Author's Notes:

Edited by: Kizuna-Tallis, Rush, Doctor Fluffy, Redskin122004, and TB3

The PHL

Full Title: Ponies for Human Life/Liberty

Founder: Lyra Heartstrings (deceased)

Group Creation Date: Spring 2019

Current status: Active on all fronts

“We cannot afford to trust them! Look at our world! Look at how much they have taken - no, if I say take, that implies they see anything value in our lives or culture that they might want! They have just destroyed, declaring us and our culture not even worth taking from! Our world, our families, our culture! Ponies for Human Life… what a joke. If you use them, if you trust their magic, I say you’re halfway to becoming a newfoal already!”
--Senator Patrick Goleman, just weeks before his arrest at an HLF compound he had personally funded.

Sadly, it is not impossible to imagine people saying things like that, even today. Though it is fractured, little more than a shell of its former self, the HLF is still around and still a problem. A decreasing, irritating, outdated, increasingly disliked problem that now seems to fight against the civilization they claimed to be protecting, but one nonetheless. Still, an increasing number of post-war HLF members would be somewhat guilty now at having been so harsh towards the PHL.

Not so in the early days of the War.

In its infancy, the PHL was thoroughly unpopular. Though Ambassador Lyra Heartstrings was rather well-liked among the public, especially in United Kingdom, distrust and paranoia were rampant. Despite the pro-human rhetoric that Lyra gave, it was another faction of ponies in an era of anti-Equestrian paranoia claiming to "help" humanity. Everyone had seen that Celestia’s (and, by that logic, all ponies) definition of “help,” and how heavily it relied on newfoals, and how Equestrians seemed to be in thrall to her.

To most humans, it seemed impossible for Lyra to prove herself different from one of the other viciously dogmatic zealots of Equestria, and prove to humanity that magic could be used for good.

They would be proven wrong.

The Human Lover

Lyra was fascinated with humans from an early age. Ever since her great-grandfather told her about the legend of Dream Valley, where odd two-legged creatures appeared to help a group of ponies vanquish an ancient evil. The old stallion was thought to be a loon and an eccentric, the equivalent of a human fringe historian or conspiracy theorist. Lyra’s parents assumed this human fascination would be a fleeting obsession, one of those flights of fancy a filly passed through on her way to getting her cutie mark.

It wasn't. She collected books that contained references to humanity, ranging from the well-respected Dusty Tome's An Analysis on the Erratic Nature of Equestrian Technological Development, and Nonmagical Beasts and Where to Find Them) to the eccentric, such as 'Ponyland: Fact or Fable?',‘The Dream Valley Conspiracy: What They’ll Never Tell Us, and Laconic's An Argument For Humanity and Against Catseye. What few books and pamphlets she published, however, were similarly eccentric. Unfortunately, even with her newfound prestige and proof of her theories, this focus on the eccentric likely harmed the credibility of her claims of "a growing wrongness" in Equestria. Up until the first reports of odd behavior in newfoals, anyway.

Lyra remained fascinated with them all through her life, right up until she made the discovery of a lifetime, which threw her right into the spotlight.

The discovery of the lost ship of the KV62 Excavation Party allowed her to join the Canterlot University as Head Anthropologist, allowing her access to the Canterlot Archives and began to find small points in their history of outside influences.

Ideas that wouldn't be realized for centuries, the most recent proof was the CPU system, built from an blueprint over a millennium old.

Lyra enjoyed her lofty position until First Contact several years later, where she was the first to volunteer and enjoyed becoming the first pony besides Queen Celestia to walk through the portal.

She made long strides to paint a good picture for humanity, but for all her strides and the relationships she forged, she came upon clues that would destroy all that she worked for...

By her own leader, Queen Celestia.

Kickstarting a resistance
“In the time I’ve been here on Earth, getting to know and interact with humans, I’ve seen amazing things I couldn’t have ever dreamt of. When I realized the effects the potion had on a human’s mind and soul, I immediately renounced Equestria as my home country. Today, I make it official. I cannot stand by and let Queen Celestia trample over an entire world’s history, cultures and accomplishments for something as petty as power. What she speaks of is not harmony, but of tyranny and subjugation. I, and my friends in the Ponies for Human Life organization, seek to help all humanity and stop this madness.
“In my duties as ambassador, I knew Queen Elizabeth as a strong woman and a leader of faith and resolve. Her sacrifice shall not be in vain. I call upon all humans to take the call to arms. No amount of dedication is too great when the price for failure is the annihilation of everything humanity stands for. Today, is the day we fight back!”
Ambassador Lyra Heartstrings, in a televised speech in Britain, in front of the ruins of Balmoral castle.

Ambassador Heartstrings was well-liked amongst the public and developed friendships with the members of the British Royal Family in her time serving as an ambassador. She didn’t hide her apprehension over the newfoals, and then the Conversion Bureaus when the first of them began opening all over the globe. However, her discomfort was lost in the sea of voices of Jacqueline Reitman, the FDA and various other health departments’ insistence that the ponification serum was completely harmless and the newfoals’ apparent happiness over their changes.

But when the Harriet Thomas Foundation was founded as a well-meaning support group, Lyra had the ammunition she needed to question the necessity of ponification. She was in close contact with Reverend James Thomas, with the two of them exchanging frequent letters about their questions on the nature of the potion, and even wrote an article on the unnerving qualities of newfoals together. Both of them also expressed an interest in the Kraber Reports, a series of vlogs by Dr. Erika Kraber in which she performed psychoanalysis on newfoals, attempting to prove that newfoals were still the same people, yet coming to more disturbing conclusions as time went on.

The stories of other people coming forward to talk about the generally off-putting nature of the newfoals, insecure about the state of their loved ones, gave her even more reason to question her country’s policies and just how helpful ponification truly was. When the HTF became the HLF, ousting the members most willing to talk to ponies, Lyra was on record as looking in fear for a couple seconds, saying simply, “this won’t end well.”

The growing proxy war between the extremist PER and the now openly declared HLF proved her to be right. Lyra found herself in between a rock and a hard place as both groups began to target her.

One wanted to kill her for simply being a pony, the other for having the audacity to be against their cause and their Queen.

And other ponies, those that found no fault with humans, who wished for genuine co-existence, found themselves alone in a growing hostile world. It seemed to be a dreadfully polarized situation, in which no compromise could be found.

When Queen Celestia made her announcement at the press conference in Berne declaring her intentions, Lyra had been in the London Conversion Bureau, systematically subduing newfoals and destroying the potions there.

By the time the Her Majesty's Royal Marines had arrived at the suspiciously quiet Bureau, Lyra had walked out and declared the Bureau was taken down and gave herself up into their custody. No charges were pressed against her, and she was declared innocent.

When the Solar Tyrant unleashed the first attack wave on humanity to ponify every head of state in every country on Earth, the British Royals had escaped, but Queen Elizabeth the Second stayed behind in Balmoral Castle as the rest of the family escaped. Her famous last words became the rallying cry for all of humanity when she destroyed the entire castle and killed her assailants and herself. In the following commemoration to the longtime ruler of the United Kingdom, Lyra publicly defected from Equestria, declaring she could not stand idly by and let the Tyrant trample and wipe away humanity’s history in her petty quest for power.

She knew she could not do it alone, even with the backing of the Royal Family; she was just one voice, two if she counted her reluctant partner Bon Bon, she needed ponies who wanted to help humans.

So she created a group for them, one that would later be called a misnomer after the eventual inclusion of other races.

Ponies for Human Lives.

Interviewee: Claw Hammer/Aegis The Giant
Fighting alongside PHL

“Well, what happened in Britain?”

“I… got drunk,” Aegis says, sheepishly. “I don't mean, ‘what the hell did I do last night’ drunk. Like, ‘ate fish on a bet with some Londoner’ drunk.”

“How was it?”

“Not…” Aegis raised his hoof, wiggling it from side to side in a ‘maybe, maybe not’ gesture. “It was alright. I mean the flavor was unique and all, but I wouldn’t want it again. I was fine, when I got over that fish on Earth don’t really have minds… I might have some now and then, but don’t want to do it again. Now, I tried to laugh it off cause it was just so hard to cope at the time, but my wife…. she never quite looked at me the same way. The newfoal orphans that she adopted-”

“Wait. Newfoal orphans?!”

“Yeah, there was a ‘Bring a better life to starving children or something!’ drive, they were from somewhere that spoke Swahili, she adopted them on the spot. Worst thing I ever agreed to,” Aegis sighed. “Those two foals just… it was like they wormed their warped magic inside her mind and turned her into somepony else. Still, least they helped me bond with Viktor, cause they both spoke Swahili, so I had to learn some of the phrases. Useful skill, that. Anyway, it was like that act short-circuited her brain or something.”

“So… you left because your wife went crazy?”

“She wasn’t just crazy, she was fuckmothering insane! One night, after my wife called me a carnivore and said I was a human on all four hooves, then kicked me out of the room while the foals were sleeping. So I went on a bender and somehow met Lyra Heartstrings in a bar. Was a weird-ass bender, I can tell you that; I kept seeing this white alicorn with a red mane out of the corner of my eye when I met her. So, when we woke up the morning after-” Aegis, seeing the interviewer’s look, threw up his hooves, his eyes widening behind his characteristic goggles. “NO. No. Not like that. I don’t think so...Maybe? She seemed like an… experimental… sort of mare. I mean, I knew she swung for the my team and all, but if it was a human? No bets on that one, but I know for a fact Bon Bon would have murdered me then and there. Anyway, I told her about the newfoals, and my wife. I think she must have had this as part of a pre-written speech. So, she and Bon-Bon took me out to breakfast around Paddington Station. Funny thing, I can remember it like she told me yesterday.”

“What did she say?”

Aegis cleared his throat.

“Mr. Claw Hammer, something is rotten in our state of Equestria. Dreadfully so. Does anything about our land’s magic - no, anything at all about our land - feel right to you? Look. The Elements of Harmony failed to purify Sombra - and at that point, Lyra telekinetically lifted a notebook over to me, along with a book that had several underlined passages - And this book doesn’t say anything good about how that could be possible. I can’t really remember what was there, but it mentioned something like ‘embodiment disharmony,’ or ‘thaumopsychological unbalance,’ and then she went on about the fact that it had been harder to get cutie marks since Equestria manifested, and all kinds of things about bizarre magic readings. It should have sounded crackpot, but… I don’t know. She didn’t explain it like she was crazy. And when you get down to it... Equestria just didn't feel right. Ever since.... I don't know, the explosion on the Great Equestrian... Before Luna returned. I think. You know how hard it is to pin down.”

“Everyone gives a different point.... You don’t remember that part very well, do you?”

“Well, I remember what she said. I just don’t understand it very well… I don’t know. I’m not a scientist like her. Though I did agree when she said that the claims of a second magical renaissance soon made no sense. Anyway, she continued on - Look how we’ve embraced the newfoals, even as they display few if any signs of sentience. Should they really smile so much? Should they really have that expression daily? And why… why do they act as if ponydom is ascension to a higher plane of existence, and just express such hatred for their former humanity, shunning everything about themselves before they drank the potion? I’ve seen most humans, and I’ve visited many places all over Earth. Let me tell you this: they’re not living in some dystopia where everything is owned by a greedy minority and every religion is some corrupt scam church like so many newfoals claim! Sure, it isn’t perfect, but it’s not as though they’re riddled with kill-happy criminals, murderers, terrorist fanatics, and whatever else you can think of! They seem happy! Haven’t you noticed that? Haven’t you noticed that there’s so much we could learn from each other, and yet we act like we can’t coexist? We should be making so much together, and we just act like there’s nothing humanity has to offer. They would have been happy to help with Sombra, and we didn’t tell them, even though I know that we knew they could have easily given us the tools to curb-stomp him.”

“Your memory of this speech is really good.”

“I know. What’s weird is that I had a hangover,” Aegis agreed. “She continued, “Just… there’s a sickness. A cancer in Equestria. I don’t know where it is or what, or what it will do, but it’s somewhere. All around. Inside most ponies, and I shudder to think what happens if the illness becomes terminal.” Then Bon-Bon, who’d been trying to ignore her, told her that was just paranoia, and that she should see a doctor, and Lyra said that would just make things worse because they could get inside her head, then we all got interrupted by a car bomb. Got four inches of cast-iron shrapnel right in the conk. Still there.” He pointed with one foreleg to the red bandanna he wore over his head.

Most everyone had heard of the car bomb at Lyra’s breakfast. Forensics techs had studied the scene, claiming that judging by the proximity to the window, it was “nigh-impossible” for Lyra, Bon-Bon, and Aegis to have survived that attack.

“I found myself that boom. It was like a sign from Luna,” Aegis said. “There were newfoals in there, beating the crap out of the bomber’s body, with just the most awful looks on their faces. They were happy. And I just remember telling Lyra, right before I passed out and got carted off to a hospital, ‘If that’s what being Pony means, I don’t w-’”

“And?”

“Well, I couldn’t tell her anything else. I was in a coma for two weeks. When I woke up, I was told that it must have given me some severe brain damage, but personally, I’d never felt saner. I just walked out of the hospital one day, and found that my wife had taken up with a newfoal. And she said that she sent our foals back to Equestria. So I left her, and disguised myself as a Royal Guardspony in Equestria to get my foals out. Used a fake cutie mark as well, and that’s when I started using the name Aegis. The foals insisted I keep the name, though…”

“Why?

“Said it made me sound like a superhero,” Aegis says, giving a little laugh. “I gotta say, I like that. Kinda stuck when I joined up with Lyra again. Anyway, they live in South Africa with some of Viktor’s cousins… they seem pretty happy. Viktor, though? He loves them.”

“... Are we thinking of the same person?”

“What? You never noticed that he’s really good with children?” Aegis asks.

“I will admit, it doesn’t usually come up.”

“Tell them to stop fokking confusing it with being the werf eter!” Kraber yelled from a nearby room. “Honestly, can’t I have any redeeming qualities? But no… goddamn varkpoes!”

“What does that-”

“You don’t want to know,” Aegis said.

“Just one more question. How did you two become friends, anyway? I mean… I know you saved his life, but-”

“He said he had a family before they were ponified,” Aegis said, shrugging. “I just… couldn’t stand seeing him suffer like that. Plus, his legs were pinned under rubble and the place was on fire. On top of that, he kicked a PER guy in the face right when he was about to stab me for being PHL.”

“When did that happen?”

“We were at the hospital,” Aegis explained. “There were some PER guys that attacked on the wrong day, and Kraber broke out using a stolen knife and pistol. Killed all of them.”

“But that’s another story,” Kraber added, his tone just begging the reporter not to ask about it. Which was a good idea. It would take way too long to explain.

“Also, thanks for not hijacking the interview,” Aegis called over to him.

“Don’t mention it. It’s been a problem for me, and it’s… kind of an apology for barely mentioning you in the last one,” Kraber admitted. “Sorry about that. I got carried away, and I was getting drunk, caught up in my own misery... That was an awful interview."

“Like I said, a better man than you think,” Aegis said. “Anyway, interview’s over. I want to go get some milkshakes.”

“I like the sound of that!” Kraber said, following him out of the room. “Ben & Jerry’s?”

“Good idea! I need some chocolate in me...”

Victims of War

Her first recruits were ponies who lost everything or nearly died defending something precious.

Cheerilee Cherry was the first pony to join after her ordeal in Paris, defending a classroom from a newfoal horde, living in France as an invited teacher from the French Government. Brought to Lyra by American troops, lead by Colonel Renee prior before his botched mission.

This was followed closely by Vinyl Scratch, who lost her longtime friend Octavia Melody to the Royal Guards, and had grown suspicious and angry at Equestria’s strange and draconian policies on human culture, specifically the embargo and "purging" of that which seemed too human. Which unfortunately included Vinyl's music.

Three days after their arrival was Spitfire. When trying to escape Equestria after an argument with Rainbow Dash about the militarization of the Wonderbolts, she was injured fighting newfoal Wonderbolts lead by Rainbow Dash. The ‘old guard’ of the Wonderbolts, such as Soarin and Fleetfoot, followed Spitfire to Earth, leaving Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust to rebuild the Wonderbolts on their own. It’s been theorized that this lead to lowered recruiting standards for the Wonderbolts, leading them to accept newfoals to refill their numbers and degrading their status as an elite unit.

The most spectacular arrival was Time Turner, aka Doctor Whooves, and his family in a familiar blue box, much to the shock of the Royal Family who were welcoming the first few trickles of escaping ponies.

Then came a flood of ponies looking for shelter away from the fighting, the angry humans wishing to do them harm, and the Solar Empire loyalists trying to drag them back to Equestria to reeducate them and “cleanse them of humanity’s corrupting influence”.

However, time began to work against them as some humans began to hunt for them, Lyra knew she couldn’t just hope that the humans could wait for her and her group. So she began to look for a means to train ponies into fighting in the war.

In this, the help of the Royal Family was invaluable: Prince Harry had emptied nearly his entire personal accounts to help fund the PHL, allowing them to begin purchasing basic training equipment and repurpose equipment for their needs. King Charles, meanwhile, had set aside the entirety of Windsor Great Park for the group to use, something Lyra used to her full advantage: the varied terrain of the park would, in her estimation, be perfect for training the new army she was building, and there was more than enough room in the various lodges, such as the Cumberland and Royal Lodges, now donated to her cause, to house the ponies in.

They were not alone as the surviving leaders of countries that Lyra visited and befriended prior before the war sent their own detained ponies (who turned themselves in or saved from mobs of people trying to hurt them) join her group, the most prominent being Germany, Japan, Russia, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Along with relief supplies and troops to defend the fledgling group. Human scientists in many of these countries began early work on new weaponry for the war, (And, as time went on, inventions to help refugees survive in a world menaced by the Barrier) researching Equestrian magic and working to improve existing designs.

However, to ponies, the concept of war was strange, having lived peacefully amongst the other races of Equus for centuries. So Lyra turned to the one race that did know war.

Humans.

There were objections. Ponies that protested the use of such force, and resented what they had to resort to. Still, it had to be done. Lyra showed them all what would happen to them if they didn't fight: namely, that they would be killed for not doing the Queen's work or just for disagreeing with her, their minds raped until they were little more than newfoals themselves, or even worse, used as test subjects for the Solar Empire’s new weaponry or as medical experiments for Twilight Sparkle.

Few humans stepped up, much like Major Stephan Bauer, who would lead to the standardization of training ponies in the art of war. Due to the extreme physical differences between the humans and ponies, Stephan had to rely on retired guards for the training regiments to use for ponies to strengthen the new troops. He would later train other drill instructors, laying the foundation for future pony soldiers.

Interviewee: Trixie Lulamoon
Training under Major Bauer

"Miss Lulamoon, I never underwent the training the PHL has set for ponies willing to fight against the Tyrant. You were one of the first, and even went under even stricter training under the personal watch of Major Bauer."

"Yes, I remembered that time very clearly. Stephan was very hard on me, but I demanded that he did..."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, just thinking on my decision. When he first started training us, I was one of the first to step forward, a washed out magician with an ego the size of Canterlot made of glass. I wanted to be the best, I wanted to show everypony that I cared more than myself. After we were done, I asked Stephan to push me, break me down and rebuild me so I can stand by him when he fights. I... it was for a selfish reason."

"Selfish?"

"He was... He was so powerful in my eyes. He had this strength that called out to me. I just wanted to be by his side, fight by him, protect him..."

"You fell in love with him."

"Heh... I suppose that is true. We're together now. Its just felt so weird back then... many humans and ponies looked down on having relationships with one another. It was only thanks to Chrysalis that we are together... even then we were very stubborn about our feelings."

"No regrets about your decision then?"

"I will never regret my decision in joining. It gave Stephan to me, and in return it gave me to Stephan. *laughs* It also helps that I have new tricks to use in my shows for the children."

Upgrading

Many would think the unicorn was way over her head, dismissing the PHL as a fad not long for this Earth. But Lyra was an extremely convincing mare, one who almost seemed to have a charmed life, able to gather funding and gather ponies to her side at almost every turn. Even with multitudes of disaffected ponies by her side helping her, she was able to gather hundreds to her cause.

Unfortunately, even with many ponies willing to join the fight, their human partners were still getting pushed back. The Tyrant came prepared, having planned out her invasion months, if not years, in advance, as indicated the next few months of fighting showed that while the humans had the technology to face her numbers, magic was still something out of the humans’ grasp.

Magic was an unknown energy to humans, they had no means of defense from it. Body armor did surprisingly well due to the ceramic plates at stopping concussive force, but spells focused on the mind or elemental magic left the human soldiers reeling. Incendiary, corrosive, and sleeping spells became the bane of many a soldier, as it exposed them to the potion, if they weren’t ripped from the protective measures first.

Their ground and air vehicles suffered the same issues. Tanks and heavy armor vehicles were stopped in their tracks due to the various spells created by Twilight Sparkle just for them, while jets and helicopters were able to avoid a majority of the spells with their maneuverability and speed, but only just.

Ponies found themselves looking for a means of protection for their allies. The few escaped scholars and unicorns they had, managed to gather enough whole Royal Guard armors to study, but it was thanks to PER defector Ernst Kasparek that they managed to get a full blue print of enchantments and spells, and used this to help their human allies.

It would prove to be far more crucial to the war effort and survival of humanity than anyone could have predicted. In a flurry of creativity, humans investigated every possible application, allowing for weight reduction, cooling, and finding a myriad of other military applications.

Some even found their way to the civilian sector thanks to a Pegasus stallion named Macroburst, who managed to foresee Earth's possible energy problems, improving on power plants on Earth and even creating new ones. Anecdotal stories recall his unicorn workers wearing hazmat suits, teleporting nuclear waste over the Barrier.

One of the PHL’s biggest suppliers were Crowe Laboratories, a Brazil-based think tank run by Thaddeus “Rusty” Crowe, an enterprising philanthropist and inventor born in Rio de Janeiro. Where PHL R&D had ideas, Crowe Laboratories would make them better, committing manpower and factories to manufacturing PHL equipment.

Their human allies were aware of the ponies’ own limitations, and various plans were put into motion to help their rebel ponies into fighting the war as more than bombing platforms or mobile ammunition stores. The creation of the assault saddles was the first of many of these.

The first iterations were heavy and bulky, forcing all but the strongest of ponies to remain still as they fired their weapons, used more as a suppressive fire than anything else. However, as with all human technology during wartime, they improved vastly as time went on.

Nowadays, the assault saddles are lighter, durable, and can easily be interchangeable for various fighting styles. It became commonplace to integrate heads up displays into their helmets, allowing them to finally aim. Even newer models, assault yokes solely for pegasi use, were created, mostly consisting of light sniper rounds or explosive payload drops. A popular non-regulation addition was the "fire hedgehog," which consisted of at least four SMGs wired to a secondary assault saddle trigger and pointed at the ground, for the purpose of strafing newfoals.

Lyra Heartstrings would give us the means to fully protect humanity’s war machines and soldiers from magic: Magical runes of unparalleled protection against magic and increase the offensive capabilities.

Sadly, she would only see it once before her capture and eventual death at the hooves of the Solar Tyrant. She was captured during the evacuation of Reykjavik, Iceland, on board the HMS Thunder Child, an experimentally enhanced PHL ship.

Like her fictional namesake, the heroic torpedo-ram from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, HMS Thunderchild’s final fate was to sink to a cold grave in the silent depths of Neptune’s sea. But only after that valiant ship had endured hurricane force winds, bolts of magical lightning, and ocean waves swept up into mountains by arcane spellcraft, forces that would break apart any lesser craft, going far above and beyond the wildest expectations of its designers did she prevail against. She remained floating to that last, unloading her ordnance in a pyrrhic auto-fire onslaught, drawing the attention of scores of newfoals and three potioneer ships away from passenger ferries and steadfastly upon herself. And when she did die, it was by the choosing of herself and her crew: crippled and out of control after one damaged airship was brought down upon her, snapping her keel, the final three survivors onboard chose to blow Thunderchild’s scuttling charges, triggering off a final defiant conflagration as her remaining fuel and ammunition cooked in an instant, taking two more enemy airships with her.

When the chain of explosions cleared, all that could be seen of the besieged ship were dying fires on the ocean surface, and her battle standard, serenely caught on the winds, and ascending out of sight into the clouds.

If any work of man can be said to have died gloriously, steadfast in battle and throwing herself onto the pyre so that countless lives might be spared, it was the Thunderchild.

Sadly, even with her defiant stand, she was boarded during the battle and the human crew members were all ponified (with the exception of three who committed suicide) and Lyra and Bon-Bon were brought back to the Solar Empire before the ship sank.

Lyra's trial amounted to little more than a kangaroo court, a show trial with a predetermined verdict to send a message to humanity and appease the loyalist ponies baying for blood. She was sentenced to petrification and crushing, while Bon-Bon was forced to watch. The PHL’s top physicist and dimension hopper Doctor Whooves was able to rescue the latter, but he arrived too late to save Lyra.

Interview: Marcus Renee
Lyra’s death

"Commander-"

"*sigh* It’s Colonel."

"Right, sorry about that. Colonel Renee, what can you tell me when you heard the news of Lyra’s capture."

"I was... I was mad at her."

"Why? Did you two have a fight before-"

"What? Oh no, I was furious that she stayed behind, I saw it when she had this frown on her face, an idea that she knew I wasn’t going to like. The next thing I know, I turned around and she and Bon Bon were gone."

"She believed she was doing the right-"

" IT WASN'T HER CALL TO MAKE!"

Silence rings out

"I... I'm sorry. The last few days had been rough. I had a plan. We all did, but she... she just didn’t want anymore people getting hurt... Damn it, we were preparing to take the Thunder Child for test runs, see what they could do under pressure. Lyra just did it before we were prepared..."

"I'm sorry, Colonel. It must be a sore point for you."

"Yeah... just shows how much she can get into our hearts... and how easily they can be ripped out."

Mourning but not down

Lyra Heartstrings’ death was mourned the world over. Even some members of the Human Liberation Front expressed sorrow for her passing, and even now, some areas still hold a memorial service the anniversary of her death. Many wondered how the PHL would be able to still function without her.

She was more than a leader, or a founder... She was an inspiration to them.

Once again, the PHL found themselves in an uncertain situation. Would they be folded into the army of some country in a bold move of politicking? Thrown under the bus by an HLF-aligned senator, or any host of possibilities that would have, in all probability, doomed all sentient life? Or just fade out of the spotlight till they were just a circle of humans and ponies at a table somewhere in the Pacific, far from the front, ineffectually squabbling over what to do while nobody listened, as more and more of their funds were diverted to the HLF?

Vinyl Scratch
Musician
Fighting alongside the PHL

“After Lyra died… That was the scariest, saddest time of my life."

"How so?"

"We'd lost our leader and inspiration! Who was going to... I don't know, who was going to lead us? Work with humans with us? Keep everyone from joining the HLF? It was... I thought we were fucked. There weren't many people or ponies that could just.... Talk. I thought every day we could get bombed, imprisoned, or worse. There were people that wanted to kill me on general principle! But then…”

“Then what?”

“Marcus stepped up. He told everyone trying to downsize us and get rid of our funding just where they could put their plans, showed how effective rune magic was… he even tested an F3-Thunderlord in battle, just to show the kind of things magic could do for our weapons. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have the bass cannon! Or… there’s so much stuff that… just… aaah!” Vinyl flopped over, sighing. “There’s just so much we owe to him! I… I don’t care what he says. The man is a [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] hero. He’s responsible for so many people not being zombies, for ponies not getting deported… that’s a [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] death sentence!”

“Was it still hard for the PHL to carry on?”

“Marcus made it a hell of a lot easier, that’s for sure. Besides…. we’d proven ourselves to enough people that going after us then would have been suicide.”

Seeing the absence of a leader, Colonel Marcus Renee stepped up to the plate, leading the PHL into a more offensive role. His experiences in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq allowed him to use the very tactics by the terrorists used against the US against the newfoal hordes, along with directing ground troops from the frontlines to hold areas that would normally be lost within hours to a few days.

This painted a target on him, escalating the furious drive to ponify him and break the human race’s will to fight, but the Colonel survived every encounter and attempt, pushing him higher and higher into an almost legendary figure. He wasn’t alone, for many heroes came out during the War, each with their own titles and accomplishments.

'Commander' Marcus Renee of the PHL/UN Task Forces.

The 'Knight of Germania' Stephan Bauer of the European Forces

The 'Dragons of the East', one of the most well known multinational, multispecies military operations group out of Asia, led by Porter Stanley and Yon-Soo Park.

'The Pacific Queen' Captain Rebecca Kleiner and 'Stormbringer' Thunderwing of the Stampede Fleet.

Colonel Renee would hold onto the title as leader of the PHL group until he passed it to Cheerilee Cherry, known as the ‘Teacher’ to the Empire’s loyalists due to her pre-war occupation as a school teacher and due to videos of her teaching ponies and humans equally with a smile.

This proved a boon as it allowed the two to focus on very different tasks, as many would look to the two with clear priorities.

Colonel Renee would focus on the war effort, logistics of personnel, vehicles and artillery, plans for future battles, and various forms of battlefield control.

Cheerilee would focus more on the home front, food and clothing, technology and weapon shipments, and positive propaganda of unity and the war effort, and of course, teaching children, both human and ponies, wherever and whenever she could.

Interview: Photo Finish
Propaganda specialist

“Ms. Finish? How did you come to Earth?”

“Vell…. It makes for a better story for a pony to say zat zey vere vun of ze last to escape Equestria, yet my goals at first vere rather… selfish. I am almost ashamed to say it. Unlike zat… zat Tyrant, I saw humanity as an opportunity to learn. I vanted to see human designs and photograph zem, possibly readapt some of my favorite dresses for humans - and vice versa. It alvays struck me as strange zat Rarity did not vant to try ze same.”

“And now we know why.”

“It disgusts me! Zat mare has turned her back not just on an entire species, but on culture itself! I made decent amounts of money on earth. Some models called it, und I quote, ‘a strange und unnatural experience, being photographed by a tiny blue horse’ but zey vere usually good sports about it. Zere vere bigots, of course - I have experienced their like before, being an Earth Pony in ze fashion business. Stereotypes, you know. For a time, I thought zat zere vas hope. Zat I could be to two worlds vhat I vonce vas to one. But zen… zen came Celestia’s declaration of var in Bern.”

“Then what happened?”

“Vell, I vas cut adrift! Left on ze river vissout a paddle! I vas not popular enough on earth to be untouchable, and I liked humanity enough zat… vell, I had my fears about Equestria. Venever I vould consider returning, I vould get a… a bad feeling. A shiver down my spine. Zen, as I vas sheltered in ze house of a model who vas protecting me from ze riots outside, I saw Lyra’s PHL on TV. Ze news clearly had no respect for zem, calling zem traitors und spies… but I had seen her before. She vas like ze idol of anypony who vanted to live on und enjoy Earth! On top of zat, she denounced ze queen! On live television! I decided right zen zat I vould help - ze poor mare. She needed… she needed somevone who knew ze camera. Somevone who could construct each shot like a work of art, find ze magics in each still! It vould not be finding ze magics I vas used to, or fashion photography…. but it vas necessary.”

What do you remember most about the PHL in its early days?”

“Being desperate. Ze feeling zat any moment, somevone could bomb us und ve vould only be a footnote in history books, or a story told to frighten little colts and fillies to sleep. Yet, ve marched on! Zere vere humans und ponies zat tried to cut us down…. vonce, somevone tried to bomb our plane. It vas depressing, und yet…. vhat happened vhen Marcus took control vas a godsend! Anyzing zat has happened is beyond anyzing zat I could have imagined!’

“How so?”

“Vell… ve vere a joke. Now? People trust us to save ze vorld!”

“What would you say your most important work at the PHL is?”

“Zat… is not an easy decision to make. I’ve helped design every poster, I’ve made videos, I’ve done such magics here! And yet...deciding vould not mean zat one wins. Deciding vould mean one zat does not,” she sighed. “Anyzing zat I did zat inspired someone to join the PHL. Not to take the easy route and join the HLF, but to help the PHL make somezing greater. As long as I know that it inspired someone, zen it is my favorite.” She paused. “Zo I am fond of ze work I did after ze Battle of Boston.”

“Why?”

“It convinced hundreds to join us, vat zey allowed us to show." Photo Finish says. “On top of zat…. I had somezing to vork vith. I had proof ve could vin, for vonce in zis var! I could vatch ze news… see humans and ponies vorking togezzer, taking down HLF and PER alike, fighting ze barrier and vinning! I can look at it and say, ‘I had a hoof in zat’.”

Bringing Down the Hammer

Playing defensives throughout Europe due to the growing barrier, it was only when the western end of the barrier hit the Atlantic that they were able to focus on more offensive attacks.

Ponies, joined later followed by griffons, zebras and Diamond Dogs that managed to smuggled themselves through the portal station or by the Doctor, attacked supply lines and captured towns, disorganizing any planned assaults or pushing them back several weeks.

However, the master spies behind these attacks were two ponies with the backing of the PHL.

The first was in deep cover in the Canterlot Nobles, husband of the PETN leader (and later Minister of Newfoal Affairs) Fleur De Lis, known by the loyalists and the Tyrant as Trade Secret, was Fancy Pants. He was known for giving the PHL and in turn, the soldiers on the frontline as well, a heads up of any surprise assaults.

The other was Blue Spy, the blade of the PHL, known to destroy entire bases by herself and poison food supplies for entire colonies filled with newfoals, was a unicorn named Trixie Lulamoon.

Thanks to these two, they were able to disrupt a majority of the Tyrant forces for two years with their intel and assassinations.

On the ground on the frontlines, various commander units ensured the best they could to keep the horde in line and not add to their fallen to the Empire’s numbers.

With the addition of magic to their tools, their numbers of fallen human soldiers dramatically fell wayside, allowing the soldiers for each battle to increase their ability to survive. It also allowed some soldiers to develop unique weaponry and fighting styles for extra effectiveness against the Tyrant’s forces.

The Battle of Boston was the first 'true' victory for them. In previous years, ‘victory’ for humans depended on the number of civilians saved, but at the Battle of Boston they turned away an overwhelming force with the fabled Skyliner ship, the Great Equestrian, leading the charge to Boston. The barrier was also delayed, coming to a temporary stop, at the shock of the Tyrant and her armies.

Some would call the Battle of Boston “the miracle of Boston.” It wasn’t a miracle, not really, but it was as near as one for everyone who had spent the last four years running for their lives and stripped of everything they owned, certain they were doomed. For the first time in years, humanity had been able to stand and fight… and, most incredibly, keep the ground they were fighting on. The PHL had pulled new weapon after new weapon out of seemingly nowhere - the Fujin Missile that destroyed the Great Equestrian, along with every airship and flying newfoal in the area, anti-alicorn munitions, and whatever else they had used to take out a clone of Celestia.

It inspired hundreds to join the PHL, even some members of the ferociously violent HLF. There are countless stories of humans and ponies alike who said they were heading to Boston because they were inspired by the PHL’s actions. It was clear the PHL were the force to be reckoned with, not just to Celestia but to what few skeptics remained on Earth.

The next two weeks became hellish for Imperial forces. Humans signed up en masse for the PHL, eager for a taste of the new weaponry that the PHL had used and ready to take arms against the Solar Empire and get payback for all they had lost.

Those weeks were, to put it simply, utter madness. The one remaining Bureau in North America was cleared out and destroyed, all Newfoals within were slaughtered. The PER was all but exterminated in the North America, by this point, unable to mount a resistance due to the slew of new weapons being brought against them. Many of these assaults were lead by the infamous Stabsunteroffizier (or Sergeant) Viktor M. Kraber, who used them as test beds for newer and more exotic weaponry, such as the MG2023. This earned these purges the name "Kraber's Operations," a pun on his past as a surgeon. Which was fitting, given that they were almost surgically precise in terms of people saved in the process, and the lack of collateral damage. In terms of damage to PER operations and members, however, they were anything but surgical, delivering exactly the amount of mercy the public demanded. In other words, none.

The HLF were a laughingstock, though this didn't stop them from trying to gain new weapons from military bases, killing off ponies, and attempting to discredit the PHL at the MIA status of Colonel Marcus Renee. Enchanted ammunition and weaponry was passed out to anyone in the PHL who placed themselves between Celestia and civilization, from China, to America, to the Pacific, to Africa.

This PHL buildup and newfound drive to resist reached its zenith in the Battle of Brooklyn, in which Kraber rallied civilians to defend the city, its shipyards, and escape routes from the surviving PER and imperial forces as they sent waves of bodies at them to weaken their defenses, leading a brutally one-sided battle against Imperial forces that could more accurately be compared to a curbstomp.

When the Tyrant launched her second attack on Boston, she also sent out thousands to attack at the barrier’s edges at various points of the world, if only to gain more newfoals for the future conflict.

What she did not know was the opposing forces had also launched their own attack upon Canterlot. Moreover, they had also gained an ally in their time of need.

Another Equestria, one uncorrupted by the Tyrant’s influences, full of ponies and numerous other races willing to help humanity… and utterly livid at what had happened to their counterpart universe.

Their inclusion brought up the number of fighters of three hundred and fifty thousand and growing to nearly a million plus strong, matching the Tyrant’s own forces equally.

It would be one of the bloodiest and fiercest battles ever waged between all three worlds.

Profiles

Many beings, both human and pony, rose in defiance against the Tyrant and her slave newfoals and mind warped ponies.

Listed below is only a small number of people who risked everything to fight against tyranny and enslavement.

But their contributions for the war would be felt throughout the world.

Name: Lyra Heartstrings
Birthdate: October 12, 978 ANM (After Nightmare Moon)
Faction/Rank: Ponies for Human Life/Liberty, Founder
Status: Deceased, Former Leader of the PHL (Succeeded by Cheerilee Cherry)
Abilities/ Preferred Weapons: Level 8 Unicorn (Precision well above average)
Assault Arms (Created and forged by herself)

“I sometimes feel as if my eyes have been opened to some great and terrible mystery that everypony dares not look at, and shies away from. When I draw attention to it, most ponies laugh at me, or seem almost on the verge of understanding, a look of comprehension dawning on their faces…. before something draws them back. I don’t know what it is. There is something deeply wrong, and though I know not what, I know that the newfoals, the potion, the barrier, all are symptoms of a greater wrong. But mark my words: Something is not right with the world, wrong on a deep, fundamental level, and the Barrier is just the most noticeable symptom. The sun of Equestria has gone pallid, and Equestrians are not quite as caring for their fellow pony as they once were. I know that we are speeding toward some great catastrophe, the nature of which eludes me utterly...”

Biography: Lyra Heartstrings was a brilliant, but lazy, unicorn scholar before turning to music. She came in second after Twilight Sparkle in Celestia’s School of Gifted Unicorns. In fact, many teachers believed that if she applied herself she would have given Twilight Sparkle a good run for top student.

She started off her career by finding the KV62 Excavation Party’s lost ship in the Galloping Sea. While she only made a curious glance and looked around, she immediately returned to Canterlot to inform Queen Celestia of her findings.

Not only was her dream of finding the lost ship fulfilled, but she also cleared her great grandfather's name, validating his theories on the existence of parallel worlds and of humans. She was given a chance to study the remains of the ship and many findings of humanity. (Which was later retracted and all findings destroyed)

When Queen Celestia first made contact with humans, Lyra offered herself to become Ambassador for the United Kingdom and soon made friends with most, if not all of the Royal Family.

Specifically with Prince William and his family. Her assistant (and rumored lover), Bon Bon, was always seen by her side.

However, as time went on, Lyra was making note of the odd behavior of her leader. Her journals indicated that she was worried about her nation’s stance and continued distance from their new neighbors, with multiple references to “uncharacteristic behavior,” to the point that at least one diary was given over to recording such instances. One subject she was particularly concerned about was Conversion, claiming that surely there were better ways to protect Humanity from the Barrier. The very subject made her uneasy, as did the newfoals. She is widely cited as being one of the first ponies to claim that something “wasn’t right” about them, though she was unsure of what.

When the Conversion Bureaus opened, she made several attempts to have them shut down and have the potion examined by other medical practitioners, although the MHRA in the United Kingdom stated that there was no issues to be taken and allowed it through. She had strong doubts about it, and expressed unease around the new foals to her friends in the British Royal Family. It didn’t make her a popular mare in the country, and proto-HLF and PER elements had gotten suspicious of her. One HLF member even attempted a car bomb at a breakfast place Lyra had been eating.

Miraculously, he failed, taking few casualties, injuring the stallion Claw Hammer who had been eating with her. Though there have been questions about just how Lyra and Bon-Bon survived without injury, as they were at the epicenter of the blast.

With factions like the HLF and PER rising throughout the world, she began to fear a nebulous coming catastrophe, though she was unsure of just what could happen and was afraid and confused about the state of her homeland. Then came the expansion of the barrier and the silence from her homeland. She began to plan for a worst case scenario, along with planning to go the Bureau in London for an "Inspection of Quality".

She went on the day Celestia declared humanity unfit to exist and kicked off the Conversion War.

When Celestia sent out the signal to prepare the potion for distribution for all humans "to see the light", Lyra was present to see it and proceeded to disrupt the plan by systematically destroying the potions while keeping the newfoals contained within the London Bureau. By the time anyone in Britain had realized what was happening, the war kicked off and a quarter of the country was engulfed in war, with newfoal insurgents hidden right under the country’s collective noses. However, thanks to Lyra, the UK was safe and all newfoals were immediately disposed of before they could become a threat.

It would remain that way until the barrier made landfall at the beginning of the second year of the war.

By this time, Lyra stood out among other native ponies as she vocally disavowed her home country and pleaded with all native ponies to make their way to Britain and join her.

She created the PHL to protect their human friends and fight against the Tyrant but with so few humans willing to listen to her, she had claw her way into a position of power and set up a faction that would later become a powerful force in the war. It seemed destined to fail, to become a footnote, to have its members swallowed up by the monolithic PER and HLF gangs.

For those few in power over the world who had wondered about the prospect of enhancing human weaponry with magic, it seemed that the final nail in the coffin was when she was paired with a 'disgraced' and demoted American officer named Marcus Renee, who would later pushed for a taskforce to be created to field new weapons and armor. Including her famed "Assault Arms", which she had been seen constantly improving.

Miraculously, her group did not fail. It became a symbol of resistance and cooperation to humans and ponies alike, drawing in defectors from the HLF and Equestria alike.

Lyra Heartstrings would meet her end in Iceland, where she, the entire ponified crew of the HMS Thunder Child, and Bon Bon were captured and sent to Equestria. She was doomed before even stepping a hoof into a courtroom. After a show trial, she was sentenced to death by petrification and shattering.

However, even in death she still fights through the PHL, through humanity, from the various notes and journals she left behind. Her most important contributions are arguably the famed runic imprints and markings, which became standard modifications in all weapons, armor, and vehicles.

During the final battle with the uncorrupted Equestria at their side, Lyra’s own counterpart would wield the final version of the Assault Arms in the Final Battle, showing their true potential.

Name: Marcus Dwayne Renee
Birthdate: April 14, 1987
Military Branch/Rank: United States Marine Corps/Colonel
Status: 'Commander' of PHL Taskforce
Abilities: Runic Magic (Awaiting update status).
Enhances Physical attributes (measured strength-wise up to almost two and half tons when pushed) Olympic level running, minor increased of reaction
Minor telekinetic ability.
Magical negations (Offensive/majority of Mental spells)

"I am a man who has the literal world thrust upon his shoulders. But I wasn't alone. Others saw me and came to my side, to help me lift this burden high. I am nothing but grateful for their help. I will fight until my dying breath, I will lead until my time is done. If there is one thing we humans taught the ponies, its that we are a stubborn race, and I am glad that we managed to brush some of that stubbornness into them."

Biography: Colonel Renee's time in the Conversion War had not been easy. He soon became a frontline leader as he managed to keep the losses of of both military personnel and civilians well above standard.

However, a botched mission ended with nearly 90% casualty rating with both soldiers and civilians. While none of the survivors blamed him for what happened, various officers in the chain of command felt it necessary to demote and send him away from the frontlines.

His new mission was essentially one to keep him out of the fight and later send him back out under a new and capable officer. His orders stated that he was to take care of the fledgling leader Lyra Heartstrings and ensure that she and the other ponies would not turn against them. It wasn’t an honorable position, a reward, or anything to aspire to at the time.

It was, as stated earlier, like reassigning him to Antarctica. The powers that be had used him as a scapegoat, and conspired to turn him into a glorified bodyguard or babysitter for a perceived failure, expecting it to fail for both of them. Lyra’s fledgling movement, composed of a small minority of dissatisfied ponies and humans, was underfunded, widely disliked, and allegedly destined for doom. That, and there were numerous elements of the various governments, such as Senator Patrick Goleman of the United States, who had already handpicked their various “champions” in the fight against Equestria.

Marcus was, at this point, a nonentity in a dangerous, unforgiving job. Lyra’s open stance against the Tyrant and holding an open hoof of friendship to humanity had all but painted a target on him and his charges. Multiple assassination attempts from both the PER and the HLF had forced Marcus to rise back up and save dozens of lives with the help of the PHL at his back.

Marcus would later have a pitched three-way battle with HLF and PER at the same time in the middle of Austin, Texas, guarding Lyra while she talked to the Governor of the State. The three-hour battle was only won thanks to Lyra and her few followers, Austin PD, Texas Rangers, a small number of brave volunteers, and Marcus himself who took overall command of the defenders and led them to victory. It was here that showed the world that they could fight and win against overwhelming odds if they worked together, and Marcus suddenly found himself thrust into the spotlight, surrounded by supporters.

The reassignment had failed, suddenly placing Marcus in a position of unprecedented importance, one in which he never seemed all too comfortable. There were politicians and countless officials (such as the infamous Senator Goleman) who had attempted to demote him once more, protesting his newfound and unprecedented power.

However, the PHL, under Marcus and Lyra’s leadership, had become popular enough that to demote him from such a favorable position was untenable. On top of that, he had managed to impress President Davis with his skill at negotiating between humans and refugee ponies.

He had risen up to the challenge, allowing him to push for the PHL to have military backing, even displaying to various generals of multiple countries in the UN the combination of Equestrian magics and Human technology to fight the war. It's quite possible that because of him, PHL-aligned governments outnumber HLF states in perpetual states of emergency. Even in its infancy, the PHL's magic showed promise and the UN agreed, diverting thousands to thaumaturgical research. Then millions, and billions as the war drew onwards, as the last countries of humanity grew ever more desperate.

President Davis reinstated Colonel Renee his proper rank and labeled him a liaison and Commanding Officer for human members of the new PHL Taskforce.

For whatever reason, possibly due to his unlikely prestigious position, foreign officers and media mistakenly called him "Commander" Renee instead of his true rank. Sadly for the Colonel, even with him correcting them, people still knew him as Commander Renee.

Since then, Colonel Renee has been in dozens of conflicts, leading both human and pony troops. Made an alliance with the European Forces, and pushed for runic magic to be integrated into human equipment, citing the growing effectiveness of Equestrian shields, and numerous cases where humans were in close proximity to high energy magic where they suffered no detrimental effects. He has even placed himself in harm’s way by imprinting unknown and dangerous runic markings on his body.

It was unknown how his body would react in the future, but took the chance if it gave humans a chance to fight.

He then vanished at the Battle of Boston, but returned hours later, with new allies that could turn the tide of the war. He returned again, two weeks later...

… With an entire army at his back. It was an Equus uncorrupted, all willing to help humanity in its darkest hour. The combined forces of three alicorn princesses, the Bringer of Chaos, the Elements of Harmony, and every known civilization residing on Equus, were brought together by the efforts of the Colonel, the Princesses, and the two hundred volunteers that went to Equestria.

Colonel Renee had all but cemented himself in the annals of history with doing the impossible everytime he hit the field. He will step back and deny anything he did was special, ever humble in person. He will point out dozens of other things people and ponies did to show that he saw himself as nothing more than a soldier doing his duty. Whichever point of view you take, it is indisputable that Marcus is a great man.

The final battle would show all three worlds the might of human willpower and the ancient magical power of Equestria combined.

Name: The Doctor
Aliases: Doctor, Time Turner, Doc Who? (stage name), John Smith, Theta Sigma, The Mad Pony With a Box
Birthdate: ???
Faction/Rank: PHL/ Lead Researcher
Status: Alive
Abilities: ???

"I was a soldier once, you know...the Oncoming Storm, that’s what my enemies called me. The name that demons ran away from. The terror of the Last Great Time War, a ‘good man’ wading into the fight. I saw empires crumble and planets burn...saw entire species erased from existence, reduced to a nightmare of might-have-beens and never-weres.

(pause)

No, I didn’t just see it happen, I made it happen.

Eventually I said ‘No More’, and I ended the whole thing...easy enough, when said in the right Moment. So ten million ships burned in space, and on a world below, 2.47 billion children cried and died in an instant. And that was it...the war was over. And I was the only survivor. The coward survived, and ran away.

But you can’t run away from your past. I wanted to be The Doctor, the man who makes people better, but more often than not I saw more people die. Strangers, friends...family. I was just this one guy running around in a blue box, with the weight of billions of innocents weighing down on me.

The Lonely God, thats what they called me then. Ha! Some God...an impotent God, unable to rewrite countless wrongs, those ‘time-locked’ moments without which history can’t flow.

Like Lyra’s death. Like the Conversion Bureaus. Like this whole forsaken war! A lot of regrets. But there’s one that really weighs me down. It’s not the deaths, or the war, or all the blood on my hands...hooves.

It’s a friend I let down. He was a soldier too, a Brigadier. A good man, who died in a retirement home, waiting for me to come round and share one last drink as friends. All of time and space at my command, the whole whirring cosmic engine, causality itself at my disposal, and I couldn’t spare a few hours for one good, old friend who was convinced I’d not forgotten him.

Well, not any more. I failed Gallifrey, I failed the Brigadier, and I failed the billions already ground up and fed through the mill of Celestia’s madness. But No More! No running away, no forgotten promises, not a single more life wasted. I have a family again, a brave, wonderful wife and two fantastic daughters throwing themselves into danger, and I won’t abandon them.

I won’t abandon the PHL. I won’t abandon...my friends.

Chin up guys. Be strong. And when all this is over, the drinks are on me."

Biography Little is known about the pony named the Doctor. He is knowledgeable in several matters involving theoretical quantum physics, time itself (as demonstrated by his cutie mark) and many others. He has often alluded to meeting other alien races, travelled through time and space in his TARDIS (more on that below) and knowledge in the oddest of subjects. He also seems to have an odd love of silly hats and neckwear.

What is known is that the Doctor shares in a common-law marriage with ‘Derpy Hooves’, a former Ponyville pegasus mailmare (see Casefile: Bubbleheart). Derpy herself was the single-mother of a unicorn filly, ‘Dinky’ at the time of this union (see Casefile: Twinkleheart). Subsequently, this growing family declared themselves to have adopted a second daughter, ‘Sparkler’ (full name Amethyst Star, see Casefile: Sparkleheart). All three of these ponies display higher-than-average IQs, considerably excessive personalities, and a penchant for creative and lateral thinking, much like the Doctor himself (in this researcher’s opinion, a demonstration of the old adage that ‘like attracts like’).

Interviews with other PHL members who resided in Ponyville during this period indicate that the Whooves family were a stable and familiar sight around town, if somewhat eccentric, and confirm that at this time the Doctor presented himself under the alias of Time-Turner, a self-proclaimed theoretical physician and general advisor to the town council on ‘science, space, and all things timey-wimey’.

SIDENOTE 1:The lack of details on the particulars of Sparkler’s adoption have raised some questions. Evidence exists of her appearing as a member of the family with no forewarning and little to no proof of a previous family or background. Interviews also suggest that for her first months in Ponyville she spoke with archaic ‘Gecko-Roaman’ syntax and accent (a historic pony dialect analogous to Latin or Greek). The relevance to this of the family being ‘time-travellers’ remains unconfirmed.

SIDENOTE 2:Subsequent to this, Dinky has entered into a confirmed romantic relationship with another young PHL volunteer, Pipsqueak (see Casefile: Patch for particulars).

The TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) is the Doctor’s means of transport. Before the rescue attempt for Lyra Heartstrings, it was a blue rectangular box that looks very much like an outdated British Police Box (a kind of ‘one-man police station’ and communications hub, discontinued after the introduction of two-way radios). After it was damaged and rebuilt, it now resembles a modified New York City phonebooth. Both iterations have the same trait of being far bigger on the inside, the ability to fly in both Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, jump dimensions between Earth and Equus, and jump through time (Although this ability was never used due to concerns, he has hinted that he would use this only if necessary).

His role in the PHL is one of advisor for the weapons and armor human and pony soldiers use. While he has shown a rather large distaste for weapons (and violence in general), he has set this aside as a matter of necessity to help improve their magical capabilities and practical uses. His knowledge in theoretical physics, space-time, and odd areas of magic has helped in the development of weapons that have helped prevent enemy unicorns from stealing firearms, the construction of assault saddles, super sonic bullets that pierce through magic shields, and rumored energy weapons.

However, due to his ability to bypass the portals, the Tyrant’s set her sights on to him. This came to a head when his wife, Derpy Whooves, was captured and imprisoned in the Frigid North. She, along with the thousands of others that rebelled against the Tyrant and set to go through re-education, were held in a rather poorly constructed prison on a mountain. Doctor had gone there himself and freed over two thousand ponies, then proceeded to knock the entire prison down the mountain, killing all the guards inside with a single sonic screwdriver.

In time, his family became the cornerstone for all magical technology. Or, as it was affectionately called Magitech, by the Whooves. With Doctor leading all experimental weapons and testing beds for vehicles.

For whatever odd reason, he absolutely has to bump heads with the European Forces Leader Major Stephan Bauer.

The parallels between Doctor Whooves and the sci-fi series "Doctor Who" have not been lost on those "in the know". However, in a world where magical pastel ponies with devastating magical abilities are causing the genocide of the human race, it is one of the lesser mysteries that most are content to quietly ignore. Those that don't are usually told that they "need to get their priorities right". It did however, create a rather odd (not to say amusing) moment where King William of Britain was rendered entirely speechless upon meeting the Doctor.

Names: Captain Rebecca Kleiner and Thunderwing
Places of Birth: Okinawa, and Cloudsdale
Ages: 34, 29
Status: Currently island-hopping in the Pacific

Captain Rebecca Kleiner was born in a military base in Okinawa, Japan, the oldest of three children to an American Navy captain and a military doctor native to Okinawa. She was a quintessential “military brat,” having lived in at least five different places through her childhood. Eventually she and her brother and sister joined the military, following a long held Kleiner family tradition. She studied military history, criminal justice, and law, and was stationed in her birthplace following her 25th birthday. She carried out her duty as a JAG lawyer for several years, up until the Equestrians declared war on humanity.

Thunderwing meanwhile was born in Cloudsdale, Equestria. He lived a normal life as a weather scientist, his special talent being in storm formation. He often studied weather formations over the Everfree Forest, intrigued by how the weather could manage itself without magic. He was a frequent collaborator with environmental scientist Verdant Tract. When Equestria made contact with Earth, Thunderwing was in, in his own words, meteorological heaven. He travelled all over the world, studying ocean currents and storm patterns, as well as climate change and ways ponies could help humans remedy those issues.

Thunderwing met Rebecca in a town in Kyushu. He was studying the tropical storms that had hit the region at the time, while she was helping out with relief efforts. They became fast friends, finding themselves to have numerous shared interests.

Both of them were interested in the weather, they found themselves walking together along the beaches, and both of them considered surfing to be a fun hobby. Granted, as a pegasus, Thunderwing would frequently ditch his board and start flying, sometimes not even bothering with the board.

They would spend many happy hours together by the seaside together.

Their budding romance was kept incredibly secretive before and during the first two years of the war. Human-pony romantic relationships were regarded as deviant and strange, many such couples often being the targets of discrimination and accusations of bestiality (Colonel Marcus Renee himself has faced similar prejudices after it was revealed he was in a relationship with the Earth pony mare Cheerilee (aka The Teacher), and a common insult used against such pairs by HLF groups is the term, “horse-fucking traitors”).

When the war commenced, Rebecca and Thunderwing helped in the evacuation of civilians and refugees, as well as containment of PER members. As the US military and the Japanese Self Defense Forces collaborated to keep the Japanese archipelago safe from the PER, Rebecca realized that refugees were the most vulnerable groups, as islands in the south Pacific were converted into Solar Empire strongholds, and the walled refugee camps on the outskirts of cities (known as “Dead Ends”) changed into killing fields.

However, that changed when her ship was attacked during repairs at a dock. Most high-ranking officers had been ponified, and she was the last one left in command, she was forced into an untenable position of great and terrible power. A position where the lives of millions rested on her shoulders.

She could have broken down. She could have lost her mind. But she didn’t, stepping up to her job with Thunderwing at her side. There were many who grumbled about his importance on the ship, allegedly as a “ tactical advisor,” though he’d seemed likeable enough.
Then, the night after a pitched battle to destroy a PER island holdout and prevent it from sending out ships to ponify other islands, perhaps the most infamous HLF attack in the Pacific Front occurred.

Peterson’s Mutiny. Several sailors with HLF sympathizers managed to convince the crew that Thunderwing was a PER spy, and a massive fight broke out across the ship between those loyal to Captain Kleiner and the HLF.

Unfortunately, at that moment, a PER sub arrived, turning the mutiny into an all-out three-way battle. Kleiner issued commands to both forces over the intercom, convincing everyone on the ship that the mutiny was pointless at the moment, and they had to act or they’d get ponified. During the rebellion, Thunderwing managed to create a rogue wave, then created a small cyclone that flooded the submarine, saving the crew of Kleiner’s ship.

It was probably at that moment that the two of them proved themselves to be more than capable and competent to not only lead, but to also send the enemy packing.

Interview

“How did you keep the ship going after the mutiny?”

Captain Kleiner: “It wasn’t easy. It was downright hellish, actually.”

Thunderwing: “Say, I know you’re the interviewer, but mind if I ask you a question?”

“No, go ahead.”

Thunderwing: “You know what frightens me most about the war?”

“What?”

Thunderwing: “How quickly hu… no, how quickly we nearly doomed ourselves. I mean… damn near everyone could have turned out to be an HLF member. It’s almost a miracle that there’s so many PHL. Think about it… it’s easy to have just looked at ponies like me, associated us with the enemy, and decided to shoot them. You could have gotten riots, ponies killed on sight…”

Captain Kleiner: “He’s right. Much as I’m pretty sure this is going to be the most horrible thing in the history of humankind, we didn’t.”

Thunderwing: “We didn’t.”

“How’d you keep it that way?”

Captain Kleiner: “I talked them down. I gave them the standard speech about how his homeland had gone to shit, judging by what we’d been hearing. Told them that if magic created the Barrier and it was destroying everything we’d ever built, then it was pretty unlikely we could kill the thing.”

Thunderwing: “It was not like that.”

Captain Kleiner: “Then how do you remember it?”

Thunderwing: “It was a hell of a lot more inspiring than that! You said something like ‘BUT! There’s ponies out there like Lyra, ponies with a definition of help that doesn’t involve the Potion or simply wiping everything about us off the face of the earth,’ then you started endorsing the PHL and... didn’t you threaten to throw anyone that tried to hurt me into a boat propeller?”

Captain Kleiner: “I… hope I didn’t. That'd be an awful way to keep the crew under control."

“Did you find it hard to assume the level of control that you did?"

Captain Kleiner: "I'd be surprised if I didn't. But, hell... It's saving the world, and that's only easy in video games. Besides, I can sit down and complain, or I can do something about it. And if I do the first thing, I’m a zombie, so that’s..."

Thunderwing: “Yeah, that’s… no.”

Name: Stephan Alexander Bauer
Birthdate: August 15, 1994
Military Branch/Rank: German Military Bundeswehr, SpezlKrH EGB (Similar the US Army Rangers)
Status: Current leader of an EU Regiment and actual chosen representative of the EU forces. He is also in charge of the training of new recruits for the PHL and human forces.
Equipment: High Modern Full Body Armor enhanced with Runes.
Heckler & Koch G27 (HK417A2 13”) Battle Rifle with under barrel GLM Grenade Launcher and 1-8x24 PM ShortDot scope.
HK USP .45 as sidearm.
Machete enhanced by Runes and Changeling Magic, which gives it the ability to transform into a Claymore.
Abilities: Inhuman stamina and strength thanks to the Runic Armor. Quick thinking and adjusting to new situations. Won the German Armed Forces Badge of Marksmanship 7 times in a row. Trained in many hand to hand combat styles.

Even though Bauer isn’t quite a member of the PHL, his importance to their cause is virtually incalculable. It was him who trained the first batch of PHL ponies from Europe and taught them how to survive on the modern battlefield, and, after Captain Kleiner and Thunderwing’s successes, he was one of the most vocal proponents of arming PHL ponies with assault saddles and yokes. One of his greatest successes was the ‘Blue Spy’. But more about that later.

Bauer was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1994. He joined the military at the age of 18 and worked his way up to the rank of an officer (Leutnant/Lieutenant). He always showed great respect to experienced soldiers and they in return taught him how to lead. One of those was Hauptfeldwebel Peter Diesberg, who saw a great potential in the young man and treated him like a second son.

Soon, Leutnant Bauer joined the SpezlKrH EGB, and managed to become the commander of a squad and lead them through several missions around the globe.

But he had to fight his greatest battle in his homeland. After the Tyrant’s declaration of war on all of humanity, Germany and the other nations of the EU mobilized their forces to push the invaders and the traitors in their own lines back to where they came from. But as soon they noticed that the Barrier was unstoppable, they changed their tactics to prevent any future losses of civil and military personnel. Europe has been evacuated and now millions are homeless, a mass exodus on a scale no one ever saw before, resulting in overpopulation on a scale never seen before in human history. That loss burned deep into Bauer, who only wanted to end the war and rebuild his home.

It was around the year 2019, as the Barrier swallowed Germany, that Leutnant Bauer was forced to leave his home like so many others. It was in Hamburg where he met Trixie Lulamoon who was fleeing from the Tyrant and her newfoals and was looking for protection. Stephan took her with him, taking the risk of being ostracized by the rest of his unit, as the differences between PHL-allied soldiers and HLF were not as defined as they are now.

It soon proved to be one of the best decisions he would ever make, as he would train her to become one of the best spies in this war. Iceland was their next stop and Stephan helped Trixie to adjust to her new life. But Trixie wanted more, and soon afterwards he found himself in the position of the new drill instructor of the PHL ponies on Iceland. During this time, a unit that fought in France found the Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis. She was the one who taught Trixie the power to transform her body and create separate personae, allowing her near-limitless transformation ability. Chrysalis died four years later as her internal organs rotted away due to the ‘Poisoned Love’ of the newfoals, which already killed her entire species and rendered her sterile. She died before the war ended, but not alone.

Later, Leutnant Bauer became Major Bauer and leader of an EU branch after the EU Forces would be split up and dispersed into other military forces. They were supposed to be subordinate under the command of the UN, but Major Bauer refused to do the last part and with the support of many other officers from the EU, the EU Forces became an relatively independent military branch, upholding the memories of a lost land. They still coordinate with the UN, but the remaining EU Forces do everything to keep the history and individuality of their home nation to preserve it for the future.

Since that day, the EU Forces fought around the globe against the Tyrant and getting their revenge by killing every Newfoal she send against them and she payed with blood for every meter she moved forward.

Soon, Trixie returned to her beloved mate and brought him new tools for the fight against the Tyrant. She enchanted his machete to transform into a claymore, able to cut through every known material, and he was soon given a modified full body set of armor with enchantments which protect him and gives him an extraordinary boost in strength (both blade and armor would later gain more powerful runic magic). All this gear gave him a new nickname in the lines of the UN troops: The Knight of Germania.

Many people look up at him and some seem to actually follow him instead of Marcus. The story behind the meeting of those two is an entire chapter for itself, but they fought side by side in more than just one occasion. Both see each other as equals, as soldiers and friends and can alway rely on each other. This trust was so deep that Marcus made Stephan to his second in command of the UN forces if anything should happen to him. Of course, no one ever thought that Marcus would disappear, but after it happened, Stephan took the lead but still had to fight with the doubt of the other soldiers who followed Marcus. Many thought that the war would be over without him.

But it was the battle against the Tyrant’s Clone that presented Stephan in a new light. After she fought against Discord, Princess Luna and Cheerilee, it was Stephan who finally brought her down, and executed her after Viktor Kraber made his killing blow on her spine with one of the first six anti-alicorn rounds in the world. It wasn’t just a victory for the troops, though. For all the humans and allied ponies who had lost their comfortable lives, wealth, families, and homes, the victory meant everything. It meant that, for possibly the first time, there was hope. That even as the Barrier inched over the Earth, maybe, just maybe, the Empire could be defeated.

Of course, when it was revealed that there was another Equestria with enough magic to rival the Solar Empire, all those hopes flared up into absolute certainty. They could absolutely win, they were sure of it. Stephan then followed Marcus through the portal to the other Equestria to train the new troops, being one of the first people through the portal.

After two long weeks, Stephan returned with a new army in his back, composed of ponies and other creatures from the second Equestria that he trained to fight in the war. There is no doubt that he trained them to be the best of the best, like he did several times before. And with him at the peak, together with Marcus, there is a chance to win this war.

Name: Trixie Lulamoon
Aliases: “The Great and Powerful Trixie”, the Blue Spy
Birthdate: April 17, 980 BNM (Before Nightmare Moon)
Faction/Rank: Ponies for Human Life/Spec. Ops Assassin
Status: Alive
Trixie Lulamoon was born in Neigh Orleans to an earth pony father who managed a circus and a unicorn mother who was a top performer for said circus. She spent most of her foalhood traveling, and found her cutie mark in magicianship and showponyship at the age of twelve. She was a hit at her parents’ circus for her over the top shows and stage persona. When she was old enough, she struck out on her own, travelling all over Equestria to perform shows and support herself as a travelling performer.

The only hindrances to this were her terrible luck and her ego. A disastrous show in Ponyville where she rubbed off the wrong way on the Elements of Harmony and accidentally inspired two local children to stupidly wake an Ursa Minor just to watch her vanquish it cost Trixie her livelihood for a while.

Whatever happened between that time and the outbreak of the Crystal War is rather vague. There were rumors of her searching for a magical amulet that would augment her power to levels rivaling even alicorns, but she never found it. She was seen to have taken numerous odd jobs, including something on a rock farm and even a job as an exotic dancer, but nothing ever really stuck. In between jobs, however, she spent a lot of time living out of her badly repaired cart.

She, like many other ponies of Equestria, had claimed to feel something wrong with her land even before it manifested. She in particular claimed to remember a “peculiar void” in Equestria. A sense that something was missing, never to be found again.

She evacuated herself along with countless other refugees, heading northeast on the Equestrian Exodus.

She made her way to Germany, marveling at the human technology. It wasn’t an easy journey, though. Just getting out of Equestria wasn’t easy. She was forced to take her battered old cart through the woods of Equestria, along pathways it clearly was not meant to traverse. Food wasn’t an issue, as she was forced to eat grass on the way through.

It wasn’t the travel that was the hardest part, she’d later claim. It was the loneliness of everywhere that the Barrier had eaten up. It also hadn’t helped that the Barrier had destroyed any roads or bridges she could have used, making the journey for her and her fellow escapees longer by days. She’d wondered how Equestria would be able to sustain the campaign, thanks to all that they’d destroyed.

Unfortunately, upon passing the Barrier and making her way into Germany, her bad luck struck once more. She somehow ended up mixed up in a group of PER and newfoals (to this day, she’s uncertain of how it happened) and they assumed she would throw potion. She refused, rather vehemently, and was forced to run away.

She met Stephan Bauer during the evacuation of Hamburg, begging for him to transfer her out on a helicopter. Unfortunately, her cart was left behind, but it didn’t fit in the chopper anyway.

Her bad luck struck yet again, as she was soon detained by two officers on the USS Gerald Ford under the pretense of securing the safety of everyone on the vessel. She was mercilessly beaten for no other reason besides the fact that she was a pony.

And yet she persevered.

After most of Europe had been swallowed by the Barrier, Trixie ended up in a bleak and depressing refugee camp, at least until Bauer remembered what she did before the fleet Equestria. He pulled a few strings and provided her with everything necessary to give the camp its very own Magical Show.

But soon it wasn’t enough for Trixie. As soon as she heard about the PHL she decided to join. She asked Stephan if he couldn’t be the one who trained her and the other ponies. Mostly for the purpose of spending more time with him.

Suddenly, a few weeks after the training started, Stephan called her to accompany him for a visit, finding, to her shock, Queen Chrysalis. As she found out, she had been chosen to be trained in the ways of body shifting and other secret magical arts a unicorn could only dream of. Thus Stephan took care of the military part while Chrysalis gave Trixie the tools to become the most capable spy who ever lived.

Of course she isn’t allowed to tell any secrets, but she said that both of them forced her to her limits and beyond. But results didn’t lie.

It was in the Christmas days during her departure to the USA that Trixie finally confessed her love for Stephan, which he returned. Neither of them made an effort to hide their budding relationship - he was a war hero, why should he? - to anyone and spent as much time together as they could.

After the battle of Boston, Trixie traveled to the second Equestria together with Bauer to prepare the promised troops for the upcoming battle. And she and Major Bauer will make sure that they return with an army of the best of the best.

Contribution to the War

In this world that we live in now, after the Barrier has fallen, as we slowly reclaim our lost territory, “PHL” is often synonymous with “Hero.” There are often HLF movements that disagree, but they are a dying breed.

It’s no exaggeration to call them a godsend. The technology they produced has become commonplace, their weaponry saved countless lives of soldiers and civilians alike.

The PHL would be a shining example of a group of sheer determination and conviction, able to stand tall in the trying and dark time of the Conversion War. Against all odds, suspicion and paranoia, they were able to unite the majority of humanity and numerous other races against a common foe. Their inventiveness, resourceful methods and uncompromising optimism are, without question, what saved humanity and Equestria alike.

With a bit of luck, of course.

A world where the HLF had taken their place would have been doomed to fail. Anyone can pick up guns and slaughter their enemies, but not just anyone can do what the PHL did. Humans and ponies alike looked beyond what prejudices they could have had, beyond their disagreements, beyond their fears, and joined together to create something much greater.

They created weapons that could pierce shields, armor that could resist and even shrug off spells, cleaner and more efficient power plants. They went from being a simple annoyance to the Tyrant, an insignificant group almost certainly destined for failure, to a force that would bring her down.

A world without the PHL, where humans and ponies were completely at odds and forced to opposite sides would be a terrible bleak world indeed. A world far too terrifying to contemplate.