Author's Note

Note: when I write, capitals mean multiple voices, and bold means louder.

Also, sorry bout the late upload. Life's a bitch, but I have a few more chapters I just need to edit.

Chapter 2

"There, the stars have been switched," Celestia says, satisfied. The daily ritual is still a source of satisfaction for her. After all, she had done it alone for a Millenium, so feeling her sister beside her is comforting.

"Well, let's get this over with, shall we? It is time, after all," Luna says, looking determinedly towards the door. Her pose suggests that she is ready to delve deep into their minds. In all honesty, however, she is… uncertain. The stallion seemed sure he was right. If so, then what happened to the foal…?

"Yes, I suppose it is," Celestia says, sighing. She has been dreading this all day. She is not a big fan of these new ponies, and had her own thoughts on the green one. Idiot

"Onwards!"

In the cells

"Wake, yee slumbering criminal," Celestia says, entering the green one's cell. Her presence causes his eyes to snap open, wide with fear. He sits up quickly, looking confused, and reaches to his mane, as if trying to get something. When he finds nothing, he grows more confused, until he appears to remember the day.

Sighing, he merely says "Moon bitch and Sun bitch. That right," He stands up and says "Get it over wo-"

"What did thee just call thou, Princess and handler of thy Moon and night!?" Luna exclaims in a rage. The insolent bastard!

"Well, I'm fucked or not based on my memories, right?" He asks, sounding as if he is trying to reason something out.

"Correct," a much calmer, yet still angry, Celestia says.

"Then that will explain it," he says, forming a pitifully small smile. "Do it,"

"Sleep," Luna says authoritatively.

Nothing happens for several seconds. "What, you think that would wo-" he falls down, fast asleep.

"Now, what are you hiding?" Luna asks, moving in for the kill.

(Note: in my head cannon, Luna can take more than just one memory and view as she wishes, ie she can take a year of memories and store it for later)
MEMORY WORLD

"There was blood upon the risers, there were brains upon the chute
Intestines were a danglin' from his paratrooper suit
He was a mess, they picked him up and poured him from his boots
AND HE AIN'T GONNA JUMP NO MORE!"

The famous Cadence was sung by a good 80% of the Foreign Legion, specifically the LBJ Legion. They seemed happy to have another chance at the nazi bastards. However, the other 40 troops were silent, merely reflecting. It brought back bad memories for many; others did so out of respect.

"GORY, GORY WHAT A HELL OF A WAY TO DIE!
GORY, GORY WHAT A HELL OF A WAY TO DIE!
GORY, GORY WHAT A HELL OF A WAY TO DIE!
HE AIN'T GONNA JUMP NO MORE!"

At this point, the troop had started to quiet down. They were approaching the front, after all. They could tell from the shell holes.

And the noises. The AKs used by Russian rear guards and German G3s, reserved for the front, had certain sounds to them, each different from an M4.

"Alright, our goal is the armor," the lieutenant said, causing the legion to shut up. "The ruskies got Jerry's meat sacks; we gotta get those Panzers,"

The troop nodded and silently split up into their 5-man fire teams. Rusky stayed with James, as usual, and they all moved off to the ambush positions.

Soon enough, an armor column was moving up. This had a Ratte IV in it. James was supposed to breach that with his new "fuck-you" charges. He primed said charges: one for the hatch, one for the gun, and two per track gets it done.

The panzers halted in the middle of the road. A captain nervously exited the Ratte, holding a bundle of maps. As he was closing the top, however, a crack sounded, and he fell over with a hole in his head.

James took this moment to run up to the Ratte as his comrades disabled the Panzers, the sounds of whooshing rockets everywhere. The Ratte, if possible, was to be captured; Patton IIIs were better than Panzer XIIs, however.

Climbing up the Ratte, James prepped a gas grenade and tossed it into the hatch. Fumbling with his mask, he manages to put it on before entering the tank, now filled with nerve gas. Four Germans laid knocked out; one Hauptmann, one SS officer, and two privates. He shot the privates and dragged the others out, leaving them with the MPs.

"We got ourselves some armor support for a week!" James shouted to the now cheering group. Rattes were worth much money, but the influence it carried was worth more to the soldiers. After all, armor meant air support, and air support meant victory.

However, they didn't have that air right now. A Stuka VII flew overhead. The thing was silent, yet still killed 42 men, including the LT, in seconds. The bombs and silent machine gun statacoos racked through the American ranks, sending bodies flying and soldiers dancing.

All in all, not bad. Shouting, the legion scrambled into the nearby plains, heading for God knows where. James was heading towards a village, with the MPs and Rusky trailing behind.

The stuka just wanted to blow up the Ratte; once that was done, it flew home, the pilots ready for a good meal. However, the Legion still scattered. This would be bad for James, as he didn't see the trap until it was too late; both MPs were blasted by mines, their corpses being non existant. The traps were Russian based off of the crudeness in which it was set up. Friendly fire. Great!

"Shit!" James cried, looking to the prisoners. "I gotta drag these two now…" Thankfully, the Legion had the new POW carts; not very humane, yet efficient. They made James' job a lot easier.

Grunting, James pushed the cart towards the village. Sometime during the half hour walk, the Jerries woke up, so they had to march, taking some strain off of James.

Eventually, they reached the village. James sat down, sighing, and untied the POWs. They marched to the middle of the square and stood there, resolutely at first, but quickly looked behind James in awe.

"Why shouldn't I shoot you? Hm?" James asked. The Hauptmann pointed behind James. Still holding his gun out, James looked behind him. And wished he hadn't.

All kids knew what an atom bomb did. It was part of school, after all. However, knowing and knowing are different. The mushroom was big, bigger than... anything. The shockwave was felt where they were, miles away.

(Insert Prologue)

"REAL" WORLD

Luna takes a step back, gasping and visibly in shock. Her breath becomes rapid and shallow as she struggles go maintain her composture. Failing, she promptly collapses and starts to shed tears for the lost souls.

"Luna? What's wrong?" Celestia quickly asks, hurrying to her sister's side.

"The… the…" Luna says, not sure what to say. The...

"Ok, that was a bad example," Green says nonchalantly. "Take a look about 9 years earlier, or even better, probe the SS guy - the black one," He looks unshaken by the violence and casual waste of life. As if he was made of it.

"What is 'Africa'? The 'SS'? More important, are you really-" Celestia begins, sounding like a certain student.

"S… Sister?" Luna asks, shaky in voice and body. Her wrecked form lay there, utterly spent.

"Yes, dear?" Celestia says, ignoring the stallion and getting down, sheltering Luna with her wing.

"Thank you for... not killing our ponies," Luna says, finding some stability. However, reflecting causes her to immediately break, shedding even more tears.

"What do you mean?" Celestia asks, moving to hug Luna.

"I- I-"

"You guys don't have Nazis," Green says casually. "We did. It was war or…" he shudders. "... worse," His eyes betray him for a moment, showing something deep to Celestia, but she could not quite pin what it is.

"What could be worse than... than… that..." Luna once again breaks down, face shining from the stream of tears. Celestia is clearly concerned. Her sister was supposed to be the cruel one; after all, she was surely hardened after… her banishment. She held her tighter, not sure what to do.

"Try Java, 1966," the Stallion says. "Now that was bad, like that, but a lot more of us, a lot less of them, and-"

"Shut!" Celestia shouts. He quickly quiets. "I know not what thee have seen, but it is clearly something I do not want to,"

Luna just sat there, crying. The stallion continued, getting angry: "Well, those Indonesians didn't get to choose. Those Japs were… were…" A get comes to his eye. "You can skip past that, I suppose,"

Celestia picked her sister up (assisted with magic, of course) and carried her to their room, locking the door behind them.

Many guards were flustered by the display. The Solar Guards were shocked, yet recovered quickly. After all, they were professionals. However, the Night Guard took the worst hit. Part of the oath they took is that they would always feel like Luna in her presence, to better serve her. So her mere presence made more than one cry. One passed out. One unlucky thestral tried to commit suicide before being saved by a (shocked) Celestial Pegasus. Those two would find happiness together, even if the road was rocky.

Eventually, the sisters get back to their room, Celestia shutting the door behind them. Luna had passed out during the ride, so Celestia merely hugs her sister, worried by her state and health. She herself is somewhat tired, so she tries to sleep with Luna like their mom used to.

Some time later

"Sister, you must lower the moon," Celestia says urgently.

"But-"

"Luna. We can talk after you lower the moon and I raise the sun. Ok?"

"I- Ok,"

"Ok," Celestia says. "On three. One, two, three!" The sisters perform their morning routine perfectly - excluding Luna's slight hurry.

"Luna, I need to tell my court that I can not attend today. Will you be fine?" Celestia asks.

"Please come back soon," Luna says. She looked scared and defeated at the same time. "I don't want to be alone,"

"Ok. I will be back within fifteen minutes," Celestia promises, hurrying. She forgets about teleportation, it would seem.

At court, 3 minutes later

"Attention, court," Celestia says, as per usual. As per usual, all stand up. "Court is dismissed due to… unforeseen consequences." she settles on after a moment. "That is all,"

All except for one reporter stand there, dumbfounded. The reporter jumps up and eagerly asks "Does this involve the lack of Luna's presence?" This mare was eager for a good impression, having just landed a job.

"As I have said," Celestia says "...unforeseen consequences. Good day," she quickly departs.

Among the crowd was Cadence, however, and she was worried. After sending a note to Spike to inform Twilight that she and her friends were needed at Canterlot, she remembered to send another note to her husband, merely stating that something was wrong at Canterlot, and she had to stay. She then got up and teleported to where she thought her aunt might be, based off her walking patterns

And she was right. Too right, in fact. Thankfully, the spells failsafe placed her a foot above Celestia, so she fell on rather than clipped into her. Both have out an oof as they fell into a heap.

"My dear Cadenza," Celestia says after they pick themselves up, addressing her formally. That was bad; Celestia only did that to hide something. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Her eyes were conflicted

"Is Luna ok?" Cadence says, throwing out a guess. "Does this involve what Shining told me about? I hope nothing bad happened," Cadence sounds anxious, with good reason.

"Let me explain as we walk back home," Celestia says, sounding conflicted. And with good reason.

5 minutes later

Luna was a failure. She knew it. Her sister knew it. Why else would she be gone so long? She had said 15 minutes, but Luna could only wait 8, she decided, and it had been 10. After all, Celestia could have teleported. Sobbing at this point, Luna pulled the knife back, ready to take her worthless life out of the equation she was a failure and should die and so she pulled the knife back and was ready to die and then she thrust and-

"Luna!" Celestia says in a loud voice, ripping the knife away with magic. "What happened to not wanting to end it?" Celestia shouts. Cadence stared, dumbfounded as one of her aunt's, a pillar of stability to her, tried to end her own life.

"I can't take it," Luna is still sobbing. "It hurts so bad,"

"Is it related to..." Celestia is choking up by now, tears threatening to overwhelm her.

"That just exposed the weakness again," Luna collapses onto the floor, sobbing her heart out. Celestia moves to comfort her.

"It's not a weakness; it's good you feel bad about that,"

Cadence finally snaps out of it. "Is this… recurring?" She asks to Celestia, who nods sadly. "Oh my… I need a minute…"

"Exactly! She sees how worthless I am how little I matter how dumb I am how-"

"Luna," Celestia manages. "Re- remember what I told you to do," Celestia pleads. Luna merely looks up to her.

"I know, but it's so hard, because I think I am," by now, Luna had run out of water for tears, yet kept up the motions. Cadence moved in to join the sisters, providing her support. The three nestled together, snuggling up to the center. Luna slowly stopped the sobbing.

After a minute, a purple flash appears. A sunken Luna, surprised Celestia, and scared Cadence all look up to a Twilight yet to open her eyes.

"Sorry for the disturbance! Just need to find a princess!" Twilight shouts obliviously, remembering when she appeared in the lavoratory.

"Twi…" Celestia says, finally having recovered enough to sound semi stable. Twilight turns around, surprised.

"Oh good, your all… wha…" Twilight stares, dumbfounded at a ball of princesses, one broken, one defeated, and one ashamed. "Is this… who… what…"

"See, I am worthless," Luna whispers to Celestia. "Even Twi thinks so…"

Just then, the other five elements open the door, wearing an expression similar to Twilight.