//------------------------------// // Episode 133 (Shining Armor): At The End Act One: Doomsday? // Story: Pony POV Series Season Six: Dark World/Shining Armor // by Alex Warlorn //------------------------------// 17 At The End Act One: Doomsday? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Then...here we are.) What? (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):...You mean you're not just waking up and thinking this was a dream?) No... (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Horseapples...And you can question who we are?) Yes...Why shouldn't I? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):..That complicates things...) What's going on?! (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):We've caught up. Ya told us everythin' that happened up ta now.) But...You've been listening to me all this time, here! That can't have just happened. If it did what... ...What happened next? I don't remember what happened next. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Because it's about to happen. That's what we're here to try and find out.) Aren't we on the ship? I had to leave the room twice! I borrowed a Game Colt! (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):The mind is powerful, Shining. Time can be slowed or sped up.) ...So I'm dead or dying and the last thing I'm imagining is this? My life before my eyes except in interview format...Bucking figures I wouldn't evendie normally. It's meant to just be 'pop - dead- oblivion' but no, I get interviewed in my mind by three ponies I just invented for no apparent reason? (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Well, this could have gone a lot better...) (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):Ya ain't dead, ya ain't dyin', and ya didn't make us up!) That's exactly what I'd expect imaginary ponies to say. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Look, logic's good but use different logic! Is it so hard to accept you're out cold or something? So hard to accept that you're being interviewed for real the only time we can really get to you at the moment?) Alright, I'll humor me. Where do I claim you came from? (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):Um, if we say it might...change things.) Figures. Shining Armor, you bucking plothole, why are you doing this to yourself? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): But we can say that we're not imaginary, we're not ghosts, this is not a dying dream...the best way I can describe us is-) (Interviewers Notes (Earth Pony):Yah know how in stories there'll be a little alicorn on somepony's shoulder tellin' 'em tah do the right thing?) Yes... (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):That's pretty much us. Except kinda mixed with the Watchers from Marevel.) ...Okay, admittedly, that's not the strangest thing to ever happen to me. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Your timeline, your existence, is in flux. Unstable. There's a version of you about a year or two from now that might not even be you. That version is like say a sketch, and you are inking your way to him. He is you but he doesn't have all your memories. We came back from then to now because, this is the only place on your timeline we found where you seem to be properly inked in, from the night you were promoted to now, and inking backwards as you came. Some of the things you've been talking about didn't happen as far as we knew, and we don't know why.) ...What? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):It's like a trench. It's being filled with water from the middle, and it's flowing both ways. But there's a blockage here, and so the other end doesn't flood there's a block on the other side, about five years in your past. Everything else is still incomplete, not filled. And at any time someone could just fill the whole trench in.) ...I think I get what you're trying to say but why is it flowing faster backwards than forwards? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):It's just a metaphor.) Okay, so...You're not normal ponies at least. Figured. Can you tell me what's really happening or should happen then? (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):...We can't. We thought we knew how it all shoulda went but the first you we checked with seemed wrong. Unfinished...We kept lookin' and then we found this big mess in the timeline and realized we'd been lookin' somewhere still bein' built.) (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): But even if we really knew what was happening or what should happen we can't tell you. If you knew you might wind up changing things and causing them to go wrong. Like all mortals, you're still making choices that are leading into the future and affecting the future. If we tell you a future that we think should happen, you could either try to avoid the future we told you, or try to complete it, preoccupying yourself so much with the end result, you don't focus on the present.) What does it matter? Surely if I flub it in one timeline you can go into another. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Clever, but no. You're the only Shining Armor that's being completed in timelines we can access. The rest of the time there is no Shining Armor or you're just a placeholder on the timeline waiting for a complete you to catch up. The future-you, he's almost entirely for the moment because he only exists in that moment technically. You exist in the past and present, but not yet the future...And we need to be certain. We move up and down the trench and try nudge things in the 'right' direction, but we can't control the future.) ...This is hurting my head more than the rifle butts. Unless it is the rifle butts actually. (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):Hopefully yer wakin' up.) What now though, are you guys gonna be in my head the whole way? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):We'll try to stay with you through this. You helped us get through our darker moments.) Huh? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):After this, we don't know. Maybe this will be it and you'll be you in the future once the Shadow of Chernobull never was. No wolf, no Makarov, your place cemented.) Why am I even in flux in the first place. Ugh! Okay, feeling pain, means I'm alive for now...You three there? (Interviewer's Notes (All):Yes.) Okay, uh, my eyes don't seem to be opening at the moment. No, hang on, there's a bag on my head. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Hey, but can you put that in past tense?) ...I've got a bucking bag on my head, every bit of my body hurts, and you want past tense for things I only realized half a bucking second ago?! (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Please?) Gha, how am I even seeing puppy dog eyes, you're in my head and there's a bag on it! (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):The mind's eye and mind's ear can see and hear at different speeds to the body.) Fine, fine. Why can't this be present tense anyway? (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Because we're sorta half a second into your physical future, existing just outside normal time in order to-) ...Wait, that theory is actually true? Blinkersvitch Limitation Effect, any means of observing the past without physically being there means... (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Okay, how about it's easier for us to write down that way?) ...Works for me. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Also, Blinkersvitch is about temporal paradoxes preventing you crossing your own timestream and it has to a limited extent been disproven because mild interactions are possible - his original theory was they were completely impossible, but normally they create stable time loops and-) Yeah, yeah, what theory was I thinking of then? (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):Colteshav's Second Theory. First is better known as Narrative Casuality, Second is sometimes called Narrative Accident and Emergency.) ...Casuality, there's an I! (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):It's just a pun! Half the cities on the planet are named after puns, so deal with it!) Yeah, but this time stuff is already confusing. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Shining, stop thinking about the timey wimey stuff.) But I- (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Timelines get confusing for us, do yourself a favor and stop thinking about it before your head explodes.) Feels like it already has...Okay, so, right, you guys are half a second in the fut... (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus, Unicorn, Earth Pony):WE'RE WRITING IT DOWN, THAT'S WHY IT'S PAST TENSE!) ...But that isn't even true. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus, Unicorn, Earth Pony):IT'S TRUE ENOUGH STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.) Sheesh, fine, fine, you're writing it down and that's why even though I only just got kicked in the stomach there I have to say I was kicked instead of GHA. (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):Existence Eater, whole world in danger! Ring any bells?) I just got kicked in the stomach, darn it! (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Good, past tense, now you're getting it!) You mean I got it surely? (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):We can use present tense talking to you.) Okay, fine. I just started to wake up when someone rudely kicked me in the stomach while I was arguing in my head with three ponies who apparently need to write it down so it actually happened or something. Couldn't you guys not write it down, make it not happen? (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):We never said us writing it down meant it happened!) Oh, so- (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):I mean, it technically does mean that but how'd you realize it?! Oh, and us not writing it down won't help, sorry.) ...Was talking with you always this confusing? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Normally, ponies don't notice us being there as strange. It's not in their context to be able to question it, but...for the same reason the Wolf is after you, you can.) Okay. Wait, if this is all happening in my head in half a second could I talk to you guys like it was a pause menu and I can think?! (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Maybe, but if you speak to us and pause to think time might get bored and keep going. After all you're kind of...different from most ponies in a temporal sense. You can talk to us, but, er, it won't really slow things in reality down for you to think but it won't distract you either, this is kind of half a second in the future so all you can really do is-) You mean you're writing it down? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Look, what I mean is you can't use us as a time out because everything you think at us already happened and if you try to stop and think whatever you're trying to think about is still happening so unless you have time in the real world all we'll do is record you thinking about thinking and that won't go anywhere unless you in the real world can actually complete the thought process to begin with!) (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): NOW I'M CONFUSED!) ...I should probably stop asking questions and focus on saving the world. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Good idea. Only took you twenty minutes.) Half a second. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Focus on stopping the Apocalypse!) I groaned, not feeling very happy. My head felt sore, not just because of the beating, and I'd just been kicked to wake me up all the way instead of the half-daze I'd slipped into. I winced as light flooded my eyes. As my eyes adjusted I winced again, Makarov was staring right at me. It seemed it was just me and him in the back of a rather cramped helicopter. I also had a necklace on, and my barding was gone. I presumed the necklace was why I felt completely empty of any ability to use mana.... ...Where was everypony else? "...I preferred the bag, but maybe you could try wearing it," I said. Getting him angry's still a good idea, right? (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Can't hurt, he's said he won't kill ya, yet, he might hit you. It might still weaken him though.) "I'd hit you for that but the bag won't fit over my magnificent antlers. I'm already amazed it fit over your massive head. I'm surprised that despite your devotion to your minions you keep endangering them with this combative approach to our discussions. And with Gag now dewinged...the medic is skilled even though she herself is a bit sore from the beating she received. He is in good hooves, but alas, she only has her hooves...and the power of love. I think he may be in trouble." He then hit me anyway. "...Saw...that...coming," I wheezed. "Of course you did, I took the bag off your head!" "...'S a metaphor." "No, it's a bag!" Sweet Celestia, he'd already sampled my sarcasm! "I can be witty and sarcastic too, Sparkle. I don't need any part of you or your idiot friends for that. I've met many with such...talents as you in that area. But none with your shield potential. Seeing your full strength back at the village in Nambutu, that has made me sure I have selected a perfect candidate for my nemesis! All good heroes need a nemesis, to defeat utterly!" "...So why'd you decided to become a monster instead? You were blank slate when they let you out of Pandora's Box right? You could've become anything, why a monster?" He seemed back to normal rage now, jumping up and down before using his antlers to slap me. He opened his mouth to say something, but he seemed to keep coming up with blanks. I think he finally settled on 'rage quit and move on'. "...As I was saying, every hero needs a nemesis, and I honestly expected a little more from you, Sparkle." "Little more what?" "A little more fight! You surrendered so easily...because your patsies were at risk! You could have won there and then but like all villains you let a weakness take you, you stopped to do something foolish rather than take your shot at victory!" "Do you even listen to yourself? You don't even have any clue what's really happening!" He chuckled. "Oh, but I do. Reality, pesky reality... Or should I say stupid dog. You considered the risks, the risks of reality. Had I just killed you, your thugs would be dead, but that's not satisfyingly heroic. I am to be a ruler, loved by all, not just some common killer that swats away a minor threat. My victory must be over a powerful force, like you!" "The killer in Whinny 4 was more original than you, Makarov, at least she actually looked like a good guy before her plan was revealed. Let's see, you slaughtered a village, I helped save it, you turned innocent ponies into cyborgs, I freed one...Hehe," I actually laughed. Makarov snarled. "What is so funny?" "...You don't know how to be a hero at all, do you? You seriously don't realize how much of a villain you act like, do you?" He then smiled. "It's all in the name of the Greater Good in the end. That is my heroism. All I do is for the benefit of which most needs it...Me. I am the Greater Good! I have kept the dream of the Hooviets alive and I am now their dream. I am virtually a god in my own right, and I will first free the mortal world of the shackles of the old gods, then I will defeat them myself. The creators will live long enough to see their own creations kill them but be powerless to stop me. Reality has limits...And I can undo those limits. You have a full strength and I will stop it. I will change reality to fit my whims, not the other way around!" "Really? Reality doesn't work the way you want it to? Welcome to the club," I sighed. I was beginning to think his answer to every argument was 'give overly dramatic speech that I saw in a movie.' (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Given he's essentially a shadow whose only imagination is stolen from others, are you that surprised?) Not really, I'm half expecting to see him start eating film reels for more material. He just grinned. "How about a demonstration, how reality thwarts my true greatness?" He opened the door of the helicopter, a side panel. I'd been too low down to see out any of the small windows, but now I could see the helicopters were skirting around a battle about ten miles away. Hooviet warships had locked antlers with an allied fleet, and losing. I saw a Columbian Reaper class broadsiding a smaller Hooviet vessel. "You're getting your flank kicked. Don't worry, you're a General even with all your ships gone." "That is not my demonstration, but you're right, that is not going as I desire. Still, those ships, this damage, it makes the victory sweeter. Observe. You see my pair of Battlecruisers, the Kirov classes. They should have been able to swarm over the frigates and start harassing the main enemy line as we charged instead of being halted, but the Columbians and the Ponsians blocked their advance with their infernal light airships. My Typhoon-class Destroyers were overwhelmed by the Neighponese Gojira-class Cruisers having free reign as a result. They weren't supposed to use tactics, they were meant to sail up and die as we simply advanced!" "...I'm sorry, I don't understand fleet engagements," I said honestly. All I knew was, every explosion and cloud of smoke was probably half a dozen souls snuffed out. There seemed to be dozens of large airships slugging it out, a disorganized melee, but apparently there was some sort of strategy at play...by the Allied forces. Their ships seemed better spaced even to me. The Hooviet plan apparently had been to just charge in madly. Select all, attack one unit, like a bad RTS player not caring about the 'unit lost' chime never stopping because he's still selecting parts of his tank rush rather than micromanage a smaller force. I knew nothing about air-fights, and yet a guy with Admiral in his job title seemed to know even less. "Still, your helicopters don't seem to do well. Kind of worrying, the allies break through they'll shoot us down-" "Oh, but some of them are going to break through." "W-what?!" I'd been joking! (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):You probably shouldn't have said that joke out loud around the parasite who steals ideas from anything he can get his hooves on and makes it real.) ...If I wasn't still tied up, I'd have face hooved. "Fear not. Not only are these Hind helicopters far superior to the Hound or Hip you watch in the battle before you, but my plan is - I will beat the enemy light airships with my bare hooves!" He cracked his neck and gave that smug smirk of his. "That's utterly-" "Kirov reporting! General-Admiral, some of the light airships harassing us have broken off! Our diversion has failed!" "You did your duty well. Die with honor, Kirov! I shall deal with your mistake!" "Th-thank you, General-Admiral! You all heard him, we will not fail a second time!" "...Madness," I said, watching a wing of SF-1 airships zooming towards us, skimming the treetops to attack us from below. "General-Admiral, should we break formation, we have incoming!" Another helicopter asked. "No. We shall keep on our course. We were delayed by our detour enough. I shall deal with these flies." "But General-Admiral-" "I said I shall deal with them. We will not retreat." I could almost feel him bending the pilots to his will, forcing them to obey even though it made no sense. "Now watch, my nemesis!" And he jumped out of the helicopter. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):When'd he grow wings?) He didn't (surprisingly), he just jumped...and drew his gun, a rocket launcher, and a huge katana. The Columbian airships began firing rockets at the helicopters and he just shot them all down! They fired volley guns at him as he fell, he swung his sword and deflected every shot, before he landed on one and kicked it! It crumbled below him, but he used it to jump back into the air somehow. He fired the rocket, throwing the tube away even as another SF-1 exploded, before he just blazed his gun away at a third, about a dozen shots making it just hover for a second then disintegrate in a fireball. Then it got crazier. As he fell, he landed on a fourth SF-1, stabbing his sword into the cockpit. He ripped the roof off, pulled the dead pilot out, then stole it in mid-air. He swung it towards the others, firing rockets into their backs, killing the other four with ease. Then a dragon appeared out of nowhere. He jumped out, onto the roof and using his telekinesis to control the airship, flying right at the dragon. He fired his gun, the dragon actually recoiling from the hits. Then he jumped off, the airship slamming into the dragon's face. He swung his katana so fast it was like a hundred blurs at once, kicked off the dragon's back, and landed back in the helicopter, crouching down...as behind him the dragon began falling apart. A single drop of blood fell from his katana. Then the dragon just exploded. No spark, no bomb, it just blew up. I was lost for words for a second. "...What the buck was that?! That's impossible!" Makarov smirked. "Yes. Now watch." I kept staring, the falling airship wrecks slamming into the trees behind us, clouds of smoke...vanishing away. The cloud the dragon left behind vanished too. "You see, fate knew I could not do that. So it undid it. That infernal Psoglov, the creature the rebels call the Stalker. I must either focus on an event to keep it, or he devours it." He tapped his chin. "It's almost interesting, truthfully. In the Hooviet Empire, a civilization that is no longer supposed to be, while fate is still there, it is less strict, it lets me get away with more...but in Ponyville..." I snarled. He laughed. "Oh, yes, I did try to get your little sister here to join us, sent a squad of soldiers a few times." He just watched me. No matter how much it angered me, I decided that I wasn't going to let him see me squirm. "...But the Psoglov seems quite protective of that place. The moment my troops stepped hoof there, the Psoglov would erase their guns and make them pacifists. I suppose the Shadows favor you ponies, don't they? Can't have Deer and guns in a 'sweet, little idyllic town' like Ponyville." I remembered what Dima had say about having to 'play by the rules' in Ponyville. I guess this is what he meant. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):It's hard to explain, but essentially...the timeline has split off from the roots for you before everypony else. Until that link breaks, Ponyville is bound to it, more strongly than you and Makarov are.) That's somewhat unnerving. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Hence why you're not supposed to be like this, ponies aren't SUPPOSED to need to worry about this sorta thing. It's not meant to be in their context to be capable of worrying about it, because when the timeline begins diverging, the Wolf and reality are supposed to become more lenient about what can and can't happen...but it hasn't yet.) ...Still creepy, but I guess there's a good reason for it...Now back to Makarov monologuing...By the way, thank you for giving me something to listen to other than his annoying evil gloating! (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Welcome.) "...But it cannot affect me. I was made by a god-" "Uh, yeah, I already knew that, and you presumably knew I did...so you saying that part had no point...AND YOU'RE STILL INSANE!" "-And I am soon to be ruler of the reality it guards. And it will not eat you either, when I have won. I want the world to remember you as the villain of the story, Shining Armor." He laughed again. "And what better way to ensure my victory is great than to let you know what my plans are? With you powerless to stop me!" "That's not eve...Yeah, sure, go ahead." Not that it mattered, he didn't seem to register anything that meant 'your idea is stupid, crazy, and/or impossible' so he probably would've just kept going. "Soon we will arrive in a place my powers can reach full potential. From there, I will await the time for all my units to be in place. A war has begun already, here. Allied forces attacking. It will pass the time until fate catches up to my desires. But the first step will be the Novi gas. Every dragon on the planet will be killed like the overgrown insects they are." My blood ran cold. "All bar one. Something better is planned for him. But not yet! Step two will be the world attacking the Hooviet Empire! In our hour of need our brave forces shall turn the tide and drive into the lands of the aggressors instead, for we have forty million troopers, over ninety thousand heavy tanks and over ten thousand Mammoth tanks!" He was claiming the Hooviets had ten times the forces I thought were estimated. "Then the ultimate betrayal. The alicorns will fire their powers at us...even at their own allies...and I will have no choice but to use the Empire's secret weapon, built for just such an event!" "You're insane, the Princesses would never use their power to harm anypony!" "Nightmare Moon? Or shall we ask Celestia and Luna about their old friend Discord? Maybe even ask them about the Shadow King? Or what of the many that Celestia manipulated, like you and your sister? The two stallions she merged into one mare, killing them both? Or what of how she does not use her godlike powers to stop tragedy?" "...She doesn't have that kind of power." "Pha! Less than fourteen weeks ago she allowed one of your sister's friends to racially abuse a hapless Griffin who did no more than be a Griffin! She drove the poor creature to madness...and to join the ranks of the Marines who my forces are slaughtering in my city. She will die, and all because a racist pony abused her!" "Horseapples. Princess Celestia wouldn't 'allow' that even if it really happened. You have to be leaving something out here." "And she allowed your sister to humiliate a hapless performer, rendering the poor mare homeless..." "Now you're just making it up." "...And last month, your sister had a petrifying encounter with a Cockatrice. Soon after her and her friends battled Diamond Dogs. Before that she sent them to negotiate with a Dragon. And right now one of her precious elements of harmony is a model, against her will! And yet Celestia does not bat an eyelid, did not even know of the cockatrice and diamond dogs until your sister sent a letter about those events! So many insane choices and ignorance of what she should see!" "...Look, the only thing you made up there that even remotely is a bit questionable is the dragon, and I'm sure there's a reason for it. I heard there was something wrong in the Buffalo Lands, maybe any other negotiators were busy there, or Twilight was closest, she is Celestia's personal envoy, so she's a logical choice. Plus, any attack unless your dragon was intentionally threatening Equestrian citizens is in violation of our treaty with Queen Tiamat. And you know what? That's exactly why she sent them, Equestrian Guards might have been taken as hostile, a group of civilians led by Celestia's personal apprentice would just be...well, seen as six civilians who aren't a threat and thus he's more willing to listen." Can you three at least tell me if I'm right about him taking things completely out of context? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Yes, in part thanks to Makarov having already twisted reality so much, can't explain them all, but for example, your sister went completely out of her way not to humiliate the performer and only did so to save said performer from an Ursa Minor that'd gotten disturbed.) What?! (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):She handled the situation intelligently and used magic to sing it to sleep and return it to its cave without harming a hair on its head or hers.) ...That might also help explain the dragon thing then. Sounds like she'd already proven she could handle things like that peacefully...Starting to think somepony OTHER than Celestia made the suggestion maybe. Makarov seems to have forgotten there's more than just Celestia in charge and she's not able to see and micromanage EVERYTHING! "Pfft, nonsense. It's CLEARLY Celestia's foolishness!" "Nonsense? From the guy who just accused fate of screwing him over by injecting logic and common sense into it! So you're not just insane, you're a freaking hypocrite!" He smacked me in the stomach again. "Well, I know one pony who must think Celestia is turning a blind eye to things right now: Cadence." "?! What the hay are you on about now?" He opened a bag, pulling out a scroll, grinning. "Ah, here comes a fresh attempt!" A new scroll appeared before him. "Let's see 'Auntie, please respond! I've sent so many letters, Makarov keeps shooting at my songbirds, I need your help, please listen!' it says...Hm, why, it seems Celestia is ignoring her." "You're stealing the bucking letters out of the manastream when she's sends them!" He pretended to be shocked. "Oh, you mean these aren't just copies like intercepting radio messages?! Oh dear. I had thought they were still going! How else would the allies have launched their attack? To divert my course from us reaching the Daedalus?!" "Well, let's see, you explicitly told us your plan just so you could capture me for your own sadistic kicks instead of launching an ambush, so I'm assuming you told them yourself." "Ooh, that's a bingo!" He sneered. "Of course I told them. I've always told them. Unit Metal were only present because I had told them. I armed the Dogs and told them how to die! I let you take the train and told Chekov how he was to die also. I even ensured that items of lesser importance were lost to 'Marauder Shields' and he eliminated four very treacherous little mercenaries in the process. I even allowed you and that time-traveling lunatic to think you won when you found junk. Useless things, a mere communications device? If I needed it I would have had troops waiting for the arrival. And the village? All a test to see your true power so I can counter it!" "Blah, blah, blah, 'everything that has transpired has done so according to my design'. Do you have a speech prepared for every situation? And face facts, you can LOSE. I didn't die when you wanted me to, so you're lying and said it all went according to plan! You outright SAID you didn't expect me to be there - I heard you on the radio!" "Ha! I-" "'Knew you'd be listening so I pretended it surprised me', then why did you act like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum?" "Simple, because-" "'I wanted you to underestimate me so I'd have the element of surprise.' See, it's not that hard to spout horseapples, especially when you're full of them, like you." "I see. Apparently we are done for the moment. You should sleep for the rest of the flight. I will wake you when we rendezvous with the Daedalus." "I'm not sleeping, thanks, not tired." "You have no choice in the matter," He smirked, then... Darn it, he kicked me unconscious again. All these head injuries can't be good. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Don't worry, I'm sure he can 'precisely measure his blows' so he can knock you out without seriously hurting you, he's not about to let his 'nemesis' die from a little old concussion.) (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):That, or yer thick skull is gonna stop the blows!) HEY! (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):That and ponies in general have exceptionally thick skulls for various reasons...though head injuries never seem to cause as much damage as they probably should.) ...Why should we question that again? And can I enjoy being unconscious for a bit? (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Er...Sure?) Thank y- I woke up being dragged down some lovely corridors on Makarov's flying gold brick. Such tasteful red glows and grey walls. I still had the nice little anti-magic necklace too. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):You seem to be acting kind of casual about all this at points. Just like the scrapyard in Columbia.) Probably because it's either I'm sarcastic and try joke away all this horseapples or I just start screaming in terror like I really want to. I'm bucking terrified right now, okay? These corridors, they're the same, EXACT BUCKING SAME, as that nightmare I had back in Zamunda! And that's on TOP of the fact an insane cosmic horror is trying to take over the world and I have no BUCKING IDEA where my friends are! So don't get on my back if I'm trying to keep my mind off the fact I'm totally bucked! (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Shining, I didn't mean it like that, I...) ...Neither did I...let's just keep going and hope I can stay sane long enough to figure something out...Anyway, Makarov was his chipper self. "Ah, you awaken, right on time! Another triumph of my skill, able to knock you out only as long as needed AND prevent serious injury!" I started to think he'd absorbed a few donkeys too, the guy could be a real smart ass. "Welcome to the Daedalus, the largest and most powerful warship in existence! Ten thousand tons of Bastic armor that absorbs the enemy attack!" Bastium doesn't work that way, it absorbs sunlight. If you use it as armor, it's basically self-destructing, like a theory Ellis had one time that tanks could have layers of explosives on them to blow up rockets that hit them rather than the rockets blowing up the armor. "...Over a thousand guns, four hangars filled with Hind helicopters, lower cargo bays that can deploy an entire tank regiment! It can reach a height of fourteen thousand meters!" And a ship this huge probably shouldn't even be in the air at all. Tartarus, at a few thousand meters below that, the air starts getting much too thin to even support a pegasus, let alone a how-many-ton flying brick! Those Jumbajet myths are REALLY pushing it as it is. Not to mention all this bastium probably cost HUNDREDS of billions of bits. Seriously, the stuff needs a unicorn to synthesis it for four hours, non-stop, in a pitch black room with no light, not even their own horn can glow. Enough to coat a regular arrow with a bastic plate over a steel head costs almost as much as the entire crossbow. It's worth something like four times the value of gold. He probably should have bankrupted the Hooviet Empire just making the armor of his ship in their post-war state. (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):And of course enough ammo for that many guns would either require an energy source so huge or so many cannonballs that it'd take more room to carry it than it'd be practical for the guns to be protecting.) (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):Not if they used several modified bags of holding.) (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Don't help!)/Don't help! "And we are on our way to the city of Mufasa, where the main thrust of the allied attack was directed! That battle we passed was an attempt to intercept us, blocked by the sacrifice of half my fleet in the theatre, but exacting a heavy toll on the enemy ships. Alas, their numbers were too great...but the Daedalus is truly invincible. The enemy shall be crushed when we arrive..." We finally reached what I presumed was the bridge. And it was huge, possibly bigger than a hangar. It didn't even have windows, but instead, giant screens, playing the battle out before us. The whole thing also overlooked a giant blue sphere suspended by a white forcefield. And it was also well lit enough for me to see properly as I was forced to kneel before a throne-like chair that sat facing all the screens, and the giant blue orb. Makarov sat down, and I saw he'd changed clothes...somehow, which is odd considering I thought I was watching him the entire time. Before, he'd worn a green sort of combat uniform, but with lots of belts, zippers, and pouches that seemed to serve no purpose. Now, he was wearing an all black suit of spiked armor, with a red cape, massive spiked silver pauldrons, and a crown that seemed to have been shaped specifically just to rest in between his antlers. It had massive fire rubies upon it. On closer inspection, some of the spikes were in fact unicorn horns. I wouldn't be surprised if the cape and cloth was made of ponyhide... (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus, Earth Pony, Unicorn):...) What's wrong? I mean I know this is sick and wrong, but- (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Believe me, you don't want to know.) "Welcome, Captain Sparkle! You soon shall witness my final victory over you and your forces! Your brain-dead stooges are all being sent to my main fortress south of the city in preparation. You shall see them when the war is over and you are all on the gallows, amongst the ruins of Canterlot!" He gloated, then he began singing... Let's go back to war and violence I'm so bored with peace and silence. Nightmares and dreams filled with fear. All your dreams, by me they're now run! Let darkness find it's sad ways; Let's go back to good old bad days! No more foalish acts of kindness! Cadence and the world will be mine! Years from now, no one will bother To remember the times of wonder! Because all of it will be mine! It will all be mine! I have a plan; it includes you But, Shining Armor, just enjoy the view... ...Sorry, I zoned out there. I don't even think Cadence could have made it bearable. Heck, I think he stole it straight from that musical Quest for Canterlot! How uncreative do you have to be to rip off a song from a bad musical? Fortunately, he went on to repeat what he'd just said without singing it. "Yes, even now my tripods march and my three remaining Cyborg Alicorns are slaughtering the first wave. They started with Ponsian and Neighponese troops, the Columbians keeping my ships engaged to not halt their landing. Local forces, my allies, utterly useless. I've let them be crushed to fool the enemy into thinking they have the upper hoof. I even threw my lesser forces at them, build up their egos then deflate them. The Columbian second wave will not matter. They are merely coming to die." One giant screen, the largest of all, flickered to life. He forced me to turn and look at it. It showed a city, looking much like Tripleneigh with more influence from giant grey concrete cubes the Hooviets loved. It appeared that the older architecture had been getting torn down before the battle came to wreck the rest of it, but many portions of the city had open squares around tall towers, seemingly a sort of semaphore/town cryer system.The city itself to be spilt around the bay of a natural harbor formed from an estuary. The north seemed to be the bulk of the city, and the main battle. It looked like the allies had been fighting for hours already. Sandbag piles and concertina wire were strewn everywhere, the locals having been prepared for an attack. The south was a smaller portion of the conurbation, apparently all but cut off already as the bridges over the largest river were all collapsed bar one. Small bridges in the south had been lost too, a rail bridge in the southern portion apparently a major objective - allied troops were pinned down near it, having apparently destroyed most other bridges. The Hooviets weren't going to destroy any more and lose their route across, especially not the rail bridge since it was their only means of getting tanks across apparently. The main bulk of southern forces were Columbian Marines, trying to reach the scattered groups of small units. A small hilled area sat a few miles south of the water's edge, the urban sprawl growing thinner around that area. None of the fighting had reached there. There seemed to be a castle there but the angle I saw didn't show anything clearly. I tried not to think how many civilians had been slaughtered in the crossfire or how many troops had died on both sides already. An unnatural disaster was taking place. "Here we see the north bay of Mufasa city! Note the shipwrecks in the bay, they quickly overwhelmed the local navy.And if I had to guess, in total thousands of civilians were killed, many as they tried to flee or as they tried to cower in basements. Many still hide, making every structure potentially full of innocents..." I winced. He noticed and smirked. "Yes, seems your heroic allies have little regard for collateral damage by hiding in buildings where civilians may lurk! But this is war." It seemed to me Hooviet troops were the ones being less than careful. They were the ones levelling everything.... "Next my own counterattack moved to strand their troops but my fleet in the area was lost in the battle, to the Columbian counter. They think they have air supremacy even as they struggle to take the ground..." "Just as you planned..." I sighed. "Correct. Now, we zoom in..." The scene shifted to what looked like an area that once had influence from Prance, but now was mostly rubble. A dozen tripods stalked the shattered buildings, firing tesla coils and death rays. However, Makarov grew angry at seeing something. A type of Neighponese vehicle called a Kagami seemed to be causing serious damage. It was basically a tank-like vehicle with no turret, but instead had a giant enchanted mirror designed to bounce magic off of it, focus it, aim it, and enhance it. Apparently, death rays bounced off it as well. One such beam fired at it had been captured by the Kagami's crew, and aimed right back at the tripods. Another three of them had suddenly discovered being on three legs was bad when they had their legs ran out from under them by a charging Ponsian troop carrier, followed by shots from a Neighponese tank. "Your tripods don't seem to be very balanced. They could use support...An extra leg might be a good start," I taunted. To my surprise, as he growled, the glowing blue orb seemed to flicker. "Nothing but luck, and infernal fate letting them disobey the order to die! Soon, they will be crushed. Conventional forces will swamp them and the tripods shall cut them like a surgeon removing cancer!" I watched the tripods fire away, slicing apart entire buildings just to be able to walk past. "...I think that surgeon is heading for a malpractice suit," I noted, trying my hardest not to think of those innocent civilians cowering in the buildings... The orb flickered again. Had he installed mood lighting?! "Watch, dog! Watch as what I say comes to pass!" My heart sank on behalf of the allied forces. Four Mammoth Tanks I swore weren't there a few minutes ago. Even Makarov understood the value in a house-sized mass of buck you. Backing them up, twelve Rhinos and about four platoons of Airborne Landing Forces, the Hooviet's volunteer airship cavalry - well on par with the outnumbered Neighponese and Ponsian forces. The allies seemed to have at most about seven actual tanks, closer in scale to the Rhinos. Their other vehicles and troops didn't seem equipped to handle this. But they held their ground. Despite being utterly doomed, utterly overwhelmed, with no hope of survival, they held their ground. I'd heard of many suicidal last stands, of defiance in the face of certain death. And now I had to watch as in less than five minutes the vastly superior Hooviets overwhelmed the small allied group. I managed to get one minor act of solace from what I'd had to see. Even his forces winning so effectively and brutally enraged Makarov, because his precious Tripods barely had a chance to do anything - his conventional forces he had so much disdain for had been more than enough. Only one Rhino had been lost in the attack and a hoof-ful of Hooviet ground troops. "Seems...seems the old ways are sometimes the best," I tried, but my heart wasn't really in it. I felt sick just saying it. To annoy Makarov, I knew I was basically making light of over a hundred Allied deaths...But I felt I had to keep him angry. It might be the only way to weaken him...the only thing I could do to give them a chance at all... (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Just shows you have a heart, unlike him. And remember, there still might be a chance to stop this from ever happening.) The orb almost dimmed rather than flicker. "Nonsense! Look here. Conscripts armed only with Mosey-Neighgant Slingshot rifles are engaging a Columbian force half their size in the south bay of the city!" I wished I hadn't. Even Hooviets being pointlessly slaughtered is revolting, especially just conscripts. Just poor kids forced into the army...ordered to die by an uncaring monster. He zoomed in on the Marines, apparently clearing the way ahead for three tank destroyers. Most had single-barreled weapons that seemed to load by moving the barrel open and inserting a paper cartridge, like the guns I'd been shown back in Columbia on a larger scale and with only a single barrel. A few had shorter, double-barreled versions - Assault troopers. I realized they were all firing shotguns. The conscripts were massed together, charging as a mass. The Columbians just had to volley fire shotguns and even with their wide spread they were cutting them down. The slingshot rifles were slower to fire, a lot weaker, and a lot less likely to hit even if you were trained. The Griffins had the edge here. Makarov made the strange screen focus on their lines as the clouds of smoke from their volley cleared away. I recognized some of the ones with shorter barreled shotguns. "Your friends from Columbia! Unit Metal...Still slaughtering my troops, I see." "That you put there just to die! I'd say you were a soulless, sick, sadistic bucker...but that would require you could have a soul of your own to begin with, wouldn't it?" The orb went dim for a moment. "...And look at this young Griffiness. Why, however did she get into the Marines? Watch, she isn't even firing at times. She must have been raised in Equestria..." "I don't even know who that is!" I snapped, but I noticed some others weren't firing either. Truth be told I had no idea who he meant, at least five of them were female. (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Why?) I guess they were conserving and staggering their shots. The ones not firing could fire while the others reloaded rather than have too many shots at once. He kept watching even as a set of Airborne troopers, with better guns, charged in and were still beaten back. Then he shifted back north. The Columbians were split in two, it seemed, the main thrust heading north, and about a quarter south. Why... "The majority here seek to aid the Ponsians and Neighponese. Some pesky special forces went south, I surrounded them. Most of them hold, to be played with, but they are trapped as surely as their comrades in...the north..." The screen showed wings of SF-1s, Griffins, and Pegasi swoop over a veritable army of Tripods and smaller Tankettes. Hails of rockets from them all devastated the Hooviets, the Tripods often just falling over as the ground below them was torn up. Pegasi and Griffins even swarmed a Mammoth Tank, landing on top and tossing a satchel charge in the hatch. A hapless trio of the helicopters Makarov had called Hinds swooped in firing, but were chased off, one of them trailing smoke from a hard rocket hit. The blue orb flickered and pulsed before he spoke, sounding cheerful. "Well, we are nearing the area, and I tire of these little skirmishes. It is time to unleash the next phase!" The screen shifted to look at the hills in the south, where it became clear there was a fortress built into the mountainside. Hard to see from the air, but apparently it was the expanded fortifications of a large castle keep atop the hill, with a number of odd-looking towers. A winding road led to the keep but there seemed to be a number of spots that could have concealed hidden fortifications covering good ambush points. There were also a few drawbridges and small guard posts. "This is the south of the city. The allies ignored it for I placed my main forces north around decoy bunkers, and they took my bait. This fortress contains the two weapons that shall win the battle. First, the Iron Curtain. Now we are within the thirty mile radius, it can be activated..." The screen showed a tower in the castle glow red, then a giant red dome was formed around the area. The feel of apocalypse was complete, now everything glowed red. The sun was setting, but the red glow seemed to be from the shield itself. The shield went a good bit further than we were before, meaning whatever he did, he could've done it earlier and blocked out the attackers totally, sparing all those lives. Of course then, he'd not get his dramatic battle and be a 'war hero'. "And now, my power is total. The curtain not only seals in the Allied troops and seals out newcomers, but it seals out fate from asserting itself!" My heart sank. He'd blocked the wolf out...How could I hope to defeat him, not when he was clearly in the right! Why had I ever... (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):Snap out of it!) "It weakens all magic, except within specially protected areas -the fortress and this ship. I drew the idea from you, blocking everything out with your shields, and merged it with my death dome locking everything in.I have planned well, for if I was exposed to the power, well, I'd lose some of my own for a few hours. A downside to drawing so much from so many sources..." So many sources...he stole from...he was gifted...he stole...So much power, why am I...I have to... (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):Captain, please!) "But my second weapon...I call it Icarus, or Project Skyfall. When active, it will make all those Griffins and Pegasi flapping about, those airships incoming to try and counter us as we near, all of them will drop like stones. Thirty thousand troops and sailors...counting the Hooviet airships in range, of course, as they'll fall too. We won't, we are shielded, and helicopters work on different power sources." He then smiled, and another scroll appeared. "Ah, it is my fiancee! Sending more letters to her tyrant aunt. 'Please, Auntie, I beg you, please just reply! You have to know this war has started, but Shining and his squad were captured by Makarov, you have to do something, he's going to kill millions...' Hm, why does she not just use all her powers? She had an impressive showing in the village. Ah, there is more 'I know I have power myself but...I'm afraid. I don't know how to use it and when I try to think of using it I keep imagining I hurt innocent ponies. Makarov will use my friends against me...' Pha, she is as weak as you, clinging to friends..." Yes, we were...both...no, she's not weak...she's... (Interviewers Notes (Unicorn):They only get through to hurt you, Shining! He's twisting the words. Cadence isn't weak, she's afraid, and she can't reach Celestia! You're the only one that can stop her being scared, Shining...) "Surely you see you have lost? Just say the words, three little words. 'I surrender, Solomon'. Not hard." (Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony):Shiney, Cadence is counting on you! Twilight is! You can't give up! If you quit now, then they all die!) (Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus):What would they tell you right now?! Would they want you to give up to Makarov?! Cadence keeps sending letters because she hasn't given up hope! If she'd given up hope she wouldn't have sent any at all!) (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):You're their final hope, Shining! You can't give up on them! You know they won't give up on you!) "Three words? Sure. Go fuck yourself." The orb shut down for a second. Hooviets in the room shivered with fear. I just held Makarov's angry gaze. "...So be it. Watch as I cleanse the skies! Your defiance will plummet with them!" At this, a tower at the rear of the compound began to glow, pulsing, getting faster each beat. Had it been there before? The screen zoomed out, showing the distant pulsing further and further away...and on the way, the first victim was a Hooviet ship floating near the fortress. It had been pouring smoke from a number of battle scars, but suddenly, it just dropped down, a full kilometer into the city below, where it exploded in a cloud of smoke. The pulsing effect seemed to spread. A wave of death. A flight of pegasi, Hooviet ones, plummeted. The Griffins they'd been moving to engage fell soon after. Then the wave began to hit the bulk of the air battle. First a number of light airships just started dropping, and some griffins and pegasi too, falling thousands of meters into the harbor bay below. Then an entire destroyer just dropped like a rock. Then much of the fleet. The wave spread out, rains of airships, pegasi and griffins in the wake. Then from above us, thumping. "Oh, did I forget to say, they were trying to attack our ship too? To no avail, they couldn't hurt us. Their shots bounced off like...Well, like plummeting pegasi and griffins." Every single thump and thud I heard was somepony or somegriffin dying right above me. I heard far too many to count... "That doesn't make sense, they should be able to glide even without magic! The airships have emergency balloons for just such events as losing engine power, or glide wings on the smaller ones!" He just laughed. "Logic? Logic is out the door when I say it is, Shining. Inside my Iron Curtain, I am GOD! And yet somehow you seem to resist the truth. You are as crushed as the pegasi that rained down on us moments ago!" His cackles were like cracks in a dam. I was as angry as I thought possible and I felt like I was about to somehow go even further... "Well, we'll soon crush the ground forces! The Daedalus is unstoppable. But since that won't convince you you've lost, what about this? That blue orb you think is some kind of mood light, want to know what it truly is? I call it the Rift Generator. It's a paradox engine. A perfected version of the imagination engine that was being made at Chernobull. I can use it to create paradoxes anywhere on the planet. Of course if you'd listened to my song, you'd already know that! Observe my targets!" His screen appeared. "My first wave...Intended to be the attacks of the Alicorns! They will be struck by beams from the sun and the moon. I estimate...forty million dead in the blink of an eye." I looked. Trotkyo, Marelin, Hayris, Liberty City, Tehrein, Neighjing, and.... "...Mosroe is on that map." His own capital. "Of course! Mosroe has to be targeted. It makes sense Celestia would strike us too, for we are powerful. It also removes the pesky government that sometimes try to disagree. This war she started...trying to assert her dominion over all ponykind and wipe out non-ponies. She even will gas the dragons, her allies...what treachery! By the way, the dragon attacks are commencing right now. Should we watch one of them? The one near Doma in Zhongguo will be most entertaining!" The screen focused on a mountainside near a town, presumably Doma. From within a large cloud, a small Hooviet ship emerged, spraying the mountain with black smoke. The screen focused on a cave, the smoke flowing in. The dragon within, young looking by the size of his small hoard, looked puzzled...then roared in agony as his scales began to melt. Then his roaring broke down into sputters and coughs. He flailed around, wheezing even as parts began falling off of him... More cracks...All I could think about was how much I wanted this to stop...How I'd been forced to watch someone die and how much I hated watching it again. "Let's take a look downwind, shall we?" I didn't want to, but Makarov gave me no choice. The smoke had drifted in, and the ponies in the streets were gasping and coughing. They didn't suffer the same fate as the dragon, their bodies remained somewhat intact when they fell...apart from the violent convulsions. I heard bones snap as the ponies writhed around. Foam and blood leaked from their snouts. "So...How are you now? Still defiant? Well, there are plenty more Dragons out there. I've started in Equrope and Neighsia, closest to home. When the war truly begins, the gas will be unleashed at other sites." Memories began flashing in my mind...Memories of watching somepony die... "But of course...I have had to test my other delivery method. Airships cannot get everywhere, not without pesky Pegasi and radios detecting them, though much of southern Equestria and the Buffalo lands will be fair game. A sizable fleet must be kept in reserve for the attack on Draco Island, the final blow of the Second Draco-Hooviet war! They will then move towards Equestria, outnumbering your pitiful navy five to one. Feeling defiant still?" "No..." Makarov smirked. "That's more like it. Let's see how my delivery test worked, the Everfree Forest near a small town in Equestria!" I saw the edge of Everfree Forest, over the tops of some apple trees. A puzzled gray wall-eyed pegasus mailmare watched the distant smoke rising, a few miles into the forest, but blowing the other direction. "Applejack, blue you blow if be forest biz supposed to blue that?" "...Shucks, sugarcube, ah ain't sure anythin' that place does follows things like 'supposed to', darn place does what it wants..." "Pity, seems Rainblow Smash has the wind going the wrong direction. I'd so have loved seeing it drift into the edges of town just a little...But maybe we should start the paradox on a small scale!" He gave a smirk, I swore he had fangs for a moment. The screen now focused on...Twiley. "No..." A unicorn impaled by a spear flashed in my mind, and the cracks continued growing. Something building inside me... She was just sitting in the library, talking with a yellow pegasus and a white unicorn. Spike was bringing in a tray of tea. "Oh yes, I know you're still clinging to the hope that fate will save her. I'm afraid not, my nemesis. You see, with the war I have begun, fate is already beginning to diverge. Now, I just need to attack the right target to split our world away from the Heart World, and along with it another rule holding me back. Sure, I could just wait for my attack on Canterlot and Princess Celestia, that would do the job nicely, but this seemed like a much more entertaining way to severe our tie to the Heart World...Hm, now what paradox to unleash? A swarm of snakes? She does so hate snakes..." "Celestia help us...Sergeant? Cadet? What happened...here...Oh buck..." "Please, help him, he's hurt, he got hurt because..." "Or maybe we can plop a cockatrice in there! She did not enjoy her encounter..." "No..." The cures work by waking you up. If I'm awake already how do I wake up again!? "I understand she is prone to building bookforts at the mere mention of the creatures. But maybe...Maybe a diamond dog, with a spear?" Advancing, knife drawn... "You next, small pony! Cut you open..." Anger, fear, anger, fear, anger fear anger fearangerfearangerangerangeranger... "...No...Not. Again!" He yelped in surprise as my horn glowed and the anti-magic necklace shattered. I threw a shield around the device, around the advancing Diamond Dog's upper body, and I began to collapse it, squeezing. Metal groaned bone cracked and arcs of energy lines of blood began leaking from it. "...How are you..." He looked confused. "...You thought you knew my limits, Makarov. You thought wrong. Even I don't know them...Never dared even try...Because the last time I wasn't in full control somepony close to me had already died and I crushed a Diamond Dog to death before I even knew I was casting the spell." I felt like the dam had burst and the pressure was a relief to be released. But it wasn't like that. I'd just opened a floodgate. I was in control. (Interviewer's Note (Earth Pony):Go Shining! You can do it!) Makarov did not seem too puzzled any more. He smirked. "...Power, eh? Well, certainly, you are strong. But I am stronger no matter what! Even if I don't know your limits there must be one somewhere! I can win this battle...my machine will be good as new, just you watch!" He seemed a lot less certain a second later. "N-no! That's impossible, you can't do that! I forbid it! Stop it, STOP IT!" "Why should I?" "...I can give you power! You almost had it. Maasailand, their messiah, it should have been you! You could have had an army...You could have tried to stand in my way!" I smirked. I noticed that a Hooviet soldier had tried to shoot me a moment ago but my shield had deflected it. He was hitting it with his rifle, the rest all watching transfixed. I turned and hit him with a ball of energy, stunning him. "Yeah, well, you predicted your own defeat. Here it is." "It was made only to overcome the lies of a prophecy and look all the better! I am meant to crush YOU! You are nothing, you are an insect, a bug, nothing but...nothing but a false little lie shoved into here!  You're nothing! Nothing! I will crush you, wait and see!" Empty talk, sounding scared too. Still, Makarov's powers did seem to be causing the machine to try and repair. I wasn't letting that happen. "Hey, you say this ship has a shield against the Iron Curtain? Was it really such a good idea to tell me that? It's my speciality, I can drop it like that" And so I did...and though I still felt power coursing through me, some of it seemed to drain. Makarov however screeched in fear, as my power overcame his, and the machine was now at my mercy. I had none. The orb cracked. So did Makarov, in a manner of speaking. "NOOOOO! MY MACHINE!" As it sparked and crackled, the various sailors and soldiers had it. They fled, screaming. Makarov just stared, transfixed on his broken toy. Some of them remained, but many seemed to be looking at the doors rather than trying to help their leader. "....Your turn now." I turned to face him. He wasn't going to be able to claim this one was all part of his plan... (Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn):NO!)