Just the beginning
Chapter 21
“Just the beginning”
The soft night breeze blew, as the light of a full moon lighted up the night with an eerie blue light. The horizon was barely visible with this light, revealing mountains not that far away. A large, dark and dense forest could be seen as well as far as the eye could see and, inside, some dark barely visible construction. Such was the way Canterlot residents looked upon the land of Equestria that night.
One man was sitting in a balcony, admiring the view as he drank from a glass. His officer cap showed up above the rest of his uniform, but the blueish light of the moon shined slightly against the medals he wore on his jacket. The man´s features were hidden, though. Nothing revealed who he was except that he was important, at least with the military.
The man took a sip of his drink and changed his position on the simple wooden chair and looked slightly to the moon. He looked at it for a few more seconds before sighing and looking back down at the valley before him. Even though most of it was dark, he could easily spot the main Equestrian camp.
Now holding thousands of ponies, it had become even larger than the town of ponyville, which could be seen in the distance as well. Even at night, ponies moved around the camp causing a lot of noise. Torches went around the little dirt streets that contained the camp´s sleeping area, The training grounds where also full with ponies having night training and the command building shined brightly with light from the general quarters of the officers. Even on Canterlot that much could be seen.
The man took another sip before closing his eyes and steadying his breath. Just then, a pony walked silently behind him, careful not to make much noise. The pony´s dark blue coat could get mingled with the night sky, and its flowing mane that imitated the stars at night could only be seen with the sky in the back because of its steady flowing, like a flag even if there was not enough air to do so.
Luna stopped feet away with a big grin on her face. She took one step forward and opened her mouth.
“How are you, Louis?” she asked. The german jumped off his chair and fell flat on his face out of surprise. Luna giggled as the human struggled to stand up. His hat had landed feet away and the german immediately took it. His hair was all crazy, which was probably why he had the cap always on. He finally stood up and looked at the giggling princess mare.
“Princess Luna,” he said with a neutral expression. “I didn't expected to see you here.” The princess smiled and walked to the railing of the balcony. She stopped and looked below at the army camp.
“Well, it is my palace after all, and at night. I find it interesting that you chose to take a nap on my favorite balcony.”
Louis stiffened up a little. “Sorry princess; I´ll get going.” Luna tensed.
“No!” Louis stopped, more out of surprise than for obeying. Princess Luna realized that she had shouted and immediately cleared her throat regaining her royal demeanor. “I mean… you don't need to go. I don't really use it that much time, mostly to think a little. I like to see my night at its best, and that is really good to see on this balcony. I can see it´s logical you chose it to think and clear your mind.”
Louis nodded. “Yes…” he said hesitantly. “I did found it a pretty good place to relax and think.” The german was still recovering from both the surprise the princess had given him after startling him when he was about to sleep and the shout. He was pretty confused.
Luna smiled, kindly this time. “General, I see you are troubled. Pray tell me what bugs you.”
Louis frowned. He didn't wanted to say much, and he was a pretty reserved person. He wasn't that close to Luna to start telling her his problems.
“I am fine, princess. Thank you.” He was tempted to turn away, but it was the princess. He resisted the urge and kept a straight face as he looked at her.
Hoofsteps where heard as she approached him slowly. “I can see that is not true. You can trust me, I am a princess after all.”
Louis felt uncomfortable as she stopped barely a foot from him. He kept the straight face though, he wasn't going to let her win. “I am fine, really princess.” Luna grinned.
She then smiled a little and walked inside. “You win, Louis. Maybe next time." She disappeared inside the dark building, making Louis a little uncomfortable. As he looked back to the valley, he almost had a heart attack.
He wasn't looking at the valley anymore; it was now a place with raging fire and ponies screaming. He ran at the railing and looked upon Canterlot. He saw a horrible sight.
Ponies strapped in chains and walking slowly escorted by changelings. All around ponies screamed and changings laughed. The buildings looked decayed and to the brink of falling down. The streets where cracked completely on holes that seemed to go the the heart of the Canterlot mountain.
He took a step back only to find himself falling down. He closed his eyes tightly until the fall seemed to last for a full minute. He slowly opened his eyes and found everything around him completely black. He was still falling though.
"You shouldn't be here..." Sounded a thundering voice. Louis looked around trying to see who had spoken.
"Who are you?" he asked.
He heard a deep and silent chuckle. "I am what creeps in the dark, human. I see all and feel all, and you shouldn't be here."
"I didn't wanted to come here. I don't even know where I am," he said, looking around.
He heard another low chuckle. "I didn't meant it like that." Louis felt and heard soft breathing beside his neck. He was tempted to look, but stopped himself.
"The how?" he asked.
The feeling of something behind him stopped once he no longer felt the air on his neck.
"I meant in Equestria. Your kind can't come here; you are reserved to your earth, and only that." He heard like something was sliding around on the ground. "You shouldn't be here."
Louis turned towards the sound and caught a glimpse of a shadow moving around before it disappeared a second later. He paled slightly as he saw it looked like a form with horns...
"W-who are you?" he asked softly.
He heard another chuckle and saw as the shadow appeared again. "I am known by many names, but here I'm known as Discord." Slowly the creature approached and Louis saw it for the first time. He did recognized the name though.
"Discord... You are the draconequus? The one that tried to take Equestria?" Louis saw the creature nod.
""Precisely!" Discord said as he bowed and smiled, a hat appearing on his hand as he did so. "God of chaos, emperor of darkness, lord of..." he stopped. "Ah, never mind. That matters no more." He moved towards Louis and stopped a few feet away. "I need you to do me a favor."
Louis grinned. "A favor?"
Discord smiled enthusiastically. "Yes!" He turned as an image appeared in the air. "I used to like chaos and all that, but I find something better, so I now am on your side." Louis grinned even more at that. "You see..." the creature appeared a stick on his hand as he pointed at the image. "My powers and my newfound..." he hesitated as he spoke the next. "...friendship have me limited in what I can do. For instance, I can easily save Equestria..." Louis saw the image, which was a map full of red dots that probably representantes the changeling forces. Discord snapped his claws twice and the red dots dissipated and a pony happy face appeared on the image. "But I'm afraid I can't." The face disappeared and the red dots returned. "I am limited now, I'm afraid. I need your help to protect one I care for a lot."
Louis was actually pretty surprised. He hadn't expected anything of what the God of chaos had said. "I... Who?"
Discord smiled. "You already know her. Her name is fluttershy." He levitated himself until he was flying around Louis. "In exchange I can explain to you every question you have about something that happened in the battlefield which you surely remember..." Louis remembered how he had defeated the changeling general "...and I'll give you this." The draconequus appeared a little ammo box and gave it to Louis.
"An... Ammo box?" he asked. Discord shook his head.
"Open it."
Louis did so and saw something unexpected. A gem, probably no bigger than a little pebble, was in it. He took it and looked confusedly at Discord. "What will this do?"
Discord took it and examined it. "It contains some chaos magic. I'm breaking the rules here, but I don't think there anyone more capable of doing the job I ask ,better than you." He passed it back to the German. "It will allow you to use your newfound magic at will and not spontaneously and without control."
Louis stopped breathing. "What did you just say?" He looked at the creature. "Newfound magic?"
Discord smiled and slowly faded. "Do your job, or the images you saw before will come true and you're never going to return home..."
Louis saw him fading away. "Discord! Tell me what you mean by newfound magic!"
He only heard Discord chuckle and disappear completely. Louis looked for some seconds more at where he had been before before looking back at the little gem and felt it with his fingers.
Suddenly, everything turned white...
*** *** ***
"He's waking up!"
Louis opened his eyes but immediately closed them as they adjusted to the light. He opened them again, this time slowly and letting them adjust.
"General!" he heard. He turned and saw captain Iroh there saluting. Louis looked around and saw Ace and other ponies he didn't know as well.
"Agh..." he said as he tried to sit down. He felt dizzy.
"Don't move general. You need to do it slowly." Iroh helped him back on his back. Louis looked around again.
"What happened?"
Ace stepped forward. "We won sir, both engagements. Davis was successful and so were we."
Louis remembered the battle and when he passed out.
He looked at Ace. "What happened after I..."
"After you were knocked out Louis? We pushed the bugs back and finished them in less than a few minutes. It appears that without their leader they didn't knew what to do and immediately disorganized." He smiled. "Your strategy worked."
Louis nodded and sat down on the bed, this take slowly to make sure he didn't passed out.
That is when he felt something on his palm. He slowly looked and saw the gem. He wasn't sure how to react.
"So it wasn't just a dream..." he muttered.
"What, sir?" Iroh asked. Louis immediately placed the gem on his pockets.
"Nothing." He looked at Ace. "You say we won?" The blue general nodded. "Good..." He stopped trying to stand up once he realized how they were calling him.
He looked at Ace. "General?"
Ace smiled. "Celestia named you that after the battle. She's going to make it official once you see her, though. We should get going."
Louis didn't protested as one of the nurses helped him up.
"How long was I out?" he asked.
Iroh answered. "Four days, sir. You are at Canterlot now, in the infirmary."
Louis looked at him. "I didn't know the palace had one."
"It does now," Ace said. He started walking to the door. Louis saw his officer jacket and cap and immediately put them on. He saw he was still wearing his officer uniform.
He followed the two outside and then towards the throne room.
"The Princess is holding a military court session right now," Ace said. "Though it was originally to overview the case of general Silver, it started having more war-inclined talk as of late. The main discussion is still the case of relieving SilverInk from his post as a general and make him a lower ranked officer, but now he managed to get stuck inside the ponies there some ideas that could ruin us all."
Louis stopped. "Ruin us all?" Ace and Iroh stopped as well and looked at him. "How?"
Ace grinned. "They want to call a parley with the changelings, make a treaty of sorts." He saw Louis' face of surprise. "It was all Silver's idea of course, I can't believe he thinks he can reason with them after being present in the battle and all. I can forgive most in the room since those ponies have never seen a fight, but he had the idea and now that ponies found an alternate plan tend the war..." He looked at Iroh. "They saw the dead Louis, of both battles. Friends and families started to come and shout angrily at the palace and us for getting ponies they care and love killed." He sighed. "I can't blame them for being angry, but that is helping Silver gain support in the decision; I think even the princess are starting to get convinced themselves."
Louis felt his anger rise for a couple of seconds before running off. He was heading to the throne room as fast as he could. He heard both Ace and Iroh shouted something and then he heard hoofsteps as they ran behind him. He noticed they were still shouting for him to stop, but he wasn't going to take more time to delay towards the throne room. The Changelings couldn’t be trusted, and they couldn't be talked into reason. They had already attacked and many ponies had died to stop them. They needed to pay!"
He saw the great doors of the throne room and hurried even more. He reached the doors and immediately pushed them open with all his strength, to not waste time. The doors flung open much more easily than he had thought they would, hitting the walls hard after he did. He didn't minded though, as all the ponies looked at him in surprise as he ran inside.
"You can't seriously consider making a deal with the changelings!" he shouted. He stopped as he reached the middle of the throne room. It was full of ponies he recognized as members of the military or the Canterlot nobles. The two princesses were sitting on their thrones as well. Davis was nowhere to be seen and SilverInk was standing in the middle, apparently Louis had interrupted him with his entrance.
"Changelings are murderous beasts! They'll kill every single one of you and won't feel any regret or consider it twice... Not even once!" He approached the princesses. As he walked ponies parted to let him pass. It was obvious he had made quite the entrance.
"General... I'm glad to see you are okay," Celestia said. Her voice had wavered a little, which meant something was wrong. He had never heard her feel uncertain.
"Thank you princess, but that holds no relevance. The war started, and you can't end it just like that. Blood was spilled from both sides; we need to make sure that all of the dead ponies were worth it, and they are not going to leave us alone after such humiliating defeats." Louis saw many ponies look down. Just then, he heard the two ponies that had been with him arrived. Ace and Iroh stopped beside him.
"Too late. We have reached a decision," Silver said. Louis looked at the pony. Both stared at each other with murderous glances now, obviously no one was going to forgive the other.
Still, Louis took a step back. "Reached a decision?" He looked at the princesses. "Tell me you didn't."
Both Luna and Celestia took a moment before nodding at the same time. "We made a decision, and if what Silver has suggested works we'll at least try it."
Louis couldn't believe it. He stared blankly for a second before turning and going towards the door.
"Louis, where are you going?!" Ace asked. The german didn't answered as he passed the gates and took a turn disappearing from sight.
He walked for some minutes until he founds some stairs he had found some time ago, before going towards green lake town. He started going up until he reached the top after a few minutes. He reached a simple room that had only a single chair and a table. It didn't even had windows or anything else. It had a door to a balcony, which he opened and then leaned on the railing.
It was the same balcony from the dream he had just had. He closed his eyes as he stepped away from the balcony a little and then he clutched his head. He remembered how hard it had been to win at green lake, and how many ponies died under his command. He looked down and saw ponies around the palace walls. Wailing down there was strong enough that he could hear it all the way up there. He saw a couple of mates crying before the palace gates, stallions around them supporting them or simply stating. A crowd had gathered around the sad scene and yet the doors hadn't opened.
"Louis..."
The German turned as he heard the voice and immediately turned away again.
"Luna."
The princess of the moon approached and stopped beside him. "I'm sorry if you didn't liked the decision we took, it's acceptable..."
"Acceptable!" Louis exclaimed making the princess almost jump in fright. "Ponies died to stop them and now you want to tell me and their families that their sacrifice was in vain and that with simple words you could have prevented their deaths before the first attack?" He looked down. "They won't listen Luna."
The princess looked at the ponies gathered before the gates. "Then we won't lose anything trying."
"They don't deserve to live!" he almost spat. Luna seemed taken back by his outburst, and the words he had chosen weren't the wisest.
"Nopony should decide who lives and who dies, Louis. Not even you that come from a war-infested world." Luna sounded dark as he said that. The German grinned. "If we can stop more deaths we will do it."
"What about the griffons?" Louis asked.
Luna didn't spoke. She sighed and walked to the railing and then leaned slightly against it. "The griffons will need to fend them off by themselves." She said that, but Louis knew she wasn't convinced at all about that.
"That isn't right, and you know it. I just can't accept that you, both you and your sister, decided that." Louis was looking at Luna accusingly.
"I don't want more ponies to die," Luna said weakly.
Louis grinned and turned around before going inside. "I'll go to my room. See you later princess." Luna made nothing to stop him as he started to go. He stopped before the stairs. "Luna..." he said turning around. "In my dreams, I saw you." He felt slightly nervous. "Was it you, visiting my dream or just my imagination?"
Luna looked at him with interest. "I didn't visited your dream Louis."
"Ah, alright..." He turned to leave. "I know of one that did visit me while I was asleep." He turned again. "Discord."
Luna's ears immediately perked up and she looked at him again. "Discord?" Louis nodded.
"Yes."
"And what would he want with you?" she asked.
Louis shrugged. "He asked me a favor."
Luna seemed interested. "Which favor?"
Louis opened his mouth and stopped. Maybe discord didn't wanted for anyo... Anypony to know. "Never mind that. He gave me in exchange a little gem..." He took it out of his pockets and showed it to Luna. "He said something about some newfound magic... Do you know what he was talking about?"
Luna stared at the gem and nodded slowly.
"According to all the reports of witnesses in the battle, you used actual magic against the changeling general with which you managed to defeat him. Whether accidentally or on purpose you casted a counter spell that returned him his own electric bolts, or that's at least what I managed to figure out after reading reports and asking soldiers and ponies that had been present." She took the gem with her magic. "I don't know what Discor knows about your magic that I don't, but giving you this is actually both surprising and worrying..."
"Why worrying?" he asked.
Luna kept examine the gem. "Surprising because he would never give somepony else chaos magic. First because he seems to have his own magic as something only he can use; second because chaos magic binds him to rules that not even he should break, and giving you this breaks many of those..." She stopped.
"And worrying?"
Luna sighed. "Because why would he give you this? Of course he knew you could somehow use magic, but what type, I wonder? Apparently one that can handle some chaos magic; he wouldn't have given you this if he wasn't sure you could use it someday. Chaos magic should be taken lightly." She passed him the gem back. "Well, by this I have one more clue of your type of magic.
Louis took it. "Type of magic? You mean the one I did wasn't like the unicorn's magic or that there are other ways of using it?"
"I think casting it would be a better way of applying to magic, Louis, and yes, there are many other ways of casting magic. The unicorn's is just one very easy to use though is limited to those creatures with magical properties in their horns. There is potion magic as well, and mind forming magic..." Louis suddenly stopped Luna.
"Wait a little. I'd love to listen to more about this types of magic, but I'm afraid we have more important things in mind." He placed the chaos gem back on his pockets. "You can't ignore the griffons Luna, nor the possibility of changelings attack again once they are stronger even if you do sign a treaty with them. Have in mind how making such a treaty would look to other nations and how it will dishonor those families who lost loved ones." He pointed down the balcony and towards the military camp. "We are ready for a war, princess, remember that. We are no longer what you were a few months ago." He turned to leave.
"This was just the beginning princess, more will come and much more worse." He tipped his hat slightly in salute and then walked down the stairs, leaving a very troubled princess of Equestria alone to think...
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5427151 hehehe, that's a pretty... Interesting mistake
Thabks for letting me know 
Does anyone else find it ironic that Louis, a Nazi soldier, is making these "they are evil" claims? Will Davis call him out on it?
5467912 If anything, that would explain why he is so irrationally vehement about the changeling treaty. He doesn't even know the terms they got. Leaving the griffons in the lurch is bad, but he was just as mad when he knew literally nothing. Perhaps he is assuming the changelings are getting a Munich Agreement.
Nitpicks:
ponyville
were
(And I'd say "full of" instead of "full with", but I don't know if that's just my personal preference.)
I would say "shone".
http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/shined.html
German
didn't expect
Perhaps "I don't really use it that much" or "I don't really use it most of the time"?
I did find it
(Or, "I found it"—but I like the emphasis "I did find it" gives to his reply.)
German
didn't want
didn't want
didn't mean
I have no idea what you mean by this.
Given the context, don't you mean "found"?
Either change to "a stick appeared in the creature's hand..." or chanage the word to something along the lines of "the creature conjured a stick into his hand..."
represented
Fluttershy
"less than a few minutes" sounds extremely awkward to me. Perhaps "only a few minutes"?
didn't know
immediately became disorganized
didn't protest
"delay" makes no sense in context. How can you delay towards something? You walk towards it. I would change to "He wasn't going to brook any delay getting to the throne room."
"founds" would be "found", but it would be better to change it to "reached" unless he forgot where they were in the time since he last found them.
If that is the name of the town, it should probably be capitalized: Green Lake town. If it's describing a lake the town is near, it should be: the green lake town. If it's referring to the name of the lake the town is near, it should be: the Green Lake town.
Discord didn't want
cast
I think it should be "returned to him", or "returned his own electric bolts to him"
Discord
should not be taken lightly (or, should be taken seriously)
this only makes sense if there is a specific individual unicorn he's referring to. You could just change the apostrophe to unicorns', but I would say "like unicorn magic".
The unicorns'
but it is
5467912 I know this is late but you are seriously thinking that the WWII was good vs evil situation? It's is the lesser evil....both the allied and the USSR aren't exactly good...and one of the reasons the war started was because territory and resources. also, the normal soldier isn't at fault for the leader's action.