CHAPTER FOUR: MONSTERS

"Seeing my malevolent face in the mirror, my benevolent soul shrinks back"
- Mason Cooley

"I wasn't prepared for this"
- Twilight Sparkle

Canterlot, the Citadel of Equestria, founded upon the flank of the mighty Canterhorn. It was said that in ages past, before Discord, before even the Princesses, the Peace of the Three Tribes had been struck here, on the first ever Hearthswarming Night. Drawing on this, romanticists liked to say that there was nowhere else on the planet quite so magical.

They were right, though in a far more literal way than they might have realized. The mountain was the very heart of Equestria's magic, a million-ton lodestone of living iron and gemstone, anchoring together the leylines that spread out across all of Equus.

And Canterlot itself was a conduit of that magic. The city was sculpted from gleaming marble, on foundations rooted deep in the core of the mountain; like water drawn into a sponge, the magicks welled up out of the mountain, flowing through the veins of quartz and iron that were part of the capital's fabric. The ponies living here were mostly unaware of it, even as the ever-present force weaved around them, lending them strength and health.

But the young alicorn standing on one of the palace balconies could feel it, like a tingle that suffused her from hoof to hairtip, setting feathers and fur on end.

It scared her, as much as it amazed her. Moments like this were frighteningly common nowadays, where she suddenly 'perceived' things with a depth of understanding that bordered on the divine. Just minutes ago she had glanced at her breakfast (a daisy muffin) and had somehow known its entire life story, from where the flowers had bloomed to which bakery had produced the confection (for the record, Sugar Cube Corner, who had a clandestine agreement to supply the palace with treats too 'low brow' for the distinguished chefs in the kitchens to behoove themselves to prepare).

So now, to take her mind off things, with her husband out leading a complement of the Royal Guard to Ponyville on an urgent, clandestine mission, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was attempting to fly.

"Alright…just breathe…" the Princess (though she preferred simply to be called 'Cadence') whispered to herself, nervously kicking off her golden regalia and ruffling her wings as the morning breeze tickled her mane. "Like Aunt Celestia said…just spread your wings, and let instinct guide you…"

The balcony projected out over the roaring waterfalls that poured down from the city terraces. If she did fall, it would take a long while to reach the bottom…

Cautiously, the last scion of the lost Crystal Empire, and presumptive Crystal Princess, trotted to the balustrade and rested her forelegs on it, hooves dangling over the yawing abyss.

Again, she tentatively fluttered her wings, pausing to glance over her shoulder at their powerful build and wide spread, before turning to gaze back over the rail at the void below. It almost seemed hungry, mouth open, ready to swallow her whole…

"You're not some crippled little groundling anymore Cadence!" she hissed to herself. "You're an Alicorn now, and have been for months. You belong in the sky just as much as any Pegasus! What would happen if the Crystal Empire returned right now and you couldn't even fly, let alone claim a throne and a kingdom!"

But years of life on the ground led weight to fears that she would simply fall out of the sky. Despite being of royal blood, for most of her life Cadance had simply thought of herself as a unicorn who happened to have a pair of vestigial wings. 'Pegacorns' were a genetic fluke that traced back hundreds of years, manifesting at random intervals like herself. Winged unicorns incapable of flight, or horned pegasai unable to cast even a basic spell.

That perception of herself changed on the last Hearthswarming Night. As a pony whose special talent was literally 'love', she had always enjoyed just walking through the streets on that particular night, basking in the special 'glow' she felt radiating off everypony. This year though, the glow had become a blazing heat striking through her, filling her with pain and fire until she passed out. When she had woken, she had found herself in the Royal Infirmary at Canterlot Palace, with no less than two Princesses watching over her with expressions mingling concern with pride.

Cadance found that she had been changed…transformed. Her first reaction upon seeing her own reflection was a blushing awareness of just how 'attractive' she had become, her proportions and frame longer, more elegant, swan-like. Like the Princesses.

But the shift went deeper than just appearance; she'd immediately been aware of a force, a warmth way down inside of her, as if she was carrying around a fire within her breast. It wasn't the soothing, familiar tingle of her magic, or the passionate heat of a fireside snuggle with her then-coltfriend Shining Armor. No, it was deeper, stronger, and all the more alien.

'Ascension' was the term Luna had used to describe what had happened to her, though Celestia, smiling knowingly, had suggested the more egalitarian word 'Awoken'. Apparently the two of them had been waiting for eons for a moment like this, and Cadence's mind had swum when she had heard why. Her world had suddenly been opened up, the two elder Alicorns entrusting her with knowledge kept secret for centuries.

The Crystal Empire, King Sombra, and so much more, a birthright now claimed for her by force. It meant she was no longer just a princess in name alone, the heir to a forgotten crown. No, apparently now she was a key player in a long-fought campaign for the very soul of Equestria. More than anything, it was not so much humbling, as terrifying.

They were still unsure of what the full ramifications of the change were however. Cadence had found herself to be stronger, faster, more confident in her abilities and capable of vast feats of physical and magical exertion for extended periods of time, but it was still uncertain as to whether or not she now ranked among the immortals.

More than any of the recent changes, that prospect, of eternal life, scared her most; of not only outliving Shining Armor, but outlasting him, of continuing on through centuries until her brave stallion's life and legacy was just a memory. It had been Luna who had broken that concern to her, the Lunar Regent speaking from a long-scarred-over wound deep in her heart, of how she had loved, and lost, of how she had raised a family, and saw them all succumb to old age while she remained young, an eternal rock in the sea of time.

Her potential immortality was something Cadance had no control over though, and so she had put it out of her mind, hoping it would never present itself as a problem. She was perhaps the only mare in the world who looked forward to one day finding grey hairs in her mane.

Perhaps that was why she and Shining had rushed into the wedding, to bind themselves together before any doubts could tear them apart. Maybe, yes maybe…

This though, flight, was another matter. She had flown once before, on the day of Chrysalis's invasion, and although that was just a brief glide, the sensation of soaring through the air had awoken something deep inside, centuries-old yearnings once buried deep. Even as much as she feared it, a primal part of her now longed to be in the sky, to claim her birthright as a creature of the air.

"Right…" she said, steeling her features. "Here we go…"

Closing her eyes and holding her chin high she stepped up onto the rail, flaring her wings so that they caught the breeze, and brought her hooves together, ready to push off.

Then she made the mistake of taking a quick peek, saw the mile-high precipice she was poised over, and toppled back onto the balcony with a panicking whinny, hyperventilating as her vision swam.

'I must be the only alicorn to have ever had vertigo!' she seethed, pounding the floor in frustration. It had only been meant as a light blow, but her hoof shattered the marble, leaving a six-inch-deep cavity in the stone.

'Another sign of just how much I've changed' she thought glumly as she tried to push chips of tilework back into the hole in a pathetic attempt to infill the damage. 'Just when I thought I was getting the hang of all thi-AH!'

"MONSTERS!"

Somewhere, far away, someone screamed, and Cadence sprang to her knees, somehow knowing that a kndred soul was crying out in fathomless pain. Whipping her head around her ears twitched as she gazed out southwards towards Ponyville. The magical field that permeated Canterlot was flaring, surging in time to the scream, but below, on the terraces, she could see the citizenry going about their daily routine without a care in the world.

Magic, she realized. Deep, primordial magic was at work here, and somehow only she, it seemed, could perceive it.

Fear vanished in a second, drowned out by concern, and a sudden, indescribable sense of being called to action, to duty.

Instincts finally took over, and the Alicorn of Love drew herself up and coiled her hindlegs, before hurling herself in a powerful leap out over the balustrade into thin air. Her wings snapped open and with an ear-shattering *CRACK* they swept back, hurling her through the air at near sonic-speeds in the direction of the cry that had summoned her.

As first flights go, it was not a bad show at all.

Celestia fled, not caring in which direction she was headed in a mad attempt to outrun the memories now pouring into her mind. Far below, the ground sped past, at speeds that would make a certain rainbow-maned pegasus blaze with envy. Information parsed from the mind of Marcus Renee informed in that the human term for her current velocity was 'Mach 3', and that at this speed and altitude, the skin should have been flayed from her bones. But physics bowed before immortal biology, and Celestia was not only surviving, but crying, tears flowing over her cheeks to be ripped away and cast off into her slipstream like scattered ice crystals.

More information poured through her mind, memories and knowledge ripping through her pscyche. Suddenly a particularly vivid memory slammed into her mind, sending spiraling into a screaming tailspin as she lost control of her body.

Paris, France, 2019 Anno Dominae

"I'm sorry..." Cheerilee had wailed. "Twilight...She...she turned him, Marcus!"

Marcus stood still, head bowed and fists clenched in grief as he read a brief message addressed to 'Next of Kin'.

JACOB ALLEN RENEE: b1991, p2019

His brother, Jacob, forcibly ponified by one Twilight Sparkle in Equestria's assault against the White House. Jacob had been part of the First Family's Secret Service detail, chosen for his skills and service in Serbia. The fact that he was young, personable and had qualified in child psychology (riding on a military scholarship) had seen him appointed as personal guard to the President's fifteen-year-old daughter.

Details of the assault on the White House were still sketchy, but it was fairly clear that several PER cells and a squadron of Equestria's Royal Guard had attempted to convert the President and his core staff. Marine One however was known to have safely evacuated the First Family, Jacob having forcible thrown the First Daughter onto the helicopter before slamming the door shut and screaming for the pilot to take off.

Jacob had last been seen trying to rescue a group of interns pinned down in the West Wing. The pony wearing his name however, had appeared on television not an hour later, praising his new bondage and flirting with Twilight Sparkle in the Oval Office. It had torn Marcus' heart to see the creature speaking with Jacob's voice planting a grateful kiss on Sparkle's cheek.

It was only one of multiple simultaneous attacks around the world, all focused on heads of state. Equestria had attempting to cripple human resistance by cutting off the head of their national governments.

The results had been…mixed. Few world leaders had been converted, but more had been killed resisting. Japan's Prime Minister Rokubungi, a former commando in that nation's Strategic Self Defense Forces, had managed to fell several of his attackers before taking his own life so as to deny them any semblance of victory. The more outlandish rumors said he had died half-ponified, using a severed unicorn's horn to commit ritual seppuku.

Most notable among the dead however was Queen Elizabeth the Second. The ninety-four year old monarch had been residing in Balmoral Castle in Scotland at time of the attack, which had come too suddenly for an evacuation. With the roads off the remote estate blocked, and helicopters unable to arrive in time, the PER had streamed the final assault live over the internet in a moment of triumphal arrogance.

They were perhaps not expecting for the venerable castle to have been rigged with demolition charges. The Queen's final words, broadcast to the world, had become a rallying cry in nations far beyond her former Empire.

"You think you can come into MY palace, MY country, and destroy the will of MY people! I may be old and decrepit, but I. WILL. NOT. STAND FOR THIS INSULT!"

"Potion the bitch!"

"I think not. Say goodbye to the world, and may God Almighty show you the mercy I withhold!"

BOOM!

People were already calling it the Balmoral Address. Such sentiments did nothing to assuage Marcus' own grief however.

"I'm...sorry..." Cheerilee whimpered as she approached him at the memorial, only for Marcus to fall to his knees and embrace in a hug. "I'm sorry..."

'Jacob' had died two months later when the Marines recaptured the White House. He had taken to calling himself 'Stalwart Heart' by then.

Celestia slammed into the ground, gouging a several-hundred yard furrow into the earth before skidding into a lake. Several thousand gallons of water, suddenly superheated by the impact, erupted skyward in a pillar of steam, and after a long moment several dozen dead fish rose to the surface, killed by the shockwave. Any other being would have soon joined them in death, but the Solar Alicorn was made of tougher stuff. Her body was sore, cuts and welts adorn her body as she laid on the ground, crying her eyes out as the memories played on.

London, England, 2020 Anno Dominae

"Sir, we're getting massacred here!" a soldier yelled as he rushed up to Marcus, ducking a high-flying bolt of magic as he slid behind the cover of a uprooted chunk of roadway.

"Tell me something that isn't obvious!" Marcus growled as he leveled his AA-12 shotgun, swung around the edge of their cover, and let loose a burst of buckshot, a form of ammunition ironically designed for game-hunting. The unicorn before him tried to keep his barrier up, but the precision needed to stop multiple pellets was too much for him, and the field collapsed with a flicker of wasted potential. Marcus already had a second round chambered, and once again he ducked out of cover, leveled the shotgun and pulled the trigger. The weapon jerked in his hands, and the unicorn splattered into a gory mess.

"They can still die, private! Just keep firing on them! We got to give those French troops time to pull the last civilians out!" Marcus yelled at them.

"Is this a right time for a joke about the French retreating?" the soldier answered, managing a sickly grin. Marcus only shook his head, not even finding a flicker of black humor in their situation.

"Just keep your head down and your cover on!" he snapped back, before everything went to hell. One moment, he was staring at the private, reaching out to tighten the rookie's helmet straps, the next, a rainbow-colored blur dashed past, tackling the younger man and catapulting him down the street. Marcus whirled around to see the kid land in a tangle of broken bones, screaming in pain, before his flying attacker looped back and hurled a fragile phial of potion into the screeching mound of flesh. Immediate exposure to his internal organs must have sped the transformation, because after just a few seconds of horrified howls, Marcus saw a weeping newfoal stagger to his hooves, helped by his now-landed midwife who had 'birthed' him, a rainbow-maned Pegasus recognized from the news.

"Welcome to the herd kid…" he saw her say, giving the newly-minted pony a quick hug, before directing a mocking grin back in his direction in a perversion of friendship.

"RAINBOW DASH! YOU FUCKING ANIMAL!" Marcus screamed, rage cascading throughout his entire being.

Before he could do anything other than scream impotently, Dash had taken back off; her new recruit carried between her and another Pegasus.

"Renee!" Marcus's radio crackled. "Last civilians are out! Recover Ambassador Heartstrings and Bon-Bon, then fall back to Heathrow Airport, now! We're pulling out of the country!"

"Acknowledged…" he answered, bloodshot eyes fixated on the three figures vanishing beyond the wall of the advancing barrier.

Celestia struggled to her hooves and limped out of the lake. The impact, although severe enough to tear every piece of armor from her body, had not hurt her near as much as what was going on inside her head. Gritting her teeth she tried to hold back another memory surfacing in her mind, but prying open cracks in her mind it forced its way through.

Mexico City, 2021 Anno Dominae

"Corre!" Marcus barked in Spanish. While not entirely confident in his syntax and pronunciation, he knew enough of the language to get a point across, and following his orders, a father and his son fled by him as he laid down covering fire for their escape. The father gave him a nod of thanks as he passed, shielding the boy with his body and carrying a tiny revolver for protection. Overhead, helicopters were dueling with flying chariots in a howling maelstrom of steel, fur, feathers and blood.

Mexico, in the post-Convergence economy, had become a major provider of military hardware, the country's auto plants quickly refitted to churn out armored vehicles and support trucks. It had also made it a major target for the PER, the self-styled 'liberators of the Earth' using Equestrian magic and reinforcements to try and take out vital cities in the supply chain, along with sowing indiscriminate carnage in an attempt to crush morale. Marcus had found himself unfortunate enough to have been in the country inspecting a growing weapons stockpile when one such attack had been launched.

"Mi hijo!" Marcus turned around to see the father drag his son into an alley. Seconds later, to his horror, Marcus heard the familiar 'fw-WHORP!' of an opening portal, and the child screaming.

"Hold this position!" he shouted to the few soldiers he had under his command, before charging round the corner and into the alley, just in time to see the father charge an orange coated-pony, howling in grief.

"Ah think you should take seat pardner," the cowpony said bluntly, pivoting on her forehooves to buck the enraged man, the impact shattering his kneecaps.

'No! Where's the child!' Marcus thought, before he noticed two Royal Guards pinning down a writhin figure behind several fallen trashcans. He fired, and one was hurled back, his neck a bloody ruin. The other threw himself onto Applejack and triggered some kind of talisman, throwing up a protective domed shield around them. Enraged, Marcus advanced, pouring full-auto fire into the micro-barrier before something causing him to stop on horror.

From behind the trashcans, a small pony had just stood up, a literal new foal, a smiling colt.

"No! Dios mio, NO!" the father wailed!

"Papá! Está bien! Yo sé mejor ahora! Únete a mí papá y nos-" the tiny creature said, dancing on his hooftips in elation, before a sharp crack snapped through the alley and the newfoal slumped to the ground, a hole in his head, eyes darkened forever. Marcus and the ponies alike turned in shock to look at the downed father, the revolver shaking in his hands as he bled out from the knees.

"You darn monster!" Applejack screamed, hurling one hoof against the inside of her shield. "That was your colt! We helped him! Made him pure and good, like us! Ayh'd have done the same for you too you ungrateful varmint!"

"Perdóname Padre, porque he pecado ..." the broken man stammered, before words began to tumble rapidly from his mouth in a final prayer. "Santa Maria, Madre de Dios, rezar por los pecadores somos, ahora y en la hora de nuestra murte!"

He pressed the gun to his own temple, glaring balefully at Applejack. He wanted her to see this.

"Amen!"

Marcus closed his eyes and turned away as the hammer came down.

Celestia could do nothing but weep openly as the memories of the human, Marcus, seared in her mind, sizzling with raw emotion, each one stronger than the last. Injustices heaping atop abominations and massacres. Even in her long years, fighting against enemies as diverse as Discord, King Sombra and Nightmare Moon, Celestia had never encountered war as total and uncompromising, and the sudden loss of that innocence was agony.

Heathrow Airport, 2020 Anno Dominae

"Get the King out of here! Get him on the jet!" Marcus roared as a Landrover screeched to a halt on a jetway, disgorging the new monarch of the United Kingdom and his family. King William himself was armed, one arm wrapped protectively around his wife's shoulders as troops hustled them and their children towards the largest plane in the jam awaiting takeoff, a British Airways Airbus A380.

"Speedbird 1!" the radio clipped to his belt crackled as the control tower issued orders to the Airbus's pilot. "As soon as the King's onboard, takeoff!"

"How, the runway's jammed with other planes in the queue!"

"Ignore them! Turn around and takeoff across the jetpad if you have to, ASAP! We're giving you emergency clearance to get off the ground by any means necessary!"

As the jet's captain acknowledged the call, Marcus turned to regard his own protectees.

"Lyra, Bon-Bon. You're going too! This might be the last flight out and we need you to get-"

"STOP!" someone demanded, and Marcus turned to find himself staring into the eyes of a small yellow pegasus.

"Fluttershy…" he heard Bon-Bon say softly, but the words seemed like they were coming from a million miles away as he faced down the twin aqua pools boring into his soul, overwhelming pressure bearing down on his mind. Dimly he perceived other soldiers caught in the legendary 'Stare's' field-of-fire had frozen too, unable to move.

"Now, put your weapons, DOWN."

Body twisting against his will, Marcus slowly placed his gun on the ground, even as he mentally screamed with every fiber in his being to blast Fluttershy out of existance. But he couldn't/

"Now then...I want all of you to take these potions here, and DRINK," the pegasus said, wearing a kind smile that failed to reach her eyes. The soldiers nodded stiffly, before shuffling forward like marionette puppets to take from a satchel of potion bottles Fluttershy had placed on the ground in front of her. None of them broke her fearful gaze until after they had swallowed, at which point they collapsed sideways, retching and gagging. One tried to force his hand down his throat in an effort to vomit up the purple goop, only for his fingers to fuse into a hoof too large to force past his lips.

All of them were screaming.

All of them expect Marcus, who had not drunk, or moved from his initial position, still staring down Fluttershy and jerking spasmodically as two wills fought for dominance.

The screaming voices had fallen silent now.

"Oh, you poor thing…" Fluttershy crooned, the pressure on Marcus's mind intensifying as she slowly spread her wings and lifted off the ground, coming up to his eye level and almost pressing their faces together so that her huge eyes filled his entire field of vision.

She smelt of hay and wildflowers, and her mane, brushing against his cheek, was soft and warm and soothing as an embrace. Every Freudian notion Marcus had ever considered was screaming at him to embrace her like a mother and join her in gleeful ponydom, to gallop through endless fields as a joyous member of the herd. But the air of soothing compassion she projected was offset by the cold depths of her eyes. He was meat to her, not a real person until he walked on all fours and sung her praises. His real mother's love had been unconditional.

"Would you please take this potion..."

Marcus only glared, jaw clenched so tight that blood was seeping from between his lips. His body was jerking, every muscle straining against the conflicting desires. Unless something happened soon, he was going to tear several ligaments, and that would be the end of him.

"Please, I am asking nicel-AIIIIE!" The buttery pegasus shrieked as a bullet ripped through one of her wingtips, and she whipped her head sideways as she struggled to stay up in the air, breaking the stare. Once again master of his own body, Marcus instinctively bellowed and threw his head forward, headbutting her in the temple with all the strength he could muster, before he collapsed in exhaustion. His head was ringing from the massive blow, but the pressure was gone. Knocked unconscious, Fluttershy hit the ground hard, and he heard a satisfying snap as at least one bone broke.

Chest heaving, he rolled sideways to see who had saved him, and to his shock saw Lyra standing just a few feet away, a discarded pistol held awkwardly in her mouth. She must have used her tongue to pull the trigger. Like him, blood was trickling from her jaws where the recoil of the weapon had cracked several teeth, but despite the immense pain she must have felt, Lyra stood frozen in shock at what she had done, trembling like a tree just before a gale downed it. Tears were beading in her eyes, and Marcus suddenly understood; although she had only clipped Fluttershy's wing, her intent had been to kill the buttery pegasus.

"Lyra…" he whispered in sympathy, knowing the horror she must have felt, the same as he had felt after his first 'kill'. Taking lives got easier with time, but to cross that line for the first time was to permanently brand one's soul with a mark that ran deep

Bon-Bon was just behind her marefriend, mouth open and aghast. "Lyra, what have you DONE!? YOU SHOT FLUTTERSHY!"

Before Lyra could answer, the former Ambassador was tackled by one of the newfoals, a turquoise unicorn who minutes before had been a Royal Marine..

"Traitor!" he screamed, one hoof coming down on Lyra's snout with a blistering 'crack'! "Monster! Meanie-pants!"

The unicorn raised his hoof to knock her out, when he suddenly gurgled, looking down at where a bayonet blade was embedded in his barrel. Then he looked up to see that his killer was Bon-Bon, the blade's hilt grasped in her teeth. Like Lyra, tears were flowing from her eyes.

"But…why…" the newfoal spluttered, before slowly collapsing onto his side, life ebbing away. "We're…we're ponies…"

The bayonet had pulled away from him as he fell, leaving it hanging from Bon-Bon's mouth, the blade covered in blood. Her grip slackened, and it clattered to the ground. The creamy mare stared at it in mute silence, before shuddering and sniffling. Her marefriend did the same, and moments later the two ponies had pulled one another into an embrace, howling together at the loss of something that had been a fundamental part of their identities.

Still lying on the ground, limbs burning from his duel of wills with Fluttershy, Marcus watched the two of them mourn the loss of their innocence, tears trickling from his own eyes.

Rapid footfalls heralded the arrival of King William, who threw himself down next to the mortally wounded unicorn, dragged off his jacket and pressed it to the knife-wound. "Get this man a doctor, or a vet, whatever, RIGHT NOW!"

"Your Majesty…" someone stuttered. "That's…that's the enemy!"

"This 'enemy' was one of my subjects two minutes ago, and God help me he still will be come the end of all this! MEDIC!"

The rest was all a blurr. Equestrian Royal Guards came crashing in ahead of the Barrier to recover Fluttershy and the other newfoals, and a running gunfight had ensued as Lyra, Bon-Bon and Marcus were lifted or dragged to the Airbus, the King carrying the feebly struggling newfoal in his arms.

"Speedbird 1" the tower yelled over the radio. "All VIPs are aboard, takeoff now!"

"But what about you…"

"GO NOW! DON'T WORRY ABOUT US! GODSPEED AND GOOD LUCK TO YOU AL-OH GOD!"

Rocking on its landing gear, the Airbus' engines roared, and then the mammoth aircraft made a power-turn off the taxi-ramp and accelerated across the jetpad as the Barrier swallowed the airport, the shockwaves of its approach felling the control tower. Just as it reached takeoff speed, the superjumbo dropped roughly off the asphalt and onto grass, almost bogging down before air caught under the wings and it soared upwards, buffeting wildly as it caught the turbulence of other aircraft.

"HOLD ON TIGHT!" someone yelled over the cabin address system, and several hundred evacuees crammed aboard shrieked as the pilot rolled the jet onto its side to avoid other aircraft taking off in a panic. Marcus had been thrown against a window, and stared straight down in horror as he saw two Boeing 747s collide in mid-air just five hundred feet below them. The shockwave almost swatted the Airbus down, but somehow it stayed aloft as the burning wreckage of the two entwined jets fell away beneath them. Marcus watched in silent horror as the entangled aircraft plunged onto Windsor Castle, an immense fireball marking the funeral pyre of countless lives.

As the Airbus banked away to the North, he briefly caught a glimpse back towards London. The city was gone, and all that could be seen was the Barrier, advancing down the runaways of Heathrow. When it reached the ruins of Windsor, it would wipe everything away. The jets, the castle, the bodies. There would be no funeral or grave for the dead, and for a moment fiery rage consumed him, before he was suddenly drowned in grief and weariness.

Perhaps the dead were the fortunate ones; their troubles, after all, were over now. It was the living that had to suffer on.

"Damn them…damn us…" he heard someone whisper, and as the plane leveled out he weakly looked sideways to see King William cradling the lifeless body of the newfoal he had tried to save. Somewhere else in the cabin he could still hear Lyra and Bon-Bon crying together, their pained whinnies standing out amid a rising chorus of tears and cries as the plane gained altitude.

The King closed the dead pony's eyes, shoulders twitching. "So much loss, so much death and pain and suffering and rape of innocence…"

Marcus nodded in understanding.

"We'll all go to the Devil for this."

Celestia managed to drag herself to the lake, and began to drink earnestly. Sighing, she looked down to see her reflection gazing back at her…

…and smirking!

Le Havre, France, 2020 Anno Dominae

Marcus' stomach growled painfully; with the exception of some near-expired MREs, he hadn't eaten all day.

The Normandy shoreline stretched away into the rain, buildings dark monoliths in the gloom, deprived of light and power, crouching on the leaden edge of the English Channel. Tens of ships had already fled, carrying away as many refugees as could climb aboard them for the relative safety of Britain, but even more remained, waiting for the next round of evacuation and hoping to escape before the barrier claimed them. Turning he took in the few dozen people he was shepherding through the outskirts of Le Havre. They looked tired, exhausted even, which confused the Marine greatly; the civilians he could understand, but even his own troops looked haggard, despite today's evac having been a cakewalk compared to the previous week's litany of running gunfights. They'd even been able to salvage some stale pastries from the back of an abandoned patisserie, though Marcus had foregone his share in favor of leaving more for the rest; he'd eat when they got to the ships.

It was almost suspiciously quiet, like something unseen was gathering breath, preparing to shout.

"What the hell is going on with you people?" he demanded.

"I...I don't know Sir..."a lance corporal beside him heaved, a donated bomber-jacket hanging off his shoulders. "I just fell…so heavy..."

"Get it off me!" a voice suddenly shrieked from the back of the group, where one man was struggling with his coat.

"What's wrong!" Marcus grabbed the man, who was tearing at the sleeves of the trenchcoat, another piece of clothing scavenged during the long hike to the coast.

"Too tight!" the man cried out "It won't come off!"

"Don't talk shit, it's just-DAMN!" Marcus jumped back as the collar suddenly zippered itself shut and a button-up flap snapped shut across the throat, buckling tight.

"Help…me!" the man gasped, choking for air. Suddenly portions of the jacket tore open and thick straps flew out from hidden compartments in the lining, wrapping around him and pinning his arms in place. Unbalanced, the man tipped onto the ground, panting in panicked, shallow breaths heralding the onset of unconsciousness.

"Ensorcelled fabric!" Marcus shouted in sudden understanding, before spinning and yelling back towards the rest of the group. "Knife! I need a kni.."

The order died in his throat. More than half of the people under his care had just as abruptly found themselves prisoners in their own clothes. Most were already prone on the ground, while a few struggled willfully against the enchanted garments. One woman had managed to pull off most of her sweater, but the item had latched onto her arm like some extra-terrestrial parasite, a free sleeve lashing out like a tentacle to bind her other arm in place, before it pulled her into a submission bind with such force that he heard the bones in her arms snap like twigs, and the unfortunate refugee passed out from shock.

"Quick! Get them free before…what's wrong with you all!" he shouted, trying to rally some action out of those still on their feet, but they just regarded him dully, eyes unfocused and faces blank, almost like the gaze of a cow.

Then, like puppets jerked by a string, they all turned to face a flyover that carried the Route Nationale 29 over this part of the docks.

"Oh my…the plan went wonderfully!" a voice called out from the bridge. "Now you wait right there my dears, and you'll be all right in just a minute."

Instinctively Marcus rolled into the cover of a railroad wagon parked on a dockside siding. Unshouldering the grenade launcher he carried on his back, a German-made Neo-Panzerfaust, he used the stock to carefully knock through a rusting panel in the side of the empty coal hopper, and peering through he saw two ponies standing on the edge of the highway span.

One was a vibrant pink Earth Pony, her mane a mess of candyfloss curls. The other was a prim unicorn, from whose back a pair of gossamer-like butterfly wings projected. Pinkie Pie and Rarity, he understood their names to be. Two of the so-called 'Elements', or Celestia's personal cadre of advisors, generals, puppets, whatever.

Carefully he aimed the Neo-Panzerfaust, lining the two up in his sights. If he could use the inbuilt rangefinder to detonate the grenade just as it passed them, the explosion should take the both of them out…

"Well Pinkie…" the elegant alabaster mare said, turning to her companion. "I was dubious about your leaving drugged food supplies out for them to take, but it worked just as well as my bindwear. I guess I owe you that cupcake after all. All the same, isn't it wonderful when they so willingly accept the gifts of our generosity?"

"Yuperoony!" The pink one bounced, before, to Marcus' horror, turning to point straight in his direction just as he brought his finger to rest on the trigger. "Except that one! He didn't eat anything this morning. We should catch him!"

"Allow me Darling," the white unicorn replied, fluttering up on her butterfly wings, her horn lighting up. Without time to program the rangefinder on the grenade, Marcus squeezed the trigger, and the Neo-Panzerfaust spit out a high velocity grenade riding on a jet of flame. Whirling aside on her wings, the white unicorn caught the offending object, and nonchalantly threw it down onto the bridge.

"Really, there's no need to be so crud-AH!"

Even without the rangefinder set, the grenade was still live, and tossing it onto the roadbed was enough to light it off. The shockwave from the blast was enough to swat Rarity from the sky, tossing her into the shipping channel, and as for her companion…

…where had Pinkie gone? She had been standing right where the grenade had landed…

"Hi there!" said pony chirped in his ear, and Marcus spun to see Pinkie's head protruding from the clenched fist of the railroad car's coupler-knuckle. How had she…

"You're not very nice are you?" the offending mare continued, pulling herself free of the coupler as Marcus struggled to reholster the Neo-Panzerfaust and draw his pistol. "Maybe that's because you're so hungry. ANypony can be pretty mean on an upset stomach. Here, have a cupcake!"

From somewhere unseen she suddenly produced a small piece of confectionary, the icing patterned with rainbow-stripes, and hurled it at Marcus like a cartoon bomb.

Time slowed down as it hurtled straight for his face. It could be more drugs, or even laced with potion…if a few drops got in his mouth, or even made contact with his skin…

A burst of gunfire snapped him out of his fugue, bullets shredding the cupcake in mid-air before it could reach him. Pinkie yelped and dived back into some nether-realm within the four walls of the railroad car, and Marcus spun to see a troupe of people in haphazard military gear storming up the docks towards them. Some soldiers, but quite likely a lot of angry civilians with rifles too.

"Quickly!" one of them, a woman, shouted in French. "Grab those people and get them to the ships."

The deep breath truly did preface the plunge, because just as they reached the drugged or incapacitated ponies, a wing of Pegasai shock-troopers dropped out of the leaden sky, hurling rounds of potion. The stationary people who had fallen prey to Pinkie and Rarity's 'generosity' were almost all hit, and a few of the rescuers too before the remainder routed the skybourne ponies with strafes of full-auto fire.

When ingested, the Potion contained a sedative that knocked out the subject until the process was complete. If absorbed through the skin however, they felt everything, and the pain was enough to wake the unconscious and snap the drugged victims out of their stupor.

Their screams were mercifully brief. Struggling to tune them out by taking action, Marcus had managed to grab the woman whose arms had been shattered by the bindwear, and carried her in a fireman's hold to the first evac ship he came to. But the damage to her limbs had resulted in several blot-clots, and one had eventually broken free and reached her heart…

She was buried at sea, her frail body committed for a while to the deep as the pink wall of death slowly advanced over the horizon, consuming the last of Le Harve…

'Ah, there you are. So, Twilight Sparkle really did throw that poor animal into another Equestria. We did wonder…'

Celestia stared at the image before her. This wasn't her reflection, dirty and beaten, tears bleeding from her eyes. No, its bearing was prim and proper, a small smile gracing her face and flickers of magic flowing up and down her horn.

'Oh, don't cry for them, it doesn't become a Goddess. We're only doing what is best for them after all...' the reflection spoke.

The afternoon air fell strangely silent, as birds and creatures of the forest, even the insects that swarmed by night, sensed something terrible stirring and fled in terror. Fish that had survived the Princess's dive into the lake shot downstream as Celestia's gaze hardened, her eyes quickly drying. "You are her…the Solar Tyrant..."

'I am you Celestia, and you are I, though a lesser shadow…I am you fulfilled, made complete, the you that is destined to bring perfect Harmony to entire worlds…'

"Don't even say the word Harmony!" Celestia suddenly snapped, a mote of rage blooming in her chest. "What you're doing is nothing of the sort!"

"You poor thing. Has he really filled your mind with such delusion in so little time. They're just misguided, resisting because they don't know the Harmony we can bring them..."

"I Said To Not Abuse That Word!" Celestia intoned, the Royal Canterlot Voice looming as a threat at the edge of her voice. "This is not what Clover, or Starswirl, or even the Scribe taught us of the ways of Harmony. You bring naught but disaster and destruction..."

"They need to change, it is their salvation..."

"You are destroying them...killing them..."

"Monsters need to be killed..." the doppelganger said, her face composed and full of righteous conviction. Seeing it triggered another surge of borrowed memories, and Celestia gritted her teeth as the wave broke over her…

Bern, Switzerland, 2019 Anno Dominae

"What did you say..." a reporter said in numb shock.

"While it is in my power to stop the barrier...I morally cannot." Celestia smiled benignly down at the human reporters gathered before her in Equestria's Swiss embassy. "Your world is too dear, your lives too precious, for me to do otherwise. To allow you to continue as you are would be a crime."

She was happy to see several ponies in the room as well, though that brought to mind a sour note as counterpoint; she understood that the London Embassy was refusing to acknowledge her instructions to go into lockdown – once this was done she should go speak with Ambassador Heartstrings and clear up this little misunderstanding.

"The barrier is expanding, and the only way to survive is to change," she continued, seeking to ease their evident confusion and misbegot fear. "The Conversion Bureaus were set up precisely for that reason, to rid you from the violence and chaos that so perverts your inner equines, to set you gloriously free as prosperous, happy ponies, truly alive and aware of the magic arou-"

"What if we don't want to change!?" A reporter from NBC shouted in anger, the interruption throwing Celestia's train-of-thought off the rails and into the cornfields. No-one had questioned her in centuries, no-one except for Luna…no, no, that was a memory too raw and recent to remember.

"We cannot allow you to not change…" she said, drawing on that lingering hurt from their recent fight and channeling it into resolve. "In our recent war with the revived Crystal Empire, Equestria has seen the hurt and suffering that comes with allowing chaos and evil to reign free. You are just as much slaves to your inner demons and destructive technology as my dear ponies were slaves to King Sombra. I regret having to kill him, but I shall not kill a single one of you. Instead, we shall save you, one and all!"

She had hoped they would accept her words with shouts of thanks, but instead the reporters were beginning to back away from her, as if she was a dangerous animal. How dare they! Some attempted to flee to the doors, only to run into the Royal Guard and an assortment of smiling newfoals, recently the human members of the embassy staff. Seeing the beaming faces of her new little ponies lit a fire in Celestia's breast, and he drew herself up proudly upright, committing history to its new Course.

"You here will be the first, and the whole world will see and rejoice with you in your salvation."

"You can't do this!" screamed a young female reporter as the Guards began to advance, corralling them. Celestia only smiled at her, shaking her head in amusement.

"I can and I must. There is nothing in this world that can stop me, for your very world itself calls out to me to rescue you from yourselves..."

She nodded towards the newfoals, and bowing briefly to her they then pushed open a set of doors and revealed racks of potion stored in thin glass phials, which they began to toss into the crowd, who were roaring with fear and anger. Then they began to scream, and Celestia felt her eye twitch involuntarily. Curious…perhaps she was wrong to do….

The first peals of laughter shattered that fragile voice of dissent, and as her newborn ponies awoke to discover the delight of their new bodies she felt the fire within burn all the more hotter, like a loving blaze crying to be set loose on the world, to consume everything in Harmony.

"We are the harbingers of your perfection…" she said kindly, turning to face the television cameras. "And there is no force in this world that can stop the barrier...accept your fate, and join us."

The world watched in horror at what was being broadcasted live to across any country with a television set. Before the keys of billions, the God-Empress of Ponykind pronounced mankind as unfit to live, and transformed the gathered reporters against their will.

And so it was that Princess Celestia declared war against humanity.

And she did it with a smile.

"No!" Celestia declared, all tears and grief forgotten now, a hoof stamping down in the reflection's face not out of spite, but out of conviction. "You are the monster, an affront to all life!"

As the lake rippled around her hoof the other her flickered on the surface of the water, jumbled and broken, but her eyes sad and pitying.

'So you refuse this truth…I'm so sorry for you, Little Princess…if you can't accept it, then why not let me show you what awaits you if you proceed down this path.'

Once again Celestia felt her mind succumb to an external, or internal force, and opened her eyes to find herself back in an open white void, bound and shackled in a kneeling posture, stripped of her crown and regalia. The same human, Marcus, stood before her. He was dressed in faded fatigues, with pouches of various sizes adorn his body armor. Around his neck he wore a necklace of unicorn horns, and a pegasai wing was clipped to his belt as a bloody trophy. He was holding a weapon, what she knew was called an 'M4 assault rifle' in his hands, aiming straight at her skull, and hatred was burning in his eyes.

Celestia lowered her eyes, as if in acceptance of her fate, and began to chuckle softly.

"You poor, deluded little thing…you know absolutely nothing of this man-RARGH!"

Rearing back she roared with strength, and the bounds and shackles and the Void itself shattered into nothing, leaving her standing back on the shores of the lake, eyes blazing with incandescent energy.

'What!' shrieked the reflection of the Solar Tyrant. 'How can you deny what I showed you, how can you ignore that they only want to kill us all!'

"Because he shared his innermost self with me, all of his memories!" Celestia said, one hoof coming down in a stomp that broke no argument. "And as well as the bad, I saw the good!"

'There is no good in them!' the Tyrant seethed, her own eyes crackling with force from across the dimensional veil. 'Only a twisted parody of virtue, subsumed beneath everything that makes them imperfect. It is our destiny to make that spark manifest, but burning away the rot!'

"Your mind is small, worm of the wastes, your heart shriveled by fear and distrust" Celestia said, her voice booming with the rage of an entire world and horn roaring with fiery white plasma. "Let me show you the truth of HARMONY!"

With one sweep of her wings she ascended high over the lake and released a brilliant surge of purest Memory…

A limping Marcus staggers into the New York bunker. Cheerilee is waiting for him, and before he can even raise a hand in greeting she gallops straight at him and envelops him in a passionate hug, knocking the two of them to the floor. There are no words, only love.

Derpy Whooves, brave, strange, dizty and misunderstood Derpy, soaring through enemy formations, dodging, weaving and looping erratically to evade Pegasai warriors, a saddlebag stuffed with medical supplies hanging from her side and a first aid kit clenched in her teeth. Suddenly she dives and plummets in a controlled stall, before swooping behind a mound of rubble where two wounded soldiers are awaiting rescue.

A woman, the French commando, tossing little Dinky in the air, the lavender filly shrieking with laughter as they celebrate her new cutie-mark.

Vinyl Scratch and her cousin Allie Way, 'the Blue Belles', galloping through the streets of Boston. Vinyl, the legendary DJ-Pon3, is bobbing her head to a selection of the greatest rock hits of all time, an MP3 player strapped to her forehoof. Allie, a bowling prodigy with an eagle eye for ballistics, is wearing a holographic HUD visor. Three unicorn mages suddenly lunge into view, and Vinyl stops and hits a switch on her other hoof. Twin loudspeakers mounted on her battle-saddle blare solid walls of sound that break the ambusher's line. Allie, an auto-aiming turret carried on her own back, fires tear gas grenades into their midst to keep them down, before the two-pony-team continue on their way, weaving between the battle-lines, delivering vital intelligence.

Spitfire lying prone on a street, downed in an attack, one wing broken. Suddenly a solider throws himself over her to shield her from harm. Two hurled spears embed themselves in the adamantine plates of his flak jacket. She looks up, her eyes narrow in shock, and she rears up and throws him off, before hurling herself onto his chest, shielding him in turn from a potion phial that shatters harmlessly across her flank. They bop foreheads together in mutual thanks and share an adrenaline-fueled grin.

Lyra and Bon Bon cuddling on a couch, watching a movie with Marcus, Cheerilee and the rest of the humans. Marcus is scratching his 'Cher' behind the ears when tiny Pipsqueak, a war orphan, trots in, sees the two couples, and mimicks vomiting in disgust. Everyone just laughs back at him in good humour, all aware of how the young colt's eyes are always flicking towards the younger daughter of the Whooves clan.

Zecora calmly tattooing tribal markings on the back of another zebra, laughing as she shares a joke with a Kenyan soldier recently recruited from the Mombasa Resistance.

Doctor Whooves and his daughter Sparkler, working on a small piece of metal, Marcus hovers behind them, an expression of wonder on his face as he watches them craft.

"These precious memories destroy the lies you have built to shield your conscience!" Celestia boomed, her entire body burning with power. "This Is Unity! This Is Love! THIS IS HARMONY!"

Below her the image of the solar tyrant had swollen to fill the entire surface of the lake, glaring balefully up at her.

'There can be no peace, no compromise, no accord between Us and Them. You have seen his memories, how they poisoned their world, incited violence and murder, turned our own ponies against us!'

"And you have done just the same, or even worse!" Celestia roared back down, the reflection rippling at the force of her shout. "You have corrupted your Equestria, tainted the souls of precious ponies with cruelty and malice, and drawn two realities into a war of endless death and atrocity! Harmony, true harmony, transcends species and worlds – it is the finding of common ground despite differences, the nurturing of love between all! You would create a desolation and name it Peace!"

The Tyrant moved to retort, when the surface of the lake on which her image was cast exploded in a mountain of foam. Celestia's armor, called from where it had fallen in the her crash, roared out of the depths and flew to its mistress. Golden plate, bucklers, pauldrons and mail all wrapped around her as the warrior princess readied herself for the fight once more, head bowed and gaze turned inward. Finally a last fragment of gold shot out from the lake, a familiar crown set with a single amethyst gem. As its weight settled once again on her brow Celestia opened her eyes, which now glared down at her other self with a quiet focus.

"I will not allow some Tyrant rule with an iron hoof," she said, in what was almost a whisper.

The air wavered from intense heat. On the shore of the lake, a bush burst into flames, sparks and embers spreading the blaze to nearby trees.

"I will not allow an entire species to die quietly and fade into the darkness."

The entire lake was boiling. The forest around it was being swallowed in the growing conflagration.

"I will not stand to see the rape of innocence and innocents alike, of the peaceful being forced to take up bloody arms, and the grotesque being violated in mind, body and soul!"

The Tyrant glared back at her, her face roiling like some ghostly image on the turbulent surface of the lake.

"Equestria, all of Equus, will rise against you! We will fight."

Celestia's wings snapped open in a battle-stance, leaving her suspended in the air by magic alone.

"We will turn this darkness away, and come to the rescue of all you have subjugated, Pony and Human, Earthborn and Equestrian alike."

Her entire body filled with a gold light.

"We will cast you down, and cast you out!"

Screaming in rage, Celestia dived like a golden sunbolt, broke the sound barrier in less than a second, and impacted into the very center of the Tyrant's face The resulting explosion lit up the surrounding hills and mountains as the entire contents of the lake flash-boiled into steam. After a long moment the particles of air were seized by an immense magical field that pulled them back into condensation, hot rain that poured down on the ruined valley, extinguishing the burning trees.

In the punchbowl crater that had been the lake, Celestia stood firm, cracks radiating out from where her hooves were embedded in the stone exposed by her rage. The falling rain did not faze or even touch her, boiling back into steam the moment it touched her luminescent coat or glowing, superheated armor.

"In Harmony's name, I swear it."

Luna flew as quickly as she could over the rolling countryside, homing in on the beacon of energy that was her sister. But despite flying at just above the speed of sound, she knew she would not reach where Celestia had landed for several more minutes; for her all skill and speed as a flier, when possessed of deep emotion an Alicorn's power transcended the physical realm – Celestia, in the depths of the pain and grief inflicting her soul, and flown away with a speed that had not been seen in all of Luna's many centuries.

'Princess Luna!' she heard a familiar voice cry out in her mind, and rolling onto her back she blinked with surprise to see a pastel-coloured dot soaring along in her slipstream. A moment's time for her eyes to focus revealed her pursuer to be Princess Cadence, several miles behind and struggling to catch up, even as the younger alicorn's wings blurred with preternatural strength.

"Cadence!" she cried out, before righting herself and easing back a little, allowing the Alicorn of Love to come alongside as she spared her great-descendant a momentary smile of pride. "One sees that we are not alone out flying today…it is good to see you are here as well…but tell, me, how didst thou come to be at our side?"

"I…I was on a balcony outside Canterlot Castle, when I felt someone scream…I…I think it was Aunt Celestia…" Cadence said slowly, the words hitching in her throat. "I was like a call, a call that only I could hear and muster. I had to come."

"And we are most glad to see you…" Luna said kindly, reaching out with one hoof to lightly touch Cadence in a gesture of comfort. "Please my dear, there's no need to address me by my title; are we not family?"

"Oh?" Cadence replied, a touch of youthful bravado making itself shown. "Well, there's about fifty generations between us, but would 'Grandmother' do?"

Luna spluttered and almost fell out of the air, giving Cadence momentary fears of banishment and exile at the hooves of the warlike mare clad in midnight battle armor. But to the young princess's relief, when the Lunar Alicorn recovered her flight, she was laughing.

"Grandmother? Haha! Oh it's been many, many years since anyone honored me with that name, but no my dear. Appropriate as it may be, I'd rather think of us as sisters of a sort; equals, not merely ancestor and descendant. We are alicorns, a rare and lonely breed, too few to treat as anything less than the closest of kin. Please, call me Luna…"

Cadence blushed at the show of kinship, before her ears twitched and she felt a pull in her chest drawing her on, and from some unknown inner source of strength she surged forward, keeping pace with the now somber Luna as they powered over valleys and mountains, far beyond Equestria's borders and into the wild lands that covered most of Equus, wooded wastes home only to the fey creatures that thrived beyond the light of 'civilization'.

"…I fear family is one of the few things we have left to cherish in this new and turbulent time…" the Princess of the Night added darkly.

"What happened, Luna?" Cadence enquired, unable to keep a nervous note out of her voice. "Have the Crystal Empire and King Sombra returned as you predicted they soon would?"

"No, dear Crystal Princess…" Luna replied, a slightly sad smile gracing her face. "Your own time of trial is not yet upon us. No, if anything all Equestria now faces a test and a threat unlike any other – ourselves."

When Cadence made no show of understanding, Luna explained further. "You understand that Shining Armor was called away on a secret mission this morning. Celestia and I voyaged to Ponyville on the same business, after receiving a missive of distress from master Spike, squire and assistant to thy sister-in-law…"

"Twilight's in danger!?" Cadence cried out, ready to tip her wings and bank back towards Ponyville, until Luna gave a gentle telekinetic tug to keep her on course.

"Twilight Sparkle and her good friends are safe, I assure you Cadence, though at first we had reason to believe they were under attack from a dangerous animal" Luna said, indicating with a wince her bruised ribs. "It did not go well."

"What kind of beast could wound you like that?" Cadence asked. "And where's Aunt Celestia?"

"No beast could be so fierce while knowing any touch of pity," Luna answered her. "It is a being, a sentient mind and heart as surely as we or any pony, griffin or dragon. Its' species is called 'human', and the example we met was very powerful indeed, with advanced runic markings on its body to enhance its abilities. Such work has not been seen since the creation of the Crystal Ponies, as it is a long art we decreed should be forgotten."

"And Aunt Celestia?" Cadence twisted and gave Luna a look over. "Is she okay?"

"I do not know," Luna said quietly. "The creature claimed to be from another world, cast into ours by a fluke of arcane magic. She tried to pry into his mind, to see for herself the veracity of his words. It back fired on her. She fled in terror, and had we tried to contain her, I fear she would have attacked myself and the Elements of Harmony. It is her grief that you feel within you, her mind reaching out to all she considers her kin, begging for comfort."

Again Cadence felt a warm glow at being thought of as family to such long-lived and powerful beings, another reminder of how much she had changed, even as a subtle sense of horror began to dawn upon her.

"What…what did she see?" Cadence she finally enquired, made fearful by the implication that the Solar Regent, Equestria's eternal champion, could be reduced to such a low by a single mind. "What nightmare world did he come from to frighten her so?"

"As you say, a nightmare world" Luna answered, her voice low and guarded. "It seems that the realm of humans is under attack, driven to a grim and terrible war of survival. We shall know soon enough – Celestia stopped running away some time ago, and if my senses are still as keen as they once were, she lies just beyond the next ridge. Then we shall have our answer-"

The sentence remained unfinished, because as the two of them ascended to fly over the crest of the wooded ridge, pillar of light appeared in the distance, stretching to the heavens.

"BRACE YOURSELF!" Luna yelled, a second before grabbing hold of Cadance and spinning around to shield the younger princess's body with her own as the shockwave hit. Tornado force winds smashed the two of them out of the air, and Luna ploughed straight through several trees, shattering them like matchsticks as she kept herself curled around Cadence in a protective embrace until...

"CRASH!"

…a final blast of heat and pressure leveled the forest as far as the brow of the rise, laying the trees flat. The same current of air threw the two fliers back into the air before they struck the ground, and Luna released her hold on Cadence, allowing the pair of them to catch sky under their wings and recover their previous course and altitude.

"That…that…" Cadence gasped in shock.

"That was not bad for one's first flight…" Luna smiled gently, before her expression grew stern. "But if you are to someday ascend to the Crystal Throne, you must hone your body as much as your mind and spirit. In times of peace a monarch must juggle naught but the niceties of politics, but when war arises, it is to us that our warriors look for leadership in battle…"

"But, I'm not a soldier, I'm not even…" Cadence began, before slowly looking back at the burning remnants of the forest, a conflagration hot enough to crack and shatter solid stone, brought on by an explosion that had leveled thousands of trees. Yet it had not left so much as a scratch on her, or singed the tips of her mane's hairs.

"You are you…" Luna said softly, but not unkindly. "And you are kin, with all that entails, precious one. I think that someday, you small make a great Princess and ruler. But today, we are called to fight, if what I see before me is true."

She pointed forward to what must have been the epicenter of the blast, a rising column of fume and steam. "We have gone far beyond charted Equestria, into the far reaches of Sibearia. This valley was once called Ponguska, and that was, until a moment ago, Lake Kowbel. COME! THIS WAY!"

With that she dropped forward and dove down towards the bottom of the Ponguska valley. Cadence followed, gasping as she took in what had once been a lake. Now there was a large circle of dark glass almost half a mile across. No trees or stones, just a deathly smooth depression. The edge of the circle was wreathed with flames as what few combustibles remained shouldered. Buffeted by turbulent updrafts from the rising steam, Cadence matched Luna's course towards the center of the circle, a small white dot on an irregular island of charred stone. As they did, she felt the air around her tingle with the familiar trill of Celestia's magic, before the choking mass of vapor was siphoned up into an immense cumulus that began to rain condensation down on them. Instinctively she cast a shielding spell, and the rainfall bend around her.

'When did I learn how to do that?' she wondered for a moment, before trying to put the unnerving thought out of her mind, repressing a shiver as they came in for an ungraceful landing beside the far more composed Luna.

"I swear it…" she heard Celestia speak aloud, the Solar Alicorn's entire form glowing with ethereal light.

"Sister!" she heard Luna cry out, punctuating it with her own shout of "Aunt Celestia!"

Celestia turned to face them with a surprised start, her eyes momentarily loosing focus…

Reykjavik, Iceland, 2021 Anno Dominae

Continental Europe had all but fallen. Britain and Ireland were gone as well, and the Barrier now touched on two more landmasses, Asia and Africa, reaching as far in various directions as the Black Sea, Morocco, and the Faroe Islands. The only consolation was that it had slowed down somewhat once it hit the Atlantic.

The island nation of Iceland would fall within six months, by all projections, which begged questions of why Marcus was in that country's capital city, accompanied only by Lyra and two volunteers as bodyguards. One carried a video-camera, recording whatever would transpire.

"Are you sure this pony's on the level?" he asked for what seemed the thousandth time, breath forming white clouds in the crisp night air. "Because asking me to come virtually alone, without even giving me the name of our contact, makes me question my faith in even you Lyra."

"I guess asking you to just trust me then isn't going to help?" Lyra smirked, her hooves trotting lightly on the ground as they moved through the city's industrial district. "There's no need anyway; there she is."

At her nod the two guards spun, directing gun-mounted flashlights into a patch of shadows, which suddenly gained mass and texture, forming into a quadrupedal form. Marcus blinked, even as his hands hung by his twin holsters, ready to draw if necessary.

Like detail fading in, the mass of shadows slowly coalesced into the form of a large pony, a dark blue in colour, except for her mane, which was pale as powder.

"Oh, Princess!" Lyra gasped, one hoof flying to her mouth in shock. "What happened to your mane?"

Marcus however had only heard the word 'princess' before his eyes darted between the horn on the newcomer's forehead and the wings projecting from her back…

"It's the Solar Tyrant in disguise!" one of the guards shouted, before Lyra threw herself forward.

"Wait! No, she's not…she's…"

"Princess Luna, Alicorn of the Night, Regent of the Moon…" Marcus said evenly, before tipping forward in a courtly bow he had learnt during his Embassy service, keeping on his best behavior and aware of how the video camera would record his every word and move for posterity. "It is a pleasure, milady."

"Please, I am but Luna," the dark alicorn replied, kneeling in turn. "I come before you stripped of my crown and throne, and were all Equestria to beg me to take up either once more I would say 'nay'. I present myself to you as a willing exile."

"On the contrary, I see nothing but true royalty here, your highness," Marcus replied, smiling kindly. "We are glad to recognize one of Equestria's leaders, if she comes in peace."

"I do indeed, but not in any regal capacity. I am as I said, an exile. My sister has long embarked on a course of madness, and now that I have openly tried to move against her, to oppose her crimes against humankind, I find myself once more unwelcome in the nation whose founding I witnessed as a foal. I and my companion come now seeking asylum, and offering what help we can…it's safe to come out now Cadence."

From behind a warehouse a second figure meekly trotted into view, and Lyra suddenly gave a gasp and galloped forward to greet her.

"Cadence! It really is you!"

Marcus cupped a hand to his mouth to mask a smile as the two began to do some sort of greeting dance involving sunshine and ladybugs – this must have been the foalsitter Lyra remembered from her childhood, the one who had also done the same for Twilight Sparkle. Cadence, a young pink unicorn, was about the same size as Lyra in build, if a few years older, but otherwise unremarkable.

Then he noticed the pair of wings on her back, and he gave a low whistle that drew Luna's attention. Like him, the alicorn had been smiling wistfully watching the two old friends reunite.

"So, ah…is she like you, your highness?" he enquired, tapping first his forehead and then his back.

"An alicorn? No, though for a while we had hopes…" Luna sighed, before explaining. "Cadence is a pegacorn, a rare condition where a pony is born with vestigial traits from another race. Your friend Ms Heartstrings is one if I recall – a unicorn who can walk on clouds, but I digress. Cadence herself is my great-great-descendant – another long story – and heir to the throne of the Crystal Empire."

Marcus nodded, having learned of that debacle through Lyra's lessons on Pony history. The Empire, a long and almost-forgotten city-state, had reappeared after a thousand-and-then-some-year 'absence' not long before Equestria and Earth had made contact. With it had come its tyrannical ruler, King Sombra, who had quickly re-established his throne despite the intervention of the Elements of Harmony, resulting in a war between Equestria and the Crystal Empire that had not concluded until after First Contact with Earth, just weeks before Celestia had announced to the world her plan for the forcible ponyfiction of all Earth. He had wondered a bit about the convenient timing, but had eventually decided that having got Equestria onto a war footing, Celestia had decided to turn those same forces immediately against Earth.

"We had every confidence that the Empire's reappearance would be heralded by an Ascension," Luna continued. "The transformation of a suitable member of the Crystal Bloodline into an Alicorn who would act as a nexus and focus for the love and unity that flowed from the Crystal Ponies. Cadence was a very likely candidate, but nothing ever came of it. Looking back now, I realize that I should have seen that as a sign of a rot spreading though into Equestria, a rot that had first touched Celestia, and spread through her and the Element Bearers. Alas, that I had not seen it sooner, but in those brief, happy days I was simply so glad to be home and loved once more to question things that seened 'off' to me. In the wake of Sombra's defeat I suggested establishing Cadence as the Crystal Princess, but by that point relations between myself and Celestia had…soured, and my suggestion was met with hostility. Celestia by that time had come to regard herself as rightful holder of the Crystal Throne. Cadence would at best have been a puppet on a throne, dancing to Celestia's whim."

Marcus stared in silence, enraptured. When Luna finished, he finally spoke. "Would you be willing to testify to that, not just to me, but to both worlds."

"You have the means to do this?"

"Yes."

"As I had hoped. Yes, we would be glad to spread the truth of Celestia's madness, along with other secrets that illuminate the depths she has fallen too."

Before Marcus could ask further, he heard Lyra, who until now had been happily talking with Cadence, take on a curious and worried tone.

"Cadence, where's Shining Armor. He wouldn't let you come here without him, the two of you love each other too much."

Marcus turned to see Cadence's smile gradually collapse into a frown, and finally noticed telltale signs of weariness and exhaustion; lines around the eyes and mouth that spoke of nights spent crying into a pillow.

"That is another matter of which I wish to speak…" Luna intoned. "Much as how Celestia's potions compel the love and loyalty of all touched by them, she has violated the will of the entire Royal Guard by invoking a Geis upon them."

"A what?"

"A Geis…" Cadence spoke up, addressing Marcus for the first time. "A Tynged, or magical vow. When anypony is inducted into the Royal Guard, they swear an oath of loyalty to Equestria, with one hoof placed upon the Charter of the Guard. Celestia has enchanted the Charter so as to compel everypony who swore on it to obey her without question. If she gives them an order, they will not carry it out without a word. Jump off a cliff, potion-bomb children…" she gave a sniff. "…or betray their loved ones..."

"No…" Lyra gasped. "Not Shining Armor. Cadence, he loved you too much for Celestia to be able to break that!"

"She did!" Cadence snapped. "My special talent is Love, Lyra, I can sense its flow and currents. Even before me and Shiny were married, I could feel something worming its way through Equestria, subtle at first, then stronger and more insidious once Celestia took the Crystal Throne. At least when Sombra was on it, it only incited rage and hate, but now…" she shuddered, looking a little green around the face. "Now those same emotions flow through Equestria, but hiding behind the mask of Love…a love that sickens and poisons all others, spreading a taint that flows deep into hearts and souls and relationships, turning ponies towards Celestia and away from compromise or compassion for humanity."

She swallowed hard and looked up at Marcus, eyes hard, and for a moment he saw a flicker in them, as if for a moment they had flashed like crystalline facets. Suddenly he felt a great deal of potential in this mare, a pressure-drum waiting to burst.

"So…" he replied, standing up. "She's brainwashing and ensorcelling her own citizens. Is that how the potions compel the obiedience of the newfoals as well?"

"No." Luna answered, her eyes gaining a haunted air. "There is a deeper, darker secret to the potion, wherin my sister has courted with powers dark and magicks vile."

Marcus shivered at the way Luna was eying him. "Yes, on some level you understand what I'm saying, even if you don't have the words to describe it. I…I didn't want to believe it when Celestia first promoted the potion. I believed that her heart was pure, that she had found a way to safely bypass the limits of the Amiomorphic spell, but she has not changed the foundational principles, and has even turned those flaws to her advantage. The newfoals, the barrier, and their obedience are all bound together in a pact Celestia has wrought, a triumvate of power-exchange made possible by her us of…of…"

Marcus waited eagerly as Luna trailed off, slowly turning her head away towards the city, ears held high and pupils shrinking into pinpricks. "She's here!"

She spun on her hooves, teeth bared in a scream. "You must leave, now! She's looking for me, and if she finds you all, she'll force the change upon you all. You, who have killed so many, and helped a brave few turn their efforts to a common good, she will rejoice in your conversion, and take notes as you gladly spill every secret of your organization to her!"

Pirouetting again she thrust a hoof at Cadence and Lyra. "And you two! All she'll have for you is a knowing smile and a show trail before death by petrifaction! Any truths you have to say will be discarded as the pitiful insults of traitors in the dock! This cannot be allowed to happen!"

Marcus crouched to look her in the eye. "You're going to sacrifice yourself, aren't you? To stay behind and draw her attention while we escape."

"Indeed," Luna nodded, her mane bouncing like silvery threads.

"I can't let you do that, your highness. Your life and loyalty and love for our cause is too great to loose."

"You fool…" she chuckled softly. "There is nothing else you can do but let me show my love and loyalty by giving myself for this cause. Though it might help if you left me that…" she added, pointing to the still-recording camera.

"We've fought ponies before…" Marcus growled, standing proud with his guards. "We'll fight them now."

"Don't fool yourself, Marcus Renee," Luna answered back. "You've fought thralls, slaves and the Elements of Harmony! My sister is none of these!"

To illustrate her point she suddenly hurtled around in a whirlwind kick, balancing on her forehooves to deliver a powerful buck into a shipping container, sending the entire multi-ton object flying into the harbor. "I have fought time and again for Equestria, and am a combatant of rare skill and power, but Celestia has had a thousand years more to perfect her skills."

"Technology can remedy that…" was Marcus' reply, brandishing the same trusty Neo-Panzerfaust that had saved him in Le Havre. "I'd like to see her swallow a rocket-propelled-grena-HEY!"

With a burst of telekinesis Luna had snatched one of his holstered pistols and tossed it in the air. As it fell she grabbed hold of it again, flipped the barrel to face her and clicked off the safety. Before anyone had time to shield themselves she magically pulled the trigger, and pony and human like shouted as the pressure wave kicked them in the ears. The guard with the camera dropped the precious device as he fell to his knees, hands pressed to the sides of his head.

Blinking, Marcus looked towards where he expected Luna's body to lie, only to see the Lunar alicorn standing proud, the bullet embedded in her forehead like a second, stubby horn. For a few moments the wound wept blood, and then the bullet fell out and tinkled onto the ground, revealing a glimpse of Luna's skull, as adamant and whole as tank armor.

There was a moment's stunned quiet as Luna trotted over to the video camera and gripped it curiously between her hooves, before lifting it to film her grotesque wound.

"We two are cursed lives, not born or begotten but conjured into being by ancient spells, souls spawned artificially from Equestria itself…it is impossible to fight beings such as we, not without magic of your own" she said woefully, the words resounding in Marcus' mind despite the ringing in his ears. "We cannot be killed by mortal means; the cold of steel or the heat of flame do not pierce or burn us, and only magicks most powerful may wound us for a while. Celestia and I exist until Equestria itself wills us to die, and the tainted spirit of the land has so far only turned against me, sapping my life and power and strength, yet even as weak as I am I stood here with one of your bullets embedded in my skull and did not die. Now run!"

Suppurating sickly, the bullet-wound closed back up, flesh and fur knitting together to leave Luna's head as blemish-free as it was before she had shot herself.

"Run!" she said again, turning her gaze from the unblinking eye of the camera's lens.

His hearing still tinny, Marcus did not hear the familiar sucking 'push' of a portal opening, but Luna did, glancing behind her as a pink mote of light danced into being on the street behind them, rapidly swelling in size and girth.

"RUNNNNNNNNNNNNN!" she screamed, physically and telepathically, and without question Marcus grabbed Lyra in both arms and fled, one of the other guards scooping up Candence. Then they were gone, giving Luna a moments piece.

"Now, how does this contraption work?" she said to herself, considering the camera she still held with her magic. "All the battles I've ever fought and it might be Luna Vs. 'Samsung' that defines my life. Ha!"

Quickly she expanded the zoom and determined the best orientation, leaving the camcorder discretely positioned in the shadow of a steel drum as she trotted out into the center of the street. It patiently recorded all that followed, and when Marcus returned the next day, was still where she had left it, battery flat but hard-drive intact and full of valuable footage;

"I see I been betrayed." a soothing voice preceded Celestia's appearance.

"It is you who is the betrayer, sister..." Luna said, before planting her hooves firmly on the ground and summoning a speck of magic to the tip of her horn. "Do you not deny all you have done, all the holy promises and vows you have defiled, the lives and minds you have raped?"

"A mere bagatelle Luna, necessary for the glory that will be accomplished…" Celestia replied, finally stepping into view, the soft light she cast mired only by the dark shadow of a canvas bag she wore round her neck, convulsing softly like a beating heart. "You mean to fight me?"

"Forever and a day, for our little ponies, and the humans too."

"Don't force my hoof against you again Luna…" Celestia said sternly. "I will not lose you again dear sister, but I will not allow you to pervert the destiny of this world."

"You lost me Celestia" Luna replied, smiling through her tears. "When you lost yourself. If there is any of Equestria's noble ruler left, the one who led our ponies, our people into a thousand years of peace, then please, let us be sisters again, and bring true light to both these worlds, and recompense and truce."

"No Luna…" Celestia decreed. "There will be no truce, only a final peace, and a perfect kingdom that spans two worlds, a kingdom that will last another thousand years, and beyond."

"So be it…" Luna wept, rearing back on her hooves. "I love you, Celly."

Luna cast her spell, and the bolt of light flew straight and true, until, with her own power, Celestia bent the magical shot around in an arc and back at the Lunar Alicorn.

Luna staggered, and then with remarkable swiftness, turned to stone, the effect flowing up from her hooves to encompass her head. In the final moment, with a swirl of venting magic, her mane exploded into a gorgeous starfield, billowing for just an instant before it too was frozen, a stone corona framing her peaceful expression.

Celestia slowly trotted up to the new statue, neck bent as if the weight of the back she carried was too much to bear. Then, hooves staggering, she fell against her petrified sibling and sobbed pitiably.

"And I love you, Lulu."

Luna and Cadence both jumped in surprise as Celestia, after her moment's hesitation, hurled herself forward with a single swoop of her wings and held them both close. "My dear, dear girls", she said softly, before stepping back and bowing low. "Brave and true Princesses of Equestria, I kneel before your wisdom and compassion."

Cadence blushed, and Luna cocked her head. "Well, that's somewhat unexpected."

"Oh Lulu…" Celestia smiled softly, rising to her feet. "I've seen so much, the highs to which we can aspire…and the lows to which we might sink…"

"I…I don't understand…" Cadence murmured, before Luna shushed her by pressing a wingtip to her lips.

"Is what the human claimed true, Celestia. His world is under attack by an Equestria not so different to our own."

"Yes…he speaks truth… the human, Marcus, has arrived from a war torn plane of existence where the enemy is myself."

"What?!" Cadence stared at her Aunt in confusion.

"The enemy was my alter-ego, the Solar Tyrant, and her corrupted Elements of Harmony," Celestia answered, spreading her wings to take flight, with Luna and Cadence following after her. "An alternate dimension where, for whatever reason, I took upon myself to forcibly change an entire species against their will, and worse yet to Equestria."

"How so?" pressed Luna, and Celestia's head drooped with shame, before she turned back to gaze at them. "This Tyrant, this me, has perverted her rule, claimed the Crystal Throne, and now foolishly wields a power she has no understanding of. We have to stop her."

"So the time has come?" Luna's eyes widened. "You mean to use the Concordia Maxima and summon all nations and armies to our side?"

"Yes, but first, I need to speak to someone else who might have insight. An old friend who makes a hobby of pulling apart my psyche. Perhaps he can throw light on things."

Realisation dawned on Luna with devastating force.

"No!" the Alicorn of the Night all but jumped on Celestia's back to draw her attention. "He is dangerous beyond compare; not even Sombra can compare to his mastery of trickery and deceit!"

"And I'm willing to risk that Luna!" Celestia replied. "Please, trust me on this! For once, we actually need Discord's help!"

"Discord, the Draconequs?" Cadence said, shock pouring through her words. "Isn't he the Elder God of Chaos itself!?"

"Yes…" Celestia admitted. "But we now face a weapon even more devastating than even his guiles and magic."

"What!" Luna demanded.

Celestia paused in mid-air, and the other two alicorns came to a halt in turn. Wings beating nervously, Celestia drew her sister in and touched their horns together in embrace, before giving Cadence a hug that spoke of boundless pride and trust. Then, and only then did she look Luna directly in the eye, her words silencing all of the Night Princesses' arguments.

"The Solar Tyrant now wears the Bag of Tirek round her neck…her dominion is built upon its power, the power of the Rainbow of Darkness."

TO BE CONTINUED…