//------------------------------// // Post Common Era Chapter Thirty/War of Stars Chapter Twenty-six: End of The War // Story: The Lunar Knight's Willow Leaf // by Moonlit Novel //------------------------------// Author's Notes: Thanks to Deadinlight for beta-reading and helping me edit Post Common Era Chapter Thirty/War of Stars Chapter Twenty-six: End of The War It was years afterwards, the war had grown bloody for the people of Equis, then came the break that they had been looking for, the Terrans foolishly forgot to close a portal to their world. Shadow Eyes and her friends had grown into fine mares. Shadow Eyes had married Sunrise, She had asked Masao to do something that he never thought he’d ever be able to do, he gave her away at the wedding, it filled him with such pride and love to see the mare he had adopted as his own grow into a mare that was powerful in her own right, and a beautiful mare herself. Sunrise had grown into a mare that any pony would have wanted to be with, not that her mate didn’t have her own admirers. Sunrise was a powerful mare in her own right, there were none that could match her when it came to healing spells or that of light based combat spells. Golden Daisy was as anti-social as ever, but she had her own group of admirers that she admonished daily, stating that she was not looking for a relationship, now or ever. Dream Seer was without equal amongst the dreams walkers and only Luna herself could outshine her in the dream world. Dream Seer was the only one of the mares to have a new person wake up beside her every so often, she said it was because she wanted to share her love with everybody. Nobody argued with her, because she was not ‘an easy lay’ no she was very loving and the ones she laid with all hoped to be the one that would be her one and only, both stallion and mare… - - - “Dad!” said Shadow Eyes admonishing the human who chuckled, he had been teasing the couple again, but all too soon the mood changed from playful to serious and Shadow Eyes noticed the shift in the atmosphere of the room. “Is something wrong dad?” and Masao gave a grim smile before motioning for her to take a seat beside her mate. Luna was there as well, as were several of her generals and a couple high ranking officials from ESIS. Last but not least there were high ranking soldiers from the UEC there. “We have a portal to Terra” said Masao and the room erupted into shouts… - - - Shadow Eyes was sitting in hers and Sunrise’s room, Masao had forbidden her from joining the combat, for fear for her life, Willow Leaf came by to visit her, also stopped from joining the group either. A party of over three hundred thousand soldiers, human and pony, all wearing and wielding the best that Equestria had to offer, bolters that been customized for Prince Masao’s use were passed out to the humans, while pegasi and bat ponies tightened their battlesaddles on their backs and the earth ponies did the same as they readied themselves for combat, Only the unicorns did not have battlesaddles as they carried their weapons in this magic, all of them had ‘bottomless bags’ for ammo, the battlesaddles were auto-fed but the other weapons had to be hand or hoof fed their clips or mags. They marched through the portal… - - - “He could die!” argued Willow Leaf as she was stopped by Shadow Eyes’ magic as it formed a barrier in the doorway preventing her from leaving the room. “I’m worried about dad too, Willow Leaf, but you don’t see me getting ready to storm the ready center” said the blue and pink mare, Willow Leaf scowled at Shadow Eyes obviously about to make a comment when she spoke up again, “We need to wait for the battle to start, after that, if you really want, we can sneak in” - - - The portal was unlike any portal that Masao had used before, he could feel the very voice in his head grow stronger the moment he stepped through it was almost as if he had just stepped into the actual universe that the Warhammer 40k games stories came from. However that did not stop him as he ordered his troops forwards. “Prép͟a͡rȩ ͘you͝r͢self,͜ t͞h̨i̶s ͜is i̕t, i͘f̢ ͠y̴ou҉ fail͞ ̧he̷re͢, ͢aĺl͠ of ̧Equi͢s̴ ̴f͟a͟l̶ls͟, I a̵m su̴re yo̷u͠ don't͢ ͢wa̛n̸t th͟a̷t” said Tzeentch and Masao gritted his teeth before ordering the attack. This was it, this battle would decide the outcome of the war they had the forces to push in and destroy the Terrans so long as they were not repulsed, they may only be committing a small force for setting up a beach head, but… - - - Shots flew back and forth between the two forces, Masao threw waves of dark magic at the Terrans they were effectively at a stalema—Just as Masao started to think that they were at a stalemate, several Terrans fell down dead, and a fresh set of spells flew off out from the portal where stood an angry Shadow Eyes, black and green magic circled around her as she shot blast after blast at the Terrans, in the group of Terrans that had attempted to sneak closer was Willow Leaf, killing the Terrans without a thought in the world other than surviving. It was not long before Masao caught sight of the two ponies and rather than get upset, though he was, he ordered the advancement of the troops. With the added power of the two ponies, one a powerhouse of magic, and the other able to get in close to the enemy they were able to push back the Terrans and soon established a beachhead with which they would launch their attacks right on the humans of Terra… - - - “YOU IDIOTS! YOU COULD HAVE DIED!” yelled Masao as he gripped his head as tears rolled down his face, his adoptive daughter and his wife had foolishly joined in the battle and now he had gotten ahold of them and was going to make sure they knew how stupid their interference was, even if it won them the battle… - - - Soon after the battle, advanced scouts went out to survey how to set up the future battles when there was a noticeable drop in Terran activity, what they did not know was that the Terrans were watching them, deciding on what to do. However it was too late for the Terrans no matter what they did at this point, the amount of troops at the beachhead made any sort of direct assault and the psykers there made a stealthy approach impossible, so far as they knew. It was several months of hard fought battles, the drop in Terran activity did not mean the Terrans were not active, just that they were better at hiding it. Hide it they did, as the ponies and humans of the UEC and Equestria alliance made their way closer to the capital of Terra Masao got more more uneasy, he was unable to send his student back, nor was he able to convince his wife to return to the safety of Equis. Soon however he was glad he had not as Shadow Eyes was the first to ‘see’ them, a cloud of shadow cloaking their advance, but the sudden barrage sent from the powerful unicorn alerted the rather large group to the dangers hidden in the cloud. As the ones hidden in the cloud fell, the cloud grew less thick and as soon as the barrage was finished there was only dust and corpses in the path of them. “I suppose that this is only the beginning” murmured Masao as he walked in the rear of the group, alongside Shadow Eyes and his wife. Shadow Eyes was barely breathing heavily from her magical exertion… - - - There were several battles between where they were and the capital, after the failed attack with the dark clouds they resorted to plain out attacking and ambushes, none worked, not with Masao and Shadow Eyes there overpowering the enemy forces. Soon, relatively speaking, they made it to the capital, and as soon as they did, Masao felt a force he had hoped not to feel, how he hoped to be wrong… - - - “Greetings my fellow humans! Welcome to Terra, Capital of the Imperium! It seems to me you foolishly believed that the guardsmen were the only ones that guard this planet” Masao cursed at the voice. “Are͢ y̨o҉u̡ r͘e̡ad͞y f͞or̕ ͡t͠h͜e f͘ight͢ ҉o̶f͜ y͜our̛ l͏íf͠e? T͞his E҉m͝p͠e҉r̷or wi̧l͞ĺ not̢ li͜s̸ten͞ to re͢a͝s̷ón͟” “HALT!” Masao ordered and his forced stopped moving forwards, and he made his way to the front of the group. “I would speak to your leader” said the voice and Masao made it to the front just as the voice did. “I am here, speak, or shall we cross blades, Emperor? I do not bow to a tyrant, I did not on Earth, I will not today” - - - Masao grumbled a bit when he was invited into the giant palace, he knew it was probably a bad decision, but until their reinforcements arrived they were doomed to lose… “Welcome, you who have fought my forces on this fortress planet to the gates of the palace itself” - - - Shadow Eyes shuffled in place as she waited for her father to return from the palace when Willow Leaf screamed in pain and suddenly attacked the terran forces a look of pure rage on her face. Battle had been joined… - - - Masao turned his head and spat out a wad of blood and spittle as he peeled himself out of the wall. Upon hearing the sounds of battle outside he grimaced but grinned never the less as he forced himself up to his full height. “You call yourself the Emperor of Mankind? Well I deny you! Just as I deny the UEC!” “Pathetic, I was lenient, I thought you would rather know the strength of your new emperor, you will serve!” said the Emperor and Masao threw a ball of black lightning at the Emperor who deflected it without a thought… - - - “I’ll have your emperor’s head!” shrieked Willow Leaf as she danced with far deadlier grace than she ever had before, while Shadow Eyes, who was far less graceful, supplanted that lack of grace with pure brute force. “Willow Leaf!” shouted the blind mare grabbing the mare and yanking her behind the line, “What is wrong? Why have you gone off—” “Their liar of a leader attacked Masao!” she yelled as she fought to get free and slake her bloodlust, to make them pay for their emperor’s folly… - - - Close to four hundred million troops were making their way to the capital of Terra that they made the ground shake with their approach, dragons, Minotaurs, Gryphons, ponies, and humans, all moving towards ending this conflict once and for all, little did they know that the battle was already in the throes of combat… - - - Masao shot a blast of dark magic at the emperor as there was banging on the door, obviously the fight was noticed. “Attacking me was the worst thing you could have done, I am soul tied to a mare out there” he said his eyes closed a smirk growing on his face… - - - The reinforcements made it just as the tide was turning in favor of the Terrans. Yet several Terrans were falling at any given moment, always getting closer to the large doors of the fortress, and near the rear of the joint forces was Shadow Eyes tears flowing from her eyes as she sent wave after wave of dark magic, killing or maiming the Terrans. with the sounds of over a million feet pounding upon the earth, the UEC and Equis forces charged into the fray, the sudden charge turning the tide once more, this time in favor of the joint forces. Within moments they had beaten back the Terrans and were at the large doors separating them from the prince. Willow Leaf pounded on the door and was attempting to move it when Shadow Eyes pushed her away with her magic. Bracing herself, Shadow Eyes began to channel a large amount of magic and with one gigantic blast, which pushed the young mare back with the force of it, the doors separating the forces from Masao and the Emperor blew apart. - - - “It seems that your forces have beaten mine, how does it feel chaos spawn? To know you have aided in the destruction of the only bastion of order in this multiverse?” asked the Emperor and a bloody and heavily beaten Masao choked out a laugh. “You,” Masao hacked a bit, “you don’t know Equestria, you don’t know the UEC, we may not see eye to eye on many things, but Chaos will never reign so long as we live” “Too bad you won’t get to see if this is true” said the Emperor as he moved to kill the unaging human when he was struck in the back by spells and bolter bolts and bullets, all managing to pierce his armor as Masao’s Eyes glowed green. “Even if I die, I am taking you with me Emperor” snarled Masao before he was stabbed by the Emperor, who did his best to kill the man before him, before he died...