The princesses, Discord, and Natura were left in a tense, hostile silence as Gerhardt teleported away. Eventually Discord broke the silence by saying, “Well, this most certainly seems bad for you Natura.”

“Silence! This changes nothing! I will find him and destroy him, then I will finish imprisoning you and killing the ponies!” Natura growled in response.

“But he said killing him wouldn’t stop his orbital cannons. He’s the only one who can shut them down. So, Natura, we would like to come to an understanding. Despite everything you’ve done us ponies do not want to see nature destroyed either! We want to help you stop him, but if we’re going to work together you need to stop attacking our species!” Celestia said, hoping Natura would see reason.

“Bah! You don’t care what happens to me! You only care about saving your own species and you know that even if you did manage to defeat me, without nature you would all die!”

“Actually you’re wrong about that. We would survive even if he kills you. He explained his entire plan to me over the phone. He plans to destroy all vegetation in the entire world, to completely automate the weather and seasons with machinery, and to make all organic beings artificial like him before wiping the knowledge that nature ever existed from their minds. So we could very easily let him continue with his plan to kill you because we would survive as fully artificial beings even without you, never knowing nature ever existed to begin with. However, we don’t want you to cease to exist or everything natural to be destroyed! Far from it. We only wish to peacefully coexist and live in harmony with you. We would have stopped controlling nature long ago had we known you existed! Now that we do know, we are willing to stop now! There is no need for us to fight like this! We can reach a compromise! But for us to do that you have to be willing to calm down and work with us!”

Natura was silent for a moment. Suddenly the storm began to subside and the clouds covering Equestria dispersed. Natura then began to shrink down to the size of a normal deer, though she was still relatively large even by those standards and she was still made entirely from wood. “If I learn this is all just a ploy to deceive me, I’ll finish what I started and drive your species to extinction. Now, I’ll be right back. I have to get my friends out of the forest before that beam kills them all.” Natura then disappeared in a flash of leaf green light.

“Well, now that all that is settled I suppose I’ll be taking my leave. After all, my agreement was to help you stop Natura and since she’s stopped trying to kill you all my business here is done.” Discord said before vanishing as if he had never been there to begin with.

As soon as Discord vanished Celestia’s phone activated by itself and Deus’ voice said, “The weather stopped. What’s happening?”

“I convinced Natura to stop trying to kill us all. At least for the moment. We’re now going to be working together to stop your father from destroying nature. I’m not sure how long this peace will last, but hopefully while working together we can convince her to give up on trying to kill us all together.” Celestia sighed, feeling extremely stressed.

Deus said nothing for a moment before finally responding, “I see. Very well then. The others and I will meet you back in the ruins of Ponyville. If we’re going to be doing this then there’s something I’m going to need in the wreckage of my father’s house.”

“All right, we’ll meet you when you get here.” Celestia said right before Deus hung up.

[In the Cave of Harmony]

Deus looked at the six ponies. “It seems the princesses have formed a temporary alliance with Natura in order to stop my father. However, I wouldn’t remove the elements from the tree just yet.”

“What? Why not? How else are we going to stop him?” Twilight inquired, clearly confused.

“Think about it, he’s outnumbered and outgunned. He has the power of an average demigod but there are multiple very powerful demigods against him. He may be highly intelligent and resourceful, but he’s no match for multiple actual demigods. Not to mention a greater spirit. The Elements are completely unnecessary for this. Plus there is no guarantee that Natura won’t attack again after my father is defeated and the Elements are the only things keeping her from imprisoning the Spirit of Harmony. Perhaps you can find some other way to harness the Spirit of Harmony’s power even without the Elements, but even if that’s possible it only matters so long as it remains free.” Deus explained.

“Hm… I guess you make some good points… All right, we’ll leave them here for now.” Twilight agreed.

“Good. Now the princesses are waiting for us back in Ponyville.” Deus said before raising a hand and teleporting them all to Ponyville, right next to the ruins of what was once Gerhardt’s house. He then proceeded towards the ruins and began using telekinesis to throw rubble out of the way.

The princesses saw them and landed nearby. “I’m glad to see all of you are alright… for the most part.” Celestia said.

“We could say the same…” Twilight responded with a bitter smile.

Luna stepped forwards and looked at Deus curiously. “Tell me, Deus, what exactly is it that you’re looking for? Is it some sort of weapon we can use against Gerhardt?”

“I suppose you could say that.” Deus responded before tossing away one final piece of debris revealing the suit of power armor Gerhardt had built for Pixel for Nightmare Night. He then levitated it so it was floating upright. Finally he used a weaponized teleportation spell to cut the hands off the suit. It took a couple seconds as the armor was resistant to magic but he got them off eventually. Finally he put the suit of power armor on. This was as simple as sending the command for it to open and stepping inside.

“How did that thing manage to survive when everything else in Ponyville was destroyed? And why did you cut off the hands?” Rarity inquired looking at Deus in confusion.

“Simple. It’s designed to withstand extremely high temperatures and is resistant to magic. It’s also nigh indestructible. As for why I cut off the hands, it’s so I can actually use magic while wearing this thing. This suit is meant for common soldiers not mages and since it is a magical insulator wearing it makes any magic I could use while wearing the full thing weaker and less efficient. I believe I will need it. I believe I will need these as well.” Deus said in his usual emotionless tone, though his voice was being distorted by the helmet’s vocalizer.

“Huh? What do you mean by ‘These’? I don’t see anything besides that armor.” Rainbow Dash inquired.

“Look behind you.”

The ponies then turned and saw a little over a hundred combat golems standing in formation behind them. There would have been quite a few more but Natura had destroyed most of them during the battle as she seemed to find their particle beams irritating.

“Oh… Those…” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“Deus, when did you or your father ever have time to build any of this? No, more importantly why did you build all of this?! Why would you ever need any of these golems let alone the orbital cannons that are currently devastating Equestria?! Was Gerhardt planning to invade us at some point?!” Luna demanded.

“No, he wasn’t. If he was then he would have had an orbital cannon destroy Canterlot and kill the two of you a month or two ago. Apparently Queen Chrysalis used my sister to threaten him. All of this has been made in preparation for war with the Changelings or any other threats that proved significant enough if it ever came to it. The Minotaurs were also a possible target as the king was apparently being aggressive about arranging a marriage between my sister and his son. It may be overkill but he has always preferred having overwhelming force as an option whenever possible.” Deus explained.

“Alright, well where did he get the materials for all of this? If I remember right, we had an agreement that he would purchase most of his materials from us for at least ten years and I’m sure he hasn’t bought enough to build all of this.” Celestia asked, frowning at Deus.

“He hasn’t broken that agreement. Most of the materials that he purchases, he purchases from the royal mines. Except for crystals, which he mainly purchases from a supplier in the Crystal Empire. However, there are other sources of materials he can acquire for free. Asteroids, for example, as no one on this planet legally owns any territory in space. Except for perhaps the moon, but that’s besides the point.” Deus lied. He wasn’t about to tell them that Gerhardt had his own mines in other dimensional axes as he also wanted to keep that technology secret and mining asteroids was a convenient excuse.

“I see…” Celestia said, clearly not happy about this information.

“Excuse me, but don’t you have significantly larger things to worry about than how we get our extra materials? The total destruction of nature for example? Or the genocidal greater spirit you have only made a temporary alliance with?” Deus inquired, trying to change the subject.

“Yes, you’re right… So, does anyone have any idea where Gerhardt is so we can find him?” Cadance asked, looking around at everyone.

Everyone was silent for a few moments. Finally Pinkie Pie broke the silence and said, “Oh! I know! We could always try to call him!”

“Pinkie, that’s ridiculous. He’s not going to just tell us where he is so we can go there to try and stop him.” Twilight dismissed the suggestion.

“No, actually she may have a point. We haven’t actually tried calling him so we don’t even know if he would answer or not. So I believe it’s worth a try. Even if he doesn’t tell us where he is, we can at least try talking to him. Not that I believe talking will work in this case, but we’ll never know until we try.” Celestia said before activating her phone and calling Gerhardt.

He answered almost immediately and Celestia set the phone so everyone could hear his voice. “What is it, Celestia? Calling to schedule your conversion into an artificial being ahead of time? Don’t worry, my schedule is free so you and the others can come by to receive your new bodies whenever you want. It will only take about an hour for my factory to build them. Then it will only take a second or two for me to transfer your souls over to them.”

“No. I’m calling to try to talk some sense into you! Gerhardt, as your friend I need you to listen to me, I don’t want to fight you! Please just stop this madness and let’s talk things over!” Celestia pleaded.

“My friend? Ha… I don’t have friends, remember? Besides, if you truly were my friend you would understand why I’m doing this. I am sick and tired of nature ruining everything! First it was a lesser god of nature who sent me to this gods forsaken universe and is destroying my people as. we. speak! Now it’s the literal physical embodiment of nature itself attacking my allies, destroying my property, and nearly killing my daughter! No more! I’m done! Nature has proven to me that it is worse than obsolete, it’s a clear and active threat to everything! It has to be destroyed before it destroys everything else! Technology can easily replace it in its entirety.” Gerhardt ranted.

“Gerhardt, just listen to yourself! Even if that’s true, if you destroy nature then what will be left?! A massive barren wasteland! A ball of dust and ashes! A society built upon the lifeless corpse of a once great and beautiful world! A society devoid of it’s very soul!” Celestia shouted back at him.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Celestia. It wouldn’t be a barren wasteland or a world of dust and ashes, it would be a world of metal, concrete, and circuitry. The world wouldn’t be a lifeless corpse, it would be just as lively as ever just with machines and cities replacing the plants and animals. And I guarantee that technology can be just as if not even more beautiful than anything nature could ever produce. You’ll see. When this is all over and you finally see the sheer magnificence of what I plan to build in place of nature you’ll realize that I am right, even if you think I’m in the wrong now. Be honored. In all my centuries of life I’ve never built something so grand even for the Human Kingdom! It will be my second greatest masterpiece! The first being my children, but they aren’t on nearly as grand a scale as this!”

“You know we can’t just let you do this…” Celestia said in a grim tone.

“Honestly I was hoping you would as I don’t want to kill you. However, I’ll only warn you once if you try to get in my way, I’ll destroy Canterlot. One of my orbital cannons is already targeting it. I could kill everyone in the city in an instant. Oh and don’t bother evacuating. I already know the exact numbers of ponies that are alive in each of your cities so if my orbital cannon sees the number of arcane energy signatures decreasing, I’ll target whatever city they’re running to. Even if they hide underground the very first cannon I put in orbit launches tungsten rods coated in a highly heat resistant material at hypersonic speeds to cause explosions on par with primitive weapons of mass destruction. Given the properties of tungsten those rods will also act as penetrator rounds and will destroy any underground bunker or shelter with ease. And that would just be the warning. Get in my way again and I’ll target the Crystal Empire. Get in my way after that and I’ll start targeting the rest of your cities. Oh and I have a dead man’s switch, so if I die or otherwise stop sending signals to the cannon it will destroy everything I have listed. So what’s more important, Princess? Nature or your people? I already know what I would choose in your situation, do you?”

“You’re completely insane…” Celestia muttered in horror.

“No. I’m perfectly sane. I’m just being a good father and a good soldier. Nature hurt my daughter, attacked my allies, and is killing my kingdom so I’ll kill nature by any means necessary. Now, I believe that’s the end of our discussion because I’m certain there’s nothing either of us can say to convince the other. Goodbye princess, I’ll be talking to you again once I’ve started converting all organic beings in the world into fully artificial beings. By then I will have already won.” Gerhardt said before hanging up.

Everyone sat there in stunned silence for a few moments, absolutely horrified by everything they just heard. The only one not affected by this in the least was Deus as he fully expected as much from Gerhardt, given he was wearing the alicorn amulet.

“W-well… That most certainly confirms that he’s been corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet…” Luna muttered to herself. For the second time that day, she was absolutely terrified. First she had been terrified while fighting Natura seeing how immensely powerful she was. Now she was terrified not because of how powerful Gerhardt was as an individual but how powerful his technology was and how helpless they were to stop him.

“Indeed, little alicorn.” Said Natura’s voice from behind them. All of them then looked and saw Natura standing there along with every deer that had been living in the Everfree, Zecora, and Isabelle.

“How long have you been standing there?” Twilight inquired.

“Only a couple seconds, but I left one of my constructs to watch you as I didn’t trust you not to betray me, so I heard everything. This Gerhardt individual has clearly been driven mad by this amulet.” Natura stated.

“And I wonder who’s fault that is? Hm… Perhaps it’s the one who nearly killed his daughter right in front of him thus driving him to put on the amulet in the first place?” Deus said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

Isabelle’s eyes widened in horror. “W-wait, what?!”

Natura glared at Deus. “You dare blame me for this?!”

“Yes, because it’s objectively your fault. These are the consequences of your actions. You’ve angered one of the only people in the world that can legitimately kill you by nearly killing his daughter right in front of him. While I disapprove of having such emotional attachments in the first place, that was an incredibly stupid decision on your part and that beam behind you that’s currently destroying the Everfree Forest is the result of your incredibly stupid decision. There is no possible way you can twist this to where this isn’t your fault.” Deus stated, not worried about angering her in the slightest.

"Wait, let me get this straight… You tried to kill Pixel?! Why?! She’s not even a pony, so what has she ever done to you?!” Isabelle demanded, looking at Natura in anger.

“She participated in that abhorrent event during the fall where the ponies force the leaves to fall off of my trees! Even worse she actively used her artificial Earth Pony magic to assist the ponies in bending me to their will! She is no better than they are! I will not stand for such treatment from anyone let alone some useless heap of animate metal!” Natura shouted furiously back at Isabelle.

“She didn’t…” Isabelle muttered in disbelief.

“She did!” Natura declared in a tone that brokered no argument.

“Well whatever the case, what’s done is done. The past is irrelevant to the present situation. So, now that we’re all here let’s discuss strategy, shall we?” Deus said, trying to force the conversation back on topic.

“What is there to discuss? Once we find that metal freak, I shall destroy him! That’s all there is to this! All I need any of you for is to help me find him.” Natura growled.

Deus sighed and rolled his eyes underneath the helmet of Pixel’s power armor. “Killing him is by far the worst thing you could possibly do. He’s the only one who can stop his orbital cannons. I’ve tried hacking them and the security seems impossible to overcome even for me. So the only thing any of you can really do is try to convince him to turn them off on his own. Or at the very least try to convince him to take off the amulet at which point he should stop anyways since he would no longer be under its influence. And you, Natura, have absolutely no chance of convincing him to do anything except maybe try even harder to destroy you. So I’m afraid you will have to rely on the ponies you despise so much for this.”

Natura scowled at him but before she could say anything Celestia stepped forwards and said, “Natura, I know you are going to object but please just give us a chance. You already know that we could just let him continue what he’s doing with no concern whatsoever since he could make us all artificial like him. However, we are more than willing to work with you. In fact we genuinely want to help you because we don’t want the world to be reduced to a soulless ashen wasteland devoid of the beauty of nature any more than you or the Deer do. So please let this be the first step in repairing the relationship between you and our species and perhaps even building some trust between us no matter how small that trust may be.”

Natura stared at Celestia for a moment looking for even the smallest, most miniscule trace of deception in anything she said. Seeing none she huffed in frustration. “Fine… But I don’t trust you so I’m still coming with you!”

“Actually that would be a bad idea. Your presence would undoubtedly harm any chance they may have of convincing my father to stop. So instead I would strongly recommend sending envoys instead, if possible.” Deus stated.

“You’re pushing your luck, demigod… Fine. Isabelle and Aspen I trust you two the most out of anyone so I would like for you two to go with them in my place. Isabelle, if they try to betray you please teleport yourself and King Aspen back here as soon as possible and I will eradicate them myself.” Natura stated.

“As you wish, oh great spirit. You can rely on us.” King Aspen said, bowing to Natura.

“Thank you, Aspen. You both have my gratitude once again.” Natura said, turning to look at King Aspen and smiling at him.

“Once again?” Deus inquired.

“Of course! They both assisted in freeing me of the shackles placed upon me by Discord and Harmony.” Natura said, smiling at both Isabelle and King Aspen.

Isabelle winced as Natura said this. She clearly would have preferred if that information had stayed private.

“I see… Interesting.” Deus said in his usual emotionless tone.

“Isabelle, you helped free her knowing what she would do?! Why didn’t you come to us instead?! We could have ended this before it even began by coming to a compromise before she had the chance to destroy Ponyville or kill Harmony knows how many ponies!” Luna shouted.

“Sister, now is not the time. We can discuss this with Isabelle after this is all over.” Celestia said, giving Luna a serious look.

“But…!” Luna started before noticing the look Celestia was giving her. She then sighed and said, “I suppose you’re right…”

Celestia then smiled at Luna and said, “Thank you. Now, I suppose we are wasting time. I’ll call Gerhardt again and see if I can get him to agree to meet with us so we can talk in person.” She then proceeded to call Gerhardt again and once again set her phone to speaker mode so everyone could hear what he said.

Once again Gerhardt answered almost immediately. “What is it this time, Celestia?” He asked in an annoyed tone.

“Gerhardt, we would like to meet with you so we can talk in person. Is there anywhere in particular you have in mind for us to meet at?” Celestia inquired.

“Hm… I sincerely doubt we would have much to discuss but very well. I’ll send the coordinates to Deus. He will bring you here. I just don’t trust the rest of you enough to not leak the coordinates to a certain Nature Spirit, you see. I’ll talk to you in a few moments.” Gerhardt said before hanging up.

“Well that was easier than I expected it to be…” Rainbow Dash commented.

“Yeah… A bit too easy…” Twilight muttered.

“Mm… My Pinkie senses have been tingling all day and they’re still tingling… It feels like something bad is gonna happen but it’s been like that all day so I can’t tell if Gears will be the one to do the bad thing or not…” Pinkie muttered.

Deus then raised a hand and teleported himself, the others, and a select few combat golems that were still in relatively good condition to Gerhardt’s factory in the Crystal Empire. The combat golems, being highly resistant to magic drained far more of his energy reserves than even the entire group combined so he was only able to take about eight in total.

As soon as they arrived Deus cast King Sombra’s curse on all three of the princesses as well as Twilight, Rarity, and Isabelle causing black crystals to form on their horns and all over Isabelle’s body thus preventing any of them from using any magic.

“Deus, what is this?! What are you doing?!” Celestia demanded trying and failing to cast a spell to get rid of the crystals.

“Incapacitating you. This way none of you can resist. See father? My trap worked flawlessly.” Deus said before looking at Gerhardt as he rounded a corner created by a wall of wooden crates.

“Indeed it has. Well done, D-0001.” Gerhardt said, looking at them all.

“A trap? This was all a trap?!” Twilight exclaimed, now panicking.

“Indeed. Why else did you think I convinced you to leave the Elements of Harmony in the Tree of Harmony? I couldn’t let you actually use them now that the Spirit of Harmony is free again.” Deus said.

“Why you…” Rainbow Dash growled aggressively.

Before she could do anything, Deus forced her out of the air and pinned her to the ground with telekinesis. “I wouldn’t recommend trying anything. I tried to convince father to just let me kill you all, but he wants you all alive for whatever reason. However if you act out of line then I will not hesitate to break a few bones or tear off a few limbs. Don’t worry, even if I did tear any of your limbs off I would ensure none of you would bleed out.”

“Well, I suppose you’ve captured us. What do you plan to do now?” Celestia inquired.

“Oh nothing much really. You all will just be the first group I’ll transform into artificial life forms such as myself, Deus, or Pixel. Your new bodies will be ready in about an hour or so since I just had the factory start building them. So for now we have some time so let’s talk. After all that’s what you all came here to do, right? To try to convince me to stop? I’ll tell you now that it won’t work. However, we have all the time in the universe so I am willing to hear you out. For now.” Gerhardt said in a fairly casual tone.

“Your beam from the sky is on a direct collision course with our kingdom in the Everfree Forest! You’re going to destroy everything my citizens have!” King Aspen shouted furiously.

“No I’m not. My orbital cannons have already detected your city as well as what I assume is Miss Zecora’s hut and are thus avoiding them. I will be destroying all of the foliage around them with precision strikes via thinner and more condensed beams of arcane energy than the broad beam you surely saw. So don’t worry about that. Your homes will remain perfectly intact. However, after this is all over I will be having construction golems go in and replace all of the buildings with concrete and metal as I cannot leave even so much as a single trace of organic matter anywhere in the world. Even down to individual single celled organisms at the very bottom of the ocean. However, before I do that I will set up temporary shelters for you and your people and will give you all between several weeks and two months to gather all of your things from your homes. So you will lose nothing except for a bit of time. And I promise you that after the conversion you will all have an overabundance of time as you will all be immortal like me, so what little you lose to this will be completely irrelevant in the end.”

“We do not want this! We have no interest in your accursed technology! We merely wish to live in harmony with nature! Why can’t you understand that and leave us alone?!” King Aspen demanded.

Gerhardt sighed. “I hate repeating myself but very well… I’m just being a good father and a good soldier. Nature hurt my daughter, attacked my allies, and is killing my kingdom. It has proven to me that it is nothing but a threat to everything society should strive to achieve so I will destroy nature by any means necessary. What you and your species want are completely irrelevant to me. Besides you’ll see how much better off my vision of this world will be in the end and you’ll thank me. You know what? Since you’re all here, let me show you all a glimpse of what I have in mind. Let me show you the mechanical beauty of the world I envision. The world without nature.”

He then raised a hand towards them and cast a mental illusion spell, forcing all of them to see what he had planned for the future. However he didn’t cast the spell on Isabelle for two reasons. First and foremost was the fact she was completely covered in crystals that would completely block the magic to begin with. Second, Deus had already informed him of what Isabelle had done and he didn’t believe that she deserved to see the glorious future he would bring to this world. She most certainly wouldn't live long enough to see it, but her summary execution could wait for the moment.

All of them saw images of breathtakingly beautiful cities made of concrete, glass, and metal with buildings that reached far higher into the sky than any primitive skyscraper that currently existed in the world. Ponies and deer made of solid metal with strands of metal acting as manes or tails for the ponies all living happy normal lives as they usually would, some even having children. Numerous ships leaving the planet and heading towards other planets in the solar system and building colonies upon them so they had room to expand even with their slowly growing population. Then dozens if not hundreds of ships going to and from Equus and those colonies every single day. Then after several centuries of development ships finally leaving the solar system traveling at speeds faster than light and heading to new solar systems to colonize planets there as well.

He also crafted certain images specially for certain individuals. For Luna he showed her images of hundreds of mechanical ponies in beautiful towns and cities outside enjoying her beautiful night sky while younger mechanical ponies stayed in doors and slept through the night, enjoying the wonderful dreams she brought them. All of them being immensely grateful towards her for all the work she does in making the night sky as beautiful as possible and protecting their dreams and thus loving her just as much if not slightly more than Celestia. And instead of there being a Nightmare Night dedicated to the ponies' fear of Nightmare Moon, there being a Winter Moon Celebration as her equivalent of Celestia’s Summer Sun celebration.

For Cadance he showed her images of her and Shining Armor both made from metal living together and ruling over the Crystal Empire for eternity. Neither of them ever growing old or dying even as the Crystal Empire grew and expanded around them for centuries. Then a large machine taking tiny fragments of both of their souls in a much more refined process than what Gerhardt used to make Deus and using those fragments to build the soul of a new demigod that would be their child which they would raise from a very young foal with only very basic knowledge to an adult who could then go on to lead his or her own kingdom they had prepared for him or her on another colony. He also showed her images of her and Shining Armor’s child visiting frequently even as an adult as travel between the colonies would be very easy and a regular occurrence and them still being able to talk every day as communication would be almost instantaneous. Thus despite physical distance the three of them and even their future generations would never truly be apart from one another.

For both Celestia and Twilight he showed them images of mechanical foals of all three different breeds getting along and playing with each other. Playing along with them were young mechanical Deer, Minotaurs, Griffons, Dragons, and even Changelings. All the breeds of ponies and all of the different sapient species that Gerhardt knew of getting along and being friends. Peace and harmony spread across the entire world and even beyond into the stars. So much so that the Spirit of Harmony had grown so strong as to be able to manifest itself in a physical form which it could use to spread harmony directly and ensure its propagation throughout the eons.

For Pinkie Pie he showed her something similar except they were all laughing and joking around at a party. Furthermore they were enjoying baked goods that looked, felt, and tasted exactly like normal baked goods if not even better than normal baked goods but were made entirely without any plant or animal based products, instead being made entirely from both alchemical and normal chemical components. He then showed the Cakes and their foals in fully mechanical bodies living just as happily and healthily as ever. Then he showed the foals getting new even larger bodies once they reached their teenage years and once again when they were finally adults, showing her that even as mechanical beings nothing would really change and they would still grow up as they should without any complications. He then showed her herself in a mechanical body laughing with her friends, making baked goods with alchemy, and throwing parties for the ponies around the rebuilt and redesigned Ponyville as per usual.

For Fluttershy he showed her herself in a fully mechanical body taking care of all sorts of different mechanical animals. Some large, some small. Most of them resembling animals she was already used to taking care of while a few were of Gerhardt’s own design, including a flock of little mechanical dragons just like Goldy minus most of the weapons. In the illusion he showed her that she even had a whole massive facility the size of a city along a separate dimensional axis that contained numerous different artificial habitats for the animals where she and other ponies could go to play with and take care of the animals all they wanted. Essentially like one massive petting zoo with multiple layers. Even better, the zoo could easily be expanded and new designs for entirely new and unique species could be added to the facility every year or so thus she could always have new animals to learn about and take care of.

Applejack was perhaps the toughest of all of the ponies for Gerhardt to think of something to show her. After all her family were farmers and farms would essentially no longer exist as plants would no longer exist nor would organic matter in general. However he did manage to think of something that he hoped would at the very least ease her concerns about the future he envisioned.

He showed her Granny Smith in a mechanical body no longer suffering the ill effects of old age and a slowly degenerating body that would inevitably fail her, once again just as spry and capable as her or Big Mac. He showed her Applebloom growing up in much the same way as he showed Pinkie the Cakes’ foals growing up. He showed her their family still operating a sort of farm which they could use their new technological based built in magic to operate and enhance the efficiency of. A farm where they could have artificial “trees” and “crops” which were essentially just machines designed to vaguely resemble such plants that could grow essentially any types of crystals over time in the same size and general shape as apples or other crops just by feeding them the materials to make said crystals. Crystals being just as if not more valuable in Gerhardt’s new world than food was in the current world. He would design the entire system such that their skills in raising their orchard and crops would translate over almost perfectly. Thus nothing would really change for them except for the fact they would be making more money than ever and Granny Smith would be in significantly better condition than she was currently.

For Rarity he showed her herself in a fairly ornate body that had been polished to a brilliant shine. Said body was made mainly from silver but had some gold accents and fancy golden scrollwork, furthermore her main and tail were just as purple as they currently were. That would be accomplished by rearranging the molecular structure of the thin metallic wires of her mane and tail to reflect light in a specific way. He also showed her that she could either have any sort of crystals she wanted embedded into her exterior or she could have a plain solid metal exterior if she so chose. He then showed her images of her producing beautiful dresses from synthetic fabrics and metallic fabrics and becoming quite renowned for her sense of fashion and for being quite beautiful. Unfortunately he didn’t know much about fashion himself so he simply based the dress designs he showed her on dresses he saw her making in her shop on the occasions he would come over.

He didn’t know much about Rainbow Dash as they rarely interacted unless they had no other choice. However he did know that she liked flying very fast and was quite arrogant. He also knew she was the bearer of the Element of Loyalty. Thus he designed what he showed her around all of that.

He showed her images of herself in a mechanical body flying at Mach two and speeding all the way up to Mach three. Her winning awards for her flight skills. Her being praised as the best flyer in the world by other pegasi. Her having hordes of adoring fans. And her and her friends still living normal peaceful lives as if nothing had changed. None of them were hurt, all of them were perfectly happy and in excellent condition. Their lives were all just as good as ever, if not even better than they were before. He also showed her glimpses of everything he was showing the others, trying to make her see that there was nothing for her to fight against as neither she nor her friends were in any danger whatsoever. In fact if anything they would all benefit greatly from Gerhardt’s new world.

Gerhardt didn’t know pretty much anything about King Aspen so he just showed him rather generic images of him and his people having become fully mechanical and living in Gerhardt’s new society. No trees, no foliage, nothing of the sort. At the very least none that were natural. All of them were living in a stunningly beautiful modern city. Furthermore their connection with nature was replaced with a connection to technology and instead of having any sort of relationship with the spirit of nature they instead had a relationship with the newly born spirit of technology which would be far kinder and significantly less genocidal. After all, technology was always made to be used and it didn’t really care how it was used, thus it was thus extremely difficult to truly anger.

Of course he had his voice speak to each of them in their minds as he showed them these visions, helping to give context they would have lacked with just images alone. When it was over he ended the spell and said, “See? The world I will create will be far better off without nature. Nothing will truly change except for the complete destruction of a very hostile and dangerous spirit. No more natural disasters. No more sickness. No more old age. No more permanent physical or physiological injuries or maladies. Death will be exceptionally uncommon as the only way it could possibly happen is from lack of maintenance for at least a century, accidents, and being killed by other beings.”

Gerhardt then teleported an empty wooden crate to himself and sat down as he continued talking, fully expecting this conversation to take awhile. “Normally that would eventually cause overpopulation concerns but that can easily be mitigated by slowing population growth with proper laws and procedures. Furthermore you can expand the space your populations can take up by colonizing other planets and areas along other dimensional axes. Not to mention the fact that a spirit of technology which would inevitably form would be significantly less violent and aggressive than a spirit of nature as technology is designed to be used and it doesn’t particularly care how it’s used. In fact it would be nothing but beneficial. And the cities I will build will be just as if not far more beautiful than anything Nature could ever hope to produce.”

Some of the ponies seemed to have had their confidence shaken and appeared to be swayed slightly by everything Gerhardt had shown them. However, a few of them seemed to hold steadfast in their beliefs or at the very least were very good at putting on a Façade to make it look like they weren’t affected by what Gerhardt had shown them.

“Gerhardt, I will admit the world you envision is beautiful. Far more so than I originally expected. However, despite that you are still going way too far. You don’t need to destroy all of nature or force everypony to become artificial like you to achieve this and you know it.” Celestia said, being one of the few who seemed to stay steadfast in the face of everything Gerhardt had shown them.

“That’s where you’re wrong. It has become abundantly clear to me that it is completely impossible for nature and advanced society to coexist. It is either one or the other, not both. Thus I’ve decided that nature must be destroyed.” Gerhardt refuted her claim.

“And who are you to make such a decision?! You take it upon yourself to decide all of this without consulting anyone else or even considering that perhaps we should have a say in the matter! The sheer gall and arrogance is absolutely astounding!” King Aspen shouted at Gerhardt.

“Who am I to decide this? I am the one with the power, knowledge, and technology to make it happen. That’s who I am. I’m the one who has seen the horrors of nature and realize just how abhorrent and horrific it truly is. I’m the one who’s entire kingdom and species was destroyed by a god of nature just because said god held a personal grudge against me for no good reason. I’m the one whose daughter was very nearly murdered by a rampaging Nature Spirit and who came within mere inches of being unable to save her. And above all else I am the one who wields all of the power in this situation. So I honestly couldn’t care less about your opinion or anyone else's. This is happening, end of story. Besides when this is all over you’ll all forget that nature ever existed to begin with so there will be no harm done because you won’t even realize that anything is any different. You’ll believe that this is how you have always lived. So I don’t care about your opinions as I know for a fact that you will not care in the end, even if you do now, and your lives will be improved significantly.”

“You know you can’t just get away with this.” Applejack stated in a slightly hostile tone.

Gerhardt had the combat golems Deus brought all point their particle weapons at Applejack. “Wrong. I very much can and I will, I assure you. After all, who’s going to stop me? You? If you try anything even remotely threatening, I’ll have these golems kill you before you can take so much as a single step. And more than that I know Celestia played our conversations over the speaker of her phone so I know you all heard me when I told her what I would do if any of you tried to get in my way. Your family is in Canterlot at this very moment, Miss Applejack, and I have an orbital cannon aimed at the city at this very moment and can make it fire with a single thought. I do not want to do that, of course, because I absolutely hate killing innocent civilians unnecessarily. So please don’t force me to follow through on my ultimatum because I guarantee that I will if I have to. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve had to follow through on similar ultimatums. Isabelle here can attest to that. Isn’t that right, Isabelle?”

Isabelle grimaced and looked at the ground. “He’s telling the truth… He’s ordered the use of orbital weapons and even weapons of mass destruction on major cities in enemy kingdoms in the past. And if he thinks your kingdom is against him, I don’t doubt he will do the same thing again. And since the princesses are involved, anything any of you do is representative of Equestria’s stance towards what he’s doing. Currently you have shown that Equestria is against what he’s doing, which is fine. However, as soon as one of you tries to attack him, that will show him that Equestria’s stance has turned actively hostile and he will respond in kind.”

“Correct. Thank you, Isabelle. So, I’ll repeat myself and this time I expect an answer. Who’s going to stop me?” Gerhardt inquired, looking Applejack dead in the eyes.

“…No pony… Absolutely nopony…” Applejack muttered in a defeated tone.

“That’s what I thought. I sincerely apologize, I do realize how this comes off and it’s nothing against any of you individually. However, I can’t just let anyone try to stop me. My only desire in this situation is for this all to end without any further violence or bloodshed if at all possible. Natura has caused more than enough of that on her own. Thus the reason I am bothering to speak to you all right now in an attempt to convince you what I’m doing is for the good of the entire world that way there is no reason for any conflict or hostility between us. However, I can see that I’m not getting through to some of you. That is quite unfortunate, however we still have plenty of time before your new bodies are ready. So please keep telling me all your fears and concerns with what I’m doing and I will try my best to ease those fears to the best of my abilities.”

Author's Note

Edit: Someone suggested that Gerhardt should win in this endeavor and I found that rather interesting as I honestly didn't expect it. So what do you all think? Should Gerhardt succeed in destroying all nature or not? Strawpoll Link

Alright that's another chapter done. Sorry, I would have gotten it out sooner but my internet was down for a few days and I couldn't even access Google docs to finish writing it. Anyway, hopefully this storyline is better than the last version was. Just in case any of you weren't aware, I did rewrite the last two chapters. Chapter 27 is mostly the same except I swapped Gerhardt for Pixel. Chapter 28, however, does have some actual differences between it and the original. So if you haven't read the new version of chapter 28 I would recommend doing so just so you have a bit more context for this chapter if nothing else.

Also there are links to the original versions of both chapters in the Author's Notes of the respective chapters so if you missed the original ending of Chapter 28 before I deleted it, it's there for you to read if you really want to know what sort of train wreck it was originally.

Fun Fact: Zecora does not approve of what Natura was doing and tried to convince her not to attack the ponies. When that failed she actively protested against it. When even that failed she tried to go to Ponyville to warn Twilight but Natura wouldn't let her leave the forest. This obviously harmed their friendship quite a bit. Despite this Natura still cared enough about her to save her from Gerhardt's orbital cannon as Zecora is the first friend she had in fifty thousand years and that does mean a lot to her. I don't know if a good opportunity to cover this will arise thus the reason I'm writing this as a fun fact.

Anyways, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. Please, tell me what you guys thought of this chapter and how you think I could improve if at all. I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much if not more than I enjoyed writing it!

Stay safe out there everyone!