At the main deck near the center mast, Spike held his breath; the sky grew darker and malevolent as if plotting some cruel fate for them all. Caven Isle was fast approaching, and the southern walls of the once great city came into view. It was only matter of time before they would be landing on shore. He swallowed nervously, staring up at the Blood Moon in the night sky. Raiel stood beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"This is it, Spike," Raiel smiled at her companion, trying her best to encourage him. "This shall certainly be a fight to remember."

"Yeah..." Spike sighed, his imagination running wild with worried thoughts.

Raiel clutched her chest for a moment, closing her eyes as she mustered up her own courage. "Spike, I-..." Raiel trailed off, bowing her head, her words so nearly free from her lips. "Spike, no matter what happens... I just want you to know that you have all my light in the darkness. Seeing you all, smiling and laughing together at Mystwood, it was one of the happiest moments of my life, and I'm glad I shared it with you." Raiel grabbed Spike's hand and clasped it hard, her lip quivering for but a moment before she redoubled her strength and shook it off. "Let's stick together, okay?"

"Alright..." Spike said softly, the fire in his eyes burning hotter than ever. "Let's do this."

"Brace yourselves, everypony!" Pisces shouted back to his crew from the spearhead of his ship, manipulating the currents of the river to speed up their advance. With his left hand, he whisked great amounts of water onto the left side, washing away the vampires firing at his miriad allies on neighboring ships. "Take cover!"

The cannons along the walls began firing at The Red Koi and its companion ships, but Twilight reacted quickly, placing a magic barrier around The Red Koi. Draven aided the miriads, letting loose a wall of lightning that obliterated the incoming projectiles. With his left hand, Pisces rocked the ship with a jet of water, angling the ship just enough for Rummy to let loose returning fire.

"Gunpowder: Barrage!" Rummy shouted, as the cannons of The Red Koi bellowed, blistering the outer wall defenses. "Right on target, Pisces!"

"Well done, boy! Onward!" Pisces replied as he continued to sweep away vampires with whips made of water. He thrust his right hand forward, rapidly accelerating their advance. "Hold on! As soon as we flow into the sea, I'll turn us around! We'll strike the harbor with a barrage!"

"Aye, aye, Admiral!" Daisy sang as she tossed cannonballs at the wall nonchalantly.

Trees rushed by as they sped up, and the cannons continued to sing their chaotic song of war as the ocean drew nearer. Luna fired a beam of light from her sword to scatter the remaining ranks of vampires, rousing a triumphant cheer amongst her Cadre; their blades hungered for Alptraum's blood. The Red Koi was the first to spill out into the Grand Sea, and the miriad warships followed suit. Using the sea as a bumper, Pisces steered their fleet around twisting his right hand to bend the waves to his will. They turned towards the north rapidly, aiming their cannons at watchtowers and other defenses along the harbor. Slowly, the gunners on each ship selected their targets, taking care not to damage any other buildings in the capital.

"Ready!" Pisces hollered, his voice as loud as a thousand drums and guns. "Aim!" He raised his right hand up as he turned toward the shoreline, then dropped it down to let loose his forces. "Fire!"

The crew plugged their ears as the shoreline defenses returned fire in a cacophony of cannon fire, just narrowly missing their shots; Pisces' constant stirring of the sea hampered their targeting and sucked up the occasional cannonball into the depths. In mere seconds, the outer defenses of Caven Isle had crumbled. With his left hand, Pisces turned the ships to face the west, preparing for a full-scale assault by land. He lifted the sea beneath them, dragging their ships closer and closer to the nearly destroyed harbor. Carefully he steered each ship with the roaring tide, taking care not to crush his allies against the stones along the shallow beach. He created pits in the sand below using the tide, plunging the bows of each ship safely inside so that they could lower the land bridges.

"Forward, stallions! Forward!" Pisces raised his trident and thrust it at the storm of changeling soldiers ahead.

"To battle, Cadre!" Bethany bellowed triumphantly as she led her order, Syrune, and Galaeron behind her.

The changelings shrieked and howled as they ran through alleyways and along piers, meeting the miriads and Equestrian marines head to head at the beach, blasts of sand launched high into the air by the hail of mortar fire. Luna and Pisces were the first to exit The Red Koi, leading the charge. Spike, Raiel, and rest of their backup soon followed. Twilight, Draven, and the others accompanied the troops, carving a pathway for Pisces and Luna. They would fight their way through main street all the way to the town square to attack the inner walls. Fluttershy and Jhettei were the last ones to exit the ship, and they tagged behind Draven.

"Dragon Thane's Thunderous Greatsword!" Draven shouted as he cleaved dozens of changelings in half with a single swipe of his electric claymore; he could barely see his allies amid the sound and fury around him. They were advancing up the beach fast. "Mates, where are you?!"

"I'm here!" Twilight replied back as she repelled a changeling soldier with a blast of magic.

"We're fine!" Fluttershy cowered behind Jhettei, who pounded the changelings swarming them into submission, breaking every single one of their necks as they tried to gut Fluttershy. "I hope..."

"We're alright, Draven!" Gin shouted nearby as she blew a changeling away with a shot from her blunderbuss, backing her brother up as he blasted clusters of changeling troops with gunpowder from his fingertips. "Just keep, fightin'!"

"Hmm... they think they can stop me?" Pisces almost smirked at the changeling soldiers as they charged towards him. "Dragon Shatter!" He thrust his free hand forward, tearing apart scores of oncoming troops, pulverizing a number of buildings, and blowing away the cobblestone sidewalks. He stepped onto the rubble, leading Luna into the city with Spike and the others in tow. "Follow me, Princess! I'll carve us a path!"

"But... the city!" Luna shouted back at him as he used Dragon Wave to wipe away houses.

"We shall rebuild! We'll be sitting ducks if we're boxed into a single street!" Pisces said as he gave a group of three changelings a firm backhand with his massive fist, knocking them all aside with casual ease. "I'll make us a wider path!"

Raiel slashed through droves of changeling soldiers with elegance, spinning and twirling as if she were in some kind of warrior trance. Spike grinned, blowing dozens away with columns of fire from his gaping maw. Daisy ripped sod and rock from the ground, tossing it into the horde of changelings, crushing a few here and there as she backed up her crewmates with her powerful ground stomps that sent the changeling ranks flying.

"Twilight, stay with me!" Dross ordered her as he shuffled closer, tossing a nearby changeling away with a massive gorilla's arm. "We'll do more damage and cover each other's backs if we stick together!"

"Alright!" Twilight nodded as she slew a changeling with a blade made of magic.

On the other side of the beach, Bethany dispatched changeling soldiers quickly with the precision of an assassin, firing obsidian spines from her wrists and landing them right in between the eyes of changeling musketeers before they even had a chance to fire their shot; it was obvious she shared Liazo's prodigious hand-eye-coordination. Syrune and Galaeron went all-out as well; Syrune consistently placed shots from her bow right in a changeling's eye socket, and Galaeron pulled off impressive acrobatics in his heavy armor, rolling and ducking, carving through soldier after soldier. But the changeling assault didn't seem to let up; their offensive grew only more aggressive as the battle raged on. But regardless, the allies held strong, fending off each wave as Pisces and Luna plowed through the city.

From high atop a platform along the inner wall of the castle, Ambassador Fang sat comfortably upon a throne, The Four Generals standing at the ready. He held his hand in his chin, sighing to himself as he watched his army get torn apart like tissue paper. He stood up, shaking his head in an exasperated manner. "My what a horrid sight."

"Ambassador Fang, shall we release them?" General Cain asked the young dragon in his low and groaning voice.

"Go ahead..." Fang nodded with a hint of annoyance in his tone. "I suppose this shall be their test run."

"Release the prototypes!" General Cain ordered a group of changelings near the castle entrance gathered outside the inner wall. They obeyed, running over to six large containers near the central fountain of town square. Quickly, they unlatched the locks of the metal boxes, letting the door to each swing open, revealing the contents within.

What was hidden inside the containers were soldiers. Though, these giant soldiers barely resembled changelings. They were mostly composed of cybernetics powered by magic. Their limbs were replaced with long, mechanical appendages made of interlocking steel plates and carbon fiber tubes, and at the end of each limb was a mechanized hand fitted with razor-sharp claws. Their tails were swapped out with a new, synthetic ones— a robotic scorpion tail with a terrifying blade at the end. Their bodies were stark naked, yet there was nothing to reveal; their whole bodies were just horrifying amalgamations of changeling flesh and complicated cybernetics. What was most alarming of all were their empty, green eyes and their gaping maws, replaced with a grotesque array of metal fangs and cogs.

"Now, let's see if Doctor S isn't completely full of shit. Stalkers... kill." Fang grinned as he pulled out a remote control from his pocket, pressing the center button to activate them. They sprung to life, their eyes glowing green, crawling on all fours as they sniffed the air for their prey. With a snarl, they all split up, bounding across rooftops to reach the other side of the city. Sneering, Fang gestured to his generals. "Obliterate them. I'll stay here and guard Lord Alptraum."

"As you wish, Ambassador Fang." General Cain nodded as he jumped off the wall, slamming onto the cobblestone street with tremendous force.

"Finally..." General Racer's grin grew wide as his body began to bubble and pop with dozens of huge, fiery explosions that launched him high into the air.

"Hmm, this shall be a splendid battle indeed!" General Sky Runner sang in an almost operatic voice, teleporting to the central fountain down below in a flash of white light, then to a nearby rooftop.

"Humph," General Moreau twiddled his mustache as he unsheathed his rapier, levitating rubble from below and organizing it into a makeshift staircase using the power of sustained acoustic blasts, descending it all the way to the bottom in a posh and proper fashion.

On the frontlines, Spike, and his group fought heavy resistance as they climbed the hillside towards the palace. Cannon fire and musket balls whizzed through the air, and as Spike looked back, he saw dozens of dead or dying marines behind him. He had never seen such a sight before; the chaos, the destruction. War was not the glorious adventure everypony thought it would be, it was hell. Spike turned back, pounding some oncoming changelings with his fiery fists. However, he stopped, hearing a terrible crackling noise from above. He looked up, watching a stallion soar through the air with a cluster of explosions behind him.

"Pisces! Look!" Spike called to the admiral, and he quickly assessed the situation.

"The Generals..." Pisces grunted as he cocked his head back to deliver a warning to those on the beachfront. "Prepare yourselves! The Generals are on their way!"

General Racer zoomed through the air as his body continued to explode from the waist down, eventually blasting him all the way to the beach. He snickered to himself as he hovered just above the allies, then he brought his hands down upon them, firing off a maelstrom of explosions that began to blister the ground beneath him. "Boom: Rolling Thunder!"

The attack sent Equestrians and Cadre members flying, broke apart the landscape, leveled houses and wiped away almost a quarter of the Equestrian forces in an instant. On the ground, Twilight heard the attack, lifting a magic shield just in time before any of her friends were harmed. Though General Racer's attack was much stronger than she anticipated, and it nearly destroyed her shield entirely. She only had seconds to regain her composure before the next general arrived, General Skyrunner.

"Twilight, are you-?" Dross saw she was unscathed, but he trailed off as he heard a snapping noise in the distance. Faster than the eye could track, a pegasus was teleporting around the battlefield, blowing holes through the chests of marines with lasers fired from her fingertips. It only took Dross mere moments to realize the mare in general's regalia had turned her attention to Twilight and him. "Ah, shit! Twilight!"

"I see her!" Twilight winced as she got back on her hooves. "That's Captain Skyrunner! She was a member of the Flying Corps once, but she was kicked out!"

"Hmm, so glad you know so much about me, darling!" General Skyrunner smirked as she teleported just a few meters away from them. She gave her a sarcastic bow and a wink. "And you must be the Great Princess Twilight, I imagine? Charmed, I have heard such great things about you, but I never got to meet you in the flesh." General Skyrunner sighed to herself, her hands beginning to turn translucent, prismatic. "It is a shame we didn't get to meet on happier terms, but... c'est la vie." General Skyrunner put her crystalline hand out and made a gun with her thumb and index finger, aiming it right at Twilight's head.

Twilight reacted quickly, dodging to the right. Though the laser blast was beyond her normal scope of speed, and it still managed to graze her left arm, severely burning it. "Aarrghh!"

"Twilight!" Dross screamed as he charged towards General Skyrunner with giant crabs claws for arms. Whilst she was standing still, he thrust his right claw into her chest with all of his rage. To his surprise, her whole body simply shattered like a pane window, breaking apart into a million pieces. He ran over to Twilight, helping her back up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay..." Twilight grunted as she got up once again. However, she soon realized it was not over as she watched the fragments strewn about begin to reform. "And so is she..."

In seconds, General Skyrunner's body took shape once more, and she waited patiently for her foes to recuperate. "Ah, what a fine night, wouldn't you agree?"

"This bitch is just playing with us..." Dross grit his teeth in anger as he and Twilight prepared for the real fight.

"Playing, fighting, loving... to me they are all the same. The only real, discernable action in life is to dance. And so, let us dance!" General Skyrunner summoned a blade made of white hot laser energy in her right hand, and she gave her opponents a salute.

On the other side of the beach, Field Marshal Durand and his battalion of miriads began to advance up the hill, fighting their way through hundreds of changelings alongside the Cadre, who eliminated their foes with finesse and agility. He joined up with Bethany, Syrune, and Galaeron at the front, cleaving his way past dozens upon dozens of changelings. In battle, Marshal Durand's skills with the saber were unmatched by most, and despite his age, he impressed quite few Cadre members with his deft footwork, including Bethany.

"Excellent form. Who taught you with the blade?" Bethany chuckled as she cut the head off a changeling officer, meeting Marshall Durand on his side of the fray.

"It was Blademaster, Madame. I trained under him for two years." Marshal Durand said with pride in his voice.

"The Blademaster?! Damn... I'm jealous." Bethany had heard of The Blademaster's students; strong, almost unbeatable sword-wielders from across the globe. Most of them became either rulers or pirate captains.

"Well, I'm nowhere near the level of some of his pu-..." Marshal Durand was cut off by a faint whirring noise in the distance. His pride soon twisted into panic as he turned to his battalion, wide-eyed and fearful. "Plug your ears!"

"Acoustic: Screaming Falcon!"A voice shouted in the distance. What followed was a wall of sound so strong it nearly parted the sea behind Durand's battalion. The attack was so loud it ruptured the eardrums of many within the center of the blast.

As the dust cleared, Bethany shook her head, her ears ringing loudly. "What the hell was that?!"

"Some sort of sonic attack..." Syrune coughed as she helped Galaeron to his hooves.

"What a coincidence, Julian, that we meet each other after so many years on this very battlefield." General Moreau said as he frilled the feather on his musketeer chapeau. "It seems fate has drawn us together once more."

"It appears so, Pierre," Marshal Durand said as he drew his saber. "All I ask is that we keep this between the both of us. Do not attack my comrades."

"Very well, Julian, I accept your terms," General Moreau agreed, preparing his rapier.

"Is that...?" Galaeron swallowed nervously; he could hardly believe his eyes.

"Lord Moreau... The Roaring Falcon of Montesquieu!" Syrune gawked at the general, who stood on the hillside, just inches away from the beach upon a pile of rubble. "He's in league with Constantine?! Traitor!"

"Stay back, you two. This is between the two of us." Field Marshal Durand ordered his soldiers, who backed off quickly. Durand then turned to face his comrades. "Go and reinforce the southern flank. They'll need your strength."

"Very well, Field Marshal." Bethany nodded, ordering her Cadre brethren to follow. "Do be careful."

"Why have you joined with Constantine, brother?" Marshal Durand's eyes narrowed with hatred as he saw his troops around him.

"Look around you, brother. The Fourth Age has come to a close. This battle shall mark a new beginning for the world! An Age of Empires! And Constantine shall lead that new world through the darkness that is to come!" General Moreau said in a prophetic voice, like an Oracle from long ago.

"You are a fool, Pierre," Marshal Durand scowled as he lifted his saber. "You always were."

"We shall see..." General Moreau muttered as he lunged at his brother with his rapier drawn. "En garde!"

Author's Notes:

This is only the beginning, my friends...

As always, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter!