Chapter Eleven: London's Burning (Part 1).

***

Hell Blazer, the yellow Earth Pony who had once been a human named John Constantine, was not having what he would have described as "a good day".

He was currently sat in what was left of a dingy little corner shop in London, whatever was left of the wares broken and scattered around. This shop was serving as the forward HQ for his unit, including the great 'Commander' (really, he was a Major, but everybody used 'Commander' as a - slight - diminutive of the term 'Force Commander') David Elliot, known more colloquially as Commander Albion (considering he was the Avatar of Albion, that made sense). Elliot had just been sent by Hell Blazer to Equestria in order to assassinate Astra Solamina Maxima, the leader of the Equestrian Empire and architect of the war currently raining down on London. He had returned only a moment after he had gone, surrounded by ponies - including six ponies Hell Blazer didn't want anywhere near him, even if five of them were meant to be dead.

Elliot had briefly checked on the injured Lyra Heartstrings (the original Lyra, that was, not the wide eyed doppelgänger he had brought with him), and was now looking out of the doorway onto the battlefield outside, where the last few soldiers were firing on a squadron of Royal Guard Unicorns and what looked like converted militia, all of whom were steadily advancing on their position. Hell Blazer didn't really pay much attention to them, however, focused as he was on looking at the group of nine ponies. Six of those ponies were the bearers of the Elements of Order, Astra Solamina's best commanders.

"What… the bucking… hell," he finally said in a dead tone, eyes wide in shock.

"Don't you mean fucking?" Elliot threw over his shoulder in a tone that sounded like mockery.

Hell Blazer ignored him, too intent on staring at the Elements. They looked surprisingly green and young: Fluttershy was hiding her face from his gaze, and most of the rest looked uncomfortable at his frank staring, though the one that resembled Applejack (it couldn't have actually been her, there was just no way that was possible) was content to frown at him without seeming particularly fussed.

"Excuse me, sir," the pony who looked like a True Grit except for his mane and the fact that he was in full Royal Guard gear said, sounding younger and very formal. "Who are you and what's our military situation?"

"Elliot?!" Hell Blazer yelled over his shoulder, ignoring the True-Grit-alike, who blinked at the response in an exact replica of True Grit's usual reaction to surprising things. "When did you mess with the Necronomicon?!"

"I didn't!" Elliot replied, taking his sniper rifle off of his back and aiming down the street from the doorway. He fired, the sniper rifle cracking as the bullet flew, and a distant shout of pain confirmed that he had hit something.

"What about the Normanomicon?"

"Nope!" came the cheerful really. Crack, another yell, another hit.

"The Bombinomicon?"

"I tend to leave that to the experts - if you can call Merasmus and those crazy bastards he hangs around with experts." Crack, another yell, another hit. "Also, that's a goddamn magical bomb book, not a necromancy book. I'm not that much of a novice, John!"

"The Grimoire Mort Extremis? The book of Amun-Ra? The Hamunaptran book of the dead? The Eternal book of Damnation, Destruction and Destitution? Jane's Guide to Bringing Back the Dead? Necromancy for Dummies?"

"None of the above!" Crack, yet another yell, yet another hit. Elliot turned to briefly look at Hell Blazer with a confused look on his face, before turning back to his sniping. "Didn't even know the last two existed."

"They kind of only circulated among the magic crowd," Hell Blazer said softly, feeling slightly dazed. He was still staring at the group of ponies. "Alright, I give. What did you do?"

"Your fault, John," Elliot said chirpily. He dropped his now-empty sniper rifle and walked away from the door. "You sent me to the wrong Equestria you bloody muppet."

He walked up to Hell Blazer and smacked him upside the head. He then waved an arm in the direction of the new ponies. "I'd introduce our new allies here, but I get the feeling you know them."

The implications of Elliot's words about the "wrong Equestria" were not lost on Hell Blazer, though if he had spoken to him before he had known the Doctor (and had far too many late night debates about the nature of time, space, the universe and everything whilst sharing a bottle of brandy that didn't react to pony physiology all that well for either of them), they might have been.

"Parallel world?" Hell Blazer asked, gulping as he thought of the ramifications.

"Aye," Elliot said breezily. He looked at Rainbow Dash - it was bucking Rainbow Dash, she should have been dead!! - and indicated that she should follow him. "I need your help, Dash, come with me."

To her credit, though she looked nervous, Rainbow swelled up slightly with pride at having been asked for and followed Elliot. Elliot turned to True Grit.

"Get that armour off," he said shortly, "and pass me the breastplate."

Grit complied immediately, passing Elliot the breastplate quickly. Elliot examined the armour with a thoughtful expression, and then led Dash to the door. Hell Blazer was left with eight ponies, most of whom should have been dead, and he had no idea what to say to any of them.

"So," said Applejack, apparently attempting to break the ice. "Who might you be?"

Hell Blazer blinked at her, then facehoofed.

"Oh piss," he swore, confident this day could get no worse.

"'Oh Piss', huh?" the Pinkie Pie-alike said, frowning thoughtfully. "Never met a pony called that before."

Hell Blazer groaned.

***

Outside the little building Elliot had made his forward HQ, the remaining troops were hard pressed to keep their position. This unit of enemy troops appeared to be one of the newly adapted ones and a not a line-marching unit like the standard grunts (whose only tactic in some respects was a brute force overwhelm-and-crush manoeuvre). Elliot cursed his luck: he wasn't usually this unlucky. Fortunately, he was normally good with this sort of tactic too. He fired off his shotgun, mostly to suppress the enemy's troops. He turned to Rainbow Dash, who was staring around her with wide eyes, though fortunately she had enough sense to be standing behind a ruined car for cover.

"Dash," he said shortly, "can you fly with that breastplate on?"

Shaking her head to bring herself out of the stupor that seemed to have descended onto her, she examined the armour. It was optimised for a Unicorn, not a Pegasus, and was at least two sizes bigger than her.

"No," she said shortly, still wondering what he was thinking. "Sorry."

"It's not me who's gonna be sorry," Elliot said with a sigh, and he discarded the breastplate with a sigh. "That armour would have really protected you." He looked over at the enemy troopers' position. "I need you to rainboom down the street. Can you do that?"

She blinked at him before looking down the street, thinking over his request.

"Um," she said quietly, not quite getting his idea yet, "I don't know..." She scrutinised the street. "I usually need more of a buildup," she added thoughtfully, "but I think I might be able to."

"Good," Elliot said, nodding. "I need you to rainboom as close to the enemy's position as you can get."

"What?!" Dash said without thinking. "But... but that'd kill them!"

"And in case you haven't noticed," Elliot said irritably, "that's sort of what we're here to do."

She looked stricken at the thought of using her sonic rainboom to kill people, and Elliot sighed.

"Look," he said, trying his best to be sensitive, "I once saw this world's Dash kill a whole squad with a rainboom. It was a devastating moment - and now we have that ability on our side: you have no idea how helpful it will prove to be."

"But it's killing people," Dash said quietly.

"Yes, and in case I wasn’t clear back in Canterlot, this is a war," Elliot replied sounding a little impatient. "You knew that when you came. Now are you willing to do what needs to be done or should I make up a plan b?"

Rainbow sighed as she ran over her options. He was right - she should have expected killing would happen sooner or later - but this was too soon! She had only just got here! How could he expect her to be ok with killing the minute she got here?

But, a small voice reminded her with a sickening finality, she had come here to help, not to whine. She had not come here to help on her schedule, and she had not come here to help how she saw fit. She came to help when the humans needed help, and here helping meant killing, and it meant doing it on demand, no matter how sick it made you feel.

"Alright," she said slowly, trying not to sound as reluctant as she felt. "I'll give it a shot."

"Great," Elliot said, giving a wan smile. He turned to his soldiers. "I want you to provide suppressing fire. On my mark, ceasefire to allow a clear approach from RD here."

"'RD'?" one of the soldiers, his voice muffled by his gas mask, said. "Wait - isn't that -"

"Concentrate on the enemy, trooper!" Elliot snapped. He turned back to Rainbow, who didn't comment on his nickname for her, nor on the little drama with the soldier. "You need to be ready to start that rainboom the second I give the mark, or they'll not be suppressed anymore and they'll start firing on your unprotected flank. Got it?"

Rainbow nodded solemnly, trying not to think about the power the speed of a rainboom would have - and what effect a shock wave of that power would have at this close a range. Elliot smiled grimly and turned back to his men.

"Suppressing fire!" he yelled. Almost immediately, the men fired their assault rifles down the street, the Unicorn shooters immediately taking cover. "Mark! Take cover!"

Immediately, the soldiers stopped and moved to shelter, and without thinking Rainbow took off, going as fast as she could - first she zoomed one way, giving herself a tiny bit of leeway, and then she zoomed back down the street a split-second later...

The rainboom came as she neared the enemy forces' position, the shockwave causing glass to break and throwing several Unicorns and other ponies into walls with the sheer force of the rainboom's power. Rainbow managed to slow herself down before ramming into a building, only to find herself surrounded by dazed (and in some cases unconscious) Royal Guards. She blinked, suddenly aware that they were about to notice her.

One of them did so, his eyes wide as he saw her. Rainbow cringed, expecting him to attack.

"Commander Dash?" he asked, his voice filled with disbelief. "But I thought you were..."

He was interrupted by a bullet going through his head, splattering blood across the ground and even onto Dash's face. She let out an involuntary scream of shock as the blank eyed corpse collapsed into the dirt with a thud.

A few moments later, Elliot and a squad of his soldiers - though to call the five battered and dusty looking troops "a squad" was a little generous - charged into the fight, guns blazing. He fired his pistol, taking out one pony, then he was amongst them, his dagger slashing a Unicorn across the throat. He was grinning viciously and before Dash could react his other dagger had thrust into another Unicorn standing behind her. His eyes met here, and they were filled with something Dash couldn't identify, but she suddenly felt fear. Then he moved on, his dagger slicing across the face of another pony soldier.

One of Elliot's soldiers got blasted backwards into a building by a Unicorn's spell, and fell to the floor, lying still with his legs at a funny angle. Another soldier yelled in fury and racked their shotgun, aiming it at the offending Unicorn and blasting them in the face, spraying the front of their face across the street in a smear of red and grey matter. Another soldier was knocked to the ground by an Earth Pony, who smashed the unfortunate trooper's head into mush with his armoured hooves, but the pony couldn't revel in his brief victory for long before he was torn apart by another spray of projectiles. The final pony, a Pegasus, tried flying away, but Elliot had brought his hand cannon out and in a flash had shot the offending pony in the head, his body falling to the streets below where it landed in a crumpled heap.

And suddenly, it was over: the entire enemy squad had been wiped out, leaving three soldiers and a victorious, heavy breathing Elliot standing there. Rainbow Dash could hardly believe what she had just seen.

"Well done," Elliot suddenly said to her, shocking her slightly. "You took most of them out, and distracted the rest. Gave us the opening we needed."

Rainbow's gaze drifted to the bodies of ponies who had been thrown into walls and against lamp-posts, all of them displaced by... by her. None of them were moving, and more than a few were lying at angles that should, by rights, have been impossible for pony anatomy. She looked back at Elliot, who frowned slightly at her stricken expression, before realising that this was the first time she had killed. He sighed.

"I'm sorry I threw you in the deep end," he said softly. "But in some ways it's better."

Rainbow said nothing, instead leaning forward and trying not to make herself feel any more like throwing up than she already did.

"Hey, Commander?" the shotgun wielding soldier asked, approaching the two of them: to Rainbow's surprise, the soldier sounded female. "Who is this pony? She almost looks like..."

The soldier trailed off, and Rainbow suddenly had a sinking feeling: she still looked like their enemy. Elliot, meanwhile, sighed.

"Don't worry, Jan," he said to the soldier. "I can explain..."

***

The pony called "John" (Celestia only knew why he had an obviously non-pony name) didn't say much to Twilight or the others, restricting himself to standing still, staring at the Element bearers who had remained inside, and muttering to himself. Twilight looked him over: he was an unusual pony, alright - his cutie mark was the number 666, and he wore a trench coat of some sort over a white shirt and dark tie.

He kept staring at them, as he began rummaging in his pocket for something.

"You know," Twilight said quietly, "staring is rude."

"Buck off," the yellow pony said harshly, as he continued to rummage. Twilight recoiled, and the pony sighed. "Sorry. I meant to say fuck off. Came out wrong."

Rarity raised an eyebrow in irritation at the uncouthness of this pony. Most of the rest of the group just felt confused.

"Who are you anyway?" Applejack asked. "Ya'll don't sound like no pony I've ever met, and I ain't never met a pony named John."

"That's because I'm not a goddamn pony," 'John' said in a surly voice.

Before any of the other ponies in the room could point out the obvious fact that he was a pony, a groan came from the injured Lyra lying on a desktop, and 'John' immediately stopped his rummaging and went to see to her.

"Lyra?" he said softly. "Lyra can you hear me?"

The Lyra Heartstrings stood next to Twilight gasped softly, and before Twilight could stop her she moved to see the injured pony.

This other Lyra was badly injured, with several burn marks in her coat. She had scars on her face and flank and wore a camouflage t-shirt. She was breathing heavily. The yellow pony named John looked worriedly at her for a moment, then looked up at Twilight.

"Here, Sparkle," he said, somewhat gruffly but nonetheless sounding less antagonistic than he had previously. "I need your help. Can you have a look see if you can figure out what did this?"

"Um, ok," Twilight said nervously, approaching the injured Lyra. When she reached the injured pony, she let out a soft gasp of shock - not only because of the extent of the injuries but also because of who this particular pony was. "Lyra?"

"Yeah, this is Lyra Heartstrings, well done on being able to see," John said harshly. His expression softened as he looked the injured Lyra over. "She was hit by a Guard's spell, but I've not had much experience with this kind of work before: usually the ponies hit by it are dead, and I don't do autopsies."

Twilight examine the damage visually: the burns suggested a kind of heat or fire spell - unfortunately for this Lyra, the nature of the burns as having apparently come from the inside out suggested the former.

"I think she's been hit by a heat or lightning spell," she said softly, sitting back on her haunches slightly, her face dropping. "I don't know that there's much I can do."

"Move," True Grit said softly, appearing from behind her. He approached the wounded Lyra frowning at the wounds.

"Whaddya think, Grit?" John asked.

"I think I don't like this, sir," True Grit replied with a frown. "This sort of spell isn't one I've seen Guards practice with."

"Oh come on, Grit, you don't -" John began, and then he trailed off. True Grit threw him a look, but the yellow pony just shoot his head, apparently upset about something.

True Grit turned back to Lyra, his horn glowing softly with a red light that settled across Lyra's body before vanishing. 'John' covered his eyes with his hoof, looking upset.

"What was that spell?" Twilight asked, frowning slightly. "I've never seen it before."

"A spell a lot of guards are taught," True Grit said tersely.

"The morphine horn," John said quietly. True Grit gave him a questioning look. "Sorry: that's our name for it." He turned to Twilight. "It's a palliative spell: when a pony is too far gone, the spell nullifies all pain. A final mercy, so to speak."

Twilight's eyes widened in shock. Behind her, the rest of the group looked horrified - they had only been here a scant few minutes, and they were already witnessing the death of a pony from horrible injury. A pony they knew.

The Lyra Heartstrings who had come with them couldn't help but be fixated on this alternative version of herself. Every inch of that body was in some way the same as hers - though she recognised that this other her was leaner, tougher and more muscular than she was. She looked at the face - though there were a couple more lines of age there, as well as a couple of scars, this Lyra was definitely the face Lyra was used to seeing in the mirror.

Then her eyes opened.

Lyra blinked in shock as her counterpart's eyes stared into hers. The two of them looked at each other for a moment that seemed to last for an eternity: in those eyes, Lyra could see shock, upset, fear, and suddenly she realised that within those eyes there had once been the sum total of all the enthusiasm she had felt, the desire to know about humans, and then to meet them, the desire to understand their sociology, their anatomy... all of that had been stripped from this Lyra, worn down in the fires of war, until here she lay, dying in a small, broken building, left with nothing but violence and death in her life.

This pony's eyes held no hope, they held no enthusiasm. Being surrounded by humans did not bring her joy, and she did not enthuse about their hands, nor did she ask a million questions about their society. Maybe she had, once, but that had been taken from her. Lyra had to wonder, was violence all she had left? Where was Bon-Bon? Where were any of her old friends? Had they been left behind, or had they died?

"Lyra?" John said to the injured mare, though to the uninsured Lyra his voice seemed impossibly distant. "It's me, Hell Blazer. Don't try to speak!"

Tears spilled from Lyra's eyes, and desperately, she moved a hoof to comfort her other self. The other Lyra's lips twitched slightly at the gesture, as though she were trying to smile maybe. She swallowed, as though she were preparing to say something.

"D..." she began, her voice barely more than a whisper. "D-don..." She swallowed again, coughed, and then tried again. "D-don't..."

Suddenly, she convulsed a couple of times, her eyes widening slightly. Blood bubbled at the corners of her mouth, and then her eyes emptied, the light leaving them in an instant, and she stopped moving.

"Lyra?" the distant voice of John - Hell Blazer? - said quietly. "Lyra?!"

Her dead eyes stared glassily into Lyra's soul, and the mare stepped back, shocked, her hoof dropping to the ground again in surprise.

"Lyra," Twilight said quietly from behind her, sounding almost as shocked as Lyra felt. "I'm so sorry."

Lyra didn't say anything. The experience of watching... essentially, watching herself die... was just too strange for her to truly be able to process it properly.

The pony called 'Hell Blazer' sighed turning away from the corpse of Lyra on the desktop, and took in the Elements of Harmony, as well as Lyra, Ditzy and True Grit. He turned to Twilight, who was nearest him.

"You really are from another world, ain't you?" he said, frowning slightly - though more in confusion than annoyance. Twilight nodded slowly.

"You're Hell Blazer, aren't you?" she asked softly. "Mr Elliot mentioned you."

"I suppose it wasn't all good things?" Hell Blazer said with a smirk.

"Actually, all he said was that you sent him to our Equestria," Twilight said. She frowned as she realised Hell Blazer was an Earth Pony. "Though how did you manage that? You're not a Unicorn..."

"Nope," Hell Blazer said with a wry grin, "but make no mistake, magic is my gig."

Twilight frowned. "Somehow I doubt that."

Hell Blazer raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Really," Twilight said.

Blazer didn't reply. He closed his eyes, muttered something, and then suddenly a small flame was in his hoof. He rummaged in his pocket again, and withdrew a box of... what appeared to be white paper sticks.

"Can you get one of these for me?" he asked, almost politely. "Only two hooves."

Twilight wanted to point out the anatomical inaccuracy of his statement, but she got his meaning well enough: her horn glowed, and one of the sticks withdrew from the box. Hell Blazer put the box back in his pocket, grabbed the stick, and lit the end on fire, before - to Twilight's surprise - putting it in his mouth. He took a long drag on the stick, the end burning away as he did so, before exhaling a stream of smoke with a contented sigh.

"I bloody needed that," he said softly.

Twilight ignored the burning paper stick (strange and interesting as it was), and instead focused on the fact that an Earth Pony had just performed magic.

"How did you do that?" she asked, pointing at the hoof that had held fire.

Hell Blazer looked from side to side furtively, as though checking for unwanted listeners. Then he leaned forward, indicating that Twilight should do the same. He brought his mouth up to her ear.

"Magic," he whispered dramatically.

Twilight frowned in annoyance. "If you aren't going to answer a question seriously..."

"Who said I wasn't?" Hell Blazer asked. "I do magic. Deal."

He took another drag of his burning white paper stick and sighed.

Lyra, meanwhile, was still staring at the glassy eyes of the deceased Lyra on the desktop, her own eyes wide and shocked. Slowly, Ditzy came to stand next to her.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly. Lyra didn't answer her, too wrapped up in her thoughts.

Before Ditzy could say anything else, Elliot, Rainbow Dash and a human soldier entered the ruined shop. The soldier had her mask off, exposing her feminine features, cropped hair and her scarred face. She scowled when she saw Twilight. Rainbow Dash looked sick, and she was shaking slightly.

"Dash?" Pinkie Pie asked, rushing over to her along with Applejack. The two of them steadied their ill-looking friend.

"What happened sugarcube?" the orange Earth Pony asked, eyes wide. Dash shook her head and sank to the floor. She looked like she was trying not to throw up. Applejack looked up and glared at Elliot, but his eyes weren't on the ill Pegasus and her friends, but rather on the still form of Lyra Heartstrings.

"No..." he murmured. He walked up to the prone body and reached out a hand, absently stroking her mane. "No..."

"I'm sorry," Twilight said softly. "There was nothing we could do."

Elliot didn't reply. He brought his hand down from her mane to her eyes and closed them, before turning to the living Lyra he had brought with him.

"I'm sorry Lyra," he said quietly, and Lyra got the distinct impression that he wasn't really talking to her. "But I swear this to you: I will end this war."

He went to another desktop and sat down, before looking at the scarred and glaring soldier.

"So, Lockett," he said quietly. "And John," he added, looking at Hell Blazer, who was still smoking. "You both wanted an explanation."

The soldier - "Lockett" - crossed her arms and said nothing, though she glared at Twilight Sparkle with undisguised hatred. Hell Blazer just shrugged.

"Alright," Elliot said. "Then I'll explain."

Author's Notes:

This chapter was edited 8th July 2015