"Hey." A hand came down on Hoku's shoulder, shaking him out of his exhausted fugue. "What are you doing here?"

Hoku looked over his shoulder and smiled. His fatigue refused to lift again, he was stretched to breaking, but that smile couldn't be stopped. "Paul..."

"Yeah, me." Suddenly Hoku was picked up under the arms, lifted to his feet, but the otter flopped right over again. "God-damn. Someone mentioned you were looking for me and I came to find you. I'm where you should have been, getting something to eat and relaxing after that shit show." Paul picked him up once more, dropping to a knee for a better angle and hefting him up by the back and legs. "What am I going to do with you?"

Hoku's smile wouldn't fade. He thought he was protecting Paul, and there he was, carrying Hoku somewhere to rest. How silly life could be at times... "I thought..."

"I ain't givin' up yet. I have school to go to, remember?" There would be some reprimand for Hoku not being where he should have been, but that battle had been successful. They would press on.

"Mister President." An aide offered a folder towards him.

"Thank you." He flipped it open and almost immediately hissed. It was a report from the aide projects in the Storm King's former country. The TSDI had decided the EFC's efforts there had been a way to indoctrinate the forming country, to bolster its numbers.

Violence had broken out, leaving over forty dead on the beach, some of them aide workers, some of them TSDI sympathizers of various sorts. A special note was made about a pony that wasn't even on the aide team. She wasn't being paid a single bit, but she showed up every day to help.

She was also the reason lethal violence had started. She was also the reason the aide workers were still there. Without her intervention, they would have been forced to flee out of the country. The reports from the workers themselves called her a martyr.

And she was, since she did not survive her interference, another casualty of the war.

Those remaining had reported a redoubled conviction to see the work completed. The aide movement would continue without their protector. Rason sighed softly drumming his fingers softly on the desk. "The ponies won't like this..." He was sure news would spread, and they would know one of their own had fought and died like that.

On the other hand, he couldn't just let it go...

"Even ponies understand the gravity of this war," spoke a serious but energized voice as a stylized Tempest stepped up onto a roof-lip with a scowl, a cape she never wore fluttering in the wind. "While you rest at home, they're making the greatest sacrifice to safeguard a free world."

The commercial continued with the fake-Tempest engaging in over-the-top martial-arts to take down random creatures, firing her gun with amazing accuracy. "If she can give it all, so can you. Be part of the proud."

A creature was just about to shoot the Tempest when the scene transitioned quite suddenly, showing one of the aide workers on the beach. "We work very hard each day to get supplies where they need to be. If it wasn't for her... we would have been sent home. We'll never forget her. She was always there, ready to work. A true example to us all."

A pony nodded beside the first human. "It's a shame... what happened... I'll always hold that pony in my heart."

The scene flipped to just showing the aide lines doing their thing. "The TSDI attacked this relief camp, proving their true colors. Real American Heroes will have to rise to protect it. Are you ready to answer the call and be the hero these people need?"

"Power." An officiously dressed bull snorted powerfully. "This has gone on long enough. Your strategy is failing."

Power turned to him. "Are you rescinding your support of our soldiers in the field?"

"What? N--" He staggered back, clutching his chest where blood spread. He collapsed to the ground, coughing weakly and grasping with futility at the air.

"And you weren't even wearing a proper vest." Power turned away from him. "Clear out the council."

The soldiers sharply saluted. The council was a fine governing body... for civilians. They served the chairman. The council would be removed at his order. Part of it was desperation. They really were losing, they needed strength and unity to have a chance, or so the average soldier told themselves.

"I will take on the title of Commander Force until this little... conflict is resolved. Is Chrysalis still here?"

Chrysalis stood before the gathered collection of officials. There weren't as many bulls as there should have been, but she hadn't bothered to learn how their government works. She didn't care either. "Let the humans know true fear."

She slammed a hoof down on a button.

She was gone before she even knew it. It was light, light and heat. Such intense light and heat that she never was aware of it, she was simply gone, as was the entirety of the room. Of course, that wasn't Chrysalis, nor was that stand-in informed of what would actually happen when the button was pressed.

The explosion ripped outwards in an angry wave, tearing a hole in the city the meeting hall was in, ending countless creatures in an instant, and so many more as less instant but just as deadly waves of pressure and heat spread from the blast zone. They could see the blast from half a world away, raising in a mushroom cloud made of wildly prismatic colors that pierced into 'space' itself.

"People of the EFC." Commander Force hadn't been there. He had sent Krowa to accept that... little gift. "You have breached a rule you yourself had set. Your naked aggression is now exposed to the world." He stepped out of the way of the camera he was speaking to, allowing it to see the wreckage of what had once been a proud minotaur's city. "Let this image be burned into the minds of everyone across the world, that they can know the true colors of the EFC. They are not defenders, they are scum, and if you have any sense of self-preservation in you, you will rise against them."

Force stood with his arms behind his back in an at-ease stance. "We will continue this fight, to the last if we must, and we must, because this is not how our world will be lost to us. We ask, no... we beg you. It is time to fight. This kind of power cannot be permitted."

He sank his head solemnly.

"Clear," announced the camera-bull.

Force raised his head with a smile. "See that every nation with a military worth a damn has a copy of that in their hands." Combined with the cloud that basically everyone saw, he had no doubt that his words would be believed. The TSDI would find its reinforcements.

Derpy saluted the royal sisters. "Mail!" She produced a brown cardboard box, held on her wings. "Here you go."

"Thank you." The box floated away from Derpy, both of their eyes fixed on it curiously.

Celestia tore open the wrapping to reveal another smaller box. Inside that was a DVD of some sort. Maybe a Blue-manta-ray? She couldn't tell the difference. Either way... "Do you think it's a game?"

Luna pointed to a closet even as her magic opened it, pulling out a television and entertainment system. "One way to find out. Let us put it in and see. Oh, a note." She pulled a scrap of paper out from inside the first box. "You need to see this," she read, eyes traveling over the paper. "--yesterday."

With mounting curiosity, they slid the disc in, and it began to play. It was no game. Their wings went limp at the sight of the destroyed minotaur city, torn apart with an obvious force that no creature on the planet could have conceived of until the humans had shown what was capable of such blasts.

There was only one real source of such of thing.

Luna scowled at the minotaur giving his pleas. "He's causing the problem!"

"That does not excuse the use of such... travesties," breathed out Celestia, tense and shaking a little. "They really did it... Luna... how do we stand with them, if they are willing to do... this?"

Luna hiked a brow at her sister. "They are willing to win against unreasonable forces. I scarcely see the issue, Sister."

"Luna, surely you do not mean that."

"And whyever shouldn't I?" She hopped up onto her throne. "If the bulls had listened to reason in the first place, this all could have been avoided. We could be enjoying that harmony you love so much."

Celestia's wings spread wide. "And you do not?!"

"I didn't mean it that way..." Luna softly sighed, resting against the back of her chair. "I'm just saying a lot of very brave creatures, ponies included, are being hurt and killed because of the TSDI. You think that's more harmonious than... that? They're both pretty terrible things. If one ends it faster, good."

"But did it end?" She waved a hoof emphatically at the dark television. "The bulls look more ready to fight than ever, and they will rally others to their side, fearful that they could be the next one struck by such a thing. It was one thing when it was a thing the humans swore they would never use... But... They lied. They lied about... We must talk to them. This could destroy the EFC."

Luna clucked her tongue in her snout. "Now this I agree with. If others react even half as strongly as you, this could cause no end of trouble..."

The news had spread like wildfire. Visible from parts of America, the great mushroom cloud that dominated the skyline for a small time had been recorded many times over and played on every news station with experts arguing what it could mean. As far as anyone knew, humans were the only ones that had nuclear weapons, but not a single person that saw the blast could doubt what it was.

The reaction was swift and immediate, with people taking to the streets to protest the use of such a weapon. Angry letters flooded various representatives, even if many of them were form letters more lazy constituents had clicked on a web site. The message was quite clear despite it, the American People were condemning the government for the use of that bomb.

Rason could feel it, or the lack of it. The love had faded so suddenly. But he hadn't done it. He sure hadn't signed any papers allowing it to happen. "Tell me what that bomb was," he shouted into a phone, face red with frustration. "And you can't blame the Russians!" They weren't there. No other nuclear power was there!

"The people need the truth and so do I." He threw the phone down so hard, it shattered into many pieces on impact with the floor.

The door to the office opened, a secret serviceman poking his head in. "Everything alright, Mister President?"

Rason slumped back into his chair. "I'm fine... I'll need a new phone."

The serviceman crossed the floor quickly and quietly, fetching the SIM card from the destroyed phone. "I'll have another within the hour, Sir."

He had done everything right, so far he knew... Where had that bomb come from, and who set it off? "Damn it all..." He pushed to his feet, shoving off the desk. "Let me know. I think I have an address to give."

The office phone suddenly began to ring. With an angry snatch, he grabbed the receiver. "Hello?"

"President Rason?" asked a gentle female voice.

"Princess Celestia." He forced a smile he really wasn't feeling. "Always good to hear from you."

Author's Notes:

The situation, it just escalated. Will humanity be painted as the real bad guys? Will Force get what's coming to him or will he rally the world against America? Even the council was ready to stop this madness, their will to fight fading, but...

Tempest, nooooo!

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