Celestia strode stoically down the hall towards the throne room. She didn't know if anypony was watching her, but she held herself as if eyes were upon her regardless. During the battle, she found herself overwhelmed by the firepower. The result ended with her ploughing through the masonry of her castle and into the pantry. The impact had knocked her out and now caused her pain across her back. When the kitchen staff eventually pulled her out of the remains of the grain storage, she awoke to an after-report of the assault. The casualties were in the hundreds, with at least one hundred dead and counting. The centre of the city was a crumbling mess, the entire merchant district would need to be built from the ground up. The entire city garrison had been shaken to the core, the even bloodier repeat of the invasion a year prior causing many to question their ability to defend their home. Worse still, the forces of Polka had been summoned, only arriving after the battle. The only thing that had stopped the calamity before the heart of Equestria had been torn asunder, were the strangers she had been so reluctant to seek assistance from. In the face of such news, she needed to appear unwavering to her subjects. Weakness would confirm their fear, weakness could embolden the enemy, weakness would cause her allies to waver, and cause those closest to her to waste concern on her wellbeing.
Her troubled mind would pester her all the way to the throne room, where her sister and two of the humans were. John was leaning against one of the many columns while Luna and Nate were discussing something. Her sister locked on to her immediately, springing towards her.
"Sister!" Luna exclaimed, slowing down when Celestia raised her hoof to single her to stop. Luna's excited relief was replaced with worry.
"I am fine, Luna, just bruised," Celestia told her sister, meaning it in more than one way.
"Then there has been some good news, at least. Little about our situation can be considered so," said Luna, looking in the direction of the out-of-sight city.
"We are alive, that is good news enough," Celestia reassured her sister with a hug.
Celestia watched as Nate and John slowly walked over and stood near the two sisters. Celestia released her sister and addressed the two humans.
"Your deeds today will not be forgotten, Equestria owes you a debt of grat-"
Before she finished her little speech, John stepped forward. The slap rang across the throne room, leaving Luna and Nate stunned. It hadn't hurt, nearly pushing her head slightly to the side. Considering John had just watched her just walk away from slamming through a meter of stone, she assumed the assault was more symbolic than harm intended. Moving on from the absurdity of John's action, she looked down at him with a neutral face.
"Not many can say they've slapped a Princess..." Celestia commented.
"You lied to me," John stated flatly.
Celestia raised her wing to stop her sister, who was already ready to verbally tear John apart. Using the wing as a divider, Celestia stared at her sister until the message had been received and Luna backed down. Celestia returned to addressing John.
"I would have told you, once you had the necessary time to adjust," Celestia explained.
"To being kidnapped," John added, crossing his arms.
"The Elements chose to send you to us, You. They deemed you worthy and brought you forth to aid us. I do not know why they sent you but I only intended to keep the truth hidden until your part in this became clear," Celestia argued.
An honest lie, for she truly did not see why the Elements sent him, but they looked into his heart and found something worth bringing him over. The Elements were not malicious but whatever part in this he has to play, she did not know.
"Then your Elements made a mistake, All I want is to go back to my world. This war of yours, it's not my problem. You're going to lose, and it's because you don't have the balls to make the tough calls. People are going to die, get over it. " John told Celestia, with a backwards flick of the hand.
"Hey, They're just trying to keep people safe!" Nate Scolded John, receiving the most over-emoted groan Celestia had ever seen.
"Them, I get it. Their desperate, but you? I despise you. Your self-righteousness, too clean, unwilling to dirty your hands. In case you weren't following the latest news trends, your world is gone! Your people blew it to kingdom come, claiming to do it for freedom and other bullshit."
John Gestured to himself
"Me? I got to deal with the consequences! I spent my entire childhood in an underground tomb, breathing the same stale air. I then spent the last thirteen years in the filth of the wasteland. I spend every night with a gun next to me just in case some fuck wants to kill me for my shoes! People are animals, morally fucked psychotic killers. The worst part, they never change. They're the same people that you let run your government and your corporations. You want to see a better world but we're the ones that fucked it up in the first place. You lived in a world of abundant food, luxuries and everything you could ever want, and it still wasn't enough. You're still stuck in the American dream, well guess what? It's time to wake the fuck up!" John roared, casting his arm wide.
The room was silent, Only the elevated breathing from John could be heard. Celestia had no idea what to say, and it appeared neither did her sister. All three stood in silence waiting to see Nate's reaction. The human winced, his head low, as if pained. After an unbearably long moment, he looked John squarely in the eyes. The hurt was written on his face.
"I did wake up, two hundred years, after I watched my whole world burn. I lost my home, my wife... my son... I lost everything." Nate told John, his voice low the entire time.
"But I didn't let it destroy me, I picked up the pieces and kept going. I helped those that needed me, because I believe... that people are good. Every day, people in the commonwealth attempt to build a better tomorrow. These folks never deserved this, They don't deserve it any more than the people of the Commonwealth. So I'm going to help them, because we can be better. Because there's good in humanity, and it's worth fighting for." Nate finished, having never raised his voice.
Celestia noticed that at some point, John's anger had subsided into melancholy.
"Maybe you believe that, but I don't... Not anymore" John said to Nate, sombrely.
John spun to face Celestia, who had simply chosen to listen to the two. Then John jabbed at Celestia.
"You, are going to send me home. This is not my problem."
Celestia then watched as the Human stormed out of the castle. When Luna made to pursue, Celestia intervened.
"No, nothing you or I say will influence this. He's made his decision, only he can change it."
John fumed as he left the castle at the audacity of all three beings in the throne room. They wanted to win the war and sacrifice nothing at the same time. War doesn't have rules, it has losers.
He stopped to gaze across the courtyard, the entire thing one massive medical bay. row upon row of makeshift hospital beds were full, the limited medical staff unable to keep up. An ambience of groans, coughs, and cries surrounded the human. he watched as one of the medical mares called out in a panic. Two others came to answer the call but arrived too late. Seeing enough, he carried on outside the castle grounds and into the city. The sun had disappeared above the clouds, leaving the entire city in a grey hue. The sparse rain had turned the stone beneath his shoes from light to dark. smoke still rose above from the smouldering city, the smell of rain and smoke mixing together.
He was aimless in his journey, walking around, unsure as to what he was looking for. So instead he wandered, alone in the rain. None of the civilians had yet returned to the city, leaving the streets eerily empty. The occasional local would appear as he crossed blocks of the city, each one sifting through the ruins. Even more common than the living were the dead, littered among the sides of the street. Each corpse had its own story, a glimpse into its end. It wasn't until John noticed a familiar straw hat that he stopped. Slightly buried in the ruins of Mower's garden emporium was a mare, her violet coat and golden mane just seeable. John rushed forth and climbed into the ruined store, crushing the charcoal remnants of the building as he did. With most of the debris lying on top of a fallen beam, John heaved as he flipped the burned chunk of wood over. Once the collective ash and dust settled, He looked down at the lifeless body of Betsy Bloom. John knelt and cupped the mare's cheek in his hand. she was cold, and he felt her fur polluted with ash. Deep inside him, he felt a familiar coldness. A numbness, one that made him feel ill. He removed his hand, slowly getting up. He stared at her, soaking in feelings of remorse. Just one more person who died, who never deserved it. The reflection of metal dragged his attention down beside the mare. Lying halfway out of her saddlebag was a pair of garden cutters, the snippers she had gone to buy. John collected the tool and wondered how different things could have been.
"Hey, what happened? I woke up and everyone's gone, did we win?" Six called out from behind.
John stared at the Gardening tool in his hand, hearing six's boots on the paved road getting closer.
"Hello, can you hear me?" Six pushed, walking up beside John.
"Oh... fuck... Someone you knew?" Six asked, seeing the dead pony at John's feet.
John closed his hand holding the snips and squeezed. A hand landed on his shoulder.
"Hey, sorry, can't save 'em all," Six told john.
"I know..." John replied, looking away from the snips and putting them away.
He turned his head to address the courier, looking at the man's face.
"Didn't you have a helmet?" John asked.
"Did, now it's ruined." Six said.
John's eyes dropped down knowingly as he nodded in empathy.
"Yeah, we won. Miss 'Sun shines out her Ass' and her sister are at the castle with that popsicle." John told Six, pushing his hand off his shoulder.
He then looked to the castle in the distance, considering the weight of his situation.
" I didn't agree to this, I agreed to a few survival lessons and some training, not a full-scale war. As soon as they're ready, I'm going back. I don't play the hero anymore," John added.
Six put up his hands and waved them apart as if clearing the already-gone smoke.
"Hey, I get it. It's not for everybody. No one can force you to stay."
"You should leave too, this whole thing is going to end badly," John told Six, the two o them walking away from the scene.
"Probably, but it wouldn't be the first shitshow I've walked into. Besides, it's not like I have anything worth going back to. do you?" Six asked John, matching his steps.
John thought about how to respond but didn't get the chance.
"Hey, look. this one's got shit on him!" Six announces, grabbing John by his arm and dragging him to one of the dead mutants that were nearby.
John ripped his arm out of six's grasp, but the courier just moved on to searching the mutant for loot.
"Score!" Six announced, standing back up.
He turned around, holding a small cardboard box in each hand.
"Plastics still intact, you smoke?" six asked enthusiastically.
"Occasionally," John replied. weirded out by the sudden burst of glee.
Six tossed one of the boxes, with John just reacting in time to catch it. He looked over the box in his and moved it around in his hand.
"You know, most people would kill to get these, and you're just giving them to me," John noted, receiving a shrug in return.
Six moved on to the next corpse, rooting around in its pockets. leaving John standing next to the super mutant, the giant laying on its side. It's makeshift armour coming apart at the back. Blue textiles could be seen behind the metal.
Curious, John pushed the mutant over with his foot, grunting at the necessary force. The mutant splashed facedown on the road, its back exposed. He looked up to find Six and cupped his hand over his mouth.
"Hey, come help me with this!" John shouted.
Six dropped another mutant's arm as he stopped searching its corpse, getting back up and heading over. gesturing at the armour on the face-down mutant, John began attempting to pry it off. Six raised an eyebrow, but came up alongside John and pulled with him. The Large cobbled together a plate of metal came off, revealing a vault suit underneath. Six stepped back while John stepped forward, bending down to see the number. scrounging around in one of his pockets, he pulled out the snips.
"Even if we wanted to station guards at every settlement, Even if we were to introduce conscription," Celestia told Luna, who was pacing around the columns of the room.
"We cannot leave the outlying towns and villages defenceless. Every location without a garrison is a slaughter waiting to happen. What if we were to centralise the forces at outposts? Then the outposts could function as bases to respond to nearby threats!" Luna suggested, strained from the lack of options.
"You've seen what could face your soldiers, we don't have the time to fully retrain and arm an entire army," Nate countered, leaning against one of the many columns.
"However, with your insights and the work of our research team, our ponies will very soon have the tools to fight this foe," Luna pushed, leaning forward towards Nate as if trying to emphasise his merit.
"Luna, even if we did, there is no feasible way to defend every piece of land. Besides, even if we could, we would never have the concentration of guards to fight back." Celestia told her sister, shaking her head in dismissal.
"Blast these beasts! How are We supposed to fight a foe who can appear anywhere!?" Luna Vented, huffing in exasperation as she stormed around.
When she finally stopped, Celestia strode up to her sister and put a hoof on her back.
"We must protect the population centres. From there, the guard can respond to threats. In the meantime, our ponies will have to hold their own," Celestia stated.
Luna threw off her sister's hoof and stood facing her.
"You would have Our ponies defend themselves with torches and pitchforks like a militia?!" Luna shouted, taken aback at the absurdity of the suggestion.
"Actually, that might work..." Nate noted aloud, shaking his arm up and down with his index finger out.
"What?" Luna spluttered, scrunching her face in disbelief.
"Not to fend off an attack, but to hold them off long enough for a relief force to reach them," Nate explained.
The human walked in between Celestia and her sister, Explaining his thoughts while his hands accentuated the plan.
"Instead of sending multiple guards, send one to organise and train the locals." Nate started, lifting one finger.
"Then they can lead the local militias while they pin down the enemy." Nate placed one spread-out hand over a cupped one, creating a cage.
"Then, you can send in a force to neutralise the problem." He clenched his hand that made the top of the cage.
Celestia softly pushed Nate's hand down with her hoof.
"By the time we have organised a garrison to sally out to face the creatures, they will have destroyed the militia." Celestia countered.
"It simply takes too long to relocate a large force," Luna added.
"Then you don't send a large force, but a small elite group. An always-ready force that can be there at a minute's notice." Nate argued.
"The Ministry!" Luna concluded, a beaming grin on her face.
"The Ministry of Action does not have the numbers or means to respond to every cry for help," Said Celestia, still not convinced of the feasibility of the plan.
"Neither does the Guard, yet at least with this, we give the ponies of Equestria a chance!" Luna emphasised her point by thrusting her hoof out towards the door leading outside.
"We can stop them around the nation, and you can keep the soldiers near the cities. Everyone wins."
Celestia's eyes shot down, then back and forth, as she internally debated if this was the right course of action.
Nate stepped aside as Luna walked over to Celestia.
"Sister," Said Luna, pushing Celestia's face up to meet hers.
"What do we have to lose?" Luna asked.
Celestia looked into her sister's eyes, then closed her own and smiled. Luna had been right so far, she might as well see where this ends.
All three beings there whipped their heads towards the castle entrance as the great doors slammed open. A man in a coat stumbled through the door.
"I'm ok, I am completely ok!... maybe a little singed." Six Announced, hands in the air.
John walked around the man, straight up to the two princesses. He then put his hand together and held them close to his mouth, breathing deeply. Celestia looked over to Luna, who nodded at the unspoken question.
"Johnathan, we will have the spell ready in a few days. You are welcome to stay in the castle until-" Celestia started, getting cut off abruptly by the now slightly drenched man.
"I'll stay,"
Celestia double-took at the announcement. He had been resolute in his choice to leave, now he seemed troubled by something. his eyes never meeting hers, his back slightly hunched. She looked to her sister or answered, but received a shrug in turn.
"But you made it clear that-" She started again, and again he cut her off.
"I know, but you need me. I mean... you said you need my help, and good people are dying. So I'll stay until we find out who's doing this," John responded.
"Doing, this?" Celestia asked for clarification, her brow rising in interest.
John spelled it out.
"A portal, one that you say is random, just happened to drop here, in the middle of your capital. Then it unleashed an army, right in the heart of the city."
"He's right, whatever this is, it was intentional," Nate confirmed.
Luna sighed, her shoulders slouching, and her eyes closing.
"We know, whoever is behind this had clearly intended to cripple the kingdom, and may have succeeded."
"What is more concerning is how did they manage to direct the anomaly, and will they do so again?" Celestia pondered to the group. The prospect was unappealing.
The weight of such contemplations was broken as the courier quietly and slowly slid in between the two sisters. he gestured for them to come in closer. Both did so but looked at each other in confusion.
"Uhh, hey, do you have anyone else posted in this room at the moment?" He whispered.
"What?" Luna asked shaking her head, baffled at the question.
"I didn't think so." The courier replied, reaching into his coat for something.
The courier pulled something metallic out from his coat and pointed it out towards the nearby wall. Celestia didn't have the time to register what it was before he started shooting. A candle stand fell over near where he was shooting as hoofsteps could be heard by an unseen assailant. A spy!
"Halt!" Luna shouted out in the vague direction of the sound. Both Celestia and her sister entered their casting stance and opened up wherever they thought the invisible spy was. magic blasts and bullets followed around the room until the spy made its way to one of the coloured glass windows and crashed through it. The three rushed to the window and looked outside into the rain, seeing an outline of their escape forming from the water. The courier's gun clicked multiple times as he tried to fire his weapon, but it was empty. The three stood at the window, looking into the rain as their spy got away. The other two humans came up behind them and looked out the window as well. Celestia's face slowly formed into a stern frown, as she considered the implications of the coming storm.
The stars here were calming, John thought to himself. The skies themselves seemed like one great canvas, dotting the skies with intent. In his hand was a cigarette, in his other a piece of synthetic fabric. He stood leaning with his arms on the railing, looking at the world from the castle medical wing. He had gone there to find something to help him sleep, but found the herbs the on-duty nurse gave him useless. Pony anatomy and human anatomy must be just too different. He went outside when the nurse had told him off for trying to light his smoke on a lantern. The cool night air was soothing, helping him relax alongside his smoke.
His tranquillity was broken by the sound of hooves on stone, Slowly approaching was a pony. when the pony stopped, he waited for them to say something. When they didn't, he twisted around to see Princess Twilight standing there.
"I was wondering when you would wake up. When I was told you were in the medical wing, they said you had been out since the assault." John told Twilight, looking back out to the night sky.
"When I forced my magic through the blockage, I accidentally gave myself magical burnout. I had emptied my reserves to the point that I fell unconscious until the levels had stabilised." Twilight explained, slowly walking over to the railing next to John.
Taking a deep drag of his cigarette, John held it in and then slowly let it out.
"I have no idea what any of that means."
While he didn't look at her, he could see her wings twitching in his periphery, and he could hear her tittering on her hooves.
"What's wrong?" John asked, getting annoyed at her obvious state of distress.
"I...Killed one of those creatures, from the forest. In the hospital, I killed it." Twilight told him, her voice quivering.
He took another drag and exhaled.
"You did what you had to."
If the sniffling was anything to go by, his response had not helped.
"It wasn't easy, you know, my first one. I still remember him, worse, I knew him." He added.
"W...Why?" Twilight pushed out.
"Because he was going to hurt someone I cared about. Because when it came down to it, I was willing to kill to save my friend." John explained.
He decided to turn around and look down at the Princess now sitting beside him. She had wet patches going down from her eyes, she had been crying long before she came out here. She looked up at him with a need for reassurance, he didn't have any.
"How do you do it, How do you move on from it? I feel stuck in a loop, playing it over and over. I trying to think of another way it could have gone, even though I know it is too late. How do I live with the fact that I took a life?" Twilight almost begged, her ears were splayed back, her eyes like dinner plates.
John Looked out, trying to put it as least brutally as he could in his mind. He had another drag.
"You try to push forward, but it doesn't undo what you did. At first, the blood on your hands is like ink that won't come off. Eventually, you have to do it again, and again. Each time, you get a little more numb, till one day you no longer feel anything." John stopped to take another drag.
"Losing that part of yourself, it's bad. You spend your night mulling it, questioning if you're even human anymore. Those who never have to go through it, seem different. You never really feel like you belong anymore, they're innocent. That door has been opened, and it never closes. You just learn to live with it, as best you can," John finished, tapping off the ash as he looked out to the sky.
The silence held until Twilight finally found a response.
"It's going to get a lot worse, isn't it..."
John went to take a drag, but stopped. He held it as he considered her words.
"Yeah, it is."
He turned and leaned back on the railing.
Suddenly he heard her start to sob, so he craned his neck to look beside him.
"They should have listened to you, before. You told us it was a stupid plan, but I wanted so badly to prove that I could help. I believed we could save everypony, like an idiot!" Twilight stopped her hoof to accentuate her frustration, her voice quivering as she spoke.
"If you hadn't been there, I would have died, and so many others did because of me. I heard they used to be human, like you, and I thought we could save them all" Twilight waved her hoof through the air to emphasise her sarcasm.
"But at least now I've learnt my lesson, I don't belong out there. I'm the princess of friendship after all, and friendship isn't going to save Equestria, not this time. If Equestria is going to survive this, it's going to need people like you." Twilight stood back up and made to leave.
John took one last drag of his smoke and put it out.
"If that's your takeaway from today, then you learnt the wrong lesson. That's not what you should have learnt from today."
He heard Twilight stop, then turn around. He did the same and saw her looking at him with one ear down, like a confused puppy.
"What do you mean?" She asked. her confusion supplanting her sorrow.
John tossed the butt off the side of the balcony.
"The lesson, what you should take from this? It's that shit happens, stuff goes wrong, can't always get it right. That's life." John answered.
Twilight's eyes bounced around, as she tried to understand his meaning. her brow furrowed, then slowly rose with understanding, then Finally a subtle smile.
"Thanks," Twilight replied.
John nodded to her, and she made her way inside.
John stood there, pushing against the railing with one hand, still holding the piece of fabric with the other. He turned back and resumed leaning with his arms on the railing. He looked out to the stars in contemplation, the winds howling ever so quietly. After a moment, he looked down at the piece of blue fabric and turned it over. He stared at the fabric, and the golden 87 stitched on.