//------------------------------//
// Assualt on Sunny Town 
// Story: Revenge of the Nightmares 
// by Commander_Pensword 
//------------------------------//

	Luna looked at William as she began to pace in front of William as he sat down on the hay bale. “Where to begin.” She muttered, “Where do I start in clearing my name in thine eyes?” She looked away from William and looked down at her hooves and the floor. “How, how,” She trailed off again before looked back at William. “Can, I need to show you something, I, I need you to see how,” her voice hitched a little. “How I became Nightmare Moon.”

Luna sighed and walked towards William. “Do, do you still trust me?” her voice low while her head dipped down in sorrow.

William blinked and reached his hands up and pulled her head and her horn to touch his forehead. He remained silent the entire time, however a gentle caress from his left hand her check happened in a hope of showing he still trust her.

With tears almost breaking through now she squeezed her head shut and channeled magic into her horn and into William head.

To William it felt like a lifetime as he saw Luna being tricked by the Order of the Black Suns the fear and emotions of being trapped and the nightmare working to actually weaken and take Celestia down so that she too could be taken.

Luna pulled back and looked weak as outside the landscape was growing lighter with dawn approaching. She looked at William. “Now that you know the, the causes, the rage, anger and being alone, let me tell you what happened to me once I was on the moon. You know of what it was like the first one hundred years. Let me tell you of the other nine hundred.” she sat down on the floor and leaned forward once more touching her horn to his forehead and she closed her eyes and focused. 

William felt an icy warmth spreading from where the horn touched the forehead as it spread down his body and he closed his eyes in both pain and pleasure as he realized these were Luna’s emotions.

William found his eyes opening and he saw the surface of the moon he tried to look around but found he could not. Luna’s voice then began to speak a little, only it was different. “Oh Tia, what hast we done?” Luna sobbed out. “we, we am all alone and, no pony will ever,” She paused and looked around the moon and doing so made William’s head move from side to side as well.

There was a long pause before she got up and began to walk along the surface of the moon. “The Nightmares are no more my dear sister.” the voice began. “We are free of our mind.” A small snort, “Yet what shall we do while we wait for the time for us to return?” She stopped at a large crater that looked new, ragged, and fierce looking. “The Spot upon which I came to this wretched place.” She flapped her wings and landed in the middle of the crater floor and looked around before looking up and grinning. “We know what we shall do to keep us from going mad. We shall create a tree and life.” She smiled and pranced a little. “Yes, we shall create life on this our moon to keep from going mad.” William blinked as he thought he heard a small dark whisper in the back of his mind.

Luna slowly began to walk to the middle of the crater and lowered her head and slowly began to concentrate and William blinked before doing something silly as he began to concentrate on making it so that Luna’s project would come to pass even though it was a memory.

Suddenly from the ground a small sapling appeared over Luna who then began to breath on the sapling the only thing that was alive beside her. In his mind he heard Luna’s voice as if narrating the next part. “I do not know how long I truly stayed over the sapling, but I would say between ten and twenty years. 

The memory jumped a little and there was a healthy oak tree with acorns in the branches. The Tree to William’s shock was as large as a mature Red Wood from California. William blinked as he looked around and there were now Luna looking around and creating trenches and carrying blocks of ice to fill the trench. She was working hard and she looked happy. The coat was like she was now but all dusty, and ice covered the coat a little and yet nothing evaporated. “I then worked on creating water to grow food. This was also hard work as I wanted a place ready for when I tried my hoof at creating life.” 

The scene moved to another place with Luna sitting in front of two six ponies. Two Earth, Two Pegasus, and Two Unicorns. All of them were not like their Equis counterparts. The Earth Ponies were as large as Big Mac, the muzzle structure was similar to their more earth style counterparts. The female were smaller than the male by a smidge but just as strong looking. There were barbs on the hind legs that were a little larger on the males then the females. The unicorns were smaller than the earth ponies, but larger than the pegasus moon ponies. The unicorn’s horn were more of a curve forward. They also had the barbs on the hind legs. In fact the Lunar Pegasus had feathers the color of moon’s surface. In fact all six ponies bodies were the color of the Moon’s surface. he saw that they all were bowing to Luna.
William did not hear what was said but the ponies went and started to create small huts from the dust and rocks of the moon. Once again the scene changed and the City looked bigger, in fact it looked almost the same size as the city that he first saw, only the palace was under construction and the tree had grown even larger. It was now the same size as from his own vision but maybe a little smaller. He looked to the left and a planning board with a map of the Moon’s surface with three other Craters with markings of other settlements. They all were all surrounding the large crater that seemed to be the capital city. Their also looked to be underground cave systems to connect the craters. He felt that they were talking of expanding to more areas of the Moon.

Another change and William was in an Observatory and the Ponies there were looking into the telescope. “So, are you sure?”

“I am, I just saw an explosion of light in a circle.” One of the Pegasus Moon Pony observers spoke still having an eye to the telescope.

Behind them all was Luna listening. She smiled a little, she had come to terms with her ponies looking at Equis with curiosity. After all she reasoned, she had been looking at it herself in her private study. She smiled a little and spoke a little word that would get them thinking. “It would be nice if you could visit that world.” The silence that followed was music to her ears as she saw gears turning in the Lunar Ponies heads.

William blinked and found himself with Luna in a lab somewhere as Luna looked at a chalkboard with drawings on it. Luna’s voice was happy as she spoke. “You, you can make it work?”

A Lunar Unicorn only smiled and nodded his head. “Yes your highness.” he bowed his head. “I believe we can create this to be the first ponies to return to your homeland.”

Luna paused and looked at him with an odd look. She had noticed some of her ponies had acted strange and started working on these projects. It was true that a thousand years had almost been completed, and she hoped she could return to Equestria better than she was before.

It was at that moment that Luna blinked and looked up in horror as something touched her mind. The Nightmare that had been at the back of her head was waking up and starting to whisper plans and ideas of making them regret banishing her to the moon. She folded her wings close to her body and turned around. “Keep it up. we know that when we return to Equis we would enjoy it if you could visit us at times. We can show what we have learned here to improve my sister’s kingdom.”

She turned around and paused in horror at a closed crate that was brought in. “Actually,” The Scientist behind her spoke. “We have other plans. Why should we help thine sister who banished thee? We can crush her and make thee sole ruler of all of Equis.” His voice turning darker. Luna blinked and turned only to have the unicorns holding the box open it. The cursed rocks that were touched by the Nightmares glowed their dark sickly color and Luna gasped as the Nightmare used the powers of the rocks that had gathered the horrors and Nightmares of her people to overpower Luna and Luna wanted to scream as her body turned once more into Nightmare Moon with plans of turning her little ponies into the perfect hosts for her fellow lesser Nightmares.

The memories faded and William found himself back in the barn. Luna pulled away and looked out at the now light sky shining through the window of the barn. “Now you know, we were not fully cleansed till the Elements of Harmony was used in a more proper manner.” She looked sadly at the ground. “Not even our sister knows the full extent of what happened on the moon, and  now. Now she shall see what folly we have done.”

William got up and slowly put a hand out to Luna who shied away a little before finally leaning her head into his hand. “I do not see it as folly, you create life where.” he paused and looked into the sky. “You created life where their was none, all I see this as is a prelude of what the Nightmares wish for all thinking creatures.” He leaned in closer. “I actually applaud you for thinking outside the box. I just have to work on freeing a civilization to my tasks of protecting your world from the Nightmares.” William smiled at the shocked look on Luna’s muzzle.

William looked up at the rising sun and as such missed the blush that covered her muzzle a little. “We are,” she cleared her throat. “I am happy thou wast picked for,” She paused as William moved a hand away from her clenching his fist. “William,” Luna’s voice was soft. “Do not cry, I, I saw the fear and pain thou went through right before, I saw how thou wert to be killed for one to join a gang. How thou were not able to have anything to protect thyself from thy adversaries.” She sat down a little and wrapped him into a hug with her wings. “If anything thou wert able to handle the Nightmares better because thy mind were already in a fight or flight mindset.” She looked at the doors and seeing nothing began to brush a wing over his head. “Hush now,” Luna whispered as William began to cry again. Luna only sat there and hummed a lullaby while stroking William’s head with the tip of her wing. William soon felt something dropping on his own head and when he looked up briefly he saw Luna crying as well and their he felt that he could tell what it was about, a mother grieving the loss of a child’s way or here the loss of a civilization she had built falling to a darkness she could not stop.

It was a few minutes of silence before they both felt they were ready to be composed and face the morning. They began to walk out side by side as Luna dropped the field, with a flash of Luna’s horn the door of the barn slide to the side letting in the morning light stream in and blinding the two from the activity that was occurring outside. they both could hear the last minute rushing as troops were finishing up, and supplies were either unloaded or loaded up. Maybe both.

They stepped over the threshold and the activity became visible to both of their eyes. Sure enough the Lunar Guard were digging in around the farm buildings while Celestia’s forces were gathering for the push into Sunny Town. Celestia herself trotted around the corner of the barn with Twilight as the two talked to one another and after a few more words the two parted as she walked up to Luna and William and gave them both a look of concern which was more directed towards Luna then William. She paused and motioned for William to step forward while looking at Luna still. “Be safe dear sister, I will ask you to stay here with your troops.” Luna only nodded her head as she moved to a gathering of her troops.

William turned to watch her go as she walked solemnly towards a small row of three rectangles covered in what had to be Lunas personal crest. She moved to what he figured were the heads of the caskets and bowed her head in sadness. William blinked and turned away feeling conflicted.

Celestia smiled and began to walk away. “William if you would please follow me.” William only nodded his head and walked to catch up. “I was informed that you had a meeting with the Nightmares and they had a message?”

William looked at Celestia. “I am sorry but that was for-” He stopped as Celestia actually turned to face him with a hard glare.

“That is what Luna told me while you lay on the ground comatose for an hour. That it was meant only for you and here. I want answers, my sister has withdrawn herself these past few days and will not answer me. When she does she is like a filly speaking to a mother and not a sister.”

William blinked before drawing himself taller. “I shall not also tell thee till after Sunny Town is sealed away, if I spend the time to tell thee. We shall lose our window and have the full might of a Nightmare Invasion, Sunny Town is their current gateway and we must not allow them even a single hoof hold upon this fair land, or, or all shall be lost.”

Celestia actually pulled back a little before snorting. “Great, you and her talked again, your language changes to match hers when she speaks to your mind.” She paused. “Yet, she has done well in picking up more modern phrases-” She paused in a way that William knew she had trailed off on purpose to show that it was also a good thing.

“You will ride with me and my commanding officer, Also today is November Sixth, let this day be known as the day we finish the nightmare.” She spoke after a moment of silence as well as start to walk again. “I will be authorizing you to use your,” She paused a little before speaking the strange title. “RPG, I have recon work and we believe that some crystal formations are holding the two together. The energy that brought you, also triggered those items. I hope your weapon can destroy them. You shall remain in the chariot and focus on the crystals, we shall keep any flying Nightmares off your back, however I feel that with the sun, they will not be able to attack us directly.”

William only nodded his head while trying to keep his composer. “Uh, I don’t-”

Celestia smiled. “You can relax, our guards found out that the crate appears to be the same as your magazine in that when an item is taken out, it is replaced, in this case when the lid is closed or no one looks at it.”

“Wait,” William spat as he had to keep following Celestia. “You knew about the Magazine and didn’t tell me?”

“Does not your world use magic to replace their magazines?” Celestia paused and asked turning her head to face him fully.

“No,” William cried. “Those Magazines have that capacity and the bullets do not replace themselves, so once a magazine is used you replace it with a full one.”

Celestia actually looked at the chariot. “Oh, so, you freaked when you reached the thirty first bullet?” William thought he caught a look of concern about what she was learning but it was so slight William brushed it off as nothing.

William blinked and shook his head. “Try when I reached a mental count of forty five, as I thought I might have counted higher or faster than I should have.”

Celestia only smiled a little. “How about now? How do you feel now?”

“Like I broke a video game and have unlimited ammo during the campaign.” He muttered before smirking at the confused look Celestia gave him. “Don’t worry about it, a human reference that you wouldn’t get without a lot of backstory and tangents.”

Celestia only unfolded her wings. “Very well, then we shall proceed with my plans, we shall give you some time over the Everfree to fire into the trees with the RPG to get a feel and make sure that you know how to use it correctly.”

William only nodded his head knowing full well that more than likely he would have to unlearn his self teaching if any of his military friends saw the way he handled it. He hoped he got it right in the first place. He followed Celestia through the mass of Royal Guards. He noticed that a lot of them were pegasus with all the unicorns standing in the main chariots. Something that he saw here and not on the TV show was that their were a lot of military chariots for both ponies. He was heading to the largest and most ornate one. However Celestia did not step into the chariot and instead channeled magic into her horn as armor in the chariot began to fly towards her till she too was garbed in head to tail armor that was brilliant to the eyes. Yet it seemed thicker and bulkier than Luna’s and with a smile William hazard a guess that Celestia might have been a more upfront warrior.

Celestia paused as she took the blade that he saw before and looked at it with sadness. She spoke to William in a soft tone denoting painful memories. “The last time I had to wield this blade was when those vile creatures took my sister from me and then hide in this town. The only mercy that they need, is freedom from their prison by death.” The words seemed to have weight to them as she buckled the sword to her side and looked at her troops. “Forward March.” She ordered and took to the air. The chariot that William was in lurched forward after five other chariots took to the air causing William to fall down into the chariot and sit on the closed lid of the RPG rounds.

“Okay Liaison.” A unicorn guard spoke from the front. “I am going to clear you to use your heavy weapons.” He turned around to face the front. “We will be coming over the grove of pain. It was where Celestia banished her sister, nothing grows there to this day so it is safe to fire into.”

As he spoke William saw a large clearing of blackened earth that was easily the size of two or so acres. As they made a first fly over William was shocked by how true it was. It was like a night and day difference. He also noticed that the Chariot was skirting around the clearing. With a grunt and a sigh William hefted the RPG Launcher and loaded one of the RPG rounds into the tube after reading the labels and using what he hoped was common sense. He gulped and opened his mouth.

“Please note that this is an active combat zone, no need to warn others that you are firing.” The same unicorn replied with a grunt as the chariot hit a little turbulence. William only nodded again with a deep breath and pulled the trigger as the weapon was pointed to the ground below. The projectile whooshed from the tube and raced to the ground where it exploded in a burst of gold light. William realized yet again that even this was blessed by Celestia, and as he expected it was a larger explosion then the Grenades. He took more deep breaths to settle the sudden rush of adrenaline his body experienced from the first time firing off a weapon of that size before moving to get another one and try it again.

It was after depleting the bag of ten RPG rounds that William felt like he could wield it effectively. he pointed to one of the unicorns of five in the chariot which didn’t even feel crowded. “You, I need you to start pulling rounds out for me to use. I do not know how many I will need to use but, I want to keep stock piled, starting now.”

The unicorn only saluted and went to work on gathering the needed stockpile. William decided to stop counting after sixteen rounds as he noticed the sky was changing. It was starting to turn into a twilight look and the distance made the forest appear less wild and more tamed in a manner like a small town was living in the area and the magic was under control. The twilight never grew darker, and yet it never grew lighter. William saw the looks of worry on the faces of the guards in the strange light of the moment. William smiled a little. “yeah, seems a little spooky, but we will win, They are only able to use this area, we can call in reinforcements.” he smiled a large as he can hoping to instill some confidence to them, the Nightmares might draw in reinforcements from the moon or elsewhere when it is like this, but for him. He had to take point now. “Okay ready, let’s engage this town and drive the enemy from the forest.” doing his best to sound touch and in charge.

He smiled unseen by the others as he heard their cries of affirmatives and the Chariot banked a little when from a small gold crystal Celestia’s voice came through. “William, you should start your attack, I cannot yet risk my troops in this light, get some light going.”

William nodded his head before speaking. “Read your loud and clear your highness, we shall engage shortly.” He called out as the Chariot banked more allowing William to see the town. To his shock it looked bigger than any fan drawing ever made it to be. Also he doubted that there had been a keep in the middle or the start of stone walls, or guard towers spread out around the town. William smiled a little. “I think we should take out those towers, they could give problems to your chariots.” He blinked as he thought that all the guard towers reminded him of the british towers you would build from Age of Empires II. He shook his head to clear his mind and to keep from getting side tracked.

He got no verbal response but he got a physical one as the chariot moved towards the closest ones. Which appeared to be two towers guarding a gate which he saw was shut tight. “Okay, here we go.” he muttered as he lifted the RPG again and fired it at an enemy for the first time in his life, the burst of golden magic seemed to light up the air and leave a trail of gold from the rocket to where William had fired, already they were moving away so it was pointing to mid air when the first rocket had hit. Even as it hit William had loaded another rocket and paused only to listen to stone being shattered and falling on one another. William took another shot at the other tower and loaded another rocket as that tower was hit before the stone gate was also hit sending stone and metal into the air. he looked as the sky got lighter where they were before he saw more of the nightmare fliers starting to fill the sky. “Celestia, I might need some Pegasi support.”





William nodded his head and leaned back as they came close to another tower that frankly shocked those inside just as much as those in the chariot that allowed them to escape from being pelted with whatever the weapon they had. William quickly loaded another round and as soon as the back was facing he leaned a little over the side and fired another shot.

The round hit the side of the building which caused it to fall sideways as it took out another crystal creating another patch of what Sunny Town really looked like. “Another opening into the town.” William shouted with a look of glee. He looked around and had to drop the RPG onto the ground and pick up his rifle yet again to fire on a group of Nightmares that were charging his chariot. “Great, the longer we go the more they see us as a danger priority.” He muttered.

At least he was about to fire when they were engulfed in a massive wave of fire as a streak of white flew past and another Monster feel to the ground as it bleed shadows from a gaping wound in one of its wings. The White blur slowed and their blazing like the noon sun was Celestia. She stayed still for a moment before charging forward into the fray once more.

William turned his head away from the memorizing moves that Celestia was making in the air. With Celestia in the area he actually could see the areas still being controlled by the Nightmares and without even speaking we went after another tower. William saw this was the third to last of the towers on this side of the town. Even as they moved their was a huge explosion near a secondary wall that threw stones as far into the air as they were.

“What?” William cried out loudly as his ears rang from the explosion.

“Methane charges.” His loader replied in a louder voice. “We have those for breaching doorways, it looks like we got a little stronger stuff this time.” He was smiling a little before his horn glowed a gold color and William’s hearing returned to normal. William gave a thumbs up as a thanks before lifted the launcher which had been loaded already. He looked at the unicorn that had been taking the rounds out of the box who gave him a smile.

William smiled back and pointed the Weapon to the tower that was in range. He took another breath and pulled the trigger. and watched another streak of gold fly to the tower only to watch it hit a shield that covered the entire tower.

“Right,” William muttered as he looked around. “I take it we will have to take out the Crystals-” Another explosion took place and another section of the town wall took flying lessons in different directions. As the debris fell to the ground there was a shaking boom from the remains of one of the towers in the real Sunny Town that rose in a dark foul purple cloud with specks of gold rising in the cloud.

“Never want to get you all mad I am starting to see.” William muttered as another explosion took another section of the town wall out. He noticed that the areas that they had cleared began to actually fade from the world leaving nothing but another charred black ground of death. Leaving nothing behind. William just stared in awe as the land that Celestia’s soldiers claimed took on nothing; not even a single stone was left strewn about. As he watched he saw wild grass also starting to eat away the dirt as well.

“Keep you eyes in the game. Just because we can’t-” The unicorn commander in the chariot fell silent as Celestia flew up to the side of the Chariot.

“here, I was able to create this based on the battle, they are the areas that we think the crystals are located. However the towers are the things that are holding the town to this plane. Keep opening up the towers and I can start destroying the anchors.” She tilted to fall back to the land. “But take the Crystals out for us.”

William only nodded his head as her troops acknowledge her. William for a moment got the thought of if this was how some of those support helicopter fighters felt? Maybe the Warthog pilots as well. He smiled a little at something from his past before loading another round and looked at the map that was now pinned in front of him. He saw sixteen remaining glowing dots with five more that were darkened. “Impressive map.” he muttered before looking at the map and then realized he could see where they were on the map as it was the only moving gold dot. He looked at the map a few times and the surroundings and Smiled as he pointed the RPG again at what to the air looked like a small plaza with a strange black shape in the middle. 

William sighted the RPG a little more carefully and fired again. He whooped when the gold explosion developed the entire plaza and then the black glowing dot vanished.

As he looked at the map again there were another sixteen red squares as well. These William in his head quickly deduced were the guard towers and the one closest to them just lost the black border. He hefted the launcher after it was loaded again by his very helpful unicorn and fired it at the base to the tower as they flew by it and all watched as the tower fell upon the now true state of Sunny Town. William looked at the map and pointed out ahead to where the next plaza should be as they continued to draw themselves closer to the keep in the middle that was launching yet another swarm of Nightmare Fliers.

William and the ground moved through a trying time, but due to overwhelming numbers of Celestia’s Solar Guards and the following of Volunteer groups. William and the other Chariots never encountered too heavy air trouble. While the other chariots had ground cover and supported the troops on the ground. William was their heavy attack chariot in that his weapon was so far the only thing that was able to take out the crystals and the towers in a timely manner. By the reckoning of those on the ground it was noon by the time the last of the towers fell and Celestia destroyed the anchor.

As the land began to fade of the buildings that once was the town. The middle keep that had remained silent suddenly began to glow and as the troops in the air and on the ground watched in horror more of the structure began to appear and expand. The map on the chariot also began to change and more glowing crystals and anchors appeared. William gulped a little as he had a feeling in his gut.

“Land the Chariot, I, I think we will need to assault the castle on hoof.” William whispered and tightened his grip on the side of the chariot as the Four Pegasus guards began to circling and done dove to land at where Celestia was already creating a command post.

William remain still as the chariot landed and slowly rolled to were Celestia was standing commanding troops and preparing for the assault on the castle. The chariot came to a full stop in front of Celestia and without much talking William walked off the back of the chariot and walked to Celestia. “Reporting in. I take it you need my weapons to take out the outer rings? I would guess that the outer ring of crystals and anchors need to be taken out to get to the center of the castle then?”

William looked at the map and the outlying guard towers of the castle. The castle had a large main complex with spoked walls and walkways leading from the center large building towards the six points on the outer guard towers. They all were behind a wall that was easily five stories tall with every stone in the building as black as night and gave a permanent air of an eery castle from the horror movies that would house the main villain or evil monster of said horror movie.

William looked at the map and his mouth twitched the towers looked to be both an anchor and crystal at the same time. He blinked as he felt a wing pull him back a little. He looked up and saw Celestia and she smiled a little as she moved back to the tent. She had a table and on it was a model of the castle built of magic. “Now,” Celestia spoke her voice strong, “The Anchors appear to be below the ground, however the Crystals are above the ground. She had a green circle appear near the top of the tower while a red square appears below the ground. “Now, we do not have much of a map for the interior so we can only assault the walls and castle.” She looked at her soldiers. “I want you all to protect William, He is at the moment the only one that can take out the anchors and Crystals. We will begin the assault in five minutes. I want you all ready to move by then.” She looked back at William. “I want you leading the charge.” She looked to the castle. “I am asking you for a very hard task. You have the only weapon that has enough power and surplus rounds to cause a dent in this monstrous structure.”

She looked at her men. “I want us to have a class one explosive charge at the main gate of the castle. I want a hole blown in all doorways they have. I will be calling in extra forces. We will have to secure the castle corridor by corridor.” She looked at her men. “The anchors are different than what we were facing in the town. So we have to be cautious.”

The soldiers all saluted. “Dismissed form up at the gates, William, I want you to start attacking the top of the walls with your RPGs, that hopefully will keep the Nightmares busy.”

William nodded his head. “Shall I gather the troops from the chariot I was in?”

Celestia only nodded her head before walking to another part of the camp. William quickly left and found the same soldiers around the chariot. He looked at them. “I need you all to come with me. We are going to soften up the target.”

The others only saluted and helped carry the crate to the side of the castle. WIlliam had the RPG loaded and he took a knee and aimed at the two towers that were at the shorter end of the rectangular wall. However to William’s and the others confusion there were also six gates that were between a set of two towers. There were two at each end with three along the long wall. These towers gave William an uneasy feeling as he slowed his breathing and sighted the top of the gates. He was aiming towards where soldiers could drop nasty surprises upon anything that might try and assault the gates.  He let out a breath and pulled the trigger as another gold stream of fire and smoke streaked towards the position and smiled as the weapon hit and exploded into the stone and mortar sending the stuff raining down as as well as flying.

To his shock there was another cry and from the other side came the resounding boom of more cannon fire. To William's left three Solar Pegasus took to the air to see what was happening. They seemed to see something before they turned and fell to the ground at a fast glide as they hit the ground in a full gallop as they met with Princess Celestia. William did not hear what it was that was spoken. He did turn back as the the sound of falling stone finished sounding all over the place. Already he could hear alarm bells being rung as the castle woke to the sudden attack. William without thinking quickly reloaded his RPG and aimed at the top of the tower and fired a rocket only to have it hit some kind of energy shield around the outer tower stones. He didn’t waste any more shots as he went back to loading another RPG and fired at the same place he had hit before but a little more to the left sending more stones falling and flying and as he loaded yet another RPG he heard the same barrage of cannon fire.

By this time Celestia walked towards William and waited for the booming of cannons to finish before speaking and holding a wing out to keep William from firing as he saw her troops race forward to the gate. “It appears my sister is attacking the north end of the castle with her own troops, while I had wished her not to get involved.” She stopped their and left the rest unsaid. 

William actually looked at the large wooden gate as it was blown to splinters leaving a gaping hole for them to rush through or to bottleneck any troops that were going to attack through the hole. William looked then at Celestia, “Yet I think you should let her do this, this can be therapeutic to her to let her attack and push back at the creatures that took a thousand years from a loving sibling relationship. So, I will say let invade, she will help split the forces in the castle and give us a means to push forward.”

Celestia only nodded slowly before she turned to a unicorn who had a horn at the ready with another nod at the guard the unicorn blew into the horn and the soldiers pushed forward. Unicorn Solar Guards were quick to raise miniature shields over groups of troops as they rushed the gateway. William was shocked when Celestia herself picked him up and placed her on his back. “I want you to fire your rocket at any groups of enemies once we are in. My magic shall protect you for the most part.” She didn’t wait for a phrase and took off at a gallop that was the same speed as William’s heavy weapons team as he was calling them.

They grew closer and closer to the forces only to have a cloud of Nightmare Fliers take off from the center castle keep. Without thinking William raised the RPG and fired off the round. It flew so fast at a rather thick cloud that it actually impacted one of the fliers who was not paying attention creating a mist of gold and black that grew out in a small ball of energy. There was a cry and the fliers were now flying right at them. “Oh snap.” William whispered as he found his rifle being floated up to him by Celestia. Without thinking William took the rifle and raised it up and fired a few shots at the cloud of enemies. He grinned a little too much he felt at the sound of cries of pain before he began to unleash a full automatic fire. The other Solar guards were soon battling in the air and William had to be a little more careful with his weapon fire now but still they were now fighting hard. Suddenly half of the cloud broke off and flew to the other end of the castle causing the cloud to fall back and allowed the Solar Guards to take the gate and the gate house. They were quick to dig in and use the debris as projectiles that the Battlemages were quick to use in throwing as well. In this chaos of battle William found himself dropped to the ground. Celestia looked down at William. “Go, take out these two towers and weaken the enemy.”

William only nodded his head and raced towards some stone steps leading to the battlements and the pathway to the targets. He smiled as he felt the RPG launcher bounce on his back as he held tight to the rifle as he threw himself to the ground on the steps and crawled up the final steps and saw a ground of Nightmare skeletons. Without thinking he pulled the RPG launcher off his back and pointed it at the enemy. He heard his weapons team members fall to the steps as well to avoid the back blast. He grinned and fired the RPG and saw the group of unicorn skeletons disappear into nothing. He also noted that the door they had come from was also torn apart. William looked and saw that there were no more enemies on the wall and with another quick burst of speed he took off to the door and placed himself against it. He took another deep breath before one of his guards in his team pulled a satchel off his back and handed it to him. William looked into the satchel and smiled. “My grenades.” He took one out and pulled the pin before he tossed it into the doorway and they all listened to it bounce down some steps before exploding. The group quickly rushed through the door that lead into the first tower. They found themselves in a ground floor that looked to have been a guard station. Most likely where the unicorn skeletons came from. William and the ground looked around and saw the stone steps that lead up to the top of the Tower and they saw another set of steps that curved down into the bottom of the tower and the location of where the anchor would be. William pointed to the steps that lead up and with his rifle at the ready they quickly moved to race up to the top floor.

What unnerved them was just how empty the tower was in their way up towards the Crystal. In fact they found nothing in any of the rooms in the tower that was something that could be considered an enemy. They found themselves in the final floor of the tower. The ceiling reached up into the rafters of the peaked roof. In the center of the room was a dark crystal that was in the shape of a three dimensional diamond. Around the outer walls were a kaleidoscope of colors of stained glass windows there were four windows that faced cardinal directions as directed by the compass on the floor. The compass was painted on the floor and the direction of north was facing towards the main castle building. William pulled out his own compass and looked at it. He saw that the magnetic north was in fact facing the opposite way. One of his guards gasped and stepped back as a arch of black energy shot from the crystal toward the main building. William with a bit of curiosity and having played a few Zelda video games felt like this was a puzzle. He got on his knees and looked at the arrow and smiled as he found something interesting. He looked up and saw a pole leaning against the wall.

“Can you get me that pole? I think we can use it to change the direction this arrow is facing.” he pondered a little. “Let’s see what happens if we point it towards the other tower, hopefully we can overload these towers.” 

The unicorn that had been helping with loading his RPG smiled and picked the rod up with his magic and quickly brought it over to William who took the rod and stuck it into the hole in the ground. William stood up using the rod as a support means to let him stand. He smiled and tugged on the rod but nothing happened so he pushed the rod and it began to move a little. He pushed harder and soon the platform he was standing on began to move as well with the sound of gears turning and tumblers moving. Suddenly the platform began to actually turn on its own before it locked into place facing the other tower and with a strange build up the crystal began to turn blue before shooting down causing the tower to shake and tremble a little as they heard the sounds of something crashing and shattering.

William in fear looked at his guards. “MOVE!” He yelled as they all took off towards the stairs and raced down them for fear of the castle was going to fall apart. However as they stepped onto the main floor metal spikes fell down blocking the exit and fields of magic covered the stairs up and down. In the middle of the room a dark ball of magic was pulsing and growing as it took the shape of a Lunar Guard but the shadows around it was bleeding off.

Red eyes opened and glowed as it growled in a beastial rage and launched an attack at the Solar Guards only to be stunned as William attacked it with his rifle. The magic ball at the heart of the being shattered after a few tense moments from the sudden rifle fire. William looked around as the traps faded or rose back into the ceiling. “Okay, seems these traps were not built for my weapon in mind. Sorry for breaking the atmosphere.”

The guards laughed a little. “Do not worry. I rather you cheat and save our lives then play by the rules that are here.” They slowly began stepped towards the tower when the ground shook again and from the basement a surge of dark blue magic surged over them and out of the walls. They quickly ran to the door and saw that the magic dome had spread out and cleansed a part of the castle. In fact the damage on half the gate appeared to be rebuilt in the new stone color of this tower. A Midnight indigo blue.

Celestia was still as she looked at the tower, an odd look in her eyes before looking at the Castle keep. William could see on the other side of the keep and the walls were swarming with Lunar Guards now. Their was another earth shaking boom and another tower turned from black to blue. He noticed something different from the towers and so he looked back at the tower he and the other members of the heavy weapons team had exited. “So this is Luna’s summer palace from before the war.”

The Solar Guards just looked at William. “Are you telling me that we are fighting at the site and birth of the Lunar Guards?” The small group of Guards paused at that realization.

William slowly nodded his head. “As we are destroying the anchors. I think we are going to return it to the normal location, after all do you not have a Solar Palace?”

The guards looks of worry was the only answer he got but it was enough for William to know that he had guessed correctly that Celestia had a Solar Palace, and that was the home of the Solar Guard. Just like at the moment they were fighting at the birth of the Lunar Guard. “Well,” William spoke with a grin. “let’s return the Lunar Palace to it’s proper hidden location.” He did not see the nervous looks of the guards that gave him an odd look before following him towards the other tower. The courtyard around the castle was being cleared before the monsters all retreated back into the castle as another tower fell to Luna’s forces.

Right as they were about to enter the tower Lunar Guards landed in front of them and flared their wings. “Only William Howard may pass beyond the doorway. The rest of you, please return to the courtyard and your Princess Luna will wish to speak to you all while WIlliam finishes this tower.”

William looked at the Lunar Guards with a little worry but he slowly nodded his head. The guards let him thru the doorway and as he turned around that returned to a guard formation outside the door.

The inside of the tower was just like the first tower that William had been in. Without even thinking he quickly moved to the top as the ground shook more as another tower was converted to Luna’s magic. William actually grinned a little at being part of history. He paused however and realized that he was never going to see the season finale of season three he looked out one of the small windows that would have allowed arrows to be fired off from the stairway and laughed a little. After all, why worry about missing the finale of a TV show when he was literally living in the world of Equestria and, he gulped and forced himself to keep moving he couldn’t dwell on the other problem of living in another world.

He got to the Crystal room and saw the rod already sitting in the floor and without thinking WIlliam began to activate the tumblers only to hear a screech and the stained glass window on his left shattered as two Flying Demons broke into the room for William to fight. William steeled himself as in his head somehow something began to play. He blinked as the music started to fill the room. The crystal glowing a Luna blue as it shed the blackness of the Nightmares. 

Cornered at the top of the tower William only smiled a little as he raised his rifle up. “You took me as a weakling who would grab at your poisoned honeyed words? I am not one who would seek power without cause. I have the power I have because I earned it with respect. I have been blessed by Celestia and Luna as a champion of the kingdom of Equestria. I may not have parades or armies under me. I don’t need those. All I need is the knowledge that I am doing right and that my actions will help even just one Pony, one Person, then I have the courage to fight.” He didn’t know why he said the next words the way he did but he raised the rifle at the confused Nightmare Fliers. “Take That!” he yelled as he dispatched both Nightmares as the music began to fade from room. William thought he heard a war cry as some kind of black flash of light occurred behind the unbroken stained glass window to his right. For a second he thought he saw a shape slam into the side of an object heading his way. He was shaken by the last event before he took a deep breath and went to pick up the discarded pole to activate the final tower. He smiled as the final gears locked into place as the crystal hummed to life and with a surge of power shot down into the heart of the tower.

The tower shook like the other times a heart have been freed from the anchor and he slowly walked down the stairs still on alert and fearful for any traps that might be in the main floor waiting for him. What did not expect was Luna in her full battle rattle waiting for him. Her eyes harsh till William stepped fully onto the floor. She spread her wings as her expression softened. “It seemed thou are diving further into my past then I had expected.” Her gaze looked off towards a wall but William had the idea she was reliving another memory. “I made this place mine when I become the dictator of the moon.” She paused and laughed a little. “I guess for you that word carries,” She paused and smirked at William locking eyes with him. “To me that name now carries baggage I do not like, yet it is an ancient title, my first title before Discord.” She sighed as she folded her wings and looked tired. “This was my personal retreat, my, place to go and think when the Everfree Castle became too much.” She shivered and bowed her head. “After we defeated Discord, we took full control of the cycle of the celestial bodies. We never figured out what Discord did, only that if my sister and I did not take full control the solar system upon which we live in would have torn itself apart. I took the moon, my sister the sun.” She looked at the clouds. “The pageant is wrong in one thing.”

William blinked and stepped forward. “Oh? How is it wrong?” William was actually curious about this.

“Oh, just that their were two small tribes of unicorns that were in charge of the sun and moon.” Luna actually laughed. “Even then, it was symbolic back then, before the windigos.” She moved to sit at the guards table on the first floor. “Thank you for not looting anything in my towers.”She added as she waited for William to sit on one of the wooden stools.

She waited for him to settle in before continuing. “When Discord was sealed, the magic he left was, horrible. We had much rebuilding. The Everfree Castle was built, yet, my sister and I had a problem. The mages of old were now declaring us their leaders.” She sighed as a tinge of anger seeped into her voice. “My sister took the Solar Mages in, they slowly became the nobility of today.” She looked downcast. “As for the ponies of the night, they had this keep away from the others to protect knowledge and keep themselves safe from those that wanted to use them.” She sighed. “Soon my Sister took to enjoying the praise and soon stopped trying to include me in everything of the praise and what not. As the Ponies were hard at work in the day, they all slept in the night forgetting about it, shunning it.” She grew dark in her expression as an iron horseshoe clapped the stone floor in anger. “Soon it really felt like the only ones left were the grandchildren of the original mages who still praised me for the night sky. Who taught me how to add my artistic touches to the night sky. I invented the Aurora Borealis, shooting stars to wish upon. Even stars and constellations to honor friends of both I and my sister. Then came the nobles who talked my sister into regulating my night sky. To tone down the sky’s vibrance and beauty.” She grew darker still in her eyes. “Then came the faction in my own people, the Black Suns and the original followers, my NIght Watch.” She grew sorrowful. In the same night I became Nightmare Moon, the Black Suns attacked and killed my loyal Night Watch so that they could not use any emotions to free me from the Nightmare’s grasp.”

William blinked at a small memory. “They never gave you credit for the Crystal Empire.” William pulled back suddenly in fear of being hit. 

Luna only looked at William and nodded sadly. “Yes, that was one of the final crossed lines.” Luna however smiled a little. “As such in a fit of anger long ago, I made a promise that my sister would never see the inside of my palace. My sister did not make the same promise and tried many times to invite me to her Solar Palace.” She sighed but her eyes remained hard. “That is why I asked her to leave the grounds, and, I must ask thee as well, while you are a Lunar Guard, you are not fully one, nor even a full Moon Beam. I,” she paused and William caught a blush this time. “I do hope to change that soon, but it will cost you when you re=enter the gates.” She leaned forward. “I need you to tell me about your own past, your passions, things like that. I am better at bottling up your memories, but memories are cheating in a way.” She moved and began to walk before looking at him with a cheeky look as William moved to walk out of the room as well. “Oh no you don’t, my sister got to let you ride on her back into battle, then let me escort you out like the hero you are.”

Without waiting for William’s response she pulled him up into the air in her magic before placing him on her back and smiled as she walked out the door and causing William the need to duck a little. As they exited the doorway he saw that the sun was passing the halfway mark in the sky. Outside their were only Lunar Guards who were standing around in the courtyard. As soon as they saw William on Luna’s back they all moved to attention until Luna made a motion with one of her wings. At that the guards all began to shout and cheer and to William’s amazement the towers responded to the cries of the Lunar Guard and Luna’s graceful walk down the steps. The Towers began to pulse the same colored magic as Luna’s horn and each pulse sent an afterglow further and further towards the middle building as the entire time the guards continued their cheering. William leaned in and smiling whispered his own words. “I am proud of you.” It was those small words that caused a thunderclap of energy and sound as the towers threw a large amount of magic at the center keep and with a shattering of glass the rest of the stones that were black turned to the color of Luna’s coat. As he watched the courtyard began to fill with flowers and fauna that were hauntingly beautiful and he was sure he heard the sound of a fountain starting to run again. Luna stopped suddenly as the words registered with her mind. 

She  smiled softly as she turned her head to William. “Thank you.” She whispered back before she took William in her magic and lightly lifted him off her back and placed him on his feet. As he did so she looked to her left and a Lunar Guard walked forward his horn red with magic and a box was glowing red as well. Luna slowly took the box in her magic and looked at William with a grin. “William Howard, for actions today in sealing the Sunny Town rebellion of Nightmares, as well as returning to me, and my men our true heritage.” She opened the box and there inside it was a metal feather that hung horizontally by a moon white ribbon that had a metal rectangle with the awards name in Equestrian at the top where it pinned to one’s uniform. The shape and design was of Luna’s primary feather. “I wish to award you the Royal Lunar Primary Feather.” She spoke with firmness. “While you might not have thought so, you had the legal and full rights to refuse to fight here, to even stay behind the front lines, instead you committed yourself and your tools of war to our cause and allowed a swift victory that saw relatively few casualties.” She took the feather and placed it upon William’s chest  She grinned a little. “Now, go on, we shall escort you to the gates where I am sure my sister has questions to ask of you. Answer her fully, it will come hopefully with less emotion and sting from you and not I.”

William only saluted Luna with a US salute before her guards began to lead him out. As Luna watched that she was finding an odd sensation in her chest that should could not fully place. She sighed as a small fear crept into her mind which was hoping she didn’t make a fool of herself doting on him too much. She paused at the thought and made a mental note to speak to somepony later about what she was feeling. She turned and faced her Troops while opening her mouth and taking a breath to speak.