Chapter XXXIV: Luna's Plan
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1400 HOURS
NON-PONY CARE WARD
STARSWIRL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, CANTERLOT, EQUESTRIA
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Thompson bolted back into consciousness with a sudden gasp, wrenching his way out of sleep and back into reality. He opened his eyes, looked around. Seeing to it that he was in a hospital gurney and wearing a large paper smock as opposed to a dungeon floor and wearing shackles, he figured he was back on Earth, probably on one of the international boats patrolling the Portal. He laid back in his cushy pillow and relaxed.
“Thank fuck.” He moaned. So, his vision of being dragged off by ponies to God-knows-what had been part of his delirium after all, and in reality his little bout of grenade baseball had resulted in little more than a quick trip back home. Super. Ideal, really. Now he didn’t have to worry about little fillies too precious for the world and psycho mares with a penchant for firing off magic first and asking questions later.
He moaned, thanking Christ for the magically-enhanced body armor that kept his squishy bits safe. The conservatives could bitch and moan all they wanted, at the end of the day, his soft insides were still inside thanks to the shielding crafted in with every strand of Kevlar. Kept him in one piece, at least, though he wouldn’t be surprised if his brain hadn’t taken a good beating, probably had a concussion. He lifted his hand to rub at the throbbing sensation near his forehead…
…
...He tried to lift his hand to rub at the throbbing sensation near his forehead…
Something rattled. A chain?
He lifted his hand again, this time craning his neck to see. Ignoring the bolt of pain that shot down his side, he locked eyes with a humongous manacle clamped around his wrist. The massive, very medieval-looking, not stainless steel cuff now keeping him to the bed.
Oh.
Oh, fuck.
Welp, so much for his hopes of seeing home with his normal human eyes, rather than a couple massive, freaky, empty-souled dinner plates. If he was lucky, and he wasn’t tortured to death first. Of all the times to not have a dosage of cyanide ready...
He scanned the room for a weapon, giving the chain a good hard yank. It didn’t budge. Okay, so it was just his one wrist that was shackled. He could still reach for stuff. What was within reach? A bedside table with lamp, okay, good, a blunt object. A remote, perhaps for calling a nurse? Useless. They must have locked him down in a civilian hospital. Interesting choice, but still better than a dungeon. At the very least, they didn’t know he was awake, so he had that going for him.
He started to lie down, hoping to at least pretend he was asleep, and then a small gasp sounded at the doorway. Because of course. “Fuck,” he grumbled, turning to find a pale, yellow-coated mare, gazing back at him.
“Okay,” he sighed, reaching pleadingly for her. “Look, I know you got no reason not to, but you can’t...”
“PRINCEEESSSSS!” The mare shrieked, running out the door.
“...do that,” Thompson moaned. Oh, oh dear God. Did she just say princess!?
“Oh, bloody God in heaven Jesus no!” He gasped, and renewed his efforts to yank at the chain. Dear God in heaven. Dealing with Equestrian interrogators was one thing, but the princess!? That mare had a thousand years of experience to figure out the best ways of causing pain without leaving so much as a scratch! He’d heard of hardened men cracking under her within a day! Fuck that! No, absolutely not, fuck that! He had to get out!
He kept yanking at the chain. Had to get out. Fuck this bloody chain! Fuck this bed! Fuck this hospital! And fuck these fucking ponies!
“You are awake.” A regal voice stated at the doorway.
He moaned, closed his eyes. No escaping now. “Thompson. Private First Class. 38459347.” He recited.
“We do not wish to hear such details.”
Wait, didn’t she sound different? He’d heard the evil cunt on plenty of news broadcasts, especially after her declaration of war on Earth, and this didn’t sound like her, even barring the distortion of hearing something through a speaker. In fact, how would she have even made it back to Equestria? Wasn’t she still imprisoned? He hadn’t been out that long, had he?
Figuring he might as well face the music, Thompson turned to face the doorway, and gazed eye-to-eye with a pony he had never seen before. She was a midnight blue, smaller in stature than what he’d expected, with deep blue eyes and a mane that twinkled like the night’s stars, as opposed to the colors of the rainbow. Her jet-black regalia held the form of the moon with stars. If anything, she might have appeared to be the opposite of the princess he knew, though any hopes of mercy from this pony vanished under the cold, analytical look she leveled his way. Still, she had the massive wings and long, pointed horn of a princess. Even so, the question remained.
“Who the bloody hell are you?” He asked, forsaking manners in knowing he was likely seconds from death.
The blue pony blinked at him. She opened her mouth, her brow furrowed. It was as if she’d never been asked that question once in her life for how she reacted, and was now trying to come up with a possible response on the fly. Her attempts were cut short as something crashed outside.
“Rainbow!” He heard a panicked chorus from the hallway while something rocketed into the room. Something rainbow-streaked and terribly fast that swooped in atop a sky-blue blur, shooting by the lunar pony’s shoulder and landing at the foot of his bed.
“Alright, where is he!?” A raspy voice shouted as his eyes finally caught up with and processed the blur, revealing a small blue pegasus scanning the room, looking all around. “Where is that monster!? I’ll teach ‘em for taking Twilight! I’ll...”
She paused, looked up at Thompson, who could think of doing little else besides lifting his hand and giving a little wave.
She blinked at him, squinted, then shook her head. “Oh, ha ha, real funny guys,” she sighed, looking back at the door. “Pinkie, is this you? Did you and Flutters shave a bear or something? I mean, did you really expect me to buy that something this cute was the human, or...”
“Miss Dash!” Moon pony bellowed, her voice booming as if it were amplified by a dozen megaphones. Thompson tried clamping his hands over his ears, but wound up just rattling the shackle when he tried lifting his wrist. For her part, the newcomer’s ears just folded low as she turned, looking at the regal mare like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
The larger pony glared at the pegasus, her impressive wings unfurled. “We und'rstand thy wisheth to holp thy cousin, but we faileth to seeth how charging 'round liketh a madmare shall aid any of our endeav'rs!”
“B-but princess!” The little pony waved its hooves around. “The humans took her! They have to know where she’s being kept!”
“Which is data we shall ascertain for ourselves in speaking with the human.” The royal mare replied, her voice thankfully falling in volume enough to give Thompson’s ears a chance to recover.
“Alright, well bring ‘im in,” the pegasus shrugged. “Get whatever this thing is out of here and...”
“Miss Dash.” The royal stated.
“What?”
The royal mare cocked her head at Thompson, then gazed back down at the pegasus who, in turn, looked back at Thompson, then at the royal, then suddenly whipped around, eyes widening as she stared at him.
“That’s it!?” She shrieked, her raspy voice rising a few octaves. “That’s the thing that’s been terrorizing us all this time!? A six-foot-tall teddy bear!?”
As if that statement was a signal, two more heads poked in: a pink one with hair that seemed to be following its own set of rules for physics, and a purple-maned one with hair that was so perfectly coiffured his mom would have been jealous just to see it.
“Heyyyy, that’s not a monster!” Squeaked a nasal, high-pitched voice from the pink one.
“It is a bit cute, actually,” replied the white pony in an all-too-familiar accent, stepping inside to reveal the most pristine white coat he’d ever seen.
“So this ain’t a joke, pinks?” Said the original pegasus.
“Nope! I’d remember finding something that cute!” The pink one giggled, skipping inside.
“Girls please,” the princess said, her own exasperation matching Thompson’s. “This is a serious breakthrough in a matter of national...”
“Who the fuck are you all!?” Thompson shouted, his mind totally occupied with trying to process the writhing shapes in the pink one’s hair.
The entire room screeched to a halt. All eyes turned on the human as his gaze danced from each mare. Finally, the alabaster unicorn cleared her throat.
“Well dearie, if you must know, we’re the Elements of Harmony.” The unicorn said with a proud, graceful toss of her mane.
“The who-now?” He asked, his head spinning. “We never found anything like that in the other Equestria...”
A low silence descended on the room, practically deafening everyone inside. “I’m sorry,” the regal alicorn said as Thompson started to realize how much of a screw-up he’d just made. “The other Equestria?”
“Oh, bloody hell...” using his free hand, he pulled his blankets up under his chin. “Thompson. Private First Class. ID…”
“Right, enough of this,” the blue horse snorted. “PINKIE!”
Saluting, the small pink earth horse glared stoically and hopped up to the head of Thompson’s bed. Shrinking back, he immediately reached for the lamp and tried to wrench it up, hoping to gain a weapon, only for it to remain stubbornly in place. Of course. Nailed down. No wonder they left there.
He raised his hands, trying to appear non-threatening as the blue royal’s horn charged up and the smaller pink pony glared at him. He doubted it would work, he heard all the stories, but it was all he had left to try. Finally, an aura of night-blue magic engulfed both him and the pink pony, and he…
He…
…
Hehehehehehehehhehehe…everything was so pink all of a sudden! That was really funny to him, for some reason! Wait, wasn’t he really sad and frustrated a second ago? That made no sense, who’d want to be all sad? Who even could be sad in a world that was all pink?
“What’s so funny, Private Thompson?” The big funny blue-pink horse asked.
“Everything’s so pink!” He announced with a loud giggle. “I like pink! But shhh, don’t tell my CO! He already thinks I’m a poof!”
“That’s a funny word!” The small, funny pink-pink horse said. “Poof!”
“It is!” Thompson giggled. “Poof!”
“Poof!”
“Poof-poof-poof!”
“Back on topic!” The blue-pink horse said, lifting the pink-pink pony up in her magic. “Thompson, what is your name?”
“I’m Johnathan Thompson, miss!” He snickered. “I’m with the Royal Marines! We’re supposed to be super-duper serious all the time, which is super boring! But I guess I can get it, since we’re someplace super dangerous and we gotta be reeeaaaallly careful!”
“Someplace dangerous?” The big moon pony said, and gosh she was ever so pretty.
“Mmh-hmm,” Thompson nodded. “Hey, you know what? You’re really pretty, miss.”
“Thank you, Thomspon,” the blue-pink horse nodded. “But why do you think--”
“Do you wanna go on a date?” Thompson asked with a bashful smile. “I make lotsa money from the Marines, and I got a really nice flat in London…well, not London proper, but it’s still super nice and my bed is there and my books are there and my games are there. I have lots of games!”
The other, smaller ponies in the room all gaped at him, but the large blue-pink pony just tilted her head in his direction. “Okay Thompson, we can go on a date!”
“Yay!” He cheered as the ponies all shifted their gape-mouthed stares to her.
“But first, you need to answer some questions.” The blue-pink pony said. “We need to know why you think our land is so dangerous.”
Thompson’s cheer dropped instantly. “Aww, I don’t like questions…” he moaned. “I never was any good at quizzes in school.”
“Just a few quick ones, and we…can go on that date, okay?” The blue-pink pony smiled at him, and Thompson thought he really liked that smile. It was a nice smile. “Now, why do you think our land is so dangerous?”
At that, Thompson let out a long, heavy sigh. The pink hue in his vision faded slightly. “I don’t wanna answer that question,” he whimpered. “Don’t wanna think about her.”
“Her?” Blue-pink tilted her head. “Who is ‘her’?”
“She’s a meanie-head,” Thompson whimpered. “I don’t wanna talk about her.”
“Could she be from the ‘other’ Equestria?” The horse asked, taking a careful step forward. “Is that who you are talking about? Has everything that brought our worlds together happened before?”
Thompson nodded, the pink haze around everything in his vision fading a little more. He didn’t like that. He liked pink. Or…he thought he did. “She came. She had magic, we’d never seen magic before! And the place she brought with her was pretty, even if we couldn’t see it directly,” he whimpered. “She told us it was the magic itself, that it destroyed human bodies as part of its nature. But she lied, because she is a big evil poopy-head. It was her. All her.”
“Thompson,” the now-much-bluer-than-pink horse said. “Who are you talking about?”
“Celestia,” he replied, whimpering as if the name alone could inspire fear. The pink was almost totally gone from his vision now, and he realized he didn’t really like that color after all. Still, the pretty blue horse did ask a question… “She said the only way we could save ourselves was to take the potion, the one to make us into ponies, and that was after the radiation started leaking out and formed the Barrier and started advancing over all the countries and making the humans there all go pop…”
“But Thompson,” the pony said. “That kind of transformation magic would also destroy most of the human’s personality, it would…annihilate them. Turn them into empty-headed cretins.”
“We know,” the pink was gone now, and Thompson leveled a hard glare on the regal pony. “We know, and so do the thousands she forced it upon, if those empty-headed freaks even can know anything.”
Around him, gasps sounded. “I think I’m gonna be sick,” said the small blue pony as she lifted off from the ground and dashed out the window in a streak of rainbows. The pink pony from his bedside deflated, her mane flattening out into something more logically-consistent, but infinitely sadder. Beside her, the white unicorn fainted dead away, her body hitting the ground with an unceremonious thump.
“Thousands?” The large blue horse whispered.
Thompson’s gaze softened at the reactions, but still, he laid himself back on the bed and pulled the covers up. “Thompson. Private First Class. 38459347,” he rasped into the pillow.
Outside the small hospital room, Luna’s head reeled. Thousands… that word played over and over again in her head. To imagine such an atrocity would be carried out just once was an evil foul enough to send the mind reeling, but thousands of times? Over and over again?
She bit her lip. Not even during the darkest days at the founding of Equestria would she have ever imagined anyone committing an act so egregious.
That another Equestria might exist was an insane thought all on its own. That it had made contact with a totally alien world was almost unbelievable. That it had engaged in genocide of such caliber…
“Princess?”
Mere minutes ago, that small voice would have stirred Luna into turning around to ask her little pony what the matter was. Now, it acted like a gunshot at the start of a relay race, pushing her into taking off down the halls of the palace at a dead gallop, not even turning around to see who it was asking for her. Her shoulders twisted as she forced back tears, rocketing through the hospital wing, down the many twisting hallways of the Palace. She made it to the Royal Library, to the little corner where she and Shining had spent so many hours rehearsing a spell in preparation for a mission that, at the time, had appeared like their last, desperate hope.
She pulled out the little picture book she’d used to illustrate to Shining the basics of the spell. It had been a stroke of genius to think of it, really. She’d patted herself on the back many times over since revealing its inner workings to Shining Armor. They were fighting an enemy that knew how to disable magic, right? So why not make it appear as though there was nothing to worry about until it was too late?
She opened the book to the spell, allowing it to immediately flop open to the one spot amidst the dirty, yellowed pages that had practically been dog-eared for how many hours she’d left it open to this exact spot. Her eyes looked over the illustrations, showing a remarkably-detailed closeup of a unicorn’s head, glowing with the beginnings of magic. An arrow led her to the next drawing, where the space once filled with the unicorn’s horn suddenly appeared empty, much to the shock of ponies around her, only for the next panel to illustrate the unicorn taking a bow as her horn reappeared.
Luna bit her lip, scanning the pages. It was a neat, old party trick, not commonly known in modern Equestria since the union of the three pony tribes and centuries of integration had rendered its need utterly moot. The days where a unicorn might want to pass unnoticed through an earth-pony community were long gone, but they were hardly a decade ago from Luna’s standpoint, as was the spell. Of course, nopony had ever performed it for long periods of time, but with Shining Armor’s talent and a bit of training…
She looked up from the page. She thought she had just sent the ruler of the Crystal Empire off on a rescue mission. Now though, it might well be a suicide attack. And she had no way of calling him off.
“Oh Shining,” she whispered. “What have we done? What are we going to do?”
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TWO DAYS LATER
ROYAL NAVY FRIGATE, HMS LANCASTER
SIBERIAN COAST, KARA SEA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION
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Shining Armor shivered. Whether from cold or fear, he was no longer even pretending to guess. He bit his tongue and tensed his muscles, trying to force the chattering in his bones back. If he started shivering, his stallions might notice, and who knew what could happen then?
On the upside, so far everything was going exactly to plan. As soon as his squad was “captured,” the unicorns had been split off from the rest, surrounded by the creatures wielding long staffs. As he’d watched, they’d kept trotting straight on, their heads held high even in captivity. Shining had allowed himself the smallest moment of pride for both his stallions and his successful deception before the two groups were split from each other, forced out to a beach somewhere deep in the fog.
After a short ride in a long boat -- one that resembled an overgrown canoe, had a big hatch up front, and growled like a demon when it lurched through the water – Shining found himself here, in this small, metal cell in the bowels of the ship, with little more than a cot and a toilet that resembled a bucket. It was obvious this was little more than a storage area that had been altered to hold ponies. At the very least, he wasn’t alone: other cells next to his held his fellow non-unicorns. The significance of this was not lost on him. His deception was working perfectly, though he didn’t dare test it by attempting any magic. Maintaining the serene inner state the spell hiding his horn demanded was hard enough as it was.
For two days, he’d languished in this awful place, where the smell from the ship’s septic tank filled his nostrils and his only measure of time was from a small porthole out in the hall, and from the arrival of his meals. Three times daily. Basic hay and oats, but perfectly nutritious and not drugged. Whatever these things were, on top of being adorable and technologically advanced, they also apparently had some measure of compassion in them, whatever that was worth.
“Sir?”
Shining growled at the interruption. “What have I told you about using that term, Private?”
He heard a slight wince from the pony in the other cell. “Sorry, s - er, Shining.”
He sighed. Guess there was a reason this stallion hadn’t signed up for Equestrian Intelligence. Thank goodness they were just trying to keep his magic a secret, and not his rank. “What is it, Private?”
“Well…I was just wondering if you had any ideas on how we’re moving.” The other stallion intoned, keeping his voice low. “The guy in the next cell says he has a porthole he can reach in his cell, and he’s seen us traveling against the wind by lookin’ at the waves, and I keep telling him that’s impossible without magic and I didn’t see no horns on anything in here. Just wanted t’see if you wanted to weigh in.”
Ordinarily, Shining might have leapt at the chance to build a bit of familiarity between his stallions, but at the moment maintaining the inner peace was taking all of his concentration. “No, private, I did not.”
“Oh…okay,” he could almost see the other pony slink away from the bars of his cell, head lowered and ears tucked down like a foal being sent off without any dinner. He suppressed a chuckle at the thought, instead choosing to curl up in his cot once more. Already, the stress of maintaining the spell was draining him, and despite only being awake a few hours he felt ready for a quick power nap just to –
The ship lurched, jarring him out of his slumber. He jerked up to find that the steady feeling of motion he’d slowly gotten used to over the last few days was suddenly gone. Only the occasional lap of wakes against the metal hull remained.
“Sir?” The pony in the other cell asked. “Sir, what was that?”
“I-I…” Shining swallowed, looking up. His heart raced. All thoughts of a nap had completely left his head. “I think we just made land, Private.”
A long silence followed. “Sir,” the voice returned. “What happens now?”
Shining swallowed his fear, lowering his head, an old, determined glare filling his eyes. “Nothing we haven’t been trained for.”
Silence passed among the prisoners for a few hours, then the massive steel door at the end of the hallway clanged open, as it usually did for lunch. This time, however, there was a shuffling of extra boots, the jumble of boxes being brought down into their prison. Soon, guards were opening cell doors, one at a time. One would keep one of those long, black weapons focused on the prisoner while the other escorted them into an oversized cat-carrier, securing each. Shining frowned distastefully as one of the crates was lowered in front of his cell and the door opened, but said nothing, striding into his new prison with his head held high. As soon as he entered, the wire mesh door was shut and latched behind him and he was tossed unceremoniously onto a cart. He sighed, trying to ignore the stench of a half-dozen other stallions who hadn’t showered in days surrounding him. The cart bumped along, and at last he was brought above-deck for the first time since his capture.
The ship he’d been kept on wasn’t like any other warship he’d known: there were no sails, for one. Perhaps this machine was more akin to the steam-powered ironclads he’d heard the griffons were working on? But then, where were the smokestacks? He only saw a giant structure rising from the deck, and it didn’t seem to ooze the familiar black smoke he knew from his few interactions with steam-powered machinery. He only had a few moments to ponder this before he was bundled along, down the gangplank, and onto snow-covered grass.
Ahh, now here was something he was familiar with! Snow, he could deal with. He felt a surge of familiarity as an icy breeze blew through his coat, giving him chills reminiscent of the Crystal Empire. He could almost see Cady standing there, smiling at him as she gazed out from under that adorable, lavender parka she loved to wear…
Lavender… the mere memory of that shade was enough to refocus his thoughts, back to why he was here. Twilight.
He knew it was a long shot, considering the distance he’d travelled. It all banked on these “hoo-mans” having few places to hold POWs, and that they might keep them in one place for ease of guarding them, but if it paid off...he was about to be dropped off without any magic suppression or serious guard detail in the same place they were holding his sister, and his ruler. He had to be sure, though, he had to be sure.
The cart trundled along, pulled through the snow. He grimaced looking outside. He knew a military encampment when he saw one: bipeds in long, furry coats with weapons strapped to their backs hurriedly clearing snow with shovels, their backs to him. A drill sergeant returning with a few squads of recruits from an early morning run. A series of flagpoles flying the flags of many different nations fluttered near the docks. The strict regimen of military life that forced him to suppress another burst of nostalgia: were it not for the distant crackle of hoo-man weapons, he might have been on any military base back in the Empire. Then the cart hit a bump, sending him tumbling to his flank. He looked up, startled, and noticed a totally different set of crates across from his. This pile, unlike his, was surrounded by a series of poles that snapped and crackled with energy. It didn’t take him long to figure out these were his unicorns, and to then extend a hoof in solidarity out one of the small holes in his cage’s door. He bit his lip, watching the dark boxes for any signs of motion, then sighed with relief when a set of hooves all extended from every cage, returning the sign. His unicorns were fine. They were all going to be fine.
His crate jerked to a start once again, but he kept himself upright this time, bracing his hooves against one wall of his prison. Once again, he found himself bumping along past drill fields, rocking with every bump until they passed a set of doors that opened by themselves with a slight, mechanical whoosh.
A blast of heat hit him, immediately warming his coat. Shining inhaled sharply with the unexpectedly hot air. These people must have had a dozen fireplaces going, though he didn’t smell any soot. He perked an ear at the muffled sound of voices from somewhere up ahead:
“You know we haven’t the facilities for actual, smart unicorns! The best we got was Frankfurt, and I dunno if you’ve been watching the news lately, but that’s a fuckin’ bust!” A voice, accented like the soldiers around him and like his own, bellowed. “The only places that kept shit like that around are Equestria and here, and we didn’t feel like sailing an extra couple thousand miles with dangerous prisoners on board!”
He frowned, mulling the words over in his head as the voices devolved into barely-audible hisses and shouting. Actual, smart unicorns? What other kind were there? Just what in Celestia’s name did that mean?
Before he could really mull that over, the crates jarred to a start again, leading him from the well-lit front room to a dingier place, where the tile was dirty and the only light came from yellow-stained, flickering panels that hurt his eyes. The crates came to a stop once more, and a moment later, he heard the clacks of latches being unlocked around him.
“Everyone out!” The familiar voice of a guard from the ship bellowed. “Everyone of you little feckers get out, now! Move it!”
Shining didn’t hesitate, darting out of his crate and onto the dust-covered tile. Immediately, he found himself staring down the ugly, black hole at the end of a human weapon, and his heart stopped for a moment. Then the weapon’s holder backed away, the whole room filling with shouts as each pony was ordered out of their prison. Once the prisoners were out of their crates, the guards backed off to the opposite end of the room. Shining recognized the tactic well: archers would use it if they were in close quarters with an enemy, putting as much space as they could between them and the aggressor to make full use of their weapons’ range. He filed that interesting little note away as yet another door at the end of the room opened and a hefty hoo-man in a fuzzy hat and heavy long coat stepped in, flanked by two more mask-wearing guards, these hefting a larger, skinnier version of the first guards’ weapons.
The first, hat-wearing human regarded the whole group through narrowed eyes, hands crossed behind his back. Shining took note of the holster at his hip with a grip sticking out, figuring this had to be yet another weapon. When he spoke, the hefty man used a thick accent that was almost incomprehensible to his ears, but audible if he strained: “I am Colonel Kravchenko of the Russian Ground Forces, for the people of the Russian Federation,” he said. “You are now my prisoners and responsibility. You will be fed a standard diet for POWs, and treated fairly according to the Conventions of the Geneva Accords. Make one thing clear, though: if you even think of crossing me, trying to escape…”
The man pointed back out the door they were just led through. “Outside is over 200 miles of ice plain. No food. No shelter. You will not survive long out there, especially if purga come, which is often. This is not intimidation. This is statement of fact. This is only place for hundreds of miles where have chance survive, and I rule here with iron fist.”
He lowered his gloved hand. “Here, is only one rule. My rule. Not UN rule. Not Russian rule. Definitely not rule of your pizda queen,” his massive face turned down in a frown as those narrowed, beady, still-kinda-cute eyes regarded the ponies. “Am I understood?”
Shining, for all his hubris, did manage a slight inclination of his head that could be interpreted as a nod. To his relief, his soldiers followed suit.
“Good. Can understand, at least,” the Russian hissed, then turned away, waving a gloved hand to his men. The ponies were urged down a short hallway, down a staircase that looked like it was being held up with more rust than anything else, then down, down, and down. The monotony of their steps echoing twisted Shining’s head, at the very least serving as a nice way to keep the peace inside.
After what felt like minutes, but may well have been hours, they reached a landing. A massive, iron door stood in their way, and one of the humans tapped away at a few buttons, pressing his thumb against a small pad before the door rumbled open. Shining and the rest of his ponies were ushered along in a rush, the hall a blur as they were hurried into plain, cinderblock rooms, one for each of them, each with a heavy steel door. The large, metal portal slammed shut behind him, and Shining was alone again, having moved from a small box on a boat to a small box in a basement.
He sighed. This room wasn’t much of an improvement from the ship: one cot, a toilet that was at least a step up from a bucket but still maybe a degree short of a hole in the floor, and not much else.
Curling up on the cot, Shining perked an ear, listening for any confirmation that his sister might be here while focusing on the breathing techniques Luna had taught him. He closed his eyes. His mind emptied. His breath slowly drew in, then out. In, then out…
And as he curled up, his head resting in his hooves, his ear twitched.
“Hmm...princess?” He asked, sitting up. It was the darnedest thing...he could have sworn he heard…
But that was ridiculous, even if she was here there was no way she could be contacting him, her power would be restrained!
Scoffing, he turned over where he laid, settling in for some shut-eye, never knowing that a couple miles beneath him, surrounded by more chains and concrete than he could ever guess at, a creature wearing his princess’s face was chuckling.
“My dear knight in shining armor,” she muttered, too low for anyone but herself to hear. “It’s poetry, simple poetry, that you are here.”
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Crap, he's with Xenolestia.
Well, shit. This can't end well.
Thanks you for continuing this story. It still remains one of my favorites!
Well luna has done the worst thing possible.
Torture is one thing but she has just shown that they can manipulate the emotions of humans so that they betray their people.
They have shown that candace is the ultimate cult leader.
Finally, A gundamn update, YES!
*Sees a new chapter is up*
YES!!!
*Gets to the end*
Oh, no...
Oooohhhhh nooooo...
the worst part of this chapter is that it ended.
At first they were isloating her and now they are bringing her reinforcements......?
Welp, this is either really bad, or really, really bad.
Oh God damn it.
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I don't know if it's the worst thing possible, but definitely inethical.
I've heard that it's easier to write stories when you write isolated plot points and then fill in the gaps later.
Like drawing a parabola is easier when you plot some points first and then connect them up.
But what do I know.
It's good to know that this story is still going.
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Now I want to see a story when canon Celestia sees what Xenolestia is going to do, arrives on earth first and prepares them for the war.
I just found this and I’m on the third chapter. I feel like I’m missing something. Is there any recommended reading before I continue?
Luna's actions will backfire.
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This entire story is yet another inclusion to 'The Conversion Bureau'-verse. If you gather the premise of the original Conversion Bureau, then you shouldn't require prior reading. I chose not to read the original.
Aww, my update immunity ended!
Gandalf is shaking his head in disappointment. When he says “Fly you fools!” You do what the man tells you. Shining is the fool who stayed. And apparently got taken prisoner by goblins only to be fed to a troll.
So Luna has to do the worst fucking thing and just mind control him? Yeah, fuck her. There is no way in hell he should trust or cooperate with her at all. Hell, the smart rhing to do would be to commit suicide.
Though what really bothers me is how Celestia seems to tgink she can fix things and everyone can be friends and sing kumbaya. Fuck, just make a cure and GTFO. Shits fucked and you cannot coexist at this point.
epic fight epic fight epic fight in coming!
I finnaly finished reading the story to the last chapter yet , I have to say that since the chapter where half has long has the ones from most of the stories I read , this didn't took very long .
Anyway , gonna make a small all around comment on the fic :
I will say that I never read a single TCB Fic before and the only thing that made me read this one was the cover art and , to a certain extant , the description that made this story appealing . And I am not disapointed , of course the changing of perspective between each chapter is fucking annoying , especially since I ain't a native english speaker but that is the one major problem I have with this story for now .
So , my overall opinion of this fic is : It's not bad , in fact it's very good , but very fucking confusing and some things could be done better .
AWESOME chapter! Xd
I knew from the moment it was mentioned about shining armor being sent into the human world that most likely he would mistakenly release the evil celestia. While I know that's a VERY bad thing, I cant help but wonder how exactly this will change much, they caught her once before and she has no kingdom that will follow her, her equestria has no intention of letting her back into power so besides a few thousand newfoals I dont see how she plans to renew the war with humanity.
........unless, she takes over the other equestria?
God damnit
Things can only go badly from here. 1. Shining breaks Xenolestia out and she rampages. 2. And this one i think will be more likely happen. She breaks them out and orders them to leave her here and start a war.
Who exactly decided it would remotely be a good idea to keep a bunch of ponies in the same base as Xenolestia?! I thought she was like... in a super max solitary confinement sort of thing.
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Yeah why couldn’t they stick them back on that ship? I mean sure it proved incapable of containing two Alicorns, but that hardly means it can’t hold a few normal unicorns.
“Pinkie, is this you? Did you and Flutters shave a bear or something? I mean, did you really expect me to buy that something this cute was the human, or...” I think that you are one of only a few authors who has connected the fact that we think ponies are cute, to ponies thinking the same thing.
I hope you don't mind me stealing that. Because I am in my next story. What's more, I think everyone would like to see more of the main (6-5).
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Don't mind at all man, really it's not mine either. It's from a blog post I saw ages ago
Did anyone else internally go "awwwe"? Because now I want to see a spinoff of that.
cute????? MANY IN MANY STORIES CALL US HIDIOUES MONKEYS
cute????? MANY IN MANY STORIES CALL US HIDIOUES MONKEYS
.....................
Explanations. NOW.plz
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Alright, I have to admit that humans are a lot less intimidating without their equipment, but that’s just rude! 😂