//------------------------------// // Ch38: Battle on the Homefront // Story: Equestria: The Afterlife // by Timzocker201 //------------------------------// POV: Mystic Gem The info hit us hard and the captain immediately made it clear that nopony except us officers was to know this, as the morale of our troops would plummet if they came to know. We made haste to get to the Palace, where the next surprise was already waiting for us. The Palace was completely unguarded. Not a single guard could be spotted throughout the entire complex, as we made our way to the throne room. We halted right in front of the doors, but we didn’t open them. Instead, the captain waited for a few seconds, before he gave a new order. “We’re falling back. We will split up and meet at the northern gate again.” At first, I was a little confused by this. We were so close to our goal of getting their king and now we were retreating? However, when I looked into his eyes, I knew what he was thinking and it made my mind go blank from shock. The lack of guards, the vacant hallways, the blatantly obvious weak point at the northern gate… it was a trap all along. The King wasn’t here. If this telegraph-thing was what told the captain what happened to Canterlot, then why shouldn’t it tell the Gryphons that we were coming for their king? We hurried back out of the palace, knowing that each second spent here was spent sitting in the grasp of our enemy. When we finally found the palace gates again, we quickly broke through them, but we were too slow. Before us, there was a whole company of Gryphons ready to close their trap. The captain quickly brought us into a rectangle formation, with Bulkhead’s still unarmed Earth Ponies in the middle of it. We then opened fire on the Gryphons. As soon as we did so, they took flight and scattered, which we used to quickly form into a spearhead and break through. We couldn’t let us get pulled into an elongated fight. Not here, where we couldn’t get supplies that easily and especially not in the very capitol of our enemy. As soon as we cleared the enemy formation, we split up and took different routes towards the north gate. Though, that was easier said than done, given that we had no map of the city, only the general direction we had to go. Worst of all, there were still about a hundred Gryphons hot on our hooves and losing them in their very home city was highly unlikely. Still, somehow we made it back to the north gate, where the Gryphon guards from earlier were still fast asleep. We quickly formed up and bashed through the gate, fully expecting that there would be a whole army waiting for us, but were pleasantly surprised as we only found a few very startled civilians standing before us. We made haste to get back to our lines. Secrecy had now become optional, while speed was our top priority. We reached them after only half a day of marching. Our initial plan to startle the Gryphon defences had worked, apparently, as we found our fellow Guardsponies marching in an orderly line towards the Gryphon capitol. We went back behind our lines, where we held a short strategy meeting with the other officers. We informed them that the Gryphon capitol was only sparsely defended and that it could be taken within just a few hours. We meanwhile would head back to Canterlot to rearm and recover. That last part was a lie, of course, but we couldn`t risk telling them the truth, lest they broke formation again and rushed back to aid Canterlot. The leader of the fifth heavy, Lieutenant Lucky Throw was kind enough to bring the equipment along that we had left behind. Bulkhead quickly let his Ponies take their weapons again before we continued our march back to Stalliongrad, from where we took a train back to a village called Rockridge, at the foot of the Canterlot Mountain. From there, we marched onwards towards Canterlot, as the trains were unable to reach it anymore. When we reached the city, we found it to be under siege, though not by a Gryphon force, but by our very own Royal Guards. The Elements of Harmony, as well as Princess Twilight stood among them, aiding in their assault as best as they could, but ultimately achieving only very sparse results. They stopped their attack as soon as our marching became audible and the elements and the princess quickly came to greet us together with an officer, who likely was currently in charge. The officer was a captain of the reserve. This left to assume that most of the Forces we had were also reserves and garrisons from the surrounding villages. They saluted each other like equals, before their captain gave a short report. Apparently I was right. These ponies were all from the surrounding garrisons and the reserves. This meant that they had some basic training but none of them had seen any combat until now. In addition to that they didn’t have any siege equipment, so all they could do was try to open the gate. The problem with that was that it appeared to be magically sealed. As soon as the other captain had finished his report, our captain turned around and gave orders. “Alright, everyone is to take position in front of our camp and train themselves on these walls. Bulkhead, Overdrive, I want you to coordinate the fire. I want the walls and the main gate clear. Anyone, who dares to even just poke their heads out are to be shot on sight, understood? Now move!” As soon as these orders were spoken, everypony set into motion. Bulkhead and Overdrive as well as the other captain went ahead with the rest following close behind, leaving only the captain, me, Princess Twilight and the rest of the elements standing there. “Good. As for yo-“ The captain was cut off mid-sentence by Twilight who quickly gave him a kiss. “Ey, don’t leave me out!” Rainbow Dash complained, before she joined in as well. The captain crouched down to their height and locked them both into a hug, his face portraying the first genuine smile I’ve seen from him in the past two months, only to have it replaced by a sudden look of realization. His eyes darted over to me and I instantly knew what he was worrying about. I quickly waved him off, saying “Ah, don’t worry, Twilight told me already.” He looked over to the princess, who gave him a sheepish smile in return. After a short moment, he smirked and rolled his eyes, before letting go of them both and standing up again. “Right… that’s certainly good to know. Well, anyways, as I was about to ask: Where are the Princesses? Are they still inside the palace?” Twilight’s look changed from a happy smile to a slightly serious frown. “Yes, sadly. They didn’t manage to escape in time. Well, that or they wanted to stay behind with everypony else.” “I see.” The captain said. “Well, I suppose we have to find a way in then.” We then started walking towards the camp. However, as soon as we reached its outer perimeter, the captain suddenly froze. For a short moment, his eyes widened ever so slightly, before he went back to his usual calm. He stood in place and looked over to the wall, as if he was looking through it directly at the palace. “Correction:” He then stated, “Mystic, get some of the 37s and try to break this gate. I have some preparations to make. I will be back in a few hours.” Before any of us could object or even ask where he was going, he sped off with the help of his magic, leaving us startled from the loud crack it made. When my ears stopped ringing, I went to fulfil the task I had been given. Well, at least as much as I could fulfil it. It turned out that the Spell that was cast upon the gate was made by Celestia herself to make it near impossible to break the gate down. Originally intended to keep the city safe was it now keeping us from saving the city. Still, we kept hammering at the shield, in the hopes of at least ‘denting’ it a bit, but it didn’t even budge. I soon found that it was a waste of ammo to keep firing at it non-stop and ordered volleys. This also gave me a chance to take a closer look at whom we were dealing with. To my great shock, when I looked up to the parapet, I saw not gryphons as I had expected, but Ponies! We were actually being betrayed by our own kind, though something seemed off. It was their clothing. They didn’t wear guard armour, but white frocks with a symbol sewn into their chests. The symbol was showing a crimson moon which contorted downwards into a single, large droplet. Two hours later, we were still keeping the walls clear and the gate under fire, though we still hadn’t made any progress. That was soon to change, however, as suddenly a massive volley of bullets hit the gate from above, followed by what sounded somewhat like multiple 37s firing at the same time. I looked into the direction where the sound came from and saw a massive bird-like thing flying towards us and shooting at the gate. Though, even it couldn’t do much, as the gate still held firm. When the bird-thing came to realize this as well, it pulled up sharp and I came to see that it had two burning circles in its rear that were probably propelling it forward. It passed low over the gate with these burning things pointing almost directly downward. Then, it ignited them further, spouting massive flames at everything that stood beneath and scorching everything and everypony that stood in the way. We could hear a few pained screams, likely from those that were now burning from its attack, while it gained height again and made a wide turn. It lined up behind us again and was again headed straight for the gate. Though, something was different this time: Instead of getting slower and shooting, it passed over us and the top piece of its head suddenly came off with something shooting out of it, while the thing was still accelerating straight towards the gate. It hit with a loud crash and erupted into a massive ball of flame that stretched far into the city behind. The impact was strong enough to pierce through the spell and break the gates open. Suddenly, something impacted the ground beside me, which looked vaguely like… a seat? I also noticed that there was now a large shadow looming above me. I looked upwards at what caused it and saw a large, circular piece of cloth with something dangling from it that looked like… “The Captain!” I exclaimed, quickly gaining the attention of everypony around me. Twilight and the elements quickly came running to me while the captain slowly made his descent. He touched down and let himself fall to the side, before he then quickly, albeit a bit clumsily, removed the harness that was connecting him to the strings that held the cloth. He then sat upright for a while, breathing heavily. Twilight wanted to help him up, but he signalled her not to. He was looking very dizzy and his face was pale. His face wasn’t the only thing that seemed wrong though. Firstly, his knife was missing, which I explained to myself that it must’ve fallen off when he was catapulted out of that thing. Secondly, something was different with his shoulders. I couldn’t quite place it at the time, though, as looking at them from below doesn’t really give you the best view. “Well…” He started after he had regained his normal colours, “it seems flying a jet fighter without a G-Suit wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. At least it seems to have worked, though.” He slowly got up again and walked through the open gate with us and the other guards following close behind. On the other side, we saw debris and wreckage lying all over the place. Most of them were from the gate, but there were also a few metal pieces, some of which were even spouting lightning. The wings of the beast had lodged themselves into the buildings to the side of the avenue, ripping long gashes into them before becoming stuck. The rest of the ‘jet fighter’, as the captain had called it, was reasonably intact, at least from what I could tell. I mean, apart from the snout looking very deformed, the wings missing and quite a few holes, gashes and scratches in the rest of the body, it still resembled the shape I could see earlier. “Oh no…” Princess Twilight sighed as she came to see the carcass, “Markus, your Tornado!” She turned to look at the captain, but he simply waved her off. “Ah, don’t worry. It made a noble sacrifice in giving us a chance to save Canterlot. Besides, I was running out of Kerosene anyways…” Without any further words and without explaining, what this ‘Kerosene’ thing was that he was talking about, he turned around and went to inspect one of the corpses of those traitors. The body belonged to a stallion. It was partially burnt, but the frock was still clearly identifyable. The captain knelt down beside him and took a close look at the symbol on it. “Bloodmoon…” I heard him mutter, which quickly got my attention. “Bloodmoon? What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. Looking back, I could definitely have made that connection by myself, given the symbol… “It’s a cult that we’ve run into a few months ago… apparently I’ve underestimated them quite a bit.” He answered. “We?” “Yes, we. At first, they’d taken Fluttershy hostage and impersonated her. Then, Rainbow and I went to rescue her by raiding their hideout before the survivors of the raid tried to kidnap Princess Luna. Oh, and then there was that incident in the forest, where they wanted to kidnap Twilight. And now, apparently, their new goal is reaching even higher than just the princesses themselves.” He stood up again and turned to face the rest of us. “But I suppose it’s time to start moving, isn’t it?” “Yes, and we’re coming with you.” Princess Twilight said firmly, looking like she was mentally preparing herself to defend her point. “Agreed.” The captain said. “But you ca- wait, what?” She looked at him with confusion, obviously having expected him to object. “Yes, you heard right.” The captain said, “You are to accompany me to the palace, along with the other elements. Bulkhead, Mystic, you two are going perform some house-clearing. Make your way from here to the central plaza and then move out from there. Don’t leave any building untouched! Overdrive, you are going to secure the train station. Captain, you and the rest of the guards are going to guard the gate. Do not let anyone in or out, be it Guard, civilian or even the princesses themselves!” With our orders given, we moved out. Bulkhead and I coordinated our platoons to each sweep one side of the road, while making our way towards the centre. We ran into a quite a few civilians who were hiding in their houses, but we couldn’t risk any of them being a cultist, so we had to detain them as well. It all went rather smoothly, just like we had practised. We mostly ran into little resistance which was quickly eliminated. That is, until we reached a small café close to the central plaza. A pair of Pegasi, one stallion with a green coat and a pink mane and a mare with a slightly lighter coat and a blond mane, was holding their own outside of it, while there were multiple civilians locked inside. Though, ‘holding their own’ is quite an optimistic formulation, as they were indeed showing signs of fatigue, while they were still swarmed by more and more of these cultist. In accordance with our duty as royal Guardsponies, we took a few of our squads and quickly went in to aid them. We broke into their encirclement, placing us directly between the pair and the rest of the cultists. Said cultists seemed startled for a moment, but when they registered our appearance, they just started attacking ever-more fiercely. We managed only a few shots before we were locked into melee combat. You know, in hindsight we could have just shot them from behind, but somehow, that didn’t come to mind in that moment. I don’t exactly know why. Our training definitely paid off in that situation, though, as we clearly outmatched the cultists when it came to melee combat. We were practically mowing them down one after another, leaving them no time to regroup. However, one of them found time for something else. I suddenly felt a surge of magic building in front of me and I quickly erected a shield, fully expecting the attack to be directed at me. Though, sadly, that wasn’t the case. Instead, it was aimed at the pair of Pegasi that was still recovering behind me. It impacted directly beside them and caused a gigantic flame to erupt from the spot it hit. Bulkhead and I were pushed to the ground by its force, while most of the others were only slightly singed by its heat. The pair of Pegasi, however, wasn’t so lucky. They stood right at the epicentre. The stallion was immediately engulfed in flames and kept burning even after the initial flame subsided. The mare, meanwhile, was blown away by the shockwave and suffered heavy burns across her whole body except her face. I quickly galloped to where the mare had landed, trying to help her with my magic, but it was too late. Her wounds were too severe and all I could do was to catch her last words. “D-Do you know… P-Ponyville?” “Yes, I am stationed there.” I answered her. She smiled weakly at me. “P-Please… protect… Scoota-loo…” Her eyes slowly drifted closed and I felt her pulse slowly fading. I couldn’t help but let out a few sobs, for I felt that I had failed. I had failed at my job as a guard, my oath to protect the citizens of Equestria. And I had failed the captain’s training as I totally forgot about the cultist that was still standing there and was preparing to impale me on a spear. The offending projectile made its way towards me and I was yet again too slow to protect myself. I was already preparing myself for the worst, when suddenly, a wall of white fur pushed itself in front of me and I felt the odd sensation of Deja-vu as I looked up and saw Bulkhead’s face slightly smiling down upon me. He had placed himself directly between me and the spear, rearing up on his hind hooves. I had only a few milliseconds to register all this, before disaster struck. The spear impacted Bulkhead’s lower back and its tip came out through his lower abdomen. His gut was partially pressed out by this and the impact made him collapse forwards towards me. I quickly caught him in my hooves while I used my magic to draw my pistol and fill the cultist with, admittedly, more bullets than would have been necessary, as my mind was assaulted by rage and sadness alike. When my pistol clicked empty and I was ripped out of my fury, I realized that I could feel bulkhead still breathing. I set him down and immediately a few unicorns from the other squads came to help me mend his wounds. Though, yet again, we were not enough. None of us was a doctor and in addition to that, the spear made it impossible for us to properly stop the bleeding. “Bulkhead, why do you keep doing this for me?” I asked him with a mixture of desperation and sadness now covering my mind. Bulkhead turned his head slightly towards me and smiled. Not like one would out of happiness, but as if he was content in dying right there at that moment. “Because… I love you, Mystic.” He then said. I froze and felt a third emotion add itself into the chaos in my head, as my cheeks suddenly started to burn. His eyes slowly drifted close and I gripped his head and started to shake it to try and keep him conscious. “No, Bulkhead!” I cried out in desperation, “Don’t you dare dying after saying such a thing!” I tried to keep myself calm, but it didn’t work. I still started sobbing when I felt his pulse fade. Suddenly, though, I noticed another magical aura form around him. The door of the café swung open and a yellow unicorn stallion with a red cross cutie mark galloped out towards us. “Leave him to me, I’m a doctor!” He said. He sat down to his side and concentrated some of his magic around Bulkhead’s heart and slowly, his pulse started recovering. All of a sudden, an explosion shook the city around us and when I looked in the direction it came from, I saw a massive cloud of smoke rise up from the palace. My duty told me that I should go and help, but my mind told me to stay and watch over Bulkhead. I looked back and forth between the two options, unable to decide between the two. Luckily, though, the doc came to help me with that as well. He smiled up at me when I was looking at Bulkhead again and then firmly said: “Go. There are others that need your help. There’s nothing that you can do here anymore.” I looked down on Bulkhead once again, still not quite sure if I really should go. “Don’t worry, I will get him through. Now, go!” I looked back at the doctor and gave him a slight smile and a nod. I then gulped down my emotions and let professionality take over, just like the captain had taught us. “Alright, everypony, get back to clearing those houses! Nambs, get your squad over here and follow me! We’re going to the palace!” I ordered. Squad 2 quickly assembled around me and we sped off to the main avenue. There, we almost crashed into Overdrive. “Overdrive? I thought you were at the station!” “Yes, I was, but I heard that explosion and wanted to help. My platoon should be able to handle the rest, now come on! We gotta move if we want to help!” He quickly said and we both made haste to get to the palace. I could see the captain and the elements from afar, but something felt off. Sadly, I only noticed exactly what was wrong, when we stood directly beside them and found ourselves surrounded by cultists yet again, only this time, there was one that stood out. It was a massive stallion with a brown coat. His face was covered by the hood of the white frock he was wearing and the other cultists had formed up around him like he was some sort of a leader. “Ah, even more guests have arrived.” He said. “Still, you won’t be able to stop us anymore, Captain. We have the princesses and you surrounded and it’s only a matter of time until they run out of food.” “We won’t let you have so much time. You know that we are not the only Guards here.” The captain said firmly. At that, the brown stallion let out an almost devilish laugh, before a menacing smile became visible from under his hood. “Maybe you aren’t the only ones here, but you are the only ones that still don’t know, which side to choose.” I saw movement behind the cultists that surrounded us and soon they were joined by our former fellow Guardsponies. It shocked me deeply to see that so many had betrayed us, but not nearly as much as the one guard that I saw step up beside their leader. “Long time no see, Captain Becker.” Shining Armor said, looking at the captain with a victorious smirk. “No! Captain Armor, how could you?!” I screamed in disbelief. The one Guardspony that should never even be tempted had now full-on betrayed Equestria. “Sorry, Lieutenant, but I couldn’t just sit and watch him grow more influential and powerful than me. The Bloodmoon has kindheartedly offered me to help me get rid of this nuisance in exchange for my help.” I could see the captain smirk beside me and heard him cough up a short laugh. He looked at Captain Armor for a while, before looking back at the brown stallion. “Now that you’ve shown us the traitor, why not also show us your disciple?” He said, before looking over to Overdrive. I looked at him as well, shocked from the implication, while he looked like sweat was building up on his forehead. “Overdrive.” The sound of the brown stallion’s voice boomed through my ears, “It seems, you have failed me again.” Overdrive lowered his head and pressed his ears back, while slowly walking forward. “Y-Yes, I’m sorry, my master, but-” “KEEP YOUR MEAGER EXCUSES! YOU HAVE FAILED ME TOO OFTEN, OVERDRIVE! YOU ARE A FAILURE!” His voice dominated everything that surrounded us. Overdrive winced back, trying to make himself as small as possible. “I will give you one last chance to prove your worth.” The stallion then continued, “Remove those unwanted bystanders.” Overdrive looked up again, this time wearing a maniacal smile. “Yes, my master.” He said. He then turned around, drew his pistol and pointed it at my head. “Sorry, cutie, but your beauty will sadly be wasted.” I blinked in disbelief, still trying to grasp the whole situation. I tried to find a way out, looking around to find something helpful. Then, I looked up at the captain. He just stood there, looking down at me, a soft, reassuring smile on his lips. He was calm. He had a plan and as long as I followed it, nothing would happen. Seeing him made me calm down. I knew I was safe. I looked back at Overdrive, who was now slowly pulling the trigger backwards in his magic. I closed my eyes, leaned my head backwards and readied myself for whatever was to come next.