Author's Note

This chapter is a seperate chapter to the main storyline.

Thank you for the support.

12:1

Impact - Intermission

Inside a dark room lit only by monitors, a team of scientists huddle together along with a tall dark blue alicorn. The alicorn looked concerned at them, her eyes darting many times at the monitors which showed the Equestrian map. A purple unicorn noticed her worrisome face.

"Princess Luna. Don't take this ill but while I too am worried about his welfare, we can't worry extensively. Otherwise our ability to continue planning for this war will deteriorate and in a situation where the enemy is improving rapidly and we are outnumbered 10 to 1, we mustn't let anything get in our way." The young unicorn spoke. Luna gritted her teeth.

"Midnight... he's out there... if we attack and they find him... they're going to kill him... I can't lose him Twilight... he's like... he's like..." Luna said, tears pouring down from her face, causing the unicorn's ears to flatten. "He's like a son to me. Sure many are like children of mine but well... he was basically born into the military, and so we had a connection earlier on than others... you understand Twilight?" Luna said. Twilight sighed but nodded.

"Yeah... After the end of that war, you told us that he's under our protection. He's kind of a little brother to me as well, same goes for Shining. I'm sure Rainbow Dash and Rarity have similar opinions on Midnight being a nice guy and friend." Twilight said. Luna cried more.

"He asked me... I shouldn't had sent him there... his life is now at peril if not at all if he died... his plane must be completely busted since he's not responding any of our signals at all. Or maybe he's not alive anymore to respond..." Luna said, crying. Twilight sighed as she remembered each and every time Luna cried, she was practically her star pupil and was into many of her Lunar duties. The most recent time when she cried for someone else was five years ago when a pony by the name of War Thunder, the creator of the series of jet planes, was killed with his family at the end of another war during the last stand of the resistance. It devastated Luna, who considered them close friends and family even. The most recent case was when Midnight nearly was killed when the Equestrians came in with a full counter strike with weapons centuries ahead of their prehistoric ones, and even though it was weaker than their own technology, because of the massive amount of Equestrians appearing and some dragon allies who were able to tank massive blows, their advanced slowed, halted, and nearly collapsed under that sudden counter-strike. So many Lunars died, their first near defeat with the death toll at a million, a tenth of their standing army at the time, and 0.1% of their population. One million souls died, with nearly 50 thousand at the first day. It was so violent, that all the battles before, and even some battles after that combined paled in contrast to the amount of Lunars lost.

Midnight had nearly been one of those million that had died during what was known to the Lunars as The Battle Near Blood-Lake Pool to describe the amount of deaths that occurred. Many Lunar clothings turned blood red due to the amount of blood that had been laid. Pools of blood formed around what used to be heavy and fortified Lunar positions... it was just total destruction. The dragons were basically immune to all their weapons at the time, the only thing that was capable of fighting these beasts had to be deployed, and while at the end the dragons were able to be defeated, the death toll was immense. During the end of that bloody battle which lasted a full seven days, Midnight was forced to face against a large dragon known as Dragon Lord Spike. From what they could tell this dragon used to be under the caretaker of Celestia's 'prized-pupil', who probably just got lucky that enough magic strain had been built before her and was able to crack the egg. Or she was actually talented. Whatever the case she took care of the baby dragon, until he left for some unknown reason. At the same time the former Dragon Lord Torch held the Blood-Scepter Trials and apparently despite all odds Spike somehow won. Apparently before the actual trials he met with the Dragon Lord himself and his daughter Princess Ember. Long story short just like how they were able to break their own limits with Rainbow Dash her speed and Shining Armor his shield, Spike was able to tap into his own potential. Since his starting magic was different to that of other dragons as he was born with unicorn magic instead of dragon fire magic, he gained abilities unforseen to dragons since thousands of years. Just like how some Pegasi are able to use their innate lightning ability without activating it, Spike was able to do the same with his dragon fire, combining it with his innate Equestrian magic, creating things unseen. His growth stage quickly developed and in the time between Lunar arrival and the most bloodiest battle the Lunars had seen at that point, Spike became a teenage dragon, around Ember's and Garble's age group. With his newfound power he was able to become Dragon Lord and actually solidify an relationship with Princess Ember. Garble would actually become his best friend, one who taught him the ways of the dragon, though they would occasionally dispute with many things that Spike never found well like breaking eggs or Garble trying to pick on his Equestrian past. The new Dragon Lord would simply overpower him whenever this occurred.

When the battle that would claim 1 Million Lunars began, the dragons arrived, tricked by the Equestrians that the Lunars would sooner or later also take their own lands and exterminate them (despite there being no tactical advantage of owning the land). This move was to also prevent the dragons from joining the Lunars since it was a possibility that if Spike had some grudges against some ponies, he might call war against the Equestrians. Unfortunately for the Lunars, the dragons accepted the alliance with the Equestrians. The Equestrians told them that the Lunars carried many times more gems than Earth itself, using the example of each one carrying at least a bar of gold or like in Midnight's case, golden rings, along with many other gems. These were so common that they appeared everywhere. Even the most 'poorest' Lunar could have more gems than their richest noble. Spike personally wanted to attack the Equestrians, but after some discussion with his people and with the former dragon lord, decided that they would accept this proposal. Secretly though it was apparent with the number of dragons concentrated on the Equestrian Dragon Border that Spike and his people had planned to attack Equestria the moment that the war was over.

The dragon's scales and magic was something that the Lunars had never seen in a thousand years, and thus they were extremely unprepared, along with the huge boost in technology the Equestrians had and the sheer number of them appearing. Dragons were resistant to heat and they were heavy tanks, thus their missiles did nothing to them upon impact with the exception of pushing them back. Machine Guns had little effect on them due to their scales and their small laser beams simply bounced off due to the way their scales were made. The Lunars began to lose a lot of ground, their army in disarray. It had appeared that the mighty Lunars were going to fail, just like The Race in a popular series called Worldwar Series. Basically an alien race comes to the planet during a massive war in hopes of colonizing the planet. Centuries ago they had sent a probe to see the inhabitants technology and upon seeing just swords and shields they saw no harm in invading centuries later. Their technology progressed slowly and in all the planets they've conquered so did their inhabitants. It was a shock however when they came only to find the inhabitants of Earth reaching World War 2 technology (this was a Alternative Universe by the way) in a short span of time that took them many thousands of years! Even despite their technological superiority, as time passed the inhabitants progressed so fast against The Race, having already been in war, that The Race was forced to sign a peace treaty with them. And literally in the year 2030s, about a century later, the inhabitants of Earth would arrive at The Race's home, showing how far they could go and how fast they can go.

The Lunars just felt like The Race at this point, beaten back so much. Any Convention that was to ban illegal weapons was probably not applied to them since they were considered 'monsters', 'nightmares', 'ponies from another world' and so forth. Chemical weapons were used, and horrifying traps were placed to torture any unsuspecting victim. It seemed that the war was over once the Equestrians increased their army to that size against the Lunars.

It would be Midnight Blitzer and Shining Armor, Major General (at the time) and Captain of the Republic Guard, who would change the tide back into their favor. Midnight Blitzer commanded a fierce pegasi division known as the SS Pegasi Division. These pegasi were brutal in every way possible, taking down many of their enemies in seconds with unrivaled efficiency. They had all tapped into their innate lightning ability and other innate abilities each carried, and with Midnight's blitzkrieg tactics, this was a powerful force. Shining led the SS Unicorn Division, who were specialized in various deadly blasts and shields. With these two together they would perform MASSIVE encirclement movements, the rest of the Lunar army following them, until they had captured thousands of unsuspecting Equestrians. The moment they saw a curvature in either of the two groups movements they immediately would know they were screwed. The pair would use this blitzkrieg tactic over and over, causing great terror on the Equestrian populace and gaining their names as "Midnight Terror" and "Bloodbath Armor" due to just how many kills they were able to rank up, making sure that the Equestrians paid their actions. At least double the number of Equestrians would die as well, with possibly many more due to how many times they were encircled. Many Equestrian Armies simply collapsed because of these two's leadership and their powerful armies. It's suspected that only one soldier from each army fell, but that would be due to injury as they would be sent back to be healed.

But their luck was going to be tested when they encountered the dragons under the Equestrian code Operation Dragon Torch. All their dragon allies made a massive push in a attempt to push them back, though to be fair they were having a rough time in the cold regions of the north. However like previously there was little ways to stop these dragons with the exception of going into close combat. Thus it would be these two specialized armies that would go confront these dragons. The battle was brutal, and many were injured, many nearly killed if it weren't for the quick healing from the unicorns or the evasive speed from the pegasi. Eventually it came to Midnight Blitzer and Shining Armor vs Dragon Lord Spike. Their battle was difficult but by the end they were able to come out on top after Midnight flew high into the sky and came down crashing at Spike while Shining Armor sent a massive wave of energy. But that was not the real issue. The real issue was that now fatigued, Midnight was now susceptible to being fired upon by the Equestrians as he flew back up into a high altitude to 'bomb' another dragon. And just how they feared, the Equestrians fired upon the colt, and even his Lunar Armor was not able to do anything to save Midnight from this assault as it melted under the pressure. He was shot down from the sky, multiple bullet wounds appearing on his body. Luna cried for Midnight just like how she cried for the million Lunars who sacrificed their own lives for their nation. It was the bloodiest battle ever and nearly his downfall. And now he was in trouble again. And this time there was nothing she could do.

"I understand Luna... but if we don't act now we're only increasing his chances of him perishing. Calculating with the limited info we have I determined that he must've landed near the very heart of Equestria. While this may be bad news, this gives us more determination to fight Princess. We already have him to race with against time anyways, and with Midnight having more and more chances of perishing everyday we must begin these operations." Twilight said. Luna sighed.

"So what should we do?" Luna asked. Twilight motioned her brother and a cyan rainbow-maned pegasi stallion forward, raising her eyebrow a bit at the sight of the male pegasi.

"Rainbow Dash and Rarity... did you just had to use it again?" Twilight groaned. Following the pegasi was Rarity, a white unicorn with purple mane. The two giggled.

"Yeah Twilight. We had to. Plus I kind of know what're you planning, and I think this form will suit it." Rainbow Dash proclaimed, sticking out her/his chest. "Plus my name is Rainbow Blitz now thank you very much. And no I did not try to steal Midnight's code name." Rainbow 'Blitz' / Dash said. Twilight groaned as she face-hooved.

"Anyways I see Rainbow Dash's potential in her as well. I'm not saying that she will replace him, just substitute him. She might not contain the traits Midnight has, but she is certainly faster than him." The purple unicorn stated. Rainbow Blitz grinned.

"Heck yes I am! Anytime any place! I'll destroy that kid in any race!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Twilight sighed.

"I must remind you Rainbow that you're only faster in your female form because of your sleeker build and that you weigh less. A stallion has to deal with a bit extra pounds due to their muscles compared to females. Just consider yourself lucky Rainbow." Twilight muttered. Rainbow Dash nodded before coming up to Princess Luna and saluting.

"Don't worry Princess! The fierce and fastest Lunarbolt Captain will take care of this job! No problem!" Rainbow Dash stated, grinning. Luna nodded.

"I do not doubt your ability to command Rainbow Dash/ Rainbow Blitz. Just make sure that you don't let your ego get into your head and make rash decisions." Luna stated. Rainbow Dash nodded.

"You got that princess!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Luna nodded.

"So what Operation shall we be conducting?" Twilight asked. Luna looked straight at her.

"All of them." Luna stated. All the ponies around the room stood in shock.

"All... all of them?!" Twilight exclaimed. Luna nodded.

"You said that we must enact quickly, and with speed I shall act quickly. Operation Neptune and Operation Uranus more better said must be conducted as of now. We have to break through their lines quickly if we're to reach Canterlot." Luna said. Twilight gulped but nodded.

"Alright Princess... not going to go against that logic." Twilight stated. Luna sighed.

"I can't imagine though the death toll count by the end of the war. Things will only become more fiercer as we begin penetrating. I'm afraid bombing runs like Operation Flame Torch and Operation Nova will have to begin if we're to penetrate deep as well as other operations. The Equestrian force is large, really large. They'll stop at nothing to destroy us. We must lay down our pacifism and go full on aggression if want a chance to win." Luna stated. Twilight nodded.

"Alright. Understood. We must prepare more. But can it be possible that we can wait? With Midnight in the group we might have a chance to generate a bigger push." Twilight offered. Luna sighed but shook her head.

"We can't. I hope it might not be, but he might've died soon after dropping the nuclear bomb. And if he's alive we must attack and try to find him in the midst of battle. I just hope that he isn't being tortured at the moment." Luna said, tears falling from her face at the thought of his body torn apart by the Equestrians. She looked at Twilight. "Turn on the trumpet Twilight. We shall warn yet again the Equestrians of a bigger threat. Use as much time as you see fit to prepare the invasion force. We're going to be pushing their coasts and pushing into their land. We're going to be stepping on Equestrian soil. And we'll not stop at anything." Luna said. Twilight nodded before saluting and she, Rainbow, Rarity and Shining left. Luna sighed, opening the dream world to see if Midnight had dreamt only to pick nothing up. She sighed.

"I only hope that Faust gave you rest my dear Midnight if you have perished, and that she gives you long life if you live." Luna stated before leaving. She passed a hallway who's windows showed the outside void of space. Outside were massive carriers, loading up with many soldiers, equipment, machinery and weapons to prepare for Operation Neptune and Operation Uranus. They were going to hit Equestria, as hard as they could. They've lost a million since the war. They can't forever spare any lives anymore. If they were called monsters, then monsters they shall be called.

A countdown appeared, ticking down from 48 hours. In 48 hours she will announce Equestria it's ultimatum. She had become soft because she wanted to honor her sister. Not anymore. She won't make the same mistake twice

The third phase of the war was coming.