The War for the Sun & Moon

by Maxes Altho

Eight

“Hey! How are my two favoritest inventors in the whole Empire doing today?”

Tiny bolts up from her workbench. “Shining! How’s my main bro? Do me a solid and hold still, ‘kay?” she hefts a weapon off the bench and… right at me? Before I can react, she pulls the trigger (she still won’t explain how she can do that without magic or wings), and I’m blown into the wall behind me.

“…Ow?” It didn’t really hurt, it was just so sudden. Tiny, however, looks hurt.

“Poo! That was supposed to knock ya out! Either that or explode in my hooves but that’s okay! It just needs work!” She bounces off farther into the shop.

A blue glow envelops my body, gently tugs me out of the wall, and sets me on my hooves. “Thanks, Battle. How’s the little lady getting along?”

The unicorn in question is beaming. “I tell you, Shining, she’s got more energy than Celestia did during her pranking fits. She’s put more blueprints on the walls in three days than I have my entire time arming the Warriors.” His smile falls. “On a more serious note, how have your dreams been? I know it wasn’t easy, that first day after the mission. I heard from the General you ran into Sweetie Belle out there. It’s hard to imagine how such a sweet little filly became a monster like that.”

“I…I’m fine, Battle. C and I have been seeing the Warrior’s shrink. She’s been able to help convince us that this,” motioning to the surroundings, “is all the real.” Yeah, we got hit hard after the mission. I didn’t trust anypony, not until one of the Warrior’s own mind specialists was able to tell me that I was no longer under her control. I still have half-nightmares where everypony in the Warriors are trying to kill me, all with piercing green eyes…

I shake my head. It does no good to dwell on what isn’t; I need to focus on what is. I feel a hoof on my shoulder. I look up, and Battle is looking down at me. “Cheer up, kid. No matter what happens, you have an entire rebellion to help you through this, and some close friends.”

“Friends? Who?” I have an inkling of an idea, but I need to hear somepony else say it.

“Me, the changeling, Tiny. The Crusader foals don’t count; they’re too young. Your Unit is your best family. Don’t make the same mistake I did, Shining.”

Battleborn? Absolute badass, protector of the Princesses, making a mistake? “What mistake was that?”

“I abandoned my family when the Queens attacked. I saw the changelings swarming Canterlot, flowing from the castle, and I ran. I ran from my duty, from my fellow warriors, and it almost cost me everything. It was only through the actions of one pony I am even here today. I think… I think it is time you meet them.”

Oh crap. He doesn’t mean… “Battle, do you mean?”

“Yes, Shining Star. I will take you to see the Commandant.”

----------

I make my way back to my room in a daze.

I mean, holy shit. The Commandant, this mysterious pony pulling the strings of Battle, High Mighty, and the General, the one who helped Battle recover from the loss of everything he knew, and I was finally going to meet him, tonight!

Unfortunately, Battle swore me to secrecy about the whole thing, which I completely understand. The fewer ponies who know about the identities of the leadership, the less chances our enemies have to take them out.

I nudge open the door, and see a familiar black carapace on the top bunk. “So, how is our young compatriot?”

“She’s doing fine, C. She knocked me into a wall, but it’s all good. Hey, you wanna get something to eat?”

“Fine.” He hops down, and we set off for the mess. As we trot, a thought occurs to me, something that’s been bothering me for a while.

“Hey, C. Changelings can’t really process pony foods, right?”

“Correct. Although we contain the necessary organs to do so, we gain no sustenance from consuming actual food. Joining you and your kind for food is more of a pleasantry than anything else.”

“Then how do you keep yourself alive?”

He stops, causing me to halt as well. He glances around, making sure we are alone in the tunnel. “You do know how changelings are supposed to feed, right?”

“Yeah, you either infiltrate a town or capture ponies and suck their love dry. Wait a minute, is that why I can’t get Pulse to like me, no matter what I do?”

“No, nothing like that, and you are only partially correct. While love is the main source of nutrition for a changeling, we can actually siphon off any emotion, with varying levels of sustenance. Take the food you eat, for example. You may eat a piece of bread, and it will provide energy for a short time, or you could eat a large salad, and keep yourself going for much longer, because your body is meant to process the salad to take all the nutrition from it. For me and my kin, love is the salad, and all the other emotions are between the salad and the toast. Also like food, each emotion gives off a unique ‘flavor’, with love being the closest to heavenly as mortals can get. Happiness, joy, wellbeing, and such give off a flavor of a lesser degree, such as a tasty sweet. Anger, hatred, jealousy, all those negative emotions can be fed on, but are akin to eating your own feces. It can be done, but most changelings avoid it.”

“So, you’re feeding off of some positive emotion, and in small enough amounts that nopony can notice. What emotion?”

“Passion. The Warriors’ drive to see the Queens deposed and return to the olden days is a wellspring of emotion. The passion to complete your goals permeates everything you do. That day we met, the passion of the guards to protect their loved ones was enough to keep me sated for several days alone.”

“Wow. So, what would happen if you took in too much emotion at once? Would you become super powerful?”

“No. It would be like you eating the entirety of a seven-course meal, and ending up sick because of it. Changelings can process quite a bit, but if I was to overload, I would end up unable to leave bed for days.” He looks me in the eyes. “What is with that look, Shining Star?”

“Huh? What look?”

“The look that says you have an idea.”

“I’m just thinking, when we finally have to face the Empress, would it be possible to subdue her through an overload? Feed her so much energy she becomes unable to do anything?”

“That… is a good plan, in theory, but you obviously know nothing of the powers of a Queen. Their reserves are near infinite, and can distribute their own fed-on energy to their drones. To overload a queen, you would have to overload her entire hive, or cut her off from it first. As far as I know, Shining Star, not even the entire population of Equestria working as one would be able to accomplish such a feat.”

Damn. I thought I was onto something that time. Oh well, we’ll find a way eventually; hopefully before we get to the throne room.

----------

“Are you ready, Shining?”

I swallow hard. “As ready as I’ll ever be, Battle.”

“Okay, I’ll go in first, make sure they’re ready.” He opens the large steel door and disappears inside. Less than five minutes later, he emerges. “The Commandant will see you now, but first, some ground rules. Be on your best behavior, don’t be rude, and I probably don’t have to tell you this, but from this point on, you are only the fourth living pony to meet The Commandant face-to-face. Keep it that way.”

I nod. “Obviously. Let’s get this over with.” He holds open the door, and closes it after I step through, plunging the room into blackness. A lesser pony would panic at the idea, but given my specialty, it is almost like home. I send tendrils of magic throughout the darkness, a form of sonar like fruit bats use. The room is fairly small, one door on the far side, probably to the Commandant’s personal rooms. In the center of the room is a chair, with a pony in it. I can’t tell any features, but the pony is fairly small. In front of the chair is a small round object. With a flash, a single hanging light turns on, revealing…

“A turtle?” Sure enough, the round object is a small green turtle. The light is shining in such a way that I can’t see anything beyond the small circle.

“Tortoise, actually. You must be the new soldier, Shining Star. Battle has told me a lot about you.” The voice comes from where the pony sits; definitely a female, but somewhat scratchy and strained. I remain defensive; definitely don’t want to let my guard down.

“Funny, today is only the second time he’s ever mentioned you. Care to shed a little light on the situation?” I ignite my horn.

“Please, no lights. The fewer ponies who know I’m alive, the better. What do you wish to know?”

“How about we start with how you and Battle know each other.”

“After the takeover of Canterlot by the newly crowned Empress Twilight, Battleborn fled, ending in a small town not too far from the mountain. I found him almost dead in an alley, took him to my home, and nursed him back to health. He told me of how the Elements returned and killed the Princesses, bringing with them an army of changelings to take over Equestria. I tried to warn the townsponies, but I was just a filly. Nopony would listen, even as we began getting reports of changeling swarms in Manehattan, Las Pegasus, and Fillydelphia, each headed by a Queen of insurmountable power. By the time rumor became fact, it was too late to escape the country. Another Queen was quickly taking over the outlying countries, forcing everything to bow to the Empress. Battle and I saw this, and knew the best place to hide was in plain sight, so we fled to Manehattan and found the first Warriors. We were able to perform several small raids on strategic locations, but nothing mattered; their resources were limitless. Then, a small group went out on their own, against our orders, and tried to assassinate the Queen. Their skulls… their skulls were mounted in front of the Capitol Building. Our rebels were distraught; most fled that night. We knew then that we would need more help, so we found the two bravest and toughest ponies we could find to help lead the new Warriors to victory.”

“High Mighty and the General. Wait, you said they took over the land-based cities. What about Cloudsdale? Queen Rainbow Dash was the last to claim her city, but you haven’t mentioned it.”

A sigh, then she speaks, somewhat shakily. “I… I went to Cloudsdale right before the attacks, to try and find more warriors, and maybe get the Wonderbolts to see reason. I was barely able to escape once the siege started, with nothing to show for my efforts. Could you imagine how different our success would be if we had Spitfire, Fleetfoot, or hell, even Soarin on our side? But no, the brave ponies they were, they were captured by Rainbow Dash, and turned into the Shadowbolts.

“But enough about the past. Tell me of your first mission. I read the reports, but I would rather have a first-hoof account.”

So I recount the details of our mission to retrieve Tiny. It’s going great, until I talk about the trap. She gasps, saying something about the possibility of traitors. I continue with the report, up to the point with Sweetie Belle. I hear a small intake of breath; that hit her hard.

“S-Sweetie Belle? Are you sure?”

“Ma’am, we live in Manehattan. I would recognize the Queen’s main bitch anywhere. Her picture is everywhere.” Then, a thought occurs. “Ms. Commandant, Ma’am, what exactly have you been doing for the past nineteen years or so?”

“After Cloudsdale, I went into hiding. I have been here ever since, gathering information, sending orders through Battle and the others.”

“So, you’ve been sitting here on your flank for almost twenty years, sending ponies out to get killed every fucking day? I’ve lost many friends to your orders! I almost lost my new friends on that mission! How can you just sit there and let all this destruction happen, when you haven’t really lost a thing?”

“Do not talk to me about loss!” her head darts forward, and I catch a glimpse of purple eyes and a magenta mane. Holy shit, is she…? “I have lost my family, my friends, their family, even the one who called me her sister to this damn war. You never had a family, did you? You were in an orphanage most of your foal life. Well, get this: I feel the pain every time I read those three little letters in any report. KIA. It hurts, because every time it happens, that is another pony who isn’t coming home to see their family. So, do not talk about loss; you know nothing.”

Heavy breathing follows the tirade, followed by a fit of coughing from the mare. I cautiously step forward. “Ma’am? Are you okay? Ma’am? S-Scootaloo?”

Her head jerks up at that; holy shit. The Defender of Cloudsdale, sister to the Element of Loyalty in everything but blood, co-founder of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, presumed dead following the Siege of Cloudsdale, motherfucking mother of Celestia Scootaloo is the Commandant!

“Heh. You’re pretty smart. It takes more than brawn to accomplish anything; you’ll do fine in this organization.” She steps down from her seat and into the light, limping. Sure enough, the light reveals an orange coat, completing the image of Scootaloo. Her wings are stubs and she walks with a limp, damage dealt at Cloudsdale. “Take a good long look, Shining Star. This is what happens when you trust somepony to the point of thinking they can do no wrong. I thought I could make Rainbow see reason, help her get that bitch Twilight out of her head! She wouldn’t listen, scorched my wings and threw me to the cold hard ground. I lost hope that day; losing my sister, my friends, everything I loved, almost drove me to end it all. But then Battleborn found me, the same as I had found him one year prior. Together, we made it back to Manehattan, Cloudsdale burning at our backs. I hid myself away, out of cowardice. We have been struggling since then; then, one day, Battle comes to me, saying a young soldier has had visions of defeating Twilight. I almost turned him away, but Battle has never steered anypony wrong. I have placed my trust in him, and by extension, you. You are the first glimmer of hope we have had in a long time, Star.”

I’m speechless. Not only did my world get rocked, but the rocker trusts me enough to put her hope on my shoulders! “Uh, wow. I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, kid. I asked Battle to bring you here so I could see for myself the one who will bring down the Queens, and bring back Rainbow.” She sniffles. “T-that will be all. Please, send Battle in as you leave.” She resumes her seat as I turn to leave.

Before I open the door, I get a little devious. Once I’m in the darkness, I turn my horn on, and launch a small glob of darkness into the far corner of the room. I fine tune it to work as a sensory input spell; since my magic controls every aspect of the glob, I can make it hear what goes on in the room, and project it to my mind. I tell you, the secrets I’ve learned…

I exit, and Battle enters. As the door closes, I sit down in the corridor and listen in.

“Scootaloo, is everything alright? I heard shouting.”

“No, Battle, its fine. He called me out on my cowardice, and I might have revealed myself.”

“Do you feel that was necessary?”

“Yes.” A few moments of silence. “Battle, are we wrong to trust him?”

“I have known him all his life; I believe we can.”

“Why? He looks just like her. What if it happens again?”

My brain falls into my stomach. What do they mean?

“I assure you, it won’t. In fact, I think meeting with you has cemented it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Now he knows who he’s fighting for. Knowing what he does now, there will be no question to his loyalty.”

In disgust, I cancel the spell. Even though I met the mysterious Commandant, there are still secrets they are keeping from me. I storm off down the hall, back to my room.

----------

A throne room greets me. However, this isn’t the throne room of the Empress; this room is pink, covered in streamers, balloons, and strange chunks of rock. A tall mare stands upon the dais, a mare with pink fur and a dark pink mane. Queen Pinkie Pie. But, what am I doing here? I’m in Manehattan, not Las Pegasus!

I look around, and see three other beings. C is right beside me, Tiny on his other side, and a griffon sits chained at the foot of the throne. I blink, and a vision comes back to me; the dream I had back when Chryssid first came. A blurry figure with a ball of dragonfire in hoof- no, claw. I blink again, and the throne room returns. I can still see afterimages of the dragonfire above the griffon. As I watch, Tiny pulls a small device from her tail and throws it at the griffon. With a bang, the chain holding her explodes, and everything goes white.

----------

Bang bang bang.

I bolt up, catching my horn on the bunk above me. “Ow. Coming!”

I open the door to see Tread. “Hey Shining. General’s got a new mission for us. Be at the briefing room in ten.”

“Got it.” He trots off. I turn around to see C awake, and thankfully not in a cussing mood. We make our way to the briefing room.

“Any weird dreams, C?”

“No. Why do you ask? Did you?”

“You could say that.”

We continue on in silence and reach the room with time to spare. The rest of the team is already there, looking through folders. Tread hands both of us one each. As soon as I see the location, a few pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

“We’re going to Las Pegasus because something is happening to the griffons there, right? And we think Queen Pinkie is behind it.”

Tread’s jaw drops. “Yeah. How?”

“I’ll explain later. What don’t I have right?”

“Well, we’ve been getting reports of griffons just disappearing all around Las Pegasus. Over the course of the last week, the griffon population has dropped by half. Now, the griffons are a warring species, and the General was hoping to eventually appeal to them to help our cause, but decant do that if there aren’t any griffons left in Equestria. Our mission is to pose as tourists to Las Pegasus, determine the cause of the disappearances, and free as many griffons as we can. Any questions?”

I raise my hoof. “Yeah. Can we bring Tiny along?” He shoots me another odd look. “I have my reasons. She’ll be important, trust me.”

“Okay, not sure how such a little filly could help, but we can make the exception. We leave tonight, and will be in Las Pegasus tomorrow. No weapons; we are there as tourists, not freedom fighters. If we find the captives, we are to escape the city and contact the waiting strike teams. They are tasked with the cleanup. Take this time to prepare yourselves. It’s time for a vacation!”

Comments

[Maxes Altho]

Here's a free chapter, since everyone (in America) is home watching the Superbowl, or (like me) pretending to watch the Superbowl while browsing Fimfic.

[DiscordFan]

5577080

I feel 'ya about the Super Bowl... In fact, I'm the only person in my family that doesn't have an interest in any sport, whatsoever. Even my little sibling enjoys some sports sometimes!!!