“Say your blessings now, everypony,” Moxi heard Captain Ironhide call over the sheet of rain pounding the streets of Manehattan, “because you can damn well bet Celestia isn’t going to leave this thing unprotected. Celestia will be willing to throw civilians in our path to protect her investments, but we can not allow ourselves to become like the Empire. We will take the city, and we will do no harm to its peoples. Most important, we must get our agents to that transmitter! If you should fall today, mark my words, it will not be in vain! Your names shall be inscribed into history itself today, heroes who gave their all to ensure the survival of freedom in Equestria! Today, your efforts will mark the turning point of the war! Today, we take Manehattan! For Equestria! For Luna! For the New Lunar Republic! Luna Nobis Providet!”
The soldiers around her erupted in cheers, pounding one another on the back and chanting the battlecry back to their captain. Moxi didn’t join in the cheers, and she could see Catcher didn’t either. The city was engulfed in a torrential downpour unleashed by Rainbow Dash’s pegasus division, but the sound of explosions emanating from the rooftops betrayed the fact that beyond that small amount of cover, the aerial regiments would be of little use.
The first attempt to strike the city by air had resulted in numerous carts being destroyed, the ponies in them either killed in the blast or left to fall to their deaths on the city streets below. Ultimately, a full retreat had been ordered for the aerial divisions until the cannons could be silenced and the remaining forces would have to take the city on hoof.
Moxi eyed her former home town, even under the blanket of shadows from the clouds above and the rain streaming through its cobblestone streets, she would have thought the familiar contours of the city would provide some peace of mind, but the redoubled propaganda spread across the walls of the city caused her heart to sink.
“Why are we even bothering, Catch?” Moxi said, her face downcast, “We’re fighting the battle for the hearts and minds of the ponies, but from the looks of things, we’ve already lost them.”
“Don’t think like that,” he said, touching one hoof to her chin and lifting up her eyes to meet his, “these people are just scared and lost, it’s up to us to show them the way.” Moxi stared back into the calm gray eyes for a long moment, then nodded, her eyes set and reaffirmed.
“Agents Moxi and Dreamcatcher?” Captain Ironhide had approached them, her team was checking their weapons, ensuring their blades were clear and easy to grab at a moment’s notice, “My team is ready to begin the push to take the anti-pegasus cannons, as soon as we receive word from General Warhorse, we will begin the push simultaneously at all of the cannons. If the general is correct in his assumptions, this will lead the Solar Empire forces to believe this is simply an attempt to take the city.” She gestured at the distant outline of the great statue looming over the city, “This should allow you two and the other special forces teams throughout the city to reach the facility with minor incidence, according to our intel, the device is hidden away inside the statue.”
“Hold on,” Moxi spoke up, “what do you mean it will make them ‘believe this is simply an attempt to take the city’? Aren’t we retaking the city?”
Ironhide shook her head, “We’re going to try, but to be honest, this city is dug in too deep and it’s citizens are some of the most open Celestia supporters we know of. Even if we take the city, unless we get that message out, there’s no chance we’d be able to hold it.”
“We can’t focus on taking the city today, Moxi,” Dreamcatcher nodded in agreement, “but if we get this message out, we should have the city back soon enough.”
“Alright,” Moxi growled, “I don’t like it, but I see your point.” At that moment, a ball of green flame erupted behind the captain and a bird call echoed through the alley before the flame burned away to nothing. “That’s the signal!” Ironhide called out, “Everypony move out, we take those cannons down now!” The mare charged at the head of the squad and bucked down the door of a nearby building to allow her soldiers to charge in, she cast a glance at Moxi and Dreamcatcher, “Good luck, you two. We’re all counting on you. Luna nobis providet.” And with a flash of her tail, she was gone.
It didn’t take long for the entire city to plunge into chaos, more than once Moxi and Dreamcatcher found themselves dodging the flaming debris of the cannons their strike teams had successfully knocked from their perches as they crashed to the city streets. “How long do you think it will take before the security forces are drawn away from the device?” Moxi asked, slinging a robe over her back to hide her wings from any civilians who might charge, panicked into the streets.
“Long enough for us to hoof it,” Dreamcatcher shot back, “but I’d still suggest we rush, I don’t want to be here any longer than we absolutely have to.” Moxi nodded and the two tore off down the cobblestone streets.
It wasn’t long at all before the sound of sirens began blaring through the streets, alerting all of the Solar Empire forces and all of Manehattan’s citizenry to the attack underway. Ponies began spilling forth from buildings to try to find out what was going on, and while Moxi first cursed the inconvenience that they posed, slowing their progress through the city, she was soon grateful for their presence, when Imperial soldiers began charging in the opposite direction to meet the invading NLR forces. It was a simple task for the pair of them to blend in, just two more local earth ponies coming to see what the fuss was about.
Shortly after the soldiers passed them by, the sounds of clashing steel could be heard from behind them, the NLR and Imperial soldiers had evidently found one another. “Let’s go,” Moxi hissed, and the pair streaked off down the rain slicked street.
The entrance at the base of the statue was guarded, but not heavily, the majority of the guard had likely hurried off to help the city’s defenders. Moxi and Dreamcatcher moved into position to strike the guards, but before they could make their move, another pair of ponies hit their defensive line.
The unicorn and pegasus worked together flawlessly, each pony complimenting the other’s tactics in a method of attack that more closely resembled an intricate dance than true fighting. The guards hardly had time to react before they lay dead on the ground.
“The door’s locked,” the pegasus exclaimed, breaking out a set of picks and setting to work, “cover me while I get it open.”
“Understood,” the unicorn shot back, powering up her horn and turning to watch the street around them for any sign of trouble. Moxi moved to join them, but Dreamcatcher stuck out a hoof to hold her back, she turned to ask what he was doing, but the wide, terrified look on his face drew her eyes to the sky.
A shadow descended from on high, streaking towards the ground where the two ponies stood with a terrible speed and audible fury. The dragon let loose a torrent of emerald flames, the unicorn tried to defend herself, but the heat from the fire was so intense that she was dead before her blackened body hit the ground. The dragon landed on the ground before the pegasus, who was looking at what remained of his partner with agonized eyes. The beast was small for a dragon, but still larger than a dozen ponies, its violet scales were accentuated by spines of green and it folded its leathery wings to its side, revealing the pony sitting astride its neck. General Twilight Sparkle sneered at the pegasus in disdain. “Her highness thought you might attempt something like this,” the unicorn spoke with discernable hatred marking her voice, “you were fools to think she would leave such a target so weakly protected.”
The pegasus pony gave no warning, he darted at Sparkle with remarkable speed, his blade drawn and ready to strike. He made it halfway to his target before the General caught him with her magic and tore his body asunder, leaving flecks of blood and various body parts streaking about the street. With that final act, Sparkle sneered at the corpses she’d left and with a word, the dragon took to the air again, flying off in the direction of the fighting.
Moxi turned to vomit against the wall of the building beside them. “Empty night,” she swore, “how could we just watch that happen?”
“We have a mission to complete,” Dreamcatcher retorted, and from the tone of his voice, Moxi could tell he was just barely managing to resist the urge to vomit himself, “and there’s no way we could take on Twilight by ourselves, much less when she’s got Spike with her.” He shook his head, clearing his thoughts of the memory of a young dragon, his development and his mind distorted and perverted by foul magics, “We need to get going, hopefully she thinks there was only one team sent to take the device. Which should leave us in the clear.”
The pegasus had successfully unlocked the door before Sparkle had caught them, so Moxi and Dreamcatcher were able to breeze right through the doors. There was hardly any room at all before they reached a spiral staircase leading up into the head of the statue. Moxi flew them up the shaft of the stairs to save time and they reached the top within moments. Through a set of windows on the door at the top of the stairs, they could see the device, encompassing the entirety of the statue’s head, tubes of green flames leading off into the torch the great mare carried.
Moxi flattened herself against the door and listened to the technicians on the other side. “Excellent,” she heard one of them calling out, “I am pleased to announce that this facility is now 100% operational. Just send the message out to General Sparkle so that she can bring Celestia’s message to broadcast.” Another pony answered in the affirmative, and the two SpecOps ponies traded a glance that said there was no chance of them letting that happen.
Moxi and Dreamcatcher kicked the doors off their hinges as they stormed into the room, the technicians screaming in surprised terror as they scrambled to get away from the incoming soldiers.
“Belay that order,” Moxi shouted, “the first one of you who tries to bring in any more Solar Empire troops gets a knife to the throat, the second will get a significantly less lenient response.” All of the technicians raised their hooves, freezing in position so as not to anger the homicidal mare. “Dreamcatcher, you keep an eye on them, I’m going to check this thing out.”
Moxi turned and began checking each of the instruments lining the walls, she could see even with her own extremely limited technical skill that the tech was sloppy, the gauges were reading a dangerous level of output even with nothing being transmitted through them and the pipeline carrying the magical flames looked ready to rupture under the pressure already.
“I don’t think this thing has more than one use coming to it, Catch,” Moxi called over her shoulder, “when we send it out, we would be well advised to bolt, I don’t think this thing will be able to handle the pressure.”
Dreamcatcher nodded, “Whatever it takes, Moxi. Just plug the thing in.”
“Alright,” Moxi shot back, opening the intake port and lobbing the package Luna had given them into the emerald furnace, “time to get out of here!”
True to her suspicions, the furnace began to tear at its restraints, the flames denting the tubes leading to the great torch through the sheer pressure of sending out the message. Moxi took to the air and grabbed Dreamcatcher on her way out, flying directly down the stairwell to outrun the heat she could feel building on her back, the facility was exploding and was generally not a good place to be.
Once they were clear, Moxi set down on a rooftop and watched the statue behind them, the head was aflame and the entire thing was beginning to collapse from within, but a massive surge of energy was building up in the torch, and at the last moment before the entire statue collapsed, it released the energy, scattering it all across Equestria, and in every home, in every town across the entire nation, a voice spoke to them…
"Ponies of Equestria, my name is Luna; Princess of the Night, Sister of Princess Celestia, and High Commander of the New Lunar Republican Army. I tell you all this, not to create a sense of reverence, or out of desire for fear or worship. I tell you this so that when I speak these next words, you will understand the true significance that they represent. For I come to you on this day, as none of these things, today I come to you as an equal.
These past few years have seen our nation torn apart by bloodshed and war. Our brothers and sisters have torn into one another with a ferocity that once we would have believed impossible to be expressed in our peaceful land. We have lost the way, misinformation and distrust have sown the seeds of hatred and I come to you in this day to help clear your minds of the lies which have been spread.
Cloudsdale has fallen. My sister, in a powerhungry act of what I can only describe as true evil has wiped the great citystate off the face of the map. The discontent spread for the pegasi was spread by her own propaganda and her own lies. We as soldiers of the New Lunar Republic, call to you on this day to cast off the shackles these lies have placed upon you and upon our nation, rid yourselves of the tyranny which has claimed our once peaceful lands, and join us in establishing a new republic.
I do not call for this position for my own power, or for the power of any of my followers, but rather I call for the power of the ponies. Let us all unify and do what is right for our nation. Let us all restore the balance that has been lost to us. Let there be war tomorrow, so there can be peace the next day.
Thank you all, may the night protect us, and may the Elements of Harmony, return us to where we are meant to be.
"