. If she knew the Onorussians, they would use delaying tactics as long as possible to create even more weapons to use against the Equestrians.

“We need to keep moving, if they’ve deployed this many troops to the North then it’s likely to be our best window to slip through their lines.” Twilight said quietly while she too continued watching the massive army below. Takeo didn’t respond at first, instead all he did was stare at the enemy force. “Takeo?”

“I should have returned home.” He said under his breath. “The entire continent is at war and I’m left out of it?” Twilight could detect the anger in Takeo’s voice, even if she couldn’t see his face through his mask. “Fine… Let’s go.” Takeo began crawling back down the hill towards where they had stashed the horses and Delta, Twilight followed suit as she made her way back. Neither of them knew that what they had just seen wasn’t the main force of the Equestrian army, they were reinforcements… The Equestrian’s main force had met the Onorussians days before, with devastating consequences.

[♠]

The sky was blotted out with overcast grey skies, rain was falling, flooding the trenches of the Onorussian defensive lines and creating even more mud that clung to their uniforms. On the outskirts of Ponyville, the Equestrians had emerged more than a week before. They hadn’t expected the Onorussians to be ready for them, or to face a different type of tactics. Altair had needed to stop the enemy, at any cost, so that he could equip his army with the proper weapons. As such, he had ordered his soldiers to build trenches. Lots of them. It was the height of the rainy season, meaning the Equestrian’s forces would be bogged down even more.

A once beautiful meadow that had spent the last thousand years peacefully returning to its originally state had been reduced to no man’s land within a week. The trenches were holding strong as the Equestrians continued trying to assail the Onorussian position. Thanks to the underground facility, the Onorussians had deployed dozens of machine guns along the trenches, as well as hundreds feet of barbed wire, which herded the Equestrians into the kill zones. The Onorussians had no interest in taking more ground, all they intended to do was stop the Equestrians from moving.

An Equestrian cavalry charge came roaring over the field, only for the machine gunners to open up on them and send them all to oblivion. Some wounded soldiers tried to make a run for it, only to be cut down by the withering machine gun fire. What was worse than machine gun nests? The Equestrians had found out relatively quickly. The Onorussians had managed to produce a good amount of eighty eight millimeter artillery pieces, when the Equestrians weren’t being torn to pieces by machine guns they were being constantly assaulted and bombarded by artillery shells. The longer the battle went on, the more factories the Onorussians restored to working order, and that could keep the battle going longer and longer.

Altair quietly stood atop an observation tower, looking out over the battle through a pair of binoculars. He hated being cooped up near the rear of the action, but he also knew the inherent danger that came from trench warfare. As much as he despised not standing with his men, he knew that if he were killed the entire Shogunate would lose the figure that had pulled it back from the brink. None of his sons, nor even his wife Cassidy, had the skill or power to take over the fight should he fall. Even though the Onorussians had managed to rebuild a good portion of technology in such a short period of time, they were far from a unified country again. That would take years and years of work, which could only happen if they defeated the Equestrians once and for all.

Over the sound of gunfire came the sound of whistles and trumpets, the Equestrians were preparing for another charge. In the trenches the soldiers prepared their weapons, fresh ammunition belts were loaded into the machine guns. The soldiers were knee deep in mud, but they knew that their entire way of life hinged on them holding out against the constantly charging Equestrian hordes. One young man, a Private, adjusted his helmet which was one size too big for him. He was shivering as the rain began to pour from the sky, the freezing cold water impacted his skin, giving the sensation of a thousand tiny knives with each sloppy drop.

“Hold fire! Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!” One officer shouted over the noise as the ground began to rumble, the Private gritted his teeth and put his finger on the trigger of his rifle. The Equestrians were shouting like mad as they came into view. “Hold…! Hold….!” Behind him, the Private could hear the sound of artillery. Shells began raining down in no man’s land while the Equestrians continued running forward, the Private could hear his heart pounding in his ears, his fingers felt numb. “Fire!”

The machineguns lit up, shell casings poured from them like the rain that continued to soak the soldiers in the field. The first row of Equestrians dropped like sacks of wet cement, but they just kept coming. The Private fired his rifle, the Equestrians were so close together that he didn’t even have to aim. He kept firing until his weapon was empty, by then the Equestrians were too close to effectively hit with rifle fire anyway. The Private grabbed a nearby entrenchment spade as several dozen Equestrians managed to jump down into the trench, the young man panicked and swung the spade, striking an Equestrian in the head and knocking him to the ground.

The battle devolved into a vicious melee, bayonets and swords clashed loudly while the mud became red with blood. The Onorussians were shouting just as loudly as the Equestrians, being so close to their enemy and knowing how close they were to their homeland turned them to violent war machines. Eventually the Equestrians in the trench were beaten, stabbed, or shot to death. Many of them had portions of their faces or ears bitten off, a testament to just how vicious the Onorussians could be when it came to defending their lines.

Many of the Equestrians were sprinting back towards their lines, but were being cut down by gunfire in the process. Not just by the Onorussians, but by their own gatling guns as well, the Equestrians had taken a very grim approach to stopping their men from routing in the form of shooting their own retreating soldiers. For one Equestrian Private marching towards the field, it was a sight he had never thought he would witness when he had first left home. Shells continued to rain down, blasting mud and portions of bodies skywards.

He was barely a stallion, and had lied about his age in order to join the fight, but now he feared he had made a terrible mistake. The Equestrian Private had already heard the whistle calling for another charge, a charge that he would be a part of. The stallions beside him were picking up the pace, dodging overturned wagons and the thick hedges of barbed wire. The Private looked to his left and saw an older looking stallion, a Sergeant. He was gristly and tough by looks, but with every thunder of guns he seemed to shrink down like a fearful filly. In an instant, the Private watched as a bullet tore through the Sergeant’s head… Not a single soldier stopped their advance to look at him as he toppled to the floor.

“Ready bayonets!” One of the officers shouted, the Private looked ahead of him and could see he was fast approaching a ridge that would put the rest of the men into the path of a machinegun nest. “For King and country! Charge!” There was a tremendous roar as the stallions surged forwards, the Private carried among them as they funneled into the kill zone. The Private could see the helmets of the Onorussians in a trench ahead of him, peeking over the edge as their guns began to fire. Dozens of stallions collapsed to the first volley of machine gun bursts, but the Equestrians just kept stampeding onward.

Miraculously the Private managed to survive, sprinting over dead bodies as he charged towards the enemy trench. Only a handful of the charge had made it through, they had traveled untold miles from their homeland to fight in a war… Just to be cut down within minutes of arriving. The Equestrian Private hopped down into the Onorussian trench, clutching his rifle tightly. He had been fortunate not to gain the attention of an enemy soldier right away, giving him precious seconds to take in his surroundings. The enemy trench was almost identical to the Equestrian one, and the enemy soldiers looked just as tired and angry as the Equestrians. Through the chaos a sort of calm silence filled the stallion’s ears, the Equestrian Private caught sight of an Onorussian staring at him. He too bore the rank of a Private, and he too looked like he had seen enough of this war to last a thousand lifetimes…

Everything became deafeningly loud as the Equestrian and the Onorussian raised their weapons at one another, the retorts of their rifle’s were drowned out by the sea of violence that had descended on the trench. Minutes passed, and eventually the Equestrian attack was once again repulsed.The soldiers in the Onorussian trench began to move the bodies of their dead comrades, as well as deal with the bodies of the Equestrians. Two soldiers were found equidistant from one another, each holding their rifles, each sporting a bullet wound to the heart. Two Privates from two vastly different countries… Each barely old enough to shave. Each willing to kill, and die, for what they’d believed in… Perhaps the most sinful aspect of the entire scene was how neither of them would ever tell of the understanding that each had come to about the futility of that bloody struggle…

[♠]

Twilight, Takeo, and Delta were all glad that the Equestrians were too busy trying to advance north to notice the tiny little band of misfits on their way south. It gave them all a chance to take in vistas they would never have seen if they had stayed to the North. Twilight had thought she had seen the extent of Onorussian militarism, but that was far from the case. There had been fields of grass, with massive metal doors jutting out of them. These fields had stretched for miles in some cases, indicating that they were in fact Missile Silos. What was worse, there were plenty that hadn’t been opened during the war… If someone smart enough found them, they could’ve easily reactivated those silos and brought about all manner of destruction. Twilight was sure she was up to the task, and that frightened her more than she cared to admit.

By now the landscape was growing more arid, and the battlefields were becoming much larger. A thousand years later, rusted tanks and vehicles still dotted the landscape where they had been destroyed or abandoned. Twilight began to think back on what Celestia had asked of her, to turn back the clock… To stop all of this from ever happening. She knew, however, that by doing so she would remove any chance of her returning home… At least, in the immediate future. The woman looked to her left at Takeo, she could see in his eyes the determination of someone bent on saving his people… She had to wonder if he knew. He had been following her, after all, and who knew what he had overheard while she and Celestia had talked.

“Miss Sparkle.” Delta said plainly as he kept pace with the two humans on horseback. “I am detecting a slight change in your body temperature, are you feeling adequate?” Twilight sighed quietly and looked at the combat droid, it’s glowing red eyes stared at her hauntingly.

“I’m fine… Just… I have a lot to think about.” Twilight replied in a distant tone. “I mean, look around us… Tanks and guns everywhere, missile silos, and even you Delta…” She looked towards the sky. “The world before the great war seemed very… Militant. I’m not used to seeing weapons of war like this in my Equestria.” The woman looked at her wrist pad, from what she had deduced so far, the primary export of Onorus before the war had been weapons and advanced technology. “It just feels like things haven’t changed very much over the last thousand years…”

“They have though.” Takeo spoke up, Twilight looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “An entire race has been mutated beyond recognition.” He gestured to the horse. “We would be content to rebuild without bloodshed, but the Equestrians leave us no choice. They were the ones who invaded our planet, remember that.” Twilight quietly sighed and looked ahead at the large expanse of flat land ahead of them, her wrist pad told her which direction to travel in, but it couldn’t help her make her journey any faster… Not that she wanted to get there sooner, because once she arrived at the facility, she would have to make a choice that could change her life forever.

“I suggest we minimize our speech, it will reduce our chance of detection.” Delta said, Twilight and Takeo nodded quietly. The group continued their trek towards the south, the air growing dryer while the plant life gradually began to taper off into nothingness. By evening they were walking through the beginnings of the desert. They remained silent most of the way, each one lost in their own thoughts. Twilight kept looking towards Takeo, she couldn’t quite make out what he was feeling, mainly because of his mask. She had grown worried that perhaps he had overheard her conversation with Celestia, and if he had, she feared he might think he wasn’t going to do what the alicorn had asked of her.

Tensions mounted while the sun began to dip lower and lower into the sky, and then, just as it was nearing the brink of nightfall, the group saw it. A massive hulk of rusted metal, embedded in the desert sand. Some of the holes in its side were from weapons fire, others brought on by rust and weather. It was a ship, a massive ship. The hull had been almost completely sand blasted, but the low level of salt in this desert had preserved the ship from being completely rusted away at this point. The ship loomed over the three travelers, a massive gash in its hull offering them access to its internal structure.

“We should make our shelter there…” Takeo said as he began riding towards it, Twilight considered arguing, but honestly it seemed like a good plan. Delta walked along with the group as they got closer, the vessel looming even more than it had before. The droid turned up the brightness of its eyes, allowing the group to see more clearly as they entered the tear in the ship’s hull. There was little in the way of firewood, considering they were in a desert, so it didn’t take them long to just drop off their gear and lay out their bedrolls.

“I’m going to explore, you never know what we might be able to find in here.” Twilight said as she looked around the interior of the ship, they had entered in what appeared to be a supply area, as there were ancient boxes and barrels that had been raided of their contents long ago. There was a doorway at the end of the small room, which Twilight assumed would lead into the rest of the ship.

“Maybe I should go with you?” Takeo asked, Twilight shook her head quietly.

“I’ll be okay, I won’t go too far.” Twilight replied, Takeo shrugged and quietly began poking around the room. There may not have been any firewood, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still look for something to burn. “Delta, why don’t you keep an eye on the outside?” Delta quietly looked around, then approached the breach in the hull to stand his post. Twilight slipped through the doorway into the hallway, she could barely see a foot in front of her. The woman turned on the light mounted to her data pad, that illuminated the hallway enough for her to start walking. She had started walking towards the portion of the ship that was jutting out of the ground, it was a slight angle, but nothing she couldn’t handle.

Twilight passed numerous heavy steel bulkhead doors on her left and right that had been sealed long ago, now apparently closed forever due to the level of rust on their hinges. Her boots echoed through the hallway, the only other sound she could hear was the howling of wind that was picking up outside. After five minutes or so, Twilight came upon a doorway that hadn’t been sealed. She poked her head in and was surprised to see that it seemed to be some sort of crew quarters, at least judging by the beds she saw bolted to the wall. Twilight entered the room and looked around with caution, there were a couple footlockers strewn about, no doubt due to the crash of the vessel. One was cracked open, the contents open to the elements as it lay in the dust covered floor. Twilight knelt down and looked at what had survived over the years, she picked up a pocket watch and examined it. The glass was cracked, and the mechanism was beyond repair.

Twilight set the watch back down and looked at the remaining footlocker, it was still closed, but the lock looked like it would give way with a strong enough hit. Twilight picked up a nearby piece of fallen metal and struck it hard, sure enough the rusted lock broke loose. Twilight set the metal down and removed the lock, then undid the latch and opened the locker. It creaked as she pushed it open. Inside, she found items that had been preserved for a thousand years, for the most part. A pair of shattered reading glasses, the remains of numerous old books, and what appeared to be ancient photographs. Most of them were faded, or had some form of water damage, but one stuck out to Twilight. She picked it up and found herself staring at a young man, wearing an Onorussian military uniform. He had his arm around a pegasus mare while both smiled at the camera.

“They look happy.” Takeo’s voice rang through the room, Twilight yelped and looked over her shoulder to see him looking down at her. “Who knows what might have happened if the war hadn’t taken them away?” Twilight stood up, still holding the photo. She turned towards Takeo, both of them were inches apart from one another. “I didn’t mean to startle you, but I managed to find a supply crate of lantern oil that was undamaged… We have a fire, albeit, a small one. Just thought I would let you know…”

“Th-Thanks…” Twilight replied as she tucked the photo into her pocket, she had to admit that she was rather intimidated by the man, but she also admired his ability to sneak around. The tension from earlier was still present, but in the darkened room, with only a few inches between the two of them, Twilight found it had transformed into a different kind of tension. “Though… I doubt it will be large enough to warm us enough, we may have to share our body heat.”

“We very well may.” Takeo replied quietly, he looked around for a moment, then turned his attention back to Twilight. “Have you… Explored sufficiently?” Twilight paused, then nodded. “Good, we should return to the fire, I doubt Delta will be any good at tending to it.” The two of them began walking back to through the hallway, the sound of howling wind echoing from outside as the sunlight faded. The hours passed quietly, neither of the three new what to say to one another. They trusted each other enough to travel together, but to speak at night, by the light of a campfire… That felt far too intimate. Twilight huddled in a corner beneath a bit of canvas she’d scavenged from inside the ship, her sleep often interrupted by the slightest of noises. She still had to wonder… Did Takeo know what she knew? Did he suspect that she had the power to change the world?

Author's Note

Hey all. I'm sorry I've been so inactive lately, on this story and the other stories in my library. It isn't fair to you people who have been riding along with me since the very beginning of this series. Truth is, I'm not well. Nothing physical, I'm not dying or anything, but I have some mental health problems that came to a head recently. This whole writing thing started as a way to cope, and I found that I actually really like it. I ask that you guys please bear with me as I try to get back on the horse, as the saying goes. I also want to thank you guys immensely, including the person who was subscribed to my Patreon. I don't say that enough, but you guys are really the reason I work so hard on these stories. I'll try and get more to you guys soon.