Queen Chrysalis, more commonly referred to as Major Chrysalis or simply Major by all but her Hive, they were physically unable to call her anything but Queen so they were allowed to do so, stood in a small room in Canterlot Castle. The room had been an unused store room was now filled with hastily set up radio Equipment. “Ok! Transports loaded, GO GO GO!” Came the voice of a stallion over the radio. Canterlot was in the middle of a mass evacuation being over saw by the EDF and Royal Guard in a joint effort to evacuate as many civilian as they could.

Chrysalis stood and listened as reports of transports were filled with the terrified ponies of Canterlot and they launched getting clear of the city as fast as they could. The EDF had commandeered anything that could be hooked up to a Pegasus and flown and were packing as many ponies into them as they could while the Royal Guard swept the city for stragglers.

Everything was a mess all she had to do was look out the window at the rising smoke columns from Camp Mendez to know how bad it was. Canterlot was the only place the EDF still operated in with any form of strength and that strength was being put towards saving as many as they could.

The Major was drawn back to the present by a frantic alert from the radio. “CONTACT! CONTACT SOUTH SIDE!” Chrysalis got to the window as fast as she could as she got her first look at what had single hoofedly crippled the EDF and Royal Guard as it crested over the edge of the city, the Anti-Tank round and Anti-Air missile and guns detonating against the shield it had around itself.

It was massive, as large as a fully grown dragon with huge muscular arms attached to a broad chest, its upper body sat atop lower half that was much like a pony with four hooves and atop its bearded head sat two massive horns, it was Tirek filled with the power of all of Equestria, save Canterlot and the Alicorn Princesses who resided with in.

Tirek looked down at the Defense bunkers firing everything they had at him and smirked as a ball of energy formed between his horns and then fired out, and like that the entire firing stop, the bunkers gone along with all one hundred and fifty EDF soldier within.

Chrysalis went back to the radio and grabbed a head set form one of the operators and put it on. “This is Major Chrysalis to all EDF forces currently not at the evac point, fall back to castle, I repeat fall back to castle.” She removed the head set and tossed it onto the table as she went back to the window to watch as Tirek made his way towards the city.

The EDF had only been aware of Tirek for about four days at this point even though he had been free from Tartarus for month, and he had been very aware of the EDF and had been very careful with his movements till he had enough strength to steal magic once more. The running theory was that he had been attacking isolated homesteads before moving onto isolated villages that didn’t have any EDF or Royal guard stationed nearby.

What finally alerted anypony something was wrong was a single Pegasus that had managed to escape his village without being drained of his magic and reach a Royal Guard garrison.

The issue was he had described Tirek as a monster, which, though accurate, did not express the danger. The Royal guard had sent some of their own to deal with it, there by feeding Tirek’s power as he drained the Guards of their magic.

By the time the EDF became aware of Tirek was when he attacked a small town that had an EDF recruiter in it. The recruiter had managed to get off a distress call before his power was drained and he was too weak to fight back as the town was drained.

The nearby EDF garrison had mobilized but by then Tirek had enough power to fight the infantry sent against him and drain them. It just got worse from there as he began to attack larger settlements. The EDF began to throw everything they could against him while still leaving the areas with garrisons still protected.

That had been their mistake as he drained more of their soldiers. And then Fort Zandar happened. Tirek had already taken an EDF supply base known as Camp Liston and from what the EDF could tell he didn’t seem to think Fort Zandar would be any different. It had been. It was one of the more heavily fortified bases of the EDF as it was a fallback point for EDF Command in the case Canterlot Fell or some other disaster happened.

But that wasn’t the only difference between Fort Zandar and every other EDF base. Fort Zandar had an entire town built around it, full of civilians that were friends and family of the base personal. When Tirek had been sited on the horizon the Fort had sounded an alarm and rabidly moved all the civilians into the bunker under the base meant for EDF personal only, and then the soldier fought, they fought hard throwing everything they had against Tirek to keep him from the civilians hiding bellow.

The battle had been fierce if the radio chatter was anything to go on with most of the town being level as well as half the Fort, then against all odd, through blind luck or force of will Fort Zandar hurt Tirek. And that was when things changed. Tirek was no longer focused on stealing the magic from EDF soldiers. Instead he was destroying them when he found groups of them with and stealing the magic of the survivors.

The EDF had issues an evacuation order to all settlements after Camp McKay was wiped out with no survivors. Unfortunately the only settlements left were large cities filled with millions of ponies. It would take hours to get everyone out, but the EDF was committed to their duty to protect Equestria and did their best to get everypony out. It wasn’t enough. There were too many ponies needing to be moved and not enough transports.

The only settlement that was confirmed evacuated was Ponyville, and that was just because it was so small and near the Everfree. The two Rifle Teams and one wing of Sharpshooters had decided to evacuate the town to the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters.

Unfortunately Tirek learned that the tall metal towers were how the EDF was coordinating their forces. They didn’t have many of the radio tower set up yet but it was enough to cover a third of Equestria with clear signals. And that was why Tirek had been destroying them, cutting off the EDF forces still operating across the county. The last report Chrysalis had heard from the Ponyville evacuation teams was that they had cut the bridge to hopefully slow Tirek and were moving the civilians to the lower level while they took up defensive positions, and then the signal had cut off as Camp Mendez came under attack.

Chrysalis visibly shutter as she remembered the feelings of the Changelings at the camp. The Camp had been in the middle of evacuation the recruit when Tirek attacked, shooting the transports loaded with raw recruits out of the sky as they tried to get clear.

It was there that Discord had joined the battle bringing everything he had against the near godlike being. Tirek had already drained Equestria of its magic all that was left was the Ponyville civilians Camp Mendez and Canterlot.

Discord had done his best and his efforts had allowed a dozen transports to escape before he too was drained of his magic. After that Camp Mendez had shoved rifles into the hooves of recruits who had been there less than a week and told them to fight for their lives.

They never stood a chance. Camp Mendez was a raging inferno with a hoofull of survivors scattered throughout it. And then Tirek turned his sight towards Canterlot and the Princesses.

Chrysalis was drawn back to reality as five armored and treaded vehicles entered the castle court yard, the insignia of Equestria emblazed on the sides of their turrets. The EDF’s latest piece of equipment, Main Battle Tanks. Only a few of them had made it off the assembly line from the Liston Complex before production was interrupted by the attacks across Equestria resulting in the complex being evacuated as it only had a small military presence.

The only six that were operational were moved to Canterlot to defend it. What had drawn Chrysalis’ attention was only five showed up at the castle. She picked up the binoculars from the window sill and began to scan the city for the missing tank. She eventually spotted it taking up a defensive position outside the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. The Major read the small numbers printed on the side of the tank and identified it as Hammer Two.

The Major grabbed another headset and got on the radio. “Hammer Two this is Major Chrysalis, what in Tartarus are you doing? The school is not a defense target. Get to the castle!” She said letting her anger enter her voice, she could sense two changelings were part of the three person tank crew.

The response was almost immediate. “No can do ma’am, we have civilians within the school and we are not leaving them defenseless.” A pony said.

“What are you talking about? The school was cleared; there is no one in it.” She said as she swept the binoculars over the school to see if she could fine what the tank crew was talking about. She saw nothing.

“Tell that to the civilians ma’am. You can court martial us but we aren’t leaving them.” The voice said with conviction.

Chrysalis growled and nearly threw the head set at the radio operators. She didn’t have time to deal with this she had to lead the entire army in Twilight’s absence against a monster with god like power. For the hundredth time in the last four days Chrysalis cursed the limited radio range they had as Twilight was with two Instructors from Camp Mendez over seeing a group of recruits survival test deep in the Everfree and she most likely had no idea any of this was going on as there was no way to get a radio signal into that place do to range.

Chrysalis returned to reality as Tirek sent another magic blast as a wing of Sharpshooters that were harassing him to try and keep him away from the castle. The Major looked back at the radio operators and saw the two ponies were shaking in their seat as they listed to the battle rage outside through their headsets and Chrysalis could sense the fear from her own Changeling through the link as well as the fear of the other EDF soldiers as they prepared to face a god that had leveled base after base.

Chrysalis thought about what would Twilight do if she was here, the first thing that popped into the Major’s mind was curse and then laugh with glee as she fantasied about taking Tirek apart. That wouldn’t help but it did comfort the Changeling Queen for some odd reason, she had been spending a lot of time with the psychotic mare and she was getting used to her and honestly she found herself actually looking forward to their chats as they discussed many things besides the mare’s psychological state and what she’d like to do to the nobles. Twilight was a very intelligent mare and skilled soldier and she actually did ask Chrysalis for advice when she didn’t know what to do, though that was only recent.

Chrysalis had been suspecting the unicorn was starting to see Chrysalis as a friend and not a possible problem and the Major had to admit she was starting to think of her as more than somepony who was her superior officer and captor. The mare had actually discussed what went with the Royal Wedding Incident and what the Queen could have done to ensure victory, those discussions were the strangest as they actually stayed up many hours basically plotting taking over Equestria or even the world and critiquing each other’s plans. The Major knew the mare had no thoughts of actually using the plans, the major was pretty sure of that, but still it was one of the many things they talked about and the Queen found herself enjoying the conversation, even when the unicorn slipped from voice to voice.

It hit the Major like a ton of bricks and she went over to the radio and grabbed a head set and started to broadcast on all frequencies. She took a deep breath and then spoke. “This is Major Chrysalis to all EDF forces, I know things look bleak, I know you are scared, believe me I am to.” She said, though she as more scared of what Twilight would do to her if she didn’t do her best then she was of Tirek. “But we are the Equestrian Defense Force. We are the last line of defense against all threats both foreign and domestic. When all other fall we stand ready, when our backs are against the wall we fight harder, when faced with impossible odds we fight on and never surrender. Our Duty is to Equestria and her people, we are not fighting for ourselves, we are fighting for every singer person in this county so that they can wake up tomorrow to a peaceful country and know that they are safe. That is our Duty, to bring them that peace, and we will stand against all those that oppose it and show them that we will not allow them to take it from us. Equestria needs you now more than ever, this is why the EDF exists, this is our purpose in life and we shall meet this threat with force and show it that we will not let it break us. For Equestria! For the Princess!”

Chrysalis yelled the last two lines and she could hear it echoed over the radio from every EDF soldier still alive and felt the fear be replaced by a new emotion, determination. They weren’t going to back down; they were going to fight on. The major removed her head set, it was the best she could do. She knew it wouldn’t be enough bet it was the best she could do.

The castle shook as a massive fireball went skyward from the courtyard and when Chrysalis look she saw the burning husks of the tanks and Tirek approaching the main gate. Chrysalis cursed as she left the radio room. She had one objective now and Twilight would have her head if she didn’t do it.

The changeling Queen entered the throne room and saw the three Princesses gathered at the far end by the throne, the room was lined by Royal Guard and there was two Rifle teams, two Flame Troopers and a wing of Sharpshooter in the room behind sandbag barricades and furniture they had taken from other parts of the castle to use as cover.

The major approached the three rulers with a feeling of surrealism, the last time she had seen them she had been invading the city with the intention of taking it over, now she was doing everything she could to protect it and these three. “Princesses, I think it’d be best if you evacuated now, the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sister’s is safe, there are a few EDF soldier already onside.” The major told them.

Celestia looked at the Changeling Queen who once upon a time had been her enemy. “And why did you send soldier to the ruins?” She asked calmly.

The Queen paused. “IT was where the Ponyville civilians were evacuated to.” She told them honestly.

Celestia nodded. “So if we were to go there we would most likely lead Tirek to them as he would chase us.” She said. “I couldn’t do that to my little ponies.”

Before the Major Could respond her ear was filled with a stallion yelling over the radio. “Contact! Open fire!” The sound of assault rifles being fired on full auto filled the radio. “Keep firing! Keep Fi—“a massive explosion shook the castle as the radio cut out. Chrysalis used one of the curses she had heard Twilight use often and drew the pistol the mare insisted she wear on her flank and checked the mag. She doubted the .45 caliber bullet would do anything when a tanks high explosive shell did nothing but Twilight would mount her head on the wall of her officer if Chrysalis didn’t at least try.

“Princesses’ the situation here is critical, Canterlot is lost, you need to get to safety.” She insisted looking back at the ruler.

“And where would we go Chrysalis that would not endanger other ponies?” Celestia asked calmly as the sound of gunfire drew closer and closer, Chrysalis was even able to make out the sound of the flamethrowers as Flame Troopers joined the battle.

The major searched her mind for anywhere still secure that didn’t have ponies already evacuated to and she couldn’t think of one. Celestia smiled at her. “You see, if we. “She indicated her and the other princesses. “We to leave then Tirek would follow us straight to those who have already been saved. So for the good of my little ponies I shall remain here and face Tirek so he does not search for anypony else.”

The Queen ground her teeth; Twilight was going to kill her, literally. With a growl she turned to look at the defenders of the room and spotted one of her changelings in the rifle team, through the link she could practically taste his fear as he watched the door. They all were scared but this one’s fear was strongest. She strengthen the link slight and saw why, the changeling had only been hatched a few months ago and just graduated from Camp Mendez five days ago and his first assignment was to defend the castle against a being that could only be described as a god.

She looked between the changeling and the door before walking over to it. “You. “She pointed a hoof causing him to jump and spin around to face her.

“Yes my Queen?” He said saluting.

“I need you to go to the Everfree and find Commander Sparkle, tell her of the situation and that we need her.” The Queen said, she could at least spare this young one from what was to come. The soldier saluted and was about to take flight when the Queen spoke again. “DO not tell her of the casualties we have suffered.”

“My Queen? Shouldn’t she be aware of everything that’s happened?” The soldier asked confused.

Only if we want her to be enraged and more psychotic, we need her thinking clearly. Chrysalis thought, she had spent enough time around the mare to know how she would react to knowing so many soldiers had died rather than just have their magic stole, magic could be returned, life could not.

“By Royal Decree you are not to tell Commander Twilight Sparkle that soldiers have been killed, only that Equestria is under attack and has fallen with her citizens captured.” The Queen watched the Changeling shutter as the Royal Decree took effect, it would be physically impossible for the soldier to disobey unless the Queen lifted the Decree. Twilight would be angry this information was kept from her but it was for the best. “Now go!” She order and the soldier took flight and flew out the window towards the Everfree.

The Major stood before the throne watching as the young soldier flew to safety. Least one of her Changelings would survive this. The door to the throne room was blow off its hinges by a magic blast and the Major faced it, raised her side arm and pulled the trigger.

Twilight Sparkle calmly walked through the Everfree forest, was aware of the eyes that watched her from the many creatures that called the Everfree home but payed them no mind, if they chose to attack her then it would just give her a bit of fun as she moved from group to group of recruits.

The recruits had been dropped into the forest individually with a basic kit, a combat knife, a pistol with a single magazine, and a single ration pouch and a crudely drawn map of the area. They had to survive a week out here as best as they could, if they met up with other they could join with them if they choose to go it alone, it did not matter.

Needless to say if they got eaten by a monster they failed the test. There were about two dozen recruits scattered across a one hundred square mile area with Twilight and two of the most skilled instructors from Camp Mendez moving about to keep an eye on them all, and occasionally make things more difficult if things were going to well for them.

Twilight had just left checking on a group of three recruits, two ponies and a changeling who had managed to get a decent shelter set up as well as clean water and a few days’ worth of food. Over all they were quiet comfortable, Till Twilight drove a pack of Timber Wolves into their camp. It was a small pack and they had someone on watch at all times so the unicorn was sure they would be fine.

The buzz of wings above her head drew Twilight attention up and she saw a changeling in full combat armor flying overhead looking at the ground. This was odd as the two instructors with her were ponies; there was no reason for a combat read soldier to be out here.

“Hey!” She called up to the changeling who jumped in mid-air and looked at her, Twilight could see the relief on his face as he flew down to her. Landing Twilight could tell the ling was exhausted and she could only assume he had been flying for hours and combat armor and rifle were not exactly light weight either. “What are you doing out here?” She demanded.

The ling took a few moments to catch his breath before saluting. “Looking for you ma’am.” He said.

Twilight cocked an eye brow at this. “And why are you looking for me?” She knew it had to be a something serious for Chrysalis to send a soldier to find her.

“Canterlot has fallen ma’am as had the rest of Equestria.” He said.

“WHAT?!” Twilight shouted making the ling flinch back.

“A monster from Tartarus known as Tirek attacked, he has the ability to steal magic from ponies and changelings and grows stronger from doing so. We weren’t aware of him till he was already very powerful.” The ling said hastily. “The Queen sent me to find you while she led the defense of the castle. She told me to tell you we need you Commander as Tirek has capture out forces and civilians alike.”

Twilight ground her teeth, if what the ling said was true then the situation was dire, she’d need to be careful fighting something like that. “Why wasn’t he able to be stopped?”

“He put a shield around himself and with the amount of magic he had it was too strong for us to penetrate.” The ling said.

Twilight nodded, defiantly something she couldn’t face. Though if he had defeated the EDF and take Canterlot then. “What of the Princesses?”

“They refused to leave the castle ma’am, the EDF was able to evacuate some ponies and they did not want to lead Tirek to them, so they refused to leave.” The ling said.

Twilight nodded, that meant there was a chance the princesses had fallen, which also meant that Tirek would think he had one with the EDF defeated and the Princesses, and if so….that meant he’d probably drop his shield. Twilight smiled, she had the perfect plan.

“You’ll need to stay here private, you should be fine as you’ve already survived in here and you are better equipped now, don’t interfere with the other recruits or we will have to restart the test.” Twilight said and the changeling saluted.

“What are you going to do ma’am?” he asked.

“First I’m going to tell the other Instructors of the situation, and then I’m going to deal with Tirek.” The mare said as she pulled a very long rifle from her storage locker that had powerful scope on it, she stroked the rifle with a large smile on her face.

Twilight lay prone on a small hill, only her head and Anti-Tank rifle could be seen over the hill and only if you were close enough to see it, the behemoth half a mile away certainly wasn’t as he fired magical blasted at a forest, clearing it for some reason with a smug smirk on his face. “That’s right enjoy yourself while you can you big son of a bitch. “Twilight sad as she loaded explosive rounds into the AT rifle, they were special rounds designed to punch through armor and then explode a split second later sending shrapnel in all directions, they were meant to killed the entire tank crew after going through the armor. Twilight wondered what it would do to a behemoth’s brain.

She loaded the magazine in and pulled the bolt back, chambering a round. She could tell that Tirek didn’t have his shield up anymore, why should he? He had defeated everyone, except for a single mare who was out for his blood. The only reason Twilight wasn’t going to take him apart piece by piece was the simple fact he was to dangerous to not be killed quickly.

Twilight took a deep breath to get her breathing under control and then looked down the scope; sighting on the behemoth’s head and smiled. “You’re in the sniper’s sight.”

Tirek smirked as he cleared away the forest for him to be able to build his throne for which he will rule all of Equestria from. HE had all the power of Equestria at his disposal and nothing could stand against him. The fight with the three Princesses and the Changeling queen had been first, the soldiers that kept showing up didn’t help any but he had defeated them, killed the soldiers and drained the Princesses and the Queen of their magic and now they sat in Tartarus where he had been held for so long.

He had gotten his revenge and now ruled the land, it would be only a matter of time before he ruled the planet as well. As he swept another magical beam before him he saw a glint of light out of the corner of his eye. He turned to face it curious what it was. He could see nothing but he could sense powerful magic similar to an Alicorn in that direction. Could he have missed a princess somehow? Was there a forth? No matter they would fall like the others.

Before Tirek could put up his shield something struck him through the eye and exploded, sending pain throughout his body as bits of metal destroyed his eye and lodged in his brain. Before he could react another struck, then another, and another. Each one driving further into his brain and exploding, sending the small bits of metal to shred the grey mater.

The seventh round punched all the way through his head and the resulting detonation blew part of his skull away leaving a hole all the way through his massive head. The injuries were small compared to his size but numerous and the damage to his brain was extensive.

The god like being swayed on his hooves as the first of the distant echoes rolled over him. Like massive building being demolished the behemoth toppled over and crashed to the ground, his weight causing a large plume of dirt to fly towards the sky as the last of the seven echoes rolled across the land as life left the god like creatures eyes and a few seconds later his body began to shrink as light shot skyward and began to spread in all direction, the magic he had stolen released to return to its proper owners.

Twilight hummed to herself as she walked away from the hill, she was bipedal with the large AT rifle slung over her shoulder, her arms resting on it to keep it steady. She had completed her mission, the stolen magic returning to its owners and she got to use her AT rifle. She was in a good mood as she walked.

She was already running through plans to help restore whatever damage had been done to Equestria by Tirek capturing everyone but once the EDF was organized it wouldn’t be too difficult to get the civilians back home with whatever they needed to rebuild.

Yes the Commander was in a good mood and she couldn’t wait to get back to Canterlot to begin the rebuilding process.

Twilight stood before black obsidian wall that had been polished to a perfect sheen. The mare wore the EDF dress uniform which thankfully wasn’t too much flare. It looked much like the standard uniform but had braded cord coming off the shoulder and ending it a tassel. There was gold colored thread running along the seams of the dark green fabric. Upon her head sat a dark green beret with a single fluffy gold ball in the middle of it.

Around the mare stood other similarly dressed members of the EDF as they looked upon the wall, upon it were thousands upon thousands of names both Pony and Changeling alike. Each one having given their life to try to stop Tirek.

The sky above was perfectly overcast and gloomy for the affair. It had been over a moth since Tirek’s defeat and the EDF had just finished collecting the dead and identifying them, turning the bodies over to the families for burial after they had been identified while their name added to the record of the lost.

It had been Princess Luna’s idea to create a memorial for the fallen and Celestia had been quick to agree with her and made the needed preparations after informing Twilight of the plan. Twilight had thanked her for doing so and gathered the names up. The princes had over saw the construction herself and all three of the Princesses had put a powerful preservation spell upon the stone once the last name was carved into it so that it would not erode away.

And then the service had been planned. The memorial itself was built close to the castle gate on the side of were a mansion had once stood, the building having been heavily damaged in the battle for Canterlot and the Noble that owned it had actually been generous enough to donate the site to the EDF for the memorial rather than just rebuild his home.

The memorial itself was simple, just a wall of obsidian adorn with the names of the fallen with a path that ran its length and then back to the street after passing the single other part of the memorial.

Right in the middle of the clearing, the path going around it on both sides and raised on a platform sat the twisted and scorched remains of an Equestrian main battle tank, designated Hammer Two, the twisted barrel of the cannon facing the street as if it stood watch over the memorial, ready to defend it from all aggressors. On the front of it was carved three names, those of the Tank crew who had died within when Tirek destroyed the tank. The tank like the wall had been enchanted with powerful a powerful preservation spell just like the wall.

The crew had disobeyed orders to fall back to the castle, instead setting up to defend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns siting there were civilians inside despite the fact the building had been confirmed cleared.

And in doing so had saved over a dozen foals that had been separated from their evacuation group and in their fear had gone to the one place they knew in the city, the school where they found a teacher locking the building up. Before they could leave to rejoin the evacuation Tirek had entered the city and the foals were too scared to leave, hiding with in one of the classrooms.

Hammer Two’s crew had spotted the teacher flagging them down to try and get help. There wasn’t much the crew could do as the tank only had enough room for the crew to move around barely so they had told the teacher that they would distract Tirek while the teacher took the foals out the back of the school.

Seeing the tank setting up to defend the school had calmed the foals enough for the teacher to convince them to go while the soldiers defended them. Hammer two had wasted no time in engaging Tirek when he neared the school and once the shooting started the foal and teacher ran for it. The crew had managed to dodge several attacks from Tirek while delivering shot after shot of high explosive round into his shield buying enough time for the group to escape.

According the Teacher who had looked back at the last moments of Hammer Two’s existence Tirek had lifted the tank up in a magical grip only for the tank to swing its turret around and deliver a high explosive shell from point blank range. Enraged Tirek turned the tank into a fireball and tossed it to the side as he continued to advance on the castle.

The foal and one teacher were at the head of the gather crowd, the foals looking at the remains of the tank in awe and Twilight heard a few of them say they wanted to be like the tank crew when they grew up. Twilight had to surprise a smile at the fact ponies wanted to be like changelings when they grew up, she could imagine how their parents felt about that.

Twilight looked out over the crowd, it was mostly EDF and a Royal Guard as both groups had name son the wall, Twilight had insisted that there be a single memorial as both groups gave their lives in the same battle though the Royal Guard suffered fewer casualties as they hadn’t pissed off Tirek like the EDF had.

Throughout the crowd was a mix of Noble sand civilians and twilight could see a lot of them standing near EDF changelings and much to the Commander’s happiness only a few showed any signs of disgust, most either ignored them or looked at them with respect. The feelings of Equestria towards the changelings was changing so some good did come from Tirek’s attack.

Twilight moved and took a seat behind a podium that had been set up alongside Chrysalis who still had some of the changeling healing salves on her as she had been injured fighting Tirek in the throne room. “How you feeling Queeny?” Twilight asked quietly so only the Queen heard. She had been pissed at the Queen for basically lying to her about the casualties but her rational mind was quick to reassert itself before the mare harmed the Changeling Queen sighing that if she had reacted with rage she’d have lost to Tirek.

“Better than I was when you found me ma’am.” Chrysalis whispered back.

Twilight nodded. “That’s good to hear; running this army without you has been a real pain in the ass.” Twilight said, do to Chrysalis’ injuries Twilight had ordered her onto leave till she recovered, they still met every couple of days to chat about topics that had nothing to do with the EDF as both of them seemed to enjoy it and it kept the Queen from being to bored in the hospital. Though the Queen was still aware of what was happening through the Hivemind and even directed some of the changelings in minor tasks.

“Well at least you don’t have a selfish reason for checking on my health ma’am.” The Queen replied and though both shared a quiet chuckle at the small joke. Neither of them were quiet sure when they became relaxed around each other enough to speak this way to each other but it had happened at some point, and twilight had to admit she trusted the Queen and it was nice having someone around she could be herself around.

Before Twilight could respond Celestia took the stage and walked up to the podium and the crowd quieted down. “Welcome my little ponies, I wish that this was for a happier reason but it is for an important reason. We are here to honor those who gave their lives to protect Equestria from the monster known as Tirek and through their bravery and courage saved many ponies from having their magic stolen by him.” Celestia said into the mic, her voice echoing across the huge crowd. Those not busy rebuilding the city or cleaning were gathered for the occasion and Twilight could see her friends at the front of the crowd, they had been kept safe by the EDF that had evacuated Ponyville to the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Sister, actually having helped the soldiers evacuate the town by directing ponies where to go and suggesting the Ruins.

“Commander Twilight Sparkle, leader of the Equestrian Defense Force is here today and I’d like to offer her the chance to say a few words on behalf of the EDF.” Celestia said and looked back at Twilight who nodded and stood before making her way to the podium as the Princess steeped aside and took a seat beside her sister.

Twilight cleared her throat before speaking. “As the Princess said, we are gathered here today to pay tribute and honor the Fallen who over a month ago payed the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this nation.” She began. “Despite facing impossible odds they did not back down and they refused to give up and continued to fight right up to the end.” Twilight took a breath and pointed to the wall behind her. “Let this memorial stand as a testament to the sacrifice the Ponies and Changelings payed and let history shine upon them and let none ever forget them.” She finished, it was simple, but she chose to let their actions speak louder than her words.

Twilight turned to face the wall and the officer on the stage with her stood as well much to the surprise of the Princesses as they hadn’t been told this part.

Twilight switched to bipedal and once she was standing she snapped into a salute as did the other officer who faced the wall. “Rest now soldiers, your fight is over and you have earned your rest, we shall carry on in your place.” She said loud enough for the crowd to hear.

With that two rifle teams made their way from the wings of the memorial service as Celestia watched the proceeding with interest. The teams stopped between the stage and the wall and Twilight spoke again. “Ready!’ The said and the teams turned and faced the wall. “Aim!” They aimed their rifles over the wall. Twilight took a breath. “Fire!” the teams fired a single shot, they were blanks so it was just the bang but Twilight head read that this was an old tradition from earth done when a soldier falls it was based on an even older tradition meant to protect the spirit from being stole by demon and Twilight thought it was appropriate. “Fire!” The teams fired another shot. “Fire!” They fired the third and final time and the officers dropped the salutes and stood at ease as the teams made their way back to the wings of the service. Once they were out of sight the officers took their seat again.

Twilight sat beside Chrysalis once more as Celestia took the podium once more. “Thank you Commander, I think everyone here agrees with your word and we shall ensure that the Fallen are not forgotten.” She said as she faced the crowd and saw them all looking to her and the commander with rapt attention. “I do not believe anything else need be said about those who gave their lives for Equestria.” And with that the service was over and MUSIC Twilight had set up began to play as the crowd began to either disperse or walk up to the wall to pay their respects or to speak to the soldiers who were there.

Twilight looked out on the crowd and watched as they mixed with the EDF soldiers, both Pony and Changeling without fear or disgust, they no longer saw hostile creatures or parasites, they saw a soldier ready to give up their life to protect them. The climate of Equestria was Changeling. “Well it seems Love and tolerance is taking effect faster than I thought it would.” Twilight said and turned to the Changeling Queen who nodded.

“Yes it does seem that way ma’am.” Chrysalis said.

“Hey Queeny?” She said and the Queen looked at her. “You can call me Twilight when we aren’t on duty.”

Unnoticed by both of them Princess Celestia was watching the mare out of the corner of her eye as she spoke to her ponies as they would pay their respects to her. Twilight was a very different mare then she was all those months ago but she was still the same where it counted and that brought a small smile to the Sun Princess’ face.

Author's Notes:

This Interlude was rather difficult for me to write, not having trouble difficult bit trouble do to what it covers is very emotional and had to stop multiple times while writing so I could clear my head.

Because of that I'm going to take some time before I write the last chapter of SoM as I am emotionally drained.