//------------------------------// // Species unite // Story: When Worlds Collapse // by MoonShine //------------------------------// Chapter 11: Species unite Last chapter: She puts the letter down and sits on a chair, the guard walks over to her and looks at the letter, she sits and thinks about it, “What shall I do? SEA now want to join forces with me to help defeat IRIS but I can’t trust them, once IRIS is gone they will only turn on us, with IRIS out of the way they will easily defeat us. I don’t know what to do. If I join then we may have more chance of surviving now, they will protect us...hopefully.” she says to herself. She gets up and walks onto the balcony and thinks about it, “The fate of Equestria hangs on this decision and I don’t know what to do...” she adds as she looks at the retreating ships then at the mechs heading for Cloudsdale. Equestria is in a moment of peace, IRIS has backed off for now and are holding base at Manehatten after they decimated it to dust, Celestia has accepted the offer of truce and to his word Thomas has organised a protection act for the ponies, jet fighters constantly patrol the air space over Ponyville and Canterlot, Havoc mechs guard Ponyville, they stand all around the perimeter and act like a shield for the village while sniper mechs take camp on the roof tops of the castle, each of them will dual sniper weapons and plenty of missiles, the C.O.C and L.R.M.S are both constantly on full alert and scanning the skies, AAL (Anti-Air Laser) sites have been positioned all over Canterlot for any air attacks that IRIS may try, Cloudsdale has expanded, they now have a new shipyard, two new mech hangers, two new fighter production factories and storage centres plus three new weapons and armour development facilities. Both Ponies and SEA are fully armed and protected for any attack that IRIS tries. The ship that was downed outside of Ponyville has returned to Manehatten after being repaired, the whole city now in ruins but in the constant shroud of dust lies a large base in which IRIS resides, the three ships always patrolling the air above but in cloak, the base takes up three quarters of the ruins, the dust provides a visual cloaking to all eyes that try to look in on the base but along with that is some radar scramblers that stops any type of camera and radar from seeing the base, as if the base doesn’t exist. Celestia slowly opens her eyes only to have the bright sun shining on her face, she lift a hoof from under the covers and shields her eyes whilst lifting the other to wipe the sleep from them, once done she lowers her hoof and looks over to the balcony door to hear jet engine roar as fighters pass overhead, at the same time she can hear mechanical whirring as the mechs above turns as they search the horizon, one mech is situated directly above her room. She throws her head back onto the pillow whilst giving off a loud huff; she raises both hooves to her face before lowering them quickly to see a shadow swiftly move across her room, she pushes the covers back with her magic before making her over to the balcony, she pokes her head round the corner of the balcony door only to have a hand come flying towards her and grab her by the throat. “Hello princess, how are you this fine morning?” a voice asks her as the grip round her neck tightens, she coughs and splutters as she goes to talk but can’t get words out, the person then loosen his grip allowing her to talk, “Try again dearie, you were choking.” He says, she uses her hooves to grab at his hand so that she can get more comfortable than her current position. “Let me down Kieron, you know SEA and us have a truce. Now let me go.” She orders, her horn glows as she tries to use her magic on him but nothing happens, his helmet folds back, his face beaming with a large grin but also covered in scars, the most noticeable being the large one going down from his forehead to his cheek and covering over his left eye, “What has happened to you?” she asks as she calms down and for some reason shows some sympathy towards him, “Oh dear, could this be a delayed reaction to the Elements of Harmony?” she asks herself as he drops her and looks away. She uses her magic to lift a hand mirror over to him, “Here, take a look.” She comments softly whilst lifting it to his face. He grabs the mirror and slowly lifts his head to go and look at his reflection but just as he is about to see it the C.O.C fires at just above the castle, it hits something and a large ripple effect and then a large amount of static as a ship comes out of cloaking from the shells fires, the L.R.M.S then turns and fires on the ship as well as all of all of the mechs at Canterlot, Kieron drops the mirror but then quickly grabs it again before it hits the floor, he then throws it inside onto the bed. “That was close, that could have been seven years bad luck you know.” He comments before walking out onto the balcony and then looks up to see the ship passing over and sees the shield rippling as the multiple shots and missiles hit against it. He lifts a hand to his ear and speaks into the earpiece, “Mathis get the mechs to concentrate their fire on one point, that should create a whole in the shields for the C.O.C to get a clear shot, this ship won’t last long, it’s only a frigate.” A voice then acknowledges him, the mechs then stops firing as Celestia walk out to stand next to Kieron, she looks at the mechs which turn to follow the ship which starts to fire on Ponyville but is no use as anti-ballistic systems fire a couple of shells at the shots to deflect them, the mechs then find an opening and all fire at once at the same point on the shields, the shields ripple but as it makes its way back along the ship the ripple and shield begin to fade as the energy overloads and short-circuit the generators, all power on the ship goes dead, the cannons still fire though as they are manually firing. The C.O.C then fires at the ship and the resulting explosion rips a hole in the armour, people fly out of the ship, dead. Fires erupt from the ship as it fires again but the resulting shot from the ship causes the structure to cripple under the recoil and the cannons along with some of the underside of the ship fall down and collide with the Canterlot shields, it the slides down them and slams into the ground just outside of the city. As Kieron and ‘Tia watch the ship start to be blown apart Kieron falls to the ground just as a shockwave hits them from an explosion, ‘Tia thinks nothing of it at first, thinking that the shockwave must have just caught him off guard and caused him to fall but he never gets back up, she turns to look at him to see his eye tightly scrunched up and his nails digging into his scalp, “Kieron....hay....Are you okay, Kieron?” she asks in a soft voice but she gets no reply, after a few seconds, the all mechs and the C.O.C plus the L.R.M.S stop firing as the ship is destroyed but is now heading for Ponyville as it fall out of the sky, Kieron starts to yell in agony, ‘Tia not even noticing the ship but noticed the cease in shooting, she quickly gets up see the ship falling down to the village, she starts to concentrate her magic on it but something interferes with her magic stopping her from being able to use it, she then looks back to Kieron who has stopped yelling and is now floating in the air, arms out to the sides and eyes glowing bright white, she back off slightly only to see her room start to light up from behind her, she turns only to be blinded by a light brighter than the sun itself, a couple of seconds later the light suddenly disappears and the ship it no longer in sight, it has completely gone. She turns to see Kieron slump in a heap on the floor, “KIERON!” she shouts as she dashes over to him and slides to sit next to him, she puts a hoof on his forehead but then takes it off right away, his head hot like the sun, surprisingly he hasn’t died from overheating, just then conveniently Dr Atom rushes into the room. “PRINCESS...sorry, I should have knocked.” He says before looking down and backing away slowly. “Just come in Doctor.” She replies, he then walks over to her and looks at Kieron then back at her. “It’s started, I have just done some experiments and I have found that if the Elements of Harmony are used on a human there will be no effect, short or long term, but with him it is a completely different story...” he explains, she looks up at him wanting to know more. “He was a creation by the Grand Master, yes? Well, it would seem that because of his ‘circumstances’ the Elements have a delayed effect on his body, he is changing, Celestia, he is becoming a hybrid.” He continues to explain, ‘Tia looks at him sharply. “Wait, you mean...” she says, he knods to confirm, “How is that even possible?” she asks. “He is a creation of human origin, the Elements are a creation of pony origin, if both human and pony are coming together the one of two things can happen, they can either reject each other and kill the person or merge and create a hybrid, a human pony. After seeing what just happened I would say he is in the second phase, magic.” Atom explains before lowering down to Kieron and pulling out a knife, “Let me show you, he is currently unconscious, but watch.” He says before pressing the button on Kieron’s shoulder to fold the armour up, he then presses the knife against Kieron’s arm, nothing happens but he then sharply pushes hard and the knife penetrates deep into Kieron’s arm and the tip sticks out of the other side. At exactly the same time Kieron yells and his eyes open, his eyes glowing white again and the knife starts to go against Atom’s push,, the knife then slowly starts to slide back out of Kieron’s arm, even with Atom pushing down on it will all his strength, the knife then exits his arm and lifts up into the air with Atom still hold of it, he lets go to land but it ‘caught’ mid-air by a force that then causes his limbs to be pulled and spread out. “Kieron, I know you can hear me, let Atom go.” She orders as she watches Atom floating in the air, his legs all spread in different directions but not pulled any further, Kieron then gets up, his eyes still glowing, he walks over to Atom as if like a zombie, limp and stumbling, arched over with his arms slung down but his head up and looking forward. Once at Atom, he looks up at the pony before looking quickly to the right causing Atom to fly to the wall but then teleports and then reappears above the balcony with the same momentum; he hits the balcony floor with great force, knocking him out. Kieron then walks out of the room and down all hallway slowly in the same zombie like way, Celestia runs over to the bedroom door to watch him, when he gets to the end of the hallway the wall in front then starts to opens up like a door brick by brick, he walks through the gap and walks outside but doesn’t fall, the magic allowing him to walk on air, he teleports out of sight and the wall them goes back to its original form, Celestia ribs her eyes to check if she is seeing things and then heads back in the room to check on Atom, who groans but is fine. “He’s powerful; he just ripped a hole in a wall, brick by brick and put it back whilst walking on air and teleporting. This could be bad.” She explains top him whilst helping him up. “Yes, whilst he is unconscious, the power will grow to a climax where it will then be enough to change his genetic coding, they have strong bonds, then it will go to phase three, he will turn into a hybrid, he will then look like a human but will have magic and possibly even a pair of wings, he will end up like an anthro version of a pony, but with human looks.” Atom explains, ‘Tia not able to cope with the situation. “Well, how did a shockwave from an explosion cause this to happen?” she asks. He thinks for a moment before replying, “It must have needed a great amount of energy to bump-start the process. That’s the only explanation I have for that, sorry.” She sits down at her table taking a moment to comprehend with all that is going on; Atom sits down next to her. Ponies in Cloudsdale stop and all look in the same direction, Treacle and Luna both at a vegetable stall looking for things to buy for some things to cook, as Luna goes to buy a few apples she looks up at the stall owner only to see him staring gormlessly past her, they both then look about to see everypony staring at the same thing, they then push past some ponies whilst looking at them to know where they are going for this thing they are looking at, once past a lot of ponies they can see, Kieron slouched over with his head tilted to the side looking up at a pony he has lifted in the air, its legs all stretched out, he then lifts the pony up above the fountain that has a large spike on the top. The pony then cries out, “Look, I’m sorry man, I didn’t mean to bump into you, I didn’t see you.” But Kieron doesn’t take any not of it and throws the pony down onto the spike but keep the pony alive with the magic so it can feel the pain but not die, the pony screaming out at the top of his voice, all the ponies watch as they can see the pony sliding down the spike, the pain getting worse and worse but he still doesn’t die until Kieron stops him and then uses his magic to push the pony down the spike quickly and then rip him apart into tiny pieces. The crowd on ponies then scatter as some start to scream in fear. With Kieron being unconscious he doesn’t notice any of it and just limps along towards his house as if nothing happened. “Sir, we have a problem, Kieron has gone rouge, he has just killed a pony in the city centre, something’s odd though, he isn’t himself, and I have no life signs either.” Mathis explains to him. “Don’t hurt him, if we do nothing to him, he won’t do anything to us, unless something major happens, don’t attack him, let him be for now.” He replies.