//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27 | Return to Canterlot 
// Story: A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria 
// by Riclo 
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Klade's POV

The large mountain that Canterlot was located on was in view. We had followed along the river that extended out from Neighagra Falls, which acted as a kind of guide that would lead us straight to the mountain. It was probably only about an hour's way by now, and I was eager for the chance to regroup and find out if anything had happened.

Behind us was a huge swarm of changelings; anyone viewing from the outside would probably think Canterlot was about to be invaded, which in a way was technically true. Chrysalis had been promised equal say with the other princesses, so she was supposed to be just as powerful as them - time would tell if they would abide to that though since the decision had been made without their knowledge or consent. The trip so far had been without anymore adversaries in our way, which I wasn't sure if it was just by chance or if the changeling army was intimidating enough to keep the monsters away. I had regularly tested my magic throughout our journey to see if it would work, but unfortunately each time I tried, it was still being blocked. It was starting to make me wonder: Was the tower on Mount Everhoof powerful enough to blanket all of Equestria? I hoped not.

With more steps taken as time went on, the caves that the trains would use to go right up directly to Canterlot became visible. We would have to walk up them manually, but it was still a much better option than having to climb the actual mountain - that would've sucked. One thing in particular I noticed was that the railgun located on the very top of the mountain wasn't there anymore; that was definitely interesting, and I was eager to find out why.

'How many damn mountains have we come across now? I swear, every day it feels like another mountain or another cave. If I see anymore mountains then I'm going to start blowing them up and turning them into cities. That would actually be pretty epic now that I think about it - it's a shame Discord would just mess it up.'

With the entrance to the mountain approaching, we stepped inside, hearing only the echos of our steps around the train tracks. Nothing in here so far showed any signs of destruction, but it a strange way it didn't feel natural - as if there was supposed to be damage done here but there wasn't. Chances are though, it was just me. We had been through alot and the quietness probably wasn't helping to make things seem less spooky either. Either way, I still kept in mind that something didn't seem right - I wasn't the type of person to easily dismiss things as just my 'mind playing tricks.' I took feelings like this way too seriously.

"Do you guys smell that?" Pinkie Pie's voice spoke up. "It almost smells like burnt stuff."

"That can't be good." I replied. "If there's one thing I've noticed though, it's that the clouds have gotten darker - as if this is their central point."

"Yeah, kind of like when it's about to rain!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Maybe that's just it? Oh oh, maybe all of the clouds are just a huge prank from the ponies over at Cloudsdale! Maybe Celestia's death was a prank too, and when we get up there to Canterlot there's gonna be a huuuge party waiting for us!"

I couldn't help but smile at that despite how it seemed like everything around us was turning into a living nightmare. "That would be nice."

Me, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Chrysalis, and the mass of changelings behind us continued up the mountain tunnel. Soon enough the other side began to come into view, where the first thing we saw was a large chunk of the castle laying just outside.

"Ah'd start bein' a little more careful from here on out." Applejack spoke up. Everyone silently agreed, and I pulled out one of my G18 machine pistols as we continued forward at a slower pace. Once we approached the exit to the tunnel, we were able to see the entirety of the Canterlot Castle - as well as how destroyed it was. Pieces and chunks were littered everywhere across the front courtyard, and quite of few of the towers that extended upwards were either smashed or broken right off. The whole place looked like it had been through a war.

"O-oh my..." Fluttershy softly remarked at the sight of it all.

"This has happened to Canterlot?" Rarity spoke. "This is horrible! Is there anyone left in this place?"

After hearing her say that, I realized that despite all of the destruction, there wasn't a single body to be found. I could see disturbances in the ground as well as huge foot-prints from what must've belonged to giant monsters, but yet there wasn't any dead bodies out here - whether it be monsters or ponies.

"They might have abandoned this place before they were invaded." I alleged.

"I hope so." Pinkie breathed out a sigh in relief. "So that should mean everypony's still okay!"

"So you mean to say there is no one here?" Chrysalis's voice rang out. Our attention turned to the queen, where I was the first to reply.

"Maybe. I would look through the inside of the castle to see if there's anyone still here."

"And if they're not, then maybe they left a note saying where they went!" Pinkie chimed in. Chrysalis's visual expression didn't appear to change, but she did seem on board with doing that. We continued across the courtyard, separating ourselves a little from the group as we looked around and examined things. One thing in particular I noticed was a huge metal door that I faintly remembered being a part of the front of the castle. Closer inspection showed large splatters of blood stained near the bottom, seemingly as if something had been crushed by it. There were no bodies though, and the door appeared to be laying flat right against the ground - there couldn't have been anything underneath it.

'Something's not right here.' I looked back towards the others. Now that I had seen blood, I began to spot it in other places too: scattered across the blades of grass or sprayed against walls and pieces of debris. Whatever had happened here wasn't without injuries or even casualties, and it was making me wonder if this place had actually been evacuated before the gates had opened. After all, nobody had ever suspected that Tartarus would open up - it would've been a total surprise. If there was an attack though, then surely there would've been bodies - so where were they?

"Let's not wander off too far. Something's not right about this place." I stated.

"Ya got that right." Applejack replied. We soon grouped closer together as we made our way forward towards the castle itself. Our first steps inside echoed throughout the empty hallways as we maneuvered around the other large metal door that was hanging by its hinges. The interior appeared equally as destroyed, with holes in the walls and decorative fabric torn to pieces. Right in-front of us was a big chandelier that had fallen from the ceiling.

"We should split up and then holler out if we find anything." Pinkie spoke up.

"No, that's a horrible idea." I was quick to dismiss that plan. "Something's weird about this place, and the last thing I would want to do is split apart so that we can easily be picked off. I think spending a little more time to ensure our safety is the best thing to do."

"Yeah, but isn't this place still really big?" Pinkie frowned. "Besides, the longer we stay here, the more danger Twilight and the others can be in!"

"Perhaps we can just split into two groups." Applejack elaborated. "We can take half an' half that way without spreading ourselves two thin."

"That sounds like a good plan." Rarity added.

I looked towards everyone else as well as the large horde of changelings. On second thought, that way of doing it didn't sound so bad. Everyone seemed to be agreeing to it anyway, so it seemed as if the decision had already been made. "Alright. Applejack, how about you, Rarity, Chrysalis and the rest of her changelings search the right side of the castle. I'll take the left with Pinkie and Fluttershy." I figured Chrysalis would've been fine by herself with her own little army, but I didn't want her to be isolated from all of us just yet.

"Ah guess that'll work." Applejack replied.

"We'll meet up in the garden that's located inside the castle when we're done searching." I continued. "I'm pretty sure that's in the middle anyway, so it'll be a good spot to regroup."

With our plan made out, we made our separate ways. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy followed me through the left hallway, where we took the time to examine our surroundings and look behind objects and curtains in search of anypony left that could've been hiding. There was nothing though - no sign of anyone anywhere. The castle was dull and lifeless, but yet it still felt like there was something still here. The vibe this place was giving off was creepy, and I wasn't sure if it was just because it was so uninhabited.

"I don't think there's anypony home." Pinkie eventually exclaimed. "It's so weird not to see anypony in Canterlot, but this place is just totally abandoned."

"Yep, doesn't seem like there's anyone here." I replied. We had just finished going up the stairways that the towers consisted of - or at least, the ones that weren't destroyed. Most of the rooms located at the top seemed to be bedrooms, which I figured would be the prime location to find anyone hiding, but there was no one in any of them. We seemed to be re-tracing our steps along the lower-levels at this point, so I decided it was time to end our search. "Let's go to the garden. There's nothing here."

"I hope that the others have found anything that would tell us where everypony went." Fluttershy replied. I was curious about that too, and without any further ado we made our way straight to the Canterlot garden. When we arrived, I noticed how the trees and flowers were all damaged, which was pretty much expected considering the rest of the castle was in partial ruins. Stepping all the way into the courtyard revealed that everyone else was already here - including Chrysalis and her horde of changelings that were just standing or hovering about. It was giving me flashbacks to the last time changelings were seen in this courtyard, to which there was a big battle between them and us.

"Ya'll finally done?" Applejack greeted as we made our way over. Taking a look at the mass of changelings, I realized it was probably an extremely lopsided search when they had hundreds of them searching and we only had just three. It made sense then that they would be done so fast, but there wasn't anything I could do about that now.

"We didn't find anything." I replied.

"We found no pony either, but we think that's a good thing on the contrary!" Rarity responded. "We searched through every floor and along the basement dungeons; and then, located in one of the rooms above, we found a map laying right on a table with an area known as the 'badlands' circled in red. We think this is where the others have escaped to."

"Wow! Really?" Pinkie's head perked up in excitement. "So that's gotta be where we go to next!"

Applejack shook her head at that notion. "Ah want to check out Ponyville first before we go anywhere. We've all seen what's happened here, and I'd be lyin' if I said I haven't been worried sick about my family - even more so now that I've seen the look of this place."

Fluttershy gasped at this. "You're right Applejack. Oh no - I hope all the animals are okay! Gosh, I hope everypony else is okay too.."

"I know." Rarity responded. "It's absolutely dreadful to think about the sheer quantity of horrible things that could be happening." She gagged. "It makes me feel sick... it is simply so much to worry over."

I stood there thinking about all this new information. The badlands... I had no idea what or where that place even was, but I knew I would find out as soon as I had my hands on a map. Ponyville was another factor I hadn't even considered; If a place like Canterlot was abandoned and destroyed like it was right now, then surely every other place on Equestria was at risk too. The only thing was wondering when it would happen - that was the scale of the threat this Tartarus place seemed to hold. Ponyville was close to Canterlot - the closest town to Canterlot actually - so that would make it the most prime location for the next attack, the same one that seemed to happen here. There was one thing I needed to do before our departure though, and it was the entire reason I made sure we met up in the garden.

"We can't leave for Ponyville just yet." I spoke up. "We're going to stop by someplace else first."

"Stop by where?" Applejack inquired. I responded by walking over to a certain section of the garden; the place was in ruins, but the area was still somewhat recognizable. I approached a particular rock that still had the mess of dirt and pulled up grass next to it from the last time I was here with Rainbow Dash.

'Actually surprised there isn't still two guards standing here.' I thought to myself as I leaned down and moved some debris out of the way. I grinned when I saw an electronic number panel attached to the rock, and after putting in the correct sequence, the rock slowly slid open and revealed a pathway that led underground.

"Oh hey, I forgot about that place!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

"This was the place we used to escape from Discord when he trapped us all in Canterlot, correct?" Rarity asked.

"Yep, same place." I answered. I proceeded to make my way down the stairs with the others following behind me. A quick glance around showed that Chrysalis was coming down here by herself and leaving the rest of her changelings at the entrance, which made sense since the opening was only really big enough for one person at a time - for all of them to come down here would take forever and would most likely over-cluster the whole tunnel. Eventually we all reached the armored van that I had conveniently parked on this side of the tunnel the last time I was here with Rainbow Dash and Trixie, to which I then approached the vehicle and opened the two double-doors in the back.

"Everyone inside." I asserted as I made my way towards the front.

"It's just like last time!" I heard Pinkie exclaim as she jumped right into the back. "This was fun!"

I opened the driver side door and sat inside. I took a look behind me, waited until everyone was inside, and when the back doors were closed, I turned on the engine. After shifting into the correct gear, I accelerated the van forward, thus beginning our way to my base.





The other side of the tunnel soon came into view, and with it was the ATV that I had previously used the last time I was here. Upon nearing the end, I maneuvered the vehicle so that the front was facing back towards Canterlot, and then turned off the engine.

"We're here." I announced as I opened the driver side door. Stepping out I saw that the others had already began exiting the vehicle, and once everyone was out, I began to make my way over towards the elevator. I walked right inside and took a look at the panel located inside; the base's alarm and defensive systems were still online as they should've been, although after punching in the code, it gave me an error displaying that it wasn't the correct one.

'Da fuq? Oh wait, I changed it when Rainbow and Trixie were here. Fuck what the hell were those numbers...' I stood there and stared blankly at the panel. Everyone was already inside by now, some of which began looking at me as we simply stood there. It took me a few more moments before I managed to remember something, and after punching in that code, I was lucky to find out it was the right one and the defenses were deactivated. 'I've really been slipping alot - guess I shouldn't change stuff like this as a spur of the moment thing. At least I still remember the other ones.' With that short ordeal resolved, I pressed the actual elevator button, causing the doors to slither closed and the room to begin moving upwards.

During the short time that the elevator ascended, I took the time to notice that Chrysalis had been strangely quiet about all of this. I figured she must've been interested in the fact that all of this was below Canterlot, and it was then I realized she was probably thinking this was a bunch of stuff that the princesses had done - she was most likely taking in everything mentally as if we were about to come across some ancient legendary magic stuff or who knows what from a thousand years ago that the princesses could've had locked away somewhere. It wasn't going to be that though - it would be totally different.

The elevator soon arrived, and the doors slid open, revealing the main control room of my base. Now that I was here, I wasn't going to hold back at all over what I was supposed to do. Princess Celestia, Rainbow Dash, Duston, as well as many others effected by Discord's chaotic sprint had died, and with things going the way they were, I saw no reason not to do everything I was capable of. The things he had been doing lately were plain violent with no games at all to them, and unleashing the demons of Tartarus crossed the line - was that his idea of fun? It didn't even seem characteristic of him, almost as if there was something more to it.

Stepping out of the elevator, I walked straight to the closest railgun-specific room - the Canterlot Top location. As I expected, the monitors on-screen were showing that it was offline - I hadn't seen it on the top of the mountain Canterlot was on when we were trekking over here. It was unfortunate since that had the best possible vantage point, but I still had others located across Equestria. Walking back out of the room, I saw the others looking around - they hadn't seen the new modern look since I re-did this place out of the oldey timey look that it had before.

"What exactly is this place for anyway?" Pinkie's voice spoke up. "Like, what are all the things we can do? I remember that one time you whacked a fake Discord with a bunch of weird buttons and lights and stuff and I saw it happening like I was right there!"

"I have more devices just like that one located all over Equestria." I explained. "Those are what will do the most damage, although I still have alot of other stuff here I want to get ahold of as well. You'll see what I'm talking about." I proceeded to check out every other railgun-oriented room, where I was glad to see that each of the five others were in working condition: Foal Mountain #1, Foal Mountain #2, Everfree, Smokey Mountains and Mountains South - the latter two made to fire nuclear bombs. With those checked out and unlocked, I made my way back to the main room, where I saw that some had taken the opportunity to sit down on the chairs that surrounded the large table located in the middle.

"Klade! What's this big black box do?" Pinkie proceeded to ask, waving her hoof around the large flat-screen TV attached to the wall at the end of the table.

"That has access to all of the cameras and video feeds I have located across Equestria." I answered. That would definitely prove to be useful, and I was also really curious over just what happened to my clone that was supposed to shoot the tower on Mount Everhoof. I figured now was a good time to find out, so I made my way over to a remote that was resting on the table, grabbing it and turning the television on. The first video feed to be displayed was located on a tree over-looking the entrance to the Canterlot Castle, which only revealed what we had already seen - it was all destroyed.

"You can see that from here?" Rarity inquired with a perplexed look.

"Yeah, it's normal stuff back on my world. I've got these everywhere." I replied. Pressing buttons on the remote, I switched to a specific camera - one of the ones that overlooked the makeshift camp-out I had created for that clone. What I saw was disturbing: His dead body laid limp on the floor, which was already starting to disintegrate into what looked like crusty black particles of which I assumed was the magical stuff that kept him alive. On a nearby wall was a black splatter, and on the floor was a pistol - by the looks of it he must've blown his brains out. 'Damn. How the fuck did Discord find out about him? That doesn't make any sense.'

"What's that supposed to be?" Applejack asked.

"That was supposed to be my backup plan in-case things on Everhoof didn't go very well." I responded. "Have no idea how that happened though. I should've had more plans to begin with." I felt bad looking at the dead body - he had survived being manipulated only to somehow end up like that. I knew it was just a magical copy of me, but there was still a form of attachment - probably because it was me.

With that mystery solved, I began to scroll through the cameras at random, bringing up videos from different cities. The first one I recognized as Baltimare since I had been there with Celestia and the others already, and from the looks of it things seemed to be mostly fine; other than the magic-disabling tower, the effects of Tartarus hadn't seemed to reach them yet. It was the same story for other cities that were far away from Canterlot, and cameras that were located in random fields and forests showed nothing out of the ordinary. A couple cameras showed up as only static, which was weird, until one displayed a live feed from Cloudsdale. The place turned out to be in ruins just like Canterlot was: buildings were destroyed and the clouds looked like they had been torn apart as if they were made out of cotton. Some tall structures were hanging downwards barely attached to whatever clouds were left, and looking at that made me wonder what the ground below that sky city must've looked like.

"Oh no, they've been attacked too." Pinkie gasped out. "Wait look, there's still a few of them there!" The pony dashed right over to the screen and pointed with her hoof at places where orc-like creatures appeared to be walking around.

"Whatever happened here was probably recent then." I replied. Bringing up a certain setting from the remote, I specifically picked another Cloudsdale camera, which displayed a different angle of destruction. Located on one of the flat pieces of ground I was able to see an orc bashing the crushed, bloodied remains of what must've been a pony with its club. The pony was so deformed by now that he was barely recognizable, and I could see the looks of horror and disgust from the others when they saw what was happening.

"This is truly horrible.." Rarity softly exclaimed. "Why would anyone ever want to do this?"

I watched winged dragon-looking creatures fly around with orcs sat on-top - that at least explained how they got up there in the first place. The orc who was just beating up the pony proceeded to jump onto a nearby uninhabited monster, where the two proceeded to fly off until they were out of view from the camera.

"Now hold on a second, it looks ta me like they're goin' somewhere." Applejack spoke up. "Can we see Ponyville from here?"

"Yes." I answered, to which I brought up one of the cameras from Ponyville. It was only static, which wasn't very reassuring, and bringing up another camera only confirmed our fears - the place was under attack at the very moment. Ponies could be visibly seen running away from the assaulting monsters, and although there was no audio, it was still as if I could faintly hear the screams just from what I was observing. Applejack immediately stood up from her chair after witnessing this.

"We gotta get over there right now!!" She yelled out.

I stood there as I looked at the screen; time was clearly a liability now, but I still needed to make sure we were fully-prepared for what we needed to do. "Alright. Before we leave, I need to make sure we're prepared. There's alot of stuff here that should make this battle easy."

"We don't have time for that!" Applejack frowned. "Don't you see what's happening?"

"We need to be ready. We can't just charge into a huge battle like that without even a plan." I responded. "We need to be ready for the worst, and I'm sure it's going to be nothing like the few demons we've fought already on our way here. Those seemed more like stragglers to me."

Although clearly not liking the thought of waiting based on the look on her face, Applejack eventually huffed out, seeming to be compliant with it for the mean-time. "Okay. What do you have in mind Klade?"

I looked over everyone that was in the room. Normally I would've had my clones control the inner-workings of this place, but they weren't here - and even if they were, they were still at risk of just being brainwashed like the last time. I was going to need someone to stay behind, and after thinking over the ponies that were here, I eventually decided that Pinkie should be the one to stay. Further thinking made me realize that she might be here for awhile though; This mountain was pretty far away from Ponyville, and I doubted this little skirmish would be the last time I'd need people here. Because of this, I decided that having one pony being here by themselves wouldn't be a good idea, so I opted for Fluttershy to stay behind as well.

"Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy: You two will be staying behind to control the stuff that I have here." I announced. "I'll show you how everything works and how you both can use it. As for the rest of you, you might as well follow me anyway." With that elaborated, I walked to one of the railgun rooms - the Everfree Forest one specifically. This one I had purposely hidden and camouflaged it as best I could. It was created with the sole intent of overlooking Ponyville exclusively, since that was the only place it could look over considering its location. Ponyville was kind of an important place anyway, so I wanted a gun made just for it - one that would be hidden and not out in the open like the others. Once everyone was inside, I began to go over how to work it: How to angle the gun, the targeting system, how to fire it. To use the gun at its most basic was pretty simple, and I wasn't about to over-complicate things by trying to explain how to target multiple things at once for rapid-session firing. I didn't need any confusion.

Once that was done, I went on to re-explain everything to every other room that controlled a railgun, just to get it in their heads to decrease the chance of them forgetting anything. The two Foal Mountain railguns also had a view of Ponyville, but the remaining two were out of the question since they fired nukes - we didn't need to be leveling the whole town and killing everything including innocent ponies. "These are most likely what you'll be using as support when we're in battle." I spoke. "There's one more thing you should all know about though. You might be using this too - or rather, I should have one of you stay near this one specifically so that there's no running around." I made my way to the top-left of the control room and up the flight of stairs. Everyone followed behind me in single-file, and from there I made my way straight to the clone-recharging room, where my teleportation device was located at.

"You can use this thing here to teleport me remotely." I explained as I approached the device. From there I sat down, making sure both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were the closest ones to me before I continued. "Using this screen here, you can tell where I am by this dot. From there you can decide where you want to teleport me by doing this." Messing with the device, I placed the destination right in the control room of my base. "Once the destination is set, you can teleport me whenever. I'll do it right now as an example." With that being said, I set the device to teleport me at that moment. As the seconds went by though, nothing happened, until eventually the monochromatic screen came up with an error message that said 'Dis shit ain't working'.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Pinkie asked, to which I shook my head.

"No. I don't know why it's not working." I leaned over to the front of the machine and began to take it apart. The magic crystal that powered the teleportation was still there, and it looked like it was perfectly fine. "The magic crystal looks fine." I tried to dig in further when Rarity's voice rang out.

"Klade, I believe that I may know what the problem is." Rarity spoke up. "I still have been unable to use my magic.. so perhaps the use of this machine is being blocked  too?"

I stopped my advances as I thought over what she said. "I think you might be right." I put the front back together and sat up straight again. "Well, so much for that shit. That would've been really useful too." I stood up from the device. 'If that's true, then it seems like even magic crystals can't be used through whatever this magic-blocking influence is.'

"So is that all?" Applejack inquired.

"Almost. Now I just need to show how we'll communicate." I made my way back down the stairs into the main control room once more. From there, I grabbed a few radios that were lying around, and then proceeded to give them to both Pinkie and Fluttershy. "This is a radio. I'll have one of these too, and through it you'll be able to hear my voice when I talk. We'll be able to talk to each other this way."

The two nodded, and then Fluttershy quietly spoke up. "So we will know if everypony is okay..?"

"Yeah, you'll know when we're done dealing with these fuckheads." I replied. With that being said, there was only one thing left for me to do, and it involved the room I never got the chance to go in when Rainbow Dash and Trixie were here last time: The testing room, which also happened to be where I liked to mess around with weapons or where I put them when I was doing screwing around with them elsewhere in Equestria. "I've got a few things I need to bring with me, and then we'll immediately set off for Ponyville afterwards. You all might as well wait by the elevator while I get ready."

Applejack was the first to trot over, and I watched the others for a bit as well before turning around and heading to the top-right portion of the room. The entry-way was strangely angled and designed due to how it was a sloppy connection between that room and the others. This room was the first room I had ever created here, which was done shortly after I had arrived in Equestria - before I even had the idea of making a base in this mountain. After walking through a few tiny little hallways, I arrived, and was glad to see that everything was just how I left it before. The room wasn't like the others as there wasn't artificial floors or ceilings. It was all pure mountain, and on the far side was a big electronic door that would open mid-way from top to bottom. This would lead directly to the outside.

'Play time is over.'

I walked up to the first thing that caught my eye: An M60 Light Machine Gun mounted on a table. It was the very one I had used when I cleared the changeling-infested Canterlot with my clones way back, and the box magazine was still full since I hadn't used it that much during that event. I could feel myself grinning already as I picked up the massive gun, examining it and realizing just how heavy it was without my physical strength boosting spell. I was going to have to deal with it though. On the table lay a spare box magazine, fitted with what must've been at least over a hundred bigass rounds. I was definitely going to use this.

Looking around, I went up to the next thing: A Striker Shotgun that was leaning against a wall. This was nothing like the normal version, however; I had modified it to be capable of firing slug rounds, incendiary rounds, and even grenades. It had a huge round drum mag that was attached to the gun itself and capable of holding 35 total rounds. I picked it up and examined it, taking note of the weathered black color that it had - it didn't have the standard issue brass look to it. This was actually my most recent creation as I fondly thought back to how I had fun completely obliterating a section of the Everfree Forest with this thing. The magazine was currently empty, so I was going to have to manually put in all the rounds. One useful thing about this weapon, however, was the revolving drum magazine mechanism. If I need a specific shot, all I needed to do was move the revolving circle the other way for one click, insert the correct ammo into the empty spot, and then move it back. I would then still have all of the other remaining shots left afterwards.

'That reminds me...' Putting the gun down, I reached over my back and pulled my Model 1887 out. 'Guess I won't be needing this anymore if I have that.' Cocking the lever half-way, I began to empty out all of the shells, placing them all on a nearby table before putting the gun down when I was done. Next to the table was a box each for regular shotgun shells, slugs, incendiaries, and grenades. Before I began fiddling with those though, I looked around to see what else I could bring with me. A belt of frag grenades caught my eye, so I grabbed it, laying it on the table as well. Yet another useful weapon was a mini-nuke launcher laying against the wall; I had never actually used it since I never did find a decent place to test it out, and it only had the one shot that was loaded inside. I grabbed that and brought it over to the table as well. 'Maybe I should save this one for Discord.' A quick glance around showed that there didn't appear to be anything else laying about, and I figured I had enough stuff by now anyway. It was time to load everything up and somehow equip it all.





By the time I was done I was overclustered as fuck. In my pant pockets I had shootable grenades in the bottom right, slugs in the bottom left, regular shotgun shells in the upper left and then incendiaries in the upper right. My G18s were still on both sides of my hip, with two full magazines lined within my leather jacket and then a third quarter full magazine as well. Also in my leather jacket, in the pockets specifically, were the two pistols from the very beginning - one I had created in Los Pegasus shortly after being rescued from the cave, and the other that was non-magically created from back on Earth. That one had only what was loaded in the gun, whereas the other still had a spare mag shoved in that same pocket. In my other inner-jacket pocket was the tablet that was hooked up to my base that would let me know if and when something was going on, and from there I would be able to control certain things with the defenses. Attached to my belt was the radio that I would use to contact Pinkie and Fluttershy with, and in one of my inner-jacket pockets I had a spare radio clipped on from the outside of the pocket as well - just in-case.

Strapped to my back on the left side was the mini-nuke launcher, and on the right was the advanced Striker Shotgun, which was now fully-loaded specially in a way that went as follows: The first three shots were grenades, then four incendiaries, then eight regular shotgun shells, eight slugs, four more incendiaries, and then the rest - the last eight that the drum could hold - were all regular shotgun shells. I knew that thing was going to destroy everything when I pulled it out. Strapped across my body was the belt of six grenades, and more scouting around yielded a flashbang that I had completely forgot I made - that I put in my back-left pocket. The backpack of explosives from before I decided to leave here since it wasn't really necessary anymore; I was already over-clustered as fuck anyway with what must've been at least thirty pounds of shit, and I wasn't even holding the M60 yet.

'Think I might be good.' I thought to myself as I made my way over to the table the M60 was on. 'Won't be overkill at all.' I grabbed the spare box magazine and clipped it to my grenade belt. I proceeded to pick up the huge machine gun and begin making my way back out of the room, only to eventually catch something in the corner of my eye - something in a slightly opened drawer that I had for some reason not even noticed until now. I knew we were kind of in a rush, but I quickly checked it out anyway, only to be surprised at what I saw: It was Duston's Desert Eagle pistol.

'Oh shit.' I stared at the gun for a few seconds due to the emotional impact. I had 'borrowed' it from the backpack that he kept all of his guns in, since I had been meaning to do some magical tests. I never had the chance to stealthily return it when I was done, and it was probably a good thing too since his backpack ended up getting crushed by a cave-in anyway.

'I can't believe I forgot about that.' I set the M60 down and pulled out the massive pistol - it was something where you never realized how big it really was until you held it in person. It was enormous, and I ejected the magazine, observing that it was still fully-loaded with seven huge rounds of .50 Action Express. 'This was stuff he bought too - I remember him telling me just how expensive this and the ammo was. I think this was actually the last thing he got before we ended up being accidentally transported here.' Seeing as I couldn't return it anymore, I decided to keep it for now - it would do much better in my hands than sitting in drawer. It was also a gun that was originally from back on earth, which automatically made it superior: It wasn't magically created which meant there was no possible chance of it disappearing through some magic EMP spell. Such a thing had never happened yet from someone other than myself, but it was still something I always kept in mind. I reached and put it in the inner-jacket pocket with my tablet, where it was barely able to fit due to just how big it was. 'If it's convenient, maybe I'll shoot Discord with this instead, but I wouldn't risk any chance of him escaping just for poetic justice - I'll kill him the instant I see him with the first possible method.'

I exhaled slowly and shook my head, thinking over recent events as I grabbed my M60 and began making my way out of the room. Equestria was never supposed to be like this - at times I couldn't even believe that this is what was really happening. Everything had been going along so normally for the longest time... and now when I thought about how things used to be, it felt like it was ages ago - I couldn't even remember what it was like to have a normal day. This madness had become the new normal.

'Duston may be dead, but he's still left a mark in this world with the things we've done before. I'll remind Discord of that when he realizes that I'm not going to stop until he's dead and Equestria is back to what it should be.' By now I had made it back to the main control room, where I saw everyone looking at me over by the elevator; Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Queen Chrysalis. 'For right now, it's time to fuck some fuckers up in Ponyville.'

"I offer my help in this." Chrysalis spoke up; she had been quiet for the longest time, and it was nice to see her actually saying something. "I will see to it that everyone who is with me will aid in this fight."

"Good." I replied as I approached the awaiting group. "Pinkie, Fluttershy: You remember everything I told you?"

"Yes we do!" Pinkie responded. "We'll help out as much as we can."

"I'll do my best." Fluttershy quietly added. Seeing as we were ready to go, I decided not to waste anymore time, walking straight into the elevator. The others quickly followed, whereas Pinkie and Fluttershy stood outside the doorway, waving us goodbye as the doors slid closed. With the room beginning to descend, all that was left now was to make our way to Ponyville and obliterate every demon there.

'These assholes have no idea what's about to happen.'