//------------------------------// // The sum of all fears // Story: After The War - Luna Aeternal // by Scorched Earth //------------------------------// Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 5, Reactor Cluster 6 T- 18m until detonation "The Apocalypse cannot be stopped!" One of the traitor ponies shouted as she threw an another grenade. Luna was getting royally pissed off at these ponies. So far she had been called 'The False Princess', 'Nightmare Moon Reborn' and 'Queen Bitch of The Moon'. None which pleased her in anyway. She also heard several insults against her sister, none which were any less insulting. However, at the moment she wasn't interested in hearing what the traitors shouted. She was more interested in getting trough them and capturing Captain Stonewall and the bomb he carried. "Look, we are getting nowhere at this pace. We need to somehow take down that rifle squad!" Matheus shouted before taking another shot. "Twilight, can you hold up the shield for few seconds?" Luna asked. "What? Oh, sure, I can try." Twilight's horn started to glow from magic, creating a magic barrier. She suddenly had much more respect for Luna, who could hold the shield so easily. Each hit by a bullet felt like someone slapped her in the face. Meanwhile, Luna had taken different target for her magic. The catwalk where the traitor humans had set themselves started to groan and suddenly crashed down, taking out humans on and under it. Luna quickly took over casting the shield, allowing Twilight to catch her breath. "Holy shit, that was good." Matheus said, before rushing out of his cover and slamming his rifle into a face of a traitor pony. Quin quickly followed, shooting anyone who wasn't part of their group. Luna and Twilight followed their example, quickly taking out the group of traitors that had stayed behind to cover the retreat if their leader. "Okay, I think we got most of them. Let's take out that leader of theirs before it's too late." "Right behind you sarge." Quin said. Luna and Twilight nodded and followed Matheus. They didn't have much time. T- 14m until detonation "Captain Stonewall! Stop right there!" Luna shouted towards the catwalk that Stonewall was running across. Stonewall didn't answer, only floated an another magical grenade and threw it behind him. Explosion didn't harm his pursuers, but it caused them to stop. Just enough for Stonewall to disappear from their sight. "Reich und Gott this place is a maze!" It didn't help that the traitors kept ambushing them, making their progress even more slow. Two humans appeared behind them and tried to shoot them. Quin got hit in his head, but unlike idiots in the movies he wore a helmet. So instead of pretty little head shot, he got dented helmet and a headache. Luna cast the shield spell over them once again and Matheus took care of the attackers. "Damn it, at this rate we will never get them!" "We need to do something, something that will allow us to catch him quickly! What is the general layout of this place?" Twilight asked. "I need to know where he might be headed." "Let me think... Damn it!" Another group of ponies appeared and started throwing discarded weapons and other objects at them. Some of them tried to charge right at the group, but Matheus and Quin quickly convinced them how bad this idea was. These ponies were clearly not from the Royal Guard. Royal Guard had learned long time ago that blindly charching at an armed human was a suicide. "Let's see... this is..." Matheus looked the signs places on the wall. "Okay, he is most likely heading to emergency vent controls, at least that's one path. Other possibility he is trying to reach the auxiliary control center." Matheus looked at the ponies in their way. "Problem is, it's like these guys are respawning! They keep coming back again and again!" "What's 'respawning'?" "Doesn't matter. What matters is..." Suddenly one the traitor ponies screamed and flew over the catwalk. Twilight turned to see and saw one of the royal guards causing a havoc in traitor ranks. One human appeared also, opening fire at them. With the sudden appearance of reinforcements, Matheus and Quin quickly started to rush the enemy, hoping to break through before they could reorganize themselves. After a quick fight Matheus turned to their two helpers. "Resnok, where is rest of your team?" "This is it sarge. We got ambushed. If it wasn't for private Silent Storm here I would be dead by now. This guy knows how to cheat." The human soldier answered. "They would have killed us both anyway and if that bomb is not stopped, we are all dead." The guard said "Well, it's a good thing you came as you did, we need to catch down that bastard." "Who is it?" Silent Storm asked. "Captain Stonewall." Luna answered for him as they rushed after the traitor. "WHAT!? Captain? Impossible, he is one of the most loyal guards of all times!" Silent Storm wasn't believing it. "I saw him myself. He ordered these traitors to slow us down. Do you doubt my words?" Luna's voice was harsh and cold. It was a voice that Twilight never wanted to hear again. "No your highness. It's just... why would he do this? It makes no sense." "Nothing makes sense when one is blinded by hate and grief. We must stop him before he can blind humanity with the same hate and grief." Luna said. She didn't really want to start thinking why or how. If she did, she wasn't sure if she could hold herself together. How could ponies have gone so deep in the darkness? No. Don't think. If she started to think she might start to blame humans. If she started to blame humans now, she wasn't sure if she could do everything needed to prevent the disaster. She couldn't live with that knowledge. Furthermore, they were running out of time. T- 6m until detonation “Can you see him?” Luna asked as they arrived in a large room. “No. He should be around here. There are only two access ways here, this one and the one on the lower levels. He couldn't have used that one.” Matheus answered “Maybe someone is guiding him? Perhaps he is heading to lower levels.” Twilight suggested. “I mean, Stonewall shouldn't be even aware where to go here. He has never been in Luna Aeternal before.” Humans didn't asnwer at this. It meant there was someone else at the moment getting trough the communications blackout. “Tarnheiser's Iron Brigade!” Resnok shouted with a realization. “Who?” “Tarnheiser's own hand picked unit! Each general has one. Tarnheiser has Iron Brigade, Ravensaw has Steel Legion and so forth. Each unit has the best of the best and take care of the most delicate matters.” Matheus said. “Considering the size of this conspiracy and the fact that we know Tarnheiser to be behind this, it makes sense. They could develop a virus that would block everyone else out except them.” “Fuck, so we got a traitor general AND a traitor unit? This keeps going better and better! Next thing you tell me they got assassins trying to take the Sun Princess down.” “You think my sister is in danger!? We must warn her!” Luna said. Idea that the traitors could have breached the security of Canterlot and threatened her sisters life was terrifying. “I don't think so. That would mean that those guys would get past ISA. ISA rarely, if ever screws up that bad.” Matheus said. “Doesn't matter much if we can't stop this guy. I mean, The First Citizen might believe you aren't behind this, but rest of the council? I don't think so.” T- 3m until detonation “THERE! I see him! Stop right there you criminal scum!” Matheus shouted. Stonewall had indeed attempted to reach lower levels, being two levers lower than the group was. Humans started to shoot at him, while Luna and Twilight used their magic to create a barrier in order to trap him. However, due to human tendency create reduntant paths and systems everywhere, it was hard to trap him for even a short time. “AARGH!” Stonewall screamed as Quin's bullet pierced his front hoof. “Got the fucker! Can you pull him here?” Quin said with enthusiasm as Lunas magic grabbed the now unmoving body of former captain Stonewall. He was levitated up, to the catwalk that the group was currently standing on. Stonewall tried to fight against the magic, but lost in raw power. Furthermore, the pain in his hood distracted him. He still tried to kick humans as he was pulled over the catwalk. However, Matheus knocked him out with swift strike with his rifles. Stonewall fell to the ground with a thud. “Okay, let's see...” Matheus said and opened the saddlebag. He pulled out a small cylinder, about 70 centimeters in length. He placed the cylinder on the ground and pressed few buttons. Small red light turned to green and opened a small lid on the side. Inside the lid there was two small, rectangular objects. Both had a meter on their side. Other one was completely black. Other one had a small red streak in it. “Damn it, almost out.” Quin gave Matheus the replacement battery. “Alright, this should d-” “FOR THE GLORY OF EQUESTRIA!” *CRACK* Matheus fell backwards, holdings his face. His faceplate had a crack on it. Stonewall had stood up and bucked him the face. Replacement battery that Matheus had been holding fell over the railing and down into the depths. Twilight tried to reach it with her magic, but it was too small and too fast. She lost it. She only saw it momentarily before being it fell out of her sight, in to darkness. “YOU FUCKER!” Quin shouted and shot Stonewall in the face. He then turned to Matheus “Now what?!” He asked in panic. “Resnok, do you have a replacement battery!?” Matheus asked. “No, Gorbach and Soloman had, but not me. I forgot to pick it from Gorbachs body, I was kinda more worried getting here!” “There must be something we can do! We can't just let it explode! Can we contain it anyway!?” “It's an anti-matter weapon! It creates enormous amounts of energy! There were called metropolis busters for a reason.” Quin said as he tried to think of something. Luna looked at the bomb. Red bar was nearly gone and flashed as if to urge someone to do something. And someone did something. Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 1 War Room T- 10s until detonation There was a bright flash and Twilight found herself inside the District 1 war room. “What the...” Resnok started when sickening plashing sound was heard. Twilight turned around and saw all too familiar ooze flowing out of cracks in Matheus faceplate. “SARGE!” “Soldier! What in the name God are you doing here!?” Twilight turned around once again to see group of soldiers aiming their guns at her and the group, while general Ravensaw seemed like was trying suppress a heart attack. “Wait, how are we here? WHERE IS PRINCESS LUNA!?” Twilight started to panic. She wouldn't... “Sir, detecting large amounts of energies in The Reactor Cluster 6 in District 5!” A shout pierced the chaos. She had. “The bomb! It's going off!” “What!? No!” Quins voice was heard. “Detecting additional energy. Seems to be holding the matter/anti-matter detonation in isolated section. Can't get definite results. All systems are reporting overflow error.” One operator started to shout. Everyone turned to screens on the walls. One of them showed external feed of District 5. Another showed several graphs. Those graphs showed that another energy, colored white, kept rising, before hitting 'a wall' of other energy, colored purple, which seemed to absorb it. Twilight didn't understand all the technical data currently on the screens, but technicians seemed to stare it intensely. She figured out as long as purple graph was 'winning', everything was fine. Ten long seconds passed and nothing changed. Then 10 more seconds. After a full 2 minutes of silence and the bomb being contained, the silence was broken. “Can she do it?” Ravensaw said quietly. “I... I don't know.” Twilight said equally quietly. This couldn't be happening. They couldn't fail. She had to succeed. She was the moon princess. This was her turf. This was where her magic was on it's strongest. This should be nothing to her. She was a goddess, even humans called her and Princess Celestia a demi-goddess. They were the most powerful magic users in Equesteria. And then everything went to hell. Mike didn't understand why her parents were so anxious. He himself was happy. School had been canceled and that meant a whole day of free time! Too bad he couldn't go out. For some reason all doors were locked. Oh well, he had all toys he needed to entertain himself for a whole day! And the TV still worked. That was always good. Still, there was the annoying thing running across the screen, showing some text he didn't understand and for some reason some boring guy appeared in middle of his favorite show to talk about boring things. Mother and father became scared of that so he didn't like the man. He liked his mom and dad, so if that man scared them, he couldn't be a good person. He saw some bright light shining under the door and left for the eternal playground. Angela was fixing some food for her husband. He had been sick for a week now, nothing major thankfully. Just some common cold and fever, he should be good in few days, or at least the doctor had said so. She was happy he was fine. Age of 135 was respectable age, even by modern medicine. She herself was 105, just 5 years of average livetime. She herself was still feeling well. However, the lockdown worried her. If it continued for much longer, she feared they would run out of food. The Social Security did best it could to help eldery people, but they sometimes messed. This was just type time they would mess up. Blinding light that came through a wall made all her worries irrelevant. Another drunken day for Mosh. Two weeks of unemployment had left him bitter for the government. It was not his fault that the rookie had screwed up. It was not his fault that the rookie had gotten killed. It was not his fault his wife had left for that bastard Nikolai. It was never his fault. He didn't screw up. He would bounce right back up in few days. Screw everyone else who tought otherwise. In a blink of an eye his worries of unemployment became something minor problem. The white energy broke free of the purple energy. Purple energy seemed to vanish in a moment. On the screen, a massive white ball appeared for total of two seconds before having consumed all oxygen avaible to it. In those two seconds, District 5 ceased to be. However, as it would later be noted, damaged was slightly less than predicted. Instead of wiping out the entire district and then causing nearby districts go critical, it only caused District 5 to be destroyed. Large pieces of concrete and metal flew from the explosion, piercing neighboring districts, numerous sectors to suffer sudden decompression. District 6 got hit particulary hard. Massive steel pilar, most likely one of the outer supporting structures of District 5 pierced trough District 6, eventually hitting one of it's reactor clusters. Only thanks to human tendency to overdesing and exreme reduncancy the system did not go critical and the chain reaction was averted. When Twilights vision finally recovered from the sudden flash of light, what she was made her legs give out. Entire district was gone, only with small pieces floating in the air. Other districts had holes in them, with some pieces potruding from where they hadn't broken trough. Humans were in shock. Two soldiers removed their faceplates, as if doubting the optic sensors in their helmets. Most of them simply stared the screen, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Her mind could not understand the sheer scale of the damage. A million human lives had just been lost, with countless others from collaterial damage. Princess Luna had been near the center of the destruction, trying to contain it. Only to fail in the end. Trying to contain a weapon that humanity had deemed too horrific to ever to be used again. Just because a group of madmen wished to see the world burn. Luna Aeternal Human Capital District 1 Containment Cells. 4 hours after detonation Twilight sat in her cell. On the next cell, the single surviving Royal Guard sit without his armor. He had been stripped off it, as humans didn't want to take any chances anymore. He had agreed to give it peacefully. On the otherside of the hallway, in similar room that she was, private Resnok and Quin in their own. Ravensaw had them all imprisoned. Some of the soldiers had suggested that her horn should be broken, to prevent her from using magic. Ravensaw had overruled that suggestion, saying that they still lacked information to know what had happened. He had applied old human saying that ponies used too: 'Innocent until proven otherwise'. Matheus hadn't survived the teleportation. His talisman couldn't protect him completely, since his suit had broken. What remained of him had been cleaned off. At the moment they were in process of going trough his helmet records and on-suit computer records. Same was happening with Quins and Resnoks suits. They were wearing orange jumpsuits with numbers on them. “Miss Sparkle? Are you awake yet?” She could hear Silent Storm ask her, but she didn't answer. Her brains were still in process of trying to understand what had happened. She hadn't heard anything from humans yet. They had their teams going trough the remains and trying to assist damaged districts. “Miss Sparkle?” Silent Storm was worried of Twilight Sparkles condition. He had seen his father in same condition when he had returned from the war. It had not been a pretty sight. He had also failed to protect Princess Luna. Now, she and miss Sparkle were only surviving ponies of the whole event. Least he could at the moment was to look over her. Perhaps Princess Celestia would take care of the situation. “Give it up. She is in shock. It will probably take day or two before she starts to be responsive.” Resnok said. “How do you know?” “I saw my comrade become like that. It was during the First Battle of Ghastly Gorge. He had to take therapy to get over it. Too much death in too little time, too personal. Had she been in the war room all this time, she wouldn't be like that.” “How so?” “She would not be able to comprehend the death of all. It's same with humans. Too much too soon and human mind just can't comprehend it, unable to react to it. This time? She was there. In middle of it. She activly tried to prevent it. She failed. Furthermore, someone who she knew personally was in there. Propably dead.” “She can't be...” Twilight in quiet voice. Humans looked her in pity, before returning to their silence. “Let's sleep. We can't do anything here. Until they have figured out how this could happen and why, we are stuck here. The First Citizen will take care of it, don't worry.” Quin said and went to bed. Silent Storm stood for a while before laying down on his. Resnok followed the suit. Twilight remained sitting for another ten minutes before going to sleep herself. Perhaps she could finally act tomorrow. [h] Canterlot The human embassy Communications room 8 hours after detonation. “Contact Luna Aeternal.” Fahrenheit ordered. Next to her stood Princess Celestia, anxious to know the situation. She had felt powerful surge of magic last night which worried her. She had not heard from her sister since she had left for Luna Aeternal and with recent events, she was worried like never before. “Are you sure this will work?” Celestia asked Fahrenheit. “It should. Thanks to you, the solar storm calmed enough to attempt to contact them. We should have a connection soon enough.” Fahrenheit responded. “I hope we are not too late. I can't imagine what would happen if these terrorist had already made their move.” “Contacting. Receiving response. Establishing a quantum link. The link is stabilizing. The link stable is stable. We have a contact.” The operator said as the face of general Ravensaw appeared on the screen. He looked like he had not slept for two days. “This is Luna Aeternal. What is it? Got a major crisis here.” General Ravensaw appeared on the screen. He looked like hadn't slept for two days. He had bags under his eyes and his eyes looked slightly blood red. His hair was a mess and his suit wasn't clean like normally. “This is ambassador Fahrenheit. We need to inform you about possible terrorist action against...” “Too late. They have already struct against us. District 5 was hit by an Anti-Matter Suitcase Bomb. We have confirmed that there were pony terrorists, assisted by group of human traitors. We are still trying to clear the situation.” Ravensaw cut Fahrenheit off. Image switched to ruins of District 5 before switching back to Ravensaw. “Reich und Gott...” “It's not over yet. The First Citizen is dead. So is General Ruvashenko. General Tarnheiser is in medical being treated for wounds he received protecting The First Citizen.” Ravensaw continued. “Furthermore, Internal Security Agency is going nuts here, they are arresting people left and right. Everyone is a suspect. There has never been crisis like this since the Second Civil War.” Ravensaw rubbed his eyes before turning back to the screen. “I suggest you lockdown the embassy. We do not know yet if this was part of some pony black-ops organization or not. We do know now that one of their captains was part of his, seems like he was a leader. That's about it. We got only four survivors. One royal guard, the assistant and two of our soldiers. They were teleported out before the bomb went off.” Celestia noticed that her sister was not included in the list. “General, I can assure you that the Kingdom of Equesteria is NOT behind this... and what about my sister? Is she okay?” “The other Princess is there with you, ambassador?” Ravensaw asked with a hint of disapproval. “Yes sir. There was an assassination attempt yesterday, when she tried to calm the solar storm to allow us to contact you.” “Well isn't that just great. As for your question Princess, our teams went trough the rubble. There is a small part of the Reactor Cluster 6 that seems to still have athmosphere, if she still alive she is there. If not... then she died trying to protect us all. It's been eight hours since the detonation and she hasn't yet contacted us. We have, for now, determined she has been Killed In Action.” Celestia stood her mouth open and eyes wide. Luna was dead? Her sister had been gone for thousand years, only to return 14 years ago. Now she was gone, again. This time permanently. “Sir, you said we should lockdown the embassy?” “Yes and prepare to evacuate yourself. There is a lot going on right now and the worst case scenario is that the council decides to go to war.” “What!? No! That's what they want!” Fahreinheit shouted in panic. Despite all their hopes, it started to seem like Terra's Children had succeeded in their plan. “Who they? Explain.” “Sir, yesterday we uncovered some suspicious movement in the embassy. Further investigation revealed that the embassy had been compromised by the Terra's Children.” “WHAT!? Didn't we wipe them out several years ago!?” Ravensaw shouted. He had personally been leading the teams that had supposedly busted several ringleaders. It had been part of his officer training. “Apparently not Sir. We got several of them in containment right now.” “What about the assassin?” “Committed suicide to avoid capture.” “General, if I may ask what happens now?” Celestia interjected. World was spiralling towards chaos and she had no idea what to do, despite all her life experiences. “I am not sure. We are looking into matters right now. Your information removes some suspicion from you, but it is not enough. Until we know how these terrorist got past our internal security, Luna Aeternal is in DEFCON 2.” “Reich und Gott...” Fahrenheit gasped. That mean that Luna Aeternal had mobilized it's full military force. They were gearing up for a war. “We were in DEFCON 1 few hours ago. I reduced the status to DEFCON 2 after we re-established the contact with the surface. According to them, Equesterian Royal Guard seemed to be more interested about events in Canterlot than crossing the border. However, I will maintain full mobilization in effect until this crisis is over or I get orders from the council. As the highest remaining military commander I am assuming command of all units, on the moon and planet.” “General Ravensaw, I ask you, please, can I talk to my student, Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia asked Ravensaw. “She is currently undergoing a shock. She is currently in a contaiment cell, apparently finally started to talk to other survivors. However, I can not let you talk to her, not yet. Not before we had chance to talk to her.” “General, she is my most loyal student and if you have done anything to...” Celestia began before being cut off. “Princess, we are currently one step away from launching a full-scale orbital WMD bombardment on your entire planet. One wrong step and this whole thing explodes into a war. Choose your next words with exceptional care.” Ravensaw interrupted. His gaze was cold and unforgiving. Celestia knew he wasn't bluffing. If she chose her words wrong, if she made any threats at this point, he would launch an attack that could end in a global extinction of all non-human life on the planet. “...Nothing, General. I am simply currently worried of two very close ponies to me. Princess Luna is my sister. Twilight Sparkle is like a daughter to me. I am worried of them, weren't you if our roles were reversed?” Ravensaw remained silent, before sighting and visibly slumping. “I apologize Princess. It's been a long day and there is no end in sight. Everything is going to hell right now. Council is in uproar, public demands blood, we have no clear leader, millions are dead and for some reason everyone brings their worries to me. I apologize for snapping at you, but I ask you. Please vacate the embassy. Do not contact us. We contact you once we got more information. Ambassador, I want you to relay everything, absolutely everything you have, to me. This mess is something we need to clear up as soon as possible.” Ravensaw cut the connection before either Fahrenheit or Celestia could answer. They both stood in silence for a moment, before Fahrenheit turned to Celestia. “Princess, I must ask you and your guards to leave the embassy grounds. I apologize, but... orders are orders.” “Do not apologize, ambassador. I understand. We will leave and will not approach the embassy until you send messenger.” Celestia said and stood up. She motioned guards to follow her and returned to the castle. She walked to the throne room and sat on the throne. Normally at this time she and Luna would switch places and she would start holding a court. This time, however, she was too distracted to do so. “Note Keeper.” She said to her assistant who turned to her. “We will not hold court today. Nor tomorrow. We will not hold court until further notice. We are... unable for the present time.” “But Princess, there are hundreds, even thousands of ponies who have waited for this moment for ages and then we have diplomatic...” Note Keeper before being cut off. “WE WILL NOT HOLD THE COURT!” Celestia said in Royal Canterlot Voice. Note Keeper silenced herself. Whenever Princess Celestia used that voice, you shut up and listened. “...summon my generals. We need to go trough our defense plans. Call all our unicorns currently in the service. Send word to garrisons. All reserves are to be called in right away. “ She said in much more subdued voice, as if she had suddenly lost her strength. She stood up and left for her own room. Note Keeper nodded and watched as Celestia left. Celestia might have not said it, but she knew what those orders meant. Last time reserves were called back in to service was during The War. Equestria was preparing for a new war.