//------------------------------//
// Councils of War 
// Story: War of the Fallen Race 
// by PegasusKlondike 
//------------------------------//

The dawn was tinged red, partly from the still burning fires, partly from the amount of blood that had spilled that night. All across the world, The Second Surge had awoken creatures of myth and altered others in need. The human race was now at war for its very survival against this new onslaught. What had begun as paranoia and fear against ponies with intelligence had escalated into war, and then the Second Surge spilled forth across the land to raise its banners against the demon race that is mankind.

Luckily enough for the humans of Fort Greenewell, the onslaught had stopped with the rising sun. The damage was extensive, entire flights of aircraft burned on the ground, several buildings gutted by flame, and hundreds of people lay dead interspersed with the corpses of their mythical enemies. Strangely, armored tanks survived with only a few scorch marks.

Dr. Patterson walked amongst the dying in one of the few remaining buildings that had to function as a hospital. He would occasionally stop to do what he could for an injured soldier or civilian. But there were so few that could be saved. So many were burned in the initial attack by the dragon. He stopped to give morphine to a screaming soldier, the entire side of his face burned away. Then there were the gryphon attacks, rending wounds that tore men limb from limb, disemboweled right there on the battlefield like rag dolls. And then there were the lost ones, those who had been hit by the venomous claws and tails of the manticores. They did not have an antidote and those afflicted took on a pale green hue and died within hours, blood hemorrhaging from every pore.

He ran into his mentor Dr. Mcentyre as she finished suturing the bloody stump that had once been a private's arm. 

"Eve, we need to talk."

Dr Mcentyre stood back from her charge, upping his anesthetic to help him sleep through the worst of the agony. "I guess I could take a break, we've been going for 6 hours straight, most of these men will prefer death to the new life around here."

"You know the pony I interviewed? Cloud Hoof?"

She ripped off the bloody latex gloves on her hand, fumbling for a cigarette in her pocket. "Yeah, you had an infatuation with the guy, like he was your childhood best friend."

"He said that he knew this was coming, that something had told him in a dream that his race would be victorious and would succeed in achieving their goal."

"So? The rantings of an insane prisoner."

"I knew Cloud better than that, if he knew something there at the end he would have told me the exact truth. I think something greater than any of us is at work. First horses start talking, we capture them all, dragons and gryphons destroy us the next day. This is not something science can just explain away."

"What, you think some kind of deity or god is behind this?"

"Maybe, and just maybe The Surge energy is some kind of retaliation or punishment instead of a natural phenomenon. Maybe this really is the beginning of our end."


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Brigadier General Johnathan Winters knew after the initial strafe from that dragon meant humanity as a whole was now at war. This was not some pony rebellion anymore, it was the makings of the most bloody and penultimate war that would ever be seen. One or the other had to be driven off the face of the earth, even if it meant destroying the Earth itself.

Today was the marking of a new era, and Winters had to confer with the rest of the armed forces. Entering the conference room, he switched on the personal camera which would transmit his face across fiber optic cables to every other military base in America and vice versa. Sort of a conference call.

"Brigadier General Winters of Fort Greenewell reporting in."

Several portions of the screen before him lit up with their individual executive officers corresponding to their base. Too many of those screens contained static. Speaking was General Esera of Fort Bragg.

"Greenewell, report casualties."

"Roughly three hundred dead and another two hundred wounded. Many expected to die within the hour."

"Count yourself lucky Winters, most other bases report dead in the thousands or never reported in at all."

"What about civilian populations?"

"Civilian populations seemed mostly unharmed, the more a city fought back initially, the worse the retaliation was."

"Any word from our allies? Can we expect support from NATO?"

"Negative Winters, we lost any and all reestablished communications with our allies after the Second Surge. Only our shielded fiber optic system seems to have been unharmed."

"And Washington?"

"Heavily damaged but currently safe due to heavy Air Force presence. As of oh-five-hundred, Fort Greenewell became the largest still functioning military base east of the Continental Divide; feel proud Winters, even with a large prisoner population you still managed to repel the invaders more effectively than anyone else."

"About the prisoners sir, they appear to have been affected by the Second Surge and somehow been able to take flight."

"You mean they ran?"

"No sir, literally sprouted wings and flew away."

The commander of Fort Bragg narrowed his eyes, suspecting sarcasm.

"Any word from the other branches?" asked Winters.

The static on Esera's screen flickered as he pulled out a pile of written transmissions and recorded calls from any military group that his base had managed to get in contact with. "Army troops are holding their own against ground based attackers. Navy has been unheard from except for a few garbled transmissions proclaiming that they were under attack from some kind of kraken. Air Force is struggling to take on the armored fliers, only their heaviest missiles and armor piercing cannon rounds seem to have any effect. Intelligence agencies are just sitting around sucking on their collective thumbs. Coast Guard has done surprisingly well, considering all they've done is run. National Guard units were being assigned to protect civilian populations, but the civilians keep chasing the Guard units away."

Winters furrowed his brow. "What the hell do those damn townies think they are doing?"

Esera shook his head. "They know something we don't, they think there is a direct correlation to the amount of violent acts against the enemy and how much the enemy attacks them. The more peaceful they are, the more the enemy seems to ignore them." 

"Has the President declared martial law?"

"Of course. You control an area roughly the size of Texas, General Winters. Now Winters, the President has considered Project Lazarus as a short term solution for this emergency. Has the facility been compromised?"

"Initial damage surveys reveal Lazarus did take some damage during The Second Surge, but nothing we cannot fix within the month."

"It had better be ready Winters, the fate of humanity could depend on your facility if the enemy decides on another unified offensive. And another thing, your laboratories could be the last functioning on this continent that we control. We need your team to work on a new weapon."

"You know we no have the capabilities to make nuclear weapons. We can't even get our hands on fissile material anymore since all the nuclear power plants were shut down after Fukushima."

"Not nuclear, our intelligence reports that even if we did manage to wipe out the current enemy force with nuclear weapons, it would not have any effect on the source of the energy. And the way it is behaving, attacking it with a nuclear warhead might just piss it off. What we have in mind involves reversal of The Surge energy."


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Cloud Hoof landed at the side of a mountain. Flight was everything he had dreamed it to be, the freedom of the infinite sky, not being bound by earthly tethers and feeling the wind in his mane. It was only made better by the fact that his wife Starshine could join him and dance among the clouds. Which by the way he learned he could land on, the soft plushness being the most comfortable surface he had ever touched.

Something drew him and the rest of the new pegasus herd to this mountain. Looking above to the high peak, a pair of dragons circled with several flights of gryphons. Down below, a mass of milling ponies and bison, zebras and cows, deer and dogs, anything that had ever felt mankind's lash gathered below. A nearby river boiled with the undulations of sea serpents.  Manticores mingled with cockatrices. All drawn to this place. They had all heard the call in their dreams. A call to arms.

A gryphon landed next to him. Cloud flared his wings and stepped back, prepared to fight this stranger.

The gryphon lifted an eagle talon, "Easy friend, I am Grelkas, king of the Gryphon Aerie. By your wings you are the pegasi we were meant to liberate."

Cloud relaxed, his wings settling down back at his side. "Indeed we are. I am Cloud Hoof, representative of the pegasus herd."

"Well met Cloud Hoof, above us flies Quartz, leader of the dragon flights. And below are your kin, Starswirl and White Dawn, leaders of two clans of ponies. The others gathered here defer to the wisdom of Starswirl and White Dawn if they cannot choose a leader of their own. You are invited to partake in our council if you so wish."

"I do indeed wish to voice myself and my brethren."

"Excellent, we gather at dusk on the ground clearing for the convenience of those not gifted by wings." The gryphon king departed, likely to meet the leaders of other new arrivals.

"Did you hear all of that Starshine? Maybe now we can have some answers. Starshine?" The pegasus mare had taken to laying on clouds, the extra weight of pregnancy taxing her strength and making her sore. And something about laying on clouds provided just the right amount of lumbar support. Cloud decided to let her sleep, she would need more and more rest in the coming weeks.

Hours later, the leaders gathered at the forest clearing. Quartz took nearly half by himself. Other creatures sat side by side, united by their common foe, the humans. Cloud seated himself next to the two ponies he assumed to be Starswirl and White Dawn. Grelkas seemed to be master of ceremonies and introduced the leaders of the new arrivals.

"Joining us for the first time tonight are Cloud Hoof of the pegasi, Wind Seeker of the buffalo, Nazzan of the zebra, and Zaramas of the minotaur. I hope you all welcome them with open hearts and minds in this inner circle." Various forms of applause were given for the new arrivals, and then everycreature settled down for business.

"As you all know, our actions in the past two days have crippled the humans, we have crippled their technologies and hamstrung their armies. But I do not believe it is enough. Cloud Hoof, you spent time as a captive of the human monsters, what do they have planned?"

Cloud cleared his throat and spoke as loud as he could. "The humans are clever, for every problem they seem to have three solutions hidden in their sleeves. They are deeply angered by our recent success and will attempt a counter attack. Every time they lose they invent a new weapon or strategy to fix whatever went wrong. I say we prepare our defenses here, the human retribution will be quick and we will suffer if we are not prepared. Which is why we must think ahead if we are to overcome their attack. We need to work our advantages to the limit."

The dragon Quartz leaned in his massive head and countered in his earth shaking voice, "And what exactly are these advantages, little-wings? We cannot openly face the human army on the field, they are too powerful. The only way we saved you was with complete surprise and cover of darkness, yet we still lost dozens. "

Though shaken by the awe inspiring power of the dragon, Cloud took a step closer to Quartz, his wings spread. "I know things about them, they are vulnerable now. I trusted one of them, he told me that humanity once had the ability to destroy utterly from the safety of the stars. And that they could communicate over thousands of miles. But our coming did something to disrupt those abilities, and now the humans are divided and cannot muster to their full strength. And most of all, they fear us."

Wind Seeker pushed his way forward, "Impossible, the hunters have never felt fear in their entire demonic existence. They told you lies to make us vulnerable."

Cloud flared his wings and took a step farther into the ring, "It's true. Why would they pen us up, hunt us down and call us myths if they did not fear us?"

"You speak truthfully young pony, Man has always feared that which he does not understand." The words came from Starswirl, speaking his mind for the first time. "And we are not a part of Man's known world. Man always sought to understand everything around him in order to conquer his fear of it. When the Mother made Man, she forgot to give him courage with his higher mind. And so Man became afraid, and using his mind Man became powerful and sought to destroy anything that gave him fear, even one another."

"Indeed wise one," Grelkas said "but we must focus on how to repel their impending attack. Time is our enemy as well as the machines of Man."

"Numbers, Grelkas, our assault in the previous days has thinned their ranks severely. Here we posses a vaster force than they have left standing in any one place." Starswirl calculated.

"And we have control of the weather." Cloud quipped.

"What is this foolishness Cloud Hoof? Nothing can control the weather." Wind Seeker retorted.

"It's true, my brother pegasi and I can walk on the clouds, perhaps even manipulate them. When a human machine hits a cloud, they just go through."

"I can think of more than one use for a talent such as that, young warrior." Starswirl commended, "You are turning out to be quite the extraordinary pony."

"I may also have an idea. When caught by surprise, the human soldiers fall like autumn leaves. Otherwise they will organize and fight back. We can draw the humans into a trap and close our jaws on their exposed flank."

The leaders planned long into the night, with each minute their scheme becoming more clever and their defense more feasible. With any luck, they might just survive long enough to tell their tale.


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"You want me to do what?!"

"You do not have a choice here Dr. Patterson. Washington knows we have the capability to harness The Surge energy as a weapon. And you have the best knowledge of the energy of any person left alive on the planet."

"I won't do it. General you have to listen to me, the more we fight this thing, the stronger it will get. Harnessing it will only make it angry!"

"You talk like the energy is alive Doctor."

"IT IS ALIVE!" Dr Patterson screamed. He gave it a moment to sink in. "You don't get it do you! This isn't some natural fucking phenomenon that just comes and goes, this is a goddamn retaliation. An immune response, and those ponies and creatures out there are the antibodies! We can't win, no matter what we do we can't win!"

"So what are we going to do, you little spitfuck? Go dance with the ponies under a rainbow and sing about how friendship is magic? Save your hippie bullshit for your own funeral, I'm sure the enemy will respect that. We can schedule that funeral for right now if you want it!" General Winters reached to his hip and pulled his sidearm, aiming the pistol straight at Dr. Patterson's forehead.

Aaron stared down death with unblinking eyes. "Fine, I'll make your damn weapon...but after this, I go my own way."

"That's all we ever needed from you, to wake up and see whose side you were really on. And Aaron, maybe you should take your biology courses again. Rule number one, the virus will always adapt faster than the host."

And with that, Dr Patterson turned and left the General's office. He stopped to glare over his shoulder before walking down  the hallway.

Winters pressed a button on his intercom. "Lieutenant, take down an order. By congressional edict, martial law has been declared. All young men and women above the age of eighteen are henceforth drafted into the United States Army. All civilian weapons and provisions are now property of the United States government. Constitutional rights no longer apply."