Chapter Thirty Two: A Rather Clever Idea.

***

Point Bravo, Plymouth, March 15th 2030.

When Twilight, joined not only by the members of Everfree Team she had kept with her but by Errant Flight and the rest of Grey Squadron, as well as the seven survivors of Upsilon Squadron (including Blue Sky and their leader, Grey Fox) arrived at the point where she had been ordered to rendezvous with Sergeant Dietrich, she found a position in utter chaos.

Desert Wind and Sapphire Steel were standing on a makeshift palisade, firing the mini gun sporadically at a position where at least ten unicorns were lying in cover, shooting spells at the defensive position. A thin shield, oscillating between being green and turquoise, was being erected by a rather strained looking True Grit and Lyra. Behind it sheltered a small group of human soldiers, including one who had removed his mask, revealing a dark haired man with a beard. The moment he saw Twilight, he stood up and approached her, waving over Desert Wind and Sapphire Steel as he did so. Two soldiers in full protective gear took their place on the palisade, firing their assault rifles in an attempt to keep the enemy soldiers suppressed.

"I'll assume you're Twilight Sparkle," he said quickly. "I'm Sergeant Wolfgang Dietrich: I take it these are the ponies you took half your team with you to rescue?"

"That's correct," Twilight replied. "I need to know..."

"What you need is to join our defence," Dietrich interrupted sharply. "We're barely holding our line here as it is. We need you to try and bolster..."

"Would you listen?!" Twilight yelled, shocking the man. "I need to know where Commander Elliot is."

"Elliot?" Dietrich asked, frowning. "You mean Commander Albion? He's in the city?"

"Somewhere," Twilight said. "I need to speak with him, ASAP."

"That's gonna be difficult to arrange with that unicorn team out there," Dietrich pointed out. Upon hearing the word unicorn, however, Twilight grinned.

"Excellent," she said quickly. "I need their leader alive."

"What?!" Dietrich asked, shocked. He wasn't the only one - everypony in Twilight's group looked surprised to hear her say this.

"What?!" Rarity added, the fashion-pony standing behind Twilight, her mouth gaping in shock. "What do you need one of them alive for?"

"Not just anypony," Twilight clarified. "I need it to be their leader. It's important."

"You wanna share your thoughts with us, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I need to know about their mini-portal spell," Twilight explained quickly. "The one that allows them to bring reinforcements directly here."

There was a moment's pause as everyone considered this.

"There's a spell to learn?" Dietrich asked, looking faintly confused. "We'd always assumed it was just something more natural..."

"There is a spell," Sapphire Steel confirmed quickly. "Allows Equestrian forces to bypass the barrier, though only in small numbers at a time. Usually only the Archmagi and unicorn troop leaders know it though."

"Hence why I need the leader," Twilight said.

"What do you need the spell for?" Dietrich asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ditzy asked, and everyone looked at her. "She's thinking of using it so that our forces can get to Equestria." There was a pause as everyone, a smirking Errant Flight aside, looked at Ditzy in astonishment. "What?" she asked, looking confused. "Is there something on my face?"

"Is that it, Twilight?" Rarity asked, looking back at the purple unicorn with a confused frown. "Are you thinking of doing that?"

Twilight, smiling fiercely, nodded.

"You won't be able to get information from them," Errant Flight told her, sounding grim. "They're very well trained: we've tried before."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Twilight said confidently.

"Two things none of you have considered," Sapphire Steel pointed out. "One, that spell only brings small amounts of ponies over."

"I'm not thinking of using it as is," Twilight replied immediately. "It'll need some modifications before it'd be ready to use."

"The other thing is that it's a spell that takes forever to learn," Sapphire continued, looking pensive. "It'd be difficult for you to..."

"I know that it won't be easy," Twilight said, sounding as sincere as any of the ponies had ever heard her, "but I was my Celestia's student, and I'm supposed to be one of the best potential magicians around. That has to be worth something."

There was a moment's pause as everypony allowed her words to sink in.

"So you want a troop leader?" Errant Flight asked, sighing slightly. Twilight nodded, and Errant turned to Grey Squadron, who stood slightly to attention as he did. "Wing, Dash and Wonder. With me. We're gonna drop in on some old friends."

***

Guard Platoon Sergeant Well Spring, formerly a human being called Wallace Springfield, had never been known for his imagination, which made it ironic that he had been made into a unicorn. He had, before this rather drastic lifestyle choice, never believed in magic, and never been very creative. His pony name was merely a ponified version of his old name, and he had joined the Royal Guard as soon as he could simply because he had been in the Army before. When he had converted, he had seen it as a minor inconvenience to his own plans for life: military, retirement, beach house. Sure, he'd never imagined being four-legged when he got it, but it was this or death and the adjustment period had actually been remarkably short.

When he thought about it - really thought about it - he could remember the fear, the running, the desperate attempts to flee from the oncoming barrier. He could remember the panic and desperation, something about fighting, the final, at the time reluctant decision to drink the potion. He remembered horror and pain...

For some reason, he remembered the reluctance, but there was no longer any recollection as to why he had been reluctant, nor any logical explanation in his mind why he could ever have been anything less than thrilled to be converted. If he had ever looked into it - not that a pony as simple as Well Spring ever would - he would have realised that he had been changed in more than just his physical form. Not that, of course, he would never get the chance. No converted save one had ever been free to look past the haze of simplistic joy and servitude.

As it was, thoughts of his lot in life being anything less than exactly what he wanted were, for whatever reason, totally absent from his mind. He had rather more immediate concerns on his plate - for example, the group of humans nearby.

"Where's Levy's plot-wipes when you need them?" one of his squad, a mare called Under Over, grumbled. "We can't keep these buckers suppressed forever."

"Levy's never let us down, human or not," Spring said calmly. For some reason, he never really got frustrated or angry anymore - but it was a boon in battle.

"I don't get why he and his lot haven't converted," another soldier muttered.

"Edict from the Empress - you know that, mate," Spring said simply. "They're useful with the ability to turn the enemy's weapons against them. While they continue to be useful, they stay in those human bodies. They'll convert later, I'm sure."

"I don't trust them," Under Over said. "They turned on their own kind, why wouldn't they turn on us?"

"Because they understand that being a pony is a better life," Spring said, frowning slightly. He was starting to get... not annoyed, but mildly irritated. Sort of like an itch in the back of his skull. "They're on our side, and you'll treat 'em with the respect they deserve for makin' such a brave choice."

"Dunno how a buckin' convie gets to be a Sergeant in the Royal Guard anyhow," Under Over muttered.

Well Spring ignored that remark: he'd encountered anti-converted sentiment before, usually of the "they take our land and steal our jobs" variety, or else the derogatory "convie" remarks like Over's made by ponies who thought less of a converted for having once been human. Besides, he had more important things to do than listen to jibes.

He turned his attention back to the enemy's position. There was definitely something odd going on over there. The mini gun that had been keeping them suppressed had been replaced by a pair of bodysuited soldiers. Did that mean the mini gun was out of commission?

"Alright," he said quickly. "I've got a plan. We'll bombard 'em with a couple of big spells, then charge, firing all the while. Lightning fast attacks should make it easy to take the buckers down."

He turned to look at his team - only to be faced with brown Pegasus with goggles on, wearing a grey shirt unlike anything Spring had seen.

"Good plan, pal," the Pegasus said with a grin. "But you're a bit late."

"And a lot slow," came another voice, this one a cyan Pegasus mare with a rainbow coloured mane.

There were four Pegasi, including this one, standing among the bodies of his troop. Under Over and the others looked to have been knocked out, not killed - a fact for which he was grateful - but it still left him the problem of what to do about what he was almost certain were enemy ponies. There was a twinge in the back of his mind, about nopony being the enemy, but it was the kind of thing he could ignore.

"G'day mate," Spring said conversationally to the Pegasus, his voice slipping back to his old dialect. He found himself feeling that irritated itch again, a kind of mild frustration, but he ignored it: now was not a time to be getting irritated. He needed to be clear headed. He reached casually for his spear, trying not to be obvious. "You must be Resistance lads."

"Ahem," one of the other Pegasi, the cyan mare, said, raising a hoof. "Mare, here."

"And here," the other mare said sheepishly.

"My mistake, love," Spring said, grinning slightly. He grasped his spear and lashed out, only for the goggles wearing Stallion to block it and hold a blade to his throat.

"Nice try," he said, grinning. "But you're coming with us."

Spring sighed. This was... mildly frustrating. He felt the itch again.

"It's a fair cop?" he tried, smiling awkwardly.

***

The thing Rozhenko had wanted to show the two ponies was a tall stone, silver and grey, that shone with a deep inner light, embedded into the concrete road of Plymouth - or rather, growing from it. Hell Blazer looked it over, while the Doctor kept scanning with his screwdriver, a frown on his wrinkled face.

"Confirmation of magical energies," he said quietly. "This is definitely a lodestone."

"So what is it?" Sergeant Rozhenko asked the two ponies, an irritated expression on his face. "I know it's a magical thing of some sort - I've unicorns telling me this all the time even without your doodad confirming it - but that's not very specific."

"Didn't you hear the Doctor?" Hell Blazer said excitedly. "It's a lodestone!"

"Yay, we have a lodestone, now what the hell is it and what the hell does it do?" Rozhenko asked, sounding more than a little underwhelmed by the entire idea.

Hell Blazer threw the Sergeant a dirty look. "I need to get Commander Albion here, now. Call him up."

Rozhenko frowned, but then noticing the serious looks on both Hell Blazer's and the Doctor's faces, he sighed and reached for his radio.

"It might take him a while to get here, sir," he pointed out.

"I know," Hell Blazer said, turning back to look at the lodestone. "But he needs to see this."

The Doctor moved to stand next to Hell Blazer, his own eyes raking the stone with a weary gaze.

"Do you think it means that he has returned?" he asked quietly, not looking at the yellow Earth Pony.

"It's a sign that magic's getting stronger," Hell Blazer replied quickly, sounding excited. "If Rupert was right, that's one of the precursors of us being able to seek him out, and if he can give us any help or advice..."

"If he can, he can, and if he cannot we will find another way," the Doctor said, doing his best to bring the excited Hell Blazer down to Earth. "It is not a sound plan to rely too heavily on possible advice from a possible source."

"Sirs," Rozhenko said, interrupting the two of them. "Commander Albion is en route to Sergeant Dietrich's position."

"What?" Hell Blazer asked. "Why?!"

"He says Everfree Team have supposedly made a discovery," Rozhenko said with a shrug.

"Tell him to get here ASAP," Hell Blazer said urgently. "He needs to see this!"

"Yes sir!" Rozhenko said, sounding frustrated but resigned. Hell Blazer turned to the Doctor.

"What discovery?" he pondered aloud.

***

Twilight frowned at the pony sat before her. He had been tied up roughly, thrown into this small room, and now she was waiting for him to wake up so she could begin his interrogation. His lack of a cutie mark identified him as a converted, and his rank markings suggested he was a Platoon Sergeant.

"It's strange, isn't it," Lyra said from next to her. She, Sapphire Steel, True Grit and Rarity were all present, ready to counter any moves the pony made to try to escape. Her voice held an odd note, at once melancholic and angry. "He was once a human. He was something entirely different and yet the same time kin to us, an intelligent being we could learn so much about... and they've turned him into this."

"Into what?" Rarity asked, frowning at her. "He's a pony - it's terrible for them to be forced into it, but you make it sound like it's something worse than that."

"Have you ever heard stories about the converted?" Lyra asked, throwing Rarity an irritated look.

"I've tried not to think about it," Rarity replied with an abashed expression

Lyra snorted. "You're lucky." She paused, as if trying to find the right words. "They're like... they're almost normal. But they're not. It's... it's like half a life."

"The process damages their souls," Sapphire Steel said quietly, "from what I've heard and observed back home. There's that, and the brainwashing. It combines to create a sort of mild lobotomy effect. They're sort of permanently cheerful, or at least mellow. They don't feel the highs and lows of emotion, not like normal ponies. They do what you ask without question, they never think about the horror of what's happened to them..."

The pony stirred, and everypony armed their horns, just in case he prepared to attack them. To their surprise, however, he merely looked at them all.

"Oh," he said, his voice speaking in a twang not too dissimilar to General Anderson's accent. "G'day. You're the Resistance lot, I guess?"

"That's right," Twilight said quietly. "We're with the Equestrian Resistance."

"Lovely to meet ya," the pony said cheerfully. "Platoon Sergeant Well Spring at yer service."

"We want some information from you," True Grit said sternly.

"Can't help you, I'm afraid," the pony said, shrugging. "My orders upon capture are quite specific. No information to be given under any circumstances. I'd kill meself, but I was never too good at learning spells. Barely managed the portal one."

"It's the portal which interests us," Twilight said.

"As I say, ma'am, I've got orders to not reveal anything," Well Spring said. "Apologies and all that."

"You're aware that we have means of persuading you," True Grit said, sounding threatening.

"Figured so, mate," Spring said. "But you ain't getting nothin' outta me."

"He won't speak," Steel said quietly. Twilight turned to look at her. "They follow orders unquestioningly. You tell them to do something, they'll do it: clean this, fix that..."

"Kill this," Rarity added, sounding disgusted. "Oh C... Pony God, what are they?"

"Victims," Lyra said quietly. "The worst victims."

"That," a new voice said, "and also a valuable resource for her armies."

Twilight turned out see the battered form of David Elliot enter the room, looking perturbed.

"Elliot," she said in greeting.

"Everfree One," he said in response, his tone stern. Twilight blinked at the odd tone in his voice: he sounded half annoyed and half concerned. "What's this I hear about a plan to get information about a spell?"

"There's a portal spell," Sapphire Steel said quickly. "Very high level magic. Twilight thinks..."

"I think I can reverse engineer it to let us invade Equestria," Twilight said quietly. Elliot's eyes widened in shock, and he knelt by her.

"You're sure of this?" he asked, looking her in the eyes, his tone at once wary and hopeful. "I mean, really sure?"

"I know I can do it, but I need to start from somewhere," Twilight said in response, trying to sound as sincere as she could.

Elliot frowned, before looking at Well Spring. The pony was glaring at him warily.

"Do you know who I am?" Elliot asked the pony, his tone quiet and more dangerous than any of the assembled ponies had ever heard.

"You're the human's magic weapon," Well Spring replied. "The Avatar of Albion, they call you."

"Do you know why?" Elliot asked. Well Spring snorted derisively.p

"Posturing," he said. "I've seen that before, when I was human too..." The pony trailed off, wide eyes staring into space for a moment, before he shook his head and returned his attention to Elliot. "Whatever you try, you won't get anything out of me."

"I see," Elliot said. He stood up, walked over to the pony, and placed a hand on his head. "I beg to differ."

Well Spring's eyes widened, though nopony understood why at first. Then he began trying to shy away from Elliot, who responded by gripping his head with his second hand, his eyes locked on the Guard Platoon Sergeant. Well Spring kept trying to move away, eyes widening more...

And then he screamed.

"The spell!" Elliot yelled suddenly.

"No!" Spring screamed, and the assembled ponies thought he meant no to Elliot's question. This was not, however, the case. "I didn't want to! I didn't mean to! God almighty forgive me, I didn't want to...!"

"What did you do?!" Twilight yelled quickly.

"The spell!" Elliot yelled again, ignoring her as he focused on the yelling Guard pony.

"The sin won't wash away!" Spring screamed, thrashing around suddenly. "Mum, Dad, Lisa, Danny, Andrew, Bill, please, I'm sorry, forgive me, it won't wash away, it won't ever go away... oh my God, the blood on my hands, the blood on my hands...!"

He stopped for a moment, his eyes widening as they settled on his hooves.

"Not hands," he said, his voice quiet, before turning once more into a yell. "Not hands! Not my hands! Never again! Give me them back! Give me me back! Please! Oh, please God, I don't want this, no, no, no, no!"

"The spell!" Elliot snapped. Spring suddenly looked him in the face, eyes wide and staring.

"Portus Maxima Imperator," he said quietly, eyes fixed on Elliot. "Portus Maxima Imperator. Portus Maxima Imperator..."

His horn glowed, and Elliot quickly smacked him across the face. The glow subsided.

"Don't want him opening it in front of us," Elliot said quietly. "Will that start you off?"

Twilight, mute and shocked, simply nodded in response. The other ponies were equally shell shocked by what they had seen.

"What did you do?!" Rarity yelled, horrified by the display she had just witnessed.

"Broke the hold over mind and soul," Elliot replied. He looked down at Well Spring, who was curled up. "It isn't pretty."

"Never forgiven, never forgiven, never forgiven, never forgiven..." the pony was muttering to himself, eyes wide and full of fear and self loathing.

"Hell Blazer's a converted, he isn't like this," Rarity said.

"His soul wasn't damaged," Elliot said. "He owes it to some folks, so they decided to give him a hand. Had his soul been this damaged, he'd have been equally screwed over."

"There must be something we can do to help them," Lyra said quietly.

"The converted can't be saved while Astra Solamina's alive," Elliot said grimly, his expression downcast. "There's a link between her and the spell. Breaking it once is hard. Breaking five billion is impossible."

The ponies looked among each others none of them quite sure what to say to that. Twilight felt utterly sick: just when she thought she had seen all the horrors this twisted world could possibly bestow upon them, it threw a curveball at her that made her horrified and angry all over again. Suddenly, she knew why Corporal Jennings had begged to die when he had been splashed with conversion potion. He had wanted to avoid a fate like Well Spring's, or whatever his name had been before he turned into a puppet for Solamina... a puppet who was now lying in the pool of tears and snot that were his own metaphorical cut strings.

She was saved from further introspection by a figure bursting into the room.

"Commander," Sergeant Dietrich said, addressing Elliot. "Hell Blazer with Sergeant Rozhenko sends a request for your presence ASAP. Apparently they have located something called a lodestone."

Elliot's reaction was immediate. He stood to his feet and stared at the man, shocked.

"You're certain he said 'lodestone'?" he asked.

"Positive," Dietrich said.

Elliot grinned, turning to Twilight.

"I need your team to stay here," he said. "Ok?"

"But what about this plan?" Twilight replied. Surely he had to see the merits of her plan?!

"Lodestone is important!" Elliot said. "It's a sign that there's... oh, never mind, just stay. We'll discuss your plan when I return. In the meantime, help Sergeant Dietrich!"

"I... alright," Twilight said, frowning. She was sure that Elliot had decided to haphazardly dismiss her plan, but she knew better than to argue with her surperior. Nonetheless, she knew - she just knew - that with enough research, it could work. And then...

And then they'd finally be on even footing with the enemy. They could strike at will, maybe even attack Canterlot.

They could end the war.

***

Deep in the palace of Canterlot, a figure sat, still as stone. Were it not for the gentle expansion and contraction of her rib age and the fierce fire of her eyes, staring into the unknowable, one might never guess that Astra Solamina Maxima, formerly Celestia, was awake or even alive, for she was in all other respects almost like a statue.

And yet, within her mind, there was fierce turmoil. This was usually the case, for reasons nopony could have ever understood even if she had wanted to share with them - and she never, ever would - but today, her turmoil was for an entirely different reason.

She had been dealing with several minor governors of towns when a voice had spoken in her head, a voice at once horribly alien and horribly familiar. It had borne the wisdom of age and the authority of power, and it had been filled with malice and dark humour, as though it found the very idea of breaching her formidable mental defences amusing. It had spoken only three words.

I have returned.

These words would have been meaningless to almost anyone. They were almost meaningless to her except for a dread that stirred within her depths, a dread that caused her to cancel all appointments and retreat to her chambers.

She stared now into nothingness, her mind seeking the source of the voice. She needed to find it, needed to know if it was true.

!aybe it would be better if it was true?

She shook her head, clearing the treacherous thought from her mind and banishing it back to the cage she had constructed for it.

Dissension could not be tolerated, not even from herself.

She closed her eyes and sent pout a tentative message towards the source of the message.

Are you out there?

There was no response, and for a brief moment, she felt relief, mixed with a tinge, somewhere deep in the depths of her mind, of regret.

Yes.

The response took her off guard, and she stepped back involuntarily, before snorting and replying.

Do not interfere with me this time, old man. Your power was great once, but now it is small and weak, and you are nothing compared to the power I now wield. You cannot stop me.

She barely understood where the words were coming from - it was as if they came from deep within her, a apart that at once comforted her and filled her with dread. She filled the message with all her power and all her malice - a lesser mind would burn at her mental touch.

And yet, for the longest time, the voice had no answer for her. Again, she felt the sense of profound relief, tinged with wariness and a hint of regret.

And then it spoke again.

I have no need to stop you. That is the privilege of others.

The words sent a chill running down Solamina's spine, one that was at once the thrill of fear, an emotion she rarely felt, and a feeling almost of...

... hope.

She shook her head again, chasing the alien feeling away.

Speak not in riddles. If you do not intend to challenge me then who can?

Before the voice could reply, there was a knocking upon her chamber door.

"Enter," she said calmly.

At once, a harassed looking a Royal Guard pony entered. He stopped hesitantly before her, bowing his head.

"My liege," he said quietly, sounding more than a little afraid. "I'm afraid we have terrible news."

"Speak, Guard," Solamina said.

The Guard hesitated a moment before speaking. "There are unconfirmed reports from Wonderbolt survivors of the raid on Leeds base that ponies matching the description of the Element bearers now serve with the enemy's forces!" He looked up, as if trying to gauge her reaction. "As of yet, we do not know how this is possible."

Solamina didn't reply, merely blinking.

"I... see," she said after a moment.

In the depths of her mind, she felt a burning, overpowering rage, as well as the laughter of that voice...

... and the feeling of hope, once again, like a spark in the depths of her mind: fragile, but definitely there...

Author's Notes:

So it's been a long while since I've updated. What can I say - little Baby Eleanor takes up a lot of time :-) I'll try to get updates done more frequently, but expect them to be more infrequent from here on.