Strike

Author:
Redskin122004

Editors:
Drawdex
Proudtobe
Beyond the Horizon
Kizuna Tallis
ThatClosetBrony
Doctor Fluffy
Serpenti

In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than to win.
-George Bernard Shaw

There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower

No, that’s your limitation! In this space full of turmoil, you act like a king and seal other lifeforms!
-Simon, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

The calm wind blew from one side of the peaceful wastes to the other undisturbed, dragging along dirty plastic bags and faded posters in its grasp. The buildings of old were gradually being reduced to crumbling relics by nature, but nothing else could do anything to mangle the epic signs of civilization. There were few creatures that lived in these wastes; flies, insects, rats, and anything else that claimed these peaceful and silent cities as their safe havens. Nothing was happening in the city. Nobody had reason to be here, much less fight each other. Indeed, whatever was in this city was here for a peaceful and relaxing stay.

The air was filled with munitions of every sort, punching through any obstacles that were in their way, drilling through rock, marble, and asphalt as if they were cheap plywood, or simply pulverizing them enough that other bullets could break through. The walls of the buildings that were holding witness to the center of the madness took mere seconds to become riddled with pockmarks as a result of so much ammunition being fired.

Stephan would never fully recall what had happened. All he could remember were simple little memories, with a few events that seemed impossible to believe and a couple of random details that jumped out for no particular reason mixed in. He remembered an insane alicorn from his nightmares coming for a nice chat. Stephan remembered the way her right eye twitched a little when the draconequus wrapped his tail around the smaller blue alicorn’s hind leg before vanishing from his vision.

Then there was the colorful call to action before the world erupted into a hellish landscape, the air filled with flying bits of metal and fire spells. He remembered covering Trixie with his body to shield her from the deadly projectiles, the smell of her mane as he held her close, the pounding of his heart in his chest, and the utterly blank look on the Tyrant's face as she watched on behind her golden shield as hundreds, if not thousands of bullets, spells, grenades, and rockets slammed into it. The amount of fire she was under was enough to cause the golden translucent shield to become a semi-sphere of solid gold.

"Impossible..." Trixie whispered in frightened awe as she stared. The full-on assault began dying away, the shocked troops in as much awe as Trixie was. "There's no way."

Stephan could only think the same thing. It was impossible. Not even potioneer ships could sustain a shield against such an assault.

"Stephan, it’s Alicia. I need time to set up. Daniel and I had to reposition for a clearer shot."

"Shit. You got twenty." Stephan growled as he got back up and rushed forward, his magical machete held tightly in his hand.

Celestia watched as a human jumped back to his feet and sprinted to her person. She half expected him to be screaming his head off, but he made no sound as he rushed towards her.

She watched with some amusement as the armored human ran at her with a pitiful blade. She decided to play with him a bit, let him assume that she would allow such attack of her person with such a flimsy weapon. The human held the blade out behind him as he ran, as of to build up his strength for his attack. She was somewhat surprised as it flared with blue flames, shifting to a large glowing blade.

Ah... the 'Knight' of Germania, a worthy human to change and cripple his followers.

"Interesting blade," Celestia commented idly as the human jumped and slammed the blade onto her golden shield... achieving absolutely nothing, the blade’s metal ringing against the solid magic of her shield. "But ultimately useless, like all the other weapons you come up with."

Celestia’s horn glowed for a single spell, impacting against the human's chest. She expected him to scream in pain, she expected him to be sent flying like a gnat that he was, she expected the human to be nothing more than a passing memory before she dealt with the rest.

The spell splashed harmlessly across his chest, not even a single twitch of the arms to indicate pain. The human looked down at his chest before looking back up at her, she could feel the smugness coming from him.

Runes, what a bother. Celestia thought to herself before she flared her wings open. "Do not believe I am a one trick pony! Your smug attitude will be your downfall. Now, begone from my sight and lay on the ground like a good human!"

Celestia flapped her wings once, the magic coursing through her wings gathering and manipulate the very air to her control, sending what could once be a mere gust to tornado like winds. She watched on as the human was sent flying into one of their disgusting, foul air throwing carriages, crumbling underneath his body and lodging him in its side.

"Now then, humans of this city, I come for two beings that believe to be my sworn enemy and younger sister. I wish to take them away before they give you false hope in this 'war'. Try to see it from my view. You wander in the dark, lashing out at anything that is different or befriend anyone that would hurt you." Celestia called out to every human in sight. She watched as the human struggled out of the carriage, managing to free himself before collapsing on the floor with a loud groan. She looked on, a scowl mentally forming in her head as she saw the same blue pony with domino mask standing just in view, but she had bigger wheats to cut down. "I only wish to help you help become better. To become more than what you have. To finally walk down the street without fear. I bring Harmony to you all. I only desire one thing... Your absolute trust in me to guide you to a better life."

“I’M SORRY, WHICH OF US WERE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!” Kraber yelled, his hand fumbling to reload his MG2019, his emotions running high with fervor.

Alicia scowled as she listened for Stephan’s voice. She finished setting up the DSR.50 with Daniel standing behind her, frowning as he watched Stephan with concern.

"Now witness the wonders that I can bring! Witness salvation in the form of a single drop of a wondrous and generous potion a being can create! WITNESS MY-"

"Not today," Alicia whispered as she lined up the target reticule with the tyrannical alicorn's head. "Because today, we bring you down."

A DSR.50 is a weapon capable of punching through an engine block from a mile away with complete ease, even killing the driver and the person behind him if the sniper angled it right. Granted, it wouldn't be a merciful death as they would be missing some of their lower abdomen, but it would be a kill all the same.

A DSR.50 enhanced with magic inscribed on it was far more powerful, more than any rifle had a right to be. The barrel was strengthened and could dissipate heat more effectively due to the cooling runes. The very same runes also acted as magic resistors and absorbers, to fend off unicorns attempting to take said weapon away from its operator. Any unicorn trying to pull an “assisted suicide,” as Kraber called it, would get a very nasty shock when they tried to even touch it.

Another great feature of her rifle was the integrated hydraulic recoil damping system in the buttstock to absorb the shock after firing.The giant integral muzzle brake reduced the perceived muzzle blast and used the gases to reduce the recoil even more. Without those, someone could break his or her hand. And the entire arm. And probably the shoulder, too.

Runes were inscribed on the insides of the rifle and magazine, or any weapon in general with these enhancements, allowing levels of stopping power and adaptability in bullets that hadn’t been seen since Borderlands. Firing it caused the bullet to be charged with unstable magic that would allow the bullet to discharge all of the chaotic energies in a burst of pure destruction. There were even people thinking of modding the rune-enhanced bullets to be incendiary, acidic, or electric.

On the other hand, exploding on contact, weakening armor or shields, at the same time allowing the bullet to continue on without waste and hitting the target fully without causing the round to suffer any loss of penetrating power? That worked just as well.

However, the bullets used by Alicia were far different. A crystal tip .50 caliber (Or anything above that) was not an ammunition made in bulk. It took time, effort, magic, backroom deals, and more money than many of us would see in a month to craft such a bullet. Several hundred pounds of crystals had to be smuggled from Equestria, from Canterlot itself from the Crystal Mines, or skimmed out of someone’s haul, in perfectly calculated minuscule enough amounts that nobody would notice their absence. It would be brought to Earth and used by the PHL, to enhance weapon and vehicle defenses. Few crystals were pushed off to ammo creation, and this was where the most dangerous form of rune magic was placed onto them.

Nullifying Runes. Usually found in ancient tombs to deter Unicorns from simply magick their way through the defense, it was also deadly to highly magical creatures like Phoenixes and Golems, but it it was theorized that a bullet with such a rune could completely ignore a magical shield or rip apart magical creatures. There had been a few experimental null-enhanced weapons in the Crystal War, but they were still in the development stage, in part due to certain policies that Celestia had about the sympathies of Equestrians, no matter how important they were.

Unfortunately for her, the PHL managed to snag several plans for said runes and the humans, being who they were when given a nifty new toy, made dozens of prototypes yet to be used on the field.

Something Alicia was all too happy to test out on the Tyrant. If it failed, it’d be one hell of an expensive failure, but if it succeeded, then it’d be worth every penny or bit.

"Eat crystal, bitch." Alicia growled as she pulled the trigger. The bullet flew true, flying down a range roughly the length of a football field.

The bullet punched through the air, displacing the air as it traveled. It met the golden shield and, with a slight pause, suddenly punched through it, deflecting very, very slowly as it met the air behind her shield. It left a gaping hole as it passed, the shield appearing to shatter like glass.

The Tyrant had just lowered her head somewhat while Alicia squeezed the trigger, a condescending look on her face as she stared at Stephan who was struggling to his feet, but she didn’t get away scot free.

The bullet sheared through the Tyrant's ear, creasing her skull, passing through her mane and grazed one of Fluttershy’s legs, causing her to squeak out in alarm and jumping behind Applejack. Applejack’s eyes darted wildly as she scanned the length of the street, looking for the shooter that had dared to hurt her goddess.

The first blood drawn on the Tyrant, made by a human weapon, and Alicia was proud to be the first one to make it, even if it it was a miss.

Celestia froze, her eyes drawing on a single piece of flesh on the ground. A piece of white fur she had been familiar with for years, but had never thought she would see anywhere else. Blood dripped from the side of her surprised face, staining her almost pure white coat. Then something else corrupted her omnipresent motherly calm.

They dare strike me?! First the lowly princess refusing my offer, then the foolish Blue Spy taking what is mine and destroying my prison, and now this!! No. I can not allow this to go on. It is time for me to punish all those that dare stand against me and my rule. She looked through the closing hole in her shield, her horn glowing as she took in the building and finally decided it was time to take the foal shoes off.

"It ends," Celestia called out, feeling out the trail left behind by the bullet. While Earth appeared to be all but non-magical, that was wrong. Magic was everywhere, even on this dirtied world. It was nowhere near the same amount as Equus, but it was still there. Not that she was going to tell the humans that, after all, it was the entire reason she kept them out of the barrier. Following a trail of nullified magic was as simple as following a dirt line for her. Her horn flared before launching a single devastating spell at the building. "NOW!"

Alicia set her sight back on the Tyrant, a vicious grin on her face as she was going to take her down before she even knew what was happening. Through her scope, she found herself looking at the Tyrant, and her looking right back at her with utter spite in her eyes.

For a split second, Alicia’s world screeched to a halt, as if Death placed a grisly claw on her shoulder and told her it was time to go. For that moment, she was able to take all the little details in. The way the Tyrant's now missing ear bled and trickled down the side of her face, the way her right eye twitched ever so slightly, the way her mouth opened to say a single word.

"Everyone out!" Daniel grabbed Alicia roughly and dragged her to her feet. She saw the way the Tyrant's horn glowed, realizing in horror that she was staring directly at them.

Daniel pushed Alicia to get to the other side of the office building, towards the nearest exit, their men quickly following suit. Daniel looked out the window to see her horn glow reached its apex.

There was no time to reach the nearest exit, and they were trapped on the sixth story.

"Windows! Jump!" Daniel shouted as he dragged Alicia behind him as he raced to the glass, pulling up his weapon and firing a short burst to shatter the impact resistant window.

Celestia smiled, as if she found the whole situation vaguely amusing, as she released her spell at the ten story office complex. It looked like miniature sun as it flew towards its intended target. Alicia and Daniel saw how it passed underneath them as they jumped out, the glass and metal not even giving the least bit of resistance before it vanished from sight in the building.

The very floor they once stood on seemingly erupted into fire and melted globs of metal, the metal dripping down like a waterfall. Alicia’s world slowed to a crawl as she felt the heat at her back and feet, slowly twisting around in flight to see the room erupting into hell itself. She could see how some soldiers weren’t fast enough to reach the nearest window and got caught by the flames, some burning to ash in mere seconds. Some were caught in mid flight of their escape, the spell viciously taking them away from the others.

Unfortunately, the spell wasn’t their only problem. Alicia, Daniel, and the five survivors jumped out of the sixth story building with no means of landing safely on the ground.

Stephan looked up just in time to see Celestia release her spell, his head following its trail before it impacted the building...

The same building he had sent Alicia and Daniel's team to use for sniper support. He stared numbly as two silhouettes, hopefully Daniel and Alicia, jumped out of the building mere seconds before the spell impacted, followed by the others as the building seemingly melted/collapsed onto itself.

He watched on, the world going at a snails pace as he saw them fall until he lost sight due to the buildings. A single minute passed as his mind raced, waiting for his friends to radio in, but none came. He quickly brought his hand to his radio, calling out to his team.

"Daniel… Daniel, do you read me… Alicia, do you copy?" Stephan’s hands shook, waiting for the radio to crackle to life and Daniel to laugh over the radio that it was fun ride, for Alicia to curse him out for giving her the shitty job. "Heinrich... Joseph... Gottverdammt! Answer me! Anyone please!"

Trixie was standing cold where she was, looking at the collapsing building before Stephan’s voice shook her from her horror. Stephan needed her; she looked back to see the UN troops taking position, their grim faces telling her that they would not yield until they lay dead on the ground.

"Stephan... we need to fall back... Please..." Trixie whimpered to him, struggling to get him to his feet. Stephan shook her off, still in shock at what he just witnessed.

We managed to survive against all the odds. He slowly focused himself, his head filled with burning anger and hatred. He needed to focus, but this was too much. No one in their groups had any sort of Rune armor like the one he just received or went through a dangerous experimental surgery for runes like Marcus. They had enchanted armor, and as great as they were, they weren't made for long-term survival in mind.

The things we had to do… what I did to survive. He groped for his machete until he felt its rubber handle. The handle felt comfortable in his hand as he struggled to his feet, rising up from his knee to keep fighting.

And this is how it’s going to end? Lying in the dirt while my friends die against a being like her? He finally rose to his full high, eyeing the Tyrant who ignored him, but still watching the burning building with interest. His body shook with barely controlled anger and despair as he finally got a full look at her.

She is smiling. She is smiling! She is Smiling! She Is Smiling! SheIsSmiling!SHEISSMILING!SHEISSMILING! Stephan felt something within snap, his eyes dilated as rage coursed through his veins, screams and cries of haunted memories of thousands, nay millions, of people he was unable to save in her xenocidal war.

Stephan knew he was broken goods, a man barely holding himself together thanks to his friends and lover, and just like that two of his friends were killed. They were not killed in the heat in battle, they were not fending off a checkpoint from a horde of terrorists or mad New Foals; they were killed by a fall. A fall forced upon them to by an alicorn who was all be confirmed to be insane. She didn't even seem to care, like they were insects grounded beneath her hooves.

Stephan roared, shoving Trixie aside as he rushed for the Queen under her golden shield. His machete turning into a claymore once more, heating the air around it like it is a cooling vent for Stephan’s inner rage. I will not let it end like this!

Celestia finally took notice of the armored human, whom refused to learn his lesson and lost reason as he was screaming bloody murder, attacking her again. Pathetic.

Stephan felt his armor react to himself, helping boost his already impressive physical fitness to new levels as his rage overtook common sense and left it far behind him. He jumped up off the ground, a full seven yards from the Tyrant, bringing his sword up and slammed it against her shield. Landing lightly on his feet, he spun the blade around and bashed it again with the long side of his magical weapon. Celestia only smirked when his attack didn’t even leave a scratch on her barrier.

Stephan swung his sword again, hitting the side of her shield. I will kill you. And another one from the other side. I will kill you! Another one from the top. I WILL KILL YOU! He stood away, bringing both hands to the handle, red slowly covering his vision as he spread his stance, holding the claymore like he was about to charge in an attempt to stab through.

Somewhere deep in his head, he realized that the Tyrant was only doing this to screw with him. To create ultimate despair in him, and all of humanity, by letting him think he had won, and throwing him back into the jaws of defeat, made even more crushing.

Celestia watched in amusement how every strike hit her shield, but not doing anything. Then he attacked again, this time the tip of his sword hitting her shield straight on. “Give it up 'Knight'. You will never be able to lay your filthy hands on m-”

Celestia blinked a few times at the sound. She looks at the point where Stephan’s sword hit the shield. There, on her shield, was a small crack, not even an inch long.

I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL SHOVE MY SWORD IN YOUR BLACKENED HEART AND SLICE YOU IN TWO! Stephan pushed harder against the shield, his muscles screaming in agony but he kept going. His sword glowed bright as he struggled to break Celestia’s shield, little lines began to appear on her protecting barrier, like cracks on glass.

Celestia harrumphed as she saw how the human dared to damage her golden shield. “You are one resilient human, aren’t you?” She opens her wings again. “Learn where you belong!” She pushed her wings forward, and another tornado-like wind caught Stephan and threw him through the air.

However, this time around he was prepared. Landing on his knees, ramming his sword into the ground, and slowing himself down until he was at a full halt. His arms stinged while he fought against the wind, but he managed to move one hand to his rifle, lifting it to rest it on his other arm which still held the sword. He aimed carefully at the point he just damaged and pulled the trigger.

The weapon bucked in his hands, spitting fire point-blank at the Tyrant with six hundred rounds per minute. Every bullet in his fifty round drum mag exploded against the shield, looking impressive, but ultimately futile. But then the cracks became bigger, and finally the last few bullets managed to make a little hole in it. One or two even got through and just missed Celestia and the the Elements by inches.

"ENOUGH!" The Tyrant roared, her rage pushing her just to the edge of sanity. Various pieces of rubble and abandon vehicles floating off the ground, magic encasing them as she brought them floating before the enrage human. Her horn glowed with power as she seethed at the human, it shouldn’t be possible for him cut through so easily. "You will show me your power and I will strike you down before you can use - *SLAP*"

Stephan blinked in surprise, his rage taking a back seat to what he was witnessing, the strangeness taking precedence. The girls behind the tyrant drew their breaths being witness of a large black sphere hovering in air, with a claw reaching out through it, a rolled up newspaper in claw.

The claw whacked the Tyrant again, this time with a little more force as it caused her to stagger somewhat away from the floating hole. The dozen items floating in her grasp dropping to the ground with a loud crash.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What are we going to do with you?" Stephan turned his head upwards, seeing the draconequus floating downwards to them. His claw arm resting behind his back and a knowing smile on his face. "I mean really, acting like spoiled foal is really unbecoming of you."

Celestia glared in anger, her horn flaring as she lit the newspaper up in flames, causing the claw to let go of it and wave itself around and slipping back through. Discord winced somewhat as he held his claw before looking back to her.

Stephan heard a gasp coming from behind him, looking back to see Trixie holding a hoof to her face, a light giggle escaping her. He turn back to see the Tyrant's right eye twitch just a bit more, a scowl on her face as she stared at Discord with contempt.

"It was a very poor decision in coming here, Discord." The Tyrant seethed. "Did you not believe I would not notice you coming to this world? Even you are not that stupid to believe such a foal of me."

"Frankly, I don't care." Discord stated as he walked up to her shield, examining it with some interests. "I find your power play to be overrated at best, all this talk about perfection and what not is simply ill-suited of you. It’s simply trading one annoying goddess for another, and, to be honest… I like the old Celestia more.”

"Says the being that enslaved the minds of thousand and caused anarchy across Equus." Stephan was rather surprised at the response, but Discord blew a raspberry at her, scoffing at her accusations.

"You believed your own hype about myself? Huh, shouldn't be too surprised at that. Feeding yourself your own manure can't be healthy." Discord droned as he raised a single small hammer, a frown on his face. "I didn't enslave anything, I discorded a dozen or so ponies, and most of a village, but they were so… annoying! 'Ah! It's the monster! Ah! It's going to eat us! Ah! Eating all the cheese!' Bah! They went back to normal after I left, and there were ponies in Manehattan that didn’t even notice! Besides, I wanted you off your throne and making you look incompetent would have served that purpose. Either way, I don't really care about that."

"A nice distraction while I get close to this shield." Discord said with a smile, hitting the shield lightly with the small hammer. The Tyrant's eyes widen as cracks spread across the golden shield. "Next time, don't use magic with the grains of my power laced through it."

“For a goddess-tyrant,” Trixie whispered down to Stephan, “She certainly makes a lot of mistakes, doesn’t she?”

“That she does!” Discord laughed. “It’s just adorable, isn’t it?!” He snapped his claw, appearing down the street with a tuxedo and a magician hat placed haphazardly on his skull. A stage appeared with him, various UN troops sitting in the seats in utter confusion. Discord held up a large red satin sheet, showing everyone the empty stage.

"Aha! For my first trick, I’ll summon a Leopard!" Discord crowed at the top of his lungs. He waved the red sheet once, appearing to land on something, something that appeared to be very familiar to Stephan.

"Tada!" Discord ripped the sheet off, revealing a Leopard2A7 sitting right on stage. Stephan watched as the barrel of the Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun L/55 quickly zeroed in on the Tyrant and fired, Discord shielding the troops below the stage with his magic, protecting them from the noise and force.

The Tyrant was still struggling to bring up her shields when the DM11 HE grenade struck her weaken shield and exploded spectacularly, shattering the shield and sent the Tyrant tumbling down the street.

Stephan watched as the Elements hide behind a hastily constructed shield made by Twilight Sparkle, utter spite directed at Discord as they made their escape through a side alley. Stephan couldn't help but smile, they no longer had an alicorn to protect them.

"Hey!" Stephan perked up, looking back to the tank and seeing Peter waving from hatch, a big smile on his face.

Stephan widen in surprise, his hand coming up to his ear as he called over the radio. "Peter?! What are you doing in that tank?!"

“Well. . . not sure. I was busy with some repairs, and the next thing I remember was that this feller-” he points at Discord, “Shows up and takes the tank with me.”

Stephan stared at Discord, then back at Peter. “Isn’t that Mueller’s tank?”

“Yeah, he is driving.” He looks down the hatch and screams. “Say hello boy!”

The driver hatch opens up and the head of Mueller appears. “Hi Major! What do you think of my baby? I made some upgrades.”

Stephan looked the tank over. He knew that Mueller loved to make his tanks his own. He saw that the remote controlled weapon station on the main turret was not the same as before. Normally it would be one with a single extra gun, but this one was a leftover from Dynamit Nobel Defence that had been looted from an armory before the Barrier ate it, one that could carry two weapons. For example, it could carry one .50 and one 40mm grenade machine gun.

However, Mueller, like the tank maniac he was, mounted a 40mm grenade machine gun and a rocket pod which held two Panzerfaust 3’s in it. Even if a tank was overkill, Mueller would always manage to set the bar even higher. Stephan could also see the telltale hungry red glow of runes all over the barrel of each weapon, four lines that were crossed with a fifth. There were hundreds all over the main weapon. Stephan doubted that Mueller really counted for every single kill, but he was sure that Mueller could do a lot of damage when he drove the sixty-two tons of mass destruction.

Stephan shook his head, smirking slightly as he turned back to the Tyrant slowly getting back to her hooves. "HQ, its Bauer, I need that strike now. Distance from my position is a hundred meters due south. Cruisers should do the trick."

"Oh yeah, Elements are in the city. Time to start hunting down some naughty little slavers," Stephan said. “Have fun..”

“Oh, I will,” Kraber’s voice crackled in his ear. “They’ve spread out a bit, but I’m sure we can find them.”

“He’s not going to listen, is he, Aegis?” Stephan asked. Oh, this was going to be brutal.

Celestia slowly got back to her hooves, her right eye constantly twitching in growing rage. Discord’s interference, somehow even more infuriating than usual, had been the final straw. There was no way in Tartarus that she would let this go. They had embarrassed her for the last time. She looked up to see the armored human walking away from her, as if the battle was done and over with.

She straightened herself out, her eyes burning with rage as she opened her mouth to call out to them.

She never even heard the roar of the missiles until they landed directly on top of her.

Stephan joined up with the others, not even bothering to look back as the street the Tyrant was sitting in exploded as three cruise missiles impacted area, destroying the entire street and surrounding buildings. He watched as the Draconequus ate some popcorn with a pair of sunglasses on his nose, a goofy grin on his face.

"Pretty." He simply said, causing Stephan to give a tired laugh at that. As he walked up to Peter, a stinging sensation emitted from his chest. “I like what you did, by the way-it has style. Though it could use some more style. Maybe, say, some triangular shades? I’ve heard they make everything more awesome...”

“Don’t,” Trixie glowered. “I’ve seen your style, and it would look ridiculous.”

"Are fine." Peter stated, startling Stephan out of his growing despair. "When this Discord feller arrived, he brought them and their surviving team along with him. They're okay, but we had some losses, the rest of them are just banged up and slightly singed."

Stephan felt like his leg would give out on him. They're... Alive… thank you up there… guess you haven’t abandoned us after all...

"I'm sorry I couldn't save the rest." Discord stated, his eyes looking at the flaming mess down the street. "I was too busy gauging her strength. I was so sure she was more powerful than that... Perhaps its only on-"

The street exploded with a magical flare, rubble being tossed aside and barely standing buildings collapsing from the magical energy. Smack dab in the middle of it stood the Tyrant. Her face contorted in pure spite, her eyes and horn glowing with massive magic coursing through them. Trixie, who was standing beside Stephan and waiting for her turn to berate him for his foolish plan of attack, whimpered and sank to the ground as the magical might overwhelmed her. She wasn't alone, the few unicorns within the group also cried out in alarm and utter terror.

Discord slowly pulled his sunglasses from his face, a frown forming as he held up a single claw. Stephan watched as the Tyrant screamed in with absolute hate filling her voice,

"I GROW WEARY OF YOUR DEFIANCE! SUFFER YOU FOALS!" Celestia bellowed, her horn glowing, balls of magic flying out directly at them. The few that slammed into the side of the buildings exploded with massive force and a few dozen were still heading right towards them.

Stephan blinked, finding himself, his unit, and UN troops, at Fenway Park, along with the Mueller’s tank. Dozens of medical personnel looked at them with stunned looks before an explosion ripped through the air to the west. Stephan looked on, before bringing up his hand to his radio.

Discord coughed as he pulled himself from the rubble, waving his claw to clear the air. "Was that really necessary?"

"No more games, Discord." The Tyrant seethed as she walked towards him. "I should have taken you seriously, but I allowed myself to believe you would simply roll over and give up."

"Well shame on you then." Discord chuckled, flexing his arms as he prepared for a fight. "In your world, you took your Discord off guard, but I'm not letting you do that this time."

"You speak as if you know what has happened to your counterpart..." Celestia trailed off, her eyes narrowing as she finally took him in. "I see, I didn't understand at first when you said I took your power for my own."

Discord chuckled darkly as he bowed to her, looking back up to her with his eyes filled with the promise of death. "Hello, Celestia."

"That final attack you performed in the Crystal Mines was a means to hide yourself within my student." Celestia scowled before stomping the ground in agitation. "Always with the tricks."

"Let’s cut the chat, shall we?" Discord’s tail slammed into the ground, shattering the asphalt with its impact.

Celestia smirked as she looked at him. "Do you really believe I would not come prepared? There is a reason I brought the Elements with me."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but they have other matters to attend to," Discord smirked as he walked towards her.

He could hear a soldier laughing hysterically, firing off some gun with a fire rate so ridiculous that it sounded like a buzzsaw going off.

"From the sound of that, very… pressing matters. Its the reason why I brought my own playing cards."

Celestia scowled as she slammed her hoof into the street, her hoof digging into the ground, her wings flaring open in a form of natural intimidation. "Luna."

"Correct!" Discord declared as he spread his own wings, claws extending from his lion's paw. "But let’s cut the chatter. Let’s see if you really have what it takes when I finally decide to cut loose."

"I'll gladly put you in your place." Celestia sneered as she fixed her glare on him. “I’ll make you regret everything in the next few minutes of your life!”

Celestia looked around for the source of the voice seemingly screaming out of nowhere at them. Yet, in the time it took her to blink, Discord was already before her, slamming his claw into her face, almost shaving her head off her body and sending her spiraling down the street.

She straightened herself out, landing on her hooves as she skidded across the ground, her horn flaring to life as she let loose several incendiary spells. Discord weaved through them, chuckling the whole time as he raced toward her. He roared as he flew, and brought down his taloned fist on her skull, attempting to crush her skull into the pavement. Celestia jumped back, rearing as she was about to let a devastating spell on Discord as he lodged himself to the ground via his fist.

Discord smirked as a black hole appeared on the ground as his fist went right through it, with another hole appearing underneath Celestia’s chin. The result was a complete cheap shot by any other standard, as her jaw felt like someone decided to drop a flying castle on it. She was lifted off the ground before she felt her own tail being stomped on, before Discord pulled her through the black hole and slammed her into the ground behind him by her tail, making her bounce off like a ball. She was still in the air when Discord slammed his own tail into her gut and knocked her down the street, flying through a building into the afternoon sky.

She barely had time to flip herself up right before she found herself staring at Discord aiming at her with his strange bracer.

"Like it? I got it from a friend, had to stay on their world for a bit longer than necessary, but it was so much fun to play with." Discord smiled as he gently brushed the bracer with small hidden gun popping out.

“A gun?!” Celestia laughed. “Of all the weapons you could have cherry-picked from the infinite universes in your search for this pathetic world, you pick a tiny gun?! What could that possibly do to me?!”

“Oh, you would be so surprised!” Discord laughed as he cocked the weapon, “I found Angel Arms, guns that stabilize the longer you fire them-didn’t like those much, by the way-a shotgun that shot walls of explosions, and things you can’t even believe, but this just… I don’t know, its just..."

Discord smiled as he realized what term he was looking for as he pulled the trigger "Full of surprises."

A massive bullet, one that was half the size of her potioneer ships, came flying out, a large vicious grin and arms on it as it sped out and slammed into her. She barely had time to comprehend what happen before it buried itself and her along with into the building and exploded, collapsing the surrounding buildings along with it.

"Is this truly all that you have?" Discord called out, a grin on his face as he surveyed the devastation. "Not very impress-" Discord turned slightly, eyes wide with surprise as Celestia appeared right next him, bucking his face with her rear legs and sending him into the building below.

"You were saying?" Celestia called out as she watched Discord stumble out of the hole, holding his face with his paw. "Stop this now Discord, you don't have any hope of defeating me! You should bow before me before I truly get upset. "

"Wow, a little early for the evil monologue a bit, don't you think?" Discord muttered as he cracked his neck. He looked up to see Celestia’s horn flaring with magic, sending a beam of Solar Fire at him. Discord only rolled his eyes as he held up a single paw, blocking it, and let the rest play out.

Celestia watched as Discord held up his paw, as if to catch it, much to her delight, only to be blindsided...

By her own attack. The small floating black hole popped out of existence once its job was complete in redirecting her attack.

She seethed, struggling to right herself as she glared down to see Discord racing towards her, a knowing grin on his face. "Enough."

Discord reached out to her, his claws gleaming with chaotic energy, but Celestia let out a powerful pulse of magic, catapulting Discord backwards. He barely had time to right himself before his skull exploded in pain, as Celestia released a point blank spell at his face, sending him skyward. She glided after him, pulling up at the right moment of his flying trajectory and bucking him in the chest, forcing him to sign for a short stay at a forty story office complex on the other side of the street.

Discord landed heavily on his feet on the concrete exterior, cracks spreading across the building. Celestia attempted to follow through, only to gag as Discord caught her with his tail. He stood up on the wall, ignoring gravity as he glared at Celestia. "Well, lets see how well you like it when your face is being pulverized."

Celestia struggled to free herself as Discord twisted his upper body around several times, before he began to fall to the ground, and dropkicked the Tyrant face first into the concrete wall. Discord shoved her through, breaking steel supports and solid stone, before spinning her once more as she slammed face into the wall again. Celestia was unable to stop him as he repeated the motion as he fell forty stories, constantly slamming her through the outer wall at a dizzying pace before finally slamming into the ground.

The air around the impact site was clouded to all before a bright light appeared within, the dust and smoke banished by the force of magic as Celestia’s horn flared with power and shot Discord down the street. Discord landed on his claws, his teeth gnashing as he raced straight back at her, his eyes filled with growing rage as he saw her step out of the crater with little care.

Celestia raised a shield, blocking the attack with little issue. She gave him a small smile before realizing something was amiss. The answer came from a hoof slamming into her jaw, coming straight out of the ground like a tree. It was enough for Discord to shatter the shield and backhand her across the face, staggering her. He look down at the three chibi dolls, a grin forming as an idea popped into his mind.

“What are you playing at?” Celestia asked, shaking her head. “You may have an infinity of tricks, but what can those toys possibly do to stand up against me?”

"Nothing much, just take you to court!" Discord laughed as he threw the doll out to her.

Celestia coughed as confetti and smoke filled the area before she pushed it away with a single flap of her wings. However, instead of seeing Discord, she found a single human standing before her. Wearing a blue suit with a red tie, his very being stood out of place in the war zone, much like his spiky hair. The human gave her a confident grin, taking a deep breath before screaming at abnormal levels while pointing an accusing finger at her.

Celestia ears rung with blinding pain, especially worse when she could only cover one. That was louder than Luna on a good day!? Her eyes watered as the shout nearly burst her ear drums. She looked up to see Discord holding a giant gavel, dressed up like a judge with glowing yellow eyes.

"ORDER IN THE COURT!" Discord yelled before pounding the down on her. Celestia attempted to shield herself, but the shield explosively shattered before it could fully take form. Celestia was crushed into the pavement, before she was lifted off the ground and was punched in the gut with incredible force. She lashed out, the magic catching Discord off guard as he was sent down the street, but was able to grab the second chibi doll, a human-looking being with cat like features.

Celestia heaved as she tried not to vomit, her eyes trained down the street for Discord, only to see a young woman with vibrant blue hair standing in the middle of the street. Celestia blinked once she realize that she wasn't wearing underwear with stockings out in the open.

The strange woman gave her a small smile, her tail and ears twitching as she walked towards her. Celestia scowled as she sent spells to take care of the strange human, only for her to fall on all fours and dash straight to her with speeds that not even an earth pony could achieve. The human's odd body contorted around the spells like a cat, its slim figure squeezing through the gaps of the spellfire as she got closer and closer. And right as she narrowed the gap between herself and Celestia, she jumped, and for all intended purposes, spiked Celestia’s skull into the ground like a volleyball. Celestia’s head slammed into the ground, bouncing off and found herself in a flurry of painful swipes of elongated claws. She flared her horn, only to receive a devastating paw-kick by the strange cat woman, who used her tail to balance herself as she kicked out with both feet.

The strange woman raced after her, staying low to the ground as she zeroed in on the Tyrant. Celestia shook herself as she prepared to banish the creature, but was too late to react as the woman rolled into a ball and spun rapidly across the ground to her, slamming into her legs into Celestia’s gut.

Celestia flew backwards her wings flaring open as she righted herself and looked down to unleash Tartarus on the foolish woman, but only found a strangely dressed masked human, with swords and guns strapped to his body. She blinked as he vanished from sight, and felt something hit her horn. She looked up to see a large grey lump lodged on it, beeping softly much to her confusion.

She jerked her head as she heard giggling coming from behind her, turning to see Discord squatting down with the human, covering his ears while the human held a strange device in his hand.

She blinked as he looked back to her, and gave her a small wave as he pushed the button.

Celestia coughed as she beat her wings to clear the air, her face filled with soot and her horn appearing to be slightly burned. She saw the human walking towards her in such a silly manner, it caught her completely off guard that he was still there to begin with after attacking her. She scowled as he hummed an annoying tune and attempted to back hoof him, only for him to kick out his leg to catch it before she could so much push forward, throwing a small item in her face before it exploded in a bright light and sound.

Something wrapped around her neck as she tried to blink away the stars. When her vision finally cleared, she couldn't help but gasp in pure, uncomprehending shock at the scene before her. Discord and the costumed human were holding absurdly large bats, a pair of wicked grins on their faces. Her horn flickered weakly in an attempt to shield herself, but she failed to react quickly enough as the two swung, catching her in the face with a sound of wood hitting skull and sent her spinning into the air. The forgotten items around her neck beeped once before they exploded, shoving back to the ground at body shattering speeds.

She crashed through a building's roof, drilling through and unceremoniously falling in a heap in the streets. She laid there, in utter confusion in what happen in the last minute. She heard the sounds of footsteps all around, no doubt humans and their traitorous ponies surrounding her.

"Oh ho ho, if I known they were going to be this good, I would have asked Deadpool to make more. Good thing I found his friends in my travels. Ah, such a shame what happened to Pinkie-" he stared at her with the utmost disgust. “They would get along great together.” Discord laughed as he floated before the stunned Tyrant. He look down at her, a smirk on his face. "You were beaten by dolls, Celestia, and let me tell you, two of those humans are trained fighters, and they were not even the most powerful beings you can find in their worlds. If you can't even handle them on this level, what chance do you have in subduing the rest of the universes? The place with those explosive shotguns… wow. You would be running from there screaming, tail between your legs."

Discord grinned as the Tyrant slowly got back to her hooves, her mane hiding her face from everyone. Discord took note of the humans slowly surrounding her, along with PHL ponies, as they came up to the lip of the crater. Their weapons cocked and ready. "You can't even beat me, face it Celestia. You would lose every time; the only way you can ever win against me is cheap shots or the Elements. "

Discord only had a second to react when Celestia’s magic skyrocketed, her horn flaring with blinding light. The power she built up blew her mane backwards, showing the world the madness that had taken a hold of her before she blasted him in the stomach. Discord's eyes widened before he was thrown through several buildings and jettisoned out into the upper atmosphere.

“Not… again!” he yelled as he sent flying, the only indication of his flight was a small shining 'star'.

"You are wrong." Celestia’s voice carried across the field, the humans and ponies that were knocked off their feet quickly getting back up and aiming at the floating mad mare. "I am far more powerful than you insects can ever imagine. I grow tire of this city and it defiance to my order. Begone all of you."

Celestia’s horn took an orange hue, and the very air felt like it was on fire. The multi-species group only had time to take several steps back when Celestia finally spoke.

"Doctor! Get this tub moving!" Cheerilee cried out, causing Doctor to turn and glare at her.

"You did not just call the TARDIS a-" Doctor growled out, but Sparkler pushed him back to the console.

"Dad! More driving, less defending!" Sparkler yelled, giving a smile as the TARDIS chirped up in response, humming with more power and speed as if to show Cheerilee she was anything but a tub. Doctor only grumbled but continue to steer her over the city.

"We're nearing her position, Cheerilee. I'm going to have-" the Doctor started to say before a familiar bell tolled, causing his eyes to widen. "Oh no. The Cloister Bell!"

"A warning alarm. The Tyrant is about to do... something!" Sparkler answered as she looked to the monitor.

"Then send out a warning! Get them out of there!" Cheerilee rushed to the radio, quickly switching to the appropriate channels. "This is Cheerilee, all units near the Tyrant's position, fall back, I repeat fall!"

"We’re getting interference to the units near her position. They can't hear us! We’re trying to make our way over to them as we speak, we are two minutes out!"

Cheerilee blinked at the name before turning back to the radio, jaw dropping as she realized just what that meant. No no no no… Not... "Negative! I'll do it myself, fall back!" Cheerilee ordered before looking to the Doctor. "I need to get to there now."

"Trust me Cheerilee, you do not want to be there," the Doctor said, refusing to look at her, his focus on the console. He ignored her as she stormed up to him, until she grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Now." Cheerilee growled before she marched to the doors leading out of the TARDIS. She never saw the look of despair on his face before making the change of course.

Cheerilee opened the door, the street below filled with debris and broken buildings. "Cheerilee please, don't go out there!" the Doctor pleaded, grabbing her shoulder, turning her to look at him. "You won't like what you see!”

"It’s war Doctor, I already don't like it. There are children down there, some fighting for us, others just hiding out until it’s too late." Cheerilee said quietly as she inspected the street below. She panned back to the Doctor with a sad smile on her face. "I can't let them face that, not when there are still adults out there fighting for them. Goodbye, Doctor!"

Doctor watched numbly as Cheerilee jumped out of the TARDIS, falling three stories before landing on the street, kicking up dust and dirt. Her runes glowed brightly before she ran down the street.

"Dad?" Sparkler look to her father as she walked up to him, eyes wide as she saw tears streaming down his face.

"I'm so sorry, Cheerilee." Doctor whispered, "I'm sorry for what you are about to see and suffer."

Cheerilee dashed down the street, her runes glowing brightly underneath her coat as she made her way to the unit’s position. It was a unit she was familiar with, as they had ten children within their ranks.

Cheerilee knew all of them, as they were same children she met and grew to adore in France. They all volunteered to help, they were able to get into areas most adults couldn't get into. It broke her heart to see them in the final days before the Battle of Boston started. All of them smiled when they saw her and promised her they would be safe and stay out of combat. Almost there, kids.

She turned the corner and saw the Tyrant glowing brightly just above the street, her runes radiating as they absorbed the excess magic in the air. Her eyes widening in horror as she raced down the street.

"Fall back!" Cheerilee cried out as she made it halfway down the street when the Tyrant spoke.

A blast of hot air washed over Cheerilee, the world turning into a blinding haze before it finally died down. She strained her neck to see the sky, blinking away the stars as she saw the Tyrant standing at the lip of the crater with a condescending smile on her face. Cheerilee took note that not a single human or pony moved as the Tyrant step closer to them before she lightly touched them...

Cheerilee froze at what she saw, before the coughing sound of a survivor caught her ears. She turned to see a familiar human crawling away from the scene.

"Jean!" Cheerilee gave a hushed yell as she made her way to young teen. Cheerilee had almost died in defending against the horde of New Foals back in France, this young boy being one of the survivors. He was only twelve at the time of the attack in France and signed up immediately for combat training when he turned fifteen.

"Mademoiselle Cheerilee." Jean Kirchstein gave a harsh cough, whimpering as the pain he felt was blinding. "It’s only a scratch... No?"

Cheerilee dared to glance down onto his legs, giving a startled cry as she saw he legs were gone. In their place was a trail of ash, and he was losing more every second as the spell traveled up his body. "No...No. It's okay, I can... I can..."

"Its fine..." Jean whispered, clutching her fetlocks in his hands. "I understood that something like this would happen."

"No! You can’t understand this!" Cheerilee cried as she held onto him, trying to absorb the spell, but she was chock full, unable to absorb anymore. "You are going to live, you understand?! You have your whole life ahead of you!"

"Vous êtes un menteur terrible." Jean whispered, hissing as the spell reached his hips and slowly made its way up his torso. "Please don't ever change that about yourself."

"No...please no." Cheerilee cradled his head in her lap, stroking his hair with her hoof. "You’re only fifteen years old. You... you should be dating... you should be getting in trouble for doing stupid things... you shouldn't be fighting… you shouldn't..."

Jean raised his hand held her hoof, his other stroking her cheek, wiping her tears away. "You'll make me cry too if you keep that up." His own tears sliding down his cheeks as he gave her the most confident smile he could muster. "I am so glad you are the last person I saw before I died."

Cheerilee felt her heart break at those words, she watched as he struggled to breathe, choking on his own ashes as the spell reached his lungs. She held him as he began to shake. "L-look at me Jean." She whispered, the boy's eyes focus on her own. "Please. I love you, I love you like my own foals. I'm so proud of you, of all of you. I wish we didn't live in this world, fighting and killing because of a single mad pony. Just know that I care. You hold onto that, okay?

Jean only looked up to her, his shaking becoming worse as the spell ate through his body, closer and closer to his heart. He gave her one last look, one filled with fear of the end, something that Cheerilee never wanted to see on any child.

"J'ai très peur..." Jean whispered before falling silent, Cheerilee shook as the light in his eyes faded. She held held the hand tightly against her cheek, silently begging anyone listening that the boy to live. Tears dropped onto his face as the spell slowly converted the rest of him into ash. A light wind picked up, blowing the ash away, leaving Cheerilee alone on the ground.

She heard hoofsteps coming up to her before finally stopping. She ignored them as she tried to gather the ashes, sniffing as she tried to understand what happened.

"This is the price of defiance. Death is something I wished to avoid, but this is only a natural result of your petty rebellion against me. Death is all that remains of him, a child forced into combat by the parents. Corrupted by his humanity, and I could have saved him if he only allowed it; instead he died in this forsaken city for a disgusting race." The Tyrant spoke to her, a small chuckle escaping her lips. "His life must have been truly pathetic if he found small comfort in his cause before his demise."

She slowly looked up to the Tyrant, eyes training themselves on her face as she glared down her.

"PATHETIC!?" Cheerilee screamed as she launched herself at Celestia, supposed queen of ponykind and savior of humanity. Her runes glowed with power as she launched a powerful uppercut at the Tyrant's jaw. “YOU CALL YOURSELF A SAVIOR?!”

Alicorns, both ascended and created, are powerful beings of magic. They have all three traits of ponykind itself: Strength, flight, and magic at their hooves. At any other time, assaulting an alicorn without magical backup was tantamount of suicide.

Celestia watched as the fuchsia mare leaped at her, cocking back her left front hoof and slammed it into her jaw. An earth pony of even considerable strength would only give her a mild annoyance at being hit.

The smack from the angry former teacher to her jaw was anything but that. The moment her jaw felt the hoof, her magical reserves dropped like an unenchanted zeppelin. If possible, it felt even worse than Discord's own blows. Celestia felt something snap, blinding pain encompassing her jaw as she flew up from the blow, spinning backwards several times before she descended back to the ground.

“HOW,” Cheerilee yelled, heaving in rage as she watched the alicorn fly upwards “COULD ANY OF THIS POSSIBLY QUALIFY AS SAVING THEM?!” Cheerilee's entire body hummed and glowed, her runes like a beacon, her hooves cracking the pavement as she pressed on the falling body of her former leader. The runic mare jumped as she neared the falling alicorn, bringing up her rear legs before dropkicking the alicorn in the back, feeling satisfaction when she felt one of her wings snapping from the blow. Cheerilee expelled a good portion of her magic in the kick, blasting the Tyrant down the street.

Celestia tumbled roughly across the street before slamming into a building wall, lodging herself within. HOW?! Celestia screamed inwardly. HOW IS SHE SO POWERFUL?! She finally focused herself, seeing the mare rushing right at her, rage filling her face. Celestia’s horn glowed, forming a shield before her to stop the insolvency.

Cheerilee charged at Celestia, feeling the runes supporting her physical abilities. She saw a golden shield appear before her enemy, she wanted to stop, but at that moment she saw Jean, his once smiling face forever replaced by his dying one.

Cheerilee felt the tears return.. She roared in both rage and despair, runes flaring-no, blazing-to life even more. The sensation of burning was the last thing she felt as her hooves shattered the ground as she sped up, rushing straight to the being that took a child's life--no, a world’s lives and souls--and ripped it to shreds.

Celestia looked up to see the mare running up to her shield, leaping up and slamming her shoulder into it. Once again, she felt the same drain of magic while her shield buckled and shattered like glass, allowing the mare to land and bodily tackle her through the wall.

The two rolled inside, one runic mare and alicorn locked in combat, the Tyrant was still struggling to accept what she was fighting against when Cheerilee reared up and slammed her hooves on to the floor, shaking the ground around her, causing Celestia to lose her footing.

Cheerilee capitalized on it immediately and set herself onto her hindlegs, bringing up her forelegs up and raining blows onto the Tyrant's face in a combination of jabs and crosses, the very same style Marcus taught her. This forced Celestia to rear up, to escape the punishing blows, but only served to give Cheerilee an opening as she placed herself closer to the Tyrant’s body, using her own head to keep her up while standing on her rear legs and began to lash out with devastating blows to her body.

"HE WAS A CHILD! THE ONLY REASON HE FOUGHT WAS BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU'RE THE REASON HE IS DEAD! NOT BECAUSE OF HIS PEOPLE! YOU’VE DONE NOTHING BUT BLAME THEM FOR THINGS THAT WEREN’T THEIR FAULT! THEY DIDN’T HAVE AN IMMORTAL QUEEN WATCHING OVER THEM, TO GUIDE THEM DOWN ANOTHER PATH, WE CAN’T ALL BE SO FORTUNATE!” Cheerilee screamed. She might not have liked what humans did in the war. She might have hated the Newfoal Employment Programs that were virtually slave trades, and had been unable to eat for the rest of the day after hearing that broadcast from Isaac Acevedo, but dammit, they’d been forced to those depths.

If Acevedo was evil, he wouldn't have sounded so damned broken by what he’d done.

Cheerilee pulled back both hooves, and slammed them into the Tyrant's stomach, forcing the larger being off of her. She turned and planted her front hooves in the ground, the runes on her rear legs flashed with magical excess before she bucked with all her might, hard enough to do even Big Macintosh proud. She felt the alicorn’s ribs break as she disappeared outside the building, several walls falling on her pass.

We’ve been breaking a lot of walls, Cheerilee thought before shoving the inane thought aside.

Celestia coughed as some persistent dust reached her tongue, using her horn to move aside any irritating rubble that remained. Once she raised to her hooves, her eyes widened in shock at the sustained damaged she was ‘feeling’. Everything was like it had just reached the cusp of simply breaking with the slightest push of wind. Her jaw, her wing, and ribs alike were slowly healing, but her magical reserves were far lower than what it should have ever been. She was, how did engineers on the Equestrian Railway, say… running on fumes? It was impossible to conceive that this single mare did more damage than Discord did in the entire fight.

"You tread a dangerous path, Cheerilee." Celestia scowled, her horn glowing with harming intent, as she cleared the small cone of broken stone she had formed. "Your runes may help you, but even you cannot hope to ever beat me with just brute force."

"If there is something I learned from Marcus, it’s that sometimes all you need is brute force if you want to get your point across," Cheerilee hissed at her, stepping out of the building, rage building in her heart. "And so far, it seems to be working quite well on you."

"Foalish." Celestia whispered as Cheerilee rushed at her once more, the Tyrant letting loose a single blast of magic, watching the mare hold up her forelegs to block it.

Cheerilee sailed through the magical attack, her runes absorbing it like water to a dry rag, only for the Tyrant to hold up a single hoof and lash out at her. Cheerilee held up her foreleg to block it, and fortune smiled on Cheerilee as a majority of the attack was absorbed by now broken blocking extremity. On top of that, said blow was powerful enough to push past her block, strike her in the face and catapult her down the street, the fortune here being it was not only her head being sent down the street.

Pain filled Cheerilee's head as she bounced down the street before slamming into a old parked luxury car. Cheerilee whimpered as the inertia that had plastered her to the vehicle finally let her go and she struggled back to her hooves, feeling the healing runes direct their energy to her right leg. She glanced up to see the Tyrant land a fair distance from her.

"Do you not see? You are outclassed in every way. While your runes give you a small chance, it is hardly an issue for me." The Tyrant said to Cheerilee, a smug grin on her face. "Now then, I have a wayward 'sister' to -"

Cheerilee blinked once and found herself gawking at a satellite where the Tyrant once stood, Discord sitting on top of it with an annoyed glare on his face. "Jeez, at least make sure you defeated me before you start making plans on ruining everyone else’s day."

The satellite groaned, beams of magic punching through the metal, forcing Discord off his ride. Discord landed next to Cheerilee, his form showing he was ready for round two in this fight. The space worthy item exploded, fragments spreading everywhere, the Tyrant giving Discord a rather irritated look.

"I am growing tired of your meddling!" Celestia growled, only for Discord to roll his eyes and wave her off.

"Well, I'm growing tired of this encounter too. So how about you kneel over and die already," was Discord’s scathing reply.

Before either being could continue their fight, both felt the magical pressure of the air abruptly increase. Cheerilee winced, as her runes also buzzed in response to the massive explosion of magical presence in the air. Discord appeared quite pleased with this development, smirking back to Celestia.

"Looks like Lulu found something she didn't quite agree with." Discord said off handedly, watching as the sky began to darken, as if the sun was setting at a rapid pace.

"Me? I just told Lulu to rip Twilight's mind apart, find out whatever secrets you may have told her." Discord said nonchalantly, looking at his claw with little interest. "Looks like she found something alright."

The ground began to shake, weakening buildings collapsing due to the tremors, the sky darkening until it was filled with billions of stars. The ocean splashed against the harbor, winds howling, the clouds darkening. Ships rocked in the wildly choppy sea, with one of the few boats left in the city thrown into the Legal Seafood on Old Atlantic Ave, just by the New England Aquarium by a particularly intense wave.

Destroyers and frigates within the harbor shook wildly as the sea threatened to capsize them, with sailors trying desperately to keep the valuable military equipment onboard. While out in the open ocean, the carriers could only watch on helplessly as the sky over Boston darkened with magic unheard of before. A small dome of night, like a window into the night sky of another world, hung over Boston.

The few thaumometric devices on the ships, made with materials imported from Equestria, jury-rigged by Equestrian scientists deeply displeased that every one of their studies of Earth was blocked off, or taken from homes and looted from universities, were going… well, to say they were going nuts would be putting it lightly. They were going absolutely crazy, with wildly spinning dials and cracked glasses. One device, which its inventor had called a “Thaumo-emotive Indicator,” (Though most of the Vandegriff’s personnel referred to it as a sense-sifter, for no adequately defined reason) was a small floating cube on a pedestral that measured ambient magic in colors, nestled deep within the frigate USS Vandegriff.

The Thaumo-emotive Indicator was now a deep, dark, crazy indigo, so dark that it was almost black, spinning so fast and off-kilter that it looked like it could burst out of whatever kept it on its pedestal.

Then came the terrible cry, too low for the pony ear to listen. Everyone could feel the vibration though, and it was rare to find anyone who hadn’t gotten a headache as it slowly but surely built up in intensity. But then it grew, and with it, its true voice, increasing in volume each second.

Cheerilee's eyes widened in shock as bolts of magic flared off in the distance. She had little doubt that all unicorns in the region were incapacitated by the combination of unchecked emotions and overwhelming magic. She took a step back as the flares of power exploded in one giant aura of dark indigo magic, lighting up the sky. Something screamed in utter despair before a bolt flew from the flare.

Cheerilee stumbled back as something landed with a large crash, the ground buckling underneath it. The deep indigo magical aura surrounding it dissipated piece by piece, revealing the being within. Cheerilee couldn't help but whisper in terror at what she saw.

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

by Sledge115

Strike