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// Chapter 8 - At Death's Door 
// Story: For the New Lunar Republic 
// by Moxypony 
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	PAIN. Pain unlike anything Moxi had ever experienced wracked through her body, she could see Catcher from the corner of her eye. The young Earth pony was contorting into positions nopony should be capable of doing, and from the pain surging through her body, she could tell that her body was doing much the same. 
Had she control of her lungs she would have been screaming in sheer agony as each muscle in her body tried to pull in a different direction, tearing at one another. Her head began to swim from the pain and the lack of oxygen flowing to her brain and she saw the world begin to fade before her eyes, the pain slowly beginning to fade as she slipped into unconsciousness, and she welcomed the relief it offered. But no, came a voice from the back of her head, if you fall asleep now, you’ll never wake up, this is not the time for you to die, Moxi, this is the time for you to fight!
Moxi forced her mind to focus and she turned her attention onto the unicorn. The general didn’t seem as though she was being particularly taxed by the effort of simultaneously destroying the bodies of two ponies, in fact, she seemed almost bored. There must be some kind of way to get out of this, Moxi thought, some trick we can exploit to break free! 
The blood was pounding in her ears now, so heavily it almost sounded like cannon fire… cannon fire and the roar of charging ponies… In an instant Moxi knew what was happening was not a simple effect of the magic on her body, but rather the result of something she’d completely forgotten. This impromptu torture session was happening on a hill that was rapidly in the process of becoming a battlefield!
Sparkle must have forgotten this as well, for when she heard the sound of the 32nd charging up the hill to destroy her war machines and take her head, she turned on them with an expression of annoyance. “Oh dear,” she muttered, “looks like we’ll have to speed things up, won’t we. I’m sorry to have to cut our time together short, Dreamcatcher, but you know how it is. Busy busy busy.”
She created a magical barrier around them as the NLR reached their position, preventing any of the soldiers from coming to the aid of Moxi or Catcher, but as she did, Moxi felt some of the pressure leave her aching muscles. The relief was so great that even the pain that continued to throb through her aching body was like a drug in contrast to the agony of moments before. She could see Dreamcatcher starting to break free, twisting his head in an attempt to grab at his knife, but Sparkle simply snarled at him, “No!”  And she slammed Dreamcatcher hard against the plating behind him, and in that instant Moxi was able to twist unseen from the bonds of the unicorn’s magic to rush her. Moxi slammed against the older pony, knocking her from her feet and breaking her concentration long enough for Dreamcatcher to break free of his magical bonds as well.
The general was beginning to regain the upper hand, as Moxi desperately tried to pin her to the floor. She had leverage and youth on the older pony, but Sparkle had experience and training, and with a few good twists, she was able to achieve enough leverage to toss Moxi aside and lift herself onto her hooves. Moxi had to give the general credit, even through the process of wrestling with Moxi, Sparkle had managed to maintain the bubble of hard air around them with no fewer than ten NLR ponies trying to smash their way through, but with all her focus suddenly split between Moxi and holding the shield in place, she didn’t have enough spare consciousness to notice the tan earth pony slamming into her with the force of a battering ram.
The earth pony stepped away, and Sparkle slumped to the ground, blood oozing from her lips, but her horn still flaring with magic. “You are a disgrace,” Catcher spat, “you and your kind were meant to protect the people, not subjugate them and deprive them of all which makes them ponies.” He approached her, and she looked up at him through her single swollen eye, her weathered face a mask of contempt, but she said nothing. “You have committed many crimes, these few years past,” he growled directly to her face, “and the time has come for you to pay for your crimes. Luna would call for your imprisonment, likely for life.” Twilight smirked at him, and when she spoke, Moxi could see teeth stained crimson with blood, “but you’re not Luna, are you Dreamcatcher?” 
“No,” he muttered, righteous fury burning in his eyes, “I’m not!” And Dreamcatcher swung around to deliver a crushing kick to the general’s skull, only to feel his hoof pass through thin air. He lost his footing and fell to the ground. “No,” he looked back in disbelief at the spot where the general had sat not ten seconds before, “no, damnit! I had her! I had her right in my hooves!”
Moxi approached Catcher and placed a hoof over his, the earth pony turned to face her, tears in his eyes. “I had her, Moxi…” he said, his voice quavering, “I could have ended it.” 
“Shh,” Moxi shushed, “it’s ok, Catch, you did amazingly. Nopony could have asked for more.” Dreamcatcher nodded, and with a helping hoof from Moxi, he returned to his feet, brushing the tears from his eyes before turning to one of the gathered NLR soldiers, “Status report.”
“Princess Luna has been safely extracted, sir,” the young private said, snapping to a salute, “The aerial squads are removing the crews from the war machines as we speak. We’re to mop up any remaining resistance from the Solar Empire troops and then report back to General Warhorse for further orders. This appears to have been a relatively small effort; the general assumes Sparkle thought she’d be able to take us out quickly with these machines.”
“Report to Warhorse for orders, eh?” Dreamcatcher muttered, shooting Moxi a devilish grin, “Well, we don’t report to Warhorse, besides, we’ve already got our orders. Don’t we, Moxi?”
Moxi paused for a moment before returning the grin. “Yeah,” She said, “I guess it’s time for us to take a little trip to Salt Lick City.”