Chapter Thirty Seven: The Breaking Point.

***

PER HQ, Plymouth, April 4th, 2030.

The PER had seen better days, Jacob Levy decided quietly as he surveyed his "troops". The rag-tag bunch of fighters that were all that was left of his command could hardly be said to be the best, bravest or brightest of the PER or humanity in general, nor the best equipped troopers he could have hoped to find himself fighting this hopeless war with. Still: they had survived and fought beside him even though it had cost them absolutely everything they had ever loved and left them in an almost literal hell-on-Earth, and for that he would always be grateful, no matter how much he might occasionally wish he was fighting alongside "better" troops.

Being part of the PER had always been a hard decision for him: the fact that it very much ostracised him from his peers and his family, first as the Barrier had progressed and then as the war had begun, had always been hard for him to accept, despite it's necessity. There always were few PER in Britain - most had been wise enough to ponify in the face of the Barrier's expansion, and not stayed somewhere where they were not welcome. Among Levy's group, there were (or had been) fools and there were (and had been, briefly, before they'd gotten killed) cowards, those who had not been brave or clever enough to know when to ponify.

Levy himself was different. He had known, on a practical level, it would be better for him - far better - to ponify when he had the chance. He also knew, however, that he did not deserve it.

Conversion was a thing of Harmony, a choice to become a peaceful creature that was happy and contented as opposed to a creature of turmoil and spiritual emptiness (aka, a human). Levy knew for a fact that he did not deserve such happiness or contentment: he was not a good person, not even a halfway decent one. He had never committed any crime, but he had been selfish and callous, had lived for himself and no one else. He was not worthy of ponification. When ponification had first come into being, he had considered it as a way to renew himself, but with the knowledge that it would came, like a sickening blow to the stomach, the realisation that he would never be worthy.

But even in his state of unworthiness, he could try to defend those who had made that choice. He could fight for the ones who had promised humanity a better life.

He was interrupted by one of his troops, a man called Turner, approaching him with a grim expression on his face.

"Freddy's here," he said shortly. Levy nodded, and a moment later his troops escorted a grey Royal Guard commander in to speak with him. His name was Freedom Heart, and he was Levy's liaison with Equestria, though most of the PER survivors in Plymouth tended to call him "Freddy", a nickname the pony accepted somewhat grudgingly but with decent humour nonetheless. He was a good sort.

"Levy," Heart said quietly, giving the human a small smile. "Good to see you holding out."

"How's it going, Freddy?" Levy replied. The pony's expression soured.

"Not so good," he said. "London's been a right storm o' horseapples for us: they're still reorganising the Guard after our losses: we lost a lot of good ponies." The Guardspony sighed.

"Anypony you know?" Levy asked.

"Not among the guard, thank Solamina," Freedom Heart said. "But..."

"But?" Levy asked, tilting his head curiously.

"They found my wife's body," the stallion said quietly. "No sign of Brave Heart but..."

He trailed off. Levy side heavily: he and Freedom Heart had spoken of their families before. Heart's wife, Fair Heart, had run from him, taking their daughter with her, at the outset of the war. It was a common story: ponies' families had been splintered by the war, worse than the damage done to humanity.

"Anyway, apart from that we're doing fine," Freedom Heart said, getting back on topic. "The Militia is doing better, but only because Sol Invictus is doing such a good job at rabble rousing."

"Crazy bastard," Levy agreed, happy to change the subject. The tam of family reminded him of his own, in a way he would rather it didn't. "I'd almost hate to meet him. That can't be the worst of it though," he added, levelling his friend with a scrutinising gaze. "You look like shit."

Freedom Heart winced at the swearing, which was half the reason Levy did it (he liked teasing his rather uptight friend), but then he sighed in defeat.

"There's another... unfortunate bit of news," he said slowly. "To do with the Element Bearers."

"Sparkle didn't cark it in the battle, did she?" Levy asked, his expression belying the levity in his tone.

"No, worse," Freedom said. This really got Levy's attention, and he frowned as Freedom Heart continued. "There's six ponies out there fighting with those Resistance traitors who, supposedly, are dead ringers for the Element Bearers. All of them."

"Damn," Levy said quietly. That was bad. If the Resistance had ponies who looked like the Bearers... "What are they, lookalikes? Clones? Changelings maybe?"

"Nopony knows," Freedom Heart said grimly. "Her Majesty Solamina only said that there were impostors running around and we were to consider them priority targets. Since Grey Squadron has the fake Rainbow Dash in it according to the reports, and we know they've been operating around here, the assumption is Plymouth is their current base of operations."

Levy nodded slowly, thoughts racing through his mind as the possibilities began formulating.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked.

***

Somewhere beneath Scotland, April 4th, 2030.

Twilight cursed and slammed her hoof against the table. She blinked, before looking around, feeling slightly embarrassed - she wasn't normally prone to such emotional outbursts, but this place, and this research, was really getting to her.

She had spent the days since her encounter with the alternate Twilight desperately trying to find some way to make the spell work. It was imperative, now more than ever, that she manage to do so. Unfortunately, it was proving itself to be more difficult than she could ever have realised. It would have been difficult had she known the spell and known how it worked. As it was, all she knew was the incantation and the vaguest theory about what it was meant to do. It wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough.

I'm sorry guys, she thought to herself. I've failed you all.

She sighed. She couldn't just give up. There had to be something. She thought about the spell.

"Portus Maxima Imperator," she muttered. She thought about the meaning. "Portal, Supreme, Imperial." She rolled it over in her head. She started thinking about something else. "Portal... supreme... freedom..." She blinked. "Portus Maxima... Liberatus?"

She blinked again, rolling it around on her tongue. Part of the problem was intent: the intent of a spell was what made the spell work - the intent to teleport or hold something telekinetically. Just saying the words "portal supreme imperial" wouldn't work, especially not for her when her entire intention was to destroy that empire. But "portal supreme freedom..."

Now there was an intention.

She began focusing her magic through her horn, focusing on the intention of her spell. The portal, for freedom...

"Portus... Maxima... Liberatus..."

Her horn glowed... and suddenly, something appeared. A small, glowing purple portal, circular and flickering, was hovering in midair. Twilight was so excited that she lost her concentration, and the portal disappeared. She cursed softly, but then she grinned. She had finally found her inroad - finally found out how to do it.

Now all she needed to do was perfect it.

***

Plymouth, April 5th, 2030.

In the streets of Plymouth, a troop of humans and ponies were marching. The humans were grim and silent. Their eyes, mostly hidden behind gas masks and hazard suits, were constantly scanning the area, searching for signs of hostiles. One human among them wore simpler combat gear, tough trousers, riding boots and a tough jacket. He had a pair of knives sheathed in scabbards behind his back and a hand cannon holstered at his side, a shotgun in hand as he scanned the perimeter, his gaze flicking from building to building. This was David Elliot, the Avatar of Albion. Since Twilight had sent word that the enemy knew for certain they were here, Elliot had decided that he should stay with the Element Bearers.

"We don't need a babysitter," Applejack had said to him, indignant at being, as she saw it, coddled by the man.

"You just got a massive target painted on your flanks," Elliot had countered, frowning at her, arms crossed stubbornly. "So you’ll be at risk of people and ponies being specifically out to get you.”

“We can handle ourselves,” Applejack had said.

“Of course you can,” Elliot said, “but you being a target makes everyone with you a target, and that’s not necessarily tactically savvy.” He had flexed his hands with a smirk. “I'm the guy who's gonna fix that."

So here he was, technically acting as support for Everfree Team, but really acting more as their escort. The others, mostly Dietrich's and Rozhenko's men, were with them primarily to move to the next position in the operation to liberate Plymouth, but they, too, were also assisting with escorting Everfree Team.

The ponies were as grim as their human counterparts, but where the humans were silent, the ponies were singing a rather dark marching song...

"Oh pony soldiers!"
"Oh pony soldiers!"
"Sing your pony songs!"
"Sing your pony songs!"
"We've been out here!"
"We've been out here!"
"Far too long!"
"Far too long!"
"Too much!"
"Too much!"
"Too far!"
"Too far!"
"But still!"
"But still!
"We are!"
"We are!"
"Tired pony soldiers!"
"Tired pony soldiers!"
"Singin' pony songs!"
"Singin' pony songs!"

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, True Grit, Desert Wind and Sapphire Steel were singing. Rarity, on the other hand, was staring at them with wide, eternally surprised eyes.

It wasn't that singing was unusual for the residents of Ponyville or for ponies in general - Pinkie and Twilight were both known for it when the time was right, Applejack sang occasionally and Rarity had even been known to indulge in it herself - but this place hadn't caused her to feel the need to sing at all: something about a horrible, bloody war just took the usual inspiration from her. And yet, here she was, hearing Pinkie, Applejack and the others singing as they marched to their next location.

"Oh pony soldiers!"
"Oh pony soldiers!"
"Fight to right the wrongs!"
"Fight to right the wrongs!"
"We've been battered!"
"We've been battered!"
"But we're still strong!"
"But we're still strong!"
"We're strong!"
"We're strong!"
"We'll hold!"
"We'll hold!"
"We're tough!"
"We're tough!"
"We're bold!"
"We're bold!"
"We're brave pony soldiers!"
"Brave pony soldiers!"
"Singin' pony songs!"
"Singin' pony songs!"

"I despair of this sometimes," Rarity said quietly to Lyra. The turquoise unicorn shrugged.

"This is a bit of an unusual situation," she said in return, "and if it makes them feel better..."

"I suppose," Rarity said quietly. “How’s your reading?”

Lyra had spent every night for the last four or five nights engrossed in the diary of her other self, to the point where sometimes she had to be wrenched from the thing. Lyra smiled, a slight blush on her face.

“It’s interesting,” she said sheepishly. “It’s really fascinating seeing how my other self reacted to being among humans, even in this kind of horrible situation…”

The group was prevented from any further discussion - or further singing - by Elliot holding up a hand. At once, the entire group halted, waiting for their leader’s order. He scanned the perimeter once more, scowling, before racking his shotgun, apparently seeing something, and making a gesture with his hand.

"Take cover!" he yelled to them.

The ponies and troopers had maybe ten seconds to do so, before a hail of bullets and spells tore down the street, smashing into walls, rubble and cars. One or two troopers took rounds and fell, twitching, to the ruined ground. Applejack and Rarity ended up taking cover near Elliot.

"Shit!" the man swore, trying to find the source of the firepower. "This is bad."

"Those are human soldiers!" Rarity yelled, sounding almost indignant. “More of those PER?”

"Yeah, they are," Elliot confirmed, almost growling. "These are the goddamn PER commandoes, their best troops. Fucking Levy!"

"Who?" Applejack asked.

"The bastard in charge of these wankers," Elliot clarified with a scowl. "The last head of the PER."

A bullet impacted near them. Elliot risked a glance: he saw maybe ten PER troops (if you could call the comparatively ill-equipped fighters "troops": their equipment was worse than the regular army's!) and a dozen Royal Guard.

"This isn't so bad," Elliot muttered to himself. "Applejack, take Everfree Team and give these buckers something to think about!"

"Gotcha," Applejack replied. She turned to Rarity. "Start laying down some suppressin' spells."

Rarity nodded, and peeked her head out enough to start firing spells down the street. One of the PER soldiers took a spell to the chest and fell backwards with a yell. Another narrowly dodged another spell, before firing back. Rarity dodged back behind cover.

"Brutes," she muttered to herself.

"Everfree team," Applejack spoke into her radio. "Get confirmation on hostile targets!"

"Can confirm fourteen hostile humans and twenty hostile ponies," the voice of True Grit replied. "Everfrees Six and Eight are already setting up."

"Get yourself and Lyra into firin' positions Grit," Applejack ordered sharply. "Start tryin' ta suppress the buckers!"

"Wilco," Grit replied. A moment later, Applejack saw green and turquoise bolts firing down the street, as well as a few more assault rifles. A couple of Royal Guard went down, but the remaining enemies weren't suppressed by the firepower being used against them.

"Won't be enough," Elliot said grimly. He held up a hand to his comm. "Wind, how's that bloody chaingun going?!"

"Gimme a bucking second!" the stressed-sounding voice of Desert Wind replied. "She's being a bit temperamental!"

"Well she'll be a bit dead if you don't hurry up and lay down some suppressing fire!" Elliot yelled impatiently.

“Yeah, yeah!” Wind said. “Hang on -”

A moment later, a mechanical whirring started, followed briefly by a heavy roaring noise as Wind's chaingun started firing, tearing up the street and several PER and Guard. The remaining Guard and human traitors ducked behind cover, finally suppressed.

"This is it!" Applejack yelled triumphantly. "Everfree team, charge!"

She jumped out of cover, screaming slightly as she pulled her dagger out. Behind her came Pinkie and Rarity, followed closely by Lyra and True Grit. Elliot, cursing slightly at Applejack's exuberance, gestured for the humans to follow, before racing out himself, drawing his hand cannon and 'speed killer' dagger as he did so.

Applejack reached a Royal Guardspony first, slicing his throat open. Next to her Rarity zapped one Guard and used her dagger to impale a second. True Grit and Lyra fired a hail of close-range spells, incinerating a PER soldier and another Guardspony, before jumping into close combat with more.

Elliot sliced a human's throat open with 'speed killer' before shooting another in the head. Another knocked the hand-cannon out of his hand and punched him across the jaw, but he grabbed the soldier's arm, broke it and then stabbed the man in his chest. Spinning his dagger and getting the second one out he charged a Guardspony and killed her, before stepping up to face a well-built man holding a combat knife. He glared at the man, spinning his dagger once. He knew the scarred face and cropped hair very well, though it had been years since they had spoken.

"Levy!" he growled angrily.

The man - Levy - grinned, before jumping into a nearby building. Snarling, Elliot followed him into the building. He would kill that bastard today, he swore it.

***

Outside, the battle raged on. Rarity shot another spell into another PER soldier, impaling the human where she stood. She stood stock still for a moment, blood spurting from her mouth, then she sank to the floor slowly. Rarity turned away from her, sickened by the site, and zapped another Guardspony.

True Grit and Lyra fought back to back, throwing spells and lashing out with their daggers as necessary. Two Guards and one PER had already fallen to them, and most of the rest had had the sense to stay back.

Pinkie had been knocked aside by a PER soldier and knocked clean out. Fortunately for her, Applejack had charged into the soldier and broken his neck, saving her. The orange pony was doing surprisingly well. She bucked another guard into a wall, breaking his back in the process. He lay gasping for breath as she sliced another's throat open, before turning to look at him.

"You... bucking... traitor..." the Guard gasped angrily, his breathing laboured. "Bucking... traitor... bucking..."

"Save it, buster!" Applejack growled. She looked around, but most of the PER and Guardsponies were engaged with other fighters. She took a moment to go to the Guard and check his wounds: he wouldn't be standing up.

"Get away from me!" the Guard yelled, his mouth frothing slightly. "Get the buck away from...!"

He gasped, choked slightly, and then stilled. Applejack blinked: she wondered what his problem with her had been. It could just have been general anger at the Resistance but... no. There had been something... personal about it. Almost like he'd... known her.

She examined his body, trying to see if there were any identifying marks. He had a black mane and light brown fur... wait. That sounded familiar. She frowned as she examined him - his armour had been rent by some previous battle, leaving part of his cutie mark visible.

It looked like...

It looked like an apple.

"No," Applejack said softly, eyes widening in horror. She frantically pulled the dead Guard's armour off, exposing his cutie mark in full: it was a trio of golden apples. She knew this pony... he was one of her cousins. Golden Delicious. He was a sturdy, reliable pony, always knew what he was doing, when he was doing it and when it needed to be done by. A little bit up his own plot, sometimes, but...

"No," she said. She sat down on her haunches next to him. "No."

She had… she had just killed a member of her family.

“No,” she said again, eyes wide.

Buck this place. Buck this war. Buck her family. Buck all of this. Everfree team. Solamina. It could all go buck off. It could all go...

"Applejack?" somepony said.

"Buck off," she said automatically.

"Applejack!" the same voice said. She blinked, and looked up, finding herself facing Pinkie. The pink mare had a cut on her left cheek and a bruise over that eye, but otherwise seemed ok. Part of Applejack was grateful. The rest of her wanted her friend to just go away.

"Applejack, are you ok?" Pinkie asked.

"No," she replied automatically. "I'm not."

***

Elliot held his knives ready, expecting his enemy to jump him. The corridors of this building were narrow: perfect place for an ambush. All the same... he didn't expect Levy to go for that. No, his enemy was much cleverer than that, but also... also much more honourable, as much as Elliot hated to admit it.

Sure enough, he found Levy waiting for him in a large, now empty office space. The man had his combat knife ready, and was stood in a combat stance, grinning at his enemy.

"You took your time," he said quietly.

“I’m not the one who jumped into a rat maze,” Elliot growled.

Levy smirked. “Maybe not.” His expression sobered. "Ready?"

"I could obliterate you in a minute," Elliot said, frowning at him as he spun his knives in his hands.

"Well sure," Levy grinned at him, "but you won't. You'll fight me without your big sword. You don't need to compensate for anything - you and I? We're better than that."

Elliot cracked his neck. "Yeah. We are."

There was a moment's pause as the two waited for some unknown signal, and then suddenly Elliot charged. His first swing was caught by Levy's arm, but then Elliot grabbed his arm and threw him into a wall. He threw a dagger after him, but Levy blocked it with his combat knife, batting the thrown blade aside before charging. He swung at Elliot, who dodged the first blow and blocked the second. He threw a punch of his own but Levy caught it and threw him into a wall, before throwing a punch at him. Elliot dodged it and kicked out, sending Levy sprawling. He whipped out his shotgun, aiming it at Levy.

"Surrender," he said. Levy grinned at him, before throwing dust into Elliot's eyes. Elliot swore and fired blind, but he knew he had missed. He managed to clear his eyes, but Levy was gone.

"Bastard!" he screamed out. "You rat bastard! I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

But Levy was gone. Cursing, Elliot left the room and headed back for the street, feeling infuriated that his enemy had escaped him.

***

Later on, Elliot was sat, slumped against the side of a bus near their latest forward position. Some of the troops were further ahead, watching for more PER - Levy had brought a small group, testing their capabilities. It was clever, Elliot had to admit. He’d have done much the same thing under the circumstances.

“Mr Elliot?” a soft voice spoke. Elliot turned, to see Lyra staring at him.

He smiled, though it was a bittersweet smile - for just a moment, he had thought the soft voice belonged to his Lyra, but she was gone.

“Miss Heartstrings,” he said softly. “What can I do for you?”

“You can start by calling me Lyra,” Lyra said with a smile. “‘Miss Heartstrings’ makes me sound old.”

“Ah, well then, you can call me David,” Elliot replied with a chuckle. “‘Mr Elliot’ is what my teachers used to call me when they thought I was being a real pain in the arse.”

Lyra sat by him. “You took today personally.”

Elliot’s smile soured slightly. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did a bit.” He paused, unsure how to say it. “I knew Levy, before the war. He was in my unit. He didn’t turn out to be PER until just before the war started, and when the PER declared for Solamina he deserted. He wasn’t exactly a friend… but I knew him.”

“You felt betrayed,” Lyra said softly.

“Just a bit,” Elliot said quietly. “Just a little bit.”

“I don’t blame you,” Lyra said quietly. “This war… it’s taken a lot from humanity, hasn’t it?”

Elliot chuckled. “Understatement of the century.”

“Well then,” Lyra said quietly, “I’d just like to say… thank you. Thank you for bringing me here. It’s not exactly how I would have wanted to meet humans… but it’s still meeting humans.”

Elliot looked at her, a smile on his face. “Thank you for coming. It’s been nice to know you again.”

***

Applejack hadn’t spoken for three hours. Rarity had taken over Everfree team, and Applejack had happily followed the group, but her eyes were wide and staring. Rarity sighed - she had known something like this would happen. Her friend had reached something: a breaking point, a point of no return where she had finally been unable to simply bury the feelings of despair and horror she had accumulated. It was to be expected: nopony could go through what they were going through and be as ok as Applejack had apparently considered herself.

When they stopped at their current objective - some dreary little intersection that looked exactly the same as every other intersection in this cursed city - she walked over to her friend, determined to do… something.

“Dear?” she said softly. “Applejack?”

“Buck off, Rarity,” the orange Earth Pony replied.

“I most certainly will not, dear,” Rarity said, ignoring the crude language. “I am your friend. It is my business to help you if I can.”

Applejack looked at her, and then laughed, a short, harsh bark that sounded even more horrible than the coarse language from her friend’s mouth.

“Can you make this bad dream go away?” the former farmer asked, sounding uncharacteristically bitter. “Can you bring back my cousin? Can you make any of this bucking… this bucking shit... make some kind of sense? ‘Cos if you can’t do that, Rare, I’d say you can’t help me at all.”

Rarity sighed. She didn’t know quite how to approach this… but it was her duty. As Applejack’s friend, and as her commanding officer now, by virtue of her apparent abdication of her responsibilities.

“I can’t do any of those things, Applejack,” she said quietly. “Truth be told, I do wish I could. I wish we had never come here. I wish we had never bothered with any of this ridiculousness. I can’t honestly say I feel as though we’ve accomplished anything but more killing and destruction. But…”

“But what, Rare?” Applejack interrupted. “But what? What else is there? What else can you say? What can you say that can make this mean something, anything?”

Rarity frowned, and then, sighing, she sat herself next to Applejack.

“It doesn’t,” was all she said.

“Pardon?” Applejack asked, frowning.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I’m not even sure it means anything, apart from us helping these humans to not die today.” Rarity looked up at the darkening sky. “It’s insane. It shouldn’t be happening. But…”

“But?” Applejack asked quietly, and Rarity turned to see her friend looking at her expectantly.

“But,” Rarity repeated, and then she smiled. “But we’re here, aren’t we? There’s nopony else here. Nopony to make the hard choices for us. Much as I hate to say it, dear, we’re stuck here. This is our life.”

Applejack blinked, before looking up at the sky as well.

“You know,” she said softly, “I reckon you’re right about that.”

“I’d like to think so,” Rarity said quietly.

There was a long pause as the two contemplated the sky, each lost in thought.

“I can’t be in charge, Rare,” Applejack said quietly, and Rarity looked at her again. “I don’t think I can do it. I’m sorry. I’m letting ya’ll down. i’m letting Twi down.”

“Don’t be silly dear,” Rarity replied, frowning slightly. “You aren’t letting anypony down. This is a horrible situation, and you being you, you decided not to let anypony in.” She smiled reassuringly. “But we are here for you, Applejack. Always. All of us.”

“Yup, we all are!” came the sudden cheerful voice of Pinkie Pie, the pink amre popping up behind the two of them. Both ponies nearly jumped out of their skins.

“Heck, Pinkie, watch out where you’re jumpin’ out at ponies!” Applejack said crossly, but she was smiling. “I nearly had me a heart attack, and since I’ve taken down Guasrdsponies and Converted, it’d be pretty darn embarrasin’ to die like that.”

“Sorry,” Pinkie said sheepishly. “But Rarity is right - we’re all here for you, Applejack.”

“‘Preciate it, both of you,” Applejack said, looking at her two friends. “Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it dear,” Rarity said quietly, giving her friend a hug. “What are friends for?”

***

Author's Notes:

And once again, here I am. Not quite Heart of the World, but still. Thanks once again to everyone who's commented and liked the story, and especially to RoyalPsycho and The Void for their support and assistance. :-)

Next chapter should return to Grey Squadron, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Ditzy. Til then, enjoy folks.

Jed.

EDIT: This chapter was edited 2nd August 2015.