//------------------------------// // The Fall of the Golden City // Story: The Faces of War // by Zero the Necromancer //------------------------------// "Princess, please! Listen to me! We must evacuate our troops immediately! They will not stand a chance against the humans!" Potent Potion runs behind Celestia, trying to consult her. She, however doesn't look at him and continues to walk to the big tent in front of her. "I have great trust in our soldiers, Potent Potion. They will prevail, as they always do." An area of the wide grassfields around the Golden City, known as the Great Plains is currently used as a stronghold for the royal guard but the griffins have already began to build up their massive weapons. Giant ballistas, catapults and even an airship, filled with cannons and legionaries from Gryphos. It is already late and dark but the moon shines bright at them. And there are torches everwhere. Both of them step inside the tent. A griffin with a golden armor stands before a wooden table. On it is a map of this region. He looks at the two ponies and bows quickly. "I am Sir Arthur, your highness. I command the griffin troops that are stationed here. At your service." "Thank you, Sir Arthur. With the griffins on our side this fight will be over quickly." "Ha! You don't really believe that swords and shields will defeat the humans, do you? Not even the main six could defeat one of them for crying out loud!", Potent Potion interrupts. Celestia looks at him in anger. "He had help. They released queen Chrysalis from her unbreakable shell." "But still-" "Enough now, Potent Potion! Let me and Sir Arthur discuss the battle strategy. Go and see how Soliton Wave is." "But...Yes, your majesty." The unicorn leaves the tent, whispering something under his breath. "Now then, Princess. May I know what a 'human' is? My superiors gave me little to no intel." The princess sighs. "Humans are a race of tall, very intelligent bipeds from another world. They came to Equestria to destroy it." Arthur frowns. "Excuse me, princess but...'from another world'?" "You heared correctly, Sir Arthur. They come from a planet called Earth. I'm sorry but...that's all you have to know for now. I wish I could tell you more." There is a short silence until another pony enters the tent. It's Soliton Wave. "My daughter. Where is she?" "She has been evacuated, like everypony else. To Manehattan." "And she is?", Arthur asks. "Dr. Soliton Wave. She will be one of our advisors, along with Potent Potion." "And do you have any suggestions how we should deal with these 'humans', doctor?" "Yes. If you get into a battle with one, try to be faster then sound. Then you might actually have a chance to survive." "Maybe with a little bit less...sarcasm?" "Sir! Incoming!", a voice yelled from outside. All of them run out of the tent. Another griffin flies towards them. "What is it, soldier?", the griffin knight asks. "The changelings, Sir! They are coming! The whole swarm!" "The parasites?! What do they want here?" The insectoids advance with terrefying speed but, for some reason, completely ignoring the emplacements of both ponies and griffins. They just fly over them. "What the- Why didn't they attack?!", Arthur asks. "Because they don't want us, right your highness?" "What are you talking, Soliton Wave? The only thing here is- Oh, no...But the humans would've never freed her." "Maybe they did by accident." "Sir Arthur! We must attack now and stop the changeling army before they can destroy they shield!" "At once, princess!" The griffins and ponies march in the city. Even the airship begins to rotate itself into a better firing position. Meanwhile at the Golden Way facility: "How long are we supposed to wait, ladybug? Damn, even the apache was faster ready then you.", one of the soldiers says impatient. "Patience. My army will be here shortly, and then we will conquer this city." John, who still stands next to Chrysalis points at something in the distance. "Sir, we have movement in sector one. A lot of movement." Chrysalis grins at the officers in front of her. "Ready your weapons, humans. This will not take long." The changeling army, which is laughably small after the years of starvation attacks the royal guards at the shield. They fight well, but eventually lose against the overwhelming force. Now the shapeshifters attack the shield. They ram their bodies against it with no sign of strategy or sense. The humans under the shield are forming groups of four or five and aiming at the strange creatures. John is no exception. "Hold your weapons! They are on your side! They free you!", Chrysalis shouts. "Tell that your grandma, queeny!", one of the soldiers replies. The shield cracks and begins to collapse like a glass bottle but there are no fragments. It just disapears in thin air. The changelings land besides their queen...and John who is very nervous now. Some of the creatures look at him and hiss. "Stay away from me, you ugly motherfuckers!" "At ease, John. They won't hurt you unless I command it." "Then tell them already!" The queen makes a large veriety of hissing, chirping and clicking noises. Probably the native language of her people. The insectoids look around and make calm chirping sounds. They make a path free for John, so he can go to his companions. Some of them even chirp happily at him when he passes. He stops at one in particular. Do I know you? Nah, these things all look the same. "Well, can we start now?", Chrysalis asks teasingly. "Of course not! We still have to assemble our ospreys and make battle strategies! We aren't nearly in the condition to-" The major is interrupted by the radio. "Sir, we have something on our radar." "I know that lieutenant! It stands right in front of me!" "No sir, something else. Multiple signatures coming in from sector one." "How many?" "At least two hundreds, sir. All of them are closing in on our position." "Ah, fuck...Alright people, set up a perimeter around this building, hold the line at any cost! I want that apache in the air and snipers on the roof! And you better put up a good fight, bug queen!" "Oh, don't worry. We will." Arthur's group, ten minutes later: The darkness in the city is unsettling. The big buildings were empity and no light can be seen from the widows. Arthur just hears his own steps and the ones from his companions. The army of two hundret and fifty soldiers had been divided in smaller groups, so that they aren't such an easy target. The main group is about a hundred soldiers strong. No light, no sight...guess my old superior was right about one thing. But at least the humans can't see us. The changelings, though...damn, maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. They are getting closer to the Golden Way facility. Some dead royal guards are lying on the ground. Arthur examines one of them. Bite wounds on the neck, hole in the right side of his chest...Changelings, for sure. "I have a bad feeling about this. I think we're being wa-" There is sound. Like a arrow, just not. As Arthur turns around he sees his companion lying dead on the street. He was bleeding from his head. Whatever it was, it pierced straight through his iron helmet. "What was tha-" Another griffin falls. And another, until just Arthur remains. He breaks the window of one of the apartments and jumps in, avoiding the deadly shot. What in all tartarus was that thing?! I must warn the others! He makes his way through the building until he finds a group of four changelings, waiting in the darkness of the skyscraper. He draws his sword and sneaks up to one of them. The griffin stabs the shapeshifter in the neck and it staggers a little bit before it hits the ground. The other two hiss and jump at him, but they just hit the sword. The last one is sliced open at the chest. After that he hears and explosion. Fire can be seen outside of a window. Did one of our cannons fire? As he looks outside, the griffin sees something he has never seen before. An entire legion of his kind gets annihilated. They are overrolled by dark machines, which have gigantic and long cannons in front of them. They shoot much faster than the cannons he knows. At least 1 shot per minute. He is not sure but, it seems like they have a cross of some sort on their sides. It's too dark to say it for sure. Behind the machines a line of strange creatures march. They are completely wrapped up in armor and walk on two feet. They hold mysterious devices in their hands. It doesn't take Arthur a long time to figure out what these things are, since the creatures use them nearly constantly. Weapons. Weapons of immense range and power. They pierce through nearly everything. Shields, armor, even magic can't stand long against them. So that are the humans...No wonder why even alicorns fear them. From the darkness of the skyscrapers, changelings fall into the retreating army. They fight with hatred and ferocity against the people, who let their friends, children and parents starve to death. The humans don't seem to care much about them, though. They keep shooting their cannons at the equestrian forces, even when the changelings are fighting at close range with them. Gods, let me wake up. This horror can just be a dream. His thoughts are shattered by a thunderous noice. As he looks up, he sees a flying thing with rotating blades that heads straight for their stronghold. He flies after the machine but he can't catch up. And the armor doesn't make it easier. After some time he can see how a giant fireball falls to the ground. The machine just destroyed an entire airship alone. A hundred cannons, over five hundred crew members and soldiers dead. And that wasn't the end. The burning wreck of the airship falls directly over their barrack tents and siege weaponry. They just lost over three quarters of their army in fifteen minutes. "No! You monsters!" In rage Arthur flies towards the machine, which already heading back to the ongoing 'battle' and confronts it. It shoots a big spear at him that is driven by fire at the back of it. He can evade the attack and lands on the glass window in front of the machine. He can see two humans sitting in it. They probably command the vessel. He rams his sword through the glass, trying to kill at least one of them. But something graps the griffin at the back and throws him off. He lands on the ground and is challenged by a changling, who hisses at him. He growls back. "You parasite! I will do the world a favor and kill you!" The beast just hisses back. The changeling wants to end him quickly with a magical blast but Arthurs armor blocks it. Then he gets in close range and attacks with his sword, which the changeling blocks with a shield spell. This goes on for a while but eventually Arthur can land a hit with his sword at the chest of the shapeshifter, who collapses. He is about to give the monster the final blow but a royal guard rans limping towards him. "Sir, the battle is lost! The humans teared us apart like paper! We must retreat to our stronghold!" "There is no stronghold anymore. The humans destroyed it." "Then to Manehattan but we can't stay here!" "Fine! Then we go north!" Arthur looks at the changling and back at the soldiers, who are running towards him and the royal guard. "Your lucky day, parasite." Then he rans to the other soldiers and tells them the next step instead of killing the changeling. John's fireteam, two minutes later: John is far away from the battle. He just chased down a group of weird, hybrid, bird things and wanted to head back, but he noticed a noise. What was that? He follows the sound and finds a wounded changeling. He runs to it and kneels down. "Hey, uh, can you talk?" "Ah-yes." "Good. That's good. Don't worry. You'll be fine.", Johns says while he packs out his medical equipment. True, he has no idea how he can help the changeling, but disinfecting the wound and badage it up is never wrong. "Okay, this is gonna sting a little." He cleaned the wound of the shapeshifter as careful as he can. But it still hisses as response. John isn't sure if it holds back the screams or the desire to kill him. "What's your name?" "I-ah-I'm F-flora." "Flora? That's a nice name. I'm John." C'mon Johnny boy, you got this. Just tell it what they told to you when you broke your leg and the ambulance came. "And we're done. Just need to bandage it in." He graps the a tourniquet and a roll of bandages and resumes his work. And again the changeling screams in agony. "Sorry, it has to be that tight or else you lose too much...blood?" "Will I die? I will die, right? Please help!" "No, you won't. Wait, I'll give you something for the pain." He takes a syringe and the bottle with morphine and fills the syringe with it. Then he has another problem. Where the hell am I supposed to inject this?! It's covered in a god damn exoskeleton! John touches with his hands over its body to find a soft spot. And he finds it! The stomach is just as soft as the one of a human. He injects the painkiller and looks Flora in the eyes. "Better?" "Y-yes but...I feel a little bit...sleepy..." "Good. Just sleep for a while. I'll make the rest." "Please don't..." Its eyes slowly close. "Don't what?" "Don't go..." "Don't worry, I won't." Takes the changeling up and throws it over his shoulder. Just like in the training. On the way back to his fireteam he sees seven green signal flares in the sky. The city is theirs.