- Three months have passed. We see a battle between the two Empires.

***

- Allied soldiers engage Solaminan troops. False Alicorns are shown to be a threat.

***

- Elliot encounters the Oracle on his journey. The oracle tells him he needs to get past the final hurdle - himself.

***

- The PHL and BDF start planning their counterattack against the Solar and Solaminan Empires.

***

- Elliot visits Merlin and begins a brief stint of training.

***

- Elliot returns to the Archives - he consults with DisQord, who creates a "hyperbolic time chamber" for his use to train. Elliot takes AOA!Lyra with him.

***

- Viktor Kraber becomes an Iron Clad.

***

- Elliot and Lyra training in the time chamber - this covers several moments.

***

- Elliot and AOA!Lyra emerge. Elliot brings Downtime Lyra with him into the chamber.

***

- A plan by PHL officers to invade Solamina's Equestria is drawn up - this plan is rejected by the Council, but the PHL intend to follow through. Rift forms between the allies. Outcome TBD.

"So," Representative Cheerilee said, scowling at the plans. "They asked me to talk to you about this. We couldn't quite believe it when your plan hit our desks."

"What's wrong with the plan?" Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is there something we missed?"

The Representative began flicking through the pages of the plan document, her eyes narrowed as she went through it. Behind her, Dinky Doo (who looked so… off in that uniform) looked no happier.

"It says here that the plan is centred around a massive bombardment campaign on key strategic areas," Representative Cheerilee said after a moment. "Something about a 'fujin missile'?"

"Yes," Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee said. "Followed by the ground invasion - we've also got plans drawn up to cut key supply lines off using surgical strikes. We're also considering contacting local resistance outlets to use hexes so as to choke troop responses and derail trains. We'll have to adapt for the lack of totem-proles, but honestly, this seems like it might be easier."

"I noticed you mentioned that in the report," Representative Cheerilee said testily, her scowl not abating. "Leaving aside your definition of 'easier', I also noticed that the collateral level is listed as 'high'."

"Why wouldn't it be?" the Lieutenant Colonel asked. "This is a strike to the belly of the beast…"

"It just seems a little… vindictive," Representative Cheerilee said. "Look at this - derailing trains - trains carrying passengers in some cases. Hell, I'm looking here at some of the backups, and it says something about assault teams attempting to - what's this say, 'destroy Canterlot's supports'? As in, destroy the entirety of Canterlot?!"

"That's only a last resort," the Lieutenant Colonel said. "Trust me, we don't want to resort to that."

"You mean if your 'massive concentrated bombing strike' fails," the Representative cut her off. "A strike - I might add - which seems to target several incredibly densely populated areas. The civilian casualty rate is going to be atrocious, even if you don't have to drop the city!"

"We're actually aiming for areas near Guard garrisons," the Lieutenant explained. "If we don't do that, more of our troops will die! This… in its own way, it saves lives."

"The Guard Garrisons are, according to all reports, right next not only to the original civilian quarters but also situated near Converted temporary accommodation that was set up in the city," Representative Cheerilee said. "Your weapons are good, possibly even too good. At that kind of distance there's no way you won't hit a heavily populated area and devastate half the city. Maker's sake, are you so used to dehumanizing the enemy?!"

"Yes," the Lieutenant Colonel said bluntly. "The lower city will mostly be Newfoals at this point. And the only way to stop those is with point-blank annihilation. They will not respond to anything other than a bullet to the -"

"Excuse me, Lieutenant Colonel," Dinky Doo interrupted, her voice quiet but her expression somewhere between angry and confused, "but whose Equestria are we talking about here?"

Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee frowned. "The one we're trying to invade, obviously -"

"Really? Because I could have sworn you were talking about Newfoals for a minute there," Dinky pointed out.

The Lieutenant Colonel blinked. "I... apologies, I must have gotten confused."

"Yeah," Dinky said scathingly. "Yeah. That's what I thought. Do you even want to save your home at all, if this is how you plan to carry out your attack?"

"No," the Lieutenant Colonel said.

"No?" Representative Cheerilee repeated. "You're telling me you're happy with the collateral?"

"Of course I'm not happy!" the Lieutenant Colonel snapped. "No matter what I do, people are going to die! The fate of several universes is in my hooves! Do I look like a happy mare?!"

"No," Dinky admitted.

"Oh good, I'd hate to give the wrong impression!" the Lieutenant Colonel shouted. "My home went to hell and decided it was morally superior to drag everyone with it. I'm not even talking figuratively - I'd actually prefer to live in hell than see my home as it is now. Strikebreaking is so brutal that the Royal Guard have made it close to an artform, if the Newfoals paid on slave wages - if they're paid at all - don't beat the strikers to a bloody pulp first. They've industrialized so fast that they're poisoning the land to even survive, and even if I come back, there's downright hellish pollution in half the cities. Newfoals treated like slaves or worse because they can't say no, ponies losing their minds to whatever the totem-proles are doing. Secret police will round up ponies for any kind of dissent, even if it's just minor disagreement. There's ponies that call themselves mind healers, and they will wipe away any lingering guilt and just hide away your shame. Faust-only-knows what the hell happened to Celestia's mind." She paused, taking a breath. "I've read up on your Equestria - the Iron Wall, the Cloudsdale curfews and the sanctioning of the Pegasi, the extermination of the Night Guard and Luna's death, billions of dead Newfoals… Elliot told True Quill you set aside a whole island for it. And then there's the humans. Fourteen million humans out of eight billion. Dammit, your world is more desperate than ours is - how can you be objecting to ending the war faster?!"

There was a long pause as the other two ponies let that sink in. Finally, Dinky spoke.

"You think you can write off Equestria - our Equestria - like that?" she asked, her voice dangerously calm.

"Your Equestria is a write-off," the Lieutenant Colonel replied. "I'm sorry - but it is. All that you can do is go in, kill your Celestia however you can, win your war however you can, and pick up the pieces. Same as us."

Representative Cheerilee blew out a breath she had apparently been holding.

"The Council," she said, "disagrees."

She pulled out a file and slid it over to her counterpart, who frowned as she opened it.

"Plan written up by the Undead, Major Elliot, Major Redmond and General Anderson, co-signed by the Commanders of the Resistance Air Force and Military," Representative Cheerilee said. "Assuming the Discords aren't all hot air, this should be more than feasible, and save everyone and everypony a lot of bomb-dropping."

Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee frowned as she flicked through the document. "This plan… it's ridiculous. A ground invasion? While they have zep support? One invasion point, one target? Only minimal bombardment to cover your troop landings?"

"Celestia Gloriana has promised Zeppelin support to help us match up against the fleets of the Solaminan Empire," Representative Cheerilee said. "And I'm sure your fancy Pegasi-mounted guns can help the ERAF against the zeps. Add the air support from your Downtime Celestia, maybe some numbers from the Downtime changeling hives, and we're in business."

"The troop casualties from this will be insane," Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee said. "This… there's no way Marcus or Stephan will approve this, let alone the UN Council!"

"It reduces bombardment collateral considerably," Representative Cheerilee said. "Better the casualties of those who've said from the beginning that they'd die to free their home, than the deaths of those they'd go home for."

"You goddamned bleeding hearts," Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee snapped. "You want your home back, I understand that. Plenty of ponies in the PHL do too. But this plan of yours is suicidal. A lot of PHL believe we've passed the point where we can do this without massive collateral damage a long time ago. What makes you think you haven't?"

"In your home, that may be the case," Representative Cheerilee said. "This is our home, Lieutenant Colonel. This is our war. We don't tell you how to fight your Queen Celestia, so don't you dare think you can come here and tell us how to fight Solamina."

"But this is stupid!" the Lieutenant Colonel protested.

Before Representative Cheerilee could answer, Dinky swelled up, stood to attention, and began reciting loudly.

"I, Dinky Doo, swear by my life and whatever deity watches over pony kind, that I shall fight for a Free and Just Equestria, that I shall fight to bring peace, harmony and justice back to Equestria and restore it to its former glory, that I shall not rest until the Tyrant no longer enslaves my kin, and that I will, as in duty bound, fight to defend the people of Earth who have been wronged by the Tyrant, and will obey all orders of the Government-In-Exile, the Ruling Council and the Officers set over me."

She narrowed her eyes at Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee. "My mother died over Manchester, fighting because she knew one day I'd get to go home, even if she couldn't. She fought knowing that we'd get home and make it better/i], not that we'd go and turn the entire place into a wasteland."

Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee sighed and shook her head. "Look… I can't order your people to follow through with a plan they don't approve of. You're right. Not my home. You may not have been through what I saw… but then again, I haven't been through your war."

"Then you'll consider the alternative plan?" Representative Cheerilee asked.

"No," the Lieutenant Colonel said softly. "I won't."

The Representative raised an eyebrow.

"I get that you want to go home," the Lieutenant Colonel continued. "But like it or not, this is our world's war too now - your Solamina won't stop until she's conquered both our worlds, neither will Queen Celestia. Chances are, we'll be going ahead with or without your people. We don't leave jobs half done, and we do not plan on leaving a threat on our borders."

Representative Cheerilee paled, her eyes widening. "You can't. That's -"

"We can and we will," the Lieutenant Colonel said softly. "I'm… I'm sorry. Maybe it'll be better than you think. Maybe…"

She trailed off, and left the room, knowing that she couldn't say anything against the wide, accusing eyes.

***

"They're going to what?" Blueblood asked, eyes wide. "But… but you gave them the alternative plan…"

Near him, General Anderson had his hand in his head, looking for all the world like he wanted to be swallowed up. Sato was taking a drink of tea, his hand shaking. Elliot and Redmond were in the room too, and neither of them looked happy. Elliot looked thunderous.

"My counterpart deemed the risk to men and materials too costly," Representative Cheerilee said quietly. "She says the likelihood is they'll go through with their plan sans the BDF's involvement, and they'll do that in the one they left too. I hope she's bluffing."

"And they can back up that bluff," Elliot said grimly. "You've not seen their troops in action, sirs, but I have - they're effective. They've got the capacity to practically level the place single handed if you give them enough leeway - and if they let loose enough."

"When I took over…" Blueblood began, before swallowing. "I… I promised the ponies of the Resistance that… that we'd…"

"That we'd go home," Cheerilee finished. "I know. It might not be so bad."

"Their plan is a large-scale, multiple front assault, targeting several major population centres," Anderson muttered. "It's fucking genius, ignoring the whole 'massive collateral' thing. They'll be systematic and they'll be brutal." He chuckled emptily. "I almost missed having that around."

"There are a lot of angry soldiers amongst the PHL detachment we have in the Archives," Sato added softly. "They will not distinguish between the enemy they have been fighting and our enemy, and I fear they will be disinclined to distinguish civilian from Guard - certainly, from Militia."

"Well, there's no distinction to some of them," Elliot said.

"I can't believe they'd do this," Blueblood muttered.

"Not all of them would. There's some with consciences," Elliot said. "Kraber for one - man would never admit it but he'd back us up. Or… I hope he would."

"Can't we… stop them?" Blueblood asked.

Anderson laughed. "How? We tried saying 'don't', but that's pissing in the wind. And if you're honestly suggesting a military recourse…"

"No," Blueblood said hastily. "No, of course not. That's the last thing we need - and it'd do little good."

"We'd be dead in five minutes," Redmond muttered. "Maybe six if the Iron Clads held out."

"Nobody's suggesting anything like that," Elliot added. "For the love of all that's holy, anything but that. I didn't ask them to come here just to start another war."

There was a sombre moment in the room, as each person and pony took a moment to think of what was happening.

"I…" Blueblood said softly. "I should go speak to the troops here. They'll start hearing rumours soon - I'd hate them to learn their home is going to be razed second hand. They deserve that much."

He trotted out, Dinky following him. Cheerilee sighed.

"They aren't doing it to spite us," she said. "Trust me, they're not monsters. The other me… Pony God, the things that mare must have been through…"

"If they do this," Sato said, "we must do… something."

"If they do this," Elliot said, "then I'll go up to Marcus Renee and I'll tell him to his face that we're done with him and with his world, and if he doesn't like it he knows what he can do." He paused. "I don't like backing out… but we're not spineless lapdogs that'll come to heel when they whistle, whether they have bigger guns or not."

"That won't do any good," Anderson said. "It's us that needs them, not the other way around."

"Yeah," Elliot muttered, "but it'll make me feel better. They're not planning a war, they're planning a genocide - they're gonna stomp on Equestria, and they don't care if they smush the wrong ants."

With that, he too left.

***

When True Grit saw this 'Avatar-verse's' Prince Blueblood walk out into the main assembly area, the Night-Guard armoured Dinky Doo and the older, stubblier version of Elliot with him, he frowned.

"Here, John," he said to his colleague. "What's got his goat?"

Constantine looked up, frowning. "You know, that's the second top-brass type I've seen look so drained. Something's up."

"What, you mean Cheerilee?" Errant Flight put in, gesturing to the Lieutenant Colonel, who was talking with Marcus and Stephan over in one corner of the assembly area. "Yeah, she looked a little out of it. What's going on d'you reckon?"

Constantine shrugged.

As they spoke, Blueblood arrived at a clump of Resistance ponies, their distinctive khaki shirts setting them apart from their more armoured PHL counterparts. A few colourful shirts signifying ERAF flyers were also around, as were a few armoured Night Guards. True Grit, curious, walked over to this clump, as did Constantine and Errant Flight.

"Sir?" one of the ponies asked Blueblood. "Commander Albion? What's going on?"

Elliot said nothing, instead looking at Blueblood. Blueblood sighed, before looking at the soldiers surrounding him.

"Have we decided on a plan yet, sir?" one of them asked the Prince.

"We… have," Blueblood said softly. "In a manner of speaking."

There was a murmur as this answer was repeated around the crowded group of ponies.

"I'm not going to like the explanation for this, am I?" Constantine asked quietly. Errant shushed him. As they spoke, more ponies and humans approached the group, listening for Blueblood's words. Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee, Marcus Renee and Stephan Bauer amongst them.

"The PHL forces presented a plan to the Governing Council concerning the invasion of Equestria," Blueblood began. "This plan involved -"

"We're going home?!" Sugar Snap asked.

"Alright, about bucking time!" the familiar voice of Vinyl Scratch said, a grin on her face. "Can't wait for it - I've been waiting for this for six years!"

Blueblood looked like a father who was trying to tell his foals that the Tooth Breezie wasn't real.

"The plan," he continued, trying almost to speak over the ponies, before pausing. "Their plan... involves massive bombing raids on Fillydelphia, Cloudsdale, Manehatten, Las Pegasus, Ponyville and Canterlot, followed by massive, mechanised invasion on the ground, precipitated by heavy armour and massive amounts of artillery." He paused, taking a breath. "Said invasion comes, unsurprisingly given what's being used, with a certainty of massive collateral damage. Civilian casualties are optimistically projected to be in the high tens of thousands, with the more pessimistic estimates reaching the low millions, and we believe that the damage to all of these cities would be…"

He trailed off, looking pale and sick, shaking his head as though trying to shake off the nausea. There was a sudden rush of murmuring as soon as he stopped, and a few of the Resistance ponies threw dirty looks at Flight and Grit, both of whom frowned.

"Sorry, I'm missing the part where he's giving bad news?" Errant whispered to his friend. Grit said nothing, sensing something was up.

"But they can't cause that kind of damage," an ERAF pony pointed out. "We've got families there - my cousins live in Manehatten!"

"My mother, my uncle, my aunt, half my family lives in Cloudsdale!" yelled Heliotrope, a Blue Squadron mare. "I didn't sign on to bomb my family!"

"We can't just bomb Canterlot, either!" Vinyl added. "Tavi's there - hell, half the places you've talked about are full of our supporters in Equestria -!"

"Sir," another pony said. "Please, Pony God tell me there's an alternative."

"There was discussion of an alternative plan," Blueblood said, holding up a hoof to silence the murmuring, "involving a surgical invasion of Canterlot via localised portal, mainly infantry with copter and zeppelin support. Collateral wouldn't have been zero, but it would have been heavily reduced -"

There was a cheer.

"Yeah, that one!" somepony yelled.

"But they said that risk to our forces was considerable," Blueblood continued, trying to ignore the renewed enthusiasm for the Council's plan.

"To hell with the risk," Heliotrope said bluntly, to more than a few cheers. "Risk is our business. I want something to come back to."

"Damn right!" Vinyl added with a fierce expression. "I'd rather throw myself at the whole bucking Solaminan Guard with three toothpicks and a cheese knife than risk hurting Tavi or anypony else who didn't deserve it!"

Her sentiments were echoed by the others around her.

"Be that as it may," Blueblood said quietly, "they vetoed the Council's plan. Our understanding is that they will be going ahead with their own strategy in the allotted timeframe."

There was a sudden, dread hush, and more than a few eyes turned to the PHL forces.

"I will not bomb my home," one pony snapped.

"Me neither!" another yelled.

"Rest assured," Blueblood said, his own gaze meeting the PHL officers, who stood behind the crowd of angry Resistance ponies. "BDF and Resistance forces will not take part in this action."

The PHL officers reaction to this was mixed. Bauer remained stony faced. Cheerilee didn't look at anypony.

"Why?" Marcus asked, his arms folded, looking at Blueblood like he wanted to break him in two.

"Because we want to go home," Blueblood said evenly. "Your PHL need to realise something about our ponies… we're not here by choice. We're here because there's still things worth fighting for in our home. Solamina is the enemy, not Equestria."

There was a tense pause, and then Renee turned away, his face cold as stone. Bauer too turned away, walking back to their area. Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee was last, looking somewhat shamefaced. Elliot threw a glance down at Blueblood, who looked crestfallen, before he walked after Renee and the others.

"So… so what's going to happen?" somepony asked. "Can they do it without us?"

"Of course they can," Heliotrope said bitterly. "Have you seen the stuff some of them have? Hell, my counterpart has a pony-goddamned invisibility cloak she made herself or something…"

"Those… those bastards," Vinyl swore angrily. "I can't believe this..."

They started milling about, unsure what to do, uncertain how to feel. Blueblood looked down at the ground, looking drained and defeated. Dinky, next to him, looked at him with a strangely sad expression.

***

"Colonel Renee," Elliot said, following after the PHL officers, who were talking with Lieutenant Kellman and another officer. "A word."

"A word?" Marcus said, turning to look at him, his expression thunderous. Kellman quickly headed off. "You people dump another war on our shoulders, then you try to tell us how to fight it, and then when we make a plan that's going to win your war for you, you have the nerve to say you'll just - what? Stay on the fucking sideline?!"

Elliot paused, letting the words wash over him. He tried to calm himself, knowing that getting angry wasn't going to do any good, and knowing that - in his own way - Marcus was justified. Nonetheless, he felt his fists curl almost involuntarily into furious little balls of shaking anger.

"I was hoping we could discuss a compromise that would allow us to continue to support one another," he said through gritted teeth.

"We understand your people's position," Lieutenant Colonel Cheerilee said softly, "but you have to understand ours. This is a war that needs to end quickly. They all do. We have the forces to engage the Solaminan Empire available, and there's a good chance that we'll be able to end it quickly, with the minimum of troop losses."

"And in return," Elliot said, fixing her with an angry gaze, "you'll just bomb the shit out of the Equestria I swore to help my friends free."

"Oh, you 'swore'," Marcus said, sneering at him, apparently incensed by the tone Elliot had taken with Cheerilee. "You 'swore' to help them. What, did you get your fancy fucking sword out and do the fucking 'if by my life or death I can protect you I will' routine?"

Elliot glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look at you people," Marcus said with a scowl. "Guys running about like they're fucking knights and this is all some LARP-ing trip. I read Stephan's report on the 'Long Watch of Britannia' - you let crazies and HLF guard your fucking outposts! This is war. There are some things you have to accept as a part of that."

"I know full well it's war, Colonel," Elliot growled, his teeth gritted and his eyes narrowed. "I've been fighting one."

"Yeah, that much I can see," Marcus said. "I can also see that you have no idea how to fight one. Cheerilee showed me your plan - portal near Ponyville? A single attack point, before launching some ill-supported assault on Canterlot without taking the defences out first?"

"And your plan is better?" Elliot asked. "Bomb the shit out of everything then go plant a flag on whatever ashes and rubble remains?"

"It's the only way to win the war," Marcus snapped. "What you want is street-to-street slogging. It's no better than fucking Market Garden or Omaha Beach - a march into hell, enemies all around until the men are knee deep in bodies!"

"Elliot," Stephan said quietly, putting a hand on Renee's shoulder, "you have to see that our way is better."

Elliot sighed. "Your way might work for your Equestria, callous as it sounds to me - hell, it would work for this one, if we were talking about ponies that nopony cared about, but the whole point of the BDF and the Resistance's pact, the whole point of the entire Exodus Convention, was to ensure that humanity would ally with the ponies who came from Equestria when we needed them, and that we would help them take back their home in return."

"They'll have their home!" Stephan said. "But this way -"

"At what cost?!" Elliot interrupted. "You want them to go back to the skeletons of buildings and the rubble and ashes and charnel pits that were their homes, and you expect them to be grateful to you for 'ending the war quicker'. You heard those ponies - they'd die to save their home. Far as their concerned, better them than their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers."

"And you'd rather we think about them than your people?" Marcus asked.

"They are my people," Elliot replied. "I bled alongside them. I'd give my life in a heartbeat for them, and they would me - hell, they have. You've seen Lyra."

Marcus said nothing, only scowling.

"Brigadier Elliot, even if we wanted to work on a compromise, we're acting under authority from the UN," Cheerilee said softly.

"Don't bullshit me," Elliot snapped. "They gave you functioning authority. Far as they're concerned, Renee's the last word." He met Marcus' glare. "Aren't you, Colonel?"

"This war has gone on for too long as it is," Marcus said, too calmly. "With the help of the Discords, we have a chance to end it."

"We do," Elliot agreed. "And I think we should end it the right way."

"'Right' way?" Marcus asked, folding his arms. "I'd say the right way is whatever way that gets us victory with the least losses - and I rate men, women, mares and stallions a lot higher than Newfoals."

"Really," Elliot said softly. "You willing to do whatever it takes, right?"

"Not quite everything," Marcus replied, "but this? Yeah. Those civilians in Solamina's Equestria? I'm sorry they might die - but they're a hypothetical, and they're not our people. They're acceptable if it wins this sooner, with less loss."

"Because you think it's 'right'," Elliot continued, speaking almost in a whisper.

"And?" Marcus asked.

Elliot's eyes were haunted and oddly mournful. "I met men and women who thought like you do. They did what had to be done, sacrificed people they thought were 'acceptable losses'." He swallowed. "It isn't something you live with easily."

Marcus nodded slowly, frowning slightly. "Yeah. I know."

"Do you?" Elliot asked. "You live in an America where things are bad - but have you seen men and women lined up to be shot for starting a food riot? Have you lived in an absolute police state, and known that you can't do anything because it's that or anarchy? Have you been to the furthest far edge? Have you -?"

He paused, shaking his head. Marcus' eyes widened slightly, as though he were trying to comprehend what he was hearing.

"What happened here?" Cheerilee asked, looking appalled at what she had heard.

Elliot shook his head. "I can't stop you from doing what you're going to do. But don't think the price is one you can live with."

"You've managed," Marcus said icily. "Despite lining up civilians and shooting them."

"I was a border guard, watching for some sort of pony action or the Barrier," Elliot said quietly. "I was lucky, in a sick, twisted kind of way. But I've served with some of the men who did the shooting. They... didn't think it was worth it. Some of them..." He shook his head again. "You'll do what you're gonna do. But I can tell you - don't be here when you do it."

"Is that a threat?" Marcus asked, scowling.

"It's an order," Elliot said firmly. "You do this, this alliance is over. You and your PHL can go back to your home and fight your war, and that's it."

"You said you'd stand by us," Bauer said. "That you'd help us against Queen Celestia."

"Yeah, I did," Elliot said, smirking coldly. "I guess it doesn't count if I don't get my sword out and kneel and speak in ye olde English, now does it?"

He walked off. Marcus scowled.

"Dammit," he muttered. "Dammit all."

***

"I… isn't all this a good thing?" Errant Flight asked Grit, as the older Elliot took a seat some way from anypony and anyone. "I mean, if it ends their war…"

"You heard the Prince of all fops," Grit replied heavily. "He said they think there's something worth fighting for in their home."

"Bull," Flight said softly. "I don't believe it."

"Well then," said an ERAF stallion nearby, scowling at him, "we're not the same."

"Yeah," Errant said. "Some of us actually know how to fight."

"Watch your bucking mouth!" the stallion snapped, but Heliotrope came from the crowd and held him back, frowning at Flight.

"Leave it, Air," she muttered. "These plotholes aren't worth it."

She and her friend wandered off, the stallion still throwing Errant Flight a dirty look.

"This is stupid," Errant Flight said. "So now what? We go kill their Celestia for them? Why should we?"

"She's gunning for us as much as Queen Celestia is," Constantine pointed out, looking thoughtful. "It's our business, now."

Before Grit could say anything else, something quite surprising happened.

A single clear, slightly shaky voice began singing.

"Home is where the grass is green
beneath a flawless sky,
I long to walk that grass again
in peaceful times gone by.

Everypony turned, to see Dinky Doo singing, her eyes determined, her expression set into one of resolution. As they watched, she continued.

"My home is lost in blood and fear,
ruled by a Tyrant Sun,
But I will fight to see that grass
until the war is won."

Looking up, the same, suddenly determined expression on his face, Blueblood joined her. As she sang, more ponies joined her as well, turning back to the Prince and his adjutant, their voice clear, filling the room with the sense of… of…

"Our home,
Our home,
Lost to the whim of time,
But we,
Will see,
Our home again."

Truth be told, True Grit didn't know what that sense was - it felt foreign and alien to him. But hearing those voices made him feel a stirring in his chest, heavy as a stone, light as air. A few ponies started stomping in time, and he almost felt the ridiculous urge to stomp with them.

"A thousand miles 'tween here and there,
and enemies between,
I long for peace that never was,
and may yet never be."

More ponies flocked to the little crowd that was forming. Heliotrope was singing, and so was the stallion that had spoken to Errant Flight. Elliot, hitherto silent, was humming, and tapping his foot to the steady, half-mournful, half yearning stomping.

"But home was once a shining star,
a joy for us to see,
and so we fight to free that star
and live in Harmony."

The PHL officers, on the other side of the room, turned to see the singing ponies. Cheerilee's eyes were glazed, wet as if with unshed tears. Renee was frowning, as though thinking about something. Bauer was... almost smiling.

Our home,
Our home,
Lost to the mists of time,
But we,
Will see,
Our home again…"

Renee was walking over to Elliot, and he sat next to him, watching the singing ponies with a softened expression. More and more ponies were joining in the song.

"Our path is long,
and full of fear,
and home is but a distant dream,
But we will never
give up on,
The sky of blue, the pastures green."

It had filled the entire hall now. True Grit had taken to stomping his own hooves in time, though he didn't know the song.

"We will go home…
We will go home again…"

Even Errant Flight was tapping now, overcome by the feeling that had filled the hall - the feeling of longing for something that was no more… but could be again.

"Our home,
Our home,
Lost to the mists of time,
But we,
Will see,
Our home again.
Yes we,
Will see,
Our home again."

There was no applause as the song ended, merely a ringing silence. The ponies looked amongst each other, and the humans looked at them with new eyes having only rarely seen their pony comrades like this.

Elliot looked over at Marcus.

"You do what you want to your home," he said, nodding towards the crowd. "But they want something left of theirs."

"I can tell," Marcus replied softly. "It's strange. Spent all these years writing off Equestria - now there's a whole bunch of people and ponies willing to die to save it."

"Hope's a wonderful thing, Colonel," Elliot said quietly.

***

- Battle of New York. Solamina launches a massive assault on New York. Despite bringing many heavily-armed forces, her armies are outmatched - until she unleashes Imperator Mars.

***

- Marcus Renee sacrifices himself to destroy Imperator Mars.

***

[i]And that’s as far as we got.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at what exists of Convergence. Hopefully, all being well, we’ll be around to write more stuff - like Convergence’s reboot - soon enough.

Til then.

***

Author's Notes:

So. We’re at “Liberation”, the Third part of Convergence.

Truth be told, there wasn’t much of this. We were a long way away from wrapping up the story. The only material we have - presented here - is prototypical and old, reflecting different priorities and the different times. ~Jed

As such, this is more of an outline than anything. We're sorry we can't give more than this, but that would require something in the classic spectrumverse. And I don't really feel like doing anything that depressing. So, here's what we had planned:
~Fluffy