“Greetings, Children of Nod. Today we celebrate the start of our struggle. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of what GDI’s armchair generals call the start of the Tiberium War. The day when we openly struck out at our oppressors without fear. That day, we arose from their dream and freed ourselves from the shackles of tyranny. On that day our Brotherhood was carved in blood and righteous flame onto the very crowns that Celestia and Luna lord over you. On that day we started a revolution in ideology. We showed the world that we can live with Tiberium, and that the eradication of those affected by it is the will of a tyrant. Take heart my Children, my Sisters, my Brothers. Take heart and know that we will not rest…. I will not rest, until we are free and we all find salvation through the truth that is Tiberium.”

- First Year Anniversary Speech - Kane
____________

“You can’t be serious.” The Changeling Queen’s voice was as tinny as ever, buzzing with the vibrato that her species was known for. “We’ve been waiting for thirty minutes already. Why is this… why is Kane making us wait so long?”

“The aides said something about another member of the Council being gone.” came a rough voice in reply. Sitting across from Chrysalis was a monster of a gryphon with plumage that rivaled Chrysalis's carapace in how dark it was and vibrant white feathers framing his face. King Steelwing was elected after an incursion into gryphon territory by the Elements of Laughter and Loyalty had revived the spirit of a key city. While he hated to say that if it weren’t for them, the entire kingdom may have gone through a depression, he couldn’t deny that without their help, Ancestor’s Peak would have died years before tiberium turned it into a green crystal glacier.

“I was unaware that this triumvirate had a fourth member.” Chrysalis murmured, the annoyance in her tone extremely evident. Her facade of indifference didn’t last, however, as the doors at the rear of the conference room opened suddenly with enough force to cause the Changeling Queen to jump a little. Kane walked through moments later flanked by two Black Hand troopers and took a seat calmly.

“Chrysalis, Steelwing, lovely to see you both again. Our newest, yet oldest, member of the council should be arriving any moment.”

“What in Equestria are you talking abo-” Steelwing began before the doors at the front of the conference room slammed open to reveal a large, dark-blue alicorn. Luna’s raiment had never looked quite so menacingly sharp, with dark red edges for her shoulders and anything that connected to them, and a pair of pauldrons that wouldn’t look out of place on one of the old Knights of Equestria had they not been so similar to those worn by the Black Hand. Her usual shoes were replaced by black metal of the same material as her armored and heavily enchanted chestplate. On the heavy piece of armor protecting her chest, the symbol of Nod was heavily embellished and framed with crystalline tiberium wire that helped with the protective wards imbued into it.

“YOU!” Chrysalis hissed as she let loose a bolt of energy that Luna effortlessly deflected. She didn’t need to given how many magical shields her armor had, but better safe than sorry. Chrysalis didn’t get off a second shot though as a team of Shadows deactivated their cloaking shields with weapons aimed directly at the changeling monarch followed shortly by Kane’s Black Hand adding their weapons to the mix.

“Stand down, everyone… no need to do something we’d all regret and harm the Founder of Nod.” Kane said, his calm and knowing tone never faltering despite the chaos that had just broken out. If anything, his attitude seemed to only improve with outburst of everyone present.

“I was under the impression that you and your sister were of the same mind, Princess.” Steelwing said as everyone lowered their weapons and Chrysalis sat back down.

“In public eyes only. GDI needs stability lest the Brotherhood have to fight the mob that would remain if GDI fell and who better to spy on their highest level of military authority than Us?” Luna replied with a sly grin as she sauntered over the the empty seat next to Kane. As she did, Chrysalis got a slight tingling sensation all over.

“Odd, I only get that feeling when feeding on…” she thought before her eyes widened slightly and her gaze shifted to the ponies sitting next to each other at the head of the table. “... well this changes things now doesn’t it?”

“First order of business on the tabl-” Kane started before Chrysalis interrupted him.

“Your relationship with the moon witch next to you. What are you hiding from us?”

“Our personal matters are none of your concern, insect, or do We have to remind you that We see all that those in this realm dream of?”

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with you and Kane, Princess.”

“Should We inform the gathered Council and security about the acts, usually fornication, that you often dream of involving the current defenders of the Crystal Kingdom or can this gathered Council get on to real business?”

Chrysalis’s face went white, Steelwing choked slightly on his water, and almost every member of the security team tried to suppress their laughter. Most failed and let out a chuckle and only the Black Hand stayed completely silent. Kane on the other hand merely smirked at Luna’s smug grin before pressing a small button on table that activated the display mounted in the center. A hologram of the planet lit up and began spinning slowly while smaller, flat maps appeared before the gathered royalty.

On all of the maps, key battlegrounds were highlighted, troop movements were happening in real-time, stationary units were marked, and resource and tiberium harvesting assets were even notated. Once everything was lit up properly, the globe hovering above the table pulsed twice and then zoomed in on a specific segment of the map.

“GDI is pushing on all fronts that we took and has already reclaimed the Fillydelphia Blue Zone. The Equestrian war machine has finally began to charge forward and we’re only able to match them properly in Yellow and Red Zones.” Kane stated, “We attribute this most to air superiority created by the Kodiak and Orca programs that we are still busy infiltrating. Regrettably, they also have railguns despite our efforts to destroy the design schematics created by Rarity before she defected.”

“And how exactly do you plan on fighting back against Mammoths and Kodiaks in open warfare? You can’t have an army the size of Nod’s conduct a guerilla campaign world-wide.” Steelwing replied.

“Can’t we?” Nod’s Messiah asked with another knowing smirk, “All around the planet, our forces have been using the Lazarus Shield to great effect and so far there have been no survivors when they’re used. GDI still doesn’t know that we have Stealth Tanks and if intercepted communications are to be believed, they believe that we’ve started equipping Shadow teams with anti-air weaponry. Our true secret weapon, Princess Twilight Sparkle, has already begun to hand us the key to victory.”

“And that would be…?” Chrysalis asked, her expression having already turned sour at the mention of yet another princess-turned-traitor.

“All warfare is based on deception. We can hold a guerilla campaign much like the Zebras did during your takeover of their territory, Chrysalis... only this time across the entire globe.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re basing your entire war effort on one pony, even if she is Nod’s top scientist.” Steelwing told them.

“She cracked the Tiberium Mutation Gene by herself in one year.” Luna replied, causing Chrysalis’s jaw to drop and Steelwing’s eyes to grow to the size of plates.

“You’re kidding me.” Chrysalis finally spat out, to which Luna simply grinned.

“Princess Twilight, with her own funds and unbeknownst to Celestia or GDI solved the Tiberium Mutation Gene problem by herself. Once I asked her how long she had been working, at the time of her discovery, it had only been a mere nine months. Nine months. She’s responsible for our stealth technology, the EVAs, the mass production of our laser weaponry, and that’s just what she’s been able to do in the year since this war began. That mare is the single greatest weapon we have besides the stealth technology she created.” Kane told them, “Stealth, deception, evasion. Much like how your kin infiltrate a populous, Chrysalis, we shall be invisible to GDI until we want to strike. They may know our borders but after the army-wide refit is complete, they will never know where we are in our own land.”

“At that point, we shall launch a series of surgical strikes.” Luna added, “And once we have proven to GDI just how hopeless the situation is, you all shall join Us in Canterlot where We shall convince Celestia to open up peace talks. We will force her to relinquish control and to accept Nod’s philosophy on tiberium. From there, we can get back to the matter of saving the population of the world from the green crystal through adaptation, not eradication.”

“She’s really that important?” the changeling queen asked.

“Chrysalis, by alienating and losing her ‘most faithful student’, Celestia lost this war before it even began.”
________

“That went better than I expected it would.” said Kane, walking alongside the Princess of the Night down one of the many corridors which formed the maze that was the Temple of Nod.

“Oh? Did you expect something else to happen?” Luna asked.

“As a matter of fact, I thought we would have to carry our dearest Queen out in a wheelbarrow after hitting her with two or three tranqs. Luckily it didn’t come to that. Regardless, we are almost to Twilight Sparkle’s lab, as promised.”

The corridor was as any other corridor within the massive structure, with this particular segment ending in a rather wide elevator with the label “LAB 5” over its exterior blast door.

Walking up to a panel next to the door Kane drew his head in towards the retinal scanner, the doors opening after a short beeping confirmed this was indeed Kane. “After you, Princess.” he said with a swift leg motion towards the door.

The ride down to the underground laboratory was uneventful, if somewhat lengthy. The speed of their descent wasn’t particularly fast, yet not slow enough so as to make it take an excessively long time. This combined with the lack of any sort of markers in the control panel besides ‘Top Level’ and ‘Laboratory Level’ made Luna realize it was all part of security. After all, if an infiltrator couldn’t quite determine how deep the lab was, the lesser the chance of them doing any serious damage.

“Before I forget Princess, please don’t be shocked by some of the things you might see. Or rather, don’t let it bother you, and trust that both Twilight and myself know what we’re doing down here.” said Kane just as the elevator reached its destination.

As the doors opened, those words made Luna think she might suddenly bear witness to some sort of vivisection of a pony, or worse. What she didn’t expect was to find a giant fish tank filling a fifth of the space in the lab and holding three sirens inside. The three multi-colored aquatic equines didn’t particularly care much for the new arrivals up until they spotted Kane; a later measurement of footage showing their retreat into their underwater dwelling would reveal them breaking numerous speed records for various aquatic animals, including dolphins and sharks.

Kane’s silence was as good as sign as any that he hadn’t expected to find a glorified fishbowl down there either.

From her point of entrance, Princess Luna was able to admire a great deal of what was going on in this very room. Opposite from the fish tank was what looked like a row of pods connected to a green, glowing container. The first four pods were labelled I to IV, but the fifth pod had its number covered by a piece of duct tape with the name “Spike” written over it with a marker. Next to those was a separate, larger pod seemingly under construction. A sign on top reading “Nyx Program” didn’t really reveal what it was for either.

Not letting herself get distracted with sightseeing however, Luna turned to the matter at hand. “Shouldn’t Twilight Sparkle be here at this time?” she asked, for which the reply came almost immediately from across the room, behind where the fish tank lay.

“I’m over here! Sorry, just a bit busy. You’re going to have to walk around the tank.” answered Twilight, immersed in whatever task she was carrying out at the moment. Both Luna and Kane went around, passing by a large monitor displaying a 3D rendering of what looked like a thinner, longer version of the GDI Kodiaks that had made so many offensives hell for Nod’s forces. In a corner, a massive metal claw was also left half-built alongside what looked like its completed arm. What purpose it served, Luna couldn’t tell.

Passing by a design table with a number of metallic limbs for both equines and gryphons, the Brotherhood’s leaders found the purple scientist alicorn, along with the unconscious Nod trooper whose wounds she was poking.

“Twilight… what are you doing?” asked a surprised Princess of the Night.

“I’m making sure his body isn’t rejecting the implants. I'll get to attaching a new leg to him in a moment, but his body needs time to adjust to the ones I already put on.” Twilight replied, gesturing to the pony’s three other prosthetics.

Although Kane said nothing, Twilight knew he approved. After all he had authorized the program in the first place. Luna, however, didn’t seem as sure and before she could comment, Twilight filled in the silence for her.

"If you’ll allow me to be frank, Princess, we have to face the facts. Before this war is over, everyone of every race that is of fighting age will be in the fight on both sides and we need ways to keep everypony in the fight as long as possible. Rarity already designed the prosthetics for our wounded and it’s my job to make sure they interface properly with their recipients. Civilians get her basic models, military gets my.... prototypes."

“She’s right, Princess. Twilight, please show her the projections for the future.” Kane commanded, prompting the scientist pony to stop what she was doing and display her calculations on a widescreen monitor.

"At both ours and GDI’s current recruitment rates, accounting for a steady increase, natural population growth, displacement due to Tiberium infestation, casualty rates, and time necessary for someone to reach combat-capable age, we'll still hold a horsepower advantage over GDI thanks to changelings alone but in a year and a half anypony capable of using a weapon or driving a vehicle, will. And that's not even accounting for wounded, dead, crippled, and everything in between. AND those are the optimistic calculations.

"My point is, hopefully we can end the war before the two year mark. Any longer and we'll start getting into the REALLY nasty tidbits of war… and that’s not even including the experiments that Spike volunteered for.” she said, spawning images in Luna’s mind of colts and fillies being pressed into combat on both sides. It was not a pleasant thought.

"The real hardship will be ending it before the year is out. If we can’t do that with a few more decisive victories, we’re looking at a decade or more of bloodshed… luckily for us, however, I have a program already in the works, with Kane's blessing." Twilight added, changing what was being displayed from her projections to an emblem that Luna didn’t recognize. Three lines not connected but forming a triangle nonetheless with a bisected circle in the center. Two dashes marked the top and bottom of the circle with a line cutting it in half horizontally.

What truly caught Luna’s eye however were the names plastered onto the screen next to the emblem. On one side was the official title of the project, “The Marked of Kane”, which Luna felt fit it and the Brotherhood’s naming conventions quite well. The other names however made her feel uneasy for reasons she couldn’t explain.

“What are those names, Twilight…?” Luna asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Oh, those? Well the first name was my first attempt at the EVA but he went crazy and during simulations constantly turned his virtual forces on other friendly forces. In fact, during the extended simulations, data provided predicted that we would have to join forces with GDI to deactivate him permanently.”

“He?” the dark-blue alicorn asked quietly.

“Well, more of an it, really. CABAL was an artificial intelligence. However, he never learned to play nice with others so I pulled his plug.”

“You’re experimenting with AIs already?” Kane inquired, one of his eyebrows quirking up.

“Well of course. GDI has the corner on magical ‘technology’ so our only counter is to take real technology and surpass them. They beat us to the punch with their version of the EVA and despite having massive numbers on our sides, very few of them have proven to be officer and battle commander material. Once I find a suitable mind to base CABAL’s brother off of though, we’ll have an unstoppable tactical juggernaut that I bet ole’ Ironsides wouldn’t be able to beat.”

Luna nodded quietly as her sister’s former student prattled on about AIs and various technologies, but as the tour continued, she just couldn’t get that last name out of the back of her mind nor the uneasiness that just thinking it caused her. What was worse is she couldn’t place why it was bothering her.

That night, she laid down to rest in her shared quarters in Mareajevo and much to her dismay, the last thought in her head before drifting off to sleep was not the name of a friend or lover, but that of a machine.

“LEGION…”
_________

Spike was having the most wonderful dream about life after the war. He was a hero with far more decorations than he already had, he was retired to a lovely castle where Canterlot used to be, and he was married to a certain snow-white unicorn mare with a royal purple mane. He woke up to a lovely sun in the morning with Rarity next to him as Luna lowered the moon and brought up its celestial partner. Nod banners were draped over most of the walls of his home and the rebuilt city, and right as one of the servants came in with his breakfast of fire rubies, the walls exploded.

When the first shell hit the Nod lines, Spike managed to roll out of bed and have his sidearm drawn before he was fully awake. Rarity almost fell out of their bed with how forcefully he threw himself off and into a low crouch but managed to levitate herself to the floor without much hassle. Once she was on the ground and crouched as low as she could get, Rarity levitated her ear piece off of her desk and into her ear and winced at the onslaught of shouts and status updates that assaulted her ears.

“Slow down Colonel, tell me what’s going on!” she barked.

“GDI artillery and air are targeting the Hydra battalion and our infantry positions along the entire line. They must be gearing up for a massive assault to be throwing this much fire at us.”

“ETA on their assault force?”

“We still haven’t gotten word back from our recon teams but if GDI follows usual doctrine, my guess would be ten minutes tops, ma’am.”

“I’m on my way to the command tent. Slavik is on the move towards the front as well.” Rarity replied with a slight nod to Spike. He replied by kissing her cheek, grabbing his uniform, and sprinting out the door towards the front line.

Had Spike tried to run the distance between Rarity’s personal quarters and the Nod front line, roughly a 3 mile trip, before the war, he wouldn’t have made it a hundred feet without being out of breath. However, given the tiberium experiments he had volunteered for under Twilight’s watchful eye, his appearance wasn’t the only thing that had improved. Ursa tanks and Hounds were moving from various staging areas towards predetermined firing positions and phase lines and Spike was keeping up with them on foot as they sped forward.

Within 9 minutes, the young drake skid to a halt in the dirt next to the biggest firing pit he could find. Spike dove into the temporary defense made of sandbags, armored plates, a mounted .50 cal, and most importantly, a working radio system and uplink for his Electronic Video Agent. While GDI had a monopoly on magic with their Ethereal Vision Agent, Nod had created a counter with their own form of the EVA based on regular non-magical technology. The prototypes were still only used by Battle Commanders, Generals with absolute requisition and logistical support powers over whatever theater they were working in, but Twilight was hoping to have a regular model out within another 4 months.

“Give me an update, boys.” Spike said as he peered over the barricade and double-checked his sidearm.

“No contact yet, sir, but we can see them coming and they have a buckton of Predators and some other tank we haven’t seen before.” Sergeant Troubleshoes replied. Spike nodded at the massive earth pony before gesturing for the changeling next to him to hand over her rangefinder.

“New tanks… must be a new variant of the Predator.” Spike muttered under his breath as he brought the rangefinder to his eyes. The moment he hit the optical zoom though, his heart fell and his breath caught in his throat. His claw reached to his earpiece so fast that he nearly ripped off the spines on the side of his head and in a rare moment of unprofessionalism, he didn’t keep his bearing as he keyed in Rarity’s command center.

“Slavik to Pincer Actual, we have Mammoths on the field! I say again! We have Mammoths on the field!”
_________

Corporal Button Mash was having the time of his life. He was sitting in a tank the size of a small house with the Nod division that wiped out the 1st Armored dead in his sights. He was an order away from unleashing hell on the enemy with the dual cannons and dual missile pods of the Mammoth tank he was assigned to and the only thing keeping him from bouncing in his seat while staring at his ‘big red button of buck you’ was his safety harness.

“Corporal Mash, range?” Colonel Macintosh asked.

“1500 meters and closing, sir. Ready to fire on your command.” the younger stallion stated.

“At 1200 meters, fire at will. Battalion Commanders, Battalion Commanders, this is Apple Actual.” Big Mac said into his helmet mic. Once the small lights on his visor’s HUD indicated that all four of his Lt. Colonels were keyed in and listening he continued. “As soon as the Apple Pie opens up, give these bastards everything you got. After that, all commanders are to take operational command of their units; over.”

A chorus of affirmatives met his ears as the distance to target meter that Button Mash had linked to Big Mac’s HUD continued to count down. He’d never admit it but he was holding his breath. Mammoths had only been tested in small skirmishes where maybe a platoon of 4 tanks spread across a line was sent to eradicate small incursion cells. This was the first time that a division’s worth of Mammoths and Predators would be facing an equal Nod force in open combat since the “Blueblood Massacre” and the last thing he needed was for unforeseen mechanical breakdowns from new tech.

Though he wasn’t too worried, he was bringing roughly 400 Predators and 150 Mammoths into the fight with infantry, Timber Wolves, and enough Orca cover to choke an elder dragon a hundred times over. The 2nd Heavy Armored Division was there for payback and by some sort of oath sworn on Celestia’s plot, Big Macintosh was going to get it.

Big Mac looked back up at the range indicator and smiled as it hit 1200. With a gentle tap of his hoof onto Button Mash’s flank, the young colt let out a yeehaw that would make even an Apple proud and hit the fire button by smashing his full-faced helmeted head straight onto it.
_________

“How many Hydras do we have left within striking distance?” Spike asked into his headset.

“I can give you four, darling.” Rarity replied over the comm, “Use them well and I trust you’ll stay safe out there.”

“Just get the support units to safety while we hold the line, I’ll be ready to pull back the moment you give the order… and of course I will, m’lady. You just keep yourself in one piece and I’ll be back once the division regroups.”

“You better.” Rarity told him before the line shut off and Spike looked back towards the oncoming wave of GDI armor. With a few quick motions he brought up the map on his EVA interface gauntlet, selected every piece of friendly artillery and units with long-range capabilities and ordered them to aim for the Predators. He had read plenty of reports of Mammoth armor being virtually invincible so he wasn’t going to waste ammo on targets that he couldn’t kill conventionally.

“This is Battle Commander Slavik to all personnel, if you have a heavy weapon, save the shot for the Mammoths once they get close and aim for the treads. We can’t kill them head on but we can make sure that they can’t follow us.” the purple dragon ordered calmly. As if in reply, the first Mammoth opened up with its main guns. 50 meters to Spike’s left, a machinegun nest simply ceased to exist and he swore he saw a hoof go flying out of the blast. Right after that, the rest of the GDI assault force opened fire simultaneously, most likely courtesy of EVA targeting and fire control.

“Son of a bitch!” Troubleshoes swore as they felt their position starting to get strafed. Orca missiles and nose-mounted guns opened up on the Nod positions, Predator pintle-mounted weapons tried to suppress the line, and wave after wave of 120mm and 150mm shells bombarded the Nod soldiers dug in.

“Just stay calm, brother!” Spike ordered, having to shout over the din that the battle was creating. With surprising calm that unsettled the ponies and changelings that he was hunkering down with, he reached back to his earpiece and keyed in another comm code. “Zeek, how long until you and your battalion are in position?”

“Give us five more minutes, Commander. Anubis Company will be targeting the Orcas, Balthasar and Cyrus Companies will hit the tanks. Darius company will be under my command in hitting Timber Wolves and stragglers that the other three companies miss.”

“Just tell me when you’re ready and I’ll give the order. I want your big reveal of the Stealth Tanks to be something that GDI will never forget.”

“You can count on us, sir.” Colonel Zeek told him with a grin that Spike could practically hear over the radio. With a smile of his own, he noted that the assault was stalling slightly as the Hydras started picking off Predators and he could already see three Mammoths with slagged treads courtesy of a few Black Hand units scattered throughout the line. It wasn’t until he saw a quartet of missiles fired from a Mammoth arc towards where he knew Rarity’s command tent was that his expression turned sour.

“Rarity, I think you have fire inbound. Please tell me you have a shield up.” he radioed in.

“Darling we’re f-” was all she got out before the line was replaced with static and Spike saw a magically enhanced explosion mar the skyline.

“Rarity….? Rarity, come in…. Rarity! Rarity!?”

His only reply was silence on the line, and a Mammoth tank round hitting a mere 5 meters from his position.
_________

When the Second Battle of The Macintosh Hills was concluded, survivors on both sides both agreed that there was a single turning point early in the fight that changed the outcome of not just what was supposed to be a quick and decisive GDI victory, but the very outcome of the Tiberium War. Most didn’t believe what they saw when it happened, and a few still had trouble believing it later on in the war even past events like the First Battle of Canterlot or the Fall of the Crystal Kingdom.

That moment was when a purple and green dragon 40 meters in height rose up from the dust and fire created by a 120mm impact. His wings were flared, his claws were clenched, and when he let out a roar, it shook the very ground and made the green tiberium spikes protruding from his spine and all of his joints pulsate and glow. His roar was long, loud, and literally scared the shit out of plenty of combatants on both sides as he proclaimed who he was fighting for and who had caused Twilight Sparkle’s tiberium genetics program to bear unexpected fruit.

“RARITY!!!”