//------------------------------// // Where there is smoke... (UNEDITED) // Story: Innocence Once Lost // by Scorched Earth //------------------------------// Twilight sat in front of the gravestone. It was something she had known to exist, but she had not expected to visit. Her double had insisted they would visit the graves before heading back to Ponyville. It was a creepy experience, sitting there, looking down a gravestone with Shining Armors name on it. She knew that back in her world, her brother was alive. She also knew that he was dead in this world. However, it had not really sunk in before now. Here was indisputable proof of his death. You could not ignore it just some throwaway line. What made it worse that she knew there was no gravestones for her doubles parents. Their bodies had never been recovered, alongside millions of others who had died during Operation Scorched Earth. Instead, there was a single, massive monument for each four cities. Somewhere in the monument dedicated to victims of Manehattan, were engraved names of their parents. So were several Applejack's relatives. She took a look around. Graves after graves. She had not really visited the place in her world, aside burying her grand mother. However, she remembered that the place had been a lot smaller. It lacked "Heroes of Equestria" section entirely. Here, there was entire section of the graveyard dedicated to those who died during the war. Every place had their own. It was something she hoped she would never see in her own world. Her double was sitting next to her, eyes closed and head lowered. Giving her prayers to the dead. Twilight wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Pray? Comfort? It was a situation she had never prepared for. Nothing in her books had ever told her what to do. Guess she could write "A handy guide on what to do when in alternative dimension". That assumed she could return to her home dimension. She looked around. Applejack had done a quick round around her family grave. She had not know that Apple family an entire mausoleum dedicated to them. Then there were some graves here and there. She had replaced old flowers with new ones and put some water in to the pots. Her double, Applejack Twilight knew, had stayed behind. twilight wished she had too. Eventually, her double raised her head and said they could leave. On their way out, her double spoke up. "I am not sure if you realized this yet but... Spike is coming with us. To the front line." "What? He is just a kid! He can't..." "You think he is somehow still innocent? You think he hasn't killed yet? Oh, how I envy you... having a still innocent Spike around..." "You don't mean..." "A face full of dragon fire makes even a human back off. Not to mention, he IS a dragon. Claws kinda come with the package. He is has killed, don't let his exterior fool you. He is not proud of it and prefers to ignore those times. I don't hold him for it. He did what he had to. If he had not killed those humans, they would have reached the foals who were hiding in the basement." "More I hear about this war, more I want to make sure nothing like it ever happens..." "That's what we all try to do. Even humans. They don't want it again. They were desperate. Humans are funny like that. Give them safety, give them food, give them a good environment to live and they are nice, fun loving people, at least they were in their history. Take away his safe environment and that same human is ready gut you alive." Trixie was having a good time. Her opponent was eyeing her. Between them, one set of cards floated in front of Trixie, while her opponent was holding his in his claws. Three others, one unicorns two humans, had already folded. “Raise.” The griffin said. Aah, bluffing are you? Nobody bluffs like The Great And Powerful Trixie! Griffin moved his chips in middle of the table. “I see.” Trixie answered and moved a matching set next to chips the griffin and pushed in the middle. “Both, show your cards.” The dealer said. Griffin dropped his. 2 aces, ace of hearts and ace of spades. On the table, there were one ace of clubs, king of spades, queen of clubs, ten of clubs and two of hearts. “Well?” Griffin said with a grin. He thought he had won already. Trixie dropped his cards. King of clubs and jack of clubs. “It’s royal flush. Sorry Otto, but Trixie wins this one.” The dealer said. The griffin, named Otto, broke into string of curses, several which Trixie had not heard before. She scooped up her chips with a wide grin on her face. “Oh, don’t be such as crybaby. I remember you won the previous round! Consider this a payback for that.” Trixie said. “Captain Lulamoon, please report to barracks. Captain Lulamoon, please report to barracks.” Intercom voice came, breaking the game. “Right. Alright, I cash in now. Give me my money.” The dealer reached for pay-in bin and counted Trixies chips, before giving matching amount of money back. She was still 50 bits on the losing side, but it was better than what she had been until this victory. She took her money and put them in one of the pouches of her suit before heading to the barracks. Once she reached there, she was Captain Silent Strike and General Battle Banner waiting for her. She saluted the both. “General. Captain. Captain Trixie Lulamoon, reporting. You asked to see me?” “Yes. What is the status of our troops?” General Battle Banner asked. “Good, men are motivated to fight and we havenät got any major incidents between troops.” “Major incidents?” “Some minor have happened, someone insulted someone else or started a fight. All of them have been pretty small things, compared to what we feared.” “Good. Good. I had been worried. Silent Strike, what about your men?” “So far so good. Nothing to report.” “Umm... Permission to speak freely, sir?” Trixie asked. “Granted.” “Why are you asking about this?” “We caught a changeling trying to sneak in. They might be trying to stir up trouble. Infact, they already sabotaged diamond dogs equipment downstairs.I have already sent a message to Canterlot to warn them. If these creatures manage to stir up problems between us and humans, it could spell a disaster.” “Wow... do we have any idea how many?” “No. I suggested that they should develop a talisman or device that serves as passive detector. It should help at the begin. We can’t rely on idea that unicorns check each and everyone individually. I also told that we should warn humans.” “Right. So what do you want us to do?” “Keep eye on things. You two are my trusted captains. Report any-” The general said before being cut off by a earthquake. “That can’t be good.” “Maybe I get to see your Wonderbolts this time... I think it would be awesome! Your Spitfire must be one heck of fighter too.” Rainbow Dash said as she sat on the couch while waiting for her double to make food. Scootaloo suddenly looked troubled. “What?” “Um... How to say this...” “She is dead. Got crushed under rubble when humans blew up the old Canterlot Castle” came the answer from the kitchen. “WHAT!? How? I mean, she...” “Humans caught everyone by surprise. Only two members of The Wonderbolts survived. They have been recruiting again, but I don't have any interest in joining anymore.” Native Rainbow Dash said while carrying food to the table. “Bwah? Why not!? If you are me, then...” “It would be my lifelong dream yeah. It used to be. Heck, until I adopted Scoots, it was my dream. However, when I look back now... I wouldn’t be what they need. They are no longer acrobatics team. That was all a sideshow. They are a combat unit now. I had Scoots to take care of. That meant I couldn’t run all over Equestria all the time.” “Well...” Rainbow Dash started but her double raised his hoof on her face. “Don’t. Even. Dare to suggest I should have left her.” “I wasn’t! I swear!” “Good.” Scootaloo looked two cyan pegasis arguing between themselves. She was glad that Rainbow Dash had adopted her, but she sometimes felt guilty of ruining her dream of being a member of Wonderbolts. However, Rainbow Dash had often also told her that she never regretted it. It had allowed her time to mature and actually think about it. “How about we eat? I really don’t want to remember you having a fight before you leave...” Scootaloo said. She knew she had slightly irrational fear that if someone left the house, the would never return. It was a result of her parents leaving the house and then suddenly dying during The War, as well as living in the orphanage where nobody was permanent. “Sure. Sure. Let’s sit down. I made some extra just for the case.” Native Rainbow Dash said and sat down. She knew there was a very real chance that nobody was coming back from this trip. Luna was not having a good time. First there had been the disaster known as Grav-Ball Championship finals. Her team had lost in the most horrible way. Not only that, her sister had seen her drunken. At least she had not been the only one who had been drunk and she had been confined to her quarters. Some other guys had started a fight in their drunken grief. Then there was now infamous Freaky Frankie Incident. She had tried to get information about it, but everyone simply answered “You don't want to know.” Right now, however, her biggest concern was the attack by changelings. They had gotten a drop on the allied force. Somehow, a changeling infiltration team had managed to get past them and into diamond dog controlled tunnels. They had taken out communication equipment, preventing dogs from warning the surface. Then they had done their "burst from underground and overwhelm the defenders" tactic. This time, however, shield cast by unicorns and herself had managed to repel initial attack. The shield had collapsed eventually, but it had given enough time to activate the base defenses and have humans ready for a fight. Earth ponies and zebras were pretty much sitting on the reserve, only occasionally striking against a changeling who would get past the air defense. Most of the fighting was being done by pegasis and griffins, with humans and unicorns providing long range support. So far they had been able to keep the attackers away from the base itself. However, she was worried. Even if they managed to take down four changelings for every lost pegasis or griffin, they were still outnumbered twenty to one. “We need more ammo on the turret seven! Get those ammo boxes there, right now!” Someone shouted. Luna turned around to see human carrying heavy boxes of ammo. She grabbed the boxed in her magic, “Where do you need these?” She asked the confused humans. “Over there. Just raise them up for them, they know how to use them!” One of them answered, pointing towards a turret that had fallen silent. She levitated the ammo boxed up and received thumbs up from one of the operators. “Guards! Assist humans with the ammunition! Keep those guns stocked!” Luna shouted to her troops. Same order was repeated in the zebra ranks. Soon ponies and zebras were running with ammo boxes on their backs, while human helped to load and unload them. Luna returned inside the base. “What is our status?” She asked the commander Hulson. “Stable, but not good. If this keeps up we will run out of ammo. Right now we don’t need to worry about it, but in four of five hours, at the rate we are using them...” “Where do they get all these changelings? As far as I knew, there was no colony around here.” “Most likely gathered them up while we were still talking. We are paying the price from indecisiveness now.” Hulson answered before turning back to his officers. “Switch cannons to burst fire mode! Converse ammo! Automated systems, minimal movement! Take them down in clusters!” Luna watched the action in the command post, before returning outside. She wanted to help the soldiers outside and the best way was to use her magic to keep the changelings away from human turrets. Without her wings, she couldn’t join the battle that was raging up there. Still, it didn’t mean she would be forced to wait. She could help behind the lines. Grunty groaned as he rose up. Damn changelings, they were trying to flank the base by using diamond dogs tunnels. He was not going to let that one happen. He took quick glance at the dead changeling next to him before picking up his pistol and axe. He was a melee fighter, unlike some other guys. His job was to get up close and personal with the enemy. Something he enjoyed. He never got the point of shooting enemy at the distance. He knew that things were even worse on the surface. At least down here, in the tunnels, changeling superior numbers were negated by narrow paths that made perfect killzones for dog bunkers. A heavy machine gun here and there and six dogs could keep the entire changeling horde back as long as they had ammo. However, he himself and nine others were holding an another tunnel that was located in awkward angle compared to the nexus. They couldn’t set up a good bunker anywhere near it, so they had resorted placing two teams there to hold back everything. Thankfully, stalagmites slowed down the horde that was bearing down on the, Grunty raised his axe while shooting with his pistol. Then he brought it down on an unlucky changeling. It made satisfying CRUNCH sound as the chitin was cracked and the axe broke into brain matter. Still, he didn’t have to enjoy the minor victory. There were a lot more changelings to fight. He soon found himself in the same position as earlier. Wildly swinging his axe, all the training forgotten. All while earning move and more minor cuts. Alone those cuts were nothing to worry about, but in numbers they started to weigh you down. They had tried to train them on careful, one-hit-one.kill strikes and to conserve ammunition, but in the current situation it didn’t matter. Just point at the incoming horde and shoot, you were bound to hit something. Even with the axe, he often took down two chanagelins with a single swing. He reached for a grenade in belt and sent it rolling under the swarm. It exploded causing the swarm to pull back for a moment, enough to allow Grunty and his squad to reform. Then it attacked once again. Grunty wondered how long they could hold up until the fatigue and wounds would bring them down. Discord watched the tiny orb in front of him. Battle was not going as he had hoped. Oh sure, changelings had the numbers and were pretty much expendable. However, the casualties were starting to feel. Even if this was one of the newly assimilated hives, it was still an entire hive. Sacrificing it would still be a loss that would be felt. One of the changeling queens was sitting next to him. Her eyes had a bland expression, clear sign that The Hivemind was not in her at the moment. That had been a smart idea. Instead of having several queens planning to betray each others, he had forcefully smashed their identities to form a single mind. It had dubbed itself as The Hivemind. Little bit subconscious suggestion and he got a powerful ally, who thought that it was a loyal and valuable ally. Suddenly, the queens eyes gained focus and a slight glow. “The Hive feels the pain of it’s drones. If new approaches are not considered, the losses can’t be repaired in an acceptable timeframe.” The queen, or an advanced drone, said. It’s voice had echo of every single assimilated queen in itself. “I know. However, I am still trying to consider the best way.” Discord answered. He raised his pen and clicked it. The orb multiplied itself and formed a wall from it’s copies. Each copy showed a different view from a different changeling. Discord gave each one a quick look. “You fear that your trump card is countered, yet no doubt they already know about them. The Escapee Queen, without doubt, has already sold herself to them. Other queens, who were weak from their body, but fast from their legs, are also possible allies of our enemies.” “I don’t think so. More likely they plan to sit this one out.” Discord answered. He clicked his pen again and the orbs gathered into a single orb that floated in front of him. “However, there is no need to hold back. Sooner we reach our goals, less time they have to organize.” “The Hivemind approves this. We will call out drones off, to allow The Great Ones to strike. The drones shall then follow them and aid them in their quest.” “Good.” Discord said. Even if The Hivemind’s speech was quite weird and somewhat annoying, it was also smart enough to know what it needed to do without needing to be told. He could appreciate that. Grunty watched as the swarm pulled back. He wondered why. It was not like they had suffered enough to retreat, that was certain. Neither was it thanks to them, his team was almost ready to collapse. So something was going on with the changelings. Had they found a new way? Or had some other part of the defense line collapsed? Had the surface falled? Then he smelled it. Sulfur. Then he felt it. The heat. Then he saw it. Then the tunnels filled with fire. Luna noticed that the swarm was thinning down. Quick look around showed that changelings were pulling back. They were retreating underground once again. She felt relieved- They could finally catch a breath and take care of the wounded. She needed to warn her sister. The fight had been way too taxing than they had anticipated. They would need to seize the opportunity and move on the offensive, not to allow Discord time to move again. However, for now she was glad. The nightmare was over. “DRAGONS!” Came a shout from a guard tower. Or it had just begun.