Aashtethos, Saddle Arabia | November 3, 1502 | 00:12

"Starlight, are you okay? Starlight! Answer me!"

"The sun poured out it's wrath on Aashtethos, like nothing I've ever seen..."

"I don't care what the sun did, we need to get help!"

"We only have one faction on our side now. How do you think that will play out?"

The World | November 2, 1502 | 00:00

Once the preparation was finished, it didn't take long for the eager, war-mongering dictators to engage in a massive conflict across the entirety of Equus. In Vesalipolis, Queen Chrysalis gave a great speech to the armies of the Undersky Dominion preparing to unleash a great weapon in addition to beginning the invasion of the Solar Empire.

"Today we march! Onwards to the frail equines to take what is ours at any cost! To harvest their love and their fear!"

In the North Polar Lair, Great President Arthur delivered a speech to the warriors of the lair, preparing for an Empire-Supported naval invasion of Hailberg.

"At land or at sea, the might of the bear is everlasting! Ready your weapons, ready your strength, we take Hailberg today!"

In the quickly-organized and well-constructed capital in Graymourne, Nightmare Moon also spoke to the many Thestrals escorted safely from the Empire's lands into the new Order of the Night's Land.

"For one final time shall we embark upon a conjunctive effort with the Sun to destroy the Changeling Hive, to tear down all that has plagued both Equine and Thestral for thousands of years! We will destroy the oppressors with the fury of the Sun, and the wrath of the Moon!"

In the Empire, Daybreaker gave a simple speech to put the world into a state of fear unlike any other.

"All nations of Equus, know that the Empire's words are backed with nuclear weapons. The might of the sun, and the power of the atom bend to our will."

Many believed that it was the war to end all wars, perhaps even to end all species. So much power, so much might, such magnificent weapons—yet fueled by so much hatred, so much malice, and such reprehensible morality. Of the many views from across the world, the varying opinions and beliefs, there was one thing that was certain across every single nation.

Not one living thing was safe anymore.

Canterlot, Solar Empire | November 2, 1502 | 06:12

Daybreaker sat in an almost empty war room alongside Sunrise and Flash Sentry, who was promoted that morning to the position of Field Marshal as a replacement for the late Shining Armor. Sitting across the rather large table was Nightmare Moon, along with her protégé, a Thestral by the name of Starry Night. Betwixt them, Great President Arthur who sat calmly in the chair that was just a tad too small for him. Upon the table was a map, fueled with solar magic, of course, which displayed an array of military positions, advantages, and strategic options in a rather colorful array of magic-imbued lights and shapes. Daybreaker glared down at it with a straight face, which occasionally would form into a grimacing smile before fading back to an almost disappointed expression. It was difficult for anyone to read, but the Nightmare knew her sister all too well.

"One might say you emote as one out of options," Nightmare Moon said, earning the immediate attention of her sister, "but I know what's really going on through that fire-laden head of yours is that the only dilemma you face is choosing one option over another."

"It is as you say," Daybreaker replied with a chuckle, "so many ways to crush the enemy, I wish to do them all."

"While it is entertaining, let us remember to keep our focus on what works the best," Nightmare said. Daybreaker scoffed.

"A show of power is in order regardless," she retorted. Nightmare gave an assuring nod.

"Indeed it is. I suggest we draw out the majority of the Changeling forces into the woods and deploy our great flyswatter against them," the Nightmare proposed. Daybreaker nodded before Sunrise chimed in.

"The Crystal Empire forces will be arriving to Casaflanka shortly, the South Luna Ocean," she paused to look at the Nightmare for a moment, before continuing, "is under strict Empire Naval Authority. The North, however, is undetermined."

"The bears will charge into Hailberg via the naval graces of her majesty, the Empress," Arthur added, "we expect heavy resistance at the new hive."

"The nuclear weapons will draw away that resistance largely, allowing you an opportunity to push deep into their territory," Flash Sentry pointed out, "if the bears are willing and able to hold out—"

"Which they are," Arthur said with a grin.

". . .then all will be well and we should see victory by the next dawn," Flash finished.

They had a great plan, but something was missing. A bit of silent thought crowded the table as they pondered deeply to themselves what might be missing, before Starry spoke up.

"And what of the communists?"

"They are our trading partners," Daybreaker said dismissively, "hurting them will hurt everyone."

"Perhaps, but consider this," Starry took some papers from her saddlebag and placed them upon the table, obscuring the magic display a bit. The Empress quirked a brow before lighting her horn to levitate the papers and read them. Pictures of the Mane Six, along with Sunset Shimmer and Starlight Glimmer.

Daybreaker gritted her teeth to the point they audibly snapped as a bit of blood trickled from her mouth. The fire in her eyes was fearsome, though the ones in the room were of the mindset not to fear her absolutely. Her mane flared up for a minute as she put down the papers, taking a deep breath and using magic to heal her broken teeth.

"I shall deal with the communists personally," she said, "the rest of you may take your positions as planned and push forward with the war effort."

No one else knew quite what she meant, but nodded anyway, leaving to prepare.

Hailberg Beach, North Luna Ocean | November 2, 1502 | 15:30

The seas were quiet, all except for the sounds of Changeling naval preparation. Bits of chittering here and there from the thousands of Changeling troops working hard to prepare for a naval invasion of the North Polar Lair. Thorax was watching from afar as they worked, almost pitying them. Chrysalis was at the original hive today preparing for another invasion, so she left him in charge of the North Polar lair as the Changelings saw it to be a "lesser threat" than the Solar Menace.

As the little bugs prepared, Thorax noticed a small pole rising above the waters in the vast distance. He squinted, trying to figure out what the strange object could be before he saw a few more appear alongside it. Many more, in fact. And then crossbeams, before a Solar Empire flag came into view. Before he could think, he saw the massive warships fully revealed across the horizon heading towards Hailberg at full speed. His green heart thumped heavily in his throat as he frantically lit his horn with glowing green eyes and shouted.

"INVASION!"

Green lights traveled across to all of the mindcarriers, and then to the rest of the changelings around them like circuitry as they all gave a unified screech and prepared for battle. Like ants, they skittered around and across one another without so much as a single stop until they were in formation. They all began to light their horns, but before a shot could be fired from them a fiery explosion tore through one of the ships and landed on shore. The changelings near it were either incinerated or eviscerated, but none of them remained anything close to alive. Within mere seconds, fire from both sides was raging like a treacherous storm as even the light of the sun was clouded by the smoke of seared ground and flesh. The steam of evaporated snow rising into the air and humidifying the entire region gave a greater darkness to the battlefield, just on the brink of a twilight as it appeared.

Thorax believed that the changelings would have had time to regroup and fight back with the bears having to position their ships to step onto land, but what happened next was completely out of his expectation. The bears, rather than anchoring their ships at the docks, simply rammed them into the land and began to jump off and land onto the ground with tumultuous thuds as debris flew everywhere. Many bears were taking direct hits from the hive magic, but were somehow withstanding it. After many, of course, one would fall—that was not, however, before they would take seven changelings with them.

Thorax didn't know what to do, the changelings relied on their numbers to fight rather than their weapons or strength, but he was watching his brethren being ripped apart by the hundreds if not by the thousands, and more so after the rest of the Polar Bears jumped onto land. They fired weapons from their boats, but they didn't bring any with them. Once they met land, they grabbed the little bugs by their eyes and tore the heads from their bodies with ease, laughing heartily as they clothed themselves in the steaming green blood. Thorax could hardly take it, he was never with the changelings when they committed their atrocities for this very reason. It made him sick.

"Think, Thorax, godsdamnit, think!" he shouted to himself as he buried his head under his forelegs on the ground to try and mask the sound of screeching changelings and roaring bears. This was far too much for him, far too much for anything with a heart. He was powerless, and he knew Chrysalis would have had him killed for it. His only choice was to run.

Outskirts, Wandering Woods | November 2, 1502 | 16:12

Chrysalis led her army from the comfort of her hive, having the mindcarriers carry out the tasks as expendables while the drakes and lyndwryms accompanied them. They were planning to storm Sire's Hollow and push forward into Vanhoover to assist what was supposed to be a land and naval invasion, however Chrysalis quickly received information of the Polar Bear's invasion of the Hailberg beach and felt a great, fuming anger. Rather than pull back her troops, she sent them forward faster to bring such havoc upon the equestrians that they would have no choice but to call for reinforcements. After all, she was already being pummeled with artillery fire from the direction of the Umberfoal entrance in the Jackalope Slopes, and she refused to look like she was retreating.

"Chrysalis, this artillery is heavy but disorganized," Duke Hel'rath said, as while being royalty, he still preferred to operate in the field of combat directly to suit his draconic pride. He was equipped with a hive-magic communicator of sorts which allowed them to speak through a mindcarrier changeling similarly to a changeling soldier, "it's strange, almost too avoidable. I suggest we regroup and—"

"No, I will NOT retreat," Chrysalis retorted with a volatile tone, "you will push through, find that artillery and crush it!"

"With all due respect," Hel'rath said in opposition, "we have enough problems trying to get your forces through. I said they were avoidable, not being avoided, your masses are too heavily clumped-together and they're being taken out by the hundreds!"

"I don't give a good gods-damn about your problems," Chrysalis barked back, "find that artillery, NOW!"

"Of course," Hel'rath said, before closing the communicator and swearing under his breath. With a bit more pushing, they eventually reached the slopes where he spread his wings and flew quickly into the sky to avoid more fire and get an eye on the equines manning the artillery.

Chrysalis meanwhile watched from afar, seeing the artillery pummel the forest. Already her rage was seething as the Wandering Woods had been a valued piece of changeling territory for as long as she was queen, and to see the equines knocking down trees here and there was irritating to say the least. Soon, however, she heard Hel'rath through the communicator again.

"Chrysalis, this artillery is self-operated, there are no active agents on the field," he said, "no wonder it's so sporadic, they've been firing blind. I suggest a full push into—"

Before Chrysalis had even the chance to think of the next course of action, a sudden flash of light shone through the opening of the hive from where she was operating and nearly blinded her, before it was followed with a shockwave blast that knocked her off of her hooves entirely. The sound that came after was deafening, and she looked on in horror at a tower of fire like a mushroom which had just devastated the forest and nearly half of her army. She stood in silence, gazing at the once beautiful forest that clothed the outside of her perfect hive which was now tainted with a miles-wide wasteland showing not a single sign of life.

Chrysalis was in shock. She had never personally viewed the forest as some sacred ground or whatnot herself, but to see the pit in the center of it now—the fires across the edges of miles of flatted tree and shrub—it drove her to tears. The first tears she had cried since. . .since a long time ago that she'd rather not think of. In fact, the very audacity of the equines to cause her to think of such things in the past drove her sadness away, replacing it with a fearsome rage as she stood on her hooves.

She focused her eyes to see an equine army in the distance marching over the mountains and firing upon the remaining changeling and draconic soldiers in the region. While the drakes and lyndwyrms were capable of withstanding the solar flame, they were no match for Sunrise Sparkle's chemospells which melted even the resistant scales of the draconic soldiers in the most excruciating manner. In the face of imminent defeat, Chrysalis felt only more rage. With a scream, she gave an order to the mindcarriers within the hive.

"I have had ENOUGH! Release the Maelstroplex!"

A terrifying sound erupted from above the equine soldiers as a beam of pure hive magic flew from the very top of the hive and to a point above the army, concentrating itself at a massively faster-than-light speed into a singularity which plummeted into the ground. Within moments, a tear in space formed as a hole black enough to swallow light took it's place and began to draw in everything that was around it. Equines were shredded to pieces before they could have so much a chance to observe what was happening, and before a retreat order could be given, the core of the army was decimated by the rift which soon collapsed within itself as the beam of hive magic faded.

An army of six million changelings reduced to one million by a single weapon, and an army of one million equines reduced to 200,000 by a single spell. The destruction caused was beyond comprehension, yet the war raged on between the remaining, which evened out despite the disparity in numbers. Everyone on the battlefield died that day as both Chrysalis and Sunrise watched in horror at the actions they had both committed against one another, and for a moment nearly reconsidered everything. Yet, their hatred for one another was too strong, and they vowed to themselves to continue pushing against the other until one remained utterly destroyed, even if it cost them the world. The hatred they held was hardly rational anymore, as it seemed the delight of bloodshed had driven every world leader insane. There was no concept of mutually-assured destruction, only destruction, and while their weapons were limited in usability or availability, they were determined to employ them again as soon as possible. It was a race against time, a race against one another to end as many lives as possible. A race that couldn't be won by even the victor for what it would cost in return.

Aashtethos, Saddle Arabia | November 2, 1502 | 23:01

"Starlight!" Nova shouted, earning the attention of her friend rather quickly with the fear and urgency in her voice alone. Starlight turned to her with a compassionate expression.

"What is it?" she asked softly, before Nova threw a dossier onto Starlight's makeshift desk, given they had relocated from the Bone Dry Desert after the events of the Nightmare's appearance. Starlight took a look at the papers, and the information entailed upon them was horrific.

"They're deploying incomprehensible weapons," Nova said, "if something like that happens to us. . ."

". . .we'll be finished. . ." Starlight finished slowly, "almost six million casualties in the span of sixty seconds, by the gods. . ."

Starlight turned to the door, feeling a sudden striking of fear as she didn't know where Sunset had gone. The mane six still followed the communists to Saddle Arabia—given they were just as much dead in the Empire as Starlight and her cronies were—but due to the bit of a falling out, they were not immediately nearby. Starlight quickly rose up, trotting out of the room as Nova followed closely behind. Outside, gryphons and equines alike had gathered to look into the sky. Starlight followed their fear-laden eyes to feel herself a pit within the stomach that could not be matched by any sense of doom nor death since her insurrection.

Flying above the Saddle Arabian city was none other than Empress Daybreaker herself, and the militant gryphons were too afraid to fire upon her with their little weapons. Could bullets pierce the sun? Could missiles destroy the Solar Flame? Could artillery shred a goddess? No. What they were looking at was not their enemy, but their death sentence. A genocide waiting to happen. Daybreaker gave a condescending glare to them, scoffing as she flew upwards into the sky with a sonic boom following after her. That was when a sound like blaring horns erupted from the sun itself, and the atmosphere became brighter.

Nova turned to Starlight with fear, before grabbing her suddenly and flying into an underground bunker. It was instinct, but in the process of doing so Starlight was injured by the sheer force at which they crashed through the wooden doors of the bunker. It was supposed to be dark, but the light was inescapable as Nova frantically tried to open the door. As she opened it, an air-shattering thunder crackled throughout the sky as the ground shook violently. The bright light became blinding, followed only by millions of screams as the temperature began to climb to the thousands of degrees. Nova barely made it inside of the bunker, but as she pulled Starlight in, half of her coat had been singed and her skin suffering grotesque burns from the minor exposure to the light outside.

Nova panted, panicking as she had no idea what to do with the unconscious Starlight. She turned to see that the mane six had already been escorted to the bunker by Gilda, who knew to take them there as soon as she saw Daybreaker in the sky. Sunset ran up to Starlight, being overtaken with tears as she noticed

"Starlight, are you okay? Starlight! Answer me!" she shouted, holding Starlight close as she tried to heal her wounds, but it was hardly any use. The tainting of the solar flame was too much for healing magic to repair.

"The sun poured out it's wrath on Aashtethos, like nothing I've ever seen..." Nova said quietly, unable to process what was happening.

"I don't care what the sun did, we need to get help!" Sunset shouted back.

"We only have one faction on our side now. How do you think that will play out?" Gilda pointed out, and all fell silent with the exception of Sunset's weeping. It would take several hours for the surface to cool down, and fortunately the bunker was build with a thermostat to read the outside temperature as it was constructed for sheltering from several things including scorching weather events. Nova turned to look at it's reading, and felt sick just to behold the number.

12,204°F / 6762.2°C

Author's Note

I have been very busy, sorry for the wait!