Blaze didn't know what to say. His old professor, whom he'd always liked, was standing here, almost like old times.

On the other hoof, he was clearly part of the invading army.

Dubois realized what he was thinking all too quickly. "I'll admit, I wish we could have met again under more ideal circumstances... preferably without the whole war happening at all."

"Why do you remember me? Out of hundreds, maybe thousands of students..."

"A good professor never forgets one of his students. He may forget certain things about them, but never forgets their existence in his life."

Dubois knelt down and patted Blaze's mane. "It's so good to see you safe and sound."

"Bu-but you're one of them!" he said loudly. "One of the human invaders!"

"Relax." Dubois stood up again. "These men - er, some of them - are under my command. You're safe. Nobody's gonna shoot you.

"Th-that's not what I mean! You're going to... to..."

Dubois' face twisted in emotional pain. "Going to what?" he asked, in a sad voice Blaze had only ever heard once before.

Six-seven years ago, 2044, two years before the war

The recall order from Equestria had come. All ponies were to leave human nations and return to Equestria immediately. It was a command from the Princesses themselves. All across campus, ponies were packing their bags and getting ready to head back home.

Most were all too glad to go. Many gathered their things and left without even talking to their human "friends."

Professor Dubois was standing within a largely empty classroom. In front of him, in a semi-circle, stood Emerald, Sunflower, Blaze, Rock Hard, and Swift Wing.

"Thanks for coming, all of you," he began. "I must apologize for the haste in which I asked you to come here, but given the circumstances, I wanted to make this goodbye count."

"That's what you called us all here for?" Rock Hard said in disbelief. "To say goodbye? Really?"

"Is that so hard to believe, Rock Hard?" the professor asked, looking sorrowful. "I'm going to miss you all, even though I guess we're at DEFCON 2 as of now."

"Thanks, professor," Swift Wing said gratefully. "We, or at least, I, enjoyed my time in your classes."

"Me too," Sunflower said, levitating over a bouquet of flowers. "Sorry I couldn't do more in the time I had, but I wanted to give you a thank you gift before we left."

The professor smiled. "Thanks, Sunflower. I'll put them in a vase; I hope my wife enjoys them."

Sunflower smiled.

"I can't say I've enjoyed every minute here," Blaze said. "I... especially with the riots on campus after Lemon Beaker defected..."

The professor sighed. "I can't say I have anything but anger for those riots. Not all ponies are to blame for the potion. And some students who let their emotions rule their actions have been expelled, some of from my own classes. I can't help but feel disappointment, though justice has been served."

"Well, it wasn't your life on the line, now was it?" Rock asked aggressively. "They wouldn't have murdered you! You're a human, just like them!"

"Stop it, man!" Emerald said, smacking Rock in the back of the head with his right wing. "We all lived through it, and some of our human friends were the first to protect us!"

"The least bad apples out of the barrel, but a less bad apple is still bad, and all it takes is one to spoil the whole barrel!"

"Shut up!" Sunflower snapped.

"I'll be getting my things and going, then, monkey-lover," Rock Hard said, getting up and starting to walk out of the classroom. He stopped at the door and turned his head. "I have to say, you weren't the worst out of the bunch. I hope you're the first to get a potion to the face before we clobber your butts."

Dubois' face twisted; the pain he felt from that comment, from a student he had grown to care for, was obvious. "Do you hate us that much?"* he asked, in miserable voice.

Rock Hard didn't answer.

Sunflower glared furiously at Rock, then turned Emerald, who likewise looked her in the eye. They both nodded, and her pointed at her with the feathers of his right wing. "Professor Dubois, we don't all hate you. In-in fact..." She seemed to struggle to get the words out. "We're staying."

"WHAT!?" Rock shouted.

"What!?" Blaze and Swift echoed, though not as loudly.

"Yeah," Emerald said; his face was nervous, but his voice was firm. "Me an' Sunny, we're stayin' here. If the rest o' ya'll wanna go home, that's fine, but we're stayin' here."

"You... You... You..."

"Say it, big guy!"

"You're... You're traitors to the pony race!" Rock shouted. "You would rather live among war-loving, nature-hating monkeys!?"

"You're blind, Rock," Sunflower said, walking up to him, her horn faintly glowing as she prepared for any attack he might throw her way. "You hate humans simply because the Princesses say they're irredeemable. Have you considered that maybe it's the Princesses who are wrong, and not humanity as a whole?"

"Our Princesses are goddesses! They can't be wrong! You've been taken in by Lyra and her race traitors!"

"I'll admit, I've listened to her on the radio," Sunflower said. "But this has been our decision. Our leaders are wrong! Have you learned nothing from your history classes and lectures?"

"I've learned enough. It only confirms everything we were told by the Princesses. Look at what we've been learning! Greed, violence, genocide, wars, mayhem. That's all that they ultimately bring!"

"Did you ever take the time to know any of them personally?" Sunflower continued. "Have you actually tried talking to them besides saying, 'buzz off, ape,' or 'get away from me, monkey?'"

"Of course not! Why would I let myself be taken in, like you two idiots?"

"Wow, talk about the pot calling the kettle black, Rock! Maybe you should look in a mirror and realize that ponies aren't much better!"

"Are you serious? He's brainwashed you!"

"My hoof he has! Our teacher, our professor, has been a better friend to us than you ever were. I've even made friends with other girls here, spent a bunch of girl time with them; they're just like mares back home, to be honest, interested in hair and makeup and all that."

"They're only trying to pull the wool over your eyes!"

"Ya keep sayin' that, like a broken record, Rock," Emerald broke in. "Maybe that shoulda been your name. On the tha otha hoof, 'Rock Hard' fits ya like good horseshoes do hooves. By the way, you might also wanna get the nails in yours fixed up before ya leave, or they'll drop right off."

"At least I'm not some feather-brained, human-loving traitor!" Rock growled as one of the nails in his hoof came loose. He stamped the floor hard to put the nail back in its place, preventing his horseshoe from loosening. "Darn, rusting..."

"If you took time to visit a human farrier, those hooves would be in good shape, and you wouldn't be in danger of throwing a shoe every five steps!" Sunflower snarled. "You haven't been to a farrier since you left Equestria, and now all your horseshoes, and the nails holding them to your hooves, are old and rusty."

"I'd rather suffer aching hooves and rusty shoes than trust monsters to fix them!"

"Are... Are you guys sure?" Blaze asked Sunflower and Emerald, still stunned.

Sunflower, after casting a directed shield spell toward Rock, turned to face him, a loving look in her face. "Blaze, we've talked about it over the past day, and... I think Emerald and me have come to the right decision. We're staying in Maine, with our real friends. I'm sorry we didn't tell you before, but... I promise I - we, never meant to hurt you, or Swift for that matter... or even lunkhead over here," she said, jerking her head toward Rock for a second. "Equestria has become a self-righteous pit ever since we've arrived on this world. At least humans - some of them, anyway - admit their faults and try to overcome them. We... we try to blur it all over with 'friendship' and ''harmony' that papers over our hatred for anything different from us or our society, a fault that has only deepened ever since we've come here. So, I'm sorry to you two, but... we're staying."

"But.. But what will your mom and dad say?" Blaze blurted out.

Sunflower's face faded a bit, but her voice remained strong. "They won't like it, to say the least. But I'm a grown mare, able to make her own decisions, just like all of you. And I don't believe that the drivel our Princess has been spewing is right in the least. Even without Lyra's stuff, I think I would have come to this decision."

"Yep," Emerald said. "I haven't even listened ta Lyra's speeches, and I still think this is the right call."

There was a long silence. The only sound in the room was a soft hum coming from Sunflower's shield.

Finally, Rock broke it. "I'm not staying to listen to the lies of race traitors. Come on, Blaze, Swift. We're real Equestrians, not humans in pony skins."

"Rock," Sunflower said, her voice soft and quiet, "I pity you."

Rock's only response was a hard growl as he left the room. Sunflower sighed and dropped the shield.

"I'm... I'm sorry," Swift Wing said at last. "But... I have to go home. I have a family that will be worried sick."

"I... I... I... need to go with them," Blaze stammered. "I just can't become a traitor to my family and friends back home. I just... can't."

Emerald laid a hoof on Blaze's withers. "Don't worry, man. We understand."

"For what it's worth," the professor said, adjusting his glasses, "I've been honored to teach all of you, including Rock Hard. I'm sorry to see you go, but it's your decision to make." He sighed. "I wish you could all be present for graduation at this college. Maybe your senior theses could have helped establish peace between our peoples, or at least make a statement to that effect. It's always a joy for one student to see others excel, or at least it ought to be. "

"Student? You're our - were our - professor!"

Dubois laughed. "Didn't you know, Blaze? A schoolteacher or professor is simply a student who has learned enough to teach what he knows to others, but he is still learning. I've certainly learned much from the five of you, and from all my other students, human or otherwise. As the song from the old Disney movie Tarzan says, 'In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.' That remains true, no matter the species."

"W-well, we have to go now," Swift Wing said, looking like she was about to burst. "I loved your classes, professor. I really hope the Princesses change their minds."

"I'll do all of you - including Rock, though he's not here - a bit of a favor. You're all 'Withdrawn-Passing.' I have no doubt you would have achieved A's if this whole mess wasn't going on."

"For what it's worth, sir, you been like some kind of father to us," Swift said.

"That's how a bond between a teacher and his students should be. I'm sad to see you go, but I'm - for the lack of a better term - proud of what you've accomplished, along with the others."

"G-good bye, professor," Swift concluded, picking up her bags. "I... I hope we see each other again in peace time, just as we all are."

"As do I, Swift Wing. As do I."

As Blaze turned to leave, he heard Sunflower stamp her hoof. "Bah! I just criticized Rock for having loose shoes, and one of the nails in my own hoof is coming loose. So much for self-awareness."

Blaze turned to face her as Swift flew out of the room from above him. "You okay?"

"I will be," Sunflower said, nodding. "Hope to see ya soon, Blaze."

"Yeah... hope to see you soon too..."

As his head turned to face the door, he caught a glimpse of Professor Dubois' face one last time. The man looked as if his own children were leaving him. Shaking off the feeling of friendship he'd had for his teacher and classmates, Blaze couldn't help feeling very, very sad as he left the classroom. It felt all too much as if part of his own heart were being torn out, and he realized that that must be what Dubois and his other friends were feeling as they parted for what might well be the last time.

Blaze looked away; given the loss he'd seen, the last part of that memory seemed so painful now. "You're... you're gonna turn us into glue... destroy our culture for those who do survive... You... You slaughtered Ponyville for no reason..."

Jacques looked to the skies as he tried to think of a way to reply. "Yes, the bombing of Ponyville was horrible. I marched through it on my way here."

"Why? They were just ponies living their lives..."

Jacques sighed. "SAC** thought there were good reasons for it. They didn't tell us ground pounders, but I think there were a number of reasons. One, it was the home of one of Equestria's two surviving Princesses, so they hoped to take her out in that attack. Two, it was a place where different railroads merge, so hitting the infrastructure would hurt Equestria's ability to ship soldiers and weapons across the country. Three, retreating soldiers were there, and taking them out would again hurt Equestria's ability to continue fight back. Fourth, it was a culturally important place, so destroying it would demoralize remaining resistance, though in my opinion that usually only aggravates people to keep fighting."

"And... revenge."

Another sigh. "I won't lie to you, Blaze; most of humanity hates ponies, and given what we've lost - given who we've lost - a lot of people wouldn't shed a tear if you all died. That's not me trying to be cruel, or wanting it to be true; it's a self-evident fact at this point."

"But... why? What did we do to possibly deserve the Crystal Empire and Ponyville being destroyed?"

"Deserved... that's not the word I'd use. But... Rome. Mecca. Both turned to glass. All the people there vaporized, along with every building and every landmark and everything unique about those places just gone. Seven million killed from those two cities being cast into oblivion. And like I sad to Pony Joe back there, that's not even counting civilians and soldiers killed in the attacks on our cities, of great monuments melted or broken or vaporized or otherwise destroyed, and untold millions or billions turned into gibbering, human-hating organic machines that have no choice but to do what ponies say. That's what the vengeful among us will say in response to that line of questioning, and there are a lot of those."

"But..." Blaze trailed off. For a moment, he didn't speak. Finally, he said weakly, "You're... you must be... lying."

"Son, you know me better than that. I didn't hesitate to call any of you out for sloppy work or for making a habit of showing up late to class. I'm not joking or lying about this. I saw Mother Rome herself; gone."

There was a long silence, stretching maybe five whole minutes. Neither of them moved or said anything.

"Human scumbags."

Jacques looked up to see an ex-Guard approaching, still wearing his armor. His brown coat and voice seemed familiar...

"Waltzing down our streets like you're all proud to be murdering trash; I hope Twilight Sparkle burns in hell for surrendering to you."

Jacques suppressed yet another sigh. "Hello, Rock Hard. It's been a few years."

The stallion stopped. "Do I know you?"

"Don't you recognize me? I taught you back in college... in Maine."

The stallion glared at him for a long time. Finally, he said, "Professor Dubois?"

"Qui, monsieur, c'est moi."

Rock's mouth formed into an angry, teeth-bearing wall. "Should have known you'd enjoy murdering ponies."

"Self defense is not murder. From Bar Harbor, Portsmouth, all the way down to New York, all the way up to the invasion... you were the ones to attack us. And this invasion could have been stopped if only Celly had surrendered."

"It's Princess Celestia, you blasphemous ape!"

"Not anymore," Jacques replied. "I know for a fact she's out. Whether Twilight is out is up to the negotiations to follow. And, forgive me, you spoke of murder; what was the vaporizing of Rome and Mecca to you?"

"The destruction of false holy sites."

"The murder of seven million people and the turning of historically important cities into seas of glass. That's all that was left of either of them. My unit went through Rome before it got deployed for the invasion; I can tell you that that's all that's left of it. That, and one burnt cross from Saint Peter's Basilica. That's all that physically remains of three million people and thousands of years worth of history. And where the Crystal Cannon didn't do damage, pony armies did. Three billion people killed or turned into Celestia-loving flesh-machines."

"No less than what you deserve, given what you did to us."

"All of which happened after you attacked us, with the intention of erasing humanity, both physically and from all of history. Some historians would say that's unforgivable," Jacques said, feeling rising anger and just barely stopping himself from whipping his rifle off his shoulder. At least I know what Giraud and the others felt now, not that it's making me feel any better. "Stop thinking yours is the perfect society where nothing goes wrong; if that were true, no Royal Guard or dungeons, much less the ESS, would exist."

"We needed those for all the race traitors!"

"Were they? How many innocent ponies got dragged away by the ESS simply because their neighbors took advantage of an old grudge?"

"A lot fewer than actually deserved it."

"And did you ever stop to think that maybe Celestia was wrong and we were right? Did you for one second stop to look at the issue from an unbiased point of view? On second thought, don't bother answering. You never did, and the war wouldn't have done anything to make you change," Jacques said, an anger he hated having risen to boiling point. Lord, please forgive me, he thought, feeling guilty immediately even though the anger was still raging within him.

Rock opened his mouth to speak, but from out of nowhere a yellow bulk slammed into Jacques, who fell over onto his side.

"Sir!" someone yelled, and there were the sounds of two pairs of boots thumping the pavement.

Jacques was still winded, and trying to understand what had happened, when a pair of hooves wrapped themselves around his middle.

He managed to sit up, and the hooves dropped off.

"You're under arrest!"

"No, don't," Jacques said as he realized just who had crashed into him. "Hello, Swift," he said, his former anger dying inside him. "Thank God you're all still alive!"

"Professor Dubois!" the yellow pegasus said joyfully, smiling as the men backed away. "I'm so happy to see you again! And Blaze! You made it out too?"

"Y-yeah," Skyward Blaze said, looking stunned. "I... I guess we did."

"Oh, it's so good to see you all okay! Even you, Rock," she added, as the large brown stallion approached.

"Swift Wing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised you were a traitor."

"Oh, come off it," she snapped at him. "I'm just happy some of my friends have lived through the war." She turned back to Jacques. "That reminds me, how are Sunny and Emerald?"

Jacques stood up. "On that score, I think I can provide some measure of good news. They're both still alive."

Swift Wing let out a squee! as she spun around in midair. "That's such good news!"

"Well..." Jacques hesitated.

"...What?" Swift asked, her hooves now on the ground and her smile gone.

"Emerald joined the Resistance as a combat medic after the war start-"

"TRAITOR!"

"Shut your mouth, Rock, nopony cares anymore," Blaze said in a deadpan voice. "All most ponies want now is peace."

"As I was saying, Emerald joined the Resistance. He didn't have it in him to kill, so he signed on as a medic. His last letter said he's back in Maine, trying to help those who lose their homes in the war."

"Wouldn't they... you know, arrest all the ponies who stayed?"

"Oh, they interrogated all the ponies who refused to obey Celestia's commands to return to Equestria once she declared war," Jacques said, "but most of them were ultimately found to be innocent of any espionage, and after the Resistance escaped from Equestria, Emerald joined as soon as his hooves and wings would let him."

"Well, that's all good," Swift said with anxiety, "but you hesitated a moment ago."

Jacques allowed himself to breathe deeply three time before continuing. "Sunflower and Emerald were going to be married, but when news came that Rome was destroyed... I think it shattered her, that her people could stoop to that level. She's been... well, not a vegetable, but almost in some kind of depressive trance-like state ever since. It broke her heart when Emerald wrote to her that Bar Harbor was half burnt down by a Equestrian force that warped in to wreck the whole place."

Two years ago, 2048, Bar Harbor, Maine.

The beautiful beachfront houses of Bar Harbor burned, as did a couple of the naval vessels in the harbor... and numerous civilian craft, both pleasure yachts and fishing boats.

The 19th had been brought to the place on whatever trucks and vehicles that could be mustered. They'd arrived piecemeal, but at least they were now all into the fight.

Sergeant Dubois fired on an enemy soldier, a gray Guard unicorn stallion. For the first several shots, the M-22 refused to connect, a transparent shield blocking all bullets sent at it. However, a grenade blew up on the perimeter of the shield, which collapsed; the stallion fell within seconds.

Another beam of magic swept across the bay. Jacques silently thanked God that there were no alicorns here; apparently, a powerful unicorn had been responsible for teleporting the enemy force in. If someone like Celestia had been leading this force, the town would have been destroyed already, and probably all the men sent to try to save it.

Artillery shells fell on the enemy; some blew up against shield spells, others landed amongst enemy troops who had already been uncovered by earlier gunfire.

A few civilians who had been taking cover had tried to make it out. Their corpses lay in front of the platoon; some may have been killed accidentally by the National Guard, but most had been cut down by the bright blue enemy mage who was burning everything he could see, whether it was flesh or building or vehicle, and whose personal shield was still holding strong. Numerous people had been hit by conversion potions; they were all dead or too wounded to move now, either having committed suicide or being shot or stabbed when they attacked the men defending what had used to be their home town.

The harbor itself was a wreck; presumably, the enemy had come to destroy Bar Harbor's ability to continue constructing naval vessels, and they'd certainly done that. Bar Harbor had been built up, on it's non-idyllic edges, as a minor naval base between 2023 and the present date. That base wasn't going to be functioning for months, at the very least; more likely, probably not for an entire year.

For whatever reason, that destruction wasn't enough for them, and they had taken it upon themselves to wreck everything. Some potions had been used on the military defenders, and some men had committed suicide or had been shot out of mercy by fellows in their own unit rather than succumb to the mind rape and body change the potion would bring upon them. However, the enemy seemed to have relatively few potions compared to the reports of attacks on major cities. Their main focus seemed to be to destroy everything before they left.

A few Resistance ponies were there, among them Bright Spirit. Jacques had never seen him in the college where he had worked - he probably had never been there - but the orange-yellow unicorn stallion was giving as good as he was getting with magic, firing bolt after bolt from his horn at the enemy, and occasionally levitating rifles off of fallen soldiers and firing them off at the enemy until their magazines ran out. Another, Emerald, was trying to bandage the leg of a man screaming in pain off in a small alley to the left.

"They're gathering together!" one of the men shouted.

"They're about to leave!" Captain Reynolds yelled. "Give it to 'em while you can, boys!"

The 19th did its best, but plenty of the enemy managed to get back to their LZ, after which there was a bright white flash; after that, no ponies remained in the city except for members of the Resistance and dead and wounded the Equestrians either couldn't or wouldn't bring with them.

Jacques took out his canteen and began chugging down the water inside. It had not been long since he'd signed on with the National Guard in the hopes of defending his home state. It was now the third year of the war, with cities being subjected to attacks like this all over the globe. Cities and monuments had been burned to the ground, sometimes leaving almost nothing to indicate that anything had been there. A Civil War memorial statue in Bar Harbor had been systematically melted down until only a glassy mess remained, and no doubt worse had fallen upon Berlin, which had been obliterated in a massive attack not long ago.

"Did we win, Sarge?"

He stopped drinking and waved his hand, gesturing to the bay. "In terms of holding the field at the end... yes. In terms of actually stopping them... I think you can get the answer simply from looking for yourself, Jake."

"Cowards behind their shields. Without 'em..."

"But they have them," Jacques replied. "We have to deal with what is, Private."

"You see Kaleb? He looks bad."

"Yeah, I'll go and check up on him." He drained what was left in his canteen and began heading back into the town.

He found the previous spot, passing by the body of the gray unicorn his men had slain earlier, along with other fallen ponies... and men.

No, this was not a victory. Not really. Though the enemy had paid for what they had won.

He found the alley; Emerald was giving Private John Kaleb, the injured man from earlier, a drink from his medical canteen while getting ready to administer morphine.

"Yo, Prof," Emerald said as he approached. "He's hurt bad, but he'll live, if we can get him to a field hospital."

"Glad to hear it. Thanks, Emerald."

The green pegasus frowned, sticking a needle in Kaleb's arm; the man, clearly exhausted or too out of it already to care, did not protest or resist in anyway. "Never thought it'd come to this..."

"I didn't think they'd have the ability to teleport so far," Jacques said, looking again at the wrecked island and the ruined ships in the bay. "Or cause the kind of damage they did."

"Me neither, but..." the pegasus sighed. "Sunny... she's not doin' so well, man. She wanted to join the Resistance, an' seein' this, I don't blame 'er, but... ever since the war began, I feel like... well, she's been... crackin'. Like a diamond somepony stepped on too hard."

"She's still healthy, though?" Jacques asked, concerned.

"In body, yeah. Down below... well... I don't think we're gonna be holdin' a weddin' anytime soon."

"Sorry I couldn't be there when you got engaged."

"No worries, man. Especially not with... this." Emerald waved his hoof in the same way Jacques had done with Jake a little while ago. "But... she's... I think getting that last letter from her family started it, then all the dyin,' an' with a couple of her friends from school gettin' murdered by... our brothers," he said disgustedly, the term he used for Equestrian forces when he was furious with them. "I've been tryin' to keep her up, but I don't know how long I can keep it up."

Early 2050, Rome

It was gone.

Rome, and her people... were gone.

The Vatican, the Coliseum, the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Roman forum and Pantheon, the Circus Maximus, Saint Peter's Basilica, and so many other historic buildings, and everything else.

Gone.

All that was left of three million people, all that was left of some three thousand years of history... was a sea of blue glass.

Nothing was still standing. Nothing. Not even the slightest hint of a building had survived; not one melted brick or lump of what could have been a building... nothing.

All that stood were a few blue crystals, sticking up out of the glass as if they were some kind of flower.

"And I thought my heart was ripped out after the Statue of Liberty fell," he said softly. Other men nearby grunted in sympathy, or whispered their own sense of loss.

Although the Battle of New York City had been a victory, Shining Armor and some of his unicorns had melted Lady Liberty's legs, causing her to fall over into the water. How great a cry of dismay from those who had seen it! And yet that was nothing compared to this. At least some of New York was still standing, albeit some of it as ruins, and there was a Lady Liberty that could be fixed up eventually. There was even some wood left from the U.S.S. Constitution to rebuild the famous flagship of the US navy... even though it had been burned down to the waterline during an Equestrian attack against Boston.

There was nothing left here but echoes on the wind. Not even corpses or hints of corpses. Nothing.

He fell to his knees. How would Caesar, Pompey, Cicero and so many other Republican Senators have reacted if they had learned that this would be the fate of their city two thousand years in the future from where they had stood? Would Caesar have taken his own life before his assassins could take it for him?

And all the works of all those who had come after them... wiped out in an instant, by one weapon that was worse than an ICBM, which would have left something still standing, even as ruins.

There was no Roman legacy anymore, none but what existed in books... those not destroyed in Equestrian attacks, anyway.

He heard Bright Spirit curse from behind him as he caught glimpse of the city. Several Catholics in his platoon - Maine was a holdout for Catholics - fell to their knees and wept aloud at the sight. One tore his uniform with his bare hands and bellowed to the sky.

Jacques looked up a little. One of the crystal flowers stood just in front of him, as if to mock the civilization that had stood here by growing something new in its place.

A rage overtook him. He pulled out his bayonet and with a shout began to hack away at the thing, continuing to shout as he continued chipping off piece after piece until nothing remained but a flattened stump.

It wasn't enough. Nothing could take back what had happened here. Nothing.

Bayonet in his right hand, he sat there for a moment, not sure what to do. Sorrow swelled until he almost couldn't take it anymore.

Then he took the bayonet and began to carve a message into the glass. He was sure that most wouldn't see it, but so long as anyone, anyone, saw it at all, maybe they could begin to begin to grasp what had been here.

Hic jacet Romae. Here lies Rome.

Others took up their knives and bayonets and began to carve messages of their own into the glass.

Maybe future generations would have something to remember Rome and its history by...

"After that, the Crystal Empire was nuked. We were ferried over to southern China and later to Taiwan by plane to prepare for the invasion; weird that the Chinese were able to build a government where hardcore nationalists, democracy advocates, and communists could be elected and make it work, but they did and do, for now anyway. But after that, from what Emerald told me while he was on leave...

Mid 2050

"Sunny, it's me! I'm home!"

Emerald waited for a response after knocking on the door, but there was no forthcoming answer.

"Girl, it's me. Your boy Emerald. Come on, please let me in!"

Nothing. Not the coming sound of hooves, not snoring; he couldn't hear anything.

"Babe? Sunny, this ain't funny."

He twisted the door handle; to his surprise, it wasn't locked. He walked in.

He could see her head and neck from the back side of a couch, facing the opposite direction towards the TV.

"Sunny?"

He trotted over to her.

Sunflower was a wreck. Her mane was wild and untamed. Her face was covered in dried tears. She was breathing, yes, but she looked otherwise as if she'd been carved out of stone.

"Babe, it's me," he said, jumping onto the couch next to her.

Something dropped out of her hooves; a newspaper. Emerald snatched it up with his left wing.

ROME DESTROYED! MILLIONS DEAD! CITY FLATTENED!

What followed were a series of pictures, showing the glassy sea that had once been one of humanity's most significant cities.

"I... I..."

He dropped the paper as well as Sunflower spoke for the first time. "What?"

"I... I never knew... I always believed... even when... she declared war... that there was some good left in ponykind..."

She collapsed into his forelegs; if she was surprised he was here, she gave no sign of it.

He patted her head and mane softly. "I'm here now, babe. Don't worry."

"I... I..." She sniffed. "I always thought... there was something good left in our people," she said softly. "I always thought, even with the war, that ponies back home would have a limit to following what even she said..."

"I'm sorry too, babe. all those people... and their city... just... gone..."

"That's..." She sniffed again. "That's not the worst of it. I... I listened to the radio after reading it. Tuned into an Equestrian station." Her tears began again. "They... they were happy. They said it was a great victory, that they had destroyed two human religions... nothing for or even about the humans they'd killed... even though they must have known... C-C-C-Celestia said that this was a warning of worse to come i-if the humans don't stop fighting. C-C-Cadence even came on, said that this was what humanity deserved for fighting their... Oh Emerald!" She turned and hugged him hard.

He hugged her back, fighting back tears himself as he did.

"I always thought that some ponies wouldn't take something like this. B-b-but they're cheering it. They cheered on the radio after she announced its destruction... That was the worst... M-m-mom and D-dad... both support this... our people all support it..."

"Come on, babe, you know that's not true; there'd be no Resistance if it were."

She didn't answer. Maybe she just couldn't answer in her despair. Maybe she didn't need to; roughly 9 out of 10 ponies who had been in human lands had left just prior to the war.

But even so, the fact that some ponies, both here and in Equestria, opposed the genocide their home country was performing against this entire world was encouraging. Emerald looked up and through the window. The sun - Earth's sun, not bound whatsoever to the Princesses' will - shone through it.

"Babe... it'll turn out okay. I promise. And when this war's over, I won't leave your side for a moment."

"But..."

"I can't live without you in my life, girl," he said, continuing to embrace her. "And when this war's over, I promise, we'll raise our own foals here, along with the rest of the Resistance that lives in this state. We'll start a brand new world for them and those who follow, you'll see."

Sunflower made no response, but he thought - he hoped - he saw a flicker of hope in her eyes. It lasted only a second, but it was all it took to give him hope too.

"Poor Sunflower," Swift Wing said sadly. "She's going through so much. I'm so glad she has Emerald as her coltfriend; they're perfect for each other, and he's so dedicated to her."

"I agree, they're perfect for each other," Jacques said, "and I think that, in the end, Emerald will get through to her, especially now the war's over and we can start to go home. But, for now... Sunflower's a bit broken, and it'll take time for her to get it back together. She really did believe, through most of her life, that ponies were generally good, and loved her birth culture. To see it do... this, to the world she had begun to love as well as her own... I can't blame her. Poor thing."

There was yet another silence.

"Well, what happens now?" Blaze asked.

"Now... Now..." Jacques shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Now, Celestia goes... somewhere to be treated while we wait for her to wake up. Then its her trial, and... well, given all the evidence the UN has been gathering, and the sheer number of witnesses, human and pony, they can call to the stand, I see no way of a guilty verdict being avoided. And I don't see any way for Celly to escape justice."

"You mean, face the firing squad," Swift said sorrowfully, and Jacques nodded. "I was wondering... couldn't they just turn her into a human, one without magic? Wouldn't that be fitting enough?"

"I guess you'd have to ask the judges if that's legal, but I don't think it'll happen; the people of the world are in too much pain, if I had to guess, for that to be acceptable to anyone. People have also suggested she be turned into a regular horse, also without magic, and be forced to live out the rest of her days on a horse ranch, but that's definitely not going to happen; it's a quiet retirement. Anyway, after the negotiations, the rebuilding starts. Cities get rebuilt, farms and roads repaired, and we try to live in the world that now is."

"Easy for you to say," Rock said. "You didn't live in a perfect world before the war."

"And why was it so perfect, Rock Hard? You act like the Equestria of old was this perfect paradise without any bad things happening, whether they come from tyrants, villains, from debt, or from bullying, and yet I've seen and heard evidence for all those things and more ever since I've stepped foot on this soil. The 101st Airborne saw it when they occupied Cloudsdale; The 82nd saw it when they took Las Pegasus. Anyone who has more in their mind than revenge can see that your society had flaws, just like ours. And when the world refused to bend to how you wanted it, the worst evils any human could commit came out in ponies as well. The whole 'better-than-you' attitude of Equestria towards Earth is sickening, and needs to die in order for peace to truly come." He looked up at the palace, just visible from here over the sky line. "It won't be long in coming."

Again, a silence.

Swift Wing finally replied, "How did your troops manage to land in Cloudsdale anyway? A temporary spell exists for pony hooves, but..."

"Ah, yes, that. A few clever ponies from the Resistance managed to alter a spell that pegasi employ today to keep their material things from falling through the clouds, and applied it to soldiers' boots and uniforms. Although the spell wasn't permanent on any sort of flesh or keratin, it's permanent on physical objects. Hence, humans literally standing and sitting on pony clouds."

A tank rumbled past them. It was an old Abrams M1A1... or rather, it had been an M1A1. It's normal 120mm gun had been replaced by a laser cannon. After the war had begun, a lot of old Cold War and post-Cold War tech had been upgraded; after all, Equestria had had no tank divisions of its own, or at least not until just before the invasion, and those were a century out of date. Russia's ancient fleet of Cold War tanks now all had laser cannons instead of projectile weapons. And that was just the really old stuff; some of the modern plasma tanks could unleash hot beams of pure destruction while being surrounded by strong energy shields and floating a few feet above ground. One of those passed by as well, humming instead of rumbling as the Abrams had.

"Do... Do you think we can do it?" Swift asked. "Make an age of peace between ponies and humans?"

"Only God knows for sure," Jacques said. "But I hold out hope it's possible."

"What about friendship and harmony?" Blaze asked.

"I think you'll get to keep those, or the non-violent versions of them; no sense in fixing things that aren't broken."

"And what are we supposed to do? Accept the same human technologies that ruined our land?" huffed Rock. "I'd rather pull a cart all my days rather than use one your machines."

"Go ahead. That's something no one's going to stop you from doing," Swift said.

Yet again, silence.

Jacques looked over at Pony Joe's shop. "My old students, I think I may know one thing that may help poor Sunflower."

"What's that?" Swift asked, as Jacques knelt down, drew out his backpack, and began to rummage around.

"A good photograph at Pony Joe's. I think sending her a photo of all of us will do her so good, as will the news of the war's end."

"Maybe... maybe when you're a professor again, we could go back to college?" Swift asked.

"Maybe. I don't know if they'll have any openings for me to go back to; they must have filled my vacancy with a new professor. But if I can't teach there, well, then, I'll try and find somewhere else." He found what he was looking for; a camera, one of the old ones that would print the photograph almost immediately. "Anyway, let's give our Sunny a good picture. Maybe we can help Emerald bring her old self back." He pulled out one more thing. "And Rock... if you still doubt what happened to Rome..."

He threw a set of square photographs over to the brown stallion, who picked them up and recoiled for a second at the sight of Rome's non-existence, at the dead, at the sight of a Newfoal mom screaming at her children, and more.

So much more.

The rest of them walked into Pony Joe's.

Two weeks later

Emerald wrapped his right wing around Sunflower. It had been about nine days since the Twilight Sparkle had told the world what her former mentor had done. Even after Rome and Mecca were blasted off the face of the Earth, he would never have believed their Princess would leave every other race on their home planet to die.

He swore under his breath, knowing Sunflower wouldn't pay any attention. He'd been making progress; Sunflower had even begun to make her own meals again, humming softly as she did so.

But since it came out that the witch had allowed their entire entire former home to die... she'd fallen back into the pit he'd just started to pull her out of.

Now he just felt like crying too. He didn't know what to do, not anymore.

He scarcely heard the mail truck pull up to the house. He listened, as if with another's pair of ears, as the mailman put something in Sunflower's mailbox, then left.

I should probably get that, shouldn't I? Don't want her to lose the house 'cos she didn't pay some bills...

He trotted to the door, opened it, and went over to the mailbox.

"Junk mail, junk mail, junk mail... really junk mail," he droned. "Huh, no bi- what's this?"

It was a normal envelope, not much different from what the post would have delivered in Equestria. It wasn't a bill, that was for sure.

"To... Sunflower at yadaydayada... From tha Prof!"' he said, surprised.

He trotted back inside and kicked the door closed. "Babe, got us a letter from the Prof."

Sunflower's head simply jerked, as if nothing mattered anymore.

Sighing, Emerald flew over to the couch, again wrapping his right wing around his girlfriend as he opened the envelope with his teeth and then pulled out the letter and photograph that were in it.

Dear Sunflower (and Emerald, if you're there),

We've won the war. Well, by the time this gets here, you'll know that already. But we did it. No longer do humans have to worry about being turned into mindless machines, nor do ponies have to fear the ESS and all its horrors (and given that my unit helped to liberate a camp where they worked dissident inmates all too hard, I think I know something of those) No more war, at least not for now.

I know you're hurting. Now that the war's over and done with, the terms Equestria will have to abide by will have come. I know it's terrible, upon everything else you've endured to this point. So was the fighting to get there.

Many of my old students... they've died or been turned in this war. Others are hurt. Others, no doubt, are feeling horrified by the nightmare we've just managed to quell. Recovery won't just be physical, but you know that already if nothing else. I personally think a large part of me is going to feel emotionally numb for a long time.

At least you and Emerald are still alive. That's worth something in a life. I also know that you can pull it together. You were strong on that last day when you parted ways with Skyward Blaze, Rock Head, and Swift Wing. I know you can rebuild on the inside, especially with a guy like Emerald at your side. He'll make a fine husband for you in time, if only you can find the strength to go on.

Speaking of old friends, I've left a photograph for you and Emerald. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope to see you again when the 19th's done its shift of occupation.

Sincerely, your old professor of history,

Jacques Dubois, Lieutenant of the 19th Maine National Guard.

Emerald held the letter in his left wing as he picked up the photograph. He blinked upon realizing what was in it.

"Girl, look! Look at this!"

Sunflower turned her head slowly to look.

Professor Dubois, in his combat uniform, stood, his black hair visible with his helmet removed; with his right hand, he held a small wooden cross, while with his left he formed a "V" sign out of his first two fingers. Skyward Blaze was right in front of him, looking nervous, but managing a smile. Swift Wing's face was berserk with sheer joy.

Toward the back, Pony Joe waved a hoof toward the camera; his horn was lit, indicating that he was the one holding up the camera. In front of the counter, though not behind it as Pony Joe was, stood Rock Hard. He wasn't smiling; he wasn't sneering. He didn't look angry. His old hateful arrogance was scarcely visible any more. It looked as if he'd tried to sneak into the photograph and then sneak out again. To be frank, he looked embarrassed and disenchanted. Maybe he'd given up on his old bigotry, maybe not.

But even so, four of the five faces in the photo were smiling. And they had all lived through the war. That was enough.

For the first time since Twilight Sparkle's speech, Sunflower smiled. Seeing that, Emerald smiled too, and hugged her even closer to him.

A bright new day was dawning, and it was time for peace.

Author's Note

*To be fair, this line comes from Ace Combat 04.

** Strategic Air Command.

Sorry for those expecting me to upgrade my old stories; I've been writing this one pretty quickly, as the inspiration hit me.

I... don't know what to feel about this story. I got inspiration for this after reading Rated Ponystar's Negotiationsverse and zelkova48's Choice. Honestly, I worry that I might supporting a series that has a lot of sexual stuff in it (even though that promotion is not my intention), and I don't know how the guys who approve the stories will take some of the religious and political references. But I wanted to introduce some positivity into the series, as well as try to tug away from some of the stuff I didn't necessarily approve of.

I also worry about my intentions for even writing this. Some part of me is hoping to leave some mark on the Negotiationsverse, as I've just said. But I know that people are going to read this. I know some of them will probably like it, even if it is a bit back and forth with all the flashbacks. I know that likely, I'll be gaining pride from writing this, and trying to add to someone else's storyline, even if he's given his permission to other people, like the aforementioned zelkova48.

I tug back and forth over whether or not to release it. For one thing, I've put a lot of passion and work into it, and like I said, I've felt inspired as an author as I haven't felt since I wrote "Defeated." But as much as I don't like the sexual stuff in some of the Negotiations Stories (namely Future and Warfare), I worry that people will read those if I post this. I've planned to write a story where a suicidal pegasus from this universe literally meets God, a story called "Purpose," but again, I don't know whether to even start writing, given I don't know if I'd be drawing people to things I believe are bad, or drawing them away from those things to that I believe is good without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.