Knell
Authors: Proudtobe
Redskin122004

Editors:
Drawdex
Rush
Beyond the Horizon
Doctor Fluffy
ThatClosetBrony

Unforeseen opportunities are immediately to be used, and on unforeseen difficulties is to be reacted immediately.
- Carl von Clausewitz

A soldier doesn't fight because he hates the enemy in front of him, he fights because he loves what he left behind.
- Mario Tomasello

Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies.
- Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy

Earlier, he had another fight with the Doctor about how he could have possibly miscalculated the power of the missile, and he pretty much passed it on to his elder daughter as she was the one that worked on it, not the Doctor. Then Marcus up and disappeared after the showdown with the Six, and now two of the most powerful individuals in Equestria just showed up out of nowhere, one of which was supposed to be dead, the other a statue.

On that last one, Princess Luna, from what Trixie explained to him, was screaming all over the city that she had news about Marcus.

Things are getting crazier by the minute, Stephan thought to himself as he led his squads down the battle-ridden city. He could hear sporadic fire off in the distance.

He looked over his shoulder, taking a quick headcount to make sure no one was missing. A few dozen soldiers from Europe, the French Legionnaires, some Polish grenadiers, and some German soldiers followed him, all under his command. They were veterans of the war in Europe, with some new faces here and there. Recruits from their time in the Middle East, now fighting for the same cause, and for nations they may have never seen or known of before. Nations that would never be known if they lost here. A mishmash unit that never would have existed pre-barrier.

He saw two of his best friends, Daniel and Alicia. Daniel had his trusty HK121 with him, also known as an MG5, which he never left anywhere without. Alicia, on the other hand, had exchanged her G36A3 for a DSR.50 sniper rifle. When Stephan asked why, she answered, “Bitches love cannons.” That, and the fact that most soldiers from lands destroyed by the barrier were known for overkill in these late days of the war, which many commanding officers actually encouraged, possibly out of rage for their lost homelands. Both of them led a team of twelve soldiers, all excellent marksmen.

Between them were the ponies of the PHL. Stephan had trained most of them, and he knew that they were as reliable as any other soldier. Like Silver Soldier, who had one heck of a punny name (the origin of which Stephan was still wondering about). The pegasus had been kicked out of the Royal Guards before the war began, and was now fighting on the side of the humans. He made an excellent scout, flying over enemy lines and giving Stephan the intel he needed, along with a better overview of the battlefield.

Earth ponies sported assault saddles, weaponized saddlebacks that carried twin assault rifles to lay down cover and suppressive fire, carried spare rounds for everyone. Unicorns had long lists of spells that they learned from the various Royal Guard branches and offices that they retired from well before the war began, boosting their magical defenses and offenses to keep the New Foals from simply overwhelming them with weak magic attacks.

At his side was his trump card; the Blue Spy, his love, Trixie Lulamoon. The mare was checking her gear. She smiled as she counted how many carrot bombs she had on her; probably enough to blow up Canterlot Castle and drop into the valley on a landslide, and then some. She looked up at Stephan as if she could feel his eyes on her, and a small smile crossed her face.

Stephan smiled back for a brief moment, then went back to his thoughts. They were in an alleyway, with no real signs of life other than the mold that covered the wall and random debris that had fallen from the rooftops. Right at the front opening was a once-busy crossroad where pedestrians used to pass, trying to dodge crazy cab drivers and half-asleep employees. Now, though, the larger pieces of rubble blocked the view of anything further than a pair of abandoned SUVs just barely within sight.

But that was exactly the point of going through this side of town. The buildings were still strong and tall, with nice openings that one could sneak in through and somewhat stable stairs that were practically placed by God himself, judging by how perfectly they were arranged to be able to enter the buildings and not be seen.

“Silver!” Stephan said, tone low but harsh enough to be heard by any of his men. He looked out to the street on his right, seeing massive amounts of rubble that would prevent the ground troops from scouting ahead.

“Jawohl Herr Major!” Silver acknowledged, making his way through the sea of human legs, looking threatening despite his head barely reaching the bottom of Stephan’s chest.

“You take two pegasi with you and scout ahead. Make sure there is no one else hiding in these buildings. And no radio, only person to person communication until I say otherwise.”

Silver and the two aforementioned pegasi saluted. They took off into the air, and floated between the buildings without a sound.

“Daniel, Alicia, I want you two to lead your squads into the buildings that Silver has deemed clear, and get your snipers to set up a perimeter around those two buildings there. Take some guys with Stingers with you as well, I don’t want any flying enemies harassing you.”

Daniel and Alicia nodded, leaving with their anti-air personnel and snipers. Bizarre symbols began glowing with a haunting light from their weapons as they appeared to vibrate, almost as if they were eager for the blood they would soon spill. Another group would stay behind, earpieces over their ears as they awaited with a backup call on Stephan’s possible, but hopefully unnecessary, signal.

Stephan hated to admit it, but he was kind of glad that their weapons had been integrated with rune magic. Especially Alicia’s anti-materiel rifle. The runes on the rifle enhanced the weapon’s stopping power and velocity twofold, enough to stop a truck—and the truck behind it as well. She was given two three-round magazines filled with enchanted crystal-tipped rounds, which even had runes etched onto the the bullet itself. Stephan was sure there was only one purpose for a gun of this caliber.

Frankly it terrified him that such an already powerful weapon was pushed well beyond what was norm. He didn’t trust it at first, especially after the fiasco with the Fujin missile that took out the Great Equestrian, along with every airborne asset the 'Rescue Fleet' had, which meant everything else that had wings or was a floating ship. Thank God none of the PHL pegasi or their airborne military hardware were caught in that monstrous result.

However, many of his comrades and his friends told him about how powerful their weapons were now, slicing through the enemy lines like a hot knife through butter thanks to runic enhancement. One stinger could now destroy a shielded chariot. Before they had to use two, one to destroy the shield, the second to destroy the chariot. Even his bullets were now upgraded with runes, making him even deadlier than before.

It took a while before the rest of his troops got Rune Magic for their equipment, but everyone agreed it was worth the wait. One soldier had even received an enhanced 13mm revolver that could shoot shotgun shells, and he had happily used it on every pony who had tried to get up close and personal when attempting to potion him. He called it “Margaret.”

“The rest, on me.” Stephan stood up and waved his hand forward. The remaining soldiers rose as well, with the practiced ease of one who has been receiving commands for most of their life.

Stephan took point, HK417 tight in his hands. Trixie followed him close behind, two carrot bombs in her magical grip. She would throw them at any threat to kill them or at least distract them long enough to give her and Stephan’s troops time to respond effectively.

The small group moved quickly but silently between and through the destroyed buildings, out of the view of Luna and Discord. The plan was that Stephan and his team would get close enough to put Discord and Luna down as quickly as possible with a surprise attack. He would lead said attack, while a mix of US, PHL, Ugandan, and Japanese troops got in the open to keep the attention away from Stephan and the EU forces. When in position, Stephan’s snipers would open fire, striking Luna and Discord down before the rest of the UN gave them a torrential hail of bullets, rockets, and spell fire.

Discord. That was a name Stephan had heard before, but he didn’t know too much about the name. Of course, on their rare downtime, Trixie and the other ponies had told him a bit about that so called God Of Chaos, but to face him would be a whole new experience.

From what he heard, Discord was an extremely powerful being, cable of bending the laws of nature to his amusement with an idle thought. If someone like him had fallen under the control of Celestia, then… well, there wouldn’t really be a then, considering how much power that Celestia would control.

“Are you sure about your theory?” Stephan asks Trixie with a doubtful voice.

Trixie looked up at him, surprised. “There are not many options left. I can only guess that Celestia lied about Discord's death and Luna's stoning to stop us from any attempts to free them and get them to our side. It would have give her enough time to manipulate their minds.” Trixie shivered slightly. “Only the thought that she can bend them to her will, even Discord of all beings, it makes me shudder on what she can truly do if she appears on the field of battle.”

“Or they could be here to help.” One soldier suggested quietly to himself, but by Trixie’s quick glare behind, he was heard.

“Please,” Trixie sighed, “considering how this war has gone, do you think it’ll be that easy? There’s always some new way that Equestria can doom us.”

Stephan groaned, afraid to agree, but kept his eyes straight, climbing over the rubble of some building. Making sure he sneaked a peak before even daring to move over, or around it. Still, something didn't not seem right to the German Spec Op.

If they are so powerful, Stephan thought, then why show up, claiming to have news from Marcus instead to just wipe us out? Maybe to get us out of the cover? No. Not with that many targets just in view. I am sure someone like Discord could easily snap his claws and level the entire city in an blink of an eye, never mind that it doesn’t seem like his style from the stories I’ve heard. Something else is going on, but damned if I know what...

Stephan heard a strange sound, just as he led the group through an burned out store. He pointed his gun at the source, only to see Silver, head low moving slowly, wings doing a soft motion, producing the sound, but stopped as they fulfilled their purpose of signifying his arrival. Stephan kneeled down, those following did the same.

“The buildings are clear. No enemies so far,” Silver said quietly, his ears swivelling at all sides, as if trying to find something. Stephan nodded to this, his eyes scanning the area before checking back to Silver.

“Alright, get to position on the roofs. Stay on their tails if the Stingers fail and they flee. But no matter what you have to do, you don’t let them get away. You got that?”

Silver saluted again, a dangerous glare in his eyes before crawling back into the hole he came out from. Stephan pushed the button of his earpiece radio two times, the signal for Daniel and Alicia to move. It will probably take a few minutes until they got in position, but there are already another groups of snipers in almost every building around Luna and Discord.

It wasn’t far away anymore. Just through a few more husks of former apartments and stores. All this reminded him of the cities he fought in Europe, all beautiful places that had turned to wastelands in days. It took only one week and Berlin looked almost exactly like this once beautiful city. But it wouldn’t be the first time that Germany faced such destruction. They rebuilt from the ashes once, and they could do it a second time.

“Two hundred meters.” Stephan whispered, not even having to hear his soldiers weapons clicking and belts tightening to know they were checking their gears one last time before they faced the two gods.

“This is, without a doubt,” said the soldier with the 13mm revolver, Kraber was his name, “the scariest fucking shit I have ever done.”

“We have to,” he said, gritting his teeth. “No choice on this one. For my family, for my friends, for everyone I’ve lost... I have to do this.”

Nobody actually knew what had happened to Kraber in the early years of the Conversion War. The town he’d been in though, was rumored to have been almost entirely ponified during a child’s birthday, lit on fire with a pyrotic mega-spell, or hit with an imperfect dose of potion. Whatever happened, though, Kraber refused to say anything, easily saying in return “too painful”.

Stephan smiled. “Yes. Yes, we do.” He loaded an incendiary 40mm grenade, also enhanced by Rune Magic, in his underbarrel launcher.

Stephan raised his hands, opened his fingers, then two united to signal up then all three directions they could move. The motion of split up and move forward. With eyes peeled and heavy breaths they paced their steps to find a good place to hide. Prepared for any unwanted surprises even if it took minutes, it felt like hours.

Stephan moved carefully between the rubble on the second floor of the apartment, each step set with care to make no noise. He lowered himself in the shadows, using a piece of abandoned glass to see if any light reached him. So in the end, he ended with his back against a wall beside a window.

He heard two sudden clicks from his radio. Signal that Alicia and Daniel were in position with the rest of the snipers. Stephan looked down at Trixie who kept a stern look on her face.

And people say that we Germans are always too serious, he thought, a smirk on his face.

He leaned closer to the window and took a quick peek outside. Destroyed buildings, wrecked cars, and what not, all that can litter a war-torn cityscape. But what really got his attention were the two creatures in the middle of all that. One was without a doubt an Alicorn, wings plus horn and taller than other ponies, blue coat and mane like night itself waving in an invisible breeze.

Just a quick guess, Princess Luna. She does not look that dangerous… no, wait, scratch that. By that logic Celestia would be just a tall pony. He follows her eyes to the other creature who seemed to be talking to her. And you must be that Discord guy. Some kind of… chimera thing. Huh. Maybe I should’ve listened to Trixie a bit longer than just five minutes…

He lifted his rifle and aimed through the scope. Switching between both of them to get a feeling of how quick he could switch between targets, finger lightly touching the trigger. His shot would be the signal to rain down a storm of lead on those two.

“We wish to speak to your commanding officer! The information we carry is most dire to your war of survival!” Luna yelled.

Stephan stared through his scope at Luna, who was looking at the large group of soldiers down the street. His gut instinct was calling out to him, it wouldn't be the first time this happened, and that make him think again on the situation before him.

This would be too easy for us. I saw how Celestia’s troops fight, and these two would have killed or ponified us several times over with the time we gave them. But this…

“Something’s not right about this,” Stephan said, looking at Trixie for a few seconds before he made a decision. “Stay here, I'm going down there to see what she is shouting about."

One could cut the tension in the air with a knife as the entire room full of soldiers seemingly turned as one to Stephan, looking at him like he'd lost his mind.

Stephan almost laughed at her question. “I guess that happened already a long time ago. But… don’t you have that feeling too? That something’s off somehow?”

Trixie paused in to think before a scowl graced her face. “Oh, please. Don’t tell me that your gut talks to you again.”

“Since when do you start to question my gut feeling?” Stephan says with a slightly tilt head.

“... okay, it is pretty helpful. But we’re dealing with Princess Luna and Discord! You could… you’d be lucky if you only die!”

“Don’t you trust my theory?” Trixie asked with a hurt voice, ears turning down.

Trixie looked down for a moment before her head rose once more. “And what if you are wrong this time?”

"I beg of your ears to hear our pleas, we know of your suspicion of our arrival, but we truly mean no harm!"

“Ah, fok,” One of his soldiers muttered as he shook his head to get rid of the slight ringing in his ears. Lucky for Stephan, he always wore his ear protection under his helmet. He tried to get his soldiers to keep their ear protection, but some people just thought they knew better.

"Believe me, Blue. If they came to start a fight, we wouldn't be here now, would we?" Stephan gets at his radio. “HQ, this is Bauer. I'll go out and face our… guests.”

“That is correct. Something tells me that there is more going on.” Stephan relayed back, frowning as he waited for the telltale signs of the shouting to begin. “It just doesn’t feel like an attack.”

"Hold position for further instructions. Not letting you go out there without a backup plan."

Stephan shakes his head. “No time for that. Make your plans while I distract them while you get the heavy ordinance ready.”

"Good thing that CO is on the same wavelength, we are using your GPS locator as a homing beacon for several cruise missiles." The radio finally answered after a moment of silence.

"You wanted to go down there, Major, this is the result of that. While snipers and Stingers are good, we are dealing with very powerful forces. The longer you stall them, the easier it will be for us to pinpoint them. It also allows us to take care of you if you are captured. No offense, Major Bauer, but we simply cannot let you fall into enemy hooves."

Yeah, well, fuck you too. Assholes. “Fine, but be sure that I will kick some ass if you guys decide to push the button too early. Clear?”

"Roger, Major. Doctor insists that we hold fire for now, so let’s hope that this is a peace offering of some sort, because those two are making the rest of PHL nervous as all kinds of hell."

The Doctor insists? Never thought that he would help me like this, but I'm not complaining. Stephan sighed. He turned his radio off and held his rifle tight in his hands, but Trixie stopped him before he could make his next move.

Stephan gave her a worried look. “Actually, I was going to keep you behind as a surprise if things go south.”

But Trixie made a step forward and poked him with one of her front hooves. “If you think that I am going to stand here and just let you go out there alone, then forget that fast. I go with you, point.”

“Fine, but get to safety if something happens to me, and let me talk to them.”

Trixie smirked. “Don’t worry, you will not even notice me.” Trixie’s horn began to light up in a green color which began to cover her entire body. Five seconds later she was gone.

Oh yeah. She can do that. Stephan thought. He looked at the soldiers behind him and gave them a quick nod. Stephan gave the rest of the soldiers a smirk before going to the window and leaping out.

Normally, Stephan would have never even entertain the idea of doing this, even if he was incredibly desperate, but the wonders of magically enhanced armor allowed for amazing things. Things that could never have been done before without risk of injury. Ah, if only humans and ponies had actually tried to work together. Namely, jumping out a second story window usually resulted to a trip to a field hospital, now it just mattered if there was something below to keep you from being skewered through.

Stephan fell for less than a second before landing on a unlucky car, smashing the roof with the weight of his body plus gear. He was barely able to hear the silent steps of Trixie’s hooves not far from him. He could see the dust accumulating on her hooves as they tried to go through waste-like landscape, though, so hopefully she would fix that issue quickly.

Luna was the first to see the figure in heavy armor, hard to miss given that he jumped put a window and crushed one of the odd four wheeled carriages. She could feel the strong and familiar magical aura around him as he made his way to her, similar to Marcus' own magical runes. It took her a while before she remembered a story from Marcus about a German soldier that had been an honor to fight beside. Celestia had conjured an image of him, one of many she conjured for her to know who to speak to when she arrived here on this world. Clad in heavy armor and protected by runes, a great magical claymore in one hand and the strange human weapons--rifles, was that what they were called?--in the other. Even though, at the back of her mind, Luna had realized that was not at all practical, but it seemed to “fit” him somehow. She couldn't help but internally shiver as he held the same presence of Marcus himself whem she first met him.

Stephan stopped only a few steps before the two, watching Luna with a neutral expression. “And how would you know that? Miss...” He was just playing with her, of course, hoping her reaction in this conservation would tell him more about what is going on. He couldn't help but be somewhat nervous as Discord completely ignored him and was looking behind him, his eyes slowly following something only he can see.

"Because Commander Marcus Renee told me himself." Luna said with a beaming smile, "He was quite joyful in his explanation of your person. "

Faster than Luna could react, Stephan pulled out his machete, which transformed immediately into his magical Claymore. As he pulled it out, it sliced through another car, carved through the door just before it rested under Luna's throat. She only blinked a few times before she actually realised just how fast it had all happened.

"Wha- What is the meaning of this?!" Luna gasped, stilling herself, watching the car door fall off with glowing bits of heated metal dripping off it.

“Funny.” Stephan said with a voice that froze its tone for the Princess. “That’s what I just wanted to ask.” He adjusted his sword a bit, and some of her hair seem to burn off.

Luna raised a brow, looking the man up and down, then glancing to Discord for assistance in the rapidly deteriorating situation. Discord rolled his eyes at this and raised his his claw, only for several blades to appear around Discord's head, chest, and groin area. Trixie slowly melted into view, a look of annoyance on her face as Discord had ignored the blades in favor of looking directly at her. "Well... was wondering when you’d drop the invisible act."

Trixie blew a few strands of her mane out of her face. “Well, how about a new act? Let’s call it… how many blades does it take to make Discord tell us what we want to know?”

"Hmmm, kinky." Discord mused out loud. "But I can make these toys change on a whim, you know. Sad but true."

"And I have several teams ready to put a bullet in your skull several times over." Stephan growled as he held the blade closer to Luna's neck. "And if that doesn't work, a good amount of heavy ordnance can take care of the rest. I doubt you can survive such a thing, suppose god or not."
--
Off in the distance, Alicia and Daniel sat in a old room of some old skyscraper. Daniel still mutters about why he just had to walk all the way up.

“Stop whining.” Alicia said while aiming through the powerful scope of her rifle. She could see Kraber crouched behind a water tower on a smaller building, staring down the red-dot sight he had installed on his .338 MG-2019, which he had decided to name “Spitfire”. Thankfully, his finger wasn’t on the trigger--he was aiming in the general direction of Stephan and Trixie, anyway.

Next to him, there was a large stallion with a targeting system mounted on his helmet, and an M312 25mm auto-grenade launcher placed on a special recoil-absorbing saddle brace that would transfer the recoil throughout his body. It was also rumored that the brace--a new invention from Crowe Laboratories down in Brazil-- could reconfigure itself so that a pony could fire it while rearing up on his hind legs.

“I’m not whining. I am complaining. Complaining is more manly,” Daniel said while adjusting his spotter scope. “Looks like Stephan made contact.”

Alicia nodded, an evil smile plastered on her face as she saw how Stephan and Trixie kept both of the newcomers in check. Then she noticed that Stephan had one hand behind his back and formed the devil horns with his fingers. Then one ‘horn’ disappeared. He did that several times.

Daniel looked over to Alicia, who had a confused look on her face. “I guess it means that you are supposed to shoot off a horn.”

Alicia spaced out for an instant before she was brave enough to ask. “How do you know that?”

Daniel shrugged. “I know him longer than you. We had our own handsigns. Pretty helpful in some situations.”

Alicia stared at him for a while longer, trying to figure out in what conversation could these two have created a sign that meant ‘horn shooting’ before she decided it wasn't worth the effort, and returned to her scope. “You guys are crazy.” Without hesitation she aligned the crosshair over to Discord and aimed at his smaller horn.
--

"Truly?" Discord looked to Stephan with more amusement. "Well, then, lets see what you got."

Stephan brought up his free hand firmly, watching Discord follow with his eyes and waved his hand once. Luna flinched at Discord’s howl of surprise and pain, before the roar of a weapon firing reached her ears. Discord blinked several times before reaching up and clutching the remaining of his blue horn, the missing piece tumbling to the ground and rolling away out of his sight.

"Right, you win." Discord raised his arms, his claws falling off his paws and scurrying underneath a parked car, causing Luna to look at him, almost in disappointment. "What? It hurt and that means they have runic magic on those bullets. I rather remain whole, thank you very much."

Luna's head jerked somewhat as she heard Discord's voice right beside her ear, susurrating. "Besides, if I do any funny business, they'll turn us to swiss cheese, most of those rounds carry unstable magic or runic rounds. We’ll be at Death's door before we even finishing blinking once."

There was chatter on the radio, but it died down after Daniel clicked on the radio once, saying everything was alright. Stephan returned his attention back at Luna. “You still didn’t introduce yourself. You seem to know about me, but yet, you haven't said anything about yourself or…” He looks at Discord. “Your companion.”

"My name is Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria, Caretaker of the Moon and Night skies." Luna answered, slowly moving a hoof to Discord who was still looking at his horn with loss. "And this is Discord, God of Chaos and Disharmony, Lord of Chance and Change."
--
“Oh dear Lord,” Kraber whispered to himself. “A princess? Please let me shoot it please let me…” But Stephan hadn’t given him the order yet, so he kept his finger off. If Stephan was right--and he usually was--then shooting could fuck everything up.

“Don’t worry,” said his stallion friend, “I think she’ll be friendly.” Kraber gave him a flat stare, then looked at the devastated city. “Okay, okay. Point. But I heard she was turned to stone for disagreeing with her sister, maybe there’s hope then.”

Kraber shook his head, so ready to pull the trigger he could see the image of a alicorn head receiving his bullet in the near future. “Oh, how much I hope you’re right, Aegis. At least if you’re wrong, then...” he smiled.

“Well… let’s just say I’m looking forward to killing a god. But a deicidal hat trick? Well, now that’s the stuff of legends.”

"I said you are wrong." Discord repeated, ignoring the blades, snipers, and machine-gunners focused on him. "Disharmony was something you and Celestia labeled me."

"Really now? You found that this was the moment to go to that? What about the other names?!"

Stephan cleared his throat, patience wearing thin. “That’s nice and all, but can we now focus on if I and my men have to kill you or not? We’ve had a long five years, we’re not exactly in a trusting mood here,” he looked at Luna, then at Discord and back. "Okay, how about… You tell me what happened to Marcus. And I mean all of it. Don’t leave out any details, or I get a lot less patient and understanding.”

"Ah, of course we should..." Luna trailed off, her eyes slowly widening, a frown slowly deepening in her face. “Oh no.”

She suddenly stared to the south, eyes focused on something only she could see. Stephan took note of Discord looking in the same direction, his face angry, but his eyes full of fear. Every sense that Stephan had was telling him simply RUN.

“...Okay, I bite. What is going on now?” Stephan had no idea how or why, but he felt more and more uneasy by the minute, as if he was skiing through an avalanche zone and thousands of pounds of snow could appear and crush him at any moment.

"Major, it is imperative that your men leave this area." Luna whispered, completely ignoring the blade as she stepped away, her wings flaring open.

Stephan lowers his blade. Whatever it was that made Luna forget his blade, it had to be something big and terrifying indeed. “I’m not going to leave until you tell me why you are here and where the fuck is Renee is!”

“There is no time, leave!” Luna yelled, this time in a voice so loud that Stephan felt like he'd been blown back.

“Why? What in the hell is going on?” Stephan's patience was at an end. He wanted answers and wanted now, but his gut was screaming at him to retreat.

“She’s coming." Luna whispered, her eyes even wider than normal, full of fear.

From what Stephan had heard, Alicorns had near-godlike power. Enough power that mortal weapons without runic or magic enhancement would be like attacking her with peashooters. Enough that if they put their mind to it, or lost themselves in a flurry of emotions, they were unstoppable forces of destruction. But if something could terrify Princess Luna, then… then…

Behind Discord and Luna, an explosive force of air rippled the atmosphere, the surviving glass windows of the various buildings shattered instantly as well as weaken building walls. Vehicles closest to the central point of the magical disturbance were lifted and thrown into the buildings like toys. Stephan and Trixie both barely reacted to the situation before they were lifted off the ground. Stephan’s armor absorbed the ambient magic while protecting him from the initial blast but not the kinetic force, while Trixie, by instinct, threw up a weak shielding spell to buffer the blast before it was sundered apart as it was made of paper and sent her flying through the air.

Stephan tumbled, bouncing off the ground as he was dragged by the initial force, crashing down the road hard enough to give him a good angle to stab his claymore into the earth to fight the inertia and get back to his knees. He barely managed to open his arms once he raised his head to catch the flying Trixie, which only made his previous efforts of staying on his feet useless, both falling on their backs.

Once gotten out of the daze of the crash, both Stephan and Trixie raised enought to look back to where Luna and Discord were. And remained. Luna had a vicious scowl, mane flowing behind her which made her defensive stance more threatening. Discord had a look of annoyance, claws popping back upon his paws and his shattered horn grew back. Various trinkets appeared on his body, an unusual bracer appearing on his arm, an amulet the other, a trio of chibi looking dolls hanging around his neck, and finally a large scroll on his back. All and all, disturbing.

"Oh sweet Luna..." Trixie murmured as she saw the Tyrant step out, the Elements of Harmony right behind her.

“I believe it’s time for that phrase,” Aegis breathed calmly, placing a hoof to the side of the man’s head. “Less talking, more shooting!” Aegis shoved the man into his scope.

Queen Celestia stepped forward, the Elements right behind her as she stood before Luna and Discord, a smile on her face as she saw several humans in the area.

It was better this way, for them to finally understand that her way was best, Celestia thought with a smile. That it was the only way for them to survive and be happy with all living things. To cut away their pitiful but misguided attempts of harmony, and their unnecessary humanity. Finally liberate them of their blighted existence and useless meddling, putting them down before they do the same to her once more. Yes...It will be perfect.

"Hello Luna, Discord. Come to join my Perfect Harmony? Or do I have to destroy you both?"

The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum (The Original)

by Sledge115

Knell