Equestria At War - In the Shadow of the Sun

Swing...Swing...Swing...Swing.

...Wasn't it supposed to break her neck?

...Oh, right. It's hard to break your neck when the only falling distance you have to work with is a lamp in a bunker. A shoddy lamp at that. Hopefully, all the weight loss she'd experienced over the months would keep her light enough from snapping the thin cable.

Perhaps this wasn't the right thing to do. They always say - think of your loved ones.

What if all your loved ones disappeared in a flash?

That's why she was content - the numbness in her soul far stronger than that tightness around her neck. Of course the ELF could never get decent rope. Was her little rebellion even in the possession of the tiniest speck of hope when the ponies picked up the rifles?

...No matter. Her eyes were closed. Her body was limp. No movement. Why move when the darkness would take you on its own? All her memories instead were of that one pony who made it worth fighting for.

And her voice - she could hear it calling her from the light.

"Starlight~!"

"...Staaaarlight~!" Giggled Trixie, as she held her arms out. Of course she was already there.

"Staaaaaarliiiiiiight~!" Laughed Trixie as she galloped over to her.

"Starliiiiight!" Trixie cried out.

"Starlight!" Trixie cried.

"STARLIGHT!" Trixie screamed.

"STARLIGHT!" She sobbed.

The blue unicorn was the first to rush into the bunker. Seeing what had happened, she immediately positioned herself underneath the hanging unicorn, and lifted her up.

"Fuck, cut it!" Yelled Colton who ran in after her. Immediately, Plymouth's levitation swiped his knife right at the rope, immediately severing the cord. Trixie caught Starlight just as her body collapsed, and Umfuni immediately rushed in to help. They laid the limp body of the lavender unicorn onto the floor, with Chari joining them as she placed her vest underneath the back of her head.

"I'll give CPR!" Umfuni shouted. Immediately he got to work, performing the chest compressions with a timely manner as his striped hooves began to press against her chest.

"C-Can you do it correctly!?" Whimpered Trixie in total disbelief in shock, her hooves shaking too much to be of any use as she hopelessly stroked Starlight's mane, sitting right behind her and attempting to use her own lap as a makeshift pillow.

Umfuni let out the most sardonic chuckle he could, a nervous reflex. "Been perfecting it since my brother did the same thing. Not letting myself screw up this time." He muttered. Again, the hooves pressed into her chest, pumping it to help her heart.

"Shit..." Gomer nervously bit his lip. He heard the sound of movement behind him, and immediately stepped to the door, blocking the view of the rebels that tried to see what was happening. He didn't want the young ones to see. "Hey! Stay outta here! Get back, now!" He shouted at Babs and Mina, who yelped as they took steps away from the door.

Cipher anxiously stood at the ready if he was needed, but with too many cooks working on resuscitating the motionless pony, all he could do was swatch.

"One, one thousand...two, one thousand..." Umfuni muttered, rhythmically pushing her chest, then performing mouth-to-mouth in-between. "Come on, please...Please, damn it..."

Trixie sobbed as her hooves ran over the unicorn's cheek, hoping that her warmth would wake her. "S-Starlight...No, no, no...Not like this." She whimpered. Noticing that Umfuni had been panting from the lack of air, she took over the mouth-to-mouth, grabbing Starlight's head in the right position. Umfuni nodded at her, and as he continued the compressions, he intensified his movements. Chari constantly checked for pulse, only intending to speak when she'd felt something.

"Go!" Umfuni exclaimed to Trixie.

"Starlight...Please wake up." The blue unicorn whimpered.

Trixie's lips touched Starlight's. Air rushed into her mouth, and into her lungs.

"..." Chari's eyes lit up. "Pulse!"

After a moment of crushing silence, Starlight Glimmer weakly opened her eyes. Immediately, it locked onto the blue unicorn's. Her pupils widened.

"...My angel." Whispered the near-dead mare.

Carefully, yet hastily, Trixie moved herself to sit by her side and brought the revived mare to her body, clutching her tight. "Why!?" Bawled the blue unicorn as she pressed her face to Starlight's, the recently woken unicorn closing one eye as the tears streamed upon her. Their warmth, their...life. They kept her here. She kept her here, alive. "Why did you do this? To me!? Starlight...Please, don't...ever again. Please..."

"You're so beautiful..." Was all Starlight could whisper, before the ability to speak was hijacked by Trixie's lips.

***

They moved to the infirmary, where Starlight was laid on a bed. The room was occupied by the SIB, who carefully monitored Starlight and by extension, Trixie. Apart from them, Sunset Shimmer slept in the corner, needing to recover after the grave injuries.

"A-Agh...!" Starlight gasped as she sat up, immediately clutching her chest. Umfuni gently wrapped his hooves around her, keeping her steady and helping her lay back down.

"Careful!" The zebra softly exclaimed. "Good CPR has a cost - one or some of your ribs may be fractured, maybe broken. I think it's a decent price to pay to restart your heart though, no?"

"...I owe you my life." Starlight softly whispered, clutching her chest which seemed to bruise by the minute. "But...Damn it all. I've screwed up so badly...So many dead because of me, I--"

"No. You did the absolute best anyone could have. The plan's execution was flawless." Said Cipher as he stood by her side. "Starlight, nopony had any intel on what those things were. We've been tracking some kind of Solarist superweapon, and this could be it. And if it's not, then it's one of several at this point. Nopony could've predicted what would happen. Please, don't blame yourself for this."

Trixie held Starlight's hoof, sitting by her side. "He's right, Starlight. As far as sieges go, yours was more successful than anypony could've pulled off with what we had to work with...I think the ELF could never have imagined attempting to take Fillydelphia without your leadership."

Starlight tried to find something in the situation to return the sparkle in her eye. But sadly, the pony sat surrounded by the creatures, and the bunker's walls. Optimism was a dry well. She sighed. "...But what now? The ELF...What do we have left? We..."

Chari took Starlight's other hoof, moving to stand by the other side. "The ELF will come back. Maybe stronger than ever. If Daybreaker had the audacity to do what she did with Fillydelphia, think - do you think this action will go unnoticed? Unpunished? You'll reunite with those who fled, and you'll keep trying, because no matter whether or not you bring back Equestria, what matters the most is that you fight to return her. If it takes months, years, decades, your whole life - I know you can do it, miss Starlight."

Plymouth chuckled, sheathing the blade that had cut Starlight's rope. "And, miss - take a look at things from another light. Fillydelphia just got bombed to kingdom come. Whether or not the buildings stayed intact, I think the fact that the whole forest surrounding it got burned to a crisp is gonna shake things up a little. A lotta ponies support Daybreaker out of genuine belief she's holy, and that she's their mommy. Now, some of them are gonna see the illusion's breakin' a lil'. I highly doubt she was able to pull that act off without harming stray civvies either."

"Okay, okay..." Starlight laughed gently, then grit her teeth as pain struck her side. She took a deep breath, and leaned against Trixie, but also did so to have a proper line of sight with the SIB agents. She didn't like to be pitied, not when there was work to do. It no longer mattered how badly she screwed up - for the ponies beside her were right. "I'm going to disappoint those who've followed me to their death if I don't continue. We're going to make things right..."

"Where should we start?" Trixie asked. "We'll rebuild it all. Just let me know what we can do."

The purple unicorn, with Trixie's and Chari's help, was able to sit up on the bed. "...We still have cells that were farther from Drosera. We've got some gear hidden away. Some supplies...Troops who we've stationed around the East Coast. We can regroup everyone and change bases. Then we focus on smaller targets, like when we started. No big scale operations until we know we're ready for all threats, including those things."

The blue unicorn nuzzled her, grateful beyond words that her beloved was here, and alive. "That's fine. That's fine...Just please, don't...don't...do that again."

"I promise." Starlight smiled. She kissed Trixie on the forehead...Both unicorns oblivious to the fact that they were completely alone as the SIB operators quietly left the infirmary.

***

The scattered groups of rebels returned and gathered together. After the hour had passed, short bursts of anxiety came as armed strangers appeared through the treeline. Elation came as it was revealed to be friendlies - fighters who were able to escape the terrible bloodbath. They sat around Drosera, setting bags and building smokeless campfires, both preparing to defend and leave.

It was time to prepare to move, and many were gathering what belongings, weapons, and supplies they had. Gomer looked at them, and found a patch of rebels that were somewhat familiar to him. The griffon humphed, folding his talons as he studied them, especially the younger ones - those were the ones whose answers he was most curious about.

"So..." Gomer muttered as he stood before the rebels. "What are you gonna be up to? What about your comic store?" He asked Mina. "...You've got a daughter." He pointed at Mr. Stripes. "And you've got to get back with your cousin and the rest of your family." He pointed at Babs.

"Hoh." Mr. Stripes scoffed as he scratched his flank through his tracksuit, then adjusted his armored vest to make room for his gold chains. "Big mister secret agent bird is telling me what I should do with life? Daughter is fine - is with relatives in Mareland. I stay and fight, not of wanting shitty Solarist flag be over Manehattan. You worry about yourself, parrot - yes?"

Gomer couldn't be angry at a bit of banter, certainly not from an older stallion who knew what he was doing. Yet, that made him focus on the younger rebels, his eyes trained on them.

"...I won't stay." Mina hung her head. "I might see if I can slip back in, Dragon Town will make it easy. Then I'm getting my comics, and I'm opening a new store. I don't think I wanna live in a city where so many creatures died...I'll miss home, but...it's not like a lot of dragons chose to stay in Filly anyway. I'd be clinging to nostalgia if I stayed."

"I'll..." Babs scratched her mane. "...Yeah. I'll probably try to find mom, dad, then I'll probably try to meet the rest of the apples..."

"About that." Colton said as he approached Gomer from the side, having heard the conversation. "If you can make it, SIB's arranged for Applejack's side of the family to get evacced to New Mareland. Get yourself there. You'll be fine - an Apple visiting another Apple is pretty, well...y'know...Sure as the sun will rise, and all."

"Thank you for the heads up." Babs softly smiled. "I...I don't know how much I can fight for now. Not after what I saw. I really want to see mom, dad...anyone from my family, really. I hope...Applebloom and the other crusaders are okay..."

Colton nodded at her, then turned to Gomer. "And you, stop harassing the guerilla with your questions, eh?"

"I just..." Gomer nearly let his true feelings slip past his beak. He caught himself, and smirked softly. "Right...I guess we gotta start doing some packing of our-"

CRASH!

All immediately turned their heads to see what was wrong - Gomer reflexively cocking his pistol and keeping it at the ready. The sound came from the entrance to the bunker - a figure attempted to limp through, supporting itself on the walls. The figure had knocked over several bottles and boxes, barely able to stay on her damaged legs.

"Damn you..." Whispered the figure. With the voice revealing itself, Chari immediately gasped, running up to the pony trying to leave the darkness of the bunker. She helped the stranger limp out into the fresh air - and under light, it was revealed that the voice was none other than Sunset Shimmer, having crawled out of the infirmary.

"Commander Shimmer!?" Colton tried to help her from the other side. "W-What are you doing out of bed? You need to rest and--"

Wrestling herself out of Chari's hold, Sunset Shimmer used her remaining front hoof to punt Colton in the chest. It wasn't an attack - rather an attempt for her to give something. He caught her, but was now aware of the paper that was pressing up against him. He looked down at it, before looking at her - seeing desperation in her missing eye.

"Damn you and your blindness..." Sunset hissed. "How did none of you notice!? He left this on his bed, and you didn't notice!?"

"What...What is it?" Colton was able to look at the paper now that Chari started to support Sunset again. He looked at the writing, scanning the words...and feeling his blood freeze.

Gomer was the first to show intense interest, ignoring the injured unicorn to focus on the note. "Hey! What's it say!? Who's "he"!? Lemme..."

...

"Oh shit..." Gomer whispered.

If I don't come back, don't wait up. I can feel those things. One is coming here, and I think I know why. Either I take care of it, or I don't. I'd rather take my chances than risk your lives. Find Raz and get out of here.

-Cipher.

"What the fuck!?" Gomer barked, immediately looking around. He had assumed Cipher was resting on the bed assigned to him - but when did he sneak out? When did he leave Drosera!? "Cipher! Cipher! Shit - hey, has anyone seen him!?"

"What's going on!?" Umfuni cried out, having sprinted out of the bunker having heard the commotion, followed by Plymouth who still had shaving cream on his cheeks.

The green unicorn immediately looked at the note and placed a hoof on his forehead, hissing. "Fuck...Shit, Colton', it's my damn fault. I was the last one who saw him - he said he was gonna take a nap, so, fuck, I decided to go for a shave..."

Yet, the words struck a sense of hope for the changeling. "Wait, that means...If you're shaving just shortly after seeing him, he must not have gone far! We can still get to him..." Chari spoke, voice hoarse from fear and panic.

"But what the hell does the note mean!?" Gomer rubbed the back of his head with a talon. "Is he talking about one of the things that fucked us up in Filly!? What does he mean he can sense them?"

"...I saw it." Colton spoke, eyes never leaving the note's words. "Before it happened, I think he said he even felt like Daybreaker was nearby..." He finally broke eye contact from the paper to look at the others. "Team, gear up in five and head out. Chari, I need you to transform into a Bloodhound, take point with Gomer looking for tracks."

"G-Got it!" Chari said, and ran off, her body shifting into the sharp-nosed canine to detect any immediate tracks.

With that, Sunset Shimmer sighed and sat down against a crate. The Marelanders ran off to get their weapons and gear, leaving her alone with the rebels who had been watching the whole time, stunned and confused. The rebel first to approach was Ms. Harswhinny. "You shouldn't strain yourself like that, ma'am...I've seen what happens to athletes who think they can walk a torn hamstring off. It's very unprofessional. Let alone escaping an exploded tank..." She said. "I'll help you back to the infirmary?"

The fiery-maned mare smiled softly. "Yeah, I'd appreciate it, ma'am."

As the sports game inspector-turned-ELF guerilla helped Sunset drape a hoof over her neck, she struck up conversation as they limped back into the bunker. "How'd you find the note? Were you looking for this stallion?"

"...Yeah." Sunset admitted. "I wanted to ask him to help write to Twilight for me, with my journal. He's met Twilight personally - so I'd trust him."

"That's good." Harshwhinny sighed. "I was just thinking you...nevermind."

"..." Sunset Shimmer scoffed softly while looking at her assistant in a humored way. "C'mon, I doubt that guy would wanna share a bed with a bloodied mare who just lost a hoof."

The older mare awkwardly chuckled. "W-Well, he'd certainly be a hypocrite if that were the reason he'd deny you. Not to mention, we did run out of most hygiene products. It would be unprof-...unsanitary."

***

The robin curiously looked at the pony who stood in the center of a clearing. It was used to the creatures - knowing that they loved to feed it and other birds like it. Though, ever since that terrible rain of fire that surrounded the strange concrete forest that was full of these ponies, it stayed away and remained in its wooded home. It wondered if this strange pony would want to feed it - but no. The pony was merely staring blankly forward - breathing heavily, yet steadily.

The clearing would do, a little uphill from the highway. Cipher feared that the foliage was flammable, but a raging forest fire was the least of his worries. Things were going to be bad, but at-least nobody else would get caught in the crossfire.

He could sense it. He even had an idea how far away it was.

At the same time, it knew where he was.

He figured it was connected to that day Nightmare Moon saved his life from her own devotees. Ever since he woke up at the altar, surrounded by corpses...He felt that shadow loom behind his shoulder. Unheard, and disappearing if he ever took a closer look. In the darkness, it stood. Not preying on him, but standing behind him. Urging him to turn around, and leaving him with nothing if he did.

Every shadow had a light source. In a moment however, all shadows receded when the clearing became the landing zone for the fiery alicornoid. One of the dozen or so that had demolished Fillydelphia with a flurry of fire and explosions.

Cipher eyed the Daybreaker-esque pony as its hot hooves touched the fallen leaves, burning them away. It was the same height as him. In-fact, it may have even appeared to be a normal pony, at a first glance.

But that was far from the truth. The alicorn that stood before him appeared feral. It may have attempted to replicate the godly image of Daybreaker, but something in its eyes, something about its stance...It appeared unnatural. Sharp teeth and animalistic, feline eyes...

It stopped walking towards him. Then it pointed a hoof right at Cipher. It didn't intend to kill him now, it could have done so from the air. At any second it so desired. Evidently, it sought to capture him. To take him and face the music of whatever being taken prisoner by the Solarists entailed.

It had no idea that Cipher would not be taken alive. After Zebrica, he was sure death was sometimes the better choice. This would be infinitely worse.

"I don't know what you are." Cipher stood with his metal hoof placed forward, prepared to use it in both offense and defense. "But I can sense her on you...So if hurting you hurts her..."

Cipher's hooves planted deeper into the soil, prepared to pounce.

"...I'll kill you slowly."

The Ascended did not enjoy the blasphemy, the remark forcing it to begin a march right towards its target. Cipher was going to fight it, though a direct approach meant death. For this reason, Cipher was going to fight this alicornoid the same way the rebels fought Daybreaker all this time.

Smarts, treachery, and a plan. At-least, as much as he could prepare in the minutes he had been given.

The bundle of impact grenades collapsed right on top of the monster, the moment Cipher lifted his leg that held them on the string. The explosion had torn branches and vaporized leaves as the orbs rained upon the monster. Unforeseen was the snuffing of its flame, the fires that it was engulfed in were dimmed immediately, and it stumbled, falling onto its side as it scattered to stand back up.

Of course, Cipher's ingenuity had limits. Frankly, no being was supposed to survive this, yet this thing was instead taking a moment to catch its breath.

At-least the beast was caught off-guard. In situations like this, there was always plan B.

Cipher rushed in. Truthfully, he wasn't sure how he was going to fight this thing, but experimentation was part of the due process. If he died, then at-least that was the end of that. It'd leave his friends alone.

He rushed in to leap forward, and deliver a punch with his metallic hoof. It connected right with its face, the metal striking it with the impact of a thrown dumbbell. The monster slid backwards - not feeling any pain, but certainly unable to resist the laws of physics. Cipher did not relent, leaping in to continue throwing punches with his hooves. He was still cautious, even as he punched his target he made sure to be ready to dodge or weave if needed once this thing recovered from the stunned post-explosion state.

Cipher knew it was all a death sentence...But maybe all he needed was to find a weakness. Something. No way this thing could get destroyed with mere hoof-to-hoof, but if the grenades seemed to stun it, then this thing was a little less than invincible.

It was greatly unfortunate, however, that the Ascended merely waited a few seconds to see if regret would settle in the mortal pony. Maybe it expected Cipher would give up after seeing those grenades and near-lethal punches had no effect. It felt surprised at the fact that his target didn't stop, but all it meant was that the last train to do things the easy way had departed.

The monster's hoof lifted slowly while resisting the punches, and in a flash the beast delivered a painful jab right into Cipher's side. The speed at which it moved was phenomenal, enough to make the air around it whip and crack. Cipher felt his left lung give up the wind within it. Then, without much time to react, the same attack was repeated for his other side - intending to knock out the oxygen in his lungs entirely and incapacitate him.

But Cipher did not fall, still standing despite stumbling back for several meters from the recoil and pain. When the Ascended threw its hoof right at his face, it lunged forward to deliver the attack with more momentum and strength. This was its mistake - Cipher weaved his head at the last moment before pushing his metallic hoof into it, clothes-lining the creature right into its collarbone, damaging both the throat and chest.

The Ascended grimaced as it rolled over to its side, not only affected by the pushing force, but also blunt trauma. There were audible cracks coming from its ribcage. It released bloodied coughs as it started to vomit up black, tar-like viscera, like soot.

It stared daggers at Cipher as it limped into a patch of dusk's sunlight...And the sound of bones cracking tingled Cipher's ears. Its posture corrected, the damaged body realigning back into the wicked perfection.

The pony's hard work was undone.

"...Healing in a fight?" Cipher kissed his teeth. On one hand, it was heartbreaking to see his beautiful attacks made obsolete. On the other hand, at-least he knew that this thing could be hurt, even though it seemingly didn't feel pain and always had the opportunity to recover. If it needed to heal, it had a threshold before its destruction. "Guess you can afford to be a sore loser when you've got Daybreaker as the referee--"

The remark had to be cut short as the being dashed at him. However, it was slower...Or at-least, more predictable. Maybe the wounds were healed physically, but there may have been hesitation now that the one-hooved earth pony seemed more formidable . Cipher opted for a riskier approach, instead grappling the pony-like beast and throwing it over to his side.

...He picked it up?

Why was he able to do that? He was certain if this thing was near-godlike, there must have been a reason he was managing so well. He expected to have been dead minutes ago. He only chose to meet it like this in hopes that, were it to kill him, it'd leave the others. How was he hurting it? Why was he able to damage it when an army of rebels couldn't take out even one?

And yet there he was - performing a judo-throw and landing the Ascended right on a sharp rock. A nice bonus - one that had temporarily paralyzed the beast as the stone tore right into the spine.

It was now or never. The earth pony straddled the beast and raised his hooves into the air, before bringing them down one by one across the face of the emotionless alicorn - who made direct eye contact the whole time, staring at him unwavering and deep into his soul.

As the stallion continued beating his opponent down, Cipher noticed something...His punches were working. His metallic hoof slamming into its face, his organic hoof assisting it from the other side - the repeated punches right into the face of this creature had a result. Chunks of meat and bone were flying off, the visage was becoming ugly and disfigured. It may have had godlike powers, and it was hard to kill - but he saw that each hit made it stunned, move more sluggishly. If he wasn't killing it, he was giving it brain damage.

The hoof-to-hoof combat ended however, once the Ascended caught Cipher's hoof. Instead of counter-attacking, it merely wrapped its hooves around the metallic limb, and held it very close, refusing to let go. Cipher cried out, trying to kick and punch his assailant. He tried to get away from the mostly-paralyzed enemy...But to no avail. Cipher had no idea why his opponent was just holding him in place, thinking it merely wanted a time out.

Then, his hoof started to become warmer.

...Cipher's eyes widened. In shock, he started to try and kick it away like mad. It was getting warmer, then hotter...He was starting to sweat. It wasn't long before Cipher gasped and screamed in pain as his metal hoof began to burn from inside out. His prosthesis was starting to heat up - and this caused the nerves connected to it to sear, directly heated by the hot metal stuck to him. It was as if he was holding onto a hot iron, and could not let go of it.

Cipher tried Colton's trick when things were hopeless. One of his hooves went for one of the foe's eyes, ramming itself right into the socket...But to no avail. Even with an eye now gouged out with a deadly eye poke, the Ascended kept at it. No blood came from the missing eye, despite the fact that its eye was crushed, the socket continued glowing with its hot, eerie yellow. Cursing, Cipher went for the other one...And now, even with both eyeballs destroyed, the thing continued to operate, and continued its attempt to boil him from inside out. Cipher screamed, the skin around his hoof charring, blistering, and burning. Smoke came from his hoof and soon, with the sound of hissing metal and hydraulics failing...Gasses popping, electronics frying...

In a flurry of sparks and metal, the explosion blinded him. Cipher let out a scream as he was finally able to get away from the monster - for there was nothing that held him tethered to it. Or rather, there was nothing to hold onto with. The stallion rolled along the dirt as he lost several artificial kilograms of weight, becoming much lighter. Not a worthy trade in his eyes.

He was now without a hoof once more.

"GGGRAAAGH! Fuck! HGGH...F-Fuck!" Cipher tried to nurse the burned meat near the socket, but touching it was too hot, and nursing it between his thighs would not work. He could only pound the ground with his legs and hoof, eyes full of pained tears as fire tortured him.

The pain and injury made him helpless. Defenseless. And yet, the beast walked towards him, here to destroy him and reduce him to nothing.

The burning in his hooves...

It all felt like that same day, all over again.