Union of Hope: Shrouded Great War

Chapters

Chapter 1 - A Surprise Invasion
Chapter 2 - Global Crisis
Chapter 3 - An Unnerving Nightmare
Chapter 4 - The Secret
Chapter 5 - Flashback
Chapter 6 - Awakening

Chapter 1 - A Surprise Invasion

August 3, 2028
08:12:35 - 4 hours before N. Shroud’s invasion
New York City, United States

In a rush hour during the morning, with a scenery of huge crowds and heavy traffic, this was quite common in the United States, the world’s biggest country. This financial metropolis, like the other big cities in other countries, had suffered from the pandemic which had been eradicated five years ago. Both the government and citizens were working hard to restore their economy.

Nonetheless, despite the busy scenery, some areas were fairly relaxing. In a residential area of Manhattan, a man named Mason with a suitcase walked towards the taxi parking area. Just right on time, a taxi shows up.

“Taxi!” He shouted, raising his hand, the taxi slowed down and stopped right in front of him.

“Morning, mister. Where would you like to go?” The taxi driver politely greeted the man.

“Please take me to John F. Kennedy International Airport.”

“Understood. By the way, would you like to watch the news or listen to some music?”

“Frankly speaking, I missed the morning news due to a busy packaging. So could you turn on the news channel?”

The driver nodded, turned on the touchscreen, and selected CNN News. The screen showed the opening scene with its theme music. Next, a female anchor appeared and made an introduction.

“Good day, dear audiences. I’m Angela. Around 7 P.M. last evening in San Fransico, residents witnessed various unknown spots in the sky. According to their words, they scattered and wandered around with red and green sparkle. Afterward, they finally disappeared 20 minutes later one by one. There are some similar cases outside of the US including the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Brazil, etc. Moreover, in the four-month time frame, the global cumulative cases are 273. The Pentagon and NATO have stayed cautious about these continuous unusual events while they stated that there were no military drills. Where did those sparks come from? Are those just some ordinary independent events? Or they are the omen of a new challenge that humanity will encounter?”

“The omen of new challenge encountering? What nonsense. All they want is to repeat the contents to get audiences’ attention,” the driver ranted, he had already been used to this repeating news and became numb with it.

“Ye…yeah…” Mason replied, leaning back in the backseat, and quietly listening to the driver complaining. At that moment, the man’s expression became tense and serious, thinking that these recent repeating news were not simple as people agreed. Usually, this kind of news would stop broadcasting after a week or two. Yet, this news had been broadcast for several months. Was humanity going to face the unknown challenge as the anchor said? Mason shook his head to stop behaving overreacted and looked outside from a window until arriving at the destination.

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08:41:29
John F. Kennedy International Airport Terminal 7

After a few minutes of the ride, the taxi parks in front of the airport entrance. Since it is the world’s busiest airport, a swarm of crowds and travelers from different countries are coming in and out. As the driver parks by the entrance, he faces the man.

“Here we are! That will be 21 dollars, sir.”

“OK,” Mason nods, then pays the driver 25 dollars. “Keep the change. Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem, hope we will meet again!” The driver replied with a smile. As Mason carries his suitcase and gives the driver a wave, the driver waves back and begins to attract the next customer. As Mason enters the terminal, where lots of travelers are lining up for checking, he walks towards the screens to check his flight and its waiting lounge number.

“British Air TF7794…Gate E38…take off at 13:28…,” Mason mumbled. “Still have a fair amount of time.”

After double-checking, Mason heads to the line and waits for his turn. A couple of minutes later, he puts his suitcase on the conveyor belt beside the front desk.

“Good morning, sir. Please present your ticket and passport,” said the staff. Mason followed the staff’s request, then she placed it into a scanner, and then the screen showed Mason’s passport info.

“Brooklyn Mason,” the staff called Mason while she was looking at the screen. “This is your only luggage, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Mason replied.

“Does it have any combustible or flammable items?”

“No,” Mason replied to the staff honestly. The staff then returned Mason his passport and ticket after she finished asking.

“OK. Your boarding gateway is E38, and your seat is at C53 in economy class. Have a nice trip.”

The staff then put a tag on Mason’s suitcase and send it to the conveyor belt. As Mason saw his suitcase was safely delivered, he headed to the security checkpoint to do the security check. After passing the check, he looked at his phone and checked the time that showed 9:03 A.M.

“Still have plenty of time, maybe I can have some meal and look some ware in store,” Mason immediately headed to the nearby store. Three hours later, an announcement chimed in.

“Passengers booked on British Air, Flight TF7794 for London, please proceed to gate E38. Please have your boarding pass and passport ready. Thank you.”

“It’s time?” Said Mason, then he rushed to the boarding gate.

In the line, passengers were holding their boarding pass for scanning. When Mason was quietly waiting for his turn, he heard someone cry out, which sounded like a boy.

“What’s that?!” The boy pointed to a glass window. Mason, people in the line, even others on the pathway stopped and looked outside, there were some UFO looked flying objects hovering outside of the window that looked extremely similar to the minions from a cartoon movie.

“What are those things? Are there any events around here?”

The crowds whispered to each other with their phones snapping the unusual scene. Just then, the mysterious flying objects revealed their weapons and attacked the airplane nearby. A shockwave from the explosion blast the glass window and blew the crowds down, then several laser beams bombarded the airport. The crowds scattered in fear, trying to find somewhere to hide, some of them were unfortunately hit during the escape. As Mason got up, he immediately ran through the panicky crowds to find the exit.

“What’s going on?” Mason said. He couldn’t believe what he just witnessed.

Suddenly, the screens started behaving distorted and tuned into black, then they back to normal later, but what they showed was neither boarding schedule nor news, they showed a cloaked mysterious person with a crimson background instead. He spoke to the panicking crowds with an evil grin.

“People of Earth. Your day of judgment has come. It’s time to make you pay for the humiliation and oppression you had caused me several centuries ago. Once my vengeance is done, I will plunge your world into darkness, and you all will bow to my fear and despair!! HAHAHAHA!!!” The screens turned normal afterward.

“Who was that person? What was he talking about?” Mason tried to figure out what was happening. “Is this a challenge that we are gonna face?”

Mason remembered what the news said on a taxi, he couldn’t believe that it was happening right in front of his sight. Yet, he had no time to think as he noticed lots of flying saucers flew into the building and assaulted the crowds. One of them was aiming at him. Mason immediately lifted a suitcase and threw it at the flying saucer that was about to fire. The luggage hit it so hard that caused it was disoriented and hit the ground. One down, but Mason didn’t let his guard down, he picked up a pistol from a downed security guard.

“I must get the hell out of here!” Mason said.

Ran through the crowds, Mason found the nearest emergency exit that was intact. He hustled the door, saw the aprons and runways were on fire, damaged passenger planes and vehicles, even the buildings nearby were in a bad shape. What’s worse, there was another swarm of flying saucers flying toward the city, seemed they were intended to make the whole New York City burn.

As Mason was struggling for what should he do, several SWAT vehicles came to the apron, then the arm forces got off and started suppressing the aggression. the flying saucer, however, kept swarming toward the SWAT forces even they had downed some of them. Luckily, the helicopters arrived in time to support the forces. With the defense covered both ground and air, the attack paused as the flying saucers scattered around. The team lowered their guard, but little did they know, a severely damaged flying saucer was aiming at one of the SWAT members to commence a sneak attack.

“Look out!!” Mason raised his pistol and shot at the flying saucer, but the bullets could hardly cause one single scratch, like hitting a rock with eggs. Then, it changed target to Mason, but before it fired, Mason made a dash, snatched an assault rifle from one of the SWAT members, and then made a slide to dodge the laser beams. He smashed its glass shield with a rifle stock and then fired several times to make it destroyed.

“Phew…” Mason huffed as he stopped firing. A SWAT walked to him.

“Thanks for saving us, but this area has been set a red alert, please leave it……”

“Aim at flying saucer’s glass shield, that’s their weakness!! And I need your weapons, I have some combat experience!” Mason interrupted loudly. By hearing his firm tone, the SWAT member hesitated.

Suddenly, several portals appeared and an army of robots in various sizes and colors entered the battlefield.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me. Are we facing the terrorists that resemble the minions from ‘Despicable Me’?” Another member ranted while he was aiming at the robots with his assault rifle.

In a split second, a volley of energy weapons came, pinning Mason and SWAT teams down behind the cover. One of the vehicles was hit by a laser cannon and exploded.

“Hold your ground!!!” The captain shouted, then he turned to Mason. “Okay fine, if you are experienced in combat as you said, you’re granted to fight with us until the reinforcement arrives.”

“Solid copy.” Mason nodded.

“Good. The weapons are in that vehicle, feel free to take one.”

“Thank you!”

“Good luck!” Captain patted Mason’s shoulder, saluted at him, and Mason saluted back. Next, he crowed behind the cover and got in one of the vehicles. Mason searched around, he took an M82 Barrett sniper rifle and some 50 cal. magazines.

“Jackpot! A weapon I’m good at.” Mason walked out and said. “Cover me, I’m heading to the second floor of the terminal building.”

Mason sprinted into the terminal building. As he reached the second floor, he noticed that there had been hundreds of robots, maybe thousands. Yet, he knew that there was no time to waste on the battlefield despite the breathtaking view. Mason regained his focus and set the sniper rifle, aiming at the robot army. He took a deep breath and made a shot. The bullet penetrated two robots, Mason kept firing at others.

Making lots of kills on the robot army, but they still had the advantage on numbers, and they were about to overrun the frontline of the SWAT team.

“They are too many, we need to retreat or we will be overrun!” A member said. Mason wanted to argue, but by seeing this situation, he had no choice.

“Very well, we are…”

The conversation was cut off when Mason noticed that the robots stopped firing. He and the SWAT team were confused, thinking that they stopped attacking. But then, some huge tank-like heavy robots came out from the portals. Their gun barrels were aiming at the terminal building, and some energy spheres appeared and they were charging.

“Take cover!!!” Mason yelled immediately. At this time, the heavy robots’ laser cannons finished charging and fired. Several large laser beams penetrated through the terminal building causing it to lose support and begin to collapse.

“Brace yourself!!!” Mason covered himself. The terminal building collapsed into a pile of rubble. The robots moved toward the city. Mason looked at the marching robots and damaged skyscrapers when he still had consciousness.

“Curse…those…robots…” He thought, looking at the sky, where some F-35 fighters were flying toward the city. A moment later, Mason blacked out.

Meanwhile, at the peak of the damaged One World Trade Center, a mysterious man in a black cloak overlooked the devastated New York City and the fighters in the sky, he made a mockingly evil grin.

“Let’s see how you can deal with my robot armies of darkness.” He then turned into a black mist and disappeared into the air.

Chapter 2 - Global Crisis

Wall Street, New York City, United States

Shortly after the destruction of JFK International Airport, the robot army spread across the city. Wall Street, the busiest street, had turned into a vile hunting field. In the middle of the street, a reporter was live-streaming the news while people were running in horror.

“This is Jason from FOX News, we are currently on Wall Street. As you can see, a swarm of flying saucers and robots are attacking the street. Many people are running from this hellish place…”

“We can’t stay much longer, we need to get the hell out of here!!” The cameraman said.

"OK, let’s…”

On cue, one laser cannon hit between them, both reporter's and camera man’s lives were uncertain. The camera hit hard on the ground, and it still recorded the panicking crowds and flying saucers passing by.

=============================================================================

San Francisco, United States

“Unknown forces invaded the east coast, New York was severely damaged, and casualties were still rising. According to the source, they are approaching Washington D.C…….”

A big screen in the city center of San Francisco was broadcasting the news about the invasion of New York. It was showing the footage of New York being attacked by the robot armies. The crowds were horrified by looking at that scene, worrying that the invasion would spread to here or not. Soon, the nightmare came true as several portals appeared on the road. The city was under heavy fire in a second.

=============================================================================

London, United Kingdom

A man was driving back home from work, he turned on the radio to pass the time.

“Breaking news, at 11 A.M. in EST, the United States was under attack by a mysterious force. The cities, including New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver,......”

“Bloody hell?! America is under attack?!” Said the man, shocked by the news he heard. Then the broadcast made a pause and then carried on.

“We just received the update. Mysterious forces are invading the United Kingdom and other European countries. Our military has taken action on suppressing the invaders. All citizens, please follow the military’s instructions for evacuation. I repeat……”

By hearing that the home nation was invaded, the man turned off the radio immediately.

“I must get home quickly to pick up my family!” He said, then he punched the gas.

=============================================================================

Washington D.C., United States
Conference Room, White House Underground Shelter

Ever since the robot armies attacked New York City, the president immediately ordered the Pentagon to dispatch the military to support there and other cities. Also, he had set the readiness condition to DEFCON 1, which was the first time in human history.

As the invasion had spread to the capital, Washington D.C., the bodyguards escorted the president, vice president, and all cabinets to an underground shelter. Right now, the president was video contacting leaders from other nations. Each of them reported their countries’ current situations.

“The unknown forces had invaded London. The royal family has been evacuated and the military is suppressing the attack, but we don’t know how long could it last judging by the civilians’ safety is at stake.” The British Prime Minister reported. He tried to keep his anxiety down.

“The coast of Northern France is under attack, I’m afraid that they will enter Paris within a couple of hours.” The French President said.

The President frowned while listening to each leader’s status report. He looked at the multi-screen that showed some footage of combat between the military and robots. He leans on his gripped hands, thinking how to make a response.

“Mr. President, the leaders suggest holding an emergency conference at NATO headquarters. What’s your decision?” The vice president started and asked.

“Has the HQ been attacked yet?”

“For the time being, no. Belgium hasn’t been invaded yet. As for the HQ, France, U.K., and Germany have sent their troops to defend it.”

"Good. While suppressing the invaders, investigating who’s behind this atrocious mayhem and what’s his or her motives to invade the world are also our priorities.”

The cabinets all agreed without hesitation. They hoped that they could find out who and what they were dealing with sooner so that all members in NATO could have a definite strategy to deal with the invaders. Nonetheless, including the president and vice president, they all were aware that even with all NATO nations’ military strength, fighting against them was hardly possible. As they were struggling, a secretary walked to the president.

“Mr. President, a new message appears. It’s from Russia, and it’s about the robot armies.”

If a superpower like Russia itself contacted proactively, then that meant it was far more serious than it seemed, the president thought.

"Mr. President?”

“Put him through.” The president told the secretary as he returned to normalcy. The center of the screen showed the Russian president.

“I’ve heard the news, US and Europe are invaded. Our satellites have captured some images that show the robots are approaching our frontier.”

“Just like we’ve assumed, those robots are planning to invade the Earth. We are trying to figure out who is leading them.”

"Our armor troops are at the border to prepare for the defense. But I’m afraid that even with other nations’ aid, they wouldn’t hold much longer regarding the robots’ invasion progressing speed.”

“Looks like we are on the same page. To kick those robots out from Earth, we should work together. We are going to gather all leaders in the world for the conference at NATO headquarters. That is, including the non-NATO nations. What say you?”

The Russian president went silent for a moment.

“Very well, but before that, I must advise you that you must prepare more escorts. We don’t know those unknown forces are capable of.”

“Understood. See you at the conference.”

After the Russian president disconnected the communication, the president faced the secretary.

“Christine, the emergency conference will be held at NATO HQ in Brussel, Belgium. I need you to contact the Pentagon to dispatch the special forces for escort operation immediately!”

“Right on, Mr. President.” The secretary left the conference room with a quick pace.

“If there’s nothing to report, you can dismiss.” Said the president.

The cabinets left the room one by one. The president was still in his seat, he looked at the world map that some countries were glowing in red. He leaned back and sighed.

“The war is imminent. The fate of the world peace depends on this joint operation…”

Chapter 3 - An Unnerving Nightmare

“Take cover!!!”

As a royal guard cried, massive explosions pounding in front of the guards’ troops. A variety of ammunitions, from arrows, magic beams, magic balls, to bullets, laser beams, and shells, were flying across the battlefield. The surrounding environment was in terrible shape. The castle was severely damaged, lots of houses and buildings were in flame, ponies were hiding or fleeing in despair, and the royal guards started to be overrun. Meanwhile, Queen Celestia, Princess Luna, Queen Cadence, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and their families and friends were waiting for their fate in the throne room.

King Sombra, Shining Armor, Flash Sentry, Courageous Heart, and the remaining royal guards were holding their position at the gate with weapons on their hooves. They were about to face the approaching enemies. Suddenly, the gate exploded and blasted all ponies away. The four stallions were heavily wounded and lost consciousness due to the strong blast. By looking at her brother and two husbands, Twilight Sparkle and her daughters, Violet Harmony and Evening Twinkle, rushed towards them with tears in their eyes. While they were sobbing, Queen Celestia looked at the King who was laying on the ground in disbelief, then looked at the gate in fear. A tall man-shaped shadow emerges from the smoke, which has a huge scythe in his hand. As he approaches, Queen Celestia distinctly could see the outline of his face, with a crimson spark sparked on one side.

“I’m back, Celestia.” A gloomy and vicious voice made Queen Celestia shiver, not because of the voice but familiarity. She couldn't believe that he returned. This couldn't be real, she kept persuading herself, but no avail, only saw he raised the scythe and swiftly slashed towards her.

“Celestia!!!”

===========================================================================

April 10, 1043 CE, 03:12:22
Queen Celestia’s Chamber, Canterlot, Equestria

Fortunately, it was just a dream. In Celestia’s chamber, King Sombra woke her up as he noticed something off on her.

“Ah……!!” Queen Celestia awoke with a gasp, she was sweating bullets and looking around while huffing.

She started to calm herself down as she realized that it was just a dream. Still, the dream was beyond realistic, she couldn’t stop trembling.

“Are you okay?” King Sombra comforted Celestia. Then Princess Luna rushed into the chamber.

“Sis, are you alright? I sensed a strong nightmare from you, but you woke up before I tried to help. What did you dream about?”

“I…I'm fine, Luna, it’s just…the nightmare was the strongest one I’ve ever dreamt…” Celestia lowered her head.

She hesitated whether she should tell about it or not, but looking at Luna and Sombra’s worrying faces, she decided to tell them.

“Luna, did you remember the human I told you several years ago?” Celestia looked at Luna.

“Do you mean the one who was banished by you 500 years ago?”

“Yes…I saw my family was killed by him right in front of my sight. As much as I don’t want to believe it, but his look, it couldn’t be more true.”

“I’m quite failed to follow, Tia and Luna. I know there’s one human named Megan Williams, but I thought she is the only human in Equestria. Was there any human come to Equestria in the past?” King Sombra chimed in, having no idea who the royal sisters were talking about.

It was true that the mysterious man who appeared in Celestia’s dream, Celestia didn’t mention to any royal members - even her lovely children and husband - except Luna. She thought that it would cause some disturbance. Now, however, she had no choice but to spill the beans.

“Luna, Sombra, tell the children to the meeting room next morning. It’s time to let them know.”

“What about Twilight Sparkle and her friends?”

“Leave them for now,” Celestia replied. “It’s not the time. Now go.”

“Yes, sis.” Said Luna, then she left the chamber.

Celestia went silent, every time she thought back to the scene in the nightmare, she couldn’t help but quiver. If the nightmare came true, herself, her family, all subjects in Equestria, even their allied nations would be in danger. As for King Sombra, he rubbed Celestia’s mane to comfort her, despite that he didn’t know what Celestia had gone through.

“Tia, don’t let the nightmare affect your emotions. I, Luna, and other families will be with you no matter what you’ve gone through.”

“Thank you, Sombra.” Celestia smiled and kissed Sombra’s forehead.

“Let’s go back to sleep, we need to wake up tomorrow for the meeting.”

Sombra lay down and slept, so did Celestia, but she only looked at the dim candlelight and mumbled, “N. Shroud……”

Chapter 4 - The Secret

April 10, 1043 CE, 04:01:41
Violet Harmony’s room, Castle of Friendship, Ponyville

While Princess Twilight Sparkle and her two husbands, King Flash Sentry and King Courageous Heart, were in deep sleep, Twilight and Courageous’s daughter, Violet Harmony, was studying in her room. She was staying up late for sure. Yet, who could do something to her? After all, her biblioholic characteristic was inherited from Twilight. So did social, she wasn’t willing to make friends in the beginning, but when she attended the School of Friendship, she became socialized and made some friends. Additionally, ever since Violet Harmony befriended a human named Megan Williams, she had a strong curiosity about the human world. One that made her astonished was that Megan’s human world doesn’t have any magic - not even the slightest - vastly different from the mirror world that Twilight had visited.

Despite wanting to know more about humans, Megan’s knowledge was limited, therefore Violet still have some gaps in information about them. For this reason, Violet borrowed lots of books and scrolls about humans from Canterlot Library. Since humans were regarded as mythical creatures in Equestria in ancient times, their records were too rare that needed to be stored in Canterlot Library.

What Violet was reading was about humans’ inventions and society. From the most ancient stone tools to various metal weapons, made Violet hard to believe that humans can make these without magic. So did their architecture, though they used the same material as the ponies like stone, wood, and hay in ancient Equestria, their structure was quite complex, which made Violet even more astonished.

“Humans are incredible,” exclaimed Violet. “I wonder what other interesting things do they have.”

However, as Violet turned the pages to the very end, she noticed that some pages were torn down. She was dumbfounded.

“How the hay did this book get torn so many pages? Has it always been like this?”

She closed the book, then depressingly laid in the bed.

“How could somepony do such a vile thing to that book…” She complained.

Later, due to staying up too late, used too much energy, she instantly fell asleep. Little did she know, a shadow was watching her through the window from outside with a cold smile, then disappeared later.

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The next day, 09:43:40
Dining Room, Castle of Friendship

The next morning, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Courageous Heart, Flash Sentry, Evening Twinkle, and Shooting Star were having breakfast. On the table, there were some pancakes, cupcakes, and salad made by Evening Twinkle. The whole family was enjoying the meal, except that Violet Harmony was absent.

“Violet, she probably stayed up late reading again. She’s just like you, Twilight,” said Courageous.

“Yeah, she is.” Twilight sighed, “If she won’t come, she would miss this divine breakfast,” then she sipped some tea.

“I’ll go get her.” Evening Twinkle left the seat and went upstairs.

As she arrived in front of Violet’s room and was about to knock, Violet just walked out of her room.

“Morning, Violet, I was trying to call you. Come and have some breakfast.”

“Mmm… okay.”

After Evening brought Violet to the dining room, the family welcomed her with a smile. While they carried on eating, Violet just stared at her pancake instead of using her utensils. Evening, sitting next to Violet, noticed her unusual behavior, she confusedly asked, “What’s wrong, Violet? Why aren’t you eating? Does the pancake I made not suit your taste?”

“N…no, your pancake is always my favorite.”

“Are you feeling ill then? Didn’t you spend all night reading?” asked Twilight, concerning Violet’s health.

“Well…it’s true that I stood up late last night, but not because of this. The reason why I’m upset is that one of the books I borrowed from Canterlot Library got torn down.”

“What’s the book about?” asked Courageous.

“It’s about the legend of humans in ancient Equestria,” Violet explained. “I want to learn more about them by researching what ponies during that era thought about them. When I was about to reach the end, the book stopped for no reason. Not to mention that it was purposely torn down like something cannot tell anypony.” She stabbed a piece of pancake with a fork and took a bite.

“Can I take a look at the book you mentioned? I want to find out what’s going on.” Twilight put down the teacup and said.

Violet nodded and trotted to her room, later she returned with a book moments and gave it to Twilight. As Twilight opened the book to the torn page, she looked at its previous page, which was about Celestia and Luna visiting humans. Other than that, nothing significant was found.

“It seems it was cut off at the part where the royal sisters visited humans. I have a feeling that something ominous happened on them, though I’m not sure what.” Twilight concluded.

Twilight put the book down, then suddenly it accidentally knocked over the teacup. The tea inside of it spilled on the back endpaper.

“Mom!! Tea!!!” Violet shouted in panic as she looked at the book was dyed in brown.

Twilight was also panicked, she quickly took some napkins to wipe the surface and the book to avoid any stain remaining. But then, Courageous noticed something appeared on the endpaper, he pointed at it, “Hey Twilight, something strange appears on the endpaper. Looks like it’s a symbol.”

Twilight stopped and took a look at the endpaper, there was a small symbol on it. From its look, it was some kind of a rose and a letter N in its center.

“I’ve never seen this symbol before.” Twilight analyzed the symbol. “Hmm…I don’t know whose, but I guess this letter is the owner’s initials. Plus, it has been here for a long while.”

“And likely responsible for damaging the book.” Violet added, “but why did he or she tear down the pages?”

“Not a clue. Maybe we can ask Celestia. You put this book away, for now, we’ll bring this to her. Spike, please bring a quill and a parchment for writing to Celestia after breakfast.”

“You have my word, Twilight!” answered Spike, crunching an emerald.

After everything was settled, all ponies carried on eating.

Author's Note

Just back from military service for long holiday, so that I can upload the new chapter. I hope you enjoy the new chapter.

Chapter 5 - Flashback

April 10, 1043 CE, 10:30:21
Royal Meeting Room, Canterlot

The royal sisters and their husbands were sitting by the round table to wait for their children to arrive. While they were waiting, Celestia was reading a journal written by her and Luna together. Some of the entries made her feel uncomfortable, the entries that were about she banished N. Shroud who did something atrocious and cruel to ponies. Every time she remembered, her emotion became unstable. Luna sighed while looking at her dearest sister, she tried to say something to comfort her but she didn’t because only Celestia herself knew this pain.

Later, the children of the royal sister entered. The first was Luna and Prince Nocturne’s elderly son, Prince Orion; their second son, Prince Apollo, and their elderly daughter, Princess Selena. Then next were Celestia and Sombra’s daughter, Princess Estella, and their second son, Prince Eclipse.

“Morning.” they greeted their parents in unison.

The parents nodded with a smile and had them take a seat.

“You called us to come this early, must have something important, don’t you?” Eclipse started.

“Yeah, does something huge happen in Equestria or Crystal Empire?” added Estella.

“Or a conflict between nations?”

The five children kept asking, making the whole room filled with questions. To calm them down, Luna tapped the table. “Children! Please be still, my dearest sister will tell ye today’s meeting.”

Luna nodded at Celestia and cued her to start. Celestia took a deep breath and cleared her throat.

“My dearest royal members. Today we gather around here because I have something that needs to tell you.”

The children looked at each other, they were curious about what Celestia had been hiding from them.

“Over 500 years ago, there was a human arrived in Equestria. When I met him, he was just a teen.”

Hearing it, the children’s eyes widened because - for a long time - they thought Megan Williams was the first and the only human in Equestria. Nobody expect that there was another one before her arrival.

"So you’re saying that Megan isn’t the first human who arrives in Equestria?!” said Estella.

“Who was that human, and how did he get into Equestria?” asked Orion.

Celestia went silent, she loathed mentioning his name, but to fulfill their curiosity, she sighed.

“H-his name is Nigel Shroud. It all started over 500 years ago when I was still a princess.”

==================================================================================

528 years ago
June 7, 515 CE, 22:32:10
Canterlot, Equestria
Princess Celestia

“Your Highness, are you sure that you’ll attend the diplomatic conference with the Griffon Kingdom?”

“Yes, the relation between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom is still unstable, we must carefully manage it. You're dismissed, thanks for the hard work.”

As the servant bowed and left the throne room, my royal duty for today was over. I sighed on the way to my chamber, thinking that dealing with the Griffon Kingdom was getting more and more difficult. From my years of understanding, griffons are arrogant species, they believed that they are all superior to ponies and other species. Because of that, the relationship between Equestria and Griffon Kingdom was at a freezing point.

As a princess myself, I didn’t want to say this, but their arrogance had caused many troubles. Like the last banquet, a griffon warrior said something offensive to ponies angered a pony noble who overheard the conversation, he started fighting with that warrior. Although I showed up and stopped the fight, the banquet was cut short after that incident.

To build a good relationship with the Griffon Kingdom, I’d sent an envoy multiple times, and the conference tomorrow was essential for me. Not just for spreading harmony and peace, but also for letting my subjects accept other species.

I returned to the chamber, took off my accessories, and stood on the balcony watching the moon where my sister was staying. It had been over 400 years, I prayed for her every day, hoping she could back to me sooner. After finishing praying, I was about to go to sleep, I suddenly heard some trotting sound from the door.

“Intruder!!”

I also heard one guard yell. To figure out what was going on, I walked out of my chamber and followed them. Later, royal guards and I stopped at a corner in the royal garden. I passed through them and looked, it was a strange creature that I’d never seen. Taking a closer look, it has no coat or fur, except on its head. Instead, it was wearing some kind of weird-looking fabric which I assumed that it was its clothes. It only had two legs, maybe it was a bipedal creature I suppose. Yet, judging by its body size, the creature didn’t look like a minotaur. Furthermore, from its look, its age was quite young.

“Your Highness, we just found that this creature was attempting to enter the castle, we immediately surrounded it.” the captain stood next to me said, pointing at the creature with his sword.

I looked at the creature, I could see that it was scared, seemed it got separated from its company. I should keep it for some time to get further understanding.

“Bring it to the dungeon, I will interrogate it the next morning. Remember, don't do any harm to it.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” said the captain. “Get up and move!!”

I sighed as I watched the creature taken away by the guards. I felt sorry for it because I wanted to show mercy to it at first, but since guards were there, I needed to be assertive. It was not easy for me. Either way, I should communicate with it, hoping that it would accept my kindness.

The next morning, I headed to the dungeon to visit that creature with two guards for escort. As I arrived at where the creature was locked up, I looked inside, the creature was sitting in the corner, holding its knees, and its head was bent.

“Hey! Wake up, bipedal creature. The princess is here!”

One guard tried to wake the creature by knocking metal poles with his spear. The creature didn’t move.

“Oi!! You hear me? I said…”

“Enough! You’re scaring it.” I stopped the guard.

“My apologies, Your Highness…”

“Let me communicate with it, this might be the only way.”

“Are you sure you wanna do this alone, Your Highness? What if it is dangerous?” said the guard.

“I know we never see this creature, but we shouldn’t judge someone by its look.” I refused.

“But…”

“It’s fine, just open the door. You two stay here, okay?”

Two guards hesitated for a moment, then they opened the door and let me in to communicate with the creature. After I got in, I slowly approached it to avoid frightening it. I lowered my body as soon as I got close to it.

“It’s okay, little one, I won’t hurt you.” I gently said.

The creature slowly raised its head with a look of confusion. I kept my tone to make him less cautious.

“You…you mean it…?”

My eyes widened, this creature could talk, and it was Equestrian. Even the two guards outside were surprised. From its tone, it was a male. After I calmed myself down, I smiled at him, “Yes, I mean it.” then I asked him, “Could you please tell me what are you and your name?”

“M-my name is…Nigel Shroud. I’m a human…” he sheepishly said.

Human…I was kinda familiar with this species since I learned that there used to have humans in Equestria, but they disappeared by an unknown cause and left no traces one day. Barely anypony have a record about them. Therefore, humans became a myth to Equestria. Right now, I couldn’t believe that I could see humans again in my own eyes, but the thing was - where did he come from?

“Where are you from?” I started the next question.

“I’m from Earth, a country called the United States of America. I…escaped from there,” he responded.

Earth? The United States of America? Escaped? I thought in confusion. Why did he say he escaped from that country? I had a lot of questions that needed to be answered, but not here, so I made a decision. “Guards, I decide to take him to the palace, he and I will have a private talk in the meeting room.”

“Sorry, Your Highness, but I can’t allow this. It…, I mean, he would cause trouble if you do this.”

“He won’t, I’m sure of it. He was suffering and frightened too much in the dungeon. As a princess, I have a responsibility to ease his feelings. Besides, I want to learn more about humans from him.”

I looked at Nigel Shroud and slightly nodded, pleading with the guards to let him go. The guards finally released him and lead us to leave the dungeon. In the castle’s hallway, all ponies on both sides looked at Nigel Shroud, some of them were either pointing at him, whispering to each other, or even feeling fear. Yet he didn’t seem to care like there was nothing. Seemed he’d already gone through and felt numb about it.

As we arrive at the meeting room, I let Nigel Shroud feel free to take a seat while I sat opposite him and started talking face-to-face.

“Oh, how rude I am, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria.”

“It-it’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”

“Celestia is fine.”

“Okay, Celestia…”

“So, you said that you escaped from this United States of America. Why escape?”

Nigel Shroud went silent, his expression showed some anger and hatred, I guess he’d suffered in that place.

“Sigh…,” he sighed. “I was an orphan when I was little, I was always being laughed at, bullied, calling me a freak, just because I like to invent something or be different from others.”

Hearing his distress, I felt pity for him. If this thing happened here, I would feel sad about it…

“And frankly,” Nigel Shroud continued. “This was my second time when I found the portal to here.”

Wait a minute, were my ears deceiving me? Has he already found the portal to here before? Well, this was getting intriguing, I wondered if the human world is connected to Equestria. I should check the records from Starswirl the Bearded, maybe he had some information about humans.

“You saw the portal before you came here?” I asked.

“Yeah, about two months ago. I was so excited that I told others, a grave mistake, people began mocking me, so I became a whole town’s laughingstock. I had enough of this bullying, so I left the town, and I’m here. I swear, I will not go back to that fucking place!!”

I could visibly see his hands gripped tightly and shaking. He was furious about his tragic past. I changed to other questions to calm him down. “If you don’t mind, could you talk about what your world looks like? I’m curious.”

“Well, alright. I’ll try as more as I can. How about I start with our human technologies.”

I heard Nigel’s lecture for several hours, everything he said kept giving me surprise and astonishment. Like a building with various types of machines that can produce a vast number of products, transportation that can travel on the water or across a whole continent in a short time. All they need are to combust something black called coal to make them work. I enjoyed and was amazed that humans can create those things without magic. However, there were some that I felt unnerved, such as a flammable black powder called gunpowder, a weapon that could give a faraway target lethal injury or even death. They also had a massive weapon for destroying thick walls or injuring targets within a blast range.

Nigel also mentioned that five years ago in his world, his country was divided into north and south because they had some different opinions about a system and war broke out until last year. My body was shaking, never thought that humans would kill each other for only just a mere different point of view. Was this the reason why those terrifying weapons were invented?

Come to think of it, Equestria had that history. Ponies were divided into Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi before Equestria was founded. The three tribes clashed with each other for claiming sovereignty over the land, blaming others that they were the main cause of eternal winter. After the three tribes finally made peace and formed Equestria, Luna and I were crowned as princesses. We swore that there wouldn’t be any conflicts in here anymore. Ironically, when Luna became Nightmare Moon, I had to fight against her until I had no choice but used Elements of Harmony to banish her to the Moon. Nevertheless, those could not compare to human conflicts.

“Well, if it’s fine for you, I maybe can offer and teach you some of our inventions,” started Nigel. I froze for a second, was he mean it?

“You what?”

“I said I can teach you some human techs I’ve known. These could make your nation stronger,” he firmly said.

I hesitated for a moment. It was true that their techs were far more advanced than ours, but they could be beneficial to our nation if we acquired them. On the contrary, they could bring harm to our subjects, especially those human weapons. If they fell into evil hooves, the consequences would be immeasurable. I need to make a wise decision for the big picture.

“I’m obliged to your offer, but there’s one condition before I can accept,” I said.

“Shoot.”

“I must decline your offer of this gunpowder and weapons.”

“Why not? Those can upgrade your nation’s military prestige.”

"They indeed can help with our military, but Equestria is a land of harmony and friendship. If we acquire them, it would against the nation’s purpose. Plus, gaining other nations’ suspicion toward us.”

Nigel looked disappointed after hearing my decision, but he still looked at me with a smile.

“Very well,” he said. “I respect your stance, but in exchange, I want you to allow me to learn magic and everything in Equestria. Deal?”

I guess I have no options. I just declined some of his offers, allowing him to learn magic may count as making up for him. Plus, he has nowhere to go. He needed someplace to stay.

“Fine. While you learn magic, you need to teach ponies human technologies starting tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll teach you some basic magic spells when you’re free, okay?”

“You have my word. Thank you, Celestia.”

“Come, I’ll get you cleaned, after that, you can rest in the room I provided.”

“Okay, Celestia. I won’t let you down!”

==================================================================================

Present-day - April 10, 1043 CE, 11:17:39
Royal Meeting Room, Canterlot

“What happened next, mother? After you adopted him,” asked Eclipse.

Celestia looked displeased which made Eclipse cringe, he thought he said something wrong and triggered her.

“Do you wanna know?” Celestia said in a deep tone. “He became extremely obsessed with pony magic after years of learning. One day, I discovered he had kidnapped and killed 50 ponies and creatures for his experiment subjects on dark magic. I arrested and banished him back to the human world.”

All went speechless, no one could imagine that Nigel could do such a vile thing. King Sombra and Prince Nocturne were shocked, too. Now they understood why Celestia was loathed to talk about it.

“I can’t believe he did that to those innocent souls…” said Orion as he slammed the table to express his anger.

“Yeah, 50 lives were gone…” Estella had the same feeling.

“After you banished him, have you ever thought that he would return?”

Celestia didn’t answer, she was thinking whether the nightmare she dreamt of was a sign of his return or not. It was too real for a dream she thought.

“Well, I’m not 100 percent sure since I haven’t sensed his presence yet so far, but there’s one thing I’m certain that he would return shortly.”

There came a silence in the room. All ponies were concerned that he was taking action without noticing. The silence was broken as a royal guard rushed into the meeting room with a scroll.

“Forgive me for the interruption, Your Majesties.” he bowed.

“Please,” said Celestia.

“An urgent letter from Princess Twilight Sparkle. Something important that needs to inform you,” said the guard, as he handed the scroll to Celestia. She thanked him, then opened the scroll and read it.

Dear Queen Celestia,

This morning, my daughter, Violet Harmony, told me, Courageous Heart, and the rest of my family that one of her books’ several pages were torn down when she was studying humans last night. We didn’t know who, when, and why, but we sorta figured out who. I spilled the tea on its endpaper by accident, we found that there was an unknown symbol which is a rose with the letter “N” in its center. I suspect that it is somepony’s initials, and he or she is responsible for the vandalism. I’ll attach the picture of the symbol, maybe you can help us to investigate. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Princess Twilight Sparkle

As Celestia looked at the picture attached to the letter, she was frightened. Last time she saw it was when she investigated the crime scene where Nigel had killed several innocent ponies and creatures for test subjects. All the memories became clear as the sky.

“Tia, what’s wrong? You alright?” asked Sombra, but Celestia didn’t hear him, so he tapped her shoulder twice.

“Huh?! Oh… sorry everypony, I must stop the meeting for now. You all can dismiss for the next agenda.”

Everypony but Celestia left the meeting room. She put down the picture and summoned a quill and a parchment. “My dearest Twilight. You, your family, and your friends must come to Canterlot tomorrow morning at once……”

Chapter 6 - Awakening

“Nigel Shroud, you illegally studied forbidden dark magic, abducted and killed 50 ponies and creatures. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“All I did was to make Equestria more developed and stronger so that I can make my goal come true. What did I do wrong? Don’t you want it?”

“You just made many innocent souls become your testing subjects for experiments! Do you realize that these vile acts threaten our national security, leading our subjects into fear and giving the diplomatic relationship between us and other nations a bad influence?”

"So what? After I’d suffered years of humiliation and bullying from that world, I swore that I would destroy all humankind. Now the opportunity is at my hand, but you ruined it. WHY?! Why would you do that?!”

“ENOUGH!!! I kept and adopted you because I pitied what you’d been through in the past. But now, you began to do such atrocious things just for your vengeance. You have been corrupted by greed, hatred, and cruelty. I’m afraid I cannot let you stay here any longer. I, Princess Celestia, sentence you to banishment back to the human world and never come back! Guards, take him out of my sight in an instant!!”

“Yes, Your Highness!!”

"Heh… how pathetic, I’ve regarded you as my family for a long time, but now I was blind and betrayed by you. Now I realize that you ponies are on the same level as humans!! Mark my word, Celestia, I will return. Once that time comes, I will take both the human world and Equestria by myself, and you will regret what you’ve done and bow to ME!!!”

==================================================================================

August 3, 2028, 17:11:37
United Nations Headquarters
New York City, United States

It has been several hours since the invasion. As N. Shroud’s army successfully captured New York City, they established their stronghold at United Nations Headquarters. Later, they replaced the flags of the Nevermore Empire after burning down all national flags outside of the building. Meanwhile, inside the General Assembly Building, while the robots were renovating the interior, N. Shroud was standing behind a podium in deep thought.

“My Lord,” one of the servant robots called N. Shroud with a bow.

N. Shroud glared back at the robot. “You’d better have something important to report. Speak out now, I’m busy thinking of something.”

“Y-yes my Lord, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that we’ve successfully captured New York and other major cities. All resistances were either repelled or eliminated. And…”

“And the bad news?”

“Uhm… t-the bad news is because of our sudden assault, many countries are on high alert, and they seem planning to unite. What should we do?”

N. Shroud rubbed his chin and smirked. He said, “Just as I expected. Let them be. No matter how many countries, how much military personnel they have, they will be crushed eventually.”

“If you say so, My Lord. If you say so,” the robot nodded.

N. Shroud turned his back. “I’m going to contact someone. You tell all the robots to stop working and go outside. Without further notice, no one is allowed to enter. Understand?”

“As you command, My Lord.” The robot bowed and dismissed.

As all robots left the room, N. Shroud took a disk from his cloak and put it on the podium. As he activated it, the disk started to project a dark blue circle background, then a dark shadow appeared, followed by a ram-like creature with flashing crimson red eyes. The ram seemed unpleased with someone disturbing his peace.

“Who dares summon Emperor Grogar!!?” the shadow roared. The roar almost echoed the whole room.

“Ah, Grogar, my friend. It’s me.”

Grogar huffed. “What do you want?”

“Well, you still remember the creature called human, don’t you, Grogar?”

“Human? You mean the creature that relied on ponies after they betrayed Tambelon, and disappeared a thousand years ago?”

N. Shroud chuckled. “By your memories, you can say that.”

“Oh, I remember those traitors. When I was the Emperor of Tambelon, they used to work with us until I found that they secretly befriended puny ponies. After I had been exiled, they left Tambelon and moved to Equestria.”

Grogar ranted about how humans betrayed all beasts in Tambelon. Furthermore, he didn’t understand why humans could quickly get along with ponies, which made him jealous.

“I reckon you also remember the person who defeated you a while ago, eh?”

“Grrr… Megan Williams.”

As Grogar heard the name, he got furious. His eyes turned flaming glow. Several years ago, when he was a ghost, he was defeated by her and her pony friends. All his plans were ruined. What was worse, he was trapped in Tartarus afterward. He swore that he would make them suffer for all eternity.

“Of course! I remember that brat. Not to mention the pony named Violet Harmony and how she and her friends defeated me!! I thought I could take over Equestria by killing Violet and her friends and families, but failed miserably after she befriended Megan and used Rainbow of Light on me.”

N. Shroud didn’t say any words, he just listened to Grogar complaining and his hatred towards humans and ponies, especially those heroes. As Grogar finished venting his rage, he eyed N. Shroud and asked, “But I don’t understand, why you mentioned humans?”

“Because I am currently in a world that humans dominate. I plan to conquer and rule over here. Now that phase one has been completed, the next phase will be commenced, but requires your assistance.”

“Hmm? My assist? How can I help you?” Grogar asked in confusion.

“Well, first, I want you to find as many locations in Equestria as possible for my portals that will place on Earth. Second, rally some villains in Equestria like criminals, assassins, or whatever. The more the better. And lastly, watch over those pony heroes, contact me anytime when you have the intel. I’m sure you can complete all the tasks I’ve ordered, right?”

“You must be joking, of course, I can! When things are done, leave those heroes to me first, I want to make them suffer!”

“You have my words, Grogar. Now go, there’s no time to waste!!”

As the transmission ended, N. Shroud faced the emblem of the United Nations on the wall. He picked up the radio. “Prepare for phase two. We’ll execute it at the end of the next month!" Then, he drew a plasma pistol and destroyed the emblem into smithereens.

==================================================================================

Unknown date, unknown time
Unknown location
Brooklyn Mason

“Ugh…… my head…” I slowly sat up, the dizziness was still around, even though I was awake. Fuck, that fall was hard. I looked around after regaining consciousness, I found that I was in a place covered by darkness. There was nothing but some whistling sound and thick mist.

“Hello? Anyone here?” I shouted, no response. Well, I guess I’m the only one. But wait, something didn’t add up, I was suppressing the robots with the SWAT group in New York. I also remembered being blasted by a robot's laser cannon and falling unconscious. Why did I end up here when I woke up? Was I dreaming? Or, I’ve already died?

No, nonononono, definitely not the later one, I shook my head. I took a breath and kept myself calm, then I started to move to find somewhere to get the hell out of here.

I have already forgotten how far I’ve moved for a long while. The mist here was fucking thick, I could barely see any shit, only I could do was keep moving forward. My feet felt sore and weary, so I stopped, sat down, and took a breather. I gave my numb legs some massage. I was so tired that I started thinking I would stick here forever. Then suddenly, a wind blew some mist away, and a strange silhouette that looked like a wall appeared in front of me. As I looked closely, there was a castle behind it. Looked like a city there.

“Civilization?!” my eyes widened. My body was full of adrenaline, so I bounced up and dashed toward the wall. As I approached the wall, I found that it was surrounded by a moat, and its front gate was closed. Fortunately, the moat was dry, and a door was half-opened, which could be the alternate entrance to get in. I walked across the moat and got through the door. I saw a couple of medieval-styled houses on both sides of the cobblestone road. There were only some torches that provided the light, but it was too dim to look further, so I took one of the torches and moved on. I tried to seek some help, but the more I went, the stranger I felt. No one was here in this town because no lights were in any houses. No wonder the town was quiet as hell.

“Why does this town has no residents? Did something happen that made here a ghost town?” I asked myself.

After another few minutes of moving, I arrived somewhere believed to be a city center. There was an abandoned large fountain in the center. I took a closer look, it had a metal plaque with some words, “Spirit of Tambelon,” on it.

“Spirit of Tambelon, huh? So this town is called Tambelon. I gotta say, this town is vast. I’d like to stay longer to explore, but I’d better find a way to end this dream or whatever. But the thing is, where do I start?” I sat on the edge of the fountain in deliberation. Just then, I heard the tonging sound. I looked around, trying to find the source, and I noticed that there was a castle-like building, which had a bell tower at its top.

“Sounds like the sound was from that bell tower at the castle. Better take a look.” I stood up and headed to the castle.

Later, after some tour of the castle, I finally arrived at the tower. Man, this castle’s interior design looked peculiar. What the hell was the ruler thinking? His portrait looked like a ram. The stairs were too complex, it took me a while to reach the top. I was exhausted. After minutes of break, I walked close to the bell, I gave it some inspection and found that it was partially rusted and had several hollows.

“This bell looks like it has been here for ages.”

I touched the bell and gently knocked, the sound it made was pleasing. Then, a crazy idea came up in my mind, I grabbed a stick and hit the bell with full strength, it made a long and loud ringing sound that could spread all across the town. Satisfied, I was about to leave the tower, but then the room was becoming brighter. I looked back, the light was coming from the bell. The light was too bright to look ahead, I couldn’t tell what was happening. When the light turned weaker, I opened my eyes, I found that I was laying in a hospital bed.

“He’s awake!!”

==================================================================================

August 4th, 2028, 03:44:01
FOB Washington
Washington Monument, National Mall, Washington D.C., United States

“He’s awake!!”

Mason opened his eyes as he heard someone calling, he saw someone just left. As he gained his sight, he found that he was no longer in the bell tower, but instead, in a hospital bed in a field hospital tent. He weakly lifted himself to inspect his body. His chest, both arms, and left leg were bandaged. He was relieved that his injuries were not severe - well, except for some pains and dizziness.

Looking around, Mason saw some medics and medical crews tirelessly taking care of some refugees and soldiers. Additionally, two or three CH-47 Chinooks landed nearby with some more refugees. Outside the tent, several Humvees, M3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and M1A3 Abrams tanks were patrolling around.

“Was I dreaming……?” he thought, laying back. A few minutes later, a doctor came in with about four Delta Forces soldiers and stood near him. As Mason took a closer look, he realized that they were his partners or brother-in-arms from Delta Force Alpha Team.

“How’s Mason?” one of the soldiers asked.

The doctor replied while he was analyzing Mason’s diagnosis. “He’s lucky, the place he fell from was not very high. He just has some cuts, bruises, and a disjointed left leg. Other than these, there’s no big deal. He’ll be free to leave after three to five days.”

“I see, thank you.” the soldiers saluted the doctor, and so did the others.

“I’ll check him later. We’ll be around if you need us.”

As the doctor left for checking on other patients, a soldier named Clark came close to Mason. “Mason, buddy, you scared the shit out of us. We thought we’d lost you.”

Mason chuckled. “Don’t be such an ass, Clark. You’ve known that I’m not that fragile,” he gave Clark’s right shoulder a gentle fist bump. “But where am I? And how long I’ve been out?”

“You’re at FOB Washington in Washington D.C. It’s been 12 hours since we found you at JFK International Airport. You’re the only survivor, by the way.”

“What about New York?”

“Well, by the time we retreated, New York had been captured eight hours ago,” answered Clark, lowering his head. “Almost all forces there were either retreated or eliminated. And that’s not all. As far as we know, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Australia, etc. were also under attack.”

Mason’s eyes widened. He couldn’t believe that so many countries were under those threats in such a short time.

“Has the president made any responses?”

“After an hour when the US was invaded, the president had contacted most of the leaders from other countries. They planned to have a conference at NATO Headquarters next week. Seems he has invited other non-NATO nations to participate.”

“Next week, eh? W-wait, did you say non-NATO nations will participate?”

“Yes. NATO believed that there would be no match for the enemy based on its current military strength. So, most of the NATO members agreed to request other nations to join.”

The first ever global joint operation? Mason thought. He was not sure whether he was surprised or worried. For a long time, NATO is incompatible with some countries, especially Russia and China. But today, they were in the same boat and united together. Perhaps, this was the first step toward world peace, which was supposed to be right after the Cold War. It was kinda funny, though. Mason was not sure whether he was grateful for those enemies’ help or not. Despite that, they must be repelled based on the damage they've caused.

“By the way, the president assigned us to escort him and his cabinets to NATO Headquarters. That is, once your wounds recover, you and we have to meet the president for the briefing. The escort mission could be dangerous, so listen carefully.”

“Yes, sir,” Mason replied.

“Now, get some rest for now. Our jobs are not simple as we thought. There will be more waiting for us somehow.” Then Clark and the rest of the alpha team members left the tent. The area became empty, Mason lay down, blankly looking at the ceiling. He was recalling what he had seen in the dream. A medieval-style city, a bizarre-looking castle, and a portrait painted like a ram. And, most of all, a bell that has a strange power. Those things were too extraordinary that he hasn’t seen them before.

Did they have some kind of significance? Mason thought as he began falling asleep.