"If your attack is going too well, you're walking into an ambush."
— Infantry Journal
6/24/14 4:12pm, Bunker X9
To Celestia it felt as if the temperature in the room just dropped several degrees as any latent magic in the room vanished. She felt around for the edges and the feelers themselves disappeared before finding the edges. She checked her internal magic which didn’t decrease unless she tried using magic. She used a larger burst and watched as the energy dissipated, literally absorbed by the air to be drawn elsewhere. That explained how the fields worked, there would also be no way to take in any energy she used while here either.
To the normal pony who had a small reserve and was used to drawing from the world around them, it would make magic impossible, to the Princess it was just an inconvenience. It would also be much harder to get another creature out of this room as they would have to be enveloped by her magic. She could do it by using more of her reserves than was preferable.
“Blocking magic?” Celestia asked Tow innocently, like a confused foreigner. “I never even knew that was possible.” She lied.
“Purely a safety precaution, we can’t have anyone mysteriously disappearing from this room.” An elderly man in a suit near Tow said.
That must be the man in charge of their CIA, one responsible for the attack. “Are you trying to make me powerless with your guards around?” The Princess made a point of looking at one of the marines with his rifle.
“Not at all.” Tow attempted to ease her suspicions, placing her hands on the table. “As far as we know it doesn’t affect enchantments like you probably have.”
They really are clever. She did have a few special things ready just in case. Time to test out a theory. “How did you develop such technology?” Celestia put on an air of curiosity, tilting her head.
“It is rather new. Something developed from readings on the portal.”
Celestia saw an eye twitch in the President. Lies, and if it doesn’t work on enchantments then it can’t be from the gems.
“Back to the matter at hoof though.” Celestia picked hoof intentionally, she didn’t like that most of the people weren’t talking and hoped to get a reaction. The only thing that happened was a big man looked angrier as the talks dragged on while Tow seemed relax yet nervous. “We cannot proceed further without at least hearing what that man,” She spat the word out, “has to say about himself. “Bring him out so we can speak.”
“After we get the basics out of the way.”
“He is not here is he?” Celestia asked, there was something else going on. Her eyes narrowed at the humans. “Is this all a ploy to try and capture me?”
“If it works.” The fat man started but couldn’t get out more than three words before the President cut him off. “You’ve already shown how hard you are to kill.”
“NO!” Tow slammed a hand on the table. “That is not what this is about.” She held a placating hand up to the alicorn. “We just have trouble trusting you and you surely have about us. Brent refused to meet here but we can still hammer out some basics.”
“We need to also discuss the thousands of people you killed in your attack.” Tow kept the conversation going.
“Most of your soldiers are unharmed and in custody, they will be returned in time.”
“I was referring to the thousands of human lives you took because hospitals were unmanned, the people that died in the riots that followed. Or the ones who died in traffic accidents and couldn’t be rescued or the one who plummeting out of the sky as their plane lost power.”
Celestia could see the same anger in the other leader’s eyes. At the time Celestia could not have predicted the fallout from that attack, but there was no other way to guarantee her ponies’ safety. That thought alone made her ire rise. “I am more than willing to cover that but only if the culprits face justice.”
“And if they don’t?” The fat man asked again. “You lack evidence they were anything other than rogue elements.”
“Then we will continue this war until we find them ourselves. We will weaken you, what will your fellow nations do then? How many would use your weakness to elevate themselves. How many fronts can you fight on?”
“That won’t happen.” Spittle flew from the man’s mouth. “We have a military stronger than the next ten countries combined.”
Celestia returned her attention to President Tow. “Your attack dog needs to learn to control his temper or be muzzled.”
“You continue to threaten us when all you have is one tiny base.”
“A base you cannot touch even with your mighty weapons of war.” Celestia shot back.
The person Celestia figured was a General, who else would dare talk so freely. His looked of consternation turned smug as he checked a device under the table. “We just got word Madam President. The shield is down and our troops are moving in.” He then turned towards the Princess. “We will take our land back if we have to force you off, we have done it before. I don’t care if we have to follow you to Equestria and use nukes. We will win if we have to blast Canterlot. We can safely detonate it through the portal. If you even twitch wrong we can blow it.”
“Do not underestimate my little ponies.” Celestia turned her cold stare to the President. You already did that once.
6/24/14 4:12pm, Bridal Lake
PFC Jenkins had a bad feeling about this as his group walked through Bridal Lake. He didn’t dare voice it; the Sergeant had gotten tired of his superstitions. But he would have felt much safer if they had bombed the whole place with artillery while the shield was down, leave nothing standing that could stop them. One thought did nag at his head, how they got so far. The previous assault had an air component but they also had forces on the ground defending the settlement. The camouflage on the transports might have helped; it was a variation on optical camo.
The ponies they moved past were cowering in fear, more than one had there hooves over their heads. The marines spread themselves with the tanks to make cover easier.
A guard with slit eyes neared their group, Jenkins popped the sights onto its slit eyes while the Sergeant spoke.
“If you impede our progress we will put you down.” The Sergeant pointed his own gun at the potential threat while the rest moved to check for anything using this as a distraction.
The bat thing hung there for a minute before flying off.
Dark clouds in the sky blotted out the sun, bringing night early and began to swirl as the wind kicked up.
“Stay on your toes marines! Expect some kind of defense.”
The sky continued to darken until it was black as sacloth, intermittent lights were spread throughout the area, casting everything in a sickly glow. It put the private even more on edge, he realized it wasn’t them the ponies were afraid of, the air was charged with some kind of electricity. Salt and dry earth cracked and crumbled under boots and heavy tires, the only sound among the wind.
A pegasus rose from research facility, headed straight for the swirling clouds. It was a barely recognizable shape, dark colors clad in silver.
Jenkins knew a little about weather and that was an unnatural formation. The sky had been clear until the shield was brought down, maybe it had to do with controlled weather of Equestria mixing with the wild weather of Earth, the ponies were known for manipulating their own weather. Or maybe this was a magic saturated place, he had no idea what magic would do, did it even come through the portal?
Another idea occurred to the private, maybe this was their line of defense. The swirling clouds were awfully similar to the vortex of the tornadoes back home and that scared him. Tornadoes were unstoppable forces of nature; they would destroy everything in their path and could launch wooden beams through brick walls. So was the pegasus going to help stop the weather or make it worse?
“Jenkins, O’Toole, Aim at the pegasus. Everyone else, move up. We still have a package to deliver.”
Two guns pointed at a single pegasus, that shouldn’t be needed. But he was not going against the Sergeant, not again. Chuck Finnley was a six foot man that made sure to do yoga in front of his squad, hoping some stupid private would comment and give him an excuse for a fight. Jenkins had out massed the red headed Sergeant and was still tossed around like it was nothing.
So Jenkin grabbed the foregrip and raised the his M27 up, letting the sights bring the pegasus into view and aimed center mass. Both his eyes were opened, that was the purpose of the collimator sight. One looking through the sight for the aiming dot and the other used to aim and keep his surroundings in view, the two images would superimpose themselves.
The pegasus looked wrong through his sights. The hooves were shod in silver that traveled halfway up its legs, there was more silver around the neck but he couldn’t see any more of its head than the muzzle. The mane blew against the wind, there were no strands, it was just a mass of midnight blue gas filled with stars. He took a better look at the head, he could see the tip of a horn. His breath stopped. “Luna.”
“What?” The Sergeant yelled. “Men, arm the bomb. NOW! There is no way it can survive that.”
Jenkins heard the activity behind him the running of men, the tanks moving forward, activity over the radio. The only thing that has his attention was the alicorn.
“We all knew this mission could be one way. Just think that we can deliver a blow the other side can’t recover from. Jenkins, O’Toole, so long as it doesn’t move you hold your fire. After that you buy us time.”
“Yessir!” O’Toole yelled.
Jenkins mouth refused to work, he wanted to back away, to run but his feet wouldn’t work either.
The creature lowered its head, and anyone even slightly familiar with Equestrian mythology would have noticed two things about the Princess of the Night. One, she was the one, the ponies were trembling in abject terror from their own leader, they wouldn’t even look at her and more than one was whimpering. The second was the eyes which glowed like slivers of moonlight, black slits like a dragon’s that lay over the aqua eyes. The black body made more sense as it opened its mouth to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“You insolent foals dare attack her majesty of the night?!” NightMare Moon roared. “You attack and threaten and deceive. But I understand you and you shall pay for such duplicity.”
Things are getting interesting. Although Celestia still confuses me, but also fuels a theory I have.
To explain, Celestia during the negotiations wasn't acting like someone there to have a civil conversation. The venomous words, threats, and demanding justice for what the black ops team did. She was a lot more demanding than she should have been. To avoid a long rant I'll just address a few points.
Continuing war to bring the black ops team's commander to justice. That's a seriously flimsy excuse when she has no evidence and likely will never find any if the CIA is half as competent as I hope. I personally can't think of a war started on that basis.
Insulting a high ranking military officer. I'm fairly sure that just isn't done in negotiations, not without a lot of double talk and subtext. Also her obvious hostility to the Senator, though warranted, ain't gonna put him in clear view so she can probably stone him, or something. Again I ask, why would the US give up a Senator when there's no evidence of wrongdoing to a foreign power who fired the first shot?
Lastly, what she implied about the other nations. I can see the Middle East and Russia making power moves, but the rest of the world? Does she seriously think Earth's nations are all rivals with each other? NATO could still come to their aid, it's not a one man show anymore like in the Cold War. Canada even has a legitimate interest and reason to rearm themselves and help out. China would likely send aid of some sort, their economy is too intricately tied with America's to just let them fall.
Actually now that I think about it, how do we know a chunk of Canada and Mexico didn't get zapped by the EMP? You can't just shoot an EMP that large and not hit the neighbors by accident!
Okay I'll finish this with my growing theory. Something's manipulating Celestia, making her act more aggressively than she should.
Also don't let my rant discourage you. I like the story and wanna see it continue!
6910922 I agree. They had access to our history, therefore they should know that NATO members are obligated to send aid if one of them is attacked.
6910922 not to sound spoilery but you are pretty on the nose about manipulation.
6910997 Haha! But now the question is, what.
TO THE BOARD!
6911013 Feel free to write post those on here, would love to know what people think.
6911013 Hell, if you can figure it out or come really close or just something that is crazy as hell and fun will do something special (maybe)
And this is open to everypony
Hope to see Members of the United Nations Security council declare war with Equestria.
Top three of Most powerful weapon of humanity is did't used yet;
I am really love to see these hostile alien equines invader has been crushed under weight of mechanized armed forces
6911129 Oooh I have a few to spitball! Yes I'm taking the Aperture Science approach.
1. The changelings have done something to her! They managed to slip by her once, why not again?
2. A nightmare variant that ups the protectiveness to 22!
Or, one that just got a HUGE amount of traction in my mind, the summoning spell from the first story actually did something!
6911255 oh, it definitely did something.
What would the changelings gain out of it?
nightmare variant?
6911348 Again, using the Aperture Science method.
Well the changelings would get a destabilized Equestria with it's Guard deployed elsewhere, although on very high alert.
The nightmare is just an out there idea I had. Something that just amplified her traits, like it did Luna's desire to be appreciated, although still not sure if it was her own doing or a magical parasite. Eh.
Dai Kirai you troll! I have no clue how to take that!
Maybe the book summoned a mind demon that whispers to her? Or something else! I DON'T KNOW!
Time to generate wild theories!
Damn. Every commenter on here hates the ponies. I kinda do too but also wish it did not happen. In the end hopefully both sides realize that this was all orchestrated by a third evil party. Most likely all the Gillian's from equestria, and that human and pony, who have come to respect each other from the war, join forces and defeat the evil!!!
At least that's what I hope will happen. It's so damn confusing loving and hateing the ponies after what they did thou i understand it was an accident that does not change the fact that thousands of innocent people were killed. There must be some kind of justice. I don't care really if the war is a stalemate so long as celestial and that senator guy or whatever his name is, face justice.
I'll say this about your story dude, besides being awesome, this story knows how to bring the fury out of readers. Lol
This feels like an alternate timeline from Futures and Phantasm's Edge.
6911427 would Discord kill though? Is that fun?
6911533 yay! love that conflicted feeling. and yeah, never expected fury, that was a mistake.
What kind of justice? and Justice or justice (big J or little j). that's a sign on reading too many essays.
6911631 to be fair this one came first.
how similar are they? how connected?
My predictions for the future chapter:
Luna (shit, Nigthgmare Moon?!!!) will create a kamehameha and obliterate the human army. Then the president and her crew will shit their pants, ask Celestia for surrender and will adorate her as goddess of the sun and war (oh God, I hope to be wrong with this one).
Now, about the chapter. Nobody thinks that Celestia is too casual about the anti-magic field?. Like"oh my ponies can't do magic, but to me is only an annoyance, nothing to be worried about". Is like she doesn't realize the uses that this weapon can have, nor what it implies about human understanding of magic.
Oh I see that Celestia is already planning to kidnap the president .... WAIT, WHAT?!!!
Paranoid much, Celestia?
Oh Celestia, it wasn't that the humans underestimate your ponies, but rather that their strategy seemed to be based on the japanese's banzai. Just replace infantery for armored vehicles and the pattern is the same. Couple that with the fact that the ponies suddenly had the same level of thecnology that the muyahidines during the Afgan War against the soviets. Because let's not forget that the ponies shot down figthers... Yeah, sure...
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Silly Dai, that this story is about politics and sides not evil nor good just makes it better. The problem is that the bronies are a bunch of heretics who can't fit in human society and therefore they like stories where humans transform in ponies or where it's presence can not be found whatsoever.
Good joke stone carver, good joke.
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6911148
To see what? How they piss themselves thinking that now they are in charge of something important? How a thank is stopped by a filly like in Somalia, or whatever country where the UN was useless?
6911533
For what, for being awesome? He wasn't responsible for the CIA mission, nor for the explosions that almost killed Celestia and send Rarity to the other neighborhood, so before talking shit about senator Brent, wash your mouth with soap.
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The kind of justice that doesn't leave room for redemption nor mercy. The kind of justice that condemn to death and doesn't admit appeal. The kind of justice that is swift and brutal, but just. The warrior justice.
Death by seppukku
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Well, it can be either a Khorne or a Tzeentch deamon, so we will need a member of the Ordo Malleus to be sure. But fear not, the Emperor protects! Some inquisitor nearby is coming to help you!
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/d/d5/Inquisitor_Hector_Rex_2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120907190631
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Don't mention the name of a Great Deamon of Tzeentch in vain, boy. The entities of the Warp are listening.
6911758
Maybe. But what's more chaotic then a war?
I don't know. The death penalty seems feasible, at the very least for celestial a hundred 2 hundred years in jail? Might not be long enough.......how about annexation of equestria? Or at least a hundred years occupation. Or something.
6912234 Death by fire. The fire purges all
6912105 based off self interest and some of the aspects of Georgia among other incidents and past actions.
6913063 Jajaja fucking traitors. The europeans dodge the responsabilities once more
6913193 Been studying it some and have mixed feeling on the effectiveness of NATO but also modern approaches to war and alliances. Not just with Georgia and Ukraine but Afghanistan too.