Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.
-Joyce Brothers

Sometimes you just have to take a chance in life. Do you want to sit there forever, looking at what could be, OR DO YOU WANT TO CREATE DESTINY FOR YOURSELF?!
-Arin Hanson, Game Grumps

Boston, MA; Fenway Park

"Report! What the fuck's going on in Boston?! None of the satellites can penetrate that cloud of magic, and the instruments are going nuts!"

"Would 'all hell has broken loose' work?" Stephan asked.

"God damn it, Major! Get your fucking head on straight and give me a God damn answer!"

"Well, you tell me how two insane alicorns beating each other to a bloody pulp with a draconequus running around with no information on his location does NOT qualify as 'all hell has broken loose?!'"

Stephan stroked the base of his nose with two fingers, sorting out the data in his head. “Look, I can’t tell you more than you already have. We both know about the same amount and it all comes out to jack shit, and what I have here is that some shitstorm just broke loose, and if the last reports are true, and Nightmare Moon just appeared…”

“Wait, Nightmare Moon!? Who the fucking hell is Nightmare Moon?!” From how Stephan was hearing the man speak he might as well have be having close to a mental breakdown from the amount of screaming and shouting over the radio from other sources.

“An ancient enemy of the ponies, sir. Turns out it was Luna all along; guess the Tyrant forgot to mention that with the information trade when she first greeted us. Apparently the unicorns can feel her presence. Some even went totally crazy and talking about the end of the world the moment she appeared. Hell, some of my best pony soldiers pissed themselves at the sight of her. These are the same ponies that stood their ground against a horde of New Foals and slaughtered them like it was a day in the park.” Stephan shook his head. “If that is true, then we have more problems than just the Tyrant.”

The radio became silent. For once. At another time, Stephan might have cherished that, as it usually meant that Command had given him enough leeway to do it himself, or that nothing was going wrong. However, this wasn’t the kind of time where you could so easily ascribe “usually” to the situation. “... Alright, Major Bauer. Do you have any plans to proceed?”

“I want every available unit outside the dark cloud of magic to take position around it. Everyone else find cover and stick to a defensive position. Codename, Night Dome. Make sure they got enough firepower to keep Nightmare inside the perimeter. Shoot to kill for Celestia.”

“Why not both?”

Stephan sighed heavily, “Something big is going on, and I want Luna, or Nightmare Moon, whatever we call her now, and her friend Discord alive for some answers, because from what I’ve seen, they’re not here to harm us. However, if neither of them are going to cooperate-”

“Understood. We’ll take care of it. Anything else?”

“Huh, I didn’t know it would be that easy... anyway, I need to go back. There are still some of my men inside and I won’t let them take on this fight alone.” Stephan could feel Trixie’s glare digging against the back of his skull. He gave another sigh, bracing himself for Trixie’s yelling time.

“I guess ordering you to stand down will amount to jack shit, right?”

Stephan smiled sadly. “You can still try.”

“Okay, do what you have to do. HQ out.”

Stephan took a deep breath, coughing and straightening his back before turning around to see Trixie’s lovable face, the face of fury and anger. “HAVE YOU GONE TOTALLY MAD NOW!? THAT’S NIGHTMARE MOON AND CELESTIA FIGHTING OUT THERE, AND YOU WANT TO GO BACK!?”

“Trixie, look…”

“NO, YOU ‘LOOK’ MISTER! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO GO BACK AND GET YOURSELF KILLED! THOSE ARE PROBABLY THE MOST POWERFUL BEINGS FIGHTING EACH OTHER AND IF YOU GET BETWEEN THEM THEN … then…” Trixie’s head sunk to the ground and Stephan could see tears dripping from her eyes. “... I don’t want to lose you…”

Stephan carefully walked over to her and kneeled down to take her in a warm hug. Slowly but surely, Trixie returned the hug, wrapping her forelegs around him. “I know. I don’t want to lose you either,” he whispered in her ear.

“But… why?” she whimpered back.

“You know why.”

Trixie nodded into his shoulder. “Yes… I know…”

Stephan gave her a kiss on the lips. “Don’t worry. When haven’t I come back?”

“You’ve also never gone out into a battle between two alicorns,” Trixie pointed out, forcing Stephan to laugh nervously.

“I know,” Stephan said, running his fingers through her mane. “I’ll be honest. I’m scared, but I heard Kraber say something over the radio.”

“Him?” Trixie groaned. “You’re seriously listening to him?”

“I know,” Stephan said. “And if I had my way, he’d be in med school or something, anywhere but the front lines. But he said that while he was scared out of his mind, he was more scared of not doing anything.”

“He finally said something worthwhile, did he?” Trixie asked. The two of them were not necessarily on good terms with Kraber, considering him to be a dangerously unstable man with an unreasonably destructive weapon.

“Yeah,” Stephan said, standing up and checking his rifle’s magazine. “I guess he did. Goodbye, Trixie, we’ll be seeing each other after the battle.” He said as he walked out of the communication tent, melting into the hurried crowd of soldiers.

“Good luck, Stephan,” Trixie whispered. “You’re going to need it more than anything.”

Everyone had left. Stephan had roared into his earpiece and at any soldier in the vicinity, ordering them to get away from the alicorns before they were hit by errant spells or crushed by the rubble.

Almost predictably, one of them hadn’t listened, practically drowning Stephan out with a constant stream of insane babble.

Or at least, no more insane than usual.

Kraber’s team had followed Luna, or Nightmare Moon, whatever, Kraber couldn’t give two shits about her name. They attempted to follow, only to quickly lose track of her, forcing his team to sneak along the sides of buildings, down narrow alleyways, practically trying to blend in the shadows well enough so that neither the alicorns nor the Elements could see them. They got their targets in sight when said targets slammed in the building beside them, forcing them to take cover across the street.

Kraber had found cover behind an overturned car, and was firing madly at the two alicorns, his finger twitching on and off the MG2019’s trigger like he was having a seizure and firing off irregular bursts that could have been anywhere from two to twelve rounds. It actually wouldn’t have been that much of a stretch to assume he was having one; he was shaking like a leaf, muttering questionably coherent things under his breath.

“I’ll get you, I swear,” Kraber whispered in one of his more lucid moments, his eyes darting from side to side, straining to find the pink blur that had ruined his life. “I’ll make... you... fokking pay.” Beside him, Aegis, his companion, looked up at him uneasily in between firing off the 25mm grenade launcher.

Kraber didn’t much care which alicorn he hit. The blue one had seemed friendly enough when he’d passed her by that department store, but they were alicorns. The most powerful of all ponies. They probably deserved it anyway. Deep down, there was a voice. Possibly his daughter, Anka’s, voice. Or his son Peter. The voices could be hard to hear sometimes; telling him what he was doing was wrong, that he shouldn’t think like that. But he ignored it.

He had a vendetta to attend to.

Somewhere else on the street, there were men, women, colts, and mares laying down a ridiculous amount of fire onto the two alicorns in the middle of the street, or scouting for the Elements. It was only ponies that were looking for the Elements of course, immune to the potion going against the most savage converters out there was something they would take any day, and they’d be able to get away in time to warn everyone if they were to be attacked.

“I found Pinkie,” Tempest’s voice crackled in his ear. “She’s with at least two other Elements, so-”

“Where’s the pink mank genaiide bergbok?” Kraber asked.

“A couple blocks south,” Tempest said, struggling not to question what Kraber just said. His various South African phrases usually tended to be rather… vile. “I don’t think she can see me, but you can never be sure with her.”

“Thanks.” Kraber said, smiling, and rolling away from the wrecked car, pushing his back to one building. Just for good luck, he took another couple of shots at the two alicorns. “I got some skop, skiet, and donner to do.”

“You’ll get ponified!” Tempest yelled. “Three Elements at once?! That’s madness!”

“Well, you all know that I’m befok, so it doesn’t seem like much of an upset.” Kraber said, shaking his head.

“Kraber!” Stephan yelled over his earpiece. “The hell are you doing?!”

“With all due respect, sir,” Kraber replied, an unhealthy smile on his face, “finishing this fight.”

“And what the hell will you accomplish?" Stephan yelled, inserting himself into the frequency.

“Maybe kill a few of them,” Kraber said. “Ain’t that enough?”

“No! That’s suicide!” Stephan butted in. “I’m not letting you get yourself and all your men turned into one of those goddamned zombies, or have any of the ponies sent to re-education camps!”

“At least I can try to kill them!” Kraber yelled. “At least-”

Aegis hoofed into the conversation, literally with the hoof connecting into his friend’s leg. Heavy enough that it’d make him fall to one knee, but light enough that there wouldn’t be any serious damage.

“Y-you-”

“Viktor,” Aegis whispered, “you are not a child or politician having a tantrum, you are an officer of the Bundeswehr. That has to mean something to you, your son and daughter would be proud of you and this is how you repay them? I am not letting you kill yourself for this revenge trip. Now we will get the hell out of here to somewhere safer, and bring everyone else out, right now. You’ll get to avenge Peter and Anka later, but for now, the best you can do is survive, and by Luna herself, I am not going to a re-education camp. Verdant and I nearly went through that once, and I don’t feel like pressing my luck.”

Kraber stared down at him, the madness in his bloodshot eyes so thick that they seemed to exert actual pressure on Aegis. Then looked back to the direction that Tempest had pointed him in, where he’d find the bitch that doomed his children.

“It’s the oldest trick in the book, and I didn’t know them, though I wish I did,” Aegis continued, “but this is idiotic suicide.”

Kraber looked down at Aegis again, and for a moment, he looked far older than he had any right to be.

“You’re… you’re right.” Kraber said, trying to blink away the mist from his sight. “Dammit, you’re right. Both of you. Peter would want me to go out like a badass, but this…” the English words, a hallmark of his wife, were awkward in Kraber’s native German. “Would just be going out like regular ass.”

“That sounds… kind of silly,” Aegis said, relieved.

“Silly or not, it’s what Peter would have told me,” Kraber said. “Now... if I don’t survive this kak, I have an embarrassing last order for both of us.”

“And that is?” Almost to make his point, there was a scream, and the car Kraber had been hiding behind vanished from existence in a single attack. Both human and pony turn to see the pair of Alicorns spread their wings and take flight, spells raining down around them, deflecting off of each other, and destroying any buildings in the vicinity.

There was a moment of silence.

“Well... fok. Retreat! Everyone!” Kraber yelled, sprinting away from the car's former position and heading for a car parked nearby.

“And now you have to show common sense?!” Aegis yelled following close behind.

“Whose car is this?!” One pony of the team yelled as they closed in, confused as to what they planned to do.

“Does it matter?” Kraber asked as he elbowed out the left diver window, when he took a look inside he deadpanned and grumble his way to the actual driver side window. Once there he took out the window in the same fashion as before, if not more forcibly. Once inside, and in the seat, he pulled a screwdriver out of a small tool kit, and opened up the steering panel. “fokking American diversity, why do I always find the Englis-”

“How do you know how to do this anyway?” another one of his soldiers asked, this time a woman of the group.

“Let’s say that I was involved in some… extracurricular activities back in med school,” Kraber said, twisting the screwdriver into a familiar part of the inside circuitry, and united two cables.

The engine roared to life.

“Yes! Everyone in!”

"But there’s ten of us!"

"It’s a fokking right wheeled Audi Q8, it can hold seven people, four of us are ponies! If you think it’s too fokking hard to be in one seat just carry each other dammit!”

Elsewhere, powerful wings surfed the air with flaps so powerful they could split a building in two. A mighty horn burned at a temperature found in melting solid rock, spouting lethal magic of such power that it could take days for the common unicorn to achieve even once, but so fast that it could be compared to a machinegun. The alicorn’s distraught eyes were in so much turmoil that it was impossible to find a single clear emotion. Grief? Insanity? Rage? Betrayal?

The answer was significantly more complicated than that, for Luna was so shaken by Twilight’s memories that she didn’t know which one she was feeling. Among the great poets of Equestria, there was probably a word for the particular kind of emotion that she was feeling, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember.

But if anypony was to know, she was angry. All she could see within her mind were hordes of innocent people of all races, all screaming at the top of their lungs.

Humans, screaming in agony and horror at the hideous changes that had been forced on them.

Ponies, begging for death and freedom with their minds violated in the most disgusting of ways.

Griffins, the best hunters, became the hunted. Hatchlings just born under their mothers’ feathers never saw what it was like to fly.

Minotaurs, expressions of the utmost pain gracing their faces before they disintegrated into ashes.

Dragons’ blood seeping through their scales as they breathed their last. With several unfortunate souls literally burning from the inside as they lost control of their Flame.

Buffaloes slaughtered for defiance of the Queen or used as slaves, while their protector city, Appleloosa, grew into a desert megalopolis.

Reindeers, majestic and most close to nature didn't remaining hidden in their immense forest cities. Hundreds of miles of wood burned to a crisp, taking them all, burning them all alive.

Every race of Equestria save for certain ponies, once proud, now in flames or ashes on the wind.

And in every single memory, she stood there, smiling and congratulating everypony for their efforts, all in the name of the violation, the rape of innocence and the rights of all sentient beings that she dared call harmony.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Luna roared, practically howling as she unleashed a barrage of blazing spells from her horn, her wings beating to keep her right behind the smiling Tyrant.

"Yes!" The Tyrant cried out with a wicked laugh, her shield fending off the attack before releasing her own. "Show them folly of their war against us dear sister! Show them what goddesses we are compare to them!"

Luna said nothing, only bawling rage as the Tyrant fled, whom attempted to put distance between them. The two alicorns raced between the broken buildings, ignoring the small-arms fire trying to get a lucky shot of them. But Luna cared for one thing and one thing only.

That this perverted harmony were to end here and now.

"DIE!" Luna screamed as she barreled into the Tyrant who had paused in an attempt to take a short turn, shattering her shield and plowing her through several buildings before finally being slammed into the ground. Her back gouging through the street until coming to a stop on an entrenched position; sandbags with human and ponies in the cover.

Both alicorns stood at once in synchrony, their horns crossing as they pushed against one another. The combined fire from allied humans and ponies reached their position, but the reappearing magical field around the duo was impossible to penetrate. The unstable magic coating the rounds defusing or exploding, leaving the bullets to the unrelenting magical force around the two, disintegrating them before they even touched the pair.

"Look how they fear us, Luna." The Tyrant whispered, her smile becoming more deranged as they fought.

Luna shoved her away, before punching her across the face with her forehoof, driving her into the ground. Luna reared up and slammed her hooves into her body, the ground cracking beneath the Tyrant’s body as Luna began to stomp on her repeatedly. Luna reared up again to crush her skull, only to be knocked off her hooves as Celestia threw a nearby delivery truck at her side.

The Tyrant laughed as she got up, her smile never leaving her face. "For them to finally see how ignorant and foolhardy they are to face us! We are gods, and they are mere insects. "

"Kill her!" One human yelled, before he and his compatriots fired on the Tyrant, who only gave them a look of disgust. Horn shining on a special fashion the second time this day.

"Ashes of Solaris."

Luna managed to pull herself free from the triangle between the building and the vehicle, just in time to see the entrenched sandbags be bathed in golden light.

"No!" Luna cried, watching the shocked and horrified looks on the defenders faces as they were transmuted into ash.

"Mere mortals they are. Their lives are snuffed and banished." The Tyrant coughed out a loud laugh before beating her wings once, breaking the ash statues apart. "Wouldn't you agree, dear sister?”

Just when I think that I can’t be any more disgusted, Luna thought, somewhere in a part of her mind that was not quite lost to the swirling madness of unending rage and bottomless despair. It only lasted a split second before Luna’s mindless rage washed it away beneath the churning emotion, the voice receding into the depths of her psyche as the titanic magical aura surrounding Luna simply disintegrated everything within a five-foot radius of her. Orbs of pure magic began to condense and circle around Luna, her eyes freely shedding tears as the unspeakable horrors that she had witnessed played across her mind.

"Constellation Requiem!"

The area around the Tyrant's hooves suddenly erupted into darkness, her eyes widening in surprise before the darkness engulfed her like a giant mouth; forming into an orb. The orb rocketed into the air at breakneck speeds, before finally coming to a full stop nearly a mile up. The orbs surrounding Luna glowed brightly once before they shot up as if from a cannon, one after another. Each small orb slammed directly into the massive orb, causing the dark sphere to slowly twinkle like if it was the night sky.

Small pinpricks of light that were almost like stars formed on the orb, and if one were to connect them, they would form various beast of old in constellations. But once complete, the spell plummeted like a meteor, exploding once it made contact with ground. It left a truly massive crater in the pavement, mere meters away from Luna.

And there Luna stood, eyes focused on the billowing smoke and ash from the crater formed. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a figure sluggishly making its way towards her. She sneered as she saw the Tyrant limp slightly out, blood trickling from various cuts that were healing at a rapid pace.

And, almost insultingly, the insane smile was still on her face.

“Ugh, WILL YOU JUST DIE ALREADY?!” Luna yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

But then Tyrant spoke in a whisper, again. Luna could never hear the words she muttered, but she seemed to do that way too often for her liking. But if Luna had heard the Tyrant at this moment, she would’ve been on guard with her planning.

"Just a little more... and all my problems will be dealt with soon enough."

Fenway Park had been a stadium in the months when the barrier was distant enough for Americans to worry slightly less than everyone else, but it had been jury-rigged into a fortress, now surrounded by barbed wire. Humans and ponies alike stood guard outside, stationed behind either sandbags or in trenches outside the stadium, guarding heavy machine guns and scavenged autocannons. Some unicorns of high magical power were generating force fields to protect from any airships. Snipers and machine gunners kept watch over within the windows of the stadium.

Dozens of Anti-Air flak cannons and SAM Site missile launchers were on top of the stadium to counter pegasi, which also could also be used to tear ground forces like Earth Ponies to pieces, and if that wasn’t enough, there were mortars and other artillery weaponry on top of the stadium to make it even more difficult for the enemy to even try to come near in any direction or height. The humans even had many of their own pegasi to counter other hostile pegasi. Some hidden weapons and traps that could not be seen.

The interior of the stadium itself, however, was a disorganized filthy mess. The place bustled with activity, with thousands of tents of various sizes spread out across the field to leave room for vehicles to drive in and out of the building. Stacks of wooden crates of ammo were randomly scattered around the area. Vehicles with particular insignias were the only way to transport human and pony troops in and out of the building. For the wounded, there were makeshift beds and tents set up, and it was rare to find one that wasn’t occupied by a wounded human or pony soldier. Doctors and Nurses of both species tended to these lucky ones.

In a large dirty J-series Drash Military tent at the center of the stadium was Alicia, who stood next to a pile of ammo crates. The tent appeared to be an armory, due to the vast amount of guns from more sources than people cared to think about, haphazardly organized by caliber on rows of steel shelves. Nearby, human mechanics were fixing damaged vehicles with welding tools, replacing tires and other damaged parts with new ones.

“Bring it back when you’re done!” Alicia shouted over the noise of vehicles and personnel running around. She wondered if Stephan heard her. There was so much noise in the stadium that it was practically impossible to hear anything coherent.

Stephan, who had just borrowed Alicia’s prized DSR.50, slung the weapon over his shoulder together with the three Panzerfaust he got from Mueller. He was leaving the main tent, which had been turned into a forward operating base in haste of the situation. He knew that he needed all the firepower he could get before facing the Tyrant again. All he needed was to get a ride back into the battle, without being noticed by the Tyrant, and he knew only one vehicle that could do that.

“Soldier!” Stephan addressed one of the ponies who was busy rearming his weapon saddle with the absurdly long belts common to pegasus and earth pony soldiers. Due to their lack of hands, most ponies were armed with belt-fed weapon saddles to minimize the problem of reloading. There were a few earth ponies and pegasi in the ranks who could reload on their own, through either some trick of flexibility or an abnormal amount of whatever force it was that could make objects stick to their hooves, but it was a rare skill.

“Y-yes, Major?” The pony turned to him, saluting.

“Did you see the Doctor? I require his assistance.”

The pony looked to the left and right, struggling to remember where he’d heard of the only doctor in the based referred to as simply ‘Doctor.’ “I heard he returned just a few moments ago, sir. He should be over there.” The pony pointed with a hoof in the direction of the Doctor and the Tardis.

Stephan nodded and gave the pony a salute. “Thank you. You may go back to you post.”

The pony saluted back before he turned his attention back to his saddle. Stephan walked in the direction the pony showed him, hoping to catch the Doctor before he left. On his way, he could see the entire place crawled with ponies and humans offering help to each other, checking their weapons, transporting ammo and medical supplies from one place to another or just comforting each other with kind words, nuzzles, and pats on the shoulder. Stephan could only guess how many men he lost today, but he was sure that it had been too many.

In his walk through the array of different tents he found what he was looking for. The Tardis sat out in the opem, hard to miss an old New York City phone booth with graffiti painted on its side and metal sheets in place of the glass. The Doctor and Sparkler stood together in front of the opening. The two of them had never gotten along very well, and both of them had long since realized they would never be friends.

But even through their disagreements, both of them had to admit that they were excellent at their respective jobs.

Stephan walked straight over to the Doctor, who seemed to have just recovered from something heartbreaking. “Doctor.”

The Doctor lifted his head in Stephan’s direction, feeling somewhat uneasy as he saw the human walking towards him. “What can I do for you, Major?” he almost snorted in Stephan’s direction.

“I need your Tardis to bring me back into the fight.” Stephan said in a commanding voice.

“What?”

“You heard me. I need transportation, and your Tardis is the only thing that can travel fast enough in and out. Now, will you get me back to the Tyrant so I can slice her open like a swine, or do I tie you up and try driving this boat myself?”

The Doctor stared at Stephan for a while before he shook his head. “Huh, and see me here still believing no one had gone crazy by now…” he whispered in a harsh tone.

“Everything’s crazy now.” Stephan didn’t let up his commanding tone.

"You and Brigadier Stewart would just get along splendidly." The Doctor muttered under his breath, sighed heavily before he turned to the Tardis, walking inside. Sparkler followed him close by, giving Stephan a almost threatening glare. Which he easily ignored.

Stephan followed both inside but stopped as the radio of the Tardis returned from the dead.

"Doctor, I need pick-up. I'm hurt pretty badly, but my runes are taking care of it. I would hurry, but I have the feeling I won’t be alone for long. Damn if Spitfire and Vinyl don't give me a moments rest after all this is done."

"Cheerilee, I'm on my way. Just hold tight, it might take some time since I have a rather disgruntled human with me," the Doctor answered, ignoring the scowl Stephan sent him.

"Doctor, Stephan, play nice. Don't make me put you two in the corner again."

Stephan rolled his eyes at that, not at all impress how she instantly knew it was him. He and the Doctor's little tiff with one another was well know throughout the PHL. ‘Yeah, like that would happen in the first place.’ Although he did remember getting a 'priority' task later on, only to find out it was a babysitting job. It reeked of foul play, especially since Cheerilee was with him and had a smug grin on the entire two weeks he was there.

Trixie enjoyed herself though.

“Doctor, was Stephan rolling his eyes?”

Stephan blinked a few times in confusion and the Doctor almost chuckled. “Okay, first, it’s still Major Bauer and second, how the hell?”

“I worked with enough fillies and colts to have my eyes everywhere, ‘Major’,” Cheerilee said with a matter of fact tone.

Stephan sighed and stepped into the Tardis. “Whatever. I’ll come over to you. Can you tell me more about the situation at hand?”

“Didn’t change much. Luna and the Tyrant are fighting each other over the city. I see explosions and buildings falling into themselves. It won’t take long before there’s no city left to save.”

“What about Luna? Or Nightmare, or whatever the fuck she calls herself right now. Is she acting hostile against our troops?” Stephan asked as the Doctor and Sparkler began with the start sequence of the Tardis.

There was another pause, Stephan wouldn’t take much more of those, but Cheerilee answered right after with an unsure tone. “It looks like the Tyrant provokes attacks from Luna, and some even hit nearby troops. They barely got into cover, some didn't stand a chance even if they were in cover. All I am hearing down here is that Luna is working with her, some sort of insane plan she formed to show us that we are in over our heads.”

Stephan allowed all the information sink in. How he met them the first time, what happened afterwards, Discord teleporting Mueller and Peter with an Leopard tank into the battlezone; saving his friends and many of his men. Now they were still fighting in the city. Luna turned for whatever reason into Nightmare Moon and reducing what remained of it into nothing. Did Discord and Luna really want to help? Or was that just all a trick to make him trust them, leading them deeper in the resistance only to destroy the humans from the inside out? If he only had the time to figure it out. But time was limited and he had to make his move now.

“Alright, Cheerilee. Take cover and try to not be killed. I’ll do my best to be there as fast as possible.”

Another pause. “Major… Stephan. What chances do you think you have against them? It’s a battle of the gods with those two.”

“I know, but I won’t just stand back and watch some gods and goddesses fighting over my home. The only world I know. I... no, we humans should have the opportunity to fight for our own future. Our own fate. Don’t you think?”

"Yeah, I do believe in that."

"Right then!" Doctor exclaimed, as he ran about the control panel, his daughter smiling as he hit various buttons. "Got your position, Cheerilee, be there in a moment. Allons-y!"

Stephan rolled his eyes. “Dammit Doc, can’t you shout something else for just once?!”

"Slow down!" Aegis yelled.

"Pot holes! Watch for the holes!"

“I’m on the highway to hell~” Kraber hummed under his breath as he took a corner at nearly sixty miles an hour, causing everyone to scream in horror as the car nearly tipped over.

“Oh God why?!” Another soldier yelled in the back, clutching his weapon to his chest as if was a teddy bear.

“Oh man, am I so glad I’m not in there.” Tempest’s voice crackled over their earpieces. “Is it as bad as it sounds from up here?”

“No, it’s friggin worse!” Aegis yelled. “I have no idea how Kraber still has a license!”

“...I have a license?” Kraber asked in between lyrics.

“Well, fuck me!” Aegis groaned.

“Ha, hey hold on a moment. Holy smokes it’s-” Tempest gasped.

“Cheerilee!” Kraber yelled, honking the horn to gain her attention and gunned the engine. Nobody could really see the speedometer in the cramped conditions of the stolen car, but they were all certain that whatever speed they were going was illegal-or damn near impossible-on the city streets. The dark pink mare stared at the speeding car with surprise, before recognizing the driver.

“Oh no,” she muttered. “Oh n-”

And then, all of a sudden, the Tardis was in front of her. The doors flung open, revealing Stephan, a massive rifle and a Panzerfaust slung over his back.

“Cheerilee, taxi’s here! Just jump in and-” Whatever Stephan was going to say, she’d never know, because his jaw had, seemingly apropos of nothing, dropped like a lead zeppelin.

Tires screeched against the pavement and Cheerilee could hear screaming and cursing, human and pony alike.

“Who the hell is driving that?!” Stephan yelled, watching the Audi swerving to one side of the street, brakes and tires squealing in protest.

“Who do you think?!” Cheerilee yelled, diving into the Tardis.

Finally, after a couple seconds that felt like hours, the Audi screeched to a halt in front of the Tardis. It had been packed with so many ponies and people that it looked like a clown car, with Aegis sandwiched between two other ponies that were sitting on the laps of the soldiers in the backseat, a pony on the lap of the soldier in the driver seat, and Kraber in the driver seat.

“Motherfokker!” Kraber breathed, opening the door. “Out of all the cars in the city, I pick the one that needed a tune-up on its brakes?!”

“Why the hell are you here?” Stephan asked.

“Well, you could say I have a remarkable gift for appearing where I’m needed,” Kraber said. “Or-”

“He was retreating to find a better place to shoot the Tyrant!” Aegis interrupted, his voice muffled by the ponies he was squeezed between.

Stephan rose a brow at that, returning his gaze back at Kraber. “Really? Well, I could help you with that.” Stephan took the DSR.50 from his shoulder and held it in front of Kraber. “Take this and follow me. And keep it safe. Alicia will kill me if you break it. And then you. But much slower.”

“Lekker,” Kraber said, looking over the huge sniper rifle with what looked almost like reverence. “I’ll be careful though. I wish I had an NTW-20 instead, but hey, it’s still a big-ass deicidal gun.”

“NTW-20?” Stephan asked, the name ringing in his head.

“It’s this 20mm rifle that cousin Helen over in South Africa just can’t shut up about,” Kraber explained. “I think maybe I can pull some strings and get one. Everyone! Into the Tardis… we’ve got a date with destiny!”

“Oh thank you Luna, breathing room!” Aegis yelled, trotting out of the Audi and into the Tardis, after Verdant Tract, the other pony that had been standing next to him. The irony of him heading into the Tardis was not lost on him.

Celestia had to admit, for a plan made on the wings of chance, it has been going surprisingly well. She couldn't help but smile as she thought back on what to do to ensure this plan came to full fruition.

When she first arrived, she had planned on causing confusion through her arrival, foalnap the Commander, and change him. With the Elements holding him down while she happily forced a potion down his throat in front of his people and the rest of the defenders. Sadly that was not to be, as he did not arrive with Luna and Discord. Still, she could make this work to her advantage, play the part of a uppity leader that has gone over her head and make herself seem completely incompetent, and it worked like a charm... at least until she ran into the current leader of the PHL, Cheerilee.

She flared her wings out, attempting to stall herself before diving between the buildings, Luna right behind her if the spell’s fire destroying the walls beside her was anything to go by. Celestia landed before another defended area, the humans and her lost ponies attacking her, she couldn't help but gleefully shout out inane words to surrounding soldiers, making Luna all but appear to be part of some insane plan she concocted.

Cheerilee, the mare with the runic writings etched into her body, had changed the plans very drastically. Marcus had the same runes on him, so it could be quite harder to accomplish said task in changing. What Discord failed to do, she managed in less than a quarter of the time. It irritated her that her body felt like it was falling apart, and the enraged Luna blasting away at her wasn't helping at all, but all that didn't matter.

All that mattered was that she painted Luna and Discord in a very different light. One that would make the humans destroy the very means of getting allies for their foolish cause.

Luna flew after the Tyrant as she took to the starry night sky, her eyes fully focused on her as the Tyrant's horn glowed with unbridled power.

"Come, Little Moon, show the humans all of your might! Show them all that you can destroy them on a whim- *BOOM*!" Luna blinked in confusion as scores of missiles slammed into the Tyrant's shields, cutting off her ranting, before the explosive force made her tumble away. She righted herself just in time to see twin aircrafts, Jets, just as Marcus once described, blow past her at speeds rivaling her own top flight speed.

“YOU DON’T DESERVE TO CALL ME THAT!” Luna yelled, turning back to see the smoke covering the Tyrant's form, banished with a single beat of her wings. There was fury etched on her face as she unleashed several spells on the flying machines.

Only to see them completely wasted. The runes flared to life, absorbing the hostile magic with ease as they came around for another pass. Luna barely moved away from the Tyrant before they spat out another pair of missiles, along with hundreds of rounds of munitions along with them. Luna watched as the Tyrant shielded herself, her golden dome cracking as the missiles slammed into them, and further shattering from the torrent of rounds, before the jets passed once more, nearly causing her to lose her place in the sky.

She finally righted herself, looking up to see the Tyrant smiling as her horn glowed. Luna blinked as she recognized the spell work.

A Levitation spell?

Luna blinked as the jets came for a third pass, only for the Tyrant to raise her head slightly, and the entire street below was thrown into their rout. Carriages of all sorts flew into the air. Luna balked as the jets attempted to dodge the airborne blockade, only to fail as they plowed through several of them.The runes flared brightly, protecting the pilots within from certain death as they flew past the Tyrant. But she was far from done as two of the heavier carriages slammed into the bottom of the jets, sending the two out of control.

They tumbled before the pilots ejected from the doomed planes, the jets slamming through the buildings, but surprisingly staying in one piece. Luna turned back to continue her fight, only to see the Tyrant's horn glow once more and rip the pilots from their harness of their parachutes. She turned and gave Luna a small smile as she held out the struggling humans before she looked to the ground and slammed them into the pavement. They made unpleasant, identical thuds, like melons dropping to the ground.

And it sickened her.

“You… evil… soulless… bitch,” Luna breathed. “It isn’t enough that thou have to ponify the humans, thou have to go out of your way to make them suffer?!”

“What did you say?" The Tyrant couldn’t help but stare at Luna with utter confusion, running her words through her mind before finally glaring at nothing in particular before finally hissing out her answer. "Commander…”

"Tis a foul speech, but one that conveys exactly what I want to be known of you." Luna growled before smiling. "I will enjoy destroying you, you slimy piece of useless shit."

"I believe I had enough of you, Discord, and this infernal city once and for all!" the Tyrant roared as she sent a blast of magic at Luna, causing her to bring up a weak shield to give her time to dodge it. "This entire city will fall and will have you become my messenger to your own sister. One made from your very own corpse!"

Luna prepared herself, only to hear a disturbingly familiar whine of gears reaching her ears.

“NOW DIE YOU VERMIN!” Celestia’s horn began to shine with all the destructive energy she could muster, a diabolical smile plastered on her face.

A sudden weight on her back snapped her out of her concentration. She turned her head only to stare in horror at what had just appeared.

On her back sat a very familiar shape. Humanoid, clad in full body armor. Celestia could almost feel the smirk the human gave her in return, his legs in a tight lock around her frame. Over them was the Tardis with the Doctor in the doorframe.

“Missed me?” Stephan pulled out his machete and let it transform into the claymore Celestia was now very familiar with. Before she could react, Stephan swung his weapon.

It took a while before she could feel the pain after Stephan cut off the first of her wings. It took only a split second to feel the second wing surrender to his blade’s empowered sharpness. There wasn’t much blood since the blade cauterized the wounds with the electrical heat of the magic within the weapon. Celestia had loved her wings, which had given her such a majestic aura when she spread them to their full length, showing everypony that there was no doubt about her right to rule over all of Equestria. Poems and paintings by the great masters of Equestria had been written about them, but now they were no more than dead flesh and feathers, drooping towards the ground.

She screeched in pain.

Both descended towards the ground. But never alone as Luna followed the two twisting bodies as they in the air, concerned to even try and help for fear of basting the wrong one. Luna could see the perfect opportunity, Stephan was in a perfect position to finish her off, cutting her head from her neck or shoving his blade in her heart.

But instead of finishing her, Stephan groped her horn with one hand while slinging his other arm around her long neck with an almost devil like grin over his face. They dropped faster meter for meter until they reached the point where they fell with a constant speed.

Luna watched the two of them falling, now at terminal velocity as they tumbled madly through the air. She wished she could save Stephan from the impact, but the two of them were so close together, moving so fast, that any spell she used to get a hold of Stephan had a chance to hit Celestia as well… if Celestia didn’t deflect it, though.

“LET GO OF ME!” Celestia struggled to say through the blinding pain, but Stephan would never listen to her, using her body to control the flight, keeping himself on top of her and preventing her from teleporting away by punching her in an eye, constantly disrupting her concentration. She twisted and turned to shake him off, or at least keep him from punching, but to no avail. The human kept her from getting out of his grip, rotating her towards the ground while remaining atop her back. He remembered the old lessons on how to control his fall, ever since he was in the para assault detachment. The thing is, this time he was going to do it without a parachute.

This was going to hurt like hell.

Celestia could see the street getting closer as more details of it popped into view. There was no time left and he wouldn’t get off until both hit the ground. All she could hope for now was that the human would die from this instead of her.

To say the impact was hard was an understatement. The earth shattered, the pavement literally exploded, and dust filled the air around the point of impact. Something flew out of the dust cover and landed in the street. It bounced on it several times until it came to an halt, a good fifty meters away. Only the glowing runes revealed that it was Stephan, who had been thrown away by the sheer kinetic force of the impact.

Stephan clenched his hands to fists and pushed himself off the ground. A fall from that height was something else compared to a jump from the second floor on a car. He still felt the collision with the street, even with the protective power of the runes.

“Fuck… me,” Stephan coughed, “that hurt.” He looked over to the crater he created with Celestia’s body. He couldn’t make her out in all that dust, but he was sure that she must have suffered more than hi-

A roar that blew away the dust shattered his hope of a quick victory. Now with the dust gone, he could see Celestia in the center, blood and dirt covering her once-pristine white fur. She took a few deep breaths before she turned her head to see what the human had done to her.

Her beautiful wings were no more. The only thing left were two fleshy stumps, with the remaining bones under the thin skin. She glared at the human that had dared to hurt her, who was standing a respectable distance away, surveying the damage with appreciation.

“You… YOU WORTHLESS APE! I SHALL DESTROY YOU, YOU AND THE REST OF YOUR RACE FOR THIS HUMILIATION!”

“No, you won’t!” Luna yelled, dropping to the ground. “Prepare yourself, you abomination masquerading as my dear sister, you… TYRANT SUN!”

A corona of light shone over Celestia’s mane. “You think that you can defeat me?”

“I don’t think so!” Luna yelled. “I know so!”

“No,” Stephan said, holding out a hand, motioning for her to move back. “She’s mine.”

“But you’ll die!” Luna yelled.

“We’ve had… certain problems with alicorns,” Stephan explained. “It has to be a human that does it. Besides… I have a plan.”

Luna looked at him uncertainly, then abruptly remembered what weapons the humans had. It was probably best to listen to him. “Is it a good plan?”

“If you stay out of my way, then you can see how good it is,” Stephan said, “just keep out of my way, some of my men get a little... trigger happy.”

Luna couldn’t decide if that was a threat or a warning. Either way, it was definitely worth listening to, so she moved back, just out of range of the Tyrant’s spells.

“Refusing aid from an alicorn?!” Celestia laughed. “Your capacity for self-destruction amazes me.”

Stephan brought his rifle on his shoulder, ready to battle what remained of the Tyrant one last time. “Bring it, BITCH!” he roared.

Celestia blinked at the crude insult before she screamed with all her might and stormed forward. Even without her wings, she was still able to run at an inhuman speed. Stephan had almost no time to react as he pulled the trigger. Unfortunately for him Celestia managed to dodge his first burst, closing the gap too quickly for his liking.

Stephan dived and rolled off to the side as the Tyrant tried to stab him with her magic loaded horn. Again he sprayed what felt like an entire magazine’s worth of bullets in the general direction of her head, to no avail as an irritating golden aura blocked his efforts. He turned the safety of his grenade launcher off, and fired the 40mm HEDP. He hit the shield, but this time it shattered under the extra power of unstable magic.

Celestia had to look away to prevent any shrapnels from hitting her eyes. Opening them just in time to see Stephan jump and kick her across the base of her neck, his rune enhanced strength hurling her on the other side of the street and into a closed store through the windows. But just as she was to recover, Stephan brought up his Panzerfaust, and fired it directly into the hostile specter and firing with gusto. The rocket flew into the store, smashing something highly inflammable as the entire main floor burst into a ball of flames. Which proved too much for the store, collapsing completely on the insane alicorn.

Cheerilee and the Doctor floated overhead, observed the scenario with concern. Cheerilee was the first one to speak up. “Is… is it over?”

"I really doubt that," the Doctor muttered quietly. “These things are never over so easily.”

Stephan mechanically threw the used Panzerfaust to the ground and loaded a new magazine and new grenade for the rifle, never leaving his eyes of the burning building. Come on, Celebitch. Did the others really beat you that hard already?

His answer came as a magical beam right from the middle of the smoking wreckage, this beam took form of a neon spinning sickle. He turned on one foot to let it pass, and good things too, for it cut through the ground, cars, and building unlucky enough to be in the way. Which by default forced him to run out of the way of the collapsing structures.

Celestia jumped out of the fire. She’d been heavily wounded already, but those were small compared her new ones, burns that had taken great swathes of her fur. With anger cracking her teeth another another magical sickle was unleashed, this time Stephan had to duck before it decapitated him. He smiled at her and the possibility of a good battle. Thought so.

“DIE ALREADY HUMAN!” Celestia fired several deadly beams at him, straight this time, some hit his own shield backing him flinch, while escaping the others.

“Come on you monster, is that all you got?!” Stephan mocked, firing his weapon at any presented opportunity. Some projectiles collided, but he might as well have been shooting BBs. Still, she couldn’t concentrate on her healing abilities to grow her wings back. Not that she was thinking clearly anyway. Her objective had bubbled down to killing this irritating human who had actually succeeded in hurting her.

“Enough of this!” Celestia rose her head and her horn began to glimmer again.

“STEPHAN, WATCH OUT!” Cheerilee screamed from above, the Tardis flying overhead, but it was too late. Stephan was not aware of something the Tyrant had been letting loose to instantly kill the pests around her.

“ASHES OF SOLARIS!”

“Asses of wha-” Stephan covered his eyes with folding his one arm on his face as the blinding light splattered his world white. It almost burned his vision away, even with the armored visor over his face. He could feel his runes overload with magic, almost burning into his skin through his armor.

The entire area was bathed in the lethal spell, all living beings within turned into ash. The golden light dimmed with its task done, Celestia lowered her head again with a evil grin on her face, sure of her victory.

Only to lose it again with the human still standing, one arm covering his eyes. The runes on his armor glowed blood-red, steam wafting off the plates. Stephan lowered his limb catching the color of his runes. Then he glanced up again to Celestia, first confused, then an evil grin of his own. “My turn.” Stephan said calmly, and charged.

Celestia shifted on her hooves to arrive into a defencive stance but stopped when the human’s rifle fired in short bursts, the deadly bullets punching against her as they impossibly penetrated the first layer of her skin, if they didn’t bast into one of her wounds. Through the pain, she leaped backwards to achieve distance from the human.

“If you think that was all I can do…” Celestia growled as she charged her horn again. “THEN YOU SHOULD THINK AGAIN!”

Celestia, formed an orb of burning magic, almost like a small sun, telekinetically raising into the sky. It stopped at a seemingly random height and exploded into hundreds of little burning orbs, all falling down towards Stephan.

He watched the spectacle with worry. Sure, his runes could do a lot to help him, but they were already overloaded and if the attack connected...

He ran like hell, madly dodging the orbs, which seemed to be homing in on his position. He even fired at them, the magical bullets destroying them, but there were just too many for him to shoot. One exploded against his back, throwing him forward. Another one hit him while down, but he recovered and managed to just barely dodge a third. He gulped as he saw how several more closed in. No time to escape anymore and he braced for the impact.

The orbs slammed against him, and his own magical barrier began to crack open until it dissipated. He could only hold up his arms, enclose his area of effect by ducking, and endure the remaining orbs blasting against his armor.

Celestia laughed as the human vanished in several explosions. Debris and shrapnel filled the air, the echo of the explosion could be heard for blocks around the city. “That is what happens to all that dare to stand against me, human.” She turned her head to Cheerilee and the others floating above, her eyes searching until they fell upon Luna standing on a rooftop. “Now, back to you, sister.”

Luna stood up and opened her wings up wide, a bright flash and Discord appeared beside her, a smirk adorning his face.

"Miss me, Lulu?" Discord greeted her, ignoring the draconic eyes bearing down on him.

"You lied to me about the information." Luna growled, her eyes filled with anger, but in control compared to herself in battle.

"Not really." Discord hummed as he took curiosity to his claws, brushing them against his chest. "I warned you a long time ago. You should have been prepared. Besides, I wanted you to learn what happened to them yourself. It’s better if the information you learned was given to Celestia from a sister and friend, rather than little old me."

"A warning would have sufficed. " Luna huffed in annoyance.

"Nothing I would have said could’ve prepared you for what awaited inside her corrupted skull." Discord commented back, his eyes trained on the Tyrant below. "At least anything you would believe without proof.”

Luna remained silent, nothing she could have said refuted his claim. Really though, Luna did learn a lot of valuable information. The only thing now was to survive this fight and report back to Celestia - her Celestia, that is. She would be desperate to hear from her sister.

Celestia stepped forward with a demonic grin on her face. Oh, how she would enjoy to finally rid herself of those pests, all that she needed now was a good push to end it, to have them slaughter one another. Shame that the Knight didn't survive, perhaps I can use another. There are other humans I can push around.

She stopped moving as she heard heavy footsteps. Staring at the burning point where the human once stood, her heart seemed to stop for a moment as she saw a shadow walking out of the inferno. It couldn't have been any better to see him still alive.

Perfect...

The smoke cleared and revealed Stephan who took carefully placed steps towards the Tyrant. The protecting visor of his helmet was no more, ripped off by the explosion. It was almost a miracle that his helmet wasn’t blown off as well. Breathing heavy, blood running from under his helmet over his face, only one emotion registered to those looking.

Fury.

Pure, unmistakable fury.

How did he… Cheerilee’s mind ran into overdrive.

“Reactive Rune Plates.” She heard the voice of the Doctor behind her. “During battle, they load magical power that has been used against the wearer into them. They only react on a direct magical attack after the first layer, his own shield, has been destroyed. Sparkler got the idea from the reactive armor the humans use on their tanks. So, she gave him that extra layer of protection before he left to fight.” The Doctor stepped to her side, watching the Tyrant who could only watch the human walking out of the black cloud with a growing smile.

“But even if the wearer survives, they’re still damaged,” the Doctor finished.

Cheerilee returned her gaze at Stephan and saw how some lose armor plates dropped off. She could still see the runes on them, now burned out and useless. They wouldn't help him next time. She hoped that he can finish this quick, otherwise…

Stephan took another stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the Tyrant who took a step back and settled into a defensive stance.

“Enough of this shit. Let’s end this!” Stephan rammed his right foot in the ground before him, digging deep to make the transition step/jump forward a possibility. His speed jumped from walking to a sprinting stallion right for his target. Every remaining Runic Plate sloughed off his armor, leaving a trail behind him only hidden beneath the dirt he picked up from his savage steps. He stumbled as the weight abruptly disappeared, tripping slightly, but he kept on course, heading straight for the Tyrant.

Celestia clenched her teeth as she brought her horn down and fired more magical bolts at him. She got clearly confused as she missed. No, not missed. He managed to dodge them all, with a speed and agility far above the weak, pathetic human norm. Somewhat panicking she fired off yet another barrage of magical bolts, only for him to dodge, slide or jump away out of her line of fire every time and enclosing the distance between them.

One blink. One blink of an eye and Celestia was almost face to face with the human. She tried to stomp him with her forehooves, but she had to actually rear first, and he was faster. His first punch shot upwards, hitting her under the chin and making her fly backwards.

“That was for my home!” Stephan screamed as he jumped to follow her. He brought both hands up over him and united them into one big fist, hammering her on the head and driving her body face forward into the ground. “And that was for everyone you killed in your genocidal war!”

Celestia barely had the strength to stand up. But Stephan was already at her, groping her necklace and turned her around to face him. “And this one...” he began taking a step back, his grip around the necklace so tight that it bent in his hand as he reached back with his fist, the original runes on his armor pulsing like veins before shouting, “IS FOR ME!”

Celestia probably didn’t even notice the impact. The blow was so hard that her necklace tore apart, her body crashing against the ground, slightly bouncing as the asphalt scraped off her fur, eventually her skin.

With a satisfied smile, Stephan let the remains of her jewelry drop to the ground, then he fell on his knee, coughing up blood. He could feel his body rebelling against the powers the runes gave him. They were not the same as Marcus or Cheerilee’s, which were actually meant to give the user superhuman strength, and not just boost the user’s natural strength for a long amount of time.

He could see movement in the edge of his vision and picking up his vision he saw the Tyrant wobbling on her legs, her hooves cracked. She looked up at him, her mouth open and blood dripping out of it in a constant stream. Her eyes fixed on him with a smile, and she coughed slightly before speaking. “You… shall be the first one to die.”

She lowered her head and aimed her horn at him and began to attack him like a wild bull. Stephan knew that his armor had no power anymore and he could barely move. If she hit him head-on, it was over, but he had still one card he could play.

“NOW, KRABER!”

A loud bang echoed through the streets. One that was already very familiar for Luna and Celestia. The Tyrant staggered for a second, and then tumbled backwards, scraping over the pavement once more, her journey only stopped by a car. She breathed raggedly, everything crying out in burning pain. She couldn’t feel her hind legs anymore, and if she could raise her head she would see why. Her spine had been hit by another bullet of the same type that cost her an ear, shattering it and paralyzing her. Blood spattered across the pavement.

Kraber, secure inside of a building, worked the bolt of the rifle, ejecting the used case which landed on the ground with a metallic clang. He smiled. “Got you, motherfokker!”

Stephan pulled himself back up, using his rifle as a makeshift cane, wobbling slightly from the weight he was putting on his feet. Once he stood, he slung his rifle back over his shoulder and pulled out his machete. Step by step, he closed the distance between him and the Tyrant. The Tyrant could see the human coming, as slow and inexorable as an avalanche. And for the first time her smug smile was gone, only to be replaced with annoyance. She is going to die... and she finds it annoying. She IS insane. Stephan thought to himself as he hobbled closer. She scrambled at the ground, using her forelegs to crawl away, slowly but surely. Stephan didn’t need to wait very long until he was above her, looking down at her broken body.

“Get over here!” He grabbed her by the mane, yanking her up and getting a grip around her throat, making a cracking noise of some sort, pulling her up until her numb half remained on the ground. He showed her the blade which gleamed in the sun. Just before he rammed it into her chest.

“You feel that? Huh? That is good old human metalwork. No magic. Just a long time of experience and hard work. Crafted by the materials of this world.” He knew that he missed her heart. He wouldn’t grant her a quick death. Not after all she did.

He saw Kraber walking out of his hiding spot, together with some other soldiers, human and pony alike.

“How… could you betray me for these.... ugly, filthy apes?” the Tyrant moaned out, blood dripping from her mouth as she look to the pony soldiers allied with the humans.

“Well, let’s just say that not everyone could stomach your policy changes,” Aegis replied calmly.

Stephan slowly twisted the blade in her chest, blood dripping down on the street. Celestia made some gurgling noises as the blade cut her body. “You know, once I wanted you alive. To be faced by the people and let them judge over you. But…” He looked at the crowd slowly surrounding him and the Tyrant. “I guess they are already here and have decided. Am I right, comrades?”

“Just get on with it!” Kraber yelled over, walking down the street from his hideaway in a nearby building. Many of the other soldiers in the vicinity nodded their heads in agreement. "Every moment we spend drawing this out is another moment that one of the Elements could attack,” he said, checking his MG2019’s battered F3 thaumic capacitors to see if the limiters that kept it from blowing up in his hands were still working. “We can parade around with her skull for the others later on."

Stephan smiled and returned his gaze to the Tyrant. “You heard them. Any last words?” he asked, slowly tightening his grip on her throat.

“...you… all… going to die…”

“If it means getting to watch you die, totally worth it.” Kraber said nodding.

Stephan shook his head. “No, when you are dead. It will be all over then.”

The Tyrant looked directly into his eyes, no longer filled with anger, but filled with madness and victory. “No… it won’t… if I die… then you will unleash the others…”

Stephan’s eyes narrowed into slits. “What do you mean by that?”

A weak laugh escaped Celestia’ lips, blood splattering Stephan's chest. “Do you really think I wouldn’t have a plan? Look around you. All of you humans and the ponies who betrayed me… Leaders of the PHL... of the European armies...all out in the open, ready to be killed by my puppets…”

Stephan gnashed his teeth. “What are you talking about? Your New Foals? We can deal with them.”

“I’d like to see that cannon fodder try and fokking stop me!” Kraber laughed.

Again the Tyrant laughed. “No… no not them…” She weakly lifted a hoof and pointed at Luna and Discord. “By them.”

“What?” Stephan turned his head at both of them, only to see that many soldiers turned at them as well and aimed their weapons at them. Luna, who was reverting back to normal, had a look of surprise and opened her mouth to retort back, but was stopped by Discord, who didn’t have to look at her, but did shake his head.

"I planned on bringing out the leaders of the PHL into the city... have leaders of the human resistance within this city... and devastate the entire resistance command structure in one strike." She coughed out, smiling as she found it funny. "They would lay waste to the entire city... and by the time you stopped them... it would pave the way for my armies to overrun this stupid country."

Kraber turned to Luna and aimed his MG2019 straight at her head. “I KNEW IT! Alicorns… How could I ever expect that I could trust THEM?!”

“EVERYONE, STAND DOWN!” Stephan shouted, hoping to keep his men from doing something stupid. “Especially you, Kraber!"

Stephan shifted back to the crippled alicorn, pushing the blade a little deeper to cause her to groan. "If what you say is true, then why were you going through all that trouble and facing us in open combat? Why sacrifice yourself just to get rid of us with these two pawns?”

The her purple irises locked onto his own, a small chuckle escaping her lips before it escalated into full blown laughter, only to be cut off when Stephan punched her in the throat, didn't really stop her from finding it amusing from the twinkle in her eyes.

“That’s the beauty of it… I’m not even really here…” the Tyrant whispered, before she began to chuckle again, her eyes filled with mirth and insanity.

Now, that confused and horrified Stephan. “What?”

“This body… is only an Avatar… a puppet controlled by me the same way I control my sun. Equestria is filled with wonders you will never live to see, human, Discord told me of a certain Mirror Pool he created when he was younger, before he fell in line for the cause. You really didn’t believe that I would show up by myself, did you? You truly believe I would show up in a city... without my armies at my back? How stupid you must really be.” She rotated to face Kraber. “Viktor Kraber… your name I know. I wonder how your children are. Oh, wait. They are no more, right?”

“...Don’t you… fokking dare… speak about my CHILDREN!” Kraber yelled, shaking.

She smiled at Kraber’s outburst. “Don’t worry. I assure you, they’re doing just fine in the Canterlot Academy. I could help you to visit them. You daughter would be so happy to see her daddy again…. but she thinks you’d be a better father with hooves. Possibly fur? You indeed know, like how you would have with those costumes you bought for their birthday-”

“Don’t… don’t you…” Kraber trembled, the MG2019 shaking in his hands. “WHEN I MEET THE REAL YOU, I’M GONNA RIP OFF HER HORN AND PISS IN HER SKULL! AND-”

“Keep it together, Kraber! It wasn’t your fault! Or theirs!” Aegis glared at the Tyrant. “Only hers.”

“You should shut your mouth, Tyrant!” Stephan hissed. “All this… all of it happened because of you!”

The Tyrant returned her eyes to Stephan. “You have to talk, so called knight. Where was it… Paris? Didn’t you slaughter the little fillies and colts in there? Crushing their skulls with your bare hands?”

Stephan closed his lips as the pictures returned in his head. He couldn’t quite see it, but Luna had a confused and sad look. Of course, the Tyrant couldn’t let that moment pass. “It is true, sister. That human killed dozens of innocent children. Murdering them... Slaughtering them like they were mere animals..."

“Stop it,” Stephan whispered, his eyes losing focus as he drifted into his memories, the sounds of child like laughter echoing along with the sound of flesh being torn apart.

“They just wanted to make you happy, Knight. To help you forget all that killing. And what did you do?” She tilted her head slightly, mocking him with a grin. “You murdered them. Every. Single. One.”

Stephan closed his eyes. He was barely able to keep his tears back. “I know what I did was wrong… yes, monstrous even... and I have to live with it for the rest of my life.”

His hand tightened around her throat as he continued, “But I will live on. I have friends who still look at me and not see the monster that probably hides under all that armor and skin.” He looks over to Kraber. “Kraber… I’m not saying that I know how you feel… but know that you are not alone with your burden.”

"Fok that, I don't need to hear this shit!" Kraber pointed his weapon at the draconequus and alicorn. "Fokking kill them!"

"Stand down!" Stephan’s instincts were screaming at him, they were all but yelling that she was lying to them, but why?

"Yes! Waste your weapons on them, believe you can kill them." The Tyrant cackled, her eyes looking directly to Discord, smiling with a deranged face. "Discord alone can wipe out every city on the coast with a snap of the claw."

“Well, why hasn’t he?” Aegis asked out loud, but his voice was drowned out by the others, their voices raising in fear as they talked.

"We should get rid of them."

"She’s right… I heard about Discord. He raises the sun and moon like its foalsplay! Who’s to say that he can't get rid of us just as easily?"

"She turned into Nightmare Moon, Twilight Sparkle may have done it to make sure that Luna would unleash everything she can!"

"Fucking blow their brains out, before they kill us all!"

Stephan's eyes widened in alarm as they raised their weapons, shock coursing through when he realized he was losing control of his men.

"Fokking fire when I give the command." Kraber said as he slung his MG2019 over his shoulder in favor of bringing up the DSR.50, one of the only weapons in their arsenal that guaranteed a killing blow. While his MG2019 was a German descendant of the old F3-Thunderlord project from the very early days of the Conversion War, the DSR.50 far outstripped it in damage per bullet, even with all the power that the MG2019’s questionably stable runes provided.

"Kraber!"

"Go ahead! It will do nothing!" The Tyrant laughed, only to grunt as Stephan twisted the blade more.

"Shut up!" Stephan hissed her before looking back to Kraber.

"Ready!"

"Kraber stand-!" Stephan fell silent, even the Tyrant looked on in surprise as Luna calmly placed her head on the barrel of the rifle. Even Kraber seemed completely stunned, gaping at Luna.

"Let me make it easy for you." Luna said after a moment of silence, standing controlled in front of the barrel of his weapon.

"W-what?" Kraber stuttered out, clearly not expecting this move.

"This weapon was able to shear off a horn of the Lord of Chaos,” Luna stated, Discord slightly wincing at that memory. “And it cut off an ear and broke the spine of an alicorn, even if it was fake. My skull shouldn't even slow it down." Luna said quietly, Discord staring at her with utter surprise as well. "In the event that what she said is true, a simple squeeze would kill us far faster than we can even move to react."

Discord gave an annoyed growl at Luna before closing his eyes and his arms popping off, claws popping off as well. Stephan stared for a long moment, realization running through him that the two had all but put themselves to their mercy. He turned to the Tyrant, noticing the frown on her face before she looked back to him.

Stephan stared long and hard, before a scowl formed on his face. "You bitch. You wanted us to kill them."

The Tyrant coughed, smiling weakly at him. "Perhaps I should have pushed a bit further on Viktor Kraber... at least then he would be far more useful than what he is now."

Kraber was silent for a long moment, his eyes wide as he ran the words over again in his mind before he roared out in frustration, throwing the rifle aside while his anger boiling over as he realized how easily she’d manipulated him. "ARGH, GOTTVERDAMMTE SCHEIßE!”

Stephan growled and lifted the Tyrant higher. “You think you're pretty clever, don't you? Almost making us kill possible allies. Your sister no less. For that alone you deserve to die.”

"My Dear, I nearly succeeded doing just that." Celestia calmly explained, causing Stephan to narrow his eyes at her next words. "Had the two had at least spoken up for their defense, it would be all I needed to win."

“You know… I really hope that you, your real you, is going to feel this, too, in case that would make this even more enjoyable.” Before the Tyrant could have said anything, Stephan transformed his blade in the claymore. Her flesh began to sizzle as the blade burned its way through her barrel, her lungs and heart roasting away from it, all the organs in its path sundered apart to make room for the deadly magical sword. And with one quick swing, he cut through her upper half with ease. The dead body flung to the ground and her halves, only connected by her under half slide apart, blood and brain matter spread across the street. Stephan took a few steps back before turning to Luna, sheathing his blade.

The sound of magic gained all of their attention, looking up to see Twilight Sparkle and rest of the Elements looking down at them. Stephan and Kraber growled as they glared up at them, only for Twilight to give them a small smile and drop a scroll down to them before vanishing in a flash of light. A second later, the entire roof exploded as Luna launched a devastating spell. Stephan held up his arm to shield his face from the debris, staring at Luna with surprise.

Most of the soldiers had their weapons trained on the alicorn, only to lower them when they saw her face. Utter anguish dominated her face as she fell, covering her face with her hooves. "I'm so sorry, Twilight... I have failed to release you from your torment."

Discord rolled his shoulders, giving Luna a small grim look before looking to Stephan who reached down for the scroll.

"Hold on, Major!" Verdant called out, trotting over quickly to him as his horn glowed. "Let me check it before you start opening it. It could be laced with compulsion magic or potion, better to have me check it."

Discord made his way up to Stephan, giving the silent Kraber a look as he sat down on the curb, holding his head within his hands.

"Stephan Bauer," Discord started, causing the man to look at him, "Colonel Renee spoke very highly of you. I can see that his words were not to be misjudged. Not many can face Celestia, somewhat, and live to tell the tale."

"Where is he?" Stephan asked, his body screaming from overexertion and almost forcing the words out of his mouth. He felt like he could drop to the ground at any second, but he needed to know. "Where is Renee?"

"In Equestria." Discord answered, causing everyone to stop and stare at him. Cheerilee was making her way to them when she heard, gasping in shock before rushing before the draconequus, bowling over Aegis as if he wasn't even there.

"He's alive! In Equestria!? Where?!" Cheerilee begged him, her eyes pleading with him.

"That answer..." Discord started, rubbing his head while he looked around to see everyone focused on him. "Is a little complicated."

"Uncomplicate it then." Stephan coughed, rubbing his chest in pain. He nearly collapsed as he attempted to take a step, only to be caught by Kraber as he got up to listen in.

“Easy there,” Kraber said. “It’s been a hell of a long day.”

"We come from an Equestria..." Luna began, her eyes focused on nothing as she talked, ignoring everyone’s stares, "where we had no knowledge of humanity or its plight... until a week ago. A human appeared in Ponyville, bringing tales of horror, despair, and death."

Cheerilee stared at her, eyes fully focused on the Alicorn, full of disbelief. "You..."

"We hail from a different Equestria without the ponification potion, or the madness that has gripped yours, where your Colonel landed and brought to our doorsteps a war to which we can not simply turn a blind eye." Luna answered, causing everyone to whisper to one another.

“I’m not sure I believe it,” Kraber whispered to Stephan, his eyes trained on the alicorn. “But I don’t want to be the idiot who ruined everything when he didn’t know enough. I just came within spitting distance of that.”

"Sir... you... might want to take a look at this." Verdant spoke up, handing the scroll to Stephan. Stephan took the note and began to read, his eyes growing wide before the scroll fell out of his grasp.

It read:

Dear Humanity,

Your attempts to delay me have been mildly amusing. I have enjoyed myself as I watched your misguided, deluded attempts to overthrow me, your stubborn insistence to destroy yourselves, but I find myself growing tired of your delusions of confidence and competence. As a result, I am ending this game, and will personally arrive to greet you as you line up to join in my glorious empire, becoming perfect ponies like all of my subjects. In celebration, I will personally wipe this city from existence. I expect that you will make the right decision and embrace perfection under my grace. After all, you barely survived a mere Avatar of my power. To face me and my Elements at once, in all of our glory, that would be a level of suicidal stupidity that I’m sure we can all agree is something best eradicated when you all become newfoals.

I await to meet my new subjects,
Queen Celestia

Couple of Hours later, Fenway Park, Private Viewing Box

It was a very, very homey room. All polished dark wood and red and green cushions, the kind of room that simply exuded calm, urging you that all was well, that everything was fine, and, if it was a slow night, almost lulling you to sleep. A large bar lined the back room, normally stocked with various alcoholic drinks for rich ticket holders to enjoy while watching the game.

That had changed tonight. Like most landmarks or haunts in cities on the Eastern seaboard, it had been commandeered by the military, and it was impossible to ignore their presence. Cords snaked across the floor, Stephan’s pistol was half-assembled on one table, with a wide assortment of small military equipment leaning on chairs and against walls.

'Ever since Renee's disappearance, I had the entire UN task Force answering to me. And I thought leading the EU force was bad, Marcus had all that I had to deal with and more!' Stephan was rather stunned to have an UN and American soldiers coming up to him after Renee's MIA status, and was handed control of the Task Force. Turns out that Marcus wanted Stephan to take the lead in case he was unable to. Other EU Leaders had all but approved of it, allowing Stephan to still retain control of his own troops. It was overwhelming and for the life of him, couldn't figure out how Marcus dealt with it.

Stephan looked up from his report when the projector turned itself on, various surviving world leaders appearing before him. He gently ribbed the Doctor, gaining his attention from his own reports.

"Stephan, is this information correct?" President Davis started, a copy of his report in his hand.

"Yes sir, she showed her hand today, and even with what we got, we are sorely outclassed by the sheer power she could bring. She is going to place everything she has right down our throat." Stephan said, throwing the scroll onto the table. "If today's battle between Discord and Luna against that monster was anything to note, we're not going to make it long enough to face off against her and her armies at the same time."

President Davis closed his eyes, rubbing his nose as he felt a familiar headache coming on. "Was there anything we did that left a mark on that beast?"

Stephan smirked a she pulled his machete and slammed it into the table, then pulled out a crystal round set it down. "Three things actually. The crystal rounds worked like a charm, even hurt Discord himself, my machete managed to severe her wings off and cut through her body, and our runic pony got in the act and laid down her own attacks on it."

"At least that is something to note, anything you recommend once she comes bearing down on us?" Brigadier General Philppe Delon asked, his uniform covered with dozens of medals, a smoking pipe held in his hand.

"I need the best snipers we can get our hands on, load them up with as many crystal rounds we can and have them take the shot." Stephan rubbed his chin, a frown on his face. "Maybe a heavy machine gun or autocannon with the crystals rounds placed onto the TARDIS just in case we can't get the shot."

Doctor scowled at Stephan from his place behind him, but said nothing as he busied himself with his notes.

"So be it, I'll start moving what I can to Boston." Davis sighed, resting back in his chair, "I hope you don't mind me asking Stephan, but you seem to be trying to avoid the Elephant in the room, or in this case, two Elephants."

"I must agree with President Davis on this, Major Bauer. You have been avoiding it. Although, given what I saw in the report... it’s beyond my expectations," said Japan's Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera, who retired late in 2014, only to be forced back into the position due to many of the people who could have taken the position were killed or ponified in the opening days of the war.

"Trust me, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. They come from a different Equestria. It appears that when our little piece of Elements tried to attack Colonel Renee, it sent him away instead of turning him to stone." Stephan gave a small grimace as he stood, the bandages on his body a testament of how much he’d gone through the past hour. “Discord claimed that a past version of him placed the suggestion in our Twilight’s mind, or a piece of his soul. I don't know, but that’s… I have no idea how that’s supposed to work.”

"You can sit, Stephan. You don’t need to stand up for us after all you gone through," Davis said, a look of concern on his face as he took note of his stance.

"I'm going to have to turn that offer down, sir. If I sit, there is very little chance of me getting back up." Stephan gave a small, painful chuckle. "Back to the main point, Renee’s alive. In Equestria, I might add. Runes are good, but not that good."

"There is also an issue of time inconsistencies. You reported that Princess Luna told you he arrived a week ago, and yet he has only been reported MIA for less than 14 hours? What’s the issue here?"

"I believe I can answer that." The Doctor smiled as he trotted up next to Stephan. "Let’s make this simple, yes?"

"Please do, Doctor."

"Right then. Imagine Earth, this entire universe, is one river. The water running at a steady pace as it goes along. This is our time stream in our universe, so to speak." Doctor smiled as the three men on the screen nodded their heads to him as they followed his example. "How fast it is going is how much we perceive time. Though lets say if you were to take a person from that stream and put him in another stream."

"Wouldn’t that cause some sort of backlash on a person? If I get what you are speaking about, shouldn't that person perceive time differently from the other stream?"

"Only if said person was connected to the stream in such a way. Or if the stream was going backwards, trust me, that is a headache I don't even want to think about. I believe you made a issue about in an old tv show... Sliders, I think? Anyway, it is more like the person is a stick, just going along for the ride, they wouldn’t notice much." The Doctor smiled at the President for his question before moving on. "Now then, our good Commander is the stick, and he was placed onto another river, another time stream. This one going at a much faster pace than his old one. He wouldn't notice any difference, just that he is in another world, another universe. "

"I get it. While this other stream is moving faster, ours is still going the same pace, and if he was to be put back onto our stream after a few months there, it can only be a few weeks that passed here."

"Or days, hours, minutes, even seconds!" Doctor smiled as they figured it out. "Each universe has its own laws that which govern it, time is no exception to this. Time, however, is also very flexible. Connecting two worlds for any length of time will cause both time streams to... how do you say it? Compensate for the overflow. A faster stream will slow down, while the slower stream speeds up. That much I guess for our own worlds given that the same no doubt happen for us."

"Thank you Doctor. Although the implications of Princess Luna and Discord confirming that Marcus is residing there now just threw everything we know of the magical field out the window."

"Not really." Doctor said as he trotted to a stack of paper work, picking one sheet of paper up in his teeth and looking at another seemingly random sheet. "They always told us that magic is the basis of all life in Equestria, at least that is what the normal ponies say. To say that a strong enough magical field is lethal to non-magical beings always rang a little hollow to me, but the demonstration of what happened early on all but put a hold on future testing, and it wasn’t like I could get anyone to willingly test the effects. A petri dish can only take us so far, and taking samples of the Barrier’s magical signature was… problematic, to say the least."

"The fact that he is even alive shows that we were lied to from the very beginning," Stephan answered, growling as he clenched his hands. "All testing showed that enhanced armor would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours, allowing the magic to seep in and kill the user. And yet here comes Marcus, completely unaffected."

"Can you be sure, Major?"

"Sir, I was just blasted with two ridiculously lethal spells from an avatar of the Tyrant herself. I didn't exactly walk away without a scratch. From what the medical ponies told me, they were stunned to see me even holding together and not melting apart before their eyes." Stephan shook his head as he hobbled away, looking out the window to the field below. "Its the reason I’m halfway to becoming a mummy and not fully healed up. They didn't want to push their luck, use healing spells, and end up with a puddle on the floor."

"So... We've been lied to, enslaved, killed by the thousands and millions, and this entire time we could have slowly infiltrated the barrier with little health risk to our people?” Brigadier General Delon asked with growing rage, gripping his smoke pipe tightly in his hand. "Is that... what you are telling me? That we could have conducted our own tests and avoided this... this travesty altogether?"

Stephan said nothing to this, his eyes never leaving the field. He gave a sigh before nodding his head. "Yes sir. It appears to be that way."

None of the men on the screen said anything, Brigadier General Delon snarled as he stood up, grabbed his PDA and threw it at the far wall, with a crash as the screen shattered. The general walked about in the background, cursing up a storm before he threw himself back into his seat. Stephan couldn’t blame him; he’d been in touch with far more suffering than any of them. President Davis and Minister Itsunori just sat motionless, their eyes closed, countless regrets passing over their faces. Davis shook his head before looking to Stephan once more.

"God… dammit. So... what do they want from us?"

"It’s not what they want from us," Cheerilee answered as she walked through the door, nodding to the various leaders on the screen. "It’s what they can do for us."

“And that is?” President Davis asked.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Stephan said. “I hardly believe it myself. All they want is to help.”

“You are seriously telling me,” Delon said, slipping back into his familiar old rage, “that an alicorn princess and a chaos god, from another Equestria, are here to help. Both of whom should be dead or stone by now.”

“They even said that their Equestria has its own Elements of Harmony, and it’s own Celestia, but Marcus advised against sending her because he figured that we wouldn’t react well,” Stephan continued. “Hell, Kraber’s proof enough of that.”

“Unbelievable,” Davis shook his head at what he heard.

“I don’t believe it,” Delon threw up his hands in frustration. “I simply can’t. That’d be madness.”

“True,” Itsunori spoke up, causing the other two leaders to look at him. The elder Japanese man closed his eyes before speaking again. “But when it comes to trusting them, I don’t think we have a choice.”

“You can’t-” Delon began to turn red with fury, his cheeks puffing up as he was about blow a gasket. Stephen winced internally at the inevitable screaming match.

Surprisingly it was stopped by the President Davis, normally an unflappable man with a smile and beer in hand ready for you when you walked into negotiations with him. This wasn't the case, and it appeared his limit had long since passed.

“General Delon,” President Davis cut in, “do you know the meaning of the word ‘desperate?’ A man of your position should. I have never understood it as fully as I do now. I have heard the horror stories of newfoal-eating from Brazil; reports of mass public executions, mass suicides, riots and God knows what else in whatever’s left of China, with my own damn country following suit. On a good day, I only have twenty petitions from HLF members that suggest that we do things that are best not discussed in polite company to any ponies found outside the barrier. Then there are the various projects that Crowe Labs or any other convenient think tank tries to peddle to us and any other government that still has a couple acres they can set foot on without melting into puddles. They crank out new concepts once a week, it feels like. Wildly unfeasible energy weapons, bioweapons that we’re not sure even work against ponies, barrier-resistant materials, spaceships, and something that they called Project Sunflower! All prohibitively expensive, of course, requiring hundreds of imported Equestrian materials, things we’d need to make decade-long leaps in science to make, especially in the time that we have left! It took us a miracle to even delay the barrier! As far as I can tell, we have no choice. I’d love to say no and kickstart Project Sunflower, but the barrier would be at the Rockies by the time we had enough of that done for it to make a difference! From what Stephan has said, they were friendly, and we simply have no options left on the table.”

Everyone stared for a moment in silence at this outburst. He’d clearly wanted to say that for a long time.

“You’re suggesting that not just Stephan’s soldiers, but most of the world’s militaries work with ponies who are physically and mentally identical to the ones who have violated their world time and time again and shown less respect for them than cockroaches,” Trixie said, startling the others as she melted into view, Stephan then added to her words. “Including a self-proclaimed goddess who has become so rabidly hated that there are cults who think she’s some kind of demon sent to punish mankind.”

“There are?” Cheerilee asked out loud, but went unheeded.

“I don’t know yet,” President Davis said, frustration on his face as he thought hard on his answer. “Possibly.”

“We’ll all hate it,” Stephan said. “But the President is right. We’re out of ideas; or at least, we’re out of ideas that can work.”

It was a sobering thought for all of them.

“Talk to them then,” Delon threw his pipe onto the table, shaking his head.

“What?” Trixie asked.

“Talk to Luna and Discord,” Delon stated again, a little more loudly. “If this is our last option that doesn’t involve settling into suicidal fury like Old Skinner’s HLF units, then see what they have to say about their goals. And make sure they tell the truth.”

“Will do,” Stephan said, saluting.

Stephan was running on fumes and painkillers. He’d been beaten to hell and back by his fight with Celestia, and it was almost a miracle that anything in his body still worked. Even worse, he was forced to lean on Kraber’s shoulder to support himself.

“Why did we have to take him along?” Trixie groaned, giving Kraber the stink eye, while the man ignored her. He’d heard far worse.

“If he didn’t talk to Luna and get a handle on what’s going on, then we’d be asking for disaster,” Cheerilee added.

“Plus, I make a good crutch and distraction. And I really hate this idea. You know that right?” Kraber asked.

“We know,” Cheerilee groaned. “You’ve said it about twice now.” But it’s the only chance we’ve got were the unspoken words on the tip of her tongue. He’d probably heard that enough by now, she thought as they walked up to one of the entrances to Fenway Park.

Kraber still had the DSR.50, one of the very few anti-alicorn weapons they had in their arsenal. He didn’t quite like the thing, and there was a long list of rifles he’d rather use, but he appreciated the power.

“You’re back!” Verdant Tract yelled, trotting-no, practically stampeding at the four of them. “You gotta get here quick. Having an alicorn and a draconequus is making everyp-” he paused. “Everyone. It’s making everyone real antsy.”

“What’ve they done though?” Stephan asked.

“Nothing yet. So far, they’ve just been standing there, staring at us,” Verdant Tract said. “They want to talk to you, Stephan. I get the feeling she wanted to talk to someone high on the chain of command, but… apparently Kraber made quite an impression on her, as well.“

“I did?” Kraber asked, a look that might have been pride creeping across his face. “Well, how about that.”

"I think she said more along the lines of helping your nightmares," Verdant said, giving him a sad smile, "She says your nightmares hang over you like stormclouds, even when you are awake."

“That… I’m not gonna lie, that sounds pretty accurate,” Kraber said, a grim chuckle escaping his seriousness, “I have swak-” he saw their blank looks. “A lot on my shoulders, alright? The thought of getting help from an alicorn though…” he shook his head in disgust, but there was something oddly uncertain about the gesture.

“Follow me down,” Verdant said, trotting into the entrance, heading for one of the spaces between the bleachers and the walls, where one could normally find concession stands. Now, however, they were occupied by a number of stalls from opportunistic traders, makeshift barracks, kitchens, and all the necessities of a military base.

“Are you here to kill that alicorn?” Asked one mare wearing a heavy assault saddle that looked to be based on the M249 SAW.

“We’re just here to settle things,” Trixie said. It was a non-answer, of course, vague enough that anyone could take what they wanted from it. Apparently, this satisfied the mare, who wandered over to a mixed group of humans and ponies.

“This is where we’re keeping them.” Verdant said, pointing to a door, with an improvised handle system lower than the doorknob so that ponies could use it well. He opened it, revealing a set of concrete stairs.

Kraber desperately wished his shotgun worked against alicorns. He’d fought newfoals underground before, and this just brought back a ton of bad memories. “You feeling that too?” he asked Stephan.

Stephan nodded. Then his earpiece crackled. He held a hand up to it.

“Yes?” he asked.

“They moved to the infirmary,” someone said, “they don’t seem to be doing anything yet, but-OH MY GOD!”

Out of sheer reflex, Kraber switched back to the MG2019, and Stephan readied his claymore. Trixie’s horn glowed.

“No, don’t!” Trixie yelled at Stephan, yanking the blade from his grip. She held it by her side, her magic slowly charging the weapon. “You’re in no condition to fight. Leave it to us.”

When they got to their jury-rigged infirmary, it felt as if there was a neverending wall of armed guards, who looked to have appropriated munitions from every gun store in the vicinity of Boston. All had a firearm of some kind-no rocket launchers, grenades or other explosives, those would be a death sentence in here, especially when you considered backblast-and every single one was pointed at Luna and Discord.

Mostly Discord, who had one massive claw impaling Cloudchaser’s chest.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Stephan yelled as he stared in horror. A wall of magic kept everyone at bay as Discord continued to run his claw through Cloudchaser. Bulk 'Snowflake' Biceps was all but silently screaming as he sat where he was, unable to move thanks to a stasis spell from Luna.

“Say the word,” Kraber whispered, shouldering the MG2019, aiming through the reflex sight. “Say the fokking word, and I open fire.”

"Can you please be quiet, it’s hard to focus here. Don't want to lose my concentration." Discord muttered as he pushed his claw a little further, causing Cloudchaser's side to bulge a little.

"For God's sake, let her die!" Stephan yelled out, seeing the heart monitor going ballistic as well as her vitals. Her body was shaking, her eyes open wide, but rolled up into her skull as she jerked around in the bed. Discord ignored him, and suddenly smiled as he appeared to finally find what he was looking for, "You sick bastards! Kraber, Trixie! Take the-"

"Got it!" Discord pulled his claw out. Everyone winced at once, expecting to see a beating heart or other organ with blood gushing from a hole in the pegasus chest. Instead, a small purplish sludge ball resided in his paw. Cloudchaser's barrel was whole and undamaged as her monitors settled back down, her eyes fluttering closed once more. Discord took a sniff before pulling away, a nauseated look on his face, waving his free claw to wave off the stench. "Whew, what a stinker. You should be glad I got that in time."

Everyone stared at the sludge in his paw, eyes full of surprise and confusion. Discord pulled up a medical jar and threw the cotton swabs into the air, morphing into little clouds, before throwing the sludge into it.

"Are you sure you got all of it?" Luna asked as she released the spell, ignoring the punch to her face with practiced ease as the bulky pegasus stallion rushed to the mare's side.

“The fok is that siff?!” Kraber asked out loud to the others, staring at floating jar.

"Pretty sure." Discord stated, ignoring him as he washed his hands in a floating sink, "Nasty little poison.”

"Poison?" Everyone mimed in unison, stunned to see Cloudchaser weakly open her eyes and smile at Snowflake. Or at least, they all made some reaction akin to that; gasping, staring in shock, heads cocked to the sides in confusion, or simply asking “the hell?” and any other expression of incredulity.

"Hey there stud..." Cloudchaser whispered, kissing his cheek affectionately as he nuzzled her. "What did I miss... Is that Princess Luna and Discord.... and why are there armed guards in my room?"

Stephan only shook his head and walked over to Discord, keeping his eyes on the poison. “I guess we should thank you for helping…” But then he reached up, grabbing Discord’s goat-like beard and pulling him down to eye level. “But do something like this again without telling us beforehand and I let Kraber shoot something off that won’t grow back easily. Got it?”

"Believe me, Major. " Discord gave him a very chilling look. "I experienced a lot of pain before reaching this world. I would be impressed if you actually manage to do something that will make me forget those times."

"The fok is this shit?" Kraber asked as he stared at the purplish goo within the jar, swirling it as he sat back with his foot on the table. He was holding the MG2019 at his hip, his finger within the trigger guard. Still, he was calmer than normal, so Cheerilee trusted his trigger discipline. He opened the lid slightly and took a small whiff, reeling back and closing the lid tightly. "Damn, a fokking sewer smells better than this klank!"

"Nullam comedens poison." Discord said as he floated off the ground, slowly spinning upside down. "I haven't seen it since the first rise of Tirek. It’s deadly to all magical beings. Even non-magical beings can be killed by exposure to it."

"How?" Stephan asked as he grabbed the jar and handed it off to the waiting nurse to be sent to get studied.

"It grows with magic. The more magic is used to try and heal or see what is wrong, the more it grows as it feeds off of it. To humans and a world with little magic, it could take decades just to be killed by it, and you wouldn't even know it, people would just think you died of old age or illness. To a place like Equestria, it’s a lot sooner. Worse for highly magical beings like unicorns and the like," Discord answered as he snapped his claw, ignoring the small flinches from the various ponies and humans, summoning up a saddle bag.

"I was wondering where my saddle had gone off to," Luna said, calmly drinking her tea as various scrolls floated out and landed on the table.

"How did you know?" Cheerilee asked him, watching as Discord floated right side up.

"By the smell." Discord said quietly, his eyes gaining a haunting look. "It’s extremely faint, but when you been around enough beings that were killed by it, it tends to stick. Smells like grapes with a hint of rotting flesh."

"Fok, he's right." Kraber’s eyes were watering as he blew his nose for the second time, trying to rid himself of the smell. "I was trying to place it and that is exactly what it smells like. Like a pile of corpses next to a vineyard."

Cheerilee made a look of disgust while Stephan mused quietly on the information, looking at Discord with a critical eye.

“How do you even know what that smells like?” Trixie asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Kraber said.

"How come we didn't pick up on it? With our x-rays and MRI, surely we could have picked it up without magic," Stephan pointed out.

"Yeah, but just before she died from her arteries being clogged and having dozens of seizures before that. It lines the walls of the arteries, growing fast or at a snail’s pace depending on what the being is or what it is being done to treat their wounds. Perhaps you humans can survive it, but not ponies." Discord said bluntly, shaking his head as he looked out the window. "Outside a body, it’s harmless and useless as a weapon. Coat it on a weapon and nick a being, even the smallest of nicks, and it’s as deadly as the next poison, even more so given that it can't be caught by any normal method of detection."

"I see..." Cheerilee whispered, her runes activating as she lifted up a pen to write down the information on a notepad. It does explain why her healing treatments were quickly fading. I have to send this off to the other doctors to have the others checked out. Maybe there was a way with human medical practices to find this poison? She looked to the scrolls on the table, picking it up and reading it. "What is all this?"

"Treaties." Luna said as she placed her tea down, looking at Cheerilee with interest as the mare's rune glowed.

"These are..." Cheerilee's breath hitched a bit, her eyes trained at the bottom on the scroll. "This is Marcus’ signature."

"Let me see." Stephan asked as he gently grabbed the scroll from her grasp and looked it over. "How can you be sure?"

"He does this thing with his 'u' and 's' in his name, and connects the two without leaving the paper he signs off on." Cheerilee answered, gaining a look from the entire table. "I’ve seen his signature thousands of times, plus I'm a teacher, I have to make sure my students are doing their own homework instead of paying for others to do it. And if he was a new foal, his signature would change drastically if he had to use a horn or his mouth. This was done by his hand.”

"This says its from the Minotaur Republic?" Stephan said quietly, looking over to see the others grabbing various scrolls.

"Griffon Kingdom... from Queen Hedwig?" Cheerilee asked. “Where did you get this?”

"There’s one from the Zebra Tribal Council,” Trixie said, amazed. “I never thought I’d see anything from them ever again.”

"Roaming Tribes of the Buffaloes?" asked Kraber.

“Even the Diamond Dogs, too?” Stephan said. “Didn’t even know they had a government.”

"Its more like a large group with a canine pack mentality," Trixie explained as she pulled out another scroll. She opened it and her jaw dropped, eyes focused on the name at the bottom. "The Changeling Hive, from Queen Chrysalis herself."

"These are... these are all declarations of war?!" Stephan stared at the two in shock.

"Half of them are dead in your world," Luna said quietly as she looked at the two. "But where we come from, they are very much alive. Celestia, my sister, not this abomination, knows of your plight very well."

"How?" Cheerilee demanded, her eyes focused on the alicorn. "Marcus would have tried to kill her the moment he saw her."

"He did try." Luna said quietly, looking away from them.

Okay, that really sounds like the Marcus I know. Stephan thought to himself before turning back to Luna.

"He attempted to kill the Elements as well. An accident occurred between Celestia and Marcus, in an attempt to calm the situation before it escalated further. My sister knows of Marcus' plight thanks to that accident. It haunts her even now, possibly for the rest of her life."

No one said anything before Luna gathered the scrolls and placed them back into the saddle and set it before Stephan. "Know this, you are no longer alone in your fight. Equestria, our Equestria, will join you."

"Why..." Kraber said quietly, causing everyone to look to him. "As far as I know, this war has nothing to do with you. You don’t have to lift a single god damn hoof to help us, and we would understand why."

"If you do believe we have any other reasoning, then understand that our world is in danger of the Tyrant as well. She will not stop with this world; she will move on to ours, then the next world, and the next after that," Luna said quietly. “This war literally was dropped on our doorstep, and we could not in good conscience send the Commander back to this hell-world without some form of response. The Tyrant will not stop until everything is under her hoof.”

"Until all worlds are in perfect 'Harmony'. At least... until she loses her place as a working tool." Discord said quietly, causing everyone sans Luna to look to him. "Besides, its not the Tyrant you should be worried about. She’s just a puppet of the real menace here."

For a long moment, no one said anything. Stephan and Kraber stared at the draconequus as if he lost his mind, while Trixie and Cheerilee looked at Luna for answers.

"The fok do you mean, 'she’s just a puppet'? She’s the one that started this damn war! Who the fok is controlling her then?!" Kraber growled, his grip on his weapon tightening up.

“Let him explain, Kraber.” Stephan had gone through too much to be surprised by anything at this point.

"Tirek," Discord answered him, causing Stephan to frown at the name, hearing it a second time. "Tirek, a very old enemy of mine, and before you ask, it was well before the time of even Celestia and Luna. Tirek is controlling her, better to describe it as manipulating her to do this. As far as I know, the Celestia of old is gone and dead, buried by this new Tyrant in her place."

"So the same is happening to the Elements as well?" Cheerilee asked, looking to the others in response to the answer. "They are being controlled by this 'Tirek' monster?"

"No." Luna said, causing them to look to her. "They are enslaved within their minds, forced to watch as mental homunculi control their every action as if they were mere puppets."

"Nooit!" Kraber sneered at her, slamming his hand on the table as he leaned across the table to glare at Luna. "I don't believe you for a fokking second. I lost my children to those fokking bitches, and you just wave it off as not their-!?"

Luna's horn glowed before an image of Twilight appeared in the center of the table, causing Kraber to stumble backwards in stunned horror. Cheerilee gasped and covered her mouth with her hoof, Trixie looked away with her eyes closed, while Stephan reached over and pulled her into his lap to hug her.

Twilight sat within her stump, roots digging into her corpse-like body as she looked at all of them with eyes filled with tears before she began to shout at them.

"KILL ME! PLEASE! I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE! KILL ME SO I DON’T HAVE TO WATCH MYSELF HURT ANYONE AND BE MADE TO ENJOY IT! KILL ME TO END THIS NIGHTMARE!" Twilight wailed, her eyes beginning to take a tone of panic. "KILL THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!"

Cheerilee gave a choked gasp, her eyes filling with tears as she stared at the image.

“The hell was that?!” Trixie yelled.

"Where... where the fok is this?" Kraber asked quietly, trembling in horror, his eyes never leaving the image of Sparkle’s haunted and dead eyes. He’d come close to her and found himself hating her more and more every time, looking forward to the torments he could inflict, but that was… the pure suffering in her eyes couldn’t have come from anything like what he could inflict, no matter how much he could try. ’Dear God, what the hell happened to her?’

"Within the mind of Twilight Sparkle," Luna answered, looking down at the table. "I have little doubt the rest of the Elements are any different. Discord wanted to show me how far the Elements have fallen, but did so in his own way. As much as I hate to admit it, I would have never believed him otherwise. I don’t think you would have either.”

Kraber said nothing for a long moment before asking the duo a question. "...Got me there. Can they... can they interfere with them?"

Discord look towards Kraber with some minor confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, can they still resist these... homunculus fokkers? Like interfere with their control, stop them just for a second before I blow their fokking heads off?" Kraber asked.

"Possibly... Why?" Discord asked with a note of interest.

"Cause the fight at the department store suddenly makes more sense!" Kraber realized, before looking to Stephan. "During the fight with Rarity, she just froze up with the ground crumbling beneath her and the rubble about to crush her. Made no effort to save her ass, looked more like your average New Foal than anything. Had the glassy eyes and everything."

Stephan frown as he looked to Kraber with this info. "You mean she was trying to kill herself?"

"I had no idea at the time, and I don’t know about you, but I sure as fok would try to get myself killed as well if there was things in my head. Just like in some books I read as a kid," Kraber answered, looking back to Luna. "Thats why you changed, isn't it? Into that Nightmare Moon crap?"

"Partially..." Luna whispered, looking away from him.

"What is the other reason?" Stephan asked, noting how Luna squeezed her eyes shut. She really didn't want to tell them.

"Come on, it couldn’t be as bad as this shit." Kraber demanded as he pointed to the image of Twilight. Luna glared at him before looking to Trixie and Cheerilee.

"I request that you two leave this room. What I'm about to show is not for your eyes. They may tell you afterwards, but I will not directly show." Luna demanded, brooking no argument from the two.

Stephan nodded his head, gently setting Trixie onto the floor, before nodding to Luna. Trixie wanted to argue, but decide it would be a fruitless effort, and moved on. Cheerilee sighed as she slid off her chair and followed her out. The door closed and glowed with the telltale energy of a spell, blocking out all the noise within.

"What do you think she is showing them?" Cheerilee asked Trixie, who only gave a small shrug to the question.

The two sat for a few minutes before the door slammed open, banging against one wall, and Kraber came stumbling out. He took several steps before reaching over to the nearest trash can and began to violently hurl into it, almost as if he was trying to vomit out everything he ever ate in his entire life. Both mares stood slack-jawed at the normally brash, inexhaustibly energetic man wailing into the trash can before trying to vomit again.

Stephan slowly walked out, or better yet, stumbled, face unbelievably pale as he leaned against the doorframe and slid down to the ground, holding his head in his hands. He had reached his limit of his stamina, physical and mental. Trixie was immediately at his side and nuzzled his arm.

"Stephan!? What happened?!" Trixie exclaimed at his appearance. Stephan only response was to gently take her in his arm and holding her. She cried out in surprise as Stephan collapsed, shaking badly as he held onto her tightly.

"I fucking hate you, Kraber." Stephan simply whispered loud enough to let Kraber hear it and make Trixie wonder more what just happened.

"I fokking hate me too." Kraber moaned before vomiting again. "I thought I seen it all…”

“What? What happened?!” Cheerilee asked.

“I’m not gesuip enough to even begin to tell you that,” Kraber held up a finger to her, turning to vomit again.

“Trust me, you don't want to know.” said Stephen in a low voice.

"Come on, tell us!" Trixie demanded.

"I saw the trials for the fokking potion firsthand,” Kraber said, his voice drained of emotion, as if he’d been in that room for months. “There were… I… I saw things that no man or pony deserves to see. There were kids there, and everyone was naked and emaciated, while Twilight stood over them and…. and…” he trembled. “Look. You can ask Stephan to tell you for all I care, because right now I need a to drink a dop.” He paused. “A lot of drinks. I hope there’s still some Kentucky bourbon around…”

“Is that all you can say?” Cheerilee asked as she looked back to Stephan in confusion.

“Yes,” Kraber said. “Because if I do, you will wish that Sombra burned Equestria to the last pony and salted every fokking inch of grass.”

Both mares sat stunned by the answer, watching as Kraber stumbled away, falling against the walls as he headed for the nearest bar. Stephan only hung his head, realization dawning on him that his and Kraber’s nightmares paled in comparison to Twilight Sparkle’s.

One she was still living in, day by day.

New York City, New York; John F. Kennedy Airport, Emergency Medical Facility; One hour later

Luna quietly sat next to the dragon, horn glowing as she helped his healing along. Luna sniffed as she wiped her eyes, tears falling, not even caring in the slightest as Nurse Redheart gave her a disapproving look as she monitored Spike's vitals.

She looked upon the sleeping dragon, closing her eyes to remember the day that landed him in this horrid situation. It was one of the few memories she can recall in extreme detail, mostly after she learned what happen to him and how he arrived here at the airport.

“Oh Spikey, you didn't have to come with me.” Rarity said with a small giggle, looking upon the dragon as he walked next to her. He was almost at eye level with a normal pony, and lost some of his 'baby' fat, giving him a much more slim figure. Last year he even managed to grow a pair of wings, much to his delight.

"Well, last time I let you guys go anywhere without me, it almost got you guys killed with the return of Sombra." Spike muttered as he crossed his arms. Twilight walked next to them, uncaring of the small talk happening beside her.

"You're so sweet on me, Spike." Rarity batted her eyes to him, causing the dragon to blush and stammer, causing another giggle to escape the mare. "Might make other mares jealous."

"Rarity, can you stop teasing him?" Twilight groaned as she opened the door to Celestia’s room "Besides, Spike can't come in, Queen Celestia wishes to see you alone."

"I don’t see why he can’t join us. Spike is almost eighteen years old, darling. He is practically an adult given how well he took the war in stride," Rarity said, giving a small sigh before nodding her head, "But the Queen wishes to see me, so I shall comply. Will you be fine waiting for us here, Spike?"

"Of course!" Spike saluted, blushing brightly as Rarity gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Come on, Rarity." Twilight held the door for Rarity before closing it soundly behind her and locking it.

"Queen Celestia, how may I help you this fine afternoon?” Rarity exclaimed happily, and yet, there was a small hint of nervous tension emanating from her as she sat in a seat across from her.

"Rarity, this war with Sombra is coming to a close. As we speak my ponies march onto the Crystal Kingdom. Sombra has nowhere to go, and we can enjoy a new fresh start. While this war was short, it has been a trying year so far," Celestia said as she calmly drank her tea, smiling warmly at Rarity. Rarity gave her a small weak grin, looking around as if looking for an answer as to why she was there.

"Yes, this horrid war is nearly at an end. But... I have the feeling there is more to say on the matter." Rarity rubbed her neck as she looked upon her surrounding.

"Is something wrong, Rarity?" Celestia asked, looking at her with a passive look on her face.

"Just...nervous."

"Why?"

"Oh!" Rarity blinked as she look back to Celestia with surprise. "I suppose it’s just that all the girls met you already, and they didn't really tell me much on what to expect. Only that it will be life-changing, so I am just trying to prepare myself for whatever surprise you have in store."

"No need to fret." Celestia giggled somewhat, with Twilight giving a smile of her own to Rarity. "Just know that while this war is done, another issue may come up."

"Oh no! Is it another war on the horizon?" Rarity looked at them with concern, but Celestia merely waved it off.

"Not a war, but salvation," Celestia answered with a bright smile.

"Salvation? I don't understand," Rarity looked at her, confused.

"There is a species, called humanity, that requires a touch of ponykind to reel them in." Celestia began to regale her on the horror of the human race, explaining their atrocities, intolerance, and lack of harmony. By the time she was done, Rarity looked on in surprise at them, before standing up and walking around with determination.

"Yes, of course they require assistance." Twilight and Celestia beamed to one another at Rarity's proclamation. "They have been in the dark for so long… and they’d be perfect clients for me!"

"Excuse me?" Celestia blinked as Rarity seemed to smiling even more happily.

"They wear clothes all the time. True, some of it seems to be set for just standard living, but I can make something for them just for everyday use! It would simply be fabulous!" Rarity beamed, her eyes sparkling with excitement, not even noticing how Celestia’s face fell flat and was giving her a far from happy look.

But the Element of Generosity was “in the zone” as she continued to ramble, "Oh, just imagine, those beings going absolutely gaga over my magnificent designs! And I could make friends with their fashion designers too! I look forward to trying my hoof at trying to design clothes for them as well... And the simple fact they have technology that most of our writers couldn’t dream of at their...claw tips? No, fingertips, no doubt that excited you Twilight! I wonder if they have better sewing machines..."

Rarity turned to see the two giving her a deep frown. "What?"

"I suppose I should have seen this coming, of course her reasons are solely for the business pursuit." Celestia answered as she held up the bag, dark magic pulsing from it. Rarity's eyes widened in horror at the bag, pulsing in her magical grip like a disembodied heart. It even looked like it had veins, too.

"P-princess?" Rarity stammered as Celestia held up the bag. Rarity clearly didn’t know what it was, but to her credit, she was trying to move away, only to be held in place by a stasis spell from Twilight. “What are you doing?! Twilight?!”

"Then again, none of the Elements ever responded the way I wanted them to. Especially Fluttershy… She was so very troublesome when we tried this," Celestia continued.

"It’s Queen Celestia," Twilight corrected, before giving her a sinister smile. "But you will never get that wrong again."

Rarity cried out as Celestia opened the bag and swirling dark magic raced right at her. The black magic appeared to caress the unicorn, who recoiled as it touched her fur, frantically trying to push it off as if it had a physical presence.

“What.. What is this? Who are you?! What did you do to the princess and Twilight?!” She cried as the dark magic wrapped around her, the look on her face just screamed out that she felt violated by its mere presence.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Twilight said, smiling as if the dark purple magic covering her friend was the most natural thing in the world. “Once it gets into you, you’ll feel better. All those pesky little worries of yours will just float away…”

“Help!” Rarity yelled, as the magic inched closer to her mouth. “ANYPONY, HEL-”

"LET HER GO FAKES!" Twilight’s eyes snapped to the once empty wall in shock as Spike seemingly appeared in the room. His small frame once covered by a pillar was now at full vision, his two legs that kept him upright shook slightly from even the idea of what was happening, or what he was about to do, but he took bravery as he continued to speak. “Twilight nor Celestia would ever do anything like this to one of their friends!”

"Spikey?!" Rarity was also shocked at seeing the young dragon rush into the dark presence. "NO! Run away-!"

Spike did not respond, inhaling deeply he let out a deep emerald flame right over Rarity. Rarity closed her eyes as the flames washed over her, and yet through it all she remained untouched. The foul magic caressing her was consumed in the blaze before wrapping around her and reappearing the mare to her unlikely savior's arms. Spike smiled to the mare in his arms, the flames spreading out and blocking the view from Twilight and Celestia.

"What?!" Celestia shouted, wide-eyed as she searched for the two, barely able to see them within the flames. Twilight glared she saw Spike direct Rarity through a hidden opening in the wall. "You foolish drake!"

"Run, Rarity." Spike gave her one small push before diving to the side as a spell impacted the area he was in. Spike got up in time to get a hoof across the face by Twilight who had attempted to get a glimpse at Rarity’s escaping from to grab her, but with the mare far, she could only growl to her once obedient companion.

"How did you get in here?!" Twilight shouted as she lifted the dragon and threw him across the room. Nailing him heavily to the wall and then shoving him back to her presence, and keeping him unable to move.

"Enough, Twilight." Celestia command, without a second thought Twilight released Spike, who fell into the floor coughing, tears in his eyes. Celestia lifted the bag before Spike. "It is an old passage that Spike used to get around the castle when he was younger. No matter, soon he will fall in line with the others."

Spike groaned as he got back on his feet, just in time for the black magic to engulf him. Twilight rage morphed into a smile as she waited for the magic to take hold, only for green flames to jet out and consume the dark magic with ease, almost reaching Twilight as well.

Spike heaved again, eyes watery but now narrowed as he blew out a stream of magical fire directly at Twilight and Celestia, who blocked it with a synchronized shield, a look of growing irritation on Twilight’s face, and Celestia appeared unamused. "Spike, your continued defiance will not leave me to be merciful on your punishment."

"T-then I guess this will make it worse." Spike begun nervously, but ended roaring as his chest expanded to nearly twice its size before blowing out hot emerald flames to the floor, the entire room turning into a fiery green conflagration within seconds as the fire rounded the walls and reached the ceiling by the walls. Just as the jet dissipated, Spike was free of his magic chains and ran to the nearest exit. Where Rarity awaited nervously.

Twilight yelled from stretching her range as she tried to teleport to him, but only for Celestia to hold up her hoof, stopping her in her tracks, anger vanishing, almost mystified by Celestia’s next words.

"Do not fret my student." Celestia said as her horn glowed, followed by teleporting before Spike and Rarity. Spike barely had time to gasp before Celestia’s hoof crashed into his side, the sound of bone snapping could be heard rooms away before the dragon slammed into the stone walls and collapsed onto a table, breaking it apart. "They are not quite out of my reach!"

"Spikey!?" Rarity cried out as she raced for the baby dragon. She held onto him, her hoof gently rubbing his head. Spike whimpered as he clutched his arm, broken by the way it hung in the middle of the arm above the elbow. "You... You fake brutish old hag!"

Twilight smirked as she trotted over to them, her horn glowing as she ripped Spike from Rarity's embrace and threw him over her shoulder. She smiled as Spike sailed through the air before hitting pillar and collapsing onto the ground, before looking back to Rarity. "Now that we got that annoyance out the--"

Twilight head cocked to the left from the blow, then her head jerked up from a vicious uppercut, before being engulfed with Rarity's magic and slammed against the ceiling, and then finally falling unceremoniously with a thud. Rarity appeared over her she eyes showing her clear disgust and true belief that she was fighting something in Twilight’s form.

Rarity raised her hooves for them to be slammed down on fake Twilight’s face before she was picked up by those very hooves. Rarity squealed as she fought against the magic, only causing a minor headache for the Queen.

"I must admit, you put up a far better fight than the other Elements. But," Celestia smiled as she raised the bag once more, "you fight against an inevitability, you are mere dust struggling against cosmic winds. You will belong to me, and you will do as I say.“

"I will fight against you, thing!" Rarity sneered as she continue to fight. "I will never help you. You are not Celestia, you’re just some monster that’s taken her place."

"That is what they all said, before my magic showed them the truth," Celestia held the bag up, the darkness swirling within as it readied itself to implant itself within the pearl white unicorn.

Until a massive fist slammed into the side of Celestia’s face. Twilight was struggling to get up, eyes wide in surprise as a large purple dragon rivaling in size of Celestia herself struck her dead center in the face. Rarity was dropped, only to be caught by the dragon's tail before placing her on the center of his back. Twilight sneered as she hit him with a sleeping spell, but the dragon wasn’t even affected by it, swiping her with his tail and sending her crashing against a wall.

"YOU WILL SUBMIT TO M-ARGH!?!" Celestia rose to her hooves, the sucker punch dazing her as she tried to get a bead on Spike, only for Spike to swipe his claws across her eyes, shredding them and blinding her.

Celestia screamed in agony, the yell coming close the RCV levels as they shattered every window and glass made object in the hall, ruining several treasures rumored to predate the founding of Equestria. Twilight covered her ears, her eyes barely open enough to see Spike carry Rarity out of the hall.

Twilight’s ears were still ringing as she gently lead Celestia away from the scene, guards surrounding them as they made their way back to her room, only to remember it was still in flames. Heavy breathing came from the Alicorn as a single blind eye looked to the burning room.

Ever so slowly, the eye regained color as the iris reformed itself. "Captain Armor."

"Yes, my Queen."

"Find Rarity, have her little sister locked up in the dungeon if it is a means to draw her out. I want her here, now." Celestia growled as she stared at the jade-green flames, which were stubbornly resisting any extinguisher spells.

"And Spike?"

"Teach him a lesson he won't soon forget, but not too badly." Celestia smiled as her second eye reformed, her appearance now taking on as if she cried blood tears. "Because Spike will have personal lessons from me until I deem him ready to live in my new Equestria."

"Of course, I will have Green Fields lead the search parties."

Luna opened her eyes, reaching ever so slowly to brush his cheek with a hoof, wiping away his tears. If her counterpart was there, she could have stopped it. Sadly, it appears she was leading the armies to shatter Sombra's control, allowing the Tyrant to make up whatever reason she desired to keep her in the dark.

"Rarity..." he whispered, sniffing somewhat as he rested on the bed.

"I am so sorry, Spike." Luna’s voice was nearly as quiet as Fluttershy’s, laying her head against his own. Tears streamed down her face as she held Spike, nuzzling him. "I am so sorry."

"How long has she been like this?" Stephan asked as he watched Luna rest her head against the dragon's snout.

"Ever since we arrived here, one hour ago." Cheerilee answered him, Cadence was with them quite surprised to see another version of her aunt was tending to Spike. "How's Kraber?"

"He's a crazy bastard, but a tough one." Stephan muttered, running his hand through his hair. "Idiot had several cracked ribs, cracked scapula, and ripped apart muscles throughout his body. Right about now he should be feeling all that. Ahh, the ‘wonders’ of battle adrenaline wearing off… Something I know all too well, unfortunately."

Fenway Park, Medical Facility

"MOTHER FOKKER!"

Stephan smiled a bit. "I may have told the medic ponies to hold off on the healing spells, because he was in the area of the Tyrant."

"You're evil." Cheerilee giggled as she tried to keep her laughter in check.

“Honestly, though,” Stephan begun, “I didn’t do it for a prank. The man needs some reason to relax for a little bit. Although I should be taking my own advice, but I can't right now... say, where's Discord?"

"He said he had something to check out." Cheerilee answered, a frown on her face as she remembered the chaotic being muttering under his breath during the battle between Luna and the Tyrant before he disappeared from her view. “Not that we could stop him anyway.”

When asked about it, he simply said he was gauging the fake Tyrant, unsure why she seemed so weak. It made Cheerilee shudder to think that the powerful monster was considered 'weak'.

"Where did he go?"

Blaine, Kentucky; five miles outside city limit; Williams Family Ranch

Discord silently sat against a tree, watching the old ranch house with interest. It kept itself alone with no occupants, but the horses and cattle were still well taken care of by neighboring ranchers and farm hands. Discord had to admit, this ranch home was a lot bigger than the last one he saw with Megan living in it.

He watched as the group made their way to the porch of the home, lighting a candle before they all turned to leave. Discord groaned as he painfully got up and made his way down to the home.

Walking past an old well, now dry and bare, he carefully ran his claw on its edge as water magically reappeared. He made his way by the stables, a single familiar horse stood at the entrance giving him a steady look before nickering softly to get his attention. Discord smiled as he gently patted the bridge of horse’s nose, his time running with the Assassins had definitely helped him understand the four legged beasts of burden.

"Well, aren't you a brave one." Discord chuckled as he gently patted the stallion's neck. "Wonder what your name is."

Discord blinked as the horse pulled away for a moment before pulling up with a sign in his mouth.

"TJ..." Discord read out loud, causing the horse to nod its head to the answer. Discord chuckled as he stared at the horse. "You sure it’s not Black Beauty? "

The horse snorted at him, causing the draconequus to laugh. "You're a smart one, I give you that. You don't mind if I take a look around do you? I’ll even promise not to break anything."

TJ gave another snort before pulling away, leaving Discord alone. Discord smirked a bit before heading to the porch, looking at the placement for the candle. His eyes took note of the words etched into the wood, while the design was clearly religious in nature. Possibly made by a congregation of the local church in the area.

'Marcus,
Everyday we pray for you.
Even when you believe God has forsaken us.
But we believe God has sent us the mightiest warrior he could grant us in these trying times.
You.
All that you have lost, you stood tall
All that you had witnessed, you weathered
All that you fought against, you prevailed.
You fight, and you fight, and rally all of us behind you.
When this war is done, you will have a home to come back to. Whether in this life or the next.

Discord smiled as he touched the candle, shifting the base’s color to forest green, the flame changing to a blazing purple, and the air becoming just a bit warmer around the porch. Discord smiled as he snapped his fingers, then walked through the front door, a small note on the table near the candle

Friends and neighbors of Marcus.
This candle is very special, made by a friend of your friendly neighborhood Marine.
This candle represents Marcus Renee.
The forest green of his military training.
The flaming heat is his passion to defend others
And the Purple flame representing his status among you all.
This candle will never extinguish until his dying breath.

Discord walked inside the home, it was cleaned recently if the light dust was anything to go by. He quietly examined the pictures, pictures of Marcus as a mere baby till he became a full fledged Marine. Pictures of his brother were right there beside him, looking proud as he followed in his brother and father's footsteps.

Discord’s eyes finally fell on a single picture. It was a combination of three photos, one with their father, standing tall in his dress uniform, the middle being Marcus, standing almost a half head taller than his father, and finally his brother coming up last, head shorter than his father. Each man standing next to one another, as if they took the photo the same day.

Photoshop, pretty good too. Discord mused to himself, looking at the words below the men.

'My Boys, the stubborn Marines'

Discord pulled the picture from the wall, and with a reach of his claw, dragged open a zipper in midair to breach his 'pocket' and gently put the photo in, along with several others. Discord quietly searched the house, only to flinch when he open a closet to find a Marlin Model 1894 rifle sitting inside.

He remembered getting shot in the face with that particular rifle in his trip across the multiverse...

Several times, in fact, by said owner of the weapon.

Then getting repeatedly stomped on by a robotic semi truck. That had hurt.

Discord shook his head, grinning as he grabbed the rifle and placed it inside his supposed pocket before moving on, until he finally managed to get into the attic, finding dozens of diaries inside an old chest. Discord frowned at the chest, running his paw over it as he felt familiar magic within the wood. He turned to the diaries and, by twirling his finger, the pages passed, glancing them over as he learned about Marcus' family, and more importantly, his mother.

Strangely enough, there was a time period were she didn't write a single diary entry for almost two years before starting up again. The last entry was utterly perplexing to any outsider if they were to read it. Discord began to read the last entry before the two year hiatus.

Dear Diary,
Something amazing happened today! I wish I could write it down, but I promised not to tell anyone. That means I can’t let the secret out to anything that could spread it, and Danny sometimes likes to poke around in you to find out what’s going on. Don’t worry, I’ll write everything I can once it’s all clear. Someday.

Discord frowned curiously as he flipped the page to find a newer entry after her two year sabbatical.

Dear Diary,
I know it’s been awhile since I wrote in you. I suppose it was because I got too busy with my friends, but they're gone now. I can't ever see them again. Neither Danny, nor Molly, are happy about it. I just wish I had more

I asked Danny and Molly to keep quiet about it. We would look crazy to Mom and Dad, and they were already worried about us disappearing most of the time. I even heard one of them talking about institutionalizing us or sending to certain doctors, though Molly insists they wouldn’t do that. Still, I have to worry, if we started saying things like we (The next section was so scratched out by pen marks that Discord couldn’t make heads or tails of what it was originally meant to say) We would get in a lot of trouble, lets just leave it at that.

I'm sixteen now... I suppose its time for me to start doing what sixteen year olds do best.

Discord looked at the next entry, snorting at the single short entry.

Dear Diary,
I am very bad at being a sixteen years old. Apparently I need to talk about boys, sex, make up, sex, bad music, sex, and getting my nails done.

Did I mention sex? I'm pretty sure I did.

Guess I'm glad I skipped that part of growing up.

Discord quietly shut the diary and put it back inside, before tossing the trunk in his pocket. Discord began to rummage through Marcus’ stuff, putting various clothes inside, along with some interesting books he found before zipping shut his pocket.

"Now then... let’s see here." Discord muttered to himself. Spreading his magic, gently touching the barrier of this reality, Discord looked for any signs of a portal in the area. When he looked up to the sky, a frown graced his face as he flew up and tore open the old tear. He must’ve spent at least thirty minutes examining it before he gave heavy sigh.

"Ohhhhh boy. Marcus will definitely not like this." Discord said to himself before snapping his claw and vanishing from the ranch.

New York City, New York; John F. Kennedy Airport, 2 hours later.

Cheerilee paced from one side of the room to the other. The talk with the various leaders have gone well, with only a few hiccups happening about the next move. The real hurdle she had to climb over was her plan to use this Equestria to get the much needed supplies.

Many agreed with her idea, but President Davis had all but cut it to ribbons with a simple sentence.

"Will they allow us to have it?"

Cheerilee looked down to her list, and swallowed nervously when the scope of what she was asking for finally revealed itself.

She was essentially saying for the other version of her world to starve while trying to feed this one. Things were getting bad here, and while the military was enjoying their rations (in which the US had in spades) the rest of the country was starving. Which wasn’t even touching on how bad it had become in other countries, such as Brazil. It had only been hours since she’d heard that transmission from Acevedo, and she still shuddered from the memory.

Law and order were slowly decaying in the chaos of this war and the approaching Barrier wasn't helping at all. Supplies being sent out to help feed other countries with massive crowds of refugees was dwindling down as the US hoarded its supplies to feed its own refugees. Militia groups were popping up, a majority of them waving the HLF flag and taking pot shots at the PHL ponies that were trying desperately to help their allies.

The HLF launched off as a decent group, but it drastically fell out of favor for their tactics of slaughtering everyone in a fallen town or city. Didn't matter if they were humans that just hid themselves from the PER and Royal Guards, they were killed all the same. Even worse was when videos sprang up of captured PER members being forced to drink the potion and were soon subjected to heinous acts.

Ponies who could have been anyone from the most hard-line conversion supporters to innocent refugees were tortured until they could no longer walk, eviscerated alive, eyes ripped out, and amputated of their limbs. There were even videos on the Internet of HLF members joking and laughing while they happily ate cooked Pony meat at a campfire, ponies could be heard screaming in agony while they were being skinned alive even after promising to spare their lives.

There were even many more videos on the Internet of HLF members laughing while they urinated on the corpses of Ponies, and on a rare occasion they did actually spare the lives and let some ponies go, but not before the mother or father had to choose which of their children lived or was to be shot dead right in front of their very eyes. Many couldn’t choose and thus were all killed and those that did choose often committed suicide afterwards, forced to cannibalize other Ponies at gunpoint only to be killed afterwards anyway, raped, the list went on and on. As a result of these heinous acts, many HLF members had defected within the organization, many of whom had joined other less extreme groups to fight for Humanity’s survival.

There had been a blog from Brazil, run by a doctor who treated pegasus wings, an Earth Pony refugee, and a policeman who claimed to have spent a lot of time in America. The policeman had called these groups “The single greatest threat to human-pony cooperation, barrier be damned,” and the Earth Pony had added, “dammit, you’re giving Celestia all the ammunition she needs!”

And it grew nastier until the final straw broke the camel's back. The US military decided to take action after a PHL mare that was attached to a medical unit, a nurse from Baltimare, was foalnapped and was to be 'made of example' on what to do to a pony and the PHL.

Cheerilee couldn't sleep after she read the medical records. She was tortured for days, amputated without anesthetic, cutie marks skinned off, teeth ripped out with dirty tools, raped for hours on end.

Marcus demanded to lead his marines once they located the base camp, which turned out to be a shanty city in the middle of nowhere, and he and dozens of his best men left that same night.

All she knew was that in a single night, the HLF movement grounded to a halt and either fragmented into radicalized sub-groups that were just as much of a danger to ponies as they were to everyone else, or were absorbed into task forces allied with Marcus. Kraber had been one of the latter, an infamous member of the German Menschabwehrfraktion before Aegis saved his life. The few hard-line HLF members that still existed within their bases looked upon Marcus as if he was Celestia herself before them. All she knew was that Marcus made an example of his own, and it struck fear in the hearts of even the most fanatical members of the HLF.

Rumors spread rapidly about Marcus within the human circles, that the small shanty city was devastated in a few short hours. It was rumored that not a single person was spared; every man, woman, and child was cut down, and it didn't help that there wasn't a single person to answer whatever happened that night sans Marcus and his team.

Their fear of Marcus and his wrath was the only thing keeping them in check. And now that threat was gone.

She had been steadily getting reports from various agencies around the States that the HLF was on the move. The HLF had heard what happened to Marcus, despite the gag order to keep his disappearance under wraps. Already they were pushing against several Military bases across the states, most notably Blount Island Command in Florida as they actually fired upon the Marines to get inside. The Marines were holding them off, but they were expressing severe doubts about how long they could keep fighting while trying to maintain a literal island base with little personnel on hand. They were already planning on destroying what they couldn't carry with them and move out in a convoy or by ship.

"This is bad." Cheerilee whispered to herself.

"What is?" A voice asked from behind her, startling Cheerilee by how close it was to her, causing the mare to react and buck with all her worth. "Argh!?!”

There was a crash and a thud, and Cheerilee turned around to see a familiar tail laying limply outside a hole she created. Several humans and ponies standing outside, looking down at the dazed draconequus. Discord weakly got up, smiling as several of his teeth drop from his mouth as he spoke. "Anyone got the number to that chariot..."

"I'm so sorry!" Cheerilee said again, gently putting an ice pack on Discord’s jaw, who only grimaced at the pressure.

"No, I deserve that. Just surprised Marcus hasn’t done it yet... then again, maybe I don’t want to find out." Discord mumbled as he looked down to the mare. "Marcus must love your legs, because they blow my mind... along with most of my skull with it."

Cheerilee blushed a bit at that. "He said he likes my flank, says he a butt man." She muttered, before her eyes widen in shock at what she said, covering her mouth. Discord only laughed, smiling at her as he rubbed her head.

"Ha! A good reason as any, so what’s the bad news?”

“A bunch of borderline-suicidal pro-human crazies are going to kill off our chance at victory,” she said simply, attempting to clear her flushing face by focusing on the issue on hand.

"Jeez, sorry I asked." Discord muttered as he looked down at the reports on the table. "So, who are these nutjobs?"

“The Human Liberation Front,” Cheerilee sighed, “I… I can understand them. Or at least I can understand why they are the way they are, but they’re damn near insane!"

"I see, so what do they have going for them?" Discord asked her as she walked out the door. She lifted her key to lock the door, only to remember the hole she created by mistake before simply dropping her key back in her saddle.

"Other than claiming to be the pride of humanity, not a 'horse fucker' like Marcus, and that they have humanity's 'good intention' at heart? Nothing." Cheerilee growled, her tail flicking in annoyance. "The Human Liberation Front may not be as well equipped than us; in fact, they are so poorly equipped that the Royal Guards would just send a horde of New Foals to take care of them. But they are certainly more insane, thus they are very dangerous and are not to be underestimated. Honestly, though, I think that most of what drives them is jealousy."

“Really?” Discord asked, intrigued. “Jealousy is the driving force for them? Not revenge?”

She nodded. “They’re jealous because we use Equestrian magic, and it works better than anything they do… though that implies that anything they do actually works. Not only that, but there have been so many people saying that our magic is humanity’s only hope...”

"Sounds like they are stubborn idiots trying to rely on good old human ingenuity and know-how in a situation where none of it applies very well, " Discord rubbed his beard, waiting for a response from the mare, but only got silence. He looked down to see what was wrong, but a strange look crossed Cheerilee’s face, and she seemed oddly focused on keeping her mouth closed.

One eye twitched as she began to giggle.

The floodgates opened, and she abruptly forgot how to stand on four hooves-no mean feat-and rolled on the floor, guffawing madly. It was the first time she’d laughed like that in what felt like years, though it was probably closer to months.

"Something I said that you found amusing?" Discord asked as he watched the fuchsia mare rolled across the ground.

“It’s…. it’s just,” she said in between bursts of laughter, “most of what we have is because of human ingenuity and know-how, but combined with Equestrian spellwork and runic knowledge."

She giggled a bit before looking up to Discord. "Did you know, when we first showed them the means to enchant armor to keep the user cool, they asked if it could be set at a certain temperature? We said yes, and then they asked us to enchant an engine block and keep the temperature below two hundred and ten." Cheerilee smiled at the memory. "That engine block was beefed up once they got rid of the cooling pumps, and they said it ran far faster they have ever seen before, with the temp gauge at a steady two-ten. The humans have a particular genius-they can take our ideas and use them in ways we’d never imagined.”

"I see what you mean, and it only escalated with the application of runes." Discord said as the mare dusted herself off before she gave him a beaming smile.

"Yes it did. I remember being at the testing of the first runically enhanced gun--it was a light machinegun called the F3-Thunderlord. Powerful, but it had an unfortunate tendency to explode or electrocute the user after being fired long enough.” Cheerilee said as she continued her trip through the doors to the open hangar. "Placed a couple of cooling, absorbing, and strengthening runes later, that puppy was spraying all day...or at least, that is what Marcus said after he field tested it."

Cheerilee stopped for a moment, looking down to the ground, causing Discord to grimace slightly. He opened his mouth, but Cheerilee held up her hoof to him.

"I'm fine. I just miss him... so much. But he is alive, and that's all that matters." Cheerilee said, closing her eyes before looking out the window to the dozens of tanks, humvees, and dozens of personnel going about their duties. "Discord, do you believe your Equestria is ready? From the sound of it, they haven't even faced off against Sombra yet. And if so... they are wholly unprepared for war, even with the help of Griffons and Minotaurs."

"Sadly, that is true. Sombra hasn't quite made his appearance just yet." Discord answered, with Cheerilee giving a soft sigh. The doors open, allowing them out into the open air of the airport tarmac.

"The Crystal War wasn't that long, it barely lasted six months, but it was horrible. Lots of ponies got hurt or killed by Sombra’s army, but we prevailed over them." Cheerilee said to him, before she gave a small grin to Discord. "But, when we made contact with humanity, many ponies wondered why we didn't contact them sooner. This really didn't help the Tyrant's case as humans showed they were willing to help, even if it meant waiting for Sombra to stick his head through the portal and found himself staring at hundreds of guns right at him."

Cheerilee sighed as she sat down to admire the city’s skyline, her face reverting back to sadness. "I wish this war never happened. I wish we came together in peace, for there is so much that we could have accomplished by working together."

Discord gently patted her on the mane with his claw, followed by speaking in a surprisingly soft tone of voice, which was very unusual for someone like him. "I can assure you that humans and ponies are indeed friends in certain universes. Even lovers and partners in life." Discord gave Cheerilee a sly grin, causing her to blush softly at his teasing.

"Still, given Marcus' lineage, I am not too surprised really." Discord said as he stretched out.

"What?" Cheerilee blinked in confusion at this statement.

"I'll tell you when we have more time, my dear." Discord said as he began to walk away, missing the look of contemplation on the mare's face, before her eyes widen as an idea formed within her mind.

"Wait!" Cheerilee rushed over to him, "You said that time flowed differently in your Equestria from our own?”

"Thats correct." Discord said, with a raised eyebrow. "Hm, let see. For every two hours here, one entire day passes there. Granted, a quick portal might shorten it for a few seconds, but it will-"

"Perfect!" Cheerilee raced away, whooping as she barreled through the doors.

"Uh..." Discord stood on the tarmac, utterly lost. “What’s she going on about?”

John F. Kennedy Airport, Communication/Planning Area

Stephan rubbed his face, exhaustion clear to everyone in the room. Trixie laid nearby on a couch with paperwork strewn around her, reading a report on various spies that Fancy Pants left with her. Still, things were going surprisingly well, even with all that was going on.

First was the Elements, who reappeared at the Sleepy Hollow Bureau, expecting a ticket back home. Instead they found humans inside setting up explosives and ponies dismantling the runes. They vanished again before anyone could get a bead on them, but the reports did say they were utterly shocked and horrified to see them inside. They managed get behind the Barrier at Nova Scotia, taking one of the few remaining potioneer ships they still had across the sea. Give or take three or four days travel time, given that it was being pushed by propellers.

The second was the armies across the world near the barrier wall was falling back, even their airships, giving the troops at the locations much need breathing room. And while the ponies could easily get across the world in a matter of minutes thanks to the portal stations, their archaic ships weren’t so lucky. It would take them over a week to cross the massive amount of land they have covered, and a second week to restock everything for their trip and then cross the Atlantic, or whatever they planned on renaming it.

The third was the clearing of the Logan International Airport. When the fighting between themselves, Discord, and Luna against their leader escalated, all the Royal Guards and New Foals rushed out to use the confusion to overwhelm the defenders. Sadly for them, the one order that remained was to make every pony coming out of the ruin was to be shot on sight. Hundreds of Royal Guards and well over a thousand New Foals rushed out, only to get slaughtered. All airborne ponies were taken out before they even crossed the Boston Channel, and the land base horde attempts to crossing the Andrew McArlde Bridge found themselves swimming when they attempted to rush a choke point on the other side, when the entire bridge was rigged to blow.

The airport was cleared an hour later, no prisoners were taken as they all but threw themselves into the fight in 'honor' of Celestia. They found a burned out temp portal, along with a half-finished permanent Portal Station.

The last was the arrival of an updated weapon system that was put on the back burner for sometime. A thaumaturgical enhanced Blitzer Railgun. Highly modified and required two C-130s to transport the entire package, the people of Crowe Labs had taken the project and began to add magical applications to issues found in the first iteration. It was to be placed on one of the carriers, to give it a more offensive capability instead of relying on its air support to defend it. Given what Stephan remembered about the project, the thing had crazy range on it, allowing it to shoot a target from well off with a good accuracy rating.

"Stephan!" Stephan head jerked at the sound of his name, he turn to see Cheerilee skid across the polished floor, yelping in surprise as she slided out of view. The entire room gave a small chuckle as they heard a crash, a cry of an apology, and the sounds of hurried hooves making their way back to the door. Stephan had to hold back to not burst in laughter. ‘I hope someone recorded this’ "Stephan!"

"Yes?" He backed up slightly as the mare gave him a beaming smile. 'Too... cute.' Stephan shivered as he felt someone glaring daggers at him, turning to see Trixie narrow her eyes at him, almost as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. Stephan really hated the fact that most ponies came off as adorable and cute looking, the normal ones that is.

"I know how we can win this, or at least hold back her armies long enough to set troops on the other side of the barrier!" Cheerilee said excitingly, her eyes fill with hope.

"You do? How?" Stephan asked incredulously.

"The other Equestria, we can get all the items we need from them!" Cheerilee exclaimed, Stephan deflated at that response.

"Sorry, Cheerilee, but that won't work. We have less than-" Stephan began to answer, only for Cheerilee to puff up her cheeks and began to whine at him.

"Did you forget already?!" Cheerilee chided him. "Their Equestria runs faster than ours! "

Stephan open his mouth to retort, then his eyes slightly glazed over as his mind decided to remind him of that information. He slapped his head, shaking his head and began to laugh at how tired he was. "Of course..."

"I already called out for dozens of armorers, gunsmiths, soldiers, and everything else I can think of to get themselves ready for the trip." Cheerilee said, smiling up at him. Stephan blinked several times at this, realizing what she was doing.

"You want us to upgrade their troops and offensive capabilities too?" Stephan said with surprise, then shook his head. "No, that will still take about a week to get together."

"Thats okay, cause I called in the Doctor help out." Cheerilee said with a smile.

"Oh, she’s a very clever mare, this one." Doctor said as he trotted through the door, a big smile on his face. "Took some time to work out the details, but it does work."

"How do you know this, Doctor?" Stephan asked with some skepticism, crossing his arms with a frown on his face.

"Easy. I come from a week in the future." Doctor answered, giving Cheerilee a big smile. "And before you say it, yes, I can still jump in time, but I only into the past, not the future. It’s still too muddy due to the Barrier’s interference, and the TARDIS refuses to try and push it. But with this... this she can do. Anything else without proper planning and we could rip the world apart with paradoxes. Believe me, they are not very fun to experience."

"I'll take your word for it." Stephan dryly stated before he looked to Cheerilee. "So the only issue is getting the orders out."

"Yes, I talk to the Doctor on the way here, the present one, not the future one. He liked the idea and will get everything ready. Just need you to send the orders out and get the ball rolling." Cheerilee said, causing Stephan to turn to everyone in the room and give them a single nod.

"You heard Fräulein Cheerilee! Get going!" Stephan ordered, with the entire room bursting into activity.

"I managed to get one of the hangars, I got a lot of antsy ponies and humans waiting in the TARDIS. They should also take Spike with them to help heal his wounds without worry and in a safe environment. " Doctor explain as he look to Stephan.

"Good idea, Doctor." Trixie said, giving a small shiver. "I just hope the first person he sees is Luna or a human. I hate to see how he reacts if he saw Celestia."

"Agreed." They all said in unison before breaking apart to their respective duties.

"I'll go get Luna and Discord ready to go!" Cheerilee called out to the others before she raced around the corner.

"I have to inform the UN leaders of our plan, you get those people ready." Stephan told the Doctor as he hobbled to the plasma screen.

"Right, better avoid myself...wait, no I didn’t." Doctor said to himself before walking out the door and ran into himself. "Hello me!"

"Well... this at least confirms it works." Present Doctor said as he examined his future self, walking around himself to take everything to note. "One week?"

"One week." Future Doctor nodded his head to his own question.

"Right then, off I go." Present Doctor said with a smile as he trotted off. Future Doctor stared at himself before shaking his head.

"Is that how I act to everyone around me? Sheesh, I act like a daft. No wonders Stephan dislikes me."

John F. Kennedy Airport; Hanger 17; Two hours later

"You zere! Set up near ze car! Closer... closer! Too close! Away! Yes, perfect! You, guards! Switch sides with your partner!" Photo was in her element as she position everything just right. She had dozens of her people setting up cameras in this hangar-turned-museum. She needed this to be perfect, and she was thankful that Cheerilee called her as quickly as she did. This would be history in the making, plus Cheerilee had asked her to make sure that when Marcus walked through the portal, that she capture it and send it to various news stations. Most of which were already reporting Marcus' disappearance, this will allow everyone to know that he was still alive and reason of why he disappeared. She had made a small interview with Princess Luna and Discord, and knew she had a lot of editing to go through after this was done.

Everyone stood as one, ponies and humans standing side by side. All around, bent steel, crushed and damaged vehicles, and pictures of the deceased line the walls. Not a single person moved, even when Luna walked about the area and examined it all with a close eye.

She lightly placed her hoof on the old steel, understanding that this held a special place for the humans of the city of New York. She looked to see Discord standing in the small clearing, his eyes focused as he set up the portal.

The plasma screen was being set up with a camera, to allow communication between the people and the 'President', who was forced into hiding thanks to the Tyrant. Normally, Luna would call this a cowardly tactic, but Davis was described to have a rich military history and did not shy away from a fight. However, given all that he knew about the various deployments and dozens of secrets, his change could be a crippling blow to the cause.

She watched as the human turned on screen, seeing the President appear sitting behind a desk, a tired look on his face, but one filled with determination. The human saluted once before nodding to Luna.

Luna trotted forward, bowing slightly to the leader on the screen. "Greetings, President Jack Davis. Colonel Renee has spoken of you in our talks about who we should contact once we arrived in your world."

Davis smirked somewhat, finding something funny. "I take it he introduced himself as Colonel."

"Yes, is that not his rank?" Luna looked at him with confusion. The man's smile grew a little bigger, shaking with mirth.

"It is, but he gets a conniption fit whenever someone calls him 'Commander'. News network called him Commander and got stuck with it." The man laughed for a moment before giving her a level stare."I need the truth from you, Princess Luna. Can you give me that?"

"I shall."

"Good. I want my people to survive. Hell, I want the ponies and the others that laid their lives down for us to survive. I want your word that if this turns into a complete cluster fuck, I want you to save as many of my people as you can. All of them. Humans, ponies, diamond dogs, and the griffons." Davis said quietly, and yet his eyes held an edge that rivaled a dragon.

"You see them as your own? All of them?" Luna asked in surprise, gaining a nod from the man. Luna closed her eyes before looking back into the man’s eyes, never wavering as she spoke the next words. Anything less and she knew she would lose his respect. "I will throw them on my back and carry them across. Equestria will take defense and allow your people to cross."

For a long moment, the President of the United States kept his stare, never wavering from her own eyes. Before he finally close them, relief spreading through his stance. "Thank you." He whispered before looking to the man standing by. "Airman Jackson, get the people ready."

"Sir!" The man saluted before he turn to shout at the group of humans and ponies, and a single pair of griffons and diamond dogs. "Attention! Commander in Chief has some words for us."

The group rushed into place, standing in neat lines as they held themselves at attention. Not a single word was uttered as they stood, ready for their orders.

"Thank you, Airmen." President Davis looked about and frowned a bit when he saw Stephan hobble in, along with Trixie. "Major, I said it before, you don't have to be here for this."

"He's a stubborn ass." Trixie answered, to which Stephan gave a bright smile in response.

"What she said."

Davis only shook his head before turning back to the group. "As most of you now understand, you have gone back one week in time. Congratulations, you all became the first time travelers of recorded history of Earth. Sadly, the 'how' will be left unsaid, the paperwork alone for this will be made on black paper, with black ink and buried under the infamous red tape."

This caused a bit of a chuckle to spread in the group. Davis frown as he looked about, before scowling. "It also appears I am short a CO."

"Almost done." Discord grumbled before snapping his claw, the sound of ripping echoed out in the hanger, everyone watched as a colorful portal opened before their eyes. Discord smiled as he admire the portal before looking back to the others. "Allow me to check it out, might have got it wrong."

Discord gave a single wave before sticking his head in. For a long moment, he just stood there, before his body jerked around, causing everyone to step back. Discord pulled his head back, screaming as half of his face fell apart and revealed his skull, shocking everyone and even causing a mare to faint.

Even Davis was stunned by this development, and was about to order everyone out when Discord started laughing, his face reforming on to his skull. "Hahahaha! You should see the looks on your faces! I swear this was -ugh!? Wait, not the face, not the face?! Argh!?!"

Cheerilee scowled as she marched back, a bruised Discord picking himself off the floor. Luna stood next to him, an eyebrow raised on her face as she look down on him. "Having fun?"

"Shut up." Discord muttered before looking to Davis. "He's coming."

Canterlot, Equestria; Royal Study; One week after Discord and Luna's departure

'You could have ended this ten moves ago.'

'I know.' Marcus answered as he looked at the chessboard, elbows on the table, his fingers linked together and held at his lips. Normally, people answering voices in their heads was a sure sign of Insanity. Marcus had the dubious luck of actually having an entity living within his mind. 'I want to gauge her strategy ability, Tia.'

'I know, but its so boring. You’re playing her like a piano master. And she doesn't even know it yet.'

'I believe she is used to taking a fight to her enemies, not leading armies. Good leadership quality, I give her that, but its pretty bad when everyone believes you be a master strategist when your only move is a show of force and flare. Both friend and foe.' Marcus mentally rolled his eyes as Celestia predictably moved her strongest piece, the knight, to take his first bishop. 'She's good, but she's not used to someone who plays with tactics like me.'

'Tactics that requires large sacrifices is normally not a sound tactic, either in game or warfare.'

'No... but it gets the point across.' "Check mate." Marcus said without moving a single muscle as he magically moved the Rook across the board. The Rook wavered in the air as it made its trip, before finally landing, trapping the King between it, a pawn, a knight, and a bishop.

"Oh..." Celestia stared down at the board, seeing many of her white pieces still on the board, while Marcus had only a third of his pieces left. "I see... this was a lesson to me, while you practice your magical control."

Marcus nodded his head as he leaned back in his seat, watching as Celestia stared at the board for a long time. It had been a very long week for Marcus as he drilled the various officers of their respective nations on the tactics of the Solar Tyrant's armies and what to expect of the New Foals. They all been disgusted with the wasteful tactics, such as ordering the New Foals to charge straight into machine guns at heavily fortified positions to try convert more Humans into Ponies, but Marcus reminded them that while it seemed wasteful, they had plenty of reserves to rely on, given the fanatical display they had for their 'Queen'. He told them horror stories of New Foals rushing headlong into battle, missing a leg or having their sides ripped open, not even caring about their own health even as they were tripped up in their own intestines as long as they had a chance to serve the Queen. Of an anonymous earth pony who had joined the Ukrainian military forces, whose claim that the purpose of New Foals was to clog guns with bodies had become an overnight meme.

During that time, he was also working on his control. With the large abundance of magic in the area, it allowed him to practice without relying on nearby unicorns to recharge him. Using the control practice that Vinyl taught him, he continued with his practice until he could feel the burning, telling him that he was overusing his runes.

Lately though, the over-usages were happening later and later, forcing Marcus to perform more advanced control practices. This was the first time Marcus was able to move a small object without lodging it into a wall or table.

The sound of running hooves gained their attention. Celestia’s horn glowed as she opened the door, the guard had just raised his hoof to tap.

"Yes?"

"Princess, Colonel. Discord has returned, he has opened the portal in the throne room, he has requested that Colonel Renee come through, on orders from his 'President'." The guard relayed.

Marcus stood up and stretched as he walked out, Celestia following suit. Marcus popped his neck, giving Celestia a sidelong look as she walked beside him.

"Shit, I hope you are not planning on coming through with me." Marcus asked as they turn a corner.

"And cause all sorts of trouble? I think not. I am going to escort the Elements down to the throne room. I will have Luna's Night guards take the place of my own. I fear the sight of my Day Guards may cause them to be... uncomfortable." Celestia answered as she walked down the path. "Marcus... I wish for you to take Lyra with you."

Marcus stopped for a moment, before shaking his head. "No... I grew to know her, and I call her a friend, but she is not the Lyra I knew and cared for. That’s okay, but these people... the ponies, of the PHL. They revered her. She is their version of Jesus, seeing her coming out of the portal with me... I don't know what that will do, give them hope maybe? Then they realize she is nothing more than a scared mare thrusted into an unfamiliar environment, not the savior figure they came to revere.."

"Can she not be?" Celestia asked, with Marcus shaking his head.

"No... I don’t want her to go through all the loss her counterpart has gone through." Marcus stop for a moment, staring at the door to the throne room. "Her final moments were quoting a speech from a movie she loved. Never again... I'm not going through that again."

"I see... well then, I will not push the issue. I still wish to bring her along with the Elements." Celestia said, before pausing for a moment. "Are you sure that they will be bringing people to help us prepare?"

"Cheerilee knows me too well, plus she is a smart woman. She will get that spark and she will have dozens of plans in place." Marcus said with a small chuckle, gaining a nod from Celestia as she turn to leave.

Marcus gave a small sigh, his thoughts returning to Lyra, both the old and new. Both so similar to one another, and yet so different at the same time. He could only hope the group coming through knew the difference between the Lyras of both worlds.

“She may never reach what they remember, but she will do her part in keeping that memory alive. Just like she did for you.”

Marcus hummed a bit at the response before opening the doors, seeing Discord's head floating in a colorful swirling vortex.

'You feel nervous?'

'I would be lying if I said no.'Marcus made his way to the portal, his steps measured as he got closer. 'Showtime.'

Discord pulled his head back from the portal, a smile on his face. He looked at the assorted personnel gathered in the hanger. Almost two hundred humans and ponies were standing by, each of them ready to cross over to Equestria to help give them a fighting chance.

Discord stood next to the portal, giving Luna a small nod as she stood on the other side of the portal. Luna looked back to the assorted crowd before taking a deep breath.

"Soldiers! I ask you to stand at attention for the return of your leader!" Luna called out, her voice carrying easily across the massive hangar.

The swirling colorful portal dimmed as a humanoid figure appeared within, the hazy figure becoming clear as he walked through.

Cheerilee’s breath hitched, her heart pounding as she found herself rushing over to him, tears streaking as she leapt up at him, caught by a familiar pair of arms, that swung her around with a light laugh.

"Hey, Cher." The man whispered as he hugged her close.

"Marcus..." Cheerilee cried softly hugged him. "I missed you... I missed you so much."

"Me too, Cher." Marcus Renee smiled as he set her on her rear legs, cupping her face with his hand. He looked around, his smile increasing in size as he took note of all the personnel standing by. "Glad I got me a smart girl. You read my mind, Cher."

Cheerilee blushed as she looked away, embarrassment rushing through her as she realized where she was at. She turn to see many of the ponies smiling at her, along with many humans. Marcus stepped away, smirking as Stephan hobbled up to him.

"You look like shit, Bauer." Marcus chuckled as he shook the man’s hand.

"Still better even before you got that boot in your face, Renee," Stephan gave a small bark of laughter, "your nomination for me to take over in case you were unable to perform your duties added a very large load on me. Getting in the face of the Tyrant didn't help much, even if she was a fake. On top of that, I had Kraber to deal with, so..."

"Sounds like I missed a great party, but time is of the essence. Are you ready?" Marcus smirked at the confused look on Stephan's face.

"Ready? For what?"

"To train your new recruits." Marcus said with a smile as he walked pass. The stunned look on the German-born soldier’s face was priceless as far as Marcus was concerned. He turned to the plasma tv, seeing President Davis looking back at him. Marcus stood at attention, saluting at the screen. "Sir! Colonel Marcus Renee reporting as requested, I have managed to secure an alliance that will help us with this war, sir!"

"Good work, Marine. You are an example for all of us to follow." Davis returned the salute. "However, I take it there is something else to report."

"Yes, sir. I request I stay behind in Equestria to help hone my abilities and strengthen my chances against our enemies," Marcus said to him, before looking to Stephan. "I also ask if the EU will grant me the request of taking Major Stephan Bauer with me to help our allies with training. "

"I see... that will leave an opening in the UN leadership, Colonel," Davis told him, Marcus nodded his head to this before looking to Cheerilee.

"I nominate Ms. Cheerilee Cherry to the position." Marcus said, causing the entire room to fill with hushed whispers. Cheerilee herself was stunned at this turn of event, actually sitting down by the announcement. "She has been by my side through this war, sir. She has a keen sense of the people around her to help them in anyway she can, wades through paperwork like no one’s business, and she has a sharp eye for detail. She has seen knos how the structure works, well-known and respected by many military leaders, both foreign and domestic, and she has reign of the PHL under her hooves. I believe she is the perfect candidate. "

"I nominate for her as well," Stephan said, standing next to Marcus, "besides, she went hoof to hoof with the Tyrant's avatar and laid a beat down I didn’t know was even possible. After that, no one could doubt her efforts for this war."

Marcus blinked at those words, turning to look at Cheerilee with a stunned look on his face. “She… she what?!”

“You heard me.” Stephan said with a grin, expecting the shocked look to appear on Marcus' face. Marcus turned to look at Cheerilee, a frown on his face as she was still trying to comprehend her new status. He closed his eyes, chuckling a bit before he gave a bark of laughter, startling the mare out of her stunned state. “Turns out somebody took video of it and uploaded it last night.”

"W-w-wait!" Cheerilee stammered out. "I can't be leader of this task force! I'm not even part of your world's military!"

Stephan frowned as the mare seem rather put off by this quick change, then again, this was a tall order to fill, given that Marcus has been leading this group for almost three years running. But one he felt she was ready to fill in. "Wait, I’m sorry, I must be confused, I was sure for a moment we were talking about Cheerilee, the one that lead a small group of protestors against her own nation. The same group that we call PHL today, the same group that joined the armies when things got bad, the same army lead by one and only for the time things got bad! I am seriously doubting a pony, the same pony who trained with others in Europe when the time was needed, the same pony whom gave herself to an experiment of runes when it was yet to be proven useful but it was said that it could help! The very same one, that saved my sorry ass today! the only pony I would ever trust my head with a loaded gun.”

"B-b-but-"

"You also helped us understand magic on a fundamental level, allowing us to create a means to gauge magic with the very tools we have on hand. You also convinced various governments, radicals, and terrorist organizations to help combine their efforts in the fight against your former nation’s crazed leader." Davis ticked off several more point in the mare's favor.

“That was Marcus!” Cheerilee protested.

“And I couldn’t have done any of that without you,” Marcus pointed out, "in fact, I clearly remember being absent for the Taliban meeting, and sent someone else along in my stead. The guy said you took control of the meeting when it was going south. An hour later, you had the entire group agreeing to help out. Considering who you were talking to, that is fucking impressive!"

"Ms. Cherry, you are one astounding woman." Davis replied, causing the mare to blush brightly at his praise. "And the UN agrees with me. As of now, by the power invested in me by the UN, Ms. Cheerilee Cherry, you are now Commander of the UN Taskforce. Every single UN and Allied military assets; All personnel, air, ground, and sea, is at your disposal. The PHL won a major victory today, we recognize you as citizens of both Earth and the true Equestria, and welcome you among our ranks here at the United Nations."

Cheerilee lost all feeling in her body, she looked around to see many ponies beaming at her and giving a cheer. She looked to the humans, all of them from various nations, some of which did not technically exist anymore, standing at attention and saluting her.

It was overwhelming, a little terrifying, and awe-inspiring.

"Congratulations, Commander Cherry," Davis said to her, "you are the first civilian and pony leader to ever lead a military unit of this size. My soldiers are at your command, you will lead us just as well as Marcus did."

"Better even." Marcus said out loud, causing many to agree.

"Thank you. All of you," Cheerilee said, this feeling, this overwhelming feeling. She felt terrified that this was a huge mistake, happiness at the fact they trusted her, and proud of what she’d accomplished that had lead her to this point.

’It’s simply amazing,’ Luna thought to herself as she looked upon the stunned mare, ’Absolutely amazing. This is what the Bag and its pet mockery of my sister and Equestria plan to destroy in the name of Harmony? In their current states, none of them would know Harmony if it blasted them in the face. Harmony isn’t the aggressive opinion of one; it’s millions coming together and joining together for a worthy cause.’

She couldn’t help it. She cheered along with the rest of the ponies and humans in the crowd, louder than any of them, with twice as much vigor. She would later swear that for the first time in a long time, she had very nearly been drowned out by the cheers of others.

"Attention!" Davis dictated out, causing everyone to fall under a hush tone, the entire hanger to stand at attention. "You know your mission. Go to Equestria, help train their soldiers, improve their weapons and defenses, and everything else that can be done to help keep their soldiers alive on the battlefield. Keep in mind, that you are going to meet faces that you absolutely want to cave in, that you want to tear apart. In all likelihood, you will feel all-consuming rage! Hell, the first faces you might see could be Celestia and the Elements of Harmony themselves, but you must remember, these are not your enemies.”

“You will perform your task, and you will show them that WE can work together as one. That we are not the monsters that the Tyrant makes us out to be, your conduct represents all of us. Do not make us look like a bunch of bumbling, murderous trigger-happy baboons. This is not our first, second, or third chance, it is not plan A or plan B, there is no backup, there is no second line of defense that can wipe the enemy off the map, it is our ONLY chance and we are the ONLY defense! Do you understand the scope of this mission, the gravity of the situation?!"

"Yes sir!" All two hundred answered as one.

"Good... then go out there and make your world proud of you. Colonel Renee, the mission is yours. Send them through." Davis ordered, which Marcus saluted once and turn to the group.

"Company!" Marcus roared out, causing all of them to straighten up. "You will go through, you will make us look like we are the BEST DAMN example of what we can achieve together as one, both humans and equestrians. If I so much as hear ANY of you make us look like the DUMB FUCKS that we fight, you can expect my FOOT going right up your ASS while I make you clean the castle floors one stone at a time with your TONGUE. Do I make myself CLEAR?!"

"YES SIR!"

"Good, get the gear and let’s move. We have wasted enough of our time as it is. Fall-" Marcus began to order the dismissal, but Stephan gave his own bark of orders.

"Company, stand fast!" Stephan gave a sidelong look to Marcus, who gave him a very confused look at being under cut by Stephan. "Please allow our medical team and their patient go first."

Twin doors open and the sound of squeaking wheels gain Marcus' attention. He turn to Stephan, looking for answers "Patient?" Stephan only gave a small nod in the direction of the squeaking.

“Be careful with him.” Stephan said with a loud but not harsh tone. Marcus eyes went wide as he saw a flat trailer with an purple dragon with green spikes drove by, surrounded by dozen of Medics and other personnel who took care of him. Marcus soon noticed the wounds on the creature. "His name is-"

"Spike, I know." Marcus said quietly, staring at the dragon with shock.

Stephan rose a brow at that. “Guess you already meet him in the other Equestria?”

"He barely came up to my knees..." Marcus whispered, staring at the dragon until it reached the portal, Luna giving a single nod before escorting him through.

Stephan followed the transport with his eyes until they left through the portal. ‘Stay strong, Spike. I hope we can truly meet when you get up again.’

"What the hell happened to him?" Marcus asked quietly, "The reports we had was that he was in hiding."

"The Tyrant happened. And those reports were wrong. So very wrong." Trixie whispered before looking away. "If you wish for more information, ask Princess Luna."

"Right then," Marcus closed his eyes for a moment before turning to the group, "fall out!"

"Also have couple more personnel to add to the list." Stephan said to him, watching as the group began to gather their gears at a hurried pace.

“Who?” Marcus asked.

“Us.” said an unfamiliar man. He was tall and thin with a small mustache, clad in a suit of unfamiliar green riot armor with dull yellow stripes. He carried a huge revolver and a .45 automatic on each hip, and had a rifle like a hybrid of an FN FAL and an AN94, and a weird, slightly bulbous shotgun on his back. His eyes were icy blue, like a husky’s.

“Isaac Acevedo, Crowe Labs Security detail and former Brazilian Armed Forces.” He said, shaking Marcus’ hand. He definitely sounded Brazilian, anyway. Marcus vaguely remembered a detachment from them in Mexico City. “A couple of friends and I are here to help secure a weapon drop off and deliver a second blueprint. Of course the brainiacs weren't to sure of making these copies for another Equestria, but given what Major Bauer and Ms. Cheerilee had told them, sounds like they are going to need it.”

Next to him were two odd characters. One was a man in the same green and yellow armor, indeterminately dark-skinned, not so much fat as he was large, with a small beard that barely concealed a number of nodules and other blemishes on his chin. He had what looked like an oversized light machinegun, so huge that “light” didn’t fully apply anymore, like something out of an old comic book. The other was a chocolate-brown earth pony with an orange mane and a wholly incongruous gently spinning beanie, and a cutie mark of an old video game controller. He had a sheaf of papers in his saddlebag and was, equally incongruously, wearing a similar set of armor, though it was lighter around the legs. He had an assault saddle with a similarly large weapon on it.

The large dark-skinned man reached into the Earth Pony’s saddlebag, and pulled out one of the papers. “Isaac Dan Der Grimnebulin, licensed doctor,” he said as he handed it to Marcus, “I seem to have a talent for wings, though.”

“And Button Mash, Sir!” the earth pony with the beanie said, making one of those bizarre, seemingly anatomically impossible salutes that ponies made each day.

“That’s the blueprint, Sir,” Acevedo said, “so now that is done, I believe we can help you make this other Equestria into a bona-fide army.”

“What is this?” Marcus said, poring over one of the papers, realizing it was a blueprint. “Blitzer Electro-Thaumaturgic Railgun-”

“ETR.” Button Mash insisted, for no explicable reason.

Marcus blinked as he looked up, an unsure look on his face. "Blitzer ETR... Why do I have the feeling that name doesn't quite fit."

“Cause it’s not just a railgun,” Button Mash explained, “it’s a little more like the M6 Punt from-” he stopped, realizing that no-one would get the reference. “Right. It uses magical fields to propel ferromagnetic slugs at 4 kilometers per second, but imbues them full of enough unstable thaumaturgons to power a small town. Makes a hell of a mess of anything they hit, and any magical shields won’t be worth shit when it hits them.”

"So... its a magical exploding lava shooter.” Marcus said blankly.

“I never said lava.” Button Mash said.

"A magical smelter combustion gun, then."

“Also not quite.” Button began to explain, but was interrupted once more.

"It shoots melting bullets that explode, that’s basically what you told me." Marcus deadpanned at the recorded mental image. "Smelter that shoots melted globs of metal that disperses violently on contact. Got it. Bring it on board then."

“But it’s nothing like a smelter!” Button yelled. “And they don’t melt in the rails! It’s a more advanced version of a railgun that will destroy everything in its path, and-”

"Whatever, bring it." Marcus said walking away, helping a mare with her pack. Button's eyes twitched as he stared at his retreating back. Cheerilee gently walked up to him and tapped his shoulder.

"Button, I think he got it." Cheerilee said, but Button growled out.

"He just called it a 'Magical Smelter Combustion Gun'! Does he not know how advanced this is!? It’s almost 200 years ahead of its time!" Button growled as glowered at Marcus.

"Button Mash, do you not realize that Marcus understood what you told him?" Cheerilee asked him plainly, realizing she might need to finish before Button threw an angry fit. "You lost me at 'ferromagnetic slugs' Button. And probably everyone else."

"Yeah, I had no idea what you were talking about." Stephan shook his head, shrugging to the young stallion. Trixie nodding in agreement with him.

“Oh…” Button said. “OH! I’m so sorry about that. It’s just like all those presentations back in class…” he sighed.

“If anything, it was better!” Cheerilee said, patting him on the head, just in front of his beanie. “Especially--”

“I got it.” Button interrupted. There was no way he was remembering the last school project he did before he left Ponyville. The Crusaders had worked on it with him, just as the brainwashing had hit fever pitch, and-well, it was best left unexplained.

"Is he right though?" Stephan asked, as Button closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.

"In a way. Still I can’t believe...he...described..." Button trailed off, his jaw hanging open.

“Easy there,” Acevedo said, “this isn’t exactly common knowledge.”

"No... I mean, he understood exactly what I was telling him." Button exclaimed in shock. "He simplified it for the rest of you! I thought he was a simple jarhead?!"

"Marcus?" Cheerilee smiled as she saw Marcus helped two ponies hitch up to a wagon full of gear. "No, he has a Bachelor’s in Physics, so he can apply for military research programs once he retires. He said he was planning on getting his Masters if had the time, you know, before this whole war started."

"What?!" Button exclaimed.

"Alright people, hurry up. The more time we waste, the less time we got!" Marcus called out, causing everyone to move a little faster.

“That’s right,” Grimnebulin said, “burnin’ daylight. Let’s go gentlemen. ”

Cheerilee watched as the group approach the swirling portal, the first human reaching out and sticking a finger in it before pulling away. He turned and smiled to the others, only for Discord to appear and shove him through.

"Come on, get a move on, you just saw Marcus walk through it." Discord growled in annoyance, causing the others to hurry their pace.

Stephan waited at the end of the group, hearing the rush of hoofsteps coming up behind him.

"Got our stuff." Trixie said to him, levitating Stephan’s duffle bag and her own. Stephan smirked a bit as he looked to her.

"Guess I don’t have any say in the matter of you coming?"

"Not at all." Trixie replied as she walked by his side, gently leaning against him to help him through the portal.

A few minutes later, only the guards, Photo Finish and her crew, Cheerilee, and Marcus were the only ones left. Marcus turned and smiled, kneeling down to her to speak to her in private.

"Cher, I have a favor to ask." Marcus said quietly, gaining her attention from the hypnotic swirling portal.

"Yes?" Cheerilee was shaken from her daydreams, quickly looking to Marcus.

"I want you to start asking around for a certain group. The area they work in is the Asian front; they deal with scouting parties and forward assault groups. They're good at what they do, so I am in need of their assistance." Marcus told her, cupping her face and leaning down close. Cheerilee felt her breath quicken, her face flustered with love and frustration.

Marcus always did this, come on to her, showing all the signs of being romantic, and then talked business while performing these acts.

It was cruel and unusual...

And she wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.

"What's their names?" Cheerilee replied steadily, her eyes became half lidded, what Marcus called 'bedroom eyes', much to her embarrassment.

"No names, S.O.P, you know the drill." Marcus’ breathing became just a little more husky, sending chills up and down her spine. "Callsign is Dragons of the East, if you want their attention, that’s how you do it."

"Kind of corny, don't you think?" Cheerilee placed a hoof on his chest, leaning in closer to him.

"Corny yes, but they got that name for a reason, and that they leave nothing but scorched ground in their wake." Marcus gently brushed back some of her mane, causing her to close her eyes as she felt his hand brush against her coat.

"I'll... see what I can do." Cheerilee's reply was heavy with seduction, breathing deeply as their faces was inches apart.

"Good, I know one of them. Tell them Marcus has a need of their services." Marcus smiled before leaning down and finishing up with a deep kiss.

Cheerilee felt her world tilt slightly, and everything became background noise as far as she was concerned. Those warm familiar lips, his hand cupping her face, and the feeling of how much he loved her. It was like a drug to her, she felt like she can do this forever, just hold onto him and never let go and everything will work out.

Marcus gently pulled away, place his forehead against her own. "I love you, Cher.”

Cheerilee felt tears running down her cheeks, she wasn't sure why or when she started crying, but she wrapped around his neck and held him just a bit longer. "You better not mess around with my twin, okay? Just because we are the same pony doesn't mean it counts."

Marcus gave a small laugh, cupping her face and burning her tearful face to memory. "You got it."

"I love you." Cheerilee said, before gently pushing him away. "Now go, we wasted enough time. Go get us an army worth standing by."

"Yes, Commander Cherry!" Marcus laughingly barked out as he stood up and walked towards the spinning vortex.

"Just so you know! You're getting this job back when you come back!" Cheerilee yelled at him as he walked up to the portal, which Marcus only gave a single wave before walking through.

Cheerilee gave a small sigh as she watched as the portal shrank and popped out of existence, a small smile on her face.

The lens on the camera focused on Cheerilee's face before finally pulling away and shutting off. The blue mare smiled as she nodded to the camera crew. "And ve are done here, ze magiks has been captured! Come! Ve have much vork to do!"

Author's Notes:

Fuck, this took forever to post.

Anyways, this is it. Hope you guys are surprised by the change we gave you,

Alright, for now, taking a break from writing to help Kizuna Tallis, Rush, and Doctor Fluffy to help with a side project,

And as status quo for me writing in universes I hate, I am making a 'Fall of Equestria' one shot. Its almost done, so keep a look out for it.