Dominic quietly paced back and forth in his tent, a map of the remaining Caribou Empire laid out on a table in the room. Even though Maria had been recovered safely, the man still felt a burning hatred in his blood. The Caribou that had survived were still clinging to their guns, still refusing to yield. Their pride, their stubborn unyielding pride, from the young Caribou child playing in the ruins to the resistance fighter skulking through the woods. They all wore their pride like it was some kind of twisted badge of honor. Dominic stopped pacing and walked up to the table, looking down at it with that same hateful glare that had formed over his years fighting the Infected on Earth.

The flap to his tent opened, and Luna entered with an expression of concern. The man hadn’t left the southern shores of Onorus since the bombs had been dropped a week before, he hadn’t slept, he rarely ate, and his patience seemed to be running shorter and shorter. Dominic almost didn’t even notice his wife had entered, he didn’t speak and went back to glaring at the map. A good deal of stubble was forming on his face, his eyes were glassy and bloodshot.

“Dominic…” Luna said as she approached him, the man grunted in response as he continued to stare angrily down at the paper in front of him. “Dominic, please… Share your thoughts with me, we’re all worried about you…” The man sighed softly and shook his head, continuing to silently glare at the page in front of him. “Dominic… As a Warrior of the Night… You are honor bound to speak your thoughts.” The man stopped moving altogether, his eyes seemingly transfixed on the very core of the planet.

“I do not think it would be wise for me to do so…” Dominic said in a low gravelly voice, Luna still walked closer. “You may not like what it is I am thinking…”

“If I do not like it, so be it. Now talk.” Luna said sternly, she hated pulling rank on her husband, especially since she hated forcing people to speak their minds, but she had to be sure that he was still all there.

“When I first came to this world, I was angry… Hateful… I let those emotions guide my actions, with Blueblood, with the nobles, with Celestia…” Dominic muttered as he looked at the map in front of him, Luna remained quiet and let him continue, knowing that there were some serious emotions at play. “I thought, that with your training, I had put those feelings of hate and anger behind me… That I had ‘matured’...” Dominic sighed through his nose, not looking up from the map for a second. “Now I’m not so sure.” The man clenched and unclenched his fist. “I hate these Caribou like I’ve never hated before… Possibly more than the infected.”

“There are many who share that sentiment, I do not see the reason for you to sulk in your tent like Achilles.” Luna replied in an even tone, Dominic shook his head quietly.

“I doubt it… I doubt many people would be willing to kill so many people.” Dominic said, his tone became a bit more harsh. “And even after I have killed so many, even after their cities lay in ruins, they still hold out. They hang on bitterly, like the survivors of Earth…” Dominic straightened up, pounding his hand on the table much to the surprise of Luna. “I hate them so much, Luna! The infected were mindless creatures, but these… These Caribou, they enslave and brutalize because they chose to!” Luna stared at him as he panted, after a couple more seconds be ponded a clenched fist on the table. “They continue to fight like their way of life is some sort of noble profession, but we both know that such an irrational way of thinking must not be allowed to survive!”

“So why not show them with kindness and compassion, Dominic?” Luna said as she approached him, now getting a look at the map. “I still fail to see what has been bothering you so greatly this past week.” Dominic looked at her for a couple seconds, then back at the map, then back at Luna.

“I have thoughts I know I shouldn’t be having… They’re wrong, by all accounts of what I believe in…” The man trailed off, it was clear he was a bit on edge and was trying to gather his thoughts again. “What I thought I believed in…” Luna looked at him questioningly, her silent signal for him to continue on. “What I feel… It’s evil, it isn’t right… No sane person should think this way, right?” His voice caught in his throat. “I think that their culture is an abomination… That it should be erased completely from existence… That I didn’t go far enough.” Dominic glared at the map again. “I feel like I should have vaporized every square inch of their country! I had the means to do it, the power to destroy an entire civilization, an entire species, at the push of a button! I feel like I should have turned their country into the largest graveyard this planet has ever seen!”

“I have never had such… Evil thoughts in my life.” Dominic continued as he wandered over to his cot and sat down, putting his head in his hands. “I try to justify it to myself, but how can I justify genocide? Why would I try?” The man looked over to Luna. “My parents didn’t raise me to be this way, I know that much… How, Luna… How did I get to this point…?” The mare walked over to him and sat down in front of him, Dominic could see her eyes were tearing up, and he felt himself fear what sort of tirade would follow. He wanted her to yell at him, to tell him it was wrong, to tell her that he should stop thinking such things…

“You grew up.” Luna said in a rather shaky voice. “Your childhood, everything you loved and cared for in the world, was violently ripped away from you.” Luna appeared to be having a hard time grasping her head around it, but she knew that Dominic wasn’t perfect. He had darkness in him, just as she did. There had been times in her life where she had had similar thoughts when it came to her sister, where thoughts she believed to be evil would come to the surface. “You had to survive, by any means necessary. You choose efficiency over morality because it presents the greatest chance for survival…” Luna cleared her throat quietly before speaking once again. “You say you ‘Should have killed them all’, and you know that you could’ve… The fact that you didn’t tells me that you are not evil, just conflicted… Just as everyone is in life.”

“You’re… Oddly calm about this, Luna…” Dominic said tiredly as he looked at her, his expression still tired. The bags under his eyes could attest to the small amount of sleep he had recieved in recent days. Luna reached out and put her hooves on his shoulders, straightening him up so that she could look into his eyes.

“You are not the only one to have dark thoughts, Dominic.” Luna said softly, the mare leaned forward and wrapped him in a hug, then patted his back. The man slowly returned the hug, his eyes closing as he did his best to fight back the growing tide of emotion that had formed since the very beginning of the conflict. “I wish you would remember you don’t have to face such things alone.” Dominic buried his head into Luna’s fur, the mare sighing and leaning her head down against his shoulder. The fabric of his uniform was rough and uncomfortable, she could only imagine the discomfort it was causing Dominic on top of all of his stress.

“I know… I’m not alone.” Dominic said quietly as he pulled away from Luna, his voice cracking slightly. “But my burden… It cannot become yours, or Maria’s, or Altair’s…” Luna raised an eyebrow at him, the man swallowed and looked towards the floor. “I think… Maybe… It’s time I consider seeking professional help…” Luna looked at Dominic with a bit of surprise, she and Maria had floated the idea of professional psychiatric help by the man a couple times. He was stubborn on that issue, as usual, and had given an emphatic ‘No.’. He didn’t want to become ‘another person with a victim complex’, for fear he would begin to act like someone from the EOL. If he was even considering seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist, Luna knew that it was far beyond her capabilities.

The man stood up quietly and walked back to the map, looking it over quietly once again. There were markers set up on the coast of the New Axis countries, ships of various sizes. Saddle Arabia had been the easiest to land troops in, and fighting there was minimal. Two carrier groups were parked off the shores of the Zebra Wasteland and the Caribou Wasteland, the magic disturbance from the thermo-arcane weaponry had yet to full disperse, and so only conventional equipment was functioning properly there. As much as he knew that he needed to seek help from a therapist, he also felt duty bound to join his soldiers on the front lines once again. Perhaps there was more to it than that though, on the battlefield was the only place he really felt at peace anymore, oddly enough. Even with the risk of death, no, especially with the risk of death.

“Dominic…” Luna said as she spotted that familiar glint in his eyes, she approached him and looked at the map. “Please, don’t do what I know you’re thinking of doing. Let your generals fight the war.” Dominic looked to his wife, the tired look still firmly in his eyes. “Come home…”

“I want to, Luna…” Dominic said quietly, his eyes flicking back to the map. “I desperately want to, I want to be home with you, and Maria, and Altair…” The man leaned against the table again, wiping his eyes. “I just worry that, maybe… Maybe I don’t belong there anymore.” Dominic felt Luna come over and put her wing around him, but he kept his eyes firmly on the map. “Maybe I don’t belong anywhere anymore, maybe I’ve just…” He trailed off.

“Dominic…” Luna said in a shaking voice, her husband turned to look at her. She leaned her head against his chest, her horn making contact with his forehead. “I’m sorry… This is for your own good.” Before he could respond her horned glowed, despite the human’s aversion to magic, direct contact of the horn was always effective. Luna sighed as her husband fell limp to the ground, she had to get him home, she knew that he would just keep putting it off. Not because he was lazy, but because Luna knew there were only four things Dominic feared in life. Heights, bees, dying alone, and his own dark thoughts. Luna knelt down and hefted Dominic up onto her back, positioning him so that he wouldn’t fall. She had already told Dominic’s guards that one way or another he would be leaving, so they wouldn’t stop her. Deep down, she thought perhaps they were just as worried.

Luna walked to the door, wiping her eyes with a wing, doing her best to hold back her own emotions. She pushed the flap aside, exposing herself to the chilly winter air outside. Her wings spread open before she gave a heavy flap and took to the sky, carrying her unconscious loved one across her back. Her destination was Canterlot, she hoped that getting Dominic back there would at least buy her and Maria some time to talk some sense into him.

[♠]

The smell of bleach and clean linen had been a smell that Tig always hated, ever since she had been a little filly, Hospitals and their distinctive odor had been synonymous with the worst parts of her life. Whether it was the death of her grandmother, her appendectomy, or most recently to visit the love of her life. There was another part of hospitals that she was gradually growing to hate though, and that was the yellow disposable gowns and blue disposable masks and hair nets that they gave to family members entering the burn unit to visit their loved ones. As Tig made her way past the various rooms, she could see family members talking with loved ones face to face, standing by their bedsides. Some had been wounded when their tanks were destroyed, others had been scalded by jets of steam generated when magic bolts hit snow.

But at the end of the hallway, there was a solitary steel door. Unlike the other burn ward rooms, it had a keypad for entry. Beyond that steel door was a decontamination booth, and beyond that… Well, Tig didn’t like to think about it. She spotted a changeling patient limping along with his family, a fresh graft of chitton on the side of his face and hooves. Tig did her best not to think of how these people had come to be wounded, or to think of fire in general, she had become so upset to see fire that she had stopped working with welding torches altogether and had had the gas stove replaced with an electric one.

Tig stopped outside the metal door and pushed the code that she had been given into the keypad, the sound of the seal popping was familiar. The metal door swung outwards, allowing her to step in. The mare waited for the door to close behind her, then closed her eyes as the decontamination booth kicked on. A mist of chemicals sprayed around her, lasting for several seconds before coming to a halt, she opened her eyes and looked to the door ahead of her. The lock buzzed, prompting her to push it open and step into a completely white room. There were medical monitors beeping and chirping, all set up around a solitary hospital bed. Laying in that bed, wrapped up like a mummy with bandages and casts, was none other than Jack…

The mare approached the bedside cautiously, looking over the man’s form. There hadn’t been much change since she had last seen him, gradually the grafts were being put on, and thanks to advances made over the past eight years they were holding. Still, Tig knew there was a long period of recovery ahead. The mare stopped and looked at Jack’s head, his eyes and mouth were exposed, thankfully most of the severe burns had been to his lower body. The man quietly moved his eyes to look at Tig, she could see a faint smile form.

“H-Hey…” Tig said, her mask muffling her voice somewhat. “How’re you feeling today…?”

“L-Like shit, but… What else is new?” Jack responded with a gravelly voice, he coughed a couple seconds later. His lungs and throat had been harmed by the toxic smoke that had come from his plane crash, but despite that he still managed to try and put on a chipper attitude for Tig, even if they both knew it was veiling agony. “How are you?” Tig sat a bit closer to him, being sure to stay within his range of view.

“I’m... F-Fine…” Tig said quietly, Jack smirked briefly.

“H-Hi, Fine. I’m Jack.” The man began to chuckle only to break out into a fit of coughing, Tig felt a tear form in her eye. Even when he was still in such a lousy condition, he was trying to cheer her up.

“D-Don’t be such a butt, you butt…” Tig said meekly, trying to keep up the vibe that things were okay. “S-Sarah wanted me t-to say ‘Hello’ for her… S-She’s being reassigned to Saddle Arabia.” Jack nodded quietly, as much as he could, though it caused him to wince. “The d-doctors told me that they think you’ll be out of here in a couple months…?”

“Y-Yeah?” Jack said with a bit of a questioning tone. “What about when I get to fly again?” Tig got quiet after that, the mare looking off to the side and adjusting her mask. “I can’t stay grounded, honey… I just can’t.”

“Why not?” Tig asked as she looked back at him, doing her best to keep from crying, she’d have to go through decontamination again if she started crying. “I’m on the ground, it can’t be all that bad, right?” Jack looked at her for a couple seconds before closing his eyes, after a couple seconds he opened them again and let out a slow sigh.

“E-Ever since I can remember… I was flying.” Jack said quietly, looking down at himself. “If I lose that, I lose part of myself…” Tig looked to the floor, feeling her emotions continue to well up. She could never understand why humans were so interested in flying, she had lost her taste for it years ago, why want something you weren’t supposed to have? “And… I’m already short a couple toes and my good looks, I don’t want to lose anymore than I already have…”

“Do you have to make a joke of everything?” Tig asked, sounding almost bitter as she looked back to Jack. “C-Can’t you take my feelings into account for once?” Jack looked at her quietly, taking in her features before sighing again.

“I… I know, I’m not the best at that…” The man admitted, looking back towards his laid up body. “I love you, Tig…” The man got quiet for a couple seconds, long enough for Tig to worry he had passed out, but he was still conscious. “If… If me g-giving up flying will make you f-feel better… I’ll give you my wings…” Tig moved over to his side so that her head was hear his hand, she nuzzled the bandaged appendage.

“I won’t ask you to give that up…” She said softly, looking up at him. “I just wish you would take this a bit more seriously…” Tig looked up as she felt the fingers of his hand running over her head, patting her softly. It was the only way that Jack could show her he cared, and she knew it must’ve been excruciating. The mare pulled her head away gently and looked up at him, waiting for him to speak again. “Is there anything I can do…?”

“If you could get the docs to hook up a TV or a radio or something…” Jack said, it wasn’t like he had much to do other than sitting in the same position, and if he had to sit like that for the next couple months he would go nuts. Tig nodded quietly and made a mental note of it, looking for any place that she might put a radio or television. “Oh, something else, super important.” Tig looked up, it sounded urgent, she moved a bit closer to be sure not to miss anything. “Could you scratch my nose…?” Tig looked at him funny before carefully reaching up and scratching the bandage over his nose, Jack let out a sigh of relief. “Fuck… I love you, you know that? That was killing me for the past four hours.”

“You butt…” Tig said with a soft blush as she sat back by the side of his bed. “I was thinking… Your house has that nice big yard in the front that’s all overgrown…” Jack looked at her with what would be a raised eyebrow, if his eyebrow hadn’t been burned off. “Would you mind if I made a little garden there?”

“Sure, just no sweet potatoes…” Jack said, Tig raised her own eyebrow at him, obviously intrigued by his odd caveat. “Nothing could be as sweet as you.” Jack began grinning widely as Tig groaned and leaned her head against the bed, maybe he wasn’t as bad off as she had thought, at least his cheesy lines seemed genuine. “H-Hey… Knock knock…”

“No, no one’s home!” Tig said.

“Knock. Knock.” Jack repeated it slowly, Tig groaned again and shook her head, humming as if she wasn’t gonna answer. “Knock knock! Come on!” The mare finally caved and looked at him with a flat expression.

“Who’s there?” She asked flatly, Jack grinned just as widely.

“Ayewuv.” He said in that raspy voice.

“Ayewuv who?” Tig responded.

“I wuv you!” Jack said, Tig groaned even louder and leaned against the bed once again, it was getting extremely hard for her not to cry again. She hated being cheered up, especially seeing her coltfriend in such a bad state, but she couldn’t stay sad when he seemed to cheerful and happy. Before Tig could respond, there was a buzz at the door, meaning that her visiting time had to be coming to an end. She straightened up and looked at him, adjusting her mask to speak clearly.

“I wuv you too…” She gave one final nuzzle before she walked to the door, looking over her shoulder at Jack. The man watched her go, then saw her pass through the decontamination door, then listened to the sequence before the seal popped open. There was a heavy thud, meaning that Tig was officially out of earshot. Only then did Jack begin to scream in pain, gutteral moans and cries that echoed through the room as he screwed his eyes shut. Every inch of skin still felt like it was in the seering heat of the wreck, his broken and fractured bones sent lances of agony up to his brain, it was almost unbearable…

For Tig, he would bear it. For the short amount of time that he could see her each day, he bit his tongue and played court jester… She had worried about him for eight years, that was enough… He didn’t want her remembering him as someone in agony, he didn’t want that in her dreams or in her thoughts of the future. The truth was, the chances of him walking out of the hospital were still slim, and if the worst came to pass... Tig deserved at least somewhat happy final memories to make up for the eight years of waiting she had endured.

[♠]

The snowy wastes of the Crystal Empire were one of it’s greatest resources, they provided a natural defense against invading armies and even held valuable arcane minerals that were just ripe for mining. Despite this value, the wastes were still relatively uninhabitable, at least in the conventional sense. Since the Empire required a magical shield to protect it from the elements, settling out in the wastes was considered to be near suicide, and only the toughest of the tough left the comfort of the Imperial City to work in the mines. But, over the last eight years, a patch of the frozen north had become home to a an unlikely group of crystal ponies, and two Onorussian unicorns.

With the attention of the Onorussian government on the New Axis, and the relatively cordial relationship between the Crystal Empire and the Onorussian Republic, this portion of the frozen wastes had been overlooked by their spy planes, and the thick cloud cover naturally protected the area from satellite images. Hidden beneath the dense cover of clouds, built upon sheets of ice and rock, was a collection of metal huts and military buildings. Known only to Shining Armor and his Military Commanders as ‘Omega Alpha’, this facility housed the greatest mechanical and magical minds in the Crystal Empire, and two Onorussian Thermo-Arcane Scientists. In actuality, they were former nobles that wanted to see their titles restored, and were willing to pay any price for that goal.

The housing facility was small, most of the complex was made up of labs and fabrication warehouses. And far off in the distance, miles away, was a solitary bunker buried in the frozen soil. Only a small part of it was above the ground, allowing for thick viewing windows to look out over the vast expanse of snowy wasteland. The war between the Onorussians and the New Axis had brought a renewed fear to Shining Armor, their southern neighbors had the ability to wipe out his entire country in an instant… That sort of power couldn’t go unchecked, and so, without his wife’s knowledge, he had commissioned the project. The addition of the Onorussian scientists had sped progress along nicely, and the urgency that had had come from seeing the power of Onorussian weapons against the Caribou and Zebras had pushed it even faster.

It was for this reason that the inhabitants of Omega Alpha were gathered in that small cramped bunker, staring out at a distant tower that was barely a speck on the snowy horizon. The room was filled with all sorts of scientific tools, from force measuring devices to earthquake sensors to arcane interference and radiation meters. A clock on the wall was counting down, the moment that all the scientist’s hard work would come down to. The moment that would change not only the balance of power, but also the reputation of the Crystal Empire. Standing among these scientists and the guards that protected them was none other than Shining Armor himself, his mane was a tad bit greyer from the recent stress he had come under. The Yaks to the north had been making more and more bold moves towards the border, and he hoped that the test he was about to witness would help ensure the security of that border.

“Sir, we’re in the final two minutes.” A scientist said to Shining Armor, the stallion simply nodded in reply as the guards began to pass the audience darkly tinted goggles. Shining sighed softly as he pulled on his goggles and looked out the window once again, though now it was practically impossible to make out the speck of the tower in the distance. “Beginning detonation sequence… Arcane dampeners… Off.” The scientists began to flip various switches on their control panels, Shining did his best to follow along in his head. “Crystal amplifiers are armed, activate reactive catalyst configuration.” Shining looked to the clock, there were sixty seconds left until the detonation. “Yield set to maximum…” The scientists adjusted their goggles as they continued to activate the device. “Safeties… Off. Ready to detonate.”

An air raid siren began to blare across the wastes, signalling the observing guards in their foxholes and trenches to put on their own goggles and take cover. The commanding officer of the project activated the PA system and spoke into the microphone.

”All personnel, it is now sixty seconds to zero time. Put on goggles or turn away. Do not remove goggles or face first until ten seconds after the first light.” The Commander said, his voice echoing over the vast empty fields. The sirens and voices could be heard all the way out near the tower, suspended from its moderate height with wires and cables was a solitary metal sphere. The metal creaked as the wind caused it to sway, back and forth the silent deadly device swung like a mighty pendulum. The siren had caused birds that had roosted on the device to take flight in fear, arctic rabbits and foxes poked their heads out of their various homes to get a look at the alien monstrosity. ”Minus thirty seconds.”

Shining Armor bit his lip, wishing that the time would just pass already. Half of him wanted it to work, he wanted to be able to say that he could stand up to the Onorussian Bear, but the other half… The other half prayed that it would fizzle out, that it wouldn’t detonate, that the entire project would be a wash. If it worked, he would be able to harness the power of an Alicorn and with a push of a button wipe entire cities from existence. He wasn’t sure he was ready for that sort of responsibility.

”Minus Ten Seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven.” The Commander continued to drone, Shining Armor made sure his goggles were tight, his lips felt dry, his heart raced faster and faster in his chest. Every scientist and soldier in the bunker watched the horizon like they never had before. ”Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.” The countdown continued, the Commander’s hoof hovered over the detonate button. ”Detonate.” The button was pressed, in the distance half a dozen small mortars fired, sending up long spires of white smoke. They would be used to judge the size of the mushroom cloud on the recorded footage. There was a massive flash of bright blue light, brighter than a thousand suns, the earth trembled as the bunker was lit brightly.

A massive ball of fire began to rise into the air, and the scientists could see a tremendous shockwave rumbling towards them. It took several seconds before it hit, when it did the thick plexiglass window spiderwebbed and cracked. A thunderous roar filled the ears of everyone watching, followed by a deathly howl that chilled the blood of all those that could hear it. A flurry of snow flew past the bunker and began to fill in the foxholes and trenches outside, until finally it came to a stop. A massive fiery mushroom cloud was rising up into the clouds, bathing the landscape in its deathly blue light…

Shining Armor removed his goggles and looked around the room, half of the attendees stared out in stunned silence, their jaws hanging open slightly. Some of them let out slow laughs, as if the absurdity of the size and magnitude of the explosion had struck them as funny… The commander, as well as several of the scientists had tears rolling down their cheeks as the cloud rose higher and higher, piercing the shroud of thick cloud cover that had hidden it since it’s conception. It took Shining several seconds to realize that he too was among the ones crying, a somber pit forming in his stomach.

In the trenches and foxholes outside, the soldiers working security were having similar reactions. The flash had been bright enough to be seen briefly from the Crystal Empire, and it was certainly now visible from the heavens above. There was no question in Shining Armor’s mind, the Onorussian’s knew what he had done, and soon his wife and the rest of the world would know too. He suspected that tensions between the Onorussians and the Crystal Empire would flare up again, but it would be worth it if he could better defend his citizens. After all, that was why the Onorussians had developed their Thermo-Arcane weaponry in the first place. Now that Celestia had left the Crystal Empire, the need to close the Thermo-Arcane gap was more pressing than ever.

Shining Armor zoned out, ignoring the readings being read aloud by the scientists now that their shock had worn off. The stallion walked passed the two Onorussians that had made it all possible, then out the door and out into the snow. He stopped beside the bunker and looked towards the detonation sight. The sky had been cleared by the blast, and through the massive hole in the clouds Shining Armor could see the stars.

“Perhaps it will be a brave new world…” He mumbled. “Or maybe just foolhardy…”

Author's Notes:

Shining Armor has unlocked an achievment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60