Nightmare was silent for a while, making Red think that it wouldn't happen.
That was before she grabbed him in a large hug, squealed like a school filly, and said "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Red giggled lightly as he held her as well, kissing her lovingly "Hurray!" Was all he could say, due to the hug practically causing him to be crushed by her strength.
As Nightmare crushed him, Luna, Chrysalis, and the other adults who were part of the unofficial 'Alpha team', including Aurora, walked, smiling, as they had known this was going to happen, and were happy for him.
After breaking out of Nightmare's massively crushing bearhug, Red smiled, slipping the ring onto her finger "I love you. I plan to have the wedding be once this war is over, my love...and I can't wait...perhaps, little Dawn could be either the flower girl or the ring bearer?" He suggested, already talking of plans.
"I think she would be overjoyed at being a flower girl, and I think Chestnut would like it as well," Nightmare said softly.
Red nodded agreeing. "Then perhaps. Barb could be the ring bearer maybe..." He said as he looked towards Fleur "Though I think I'll need a best mare..." He said, thinking it could be either Fleur, or Luna.
"Of course, Love," Fleur said.
"And Luna can be one of my bridesmaids," Nightmare said, causing Luna to blush.
Red smiled "Well, I think we can finish these plans later. For now, I say we get ready and move out to take Manehattan." He suggested so that they could focus on what was more important at the time.
They all nodded and headed to the Shadow, which is how they would get there. They were all aboard when Barb said, "Message coming in, guys. Don't know the ship, but it has Lone's authorization code."
Red was curious, and went to accept it, and read the message.
Red, if you or one of the others are reading this, then I'm already in Manehatten, waiting for you guys. I know Barb said this came from a ship, and that's because I have my own now, which my friends made, and a very large warehouse, Just let me know when you're close. And tell Luna and Aurora congratulations from me on their reunion.
Red was a little surprised that Lone already knew about this, but decided he even had intelligence agents in the NLR, which would make sense, as he wasn't an idiot.
Red simply shook his head and decided to follow the instructions as they soon took off heading right for Manehattan. "I'm going to punch him...SO DAMN HARD once we get there...cause I'm starting to get REAL sick of the guy's constantly being vague like this....it's really getting on my nerves..." He said, as they were heading to Manehattan, soon sending Lone the signal that they were getting close.
As the signal was sent, they got another message: Good luck with trying to punch me.
If the Shadow wasn't his ship, he would have dented the nearest bulkhead. As it was, he clenched his hands multiple times to prevent it.
The others, though, got a laugh from it.
They then got a holo-conference request from Cadence, who was closing in on Manehatten with her forces as well.
Red opens the conference as he smiles at Cadence "Hey Cadence. How's it going?" He asked the Empress, as Nightmare also appeared, and shown the ring Red had given her as a proposal.
"Excellent. My forces are approaching by ship from the north, while yours are approaching from east." It was then she saw Aurora, and was confused, as she hadn't been told of last weeks revelation.
Sheepishly, Aurora said, "Hey, Cadence." Like her eyes, her voice hadn't changed much, and the look on her face included wide eyes and a jaw agape.
Red spoke up "Nutshell version: Twilight Sparkle is actually Aurora Nebula, Luna's long thought dead Daughter. Meaning she's possibly your cousin..." He said, summing it up in that single sentence.
"Oh," was all Cadence could say. "Well, it's good you two were reunited. I'll see you guys on the ground," Cadence said before she disconnected.
And just before another message came in You seriously didn't tell Cadence? This one's meant for Luna and Aurora, not you, Red.
"Okay, that's it," Red said. "How are you doing this?"
Ask Pinkie. If she'll give you one, that is.Probably Lone, for being a vague jackass, where as Pinkie just defies all logic because it's her.
"IF SHE'LL GIVE ME ONE WHAT YOU JACKASS?!" Red shouted getting very annoyed with Lone now.
"An answer, silly," Pinkie said. "Isn't that obvious?"
"No," was the unanimous answer.
"Well, then, Pinkie," Red said, "how is he doing what he's doing?"
"Easy. He's able to see the script the authors are using, like me, which is why I knew Nightmare would accept, or how he knew that Twilight was Aurora, who was Luna's
daughter," Pinkie said, smiling.
Red was no longer certain who he wanted to punch more: Lone, or Pinkie.
Probably Lone, for being a vague jackass, where as Pinkie just defies all logic because it's her.
No, Pinkie. Red, look in the supply closet in the bridge.
Red, even though he wanted to punch Lone, did so, and found a bug.
"What the...hell..."
This time, it was an audio message.
Did you really think I'd just trust you guys outright? That's one of two bugs I placed on the Shadow. The other one's in the holo-room. And in case your wondering, there's one in each war room I've been in. Audio only, no way to trace.
"I suppose that makes sense," Aurora said. "Given how he came to you guys, I'd do something similar, if I were him.
Thank you. And congrats on reuniting, you two.
"......." Red just stayed silent, before rubbing his temples.
Aurora simply chuckled "Thanks."
No problem. I know what it's like to discover a long thought dead family member is alive. See you guys soon.
"I'm not sure he's going to survive past Manehattan," Red said.
This got some chuckles from the others.
Red shook his head and went on to prepare to disembark from the Shadow and head out into Manehattan to meet up with the stallion he wanted to punch, and to get the plan underway.
It was another ten minutes before Manehattan was in sensor range, which, even after three years in the war, the Shadow's radar range far outpaced those used by Celestia.
Got you guys on my radar, Lone said over the radio. I'm tapped into Manehattan radar too, and you have five minutes at current speed to get ready. Word of warning: Martial law's in affect, and every citizen that can fight is part of the militia here.
"Oh joy...that means that we're gonna be in for one heck of a battle." Red mused, as they prepared using those five minutes well.
Yep. Once you guys are off, I'll be there as soon as possible. And Cadence's personal ship is going to touch down at the same time in the northern part of the city. I'll be heading there first, as she's coming in by herself.
"Right," Red said as he checked his weapons.
Everything was coming up fine, Red was fully equipped, his Nightbringer, his Lightsaber, and Z-Saber were all ready to go, as were his grenades, and other weaponry.
"Coming down," Barb said, and the others went to the ramp.
Once they landed and the ramp lowered, they all filed out, ranged weapons raised. "Clear," Red said over the comms to Barb, who brought the ship back into the air, then flew back to join the main NLR air force.
"So," Fleur said, "any ideas as to when Lone's going to get here?"
"Nope," Chrysalis said.
"Well," Nightmare said, "at least-"
"DON'T SAY IT!" Pinkie yelled
"What?" Nightmare asked in confusion. "I was just going to say that we aren't surrounded."
As if the universe wanted to screw with Nightmare, it was at that moment a thousand of Celestia's forces converged on them. "Told you not to say it," Pinkie said.
"I love ya Moony, but sometimes You need to not jinx us..." He said.
"Ha ha," Nightmare said sarcastically just before the hostile forces charged.
Red and the others were already in a circle, which allowed them to hold off for a time. It started out well, with most of the enemy not having protection against the various Nightbringer rounds. Those were the first fifty or so. Afterwards, the armor improved to where only the high explosive rounds did damage. And only on direct hits, not the pressure wave. As they came closer, the group activated their close quarter weapons, but all of the Solar guard had lightsabers, and this made it harder. The were able to kill all but ten of them, the remaining ten being skilled enough to knock all of them to the ground in seconds after contact.
"So this is the mighty 'Alpha team'" one of them, the leader if the armor coloration, a bright yellow with highlights matching the green that is in Celestia's mane, compared to the standard yellow, was any indication, said. "I thought you were supposed to be the best, seeing as how you are all the best fighters in that traitous rebellion." He chuckled. "Oh well," he said, raising his saber over Aurora's neck, "It's a shame such beautiful mares sided with you."
Just before he could bring his saber down, a voice said, "You've forgotten one thing," before a cyan and red energy sword appeared through his chest.
"What the," was all the guard said before the sword pulled out of him, and Lone appeared in his armor, the guard he stabbed falling dead
(00:08)"Me." Lone then looked at the remaining guards.
"One? That's all the reinforcement they have?" One of them said.
Lone ignited his second energy sword, crossing them in an "X" pattern, the thinner part of the blades facing him and the guards, and said, "I'm all the reinforcement they need."
(00:19) The nine remaining guards rushed him, Lone not even moving as they approached. The first two guards to reach him survived longer than the guards from the Crystal empire did, but not for long. As Lone slashed, they blocked, but Lone teleported behind them, and proceeded to cut off their heads. The next two were pegasia, and flew towards Lone, though this didn't save them either, as Lone attached the upper and lower casings that made up his plasma rifles to his sword hilts. He brought them up and aimed one apiece at them. As soon as the plasma bolts hit them, they fell to the ground, their faces melted and their brains, quite literally, exploded. The next three stopped short, the other two having stood where they were. One of the three attemtped to sweep Lone's legs out from under him, though Lone jumped over his leg and brought his sword down as he came down, slicing the guard in half. He then holstered his rifles and picked up the halves of the body, and flung them at the other two, which caught them off balance, and hit them, causing them ot hit the ground on their backs. Before they could get back up, Lone shot them each in the head once.
That left the other two, who were grinning under their helmets. They then pulled a second saber each, and ignited a second blade on their first, and activating both on their second. "Great," Lone mumbled to himself before he heard faint Thwips behind him, and both guards disappeared in explosions.
Red smirked, being the one who caused the explosions that blew up the last two guards. His Solid Eye flashed Red as he appeared in the smoke with a devious smirk. "Sorry Lone, You ain't escaping my wrath that easily." Red said
"Can you at least wait until after this is done?" Lone asked Red
"Yes of course it can. It'll just get worse as it gets denied." Red spoke honestly, as he rejoined the team, and they soon went together to go ahead with their plan, to attack and take control of the Mech suits being made.
"Right," Lone said. "My contacts say that the production area, which is also the primary storage facility, is in the western docks. As far as we can both tell, that super mech is there as well."
"Anything else there we should know about?" Red asked, as they began to head for the western docks.
"Yeah," Lone said, turning to face the others, as Cadence walked up, out of breath. "Celestia's here, as well as Honesty and Loyalty."
"Shit." Aurora said, summing up everyone's thoughts
"Well now...Things just got a hell of a lot more intense..." Red said, as he gave Cadence some water to recover. He looked to Aurora "Are you going to be okay with this?" He asked, knowing that things got a lot worse with how Celestia was now here, along with Applejack and Rainbow Dash all being in play.
"Yeah," she said, nodding. "This was going to happen eventually. Better now than later."
Lone nodded. "Good. We need to move, the city has more guards in it."
"Agreed." He said as he looked to Aurora, giving her a hug "Aurora...my...Niece...You know I will back you up and protect you...you're technically family after all." Red said to her being genuinely caring to her.
"Okay, people. Move out," Lone said, and the group made best time to the western docks.
Meanwhile-Western docks
Celestia is addressing the remaining two elements and Shadow Strike, as Neither AJ, nor Dash knew where Twilight had gone, and none of them save for Celestia, knew the truth, as she didn't exactly want to tell them yet...
"Ma'ams, Sir," Nightengale came rushing in, out of breath. "The camera show that Alpha is on their way here. All of them, as well as a new member, though I'm not certain who she is."
Celestia's eyes narrowed, though the others didn't notice. I was afraid of this, she thought to her self, bringing a hand up to her face.
Dash spoke up "So what then? Should we have Shadow Strike prepare that mech suit to show them how powerless they are against us then?" she suggested
"No," Celestia said. "That is to be a last resort, should they get here." And besides, Celestia thought, if they are able to defeat him, it will mean death for everypony is the city.
"Then what should we do Princess? Ah think we should possibly try to have the city evacuated possibly....just in case..." AJ said not sure what they could do...
"Unfortunately, that is not an option, as our radar just picked up hostile aircraft from the east and north," Strike said, "and we don't know if they have stealth ships in the other directions."
Dash groaned in annoyance "We're not getting ANYWHERE right now, we're just spinning our wheels here, what the heck are we GOING TO DO?!" She asked them. "Other than stand and fight?!"
"As far as we can see," Nightengale said, "nothing."
"Great," Rainbow said sarcastically.
As if to make matters worse, it was at this point that the Alpha team shown up. AJ and Dash making a stunning discovery when they notice Aurora. "T...Twilight?! YOU JOINED THEM!?" Rainbow asked.
"No," Aurora said, "If I was Twilight, I'd still be with Aunt Celestia," she said, spitting out Aunt, as if it were acid.
"General," Celestia whispered to Strike, "now."
He nodded, and slowly moved to the room the mech, which the troops called the 'Prototype', even though it was complete.
Lone saw this, and nodded to Nightengale slightly enough to where only they knew.
"What are you going to do to us, traitors," Nightengale said, activating his saber and pointing it at Alpha.
"Should you surrender," Aurora said, "nothing. If you don't, then we'll either imprison you or kill you."
"Why are y'all doing this, Twi?" Applejack asked.
Red spoke up next "Because She's lied to both Luna AND 'Twilight' all these years. Aurora here is actually 2027 years old. She is Luna's daughter....before she was banished Luna had herself a daughter, who was of course, Aurora Nebula here...even after Luna became Nightmare, Moony still cared for the foal. When she was banished, Celestia decided, to not only WIPE CLEAN Her memories and turn her into Twilight Sparkle, Even putting her into a magically induced sleep to keep her alive, until her believed birthdate, but what's worse, is that she also Lied to Luna...When Luna returned, the first thing she asked Celestia, was if her daughter Aurora was still alive....as Luna believed that she was due to her being half alicorn."
Dash spoke back "AND?!"
"She said that though Aurora had lived longer than normal, she still died before Luna returned." Red said, as this fact shocked both Rainbow and AJ, that Celestia had not only lied to Twilight and Luna, but also basically MADE Twilight Sparkle. Red continued "And I should also note that during the banishment, Celestia had altered Luna's memories of her own daughter...so that she remembered her differently..." He said, further cementing the fact.
"How do we know Nightmare hasn't put that in your memories," Nightengale said. "For all you know, she could be manipulating all of you" he said, holding his saber up like a knight of old, stepping in front of Celestia and the others, as if to protect them.
"I know my own memories, Nightengale," Lone said, stepping in front of the rest of Alpha, his swords crossed like earlier.
"You know him," was the response from everypony in the room.
"Yeah. We were friends before all of this," Lone said. "Now? We're enemies."
"Yeah," and the last time we saw the other, we swore who we would decide who the better swordsman was with their respective weapon."
"I know my own memories too Nightengale." Red said igniting his Z-Saber. "Because Cadence wondered the same thing of my affection for Nightmare, along with Fleur and Luna....and I shown her that my love for Nightmare was the real deal" he said as he moved to fight.
"And how do we know she didn't manipulate Cadence's mind to alter what she perceived? She was there, I believe."
Cadence narrowed her eyes, but didn't rush him, as she knew this was going to be a fight between Lone and Nightengale.
"Because I'm the alicorn of love, and nothing can make me think love is there when it isn't," Cadence yelled.
Red stood to face Celestia, along with the others at this point, before noticing that Shadow had left "Wait...where's the other one...Shadow Strike?" Red asked looking around for him, searching with the Solid Eye.
Nightengale laughed. "It doesn't matter," he said. "Once I'm done with Lone, here, you'll all share his fate."
"The suit," Aurora whispered. "Red," she shouted, "He's activating the suit!"
"Shoot!" Red said before he quickly made a sprint for the warehouse where the suit was "I'll take care of it, You guys stay here." Red called back as he raced there, before busting inside.
The groups didn't chase after him, as each side believed that their champion, for lack of a better word, would win.
"What," Nightengale said, "not going to help him."
"He doesn't need help, Nightengale," Lone said.
Nightengale shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But you will." He looked back to Celestia, Rainbow, and Applejack. "Don't get in the way, guys. This is my fight." He then looked back to Lone.
"Same thing for you guys," Lone said, not taking his eyes off of Nightengale.
Both parties backed away from the two knights. One of the sun, the other of the moon.
They charged.
The blades clashed as the two met in the middle. Both sides were pushed back by the force of the impact. They charged again. This time, though, Lone jumped into the air and tried to bring one of his blades down on Nightengale. Nightengale, however, anticipated this, and blocked the attack, spinning , so as to keep Lone in his sight. The two stared at one another, during which, Nightengale swhispered, "The suit's designed to go nuclear if the mech takes extreme damage, Lone."
Lone nodded, before kicking Nightengale away. He then disappeared in a cloud of shadows one second, and reappeared above Nightengale the next. Nightengale rolled out of the way of the attack just before the energy swords hit where he had landed. Lone left one of his swords in the ground, pulling the other out, and his armor had scuff marks already, as well as Nightengale's.
The two assumed a pose appropriate for single sword combat. Nightengale grasping the hilt of his saber with both hands, while Lone assumed the same pose he took when he first dueled Red. The two charged again. This time, though, their blades locked when clashed. The only way for them to get out of it was for them to deactivate their weapons.
They did so, and jumped away from the other, and activated their weapons again. Nightengale's saber was the first to be reactivated, and he jumped back at Lone, who activated his sword just in time to block the downward stroke with the thin edge of his sword, knelling as he did so. He pushed up with his sword, which off balanced
Nightengale, and did a sweep kick, which brought Nightengale crashing to the ground. He and Lone got up at the same time, not even looking exhausted. They got back into their singular sword pose, and were about to clash again when something came crashing through the back wall, where the Prototype was.
As the dust cleared from the hole, all of the occupants of the main room, including Lone and Nightengale, looked to see Red holding off the Prototype.
Red was doing extremely well in the fight with the Prototype, attacking the legs due to them being a weakpoint it couldn't easily defend, using his longer range weaponry when he was pushed back, using the Nightbringer's High Explosive ammo, and the incendiary blast.
Red was dashing around the room, causing the warehouse to be slowly demolished due to the Prototype's weaponry, as he soon closed in, and used his lightsaber to attack, the armor was thick enough to repell either one of his three swords, so it ultimately didn't matter which one he used, as such, he then switched to the High Frequency Blade that was strapped onto his back attacking it's legs whenever he got in close, to break down the armor, knowing that it was strong enough to withstand them due to how it was created. Whenever he dashed away from the mech suit, he fired on it using his Nightbringer, along with the Shotgun and Dual SMGs he had, as he knew he could beat it, much less take it down.
The intensity of the fight was to the point that the others could only look. Though both Lone and Nightengale were worried that the damage it was taking would cause it to go nuclear, they couldn't do anything without revealing the truth.
The fight between Red and Striker in the Prototype continued like this for a five more minutes before the Prototype locked up, unable to move, and the AI in it announced "Damage threshold passed. Activating contingency plan; code named: Cleansing Heat in ten minutes. All allied forces, retreat to minimum safe distance."
"Oh shit..." Red cursed, as he looked to the others, trying to think of a way to save everyone...it came to him. He knew what he had to do, but he had no choice. He used his magic force powers to blast back everyone a great deal back, before he also used a similar blast to blow out the back wall of the warehouse, where the ocean was seen behind them as they were at the docks. Red shouted to them all. "GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE!!! I'LL TAKE CARE OF THIS!" He then took a few deep breaths as he soon did something unthinkable, he closed in on the Prototype, and tackled the torso's cockpit, before using the force to blast himself forward, the sheer force of the tackle caused him to push back the Prototype suit far over the ocean, with him going with it, as they both began to sink, due to Red being exhausted, and the Prototype being so weighed down.
"The blast radius will still kill us, if only due to the pressure wave, before it can get deep enough," Nightengale said, urgency in his voice.
"The only way to get out of it in time is flight, but we don't have a ship near enough," Celestia said.
"Yeah," Lone said. "One of your's." He brought his right hand up to his helmet, activating the radio, then said, "Artemis, we need evac, NOW! Fire only on those who fire on the ship."
He apparently got the reply he wanted, as he nodded, saying, "Good," and brought his hand back down.
"No!" Nightmare screamed. "I'm not leaving with out him!"
"Red's sacrificing himself for you, Nightmare. He wants you to get out of here, and we both know I'm the only one with a ship," Lone said.
"Then what do we do about Celestia and the others," Aurora said, pointing to where her former friends and mentor were.
"Easy," Lone said, "we bring them with us."
"WHAT??" was the unanimous response, except from Nightengale.
"Red got all of us away from there. All of us, and I'm making sure nopony else dies," Lone said as they all heard a faint hum, the engines of Lone's ship approaching.
As the shoddy looking ship arrived picking them all up, and getting them out of there Nightmare is looking back horrified that her lover is being left behind, when she heard his voice on the comm link
Don't you worry Moony. It's gonna take far more than a damn nuke to kill me. You just hold out...Don't worry about me. It'll take more than this to put me down! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! He said confidently as he began to laugh before the comm cut off, as they all looked out, and the explosion happened, they saw the massive pressure wave, and the ocean exploded, allowing them to see the wreckage of the Prototype at the bottom of the ocean, before the sea came back covering it once again.
Nightmare tackled Celestia to the wall of the ship and stared her dead in the face as Fleur and even Luna began to cry. Nightmare spoke harshly
"You took away my daughter...You took away My Niece...AND NOW YOU TAKE AWAY MY HUSBAND!?" She shouted as Celestia saw the ring on Nightmare's finger, and she understood, even having some tears in her own eyes, for not just Red's noble sacrifice, but also for the death of Shadow Strike, as Nightmare continued "DO YOU HAVE NO PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO ENSURE WE CANNOT HAVE HAPPINESS!?" She asked before she glared further, piercing Celestia's soul with that hateful glare as she spoke "You...Honor...Him...Don't you dare make this out to be a good thing." She said before she walked off, locking herself in one of the rooms and began to cry as well, being the loudest of the group crying.
Lone heard this, and walked over to where they were. "I knew I should have laid down ground rules," he mumbled to him self before going to the bridge. One he was there, he activated the intercom and said, "Attention passengers. It has come to my atteniton that some of you, though justified, are out for blood. Here are some rules. One: As long as you are on this ship, the Millennium Falcon, you will follow any orders my crew or I give you. Second: This ship is, for now, neutral ground, which means no killing of the others. Nightmare, I'm looking at you. Three: While we are all on this ship, we will at least tolerate each other. Aurora, that means you and the other Elements can't badmouth each other. Rainbow, I'm looking at you for that one."
That last one got good natured chuckles from the Elements on both sides, and even Cadence.
"And also, it will take us a few hours to reach the middle ground of the remaining forces, due to engine damage, so I suggest you all get comfy."
The group heard and understood, Nightmare, Luna, and Fleur could do nothing but cry, as did Aurora, who was with her mother.
The only ones not crying at all were Rainbow and Applejack, both of whom glared at Rarity, Flutter shy, and Pinkie, who returned the gesture, and Lone, who was in the cockpit. The silence there was as thick as pea soup.
They then remembered what Lone had said, and to their credit, they did try to talk. "So," Applejack said awkwardly, "what have y'all been doing since we last saw ya?"
Fluttershy spoke up. "We've...been doing pretty good..." as Rarity also nodded in agreement.
"Yeah," Pinkie said, "We've had a party for the Empire, Aurora, Dawn, Chestnut, and us-"
She was cut off as Rainbow put herhand to her mouth, showing that both sides still found Pinkie's rambling annoying."Pinkie," Rainbow said, "please shut up."
This got a good hearted, if nervous, laugh from the others.
Rarity then spoke up "It's good to laugh....like he did......because there won't be a party today...
The two groups of the Elements became sober then, neither smiling, nor crying, in memory to Red, even though he was an enemy to two of them. While hte others were reminiscing, Nightengale went up to the cockpit to talk with Lone.
"Well," he said once he got there, "this could have gone better."
"Yeah," Lone said. "If I had been the one to battle Striker, at least I would have gotten out of there."
Nightengale grunted before saying, "Yeah. Having friends with unique abilities does help." He sighed. "Too bad Red didn't have them."
"At least he went down fighting," Lone said. "That may help."
Nightengale shrugged. "Yeah. maybe. It did with Shadow, before this war started."
"True, but he, at least, faked his death. Red may have been able to use magic, but I doubt he could have teleported."
"Yeah," Nightengale said, looking out the cockpit window, "I guess so."
"Artemis, any news on the others?"
"Yeah, Lone," a disembodied female voice said. "The others got out in time, thanks to Nightengale's warning, but they lost the trail."
Lone sighed. "At least the don't have Manehattan."
"I don't think anypony is going to have it for a few thousand years," Artemis said.
"Guess so, given the proximity to the blast, as well as fall out," Nightengale said.
A few hours later- Middle ground between the two forces
As the Falcon set down, the sensor picked up fighter contact that matched transponders for both factions, as well as aerial transports just behind them.
"Look alive, people. We've landed, and contacts from all side inbound," Lone said over the intercom.
Barb was waiting by the Rogue Shadow for the Alpha Team where they landed, before she spoke up as Nightmare was walking slowly and somberly "Where is Red? Where's Dad?!" She asked approaching them, very worried.
Before she could answer, though transport ships of both sides came in, as well as the others coming out of the Falcon.
Stand down immediately, the lead ships said at the same time, or we will kill you. Release your prisoners, and we will show mercy.
Celestia spoke up "We aren't prisoners, Stand down now all of you. I am commanding a universal cease-fire. Let the NLR Leave. And we are also leaving." She said, demanding of the troops of the transport ships which belonged to her.
"As am I," Nightmare said to the NLR forces.. "We are to return to our base. The reason why will become public then."
Though their was hesitation on both sides parts, though they both eventually turned and left, a single transport ship from Celestia's forces came down for her, Nightengale, Rainbow, and Applejack. They boarded, but before Celestia could, Nightmare said to her, "This isn't over yet, Celestia. One way or another, I will have my vengeance, as will Luna and Fleur."
"I know," was all Celestia said before she boarded the ship and left.
Barb looked at Nightmare and spoke up "Where is Dad?" She asked, being afraid of the answer, as she looked to them all for it.
As she saw all of them look away from her, she knew her worst suspicions were confirmed. Her eyes teared up, and she fell to her knee's, saying, "No, no, no, no," over and over again. The only one who didn't cry, as he had run out of tears years ago, was Lone. He did feel sadness that Red had died. But there was also hope. A hope that Red would at least live on in comfort in the memories of everyponies memories of those who knew of his last moments.
"Artemis, get the Falcon prepped. I'll fly the Shadow of here."
"Got it, Lone," Artemis replied.
Using his magic, he levitated Barb into the Falcon, with the other following.
As the last of them, Nightmare, who took this the hardest, boarded, tears rolling down her cheeks, her eyes red, and sobbing, the Falcon took off, leaving Lone on the field.
He looked at the sunset, and said with his thoughts, Harmony, if you see Red, and even Striker, do what you can for them. As a favor, to me. We both know I'll repay it. After all, when I make a promise, I keep it. He then did a strange salute. It started out like a normal one, but he then placed his right hand, clenched into a fist, over his heart, palm facing inward, then brought it up, parallel to the ground, palm facing left, hand still clenched. He then made his way to the Shadow, initiated the lift off sequence, made a fly over of the city, then made his way back to the NLR base, his mind, deep in thought, not over the battle, but what the end result was.
If he had done one more fly over, though, he would have seen a navy blue flash of light. Exactly where Red had died.
