The Faces of War

by Zero the Necromancer

Who shakes the Devils Hand...

Flora trots through the, with ponies filled, steets of the golden city. She sees a couple sitting on the terrace of a coffee shop. She stops for a minute and looks at them but quickly shakes her head and continues her march towards the palace-like building in the distance. She has no time to eat, even though her stomach already hurts. She has a mission, which must be successful or else...

Stay focused, damn it! You can eat later, when you're back home. You...We need to rescue her. If you don't succeed then we will...

The black coated pegasy squeezes through the crowds of ponies, until she accidentally collides with a royal guard. Flora steps a a little bit back.

"I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't see you."

"It's fine, Ma'am, but why are you going towards the quarantine zone? You know that the inner city is being evacuated, right?

Flora makes a concerned face.

"No I didn't, but why? Did something happen at the Golden Way?"

The guards looks at the building behind him and bites his bottom lip.

"Kind of...But don't worry. The main six will arrive soon a-and princess Celestia is already here. She will explain the situation at the moonshine plaza."

"Then I will go there, I guess."

Flora turns around and heads towards the plaza.

What have the ponies done now again? Eternal night plan B?

Suddenly some of the ponies gasp and start talking. She looks behind her. The Golden Way facility is locked under a golden, magical pyramide.

That was Celestia, for sure! What in Tartarus is going on?!

The way to the moonshine plaza is stressful. So many ponies and so little space. At least it's not far away. The plaza itself is normally not very crowded, even though it's very famous for the beauty it radiates when it's night. A perfect place to eat since many stallions make their marriage proposal there.

But today it looks like a funfair. Hundreds of ponies came to hear their princess speak. A tall podest stands on the opposite side to the ponies. Two equestrian flags are hanging from both sides. The ponies themselves are worried. Some mumble about a virus, others about a creature. But all of them are sure that something's wrong.

However, their talking is interrupted by the sound of fanfares. Three ponies step up. It's princess Celestia in the front, the mayor of the golden city, and princess Cadence, who is on a visit for two days now. Celestia steps forward.

"My little ponies, I have come to your city of peace and progress to inform you about a horrible mistake we, your rulers, made."

Cadence goes to Celestia and whispers something in her ear, but the elder alicorn just shakes her head.

"It is time that you hear the truth. We tried to hide it as long as possible but now we can't anymore. The shield, which surrounds the Golden Way is not there to prevent somepony from going in, it is there to prevent something else from coming out."

The ponies talk with each other again but they fall silent quickly to listen once more.

"This something is called humanity. A destructive species of bipeds, which have fought more wars against each other than all creatures we know of toghether. Their technology is so advanced that you would belief it's magic and their weapons are more horrifying than King Sombra could ever be. But I am sure that we will master this threat just like we mastered every other, by working together."

Celestia steps back and mayor, Good Will steps in her place.

"Everypony, please proceed to the train stations. If somepony needs help, don't hesitate to ask. And if you see anything odd, immediately inform a royal guard."

Then princess Cadence speaks up.

"I'm willing to help too, of course. And so do the main six."

Flora snobs.

Arrogant, little bitch...

The crowd of ponies begins to fall apart and most of them are trotting in smaller groups to the streets. But Flora has other plans.

A species with enough power to impress even the oh-so-powerful-ponies, huh? If I could win them as allies...

A grin is forming in her face. She once again makes her way to the Golden Way facility. As she reaches the more dark street corners, she can finally drop her disguise. Green flames engulfed the black pegasy and instead of her there stands a insect-like pony with blue compound eyes, blue transcendent wings, black chitin plating, legs with holes and a curved horn.

Finally! How long has it been?

She is much more agile in her true form and since all ponies are being evacuated from the golden city it causes no problems on the way to the Golden Way facility. The buildings around the facility are completely empty. Flora can't help to feel a little bit pity for the ponies. The streets, once filled with laughter and joy have fallen silent. The only ponies, who are here now are royal guards. They search for other ponies and keep them from coming near the shield. No problem for Flora, of course. She lived for a while here now and knows how to avoid the guards. And she is the best infiltrator in the entire swarm. Well, she is the best infiltrator in the entire swarm after the catastrophe at the wedding...The real problem is how to get passed the shield.

Come on, Bug! Think!

"Sweet Celestia! Alert! Alert!"

Flora looks in the direction from where the scream came. A royal guard, who lies on his back tries to get away from the shield. On the other side stands a big biped, who is completely shrouded in clothing. It holds a weapon, which appears to be some sort of projectile launcher, like a crossbow for example. But it still looks very weird for a weapon. Two other ponies in armor came to aid the guard.

"Relax, it's inside the shield. It can't hurt us."

However, the guard who said that quickly regrets his statement after the human shot a few times at the shield. It didn't penetrate it, though. The human then holds a finger on the right side of its head and seems to talk with somenone.

Perhaps...they have a hivemind and it's communing with the others?

The biped goes back into the facility and leaves three terrified guards behind. And a changeling, who still tries to figure out how to get inside the shield.

If I cast the same spell as the princess did...both shields should connect with each other. Yes! That's it! But what spell did the princess cast?

It takes Flora some time to figure the spell out, but she finds the right one after some minutes. A green pyramide devoured the changeling and she slowly advances on the shield. Almost like water the two shields connect and Flora is on the other side. The green spot on the golden shield eventually subsides to the overwhelming golden colour of Celestia's shield.

Okay, I am through the shield. Now I need to get in the building. The main entrance is probably not the best idea...

She looks around. It doesn't seem like there is any of this bipeds around and the royal guard can't or don't want to get in so it's safe to fly. For now, at least. Her wings begin to move very fast, as you would expect from an insect and she ascends to the upper levels of the building. Luckily she finds a ventilation opening.

Oh man, today's my lucky day. Well, I starve to death but still...

Flora crawls through the narrow shaft. There is no light, but changelings live underground so their eyes are used to dark environments. But she doesn't know where she is or how she gets out of there. She hears voices in the distance and crawls towards them. After maybe ten meters she is directly under the voices.

"...the energy field that surrounds this building, Sir."

"Did you use the tanks?"

"Yes, Sir. Even the heavy railguns were useless."

"C4?"

"That too, Sir."

"Damn it! Someone inform High Command! We need something heavier!"

"Sir, by all respect, why should we even want to break out?"

"How do you mean that, Stu-"

The shaft can't hold Flora's weight anymore and breaks. She falls in the middle of five humans. One of them is Hendricks and John is there too.

Oh, crap...

All of them are pionting their guns at her head.

"What the-?! Where did that thing come from?!"

"Who cares! Let's get rid of it!"

"No, no, no! Wait a minute! I'm not a pony! I hate them too! I can help you to get outta here!"

"Well, too bad. We don't wanna get outta here, right Sturm?"

"Yes, Sir!"

Flora takes a deep breath.

"Look, if you want to kill me then go for it. There's no way I can avoid this. But before you do that, there's one thing left I have to do."

"And whatever would that be?"

"Under this building is a unbreakable shell. It holds someone very important and that someone can help you out way better than I can. I was sent to rescue that person."

"And why should we trust you?", Hendricks said, while he lowered his rifle. So did the others.

"You don't have to. Just see for yourself."

"Fine. But you will go wit us and when you lied..."

"Don't worry. For one time in my life I didn't lie."

"Sturm and I will go. The rest of you stays here and establish a perimeter around the building. I want the tanks on defensive lines in the main hallways, snipers and stingers on the roof and automated turrets on the entrance. And the technicians should finally start to bring that radar system up and running!"

Flora leads the two bipeds to a spiral staircase, which leads down into a dark area. The sargeant looks at John, who nods in response. He puts his rifle away and takes his sidearm. The pistol has a flashlight. As they descend into the darkness, the humans get nervous.

"How far is it still?"

"Not much. Just down here at the end of the corridor."

At the end of the staircase is a sign on a door. It says 'Prison Cells. Warning: Extremely dangerous beings'.

"Well, that's not very convincing. Are you sure we're right?"

"Yes, we are. I thought you'd be better than believing signs written by ponies."

"It has a point there, Sarge."

They proceed through the corridor and at the end was a massive door, similar to a safe.

"They code is: 204836."

"Alright. Sturm, cover me."

Hendrick begins to unlock the door while John holds his pistol at Flora. The door opens and reveals a single white room with a big black mass in it. It seems to be dead or at least very weak.

"Queen Chrysalis!", Flora shouts, before she feels something hard hit the back of her head.

"Sorry, buddy. But as long as we don't need you or your friend we'll lock you in there."

Her sight gets blacker. She tries to crawl to her queen but falls unconcious before she reaches her.