Chapter 14: The End
"Bring more furniture, Go!" Shining Armor shouted to one of his subordinates.. "Make sure the other entrances are sealed as well."
His defeats both outside and in the city resulted in the ponies making their final standing in Canterlot Castle. The Castle was not built for an assault, especially not one of this magnitude. Shining understood that it would most likely not take whatever the humans threw at it, but he tried his best to fortify it anyway. It was much harder than it sounded as there was nothing in the castle but furniture that was usable.
Two earth pony soldiers pushed a brown, wooden dresser into the main hall where all the activity was. They slid it down the long rectangular room.
The pushed it near the door where Shining was waiting then fell over breathing heavily. "Here...you go."
Shining Armor's magic enveloped the dresser and lifted onto the pile that was already against the large double doors to outside. Dismantled chairs, tables, beds, desks, cabinets and anything else that could be found were added to the pile. It was a massive structure, but Shining was still unsure about it.
"Is there anything left? What about the council room?" He asked.
"We went through there ten minutes ago, sir."
Shining was clearly very disappointed, but said nothing. He simply stared at the mass in front of the door. One of his soldiers cleared his throat nervously.
"With all due respect, sir,... how can you be certain that they'll come through this one entrance."
Shining turned to him with an angry expression. "These humans hit the Conversion Bureau head on, they hit us outside the gate head on, they moved straight through the city with no problem, and the humans who joined them moved right through Ponyville. They haven't lost a battle in months. They're confident." He started walking away from both them and the exit. "And they have good reason to."
Shining started walking back up the hallway giving orders to various ponies, when something caught his eye to his left. He turned to the cold, marble wall to face the unicorn that was waving him down.
"Let it be known, Shining Armor, that the one thing I like about you is your unending motivation." Storm Hammer was slumped against the wall. His mane was a bloodied mess and blanket was wrapped around him making him appear almost like a beggar.
Shining started at him for a moment and Storm Hammer stared right back with slightly droopy eyes.
"Storm Hammer?" He asked as if he could've believe what was in front of him. "What in Equestria ARE YOU DOING?!" His voice quickly rose to a yell as his anger reached a peak.
Storm Hammer shook his head at the outburst in an attempt to snap back from his disorientation. "I'm waiting." He said simply. He'd been one of the last ponies to make it back to the castle after the humans took the city. Ever since then his whole demeanor had changed. His spirit was crushed.
"We're all helping! You are still a part of this army and I am commanding you to get your lazy hooves up!"
Storm Hammer didn't move. "Give it up, Shining. All you're doing is postponing the inevitable Look around you, there are less than fifty ponies in this room. This is no damn army."
Shining was shaking with anger. He pointed his horn right at his neck, but Storm Hammer still didn't budge. "Get up now or I will kill you for desertion."
He sighed before pointing to something on the opposite side of the room. "You gonna kill them too?" Shining looked in the direction and saw three ponies filling their saddle bags.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" He shouted as he started moving towards them. They looked up in surprised and began to make run for it down a side corridor.
"Just leave them, Shining." He sighed.
"Soldiers who choose to abandon the posts, will have the same fate." Shining snapped back quickly.
"Look again." Shining turned again and this time noticed two of them had on a chef's uniform while the other was dressed in butler clothing. "Those aren't soldiers, Shining. They don't want to die for a lost cause. No one does."
"I would stand alone against these humans. At least I would die with some honor...unlike you."
Storm Hammer laughed. "Die with honor, he says. If you're looking for a good, honorable death you've come to the wrong place. These people burned Celestia To. Death. What makes you think you'll be different? You know what, here's my advice for you: don't die here in this room. Go find your sister, die protecting someone you love and you'll have your honorable death."
Shining's heart sunk at mention of his sister. She was moved to his quarters after abandoning Canterlot Hospital.
He started a sentence, but stopped when he heard a strange noise approaching. It was a low hum and buzzing noise that got louder and louder, the castle walls vibrating slightly at the disturbance.
He eventually heard the noise hover directly above them for a second before moving around to outside where the front entrance was.
The ponies watched the door uneasily and looked around to each other with worry.
Then it happened. Outside he heard a sharp, loud noise and seconds later something big exploded on the door. The door cracked and crumbled to pieces, leaving only the tall pile in front of the entrance. Sunlight flooded into the long room as well as the amplified noise of whatever was out there. Storm Hammer jumped up in attention and he and Shining shared a quick glance before he heard the noise again.
There was another explosion in the pile. It blew it from in front of the door completely. Already dismantled pieces of wood were turned into splinters. Flaming larger pieces were thrown around the room. Shining and Storm Hammer stood next to each other and formed their shields at the same time.
Now they could finally see what was causing all the damage. Outside, hovering about 50 yards away was one of the human's aircraft. A human in control sat behind in a glass cockpit. Two large fans on each side provided the lift. On each wing were a pair of human weapons.
Then it unleashed hell.
Two guns on the wings rotated and fired huge projectiles extremely fast into the castle. The aircraft moved back and forth slightly so its fire would sweep across the wide hall. The bullets were turning scattering ponies into nothing but bloody mist. The force of them was so strong it was blasting ponies off their hooves. Some ponies near the wall were able to escape down other hallways, but any caught in the middle were done for.
The bullets went through the thick outer layer around the main door like they weren't even there. When it penetrated walls, huge showers of sparks were released which set some things ablaze. Large chunks of floor and smoke would fly up when the bullets hits the ground.
Shining Armor could feel the tremendous impact of the bullets as they whizzed past him. He was putting all his energy into making his shield and was yelling at the effort. Every time a round hit his shield, it pushed him back a bit farther.
Then the rockets started coming. It started firing missiles about the side of a large pipe from pods adjacent to the rotating guns. They'd fly around randomly destroying huge pillars or flying upwards and bringing pieces of the ceiling down.
Shining Armor turned to Storm Hammer. As rubble, rock and bullets hit his shield, he looked strained and was clearly having a much harder time keeping his magic going. In that moment Storm Hammer looked to him, the pain evident on his face. He yelled something, but Shining couldn't hear it over the roar of the aircraft's attacks. Then a moment later he was gone.
A rocket had hit directly on his shield. It had happened so fast Shining nearly jumped as blood splashed on his face. The impact blew the unicorn back somewhere he could not see, and he did not dare turn around and lose focus on his own shield. The explosion from it destroyed a huge stained glass window of picture of pony history. Chunks of glass fell along side the the wall and presumably on Storm Hammer as well.
Shining Armor was able to sustain his shield through the onslaught. When the aircraft stopped firing, there was no other noise other than the echo of the guns. His ears rang loudly as looked around the chamber. It was in ruin. There was layer of rubble on the ground and it was getting larger as more and more debris from the ceiling and walls kept falling. Pillars and columns lay across the ground with blast marks on them, some were sizzling and glowed bright orange. There weren't many intact bodies, but the ones that were still together weren't stirring.
As Shining walked alone in the hallway he was able to eventually find Storm Hammer. He was laying on his side with his front legs bent in a way they shouldn't. The hair on most of the front half of his body was either burned off or charred a deep black color. He had a thick piece of glass lodged deep in his right rear thigh, cutting his cutie mark in half. Another jagged piece was stuck under the skin in his chest. But for the moment he was still alive. His eyes were open and he was breathing, if ever so slightly.
Shining Armor simply stared at him. He wasn't a skilled healer and wouldn't even know where to start with him. He was trying to think of anything he could say or do when he heard a loud rumble outside the castle. Humans were running up the stairs and sprinting across the castle courtyard.
"Leave." Storm Hammer said. Shining nodded solemnly and took his advice, knowing that it would be the last thing he would ever hear him say.
***********************
Jacob ran up the stairs to the palace. Adrenaline was pulsing hard through his bloodstream. As they waited at the bottom of the stairs, they had heard the monstrous roar of the gatling cannons that fried from their VTOL. The dual 20mm guns combined with the rocket pods would have absolutely shreded the Castle's main entrance and he was dying to see what the damage looked like.
Over 200 humans ran up with him which was more than enough to take the Castle.
Jacob was going for Twilight. She'd had a big part in making the conversion fluid and it didn't seem right to leave her out.
He was in one of the first lines, along with Hudd and Rebecca to reach the top first. As they emerged unto the large, intricately stone and marble decorated courtyard, they all gasped in what was in front of them.
"Damn." Hudd said sounding highly impressed. Jacob nodded to him slowly sharing his feeling.
He thought the castle looked actually looked quite beautiful up close. The exterior was was very regal , being constructed almost exclusively of a smooth white marble. Shiny plates of solid gold were expertly cut into the rock so that they formed patterns. There were five skinny towers of all different heights that had gold domes at the tops. The Castle was beautiful, save for the main door.
Smoke poured from the entrance and the huge metal doors laid uneasily on their hinges. The marble surrounding the entrance was falling apart. Some areas had large holes through them.
"Watch your heads in here, people." Hudd warned as he stepped over a rubble pile and entered the Castle.
"Can anyone find anything alive in here?" Someone shouted.
Jacob becoming increasingly sure the the answer was no. It had only been a few minutes, but they weren't finding signs of life anywhere.
He had to step over many bodies to stand around the center of of the great hall. Something that pleased him was that the ceilings in the castle were huge and much more than enough to stand comfortable.
"Luna isn't here." Hudd said angrily as he kicked a table leg.
"She's got to still be in the Castle. I mean she's injured, right?" Rebecca asked.
"She can't fly anywhere."
"But she could still teleport." Jacob said. "That's how she got away last time."
Hudd shook his head. "We can't let it happen again. We can't end this without her." He said firmly. "Everyone spread out and search the Castle! We find Luna and kill her."
Jacob took off down a hallway. Luna was important to him, but He was going to find the pony he wanted.
However after nearly fifteen he realized that he'd underestimated just how large the castle was. He'd been through a dozen rooms before he saw a pony that looked like Twilight.
He kicked open a door to an empty room and sat on a bed in frustration. Where else could she be?, He thought with his head in his hands. He sighed and as he was about to get up something he caught something in the corner of his eye. He stood and walked to an open window and focused in on the balcony of the highest tower. He could just make out something purple moving around on it. A smile grew on his face at the possibility.
"Excuse me! Pardon me!" Jacob shouted as he ran down a hallway, knocking into people. He had reason to rush. He thought he'd caught a glimpse of Twilight in the tower and wanted to get there before she decided to leave. He had no way to tell where he was, so he just ran in the general direction of the tower. He opened doors to check for stairs and finally he found one.
He went up the first flight of spiraling steps he could find, getting dizzy at his speed. As he reached the top he slowed his paced and stepped lightly to reduce the noise. As he reached he entered the room at the top, he knew it was for royalty and hoped that it wasn't Luna's.
The bedroom was simply, yet elegant, with dark blue walls and a purple floor and bed. A gold encrusted fireplace was in the far wall and a bookshelf was in the left. Jacob peeked slowly out to the right where the balcony was. He could just barely see the purple body of Twilight Sparkle. She was laying down on the balcony reading a book, completely unsuspecting. She nearly jumped when Jacob came storming around the corner with his gun pointing right at.
"Remember me?" He said loudly. When he confronted her he surprised himself by losing the urge to shoot her on sight.
Twilight slowly turned her head towards him. "Of course I do. Jacob Sanders. You shot me."
Jacob thought back. Oh yeah, he remembered. "Had to be done." He shrugged.
"Perhaps." She said calmly, turning back to her the book in front of her.
"Whats that?" He asked as he cautiously moved out in front of her on the balcony. He was surprised to see it had no front guardrail and offered no protection from the certain death of a fall below.
"Its an old journal of mine. From years ago when I was first brought on to the conversion project. Scientifically it was the biggest thing anypony had done in years, maybe even ever. But I was too rash. Its my fault all this happened. If I'd have thought out the consequences from the beginning maybe I could have saved everyone from this."
"Maybe. I wouldn't have to shoot you for one thing. But honestly Twilight, if not you, someone else would have done it. Don't spend time thinking about things you could've done. It won't change anything. All anyone can do is try to make things better with what they have."
Twilight stood, got in close and looked Jacob right in the eyes. "Do you always kill people who make mistakes?!"
"Mistakes? No. I can forgive mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. To err is human and pony too, right? The problem with you is that you learned nothing. You didn't try to stop what you were doing. You kept going. When I first met you, all those months ago in that cell, you were just as happy as anyone could be. You didn't see what you were doing as wrong. Even if you don't admit it, you wanted conversion, you liked it. And I can't forgive that."
Twilight didn't have a response and for a few moments there was silence between the two. This was until Jacob raised his pistol and fired once into the back of her head. He watched as her body quickly went limp and she fell from the balcony.
As he walked down the stairs, he heard someone calling his name on the radio. "Jacob...Jacob are you there?" It was Rebecca's voice.
"I'm here." He answered.
"I'm sorry, but we had to start without you."
"Where are you now?"
"Throne room."
***********************
Five minutes prior…
Shining Armor ran through the castle. Pushing against the back of his mind was the urge to break down and cry. He had been to his room to find it devoid of Twilight. The humans were already inside the castle and he couldn’t find her. If he was going to die, he wanted it to be while he was standing in front of her.
But now the remainder of his Royal guard fell in the hallways as the humans ransacked the castle. He could not longer search the castle. His last option was to go to the Throne room.
When he entered, he was surprised to see Princess Luna sitting upon the throne.
“Oh no.” He said bitterly as he hurried up the long red carpet. “Princess Luna, what are you still doing here?”
“I can’t go anymore.” She said between labored breaths.
“You should have gone to the medical wing.”
Luna laughed. “They can’t treat my wounds.”
“Please Luna, don’t resign yourself to Celestia’s fate. Use your magic, leave. If you make it alive then I haven’t failed. Our remaining allies could rise behind you. Cloudsdale, Manehattan, Saddle Arabia, they would all fight for you. We can still win."
Luna considered. Maybe they could still claim a victory. “Okay, alright. Just help me up.”
A loud bang filled the room. Luna’s expression changed to that of surprise and horror. There was new blood that had splashed on her face- and it wasn’t hers. Shining looked down at midsection. There was a bloody hole in it.
Shining could hardly feel pain from the shot, but he feel its effects. He could no longer stand and slumped to his knees as he coughed up blood. Luna leaned forward to grab him. He was attempting to say something, but it was distorted beyond recognition.
There was another bang and a large hole as created through his head. Luna screamed as she dropped him, his blood all over her. She turned to the end of the room where a mass of humans stood in the doorway.
“That was a nice shot.” Hudd said to himself as he lowered a rifle. “That was the unicorn I told you about.” He said to Aaron. He had his own rifle, with the specialized bullets pointed right at Luna. He kept his aim on her as they large group moved in towards her. “Well Luna, this is a nice change. You know that every single other time I’ve been in your presence you’ve been shooting some kind of magic at me?”
“I know you. You attacked the Bureau. Twice.” She spat. “I should have killed you in Atlanta.”
“Yeah, yeah you should have.” Hudd said as he put his gun down and pulled his baseball bat from his back. “Funny how things work out, right?”
The group had reached her and a women called on her radio for another human. Hudd began running his bat gently across her wounds which made her cringe, but she kept her composure. He only stopped when it was covered completely in her own blood.
“So are you going to kill me like you killed my sister or is there another savage execution you have planned for me?”
“Me? Nah.” He said shaking his head. “I’m not going to kill you, Luna. You see I’m tired from battle. Killing your soldiers and destroying your city all day has proven to be tiring work. I’m simply here to watch and take my souvenir.”
“Your what?”
“I knew you’d ask that.” He said as he pulled the sling off his back and pointed it to the ground. When he shook it, a long object fell out.
“Oh my-” Luna couldn’t finish. She looked like she was going to be sick at the sight of her sister’s separated horn. A wave a pained faces flowed across her face. Until she’d seen the removed body part, she’d been able to keep her poise, but not now.
“There it is.” Hudd smiled as he raised his bat. “There's the face I remember. It was the same one Celestia’s made after I broke her legs. It was when she realized she wasn’t invincible anymore. That she couldn’t do whatever the fuck she liked to us more.... I like that look.” With that he brought his bat down hard on Luna’s horn.
As with Celestia, magical energy shot from both pieces of the shattered horn. Blue waves spread from the two pieces as Luna screamed in pain on the ground.
“Take her outside and give her to the men.” Hudd said as he picked up Luna’s severed horn. “WE’VE WON!” he shouted proudly as he held it over his head in triumph.
Everyone shouted in celebration with people hugging each other and jumping and screaming as they picked up a screaming Luna and carried her out of the room.
Hudd sat down hard on the golden steps before the throne. It was over. After all this time it was finally over. Jacob slid in from a side door right as Luna made her last exit from the throne room.
“Damn! Did I miss it?” Jacob asked looking around.
“Afraid so.” Hudd said. “You should’ve got here sooner.”
“I didn’t know where the fucking throne room actually was!”
Hudd chuckled and tossed him Luna’s horn. “Nice, huh? I think I like it better than Celestia’s.”
Jacob laughed, but before he could respond he heard a helicopter approaching quickly. The two exited the castle to see a large helicopter, the one that landed at their air base months ago, circling for a place to land.
“Hudd!” One of the Russian soldiers came up to him holding a radio. “Commander Severov would like a private word inside the castle when he lands.”
Hudd nodded. “We’ll talk later.” He said to Jacob before he headed back inside.
*****************************
Three Hours later...
Jacob examined a statue in a vast garden located behind Canterlot castle. He had just discovered the area and it was the one of the only spots left around the castle that wasn’t crowded with other people. He found the garden to be beautiful, though he hadn’t much time to admire it as the sun was going down on him and he would soon lose the light. The air was still warm even as a cool breeze flowed past every now and then. It was going to be a very nice early Autumn night.
“Hey, I was looking for you.” Jacob turned to see Hudd standing a few yards behind him.
“Just admiring things.” He said as he moved away from the oddly composed stone figure in front of him. “So that was a pretty long meeting. What’d Severov want?”
Hudd started walking around the garden and Jacob followed next to him. “It wasn’t just Severov and I. He’d brought others with him. China’s old president, the British PM, the Japanese PM, a German Chancellor and even the fucking President of Brazil. He’d transported them all here. He’d found them all years ago, some were ponies, others hiding out as humans He took em’ to some secure facility somewhere in Siberia.”
“He had all of them in one place for that long?”
“Yeah.” Hudd nodded, acknowledging the difficulty. “So when he heard rumors that we had a way to convert ponies back, he set for the U.S. almost immediately.”
“So what’d they want with you?”
“To discuss plans as we move forward to the next phase. They want me to lead the movement to reclaim the rest of the States. They say they will provide me with anything I need. In exchange I give them large quantities of the serum.”
“Do we have any to spare?”
“Thats the same thing I thought, but we managed to contact the Atlanta Bureau. They say the entire East coast is ours with Bureaus spread from New York to Florida. Over two million have been converted back and we still have plenty of Celestia’s blood left. Combine that wiith all the blood we got from Luna’s body and we could convert tens, maybe hundreds, of millions all over the world. So we settled on an agreement.”
The two walked to a railing at the end of the garden. The terrace stood out over the edge of the mountain side and for a moment the two marveled at the view of the enormous valley below.
“However, things aren’t entirely good yet.” Hudd said resentfully. “There have been reports a group moving through Europe. They try to stop anyone who tries to leave the newfoal settlements. Call themselves the PER- whatever that means.”
Jacob sighed. “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Hmm, perhaps.” Hudd said. He was almost hesitant to bring up the main objective of the meeting. “We...we’re going to make things better, Jacob. Better among us humans. No more tension between nations because of decades old conflicts that are completely irrelevant now. We’re going to start trusting each other, build new relationships. We’re going to be united as one world against our real enemy.”
Jacob smiled. Standing with Hudd on a ledge after the victory reminded him of a few months ago when they stood atop the ponies old conversion bureau. He wanted Hudd to finally affirm something he’d said back then.
“We conquered their city and castle in a day, killed their princesses, destroyed their army, we have millions of ponies converted back to humans with millions more waiting all around the world. So tell me, Hudd, have we won now?”
Hudd smiled as he took Luna's horn from his pocket and moved it around through his finger. He closed his eyes as he did it. He thought back to how they’d been just a few years ago. With hardly any humans left on the planet. Those still alive barely clung on their humanity. Then he opened and saw where he was now. Canterlot the ponies capital. He looked out over the vast lands of Equestria. Hudd did not speak, instead choosing to watch the sun set in silence. But he knew he didn't have to respond.
They both already knew the answer.