“Okay. I admit. I am impressed.” Rainbow Dash said as she watched last soldiers take their place in the sunset. Final entry route for Discord and his army had been finally been confirmed and all available military forces had been gathered into one place to encounter them. It was largest concentration of soldiers Dash had ever seen. However, that was not what impressed Dash.
What had impressed Rainbow Dash was the efficiency and coordination that these units had. There was clear divide who worked where. It was like watching ground based Wonderbolts to work. She had actually met this worlds Wonderbolts and she had been less impressed with them, perhaps because they weren’t the same.
“Uh-huh.” Applejack’s double said next to her. “That’s about all that’s left after fighting in the tunnels and disaster at San Palomino.” They turned back to assembled leaders.
Against Sarals advise, the leaders had insisted leading from the front. After a lengthy debate, Saral too had caved in and agreed to personally lead the battle. She had, however, made it clear that she would remain in the backlines and not be in the frontline. Her explanation was that “Her training was in leading and command, not in shooting stuff”.
She had donned what was dubbed “Fashion Victim General” suit by some of the soldiers, due to it’s impracticality compared to normal gear they wore. She wore standard combat suit underneath, but instead of helmet she had a generals cap and full head mask and trench coat over her suit.
Right now, she was cursing their bad timing.
“I don’t like this. We will be fighting during the night unless they appear within the next the hour. Can you guarantee that we will have full moon?” Saral asked Luna, who nodded.
“Yes. I have taken care of it. The tides will be out of order for few weeks, but few weeks out of order is better than permanently out of order.”
“Agreed.” Zebra representative said, looking at the ad-hoc defense line that had been formed. “Are the heavy hitters ready?”
“Magic casters are as ready as they can be.” Celestia said.
“Catapults and ballistae, those few we got, are also ready.” High King said, nodding towards where the siege machines were set up.
“ACES and APCs are ready.” Saral finished, tapping her PDA. “We got enough ammunition for two hours of concentrated fire, five if we preserve our stockpiles. I doubt we will be. ACES suits have a killing zone ready, just a word and they turn that field into a Hell on Earth.” Several confused looks met her as she looked up. “Or Tartarus on Equestria, if you wish.” She amended.
“Not much we can do about it. This is it. Last stand of free species.” Celestia said. “I hope it won’t be remembered as such.”
“Well, if nothing else it will be remembered as Götterdämmerung.” Saral said. “Twilight of the Gods.”
“Fitting. We are, after all, seeing three gods facing in a mortal battle.” Zebra representative said. “We are going to witness history.” There sound awe in his voice. However, Saral remained silent for a moment before speaking,
“Yes, but what kind of history?” She then turned towards Celestia. “Your Highness, a moment in private, please?” Celestia nodded, before walking with Saral to secluded spot.
“What is it, General?” She asked Saral.
“Listen. You are the most likely to come out of this alive.” Saral said. Despite the mask she wore, Celestia could hear concern in her voice. “I need you to promise me something. If we win, if we win and I am dead... I need you to check my boots.”
“What?” Celestia asked, with confused look on her face.
“I have a small compartment in my boots, in my left heel. If I am dead and we win, I need you to open that compartment and take a piece of paper from there. Then, find the closest radio operator with working radio and follow the instructions in it.”
“Why?”
“Just... do it, okay? With luck, you don’t need to and I can take care of it. Normally, I would not even talk about this, but this is not a normal situation. There is a very high chance that none of the command staff from us survives. However, you... you and Luna, you are demigods. You are the most likely to survive.”
“Saral, explain to me. What are you planning?”
“Look, I am already saying too much!” Saral almost shouted. Her attempt at stern look failed somewhat due to unmoving nature of the mask. “Just, do this for me, okay?” Celestia stood silent for a moment before nodding.
“Very well. I will do as you ask, as long as there is nobody else to do this for you.”
“Thank you.” Saral said, returning to the command post. Chrysalis had arrived, with her now white colored changeling warriors remaining in the air. Several soldiers were eyeing them suspiciously.
“I brought everyone I could spare.” Chrysalis said.
“With them, pegasis and my griffins, we should be able to keep the air relatively safe.” High King said, looking at the swarm above them.
“So, what happens now?” Chrysalis asked.
“Now? Now we wait.” Luna answered.
“Thinking about others?” Trixie asked Twilight, who as looking out of a window.
“Am I that obvious?” She asked back, not turning away from the window.
“In this matter? Yes. You want to be there, but you are not allowed.”
“I don’t like this. What if someone doesn’t come back? What if none of them comes back? I need to apologize my double. I got so much to talk with everyone. I just...”
“I understand.” Trixie said sitting down next to her. “It’s hard to just watch from the sidelines as others risk their lives, isn’t it?”
“Especially when it’s this dangerous...” Twilight said, finally looking at Trixie. “Thanks. For staying with me. If I were alone, I would be running towards them. I would be going insane from the worry.”
“Hey, friend in need and all that.” Trixie said with a grin. “And on less altruistic note, I needed a roof above my head since my office was taken from me”
“You’re free to stay here. It’s good to have company.”
“For now. Let’s see in few days how willing you are to throw me out. Besides, I need to get a new place to live anyway. I can’t be bumming off you forever.”
“Hmph.” Twilight turned her head away, though Trixie could see playful grin in her face. Then Twilights face turned more serious. “Did you call him?”
“Yeah. He agreed to see you in a week.” Trixie said, referring to doctor Twilight had agreed to meet. “You should not worry so much, you know? It’s turning you to a nervous wreck.” She wanted to ‘More than you are’ but decided to leave it out. However, TWilight had apparently thought her mind.
“More than I am already? I guess so. I just... Sigh, I don’t know that to do. Normally I would look into my books for guidance, but right now, they offer no advice.”
“Some things you can’t just learn from books. Some things you just need to experience.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Like friendship.” There was a dreamy look on Twilight’s face as she remembered happier times.
“Anything yet?” Rarity asked Celestia, who was looking at the horizon. “There is being fashionably late but this is getting ridiculous.” The sun had set down already and they were forced to rely on Celestia’s and Luna’s sight and human night vision devices.
“Not yet. They should... no wait...” Celestia squeezed her eyes. At the same time, a shout ran across the assembled army.
“Enemy in sight! They are here!”
What could be at best be called “organized chaos” erupted among the soldiers, with those who had been resting trying to gather their equipment and running for their positions, machines being activated and magic users preparing their spells to be cast.
“I need you and others to take cover for now, we can’t risk you getting hurt. Tell your doubles to cover you, they know what to do.” Celestia said to Rarity before moving towards the frontline. Rarity nodded, even though Celestia couldn’t see it and ran back to the others.
“They are here. Princess said to take cover and stick together.” She said and turned to their doubles. “You are supposed to know what to do?” Applejack’s double nodded.
“Yeah, follow us and stay low. It’s going to start soon and we need to make sure ya ain’t hurt.” She then turned to Rarity’s double. “Ya might wanna stay somewhere safe, Ah mean-”
“Don’t worry about me, darling. I got Spike watching my back.” Behind Rarity, Spike nodded.
It had been a small shock to see Spike in his armor. Unlike old Royal Guard armor, which had been made from enchanted gold, Spike had opted for rather plain steel armor, which this worlds Twilight had enchanted to weight a lot less, giving Spike both mobility and protection. Although it didn’t fully enclose him, it did cover his more vulnerable front, as well as his joints on hands and legs.
The most striking feature, however, were the “claws” on on his hands. Sure, Spike did have a real claws as opposed finger-styled claws their own Spike had, but this worlds Spike had opted for claws on his armor that gave him longer reach. He had explained as being better able to slash than with his own claws.
“Prepare to open fire!” Saral shouted. Doubles took a look at the line of human machines.
“Cover your ears, ponies.” Applejack’s double said, covering her ears. Others followed her example, even if they didn’t fully understand why.
“Open fire! Laatz ze bloeden!” Sarals shouted once again.
Massive noise erupted as the assembled ACES suits opened fire with their long-range cannons. Noise was more than the group had even heard before and it kept going on. Each BOOM was followed by another and another, until they blended into single continuous noise. However, it was not the end. As the shells hit their target area, booms of the cannons were followed by explosions on the field.
What was happening on the field scared Twilight and others. It looked like the ground was being torn open by some unseen force. Pillars of dust and dirt rose into the air. Sometimes you could see bits and piece so of unfortunate changeling who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.Sure, they had seen some impressive pyrotechnics through magic before, but this was something else. Worst part was that nobody seemed to fazed by the this display of power.
Bombardment continued for some time. Yet, the changeling swarm kept advancing until they cleared the target area and entered the area that defined as “no-fire zone”, due to high chance of friendly fire. At this point, human infantry opened fire, along side with magic casters. Once again, droves of changelings died in front of them. Yet, once again, they didn’t give up. It was like they were being possessed. Something was driving them forward, making them unable to change their course of action.
“Horrible...” Fluttershy whispered. It was a small miracle that Twilight could hear hear over the noise. As if universe wanted to mock them, a foreleg of some random changeling flew over the line and landed in front of them. Rarity backed from the severed limb, as it could attack her.
“What did Discord do to them?” Twilight heard this worlds Applejack say. “I mean, when we first time dealt with him, it was nothing like this. He it was like he a trickster, rather than some god of death.”
“Well, um, some ancient text do mention that Discord’s defeat did follow a rather massive battle between his followers and Elements of Harmony and their allies.” Twilight said. “Some even mention that Ghastly Gorge was a result of said battle.” She hoped it would come to that.
“So? This ain’t normal!” Applejack’s double countered back. Twilight really couldn't argue with that.
“Cease artillery fire! Cease artillery fire!” Someone shouted. “Conserve ammo for dragons! AA-units, prepare to fire! Somebody, launch flares!”
APCs that so far remained silent came alive. Their tracking systems had been passively keeping track of the oncoming swarm, but now they were communicating among themselves and dividing targets. Inside the carriers, human operators went over the checklists to make sure that the systems would work and if needed, would be switched to manual targeting.
At the same time, group of flares flew into the air, creating bright light sources over the battlefield. It showed how much carnage the human artillery had done. However, they also showed how large the swarm was and how little damage they had done compared to the size of the swarm.
As the final shells landed, the swarm grew larger than before. It occurred to Celestia that Discord might have been sending forward only a small portion of his forces, to make them waste ammo on smaller force, rather than his main group. Which was worrisome, seeing how large this swarm was already. He hadn’t sent his dragons to clear the path. It was a good thing she had ordered unicorns to not to cast spells yet. Once the main swarm would appear, they would be very useful.
Anti-air turrets mounted on the carriers opened fire, bringing their own sound into the battlefield. Their sound was very different from others, Celestia noted. Whereas human infantry used rifles that gave a short, loud bang per shot, often melding into continuous “dakka-dakka-dakka” sound and their ACES suit gave deeper “brakka-brakka-brakka” sound, these new weapons had more silent sound. It sounded like closer to a bee. A very loud bee that was buzzing right next your ear, but still.
Celestia noted that, as it had been told to her, humans loaded every tenth round as a tracer round and that the air was now filled with these tracer rounds. The speed which the guns fired their rounds was scary. She knew there was a peace now and she should not worry, but it was still a reminded how far behind Equestrian military was compared to humans. She would need to swallow her pride and accept Luna’s more radical ideas in order to update her Royal Guard.
But that would have to wait. Right now, she had a battle to wage. A battle she could not afford to lose.
“Come on, why are you holding back...” Celestia said to himself. However, she was not quiet enough to not to be heard.
“Your Highness?” A zebra soldier asked, confused.
“Where are the dragons? Not to mention, if Chrysalis information is still up to date, this is too few changelings. There should be more.” She said. “He is holding back, testing us. That or he is...” It suddenly occurred to her what it might that he was planning. “Get to the comm-center. Tell them to contact diamond dogs and have them bring down the tunnels under the field!”
The zebra saluted and rushed to carry out the order, despite it coming from Celestia and not from his commanding officer. It was clear to Celestia now: Discord was keeping their attention to tied to above ground sacrificial lamb, while trying to get around them through underground. If they would collapse the tunnels, it would slow him enough to force him to fight through, rather than try to get around.
“Princess, why the hell did you just gave an order to collapse the tunnels?!” Saral ran to her, shouting her question at the same time.
“He is trying to flank us. Trying to use the tunnels to get around us.”
“That’s why the diamond dogs are there!”
“Yes, but the amount is too large for them to handle. They will still need to deal with survivors, but it will also force them above ground, in our sight.”
“I see.” Saral said, calming down. On the field, at the several points where the tunnels collapsed the ground opened and spilled out more changelings. Even with the impressive amount of long-range weaponry thrown at them, they were closing dangerously close at the defense line. However, so far they had been held back.
A loud roar interrupted Celestia’s and Sarals observations. Both looked up and saw what they had both feared and expected: Dragons. They had flow high enough to be missed by observers, who had concentrated on the ground forces being thrown at them. Now, those same dragons fell upon the combined army, right in middle of them.
“Damn it! The bastard tricked us!” Saral shouted, as she tried to scamper away from the dragons, firing her service pistol despite its ineffectiveness.
“Yes, he tied our attention on his swarm, letting his dragons surprise us.” Celestia shouted, as she took to the air.
She headed at the dragons who were in process of wrecking human machines into pieces, as their pilots desperately tried to put some distance between themselves and the dragons. With the confusion among the ranks, the swarm hit the front of the defense line. Celestia could see as the formerly neat lines were torn and crumpled. The battle turned into one giant brawl, as the human weaponry became more a liability than an advantage.
It didn’t take long for human lines to collapse. Very soon, humans were less organized fire teams they were during The War and more individual soldiers trying to scamper somewhere they could actually help. Their weakness to magic made them easy targets for the changelings, who simply cut them once and moved to next target.
Luna hit another dragon in the face with a bolt of magic. She and several other unicorns, as well as what remained of ACES troops, had worked to take down this particular dragon. Dragon roared in pain, preparing to blast her with magic when the ACES pilots opened fire into it’s mouth. With final roar, the dragon fell to the ground, unmoving.
Luna catched breath before moving to higher ground. She was that her sister was attacking another dragon, with help from the Kaisergarde and High King. Apparently years of training truly did help against the dragons, seeing how most of the Kaisergarde warriors were still alive. Little bit away, she was yet another dragon, while still alive being blinded. She recognized the results of her sister scorching someones eyes. She had used it on the early years, when they had fought to establish Equestria.
However, while ponies, zebras and griffins were dealing with the fight relatively well, the humans were not. She saw that several humans were starting to rout, abandoning their weapons and simply trying to run away. They could not afford to lose any soldiers, not while they could help. She ran down to the closest group that was trying to run away.
“Where are you going!? The battle still rages!” She shouted at the them. Few of the ran right past her, but one stopped in front of her, with others staying there too. Apparently they were following this particular woman.
“Getting out of here! We can’t fight! It’s everyone for herself!” The panicking soldier said. Gesturing towards the melee behind her. She tried to run again, but Luna stopped her.
“And you would abandon your comrades?” She said, trying to appeal to her loyalty.
“They are all dead!”
“Is this truly it? Is this the mighty human army?” Luna asked. “Is this the army that burned half of Equestria, for the sake of their own people?!” She was shouting now. The soldiers took a step back, while the soldier that had talked to her, falling down in surprise.
“Is this how you repay the debt to your nation? If we lose now, everyone will die! Your parents, your wifes and husbands, your children!” She kept going on. She saw that few more deserters had stopped and were listening to her. She had to keep this up.
“You can run now, always remembering when you abandoned everyone to die! Or you can follow me! Into the fight! You may die, I won’t lie, but you will die heroes! You won’t die meaninglessly! Yet, it is more likely you will live if you fight now, for it is sure you will die if we lose!” She saw soldiers nodding and taking firmer grip on their guns. Some of them stopped other deserters, turning them around and telling them to stop running. “I tell you, once more, into the fight! Are you with me!?”
“YEAH!” A shout answered her. She turned to wards the battle and run into it. She noted with slight proudness in herself, and in humans, that former deserters were rallying around her, supporting her and helping others to form up. Her sudden command was leading a counterattack in where human lines had collapsed, slowly filling the gap. She also noted that less and less humans were abandoning their positions, with those who had lost their command rallying around her and forming ad-hoc fire teams, with officers without teams joining teams without officers and soldiers without a fire team joining the new fire teams.
She saw Saral isolated with her own group of soldiers. She too had joined the fight itself to keep the lines from falling, though it was clear she had whipped the deserters with different methods. She saw one human trying to run away, with Saral turning her pistol against that human and shooting her. The soldier fell down, dead, with Sarals words accompanying him.
“You will fight and die against the enemy, or you can run and die by my hand! YOUR CHOICE!” To emphasize her point, she raised her pistol in the air. “Now, FIGHT!” She shouted, pointing towards another changeling group that was approaching her location. She and her group opened fire.
Luna didn’t spare more attention to them, however, as she herself focused on keeping the line intact for now. She hoped that the Elements would be safe, wherever Saral had ordered them to go to wait for their time. Their main target, the one that kept this whole battle going on, had not yet show himself.
She knew Discord would, eventually, intervene. She just hoped they would have enough strength to fight him. The battle had gone on for some time and even she and her sister would tire out. Unless Discord could be surprised or beaten to the submission, he would counter the petrification spell. However, he would be ready for the spell this time, so surprise was not an option. They would need to do it “old fashioned way”.
“Okay, the spell should work, at least in theory. First, we need to open the view port, and then we cast the tunneling spell. It should be open for some time.” Spell Nexus explained. Celestia and Luna nodded.
“How long will the portal be open?” Luna asked.
“I am not sure, as long as we can keep it open. An hour, perhaps? Casting the tunneling spell will most likely take another hour.” Spell Nexus said, gesturing to few unicorns before continuing. “However, we can only open the portal towards your doubles, so, one of you should remain here, just in case.”
“I will stay.” Luna said, with Celestia nodding.
“Open the view port.” Celestia said and watched as the unicorns began their spell. The window formed, before showing the images from the other universe.
Images that showed the other Celestia in process of taking down a dragon, supported by griffins and, of all things, Chrysalis and bunch of white changelings. The dragon fell, succumbing to death from thousand cuts. Celestia in the window stopped for a moment, before heading into even bigger battle, where several other creatures, alongside the new creatures they had seen earlier and zebras, were fighting.
Interestingly, it seemed that these weird creatures were rallying around two points. One was another same kind of creature, wearing slightly different attire and killing any of its kind that tried to escape. Other point was around Luna. Apparently these creatures were panicking, causing Luna and the other leader to try and rally them.
Celestia noticed that the other Luna had covered her mechanical parts. It would protect her sister from the shock. Still, that was the smallest problem she had, at the moment. She could not see Twilight Sparkle or others, her double was focused on beating back the changeling swarm and the dragons.
Then Discord appeared, causing an explosion near among the warriors. It didn’t take long for the mirror versions of Celestia and Luna to take into the air and try to meet him in battle. Celestia could, however, see that both were exhausted. They would need help.
“Open the portal. NOW!” Celestia ordered. “Luna, stay here. Once things calm down, open the portal again. Home into yourself.”
“No, it’s dangerous. We do not know what is there!” Luna said.
“But if we do not help, they will lose to Discord, to our Discord. They will need help.” Celestia argued.
“What if you too loose? He seems more powerful than ever. Last time he gathered an army he didn’t have dragons!” Luna said back. Celestia sighed before saying anything.
“I know you can handle things here. However, this is a problem that we caused. We need to fix it. He might be powerful, but I doubt he can resist two sun goddesses, alongside a moon goddess, right?” Celestia said, trying to give a conspiratorial smile to her sister. Who didn’t buy it but relented anyway.
“Fine. But if it starts to look bad, I will open the portal again and I want you to return. I will not lose you.” Celestia didn’t try to argue with her sister. She simply nodded to Spell Nexus who gestured to unicorns, who began to cast the spell.