“In real life, it is always the anvil that breaks the hammer.”
George Orwell.

Checkpoint Delta.

It was quiet. Not too quiet, of course, but quiet enough to notice that. The enemy had sent a few forays their way, but so far the combined forces of their team and Yarrow’s HLF troops had managed to see them off. Which at least meant that Emma could keep herself from panicking too much.

“Hey, newbie,” Sam Lake said from next to her. “You alright? You’ve been pretty quiet.”

Emma smiled. “Yeah. Fine. Just…” She let out a weak chuckle. “Hell of a first day, innit?”

“Can say that again,” Lake said, sighing. “Alicorns, plural, and this… bitch.”

He motioned to the still-unconscious Twilight Sparkle. She was breathing calmly, looking for all the world like she was sleeping in binders rather than knocked out. Just seeing her here was… unsettling.

No, not just unsettling – downright disturbing.

“I’m going to step out and see if Dave needs anything,” Lake said after a moment. He put his helmet on. “Do you need anything?”

“N-no,” Emma said, waving a hand airily. “I’m fine. Thanks.”

“No problem,” Lake said, waving. “Gi’us a shout if you need owt.”

Emma laughed. “Sure thing.”

Lake walked out of the prefab, and Emma let out a deep sigh, wondering why she felt so… on edge.

As he walked out, he passed Samantha Yarrow. She had her helmet off again, so the enemy must not have been active for a while.

“Sam,” he said with a smirk.

“Sam,” she retorted with her trademark smile. “How’s our guest?”

“Sleeping comfortably,” Lake replies, glancing back at Sparkle. “Have a nosey if you like. Not every day UNAC captures Lady Sparkle.”

“Nope,” Yarrow agreed, chuckling weakly. “It’s one of those things, isn’t it? Never thought we’d see the day.”

She walked up, past Emma, to look at the unconscious Unicorn with a critical expression on her face.

“They never look that dangerous unconscious,” she said after a moment. “Fucked up how this is a ‘magic herbivore race’ that’s supposed to be all about peace and friendship. but they’re still waging war.”

“I dunno, you haven’t seen Errant Flight drunk,” Lake pointed out. “That guy’s about as peaceful and friendly as a drunk Scottish bear who’s just been punched in the dick.”

Emma snorted involuntarily, and Yarrow and Lake both looked at her. She blushed, and looked away.

“Anyway,” Lake said after a moment. “I’d better get out there. They’ll get it all wrong without me.”

Yarrow laughed again as Lake walked out of the prefab. Emma looked away from her, suddenly finding her HV-Penetrator much more interesting (Ooh, where did that scratch come from?).

Yarrow turned back to look at the unconscious Twilight Sparkle.

“Damn,” Yarrow said after a moment, before shaking her head, turning away from the unconscious mare… and looking directly at Emma.

Emma swallowed, smiling at Yarrow a little nervously.

“Emma,” Yarrow said quietly, leaning against the side of the prefab. There was a long pause, before she finally spoke again. “Hi.”

“Hi, Sam,” Emma replied immediately. “Uh, that is, Officer Yarrow.”

“No, you can call me Sam,” Yarrow said, smiling at her. “It’s not been that long.”

Nearly three years, Sam, Emma though, but she said nothing.

“Didn’t really expect to see you here,” Yarrow said after a moment. “Y’know, on the front. You were always a lab kinda weapons girl.”

“Well, we all go where we’re sent,” Emma replied with a bright smile. “Apart from… y’know, you, because you go where you send yourself.”

Yarrow chuckled. “I guess I do at that.” She paused. “Look, I wanted to say… I’m sorry about what happened.” She scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. “Striker and that.”

Emma’s smile faded. “I… yeah, I guess that was something of a shitshow, wasn’t it? But hey, you went from being some R&D expert to being the second in command of a whole army, so…”

“Yeah,” Yarrow chuckled. “Always sounds better when you put it like that.”

Emma smiled again briefly, but it was only fleeting.

“I was sorry to hear about your Dad,” she said quietly. “He was… one of the good ones.”

“Yeah,” Yarrow said, her expression becoming unreadable.

“Did…” Emma began, but thought better of it.

“What?” Yarrow asked, frowning.

“Nothing,” Emma said, smiling. “Forget I said anything.”

“No, tell me,” Yarrow insisted, still frowning. “You wanted to ask something?”

Emma swallowed. “Did you think it was me?”

“Did I think…” Yarrow repeated. “You mean the bombing?”

Emma nodded. A little while after Yarrow had left R&D (and ended her service as any kind of liaison to the PHL), there was an incident. All Emma knew about it was that members of the Reavers had been killed by a bomb planted in an R&D drop.

“No,” Yarrow said after a moment, “I didn’t.” She snorted. “The first people I thought of were Gardner or Striker, neither of whom were the one, in the end.”

“Oh,” Emma said. “Who… who was it?”

Yarrow wet her lips. “Classified. Sorry.”

Emma laughed. “Are you serious?”

Yarrow shrugged. “It’s amazing the shit we have to keep secret these days.”

Emma was still chuckling. She felt… lighter. Overcome by the absurdity of the whole thing, she couldn’t help but be amused.

“Glad you’re both so happy,” a groggy voice cut in. Yarrow’s expression dropped, and Emma turned in shock.

Twilight Sparkle was awake, glaring at them both. Her horn and legs were still cuffed, but she was struggling to sit herself up.

“I suppose you’re happy,” she said after a moment. “You’ve got me prisoner. You probably think that’s a victory, don’t you?”

“Seems like one to me,” Yarrow said with a snort.

“I’m sure it does,” Sparkle said. She narrowed her eyes. “You’re going to die. All of you. You won’t even be granted Celestia’s light: you’ve all already forsaken that mercy.”

“Joy,” Emma snorted. “No offence, love, but I think everyone and their mother would prefer death to your Queen bitch’s ‘Mercy’.”

Sparkle winced at the swearing, and turned her head away.

“I’m only sorry I won’t see it,” she finally said. “It would have been a joy to witness.”

“Learn to live with disappointment, Sparkle,” Yarrow said coldly. “‘Cos today’s just the first of a whole bunch. I promise you that.”

Sparkle only chuckled weakly.

“A friendship lesson I learned a long time ago,” she said, “was not to make promises you can’t keep.”

Checkpoint Sigma.

Queen Celestia floated slowly to the ground, smiling as she took in Galatea. Her wings were spread out in a gesture of challenge, and her horn was already glowing, ready for battle. Galatea was on the ground, her own wings tightly tucked to her body.

“Celestia,” she said evenly. “Now we shall end this.”

“Galatea, secret sister, Mother dearest’s watchmare,” Queen Celestia replied, tilting her head. “Didn’t I kill you already?”

Galatea didn’t dignify that with a reply.

“Oh, wait,” the Queen continued, grinning maniacally. “That was the other you, wasn’t it?” She giggled. “So many worlds to keep track of these days! How does one keep it straight? Why, my head’s all a-daze at the thought of having more than one of everypony running around!”

“You have fallen far from the path laid out for you,” Galatea said, ignoring the maddened gibbering of the corrupted Alicorn. “Stand down and prepare to suffer the duly appointed judgement.”

“Ah, of course, because naturally I’m going to surrender my Empire and give in to the plans of a long vanished mythical mare and her puppet,” Celestia retorted. “Tell me, because I’ve been dying to know since I killed you – do you even have an independent thought up there, or is it all some sort of programming?”

Galatea smiled. “We do only what we’re meant to do.”

“Ah, so you are meant for the meaningless death that awaits you?” Celestia asked, giggling maniacally. “Is that what you truly believe?”

Galatea was still smiling. “Oh. Not at all.”

And then a pair of shimmering blue blades smashed through a nearby wall – one cut across Celestia’s mane and back, carving a deep wound into her back and shearing half her mane clean off, and another cut through the back of one of her legs. Screaming, she fell to one knee.

Luna stepped out of the shadows, and then Galatea stepped forward, her horn glowing before she blasted the wounded Celestia backwards.

“You should have surrendered, Celestia,” she said, throwing another spell – only for a glimmering golden shield to materialise around the corrupt Alicorn as she got to her feet, a snarl on her face.

“So should you, watchmare,” she replied, before charging.

Checkpoint Eta, Belvidere Street.

“Pull out! Pull out!”

The Equestrian forces were falling back towards their positions across the Harvard bridge. Walking silently, Hiro Mifune moved through the ruins of streets and cars, eyes narrowed as he watched a squadron of Imperial Guard retreating through the streets. If he were fortunate, none would notice his movement through the city’s streets en route to the battle against the Queen.

He crouched behind the wreck of a burnt out Mini, briefly poking his head out to see the situation. A group of Imperial ponies, some four or five, were standing around a group of other ponies… all of whom were in PHL colours. There were also a handful of ponies, maybe three or four, with no armour – blank-flanked Newfoals, no doubt the PHL ponies’ erstwhile colleagues.

“Do we have time to take these traitors back?” one of the Guardsponies was saying. “Shouldn’t we just… I hate to say it, but wouldn’t it be easier to kill them?”

“We don’t kill these traitors if we can capture them alive,” another Guardspony said. “We’ll take them home. Recondition them. Make them better.”

“But the enemy is moving back in, we don’t have time to bring them,” the first Guard said. “They’ll slow us down, and then none of us will make it back, them or us!”

“Go ahead,” one of the PHL said. “Kill us. We’d prefer it to going back!”

“Nopony asked you, traitor!” the second Guard snapped. “You’re compromised. You’d be better off coming home with us.”

“Equestria’s nopony’s home while the Queen’s alive!” another of the PHL, an older stallion. said.

As if by some sudden impulse, the first Guardspony brought up a spear and ran it through that pony’s leg. The stallion let out a cry of agony.

“Quiet!” the Guard said. “Her Majesty’s mercy is the only reason you’re still alive!”

Mifune could watch no further. Gripping the hilt of his katana, he stepped out from cover.

“Ponies of Equestria,” he said sternly. “Face me!”

The Guardsponies turned, but Hiro was already moving towards them. Fortunately, there seemed to be only one Unicorn, so Hiro made a beeline straight for him, running his sword through the weak point in his chest armour.

“Sergeant!” one of the ponies called, but Hiro was already moving.

None of the ponies had potion bottles on them – doubtless used already on the Newfoals that already moved to surround him. Bringing his sword up into a high-guard stance, Hiro charged the unarmoured Newfoals first, slicing left and right. From experience, he knew that Newfoals needed to be put down quickly, or they would continue to fight: Mifune had seen a Newfoal continue to fight even with two legs blasted off, the pitiful thing crawling down a street, dragging what was left of itself along.

The Newfoals were, unfortunately for them, still too new to react fast enough to stop him. Cleaving through chests and necks, Mifune cut them down in moments, his sword stained by the deep red of their blood. That done, Mifune turned, onto just dodging the slice of a Pegasus sword. With a grimace, he lashed out, knocking the sword from the Pegasus’ grip before slicing through his throat. An Earth Pony ran at him, but Mifune hacked downwards into his shoulder and cut him down with ease.

Another Pegasus had flown upward, but with no method of ranged attack, the stallion was stuck for the moment.

“You human bucker!” another of the Guards, another Earth Pony, said, bringing up a spear. “You’re not worth saving!”

“All life is worth saving,” Mifune retorted, lowering his sword into a mid-guard. “I am sorry that I cannot save yours. But fate has dictated that we meet as foes.”

The pony snarled, before charging at him. Mifune sidestepped the charge, his sword raking across the pony’s side. With a cry of agony, the Earth Pony fell to the floor.

“Hey, human!” the Pegasus from above bellowed. Mifune turned, only to be knocked off his feet by a swooping flight.

Grimacing in pain, Mifune rolled, avoiding the stamping hooves of the Pegasus as the pony tried to crush him, before leaping to his feet, bringing his sword up and impaling the pony where he stood. There was a moment where the Pegasus looked down at the sword in his chest, before meeting Mifune’s eyes.

“Oh,” he said, before stepping back, off of Mifune’s katana, and falling to the floor.

There was only one Guard left, an Earth Pony who had been hanging back. He drew a sword and levelled it at Mifune.

“Let’s do this, human,” he said. “I’m ready to die. Are you?”

Mifune brought his sword up in a salute.

“Not until my task is done,” he replied, smiling.

He brought one hand out, palm outstretched, and suddenly a light flared from it. The Earth Pony stepped back, but a sudden ring of golden energy surrounded him, before bolts of light shot from it, slamming into him from all sides. The Earth Pony let out a series of frightened yelps, and then fell to the floor, smoke rising from a dozen impact points.

With that, Mifune turned to the PHL ponies. He let out a breath and staggered slightly, winded from the effort of the spell.

“Thank Luna you saved us!” the injured older stallion said.

“I’ve never seen a human do that – was that some R&D stuff or what?” a young Pegasus stallion in a Kevlar vest, jet-black with a silver mane and a pair of Aces for a cutie mark, exclaimed.

“Blackjack, you know if it is he won’t be able to tell us,” the older stallion said. He smiled gratefully at Mifune. “I don’t know what we’d have done if they dragged us back…”

“You would have persevered bravely, as you did here,” Mifune replied reassuringly. He looked around. “Are any more of you wounded?”

“Bumps and scrapes,” Blackjack said, smiling. “Nothin’ we can’t walk off, even with Old Timer here.”

Mifune chuckled. “If you say so. Make your way to Checkpoint Beta at Fenway Park and tell a Lieutenant Kellman that Hiro Mifune sent you.”

“Will do, sir,” the young Pegasus said. “And, uh, thanks for the assist.”

Mifune nodded, before continuing on his way. There was still, after all, a Queen to fight.

Checkpoint Iota.

“Look sharp!” barked Corporal Red Shift, as he and his fire-team moved spread out into a perimeter around Langone Park. “We gotta keep a tight vigil!”

Two traitor Alicorns and a reappearance by the creature Discord (does nothing stay dead in this war?!) was a frightening development in an already fraught conflict, but Captain Timber’s instructions had been clear. Every inch they could deny the enemy was worth its weight in crystal. And there wasn’t just her to protect the site from. Given how active this city was? They had to hurry.

For Captain Armor, for the Archmage, for Equestria.

Besides, I may get a promotion, Shift thought, stopping to signal his fire-team to take cover. To think, this place was home once.

Shift had been in Boston before. Back before the war even started. He’d happened upon this city while traveling across America’s Eastern Seaboard. Funnily enough, it was the history that had got him interested. Parts of that history even seemed to mirror the Griffon Empire.

Griffonstone. Not the most picturesque of places, at least before the Restoration. But still, there had always been something special about griffons for neighbors, a stone’s throw across the sea from dear Fillydelphia...

Maybe we could save some of it, Shift thought, motioning for halt a moment, before nodding at his fire-team to resume their pursuit. Maybe as a display of man’s wasted potential. Their failures in the aftermath of war. It would be educational, at least. Besides, erasing everything would probably doom us to repeating it, or -

“Lost visual, sir!” called out one of his team, an Earth Pony stallion, shaking Red Shift out of his thoughts.

“What was that, Private?”

“We’ve lost visual, sir,” the soldier repeated. The team closed formation without command, as their training had dictated.

Red Shift focused himself. He and his closest units were currently situated on a street named Stuart Street. He needed to act quickly before anything else might happen. Especially seeing how reconnaissance stated the HLF still held ground in this part of the city.

And I’m not keen on getting tortured…

Red Shift turned to another private, a unicorn. “Private Cosmos, use a compass spell to get us back on track. We need to regain visual immediately.”

“Yes, sir,” Cosmos said, closing his eyes to ready his horn and cast the spell.

However, it was then that the coat on Red Shift’s back began to stick up.

Something’s wrong.

His eyes began to itch as he searched for what his sixth sense was yelling at him.

“Sir?” the Earth Pony private said.

“On your guard, all of you,” Red Shift replied, still looking.

“Sir?”

“We’re not alone!” Red Shift snapped, his team understanding immediately and now looking for themselves while Cosmos continued working on his spell.

The threat had to be around here somewhere–

What was that?

Something landed near his hooves. Looking down, Shift saw something that made him freeze. He’d been briefed about human explosives. Despite their small size, “green-aids” (or something like that) were deadly and came in all kinds of variants.

It was little wonder the Bearer of Laughter had tried her own spin on it.

If Red Shift had a moment, he could have ordered his team to take cover. Or ordered Cosmos to try and contain it. Or dived for it and tried to shield his team from the attack. Or -

“Aaaahhhh!”

They all screamed as soon as it went off. Except what erupted from the small device wasn’t a conflagration or blades or needles. No, what instead resulted was a bang that left the entire fire team blind, deaf and disoriented.

What Red Shift had forgotten was that there was a type of “green-aid” that humanity developed that wasn’t deadly. No, this explosive was known as a “flashbang”, employed to disorient and confuse its victims.

Had this been a flashbang, Shift’s team would have had a chance at recovery within a minute if they were lucky, with only a terrible ringing noise in their ears for some time after.

Unfortunately for them, this wasn’t a flashbang, or rather, it was a different take on the concept – one they could never have known about. UNAC had commissioned the PHL R&D for a type of explosive that would disorient enemy troops only. And since Equestrians were known to have magic, in theory, it shouldn’t be difficult to create a type of flashbang that would disorient them by screwing with their magic.

Of course, the problem there was how to avoid ‘friendly fire’ on allied Equestrians. The very existence of PHL R&D owed itself to this not being a mere war of the races. So when that little hurdle had proven harder to overcome than expected, the anti-magic flashbang had never gone beyond prototype stage.

Unfortunately for Red Shift and his team, their assailant had no qualms about indiscriminately using such in the field, and did have the contacts to obtain a few.

Wh-what… Red Shift thought, struggling to open his eyes. His head was killing him. What w-was -

There was a dull sound in the distance. He couldn’t make it out…

N-Need… N-Need to… Thoughts were struggling to come forward, except they weren’t quite his thoughts. Need to… check on my – finish the – no, no. I need to…

Another dull sound. Still so far away, but it was closer this time.

We’re… Red Shift struggled to push himself up. Why c-can’t I think…?

Another dull sound, but it was starting to get clearer. Maybe his ears were working after all. Now if only his head wasn’t killing him…

What…? Red Shift thought as he began to finally find himself.

He was still in the middle of Stuart Street, in the human city of Boston. His snout was bleeding, his head was killing him and it was hard to think. And his team -

CRACK.

The sound shocked him awake, at least as awake as he could be right now.

“Make them pay,” a voice whispered, “gotta make them pay.”

Finish the – Who’s there? Shift thought with some difficulty as he forced himself to look towards his team–

“My team,” Red Shift whispered, as he saw all four of his comrades. Dead.

CRACK.

And the one responsible had just finished shooting Cosmos in the head, using what he recognized as a high-powered rifle. The attacker was dressed in military fatigues, including a blue helmet with the letters ‘UN’ marked in white on the front. A couple strands of golden hair hung loose under the rim of the helmet.

“Y-You…” he whispered. “What did you…”

Standing over Cosmos’ dead body, the human figure glanced at him, making him freeze at what he saw. It was her eyes. Cold, unfeeling, dead green eyes whose light had been long since snuffed out by a great and terrible pain. A pain that still ached.

Red Shift could tell everything about this human female by just one look. And it wasn’t her own people that had done this to her. No, the look in her eyes, aimed squarely at him and the dead in his team, told of a hatred destined only for them.

Had they done this? Were they the ones responsible for her pain?

Why… Realization began to consume him, before he felt himself drowning in horror. We’re doing this. We’ve done this to them. All of them. We… we’re Chrysalis. We’re Sombra. We’re Kontagion, we –

“What, who -” the words came out of his mouth clumsily. She glowered at him.

“Die curious.”

Red Shift couldn’t say anything. There wasn’t time to even try and face penance for all that they had done. All he could do was what he and most of Equestria had been doing for years.

Just close his eyes, and -

CRACK.

Celestia’s horn flared again, and Luna found herself spinning out of control, before slamming into… a trampoline. She blew a stray bit of mane out of her face, and looked, to see Discord winking at her, before he snapped his claw – and suddenly, he was above Celestia’s head. Before she could react or even register his presence, he had summoned a giant polo mallet and slammed it into her skull, before bringing it down on top of her with a mighty crack. She pelted toward the ground, just in time for him to be waiting for her with another swing of his mallet, sending her back up, where Galatea was floating in wait.

“Fire of Creation,” the grey Alicorn whispered as Celestia reached her.

“Oh, you canny wh -”

Celestia’s insult was cut short by a flash of fiery orange energy that lashed out, slamming into her and bearing her through a nearby building. There was a great smashing of masonry, and for a moment all was still.

Discord flashed into existence next to Galatea.

“Well,” he said, “this seems to be going we-”

Before he could finish the sentence, a spell slammed into his back, throwing him through the building Celestia had just been sent flying through. Celestia floated down slowly from above where he had been, a cruel smirk on her face.

“Really, watchmare,” she said. “I know our mother dearest didn’t stick around long enough to teach you anything, but you’re an Alicorn. Try harder.”

Galatea’s eyes narrowed. “If you insist, sister.”

She suddenly disappeared in a flash, before reappearing behind Celestia. Her horn glowing with white energy that split into six different balls of magic, before each exploded into a dozen beams that impacted Celestia. She let out a tortured screech, before a shockwave of golden energy expanded from her horn, dissipating Galatea’s attack.

“At least I know that the Fausticorn bitch didn’t scrimp on giving you the power to enforce her stupid plan,” she hissed. “That is nice to know, but it still won’t save you!”

Her horn glowed again, but before she could do anything else, another spell hit her and threw her through the air. She stopped, her wings spreading outward, and found herself facing Luna, who was grinning viciously, her horn glowing.

“Is that it, Little Moon?” the Queen asked coyly. “Don’t you have anything else?”

“Oh, I’ve plenty left in me,” Luna said in reply. “I’m just waiting.”

“For what?” Celestia asked, frowning slightly. “Some miracle? Some other trick from the watchmare? I’m afraid there’s none coming for y-”

And then a pumpkin smashed into her head, covering her face. At that precise moment, Luna threw a spell clean at her, which smashed into her and threw her into another building.

“For that,” Luna said. She looked up at Discord, who winked, before flashing out of existence again.

Galatea came up next to her, her horn glowing with waiting energy.

“The humans aren’t here yet,” Luna commented.

“I noticed,” Galatea retorted. “They must get here soon. I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up.”

Before Luna could reply, a blur of white fur slammed into her and knocked her backwards. She was forced to fly upwards to dodge another spell that sheared the building behind her in two down the middle.

“All you pathetic whelps can throw at me is weak foal’s spells and paltry tricks!” Queen Celestia barked out, laughing. “Why not just surrender and die now?! I promise you, the sweet release of obliteration is mercy compared to what I could d-!”

A hail of small, green, round objects started smashing into her, moving at what must have been the speed of sound, smacking into her like giant hailstones. She growled, raising a shield, as Discord – carrying what might have been a minigun, save for its ammunition – floated back into position.

“You were saying?!” he called over to her. “I can’t hear you over the sound of my balls smacking into your face!”

He grinned as the balls kept slamming into her shield, until Celestia’s horn glowed again. Suddenly, the tennis balls halted in midair, suspended like a frozen moment in the rain.

“You know,” she said, her voice all-too calm, “there’s a castration joke I could make here… but I’d rather demonstrate the deed.”

The balls shot back towards Discord, who brought up a paw and snapped his fingers. The tennis balls turned into steam as they flew, dissipating around him.

“You’re all hot air, Celly,” Discord grinned. “Like all politicians -”

In a blur of movement, she was right in front of him, grinning, before she suddenly headbutted him. She reared back, but he snapped a claw and teleported behind her, bringing up his paw and summoning a giant tower shield as she bucked her back legs at him.

“Your humour’s a little stale, Discord!” she chuckled. “Surely you can do better?”

“He probably,” Galatea said from behind her, “but they have something to say first.”

Celestia turned, but before she could, a golden circle appeared around her, entrapping her in a ring. She started to laugh at the spell – even Galatea could tell it was a see it was a weak easily broken hold – but then something shot right through her ear, all-but disintegrating it in a spray of blood.

Celestia blinked, the sensation delayed in registering…

… and then hell broke loose upon her.

Two minutes earlier.

“Lyre Three to Gamma One, what’s your sitrep there? Over.”

“Setting up,” Kraber said, speaking as quietly as he could. “What about your guys, over?”

“Beta Team is moving into position,” Cheerilee said over the comm. “Echo Leader, are you receiving, over?”

“Oui, Colonel, I’m ready,” Durant Gagnier’s voice came through. “Managed to get my boys rounded up. Poor test tube fuckers are a little worse for wear but we’ll manage. We’ll punch a few holes through the bitch, mark my words. Over.”

“Alright,” Cheerilee said. “You’ll only get one shot at this, so make it count, alright?”

“We get it, Lieutenant Colonel,” Heliotrope said. “We’ll be careful.”

“For the last time, are you sure you don’t want me to shoot the other ones?” Kraber asked. “I mean, are we one hundred and ten percent sure they’re on our side, over?”

“Since our reports indicate that the Queen and these newcomers have been kicking the proverbial shit out of each other,” Cheerilee said, “no. It’d be nice to at least understand what the hell’s going on before any of this gets too out of hand.” There was a pause. “Wolf Hunter, what’s your ETA to position, over?”

“This is Wolf Hunter, I’ll be in position and ready to fire in sixty seconds, over.” The sniper’s hoarse voice answered, no doubt getting in a proper place to fire from.

“Copy that, stand by for our signal, over.”

“This is Mifune,” another voice cut in. “I am also in position to assist.”

“Well fok,” Kraber said. “Sounds like they’ve really broken out all the stops for this one.”

“Not all the stops,” Yael chuckled, “but sounds like a lot of them.” She motioned. “Alright, get set up. Kraber, you’ve got the biggest gun, so I’ll let you pick the best spot for suppression. Aegis, you’ve got the shield projector for him.”

The large white earth pony stallion nodded. He’d sprung for a PHL-built shield generator, giving him at least a percentage of the utility of a unicorn. While the shield was less durable than one from the average unicorn, it also didn’t require constant concentration to keep it active.

“You get me the nicest presents,” Kraber grinned, thinking of the right attachment for this moment. He normally used it as a giant assault rifle, but it performed better when used as a stationary weapon.

The tripod is probably too cumbersome, so...

“Hey, Aegis, still got that spare bipod?”

“Always do,” Aegis said tiredly, reaching into a saddlebag. He pulled out a spare bipod from what he and Kraber had taken to calling ‘The Artyom sack’. “Try not to snap these ones off, please? I only have so much money, even on a PHL specialist salary.”

“No promises, chommie,” Kraber replied, sliding it onto the picatinny rails.

Aegis stared at him flatly.

“Fine, fine. I’ll do my best,” Kraber said, a tired smile on his face. “This is a special occasion after all.”

“Our team is in position,” Yael whispered. “Standing by for orders, over.”

And then, a moment later, the radio came through with the words they had all been waiting for.

“All units, you have permission to engage at your discretion,” Cheerilee said, “repeat, all units have permission to engage at their discretion. Take that bitch down. Lyre Three out.”

“Fokkin’ showtime,” Kraber whispered.

“All units, you have permission to engage at your discretion. Repeat, all units have permission to engage at their discretion. Take that bitch down. Lyre Three out.”

Eyes focused, Maxine Radwick stared down to the battle as her hands moved to change and load a superior ammo for her rifle. While she wasn’t a weapon tester or drinking buddies with R&D personnel like Kraber or First Lieutenant Winston’s squads, she was smart enough to have connections available for special items. Despite the prototype “disharmony grenades” never reaching standard issue status there was something that would get mass production.

As part of the research of rune based and magic related enhancements/applications, there was an idea. Namely, what if there was a type of anti-personnel ammunition that could be more effective against the various kinds of magically enhanced tissue that comprised the Solar Empire’s legions and Queen? This had been easier said than done, mind you, with different possibilities tried; there was even an attempt to do something like P+ ammunition so that they wouldn’t need to create an entirely new bullet and just had to modify their rifles.

Fortunately, for Maxine, there was one viable prototype of ammunition. One that, with further trials, might tip the war in humanity’s favor. To think, it was descended from the controversial and expensive XM645 flechette round. The obvious difference was that these “rune inscribed” edges were programmed to function in a very crucial manner once striking enemy flesh rather than possibly happening.

Either way, with her rifle loaded and herself ready, Maxine looked down the sight at the nearby battle. All she needed now was focus to take the perfect shot against the target. The cause of all her troubles.

The one pony who took everything from her.

DC was in panic. She barely managed to get to the apartment with how mad the streets have gotten; it was a miracle she didn’t crash the Catera or get crashed into. She was wound tight – of course she was, DC falling apart wasn’t it? Her mom was right, she should have packed Agnus into the car and drove straight back to Texas.

Knowing Mary, she’d probably call Alex to come and get her and Agnes. He liked Agnes – he liked being an uncle. It made her feel better since August was skittish around anyone; it gave Alex a reason to talk with her and not Mary. Just because he and Mary were closer, didn’t mean anything to Maxine. They’d all be fine.

She just needed to get her and Agnes out of the city.

Despite her rush, Maxine managed to not fumble her keys and get inside. In little time, she was up the stairs and on her floor. Thankfully, no one was around and--

What was that? The thought resounded across her mind just as she was closing in on the door. It sounded… bad. Really bad. If anything happened to her daughter, so help her god--

She was there. Of course she was. Maxine asked her to be here hours ago. She didn’t have any issue being here, no. After all, She said when Maxine called her, what are friends for?

Well, Maxine was about to find out. Because despite being graced with that horrible red mane and tail, both lush like fields of wheat, that didn’t cover her head and that flat, equine face, the mare’s lips parted and began to curve upwards. She began to smile and--

“All it takes is just a drop, Max, and you’ll be happy with us~” Red Rye said, eyes gleaming like a satisfied wolf. Hearing that made Maxine freeze, her eyes fixated on Rye’s beaming face despite hearing that door open and--

CRACK

Her rifle’s barrel flashed, the bullet speeding straight towards its intended target. Maxine blinked, tears trailing down her face just as the bullet’s rune did it’s job. While flechette rounds could curve on impact to flesh and cause terrible wounds, the experimental “edgette” would carve through and, regardless of angle, would travel in a straight line up or down whatever it made contact with.

A useful way to make somepony pay and to kill them by bleeding them out by shooting and cutting their ear off. And since the injury was done by the rune, the effect was like anticoagulant – hard to heal from.

“Take that,” she whispered.

There was a moment of silence after Celestia’s ear all-but disintegrated, and then suddenly every gun in the area opened fire. Trapped by a spell that, for all its weakness, still held her in place, she could do nothing but weather the hail of firepower sent her way.

Bullets tore through limbs, wings, and what was left of her mane, spraying blood in the air. And then, for a moment, all was still.

It took them all, humans and ponies alike, a few moments to realise something was off. Celestia was wounded, grievously in fact, but she was still in the air.

Galatea had watched the whole thing with morbid fascination, but that fascination had quickly turned to horror.

Somehow, despite her wounds, Celestia was still flying.

There were holes all over her body, wounds that were either stubbornly refusing to heal or healing very slowly. Whatever the humans had developed was clearly designed to prevent the normal ambient magic that surrounded an Alicorn from restoring Celestia’s wounds. And yet she persevered.

“Is… that… it?” the maddened Alicorn hissed. “Is that… everything this vaunted human ingenuity can muster to kill me?! HA!”

She was laughing. How a mare who had just been so grievously wounded could even be flying, much less laughing, Galatea didn’t know. She thought she knew the limits of Alicorn endurance – perhaps pridefully, she believed that she was that limit, the most powerful of the three on an individual basis. And yet here was Celestia, proving herself the more powerful… or the more insane.

Or both.

It might have almost been something to feel familial pride in if it wasn’t terrifying on at least three levels.

Galatea swallowed, her horn glowing as she prepared to continue the fight. She felt a wave of what might have been nausea coursing through her stomach – was that fear, perhaps? It was probably the first time she had ever experienced anything quite so visceral in her life, which in and of itself made the experience… interesting.

If this didn’t mean I was about to die, I suppose it would be absolutely fascinating on an objective level, she thought, feeling suddenly and surprisingly detached from the whole experience. She didn’t resent the detachment – it was good to maintain it.

It was certainly impressive that her enemy had kept going. The human weapons had torn through the Queen’s body – Galatea had no doubt in her mind that if those weapons had been turned on her, she would not have been still flying. Yet, there the Queen was, grimacing in pain, but very much active.

“Any last words, watchmare?!” Celestia hissed, grinning. Flecks of blood and spittle flew from her mouth.

Galatea took a deep breath. “None you’d care to hear, sister.”

Neither she, nor the Queen, had noticed the blue box appearing above the battle, however…

Bauer held his sword in a two handed grip as the redheaded man worked the controls of his machine, flipping levers. He still wasn’t sure this would work.

“You’re sure this plan isn’t just suicide?” he asked. “Because it feels like suicide, just with extra steps.”

“Technically, I’ve done this before,” Bowman replied, smiling at him from his console, “and it worked that time.” He paused. “Of course, that time we had more help, more flying people, more weapons…” He grinned. “But you know what? It’s still a sure fire win.”

“If I don’t miss,” Bauer pointed out.

“Look, just jump when I say to!” Bowman replied, rolling his eyes. “You let me worry about you ‘missing’, Major!”

“Right, fine,” Bauer said quietly. “Wish me luck, Doc.”

"I wish you success," the man replied with a wry grin. "And for the last time, don't call me ‘Doc.”

There was a slow groaning, and suddenly a loud thump reverberated through the room, and Bowman flipped another lever.

“Now!” he yelled.

Bauer immediately threw the door open, looked outside, and then, praying this would work, jumped.

He was almost ten storeys up, and there she was, hurtling past him. The entire world felt almost like it was running in slow motion – he brought the blade up, his stomach feeling like there was no gravity in the world. Her neck was outstretched, right there, right there…

And suddenly her eyes flicked to him. She flapped her wounded wings, trying to dodge, and his blade swept out in a desperate flail as he tried to hit her. There was the sound of flesh tearing, a scream of agony, and then he was past her, aiming at the nearby window of one of the ruined buildings…

Flash.

He smashed through the window, and landed in… a pile of pillows. He groaned – the impact had still been hard, but the fall hadn't been fatal.

“W-what?” he murmured, looking around at the veritable cloud of fluffy white feathers that had exploded outwards.

Discord was standing near him, looking battered as all hell, but smiling.

“Happy landings?” he asked weakly.

From the outside, it looked like this.

The box had materialised above where Celestia's path was, and out from it had leapt the armoured form of Stephan Bauer. Though his initial aim had apparently been a vertical decapitation blow, he had switched to a horizontal lash the moment the Queen had noticed him, the entire thing happening almost too quickly to see. Though he had failed to kill her – the speed of events too quick and his enemy too fast and too clever – he had hit her.

A white wing impacted the ground with a dull thud, completely unnoticed due to the rather more impressive spectacle of the Queen herself smashing into the ground with a mighty crash.

There was silence and stillness for a long moment. Soldiers came out of their hiding spots and bunkered-down positions carefully, cautiously, as if expecting her to get up at any second and vaporise them all.

It was Gagnier, lumbering in his mech, who reached her first, bringing both his gun arms up to aim at her. She was covered in injuries, her wing stump weakly spurting arterial blood.

To Durant Gagnier, there was an odd sense of… foreboding, seeing her like this. He couldn’t have explained it – had you asked him, he would have said he expected to be elated to see the Tyrant Sun, the Barriermaker, the head of the Solar Empire, laid low at the feet of his mech, even if he himself had barely had anything to do with it.

Yet, seeing her there, wounded, bloodied and beaten… all he could feel was an impending sense of dread.

“Well, madame,” he said after a moment. “I think it is safe to say that you royally fucked up.”

To his surprise, she started laughing, a cold, cruel laugh.

“You know,” she said, almost amiably, “I think I’ll let you have that one, monsieur.” She let out a harsh, barking laugh. “This has certainly not gone quite the way I wanted, I have to admit.”

“Glad you can find the sense of humour in it,” Gagnier said. “Pretty sure that won’t last.”

“If… you say so,” Celestia chuckled.

Something about her laughter set Gagnier even more on edge than he had been already.

“Bitch,” he muttered, as others approached from around him.

“Ah, monsieur,” Celestia said. “You’re going to be so much angrier at me in a minute.”

There was something about the way she said that sent a wave of cold down Gagnier’s back,and he swallowed reflexively.

She’s bullshitting, he thought. She has to be. We’ve won.

And yet… she was still smiling.

Bauer limped towards the wounded Alicorn, clutching one hand at his side. Despite the pain, despite the fact that he was ninety percent sure it would feel a billion times worse when the adrenaline rush wore off, he felt elation for the first time in God-only-knew how long.

They had won.

There were murmurs from the troops gathering around the fallen Alicorn. There was even a whoop of “FOK YES!” from a familiar voice, and Bauer had to chuckle at the irrepressible Viktor Kraber. He and his team – Yael Ze’ev’s team, technically – were moving into position, aiming their weapons at Celestia carefully.

There, too, were the two other Alicorns and the Draconequus. They all looked worse-for-wear, as though they had been through hell.

I suppose we all have. But it was worth it for this moment.

Ignoring everything else now, Bauer limped towards the Queen. Gagnier was already there in his mech, aiming both his mech’s gun-arms at the Alicorn’s head.

“Got her covered, Stephan,” he said.

Bauer nodded, before raising his sword and aiming it at Celestia.

“This sword is strong enough to take your head off,” he said grimly, keeping it just shy of Celestia’s neck. “If you want to live long enough to stand trial, I would recommend staying still.”

“Ah, well, I can see why you might think that,” Celestia said, chuckling weakly, her voice raspy as she spoke through ruined vocal cords. “It certainly does look like I might have to stand trial for you, doesn’t it?”

“I’d like to see how it could be any other way,” Bauer growled.

“Trust me, we’re thinking of you resisting arrest,” Kraber growled from behind Bauer.

“We’re not,” Yael Ze’ev hissed, though she only sounded half-convinced.

“But you might fall down some stairs,” Aegis added grimly. “Although frankly it looks like you fell down some.”

“Ah, funny,” Celestia said, chuckling, before wincing. “Ooh, this really, really hurts.”

“Good,” came half a dozen voices. She only chuckled again.

Behind him, he heard the clicking of rifles being aimed at the Queen’s head. Then next to him came Hiro Mifune, his own sword drawn and pointed at Celestia’s head, tip squarely aimed at her eye.

“Surrender,” the Mystic said simply, “would be a wise course.”

Celestia gave him an odd look. “You’re one of the ones who touched beyond, as the Fausticorn did, so long ago.” She sniffed. “I expected you to smell worse in person, to be honest. Monkeys flinging faeces at magic can’t be hygienic.”

She coughed, blood splattering on the ground in front of her. Bauer adjusted the angle of his sword so that she didn’t impale herself, waiting for her to try to escape, but she simply looked up and smiled.

“You’re taking defeat pretty calmly,” he said. “Surprising.”

“Oh, you will be even more surprised in a moment,” Celestia said. Her eyes alighted behind Bauer. “Ah, and there is the watchmare and Little Moon. How are you both?”

Bauer glances over his shoulder – sure enough, Luna and Galatea were both approaching. Galatea took the lead, her eyes narrowed.

“Whatever madness possessed you,” she began, “is at an end.”

Yet even as she said it, her eyes widened, as though she was seeing a ghost.

“Ah, you can see it now,” Celestia said. “Thought you might. I’m losing my… grip, as it were.”

She chuckled weakly, as if at some private joke.

“You’ve already lost your grip,” Gagnier said. “You’re going to go on trial for war crimes nobody’s ever heard of before you. I wouldn’t like to be in your horseshoes, madame.”

“I should resent that remark,” Aegis muttered.

Celestia looked surprisingly unafraid, however.

“Ah, you think I should be… afraid? Or that I should be somehow concerned with this situation?” she asked quietly, and then she smiled. “I am… so very sorry to disappoint you all. Actually,” she giggled, “I’m really not sorry at all.”

Her voice was cracking, and there was still that odd tinge that sounded like a distorting tape. It was almost as if her voice was slightly out of sync with itself.

“What are you talking about?” Princess Luna said, frowning. “What have you done?”

“I wish I could say this wasn’t incredibly, agonisingly painful,” Celestia added, ignoring the question. She motioned to her ruined body weakly. “But that would be a lie. So I suppose you can take solace in that. The price I pay for such perfect control.”

“Control of what?” Bauer asked, frowning. Something was definitely off here.

“This projected form, of course,” Celestia said, her tone the picture of innocence. She tapped her own body with one cracked hoof. “This thing isn’t real. Do you think really defeating me would be such a simple matter?”

Bauer felt the blood leave his face. From the mech near him, Durant’s radio let out a harsh hiss of static that sounded suspiciously like the word “MERDE!”, and then he was out of the mech, fists clenched.

“Durant,” Stephan said weakly.

“That fucking bitch!” Gagnier yelled. “A fake?!”

“What?!” Princess Luna shouted. “How could…?!”

“Of course,” Galatea added. “I should have known.”

“Yes, perhaps you should,” Celestia retorted. “But then, I haven’t been the real me on this stupid planet since the war started. Even when I killed you before, mother dearest’s watchmare.”

“The fok?!” Kraber added, dumbfounded. “The absolute fok?!”

“There is an old pool in the Everfree Forest, a Mirror Pool,” Celestia explained, giggling manically. “In it, one can create a near-perfect duplicate of one’s self.”

“You’re a fucking clone?!” Gagnier said.

“Nothing so crude as that,” Celestia said, before letting out a hacking cough. “Once the Pool created a copy of me, it took a great deal of work to overwrite it and be able to control it with my own mind.” She laughed. “Like I said, monsieur, this is painful. I have perfect control of it, and that includes the agony of this flesh failing.”

“And if you relinquish control?” Mifune asked.

“I don’t know,” Celestia grinned. “Oh, shall we find out? Goodbye, humans and traitors. I’ll see you all again soon.”

Her eyes widened, she blinked, and then she slumped to the floor, eyes wide and empty.

“Is she… dead?” Kraber asked.

“Do not touch the body,” Galatea warned. She approached it carefully. “I know little of the Mirror Pool – it is older than I – but this clone may well prove dangerous.”

“Buh,” the clone uttered, a little drool dripping from it’s mouth.

“Or not,” Kraber said.

“Fuck,” Bauer muttered. He sheathed his sword. “Gagnier… get a team down here to… to evac this thing. Get it sent to R&D or something.”

“Alright, Stephan,” Gagnier replied, before spitting at the catatonic Alicorn clone. “Fucking bitch.”

As the rest of the soldiers dispersed, Bauer felt a sudden sensation of being drained. All the optimism he had felt had been turned to ashes in his mouth.

Fuck, he thought again. Fucking… fuck.

Luna found Galatea later, standing in what was left of the green area that they had fought the Queen near. The grey mare had a thoughtful frown on her face as she looked out over the devastation.

“Galatea?” Luna asked quietly.

Galatea turned to look over her shoulder at Luna, her expression grim.

“We’ve been granted a reprieve,” she said quietly. “For how long, I do not know. We must make use of it.”

“There was something wrong with her,” Luna said. Galatea turned to meet her eyes. “This Queen. There is more at work here.”

“You felt that, too?” Galatea asked, frowning. She turned away, her tone becoming wistful. “It does seem to make sense, doesn’t it? What other reason but madness could cause a mare like Celestia to lose her senses like this?”

“Madness, or malice?” Luna asked, stepping forward. “You heard how she spoke. What she was saying. It was almost as if -”

She cut off, not daring to finish the sentence. Not daring to fear what she was about to say was the truth. But Galatea caught her meaning.

“It was almost as if she were not Celestia at all,” Galatea finished. “I felt that too.”

“But what?” Luna asked. “What could it be instead? A changeling? Some sort of monster possessing her? Or a hex?”

“There are many possibilities,” Galatea replied dolefully, “and none of them are good.” She turned back to Luna. “For now, Celestia… our Celestia… must be told what has occurred. And, ideally, she must consult with Alexander Reiner. Learn everything he knows about this war.”

“Indeed,” Luna replied, nodding. “What little we have learned has been far too little to prepare for this.”

Galatea gave her a wry smile. “Indeed. When next we meet the Queen, we must be ready, and it will be sooner than we think.”

“Soon?” Luna asked quietly. “Do you believe it will be soon?”

“I know it will,” Galatea replied, her smile fading, and her brows furrowing in concern. “It is not a question of if. It is now only a question of when.”

Jed: Took me long enough to get here. 😂

Special thanks to Doctor Fluffy and TheIdiot for helping flesh out this chapter. It’s good to see Kraber and Maxine Radwick floating about, and I don’t know about you, but I do feel that it’s nice to have the callback of a sniper shooting off Celly’s ear. 🙂

(Also: 8k might seem tame to some of you, but for my style, that’s a long chapter 😂)