//------------------------------// // In the crossroad to oblivion // Story: After The War - Luna Aeternal // by Scorched Earth //------------------------------// Luna Aeternal District 1 The Office of General Ravensaw Ravensaw plugged in the chip he had acquired from the belt of general Ruvashenko . Video started to play, showing him speaking to Ravensaw and leaving out. So far so good. The team moved forward towards the bunker complex, where The First Citizen was supposed to be safe. Video started to near the end when the moment he had been waiting for happened. The assassination. General Tarnheiser left the group, saying he needed to have his men ready waiting for them. Two minutes after he left the group was attacked. Like Tarnheiser had claimed, it was a pony assassin, committing suicide attack against the group. Ruvashenko shielded The First Citizen with his body leaving him alive while rest of the group died. He made mental note to increase the numbers in convoy groups. Ruvashenko fell to the ground, but luckily his helmet faced The First Citizen. The First Citizen rose up and walked slightly away before stopping and turning around. "Tarnheiser. Why are you pointing that thing at me?" "Because you are not supposed to live. I didn't expect Ruvashenko to save you. That was surprising." "Why are you doing this?" "Expect me to rant and give you chance to do something? Perhaps get my confession? Oh no, no you don't get." Tarnheiser gave a strong punch at The First Citizen, making him fall to the ground. "As soon as I am done here, I will clear the chips and replace them with new ones. No-one will never know what happens here." "Why? Why you want to start the war!? I deserve to know that!" "You want to know? BECAUSE YOU ARE WEAK! We humans, we have the entire world in front of us, ripe for taking! To leave this infernal death trap once and for all! Yet, yet here we are. Stuck, because you are too weak to take us to our true home! No more. We will eradicate our enemies. We will claim out birthright. We will rebuild our civilization. We will reject the extinction that the world tries to impose on us!" Another punch and The First Citizen fell to the ground, unconscious. "Burn in the fire long time ago, stand next to me you never stand alone." Tarnheiser said and dropped one more grenade over the body of The First Citizen. He left the vicinity and the grenade exploded, killing The First Citizen. Tarnheiser then returned and removed chips from each corpse, before wounding himself and calling for help. Ravensaw rubbed his eyes again. 4 hours he had been contacted by the ambassador and he news only made his situation worse. Data she had send to him had been useful in tracking down suspects on Luna Aternal and finding out that ability to re-establish the contact with the surface was thanks to Princess Celestia made him grateful for two of them. Still, he had so much to do. He had gone trough recordings from the Infiltration Team, well, from those who had come back. That was three video files in total. So far he had a rough overview of what the situation was. General Tarnheiser was a covert operative of Terra's Children. Group was seriously weakened from it's heydays, but still had people in high places. He had managed to pose as an pro-pony human radical and contact anti-human organization known as Ponies of the Apocalypse. He had promised them he would provide them with a weapon that could destroy human armies and allow Equestria to get military advantage over the humans. That was what he got right now. Ultimate goal was apparently restart the war and 'finish what they had started'. However, the plan made so little sense. Why kill The First Citizen? Because he was pro-peace? Why destroy an entire District? To create incredible bloodlust in the population? He had succeeded in that. The public was demanding blood of those who were responsible. Someone had leaked details that ponies were involved and demands to launch a retaliatory strike were heard more and more often. Had he planned to use that as a bouncing board to get permission for the strike? Tarnheisers 'proof' was very convincing, if it was only thing you got. It showed that unknown group of ponies had infiltrated a transport. It also spoke of possible mind control spells, pointing towards their history with changelings. Ravensaw made a mental note to look into possible threat from these creatures. Essentially, picture that the 'evidence' painted was a black-ops pony team infiltrating Luna Aeternal in effort to create fear in humans. It was something that could convince the council to go to war. However, Ravensaw had access to other sources of information too and was skeptical of the evidence. First of all, logs showed that it was general Tarnheiser who had opened the door to The Vault. Second, Princess Luna had been surprised of everything and had taken extreme measures to prevent the disaster. Also, there was Tarnheisers suspicious MIA during the early stages of the crisis. Death of The First Citizen, general Ruvashenko and all accompanying personnel... except general Tarnheiser. And now the video file that showed him murdering The First Citizen. Thankfully the princess had managed to teleport few survivors to the war room. That mean he was prepared. There had been suspicious accident with his personal vehicle later, when he had decided to take different route. So he had different theory. Tarnheiser was in process of eliminating top-tier leadership. Once he would be made emergency leader, he would launch a revenge strike against ponies. Ponies, unaware of what had happened would take it as a declaration of war. In the end, humanity would wipe out pony armies. Princess Luna would be kept as a prisoner, by using pony population as a hostage. This would ensure that The Zone would keep expanding in case their theory of killing them off would be wrong. Ravensaw sighed. Question was, how did Tarnheiser manage to pull this off? Clearly he had not anticipated few things, like Princess Luna participation in the infiltration mission. Or that Ruvashenko had followed him. The biggest wrench in his plans was most likely the fact that there were survivors. With the information from those survivors, Ravensaw could easily have him arrested for a conspiracy against the state. Question was: should he? If he went public with all this information, it could destabilize the entire government. Everyone would be a suspect. Nobody could trust anyone. People would lose their trust in their leaders. What if people behind this would take direct action? A civil war was the last thing humanity needed right now. He was so tired, yet there was so much to do. He had managed to get the backup chip from Ruvashenkos belt. The main chip was missing, no doubt removed by Tarnheiser himself. He had been good. If it weren't for recovery of the infiltration team and actions if Captain Lulamoon of the Royal Guard, he himself would be in front of the council, demanding them to strike before it was too late. When he had learned that the Royal Guard had made no moves to cross the border, he had ordered Luna Aeternal into DEFCON 2 and that The Vault to be resealed. He also had the whole place guarded by ISA and had every access to the damn place closed. At the moment any attempt to enter The Vault was to be met with lethal force. "Sir, I got news for you." A soldier entered his room saluting. Ravensaw had left his door open, due to the amount of people currently visiting him for everything. "Well, what now? Our two pony prisoners are actually disguised dragons?" "No sir. We have recovered the princess. She was found in the remains of Reactor Cluster 6 that had crashed in to ground near District 5." "Right. How bad was it?" "Sir, the recovery team reported her missing her left wing, as well as missing half of the other one. She is also missing left front hoof and left back leg. There is also a ugly scar running across the left side of her face. Her left eye is badly damaged. She has also numerous burns all across her body." "Shit. I guess we can give her Star Of Terra posthumously..." "Sir... she is alive." "WHAT!?" Okay, she was an insanely powerful alicorn, but that bomb was metropolis buster. There should be no way for anything to survive. She was near the epic center of the God damn explosion! "That is correct sir. She had a strange field of energy surrounding her. That field was weakening rapidly when she was recovered. She is currently in the Ganymede Hospital under intense care. Doctor have quarantined an entire sector for her alone. Furthermore, ISA and Steel Legion volunteers have set up a perimeter around the hospital and her room, in order to prevent any harm to be done to her." "That is insane... There should be no way for her to survive!" "Sir, permission to speak freely?" "Granted. I want to hear your opinion on this." "Sir, she is an insanely powerful moon-connected demi-goddess who violates the laws of nature every night because she thinks that the moon should be on certain place during the night. Her surviving the explosion should perhaps not be that weird." "Hmm, she was on the moon, her 'domain' so to speak..." "Also, it's magic, science invalid." The soldier said with a hint of humor in his voice. Ravensaw gave a chuckle. It had become something of a joke among the grunts during the war when scientist tried to wrap their heads around the magic and how it worked. 'It is magic, science invalid' was a popular saying when encountering seemingly impossible things. "What time is it?" "It's 14:21, sir" "Damn it, I need to attend to council meeting." Luna Aeternal District 1 The Council of Districts "This proves that these... 'ponies' are still out to get us! I say we strike a retaliatory strike against them as soon as possible!" "I agree with general Tarnheiser! This kind of attack can't go unpunished." "Can we prove that this indeed government sanctioned attack? What if they were a rogue element?" "Doesn't matter! This was an attack against mankind. We will not bow down to terrorism! It shall not matter who carries the strike, the fact that their 'goddesses' failed to contain these elements speaks lengths of their government! What if there are more? Can we trust their government to prevent any future incidents!?" "You seem to forgot that ISA screwed up as well! We should have seen this one coming! How did these ponies even knew about the anti-matter bomb? Or that matter, how did they get access to it?" Ravensaw walked as the councilors shouted at each others. There were two camps at the moment, those who demanded imminent actions and those who wanted to wait and see. "General Ravensaw, what is your opinion on this?" One of the councilors asked him. "I believe we should not make rushed decisions. We do not know enough to make decisions that could lead to a war with Equestria. I suggest we form a special investigation unit to investigate this event." "Meanwhile these ponies will attack our colonies on the surface." "The connection to the surface has been re-established, councilor. Ponies have not moved against us, in fact it seems there was an assassination attempt in their capital. However, our orbital surveillance has confirmed that they have called their reserves back into service, following our orders to lockdown the embassy." "They are preparing for a war!" "So would we if they would suddenly close their embassy. It seems that they are just as afraid as we are" Another councilor said. "I say we follow general Ravensaws idea and investigate the situation before making any decisions. General Ravensaw, you have been most active in all this. We trust you will take care of this." "I will not fail this council. By your leave." Luna Aeternal District 1 Containment Cells Twilight looked around her cell, once again. One the other hoof, it was much more comfortable than the dungeon in Canterlot Castle. Then again, at least in Canterlot you could count tiles on the walls. Here, best you could count was bolts (there was total of 1 534 bolts visible) which got boring pretty quickly. She still had troubles trying to accept what had happened, but in the end, she had no choice. She couldn't change the reality, no matter how much she wanted. She had been questioned earlier. It was different what she had expected. They had not interrogated her, but asked questions which she had answered. They had not blamed her. Silent Storm had similar experience, as did two human survivors. A door was opened at the end of the hallways and general Ravensaw entered the room, "Miss Sparkle?" "Yes?" She asked, not bothering to stand up from the floor. "I believe you wish to know the status of Princess Luna." Twilight stood up on that notion. So did Silent Storm who walked closer to the group. "Did you find her?" "Yes. She is still alive, but horribly wounded. We have placed her in to medically induced coma. If she were to wake up before we had chance to attempt to heal her, there is a chance she would hurt herself even more." "Thank goodness she is alive... but what happens to us?" "I do not know. I am currently leading the investigation on this matter. I will inform you later." Ravensaw said and left. After he was out of the room, Twilight walked to the wall that separated her and Silent Storm. "You heard that? Princess Luna is alive." "Praise the moon." "It is one thing less to worry. Still... I worry. Ravensaw seemed troubled." "The pro-war groups are probably drumming up the support to start a war. All we can do is wait and see." "Do you remember the good old days? When our enemies where single powerful creature? When Elements of Harmony were all you needed to defeat those who threatened us? I wish those days back. I can't believe I miss dealing with Discord. At least he was a clear target. Right now? I do not know who is our enemy. Who I am supposed to fight? Even during The War, we didn't know who we were supposed to defeat. Being able to cast powerful spells doesn't help much when they are designed to deal with singular enemies." Silent Storm didn't say anything. Insane as it was, he too missed those days. Sure, Discord was an insanely powerful creature of chaos, but like Twilight Sparkle had said, he was a clear enemy, someone to beat up and not feel bad about. Even during the changeling invasion, they had clear target: Queen Chrysalis. Right now, they barely even knew who to trust. Luna Aeternal District 1 The Office of General Ravensaw "How are you doing, Ravensaw?" Ravensaw raised his head to see the former general Golgata enter the room. "Well if it ain't the quiter herself. What do you want?" Ravensaw with venom in his voice. He had never really forgiven her for stepping down from her position after the war. "Come on, Kane. I know you are having a hard time. Can't I visit an old friend?" "You stopped being my friend when you left me alone to deal with the mess after the war. What do you want?" Ravensaw repeated his question "And don't call me Kane." "Ravensaw... Listen. I know you got everything you need to decide the future. You were always one that would find everything there was to find out. I also know, you are torn apart. You don't know what to do." Golgata said with sadness in her voice. Ravensaw remained silent before pressing few buttons. The door closed. "I'm tired, Minna. I can't decide. What should I do? I got everything I need to prevent the war, but that would endanger everything we have!" Ravensaw shouted. "I know you will make the right decision, Kane. You never made any decision lightly." "Oh yeah? Even that accursed Operation Scorch Earth? Yes, using an orbital WMD bombardment was so right decision. What have we become? Bunch of insane survivalist murderers. What happened to our great ventures in to great unknown? What happened to our curiosity? What happened to us, to lose that human spark that made us humans?" Ravensaw said in desperation. More he thought about the situation, less and less confidence he had in his fellow humans. Golgata reached to hug him. "I do not know, but think about this. We no longer need to be like we have been. We could start over. This could be the time when we abandon our old ways and start anew. Perhaps.. it's time to stop protecting what we have and time to rebuild what we once had?" "I do not know... I need you to leave. I need to make decisions soon. The council awaits my conclusion. They will decide the fate of humanity based on that." Ravensaw said and gestured towards the door. Golgata left, but not before giving a last look to slumped form of general Ravensaw. She really deserved his hate for leaving him to deal with such matters alone. Canterlot Canterlot Castle War room "Generals, captains, humans might launch an attack against us at any moment." Celestia said to assembled generals and captains. Everyone looked shocked, except captain Lulamoon. "At the moment, status of Princess Luna is unknown, however the most reliable information available to us indicated that she has been..." Celestia fought to pish out the words. "Killed in action..." This resulted in sharp gasps around the room. One of the Royal Princesses was dead? How was this possible? How could humans do it? What sort of sorcery was it? And now they were planning to attack Equestria? "That's why I have called you here. We need to prepare ourselves for a possible war in near future. At the moment human government is in a crisis, they themselves are not sure what is going on. However, is certain groups within them succeed, we can expect human armies to cross the border or massive fleet of transports." Celestia continued. "We need to have our observatories ready as soon as possible. Also, we need to reinforce our borders. Fighting retreat. It's no use to try to stop them at the border. Identify where their main attack will be and strike there." Captain Lulamoon said. Generals looked like she had stolen their glory, but knew that at the moment Princess Celestia listened to her. Besides, she had a point. "We can have 2nd and 3rd army units reinforce Ghastly Gorge DMZ. I suggest we place 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th army units on reserve, to move in and reinforce our troops where needed." One of the generals spoke. Celestia nodded to this. "I trust you will do whatever necessary. However, I will not allow pre-emptive assaults. If you excuse me, I must contact the Elements of Harmony." Generals nodded and saluted her, as did captains. "Captain Lulamoon, would you please accompany me?" "Sure, your highness." Trixie followed her up the stairs, confused why Princess would want her to come with her. "Tell me, captain, what are you thoughts of the possible war? Please, be honest with me". Celestia said as they reached the end of the stairs. Trixie considered telling confident lies, but decided otherwise. "Honestly? We would lose. Lose badly. If the worst did happen and I assume it has, humans would not wage a war of conquest. It would be a war of vengeance, a war of genocide. They would slaughter us to last stallion and mare." "So you do not believe that we could save Equestria." "...No. I have seen how humans fight wars. We have many good warriors, but that is the problem. They are warriors, not soldiers. To them, a war is chance for glory and success. Humans are soldiers. To them, war is business like anything else. Something you do as quickly and efficiently as you can, with minimal lost. We can't afford a long war with the humans. Last time they wanted to keep the nature intact. This time they would not have such restriction." "So what would you suggest, captain? So far you have been more honest and productive than my generals." "I am not sure, your highness. Escape to Griffin Kingdom. Or at least evacuate as many ponies as we can. If humans decide to attack, Equestria will fall. It's not matter if or if not, it's matter of when." "Tell me captain, do you miss the old times?" "...To certain degree, yes." "Hmm? Please, do elaborate." "Life used to be more simple and more carefree than it is these days. No constant fear. No constant worry. No true knowledge what a war really is. My only worry was where I would hold my next show." Trixie looked trough a window, down where her troops were waiting. "On the other hand... I have changed. I used to me more callous, more... cowardly. But now? I want to escape, I want to hide from all death and pain, but when I see those stallions and mares out there? The same ones that followed me to Tartarus and back, just because they trusted me? I can't do it. More than I fear death, I fear their disapproval. It's... weird, really." Trixie shook her head. She really had changed trough the war. However, Celestia just smiled at her. "Captain, if I had more generals like you, I would not fear for Equestria so much." She said and left Trixie in confusion. Luna Aeternal District 1 The Office of General Ravensaw Ravensaw went trough the highlights of videos he had. No doubt about it, this information was something that would decide the future actions of mankind. He had the keys to future and he didn't know what to do with them. Should he join Tarnheiser and help humanity to reclaim it's place as the rightful ruler of Earth? Or should he expose Tarnheiser, possibly destabilizing the entire government, but allow peace to continue? Like so many times he turned his gaze towards the picture of his father and mother. What would they think of him? What would they say to him? He couldn't ask them. He picked up the chips that contained the truth. One small twist of fingers, and the proof would be gone forever. He could go and support Tarnheiser without any fear that he would be found out. Perhaps even join Terra's Children. He looked down to the picture of his parents. He made his decision. He picked up the chip and gave it one more look. History would decide if his choice was the correct one.