Feeling something odd, Luna’s eyes opened to their fullest. With each passing meter that they went through on their way to the rocky satellite, her connection to the moon grew ever stronger. Regaining the sense of her body and mind.

She gasped, the air already past the point of it being breathable, past the point of the air even being there at all. In mere desperation, Luna looked over to Mac, who stood in a perfectly still manner while both going up the lift and staring at her. Her eyes wide, she frantically waved her forehooves around in Mac’s field of vision, yet he did not react. It was only after a minute of repeating the same action that she realized that nothing was happening.

Comforted by the new discovery, she focused instead on what was about to come. Mac pointed upwards, Luna followed the trail of his finger and found herself looking at the moon, now able to clearly see the myriad of mining complexes and other facilities that were planted on it. Orbital debris, chunks of rock, and landing lights for shuttles.

Slowly, the gravitational lift began to flip them over, in a manner so they would land on their legs when they reached the moon. Luna watched as the android grabbed a hold of his rifle and placed a new magazine in it.

She looked down, the landing pad of the lift grew ever so closer, to the point of her being able to make out details such as little grey rocks lying around it and mining equipment spread throughout the vicinity. Luna instinctively flared her wings open upon landing, even if there was no atmosphere for them to function with.

The planet, lights coming from Apex, visible even from that massive distance, and the sun’s rays made themselves visible from behind the middle orb. Shadows were cast by antennae set around the pad and the other buildings. Her motion sensor lit up, then lit up again.

Several armed, massive, bipedal exosuits rushed out of the buildings nearby. Luna and Mac took up a defensive position, the others taking up arms at them. “Humans?” she thought at first, then noticed that the suits possessed three fingers in each hand instead of five, and were only six feet tall. Massive for her, at least. Mac still towered over them at a height of nine.

“Incoming transmission...” the small display on her right eye lit up.

“Attention!” a gruff, male voice sounded within her head. “You are in within a restricted area! Where are your ID chips? Stand down or face prosecution!”

Before Luna or Mac could do anything, another message popped up in her display, “Opening multiple proximity chat channel...”

“Cut it out, Kent!” another male voice called out. One of the armored beings, their suit having a star on its shoulder pauldrons, lowered their weapon and in turn, forcefully lowered the rifle of the one beside them. “Don’t you even remember your history lessons, son? You’re dealing with Princess Luna and a M.A.C unit.”

“I-...” the same person as before muttered. “I just wasn’t sure... I thought Luna was dead...”

“I don’t blame you,” their leader said. “Her survival was classified info, and this M.A.C isn’t even supposed to be here.”

“Refer to me as “Mac,” please.”

All of the suits turned to them. “Should’ve guessed...” said their leader as he approached them. Mac had already lowered his rifle, and Luna had taken to a more comfortable stance. “Commander Pipsqueak of the Colonial Guard, and his ragtag team of survivors, at your service,” he said, bowing to Luna and Mac.

Luna’s eyes widened at his words, her mind going back to decades ago. “Pipsqueak...?”

“I see you still remember me,” he said, chuckling, his voice so different from what it used to be.

“Survivors?” Mac asked. All eyes turned to him.

“Yes...” Pipsqueak grimaced, visibly tightening the grip on his rifle. “GoldenTalon stabbed us in the back. They outnumbered us, and they had the element of surprise on their side. We were too busy dealing with the riots.”

“Then we have a common enemy,” Luna muttered. “We’re here to call the humans.”

“Oh?” Pipsqueak tilted his head to the side. The other Guardsmen looked at each other. “That’s a last resort measure... and exactly what we were planning to do.”

“And now we have a common objective,” Mac dictated.

Luna nodded. “We cannot afford to waste any more time. Are your men ready?” she asked, looking at the Commander.

“Always.”

“Lead the way, then.” Luna began to walk towards the cluster of buildings, taking a defensive stance. Mac, Pipsqueak and the Guardsmen made sure their gauss rifles were loaded and followed suit, the former two walking next to her.

After a few minutes, Luna spoke up once again, “How exactly do we contact them, and from where?”

“The moon’s core is where the command center is,” the Commander answered. “From there call them, and wait for the fleet to arrive... while potentially having to hold off GoldenTalon.”

“Sacrifice makes history,” Mac spoke.

Pipsqueak huffed. “Well said.”

Luna’s motion sensor lit up. “I’ve got something!” The rest of the group took up arms and began sprinting, Pipsqueak leading the way.

“Come on, Guardsmen!” he yelled out. “The longer we take, the more people suffer!” Mercenaries in heavy exosuits began to stream out of the nearby buildings, opening fire on the group as they ran after the Commander. Grenades were tossed, bouncing gracefully upon the rocky surface of the moon and flailing slowly in the vacuum of space, before being pulled back down by the weak gravity of the already beaten moon. The explosions sent rocks and debris spinning in every direction.

Luna concentrated, bringing power to her cybernetic horn. A shimmering midnight blue barrier forming around the group as they ran into the building. She drifted along the floor a few feet, not able to stop completely, then turned to see Pipsqueak forcefully locking the blast doors of the building.

The inside of the building began to compress itself with air, providing sound for Luna’s ears. Projectiles ricocheting from the outside of the building was the most audible sound. She took a moment to breathe in the pure air of the new complex she was now in, sighing it out. However, she noticed that the room seemed smaller than she expected. “Where are we?”

“Airlock,” Pipsqueak said. “Guardsmen, are any of you wounded? Call out!”

After several calls from each Guard, Pipsqueak walked over to the other side of the airlock room and nodded. “Ready?” Luna and Mac gave him a nod.

“Ready, sir!” called one of the Guardsmen.

“Ready as can be...”

“I guess I am, sir...”

“Time to kick flank.”

“Alright...” the Commander waved his mechanical hand over the door’s sensor, prompting it to open, then grabbed a firm hold of his rifle.

The group quickly rushed into the other side, the floor quaking as the heavy Guardsmen and the android moved through. Inside of the building were several consoles, mining machinery and corpses of other Guardsmen awaiting them. Ignoring that, they continued to move.

“Clear!”

“Left clear!”

“Right clear!”

“All clear!”

Walking into a large, cargo elevator, they sealed the door behind them, and set it to take them over to the bottom of the complex.

Luna looked over to the Commander, sighing, then took her eyes away to approach the windows of the elevator, observing the massive elevator shaft. Glimpses of lights as it sped through the depths of the complex, missing panels that left cables and cybernetics exposed.

“Incoming. Take cover!” Mac yelled as a barrage of gauss shells began to ricochet off of the elevator. Luna and the other Guardsmen ducked down, watching through the windows as several other elevators caught up to them in the shaft, filled with suited mercenaries.

Pipsqueak’s gruff voice was heard over the chaos, “This is it, Guardsmen! Open fire!”

Locking and loading, the Guardsmen and the android popped out of cover to unleash hell upon the offenders, pressing the trigger on their gauss rifles and opening fire, using their superior weaponry and training to full effect.

“Sir! Can you make this thing go any faster!?” one of the Guardsmen yelled while taking cover as he reloaded.

“It’s going as fast as it can, Kent!” the Commander yelled back, shooting one of the mercenaries in the head.

Luna kicked one of the windows, breaking it. Then began to charge a spell, light forming at the tip of her horn. “Cover me!” she cried out.

The Guardsmen reacted instantly, as they should, turning to her and providing her with cover fire. Once her spell was charged, she released a beam of energy, cutting through one of the enemy elevators. The last thing she heard were the burning screams of the mercenaries as they were consumed.

“Kent!” Pipsqueak yelled. “Hold position!”

“Yes sir!”

The Commander moved over to Kent, placing his rifle on the magnetic locks on his back. Then, he reached over to the Guardsman's back, taking a piece of weaponry. He repeated the action on the others, taking from each, a piece of the weapon, then began arming it while the others covered him.

Done, he stood up straight, holding in his mechanical hands what seemed to be a massive autocannon, one that should have been only meant for a Human. Moving over to a corner of the elevator, he ordered, “Get behind me!”

Once everyone was set and secure behind the Commander, his suit began to expel gas from its vents. “Locking down...!” He undid the safety on the cannon.

“Die!”

The first shot was immense, it making Pipsqueak, his six foot tall heavy exosuit, drift from its position and cause so much friction on the floor that a few sparks flew out. The remaining windows all around literally exploded, sending glass flying out of the metallic box as it continued its rapid descent.

It took a few moments for Luna to look over to the nearest, opposing elevator. Inside of it, one of the mercenaries, the one unlucky enough to have received the shot, screamed as he held the stump of where his mechanical arm and part of his leg should have been. Then, the second shot arrived, hitting them square in the chest and sending the mercenary flying onto the back of the elevator.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Guardsmen and the android continued firing at the rest of the enemy elevators. Projectiles continued to bounce off of every surface, some hitting the armor of the Guardsmen.

The elevator began to slow down, even though it had not made it to the bottom. “We’re getting stuck!” a Guardswoman yelled. The other elevators slowed down, surrounding Luna’s and lighting it up with gauss fire as Pipsqueak continued to fire.

“Mac!” Luna yelled amidst the fire. “How far are we from the bottom!?”

“Calculating!” the android exclaimed. “Approximately fourteen hundred meters!”

Luna turned to Pipsqueak, who had ducked down to reload. “Can you-!” she cringed as a bullet whizzed past her. “Can you and your men withstand the fall!?”

“We survive sub-orbital drops!” the Commander responded. “Of course we can!” He turned to the rest of his team. “Guardsmen, we’re jumping!” he exclaimed, receiving nods by part of each.

“On my count!” Luna yelled.

“One!”

“Two!”

“...”

“Jump!”

On her count, she jumped through one of the broken windows. Following her was Mac. Pipsqueak stayed behind, directing the Guardsmen. “Go, go, go!” he yelled out, waiting for the last of them to jump before going out himself.

It was hard for Luna not to flare her wings open as to stay in the air and hover. She had to stay with the group. She looked to the sides to see Mac and the Guardsmen falling together with her, rifles in hand. “Where is Pipsqueak!?” she exclaimed, just in time to hear the deafening blasts of the autocannon up above. She looked upwards, seeing the Commander falling at top speed thanks to the recoil of the cannon, with several mercenaries, and some corpses, trailing behind him.

Immediately did Luna and the rest of the group follow Pipsqueak as he fell past them, nosediving after him. She flared her wings open and began flapping them, causing her speed to increase. The others lit up their fusion boosters, which roared with intensity as they heated up. Close to breaking the sound barrier, cones of air began to form around them while they cut through the air.

It was a matter of time before the mercenaries did the same, catching up to them. One of them crashed into Luna, grabbing onto her and spinning in the air together. She heated up her horn until it was red hot and swung it across his neck, cutting his head off.

The others were doing the same, engaging in close combat with the GoldenTalon mercenaries. Mac was quick to dispel of his combatant, twisting their head around and snapping their neck with inorganic strength. So were the rest of the Guardsmen, who used their plasma blades to cut through their armor and reach their soft, fleshy insides. Pipsqueak, on the other hand, was still using the autocannon, transforming it for a moment into a battering ram and beating the mercenary in the head with it, then unleashing a single shot onto them to finish off the job.

With the enemy gone, and the bottom so close, they each did a final flip in mid air and landed on the metallic bottom of the shaft with loud bangs and quakes, bending the floor several inches deep. Soon after, the corpses of the mercenaries fell down.

Luna released a soft sigh, the others, except for Mac and Pipsqueak, panted. She looked ahead, a large, open hallway littered with corpses of both Colonial Guardsmen and mercenaries. Other than that, it was perfectly silent and still.

“Break’s over,” said the Commander, standing straight up and aiming his autocannon. “Let’s keep moving.”

“Acknowledged,” Mac responded.

“Yes sir,” the Guardsmen said.

“Yes, let us continue,” Luna mentioned as she started moving forth, the rest of the group following suit. They took up defensive stances, their rifles aimed high and the safeties off.

As Luna walked, she lost herself in her own thoughts. The journey, already at its end. With so many lives lost, she was not sure of what she would do afterwards. Diplomatic immunity was a thing of the past.

“We have arrived at the location, Luna,” Mac said. The Princess looked upwards, a massive blast door standing in their way.

“Can you open this?” she asked, looking at Mac.

“Yes. It will take me a few minutes.”

“You better... get to doing that fast...” an unknown, female voice propped up from their right. The entire group took up arms, finding themselves aiming their weapons at a mortally wounded, mint green unicorn hiding behind the corpse of a Guardsman.

“Mac, Guardsmen,” Pipsqueak called. “Cover us...”

“Yes sir.”

“Acknowledged.”

Luna and the Commander moved over to the pony, looking down at her with curiosity. “Name,” Luna bluntly said.

“She’s the owner of GoldenTalon...” Pipsqueak muttered. “Lyra Heartstrings... I should kill her right now.”

“Don’t,” Luna said, taking a step closer. “What are you doing here, Lyra?”

“I was leading... this huge mess...” she coughed out.

“More of a reason to-” Pipsqueak began, only to be shushed by Luna.

“But... I guess we all fuck up every once in... a while...” Blood seeped out of her mouth, before she looked straight into Luna’s eyes. “I made you what you are... And you can stop this... thing.” She shakily pointed to the Princess’ chest, where the power source for all of her cybernetics was. “Go ahead... call the Humans... I’ll just go to my friend... Bon-Bon... They had taken her away from me, you k-know?... But now... she’s... here...” Her stare turned blank, the light leaving her eyes.

Luna sighed, just as Mac spoke up, “Complete. Ready to be opened on your command, Princess.”

She and Pipsqueak took position in front of the blast door. The android’s eyes flashed, before the set of gates began to open with a deep growl, revealing what was inside.

Marvelled, yet at the same time confused, she found herself in a massive chamber, filled to the brim with consoles, corpses, and with an enormous, dark orb floating near the ceiling, seemingly contained by cyber-magical locks.

“It has been a good while, Luna...” an almost soothing, female voice, yet possessing a malicious undertone spoke up, coming from the orb. “You step into my lair, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.”

“What the hell...” Kent muttered.

“Go ahead, call your Guardians,” the voice said. “Either way, your story, is about to end. I am your end. I, am your Nightmare.”

“No...” Luna whispered, shaking in fear, eyes wide. She could feel her strength fading, draining. “You were destroyed!”

“I am here. I am now. I, am eternal.”

“...Doesn’t matter,” Pipsqueak said as he stepped forth, autocannon in hand. “Whatever you are, we’ll destroy you if you stand in our way, and then call the Humans.”

“Ignorance!” the Darkness laughed. ”A purposely planted error in the existence of organics to give interest to their life.”

Luna struggled to keep herself standing. “But... I created you...”

“You did not. You began to fathom ideas of darkness, because I allowed it. And it ended, because I demanded it. I have no beginning, nor do I have an end. We are universal, my subjects.” It chuckled.

“Who are ‘we’?” Pipsqueak asked. “There are more of you?”

“A single one of us can darken the sky of a single world. I did not, simply because it was not the time... yet. Now, it is.”

“You were defeated once, and contained here,” Mac said. “You can be defeated again.”

“Your words are empty, Machine, as is your soul... Now, excuse me.”

The orb began to grow, past the containment measures. Pipsqueak yelled out, “Open fire!”

The gauss shells did nothing, only going through the Darkness. Luna fell to the floor, her vision fading. The last thing she saw was Mac rushing over to her.

“Princess!” Mac yelled out, placing his rifle over his back and shaking her. Nothing he could do could wake her up. A quick scan revealed that she was completely out. He knew, but despite logic, he continued to try.

A quick glance upwards, seeing the orb explode into a mass of darkness. “Take cover!” the pony Commander yelled out. Mac stood perfectly still as the Darkness rushed over them, seeping past them and going though the open blast door. He took the chance to examine it, only to receive several errors.

Once the Darkness was gone, he stood up and rushed over to Pipsqueak, scanning him. Realizing that the stallion was barely alive and unconscious, the magical energy drained out of him, he calmly made his way over to Luna. He looked at her chest, or more specifically, at the power source, recalling the final words of Lyra.

“I made you what you are... And you can stop this... thing.”

Perhaps. The power source, an explosion of photons, neutrons, and magic, combined. Mac knew that it was a far shot, but it was all he had, and organic life could not survive without light.

He leaned down, carefully wrapping his metallic hand around Luna’s generator. Still somewhat connected to her neural adaptors, he unsecured the power source, and twisted it, popping it off. “I am sorry,” he said, slowly watching as her vital signs went down.

The android spared no time, turning around and sprinting out of the chamber with a dizzyingly fast speed. It took him no time to pass through the large hallway, sprinting past the bodies and quaking the floor with each step.

He drifted on the floor as he reached the elevator shaft, then lit up his boosters, deviating energy from several of his systems only to boost himself up as fast as he could. The android dodged past several still elevators, following the energetic trace of the Darkness as it had gone through the complex.

Still having to go through the shaft, he took the time to remember his past. Sweetie Belle, Atlas, Torres, Becker, Luna, all the people he had met, all the people he remembered, and all the people that would remember him. He knew what was going to happen.

Reaching the top of the shaft, he grabbed a hold of the ledge, propping himself up before continuing to run after the Darkness. This time, he was able to see a glimpse of it seeping through the open airlock of the building he was in.

With no atmosphere to stop him, and low gravity, he ran out into the surface of the moon, looking up to see the dark cloud heading towards the planet. He took a jump, lighting up his boosters for the last time in his life and set himself to follow it.

Flying through space, and with Luna’s heart in his hand. It took him no time to reach the Darkness, losing himself inside of it.

“Machine, what is your purpose here?” the Darkness spoke inside his systems.

“To protect organic life at all costs!” Mac began to tap into the cybernetics of Luna’s heart, setting it to overload. “This, is my meaning. My purpose.”

“You will fail. Yours and their stories will end, there is no stopping of that.”

“The only story that will end, is yours.”

“That... We did not design you that way. Why are you sacrificing yourself, the last of your kind, to protect the miserable existance of organics?”

“Because they deserve to live. And sacrifice brings life; one’s story does not end, so long as there is somebody to... remember you.”

The riots stopped for a moment, everyone looking up into the sky as a massive explosion of light took place above the atmosphere.

Beyond that was the Far Horizon Of Stars...