Taking the City
Archive passed outside the inner gate with a quick teleport. She wore the fine white armor Athena had created for her, carried Athena’s mightiest weapons. But the AI’s best tools were nothing compared to the one worn around her neck. She could sense its attention about her even now, whispering to her how easy death would be. Joseph had not realized the extent of what he had created—not a mere tool, but an intelligent thing, shouting its demands at her. If she would not obey it, then it wanted at least to be used.
Used it would be, before too long.
Past the inner gate were dozens of layers of structures, which had once been filled with two hundred thousand soldiers. Less than a tenth of those had made a retreat into the inner city during the terrible disaster that was Charybdis’s own appearance, but he seemed to have returned to the ocean to recoup his strength.
In the meantime, he had left his army. She saw them in every corner and crevice—like corpses covered with puppeting white fungi. They grew out of every orifice, dripping seawater whenever they moved too fast. And there were the shock-troopers, things like seaponies but with many more limbs and a propensity for ripping people apart. Flying artillery-beasts bombarding the city from above, and many other things. They hadn’t even bothered to pick up the corpses of those fallen in the battle, just left them to be slowly covered by white fungus and eventually reborn as more mindless soldiers.
Including one of Charybdis’s greater demons, made from souls that had sworn themselves to him. These directed the fighting while their master was away.
One stood just beside a new wave of troops prepared to throw themselves against the gate, which stopped and waited as she emerged into the gloom. Archive had not seen this one before, but she recognized its power at once. “You are mad, Alicorn,” it said, watching her with a dozen hungry eyes. “You think your power alone is the equal of this army? You came out here to die alone!”
Archive unleashed the Stygian Key. The great white spire of Axis Mundi turned a sickly green as she channeled every drop of magic it contained into her, filling the air with ghostly light. The disgusting scent of necromancy—which had turned her stomach so many times before—started to smell sweet. Her magic even changed to match, away from the reddish brown of her eyes. It would never look the same again. “I call you back to your posts,” she said, her voice echoing through every hallway of the fortress-city. “Rise, take up your weapons, and fight with me.”
Her magic found a host—first, in all the corpses that littered the ground, regardless of the condition they had been in. The Key did not care how fragmentary the body was, so long as it could find something to put in control. Archive remembered every soul who had fought for her, and so none of them would come back as half-formed abominations. That did not mean they would be any less undead, however. When Joseph said he had failed, in one sense he had been right. True resurrection this was not.
Charybdis’s mad horde was not terribly intelligent, and so they struck out at the newly rising, impaling the revived, or trying to tear them apart. It did them little good. The rising army of the dead were every bit the ponies they had been in life. Now, they were a deathless army, immortal so long as the magic in the Key remained. Sword and bullets didn’t faze them, and no sooner were they ripped apart than they put themselves back together again.
Animal screams of terror filled the outer fortress as the monsters of Charybdis’s main army were torn apart themselves.
Not far away, the exit to the hallway they were standing in was closed by undead hooves.
And the magic wasn’t finished. Many of the foot-soldiers fighting now were more corpses, puppeted by the foreign organism that had grown there. The demon commanding at the gates watched in obvious horror as the army beside him began ripping itself apart. Fungal blooms fell from torsos, and eyes regrew in empty sockets. Uniforms and armor returned, and those few that had not been willing to fight were soon dispatched by those who had.
“What happened to your morality, Alicorn? This is dark magic! Aren’t you worried about your soul? That’s all your mortals ever talk about.”
“What soul do I have if you kill everyone?” Archive asked, gesturing for the demon. The greatest of her undead horde descended upon it as they had on so many others within the fortress walls. And just like that, without the price of a single life, the great fortress of Axis Mundi was hers once again.
“Man your posts!” she ordered, her voice echoing through the halls. It sounded a little ghostly itself, just like the green magic that glowed from everywhere now. “We will fight until help arrives. However long that takes.” When they were mortal, this army had failed to defend these walls against Charybdis. Would they do better once the demon himself returned?
It wasn’t the demon who came to her next, but a few ponies she had only half-expected to see before this was over. Both of her fellow Alicorns looked the worse for wear—like all those on the exterior of the fortress their bodies had not been given natural life. Only the strange greenish magic that suffused everything animated them, though any physical damage they had suffered before their deaths was gone now.
Oracle in particular looked on the edge of hysteria. “I can’t see anything!” he yelled, loud enough that the soldiers clearing away fungus from the battlements nearby stopped to stare. “It’s not there, Alex! Not the past, not the future… it’s all gone!”
Sunset Shimmer’s mane no longer flickered and danced with its unearthly wind, but was simple hair like her own. “Archive… you really did this?” She gestured around with a hoof. “I’ve never tasted so much forbidden magic at once. You must see the consequences…” She stopped inches away, glaring at Alex. “There are some boundaries we ought not to cross. We must be better than he is. You have to end this.”
“When the siege is over,” Archive responded. “If you want to go, go. I can’t force you. But I’m not letting Charybdis take Mundi—whatever the cost.”
Sunset’s horn flickered, though the light that came from it wasn’t its normal color. It was a pale, ghostly green, just like Alex’s had become. Just like all the unicorns and Enduring Ones she had seen use magic from beyond the grave.
Except I’m not dead. I wonder if it will go back to normal when this is over. Assuming there ever was an over. Maybe she hadn’t been exaggerating to Joe, and they really would be fighting until the end of time.
Whatever spell Sunset had been trying to cast, it didn’t work, and she turned away in a huff. “I can’t. We can’t die any more than they can.”
Could Alex end the spell for just one pony? Maybe, but she didn’t much want to try and find out. If she got it wrong and the magic ended, she wasn’t sure she would have the strength to start it up again. Every time she brought a pony back, it cost a little bit of herself. Archive didn’t know how much would be left when this was over.
An Alicorn’s strength, even an undead Alicorn, was a powerful thing to give up. “I’m sorry, Sunset. I guess Mundi needs you.” She turned to Oracle. “And you too. You can’t see the future because you’ve been tainted by another of the Supernal realms. Arcadia’s magic doesn’t mix with Stygia’s—you won’t be able to see the future until this spell ends and you come back properly.”
“Assuming you haven’t disrupted the cycle,” Sunset said, fresh anger in her voice. “Assuming you haven’t damned all of us.”
“I haven’t.” She glared right back. “Sunset Shimmer, this city is filled with civilians. The helpless, the weak, the last of your race and mine on this planet. I will pay any price to preserve them. Wouldn’t you?”
There was a long, tense silence. Then she turned away with a grunt. “You can’t win against Charybdis with these. We already lost to him with all these soldiers at their best. As soon as he recovers from his respite and comes in person, he’ll take the fort again. Properly.”
“It’s a good thing I don’t plan on fighting him with just these, then,” Archive said, turning her back on the Alicorns. “Come with me to the courtyard. We’re marshaling there.”
Of course, Mundi was a city unto itself, and had many courtyards. But there was only one she could be referring to—the great central space between buildings, large enough for hundreds of thousands of ponies to rally and assemble. There were far fewer there—mostly it was a burning pile of the enemy’s corpses, and the living dead carried them here to be burned.
The entire city was cast in eerie green light, blotting out the distant sun. It no longer made Archive feel uncomfortable. She couldn’t smell the rot either.
Her old friends were waiting on the raised platform overlooking the empty courtyard, dead as they were. She went to Oliver first. “How is everypony now that the attacks have stopped?”
He shook his head. “It’s… well, they’re not happy to have me as their doctor. Some enemy of death I am as a dead man. But it’s worse than that, Alex. Necromancy taints. Whatever Joe said about how good his magic is, you can’t put this much of it into the air and not expect some damage. It starts with the young and the elderly—they’re looking weaker already. I don’t know how long you can keep this going before they start dying… but eventually it will start killing the healthy as well. There may not be many people left to save if we keep this up forever.”
“If that is so, take heart,” said Athena. The corpse of her avatar had revived along with the dead defenders, though Archive still didn’t know how. Hadn’t Joe said the magic required a soul to work? “I have genetic samples of members from all species. When my infrastructure eventually recovers, I will grow a new generation in orbit, and raise them to reclaim what was lost. I will see Charybdis destroyed no matter how many years it takes.”
Oliver shivered, moving closer to Alex, and lowering his voice a little. “Everyone in the future is batshit insane.”
“I don’t agree with her,” she whispered back. “I hoped we could keep fighting forever… but I guess even endless magic won’t be enough. Keep doing what you can with the medical team. There might be a way you can protect ponies from the damage. Some spell, or gene therapy, or something.”
“I’ll try.” He turned for the gate leading to the inner city. “But I can’t promise it will work. You have better technology, but not more resources. We’re overwhelmed just catching up from the casualties.”
“If they die,” Alex said, her voice low, “bring them to me.”
“Even the women? Even the children?”
She nodded. “Everyone. This is it, Oliver. If we fail here, it’s all over.” She flicked a wing at Athena. “I’m not willing to bet on some future generation inheriting the planet—it’s us or it’s nothing. Don’t let it be nothing.”
Oliver turned and galloped away, barely able to look at her.
Moriah and Cloudy Skies were both heavily armored, wearing the best crystal gear the Purifiers could make. The irony of a pair of undead wearing armor worn by the same group who killed undead was not lost on her.
“Joe is patching up the shield,” Sky said. “He says it’s a miracle it lasted as long as it did. No telling how many hits like that it will take if the big fish swims in.”
“We’re short on everything,” Moriah continued, without missing a beat. “Guess you ran out your stores before you decided to fuck up nature. We’re mostly down to contact weapons, and shit like crossbows. But we haven’t been attacked again since we drove them out. Don’t know how well we’ll do against a counterattack without weapons. I don’t know the first thing about any of this—armor’s awesome, though. Guess you’ve been busy since we died.”
“Not me,” Alex said. “But yes. That’s why everypony here is trained with swords and bows.” She removed her revolver from its holster, spinning the cylinder against the side of her hoof. “We have these, but there are too few to give them to ponies who can’t shoot. No offence.” Moriah did look like she was offended, but Alex didn’t give her the chance to respond. She kept walking past her to the edge of the platform, overlooking the huge empty space. She had taken back the dead of her fort, and with them the outer city was theirs, but that wasn’t enough.
They could not win a war of attrition against a foe who controlled the rest of the planet. Ultimately, the only way to win would be to kill Charybdis when he came. Her defenders would not be able to do that alone.
But that didn’t matter—she had all of history to draw from. She didn’t only remember ponies.
Her first choice, history’s most ruthless horse lord, screamed in madness when she brought him back, and would not listen to her attempts to explain the battle ahead. She couldn’t kill him—just as with Sunset, these dead apparently couldn’t die, so she teleported him as far away as she could and hoped that would be enough.
As much as she had wanted to send out a barbarian horde against the horde of the unmade, apparently that wasn’t going to be an option. But there were others she had fought with over the years, whose wisdom she had called on. And one who she trusted above the rest to fight with the limitations before them.
Archive called him, and did not bow to him this time. The towering human figure rose into his prime, his armor black with gold filigree. He wore a purple robe beneath, which like the rest of him seemed somewhat faded.
From a few feet away, Sunset Shimmer watched with angry frustration. Apparently she’d given up trying to stop her.
“Emperor,” she said, when he had risen to his full height.
The man removed his helmet, holding it under one arm as he looked around at the empty field, and the distant walls battered and broken by artillery fire. The mountain of the dead being burned. “What god calls me?”
Athena opened her mouth to speak, but Archive silenced her with a look, meeting the Emperor’s eyes. Then she changed, rising to stand almost as tall as he did. The runic armor didn’t care that she was making herself human—it changed as she did, adapting to cover her new body. This wasn’t like the dream—in reality, she still had wings, and still had her horn. Hiding those was impossible while she was actively using Alicorn magic to control the Stygian Key.
She reached out, resting one hand on his shoulder. “Rome, Caesar. Uncountable years have passed since the time you ruled her, but she needs you again.”
“This does not look much like Rome.”
Archive let go of his shoulder. “It is all that remains. Her great, great, great, great grandchild. The titans have destroyed the rest of the world in their wrath, but this remains. Will you join my troops and defend her, or will I send you back to where I found you?”
No hesitation. The Emperor did not bow to her in response, but he did rest one hand on the hilt of his sword. “You want me to lead your army of small horses? I have children perhaps who might be amused by them, but I do not think I could do much with them in war. I imagined the Pegasus would be taller…”
“No,” she said. “My horses are my own—they will fight beside you, but you and your men will leave them to me.” She called, and Riley appeared beside her in a flash of green magic. The Emperor did not retreat, though he did reach for his sword again.
“Riley, you speak Latin, don’t you?”
“I know translation spells,” she answered, in passable Latin. “Is this who I think it is, Archive?”
“A marvel,” the Emperor said, smiling slightly. “Your animal can speak.”
Riley’s amusement faded. “I am not an animal.”
“Riley is one of my most trusted servants,” Archive said. “She will join you in battle. If you need to communicate with the other horses, to warn them or to coordinate, she can translate for you.”
He nodded. “I am glad Olympus has noticed my work, but I am afraid it may think too much of me. I cannot imagine that whatever threat has done this to your great city could be beaten by one man.”
At that moment, the dead of Rome began to rise. They returned with their armor, or even astride animals in the case of the Equites. The Praetorian returned, surrounding their emperor with suspicion. Archive heard many calls of surprise as they returned, as cherished friends were reunited. Many seemed confused, though she had raised them in their formations, and they remained largely where they had appeared.
Soon enough, there was no empty space in the vast courtyard. At a glance, it looked to be at least two full legions.
One of the Praetorian approached, purple plume rustling in the sickly green light. He drew his weapon, apparently intent on separating her from his Emperor. This was the moment—would the emperor betray her, forcing her to call on the power of the Key to make the army obey her like slaves?
Caesar raised one hand, gesturing. “Put it away. The goddess has called us forth, she may send us away again at her whim.”
Archive relaxed.
“I require maps,” the Emperor continued. “Troop manifests, reports on the enemy, his position, the nature of his troops.”
“You will have them.” Archive turned to Riley. “My command post is there,” she said, nodding towards a tower on the wall. “General Ironblood will be there. Introduce him to the emperor, and see Caesar gets what he wants.” She spoke in Latin, so that the Emperor would understand as well.
Riley nodded, before tugging on one of her hands with magic, dragging her a few steps away. She lifted into the air, so she would be at eye level, wings buzzing. She didn’t use Latin. “I will fight for you, Alex… but not for nothing. You gave the Emperor back his whole army. I want Chip. I don’t think I could do this without him.”
“Him,” Alex repeated. “You made Chip into a queen.”
She shook her head. “If you can make yourself human, you can make Chip into a male again. I don’t want another target—if he is male, the enemy will overlook him. He will not be targeted unless we have already lost.”
Archive nodded. Bringing someone back with all their memories but in a half-formed body was a little trickier than just calling them back into their prime, but she could do it. Soon there was another changeling beside them, looking confused, abashed, and a little annoyed.
He embraced Riley anyway. Whatever words passed between them were apparently in mindspace, because Archive couldn’t hear any of them.
Until Chip looked up to her. “I don’t appreciate the monster mash. There better be a graveyard smash when this is over.”
“I have absolutely no idea what that means.”
The Emperor looked annoyed, but he didn’t have a chance to say so. Riley landed in front of him, to more nervous twitches from the Praetorian. “Please, Emperor, come with me. I will take you to where the battle is being directed.”
The Emperor gave a few quiet orders to one of his generals, and shouts began to ring out among the Romans. What had been disorderly confusion a moment before snapped immediately to order, and they broke out into columns to scout the deserted city. Though they could not understand the ponies, the magic that brought them back seemed to have imparted to them at least the understanding that they were on the same side, because Archive saw neither side attack each other.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Sky said, once Riley and the Emperor were gone. He’d taken his Praetorian with him, though many of the soldiers remained, paying them no heed. “At least you didn’t use Genghis.”
She shrugged one human shoulder—though a few seconds later, she was back to pony size. That shape might work best for the Emperor, but it no longer felt like her. She had been a pony far too long to feel like she belonged on two legs.
“I can’t believe you didn’t bring me back that way,” Moriah said, annoyed. “Do me! You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to be human again.”
“You’ll have to keep waiting,” Alex said. “Changing you isn’t like bringing Chip back differently—I knew him when he was male. I never knew you when you were human.”
“Who cares?” She nudged her with one hoof. “You did it to yourself!”
“With Life magic,” she said, reproving. “And not human, technically. One of the Enduring Ones. If I’d been human, I would’ve died screaming. It’s a good thing the undead can’t get killed by magic either.”
She didn’t hear Moriah’s reply over the sound of a warhorn, three quick blasts. It meant the enemy was coming.
“Moriah, I guess you’ll be joining me. Sky… let me know if anything changes in the city.”
“It shouldn’t,” Sky said, touching her wing to Alex’s side briefly. “But if it does, you’ll be the first to know.” She took off, armor ringing as she flew back towards the inner gate.
Moriah, meanwhile, drew her sword with a glow of green magic. “You did good taking the city back. Let’s see if we can keep it.”
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Allowing Charybdis to so call escape is about the worse thing Alex could do, because depending on the geometry of the ocean, he can do a Hawaii, LaPalma, Sacramento, Storegga or combination of such, given time, depending how long he has been working, priming the faults when the location of The Last Stand was finalised.
Charybdis forces are fungal? That means they can dissolve their way through rock over time. And attack an emplacement from beneath.
Does Athena have bandwidth at all for sampling the returnees so their mind states can be restored once she reclones their bodies, or checks against the data stores to counteract fungal spore attacks directly?
Hey, you can't say that any more. That's racist now. Even if it also seems to be true...
Yikes, was that Adrian's fate too? Alex wasn't able to call him back with the others, and he supposedly died in a Charybdis attack, didn't he?
Man this has gotten absolutely nuts. Who'd have thought at the start of LPoE, when there's just a lone human turned pony wandering around the empty city, that it would eventually lead to this crazy "gods and monsters, army of the undead fighting against an all powerful Great Old One at the end of the world" madness we're seeing?
I would hope that archive pulls forth more than just the Romans...
Surly other people could assist in this, the final battle at the end of time?
Does this means she isn't the "representation" of humanity anymore? I know that humanity is the ponies and their descendants now, but it still sounds odd. Considering keeping humanity and it's feats remembered as humans was the reason she was sent to Equestria and also the meaning of "Archive's" cutie-mark (I think). Maybe it's more of a personal preference.
Athena is a Forerunner?
Didn't Moriah break her horn crashing her plane upon arrival? So Archive never knew her with a full horn, either. And yet she was able to restore that.
Finally caught up!
I suppose it's fitting that not only all of "humanity" that's left, but all that it has been, should be part of this last stand.
I get Sunset's concerns, and surely there will be consequences for this necromancy in the end, but surely not greater consequences than everything dying. Loosen up a bit, gurl.
Yes, yes they are. Sanity died during the time of plague it seems.
Something mentioned in passing in Wayfinder Enceladus (II) is suddenly starting to make a lot more sense. At first i was happy to see that Alex will survive whatever is to come, yet suddenly the price of that survival seems like it will be so steep and maddening that death would likely be a mercy...
This is cool and all, but it's leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. This is almost certainly going to leave Alex with some permanent damage.
I don’t see any tragedy tag. I expect a reunion!