Chapter 40
Princess Celestia landed on the deck of her military’s flagship. Shocked crew abandoned their duties and snapped to attention. The ship sensed her presence and automatically hailed her with an ostentatious fanfare. She strode energetically to the nearest hatch, which flung open before her, and took the stairs down. One would not have known from its overwrought appearance, but the decorated passage descended between the envelopes of volatile gasses. She entered the main hull, and followed the familiar halls toward the command deck, ignoring the honors of the officers she encountered.
At last she reached the bridge. Thick, reinforced glass allowed a panoramic view out the front of the ship. Behind this, command surfaces bristled with buttons, dials, and radio receivers. Further back was an open space for high-ranking officers to confer and make decisions. The great white ruler came in by the door in the back of the room. To her surprise, it was empty, save for a single unicorn. General Armor waited with his back to her.
“General, order all of our forces to hold fire and cease their advance,” she ordered as she approached him.
Hydraulics hissed as metal bars shot up through the floor, tearing holes in the ornamental mahogany and impacting the ceiling with a sharp clang. The powerful alicorn moved to defend herself with her magic before they could close in around her, but her horn flashed violently and blinded her. She felt drained and oppressed. The bluish bars hummed eerily and ribbons of her own energy swam about the charged cylinders. It was a disenchanting prism, and it was not in the original design of the ship.
“I can serve you better than that,” the General contended. “I won this victory over the heretics, and no one’s going to take away my revenge.” He broadcast on the master frequency, “Attack, and show no mercy. Celestia is with us. Kill her enemies, and cleanse this land!”
“I’ve crushed Nightmare Moon’s rebellion,” he boasted. Stepping close to his trap, he recalled, “That is all you wanted.” He leaned his horn into the boundary of the prism and caught a wandering ray of his sovereign’s energy. “Almost all you wanted,” he insinuated.
“Now I am here, and you have won. I don’t want any more of this war,” she asserted.
“Not after those nightsiders have made you what they wanted,” he countered. “They tried to take everything from me.”
Celestia breathed deeply, and confessed, “They did nothing for you to avenge. I—I killed your mother, not them. Every awful thing that happened to you was me, not them. I’m sorry. Please let them live, and I’ll be yours, whatever you want to do with me.” A strange thought crossed her mind, that she might not really be available to offer herself, but she did not voice it. She only said, “I’m sorry for everything.”
“That was you?!” General blurted. His eyes darted back and forth inside their golden sockets as he processed the new information and connected his scattered thoughts. After a pause, he said, “Thank you.” He could see in her surprise that Celestia did not understand what he meant.
He elaborated cynically, “The worst thing that could happen to me is to be mollycoddled, or homesick, or do something stupid like find true love. You set me free, you gave me a chance to take my destiny.”
“You should never have had to endure all the pain and spite I forced on you. You don’t have to be what I turned you into.” She looked with compassion on the pierced and wounded colt trapped in his prison of armor. “You don’t want to be like me—I don’t want to be like that anymore,” she disagreed ruefully. She pleaded with him insistently, and even smiled, “I found a hope for us. You can change. You can undo what I did to you.”
“Why?” he responded with disdain. “You made me better—then I made me a god, by my will. I’ll punish the heretics, even if that includes you. What happened to you? I wanted to finally tame you, but you disappoint me again. You’ve already been tamed! I must have stolen your indomitable spirit. Perhaps you passed more of yourself to me than you wished. The strong will die before they submit. Now I am the strongest, but you are weak!”
“Would you submit to love?” she implored.
“Love is a joke, you taught me that,” he shot back.
She shook her head. “I was wrong. I was drowning in my own will, but then I gave myself over to love.”
“You know how you used to manipulate me—with power, not this simpering drivel,” he sneered.
“Then stop the fighting because you need me to raise the sun,” she tried to correct.
“I can make you do anything,” he scoffed. “I’ll find the real Celestia in you, or you’re dead to me.”
The Lunar army had finally been driven from the city; forced up the side of the triple mountain, they had taken what little shelter was offered by the scattered pines and boulders to make a last stand protecting their leader’s magical endeavor. The third Lunar ship had made its defensive circuit, and returned heavily damaged. The fourth was just turning back as Celestia suddenly appeared with the day. In the fresh light and turn of events, the Solar troops balked at the edge of the rubble. The battle paused with confusion at the sight of the Solar Empress emerging from the Lunar lines. Tentative hope was held out that the bloodshed was finished.
Just as suddenly as it stopped, the fighting resumed as the Imperial forces pushed forward once again. The remnants of the NLRA no longer had anything to guard, and would have escaped sideways along the mountainside, but the enemy tanks had driven around the city and moved to cut them off. The fourth Lunar vessel presented a conspicuous target in the morning sun. It soon took hits and fell onto the slope. The crew managed to vent the gases and prevent it from becoming a deadly fireball, but it was little consolation; the armada continued to viciously pound the hulk.
The Rough Riders had mixed with other units in front of the cave’s gate. The enemy infantry tested their new line, but did not make a full assault across the exposed ground, matching their foes in seeking out what cover the landscape had to offer. They would hold the Lunars in a protracted shootout until the tanks arrived. The country crack-shots got the better of the exchange in the brief window before their inevitable destruction. The Imperials managed to set up a machine gun in the rocks opposite the Apples’ position and threatened to keep them helplessly pinned down as armor approached.
Applejack waited and listened in her crater-foxhole. She watched the approaching tank with building fear—would it arrive before she could do as she planned? The machine gun fell silent while the Solars fed in a new belt of ammo. “Now!” she barked, and sprinted with Big Mac across open ground. They reached the shelter of a large boulder just as the enemy fire resumed. The Apples unslung their weapons and Applejack leaned her rifle on the top of the rock. She looked back to make eye contact with Pinkie Pie, who peeked apprehensively out the side of the barricade. A mechanical rumble grew louder and brought the clack of tread.
To her brother’s surprise, the major threw down her prized hat. Pinkie understood, and with a shout she jumped up in the air, throwing out confetti. The machine gun turned its wrath to her position as Applejack came above her cover to take steady aim. She released her breath and pulled the trigger. The gunner below fell back from his weapon.
Big Mac got up and shouldered the rocket launcher. His wound made him wince, and his usually steady hoof shook. The tank drove up past the boulder and started the ignition on its flamethrower. At the last moment, the missile burst into flight briefly and exploded against the vehicle. The tank sputtered and went silent.
The crew scrambled out of the smoke filled interior, and Big Mac laid aside the launcher in favor of the Solar submachine gun he had taken. As Applejack watched the tank commander struggling to lift the injured driver out of the death trap, she could only think of Rainbow Dash. She put out a hoof to stop her brother, saying, “Not this time.” Then they ducked back down as another enemy took hold of the deadly gun below them.
Luna, Twilight and Rainbow Dash were surprised to find the fight so near to them, but joined the stand in front of the mountain’s gate. Luna was too conspicuous a target, and was compelled to shelter behind her wrecked vessel. She was tired from holding the sun, but could still contribute to the defense with her magic. For a moment she quickly appeared around the prow and rolled a threatening tank backwards down the mountainside. After that, however, she drew so much fire that she was unable to show herself again. She had done as she ought, but now, it seemed, all was lost. She began to consider whether she could lead the enemy to pursue her away from her loyal troops.
The Imperial fleet moved forward and prepared to carpet bomb the trapped troops. The weakened Lunar ships charged out boldly with the thought that their Princess might somehow escape, but such a maneuver would be short lived.
Captain Dash and Twilight hunkered behind a low rise, still identifying with the Solar soldiers and unsure how to act. As the attack intensified, Twilight began helping the few NLR unicorns stop the bullets that rained down on their position so that fewer ponies would die before the battle ended. To her dismay, the Rough Riders around her took advantage of the shelter she provided to take steady and confident aim against their attackers. Twilight yelled out to no one, “Why doesn’t it stop?!” After a moment holding her ground in the face of the continuing madness, a blue streak impacted the ground beside her.
Rainbow Dash flew out from her hiding place and pulled her friend down into cover before the sniper could zero in with a second magic round. Twilight raised her voice over the din of battle, “Something’s wrong! It should have stopped by now!”
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, “What’s taking Celestia so long? Won’t Shining Armor listen to her?”
“I don’t know, but he’s my brother, and I should be up there,” Twilight said with gathering resolve.
“This obviously isn’t our battlefield. Go, I’ll be right behind you!” Dash launched up vertically out of the chaos towards the Imperial Sovereignty. After lining up on the moving target, Twilight exerted herself to teleport across the wide gap into the command deck.
Rainbow Dash arrived on the deck just after Twilight reached the ship. A machine gunner covering the top of the vessel trained the weapon on her but held off the trigger at the sight of Dash’s solar insignia. The gunner turned back and fired a volley at the Lunar pegasi who dodged about, escorting the last of the torpedoes. Dash ran over to him and shouted, “Stop shooting, idiot!” before bucking him away across the deck. Before anyone on deck could react, she had disappeared down a hatch into the interior of the vessel.
Twilight saw an unfamiliar room materialize around her and—Celestia, somehow imprisoned! She took a step toward her Princess before a purple light caught her from the side. The General slammed her into the wall with an intense burst of levitating magic. She fell to the floor and was unable to rise.
“I knew you’d come back, sis!” he growled. “Why did you have to ruin her for me?” he motioned to his disavowed ruler. “I’ll find a way to fix her, but I guess if I’m going to get you back I’m going to have to kill all your Lunar friends.” He extended a blade from his leg guard and put it against her neck. “Say uncle, sis. I would have had a special place in my empire for you. Now look what you’ve done. I don’t want to have to kill my little sister, but if you’re a traitor you’re not family.”
Rainbow Dash burst into the room. “What are you doing to Twilight?!” Dash exclaimed. Her temper flared up and her protective instinct kicked in; she drew Applejack’s pistol and picked up speed. Rainbow Dash galloped straight for the General, firing shot after shot.
The golden General braced himself and took every hit unflinching. The bullets ricocheted off his formidable armor.
“She’s mine, not yours!” he declared. He lowered his horn and pulled Dash through the air. Combined with her momentum, the pull sent her towards the cruel spike at blinding speed. Captain Dash drew on her martial arts training she had received as an elite Solar Pathfinder. She twisted through the air and brought a flying karate kick down on the villain’s head.
She had never delivered a kick this fast on something this hard. General Armor fell sideways and Dash bounced to the front of the room. She winced at the searing pain in her hind leg. The general growled and squinted through his blood. The metal warrior regained his hooves and hurled a violent wave of magic energy at her. Dash pulled herself behind a control panel as the floor behind her tore open and a pane of the command deck’s window blew out. Dash peeked around the other side of the console to assess the situation, shooting a glance from the fallen Twilight to the trapped Princess. “You should be the last to betray me, Loyalty!” he fumed. She ducked back as another blast ripped by.
She flew up and towards the General, who swiped at her with a heavy hoof. She rolled around him in mid-flight and reached out for the button in front of the disenchanting prism. A second blow caught her in the chest and sent her smashing back to the deck, but she had met her objective.
The flashing ribbons of blue light evaporated and the bars pulled back into the floor. The General now stood facing an indignant Celestia. As she lit her horn, he levitated an “Even Justice” to himself from a hidden compartment. It snapped into his hooves and he seized on the trigger in an instant.
A pink flash mixed with the fire from the muzzle of the rifle; Twilight stood firm where she had appeared and stared him down until her eyes rolled back. She tumbled to the ground and rejoined the streak of blood that stained the deck behind her.
“Twily, I—“ the General stammered, holding the smoking gun to the side in a moment of disbelief. Suddenly he glared up at Celestia and shouted, “You did this!”
He chambered another dragon bullet, but not fast enough. Celestia quickly cast a simple spell on him. Small objects fell to the floor—bloody nails—and he also dropped the gun involuntarily as the muscles in his leg spasmed. The armor plating fell from his front leg and shoulder. “No—no!” he stammered as he understood.
The reborn Princess stepped toward him and gently unraveled him with her magic. More nails and cruel hooks lifted out from his skin and screws turned backwards. The massive metal scales slid off of him and clanged to the floor; he collapsed as he was exposed. The blade of his horn was set in the bone. He was in agony as she heated it to that she could safely pull it out. She stood over Twilight and looked down at him.
“Shining Armor, I release you. The part of me that I put in you by force, I’m taking back.” She leaned over and touched her horn to his, inducing it to glow. They endured an awful, intimate sharing of minds and magic. The light that welled up from him disappeared into her horn as she called to everything in him that belonged to her. At last, within the light, streaks of darkness emerged, and Celestia shuddered as she repossessed them. She disengaged, leaving him almost lifeless, though she knew he would survive.
“I won’t let you die because of me,” she told him, and looked down at Twilight with tears. “And you can’t either!” She picked up her faithful student and exerted all of her magic energy to keep the waning life in her hooves from fading. Reaching into the body with her feelings, she kept blood from leaving the veins, made the heart keep beating, and pumped the lungs. Still concentrating on her fragile armful she opened her wings and flew out into the war-torn sky.
Dash picked herself back up and watched her stricken superiors depart. Regaining herself from waves of sadness, she pounced on the radio and broadcast, “By orders of Princess Celestia, all batteries hold fire! Stop shooting! Close the bomb bay doors and hold position!”
Celestia’s majestic presence swooped in between the battle lines and implored the Solar troops to desist. She darted from tanks to charging soldiers, still cradling the purple unicorn and wailing, “Stop dying! Stop dying!” Her booming voice carried her eerie and mournful cry all around the mountainside. The gunshots dropped off, battle cries and orders died to a hush, and engines shifted to neutral. Both sides stood in shock as Luna stepped into the open to meet her distraught sister. Luna brought them down to where the NLR medics took shelter from the soldiers that had been overrunning them.
The fighters on both sides held their weapons uncertainly as their leaders disappeared together without explanation. Luna emerged shortly to mount the blasted wreck and announce above the stilled carnage, “The war is over! Tend to the wounded! Drop your guns and tend to the wounded!”